== VORTEX QUEST 2-6 ==
== ENEMY WATERS ==
The town of Tlesspa was inside a geode large enough to make the settlement look minuscule. Shimmering crystal all around made Xane think of a glitter-snowglobe.
Misty waterfalls dropped from fractures in the gem sky, collecting as a whirling sea at the bottom of the geode, leaving via a huge waterfall under a bridge that marked the only entrance by land.
Tlesspa itself was built on stone pillars. A town of a hundred buildings, dark, bulky, with gems emphasizing the serrated edges of obelisks and temples.
The pantheon arrived by Wyvern. Their sponsor, Lord Chralloth had lent them the white, flying snake and was holding onto their possessions in the meantime -- both to stow them safely and to make sure the demigods would be less likely to betray him.
From a crystal chunk halfway up the geode, Xane looked down on Tlesspa, trying to spot the vortex building site. A courtyard near the center seemed to be the endpoint of several new pipes that cut across narrow avenues.
The vortex wasn't their target, however. They were here to poison Lord Jruvoth, ruler of Tlesspa.
Xane rubbed his smooth head. Aside from Chay's narrow fade, all the demigods were bald, ready to act like figments -- naked and dumb.
The thaum-mage let his butterflies settle on a man's crotch each.
"Ready?" Chay asked.
Seeing everyone nod, Xane enchanted their crotches. For at least an hour, their aegises would be covered by illusory dicks. He hadn't gone overboard again, only giving himself a permanently semi-hard version of his real dick, maybe a little longer. Everybody else got regular looking rods.
Marcus chuckled at his cut tool. "Wow, looks just like my real thing. You paid a lot of attention to my crotch in limbo, huh?"
"Fuck off," Xane said, "or you get your microcock back."
Goro sighed. He was holding his false dick, feeling the lack of sensation as he rubbed the foreskin. "Fuck I wish that were real. You have no idea."
"Pretty sure I *have* an idea," Xane said. "I stopped giving myself an illusion cock because it's pure torture."
Chay raised a hand. "We're on the clock now. Showtime."
They launched themselves into the geode, falling hundreds of yards down under the cover of water mist.
He he dropped, Xane started making new motes. Magic seeped from his hands and concentrated into the butterfly shape it naturally took. He prodded the mote to take an inconspicuous coloration so he could camouflage it on his skin.
They dropped into the water.
Each demigod had his own way of dealing with being submerged. Xane kept a bubble of air around his head with thaum.
Chay swam ahead, trailed by white smoke and bubbles. He was able to filter oxygen through his umbra-smoke.
Xane finished the first mote and made a second. Everything was going smoothly. Through the light that penetrated the surface, he glanced at Goro's muscular silhouette with the illusory cock dangling between the powerfully water treading legs. The berserker was simply holding his breath, without a known limit to his capacity.
Halfway to town, their plans fell apart.
Flat crabs the size of lifesavers met them with eight uncanny, spidery legs ending in claws and spikes.
Goro couldn't effectively punch underwater and had to rip the spider-crabs limb from limb. Marcus' chakram were not stopped by water but the razor circle did little against the hard shells, leaving the martial artist to kick the creatures with charged legs.
Xane couldn't use his lighting effectively. He sent slow projectiles of paralyzation, directed into the spider-crabs' faces. He was forced to let the air bubble collapse to use his magic.
Chay gestured for him to get to the surface.
Xane's head broke through the water, gasping for air. Swimming was serious cardio even with his powers.
The leader's face was obscured by smoke. "They're extremely weak to cold temperatures," Chay said. "There's something almost straight down they're trying to protect. Does that help you?"
"Think so," Xane said. "Going back down."
He took a deep breath and dove with ice manifesting in each hand. The spider-crabs were getting bigger. For each one that Marcus and Goro tore apart, there seemed one even larger coming from below.
Xane continued to swim. Any sea monster near him got a mouthful of frost, sending it into a panicked retreat. He tried to signal his friends to follow him down. Goro did.
It was too slow going. He'd run out of air, but if he summoned a bubble he couldn't shoot.
Goro realized what had happening and grabbed Xane from behind. With Goro's bestial mania-powered legs, the duo tandem-swam to the bottom in a quarter of the time it would have taken Xane.
The shorter hunk, hugged by enviably big arms, found a series of bubbling, hot vents. Spider-crabs emerged as defeated ones dropped to the lake floor.
Xane fired a frost beam from his hands until he was out of air. He used up a mote for an air bubble large enough to include both their heads.
"Good job, Big G," Xane said.
Goro inhaled. "Is this the plan?"
"Think so. I can ice the holes they're coming from. Get me closer."
Xane let the bubble burst and shot frost into more vents. The spider-crabs stopped coming. A few dismembered one still rained from above.
Satisfied with the results, he pushed off Goro and swam to the surface, eyes on the quickly ascending silhouette of the bigger bodybuilder and his flopping illusory dick.
All four broke surface to assess the situation. They were still on track to Tlesspa.
===***===
The closer they swam toward town, the more debris was in the water. Xane was glad to see no shit among the garbage. There had to be aquatic versions of the coprovore imps he'd seen care of feces.
Getting into town was as easy as jumping out of the water in a side alley when nobody was looking. But they had a gift to retrieve.
Chralloth's lot had prepared poison fit to kill a demon, unable to smuggle it into the lord's mansion unnoticed. Four 'slaves' were just right for the job.
The pantheon navigated to the third tallest building, through narrow, bumpy streets kept clean by Gloopers sucking up debris and Figments sweeping brooms.
Hellions went about their business in the main streets but the demigods stuck to the less frequented areas where possible.
Walking around a demon town was nerve wracking. Xane felt naked in a way that had nothing to do with his nudity.
The closer they came to Jruvoth's mansion, the more slaves changed from loopy, drooling hunks with glitter on their lip to focused, grim hunks with a mark around their neck and a pentagram on their forehead.
"That's the spot," Chay murmured.
Xane broke away from the party and shuffled down narrow stairs to a bottomless trashcan that lead right into the lake. An unassuming bag was taped to the inside. One mage-hand application later, the pantheon was in possession of the abyss' deadliest poison.
The mansion was guarded by well armored Hellions with poleaxes. They paid no mind to the four open-mouthed, waddling humans with a bag and two brooms. Xane was a weird mix of tense and giddy, much like going on stage at a competition. He was happy to have passed judgement.
The mansion was laid out confusingly. Not really a maze but with random additions leaving curves and bends everywhere.
Chay navigated confidently. Xane was burning to know how he had all that information.
They passed through a hallway lined with Kobold skulls and rune-engraved tablets, approaching stairs down.
"I've been puppeteering Gnomes," Chay whispered, "till I found a central node in their hivemind. It's hard to wrap my head around how they work. Killing four strategic nodes across the mansion would bring the whole network down if we need to."
Chay strode down the stairs, confidently evading the fuzzballs making their way up in little hops. Xane kept getting headbutted in the shins by Gnomes pouring upstairs like rugby gerbils.
The air grew hotter.
"We might want to hurry," the leader continued, "cause they're prepping a major feast right now."
Xane had expected to land in a huge, bustling kitchen but instead the room was barely a prep area. Narrow tunnels, ramps and arches lead into different chambers sized for gnomes. Bigger visitors were not intended.
"Well fuck," Chay said and grabbed random bowls and pots. "Everybody grab poison -- do *not* let it touch your skin -- and start crawling. Goro, this way. Marcus-"
Xane took his share of the poison in a three inch pan. It looked just like salt, no smell.
Chay pointed him at a tunnel and he crawled inside, pan held ahead by his mage-hand.
Gnomes rushed between his legs, raw meat and stinking mold on plates as well as bowls of worms and chalices of blood. Xane drizzled 'salt' as the food passed him by on its way to Jruvoth's feast.
The lord was known to gulp down huge amounts quickly, which was why poison had been chosen as his execution method long ago. Xane had been glad to close a vortex without a fight but the heat in the tunnel made his divine body drip with sweat.
He hadn't fully run out of poison yet when the flow of food stopped. The claustrophobic tunnel was deserted, Gnome-tapping growing distant.
Crawling backwards, the pan floating before his face, the mage touched something gelatinous with his heel.
Xane yelped and let the pan clank to the ground. He looked between his legs, past the dangling package of impressive size and created a light between his legs.
A Glooper was filling out the tunnel, rapidly submersing his legs. Xane tried to crawl forward but was already trapped.
The creature of pure goo enveloped his abs, his chest -- Xane created an air bubble around his face.
