The Iron Hunters live on the city’s fringes, where they hunt monsters, search ruins for treasure, and generally get by as urban adventurers. When shieldmarshals or other organizations in Alkenstar seek specialists in city adventuring, urban exploration, or underworld politicking, they often call upon the aid of groups such as this.
"neither, to be honest" Lora says lifting her hand from the butt of her pistol. "we are just passing through and would like as little trouble as possible with that goal in mind."
Seeing that her words were not her best, Lora attempts to add a bit of logic to her diplomacy. "Wait... The Iron Hunters? The famed specialists in city adventuring, the courageous urban explorers, and the shrewdest in underworld politicking." she says loudly, with plenty of boom and awe. "You found that haul down below, bits bobs, glitters, and shine!" throwing her hands up like tossing coins and watching them shower down around her " and the Critter in the alleys! With the Teeth!" she snarled with her hands as claws "We sang about that one in the taverns for months." she looks around, her awe drifting away, like a child who just found out about Santa "But... this is where you live? Did something happen?"
Kasali smirks at Lora. "It seems our reputation precedes us. Nice to meet a fan of our work.
"No, this is not where we live. We came to explore this abandoned place for anything of value. We gathered most of the food and useful tools here and were getting ready to depart soon, but we got into something of a bind. My lieutenant, Bolsa, is a clockworks expert. They reactivated the dormant clockwork brewers in the entry, but their hardware is malfunctioning, which causes them to attack anyone on sight. My team and I have sworn to eliminate Alkenstar's worse threats, not create more. But the brewers were too tough for us to take out on our own.
"Say... You made it this far into the brewery. Does that mean you've defeated the clockworks?"
"Oh those. Yes. We did defeat them, but they did inappropriate things to our... well naming the victim is not what one does. Where they forced their hoses will be in my dreams for many a nights to come." dreams she said, not necessarily bad ones, cause she's an odd one, Lora Drowne is.
"Bolsa might wish to double check them. Our methods were rather brutal, but there might be a slim chance they are just temporarily shutdown. An expert check over would ease all of our minds." and gets the Hunters focused elsewhere.
"Ah, excellent! There's also a nest of wasps in the adjacent room. We locked the door." Kasali glances at the welts all over Crystal's skin. "I suppose you've dealt with those, too?"
When you reply in the affirmative, the man smiles. "Excellent. Then I suppose there's no further need for us to linger here. We're grateful for your help, friends. Here, take these in thanks." Kasali gives you two minor elixirs of life.
Eva covers her metal arm when they encounter the hunters, but then crosses her arms as Lora speaks to them. She can't help herself about thinking less of them, since they are supposed to solve problems, but instead they activated the constructs and just locked the wasps instead of dealing with them.
After accepting the vials, Lora gives Kasali a curtsey "Your thanks and your gifts are much appreciated, good sir. May the Iron Hunters always find their way. But if you ever need a nudge in a direction, find me." she grins and waves her companions on, hopefully toward a payday.
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As you are preparing to leave the brewery through the area with the beer vats, a voice calls out to you. "Hold it right there!” The voice is gruff yet squeaky voice with a twangy accent. “Reach for the sky!” A tall, lanky cactus leshy wearing a monocle grips a wand holstered at his side; he holds out his free arm, which is covered in thick black spines, like a cocked pistol. Beside him are a wolf-sized brown drake and a pair of brutish leshy ruffians.
“We know you have the alchemist, whose crimes against the natural world are too numerous to quantify. For associating with so foul an enemy of all things alive, none of you shall leave here alive. I, Dewey Daystar of the Clearwater Cleaners, will see an end to your toxic ways!” The cactus leshy slaps the back of the drake beside him. “Sic ’em, Roxy!”
While the vine leshies stay by the exit to block your escape, Dewey Daystar casts magic fang on his own spines. Roxy scuttles forward and spits a ball of dirt at you that explodes into a shower of rocks and mud!
Lora had opened her mouth to retort against the cactus' lovely speech, but his pet choose that moment to spit DIRT at them. The poor bard was not expecting that. Besides the sensation of being kicked all over her body by an angry swampy donkey, she swallowed a ton of the filth.
"Oh... you... are... going to DIE for that." the normally playful bard is furious. Her anger weaves into her magic, fueling her companions on (hopefully). She starts off the death dealing with drawing her weapon and firing at the beast who spit at them.
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Eva laughs at the comical appearance of Dewey, but soon her smile is removed from her face as Dewey's pet throws dirt at her. She isn't fast enough to dodge away. "You'll pay for that, you thorny pickle..."
She activates her arm into overdrive before sending electricity at Dewey and his pet.
Crystal barely manages to avoid the worst of the incoming dirt, and she responds by pulling her pistol and firing at the drake.
She then ducks into cover so she won't get blasted by another burst of dirt.
Royken avoids the worst of the dirt blast. He charges up to the drake and smacks it with his gun's stock. Lora begins her inspiring song as she shoots the drake in the shoulder. Crystal's shot goes wide.
Dewey Daystar avoids some of Eva's electric arc. The drake takes the full hit, but it resists some of the lightning!
Dewey casts another spell, blasting Eva with a torrent of water that knocks her back and almost knocks her out!
Roxy the drake goes into a frenzy as she attacks Royken, but the dwarf stands firm in the face of her assault!
Eva gets hit in her stomach, bending over and almost throwing up, blood in her mouth. She loses the will of cursing him, just sending another bolt at them as she looks for cover.
Lora's pain and anger has her acting without much in the way of sense. Reloading and shooting with a muttered mess of expletives to provide inspiration.
Crystal reloads and shoots the pet as well.
Royken bashes the drake once.
Both Dewey and the drake dodge some of Eva’s lightning. Lora and Crystal miss with their shots!
Dewey aims his arm at Eva and fires several spines at her, but they miss thanks to her cover!
Roxy bites Royken, then lands a critical hit with a wing! The dwarf goes down!
As the dwarf goes down, sense seems to finally enter the bard dirt filled mouth. Sense as in She shuts her mouth... for once. Well at least for a moment, "All the kings men couldn't but one woman can." she says with magic twisting about to save her team member's life. If the other creatures don't kill them all, that is.
F@$! me! Royken thinks as everything goes dark, his gun tumbling from his limp fingers.
HP 2/34 (1 temp hp)
AC 19
Fort +8, Ref +8, Will +5
Hero points: 1
Ammo: 7/10 rounds
Effects: wounded 1
Royken groans, shaking his head as the momentary darkness recedes. Then he remembers where he is again, reaching carefully for his gun. Rolling over, he aims at the underside of the drake and pulls the trigger, grimacing as some of the scatter hits him. He tries to slam the gun into the drake to get it away from him, but his muscles betray him, and the feeble attempts barely nudges the drake.
Almost out, Eva heals herself with her searing medicine before sending more electricity at the pair, even if she knows it is not very effective.
Crystal reloads and fires at the drake!
Eva zaps both enemies again, while Royken and Crystal fire on the drake. Both shots hit the creature, and it's just enough to push it over the edge. The drake whimpers and falls.
"Roxy! You ruffians!" Dewey Daystar shouts angrily. He fires a spine into Royken's gut, dropping the dwarf again, then shifts his aim to Eva, two spines whizzing past the half-elf!
Crystal leaps from cover and bears down on the uppity leshy, dropping her gun and drawing her dagger!
Lora maintains her swearing about "Stop F*$~ing with our dwarf!" which heals the dwarf in question a little more. While she does so she pulls out one of the potions that Kasali gave her and turned toward Eva "Open wide, pretty lady." then pours it down her throat.
HP 2/34 (2 temp hp)
AC 19
Fort +8, Ref +8, Will +5
Hero points: 1
Ammo: 7/10 rounds
Effects: wounded 2
"F#@~ing Abyss," Royken groans as he opens his eyes to find himself on the ground a second time. Staggering to his feet, he retreats to find some cover.
"This is not time for that, love!" Eva manages to play with Lora as she drinks the potion before rushing at Dewey, trying to flank with Crystal, and punching the f$@%er twice!
As Royken staggers away, Crystal and Eva rush in. Eva punches Dewey twice, then Crystal drives her dagger into the leshy's back, taking him down! Primal energy explodes from his body, causing cacti to sprout all around the area! The two leshys guarding the door panic and flee. You have survived!
Dewey has a wand of heal (1st) and 30 gp. There's also a scrap of paper that reads, "Lovey, Gattlebee suffered a terrible accident. Yours, Dewey."
Eva picks the paper, reading it aloud to the others. "So, a Loveless goon? Well, at least I hope 'Lovey' is not in like romantic or anyway..." She turns to Lora. "Can you imagine the pain if that Pickle had also a pickle as thorny as he was and..." She makes in-and-out gestures with her hands, before shivering at the thought. "Loveless would deserve it though."
Royken groans as the leshy explodes, and collapses back to the ground, slowly lying down flat on his back. "Droskar's dick, I thought that was the end of me," he growls.
Not sitting up or looking around, he calls out to Gattlebee: "Did you know that prick?"
Gattlebee shakes his head. "Nah. I'd remember a talking cactus like that." He lights a fresh cigarette. "We ready to go, or what?"
Eva draws her dagger and carefully picks one of the cacti that have just spouted on the ground. "Anyone else want a Dewey? Otherwise I'd be ready to go once my arm is charged and properly working AND we stop bleeding." She says as she spits blood on the patch of cacti.
"I think I'm f!&$ing dying," Royken growls.
Lora kneels down next to Royken, cradling his absolute ruin of a face "Nursery rythmes, lullabies, or bawdy barmaid tales?" she asks, before starting in on whatever his choice is. She figures she should pick something he likes since they will be at it for awhile.
Eventually, after healing your extensive injuries, you leave the brewery and make your way to the Bullet & Barrel. Fortunately, no other foes try to stop you, and Foebe Dunsmith greets you with a bottle of whiskey in hand (and your 50 gp for a job well done).
After setting Gattlebee up with a comfortable room, Foebe debriefs you on what transpired. Dunsmith isn’t particularly surprised to hear about the Clearwater Cleaners—“Dewey’s a wildcard with a chip on his shoulder; it only makes sense he’d work for Loveless”—but she’s perturbed at the mention of the Powderkeg Punks.
“The Powderkeg Punks, huh?” Foebe says, looking concerned. “Even Mugland’s not desperate enough to work with that lot, and those firestarters’d sooner blow themselves to smithereens than work for the shieldmarshals. That leaves us with quite a quandary... who exactly hired these rascals?”
She strokes her chin as she thinks aloud. “I suppose they could have come after the formula for pyronite themselves... they do like blowing things up. But this seems like too big of a play for them to make on their own—too organized and too intentional, as well. The Punks usually focus on casual arson and snorting gunpowder.”
After a moment, Dunsmith slams a fist on the table. “Dammit, okay. Looks like I need to hire you one more time. Big payout, no holds barred.” She shakes her head and continues, “I need you to track down the Punks and see who prodded them to go after Gattlebee. Find out who hired them and why. You get to the bottom of it and stop them, there’s a purse of gold in it for each of ya. Get some rest. You can start tomorrow.”
Lora made appropriate sounds of agreement about the punks, as she gargles with whiskey to get that dirt spit taste out of her mouth. "I hear they like to blow up alley cats for fun". Lora included (once she swallowed) a unverified rumor, just because they tried to kill her.
" tomorrow???" Lora complains. She had a party to find and crash with Crystal, something about 'open wide' with Eva, spending time in a tavern with a few barmaids to learn new bawdy tales since she used a great deal of them on Royken, And a bath. Cause she is gross at the moment.
"F!&@ me," Royken says with a grunt, giving in to the inevitable: continuing to have to work for Foebe Dunsmith and the bloody f&%+ing high duchess of Alkenstar.
He takes a long pull of the whiskey, then turns around and walks out to read a bad book before coming back the next day.
Eva accompanies the others on the whiskey as their next mission gets handed to them. She also would like a couple days of break. "Yeah, a couple days would be great in between missions..."
Needing a bath after that drake spitted dirt at them, Eva leaves the others to ask for a bath in her room and when she returns, Royken is already gone. She then stands behind Lora, massaging her neck. "So just asked for a bath... for two." Not wanting to be rude, however, she adds, as she rests her shin on Lora's shoulder, while looking at Crystal. "Actually, the bath tub for two is big enough for three..."
---
As soon as Lora closes the door of Eva's room, she removes her armor and clothes, reaching for Lora and then picking her up and carrying her in a princess-way to the bath tube. "So, it was really sweet of you being all worried about me earlier." She says, as she gives her a long kiss. "Because of that, I'm going to spoil you for the night..."
Lora smiles at Crystal, with the chin of Eva on her shoulder. "We do have a date to get ready for. I think the Van Devlin's have a small fling in the rows this evening, with tea cakes, waltzes, and a slew of ruffled dandies." offering to share, but leaving the choice up to Crystal.
---------
Lora laughed out loud as she is scooped up with ease, truly delighted she was. "I don't have all night. Too much for this wicked one to do this evening." the strawberry blonde (who needs to touch up her dye job) wraps her arms around Eva's neck "Several hours though" she stretches out the word Several, her brown eyes, so close, like bonfires of playful energy "I look forward to seeing what rather imaginative women can do with that time."
Crystal's face flushes slightly at Eva's offer.
"...it's not often I meet someone addled enough to take a half-dead woman to bed." She remarks.
"It'd torque Pa off something fierce." She finally nods, her smile showing very sharp fangs. "Fair warning, though--I bite."
While Eva wasn't really expecting Crystal to accept her invitation, she smiles pleased. "When I think about a half-dead woman in bed, I'm pretty sure it has a different meaning." As she warns her about biting, she smirks. "I'll take that as a promise, ok?"
---
After dropping Lora on the tube, Eva goes back for Crystal, not wanting her to feel like an intruder between Eva's and Lora's provocations. She gives Crystal a luscious kiss, making sure Lora is able to watch, she then lifts her up, holding her legs and also going for the bath tube.
Lora's eyes brighten considerably when Crystal accepts, which is a feat since they were already quite molten. She grabs a bottle of whiskey since baths are always better with booze.
After a few hours of biting, bathing, and general f+$@ing fun, Lora helps the others get ready for the stolen bit of fluff, as she puts it. Using makeups and dyes to just change their faces enough that they are still Them, but not so recognizable Fancies swimming under a few gin and tonics would notice. Part of the process has Lora redoing her hair back to a deep red.
After a few moments of discussion with her companions, she conjures up clothes as they get near, an illusion warping and weaving their garments into the height of appealing noble fashion. Lora's is a creamy chocolate and lace off the shoulder, fluffing or tight in all the right places.
"We've only an hour, ladies, so enjoy the game, but don't get too involved unless you want to leave your chosen with a Very interesting story." Lora itches to mingle and needle out gossip from the fancy hens about, but she lingers with her companions, choosing to help them navigate and have FUN, more than ply her trade.
Eva removes most of the protective plating of her metallic arm, causing it to have the normal shape and bulk of a regular arm, before Lora's spell takes hold of her. Her dress is bright blue and asymmetrical, with a long sleeve covering her metal arm, while the other arm remains mostly naked. Despite that, it is a very chaste dress, even if it does take advantage of her curvy body. She also makes sure that her hair is covering her slightly pointed ears.
Eva hangs around with Lora and Crystal, truly enjoying herself. At one moment, however, she notices a young man getting basically humiliated by a group of ladies, his morale destroyed. Turning to the other two, she announces her leave. "Look at that poor boy... I'm feeling nice today, so I think I'll give him a morale boost. I'll be back in about ten minutes tops." She looks at them, pressing her tongue against the inner side of her cheek a couple times to make it clear what she was going to do.
Crystal and Lora would see Eva approaching the young man. Eva looks a bit lost and worried, and soon they leave the room, him worried and she winking at them.
A couple minutes later, she returns, cleaning her mouth with a napkin, taking a glass of wine and drinking it, even if she swishes it in her mouth before swallowing. The young man returned to the room a couple minutes later, his face all stupid. "Nice boy. Very grateful." She jokes.
In the morning, Royken returns. He looks around at the three women.
"Well, you all seem f&!$-all satisfied with yourselves..." he observes.
Once everybody has had their fun, you reconvene to begin your investigation into the Powderkeg Punks.
"Well, I say we hit this f*#$ing Lounge and get this s$*$ over with," Royken growls, looking around at each of the three women.
He pauses.
"What the hell do you three seem so happy about? You look like the basilisks that ate the cat..."
"We all had a very pleasant f!#&ing bath last night, Royken." Eva says, smiling. "Using your words, it was a great f$%!ing time." She then shrugs. "We could have invited you as well, but you said you wanted none of that..."
"I'll ask around about the Punks. I'll meet you at the Lounge, ok?"
"There also was a party with little cakes and an obnoxious twittering dog named Puddles The Third.” Lora says as she fiddles with her bodice laces, her mouth in a firm 'Really need to create some work related boundaries for Eva' line but with a 'despite how much fun she can make a simple stroll to work' flush to her cheeks. “I think Crystal killed it. Thankfully. My hero!!” she curtsey’s to the lovely dhampir. Her chocolate eyes finally meet Royken's and with a soft smile, she says with all sincerity "You were missed. Join us next time?"
Eva and Lora easily work the tavern circuit, picking up several rumors:
“Those Powderkeg people? I heard they were trying to break into the Longhorn Lounge up in Skyside about a week ago. They brought some sort of monkey with clockwork limbs. The shieldmarshals forced them back to Smokeside. Good riddance!”
"Oh. My. Gods. My brother’s friend knows this girl who has this roommate who goes to school at Blythir College. They said they saw those Punk people lighting things on fire and shooting bottles near the apothecary. They could have burned the entire place down, you know!”
"Don’t the Powderkeg Punks run the Hot Foot Hippodrome? It’s this dance place in Smokeside near Hellside. I haven’t been there, though I har the music’s good—lots of classic local goblin tunes. But brawls break out all the time. Too rough for my tastes.”
Royken growls wordlessly at Eva and Lora's answers. It conveys a world of disinterest in any foolery involving an obnoxious dog -- though he'd be OK with a little cake. Who the f*~# doesn't like cake? Unless it's got bananas. Who the f!%+ ruins cake with bananas?
"That's twice for that lounge," he says. "Let's start there."