Emerging from the Trail of Scales, the companions agreed they had completed the trial with ease, but owed their survival to one another; none could have completed it alone. Snapdragon and a company of guards greeted them; suspicious of fey, the lizardfolk remained uneasy around the paladin, though attempts to detain him proved pointless once he simply flew through the bars of his own holding cell. Reconvening with the elderly minister Sauriv, the group won him over as an ally and began spreading rumours of the Fold's "crimes." They alleged that they had not taken anything but had seen Fold agents stealing from the tribe, dwelling especially on the theft of the tribe's expensive belts.
Sauriv agreed to bring them before the Lizard King, and Ihrtos was plainly impressed that the party had survived the Trail, but no less furious over the wreckage they'd left behind. The party owned up to their escape, killing of a prisoner, arson, and attack on his warriors, but argued that the thefts had been performed by the Fold. As proof, Earnest produced the king's red brocade robe, insisting with a straight face that he'd recovered it from a Fold agent. Miraculously, the Lizard King began to believe them.
When pressed, Ihrtos revealed a secret he had kept from even his minister, and spoke of an eternal underwater war at the edge of the Great Pale Sea, unknown to surface-dwellers. An uneasy alliance of aquatic Mortalborn forces had long held the seas against a northern legion of vicious deep-sea creatures. These lines had held for centuries, but the lizardfolk had recently found sharkfolk squadrons patroling the Bay of Broken Tides; Ihrtos feared what that meant for his people. In addition to two sharkfolk, the tribe had also captured a more friendly fish-man, but with nobody around who spoke Aquan, their prisoner's knowledge of the undersea war stayed locked behind a language barrier. As Ihrtos told the party of the armies, Earnest's Blade of Holy Vengeance latched hungrily onto talk of the Epochal Artifacts wielded by them, already dreaming of the power one might hand him.
Though Lizard King Ihrtos was still convinced he needed the Fold's protection, he nonetheless agreed to let the party make their case to his tribe directly, choosing to honor whatever his people decided. They petitioned the warriors first, believing that subchief Ertrasti was simple-minded, merely interested in the Fold for its weapons and battle magic. Kig needled him into a rematch, claiming he'd only needed to "get big" to win their first fight, a taunt Ertrasti apparently could not let stand. A duel was arranged, with no outside assistance permitted, though Ellenor subtly sent Dee to shove the subchief whenever Kig struck him, while Mulokha telepathically urged him to back down.
The two traded blows, until the lizard nearly crushed the tortle with a summoned spectral maw. However, Kig broke free, and with a strike powered by sheer tortle discipline and a well-timed shunt from Dee, sent Ertrasti to the floor in front of his warriors. The faction was duly impressed, and after a discussion, fully turned against the Fold. In their discussions, Ertrasti warned of a cave three days north, once home to a druid who summoned fey creatures that killed him and claimed the cave as their own. Snapdragon recognized it instantly as the Faeriefort, and realizing that his people were so close, was suddenly conflicted. His friend was not altogether safe, but he had sworn an oath to protect the fey, and could not wait to see if the Fold had found Sprite's Hollow. He gave a tearful goodbye to his new companions and took off; Ellenor asked him to lie low, telling him to not be a hero, but Snap answered that he didn't know any other way to be.
Finding Aarhtikish alone in the temple, the party exposed her as a fraud on the spot. Ellenor employed her new breath weapon, knocking the shaman flat and scattering everything in the room not nailed down. As the rest of the faction came running, the companions delivered a scathing account of her lies. Mulokha bound her in magical rope, and Aarhtikish finally confessed: she had faltered on the Trail, running from visions of her colony as they were destroyed by the growing magics of other mortals. Mulokha iterated that she'd seen a very similar vision, but unlike Aarhtikish, had found the resolve to push past the trial. Ellenor claimed Aarhtikish's spellbook and declared Mulokha the new "Reverend Mother" right then and there. Reluctant at first to claim authority over another tribe, Mulokha ultimately excommunicated Aarhtikish, who slunk off radiating hatred. A long negotiation followed, and the shamans agreed to turn against the Fold and welcome Mulokha's own dwindling clan into their ranks, with her as their representative.
Only the commoners remained, mainly concerned with the tribe's secrecy and largely fond of the Fold. However, the heroes had opportunity to prove their worth: Thousand Teeth "The Devourer", a legendary Giant Crocodile, had taken up residence near the Cave's land entrance. The commoners did not know how to handle the problem, as it was considered a sacred crime to attack a crocodile; however, if an outsider were to do something, they would not complain. Rather than attempting to sway the commoners outright, the party opted to improve their reputation with a final deed. It was time to hunt a croc.