Kyeraeon Orders:There shall be 15 men at Kyeraeon, including Ehndras.
Have Ehndras, 2 assistants, one an apprentice biologist and one an apprentice mechanic, and two armed guards work with the crustaceans. ((By giving them specializations, it removes them from the general workman's pool, but allows them to conduct specialized tasks. Think of it as sacrificing a bit of manpower for a little extra research power assisting Ehndras, essentially.))
First, have them test the young crustaceans. As the Divine Soul of the Ul'mare, Ehndras is both the Great Engineer and the Great Speaker, representative of the Ul'mare people. As Great Speaker, Ehndras has the gift of communicating with creatures, as well as sentient beings. Not entirely, but just enough to slightly improve our chances to befriend, assimilate, or calm a creature.
Ehndras shall attempt basic communication with the crustaceans, in order to establish if they are passive, aggressive, apathetic, or obedient. Have the 2 armed guards stand by in case they attack, while the the apprentices monitor the biological signs via coloration, movement and behavior while the mechanic figures their strengths and weaknesses by analyzing their armor, claws, and mode of feeding, movement and communication with each other. If communication can be established, attempt to render them passive so that they may be trained. Perhaps we can use them as hunters ((hunting/scavenging dogs to help us get food)) or as guard creatures to accompany us and keep us safe. If they are undeniably hostile and there seems to be no way to calm them, take one crustacean, preferably leaving a male and female alive in the tank, and slaughter it without pain. Take it apart, making sure to take note of the quality of its armor, any interesting features on its body, the value of its meat compared to that of baby shrimp, the strength of their claws for possible use as tools/weapons, and ensure we take advantage of every bone, shell and scrap from its body. It should not have died in vain.
When that is done, have Ehndras attempt to engineer a new item type; the shield. Ehndras shall attempt to fashion a disc of floatstone, hollowed out on the inner side to decrease their weight and fashioning a handle made of metal bits or if possible, simply hollowing out an interior bit so that it may be grasped as a handle. If this is feasible, we can produce a small number of floatstone shields as a rudimentary defense for our men, taking advantage of the light weight yet hardness of floatstone. Make note of the thorns we scavenged, seeing if they can be employed on our shields for extra defense and a bonus to damage when attacked, or attacking via shield bash. If Spiked Floatstone shields are workable, make a few of them. Floatstone shields should be fairly easy to fashion. Spiked floatstone shields, perhaps not as much.
Thirdly, have the remaining men at Kyeraeon collect the shells shed by the shrimp and crustaceans, and conduct a test to see if they're usable or just worthless waste product. Perhaps they are also edible, or they're hard enough to be used for armor/weapon reinforcement, or they have some other quality. Have them speculate how much silkweed would be needed to create a net big enough to capture an eel or other manageable local creature for harvesting/analysis. Mainly, have them simply scavenge for materials and foodExploration Team OrdersHave 3 men remain in the Air Chamber to analyze the location for any interesting features or anomalies, while the rest converge with the larger scout team following the Eel's Road. If shields are created, have them equipped. This should allow them to protect themselves by entering a turtle formation, effectively blocking the entirety of the small tunnel and keeping them safe. If spiked shields are synthesized, this formation should damage any attackers and allow them to track the injured prey to its home.
Have the new mass of 12 Ul'mare ((15 at Kyeraeon; 12 at Eel's Road and 3 at Air Chamber, 30 total)) continue further down the Eel's road, taking care to be very cautious. Spears facing forward to engage anything that attacks them from the darkness. They are to search for identifiable landmarks and a possible place to set up camp, or possibly even an outpost if there is any interesting feature useful to our people. First though, let us secure this location in the name of our people! If we are attacked, let our spears be thrust out in the enemy's direction while we retreat back towards the city, keeping us safe.If the men from Kyeraeon finish their savenging and a messenger can reach them, and should the Exploration team have established a beachhead, have a squad of men build a floatstone barricade as far into the Eel's Road as possible, allowing us a bit of protection in case the Eel's come back to visit. Effectively, this should allow us to traverse the Eel's Road quickly and efficiently as the area is now safe and mapped by our scouts.((
Edio, if we do find anything down there, can you maybe fashion a simple map for me? You can just make it from the entrance to Kyeraeon (have a hole at the top or left of the screen showing its the entrance to Kyeraeon, and the tunnels branch from there. I'm starting to get confused by all this, and when we inevitably find a chamber, cavern system, nest, or some bloody shit, hopefully somewhere I can set up an outpost with the 15 men I've got, hint hint, I'd like to have some idea what the hell I'm thinking to imagine. You could make the tunnels small on the map to show how large the area really is, and leave room for more in the future to be discovered. Shrug, up to the GM. I think that about wraps up everything for all my men