Bathilda scrambles to her feet and reaches for another weapon, a smile still on her face as she turns to the two ratmen at the door.
"Now, would it make a better story if I killed Slim or Chuckles first," she asks as she moves towards the two skaven. The taller of the two scrabbles against the closed door. The other, short and stout raises his weapon as he whimpers pitifully.
"Chuckles it is then!"
Emma's eyes snap open as she hears Khad yell the word 'surrender' a few times. Naked, and in the arms of Morley, she narrows her eyes. The contortion causes her scar to stretch white for a moment.
((New bond: Morley rescued me when I was most vulnerable. Truly... unforgivable.))
As the liquid fire seeps from her skin, Morley flinches, allowing her to squirm her way free. Snatching an errant dagger from the ground, she charges *back* into the free, skipping past cooling pools of lead and molten flesh, barely pausing to admire Bathilda at work.
((New bond: I admire Bathildas power, and maybe desire it a little))
She can feel the corruption from the chaos stone running through her veins. As she leaps on to the back of the rat man trying to flee, she tries to force it out of her, while clawing at his neck and skull with knife and nails.
Cut down the two trying to flee through the sealed door.
Hack and Slash for damage. They desperately fight back, hitting me for or , 2 points.
Cut down the two trying to flee through the sealed door.
Hack and Slash for damage. They desperately fight back, hitting me for or , 2 points of damage.
EDIT: I accidently deleted the higher damage roll of 2 points, total.
"They know we are here and there must be more prisoners. We must hurry!" Morley points at the sealed door. "There's no time to fool around with that lock!"
Skaven blood dripping from her fingers, Emma scans the room, looking for her armor. And maybe some clothes...
Morley risks a brief glance at Emma, naked, covered in Skaven blood and still glowing with magical fire.
Did we kill the danger here, or release it?
The skaven are contained (and clearly outmatched) and Morley is rallying the squad to go after the other captives that must still be in the mines... yet Dhice is gripped by a mania that resists his companions' attempts to calm him down.
Looking back to where the torturer's body lies, you see Dhice hunched over him with a feral expression on his face. He picks up a large flagstone that's much heavier than you would expect the stick-like young man to be able to wield, and begins to repeatedly smash Khad's rat-like face into a pulp. When the head is no more than a pool of sopping grey matter and bone fragments, Dhice simply moves on to his collarbones and upper rib cage, although the rat-man's heavy armor severely slows his efforts.
He seems totally unaware that the party is trying to move on from this room.
Seeing Emma's nudity, Bathilda shucks off her overcoat and tosses at the other woman.
"Take it and cover up before one of the lads," She pauses eyeing Dhice, Definitely something wrong with that one, for a moment before continuing, "another one of the lads takes leave of his senses. We'll see about getting you something less drafty in a bit."
Emma grabs the overcoat with a nod of thanks. She seems to be about to introduce herself, then sees Dhice pounding away at the Skaven. With an irritated expression on her face, she marches over to him, kneels down, and grabs his face in both hands. Looking deeply into his eyes, she searches for something. Seeming convinced that she has found it, she nods.
Then cracks him in the face with her forehead.
Satisfied, she stands and turns to the obvious leader of the group... Bathilda. "I'm Emma. Have you seen my sword? I've got rats to murder."
Holy nuggets that burns! Archepex dances away from the flaming girl, then everyone makes a mess. Like they do. He stands in a corner and waits in silence as the group greets the newcomer. And as the newcomer habits dhice. Oh well, he looks better for it, actually.
Once Emma introduces herself, Archepex points out the pile of weapons Bathilda had landed in. It's probably in there. Get it and let's get a move on. Morley, we're up.
Morley nods at Archepex and approaches the sealed door, ever wary for traps.
Did these rats lock the door, or bar it?
Morley curses under his breath, quickly working at the door. "No time, no time, no time!" Morley finally drops back and looks to Grigor and Bathilda. "After you."
Then cracks him in the face with her forehead.
Reloading his rifle, Hjalmar spared a glance at what everyone else was doing, rolling his eyes at Dhice. "Stop that lad, there will be plenty time for a mental breakdown later." As he walked up to the door, he made a point of passing Dhice, slapping the youths head lightly. "Get it together or get out. Youre either a help or a liability, so choose one." He said, before addressing Morley. "I can probably get it open with powder if it proves too difficult." He offered, raising an eyebrow and producing a smile as the rattling sound of the lock springing open reached him. "Or not."
"Gotta find mine and my dagger first, then I might be able to tell ya, but as my friend with the hawk says, it's probably in the pile there," Bathilda answers before searching for her sword and dagger, finding it a few moments later.
"Alright, Grigor, which way do we go after Miss Sunshine finds herself something besides my coat to cover up with."
"If they are massed on the other side of the door, we can funnel them through it. I think the front liners should step up to form a wall and the ranged people put themselves in the best positions for sniping, and we make them fight us two or three at a time. If it works they will fall back, and we can pursue, or look for another way deeper into the mine. Thoughts?"
"Gotta be real careful about pursuit though." Hjalmar said with a sour expression. "Damn rats and their infernal contraptions could easily be the end of us all if we let them ambush us." He walked up to the others, waving a finger at noone in particular. "Flame belchin' guns, heck, I even heard talk of some sort of rifle that shoots faster than an archer."
"Crazy rats, maybe we get lucky and they blow themselves up." He finished, once more holstering his rifle and readying himself with cutlass in had at the front. "Whenever yer ready lads."
Emma sees Dhice pounding away at the Skaven. With an irritated expression on her face, she marches over to him, kneels down, and grabs his face in both hands. Looking deeply into his eyes, she searches for something. Seeming convinced that she has found it, she nods.
Then cracks him in the face with her forehead.
Nothing else has any effect on Dhice's mania, but this cuts through to his rational mind. He snaps out of the rage, and his eyes refocus on Emma's blood-stained, scarred visage. "What... where..." he stammers for a moment, then squawks out a startled gasp. "Oh dear lords above..." As she turns away from him he directs a look of pure wonder and awe at her back. Whatever God imbues that woman with power is the one for me! he thinks.
Quickly to his feet, he shies away from making eye contact with Hjalmar as the dwarf reaches up and cuffs his head.
rolling his eyes at Dhice. "Stop that lad, there will be plenty time for a mental breakdown later." As he walked up to the door, he made a point of passing Dhice, slapping the youths head lightly. "Get it together or get out. Youre either a help or a liability, so choose one."
"Of course Hjalmar, of course. I don't know what came over me there... I'm with you!"
Dhice moves over to the remaining molten lead and gets a little twinkle in his eye. I wonder how Muppy would feel about a molten metallic body... With a look of concentration his brings his forearms to bear once again, and allows his magic to flow.
At Grigor's signal Morley attempts to open the door, planning to fall back immediately to let the warriors through first.
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Olaeus steps past the shaken channeler and looks over the ruined corpse of the torturer. "Hmm, you will still serve a purpose, vermin-kin." The Speaker dips his finger into the blood and gore that was once a skull and traces a rough circle around the body. "Return and confess, that the Black Gates of Death may be easy and light."
The bloody circle smokes and bubbles, and then the image of the ratman appears within. "Khad, answer me and know peace. What is the purpose behind gathering all of the instruments from the town?"
The first Skaven's head has scarcely finished its long roll across the Forge room floor by the time Bathilda, her bloodlust not yet slaked, stalks up to the remaining two. "Chuckles it is, then!" and the dwarven Urgrosh swings in a fatal overhead arc. The Skaven is bisected from the top of his head to his waist, and the barbarian scornfully tosses the corpse off of her newly appropriated weapon. She turns to regard the final third, and sees a crazed, naked woman with long nails and a wild demeanor slashing and biting at the poor creature. It's about to strike back, but Grigor, the fighter seemingly amused by the whole situation, parries the counterattack before it can touch her and finishes the job. The woman claws at her own flesh, dragging what look like small, sharpened pebbles out of certain parts of her and viciously shoving them inside the Skaven's corpse. Despite this, her body still gives off a faint aura of chaotic energy that could strike out at anybody nearby at any second. The sensation of being near her is like being next to a venomous snake that is shaking its rattle.
As Dhice struggles to come to grips with the loss of his recently-acquired friend, staring down at the blood on his hands from his brief moment of savagery with Khad's corpse. He reaches for the elements, but feels nothing. The pain in his heart for Muppy's sacrifice blocks his connection to the earth spirits; it will take time for the magic to flow as freely as it did before. Still, the strange prisoner's touch seemed to ground you in reality.
At the door, Morley finds the lock to be of dwarf-make, solidly made but ultimately predictable in design. With the confidence of a master, you determine that there are unlikely to be any traps on the other side of the door, and how to unlock it. There's stairs leading upward on the other side, leading to a room that's upward and around a gentle corner. You can see light coming from the room, and the corner of a bed in the doorway, only partially visible and not blocking entrance. There's no sign of the remaining Skaven that fled. You turn back to let everybody know that the door's unlocked, but only Grigor is paying attention - everyone else is paying attention to what Orlovsky has summoned from the Torturer's corpse. Khad rises again, wrapped in ethereal chains that tug him ever through the floor. He is held aloft by Orlovsky's necromancy only. Speaking, for him, appears difficult. "Rrrerraugh!" is all his newly-dead ghost can manage, at first. The magic compels him to obey in the form of the ghostly chains tightening around the Torturer's ghostly body.
"They were for Witch-Mother...she desires music to...accompany the voices of her playthings...brought them from the town...reason we came to this stinking backwater...at all..."
When the final word passes his ghostly lips, a portal beneath his chains open up and the chains release him. Blackness in the shape of a horrific claw reaches up from the depths of Hell to claim Khad's soul, and he descends into the madness of the afterlife screaming.
Oh, and you can roll to loot before you proceed if you wish. Roll +Wis. 1d6+5 coins for the 6 and below'ers, 1d10+10 for 7-9s, and 2d8+15 coins for the 10+ rolls. You'll get random inferior, moderate, or superior loot based on the result of your roll.
As soon as Bathilda is finished with her looting, she turns to see the ghost of the ratman torturer.
"I do not like this," she murmurs to herself, "I do not trust magic."
Emerging from the tunnel, still zipping up his trousers, Myk-Myk witnesses the Shade of the torturer confessing and then being drug back to hell. The folk are already in full loot, and there's a new face amongst their number.
"Tarnation! I knew I shouldn't have had that second cup of coffee, I've missed all the fun!"
Myk-Myk selects only an old Dwarven warhammer from the pile of discarded weapons, and surveys the room the best he can.
Searching for Treasure!
Coins
Archepex isn't particularly interested in the loot here, so he does a minimum of rummaging about.
Dhice collects a few coins but his concern over his diminished connection to his earth energy distracts him.
Morley comes down the stairway to a scene out of a nightmare, and stands transfixed by the sight of the tortured ghost.
Once the ghost sinks out if view, Morley relays what he has found beyond the door.
"Let's move. I can't wait to meet this Witch-Mother."
Morley finds an enchanted monacle among the mess. Peering through it casts everything you see with that eye in an infrared glow, highlighting the greatest heat sources, such as the Forge and the chaos energy surrounding Emma. She glares at you when you stare at her a moment, noting the swirls of heat that are emanating from her body. There's also a strange little button on the waistcoat weight that the Monacle is attached to by a chain...pressing the button switches from infrared to x-ray vision.
Bathilda finds what looks like a toy bo staff for a monk that could fit into your pocket. You pick it up, feeling rather disappointed, and find yourself wishing it were bigger. Instantly and to your surprise, the staff expands in size until it has Close range and 1 Weight. You imagine it, and it grows bigger until it has Reach. It continues to grow longer and longer, alarmingly, until you think about it stopping and going back to normal size, whereupon it shrinks to a toy sized stick again.
Emma finds her old pack of supplies, tossed aside by her captors, and her old armor, but her original weaponry, her shield and longsword, are nowhere to be found. Anyone looking through the Forge can select their choice of one of the weapons pictured here, plus shields, just pick one and ask me and I'll provide its stats. Aside from your choice of weapon, Emma, you find a pocket-sized bronze statue of a carrier pigeon that appears to have real feathers lining its chest.
The priest had just finished taking a leak when the fierce fighting subsided in the Forge Room. It was over too quickly to even join in, unfortunately. Luckily, the Priest did find himself some decent loot in the hoard: a magically-interactive map of this entire region. Poking a spot on the map brings up a small blurb of information on that point.
Dhice, it's just a way for your character to feel doubt in himself over his failed rolls. Nothing mechanical you need to be aware of for now.
The staircase is still behind you, unexplored leading downward and leading to some kind of room filled with more angry Skaven leading upward. Where do you go next?
"This is rat turf." Hjalmar said, having wandered to the door to peer upwards towards the sound of more skaven. "My money is on goin' down. Whatever they are doin' up there, preparin' for us, we will be better off lettin' them just sit there until they get impatient and come after us." He checked his gear absentmindedly as he spoke, out of habit. "A runnin' battle will be to our advantage, walkin' into prepared rats will not. Agreed?"
To be clear, this door and stairwell are the the only exits from the room? Was there also a stairway going down? If so, up may only go on for a few floors and end, so we should check out what Morley saw, and then proceed down. Team?
Bathilda looks at the tiny staff in surprise, before a grin slowly spreads over her face.
"Well, well, well. Now if only I could make this into a halberd."
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Three ways in and out of the forge room; the way you came, the stairs leading up, and the stairs leading down. The stairs leading up had a locked door on it that Morley picked. The thief also briefly scouted upward, finding the entrance to a room that has beds in it. The room is lit, as well, but no sign of the Skaven that fled that way...
The stairs leading down are dark and unexplored.
Hjalmar digs around in the back of the forge's furnaces, knowing that a dwarf would keep away hidden things back there if he's lucky. His luck seems to hold; in a hidden compartment, the pirate uncovers some booty in the form of an Ammo box. The box contains a half-dozen rounds of Imp-losion shot that would fit Agatha. Imp-losion rounds do +2 damage, and for every point of damage you do to a target with them, you force the target to sprout that many Imps from his or her body that then attack of their own volition.
Bathilda, when the word "Halberd" leaves your lips, the staff sprouts a wickedly curved blade at one end.
In regards to your x-ray question - it's like Superman vision, but limited to about, let's say, 5 feet in front of the monacle. Say you're standing 6 feet from Morley wearing the monacle. He sees you normally. You move to 5 feet away exactly, he can probably see through clothing. Moving closer than 5 feet will allow him to see through flesh to the bones beneath. I hope that makes sense.
Archepex: on a communal, nesting level, Skaven are not much different from feral rats. They always keep predators in mind, so they make their nests in the deepest parts of wherever they lurk. They like to make small tunnels - very quickly, I might add - that can connect rooms in unexpected ways, if you can squeeze like a ratfolk. They're fond of ambushes in tight spaces where you're forced to walk single-file in part of a group, and their traps are often mechanical, not magical, in a deliberate effort to confuse mages who detect magical traps instantly.
You'd reckon that any stairs leading upward would either lead to an exit to the outside that the Skaven can bolt to in times of emergency, or a dead zone that they can bait invaders into. Sometimes both.
Bathilda's grin grows wider as she sees this new development.
"So do I have to say it or can I just think it," she muses to herself.
What happens if I think, say, zweihander? Bow? Arming sword? Poleaxe?
Im going to grab a short sword from the pile of random weapons.
Morley begins to test the Monacle of Interparty Discord, pushing the button and glancing around the room. As his gaze passes over Bathilda, he flinches and quickly removes it. He curses under his breath, then approaches the Barbarian, careful to avoid her ever changing weapon.
"Bathilda, if I use this the chances of our group falling victim to ambush, traps, or locked doors will drop dramatically. But ... there is a cost."
He hands the monacle to Bathilda. "You should hold this. Perhaps I can use it in the future."
He turns to Grigor. "I agree. Up then down. I would hate to find ourselves in a position with vermin above and below. Best to clear from the top. Plus, we wouldn't want any to escape to the surface."
Bathilda, nothing happens when you think "bow," but the pole is able to shapeshift into the other weapons you think of with no difficulty.
"Okay, Archepex tells us the ones that went up might be a trap, but like Morley, I don't want them to flank us if we descend. I say we form up and ascend looking for the ones that ran. Who's with me?!?"
"Traps? I love traps." Morley checks the edge of the Corpse Knife with a wicked grin.