Among the messages awaiting them at port was an urgent request from Queen Onekaza requesting an audience. When they visited she told them she was quite concerned about her Watershapers. The Watershapers Guild was the heart of Huana naval power, and the Guild had in the past several days completely ceased communicating! She wanted them to investigate – discretely. Because news of any weakness among her Watershapers could trigger several of the other factions to take advantage…
She also wanted them to take with them an Aumaua man named Tekēhu – a watershaper prodigy who was rumored to bear the blood of Ngati herself (the Huana name for Ondra, Goddess of the Sea). Tekehu was a laid-back sort of man, who gave off an air of easy assumed superiority. Grim found him immediately irritating, but the others liked him.
The Watershaper’s Guild was located in Periki’s Overlook – looking out over Neketaka bay. It was a beautiful temple surrounded by pristine pools. Periki had been a near-legendary Watershaper who had long ago shaped much of the current guild’s doctrine.
Inside, however, was a horror show! The temple was ransacked and the bodies of dead watershapers and Naga were strewn all over!
The found a few surviving guards blocking a stairway leading down. The captain, a man named Ekenu, said that the Naga attacked from the ocean caves below – taking them by surprise. They had driven them back at great cost, and Guildmaster Mairu and others were making a stand below at Periki’s Tomb. As he spoke the ground trembled, and Grim looked at him with a raised eyebrow. Ekenu said the tremors had started weeks before the Naga attack, and he didn’t know what was causing them.
In the caverns below they ran into a patrol of Naga warriors, who immediately attacked!
In the initial cavern they found a thick inscribed door, which would not budge no matter how much force they applied.
Continuing through the caverns they found what remained of Guildmaster Mairu’s force – decimated. And Mairu herself dying as she called out to them. She told them that they must find the “Rod of the Deep Hunter”, and use it to “open the door” and “strengthen the wards… no matter *what* it tells you”. And then she died – conveniently without explaining what any of that meant. Tekehu was just as mystified as the rest of them, but mourned the loss of his mentor.
There was a statue of Periki nearby, with a worn inscription that appeared to have been deliberately marred at some point long ago. It mentioned something about a “guilty soul”, and voyages and the price of victory. Star felt drawn to the statue, and felt an instant connection when she touched it. She had a vision/sensation of returning home from a voyage, bringing a gift. A gift with a “price”. A gift which seemed to be a “someone” and not a “something”, and which she was concerned about controlling.
Exploring further they came to a sea cave, with a large complement of Naga searching and hissing. They immediately attacked.
After the battle, they found an odd stick in the possession of the apparent leader, which Tekehu recognized as the Rod the Guildmaster had asked them to find. Returning to the inoperable door, the Rod activated the engravings – which formed a puzzle based upon “Periki’s Devotion”. Tekehu had little difficulty properly solving the inscription.
There was a dark and narrow passage behind the door, and they tremendous roars from ahead. Even still they were *not* prepared for what they found at the end of the passage. A huge sea dragon! Bound by mystical chains to four large wards on the floor!
The dragon named itself Scyorielaphas, and called itself the Guardian of the Isles. He told them that Periki had trapped him here long ago, inviting him as a guest to assist in defending their lands and then not allowing him to leave.
The Watershapers of long ago had been much stronger, gaining their power directly from a covenant with Ngati. But they had lost their way, and lost much of their power. He had offered help in fighting off invaders – allowing them to tap into the power of his own soul to substitute for the connection they had lost. But when the invaders had been repelled… Periki had sealed him in! She refused to give back the power he had freely shared!
Tekehu was shocked speechless. He could not process this level of betrayal from his own order.
This was almost to horrible to contemplate, and they thought on the Guildmaster’s words. Could the great beast be lying? But as Star looked at it through her own vision, she could see it was true. Its soul was agonized and being slowly rent by the wards around.
They all looked at Grim. This seemed monstrous, but the implications could be profound. If the Huana lost the ability to watershape, they would be defenceless. Grim and the Dragon stared at each other – as if reading each other’s mettle.
And then Grim did something none of them expected. He turned, in fury, and began repeatedly slamming the binding wards.
The others looked shocked – such an outburst seemed very unlike the Grim they knew. But Blur had known him the longest, and explained quietly. There was little that Grim *hated* more than abject slavery. Stealing the strength of others rather than earning your own. For him it was almost.. blasphemy.
When the final ward was broken, the great beast roared – longing to be free. But it stopped and looked back at Grim. It told them it would refrain from razing Neketaka to the ground – purely as a favor to Grim. But they should advise the Queen to give it wide berth in the future. And with that, it smashed its way out.
And flew off out to sea, leaving panic in its wake.
As they left, Tekēhu mulled over what he had learned. He was horrified by the secret the Guildmasters had kept. He had always felt there was something “missing” in the tenets they were taught. Some connection to Ngati that didn’t quite feel “right”. But he had always assumed it had been his own lack of understanding. He had never dreamed that everything he had been taught had been wrapped around a lie. He sensed that there was enough residual energy in the chamber to keep them going for a few years. Maybe ten if they were judicious with its use. He vowed to re-discover the old ways – the original compact with Ngati – and return the Watershapers to their founding purpose.
The Queen was *not* pleased with the news, but Grim was in no mood to coddle her. She had not known about the dragon, but did *not* like what this could mean for the security of her nation. Both in the potential loss of Watershaping and in the presence of a new, apparently hostile power in the Deadfire. She decided to contact her wisest Druids for advice on how to treat with the dragon. She had no wish to antagonize it any further.
After that Grim was ready to take some missions sending them to another island. *Any* other island. He’d had enough of Neketaka for a while.
Author’s Notes:
Grim isn’t usually the sentimental sort, but you couldn’t have intentionally designed a scenario better suited to ticking him off. Inviting a dragon offering to help you as a *guest* and then after it had done so enslaving it for a thousand years to drain magic from its soul. Because you couldn’t be arsed to remember how to maintain an agreement with your own goddess?!? The Watershapers best not ask any more favors…
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