What's the Frequency, Kulthian? PT 2
The ensuing battle over the Soul Cannon was vicious, with agents downed on all sides. In fact, of all the first group to try and intercede, only Victor remains standing. The clamor, however, drew the attention of a certain roamer of the wild places and he is swift to find in these ruins a collection of familiar faces clashing with unknowns. Others, in robes are scattering frantically, wanting no part of the bloodletting, while four figures are still kneeling prostrate before the dais at the base of the unearthed Kulthian abomination, an awful tingle in the air. Green clad artificer, barely able to keep upright, even on his knees, raises a device in palsied hands, "For... the honor..." but collapses to the stones before he can push the button.
That's then the tingle gets colder and more intense, the taste of victory about to turn sour.
GAME: Gregor rolls perception: (5)+7: 12
Gregor is out riding. It's not really a patrol, because he's not part of any formal force, but he's an interested observer. Not of anything in particular. Just generally interested in things. So here he is, out in West Noplace about ten miles northwest of the city, just taking the air, and he saw signs of passage of ... what looks like an adventuring party. Not too frequent to see parties out here, so he'll ride along in the direction they went to see what he can see.
GAME: Victor rolls perception: (10)+6: 16
Victor listens to the cultist's last words. A tiny crease forms between his brows as the villain fades without quite completing his thought. For the honor of whom? Victor wonders. Or what? He steps prudently between cultist and device. Just in case there is any chance of recovery. Then the golem studies the cultist for some sign of allegiance or nationality.
GAME: Gregor rolls perception+2: (4)+7+2: 13
Gregor calls out, "Hello! Hello, anyone around?" He has a sense of movement around him, but he can't see anything.
Clitter-clatter-plink....
Scraaaaaaape-tink-clack....
Pting-rattle-clang....!
There are some cultists still trying to clear the periphery of the ruins when they suddenly keel over midstride.
Clatter-klink-nlink-ting-rattle-clank....
Victor turns his head slowly in Gregor's direction as the latter calls out. He glances around at other sounds and then chants a quick spell, pointing at Gregor. His whispered words are carried to the rider. "I believe you are known as Gregor? This is Victor. I am near the device at the center of the crater. Ah...Greetings. I am not certain if all of the cultists have been dealt with. But I am reluctant to leave my position..." GAME: Victor casts Message. Caster Level: 4 DC: 15
Gregor will ride up to where Victor's Messaging him from, riding quickly before whatever enemies and mysterious forces can regroup. When he gets closer, he calls out, "Hello, the camp!"
Victor gives the nearest cultist one last look. The he turns towards Gregor. "This is not our camp," he remarks, once Gregor is within speaking distance. "We were sent to secure the site and deal with these Kulthian cultists, and their device." The clattering, and clanking and skittering carrying on as Gregor rides in to join Victor intensifies on the southeast corner of the ruins, and another spot to the west. There are artifice contrivances scattered about the place, connected to a massive machine that is still half buried in the earth.
Almost as if cued by mention of a 'device' two.... loosely 'humanoid' assemblages of junk and suchforth gather their 'feet' beneath them, the terrible tingle of wrongness in the air flaring briefly as they rise, before dropping down to a general.... unpleasantness in the background.
Gregor looks around at the site, looks to Victor, nods grimly. "It looks like you've dealt with the cultists. But there are some that may be regrouping. Do you need me to stand with you to fight them off?" He couches his lance at the sound of enemies reassembling, and guesses, "Perhaps so, I think?"
Sounds of raised voices, battle and clanking or magic in the wilds draw Jaen's attention. None of these belong, in his mind, and need to be dealt with. By the time he emerges from the heavier foliage, it initially looks that they corrected themselves.
The first of the accumulated scrapheaps, with an appendage ending with a spinning wheel with a number of knives and sharpened scrap for teeth begins a shuffling advance toward the Golem and Arvek.
The second, with a more... drill like arrangement, also begins to move. While they don't -look- like their gait is very fast, it -is- eating up a fair amount more ground than it would appear. Neither have anything (nice or otherwise) to say to the adventurers.
Victor chants a few arcane words and then begins rising into the air. A half dozen meters in the air he stops, cape swaying gently. "Unfortunely I have used most of my offensive spells, and the range of my remaining attacks is limited," he explains. "But if they come closer I will do my best to destroy them."
Jaen's eyes narrow at the metal... men? that seem to coalesce and begin moving towards the recent victors. With a growl, he breaks from the woodline to dash towards them, claws sprouting from his fingers as he moves.
GAME: Jaen RAGES!, gaining +2 to melee attack/damage/Will saves and 4 temporary HP
Gregor nudges Traveller in the ribs with his heels, and the horse takes off at a gallop, charging towards the ... whatever they are. His lance slams into one with a great commotion and a clattering of metal parts. Some of it's come loose, and he might have knocked the head off. It doesn't fall over, though, more's the pity.
The boring contrivance of bent plates layered into a ragged spiral of jagged steel sways shakingly with every shambling stride of the nonverbal monstrosity. The rattles, hisses, clanks and scraping keep it from being 'silent'.
GAME: Strike rolls 1d100: (45): 45
Headless and, by the uncertain swaying, senseless, the second abomination folds it's elbows(there's a lot of in that arm) and slashes out with the spinning deathwheel for....nowhere NEAR the mounted Arvek!
GAME: Victor rolls ranged: (4)+6: 10 GAME: Victor rolls 1d4+2: (4)+2: 6
Victor pans his gaze between one creature and the next. As Roll approaches, Victor descends more or less in front of him. He raises an arm, fist pointed at the construct. For a brief moment his hand is covered in hazy distortion, but then it flies across the space between them. It splashes against the enemy exactly as if Victor himself had punched it.
GAME: Jaen rolls finesse+2: (12)+6+2: 20 GAME: Jaen rolls 1d6+strength+2: (1)+2+2: 5
Jaen darts up to the nearest, headed, contraption and slashes at it with one clawed hand.
GAME: Gregor rolls 1d20+9: (15)+9: 24 GAME: Gregor rolls 1d20+6: (8)+6: 14 GAME: Gregor rolls 1d20+1: (2)+1: 3 GAME: Gregor rolls 1d20+1: (2)+1: 3 GAME: Gregor rolls 1d8+4: (4)+4: 8 GAME: Gregor rolls 1d4+4: (3)+4: 7
Gregor wheels around to face the headless creature, wielding his lance while Traveller rears back and clops with his hooves. He even bites at the metal thing, wrenching loose some bit or other while Gregor's lance punches a hole in some plate or other. Sadly, it's apparently nothing critical.
GAME: Strike rolls 1d20+8: (9)+8: 17 GAME: Strike rolls 2d4+4: (5)+4: 9 GAME: You damaged Jaen for 9 points. 19 HP remaining.
The previous target now aloft and unreachable, the scrapheap affectionately known as Roll looms over the meat creature that hurt it. Junk twists and folds against scrap and it thrusts that jagged spiral of torn steel into the fleshling, biting through his armor into the juiciness beyond.
GAME: Strike rolls 1d100: (23): 23
The other creature, undeterred by it's horrific flailing gaining it nothing, brings the hellish saw back around, still well out of the danger zone for Gregor, little arcs of dark blue energy trying to hold the thing together.
GAME: Victor rolls weapon5+2-1: (15)+7+2+-1: 23 GAME: Victor rolls 1d4+6: (2)+6: 8
Victor watches Jaen trade blows with the second creature. The golem descends to the ground. As soon as his feet touch the ground, he launches himself in a run. He swings a gauntleted fist as he closes within range, slamming it into the things side. "Gregor appears to have the other occupied. Let's finish this one quickly and then move to assist him!"
GAME: Jaen rolls finesse+2: (5)+6+2: 13 GAME: Jaen rolls finesse+2: (6)+6+2: 14
GAME: Jaen rolls 1d6+strength+2: (6)+2+2: 10 GAME: Jaen rolls 1d6: (5): 5
Jaen gives a curt nod sidelong to Victor even as he slashes at the metal monstrosity with renewed vigor and both claws. One finds purchase, tearing free previously loosened pieces and allowing others to fall free.
GAME: Gregor rolls 1d20+9: (13)+9: 22 GAME: Gregor rolls 1d20+6: (13)+6: 19 GAME: Gregor rolls 1d20+1: (15)+1: 16 GAME: Gregor rolls 1d20+1: (15)+1: 16 GAME: Gregor rolls 1d8+4: (6)+4: 10 GAME: Gregor rolls 1d4+4: (3)+4: 7 GAME: Gregor rolls 1d6+2: (5)+2: 7 GAME: Gregor rolls 1d6+2: (6)+2: 8 GAME: Gregor rolls 1d6: (1): 1
Gregor lunges with the lance couched under his arm, the tip slamming it and knocking it down with a big rent in the ...possibly chest area, though who really knows, and Traveller's hooves bash it and smash it and stomp it to small bits, metal plates and nuts flying loose in every direction.
GAME: Strike rolls 1d20+8: (12)+8: 20 GAME: Strike rolls 2d4+4: (4)+4: 8
GAME: You damaged Jaen for 8 points. 11 HP remaining.
The spinning limb of the surviving heap swings back across the barbarian like a backhand and rakes his flesh a second time.
Amongst the fragments, a bent spindle, or spoke with a little scrap of white cloth stuck to it by some alchemical goo bounces away from the site of Rock's stompy demise.
GAME: Victor rolls weapon5-1+2: (13)+7+-1+2: 21 GAME: Victor rolls 1d4+6: (4)+6: 10
Victor begins to circle the monster, one hand holding his cape to the side to keep from getting tangled in it. Pinning the creature between himsef and Jaen makes it easier to find an opening. He swings a fist, pounding the monster in the small of its back.
GAME: Jaen rolls finesse+2+2: (12)+6+2+2: 22 GAME: Jaen rolls finesse+2+2: (16)+6+2+2: 26 GAME: Jaen rolls 1d6+strength+2: (1)+2+2: 5 GAME: Jaen rolls 1d6+strength+2: (4)+2+2: 8
Jaen is cut and bloodied, but still seems far from backing down. Now snarling, he scrapes at the metal again with both claws. While sharp, they are not steel, and fair worse against it than flesh.
GAME: Gregor rolls 1d20+11: (9)+11: 20 GAME: Gregor rolls 2d8+8: (6)+8: 14
Gregor wheels Traveller around and shouts out, "Over there!" and gestures with his lance. The horse charges, lance lowered, and with a clatter of steel, he slams it into the target, which after all it's been through, can take no more and shatters from the impact.
With both of the figures destroyed, the feeling in the air ebbs, and, relative silence reins amongst the ruins. The only noise is the subdued hum coming from the Kulthian artifact embedded in the hill.
GAME: Victor rolls perception: (13)+6: 19 GAME: Gregor rolls perception: (20)+7: 27 GAME: Jaen rolls perception: (17)+9: 26
GAME: Victor rolls knowledge/artifice: (2)+knowledge/artifice: 2 GAME: Victor rolls craft/artifice: (6)+11: 17
Jaen's head turns to either side after the metal men fall. He sniffs at the air. Teeth remain bared as the land remains ...wrong.
Gregor plants the butt of his lance in his stirrup, and he looks around for what's causing that bad feeling that's growing mysteriously.
Victor backs slowly towards the device. He still feels...whatever it is. It's slowly building up again. At any moment it may create new constructs. The golem's foot strikes a cable. His gaze follows it towards the device. Then he turns his head in the other direction and follows it towards one of the braziers. "If we sever these cables, the artifact may return to an inert state again," he suggests.
Scraaaaaaape.... clack-rattle....
Gregor hops down off his horse and grabs a fallen longsword. He'll apply it to the cable that Victor had recommended svering, hacking though it as quickly as he can.
Jaen only need hear the course of action as a solution and immediately moves to one of the cables. His claws re-appear with his ire and are used to slash at the cable.
Victor watches Gregor and then follows his lead. He scoops up a discarded weapon and selects another cable. Holding the longsword with both hands he begins chopping away at it.
The cables fall away under the assault of the adventurers, and the scittering components continue to do so for mere moments after, if only for inertia's sake, before going still once more. In the sputtering stillness that ensues, all that are left are the victorious, the dead, the unconscious and the prostrate as the Soul Cannon, now starved for power, falls into dormancy once more.
Some of the cultists who didn't escape in time were identified postmortem, including the artificer who was apparantly the head of their plot. Sadly, the prostrate men, when examined, showed signs of crude surgical proceedures done that left them alive, but bereft of initiative and cognitive thought. The collars they wore were designed to kill them in a very specific way in deference to the Kulthian device the cult had unearthed. The victim's fates are currently being debated, hotly, by the assorted clergy that care for the grievously injured.
The guild is most pleased with the work that was done, and, while Jaen and Gregor were not technicly alloted to the initial mission, their contributions are noted and they are folded into the group to share the compensation. Once more the world sleeps soundly, needing not fear another Kulthian revival.