As the powder bursts at Holg's back he shouts in pain "Oh dear! I love how reckless that halfling is but she is going to kill us one of these days!"
Enduring the pain the Kellid slashes with all his strength at the undead creature just in front "You won't shame Isuma anymore undead!"
"Attention! The one at the back is a caster and just made a globe of invulnerability! Take him down first!"
Fifteen can't reach the frontlines so hearing Molly yelp with pain has her spinning round, uninterested in the combat as she moves to help her fiance.
After Molly's musket explodes, Viv grabs her with a telekinetic force and yanks the poor halfling to the rear lines.
"I'm fine! I'm fine!" Molly shouts out in frustration as she regains her feet and wipes the sweat from her face. Although, sweat isn't normally red and coppery tasting.
"Fifteen! Take the front! I'll help Molly!" shouts Viv as she flies back toward where she deposited the halfling.
Fireday raises his weapon and it erupts with light.
Then he attacks.
Fifteen takes the front lines, cutting one of the kastahas down and wounding another. Molly scores one hit before her rifle explodes! Viv telkinetically moves her to safety while Holg and Fireday take down a second kasatha.
Two tiny creatures wriggle out of the dead kasatha's heads, shaking as if in a daze. They resemble large, glistening brains with four clawed legs!
The two remaining inhabited kasathas move to protect these brain things, focusing on Holg and Fifteen and trying to confuse them!
Fifteen shakes off the spell and keeps slicing, aiming for the brains if she can.
Holg shakes off the confusing effect.
"W-what are those little brains?! Don't let them go!" Holg tries to open up the way to the brains by slashing heavily on the kastaha in front of him.
"They must be controlling the kasathas!" shouts Viv as she launches one of her blasts at one of the intellect devourers.
Molly climbs back up and drops her broken musket to the ground. She pulls from her back a much shinier weapon and takes aim at one of the crawling brains.
Fireday raises his weapon again.
"IOMEDAE! GRANT ME THE STRENGTH TO BRING THIS BATTLE TO A SWIFT AND DECISIVE END ONCE MORE!"
Then he joins Holg in attacking the kasatha to clear the way.
Fifteen slices into one of the brain creatures, finding its shell hard to crack. Still, she wounds the thing. Molly's electric attacks have no effect against the brain creature, so she shifts aim after the first to one of the remaining kasathas. Viv's blast falters against the creature's spell resistance. Holg and Fireday take down the remaining kasathas.
As two more brain creatures wriggle out of their corpses in a daze, the wounded one uses its innate magic to disappear from sight. The other one reaches out for Fiteen, negative energy crackling on its claw!
"Never thought I would be put down to fight with nasty brains" seeing the brain disappearing from sight and knowing of his increased senses, Holg enters into rage gaining his furious scent.
The Kellid sniffs deeply trying to locate the disappeared brain, he does step forward to attack the invisible one, or otherwise he strikes on one of the visible ones.
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Fireday tears into one of the visible brain creatures.
"I utterly loathe the ways these monsters continue to surprise us!"
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With her primary weapon out of play and her secondary one useless against the mobile brains, Molly keeps herself from feeling useless by shouting out encouragement to her companions.
"M' mum could hit harder than that! C'mon, enough prattin' about. Show us what it's like when you take it seriously!"
Fifteen glances back, sees Molly doing her cheerleader routine and throws her laser pistol backwards towards the halfling as she strikes with her other blade.
Fifteen scores two hits on the brain creature, one a critical strike. Viv finishes it off with a blast. Holg sniffs out the invisible brain but it is too far away for him to reach, so he settles on slicing into a different creature, his adamantine blade bypassing its damage reduction. Fireday's attacks come up short.
The brains continue to focus on Fifteen, trying to at least take her down with their negative energy attacks!
Unless Holg scents the invisible brains approach around his 30 feet range, the Kellid keeps fighting the other two, stepping around to flank with Fifteen "Blood for Gorum!"
If he scents the invisible brain, he will use a move to find out direction.
Fifteen spasms slightly under the magical attacks but fights on grimly.
Molly snatches the pistol that's lobbed through the air at her.
"Pay attention to what yer doin'!" she yells back.
She wraps her small hands around the large weapon and takes aim at one of the creatures attacking Fifteen.
"LEAVE FIFTEEN ALONE!" Fireday yells at the brain as he attacks again! "YOU WANT AN ANDROID'S BRAIN TO FRY, FRY MINE!"
Molly's laser pistol has the same effect on the brains as the arc rifle--that is to say, none whatsoever. The creatures are immune to fire as well!
Fortunately, her companions pick up the slack, Holg destroying one of the brains while Viv, Fifteen, and Fireday finish off the last one. There is still no sign of the invisible brain. It seems to have scampered away to safety!
Fifteen turns around to see Molly cursing a blue streak at all of her weapons. "I am sorry the pistol was not helpful to you." The android says. "Shall we work on your musket?"
"I can help, if you wish," Fireday offers as he cleans the brain's foul fluids from his weapon. "I've learned much about engineering over the course of our adventures."
Holg looks with disbelief at the brain cut by half "So is it that how an alien looks in truth? I am a bit of deceived... I would expect some shinny stuff or some metal at the least, not a fluffy seso"
Throwing the pieces to the noxious stream with a kick, he does search the fallen kastahas and picks his guns and other stuff "One of them became invisible and escaped. I fear it will not be long before the whole hive knows we are here"
"I will have a look around the corner while you decide what do you want to do about the broken weapon" Holg moves forward and tries to listen and look ahead.
"Do we need to set up a defensible position here?" asks Viv as the team comes down from the rush of battle.
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Holg doesn’t see or hear anything dangerous nearby. Another door stands closed to the south.
Isuma kneels by her fallen kin, eyes closed. ”We will honor them in the proper way when we have finished here,” she says quietly.
"Wise," Fireday says, bowing his own head. "I'm sorry we could not save them."
”There was nothing we could have done. They were dead long before we got here,” the kasatha replies.
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Fifteen turns around to see Molly cursing a blue streak at all of her weapons. "I am sorry the pistol was not helpful to you." The android says. "Shall we work on your musket?"
The halflings ire turns on Fifteen and she slaps the woman's thigh in frustration. "What're you doin' up there? If yer fightin' something nasty you don't be payin' no attention to what I'm doin'." She grabs a hold of Fifteen's belt and turns her this way and that looking over her injuries. "That's how you end up dead." Fifteen can easily see that Molly's masking her fear with anger.
"Fireday!" she calls out. "Come see to her wounds!"
When the warpriest offers to help her fix her musket, she shrugs. "I don't really need the help, but I'll be happy t' show you what I'm doin' if'n you wish to learn about it."
"I repeat, do we need to secure this location against intrusion?" asks Viv a second time.
"Yes, please!" Molly shouts back, her current frustration with Fifteen coloring her response.
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"I am always watching out for you." Fifteen replies. "My visual acuity is superior to that of a human being so it is possible for me to keep track of multiple variables using a number of senses and cataloging the appropriate stimuli. I am sorry that this has upset you. I will go to assist Viv." One of the relatively few lessons about human behaviour that Fifteen learned 'growing up' is that it is usually optimal to give an angry person some space to come to terms with their anger, so she goes to assist Viv making the perimeter secure while Molly works on her musket with Fireday.
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Viv nods and takes in the perimeter of the area, then she slowly makes a circuit around the room, digging a small line as she goes.
"This line will demarcate the boundaries of our protected space."
She pauses near one of the exits and makes a circle in the ground in the middle of the line.
"This will denote a door."
Then she stops and puts her hands together, takes a sort of meditative pose while standing, and breathes outward.
For a minute there's nothing. Just Viv breathing. Then slowly her clothing and her hair flutters in an aetherial wind. Sparkling motes seem to glitter in the air, but they're gone almost as soon as they form. Over the course of several minutes they seem to move and dance around the room, following the lines that she drew on the floor.
"We are now secure," she says finally when she has finished concentrating, though there is no visible change; the air seems heavy, and the sparkling and the tiny wind is gone.
Viv moves up to the line, and then presses a finger out at the air. Her finger stops, then bends slightly.
She leans forward, pressing her weight against an invisible wall like a mime. Finally she straightens and says, "We are protected by walls of force. The exit circles denote an area with an invisible door that you can slide to one side. Feel along the forcewall at about my waist level until you feel a hole in it, then pull to one side."
She rummages through her things and takes out a small piece of cloth, then ties it around one of these invisible holes - leaving the cloth hanging in the air. "There, that will serve as a handle to slide the door open or closed."
"There is a door to the south. Everything is quite" Holg returns to the others "Is everyone ok?"
He will profit to heal anyone injured.
Then observes the force camp construction "Oh wow! That was impressive Viv! Now we can securely see them coming!"
"I am sorry that this has upset you. I will go to assist Viv."
"Wait," Molly says in a strained voice. She indicates for the woman to lean down. The halfling presses her lips to Fifteen's. A moment later and Molly has her arms around the android's neck and her small legs around the woman's waist.
"You scared me," she whispers after an intense kiss. "And you know I don't like being scared so I get mad. I'm sorry."
"You scared me," she whispers after an intense kiss. "And you know I don't like being scared so I get mad. I'm sorry."
"I am sorry too." Fifteen replies, "I will be more careful in future. I did not want you to be helpless, but I should know better. My Molly is never helpless, unless there are chocolate buns involved."
Molly's lip quirks up in a crooked smile. "I'll chocolate your buns any day." It dawns on her that there are more eyes upon them than she's used to and her cheeks redden. "But unless you're ready to take advantage of me right here and now ..." She grinds her center against Fifteen's belly just a bit. "Then I suggest you put me down as we have other things we should be doing."
"I understand." Fifteen says solemly, but then puts one hand between Molly's legs in order to lower her to the ground. This does not help the halfling in the slightest...
"Now, what is the matter with your musket?" Fifteen asks, pulling her cleaning kit from her pack. "Would you like me to check the mainspring while you clear the barrel?"
The halfling gives Fifteen an accusatory glare but doesn't comment about her 'assistance'.
"No. It blew out the lock plate entirely," she says with a shake of her head. "I have a spare one, but it'll take a bit to repair the damage and replace it. Probably have to redrill the mount for it and I think the hammer's bent out of shape. That I'll have to just try to bend back. I don't have the facilities to recast one here."
"Holg will help." Fifteen says confidently. "I will show him what to do. You get the lock plate."
With labor divided Fifteen sets to work instructing the big man on exactly where and how to bend - the key thing being carefully!
After a few minutes, the far door squelches open as four neh-thalggus—brain collectors—scuttle out! They launch a few magical attacks against your force shelter, but stop when it becomes clear they can’t get past its hardness. They prowl about the room, keeping their bulging eyes on you, waiting to attack...
Fireday barely has time to react to Viv's impressive feat when the brain-collectors arrive. His eyes narrow as he appears to start a staring contest with them. Then he turns away to help Fifteen.
"Let me have a look at your wounds."
He pulls out his wand.
Holg offers himself to help with the firearm when Fifteen looks at him "What this carefully means?" he blinks an eye to Fifteen "No worries, I of course can be careful when needed" he looks at Viv and smiles.
The Kellid follows the directions and tries to bend the piece to its normal shape "This one is hard than it seems. I do not really know how those things work, but perhaps if you feel it clogs, it is better to stop and clear it out before it bursts again"
When the brain collectors appear he reaches quickly for his sword "Wait! It seems we have a visit"
"Shall we go after them?"
"Not until Molly has finished her work." Fifteen says firmly. "I will not allow her to be defenseless again."
"I'm not effing defenseless, ok?" Molly snaps as she continues to work on her weapon. With one foot she kicks her backpack resulting in a clank that could be from her shortsword ... or it could be from the myriad of tools and parts in the magical container.
"Not until Molly has finished her work." Fifteen says firmly. "I will not allow her to be defenseless again."
Fireday waves his wand like a conductor, directing the healing energies to Fifteen.
"The Inheritor gives you hardiness to match your valor, Fifteen!"
Then he returns to his staring contest with the monsters to let Molly work in peace.