The companions were truly at the end of their ropes by the time they had reached the village where they had landed. Loaded down by gold ore, they moved at a crawling speed and all were soaked with sweat. Their socks were so wet that their toes were shriveled. They were able to sneak around the village without being seen, but when they got to the ship, they saw that it was under guard, with the lifeboats they had taken to shore now missing. The party backed away from the natives who guarded the shoreline to talk to each other without being caught.

“Only one thing ta do. Take off all our armor and make a swim for it.”, said Stalfor.

“But then we’ll be defenseless if something attacks us on the way back home.”, said Everett.

“Tough knuckles. We have ta give up some things ta get off this deathtrap ye know.”, replied Stalfor.

“We’ll need to leave the gold ore behind also.”, said Marina.

“Are ye fucking mad woman?!?”, retorted the dwarf, “Armor is one thing, but this here’s gold! GOLD for Tharkil’s sake!”

“Then you carry it!”, she said.

The companions began to disarm and they dropped some of the gold ore they had been carrying. Then, coming to shore about 100 feet away from the guards, the companions ran and jumped in the water and made a swim for it. A horn rang out and they knew they had been found. Everett, Stalfor, Viper and Greegan were the slow to get ahead, as they tried to carry their heavily laden backpacks with them as they swam. The natives dove into the seawater with their spears and quickly caught up with them. Holding their packs in one hand, and their weapons in the other, the three began fighting while trying to keep themselves afloat. While Everett kept one of them busy with his long swords, Greegan was able to swim around that one and stab him in the back. Stalfor swung widely, trying to defend his gold and pearl-laden back, but only managed to hit his opponent with splashes. Everett then dove under the water and the native fighting Stalfor suddenly yelled out in pain as he felt his feet being cleft off his legs. Blood gushed out, staining the seawater red and the footless native tried to swim back to shore. The other natives, fearful of their kindred’s fate, stopped their pursuit.

When the exhausted fighters made it back to the boat, Marina and Gandalph helped pull them on board. The three collapsed on the floor of the ship, all of them instantly falling to sleep as they hit the deck.

As the ship sailed out from the island, Gandalph and Marina looked out from their ship as the fading sun sank on the island, bringing to end another day on the Isle of Dread.

“I can’t believe it.”, said Marina, “I can’t believe we got off that island alive; that there really was a black pearl and we found it.”

“I’m going to expect a fair share myself.”, said Gandalph.

“Of course.”, said Marina. She looked back towards the island as the sea breeze blew around her. “Kage was wrong about one thing though, thankfully, there weren’t any giant lizards on the island.”

The sound of waves striking the ship was then broken by a horrifying roar of a gigantic beast from the island.