The sunken temple should be guarded by some crab monsters and a scion of the deep. The scion was a person who sold everything they were to a god or some other powerful being. In exchange for eternal servitude, they became shapechangers. They had their old form and a new aquatic form that let them fight very well. It's basically a shit version of becoming a warlock. You gain power but not much. The only thing I saw that they get is a scream ability. The Chuuls are lobster-like beings that have tentacle mouths and poison. I don’t know if they are protecting the temple for Uk’otoa or for some other dark god against him.

The temple is in the middle of the three islands that make up the Gravid Archipelago. Shouldn’t be hard to reach. Once I am there I can also hunt the Roc. I planned to fly from Brokenbank to the islands and hunt slowly but I am going to speak with Three Earrings first. I want an ally in the Revelry and will ask her to take me there once this is over. I might even be able to find more work with the pirates. I hope to get a ship that will take me to the Everplume. I need to go beyond physical abilities and start gaining magical or elemental powers. First I will hunt the Roc.

I wake up in my hammock around the morning. The mid-shift was coming in and the man who I shared my hammock with wanted my ass out of it. Thats fine. I got stuff to do. The top deck was bright this morning. I need coffee. Did we have coffee?

“Hey Heidi? Do we have any coffee or some other kind of wake-up drinks?” I asked.

“We got rum and water. Take your pick.” She said.

“Water then,” said sleepy-eyed. “The captain up yet? I need to speak with her.”

“She should be in her room eating. I wouldn’t interrupt her,” she said.

“Well this is important and I want to speak with her in private anyway,” I said. I went to her door. Our hammocks were on the front end of the hold while the door to her private room was in the back. I knock on her door.

“WHAT? I'm eating,” I hear Three Earrings say.

“Captain it's me, Edsom. I need to speak with you about something,” I said.

“And you have to do this now?” she said.

“I would prefer now. I promise you will be interested,” I said.

“Fine,” she said.

Entering inside I found a nice little room that shaped like an L. There was a table with about 5 chairs, some boxes, chests, a desk with maps and blades marking things I wasn’t sure of, and lastly her bed. I took a seat across from her at the table. The tabaxi woman seemed annoyed that I was interrupting her meal of jerky and some cheeses. She looked at me wanting me to get on with it.

“I lied yesterday to one of your crew. I do know of some treasure near the Gravid Archipelago. It's not a lot but I wouldn’t mind sharing it if you want to help me recover it. Problems there are some guardians at this temple. I can help kill them but I need a little help,” I said.

“How much treasure?” She asked.

“Not a lot. A couple hundred gold and some magic items. I know there are two things there I want. The rest can be yours. After that, I will climb into the islands looking for the Roc,” I said. Me and Clarion kept going over the things in the temple and I found another item I wanted to keep for sentimental value. A feather token that can create a fully grown tree. That is a gift for the Nein.

“That's a small treasure. What kinda of guardians,” she asked.

“Ones that are probably more trouble than the treasure is worth. I only need people to help kill the creature, distract them, or however. They might not even be there. I am unsure. I know the general location of where the treasure is but we might need to spend some time finding it,” I said.

“You are not making a compelling argument for me and my crew to help you,” she said.

“Well, I am going there anyway. I will probably find a way to kill the guardians and take the treasure for myself. I just wanted to give you the opportunity first. And I could use the help with dealing with the Roc after I kill it,” I said.

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She sat there for a moment. I was offering a small payment and some vague promise of future rewards. She doesn’t know about my abilities and is probably wondering about my plan for killing the Roc. I have a small plan that involves poisons and a bag of holding.

She finally speaks,” I will need to know your plan for the Roc. We can help with the temple depending on where it is. Going too far inland is going to be hard. Especially around the rocky terrain of the Gravid islands.”

“The temple isn’t inland. It's underwater in between them,” I said.

“That makes this harder,” she said.

“I know. You can figure out how to help on the way. For them, my plan is to swim down there and kill them. I can swim underwater with no problem and can make it so I breathe underwater,” I said.

“Can you do that for others?” she asked.

“Unfortunately not. The temple being underwater is why I am not afraid of telling you any of this. You can decide not to help me and find the temple yourself but I know you won’t be able to handle the guardians and the waterbreathing problem without my help,” I said.

“HA. You are a shrewd negotiator. I have an idea for the waterbreathing, so we can help you with the temple. What are we expecting?” she asked.

Alright, she is on board. With her as backup, I can handle this much easier with help. Hopefully, this leads to a longer relationship. “What I know to be there is a group of four Chuuls and a shapechanger that has a stunning scream,” I said.

She asked me what Chuuls were and about the scion. I gave her the best description I could think of. I told her I was a shapeshifter with numerous animal forms and combinations. That surprised her but I told her that was why I was confident about hunting the Roc solo. She mentioned that she was a confident fighter and that her first mate was a follower of the Stormlord and had some minor clerical abilities. That was perfect. I can handle most of the guardians but need a little support. As long as they can fire at a distance with magic or crossbows I can handle the rest. They would need to kill the deep scion as fast as possible. I had the tentacles to deal with the four chuuls.

Three Earrings said that she had a druid friend in Brokenbank who would sell her potions of waterbreathing for cheap. I offered to cover the cost as a sign of goodwill. She didn’t turn down the offer. I think this business relationship is coming along splendidly. I spent the rest of this day and the next two working and learning the skills needed to man a ship. I probably will either fly or swim on my own in the future but not today. I would need to kill a sea creature that can swim long distances. I know sharks can have long travel times. I saw a post where scientists tracked where a shark was once by the license plates it had eaten. Maybe dolphins and whales had something. I don’t want to kill a whale. They suffered enough in my world and I am sure that if magical fire didn’t exist in this world whales would be hunted to near extinction. I wonder if the Wildmother helped prevent some of that.

………….

Brokenbank is on an island that gets its name from the town of 1,500. A small settlement of mostly humans. The first port many coming to Wildemount often stop at. And a place many pirates might stop by if they felt the need to. The Revelry has hidden supply drops and hidden harbors in the Gravid Archipelago or on Bwualli. The town of Brokenbank though is only going to be a small stop for us. Captain Three Earrings gives the crew shore leave for the day while she goes to get the potions. I decided to stay with the ship. I told Three that the deep scion is a spy for dark gods so the crew doesn’t know about the temple yet. We will leave in the morning and search for the temple then.

I didn’t want to be involved in any other troubles in this town so I was avoiding it. Don’t want to meet the Fat Cat and all of a sudden have to kill a Kraken that is harassing the town. Not for me. I want to be the one to choose my adventure for now.

As I watched the city I thought of plans after my hunts. I do want those powerful forms I could find the Greying wildlands but there is a lot of land between her and there. That's the whole reason I am hunting the Roc after all. Ignoring such a distance. I might not even use the form once I am that far north. I know the dragon Gelidon has a hunting range that extends all the way to Eiselcross and a Roc is a dragon's number one meal. Up there I will be hunting for polar bears and such for a day or two then run to the dwarven and elven city of Uthodurn. I will live and hunt from there for a few months. I might move on to Eiselcross then. There are creatures there that survived the destruction of Aeor. These are mage hunters. They were created with abilities that make them perfect to hunt all forms of magic users. They can reverse healing, reflect spell damage, and even counterspell. If I had these abilities I could help the Nein defeat the Cerberus Assembly. Hmmmm. I might change that. I have an idea of something that means the wildlands will have to wait. I need to check it out first, but if I do this I might set the Assemblies plans back a long way. That alone is worth it and it will help me greatly when I visit the Kryn.

……….

12 of Brussendar

We left bright and early. The crew was informed about our destination and they were happy to hear about a little treasure hunting. Three Earrings and Heidi were ready for a fight. I would do most of the fighting of course. Once I had informed the captain of my abilities I used them more openly. That included training with my vestige. The Changelings Arsenal was an adaptive piece of weaponry. It wasn’t just a vambrace, more like a living liquid that could move across my body to form plates of bone and spike. For example, I extended my arm and asked for a large spike. The Arsenal extended over my hand and formed a curved spike of bone that left my hand free. If I asked for a shield it pulled back and extended out into what shape I wanted. There was also the option for some minor color changes. I liked white though. While shapeshifted it attached itself to me in a way it wouldn’t fall off. In my wolfman form, I used it to replace my claws and provide my arms with some more armor. It seemed limited in the amount it could cover. Splitting up to give me claws and a little armor was its current limit. The little guy was trying his best so I didn’t mind. He will grow soon.

Other than that I worked on my two largest forms. The octopus already had a good combination with all the alligators but I needed to consider the hydra. Normally I was limited with the amount of something I could create. For example, I only had one giant toad so I could only create one frog tongue. The hydra was freed from this limitation when I created heads. The only limit was what I could handle, which was about 8 right now. When I had those heads my thoughts began to split. Each one was different and I felt like I was in several places at once. This hadn’t happened when I made other heads before. I could at most use more eyes that way. Something must be special with the hydra. Now it wasn’t a full second mind or thought process. It just made it easier to focus through that many points of view. When I was using the octopus I didn’t create eyes when I made heads on the tentacles. I kept them all around my head. The hydra has opened new strategies. Its biggest use was in the passive regeneration I now had. What I am practicing right now is the octopus with all 8 tentacles, each with an alligator head. Then around my eyes next to the little shute things I could expel water from were two hydra heads. The alligators were the grapplers and the hydras were the DPS.

Half the day was the travel to the islands and the other half was me swimming underneath searching for the temple. I found it before the sun set behind the tall islands. I would not have found it without the sun. We will hunt tomorrow. Tonight the anchor is dropped so we drink and make bad decisions we will regret in the morning.