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

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. ]

[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.]

[coagmentatio]

[ Impressive...

He does recall her saying she doesn't mind magic, and yet there's the knee jerk worry that she saw him using Fire magic. Still, it's not enough to stop him from taking this opening.

There's a hint of awkwardness in his tone. ]

Thanks.

[ He's going to continue to punch any and all of those jelly bastards that get too close. ]

[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 ]

[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. ]

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.]

[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.]

[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? ]

[nojohnyouare]

[Mai is bleeding and struggling to breathe in the thick, polluted water. She brings her sword up, but with the siren's mind-control mucus getting into her system, she breathes hard and turns on the others. If you move close to her, she'll immediately dash over to slice at you.]

...

[have_hat_will_travel]

[With Pidonus already having taken a few hits - and trying to dash in to try and strike at the beast directly, given her lightning song was an obvious bad idea in these conditions - she was caught off-guard by Mai's swing.]

Grk!

[Meaning it strikes home pretty cleanly.]

Oh not you too!

[At this close, even trying a Suggestion was a bad idea - so Pidonus quickly swung towards Mai with the flat of her blade, trying to push her back and get enough space for trying to snap her free!]

[theosophomoric]

[Sonja's made it out of the worse of the melee, and honestly should be able to make it out to clean, open water without much difficulty at this point. But unfortunately, she's of that particular combination of curiosity and lack of self-preservation instinct that when she hears someone shout a warning for everyone to close their eyes... Sonja looks back, instead.

Kurama's attack sears her vision, leaving afterimages of the particular shades of lack of color that she recognizes as gant and irrigo. And as the afterimages fade, and she's still clutching at her face in pain... she sees nothing.]

Oh sweet damn.

[thoroff]

[After doubling back to retrieve her Deft Harpoon, Wren returns to the site of the battle. Since neither melee nor the magic she has are particularly attractive options, she looks upon everyone already fighting the thing and decides her wisest move is to support them. She raises her trident in a rallying gesture and calls out to the others, fire in her voice.]

Don't let up! No matter how many tricks it throws at us, we're still stronger than this beast!

[Thanks to Rally Spectrum, everyone who hears her words should feel their power, defense and speed rise for a short while.]

[daughterofthemark]

[Oh no you don't.]

Let us level the--

[Oh... yes you do, apparently, because Arianna happens to be right at the edge of Akira's casting range, and in the middle of casting Clearance she suddenly snaps out of her controlled state.]

What...?

[riderofcharlemagne]

[Astolfo continues in hacking away at the creatures flesh, until that feeling seeps into his mind once more.

This time, however, he's less successful in blocking it out.

He freezes in his actions, suddenly, and turns away from the Siren's body, instead facing those attacking it. Sword in hand, he's ready to defend like the knight he is.]

[fistsofchange]

Well, that really was her last idea. Electrocuted by her own attack that did apparently nothing to the beast, Lin wasn't really able to stop it from flinging her at Undyne. Hopefully, she could dodge the incoming ex-monk, because Lin sure wasn't getting out of the way.

Late, but putting this here anyway.

[seafoamgreen]

Crap.

[Undyne jumps up and catches Bai Lin as she floats towards her, forming the shield bubble around them both. Looks like they're out of this fight of now.]

ROUND... IT'S DEAD? ROUND AFTERMATH

[phantasmods]

Below water

Now that, friends, is what we call an all-out attack. The full Armiger assault from Ardyn didn't do the siren any favors, but the combination of that and Kurama's mirror-enhanced light beams causes the creature to give one final, massive psychic shriek as its flesh is shredded by the weapons and melts under the force of the light. There's a nasty burnt smell in the water in addition to all the blood.

Perhaps more relevant, though, is that anyone who didn't heed Kurama's warning about protecting their eyes is at risk for at least temporary blindness. You will also probably want to exit the area, before the sulfurous blood makes you ill.

Thankfully, the siren's death cracks away at the control of everyone's minds. Those who were possessed will find themselves waking as though from a dream... Hopefully you didn't do too much damage in the meantime.

Above water

The jellies are largely cleared by the physical strikes of Aiden and Freyja, though they make the attempt to continue their assault... Until the pool below suddenly lights up, bright as the sun. Though there's not as much risk of blindness as for those below water, maybe... don't look directly at it.

After the light fades, the jellies have changed color - they're now a pale blue matching those found onboard the Trivesta. There isn't the chance to test if their other qualities are the same, however, because they immediately scatter and vanish through the door and the cracks in the walls, disappearing entirely into the sunlight outside.

[[OOC: Please feel free to use this comment as a header for threading out aftermath! Don't worry, the lighthouse isn't going to collapse. If you want to examine the siren's corpse after the blood has cleared, please ping a mod!]]

[nojohnyouare]

Nn...

[Mai breaks out of both sides of the mind control and screws her eyes shut. She reaches out, eyes in pain and tail still bleeding, trying to find the way out.]

Everyone. Are you alright?

[beguiledcard]

[ He can hear the shriek... and that water sure does have an even more disgusting taste and smell to it.

But he's... still not able to see, and so he can't tell exactly what's going on. And that? Doesn't give him much to work with in the Staying Calm department. ]

collectin' his sweetsuits and jammin'

[founderinglight]

[For anyone who hasn't been completely blinded, there's a streak of blue as the room goes dark again, cutting through the expanding cloud of blood. The warp trail resolves itself beside Astolfo, and Izunia puts a hand on his shoulder.]

Still with me?

LET'S POKE A BODY

[daughterofthemark]

[Arianna surfaces for a moment to give a wave and make sure certain people up top don't think she's dead or anything, then goes back down and hangs around in the area for a while, waiting for the blood to dissipate because ew that's gross.

It's still kind of unpleasant when she finally approaches the body.



Arianna chooses to check the corpse, looking for any useful bits or similar SWEET LOOT.]

[blackestwitch]

[ Black With lets out a deep sigh. That was over quickly, thankfully, once she and Moonlight Glory took to the fray. From the sounds of it, somebody made use of the mirrors she made to unleash a light attack. Unplanned, but effective. ]

All right. Looks like our job here is done. [ She lowers a hand and the creepy carnival music that was just beginning began to die down. The funhouse mirrors that the cave walls had turned into began to revert to their original shape and texture.

The spider monster, still just something in the corner of most people's vision, released his webs. ] Let's get going, then. [ And then, more quietly, to the girl- ] The less questions, the better.