Tough As Dirt #9

• Tough As Dirt followed Uola down into the depths under the effect of Water Breathing and found the entrance to the holy site of the Cecaelian people

  • Outside the entrance they found a Cecaelian man suffering from boils and suffocating as his throat closed due to the disease Uola spoke of ravaging her home

  • Uola put an end to the man's suffering and told the group the fissures which had opened below, spewing toxic gas into her home, had been happening for weeks, and she had been exposed for much of that times -- she dared not go with them to save her mother, fearing she'd die before arriving

• The group entered into the twisting tunnels protecting the holy site but Winslow was able to navigate them with ease with the aid of a map

• Arriving in the living space of the Cecaelians, the group saw an eel enter a fissure and emerge apparently unscathed

  • Ricco captured the eel in order to study it further for a possible cure for the Cecaelians who had suffered the disease caused by the toxic gases

• Gideon found etchings in some of the homes that resembled an above-water city, though it was known the Cecaelians were unable to survive long above water -- each of these mosaics were accompanied by words like "Memory," or "Past."

  • Additionally, Gideon found a map of a mansion in which a door was hidden behind a marble pillar 2 inches larger in diameter than every other pillar

    • Though he said nothing, Varsmak recognized this mansion as Chateau LeMarque in Broken Compass

• Tough As Dirt found Uola's mother, Buru, singing a song at a massive pipe organ farther in, and she was guarded by a large killer octopus -- the song she sang was:

The breath of the ocean rises and falls

The tides follow suit the children they call

They swim in the shallows and swim in the deep

They look for their home where they too can sleep

We witness life in the cradle of death

We bear the burden so those who hold breath

Can live out their lives away from the sea

But we keep the gate because we hold the key

So look for the secrets buried in water

But don't hold to hope for our lips are sealed

So look for the secrets buried in water

The wound of the world is not so easily healed

• After defeating the octopus, Buru pleaded with the group to allow her to stay despite her boil-ridden body and obvious soon-to-be-death if she did not leave

  • She claimed her song helped guide the Children to rest, and if she left, a Child may come seeking the song and sleep and be unable to find it

• The group was able to strong arm her into leaving to see Uola and they emerged back at the ship

• Uola and her mother had a heated exchange right before the Child the group had saved from the beach previously swam past and heade out to the Gossamer Sea

  • Buru was inconsolable in her despair and Uola was obviously heavy with guilt -- the two swam off with nary a goodbye

• Tough As Dirt took the plunder they'd gained from the abandoned holy site of the Cecaelians and started to set sail, but Babbitt took the group over to the stern of the ship to show them a faint blue line in the water leading back towards Topside.