Yesterday we played Wildsea for the first time in three goddamn months. Here's last time!
Our wildsailors pull up to the spit that sank the Sanguine Dress. They realize that it might stick out of the thrash to a greater or lesser degree depending on what the "waves" are doing, and it wouldn't be hard for a ship to slam into it if it were mostly submerged (which is what happened to the Dress). They feel a notable drop in temperature as they get closer, and they smell loam and moss and earth. They also notice that the base of the spit is wrapped in vines that descend below the surface into the tangle, but the spit itself is covered in thick green moss...and these two things share a root structure.
They pull up near the spit and decide to wait until morning to go ashore. Rozek brews some tea to help Chambersson and herself with the wounds they've suffered (Chambersson got hit with a spike thrower some days back and it's still bothering him). Chambersson drinks the tea appreciatively, and he and Kazera busy themselves with their own interests before sleeping.
In the morning, they take three undercrew and head ashore (Jakesta elects to stay behind on the ship, for reasons known only to her own ghostly self [her player was absent]). Obviously Rozek takes samples of the green moss, and Chambersson peeks over the edge to see if one could, say, use the vines to climb down the side of the spit. One could, in fact, if one wanted to risk the other dangers of the tangle.
Kazera pulls up some of the moss to see what's beneath, and finds a hollow in the stone. The sailors discover that it leads deeper into the spit, but it's not a straight drop; there are landings and ledges. They decide to enter, but slowly - Chambersson and one of the undercrew go first to blaze their trail, while Kazera and another crew member follow, lodge spikes in the rock and stringing rope to give them a way back.
Chambersson is doing all right, though he is still suffering from sparks and jolts (from mire) and that makes it slow going. And then he comes to a place where the tunnel splits unexpectedly, and he and the crewman he's with both slide down different spokes! He selflessly tosses the other guy a the rope and wedges himself into the tunnel with his limbs (and tentacles), and listens to the whispers in the dark - there's something in here, something powerful and valuable, but dangerous.
The crew member scrambles back and tells Kazera what's happened and she tosses the rope down to Chambersson and hauls him back. As he's climbing, he hears something move in the dark, and the crew decide maybe this isn't the best approach. Chambersson and the crew head back to the surface, but on the way he bumps against the sides of the wall, his spike wound leaving a smear of his blue blood behind. Kazera, meanwhile, chips into the rock to see if she can find any interesting samples and finds a rusted iron spike. Another crew of explorers has been this way before...
This turns out to be a good thing, because the thing that was moving follows them.
It scuttles up out of the darkness, an immense creature like a giant house centipede, but translucent and with a slight blue glow. It ignores Kazera entirely, following the blood trail that Chambersson left, but Kazera hurls the rusted spike she found at it along with her rivet swarm. It backs off enough for her to get ahead of it, and the crew puts the moss back over the whole and weighs it down with rocks (and Kazera).
They aren't ready to give up yet - Chambersson senses something important inside the spit, he's dream of a pool of impossibly cold water, somehow cooled deliberately, but to what purpose? Rozek, who is not built for delving and is not so interested in being frozen (she was, after all, raised out in the cold), stays on the spit to anchor ropes while Kazera and Chambersson climb down the sides of the spit on the vines. She does, however, loan Chambersson her furs and Pearl, her pet salamini, to keep him warm (Kazera isn't affected by the cold but Chambersson is especially susceptible).
They find a spot where the vines hide a gap in the stone and Kazera punches through it, and climb into the interior. This tunnel, unlike the one they were in before, is man-made - the stone is smooth and shaped in a way that Chambersson cannot identify. He tries to light up the area with his voltaic mantle but can't quite get it steady enough, and Rozek sends down a lantern on a rope instead. The two of them venture further in, and the chamber opens up into an immense shaft in the center of the spit.
They see a blue glow, and realize that there are rocks further down that are producing it. At the very bottom is a pool of water, with no current but somehow in random motion. The temperature drops precipitously as they descend, but Chambersson is fascinated by this water and these weird rocks. He and Kazera work at one until they dislodge it from the walls, and find it's kind of formed there like a salt deposit. But then Kazera taps it, it produces a ringing sound that harmonizes with all the others, and the sound echoes up the shaft and out over the Wildsea.
Chambersson holds the rock and peers closer, but then he realizes that it's making his hands tingle and he tastes metal. He gives it back to Kazera to hold onto, and asks her to take a sample of the water as well. She does, but when she dips her hand into the water she feels the cold - which shouldn't be possible. The rivets and metal swirling around her also start to drop and lose power, and she pulls her hand back out. She takes a sample in a jar, but they decide to head up. Whatever this is, it's unquestionably powerful, and these rocks would make amazing cargo...
...and yet, as they ascend, they both feel strange. Chambersson returns the furs to Rozek, and she starts to feel it, too. What strange energies have they been exposed to? And what long-term effects might they have?
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