As you head down the water-filled tunnel you realise that it must be quite late. It has been a long day and you have covered a lot of ground. The tunnel continues straight for 60' before there is a door in the floor. The tunnels continues. You stop above the door and it shimmers out of existence. On the other side of the opening is a tunnel going down. Crotchety comes swimming after you! Tully says over the comm-link. "Let's not leave a passage behind us in case there are hostiles." He heads down the open door. You all swim downwards for about 180', then the tunnel ends at another door. You see a red and green glowing light on the wall beside it. Coiled before the door is a 10' long serpentine creature, with the head of a woman. She watches you approach but makes no movement towards you otherwise. Tully says, "Hi, there, do you speak Common?" "Of course I know Common," she replies. "What brings you to Sirius?" "We are seeking Nernals or technologies about Nernals. Do you know of any?" Tully responds. "There is a nernal here," she replies. "It keeps the water pure and the tunnels warm." "Do you know where it is? We would like to talk with it to see if it can direct us on our journey. Also, are there monsters here that needed to be eradicated?" "It is through this door and down...way down," she replies. "You may eradicate any monsters you find beyond this door." Tully says, "Thank you for your help." She presses the green button with the tip of her tail and the door behind her shimmers away. Tully swims through the doorway. He is aware of a slight tugging current as he does so. Lo shrugs his shoulders and continues to follow. Darian bows to the creature and follows the others, as does Crotchety. On the other side of the doorway is an enormous, water filled chamber, brightly lit by a harsh blue light. The chamber is cubic shaped, and must be 500' per side. You see several openings in the walls, plus a large one in the centre of the bottom side. A current is tugging you towards the latter. Once you are through the doorway, the door rematerializes. Swimming towards you, though, come eight creatures that you swear must be ogres...but for the flippers where their feet should be! They do not look friendly. Darian fires his blaster at one of the ogres. Zanax waits for the ogres to approach before he attacks. Tully says, "Ok, I will try." He shoots his blaster rifle at the approaching creatures. If that doesn't work, he pulls out his sinclair sword and attacks! Crotchety casts Prayer on the party. The elf and the bard fire their blasters...and suddenly the water about you all is converted to superheated steam. Fortunately you are all wearing shield belts...else you would be boiled. Nevertheless, Crotchety takes 13 hit points of damage, while Lo and Wang take 45 hit points, rendering them unconscious. When the steam and bubbles clear you can also see six boiled ogre bodies floating nearby. The other two are gone. Darian swims over to Lo and heals him and then does the same to Crotchety. Their wounds close and Lo regains consciousness. However, they have lost a lot of blood and are extremely weak and helpless. They will be out of action for the next eight days. Zanax scans the chamber for evil. He then comments the obvious, "Perhaps we should get them shield belts." You note that they were wearing shield belts. "Perhaps we shouldn't shoot blasters underwater," replies Darian, wryly. "Yes, if our blasters can hurt the others, then we shouldn't use them." While Darian has been healing and the rest of you talking, the current has been steadily drawing you downwards towards the opening at the bottom of the water-filled chamber. By now you are moving at quite a fast clip, as the current becomes ever stronger. You feel as if you are being sucked into a whirlpool... Tully quickly pulls out a rope and ties it around himself and then ties the other end to Lo and Wang. "Grab on to the rope, guys." He shape changes into a bottlenose Dolphin and hauls the team out of the whirlpool. "Wheee!" they both cheer. However, with everyone hanging onto the rope the dolphin is able to slow your descent but not reverse it. Darian attempts to make himself more buoyant. The elf inflates like a puffer fish. Zanax begins to levitate and pull the others upward with the dolphin. Tully swims upward with Zanax in order to make sure they are on the same trajectory. With Zanax's and Darian's help you slowly overcome the current and start to rise gradually towards the ceiling of the water-filled chamber. As you move away from the drain the current eases. By the time you reach the ceiling it is but a gentle tug that all except for Lo and Wang can overcome easily. There is an opening in the ceiling. You swim along the ceiling towards it. The opening appears to be a tunnel; however, this time there is a very strong current flowing out of it and into the chamber which prevents you from swimming up it. Lo and Wang just hang out on the rope. "Tully, do you think you're a strong enough swimmer to scout that opening in the ceiling?" Tully does a dolphin shrug. He gets loose from the rope and attempts to swim up the tunnel. He can just barely make it through the current. He swims upward to see how far it goes. After awhile Tully the dolphin shoots back into the chamber where you await him. Tully grabs the rope and starts heading for the exit. Off to the ship! It takes you many hours of swimming and walking to make it back to the Steve Jobs. The good news is that Crotchety is drowsing most of the time so you do not have to put up with his incessant carping. The bad news is that you have to carry him. Returning to the X-class scout, you put Crotchety to bed and settle down to an early dinner of tofu turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, brussels sprouts and pumpkin pie. Even though it is only early afternoon you then all fall into bed and sleep, for you have been up for over 30 hours straight. You sleep straight through until the next morning. Crotchety continues sleeping.
Next
day...
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