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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Knightfall" data-source="post: 6367620" data-attributes="member: 2012">At first, the rowing is easy going. You make half the distance to island fortress in six hours. However, the weather begins to turn and the ride in the rowboat gets rocky. You aren't worried, however. You have more than enough weight in the large rowboat to keep from tipping over. Quinn and Aureus row in time with each other as Lorien sings. Phar had offered to row but the hutaakan rogue was better suited to keep time with Quinn's oar strokes. As the skies darken on the horizon, you feel the wind on your faces and the waves rock the boat slightly. The storm isn't likely to hit you directly, but you do feel some rain come down. You press on to Gurnard's Head hoping to get to this cave entrance before heavier rain comes down.Another ten hours of hard rowing and you've finally made it to the entrance, such that it is. The sea rock and the large fortress atop it looms above you. You don't hear any harpies but you can smell that something nasty lives here. In many places on the sea rock, higher up, you can see dried blood. The tower isn't visible from this vantage point, and as you had approached, you could only see its outline. Its features were hidden by mist and rain. You know that somewhere on this gods-forsaken rock is the mystery of the missing Lord Pendour. He's likely dead, of course. You all assumed that from what you've been told. What's more important is finding the key he had on him, so that Lady Pendour can open the lock-box. Before Lorien and Quinn had fought the giant sand spiders, there was just three days to the deadline given by the blackmailer. Now, almost half of the first day is over. Time is short.The cave entrance opens into a grotto carved into the sea rock by the pounding of the surf. It's good that you've finally arrived. The tide has risen and there is barely 6 or 7 feet between your heads and the entrance's uneven ceiling. The tunnel entrance to the grotto would have been to narrow for a sailing ship. As you paddle in, the height of the rocky ceiling increase until it soars more than 25 to 30 feet above you. The grotto widens considerably as well. There is a wharf, which has been designed for both low and high tide. The low tide section is already under water. Barnacles and shellfish cling to the wharf and cavern walls. There aren't any fish, however. The water inside the grotto is calm and relatively clear. You can easily see the sandy bed below, upon which rests a sunken rowboat containing a pair of large chests. Both the boat and the chests are encrusted with barnacles. Another rowboat, like the one your in, is tied up to the lower wharf. There is enough slack in the rope to keep the boat afloat at high tide. The boat appears to be empty.As you near the wharf, you note that a bloody corpse lies just above the waterline near the wharf's lower level. The blood is fresh and has stained the wharf red and dripped into the water. Near the wharf, the water is more pinkish, as a result. A set of stairs climbs through the rock from an alcove behind the wharf. You can clearly see that another body lies on the bottom of the steps.</blockquote>

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