Swamped

Well, you've still got one hand in your pocket. Which means you've got one weapon available.

You fling the wet sock at the mass of dead insects and run, screaming the whole time. You've got no clue what you're seeing, but it's surely nothing good.

It takes a good five minutes of running before you calm down. The damn thing doesn't seem to have chased you, at least, but you've got no idea what it was.

And there's a saboteur and a runaway down here. At least you managed to get the alarm sounding. Maybe you should try to meet up with whoever comes to investigate, so you can tell them what you know.

If, that is, you can figure out where you even are. You weren't exactly thinking too hard about where you were running to.

How can you get your bearings again?

Check the sun!

Using your trusty compass!
Sighting the stars!
Pick a direction,and walk in an outward-expanding spiral until you reach familiar territory?

You know a little bit about navigation, but most of that involves figuring out which direction you're heading in when you're outside. Down here, in the depths of a ship, it's not so useful.

You do remember something about navigating mazes, but this place isn't really designed as a maze. You aren't sure following the walls would work.

Well, maybe you can try something similar. You walk to the end of the hallway, and follow the wall until you're pretty sure you're back at the hallway you started in. Then you cross to the next wall and go forward, turning at the next hallway.

Hopefully you see something recognizable in this process. Preferably not the bugs, though.

But you're starting to get worried. You tripped that alarm some time ago. Shouldn't you have heard someone come in by now?

At least the pumping sounds considerably quieter. Maybe the saboteur was scared off by the distant sound of bells. That or your hurried footsteps.

You don't even hear the buzzing any more. That's mostly a relief, but it's also unsettling. It makes you start to wonder if you've gotten yourself far away from anything recognizable. The hallways certainly don't seem to be looking very different, other than some of them having water tanks.

Wait, hold on. You think you just spotted something odd.

A swamp chicken??

It looks like a hen. What's a hen doing on a ship?

No, even weirder. A swamphen. There are farms just a few miles away from the docks, so a hen stowing away is at least vaguely plausible. Maybe a sailor keeping a pet.

But a swamphen? The nearest swamp is practically in the next kingdom. And you don't even know if they have hens there.

On the other hand, you just saw a pile of dead bugs walking around in the shape of a human being. A swamphen makes more sense than that in a number of ways.

Maybe you're hallucinating? It's not like you actually touched the bugs. So you suppose the simplest thing to do is pick up the hen to see if she's real.

She is, or at least that's what your hands are telling you. And it starts clucking. Only the clucking starts sounding a little like words. Then it sounds a lot like words.

"Get me to the wizard!" she shouts.

"Be happy to, if I could figure out my way out of here," you reply. "Don't suppose you can help with that?"

"I don't exactly know how to fly, and it wouldn't help that much if I could. There's no way I can get above the corridors."

Well, since that's not getting anywhere, you suppose you might as well ask some other questions you're wondering about.

"What exactly happened to you?"

"I got turned into a chicken," the hen says, annoyed. "I'm hoping the wizard can turn me back."

"Okay, that makes sense. But how did this happen? And for that matter, what were you doing down here in the first place?"

"What do you think? Snooping."

"I saw someone unfamiliar poking around and wondered what was up. Lost track of 'em somewhere along the line."

"Unfamiliar how?" you ask.

"They weren't dressed like a sailor. Looked more like a soldier. Didn't recognize the uniform, though."

"And is that who turned you into a chicken?"

The hen gives her best approximation of a shrug.

"I didn't actually see who did it, so I couldn't say. Certainly seems like something funny is going on down here."

At this point, you're not even sure how real anything is. You think it would be best to just get out of here, so you carry the hen and continue with your spiral. It's probably not very efficient, but you can't think of anything else.

"Look out! Behind you!" the hen suddenly shouts.

You turn around.

It was a ruse! Follow that swamp hen!

You don't see anything. You do, however, feel a scratch as the hen flees from you.

That's weird. Even if the hen's story was all fake, why run now? Why try to get you looking for the wizard and then bolt suddenly?

Maybe you can get some answers if you chase the hen down. You start running after her.

Then you think you hear footsteps behind you. They sound quite loud. But you still don't see anything when you look back...

You've really started to doubt your senses in the last few minutes. Then again, whether you're chasing the hen or running from something you can't see, you're heading in the same direction. So maybe it doesn't matter for the moment.

Soon enough, you find yourself in a dead end, with no sign of the hen, no clue what's making the noise behind you, and a lot of doubts about your own sanity. You feel like you're in pretty big trouble right now.

Then you spot something that might be useful.

Is it a bell rope?

It's a rope. You can't see what it's attached to, though it looks like it might trigger a bell.

Maybe this is another alarm? Would make sense to have one people can actually use down here, rather than forcing them to set off the one in the drain.

Well, you don't have many options, considering something noisy and apparently invisible is behind you. You start pulling, and you hear a bell ringing.

And then you sit up straight and open your eyes, seeing the face of Mr. Resk with a breather mask on.

"How many fingers am I holding up?" he asks you, holding his hand in your face.

"Um, three, I think?" You've got a breather on too, you realize. Rather hastily applied.

"Name?"

"Lex," you mutter. "What's going on?"

"You seem at least reasonably lucid now, good," Resk says. "Seems whoever's responsible for the glaxin used one of the water tanks here to make it. And then someone started letting the water out, which released the glaxin. We've found three of you down here, all taking heavy doses. The breather masks are mainly to keep your exposure from getting worse; we'll be taking you to the infirmary shortly." His face seems to brighten. "Though it seems we have you to thank for the alarm, Mr. Lex."

You glance around, and you can see that the grate is nearby. You also see your wet sock sitting in the hall a few feet away.

"So there wasn't a man made out of dead bugs," you mutter. "Or a talking chicken. Or someone in an unfamiliar military uniform."

Resk looks confused.

"Wait. We did find someone in a strange military uniform. Perhaps you overheard us talking and worked it into the illusion."

"Maybe," you mutter. "I only heard about it. Who'd you find, then?" You feel like there's something off about that count, but maybe you're just still dazed.

"You, Mr. Lou, and the as-yet unidentified soldier. Is there a problem, Mr. Lex?"

"Yeah," you mutter. "I came here chasing someone. A lady who looked like Ms. Rebecca. Pretty sure I didn't hallucinate that part."

Resk looks concerned.

"So maybe he did have a breather mask after all," he mutters.

"Sorry?"

"Nothing. I'll get a search going. Meanwhile, you sit tight until we can get you to the infirmary. I have to warn you, though, it's not going to be a pleasant stay."

"Beats the hallucinations," you mutter.

You lie down again. You're not sure you can trust your senses at this point. You suppose you'll just have to lie here and wait.

You absentmindedly shove your hands in your pockets and feel something odd. You pull it out.

Wait, what is that?

A brown feather.

It's a feather. Looks like the color of a swamp hen. Are you still hallucinating?

You just stare at it for a while, but it remains a feather.

Maybe it's from some other bird. You can't think of a sea bird with those colors, but maybe it just flew by in the night and left this behind. Or maybe it's somebody's lucky charm and you ended up with it somehow.

You shove it back in your pocket. When you've recovered you can show it to an animal expert and get an opinion. For now, it's not worth worrying about.

A group of sailors soon comes along and carries you off to the infirmary. What a mess this has been.

---

You're now Second Mate Resk.

A fine mess this is. With three injured, you've had to use every breather mask you can find to get enough crew down here. You even had to ask Mr. William for the improvised ones he was making as a hobby. He assured you that despite the unusual materials, they're just as good as the professionally-made ones when it comes to the filters; they just don't hold up well under water.

You hope that's true, considering you're using one now. It's more than a little uncomfortable. But there's still work to be done here.

Namely, you've got to look into the runaway Mr. Lex mentioned. You suspect she stole a breather mask from the mystery soldier, since the uniform looks like it's designed around one. If that's true, she could be responsible for the gas - perhaps the original attack was part of a ploy to take Ms. Rebecca's place?

But as a practical matter, what it means if she has a breather mask is that she can hide down here for quite some time. So you'll need to think carefully about where to search.

Can you rope off or blockade areas you've already searched to prevent her from doubling back?

The biggest obstacle is just how hard it is to get around down here. Every damn hallway looks the same. You'll need to be systematic.

Luckily, if there's one thing this ship has no shortage of, it's ropes. Takes only about three lengths to make a blockade that's hard to get past without disturbing it, and a couple of bells ensure any disturbance will be noticed immediately.

You hope you find her quickly, though. You'd like to take these back sooner rather than later.

Unfortunately, ten hallways later you've gotten nowhere. You'd almost wonder if Mr. Lex imagined her, but Mr. Graham already confirmed the woman ran down here, and he left before the glaxin was released.

But you also picked the sailors guarding the exit yourself. They wouldn't let her out, not even if she was the real Ms. Rebecca rather than a lookalike. And the sailor who saw Mr. Lex and Mr. Graham enter happened to watch the exit the whole time - no sign of anyone else until Mr. Graham ran out with Ms. Colleen. It wasn't long after that the alarm sounded.

So unless she made another exit somehow, she should still be here. It's just a matter of how long it takes to find her.

But it would be very helpful if you could think of a way to speed this up. With all the emergencies popping up lately, you've had to pull people off their breaks to do other tasks. The longer this takes, the longer that situation holds and the tension from it could build up to a mutiny.

Maybe there's a more active approach you could be taking here.

Perhaps you can cajole her out willingly by loudly delivering verbal guarantees of a fair hearing and protection.

Well. As Second Mate, you have a good deal of authority you can draw on here.

"Ms. Becky!" you call out. "We know you're here. We have the area secure. We will find you eventually. However, if you show yourself now, I promise to hear you out before deciding on whether any punishment is warranted."

You wait a little bit.

"If you do not accept within one minute, I will rescind the offer."

You start counting down mentally. When about fifty seconds have passed, a paper dart suddenly falls in the hallway ahead.

You pick it up and unfold it.

It's already over. The ship's still going to sink. The water tanks were only about speeding it up.

What in the hells is that supposed to mean?

Forget mutiny, sounds like you've got a murder-suicide cult on your hands.

You don't have time to think about why someone would want to sink the ship, only about how. You hope to the gods this is just a bluff, but you can't afford to assume that.

If the main sabotage wasn't overflowing the water pumps, then what could it be? Your first thought is a hole below the sea level. You instruct the sailors to ignore roping off areas for now and search for holes instead, plugging them up by any available means.

"What if it's a lot of tiny holes?" one of the sailors asks you.

"Then if they're a real threat, they'll be leaking water," you reply. "If they aren't, then we don't have to worry. Even at high tide, we'll go up with the water, unless we've taken on too much weight." Which could explain where the pumps fit in, you realize. "We can take care of those when we next dock."

As they run off, you glance back at the note.

This reads like the sinking is a foregone conclusion. It's not a warning, nor is it triumphant. It's stating it as a fact. That doesn't line up too well with holes; even if there were a big one taking in water right now, that's far from unstoppable. A pity you can't really ask for clarification.

Or can you? That note didn't come from nowhere, after all. You may only have a vague direction to work with, but that's an improvement over the utter lack of information you had before.

As the sailors scramble off to look for more obvious problems, you decide to head down the nearest hall and see if you can catch any clue to the runaway's whereabouts.

You find something quite a bit sooner than you expected.

Is it the carcass of a bird?

It looks like... a dead bird? Not like any seabird you've ever seen, though. More like a chicken.

Your first thought is that Mr. William's handmade mask may not be as good as he claimed it to be.

But you've got no time to check, and if you are hallucinating, there's plenty of sailors on this ship you've annoyed over the last few months. One of them is bound to relish the thought of slapping sense back into you. So for the moment, you'll just have to assume this is real.

In that case, what does it mean?

Well, it means there's a trail of feathers, for one. Apparently, whoever killed this chicken wasn't especially concerned with making it tidy. You can't see any conceivable reason why Ms. Becky would want to kill a chicken, but then, you've got no clue as to why she's doing any of this right now. So you may as well pursue this.

The feather trail soon leads to one of the water tanks. There's a feather sticking out of the tank, even.

But there's no sign of anyone. Theoretically, somebody could fit in the tank, but it's not as if there's any opening big enough for a human, and there's too much water to really stay for an extended period of time...

...unless you have a stolen breather mask. So maybe that first assumption is worth a little rethinking, too.

But how could someone even get in here?

Webbed hands?

Of course, with magic there's probably a good dozen ways to get into a water tank, or to disappear entirely. And you can't rule out that it may have a role in this whole mess.

But that dart was only thrown a little while ago. And even if she pulled some kind of trick to throw it after already being out of the way... if you have time to cast a spell to shrink yourself, or pass through the outer shell of a water tank, or whatever, well, you probably have time to get rid of a feather trail.

Now, maybe she did. Maybe this trail's been faked with magic. But... you don't think so. You haven't quite put the pieces together, but you know you're seeing something a little off, something suggesting this place was tampered with. And not very long ago.

And suddenly, you catch it. A faint impression on the outer surface of the tank. A handprint.

But there's something funny about it. It looks like there's something in between the fingers. A little like a duck's webbing.

Doesn't really answer how she'd get in, though. Especially without disturbing a lot of water.

Well, what if she's not in the tank, but she climbed on it?

You glance around, and see a few more of those faint prints high up on the wall. Even on the ceiling. You don't think ducks can do that, but then, maybe the webbing's not what lets her stick.

Well, this is a more concrete trail than the chicken feathers. But perhaps you should go back for help in following it. At least get a second opinion from someone with a more reliable mask, so you can tell if you're hallucinating.

Then again, this might be your best chance to catch up to her. If she has an escape plan, going back might give her the time she needs to pull it off.

You'd best decide quickly what your next move is.

Keep going. Like you said, there's a chance she might escape.