"Cult" is such an ugly word, which is why I used it. Here's last time.
The characters have been split up (as it, wasn't really their idea). Akala, Eithne, and Imani are with the women of the undersea society of Elapia, while Thanos is led to the building where the males live (the "man shack" as we took to calling it). The men are nervous around Thanos - they aren't used to Andamen other than Tritons. Thanos smiles big for them, but remember that his teeth are huge and sharp, and this just frightens the men more. They start murmuring amongst themselves, but the only word Thanos catches is "sacrifice." He decides to go back down the tunnel and see what his companions are up to, but he doesn't want to alarm the fellows here, so he casts an illusion of himself to stay behind and slips into the tunnel.
Meanwhile, the others are talking with the head priestess (or at least, the one whom the others seem to defer to). Akala has figured out the Elapia dialect enough to communicate reliably, so she asks a bit about the history. She's told that Elapi was a city above the waves until the Great Cataclysm, when it sank into the sea, and the goddess Oshún heard their prayers and saved them. Akala avoids blaspheming like she did before with the little Triton kid, and listens to a bit more. All women are considered priestess of Oshún, and men live separately until a woman has need of one. Akala tells her about the demon that they killed and about the city above theirs, and the women seemed politely disinterested. Eithne and Imani, though, notice that the other women don't seem entirely in agreement when the head priestess denies there being any other demons down here...
Thanos creeps up to the temple and uses his magic to talk with Eithne briefly, telling her that he is concerned that they (or maybe just him) is going to be sacrificed. Eithne communicates this to Akala, who asks about the worship of Oshún in practical terms, and the priestess offers to show them. She leads them down the tunnel (Thanos turns invisible and follows) to the fields, where a few other women are tending the crops. The head priestess leaves, and Akala, Eithne, and Imani try to work the land a bit. They're all pretty bad at it, though, until one of the women shows them. She explains to Imani that working the land is worship, and shows Imani the area in the crops where she herself gave birth. Imani smiles and nods, but this all feels very culty to her.
Meanwhile, Thanos slips up behind the head priestess and puts his blade to her throat, demanding to know if he is meant to be sacrificed. She denies that, and he believes her, but the conversation doesn't go further because a huge crocodile-like creature barrels in from the water and bites down on them both, screaming "THANOS!" He recognizes it - it's the creature he wounded back in Acheron.
Thinking quickly, Thanos spins around and hits the monster with a blast of magic that sends it spiraling away into the deeps...but it's carrying the head priestess with it. Thanos has just enough time to notice that before he passes out.
The others decide that they've had enough worship and they'd rather keep swimming around the city, so they take their leave and swim over to the building they saw with the claw marks. Akala notes that the claw marks definitely aren't from the demon they killed, and Imani, headstrong as ever, swims into the building to look around (as does Eithne). Inside, they find carnage. Multiple bodies, all men, all with their hearts ripped out. Eithne deduces that this monster was probably a natural creature at one point, but was changed via magic (though not any time recently). They decide to swim over to the man shack and see what the men of Elapi really think about being used as a snackrifice.
Akala talks to the men and learns that, according to legend, Oshún blessed this place with water that was sweet, and filling, and made all manner of things grow...up until someone broke their promise to never blaspheme against her. Then she withdrew her blessing, and the creature is meant to be some kind of test from her. Akala disputes this (it's not really in character for Oshún), and the men agree that it doesn't seem to be helping in any event.
And just then, the corpse of the head priestess falls into the tunnel, followed by Thanos' gladius. Eithne spots the creature swimming away, and Imani strikes out after it and stabs it. It turns and snaps at her, but Eithne hits it with a bolt of magical lightning. It bites Imani and swims toward the man shack, as Akala taunts it and tries to get the men to take up arms. Eithne casts a spell and forces its jaws open so Imani can escape, but Imani is poisoned and feels herself weakening. That isn't enough to quell her bloodlust, though.
The creature speaks and tells the assembled men that it was sent here by Set, not Oshún, and Thanos is here to harvest hearts along with it. All of these outsiders are here for their hearts, in fact! The men start chattering in terror, noting that Thanos does indeed have big crocodile like teeth. Akala tries to talk sense into the men, and Imani attacks again as Eithne slices at its tail with a water-blade. The creature swims away, however, having planted the seeds of suspicion. Imani tries to follow it, but loses her strength. She finally manages to shake off the poison just as Eithne reaches her.
Back in the tunnel, priestesses arrive with a casket containing Thanos' body. They drop it in front of the characters and are horrified to see the body of their head priestess. They take her body and tell the characters to stay put, that they need to discuss this and figure out who's lying.
Eithne casts a spell on Thanos to help his body metabolize the poison, while Akala patches Imani up. The men withdraw, afraid of the characters, and they collect their thoughts and rest.
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