"I am not one to go for a swim, so lets head into the cave leading to the chamber."

Randall:

Getting up from his rest, Randall says, “Sounds reasonable to me.  Shall we head up?”

Tempe states "I'm taking a short rest to enrich my soul."  Recovering ki and wild-shape 

Zenodor chimes in

"I agree, I would not want to go for a swim myself in this. I have no skill or spell to breathe underwater ... however ... " he scratches his chin pensively "... I could transform my familiar into a more suitable shape. Perhaps an Octopus? It would take me an hour to do this, an we could then wait a bit longer while the familiar explores the underwater tunnel - depending on how deep the tunnel goes. The question is, would it be worth the wait? Or should we just head through the tunnel that slopes up?"

[OOC: Re-casting find familiar changes the shape of the familiar [which itself is really some form of spirit], so would take 1h as Ritual. Normal rules and Eldritch invocations apply, so the familiar can communicate telepathically or Z can sense through its senses [as long as on the same plane]].  

As a reminder, I am using the 5 min short rest/1 hour long rest rules but that doesn't affect spell casting times so it would take an hour to change the familiar to an octopus. All the rules and features still apply, it would just be an octopus.

It's up to the party if they want to wait an hour here.

OOC: I just wanted to offer the option. However, I think there's a risk that something comes out of the water-tunnel while we wait. I think it would be safer to start heading up the tunnel to the room. So I would vote for that.

ooc: Sigh

IC: Tempe says "Your efforts will take too long, please accompany me and let me explore" If the party accompany him to the edge of the water he uses one of his wildshapes to change Evermoor to an octopus (Sinkmoor) and with that he explores the waters with in its senses.

He of course relays his findings

Petcan moves to the climb up to the round chamber with the mysterious objects

Zenodor looks at his companions splitting up (Tempe down to the water, Petcan up to the chamber), and after a brief pause decides to follow Petcan upwards. Once in the chamber, he has a good look around and asks Irraxan to do the same.

Perception: Zenodor 17, Irraxan 17

Randall:

Standing at the threshold of the divide, Randall sighs as the party splits and waits.  “I’ll head towards where I hear screaming first,” he offers.

Tempe shrugs and doesn't do what he said he would do seeing that they don't have his back. He simply watches.

OOC: got to love a slightly disfunctional party. Didn't someone once say that being a DM is like being a therapist - only that you do it while pretending to be a goblin NPC.

(so Randall and Tempe stay behind or follow the others up to the small chamber?)

Tempe says to Randal "You coming?" as he follows the others

Randall:

”Sure…but maybe we should double back and check out the water soon as well—we may learn more about these strange creatures is we can find their lair down there,” remarks Randall, though he turns to the upward passage with the others now that everyone seems to be going that way.

The circular chamber is only 20 feet across and contains a chest. There are imprints in the ground that suggest there were perhaps 3 other chests here at one time.

OOC

Any other exist or paths from the chamber? Or is it a dead end?

Obviously we check the area and chest for traps - ideally while staying out of mimic grappling range. What do you want us to roll? Perception? Investigation?

Also, when it gets to opening the chest, I suggest we still use a familiar or Mage Hand or similar, just to be on the safe side

Bow walks up to the chest and checks it for traps

Perception: 11 (or +1 if investigation would be more suitable)

Zenodor also casts Detect Magic and looks at the trap and chamber.

Quote from Secretfool >>

Bow walks up to the chest and checks it for traps

Perception: 25 (or +1 if investigation would be more suitable)

 Nat 20. Nice