PERIL UNDER PARROT ISLAND (days 11-12)

After the Tropic Thunder had spent a day or two fruitlessly searching for Vanthus, a nervous-looking half-elf with messy black hair, a ragged suit of leather armor, and dirty hands approached Haerold. Glancing about, the man introduced himself in a quiet voice to Haerold as Shefton, and asked him if he's looking for Vanthus. Haerold was, and if he payed him 5 gp, Shefton claimed to know where Vanthus was hiding out.

Shefton informed Haerold that Vanthus had been living for the past few days in an abandoned complex of smuggler's tunnels below Parrot Island. For an additional 5 gp, Shefton agreed to lead the Tropic Thunder to the hidden trap door on the isle that Vanthus had been using to enter and exit the complex below.

Shefton seemed extremely nervous, causing the Thunder to become suspicious of him. When Haerold started asking difficult questions (such as, how does he know so much about Vanthus anyway?), Shefton claimed that Vanthus approached him a few weeks ago to set up a smuggling operation in the old tunnels below Parrot Island.

Aboveground, the island is little more than a rocky outcropping surrounded by high cliffs save from the eastern end, where a narrow beach affords an easier approach. The isle is thickly vegetated, the trees above serving as the roost for hundreds of noisy, brightly colored parrots. Shefton led the Tropic Thunder up a partially overgrown trail leading up from the beach to a small clearing at the center of the island.

Hidden at the southern end of the clearing was a stone trap door. Shefton pointed it out to the Tropic Thunder easily. Once it was open, a narrow shaft leading down into the darkness below was revealed. A rope hung from a hook in the wall, providing a relatively safe method of descent. The shaft itself is deep, and opened into an empty room below.

This square room seems empty. A shaft leads up through the ceiling on the northeast corner, and a brick-lined tunnel with a curved roof leads to the west.

Vatnhus waited hidden nearby, and once the last Thunder descended into the tunnels, he emerged. The Tropic Thunder heard Shefton's exclamation of surprise as Vanthus approached and stabbed him in the back. A few moments later, Vanthus pushed Shefton's bleeding body into the shaft - the half-elf took enough damage to die upon impact. Vanthus' next act was to cut loose the rope; it came slithering down the shaft shortly after Shefton's fall. Vanthus took a while to taunt any Tropic Thunder he saw looking back up at him, calling them thugs and shouting things like, serves them right for messing around with his sister.He answered any questions the Tropic Thunder sent up at him with mocking laughter - when he grew bored (and as soon as Graim and Mary Rose tried to attack him) he dropped the trap door back in place and rolled several large boulders over on top of it, the grinding sound of which was dreadfully obvious to those trapped below.

Although the walls are made of brick, they're also slippery and slimy with moisture. When Vanthus closed the trap door above, its iron-plated underside is quite difficult to batter through.

For the majority of this part, the Tropic Thunder must make do with what limited resources they brought with them to survive. The tunnels consist of several rooms once used as barracks, storage, and meeting areas by the smugglers. Desperate adventurers who scavenged these rooms found a few supplies like a few old, worn-out torches. There was no illumination in the brick-lined tunnels. Doors in the complex are of soggy wood, and some were swollen shut. Some double doors hung ajar.

As the Tropic Thunder explored the tunnels, they quickly realized they've been abandoned for some time. Yet the tunnels are far from safe.

A group of three walking corpses throw themselves at the Tropic Thunder after they open a door. When they attack, the fanged maws of these horrific corpses open wider than they should, revealing row upon row of jagged teeth. This fight spilled out to the next room in the complex.

Four great wooden pillars rise up to support the ceiling, which sags dangerously in places and is thick with hanging strands of fungus. Several doors line the walls - one to the west (from which comes a muffled sloshing sound), two to the north (the western of which is badly damaged and hangs askew on its one remaining hinge), and two to the east. To the south, the ceiling has collapsed, leaving the southern part of the room choked in debris. A rippling pool of water reaches halfway into the room from this wall of stone and rubble. It seems that a wooden pier once extended into this pool, but all that remains now are several rotting wooden pilings protruding from the water. A man's body floats face down among them.

Further complicating the fight with the corpses, five foul-tempered dark brown kelp crabs lived within the pool. Each of these crabs measured nearly two feet in diameter, with pincers the size of daggers. Fiercely territorial, they surged out of the pool to attack anything that approached the shore. Most of the Thunder succumbed to the crabs, except Haerold, who was the only one unaffected and standing by the end of the fight.