By now Gerard was aware that there were two particular people who were drawn to him like curse. One was a mermaid of little merit and even less common sense, the other was an absolute blithering idiot. Things hadn't gone too well for him today. The currents had carried him a bit too close to Vilpamolan and he ended up in an argument with a sea captain of ill-repute. When things came to a head, the scurvy sea dog threatened to make him walk the plank. He dared the man to do it, while calling into question the sailor's pride and integrity which as expected, made him see red. However instead of being simply kicked off the side of the ship, they bound and tied him to a burlap sack of empty whiskey bottles and threw him overboard.

He was sinking into the depths, without any means to cut himself free. Not that he had to worry about drowning, but he could have handled that situation better. Though whether or not he would have done any different if they didn't try to sink him was indeterminate. The bard attempted to justify it in his mind. The man was a conniving, lying scoundrel who clearly didn't know the basics of hygiene. He didn't have to take offense if he didn't want to. And before all that the man stated he planned to sell Gerard off as foreign stock after they trawled him out of the water on accident. It was obvious who was at fault here. Self-justification aside, not being able to move was frustrating. The most he could do was to freeze the ropes that bound him and hope the fibers became weakened enough for him to break free.

Unbeknownst to him, he would be thrust into a situation he had been in before…again. 

Vicyeth was all ready to head into the ruin when she heard something that made coral crack. Angrily she swam to whatever broke the pretty seaflowers with possibly the intend to drown it wit her water spells only to find out. "IT'S GERARD. HIIII GERARD" she swam to Gerard and picked him up before he filly he could fully hit the ground and get himself untied she picked him up and brought him to the ruin. "I invited the mermaid friend too! Now you can go on an adventure with both of your water friends and not just one at a time!" She brought the bundle of joy to the entrance of the underwater ruin and placed him down softly before annoyingly swimming circles around him while waiting for Lorelei to arrive.

Just as a ray of hope shone in the dark waters, that very ray turned into a black hole of despair when he saw who his rescuer was. Protesting he was again dragged back to a ruin, against his will–very much like another time long ago with the exception of the first time being on land. To make it worse, she then said she had a friend with her–a mermaid. He didn't even try to guess who that was. He was wishing he had been swallowed by a whale on accident now. On cue, the tell-tale singsong voice of a particular sea siren came lilting by. "I'm heeeere! Did I make you wait Vicyeth? Ohhh!" An audible gasp was heard as he cringed. "Gerard!! What a wonderful surprise!" 

"…Lorelei, what in the Nine Circles of Infernos are you doing here?" He hissed, his scowl deeper than a stonefish's. "Vicyeth was a dear and said she found a lovely sunken ruin to play in! Oh isn't it so picturesque?" The blonde mermaiden clasped her hands together as he tail fin swished in delight. Gerard responded with an grunt of disapproval. "Since all of us are here, shall we go Vicyeth?" By this point he had finally gotten free of his bindings and was swimming away when Lorelei intercepted him, hanging onto his arm. "Get your hands off of me you absolute buffoon." He glared while she began swimming pulling him backward. He swore that these two seemed to have some kind of magnetism in which they appeared right after he encountered misfortune.

"No! I said stop! Let go of me you–Are you listening?!" Gerard went kicking and screaming as he was towed along their marvelous misadventure. The light from Vicyeth made seeing much easier, and Lorelei's streamlined body allowed her to catch up rather quickly. In her carelessness, her piscine tail hit something and the rumbling noise of stone moving meant they were trapped inside. Finally breaking away from the two fools, Gerard tried to turn back only to be greeted with stone-cold despair. "You IDIOT! The door's sealed shut! Now look what you did–we're trapped in here!"

Vicyeth's voice piped up and immediately Lorelei swam over to look, leaving Gerard's chastisement and rancor unheeded. "It's beautiful! Oh if there's another, get me one too!" They both swam right into a trap and engaged a series of metal bars down around them. They were caged in, and Gerard was the only one who wasn't inside thanks to his reluctance to follow them too closely. His hunch had been right; they were going to get themselves stuck. The bars were spaced narrowly enough so that they couldn't squeeze through. The nokken floated outside with his arms crossed looking at them both with disapproval. They'd start begging for his help soon enough. He derived no pleasure from their misfortune, as they had dragged him into it too. "Well look at you. You've really done it this time. Now how do you expect to get out this mess?"

Lorelei happily took the less algae-encrusted idol like a child getting a new toy. Meanwhile, Gerard was looking for a way to free the two morons from their self-induced predicament. He wasn't doing this out of charity mind you, but out of pragmatism. They would test out the traps while he stayed at a safe distance, until they reached the end. "Alright alright, stop whimpering you nitwit. I'm going to figure out how to get those bars off. There's some mechanisms around here, so I'll start with those. This'll all be trial and error so I expect you to help." Swimming up to a rotating dial, he shouted to them. "I'm going to try moving some things. If something happens, tell me!"

He turned the dial to the left, and a rumbling sound was heard. Some of the bars retracted back into the floor and ceiling, but it still wasn't enough for the two finned fools to squeeze through without getting stuck. Gerard was too far away from them to see what had happened. Hopefully they would be accurate in their responses and cooperate.

After much trial and error, the two fools trapped in the center were liberated. Lorelei kept him informed on how things were going when he went through the tedious process of turning mechanisms, and he was glad to be done with them. Lorelei gave him a florid 'thank you' to which he merely grunted in disapproval. Vicyeth went headfirst into the rest of the ruins, leaving the other two to catch up. "Wait for us Vicyeth! Oh it's bright! You're amazing! Now we can see even if we don't have lanterns!" Gerard grumbled under his breath, "That's because lanterns don't work underwater."

Being the last in the group, he looked around for any potential dangers that the other two would clearly miss. Sure enough he froze when he looked up. "Get back here you two! Get back here this instant!" There was panic in his voice as the eyes reflected the light emitted by Vicyeth. They were in deeper than he had expected below the waves. Normally they–as in Lorelei and him–would never go past the epipelagic zone. They weren't designed for, or prepared for the dangers lurking in the depths. "There's eyes above! Get out of there before you get eaten!"