At first the shopkeepers are rather sintgy offering only a fraction of what things are worth (20%) but with some haggling and treatening you managed to find someone willing to pay a more reasonable ableit still reduced price (40%) you come to the conclusion that only those with good relations or a high scrap worth can get a good price here.
She remains perched high up on a structure, surveying Scrapwall, and watching her companions moving about below.
"It is acceptable. It grants us resources now. And we can sell the firearms later, such as they are."
@Gal
Most of the piles of debris around scrapwall only go up to around 30 feet or so, the highest going up to 50 feet.
Gal takes notes of a few interesting structures, a large dish array, the scrap master arena were a fight is going on with a large crowd watching and cheering. That's when Gal sees something on the edge of town a large beast standing at the top of another high perch like hers.
The creature looks like a lion with enourmous bat wings and a scorpion tail. Gal gets the uneasy feeling she should get down before this creature spots her.
A woman approaches the group. "Hey newcomers. Looking to earn some scrapworth and a bunch of gold? I have a borderline suicidal job that nobody else is willing to take that could quickly earn you a reputation around here, assuming you survive of course. How confident are you in your ability to run fast and avoid flying spikes?"
"Ha! I like your attitude. I'm Sevroth Slaid, I'm with the Steel Hawks. I don't need you to kill this creature just get past it. If you do somehow manage to kill it I'll be sure to trow in a big bonus for you. It's not a robot just some creature that took a bath is some weird sluge and got all mutated. It's covered in poison quills and it can fling them a good distance and it's nesting right on top of an intact shuttlecraft that nobody has been able to salvage because that thing kills anyone who tries to get near it."
"This is the market, shops around. I'd sugest a shield." she replies. Come see me if your interested in my job offer. My place is over there." she points to a nearby building surounded by armed guards wearing a symbol of a mettalic bird.
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Kul nods at the woman as she departs, "A little extra coin and some street cred. That's a good way to start. I'm going to see about upgrading my sword and getting a high end bow. Particularly if this thing can fly, the bow may come in handy. I didn't care for hustling up those stairs to get the slavers either." Kul says heading off into the market to look.
While Kul is able to get the sword easy enought no merchant has the bow in stock they only carry normal composite longbows. They do however point him to a craftsman who says he can make one and have it ready for the day after tommorow.
Seeing the strange beast sitting on another heap, she tries to identify it, while slowly lowering herself down the side in order to gain concealment as she studies the beast.
After studying it for a while she heads down to met up with them to report on the beast she spotted, simply describing it as how she saw it.
Kurgu listens to the various speakers and ponders his own guesses about the creature.
The creature describe by Gal and the woman from ealier are likely one and the same. It's a manticore, a mutated one at that. A normal manticore is not poisonous but this one is.
Manticores are cautious creatures and will only attack if they feel victory is certain. Usually prefering to weaken their prey from a distance first or attacking from ambush.
Spikes (Ex)
With a snap of its tail, a manticore can loose a volley of four spikes as a standard action (make an attack roll for each spike). This attack has a range of 180 feet with no range increment. All targets must be within 30 feet of each other. The creature can launch only 24 spikes in any 24-hour period.
"It's a monster. Let's check it out, then kill it."
Well I can show you where I last saw it. Might have moved, thus i can fly up until I see away, and be able to direct you to it, so you can take possible concealment to get closer without alerting.
Kinna nods. "I would also very much like to see inside this craft the creature is protecting."
Were do you go now? Do you investigate in town a bit more or go visit Sevroth Slaid to accept the job and then get right to it?
I'm happy enough to scout the monster then kill it.
You enter the building and are directed to a lounge were she is waiting for you.
"I had a feeling you would be showing up." says Slaid
"If your going to do this then here is the deal. Me and my boys will wait at a safe distance with some ranged weapons. You try to sneak into the shuttle or get past the creature. If you get into a fight we gonna hang back unless the thing comes closer to us or it looks like it's losing then we might jump in. If the beast dies you guys can go into the shuttle first to secure it. The shuttle and anything inside belongs to me but if there is anything in there you want to keep I'm willing to let you keep a few things as a bonus reward and will give you gold for 50% of the value of anything else recovered.
Kinna nods to Kul. "I am ready."
"I am eager to remove a dangerous threat. But the outcome is much the same. We may as well get paid for our efforts."
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You feel she means to honour the deal but has low expections that you will suceed.
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Scouting first. Does it just sit up there. When does it go hunt? Drink water? If everyone can hang on for a day, it will give us some information and I will then have a solid bow to use against it.
Do any of you know anything about it? (Magical beast would be K: arcana) How smart is it? What does it eat?We may be able to poison it.
Kurgu flexes, practicing with his lengthy hammer.
"I too am ready."
It is somewhat intelligent but not overly so (6-8 int), capaple of speech but very agressive and territorial. Manticores eat any meat, but they prefer human flesh above any other and consider it a delicacy and will rarely pass up an opportunity to feed on man-flesh. They have been known to sometimes bully goblins or other lesser evils races into offering them tributes of capture travelers.
Watching the creature for a day from a distance it seems to spend all day resting on it's nest occasaionly flying up to look around and then coming back. You ask around town about it's habits and learn a few things.
This one mostly stays on it's nest resting and grooming as much as 20 hours a day guardin it's territory but will sometimes fly off to look for food for around 4 hours near sunset if it gets hungry. It never goes too close to the town prefering to look for small groups of salvagers or animals out in the outskirts. It rains spikes on it's target until it drops and takes the body back to it's lair to feed. Once it feeds depending how much it ate it can sometimes wait 3-4 days before going hunting again.
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"Well, it sounds like it is the straight forward approach. I recommend we open up with a series of ranged attacks. We need something to bring it down. Gal, do you think you can outmaneuver it in the sky? I'm thinking we buy us a weighted net. Not super heavy mind you but one that draws the edges down so as to cause entanglements. If we open fire on the beast with you setup somewhere high but out of sight, that will hopefully get it to come our way. Then you come out above it and drop the net. If it is dumb enough to land before that then it gets tangled and we kill it more easily. If it stays airborne, hopefully you get the net on, fouling its wings and it will get injured in the fall before we close on it. Thoughts?"
Kinna nods. "A net is a good idea. In addition to that, I can make a grenade of adhesive that might foul the creature's wings and make it unable to fly or possibly even stick it to the ground entirely."
She learns against a wall hearing Kul's plan of action, before finally speaking, Well these mounds of metal are not very high, and there is nothing nearby that is very high to hide with the net. Best would to draw it down from it's nest to the bottom, make it chase you on foot around these mounds, while I hide near the top of one mound. Once it has moved past me with it's back towards me, I can fly from behind above to drop the net. Hopefully it be still enough to aim the net well. Carrying the net I won't be able to take much gear or weapons with. oh, best to have the sun behind you to help prevent my shadow from being seen when I come behind it.
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"Gal, How about a pincer maneuver. We'll all move up behind the nearest mound to the beast, me and whoever else intends to play bait will go around the left side and begin shooting. You go right around the mound and fly in behind the thing when it comes after us. Kinna, are you going to give those sticky bombs to Gal or some of them? Might be easier for her to fly with those than a net."
"Let us play bait then. I am willing."
@Kul - Could buy a tower shield. Standard action grants total cover. Can stick it in the ground for partial cover.
Kinna nods. "Of course. Dropping them from above is probably the best possible course of action. I can make 4 in a day- Gal, you can take 2 and I can take 2 for contingencies on the ground?"
"That is a wise recommendation. I concur and will purchase a tower shield."
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I think that takes care of our planning. We move up on the opposite side of the nearest mound to the thing we can find. Then Gal goes right, the rest of us go left. Gal delays until we engage. On our side we move up with our tower shields using them as cover and get within eighty feet if possible. Then I will start shooting it from behind the now planted shields to get a little AC boost. When it comes off its perch, Gal moves around behind and above it to throw some tanglefoot on its back. When its on the ground Kurgu and I try to beat it to death. Kinna will provide general protection and more tanglefoot from the ground plus I think she has that pistol. Did I miss anything?
So, we need to find a place to rest and then we can pick up our gear.
Having decided on a plan of action you inform slaid and you go put it into action.
You manage to get whitin 80 feet unoticed but the creature spots you just as you are planting the shields.
It flies into the air moving up 30 feet above the ground and fires the first volley of spikes. Targeting Kul and Kurgo (who gets +4 ac thanks to cover)
4 spikes
(plus poison)
(plus poison)
(plus poison)
(plus poison)
Your go. All post in any order.
Gal roll a stealth to see if you get in position unoticed.
Kurgu grunts as the second spike (just) hits home.
In return, he launches a pilum at the beast.
Round 1
She waits behind a mound, out of view, waiting for the beast to leave it's nest. Once the beast attacks her comrades, enables her bear aspect, and takes to flight using the mounds as much as possible to get behind the beast unnoticed.