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Pathstomper 3

Part 3 of 3

A white screen with big green, bold letters that read, “MONSTER FACTS” shows up on the screen before a spiky, superheroesque creature without any apparent eyes that is covered in blue, silver, and red marches in front of the camera and extends its clawed hands to the audience and gives a horrific high-pitched cry. Above it appears the heading “HUPNATH” in big, red letters. A narrator that sounds very much like Silver Fang starts off reluctantly as the creature challenges the audience, “Down boy! Well here we are. Monster facts: The Hupnath, right?” The Hupnath flexes its claws and gives some crude gestures that are quickly CENSORED immediately. “Hey!” he spits out angrily in response to the uncouth outsider. Silver Fang begins again, “Hupnaths are neutral evil or chaotic evil outsiders originally from some unknown plane of existence. They like to sow destruction and bloodshed in their wakes.” The Hupnath uses its hands to brush its shoulder pads and cape and gives a horrible shriek of satisfaction. “Yeahhhhh..., well these creatures are infamous for their extreme speed and agility,” the paladin says while the Hupnath disappears in a zip and returns with a punching bag it quickly sets up. The camera does a close up of the creatures face with its three pairs of chitinous, grey horn-like growths on its eye-less, blue face with red sides. The creature gives a shriek of malevolent gee and tears the punching bag into pieces with blinding speed. Silver Fang audibly gulps and says, “…..Ummm… THAT was fast.” He clears his throat before the Hupnath starts to do some combat exercises. “Despite their lack of eyes, Hupnaths seem to have a “sight without sight” like the Eleking species. Better ask Vrondi about that later. Oh well! This does not impede the Hupnath’s excellent hand to hand skills,” he says as the Hupnath spins around in a dazzling spin kick that strikes the screen and for the audience visible cracks are seen. “Hey! Just great! Cut! Replace the screen!” shouts Silver Fang and the scene is cut to a screen with a caricature of Silver Fang with broken mechanical parts all around him with “Technical Difficulties” written beside him. Within seconds, the scene shifts back to normal and everything seems fine. The Hupnath makes a malicious, high-pitched laughing sound that garners Silver Fang’s ire. “Grrrr…Jerk! Anyway, I started this segment and I’m going to finish it. Hupnaths are infamous for taking on the forms of others, even so well they mock memories, accents, and clothing styles of the person. In some cases, some Hupnaths have believed themselves to be people other than what they are,” he mentions. The Hupnath does not change at all it just sits with its arms and legs crossed.”Not going to change for the nice people at home?” questions Silver Fang. The creature shakes its head and sits firmly where it is. “You blue-blooded, transforming…” grumbles Silver Fang before the creature transforms into a copy of Vrondi Piscine and walks off-screen. “WAIT! Come back here! This could get really bad,” he mumbles and the scene shifts to black.

When the story resumes, the group of King Joe, Silver Fang, Bonesmasher, Vrondi, and Ansmaro are on a dark-lit street with Meitov at night. “Just right…here…” the cleric pulls up a manhole cover and tells the group, “Alright guys down there.” The group descends into the shaft into a tunnel of oppressive blackness. Silver Fang pops out his bull’s eye lantern to illuminate the sewer system tunnel. Meitov is the last one down and he casts a spell called, “Ghost Light”. With that a sickly, iridescent orb of light appears over him and lights the passage enough for them to navigate. “So got all your supplies?” questions Vrondi in the direction of King Joe. The Technic alchemist responds with, “Yes. I brought two alkahest bombs, three normal bombs, some cryptbreaker draughts I had given every one of you, two potions of heal light wounds, two heal moderate wounds, one bull’s strength, one detect undead, one entangle, and one adaptive admixture.” He looks around at the group who are very glad he came prepared and continues for dramatic effect, “Yes, and I also brought two emergency stun rods, my two captured oozes, and my newly built repeating cross-bow.” “So we’re ready I take it?” Meitov asks after King Joe’s bragging ends. The group nods and they follow him down the tunnel, about knee deep in water and filth. “So your people live down here?” Vrondi Piscine asks Meitov. “Yes, they do. By the way, I’m glad you and your Red King friend have healed quite well from yesterday,” the Nosferu says politely. “Thank you,” Vrondi seems to be happy hearing that and then asks, “So how do you survive if the sewer floods?” Meitov goes on and on about various pieces of jargon as the camera centers on Bonesmasher and over his head, an idea bubble appears with various types of food within it-completely oblivious to what is going on around him.
About fifteen minutes pass and the group wades through muck and the darkness is pierced by the ghastly light summoned by Meitov and Silver Fang’s bull’s eye lantern. Soon they come across a giant open area. “What is this place?” inquires Silver Fang as the camera pans out over a dimly lit building built into a wall in this large open area of water. “Pump Station 13,” says Meitov dryly. “Down here we rely on the pump stations to pump access water out into sub sewers or other areas of the sewer system,” the Nosferu says and follows up with,” however this station is rarely used and kind of off by itself.” The group draws closer to this unassuming building and Meitov continues, “It has always been a place of mysterious origin, most believe it was built in conjunction with an ancient Thassilonian ruin.” Ansmaro responds with a bit of coyness, “So, THAT explains it.” The group draws closer to a door in the side of the wall. Meitov rummages through his robe and pulls out a key, “Thanks for getting this Ansmaro.” “Oh wasn’t anything, just quick-witted talking,” he says with obvious show of pride. Meitov asks again following Ansmaro’s self idolization, “Don’t you have a family name? I heard the group only call you Ansmaro.” The rest of the group begins to murmur with, “He is right,” or “Never thought of it, but yes.” Ansmaro looks quickly distraught and sharply replies with, “I do! But it’s none of your business! That’s all I’ll say!” With a heavy creaking, the door to Pump Station 13 barges open and the group shine their lights in revealing a staircase. “I’ll go first,” says Silver Fang fearlessly and then the others follow suit with Bonesmasher heading up the rear. They travel up the steps and enter a room that is already dimly illuminated with gaslights. The group finds what appears to be three Nosferu in this seventy five ft wide and thirty five ft long room.
“Who are you?” cries Meitov. One member of the group looks at the six adventurers, and responds in a bland tone, “Emergency repair team.” Meitov looks at them, while Silver Fang uses the skill “Sense Motive”. “I know all the Nosferu down here, and I’ve never seen you three before!” shouts Meitov in a very accusative tone as Silver Fang blatantly says, “I think they are lying!” One of the Nosferu assumes an attack position and says, “Can’t get nothing past you, huh?” The others start getting into battle positions and the group does as well, however the Nosferu warp and change into Hupnaths. “We all saw this coming right?” Ansmaro says and King Joe responds in his mechanized tone, “Just focus on them.”

One of the Hupnaths strikes at King Joe with dazzling speed, and manages to hit the Technic with both clawed-hands. However the monster does a small amount of damage. The second takes a vicious slash at Vrondi Piscine and knocks him backward in pain. The third takes a kicking strike at Silver Fang, who deftly repels it with his shield. Bonesmasher whips himself into a frenzy and charges one of the Hupnaths and knocks it to the ground with a THUD! Silver Fang has already withdrawn his mace as its glows and hums with the enchantment on it reacting to the coming attack. He uses his “SMITE EVIL” on the middle Hupnath and fires three, blue, fiery blasts from his mouth that strike the creature. They explode on impact, knocking the creature prone and smoldering. King Joe luckily strikes the Hupnath that attacked him in the face and deals minimal damage, but it does drive the creature back. With that Ansmaro sneaks up behind said Hupnath and delivers a vicious attack from behind-striking it very deep it the back with his rapier! “Take that, weirdo!” cries Ansmaro. Meitov at the same time is chanting and restores some of Vrondi’s HP. Vrondi, haggardly, gets up and uses his own natural shock attack against the Hupnath that slashed at him earlier. It strikes the creature with a horrid CRACK! sound and the creature is obviously affected by the strike as it shakes and smokes a bit. However, it is already on the ground due to Bonesmasher’s bull rush attack.
The Hupnath that Ansmaro stabbed in the back twirls around and does a spinning kick that strikes Ansmaro in the face. Surprised and thrown to the ground, Ansmaro spits out a tiny amount of blood and a chip of his tooth, before the look of anger crosses his many-toothed face. The one that Silver Fang knocked prone gets up and bares his claws with a horrendous, shrill hiss as does the other that Bonesmasher struck down. Bonesmasher pulls out his Pigmon Club to strike out at the Hupnath and he delivers a violent, two-handed strike that…fails miserably and cracks the floor underneath him with that blow. King Joe uses his own electrical shock attack to damage the Hupnath that struck down Ansmaro. The shock arches through the unholy creature causing it to stiffen and cry out in pain. Ansmaro fires a shot from his pistol and a blast from his oral beams that hit the Hupnath that seems not to know whom to attack first. Meitov chants again and uses “Cause Moderate Wounds” on the Hupnath close to the Red King barbarian and the creature violently shows discomfort. Vrondi uses “ACID SPLASH” to hit the one near Bonesmasher out of spite.

The first Hupnath takes a leap and lands hard down upon Ansmaro’s pale, bluish underbelly. Even the cloth armor with metal playing underneath did not help the sheer pain of the creature brining its weight down upon him. The creature that struck at Vrondi originally has struck at Bonesmasher’s yellow, scaly hide and grabbed onto him, digging its claws deep into his arm and forces Bonesmasher to drop his club. The other strikes at Silver Fang’s heavy, full plate armor and does little damage to him as the templar looks back with his saurian face showing a sneer of contempt for this horrible outsider. Bonesmasher takes one of his oversized arms and punches the Hupnath square in the face, causing the creature to let go, before the Red King opens his mouth from his tiny head and spews an onslaught of gravel at the creature. The Hupnath that is assailed by the gravel flails around violently in shock. Silver Fang holds his with both hands and cries, “POWER ATTACK” and slams his mace into the horrible creature with a loud sonic explosion and makes its body crumple into a blue, bloody mess. King Joe draws his cross bow and fires two arrows at the Hupnath on Ansmaro. They connect and strike the creature in the side and it steps off Ansmaro as it grasps its wounded side the arrows protrude from. Ansmaro luckily slashes at the leg of the creature, brining to the ground upon its wounded knees. Meitov casts “Cause Light Wounds” on the Hupnath that Bonesmasher assailed with gravel, by chanting and pointing at the creature in question as acid eats away at its almost costumed-like form. Vrondi senses how bad off the Hupnath battling King Joe and Ansmaro is and casts, “MAGIC MISSILE” to finish it off with a bright flash and a horrible CRACK! as the projectile strikes the creature dead. The sole surviving Hupnath tries to retreat and Bonesmasher strikes it down fatally with a massive “POWER ATTACK” from his club.
The group takes a collective sigh and Meitov looks around and cautiously says, “That shows at least we’re on the right track……..I hope.” The Nosferu looks around and finds a panel and toys with the buttons. He presses one and from behind the group a shadowy door opens. Past the frame is obscured by darkness and the group peers in. “Looks like a hallway,” Silver Fang notes. King Joe and Ansmaro use their keen senses and knacks for trap finding to scour the area around the door and right past the threshold for traps. They luckily find nothing and group decides to embark into this hallway.
As the group meanders down the poorly-lit hallway that reeks of moisture and old socks, Bonesmasher says to the group, “You guys know I have the sense of traps, right?” “But you’re INT and WIS are both 9,” remarks Ansmaro. Bonesmasher looks over at the blue-skinned kaiju with the pirate hat and eye patch with disdain, “What?! You say Bonesmasher is stoopid?!” “No. Umm…just you may not be able to be all that much of a trap hunter as me and the alchemist,” Ansmaro quickly says trying not to get throttled by the Red King. The yellow robotic kaiju autotunes with its face panel glowing lightly, “Bonesmasher can handle himself. I trust him.” Silver Fang, whose light is penetrating the darkness ahead, looks back and with his toothy maw he says, “You and him did do dungeon crawling before joining us right?” Both the robot and the Red King nod and say, “Yes”.

With that the group enters a massive room that seems to be empty except a door on the other side of the room. “Crap baskets! I bet there are traps in here,” cries Meitov as he peers through the murk before his ghost light orb goes out. He swears a little and casts the spell again for another ghostly ball of light to appear overhead. “I think we should have our master trap sensers go out to clear the area or find out where is what,” Silver Fang suggests. King Joe nods and walks out to inspect the floor panels and so does Ansmaro. Bonesmasher cries, “I will too!” and joins them in their investigation. Ansmaro drinks his Cryptbreaker’s Draught to enhance his senses and senses a head a loose tile. He points and takes a bit of leftover fruit preserves from his pack and slings it onto the tile, “There we go. Gotta mark that one.” King Joe finds another tile like that and strikes it with some paint from his pack. Bonesmasher haphazardly throws his weight around and discovers a trap. “Ohhhhh! It’s a trap I see!” and he decides to point it out to the group like an eager child as they cross the room cautiously. Meitov responds as he eyes where is going cautiously, “That’s very nice.” They draw closer to the door and King Joe notices a tile ajar slightly, “It looks like a trap.” Bonesmasher jumps in front of the group and nods before trying to disarm it-with a club. The group holds their breath in absolute horror and said trap reveals to be nothing more than a spike trap that just punctures a small set of hole in his club. “Pigmon Club is sad. It got stuck by spikes,” says Bonesmasher with a single tear in his eye. “Let’s just get going, please!” cries the Silvergon in charge of the group. They enter another door and are greeted with a long hallway with statues of Ultra soldiers on each side.
The statues line the walls and look as if they are gazing upon them with malicious intent. The group passes a few and Silver Fang notices writing on the walls, “It looks Thassilonian, but I sure as heck can’t read what it says,” Ansmaro points out another loose tile that indicates a trap and the group passes by it. The group avoids it, but one of the statue’s eyes begin to glow without warning, and it starts to shift as it comes to life-as does another down the hall in front of them! One statue is armed with a tower shield and a long spear and it steps off from its pedestal right behind them. The other, in front, carries a barbed spear and a light shield, and clangs the spear against the shield at the group to antagonize them. King Joe looks around, “I think I got this!” he autotunes to the rest of them as the constructs are ready for battle. The long spear-wielding construct charges at and jabs Silver Fang HARD-penetrating his plate armor and wounding the area above his chest and under his shoulder! “APSU’s BLOOD!” he shrieks in extreme pain. Bonesmasher summons a few boulders that he creates from the stone floor of the corridor and flings them at the one carrying the barbed spear. The three boulders connect and knock its shield from its right hand. Ansmaro uses his oral energy attack to strike the same one as it is stunned. Silver Fang luckily pulls the spear from his body and slams into the constructed soldier. This force pushes the construct back a bit, just right before an alkahest bomb crashes into it and explodes. The construct is covered in the powerful alkahest substance that eats away at its copper-like make-up quickly. The Ultra soldier statue staggers and falls onto the floor, dropping its weapon and shield. The other statue is knocked off balance as well, by a tail swipe from Vrondi Piscine. Bonesmasher deals the final blow to it with his club against its head-shattering it into hundreds of shards of glistening metal as the other is devoured by the alkahest. The group regains their bearings as the threat has been ended and Silver Fang uses a few healing abilities to mitigate the damage he incurred. The group gathers themselves and proceeds down the corridor to the next door.
The next area is well light with what look like gas-powered street lights. The group deliberates and because of the odd architecture, they cannot figure out what this area is supposed to be. However, Thassilonian writing and runes are all over the walls of some buildings and streets indicate some sort of ancient ruin. “It’s some kind of underground city!” cries Vrondi. Meitov investigates this giant open-air crypt and all of the sudden something catches his eye. “Look over there!” he points in an easterly or whateverly direction (We’re underground people! How am I supposed to know?) “Where?” cries the blind salamander sorcerer. The GM pulls the screen aside and jokes, “Didn’t think I was going there huh?” before he lets go of the frame and the scene returns to normal. The group notices a bright light coming from a plaza farther away, and decides to find out what it is. The group weaves through the streets and around buildings, while they see a great fire with two Hupnaths on each side in a cross-legged sitting position. The real thing that got their attention was a giant, bipedal, sickly horse-like creature with wings in front of the fire. Silver Fang and Meitov mumble “Daemon Steed at the same time” with great disdain. “So that’s the creature behind the curses eh?” asks Ansmaro while still eyeing the beast and its attendants. Silver Fang turns and looks at the group, “We need to figure out how to do this.” Ansmaro looks at him and suggests, “How about me and the Technic attack the two Hupnaths from range, while you and the Red King go into melee with the monster?” Silver Fang looks at him and the look on his face indicates surprise. “That’s a good idea! We can also use Vrondi and Meitov for support.” It takes a few minutes to finalize the plan and already King Joe has his repeating crossbow out.

The all get in position and after a few minutes two arrows strike one of the Hupnaths as the other gets struck with ordinance from a pistol. They cry out in pain and surprise as the Daemon Steed rears back and bats its leathery wings in anger and shock. The creature looks around and scans the area for the object that has attacked its attendants. It feels sickened as an invisible force strikes it when Bonesmasher and Silver Fang show themselves and give battle cries of anger and power. The creature lifts itself in the air and bares its teeth at the duo, before breathing a powerful cone of fire that has a blackish light emanate from its outer flames. Luckily Silver Fang dodges most of it and deflects the outer cone with his shield. Bonesmasher isn’t so lucky. He gets struck by the cursed flame and cries with agony as he is bathed with its flickering, evil light. He fights through the pain and strikes the foul creature with his club.
The screen freezes and the voices of the GM and players are heard. “He fought through a curse and pain?!” shouts a dumbfounded GM off camera. Another voice responds, “He has high saving throws and attack bonuses.” The GM returns with verbal fire, “He is also on fire!” The voices return in unison, “Saving throws!” The GM off camera screams aloud and audibly throws things in rage.
The scene kicks back into action with the Daemon Steed getting struck by Bonesmasher’s Pigmon club. Silver Fang slashes at the creature with his scimitar and delivers a deep wound to the creature’s body that spouts brown, stench-laden blood. Well that is, before he gets smashed backwards by the creature’s massive hooves when it kicks him. The creature attempts to take a bite at Silver Fang and misses, taking a huge bite of air. The others in background still have the Hupnaths at range are fending them off with projectiles and spells. Bonesmasher, who is still on fire by the way, tries to take another strike at the monster and fails- barely missing it by inches. Silver Fang deals another violent blow that shreds through the hide of the infernal creature after recovering his bearings after being kicked. The horse mockery deals another swift dual kick to the templar and knocks him prone before crashing down upon him with great force! Silver Fang cries out in great pain and Bonesmasher deals a vicious POWER ATTACK to the creature that forces it from atop Silver Fang. Silver Fang gets up slowly and blasts the creature with three of its blue fire balls. The creature reels back, then regains its composure, and wildly thrashes forward with its equine form in frenzy! The creature thrashes wildly about, strikes Bonesmasher down, and stomps upon him in rage. The downed Redking uses his elemental affinity to summon a piece of rock that forms in his hand right within seconds. He throws it at the Daemon Steed and strikes it in the face. The creature bellows and tumbles backwards just in time to get struck by Silver Fang’s scimitar in the back. “I even enchanted it when you were paying attention to him with HOLY SWORD to deal more damage to you, beast!” cries the Silvergon templar. The creature pulls itself from the blade and turns to bathe Silver Fang in cursed fire that courses over him. Silver Fang doesn’t scream or retreat he does, in extreme pain mind you, try to put out the fire by ducking and rolling around. Luckily, in the violent rage he is in, Bonesmasher leaps to his feet and deals a flurry of blows from his club that finally slay the beast, “GAAAAAAHHHHHWWWWOOOOOOO!!!!” The two realize the beast is dead and after Silver Fang extinguishes himself, he uses the spell Cure Light Wounds on himself and uses the Lay on Hands ability twice as well. Then he uses the same ability on Bonesmasher to cure him of his wounds. While Bonesmasher grumbles that he can still go on.
They depart from the place where the creature was slain to aid their comrades-and the fact that after it died, the creature dissolved into foul-smelling ooze that even Bonesmasher remarked negatively about. The four had successfully dealt with the Hupnaths. “So you beat the demon horse thing?” questions Ansmaro as he reloads his pistol. “Yes, after being set on fire and kicked an awful lot,” mutters Silver Fang. King Joe recalls his oozes to his jar, which were feeding on what remained of the Hupnaths, and nods in solidarity with his group with his massive head/torso. “So it’s over?” Meitov asked reluctantly. “I think so,” Vrondi answered, “however it does seem odd that there are Thassilonian ruins down here.” Ansmaro mused, “Maybe they are connected to the artifact?” The group takes this into account and the scene changes and Meitov narrates.
“Soon all was well within the town,” the narrator says as the former mayor is escorted out of office by guards. “Flavian was installed as temporary mayor before a special election could be held and the Nosferu charged for the various murders named Krakov was cleared of charges,” he continues as the two Nosferu brothers embrace. “The five adventurers were each awarded with 400 gold pieces and medals of honor,” and the scene shows each of our heroes getting medals and a bag of coins. “Several days later, they would continue their journey and….the paper is blank! Oh! It must mean that their future is unwritten or something…” muses the narrator as the screen fades to black. However quickly Vrondi Piscine pops out of a hole in the black background and shots, “Did he mention we found a whole treasure chest on exiting the subterranean city?!” This is the last thing seen before the credits roll.

Credits roll and on a side screen a scene appears that read in bold letters, “The History Of Ustalav”. The narrator that sounds very much like Silver Fang begins and says, “About 2,400 years ago the country known as Ustalav was colonized by the people of Varisia. These people would settle in the shadows of the Hungry Mountains and build their small fiefdoms,” as he narrates a scene of a Black King and a Salamandora with settlement gear appears on the screen with the shadow of a foreboding mountain range hangs in the background. “They drove out various trolls, goblinoids, and barbarians and made this country their own. However in-fighting prevented the country from becoming a true nation, but a hero that bore the name “Ustav” created a coalition that finished the job of battling the monsters that dwelled within the country and created a monarchy that eventually gave way to a centralized government,” the narrator remarks. “However, eventually the Whispering Tyrant, a horrible lich, rallied his armies or orks and undead and conquered the nation,” he says as the scene shifts to hordes of the undead laying waste to towns with a shadowy wraith-like figure in the background. After centuries of enslavement, a crusade from a neighboring country aided the defeat of the undead and locked away the Whispering Tyrant in his necropolis of Gallowspire. However, the recovery would be slow because the Ustav line had died within the war, and the crown was given to one of many feuding noble houses. Several civil wars would occur over the centuries and even invasions from orks and goblinoids would occur,” he says as a mass of goblinoids is seen rampaging throw a farmer’s fields. “However, each time they’d be pushed back. When the Technic named Deathfacer caused a civil war within the country of Numeria to the east, various Ustalavian nobles joined forces and created the “Legion of Liberation” that would head east and help successfully aid King Joe’s father King Joe Black in getting his kingdom back,” he mentions as the background switches to an army of Guts, Saurians, Shaplays, and other various races. “However, the one major problem is that Ustalav still has problems with the undead and other horrors that are remnants from the age of the Whispering Tyrant. Some day they will be free, I just know it,” says the narrator as the screen fades to black.