Lendaro and Uran can't see Kulgara as the orc turns the corner and "charges" at Linpul. Both Linpul and Sarainy loose attacks at the female orc boss.
She knocks aside Linpul's hammer with the hilt of her chainsaw as an arrow grazes her shoulder. Kulgara raises her wicked red blade up and brings it down on the little gnome shouting above the weapon's own growl.
Thera flurries away~~~
"Nooo!"
Dr Lendaro rushes past Tetsuda, and fires on Kulgara.
Unable to avert her eyes, Sarainy stares agape as Kulgara eviscerates Linpul. She tries to speak, to call out... but the words won't come.
Her eyes now bleary, Sarainy attempts to fire at the vile half-orc. Rage and terrible sadness tearing at her ability to concentrate.
|
|
Kulgara laughs as the gnome falls to the ground. Her blade growls. "That's one. How many more will fall before you can stop me?"
Thera fists hit flesh and armor, the first strike dulled by the orc's fury. Lendaro's bullet tears a small hole in the orc's side but she continues to stand defiantly. One of Sarainy's arrows finds its mark but only scratches the Lord of Rust's arm.
The tearing blade came in at Linpul and she crumples from the blow. Before passing out she whispers a word of warning.
"Chainsaw, told you all it was dangerous."
-----Tetsuda-----
The beetle moves quickly, seeking revenge for Linpul. Clicking mandibles, buzzing wings, all make a ferocious sound as the man sized beetle lunges for the Kulgara's throat.
Tetsuda leaps at Kulgara and rips out a large portion of the orc's throat, but she remains alive. Blood streams from her neck and from her mouth in thick rivulets. She begins to reach inside her pack slowly, her eyes dimming, a wicked smile on her face.
Solaria enters the battle against the evil chainsaw wielding creature, hoping her morningstar will thrash through its armor and rip into his vital organs, "In the name of the blessed Desna, I strike!"
With a thunk of the barrels on his rifle, Uran takes aim and fires at the chainsaw-wielding orc.
Attack-ranged touch:
Damage:
Kulgara dodges out of the way of Solaria's morningstar and smacks against the nearby machinery.
Uran's bullet pierces the female orc's heart. She slumps to the ground before she can reach her pack. When the chainblade hits the ground its stops whirring and the hall is silent.
Once the orc has fallen, Uran rushes over to where Linpul fell. He pulls his pack off his back and quickly searches through the contents until he finds the bottle of healing potion he had safely wrapped in his blanket.
Holding the unconscious Gnome, Uran gently trickles the potion into her mouth, praying as he does so that it is not too little too late!
Linpul's eyes flicker open, a little bloodspatter on her face as she smiles and looks up at Uran.
"Well, aren't you a sight for sore eyes?"
She feels a pain near her shoulder as she reaches up to try and stroke the gnomes beard, but something is missing. Without looking down, Linpul's face turns pale white, a strand of her hair bleaches (to match the profile pic, might as well right?), a look of fear crosses her face.
"Uran, you might want to roll me on my side... I fear I'm going to be sick. Just don't let me look right away, it's gone isn't it?"
The gunslinger nods, tears streaming down his face as he eases the gnome to her side. The sight of her mangled arm burns in his mind as he tries to think of what to do or say.
"It will be all right lass. We will get you back to town and you will be good as new! Those clerics can work some miracles, and damn the expense. We can fix this Linpul...."
He trails off, not knowing what else to say.
"I will take care of Tetsuda for you...dont you worry.."
Still pale, the gnome leans on her arm, and empties the contents of her stomach. Shortly after, she slowly adjusts to her knees, reaches for where her arm was and grimaces. Tears roll down her cheeks as she closes her eyes.
"Sano"
"Uran, I'm missing an arm, not dead. I can take care of Tetsuda just fine. And the clerics in town might not be powerful enough for this. Sano"
Removing her bloodstained hand, Linpul reaches for her pack and lays it on the ground. Her mind racing, her eyes open and look up for inspiration and courage from Brigh. The gnomes face was still pale, full of fear, and the tears wouldn't stop. Her voice shaky, she sobs between sentences.
"Help me get to some bandages. I'm going to need the wound at least clean and healthy when we get back to Scrapwall. That priestess might have something I will be needing. Sarainy, Solaria, I fear you might not like the idea of what I will be asking for."
Holding up her hand, she calls Tetsuda over and let's the gears spin on her cyberart.
"Regeneration costs... more than I know we have. That chainblade, I don't want it anymore. We might be able to trade it for a cybernetic arm, a replacement for what I have lost made from technology. It won't be the same, but it's not like it'll change who I am. I've seen a couple in Torch, they don't look half bad."
She smiles a bit to hide the pain.
"And one in my size might be a bit hard to come by. If anybody has one, it's either that priestess or Mr. Baine. Come on Tetsuda, help me up here."
"You are alive, that is enough for now. At least for that we can thank the gods. We must take stock now, for with you unable to use your weapon, we re at a disadvantage against Hellion and his minions. Let us recover a bit here, search this area, we might find some useful things to battle Hellion, or a way we can take his power." Solaria continues, he voice hard and determined, to seek revenge for the damage done to Linpul.
"I need to rest a little and prayer to Desna to seek her help and guidance in what we do. I will need an hour or so to let her power course through me again."
"Rakdon, are you all right, is your magic ready for what we find ahead? Sarainy do you still have the power in your voice to help us onward? You too Thera, does Torag's strength still fill your heart with power?"
-magical chainsaw
-grenade with red fire mark
-grenade with blue fire mark
-grenade with white starburst
- +1 Breastplate
- composite longbow with 20 arrows
- green access card
- 10 silverdisks
- 49 gp
- potion of cure moderate wounds
- 2 potions of cure serious wounds
- leather armor
- 2 mwk spiked chains
The gnome pulls herself up with Tetsuda's help. Still shaky on her legs she looks to where her arm lay on the ground.
"True, I am alive. I have that going for me. A bit gruesome. But can somebody help me get the armband off? It... it's one of the only things I have left of my parents. The gauntlet too maybe since it is made of mithral, but the armband is more important."
Thinking of how she can help, Linpul adjusts the side that she carries her shield on her back so she can draw it with her right hand, and ties one of her belt pouches to her right side, fitting in the two gas grenades she has left.
"I can't exactly fight on the front lines, so I will hang back and support as best as I can. To do that, I'd like to gather all the grenades."
"I will help you Linpul. Perhaps I can rig a grnade thrower for you...I have one on my rifle, as you can see!"
Uran removes the items off the arm on the ground and returns them to Linpul.
Inferno grenade
plasma grenade
zero grenade
Solaria takes a look at the horrible chainsaw, to see what magic might be enhancing its power.
She then goes to the two southern doors, using her powers to look into the rooms beyond. She speaks out clearly what she sees in the rooms as her hands glow as the touch the door.
"Linpul, Dr, you know about these things, that green card, will it open that room we couldn't get into earlier? And have you any idea why that room is more securely locked than the rest of the chambers?" the cleric asks, not really understanding the technology of this place.
She looks pensively, "Although I think we should try and rid the world of Hellion now, whilst have sent most of his followers to judgement. But if you should decide to regroup again, then I will do my best to read that book we found on Hellion's priest, for I can ask the gods to let me read the language for a while."
HPs: 33/33
Channel 3 used of 7 today
Door Sight 4 min of 6 mins today
Liberation 0 of 6 rounds
Spells used today:
1st(4): Shield of Faith
2nd(3): Burst of Radience
3rd(2):
Scrolls: protection from technology x2, lesser restoration x2, gentle repose, delay poison x2, ghost bane dirge.
Potions: CLW x 6
wands: CLW 42
"I'm glad you are okay, Linpul," Sarainy says. "You gave us quite a scare there."
She gives her friend a half smile, concern still on her face.
"If we are voting, I think we should push on for now. The longer we delay, the more time Hellion has to gather back power. Despite his bravado and mockery on these screens, it seems we have him flustered. Let us press that advantage while we can."
"In saying that, Rakdon you are out of spells left to cast right? Maybe we could explore that green card room, and then lock ourselves in after to rest?"
Dr Lendaro keeps quiet for some time - upset with himself for allowing Linpul to come so close to death... the taunts toward Kulgara no doubt added to the viciousness of her strike. Seeing Linpul's spirit unbroken eases his mind.
He nods to Sarainy's suggestion "Yes... lets do just that. We'll rest in the green card room. Unless passage of time affects options for restoring Linpul to her original number of appendages...?"
"Typically yes, card keys are color coded, and generally work only in the area you find them. But if you find a door with a lesser color on the skymetal scale then it will open the lock. In short, if somebody else has a green card key, we can't stop them from opening the door."
Linpul leans against Tetsuda's shell. Looking over her companions she smiles.
"A bit of a scare? I'm gonna guess a bit more like a lot. If we want to get me an arm of flesh and blood it's going to require a lot more gold than I know we have. It's also time dependent. A cyberarm isn't, although I would like to have a new arm sooner than later, so I say we push on. What's the point of breaking down now when only one part of me is broken? I'll probably grieve when we get back to town, when that happens I'll need some emotional support, I know that much."
Opening the door with the green keycard light, you find:
The wall of this chamber are obscured by banks of mechanical devices, flashing lights, and panels displaying messages in an alien script, images, and mysterious markings that shift and change with astonishing speed. The air is warm and smells slightly metallic, while a high-pitched drone emanates from all corners of the room.
Closing and locking the door with the green keycard, you set up to rest and recover your strength.
-----
After eight hours has passed, you return to the large room where you fought Kulgara and the ettin woman.
While waiting for the others to wrap up their morning routines, Dr Lendaro bulges his eye, and closely inspects the room.
Looking at the room, he sees that there is very little power being moved around the machines and that they are powering something.
---
Lendaro notices that nothing seems to have changed in the central chamber.
There are two doors to the west, two doors to the north, two doors to the east and two doors to the southeast.
Before trying to get some rest, Linpul clutched her stump. She was still in shock of the whole ordeal. Looking at the flashing panel she thinks long and hard about the alien script before putting two and two together and with a flash of insight can read them, for a few moments.
-----The morning after-----
Waking up she yawns and stretches her arms, well arm. She had curled up to Tetsuda in the night to stay warm, and he felt safe as always to be by. Standing up she quickly lost her balance as she tried to catch something with her missing limb.
I will never get used to this. This is going to be rough for the next couple of days.
"Can somebody help me with my pack and armor? I'm a little shorthanded here. Yes, pun intended, don't you give me that look Tetsuda, I know what that means."
Looking at the alien script and using her knowledge of engineering, Linpul learns that the power is being sent to two places: one is a large vehicle called an excavator, the other is a robot. There is a slot for a strange nonuniform multiedged or multifaceted something.
Solaria uses her slots to ask Desna to help her understand the language of the evil holy book. Then spends the rest of the time she can reading the orchish book they found on Nalakai
Reading the script Linpul wracks her brain while thinking out loud.
"So the power from here is being sent to something called an excavator, and another to a robot. Some kind of key goes in here, hmm. Most perplexing. Maybe I can fiddle with it if there is an input method."
The book talks about Hellion and the Enemy, a creature that lives beneath a mountain. From what you can tell, Hellion hates this creature immensely and will do anything to destroy it. There is also mention of another entity, a creature that came before Hellion, created by the Enemy, but Nalakai cannot remember its name.
As Linpul nears the console, the slot glows with a red luminescence. Something in your bags glows as well-it seems to be coming from the red scatterlight suit.
Sarainy steps up next to Linpul, "On my journey from Varisia I once sat around a campfire with a strange dwarven fellow named Poruz. He told me all about how his engineering guild had use a device he called an 'excavator'... as I was the only one around the flames to show interest, he shared with me some of his notes. Perhaps they will help you with your fiddling?"
She digs around in her pack for her own notebook, giving it to the gnome on the relevant entries.
========
After Solaria has finished reading the book, she looks up to her friends, "Interesting, but I'm not sure if what I've found out will help, but.." she pauses and thinks on her next words. "The book holds details about Hellion and the Enemy, a creature that lives beneath a mountain. From what I can tell, Hellion hates this creature immensely and will do anything to destroy it. There is also mention of another entity, a creature that came before Hellion, created by the Enemy. Unfortunately the Enemy has no name, at least not written in the book, but if anything makes sense to you, let us in on your deliberations. Do you think it has something to do with Torch, when we stopped those guys in the warehouse, they were trying to blow up Torch, but I didn't think there is a mountain there."
She calls the friends together and uses her remaining positive energy to heal her companions, if there is a need.
Once Solaria has refreshed herself in the morning after a nights sleep, she asks if Linpul, or anyone else knows what all this technology does and should they destroy it? Then she gets down to the process of praying to our Lady of Butterflies, asking if anyone else wants to share in her devotions.
"Well, if the excavator can move underground and mine like no other, perhaps Hellion wants to use the device to get to and slay the Enemy beneath the mountain. This might be a bit weird with only one hand but... what the heck is glowing in my bag? Scatterlight suit in red? Red is a high up color on the skymetal scale, so I'm gonna guess this is moderately expensive."
The amount of power going into the excavator is not enough to get it to operate. It seems that the excavator is gigantic, and the 1000 or so charges of energy is not enough to even start the immense creation.
"You said the power from here goes to a robot somewhere Linpul? Most of the robots we have come across have not been so friendly to us, any chance you can route the power from the robot to something else. It might mean we have one less obstacle in our way?" Solaria says as she thinks why this power is required. "If we could starve Hellion of this power, perhaps it might put him at a disadvantage. What do you think?"
"Or even turn the power off? Is that possible?" the gnome asks as he keeps watch on the others.
"Well, I can turn the power off, that much I know, but maybe I can draw the power from the robot to the excavator. For all we know Hellion could be the robot. His ability to communicate through a lot of the screens could just be an illusion or moving picture and would make a lot of sense. I've never heard of a demon using a laser."
Taking a moment to scratch her head, Linpul rests her noggin on her palm while thinking about how to reroute the power.
Linpul reroutes the power to the excavator from the robot. After a few moments, you see the energy increase a negligible amount, then after a few more moments switches trigger in the machine and the power is redirected back to the robot.
"Why did that happen Linpul? Surely it shouldn't just turn back, can you jam it to power the excavator?" says Solaria puzzled by the way the power behaved.
Linpul examines the machine and sees that something else is interfering with whatever she tries to do the instant she tries to do something. Whatever it is is incredibly fast, able to adjust in seconds and do multiple complex computations to reverse what Linpul does.
(S5)
There are several small rooms filled with slightly dark water and some spoiled food held in barrels. There are also several empty bedrolls strewn about these rooms.
Looking down from the balcony area, you can see a large subterranean complex filled with machines and rubble to the east.
(S6)
The eastern half of this room appears to be some sort of workshop, with all manner of metal working tools hanging from the walls over junk-strewn tables. To the west, a sagging cot sits against a partially crumpled metal wall next to a two-foot-tall metal cabinet. Dozens of empty tubes from which strange fluid drips lie in a heap atop the chest. What looks like a partially completed and crudely constructed mechanical marionette machine slumps against a metal cage-like frame at the foot of the cot.
(S7)
A large, dank cave sprawls to the west of a metal structure buried in the walls. An immense trestle of metal beams and struts extends from the side of the structure and into the wall opposite, while a stone ramp winds from a metal landing along the side of the structure down into the cave depths below.
Linpul slams her fist on the keyboard.
"Work dammit! I can reroute the power, but something, or someone, is correcting any errors that I make. Unfortunately I can't really do much other than maybe turn it off, or reroute the power then turn it off really fast. Don't think it'll work, but who knows right?"
-----Moving on-----
Having given up on her attempts with the power flow, Linpul spends some time going through the rooms with empty bedrolls looking for loose silverdisks, coins, and anything of use.
"If you are able to turn it off, that will do. Lets move on, Linpul."
Dr Lendaro takes a bit of time searching the rooms.
Once reaching the stone ramp, he nods to the cave...
"This appears to be the way to go."
The area down appears to be 30 feet down from the balcony, and 20 feet down from the western area.
Searching through the room turned living quarters, Lendaro finds several objects of interest. He slides the green keycard into one of the cabinets.
12 goo tubes
2 vials of a strange liquid
a magical dagger
244 silverdisks
a timeworn bracelet-like device
a green e-pick
a journal in a metal binder
The humanoid is crudely made, as though created by a starting hobbyist, or one not versed in engineering. You don't believe it will ever work as a construct.
Searching the living quarters with Lendaro, Sarainy offers some assistance.
"Doctor, perhaps I can attempt to discover the use of these items for you?" she says, asking to take the dagger, bracelet and journal.
Should he accept her assistance, she will spend some time trying to understand the powers of the two magical items, and then find somewhere nearby to skim through the metal bound journal.
========