Holg slices clean through a robot, leaving one remaining.
Kaska moves on up to the remaining robot and strikes at it.
Fireday wheels over to the remaining robot and begins slashing at it!
Fireday and Kaska destroy the final robot with a few furious strikes!
"Quickly, let's move to confront Hellion while the blessings of our gods still last!" Fireday cries to exhort the group.
"So these where not Hellion?" Holg points at the broken robots "Ah! I should have known... Hey Zagmaander, how does this fake of Hellion looks like?"
"You are right Fireday. Let's hurry up!" While the group talks, Holg advances, his greatsword lighting up the way as they move to the southern cavern.
"I am not certain," Zagmaander says. "I have only seen his image in the monitors."
This ten-foot-diameter tunnel is a tangle of metal beams that crisscross to form a lattice. Each beam has been decorated with strange writings and images of clawed hands, while on the walls are scrawled depictions of what appears to be a looming mountain adorned with strange spikes. In all of these illustrations, an immense demonic form is shown smashing the spiky mountain to rubble—within the mountain, an even greater demonic shape bears the brunt of the devastation.
The tunnel continues to the east.
As she hurries toward their confrontation with Hellion. Kaska notices the graffiti's content. "That is Silver Mount. If these drawings are supposed to show Hellion's hatred of Unity, and Unity is the larger one then, could Unity be under Silver Mount?"
"Holy Inheritor!" Fireday comments as they advance. "Maybe Unity IS working with the Technic League! It could explain why they sent an agent to investigate Hellion's meddling in Torch!"
"The Silver Mount... That place is sacred for our Kellid tribes. No wonder our adventures might end leading us there. I would be proud to step the ancient mountain" Kellid looks at the depictions with reverence "It seems we are mingling ourselves into a grand game between gods we do not know or understand..."
"Let's hurry up" the man walks up following the cavern trying to find this Hellion everyone talks about.
On the southern wall of this sprawling cavern, a massive wheel of metal buckets lined with sharp edges is embedded, partially buried, in the wall. The latticework of metal girders connects to the wheel. The whole of the device comprises a long mechanical arm ending in a metal wheel far larger than any mill's waterwheel.
Against the far wall, a hulking, arachnid-shaped robot lurks, colorful magical energies swirling around it. It speaks in Hellion's voice, still stuttering. *AND H-H-HERE YOU ARE, MEDDLING APES. I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN B-B-BETTER THAN TO TRUST IN MINIONS OF WEAK F-F-FLESH TO ATTEMPT TO ELIMINATE YOU. IF YOU WANT SOMETHING D-D-D-D-DONE RIGHT, DO IT YOURSELF.* Its ocular sensor focuses on Zagmaander. *I AM DISAPPOINTED IN YOU, BLOOD GHOST. YOU WILL SHARE THESE MEDDLERS' FATE.*
The robot's tail begins to glow and crackle with red-hot plasma. Three rickety scrapyard robots shuffle forward to confront you as well!
"We found him! Finally!" Holg smiles widely and charges resolved on the northernmost robot "We will test what these apes can do holly piece of metal crap!" as he reaches the robot, he swings on it with all his might.
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Fireday raises his own weapon and glares at the robot.
"Zagmaander stands with us, as our gods did what you couldn't for her! That is the power of true divinity, Hellion, and NOTHING can match it! Not you! Not the Technic League! Not even Unity!"
He then follows after Holg and breaks off to attack the other robot, giving room in the middle for Kaska to join the fray. His weapon whirls as it strikes!
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"You've met your match, Scorpitron!" shouts Viv. When that gets some side-eye from her companions she shrugs and says, "I dunno, just seemed accurate."
She opens by winding up her pitching arm and hurling a flash grenade at the mechanical monstrosity!
"You've met your match, Scorpitron!" shouts Viv. When that gets some side-eye from her companions she shrugs and says, "I dunno, just seemed accurate."
She opens by winding up her pitching arm and hurling a flash grenade at the mechanical monstrosity!
[dice=Grenade ahoy!]1d20+7
Kaska goes the same route as Holg, but a little farther around to the side of the line of defending robots. Once she within range she takes a swipe at the same one Holg is fighting.
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After advancing deeper into the room, Coen directs a bolt of lightning through the centermost robot and into the Scorpitron 9000.
Holg and Kaska rush at one of the robots, their combined swings tearing the construct apart! Zagmaander follows Fireday into battle with a second one, both scoring good hits as they slash at the battered robot.
Viv hurls a grenade at Hellion's chassis, but it flies off course, bouncing against the northern wall away from anybody.
Coen's lightning bolt wreaks havoc upon the robots that it strikes! The scrapyard robot's servos start malfunctioning, and it wobbles unsteadily on its feet.
The robots step to flank Fireday, one slicing into him with its rotary saw.
*DIEDIEDIEDIEDIE,* Hellion stutters as its robot fires beams of plasma from its tail! Most of them burn into the ground, but two strike Holg. His fire resistance wards him from some of the damage.
"Holg! With me!" Kaska cries as she starts toward Hellion. The robot godling is too far away for her to cover the distance and attack him before he's ready for her. Instead she stops short and prepares an attack, hoping to lure him forward.
"We know all about Unity" she shouts to him. "And how you're nothing but a runaway child, throwing a long tantrum because his parent won't let him do whatever he wants!"
Protected by his faith Holg dodges as many beams as he can but ultimately shouts in pain as a couple of them shock him "Gorum will make you pay for that!"
"Wait!" Holg stops a second to reach Kaska before she runs, just enough to call for Gorum's blessings and touch her falx and the blade bursts in flames as he completes sun metal.
"Yes!" he then smiles wide at the woman's proposal "Let's do it! Let's show this pile of metal crap who the Red Talons are!!!" and he follows his Kellid counterpart with a wide smile of enjoyment.
Anyway his steps are not as long as those of the graceful rager and he soon falls behind.
Viv delicately fingers one of her few remaining metal shards, then flings it with great force at Hellion's scorpitron.
PWING!
Fireday, now surrounded, knows he needs to get out of this fast. He turns to the robot Zagmaander is focused on and lashes out at it, hoping to take it down quickly.
Coen steps diagonally and once again lashes out with a bolt of lightning through the two closer scrapbots.
While Holg doesn't know all of the specifications of this type of robot, he knows that like most robots, it is vulnerable to electricity and critical hits. It is protected by its hardness, and it attacks with its grasping claws or the plasma beam in its tail.
The cleric blesses his and Kaska's weapons with fiery power as they advance on Hellion. Kaska holds her blade at the ready and calls out to the so-called Iron God.
*UNIT-T-TY WILL BE DESTROYED. I WILL TEAR MY WAY INTO SILVER MOUNT AND ANNIHIL-L-LATE IT AS SOON AS I HAVE FINISHED WITH YOU.* Hellion declares.
Viv's grenade detonates, too far away to harm anybody. Her blast likewise misses.
Fireday steps out of the flank and slashes the battered robot twice, then Coen launches another lightning bolt that engulfs both of the constructs! They spark and shudder as they fall to pieces!
Zagmaander cautiously approaches Hellion, hanging back until the robot moves forward.
And move forward it does, claws clanking menacingly. Kaska tears a deep gouge in its arachnid body, but then its claw snaps shut around her neck, nearly crushing her windpipe! As she chokes and reals, it clamps down on her again, but she finally manages to dodge as it tries to finish her off, rolling away from its second claw and a blast from its plasma beam!
"Kaska!!!" Holg screams enraged as Hellion almost tears down the Kellid woman with its saw.
Considering his healing will not stop the awful strength of the robot to finish her in the next seconds, the cleric quickly thinks trying to find a way to stop or delay him. Showing Gorum's holy symbol, Holg attempts to overload the "scorpitron's" senses casting burst of radiance "Hellion! Observe the light of true gods!!!"
A brilliant flash of shimmering light fills the area taking on Hellion's head.
He then runs up to he reaches Kaska "I will fight by your side 'til the end Chief of the Red Talons!"
Viv keeps hurling her shards uselessly.
Not having a clear line of fire, Coen conjures a cloud of lightning behind the robot and pulls it forward arcing electricity through it's chassis.
Fireday gapes as Kaska takes such a hard hit that as the robots fall he immediately begins dashing towards her.
"IOMEDAE! REWARD KASKA FOR HER VALOR THAT SHE MAY LEAD US TO VICTORY!"
Then he raises his weapon and it begins crackling with electricity.
Then he joins the others in attacking Hellion!
Kaska manages to shrug her left shoulder up enough to have it catch in the claw, preventing it from fully encircling her neck. It's the only thing that keeps her head from being snipped off her body. She wrests herself free, but she's shocked by the trauma to her body and backpedals away from Hellion.
Hellion's chassis emits a garbled burst of static as Holg's spell overloads its optic sensors, blinding it! Kaska takes the opportunity to fall back, and Fireday moves over to heal her injuries. Viv's attack pings off its armored body, and it manages to stagger forward just enough to avoid Coen's thundercloud. Zagmaander furiously assaults Hellion, scoring a few light hits with her swords and plasma torch.
Hellion swipes at Holg with its claws and blasts at him with its plasma beam, but the cleric's armor and the robot's blindness cause all of its attacks to miss!
Holg breathes relieved as the mythic robot sensor's get overloaded giving Kaska a clean retreat. The Kellid has a hard time to dodge the attacks of the massive metallic scorpion despite its blindness but he somehow manages to survive for a few more seconds.
"It's now or never!" Not willing to retreat despite the massive metallic brute in front Holg steps in while swinging his blade "Gorum give me strength!!!"
Kaska pulls a potion bottle from her pouch and drinks it down.
Fireday takes Kaska's place in the battle-line and lashes out at Hellion, his weapon crackling with electricity!
"FOR VICTORY, FOR THE HEART!"
Coen rushes forward to exploit the hole left by kaska and drives lightning from himself and into the cloud through the body of the robot.
Holg and Fireday both score good hits, slicing into the damaged robot. Coen's lightning bolt wreaks further havoc on Hellion's chassis, while Zagmaander chips and melts part of its metallic body.
Hellion continues to lash out blindly, none of its hits landing home!
Fireday continues whaling on Hellion!
Holg takes the hits from Hellion, and his skin starts to bleed. But when the sparkling electricity of Coen comes this way and Hellion fails to find him in the darkness, the Kellid's morale is reassured "True gods protect us!" Holg steps to the side to flank with Zagmaander and with a long arch swing of his greatsword he strikes at the same time Fireday does "Any last message for Unity Hellion? Gorum smite our enemies!!!"
Fireday slices the scorpion robot twice, then Holg delivers a powerful blow as he smites the badly damaged construct! Sparks fly and electricity crackles across its body as it shudders and stumbles. *CRITICAL ERR-R-R-OR. NOOOooooOOO! I AM A GOD! I CANNOT BE DEF-F-F-F-EEEEEEEEEEEEE001010110101001011010110001--*
The robot explodes, blasting those nearby with plasma!
Fireday grins as Holg delivers the killing blow.
"YOU ARE NO GOD!" he cries.
Then, as the robot begins to explode, Fireday's circuitry tattoos begin to glow as he tries to get away from the explosion.
The nanites surging through his body make a bright green light that shines through his wrappings as he avoids the worst of the damage. Still sparking, he raises his battlestaff over his head with both hands.
he crows ecstatically.
Coen hurried looks around and notices that, while many are wounded, no one is dead.
"Did we really kill a machine that old?" He asks with an incredulous look as others cheer.
Viv hangs on to her last shard of metal, twisting it in her fingers, then suddenly the aether surrounding it wisps upward and vanishes.
"I guess so," she says dubiously.
"Weeee should probably check to make sure."
Holg smiles as Hellion falls wrecked "See that? That's what you get when you bully Torch and the Kellid people" the man removes then his blade from the broken iron "god".
The cleric raises his holy symbol and channels positive energy to heal everyone.
Addressing back to Zagmaander then he talks "Thanks for your help. You have honored your word. We can now cross our swords and discover whom is stronger or you can leave as a coward and never come back to harass our people"
"Don't worry, I have no intentions of coming back to this world ever again," Zagmaander snarls. She fades away from existence, and this time she does not return.
Hellion's chassis is completely destroyed. With the AI cut off from any back-up computers, you are confident that all traces of its code have been annihilated. Hellion is not coming back.
Kaska is completely astounded. She's expected a bloody slog of a battle against Hellion, but before she could even recover to come back to the fight, it was over.
She walks up to Hellion and prods the metal shell with her foot.
"And so that's all? I expected more" she says.
"Holg, Fireday, you have done great things today. This is a story people will tell for many years to come."
Kaska doesn't mention Zagmaander, the four-armed thingie was never very pleasant, and she (Kaska supposes) would be hard to work into the story without considerable asides to explain "just what the hell?", so she expects her part in things will be dropped from the story for simplicity's sake.
With Zagmaander gone, Kaska adds "the shaman was clearly stupid. What sense does it make to trap that here to endlessly prey on the people it is being punished for preying on?"
Holg attempts to hide his relieve when Zagmaander decides to shift back to his plane to never return "Yes, live like a coward, that is"
The man is tired and bruised but he leans his sword casually on the ground, trying to disguise his fatigue "So we are victorious now. It is our time to escape this pile of crap of a place."
The Kellid looks around for any pieces in Hellion or the other machines in the room the group can scavenge for a good price back at Torch.
"We should also pick up all the equipment from Hellion minions we have defeated as we walk back out of here" Holg raises his holy symbol and channels more positive energy to completely heal everybody in the group.
Holg smiles to the Kellid woman "There will be a song for the bravery of the Red Talons that faced an Iron God with the strength of his blades and the magic of their friends!" the man taps Coen's shoulders "Your electricity has been devastating to them. I sought that clearly. Much more than our metal in truth friend, but good swordplay is always more memorable in the songs isn't it?" he gives a hopeful wink to the sorcerer.
Coen laughs a bit but shakes his head.
"I know my contributions here, you all deserve the glory this time, in truth my magic did little against this machine and I'm just glad that none of us died."
Coen also takes time to look around the room, but where Holg is looking for scavenge-able materials, Coen is more looking to make sure the machine doesn't have a phylactery hidden somewhere so that it can rise again to hunt them down when they are unprepared.
Holg smiles back at the man "Ok, let's get anything we can use as we head back to the surface, then we can look for Dinvaya, as we promised Khonnir Baine to take her back to Torch, and say good bye to our rat-friends"
The Kellid starts to walk back up and out of the big cave where the legend of the Torch Bearers has just enlarged.
Among the ruined chassis of Hellion's robot, you find a pair of memory facets similar to the inhibitor facet you used to hamper the Iron God. If you come across another artificial intelligence in the future, the three facets might come in handy.
You emerge from the caves beneath Scrapwall and make your way across the twisted terrain for perhaps the final time. There seems to be a lull in the constant gang violence in the wake of Hellion's defeat, but surely it is only a matter of time before another gang moves to fill the power vacuum. Strife is the only constant in this blighted settlement.
You bid farewell to Redtooth and her ratfolk family, then inform Dinvaya at the Clockwork Chapel of your victory. "Excellent! I knew you could do it!" the half-elf cheers. "I suppose that mean my time here is at an end as well. I'm all packed up. Let's go back to Torch."
The journey across the plains is uneventful, and after several days of travel, you can see the familiar sight of the town atop the hill, the blazing purple flame that gives it its namesake roaring up into the sky.