Distracted by prettycatfishshrimp and glittery rings, Alice otter pays little attention and is promptly ambushed. She considers fighting the snake, but with an enormous octopus around as well, retreat is the only option.

Alice uses her action to escape the grapple and if successful, uses one Ki point for Step of the Wind (Disengage+Dash). A weird yellowish seal-like blob dashes East through the murky ink and propels itself out of the water, wriggling Northeast to a position behind Cat at astonishing speed.

Well, I DID imagine there was a monster in the water trying to eat me but not two! Well played, this ruins my plan. I had considered going dynamite fishing before hopping in but throwing an explosive stick into the water without protective cover likely would have resolved in - nothing!

There's no other chance now, Cat will have to throw the bundle at the octopus, in a risky way that makes the charge go off before it hits the water. An underwater explosion would be way more devastating but we lack a watertight container.
Needless to say, I will gtfo in the mean time.

Just to say, I am a bit unhappy you still treated me as a human though I stated I reshaped to an otter/fish like form. So grabbing my 'arm' is a bit ehh... Also I am now naked and can freely reshape myself. Good luck getting hold of me. I'm an escape artist and have advantage of escaping any grapple.  Even more so now that no clothes or equipment is obstructing me.Since I don't wanna get blasted, I'll use an action to break from the grapple and my bonus action to disengage, then move out. Sucks I can't attack but I see no way. even with spending a Ki point all i additionally could do is dodge or dash. Not worth it.

Or do you have a better idea?

P.S.: I could have sworn it was shrimp yesterday, not catfish. Not that Alice knows either so it's fine.

Fun fact, host has a friend working at Bosch. Lots of their parts are nowadays manufactured in - China. Not that anything made in Germany is necessarily better nowadays as the average German worker is a Yugo or Turk. Well, let's see how much more money you sink into that car. Beating a dead horse comes to my mind.

Alice narrowly avoids being injured before Ashley grabs her demon cyborg feline.

Boo!
Why do I never get to pet your cats? Why don't they like me? I still want to ride on Nixie - or you if you if you're in Panther from!

The tent Alice hoped to explore is more of a tarp just keeping rocks and dust from another unstable ceiling to protect a small rest area, the platform just to the east has more supplies akin to what was already found earlier, more tools and low quality ore samples.

Another disappointment. Alice shakes her head.
Hmm, I expected to find their cloaks and brooches here. Cat, can you find traces of other people that those eaten by the ghouls (and me)?

A large pool fills much of West of this cavern. The water is dark, revealing little of what might lie within. The shore of the pool consists of a thin layer of broken shells from strange, pale mussels. A fishy odor hangs in the air. A large fissure above the water, likely dug out long ago, extends up hundreds of feet into a dark abyss. Old remains of scaffolding long since past its usefulness is all that remains of the passage up and is impassible from this position without significant rework by qualified mining engineers. The fissure ends into a sloping ceiling above the far Wast of the pool and extends further into the West a hundred feet before finally touching the water's surface.

Ashley's Truesight reveals a hidden passage less than 20ft beyond that leading West underwater. A sluggish movement flows in the water indicating a small flow has established itself, so this is not stagnant water. Small, pink, blind catfish, no larger than a coin, swim along the edge of the water.

This is more to Alice's liking. She packages a nice looking shell as souvenir.
Oh, a hidden passage you say? Been awhile since I had a good swim! I can't let this opportunity slide! And I can hold my breath for 1h! Time to go diving! At worst I'll bring back a few live mussels!

Without further ado, Alice strips off her clothes and hops into the water, she only takes her trusted spear with her. Immediately she is surrounded by the small shrimps.
Haha, that tickles!

Alice absorbs a few into her body.
Not bad, might make a nice snack!



Ok, you guys gotta warm me up when I return! The temperature is what limits how long I can stay in here! I'll just do a quick exploration and return a soon as I can and report!
Unless further objections are raised, Alice is off into the water to explore the passage, dissolving her human form and morphing into a more sleek yellowish otter-like monster.

I wanna go S and explore the tent!

Disappointed by the lack of loot and ears, Alice goes to hone her spear, then helps Cat set up the trap and cook.
Cat, I love your cooking but we gotta save rations! I'll be having Bandit tonight! We can't leave them lying around here like that. It's a waste!

In between, Alice patrols the explored area once in a while to make sure nobody attacks Ashley and Yulya while they rest.

What did I tell you about shitty old cars, Mr. Bear?

Come on, Tamamo!
We'll be stuck in this mine until 2030 at this pace.