Finally back on track with this, should have the first FF beaten within the week.
Finally figured out how to obtain and where to bring the magical macguffin that gets me into the underwater sanctuary. Oddly enough the woman that was blocking my path decided to vaporize into an ethereal mist as I brought the item to her. Either she was a ghost the whole time or my party's awesomeness was so overwhelming that her physical body was obliterated.
The underwater sanctuary was interesting for two reasons. First off it breaks the laws of physics. No matter which level you're at the water level is always as high as that floor. You'd think that going down a floor would engulf you in water and going up would move you away from it completely, but no.
Secondly, the big boss is a giant tentacle-rape monster. Of course, he's titles Kraken, but I know a tentacle-rape monster when I see one and that dude's forced his seed into many a fair and virtuous maiden. My team fucked him up while being squirted with a minimal amount of monster goo and trekked their merry way back to the surface.
But wait, wasn't there supposed to be something else down there that I should have been looking for? Some kind of tablet that one of the NPCs may have briefly mentioned in passing.
Motherfucker.