Not amused to see what seemed to him to be a robot, Harrash runs with his bear to face the creature from both sides. Harrash stabs it with his sword, the bear with a claw.
[Ooc]Some answers
We are starting without a map. I will try to get maps up for future encounters, epecially the ones with a lot of enemies, but I don't want to hold the game up for little fights.
I like to use separate initiatives for pets. I just forgot you had a bear. If you could make an alias for your bear that would be cool.
If anyone wants to roll knowledges to identify creatures on their turn, that would be cool too. In this case it's engineering.
Harrash cuts through the creature's forearm while the bear rips it's head clean off. The hole where it's neck was belchea sparks and smoke. It stumbles backwards for a second, then collapses into a heap.
A young kellid girl crawls out from under a desk. She appears to be unharmed though she is shaking like mad. Is it dead?
"It looks like it, yes. I'll have to check to make sure, but I think we've disabled it." Adrien walks up to the machine slowly, with Ozymandias not for behind. He pokes at it once with his stick, then takes a step back. "You've nothing to fear, it's not working anymore."
Adrien can definitely tell that it's a robot, one of the technological constructs that are occasionally found in Numeria. Though, he can't identify it's function or purpose with all the damage that it has suffered.
"With a robot you never know, but at least it looks pretty dead," Harrash comments.
"And who are you?"
Harrash gathers that the robot was designed for repair and maintenance though it has clearly seen better days.
The girl is around 14 years of age. She wears a leather smock and trousers with a thick apron that covers most of her front. Her long blonde hair is kept out of her face with a red band that matches the tribal tattooes on her face. I'm Val. Khonnir's daughter. Are you the new adventuring party?
She notices a familiar face at the back of the group. Hey Arrenopos.
In one fluid motion Valeria pulls her gun, Belle, from it's holster and loads and primes it. She takes her stance, legs shoulder width apart,and takes aim only to have Harrash and his bear tear the thing apart before she can fire. She lowers he pistol and takes the cartridge out of the barrel before holstering the weapon "No sense in wasting the powder." she thinks to herself.
Valeria smiles at the young girl, who reminds her of herself at that age "Yes, Val. My name is Valeria, my friends call me Val too, and we have been hired by the town council to find your father and would like to ask you some questions that might help us find him. Is there someplace more comfortable where we can talk?"
"Dead? Oh, no, I hope not! Such a shame. If they run amok I suppose you have no choice. Of course these things aren't actually alive or dead in that sense."
Skivven runs over to have a look at the machine.
"My, my. What a specimen. I've never seen the like! I wonder what was wrong with it?"
Skivven looks over at Val.
"Are you all right? What happened?"
Val says, "Sure. The tavern should be comfortable enough. She takes you over to the largest of the three buildings and unlocks the door. The inside is well furnished with a large number of tables and chairs with a fireplace against the far wall and a healthily stocked bar. Pick a table. The inn is yours to stay in for however long you're searching for my father. Just leave us enough booze to sell when we reopen.
She then goes on to explain about the robot. Dad brought that back when he returned from the first trip under Black Hill. He thought it was some kind of mechanical creature but couldn't get it to function. He brought it back with him to study it further after the town crisis was dealt with. I was cleaning out the study when it just sprang to life.
"It looks as if it's designed for maintenance, but what it just did was certainly of a different nature. Have there been any other incidents with robots in Torch recently?" Harrash asks.
"Val, do you know anything about where Khonnir was planning to go? Did he leave any notes?" Arrenopos asks.
"We are planning on entering the caves in the morning and I was hoping he might have left at least a partial map of where he had gone on the first excursion."
Hmm. Let's see. No, no robot activity that I know of around here. Although, there is some gremlin mischief around town. Dad said that they live in the caves. As for any notes, I'm afraid he didn't record his first trip beyond what he told me and the council.
"Yah we talked to them. They didn't have any maps either."
Skivven fiddles with the whiskers around his nose.
"Well, unless you can think of anything else that might be of use, I suppose we might as well be off. Wish us luck!"
Skivven begins to hop from one foot to the other in anticipation.
If you're ready to go below, Joram Kyte should be waiting at Crowfeather Palace. It's the big building attached to the lake.
"That's disappointing. I guess we'll be starting from scratch."
Arrenopos looks at the others.
"I suppose we can get started then?"
"That's what we're here to do."
Harrash turns to the exit as soon as everyone stops speaking.
Crowfeather Lake is Torch's most abundant source of water. Formed by runoff from the Weeping Pond further north, the toxins that enter the water above dilute enough within the lake that the water is at least drinkable. Although, it is not ideal, and until the palace was built, birth defects and disease were very common in the town.
One of the largest buildings in Torch, Crowfeather Palace is the brain child of Khonnir Baine, one of the wizard's unique contributions to the town. A fusion of magic and technology, this is where water from the lake is purified and becomes completely safe to drink. It resembles a cross between a factory and a castle with all sorts of pipes to collect and redistribute the various liquids and chemicals. One very prominent metal tube enters Crowfeather Lake in the area directly behind the building. A ring of red magical energy extends several feet out from the protrusion and the toxins covering the rest of the surface end at the borders of the effect.
Upon entering Crowfeather Palace, the first thing you feel is a humid heat that fills the whole building. Priests of Brigh wander in and around the structure, constantly observing and tinkering with various devices and runes within the building. There are rooms full of boilers and pumps and filters and beakers and all sorts of other equipment both magical and mundane that constantly fill the whole building with loud noise and airborne water.
It takes you some time to get a cleric's attention, and several more minutes before he is able to track down Father Kyte for you. An older man, Joram approaches you by using a long, metal staff as a walking stick. He wears leather gloves, boots, and pants befitting a smith rather than priestly robes. He has a belt full of tools and a curious metallic mask. His white hair is almost gone, and as he reaches you, he smiles and casually shouts over the clanging of pipes. "Greetings! Adventurers!"
Harrash walks over to Joram upon being greeted. "Father Kyte? Are you the one with the spell to help us go underground?"
I am. Are you all going underground? He does a quick count. Six individuals...or is that seven? Can the robot function underwater?
"How wonderful!" Skivven exclaims, upon seeing the inside of the building. "There are a lot of pipes in Antoll, but never so many in one place!"
Skivven starts chattering as if possessed. "Do you pump the water up to a cistern? If not, how do you maintain static pressure? Do you use filtration or heat to get rid of the contaminants? Or both perhaps? What do you do with the effluent-"
He looks embarassedly at the others. "I suppose we don't have time for all that. But perhaps I can get a tour when we get back?"
"Anyway, I suppose I'm ready to take a swim."
"Very well. If your ready." Joram takes you outside to Crowfeather Lake and has you all stand in a circle around him. He raises the metallic staff in his hand and it begins to crackle with electricity. "My lady, Brigh. I call upon your aid once again. Grant these brave souls safe passage beneath the water so that they might save our humble town from the crisis that has befallen us." A wave of blue light washes over you. The high priest reminds you, "the spell will last for four hours. If you're not back by that time, you'll have to swim out without the ability to breathe."
You part the surface of the oily lake and plunge to the dark depths of the Black Hill Caves. Immediately upon reaching the bottom of the lake, you see a tunnel leading into the area beneath the hill. You head into it and it doesn't take long before you breach the surface again. This time though, the chemicals that cover the water fill the cavern with a fume that burns the eyes and throat.
Harrash points at the tunnel he can barely see through his stinging eyes, indicating the direction he thinks they should go in order to enter the cavern. "Should we move forward?"
The tunnel quickly opens up so that two people can stand side by side, though it remains completely dark. Those without darkvision are able to navigate by holding onto the stone walls while those with lead the others deeper into the tunnels by following the shallow underground river.
Pretty soon, you hear a scratching sound as a trio of dull yellow lights appears on your right side. The scratching gets louder and it seems that the light is generated by the skin of some shadowy creatures.
Adrien, Harrash, Skivven, and Valeria are up.
"Look out! Those lights are beetles!" Skivven says.
Let's proceed without a map again for the time being. We'll get this right sooner or later.
All right. So, Adrien, Harrash, Skivven and Valeria are up.
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"Yikes! Here they come!"
Skivven pulls out his crossbow and takes a shot, reloading afterward.
Skivven's bolt flies past Adrien and pierces the underside of the beetle's exoskeleton. It makes a screeching cry in pain, but continues to approach.
Valeria emerges from the water dripping wet. Ringing the water out of her hair she instinctively checks her powder horn to make sure that it remained sealed during her swim. Standing in the pitch black she asks "Umm, did anyone think to bring some light?" After the ensuing silence she sighs "Seriously? We were going to search underground caverns and no one thought to study a light spell." With a mumbled "Men." she reaches into her backpack and pulls out a torch and her flint and steel. After several attempts to ignite the damp oil rags she finally gets it burning. Holding it overhead she looks around the cave.
At Skivven's shouted warning she draws her pistol and carefully primes and loads a shot. Taking aim at the middle beetle, she fires.
The shot catches the beetle right in the head. It flops over' suirma once, then lays still.
As soon as Harrash notices that the lights are alive, he hurries to attack one of them before they attack him. He strikes it especially hard.
Harrash cuts one of the beetles in half. Strangely enough, the light of the creature keeps glowing even after death. That tips Harrash off to what the creatures are. They are fire beetles, common pests of the underground world. They're a bit like giant fireflies and eat mostly small animals, but especially hungry ones have been known to group up on larger prey.
The only beetle left is the one adjacent to Adrien.
Adrien stifles a shot as one of the beetles erupts next to him, and scrambles to get away from it before it can attack him.
Okay. Arrenopos and Harrash's Ape Companion are up.
Arrenopos watches as everyone gets the jump on him, but seeing one beetle left, attempts to prevent it from following Adrein.
The ape follows close behind to stand opposite Arrenopos, and attempts to claw the remaining beetle.
As the beetle flies out of the way of the android's sword, it is grapped by the ape and torn in half by the animal's claws.
As the conflict dies down, you are better able to get a look at the cavern through the light of the dead beetles. The walls are mostly made of a slimy, grey stone. There are two paths leading out besides the one you came in with. The first would be to follow the underground stream around the bend to the north. The second way is through the opening above the beetle burrows. Climbing up the short ledge doesn't look difficult. You could use the holes in the earth as hand and foot holds.
"Interesting," Harrash remarks, looking at the dead bug that was still glowing. "Usually these things only eat small animals. I wonder what's wrong with them this time."
"And which direction are we going?" he asks, looking at the many options.
It appears that there are far more burrows than there are beetles, suggesting that many of there number were slain. These beetles may have been hiding until hunger drove them out into the open again.
His dagger ahead of him, Skivven peers into the burrows to see if there is anything of value there.
"Perhaps they were hungry, and their local food source has dried up?"
"I think I prefer going up. Give my feet a chance to dry off."
Valeria draws her dagger and heads over to the beetle carcasses. Kneeling down she begins the grisly task of cutting out the glowing glands Once she is finished she hands them out to the party members who don't have darkvision "Sure, it's disgusting but at least we'll have some light for the time being."
A cursory inspection of the burrows reveals that the vermin have been hording objects that could only have come from the adventuring parties before you. Skivven digs out a large coin purse, two waterproof vials of liquid, and a waterproof scroll case, complete with an intact scroll.
The fire beetle glands provide light equal to Valeria's torch and function underwater.
As Skivven and Valeria work on their tasks, the sharp ears of Skivven pick up a slithering sound, like a dozen snakes crawling over rock. He looks towards the source and sees a massive mushroom like thing come from out of the cave above him. It's violet in color with dozens of small root like protusions that dig into the stone and pull it through the tunnel. Four much larger tentacles protrude from just below it's large dome cap.
Skivven is up. I'll update the map tonight. Until then, this new creature is where beetle two is and Skivven and Valeria are adjacent to one of the beetle locations. Everyone else is where they want to be, pacing and the like while other party members are working.
"Yikes! What is that?"
Skivven steps back and shoots again with his crossbow.
Skivven quickly jumps back and fires off a bolt at the tentacled mushroom. The bolt flies true, but the creature's hide is more leathery than it first appears. While the projectile hits home, it doesn't penetrate enough to do more than superficial harm. One of the monster's appendages lashes out to strike at Valeria, who is still huddled over the last of the beetles she intends to make a torch out of.
Instead of striking her, it whips the beetle's carcass. Within moments, the light secreted by the vermin vanishes and in the gloom of the other light sources, she watches the corpse decay a month in seconds.
Ozymandias and Harrash are the first to respond to Skivven's shout. Ozymandias and Harrash are up.
Noticing the ruckus, Harrash follows to Skivven's other side to defend against the strange creature, again putting his sword to use.
Harrash cuts through the creature's skin, releasing a stream of dark ichor.
Ozzymandias moves into the fray, swatting aside a striking tentacle.
Harrash-2
Ozzymandias-6
Skivven-18
???-9
Adrien, Arrenopos, Skivven, and Valeria are all up.