[Our Last Best Hope] Drowned: A Mission Playset

NOTE: I enjoyed putting together my previous global disaster so much, I thought I'd cobble together a new one:

A Mission Playset for Our Last Best Hope

Drowned Mission

Introduction

The Drowned Mission presents the team with a Crisis that already encompasses most of the Earth -- its oceans. As the waters rise and humanity moves to higher and higher ground, it will become apparent how tenuous our hold on dry land truly is. Floods, tidal waves, and monsoons engulf the coastal regions as the seas move inland, drenching all in its cold, wet embrace. And as the highest mountains disappear under the surface, where will humanity be left standing?

Suggested viewing: Waterworld, The Abyss, The Day After Tomorrow, 2012

Themes

Nearly Submerged Already – Seventy percent of the Earth's surface is already covered in water, leaving humanity with a paltry thirty percent of dry land on which to reside. It won't take too much of a disaster to make the world uninhabitable to all of the land-dwelling creatures on the planet. Even if floating crafts and arks are hurriedly deployed, these temporary measures will eventually fail one day. Humanity cannot tread water forever.

What Lurks Below? – Many think that space is the last, great, unexplored region, but the truth is much closer. We have barely explored the oceans' depths. Few vessels are able to endure the crushing pressures of the depths, and the absolute darkness of the bottom could hide anything. Who knows what things could lurk below?

Crisis

1W – The polar ice caps are melting, causing the ocean's levels to rise dramatically.

2W – A biblical worldwide torrential rain has been falling for 40 days and nights.

3W – All of the world's continents have begun sinking into the oceans' depths.

4W – The oceanic god Poseidon is signalling the return of the Greek Gods by flooding the planet.

5W – Aquatic alien beings have begun flooding the planet as they terraform it for their own purposes.

6W – A sudden shift in the earth's tectonic plates has caused the world's oceans to catastrophically "spill" over into otherwise inaccessible areas.

1B – Once it's fallen as rain, water has stopped evaporating back into vapor, permanently retaining its liquid state on the planet's surface.

2B – A crack in the ocean's floor is causing water to pour in from another dimension.

3B – A shift in the moon's orbit plays havoc with the tides, causing massive tidal waves worldwide.

4B – Water elementals are crossing over from their respective elemental plane.

5B – Cracks and fissures are opening up along fault lines, allowing the seas to pour inland.

6B – Global weather patterns have gone berserk with hurricanes, monsoons, and tidal waves crashing across the lands.

Limit

1W – The world's lands are already submerged, and no dry land remains.

2W – The team is made up of aquatic experts with unique underwater exploration experience.

3W – The team has been genetically altered to allow water breathing.

4W – Most of humanity has been decimated by the Crisis.

5W – The team has access to the only craft capable of functioning at the oceans' depths.

6W – The team possesses a device vital to completing the mission.

1B – The world will be completely underwater in less than 7 days.

2B – The team is closest to the epicenter of the Crisis.

3B – Only the team is aware that the Crisis exists.

4B – The team has encountered this same phenomenon before and has insight on stopping it.

5B – As far as they know, the team are the only surviving humans at this point.

6B – The team accidentally set the Crisis in motion and feels obligated to stop it.

Complication

1W or 1B – A massive aquatic sea creature is stalking the team.

2W or 2B – The craft was never designed to be taken to the ocean's depths and is starting to collapse under the pressure.

3W or 3B – A large craft filled with survivors is signalling the team, requesting rescue.

4W or 4B – They are severely off-course at the start and getting to the Crisis will sap all of their resources before they reach the goal.

5W or 5B – Their air supply will run out before they reach the mission objective.

6W or 6B – Initial information on the Crisis is incorrect and the Plan is invalidated.

Threats

Crushing oceanic pressures
Monstrous undersea creatures
Hungry school of sharks
Freezing cold
A leak that gets increasingly worse
Impenetrable darkness
Failing life support systems
Massive tidal waves
A quickly-forming hurricane
Sudden power failure

Assets

Accurate ocean maps

Friendly pod of dolphins

Deep-sea diving suits

Submersible robotic probe

Extra oxygen tanks

Nuclear charges

Powerful sonar array

Deep-sea diving bell
Electrical repellent device