Masks 2

Ken shuffles along. He's pretty chill about the end of the world even if it'll be a major bummer - if it happened. "Die or die trying" has been his ethos most of his life.

HELL YEAH.

Oblivious as she was to Lady Light's plight, Finn is a bit busy with the battle at hand! Being hasted? Pretty cool!!! She dives deeper into the horde, chopping as much of a path as she can toward the palace with that big ass sword the Demon made for her. She's got to get there! Got to stop this suffering as quick as she can!

The party regrouped and followed after Finn, fighting their way up the steps and through the gate of the Botanical Gardens. With her telekinesis, Theraea  managed to deflect artillery and hand lampreys alike while Sam (from the arms of Maria) fired blindly at various fish with expert precision. Finn, her sword crackling with lightning, cleaved the way forward as the Demon and Jim came up to cover her flanks and press on. Mini-bombs were thrown into the midst by Nocturne, thinning the crowd as Ken's drone provided air support.

And then they went into the gardens proper. The coral reefs were at their largest here, towering above the group like a sickly, twisted forest. Polyps grew on their veiny exterior, and the fingerlike bits seemed like they could come down on them at any time.

And as they got closer to the temple, the water became clearer. The murk went away, revealing the building to be somewhat transparent. Before they could really put what was happening together, the temple tore itself apart into thousands, if not millions of individual aquatic monsters. Tiny twisted fish and the infamous hand lampreys all swarmed towards them, along with murderous, devious barnacles.

The fish storm, previously the temple, was now bearing down on them amidst a sea of giant, ominous coral.

THE BUBBLE! THRASHED! Closed in a little so the force of its spin could hopefully knock aside enough of them for us stupid idiot people to get the HELL OUT!

Edit: also she probably whined something in exhasperation, like, “Oh god DAMN it!”

"Somethin' tells me I'm glad I can't see what's goin' on out there."

Sam peeks out from under his hat, sighs, then lowers it again.

"Yep. Shouldn't have peeked. Godblob DAMMIT wish my legs would heal faster."

"Oh god, fish? More fish?? Somebody with psychic powers, find where the FUCK Siren is! Please!"

She starts making sashimi, slicing and cutting as quickly as she can.

Ken decides he should scoff out of the temple while using his drone as a shield.

Charging in? A bad idea, mate!

Uh oh.

Theraea hurriedly put a barrier of Slowed Time between the party and the fish horde, hoping to slow their approach long enough to cover the party's hasty escape!

"The source of all this is still below us!" she called to the group. She could see as much, after all, with her Special Eyes. "We need to get deeper, now!" She'd start looking for a way down and direct the group that way! Maybe the sewers? The sewers seemed like a good way to get deeper than here.

Finn hasn’t got much, so she just blasts lightning at these things!! It’s her best AOE!!!

Theraea led the way towards the nearest sewer access point as the flying fish, barnacles, and lamprey hands descended on them! Esen sliced and slashed, Ken retreated using his drone as a shield, Finn and the Demon shot off bursts of lightning, Nocturne sliced them out of the air with his sword, and Sam fired ineffectively into the swarm.Just as they were about to get to the sewer, though, a lamprey hand broke through the telekinetic barriers and the lightning and went for Maria.

And then it struck her on the back, deployed its horrible teeth, and began biting into her. Her concentration broke after sputtering a bit, causing the water to surge in.

All of them were struck hard and disoriented as they went underwater. The barnacles began attaching to their weapons, eroding them while the lamprey hands tried to tear their bandannas off. Many of the fish also began biting and tearing at the group.

They would be dead within seconds if they didn't get oxygen...

"aaAAAAAABLRGLRGLRGLRBLR"

OH GOD SHE HADN'T DROWNED WITHOUT MEANING TO IN HER ENTIRE ADULT LIFE. OH THAT HURT, SO BAD. DISASTER.

Maria uhh DROPPED SAM since, like, water, he wouldn't hit the ground so hard maybe- and clawed frantically at her back to try and remove it!!! She'd stab it off if she had to!!! And try to GET THE BUBBLE UP AGAIN OH NO OH GOD.

Well!

This was unpleasant.

The fortunate thing is that Theraea's reality anchor would probably be enough to keep her alive here. After all, its whole purpose was to keep Theraea's immediate surroundings survivable.

The unfortunate thing is that it did absolutely nothing for anyone that wasn't, like, basically touching her. So, there was one reasonable course of action - rush over to Maria, give her the Hug of Life, and focus all her efforts on fighting off the fish around her so that she could get the bubble up again!

Esen holds her breath.

Spins in the water...

And grabs the lamprey off of Maria's head with a hookshot, then wards off any other lampreys approaching with a split-off tendril.

As Sam floated about, he used every working limb to lash out at the lampreys that were attacking him. He grabs two, and, seeing the one on her back, he does the only thing he can.

He flails over to it, opens his mouth as quick as he can, and bites it to tear it off with his impressive mouth strength, allowing Essen to whip it away.

Suddenly there is a cut to Sam's trailer.

On a shelf, a scrap metal trophy,

"LOWER HOUSTON CRIMEFEST 2044
TEAM JERKY CHEWING CHAMPIONS
THE QUICKDRAW BROTHERS"

FINN FLAILS. She swings her sword wildly, trying to fight off lampreys attacking her and -- and more importantly, Coyote!!!

Ken sees if the temple has any emergency measures that can allow the use of oxygen. Or the drainage of this place.

He toggles them on.

Theraea swam through the water as Maria flailed, embracing her with the hug of life right as Sam grabbed onto her...

Ken, unfortunately, found no such measures around. And Finn's waterborne flailing did little against the onrush of sealife.

And bit the lamprey off her back. His mouth was filled with human-tasting blood afterwards, but the lamprey was off! A few fish sliced by, creating new fresh cuts in his back. Indeed, many of the group were injured by the onrush of fish, their blood filling the water...

Theraea's telekinetic shield and Esen's slicing hookshot kept the sealife off them long enough for Maria to open a vacuum back up. At that point, the Demon performed a wind spell that filled it back up with oxygen. Zil tore a manhole cover off the ground (as she was the only one with the strength to do so), and the group rushed down beneath the ground as barnacles covered their weapons, lampreys tried to attach themselves, and fish cut them apart.

The manhole cover was pulled back over, sealing them off from the fishstorm. They were in darkness, so the Demon used a light spell...

All around them, the sewer walls were covered in black veins and tentacles, while light slugs occasionally climbed along on the walls and ceilings. Strange, inhuman shadows danced upon the walls and giant lumps occasionally popped out. In the black slimy occasional lumps were human faces, watching them go by with glazed eyes.

The Song of the Deep was its loudest yet in the sewers, ringing strong through their minds. Even Maria could hear it now.

Their bandannas burned as the Demon's magic tried to keep them safe. Their weapons were largely covered in horrible eldritch barnacles now, which would need to be burned off before they could be used.

Sam spit up blood and seawater, groaning. He tried to make what was undoubtedly some half-thought out quip but his lungs were too busy trying to recover to spare the air for speech. He instead settled for half heartedly bashed two gripped lampreys into the damp, slightly writhing ground.

Ken scratches at his chin, keeping his cool despite the fact Polybius is encumbered by barnacles. He's got a nosebleed going on because that's what happens if you're psychic and you're in a massive psychic feedback zone.

"That's a lot of eyes here," he comments unhelpfully. "I guess you can say...it's a Panopticod?"

Oh, this was just lovely. Human faces in the walls? Bad. Eldritch barnacles all over their stuff? Also bad! But less bad to look at.

Theraea reached for her multitool and transformed it into a blowtorch, while humming discordantly in her head to try to shut out that damn Song. "Um- I can probably remove those... things on all your weapons," she said. She got to work on that!

How did these sewers get WORSE. HOW. They weren't pleasant before but... UGH. Maria took off her jacket, tying it over her torso to hopefully. Sop up some of the blood, so she wouldn't have to worry about it.

Heh. "... Thank you Hackerman..." She said, genuinely, and sighed. "... Knew there was gonna be a trap, but not that. Any ideas which way we should be headed, other than down?"

She'd also like, offer Sam a hand, since she wasn't dying anymore and his legs probably didn't magically get better. Anyone coughing up got a nice uncomfortable removal of water from their lungs, and stuff that could be started getting dried out.

Sam took a break after smacking lampreys to death now that he can breathe again so he can inspect his leg wounds and apply more medical if necessary.

He hoped someone had some more on hand.

"Aye, on it fer myself. Throw any weapons at me, too, an' me an' the mothlass'll get ye right as rain."

And with that, Finn starts burning stuff off the gear!

"That's a terrible joke, Hacker, but gods if it didn't bring a smile tae my face in the worst of it. Best idea I got is tae push forward in the direction that garden was leadin' - an' downward, too, if that's where the magic's at. Palace may have been an illusion, but I imagine there's a reason they picked that spot. Perhaps if there's nothin' straight down? There's probably sewers leadin' that way, aye?"

Cadence clung onto her bandana for dear life. She never wants to have that headache again!! No thank you!!! Dangit we have to get even closer to the area too? Crap.

Cadence held out her staff to anybody that was offering to fry stuff off! Either Finn or Zil, whoever isn't occupied at the time.

While she waited for that to get done... Well.... She really didn't like how strong that sound was. She's NOT going to sing the song, but she is going to throw her voice forward a little bit so everyone else doesn't get blasted with more noise. She's just going to scream to see if she can dampen the noise.

Bye bye shark! Hello, more problems! Sewers were the least of their worry, really, even if it was pretty damn gross. Zil's just happy to be useful.

So, she'll breathe fire on anything that needs fire breathing on! Candy's staff, and even Tim, who she knows can take it. Better he be a little warm than, like, covered in barnacles.
"This sucks," She grunts simply, holding her palm out and keeping the heat flowing, if only to give herself a bit more light to see with. "Gonna have to kick this thing's ass slowly if only to annoy it as much as it's annoyed the hell outta me so far."