GoSR-Session 5: Murderous Malenti

Grey, Molly, and Oceanus kept watch through the night for any signs of the nefarious plot that they were sure Marin would spring at any moment. Meanwhile Bowbow and Silver trekked through the darkening swamps in search of rare ebony wood needed to craft the truth serum.
Around the end of Molly's first, uneventful, watch Bowbow found an old ebony stump in a clearing. Taking the wood shavings he needed, Bowbow also found an crude map carved into the surface of the stump. The map seemed to trace a path from this clearing north, leading to an estuary of Lake Boundless marked with a winged ship. Bowbow took a rubbing, then used his knife to carve off the map. Reagent collected, he turned back to rejoin the others.
Back at the Blackfin camp, Grey and Oeanus were both on watch long into the night when Grey noticed a subtle change in the watery sounds coming from the pool chambers. Waking Molly they moved forward to investigate, finding that all the torches in the cavern had somehow gone out. Lighting their own torch, they found nothing but the dark mirror of the rippling pool. After a tense moment, one of the locatha representatives swam up to see what all the fuss was about. He said that the lights had been bothering him, so he put them out. Perturbed and not seeing any other signs of danger, the groups returned to their watch post.
BowBow finally returned and began brewing the truth serum, Oceanus was last on watch. As Bowbow worked away in a corner of the room, Oceanus once again heard a light splashing sound coming from the other chamber. Thinking it may be another false alarm Oceanus went alone to check. He slipped past the guard wit a quick distraction from Silver, and entered the cavern pools. Once again there was nothing but the gently rippling water. Wanting to be sure this time, Oceanus carefully dipped into the water to take a look, and was met with the hateful eyes of Marin just inches under the water's surface.
Oceanus tried to reach for his weapon, but Marin struck with sudden speed. Slipping a garrote around Oceanus' throat and silently pulling him under the surface. The wire biting into his neck painfully.
Thinking fast, Oceanus used the last of his breath to cast a shatter spell in Marin's face. Blood leaked from the spies' nose and ears, but he kept the wire implacably taught. The ringing sound of the shatter spell echoed off the cavern walls, alerting the other adventurers and the lizardfolk guards.
Rushing forward, the nearby lizardfolk warrior was first to spot the two struggling sea-elves. Unsure of what was going on, the warrior forced the two apart. Marin swiftly hid his garrote, and before Oceanus could catch his breath he began shouting at the guard in draconic, gesturing and raging at Oceanus.
Quickly more guards appeared and apprehended the adventurers. Captain Irthos arrived and spoke with Marin for a moment, then cam over to the party. He told them that Marin was accusing Oceanus of being a spy, that Oceanus had tried to assassinate him, and that he had spotted them all following Marin around that day. Without much solid proof to refute this, the Captain was forced to confine Oceanus to the dungeon, and the others to be kept under watch in the barracks until the queen could settle this matter later.
As the main group was lead to the barracks, Oceanus was brought to the dungeon. Lead down a dim hall, past five iron bound doors to the one at the very end, he was placed in a submerged cage to await the queen's judgement. After a few moments alone, he heard emphatic whispering coming from the western wall of the cell. It was one of the sahuagin prisoners, asking if Oceanus was also a captured sahuagin. Oceanus decided to play into this mistake, and took on the role of Marin to get info from this prisoner. The sahuagin was some kind of powerful warrior. He and his men had been captured intentionally so that Marin could later release them and they could attack the fortress from the inside. Marin was apparently some kind of sahuagin mutant, called a Malenti.
Meanwhile, the queen arrived in the barracks to confront the other adventurers. She was frustrated and disappointed that they had caused such an incident mere hours before the alliance negotiations were about to begin. Bowbow stepped up to explain their suspicions, evidence, and their plan to use the truth serum on Marin and Oceanus to get to the bottom of this. Minsiter Sauriv corroborated the story and supported the plan. Intrigued the Queen agreed to give it a try, and all set out towards the dungeon to collect Oceanus.
Back in the cell, Oceanus was becoming more intimidated by the Sahuagin in the next cell. Sure that at any moment, Marin might arrive to spring the trap and release sea devils on the unsuspecting lizardfolk. In an attempt to break the blademaster's spirits, Oceanus cast vicious mockery, words for failure and abandonment magically infused. The words stuck home, but Oceanus had misjudge the hierarchy of these sea devils and the blademaster was not about to take insults from lowly mutant. The sahuagin flew into a rage, screaming curses of retribution and slamming fists against the cell walls for minutes at a time. Oceanus hunkered down and covered his ears.
As the torrent of hate finally subsided, the quiet sounds of someone coming down the hall met their ears. Then the sounds of something crumpling to the floor and the click of a lock opening. In the next cell, the muffle sound of Marin setting the plan into motion, but the unfortunate Malenti had no idea what was waiting for him. Oceanus simply heard the cell open, then the terrible sounds of a body being repeatedly slammed against metal.
When the Queen's entourage finally reached the dungeon, they found the jailer dead, and Marin's broken body floating in the blademaster's cell. Putting thew pieces together, Oceanus was released and the whole conspiracy was revealed. Minister Saurive confirmed that he had found writings mentioning rare sahuagin mutants that could be born looking like sea elves. The queen was impressed with the parties initiative and officially invited them to join the alliance negotiations as the representatives of Saltmarsh.
At the alliance, the plan was set forth. For the nest three months the alliance forces would gather and prepare for battle. Once everything was in place, the Queen would need an advanced scouting team to infiltrate the Sahaugin fortress and gather vital intelligence to stage the assault. She requested that the Adventurers take this role, which they agreed to as long as they could take the nest three months to prepare. This was accepted, and the queen also gave them two leads that they might follow up on. One for a magical helm stolen by bullywugs, and the other a contract to hunt Gustagh the thousand teeth, a viscous and deadly crocodile that had been preying on their forces.