Chakam notices they are focused on the lights and moving toward them in a normal, cautious, but direct and unhesitating fashion. And obviously you notice Sandara look worried and grabs Thren's arm to try to slow her roll. Thren jerks backward, surprised, and in the suddenness of the movement they get entangled and begin to drop about 5 feet in the water.
Chakam stops moving and extends his tresses to try to hold Sandara and Thren and prevent them from sinking.
What ar'ya doing, Sandara? Leggo'f her or yar' both gonna sink! - he says, not fully understanding the situation.
Chakam
Kahuranga & Taniwha
Threnody & Sandara
Iku-Turso
Chakam grabs Threnody and Sandara helps them steady themselves from sinking. Threnody relaxes--she does not wish to endanger herself--but she is still intent on moving toward the light.
Kahuranga and Taniwha swim swiftly toward the lights, movements unhindered by the water. Just as the waters calm and everything seems to be fine...
A creature emerges from the darkness from beneath Kahuranga, who had been too focused on the light ahead to notice him. While not much larger than the rest of you, the creature is nonetheless a horrifying sort of eel-with-arms-deep-sea-fangly-fish. It unhinges its jaw and snaps at Kahuranga with jagged, pointy teeth.
Blood flows into the water as the hideous sea creature nearly tears Kahuranga's leg off. It burbles in a victorious tone.
This creature is a deep-sea dweller known as an iku-turso, always found far from sunlight. They worship ancient elder creatures and entities of disease and corruption. They spread a mystical disease that slowly drains those who catch it of sanity.
In addition to the above, you know know light as bright as broad sunlight harms it, and the disease it causes will eventually transform the individual who contracts it into an iku-turso. A successful remove curse and remove disease set of spells are necessary to cure it.
Kahuranga chokes down his panic, swallowing the vomit in his mouth. He is a creature of air. He should have known the water would betray him. Still, perhaps he could benefit his allies before he died. Pulling on the magical threads around him, he warps fate around the strange sea creature.
Chakam sees the creature by Kahuranga. He doesn't really know what exactly this thing is, but his ally's blood is enough for the Rusalka to grin menacingly. He advances, stops at 20 feet from the creature, and from there it attacks it with one of his tresses.
As he hits the enemy, he tries to grab it immediately.
And if he succeeds, he constricts it.
Chakam will not release the grapple after constricting.
"You need to get out of here!" Sandara tells Kahuranga. Releasing her grip on Thren, she gets to Kahuranga and casts a spell.
Thren continues towards the light.
The creature burbles fetid water toward the rusalka's face as it is pulled close. It strains within the supernatural strands to try to gain control of their dance.
Wrapping its eel-like tail around Chakam, it pulls the druid close, burbling insane paeans in Aquan.
Chakam reverts the grapple back to him, smiling as he does so. It should be that simple, yet the druid (maybe inspired by the despair of the situation) manages to do it in such way that no one would be able to prevent.
As he succeeds, he constricts it again.
Bubbles swirl around Kahuranga, attempting to lift him toward the surface, but the magic can't take hold.
Taniwha zips toward the lights, and, feeling skittish, Kahuranga moves with him as he can, but falls behind.
Kahuranga attempts another twist at fate around the...whatever it is.
Sandara sees Chakam in an swirling mass of hair tangling with the enemy and tries to land a solid hit with her crossbow, but the bolt misses cleanly as she swims forward to keep Thren in sight and get a clean shot.
Once Threnody reaches the lights, she sees they are just ordinary magical lights and wonders why she was so compelled to go to them. She also notices that Kahuranga is bleeding very badly from his shoulder, and Chakam is wrestling with a giant eel-with-hands-and-much-too-large-teeth.
Taniwha notices the same thing. Taniwha can see now that he is closer that the remains of the wreck are close by.
The iku-turso, despite seeming to be losing its battle with Chakam, again tries to re-assert its control on the grapple.
But perhaps not used to meeting such resistance in these depths, it miscalculates something and fails, remaining at the rusalka-shaped druid's mercy.
Surprised the creature wasn't able to escape or revert his grapple, Chakam enters in his more usual routine trying to dispatch the enemy with pure damage. He releases the grapple and proceeds to full attack with each of his tresses - and in each of his attacks, he uses his grabbing capability to try to grapple, constrict, and again release the enemy before the next attack. He will try to keep the grapple only on his last tress attack.
His last attack fails to connect, however, so neither he or the creature end their turn grappled.
The creature is dead. The three lights blink out of existence, leaving you all in inky black water, save for the dim light let off by Chakam's dagger. You are surrounded by the stench of aberrant blood and an oppressive sense that the ocean itself wants you dead. Also, Kahuranga's arm is about to fall off.
The wreck is close by. It has landed topside deck up so that the GM no longer has to try to think about navigating a sideways ship.
Thren shakes her head free of the spell and turns to the combat, only to see Chakam shred the monster completely. "Glad I'm needed," the bard comments drily.
Sandara nods to Thren, who helps hold Kahuranga together (literally) as she uses her strongest magic to heal him.
"That's my strongest healing spells, so let's try to be cautious from here forward." Sandara advises.
"We need to get going if no one else is injured. I can't stay down this far long, and we're near the wreck." Thren points out. "Ready to light the way Chakam?"
"Thank you Sandara. While my injuries were grievous, I did not feel that I could abandon you to whatever lurks at these depths. I have no fresh means to prepare us for whatever awaits, so further down and further in, I suppose."
Moving toward the deck once I am back together.
As you approach, you can make out the mostly-intact poop deck. For a moment, your vision blurs, and all of you, even those of you seeing in the monochrome of darkvision, see the deck covered in vibrant red blood, before the muted reality of the abandoned shipwreck sits in front of you again. Only slightly less disturbing is that you get within sight of the help that realize a corpse is tied to the wheel. Its eyeless, rotting skull gazes upward toward the far-away surface.
As the party's light source enables Sandara to see, she gasps. "He tied himself to the wheel. He must be the captain. He gave himself to Besmara as his ship sank."
The wheel he is lashed to, unlike most of the wood surrounding you, seems in perfect condition, neither shattered nor swollen.
A silvery-white compass hanging from the corpse's neck, an amber ring on his hand, and jewels on a sheathed rapier all catch the gleam of your light source. Those of you with magical senses can tell there are two magical auras present--one small one from the ring, and another from the wheel of the ship itself.
Thren lets her eyes adjust a bit. "The wheel is magical? So the ship was enchanted? Is that the secret we need?" She pauses. "So how do we get it up to the surface along with the loot? And will he be disturbed if we do?"
Chakam approaches the others with curiosity - especially towards the wheel. What was that thing capable of? The ship engineer had all kinds of thoughts in his mind, but focused in the magic of the items around them.
The Rusalka eyes went bright as it inspected the auras.
The ring looks like a familiar moderate evocation enchantment, but Chakam can't quite place it.
The wheel was clearly made by a powerful spellcaster. He can tell it has several moderately strong transmutation enchantments, but he's never quite seen anything like it and struggles to identify more. Certainly given his experience with ships that transmutation effects on ship equipment likely related to maneuverability and yes, indeed, perhaps speed.
Sandara answers her comrade. "Are we supposed to provide them with the thing, or just the knowledge?"
Meanwhile, the crushing pressure of the sea is starting to get to those unprotected.
And Kahuranga is starting to feel warm, in spite of the icy cold depths they swim in, and moreover dizzy and irritable.
Kahuranga puts his hand to his head. "Let us handle these matters with haste. That last battle has left me feeling diminished. He has no need of the wheel, and it seems most likely to be the source of the secret power we seek. Unless the ring is tied to it in some way, we could leave it with the captain if that would make you feel better, though surely Besmara would favor the taking."
'Ay say we take'em both. We gotta honor tha' Black Lady, you know. - says the pirate.
"If we can take it all, let's do it. They don't want the wheel, we can keep it for ourselves. I'd rather they get what they wanted in the first go."
"No time like now, before we are crushed by the water."
Kahuranga and Taniwha drop toward the pleasantly oriented deck.
You can tell the ring is a standard ring of force shield.
The wheel has subtle transmutations woven together that basically allow for vastly improved maneuverability of a ship. Not only does it make the difficulty of steering such a large vessel far lessened, it makes it easier to force the ship to turn even at high speeds. It's not so much that the ship itself is faster, but that this wheel allows a pilot to turn the ship at speeds that other ships would wreck themselves attempting to do the same.
However, as you examine the wheel carefully, you also notice a faint overlay of necromantic energy in the item's aura. As a witch, you are certain you are looking at a curse. The item itself isn't cursed per se--it would do no harm to the ship--but rather that a curse seems likely to trigger under circumstances that, you have no doubt, have something to do with the corpse tied to the wheel.
"Bes likes treasure taking, but this treasure has already been given to her." Sandara says. "I am not sure what will happen if we just go looting here. She is a capricious goddess. She might be pleased at our greed. She might decide we belong down here with the Captain." She points to the bound skeleton.
She suddenly goes silent, freezing as she spots something to the left of her. All of you sense movement in the water nearby. Just at the very edges of your vision, you sense dark shadows moving through the waters--huge, shark shaped. They stay slow moving, just out the corner of your eye, but they seem to be circling, everywhere.
This of course may be entirely coincidental to the conversation you are having.
"Speaking as someone who's had to carry around a curse, if just an item, let's skip that. Let alone divine retribution. If we know how it works, we can get those priests what they want."
"Fascinating, the magics woven into the wheel would make a ship much more maneuverable. We must take care. There is a curse here, but not on the wheel or the ring, I think. Perhaps a death curse from the captain. We should take care, but I think we can safely recover the items." And with that he begins to cast a spell.
Three sharks appear close by to protect you. The shadows circling in the distance do not appear to react.
Chakam steps back for a moment. He was as superstitious as a pirate would come, and have heard hundreds of stories about curses on the sea. Yet, as a pirate - he's also quite, quite greedy.
Well, mates... Maybe this day can still get worse? - he laughs, bubbles going around - Now 'ya peaked mah' attention with tha' whole talk about a more maneuverable ship. Boy, 'tis a sight I'd be dying ta' see.
He gets closer, but doesn't touch anything until the others give the okay. He wasn't too strong, so likely he wouldn't be able to pull the wheel without some help. Plus - he was absolutely expecting the dead captain by the wheel would come to an "unlife" state of sorts and attack them.
"Ticking off gods, particularly the one who rules over our livelihood, seems like a bad idea. We know what we need to know for those Norgorberites. Let's take that secret back to them and leave to Besmara what's hers. As for fighting undead...done plenty of that already. I can live a bit longer without another undead monster trying to kill me. We've gotten some loot, we can all leave happy now."
"If Besmara condemns us for taking, then she wouldn't be much of a goddess of pirates. I'll have a chat with the captain. Watch my back with whatever is lurking out there."
Kahuranga's sharks move in opposition to the circling shadows even though they aren't nearly as scary.
He scissors his legs and moves to the wheel. He reaches to his belt for his dagger before realizing that Chakam has it. [b]"Tani, separate the captain from his wheel. Captain, you have honored the traditions of the sea, and were an excellent captain of a strong ship. Rest now, here with your lady, the Brine Banshee, and your mistress, Besmara herself. May you pilot the ghost of the Brine Banshee on the River of Souls until Pharasma puts you back on the Wheel. Sail on..."[b]
Taniwha will attempt to bite through the ropes binding the corpse to the wheel.