Thanks to Teemo, I’m feeling a lot better about the whole thing. It also helps that everyone is doing the last bit of prep, which helps solidify what we’re going to be doing. Something about knowing this is it helps me focus. Having time to second guess makes it too easy to get lost in my own head.

Queen’s ants deliver a bottle of the electrolysis potion to the enchanting lab, where Thing is putting the finishing touches on Rocky’s disguise. I think he was able to put a bit of an enchantment like the oil idea, to help Rocky move easier in the water. I still don’t understand why it’s easier to enchant something than make a potion, but it is what it is.

It might actually be that it’s easier to just make a quick and dirty enchantment that will be easy to remove once something better is developed. Whatever the reason, Rocky is looking the part very nicely. He holds himself differently than Neverrest’s lich did, but not so differently that it should raise suspicion.

Slash has his axe on his back and is looking equally nervous and excited, and the other scions seem to be doing what they can to help his confidence. He’s still a bit nervouscited, but he doesn’t seem worried, so that’s all I can really hope for.

Jello is just bubbly and happy and looking forward to seeing what the ocean is like. It’s easy to worry she might not be cut out for this, but through the bond, I can feel my soft cube’s steely determination. She understands the stakes as well as any of the scions… maybe even more. There’s a lot of parallels to be drawn between helping Hullbreak and in rehabilitating a mole or gremlin.

We don’t have forever to prepare, though. Low tide is early in the morning and in the middle of the afternoon, and I want the morning one. I’m pretty sure Hullbreak doesn’t sleep, nor would his scion or denizens… but it just feels wrong to start this kind of fight in the afternoon.

Rocky and Slash gather up a few more potions from Queen, and my four scions head for the shortcut. Hopefully, we’ll be able to talk Hullbreak down without a fight. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.

Yendo

The merman lays on the ‘bed’ in the brig, staring at the ceiling. The glorified plank that juts from the wall isn’t the most comfortable way to sleep, and he can only imagine it’d be even worse for the land folk to sleep on. They don’t have water to help buoy them and lessen the discomfort.

Staring at the ceiling has become a significant part of his morning routine, since being thrown in here. He doesn’t blame the Captain for it. He really did swim off when he thought the First Mate couldn’t do anything about it, and sent that message that started the… siege? It’s been a long defensive battle, so he supposes it’s close enough of a siege for him.

Not for the first time, he wonders if he did the right thing. Was he mistaken? His gull, Whitecap, seemed convinced Neverrest was subsumed, but Yendo was the only one that believed him. After the endless stream of undead, he can’t help but wonder if his companion was wrong somehow.

“Pst, hey.”

The merman frowns and sits up, looking at the barred window, expecting to need to shoo away another young merfolk who is trying to talk with him, but the window is empty. He just stares through it in confusion, wondering where the voice could be coming from.

“Down here. Be casual. I don’t want attention from anyone but you, Yendo.”

The merman’s confusion mounts as he looks more downward, and eventually spots a very strange sight: a rat peeking out from under his uncomfortable bed. Rats can’t breathe underwater. And he’s pretty sure they don’t talk, either.

“You sent that letter, yeah?”

Yendo’s confusion shifts gears to a different type of confusion. “Yes… but not to a rat. Whitecap was supposed to deliver it to the Dungeoneer’s Guild.”

The rat smiles and nods. “Yeah, Tarl got it, and he asked my Boss to help.”

The merman doesn’t look very enthusiastic about the rat’s help. “Unless your boss can help stop Neverrest’s attack, I don’t know what else you can do, little one.”

The rat just grins. “That’s not Neverrest. Let me introduce myself: I am Teemo, Voice of Thedeim, the dungeon that subsumed Neverrest. He’s been sending those undead so Hullbreak doesn’t starve.”

Yendo’s eyes widen at that, and suddenly the methodology of the attacks make much more sense… though the reasoning eludes him. “But… why? I thought most dungeons don’t get along with other dungeons.”

Teemo chuckles. “Yeah, the Boss is kinda weird, but he really does want to help. And part of that is making sure he has the situation understood right. Hullbreak’s traumatized by losing some dwellers a while ago, yeah? He cut himself off, and was slowly starving. He’d rather die than lose another, and he doesn’t trust outsiders.”

Yendo can only sigh and nod. “Yes… the Captain went mad with grief that day, and he hasn’t truly recovered.”

Teemo nods at that. “Cool, that’s about what the Boss figured. He has a plan to try to confront, uh… Captain Hullbreak with reality, but he needs your help to do it.”

The merman looks incredulous. “How much help can I be? I’m in the brig. And how do you know my name? How do you know so much about the Captain?”

Teemo sits back a bit, getting comfortable as he explains. “You aren’t the only one to talk to Tarl. That letter dug up some stuff from his past, too, you know. He told us what he and the guild know. The Boss knows a lot more than they do, now. I’m not the first one in here.”

Yendo looks a bit shocked at that, but manages to keep his voice low. “But how? Unless your dungeon has some kind of aquatic spawners, anything they send inside would be obvious!”

Teemo grins at that and shakes his head. “Nah, you just gotta think outside the box. And speaking of outside the box… I can get you out of here.”

“But how? Even if you’re a Voice, I don’t think you’re going to be able to break the door down and fight past the First Mate once she hears a commotion.”

“Who said anything about a commotion? I can get you out of here with barely even a ripple in the water.” Teemo pauses for a moment after that, his confidence flowing into caution. “It’ll get messy once they realize you’re gone, though. The Boss doesn’t want to harm any dwellers, including you, but you’ll probably be in the middle of a battlefield pretty quickly. He can’t guarantee your safety.”

Yendo’s resolve solidifies at hearing that, remembering how often the First Mate would say that something is forbidden because she and the Captain can’t guarantee their safety. Hearing the danger, but still being given the choice… this is what the Captain needs to understand, what his people need.

“I’ll do it.”

Teemo looks relieved. “Great! Now, this will feel a bit weird. I had some practice with shortcuts underwater on the way in, but the transition still isn’t as smooth as I’d like it. Are you ready?”

Yendo doubts he is, but he nods. Whether he’s ready or not, it doesn’t matter. This may be the last chance he has to help everyone he cares about.

“Good! Just follow me, and try not to think too hard about how everything looks, ok? I’m going to be a little messy about it so they notice pretty quickly. Thedeim wants the fighting, if there is any, to take place at low tide.”

Yendo doesn’t have much chance to question that as the rat does… something, and then slips through the something. He’s already starting to regret this decision, but he’s not going to balk at the challenge. He swims forward, and does his best to keep his gaze resolutely on the tail of the rat before him. Reality seems to twist and bend, reminding him of when he’d poke his head only barely above the surface of the water and see things all strangely distorted.

He’s dimly aware of exiting and entering several distortions as he follows Teemo, and he can feel when they leave the safety of the Captain’s territory, but he doesn’t get much time to dwell on it. Teemo is still moving. The thought of slipping away crosses his mind, but he rejects it. No, this is the current he’s in now, and he’ll see where it goes.

Teemo stops and finally lets Yendo get his bearings, and he fears he may have made a mistake. Skeletons are everywhere! He’s in some kind of submerged fortress or something!

“Easy, Yendo. They’re not going to hurt you,” encourages the rat, though it takes Yendo a few more seconds to understand the truth of that statement. The undead aren’t rushing him to tear him apart. In fact… they’re ignoring him. None are moving to try to even restrain him! As he looks around, his eyes settle on two strange figures.

One is exactly what he would have expected: a lich. It’s not acting much like he would have expected a lich to, though, as it seems to just be communicating with the other figure.

At first, he thinks it must be a skeleton weighed down with more rocks than usual, but he doesn’t see any bones anywhere! It has a strange style of hat, and an equally-strange style of axe on its back, too.

Unsure of what else to do, he decides to swim over, hoping they might give him some kind of explanation, but he bumps into… he’s not sure.

Teemo chuckles. “That’s Jello. The Boss has slimes that are basically invisible in the water. The guy in the hat is Slash, an earth elemental. The Boss also has smaller elementals to act as spies, too. That’s why the skeletons were weighed with rocks, so they can easily get inside without raising suspicion about sudden piles of rock around.”

“And… the lich?”

“That’s Rocky. If Hullbreak and the First Mate want a fight, Rocky is here to give it to them.”