Tap says quietly Hey Jack. If they wanted to kill us, they could do it on the boat.
Tap takes stores his items that would be damaged by water, and rolls up his sleeves.
Scourge sir. We might be more effective in our hunt if we can store our catch in yonder row boat, and retrieve the 4 air bladders from Grok I saw him store away last week. because they were mine two weeks ago
Plugg eyes you with a scowl. I won't risk a fine boat...you'll swim
Tap, I'm not worried about treachery so much as I am worried about drowning carrying those pots... and my sword. For, I do not doubt there are sharks, yonder.
Not even the air bladders. Whatthat cost, a silver? I needed a bath anyway.
With thay Taptap looks over the side, judges the depth, grabs his dagger and snag net securely, and crawls overboard with a small splash.
. Well c'mon.
Kerruk heaves a great sigh, spears Plugg with a hateful glare, then raises his hands in a graceful arc, and hisses By the stars!, then begins, laboriously, to swim.
The swim to the reef is over calm waters, thankfully, and the group initially makes good time of it. At one point, Rosie lags behind, causing a call from Plugg to Get a move on, those crabs ain't gonna find ya out there!. Thankfully, Kerruk is able to help Rosie along, as she utters vile curses, and soon enough the group reached the reef.
The reef is about 100 yards square and varies from 30 feet to 2 to 3 feet deep. The water is warm and clear, and the reef itself is quite the sight.
Jack looks about, his clothes dripping with sea water and sweat. The coral is rough on his bare feet. But for all that it is pleasing to be off the ship, and the water was refreshing. His comrades, he notes, already smell much better than they did a short while ago. Ah, I forgot my soap. Unfortunate. Well, lets get on it with it..
Jack staggers from side to side bent over, with his hands shading his eyes from the glare, scanning for crabs. A crab peeks out from behind a bit of floating sea plant. Quickly, Jack makes his grab, stumbling on the uneven coral. The crab darts away, but Jack quickly recovers and makes his grab, from his knees, and puts the wriggling crab in his pot.That's one! See if I can get one for ol Owlbear too
I was born of the sea.
Tap stares down a crab, and points to his sack, which bowed its head, apparently at peace with the cruelty of existence and just crawled right in. At least that is how I will tell the tale
Jack looks about, his clothes dripping with sea water and sweat. The coral is rough on his bare feet. But for all that it is pleasing to be off the ship, and the water was refreshing. His comrades, he notes, already smell much better than they did a short while ago. Ah, I forgot my soap. Unfortunate. Well, lets get on it with it..
Jack staggers from side to side bent over, with his hands shading his eyes from the glare, scanning for crabs. A crab peeks out from behind a bit of floating sea plant. Quickly, Jack makes his grab, stumbling on the uneven coral. The crab darts away, but Jack quickly recovers and makes his grab, from his knees, and puts the wriggling crab in his pot.That's one! See if I can get one for ol Owlbear too
[dice=perception]1d20+5
[dice=swim]1d20+4
[dice=swim]1d20+4
Flummoxed at his clumsiness, and staring wonderingly at Tap's circus trick, Jack starts gesticulating wildly at a crab, to coax it into the pot. But the crab just darts away, disappearing from view.
Kerruk finds crabs aplenty: catching them? well, that's another story. He blunders around foolishly, crabs scuttling away from his flailing and grasping hands.
Taptap again spots a crab, this one skuttling behind a tubular sponge. Tap lazily swims over and scoops the squirming crab into his bag.
Do not run little friends, I only wish to feed the captain so as to not get fed to you
Kerruk, maybe you and I should, uh, keep a look out for sharks and let Tap, Arden and Rosy do the catchin?
"Fair enough!"
Tap nods to jack and gets on with it, enjoying the swim.
Tap hands Rosie his bucket with a smile, and takes hers.
I've yet to hear you play on that fiddle I heard you got.
Tap then dives into the sea.
As you dive in the reef for crabs, the distant Wormwood stays at anchor, and a few of the pirates take a dip in the sea to cool off or get rid of the days' old odor of sweat, fish, and salt.
Rosie grins at Tap, more than happy to hand over her empty bucket. Be more than happy ta' play ya a tune, long as yer singin' along.
...
Arden swims across to TapTap and points at the approaching creatures.
Stand our ground? Or try to swim back to the ship?
Tap looks over at the approaching creature.
These nasty little creatures are called reefclaws. Their terrifying in battle, and go into death spasms that have been known to kill. Also...they're quite the delicacy.
Now we know why we are out catching crabs here. The captain wants us to capture these reefclaws...a true delicacy I have heard....they are nasty mean though.
What creatures?
Kerruk turns his head this way and that, looking for the cause of everyone's excitement.
Taptap points to the reefclaw(s).
We eat them, or they eat us. Hmmm. Can we use our crabs as bait I wonder? Also, I have a snag-net. Perhaps we can catch them in it.
Tap reaches in to his vest and pulls out a neatly folded (and wet) snaggly toothed net.
but I'm not that good at using this. I can cast a sleep spell...maybe get one of them.
Arden takes a position in front of TapTap as he begins casting his spell.
Anyone with a sling?
Tap readies himself, a crab in one hand, his cutlass in the other.
I left my staff sling back at the boat. If we dump a bucket of crab, they might go for that. My sleep charm has a long range maybe 100 of your feet. However, first I will begin an inspirational song...I always like those before battle.
From behind Arden Taptap stands on his tippy toes and sings
Hear the sound of swords, fulfill the fight
Feel the winds of death on your skin
See the arrows fly, flaming in the sky
Hear the screams of fish as they die
One of the creatures, perhaps drawn by Tap's voice, veers off from its partner and heads straight for the halfling. Its vicious claws swipe at him from the water.
One of its claws digs a deep gash on Tap's arm. The creature attempts to hold on, but Tap's slick skin doesn't allow it to hold.
The second creature charges at Arden, perhaps due to her diving just as much as Taptap. Arden is able to defly avoid both claws.