Story Seed - Into the Deep

Image Source: http://loish.deviantart.com/art/aquaforest-476257572

The Into the Ninth World Kickstarter continues to blow through stretch goals and as I write this we're working toward a PDF with details for playing Octopus characters. I can't be the only one who really wants this ... #NinthWorldKS

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I floated down among the aquatic trees. The strange sea was cool on my skin. As I drifted down I found the sea grew brighter, the water itself seeming to give illumination to what should have been an enclosing darkness. I relaxed as it became clear that the bio-mechanical gills the Redfleet nano had implanted into my neck were working as well as claimed. Confident now that my shins had bought me a working piece of numenera I allowed myself to slide deeper into the eerily illuminated waters.

What had seemed the tops of massive trees in the shallower depths soon showed themselves to be a species of great floating kelp. As I neared the sandy bottom the kelp thinned to strands that wafted in the gentle currents. This world was so unlike my own; an alien environment just beneath the waves that lapped at the lands of the Steadfast.

I tried to swim forward, but found that my robes tangled my limbs. Cursing myself I stripped them off leaving me clad only in the skintight body-glove oddity I had bought from a varjellen in Qi. The varjellen had found it a curious item, as it could not be made wet. Luckily it fit me well, or perhaps that too was some part of its ancient design, and in keeping the water from my body it kept me warm in the cold waters. I rolled the robe up and tied it around my waist, freeing the small device I had brought down with me from the pocket and clutching it in my hand.

I swam forward again, deeper into the forest of kelp, weaving among the faint shadows cast by the strange and pervasive light. My eyes darted among the drifting stems and roots as I sought out my contact. I was not sure who to look for, as I had only contact through an intermediary, a member of the Redfleets who had suggested this meeting in the first place. I knew only a name, Oolluunn, and that he - or perhaps she, or even it - could only meet me here in the waters. I reached out to the datasphere to confirm my location and then allowed myself to drift to a stop, and waited.

Floating among the fronds and tendrils of the kelp forest I waited for some time, glad for the strange clothing that kept me dry and warm, and the gills that kept me breathing. After some time I heard a noise I could not identify. It repeated several times, and I tried to locate its source. I was unused to hearing sound underwater and only after the last utterance did I see what I thought was its source. A creature, perhaps the size of a child of ten; its body was seemingly little more than a jumble of tentacles and a fleshy blob. A pair of strangely intelligent, and seemingly shy, eyes peered out from the creature's center of mass.

Seeing that I had spotted it, it uttered that sound once more, and finally when it became clear I did not understand it touched its mind to my own. "Are you Kellin? I am Oolluunn, and I understand you have a device you wish me to look at."