Undersea Dungeon Scouting

     Since its discovery, the higher levels of the Undersea Tunnel Dungeon on Bibilan Island had become a regular grinding spot for low level wizards and mages due to the relative lack of hostile monsters, and the general weakness of the various creatures to air magic, with very few exceptions. The fact that it was so close to Alne was another useful perk because of it being the home base for so many adventurers hopeful to assist in the tower climb. This meant that the routes to get to the island itself were well known, and the fact that its status as an 'island' was somewhat questionable since one could simply walk over a sandbar to get to it in low tide just made it even easier; one rarely even needed a boat to get to it.

     This also made it perfect for the party's intended mission of finding a tunnel to get out into the ocean, using the dungeon as a midway point for the more important mission, which was getting out into the sea. Beyond the well-marked and well-known locations of hydras, there weren't even a particularly large amount of hostile monsters. Which made the sight the party arrived to a bit... weird.

     When the party arrived, and there wasn't the usual buzz of people outside of the dungeon, either on the way out or heading into the dungeon. There were one or two stragglers, some of them scratching their heads with confused looks on their faces, muttering about there being no mobs in the dungeon and that maybe it had glitched out or something.

"An ill omen." comes the whisper of the Astrologian, as she stares over the empty beach and the murmuring, confused adventurers who have taken up posts there. She rests the handle of her parasol - apparently her focus for the season, shading her from the common rains and serving to help her spells as a staff - against her shoulder, giving it a light spin one way and then the other. Its pattern, of course, is the Four Symbols in their constellation form, with lesser stars dotted around them.

"I wonder if their diviners saw us coming? Or perhaps our timing is merely fortuitous, and we move to interrupt a ritual that has called them and their minions close." Estelle shakes her head, tails flicking behind her in agitation. "It does sit poorly with everyone else, yes? That we seek to find something, and the first step along the way things are already amiss?"

The search for a way into the lands of the Undine had been something they had started many weeks ago. Exploring the shorelines, talking to Landers, and eventually following a lead to this very dungeon. A long road, and not much progress. Still, any step in the right direction.

Mikage has taken a place near to the entrance, listening to the strange reports from those nearby with some measure of curiousity. Rama curls next to her feet, looking distinctly irritated. "You could have stayed at the inn, you know." What is it bout cats and water? The lynx lets out a huff.

"Not so happy to hear about potential glitchy behavior, though." It seems to be happening too often, as of late. Her eyes look over to Estelle, "At the very least, maybe it'll keep other Adventurers out of the way." Leave it to Miki to try to look on the bright side.

Shiruba mrrfs softly at the other's observations. "Yeah. Something is up, one way or another," the wolfgirl murmurs. Then glances over at Mikage and Rama, "He wouldn't be a cat if he stayed behind because -you- wanted him to stay behind, now would he?" About what you would expect someone of more canine manner to say, isn't it? She gives her head another little shake. "Whatever is going on, maybe we can make the best of the situation."

    Akatsuki is here.
    A second ago she was NOT here, but then, with no warning, the ninja arrives, simply appearing as she breaks stealth and joins the group.
    "There's almost no one here." She says, stating the obvious, lavender eyes narrowing slightly with suspicion.
    "I don't like it."

Miho understood the plan it was a good one, get into the dungeon, find a tunnel out which would allow for access to the ocean. Though she's heard some stories about some of the monsters here stun locking. That had her concerned and she was not the best with air element. Fire? Well, that was another story and all things burn in the end, right? Miho was all ready to go as the party arrived and she paused for a moment out of monsters.

"Do you think they just ended up killing so many monsters that the nest is gone for good? I am of the mind we're not in a game anymore and ergo there would have to be a limit to everything. After all, we can clear our monster nest right?"

Her tail swishes a bit as she looks to Mikage for a moment then to Shiruba.

"Maybe something scared them off and I don't take much stock in omens myself Estelle...still."

Amongst the mages that have been making use of the place to level, Cyrus is one of them. Most know him as the potion using Alchemist with a penchant for lore, but he's actually quite practiced in the ways of Air based magic for his potions.

He's been practicing for a while here just a few days ago, getting used to the place, looking to meet up with Mikage and her party later in the day. Camping outside, and seeing multiple confused faces pass on by.

Cyrus gets up when the crew arrives, and follows Mikage and the rest in. Notably, people may spot that there's a merchant cart that literally just... follows him. Even without him touching it. It always remains closeby, with just enough distance not to get in his or anyone else's way.

"I don't think these monsters have any divining folk. They're just sea creatures and some dire monsters. They're hardly /that/ much of a challenge. Probably just got wiped out by an over-active Adventuring group." He proposes to Estelle and co.

"Though I figure that if someone got the Dungeon Heart of this monster lair, we'd heard about it by now." He does att for Miho's sake.

"Hm."

That is Jazz's typically non-commits response to the news of the dungeon being glitched. A slow blink in its direction. "I'm not a big fan of surprises. Let's be real careful."

Being this close to the ocean makes the tentacles that hang down her shoulders twitch, reaching towards the water curiously. They straighten suddenly in surprise when Akatsuki speaks before retreating to lay against her shoulders once more. Jazz turns in her direction, "Oh, hey. Glad you made it." Then she's staring back at the dungeon.A frown.

     Fortuitous, or ominous, it was ... actually really easy to tell. Dungeons don't just randomly empty themselves, after all! Still, in this situation, it probably was for the best for the party's objective. On the upside, at a cursory glance, there doesn't /seem/ to be any sort of visual glitches to the entrance. Just its usual random stairway down into a cave that's on an otherwise relatively pleasant and uninhabited by anything but the random bird or lizard island. ...That happens to be vaguely skull shaped.

     The trip through the first floor of the dungeon is relatively peaceful, it's nice to explore a dungeon without any monsters in it sometimes, just enjoying the architecture and work that had been put into the ... mostly brown tunnel. Still, the ruins were occasionally pleasant to look for, and not having to scurry or deal with a bunch of hydras to get past and/or explore! ...Really there wasn't too much of note on the upper floors. It was a damp cave.

     When exploring the area it seems as if there's just... nothing. In fact, there's very little at all, except that between scent and the thorough search that an empty dungeon allows...

     There were... chunks of... Jelly? Floating in the water where the group of Hydras would normally be grouped at in the center of the first floor, and several old and rusted pieces of armor and weapons are laying in the pool of water. Things that don't belong in the dungeon and look similar to the equipment that adventurers might have from immediately after the Apocalypse... except... older. More damaged.

     Meanwhile, Akatsuki is... just... gone. And off exploring deeper into the dungeon! She finds... much the same situation as the first floor on the second floor, as far as she feels comfortable exploring. Though, there is a strong, metallic, almost rusty scent in the air. Blood? Or just old equipment like found up above?

Mikage hesitates, looks over at Shiruba, then smirks, "You have a point." The feline gets to his feet then, shaking himself off as if preparing to go. "Just... no complaints when you inevitably get wet. It /is/ a water dungeon." Rama huffs again, and Mikage shrugs.

When Cyrus joins them, his cart in tow, Miki can't help but comment, "You know, it was more fun when you had to drag that thing everywhere." Probably because she used to sneak into the cart to nap while he dragged the thing around. "You aren't taking it into the dungeon with you, are you?" She asks.

As the group moves out, Mikage doesn't stray quite as far as Akatsuki, but she does move a bit away from the group at times. "Rama, seek." She commands, sending the lynx off. He, generally, seems to return with nothing of note, simply looking confused when there isn't even any small creatures to hunt along the way.

"The place does seem pretty empty." She admits, and that makes everything feel that much more eerie. "It wasn't like this when you were last down here, was it?" She asks Cyrus.

Cyrus puts his hands on his hips. "Yeah, well, I can't help that this cart does whatever it wants." He answers her with a bemused look on his face. "And yes, I am taking it with us." He glances behind him. "... and not at all because I don't know how to make it stop doing that." He adds defensively.

When the crew starts to explore, he remains along with the backlines, taking his time to get around to the second floor. It's a bit of a spiral movement through the area, but he's moved through the region often enough to know it by heart now.

When Mikage joins back up, the youth shakes his head. "No, it was just fine a few days back. Plenty of typical Adventurer throughput. I don't think I saw anyone that dangerous looking to be honest. But you know how some people get about their leveling." He answers the young woman, as the cart follows him down as they head to the second floor.

Briefly, there's a cant of Estelle's head and a flick of her ears at something only some of the others can hear. One hand rises to the side of her head, in a classic gesture; "Though the clouds hide the stars from our gazes, theirs still lie upon us. I wish their blessings on you, as you stride into danger."

Her tone says those words are for someone else.

But then she's back to the here-and-now, gaze skimming about as she listens to greetings - and tips her head to Akatsuki and her appearance. There are a bunch of familiar faces besides who get nods, and she falls into step beside Jazz as they proceed.

"The system has worked omens into the world around us; they weren't clear, and were limited, but... everything else is growing and becoming more. Why not them, as well?" She starts replying to people, starting with Miho, and then turning to Cyrus - even as she eyes his self-moving cart. "It wouldn't necessarily be Diviners from this level; we're looking for something much deeper, after all."

But then that silver gaze sweeps out, studying the sand, surf, and sky, compiling and interpreting what she finds there. And then they're into the tunnels... and the quiet atmosphere obviously agitates her, especially at the sight of the place. She spends moments here and there, crouching down to investigate the abandoned and damaged gear, and the strange jelly. "... I don't think this is related to the ritual we seek. The signs I'm seeing disagree with it. But I'm not sure what this all points to, either."

... she still takes samples, though, carefully scooping up some of the slime and scrapings from the gear into glass bottles from her alchemy supplies, using tongs to keep out of the muck as best she can.

    Nothing...
    Nothing, nothing.
    And more nothing.
    This is legitimately concerning.
    Nevertheless, after delving just a bit into the second floor, Akatsuki eventually returns to the group as suddenly as she vanished.
    "There's nothing." She says, appearing in a crouch at the edge of the water, poking at a jelly-chunk with the tip of her kodachi.
    "I scouted ahead to the beginnings of the next floor. It's as silent as a tomb. Strange smell though. Like rust." The taciturn ninja details her findings.

While it is nice to not be repeatedly accousted by monsters at every turn, the lack of such encounters is still unusual enough to have Shiruba's hackles on end. Despite the lack of direct opposition her ears are still stiff at attention and her tail constantly twitching like some manner of anxious tic.

The wolfgirl stoops down at the edge of the pool, eyeing it's contents. "Hmmm." She doesn't want to touch anything, in fear of disrupting something important, but takes in the site all the same. "There's definitely something off about this..." She looks up when Akatsuki mentions rust. "How long would something have to be down her to oxidize?"

Miho seems to be on guard muttering. "There's always a bigger fish." Her tail gives away that she's on edge pretty clearly she seems to have fully adapted to having a tail at this point for those who know her. Then there's something strange here. Miho will if no one stops her? Will grab some of the old rusty gear and try to put it into her inventory to go over later. At worse it's some more crafting materials once she breaks them down later.

"Man this is getting strange here, isn't it? Maybe it was just cleaned out like a monster nest Mikage."

She thinks for a moment at Estelle.

"Tch a point here, after all, there are Gods running around in the flesh here to some degree why not omens."

Miho takes a moment to think and rattles off a number. "I don't think it would be this rusted out ... if it's gear from our generation of adventurers."

"Not especially qa fan of coincidence. Even less a fan of surprises," remarks Jazz. Regardless, it doesn't seem to be stopping her. She's trusting those with her to have a decent idea of what to do and to rely on their relative specialties and so far so good. Cyrus and the talk of his cart, however, get an eyebrow raise from her. Curious, yes. Something she might inquire about lat er.

As they see the chunks of jelly in the water, she kneels down by it and squints.

"What's this, then?" she asks. She reaches out impulsively to touch. Someone may want to stop that. A nod to Estelle as she's benging to gather samples. She gets it!

     Even weirder for Rama is that there weren't even little scraps for the thing to nibble on. No drops, it's like something had almost just... completely sanitized the place, save for that small bit of jelly-like substance and the equipment just... sitting there, abandoned. And also pretty useless really, touching it about made the stuff crumble.

     Meanwhile, Estelle manages to safely scrape up the jelly! It's... probably for the best that she used tongs, as it HISSES a little when it's scraped into the glass jar, though the glass jar seems to hold for now as the jelly seems to settle down. A quick alchemical examination would give the ever so helpful 'acidic goo' description. 'A potent acid that melts organic materials'.

     At around this time, Jazuhanzu touches one of those pieces of slime jelly! ... And that sizzling sound happens again. Almost immediately Jazuhanzu's health begins to drop, but she manages to quickly pull her hand back before any major damage is done to her. Or her equipment.

     That metallic smell from the second floor was starting to drift up to the first floor.

BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KHu5WW6GDU

The idea that this dungeon could be completely cleared out seems to sit uncomfortably with Mikage. The Were Fang shakes her head, giving a look to Miho, "I don't know. It doesn't feel like that is the answer, here." Her brows furrow with uncertainty.

The hissing sound coming from the strange jelly is what draw's Rama's attention first, his ears twitching in the direction of it, and then Mikage's attention following. "I... don't remember anything like that being here." When Jazuhanzu also examines it more up close, she winces.

With the smell drifting towards them, the Were Fang pulls a scarf up over her nose, "We should probably take a closer look at what is causing that smell."

Crouching down, she pats Rama on the head, "Think you can figure out where it's coming from?" She asks the cat, who gives a huff before heading off towards the second floor. Mikage, however, looks worried. "I don't like any of this. Not one bit."

"Neither do I," Shiruba agrees with Mikage. "... But the only way we're going to figure out what happened, and find the route we need, is to continue exploring." She wrinkles her nose a little. "But whatever is making that stench has got to be nasty, if we can smell it up here." Or at least she can. Sometimes having heightened senses isn't all it's cracked up to be.

"I suppose not. I guess some monsters might just have a natural sense for danger. But when you look at all of this, it looks like something came through and ate them all up." He glances at the evidence that has been gathered so far. "Something slimy. Maybe a swarm of Slimes?" Cyrus proposes as they carry on down to the second level.

He uses his hand to signal his inventory, and puts a piece of cloth in front of his nose to stop the rust-like bloody smell from touching his nostrils too potently. "Ugh, this smell." His tail poofs a bit, as if he is feeling threatened by something. And for a Snow Leopard Cait Sith, a poofy tail is that much more poofy!

"Just remain on guard. And be careful where you step. With the water levels lower down on the second floor, it's easy to step into a hole, or into a trap. Be on your guard." Cyrus declares to the team, with the cart following him. He then grabs a potion from the cart, something akin to a thin set of potions, and then swoops them into the air. The potions suddenly begin to rush through the air like flies - creating a set of 'lights' ahead of them that then dive into the water, and give them better visibility.

"... Hm. An organic acid - and one that seems ready to eat other organic materials, leaving the metal scraps behind, if more worn." The vixen lifts up her tongs, to inspect the damage done when they dipped into the slime - and then towards Jazz, when she reaches out towards it. "No, do-" and then there's the hiss, and she winces. "... don't touch that."

"... so. We're dealing with something abnormal to this dungeon, that swept through and ate everything 'native' to it." She muses aloud - and then brings the vial up, gently wafting the scent of the jelly towards her nose and comparing it to the growing scent rising from below. "And it's almost certainly the source of this. Or so I suppose." She caps the vial after a moment, though, and tucks it away. It could be handy later. "It could be slimes, but I've never heard of ones this... potent, before." A beat. "... should we ask Uta? She researches slimes, if I recall."

"I don't know," says Jazz, after a moment. Her eyes go towards the ceiling for a moment and then whatever she was waiting for doesn't happen. "I guess we're not on television." What? She shrugs her shoulders and then nods in agreement with Estelle. "Let's keep a sample for Uta. She'll find it interesting and it'll make her day. Beyond that, we need to be careful. Acidic, nearly transparent slime? My dungeon master senses are tingling even if I don't know what it means yet." She straightenms up and draws ...

...draws the feather duster from her belt. She looks down at it. The tip has started glowing a light, pinkish aura. Her hair has started to waft around her as if carried on a breeze of its own.

    The smell on the lower floor is one thing. But is it... Drifting up? Akatsuki makes something of a face as she sniffs the air. But she doesn't state the obvious this time. Everyone can probably smell it by now, anyway.
    With one hand resting on the tsuka of her kodachi she quietly advances with the group, taking full advantage of Cyrus' light potions to keep an eye on her footing as she does.

Miho will watch as the gear crumbles.

"It should not have rusted that fast..."

Miho seems coincerned about this asn she'll look up at Jazz for amoment.

"Jazz!"

She looks very concerned for hte Undine as that goo messed her up just with otuching it was it an active monster of some sort?

She's going to start looking around again to see if any clues to what's happened here...

     Rama goes down towards the second floor, beginning to explore and scout ahead! He seems to have a hard time pinpointing the source of the smell though, it was so strong on the floor. Towards the end of the second floor, however, Rama suddenly feels a strong sense of danger and is forced to retreat.

     Lighting up the water in the first floor doesn't seem to show too much, though going down to the second floor... Cyrus is correct. There's a lot of areas that are deeper than others that could catch someone off guard, as well as a few tunnels... which a certain fishwoman had fallen prey to on the first time through this dungeon.

     In spite of the 'hissing' sound, the damage to the tongs was... mostly minimal, in fact it just seemed to burn off some of the materials and such that had been on the tong, leaving it shiny and possibly in need of recoating with protective oils to keep it from rusting, etc.

     As the party goes into the second floor, beyond that ominous feeling and that smell that only gets stronger the deeper they go into the dungeon, it's still... just... as sanitized as the first floor. No monsters at all. Around now is when Rama returns to the party as well, to share the information that there was SOMETHING dangerous towards the end of the second floor, though he'd fled before getting close enough to see what it was or truly be in danger.

     As Miho began to walk and look around, searching for clues... she's possibly distracted by something on a wall, or by something someone says... it's hard to tell exactly why she didn't notice... but as she was walking, towards the end of the second floor... she suddenly found herself hitting against a slimy... gooey... wall? That moves forward towards her. Soon, Miho is completely engulfed by the nearly-invisible monster.

     The party finds themselves face to face with ... nothing? ... No, not nothing. It was a massive earth-elemental Flan that fills the exit towards the third floor from wall to wall, several pieces of metal and glass equipment floating in it, as well as several skulls that were halfway melted.

     Cyrus, in particular, would recognize the gear of a warrior that had been grinding in the general same area as him when he'd been leveling before.

            Reinigerin, The Dungeon Devourer. Level: ???

     Meanwhile, Miho was beginning to turn red over much of her body, as acid damage begins to rapidly build up. The party is going to have to attempt to get her out without being pulled in themselves, and fast!

"... Good. Minimal contact is probably best, until we know more about what we're dealing with." She shakes her head, but tucks her tongs away. She might need new ones, but they're not an expensive tool. "But I don't like the look of it, either, 'dungeon master' senses or no." But down they go, all the same, deeper and towards the source of that ill-sitting smell.

Estelle is taking her time to investigate other things, and so she isn't in the lead. But her ears perk at the sound of sizzling, and she looks forward to see Miho get dragged into that slimy, deadly prison. There's a low hiss, her tails bristling, and she raises her (closed) parasol up as she starts her chant - one of her well-used standards. "Scutum, shield of the skies, I bear you now to protect my allies. A bulwark of stellar might, to guard in the darkest night." Silver light blooms around the group - all of them - to try and ward off the thing in front of them, and protect them from any lingering 'traps' of ooze left behind. Including Miho, inside of it.

"... Right. Any ideas? If not, run!"

Cyrus may be somewhat dismissive of monsters and their intelligence, but he's wary. Ever since Mikage has started coming home with tales of things the Goblins had been doing... he can't help but feel more wary of everything. Of traps. Of things they haven't seen yet.

So when they start heading towards the third floor, and his whistling potions suddenly PLOP into something and his connection on their magic halts, he calls out; "Halt!" But not in time. The tank has already plopped into the Flan in front of them.

The Cait Sith quickly flares his hands out, grabbing potions from within the many fasteners within his cloak, pulling out four potions on each side, and throws all of them in a spread-pattern around the entrance of that cave. "VINE BINDING!" He calls out, as glowing green vines penetrate straight into the slime and bind around Miho's arms, legs, her waist, and immediately begin to pull her out like a bungee just got snagged.

"Looks like something too high level got in here! Let's pull back! Miho will need healing the moment she gets out!" It pays off to have been a part of many raids before the Apocalypse.

All too quickly, Rama comes running back up as they make their way down to the second floor. That is enough to give Mikage more than a little warning about what might be waiting for them below. "Trouble." Though the cat doesn't communicate directly with her, she can at least read his body language. "Be careful everyone, something bad is waiting for us down there."

The sight of the flan is enough to have her reaching for her weapon. "Shit. We need to get her out!" Even as she tries to rush forward, though, Mikage ends up having an attack thrown her way, having to fall to the defensive in order to avoid taking damage, upfront.

"Damnit, maybe this thing is part of what we saw up above. Has it been eating people?" She asks. "Rama, stay close to me!"

Cyrus calls out, as Mikage asks about the thing eating people; "It definitely has been eating people. I recognize some of the equipment inside of it. It's from a group of Adventurers who went in yesterday." He answers.

    It's soo... Quiet. Too clean. Discounting the acidic slime anyway, the dungeon is just too barren for Akatsuki to even think about relaxing.
    And then.
    Giant flan.
    Lavender eyes shoot wide open as Miho gets engulfed, the miniscule ninja darts back on pure reflex. The sight of it is one thing.
    To hear it's been eating people... Well that's not so very surprising is it.
    "Can we even fight something like this?" Muttered as she lowers into a crouch, kunai at the ready in her hand while the others work to free Miho.

Miho is a bit distracted she saw something on the wall it looked like it might be useful. The next thing Miho knows something very bad is going on she's hit something. That is slimy gooey? Wait that's no wall it's moving and the next thing she knows she's swallowed whole. Panic and terror fill Miho she has ideas of where this is going and none of it's any good at all. She's trying to get free she in pain sure she doesn't feel like she would have before. Still, she's quite fearful and she's trying to get free to no avail and her gear much like her is starting to be pretty heavily damaged as well. The good news it Miho is totally tanking this so Jaz has avoided this fate for now...

"That explains the rusted equipment!" Shiruba is quickly on the move, using earth magic to propel herself away from the corrupt Flan. "It's probably been eating the other monsters too!" Enough people are working to get Miho out of harm's way, so she focuses on just keeping a distance from that personified toxic waste monster. Ew ew ew ick. "Get Miho so we can get away from that horror!"

"I'm okay," says Jazz. "Just singed my fingernails a bit," she adds. Her fingers are perhaps still giving off wasps of smoke, but the damage has stopped for the moment. She looks downn at her fingers, then back up. She keeps her feather duster in front of her. "Let's be ... super, super careful, huh?" Her voice is carrying a bit more than she'd like it, but then, it's sort of as twee and adorable as she is and so perhaps its just resonates nicely in the cave. Anime voice actress power, go!

She's taking her time to look around slowly as they advance and then, well...

... and then that happens to Miho.

"Ah," she says aft er a moment.

"Ah, shit." She stares at the problem for a moment and then takes a step back. The breeze around her seems to intensify, her hair now up and wafting like her tentacles do as she brings her magic to bear.

"Denizens of blackest abyss, answer my call!" From the water nearest to them erupt bloated, half-tangible bodies, the ghosts of long-dead sailors, twisted and broken by the buffeting seas, move towards where Miho is trapped and go to help grab her and haul her out of it. Sure, they smoke and burn, but they're dead. What do they care?

Jazz seems to find their effort acceptable for the moment, even as she's backing up away from it. "Knew my D&D senses were tingling," she mumbles, softly. Her voice is really good at that too.

     It was lucky that Miho had such good friends, because her health was dropping RAPIDLY from the exposure to the acid creature. 90%... 80%.... 70%... shield. Estelle's divine shielding suddenly appears, silver light surrounding and stopping her from taking further damage. But it was flickering fast, giving just enough time for Cyrus' vines to wrap around Miho and begin to drag her out. The creature was holding her fast, and it was a struggle to pull her out of the advancing monster that was devouring her and her equipment! That is, until Jazuhanzu summoned the ghosts of long-dead sailors, which give that last tug needed to pull Miho out of the much with a 'schlup!', saving her from further damage right as the shield around her falters and breaks.

     Upon escaping the creature's clutches, Miho would find that all of her non-metal, non-glass equipment's durability bar was DRAMATICALLY lowered, weaker items nearly broken, stronger items possibly hovering close to half durability. If she'd been in there much longer she'd have had to replace most of her equipped gear.

     As the party retreats -- with Miho now safe -- those that had just had the chance to run manage to avoid several deep spots in the water that would have slowed down or tripped them, saving them from joining Miho's fate in part to the area having been lit up by Cyrus' alchemy just minutes before.

     As the party runs out, several pseudopods reach out from the creature, swiping out towards the party and attempting to grab them to drag them in. After all, Reinigerin's name literally meant 'cleaner'... and these adventurers were a filth upon this dungeon that had to be cleaned from its halls.

As the team begins to retreat, and Miho is extracted, Cyrus gives Jazuhanzu and Estelle a thumbs-up. He then immediately throws a potion into Miho's face. It shatters there, not really doing any damage, and quickly begins to help raise her health while the remaining acid no doubt is still doing its thing.

"Miho, we're running." In case she had not heard while she was inside of its body, and then begins to run. Jumping up and turning for a moment, throwing a series of potions down that burn on more solid patches on the floor, bursting out into big walls of flame that intercept some of the long cilia being sent forth from the creature, and then begins to run like hell to keep up with the others.

"It should have limited reach. And the third floor monsters may end up being too much for it. But we should get a team together to clear it out if we want to make sure we have a safe passage to go scouting underwater." Cyrus remarks during the retreat.

Estelle nods to Cyrus and Jazz, at that thumbs-up. They did good work together. But, shielded or not, it's time to go. She doesn't even need to pause to patch Miho up, with the other Astrologian on the case.

"... We should make some base bombs," the fox muses aloud, as they run. Her shield helped get Miho free, and that's what mattered. Now what matters is getting away from this heavy threat. "Make it hurt itself. But that's for later." Silver light curls around her feet, and she skims across patches of deep water to avoid the swiping tendrils, spectral foxtails trailing behind her alongside her own.

"Think I should try and briefly seal the passage with an Earth Wall? I'd have to slow down, admittedly, which is... worrisome."

"Yes. Everything he said. Cyrus has the right idea of it." Shiruba is already on the move so it's not hard for her to dive out of the way of one of the sweeping pseudopods and roll behind the wall of flames that form from Cyrus' potions. "A powerful hard to work around monster type, no wonder there isn't much else in this dungeon, that thing on it's own is a massive danger. We need to back off and plan for this unexpected challenge."

    Annnnd Miho is free. That's good.
    The flan is probably too hard to kill. That's bad.
    'We're running'. Cyrus doesn't have to say it again. Akatsuki can agree with his assessment.
    Deftly rolling herself aside as a pseudopod snatches out at her, Akatsuki breaks into a run.
    Touching her fingertips to the center of her palm, more shuriken appear in the miniscule ninja's grasp and she hurls them at the gelatinous mess fast and hard.
    She doesn't expect to do much, but it's better than nothing in the heat of the moment while fleeing.

The tendrils reaching out towards them, cause Mikage to roll in order to avoid them, grabbing Rama and clutching the cat to her chest to keep him out of harm's way. "Running sounds like a very good idea."

The lynx meowls his protest as he is dragged along as Mikage follows the others, running as fast as she can to try to outrun the grasping reach of the monster. "We do need to take care of that thing sooner rather than later, so it doesn't take out any more new players." She murmurs.

Right now, she just wants to get out of range of the enemy so they have time to figure out their next steps.

Jazz's swirling bubbles of water are indeed enough defense for her and they may even offer shelter for others. Her ghosts, too, seem to've simply set themselves to delaying it, evaporating into it without hoarse, raspy 'pirate.mp3' sounds. In any event, they're gone now, having hassled the enemy enough to buy a little time for the rest of them. For her part, Jazz makes a frustrated sound that, because she's Jazz, is more a squeak than anything else. Her tentacles are twitching with aggravationn, too, and the spots and scales that run down the edges of her face have illuminated, the color of her eyes brightening.

"We're going to have to. If I'm going to get my hands oin the Waystone, this is going to need to happen." And she's annoyed that their plans have been sidetracked this way in the first place. She's moving as quickly as her small frame will let her but, well... she's very small. She dismisses her shields when she's far enouh away, the smoking barrier of water and ice dissipating.

"Honestly, if it's anything like the D&D monster, it's super slow and has limited range, so bombing it from afar and keeping a clear retreat path would do it."

Miho is now being eaten by a cube her gear and clothing will not hold out as long as she might but even then she won't last so long, for now, though she wants to get lose hell she's panicking in there she's clearly attempting to get out. The good news is she's still alive at the very least but for how much longer. Then rescue comes she's freed. She's lucky to have good friends oh she's going to be thanking them after this. She will so be thanking them after this but as she's free her gear does look pretty bad off heck she'd be naked if she'd been in there a bit longer even as it is she' going to be trying to fall back. Soon she's hit with a heal which helps her get moving even faster. They now have the answer for what happened, to the monsters here and the people adventuring...

"I'm going to have to thank you all properly once we get out of here..."

"D&D...we'll have to make plans...and come back later to clear it out. But right now I need to find someone to fix my clothes before I end up naked..."

     As Cyrus uses that potion, the burning sensation for Miho... stops. Her health isn't immediately raising up though, as there was still a lingering layer of that acidic goo on her and her armor; but it had stopped the damage to her, and now that she was /outside/ of it, the durability on her armor seems to be mostly stabilized. Or at least dropping low enough to not be an issue unless she gets caught again.

     Speaking of being caught, the pseudopod gets caught in fire as it fails to swipe at the group, a hiss and a sizzling sound coming from the shape of that creature as that psueodpod is burned. Not burned /off/, but burned enough that it retreats back into its main body to regenerate. A bit of the slime that had hardened by the use of the fire wall quickly being dissolved and re-absorbed back into its body. It had done a tiny bit of damage though! ... It was maybe down... by a visible amount! ... Barely. Maybe two or three percent.

     Thwip thwip thwip! Those shuriken sink into the gelatinous cube's form, going deeply into it! And... it does seem to do some sort of damage. At least, Akatsuki /thinks/ its health bar goes down. Also there's no getting those shuriken back until it's dead. Those are just a part of it now.

     Luckily for the party, Jazuhanzu's assessment is... mostly correct. It's slow, and the party begins to make progress on escaping its grasp relatively quickly. Its reach, however... is probably a bit longer than Jazuhanzu expected, as it makes one last swipe to attempt to grab the party before they escape it!

"That thing is persistant." Shiruba huffs, even as she gets out her bow and some arrows. "Keep going, get Miho clear." She nocks an arrow and raises it up. "I'll slow it down farther!" She fires the arrow into the ceiling of the dungeon, which causes several spires of stone to burst out of it and spear one of the stretching tendrils.

Shiruba takes a few backsteps as she reloads and then fires another, this time into the floor. The same happens, forming a barrier of stone spikes upward.

The Flan isn't moving very fast and mainly reaching after them, so she's creating as many obstructions as possible for it to have to try and reach around. The less room it has to stretch straight towards them, the better.

"It's health is dropping, but not fast enough for this team to take it down before we'd lose someone." Cyrus remarks, analyzing the situation. He throws up another flame wall, seeking to rip away further attempts at reaching the team. "It clearly has an enormous range. Long range spells won't be enough. Not to mention - that's a Flan. It's going to be serious trouble for any physical combattants." Another jump to get away from a pseudopod that gets too close.

"What's more. We've only seen this one. For all we know, there's more on the third floor." He points out.

"Rama... has Pela been sneaking you extra snacks?" Mikage asks as she continues to run, splashing through puddles and diving over tendrils from the acidic creature. "You're getting heavy." She grunts, having to heft the little cat up again in her arms. He puts his paws onto her shoulder and peers behind her, sticking his tongue out towards the flan.

As they run, she grabs the blue stone that often is looped about her neck or wrist, extending her hand behind her. It starts as a smaller barrier of light that flickers in the air, but then the gemstone begins to glow, activating the relic's power and extending the effect, creating a larger wall to help hold back the monster's reach.

Estelle shakes her head, as the flan just... doesn't give up. She makes notes about what is and isn't working, and how it keeps lashing out. "I hope there aren't more like this on the first floor. I have the feeling we're going to need... unconventional means to handle this one, and I'm not sure how long it's going to take to get a meaningful batch of those ready." Her tone is thoughtful, a bit breathy for how much they're sprinting through the dungeon.

But, still, she does need to defend herself - and to try and slow things down. So she grips her parasol tight, and gets out a chant as they go; "Oh Bull of the Heavens, I beseech thee! In this time I need I make my plea! With the ancient gods' might, raise, raise the land to the heights!"

Spectral Bull's horns take shape behind her - and heave upward, pulling stone alongside the motion to block the pseudopod lashing at her back. Perhaps the protrusion will; even slow it a little, as it forces the thing to try and squeeze around it. And, given she's at the back of the group from helping Miho, it shouldn't slow any of /them/ down, either...

    Another leap aside avoids the flan's reach once again as Akatsuki... Doesn't even bother to check if her shuriken did anything. She has plenty more where those came from anyway, so she's not too worried about getting them back either.
    It is time to go.
    Like now.

Miho is not oging to stop trying to flee a this poing she's in no shape to fight, she does have theidea the thing is slow, and she's going to keep moving as she turns about she'll use a defence skill to keep from her form, harm this time. She's going to keep ruinning. "It's time to go I don't want to star in this sort of movie ever!" She's looking very bothered but not at her friends, just at the situation she ended up in.

     Stone walls begin to crash down in front of the cleaner, slowly blocking the passage way and slowing it down enough that the party is capable of getting completely away from those reaching tendrils! ... ... ... It's still continuing its pursuit, shlorping around those stone pillars, but fades out of sight by the time the party has returned to the first floor. A chime is suddenly heard, as in front of each party member a display pops up!

EVENT: Escape the Cleaners
STATUS: COMPELTE!
REWARD: *glitched out horribleness that's painful to look at long*

Quest: Clean The Cleaner

Having escaped the cleaner, your party now knows of a dangerous foe! Clean out these gelatinous foes to allow access to the Undersea Tunnel dungeon once more!

         YES / NO [15 seconds]

Jazz pauses a moment.

There's an uttered, "Are you kidding me?" and then she selects yes because of course she does. Still, more shield magic, though it's clear that it's taken a strain at her, and a few blasts from her feather duster wand are a final follow up.

"Right!" A glance to Estelle as her Spectral Bull arrives. "We said don't tarry, not don't taurus, I guess."

Shiruba stops to catch her breath once they're clear... only to stare for a moment in surprise as the Quest Completion blings. "That was..."

And then a new Quest comes up, after a bunch of stuff that's impossible to read. ".. whut.."

Not that the confusion stops her from accepting. Explorers don't stop just because of danger!

"I needed to grab our fate by the horns." the vixen replies easily to Jazz, dusting herself off once they're seemingly in the clear. And then frowning at the... 'quest prompt' in front of her. Long enough for it to tick down, and then KEEP ticking down. "... it doesn't actually time out." There's a grumble, but she reaches out and taps 'Yes' anyway.

Then she looks to the others. "... So. Gathering up the materials for a base bomb, and see if neutralization is a thing that works and deals damage to it?"

Strange things happening that shouldn't be happening: Check. Glitched out quests: Check. Why has this become the common thread in Mikage's life as of late. The minute she sees that text appear on her screen, she slips into a colorful series of curses and looks to Cyrus, making a motion at thin air where she is likely seeing the information.

She's likely complainted to him about how everything goes back to glitches, bugs, or broken code these days. However, as she has moved one arm away from Rama, the lynx is the one who bats at the text on the screen, his paw swiping right over the 'yes' button.

Miki stares at the cat, who seems pleased with himself.

"Why do I take you anywhere?"

Miho would not think twice before the quest appeared before her hits the yes button. Oh it was personal now, and given the creature was made of aicd? She had an idea but would need to find baking soda or something more powerful for her plan.

"So that thing's made of acid right I got an i... idea but I'll need some help and a lot of baking soda."

Jazuhanzu rubs her face.

"Why did this hve to get more complicated?" Jazz is deeply annoyed by this, then shrugs her shoulders. "Ah, well. Welp, yeah. Acid neutralization is important, if it functions like acid we know. We have that sample, and we coiuld enlist Uta. She'd definitely want to be part of this and her help may be useful in figuring out what acid resistance. There may also be items out there with inherent acid resistance to them. We could look into that."

Thoughtful expression.