With a quick prayer for the soon-to-be re-deceased and some failed attempts to seal your respective boots, the three of you march deeper into the mass of shanties. The fishmen, who seem to share a more uniform theme than the Pirates of the Caribbean-esque walking bouillabaisse you expected, busy themselves with mending boats and nets as you pass. None of the work is pressing enough to stop them from launching themselves at you with furious abandon, but you can appreciate their respect for preventative maintenance.
You shortly find yourselves before a sizable plaza, a well in the middle and distant splashes from all directions announcing its occupancy. For efficiency's sake, you and Djura help Simon onto a nearby rooftop, then onto the one next to it when the first one caves in beneath him. Undaunted, he takes position at the highest point and nocks an arrow.
"Ready when you are."
Barring the hooded fishman who launches Logarius-style smoke skulls at you, a habit Simon quickly corrects, you dispatch the gathered horde (school?) without issue. As you pause to pull Simon's ammo out for reuse, however, heavy tremors churn the waters in classic Jurassic Park fashion.
"The fuck is that?" you call to Simon.
"Hang on." He cranes his neck, turning this way and that, before blanching. "That is a shark. That is a giant shark with arms and legs."
The thing bursts from between two buildings and barrels down on you with a rasping bellow. The head reminds you more of a sperm whale, or maybe a right whale considering the lumpy masses all over its body, but semantics can wait until after the four-meter mountain of mussels, muscles, and seething hatred is finished trying to deep-six your face. It shrugs off both bayonets and arrows that bury themselves to the feathers in its mad charge, forcing you and Djura to dodge in opposite directions. There's no hesitation when it spins to face Djura and exposes its back to you, which quickly proves a mistake when you rush in and go to town on its spine. It teeters forward just in time to catch Djura's Stake Driver uppercut right in what very swiftly ceases to be a face.
This has the side effect of just drenching the old man in fish brains, leaving him to scrub away while you gather up the spent arrows. Simon hops down to meet you and stows them away with a nod.
"Want to take a look in the well?" he asks, motioning towards the ladder peeking out from its rim..
"Fuck no," you reply. "There's probably like eight of these big fucks waitin' for us down there."
Djura peers down, walks over to one of the slain spearmen, and carries said spear back with him before dropping it into the well. The stone funnels the resulting roars back at you with enough force to blow your hair back.
"Just two," he reports.
"Never thought I'd see you turn down a fight," says Simon.
"We're on the clock and I'm not allowed ta enjoy myself."
"Fair enough," he shrugs.
A bit of searching reveals a path out of the water and into a wooded area. You assume this is where the intelligentsia gather, as the fishmen here have the good sense to try throwing their spears instead of running across thirty meters of open ground in a vain attempt to stab you. The ultimate result is still the same, of course, but you feel slightly bad for stunting the hamlet's path towards enlightenment. Then another sharkwhaleguy comes after you with an entire goddamn anchor and you decide that piscine culture can kiss your ass.
Once both he and the accompanying pack of piranhadogs are dead, you soon find your way to a small hut and take the time to wring your clothes out and pour as much crap out of your boots as you can. Djura gives his a good thump and an entire crab pops out, giving him a friendly wave before scuttling over to the pulped giant and munching away.
"Feelin' alright?" you ask Simon as you flick a lantern to life. "Look a wee bit troubled."
"It's nothing," he replies. "This place just makes me uncomfortable for some reason."
An entire corner of the hut is missing, giving you a view of yet more labyrinthine shacks. On another wall sits a cell door, which stays locked for about five seconds before Djura explodes it with the Stake Driver. The center of the room looks like another well, but the chains leading down and your most hated of foes, the lever, reveal it as a Yharnam-style elevator.
"Huh. So this is where Byrgenwerth found 'im."
"Where to next?" Djura asks.
"The way I see it," you reply, "we've got two options. One is ta go through that hole over there and deal with whatever twisty turny bullshit this place still has ta offer. The other is ta ride this thing down; in my experience, these tend ta take ye where ye need ta go."
"Convenient," he says.
"Isn't it?"
[] Go out the hole
[] Go down the elevator
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