Reed looks at Roo struggling with the bodies but isn’t quite sure how to help. He eventually ties a loop of rope around an arm or neck and tries to run it over some smooth part of the vehicle to help lift the load so Roo can push it off.
Virro is sitting on the ground sawing off a were-finger with his dagger to add to the collection. He sees that the gallus is trying to move the bodies and looks up distractedly, "Oh, right. I'm just now done. Here you go! Let's display these bodies to strike fear into our foes! Hrrrrhhhnn! Oh, you seem to be a muscular gallus, likely do much better than I.."
IronMaiden gives corlith a nod and hops off the Tormentor, instead taking a look at the devil's ride, "I believe if I can disengage the infernal engine from the driveshaft, then I can decouple the power to the wheels, this will effectively render the devil's ride, temporarily, as a powerless cart, then we can drag it as such without it's engine halting the spinning of the wheels. It shouldn't take more than a moment if you can work in lashing the devil's ride to one of the bigger vehicles..."
If corlith agrees then the ironmiaden will do just that, the fingers of their suit folding out to reveal tools for tinkering with such mechanical thingamabobs and doohickeys. They think to themselves of what the soul coins powering the machines truly and morally mean, but try to shoo aside sich thoughts, the temporary deactivation of the devil's ride will save coins, this is most effective as long as the strain on the larger vehicle is not too much that it would demand more fuel.
Ironmiaden gets straight to work, and as corlith asks follow up questions they don't bother responding vocally, instead muttering about bolt sizes as they dig through their pack and throw over 50ft of hempen rope and a crowbar to Corlith, before returning back to decoupling certain mechanics, focused on the task at hand.
Corlith does his best to do as Ironmaiden instructs, with the materials now at hand. He does wonder at how he can keep the two wheeled vehicle stable as it is dragged, rather than simply toppling at every turn.
"I am not sure this will work. Surely it will just topple", he mumbles as he works.
The IronMaiden grunts with frustration, Corlith likely can't even see what they are struggling with as majority of their torso is buried within the bowels of the engine from underneath. They roll back out and stand up looking at the infernal two wheeler. "I was so engrossed in the mechanics that I forgot about the physics. You are correct, this was a foolish venture to begin with.
...And that is not taking into account the bad condition the couplings are in, they have not been maintained and rustwelded fast, the dual flywheel I would need to release is also caked in a mixture of oil and sand. That, and I need better tools, more leverage, more time... I am ashamed to say, but It seems we should give up and merely carry on with two machines. The demon grinder has capacity for us all but I would rather have a back up too. Statistically speaking we would have more chance of survival by taking the two larger machines even given the likelihood that they may consume more coins... That is my advice, but what would you like to do?"
The body finally flops over and is strapped to the front of the big machine. When this is done, Roo makes a show of ruffling his feathers and dusting off his hands and then congratulating Reed for their efforts before strutting over to the conversation going on. He quickly wilts.
"...I don't get to drive the big one..." He says, realizing what is happening, followed by a dejected... "Buck."
"Agreed, we will do as you suggest. You are after all our chief mechanic, Ironmaiden", Corlith adds after Reed, giving Ironmaiden a nod of approval.
When Roo mumbles his displeasure at not getting to drive the big one, he adds, "I have no interest in driving, but I see no reason why those who want to do so can't".
With that said, he will let those who wish to decide who gets to go first, and busies himself cleaning out the cabin of the new vehicle ready to ride shotgun.
Virro climbs in and mans the harpoon again, picking one up and loading it in. He points it around at imagined enemies for a moment, then gets bored, setting it down. "Right. So, are we good? We probably don't want to linger out here too long, in the open. Onward!" he says with a half hearted smile.
Ironmiaden assumes their place in the driver's seat and calls over to Lulu, "your superior elevation will be helpful in scouting out a safe place for rest on the path ahead, as well as keeping an eye out for more hostile vehicles, is this acceptable?"
Lulu flies up and ahead a little bit at Ironmaiden's suggestion, but keeps nearby as she leads them on to your destination. With the Tormentor the weakest of the two, it goes first, IronMaiden driving, with Wilfred on the lookout. The Demon Grinder follows behind as an impressive sight, Roo driving, Corlith manning the chompers, Virro at a harpoon gun and Reed at the rear ready to smack something with the wrecking ball.
The weariness of it all starts to weigh heavy on the group. Avernus is not a friendly place, the acrid air and the burning tar smell stings and as you're parched from all this, when you take a drink, even the water tastes like warm piss.
Finally, the iron trees that Lulu mentioned come into sight. As you get closer, something doesn't feel right.. there is something on those trees, and something seems to be moving between them. Having no where else to really turn, you continue on and it appears that the wrought iron trees line a trail that leads to the summit of a steep hill. Anguished knights are impaled on the trees' metal branches. Their bodies writhing in torment as bloated stirges feast upon their blood.
The Tormentor runs out of gas just as you approach, and as you take it all in trying to understand exactly what you are looking at, from Corlith's pack, you hear in a bit of a high pitch, but definitely a solid voice, "Behold! Zariel’s dog crucified those who betrayed his mistress in battle."
Corlith looks to his pack in surprise, and then to Roo sat next to him. Up until the voice spoke, he had been looking stone faced at the scene of the bodies writhing, with the stirges feasting upon them. A part of him is repulsed by the sight, and yet something within him merely accepts it.
"That has never happened before", he says curiously, and then remembers the last things he would have placed in the pack were the soul coins. He reaches in and pulls them out, examining them.
Reed plays with the controls of the wrecking ball while they drive to get the hang of it if they do need it but when they stop and he sees the sight in the trees, he cringes a little.
"So is that your shield, Corlith?" Reed asks. "Is it happy to be home?"
He then takes one of the soul coins from Corlith's hand and looks at the Tormentor and then looks at IronMaiden "Is there a slot or something these things go in?"
Virro lets his harpoon flinger rest for a moment and he pulls his shield around, facing the odd sight of the iron trees, he seems to focus silently for a moment, taking all of this in. “Who is speaking, Corlith?” Virro says out of curiosity.
IronMaiden completely oblivious to the goings on with the other vehicle, turns to Wilf and tries their hand at small talk, "so... Mad Maggie huh? What's... uhhhhhhh. How did you end up there?" The hesitation in the IronMaiden's voice comes across more like awkward static than anything intentionally vocalised.
Reed looks at Roo struggling with the bodies but isn’t quite sure how to help. He eventually ties a loop of rope around an arm or neck and tries to run it over some smooth part of the vehicle to help lift the load so Roo can push it off.
Virro is sitting on the ground sawing off a were-finger with his dagger to add to the collection. He sees that the gallus is trying to move the bodies and looks up distractedly, "Oh, right. I'm just now done. Here you go! Let's display these bodies to strike fear into our foes! Hrrrrhhhnn! Oh, you seem to be a muscular gallus, likely do much better than I.."
IronMaiden gives corlith a nod and hops off the Tormentor, instead taking a look at the devil's ride, "I believe if I can disengage the infernal engine from the driveshaft, then I can decouple the power to the wheels, this will effectively render the devil's ride, temporarily, as a powerless cart, then we can drag it as such without it's engine halting the spinning of the wheels. It shouldn't take more than a moment if you can work in lashing the devil's ride to one of the bigger vehicles..."
If corlith agrees then the ironmiaden will do just that, the fingers of their suit folding out to reveal tools for tinkering with such mechanical thingamabobs and doohickeys. They think to themselves of what the soul coins powering the machines truly and morally mean, but try to shoo aside sich thoughts, the temporary deactivation of the devil's ride will save coins, this is most effective as long as the strain on the larger vehicle is not too much that it would demand more fuel.
"As long as you are sure it won't take too long", Corlith replies to Ironmaiden. "We need to find cover before anything else happens upon us".
If the Iornmaiden is certain, he will start to think about lashing the Devil's Ride to their new acquisition.
"Will silk rope be strong enough?".
Ironmiaden gets straight to work, and as corlith asks follow up questions they don't bother responding vocally, instead muttering about bolt sizes as they dig through their pack and throw over 50ft of hempen rope and a crowbar to Corlith, before returning back to decoupling certain mechanics, focused on the task at hand.
Corlith does his best to do as Ironmaiden instructs, with the materials now at hand. He does wonder at how he can keep the two wheeled vehicle stable as it is dragged, rather than simply toppling at every turn.
"I am not sure this will work. Surely it will just topple", he mumbles as he works.
The IronMaiden grunts with frustration, Corlith likely can't even see what they are struggling with as majority of their torso is buried within the bowels of the engine from underneath. They roll back out and stand up looking at the infernal two wheeler. "I was so engrossed in the mechanics that I forgot about the physics. You are correct, this was a foolish venture to begin with.
...And that is not taking into account the bad condition the couplings are in, they have not been maintained and rustwelded fast, the dual flywheel I would need to release is also caked in a mixture of oil and sand. That, and I need better tools, more leverage, more time... I am ashamed to say, but It seems we should give up and merely carry on with two machines. The demon grinder has capacity for us all but I would rather have a back up too. Statistically speaking we would have more chance of survival by taking the two larger machines even given the likelihood that they may consume more coins... That is my advice, but what would you like to do?"
Reed pats IronMaiden on the back.
”The two big ones then”
The body finally flops over and is strapped to the front of the big machine. When this is done, Roo makes a show of ruffling his feathers and dusting off his hands and then congratulating Reed for their efforts before strutting over to the conversation going on. He quickly wilts.
"...I don't get to drive the big one..." He says, realizing what is happening, followed by a dejected... "Buck."
DM of AURYN: The Measure of Devotion - Escape from New York
IronMaiden seems confused by the back pat, but accepts it before standing up so that Reed can no longer reach to do that again.
"Agreed, we will do as you suggest. You are after all our chief mechanic, Ironmaiden", Corlith adds after Reed, giving Ironmaiden a nod of approval.
When Roo mumbles his displeasure at not getting to drive the big one, he adds, "I have no interest in driving, but I see no reason why those who want to do so can't".
With that said, he will let those who wish to decide who gets to go first, and busies himself cleaning out the cabin of the new vehicle ready to ride shotgun.
Virro climbs in and mans the harpoon again, picking one up and loading it in. He points it around at imagined enemies for a moment, then gets bored, setting it down. "Right. So, are we good? We probably don't want to linger out here too long, in the open. Onward!" he says with a half hearted smile.
Ironmiaden assumes their place in the driver's seat and calls over to Lulu, "your superior elevation will be helpful in scouting out a safe place for rest on the path ahead, as well as keeping an eye out for more hostile vehicles, is this acceptable?"
Lulu flies up and ahead a little bit at Ironmaiden's suggestion, but keeps nearby as she leads them on to your destination. With the Tormentor the weakest of the two, it goes first, IronMaiden driving, with Wilfred on the lookout. The Demon Grinder follows behind as an impressive sight, Roo driving, Corlith manning the chompers, Virro at a harpoon gun and Reed at the rear ready to smack something with the wrecking ball.
The weariness of it all starts to weigh heavy on the group. Avernus is not a friendly place, the acrid air and the burning tar smell stings and as you're parched from all this, when you take a drink, even the water tastes like warm piss.
Finally, the iron trees that Lulu mentioned come into sight. As you get closer, something doesn't feel right.. there is something on those trees, and something seems to be moving between them. Having no where else to really turn, you continue on and it appears that the wrought iron trees line a trail that leads to the summit of a steep hill. Anguished knights are impaled on the trees' metal branches. Their bodies writhing in torment as bloated stirges feast upon their blood.
The Tormentor runs out of gas just as you approach, and as you take it all in trying to understand exactly what you are looking at, from Corlith's pack, you hear in a bit of a high pitch, but definitely a solid voice, "Behold! Zariel’s dog crucified those who betrayed his mistress in battle."
Corlith looks to his pack in surprise, and then to Roo sat next to him. Up until the voice spoke, he had been looking stone faced at the scene of the bodies writhing, with the stirges feasting upon them. A part of him is repulsed by the sight, and yet something within him merely accepts it.
"That has never happened before", he says curiously, and then remembers the last things he would have placed in the pack were the soul coins. He reaches in and pulls them out, examining them.
Corlith inspects the soul gems but finds nothing out of the ordinary or different about them. He then takes another look into his pack.
"Who said that?", he asks, feeling more than a little silly doing so.
Reed plays with the controls of the wrecking ball while they drive to get the hang of it if they do need it but when they stop and he sees the sight in the trees, he cringes a little.
"So is that your shield, Corlith?" Reed asks. "Is it happy to be home?"
He then takes one of the soul coins from Corlith's hand and looks at the Tormentor and then looks at IronMaiden "Is there a slot or something these things go in?"
Virro lets his harpoon flinger rest for a moment and he pulls his shield around, facing the odd sight of the iron trees, he seems to focus silently for a moment, taking all of this in. “Who is speaking, Corlith?” Virro says out of curiosity.
"Beats me", Corlith replies to Virro with a shrug. "Glad you heard it too though, otherwise I would think I was going mad".
IronMaiden completely oblivious to the goings on with the other vehicle, turns to Wilf and tries their hand at small talk, "so... Mad Maggie huh? What's... uhhhhhhh. How did you end up there?" The hesitation in the IronMaiden's voice comes across more like awkward static than anything intentionally vocalised.