Pen sees that these enemies are no match for her companions, so concentrates on conservation of resources. Her contribution is a spray of six glowing orbs shooting toward the Velstrac to end it as a threat.
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As much as he hated to admit it; though the Gnoll's practices were alien to him, Belmont felt elation watching Briar tear through the monsters like they were wet paper.
He reloads his pistol, his hands quick as lightning thanks to Pen's magic as he focuses his aim on the Giants. First, a shot to the first Giant then, another reload and another shot. Each echo was louder than the first as Belmont grinned like an idiot. It wasn't every day he felt this lucky after all...
Pen batters the velstrac with magic missiles, then Briar impales it in the gut with her mithril spear. The mithril prevents the fiend from regenerating, and blood spills from the fatal wound as it crumples around the spear and then collapses to the floor! Without missing a beat, the kholo pulls the weapon free and turns to a shadow giant, biting them. Visna chops at the giant and Belmont shoots them twice.
The giants take a moment to cloak themselves in shadows before attacking Briar and Visna. Neither one hits!
With disdain* dripping from every flick of her axe, Visna spares no care for the cruel giants' flailing, meeting their aggression with her own.
*
Visna hacks and slashes, taking down the final giant!
Once you have recovered from the fight, you see another door exits this room.
For a brief moment, Pen wonders, with a bit of awe, why anyone would stand against the brutal elegance of her companion's unstoppable attacks. That thought makes her pull out her notebook to make notes, rather quick and detailed notes, while the others handle the loot and get ready to continue.
Once you are ready, you move on through the doors. Countless clockwork machines roar in this vast, hot, and muggy chamber. Pipes rattle and thrum. Some emit steam, constantly or in intervals, whistling as they do. Most of the machinery has been built off the ground, leaving the stony floor clear. On one side of the chamber stands the upper portion of a titanic humanoid skull.
A humanoid creature not much larger than a halfling works on the machinery here. With his empty eye sockets, fingers made of keys and tools, and distorted limbs, moves more like a spider and sounds more like a machine than anything else. The constant ticking sounds he emits seems to work like echolocation, guiding him around the room. In his free hand, he is constantly flashing and playing with a Harrow card: The Forge.
Two shadowy creatures lurk in the shadows near the man, apparently keeping an eye on him. The man does not look up from his work as you enter the room.
Visna nods to Briar, indicating to two creatures lurking in the shadows. With her eyes on the fiend leading them, she traces a rune on Maiden's Smile, bathing the bite of her axe in a holy glow. "Hold, velstrac. Whether in suffering or metals your artifice will not be permitted."
Pen might simply ask for the card, but she is not one to speak up in times like this. Instead she hovers behind the warriors, ready to fling spells to aid and destroy.
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"Y'know, despite what I just witnessed, so far I think you're a cool band of guys to hang around with." remarked Belmont as the battle finally ended. He dusted himself down, reloaded and slotted his Clan Pistol and his Hand Crossbow into his Gunner's Bandolier once more, attuning both firearms to the Bandolier as he did so.
He knew he needed to find some more guns to slot the other two slots in but-
Well he was either broke or he spent the money to get more of it.
As he followed the rest of the party indoors, he paused and looked at the room the party were standing in. He had never seen so much machinery before in his life. Infact, he had never seen Machinery like this before. Everything about it looked more alien to him than...well he was. Of course; the propriator of said machinery looked just as deadly as the monster they just put down and-
"Oh Bloody Hell" Belmont hissed out quietly to nobody in particular. "That's one of the fancy cards ain't it?
They just had to grab it right? He looked to Visna then whispered to her "So we're not shooting just yet are we?" he asked, reaching for his hand crossbow and clan pistol to draw them out once more. So far all he had done was blast down giants and other monsters that made the average person get the willies.
Pen's lips thin, then frown, not at Belmont's question, more of her answer. "If they do not attack first... they give them a chance." the frown and the general tone of the answer says Pen does not agree with this at all. Too dangerous, not practical.
The velstrac whirls at the sound of Visna's challenge, as do the shadowy creatures. The sound of clicking and ticking the small fiend emits intensify as he moves to attack, shaken by Visna's battle cry.
Before you can react, though, the vesltrac opens his mouth to unloose a series of thunderous clicking sounds. This creates an emanation of darkness and wailing sounds around him!
The two winged creatures concentrate their powers, each one creating a trio of shadowy duplicates that appear throughout the room! The duplicates claw at you viciously, two each attacking Briar and Visna!
Critical Success: The creature is unaffected and is then temporarily immune for 24 hours.
Success: The creature is deafened for 1 round.
Failure: The creature is confused and deafened for 1 round.
Critical Failure: The creature takes 20 mental damage, and is confused and deafened for 1 round.
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As the monster screamed bloody murder, Belmont covered his ears and clenched his eyes shut as the monster screamed. Eventually, the screams stopped. His eyes opened and...
Well he didn't feel any different.
"Well, you were right!" exclaimed Belmont as he drew his Clan Pistol and his rapier out, aiming his pistol at the screaming monster who was screaming but before he could do anything, He ducked under the claws of the screamer. The days of dodging gunfire and running from chasing debt collectors were proving to be very handy.
"C'mon then!" he laughed and fired at the screaming monster before stabbing at one of the shadow monsters with his rapier.
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Briar weathers the storm of screeches and flurry of unseen claws, but hears Pen gasp as sone seem to find her. The darkness seems to deep even for her gifts to pierce so she must rely on the tried and true method of following the scent of blood.
She knows roughly where Pentella was standing before the darkness enshrouded them and so she follows the wafting scent of Pentellas's blood elsewhere, snarling and letting out her own eerie cackle in the dark. Slamming her balled fists into her chest and gnashing her jaws as she riled herself into a frenzy and attacked the creature.
The Kholos jaws snap into the endless dark several times before she apparently stops to reassess where things might be.
Visna shakes off the shrieks and claws, and as is her wont she barrels forward to seize the leader! Unfortunately despite how little the darkness hinders her stride or strikes, the horrid clicking and ticking seems to discomfit her greatly.
"Briar, keep her safe!"
Dark with a pitch so thick she cannot see anything, every sound muffled as if she was a hundred feet underwater. Ingredients for Isolation, allowing the creatures to murder alone.
Pen understands isolation. Hers had been self imposed until a Gnoll, a Kashrishi, and a old, um, acquaintance forced her back into the bubbles of others.
She does not wish to return to the before. So she concentrates her magic, clutching her staff and attempts to will the dark away. Puck, her little ceru, also doesn't want to go back to just the two of them locked in dusty inns. The little one likes the cats most of all, so uses its own twist of fate to help its master.
Pen unleashes a powerful counterspell, banishing the velstrac's darkness and negating the effects of its clicking cry!
Belmont fires at the velstrac but it dodges the bullet with eerie grace. He drives his rapier into one of the shadow duplicates, starting to disrupt its tenebrous form. However, neither Briar nor Visna are able to land a blow!
The velstrac twitches his tool-fingers as he jabs them into Visna's belly, a critical hit!
The winged shadow monsters maintain their duplicates as they move to flank Visna, lashing out with claws.
The duplicates attack as well!
As the dark lifts, Pen ignores the shadow beast tearing into her flesh... well as much as anyone can ignore one's own skin parting and blood spray. She does scream, but also then pivots, trying to get a good shot, and fires her sickly green ray of undoing at the velstrac.
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Briar takes yet another slash across her flank and snaps back at the shadowy creature before it can retract itself clamping her jaw fiercely onto it. Answering Visna through action rather than words.
Quickly manuvering her spear around it's back and locking it in by readying the weapon she stabs at one of the duplicates attacking Pentella while putting the squeeze on the one in her embrace.
Briar's heart quickens as she spots Visna take the deadly stab to the gut and clenches her jaw even more tightly on the shadowy double hoping there's some kind of feedback to the original.
Scarlet paints the silver plates of Crowstarver as the velstrac's wiles slip into the joints of Visna's armor. She regains some space with a sweep of her axe, then seizes her foe in a crushing grip, trusting to the desperate lucky of her Last Coin to keep her safe.
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That monster...dodged his shot?!
"Hey! That's hardly fair!" exclaimed Belmont.
But before Belmont can attempt a reload, he was accosted by one of the shadow monsters. This was not his style of combat but; what did he have to loose? He raised his rapier to the shadow duplicate that he was clashing blades and started thrusting his Rapier at it.
The others looked like they were taking a beating. Still, Luck felt like it was going well for them. He just needed to get an opening to reload and fire another shot at the .
Belmont stabs the shadow duplicate attacking him, destroying it! Briar savages one of the duplicates attacking her, tearing it to shreds as she stabs Pen's tenebrous assailant. The velstrac resists some of Pen's disintegration beam. Visna scores several devastating blows against it.
Ticking and clicking, the velstrac jabs its tool-fingers at Visna again.
The shadow monsters claw her!
The four remaining duplicates attack as well!
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Briar twists using the corpse of the creature she just killed to slow the next attacker enough to catch it before spearing the thing. She momentarily let go and lunged at the one attacking pen with another ferocious bite that must have hit something important. With most of the creatures around her and the mage dealt with she charged towards Visna with just as much killing intent as before.
More of Pen's flesh gets ripped off her bones so Pen focuses her ire on the duplicates. Lighting flashes from one to the other, with Pen's hopes it hits the master as well.
Visna turns aside the Tick Tock man's needles, but the shadows encircling her break her guard, and the shieldmaiden falls.
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Belmont was still feeling lucky, he had driven back one of the duplicates but more were coming and one of their partymembers were slowly falling. He thrusted his Rapier at one of the duplicates before he dashes to the side, reloaded his pistol, raised it and fired it at Mr McToolfingers to try and wound him!
Pen unleashes chain lightning at the duplicates. Unfortunately, it only strikes one before the second evades completely, ending the chain. Fortunately, Briar is able to finish off the one he has restrained and the one Pen zapped, leaving only two remaining. Belmont misses with both of his attacks!
With Visna down, the enemies shift their focus to Briar. The small velstrac moves to attack the kholo with his tool-fingers while the shadow monsters and their duplicates all converge around her, attacking with their claws!
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Enraged still further as Visna falls and the creatures have the gall to beset her and her companions Briar lashes out to snag Ticktock in her fangs crushing the smaller being in her grip. It seems her madness brings about other changes as well as subtle ghostly apparitions begin to form around her causing her to glow a very faint pale light as she attempts to bare down further on the foe.
Pen's heart stops when she sees the vibrant light of the world collapse in blood and rent steel. The world narrows to the sound of a thudding echo, her last reverberating heartbeat bouncing out into encroaching black.
Her hands continue on without her heart or mind grasping her staff, drawing its power, her mouth shouting the words of a spell sent shooting at the enemy that turned out that light.
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Luck was starting to show it's mistrust in Belmont's eyes.
He cursed as he watched one of the party fall, uncertain of how this would go. He spins his Rapier and pushes forward, striking at one of the duplicates.
With one of the duplicates suppressed by his strike, he dashes to the left, managing to reload his pistol before spinning around and opened fire at another duplicate!
Briar misses with her attacks, the nimble velstrac avoiding her spear. But Pen heroically fires a disintegration beam at the small menace, managing to hit! The velstrac's body glows with brilliant green light before disintegrating completely into a pile of ash!
Belmont stabs and shoots one of the duplicates, the bullet scoring a critical hit and destroying it.
With their master destroyed, the shadow creatures snarl and teleport away! You can claim the Harrow card from the velstrac's ashes: The Forge.
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With the beings before them deceased or dissipating Briar's frenzied focus wanes quickly as her eyes fall on Visna's unmoving form. The barbarian drops the spear where she stood and rushes over to her fallen comrade, digging into her satchel of healing supplies. Unguents, ointments, bandages, tonics and elixirs abound.
"No no no, no!"
Odd customs beget odd customs to any onlooker, but Briar swiftly draws her jawbone dagger and begins feverishly offering prayers to her ancestors before slicing her right palm squeezing the wound to fill her palm before drawing sigils of safety and well-being across Visna's form. Sensing her desperation several skull-faced Kholo spirits joined Briar around Visna and seemed to guard against any oncoming psychopomps. Stowing the bladed tool Briar went quickly to work administering poultices and stitching to her ally, mixing with it the various magical accoutrements she'd obtained over their journey.
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The monster's death quickly sent the duplicates away.
Belmont stared at the scene around them before he wandered over to the monster, stomped on it's head with the heel of his boot then reloaded his pistol and shot it.
He let off a few huffs as it didn't seem to move once more then looked to the others. "It's dead! The Freaking bastard's dead!" he remarked as he then turned his eyes to Briarthorn and Visna "Is she going to be alright?!" he called out, glancing toward the card before looking back.
He gave the monster another stomp on the head just to be safe.
Pen barely notices their enemy becoming dust. Instead she finds herself on her knees, legs sprayed like a puddle, beside the fallen warrior, clutching Visna's ax of all things while Briar works to save her. The ace... Well Visna will probably want it when she wakes.... If... No, when
Visna gasps awake, eyes focusing on the space above herself before her ears guide her to Pentella. "Fear not, my Pen. The thread of my wyrd still has some length to play out ere I-" She winces, then shrinks, retaking her human skin. She stretches up a hand to one of the wounds on her back, closing it with shimmering light as she forces a wavering smile. "I can never reach there when my back is broader."
Pen smiles, one of those wide bright ones, that rarely cross her face. "Good." always practical, Pen uses as few words as necessary to convey her thoughts. That words does have a lot of emotion behind it, as does the sagging of her shoulders in utter relief.
She lays the axe down within easy reach of the warrior while she and Briar see to her wounds. Then she rises, brushes herself off and goes about exploring the room, making notes, and answering Belmont (even though it is unnecessary) "Yes, she will be alright."