Chapter One: Voyage of the Perch (Team Blue)

"Well here we are. Time to make a plan on how to go about exploring the bottom. I reccomend we mark out a spiral search pattern centered around that Longboat wreck. All we need is a rope, a strong swimmer and an anchor point to get started"

"I need to make some adjustment so I will be topside for at least an hour before I can be ready to dive. I can also easilly prep the crew to dive. Never know when we might need an extra hand below."

Wow.... fascinating... The reborn blindly looks around her belt as she pulls out a bit ragged piece of parchment accompanied by some graphite and begins to take notes... You can feel the cold from here... And i bet the thing is an active predator, right?... when done she turns to the elf captain Is this the species that you introduced? What's it's name? Is there a gender dimorphism? she studies the crab for anything that would give away it's natural habitat or life style.

After she's done with the questions, she nods to Finn and Sliven. Yes, Ofcourse. I'm ready to descent whenever you are...

Finn Swapping your familiar's form and getting some of the crew able to go below water goes off without a hitch. Getting the crew willing to go below the water may be trickier but the bravest/gullible/greediest can be convinced. The spiral search pattern is complicated by the drop off but aside from having to dive deeper on that side it is a sound plan.

Renya Shaal is at first reluctant to let you have more than a cursory look but you keep asking good questions and Shaal cannot resist an interested and intelligent audience. You do have to examine it from a distance though. Within five feet the cold goes from uncomfortable to life threatening. Shaal does not seem to be affected though and is happy to show off bits of anatomy. The stock crab is originally from White Fang Bay far to the north in the Icy Sea. The locals simply call it a red claw crab. They adapted it to the waters of the Nyr Dyv and then performed their experiment. She is cagey about the details but it is clear that they somehow enhanced the crab with elemental energies. The process is also unpredictable which is why Shaal is taking as many notes as Renya is to record the results.

Arres sits on the deck, reclining against the railing of the ship as he rests. The crew isn't sure if he's meditating or napping, but when he stands to return to the search he seems reinvigorated.

So like I mentioned earlier we can start with a spiral search pattern. Part of the search will take us over the drop off but that is really no consequence. Let’s just keep to the vicinity of the longboat wreck for now.

If we don’t find what we are looking for on this shelf we either expand our search on this shelf or go deeper. Just a suggestion. If you prefer we can just go deep immediatly.

One thing that concerns me. The cold is going to reduce reduce our effective downtime. I can extend that and give us a safe dry place to shelter on the lake bottom, but it comes with a minor a disadvantage. If I leave the shelter it collapses. For the most part I will be relegated to desk duty unless something worth investigating comes up.

So who’s going down?

Sliven has no toubles with searching below around the Longboat and such for clues. "Hopefully there is something below to help us." implying again that he is ready for the water.

It again takes several minutes to descend to where the longboat lays half-buried. The silt kicked up from where the crab lay in ambush has either settled or flowed away on the currents. Thus it is quite easy to note a glint of metal in the shallow pit where the crab was. The longboat itself also has a curious feature. The silt and mud is more built up on one side than the other as if it gets moved away on one side.

Arres will start by investigating the metallic glint.

Sliven is there as a pair looking.

Finn and his Octopus Familiar are also there.

Once below Finn brings up the subject of an underwater shelter.

"If you can hold off on explorations for about 10 minutes I can erect a shelter down here. It will give us a safe dry place to work from. Only those present when I cast the spell will be able to use it so I'll need you close by until I'm done."

The metallic glint turns out to be a metal cube about an inch on a side. There is a ring at the top like it was meant to worn on a chain. The metal is light and silver in color.

Arres will collect it, putting it in a pocket for now and finish checking the longboat. Once that's done, he will move to investigate in the spiral pattern they'd discussed before descending into the watery depths.

Silven after finish up the long bow mental messages, Lets head up.

Checking under the longboat, you make the grisly discovery of two bodies. Quite a bit of the flesh has been pinched from the bones, but their is enough left to tell that they were once tritons. They were clad in leather armor now torn and useless.

As for the spiral search, are you all going in one group?

The marine biologist would join the two in their search under water, her ring helping her to keep up with the two, while the lack of oxygen is negated by her not needing to breathe.

She takes time to note the type of ecosystem the ship is starting to become, the creatures that now reside in its walls and the damage dont to the lifeless bodies, the reborn wonders - Tritons are native to these parts... interesting, how did they die? What was the reason behind their doom?

"Ah. I see. More exploring. Okay." and he stay with the other searching.