Despite a gauntlet to the head and the priest draining away her life force, Jeji presses the attack against the acolyte. Unfortunately the loss of blood and energy leaves Jeji weak and her swing is way off course.
Kricker grunts in pain.
Drahlneep is sapped by the tangible evil and hits his adrenaline surge. He fires a grenade just past Nalakai to catch the priest and his God in the explosion. ; It explodes with a sound that leaves ears ringing and Nalakai is knocked to his knees and one of the projectors on the dais is blown off. Hellion disappears from view!
Quickly, before Drahlneep can get too far away, Perrik calls once more on his most potent healing spell to repair the barbarian. "Get them!"
Kricker, drops the useless harpoon gun and draws his sword, striding up to Nalakai to finish him off.
Following the chaos of the exploding grenade, Jeji tries to follow up his attack on the acolyte that hit him, but the wary half-orc dodges the slash. Perrik heals Drahlneep. Kricker charges Nalakai, further wounding the battered priest. The high priest staggers back and commands the kobold to stop.
The wounded acolyte attempts to retreat while his fellows push in around the kobolds. In the scrum that follows, Perrik and Jeji suffer a spiked gauntlet blow.
Jeji's sword flashed through the air and cut into the flesh of an acolyte. Blood covered the floor around them all, however her light headedness meant she didn't realize just how much of it was hers. Still her blade continued to dance around their confined arena.
Kricker was not about to be stopped by the priest of a minor god...and he swings again at the offending priest.
Jeji stabs at the wounded priest and hits though the wound is so shallow that it barely leaves a scratch. It does not matter as Drahlneep steps back and pops his last grenade into the launcher. In a wild ploy to even the odds, he fires at the wall behind the acolytes. ; It hits and detonates causing a rain of dirt and broken rock and the death of the rearmost rank of acolytes. Kricker shakes off the spell and lunges catching the high priest with his long blade. Nalakai stumbles bleeding freely from a near mortal wound.
Perrik attempts to focus on avoiding attacks while casting a curing spell, but fails miserably.
With a grunted prayer to Hellion, Nalakai's wounds close and though still bruised, he looks much revived. The acolytes continue assaulting the treacherous kobolds. A pair go after Drahlneep, but the quick kobold dodges the iron fists. He drops the grenade launcher with a thud to draws his baton. He strikes the half-orc priest and the baton buzzes leaving him dazed.
Perrik loses a spell, but manages to duck a following blow. Only Jeji suffers a smashing blow. Once again her piteous swordplay proves no deterrence to her assailant.
The spiked gauntlets finally take their toll on Jeji. As the last one connects with her head, she topples over unconscious, her shortsword clattering to the floor.
Kricker lines up another shot at the priest, bellowing to his god to guide his blade.
Gorum lead my arm to strike down the priest of this upstart God!
Kricker pursues the high priest inflicting a fresh wound. Meanwhile, Jeji falls after suffering another gauntleted pummeling.
Surrounded and under attack, Perrik looks on helplessly as Jeji falls. The kobold shields himself as best he can and charges through a gap. He reaches a clear spot behind Drahlneep unscathed.
Nalakai seems to have had enough of Kricker's assault and retreats around the broken machine to the south. "Defend me!" he orders the acolytes as he reaches the southernmost door. The other priests obediently form a line against the kobolds. Two conjure defensive force shields. The acolyte hit by the stun baton steps a way from Drahlneep, but the kobold is after him swinging again, but missing.
Kricker moves over to Jeji and casts Stabilize on her.
Perrik scuttles back to the fallen alchemist and casts healing magic.
"Quick! They're bunched up--bomb them now!"
Kricker fortifies himself as he stands between Hellion's thralls and Perrik who revives Jeji. Jeji's left horn is broken off from the mortal blow, and she remains battered from the assault, but she regains consciousness.
Jeji's eyes fluttered open and her hands instinctively went to her chest feeling for wounds. She gasped as consciousness flooded back into her and she sat up. Perrik's voice caught her attention though and she slipped the last bomb out of her bandolier as she slowly rose to her feet. With a look of determination in her eyes and a snarl on her lips, she hurled the incendiary into the group before her.
Jeji releases her bomb even as she rises. It arcs high over the front row to hit the center acolyte and explode encasing her in fire. The door slides away and Malakai ducks through avoiding most of the explosion. The injured acolyte in the front falls while the other two beat a hasty retreat through the door after their leader.
The burning Hellionite flails the air unable to see her way after the others and Drahlneep pauses only a moment to cut her down.
Kricker converts his last 2nd level spell to healing and tries to get Jeji into better shape.
Ok, we need to either follow and cut them down quickly or get the hell out of here and come back another day!
"Retreat. Let's get the rest of our gang back on our side--tell 'em we were trying to take Hellion by surprise and not endanger them. Pinkskins like that sort of thing, I hear. It didn't work as well as we would have liked, so we've weakened Hellion but had to pull back. How does that sound?"
"Yes, let us fall back. I am out of bombs and spells...and my ribs still hurt."
Deep within enemy territory and running low on resources, the kobolds decide it is the time to regroup. They fall back up the stairs and through the doors to the platform overlooking the arena. The stadium lights are off now and only the eerie stars that interrupt the darkness above greet the kobolds.
"Let's take the heads and weapons of the fallen, so we can prove what we did."
The six dead acolytes have nothing other than robes, chainmail armor and the conspicuous spiked gauntlets. The kobolds gather heads and spiked gauntlets before they wearily make their exit.
The stadium lights are off now and only the eerie stars that interrupt the darkness above greet the kobolds.
"Let's see if the ratfolk are still talking to us."
The kobolds take the stairs down from the platform and move across the arena. About the time they are midway across, the big screen behind them flickers back to life and Hellion's demonic visage appears once again with a wry smile.
Kricker turns around and gives the monitor the universal "finger of friendship" gesture. And then keeps on walking on, seemingly unconcerned.
The oracle continues to scurry towards the exit, sparing only a glance for the screen. "Maybe, but we'll never bow to you again!"
"We are kobolds. We are born of suffering. And you should get that stutter fixed."
The monitor chuckles stutteringly, then goes dark.
The kobolds exit the arena through the far entrance back up the wide, low stairs leading out of the pit and into the barren land of mounded trash that makes up most of Scrapwalls borderlands. Turning toward Redtooth's territory, they don't make it far before they hear a hiss from a scrap pile.
Perrik murmurs to the others in Draconic, "It's Whiskifiss. Let's talk." He glances up, looking for airborne watchers, before nodding in the direction of the scrap pile.
The ratling also looks up before nodding at the kobolds excitedly. "Tk-Tk. I heard Him. He said you betrayed Him. I knew you would never join them, he whispers. "My sister has come to expect the worst. She has returned to the lair and they are making ready to move somewhere else so that you cannot find them.
"That is best, for your people and for all of our old allies. Hellion is a dangerous enemy, and it will try to attack anyone close to us now that we have tricked it.
"We almost killed its high priest, but the coward fled the fight and we only slew many of its acolytes. Now we are spent, and need to find a place to rest and recover. Can you help us with that?"
"You know the Hermit, right? Tk-Tk. We are not far. Maybe she might let us stay for a little while. At least so you can rest and we can make new plans."
Good idea. I want to ask her again if there is anything she can do about my radiation sickness.
Whiskifiss bobs his head and stealthily guides the kobolds away from the arena and into the narrow canyon in the Scrapwall that leads to the Hermit's tower. Soon enough the whirring of the gear wall is heard. Jeji carefully manipulates the mechanism that safely stops the two big gears that protect the door and motions the others inside. No junk man threatens this time, but a silver raven hops down and inspects the group with a tilted head. It gives a metallic QUARK! and flies up through one of the windows that is shaped like an eye of the great woman's face that forms the front of the tower. A few moments later the elf priestess appears at the door with the metal bird on her shoulder and greets her guests.