Introduction

Party is advised that Tariq Kunar has hired them to look into the events on Stony Island. Black Cat investigator David Brooks has already made an initial survey, and would like backup before he continues his work. Because Mr. Kunar has a lot of money, expenses in this investigation are not an issue.

The Stony Island harbor has a lot of older barges which were scuttled there when construction of the navigation channel was completed in the 1920s, so the policed missed the sunken 14 foot aluminum boat. David found it though, and it looks like it might be recent, possibly belonging to one of the island residents.

Stony Island, Day

David has hired St. Claire Salvage to pull the boat up and haul it to the shore. The boat was split at the keel and the port side peeled back. Marks on the gunnel look like teeth from some variety of gripping tool, including some piercing marks in the side. Registration marks on the boat can be traced back to the Ramirez family. It was, in fact, a small boat they kept mostly for the kids, for puttering around in the harbor or even short runs on the river, say to Belle Isle.

Anyone who makes a perception roll and has some knowledge of fishing or native wildlife will also see larger than normal fish spawning holes in five foot water on the western side of the harbor. This is the spawning bed for the lune fish. Holes are roughly two feet in diameter. Digging in those holes will turn up shiny spheres rougly an inch in diameter, with lune fish ready to hatch out inside.

Because the police report suggests that the disappearance probably took place at night, David will also want to stay there at night.

Stony Island, Night

The eggs have started hatching out, and the adult Lune Fish will be in the harbor strongly discouraging other fish from eating Lune Fish fry. Anyone near the harbor will hear the singing and must make the normal Will roll to avoid going out to find the sound. If anybody actually enters the water they will attract the very unfortunate attention of the lune fish. Lune fish are very uncomfortable in water less than five feet deep, and will not come into water shallower than three feet unless they are chasing prey. Unfortunately for the PCs, anybody going into the harbor during spawning or hatchout is considered a threat to the fry, and the fish will attack. The closer the PCs are to the spawning bed, the more quickly the lune fish will attack.

Cryptozoology

Anybody encountering the lune fish will probably want to invest the help of a cryptozoologist or at least a very knowledgeable wildlife biologist. All paths will ultimately lead to Sylvia Swanson at the University of Michigan. She will be able to identify any specimen only as something very similar to a freshwater shark. The spawning habits don't make sense for a shark though, which don't make spawn beds. She would like very much to capture a live specimen, either an adult or a hatchling.

Ultimately she will determine that there's no real way to eradicate the lune fish, but destroying the spawning beds will cut into their numbers and discourage them from coming back.

The fish will remain around the harbor for two weeks following the initial encounter, roughly the time that it takes for the hatch to finish. Dr. Swanson will be able to determine that the fish are probably waiting over the dropoff.

Destroying the Beds

The eggs are buried only about three inches below the surface. At any time there will be a few hatchlings around the beds. Adults dislike being in this shallow water and will prefer to stay out of the harbor, just over the drop off outside the mouth. They do come in during the night, and there is a 1 in 6 chance that there will be an adult patrolling during the day, discouraging pike and bass from eating the fry.

The safest way to destroy the beds is to blow them up. Working in the beds will certainly draw the attention of any lune fish in the harbor, and there is a 1 in 3 chance that it will draw the attention of one of the fish not in the harbor.

The Dropoff

The bottom drops off sharply a hundred yards outside of the mouth of the harbor. The lune fish spend their days swimming there, and will attack anything that swims over the dropoff. A determined fisherman could catch one, if he was using an 8-10 inch fish as bait. Liver or kidneys also work well, fished to a depth of 10 to 15 feet.

If anybody is bold enough to dive there, there is a 50% change of encountering a lune fish. In this context they are not overly aggressive towards humans, since the humans aren't threatening the spawning grounds. They are a curiosity though, and the fish will definitely approach to see if there's anything of interest.

A diver will find skulls from two humans down there. If the skulls are recovered they can be identified via DNA as that of Miriam Kunar and Robert Green.