There are four fungi remaining within sight of the squad.

The first two grab the ground with their tendrils and leap forward. Within seconds the squad is within reach of their tentacles. The second two make it through the marbles but no further.

The captain chops the cap off the fungus closest to him with his halberd. It falls down.

He steps back a few paces.

A Splash misses the remaining fungus, the guards between her and it fouling her aim. Hopefully they can keep it blinded and confused enough to survive.

She edges back as well.

A guard discharges the dazzling blade. The fungus is blinded.

They thrust their halberds forward. One of them pierces deep into the body of the fungus.

The blinded fungus swings four venom-coated tentacles for the guard that attacked it. Only one makes it past her armor. Her flesh rots away where the tentacle touched her. She screams.

The other two fungi lumber forward slowly. They will reach the squad soon.

Captain Paras lunges forward and pierces the fungus deeply with his halberd. It goes still and collapses to the ground.

He reloads his crossbow and steps back.

And that is why melee against these things is bad. Only two of the fungi are still moving, so hopefully they can survive, but having your skin rot away with a touch is distinctly not great.

Up and back, refreshing Captain Paras's Dazzling Blade in the moments between one set of fungi falling and the next approaching. And an Acid Splash, successfully hitting one of the two who are still up. Not a hard hit, but better than nothing.

Reload. Fire. Step.

None of their shots strike true. They're almost out of bolts. This situation is not great.

Only two violet fungi remain. They run and leap and shamble until they're right next to the squad.

He discharges the dazzling blade and impales the nearest fungus with a mighty thrust. That looks like it hurt, but the fungus is not defeated.

Another Acid Splash, even with the guards in the way, but it's not enough. She can't land another Blade without opening herself to a tentacle, and that is not a worthwhile trade. The guards will have to finish at least one of the fungi.

With that splash, they shouldn't need to make a risky attack to finish it off, at least. All she can do is hope.

The guards discharge the dazzling blade and lunge for the fungi. The first swing drops the first one. The second swing carves into the second one (which is also now blinded). The third swing misses.

The last remaining fungus flails around wildly. One of its dreadful tentacles slams into a guard. Their flesh begins to rot away.

The captain thrusts forward but doesn't quite manage to hit the fungus. He steps back a few paces.

An Acid Splash goes wide trying to aim around the guards. Lhín can get a Dazzling Blade (her fifth for this encounter! Plants are a problem) and fly up, cover of blindness warding off the tentacle she might otherwise have allowed in. She prepares to let the light loose once the fungus's eyes clear.

The guards flank the fungus and spear forward. They skewer the fungus twice and it goes still.

Captain Paras catches his breath. "Do you see any more of them, Tencednil?"

Pant. Pant. "Not from that group, they were only the seven. We were loud, and they were even more so. I don't know if anything heard us."

Those marbles are probably not worth putting back on their bags. Sewage coatings are not ideal, and marbles aren't that expensive. "We can do without marbles for the rest of our patrol, but those tentacle wounds look bad. Especially your arm, my guess is it'll need the better part of a week. Do we need to go back and clean any spores?"

If not, they should really stick to safer areas for the rest of the patrol. This many fungi have probably eaten most possible threats to the sewers around here, and getting into a fight with your flesh rotting from the bone is ill-advised.

The guard who took it the worst is clutching her arm and shaking. "I don't think I can fight well like this..."

"We're heading back up now. I do not think we will return today. That was a whole grove of violet fungi. It's ill news for them to be so close to the surface."

"That sounds good. It is worrying, I didn't know they came in such numbers down here."

And she follows along as they return, keeping up some conversation with the more rotting guard. Keep her calm and nothing should go too wrong.

The squad makes it up and out of the sewers without incident. Soon enough, they're back within the halls of Citadel Volshyenek. They arrived at a good time and the injured guards caught a channel quickly. While it may have sealed their wounds, it did not heal the underlying rot.

Their squad will not return to patrol today. Tencednil is dismissed early.

It's the middle of the afternoon. The sun shines brightly across the summer sky.

She was expecting to go directly from the guard to her dinner with Aline, but it seems she has some unexpected time. She can't ask questions among the nobility, but someone nondescript seeking information on the Vianus happens all the time. Is a few hours enough to tease out any interesting updates on House Vianu? She'll take anything she can get, because she hasn't been keeping up as much as would be ideal, but does anything pop out?

She fails to learn anything of interest. There's all the usual rumors about the nobility, but it's very hard to tell truth from falsehood. Nobody is really focusing on the relatively minor House Vianu right now.