Breaking the Rules Pt. 11

Nuru took a deep breath, did one of his evasive tumbles, and ended up on one knee directly in the spotlight.

"Ta-daaaaahhhhhhhhh!" he said.

He waited, holding the pose. And waited.

"The spectators bore!" one of the men said, which Nuru could not see in the blinding light; it sounded like the tall one, though.

"Yes, yes, we expected something more!"

"Are you not entertained!?" Nuru exclaimed boldly. "What a chase! Such daring escapes I almost made! If not to your taste, then why did I bother?"

"Vweeehehe! This one proves the tales are no tripe. Perhaps he can put on our rags, and become just as ripe!"

One of them farted, and they all laughed.

"Hurr hurr. That wasn't even me," the big one said, whose voice Nuru was beginning to recognize.

"Nay, t'was my cushion of whoop-ie," one of the small ones said.

This set off another round of giggles.

"Hark! The evening calls. Let us all make merry, 'til each into their bed crawls!"

Nuru was snatched up and tossed into a holding cell. Various ridiculous musical instruments were put to use, and all the men running around got more inebriated as the day ran out, and their songs and jokes got worse and less profound. At some point, it was quiet enough that he fell asleep.

*****

The one noise Nuru did not expect when he awoke was a sad, feminine sniffling. This was what jarred him straight to full consciousness, however; he looked around, and the adjoining cell, he now noticed, was occupied as well. His heart broke, seeing the woman, that lovely young attractive bundle of lush curves, clearly distraught and miserable.

"Hello," Nuru said.

"Hi," she whispered, corners of her mouth barely turning up at the acknowledgement.

"I'm Nuru. What are you in for?"

"Akua is my name. Indecent exposure."

He blinked twice. "...come again?"

"You assume I've come even once, ever."

(Is she flirting with me...?)

But Sanaa wasn't awake yet.

"Er... how was it indecent?"

"You'd have to ask them. I was born naked and I see no shame in staying that way."

"Oh, you absolute jewel. I can't believe these painted trolls would do such a thing. What do you say we find a way out of here, and be friends?"

"You're just saying that so I'll help you escape. Everyone hates me out there. I might as well just curl up and die."

"Now, that can't possibly be right. There must be hundreds of adventurers out there that would kill to meet a beautiful lady like yourself. Literally, they would kill."

"Don't tease me like that. Nobody wants someone like me."

"They don't deserve you, but that's not the same thing."

"You... you like me? Truly?"

She held her hand out, shaking, between the bars to him. He reached out and grasped her hand gently.

"Truly."

"Then... it's time I called in my Big Favor."

Her head drooped, and her eyes closed for a moment.

"There."

"There what?"

"Now we wait."

Nuru thought for a second, then activated Tusa's oath once more. He wasn't sure if the feliform could help, but he couldn't if he never had the chance.

*****

The Troupers came around for breakfast. They came in, three of them, with some wicked-looking metal with a strap on it, muscled Nuru to the ground, and forced the metal in his mouth. Then the feeding tube was shoved down his throat, and whatever passed for nutrition in liquid state was squeezed from a rubber bulb down his gullet. Nuru fought them off at the end of it, coughing and spluttering.

"Bloody hell, what is wrong with you?!" he cried.

"It's not us that should draw your ire," one of the men said. "We treat all equally. When one guest refuses to eat, we treat all their health with means most dire."

"I will eat!" Akua skrieked angrily. "Cease this at once!"

The three men looked at each other, then burst out laughing.

"She likes you, my boy!" one said.

"T'was no mistake for your help to employ!" said another.

"You see, your place among us you have found," said the third.

"Join us, and your blessings abound!" the first said.

"Forgive me if I'm not enthusiastic about that," Nuru grimaced.

"Fear not, I know you'll come around," the second man said.

"Aha! We got a three-fer!" they all said together, high-fiving each other and slapping each other on the back.

It devolved to a vaguely-hostile free-for all as they high- and low-fived each other in the face, stomach, and groin without the other's hand being there to take the blow, but they straightened up as some kind of crazy warbley alarm went off.

"Hark, my brothers! Attack is imminent, we must go!"

"Don't worry, you're safe - but if you see anyone, do enjoy the show!" they called back over their shoulders.

And with that, they were gone. Distant sounds of battle began to trickle down the hallway. Nuru couldn't begin to make out what was happening, and he and Akua stared at each other, looking for explanation as each sound crashed through.

"They have a golem," Akua said. "A big one."

"You've seen it?" Nuru said.

She nodded. "It's called 'the carousel.' They hang from it, swoop down on the attack, spinning in opposite directions. It's deadly."

A scream flew down the passageway, a man in great pain and fear. Shouts and heavy sounds followed, silencing both prisoners as they listened intently.

"One of the Troupers," Akua whispered as it faded away, eyes glinting with morbid satisfaction.

"How can you tell?" Nuru whispered.

"They modulate their voices when they cry out. One of their silly habits I'm not sure they're even aware of."

A sinister giggle echoed towards them, and a sober look washed over her face again.

Loud clanks and groans gave way to rhythmic pounding.

"That's the inner defenses," she relayed. "All that junk on the floor - it's golem-powered machinery. A gauntlet of deathtraps, once activated. There it is, being activated."

Nuru grimaced, thinking of his friends making their way through the choked hallways, full of blades and spikes and who knew what else.

"!Fashewar Asiri!" came a distant muffled voice.

BOOM

"Nuru, are you in there?"

"Dayo! I'm here! Dayo!!" Nuru screamed.

Akua's face scrunched in concern. "Friends of yours? I do hope they're careful. Truly, this place is a hall of horrors."

"Dayo, be careful! There are traps every-"

BOOM

He cut off, blinking as the violence continued. Akua shook her head.

"They probably can't hear, with everything happening out there. It's very loud, and they are closer to the noise than we are."

Nuru sagged. She was right. He just had to wait until it was all over. She reached out to him though the bars, looking for support. He took her hand and massaged it with his thumb, holding tight.

'It- it's gonna be OK,' she whispered to herself. 'Right?'

"Yeah, it is," he said, more confidently than he felt.

But it's what he thought she needed to hear right now. So did he, for that matter. She nodded, swallowed, and looked a little bit comforted.

"They... they'll break through. They're going to get us free. I can show you my home, we can have a party-"

"Hey bud," Ace said, appearing at the door.

"Ace! Holy crap, what are you doing here?" Nuru said.

"Getting you out of here, hopefully," he replied.

"How did you find me?" Nuru said, as Ace examined the lock.

"Tusa went to Dayo's hut. Mesi found him whining out back with darts stuck in him. We figured pretty quick something had happened, and then we followed him here when he took off again. Damn, I can't pick this one. Gonna have to go get the key. Sit tight, Nuru, I'll be back. Or someone will, I'm not sure how to get you past the gauntlet here."

Nuru took a deep, shaky breath as Ace disappeared again without a trace. Sounds of combat continued for some time. Then the unmistakeable sound of traps being activated started up. Someone was getting thrashed by it, if the clangs and grunts and cursing were any indication. Hit after hit he took, but he kept on coming. Finally he reached the end and something spun from behind, striking him on the metal skirt of his armor, protecting his ass; he hopped forward with an undignified yelp and turned to smash the mechanism with his giant axe, although it bounced off without doing too much. After catching his breath, he turned.

"There you are, you activated my Big Favor, didn't you?" the man said in his helmet.

"Yes! Help us out!" Akua said.

"Sorry lass, I don't know what these people are all in for. You, I know. Him? Could be he deserves to be here. It's not for me to judge."

"But you're a paladin-"

"Hush. I'll get you out of here, but we're greatly outnumbered. I've risked my life to do so, more than a Big Favor even deserves. But I won't hold it against you. Here, now."

The man pulled out a key and unlocked her cage, and she reluctantly slipped her hand out from Nuru's. Something about the man's build and posture seemed familiar, despite the full plate helmet. And he was one of Jelani's Knights paladins...

"...Cayman?" Nuru said.

"What? Yes, that's me, nice try. Lass, did you tell him my name?"

"I didn't say a word," she said, a wondering look on her face. "You made me take an oath."

"And for good reason, an enemy could target you to get at me. Out with it, then. How do you know me?"

"We met on the road. You were travelling with three companions."

"Hmph. I hardly call that meeting. Those lunkheads follow me everywhere, on faction orders."

"I had that thief on top of me, trying to get me to pay a debt."

It took him a minute.

"Oh! The little scary one. I remember," he said, shaking himself. "Funny, that. There's another High-Faction thief out there now, helping with the diversion. You're Nuru then? The one they asked me to look for? You look like a Blue Sun impersonator thief, not a bard."

"That's right, my drum is around here somewhere. The pygmy trolls traded me for something. I didn't ask to come here, I was just out minding my own business. Exploring, you know," Nuru said.

"All by yourself? With friends out there willing to fight for you, without even a party agreement? Nevermind, there isn't time to chat. We've got them tied up out there, but when the big man figures out his key is missing they're going to come check on us. It's a killing field in there with all those traps, we can't risk staying. I wasn't even expecting to be able to come looking for you. Come on."

The man unlocked Nuru's cell also, ignoring the cries of others in cages down the way.

"!Tsoratarwa! Shut up, or we're all of us dead!" Nuru snarled. "You're not letting any of them out anyway, right?"

The prisoners all fell silent. Cayman only stared for a moment at Nuru, then shook his head in agreement, turned, and led the way. Being the only one with heavy armor, he took the brunt of the hits as they hit the trigger plates in the floor; he would shove both Akua and Nuru down or dive into the way, to blunt the blow that was coming.

"I don't... suppose either of you have a health potion," Cayman grunted, bleeding profusely towards the end. "I'm out."

"Picked one up attacking a bugbear camp, but... it's in my pack," Nuru said.

He gestured to the empty place on his back where it was supposed to be. Akua just shook her head sadly.

"It... I'm sure it's fine. Onward!" Cayman said.

"I- I can take the next one," Nuru said.

"Don't be ridiculous. These are professional grade traps. You wouldn't even slow the blade down as it chopped you in half," Cayman said, dodging a swinging pendulum blade.

He was getting tired, though, and when he failed to jump high enough, the second to last trap caught him and held him fast against the floor, where a hole let the spinning set of sword-like blades continue their travel down in a wide circle of of sharp edges. If the stains were anything to go by, more than one adventurer had been badly injured here.

"Don't touch it!" Akua said, as Nuru tried to reach and relieve some of the weight holding him down as the mechanism groaned with the force behind it.

"We can't just leave him here!" Nuru countered.

"Go find your pack. Get him the health potion. He just needs his strength back and he can free himself," Akua said.

Nuru took a deep breath. They'd come this far - just one deathtrap between him and freedom. And his pack, and the health potion.

"Alright... five minutes," he said, bracing himself.

"It's a spike trap, the first one," Cayman groaned. "I remember. Comes in from all sides."

"But not the front and back?" Nuru said.

"I... yeah... just small ones on the strip on the floor, in case you step back towards the other direction," Cayman said.

"OK. I know what to do," Nuru said.

He braced himself, carefully gauging the distance. The trigger plate was far too large not to step on; it took up the whole section of floor, just like with all the other traps.

"Hit the trigger plate and immediately leap forward, far enough to avoid the strip on the floor, that's the plan," he muttered. "Just be quick and I'll be fine."

He paused and took a deep breath.

"!Kafa Mara Nauyi!" he said, hoping to give himself just a little more of an advantage on a saving throw.

Something clicked in his head, telling him the time was right, and he jumped forward. Time seemed to slow, Akua gasped and held her breath, and Nuru hit the plate on the floor, kicking himself forward hard, and tumbling into the open space beyond. He heard the CLACK of a mechanism activated; the trigger was too sensitive for him to avoid it, even with Weightless Foot activated, and he felt a slight movement of air just behind him, but rolled on the floor to safety.

"Store-room! On the right!" Akua called to him.

He dusted off, nodded and went looking where she pointed. He grabbed his pack, thought about running ahead without them for only the briefest moment, then turned back, digging his spare health potion out.

"Here, can you catch it?" Nuru said. "I don't have enough room for a safe landing coming the other way."

She made a grasping motion, nodding her head. He tossed it, slowly and carefully. She fumbled a little, but managed to safely pull it into her chest. She popped the cork and held it ready by the fallen paladin's head.

"Cayman... Cayman, look at me. We have it. Open your mouth."

The big man didn't move, so she lifted the face shield on the helmet, pulled down his lower jaw, and poured some in. She rubbed his throat, but he didn't swallow.

"Cayman... we did it. Hey! Don't you play games with me! This isn't funny!"

Nuru swallowed, staring with wide eyes.

"No... no, no, no... it's wasn't supposed to be like this," Akua sobbed. "You were supposed to make it! We were even! I found my happily ever after... Cayman... oh, you lovely soul..."

"Akua..." Nuru said mournfully.

"No... I know. There's no time. I will shed my tears later."

She downed the rest of the health potion rather than letting it go to waste, wrestled the paladin's heavy helmet loose, hefting it. Swallowing, she tossed it underhand, striking the trigger plate. The spikes shot out, then receded more slowly. She hopped forward, sidestepping the helmet, and curled herself in as she threw herself at Nuru, who caught her as the spikes finished receding and shot out again. She shuddered against him as the cycle continued a few times, the spikes pulling back and then automatically released to stick out into the walkway with the helm holding the trigger plate down.

"He was a good man, wasn't he?" Nuru said.

"Not enough of them in this world," Akua blubbered, then shook herself into focus. "Come on. Let's see what it looks like out there. I can't see him like this anymore."

They went to a section of wall that was completely missing, and opened out on the battlefield. Chibale was there, towards the back, directing a dwindling number of goblin archers standing among a large number of bodies, both troupers and various undead. Dayo screamed something, pointed, and a purple hawk swooped down towards one of the nearly dozen men twirling on a massive segmented pole with arms sticking out every which way; just below it, another section rotated in the opposite direction, with arms a little bit shorter to avoid any collision of the chains draped down at the ends. The flying Trouper swung wide and kicked his feet with mirth, apparently expecting the attack to miss, but the hawk intercepted the joint where the chain attached to the arm holding it, rather than his wildly-swinging body.

B-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-RAPPP CHOOM

The hawk flashed rapidly laying multiple damaging strikes and vanished in a puff of purple haze, and the arm holding the chain disintegrated. The Trouper fell, and had scarcely touched the ground where Tusa pounced and mauled him, and Dayo used their staff and well-timed application of Arcane Blast to deflect darts and thrown weapons back. Three paladins were attacking the base of the structure, but it was solid and had been holding during the entire attack. Bits of the many-armed golem were strewn about at their feet. The archers got off a volley together, but their target saw it coming and let go of the chain, cartwheeled to the side to avoid Tusa, and swiped at a couple of the paladins before running back towards the opening where Akua and Nuru were standing. The two escapees ducked back before his head turned towards them, and Nuru hurried to ready a couple scrolls. He tumbled right out in the path of the man, threw a snowball at close range with his initiative, and ducked the wild counterattack, slapping the man on the back with Fire Hand and shoving him forward.

Nuru motioned to Akua to follow, and they darted out to the side of the field. The man behind them cursed and rolled around until the fire went out, disappearing into the bowels of the hill under a hail of goblin arrows.

"Nuru! Get clear!" Dayo screamed at him.

Chibale directed the archers to regroup in Nuru's direction, and they kept taking potshots on the way, but not managing to hit much. Chibale himself now entered the fray, waiting for an opportune moment when several Troupers were more or less lined up on one side of the spinning golem.

"!Madaukakin Tsalle!"

He held the two hammers out in front of his arc like prongs on a battering ram, doing some good damage on two of them on the way up, than landed on top of the spinning golem and began to slam the central post to which the upper ring of arms were attached. One of the men began climbing up to intercept him, but instead was intercepted by Ace, who yanked him free and grappled him on the way down, landing heavily on the Trouper and rolling away, and tossing a Smoke Portal down where the chain had fallen earlier. He appeared at the top of the golem as well, dropping the chain in an unbalanced way so that one end slipped off of the arm and it careened wildly in the air on its way down, catching the chains of two others on the outer ring and pulling them together, distracting them from their range battle with the goblin archers as they extricated themselves and stabilized their wobbling, taking a bit of incidental damage from the loose chain itself as it fell on them. Then he slipped down to get a few hits in from above, leaped off back to the center pole, and tossed little bombs to distract and annoy the swinging Troupers.

Nuru looked back. The Trouper that had run past him was now directing a phalanx of the golems that had been catching people in the sheet coming through the roof. Chibale howled, hopped off one side of the spinning pole, and trapped an unoccupied chain with the curved undersides of the hammer hooks in a clamping motion to slow his fall in a loud series of metallic clanks, then as he hit the ground he dashed straight for the middle of the phalanx. The golems saw him coming and wound up for a heavy hit, but he stopped just outside of their range and threw a hammer powered by an Arcane Blast, creating a crack in one of their chests, then after the heavy blows had fallen short he hopped the remaining distance and landed a two-handed hit that severed one arm completely, followed by leaping into the shadow of the building to Shadow Walk behind the whole bunch where he head-butted the Trouper in charge and went straight melee with him.