Hi,
You convened with your hogtied werelion captive back in “town” and formed a team to go to the Fanged Shore and find this Elder Useless. The Captain recalled that this shore was a notorious breeding/egglaying “safehouse” for giant marine reptiles that was magical in nature (being on the brim of the Fosnoir/Underworld) and shunned by sailors, and that this time of year you could expect mosasaurs to be laying+guarding their eggs, with males likely to mainly be offshore. But Vowka had warned you not to shed blood there. Hmph! A rapelling down the cliffs from land was deemed too difficult and slow- a sea voyage there would be easier, or so you thought…
You embarked on The Shadow and arrived in the Bay of Teeth in record time, anchoring there and watching local mosasaurs feed on plump, leaping squid in the calm waters. The sailor Curly got you ashore safely although the Captain had to scare off a mosasaur with his Dark Foreboding spell. A big male mosasaur, roaring and raising its dorsal ridge-fin, charged at you across the shale beach, and you outran and outmanoeuvred the ungainly beast, although it was interesting to notice that it tried to use simple magic against you (some sort of fear magic).
On you went, trying to cross the gently sloping shale-slate area. The nesting ground as in your way, and 10-meter long (note: these mosasaurs were not the 17m super-giant variety like Mosasaurus; a smaller variety called Clidastes) females had hauled ashore to guard their nests of big leathery (and, sailor Bobard noted, valuable!) eggs. The Captain plotted the best way across he could, but it still brought you within reach of three angry females. One you simply outmanouvered, another you distracted with the Captain leading it one way and the rest of you going the other way around, and the third was harder to distract with the same stratagem but disturbingly addressed the Captain in his own deep voice! There were no simple mosasaurs- legend about this area being strongly magical surely was true.
Anyway, you reached the precariously constructed slate shack at the far end of the beach, which sat below the cliffs of northern Giraine, where bands of chalk and shale slowly released their contents onto the beach as erosion wore them down. Inside the shack sat a diminutive figure: a hairless, toothless, withered man with just flaccid dry tissue where his legs should be (and no tongue, you saw– bringing back memories of bad experiences in the Underworld on your heroquest). Fist-sized green crabs crawled about him, acting like cleaners - or pets? - and bringing him “noodles” of seaweed or other duties. He sat beside a stack of slate slabs and looked at you with an inquisitive gaze and demeanor that seemed very much unlike that of other Giranois you'd met- you even wondered if he was indeed Giranois, but could not tell. Some of the slabs contained marvellous fossils and Bobard wondered if he might take some away for sale, but Elder Useless got upset when Bobard grabbed one, so you convinced the burly sailor to return it.
You showed Elder Useless the bound figure of Danilo the werelion (now back in human form, and in a sad, almost comatose state of guilt and grief) and he quickly seemed to get the gist of your purpose for coming here- he responded, writing in archaic Seshnegi that most of you could fathom with some squinting, that death was the only cure for the Penzharn curse, but (and he often ended his short writings with a “but”) although the magic to cure it had been lost, there was an old spell that might work to “put the curse to sleep”. But… he wanted something in return, and that something, unfortunately, was the Vadeli product called “chocolatl”, which he considered a “wonder” that he wanted to taste before he died. You worried that he'd die or worse if he tried it, as it was surely uncouth evil stuff, but he would not listen.
And so the Captain set off with Bobard to sail to St Thosos, find chocolatl (which should be a simple task in the Vadeli slums), and return. He and Bobard used Darkness spells to blind the mosasaurs and got through easily- the skilled Captain blocked what few snapping jaws threatened you. This, too, applied as the “bull” mosasaur charged you again, and you outswam it to the dinghy that Curly had brought back to shore with some trouble. Once the mosasaur swam under the dinghy, threatening to rock it enough that you'd be pitched into the ocean, the Captain had enough and sent his Dark Foreboding against it again, and that drove it away. The Shadow's crew was together again, to sail on a quick quest for chocolatl.
But…
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