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As several of the group led by Dorn and Lucretia move off towards the third room that Milo had suggested they explore, there is a sudden dwarven yell of surprise and the cracking of ancient wood. In the room with Larz and Yvandel, the dwarf suddenly disappears from sight as the old wooden cover to a well crumbles beneath his weight. His cry lasts for several seconds before there is a distant splash.

"Help! Larz has fallen in a well!" yells Yvandel rushing to the lip and holding up the torch to peer in.

Lucretia can see little down the well, even with his light coin - the brick lined walls disappear into darkness more than 40 feet below, though there is the glimmer of reflected light much further down.

Turning his attention to the bottom of the well Luc calls out to Larz, "are you ok down there? What do you see?"

Beyond the faint sound of water still sloshing about - there is no response from Larz. He was wearing fairly heavy armour...

Merrell reads the scroll, granting fly to Cleo, Ceely, Lucretia, and Vaslin.

Cleo is the first into the well, starting to yell up for a light before she remembers that her broadsword illuminates just fine. Vaslin, Lucretia and Ceely join her moments later, making the bottom of the well suddenly rather crowded. The water is black and icy cold and the circle of light with faces peering down is a good eighty feet above.

Vaslin splashes into the water and after taking a shuddering breath with the sudden cold, dives down below the surface, feeling her way for Larz.

Below the water's surface little light seems to penetrate from above. The stone walls descend straight down on either side of her, disappearing into darkness as she kicks towards the bottom, hoping to find her lost dwarven companion. She feels no currents, but also fails to reach the bottom before her lack of breath turns her back towards the light and the surface, her ears popping from the pressure.

Cleo half sheaths her sword and dives deep, using her momentum to plunge into the water and the weight of her armour to drag her down, keeping her hand on the hilt to keep the sword illuminated (OOC: it'll go dark if she lets go of the hilt).

With the light from her sword, she can see the dwarven cut stone walls of the well continuing down for the first 30 feet before changing to more natural looking stone - the well becoming no longer round but more like a natural fissure. Below her, she finally glimpses the bottom, a rough area with the body of Larz lying crumpled there. She estimates she is about 60 feet down.

Meanwhile Vaslin, gathering her breath at the surface, readies herself for another dive as well, shivering slightly in the cold.

ROUND 4 Breath Left: CLEO:24, VASLIN:19 LUCRETIA:31, CEELY:27
Cleo releases the now limp rope, descending the last 15 feet down to Larz's body. She can see his left arm twisted awkwardly above his head, his shield still bound to it. His body is face down, his large pack strapped to his back and still leaking odd bubbles of air. His beloved hammer of Clangeddin lies half buried in a fine sand off to one side, the wooden shaft pointing straight up.

ROUND 5 Breath Left: CLEO:22, VASLIN:18 LUCRETIA:30, CEELY:26
Fully sheathing her sword, her light is extinguished and with a smaller amount of light coming down from above, she feels in the gloom for Larz's body, managing to grab him by the armpits and turn him over in anticipation of lifting him. [Private to Cleo: As she lifts her head to rise to the surface, she spots a faint light off to one side that she couldn't see before when her own light bright was before her - a glimmer of a light source through a crevice in the natural rock.] Looking up, light can be seen shimmering down through the water from Lucretia's light coin, shadows dancing wildly through the shifting water as Lucretia, Ceely and Vaslin swim down to meet her.

Lucretia certainly doesn't seem to have any problems in swimming down - in fact he can feel his own heavy armour dragging him down at a considerable rate of knots and he starts to worry somewhat as he doesn't feel the magic of the fly spell helping him at all.

ROUND 6 Breath Left: CLEO:20, VASLIN:17 LUCRETIA:29, CEELY:25
With her ears popping from the depth, she pushes up off the bottom, starting to lift the heavy and limp dwarf, back pack and all. Despite the weight of her own chain mail and that of the armoured and encumbered dwarf, she manages to make some progress, her legs kicking effectively through the water.

ROUND 7 Breath Left: CLEO:18, VASLIN:15 LUCRETIA:28, CEELY:23
Vaslin and Ceely join Cleo and help her, splitting the weight of Larz between them just as Cleo was about to start sinking under his weight. The three girls kick hard for the surface as Lucretia sinks past them, trying unsuccessfully to halt his own downward trend past the end of the rope now drifting loose in the water and the fast approaching bottom of the well.

ROUND 8 Breath Left: CLEO:16, VASLIN:13 LUCRETIA:27, CEELY:21
Cleo continues a heroic swim as alone she pushes herself and Larz's body up through the water towards the surface, Vaslin keeping pace but not really helping much. Ceely is left behind as she gets herself momentarily tangled in her waterlogged clothing trying to help but failing.

Down below them, Lucretia with his light coin back in his hand reaches the bottom and pushes straight off, only to sink straight back down again, the weight of his armour keeping him anchored to the bottom without a stronger effort.

ROUND 9 Breath Left: CLEO:14, VASLIN:11 LUCRETIA:25, CEELY:20
Cleo and Vaslin fail to make much more progress, their strokes getting weaker as they start to sink slighty, dropping back by 5 feet. Below them, Ceely gets her limbs organised and kicks up strongly, meeting them and dodging between their kicking legs to prepare to help with Larz again.

Down below, Lucretia prepares himself ready to climb the chimney like well.

ROUND 10 Breath Left: CLEO:12, VASLIN:9 LUCRETIA:23, CEELY:18

At the bottom of the well, Lucretia braces himself across the diameter of the well, and starts to climb, pulling himself up.

Up above him, Cleo puts on a heroic effort, kicking hard as she manages to raise Larz to within 5 feet of the surface of the water. The other two get themselves entangled with each other, failing to achieve anything as Cleo rises away from them.

ROUND 11 Breath Left: CLEO:10, VASLIN:7 LUCRETIA:21, CEELY:16
Cleo’s burst of energy fades and she struggles, seeing the surface rise away from her again as she sinks, weighed down by Larz’s body. Below her, Vaslin frees herself from Ceely and swims up to join Cleo, helping to share the load again.

Near the bottom, Lucretia's grip on the sides of the well slips and he falls back down to his starting point.

ROUND 12 Breath Left: CLEO:8, VASLIN:5 LUCRETIA:19, CEELY:15
Ceely, somewhat disorientated in the darkness of the well fails to make any progress, confused by the dark shadows in the water above her and the light from Luc’s coin below. Above her, only too aware of the direction they want to swim in, Cleo and Vaslin struggle in a loosing battle against the dead weight of Larz’s body, sinking back down.

At the bottom of the well, Lucretia again tries to make progress, but fails to establish his grip on the slippery walls, the points of the dagger blades skittering off the hard rock and failing to give him any advantage.

ROUND 13 Breath Left: CLEO:6, VASLIN:3 LUCRETIA:17, CEELY:13
The three women manage to coordinate their activities somewhat, and start to swim in a more synchronous way, pushing Larz up through the water towards the surface once more. For the second time, Cleo, sees the surface a tantalizing 5 feet away.

Down at the bottom of the well, Lucretia gets his act together and starts to climb again, making good progress for the first 10 feet.

ROUND 14 Breath Left: CLEO:4, VASLIN:1 LUCRETIA:15, CEELY:11
The display of synchronised swimming breaks down as they approach the surface, and it is all they can do to stop themselves sinking further.

At the bottom, Lucretia again loses his grip and ends up falling back to the bottom of the well.

ROUND 15 Breath Left: LUCRETIA:13
The three girls burst up to the surface, taking deep breaths as they gasp down lungfuls of air. With the power of the magic Merrell had imbued them with, they break free from the surface of the water and carry Larz’s body up between them to where the others are waiting.

In the meantime, Yvandel has just returned from Herod’s body, having discovered a length of hemp rope in his pack.

At the bottom of the well, Lucretia is starting to get worried as again he fails to make progress. He knew he could hold his breath a long time, but this physical exertion was eating into it, and he was starting to run out.

ROUND 16 Breath Left: LUCRETIA:11 (at a depth of 40 feet)
Lucretia continues to climb as the girls leave the water above him, making good progress.

ROUND 17 Breath Left: LUCRETIA:9 (at a depth of 40 feet)
The next part is a little more tricky, and Lucretia struggles to make any progress.
Up above the girls put down Larz's body and Vaslin gets handed a rope by Yvandel.

ROUND 18 Breath Left: LUCRETIA:7 (at a depth of 40 feet)
Lucretia continues to struggle, failing to make any progress as Vaslin and Cleo fly back down to the water's surface, this time armed with a new length of rope.

ROUND 19 Breath Left: LUCRETIA:5 (at a depth of 30 feet)
Lucretia finally gets past the tricky part, and makes steady progress up again.

At the surface of the water, Cleo delves in and grabs the end of the loose rope floating there, passing it to Vaslin who starts to tie a knot. With her cold and numb fingers and with a slippery wet rope, her first attempt fails however and the knot slithers undone.

ROUND 20 Breath Left: LUCRETIA:3 (at a depth of 20 feet)
Again, Lucretia makes steady progress, now climbing the brick part of the well rather than the natural stone part. At the surface, Vaslin continues to fumble with the rope, failing to make a knot that holds. Cleo starts to gather in the other end of the rope ready to dive with it.

ROUND 21 Breath Left: LUCRETIA:1 (at a depth of 10 feet)
With his lungs aching, Lucretia climbs a further 10 feet closer to the surface of the water. Above him, Vaslin finally manages to tie a decent knot and turns to dive down. Having reached the end of the rope, Cleo hovers in midair as Vaslin dives.

ROUND 22 Breath Left: LUCRETIA:-1 (at the surface)
As Vaslin dives through the water, she realises that Lucretia is passing her on the way up. She goes as if to offer him help, but he seems to be doing Ok, and moments later, with a huge gasp, bursts free of the surface. The magic of the flight spell takes effect and he and the two women ascend back to the surface.

OOC: If Lucretia hadn't made it to the surface that round, he'd have started to have to roll progressively harder Fortitude saving throws to continue to hold his breath any longer - a failure of which would have meant he'd have drowned.

Meanwhile, Milo and Dorn have been examining Larz. He isn't breathing and his heart has stopped. He has a nasty gash on his head where he must have struck it as he fell, presumably knocking him unconscious. He is still wearing his waterlogged pack and his shield is strapped to his arm, but his weapon and helm are missing, presumably lying at the bottom of the well still.

As the shivering swimmers try to dry themselves off, Dorn and Milo do their best to revive Larz. Unfortunately, the dwarven priest had been unconscious underwater for too long and his spirit had already fled the body leaving just an empty shell.