The Drowned Cartographer's Cache

At low tide, careful searching beneath the exposed roots of a massive mangrove reveals a flooded hollow hidden behind curtains of reed and mud. The cache rests above the worst of the brackish water in a salt-rotted satchel and a corroded iron box. Scrape marks score the nearby roots, several dragged bones lie among the pneumatophores, and a half-submerged campsite has been crushed into the mud. These signs suggest that a large crocodilian, perhaps the Rootmaw Crocodilian now haunting the waterways, has claimed the area without actually discovering the hidden compartment. The reward is modest and practical, suitable for a beginning expedition, but the water-damaged map, surveyor's knife, and initials on the expedition cloth give the NPC guide a strong reason to believe the missing party came this way. The bark message points toward a second cache beneath a leaning kapok tree, while its crocodilian warning suggests that the next discovery may be watched more closely.