Moving on

[Anastasia]

'This doesn't add up,' Jarem sends back, 'The little ones are aggressive and this one seems almost uninterested.'

'Possibly,' Ianvasah says, 'I have my means.'

[Iron Dragoon]

'Let's follow with it. Ianvasah, talk to it. Emily, do you have a teleport still? If so, stay on the beach in case this is trying to pull us away, but be ready to teleport to us.'

[Anastasia]

'I'll manage,' Emily sends back.

'It could also be a trap,' Jarem points out, 'The smaller ones weren't unintelligent, we could be walking into an ambush. It was also fast to show its head, which was far more vulnerable than its body.'

[Iron Dragoon]

'All very possible, but the choice remains: deal with it now, one way or another, or have it lurking around us waiting to strike. You're still in command, but I made my preference known.'

[Anastasia]

'Pull back,' Jarem doesn't hesitate, 'We can fight this battle better prepared, rather than risking a trap. Too much of this raises questions.'

[Iron Dragoon]

Alyssa does as asked, but has one last thing, Ianvasah, can you communicate from range safely? Stay with us and talk to it?'

[Anastasia]

'Not from here,' Ianvasah replies.

[Iron Dragoon]

'Unfortunate. At worst, we'll use divination and a wish to establish contact later. For now, let's head back and start on the clean up and reorganization.'

[Anastasia]

Okay, so assuming no more attacks right away, what's your plan?

[Iron Dragoon]

Clean up (loot/body recovery), see to reassuring peeps, set up divinations to figure out who, what, why, and try some long range talkin'.

[Anastasia]

Soon enough you're back. "Alyssa, we have several bodies," Madala declares as you rest, sipping a glass of warmed wine. "Their scales are powerful and could make useful armor, or we could render their entire bodies for possible spell components, but not both. There are also pearls being harvested from them. The choice of which of the previous to do is yours."

[Iron Dragoon]

"Assign one to research, and split the rest up as evenly as possible. Favor spell components. Did we have casualties?"

[Anastasia]

"Some, both injuries and fatalities. Delaize is handling that along with Jarem," Madala says.

[Iron Dragoon]

"That's unfortunate. If they have families, we'll need to figure something out for them. Over-all, how are we doing? Be brief, but I'm going to want to put together a full report at some point. We need to learn from this."

[Anastasia]

"We survived." Malada summarizes in two words. "We'll see tomorrow and that's enough."