Katherine winces at the sound, but knowing that Dawn needs her, storms in anyway.
Urram's auditory processors shut down to deal with the horrendous noise so he focuses on striking the constructs down. Sadly he is unable to find a suitable weak point and withdraws to stand with his companions, Dawn and Katherine.
Staccato’s flurry of blows finishes off the damaged construct. Sansnom wings the last construct, but everybody else misses! The clockwork swings on Staccato, pummeling the leshy and grabbing hold of her!
“F+@~! Put me down you big f*$%ing f~%+-stick!”
Dawn swings her maul, landing one hit. The clockwork is badly battered but not down yet...
Taking careful aim, Sansnom fires at the remaining clockwork.
She reloads and fires again.
Urram circles and waits until the construct is rocked by Dawn's blow before lashing out with his spiked chain and tearing an arm off with brutal tortion.
"Hey, big guy, look over here!" Katherine yells as she swings her greatsword ineffectually.
Sansnom lands a good hit, then Urram finishes off the final clockwork with a brutal tug of his spiked chain!
Even with no opponents now standing, Sansnom quickly reloads her pistol and sights around the bank as if seeking a target. "The other key was to be in the office, no?" she questions without lowering her weapon. "Let us retrieve it and open the vault. Rapidement, s'il te plaît."
Urram nods sharply and heads straight for the office, having closely studied the building plans, or what they could find about it at least.
Sin reloads as well, hopping over the counter to join the Urram in the office for the search.
The east door behind the teller's stations opens into the manager's office. This elaborately decorated office has mahogany wall panels and a matching desk with a surface so shiny it’s reflective. A pair of comfortable couches are nestled in the northwest and northeast corners of the room. Two very healthy looking potted plants stand to either side of the desk, flanking a large credenza.
Irkem Dresh crouches behind the desk, but as soon as you open the door, she cries out and level her flintlock pistol at you!
She throws a handful of silver pieces at Urram, distracting him. Her first shot strikes a vulnerable spot. She reloads and fires again, but this bullet bounces off the automaton's armored chassis.
"Clever." Urram says flatly.
Without an obvious way to strike the woman he attempts a little battlefield repair and closes in.
Staccato ▶️rushes the woman, having no intention to kill—
—and her gentle little limbs will definitely not kill anyone.
Katherine rushes over to Irkem Dresh who was kind enough to show her around the bank only yesterday. Not wanting to do any lasting damage, but simply dissuade her from shooting at her peers she purposefully holds back.
Dawn rushes in to flank with Katherine, having no compunctions about bashing her fellow dwarf with her huge maul!
Dresh cries out in pain as Dawn's weapon cracks her ribs. Katherine smacks Dresh over the head with the flat of her greatsword, and she swoons on her feet. The dwarf drops her pistol and reaches for the sky! "Alright, I surrender! Don't kill me!"
Staccato (as ‘CHIB’) picks up the gun, then points it at the dwarf. “Hand over your key… you know which one. The one we need two of.
“We both prefer you hand it over faster than it would take to search your corpse.”
Dresh quickly hands over the vault key. You can confiscate Dresh's flintlock pistol, a minor elixir of life, and the 99 sp she has on her person.
The vault is lined with steel on the ceiling and floor; steel cabinets line the walls, each with two locks. In the center of the chamber is a steel table, welded to the ground, with an ornate steel chest the size of a burly dwarf on top.
The majority of the bank’s gold and silver is inside the ornate steel box on the counter. It’s immensely heavy (10 Bulk), but just barely fits through the mouth of the bag of holding Dunsmith loaned you. Moving or shaking the box causes the hundreds of coins inside to rattle around, confirming the wealth contained within.
Sin's not afraid of hard work and can handle her share of heavy items, so she doesn't hesitate to move into the vault and assist with loading the valuables into the bag.
Sansnom continues to keep a pistol leveled at the acquiescent dwarf and gestures at Staccato for the woman's flintlock.
Once the chest has been manhandled into the magical bag she takes another look around the vault for anything else of easily portable value.
"We leave now, yes?" she questions.
There’s nothing else in the vault you can easily take.
With the loot secured, you make your way out the back of the bank. As you leave, the sounds of shouting and signal whistles are heard from the front of the bank and the far eastern and western ends of the alley. Deputy Shieldmarshal Loveless’s voice is heard, shouting commands to create a perimeter around the bank. A shieldmarshal replies, “Yes, Deputy! Right away!”
The path to the Scrapyard is clear, for now, but it won't be for long!
Piles of discarded scrap metal, wood, and other garbage mark the edge of a path leading north into the scrapyard. Several bits of debris have recently collapsed into the entrance. Just west, a veritable tower of piled refuse wobbles precariously.
The path opens to the north and east into the scrapyard or exits to the south into an alley between two buildings. Shouts and whistles can be heard coming from the direction of the Gold Tank Reserve, to the south.
A lone goblin hails you from one of the trash heaps to the north. “Hey, longshanks!” he calls down, hopping wildly to get your attention. “Shieldmarshals following you! Collapse the tower!” The goblin points toward the towering pile of debris next to the scrapyard’s entrance, gesturing for you to knock it down somehow.
The disguised elf eyes the leaning pile of debris skeptically before her gaze falls upon a critical timber supporting a large portion of the mass. She takes aim with her pistol and lets off a shot that shatters the critical beam. The pile shifts with a groan.
She reloads.
Urram examines the structure with a discerning eye and then lashes out with a single fist. The bullet whistles past his arm and shatters the post Urram just hit.
The automaton steps back and points.
"There. Hit there."
Then he turns to examine the leshy.
"Your movements suggest that you are injured. Chew on this and I will examine you shortly."
Staccato gladly trades a gun for a chewy snack, and while she munches and crunches, she notices piece of junk that, if kicked, would topple everything.
…as long as she kicks at just the right angle so she doesn’t get impaled.
The tower of trash topples, blocking the path behind you! As it falls, you see Deputy Loveless, a tall, tan-skinned vourinoi elf with gunmetal blue hair and mismatched silver and amber eyes. She’s turning the corner in the alley chasing after you, accompanied by several shieldmarshals. Deputy Loveless draws her rifle and fires in one fluid motion, targeting Urram, but her bullet ricochets off a piece of falling debris. Once the debris settles, she shouts from the other side of the rusty scrap heap, “I’m coming after you. After I’m done with you, there won’t be enough of your lead-pocked body left to identify. Do you hear me? You’ll pay for crossing Mugland! Pay in blood!”
The goblin that called to you waves for you to follow him.
Staccato makes a mental note to never again don her CHIB disguise, nor Jenny Lips.
She follows the goblin and says not a word, suspecting it’s a very bad idea for the deputy to know you solely by your voice.
"The joke is on her," Sansnom mutters to herself as she follows after the goblin.
Katherine can't help but goad the deputy before she follows the others to get away from the situation. "You couldn't catch a fish from a tank if you tried!" Katherine is not stupid, and tries to lower her voice somewhat as she does so.
Urram's hulking 'orc' form continues on without any acknowledgement of the Deputy Shieldmarshal. While he doesn't trust the goblin who has so 'selflessly' intervened to help them he isn't willing to turn down a guide in the current circumstances.
A ring of old crates surrounds a makeshift campfire in this discrete corner of the junkyard. A complicated contraption of gears and rods over the campfire forms a spit that can be rotated using two foot pedals attached to a gear. The smell of smoked meat manages to cut through the ambient stench of trash emanating from the scrapyard’s walls. Around the campfire are various patchwork tents and a large pavilion to the south.
Piles of scrap surround the camp, conveniently stacked to make climbing to the top easier. A path on the northern edge of the camp leads east into the scrapyard.
When you arrive, a gaggle of Nailgobbler goblins surround you, curious about your origins and intentions. They can hardly stop themselves from plucking at your fine city clothes as they question you. “Are you here to fight the gnolls?” they clamor. “Can you help us? Do you know the shieldmarshals? (They’re mean!) Do you want to speak with Lord Glass?”
Still in her elvish guise, Sansnom spreads her hands wide. "Step back, s'il vous plaît," she says in her attempt at a male's voice. "We are just moving through and have no wish to engage gnolls. Yes, we have had encounters with the shieldmarshals in the past and they curse our names. Who is this Lord Glass you speak of?"
The goblins usher you south to the pavilion tent to meet their leader, who sits on a throne of splintering crates. The so-called Lord Glass has incorporated several pieces of multi-colored glass into his large overcoat, making him gleam like a rainbow chandelier. He wears a dirty, oil-stained mat of fur that looks like a beard.
“Trusted longshanks,” intones Lord Glass, the bedazzled leader of the scavengers, in stilted Common. “We welcome you to Scrap City and accept your offer of help.” He bows deeply but, weighed down by the countless shards of colored glass lining his clothes, nearly loses his balance and falls off his stack of milk crates. He gathers himself and clears his throat. “As promised, if you drive the gnolls away, we promise to give you our best junk. We have a deal?”
Sin looks over her shoulder unnecessarily as if she expects the shieldmarshals to be showing up any second. Giving up on that, she turns to looks back and forth between her companions as she listens to Lord Glass and Sansnom.
Lowering her voice and whispering, she asks "Did ya say we're helpin' 'em with their gnoll problem? Do we be havin' the time for that?"
She looks over her shoulder once more, because you know, better safe than sorry.
Sansnom looks from the strangely clad goblin to her companions and then back.
"I am ... confused. We made no promise to combattons these gnolls," she says. "We are not saying 'No', but what is this 'best junk' that you are offering?"
Lord Glass scratches his head. "Huh? Didn’t Pogi send you? We sent our envoy into the city days ago to find mercenaries to take out the gnolls. We thought Pogi was so successful, you beat him here.
"Anyway, if you're going through the Scrapyard, the gnolls will probably mess with you, even if you don't want to mess with them. They are very messy! If you make them gone, we give you best junk—secret junk we don’t usually sell to longshanks. Rare metal.” Lord Glass smiles wide, his teeth chipped and sharp.
Sin gives up looking over her shoulder and faces Sansnom again, this time with a soft sigh and shrugging a silent why not with her up turned hands.
Staccato sees the body language and replies to the goblin, “Best junk, plus you don’t advertise our presence outside of the people in this room… and Pogi… no secrets between you and Pogi. I respect that.”
Staccato’s guise may hide her wounds, but she’s not exactly tip-top right now. Maybe a little tipsy-toppley…
She sits down not really giving a damn about decorum.
With Staccato's support, Sin's grudging acceptance and no other dissenters among the group, Sasnom nods. "Oui, we agree with your arrangement," she says.
"Excellent!" Lord Glass declares. "The gnolls are north, over the wall. We put up sharp metal to keep them out, blocked their way with the old ship, the big metal box. We shut them out, but they’re still there. Go, make them gone! The easiest way for longshanks to get there is to go east, around the big metal box and the old ship.
"You are welcome to stay here as long as you like, if you need to rest. We have lots of food for you to eat, and goods for you to trade!"
Unable to recall anything of significance about the gnolls Urram turns to the injured. "Let me examine your wounds." He says to Stacatto, kneeling down and probing her wounds with one careful finger.
Unfortunately it appears that leshies are out of his experience and he is unable to get much done. However, since time doesn't seem to be of the essence, the automaton takes his time and tries to improve his treatments.
It doesn't help.
Katherine perks up at the offer of rare metal and nods her agreement. "Who cares what we originally agreed to? I want this rare junk. One woman's junk is another woman's treasure and all that."
Katherine, rather keen to get out of the mess of this junkyard, suggests that everybody gets on with it all.
"No point hangin' around is there? Dont want the Shielmarshalls catchin' up with us."
When you are ready, you head off to the east, heading deeper into the scrapyard. A large winch-driven crane towers over the piles of discarded machinery here. The crane’s base is totally entrenched in debris, and rust pits its arm. In the crane’s cockpit, the control panel’s faceplate has been removed, exposing the gears and mechanisms behind the foot pedals and long rusty levers.
A wall of debris looms to the south, extending east and west. The open stone to the north is flooded with oily water. The reddish brown circular pool of water stands in the center of a large open area, with stacks of metal and wood to the north and south. To the east, a large steel box, already pitted with rust, blocks the way past the pond. At the bottom of the pond, a large pile of cloth sits mostly motionless, some unseen current causing bits of fabric to dance in the water.
"There is something at the bottom of the pool." Urram comments. "It may be wise to investigate."
He examines it as best as possible through the water.
"Or avoid it entirely, oui?" Sansnom suggests. "We are tasked with challenging the gnolls only."
Urram sees there is a grate at the bottom of the pool that the cloth is stuck on. Removing it with the crane will likely drain the pool. Looking over the oily pond, he also spots an amorphous shape slithering across the top of the water. The reddish-brown glob floats on the surface, waiting for prey to get near...
A massive twenty-foot-square steel-walled cube blocks the way east past the pond. Bits of rust have pitted the bottom of the crate, causing it to have crumbled away and form large holes in the bottom; the holes are large enough to see the inside is empty. A three-foot-wide metal loop on the top of the crate allows for easier handling of the metal cube.
The base of the crane has a compartment behind a sliding door. Inside, you can find 3 pints of oil, a lesser eagle-eye elixir in the form of a pickled sparrow eye in a tiny bottle, and a lesser leaper’s elixir in the form of peppery frog leg jerky.
The crane itself still appears operable. You could use it to remove the large steel box blocking the way forward, or to lift the grate in the center of the pond to drain the water.
"There is an ooze on the water." Urram reports. "Be wary."
He moves to examine the levers, centuries of experience giving him some idea of what to do.
"There." He rumbles after a few minutes to work. "That should drain the pond. I will move the box next."
Urram uses the crane to hook the grate under all the rags and canvas creating the clog. By displacing it, he is able to drain the rust pond, removing the obstacle. The amorphous blob he spotted is now visible to all, but it does not seem to be able to move very quickly out of the water.
Urram then maneuvers the crane to the large crate. The crane snags the loop on its top, and Uream hefts it and maneuvers it over the struggling ooze. He lets it fall, squishing the dangerous creature!
As you prepare to head out, you see that a pair of +1 handwraps of mighty blows are tangled on the grate! You can retrieve them without issue.
"So a bit of curiosity was the right thing then eh?" Katherine says pointedly, looking at the well made equipment.
"If nobody wants them for what they are, I think I could have a play with em to make use of em some how as they're pretty fine quality."