The water is cold, though that's to be expected. Further complicating matters, visibility in as you descend into the mud quickly becomes very poor. The cloudy water and the dim sunlight above make the trek rather challenging. The city of Rhest, sunken below the blackfens, soon shows itself and provides a plethora of visual spectacles.
Plant and animal life have merged and overtaken the remnants of the city. While most of the smaller wooden structures have completely collapsed, the stone buildings still stand in various states of decay. Broken remnants of the city provide a teaming habitat for the creatures of the lake. Eels, bottom feeders, and all sorts of lake flora and fauna coat the buildings. Where there once were windows where a baker might have left his goods to cool, now the eyes of a dog-sized snail peer out into the streets, watching the party as they pass by.
Fifty years ago, the creatures here would have been the alien visitors out of place, but now it's your group that are invading upon these denizens. Schools of fish replace the busy human population, and the sound of voices have been replaced by the bubbles and current.
In a particularly dark hovel, a large collapsed building leans to the north. Under the rubble, it's clear that this building at one time housed a cellar, going a full 20 feet deeper into the earth. Now cakes with mud from years of settling dirt within the water, it looks almost completely converted back to nature. The mound of mud at first looks thicker in the center, looking almost like a massive underwater anthill with two stalks of strange almost translucent yellow rise from it. As the group passes by this particular building, the stalks vibrate slightly, as if reacting to some unusual current flowing past them.
A second later, the mound of dirt and mud shakes and rattles free, loosening a years silt laying over the creatures back. An enormous twelve foot long fish weighing hundreds of pounds slowly rolls its belly in circles loosening itself from it's sleeping place. The massive dire-catfish shakes itself off slowly at first, taking it's time and lethargically getting waking from it's deep sleep to see what's going on nearby. The lumbering giant fish with it's thick scaly hide and dusty eyes far too small for it's frame flaps its tail wildly as it finally wakes up, kicking a full storm of clay and silt up into the water. It lurches forward, bounding with a strange fish curiosity. It stares at the group, looking over the visitors that have come to play.
It first eyes Pender and Siobhan, their shiny appearance drawing it's attention. It then glances curiously at the crocodile and the halfling, not at all able to surmise what any of you are. The monstrous bottom-feeder doesn't seem to care much one way or another. If it'll fit in it's mouth, it's worth eating, and it has quite a mouth.
(actions/reactions)
