(Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 4)

[Hello Purvis]

>Try to swim perpendicular to the tide, there's got to be banks somewhere.

[DracoOmega]

>Try to swim perpendicular to the tide, there's got to be banks somewhere.

>You turn and try to swim perpendicular to the current. After a few seconds of struggle, you feel smooth rock against your hands, the bumps and depressions of it skimming swiftly beneath your fingers. Were it not so water worn, you expect it would quickly leave them bloody. You reach further up, but feel no purchase; simply more stone. From what you saw of this chamber earlier, the river largely filled the bottom level with most of the ledges elevated well above the water's surface, although there were a couple of points that were level with the water's edge. If you can find one of them.
>From the sounds ahead, you think the river may soon split in two; at the least, you can hear the flow of water cascading in more than one direction.

[Hello Purvis]

>Stay on the left side for now, but be ready to kick off a wall if needs be.

[DracoOmega]

>Stay on the left side for now, but be ready to kick off a wall if needs be.

>You keep close to the wall you're beside as the river starts to diverge. From the sound of the water reverberating against the walls, you think the chamber is narrowing; sounds of a second stream grow more distant to your right. Then the current churns more fiercely and you get pulled underwater again. Trying to surface, you bang the back of your head against rock. You're either underneath a ledge or being carried down a nearly-filled tunnel.

[Hello Purvis]

>Explictive!
>Try to stay low for now, hold our breath.

[DracoOmega]

>Explictive!
>Try to stay low for now, hold our breath.

>You cringe and curse wordlessly.
>You keep low to avoid bashing your head or perhaps even your face against oncoming rock, and hold your breath. A little while passes and you feel your breath starting to grow short. Unfortunately, it's hard to tell the acoustics of the terrain above with your ears submerged, so you can't be sure if it's safe to poke your head out again.

[Hello Purvis]

>It's less safe to keep out head down, so let's risk it. Just don't automatically let our breath out until we know it's clear and we don't get a mouthful of water for our trouble.

[DracoOmega]

>It's less safe to keep out head down, so let's risk it. Just don't automatically let our breath out until we know it's clear and we don't get a mouthful of water for our trouble.

>You poke your head tentatively out of water again and once more it brushes against rock. There's a narrow distance between the water's surface and the rock above, enough to try for a breath if you lean your head back, although there's still a lot of spray and you couldn't be certain you wouldn't breathe in some water, too.

[Hello Purvis]

>Try for this, take very short breaths, rather than one long one.

[DracoOmega]

>Try for this, take very short breaths, rather than one long one.

>You lean back and try to poke your mouth just a little past the water's surface. Your lips taste open air and you take a quick breath. Oh, that was long overdue... You wait another few moments as spray splashes across you, then take another. And another. And... ack! A sudden wave hits you and you breathe in water. You cough sharply, narrowly managing to avoid sucking in more water in the process.
>Shortly you hear your surroundings growing wider and the rock retreats from overhead. The current seems to be slowing considerably.

[Hello Purvis]

>Surface again.

[DracoOmega]

>Surface again.

>You surface fully and take a deep breath. The current is slow enough now that you think you could fairly freely navigate, assuming you didn't try to go back the way you came.
>As best you can tell, you're in a moderately sized open area again, considerably smaller than the chamber where you confronted the spider youkai, but not closely confined.
>Now that the aquatic chaos has subsided and you have time to be aware of such things, you realize that your treasure sense is tingling fiercely. You're pretty sure you've ended up close to whatever it is that you sensed earlier.

[Hello Purvis]

>Might as well close in on the treasure.
>Can we see anything at all?

[DracoOmega]

>Might as well close in on the treasure.
>Can we see anything at all?

>Your treasure sense doesn't have very good directionality, but you swim about a little to get a sense of where it gets stronger and where it gets weaker, then angle roughly towards the source. A few seconds later, you feel your feet kick against the bottom. You pull yourself to your feet. Oh, it feels so good to be able to stand upright again.
>Unfortunately, it's still pitch-black.

[Hello Purvis]

>Start to feel around a bit, see if there is a proper shore or not.
>If there is, and we don't stumble across the treasure, go to it and have a seat for a bit. Try to account for our inventory by touch.

[DracoOmega]

>Start to feel around a bit, see if there is a proper shore or not.
>If there is, and we don't stumble across the treasure, go to it and have a seat for a bit. Try to account for our inventory by touch.

>You step carefully around the area and follow where the rock seems to slope up. Soon enough, your feet step out of the water and onto solid, mostly-dry rock.
>You walk a little inward and then flop down. You're cold, soaked to the skin, and feeling several different kinds of pain from too many places, but it still feels good to be still for a moment.
>Feeling about, you confirm the presence of your worn items and remaining kunai, and your pack still seems to be undamaged and unopened; you are immensely glad at the moment that it's waterproof. You recall the contents from memory, to save rifling through it with sopping sleeves.

>Inventory:

>Prism Pendant (around neck)
>Seeker's Badge (pinned to chest)
>195 Val Razuan guilders
>Compass
>Traveling pack
>Traveling rations
>Canteen (mostly empty)
>Lockpicks
>1 kunai
>Picture of Sokrates
>Fuwafuwa Heart Droplet
>Mysterious rusty part
>Antique Val Razuan 1 guilder coin
>Dowsing rods
>Tie-dyed umbrella
>Spool of baling twine
>Oversized belt
>Hunting knife
>Unlit makeshift torch
>Sharpened quartz stone

[Hello Purvis]

>Well, time to do something about the sleeves at least. Let's get our shirt off, move the pack well away, and wring it out. Afterward, replace it and do the same with the rest of our garments one by one.
>Are there any interesting smells to be found?

[DracoOmega]

>Well, time to do something about the sleeves at least. Let's get our shirt off, move the pack well away, and wring it out. Afterward, replace it and do the same with the rest of our garments one by one.
>Are there any interesting smells to be found?

>You take your pack off and stow it several feet away, then start to strip off your wet clothing so that you can wring it out. Unfortunately, this quickly hits a snag of the literal sense: the bands of webbing binding clothing to flesh or other pieces of clothing make it essentially impossible to properly undress without somehow removing them first.
>Aside from the smell of water and the general aroma of the cavern, you don't smell anything of note. You can still detect traces of spiders, but not strongly enough to suggest that some are immediately nearby.

[Hello Purvis]

>Doggonit. Wring them out as well as we can while wearing them.
>Then go back to our stuff, break out the rods, and see if we can douse out any sign of that treasure.

[DracoOmega]

>Doggonit. Wring them out as well as we can while wearing them.
>Then go back to our stuff, break out the rods, and see if we can douse out any sign of that treasure.

>You settle for wringing your clothes out as best you can while still wearing them. This is a little more awkward and less effective, but you still hear a substantial quantity of water drip onto the rock at your feet  as you work your way around the material. Of course, this is merely exchanging 'dripping wet' for 'pretty damp'. You find yourself starting to shiver a little. While the water wasn't quite icy, it was certainly cold enough to be unpleasant and the air inside most of the cavern is damp and chilly. But this whole expedition's been one long exercise in making due, so you guess this is just par for the course. Doesn't entirely stop the grumbling, though...
>You go back to your pack and feel about for your dowsing rods, then take them in hand and try to pinpoint the treasure. This takes very little time or effort at all; you are quite close by and there is nothing else remotely similar in kind to mask its signature. The item is metallic with a subtle, yet deep magical resonance; it is perhaps not precisely enchanted in a conventional sense, but there is definitely some sort of power within it. The object is probably no more than 30 feet away, although you obviously can't tell what terrain lies in that direction.

[Hello Purvis]

>Head thirty feet in that direction, feeling ahead of us and taking it a step at a time.

[DracoOmega]

>Head thirty feet in that direction, feeling ahead of us and taking it a step at a time.

>You head in the direction of the treasure, moving slowly and feeling the terrain ahead of you. After no more than a couple feet you end up ankle-deep in water again, then knee-deep, with no signs of it stopping. So much for wringing out your clothes...
>Your feet hit a rock; feeling about with your hands, it seem to be fully submerged. You try to step over it, but quickly hit another rock; this one does have a small tip poking out of the water's surface, knobby and rough. Rather than try walking blind over such uneven terrain, you attempt to move around them, but find that similar terrain extends for a decent distance in either direction. It feels like something of a rocky shoal.

[Hello Purvis]

>Do we feel rested enough to brave the wily waters again?
>If so, might as well, since we're wet again.

[DracoOmega]

>Do we feel rested enough to brave the wily waters again?
>If so, might as well, since we're wet again.

>You don't feel much rested, but the current in this part of the river wasn't terribly strong; in and of itself, it shouldn't give you any trouble.
>You try navigating around the shoal, feeling for rocks and moving aside them. There are some open gaps which you use to attempt to get back on course, though this is a haphazard thing. Progress is slow, given the terrain and the fact that you're navigating by feel, but soon enough you estimate you've covered about 30 feet, even if it hasn't been an entirely straight line. You're in water up to your waist at this point.

[Hello Purvis]

>Does it feel like the treasure here?

[DracoOmega]

>Does it feel like the treasure here?

>You haven't felt or bumped into anything that would suggest it, and you still can't see, but briefly dowsing again confirms that whatever it is is among the rocks immediately to your right, somewhere beneath the water's surface.

[Hello Purvis]

>Take a good breath, turn right, dive down, and let our hands do the looking.

[DracoOmega]

>Take a good breath, turn right, dive down, and let our hands do the looking.

>You take a deep breath and dive beneath the water's surface, feeling your way towards the treasure. You slowly work your fingers across the rocks, their texture smooth and waterworn. You feel your way down to the riverbed, but find nothing by stone. Moving laterally across the rock, you find a gap, perhaps about as wide as your head. You reach inward, following the curvature of the rock. The bottom is still bare, save for more rocks. Then you finger slides across something very sharp and you wince, drawing your hand back. The fingertip stings distinctly; you think that probably drew blood.
>Gingerly, you prod at the spot again. You feel a largely flat metallic surface with a slight curvature, acutely sharp on one side. You're reasonably certain it's a blade of some sort. It seems to extend further than your arm can reach through the gap.

[Hello Purvis]

>Try to take it by the non-edged side and lift it out.

[DracoOmega]

>Try to take it by the non-edged side and lift it out.

>You feel along the non-edged side and get as good a grip on it as you can, then try to lift it out. This is a little awkward to do blind; you feel it catch on something after a few inches and have poor leverage to reposition it, but after some wiggling accompanied by sounds of it scraping against the rocks, you draw it clear.