As the ESS Albacore pressed further into the lightless reaches of the Sea of Ghosts, the vessel's sonar arrays detected the skeletal remains of a derelict ship resting on the seabed. Driven by a career-long obsession with reclaiming high-value wreckage, Captain Carver insisted on a scavenging expedition. This decision sparked a moment of public and vocal dissent from First Officer Drax Trulia, who openly challenged the Captain's authority in front of the assembled crew. “Every time this happens, we lose somebody, and I don't want to do this,” Trulia declared, citing Carver's notorious reputation for returning from such voyages without his original crew. Despite the warning, Carver utilized the stoic warforged sentinels to muscle the remaining crew into acquiescence, forcing the expedition to proceed.

The scavenging mission required the use of specialized deep-sea diving suits capable of withstanding the crushing weight of the ocean beneath the permanent Maelstrom. The diving team consisted of the entire traveling party, Captain Carver, Miyake Harrier, and the Arctican mechanic Drigg Bronzefinger. They were escorted by three warforged sentinels designated Boss, Boo, and Bolo. As they stepped out into the crushing darkness, the divers navigated a terrain of silt and jagged metal, guided only by the narrow beams of their helmet lamps.

The interior of the sunken vessel proved to be a labyrinth of environmental hazards and predatory threats. Shortly after entering the wreck, the party was ambushed by a pair of vibrant Shocktopuses, one blue and one red. In the chaotic underwater skirmish that followed, the party successfully dispatched the creatures, but the victory was hollow. The derelict’s unstable structure suffered a catastrophic collapse during the fighting, pinning and killing Drigg Bronzefinger. The loss of the mechanic—who was inseparable from his kin Hothud Copperhood—cast a somber pall over the survivors. Recognizing the mounting danger, Carver ordered his team to gather what salvage they could and retreat immediately to the submersible.

The somber return to the Albacore was met with a horrifying discovery. The airlock opened not to a welcoming crew, but to a vessel that had been transformed into a battlefield. In the hours the party spent on the seabed, the simmering distrust aboard the ship had erupted into a full-scale mutiny. The divers found the mangled remains of Officer Arthur Langdon, who had been murdered by the traitors. Most significantly, Drax Trulia had seized Langdon's arcane control device—a master switch that allowed him to override the free will of the remaining warforged sentinels. With the ship at a dead stop and the command structure shattered, the party realized they were no longer passengers, but obstacles to a crew that had finally decided to take the Albacore for themselves.