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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 2240623" data-attributes="member: 1210">In the markets of Hell, where there is blood up to one's ankles flowing in the streets, one can find almost anything.  Amongst the throngs of devils and blasphemers, it seems that it should be easy to be unnoticed.  And yet, amongst that same throng, how many of those same devils and blasphemers are spies and secret police?  Perhaps not so many now as there will be in the future, since Tiamat’s re-ascension is yet new and fresh; yet certainly there plenty there.  And spies for others, as well- oh, yes; it is more than likely that Asmodeus has spies here, that Baalzebul has spies here, that Mephistopheles has spies here.  Who knows; anyone could have spies here.  There are certainly enough spies for one to spot our heroes and alert a pair of ejukhauts.The inevitables move to the market, sensors fully alert; and when they spot our heroes the move to attack, beginning to shimmer strangely as a humming field envelopes their forms.  ***Alcar spots them first.  The two inevitables are rushing forward.  They are strange assemblages of metal and glass- skeletons of beams and rivets, with lenses scattered around the upper portion, bristling with spikes and blades, hissing with steam and crackling with energy. The two constructs move suddenly, gears within them whirring and clanking as they rush forward.  Long spikes poke out from them in all directions.Alcar cries, “Stand down, machines!”  He invokes the righteous might of Galador and swells to large size.  Try not to fight them! Horbin warns over the telepathic bond that Orbius has forged amongst the party.  We don’t want to attract any attention!The party begins initiating various powers.  Lillamere shape changes into a pit fiend.  Then...BUDDABUDDABUDDABUDDA!!!Several of the strange spikes poking from the ejukhauts begin firing slugs of metal at incredible speed!  Alcar and Lillamere are both sprayed by the weapons, which deals significant damage.  Never mind, Horbin warns over the link, and casts flame strike.  It whoomps down, enveloping one of the inevitables in a blast of golden flames.  It’s barely singed.Gerontius scowls to himself.  They’re constructs; they don’t have organs, he reasons.  Then he smiles.  Time to use a magic item!  He thrusts a fist at the ejukhauts and fires a sunray from the ring of radiance he acquired a while back.  It fails to harm the construct, however, seemingly fizzling out where it touches the ejukhaut.  Gerontius swears, then keeps firing.Our heroes were not expecting battle here on the streets, and are unprepared.  Most of them require a few moments to initiate their enhancing magicks, psionic abilities and magic items, to draw their weapons and to move into position.  The inevitables are not so unfortunate.  They are ready.  A chain lightning rips through the party (though both Gerontius and Chakar manage to avoid it completely) while the second one attempts to blast Inoke with a spell of extraordinary power and leave him nailed to the sky, but he resists.  The party members that try to strike them with metal weapons find their weapons are being repelled by a powerful force.  Sybele’s arrows keep flying wide, so she instead vomits up a stream of acid at one of the inevitables!  It hisses and sizzles, melting part of the creature’s torso, and the ejukhaut staggers back a pace.  Horbin blasts a fire storm at the two monsters, and though it damages one of them, each of them uses a repair critical wounds on itself, then returns to the attack!  One of them slashes out at Veil with a sword-arm, slicing him badly.  The mindspy staggers back, leaking fluids, and cries, “Someone, repair me!”*Then Inoke slams the two constructs together, pushing them back into a vendor’s display and knocking them (and the display) over.  He and Alcar leap forward, smiting the prone ejukhauts brutally, bending their frames and shattering lenses.  Lillamere shifts into the form of a black dragon and belches a gout of acid at the ejukhauts, and then follows that up with a disintegrate.  In a flash of light, one of the constructs vanishes, leaving only a fine dust behind!  Inoke crushes the last one beneath St. John’s Mace, then immediately conceals the artifact of Galador in his glove of storing again.  It would certainly not do to be caught with that on Hell!“Let’s get out of here, quick,” suggests Veil, “before any of the authorities come to check us out!”  “Good idea,” agrees Horbin.  “Where’s our guide?”“Who knows?  She ran off while we were fighting,” Lillamere replies.  “Our inn is on the other side of the huge arena,” Sybele states with a smile. The group hurries along the street, soon passing into the shadow of the huge arena.  The noise from within the bowl of the arena is deafening; even outside, in its shadow, even over the Rary’s telepathic bond, it is almost impossible to communicate.  It is loud enough to make our heroes’ heads ache and their eyes water.And then, rounding the corner in front of them, come a group of mortals wearing armbands with the sign of a ruby rod clenched in a fist.Next Time: Storming Hell!!! *Remember, Veil, too, is a construct.</blockquote>

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