During the next couple of days, Khonnir begins to feel troubled again. His words start to slur and he has a hard time focusing. Vallan takes a look at him and realizes he’s somehow continuing to take brain damage. Khonnir, in response, tells him of how the robots injected him with some kind of serum “To map his higher brain functions”, and apparently, its still working.
By the end of their rest period, Vallan is outfitted with a brand new flamberge of masterfully crafted quality, and a suit of spike plate mail that leaves the dwarf encased in steel from the top of his head to the bottom of his boots. He looks like a miniature, fatter version of the idols of Gorum that one somtimes sees at his "temples". "Gambling can wait for our triumphant return in my book! Let's get back tae battling aliens and robots! Maybe we can find a cure for whatever ails Khonnir."
Groog was reluctant to give up his two new friends, but at Dorf and Hoots' urging, agreed to let them go play with the other people.
He blindly walked along behind Hoots, allowing the avian to handle his shiny coins. The last time Groog did something with shiny coins, it upset his little birdy.
While Hoots and Dorf are busy hitting metal with hammers, and Lady is with her friends, Groog had time to wander around. He eventually made his way to the place where men played with coins. It looked like fun, but he had no coins himself. Hoots kept them safe for him while he was in town. So he stood in the doorway, watching the others with a silly grin while people looked at him either scared, confused, or both.
Vallan makes sure that the smith crafts a proper sword to replace Groog's primitive long-axe. He has her make the orc a falchion of exquisite balance and heft. Oooh! This will be great once we get Groog's power behind it!
Helpless to fully repair the full measure of damage to their rescued charge's mind, Wil decides to pass the lull of days taking up Mr. Ulreth on his gambling offer. He seldom succeeded at such things, but it was a kind offer he didn't want to rudely refuse. And besides, the money he was about to lose was a small gift to begin with.
Dahlia resumes her day to day occupation of studying under Khonnir, at least on his good days, while she waits for the group to be ready to return to the caves under the Black Hill.
As Groog, Vallan, Bonnie, and Hoots enter the tavern, their arrival is noted by some of the regulars, who yell a cheer for the group who brought back Khonnir. Already, their success has been noted and they’ve gained a sort of fame in the town. Within moments, they are greeted by a garrulous man with a full beard and sparkling eyes wearing a suit of studded leather armor and a rapier strapped to his belt. ”Ah, the heroes themselves! Welcome, welcome to the Silverdisk Hall! I am none other than Garmen Ulreth, proprietor here! I had heard of your exploits in rescuing our dear Councilman Baine. The entire town thanks you for that. Of course, we’re all still awaiting the town’s namesake to be rekindled, but I’m sure you can handle that as well! To thank you for what you’ve done so far for our town, I wanted to personally offer you a small token of esteem; One-hundred gold pieces worth of tokens for you to relax with!”
He pulls out four pieces of paper and hands them to each person. The certificates are good for one-hundred gp worth of tokens that can be redeemed here at the Silverdisk Hall. Although the hall accepts currency more commonly used outside of Numeria, they deal in silverdisks, much like the ones the group had already encountered.
”Alas, were I able to join you and play some games myself, but I have business to attend to. I do hope you enjoy yourselves though!” With that, Garmen gives everyone a rough handshake - he remains careful around Groog, having heard about the orc’s hugging tendencies - and bids them a farewell, disappearing behind one of the Hall’s closed doors.
As the Hellions cash in their certificates and begin sitting down to gamble, they’re approached by a different man; this Kellid is wearing a chain shirt and rather colorful set of breeches. Numerous pouches and pockets dangle from a bandolier, and a longsword at his side. Well well well, look who we have here. Name’s Sanvil Trett, travelling merchant! I’m sure you’ve heard of me, though! Heard you’ve been selling off some of the loot you’ve been finding beneath the Black Hill.. and that some of it was even of a technological nature! Here I am.. being one of the experts on such matters in town.. and yet I haven’t even been approached by such fine gentlemen, eager for me to examine their gadgets for them.” He almost seems pouty at the thought that they didn’t come to him to identify their goods. ”Ah well! Perhaps in the future you could share with me such wonders you may find down there, eh? I’ll identify any such goods for naught but a small fee and even tell you what they do and how to use ‘em! And, if you have no need for them yourselves, I’ll be more than happy to buy them off you. I even happen to have some of my own goods of a technological nature to sell.. though don’t tell the Technic League. Hah!”
Groog, not entirely sure what's going on and what the tiny man was saying, took the paper and handed it to the lady others were handing things to.
"What kind of chips you w...want sir?" the cashier asks nervously.
Groog looks at her with a confused expression. He thinks for a moment, then says, "Best?" half asking the statement.
He takes the chips and begins playing, putting everything he has into every hand. A little over a half-hour later, Groog is without coins and goes and finds Hoots and says with a pout, "Shinies gone."
Wil follows Groog's example. Standing behind him as if in a chow line, he waits for the clerk to count out the orc's tokens before asking for the same. "The best. I guess." He quickly shuffles over to the table beside the orc as he sets into gambling away their host's gracious gesture.
Bonnie fancies Groog a consummate gambler at first, throwing around his money with a practiced hand. Wil follows the much larger Hellion's lead, sliding mounds of coins across the tabletop. Bonnie had a trick that Groog lacked, however: the table. Hallowed Halibuxtruf was it's name, and it had soaked in the rites and habits of gamblers for nigh unto a century. It quite matter-of-factly informed the musician of what plays to make at any given turn, and its advice proved quite adept at navigating the intricacies of the game.
When Groog is forced to leave the table, Bonnie excuses himself as well, not realizing the orc's "gambling accumen" was just a big dumb lug throwing coins at a table of gamblers.
As Bonnie wins game after game, racking up gold after gold, he finds a pair of bouncers on either side of him. They forcefully grab him by the shoulders - luckily, Groog had already left - and bodily haul him outside of the hall. "Town savior or not, bub, how about leaving some of the luck to the regulars?" They toss his winnings in a pouch behind him as they toss him out. "Don't come back, or we'll make sure you spread some luck around - the hard way."
As Vallan opens the door, he finds it to lead to nothing more than a small storage closet filled with lockers. Although the lockers are mostly filled with junk and rubble, a quick search through them finds a few interesting things of note.
The first appears to be a metal rod with a button on its side and some sort of window at one end. The group find three more batteries and twenty-six silverdisks, as well. Finally, they find a small secure bin with a white-stripe across it. Examining it, it appears to be locked with a higher-security clearance card than what the group currently has access to.
Although it takes her a few minutes, even with Vallan continously guiding her with a spell, Dahlia eventually unlocks the security bin. Inside, she finds four small, curious cylinders with a button on each one, a light-weight, form-fitting bodysuit featuring a variety of pockets, straps, and what appears to be some sort of built-in interface, as well as damaged pistol of some high-tech design.
Taking a few minutes to examine them, Vallan successfully identifies each one in turn.
The gun proves to be a Timeworn Stun Gun which has but 5 charges remaining. The body-suit is known as a "Neroplast Armor", a light-weight suit that is able to customize the patterns upon its fabric to blend in with its environment. This one is fully charged with 24 charges.
The four cylinders are in fact, highly dangerous objects called grenades; Two of them are Flash Grenades, one is a Bang Grenade, and the fourth is a Soft Grenade. The Flash Grenades cause temporary blindness, the Bang Grenade staggers those within its radius and deafens them temporarily, while the Soft Grenade unleashes a blast of nonlethal damage.
After they examine and identify the loot, the group choose the middle-most door in the room and find themselves in a hallway. At the opposite end of this hallway is yet another door, while one more door sits to their right. Vallan chooses to go straight.
This unlit circular room is empty save for a panel of controls on the wall to the northwest. A coil of tubes dangling from the left side of the panel periodically flashes with sparks, while a single square window on the panel blinks with several lines of strange writing.
Hoots goes over to look at and hopefully read the writing on the screen, making sure not to get too close to the sparking wire.
Hoots finds that the panel is in Androfan, unsurprisingly enough, and it reads thusly:
Deck 4: Engineering
Deck 3: Science
Deck 2: Crew
Deck 1: Docking
WARNING: Elevator offline - please contact maintenance!
The last line in big, bold letters is blinking bright red, while the line titled ‘Deck 3’ is lit in bright blue. The other three lines labeled as decks are all in faint blue.
(Succses)
In addition, while examining the room, Hoots notices something strange about it. While the floor is certainly solid, there is a small hole in the ceiling - as it so happens, the ceiling appears to be hollow above.
"The joints are a little too stiff," Dahlia says, handling the suit. "I think it'd get in the way of my magic."
Vallan opens a door, which leads into another hallway. He then sees two more sets of doors, and goes to try to open the furthest set. "Can't be too many more rooms in here..." he mutters.
The stench of mold and decay fills this open, dark chamber, no doubt created by the thick blanket of fungal matter coating the floor, walls, and ceiling. Several chairs sit before work tables containing unusual tools and equipment, while a row of doors line the curved southern wall.
<< | | | >>
As Vallan peeks into the darkened room, he spies sudden movement from a strange, vibrantly-colored plant. The plant lazily whips one of its three, long tendrils with a spiked head at Vallan, but the attack merely impacts against his armor, failing to harm him.
____________________________________________________
(Failure)
(Failure)
(Success)
(Failure)
(Success)
17
11.8
Groog readies his new blade and rushes the bad, ugly flower.
"Ionsaigh!" Dahlia shouts, commanding Snow to attack the plant thing. She then makes a quick gesture, says "Toirneach," and points at the plant, causing a small discharge of electricty to leap from her finger and directly into the ground.
"That didn't work how I thought," Dahlia says, looking somewhat embarrassed.
As Vallan peeks into the darkened room, he spies sudden movement from a strange, vibrantly-colored plant. The plant lazily whips one of its three, long tendrils with a spiked head at Vallan, but the attack merely impacts against his armor, failing to harm him.
Groog readies his new blade and rushes the bad, ugly flower.
"Ionsaigh!" Dahlia shouts, commanding Snow to attack the plant thing. She then makes a quick gesture, says "Toirneach," and points at the plant, causing a small discharge of electricity to leap from her finger and directly into the ground.
"That didn't work how I thought," Dahlia says, looking somewhat embarrassed.
<< | | | >>
As Groog nears the plant, the plant shifts its body, causing a horrid smell to waft from it, entering the noses of the entire group. Some of the party are sickened by the disgusting smell, but they aren’t given time to clear their noses. The plant flails its three spike-ended tentacles around at Groog, hitting him with one of them.
______________________________________
Hoots recoils as a wall of stench washes over his poor sensitive beak.
Steeling his nerves to stop his retching, he steps into the room, levels his shiny new pepperbox at it, and fires.
Groog flails his new blade in front of him, though it appears to be more like he ge fanning the odor away.
"Stinky Flower!"
__________
Vallan charges the plant, yelling at it. "Ye stink and ye're stupid!" Typical to form, he stumbles on some debris, and hits the floor instead of the plant. I'm trying, Gorum! Sorry!
Snow leaps forward, though he sounds like he's hacking up a furball. He lumbers up next to Groog and bites the plant, ripping off a limb, then hacking out the foul ooze within it. For her part Dahlia fires another jolt of electricity at the thing, this time hitting it squarely, though causing little damage.
As Groog nears the plant, the plant shifts its body, causing a horrid smell to waft from it, entering the noses of the entire group. Some of the party are sickened by the disgusting smell, but they aren’t given time to clear their noses. The plant flails its three spike-ended tentacles around at Groog, hitting him with one of them.
Hoots recoils as a wall of stench washes over his poor sensitive beak.
Steeling his nerves to stop his retching, he steps into the room, levels his shiny new pepperbox at it, and fires. However, he miscalculates the new pistol’s recoil, and misses.
Groog flails his new blade in front of him, though it appears to be more like he ge fanning the odor away.
"Stinky Flower!"
Vallan charges the plant, yelling at it. "Ye stink and ye're stupid!" Typical to form, he stumbles on some debris, and hits the floor instead of the plant. I'm trying, Gorum! Sorry!
Snow leaps forward, though he sounds like he's hacking up a furball. He lumbers up next to Groog and bites the plant, ripping off a limb, then hacking out the foul ooze within it. For her part Dahlia fires another jolt of electricity at the thing, this time hitting it squarely, though causing little damage.
Bonnie waves his mace around as he walks towards the creature, trying to get the smell out of his nostrils.
<< | | | >>
The Weedwhip continues to flail around its spiked tendrils, this time aiming for Snow, Groog, and Vallan all at once. It only ends up hitting Vallan upside the head, however, but his dwarven biology allows him to resist the poison.
________________________________
Dahlia launches another bolt at the thing, striking it again. Snow then shreds the creature, leaving nothing but a gooey pile of plant matter behind. The big white cat shrugs off the thing's poison and wanders back over to Dahlia.
"Aren't you just a mess. Good boy, though." she says. With a flick of her wrist and a couple of words "Cleas draíochta," she begins to cleans the goop off the big cat.
Just in case Snow's savagery hasn't quite put the plant to ground yet, Vallan chops it cleanly in half with a second slice of his flamberge. "That's more like it!"
Hoots watches his Hellions chop the plant to shreds with a satisfied smile. When the deed is done, he joins in searching the room and listening at the doors.
Grommuk forcefully blows air out his nose, as if trying to rid himself of the terrible scent. He then swings his new blade in a wide arc, opening up a huge gash in the things stem.
__________
The Weedwhip continues to flail around its spiked tendrils, this time aiming for Snow, Groog, and Vallan all at once. It only ends up hitting Vallan upside the head, however, but his dwarven biology allows him to resist the poison.
Dahlia launches another bolt at the thing, striking it again. Snow then shreds the creature, leaving nothing but a gooey pile of plant matter behind. The big white cat shrugs off the thing's poison and wanders back over to Dahlia.
"Aren't you just a mess. Good boy, though." she says. With a flick of her wrist and a couple of words "Cleas draíochta," she begins to cleans the goop off the big cat.
<< | | | >>
However, just as the plant goes down, the door on the left wall slides open of its own accord. Inside this brightly-lit room are five short, thin, green midgets with tendrils of fungus hanging down from their heads like dreadlocks. As they see what has befallen their precious pet, the five all begin screaming and clicking at the group, and one slashes at Hoots with its claws, though it fails to penetrate his chain shirt.
Meanwhile, one of the ones behind the attacking vegepygmy points at two of its fellows and then points at the door behind them, clicking at them in its strange language. The two pygmies then move towards the door, open it, and disappear through it.
_____________________________________________
Vallan steps towards the pygmies, screaming a battle cry! "GORRUUUUUMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!" He calls on power of the Lord in Iron to coat himself again in gore and glorious power. The spell streams forth from his blade just before the warpriest swings his serpentine blade at the fungus man.
"Ionsaigh!" Dahlia says, as Vallan rushes across the room. Snow leaps into action, rounding the table to stand next to Hoots and attack the little green things, though he is unable to catch the thing with Hoots and the wall in the way. Dahlia steps into the room so she can see, but has little chance to hit anything in the scrum so she bides her time.
Seeing the vegepygmies bearing down on him, Hoots hops backwards, up onto the table behind him and then spins his pepperbox and shoot again...but once again the queasy feeling in his stomach together with the chaos of firing into melee causes his shot to go high, careening harmlessly off of the wall behind it.
"Stand still, you vegetative varmints!"
__________________
HP 18/18
Grit 3/3
Pepperbox 4/6
Total remaining bullets 80
Total remaining alchemical cartridges17
Buffs n/a
Groog turns and sees more plants trying to hurt his friends. He comes to the realization that he has never liked plants.
"Stupid, stinky, clicky plants! GROOG GRROORAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHH!!!" he roars, the last few words drowned out in his battle roar.
__________
Grommuk forcefully blows air out his nose. . .
Bonnie strides past everyone and between the small creatures, assuming his new armaments will deflect the brunt of their attacks. He winds up a wild swing from his morningstar at the vegepygmy closest to the northern side of the room.
However, just as the plant goes down, the door on the left wall slides open of its own accord. Inside this brightly-lit room are five short, thin, green midgets with tendrils of fungus hanging down from their heads like dreadlocks. As they see what has befallen their precious pet, the five all begin screaming and clicking at the group, and one slashes at Hoots with its claws, though it fails to penetrate his chain shirt.
Meanwhile, one of the ones behind the attacking vegepygmy points at two of its fellows and then points at the door behind them, clicking at them in its strange language.
Vallan steps towards the pygmies, screaming a battle cry! "GORRUUUUUMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!" He calls on power of the Lord in Iron to coat himself again in gore and glorious power. The spell streams forth from his blade just before the warpriest swings his serpentine blade at the fungus man. However, he misjudges the creature’s height, and misses.
"Ionsaigh!" Dahlia says, as Vallan rushes across the room. Snow leaps into action, rounding the table to stand next to Hoots and attack the little green things, though he is unable to catch the thing with Hoots and the wall in the way. Dahlia steps into the room so she can see, but has little chance to hit anything in the scrum so she bides her time.
Seeing the vegepygmies bearing down on him, Hoots hops backwards, up onto the table behind him and then spins his pepperbox and shoot again...but once again the queasy feeling in his stomach together with the chaos of firing into melee causes his shot to go high, careening harmlessly off of the wall behind it.
"Stand still, you vegetative varmints!"
Groog turns and sees more plants trying to hurt his friends. He comes to the realization that he has never liked plants.
"Stupid, stinky, clicky plants! GROOG GRROORAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHH!!!" he roars, the last few words drowned out in his battle roar. He brings his new weapon down upon one of the creatures, slicing it in half.
Bonnie strides past everyone and between the small creatures, assuming his new armaments will deflect the brunt of their attacks. He winds up a wild swing from his morningstar at the vegepygmy closest to the northern side of the room, taking it out as his weapon cracks its skull.
<< | | | >>
The sole remaining vegepygmy in the overgrown room attacks Bonnie, failing to pierce his armor with its claws. Meanwhile, the door near Dahlia opens up to reveal the two other pygmies that disappeared. One of them runs at Dahlia and slashes her across the chest, leaving a bloody gash, while the other one bangs upon the door in the hallway.
________________________________________________
Bonnie continues the momentum of his previous swing, whirling the spiked and flanged head of his morningstar into the other vegepygmy's face.
Groog hears Dahlia cry out behind him, and whips around, the frenzy of prolonged battle overtaking him. He rushes over to her side and leaps up, bringing his new blade down at the little plant man.
___________
Having taken a smack from the vegetable man, Dahlia draws the wand and activates it, causing her wounds to begin to knit together.
Snow moves into the doorway and tries to bite the vegepygmy left in that area.
Vallan is stymied by Snow and Bonnie taking all the good battle positions, so he tears around the corner, seeing Dahlia retreat. He finds another Vegipygmie there and swings his flamberge at it.