The descent into the depths of the river is a chaotic one. Kayleigh sinks like a stone, accelerating ever faster and outstripping Nebbin's light. She barely sees the river bottom before she hits it, and throws up a cloud of muddy silt when she does. Her boots sink several inches into the muck and she has a momentary fear that she's stuck there that causes her to pull her foot right out of her boot.
As the cleric struggles to locate her lost shoe in the stirred up muck, Nebbin's light grows stronger and stronger until the surroundings are a little more visible. She finds her boot.
Nebbin's descent is almost as fast, though he does finally gain control just before he hits the bottom. Kicking hard, he's able to hover just above the bottom and has a clearer view of the surrounding.
Tassira mostly just sinks, though alot slower than the armored crew. Though Nebbin's light surrounds her at first, it grows dimmer and dimmer the faster the heavy man sinks, until its just a globe, more than twenty feet below her. Though she's unable to keep up, she's more than a little relieved to see that Emi's able to match her descent very effectively. The warrior maiden controls her descent with powerful strokes and stays just beyond the mage's reach as they drift toward the circle of Nebbin's light.
Regeris, on the other hand founders in confusion and sinks at the pace of a dead man. Somehow he's even carried a bit by the modest flow of the river and finds himself drifting away from the light and lagging behind the rest of the group. Happily he can see the globe of light centered on Nebbin, so he has a mark to orient himself by.
The river bottom here is like a little canyon, and the party seems to have sunk down into its deepest part. To the south and east the walls rise up ten to twenty feet off the bottom, vague and dark. Huge clumps of sea lettuce wave in the current and little fish dart into them to escape the light that's surprisingly invaded their murky world.
Nebbin tries to stay above the ground for a bit, at least until the others can rejoin them, but then lets himself sink to the ground to join Kayleigh. He gestures with his halberd to the south, thinking that direction seems as good an option to start as any.
Enough of this! a fairly shaken Kayleigh thinks as she reaches the bottom. The experience of being stuck in the goo of the riverbed feels unsettlingly like what she guesses it would be like to step onto a floor covered in spider webbing. She casts her daylight spell on her buckler, figuring its duration will expire around the same time as Ishan's water breathing spell.
As she struggles to reboot herself (literally), the cleric sees Nebbin swimming away. "Nebbin! Londra said to check the waters to the north!" she calls, pointing her spear in what she believes is the correct direction and hoping she doesn't sound like a whale while underwater.
With the powerful light spell illuminating her surroundings better, Kayleigh tries to balance on one leg and her propped up spear as she ties her boot laces and awaits the others' arrival.
Nebbin turns around, and heads the other direction!
Watching the others' descent to the bottom convinces Emi that she's probably going to be the one who has to do most of the scouting around for the ship.
She doesn't settle on the bottom but continues to swim a little above it. It doesn't occur to her they might be able to talk underwater so she gets Tassira's attention and gestures at Nebbin's light, then the tip of her spear. Emi follows up by gesturing upward and then making a broad circle, indicating that with a light she could stay higher above Tassira and the others, extending their range of sight as they search.
Tassira tries to swim in the right direction, but a current catches her and she flails about in a panic.
She gives Emi a pleading look.
Tassira's descent continues to be a bewildering panic. She founders, directionless and might well have floated off into the darkness were Emi not there to guide her. Though she struggles herself, weighted down as she is by the chain shirt, Emi manages to snag the hem of Tassira's twisting robes and both ease her own effort, and add a little more weight and control to Tassira's slow fall. The two of them are caught somewhat by surprise by the sudden burst of intense light centered on Kayleigh. The walls of the ravine on three sides around them are lit up bright, as are yards and yards of the silty ravine floor.
Kayleigh trudges forward through the mud, stirring up clouds of filth in her wake. She spies Nebbin swimming on overhead, just over the tops of the tall strands of riverweed, but then suddenly loses him. The mass of slimy vegetation rises up like a wall in front of her. Unable to swim over it, she's going to have to either walk around to her right, or plow into the dark underwater hedge.
Regeris finally gains control of himself just as he's about to plunge into the weeds head-first. With a great kick he keeps himself just over its top and watches as Nebbin scouts northward. Though the huge warrior is strong as an ox, his armor seems to get the best of him in the end and he slowly loses altitude until his legs get tangled up in the weeds and he slowly falls headlong into them. Over the tops of the weedline, though, Regeis gets a good view of the thing that drew Nebbin's attention.
Nebbin starts off his scouting with great success, skimming over the tops of the vegetation and cutting a line through the murkiness that his friends can follow. Beyond the vegetation he sees a broad field of sandy bottom, and he spies a long line of wooden ribs sticking up out of the sand like a fence. A shipwreck! And the party has managed to come down practically on top of it. The ship appears to be lying on its side, with the bottom of its hull facing the party. Its broken masts stretch out away from the group. Long ropes of algae growth stretch out from its timbers, waving in the current.
The damage to the ship is remarkable. Most of its side is collapsed in rot, leaving only a portion of the rear cabin even remotely intact. It occurs to the big warrior that it looks like this wreck has lain here quite a long time.
Unfortunately the insight costs Nebbin his swimming focus and he soon finds himself sinking into the vegetation below. With a start he realizes that his legs are tangled in the weeds and the weeds are a lot tougher than they look. The weight of his armor pulls him down into the mess and the little underwater forest closes in over his head. His hands and knees find the riverbottom and little anonymous fishes flee in every direction, terrified.
Wary of the waving river weed--and knowing that she's something of a human torch for her foundering friends at the moment--Kayleigh heads east hoping to circle around the great patch of vegetation. Besides, a slight detour will allow Emi and Tassira to catch up.
Nebbin lays about him with his halberd, using its slashing edge to try to clear the weeds around him. He can't help but wonder if maybe they've found the wrong ship. Cressida told them the plague ship was spotted just a few days before people started getting sick. If he can find the others, he'll let them know -- but first he has to cut his way through the seaweed.
Nebbin hacks into the plant, but is immediately reminded of Emi's short lesson on underwater fighting. Slashing isn't a powerful attack, and the fronds of the seaweed are tough and slippery. They mostly just get wrapped up around the broad axehead and defy being cut. Muscles bulging, Nebbin rips out a huge clump of the stuff by its roots sending up clouds of silty water that envelop the wreck.
Regeris relaxes and does something akin to catching his breath underwater. He gets turned toward the wreck and the mild current runs at his back, allowing him to kick periodically to maintain altitude and slowly drift toward its remains. He clears the seaweed forest and gets a good look at the wreck.
It's a skeleton of a ship, with most of her remaining decking in a collapsed heap on the riverbottom, nestled between her aging ribs. Sand and silt have settled among her bones, making the thing more of an archaeological dig than an exploration. One of the main hatches of the deck lies flush with the surface of a heap of debris, giving the illusion one could pull it and open up a trap door in the seafloor.
Kayleigh trudges through the mud along the bottom, steering the light toward the areas free of weeds. A great boulder lies on the bottom by the wreck. A huge cloud of silt rises up where Nebbin disappeared, to her left. To her right, the crack yawns wide and the floor is filled with rivergrass.
Behind her and further to he right, Tassira and Emi swim along the steep ravine wall , well inside the arc of Kayleigh's light. Beyond the grass to the right, odd dark shapes loom.
Kayleigh delays, waiting a bit for Emi and Tassira to catch up. Then she heads west toward where she guesses Nebbin to be, finally catching her first glimpse of the wreck on the sea floor. She immediately looks for a nameplate on the crumbling vessel.
Nebbin waits for the others to get closer together, keeping his eye on the shapes to the right.
Maybe it's another ship? Or some fish that want to eat us...
Once everyone's together, he gestures toward the wreck and shrugs, suggesting they go look and at least see if it's the one they want.
Regeris starts plunging his spear into the muck to try and punt himself along the bottom, promising that he will learn how to swim at some point. Nebbin seems to know what he's doing.
Not wasting much time, Regeris makes his way closer to the ship to try to get a sense of any identifying markings that may tell where it's from and what sunk it.
Like Nebbin, Emi is doubtful they've found the right ship. A recent sinking wouldn't seem to leave time for such extreme decay.
She's not sure how to help Tassira swim considering one of her hands is occupied, and she needs the other to swim herself. She brings Tassira down to the bottom with Kayleigh and Regeris, and signals to her to try walking.
After dropping Tassira off, Emi goes back up to get an elevated look at the ship before they're right beside it.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
The background Swim DC for the river-bottom environment is 12. You cannot take 10 on this roll. Unless you're walking on the bottom of the river, please post this check when you post a new combat action and along with every post in non-combat that announces a new physical action. Any creature with a swim speed gains a +8 to this check.
If you have a swim speed, passing this check entitles you to move that distance and largely act in combat normally where movement is concerned. If you do not have a swim speed, passing this check entitles you to swim 1/4 normal land speed in a single move action, or 1/2 on a double move. In combat you cannot 5' step, charge or run.
If you fail this check by 5 or less, you make no progress when you move. Essentially the movement portion of your action is not performed.
If you fail this check by more than five you are off-balance (see below in combat rules) for the turn or action and subject to being moved by the current, which is flowing 10' per turn to the north (top of the map). You're also moved naturally according to your buoyancy.
Buoyancy has five states: rising quickly, rising, neutral, sinking, and sinking quickly. If you're armored, you're sinking quickly. If you're unarmored, you're sinking. Skinny-dippin' is neutral, and the natural state for most marine creatures. Carrying around items with natural buoyancy or air tanks, etc impart rising natural states.
When you miss that swim check (above) by five or more and become off-balance, you rise or sink 10' that turn according to your buoyancy state. If you're rising/sinking quickly and you sank 10' last turn, that rate goes to 30' per round.
If you attempt to rise/dive and you have a sinking/rising buoyancy state, you do it without any other checks, you just pay double movement anytime you change depth against the trend of your buoyancy state.
If you attempt to rise when sinking quickly, the Swim DC is 20 and you pay double per depth change if you pass. The same is true in the reverse (rising quickly and trying to dive).
If you have the sinking quickly buoyancy state and you're on the bottom of the body of water, you can walk on the surface at 1/2 your land speed. No swim check is necessary for your round in this case.
Combat Rules
- Flanking extends logically in 3 dimensions
- Slashing and Bludgeoning attacks take a -2 attack penalty and do 1/2 damage.
- off-balance in combat means you lose your DEX to AC and opponents get a +2 attack bonus. You also get a -2 attack penalty.
- Ranged attacks suffer a -2 attack penalty per 5' of range!
- if no swim speed, you take a -2 attack penalty to grapple.
- Thrown attacks only permitted against enemies directly below you.
Emi pulls away from Tassira and kicks out over the tops of the weeds. She watches as Regeris awkwardly approaches the old wreck. Kayleigh trudges around a huge boulder sending up huge billows of silt, thankfully down-stream of everyone and bringing her fierce light to banish the shadows around the remaining structure. Nebbin stands with his second, smaller light and acts as a beacon to draw in the others.
As Regeris reaches the wreck, he's startled by an explosion of blue-green sea life springing up all around him. There's an eel nest dug out in the cavities of the wreckage here, and either his movement or Kayleigh's light has startled it into action. Their thick, snake bodies come come shooting out of holes, frills raised and dead-black eyes focused on the intruder.
Regeris blubbers in the water quickly as the eels rush out at him, but thankfully he manages to keep his place. Realizing he's over-extended and pretty vulnerable, he shoots an apologetic glance over his shoudler before blinking out of view.
The nearest eel strikes where it last saw a target. It bites down on the end of Regeris's invisible spear and immediately lets go. It hovers there in the water, confused. Several of the big fish disappear back down their holes as fast as they popped out. Two others swim out into the rocks and boards of the wreck site and are hard to track.
Kayleigh blinks in surprise at Regeris's neat trick before moving slowly to Nebbin's side. "May be poisonous," she glubs, just loud enough so he'll understand her words. Then she casts detect magic, planning on scanning the wreck from a distance to discern if there's anything inside worth battling the nest of eels over.
Nebbin smiles, appreciative of his girlfriend casting a protection spell on him after she realized the eels are probably poisonous. Still, she should be more careful of herself.
"You should cast that on yourself," he says, helpfully, hefting his halberd.
Backing off the animals and letting them settle turns out to be a good move. They circle back and settle in to defend the stern of the wreckage. The remains of the ship amount to a silted-in pile of rotten boards in the back. If you want to search there you're going to have to fight the clutch of eels or scare them off.
Kayleigh reports her findings (or lack thereof) in terms of magical items in the wreck. "Why don't we leave the wreck be for now; if we still have enough resources left, maybe we can brave the eels and explore these remnants more later."
"I hear that eel meat is quite tasty, especially when fried," she adds, though her facial features reveal that the priestess doesn't entirely believe the words she just spoke.
Having trudged along the riverbed the whole time, Kayleigh realizes she's likely got the least amount of insight in terms of where to go next. "Do we keep heading north, or did anyone see another wreck nearby?"
Kayleigh, Emi and Tassira spied shadows in the water to the northeast, beyond the riverweed. The shadows could be structure on the bottom. Otherwise, no clues.
Tassira points to the northeast.
Kayleigh gives Tassira a quick nod. After waiting a bit so that Regeris can make his presence known, the priestess heads northeast, circling south of the underwater boulder to give the eels' home a wide berth, kicking up a cloud of silt as she chugs onward.
Nebbin follows closely after Kayleigh.
"I heard from a sailor once that in Taldor, they serve live eels at dinner and make you spear them and cook them in front of you," Nebbin says, recalling the odd dining habits with a slight shudder.
At first, Kayleigh thinks that maybe her boyfriend's teasing her, but she sees no deception or amusement on his face. Puzzled, she asks, "How...? What do you spear them out of? Do the servants bring a barrel into the dining room?"
Nebbin shrugs, not sure of any further details other than what he was told: That it was a Taldan tradition.
Regeris calls out to the group after withdrawing from the eels. "I think we just kill the eels. Let's move in together and get ready to take them out as quickly as possible. No need to get fancy, I just really did not want to take on six at once without armour."
Emi, who has started to move on with Nebbin, Kayleigh, and Tassira, turns around and calls over to Regeris.
"But I really don't think that's the right wreck. It's too old."
She had given up on the idea of swimming. Without a light of her own she couldn't venture out far enough to make swimming to scout ahead worthwhile.
Nebbin nods at Emi's words, thinking they can just ignore the eels. Unless Regeris is really hungry.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Tassira (-1, sinking) 2,7,3 -> fail by 5, fail, fail by 5
Regeris (+2, sinking) 11,16,13 -> fail, pass, pass
Emileva (+6, quickly sinking) 18,12,18 -> pass, pass, pass
Kayleigh and Nebbin are quick sinkers and walking on the river bottom.
The party pulls back from the dilapidated wreck and starts making its way across the current to the north east.
Tassira continues to try to drown even though Ishan's spell will not let her. She drifts across Emi's course, hair covering her eyes and limbs tangled up in gradually unraveling bandages. Emi's able to corral the wayward wizard, but at the sacrifice of speed. She trudges along a few steps behind Nebbin, pulling Tassira like a kite through the water.
Regeris finds that swimming is not so bad. He alternates between launching himself with kicks and propelling himself along the bottom with his spear, and closes much of the gap with the rest of the group.
The weed wall looms up in front of Kayleigh and Nebbin, obscuring view and progress to the east. To the north, the river-bottom climbs up a little, forming a shadowy shelf that stretches out to the left and right.
A quick hop and hover offers Nebbin little glimpses over the weed-line. Another hull lies over there. He's sure he's seen one of its masts sticking up awkwardly out of the shadows.
Having a Tassira kite is comedy enough to get Emi grinning. She figures she might as well just go with the current system while they're traveling so she tells Tassira to "just go with it. Hold on and stretch out like a board. I'll pull."
While she keeps walking Emi tries to get a good look at the ship, hoping it's the right one this time.
Nebbin urges the others toward the ship. "This is kind of fun," he says as Emi grins and pulls Tassira along. He can't help but be excited by this new world he's never really known existed.
"Let's go check out that ship!"
"Onwards," says Regeris as he continues to jump-punt his way through the water, privately enjoying himself and feeling a little guilty for it.
Kayleigh can't quite stifle a giggle (which comes out as more of a gurgle) when she sees Emi dragging along poor Tassira. The plodding priestess is secretly pleased that someone's put in a worse show of swimming than herself, but she quickly apologizes to her mage friend.
"She who laughs last laughs best," the Milanite intones as her smile falters. "I think you'll have your chance to get a few laughs in at my expense when we try to surface. I feel like an anchor down here...one that's lost its attached rope or chain. I might be walking back to shore...."
Like Regeris, she lets Nebbin choose the path to the next shipwreck.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"Could you please try to enjoy this a little less?!" Tassira grumbles. Though, of course, it comes out garbled by the water.
Using his greater height and the snatches of reconnaissance he gets from 'jump-swimming' up, Nebbin picks a course and forces his way between stands of weed, blazing a path for the others to follow toward the wreck that he glimpsed.
Behind him, the reeds just flow back together, leaving less of a path and more of a heading for the others to steer by. With a final great shove he pushes through to the clearing beyond to find exactly what he hoped. The entire bow and forepeak of a ship lies before him, in-state. The partial wreck lies on its side with its bottom facing Nebbin.
Just beyond the partial wreck, the bottom rises up on a shelf of bedrock, maybe fifteen feet high. Above the shelf a great shadow wall looms up, topped by a murky, slanted cross. With the meek green light of the sun at this depth as its backdrop, the shadow sends a sudden stab of fright through Nebbin. Suddenly he's not sure if the taste in his mouth is his own fear, or maybe some new taint on the river-water that he's 'breathing'. How long has it been there?
As Kayleigh emerges from the weed wall behind him bearing the strong light, Nebbin's fear recedes. That threatening shadow wall is the remainder of the wreck, more or less upright on the river bottom. It sits on top of that shelf, its decks laid open by the shearing wound left by the passing stone. Fish swim all around the mouth of the wreck. The remainder of its mast, broken and trailing wisps of algae sticks up another twenty feet into the water column.
Tassira bobs-a-long, shoulder-height taller than the rest of the party and with the clearest view out over the tops of the weeds. Kayleigh's light reflects weirdly up into the water, catching passing objects to a certain depth and creating shadows. One such shadow catches Tassira's notice as she's being dragged along, long and sleek. No sooner does she see the shadow than it flexes its marine body and darts away, beyond the reach of Milani's light.
Kayleigh keeps trudging in Nebbin's wake, determined to better illuminate the wreck so her capable friends can explore it more easily.
Unable to help poor Tassira along thanks to his own concern with swimming, Regeris continues approaching the wreck and gives it a very good look over. He chants a simple prayer as he peers at it.
Nebbin continues to make his way toward the boat, hoping it's the one they've been looking for.
Nothing registers as evil about the bow of the wreck. Regeris scouts around the end of it. There are brown mudfish, here and there among the weeds, enough to add to the visual confusion. Regeris catches a glimpse of something that's not a fish, perhaps a small octopus before it disappears among some rocks. No sign of the name of the ship on the bow. No figurehead.
Nebbin makes his way over to the wounded side of the wreck and peers into the bowsprit cabin. The river's current has swept this part of the wreck totally clean. If there are clues to be had, they're up in the main wreck, behind him and up-slope.
Since Emi's current arrangement with Tassira doesn't lend itself to mobile scouting, she stops and waits for Regeris and Nebbin to do the job. Standing still for a few minutes will also allow Tassira to get her bearings and rest if needed.
Kayleigh moves to join Nebbin between the two halves of the wreck, bringing her powerful light source with her. She waves for Emi (and Tassira) to join her, holding out her buckler arm as if to say she'll watch over the floaty mage while Emileva helps the two men explore.
Once the others have rejoined them, Nebbin heads for the main body of the wreck, still keeping an eye out for more eels or anything else like that.
Nebbin -> 11/5/1/1 <--- Two natural 1s in a row. Nebbin may need to explain his sudden total lack of ability to swim. Something got his attention!
Regeris -> 8/7/10/10
Emileva -> 7/11/17/10
Kayleigh -> -/-/-/-
Tassira -> 8/3/12/6
At some point it becomes hard to say if you've been on the bottom of the river for minutes or hours. Time stops dilating as the mind absorbs the new normal. The new 'sky' is a muddy green glow, surrounded on all sides by an inky, indistinct horizon. Your mind tells you there's a riverbank out there somewhere. Virtually in every direction, in fact. Walk long enough into the black and some day you'll stick your heads above water again. The hemisphere of daylight sustained by Milani's power is an alien intrusion in this muddy world. And a temporary one. Natural predators seem shocked and driven off by its presence.
Emi relieves herself of the burden of dragging Tassira's struggling form along with her. She and Nebbin attack different parts of the slope, making liberal use of handfuls of weed, but where Nebbin scrambles to the top of the bluff, the slope gives under Emi's assault and she finds herself sliding back down the slope covered in cool river mud. With a kick she launches up into the river body, swimming up the side of wreck until she can see the whole wreck. She turns with a start to find Regeris there with her, swimming up from behind.
Kayleigh plows ahead, picking steps carefully and climbing the riverbed slope the old-fashioned way, one boot in front of the other. As she reaches the top of the slope, the wreck of the ship yawns before her.
Nebbin gets the best view of the whole wreck. After leaping up the slope to 'land' next to the wreck, he kicks off again, swimming with strong strokes over the shoulder of the vessel all the way to stern-post. Carved in vertical letters along the post is the ship's name... The Direption.
She sits with her hips listing on the bottom of the river, about fifteen degrees. It looks like she got hit twice. The first shot came through her stern cabin and plunged right through her. In your mind's eye she settled from that first shot and would have gone down, but a second shot cut her in two. Or close enough that the impact with the river bottom finished the job.
Direption? What the heck is a Direption? Nebbin wonders. Maybe it's some language he doesn't know? He shrugs, unsure, then decides to rejoin his companions.
Feeling more than a little on-edge, Tassira casts mage armour on herself.
While she waits for the scouts to return and report, Kayleigh casts a detect magic spell and begins to inspect the bilge deck north of her position for any auras.