Riven stands still a moment longer, the silence after his whistle echoing across the damp stone. No answer or movement from the shadows beyond. They were choosing not to speak. Either they had orders to avoid engagement, or they feared the terms of peace more than the risk of confrontation.

He exhales slowly and lifts his gaze toward the upper cavern where Ylis’s voice now rings down with discovery, relief and excitement interwoven. His body relaxes slightly, and he moves toward the rocky slope with measured steps, pausing briefly beside Joy.

His pale eyes flick toward Ylis’s perch above, then to the partially cleared passage near the rubble.

Then, with a gesture toward Randa and Vazo’yn to prepare to ascend, Riven moves to scale the incline, his silhouette briefly framed in the shimmer of the bioluminescent moss and scattered torchlight.

The party follows Riven has he marshals the group forward. The tunnel progresses down into the depths and the pressure of the water strains the eardrums of the party. Some might even develop a slight headache or feel the anxiety of claustrophobia creep back in, as the narrow tunnel forces the group into single file; the tunnel tightening and feeling more like a crack than a tunnel, as the rough walls reach out and pinch the passage nearly closed in some places. The farther down the Fellowship goes, the more noticeable the cold of the sea is as well. Ice passes through veins and only the most disciplined can resist the urge to shiver.

The tight walls open suddenly into yet another chamber, the intense black retreating just beyond the range of the Fellowship’s light presses in on the group, giving a sense of foreboding. It is about 15 ft wide and 10 ft tall and the party can see the end of the chamber leading to yet another tunnel 30ft back. Just then, a school of tiny fish, each individually about the size of a person’s hand and with bodies shimmering in the Fellowship’s dim light, swirls in formation like an undulating silvery pillar in the center of the cave, filling a 5 ft space from floor to ceiling.

Berk points at the center of the fish, attempting to create a path through the fish wall. 

[Thinking the sculpt element part of the spell to create a 5 foot hole we could swim through, or at least see if the fish disperse.]

Berk is quite successful at nudging the fish out of the way, creating a hole in the center of the column. However, this disturbs the fish and they disperse the column, like a flower in bloom, only to reform into a large, undulating ball of agitated fish. Randa, most impacted by the boulders does not notice the blood from her battered noggin clouding the waters but the tidal movements of the sea carry the blood to the now agitated fish. 

The become frenzied and reshape into a spear, lancing right for the poor, elven woman. 

DM: Roll Initiative. 

Vazo'yn follows closely behind Riven as he leads them upwards. His golden eyes are alert for dangers that would impede or opportunities to advance their team. With an encouraging nod to Ylis and her discovery, he moves on.

At first the school of silvery fish is a wonder to Vazo'yn, but it quickly turns fearsome as they lunge with an amazing unison torward Berk. He starts to call on his own inner power.

Initiative: 13

"ACk! Perhana!" Ylis shouts. Killer fish, cave-ins, darkness, what else could possibly happen?!

Ylis Initiative 5

Unsure if his action helped or hindered the team, Berk prepares for a fight!

Initiative: 7 [slowly!]

Joy initiative: 8

The Hexblood tenses as the fanged fish notice them and begin heading their way, sluggishly steeling herself to fend them off.

Jacaranda swore under her breath.....well as much as one could while submerged....., " Damn....well that's my fault.....stupid."

She knocked an arrow and fired trying to split the 'spear'.....

Attack: 21 Damage: 9

BA- Second Wind- 8

DM: Don’t forget the Initiative! 

Randa Initiative- 11

Riven halts just past the lip of the new chamber, his hand instinctively rising in a closed-fingered signal for the others to hold. His gaze fixes on the silvery spiral in the water, tracking the way it moves, not random, but purposeful, intelligent in its own way. The shift from curiosity to aggression happens fast, and the flicker of crimson drifting from Randa seals their fate.

His voice is calm but edged with urgency, "Blood in the water," he murmurs, mostly for the benefit of those who haven’t yet pieced it together.

He shifts his grip on his weapon, the movement slow and deliberate in the heavy water, his body angling so that he’s between the spear-forming school and most of the party. His eyes don’t leave the fish as he studies them and their formation.

His legs flex, ready to kick forward into the oncoming rush as he intends to meet their attack head-on.

Then, as their silvery spear streaks toward the Fellowship, he calmly draws his weapon.

Initiative: 21

Everyone is caught flat-footed. That is, everyone except Riven. He alone is quicker than the school of fish. 

DM: Riven, it is your turn.

DM2: Remember everyone: Underwater Combat has some... challenging rules. Specifically the Disadvantage to all Melee Attacks with Weapons for anyone that does NOT have a Swim Speed, and Disadvantage on all Range Attacks with Weapons within the weapon's normal range, even with a Swim Speed. 

( Oops, thought it was just reduced range. Disadvantage roll- 7

DM: Berk, Randa, and Riven need to be up front for narrative purposes, but everyone else I just put in whatever order. You can shift the back three positions as you wish. 

The water hums with the swarm’s movement, that silver spear twisting toward them, a living weapon. Riven exhales once, slow and steady, and the water around him ripples, not from the fish, but from something deeper.

A faint shimmer unfurls behind the swarm, at first no more than a distortion in the water like the haze created by heat in the air. It sharpens, takes form, his form, an echo pulled from a fractured moment in some other thread of time. The doppelgänger’s pale eyes glow faintly in the gloom, its hair drifting in the current in perfect unison with his own, every motion matched save for the impossible angle of its position, already flanking the enemy.

Riven’s hand closes around his weapon’s hilt, the steel clearing its sheath. He kicks forward into the swarm’s path, slashing in a tight arc; the blade moves through the water towards the swarm.

The echo moves with him, striking almost simultaneously from behind, an incarnation’s lunge aimed to split the spear’s spine. But the school twists with impossible precision, the blow cutting only empty water as the fish slip past its reach.

Riven’s eyes narrow, his real and reflected selves shifting in tandem to box the swarm in from both sides, ready to collapse in again at the next opening.

Bonus Action: Manifest Echo
Action: Attack Rapier 16 to Hit; 11 Piercing
Unleash Incarnation: 7 to Hit

Riven's blade carves splits the spear-like shape of the school of fish, the two dozen or so of fish hit cease their swimming in an instant and float lifelessly in the water. The echo similarly carves at the fish from behind, scattering fin and scale. Blood from both ends of the horizontal column of fish plumes out into the water, sending the remaining fish into even greater frenzy.

DM: Miss on the Echo but adding a bit of color to the outcome. 

They race away, swimming through Berk's space and right at the bleeding Randa. 

DM: They can exist freely in the space of PCs as a swarm. 

Serrated teeth gnaw at Randa across her body, as their powerful bites rend flesh from her bones. The shock of frenzied bites all over her is so powerful, and the sudden blood loss so great, that she is immediately rendered unconscious just as she is preparing to knock an arrow. The fish continue to chew the flesh away from Randa as the Fellowship watch is horror.

DM: 24 to hit, 14 piercing damage. 

DM: It is everyone else's turn. Randa, please spend your turn making a Death Saving Throw. 

Ylis makes undulating motions with her hands and feet and turns herself into a Giant Octopus then goes to cradle Randa in her tentacles. Her form pulses in waves of blue and green as she casts Cure Wounds for 14 Healing.

"Blubba blubs blub" 

Randa Death Save- 15

Berk moves towards the wounded Riven, but pauses mid stroke as the rabbit turns into an Octopus. "Dang Giles, you never told me any of this..."

Seeing Riven getting some healing, he'll turn his effort to the school of biting fish, and summon a 5 foot long Quipper eating fish right in their mists, hoping to confuse them!