4.1 KiB
| title | created | updated | syndicated | public |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00045 | Tue, 20 Dec 2022 10:15:23 -0700 | Thu, 22 Dec 2022 09:29:11 -0700 | yes | yes |
00045
As the blankets draw back from the bloody mass, a cute little hemogoblin appears. "Aww little fellas just scared." Alex lowers the dagger, but otherwise ignores the hemogoblin. Best to leave it be for now, there's more important things.
As the balloon gets within range of the ship Alex begins to scan the deck for Cyberplasms. At the same time he checks his bug to track the location of the cyberplasms more acutely. It looks like there may be an opporunity to jump from the balloon to the ship. After that cutting the zip lines would give me the opporunity to steal the ship, leaving the cyberplasms trapped at the top of the hotel.
Just a few Cyberplasms remain on the deck of the airship. The vast majority of them have zipped into the hotel tower.
You check your bug's feed. It has gone almost entirely unnoticed in the fracas, and you are able to piece together a clear picture of the inside of the tower. It is indeed a grand library, its galleries spanning each floor of the tower. One of the largest collections in all of Basmentaria.
The Cyberplasms have breached the tower near its base and are pouring into the Great Hall. You tune in just in time to see a rail-thin, bald and mustachioed man standing defensively in front of a display case. "No! You can't!" he exclaims as a disembodied sickle approaches him in a cloud of electricity and ectoplasm.
Behind the glass in the display case is a bluish hunk of rock the size of a melon, with gently pulsing gold veins.
Inky puts away the papers they caught in passing or picked up along the path up to read later, including a number that from a cursory glance appear to be from a culinary collection and a few from some moth-eaten but finely illustrated botanical tome, among others.
Eventually arriving at the hotel entrance, Inky enters and manages to catch a frantic-looking attendant near the reception to ask the whereabouts of the hotelier, indicating they had a business appointment with said manager.
You walk in through the hotel's main entrance. The grandeur would take your breath away were it not for the shouting and the smoke and the explosions coming from down the hall to your right.
You wave down a passing hotel clerk and inquire after the hotelier. They are hauling a large bucket of hot water, and carrying an oversized bundle of clean towels under one arm. They pause for a moment to look at you incredulously before running off in the opposite direction.
A cry rings out nearby and a Cyberplasm flies through an open door down the hallway. It lands in a heap of crackling energy, smears of ectoplasm streaking the floor as though it were bleeding heavily. It seems to be barely held together by the energy stored in its cybernetic leg and a metal skull plate.
It scoots backwards on its hands and its butt, trying to stand up. Two toques leap out of the door after it. You recognize Bread and Confidence right away.
Bread has obviously been to the kitchens. They are wearing tin baking sheets and an oversized pot on their heard as makeshift armor, and have a couple of dangerous looking kitchen knives hanging from their belt. At the moment they are swinging a large meat tenderizer over their head as though it were a war hammer.
Confidence, meanwhile, has been to the gardener's shed. They are wearing a heavy leather apron and thick leather gloves, and have a trowel in each hand, and a large hoe or rake strapped to their back.
Bread lowers their hammer on Cyberplasms head, denting the skull plate. And Confidence darts in and stabs with both hands at the leg. As soon as the prosthetics go offline and the plasmic arcs cease firing, there is nothing left holding the ectoplasm together and the ghost kind of dissipates into the air with a soft wail.
They look up and notice you at the same time, relaxing their offensive stances. "Oh!" cries Bread. "It's you!"
"You don't happen," asks Confidence, "to need a guide, do you?"
WHAT DO YOU DO