Sepping forward, Edynn leads with a hooking punch to Garmen's ribcage followed by a snap kick aimed at his back, her expression blankly focused.
Annoyed at the cat's luck Sialea casts her spell once again trying to entrap the creature. Again the shadowy chains rise up to bind it's shadow and anchor it in place.
This time, there are more shadows around the snow leopard to catch it. Both its shadow and the boxes' shadows work in tandem to engulf the cat, causing it to hiss and flail about.
Georg realizes the mistake of leaping down to confront the party as Inlé returns his swing with a vicious one of his own, and Edynn's blows strike him with unerring, cold precision. There's a sharp *crack* as her kick breaks some ribs, and he wheezes and falls to his knees.
His sword falls from his grip and becomes slick with blood pouring from his chest and back...
Inlé exhales through his nostrils before looking up to Edynn.
Georg's only response is a cough of blood.
"Good kitty, good uh Whitefang. Lay down... Lay down and chill"
He began glad the creature seemed stuck from some sort of magic. He moved quickly over and pulled the sword away from the man lying there in a pool of his own blood. Just in case you know he had a sudden surge of energy or something.
The snow leopard looks up at Celen, then back at its wounded master, then back at the aasimar.
The little beast doesn't take its eyes off of him, but makes no move to attack. It squirms in the shadowy chains holding it down.
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Pulling his head back, Edynn looks into his eyes. "Rinna sends her regards." she says coolly before driving her fist inot his throat.
Georg blinks. "Wha--"
And whatever he was about to say is cut short by his neck bones breaking as though they were made of paper. He lets out a bloodied gurgle and goes still.
--a well-oiled suit of studded leather armour
--a masterwork greatsword
The snow leopard goes still as it watches its master die.
”Nice punch.” Inlé says to Edynn before picking up the human’s greatsword to look it over. ”Doesn’t feel any heavier...”
"Inle... do you have any dried meats in those rations you had picked up?"
He asked once more turning his attention to the furry creature left in a bad way. He knelt and slowly held his hand out torwards it letting the snow leopard decide whether the hand was safe or not.
"Thank you Inlé." Edynn says, wiping the blood off of her hand, after letting the body drop. "Perhaps he did something to it to make the blade hit harder."
" I wasnt prepared, he cast something on the blade, but i didnt study how to recognize magics from an opponent, I should remedy that."
He said not really looking fishing for some of the sausauges to feed the beautiful snow cat.
"His armor is very well made. It looks like it would offer superior protection. And he will no be needing it any longer." Edynn notes, beginning to remove the armor from the body. "Should we see what the secret machine looks like?"
"Inle... do you have any dried meats in those rations you had picked up?"
He asked once more turning his attention to the furry creature left in a bad way. He knelt and slowly held his hand out torwards it letting the snow leopard decide whether the hand was safe or not.
”Huh? Yeah. I had been saving them incase any of you needed some, I’m not big on meat.” he says before digging the meats out of his pack to give to the magic man.
”That’s what I’m thinking. Still, nice sword.” he tells the others as he looks over the blade before turning his attention to the machine.
"If you think you can wield it you should take it.. I dont think he will need it anymore."
He added carefully, as he edged the meats torwards the trapped cat doing his best not to spook it, after all it had been ordered to kill him.
"Easy there Whitefang... no one wants to hurt you here."
He began soothingly. He did want to see the machine obviously, but he didnt want an angry half trained wild animal left unattended either.
"So uh... how long does that shadow thing last?
Sialea focused a moment and the bindings vanished, "Not long." She looked around to try and find the source of the noise so she could try to disable it.
The snow leopard relaxes slightly as the shadow chains recede, before padding forward a couple of paces to the smoked meats Celen left for it. It sniffs them for a few seconds, gives one piece a tentative lick, then scoops it into its mouth to chew on it.
Sia's gaze was drawn towards a cluster of boxes to the northwest side of the room and pointed, "I think the machine is over there. If we can get to it I will try and disable it."
"I should have little difficulty moving them." Edynn says moving over to the boxes and beginning to move them out of the way methodically.
”I’ll help.” Inlé says to Edynn as he begins to move the boxes alongside her.
Edynn & Inlé manage to move the boxes aside with ease, the android's inherent strength complimented well by the killer rabbit's surprising bulk. The boxes spill bits of straw out of their tops as they move them around--none of them have anything inside of any value. Their only purpose is to conceal whatever it is that's behind them...
...and before long, the object they were hiding is out in the open for everyone to see.
A large, black, boxy machine sits against the northwest wall of the warehouse floor, with three glass panels displaying strange graphs & numbers in a pale teal glow. Three sets of glowing orange buttons sit on desk-like surfaces beneath the glass panels, with symbols on them that appear to be a bunch of meaningless gibberish to untrained eyes. A group of spiky metal rods sticks out of the top of the device, surrounding what appears to be a chrome bowl with a spike sticking out of its centre. A hollow metal ring is suspended above the spike, supported by four smooth metal rods that stick out from the chrome bowl's cardinal directions.
The machine emits a high-pitched whine and buzzing that sounds identical to the noise everyone heard upon entering the warehouse... and it may be what's causing the town so many headaches.
Inlé stares up at the machine. "I don't know what it is but I know I don't like it."
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Letting those better suited move the boxes Sialea stepped closet to the device when it was revealed. She took her time, carefully studying it, as she had to get this right. If she wasn't careful she knew this could blow up in her face.
As if it were a memory Sia recognized this device. She knew that, somewhere, she'd seen one exactly like it before and knew what it was for. "This is a fully functioning power relay. They are using this to siphon the power that causes the Torch and sending it...somewhere else..." She seemed very disturbed by this thought. "Let me see if I can figure out where it is going and how to turn it off."
The destination is far to the northeast of Torch, near the edge of the Sellen River... perhaps two weeks travel.
Sia's tinkering with the device doesn't produce any results. But after a minute or two of poking around the device, she finds a small teal button on the side. It has an image of a bowl with a vertical line above it.
Making a quick mental note of where the power seemed to be going Sia focused on figuring out how to turn the device off. She hadn't had much luck and had just discovered a possible way to turn it off when she heard the crunch of footsteps outside. Not knowing if it would work or not Sia took a chance, reached out, and pushed the teal button as she whispered, "Someone's coming.".
When Sia pushes the button, the device's lights go out and the machine makes a *WHHHHiiiirrrrrrrrrrr* as it powers down.
Stepping into the doors of the warehouse, flanked by a pair of rough-looking men with loops of rope around their knuckles, is Garmen. He taps a sharp-looking rapier sitting at his hip and sighs.
"Figures something like this would happen sooner or later." He looks down at the bloodied corpse of Georg and at his leopard, still snacking away on the meats Celen offered him. "Well, this is a little awkward, don't you think?"
”Not particularly.”
"You are hurting the town, we are here to stop it, now we have to stop you. Not awkward just necessary." Edynn replies.
Sia made a pleased sound as the button did as intended and then turned to look at Garmen. "Yes, it is a little awkward, and I feel kind f bad about screwing you after you were such a gentleman when I was drunk." She sighed a sad sigh and then asked, "Why did you do it Garmen? Why did you betray the town like this?"
Garmen opens his mouth to say something, and is interrupted by the northern doors of the warehouse opening. In stride three guards--the two from the south side, and one more. The two southern guards are bloodied and bruised, but still standing, while the newcomer looks rather shaken and mildly roughed up.
They approach from the north and glare at Garmen, wordlessly sizing him up.
Garmen looks at the guards, then back at the party. "Tell you what--I want to cut a deal. You let me get some things from my office, and I'll tell you everything."
Sialea considered his proposal and said, "Provided we go with you and watch what you do I believe that would be acceptable. After that what we can arrange depends on what you have to tell us."
Garmen breathes a sigh of relief and nods. "Follow me, then."
He leads the party (with guards in tow) to the office the power relay was sitting next to. It's a spacious one, with a set of stairs leading up to the warehouse catwalks on the southern end of the room. A large wooden table with four chairs in various states of disrepair sits in the middle of the room, with what appears to be a mixture of a desk and a bar sits against the northern wall. Garmen walks behind the bar and ducks beneath it for a few moments, retrieving a bottle of dark red liquor, several small glasses, and a burlap pouch that makes a *clacking* noise when moved around.
"Now, as to why I suddenly decided to turn stag on the Torch, so to speak..." Garmen pours himself a shot of dark red liquid and drinks it down in one gulp. "...believe me when I say that it sure as the Hells wasn't my idea. Kinda hard to be my idea when this lady waltzes on into my home, backed by a bunch of orcs and mutant rabbits."
Sialea considered what Garmen said and then nodded in acceptance, "I see, so if you weren't behind this plan who was and why did you do it?"
Garmen takes another shot of alcohol and winces as it goes down. "Because the creepy android had way more muscle than I could ever have, and she basically threatened to have me dragged off in the middle of the night as a 'sacrifice' for her god, or whatever. Her god had plans for this pit of a town--plans that involved doing something to the Torch, using that machine she stored in my warehouse and doing Brigh knows what to the Torch underneath the Hill."
"Oh, sure, she 'did me the courtesy of asking politely'. Pretty easy to do that when a rabbit the size of a grown man is sharpening his axe on what was left of one of your best thieves' skull." He gives the small Inlé a dirty look. "Never mind the fact that if I ever told anyone, she'd know. Or so she claimed, at least."
Sialea was startled by what was revealed and a nagging something ached in the back of her mind at something he said. She considered his words carefully then asked, "Do you know where we might find her Garmen? If you can help us find and bring her in I think it will go a long way towards earning some amnesty for what you have done to this town." She smiled sadly at him then and continued, "And I don't want to see you suffer any more than you have to over this. You were kind to me when you could have taken advantage of me, from your reputation I'm surprised you didn't use my inebriated stated to seduce me, and if for nothing else I think you deserve some forgiveness for your part in things." She reached out towards his hand, "I want to help you as best I can for that and bringing this android in to pay would go a long way towards that."
Garmen looks down at Sia's hand, and tentatively takes it. His palm is starting to shake a bit.
"Real pretty words there, Ms. Baine." He clears his throat. "You'll find her at the bottom of those ruins under the Hill. She brought herself a whole bunch of orcs, rabbits, and her own faith with her."
"This woman, what does she look like?" Edynn asks, intriged by the idea that the person responsible for everything was one of her kind, and somewhat suspicious of the possible influence of the Technic League.
"Well... grey skin. Pale violet hair, eyes, and tattoo lines. Wore a suit of chain that exposed her arms. Carries around some sort of techno-gun that sets people on fire." Garmen cringes. The memory his description evoked in him was visibly unpleasant. "Had some kinda holy symbol of a god I didn't recognize. I didn't pay attention to what she called it--too busy tryin' not to get myself shot."
Inlé's interest piques even more once he hears talk of mutant rabbits.
He gives the small Inlé a dirty look.
Inlé shrugs. "I didn't even know we can get that big. What was the color of their coats?"
"Oh, they came in all kinds of colours. Snow white, splotchy grey, desert brown... the biggest one had reddish-brown fur and an axe that looked like it was cobbled together from bits of scrap."
... I'll keep an eye out for em." Inlé replies, now just as interested in the axe as he was his fellow rabbits.
Sia considered any further questions and then said, "I think we have what we need here," she looked at her friends, "agreed?"
Inlé nodded. Hopping back into the main room with Georg's corpse the bunny used his now outdated sword to remove the man's head, before looking for an appropriate sized box to store it in. Failing that he would just wrap it up.
He stayed quiet listening and tempting the snow leopard with sausages to stay calm. As much as he wanted to be vindictive torwards the slimy man he kept his cool and patience. If they others were willing to let him talk he could as well. He wished the man had more information about this ladies diety. It would go a long way to help him prepare. The large mutant rabbitfolk interested him too, he would have questions for inle probably away from well the guards and Garmen.