Tobar gets up and goes to the wall of Ivy, looking to see if there is a cave or something behind it
Brina, meanwhile, scrambles down the cliff to join the group (she can't fail the check :-))
Following the wall of ivy leads into the water again. Remembering the draft there Tobar gets an idea. And on closer inspection he finds that the ivy is moved by the water at the place where Clara fell in. That seems to be the drain of the lake.
Looking down at the water, and the flow, Jewel thinks about how to safely investigate farther. "We don't know what may be in the water or how deep it is or anything else. Clara, can you summon an animal that can swim and see if there is anything dangerous? I can use my feral speech hex to speak with it. Ah, how long would it stay?"
"Short." Clara replies. "I could summon a dolphin but I don't think it would stay long enough to look and tell."
"Did anyone bring a rope?"
"Stupid people. Don't they know how well I can swim? I hunt fish, darn it :-)"
Brina nudges Tobar
Tobar suddenly speaks up, somehow being struck with an idea
"Brina can actually swim fairly well. I can tell her what to look for and then she can go find it!"
Without really knowing what he is doing, he casts speak with animals
"Brina, you go into water. Find big stick with ball on end"
Swift action - give aspect of frog to Brina.
Brina goes in for a swim
"Meow?" Brina replies. Then she starts swimming around on the lake in circles looking for a stick.
Jewel uses her feral speech hex to speak with Brina, explaining about the stick with a ball attached to the end, then about the direction that the marble was indicating and that it is down under the surface. She also states that if Brina sees anything dangerous she should return immediately.
Brina changes the direction and swims towards the wall and through the ivy, disappearing from sight.
Jewel starts to panic when Brina goes out of sight. "Tobar, What does your spell do? I'm fairly sure Brina understood me and I did say to stay safe, but.... Can you sense her? Like a familiar link maybe?"
After two minutes, that feel like forever Brina reappears on the surface of the lake, five foot from the place she disappeared.
"Mew."
Jewel translates to the others then asks Brina
"Mew." Brina replies. The nuances of cat talk are very subtle.
"Is that dangerous?" Clara asks. She would jump right into the water, if she was sure that she wouldn't end up looking stupid or dead again.
"Yes it's dangerous. But since Brina says it's short water then cave with air I think it means we just have to swim down far enough to get past the cave mouth, then into the cave. She didn't see the septer, but with the marble we would feel whatever direction it was. Maybe it's stuck in a bundle of ivy."
"Does anyone have any light spell ready? A torch wouldn't be any good under the water but magic shouldn't have any problem. Wish I'd prepared Dancing Lights."
"Like those?" Clara tells asks, snips with her fingers and mumbles a word, making three small blue stars appear that play fetch in the air.
Seeing the lights Jewel nods "Yes. Put them into the water so we can see better."
Clara sends the lights underwater as told.
As Tobar dives into the lake he finds that the water is almost clear. He can see about 15 feet far. Swimming towards the ivy following the draft there is a large passage underwater, unregularily shaped, that is about 30 feet wide. Taking a deep breath again Tobar dives into it.
The light fades quickly as he moves furhter from the open daylight and the magical light flowing behind him. Feeling his way along the top of the passage he finds soon that there is air above the water. The ceiling of the cavern rises.
Clara jumps into the water too. Her clothes are wet anyway, so she doesn't care to take them off. This time she doesn't accidentally try to kill herself.
With Clara following the cave lights up. The cave is split by the underground river in half. It is a short distance of maybe 100 feet where one can leave the river before it disappears into the solid rock again.
It looks like the cave is washed out by the river when it has more water. The ground is covered in fine sand washed off from the sediment stone that surrounds the cave. At the end of the cave is a small tunnel that meanders further through the rock.
Though she's scared of the dark water, Jewel is more scared of being left behind. Besides, nobody thought to take the marble. Jewel starts to remove clothing but then realizes that she would need pockets to hold the marble while both hands were busy with swimming. Besides, Clara had jumped in with clothes on. She tucks the marble in her pocket, laughs to Brina "Come on!" and steps in to follow.
Once in the cave and able to be safe and stable she pulls out the marble. She frowns and holds her hand out, turning and trying to get a direction. "OKay, Now what direction?"
"The one without swimming underwater where I can't breath?" Clara suggests.
the tunnel looks natural at the most places but every now and then one might get the idea there are areas that got polished by something else than water. It meanders up and down, left and right, and it is not clear if it will lead in the right direction. But at least it doesn't split so far. Which reduces the chances to get lost tremendously. Finally it leads to a rather large cave, where one can't see the other end with the illumination of the dancing lights. Also large rocks are in the way and provide cover.
Checking on the marble Jewel finds that the target moves.
Checking the marble and noticing the movement, Jewel whispers to the others, "Uh oh! Something's got it." She points in the direction that the marble indicates.
Tobar and Brina try and follow the others
Clara sends the lights high up into the caves. As that leaves the kids in the darkness she dares to stick her head out to see what makes the noise Tarjun is talking of.
Some short squeaks are heard, before everything falls silent. The cave is a almost round dome with large rounded rocks lying on the ground everywhere.
With the lights up overhead Jewel still doesn't hear or see whatever Tarjun speaks of. She focuses mainly on the marble still to see if whatever has the septer might be moving.
Clara catches a glimpse of the creature. "Baby gobbers?"
"Well, we know its here. It knows we're here. Lets try talking to it"
In a louder voice
"Hello there little blue thing. Who are you? Lets talk!"
He sends Brina towards the front of the group, telling her to defend whoever is at the front (hopefully arranging things so the bad guy pretty much has to attack Brina
You get an answer in a pipsqueak voice that is not intelligible.
Tarjun jumps out, and wants to scare someone, but there is no audience for his performance. The mini gobbers are not interested in showing their faces again.
But after some more pipsqueak talk a spider comes out from behind the rock where the little creatures hide. Throwing the spell at that creature Tarjun finds that it can't be scared easily, but he might soil his pants. As the spider is large enough to meet him at eye level.
The spider throws a web at Tarjun and approaches him to eat him. But Tarjun is lucky and the net misses.
Clara watches Tarjuns heroic attempt to get the scepter. But every adoration and motivation to do it like him vanishes as the spider appears. She quickly loads her bow and shoots at the monster, hoping to help Tarjun.
Tarjun hits the spider square on the head, but that it no gobber. This vermin is tough.
Far more terrified of the huge spider and the unseen enemy than she was at the undead thing, Jewel tries to line up a shot like Clara had done.
Tobar shoots at the vermin while Brina tries to bite it to pieces
for
Brina takes on the aspect of the bull (Str)
for
for 1
for 1
Clara hits with her arrow, and Tarjun with his stick. Jewel and Tobar both miss, but Brina butes into the leg of the spider after moving up to the vermin.
The spider keeps looking hungrily at Tarjun.