Disappointed that the woman had not come close enough, and not wanting to waste her spell, Jeji grabbed a grenade and hurled it towards the metal man.
Perrik conjures a forcefield to protect Kricker. Drahlneep cocks his gun and waits for the red of the metal man's single eye. The mechnical humanoid never makes it to the mouth of the cave though. Jeji tosses the grenade so that it lands at the BOT's feet and the electrical detonation leaves the thing frozen in place with sparks raining from several blown panels. It's red lit eye fades to darkness.
The Technic Leager can see that she is outgunned and outgrenaded. She quickly casts a spell and retreats with speed toward the encampment. Again a cinder flies to the entrance of the mine before exploding in a fiery burst.
Burnt, but not yet dead, Kricker falls.
Perrik casts another spell on the fallen iron priest.
Drahlneep hops up and rushes as far as he can get to make a quick snap-shot at the woman.
Enraged and hyped up on adrenaline, Drahlneep charges out of the adit to take a shot at the fleeing fireballer. The slope trips him up though and he ends up nearly shooting his foot off!
Jeji immediately recognized the flaming cinder again header their way and took cover just as the fire erupted all around them. She couldn't help but thank her own quick reflexes as she scurried over to see how badly Kricker had been burnt. As the human mage retreated farther away, Jeji declines to pursue and instead asks "where now?"
Kricker is badly burned, but he mends slightly and revives with Perrik's healing program.
"I say we leave. They are weakened now, without their BOTs, and we can find another place where we can shelter for the day."
"I am worried they may destroy the slaves," Drahlneep says from the edge of the cave, watching the woman running off.
They have at least one blind mage, and one full strength one. Hopefully she is out of fireballs, we need to deal with her before the sun rises tomorrow or she will get those back. Let us find a place to shelter for the day and then we will come back in the night and finish them.
Jeji nodded along as the others spoke.
"Hopefully they won't kill the slaves. We've already destroyed some of their metal men. If they kill the slaves, who will do the work?"
Jeji looked at the others' wounds. "Move slowly. I will scout ahead. Find a safe place to hide."
Perrik continues to minister to Kricker restoring the kobold to better health. Jeji believes that the humans have retreated to the cabin where she saw them earlier. Concerned about the slaves, she volunteers to scout it out while the others return to Issuma.
The kobolds are extremely uncomfortable and dazzled by the sunlight, but the shallow cave offers little safety from further fireballs. Kricker quickly heals the wounded and staying well clear of the camp, they make their way to their alien ally on the other side of the valley.
Certainly, the kobolds would prefer to stay in the mine and out of the bright burning of the aboveground, but who knows if the fireball tossing humans have other allies in the area. It is better to find another hiding place. They safely locate Issuma and take cover with the alien in a shrubby depression that is screened from direct sunlight.
Issuma suggests that they wait until sunset to reconnoiter.
"I agree. I will take the first watch, since I have some magic left. Drahlneep, Jeji, and Kricker, did we leave a trail that would be easy for the thinskins to follow?"
Doesn't look like it to me, but it is not my specialty. Thank you for offering to take watch. I am exhausted.
Issuma helps with the watch and nothing happens for the remainder of the day as the kobolds doze and recover. Finally, the horrible, burning orb in the sky sinks over the horizon and the dim darkness of the aboveground night returns.
Alright! Everyone feeling better? Lets go ruin their night. We'll need to remain spaced out a bit until we can disable that other mage, though hopefully she is out of fireballs at least.
"Can you prepare magic to protect us from fire?"
I did. But only one spell as I need to be ready to deal with other eventualities.
Under the cover of darkness, the kobolds and Issuma creep back toward the mine camp. There are the large barracks where the kobold slaves are kept and the cabin where Jeji was the Technic League overseers. There are no lights to be seen in the entire camp and all is quiet.
Kricker is not on the ball...
Perrik taps the party member next to him and whispers, "There's another kobold out here--look!" He points.
As Perrik points, the dark scaled slinky kobold freezes and peers back at the group. Perrik studies the figure more closely and recognizes Reep the Slick, one of the original kobold explorers that he knew from their earliest investigations of the ancient ruins under the human settlement of Torch on the Mountain of Violet Fire.
"What? What is he doing?" Drahlneep asks as he squints to see the kobold.
"It's Reep, another Blightscale kobold!"
Reep waves the group closer. The violet scaled kobold chuckles with pleasure. Like Sarahthenal, he speaks with a hiss. "It is good to sssee you again. How did you find usss? Do not worry, the humansss have gone."
"All of them? Where did they go?"
Reep's attention is on the kobolds' tall four-armed ally. "Thisss one is a friend? It has four armsss like the monsterss in the mine, but not ssscaly. The Sssskull looks more like the ssskeletons in the Mountain of Violet Fire. Did they come back to life?"
He replies to Drahlneep. "There were four humansss and the Gearsssmen Robotsss. I have not seen the two feral humansss or the Gearsssmen. I hope they are desstroyed. We heard another fight at the mine and only the human leader, Issstavarti, and his lieutenant, SSiliana, returned. It was too light to sssee well, but we thought we heard them go that direction," he points up the valley. "I came out to make sssure that the cabin is empty. I hope that they left my gun."
The Kasathan's gaze follows the direction that Reep's finger is pointing and she speaks in Common. "Is he saying that they've gone that way? That is the wrong direction if they were retreating. That is where I come from, the Scar of the Spider."
The robots are dead, as well as the two feral humans. Come let us investigate the cabin and see after the welfare of the rest of our folk. It may be that we need to chase down the other humans before they can find a cleric to cure the leaders blindness.
Drahlneep checks the area indicated by Reep looking to confirm the direction the surviving League slavers fled.
Drahlneep looks around, but the immediate area is heavily trafficked and trampled preventing any definite confirmation of the most recent movements.
Reep leads the way into the cabin which is pretty barren. The main room features little beside a table and chairs and a kitchen area with a water basin, counter, and some cabinets. There are smaller rooms to each side. One room has bunk beds and smells of the sweaty, feral humans. There is little to find except spare animal hides and arrows. The leader and lieutenant share another room with separate beds. There are two trunks that are empty. Reep is relieved to find that his musket has been left behind. It is broken and tossed in a pile of trash, but he can easily repair it.
Reep,what did they have you mining for? And do think you will be able to lead the survivors back to the warren if we push on after these technomancers?
Reep fidgets with his busted musket. "I wish that I could help you hunt down those League ssslavers, but you are right. I must lead the othersss back to the warren and find the Technic League ssspy that killed Vornop and ssent me to these ssslavers. Vornop'sss body must be recovered and given the proper ritualsss."
"We were digging for the ancient ruins and weaponss buried in the hill. The monsters showed up right after we began to find what the humans sssought." He pauses thinking. "I overheard them ssspeaking once. They did not know that I understood them. They ssaid that one of their companions, Therace was his name, disscovered thisss place, but then went deeper in the Sssscar to find more ancient ruins. Maybe they went to get hisss help."
"They killed Vornop?" Perrik's normally cold affect cracks for just a moment as he bares his teeth. "We will follow them and take revenge for what they did to him! We will teach them that the Blightscales are not to be trifled with! WE ARE DRAGONS!"
"YESSSSSS! The humans need to be reminded that dragons are to be feared. Track them down and destroy them. I will lead the others home and we will tell of your great deeds," Reep promises.