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So yeah… sea monsters. The surviving crew was a bit subdued to say the least. When finally rescued, the military police had a few uncomfortable questions for us. Luckily, Gail was on the ball, and got on the horn with her CIA peeps and got us the heck out of there. A bit disturbing nonetheless since the CIA probably wouldn't like us either (if they knew!).

We got in touch with BOOBS, and he had us get on his magic boat and sail with him. And, as we came back up to land, he said, “That's him!” and we were off again, pursuing some nebulous link to Calliope through a local walking switftly away.

Onto land we hopped, a dirty, crowded, vaguely asian-ish cityscape spread before us, people bustling everywhere. The guy BOOBS had fingered was dressed in a suit, rather nicely compared to others bustling in the area. We ran after him and caught up with him without effort. Our American-ness freaked him out, so I convinced him to meet us in a nearby noodle shop in a few min.

A few minutes later, as we were walking casually to the noodle shop, the local constabulary stopped us. Well, I can see why this dude was reluctant to talk to us. These guys were obviously targeting foreigners. We sicc'd Jack and Nico on two doofs and less than a minute later, we had a phone, a gun, and two cop-doofs running in the opposite direction as fast as they can go.

After shaking the cops, the locals scattered like roaches when a light turns on. We hurried off to the noodle shop to wait for our enigmatic “friend”.

Luckily, the guy did show up. We meet and greet, find out his name is Than. I study his nature with a supernatural eye, and from some brief discussion with Gail, we figure out he's some god's unawakened scion. We learn he is a prize fighter in a local blood sport. He works for some triad or other.

Jack really seems to want train and/or awaken this guy. I didn't think we could really do it. Nico and I thought we should go to one of the blood sport fights and check it out. One call to BOOBS later, it was indicated to us that Than was merely a stepping stone to get to Calliope. Seemed awakening him would not really do us any good in this particular matter.

But whatevs, we hung around for a couple of weeks and trained him. Meanwhile, he contacted the Triad and got us approval to show up to one of the fights with the caveat that one of us has to fight. Hah, well hookay! Nico it is!

Two weeks after meeting Than, we head to a fight with him. Not one that he will fight at, but just to observe and meet people.

They have several fights that night, and not all of them involved Nico. Of course, the ones that did were so fun to watch because Nico was obviously toying around with them. I, of course, bet on Nico, cause I knew he'd win. And he did, oh he did!

It took Nico a while to learn how to get the crowd all riled up too. Eventually he demanded the best fighter come forward. A few moments later, some dude called Duc stepped up, ready to (try to) rock Nico's world.

I noticed a guy, an older chinese man, who had bet all-in on Nico early on for this particular fight. It was surprising, as most people would not bet on Nico since he was an unknown fighter. I chatted with the guy taking bets for a little bit and learned that the chinese man had bet on Nico even the first time he fought as well. Curious. I examined his supernatural aura on a hunch and lo, he was a scion like us. I walked over to mention this to Gail, and then the two of us headed over to talk to the man.

I could tell he knew what we were the instant he saw us. We chatted with Uncle Wu about the fight, about our natures while Nico pretended to struggle with Duc. I'm guessing Than was a stepping stone to this guy. We eventually outright asked him about it. He told us if we won him some money tonite, he could probably help us out. So we gave Nico the signal to finish it with Duc. And with that, one dodge, and a single blow later, Duc went flying into and through the crowd. People scrambled and medics came up to examine him.

Several chinese men in business suits left the staging area looking rather pissed. Uncle Wu smiled wanly and indicated that it wasn't the best of ideas to make the Triads angry. Jack had drifted over, and upon hearing this, he wandered off saying he'd take care of it. I headed over to collect my winnings and after the ruckus died down some, Uncle Wu said in a low voice that there was a place called Padah-lin, a cave that was said to be the path to the overworld of a dead pantheon. He doesn't know the pantheon, but the rumor is that this overworld is now inhabited by someone. Someone who is (probably) not supposed to be there.

A few minutes later, Jack returned, and Nico sidled up casually. After discussing it for a few minutes we asked Uncle Wu if he knew where we could buy some supplies and transportation. He nodded, and we met him the next day to purchase an SUV and some equipment from him. Jack had decided to bring Than along with us, and so, we set out into the jungle.

Uncle Wu had told us that we had to cross territory belonging to local drug running groups, and they often had blockades set up and such. So, we stayed wary. after several hours of driving, Gail's ghost flitted back to our SUV and informed us that there was a checkpoint up ahead. So, we diverted from the path and into the jungle. Nico ended up pulling the SUV by hand with ropes and cables for several miles. I had to say, it was kind of fun to watch him.

Anyway, we skirted the checkpoint and crossed the small river at the edge of the tree line with a makeshift bridge. On we headed, the guys manning the checkpoint none the wiser.

Several days later, and without further incident, we arrived at the cave.