[D8 LM - Can you dig it?]

[Kitsune Kiyoshi]

Kiyoshi held his conelantern high, for him.

[Hatoful GM]

There isn't much wading to be done; the pool is more in the nature of an opening in the rock. But Sorato can climb down into the water.

And down he goes...

It is difficult to tell just how deep it is visually, between the limited light and the impressive number of fish that swirl around. But with some difficulty, Sorato can see both where the pool is fed up higher, and the underwater passage leading out, smaller by far than the pool, but large enough to easily pass through.

Under the water, the pull of the current is stronger; if he drifts, Sorato will find himself slowly drifting towards the passage.

[Agasha Sorato]

Before going under, Sorato nods to Hinata. “I’ve got an hour of air, but this doesn’t look that big. If I don’t come up in twenty-five or thirty minutes or so, start pulling, please.”

With the burly Shiwahime present, too, he’d have to get really stuck down there for the others to be unable to haul him back up, he reckons.

Swimming downwards with fish dodging around the beam of the conelantern, he makes a mental note of the location of the spring-fed inflow and the width of the water-filled rift.

Descending further, he keeps an eye on the movement of the fish and waterweeds around him, judging the flow of the current. He has no desire to get swept into some underground river or cave waterfall. If he can ascertain that water is indeed flowing freely in and out, and roughly gauge the dimensions of the pool, that should be enough information for Haruhi’s patron for now.

Of course, if there are any particularly interesting looking plants or algae down here, he’ll snip a sample, because why waste an opportunity?


—
D8 LM—cave, lore:nature for investigating underwater flora | 5k3 ⇒ 14
D8 LM—cave, medicine (herbalism) for investigating underwater flora | 6k3 ⇒ 42

One With The Waves cancels underwater movement penalties. Still proceeding conservatively though!

If there’s nothing particularly unusual or surprising about the outflow vent, he’ll stop a safe distance away to mark the depth on his rope line and then start back up.

[Hatoful GM]

Some of the algae clinging to the walls seems to have some bioluminescent properties. There's some up above, but it's slimier down here!

[Agasha Sorato]

Ooh, slimy and glowy. That’s the good stuff! Sorato braces himself against the rock long enough to scrape some of the algae into a sample vial from the pouch on his belt.

However, he’s aware that the others are waiting for him in the cavern, so he won’t delay overlong underwater. As he swims back up, he will coil the slackening rope around his arm—his rough measuring tape of the pool’s depth.

((If there’s no disasters, sea monsters, whirlpools, pirate treasures, etc. then back to the surface!))

[Hatoful GM]

Sorato is able to surface without being attacked by even one seamonster.

[Kakita Haruhi]

Haruhi, who has mostly been politely looking away, glances back at the sound of something breaking the surface of the water, and is glad to see it is an unharmed Agasha-san.

"What did you find?"

[Susumu Sumiko]

Sumiko went to offer a hand, then realising there was more chance of her being pulled in than him getting pulled out stepped back.

"Successful?"

[Agasha Sorato]

Sorato paddles to the edge of the pool, shaking his head like a wet dog. "Fresh water flowing in and out again. There's our depth, more or less." He flops the coil of rope out of the water and onto the dry edge of the pool. "Nothing bigger down there than fish and some weeds."

The water smells like... cave, but it's relatively warm. Sorato's skin thus steams faintly in the humid air of the cavern as he hauls himself out to sit on the side of the pool, water streaming from his plait and down the lanky musculature of his back and chest. "I didn't get too close to the outflow. Didn't want to find out in person how narrow it might be." He shakes his head and sends a few more drops flying, lips quirking. "If we want to find the place the stream comes out, we could try putting a cheap communicator-tracker into a bubble and dropping it down there. I don't think we need that information for our report, though. Water's clean and moving, that should be good."

[Kitsune Kiyoshi]

"Did you have any sense of how far you went?" Kiyoshi asked.

[Bayushi Hinata]

"Wont need to." Said the scorpion as he collected the wet rope.

"Just need to have this section measured. How deep a human sized creature can go safely is still actionable information. Though if your patron is willing to invest, making sure wherever the spring originates from is also kept safe might be worth the Koku and time."

[Agasha Sorato]

"The source might be an underground spring or reservoir. The inflow looked really narrow, and I didn't see any fish moving through it. This could be the first place the water breaks to open air on its way to the sea."

Sorato unloops the rope from his belt so Hinata can finish collecting it, and sets the faintly glowing algae sample vial carefully aside. "If the governor agrees to protect the area above us here from blasting or heavy equipment, that should help shield the stream source as well as this cave."

Lacking a towel, he uses his hands to squeeze some of the wet out of his hair and squeegee water off of his body. With other things to think about he seems to have forgotten to be self-conscious about his state of (un)dress. He'll have to spend the rest of the morning smelling of Cave Cologne, but that's not the end of the world; he was already sweaty and dusty before he got near the water, and this afternoon's schedule involves a no-doubt-also-sweaty hunt in the jungle. He'll just make sure to have a really thorough bath after all that.

--
I suggest handwaving the actual numerical measurements and such!

[Kakita Haruhi]

Haruhi studied the wall of the cave, to give Agasha-san respectful privacy.

"Is that everything we need? I think that is enough information to complete the map for the city. Now, maybe, we just need to guide the jimen tori here."

[Kitsune Kiyoshi]

"I think so." Kiyoshi agreed. "There's a lot of information to work with."