Arkady turns to Adrien and tilts his head. "I see no reason not to help Sef and her people, do you?"
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"And now Skunk Onna travels after vision--that is way of shamans, Thüm knows. Har! We are well met! Thüm is on path of glory. Spirits should guide him, but Thüm cannot see. Skunk Onna will be his eyes; Thüm will be her strong back." His massive, easy grin flashes in the dim cavern. "Mighty legends begin with paths joining!"
Onna smiles at Thum's declaration. "It will be my honor to commune with the spirits on our shared path. I have not yet developed the gift of foresight - but I still think I can predict a great destiny for us."
Sef looks at Arkady. "Then I assume your friends will comply", she says, making the most of the opportunity. "You may return to them. Luepel will lead you to the creatures' caves"
As the group turns to leave, she calls after them from the mouth of her cave: "One other thing. One of the big man's friends lies dead in the cave beyond!" (she points to the area to west of the their own caves, and to the south of where Thum, Onna, Ulok and OZ have been waiting). "But be careful, he had the flesh rust, and surely it still lives in and around him!"
"I'm sure they will. It's the right thing to do, after all." Adrien turns to walk away, before hearing Sef's last line. "Wait... the flesh rust? Like a disease, you mean? He was sick?" Adrien turns around for a moment. "What was this 'flesh rust', exactly?"
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Sef shrugs. "We call it the flesh rust. It entered him, consumed him, he slept and froze to death. The stuff lives forever, we think. It rises in warmth, recedes in cold. It sits and waits. Careful, as I said. We need you for clearing out the vermin."
"That... alright. Thank you for the warning," Adrien replies, leaving the shelter in which they had spoken. He turns to Arkady as they walk away, worry clear in his voice. "Flesh rust? It must be some sort of disease, or a parasite. We will need to be careful... there are many things down here none of us understand." He heads farther back the path towards the others, waiting to spy Ozymandias and the others. "I just hope, after all this, we haven't been searching for a corpse..."
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Ozymandias mostly remains quiet, watching as Onna and Thüm scribble themselves in the dirt. While not talking, if either of them glance at the automaton, they can spy him scrawling in the loose dirt with one of his massive fingers, etching a rough facsimile of his own head. The runes scrawled below the etching are unfamiliar and angular, even alien looking to them. "O-Z-Y-M-A-N-D-I-A-S," he says quietly, as his large hand slowly traces the characters into the ground. He looks to the others as they speak of spirits, but seems to remain content mimicking their own actions.
Having rejoined the rest of the group, Adrien, Arkady and Tio recount the meeting and agreement with the Gathering's leader. As they go through the story, Ulok looks thoughtful for a few minutes, then interrupts.
"This machine woman with the purple hair - she wasn't in the list of expeditions the councillor went through, was she? And you say she came before the others? I heard a rumour, at the Foundry Inn, a few days ago, that a pretty woman with purple hair showed up in town a few days before the torch went out, then disappeared. She'd obviously turned a few heads with the locals!"
"I hope for this too - it would be a shame to have used our own time to find only bodies under the ground." Strapping the longsword to his hip again, Arkady looks at the three separate markings on the ground before turning to his companions.
"We should head for area of caves where Sef's 'vermin' are. Without dealing with that problem, we will nor progress further with our quest to find Khonnir and return him to the surface."
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"Starting glorious adventures by killing vermin is ancient tradition," Thüm approves. "In battle-wise Göerta's first fight she slew seven giant rats in tavern cellar. Fourteen she was, and no fairer face has Thüm seen than hers, spattered with rat gore."
While the party discuss their next move, they hear calling in Common, from the corridor to the North. One voice is, though male, quite high. The other is female.
"Khonnir Baine? Onna? Thum? Ulok?"
Two individuals emerge from the corridor. One is a gnome, or looks like one - an outlandish figure with blue feathers in his hair. The other is a more conventional looking half-elven female, clad in leather armour and carrying a variety of exploration gear.
A young half-elf woman steps into the room carefully, a pair of shortswords in her hands and a cautious look on her face. "Hello? Ulok?" When he acknowledges, and it is obvious that the group isn't going to attack her, she sheathes her weapons and continues.
"Kol Vestry sent us in here after you. Unfortunately, we have bad news... Val Baine has fallen seriously ill, and she has asked for Ulok. She's worried that she's dying and there is a message from Khonnir that she wants to pass on, something she's discovered in the broken machine that you apparently encountered. Ulok, you're to return to the surface - the path back is currently safe...Our directions are to join with the group and provide our skills to reinforce your mission."
"I am Kayla, by the way...Guess I should have started with that, but I didn't want to forget the message! So, what are we up to?" Her eyes light up at the end, giving her an almost starry-eyed look as she thinks about the treasure and mystical things she might find.
Ulok's face goes white. "Val? Oh, oh my ... Well I had better get back. Thank you, Kayla, for bringing the message. I ..."
He looks round at the rest of the group. "I suppose I'll see you all later."
Tio steps forward. "I will accompany you, friend Ulok. Best you do not face this alone. Besides, if there is something in the broken machine, I would like to know what it is."
She turns to the rest of the party. "Friends, my best wishes to you. We shall meet again at the Foundry, I think." Then she looks at the new arrivals - "You two are to stay with the group? Replace us?"
A gnome hops forward to join the half elf now that he see's there is no threat.
He is of average height for a Gnome, he wears a tricorn over his messy blue hair into which he seems to have threaded identically coloured feathers. Completing the look are smoked glass goggles covering his evidently large eyes. He brandishes an oversized contraption in one hand...
Head twitching from side to side, he surveys the motley crew before him.
"These them Kayla? Or do we gotta do some more wet work?"
He swings the gun to some imagined foe to one size and...
"Pew!"
...pretends to fire it.
When he learns that the group are in fact the people they're looking for he holsters the weapon at his hip, slips the goggles down to his neck, and steps forward hand outstretched.
"The name's Preli, Preli Othont III. Pleased to meet you. I assume Kayla has mentioned our joining fee for coming to your aid? 100gc a piece yes?"
"Now Preli, I thought we agreed not to be so naughty this soon with the newbies...they may not appreciate your humor the way I do." Kayla mock-scolds the gnome, then turns a bright smile to the rest of the party. "Please, forgive my friend here for his brash statement. I am sure there will be plenty of reward for us all! And to that end...we were given a hasty summary of your mission, but we could use a quick update of what you have found and what is next. Who speaks for the group?"
Kayla looks at each of the remaining adventurers, her gaze finally resting on Onna, the only other female.
"I am not the best one for speaking," Onna says, seeing the woman's gaze on her. "But we welcome your help in finding Khonnir Baine. I am called Onna. We have agreed to help some natives who live in these caverns destroy some pests - and they have agreed to help us find Baine." She eyes Preli's weapon suspiciously. "I hope that device is in good repair. I have seen its like explode before and cause great injury."
Preli's disappointment at Kayla not playing along is short lived, gone as soon as Onna takes an interest in his gun
"Good repair?! She's not let me down yet, upkept by my own fair hand she is, never let me down... well, there was that one time... but you just wait 'til you see her in action... pew,pew,pew!"
Once he calms down he addresses Onna again
"Pest clearance sounds fun. I used to bullseye womp rats from my wagon back home... This Khonnir Baine chap, rich and generous is he?"
Arkady shrugs and steps forward toward the gnome. "We are not under his employ, so would not know of his coin," he says, his voice raspy and dry. He takes a long drink from his waterskin, though it seemingly has no effect on his voice when he continues to speak. "We all are here under direction from the town's council to determine his fate."
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"May be treasure under hollow hill, but nothing more valuable than gun," says Thüm, eyeing the gnome's weapon. "Gun worth more than gold, but taboo to Numerians. Tribe that finds gun gives it to Black Sovereign as tribute, pays no taxes for years--or hides it from his White Scars, keep as weapon of last resort. Only boldest warrior carries gun outside own lands. Unless..." the big man says, smiling down, "Gun looks like broken toy. But Technic League hard to fool about guns."
Ulok and Tio take their leave. "We'll see you back in Torch," says Ulok. "Good luck to you all!"
And they head off down the corridor to your north.
"Do not let Ulok take any of your parts, machine woman!" Thüm yells good-naturedly at their departing backs. "Well-made woman is two ways tempting to Ulok Scavenger...this Thüm knows! Ha! Now let us see to skraelings' vermin."
Preli removes his had, preens himself briefly then sets it beck on his head, just so. Then he checks his bandoleers are fully loaded and draws his pistol
"show me the way northlander!"
Luepel speaks. Until this point, the newcomers hadn't previously noticed her, since at their arrival she had used her talents to blend seamlessly with the background of the cave. "You made bargain with the Speaker. Time to fulfil it. Come with me to the vermin's caves."
She leads the party back through the larger cave, past the chamber which had held Sef's dwelling and to the edge of a set of far smaller tunnels. The first of these, and for all you can see the area beyond, has very little headroom, with a ceiling reaching only five feet.
Kayla wants to go first - she had always operated on her own and liked to move quietly through places so that no one knew she was coming - but the mention of vermin and these narrow, winding passages made her rethink her preferences and she fell in near the back, her short swords sheathed and her shortbow in hand with an arrow nocked. She keeps her senses attuned to the path ahead, constantly looking for signs of a trap.
Onna carries her spear as she marches with the group, scanning the cavern ahead with her excellent eyesight.
Kayla points to the northern passage and says, "How about that one first? I'm eager to get on with this adventure." Between Onna and her own excellent vision, Kayla felt confident in their ability to spot traps. Then she could squeeze by the others to disarm it...
Preli strolls forward, keeping pace with the group. pistol out and loaded. His left hand is wrapped in leather with metal plates covering his forearm and the back of his hand. Every now and then his walk turns into a two footed hop.
Even after prodding the dwarf and big human, they didn't move...so Kayla simply huffs and takes point, entering the north tunnel and looking for traps, the bow still in her hands with an arrow nocked and ready to draw. She knew Preli would follow her - they had enjoyed their trip into the caverns so far and weren't ready to turn around this soon!
Arkady unsheathes the battered longsword and tightens his fist around his buckler' handgrips, stalking through the caverns behind Onna and Kayla and attempting to remain as silent as possible as they move hopefully towards the vermin that Sef said were causing her people misery.
As the party proceeds, Thüm keeps turning around to ogle the odd little gunman behind him.
"Thüm glimpsed you in Torch, wondered if you were vision spirit or drunken dream. Seeing you sober is stranger."
The northern corridor ends in a small circular chamber.
As the group enters the room, a small, bat-eared, humanoid creature, with glowing, orange eyes and a mouth full of needle-like teeth, rushes at Kayla from the darkness. The small sword in its hand glistens in the darkness as it attacks.
Noticing the line before him stop moving and the sounds of a scuffle up front, Arkady calls out. "Kayla, Onna - what's happening up there?" Sword drawn but pointed down at his side, the dwarf pushes forwards past his companions and into the small chamber with Kayla and the little creature. "Ah, so this be the little vermin then, we thinking?"
With everyone pushing in, Kayla decides these tunnels are too tight for her bow and spends the round slinging it and drawing her short swords.
"I am unable to assist; I cannot reach our adversary," Ozymandias says, a twinge of concern in his voice. "The path must be vacated for me to aid in combat."
As Arkady enters the cave he attracts the creature's attention. It lunges for him with its sword ...
.. bruising him somewhat but not causing significant damage.
Preli moves into the branching passage, to make sure the group are not flanked.
Thüm catches Adrian's attention and points down the eastern tunnel beside them. "Sounds of battle will alert other vermin. Send your metal thrall to flank and flush them out. Thüm will follow." He stretches out with the pole of his weapon, offering them a handhold.
"Dreaming bear, share with this mite the gift of sleep," Onna calls out, beseeching the sleepy bear spirit who walked with her.
"Good idea! Ozymandias, get up there!" Adrien points to the ledge, before grabbing onto Ozymandias's back as the automaton makes pace towards the ledge. "C'mon, let's get up there and make sure there aren't any more of these things!" Adrien hoists his staff in the air towards the top of the ledge in earnest, clearly not recognizing how silly he probably looks.
"Affirmative; moving to desired position." Making sure Adrien is secure on his back, Ozymandias then makes his way to the ledge, gripping the lip of it with his one arm. A shock spring housed within his arm expands, before the hiss of the pneumatic piston in his arm escaped his chassis; the spring pulls Ozymandias up and over the edge of the wall, Adrien in tow. "Adrien, where are these c-rr-cc-r-eatures?" Ozymandias asks as Adrien drops from his back, the two waiting for Thüm to scale the ledge as well.
The creature falls asleep at Onna's hex.
The eastern corridor opens towards a slightly larger cave. But as Ozymandias moves there, he notices a tripwire discreetly set along the cave's entrance.
Arkady inches closer to the sleeping creature, his dark eyes narrowed. "What is this creature?" he states to no-one in particular.
Longsword still at the ready, he delays as it sleeps and prepares to attack it if it awakes and moves to attack either him or his companions.
"Stay on your guard - the hex of slumber lasts only moments." Onna informs the others.
Kayla moves towards OZY and Adrien to investigate the tripwire. Once there, she sheathes her swords and pulls out a special case full of odd-shaped tools. She examines the tripwire and the points where it meets the wall or a trap mechanism, then works to disarm it.
"Be careful - it is a gremlin. They can teleport themselves around you and travel in packs, so where is one is many."