"Of course, happy to help out." looking at the halfling "Don't not talk on our account. They did shoot at some of us so your name and then start with that."
29 to JJ
The Halfling pokes her head up with a sheepish grin. "Hi." She says, looking ready to bolt. "Um, sorry for shooting at you. I only joined up with these guys recently. Kinda hard to survive around here for a smallfolk on her own."
She straightens up cautiously, showing she's repaired his musket. "I'm Meridale Candle. Everyone just calls me Merry."
So what are you doing now?
"Of course, happy to help out."
The gunslinger sighed in relief as he felt his injuries lessening to aches and pains. "Thanks, Di." He replied as he wiped off some skin that was charred from the fireball he took.
The Halfling pokes her head up with a sheepish grin. "Hi." She says, looking ready to bolt. "Um, sorry for shooting at you. I only joined up with these guys recently. Kinda hard to survive around here for a smallfolk on her own."
She straightens up cautiously, showing she's repaired his musket. "I'm Meridale Candle. Everyone just calls me Merry."
Hearing her words, JJ could sense a familiar story from the halfling. She kinda reminded him of his own perils when he was younger. No friends, no family, and convenient alliances to survive. Knowing full well about those circumstances, he couldn't bring himself to blame her too much for her actions.
"A fellow slinger, huh?" JJ asked, flourishing her his own pistol to build some common ground. "I prefer pistols over muskets, but it's hard to say no to any weapon that can hurt from a lot from a long distance. Still, getting a bit off topic there... You sure you want to work with us? We're gonna be fighting our way through these parts and trying to take down the Lords of Rust. Rewarding experience sure, but hazardous to your health."
An interesting conundrum. Olympia observes. We want to help good people, but we cannot know if Merry will turn on us later. How do we choose. You get the idea that Olympia has never been in this situation before.
"Well maybe you can earn the trust of everyone. Among other things a friend asked us to check in a cleric, do you know of any clerics that make this place home?"
"She is little like me and we tend to keep our word, not all of us but most of us. We could use her if she knows things about this town, plus she seems rather interesting." Figgy and Springy continue with their work.
"We are also looking to meet the great cleric of Brigh that lives around here as well. Well I am at least." Figgy almost blushes
"What can you tell us about what's been happening in Scrapwall recently, since the arrival of Hellion?" Raktar asks, hoping that Merry can provide them with more information about recent goings-on.
"I'd quite like to visit this cleric too," he adds.
Roga was still not trusting the little halfling with the big musket and he was not shy about telling her.
"I've got my eyes on you. Next time you shoot at any of us, it will be your last time. Understand?"
---------------
Merry perks up when it looks as if she's found a group to join, a big grin on her little face as she comes out and shakes any offered hands.
"I can't tell you much about this Hellion gonk." She responds. "We were pretty new to Scrapwall ourselves. What I do know is he's really shaking things up here. It used to be the usual free-for-all you get in open places like this. But now it's like everyone is jostling for position to impress Hellion?"
"Oh, the Priestess? She's up north, at the end of a long alley. Better be careful though, she's got this statue made of junk that starts moving and beats the snot outta you if she don't like you."
She glares back at Roga when he growls at her. "Hey, I wasn't even shooting at you! Who put the beartrap in your breech cloth?"
What are you doing now?
"We are going to meet the Priestess, maybe you should stay back as we do not want to upset her with your presence if she is already upset with you." Figgy says matter of factually.
What about Birdfoot. He sounds pretty bad to leave behind us."
"I agree. As much as I want to meet up with the worshippers of Brigh, Birdfoot needs dealing with first. Once he and his Smilers are out of our way, we should have an easier time making our way around town," Raktar says, musing on the scale of the impact that Hellion seems to have had amidst the chaos and disorder of Scrapwall.
And it will do us good to further build up our scrapworth. Olimpia says with a smile.
Figgy sighs, "I bend to your will, I do call going to her next as I would like to meet her and this creation of hers more now than ever." Figgy turns to Merry, "Where is Birdfoot? Does he have any interesting technology?"
Merry can't tell you much of the gangs, hers was recent to the area and had come up from the River kingdoms lured by the rumors of high tech weaponry. Something that appealed to all the gang.
Hawk palace is ahead of you now, you can make out the forms of 4 Orcs on the walkway of the crude structure.
What are you doing now?
"Lets go ask the grumpy lady at the door the Steel Falcons? Iron Ravens? Platnium Pigeons?" Figgy keeps mumbling as he makes his way back towards the gate.
"I believe she said it was just ahead." she gestures towards the orcs "They will certainly see us coming."
Hmm. Perhaps we need a gang name for ourselves to further impress the locals and for something for our scrap worth to stick to.
"I believe she said it was just ahead." she gestures towards the orcs "They will certainly see us coming."
"Not much point in hiding if that's the case. We might as well just stroll up as close as we can before they stop us and put them down."
Hmm. Perhaps we need a gang name for ourselves to further impress the locals and for something for our scrap worth to stick to.
JJ shrugs. "Not a bad idea, but what would we call ourselves? The Torch Bearers? Rage Against Robots? The Kings of Glaucite? The Silverdisk Slingers? It's not easy coming up with good gang names."
"Happy Torch Travelers? Four-armed Skeleton Slayers? Torch Song Trilogy?"
Maybe she is not good at coming up with names.
D1 is the walkway around the thrown together shacks that make up the Hawks palace, at the moment there are 4 Orcs on a casual watch.
What are you doing now?
"We might be more intimidating without a name. People are afraid of things they know nothing about," Raktar suggests as they move on. He grips his hammer tightly, readying himself by channelling magic into his muscles, his hammer, and his friends. The scars along his arms glow through the plates of his armour and the head of his hammer takes on a silver light.
"People are afraid of the unknown, but getting scrapworth means being known for doing stupid things and living to tell about it." He replied as he formulated a plan. "Seems simple enough. Whether we hit them with silence or just charge in, with surprise on our side, we'll hit them so fast, they won't have time to properly react. I'm gonna see if I can't get in close for an ambush."
"By the way... We should probably try to take Birdfoot alive and get some info from him. Since he's a Smiler, he's bound to know some weakness or oversight we can exploit." JJ added before crouching, lowering his profile and making his way to the side of some stairs.
These orcs, they are smilers as well? Olympia asks, not wanting to fight if talking my suffice.
After the talking is over she moves forward quietly with JJ, vanishing in the cover.
Roga kept the halfling close and gave her a big toothy grin everytime she turned around and looked at him.
When it came time to choosing a name he agreed with JJ, "I think the Torch Bearers has a good ring to it. We did start out in Torch and it is the reason why we are here."
He added, "Besides, Torch Bearer has an air of importance to it."
He waited for the halfling to respond to the android, "Well, do you know those orcs?"
"Figgy and I could make some some badges or something tonight." Figgy says with some pride.
Merry blinks and shrugs when questioned about the Orcs. "Dunno? I know Birdfood is a smiler, you can't mistake one of them! Those Orcs don't have the grin though. I think they're just muscle sent by the Lords of rust to back Birdfood up. The Smilers are seriously trying to buttkiss the Lords lately. Marrow is scary mean, but most of the bosses in the Lords are bad enough to stomp her, so she's trying to join up and get some rank out of the deal."
"We take out this smiler and we go up in repuatation?" Figgy asks without looking.
Once he was in position around the stairs, he figured that no one saw him coming. Looking back to his allies, he waves them over to try and coax them closer.
Seeing JJ and Olimpia get closer Dilana whispers to herself. "Sneaky, sneaky."
As she attempts to quietly join them.
Anyone else moving closer?
Figgy and Springy follow Dilana as she gets closer.
Raktar, fully aware of noise created by his heavy armour and his lack of agility, doesn’t try to approach stealthily like the others. Hammer in hand, he strides confidently toward the building, hoping to keep the guards’ attention away from his friends.
The Orcs straighten suspiciously as Raktar approaches, one spots Figgy creeping nearer and yells "Ambush!"
Since Orcs have a 0 for init and the party was prepared for trouble everyone can have their actions now. The battle order will be party then Orcs.
At the signal - the orcs realising that they're about to be ambushed - Raktar increases his pace, sprinting up the steps towards the first lookout. His hammer trails silver sparks as he brings it round in a scything arc towards the lookout.
Raktar stumbles on the uneven top step, his blow going ludicrously wide and leaving him open to a counter-attack.
The pride Dilana felt for being so sneaky quickly evaporates as the group is spotted.
Taking her pistol in both hands she steps around to the base of the stairs and levels it at the first orc in red armor. Sighted down the gun her eyes flash red as she gives her target a withering look.
A quick "Bang, bang." escapes her lips in rapid succession.
Roga is slightly surprised as Raktar takes off, "Wait up!"
With his sword out, the barbarian cuts down the orc next to his friend.
----------
HP 58/58
AC 20, touch 12, flat-footed 17
Conditions: n/a
Melee (+1 greatsword): +9 = +1 magic +5 (base) +3 (STR)
Melee Damage (+1 greatsword): 2d6+5, 19-20
-2 to hit, +6 damage for power attack
Ranged (MW double barreled pistol): +8 = +1 MW +5 (base) +2 (DEX)
Ranged damage (MW pistol): 1d8, x4, 20' (touch AC in 1st range)
Rage adds +2 to hit/damage
10/10 rage
Pulling a weapon as she emerges from hiding Olimpia moves up the steps and Swift imbues the weapon with shocking ability before striking.
Figgy moves up beside Dilana, "Hi!, sorry they saw me, Springy says it is my fault." Figgy fingers a few vials in his hands waiting his turn to get into the building.
"Welp... we tried stealth. Now, we go loud." He mused to himself as he gripped his new double barreled pistol, raced up the stairs and shot at one of the orcs before whistling a bit, attempting to test his newly acquired magic bandoleer.
Raktar causes the whole structure to shake wildly with his heavy blow hitting the stairs rather than his target.
Roga runs up beside him and splatters the still shaking Orc with one blow.
Jeremiah picks off yellow with one shot.
Purple Scurries to the door and hammers on it, yelling loudly. "Birdfood. We got trouble!"
Merry blinks in shock. "Sweet, saucy Shelyn. You guys really don't waste time do you?"
She takes careful aim at Green
Potting him easily.
The door to D3 flies open and a couple more Orcs lurch out. "Whus happening?"
The party may now go again.
Raktar steps over the bleeding body on the stairs and strides towards the reinforcements. He points with his hammer at the nearest one.
"Look how little trouble we had with your friends. Throw down your weapons and we might let you live," he states, putting on a stern expression, aiming not only to intimidate the group but to keep their attention away from the still-hidden Olimpia.
"Better listen to the man. If you don't, you'll be lucky to be recognized as anything more than a stain on the floor." JJ yelled in support while aiming his gun up the stairs, waiting for one of them to be an idiot and peak his head over or charge down.
"Wow, impressive guys."
Dilana follows the others in, gun in hand, but doesn't take additional action.
Roga moved up past the witch, "Shoot over me, please."
He hesitated between his new gun and sword but decided on the proven method, three feet of steel.
"Get Birdfoot out here. We have a proposition for him!"
He then whispered to JJ, "We want to talk to him, right?"
--------------
HP 58/58
AC 20, touch 12, flat-footed 17
Conditions: n/a
Melee (+1 greatsword): +9 = +1 magic +5 (base) +3 (STR)
Melee Damage (+1 greatsword): 2d6+5, 19-20
-2 to hit, +6 damage for power attack
Ranged (MW double barreled pistol): +8 = +1 MW +5 (base) +2 (DEX)
Ranged damage (MW pistol): 1d8, x4, 20' (touch AC in 1st range)
Rage adds +2 to hit/damage
10/10 rage