City of The Dead: LXVI
"So remind me again... where is this?" Herod was mostly done with walking. They would walk to the dock ward and then the trade ward, suddenly towards the upper class limits, and then back to TrollSkull. It was a dizzying array that gave him little understanding of the city.
"Waterdeep is a rectangle Herod, well.. A rectangle with a giant diagonal cut at its bottom but the shape holds." Alekzandr replied, Herod frowned, that didn't answer his question?
"The city of the dead is located between the trade ward and the south most region of the north ward. Think.. Where you buy stuff bordering on... where The Swordmaiden is." Adleth suggested. It didn't help much but he was already following them so it wasn't like it needed too. It had been roughly morning when they went in, now it was just about mid day. The sun hung over the party like a heat lamp, its hellish breath making Herod sweat and silently wish he had ice spells. The road from Gralhund villa turned from smooth pristine cobblestone, to broken and cracked pavement. The easy to walk through path became gravel and eventually just stoned dirt which crunched under his feet.
'Are we off to kill a whore?' Vulity's spirit whispered in Herod's ear, almost swimming from one side of his body to the other. 'No.. we're not.' Herod thought, he shivered a bit, he hated graveyards, he hated death. Sure no one liked the idea of dying. It was a pretty universal truth if he was being honest but that hopelessness, that gut wrenching sensation of being powerless to stop your own fate. He clenched a fist and grimaced, it was not a sensation he relished in reliving.
"Are you.. Ok?" He turned to the sound of Markos's voice, the half-elf looked at him with a worrisome expression. Glancing purple eyes full of concern, Herod smiled and nodded.
"Mostly, just hate graveyards you know? Death is already so.. Final. No point in revisiting that." Herod whispered. How long ago had it been? When he suffered from the wrath of fate, how long ago had he believed himself to be a dead man walking? Did.. he still see that within himself? Puderis said he was cured, but there were sometimes.. He didn't feel cured.
"Is it because..?" Markos's voice trailed off, Herod had told him. Hell despite the fact that the whole party saw Markos as a crazy lunatic cultist.. He saw a friendship, someone far smarter then he let on. An individual who was concerned and good Herod couldn't help but smile despite remembering his most hated sensation.
"Fate is a cruel mistress Markos.. Hands you things you will never be able to battle despite how powerful you are. Most of us.. Are only mortal." Herod wanted to say human but, in all actuality that wasn't very applicable to the whole party. 'Fate..' it was something Herod knew Markos had experience with, they had both been screwed over in different ways.
"Holy Corellon." Adleth remarked. His attention was taken off Markos for a moment, in the front, Adleth was leading the party only now she had stopped in place holding the nimblewright detector they got from The House of Inspired hands. The strange red and white umbrella at its top was spinning so rapidly he thought it might break.
"What does that mean?" Riu inquired. A few faces turned and frowned a little. He loved the Aasimar and all, but sometimes the questions were just a little.. Bit.. off.
"It means we're here.. And the Gralhunds weren't lying." Herod spotted tall diorite walls nearly twelve feet tall lacking a traditional gate you'd expect for a graveyard, fancier then Herod expected. They weren't quite at a gate per say able to spot the iron entrance a few feet away from them. He took a step forward with the party beelining for the fence.
"It's spinning faster." Adleth mentioned. "At least I think it is? Wheres a fucking guide when you need one.."
"It's spinning slower." Alekzandr interrupted. "And.. now a bit slower still, as we get closer to the gate.." Herod squinted his eyes, how on Toril could Alekzandr tell the difference? It was practically identical either way. Herod spun on his heels, feeling the glance of Asher doing the same, they scanned the surroundings. Thank god people didn't seem to want to visit a cemetery. The ward seemed mostly empty, where.. Where was their Nimblewright? Where was that killer..
"Boost me over the wall?" Asher suggested. Herod shook his head, he wasn't a really physically strong person. 'Like hell I'm doing that.. Puderis doesn't pay me enough.' He scoffed.
'Puderis doesn't pay you at all?' Vulity laughed. Fair point..
"I.. don't know if we should be breaking into a cemetery when we could try and go through the front?" Riu suggested. "It's day time.. The graveyard is never locked during the day." that was useful but.. It looked to them that their Nimblewright was actually outside the graveyard walls.
"There's a guard over there." Markos suggested. "Perhaps we walk over and talk to them.. Head inside and take a look around." No, Herod shook his head, 'that wasn't the answer here..'
"Excuse me sir?!" Riu began running towards the guard. "Could you open the gate? Do you think it would be alright if me and my siblings visited our.. Father." Herod nearly face palmed, the guard leaned to the left looking at the party of three humans all of various different ages, two elves that were most definitely too old to share some common parent with them. And the Half-elf who only just barely resembles anyone. The guard looked gobsmacked.
"Ya.. know guys.." Herod started. "I was just gonna say this was a city guard business and we were pursuing a known criminal.. But.. this is somehow dumber." He muttered, "If that failed.. Intimidate him.. Why are we.. doing this."
"I have no ide-" Alekzandr paused his statement, grabbing one of Herod's shoulders. "Left, in that crevice." He snapped his eyes over to where Alekzandr was pointing. In the distance he spotted an alleyway opposite the gates. Something.. Was moving. Alekzandr raised his rifle pulling back on a metal piece; *Chn-flink* giving its signature click. Herod steadily drew vulity singing a silent prayer to himself causing the runes on it to glow a soft forest green light. The damascus-like steel was bathed in the energy while soft blue particles wafted off of it. He twisted the stag antler shaped guard in his grasp readying it for battle.
"Guys." Herod declared. "Over there." Despite it being daylight, the alleyway was dimly lit and whatever was moving.. It was moving behind a trash can obscuring it even more.
"What are you.." Markos started but soon he caught on. "Behind the can.." everyone began turning at this point. That's when Herod saw it. A fleeting glimpse of wood. They found their nimblewright. Steadily he saw the figure in the alleyway stand up, its knees bending in unnatural ways twisting its form.
"Go." Asher whispered. Instantly Herod saw Markos dart in the direction of the machine faster than he anticipated. Adleth hopped over them with the nimblewright detector on her back spinning faster as she ran. Herod joined them. The group rushed at the nimblewright who was standing simply in the alley way. Markos grunted while running as he tossed his trident straight at the machine. The spear flew through the air and made contact sinking.. Barely inside the wooden construct. Herod actually watched the trident fall out of it from lack of depth. As he got closer the shadows of the alleyway gave in, giving him a full picture of the creature. It was roughly six foot six or so. With glossy white wood similar to birch all of its joints were punctuated with the familiar rounded circles. Over its body he spotted a long orangish red cloak with ornate design. Its face was vaguely human yet it had a carved beard that ran long in front of its face curling up at the tip. Its head was adorned with a large orangish red feathered hat. In its right hand Herod spotted a long wooden rapier made from the same material as its body.
"This is for our windows you cunt!" Adleth yelled. She jumped at the bot, slashing her swords wildly. Herod witnessed the machine back up swinging its blade to parry the strikes, it moed for a counter attack pushing Adleth's left hand aside and stabbing her in the arm. "Agh!" Adleth winced, striking her right blade at the legs. Again despite hitting, the blade barely sunk in. The creature was resistant to these melee attacks.
"I've got you comrade!" Alekzandr yelled. "Radium vzryv ognya cicero!" A blaring blast of sound whizzed past Herod's ear and a ray of fire bursted like a flood from a dam. It impacted into the alleyway, missing the nimblewright all together.
"Seriously?!" Asher yelled. "I know you're a better shot than that." Alekzandr was probably drunk Herod rolled his eyes irritated.
"Magicae cornu telum!" Riu's voice screamed from behind him. With that an array of magic missiles soar into the nimblewright yet it somersaulted over one vaully and was hit by another. The creature rushed forward stabbing at Markos who narrowly dodged the first attack, but was hit by another.
"Ow! That hurt you stupid tree!" Markos seemed to roll around slashing with his trident as much as he stabbed, the sides of the prongs sharpened to use like a sword. He struck upward slashing a bit of the nimblewrights face.
"Vulity ceriorem ventus!" Herod cheered, he let out a blast from his sword, the eldritch attack hit the nimblewright like a freight train.
*VreePoom*
The wooden creature stumbled a bit, catching a slash from Adleth before returning the favor to Markos with a quick stab. The front line fighters were taking some hits. The nimblewright tried to hit Adleth again yet this time she was ready, stepping aside doging attack after attack she bounced her head left to right keeping out of danger all together. She would bring up her blades to knock the machine aside each time. Herod thought about what he should do.
'You're a warlock silly! ELDRITCH FUCKING BLAST!' Vulity coaxed in his mind. Hey she had a point he admitted, besides.. It was only one robot.
"Vulity ceriorem ventus!" Herod flexed the sword letting off one after another after another. "Hex omni Puderis Maledictum!" He placed a green hexblades curse on the robot letting the holy symbol of his god appear over its head. Letting off a few more eldritch blasts for good measure.
*VreePoom* they exploded off its surface like gusts of a tornado.
"Vene. TUL CeNPa!" Andraste let a fist out as strange vines struck out from the cracks in the pavement lashing at the bot seemingly doing nothing.
"Kever ont telum ignis." Alekzandr let off two more spells, two firebolt's that both missed by a wide margin Herod cursed the sudden drunken idiot. The machine began hopping in place looking from side to side. It ran. The nimblewright turned and ran down the alleyway it was once in. Which wasn't surprising, it probably never planned to suddenly fight seven adventurers. It was an unfair fight.
"Oh no you dont!" Asher yelled. He sprinted up making a quick slash with his long sword. It did nearly nothing. Herod rounded the corner inside the alleyway seeing it looked more like an L then just a straight path. The nimblewright was fast as all hell. "Resonare creaturae." Asher muttered in a low voice. At the end of the alleyway Herod spotted a being shimmering into existence; an Echo. A copy of Asher, it was a temporal duplicate waiting to attack. The nimblewright stopped and turned around the wheezing of machine parts sounded similar to steam escaping a boiling pot. "That's right." Asher's voice came in an echo; it was doubling over with both versions of him speaking in unison. "Nowhere to run.." The nimblewright spun back around charging at Asher's clone. "Vimentum." Something about Asher shimmered like he was in fact the echo. Herod wasted no time closing this distance for an ultimate strike.
'Let's kill it yaa!'
"Die! Fulminum iactu arsiesse!" Herod slashed his sword into two arcs, a literal tear formed in front of him and green lighting shot from the X shaped energy striking the bot in the back. Herod wished he had fire spells at that second. The blast hit the machine badly, lighting shooting through its body the nimblewright shook violently taking the brunt of the blast harshly. "We only need.." Herod thought for a brief second.
"Natural Yeet!" Markos yelled.
"Natural.. What?" Herod wondered. The trident soared through the sky from Markos's palm spinning mid air impacted the Nimblewright's head.
*Wsssthentt*
The head, which had already taken a beating, came clean off. The machine's body froze in place mid run, stuttering in its joints for a few seconds, before the whole thing collapsed to the ground.
"Finally!" Herod sighed, he sprinted over to where the machine had been ended, the dry alleyway stones were littered with garbage, made sense to him. Or enough sense anyway. Herod reached down to inspect the body. Asher's echo had already begun.
"Odd, the sword looks almost attached to its arm.. Not separate." Asher noted. Herod frowned.
"It's weird talking to an echo.." Herod muttered.
"Huh?" Asher looked up from the bot curiously. "Wait, I'm not an echo. I switched places with the echo.. I can teleport to them, Herod." He was slightly taken aback, he never knew that if that was the case it was a stupidly powerful ability. The robot's wooden body was heavily burnt on its back once the cloak was lifted.
"The fire ball." Herod muttered. "Yeah.. this was our guy." He smiled, lifting the cloak off of it. Markos stepped next to him and retrieved his trident. "What do you make of it? Should we take the head to the house? Or some other form of proof-"
"I'll take the head to the house! Just uh... lemme look at this for a second." Markos kneeled down, running his hands along the machine's body.
"So this is it eh?" Alekzandr jogged up behind Herod, he turned and looked at the man; he seemed a bit tipsy and all over the place.
"What the hell was that back there?!" Asher interjected angrily. "Alekzandr you missed nearly five shots." he wasn't sure why Asher sounded so upset, they still killed the thing regardless..
"It was a lapse in ability, comrade-" Alekzandr paused, slamming a fist against his chest and burping. "We killed the thing, no need for anger." Alekzandr took out a flask and reeled it back for a drink.
"No." Asher snatched the flask out of Alekz's hand. "You've had enough for now. We need you to be able to walk straight." Asher grumbled. Alekzandr paused looking at his empty hand and then shrugged.
"Meow." Herod frowned; he swore he could hear a cat's meow.
"Thank fuck!" Adleth was huffing next to him her swords sheathed and her arm was bandaged. "I swear to everything holy this guy can take a hit."
"Could. Take a hit." Herod corrected. Markos pulled something from the nimblewright and held it up. A small map that seemed to detail the city of the dead.. On it they saw an X marked on a spot.
"Huh.. what's that." Herod reached out and plucked the map out of Markos's hands reading the surface. On one corner a large building was marked with an X as if it were buried treasure.
"Hold on a second.." Riu peered over Herod's shoulder pushing her chest against his back she reached around and snatched the map. "That's.. That's the Cassalanters crypt. The tomb of the family."
"The Cassalnters?" Markos inquired, the name sounded vaguely familiar to Herod, some random noble family, nothing really important there however.
"There uh.. A noble family, they were in steep decline a few years back.. But suddenly overnight their banks were overflowing and they were back on the upty up. Most thought they struck it good in Neverwinter.. Or perhaps got some divine intervention." Riu started laughing at that last comment but no one seemingly got the joke. "Sorry my family are old friends with them, in fact I was actually supposed to be betrothed to their son Osvaldo at one point.. Though he's in Neverwinter studying now.." She sounded wistful like she missed this guy.
"I wonder why it points there.." Adleth remarked.
"Eh, it doesn't matter." Asher shrugged he had placed the Nimblewrights arm over his shoulder hauling it up. "We should get this thing home. Alekzandr you can build stuff, you want to sober up and maybe get this machine fixed? Herod could see Alekzandr pondering it.
"I worked once on a warforged a long time ago.. I could give it a shot, but there are no guarantees." Alekzandr replied. Asher shrugged.
"Works for me, worst case scenario I use it as a table." Everyone just kind of.. Stopped at that statement.
"Asher, man, it used to be a living thing, that's fucked." Herod exasperated, the soldier shrugged and Alekzandr grabbed the other arm to haul it up. They began dragging the machine down the alleyway. 'Holy shit they don't care..' Herod put his head in his hands and started laughing.
"So.. Do I go get the money or?" Markos sounded a tad sheepish, Herod extended an arm and nodded.
"Yeah, you go get it. Go tell them their machine is dead." Herod responded. An uneasy feeling settled in him, he got the sensation that the map would become more important soon. But they were in no shape to investigate it. "Let's head back to the TrollSkull manor, get some rest.. I'm really tired." He groaned, cracking his neck. "After that.. We can investigate this thing all we want.."