Zilo yawns, stirring awake slowly, just in time for a bump on the trail to force him all the way back up and painfully holds his wound from the fight with the Hobgoblins.
"Uuuuuuuurrrrr." he groans gripping his gut.
"Hey buddy, come here often?" Smiles Aria next to him with a snicker. Zilo smiles back as he pops off a few cure spells to make the pain bearable enough to sit up, he looks around to see Maldrek examining two revolvers, Sparky self bandaging a nasty looking wound on his chest, and May outside the canopy driving the horses.
"Scared us did, think sleep all day." Garbles Sparky as he bites off his wrap for his chest. Maldrek looks to Zilo with a quick side glance before getting back to work looking through his guns.
"So... did we win?"
May shouts from the front in a mocking tone, "Nope, got blasted to Morta's realm, even Maldrek, being Maldrek, got a ticket to the good half of death."
Zilo smiles and remarks, "Well obviously, What's Maldrek done that you'd call bad?"
Everyone in the cart looks at Zilo in surprise before Maldrek interrupts, "Good to have you back, Zilo. Paperwork for your death would have been a nightmare."
Aria raises an eyebrow and says, "We have paper work?"
"Do you think all I do in my office is count my money."
"Yes" Bluntly states Sparky. The wizard shrugs before aiming his left revolver out the back of the cart, and spinning the cylinder.
"Eh, maybe seventy percent is money counting, but still though." Zilo finally takes notice of the revolvers and chimes in.
"What you got there, Maldrek?"
"The things that saved us, that's what, I made these with the ingredients you, Leo, and Jin Shi gathered. I call them my Rune Revolvers."
"You made those?!" Asked Aria in a shocked tone
"All wizards know how to make make Magic Items. Or at least the smart ones do. Figured I'd throw my skills into the ring."
Zilo puts out his hands and asks, "May I?" Maldrek looks to both his guns then back at Zilo, he begins to slowly put them away and says, "I'd rather not, besides, they only work for wizards, otherwise the runes wouldn't even swap out."
"Well then can you tell me how they work?" The bard continues.
Maldrek sighs and takes them back out again and begins letting the cylinder spin.
"Each one has 6 magic runes on the cylinder rather than bullets, The theory was to imbue each with another kind of projectile to cover my bases since I'm limited to the spells in my book."
The cylinder stops on a grayed out rune, and Maldrek continues, "but it looks like I didn't pack enough in them cause they only shoot once each, but still really helpful. If I'm right, the rest should recharge after I tinker with them a bit, like with my spellbook."
Maldrek looks to be putting them back away, but Aria snaps her finger to catch his attention.
"Hey, you can't just leave it there, what do all the shots do?"
"Why didn't you ask an hour ago!?" Snaps the wizard. Aria pokes Zilo in the face and says, "I was worried about the bleeding out boyfriend!" Zilo playfully bites at her finger, making her recoil it and stick out her tongue, before they both look back to Maldrek along with Sparky.
"Well the left gun has runes for fire, force, ice, necrotic, poison, and wind. I only used the first three yet, so fire shoots a focused fire bolt, Ice freezes over a small area it hits, and force pushes a target away with immense power."
Maldrek flips it back to it's holster and puts forth his right gun, "This one has runes for lightning, sonic, illusion, psionic, acid, and antimagic. I've used the first 4 for this one. Lighting is quicker than fire, but not as heavy with a shock, sonic blasts people with enough air vibrations to disable them for a bit, illusion makes something look different until I cock the hammer back, and psionic only works point blank, but it mind wipes the enemy."
Zilo raises an eyebrow with a smile and asks, "Which is your favorite?" Maldrek points outside to the back of the cart at a blank staring bugbear samurai tied to the back of the cart and walking. He is carrying a stuck in rocks goblin shifter.
"I'm tied between force and psionic."
"My money is on the illusion." Responds May from the front, lifting up the severed head of the hobgoblin wizard, Artak. Aria and Zilo both turn away in disgust.
"Anyway Maldrek we're just about back, and it looks like the others are finally back." Follows up May pointing at a drunken wobbling helmeted figure at the bar counter top. The heroes enter back into the bar after Maldrek gives the mindless Stlunk the order to standby.
Clay looks up and a small smile crosses his face before it fades immediately again. Leo is scamming a few patrons at a small game of cards. Alaroc drinks up another gulp alongside Jin before Alaroc slips of the stool and lands on his butt. Cruxis rounds out the bunch serving the drinks behind the counter.
May gives a curt nod before retreating upstairs, while the rest disperse to some chairs to rest after their long mission. Greetings and stories about their respective journeys get exchanged. Zilo hoists Alaroc up and says,
"Hey bud, remember that hobgoblin Maldrek who gave us a run for our money?"
"AYE, How is that blighter!?" Drunkenly shouts the warrior. Zilo Smiles and says, "Well our Maldrek beat their Maldrek."
"Damn right." Says Maldrek as he crosses behind the bar. He shouts over to Aria to take over for Cruxis. Aria sighs and gets up to it while Maldrek walks with Cruxis and says,
"Paladin of mine, I tested the guns, and I think they'll work, give me a few days, and I can get you that sword, come with me, we'll talk shop."
Cruxis' eyes light up and he responds, "Awesome! All I was thinking about was how I needed something with more omph in that devil realm."
Meanwhile Sparky and Leo sit as Leo starts to teach the little firebug how to play cards. As Leo spots Cruxis and Maldrek taking off Leo shouts, "Yo Cru! They made it back before Sunday, you owe me 5 gold!"
"Later! Gimme a day or two!" Shouts back the paladin.
Meanwhile upstairs May takes Artak's head and, after an hour, sets up a mount to put the head up on the wall. She grips her scythe and examines her chest to see that the Arcane Mark had finally disappeared. Under her breath she whispers,
"Another one down."
No comments:
Post a Comment