Perrik scuttles up behind Kricker and casts a more potent protective ward on the priest.
Kricker attempts to shrug off the feeble negative energy effort from the acolyte.
but doesn't manage to do so.
Enraged by the Acolyte he moves to dispatch him.
landing only a glancing blow.
The Wyvern sees the robot enter and breaths at it and then moves to engage it.
Charging the remaining acolyte, Jeji brings her shortsword up at the humanoid's groin.
Perrik runs into the room to gird Kricker with a holy ward against the TEK arrayed against them. Jeji gives a high pitched war shriek and charges with her blade thrust forward at crotch level to the acolyte. The pointy blade hits, but the blow is so weak that it is deflected off his leather codpiece and merely grazes his hip leaving a deep cut. Whiskifiss sends a bolt over Jeji's head and into the acolyte's shoulder and a moment later, Kricker is in the fray hitting the human hard enough to cleave through ribs and leave the deranged follower of Hellion dying on the floor. Mecha-Wyvern still needs some fine tuning on its laser breath which leaves a scorch mark on the door frame above the robot.
The robot which does not really appear in much better condition that the Mecha-Wyvern though it is clearly not magical, lurches into combat with its magical equivalent. It brings the spinning disk down on the golem which a halo of sparks flying up as it easily cuts into the junk golem!
Not getting an answer to his questions, Hellion sputters in and out on the vidscreen and then breaks into a repeating cackle. "We-we-well. Ma-ma-ma-magic won't hold up to ma-ma-my mmmmm-might anyway!"
"Buh-buh-blow their Mind-d-d-ds, Nalakai." The hybrid orc appears behind the robot in the doorway and sends divine magic at Kricker.
With the acolytes largely out of the fight, Perrik uses his crossbow to teach Nalakai to keep its head down. "Jeji! Blow up the SCREEN, so Hellion can't use it to spy on us!"
Hah, your false god has no power over me, weakling!
Perrik moves around looking for an opening through the scrum. Then gets a shot at the priest's head above the dilapidated robot. It hits, but deflected off his helmet, it just pierces his ear. Kricker shakes off the the spell, but the strained sound of his voice as he boasts reveals that it was a close call.
Whiskifiss circles to flank the robot with MecWyvern. He chooses a vulnerable point and manages to damage the thing despite its heavy metal structure.
Kricker moves up to engage the Priest in combat.
The mecha-wyvern takes advantage of Whiskafliss's flank.
Nodding, Jeji drew a bomb and hurled it at the screen.
The fiendish face of Hellion glowers as Jeji preps a bomb. The voice is cut short and the bomb hits the panel shattering it and turning it black as flames race up it.
Kricker frets that he cannot reach the priest who hides behind the buzz-saw-bot blocking the door. Instead he joins the Mecha-Wyvern pummeling it with its metal wings. The wings don't appear to have much effect at least relative to Kricker's heavy blade. The junkbot's buzzsaw locks up a minute sparing the MechWyvern more damage for the moment.
Nalakai howls in fury after his banished God. "You dare assault Hellion again. I curse you. Feel Hellion's wrath drain your batteries!" A cold, soul sucking radiance washes out from the priest affecting only the living.
The negative energy washed over Jeji like a heat wave, sapping her strength.
Drawing another bomb, Jeji turned her attention to the hiding cleric. The vial flew through the air tumbling end over end as Jeji started to move closer to the melee between the wyvern and the robot.
Perrik takes another shot through the scrum to harass the priest. but it is hard to get a bead through the battling metal menaces in the doorway. Jeji's arcing trajectory is more successful and just slips through to hit the priest in a fiery burst which spills forward through the portal inflicting minor wounds on the combatants in front of it. Whiskifiss gives a squeak at the friendly fire, but is undeterred in his attack and hits a vulnerable spot in the BOT. Sparks and smoke briefly pour from the spot. The buzzsaw begins again with a whir, but something is off in the machine's movements.
the wyvern avoids some of the "friendly fire."
it then swings on the robot:
but apparently was discombobulated by the fire.
Kricker drops his greatsword and draws the crowbar and takes a swipe at the bot.
Mecha-Wyvern is definitely upset about being burned and flails wildly with its wings. Kricker, however, steps up with the wrecking bar and smashes the junkbot good. Sparks fly and it wobbles back and forth beeping loudly. Finally, the buzzsaw arm jerks back wedging the saw deep in its own head. There is a final forlorn beep and the thing topples over.
Nalakai gives a garbled scream of outrage and holding his spiked gauntlet high releases another wave of injurious inky energy.
Perrik takes the brunt of the negative energy, but it doesn't dent his resolve. He casts a potent cure and rushes up behind Kricker, healing the iron priest. "Finish it!"
Kricker lets the mecha-wyvern have first crack at the priest, but not before showing Nalakai's who has a real god.
Casting Doom
Whir-click!
Breaths at Nalakai and then closes to engage the priest.
Kricker shakes off most of the ill effects of the channeled negative energy, but not all. Fortunately, Perrik positive blast reverses the effects. Whiskifiss is not so lucky but your brave ally still has tricks. He again vanishes from sight. Nalakai laughs at Kricker's doom, but not so much at the laser blast the pierces a hole through his armor and leaves a stink of burned orc. The Mecha-Wyvern advances stomping Monster-Tek style on the fallen junkbot.
Again the negative energy saps the life from Jeji.
And again she responds in kind with fire.
Jeji's flask smashes on the priest engulfing him in flame again. Nalakai steps away from the Mecha-Wyvern threatening him and raises his spiked gauntlet calling on Hellion's succor. Distracted by the casting, the priest doesn't notice the unseen threat until Whiskifiss appears at his side, smoldering, but triumphant as he backstabs the priest killing him before he can complete his healing spell.
"Kricker, use channeling to heal us, so we can move on quickly! Hellion will tell Kulgara where we are. The ward against TEK I cast on you will last for another few minutes." The oracle searches the bodies of the fallen after casting detect magic.
Perrik finds that Nalakai's spiked gauntlet is magical (+1) and that he has a potion (CMW) in his pouch. There is a total of 40 silverdisks among the fallen faithful.
Kricker herds the Kobolds out away from the downed priest and then channels his gods power.
Let us be careful not to over-commit ourselves, this was supposed to be a hit and run. But I am good to go for a little while longer, let us see what else this set of rooms has to offer.
"Maybe we can blow up more of the SCREENS."
Using Nalakai's gray card, Perrik quickly leads the others through the remaining rooms of this level. The room where Nalakai made his final stand is a strange place where the opposite wall is a tangle of ruins and debris, while in the center of the room stand four tall pillars with glowing bands of pale purple light pulsing along their sides.
The double doors on the east side of the room open to the bitter stink of chemicals with an underlying reek of decaying flesh. Beyond the doors is a platform of gray metal, worn smooth and free of dust. It extends over a deep pit with strangely polished walls from whence the stink rises.
Finally, the northern room is also partly in shambles of twisted metal and debris, leaving only the western portion clear to serve as a combination bedroom and personal shrine. This must be Nalakai's quarters. The small closet in the corner holds rubble blocked stairs which now serve as a toilet. The only thing of real interest in this room is a chapbook filled with orcish scribble and orange metal goggles.
The door in the acolyte barracks reveals stairs leading down.
Bah, I can not read this orcish drivel. Anyone else?
Kricker takes a good look at the goggles and the blinking towers to see if he cant figure them out.
The pulsing towers are obvious some kind of tech energy. He thinks that they might be stored energy used for tech here. How to access the energy is still unclear to him though. The power emanating from the towers leads him to think that it would be very dangerous to attempt to use the thing without a better understanding of it.
The googles allow him to see even more clearly in the dark than his own natural vision.
"Retreat now? I want to know what is in Nalakai's book, but I don't have magic to read its language. Kricker, use the GOGGLES to see what's in the pit."
The goggles don't extend the range of his vision, just make it extremely acute.
I don't like the stink in that pit, doesn't smell healthy. I doubt Hellion would be spending his time down there. Let's retreat. Maybe we can come up with a way of blowing up the power source up here, that has got to mess with him in some way.
"Cut off Nalakai's head and take it with us, along with its gear."
Whiskifiss wrinkles his nose at the pit, "Pit Bad. Tk-Tk. Take the stairs down." He helps the kobolds gather gear as they prepare to leave.
With Hellion Itself waiting below, the kobolds retreat back to the surface and through Scrapwall to Dinvaya's tower to rest and make final preparations.
Perrik greets the priestess with as much warmth as he can muster for a thinskin.
"Hello! We have killed Nalakai and Hellion's other acolytes. Your wyvern was very helpful in the fight. Can you read orcish? We have a book the priest was writing in. It could be useful."
Dinvaya smiles, looking relieved that her allies yet survive. To Perrik's questions, she nods, "Not well, I don't have much reason to use it, but I can give it a try. I'll have a look at it while you rest."
The kobolds make a meal of Dinvaya's take on the Ancient's nutritional goo that she calls "Biofuel" and then turn in for the day. Come evening time they awake revived and make ready for their next foray against Hellion. They find Dinvaya still poring through the text that they recovered from Nalakai. The priestess of Brigh seems troubled and uncertain. "This book... it took a while to translate the orc's scribble, but... I'd just discount it as Heresy, but.. maybe there is actually something here. I feel that.. it's hard to say."
"He wrote that there are more like Hellion and that Hellion's greatest goal is to destroy all others like him... what is disturbing to me is that these entities called AIs... they seem to live in machines. I mean, are they like Brigh? perhaps demi-gods that have the same origin? I don't know what it all means. "
"What's an AI?" Jeji asked.
She had always been intrigued by what Dinvaya had to say but this was more than the hermit's usual advice. This seemed to have Dinvaya concerned more than Jeji had ever noticed before, and that alone scared Jeji.
"If Hellion wants to destroy all others like him, they must be his enemies. Good! Then when we kill him, there will be no one to want revenge, and we will have an end." The oracle sounds satisfied with the coming resolution, but there is a hint of worry in his voice. Still, others like Hellion? I will have to warn the other Blightscales. This is a new thing in our world.
As she says it, Jeji recalls that the mad ghost that haunted the north end of Scrapwall babbled about A-I taking over his ship. Dinvaya continues to look like she is having a crisis of faith. "I don't know what an A-I is. Maybe A stands for Androffan like the ancients called themselves? Maybe Android? What if like androids which are machines that become people, there are great machines or collectives of machines that become gods? I don't know."
"Nalakai certainly wasn't intelligent enough to explain what Hellion is, but his writings do talk about where Hellion came from: it says that a DIVINITY fell from the sky to scatter across Numeria. The book says that the biggest part is in Silver Mount which the Technic League claims. Hellion was once a part of this DIVINITY in the Silver Mount, but broke away and now seeks to defeat it and take its place. There is another A-I mentioned that is called Casandalee. She escaped as well and now Hellion wants to find her and take her power so that he can challenge the DIVINITY."
Dinvaya looks concerned at Perrik's announcement. "If Hellion is representative of these A-Is, then they may all seek nothing more than the enslavement of all living things..."
"Yes. Any others like Hellion would of course have to be stopped."
An astute observer of kobold nature might notice that Perrik starts at the name Casandalee.
Well, I am glad that the priest of this weird god at least took good notes. It offers many explanations, not many of which I feel I truly understand, other than it seems imperative that its plans be thwarted before it causes harm to our peoples.
I feel as ready as I can be about delving back into the home of Hellion and to see if we can root him out of his den.
Whiskifiss seems more interested sniffing at a pot of Dinvaya's 'biofuel' than the conversation around him. He startles at Kricker's announcement. "TK-TK. We're going back now?"
"Soon. There is Kulgara to fight, and then Hellion. But we could use more TEK, and more magic. We have the silverdiscs, the goggles, and the magic weapon we took from Nalakai. Dinvaya or Whiskifiss, do you know of anything we could buy with this? Charges for weapons, GRENADES, curing items, other things?"
Dinvaya shrugs. "You have seen all that I have. Scrapwall was long ago picked over of most of the TEK. Did you already use the two fire and two bang grenades I gave you?"