Editing Drake's Company (section)

===Calming the Waves===
Drake's Company continued east into the territory of the Cult of the Crushing Wave. While the Cult of the Howling Hatred had mostly been made up of human devotees to Aerisi Kalinoth, the water cultists counted more monstrous members among their ranks, and the heroes were forced to contend with bugbears, trolls, ogres, lizardfolk, a hag, and at the heart of the temple a young dragon turtle named [[Bronzefume]] that burst out of the canals to attack them. After besting all these challenges, they finally arrived at a shrine of [[Olhydra]] guarded by a group of cultists led by a demonic hezrou. Recognizing the demon's might, Qwynn polymorphed it into a newt as they fought the cultists. Unfortunately, a passing lizardfolk mistook the newt for food and ate it; the demon exploded out of the unwitting creature's body as it returned to its full size, but was slain soon after.

Beyond the shrine was a staircase descending down into a rocky cavern, where a swift-flowing underground stream rushed northward to waterfall down into a deeper chasm. When Lafiel went to inspect the stream, a water weird burst up and dragged her into the water. Drake dove in after while their companions attacked the weirds from the shore, and though the elementals were soon dispatched both Drake and Lafiel plunged over the edge. They splashed down in a deep pool within another cavern, containing a wooden boat and a large floating globe of water. Locating a set of stone steps leading back up, they decided to return up to the temple in Belsimar and finish eradicating the cultists before continuing their explorations.

The remaining water cultists were easily dispatched. As they completed their search, they found a fountain with a gargoyle spewing water into a basin; Lafiel was entranced by the mechanism and spent over an hour attempting to discern how it worked and where the water source was, before finally giving up and following her companions back down to the cavern below. Moving away from the stream, they found a den of lizarfolk; Lafiel's quick talking resulted in a truce, contingent on providing proof that they had slain Bronzefume; they promised to return with such. Following the caverns to the west, they encountered a small cave filled with a magical whirlwind, and another cavern where three fire cultists were chained to the walls, prisoners of the Cult of the Crushing Wave. Convincing the prisoners that they, too, were Cultists of the Eternal Flame, Lafiel set them free and brought them along as they first gathered some scales from Bronzefume's corpse, then delivered them to the lizardfolk. The cultists, suddenly realizing they had been lied to, were immediately killed by the lizardfolk who announced their intention to claim the former Temple of the Crushing Wave for themselves.
[[File:Water Node.jpg|thumb|right]]
Drake's Company, meanwhile, descended back down the waterfall in search of the leader of the Cult of the Crushing Wave. Ignoring the watery globe, they took the boat and rowed into the eastern caverns. There they found a dozen cultists, but after killing several of them the remainder surrendered. When questioned, they told the heroes that their prophet, [[Gar Shatterkeel]], could be found in the lake to the south. They also explained that the watery globe was a means of transport; it would float to the lake if someone climbed into it. As the path to the south was lined with rapids, they instead used the bubbles. After cresting the final waterfall, they found themselves overlooking a massive underground lake. At the center of the lake was a rocky island, and above it floated a massive watery sphere. Gar Shatterkeel stood before the sphere, a trident raised high in the air.

Their attempts at stealth were soon thwarted by the massive crocodiles swimming in the lake, which alerted Gar to their presence. The prophet used the enormous cavern to conjure a storm above their heads, assailing them with lightning as they attempted to swim for the island. Though Ya flew above the water and rained fireballs on his head, Gar summoned a water elemental to hold off her companions. Qwynn, sensing they had gotten in over their heads, decided to save herself and teleported away. Her fears proved unfounded, however, as slowly but surely her compatriots managed to fight back the crocodiles and the elemental and crawled up onto the island to face Gar directly. Finally, with the last of her strength, Lafiel sank her blade into Gar's chest; the prophet's body dissolved into inky black water, and his trident, ''[[Drown]]'', clattered to the ground.

The heroes took some time to rest and tend to their wounds, before Ya cast a flying spell upon them all so they could escape, taunting the surviving cultists with Gar's trident. Along the way they sent a magical message to Qwynn informing them of their success; Qwynn, who had only teleported as far as the Temple of the Crushing Wave in Belsimar, insisted they were actually all dead and she was just hearing things. Nevertheless, she joined them in a celebratory drink when they reunited in person.

As they rested that night, however, they were beset by terrible visions of watery death, of stone doors bearing the relief of a circular, fanged maw, of a sunken tentacled idol, and of a slime-covered altar carved with horrific mouths. Realizing that their fight against the cult was not yet over, they returned to the lake to investigate the sphere of water. Lafiel attempted to fly into it, discovering that it was a portal to the Plane of Water. On the other side was an endless ocean, and a massive wave surging from the distance. Lafiel returned and reported back; Gnarls, tying a rope to himself first, decided to enter the portal himself to investigate. As he went through, a jet of boiling water shot out of the wave and struck him before his friends pulled him back out. Deciding that he had a better understanding of what he would face, he entered the portal once more. This time, however, the rope suddenly went slack and fell out of the portal, the other end a frayed mess where it had been ripped apart. Lafiel quickly followed after, but was struck by boiling jets herself and barely made it back out alive. Drake and Qwynn, refusing to leave their friend, tried to go in after him as well but were pulled out by Ya; the wizard sorrowfully told them that whatever was in the water was beyond their power. Gnarls was gone.

Though at first they continued their exploration of the cavern by flying over the western waterfall, when they encountered slime-covered cultists with translucent skin and blank expressions, Lafiel connected the dots and realized an [[Yngukulub the Devourer|aboleth]] was in that part of the cavern, and it had sent them the visions to lure them back and enslave them. Facing a choice between two powerful foes, and with Gnarls already lost, they instead retreated out of the caves and made their way back towards Drakkengarde. Despite the aboleth's presence, they reasoned that with Gar Shatterkeel slain along with most of the cultists, the Cult of the Crushing Wave had been effectively destroyed.