Ton struggles against the grasping vines but manages to slap a new battery into his pistol
"The ratfolk-we're helping them, right?"
Sam cuts down another smiler-- 2 left.
Jolga nods approvingly as his companions deal with the enemy. He causes stars to sparkle in the eyes of an unentangled smiler to make it harder for him to attack.
"You can't burn these f~##s, old man. They rot."
Zeke and Wulf can go
Zeke shoots his last coin.
Zeke misses! Wulf might still be able to end this and stop them from attacking again.
The Smilers give it their all, but now that the Heroes of Torch have closed on them, their pistols are of no use. They draw daggers and give it their best shot, but Sam and Wulf quickly end things. Jolga promptly ends the entangle spell, and the rats collapse to their knees.
"Mighty warriors! You who slaughter the Smilers like the dogs that they are! Please! Do not inflict your power upon us!"
"We came here to ask for your aid. Killing cannibals was just a bonus. Old man, these don't get burnt. They rot."
Jolga looks somewhat taken aback. "You would not take their strength to be ours?"
With the fine blow Wulf looks around for anymore smilers to put down. Spotting only rats, he lets out a few deep breaths then propping himself up on his hammer.
"We couldnt let you have all the fun." He bellows out a laugh, the ease of how they smashed the smilers giving him bounds of confidance.
He then frowns looking from Sam to Jolga. "He might be right Jolga, it's a pretty grim calling card we're leaving dotted about the place. But I'm not going to get in the way of old treditions." He holds his hands up.
"Aid of the rattfolk, not a thing to be given freely!" says one, but another pokes him and says, "Idiot! They just saved our lives. Come, strangers. You can meet Redtooth in our warrens. Though...until we can trust you further, will you wear blindfolds so you cannot know the way to our home?"
Jolga consider for a moment. "I suppose we do desire to aggravate the Smilers... Perhaps this time we leave them here. They were particularly unworthy foes..." Jolga nods in agreement with only slight reluctance. Then he turns to the ratfolk. "Yes we seek to join our strength to yours. We both detest these Smiling Men."
Zeke speaks up, adopting the easy tone of a preacher in front of the strangers. "Friends, we happened upon Whiskifiss south of here, and he invited us to come to his home and meet his sister Redtooth when we were in town. I assure you, there is no need for such extreme caution... but if you must blindfold us, then very well, I will submit."
"You have met Whiskifiss, then? He has unfortunately been kidnapped... by the Smilers themselves. It is a time of great unrest for our peoples. Redtooth can surely tell you more about it. The rest of you, will you submit to a blindfold? It would be our hide to bring you in without one."
Jolga smiles and nods. "Indeed, I will submit to the blindfold."
Zeke speaks up, adopting the easy tone of a preacher in front of the strangers. "Friends, we happened upon Whiskifiss south of here, and he invited us to come to his home and meet his sister Redtooth when we were in town. I assure you, there is no need for such extreme caution... but if you must blindfold us, then very well, I will submit."
"Yeah exactly, we're on the same side. We ain't gonna steal your cheese or anything." Ton shrugs as he holsters his pistol. "But if it makes you feel better then you can go ahead."
"Blindfolds are the right play. Charlie and I would do the same thing."
With your permission, they blindfold you, and lead you not too far and into the scrapwall. The light grows dark, so you know you are in a cave. You twist and turn about.
Your rattfolk handlers speaker. "They are here to see Redtooth. Mighty warriors. Easily disposed of a team of smilers. You know what that means."
"Very well then, pass them through."
You get further, and stop. The blindfolds are taken from you, not that it matters, since it is pitch black, and the only one of you with darkvision didn't make this outing!
But a torch is lit for your benefit.
A beautiful (if that word can be used for a rat. Cute. Maybe cute) rat stands in front of you. She is well dressed, and well armed with a buckler and a hand crossbow.
"You have my thanks for saving my folk. The Smilers, they are troublesome recently. More than troublesome. Murderous."
"They're scum, my lady. We will erase them."
"I didn't even need to talk you into it, did I?"
"I'm sure you could talk me into a lot. But putting down cannibals is like breathing: refreshing and good for you."
Jolga looks at "Charles" with a concerned expression. "Yes these Smiling Men commit senseless violence. It is in our best interests and yours for us to ally to defeat them. And perhaps we should do more than that. It seems there are more problems in this place than just the Smiling Men."
"That is true, old man. There are a great many problems, but mine starts with these Smilers. Two days ago, they kidnapped my brother Whiskifiss, my second in command, and have been harassing us badly as well, making trips into our territory, shaking down our people and killing them."
Wulf was against the blindfolds but he just went along with it, grumbling to himself at how unsafe it was. He hit his head every now and then, the Rat's not leading him so well.
As they got into the large chamber he blinded a few times letting his eyes adjust to the dim light, it hard to see because of it. He couldn't remember seeing so many rat's in one place, they acted differently from the ones they put down yesterday he started to loosen up when it seemed clear they weren't going to get jumped.
Listening for a moment he steps forward as Sam and Jolga speak up for the group. He bows before Redtooth. "It's a pleasure to meet you Redtooth." He then straightens up and smiles. "As my friends have said we have no love for the smilers, they are vile creatures that have no right to stand among civilised peoples." He says brushing off some dirt from his shirt and chest, attempting to be on his best behavior, remembering what happened with the dogmen. "We want to mix things up here in scrapwall. The lord of rust messed with us, so we're going to make sure they dont mess with anyone ever again." He clenches his fists, thinking about Val and Torch. "We need help. We need you." He takes another step forward. "We don't need any to be talked into it, but we want something for helping you. We will take care of your problem and we will look for Whiskifiss and if he lives we will save him. But we need your help."
Zeke pipes up, "We met your brother a few weeks ago beneath Torch. He struck me as a practical and clever fellow-- he's why we're here talking to you. I think he would want you to work with us."
She nods her head at Zeke. She likes you guys.
"Whiskifiss was forced on that expedition to Torch by the Lords of Rust, and many of our folk died there. If you save him, you will be considered friends and allies to the Redtooth Raiders, and I will do for you whatever I can. In addition, my ratfolk have scrounged a whole variety of technological items that may be of interest to you... You are willing to take down the Smilers, yes? We need Marrow, their leader, dead. And Whiskisfiss returned to us."
She shows you on the map where the Smilers HQ is known to be.
Jolga nods "How helpful. It is guidance from the very heavens to have a specific target. How many Smiling Men do you think are there and how big is their headquarters?"
"Yeah, it would be nice not to walk in somewhere blind for once." Ton says, still sour about the manner they were brought to the Ratfolk HQ.
"I do not know numbers or size of their headquarters. I am sorry. There are more of them then us, I know for certain. And I can also report this; their leader, Marrow, is a hobgoblin necromancer. That is known by all. She experiments on anything...live or dead..."
Jolga nods slowly. "Well that is helpful. You have guided us as far as you can. The stars will guide us from here." He turns to the others. "Perhaps we should go scout their headquarters, destroy the front door, and greet them with appropriate agression."
"You have won my trust, and I will not insist you wear blindfolds on the way out. Before you leave, a token of trust..."... she hands two batteries over to Ton'iel.
"You are welcome to stay here and rest at night times, at well. Thank you, and strike hard."
Her rats escort you out. You can see, on the way out, that their hideout is a dark warren of tunnels through trash. There are poor looking ratfolk on all sides of you sitting on blankets and old cots as you are escorted through. Wulf's head is only about an inch from hitting the ceiling.
And soon, you find yourself in daylight once more. It is about noon.
Zeke looks disgusted by this revelation about a necromancer, and looks at Jolga to see if the shaman is similarly disturbed.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Jolga looks pretty unimpressed and unbothered by the revelation about Marrow. "Yes this is normal among my people. Some lovers are known for being particularly good at wooing by touching or kissing a certain part of the body. The most common in my tribe were lip-lovers and hair-strokers." He sighs deeply "My mother was so disappointed that there was no one whose eye I caught, or truly, who caught mine. But my eyes have always slid upwards to the greatest jewels of the worlds."
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"You have won my trust, and I will not insist you wear blindfolds on the way out. Before you leave, a token of trust..."... she hands two batteries over to Ton'iel.
"You are welcome to stay here and rest at night times, at well. Thank you, and strike hard."
Her rats escort you out. You can see, on the way out, that their hideout is a dark warren of tunnels through trash. There are poor looking ratfolk on all sides of you sitting on blankets and old cots as you are escorted through. Wulf's head is only about an inch from hitting the ceiling.
And soon, you find yourself in daylight once more. It is about noon.
"My thanks, my lady." Ton says seriously. "Trust me, I'll put these to good use."
"Necromancy is a dark, but efficient style of magic. We're going to be dealing with undead for sure. This Marrow might try to reduce our strength, or frighten us. Just tryin' to make sure we're ready for what we might be up against here. Plus these Smilers show no mercy, right? So neither should we. No time to honor the dead Jolga, let's just honor ourselves."
"Charlie and I are in a competition for smiler-slaying. Winner picks next haircut."
Wulf seems annoyed at Redtooth, but they got what they came for and he just wanted to get out of there.
"I'm not trying to be mean but, it stank down there. I vote we don't sleep there. We need them for one reason and I don't think we should get too mixed up in any of these gangs." He sighs. "We have one job and then it's back to Torch. I was considering stealing one of the cots to sleep on but they didn't look too clean."
He laughs to himself thinking about dragging a cot about. Then get his head back into the game. "I'm all for smashing the front door down and dealing with the smilers once and for all. They really creep me out. I've been kinda preoccupied with what Dinvaya said about that Chain Sword, what do you lot think it could be?" He says ideally as they walk.
The party heads north, wandering through a maze of trash, eventually, by mid-afternoon, making it to the arena. Arriving here, you are well aware that you have come to Lords of Rust territory. The emblem of the upraised talon is graffitied across many trash surfaces.
The arena is not hard to spot, even from a distance, as the structure itself rises three times as high as the highest pile of rusty junk. There are several entrances, a couple of large arched entrances obviously intended for the masses of spectators, as you can see ramps leading up into a huge seating area. And there is a smaller entrance, presumably for participants or staff, which looks like it leads to a basement.
But the whole area is flooded with orcs and humans moving in front of the barred entrances, conducting a variety of business with each other in little kiosks and shops. There is no clear way through the mob and into the structure.
In a position behind a pile of trash, they don't see you yet, and all logic dictates that you keep it so.
Jolga nods with interest. "Good. I am glad to see what this place is. Shall we continue to the Smiling Men?"
"Yeah you're right, no point announcing ourselves until we're ready."
Ton takes a look at the crowd and stalls for anything out of the ordinary.
The only thing out of the ordinary is that the shops and kiosks are here at all. It is the first sign of commerce you have seen in Scrapwall. Tempting as it might be to sell of your things, you decide that doing so with the Lords of Rust would not be a good idea, and you continue on....
Heading west, sometimes directly, and sometimes indirectly as the trash maze pulls and pushes you in a whole variety of directions, you slowly make your way to the far northwestern corner of Scrapwall. It is now early evening, and no one would fault you for returning back to Dinvaya's place before you assaulted the Smiler HQ.
But before you even get a chance... to your great surprise... around a corner walks a group of the most unpleasant but most familiar faces. Sanvil Trett, mirror imaged of course, just like when he fought you in Torch...when he murdered Sam.
Accompanying him is a huge barbarian... Wulf recognizes the barbarian immediately. He is from Wulf's clan, in fact. A young warrior, about Wulf's age, named Grunkrak.
Trett speaks.
"Sanvil Trett knew that he would find you here, after our tussle in Torch. You may have cornered me and forced me to flee, but Sanvil Trett never leaves any loose ends. And so, Sanvil Trett brought backup this time. An ambitious youth, Grunkrak... All too willing to sell out his entire clan to a Technic League slaver squad. That's right, Wulfgar. Your dearest mother and father are now enjoying spending their times serving meals at the palace in Starfall. Oh, and your grandparents, and your aunts and uncles, and your cousins... Though some of the better looking ones are now in the harem of the Black Sovereign. It seemed like the least Sanvil Trett could do after how you lot interfered with him in Torch!"
Grunkrak laughs. "Bwa ha ha! Your metal skin no save you now, foil! You thought you so tough, back in our home. Me knew you were scum! Then and now! Me happy to be rich now! Rich because your whole family... slaves! Slaves because you ran away and no protect them!"
Sammy's face goes slack when the Tretts appear. Slowly, though, a rather large grin appears. "Hey, there, buddy. Been longing to see you again. I'm gonna make you die bad. Nothing clean. Gunners, pick a Trett so we can see who's real!"
Zeke is momentarily stunned by Trett's appearance, then narrows his eyes and prepares himself for the inevitable fight.
Jolga eyes the new arrivals oddly. "How strange... To approach so outnumbered... You must wish a soon death... For our powers are more than you can guess. We travel this city unhindered, slaying ruffian legions who stand in our way." The old man shrugs. "Perhaps the stars lead you to doom."
"Outnumbered? I count nine of us, and only five of you, old man!"
Jolga chuckles to himself. "Really? Well when the you learn to count all of your foes, you will be a much more dangerous adversary." His eyes flick quickly to several hiding places behind Trett.
Sammy turns to Jolga in outrage, angry the surprise was ruined.
Zeke looks over Trett and his friend, remembering their last fight with the magus and considering what he knows of Wulf that would be applicable to someone else from his tribe.