Indeed, there are some small crates that can be taken out in human shape, either through the hole in the side of the hull or through the hold's hatch (if he can get that open). The bigger ones and the few intact amphoras, on the other hand, would require quite a bit of work to get out. It might still be worth the attempt, as they are probably more valuable, but this may be too much work.
As Japik the dolphin carefully moves around the hold, he crosses some patches of water that taste foul. Probably from those broken amphoras -- wine, vinegar, oil and others liquids mixing up with the sea water. Not to mention the bloated body of a few of the original sailors. A number of small fishes and crabs scamper away from Japik.
And, as he moves past one particular jumble of containers that broke free from their ropes, he feels the brush of something cold, slimy and animated on his dolphin flank, trying to grasp him.
Japik immediately turns the other way when he feels the slimy thing grasping for him. He tries to find the hole where he came from to swim out of the ship as fast as he can. At the same time trying to see what that slimy thing really is. An octopus or something else?
Things happen in a chaotic jumble as Japik tries to do five different things at once. Twisting and trying to turn back towards hence he came means he bumps into various surfaces, gathering scratches and bruises in the tight confines of the cargo hold. This almost causes him to lose concentration on his shrinking spell -- and for one panicky moment he envisions himself growing back to his full size and getting stuck there.
Thankfully, he succeeds in retaining control of his spell (1), but has little time to examine what touched him. It is only once he is out of the ship that he has time to reflect as to what he saw out of the corner of his eye. These are only glimpses and impressions -- a human face with a gaping mouth full of sharp teeth, tentacles of some kind, sluggish movement and unblinking eyes.
(1) A lucky roll of 12 (1,6) for a total of 16 against an ease factor of 12.
Japik swims back up to the surface where their ship is anchored. He releases the shrinking spell on the way and shifts back to human form. He tells the crew of what he saw inside the ship, the crates and the beast (he doesn't care what Rudiger or the others may think of such tales).
Roughly how deep is the sunken ship lying? Do we have enough rope to take it down and strap it around a crate and then have the crew haul it up on my command?
This is the plan:
First he will instruct the crew to tie one end of the longest rope we have to some sturdy part of the ship, if needed they tie several ropes to each other to make it as long as possible. Someone should hold the rope and be ready for Japik pulling the rope quickly three times in a row. That means they should start to haul whatever Japik have strapped to the rope down below.
Before diving into the water he casts Veil of Invisibility on himself, using both Loud Voice and Exaggerated gestures. Assuming the spell works he then takes a deep breath and jumps into the water holding the other end of the rope as he dives down to the ship again.
At the hole in the ship he ties the rope loosely with whatever there is to tie it with. Then he swims inside the ship looking both for crates he may be able to bring out by himself, but also for the beast. He will try to locate the beast before he starts moving anything.
As Japik relates his glimpses of the tentacled creature, Rudiger grows pale and backpedals to the other side of the boat. "Iku-Turso?" His eyes are wide with fear. He turns to Trond to plead with a fellow sailor. "Please, please, me must get away from here! Or drop me off somewhere along the coast! I don't want my soul to be eaten by a demon of the sea!"
The wreck is about 30 to 40 feet deep. You have enough rope aboard to haul up crates from the wreck; the main difficult being bringing the larger ones aboard without capsizing the Baltrum.
Ok before going further with the plan above. What do Japik or perhaps the crew know about Iku-Turso? Is it some infamous legend around here? If no one knows Rudiger is asked of what he knows, if needed through Trond.
[I just googled it so I have updated myself of that legend but what is known about it to these people? Perhaps I should abort the mission and get some help if we want to bring some of these goods up, if it's even worth it at all...]
Japik doesn't know anything about it. The sailors, however, know a little. It is one of the many legends of sea monsters/demons roaming the ocean. Octopi-like creatures sent by a demon to eat drowned sailors' hearts (and souls, some say). Iko-Turso himself would be a land-swallowing demon, or something like that. Versions vary.
You don't get much details, only the general idea that it is a very dangerous demon (or magical creature, or fae, perhaps). The creature you have seen is nowhere as large as what the legends describe, but it may be an underling, a "child of Iko-Turso" as some of the legends call them.
But you can tell that even your own sailors are somewhat nervous about it.
Well Japik assures them that this is no demon, just a mutated octopus smaller than a dolphin. He will go down as planned and he promises them that when he comes up next time they will go back home.
Then he proceeds as planned above. Rudiger might freak out completely but Japik doesn't care much.
Well Japik will be a bit more careful when he is down in the ship. He will look for the creature before doing anything with the crates. If considered reasonably safe he will try to bring out one or two of the smaller crates (if possible to take two in one go).
Trond takes Japik aside while the other sailors deal with Rudiger's agitation. "Master," he says softly, "perhaps it might be better to go ashore for the night and leave him there tomorrow when we come back." He looks at the declining sun, "it is already late in the day, so it would be unlikely that we'd be able to bring much aboard anyway." The sailor licks his lips nervously, not looking at the magus in the eye. "Better not to go into the beast's lair in the dark, no matter what it is, don't you think?" The ship's captain is almost pleading.
"Isn't it better to get it done today and then we can go home in the morning?" Japik argues first, eager to get down again.
However then he looks at the nervous crewmen and the declining sun and realises that Trond is right. "Alright, let's do as you say. We go ashore for the night then we come here early in the morning without Rudiger and see if we can get something up, then we pick him up and go back to Helgeland. Is that ok with you and the crew?"
"Yes, master, that would be good." There is relief in Trond's voice. He then directs the sailors to raise anchor and set the sail. He decides to bring them to the mainland instead of simply beaching them on the small island. To give them access to fresh water, he tells Japik, but the magus gets the impression that it may be more than that. Having solid land under their feet calms the sailors a bit.
The evening is quiet for the group of sailors. They are a bit more remote to Japik as they go about their business of preparing dinner and making ready for the night. A few times during the evening, Japik notices them talking to each other softly when he's a bit farther to them. They are still deferential to him, but it is obvious that the tale of the octopus-like creature has unnerved them and reminded them of stories about sea monsters -- and the unfortunate sailors that meet them.
Rudiger, for his part, has calmed down. Although not quite ostracized by the others, he is clearly not part of the group and stays as far away from Japik as possible.
In the morning, Rudiger is gone. When he notices, Trond shrugs. "We won't have to share the spoils with him," he says pragmatically.
Soon enough, the Baltrum is sailing again to the location of the wreck.
Japik laughs at Trond's remark about Rudiger being gone.
Japik jumps into the water and changes to dolphin form as soon as they get near the location. He swims down to the wreck and checks it to see if it looks the same as yesterday from the outside, looking inside through the hole and of course especially looking for anything moving with tentacles.
If it looks the same (well except for the beast) he will swim back up change to human form and prepare for the plan as above.
Cautiously moving closer to the hole, Japik notices very little change on the outside of the wreck.
When he stick his head into the hole, however, he quickly sees that it is another story on the inside of the cargo hold. Near the spot where he was set upon by the tentacled creature, a pile of crates apparently broken free from its securing ropes. Perhaps when Japik was trashing about trying to get away? Nonetheless, those crates are now lying haphazardly around the spot. There is no sign of the creature, although it could be hidden elsewhere inside the ship.
(I'm assuming that Japik hasn't made his dolphin shape smaller this morning? Note that he would get +3 similar spell bonus for knowing Beast of the Outlandish Size, which I think we forgot the last time.)
(OOC: I'm just trying to understand the plan, so bear with me.)
In addition to the ropes, the Baltrum has some sturdy nets used to secure cargo. One of the crewmen suggests using it to haul up stuff from the wreck.
(No problem casting Veil of Invisibility. This is not a stress situation and Japik knows the spell. Even without Loud Voice and Exagerated Gestures he cannot fail to cast it and would have only 10% chance of Fatigue. I won't even bother rolling a die.)
(My question is, does he change to dolphin before diving? It's unlikely he's able to dive that deep in human shape, since he only has Swim 1. On the other hand, in dolphin shape he doesn't have hands to tie up a crate into the net. Crates that are inside the cargo hold. Bringing them out and tying them to be hauled up would take much longer than he can hold his breath, even if he changes back and forth -- and changing takes time too. Water is also very cold at this depth. I'm not saying it cannot work, just trying to understand how he is trying to make it work.)
The net is great so of course we should use that if we find a solution to the rest.
I thought the sunken ship was at a depth that Japik could dive to as human so that is what I based my plan on. He has diving as specialty for Swim so it would make his effective rank 2 but it may not be enough anyway.
I'm thinking of a way to give him the ability to breathe longer under water while in human form. The spell that gives that ability Lungs of the Fish is a level 20 Aquam spell which rules it out for Japik. But what about creating a minor Muto Corpus effect with Animal requisite to give him gills for instance or just transfer his dolphin form's ability to breath under water longer? It need to be spontaneously cast so there is a limit on how complicated it can be.
Another and perhaps better way is to change his front fins in dolphin form into human arms and hands so he can handle the cargo. Change an animal's limb is base level 3, + 2 for sun duration makes it level 5. But he has to cast it twice, once for each fin? This also requires him to shrink himself the same way as last time. That means three fatiguing spell castings.
The wreck is about 30 feet under water, which is too far down for him to dive. From experience I can tell you that diving more than 15 feet starts getting quite hard. And even a score of 2 (considering the specialty) is fairly low on the scale of Abilities. Professional oyster divers, who probably do something similar to what he would be attempting, probably have the equivalent of a Swim score of 5 or 6 (also with a diving specialty).
Magic provides many ways to achieve his goals. Being able to hold his breath longer would be a minor ability (Base 2), increasing the time he can do so to about 2 to 5 minutes. It would probably mean many trips up and down before he can properly take out and secure a single crate. Growing gills would indeed be a bit harder, IMO (Base 3) as it is a more important change, while also requiring an Animal requisite (not a problem for Japik). But neither of these solutions solve the problem of cold water -- at this depth the water it is probably around 10 degrees Celsius. Japik will quickly lose Fatigue levels because of it if he remains in human shape.
Changing his flippers into hands is indeed Base 3. Yep, must be cast once for each flipper. Or boost the Base to 4 to change both at once, if you prefer (though the spell is more difficult to cast since he needs to be a dolphin before he can cast it). His dolphin shape will be a bit less maneuverable swimming with hands instead of flippers, and won't be very agile with those hands, but he would be able to get the job done. On the plus side, those hands would be able to make gestures for spellcasting (normal ones, no Exagerated possible). His dolphin shape also doesn't have problems with the cold water, so it seems like the best way to proceed.
The only downside is that each fatiguing spont carries the risk of botching.
Let me know what you cast and in which sequence, along with the casting totals before die roll. I'll handle the [strike]botching[/strike] dice rolling.
One more thought:
If he sponts a CrIg effect to heat his shirt to warm (level 2, +1 touch and +2 sun), would that offset the problem he gets from the cold water in human form?
In the end I want to minimize the potential botching rolls.
In dolphin form he needs two rolls: 1. Change both flippers into hands 2. Shrink himself to size 0.
In human form he also needs two rolls: 1. Grow gills 2. Get some kind of heat source close to him.
This is in addition to the Veil of Invisibility.
He casts spells just as good in both forms because of Quiet and Subtle magic but in Human form he can use Loud voice and Exaggerated gestures without any more magic use.
Although a warm shirt would not be enough to counter the effects of the cold water (50% of body heat is lost by the head), you could cast an CrIg spell at yourself to remain warm. The canonical example of this is Coat of Prometheus (MoH p.110). It's only level 4 (Base 2, +2 Sun) for a Personal version of the spell.
You will still be more vulnerable in human shape than as a dolphin, but it will certainly be easier to handle the crates and ropes.
Well i hope my invisibility will give me some protection initially at least.
I have come to a conclusion then, finally
While still on Baltrum Japik casts the spells in this order:
Spont Coat of Prometheus (Sta +4, Cr +8, Loud voice and Exaggerated gestures +2 though those shouldn't be needed since only a botch means something bad)
Grow gills (Sta +4, Mu +5, An +5, no Co, Loud voice and Exaggerated gestures only if needed)
Cast Veil of Invisibility.
Then dive into the water.
If he changes to dolphin form later while underwater do the gills and invisibility stays in effect?
