The wire is attached to a cleverly counterweighted jagged spike made of a heavy grey metal.
-Posted with Wayfinder
"Leave it Baleiro. We have found the trap and it now poses no threat to us. Spending time to disarm it would be illogical when my father is missing and we have limited time on our spells. We ought to continue quickly." Fifteen urges.
Baleiro nods, standing and carefully moving past the trap. "Understood. Logging threat location."
You carefully step over the tripwire into the narrow tunnel, stooping to pass under a 5-ft ceiling. In the next small cavern, you encounter a 2-feet tall grey-skinned creature, gnawing on a yellowed humanoid fingerbone. Grimacing like a maniac, this lean little bat-eared horror displays a mouth full of needle-like teeth and glowing, orange eyes.
You recall that gremlins are hard to damage with weapons not made out of a special material called Cold Iron, and also difficult to affect with spells.
The creature runs up to Baleiro with amazing speed before anyone can mount up a defense, jumps up and tries to stick what looks like a shiv made of a stolen kitchen knife right up where it hurts the most!
But Baleiro's armor protects him well and the pest wails in disappointment.
Fifteen immediately moves to flank the creature, striking back at the creature with equal unkindness as she aims for the neck!
Fifteen's attack hits the gremlin, but she notices that the energy beam bends slightly as it comes to contact with its flesh, as if it's dulled somehow. The creature is disturbed by the black blood spraying out of its neck, but still very much alive.
Baleiro will pull his Nodachi free from its scabbard and swipes hard with it, trying to scissor the gremlin between his blade and Fifteen's machete.
If it's still alive, Rur will step up and attack with his longsword...
...missing, due, no doubt, to the close quarters.
Baleiro finishes off the creature, which dies with a loud shriek.
Rur heads to the intersection to the east (moved on map), peering at the bend to the north. He doesn't want anything fallowing them as the group continues on.
If nothing's there, he'll continue south and check out the easternmost chamber.
Fifteen maintains a cautious distance between her companions, ready to spring to either of their sides in a moment.
"What do you observe? I suspect an ambush. We must be cautious."
Baleiro will keep his sensors tuned high, and moves forward in 5 foot increments.
Searching for additional targets.
-Posted with Wayfinder
Just as Rur peers north, he hears scuttling at his feet to the left!
But the stealthy creature's tiny weapon fails to pierce the scales of his armored shins.
"Rur, another approaches from the right!" Fifteen sets herself between Rur and the gremlin, keeping a few feet back from the tripwire as she tries to identify the trap, and watch the small creature sneaking up on her at the same time.
The other gremlin skips over the northern tripwire and throws himself onto Rur.
Fifteen's energy weapons leave barely a scratch across its face, and it manages to attack Rur from the side:
Its tiny sword manages to find a painful spot to strike.
Rur's "tattoos" blaze with a deep purplish glow and his nanites immediately go to work repairing his wound.
Baleiro sees the creature injure his ally and retaliates as hard as he can. His attack vector is faulty, however.
-Posted with Wayfinder
Rur attacks the one Fifteen damaged.
Baleiro and Rur both miss; the gremlins gleefully continue harassing Rur, meddling underfoot and even trying to climb up his armor when he's distracted.
-Posted with Wayfinder
Seeing Rur beset by gremlins increases Fifteen's resolve, she takes a moment to line up her strike carefully...
Fifteen's fearsome blow spells certain doom for the gremlin, but it manages to dodge it at the last moment and the energy blade passes within an inch of its head.
Rur is becoming annoyed with these creatures in spite of himself. He attacks at an awkward angle...
...a little too awkward.
Baleiro will move closer to try to see how he can help. He stays on guard in case any new enemies show up.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
The gremlins relentlessly attempt to turn Rur into a polymer pin cushion, their agitated screams getting louder.
Fifteen, trying hard not to contribute to the Rur pincushion, strikes at the gremlin again.
This time she catches the small creature from a blind spot, and lands a solid blow.
The gremlin squeals in pain and attempts to flee back into the north corridor, allowing Rur and Fifteen to strike parting blows.
-Posted with Wayfinder
With a look of grin determination on his face, Rur takes the opening.
Rur's determined grin is the last thing the fleeing gremlin sees before it meets its grim fate.
Baleiro finishes calculating his trajectories, and vaults over both Rur and the gremlin by pushing off the rough walls and flipping in a tight roll to avoid the ceiling. Landing on the other side, he takes a stab at the gremlin.
Baleiro somersaults past the combatants and in one fluid movement cuts the other gremlin in half with a mathematical precision, his blade passing within an inch from Rur's body.
-Posted with Wayfinder
"Execution complete. Scanning." he says blandly, looking around for any additional targets.
"We must be careful," Fifteen says, seemingly unimpressed by Baleiro's demonstration of skill. "Letting one of us be caught between these creatures is foolish. I suggest we proceed that way" She indicates the direction the gremlin attempted to flee in. "It would likely have run back to its lair. That is where we need to be."
"Thank you both for your assistance, my good chums. I think from now on I will face these creatures at range." Rur sheathes his longsword and draws a javelin, motioning for his companions to lead the way.
You circle around the trapped tunnel and find another north-bound passageway. After a short walk it opens up into a narrow ledge overlooking a rubble-filled cavern. The far wall is made of a smooth, dark gray metal. A single circular door, tightly closed, sits on the metal wall just above the upper level of the rubble.
Inside the cave, another, slightly larger gremlin with a makeshift crown on its head is diligently sharpening up a long shard of metal. Upon seeing you, it makes an excited noise and gets ready for battle.
Clambering through the debris with inhuman speed, the tiny horror rushes towards Baleiro, uses the momentum to run up the ledge and tries to pin Baleiro's foot to the cave floor with the metal shard.
Before Baleiro can react, he feels sharp pain in his foot as the jagged metal shard pierces it.
Fifteen circles around her companions to strike at the capering beast from behind, before striking at the gremlin's legs - hoping to hobble it.
-Posted with Wayfinder
Rur hurls his javelin.
He seems pleased with himself, making-up for his less than stellar performance thus far. He draws another javelin.
The gremlin vaults over Fifteen's weapons and ducks below Rur's javelin. It looks meaner than the ones you fought so far.
Damage received. Unit under attack! Overdrive activating...
"Internal safeties disabled!" Baleiro's voice comes out fast and clipped, like an automated message more than a statement under his will. His tattoos change color, glowing a violent red as he starts heating up.
His first swing cutting through the air over the gremlin's head.
The gremlin keeps attacking Baleiro with impunity:
But without the element of surprise, it has trouble doing any harm. Realizing this, it attempts to hide in the nearby side chamber.
-Posted with Wayfinder
Fifteen is too slow to hit the capering thing and only succeeds in shaving the air next to Baliero's violently glowing eyes.
The gremlin nearly made it, but it didn't account for Baleiro having the higher ground. Baleiro's powerful strike sent it tumbling through the jagged debris littering the cave floor. The gremlin lost its 'crown' in the process, but it was not dead yet. When it got up, it was not capering any more. Instead, it clapped its tiny hands and stepped into a small dimensional portal that appeared at its command and vanished after it was gone.
-Posted with Wayfinder
Rur casts detect magic and examines the debris field.
"Combat protocols suspended. Entering cooldown." Baliero's system reports. His focus turns from battle to the here and now. His tattoos start to shift from red to blue, as heat radiates from him in a brief burst.
Fifteen begins a systematic search of the area, appraising the piles of junk and turning over trinkets with a scavengers thoroughness.
You do not detect any magic except for a faint trace of conjuration where the gremlin's portal was.
You spend some time searching for anything of value in the cave, but fail to turn up anything that hasn't been scavenged or broken yet.
The dark gray metal wall on the far end of the cave is solid and smooth, save for a circular door slightly above the rubble level, that is tightly shut. Any attempts to force it open fail and there is no visible lock. No sounds are coming from behind it.
Picking the remains of the gremlin crown, you return to the skulks' huts. Sef takes the crown from you and inspects it for a while, then suddenly spits on it and stomps it into the ground. She asks you to wait while she fetches your reward and disappears behind a curtain, only to return with a jingling pouch in her head and several pieces of slightly flexible material with brown stripes on them.
"We no like strangers. Strangers take away our home and our things that we took from them. But you give us home. Thank you, strangers. We can have honor too. You can pass freely, but the pink hair woman closed the door behind her. You will have to take the other door to the east of our cave.
Take the silverdisks and also these brown things. The pink hair woman asked us if we had any but we didn't. Now we found some behind the wall, but she never return to collect. And the bones with four arms would not let us follow her. Give them to her if you find her - this is our gift for letting you through. Ask her not to harm us."
Rur bows to Sef. "Thank you for allowing us passage. May your home now know peace.