Oh my... we never really discussed what we'd do if they actually let us in... oh well, hear goes!!!
"Fanks bruvva... tha'ss my scrap and ye can kip yer hands off of it", Sharae yanks Criek's chain and oulls him through the door into the macabre room, "Git in 'ere ye mangy scrap!!! Sooner I can git ye chained up wiv that Whiskifiss critter tha bettah..."
Sharae looks for some kind of reaction from the huge man... anything that suggests where she ought to be dragging Criek - and more importantly, where Whiskifiss might be...
Gunshy grunts as he heaves himself onto a battered stool next to one of the ruined table. He yawns and scratches himself.
Sharae can see two exits from this room, one door to the north behind the bar and one to the east. She can hear raucous laughter coming from behind the East door.
This is probably a really... really bad idea
Sharae, for show and trying not injure Criek, kicks the dishevelled ratfolk, "Move it plaguecarriahhh..."
...and pushes him towards the eastern door.
Gunshy startles a bit at the bronze hound as it follows Sharae's leash but doesn't make any other comment as Sharae moves East. She pushes at the door, which is heavy and it takes a little while for it to open.
On the other side are four Smilers and they look up from tossing around what looks like a battered skull.
The closest one narrows his eyes Oi, I don't recognize yer
"Yeah? An' I dun' reckignise you neeethah!!! You bin drinkin' or on the chymicals ave yer? You dun't remembah me joinin' last month then? An' what abaht last night?"
Sharae is referring to the fight between the Smilers and Redtooth's Raiders - and trying to infer that she was there all along... although, if some of the other Smilers get the wrong end of the stick and can start teasing their companion, all the better.
Always on the chems. That's why we're always SMILIN' One of the Smilers at the back jibes and harsh laughter rings out as another Smiler tosses the skull at Sharae. It's an easy lob and Sharae has no problem catching it. It's small, looks like ratfolk. One of the quieter Smilers looks a little confused but the acceptance of the others including the one who first called Sharae out seems to quiet her down.
What're you talkin' about last night? Only thing that happened was Jinkie and her crew going out to hunt. They always come back loaded with fresh meat. he asks as he saunters back to what looks like a stove in the middle of the room. Getting one live will prolly make Marrow happy and that shiny dog will get in her good books fer sure. Put in a good word yeah? Share some of the pink she gives?
Inside the air smells of smoke and burnt meat. The crude stove is made of a metal barrel resting atop blocks of stone. A narrow passageway leads out of the room lined with doors, inside some of the open ones you can see mattresses and empty jars of Soothe lying about accompanied by splashes of dried or drying blood. Seems like you've found the Smiler's crash pad.
The stove is bubbling with some sort of stew, in it you can occasionally see what looks like human bones bobbing around in the rolling boil.
The Smilers make way for Sharae and her captive ratfolk and metal dog, they seem to be expecting her to either join them or move on into the small passageway. They jeer at Criek and poke at him with their daggers, making smacking noises from their self mutilated mouths and lips. They seem more interested in Sharae's live loot rather than her artificial one.
Sharae grins and tosses the ratfolk skull back...
Poor, poor Criek... to be put through this...
She tries to skirt the question coming from the woman and nods towards the Smiler who first raised a question about Sharae, "Mebbe bes' you ask 'im over there..." and then drags Criek away to the small passageway...
Criek needs make little effort to feign fear by this point, letting out little squeaks and whimpers in reaction to Sharae's banter with the Smilers, but tries to keep his head, scurrying ahead of Sharae at her tug.
"Meat?!" This Merrow sounds terrifying -- but I suppose we've got the snake by the tail at this point, and the only way to end it is to cut off it's head!
Sharae yanks Criek and the bronze dog down the narrow passgeway that is lined with doors similar to the ones they've seen already in this room. The passageway ends in a left turn into a door.
The doors open into a large chamber which contains several metal tables adorned with tangles of strange devices sporting metallic, articulated arms, many of which end in blades, needles, saws, or other implements of surgery. The whole area reeks of blood and old guts, and telltale rusty brown stains besmirch the floor and wals. Lighting is provided by several burning skulls sitting her and there throughout the room.
Three bizarre, things, are standing in unnatural poses about the room. They are corpses.... but various parts of their flesh have been replaced by gadgets made of scrap and metal. An arm on one has been replaced by a blood soaked drill, a metal plate and mechanical jaws seem to have been nailed to another.
As one they raise their heads to stare at the intruders, their eyes, whether a rotting eyball or replaced by some technical sensor, stare at Sharae for a moment before their heads drop back down and they go impassive again.
There are double doors heading west and a small door heading south. The door to the south looks better made than the functional looking double doors.
Criek also notices a very carefully hidden door on the eastern wall, just north of where they came in.
Criek tugs at Sharae's sleeve and indicates the hidden door, remaining quiet in hopes of not arousing the...whatever those horrific dead things are!
Momentarily horrified at the sight in front of her, Sharae muses on what it is that these poor things are... and what they were before they were remade in this dreadful image.
...and then, feeling Criek tugging at her sleeve, she notices the hidden door - and, maybe against her better judgement, decides to investigate.
Criek will give the doors the pair entered through a quick look to see if there's any lock, or easy way to jam them -- hoping to prevent the Smilers behind them from following too quickly if they realize the ruse.
Sharae and Criek move into a narrow passage that they have to go in single file. The door itself is made of metal but the tunnel beyond is a simple one of dirt supported by scavenged scrap. It it goes east for a bit before curving north. A few minutes of travel and you see daylight at the end as well as feel the whistle of fresh air blowing in.
All the way at the end of the tunnel the two explorers poke their head out a small cave mouth set deep in a very steep mound of scrap, hidden by piles and piles of junk. It's a hidden entrance to Scrapwall! Apparently the Smilers have their own personal route out of the settlement.
The deep imprints of footsteps going in and out of the cave show that the Smilers use the hidden passage routinely. It also explains why Redtooth's Raiders were never able to track the Smiler's movements effectively.
There's no one around at the cave mouth or in the passage itself. It seems like the Smilers rely on secrecy for security in this case.
Criek gasps in relief at having a few minutes of privacy and safety. "It's good to know there's another way out of here in case things go sour! ...er, as if they're not sour from top to bottom, that is?
"It seems our bluff has been so far successful -- I don't suppose we can hope to reach Whiskifiss and extract him entirely without confrontation, though."
Sharae breaths a sigh of relief as, at least for a moment, the fear of being discovered subsides. "Criek, is there anyway of dealing with the Smilers room by room? I fear if we are discovered things could get out of control very quickly..."
...and then smiling, hoping to reassure Criek, "Maybe we might be able to get Whiskifiss out through this route? Maybe this could go better than we could have hoped?"
"I agree, we could easily be trapped and overwhelmed. This passage does give us options, though! As you say, we can get Whiskifiss out here, and not even go back out the way we came!
"If we could wedge shut the doors behind us, it would at least keep the guards we already passed from coming at us from behind? And I think I can even rig a bomb to the door, so that it explodes if they do get through."
He frowns. "I'm not sure how we deal with those dead things, though -- neither my bombs nor your weapon are silent, so I doubt we can fight them without raising the general alarm -- but I hardly think they'll remain still if we face Marrow, or if we come running past them with Whiskifiss in tow?"
Sharae thinks for a moment after Criek suggests jury-rigging the doors with some form of explosive, "And we could try to freeze the doors shut with my pistol... it probably wouldn't hold for too long but anything that buys us time whilst we are in the eye of the storm..."
Having deduced that this tunnel may well serve as an escape route, Sharae grimaces towards Criek, "Time for us to be Smiler and prey again I fear..."
The south door opens easily, far easier than the other, more ramshackle doors of the Smiler's base of operations.
Inside Sharae and Criek find a chamber which combines the comforts of a cozy bedroom with the horrors of a necromantic laboratory—it’s difficult to tell which pieces of furniture here are meant for relaxation and which ones are intended for torture. In the far corner is a bed, right in front of you, on the right side of the room is a work bench which has all manners of tools on it, from high tech to low tech as well quite a lot of body parts and scrap. A hobgoblin woman looks up as the door opens. She is bald, like all hobogoblins and her grey skin gives her a quite good resemblance to the zombie that you can see standing in a corner.
The hobgoblin uses a dagger to carve a small morsel off of the human torso that she seems to be working on and pops it in her mouth and starts chewing as she stares at Sharae
What is it Smiler? She peers around Sharae and drops her dagger to clap with delight Ahhhhh, another live ratfolk, and a construct! Yes... they both gave ideas to Marrow. So many ideas for flesh and scrap to come together. Come come. Come in.
Marrow gets up and moves with a hunched gait to the left side of the room and out of view.
Such treasures deserve treasure in return. Good Smiler come in for the pink before Marrow changes her mind.
Criek shudders as the implications of Marrow's statement sinks in. Sounds like Whiskifiss is alive -- let's hope *enough* of him is still alive to be worth saving!
...but not seeing the other captured ratfolk, Criek looks up at Sharae, ready to follow her lead.
Realising that she has walked into a dreadful situation, Sharae tries to maintain her Smiler appearance, "No Pink for I today mah Sistah... Got tha dreadful bellyaches Oi 'ave... bin goin' right through me it 'as!!!" And then trying to turn the talk in the direction of the other captive that she hopes is still here, "Tha uvver boyz was sayin' we should keep the ratties togetha... where's tha uvver one?"
Marrow reappears in the doorway, her hobgoblin features going slack with surprise before becoming incensed.
No Smiler refuses the Pink gift! Who are you? Why are you here! she points at Sharae and Criek. Attack! Imposter!
The zombie in the room turns its gaze towards you, with a clanking and rusy screeching noise so do the four in the room.
The zombie in the room shuffles towards Sharae. Then, three more come into view surrounding and then moving ahead of the pointing and screaming Marrow!
Only one gets to the Share through the doorway, the others are right behind. Marrow is almost lost behind view but she can certainly be heard behind her undead guardians.
Sharae easily avoids the clumsy swipe from the leading zombie
From behind the three metal augmented zombies shuffle towards the group from behind.
One gets to the dog and uses its arm drill to try and stab and dog.
With a screech of metal on metal the drill manages to penetrate the bronze dog's recent repaired exterior.
Another gets to Criek
Which misses badly.
The third closes in, hemming the group in with undead.
You hear Marrow stop screaming to cast some spell.
Cursing beneath her breath and looking for the guidance of Desna, Sharae raises her holy symbol high...
Perhaps because the young cleric hasn't had much past experience in fighting undead the divine energy that washes from her doesn't do much more than buffet the zombies back a little bit. They do seem worse for wear though and Marrow screeches in rage when she realizes what Sharae has done.
NO! Don't harm my lovelies you fake, you thief, I will gnaw on your head while you still Live!
Having barely held in his reflex to flee thus far, Criek spasms into action as the zombies close in, hurling a bomb past Sharae at the (terrifying!) hobgoblin in hopes of disrupting whatever she's casting
...before turning and attempting to smash a bomb in the face of the zombie threatening him
...but bobbles the second bomb, dropping it to roll between the zombie's legs and explode on the floor behind it.
The metal jaws of the zombie clamp down on Criek. But the ratfolk is still able to score a direct hit on the screaming hobgoblin.
She gasps in shock as the chill sets deep on her.
Three of the zombies get splashed
Two of the zombies disintegrate while one, lunging forward to try and get at Sharae avoids the worst of it. It's looking like it's barely holding together though.
The bronze dog, absent any other instruction turns to the zombie that damaged it and bites.
The rust zombie that attacked him goes down with a clank and thud.
Not completely frozen, Marrow manages to raise her hands and a pulse of energy, the opposite of what Sharae did, moves out from her.
The zombie in front of Sharae seems to knit itself back together to full undead vitality while the one right behind it looks much more stable as well.
The zombie tries to attack Sharae again.
But misses.
The final rust zombie moves in on the dog and he gets attacked twice, once by the zombie on the ground.
Both miss.
the rust zombie on Criek doesn't get very hurt by his damage and bites again.
Marrow 16
Normal zombie 3
Normal zombie
Rust zombie 9
Rust zombie 14
Rust zombie 3
Dog 7
Criek 10
Now more desperate to deal with the threat immediately next to him, Criek draws his sword and slashes at it!
The butterfly painted across Sharae's face seems to ripple and flutter as she, once more, beseeches Desna to cast these abominations into oblivion...
The second pulse of holy energy washes over the damaged undead and two of the rust zombies and one of the normal ones crumble into dust.
No no no, my lovlies Marrow moans before her eyes flash with rage and she casts a spell at Sharae.
Sharae feels a cold chill gripping her body but her current very close connection to The Starsong lets her easily shrug it off.
The last remaining rust zombie continues its assault on the dog while the very depleted zombie still standing in the doorway lashes out at Sharae again
The final rust zombie gets more damage in on the dog while the zombie flails ineffectually at the cleric.
The dog switches its attention to the last zombie that attacked it.
And brings it down. It looks very badly damaged but it's not gone yet.
Marrow 16
Normal zombie second line Dead
Normal zombie 5
Rust zombie first on dog Dead
Rust zombie Creik Dead
Rust zombie second on dog prone 18
Dog 7+6
Criek 10
As the rust zombies immediately around him crumble, Criek turns back to face Marrow - "'Lovelies?!' Cruel abominations, you mean!" he cries, pulling out more bombs.
The barrage of bombs is enough to send Marrow flying back, senseless into her sanctum. The two remaining, heavily damaged, zombies are easily dispatched subsequently by Sharae and the dog.
Combat over a silence falls over the two rooms that the fight occurred in. You can hear the sound of laughter and rough talk from the Smiler's crash pad continue unabated.
Inside, Marrow's room looks like a cozy bedroom mashed together with the horrors of a necormantic laboratory. It's difficult to tell which pieces of furniture are meant for relaxation and which ones are intended for torture.
Criek shudders, his skin crawling as he looks around the room, and at the remains of the rust zombies.
"...at least none of these look like Whiskifiss? Poor souls, regardless. Do you see anything that would help us find Hellion and get to the bottom of this? Notes, plans? ...not that the Smilers seem organized enough for 'plans'."
He undertakes a quick search of Merrow's person and furniture.
Sharae mutters a quick prayer to Desna - that the poor unfortunates who were reincarnated by Marrow find solace and are allowed to continue on their journey.
Examining the state of the room, and the tools scattered around it, Sharae grimaces, "Likely our neighbours believe Marrow was simply engaged in the kind of surgery that involves screaming... we are safe - for now at least". Sharae waits until Criek has finished searching before suggesting moving through the double doors to the west...
On Marrow you find two potions, three wands, two gas grenades, four bottles of soothe, a dagger and a cloak
Within a large metal cabinet you findseven
batteries, 22 silverdisks, a pouch of gems, a case of 14
vials of soothe, three gas grenades (see page
62), four scrolls.
In addition, a suit of studded leather, a short sword, and a light crossbow
with 10 bolts, all ratfolk sized are found stacked on a table near the door.
After going through Marrow's room. Criek and Sharae also find a very shoddy map of Scrapwall (compared to the one you have from Redtooth). The interesting thing is a scribbled notation Marrow has of the North East corner of Scrapwall. It says in crabbed Common cannot control undead here. Too strong! Especially at crashed starship!
Beyond the double doors Criek, Sharae, and the dog enter into a small room, which, unlike the disgusting chaos of the Smiler infested areas of the small complex, or the horrifying nercormantic scrap loboratory and bedroom where Marrow lived, is quite clean and resembles most what this structure once was, a module of a starship much like the one that you delved into under Torch.
You can see the walls and doors, clear of soothe stains, and blood marks, are made of starmetal.
Moving through another set of double doors you find a larger over shaped room with well over a dozen large glass tanks sitting against the walls. The tanks themselves are semi opaque with condensation, grit and filth, but serverl of them seem to contain some sort of figure within.
Each tank has a metal rimmed door on its front allowing the contents to be accessed and one tank to the north, close to where you came in, has been wrapped with several coils of rope.
As you three enter eight of the tank doors open and out of each, a drooling Smiler lolls out to look at who has come in. Their eyes are dim and cruel scars can be seen at the side of their head. They focus on Sharae and then with moans and whimpers they fall back into the containers and the doors close with a muffled thud. One of these beings gets a foot stuck in the door as it tries to close it. Instead of pulling its foot in it just keeps trying to close the door over and over as it bangs again and again on the foot, turning it into mush.
Criek scoops most of the loot into his pack for a more careful evaluation later, keeping out a few choice items.
"These should work with your weapon?" he indicates the batteries to Sharae, "And this seems like it must be Whiskifiss' gear - let's go give it back to him."
The shock of finding a spaceship...medical lab? Just lab?...giving way to horror at the condition of its occupants, Criek points to the roped-off capsule with a raised eyebrow in silent question.
The fact that one of the cylinders has been wrapped in rope is immediately obvious and sends a multitude of possibilities racing in Sharae's mind... all of which suggest leaving well alone, "Something too powerful for the Smilers to manage? I think we should leave it for now?"
...regardless, Sharae is nervously holding her pistol close. As there is no immediate threat here, she suggests pushing on, "Through these doors?"
Heading out the only other exit which is the south door that doubles back to the east Sharae and Criek find an empty short passageway that turns south and ends in a double door.
Momentarily free from any apparent Smiler presence, Criek whispers to Sharae, "I'm fairly certain this is just leading us back to the front entry -- I was thinking the tied-shut, er, tank, might be where they've stashed Whiskifiss? ...At this point, if he's not there, I'm not sure where else they might have put him?"
"I suppose you may be right... but why so much rope? We will need to be cautious - what if it is an experiment that the Smilers weren't able to contain?"
Sharae has her pistol in one hand as she starts to examine the ropes holding the cylinder closed... the chance that there is something unpleasant within just won't leave her mind - that, and the presence of the other 'things' within this room, have her uncharacteristically spooked, "Criek... if this isn't Whiskifiss... and it isn't friendly, make sure that your hound is ready to attack".
Sharae and Criek move back to the previous room, and head past the mutilated Smilers, one of them still trying to slam his case's door shut on an increasingly bloody foot.
Inside the roped off glass case, Sharae and Criek see a small form covered in brown fur with eyes closed.
As they get closer the eyes suddenly snap open!
The ratfolk inside cringes away when he sees the looming form of Sharae but then it spies Criek at his eye level and an expression of surprise goes over his face. He starts to bang on the glass case, hard enough that the case shudders. It seems like the only way to keep the case doors closed in this makeshit laboratory is to tie it down with rope.
this makeshit laboratory
"Well, and even if it *is* Whiskifiss, there's still the chance he's become an experiment at this point?" Criek nods sadly at Sharae's tone of caution.
As they approach the roped pod, Criek positions the dog between himself and the area the door would open into, in case the occupant turns out to be hostile.
Seeing Whiskifiss' expression inside the tube, he places one hand flat against the side of the chamber, in a hopefully comforting gesture, putting a finger to his lips with the other hand before he pulls his dagger and saws at the ropes. Panicked more than hostile, I think -- let's just hope the rest of these are too pinked out to notice!
The ratfolk calms down at Criek's comforting motions though he does keep his palms pushed against the glass, desperate to be out of captivity.
"He doesn't seem to have completely lost his wits?" Criek whispers to Sharae hopefully as he continues attempting to cut through the ropes.
...this makeshit laboratory!!!
Sharae watches with a little concern as she helps Criek with the ropes...
As the ropes fall away the door of the glass case swings open with a thud and the ratfolk inside lurches out onto his hands and knees. He scrabbles back onto his haunches breathing heavily as he looks wildly around.
Who, who are you two? Don't hurt me! he squeaks out in a scared tone of voice.
The ratfolk looks disheveled and hungry and is most definitely panicked. Other than that he looks unhurt, though he is unclothed and shielding himself from view.