DUNGEON LOG: KEYSTONE REEF

[phantasmods]

Expedition day dawns, as usual, with an android mass text -

Okay, so, this time we're aiming to go out and stabilize the Fissure in the reef you can see up a little to the north of here. The waters are usually pretty calm this time of year, so if you can swim instead of needing to take a boat, that'd be a great help. We only have a few of them.

Also, I know that last time was a mess, so I'm just gonna say this: If you need to get out for any reason, just send us a message and a picture of your location. We'll get a drone out to you as soon as we can and bring you home. No questions asked.

( ﾟ▽ﾟ)/ Stay safe out there! When you're ready to go, meet us down at the beach. The rocky, sparkly one, not the sandy one.

Unlike previous expeditions, this time there's no rooftop sendoff - instead, as Charm noted, the tables are set up on Glitterstone beach, along with a series of boats pulled up on the sand. Two rowboats that could maybe sit six people but probably better suited for four, a trio of inflatable rafts (with motors attached to the back, all mismatched) of about the same size, a two-person dinghy and a long canoe that could hold two or three.

Besides the little fleet, there's also the usual bagged lunches (in gallon ziplocs this time, and other such watertight containers), and every boat is equipped with a large number of those chepa dollar-store water bottles, all with their airtight store seals. There's also a selection of life vests and other floatation thingies in a box next to the table. Strange hovers over the setup, checking watertightness of a handful of first aid kits with a spritzer and a bucket to submerge things in. They give a little wave to anyone passing by headed to the boats.

For those who opt instead to swim, everything seems perfectly normal until you reach the border of the Fissure... When, very suddenly, it isn't.

Comments

[nonono7]

[ Nono lets out an audible sigh of relief. ]

Thank you. I don't think onee-sama would forgive me if I let the universe get destroyed after everything I said to her.

[dubiouslychthonic]

[As a matter of fact something does happen. Jetshard had been trying to heed the others' advice and get back out of the lighthouse, because she does in fact recognize that she is fundamentally a noncombatant and she likes her skin in one piece, but the jellyfish are remarkably aggressive for something she's pretty sure shouldn't even have a brain, and one manages to get between her and the safety of the wall. That's all it really takes; she's stung and, stunned, pushed off the ledge into the water below.

The shock of the fall shakes her out of the jellyfish-sting stupor, but she's still supremely disoriented for the moment. When she gets her bearings, she'll be deeply glad of the fissure's transformation effect; as a troll, she can neither swim nor breathe underwater, and while the length of dark, slick tail with the spiny fins at the end and faintly glowing spots along the underbelly is a little ungainly, it does at least come with gills under her chin and below the curve of her rib cage.

Unfortunately, it might be a moment longer before she does get her bearings, because no sooner has she gotten free of the jellyfish's thrall, the siren glubs and the mental paralysis sets in again, and the newly-minted dragonfish mermaid hangs listlessly in the water. She could probably use an assist.]

[founderinglight]

It's no trouble. Hopefully it should stay put in there and not consume all of my inventory.

[Because then he'd be reduced to pockets and that would be bad.]

Now that the crisis is past, might I have your name, young lady?

[founderinglight]

[Probably? Definitely. Said assist comes in the form of a warp past the mess that is the rest of the fight and a pull, Izunia towing her towards the side of the battle where she'll at least be out of the way until she figures out the form change.]

Jetshard, my dear, this isn't the best place to learn to swim at the moment.

[The teasing is mostly to gauge her responsiveness; if she's brainwashed, well, that tail is potentially large enough to be nasty even if she just blindly flails.]

[byanyother_name]

Fair enough and easily accepted. There's nothing to forgive.

[Sometimes things just happen, especially around here. Like the mer now swimming thoughtfully in a loop around Heart.]

I am a great proponent of making use of whatever is available, so I entirely agree. How is your flexibility in this form? If you can give a sudden snap at the moment the strike lands you can get a sharper impact.

[nonono7]

[ With all of that excitement done and not needing to contain the mass of a singularity any more, the bright orange of Nono's hair fades back into a normal-ish pink. You know, as normal as pink hair can look anyway. ]

Oh, right! My name is Nono. [ She gives a quick salute. ] At your service!



Um, and you are?

[founderinglight]

[Honestly not the weirdest thing he's seen here. He has a friend who is technically a fox, it's fine.]

Izunia Lucis Caelum, but please, just call me Izunia. It's a pleasure.

[press_start]

What pet are you trying to get? Mametchi is the most iconic, but he's also really hard to raise.

[Someone’s excited. If you don't stop her she'll go on forever.]

[foolishjustice]

[He's perfectly content to follow, though he keeps a definite distance between them...just enough that Astolfo is out of reach of his abdominal spines.]

ROUND THREE

[phantasmods]

Above water

After managing to push Jetshard off, the jellies turn their attention to Aiden... Which is, you know, a mistake. While magic normally doesn't have much of an effect, he seems to get lucky; three of the jellies burn into faintly glowing husks, still and idle in the air, and several of the others have scorch marks, all of them retreating back away from him.

Below water

A number of the Armiger weapons simply shoot through seaweed and peel the cover off the siren, revealing its somewhat twisted form. it's hard to pick out much against the dark stone, but it seems to have a total of four of the "beaks" that attacked Mai, with not-quite radial symmetry. However, four of Ardyn's weapons and one of Izunia's do score fairly decent glancing hits, slicing the creature open and mingling a dark purple blood with the slime and the water. It's soon apparent that it tastes vaguely sulfurous. Additionally, Ardyn's Axe of the Conqueror lands a direct hit on what passes for a central body, and cuts off one large tentacle and a handful of smaller clusters.

Mai gets snapped at once more - her sword sing just barely missing the head as it tries to go for her. Astolfo has a bit more luck, though - although he doesn't cut the 'head' off, his blade gouges into it deeply, a chunk of flesh curling away and releasing more blood into the water.

Akira's blast makes the creature recoil in pain again - the sound is less intense this time, but still more than a little painful for those who are close to it. It also flinches, pulling unengaged tentacles inward just briefly.

Cannon-Lin is caterpulted right at it... But the electrical attack seems to mostly sting, rather than causing it the kind of severe pain the light-element attacks have been. With one of the large tentacles, it knocks her stunned body back, attempting to fling her back at Undyne.

[coagmentatio]

[ TAKE THAT YOU ANNOYING PIECES OF SHIT.

So, with that, he's... going to use this time to get the hell away from this entire general area. He'll punch each of the jelly things as he passes by them, for good measure. ]

[burninglight]

[He wasn't going to be able to keep this up for long, and Ardyn damn well knew it. Even on top of the fatigue the full Armiger caused on a human body, the screaming and resisting its effects was taking a toll he hadn't planned for. It sent a violent shiver through him, caused him to pause in his motions for a second or two:]

[But at the very least he was used to impulses in his mind that weren't his own. And this time, the anger it brought was entirely Ardyn's.]

Will...you just...

[Ardyn raised his arm in a forced and rigid motion, several more blades appearing in the air behind him to join the Royal Arms as they snapped back into formation.]

...die already--!

[That pseudo-central body seemed as good a place as any to aim, throwing his hand forward with another shotgun blast in blades of light.]

[blackestwitch]

[ The effects of Black Witch's presence might be noticeable before Maddie herself is. Strange but festive music begins to echo through the water. The walls, at least of the caverns below, begin to shimmer, then ripple, and finally become... mirrored. Like funhouse mirrors, their surface twist and distort the reflections in their surface. Possibly, they might serve to confuse the creature, making it lash out against false targets, assuming it uses sight to pick targets.

That's when Black Witch herself makes an appearance, a small spotlight shining down on her from.... somewhere, there doesn't seem to actually be a spotlight where the light is coming from. As it does that, though, three larger beams of light seem to lock onto the creature. They don't do much other than show it off, though. ] Zel?

[ And then there's a... well, if your character is looking, they probably won't catch it but in the corner of their eye. Movement of something large, something which skitters across the floors and walls. The eye seems to slip off of it. But suddenly the water is being filled with webbing. At first, thin and wispy webbing, not able to do much, but once it connects to the "siren", knows its location, suddenly the webbing is all focused towards there, thick and rope-like. Meant to ensnare it, keep it from attacking the people around it. ]


[ Anything up to but not including death is OK btw ]

Brainwash / health recovery here!

[beguiledcard]

[ After his attack connects and he takes that moment to cringe from this sound, too, he glances around.

Shit...

Some people seem frozen in place, and his first thought is that they're about to give in to that mental tug. So he's going to take a moment to quickly switch to Odin, and then go to the people closest to him, casting Salvation on the group.

It's after that, he notices he doesn't... actually feel the mental tug?? It's like when someone just playfully flicks your hair, rather than actually pulling.

Soooo he's taking advantage of this and switching back to Metatron. Take a Makougaon ("heavy Bless dmg to all foes")! ]

[foolishjustice]

[The paralysis fades just in time for another screech, but this one is weaker. Between that and Robin Hood's resistance to status effects, he manages to avoid being paralyzed again, his own stubborn and rebellious will forcing away the mind control.

Bless attacks seem to work very well, so you know what? Second verse, same as the first. He calls Robin Hood back and launches another Kougaon, though this one is weaker for the lack of Tarukaja.]

[dubiouslychthonic]

Ugh.

[The siren's influence is uncomfortable in the back of her mind, but it's a familiar sort of pressure and as soon as she's aware of it she pushes back, hard, and shakes off the attempted thrall. A smarter or less distracted manipulator would have gotten her, but apparently the siren has enough other things to deal with right now that one troll isn't worth the extra fight.

She winces, lifting a hand to rub at her temple, and mutters.] Wasn't intentional, trust me.

[founderinglight]

Just checking that you were aware and yourself.

[He squeezes her shoulder with one hand.]

Can you tread water, or do you need help? I don't imagine that thing will last much longer, it sounds as though it's managed to truly enrage Ardyn.

[Which is. Uh. It's pretty much dead meat as far as Izunia's concerned.]

[moonlightglory]

[ Moonlight Glory, honestly, has no idea what the hell is going on here, or who most of these people are. But she knows this much: Discounting Zel, there's only one monster here. She knows what to do with monsters.

One never really quite gets used to Black Witch's zones, but Faith's gotten used to not understanding them. Instead of trying to figure out what it's doing THIS time, Moonlight just trusts that Black Witch has the details sorted out, and bursts into motion as soon as the webs start to thicken around the siren. Even minimizing her inertia, though, she has to deal with water resistance - her charge is fast, but not nearly as fast as she'd be above water. Fortunately, being down one trick doesn't mean she's entirely neutralized, either.

As Zel's webs surround the siren, and as Moonlight Glory comes into melee range, she swings her massive battleaxe directly at whatever looks the most like a head on the goddamn thing. As she does, she unleashes her magic to maximize the effective weight of the weapon, making it hit as if it were ten times its actual mass. ]

[freedomofmovement]

[Here's Freyja, giving you an opening as a thorn whip sprouts from the wall of the light house, whacking at the nearest jellies.]

Over here! [She's got her scimitar out, and is eyeing off the jellies.]

[byanyother_name]

[Akira's Salvation washes away both the paralysis and the Siren's control. Leaving behind what is basically, well....

An absolutely furious Kurama, his expression dark, coldly and precisely enraged. He suddenly looks like exactly what he is. A very dangerous man. He pulls up his power, eyes flicking to the newly mirrored walls of the cavern and calculating angles.]

Close your eyes!

[That is the warning everyone gets before he fires, beams of pale green light shooting into those mirrors and...reflecting. Back and forth, back and forth, criss-crossing the siren in a viciously aggressive web of deadly light and putting off a literally dazzling, potentially blinding display.]

[dubiouslychthonic]

[She smiles grimly.] Brighter things than this have tried to get into my thinkpan.

I'm... um, not entirely sure. [She's mostly regained her equilibrium, and she takes hold of his arm as she glances down the length of her new body and gives her tail and experimental flex.] Maybe just help me get over to the caves, if you don't mind? Then if there's anything left of that terror you can go take another shot at it.

[nonono7]

Mr. Izunia! You should know that... You're really cool!

[beguiledcard]

[ Kurama looks... well... It reminds him of that time in the mall, and Akira can't help staring for a moment.

He's trapped in thought - mind trapped back in that trial - when everyone is told to close his eyes. He's a fraction of a second too late, and painful white floods his senses, even as he moves a hand to his eyes.

At least he can say, without a doubt, he's felt worse.

Unfortunately, though, it seems like... he's not doing so well at the whole seeing thing, now? ]

Shit...

[ ... Okay, it's fine. This is fine. Deep breat- uh... gulp? ]

[founderinglight]

Speaking of brighter things, it seems to be weak against light magic, so you might want to close your eyes.

[In addition to the support of an arm, he doesn't hesitate at all to wrap a tentacle or two around her waist.]

Probably better if I just warp you there, this form isn't the best for swimming - ready?

[fistsofchange]

I should probably learn, since we live by the ocean now.