The ysoki's expression changes from entranced to visibly horrified. "W-W-what did you say? L-l-leave me alone!" He says, wavering on his furry feet. Faraeon bruises Maarbadvae again with a cinematic attack, while Ehdd fires a shot into the sandy dunes, his view obstructed by I-5.
Faraeon (-5)
Red ysoki (-10)
Ratatat (-5)
I-5 (-12)
Green ysoki (dazed this round, shaken one round)
Maarbadvae (-5)
Poppilo
Ehdd
0689
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0689 burns some fur off of the ysoki, but he remains breathing, and curses up at the android. Seeing he's far outnumbered and nearly dead, he turns and runs out the back door.
Faraeon (-5)
Red ysoki (-10, fleeing)
Ratatat (-5)
I-5 (-12)
Green ysoki (dazed this round, shaken one round)
Maarbadvae (-5)
Poppilo
Ehdd
0689
Both the shobhad and her furry friend dodge most of the flames. Seeing nowhere to hide, the ysoki drops his gun and pulls out a club. "N-no, yer a little too close for comfort, robobrains! Get outta here!"
His fear throws off his aim, and he misses I-5.
Maarbadvae steps back as well, drawing her battle staff and swinging at I-5. "Whether with my mind or with this ordinary stick, Talbot is our savior and I will stop at nothing to protect him!"
Faraeon (-5)
Ratatat (-5)
I-5 (-12)
Green ysoki (-1)
Maarbadvae (-6)
Poppilo
Ehdd
0689
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"Alright! You want to ignore the truth here? Fine! Build up your hopes so Talbot can crush them once someone brings him down for lying to you all. But you come here and attack me and my friends? That's not gonna stand. You're going down!" With another seemingly unnecessary acrobatic stunt, Faraeon fires off another shot at Maarbadvae, hopefully getting closer to ending this fight.
The ysoki with the green club doesn't fall for the same trick twice! "Whattaya tryin' ta do, lashunta? Yer not so scary." I-5 makes him shut up with a slash of the longsword, and Ratatat fires a hole into his knee. He screams in pain as blood sprays from his broken kneecap!
Faraeon manages to blast Maarbadvae again, but nothing seems to be able to break her determination. "Of course you would say that. You'll do anything you can to stop his loyal guards. Oh Talbot, lend me your strength," she says, beginning to hum rhythmically as if to pray to a deity.
".... Ya, yer crazy, lady," green says, panting and limping off as fast as he can from the fight.
Maarbadvae steps back and pulls out her hunting rifle, firing back at Faraeon, the shell flying off into the distance.
Faraeon (-5)
Ratatat (-5)
I-5 (-12)
Maarbadvae (-8, 4 NL)
Poppilo
Ehdd
0689
Faraeon and Ehdd both fire two more shots at Maarbadvae that prove to be lethal, and she falls to the ground unconscious.
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Ehdd blows the imaginary smoke from the 'barrel' of his blaster before flipping it in the air and tucking it back under this coat tails in his waistband.
"Well now, how we go about patchin you Ranch Hands up anyhow? Maybe a quick rest and a drink is in order eh?" Ehdd points to the saloon door with his three fingered hand. "Drink's are on the house I hear..."
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"Now now, Ratatat, don't go leading us to our deaths. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm not such a seasoned warrior that I can just go from fight to fight. Let's take...I don't know...about 10 minutes to rest up? Then we can get after Talbot and put an end to this madness. Gotta show these people someone really worth admiring, not some phony." Faraeon sticks out his chest and tries to hide his wince as the pain still lingering in his brain catches him again.
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Poppilo stares at the back of the fleeing ysoki, his usual frivolous attitude forgotten. "I think they be only hired guns by this Maarbadvae. Doubt they be going to Talbot. But word will spread, so we need to move fast."
He glances at the wounds of his companions, then squats down beside I-5, laying his hand on him. "The Pirate Queen favours a good scuffle, and those who provide them." He closes his eyes, pulling forth the divine energy that is imbued in him from Besmara, and slowly but steadily, I-5's wounds close.
After the rest, Poppilo stares down at the unconscious shobhad. "Doubt we'll get much from her, but Ehdd and I can always give it a try," Poppilo says as he cracks his knuckles.
Ratatat finds a few fancy items on Maarbadvae's body: her second skin armor, a battle staff, a hunting rifle with five rounds left, an mk 1 mindlink circlet, a spell gem (see below), and assorted shobhad bangles and charms likely of some value.
Where to, folks? The mines? Or will you attempt to heal the fanatical shobhad?
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Not finding anything else of use among Maarbadvae's possessions, Faraeon picks out a couple bangles. "Never know when you'll run into a lovely lady with an eye for jewelry, right?"
After resting up a bit, the Grav-Runner stands and stretches his limbs. "Ahhh! Well, should we go see if we can't find these mines where Talbot is building himself up a little cult?"
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Ehdd will bend down on one knee and try stuffing some cloth into one of her bleeding wounds. "Am I doing this right? Why isn't her blood green?" He stands up after a few moments, obviously a bit freaked out by all the blood and walks off.
"I'm gonna grab a cold one before we head down to the mines..."
If the bar tended is gone Ehdd will look around for a good bottle of booze to snag for later Hopefully we'll be able to break this out to celebrate on the shuttle home! He then pours himself another shot of the green stuff he had earlier and wipes the blood off his hands on a bar towel.
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Poppilo takes the gem over from Ratatat and examines it carefully. "Huh. This be useful likely. I better hold onto it," he mumbles and slips the gem into his pocket.
He stands over Ehdd, studying his clumsy attempts, with one eyebrow raised. He snorts when he eventually gives up. Looking at each in turn, he shrugs. "Don't look at me. I'm not medically trained. And I'm not wasting my magic on her."
With the threat eliminated, the bartender returns minutes later along with several patrons who scoff at the fanaticism of the shobhad. "I like Talbot as much as everyone else, but that lady was nuts. She deserved her fate. Geez, gimme a stiff one, will ya?" A burly man slips back into the bar and it's soon business as usual at the Digger's Dive.
Using the directions provided to you by the patrons at the bar, you make for the Thasteron Mine just a few minutes outside town proper. A sloping ramp descends to the west, made of hard-packed red dirt that shows signs of heavy vehicle traffic. The ramp opens into a large square chamber with rough walls. A metal track runs along the ground from a passage in the west wall and then turns north, ascending a five-foot ramp and then running along the north wall until the track terminates. A pair of metal lockers stand in the southeast corner, and a heap of ore is piled to the southwest.
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Popping glances briefly at the tracks and the orc but he has little experience with such matters and quickly loses interest. Instead, he zooms straight for the lockers, curious to find out what treasures it might contain. But he carefully examines them in case there are traps or other nasty surprises.
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Ratatatat looks at the mine tracks and comments, "Thetracksthere... Minecartsusethem...Theyenterhere...androllalongramp...thenthecartsare uncoupled...theygettiped...theircargolands...inbedofavehicle...thatwouldbac kuptotracks."
"Letsgowest..."
Ratatatat heads to the west tracks and looks down the tunnel.
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Ehdd nods his head along with the other bar patrons as he pours them a drink, and himself one, before leaving the bar back to its proper handler. "She sure was crazy, didn't want to listen to reason..." Ehdd slams back the shot and heads out to the mine with the others.
He moves down the ramp and looks at the pile of rocks from a far, not wanting to get their dust and rust all over his nice suit. "Sure is dark down here... how come all I can think of is that feathered thing or that weird alien up in the ceiling... you know, the kid's pet?"
He follows the others, not having much to say after that.
The lockers are locked, but can be picked open or forced with some effort.
Exiting this room, the minecart tracks continue north and south, though the northern path is lined with failing lights and thick, trackless dust, implying no one has been down that way for months. The southern passage leads to another intersection containing a square ceiling support.
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Ratatatat looks and sees the others struggling with the locker. "Hereletme..." he pulls out one of his many tool and uses it to work on the lock.
CLICK
He scrounges through the contents.
"Medkit...Engineeringkit...Someonegrabthemedkit...9or5...youwanttheengineer ingkit?" he tosses the cref stick in the air and catches it with his mouth. "Storingforgood...measurehehe. he pushes the cred stick into mouth pocket.
A passageway from the east leads into this rectangular chamber with rough-hewn walls. A metal mine-cart track runs parallel to the passage and enters the room before ending abruptly. A mine cart in an obvious state of disrepair lies adjacent to the tracks. Tools cover a table against the east wall.
With little of note in the eastern room, you head west. As I-5 does so, a pivoted, mounted laser rifle emerges from a sliding panel and fires at the android.
Whoever calibrated the laser didn't do such a great job, and the blast strikes the rust-colored wall behind Faraeon instead. The rifle slides back into the panel.
Further into the room, the startling grinding of steel wheels against rusted tracks is heard.
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"Holy s&$%! We're under attack!" Ehdd dives for cover behind some rocks as the laser fires. He pops his head up as things go silent "Everyone ok? Someone should disable that... Ratatatatatat? I'll be down here until you're ready." His head ducks back down to wait for the all clear.
Once the all clear is given he tosses up a rock first to see if it truly is safe, before hopping up and dusting himself off. "Can't be too careful down here I guess!"