Sansnom's shriek of anger is accompanied by two successive blasts from her pistols as she fires at the bombardier targeting her. The wrappings around her body flicker with flames, giving her a demonic appearance.
Katherine lets out a shout of anger as her companions are targeted, and strides forwards to bring her sword (and newly enhanced arm) to bear on the man shooting at Sansnom.
Staccato gets into her bullet stance, draws and fires!
Sansnom wings one of the bombardiers with a bullet. Urram closes with the gunner and scores a critical hit with his spiked chain, ripping open the thug's throat and taking him out in one strike! Katherine moves up to the attacker Sansnom shot, delivering two powerful cuts that lay him low! Staccato scores a light hit on the last remaining opponent.
That thug hurls two more flasks of alchemist's fire at Urram, deeming the automaton the most dangerous foe! Luckily, both flasks fall short, merely singeing the investigator.
Staccato reloads—
—shoots the thug—
—and reloads again!
With her target falling to Katherine's well-aimed sword strike, Sansnom turns her aim to the last remaining ambusher, ignoring the flames still licking up her garment.
Urram strides back into the fray, evaluating his foe as he goes.
Between the bullets and the vicious chain strike, the last thug falls!
Two items in the pockets of these thugs grab the your attention. One is a flyer for the Longhorn Lounge, a club for rodeo champions. The words “last bell before sundown” are scribbled on the back of the flyer. The other item is a crumpled order form for alchemical reagents. This kind of order form is fairly common among Alkenstar businesses that move a lot of inventory. This particular form doesn’t list any items, however. Rather, Gattlebee’s name and address are scrawled on it in a clumsy, almost childish hand. The only clue as to the slip’s origins is a stamped symbol in the upper-right corner: a corvid in flight, one vial grasped in each talon.
Gattlebee seems anxious at the outbreak of violence. "I've got a bad feeling about this," he mutters. Just a few seconds later, several more thugs arrive at the end of the bridge behind you. "Ah, bolts!" Gattlebee growls as he starts to run!
You can either chase Gattlebee to help him escape, or you can stand your ground and intercept the thugs!
"Follow him!" Urram commands Staccato and Katherine. "We will hold them off!" He glances at Sansnom for agreement.
Sansnom spares a nod towards Urram as she attempts to adjust her wrappings to account for some of them having burned away.
Staccato begrudgingly runs along with Gattlebee, trusting her friends have got this.
As Katherine and Staccato run after Gattlebee, Sansnom and Urram stand their ground against the pair of gunners who arrive!
Urram closes in with the thugs and lashes out with his spiked chain once more!
Urram eviscerates one of the thugs before he can shoot! The other one curses and fires on the automaton, both shots going wild!
The Jitskai soldier sizes up his remaining foe and then brutally disables him with a blow from his spiked chain that rips the gun (and much of the gunners hand) away from his arm.
"Are there any more?" He asks Sansnom as he retreats to stand beside her.
"I see none," the woman declares after scanning the bridge and its surroundings for a moment. "We must follow the others. Quickly now!" Without waiting for a response, Sansnom turns and makes good on her statement, checking and reloading her pistols as she goes.
Sansnom and Urram quickly catch up to the others. Fortunately, it doesn't seem like anybody else is chasing them anymore, and you are able to make it to your destination without incident.
Midway between Gattlebee’s house and the Barrel & Bullet, not far from the eastern gate to the abandoned quarter called Ironside Quarter, is a dilapidated industrial building. A large wooden sign dangling from a single loose bolt labels the structure “The Yeast of All Brewery.”
A middle-aged dwarven woman wearing dark working clothes stands near the door, her arms crossed over her chest. Gattlebee shuffles to meet her, an affected swagger in his step. He extends a hand ambiguously—to shake hers, perhaps, or to offer a half-hearted embrace—but in return receives a sharp glare. They exchange whispered words, the woman presses some small object into his palm, and then strides toward a side street and continues on. Gattlebee holds his free hand to his reddened cheek, turns, and somewhat sheepishly holds up a small ring of keys.
Gattlebee unlocks the brewery’s front doors and steps aside. “After you,” he grunts. “Amery says my things are in the cold storage. I don’t know what else we’ll find; no one’s checked on the place in months.”
Sansnom glances from the Gattlebee to the retreating dwarven woman and then back. With a shake of her head, she draws her pistols and moves through the open doorway.
"A moment." Urram says, "Sansnom I require your assistance in fixing my exoskeleton."
Having provided an excuse to step out of sight of the others for a moment, Urram hands over another vial of chalky liquid and proceeds to efficiently reset Sansnom's bones, using the liquid as a kind of glue. It works rather well.
His own curative methods are less effective, but still passable.
The small tasting room past the front door features a short bar to the east with four stools and shelves full of various bottles. A small table and two chairs stand by the western window. A single wooden door exits to the east, next to the bar.
Two clockworks shaped like fermenting kegs stand by the door, but they whir to life as you enter!
Staccato says, “I don’t know if this is a trap or not, but I ain’t drinking the beer here!”
She rushes a mimic, positioning herself so one mimic is kinda between her and the other (so they don’t surround her).
"Merci beaucoup," Sansnom says, after Urram pulls her aside for healing.
~~~~~
"I see that it was naïve to assume that we would face no more of the hostiles," Sansnom declares as she levels her pistols at the nearest of the clockworks, firing, and then kicking a nearby bucket towards them.
Sansnom's bullets go wide, but she successfully diverts the clockworks' attention! Staccato rushes in, but only lands one light hit.
In a friendly, modulated voice, the clockwork Staccato punched says, ”Hello! Would you like a free sample?”
The incongruous greeting momentarily distracts the leshy.
The clockwork pummels Staccato and grabs her with its tube-like legs!
The second construct moves to engage Urram, but fails to hit.
Staccato barely gets out of that grip.
She moves to flank with a friend, flurries, and misses a lot!
"Urram! We could really use d'aide, s'il vous plaît!" Sansnom calls out before firing at the distracted enemy and reloading again.
Urram strides in to provide the support, analysing the robots as he goes.
Unable to tell much he settles for providing a flanking position.
Katherine kicks her armor into overdrive as she moves in and slices the brewer holding Staccato. Urram fails to study or intimidate the clockwork, though he does provide flanking support. Sansnom lands a critical hit, but misses with her follow-up shot. Staccato slips out of the grapple and lands another light blow, but it's not enough to finish off the badly damaged clockwork.
The damaged brewer shifts its target to Katherine, slamming her and grabbing her with its leg.
"Have another, on the house!" the clockwork's voice modulator says as it shoves a hose into Katherine's mouth, force-feeding her a torrent of whiskey!
The other clockwork trundles over to attack Sansnom, but she dodges its grasping legs!
Staccato tries to smash the crazy contraption that’s force-feeding her friend!
But her little wooden limbs deliver nothing more than a harmless percussion.
"I was hoping for a little more in the way of assistance, Monsieur," Sansnom quips as she continues to reload and fire.
"I am working on it." Urram replies flatly before lashing out with spiked chain once more.
Katherine lets out a long suffering sigh and shoots Gattlebee a look that says quite clearly 'Stay here, I'm not happy with you.'
Then she continues cutting down the robotic bartenders.
Katherine handles the liquor well. She strikes out at the clockwork grabbing her, severing its hose and causing it to fall backwards, damaged beyond repair! Urram and Sansnom damage the second construct, which turns to attack Urram. It scores a critical hit, the automaton's armored body buckling as it wraps him up in its hose leg. It attempts to pour whiskey down his throat, but since he has no throat, the liquor just pours down his body.
Staccato says, ”What kinda beer-bots are you? Free drinks are bad for business. Now stop that!”
She then kicks the nearest one like crazy and actually lands a blow or two!
Urram's body may be buckling under the pressure but he fights on regardless!
Between Staccato's fists and Urram's chain, you manage to destroy the second clockwork!
Two Bulk worth of unopened whiskey jugs remain tucked behind the bar. Foebe Dunsmith would gladly pay you 10 gp for the lot.
Staccato trills on her keys for a few seconds.
”Umm… just making sure I’m still in tune.” She doesn’t blush, but probably would if she weren’t made of wood. ”So that’ll earn us a pretty platinum. Maybe I can afford a real gun soon.
“Seems I’m gonna need it!”
"We can deal with that later." Urram says firmly. "Gattlebee must collect his equipment immediately."
Unfortunately the damage done to his chassis is extensive, without significant time and the proper tools he won't be able to do much to repair it.
Sansnom spends a short moment reloading her pistols before noticing the extensive damage that Urram has taken.
"Are you okay to continue, Monsieur?" she questions, looking over the construct with a critical eye.
"There are no other options. We must complete the mission." Urram replies. "The sooner Gattlebee is safe, the sooner I can begin the necessary repairs."
The door behind the bar leads into an enormous room that features smooth stone floors covered with dust, and a catwalk ten feet high leading around the south and west walls of the room. Giant covered vats and metal containers fill the space; a five-foot-high platform leads to four vats in the western side of the room. Various doors exit the room to the west, north, and east.
The catwalk around the room was designed for reaching the tops of the vats to add ingredients, performing tests on the contents, drawing samples, and so forth. It’s still in fine repair, as are most of the vats. Two of the four on the left are labeled “mash,” and the other two “kettle.” On the south wall, three of the containers are sealed and labeled “ferment,” while one has several metal pipes connected to it and is labeled “still.” Each vat has a large release valve on the bottom for draining liquid, often with a hose or control apparatus attached.
Most of the doors here are locked--Gattlebee only has a key to the outside doors. The only door that is unlocked leads into the brewery's warehouse.
"Recover your gear so we can get you safe!" Urram commands the alchemist. "Anything else can wait for another time!"
Katherine nods her agreement - they can always come back here later to explore, and retrieve the alcohol for Foebe, but it's not risking irreparable damage to the unique construct who forms part of their group.
"Have you ever tried drinking a healing potion?" She asks. "Would that work?"
Sansnom prods the inventor forward with one of her pistols. "You heard le Monsieur; Trouvez vos affaires."
"Alright, alright," Gattlebee mumbles, fumbling at the door with the key. Once the cold storage room is unlocked, Gattlebee heads inside. A misty vapor fills this frigid room. A thin layer of ice coats the walls, and several small icicles hang from the ceiling. Large metal drums stand against the back wall of this chamber, while several old crates of freezer-burned ingredients clog up the remainder of the space.
A gently glowing, light-blue orb encased in several metal bands hangs from the ceiling in the center of the room.
Gattlebee rifles through the old crates. He seems to know exactly where Amery put the thing he wants. He withdraws his hand from a pile of rock-hard, rime‑crusted onions and holds up a silver wedding band. “Ice cold,” he says, without a trace of irony, before pocketing the accessory. "Okay. We can look around more if you want, but I'm ready to go."
"Move." Urram says, in no mood to trifle.
"Once you are safe, then we may consider coming back here."