HP 22/22
AC 18
Fort +7, Ref +7, Will +4
Hero points: 1
Ammo: 9/10 rounds
Effects: Cover (+2 to AC)
"Cock-a-f@*@ing-trice!" Royken curses as he realizes the others are all making a racket behind him and the clockworks have made them.
Unlimbering his gun, he fires off a shot -- lumps of metal spraying outward as he hits his target -- before ducking behind the counter.
Lora gives Crystal an appraising look at her venom, but nods a half-second later, accepting her threat and then backing down.
"Remember that the area is all but abandoned, so noise should not-" Lora begins reminding the others, only to be interrupted with scatterguns and electrical bolts tearing through the night. "obviously you didn't need to be told that."
Her words, while unneeded, do seem to hold a bit of magic, weaving into their minds, boosting the courage.
Crystal draws her pistol and fires at one of the clockwork wardens!
She then dives for cover and reloads her pistol!
Lora inspires courage in the team. Crystal’s shot goes wide, but Royken’s scattergun blast rocks the nearest clockwork. Eva unleashes an arc of electricity that fries its gears!
As the wrecked construct collapses, the other one moves closer and begins to emit a high pitched mechanical scream! The sound echoes through the bank, making it difficult to hear anything else!
Eva grits her teeth as the clockwork screams, bringing her hands to her ears. Seeing her bolt worked against the first clockwork, Eva concentrated again and sent another one, while following Lora towards the door.
Lora opens the door, yelling loudly "One down, fired to over done bacon!" then she fires at the one creature she can see.
HP 22/22
AC 18
Fort +7, Ref +7, Will +4
Hero points: 1
Ammo: 9/10 rounds
Effects: Cover (+2 to AC)
Royken growls wordlessly at the noise, then moves to stop it permanently. Rushing around the barriers, he closes and slams the butt of his gun into it. The clang is loud enough he can hear it over the sound of the siren.
Crystal winces and tugs her hat down over her ears in response to the siren.
She then fires her pistol at the remaining clockwork creature!
Then she ducks and reloads.
Crystal manages a critical hit, shattering the clockwork’s lantern! Eva zaps it, but both Lora and Royken miss.
The clockwork swings its fists at Royken, landing a blow and grabbing hold of the dwarf. Its screaming ceases, but the alarm has already been raised! The front door to the bank opens as the third clockwork, which was patrolling near the entrance, rushes into the bank and moves up to Royken.
"We may have lost our dwarf. We will remember you WELL... Royken? yes ROYKEN! We will avenge you!" Lora's words are still infused with magic. The redhead leans against the wall, reloads, then fires again.
Eva continues to shock the clockworks. With them close to each other, the arc jumps from one to another. "Who? You mean f$@%ing Royken?"
HP 16/22
AC 18
Fort +7, Ref +7, Will +4
Hero points: 1
Ammo: 9/10 rounds
Effects: Cover (+2 to AC)
"F&#*!" Royken curses as he tries futilely to escape. Finally, frustrated, he just swings his gun at the thing again, slamming the stock into its head.
Eva's electricity finishes off the damaged clockwork. Royken swings his gun's stock into the third clockwork's lantern head! It shatters into pieces, and the clockwork falls.
As soon as it falls, Eva rushes to the door to close them once more. She picks one of the clockwork's spears and tries to block the door as well. "Anyone saw Dresh?"
Lora reloads, "Split up and search. All the guards should be gone." Seeing two doors in the front with two people, the bard goes behind the counter where Crystal is to look in the other room and open area.
Eva is able to block the door with the clockworks' spears.
The two doors in the front room lead to the loan officers' offices. Both are empty, but in one of them, you find a half-finished bottle of Oldlaw whiskey worth 5 sp and a pouch of 15 sp under a pile of paperwork in the bottom of a desk drawer.
The central door leads to the vault. The massive door of solid steel is 10 feet tall. It will be very difficult to open without the second key!
The final 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!
Crystal brandishes her pistol. "Ms. Dresh, don't you go making any sudden movements now. It'd be a damn shame if the last act you did in this world was something mighty stupid now."
The rogue then swaggers up to Ms. Dresh and attempts to take the gun out of her hand.
Lora gives the other woman another look of appraisal at the command in her voice. The venom earlier paled in comparison to an actual threat from her lips.
Her own gun is ready, but looks like it will be unneeded for the time being.
HP 16/22
AC 18
Fort +7, Ref +7, Will +4
Hero points: 1
Ammo: 9/10 rounds
Effects:
"Oi, give it up, Dresh," Royken says. "We don't want to hurt you, but we will if we f$%@ing have to."
He closes in and tries to finish knocking the gun out of her hand.
Dresh's hand begins to shake as Crystal demoralizes her! "Stay back!" the dwarf shouts, but as the dhampir and Royken move in and wrestle the gun out of her hands, she quickly calculates her odds and decides discretion is the better part of valor. The bank manager puts her hands in theair!
"Okay, okay! Don't shoot me!"
"Smart choice," Royken grunts. "Give us the key, and we won't have to shoot anyone."
With trembling fingers, Dresh produces the vault key and hands it to Royken.
Eva stays behind, watching both doors and even peek through the windows to make sure reinforcements weren't coming their way.
"Good enough," says the dwarf, his scowl still fully evident, even with his false face from the hat of disguise. "Why don't you stick with us for a bit, maybe sure there are no f*~%ing accidents before we leave, right?"
He heads for the vault door, key in hand.
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.
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 south to the Scrapyard is clear, for now, but it won't be for long!
"Eva, you know the way, Royken, you can see in the dark, please lead the way." Lora implores. "Make as little noise as possible, meaning no guns." she slips hers in her holster and hurries along.
Crystal tips her hat and starts making good her escape!
"Let's go then!" She says as she rushes for the Scrapyard, hoping that the ghost was nothing but a tale and that the gnolls were still sleeping.
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.
"Oh, thank you!" Eva says to the goblin as she stops running to study the tower, quickly identifying a weak point in the structure. She draws her bastard sword and strikes a metal bar, cutting it and causing the Tower to tip over... but not completely as she had expected.
"Oh..." Lora looks at the towering teetering mess in a mix of awed wonderous worry, then at the crazy person hacking away at it with a huge sword. "... should we, step back a bit."
Crystal makes damned certain to stand out of the way. Her smuggling ventures usually went smoother than this--and as such, she has no real idea where to start with a tower of trash.
"Oh b+@$&&!s..." the bard swears softly. The guards sound TOO close, and she neither wants to kill people just doing their jobs nor does she want to die. That swear was her making up her mind to make suggestions, resting her hand on Rooyken's shoulder and letting her magic soak into him. "How about that bit there?" where she points don't matter, just like what she says doesn't matter, just the magic itself matters.
Royken grunts, and nods to Lora. "Yeah, that'll do," he says, pulling out a bit of trash and sending the tower crashing down.
"Let's bloody go!"
He takes the lead again. It feels good to have a crew following him. It's a new situation -- one he wasn't sure he'd ever be in again -- but old habits die hard. Almost as hard as Royken himself.
F%!+! he thinks appreciatively.
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 Royken, 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, and I always hit my target. 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.
"She just missed, and then spouts off about always hitting. She is a delusional little s~@*, isn't she?" Lora scoffs, but to her fellow criminals not yelling back to the ass. No reason to throw whiskey on the fire, no matter how good it would feel.
Not having another direction, she hurries after the goblin, asking "Are you a Nailgobbler?"
Crystal, on the other hand, has no problem rubbing a generous helping of salt into a fresh wound.
"Except you missed! And you're gonna KEEP missing!" She crows before running off with the others.
"Or she is just too stupid to realise that." Eva agrees, as she ducks instinctively even if the shot did not come nearly close to her.
"Show us the way, little friend!"
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 Nailgobblers surround them, 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?”
Royken gives a rare grin at Lora's words.
"She's a right piece of dragon s*!%, isn't she?" he says as he follows the goblin.
"That was a right bit of help there," he says.
"F~&&! Stop talking, everyone! Yes, the shield marshals are cock...atrices. No, we don't want to fight gnolls. We're just here to get a map. And who the f!$% is Lord Glass?"
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?”
"What the f!~@? What deal?" Royken asks, as much to himself. "We just want a map."
Lord Glass eyes you uncertainly, perplexed. He enunciates each word as he slowly replies, “Make. Gnolls. Go. Away... We. Give. You. Gift.” He turns to a nearby goblin and loudly whispers, “I didn’t expect smart mercenaries, but did Pogi find ones who can’t even remember what we hired them for?”
"No... No... Yes... No." Eva answers the goblins as they bombard them with questions, even kicking one away once his 'plucking her clothes' turns into 'groping her ass'.
She sighs as they are brought to the crazed, and probably deaf, goblin breaded in glass. "We thank you for the warning and for the escape, but we are neither 'trusted longshanks', nor we have accepted to offer help."
"We need no map, Royken, I can guide you there, I know the place, and we do not want to mess with the gnolls."
She turns to the goblin again, speaking as slowly as he was. "We. Are. No. Mercenaries. You. Did. Not. Hire. Us."
"Another day, perhaps, we can think about this, but today, certainly not. We. Are. Not. Fighting. Gnolls. Keep your gifts." She smiles.
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.
Royken growls and scowls at the goblin chief's insults, but otherwise keeps his peace.
"Good, let's get out of here," he mutters. "If the gnolls mess with us, we'll f%~$ing send them packing and you can give us whatever metal you've got."
"I can get behind this deal." She agrees. In truth, it was a terrible negotiation from the goblins' part... but they were goblins, so it was half expected.
Eager to get back into the safety of Foebe's tavern, she pushes the others to move. "Come on, lets get away!"
Lord Glass thanks you as you rush off to the east, heading deeper into the scrapyard. A large winch-driven crane towers over the piles of discarded machinery here. The crane’s base is totally entrenched in debris, and rust pits its arm. In the crane’s cockpit, the control panel’s faceplate has been removed, exposing the gears and mechanisms behind the foot pedals and long rusty levers.
A wall of debris looms to the south, extending east and west. The open stone to the north is flooded with oily water. The reddish brown circular pool of water stands in the center of a large open area, with stacks of metal and wood to the north and south. To the east, a large steel box, already pitted with rust, blocks the way past the pond. At the bottom of the pond, a large pile of cloth sits mostly motionless, some unseen current causing bits of fabric to dance in the water.
Crystal wrinkles her nose in disgust. "Eugh. I think I caught filth fever just looking at this place."
Regardless, she looks around the crane for anything hidden.
Royken also looks over the pond, before grunting in displeasure.
"Maybe I can use the crane to get that s$~+ out of our way," he says, making his way toward the machinery.