Melvin had never went with anyone to go collect materials for runic practice. It was been, so far, a solitary and mind-calming activity. However, there was no harm in letting other people want to know how to do it themselves, and while he wasn't sure he wanted company all the time when he saw, once in a while was fine. It also helped that it was Noah, someone who as far as Melvin was concerned, had received Rin's stamp of approval.
He told the man to meet him in the Sun division, and they picked out their equipment. He didn't know Noah's size, so it was up to him to pick what would for for him. Luckily, a Sun was there to offer help if he needed to make sure he had the proper fitting for the harness and how to read his oxygen tank. It only carried enough for 2 hours.
Carrying their things, Melvin walked to the beach with Noah and then strapped on his gear. "I hope you brought a sturdy bag for these stones. The last thing you want is to loose them all because of a hole." He informed him, and then started to go into the water.
"Just follow me. We'll be diving down and heading to the caves. There are a lot of them. It is mainly exploring. If you feel tired or unable to go on, just signal at me." Signaling would be the only way they would be able to communicate. With the oxygen masks, talking was out of the question.
Melvin swam out towards the ocean away from shore, watching to make sure Noah was close by and in hearing rang if he had any last minute questions.
Prolixity
Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2014 6:18 am
The oxygen tank was surprisingly heavy, but daily exercise had been paying off, and Noah wasn't even puffing by the time they got down to the beach. He'd paid careful attention to the Sun's brief lecture on how to use his equipment, but he watched Melvin first anyway. Then he strapped on the harness and tank and weights. It felt weird, restrictive, but he reminded himself that it was supposed to be restrictive around the torso, that was a safety thing.
He held up the mesh bag he'd brought with him. "I got my laundry bag," he said. "It should be big enough and not let stuff through. Unless the stones are really really tiny. They're not, right?" It had made sense to him that the stones would need to be larger than the small holes in the bag, but maybe he shouldn't have made that assumption.
He tied the bag to the harness and followed Melvin into the water, hoping his nervousness didn't show. He'd swum in rivers and lakes plenty of times, but never actually in the ocean. He could do this, though. And he had an oxygen tank. He'd keep Melvin in sight and follow his lead carefully.
"No. The stones are a decent size, but they aren't round rocks. they are like round slabs. The bag also has to be sturdy. There are a lot of creatures down there that might tear your bag. Just remember that for next time." There was no point going back now. It was dive or never today, and if anything, Melvin could offer Noah some stones if he didn't collect any or lost all of them.
"Alright. I'm going down. Be careful with the currents." He warned, and then placed the mouthpiece to his oxygen mask in his mouth and gave a thumbs up.
He then dove down into the water and started to head down towards the caves.
Step One
In the water surrounding the island there's numerous edlritch horrors of the deep waiting to attack your hunter.
Roll 1d6 1: a massive sea creature attacks you. Roll 1d20 to escape its gaping maw. If you roll 10+ you escape it, if you roll below you receive 10 damage and need to try again. 2: a bus-sized sea creature attack you. It has 30 HP and 5 auto damage. You can escape it by rolling 1d20 and getting 13+, failure results in auto damage. 3: a small-sized sea creature attack you. It has 15 HP and 3 auto damage. You can escape it by rolling 1d20 and getting 15+, failure results in auto damage. 4: you are safe. 5: you are safe. 6: you are safe.
2: a bus-sized sea creature attack you. It has 30 HP and 5 auto damage. You can escape it by rolling 1d20 and getting 13+, failure results in auto damage.
Down in the water, just below the surface, as a leopard-spotted whale shark. It was looking for seagulls to eat, and spotting Melvin, rose up and opened it's large mouth. It was hungry and wanted an easy meal. Inside it's mouth, weird slugs glowed on the room and tongue of the creature.
But it was slow and Melvin expected the worse when swimming. All he had to do was turned and swim down and then place his hands against it to help move alongside it before he was under it. After that, the creature, which didn't seem to have the best eyesight, lost him and resumed looking around the surface for a meal.
Melvin, further down, looking up to make sure Noah was going to be okay.
"Okay," Noah answered meekly. "Stronger bag next time." He put the mouthpiece into his mouth and ducked his head underwater, taking a nervous, experimental breath to test it. It worked, of course. He hadn't expected it not to, but some instinct in the back of his mind had still been absolutely convinced that breathing underwater was impossible. The edge of nervousness subsided with direct experience, and Noah started swimming down, following Melvin toward the caves.
What looked like a cave rose out of the depths, a gaping maw big enough to swallow a car whole, and Noah stifled a panicked yell and kicked frantically down and to the side. He hadn't expected getting eaten alive, somehow. But the mouth rose majestically past him and up toward the surface, a long eeling body passing by endlessly, and Noah swam down and away, pulling himself out of the current its passing created. Maybe he'd been too small to bother with. If he was too small to bother with, what was it actually looking for?
BIG, Laz said, sounding awed.
Yeah thanks Laz I noticed! Noah gave Melvin a wide-eyed look as he caught up, jerking a thumb toward the thing behind him that was now descending again towards the murky deeper waters out past them.
Quote:
1: a massive sea creature attacks you. Roll 1d20 to escape its gaping maw. If you roll 10+ you escape it, if you roll below you receive 10 damage and need to try again
Some of the caves house many useful stones, other house things waiting to kill you. You can keep on collecting for as long as your willing to risk it (or until you die.)
Roll 1d8 1: A few stones! Roll 1d4 to see how many you find in this cave! 2: Sentient sea weed aggressively gropes you! Roll 1d4 to see how much damage it does! 3: A nice amount of stones! Roll 1d8 to see how many you find in this cave! 4: Tentacles! Roll 1d8 to see how much damage they do! 5: A bunch of stones! Roll 1d10 to see how many you find in this cave! 6: This area becomes permanently mob free and reveals a large cache of stones, roll 1d20 to see how many you find in this cave! 7: The mermaids guarded several large, dark caves that are now open to explore. Hundreds to thin, snake-like tendrils shoot out from the darkness. Roll 1d12 to see how much damage they do! 8: The mermaids guarded several large, dark caves that are now open to explore. What appears to be a cave full of inviting stones is actually a huge toothy maw, patiently waiting to devour you. Roll 1d20 to see how much damage it does!
Melvin hadn't expected his creature to have a friend, but that was the tossup when diving down. The area you picked could be active at any point, and feeding times were a constant around the island. Luckily, hunter wasn't a common-enough dish for most creatures to hunt for it, but that didn't meant they wouldn't delight in a rare delicacy.
When Noah managed to swim down to him, avoiding his own creature, Melvin pointed in the direction his monster went, then pointed at his own eyes and then gestured around him. There were plenty of those creatures around here and Noah would need to keep his eyes sharp and attention on high alert at all times.
With that pointed out, he then waved for Noah to follow and moved towards where the caves started. They went down and down and out on either side. It was a endless rock formation down of caves. Melvin pointed to them and then gave a thumbs up to show that this is where they needed to be going for stones.
He gestured again and headed towards a nearby cave.
7: The mermaids guarded several large, dark caves that are now open to explore. Hundreds to thin, snake-like tendrils shoot out from the darkness. Roll 1d12 to see how much damage they do!
The cave he selected was wide and that meant it usually had a large number of stones. However, just as he entered the mouth of the cave, he noticed the dark, black tendrils shoot out, looking like inky noodles. They reached out for his arm, but he kicked back and was out of the cave in a flash.
Outside of it, he checked his arm where a small tendril had touched him, but he had been quick enough to miss being caught.
Turning to Noah, he pointed at the cave and made a big X with his arms.
Noah nodded emphatically to Melvin's keep watch all around gesture. There was no telling how many of those monsters were lurking in these waters; he'd seen enough weird shadows and strange things on fishbowl duty that the huge monster that passed them by shouldn't have surprised him. But swimming was wildly and weirdly different from sitting inside the observation post. The pressure and the buoyancy, the currents brushing over his skin, and the blue gloom that lay over everything, these were new experiences.
The dark openings in the rock formations seemed at first to be mouths themselves, but on looking again, they were caves, and Melvin was gesturing toward them. This was where they were going. Noah followed, a little slower. His heart was still going a mile a minute, and he hoped that that wasn't using extra oxygen. They'd only been down for a few minutes. It would be fine. He'd just watch his gauges.
The cave that Melvin selected was, apparently, inhabited. Tendrils of something shot out, and Melvin dodged, then turned back to make an X with his arms. Not that cave. Noah held up his hand with the OK signal to show that he understood, and kicked toward a cave mouth that was not right next to that one.
This cave was only a cave, and as Noah's eyes adjusted to the dimness within, he saw a scatter of loose stones lying on the floor. Cautiously, he picked one up and put it into his bag. When nothing jumped out at him or bit him, he collected several more, then swam back out and held out one hand in a thumbs-up.
Stones collected: 5
Quote:
5: A bunch of stones! Roll 1d10 to see how many you find in this cave!
He was glad that, once Noah left the cave, it wasn't in a panic or trying to tear off some creature. Every cave had it's own set of dangers, and he worried if Noah might be taken somewhere deep in a cave.
And then he started to worry.
If Noah's safety rested on him to rescue him, would he be up to the challenge?
His mind flashed to Rin's smiling, concerned face, and he touched the straps over his chest, feeling it shudder and his breath going quick. He'd have to stay close to Noah to make sure things went alright. He couldn't let him be taken.
Moving over to Noah, he looked at his mesh bag to make sure he was collecting the right stones, and then gave him a thumbs up to show that he collected exactly what he needed.
Swimming past him, he went to a nearby cave next to the one Noah went into.
3: A nice amount of stones! Roll 1d8 to see how many you find in this cave!
The cave was normal by all means, and he was glad for it. Swimming down, he brushed debris and small pebbles aside before collecting stones. He glanced at the entrance to make sure Noah wasn't being eaten by a weird shark of any kind, and then collected a few more before swimming out. He gave a OK with his hands and moved towards the next set of caves.
Noah held his breath for a moment as Melvin looked at the stones he'd collected, hoping he'd gotten it right. When he got the thumbs-up approval, he exhaled a gust of bubbles, and watched as Melvin vanished into another cave. Should he go ahead and go into a different one? No, if Melvin lost track of him he might waste time going looking. He waited.
Melvin re-emerged with his bag weighted down by stones and gave a thumbs-up. Noah nodded and picked another cave.
prolixity rolled 1 4-sided dice:
4Total: 4 (1-4)
Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2014 2:19 pm
This cave was also empty. There were stones scattered thinly across the floor, and Noah picked several up before swimming back out to present his finds for inspection.
Stones collected: 9
Quote:
1: A few stones! Roll 1d4 to see how many you find in this cave!
And so their rhythm was set. At this point, there was little else to teach. The setup was simple. You dove, you avoided danger, and you collected stones. You had to be aware what was and could be in each cave or in the open water, and you had to be aware of your own energy, oxygen, and stamina. If you got too hurt from small injuries, the swim back could feel like hell. Melvin was here for support now at this point.
As Noah collected from another cave, Melvin moved to one beside him. It was lucky for them that, thus far, no mermaids had been alerted to their harvesting.
