Shalina can tell the man is a disgusting waste of human flesh but he is pathetic.
The man, obviously seeing, the bard is unwilling to kill an unarmed man, doesn't grab his weapon. Instead he sinks to his knees, 'Please, don't kill me. just, let me go. I'll join a temple, shave my head, I'll never bother anyone again! Please, don't kill me!"
Shalina knows how easy it would be to end the life of a bottom-feeder such as this. And it is so very tempting after seeing her friends almost die along with herself. The only thing that stays her hand is the thought of how disappointed Tekk would be if he found out she had killed an unarmed man, even if he is revolting. She also doesn't trust that he will actually just leave.
"If you don't want your weapon then kick it over, and also toss me your pack. If your actions were truly motivated by money then money is all you're going to leave with."
With hurried clumsiness he kicks over the crossbow (which Shalina sees is cheap trash) and throws over his small satchel. It clanks lightly when it hits the ground at Shalina's feet.
'Oh, thank the gods! Please, just let me go. I won't hurt anyone ever again!"
Shalina continued to wait expectantly. "I said you leave with nothing but your money. Start stripping."
The man does make a face now and says, "We are in the middle of the deserts." his whine stops at glancing at Shalina's face and slowly strips down. Shalina sees more of the dirty, skinny man then she would like.
Just then Tekk and Berd come to the door, looking in.
The paladin raises a thick eyebrow and says, 'Interrupting something?"
Berd, for his part, draws a thin rapier and makes for the man.
Shalina snorts, "Definitely not. Our friend was just leaving." Shalina searches through his stuff to find whatever coin he had been carrying. "I did say he could take his money. That was the reason he did what he did, after all."
Berd spits on the ground, "He isn't getting out of here alive. No one tries to kill me and walks away from it. You both can stand outside if you want."
The skinny (now naked) man shrinks away from the hideous figure of Berd but Tekk steps between them.
'He is unarmed, Berd." The paladin says in his deep, firm voice.
'Good." Berd says flatly, then, "Get out of my way."
Shalina put a gentle hand on Berd's arm, not knowing how he'd respond. "I totally understand, I really do. What you guys didn't see was me struggling against doing this exact thing but doing this isn't worth how it'll make you feel. Think about it for a moment. What you're about to do is very Baskir-like."
Berd's deformed face turns red and he shrugs off Shalina's hand.
"Baskir kills innocent people, people just doing a job. You compare me to him? This scum deserves it, even if we only look at the crimes committing today."
The stock man tries to side-step around Tekk who wards him off, sword in hand.
Undeterred Shalina puts her hand back on his arm, gently pulling him backwards. "Some people consider unarmed people in the same category as innocent because they can't defend themselves. That was my point. I'm comparing actions, not character. Please Berd, let him go. He's naked, he has to traverse the desert, and he still has to go back through that hallway. Not to mention what will happen to him if he encounters a less than scrupulous adventuring party. The odds are not in his favor."
Berd shrugs her off, but turns to Shalina, blade lowering. His voice is less angry then confused, 'Why, Shalina? Why give this man another chance to hurt people? He hurt us, and obviously enjoyed it. Why not do the world and favor and end him? Not everyone makes the world a better place."
He jerks a thumb at Tekk, "The paladin I understand, he has a literal god complex but you? You seemed more rational then that."
"We wouldn't even be having this conversation if that bottom-feeder had been man enough to pick up his weapon and fight. He should be dead and he would have been dead. But...I'm not asking you to put down your weapon for his sake but yours." Shalina glares at the naked man, "I could care less what happens to that sack of meat." She looks back to Berd and says quietly, "When you choose to take someone's life when you're not actively defending your own, it hardens your heart a little each time. It has to be worth that sacrifice and he is not. Besides, we only see and experience a small linear fragment of time in the world. I can't say for certainty that the world would be a better place without him."
Shalina takes a step back and puts her hands in the air, "But I won't physically stop you." Then she locks eyes with Tekk, "And neither will Tekk." She points at his drawn sword and says somewhat disapprovingly, "We don't use weapons against friends." Addressing Berd again she says, "It's your choice."
Berd grunts, "Look at my face, Shalina." he says pointing at the horrid pockmarked ruin. "Don't you think my heat is already hard?"
But even as he says it he sheathes his sword, albeit with disgust. He waves a hand at the dirty skinny would-be murderer. "Then go, and may the vultures gain from our loss."
Without a word the man vanishes down the hallway, running quickly.
Shalina put her hands on Berd's shoulders and looked into his good eye. "I have no doubt that you've built a very thick wall around your heart over the years. But I know your heart isn't hard. If it was, you would have let your former associates kill Tekk and I that first night while you were on watch."
Berd only shrugs in response, turning away from Shalina's glance. Tekk nods and puts away his sword. He raises an eyebrow at Shalina's statement but obviously decides to follow up later. She guesses he is just happy it didn't come to blows.
'So, I suppose we keep searching? I don't think anyone else has been this far yet." The paladin asks, looking at the refuse of gears and oils around. "Looks all untouched."
Berd is about to answer when they hear feet down the hall. The naked man is sprinting back into the room, screaming as he does so.
'What the.." Tekk mutters, grabbing his sword.
Before anyone has time to move, another, much larger figure enters the doorway.
It is a ten foot tall humanoid figure, built with massive shoulders and round head. Shalina catches her breath at the sight.
It is a delicate construction of colored glass, carefully molded and warped into shape. Beneath the shimmering and clear surface lies a complex network of gears and chains, which clearly drive the construct. Even across the room Shalina can hear the whirring and clicking of the clockwork mechanisms that drive the glass machine.
There, right in the heart of the moving parts, Shalina sees a familiar shape. A part of the key, buried right in the center of the massive machine.
Then she sees blood on the massive treetrunk like legs. "It killed my friends." the naked man blubbers, who is doing his best to hide under a pile of oily wires in the corner.
Shalina had so many questions as the construct came into view. Why was it made? Could it be controlled? Did she have to destroy it to get the key piece?
She wasn't sure if the man would answer her but she had to ask, "What were you and your friends doing when it attacked?" What she didn't know was whether the construct was after the naked man specifically or it would attack anyone. What she did know was that she didn't want the three of them to suffer the same fate.
She let her elemental rage flow through her veins, giving her added strength and acid to hopefully dissolve whatever held it together. Bringing her glaive to the ready, she lashed out at the construct.
To Shalina's eyes it looks like a glass golem, enhanced with clockwork. While a formidable fighter, it doesn't have any weapons, which makes the bard think perhaps it was just a worker here, perhaps a tool for moving heavy items? The only useful thing she can recall is that fire heals it.
'Just rooting around some old crates." The man says, trying to hide.
Shalina rushes at the thing, swinging her glaive. Her first blow hits but she can tell it is magically hard, and she does less damage then she would like.
Tekk runs up, flanking the creature.
His own blow seems slightly blunted to, his cold iron sword not bypassing whatever magic wards it.
Silently it turns to the paladin and smashes two great glassy fists at him.
The blow staggers the paladin, hitting him hard.
Behind her Shalina hears, dimly through the fog of rage, Berd shouting, "Electricity, electricity will hurt it more!"
"I don't have electricity!" Shalina snapped. But she does recall the sparks from the console when shot by a crossbow. "Everyone out! We need it to chase us to where there is electricity."
Tekk looks confused but Berd leads the way. They run out of the room, and the hulking clockwork golem follows them, Its heavy tred echoes off the metal floor, sounding like the footsteps of doom.
Sprinting, Tekk, Berd and Shalina race back to where they almost suffocated. Some undamaged consoles still sit, clearly hooked up with wires.
'How...how do you plan on getting it close enough?" Berd gasps.
Behind them the golem is gaining ground, gears growing louder.
With a clear mind, Shalina starts barking orders at Tekk and Berd because they didn't have much time. She stayed in front of the console, making herself the obvious target. She got Tekk and Berd aligned on either side of the rib with the rope. "As soon as you pull the rope, you get out - no arguments! There will only be a bit of time between it tripping...hopefully...and it falling into the console once it hits the grease. If it hits the console while you're still in here then, well, you know what'll happen. I should be able to get out. No one even think of being a hero, understand?"
As the construct came into view, Shalina made sure she was in position. She began to hum and as she did, a large layer of grease formed just before the rope and continued after it. That way the construct would hit the grease before Tekk and Berd pulled the rope and hopefully be unbalanced enough to trip and fall into the console, unable to stop because of its momentum. Once the grease was in place, the bard waved her arms to make sure she was the only thing the construct focused on. Knowing that she would need the added strength to give the construct an extra push into the console, she then unleashed her rage once again and hoped that Tekk was praying.
Berd and Tekk both look like they want to argue but Shalina's clipped orders as well as the pounding of the golem's feet make them (for once) follow orders.
Hiding behind the ribbed wall, they lie in wait with the rope.
Waiting and watching the golem charge at her was difficult, even for the usually iron-willed bard. The massive shining construct bore down on her with silent malice, the only sound being the whirring of the mechanical heart.
Then, it hit the grease, the huge glass feet sliding on the metal floor. Tekk and Berd lift the rope in unison. The golem hits it and the rope shreds into pieces.
Still it unbalances the construct just as Shalina tackles it from the side. Her powerful lunge knocks it back on course and it slams into the console. Not having time to watch, Shalina turns like a cat and leaps for the exit.
TekK and Berd both grab her and pull her to safety even as the console explodes in a bright flash of white light. Huge arcs of lighting slam into the clockwork creation.
The glass creature staggers as the bolts melt the glass flesh, causing huge rivulets to run down on the floor. Even some of the gears are fused by the coursing power.
It moves away, breaking contact. It is smoking, obviously hugely damaged, but still moving. The golem strides for them, and then runs into the invisible wall of force. Several time it tires to walk though before stopping and, raising two two fists, begins to beat on it.
The blows are so strong, Shalina can feel tremors through the floor. The shaking grows worse as the construct hammers away, relentless as a triphammer.
How long can the force wall hold out?
Shalina was smiling as the guys pulled her out. "It worked! I can't believe it worked. Now that was a rush."
She had very little time to enjoy their success as it was apparent that the construct was very much still moving. She took an involuntary step backwards as it pounded on the wall of force. "Any more ideas from either of you? Any more weaknesses we can exploit?"
She looked at her glaive doubtfully. "My weapon didn't seem to harm it much, nor did Tekk's. I'm not sure what else will work. It is pretty slow. Maybe I can switch back to a ranged weapon and just take pot shots at it."
First off, you need healed, Shalina." Tekk says.
He lays his hands on her side and says a few prayers to the old gods of Osrion.
Berd frets as the construct steadily pounds the wall of force. Drops of Shalina's blood stain the invisible wall, splashed like red paint.
The 'rib' is slowly bending out of shape from the force of the assault, looking like it'll give way.
'I don't have any ideas...but it looks in pretty bad shape."
It is only when Tekk mentions healing that she realizes the thing had gotten her while they sprung their trap. She takes a good look at him. You're not in the best of shape either. She takes a healing potion out of her bag. "Drink this, please."
"Well then. I guess we fight. We can't just run because a piece of the key is inside of that thing. Berd, are you any good with a crossbow? If so, take mine and try not to get too close."
Tekk drinks the potion, draining it dry.
The paladin's bruises and cuts heal up, removing all sign.
Berd takes the crossbow, nodding. "I'm fair with one."
Even as Shalina casts her spell, the wall around the wall of force bends and twists out of shape. The spell suddenly ends, releases the beast.
Berd fires two shots, sped up by Shalina's magic.
Both shots go wild however, zipping past the charging construct.
The glass and clockwork monster bears down on Shalina, taller and broad then she. Right at eye level she can see the key turning slowly, protected by the thick glass chest.
Shalina transforms herself with her elemental rage and slashes numerous directions in a blur.
Shalina's blows are hurried, out of sync. Her vision, full of turning gears and flashing glass seems to thrown her off her rhythm. Still one of her blows lands, cracking glass and dripping acid onto it.
From the side Tekk dances around, flanking it. he hammers too, enhanced by Shalina's magic. His blows fall like hammers, and glass and clockwork both are sheared by his blade. For the first time in awhile, Shalina sees the paladin's skill at work. His blows are balanced, using his whole body as a counter-weight. Even here, fighting a huge glass creature, his feet are planted just so, his wrists tilted just right.
He batters the creature down, getting past the glass intot he more delicate inner workings. In a few short moments it is a pile of cracked glass and twisted metal. With a final wrenching heave it falls over, crashing to the floor, joining the rest of the old waste.
The magical key slides out and Berd swipes it off the floor with a grin.
Shalina's rage ebbs out of her, making her feel bone-weary. She smiles brightly at Tekk, "Nicely done, Tekk, nicely done."
She walks over to Berd, "That makes three."
Clapping a hand on each of their shoulders she says, "Look what we can do when we work together?" For the first time in many minutes, she thought of the naked man. "Our naked friend has probably disappeared by now. But shall we go find out for sure?"
Tekk grunts, and looking at Berd. "I'll go look for him."
After a few minute he comes back, shrugging, "No sign of him. he must have taken off. No loss."
Berd looks at the key parts, so nearly a complete shape. 'So, one more to go. Who wants to bet it is in the soggy basement?"
"To be thorough, we should probably finish searching this level. Then we can descend into the soggy basement. We may also want to consider finding a place to hole up for the night. Between the cinder undead, the mutants, and the construct it has been an exciting but trying day."
Tekk looks around, "You want to sleep, here? With gods know what lurking around? Even skipping what we have seen so far the place is crawling with folks who enjoy locking people into airtight rooms."
Berd adds, "Not to mention Baskir. Do we want to fall asleep next to him?"
"Seriously? You both think we'd all go to sleep and not set up watches? But aside from that, we can continue. I'm just not sure we'll get all the way through without having to rest. It's just something we may have to consider sooner than later, that's all."
She started moving towards the next room. "There can't be that much more to this level, can there? The next set of stairs or shaft that we come to, we can see if it's safe to go down."
They spend perhaps an hour exploring. They find little of interest, besides rooms of piled metal junk. No exploding consoles, no hidden adventurers. Tekk comments on the welcome lack of rust monsters when Berd shares a funny story of man he knew who had a pet one, that ate constructs.
It is a welcome rare moment of relaxation for the group, as they poke around. Finally they find a broken staircase, leading down. The air is damp and there is no light down there.
"Must lead to the soggy basement." Berd says
"I guess there's only one way to know for sure. At least going down will be easier than up. But first we'll need light." She hums over her glaive until it blooms with light. She goes to get something from her pack and then pauses in thought. "Do either of you have rope? Mine seems to have been shredded by the ginormous construct. Or are we using my whip to get us down?"
Berd shakes his head, "Until recently I was the town drunk, why would I have any?"
Tekk spreads his hands, "You always carried it." He looks a bit sheepish, "Sorry."
He looks down at the rusted metal stairs, everything looking quite sharp. "Will your whip be strong enough?"
"There's only one way to find out. I'll go first because I have the light and because I have the boots. If I fall, I won't take as much damage." Deep in thought for a moment she adds, "I don't know why it would be any less strong now. Don't you remember using it to swing over a chasm when we were in the temple? If it held you then, it should hold you now." She hums over her whip to get it to fasten itself to a more secure place in the stairwell. In doing so, she realizes that it is the last time that day that she'd be able to tap into certain pools of her magic. Rest was looking better all the time.
Before descending, she takes one of the found sunrods and activates it before tossing it down the shaft. She then grabs hold of her whip and begins her decent.
Tekk grins and looks at the somewhat more portly Berd. 'He wasn't there."
Berd, good naturely, makes a rude hand gesture at the paladin.'You are wearing full plate Tekk, I don't think I'll make a difference."
Between her glaive and the sunrod, the shaft is well lit. She dodges the rusty metal and arrives safely at the bottom. The ground is the same rough stone she saw last time, covered with a gleaming dampness. The air is humid and warmer. The room around her is small, with one passage leading out, into darkness.
'Everything ok?" Tekk shouts down. "I'll come next."
"So far, so good. Seeing nothing trying to kill me is always a good sign, right?" As Tekk and Berd descend, she feels the need to share what she learned last time she was down on this level.
"A room called The Cistern is on this level. I had also seen evidence that a different construct of some sort had been fought and defeated on this level."
Once they were both down, Shalina gives her whip the command to untie and then coils it up and replaces it at her side. "Until I rest or we find another way out, we're stuck down here because I can't do that again today. I'm just letting you know."
Tekk and Berd both look around, and Tekk says, 'Maybe having a magical key will help? But yes, a rest might do some good after all."
They walk down the passage, which broadens out somewhat. Here and there they see the entrances of pipes and channels. Berd, as usual, investigates but finds nothing of relevance.
Once they find a broken construct, recently destroyed. 'A rival party." Berd says, toeing the smashed clockwork remains, 'We are not along down here."
Several times they pass doors, where the rooms are full of large pools of water, shimmering in the light of her glaive. Some of these are bigger then the oasis Tekk used to live at while others would be glorified baths.
Once or twice Shalina thinks they hear sounds of footsteps or talking, but they fade away without warning. "All these water, plays with sounds." Berd says knowingly.
Finally they come into a larger room, with dim magical lighting. It has two exits. One is a sealed door identical to the one above, a sliding metal door with a keyhole for the key she is assembling.
"The same door?" Tekk asks, confused but Berd is quicker.
"Perhaps not the same door, but the same shaft. Like, a staircase that leads to the top?" He pauses, "Or a dumbwaiter?"
The other door is a larger passageway marked "The Cistern" leading into darkness. The feeling of damp and wet is very strong here.
"Well, we know we can't go that way so I guess we go this way. And considering how well the room marked The Kiln worked out for us, I'm sure The Cistern will be a walk in the park." Although her tone of voice made it evident that she thought nothing of the sort.
Tekk raises an eyebrow but Berd laughs, "It is a tank of water. How dangerous can it be, I assume we can all swim/"
They pass down the long and dark passageway, the floor smooth and damp. It leads down, down, with no stairs but increasingly steep. Just when Shalina is worried they might start slipping, they step out into magically lighting.
The room they enter makes Tekk curse, Berd stagger back and Shalina feels her head swim.
Theya re faced with a huge lake..ocean? The dark stone room lightly glowing with magic, stretches high overhead and out of sight. There is not hint of the other side of the massive body of water. To left and right the walls of the room reach out to infinity, with only the slightest hint of curve. The room's size is beyond comprehension.
Directly in front of them, tied up at a little jetty is a ship. No mere rowboat, this is a two-masted sailing vessel fit for a journey into deep ocean.
Looking at it, Berd's voice is vanishingly small int he immensity of the room. "What..what do we do with that/"
Shalina gives Berd a sharp look. "I grew up in the desert. Why would you assume I can swim?"
But...but...we're in the desert," Shalina stammers. "Where did all this water come from and why did they need so much?"
As she takes in the vastness of the cavern, stories about the ocean and sea monsters come to mind making her shiver. "They've obviously provided a ship for a reason but I'm pretty certain none of us actually know how to sail. Although, provided no sea monsters, it would be a very safe place to rest. If we can take the ship to the middle of the 'cistern' we'd be able to see or hear anyone trying to approach."
Berd grins then, wider then Shalina has seen yet. It even crosses over to the ruined side of his face, revealing a few broken stumps of tooth he has left.
"Maybe you don't know how to sail her, landlubber, but I was born in Magnimar, at the docks. I could sail a little ketch like this on my sleep." He runs over and up the gangway.
As the man explores, Tekk says, "There will be sea monsters." He doesn't sound concerned, just sure. "I don't doubt it. As for the water...maybe whatever weapon this thing has needs cooling?'
Berd is soon back, looking like a kid in a candy store. 'She is neat as a pin, well-kept too. She'll be a joy to sail" then he raises a hand, "We'll need at least four more to crew her though. No way to do it ourselves. We are going to need help."
Shalina matched Berd's smile. "Now that's the kind of joy I like to see. You definitely have a willing student in me."
To Tekk she nods, "I agree with you. Hopefully the stories my mother used to tell me when I was little contain some kernels of truth on how to deal with monsters who live in the water."
Shalina frowns at Berd's pronouncement of the size of crew they needed. "Well that is a problem. I haven't learned to raise the dead nor do I think mirror imaged Shalina would count as extra pairs of hands, so how do you suggest we find help?"
Berd shrugs and turns back to the vessel. 'She'll need a name too. Never go out in a ship without a name."
Tekk adds, doubtfully, 'Maybe another adventuring group? It is a risk, but if we can't sail her alone..."
"Does it have to be a girl's name? Because I'd like it to be named Fylor."
Shalina pulls the whistle out of her bag. "Well, then. Shall we see who else is in the area?" With that, she blows into the whistle and gives three piercing blasts which echo in the cavern.
Berd shakes his head, "The female name thing is a Taldor tradition, bunch of reactionaries. Fylor it is, and although I never met him, if he was your friend, he is mine."
Grabbing Shalina's chalk, he traces out the name in a surprisingly fair hand.
Then Shalina blows the whistle, loud and shrill. "What do you expect, mermaids?" Tekk asks, peering out.
For awhile nothing happens, and the silence combined with the sheer immensity makes Shalina nervous.
Then, at the edge of sight, a smudge of white.
'Sail, ho!" Berd shouts, grinning.
The three of them watch the ship slowly come in, growing in size detail. 'She is a slightly larger ship." Berd remarks after awhile, "More like a crew of 15-20. She is coming in fast, there must be some kind of wind out there."
Another pause as the ship sails in closer. Then there is a bright flash from the ship, followed by a flat crack.
'What.." tekk shouts but Berd is already moving, tackling Shalina and dragging the paladin down.
A moment later a cannonball whizzes past, smashing into the stone wall above the dock. It splinters, throwing hot slivers of iron everywhere. "Cannonfire! Get back into the tunnel." Even as he shouts more shells hit the stone, throwing up gouts of flame and deafening all of them.
Shalina had her back to the water, looking at the tunnel to see if her whistle had alerted anyone on the lower level. When Tekk asks about mermaids she says, "I'm not expecting anything from the water because that won't help us man the ship. I'm hoping someone in the tunnels heard me."
As chaos erupts, Shalina scrambles for the tunnel along with Tekk and Berd. Shouting over the noise she grumbles, "How in the hells did 15-20 adventurers agree to work together? Why would there be multiple ships? Where exactly does this go?"
They scramble into the tunnel, back the way they came. Shalina notes the ship is unharmed and obviously not targeted.
Once all three are safe, they lean against the cool walls, breathing deep. Both of them are just as confused as she is.
Eventually Berd says, 'We will need to go find some others to crew that ship. Hopefully the trigger happy folks get bored and sail off."
"Any other ideas?" Tekk asks Shalina.