You find yourselves on a small island in the eastern Lyceum seas known by the name of Rustlet. Rustlet isle is absolutely unremarkable except for the spectacle offered by the Alof Blowhole. The Alof Blowhole is a cave network, open to the sea on one side, with a breach at the back. When the tide is high enough waves flow into the cave, strike the back, and cause a spume of water to shoot at high pressure up into the sky. Such drama. Such danger.

You are here because of a snippet of information that Carissa found. The piece of information says the following:
Caught that traitor Magon Blacksail on Ruslet Isle yesterday. I thought I had him but the coward jumped into the Alof Blowhole and I couldn't follow. Bastard. At least I have the satisfaction of knowing he's dead. Even if he did take the axe with him.

Its the axe you want. So it would seem the mission of the day is to enter the Alof Blowhole, find Magon's corpse, and pry an axe out of his hand. Oh and get back out again before the tide comes in and the waves squash you into little pancakes. Easy right?

Your preliminary scouting efforts have found two potential access points. You can rappel down through the blowhole itself or take boats to the front of the cave and then swim inside.

Raimon remains until everyone is gathered, pacing back and forth slowly with both hands behind him in the small of his back while he waits. Considering their options, Raimon scratches at the stubble of his chin with the back of the thumb of his gloved right hand. Looking up, Raimon offers: "Seems to me, that ropes would be better. We can rig them to get us in and out more quickly than boats would. The only added hazard is falling. But boats add the hazard of drowning -- all in all, that's perhaps a wash. Can we get a piton set in place here?" Raimon points. "And I'll fetch some rocks for counterweight, in case we -really- need to get up fast." Raimon offers.

As the small boat rides the tides until it slips on the shoreline, Titus helps pull it out of the water to the sandy beach as he goes to grab a pack holding adventuring things like rope, pitons, harness and a few other things like a very small lamp and one oil flask. The Warmonger does look down the beach, seeing if there's anyone he might see that aren't part of the adventuring party. He then follows the group towards where they need to go, Alof Blowhole.

Ian checks dexterity and sailing at normal. Ian is successful.

Titus checks intellect and sailing at normal. Titus is successful.

Ian isn't much help pulling the boat up onto the beach past the reach of the tide to carry it away. Hell, he's not even all that much help (to himself) staying on his feet on the beach; he stumbles more than once when the sand shifts under his feet. What he IS good at is rigging, with the characteristic Kennex attention to selection and neatness of knots, and the sailing kind of rigging transfers over quite well into the climbing kind.

Sunaia also helps pull the boat up onto the beach, climbing out and grabbing her own pack, though not with rope. She slings it over her shoulders and then listens to Raimon. She nods, "I think the ropes give us a quicker exit. We'll need all the time we can get to find this axe." She stands by as the others tie the rigging, ready to climb down.

With the equipment you brought along on the boat it is fairly easy to set up a solid platform for your rope and tip it down into the darkness. A quick time check to make sure your window of opportunity is sufficient and you're ready to climb down.

Sunaia checks stamina and athletics at easy. Sunaia is successful.

Raimon checks stamina and athletics at easy. Raimon is successful.

Ian checks stamina and athletics at easy. Ian is successful.

Titus checks strength and athletics at easy. Titus is successful.

Titus helps fasten the ropes to secure spots on top of the blowhole, checking how the notes are and the tides. "Good luck, see you on the bottom." He begins to slide down the rope into the darkness that envelopes.

The bottom of the rope leaves the shortest of you chest high in sea water. Luckily there seems to be no movement to it and the lantern reveals three possible routes out. One, which is under water, presumably leads back towards the sea, but the other two lead further into the depths. One of those paths requires that you climb about a man and a half up onto a ledge before passing further into the depths. The other is roughly head height and seems to be both narrow and low ceilinged as it passes inside. Make a choice. If you pick the wrong one you might not have enough to explore the other and guarantee a safe exit.

Raimon takes note of the timing of the surf and tides, getting as good an intuitive feel as he can for exactly how much time they might have before they head in. And then it's down into the cavern system, hand over hand. Raimon's reasonably fit, so he leads the way, landing in water up to his hips. He holds the rope steady for the rest of the crew, bracing against the rock walls of the cave. A nod to Titus -- good man -- for his anticipation in pre-lighting the lantern. And then it's. . . well, it's decision time. Raimon calls out: "Ian? You're well known for being Fortune's favorite -- and we could use a bit of Luck here. Any intuition which path?" Raimon wonders

"Everyone can swim, right?" Ian asks, just before they begin their descent. "Just in case." He slips his cane into a loop on his belt that's pretty clearly made for that purpose before pulling on gloves and starting the climb. He goes down the rope with ease, ending the descent well past his waist in sea water with, fortunately, no current to fight against. But the swimming question is apt. He looks up at the high ledge. "I'm going to climb up there. Pass me the lantern. I'll have a look and see if I can take a guess on whether this is the right way. We can see which one's a better prospect."

Ian checks strength and athletics at hard. Ian is successful.

Titus hands up his lantern to Ian and helps him up a bit. "You be careful up there." as they're left in the dark.

Both paths descend further into the island before twisting away from the lamp. The lower path is easier to get into but harder to traverse whilst the upper path requires a pretty challenging climb to access but offers a relatively open path. The question is - which route would Magon - A man desperate enough to jump into the Alof Blowhole just to escape a fight - have taken?

Climbing onto the ledge may or may not have just been a ploy on Ian's part to get himself out of the damned water for at least a few minutes, but whatever it is, he has no trouble grabbing the ledge over his head and forcibly pulling himself up, showing an impressive amount of upper body strength. He takes the lantern and then lifts it to look down the passage. "This looks like a pretty easy way to go once you make the climb," he calls down. "Anyone know if this guy could have made that first ledge?"

Titus wonders aloud, "Do you think he'd have had a chance grabbing that ledge? If he jumped down here, I don't think he'd have seen anything except feeling the walls. He'd have fallen the distance and probably taken the lower path."

Sunaia drops off the rope, the water up to her chest, and takes a moment to just orient herself. She nods when Ian lays out his plan and then walks closer to the other cave, standing there and peering down into it without a lantern. She frowns, seeming unsure. When Titus speaks she looks toward him and nods. "It seems unlikely that he would have managed to grab that ledge if he fell down the distance we climbed down. I think the lower path is probably the better bet, too."

It would have been a remarkable quirk of fate if Magon managed to land on the higher ledge after jumping down the blowhole. He almost certainly would have had to climb.

Ian passes the lantern back, before sitting on the ledge and then just letting himself drop into the water. His head goes under for a moment before he pops back up, now thoroughly soaked. It's not a giant cannonball splash, but he does shake the water out of his hair like a dog, so everyone's getting at least a LITTLE bit of a shower.

Ian checks dexterity and athletics at easy. Ian is successful.

It is possible to jump up and grab the ledge into the lower path but it soon gets narrow enough that you are having to suck in your bellies and shuffle sideways through the rocks. Luckily everything has been smoothed by the endless movements of water and there arent any nasty pointy bits to contend with. Unfortunately that same swirling erosion has destroyed any traces that Magon might have left behind. You shuffle deeper into the darkness until even your lanterns seem to only cast the smallest amounts of light and reach a round chamber in which you can all stand - as long as you dont mind getting cozy. There seem to be a few exits from this chamber at first sight but before to long you realise that most of them end quickly. The only one that doesn't is a narrow passage that will require crawling to get through. You can hear water dripping on the other side. So it must lead somewhere but are you brave enough to crawl into such a tiny tunnel with no guarantee that you can reach the other side?

Raimon waits for the results of Ian's scouting, closing his eyes briefly upon Ian's splashily dramatic re-entry. Raimon, nodding slowly as Ian reports back, readily accepts the assessment that the easier climb is an acceptable guess. "Very Well. Let us see what that branch can tell us. If we don't find anything within the proper time frame, we head back to the surface, wait out a full tide cycle, and then try the other. Gods-speed." Raimon closes his eyes for a longer time, nigh-wordlessly whispering a silent prayer to Mangata for the success of their venture. And then they're off! It's a bit cramped in the passageway, truth be told. Raimon's glad that he's not the sort to put on a lot of 'winter weight' . . . in addition to warding off the vices of sloth, daily practice is also, evidently, just the thing to keep a man fit and trim enough for caving. Who knew?

Raimon gets black sealskin leather trousers from ruck.

Raimon gets black sealskin leather jerkin with details in aqua blue from ruck.

As Ian does the shaggy dog and flicks water everywhere it splashes on the gaunt face as the blood red eyes close. "I suppose we're going to get wet either way." As he follows and they make it into the Cozy Chamber. Glancing around he's looking for any marks or traces but as he looks at that tiny tunnel he says "Should we link ourselves with the rope if we're going to go through the dark tunnel? Just in case there's a pit we can't see from this end. Speed is the name here, we don't want to get stuck like our target or anyone trapped falling."

Ian is game to go through the narrow path, taking point in case there's some kind of... cave... land... shark things? The point is that if they have to go single file, he's probably the guy everyone's going to want taking the brunt of anything unfriendly they run into, or at least he thinks that he is. Once in the chamber, he eyes the small passage. "I'm not as good crawling as I am climbing, but I'll make a harness for anyone who wants to try and go in there to see if it looks promising. Worst comes to worst, we can haul them back out."

Sunaia follows the others, making her way through the narrow passage and into the cozy room. She looks about, peering down several of the dead ends before coming around to look down the dark tunnel. "I'm the smallest, I'll go," she says looking toward Ian.

Sunaia checks composure and survival at easy. Sunaia is successful.

As Sunaia says she'll go first, Titus nods and with Ian's help they all start to get themselves secured on a very long line of rope. "You'll be fine." he says in a word of encouragement to her, handing her the lantern so she can lead the way.

And so Sunaia vanishes shuffle by shuffle into the narrow passageway. To start with its not so bad except for the darkness. She can turn enough to see the puddle of light behind her and even hear their voices. But as she goes further and further inside the passageway narrows until there is no choice but to wriggle through on her belly.

Sunaia checks composure and survival at normal. Sunaia is successful.

Back in the round cave you watch Sunaia vanish into the hole until there is no sign of her except for the slow unfurling of the rope.

Sunaia calls back behind her, "It gets really narrow down here, I can't even crawl." Give everybody else enough information to make a decision about taking this path. She is the smallest, after all. Hopefully they hear her. That said, then, she gets down on her stomach and wiggles on. Hopefully she doesn't get stuck!

Titus checks composure at easy. Titus is successful.

Ian watches as Sunaia's light starts to disappear and Titus goes to follow her. He still doesn't pile in, himself, but does help to make sure that Titus is hooked up to the rope in a way that'll allow him to get pulled back out. Then he goes back towards the passage out, taking a light with him. "I'll be back in a minute. Going to try and get a sense of what kind of time we have to work with."

Raimon, the largest of the crew and thus currently filling the role of the 'Anchor Guy' on the rope line, concentrates on the parameters within his purview. Keeping the proper amount of tension in the line, staying ready to pull like mad if someone does fall into a pit. And singing, softly, a comforting and reassuring sort of ditty which he's making up on the spot. Which also will help Ian and Sunaia gauge distance and timing by way of audible volume. Unless the ocean comes crashing in and they all die. That would be noisy, so, yeah, won't hear him then.

One can hear the telltale sound of a 'donk' and a muffled set of words as Titus hits his helmet on the ceiling of the very very tiny and narrow passage as something startles him. "Lady Sunaia, you feel anything?" There's another set of muffled noises as Titus is saying that it's getting tighter and narrower.

Titus checks composure at normal. Titus is successful.

Sunaia checks composure and survival at hard. Sunaia fails.

Ian checks perception and sailing at normal. Ian is successful.

Sunaia calls back behind her, "It opens up farther down. I'm able to stand," she says, calling back, her voice a bit shaky. Hopefully Titus can hear her. She starts to feel around, searching with her hands--it's dark in here--to find the next passage. She pats the walls and it's quiet for a few minutes until somebody close enough might be able to hear her say, "Ewww." Followed quickly by her calling out more loudly, "I think I found something."

Titus has to work to get through the wriggle space, crawling on his belly to shuffle one forearm then the other, followed by knee and knee. His pace isn't quick but it isn't too slow. He sometimes feels around the walls to sense if there's anything to the left, right, above or below but on he goes through to try and get towards Sunaia. "I'm coming up behind you. Just a bit more."

Ian returns to the entrance to the Cozy Room. "We're about a third of the way until we need to drop what we're doing and go," he says, stepping back in. "The water's not coming up yet. I'm thinking about having a look at that other passage, just in case." Just thinking about it, though; his soft voice doesn't ring with the certainty of someone who's made up his mind.

Raimon nods as Ian reports back, still backstopping the two (smallest) crew members who have braved the tightest spaces and darkness. Raimon does not take his focus off of the line he's anchoring, and he plays the rope out slowly, and carefully, hand over hand, always keeping a loop ready to shoulder and pull, should that become called - for.

Titus has reached the end of the tight tunnel section and his head comes out into a tall, narrow, and very dark space. If he reaches out his hand can touch Sunaia's calf but there should just be room for him to stand. Of course, two people breathing in such a small space will quickly make the atmosphere feel even tighter than it does already.

In Raimon's spot there has been no movement on the rope for a while now. The two in the passage must have come to a stop.

Nothing stops Ian from heading back down that other passage. If he is willing to go alone.

Sunaia checks willpower at normal. Sunaia is successful.

Sunaia checks perception and medicine at easy. Sunaia is successful.

Titus checks composure at normal. Titus is successful.

Ian watches Raimon playing out the line, one gloved hand touching the wall, eyes narrowed in thought. Then he nods to himself and turns around, going back out to the room where the passages branch off.

Raimon calls out, "Have you guys found anything?" while Ian is still in earshot. No sense risking Ian chasing wild geese if the mission is, perhaps, accomplished. This way Ian can still choose to come back if that's the play.

Titus pops his head in the room and peers upwards in the darkness. "It's Titus." he says, just to give her a bit of ease that she's not getting some nasty monster going to grab her, that it's just him. "Anything in here? Ian says we ought to hurry up."

Ian checks strength and athletics at hard. Ian fails.

"Yeah, I think I've found him. I've got my hand on his foot," Sunaia says, her voice quavering, though she's trying to sound calm. The thing she's found is the bottom half of a skeleton. "His torso is stuck in this crevice. I'm going to try and pull him free." She's trying to talk a good game, but she sounds scared. She looks back over her shoulder. "Maybe go back some, and give me some space?" Then she turns to tug on the legs to try and dislodge the body, and hopefully find the axe.

There is no space for Titus to give. Not unless he goes back into the hole he just crawled out from. Add another person and you would all be hugging.

Sunaia checks strength at hard. Sunaia marginally fails.

The effort to pull him out is going great, absolutely great, until you pull his leg off. The sudden release of tension makes Sunaia bounce back into the wall. Was it so close before she started pulling?

Ian checks strength and athletics at hard. Ian is successful.

Raimon shouts down the hole: "If you want to loop the rope 'round his ribs or hip bones, or something, I can give the rope a tug, here!" Not a requirement, just an offer. Sumaia's on - scene, with the best perspective. In either case, Raimon is staying by the anchor point and doing his job, of 'Anchor Guy' . . . regardless of whom, or when, he'll be pulling.

Titus nods, which is stupid because it's probably unseen. "Understood." to Sunaia. Hearing Raimon, he says "Wrap the rope around him and we can pull him back out but double-check that nothing is left behind. I'll help pull him with us."

Ian's persistence pays off when he manages to lever himself up onto the ledge that provides access to the other tunnel. The tunnel makes a few sharp turns but its always tall enough and wide enough for Ian to walk in comfort. It seems to head upwards as well. Soon enough the nature of the rock changes underfoot changes from sea smoothed to more typical stalagmite bearing cave.

Titus says, "Or chop his hand off.""

Ian checks perception at hard. Ian fails.

Ian checks luck at hard. Ian fails.

Sunaia thuds into the wall behind her and lets out an oof. "Just great," she mutters, mostly to herself, but it's so close in here Titus hears her just fine. Then she nods to his suggestion about the rope, and helping. Not that he can see her in the dark like they are. "Yeah, okay, let's do that with the rope," she says. "We got to pull him out, his arm is on the other side of his torso." She starts to gather up rope to tie around the skeleton's hips, to try and pull it free. "His other leg is right here, I'll pull on his hip."

Titus checks strength at easy. Critical Success! Titus is spectacularly successful.

Sunaia checks strength at easy. Sunaia is successful.

Raimon checks strength at easy. Raimon is successful.

Ian moves a little way into the cave, holding his lantern high, trying to get a sense of the surroundings. Are there tracks? Might someone looking for a way out go this way? This would be a good way to go if you were looking for a way out. After a moment, he stops, and blinks in the dark. "Well, shit," he says to himself, like a man who does, in fact, have regrets. He'll make a slow circle, careful to use landmarks to keep from going deeper than intended, and use a few drops from his canteen to measure whether he can find a slope to the ground.

Ian checks perception and survival at normal. Botch! Ian fails badly.

The group shifts to the rope method and starts to ease the copse out of the hole as smoothly as they can. It resists at first but then the shoulder guard pulls free and suddenly the whole thing is unstuck. Anything that was around his legs or waist is gone but the ringmail chest, shoulderguards, helm and his wrist and neck jewelry is all still where it should be. And more importantly - He's still holding his axe!

Ian is surrounded by a maze of stalegtites and stalegmites that make it difficult to judge what way he should go. His careful circle leads him to a pair of stalegmites he's SURE he hasn't seen before.

The skeletons armor is totally ruined of course. The axe doesn't look to good either but you'll have to get it to a smith to know for sure.

Ian eventually comes to a halt, one hand resting on the unfamiliar stalactite, and decides to stop making it worse for himself.

Sunaia pulls on the corpse until it comes loose and continues to pull until she finds the axe! "Yes! We've got it," she says, grabbing hold of the weapon they came here to get. She steps back as best she can and says, to Titus, "Let's get out of here. This place creeps me out."

Titus continues pulling and helping. When he hears she's got the axe, he says "Excellent job, lady Sunaia. Let's get out of here before the tide takes us too."

Raimon shouts into the hole: "Great going you guys! When you get turned around, make sure to loop the rope over one arm, your primary, so that I can most easily get you out if you get stuck. And if you tie the axe to the very end of the rope, you won't have to worry about navigating any of the thin parts with the axe and you in the same small space!" Raimon offers. Raimon nods.

Ian waits patiently in the dark for some sound cue to make another attempt at finding the way out and/or Narnia.

Titus checks composure at hard. Titus marginally fails.

Sunaia checks willpower at hard. Sunaia is successful.

The crawl back seems to take forever, especially for Titus who's nerves fray to breaking when his shoulder briefly get stuck. Titus and Sunaia soon return to Raimon and its an easy move back to the water-room from there. Everything's gone pretty smoothly considering.. But wheres Ian?

They get back out, and splashed down in the water, and Sunaia looks around. Water swirls as she turns, taking in the whole room in what light is there. "Where's Lord Ian?" Then she raises her voice loudly, "IAN!"

Titus struggles on that climb out, but once they're all out to the central spot he hears that Ian isn't present. Asking Raimon, he says "Where'd he go? And one of us should at least go up out of here with that axe, that'll leave two to try finding Ian."

Ian checks perception at hard. Ian is successful.

Ian hears his name!

Raimon: "He didn't say." Raimon reasons: "Well, if he's up at the surface, all to the good. If he's not, there's only -one- other path. IF you guys can boost me up there, there's a (( ?? perception + investigation ?? )) chance I can find his bootprints. Titus, agreed -- you climb up with the axe. Call down if he's up there. Sunaia and I will check the other path."

Raimon checks stamina and athletics at normal. Raimon is successful.

Titus checks strength and athletics at normal. Titus is successful.

Once Ian's got a general idea of the way out via Sunaia's impressive lungs, which is hopefully not the way to Narnia, he starts in that direction. "Son of a --" He narrows his eyes at the 'unfamiliar looking' stalacmite that's right next to the way out. Then: "It really does look different from this angle."

Once the rescuers have all gathered on the ledge they can easily follow Ian's path through the salt washed sea tunnels. Eventually though they reach an area where the cave seems to be older and less prone to floods (if you have to get lost at least its here). There are stalegtites and stalagmites around making it difficult to see any one route through.

Meanwhile Ian tries to make his way back to them..

Ian checks perception at normal. Critical Success! Ian is spectacularly successful.

Ian checks luck at hard. Ian fails.

"Hope you guys found the ax," Ian remarks as he joins Raimon and Sunaia, coming out from behind a stone outcropping. "If it's up here, we're going to need to bring better lanterns to get to it."

Raimon mentally notes that there are many things he could say to Ian upon their reunion. Raimon chooses this one: "When caving, wear your spurs." Raimon points to his spurs, which are usually thought of as horseback - riding - only things. "That way you can scuff the floor as you go along, and you don't get lost because you can follow the scrape marks back."

Titus climbs out and he unslings his pack and sets the axe in it. Once that's finished, he checks the ropes and says "When you're ready, I'll help folks up." down the blow hole. "I suggest hurrying up so we aren't rushed with the sea flooding in."

Raimon drops spurs.

Raimon gets spurs.

"Would be really easy to get lost in here," Sunaia says, and then lo, there is Ian. She looks at him for a moment. They have a lantern, here, after all. "There you are. We did find the axe." She still seems a bit shaken from the darkness of the cave as she looks around. "Let's get out of here." And she starts to head back the way they came, toward the water-room.

Raimon checks strength and athletics at normal. Raimon is successful.

Ian follows along behind the other two, towards the way out. "There's a certain amount of irony that the pirate didn't go this way. That part of the cave probably isn't underwater at high tide."

Ian checks stamina and athletics at normal. Ian is successful.

Raimon follows Sunaia back to the rope and climbs up, hand - over - hand, shouting ahead to Titus: "We found him!"