Seaside 4: Where Every Week Is Shark Week

[Arkhosia]

Moonwell Annihilation - Sailor Loons

”Wait, you’re-“ Okay, Blanche thought they were teleporting up top, not flying. She looks a little exasperated at this, but can’t exactly call a timeout here. If that’s the only way they can make an effective use of St Lazarus, then she’ll just have to grin and bear it.

Speaking of bears! “We need your snipers to provide fire support! That ship cannot go down - and if we split their focus, all the better.” Snatching up the rifle, Blanche will try and judge how accurately she can help there too, taking a few shots if it seems feasible. ”Anika, any way you can give them hell from here?” she asks. “It’ll be a little difficult for us to shoot them down without hitting you if you’re going to try bringing them out of the sky with some well-timed shapeshifting,” she warns. Although she won’t stop the elf from departing.

[5a Violista]

[

[Moonwell Annihilation - On the Skyship]

To avoid getting trampled, Awen gets back up as fast as she can. She runs over to the railing and looks out, frantically trying to think about what she can do.

...Her magic generally can only affect sleeping living creatures, corpses and undead, shadows - which are far below on the ground....or have a lot of collateral damage. Anything she could do about the acid or the enemy ship would hurt her allies just as much, if not more, unless she manages to find a way to fly out among all the enemies. But...if she tries that, their acid will just melt her broom and she'll fall.

While trying to think of what to do, she removes her veil and looks from demon to demon, trying to see if she can find a weakness or a way to be useful. As she does this, any demons looking at her will have their mental processes slow down and might drop until they can recover...oh, that gives her an idea. Even the ones that aren't looking at her, she can hex them to make them sleep. It's not guaranteed to work, but if a flying thing falls asleep, they'll have a rude alarm waking them when they hit the ground.

She tries that a couple times but realizes trying to take them out one at a time will only result in failure.
Are there any other spells she can try? Racking her brain

Ah, here's one that she has called Cannibalistic Hunger.
With one of her claws, she slices along the length of her other hand's finger, letting the blood drip down her palm. Next, she points her finger at the target - the closest bat-demon to her - and runs her tongue up the blood streaks on her hand, which casts the spell on the demon. Its mouth will enlarge, its teeth will sharpen into knives, and that demon will feel an insatiable drive to feast on the flesh of its kind - other bat-demons.

...
As soon as she's sure the spell went through, she tears off a small piece of cloth from her clothes and starts to wrap her finger to keep its bleeding slowed.

[UncleWolf]

Operation Seaslug

"I'm not sure. I just wondered because I know warlocks summon and command demons." Titania explains before taking a curious glance around. With luck, the moment Will was done with the bathroom, the two of them could sneak off away from the lich since she appeared to be nice and preoccupied. Then they'd just have to get back to the port, wait for Sargera's ship to return, and then they'd be home free, right? "Why are you so good at spotting demons?" She asks, doing her best to casually walk close to the bathrooms, hoping to catch Will whenever he was finished.

An Unexpected Arena Fight

As Jezebel heads to the Arena proper, she'll use the gunblade's edge to cut off the dangling bits of her ceremonial robe. The last thing she wanted was to get her limbs tangled up in it and die as a result. She pays no one any mind as she walks into the arena, binding her palms with the extra bits of cloth to better provide herself with a superior grip on the unfamiliar weapon. She takes the last strip and binds her chest with it. A loose ceremonial robe was the worst thing to fight in and all these adjustments at least gave her some way to make up for it. "Artaris, if you're listening to the unfaithful, at the very least let Cessie know I died a good death today should the worst happen." She says very very quietly.

Done, she offers a salute to her host with the gunblade, signalling that she was more than ready to fight.

[Deathkeeper]

[Operation Sea Slug]

Will nods and slips into the human bathroom. He chooses not to question that. He just needs some time to collect himself, do some things he hasn't had time to do, and maybe wash his face. Unless something occurs he will be back to rejoin TTN after only a little bit, silently returning to her side.

[Earl of Purple]

Marlick Bay

Zophiel will find the manservant was told not to let anyone in the room. There weren't any exceptions. If he tries to enter, the manservant will point at the door until he leaves again. If that doesn't work, the manservant will physically push Zophiel out. The paladin might be able to manage it, but the manservant isn't just using its physical muscles in the endeavour and is supernaturally strong.

In the chapel, meanwhile, Benedict steps further away from Sekhmet. "You don't understand. It doesn't matter how much power you have. The relics are taking the power and then doing something without using that power. I don't know what's happening to it, or how it's working. Magic is only involved in the most abstract and vague sense of 'this doesn't usually happen and wouldn't happen without somebody shaping their will'." He really hopes that the damage Sekhmet accidentally inflicted upon reality is as repaired as it looked. "Don't do that again. You literally punched a hole in the wall between reality and everything that isn't reality. There's no way to tell from inside how well repaired that hole has been." He thinks he's exaggerating, because he doesn't want to fall outside time and space. If the threat of sudden tentacles from outside the multiverse thrusting itself through a gap she created will stop her from doing it again, that's what he'll threaten.

[Recaiden]

That's not a good sound. Not a good situation, really.
Spiral staircase, spiral designs on the wall, this place has entirely gone over to the forgetful thing by now.

Anchor tries to open the trapdoor, ready (she hopes) for another fish to be on the other side.

[Rebonack]

[Geneva and Laz in Fight of the Demonberbs]

Laz can run pretty darn fast right now.

And Geneva can fly pretty darn fast more or less by default.

Keeping up with the demon crows isn't a problem!

Geneva zips amount the monsters, using her small size and maneuverability to effectively evade them. As she flies she spits out gouts of magenta flames, washing the draco-fire over the nasty demons. Thankfully the awful birds seem to be really fragile and just setting them alight is probably enough to leave them tumbling from the sky.

~Try working your way toward the friendly airship, Lazarus,~ Geneva suggests. ~Once we're sure they're safe we can try taking the fight to the ENEMY airship. Maybe we can load IT with explosives and crash it into the moonwell.~

Huh.

Sounds like Laz and Geneva actually have the same idea.

Geneva does think it's weird, though, that none of the demons are attacking THEM. Just the airship.


[Marlick Bay]

Zophiel pricks his finger with the spear and-!

-the forgetfulness clouding his mind instantly evaporates.

Well! That will probably strike him as pretty clear evidence that nefarious forces were trying to waylay him. At this point he's going to have to really hurry to get back to the church in time. There's also a slight... buzz from the spear. An intrusive thought. He could brandish it down in the inn to banish the torpor hanging over everything, but it would take about ten minutes for the ritual to complete.

And during those ten minutes he may face opposition.

Anchor opens the trap door.

There is not another fish on the other side.

There is, however, an incoherent mass of spongy protoplasm, faceted crab eyes, and mouths full of deep-sea fish teeth. The horror is, thankfully, quite a bit smaller than the one from the basement.

It screams at Anchor, trying to cast her several seconds into the future. Even if she manages to resist the displacement, the temporal sheer probably won't be comfortable.

Sekhmet and Benedict decide that maybe ripping open holes in the universe isn't a wise idea.

The hole in question continues to grow smaller as time passes. Nothing awful is crawling out of it.

Yet.

[5a Violista]

[Marlick Bay]

The way Zophiel sees it, he has two options: One, he can run downstairs and try to prick everybody. If he does that, he might miss a few people. Two, the spear is telling him to do a ritual.

...
The ritual might be the best idea. It'd leave him just barely enough time to check on everybody and head up to the church.

Obviously, the innkeeper is involved. Obviously as well, Zophiel can't just 'take care of' the innkeeper: with memory-erasing magic, combined with the weird corrupted monster at that house and the way those cultist-people were acting, he can't rule out the possibility that the townspeople are also affected by the memory stuff.

So he's got no choice but to perform the ritual.
If only he could get through the room and into the servant's quarters, anyone trying to get to him would have to get through there first. He's sure he could do it, but it might take a while to get past the manservant - twice - and there's not enough time to do any of it.

So he decides to do the ritual right there in the hallway. He first removes his swords - so they don't slow him down - and stick them into the floor, trying to block as much of the hallway as possible. Then, brandishing the spear, he begins the ritual.

[bc56]

Marlick Bay

Sekhmet puts both relics away. She's done playing around with them for now, now that she's witnessed that. She's too busy staring in terror at the hole in space to listen to Benedict's speech, but at the same time, his message got through anyway. "I, uh, guess we wait, uh, for the others?" Unless they want to go check on the seal again. That could help too. It's probably fine.

[Earl of Purple]

Marlick Bay

Benedict starts drawing a white symbol in the air before him, creating a lens with which to examine the rapidly disappearing hole. He doesn't expect to learn much, given that it didn't register as usual magic in any way at all. "Yes, wait here for the others. Maybe check the seal, once I'm sure this won't explode or anything."

[Recaiden]

Anchor throws open the trapdoor and-

three seconds later

-arriving from the past, probably sees that the thing has shifted position instantly. More time stuff.
The solution is probably to immediately shoot it three times. Aim for the mouths.
Depends what exactly it's done while she was gone.

[Rebonack]

[Marlick Bay]

Zophiel begins the ritual.

It takes time. And considering the swirl of holy power around the spear, holy power extending down and past the floor, people are going to notice.

Most people won't care. They're too listless from the poison in the soup.

But others?

The inn keeper clambers up the stairs about three minutes into the ritual.

"Stop! You must stop that at once! The Saint needs these people, to cleanse their flesh! You must stop!" he yells, brandishing a crossbow.

He doesn't fire, however. He looks concerned and afraid, not angry.

Anchor resumes time to discover that the horror has vanished!

Where did it-

Oh.

She can hear it burbling behind her now.

As she whirls around to shoot it, the horror screams again. And once more attempts to tear at her with temporal sheer while tossing her several seconds forward in time. If its shriek fails this time around, it's going to be getting several bullets right in its grotesque face. The scream do little in the way of actual physical harm, but it adds up. And it eats away precious moments that Anchor could be using to get back to the chapel.

Benedict and Sekhmet check the seal again! It's still slowly slipping toward the end of its journey, the countdown to the next call.

Silence continues to hang over the chapel, the only sound the dull and distant crash of waves on the rocks.

As for the hole? It doesn't ping as magical at all. But it IS weird as heck. By this time is has nearly sealed, just a few cracks remain. Before long it will probably be completely gone-

-from our heroes' perspective.

Shouldn't the others have gotten here already?

What's taking them so long?

[bc56]

Marlick Bay

"What would happen if we smashed her idol?" Sekhmet looks at the representation of Neshiyahel curiously. "I read once that some entities gain power from worship. Would destroying her symbols weaken her?" It's worth a shot, right? She probably doesn't have many of them, considering the cult has to keep itself secret.

[5a Violista]

[Marlick Bay]

Zophiel doesn't stop with the ritual. He needs both hands to do it, right?

"Then just explain it to them," he calls back, trying to not escalate this even farther. He's already got a weapon pointed at him; he doesn't need a bolt in him as well. "If you just explain it, people might be okay with it."

"But drugging people and doing it without them choosing? That's not right." Then, he adds one more thing: "There's something happening in this town that's corrupting people and turning them into monsters, and what you're doing won't solve anything." Well, he only knows about the one monster and not the one Anchor's fighting, but he's also including those cultists - who Zophiel suspects have similar beliefs to this innkeeper - but they were being corrupted a little. However, since the priestess was missing - and Piotre was surprised by that - Zophiel suspects the same corruption could have happened to the priestess. In fact, it's entirely possible she's a fish-monster-blob at the church right now, he thinks.

Besides. He needs to get this done, so that he can go to the church and be ready and/or finally find the priestess. Can't stop him now.

[Recaiden]

This time, Anchor is a bit ready for the temporal attack. She vanishes for less than a tenth of a second, and then shoots the thing.
Right in its grotesque face.
Just as planned.
"Don't think you can get out of what's coming to you just by being a time-traveling crab monster! I mean, sponge-monster? Whatever!"

That time-skipping thing might not be a serious injury, but it did hurt. Which means-

͍̗̹͖̝̝ͨ͛̎̕͝l̶̴͉̣̣̼̔͞ ͖̜͙̰͚͎̰͏͂ͤ͐̎s̠͏̀ͩ̓ͦ ̢̢̩̻ͤ̄͐p i̇̽̏̃́͟ ̘͔͖̗͎ͯ͊̓͊͋c̙ͪ ̷̘͉̘̒n̢͕̼ͥ̔ͦ̌͑ - i̇̽̏̃́͟ ̘͔͖̗͎ͯ͊̓͊͋c̙ͪ ̷̘͉̘̒n̢͕̼ͥ̔ͦ̌͑ ! Anchor speaks, sending repeated waves of flame at the little horror. It looks even more flammable than the last one.

[Earl of Purple]

Marlick Bay

"It doesn't register as magical, but neither does what your artefacts do. If Neshiyahel is powerful enough to create items like the ones you now possess, shattering an idol is unlikely to do much. Even if she does get power from worship, idols and icons are simply focuses for that worship, they don't facilitate it. You can break the idol if you want, and it proves easily destructible, but I don't think it would do much." Benedict's collected quite a few idols and icons; if they're used as a focus for worship for long enough they can absorb some of that power and gain some unusual properties of their own. And if nothing else they absorb the power of the faith and Benedict can destroy them to power rituals and more potent magical abilities.

[Rebonack]

[Marlick Bay]

"No! You don't understand!" the innkeep yells at Zophiel. "They wouldn't understand! This is all for the best! It's what MUST be done!"

That's not very convincing, mister guy.

"You must stop the ritual now or I will have to shoot you!"

It doesn't sound like he really wants to shoot the paladin, but he feels like he has to. Like he has no other choice.

Anchor deftly avoids the second scream and shoots the horror right in its gross face! The horror doesn't seem very happen about this, especially since it is now bleeding that weird swirling static up into the ceiling. Anchor probably remembers that stuff. Might remember what happens when you get goobered by it, too.

Which is what the horror is doing now.

Spitting a wad of gunk at Anchor.

Oh.

And then it gets set on fire. It really doesn't like that.

Benedict and Sekhmet discus the ever-relevant topic of iconoclasty! Sekhmet thinks it might help.

Benny is pretty sure it won't.

There's only one way to find out for sure, right?

[bc56]

Marlick Bay

"One minute. I'll be back." Sekhmet goes back up to the sanctuary, to the pew she destroyed by tearing it apart with time magic. She takes the largest, heaviest piece she can find and still carry, and heads back downstairs. "This should do." She raises the makeshift club over her head and swings with all her might. She's not weak, but she's not superhumanly strong either. Working as an apprentice smith gives her some good arm strength.

[5a Violista]

[Marlick Bay]

"Then shoot me already!" Zophiel yells back, with no intention of stopping it. Not until he's done.. He turns his back towards the innkeep, presumably to give a bigger target.
...
And also potentially to give his important organs a smaller chance of being hit.

And also he's got that magic seal on his back. I wonder if that will affect how much damage the crossbow bolt can do.

"And once you do that, just sit tight because you're being affected, too." Zophiel would prefer the innkeep doesn't turn into a fish-monster-blob-thing, if the transformations happen in the way he assumes they are.

[Recaiden]

Anchor jumps aside and into a crouch to let the blood-gunk fly by before even really realizing what it was.
For the best. It was interesting before, getting melted, but getting gravity inverted right now would be too bad.

So, it doesn't like being set on fire? Good. Anchor's really glad, actually, that it isn't having a good time.
But it's not clear just how bad of a time it's having.
Gripping the gun now with both hands, she shoots at the thing again. And again. And again. And that's the end of the magazine.

[Lord Magtok]

Geneva and Laz in The Lamest Fight of Their Lives

Spoiler

Show

Meanwhile, in the air above, Laz and Geneva will find that the demons are trying their darnest to get away from them by continuing towards the skyship. But as they focusing on moving forward, the two can easily intercept them. Depending on how fast Geneva and her now deadly bubble'O knight can move they
can start slicing and dicing up the creatures in the air.

The bat-demons haven't been encountered by the group yet and they seem to differ from the ravens. While the ravens seem to specialize in ripping things apart with their many arms and beak, the bats don't seem to have any melee options at all besides their jaws.
They're faster though, which will be apparent now as they easily outspeed the ravens and starts to launch balls of some kind of thick liquid against the ship.
Of the two, Geneva and Laz will have a easier time keeping up with the ravens which despite their seeming bulk are actually quite fragile when they encounter the ghoul-knights blade. Indeed, in the air they're especially vulnerable as a single attack against their wings sents them plumeting into the ocean below.

However, besides the ravens they reach, none of them are staying to fight. Seemingly completely focused on reaching the skyship.

[Geneva and Laz in Fight of the Demonberbs]

Laz can run pretty darn fast right now.

And Geneva can fly pretty darn fast more or less by default.

Keeping up with the demon crows isn't a problem!

Geneva zips amount the monsters, using her small size and maneuverability to effectively evade them. As she flies she spits out gouts of magenta flames, washing the draco-fire over the nasty demons. Thankfully the awful birds seem to be really fragile and just setting them alight is probably enough to leave them tumbling from the sky.

~Try working your way toward the friendly airship, Lazarus,~ Geneva suggests. ~Once we're sure they're safe we can try taking the fight to the ENEMY airship. Maybe we can load IT with explosives and crash it into the moonwell.~

Huh.

Sounds like Laz and Geneva actually have the same idea.

Geneva does think it's weird, though, that none of the demons are attacking THEM. Just the airship.

"Mhm. Leadership has had enough money trouble without us crashing every airship we get," she agrees, before bisecting another stupid bat. This is honestly a little disappointing. The bats aren't even trying to fight back? Really? The ravens never really had a chance to begin with, but still. Saint Lazarus does her best to sweep her sword through the demons as quickly as she can, even if they'd prefer to flee like cowards and focus on the ship instead. A whole bunch of bodies will be tumbling down to the briny depths, provided this trend continues. Part of her honestly hopes they change their mind before she's killed off every last one of them.

[Earl of Purple]

Marlick Bay

Benedict tags along. Whilst he doesn't have anything suitable for destroying the statue on him, he wants to see if the marble has been treated or affected in any way that would make it harder to destroy.

And he might also be interested in picking up a larger chunk of statue as a souvenir.

[Shadowcaller]

Operation Seaslug

The gnoll let's a small whiff, like a sneeze but more akin to just blowing air through his snout. He's not looking particularly entertained by this attempt at casual conversation. "You look just like one! Why wouldn't you be?" He inquires and turns to Will as soon as he leaves the bathroom. "So she's bound to you? Can you have her help me then? It's very important, my auntie is in danger!"

An Unexpected Arena Fight

Thunderous applause, chants and cheers meets Jezebel as she enters the arena.

JEZEBEL!
JEZEBEL!
JEZEBEL!

"THE QUEEN OF LUST ENTERS THE ARENA!" The annoucher declares. "BUT FACING HER IS... THE BLIND SKEWER!"
The gates on the other side of the arena starts to open...

[Geneva and Laz in the Last Flight of the Demonberbs]

As the two have nearly downed a dozen of the demons it seems clear, to the ravens in particular, that they can't outrun them and that they're far too damage in their ranks.
Therefore, they shift their attention and try to swarm them. A little than two dozen ravens, as if controlled by a hive mind, just turns towards Lazarus and Geneva and attacks.
The first ones, two coming in against each of them one after another, are simply attempting to dive straight into them in a form of bullrush.

Following these dive bomb style of attacks the rest of the ravens come into a great swarm. They move slower than the dive bombers but it allows them to gang up around the two without just crashing into one another. Attempting to tear into the two's bodies with their talons and claws.

The bats try to just fly as far away as possible and keeps focusing on the skyship. But these are being targeted by the adventurers onboard who are far from defensless as are slinging spells, bullets, bolts and other projectiles back at their enemies.

[Moonwell Annihilation - On the Skyship]

Awen will with her sight be able to tell that the demons have a particular weakness in silver as it prevents them from generating. However, as she no doubt can tell from Geneva and Laz downing demon by demon, as long as you use a lot of violence it doesn't matter if they regenerate or not.
Awen's spell is successful and the bat turns to feed on it's former allies. Something which gives a gnome druid on board the ship an idea. The bat that Awen cursed is suddenly drastically grows in size through an enlarge spell and easily eats through the other sky demons.
Indeed, while the ship have suffered some pretty heavy damage, the crew don't seem to have that much trouble with the demons.

But that's when a huge pit fiend appears on the deck in a flash of orange light. If anyone had used magic detection they would have seen that it arrived in some strange form of instant gating. This one is different from any pit fiends that the others have seen so far (in videos or pictures too) as it at closer inspection isn't actually a pit fiend at all. It's a golem shaped as one.
Made from that black metal they seem to favor so much it seems animated by the same eerie blue energy that was seen from the mega!infernal in Riverside and from Sargon's eyes. It's wielding two swords and have shields with moon symbols on them strapped to both arms. It loudly roars and then starts to attack any adventurer in sight. Moving far too fast for a being of it's size. Quickly slashing into some suprised VIGIL-members, cutting them into pieces.

Moonwell Annihilation - Sailor Loons

"I'm pretty sure I can fly up there, Blanche! Look, Geneva and Laz are killing it." Quite literary. "These demons are total push-overs. Gonna fly up there and help the ship out." And then she will shapeshift into a huge falcon and take flight. Apparently she's quite eager to get in on the action. Leaving poor Blanche on the ship with the mercenaries.

The cat girl will be able to take aim on the creatures but as they're moving around so much while fighting it might be difficult to get a good aim. However, as long she could get a shot on the wings she should be able to make them plummet from the sky.

She can see that the mercenaries are taking their time aiming as there is always the risk of hitting Geneva, Anika or Laz. But even then it seems like they have a hard time hitting anything from this distance. Even the one sniper onboard have a hard time considering how fast the targets were moving.
"Damn it, we're useless down here. Is there anything you can pull out of your ass, Katty?" She can hear Sylv shout.
"Maybe the mini-helicopter-"
"No! A strong breeze of wind could knock that thing down!"

[Rebonack]

[Marlick Bay]

Zophiel doesn't see it happen, because he just turned around.

The inn keeper tries to shoot him in the back with a crossbow bolt.

It probably won't be very comfortable.

Anchor empties every round in her gun into the gross meat-pie! It dies, deflating into a heap of inert flesh like a sad balloon. She can probably explore the rest of the lighthouse without being harassed now, if she so desires.

Benedict watches Sekhmet engage in some iconoclasty!

The statue can be broken with a bit of effort and nothing particularly noteworthy happens as a result of this. There's just a broken statue on the floor now.

Not very exciting, all things considered.

The priestess would probably be kind of irritated if she finds out that Sekhmet shattered one of the images. Very rude.

[Morty]

[An Unexpected Arena Fight]

What comes through the gate turns out to be a roughly human-sized opponent for Jezebel. It's a figure with no arms, looking to be all muscle and sinew, wrapped in what would look like chains if it weren't for the distinctly bone-like texture and color. It lopes forward on a pair of strong legs. Its head is almost featureless, save for an open, toothless mouth, with a black, bubbly scar tissue where eyes would be. Dragging behind the figure, floating in the air, is a number of spikes, long nails, blades and other excessively sharp and pointy objects.

The "Blind Skewer" lets out a reverberating scream of pain and hate, before advancing on Jezebel, the blades performing a chaotic and desperate dance around it.

[bc56]

Marlick Bay

Sekhmet wipes a bit of perspiration from her brow. It took a fee swings to fully smash the statue, but now it's done. She doesn't really think it did anything useful, but it feels good to have done something. "They should have been here by now. We're running out of time," she comments. Where are Anchor and Zophiel? There can't be much more than a half hour until the seal opens.

[5a Violista]

[Marlick Bay]

The crossbow bolt hits Zophiel.
Passing through the seal, it will slightly damage the seal and the seal will absorb any magic it had in it.

It thunks into him and sticks in. Zophiel grimaces and his back spasms. In response, he increases his grip on the spear. Through grit teeth, he shouts back, "There, happy now?"

Then, he orders, "Now set down the crossbow and just wait, okay?"


[Moonwell Annihilation - On the Skyship]

Awen is thinking that she's doing pretty well, when the false pit fiend suddenly appears and everything changes.

She hears people shouting and screaming in pain, and then turns over that way. Oh, no, it's killing people, and this starts to bring flashbacks to her mind when something just like this happened just before she came to the Nexus. She backs away a couple steps and her breathing speeds up in panic.

Again, terrified, she tries to run through anything she could do to stop this from happening.
No, that could drive other people on the ship insane
No, that would suffocate everyone around
No, that would make everyone deaf
No, catching the ship on fire is not a good idea and probably wouldn't work anyway
No, stitching back together the fallen VIGIL members as undead would require her getting too close to the monster
In fact, just looking in that direction when there's other people there has the possibility of preventing people from escaping the pit-fiend creature.

Awen averts her eyes.
The best she can do is try to immobilize it.

Looking down at her palm so she doesn't accidentally slow down anybody else, she starts to lightly trace a circle and other shapes and symbols on it.
She bends down and places her and on the ground. Black shadows leave from under her hand, and all race towards the pit fiend golem.
Once they arrive in its shadow, dozens of awful black arms will reach out from the shadow and reach up to grab the golem. They'll aim at its legs, its arms, its neck, its chest, its wings, or anywhere else they can find, and will try to hold it all in place. Of course, they can be torn away with enough strength, but soon afterwards another arm will start to reach up to grab it.

She hopes this will immobilize it enough to prevent it from cutting her up when she approaches. She really doesn't want to be cut up.

After getting her panicked breathing under control, she runs towards the golem. Her hair grows longer and longer - extending about fifteen meters - and animates, weaving around itself to make ropes that reach out to wrap around its limbs and grab them, just like the shadows. Then, if that works, she'll try to lift it up off the ground - because her animated hair is relatively strong, probably strong enough to lift it up for at least a little bit.

If it has a mind and looks into her eyes, it'll also find its thoughts slowing down...but she's not entirely sure if it does or not.

[Recaiden]

That's it; it couldn't last long under all these attacks.
Anchor takes a deep breath, gets another clip from her pack to reload, and then heads up through the trapdoor to take a quick look around the top of the lighthouse.
Both of those monsters have been kind of in out of the way places within their respective buildings. Had it been up here long? Maybe just since last night?

[UncleWolf]

An Unexpected Gladiatorial Match

Jezebel frowns when she sees what she was up against. This was...woefully one-sided. Something that could control a plethora of meter long instruments of death, with no real vitals, against an unarmored woman that was being forced to wield an unfamiliar weapon? If this was an assassination attempt, it was a damned good one. There wasn't any way she was getting out of this unharmed and only a slight chance she'd be whole at the end of this. Forget the fear. Forget the pain that is about to come. This is nothing new, Jez, you know this. She thinks to herself taking a deep breath to steady herself. Embrace what these people believe you to be. It is the only way to get out of this. Whomever Idabolg is, she's forced your back into a corner to accept this. Bask in the praise, the attention, and give these people what they want and you'll be back home.

Give them slaughter.

Her moment of introspection finishes and she simply sprints forward towards her new foe, the unfamiliar gunblade held before her ready to deflect the attacks that will undoubtedly come for her core. She steels her mind, tunes out all of the noise and lets her vision become focused on just the being in front of her. Her finger rests on the trigger, ready to activate the first shell, but she holds off on prematurely firing until she's certain she can get close enough.

[Deathkeeper]

[Operation Sea Slug]

Will looks at the gnoll. He’s really gunning for whatever this is, isn’t he?
”My status as her commander is mostly honorary. She doesn’t take orders she doesn’t want. So if you want something done you ought to explain it to both of us.”
And by that he means explain it to Titania so he can continue to follow along beside her and pretend he’s actually relevant to anything.