Tai raises his eyebrows at the men walking off, but does not question it. He flings the door open and scans the room.
As you open the door, you see a small stairway leading up. White smoke filling the way beyond it. You can just barely discern the sound of steel clashing on steel coming from somewhere upstairs. It's very muffled, however, almost as if it were originating from somewhere farther than the size of the building would allow.
A few men stand up as you move to cross the door...
"Hold on!" shouts the young gambling man. "After All I've been through, you're not going to steal my turn!"
The man by the bar grabs the handle of the scimitar at his belt. "He's right. I have the right to a rematch! Don't think you can just cut in line!"
The falconer nods in agreement with them. He places his half-asleep falcon on the balcony and takes his hands to what you assume are the handles of two weapons concealed behind his lower back.
A dark-haired woman in a game of cards stands up and points a pistol at you... And another that the young gambler. "None of you are going in there before me!"
The rest of the room remains silent, unsure of what to do...
The armored man just calmly walks through the room... And quickly slams the woman's head on the table, knocking her out. At the sight of this, the other patrons loosen the grip on their weapons.
A waitress calmly announces in a voice just loud enough to be heard on the whole room "Please, do not draw weapons against the staff or other customers. Thank you for your understanding."
Brother Cyrus leans towards Tai Leng.
"I think I know what might be upstairs." He then takes the stairs.
Tai is puzzled, but not curious enough to ask.
He ascends the stairs, unconcerned by the angry folks below.
"Wow, Like I just...Like just like that guy slammed that girls head, Wow that just like... Like, like, like..."
Shea sort of inches towards the door, and then slips into it.
"Those guys did not seem happy."
She considered the door for a second, And then waves her hand, a Staff appearing suddenly in her hand, she reaches out and presses against the door, Expending some of her energy to fuse the wood of the door with the lining of the door frame. Casing her Shape Object incantation and using 1 point of mana to make it a standard action.
"Hopefully that slows down anyone."
She says to herself, before ascending the stairs, on the heels of her still unaware companions.
You see three people rushing towards your position before the door closes behind you. You climb a few steps and reach an insanely wide corridor that is somehow completely engulfed by thick white smoke.
Somewhere inside it, 6 separate pairs or glowing yellow eyes slowly turn to you. Your hear the sound of clanking metal and turning gears.
- - -
A moment later the sound of quick decompression momentarily overtakes the room... And a small metallic dart flies towards you!
At the same time, you can hear banging on the wooden door downstairs...
Come stomping up the steps behind her two companions. Stopping at the top of the stairs. And waving her hands around Using her Grease Evocation to spread grease down the stairwell.
"Hey Guys like don't mind me, but there is like a whole bunch of really mad people coming up here so...What are those?"
She said pointing at the glowing eyes.
"Er, just who are you miss?" Cyrus looks back at her before turning towards the yellow eyes and slowly drawing his sword from his sheathe.
"I don't think we've had much luck with yellow eyes."
A dart flies directly at Tai Leng, who deflects it not a moment too soon! You recognize the sound and light typical of short arcs of electricity forming near the yellow eyes, who now focus all their attention on you... And change their color to a bright red light.
Enemies 1 & 2
Brother Cyrus
Tai Leng
Enemies 3 & 4
Shea
Enemies 5 & 6
A steel clamp attached to a chain flies towards Tai Leng... Who once again manages to avoid it at the last second.
Another clamp flies off the smoke screen. This one directed at Brother Cyrus,. The Paladin's reflexes are quick, but this time the attacker seems to have accounted for its target's reactions, and the metal clamp closes tight around Cyrus' neck. Half a second later, he feels a surge of electricity running through his body.
- - -
Brother Cyrus' eyes widen in surprise and then narrow before his face takes on a semblance of calm.
"You know what? I'm not even angry. I have some deep seated frustrations with beauracracy getting in the way of good deeds to work through."
Cyrus charges the creature holding the chain, raises his sword overhead and it flashes with righteous fury before arcing downward!
But they do not answer...
Still your martial prowess is enough to hit the creature, who you see now, is some sort of mechanical creature. The chain attached to the clamp around your necks connected to a hole in its chest. Its red-glowing eyes stare at you like uncaring lanterns, with small circular lenses that twist and turn slightly to account for the change in distance.
- - -
Tai Leng slides forward and slams the figure directly in front of him with an elbow.
But simply grabs mist.
The enemy reveals itself to be some sort of mechanical man. A chain hanging loosely from a hole in its chest leads to the metal clamp you narrowly avoided moments ago.
The creature in front of Tai Leng attacks him with two metallic claws sparking with electricity...
Tai Leng feels a surge of pain as metallic claws dig into his ribs and create an electrical current that goes from one to another and through his chest!
One of the creature's peers moves sideways and shoots a cylindrical object at Brother Cyrus. The projectile explodes in a blast of bright light and deafening noise.
- - -
- - -
Brother Cyrus is surprised, but unfazed by the explosion, and remains on his guard.
- - -
Shea narrows her eyes and wipes the front of her glasses.
"Gosh this smoke is the worst.."
Shea points her staff outwards, pinpointing a spot roughly in the center of the room.
"Cover your ears!"
Shea channels her latent mana into the staff, Creating a pinpoint of air right in the middle of the room, and Having is violently expand outward. Using Elemental Wave (Wind) and expending one point of Mana to use it's boost 3.
Causing the sudden loud gust of wind to whip out at all whiten it's radius. Hopefully clearing smoke away in the process. It is wide enough to engulf both of her new allies as well as all three of the pairs of eyes. It is conveniently just small enough to not hit her. How about that.
(DC 19 Reflex for Half)
"Did that do the trick?"
Brother Cyrus tries to shield himself as best he can.
A sonic boon bursts in the corridor, damaging nearly every creature inside and pushing away the smoke... Thus revealing 6 humanoid-shaped constructs.
The two of them who are closest to Tai Leng take the brunt of the impact, but still stand.
Having nowhere to go, the smoke beings retaking steadily, albeit slowly lost ground. For the moment, you have clear sight of the creatures...
- - -
One of the automatons extends left arm forward. A small device on his wrists shoots spinning bolas at Shea.
The bolas twist around the young mage at shoulder height, wrapping around tight around her. Enough to hamper her mobility and balance, but too high to lock her forearms... As she quickly realizes when she involuntarily waves them around once a short electrical jolt courses through her body.
The construct farthest away from you stops completely still for a second... Then turns around and marches away, disappearing into the smoke ahead.
The automaton chained to Brother Cyrus recharges for a second and uses the metallic link between them to send yet another surge of electricity at the paladin.
It's a painful jolt, but weaker than the previous one...
Meanwhile, Tai Leng is target by another automaton's claws...
This time, he deflects the fist strike, but can't do the same to the follow-up attack.
- - -
- - -
Brother Cyrus' wounds quickly begin healing and he takes another swing at the construct.
"All I wanted to do was help people and people get prissy over me mentioning helping a lady with her pet tiger!" Cyrus rants at the construct as he hacks away at it.
Brother Cyrus once again lands his blows quite effectively. It's clear that his target is barely capable of remaining functional.
- - -
Tai Leng grits his teeth through the pain and steps in, elbow striking and then shoulder checking the gear-man in front of him.
Moving from the check, he grabs at the arm of the construct...
And then deftly tosses it over his shoulder, slamming it hard into the ground.
"Who is next?" he asks, arching an eyebrow at the gear-men.
Tai Leng destroys the metallic man in front of him with a single over-the-shoulder throw. The other creatures show no reaction to this.
Among the shattered remains of the destroyed construct, you see a tiny, elongated octahedron glowing a faint blue light.
Two of the automatons step forward, once of them attacks Brother Cyrus with two claw attacks...
One attack is successfully deflected, but the other one manages to bypass Cyrus' defenses.
Another automaton attempts the same tactic, but a different target.
However, this time Tai Leng manages to avoid both attacks.
- - -
- - -
Flinches at the sight of Tai getting buffed by her Airball.
"Ouch, Sorry, Sorry, I can fix this."
She sort of sways and jerks her arms around, and then when it's obvious she can't just pull off the bola, She shambled on over to Tai. Drawing even more Mana from inside her, spending two Mana, One to make her spell a standard action, and another to make it a Still Spell. Her hands being somewhat occupied, she sort of head-butts Tai in his back, as she casts Heal on him.
vs DC 18
Healing magic radiates from her dome onto Tai.
Once again metal clamps fly at you... This time targeting Tai Leng.
The evolutionist can't react as quickly this time, and soon feels the cold metal enclosing around his neck, followed by a quick (but painful) surge of electricity...
Sounds of battle come from further down the corridor, although the smoke doesn't let you see what's happening over there.
The automaton chained to Brother Cyrus attacks him with its metallic claws.
However, this time the Paladin successfully blocks the incoming attacks.
- - -
- - -
Cyrus continues healing himself as he hacks into the constructs.
"I trudged through a damn sewer for these people!
Despite his anger (or perhaps because of it), Brother Cyrus misses his attack. His weapon easily blocked by the automaton's reinforced forearm plating.
- - -
Tai Leng takes a 10 foot step, his flexible joints making it easy to glide across the floor. Using his momentum, he slams both palms against the gear-man's chest at once.
The construct's feet rise off the floor just enough for Tai Leng to get under it, wrap his arms around, and slowly begin to apply pressure before dropping it in a flawlessly executed suplex.
Cyrus almost forgets he's fast enough to make two attacks now.
Tai Leng disables another construct and then performs a suplex on its shattered remains...
An automaton strikes at Brother Cyrus again...
...But fails miserably.
A second one repositions itself slightly and raises its arm, presenting a hollow pipe attached to it. One electrical spark later, Tai Leng is blasted by a jet of alchemical flames.
- - -
- - -
"Hah...that did little more than singe my hair." Tai pants.
Shimmies over towards Cyrus and his combatants.
"Nice Fire, I can do that too."
She says to the automatons. Taking a deep breath and empowering herself with Mana, Expending two Mana. One to make it a still spell, and the other to strengthen her , as she spews a curved line of blue flame from her mouth. targeting both of the clockwork creatures engaging with Cyrus, but not hitting him. Perhaps singeing his nose just a tiny bit though.
Shea blows hard, but only a comical puff of smoke comes out, she blows out every bit of air in her lungs in a desperate attempt to save the fizzled spell, sadly to no avail. SHE DID THE THING!
"Alright I need to get out of this thing now."
One of the constructs hit by Shea's magic is destroyed by the sudden burst of fire and flames... The chain attached to it becomes no more than multiple shattered links and an odd-looking "collar" around Brother Cyrus' neck.
You hear an increasingly louder high-pitched noise coming from somewhere ahead...
Only two more automatons remains, but unsurprisingly, they do not seem inclined to surrender.
- - -
- - -
Brother Cyrus sweeps his falchion out in a low arc that curves high.
He then turns with the swing towards the mysterious woman and tries to cut her free.
"Hold still!"
Brother Cyrus cleaves a gear-man in two, then quickly turns around and cuts down the cables restricting Shea's movements.
- - -
Tai Leng, in a fit of pettiness, attacks the gearman and then slams it into the square directly behind him. The one containing Shea.
"Whoops. My hand slipped."
Brother Cyrus and Tai Leng destroy the two last visible constructs just as the smoke retakes the space it had lost...
You know at least one of the automatons is still ahead... The last time you saw it, the creature was moving towards the direction from where you now hear distant battle sounds.
At the same time, the sound of wood cracking and breaking explodes from behind you.
"Cheaters! Thieves!" a familiar voice shouts.
Glares at Tai
"And after I saved your life too, No gratitude."
Turns when she hears the door explode open.
"Yikes, I greased up those stairs pretty good, But I'm sure it won't hold those dorks off forever, How did you make them so mad?"
"I don't know. I probably helped their grandmother with her groceries or perhaps the charity healing services did the trick..." Cyrus dryly remarks.
"I don't know you Miss, but I appreciate the fire back there. Tai, let's press onward. If our mystery man wasn't in the rooms before, perhaps he will be ahead." Cyrus moves forward cautiously in the mist. One step testing the ground before moving more firmly.
After a second Cyrus looks back at Shea.
"You should probably find somewhere to hide."
"Agreed. I have no earthly idea what all those people are so agitated about, but I don't particularly care to stick around and find out either."
Tai proceeds into the smoky room, towards the sounds of violence.
"Hide? No way, I'm supposed to help you find the uh... the thing."
Tails behind them into the next location.
The voices calling you out from behind grow more distant, despite the fact that they couldn't be more than 40 ft behind you. Even your own voices sound somewhat dampened, and you have some difficulty hearing each other.
You walk forward cautiously, toward the sound of clashing metal... To your left, you see a large oaken door, fully closed.
In front of you, the corridor goes on. It shouldn't be much longer, given the size of the building, but you can't see more than 10 or so feet ahead of you... And the smoke seems even thicker down the corridor. It's a wonder those automaton could find you at all.
"This is Off..."
Shea activates her magic eyes and looks around, what does she see.
The door doesn't seem to have any magic in it... The smoke, however, has a strong aura of illusion magic.
A thunderous sound comes from the way whence you came. It's soon followed by another one. And then by a painful scream.
A handful of second later, you can feel the ground shaking slightly for moment...