After a short question and answer session, the group headed out to track down the oversized Squo-Bloo. In many ways their departure had a festival-like atmosphere. A serious problem with a monster seemed far less concerning with the Hero of Ha' Ruul around. The fact that the foreign hero prince was involved as well only made it seem like it would be even less of a concern.

Once they had traveled for a while, Scott had everyone stop for a while so that they could get in a bit of a strategy session. Samantha worked with the bow for a bit, proving to readily take to its usage after a short period of time. Ranged weapons really were her thing, though her accuracy was clearly off when compared to her firearms accuracy. Even so, given the size of the creature they would face it was unlikely that she would miss completely.

Scott and Chaine conferred on possible attack patterns. From what little the Whisperton townsfolk knew of the beast it did not seem to have any moves that were beyond the ordinary. It was large, had tentacles, and could fire massive rocks with the force of a cannon ball.

"How does that thing even fit in the river? It's a decent sized bit of water but..." said Scott thoughtfully.

Chaine shrugged at him. "There's a large area up ahead that's like a lake in the middle of the river. Plenty of underwater caves."

"Could be a normal one that just sat there and got fat, but you'd think someone would have noticed it by now," said Vita. "It would not have gotten that size overnight on its own."

"That's what concerns me," said Scott. "Is there any way that something in one of those caves could have caused it?"

Chaine shrugged his shoulders. "I've never heard of those caves having anything like that. It mostly has interesting gemstones and shells. The locals go diving now and then to collect them, but usually near the time for a festival."

"Valuable?" inquired Scott.

"Sometimes they can be worth a few crystals. Anything truly worth getting has probably been collected a long time ago," said Chaine.

"Do you suspect some sort of foul play?" asked Vita.

Scott looked over to Samantha as she did her best to hit a nearby target with a fairy bolt. Saelil critiqued her skills while Kitty cheered her own. Seemingly their anger about the shower incident had lessened over time, as they seemed to be on reasonable terms again.

He acquired a thoughtful expression then looked at the princess. "I always do. Such a big monster appearing out of nowhere is probably not an accident. Something, or someone, put it there."

"It could have swam in from the ocean, or gotten caught in a storm. They do grow big out at sea," suggested Chaine.

"That makes more sense. There were no major storms around here that I can recall, but maybe there was one around the island we were heading to before all this happened?" It was a perfectly plausible reason for the creature to be in the area so suddenly. His years of gaming, and recent lifestyle, made him quite paranoid about greater plots. The likelihood that the thing had simply swam up the river and found a decent place to live was pretty good actually. It would have no real natural competition, and plenty of room, after all.

Scott closed his eyes and frowned a little. That stupid rock-spitting octopus had ruined everything.

"Is there something wrong?" asked Vita.

"Nothing really. I was just looking forward to traveling across your world." Scott shook his head. It was not that important. Getting the princess home as soon as possible, and with minimal risk, was the priority.

"Is that so..." The princess turned to Chaine. "Perhaps we should consider traveling over land?"

Chaine shook his head. "If we're doing that, we might as well head back to Whisperton and walk back to the castle the long way."

"Why is that?" asked Vita curiously.

The Hero of Ha' Ruul squatted down and drew a few things in the dirt. He then gestured towards each thing. "It's like this... This is where we are." He stabbed a little triangle that he had drawn in the dirt.

He then stabbed a set of squiggly lines. "This is the river. This time of year it runs fast and deep. A proper raft would let us travel a lot faster than we could go even by running."

"Yes. But surely even half a day of extra travel time—" began Vita only for Chaine to shake his head at her.

He held up his finger and said, "Days. Princess. It would take several extra days to go over land."

"Why is that?" asked Scott.

Chaine poked his finger down into a bunch of x-shaped squiggles far to the south of their position. "About half of the way to Skulla-Tulla the land turns rough. It becomes a bunch of rocky crags around the place where the river suddenly drops steeply."

"A waterfall?" Scott looked to Chaine.

"The reason we need a specially made raft, especially this time of year. It's not an actual waterfall. The land takes a steep downturn that causes the river to rush wildly. It's not that dangerous, even so, but the land around it is." Chaine stabbed the dirt once more. "This place is the problem."

"The terrain would slow us down that much?" asked Vita curiously.

"Not the terrain precisely. The entire area is the home of the Cragling tribes. They love nothing more than to dig holes and fight," said Chaine. "The area is like a maze. They constantly set pit traps, block off passes, and open new ones from season to season so they can hold their territory between tribes."

"I take it they are territorial to more than their tribes if you are telling us all of this?" asked Vita.

"Yeah. They don't like to discuss things like safe passage or traveler's rights. You enter their territory and they'll try to kill you," said Chaine.

"Strong?" asked Scott.

"Not really, but there's thousands of them spread across a few hundred tribes. Worse. They actually know which passes are safe and open. We don't," said Chaine.

"We were going to just merrily raft our way right past something like that?" asked Vita incredulously.

"Why not? They can't swim, and never go into the river past the shallows because of that. They can't throw their spears hard enough to reach us in the middle, either," said Chaine. "The worst we'd have worried about with a Whisperton raft is the occasional squo-bloo."

"Can we walk around all of that?" asked Vita.

"Yes, and that's why it would take a few days," said Chaine. "If we actually knew the right paths to take we could get through in a single day, provided no one got hurt. We don't, though."

"I wonder why I've not heard of this before?" asked Vita. "Such a large and aggressive group within the borders of Ha' Ruul does not bode well."

Chaine shrugged. "They're territorial, but they don't really leave the crags. They protect what they think of as their land from rival tribes and the listening meat."

"Listening... meat?" asked Vita.

Chaine tapped his ear lightly. "We supposedly have these to better hear the words of the goddess. Right?"

"That—" Vita tried, and failed, to resist an involuntary shudder than ran down her spine. "Perhaps we should visit Imperial Garden after all."

She turned to Scott then offered a bright smile. "Once we are returned to the castle, we can schedule a trip to tour the land if you do so wish it."

"I'd certainly like that..." said Scott. A guided tour did sound fun, but it was hardly an adventure. Even so, it was better than further endangering his companions. At least they would soon get to fight a giant octopus. That would certainly cheer him up!