Outside 45

[Shadowcaller]

[Degenburg Castle]

Dena feigns surprise. "Is that so? Well, then we are indeed mistaken, as came here following the tracks of the assassin whom failed to kill your brother. We hoped that you might know who had ordered his death, you see. Seeing they must be in this very castle." She makes a sweeping gesture around the court.

[Reinholdt]

[Degenburg Castle]

Reinholdt clears his throat. "We did not expect you to give your aid freely of course. But if you should happen to know who placed this mark and were able to get them to rescind the order, I believe I can offer incentive to make this a mutually beneficial exchange."

[Morty]

[Ruins]

Looks like it's backtracking time for Fayyaad. He first returns to the room with the terminal, to see what's in the chests he missed earlier.

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Degenburg Castle]

Electra's cold, calm expression doesn't change as she glances at the court as they shift uncomfortably, before bringing her gaze back to Sszinyon. She doesn't say anything, though she is listening intently to the drow's response to Dena and Rein in order to gauge how accurate their suspicions are.

[Ruins]

The first chest in the terminal room seems to contain a rather nasty weapon. It appears to simply be the hilt of another energy sword, decorated in heavy gold with a diamond-cut ruby as the pommel, but when activated, it unfurls a glowing energy bullwhip, all of 15 feet long. There's an extra switch on the hilt as well. Pressing it sheathes the whip in crackling lightning, and cracking the whip when it's charged thus releases a powerful lighting bolt in whichever direction it's cracked in. A powerful weapon, and one that will take a bit of practice to master, but the reward will be worth it.

The second chest contains a bit more straightforward firepower. A shoulder-fired micro-missile launcher lies in the chest, with about 20 micro-missiles. It's actually broken down into two pieces for storage, but Fayyaad can probably figure out how to assemble and load it. The missiles are marked as high explosive. Whoever was living down here didn't mess around when it came to personal protection. But then, with how aggressive the guardians are, perhaps they needed it.

[Felandria]

Temple Assault

Felandria looks around apprehensively.

Keep on your watch, there's unfriendlies out there.

Anyone recognize that sound?

[Morty]

[Temple Assault]

Wenomir puts his hand on his eyes and his shoulders tremble for a moment with barely-retrained anger.

"It's a helicopter. The last thing I expected to meet here, but I should have expected several more pointless distractions before we actually get there. Hopefully it's just an illusion meant to confound us. Let's figure out how to cross the lake."

[Ruins]

That's... probably helpful. Hopefully Fayyaad doesn't blow himself to pieces trying to use it. Is it enough to get past the enormous robots? He's not sure, so he keeps backtracking towards another chest he remembers passing by. In the room with the humanoid guard robots.

[Shadowcaller]

[Temple Assault]

As Wenomir moves, several things happen at once, first the ground underneath him collapses as the ground itself attempts to swallow him whole, the mud itself pulling him under. At the same time a powerful fireball is launched out from the mist into the middle of the group and explodes with a devastating force. Anyone caught in the blast wave will likely, depending on how close they were to it:

1. (Direct Impact) Be hit with the full force of the explosion, which will likely throw them a few meters to the side while scorching their gear/body and might break a number of their bones, and blind them.
2. (Close) Be pushed to the ground, and be blinded, likely suffering injuries as standard body armor isn't made to block explosive force.
3. (Far) Be staggered by the force of the blast wave and possibly be blinded.

Then finally some kind of spell (curse) is cast on the group which, unless resisted, will cause them to perceive everyone in the group as demons, and will hear anything that they say as some form of demonic gibberish for the duration of the curse.

[8BitNinja]

[Temple Assault]

Steve is hit by the fireball and hits the ground hard. Although nothing is broken and he suffered no burns due to his armor, the force hurt him bad. The flash of the fireball also temporarily blinds him. He shouts "Medic!" and lays on the ground. He looks around and prays "Bringer of Justice, please lend your servant your sight." (Detect Evil) and looks around for any hostiles. He would lay hands on himself, but as of now, he is trying to stay from collapsing.

((If you are wondering why the Detect Evil is different, it's because my character doesn't "cast" divine spells. He asks for them, and then his god gives him the requested power. They are not given beforehand))

[Artemis97]

[Degenburg Castle]

Sszinyon chuckles, a rich dark sound. "It is very simple, you see. I gave the order for my brother's death." His red eyes glitter in the candle light, daring his guests to challenge him for this declaration.

[Shadowcaller]

[Degenburg Castle]

Dena can't help but to smile a bit, she had figured it wouldn't be too hard to get a confession out of him. If his people were anything like hers, then sibling killing wasn't exactly frowned upon if you came out as the winner. In addition, she knew that almost boastful tone, she had heard it before when her sister had declared herself matriarch of her tribe. But this time she at least wasn't related to the speaker.

"Well then." Dena replies, dropping the polite act. "So how do we convince you to call off the bounty?" She eyes the guards, this could get messy.

[Green Elf]

[Temple Assault]

The ranger was fairly close to the blast and is knocked back a couple of feet and hits the ground. He is blinded so he moves his hands around, one hand touching one end of his bow, not yet grabbing it, and the others reaching for his small shield generators at his belt.

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Ruins]

This room looks much different from the floor rather than the elevator platform. The three guardian robots that were destroyed in the earlier fight seem to have disappeared, but three still remain. The chest, as Fayyaad might recall, is behind the elevator platform, but one of the guard bots is visible walking slowly around towards it. The other two are unseen, though Fayyaad can hear them jumping and running around beyond the other corner behind the elevator platform. None of the bots seem to have noticed him when he came through the door, but that likely won't last.

[Reinholdt]

[Degenburg Castle]

"All the same," Reinholdt replies humbly, "My offer still stands, if you're interested."

[Morty]

[Temple Assault]

Wenomir doesn't seem to be surprised when the ground under his feet gives way - or if he is, it lasts only for a fraction of a second. He thrusts his sword into the ground behind him and used it as a lever to lift himself out of the hole and out of safer terrain. Then he pulls it out, putting it in the way of the incoming fire. This lets him stay on his feet, but his vision is covered in blinding light. He closes his eyes and focuses on hearing and feeling everything around him. His senses that aren't sight grow more intense as he tries to pinpoint the source of the fireball. Something so powerful can't have been fired from a great distance.

[Ruins]

Fayyaad grabs the energy sword hilt he found earlier and advances towards the bot that bars his way from the chest. He tries to get close unnoticed, before activating the blade and cutting at its legs.

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Ruins]

The bot pauses, back to Fayyaad, seeming to stare into nothing as the tiefling draws the energy sword and slices at its legs. It's caught completely unawares, and the blade neatly separates both knees from the bot's legs. It falls forwards, away from him, and deactivates, its eye winking out completely. Fayyaad is quick enough that the other two bots are none the wiser, and they don't even come into view. The chest in the alcove behind the elevator platform beckons, but even more than that, there's another door out of the room behind it.

[Degenburg Castle]

Electra sweeps her gaze around at the the court, noting the guard positions, before returning her gaze to Sszinyon, the ice in her eyes seeming to have reached a new depth, though her expression remains politely neutral. She says nothing at this point, as Dena and Rein may still be able to convince him to withdraw the bounty, and she has little she can add that would help them in that. For now, she keeps her awareness up, in case it should become necessary to pursue a fighting retreat.

[Morty]

[Ruins]

Another door! This place is a true maze. But first things first. Fayyaad examines the chest.

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Ruins]

The chest contains a rather elaborate-looking keycard. It's colored blue, with rather elaborate circuit designs engraved in gold on its surface. It looks a little beaten up, but should still be functional. Underneath the keycard, is another book, but this one, while somewhat beaten up, is actually readable. On the cover is a picture of a gun much like the rather large weapon he found earlier. The books is titled "Plasma Casters for Dummies". It doesn't seem to be very thick, either.

[Felandria]

Temple Assault

Felandria, being in front of the group, and flying a bit above the ground, and fairly heavy, will be pushed a bit by the blast, but otherwise unscathed.

She will quickly fly over to the others and make sure they are okay, scanning the area for hostiles.

Is everyone okay?

[Morty]

[Ruins]

Fayyaad glances back. Can he give the book a read now, or will the robots' patrol routes bring him into their view if he stays here?

[Shadowcaller]

Temple Assault

Wenomir can easily tell from which direction the fireball came, even with his hearing alone. It seems to have been coming from the south.

As the rest of the group is attempting to recover silent humanoid shapes that appear to be made of the very mist around them silently approaches Steve and Luvon and attempts to grab onto them. If they manage to touch them, any sound they make will be completely muted to the others. They can still hear themselves, but the others won't be hearing a thing of what they do or say.

They do not seem to fear pain or death, just floating into Steve's barrier against evil in a attempt to grapple him and drag him towards the lake (the west).

Felandria on the other hand can hear a voice calling out for her, no one else will be able to hear this voice. Filthy mortal, did you honestly think you could defeat us? This place is a graveyard for your kind, and you will soon fill it. Just another fireball and your friends will be finished. Unless you come here and face me myself that is. We both know the others are expendable. The voice seems to be coming from the north.

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Ruins]

Considering how random and aggressive these guardians are, staying in one place too long is liable to lead to one of the two remaining guardians stumbling across him sooner rather than later. They might have to be far across the room to do so, but considering how rapidly they can move when alerted, lingering too long is inadvisable. One of them can be heard making its way closer as he looks back, though he can't see it yet. It also hasn't made the distinctive double-beep of being alerted yet, but if he sticks around too much longer, he just might.

[Lord Raziere]

[Orc Tribe- Intro]
Ensara was nothing but a very competent warrior for her tribe. Yet her tribe needed all the warriors it could get, for they were orcs. And everyone knows how much orcs get slaughtered. There were only about fifty of them, and they've had a long history of running into adventurers and armies willing to kill them. They've only survived mostly because there used to be more of them and because they've learned from their mistakes- a warrior's honor was only as good as long you didn't die holding yourself to it. Yet that didn't heal the bitter taste of their dead in their mouths or their inability to defend themselves. Their tribe was dying. Their numbers, dwindling. Such is how the story is with orcs as always. People thought them evil, they killed them, orcs gathered numbers to kill them in revenge and only perpetuated the cycle of war by going to kill them in revenge in return.

Such was their lot. Ensara was not going to let that continue. She walks up to the tribes current chief, Karkan, who was currently performing a ritual. A demonic one.
"Chief Karkan! What are you doing!?"
"What is it look like I'm doing, child!? I'm conducting a ritual to contact a demon lord to beg for their help. To secure the safety of our tribe."
"Demonic trafficking? Its rituals like these that make other races hate and fear us! Demonic assistance will only dig ourselves deeper!"
"Hrmph. It doesn't matter. It never mattered. I do not know why this hate and fear for our kind started, but it will never stop. The gods do not answer our prayers. "Civilized" people turn us away. Adventurers slaughter us every time we find a place to settle away from them. Our only hope is to get to get power, any power we can get left to us to defend ourselves. For if we don't, they will attack us anyways."
"Dark lords and villains are little better than the so-called "heroes", you know that. They will do nothing but treat us as expendable, killing indirectly by sending us to die. The Demon Lords will be no different. Stop this madness! Now!"
Chief Karkan shakes his head.
"No child....I won't. You will learn someday. Sometimes you have to make the worst deal to live as best you can." He begins to turn back to the ritual when she yells while drawing her battle ax.
"I challenge you to an honorable duel of justice to the death for the leadership of the tribe!"
Chief Karkan stops, and sighs at this. He draws his own ax and turns around.
"Very well. I accept. I shall show you in front of the tribe why I am the chief!"

They charged towards each other, their axes clashing and clanging, Karkan dodging Ensara's more offensive swings and pursuing style. He was more experienced, but he was older and lately had used more magic than fighting skill these days, and Ensara, younger and full of energy, with more recent battles under her belt and training. She dodges his swing, then suddenly rams her ax into his left leg, cutting it off and making him fall kneeling to the ground, then she brings down her battle ax in an overhead swing, burying it into his back and killing him. Panting, she pulls her ax out of his corpse, while the rest the tribe nod in respect. She had won. Therefore was the new Chief. Not every duel was to the death, but a duel of justice was a serious and grave matter, invoked only when the stakes were dire. Some of them were about to do the same.
"Hail Chief Ensara!" one says "What do we do now?"
She picks up the Chief's pendant and puts it on.
"We do things my way from now on. We make our own way in this world, no matter what AMEN tries to tempt us, GloG convert us, or VIGIL and HALO stamp us out as a threat, or MERC try to kill us for coin. We will find a home, we will unite all the orcs we can into a new nation! No matter who tries to stand in our way or trick us into "cooperation.". I won't lie, there will be many enemies: wizards, immortals, gods, robots people thinking themselves heroes, people wanting to con us into being their minions, powerful factions wishing to use us to their own gain. But its not them we should be fear, its they who should fear us!"
She gives her speech while raising her ax at sky towards an imaginary horde of enemies facing down at them in her mind.
"Because I will gain any power, do anything I can to make sure we have a good future! Karkan would sell us out to demons, but I will not! We will not only survive, but rise victorious! Nothing will stop us! Nothing!"
The tribe before her cheered a roar in response to her speech.

[8BitNinja]

Temple Assault

Wenomir can easily tell from which direction the fireball came, even with his hearing alone. It seems to have been coming from the south.

As the rest of the group is attempting to recover silent humanoid shapes that appear to be made of the very mist around them silently approaches Steve and Luvon and attempts to grab onto them. If they manage to touch them, any sound they make will be completely muted to the others. They can still hear themselves, but the others won't be hearing a thing of what they do or say.

They do not seem to fear pain or death, just floating into Steve's barrier against evil in a attempt to grapple him and drag him towards the lake (the west).

Felandria on the other hand can hear a voice calling out for her, no one else will be able to hear this voice. Filthy mortal, did you honestly think you could defeat us? This place is a graveyard for your kind, and you will soon fill it. Just another fireball and your friends will be finished. Unless you come here and face me myself that is. We both know the others are expendable. The voice seems to be coming from the north.

Steve's eyes finally recover from the blast. He feels the hand touch him, but he swings his shield as he stands up to face whatever touched him around where another creature his height's abdomen would be. He staggers as he atands, obviously having difficulty. He moves his shield to his chest and prays "Great Mender, please heal my wounds, which are to great for me to bear" (Cure Serious Wounds). A light goes out from his palm as an intense amount of healing power goes to it. If it heals the fireball wounds, he resumes his fighting stance.

[Morty]

[Ruins]

Fayyaad retreats back towards the elevator, then. Once he's out of the guardians' sight, he settles down to give the book a read.

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Ruins]

Fayyaad will need to make a jump to get up onto the elevator's platform, but the now-empty chest is close enough to the wall formed by the platform that he could stand on it and use it as a boost to get up there. If he pokes around next to the door, there seem to be a series of hand-holds that have been roughly gouged into the wall that would also allow him to climb up rather than jump.

However he manages it, once he gets a chance to examine the book, he'll find it's filled with simple explanations for the use and care of guns of the type he found earlier. It explains, with clever pictorials, how to load and fire the weapon, which is not a regular gun, but rather a type of very powerful directed energy weapon, along with basic care and maintenance. Following along using the weapon he found will show him that it's apparently in very good repair, and is ready for loading and use. As several sidebars point out, apparently aiming with it is rather like using a shotgun; the size and power of the blasts it fires is such that merely having the muzzle roughly in line with the target is enough to ensure a hit, if not an outright kill. The last few pages are marked as being for more moderate and advanced users; apparently, there is meaning to the differently colored shells he found. The book lists 20 different types, with different colors, and some marked with symbols. Four different types have a warning next to them; apparently they require an external charging device to fire, and they're aimed differently as well, requiring the user to track the target's movements with the muzzle. There's a small addendum marked to the warning admonishing him to check the version of the weapon as not all require external power supplies to fire. The last page is actually helpful in this regard; it shows a listing of the different types. All appear as guns, but some are more ornate than others. The one he found is apparently a top-of-the-line model that doesn't require the external generator to fire the super-special shells. The back cover lists two other books: one is apparently a reference on how to make ammunition for the gun, and the other is for the book he found earlier on Holon Machines.

The reference chart for the ammunition types mentions several that have elemental-type effects, along with others that fire more "standard" energy beams, in a variety of configurations, including a spread configuration of all things. Using the chart, he's able to determine what each type of shell he found does. The red shells are a "standard" beam with a fire element imbued into it; the book doesn't elaborate too far on what that means, though one can guess that means there's some sort of persistent flame effect. The blue shells are electric-elemented, and rather than firing a "beam", they fire a ball of lightening. It must be rather large, because the book mentions nothing about needing to aim them any more precisely than any of the other types. The box of green shells is actually split evenly between two types: 10 "standard" type beams, and 10 of one of the "spread" configurations that apparently branches into three beams, two that go off at 30 degree angles to either side, and one that goes straight forward. The two types can be distinguished because there's a symbol marked on the wide ends of the spread shells. The black shells are of the special type that need to be charged before firing. The book is somewhat vague about what these do; the ones he found are all the same type, marked "Dimensional Implosion Effect", whatever that means. At least he won't need to worry about trying to find some sort of accessory to the weapon to use them, since the version he found is one of the types that can fire them without needing the external generator.

Overall, the book is very helpful. Even without a background in firearms, Fayyaad should now be able to use the gun to best advantage.

[Cola]

[Orc Story][Rural Town]

Only about 10 kilometers away from the orc tribe, separated by forests and hills, lies a rural town with about 300 inhabitants. One of them is Dale.

Just like every Saturday morning, Dale sits at home in front of his TV, cheap beer in one hand and a bowl of mini pretzels in the other, watching some demolition derby. That's when he hears a tiny knock at the window. There's a male pixie outside, clad in colorful clothes and pressing his face against the glass.
Dale mumbles something, gets up from his comfy chair and opens the window.
"Who the hell are you?"
"I'm Florent." the pixie introduces himself. "Just a tourist here. I know this is a bit sudden, but take a look at this."
Florent pulls a micro-SD card out of his belly pocket and flies into the house.
"Hey buddy, no invitin' yourself inside! Take your damn thing and get the hell outta my house!"
"There's a video my friend made with her camera on it. It's something about the orcs that live nearby."
Now that was something worthy of Dale's attention. He takes the SD card from the pixie man, plugs it into his laptop and opens the video file.

It is some blurry footage of chief Karkan who tried to summon some demonic entity. Whoever made this video, they must've hidden in a tree right next to where the ritual was being performed. A woman yelled at Karkan, he yelled back, they fought, he died. Then the brand new chief Ensara gave a passionate speech to the other members of her tribe. How they would rise again, form an entire orc nation and crush everyone who dared stand in their way. The tribe cheered. What Dale couldn't see was that someone had expertly edited out everything that could be interpreted as a desire for peace.

That is bad news, very bad news. Without hesitation, Dale starts calling a few dozen townspeople on the phone to tell them some permutation of "Dem greenskins be comin' again!".
Long story short, within a few hours everyone knows about the orc tribe's change of leadership and fear about a raid in the next few days spreads. The people get ready to repel any orc incursion on their property with utmost prejudice and even assemble a town guard of 7 men and women, among them Dale and the town's only policewoman.

"By the way buddy,..." Dale asks Florent, who is sitting on the armrest of Dale's TV chair and munching on a mini pretzel. "...why did you show the video to me first and not the sheriff?"
"I didn't know where to find her. Also, your house is next to the forest and the first I came across."
"...Sounds reasonable. ... Wait, why do you have that footage in the first place? What kind of tourist enters an orc tribe and hides in a tree just in tome for some dark ritual?"
"Hey, don't ask me, I wasn't the one filming. My friend did that. She's the kind of person who would put her life on the line to get some stupid souvenir T-shirt, you know?"

[Morty]

[Ruins]

That is indeed helpful. Armed in all this knowledge and equipment, Fayyaad makes his way back, down the elevator. Time to try out that missile launcher against the house-sized robots... and hope it works. Once he returns to where he found them, he takes aim at one of their heads with the launcher, fires, and hopes for the best.

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Ruins]

The launcher fires a cluster of five micromissiles when Fayyaad aims and fires. They fan out, then impact at the same point he was aiming at a moment later, rocking the massive bot back on its two hind legs. There's an ominous double-beep, and as the smoke clears, the bot turns towards the tiefling, its glowing red eye visible through the haze. As more smoke clears, it's obvious that while missiles battered and dented the bot's armored head, it's not down yet. It is smoking from several torn holes in its upper torso, though. It advances on Fayyaad's position quickly, raising one of its massive hammer-fists to swing at him if the adventurer allows it to get that close.

[Lord Raziere]

Orc Story
"Shaman, whats our status? What supplies do we have?"
She asks as they march.
The shaman, in addition to powerful magic from working with spirit, helped in more earthly matters such as advising the chief. The Shaman knew things that she did not was was vital. The Shaman looked male, but they were beyond sex identity. They were the Shaman, and was more of the spiritual world than the material.
"Quite simply, not good. We scrape by through hunting animals and gathering fruit, but that doesn't provide enough food to be healthy. Without a blacksmith, our weapons are slowly racking up dents and damage without repairs. Furthermore if you truly wish to start a new nation, we'll need to do more than hunt, for that will never sustain a nation. We'll need crops, farms, good land, reliable water. Our armor is nothing be proud of either, being nothing but fur and leather. Our archers are probably outmatched not just by better archers but by gunners, sharpshooters and spellslingers. Our potential foes vastly outnumber us, out-equip us and out-power us in every way imaginable. These are what I've heard from the spirits of the world."
The Shaman looks at worriedly.
"By all practical considerations right now, we might be doomed."
"Screw that. I'm not giving up hope. Whats the viability of using spirit magic?"
"The spirits do not follow the same rules or think the same thoughts as us. I am not their master, only the Emissary between you and them."
"Any way to cut a deal with some of them?"
"Possible, but there is always a price to pay. Better than souls to a demon or devil, but still a price, as with all things."
"Got it. Our trading situation?"
"We have lots of pelts we gain from our hunts, but that isn't much to trade by considering how much more power others possess.
"and the stuff Karkan had?"
He had left behind a various assortment of magical books, magical artifacts and things that he picked up for one reason or another. She decided to take them as well, because most of them didn't seem demonic, and she needed all the power she could get
"We don't know what they do. Some of them are probably demonic from what his last actions were. If I can get the time, it would be possible for me to get the help of the spirits to figure out how they work, but not while on the march."
"Hm....I see. There is a town nearby. We'll try trading the pelts with them. If we can even get any amount of good supplies to refresh us..."
"It is a risk, lets hope its worth it..."

Chief Ensara comes marching up to the edge of town, a few of her hunters carrying pelts while the rest of her tribe hangs back.
"Humans! I am Chief Ensara of Tribe Ragash. We wish to trade. We have various fur pelts. Give us what supplies you can in return for these pelts and we will be on our way. I imagine neither of us want us to stick around here long."

[Cola]

[Orc Story][Rural Town]

Just like every Sunday, Dale sits at home in front of his TV, cheap beer in one hand and a bowl of microwave popcorn in the other, watching some wrestling. Only this time, he sits outside, on a folding chair on his lawn. He simply got bored of being on the lookout for orcs, so he brought the TV outside to provide some entertainment. Maybe a little too much of it, as the first thing he notices of the orcs is Ensara's bellowing voice.
Dale jumps off the chair, dropping beer and popcorn and hastily grabs his shotgun. Before he can pull the trigger, however, he processes what Ensara was actually saying.
"Trade? You?" Dale asks with noticeable disdain. "Pelts?"
Those primitives. People are mining asteroids and cracking subatomic particles, yet here the orcs stand, clad in fur and leather and wishing to trade pelts.
Dale thinks for a few seconds while the inhabitants of the few houses next to his peek nervously out the windows. He could absolutely shoot the orc chief in the face right now, but those hunters next to her sure wouldn't let him live for long if he did that. (Where ever the rest of the orc tribe is waiting, he doesn't see them.)
He puts down his shotgun. As Dale is not an experienced combatant, not by a long shot, there is no way he could reliably eliminate a group of fit, armed orcs standing only a few meters away from him. But he already has a plan: luring them into a trap to demonstrate some strength or outright kill those cattle slaughtering savages couldn't be such a bad idea, could it?
"Sure, we can always use some pelts." That was a lie. "I'll lead you fellas to the grocery store. That's where the trading is done. I'll just give the shop guy a call so he knows what's up, alright?"