"Ah, Tencednil! Welcome back. We were just going over our route for today."

"A good idea. I have a new spell today! Army-range, shapeable illusion, and it takes some sort of caster input. My guess is Silent Image. If I say I'm testing my new spell, fair warning, that means I'm casting an illusion and you should look closely. I'll default to a mist, so if you can see through it and the ghouls can't they should be mostly blind."

"That might be useful." He gestures to the map. "Today, we're covering a few sections past where we stopped yesterday. There's the old commercial access tunnels and an old reservoir the otyugh apparently often frequent."

He lays out a detailed route through the deep sewers, and notes a couple of alternate paths out, should they need to run.

It is good to have paths out in case something goes wrong. "Were the results from yesterday's investigations informative?"

"Well, we know where the undead are coming from. Hopefully the breach will be sealed soon, although we won't be involved directly in that. What the otyugh are complaining about is still a mystery."

"It's independent? Didn't the one we asked point us to the breach? I suppose there could have been something else in the area we missed."

"The one we asked pointed us a 'long swim away, down the left'. Most of our search area was already to the left of the chute where we met the otyugh. It honestly wasn't very useful information."

"As you say. With luck, some of them will have more helpful directions."

She's ready to go whenever, then.

Shadi arrives soon after Tencednil. "I prepared two bursts of radiance today. Better offense than defense, given the quantity of undead down there."

Then, they leave. Citadel Volshyenek rises into the sky behind them as they travel the same route to Bridgefront in Old Korvosa. The second squad heads to west to Garrison Hill. It is not long before they reach the familiar sewer entrance. The Shingles rise five stories above them.

They climb down the first ladder into the upper sewers, walk for maybe five minutes, and climb the second ladder down the cylindrical chute.

Navarro pulls out his map. "Right. Similar to last time but once we get here," he points "we make a left turn and then..."

He talks quietly as they travel, commenting on various things.

Tencednil makes sure to update Shadi on her new spell, and, more importantly, on the codeword to note she's casting an illusion.

As they walk, she keeps an eye out ahead of them, sometimes spotting the branches a bit ahead of Navarro. No strange ripples in the water, though, at least not yet.

Navarro leads them along his route. The tunnels are long and mostly straight, but they become more winding as time passes. They walk by the caved-in tunnel, but there are no reefclaws this time. Instead of heading toward the broken seal, Navarro takes them further left.

Tencednil's familiar notices the underwater wildlife becoming increasingly agitated.

<Safe. Water animals angry! No attack yet.>

She stops for a moment when the shadow starts to twist itself in shapes, but doesn't ask the others to stop when it said they were safe. The pondlife (sewerlife, maybe?) is angry here? They weren't planning to let down their guard, but perhaps it means they should be more on their toes, and probably indicates they're going the right direction. The others need to know.

"The things in the muck are angrier here than they were back before. Nothing's about to jump out at us, but it might mean we're getting closer to the contamination. Also, if you were planning to let down your guard while we're in here, now is a bad time." <Sign if more angry. Start safe if safe.>

He nods. "Good to know. Garril, take point up front." 

"Yes, detective."

They continue onward. The underwater creatures are unhappy. The walls of the tunnels grow ever more cracked. Eventually, after a few more twists and turns, they enter into a wide circular room. It's almost entirely full of water, for a small set of walkways.

"I'll handle the discussion." He steps forward further into the reservoir room. "Otyugh! This is the Guard! I hear there is a problem!"

His voice echoes back-and-forth across the room.

The mouth of an otyugh breaks the surface of the water. "Why you here?"

"The other creatures in the water are upset, yes?"

...

"This is true."

"Do you know what the problem is?"

It takes longer to respond. "Don't know! Bad water. Tastes bad."

"When did it start tasting bad?"

"Few cycles ago."