"One foe at a time is enough," Molly says. "If she's willing to leave the Dominion of the Black's employ then I say let her leave."
Fifteen just nods. Her own brush with death was less than pleasant and Molly usually has the good ideas. Unless it involved drinking.
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"I am inclined to agree with Molly," says Viv, "though I understand that it is a religious matter for Holg to settle his conflicts of belief through violent confrontation."
"Regardless, the infliction of pain for its own sake seems to be needlessly impractical and what many would call cruel, so even if one is a cloistered servant of a religious order - a cenobite, one might say - seeking out new frontiers of pain to practice upon the unwilling is not an act that I can condone. Though the fact that you have asked us and been willing to accept our refusal does speak somewhat on your own behalf."
"You are lucky. It seems you are pardoned Paajgat" Holg then approaches Viv while the group moves forward "Thanks a lot for your understanding. It means a lot to me"
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Fireday's eyes widen at the sight of Paajgat and as he listens to the others discuss leaving them alone, he takes a deep breath through his nose.
He raises his staff and points it at her.
"No. If we let her go, she will wreak more evil and suffering upon the innocent. For once, Holg's beliefs and mine are in agreement. In the name of Iomedae, Paajgat, we will send you back to the shadows that birthed you!"
He summons Iomedae's light to guide his weapon once more.
Then he advances to strike at the monster, with grim determination.
"For Victory. For the Heart."
Paajgat nods as Fireday advances. "So be it, holy one. We will teach you the meaning of pain!"
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"I've died before, you sick miscreation. Perhaps it is *I* who has something to teach you!"
"Oh for the love of ..." Molly grumbles through gritted teeth as she raises her musket and fires. "Because we don't have enough to deal with."
Fifteen looks as though she agrees, but at least the kyton is slow off the mark so she closes in and stabs, going for a killing blow immediately.
Viv misses with her blast. Molly shoots the kyton several times , while Fifteen dashes in and slices at her with her falcata. The fiend laughs as her wounds start to regenerate, then bursts the bonds sealing her mouth and unleashes a cacophony of darkness and soul-shaking howls from the pits of the Shadow Plane!
Holg smiles wide when Fireday decides to fight "Yes! Well said Fireday! For War! For Blood!"
When the area goes dark around him Holg enters a rage to increase his senses, sniffing the adjacent squares as he moves forward towards where he last saw the creature.
When he notices the mixture of sweet, leather and lead of the bleeding creature he attacks there with a vital strike "Gorum guide my strikes in the darkness!"
But he just confuses one of the tanks and shatters it to pieces!
Viv shakes off the confusing darkness and heads up and out, flying with alacrity.
She keeps flinging metal shards, apparently under the impression that if she just keeps up the pressure, someone else in the party will finish the job.
Fifteen suffers an odd malfunction in her arm as it spasms, causing internal damage.
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"Blessed are they who stand before the corrupt and the wicked and DO! NOT! FALTER!" Fireday barks as his circuitry tattoos explode with light, driving the shadows back!
Then he advances to make his strike.
"The lesson begins now!"
Molly does her best to remember where in the darkness the creature was standing before taking aim.
Holg and Viv miss with their attacks. While Fifteen strikes herself, Molly manages to land three hits on the kyton. Fireday delivers a solid strike as well, and the kyton shrieks and recoils as the holy blade scours her impure flesh and prevents her from regenerating.
The fiend invokes a quick prayer to Zon-Kuthon, mending some of her wounds. Then she lashes out at Fireday with her spiked chain!
"What's it? What happens Fireday?" Holg hears the shouts of pain from one side and the other, using scent to find out if the kython is adjacent to him, stepping forward if not to find out in a larger area, then slashing with all his strength asking Gorum for blind-fight again.
Still hearing the sounds of battle within the darkness, Molly continues her fulisade. However, her last shot misfires, jamming the small musket.
Clustered Shots - damage is totaled before applying DR.
Fifteen's hand continues to spasm uncontrollably.
"Got ripped up a bit, but I'm okay!" Fireday replies as he continues the assault.
Only Molly lands hits this time, shooting the kyton twice before she misfires. Still, the creature appears badly injured. She steps back from Fireday. "I have no wish to perish at your hands. We will meet again." She pulls forth a scroll and activates its power. The shadows seem to fold in around her as she vanishes!
Breathing fatigued from the fury effort, Holg leans on his greatsword and looks around at the resulting battlefield "Crap, that thing escaped"
"Are you all ok?" Holg tends to anyone injured with some more healing.
The Kellid scavenges whatever is left of use from the body on the table "What was that thing? Mmmmfff... whatever... is everyone ready to continue exploring or we need to recover?"
If we are ready, Holg proposes continuing north.
Molly turns away to clear her weapon, but Fifteen can see the stiffness in her posture - she's angry.
"I'm ready to go whenever everyone else is ready," she snaps.
"What is wrong?" Fifteen asks, placing her functioning hand on Molly's shoulder. Her malfunctioning one stays safely at her side.
Molly glances at the others before looking up and whispering to Fifteen.
She reaches up and clasps the android's cool hand.
"I'm sorry. I just hate feeling like I'm about to become dead weight."
"It was a most unsound tactical move." Fifteen replies, apparently not realising that this is a conversation she should lower her voice for. "The conflict was unnecessary and inconclusive. We would have done better not to fight. If you need it we have pistols and rifles that you could use until you can make some more ammunition. I will assist this evening."
She squeezes Molly's hand gently and then leans down to hiss the halfling on the crown of her head.
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Only Molly lands hits this time, shooting the kyton twice before she misfires. Still, the creature appears badly injured. She steps back from Fireday. "I have no wish to perish at your hands. We will meet again." She pulls forth a scroll and activates its power. The shadows seem to fold in around her as she vanishes!
"COWARD!" Fireday cries, shaking his weapon as Paajgat retreats. "Making threats while running away...just like the League's cretins."
He accepts Holg's healing but then he stiffens when he hears Fifteen say the quiet part out loud.
"Sometimes, the right thing is not doing the smart thing! If we had let that thing leave uncontested, we'd have been condemning some poor innocent to a painful, gruesome death! How would you have felt if you and Molly were ambushed by that thing while travelling, and it carried one of you away to torture you to death and then left you for the other to find just so she could watch and laugh at your grief?! At least WE had the power to fight her, and we've done more than just wound her physical form. We've wounded her pride, and to salve it she'll focus her attention on us. She said herself she'll be back, and when she is, we'll be ready for her. You can't bargain with a thing like that the way you could bargain with that tiefling."
"People under the sway of emotion do not act rationally." Fifteen agrees. "But wounding many predators makes them stronger rather than weaker. This creature has lost a battle and will likely retreat to reclaim its resources, but there is a significant risk that pride will drive it to lash out and reassert its dominance - to strike at people it would have ignored. Attacking it involved expending resources which would have been better reserved for the threat that is known."
She pauses. "I believe this is an argument and those do not engender cohesion, so I will cease to speak having said that you are entitled to your point of view and that since the combat is over further discussion is unnecessary anyway."
"Well said my friend! We have done some good here while praising Gorum with a good battle!" Holg pads Fireday's back with a smile that denotes he does understand him and has enjoyed despite agreeing the fight could have been skipped "I understand you both, but the only bad thing is we did not finish the job. I can only say though, that I would willingly spend Gorum's boons fighting the evil-doers rather than sitting seeing them expire" the cleric looks down judgmental at the halfling for having before intentionally risked her device to blow again and now accusing Fireday in such a way for consuming other ones resources trying to free the world from the bad ones.
"But now let's go on. There is much else to do" Holg quickly heals up Fireday.
Then, the Kellid moves forward north, his blade raisen and casting light forward to see through the dominion.
You head north to the next area. Thick pulsing sacks of flesh hang from the green, wrinkled walls of this disturbingly sweet-smelling chamber. The sacks on the wall contain thick, foul-tasting stuff the consistency of curdled milk. It looks like this is where the aliens of the Dominion take their nutrients, though it would likely be disgusting to other creatures.
The next hall has two exits--one to the north, and one to the east.
Holg observes the strange sacks and smells them, taking a bit of substance with his finger "Have certainly drunk worst water while toiling in the slave mines... this one even seems nutritive" the growths covered Kellid is not easy to be impressed having endured the worst of Numeria's polluted food and drink throughout his life.
Keeping the advance, he looks north and east "Mmmm... no idea what might be better, but I am kind of feeling it more to the east here"
The polished floor of this chamber is decorated with a complex symbol etched into the stone. The symbol has been stained an ochre hue and depicts an unnerving tangle of tentacle shapes. At the far end of the room sits a low platform of dark brown metal supporting a one-inch-thick pad of yellow glass.
A group of four ugothokras cling to the walls of this chamber and move to attack! Fortunately, having dispatched several of their number already, you are keen to their tactics and are able to kill these four with little difficulty.
A few moments after the last ugothokra falls, though, the glass pad glows as another creature teleports onto it! A writhing forest of tendrils extends from one end of this chitin-covered creature’s body, while from the other lashes a pincer-tipped tail. Six transparent blisters adorn its back, each containing a brain floating in thick green fluid.
The pad glows again as four neh-thalggus appear around it. The large creature waves its tendrils as it contacts you telepathically, speaking in an arrogant monologue: "Ah, nescient invaders, at last you enter my private sanctum. Unbeknownst to you, such is at my invitation. You may call me the Dweller-in-Dark-Places.
"You did your best to destroy that which you did not understand along the way. Perhaps you disapprove of our work here? Your objections surely flow from your ignorance, and oh, that sweet ignorance is vaster than the expanse of the Gaceedill Nebula itself. Tell me this, insignificant motes, before I free your brains from their bony prisons: do you think you will still oppose the all-consuming will of the ineffable void once all that you are becomes one with the Dominion of the Black?"
Fifteen doesn't speak but sidles forwards, trying to close the distance before Holg starts another fight.
Molly closes her eyes when Fifteen responds in a less than subtle tone, knowing that the others won't take kindly to her opinion which is why she didn't voice it aloud. When Fireday responds, she opens her mouth to answer, but her lover beats her to it. And with a much more rational and thought out response than Molly ever could.
"I believe this is an argument and those do not engender cohesion, so I will cease to speak having said that you are entitled to your point of view and that since the combat is over further discussion is unnecessary anyway."
The halfling gives a brief nod of agreement and hopes that the conversation or argument or whatever it was ends there.
~~~~~
"... Do you think you will still oppose the all-consuming will of the ineffable void once all that you are becomes one with the Dominion of the Black?"
"Probably," Molly replies, raising her musket to her shoulder. "But I'm a stubborn lass like that. Just ask m'Love."
With that said, she fires.
"What kind of..., thing, this is?" Holg observes the tendrils and strange bubbles with brains encased within.
"Let me see... would you give us Casandalee's neurocam?" when Molly starts opening fire the Kellid smiles, raising his greatsword "Oh yeah, we do not do alien friends. Except for Isuma. Let's say we do not make friends with ugly aliens"
Holg raises Gorum's holy symbol and casts blade barrier trying to hit the Dweller-in-Dark-Places and as many neh-thalggus as possible.
Fireday holds up his weapon.
"With every fiber of my being. You say you are the Dweller-in-Dark-Places. We, then, are the cleansing light that will burn you from your lair! We will rage, RAGE, against the dying of the light!"
Then he raises his holy symbol in the other hand and calls on Iomedae to share his fervor with his friends.
Viv's blast skips off the creature's barbed carapace. Fireday bolsters the group with fervor, then Molly opens fire. She scores only two hits, the alien seeming to possess preternatural insight that helps it dodge the bullets! And the bullets that hit don't do as much damage as it resists normal metal weapons, though the clustering of her shots helps.
The Dweller-in-Dark-Places casts a spell, trying to force all of the air from Molly's lungs! The neh-thalggus meanwhile skitter forward to block anybody from entering melee with their master, clawing at Holg, Fifteen, and Fireday.
Holg casts his blade barrier spell, making a ring through all of the Dominion aliens! Unfortunately, most of them dodge away from the blades of force--only one neh-thalggu gets sliced!
Molly gasps for air as she fights against the magic that's squeezing the very breath from her lungs. Determination counts for something, though, and she resists the magic.
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"A worthless question anyway, since something cannot be both a void and a composite that contains objects," complains Viv about the brain collector's rhetorical question.
His fervor nearly spent, Fireday calls it down to sheathe him in iron once more!
Then he calls on Iomedae to strengthen his arms again.
Fifteen sets to work on the little brain creature near her.
* fwing pew *
One of the neh-thalggus falls to Fifteen's attacks and Viv's blast. Molly lands another shot on the Dweller-in-Dark-Places. The alien being continues to try to suffocate the halfling while the neh-thalggus attack.
The hot-headed halfling forces air into her lungs as she reloads and fires at what's rapidly becoming her nemesis.
Fifteen's nanites burst into life, providing welcome light in the gloom as they stitch her wounds back together. The android placidly continues her work.
Holg embraces Fireday's fervor swinging with speed and furious focus "This is your end Dweller-in-Dark-Places! You should have never come to this world!"
The Kellid goes after the big fish, swinging at the others only after the more dangerous one has fallen.
Now empowered, Fireday joins Holg in striking at the Dweller-in-Dark-Places, embracing the fervor to strike swiftly and fiercely.
Fifteen and Viv work together to take down a second neh-thalggu. The rest of you shift your focus to the hulking Dweller-in-Dark-Places. Molly lands only hit, and while Fireday comes up short, Holg smites the alien creature twice, though neither one confirms as a critical hit.
Still, the Dweller is badly wounded. It calls upon its psychic might to unleash a powerful mental vortex, consuming one of its stored brains in an effort to augment the effects against Holg!
Meanwhile, the two remaining neh-thalggus try to slice up Fifteen!