Nike and Tychi, between them, slay the first two gnolls – their weapons dropping to the floor beside their corpses without ever having been fired…
…and then, from just inside the door – there is an impressively loud bang as a gnoll fires upon Lector with a brutal looking blunderbuss…
Cowering beneath the impressive height of the unicorn, the other remaining gnoll steps backwards and, futilely, stabs at Nike with a longspear…
Dropping whatever it is that they were doing, the slack jawed ogre-like creatures turn - and, as one - charge Lector... Spittle drooling from their chins as they fall upon the isolated cleric.
Lector carefully weaves and heals some of his wounds while taunting the ogres. "Let the chaos fill you!"
Casey steps forward and turns his musket upon the gnoll gunner.
Nike takes a five ft step, and attacks the puny looking ogres .
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Tychi then unleashes his whipsword on the ogre.
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Figwidget runs forward and throws a bomb.
Whilst Lector's wounds heal, the same confusing aura as before starts to envelope the cleric...
And then, climbing to a fighting stance atop the unicorn, Tychi unleashes a storm of steel upon his foes - combined with the attacks from Nike, it is enough to slay one of the ogres and then the closest gnoll.
With a deafening retort, Casey Jayne's musket virtually vaporises the gnoll's canine head - it slumps forward and, before it has even fallen, the gunslinger has let a salvo loose at one of the remaining ogrekin.
The injured Ogrekin is further hurt by the bomb slung by Figwidget - leaving the starved-looking creature perilously close to death.
Caught in the swirling aura, one of the ogrekin cowers pathetically whilst the other, swinging his savage hook, misses with his attacks upon Lector.
Nike takes a five ft step, and attacks the puny looking ogres .
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Tychi then unleashes his whipsword on the ogre.
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Either or both stop if the attacking ogre goes down, the cowering ogre is left alone.
Lector drops the aura and hammers down the cowering enemy.
Casey takes aim at the remaining creatures, but with the onslaught from the others realizes they've got it under control so he holds his shot.
Figwidget also delays, waiting to see if Lector, Tychi, and Nike have finished the opponents off, before throwing another bomb.
Tychi and Nike slay the last fighting ogrekin before Lector puts the cowering wretch out of his misery as well...
The gnolls and the ogrekin, clearly working as guards and labourers, do not have any possessions of note - the firearms are crude when compared against Casey Jayne's weapon (and the trigger mechnism seems deisgned for gnoll anatomy) whilst the ogrekin weapons, crude meathooks, are unpleasantly weighted and covered in filth.
The conveyor, which is no longer being loaded with rock and ore, leads off to the south as does the corridor to the west of it. Off to the west, there is a small network of corridors... Listening out for signs of life, you can't hear anything above the persistent mechanical noise of the facility...
Nike releases a channel.
"Perhaps, in future, cowering enemies can be left alive to interrogate?" Tychi asks, looking a bit upset that the cowering enemy was shot.
Nike just glares at the rifle wielder.
Then she and Tychi begin to move slowly up the larger corridor, the other one being too small to be comfortable.
Lector opens his palm and his greatsword vanishes. He looks at the bodies for a moment then turns to Tychi. "Didn't know this was that kind of mission. I'll do that next time."
"Information is always useful... and killing cowering enemies rarely gains information..."
"True." He shrugs. "But what's done is done, we can speak to his soul but it's much harder to persuade a living person than a dead one, and I doubt raising him would be worth it." He looks around while closing the last of his wounds. "Where to?"
Nike releases a channel.
"Perhaps, in future, cowering enemies can be left alive to interrogate?" Tychi asks, looking a bit upset that the cowering enemy was shot.Nike just glares at the rifle wielder.
"Looks like we're headin' south," he responds to Lector as he nods toward the tengu and unicorn who are already heading that way. Casey keeps an eye open as they move down the southern corridor.
Figwidget follows the others down the corridor to the south, although he gives a look at the conveyor first. He considers suggesting that they try to crawl along it, but doesn't say so, and follows the others through the normal passageway....
The corridor to the west seeming too cramped, southwards is the obvious direction in which to head…the corridor is short leading down a short staircase and comes out into a large room. The noise in the room is close to unbearable, the clanking of two conveyors occasionally drowned out by what sounds like the roar of flames, whilst the ambient heat is also starting to rise.
The room is far from unoccupied, six gnolls (apparently workers rather than the guards that you previously encountered) work at the conveyors and, off to the west, a number of ratfolk are hunched over various workbenches. The gnolls, their suspicion maybe already aroused by the supply of rock on the conveyor ceasing, see you come down the stairs – whilst the ratfolk, twitching and half-crazy – are oblivious.
"Stay strong and cut them down!" Lector fills the party with resolve and rushes into the room, Frost Brand appearing in his hands.
Seeing that the workers are already reaching for weapons, rather than talking, Nike moves up to the closest gnoll. "Surrender and you'll be spared, continue fighting and you will die." The unicorn says in a strong bugling voice.
Tychi waits patiently to see if he needs to dice a gnoll into gnoll-bits or if it smart enough to put down it's weapons.
The cur-like animals howl in derision at the unicorn - the valiant attempt to stay the gnolls weapons always doomed to failure by their innately cruel temperament...
Tychi hoots, and dices the nearest Gnoll into small chunks.
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Nike bugles as the bloody bits cascade around in a bloody mist. "Anyone else care to laugh?" She asks. "We'll stop killing when you throw down your weapons and surrender." Even innately cruel things have a sense of self preservation after seeing their allies reduced to red gibbits of meat and blood.
Tychi glances over at Lector. "Oh, the last place had slaves, so be careful that you only kill hostile things, we don't want to kill any slaves by accident."
Casey moves in with the others, ready to fire when he gets a clear shot.
Lector stands menacingly, glowing blue greatsword held low as his eyes sweep those present. He gives a tiny nod in acknowledgement of Tychi's words.
Tychi's weapon falls again and again, the gnoll dying before it can fully raise it's weapon in anger against the monk... Barking like a rabble of mongrels, the gnolls start to unload their weapons in a crescendo of thunder - bullets crashing against Tychi as he tries to duck the salvo.
Lector places a hand on his chest piece and blurs across the room, striking one of the gnolls.
"Looks like they ain't interested in talkin'," Casey says as he moves over, takes aim, and fires at one behind the conveyor.
As Lector rushes in, one of the gnolls lets loose with a salvo of blunderbuss fire...
...a glancing blow that does little to slow the cleric's furious advance - his mighty blade slashing across the gnoll's chest - slicing through armour and rending flesh.
Meanwhile, Casey lets loose with a shot that catches one of the gun-wielding gnolls in the shoulder...it howls in dismay at the deep wound...
Nike lowers her head and charges the gnoll directly ahead of her, she slams into the conveyor as well as she attacks him, unconcerned about damaging the equipment here.
Just before Nike hit's the conveyor, Tychi slips off her back with practiced ease . He then does a series of flips and somersaults over the moving conveyors, before landing next to another, likely highly surprised gnoll. The the (likely) surprised gnoll is introduced to Tychi's whipsword.
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Nike's charging attack slams against the conveyor, the belt skipping and spilling dusts with the force of the attack - the gnoll, cowering behind, just ducks the rapier sharp horn at the last moment.
Tychi, virtually dancing along the conveyor, has much more luck against his selected opponent - blood splashing against the wall as his blade bites deep.
Hovering above the gathering ratfolk, Figwidget drops a bomb at the closest of the crazed looking creatures...in a violently beautiful plume of flame, the ratperson starts squealing in pain...
The gnolls fight back against their attackers; a salvo of blunderbuss fire by those not engaged in hand-to hand combat whilst those who are faced with melee use the butt of their weapons as bludgeoning weapons…
Meanwhile the ratfolk, slow to react to the combat, start screeching and lobbing incendiary devices at Figwidget and Casey Jayne…
"What the...!" Casey turns his attention to the newest threat as he manages to avoid most of the explosive damage from the bombs. Stepping to his left, he takes aim at the ratfolk and fires.
Nike attacks the gnoll again, this time rearing up to bring her hoofs down on it as well.
Tychi begins to flurry on his target.
Lector mercilessly beats down the gnoll in front of him.
The tide of battle ebbs and flows with the sudden attention of the ratfolk alchemists…
Turning on his heel Casey Jayne heavily wounds one of the ratfolk with an impressive salvo…but can’t quite finish the task. Whilst Lector, swinging his sword with merciless intent, cuts one of the gnolls down…it dies with a pitiful whimper even as Lector starts to move towards his next target.
The monk and his mount are having mixed success – Nike barely gets an attack in on the gnoll hidden behind the conveyor whilst Tychi, missing with his first blow, unleashes a flurry that leaves his assailant on the floor…bleeding out…
With his clothes smouldering from the Ratperson’s bomb, Figwidget lobs his own incendiary at the closest of the Ratfolk…
The Gnolls keep up their salvo of blunderbuss fire - two shots landing on Casey Jayne and Lector Enteap...
Meanwhile the ratfolk carry on lobbing incendiary devices at Figwidget and Casey Jayne…
"Dadgummit!" Casey yells as he's getting hit from all angles. Taking a step further away from the gunners behind him, he continues to fire upon the ratfolk, hoping to get rid of some of these bombers.
"You've got bombs too, eh?" Figwidget says, dodging back in forth in the air around the explosions.
He tosses a bomb back at Ratperson #2.
Unleashing a storm of gunpowder and alchemical explosions, Figwidget and Casey Jayne fill the corridor to the west with smoke and noise – when it clears, only one of the ratfolk - cowering behind the corner, is left alive.
Lector walks up to the ratfolk, raises his greatsword...than the weapon disappears into his gloves. He glares down. "All yours Tychi."
-Posted with Wayfinder
-Posted with Wayfinder