Before you have time to celebrate your swift victory, the doors to the east are hauled open by a pair of Smilers! Another two gang members rush into the room with guns drawn. "Gunshy's down! Get these frakkers!"
One cries in pain as Coen blasts him with magic missiles. Both duck behind cover and fire at Kaska, plugging her with bullets.
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Viv slides across the table, rolls, leaps onto the counter, and launches a shard at the Smiler behind it!
Fireday rushes into the fray to shield Kaska.
"Holy sword! They use those pesky cannons again!" Holg raises his holy symbol and attempts to stop the shooters "Stuuun!" casting sound burst on the three to the south.
He then moves between the table and the counter "Let me protect you, take cover behind me Kaska!"
"Appreciate the thought Holg, but better to stop the shooting."
Kaska skirts around the table and goes after the Smiler using it for cover.
Coen follows up by conjuring billowing golden dust on to the three by the door, hoping to interfere with their aim.
Viv rolls and slides across the room, blasting the Smiler behind the counter and wounding him badly!
Holg blasts the trio of other Smilers with a burst of sound, stunning all three! Their guns fall from the hands as they reel about.
Kaska moves in on the one behind the table and cuts him down with a chop of her sword!
Coen adds insult to injury by blinding the stunned Smilers with glitterdust!
"Frak! Frak!" shouts the man Viv wounded, the only one who can act! He draws a dagger and slashes at the android. He scores a lucky hit!
"Do not risk it anyway Kaska!" shouts the Kellid concerned. His face though changes when the smilers let their guns fall.
"Gorum is in our side today!" Holg charges over the stunned and blinded smilers and attempts to finish one off.
Viv's kinetic field deflects most of the damage and she steps back on the countertop and flings another metal dart.
Kaska immediately moves on from the now dead Smiler to the pair toward her right. She joins Holg, taking the the Smiler to the right.
Unfortunately she almost trips on the dead smiler's arm and arrives stumbling.
Seeing Holg and Kaska close to the two smilers to his right, Coen conjures small flaming rocks on the closest one.
Viv's dart sinks deep into the wounded Smiler's chest. He groans and falls to the floor.
Holg moves in and cuts down one of the stunned Smilers before he can recover. Kaska tries to finish off the other one, but her blade is caught by his studded leather armor.
Shaking off the sound burst's effects, the remaining Smiler manages to avoid Coen's rain of meteors.
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Since Kaska and Holg have the last Smiler pinned, Fireday approaches behind them and prays to Iomedae to give Kaska succor and reward her valor.
The last Smiler standing holds his hands up in surrender. "I give up! Don't kakk me! Who the frak are you people?"
Fireday smiles a bit.
"We are the Torchbearers."
Holg relaxes enjoying the name Fireday came upon and channels energy to further heal Kaska and fix Viv.
"Whom is this Frak your friend was telling a second ago, is he your boss?" the Kellid pierces through the smiler's eyes trying to discern his truthfulness.
"No, frak is a curse word, like 'Frak you, you frakkin frakkers!' Our boss is a hobgob named Marrow. She's further in this place."
Holg laughs at the smiler "Ok, ok, I guess I have past too much time in the mines..." the Kellid turns then to the group "What do you think? He has already warred and surrendered, proving we are stronger, I guess we can leave him run away and face Marrow"
"One thing, to convince my friends to let you alive, where is the ratfolk your group has kidnapped?" the cleric examines inquisitory at the man while holding a smile himself.
"He's in the specimen storage room, through those doors." He points to the double doors behind the counter to the north.
Fireday glowers as he makes the sign of the sword.
"Specimen storage?! You and your master would treat a living person as a mere animal! How can you sleep at night, knowing what you have done and what you have allowed others to do?"
Before moving forward Holg uses magic vestment on Kaska's armor "That should help you resist our enemies attacks for the rest of the day"
Without losing sight of the smiler, Holg leaves him talking with Fireday and advances to the door. The Kellid inspects it carefully before opening it.
"This door?" if the door is clear, he makes a sign for the others to move back and then opens it.
The doors open onto a short hallway that connects to another set of doors, which Holg inspects before opening as well. Well over a dozen large glass tanks sit against the walls of this oval-shaped chamber. The tanks themselves are semiopaque with condensation, grit, and filth, but several of them seem to contain some sort of figure within. Each tank has a metal-rimmed door on its front allowing the contents to be accessed, and one tank to the north has been wrapped with several coils of rope.
As soon as Holg steps into the room, the figures in the tanks crack open the doors to peer out. They appear to be human, but they drool and stare with dull, glassy eyes. Several scars adorn their bald heads, as if their skulls had been sliced open and stitched back in place.
Spying the cleric of Gorum, the people roar in anger and lurch forth, wielding great clubs of bent scrap metal!
"What the..." says Viv as she sees the experimental pseudo-zombies. She wastes no time in launching a shard of metal at the one to Holg's right.
"What kind of abomination is this!?" the Red Talon does not wait though, and when he sees the creatures lurching for he smiles and moves forward to the tank in front powerfully attacking the first enemy he finds.
Fireday follows Holg into the room and gasps as he sees the horrors contained within.
"By the Inheritor, what has Marrow done to these men!?"
He thinks as to what sort of monsters these things could be.
He takes a pair of swings at the one by the door.
Coen aims magic missiles at anyone wounded who remains standing in an attempt to pick them off before they can attack.
Holg rushes into the room, slicing into the first man's chest with his sword. His skin seems to be alchemical toughened, blunting some of the blow.
Viv and Fireday both attack the man by the door, bringing him down with a combined assault. Fireday doesn't think these are undead creatures--rather, they appear to be regular humans that have been heavily experimented on.
Coen finishes off the enemy Holg wounded with a trio of magic missiles. Kaska moves in to protect Holg's flank, cutting down the foe behind him.
The remaining brutes rush at Holg. The cleric slashes one as it moves past him, then parries each of their clumsy swings. The others line up to wait their turn, drooling and shrieking!
Vi fires another augmented shard straight through to the surgical nightmare between Kaska and Holg.
Holg places himself to protect Kaska's back "Ieeh! The Red Talons fight back to back again!" he swings his sword trying to cut down the brute in front of him, leaving the injured ones for the others.
Kaska turns around to face the weird zombies, now coming at her and Holg en masse. "Just like old days or something?" she replies to Holg.
"Holg! Do not try to use your powers to turn the undead. These...people, they're still alive! They're not zombies!" Fireday cries.
Fireday strikes at the poor soul Kaska and Holg are battering.
"Just like the old days!" Holg smiles wide although Kaska is probably unable to see it. The Kellid pivots over his left leg to launch his attack when Fireday proffers his advise "I will use my powers to turn them dead then!" and gives way to his next sword swing.
"Don't be shy Coen! Your powers proved useful last time boy!"
Replying in a distracted manner as he watches the brawl progress, Coen replies without much tension. "Just trying to get the most I can out of my spells here, no telling what's left in this base."
After the experimental subjects bunch up together Coen then casts another Glitterdust on all but the one adjacent to both Holg and Kaska.
As Holg slices into a new foe, Viv dispatches the one he wounded previously with a precise blast.
Fireday smacks and stabs another of the drooling brutes, then Kaska finishes him off with a powerful chop.
Blinded by Coen's glitterdust, the remaining brutes swing their clubs wildly, not hitting anybody!
Viv advances toward the doorway so that she can launch another metal shard at one of the slobbering unfortunates just past Fireday.
Kaska steps forward to meet the next one in line and attacks.
Fireday attacks too.
Coen pummels the closest enemy with fiery rocks.
When Holg sees the magics arrive he grins "Yeah! That's it! Let's open a breach through!" and he swings his sword at the same weird humanoid that he made before.
If the creature falls, he steps on its spot, offering a flank to Fireday.
"They seem kind of zombified though Fireday, something should have happened to them" the Kellid looks at the containers in the room "They break out from those estrange coffins"
Holg strikes the same man he wounded earlier, laying him low. Viv and Fireday team up to bring down another foe, then Kaska and Coen finish off the last one with blade and fiery rocks!
In the aftermath of the fight, you can hear a faint squeaking noise coming from the glass tube that is bound in rope.
"That was a nice fight once more. We won despite being outnumbered and surrounded!" Holg seems quite happy while he retrieves his sword from the landed corpse "Wait... what is that? Do you hear that faint squeaking like I do?"
The Kellid approaches the glass tube and checks it trying to determine what is there inside. If he cannot he tries to untie or cut the rope to open and check the estrange container "What do you thing are these tubes for, the monsters were inside..."
Cutting the ropes and opening the tank reveals a terrified ratfolk! He is bound tightly with more rope, his snout tied shut with cord. He squeaks plaintively and looks at you with pleading eyes.
"Aha," says Viv cryptically, tapping the side of her cheek with one finger.
Fireday immediately begins working to free the poor fellow.
"You must be Whiskifiss. Your sister sent us to rescue you," he says matter-of-factly.
"Calm yourself, please, and hold still, I'm going to cut these bindings loose."
Kaska helps Fireday with the Ratfolk's bonds.
"You must be our guy. Your sister asked us to get you back."
The ratfolk nods graciously and allows Fireday to remove his bindings. He appears to be grievously wounded and half-starved. "Thank the gods you showed up! Yeah, I'm Whiskifiss! You gotta get me the frak outta here! Take me back to my sister's warren, before more of Marrow's goons or experiments show up!"
"Good news! Half the work is done. Hello Whiskifiss! I am Holg and we are the Torch Bringers" the Kellid leans his sword over the shoulder "We also came to defeat Marrow. The more you can explain about him and his lair, the easiest the task. Will you fight with us once we heal you up?"
"Aw, yeah! If you wanna stick it to Marrow first, I'll gladly help out! 'Cept she took my gear, so I ain't got weapons. I'm a whizz with a crossbow, if ya got one to spare. Through those doors is Marrow's surgical theater, and her inner sanctum's past that. She's got a buncha zombie guards you'll have to fight to get to her, then she's got her necromancy to watch out for!"
"Well, yeah, we actually have a fine one" Holg searches for something then retrieves a masterwork crossbow "This crossbow we got from our battle with Bildford. I am sure you will do good use of it"
"Stay in the back so you do not get harmed" advises the Kellid to Whiskifiss "Ok, according to Whiskifiss we are close now. Let's burst in with everything we have so they do not take us by surprise like Bildford did last time"
Holg casts magic weapon in his sword, and shield of faith on himself then bull's strength on Kaska.
Once the party is ready, he moves in to the southern doors and opens them if not trapped or locked.
"Ready when you are."