Captain Stan Punshike, skipper of the comped Jah’poneezy Slipper, embarks Charlie Company for the voyage to the long-wrecked Dusty Reaver. Crazy Eyes sees them off with an emphatic reminder that any spare artifacts or items would be of value to her. Don’t forget your friend Crazy Eyes!
After a few languid days of sailing, Punshike announces their arrival over the Deathshell Trench. Punshike reads nothing into that ominous name, but of course he will not be making the descent to the wreckage which happens to be precariously stretched over said trench, prepped to slide punitively into the abyss at the first attempt to dismantle the plot. Ten’s first order of business is to mend some load bearing stress fractures, though he doubts mending rotten wood together will ultimately stabilize the derelict.
The party begins with a reconnoiter over the bow. Several openings in the deck, some by design and some by damage or time, afford views into the lower levels. Sqyylarr glimpses a bit of gold, a bit of statue, maybe a bit of golden statue. Watc dispels an alarm spell over the opening. Sqyylarr pokes in and finds a hunter shark below. Barika attempts to befriend the shark, but it already has a friend.
Ash takes a higher vantage point and swims aft where he notices a considerable gash down the port midship. More importantly, he locates the helm a.k.a. the astral throne. It would be hard to miss with the three, no, four conspicuously glowing blue lights around its base. A patrolling merrow notices Ash and bellows for backup. Ash knocks an arrow and bellows for backup. A harpoon, perfectly aimed at some of Watc’s critical infrastructure, runs out of momentum and clinks harmlessly off. Ash looses his own projectile but has not adjusted to the nuances of underwater longbowing. Sqyylarr likewise swings her smash into the merrow, but smash slips her grip and sails off the side of the ship and lands in the sea floor.
The merrow’s coworkers arrive and line up to bite Barika who worries about mer-rabies. Barika fatally fillets the first merrow. A merrow follows Sqyylarr pursuing her smash and mistakes her for easy pickings. Sqyylarr clobbers the merrow with a combo smash. Ash’s longbow, Ten’s shillelagh, Barika’s great axe, Watc’s ray of frosting, and Sqyylarr’s smash complete the final two merrow without much difficulty.
Ten flexes an aura of vitality to repair battle damage. Barika and Watc examine the astral throne and discover the blue lights are octagonal fasteners which could hopefully be loosened by an easily identifiable arcane spanner. Barika, feeling clever, sticks her head through a hole in the aft deck to peer below. The arcane alarm startles her almost as much as some unexpected deep chuckling, and she smacks her noggin getting away. Watc reckons the captain’s cabin would be just aft of the portside damage, as featured in Gill Claytons salvage log, and would be the likeliest location for an arcane spanner if still on the wreckage.
Ander dispels the arcane alarm over the gashed out opening and swims into the side of the ship. He finds Barika’s unfriended hunter shark and boops it on the nose with a catapulted rock. He returns to the party to report one infuriated hunter shark, nose freshly askew. Sqyylarr enters the ship to finish off the shark. Barika follows to intercept the hunter shark’s two hunter friends. Ander characteristically flips his artificious coin over his head but impatiently snatches it from its wonky wobble through the water. Out folds his aquatically adapted torpedo ballista which knocks one of the sharks off Barika. Ash viciously longbows the other shark. Sqyylarr, adapting to underwater combat, twirls between the sharks smashing both into lingering globules of pulverized shark chum.
An empirically attractive merfolk druid lass with a generously charismatic midriff emerges from the gore cloud with a warning not to steal from The Great One’s ship. Before delving into the finer points of maritime salvage law, Ander wants to know exactly who is this The Great One? The Great One is The Great One, and he does not abide theft. Would The Great One happen to be a dragon known by some as APPOTHROMAX by any chance? No, The Great One is The Great One, and the merfolk druid cannot emphasize enough that theft from The Great One is entirely unacceptable. Ander leans into Sqyylarr to confirm, the plan is definitely to take things from the ship? Oh, hell yeh. Ander produces his arcane screwdriver and webs the merfolk druid. The stuck merfolk druid thunderwaves the lot of them. Still optimistic for a diplomatic solution, Ander ignores the attack and pokes his head into a nearby room looking for the merfolk druid’s supervisor. Possibly the dragon lurking within might be a supervisor. Ander closes the door softly. Curious Ash takes a followup gander into the same room. Dragon. He closes the door softly.
Around the corner back at the captain’s cabin, Watc dispels a scary warding illusion and enters with Ten to search the cabin. Keen eyed Ten immediately spots an oilskin draped over an item of interest and dramatically unveils the golden arcane spanner, complete with glowing blue business end. Watc yoinks the arcane spanner and expeditiously swims for the astral throne, mutedly declaring mission accomplished on her way out.
A broiling eruption of turtle-smelling steam envelopes Watc the moment she emerges from the side of the ship.