The area is called ‘Slingtail Pits’, and you’ll want to watch out the moment the game informs you you’ve entered it- there are a number of Slingtail Hozen lurking in the trees overhead and ready to drop down into a fight with you.

The Hozen here still aren’t terribly special- they do lack the banana throw of the ones at the shipwreck, instead dealing slightly more damage and hitting you with spears every now and again.

Admiral Taylor is thankfully nearby, imprisoned in one of the circular cages by the nearest hut in the Slingtail Pits.  You’ll have to clear out a few monkeys on your way to him, but soon you get the opportunity to check on the man himself.  The Admiral is in a sad state, unconscious in his pen and very close to death.  Fortunately, the fishman- the jinyu- in the next cage over has a few things to contribute.  He compliments the resistance that Admiral Taylor put up, calling him a ‘great credit to your people’.

His name, as it turns out, is Bold Karasshi, and he has several quests for you.

The Path of War is the first of these, and it’s pretty straightforwards.  He observes that you want to save the Admiral and offers to help you, if you will help him in return.  The Hozen guards are your first obstacle, so he wants you to kill 12 of the Slingtail Treeleapers and Slingtail Mudseers that you can find in the Pits.

Secondly, he recognizes that the Hozen are your enemy as much as his.  He explains that his own tribesmen are imprisoned here alongside the Alliance soldiers you’ve come to rescue.  He will not leave his kinfolk here any more than you will leave your allies, so he explains that the Slingtail monkeys have the bamboo keys that open the prisoners’ cages- if you free 6 total prisoners, either Jinyu or Alliance, he will give you a nice new belt in exchange.

And, third, Hozen skulls are an important element of Jinyu magic.  Because of this, the Jinyu prize them- and the older they are, the more they are desired for various ceremonial rites.  Thankfully, the Hozen do nothing about their dead, leaving them and their bones littered around their living areas- so they will be easy to collect.  Bold Karasshi wants you to gather eight Ancient Hozen Skulls for him, because of their power.

The simplest part of this set of quests is your need for Bamboo Keys to unlock the cages.  The Slingtail are all over the area (which makes sense given that this is their encampment) and chances are you’ll find the six keys you need within the next eight Hozen you kill off.  The bamboo cages are also plentiful- you can manage your six releases easily just with the cages in spitting distance from where the Admiral and Karasshi are kept.  Of course, you’ll probably need to wander a bit farther than that to find that many monkeys, but so it goes.