We stay on the Island for the night to recuperate. They return our belongings in good working order as promised.

The next morning, we begin loading up our stuff into the sub. Nutz asks about the location at which we intend to land to search for the staff. The tribe leader says that there are many creatures on the island that may be dangerous, and also underwater threats, but it is impossible to tell what we may face. We ask to buy some spear guns from the tribe to defend ourselves underwater. They sell us 6 spear guns at 450 nuyen each.

We leave for Santa Rosa Island with an escort of 2 patrol boats. As we approach the island, one stays with us and the other leaves to continue patrolling the area.

We come to the place where the “middle toe” of the paw-shaped island must have been before it was swallowed by the ocean. We begin “active” sonar pinging to search the area. Nutz does not find any anomolies from the scan.

The magicians go astral and search the area underwater. Very close to the position of the sub, they find a cave opening about 8 feet wide. Moving to enter, they see a multi-headed beast lying in wait in the cave. Being dual-natured, it sees them as well and moves to attack. The magicians quickly leave and go back to the ship (and their bodies).

After a short discussion, it is realized that the creature we saw was a Hydra. Tebriel also mentions that he saw something else in the cave that seemed to be man-made, perhaps the staff that we are seeking.

We reposition the sub at a safer location and search the surrounding area in astral space — the creature did not follow us and is nowhere to be seen. We return and weigh our options. Finally we decide to beach the sub and bring the codex symbol with us to show the beast, and perhaps he will let us through. Skelfeng holds the codex in front of him and approachs the beast, but one of its heads engulfs him in flames. Obviously he is not impressed. Luckily Skelfeng and Tebriel are not badly harmed and make it back to the ship safely.

We move the sub closer to shore and call in the nearby patrol boat to protect our ship while we are underwater. He agrees and moves towards us. Everyone except the mages suits up and jumps in the water, swimming towards the cave. The mages lead in astral space, attempting to make themselves visible to the other party members so they can easily follow.

The mages come in from opposite sides of the cave and begin to attack the Hydra, Skelfeng with his manabolt spell and Tebriel with his axe weapon focus while the other team members come up into the cave and ready their weapons. The Hydra does several breath attacks, but soon keels over dead, slain by Tebriel’s axe.

Skelfeng, searching its aura, notices that it is not truly dead — it will regenerate in a short amount of time. He returns to his body on the sub and radios his friends, telling them to grab the staff and get out of there. They do as instructed and retrieve the staff, moving quickly to get back to the sub.

We journey back to the main island, greeting the Native American tribe victoriously. We rest briefly and Jack spends some time getting drunk. After a short while, we thank the tribal leaders and take the sub back to the LA docks. We pick up our vehicles and drive separately to Milwaukee.

Inspecting the staff, Skelfeng sees that it has many glyphs carved into it, and ascertains that it is indeed magical from its faint astral glow. We meet Smoke Jaguar and give him the staff, and he credits us all 20,000 nuyen for our success. Smoke Jaguar is thankful for the delivery and we leave for home for a few days.

Nutz finds that he has been credited 250,000 nuyen for the Sea Drake carcass that was harvested by the Native Americans.

Skelfeng spends a few days moving out of his apartment and into the team’s new warehouse, making room for all of his belongings and his new motorcycle.