Chapter One: Voyage of the Perch (Team Blue)

5th of Patchwall

It is a quiet and foggy morning in the City of Greyhawk. Ships that should be heading down the Selintan River and off to the lake sit idle waiting for the fog to burn off enough for the river pilots to give the all clear. It gives idle hands time to plan, or get into trouble if you have a mind to. You have agreed to meet up with your companions and break your fast in the common room of the Green Dragon Tavern and plan your next course.

"The Dangereuse," Arres says matter-of-factly, tapping a spot on a worn map as the other members of the crew join the table. "Easy resale, should be good value."

His breakfast plate was already empty, implying the new hire had been sitting here for a bit. I'm not even sure exactly what I was hired for, beyond helping this crew hunt for wrecks and lost cargo. I assume they don't actually need a captain... here's hoping my reputation doesn't precede me.

Grimfeather tucks the last few morsels of food into her beak but responds to Arres before swallowing. "Sure, sure, simple and close by. Only issue I see is exactly those reasons. It makes for a quick and easy gig, but everyone can see that and everyone'll be swarming that wreck. Bad enough we gotta dredge it up, but then we'll need fight some folks."

She sighs and leans back in her chair. "I'm not sayin' no, mind. Just playimg devi's advocate."

"I feel like we may have advantages over some other folks, at least as far as pulling the cargo up," Arres muses. "And there's always the chance we won't have to fight. Probably should get moving though."

Pulling his gloves back on to cover the scales from view, he adds, "By the way, what exactly was I hired on for? Obviously helping with recovery, but did we have something else in mind? First mate, helmsman, general deckhand? Of course, I'm perfectly fine with just diving over the aide when we get where we're going too, but most ships need all hands busy."

Aye. You're sniffing at the gist of it. Let's call the job 'senior staff' for now, first mate might be a bit too formal. You got a reputation as a strong hand. I'm buying your loyalty. You do what needs doing, and have my back if anybody thinks they know better than me."

"As I explained before, The Gilded Perch is a fair ship. All hands get one share. Senior staff gets an extra half share. As the captain, that includes me. Then the ship gets one share into its general coffers. Quartermaster, ship healer, Misstress Hilevc here, keeps track of that account. And while i don't make a habit o'hiring folk i dont trust, some blokes get funny ideas about deserving more than their fair cut. So, that's why you are here."

Arres nods thoughtfully. "Sounds good." The reply is simple, and the hired help lapses into silence waiting for things to begin.

Sliven comes waltzing over with She'Ma, "Crew says you were here Grim. It looks to be fine weather for sailing." Sliven is great one for breaking in conversations.

The reborn almost falls of the stairwell, tumbling down a couple of step she makes it to the table, bearly holding up to her tome in the process. Renya rushes to the table shaking her head... she sits down next to the kenku No, not quite as safe as it looks... she goes trough the tome, pulling out the map leaflet that she got from a nearby kiosk Theres no way that a natural storm would happen that close to the shore... she points at the Dangereuse probable crashing spot See... it is surrounded by land, the are mountains nearby, there's no possible way for a natural storm to occur there... at least I refuse to believe it! Her voice picks up for a little bit as she begins to talk about the absurdity of the report...

The main problem of the site is that there's no clear lead when it comes to the cause of it... It may be just an unfortunate circumstance or they could as well have gotten too near to a Kuo-tau nest.... What I meant to say is that, the lack of clear signs is definitely not a good thing....but it could hold something new... she stretches the last sentence as she drifts off to her own little world, furiously writing, drawing and crossing out something in her book.

Sliven smiles and says , "See you have changed much Renya." and he just leaves the statement open.

At the mention of her name the biologist perks up and rises her lifeless eyes from the book... she answers, this time her voice is steady, though still quite silent I have changed nothing, just stated the obvious.... That one could be either an easy job or a deathly trap... but I don't mind the risk... I have too much work to mind it... after that she returns to her notes.

"Then perhaps we should weigh anchor," the cloaked man suggests, standing and making ready to leave. "I'm heading to the ship, to get the crew to make ready."

With that, Arres heads out of the tavern and sprints to the docks.

"Well, you can't say he isn't the eager go getter type I s'ppose. So are we all in agreement that we're going to seek The Dangereuse?"

Sliven moves with everyone else and She-Ma stays on his shoulder.

"All right then, Dangereuse it is then." the kenku says getting to her feet. When Renya is ready she leaves with her.

The lass nods Yes! she then closes the book in a hurry and moves out. Did we have someone with a smiths background on the ship, captain? she turns to the kenku.

While thinking If not then we should probably ask around or visit a library to at least find the depiction of the metal...

Grimfeather pauses for a moment pondering. The fog is a problem, and she can't really blame the river oilits for trying to use this new inormation to their advantage, she'd likely do the same in their place.

Risking the river on their own would boost their reputation and get them out of the gate first, giving them a huge advantage. It might also make the river pilots angry, but she'd be sure to use their services on the way back in. Knocking them down a peg now would be better I'm the long run.

"Bloody ticks the lot of them. Draw anchor. Ive been up and down this river 'nuff times. We can do it without the lilly-livered bastards. Everybody man your posts! I meed eyes on the water here."

"Do you want eyes in the water, Captain? If we go slow, I can watch for any shallow spots or underwater rock formations," the hooded figure offers. "Just put someone at the bow that I can relay to."

Sliven gives a thought, "You know She-Ma and I could scout those waters ahead of us so we don't ground out the ship. Slow us up a bit but in this fog we are certain to ground."Both are very used to being underwater and have worked together many times. Just not guiding ships is all.

Perception checks. She-Ma got a 13 and so did Sliven.

The first part of your journey is pretty quiet. No one else seems to have broken the unofficial embargo enforced by the river pilots. The scouts in the water are able to pick out the deep and shallow parts of the rive and keep the ship on an even keel. The damp fog muffles the sound of the river as it obscures the vision.

Several hours into your journey, a large squarish shape emerges out the fog. The silhouette is unmistakable; its a Rhennee barge running without the lights or bells that should warn of its approach in the mists and the Perch is about to plow right into it.

Grimfeather turns the wheel sharply to get the Perch on a course that won't damage her ship, then back again so they don't hit the bank.

Unhappy with the sudden manurers that made her mess up a page in her diary the reborn makes it up to the deck from her medics chamber... With an annoyed tone Renya asks...I was studying the mists from the apothecary... What is going on here? Are we getting attacked? she looks around slightly nervous.

"My apologies, Ren, only an attack by IGNORANT RIVER SCUM!!! that can't be bothered TO SHOW SOME COMMON COURTESY!!!" The kenku directs her yelling toward the barge as best she can while steering, so as not to scream at her crew who have in her mind at least, been performing adamantly.

Sliven and She-Ma eye the situation from the deck as it wasn't his time to be in the waters. Much out of habit, he magically summons a loaded heavy crossbow to his hands. He says in a laidback relaxed manor, "I hope this doesn't get messy." As he is standing there, he is actually seeing out of She-Ma's eyes as she has 120' Darkvision and can see what other can't right now.

When the crew hears the word "attack", part of the crew moves to the ship's railing grabbing knives and belaying pins along the way. Others are already heading below to the armory to grab the crossbows and heavier weapons. Similar activity has broken out on the barge. No one makes a move but the two crews are ready.

Grimfeather's outburst is met with raucous laughter from the barge. "If this was an attack, fledgling, you'd be bleeding. You're skulking too so let's each be about our business, eh?"

Though She-Ma's eyes, Sliven can see a little more detail. The men are clearly Rhennee and about a third of the crew is still near silently polling the barge along the river. The speaker is about a head taller than his crewman and wears a tricorn hat. She-Ma's eyes keep being drawn to a faint red glow at the man's waist. The way it moves, it is likely a gem on the hilt of a sword.

"Stand down Perch. We have better business to be about out on the lake." As long as the barge doesn't do anything aggressive, Grimfeather does her best to push on.

The two crews stare at each other as the barge passes by and it is soon lost in the fog again.

The fog finally lifts at midday and rest of your journey down the Selintan River is uneventful. By dusk, the Perch is finally free of the river and you find yourself in the free water of the Midbay. There is a halfling town called Elmshire a little way down the coast. It is a common stop for ships heading to Greyhawk that don't want to travel the river at night and for ships heading out that want one more night ashore before hitting the lake proper. You could make it there by nightfall or continue on your course to The Dangereuse's last known position through the night.

"Not that anyone asked me," Arres offers up from where he's looking over the railing near the helm, "but if we're trying to beat other ships... we should probably sail straight through and skip stoppimg at Elmshire. Otherwise, all our work navigating the river is for naught."

"Aye, if they didn't get enough dry land before, they'll just have to wait until we get back with our haul. I don't intend to stop unless absolutely necessary."

The reborn nods and turns back to go to her room... Alright... I will be downstairs if you need me... please let me know if I'm needed she nods her head to the rest of the people on the dock, while thinking will the current supplies be enough to provide them throughout the trip?

Sliven goes back to his minor mingling among the crew.

Renya: The ship has stocked enough food and drink for about 5 days travel. If you are traveling along the standard routes, the next place to restock is rarely more than a day away so most ships go light on provisions to leave room for cargo.

The Perch stays steady on their course as dusk deepens into night. They pass by a pair of ships heading toward Elmshire and in the last light of the day they see their flags fly the crest of the Duchy of Urnst. The large, silver moon of Luna rises near full, followed by the slim blue crescent of Celene. The lake is choppy but helmsman keeps the Perch steady on its course though it is hard to tell for sure without seeing the reference points on shore.

By dawn, the Perch is in the general area of where the research indicates La Dangereuse went down. As you arrive, there is another ship in the area. It is a small vessel made of a dark wood. It appears to be anchored and circling a small area. It is flying an unfamiliar flag but a the research and magic inclined among you recognize it. It is the symbol of the Archmage Tenser.

"That ship appears to belong to the Archmage Tenser Says Finn, "If he’s here searching for the treasure then we are going have a heck of a time getting our hands on anything other than scrap"

Finn takes a peek through his familiars keen eyes trying to get a closer look at the ship and its crew.

Owl Familiar

"Then should I take to the water?"

The question, directed at the Captain, is as simple and straightforward as possible. Considering Arres is standing by the railing, it is quite clear he isn't talking about later.

"Hmm." the Kenku ponders for a second. "Two of you can go. Quietly. Just observe. Don't engage anyone. Just try to figure out what they are doing, if they've found anything. We will get closer and establish contact. It's possible they are here for a different purpose and we won't come to blows." Turning to another crewman she says, "Raise the white flag. Need to let them know we aim to talk, not fight."

Taking the helm, Grimfeather barks some orders to cut their speed and bring her ship safely alongside the new vessel.

Silven volunteers as well to pop underwater and check things out too. "I shall go with them. Safety in numbers." He pockets Sha-Ma away to take with him.

Arres gives the Captain a nod, and immediately vaults over the railing into the cold water. He angles his descent to take him closer to the ship flying Tenser's flag, but he is primarily looking for The Dangerouse... and any signs of danger.

Finn

Your owl launches itself into the air to get a closer look at the ship. About halfway there, you spot a hawk heading from the ship towards the Perch. You feel a mental nod of recognition as two familiars acknowledge each other as they pass by. The ship is much like yours but a little wider and shorter than your vessel. You see no signs of heavy armament. Where you would expect to find a catapult or ballista mounted there are stout winches with heavy chains that plunge into the water below. There are four such winches, one fore, one aft, and one on either side about the middle of the ship. The crew appears to be mostly human with a scattering of nimble halflings in the rigging. By the railing facing your ship is female elf in a blue robe cinched in the middle with a wide leather belt. Finn recognizes the focused stare of someone looking through a familiar's eyes. She looks curious more than anything else.

Grimfeather and those on the Perch

The crew snaps into action. Sails are furled and the white flag is hoisted. A similar flag is raised on the other vessel and the Perch smoothly approaches to hailing distance. The elven woman in the blue robe waves as you approach and her amplified voice calls out across the water. "Ahoy, the Perch! I am Magus Shaal, Captain of the Dyv Treader. Have you by chance seen any unusual aquatic life on your journey here?"

Sliven and Arres

You both hit the water with a quiet splash and take a moment to acclimate to the shock of the cold water. You swim downward at an angle heading for underneath the ship. A few minutes later you can see five large chains hanging down from the ship. Another couple of minutes and the bottom of the lake comes into view. The other ship appears to be directly over a point where the lake bed drops away sharply. The chains are attached to large metal cages. They remind you of crab or lobster traps but these are easily five times as large as your typical trap. They rest on the swallower part of the lake bed about 300 ft down. The lake bed then drops away into deeper water further on. Scanning the lake bed, you note a mound of dirt that is a little too regular in shape between two of the giant traps. Its too small to be the ship you are looking for, but it is about the right size and shape for a longboat.

Arres will get Sliven's attention, and point to the possible longboat before swimming downto investigate. He will also take note of which way the bow is facing, with hopes that the aft may in fact point more or less towards their target.

Silven will send a mental message back up to the Captain, "Appears they are laying traps for something big down here." as he continues to look about.

"A'hoy Treader. Grimfeather here. My apologies, captain! We are working salvage this voyage. We've sought no creature, fish or fowl, and none showed themselves to our eyes."

While walking back up to the dock, to investigate the reason behind the sudden stop of the ship the reborn overhears the conversation between her captain and someone else.... When hearing them inquire about a creature the cleric seconds Grimfeathers words...while avoiding eye-contact with the unfamiliar people, which causes her to stare at the docks...No... Unfortunately there were no sightings on the way here... The pesky mists are too thick to see anything... she huffs in faint annoyance. The n something clicks as she enthusiastically raises her head But why are you asking? Have there been any unusual sightings? New species? her dead eyes boar into the elves face as she asks the questions, though the newfound confidence dwindles as soon as the spiral of questions end.... Renya is once more staring at her feet, though this time her hands are occupied with a bit of her dress.

Grim, Renya, Basil

Shaal sighs. "Well, it was worth an ask." She comments at Grim's reply. Her face brightens at Renya's questions. Even dampened, a scholar recognizes a fellow scholar. "There actually haven't been any strange sightings and we really should have expected some by now.
Even with their propensity for the lake bed, we would have expected some surface sightings. They may have migrated farther than predicted but their imprinting at birth should have kept them relatively local." Shaal catches herself. "I'm sorry. None of that made sense did it?" It sounded like a question but Shaal forges on. "We're trying to track down a set of animals that we released here early last year. They should have completed their first maturation cycle by now so we want to see how they've grown and otherwise changed." Shaal pauses again and turns more to face Grimfeather. "Salvage did you say? So your group is prepared to go below water?"


Sliven, Arres

This style of longboat comes to a point at both ends so it is hard to say which would be bow or aft. It has landed pointing towards and away from the area of deeper water. As Arres gets closer something about the lake bed by the side of the longboat catches his attention. It looks different from the rest, like it has recently been disturbed.

"Aye. That's the plan at least. Do you have people in the water already...or perhaps we can offer our services to you while we conduct our own surveys?"

Swimming around the longboat, Arres investigates the disturbed area.

Sliven comes back up and boards the ship. Soon after resummons his She-Ma. He says to the captain and those about, "I don't see where we are going to have troubles with this ship."

PCs on the Perch

Shaal smiles at Grimfeather's offer. "I do like a captain that smells an opportunity." She chuckles. "I don't have people in the water, as it happens. You see my master has a agreement with the merfolk that live in the area. We are not to enter their waters until they respond to our request and allow us entry. Normally this is merely a formality, but we've been here three days with no answer." Shaal shakes her head. "Not sure what's going on down there but I can't wait forever. If you find any unusual sea life marked with my master's emblem, I will pay for the location. If you can capture them for me, well," she pauses, "having a mage trained by Tenser owing you one has got to be worth some time and effort."

Arres:

As Arres approaches the disturbed area of the lakebed, his vision is suddenly obscured by mud and silt as a giant crab lunges up snapping at him with his claws. Emblazoned on the back of the crab's shell is the same symbol the flies on the other's ships flag. As the crab approaches, Arres feels the water around him grow painfully cold.

Sliven would rush to aid. :)

Arres doesn't hesitate, split-second focus resulting in pale blue ethereal arms erupting outward before striking at the crab.

Finn, looks over the railing. The sea…is the sea…Looking back up at Saar he nods.

"A reliable method to keep contact with those below would be eminently useful in our line of work for sure. Please, go on. What kind of animals are these and how many? It would be helpful to at least know what we are keeping an eye out for."

The reborn stops the fidgeting at the mention of merfolk and subconciusly takes out a page and sharpened coal from the folds of her clothing to sketch down the information received...while murmuring to herself, trying to remember about the merfolk as much as she can....

Above

"Well, we released a dozen specimens, all various types of crustaceans: crabs, lobsters and a few more exotic types. Shaal explains. "To do their experimental nature, I don't imagine they would have all survived between the latent energies within them and the usual risks of predation.

Renya knows that tritons and sea elves have communities in the lake though no one knows precisely where. Shaal is either using the term merfolk loosely to mean dwellers beneath the water, or there is a community of half-human, half-fish people in the Nyr Dyv formerly unknown to you.

Below

Arres's astral arms spring forth from his body and the water ripples with the force given off. The crab clearly feels it and it spurs it on to take down this unexpectedly dangerous prey. Arres catches one of the few weak spots on his shell and gets in a solid hit but the crab is undeterred. Its claws lash out and clutch Arres on both shoulders crushing deeply into his torso. He also feels the waves of cold radiating off this creature sink deep into his bones. (22 damage total and you are now grappled.)

Sliven, take your round one actions and Arres can take his round 2. Sliven is close enough that he can close to melee with the crab.

Sliven cuts though the water fast with his battle axe and tries to cleave away at the crab.

Renya smiles at the captain, it seems like all the science talk has calmed her down and given her some confidence... interesting,i have read a couple of manuscripts about reintroduction experiments, or are you intoducing invasive species? Who's in the head of this? Please define the term "mer-folk", given the topic it unfortunately is too wast... If you understand.. she point out the fact that they are surrounded by water and the merfolk could be anything in or on the sea ...

Above:

Shaal chuckles and runs a hand through her hair. "Well you caught me speaking loosely there. It is the Triton city-state of Natrios below us. Mostly fisherfolk and hunters with a specialty of preserving things underwater." She pauses for moment. "I think I've told you all I can about the project but I can say it is not a reintroduction. We wanted them to grow in a competitive environment and we wish to see how they've matured and how many survived.

Below

Sliven's battleaxe scrapes along the outside of the crab's shell to little effect. Sliven too begins to feel the cold radiating off this creature sap his energy.

Undeterred, Arres works to fight off the crab.

Arres relentlessly pummels the crab with his astral arms. The crab starts scuttling backward trying to get away from the pain not realizing that the source is the "helpless" creature in his claws. The last blow strikes it between its eye stalks and the claws around his shoulder grow slack. The unconscious crab drifts down to the lake bed and they can feel the bitter cold drift away with it.

Arres, turning to Sliven, will point to the crab and then make a sweeping gesture upwards. He will pause, hands forming a circle with his thumbs at the top. His translucent arms form the same handsign, and seconds tick by. His body relaxes briefly, and he swims down to attempt to grab the crab by the shell and swim upwards with it.

Sliven says mentally to Arres, "Lets put the crab in the cage and close it." He swims over and begins to tow the monster."

Sliven gladly lets Arres move it with his Astral Arms as he has nothing to defend himself from the cold. He has felt such before but not like this. This creature is very strange. Sooner in the cage and taken care of the better.

He sends telepathically in Common to Arres, "Lets get this done and get back up. Others will be wondering about us and the ship is out of my telepathic range. I can do nothing for your wounds."

Sliven thought about trying to communicate with Arres in draconic due to his oddness, but that really that isn't any odder than himself. Arres is just more noticeably scaled than Sliven. Both share this draconic likeness. Although it appears Arres can breathe water where Sliven require his helm that he has with him all the time.

Arres nods in response to Sliven's suggestion. As much as he was loathe to admit it, the crab's claws had certainly dug in... his shoulders felt like they were on fire. As far as he was concerned, this was the other ship's crab -- they could burn the spell to heal him. He was eager to get back in the water, because he and Sliven had work to do. The longboat was only a start, and they hadn't even investigated it properly before being interrupted.

With the Crab put away, Sliven heads for the surface to inform the Captain.

Keeping the the crab at astral arms length, Arres is able to bundle the crab through the funnel shaped opening of the nearest cage. As they do so, they notice the chain it is attached too start to rattle back and forth. On the surface, a ringing bell can be heard and Shaal turns with excitement. "Sounds like we finally got something!" Two burly humans are already moving to one of the winches and begins turning the crank to raise up the chain. Arres and Sliven break the surface of the water first followed shortly by the cage containing the beaten crab. "Wow what a beauty!" Shaal exclaims looking down at the crab. "And cold as the top of the Crystalmists. Shame he's not for eating, you'd have a self chilling crab cocktail."

Shaal turns back around and notices the state of Arres for the first time. "Did the crab do that to you?" She asks, clearly impressed.

Arres nods. "Claws are strong. I'm glad I had other arms to use, or I may have been in trouble."

Shaal looks curious at the other arms comment but says nothing. "Well you've already done me a good turn. Here's an earnest on future payments." She fishes a small pouch out of her pocket, shakes some things back into her pocket and then adds a small bottle from a pouch on her belt. She holds the bag over her head and a hawk swoops down, grabs it in her talons, and flies it over to the deck of the Perch. Whoever opens it will find several small gemstones and a potion vial.

Arres would take the pouch, but hand it to the Captain without even checking it. As he does so, he quietly says, "Need to get back in the water. We found a longboat, but we were... interrupted... before we could properly investigate. However, at this moment I feel like more of a liability. Permission to recoup a bit?"

Sliven being a bit of a caster as well as a swimmer, casts some Prestidigitation to dry off and cleanup fast from the swimming as he deems it might be a few before Arres in good shape. He doesn't care to explore these waters alone.

He says to Renya in his thick foreign accent, "I see your out of your cabin?". Sha-Ma is on his shoulder already.

"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.

Renya:

Not much has taken root in the hull of the longboat. After a brief exanimation of the bodies, you think the ice crab has been feeding on them when better prey was unavailable. If it was using the longboat as a home and hunting base, its aura would have kept scavengers away and kept the meat fresh.

The search

The group sets out in the spiral pattern suggested. The portion of the lakebed that is shallower has very little in the way of interesting features and aside from a few schools of fish, your group encounters nothing. The spiral pattern then brings you to where the lakebed dips down deeper. The lake bed down here is more jagged than the smooth bed above. Looking back towards the rise, the group notices a cave opening at the base. As they are taking that in, a bright flash of yellow light comes from the opposite direction. The direction of the flash is easy to pinpoint and it is roughly in the same direction you were going to travel next in your spiral. Whatever caused it though is not yet visible from here.

Arres will gesture toward the flash of light, and begin swimming that way.

Silven sends mentally to Arres, Hmm Light. as he too fallows pursuit of it.

Renya will follow 10ft behind the two ready to cast sacred fame as soon as she sees an obvious threat.

She makes a mental note to question the corpses once they're done with the search.

Your group hurriedly swims in the direction of the flashing light. You see it flash twice more before you can finally make out details in the third flash. You see the silhouette of another giant crustacean as the light flares out from it. It is a similar in size to the crab you all saw but the claws are longer and the body slimmer. It holds a triton in one claw and the body twitches in a crab's grip. There are three or four other tritons trying to hold the creature at bay with long spears. They are all dressed in leather armor similar to what the bodies under the longboat were wearing.

Arres immediately summons his ethereal arms as he swims in, and moves to attack the creature of the sea (again, trying to subdue instead of kill). Hopefully, the crustacean will release the triton.

If the triton is released Renya will get in range of them and will attempt to keep the triton alive...

She follows after arres, trying to stay behind him if possible and casts a healing spell on the triton.If not she will cast sacred flame at the crab from a safe distance.

Sliven rapidly swims to his desired range to achieve a nice casting of Magic Missile on the Crab that is killing that Triton. Three missiles speed to the crab from Sliven's hands doing 12 hp of force damage to the crab.

The magic missiles slam into the crab and it barely has time to emit a high piercing shriek before Arres astral punch lands hard on its outstretched claw. The crab drops the still twitching triton and lunges forward at Arres but the monk is too swift and the claw clamp over empty water.

Renya is able to slip over to the released triton and she jerks back to the land of the living with a gasp. Two of the triton guards move to flank Renya and their revived companion while the third moves to the crab's flank. All three jab out with their spears. The one by Arres manages a hit on the opposite claw and the crab looks between them both in anger and indecision. The fourth Triton figure just bobs in the water.

Sliven doesn't see where these Tritons were doing anything else but trying to kill the crab before it killed one of them so Sliven obliges them and magic missiles it again. He slams three more missiles into it for another 12 points of force damage.

Easy there, you almost perished. she whispers in aquan. Rental makes sure that the healed triton is holding himself in the water. After which she makes her way to the fourth triton. If there's any helping to the man she will also attempt to heal him.If the triton is beyond help or simply doesn't need it she will cast sacred flame at the crab.