Brassbringer's Request pt 4

Within the hut of Alset Brockholme in the floating city of Rune.

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Disaster        Gnome, small, gears, tools and TERROR.                2m   13m
Knightmare      A knightly construct on the hoof bearing heraldry of  0s   6h
Lillianath      Perpetually worried-looking elf woman.                6m   4h
Lyme            Black-skinned oruch of suitable stature               4m   2h
Molly           An ash skinned half-elf with red glasses              7m   5h
Whirlpool       I am stinky!                                          1m   1d

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Last time, on Brassbringer's Request...

The party had finally managed to encounter the arcanist they were looking for, and, after some discussion on his theory that magic itself is being 'poisoned', they agree to help him try to determine more about the phenomenon. His casting into the ethers beyond this realm, into the 'cyst' within the fields of mana, results in the Gnome being unceremoniously yanked halfway through the portal!

"Oh my goodness!" The half-mul priestess leaps into action as the gnome is pulled into the gate. "That can't be good! Hold on! WE'LL SAVE YOU!" She leaps forwards, only to realize that she really, actually, doesn't have a plan at all.

So she just grabs on to one of the gnome's ankles.

"Hold on!!" she shouts, as she pulls backwards. Will it be enough? Will she just get sucked in as well? Time will tell if she has chosen poorly.

Alright.

She expected a cyst to burst outward.

Clearly meat analogies aren't up to the task.

Knightmare's sword is jammed into the floorboards as the Gnome is pulled halfway into the portal and she snaps her hand shut around the other ankle, "Pull!"

The sound that Lilli makes as the Gnome is snapped up by the portal is, perhaps, not becoming of an adventurer, but what else can she do? Molly and Knightmare have a leg each, and any more help would be... crowding.

She can, at least, grab a hold of the rope, and try to help solve the problem at its source.

 GAME: Knightmare rolls athletics: (18)+1: 19
 GAME: Lillianath rolls athletics: (12)+-1: 11
 GAME: Molly rolls athletics: (3)+-3: 0
 GAME: Lyme rolls athletics: (14)+1: 15

The good news is that Lyme and Knightmare are eonugh to stop the gnome from getting pulled in to the portal further.

That's the good news. The bad news is that it definitely feels to everyone like SOMETHING is doing exactly that.

Poor gnome.

His bat is screaming futilely and flapping around the room. It's not helpful.

Knightmare grinds her lead hoof into the floorboards and wrings some 'ooomph!' out of her pistons to try and reverse the Gnome's transition to the realms beyond, "Cut the line!" she suggests.

"I can't!" Lilli calls, tugging with all her noodly might at the line in question. "Not until I see his hands, or it's not going to help *anything!*"

There's a sharp tug on the gnome and then a sudden slackening and those holding onto him all go collapsing.

...also, you are now holding the rather gruesomely decapitated body of a gnome.

Some of his upper torso is in tatters. That's less than good, isn't it? There's blood everywhere.

"Oh," says the bat.

"Bother."

"Just hold on! I'll go in and cut the li--"

Molly is right about to crawl into the gate over top of the gnome to cut the line and hopefully save him, when... well...

"OH good GODS!" she proclaims, eyes gone wide, and hands held up in front of her mouth. "Oh Navos' Mercy! It killed him! Look what it did to him?! This is horrible!" She drops to her knees beside the gnome, and rests hand on his shoulder. "Oh how... how awful!"

Knightmare, through the graces of her cast iron stomach, doesn't toss when what's left of the Gnome become apparant. Sitting upright, the golem looks about at her colleagues, a cursory check for injuries, then she gets up to a knee over the arcanist, a hand settilng upon the body.

"Know your peace in the Haven of Souls, Alset Brockholme." the Dragonieri says in a gentle, if hollow sounding tone.

For lack of a name, Knightmare settles on asking the, "Bat!" as her head swivels to regard the familiar, "Do you know how to turn that off?"

"OH MY LADY," Lilli squeaks, clapping one hand to her mouth as well. But Knightmare's question snaps her focus to the shift in priorities, and she kneels next to Molly, placing a hand on the half-mul's shoulder. "She's right," the Seer says. "I don't know what we *can* do, but both our gods would prefer we did *something* about that portal, Temperance. I imagine Master Brockholme would as well."

"..no, you'll have to wait for him to get back," answers the bat.

Wait, get back?

There's a sound from the corpse. A wet, squelching sound. A single, lengthy, spiked tentacle is crawling from the stump of his neck.

Entering the room from a back area. Disaster is buckling his belt and adjusting his trowsers as he mutters to himself about fruit and bats. Glaring around looking for the duplicitous little creature. "I am sorry, I had to consume the remaining tropical material out of spite and it seems my system is not ready for that kind of nutrients." There is a pause as Disaster surveys the mutilated Gnome remains. "Uh, did negotiations go poorly? Or is this a new disease." He pauses. "I hope it is not catching." Patting his chest he blinks a few times. "I do not feel like I might be exploding.." Then his hands go to his stomach as it gurgles. "Oh dear."

Pushing up from her knee at the sclurtchy noises, Knightmare eases her weight to the back hoof and almost absently plucks her sword from the floorboards and rolls it into a proper upright grip.

"What is this....?" she asks in a low, ominous tone.

"....Squidgy," Lilli answers absently, hurriedly standing up and pulling Molly back, away from the tentacled... inhabitant? emerging from the corpse. "I don't know what else it is... but it's very squidgy."

 GAME: Whirlpool rolls 1d20+9: (3)+9: 12

... a singular eye opens up on the stalk. It is milky and white, but growing clearer by the moment. The spike on the end of the tentacle, as there is a spike, seems to stretch out.

The gnome's corpse starts to ... move. Get up. It vomits more tentacles out of its neck stump. Oh boy.

The corpse turns and looks, the single eye on the stalk now looking arond. It begins to emit some horribly indecipherable sounds.

And then launches its tentacles directly at Lillianath...

Fortunately, it's stopped by the armor the Dawn Elf is wearing.

For the moment.

GAME: Lillianath casts Forbid Action. Caster Level: 3 DC: 14

Skipping back a couple steps, Lilli tries her best not to look *too* grossed out when tentacles lance out to bounce off her breastplate. Her hand comes up, pointing one of the tines of her weapon at the creature, and in the Voice of the Gods, she speaks in a commanding tone;

//NO.//

//THAT'S A *BAD SQUID.*//

One wonders if Lilli isn't perhaps specialized to deal with cthonic intruders from beyond the planes.

GAME: Molly rolls melee: (3)+5: 8

Molly scrabbles back and jumps up to her feet when... tentacly... eyebally things start popping up out of the gnome. "OhmyGOD what have they done to him?!" she exclaims, and just like that her Glaive is in hand without her ever really having noticed it. Lillianath might by trying to give it a talking to, and that might be working, but Molly isn't really in a state of mind to notice. She's too busy trying to stab it to death. (And failing.)

 GAME: Knightmare rolls weapon1-1: (13)+6+-1: 18
 GAME: Knightmare rolls 1d8+5: (7)+5: 12

The construct, for her part, stops with the questions once the appendages start sprouting and lashing out at her colleagues. Knightmare's blade arcs low toward the back before, with a roll of her shoulder and a forceful step forward, she brings it up and around to slash accross the tainted corpse, biting into it's tissues.

 GAME: Disaster rolls knowledge/arcana: (18)+9: 27
 GAME: Disaster rolls 1d20+3: (13)+3: 16
 GAME: Whirlpool rolls 1d20+9: (13)+9: 22
 GAME: Whirlpool rolls 1d4+5: (3)+5: 8

"That is bad! That should not be here!" Disaster exclaims. "That is a planar entity! It is not supposed to be here! Get it gone!" THe little Gnome puts his head down and barrels into it, trying to knock it back into the portal it came from. There is a whump and a clatter as the numerous metal trinkets and filled pouches on his body slam and slap against each other with the sudden impact of disasterous assault! "Banz-oww!"

As Disaster approaches it, it whips the stump of its body around and sends a spike into his armor, penetrating through it and wounding Disaster entirely. It looks like that stung quite a bit. Because it's a stinger.

 GAME: Lyme rolls 1d20+8+2-1: (5)+8+2+-1: 14

Lyme springs forwards and to one side, trying to make angles as he does so. He snaps his war-knife down towards the tentacles, but they're tricky and slippery! No luck!

 GAME: Whirlpool rolls 1d20+8: (15)+8: 23
 GAME: Whirlpool rolls 1d4+5: (1)+5: 6

Another quick slash across Disaster's midsection with the tentacle coming out of the stump. The others in its body are still ballooning outwards in greater number, splitting it along erupting seams in its fleshy exterior.

"Oh," says the bat, "That is VILE."

 GAME: Lillianath casts Blessing of Courage And Life. Caster Level: 3 DC: 15(Use as a cure mod for Disaster)
 GAME: Lillianath rolls 2d8+3: (13)+3: 16

Invokes the power of her goddess and lays a hand on the Gnome's shoulder, healing him some. (placeholder pose)

 GAME: Molly rolls melee: (10)+5: 15\
 GAME: Molly rolls 1d10+3: (3)+3: 6

"I know! I KNOW!" Molly agrees with Disaster. "It's horrible! Just... just help us kill it! We can't let this Thing get loose in the city! Who knows what it'll do?! Maybe it'll eat and copy everyone!"

So of course, Molly does the only logical thing she can think of, which is stab the poor gnome's body; successfully this time. And there's... ickiness. Goddamn this is gross.

 GAME: Knightmare rolls weapon1+1: (7)+6+1: 14

Knightmare continues to attack the tendrilled Gnome, adjusting her angle to cut off any potential avenues of retreat, but her forceful swing only cuts a deep 'Whoof!' through the air.

 GAME: Whirlpool rolls 1d20+6: (4)+6: 10(proxy)

Disaster takes a shot at the abomination, but is unable to make contact. (Placeholder pose)

 GAME: Lyme rolls 1d20+9: (16)+9: 25
 GAME: Lyme rolls 2d4+9: (4)+9: 13

Lyme steps back from the tentacles, then comes back in with a downward strike, angled across the mess of slithering muscle. It gashes some open, gore spattering. He'll worry about the mess later.