Sylvia thought about the two options presented. She had to agree, the fishing rod was a safer idea, and even if it was slower than her just going in there, it would be a good way to see if anything was in there. She spoke up, "Shortfang, that's a great idea. Let's try fishing it out first, and if that doesn't work, then I'll go and get it myself,"

Shortfang excitedly got to the edge of the cliff and tossed his line into the water. He let it sink to the bottom of the water and tried to scoop up the hand holding the eye, however he was having a lot of difficulty. His net was rather big, causing it to get caught up random water debris, but at the same time it lacked the mass or weight to pull out. In the end after ten minutes Shortfang sighed and pulled his small net out. "Ugh... Shortfang no do. Sorry boss..." Pylia in the mean time had set up the piton and rope. "Since you have that magic ring, see if you can't get close enough to maybe grab it out of the water. We'll be here in case anything comes out."

"It's alright, Shortfang. It was worth a shot," She answered Shortfang's apology. After that she walked over to Pylia was. After she gave her advice, Sylvia nodded and answered "OK. I'll try and be quick," She then started climbing down the rope and into or onto the water. This was a good chance to see what exactly her water ring did. Would she be able to walk on water? Or just swim really well?

Either way, she would go up to the corpse and try to grab the object out of its hand.

As you climbed down and touched the water, it was a very strange feeling. It was almost like walking on snow or sand; your feet sand in a little yet it still felt solid. When you out your hand through there's a bit of resistance at first, but as you kept pushing your hand easily goes into the water like... Water. But before you could reach out to grab the gemstone you see something in the water move, before it stood up and revealed itself! It was... A GIANT CRAB!

Giant relative to crabs at least. Still it was pretty big, about as big as a large dog. It didn't seem hostile however, though he did hold his claws up ready for a fight. It seemed that you have entered this crab's territory. But as the crab stood up and it's top poked out from the water, you'd notice something odd on it's shell. A little white humanoid thing, just... Looking at you. It said nothing and just stared. Seeing something move Pylia and Shortfang had their weapons at the ready. "Sylvia, are you okay?"

Oh man! This was so cool! She couldn't help but laugh a bit when she saw that she was actually walking on water! She called to Pylia excitedly, "Oh man! Pylia, Shortfang, do you see this?! I'm actually walking on water! This is so cool!" Of course, Sylvia calmed down and focused back on the task at hand. Just as she was about to reach for the gem she had to jump back, a little startled by the crab's and thing's appearance. At first she was prepared to fight, but then she realized that the crab wasn't hostile. It was just defending its territory. What was that figure on the top of the crab? It kinda looked like something from Studio Ghibli.

She called back to Pylia and Shortfang, while keeping her eyes on both the crab and the white figure "I'm fine! I think the crab's just defending its territory. Any ideas on what the little white guy with the crab may be?"

Pylia extended her lantern over the edge to get a better look at what you were talking about. However she shook her head. "Sorry, but I've never seen one of these before! It must be some sort of spirit, has it tried saying anything to you?" Shortfang was just quiet and continued to look, ready to fight at a moment's notice. As for you, as far as you know the crab is simply defending itself from you, as you've gotten too close for it's comfort. But the spirit was hard to read. It didn't help it's face, or whatever it was, didn't really show any expression and it's body language was fairly neutral (sitting on a crab). It did look down at the gemstone eye then look back at you. "Maybe you need to trade something? If this spirit is fey, that's how they usually operate. An item for an item of equal value."

Sylvia answered Pylia, "It hasn't said anything yet," She carefully watched the spirit for any sign of communication. The only thing she got was the spirit looking to the gemstone before looking back to her. She then heard Pylia's suggestion and answered "Maybe. I'll give that a shot," The only question was what did it consider to be of equal value to the gemstone? How valuable was the gemstone to it in the first place?

She then fished through her backpack. She decided to try something simple first. Maybe the spirit would like one of her throwing knives? She took out the throwing knife and held it in her palm so as to not appear threatening, and held it out towards the spirit in an offering motion.

The spirit’s little head twisted in a strange fashion before suddenly rattling. The crab lifted its claw and shook it side-to-side as if to say no. The creature didn’t seem to want a throwing knife. Shortfang shouted from above down to you when he saw the trade fail to go through. “Give shiny! You got shiny?”

Sylvia blinked confusedly at the rattle, but she soon got the message as the crab waved its claw no. She put the knife away, and she heard Shortfang. Did she have anything shiny...? Her water ring wasn't very shiny, if anything when she first saw it, she dismissed as a normal ring before Mica pointed out that it was enchanted. There was gold, but she doubted the spirit would want gold.

When it seemed as though she didn't have anything shiny, she remembered the hairpin in her hair. That counted as shiny...especially with the blue stone in it. She took the hairpin out of her hair, and held it in her hands. She felt her heart break as she looked at the pin in her hands. The thought of having to give this away for the stone hurt. She does her best to hold back tears, and silently offered it to the spirit.

...As precious as the hairpin her grandparents gave her is, she knows that she needs to continue on in order to get home. She can apologize to her grandparents when...if she gets back home.

As you offered your hairpin the small spirit stood up and the crab extended his claw towards you to allow the spirit to receive your hairpin. It hugged the hairpin as it vanished, causing the pin to fall into the water. But when it did, what floated up was a strange feather-like charm. It looked like a small nut or acorn with ten tiny bird feathers on it. The crab simply went back into water and wouldn't disturb you as retrieve the gemstone. "It looks like it accepted your trade Sylvia. Though it was small, I wouldn't have wanted to risk fighting it here. Nature spirits can be very deadly in their natural habitat." Pylia said as she made sure the rope was secure.

Sylvia watched as the spirit hugged her hairpin, before it vanished and let the pin fall into the water. After that she spotted the charm and she picked it up along with the gemstone. Sylvia answered Pylia simply, “That’s good. Appearances can be deceiving, huh...”

After she had the two items and carefully stowed them in her backpack, she climbed back up the rope. Even though her heart was heavy from the loss of the hairpin, she still put on a smile and asked “Well, I think we can continue on to the next room. Three gems down, two to go,”

Pylia seemed to notice your sadness but said nothing as she retrieved her rope and the party moved forward. The gemstone eye you've found this time was green. Moving forward you arrive to another massive hall however this one was in much worse disarray. It looked like much of the floor had collapsed some time ago and has been filled with water. There were a few rooms off to the side though it was hard to see what was in them due to the hard corners. At least room in general was somewhat better lit due to a few holes leading outside bringing in some illumination. "I don't like this... Stay on your toes everyone..."

Sylvia headed into the next room with everyone else and looked around. The place was flooded and it was a mess. She nodded at Pylia’s warning and she decided to look around. She was cautious as she did so and even looked at the ceiling to make sure there weren’t any of those Darkmantles like last time...

You don't notice anything that the others don't notice, but as you approach you don't realize you've been watched this entire time. Stepping out from the darkness and into the light you see a skeletal figure across the ruined hall. He was at least a good sixty feet away, with glowing red eyes. He raised a rusted, broken looking blade towards the group and roared something in a profane language that not even Pylia knew before the blade turned into a bright crimson flame and a swarm of bats flew out towards the party.

ROLL INITIATIVE!

When Sylvia spotted the skeleton she called out, "Guys! We got undead!" She then starts to move forwards, only for a swarm of bats to appear instead. When she ends up meeting the bats in melee range, she swings her quarterstaff at the swarm and shouts "Ah! Shoo! Go away!" before swatting at them with a hand.

Your staff failed to connect to any of the bats, though your backhand was notably more effective, killing four bats with a single blow. And yet despite your success, it hardly seemed like it bothered the great swarm as a whole. And it certainly didn't seem to bother them when the skeleton slashed his dagger in your direction, sending a bolt of fire that would've nearly struck you, but instead exploded harmlessly behind you. Shortfang aimed his crossbow at the skeleton, but cursed as he fired his crossbow into the swarm taking two out with a well placed bolt before skewering too more down. "Skeleton too far! Shortfang can't shoot from here!" Pylia rushed in as her war club glowed a radiant light. ^Radiant!^ This magical burst knocked down multiple bats, leaving the swarm less than half of what it was before.

The swarm however didn't give up. Something about them were much more aggressive than they should be; despite the magic and blades being tossed around the bats don't bother trying to be evasive as they swarm you, biting you all over. "Boss, we gotta kill skeleton! Skeleton control bats!"

Sylvia let out a yelp as she managed to just avoid a bolt of fire that struck the wall behind her. She heard Shortfang's call, and she answered him, "Right! I'll try and get over to him," Before she could even think of leaving, the bats bit into her. She winced and let out a quiet grunt in pain, and she decided to try and do some damage to the bats before heading to the skeleton. She attempted to strike the bats with her quarterstaff before using her ki to move away from the bats safely and start running to the skeleton.

Your staff fails to strike down any bats once more, however you move too swiftly for the bats to retaliate as you move away from them through the room on the left. You move quickly, cutting corners and dashing pass the rocks. You move fast enough to easily dodge, whether intentionally or not, a strike from a giant centipede. It was at least four feet long and a disgusting stone-grey coloration. Three of them crawled out from the stone works and seem highly aggressive.

Things weren't looking too good for the others either. As Shortfang tried and failed to cut down any of the bats, the skeleton mage swung his flaming blade at the kobold and sent a flaming bolt right at his head, scortching his black scales even darker. "GAAAAH!" He screamed in agony as the burns even cracked and peeled scales off his face. "Shortfang... Won't... BE DEFEATED!" Pylia meanwhile tried to summon a bolt of holy fire onto the bat swarm, however they too managed to easily avoid the attack by scattering, only to reform so they could swarm on Shortfang and chew up his burnt up face. The centipedes were on the move as well, two going after you while one lunged at Pylia. The ones going after you leapt three feet into the air, but you were easily able to dodge them without a problem. Pylia wasn't so fortunate. She didn't see the monster coming as it too jumped, but thanks to being on a higher elevation it was able to jump right into the back of her neck, clamping hard as it's poison seeped into her veins. "SHIT FUCK!"

Sylvia heard her friends cries, and she immediately wanted to turn back and help them. But she remembered that she was no good with medicine, and that the best thing she could do was get rid of the skeleton that was controlling both the bats, and those damned centipedes!

She called back to them, "Hang in there guys!" Before she decided to dig deep once more for her ki. She had a feeling that this would be the last time she could use ki until she gets a break. She inhales, and lets out an exhale as she once more sprints down the hall, this time not stopping for anything until she gets to the skeleton as quickly as possible. If this battle keeps going as it is, then they may die! Sylvia just can't allow that!

Sylvia moved as fast as the wind, too fast for even the centipedes to try and attack as she vanishes from their reach and she races up the stairs and was right next to the skeleton mage. However he simply turned to you, casually flipping his dagger in his hand. From this position you could make out more of his disgusting features; he wasn't just skeletal, but his flesh, or whatever was left of it, had dried out to the point strips of his skin draped out of what remains of his tattered robes. His dagger, though rusted and practically broken, had a perfectly cut red gemstone in it, but smaller than the stones you're looking for. That would be the ones in his head; you could see that the glow from his eyes came from these stones, one crimson stone in his right and a fainter yellow from his left. But either you or him could attack though, his body faded into dust, swept up in the wind. His ashes flew through the air and landed on a distant spot where there was ten feet of empty space between you and him. He almost seemed to laugh as he hurled a firebolt in your direction, however you were easily able to avoid his attack.

All the while Shortfang had had enough of these bats! In a flurry of swords he slashed and stabbed into the bat swarm, stabbing through a whopping six bats with a single stab before cutting down the last three with his scimitar, cleaving their bodies in twain. Seeing the skeleton mage teleport closer, he dropped his scimitar to pick up his hand crossbow before taking a step back to get a running start and leaping forward across the chasm, reaching the next lone ruined island and glaring at the skeleton. As for Pylia, she tossed the centipede off of her back, slamming it against the wall as she crushed it's tiny head with her club. "Disgusting..." She shook her head as she walked away, trying to get a good vantage point to attack the skeleton mage. Finally the last of the centipedes continued to chase after you, though their legs couldn't carry themselves nearly as fast as you.