After putting Nutz’ truck and our other vehicles in storage at the Los Angeles docks, and paying a heavy fee for the protection of our goods, we embark on the submarine towards Santa Rosa Island. Our goal is to retrieve the sacred staff. We are using our GPS to track our progress.

It is noted that Smoke Jaguar had given us 10,000 shares of Pueblo stock to help us pass through the Pueblo lands. These were issued by the Pueblo Corporate Council and are sale-able.

Sensors detect a large creature in the water coming towards us, and Nutz quickly takes evasive action. The shamen check it astrally and see that it is very large, but not magically active nor dual-natured.

Nutz sees on the sensors that another creature is approaching us from underneath, and brings us up to the surface. Skelfeng reacts quickly and casts the illusion of a large shark approaching the vessel. It does not seem to have an effect.

Nacre pops the hatch and pulls out his bow, attempting to target the creature. Nuts tries very hard to outmaneuver the beasts, but cannot seem to shake them. Skelfeng changes his illusion to an inky blackness to hide the ship. Everyone else braces for impact as the creatures come ever closer.

The creature from below grabs onto the sub and bites down, causing several of the crewmembers to fall and take damage. Nacre and Bloodhound come out of the hatches and draw weapons on the creature.

Skelfeng draws on his magical power and casts manabolt against the creature approaching from the side, killing it instantly. Nutz prepares to launch his air tank out of the torpedo tube (with C-4 attached to it) into the maw of the beast.

Nacre shoots an explosive arrow at the creature, nearly killing Bloodhound in the process. The creature’s head explodes from the impact, and Bloodhound is covered in goo. Frustrated, he flops down in a chair and lights a cigarette.

The corpses of the two creatures float up to the surface. We try to assess the damage and see that there are a few minor leaks, as well as a good amount of teeth sticking out of the hull.

The mages realize that this creature was a Sea Drake, which is very valuable if harvested and sold for the creation of magical items. Nutz is agreeable to dragging along one of the creatures (after it is explained how much they are worth), and we use a grapple line to bring the one Skelfeng killed to shore.

As we reach shore, two patrol boats arrive without warning and instruct us to exit our vehicle. They fire warning shots. We see a spotter with binoculars on the shore. Nacre shoots him with an arrow.

We cut the line to the Sea Drake and try to leave, but they quickly catch up with us and demand that we stand down. They are heavily armed. We soon find out that they represent the Anacapa Nation, the natives of these islands. We exit the sub and they arrest us.

They hook up a tow line to the sub and bring it along. Jack overhears on their radio that they are deploying more forces to our position. They soon pull up to an inlet that appears to be sparsely populated. They tell us to get out, and walk us up to the village at gunpoint.

We are taken to a “City Hall” building. Tribal leaders are gathered here. One man in particular seems to be in charge. He asks us why we have come, and we say that our ship was attacked and we needed to land to do repairs. He asks us why we attacked one of his own men, and we say that we are not aware of anyone being attacked (since no one saw Nacre shoot the man with binoculars). We apologize for the attack anyway. Skelfeng offers to heal the man using magic, and the chief declines.

He says that he will search our ship for any smuggled items, assess us a fine for injuring their man and then he will let us on our way. They do a search and find nothing on our sub and charge us 25,000 nuyen. Nacre pays him and Jack loans him 400 nuyen so he can make the balance. They let us leave.

We get back to the sub and find that it has been stripped clean — they have stolen all of our wetsuits and other gear, basically anything that was not nailed down. Jack returns to the island and tries to negotiate the return of our items with the chief. They deny any wrongdoing, and offer to sell us back our items at an exorbitant price. Jack attempts to intimidate them, but is unsuccesful. We depart from the island.

We head back to the LA docks where our vehicles are stored. We are greeted by a nightwatchman and get some sleep. Jack eats several ration bars to satisfy the craving of his suprathyroid.

We wake up and speak with the dockworkers; they inform us of how to order out for food. Nutz begins to repair the sub with his tools. Skelfeng asks around for information on the islands and the creatures of the water. He finds out some info on the creatures (mostly that the ones we encountered were small ones), but little else.

We contact Smoke Jaguar for help. He says that he will send someone to help us fix the sub and will try to get equipment as well. Two days later, a guy appears in a truck and delivers wetsuits, air tanks, rebreathers, fins, etc. The stuff is in very bad shape. We attempt to clean it, but it seems barely operable.

After four days the sub is finally repaired. We leave and attempt to return to the island, this time without incident from any sea creatures. As we approach the island we are again spotted by a patrol ship. We are escorted back to the main island.

The chief meets us on the main island and is angry that we have come again until we show him the cover of the codex. He then tells us to come ashore. He explains that their people had been waiting for generations for our coming, and that the previous misunderstandings would have been avoided had he known the truth.

He says that he will share the profits from the slaughtering of the Sea Drake, and will return all of our stolen items. We tell him of the passage that has lead us to the area, and he explains that Santa Rosa Island is not inhabited and considered dangerous. Also, the place that the passage speaks of is likely now underwater.

We continue to plan our mission. He promises that no others will approach the island to threaten our objective, and that we will have an armed escort to assist us.