Coughing hard, Astrid drags herself up onto the beach and out of waves lapping at the feet of the Villa of Lost Souls' beach. She is not nor has ever been a strong swimmer, but luckily she had plenty of help from her fish friend Tsarra. For some reason, she let Tsarra convince her that swimming, at night, under a waning moon, to a spooky island owned by a mysterious and storied devotee of the moon goddess was a good idea. Astrid decides that it was not such a good idea, and she does not enjoy being waterlogged.

Falling onto her back, Astrid drags stray bits of seaweed out of the crevices of her padded shirt and gauntlets. This salty water can't be good for her metal items. She needs to clean them as soon as possible. Her hand falls away to land in the sand which sticks to her and she suspects will be trapped in every nook and cranny imaginable. That will also take a good washing to get rid of. She tiredly looks up at the stars peeking through a blanket of clouds and wonders how she got into this situation. 

Zarius. When the news broke about the lost Sol Stone, he gave Tsarra and Astrid a clue to pursue. Tsarra wanted to fill her pockets, and Astrid wanted to do some more adventuring. Besides, Tsarra had no gear for one reason or another, and Astrid, the child, was assigned to protect her. Astrid now understands the term babysitting more clearly than before. Her loose-cannon partner has been a delight. Fun, adventurous, fearless, everything Astrid could want in an adventuring partner.

What she did not want, however, was someone who would drag her through a quarter mile of ocean water in the dark. Still, their clue led them here and pointed them directly at the lonely villa on the island. Some of the locals told them stories about the owner. Whether myth or fact, surely they would learn soon. The common thread amongst the stories were "spooky," "creepy," and "dangerous." Those are things Astrid feels confident about dealing with. 

"I think I need a nap," she puffs tiredly. Tsarra woke her up for their late-night swim, but the two of them goofed off until well into the evening, and Astrid did not get the sleep a growing girl needs. In only a couple hours, the sun will peek over the horizon and make this jaunt significantly less suspicious. "We could always just ask if the spooky man has the Sol Stone in 'is basement," she mumbles before yawning. 

It was a dark and stormy night...but without the stormy part. Tsarra scuttles across the beach like a crab and dives behind the cover of a rock. She peeks out from behind it as water pours out the back of her hat. The mansion loomed on the top of the little spit of rock protruding from the waters just off the coast of Zeinav. What an eyesore. What kind of weirdo lives in a place like that? They must be an idiot. Not like her. No sir. Tsarra came up with the brilliant plan to infiltrate from the water. They'd never see it coming. Get it? Like 'sea' it coming? Ha. So witty. 

Zarius had entrusted her with showing this shorty the ropes of the business. Heh. He probably couldn't handle her. She should have made him beg for her help and wisdom. Astrid is young and impressionable, and a cutie to boot. She'd train her well and get her to swear her loyalty under her own banner. Ha! That'd show that smug faced tiefling. 

In regards to the task that brought them to these shores, they had a deal already arranged of course. Tsarra was smart though and she had come up with the perfect scheme. She would follow this lead he provided, after all, he's a spy so the information had to be good. Else that'd mean he was shit at his job. Not like her, she's an expert. One of the best smugglers in Charon if she says so herself, and she does. She'd 'cooperate' with Zarius, find this clue, then use it to get this Sol Stone thingy. It had to be worth a fortune to the right buyer. She would be on easy street for the rest of her life. She would go to her captain, buy the ship from under her, and then buy like a dozen more ships! A whole fleet under her command and all before her next birthday. The perfect scheme.

She looks over at Astrid flopping on the shore like a fish out of water. "Shhhhh! Ye want them ta 'ear ye? Over 'ere, lass. Keep yer head down. Look, we'll take it real slow an' careful like, aye? They'll never see us comin' an' we'll be long gon' before ye can say hook line an' sinker."

"Miss Tsarra, I'm not built fer swimmin' like you," Astrid mumbles, rubbing her eye. Now there's sand in it, and she winces, pulls her gauntlet off, and rubs the sand out of it. "I'm the minin' sort. The hammer swingin', smithin' sort. If I'm soaked, I can't go trompin' through some scary mansion. I'll get water everywhere. And if there's water everywhere, they'll wonder where the water came from, and that water will make a trail that leads 'em right ta where we're hidin' out. Can ya let me dry off and rest a bit first? I wanna swing me hammer at bad guys, but I gotta have the energy ta do that, ya know?"

She yawns again. "Like mister Zarius says, we gotta think smarter. Just like we did with that clue. I'm still not really sure how we solved it. He certainly gave us a doozy. One of them ciphers or whatever they're called." Astrid's words are true. Tsarra seemed much more confident about the answer to the riddle Zarius gave them, and between the two of them, Tsarra has much more world and life experience that helped provide some of the context she needed to figure it out. Astrid only made a few vague suggestions that Tsarra took and ran with. Those suggestions, that riddle, landed them here. Somehow. And if the locals say a cult worshipper of the moon goddess lives here, then it makes sense that he would have the clue they're searching for.

"Pffft, everyone can swim. Ye'll be fine, lass." The kid was spunky and tough, apparently she had survived a trek through the Dragon's Spine with Zarius before. If she could handle that she could handle being a little soggy. 

She makes a stinkface at the mention of the tiefling. "That landlubber thinks he's soooo smart. We'll show 'im. But fine, if ye really need to rest, ye can rest."

Pushing the kid too hard would just make her complain more. Forget the water attracting attention, her complaining was much more likely to give them away. At least that's what she thought. Astrid's logic was sound, much more than the fish's. 

"Them riddles are child's play." She waves her hand dismissively. "'tis all smoke an' mirrors. Just tricks. If ye overthink them, then ye get stumped. Gotta trust yer gut on things like this."

Tsarra was not one for thinking things through first before acting. That wasn't part of her job. Her job was to get things done and leave the thinking to more bookish types. That said, she did have some decent instincts on her side. Or luck. It was probably luck. She made terrible decisions all the time, but things always seemed to turn out okay in the end. 

This probably would be another one of those terrible decisions. But really, what was the worst that would happen?

"I'm all fer trustin' me gut, and me gut says this salty water ain't good for me armor," she says. Astrid gets up and strips her bits of armor off and walks into the surf to wash the grains of sand off then she finds a nice little alcove with less sand where she can prop her gauntlets up and lay her padded chest piece out to dry. Then she finds a comfortable spot to splay out, dry off, and take a nap. She's out within minutes, the sound of the ocean waves lulling her to sleep. 

After a couple of hours, dawn breaks on the horizon. Light catches the fog that lingers over the water. By the time Astrid wakes, the tide has receded significantly. She gets up and gets suited up again in her few pieces of armor, then comes out of the alcove. It takes no time at all for her to notice the water has receded so much so that a clear walkable stone path from the villa to the shore has revealed itself. Her expression drops, and she looks at Tsarra with an expression that she could have only inherited from Veliky herself. It is one of pure annoyance. It is unimpressed. She cannot believe Tsarra dragged her through the water when they could have just walked. But she supposes that would be a really obvious way to approach it. 

"Ya know," she says, a little exasperated. "I could've sworn the locals said somethin' about that path."

"Ye know, ye can complain all ye want, but we're 'ere now so we might as well keep focused on the task at hand, aye?" She adjusts her hat on her head and looks at the mansion perched before them.

So what if there was a bridge? They were here now and there was no time to waste with 'I told you so's. All that mattered was getting in, finding the thing, and getting out. It was simple. 

She watches the house for a bit but doesn't spot any folk hanging around outside. "Huh, no guards. Cocky bastard must think no one will trespass. Lucky for us!"

Was she too confident for her own good? Yeah. Probably. She was going into this situation with no weapons. She figured that Astrid would be able to take any hits and also dish out hits as necessary while she either gave any foes the run around or found the thing so they could flee. This was a heist after all, no reason to kill any fellas just doing their jobs...unless they pissed her off then she'd throw them into the briny blue. 

The triton puts her hands on her hips and looks at Astrid with a confident grin.

"Alright, time ta go see what we're dealin' with. Make sure not ta get seen. If ye do get seen, it's been nice knowin' you and best of luck." She gives Astrid a thumbs up then hops up a few rocks and skulks across the grounds. 

Left in the dust, Astrid isn't exactly sure how to take what Tsarra said. Surely, Tsarra wouldn't leave her behind at the first hint of danger. That'd be pretty cowardly, and Astrid doesn't take too kindly to cowards. Maybe Zarius would understand if Astrid returned Tsarra with a broken shin or two. It occurs to her that maybe joining Tsarra here is a test by Zarius. A test of her patience, her problem-solving, and her protection. If that's the case, she's up for the challenge. Tsarra has been a fun travel companion if not a little too gung-ho about a few things up until this point. 

Astrid adjusts the straps on her bits of armor and hurries to catch up to Tsarra, making some attempt to be stealthy. She's a bit grateful she doesn't have clompy metal boots yet. The path from the beach and road up to the villa is steep and a little slippery from the moist morning air, and eventually she and Tsarra approach a set of stairs carved into the rock face. "That looks like it leads up ta the front entrance," Astrid says. She looks around once more for any guards then carefully goes up the steps. At the top, the courtyard opens up with a clear path to the front door only interrupted by a fountain and pond at the halfway point. The hedges along either side of the main path are tall. Perhaps they'd be a good place to sneak around? Then again, the front door is easy to see, and there don't appear to be any guards. If there are magic spells and wards protecting the place, she wouldn't have any idea how to find out. 

"There's the door," she says, relaxing a bit. "Let's just go knock!" With that, she strides right into the courtyard and towards the door. 

Would Tsarra run away? Yes. Would she run away, leaving Astrid to die? No. Sure she would prioritize her survival but she did have some standards. Your crew was your lifeline out on the open sea after all. You all lift together, or you all sink together. This wasn't any different. Astrid was the honorary lone temporary crewmate for this whole deal. While she wanted to grab the thing so she could lord it over their mutual contact, it wasn't worth dying over. If things went real bad, and like really really real bad, then she would prioritize escaping with Astrid in tow. 

Tsarra surveys the surroundings with Astrid. The hedges were very good for cover. Perhaps they could find a window to jimmy open. Only she didn't have anything to do that and last time she 'opened' a window it was by throwing some lout through it in a drunken bar brawl. Good times. They could may climb up onto the roof. Nah. She ain't no land rat, climbing up there would just result in falling down and becoming a flounder. There is probably back doors though. Place this big had to have servants and doors just for those servants right? That sounded ridiculous enough for fancy folk. She gets hung up on thinking about how to best sneak in when she sees that Astrid has already broke cover. 

"Hey! Wait! Ye can't just walk up to an ol' spooky mansion an' known on the door! Yer goin' to be seen an' get us caught by crazy cultist weirdos!" She runs up behind Astrid. 

Astrid tromps ahead through the courtyard nonetheless. "If they are crazy cultist weirdos, then we'll just fight 'em," she says. "And if they're not, then we gave 'em the benefit of the doubt and didn't break in fer no good reason. Doin' that's illegal ya know, and we don't have no proof anyone here is actually a spooky necromancer or a cultist. Just that they're a real devout worshipper of the moon goddess, which isn't all that bad. Doesn't she have healin' magic in her domain or somethin'?" Astrid isn't entirely sure how magic works, it's certainly out of her field of expertise. Her expertise is absolutely bonking people with her hammer, so if things come to it here, she's got no problem doin' it. But still, they shouldn't be the first to strike. What if the people here are nice people? 

As they approach the fountain, the dragon spitting water into the pond, she pauses to admire it. Then she looks around and must admit that the gardens are well taken care of. "See, what kinda cult has a nice villa like this? Cults are too busy tryna take over the world ta have nice botanicals and landscapin'. They probably just like bein' alone, and that's why they live on this island far away from people." 

"Ye mean ye'll fight 'em. I do not 'ave any weapons! Last one I 'ad got lost at sea." She huffs. "Who cares if it's illegal? Illegal things are fun! Didn't you learn that while pallin' 'round with that damned tieflin'?"

Really, where did Zarius even find this child? He didn't seem like the fatherly type so she doubted she was his. Then again, maybe that's why he was so willing to send her off. Getting rid of evidence the sly jerk. But why wait for the kid to get so big? Maybe he didn't know until Astrid found him. She was spunky enough to galivant around looking for her estranged family. Kid needed to learn that your roots don't mean anything. Family was a pain. 

"Blah, blah, blah, he's obviously a cultist. What weirdo would live all the way out 'ere without bein' up ta somethin' shady?" She hisses, keeping her voice down. "Look, trust my gut, aye? It's never failed me. I get serious heebie-jeebies outta this place so it must be filled with cultists just waitin' ta cut out yer still beatin' heart ta sacrifice ta their dark god."

She looks around to see if anyone was around. The coast was still clear, which was weird. 

"Listen, this is all some sortta trick. We go up ta that door and give it a knock an'," she makes a slicing motion across her throat. "That's it. We're deader than dead. Savvy?"

Astrid turns and gives Tsarra a stink face with her nose scrunched up and looking annoyed. "I think yer gut tells ya to assume the worst in people," she says pointedly. "Even good people do bad stuff in the right situations. So I say we give 'em a chance, and if it bites me in the arse, well then that's that. I'll learn a lesson or somethin'." She recalls the bandit she helped who was really just a guy in a desperate situation and needing money. With her and Blue Raspberry's help, they turned his life around, and he got to go home and see his family again. She wants to afford everyone that opportunity, and if they deserve a permanent nap, then they get one. 

Stubbornly set in her ways, Astrid strolls right up to the door of the villa and bangs on the door with the dragon faced knockers.  She does not let Tsarra stop her no matter how much she might try. Astrid is much stronger than the fish. So while she bangs on the door, she calls, "Hello? Is anyone home? Do a buncha cultists live here? Or d'ya just like the spooky vibes of the island?" Then she steps back with her arms crossed and sticks her tongue out at Tsarra. 

There's a long few minutes where the only sounds around them are the gentle lapping of waves against the beach below. Astrid's about to give up on waiting when she spots a shadow of a person moving through the windows, and then the door unlatches and heavily swings open just a bit. A slack-jawed, sunken face man with pallid skin and empty eyes looks out from the doorway. A whispery voice draws out, "Heeeeeellllllooooooooo? Whooooo aaaaapprooooacheeessss Maaassssterrrr'ssss maaaannnoooorrrr?" 

Astrid starts up a friendly greeting, then she processes the face of the person who greets them. They are most certainly not alive. This is clearly a talking dead man. Astrid's heard of the living dead before, but never seen them in real life. According to what she's heard, the undead are evil monsters. Seems like the necromancer stories are true. "Z-Z-ZOMBIE! It IS a cult!"

The undead Ronaldo looks about as confused as an undead can be. "Zoooommmmbiiii-"

He doesn't have an opportunity to finish before Astrid bashes the door closed against him in a panic then rips it back open. "Let's grab the clue and get the hells out of here!" Without thinking much more, she charges into the foyer over Ronaldo's crumpled body. The ghoul will be fine. Probably.

Tsarra grabs her head in frustration as Astrid strolls right on up to the door. "Yer goin' ta die and I ain't goin' to drag yer corpse back!"

The sound of the door knocker echoes about the courtyard and Tsarra looks around quickly for a place to hide. With a sploosh she jumps into the fountain and splays out to hide beneath the shallow water's surface. Only her hat and eyes are visible as she peeks out over the rim to see if Astrid is dead yet. 

The door creeks open. The zombie starts talking. Astrid starts screaming.

SLAM!

The door is flung back open with the zombie conked out on the ground. 

"Let's grab the clue and get the hells out of here!"

"HEY! Wait a minute! Do ye gotta death wish?!" She jumps out of the water and sprints after Astrid, hopping over the undead butler thing and skidding across the floor inside the foyer of the mansion. "Yer crazy! Ye know that?! I like it, but yer going ta get us both turned into shark bait!"

Chasing after Astrid, Tsarra doesn't have a lot of time to take note of her surroundings. Not that she would appreciate the architecture or decor choices of the manor's owner anyway. She manages to catch up to Astrid and with a flying leap she tackles the half-dwarf in an attempt to slow her down.

It does not work.

Astrid's lower center of gravity keeps her up and now Tsarra is just hanging off of her shoulders being dragged across the floor like a soggy cape that is too long. 

This is not how Astrid expected things to go. Then again, this entire day has been a bit of a weird one. Tsarra does exactly what Astrid spent time trying to avoid: tracking water all over the floor. Then Tsarra throws herself at Astrid, and while the half-dwarf stumbles, she is too strong to be taken down. However, the water flings in every which direction, and Tsarra's feet swinging into various things that line the walls. If it weren't for the rugs that line the halls, she surely would have slipped by now. 

She books it through the halls. "Do we even know what this clue looks like?!" she shouts. The riddle told her nothing of what they were looking for, so at this point, she's satisfied to just start busting open doors. She slides to a stop, the rug bunching up beneath her feet, and starts checking doors. One right after another, the rooms are decorated, but nothing screams "cult" to her. Vases. Furniture. Books. Books might be a good place. Kitchens. Where's the staff? The halls are surprisingly empty. She can hear a plucky tune being played on a piano from somewhere in the house. Finally she reaches a few locked doors and starts busting them open with a powerful kick to the part with the doorknob. Still no people!

Finally she kicks in one door, and inside there's a two foot tall, fuzzy, strange-looking creature. "CULT MONSTER!" She whips out her hammer, not sure if this is a fight or flight moment. 

Hylltywyll ran around one of the many rooms of Bellighul's mansion, destroying the place as usual. This room was a sort of study with a few desks and tables about. Books and probably important documents were neatly stored in shelves and drawers. They were, until the mischievous, horrible little Fairy found them. Now the books were tossed around and the documents were all scattered across the floor.

All the small, shiny bits and bobs around the room has been stolen, tangled into Hylltywyll's fur to be deposited in his little nest under the hedge outside. He had ink pens, fine quills, a fancy letter opener, and a decorative paperweight on him. With Bellighul having agreed to do him no harm, he didn't even bother hiding away in the shadows. If the man entered the room and saw the mess, he'd know it was the Fairy's doing whether he was visible or not. And it was more fun to have the man look directly down at him in anger.

As he stood in the middle of the room and admired his latest work, the door of the room was suddenly smashed open, startling the Fairy and making him turn quickly toward the door. The one standing there was not Bellighul. It was a little girl. Well, they were still over twice as tall as Hylltywyll, so not very little to him. Hanging off of the girl's shoulders was some weird fish person.

As Hylltywyll stared at the intruders in surprise, the girl suddenly screamed at him and called him a cult monster. What the heck is a cult monster?

"Huh?" was the only word Hylltywyll could think to say in response to this situation.

Tsarra hangs onto the half-dwarf as she starts barging into rooms. "I don't know! Look for somethin' culty an' important!"

After Astrid kicks in the locked door, they see the room full of books strewn all about like a mini hurricane had passed through. In the middle of this mess is this tiny fuzzy monster thing with spindly legs, a long tail, and big ol' eyes like a confused puppy.

Tsarra gasps and immediately lets go of Astrid. She hops passed the girl ready to smash the thing with her hammer then crouches down to this new creature's eye level.

"Heeeey there little fella!" She coos with a big smile on her face. "Ye want some food?"

She reaches back into her pocket and brings out a raw fish cause she just carries that around with her for this exact purpose.

"'ere ye go." She holds out the limp, bug-eyed fish to Hyl.

It reeks. Who knows how long it had been sitting inside her back pocket. She didn't seem to notice at all...probably because she has a terrible sense of smell on land.

"What ye doin' in a cult lair, ye funny lookin' lil fuzzball?" She looks back at Astrid. "He's so cute! Look at 'is lil legs! Do ye think he's some kinda cat?"