Sneaking up, even though the time for stealth has long since passed, Blekk gets close to a peephole when suddenly the secret doors, both of them, crash open... amidst cries of "Daytaar!!!" and "Get 'em boys!!!", a woman standing behind two onrushing men demands the friends go back the way that they came... and the men, blackened daggers in their hands, emphasise the message with brutal force...
Claptrap sits there, staring for a moment. He had extended his grasper outwards to the handle and it had vanished... Where did it go? And where did the door go for that matter... Whats that noise?
"Um, excuse me, I was being stealthy over here. It's definitely your fault, Palo."
He looks at the Daytaar. "Right guys? You had no idea I was here?"
Glancing over at Palo, "Are all goblins like this?"
Ravboom's eyes narrow and his aim is steady... with a cataclysmic bang, the room fills with the smell of gunpowder and one of the thugs staggers backwards with blood pouring from a savage wound.
...the wound is enough to set the thug off-balance, his thrown dagger bouncing harmlessly off the ceiling. The second of the men is far more accurate with his weapon... there is a flash of silver and, looking down, Blekk sees a cruel dagger sticking out of his stomach.
Claptrap wheels a few feet backwards and points to the unwounded goon
Now! Do it now like we planned. NOW!
Claptrap casts Murderous Command (DC 15 Will negates) on the full health Thug coupled with a Bluff check to convince everyone that he is actually our secret ally ,')
Guys! Make sure you dont hit our informant!
Blekk staggers with the force of the impact. He wipes blood from his mouth, and snarls at the wounded thug. "Why you little..."
He grabs an extract from his belt, and his hands seem to blur as he uncorks the bottle and drinks it. He snorts deeply, as if trying to dislodge something from his nose. Blekk then spits an enormous loogie at the wounded thug, hoping to stick him to the floor to make him an easier target for the party's new friend.
2x Cure Light Wounds
1x Enlarge Person
1x Vomit Swarm
1x Create Pit
1 Strength Mutagen
"Hey hey hey, enough with the knife-throwing!" Relas cries as he advances on the wounded thug, swiping at him with a mighty paw.
Between them CL4P-TP and Blekk change the dynamics of the fight drastically... what was five vs two quickly, and decisively, turns to six vs one.
...and Relas, taking advantage, pounces!!!
Ravboom fires at Thug 2 again!
Moving up to Blekk and touching his shoulder, "Do that again."
...and, as Ravboom's gun expertly throws one of the thugs backwards, the ensorcelled man strides forwards and stabs at his ally!!!!
The blade sinks deep into the unsuspecting man's neck and, blood pouring from the savage wound, he falls backwards... whilst his friend, bloodied blade in his hand, can only look on in horror.
Right.
Claptrap trundles forward until he is directly in front of the still-alive thug.
EVERYONE STOP! So heres the deal. You just assaulted and killed your comrade in front of one of your other allies who has now fled off down the hall, and who will no doubt begin spreading stories of how you turned traitor and how you were our informant all along. Now the way I see it, you have 3 choices, and really only 1 at that. You can run away down that hall, where your previous friends will tear you to shreds. OR you can tell us what you know, and we will see about "relocating" you safely to our home base. OR we could just kill you. Ask someone else. You see Palioma over there? Shes REALLY SCARY.
"Oh she's scary alright, especially when someone wakes her up in the middle of the night! Or so I've been told, anyway..." Relas agrees, missing the fact that a giant talking panther might actually be scarier.
______
Blekk facepalms and shakes his head. "Palo...your voice cracked and you have booger hanging off of nose..."he whispers to Palomia.
He grabs his morningstar with his tail and passes it to his hand. "Seriously though Mr. Thug, just like...go home or something. Might not think it, but your day can't get any worse.
Wow, just wow. Walking over to the last thug, "What my companions are trying to say is that we understand your change of heart. And we understand it much better than your former companions will. Thank you for your help by the way. In exchange for more of your willing help we will make sure you are safe from your former allies since no one likes a traitor. Please tell us who else is here."
The man, standing above his dying friend, looks at the talking machine... and then to Relas and Palomia... and at the utterly unconvincing Blekk... and finally to Vael, "I... I don't know what I did? What happened?" ...and swiftly coming to his senses, "I'm outta here... nothing's worth this... whatever problems you fella's got, you can take 'em up with old Iron-Arms" - and, pushing past the group, he flees...
Blekk nods at the guy as he leaves, then goes up behind Claptrap and pats him on the back. "Thanks for helping me. Think we really turned his life around." He sighs contentedly. "Makes me happy to help people like that."
He absentmindedly pokes the thug on the ground with his morningstar. "Huh, looks like he's still breathing. Just give me a sec..." He then smacks the unconscious thug in the head with the morningstar.
"Oops, sorry Palo-you've got red on you now. Didn't think he'd splat so much."
Pushing on through the doors that were opened when the Daytaar thugs launched their doomed ambush, the group find themselves in a simple bedroom - a single cot with a mattress and blanket sits against the wall, along with empty wine cups and dirty plates with the remains of recently consumed meals. A wooden door painted grey to match the adjacent stonework leads south, while a small hole drilled through it sits at eye level... these are the doors that the thugs came through... whilst another more traditional wooden door opposite the bed provides a different exit.
...these second doors, from both of the secret rooms, lead into a corridor. And, from here, there are doors to the north, the north-east and the north-west - the sound of multiple voices is coming from the northern door at the end of the corridor.
Palomia! What do you mean that worked??? we got no information at all from that useless Fleshbag!
all that effort...
Claptrap seems dejected for a bit, well, as dejected as a robot can seem to get... then Blekk pats him on the back and offers encouraging words.
Hmmmm. Ya, you are right. I am glad we were able to enrich his life, why I dont think he will forget us. Hes probably thanking us right now!
Claptrap then puts his grasper over the shoulder of Blekk.
Come, pal. Lets go and enrich the life of another person!
And so, shoulder to shoulder, arm around each other, Blekk and Claptrap proceed through the door and down the hallway
THUNK!
Claptrap perks up at the sound of voices.
Ooh! Voices! Do you want to go meet them? I know! We could enrich their lives!
Oh, right. Stealth. Do you guys want to hide in one of these side rooms?
Blekk fishes around in his pocket for an extract and swigs it quickly, feeling much better as he does so. He nods at Claptrap.
"Yeah, might be good idea. We should start bein sneaky now, I suppose. More people over there whose days we gotta brighten a bit."
Blekk calls back to the others. "Guys, we're gonna start being sneaky again. Might wanna cover Palo's mouth or something so she doesn't blow our cover again."
2x Cure Light Wounds
1x Enlarge Person
1x Vomit Swarm
1x Create Pit
1 Strength Mutagen
Ravboom shakes his head at everything going on, and grins. It's almost like going to town with his sister to buy things for their 'Pop', except with less blood and screams.
As everyone else bickers, Rav uses their noise for cover and sneaks into the shadows letting them be cats paws. Which is something Relas should be excellent at, all things considered.
"Um...maybe you should stand way at the back Palo," Relas winces as she immediately stumbles over the dead body on the floor. "Don't worry, the rest of us will take care of whatever's at the front!"
Sighing when Blekk crushed the man's head, "Nimsharu grant me the strength to weather this."
Flinching at Palo's stumble over the corpse and moving to help her. "Don't rush. Patience is what matters in silence."
Blekk almost says something when Palo stumbles, but wisely thinks better of it. He sighs faintly and continues on. Lords of goblins, grant me strength to get through this..."
The voices, only slightly muted, continue - it appears that whoever is talking (one male and one female, so far as it can be determined) are having some form of disagreement - the overall gist, relatively easy to follow through the closed door, being that 'they' should never have gone up against one of the 'big boys'...
...the conversation stops suddenly when Palomia trips - and a gruff voice calls out, "Trusk'rr? Is that you"?
Claptrap, his grasper still wrapped around Blekks shoulder lets the magic flow through him into the goblin.
Pssst! Hey Blekk its your time to shine! Now Go! Brighten her day with your Sauve words. I'll back you up!
Blekk chugs his mutagen and smiles at Claptrap as his body changes. He chuckles darkly and speaks in a much lower, more eloquent tone of voice than usual.
"Trusk'rr? Now, which one was that? The one we made kill his best friend? Or maybe the one who got to watch helplessly, glued to the floor, as said friend carved him up into little bits? Either way...one of those guys is dead. The other one's probably drinking himself into oblivion as we speak, trying to forget. And before this night's out, you guys'll be joining them one way or another."
I think that Trusk'rr was the one on the ground that cracked under pressure. >_>
Yup. Pretty sure we applied enough pressure.
The other one was mostly useless sosend out ol' Iron-Arms so that we can talk. Or, if you prefer, come on out, pretty sure that Blekk here wants to "Brighten your Day!"
Relas stops and shivers as Blekk suddenly proves himself to be more articulate and...terrifying...than usual.
"Um, okay...I've got my own claws and fangs and I think even I'd poop myself a little if I were on the other side of that door," he whispers to Ravboom, Vael, and Palo.
"Can always set off charges and blow place to horizon too. Always fun watch things blow up!"
Blekk and CL4P-TP continue to shout their 'observations' at the closed door... their efforts, sadly, doing little for any future relations between this impromptu goblin / machine delegation and the Daytaar coterie... It is only after Ravboom muses aloud about simply blowing the place up that the door swings open revealing a spacious chamber containing a heavily-padded bed in the northwest corner and a punching bag hanging from the ceiling directly south of it.
A strange mélange of body odor and machine oil permeates the air... and there, standing at the door ahead of the woman that the group briefly saw, is a four-armed figure - muscles rippling around pistons and metallic rods within its upper arms. He fixes the goblins with an icy stare, "So this is what Zomskane sends against us? They have underestimated us!!!"
Blekk quietly whispers to Rav. "Think we need more explosives. This dude looks like he means business"
Pffffff!
Claptrap lets out a derisive snort.
Hes not even full machine! This will be easy guys!
However, he is Pfffff-ing a little to long and the 4-armed cyborg moves before he does.
Pffffff!
Understandably wary of fighting anything with four arms, Relas advances forward to offer some cover for his friends but doesn't engage the man directly - not yet. He adopts a defensive position and waits for the others to back him up.
______
Pointing a finger at the four armed individual, "Stay there."
An explosion of the arcane, sparkling and effervescent dust followed by the binding words of Vael, rips through the Daytaar rooms... but neither of the groups' targets are affected by their efforts.
As Ravboom starts to level his gun, drawing an imaginary line in his mind between the barrel of the weapon and the man's head, he starts to feel it slip from his grip... strengthening his hold, he manages to stop it flying towards the woman beckoning towards him - but, in doing so, loses his concentration...
Meanwhile, accompanied by a flurry of whirrs and clanks, the man steps into the corridor with Blekk... and smashes a metallic arm down upon the stricken goblin.
Blekk looks at the metal man in front of him. "Huh. Thanks for coming to me, appreciate that. People don't normally volunteer for this." He then launches himself at the guy.
Pffffff!...
...Oh Copper! Claptrap swears as he watches the 4-armed 'sub-machine-man" nearly cleave Blekk in half.
Oi! Blekk! Hold it together! Your spilling on the carpet! Bad Gobo. Bad...
Claptrap points once more to the 4-armed sub-machine with a Pffffff! Oi! Screwloose! That Woman behind you was laughing when you wernt watching! Kindly get her for me, Please?
...
PLEASE?