Snuffling from behind a cluster of crystals forty feet away, three insectile creatures approach - each about the size of a sheep - with four legs, a strange propeller-shaped protrusion at the end of its tail, and two long, feathery antennae.
...a floating plate draws close to one of the creatures on an unseen current and, brushing against one of the extended antenna, disintegrates to glittering motes of copper dust... hanging in the air...
"Rust monsters," Lorne says. "Everyone, keep your distance. They won't likely try to kill us, but they have a voracious appetite for metal. Aella, you should probably get out of here- they'll have your gear for dinner!"
Lorne sheathes his rapier and retrieves his whip, in case he needs to frighten the Rust Monsters away. "If anyone has anything metallic they can stand to part with, we might be able to lure the beasts away."
Harry eyes the rust monsters briefly before he draws his belaying pin. "I don't carry much metal, seeing as how it be rusting a lot, so I cannat lure them away." He watches the movement of the floating plates closely. "Perhaps when they be distracted by one o' them, we kin break for it."
Aella had her sword half-drawn at the sight of the miserable creature. She makes to unsheathe it, but her companions words were an effective deterrent. She shoves it back in, disgusted.
"This is a weapon I'll not be willing to part with for anything. Sorry, I won't be of much help here."
She steps back, frustrated once more at herself.
As the creatures snuffle around, they suddenly stop… their antenna fluttering with increasing agitation as they seem to sense something… and then, almost inevitably, they start to move – with a waddling urgency – towards the group…
They like metal eh? Let's see how well they catch it. With that, Robert quick draws Onyx, aims quickly, then fires at the lead monster.
He will then step back, keeping his metal beauty a fair distance away
Aella draws out the length of rope from her backpack, unsure of what else she could possible use. She keeps an eye out for some kind of weapon she could use, such as a long piece of wood, or a stray shard of crystal. Though it pains her, she remains near the back of the group, close enough to provide healing, but far enough to be an unlikely target.
"If I hide my gear in my bedroll, can they smell it? Will they know?" She asks, mostly towards Lorne.
From her position, she will draw her only dagger and tries to hit the monster where it hurts. And maybe it will distract them long enough
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Lorne cringes at the sudden surge of violence, but he supposes it was inevitable- Rust Monsters are, after all, capable of completely decimating the tools they need to solve the mystery of Nal-Kashel. He stays at the maximum distance he can and turns his whip against the nearest creature. "Back, beasts!" he shouts, hoping they will be intimidated by the loud cracking of his weapon.
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The closest of the rust monsters is stopped in its tracks by the explosion from Robert’s pistol… the projectile from the gunslinger’s weapon tunnelling deep into the flanks of the creature… and, as Aella retreats, Kit’Arr steps forwards and flings a dagger – it too, is accurately thrown and the rust monster’s charge is stopped as it crashes to the floor… momentum driving it forwards for another yard or so… the knife itself embedded in the skull of the beast.
…ignoring Lorne’s whip crack, the two remaining creatures crowd around the body of the fallen rust monster… snuffling around and with antennae fluttering, they make excited noises – shrieks and whistles - before turning and advancing upon the group once more… and, of Kit’Arr’s knife, there is now little sign… a few patches of corroded metal around the wound on the dead rust monster but that is all…
"Och, we don't need this delay 'ere...! Harry grunts in irritation as he loads a crossbow bolt and lets fly at another of the rust monsters.
Heirang’s crossbow bolt thumps into the closest of the creatures… as Kit’Arr, seeing the steel of her dagger corroded to powder in mere seconds, turns and runs from the monsters…
Lorne will not run away just yet, actually- he will stand his ground and attempt to beat back the Rust Monsters once again before they can snuffle his friends' equipment into slag.
"Somebody hit 'em with something non-metal, please! We can't let them send us all running with our tails between our legs- we don't have tails! Except Kit, obviously, who does have a tail."
"Yes. And very few people will see whats under my armor. So im keeping clear of those things... does anyone have another dagger they have no attachment too?" she asks. Keeping her eye on the metal eating bugs
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Kitt takes the opportunity to liberate a dagger from her armored companion. So she can hopefully take another shot at the beasties heading towards them
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With a whistling ‘crack’ sound, Lorne starts to drive one of the beasts backwards… whimpering slightly at the pain caused by the whip’s strike, it moves backwards a little…
…cracking off one of the many blue crystals that have embedded themselves in the ground here, Aella fashions herself a club of sorts…
[Dice=damage] 1d8+6 [/b]
Lorne! Stop throwing that thing around and kill the beasts already! The dwarf is right, we need to keep moving! So hurry the frak up!
Robert's voice is clearly audible, even above the sound of his pistol exploding. A small bit of his command voice from his time as a privateer beginning to emerge as he sends yet another bullet towards the beasts.
[Dice=attack vs. Touch AC] 1d20+13
[Dice=damage] 1d8+6 [/b]
Lorne! Stop throwing that thing around and kill the beasts already! The dwarf is right, we need to keep moving! So hurry the frak up!
Robert's voice is clearly audible, even above the sound of his pistol exploding. A small bit of his command voice from his time as a privateer beginning to emerge as he sends yet another bullet towards the beasts.
The pistol crack from Robert's weapon echoes around the ruins of the building - a sharp intrusion into the otherwise strangely subdued environs... and, as a small rivulet of blood starts to run down the rust monster's flanks, it turns and - with a series of peculiar honk noises - flees...
...its companion, slightly smaller, echoes the noises and runs away as fast as it stubby legs will allow...
"Well... that couldve gone worse" she chuckles
"Besides my dagger. Anything else lost? " she asks looking around
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Harry grunts in satisfaction as he watches the rust monsters flee from the group. Re-holstering his crossbow, he shakes his head at the catfolk. "The only thing we lost 'ere was time. Let's git movin'." He retorts.
Lorne groans and puts his hands on his knees. "That was... stressful," he says. "Alas, we are victorious! ...And look, no lives lost. Exactly as it should be, eh?" He gives Robert a droll look, but does not have the heart to talk back to him- especially since it was the gunman who drove the Rust Monsters off. "...Shall we continue on as we were before we were so rudely interrupted by those uncouth beasts?"
"Uncouth? Well, I'm not sure about that. Terrifying, surely, but also charming in their own way, don't you think?"
"Ill get you a stuffed animal that looks like one when we get to town" she grins
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"...And don't even offer me one, do you? I'm hurt, Kit. Wounded."
"But back on point, yes, now that the wee beasties have fled, shall we see what else is hiding in this place?"
With the rust momsters having fled, the group are free to search the ruins of the old building... and it quickly becomes apparent that this building was a library or an archive od sorts - the copper plates floating on unseen eddies are ancient engraved texts, each of them still loosely bound together as collected volumes. Searching around, Lorne discovers a text that, although corroded, is still readable - entitled Idionestra’s Histories, these early chronicles of Nal- Kashel detail its founding as a small, isolated observatory and its growth as a center of learning.
Harry's face lights up at the discovery this is a library, of sorts. He eagerly takes to searching for any further undiscovered secrets .
Paws in her pockets she wonders around. Books. Blehg. Boring. Nothing of note? Some treasure hunt this is turning out to be...
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Lorne happily takes Idionestra's Histories and begins pawing through it- at first out of aimless curiosity, and then for any sign of anything that might suggest why people from Blackcove might have been disappearing. Any mentions of strange laboratories and experiments, for instance...
For all that the copper tome professes to be, there is precious little information about anything untoward happening on the island... the text records the construction date and function of various buildings yet it is strangely banal in its content. Frustrated, Lorne looks for other books... there are two more that have survived the ravages of time (and the rust monster's voracious appetite) - both suggest that this place was more than a sinple observatory: The Seventh Column, about a secret society who were executed by drowning after a failed coup of Nal-Kashel’s colleges, and Sigil & Glyph, woefully incomplete editorial broadsheets claiming the existence of secret experiments transforming humans into aquatic hosts for alien entities from the Dark Tapestry, under the control of something known as the “unwelcome guest.”
Whilst Lorne examines his discoveries, Heirang sees something that catches his eye... A copper shard, not floating in a collection of other plates, that has been engraved with arcane formulas. When he reaches out to touch it, the plate separates into stamped metal glyphs that begin to closely orbit his head.
Harry smiles greedily as he looks over the crown. "Aye this be verra useful indeed!" Looking over the Histories he shakes his head. "I dunno which way ta go, but th' Aquarium and Graveyard sound like dead ends ta me. Let's check th' Organic Tower." He suggests.
She begins to laugh
"You made a funny! Graveyard. Dead end. Hah! Good one!"
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Lorne covers his face in his palm as Kit cracks up. "Kit... you are truly the most ridiculous being I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. Nonetheless, Harry, my good man, I am in agreement. To the Organic Tower!"
"There now, you see, at least it's pleasurable." she grins at him
Aella crosses her arms, frowning as she wonder through the dusty old shelves and columns of books. She always felt uncomfortable in libraries; they reminded her of her poor understanding of written languages. She could read most simple texts... somewhat, but it was a time consuming effort that tended to frustrate her more than anything.
Kit's outburst serves well to alleviate her dour mood, and she finds herself unable to stifle her chortle in time. She clamps a hand to her mouth, caught in the act of enjoying Kit's ridiculousness, and promptly turns herself away.
"What is it you have there, Harry? It looks... interesting."
She looks at the back of Aella, a smirk on her face
"Strike one, Princess"
Harry does a double take on hearing Aella's question. He gives the paladin a suspicious look for a moment before nodding to himself. "This be a Crown 'o Blasting," He responds excitedly, "Verra useful against most critters and also th' undead too!"
Trekking through ruined buildings, the group arrive at the building described as 'The Organic Tower' by the historical plates taken by Lorne... Piles of white shale litter the ground before a twisting, broken spire near a high cliff. Large white flakes constantly slough off the top and sides of the tower and plummet to the ground and sea below, as if the spire was still growing like some out-of-control mollusk.
...a gaping hole provides entry to the lower floor.
Harry holds up his finger, indicating quiet. "Something be movin' down there..."
Lorne nods, confirming Harry's statement. "Aye, I hear it, too. Think we could draw it out into the open?"
The closer the group get to the strange tower, the worse the falling debris becomes… the air seems to take on a slightly gritty feeling as the dust from the falling shale hangs as a small cloud around the base of the spire…
…whatever is in the tower, and their certainly is a shape moving around near the doorway, has either not noticed the group or chosen not to charge them through the shower of falling material.
Aella looks at the seemingly endless cascade of shale and sighs, knowing she has not the skills to dodge them all as Kit might.
"If we can't get it out here, then I suggest we charge through this avalanche before fighting. I would not like to be stuck under... that."