True Monsters – Act 2 Vine Garden - Chapter 17 – Archanist Eradication

The group of adventures slept long, late into the morning. It had been a close thing, the poisonous chemical had almost killed David the previous night. They had all had a close call or two in the last couple of weeks. Alice had woken up after regaining her mana, she used her cure poison spell on David, then her healing spell. He seemed to shrug off the last lingering effects of the poison, then went back to sleep. Vivian had been watching over him, hardly having slept herself.

Martin was no exception, having spent a lot of the evening awake. He had been watching the two people, that they had taken back from the vampires, he was cautious of any sign that there former masters retained a shred of influence.

Yesterday had shown Martin just how powerful the vampires influence could be. One of the thralls had the presence of mind to kill themselves. Rather than to be captured and potentially betray his master. It would be a long time before the two men they had saved, would be ready to re-join society.

This particular vampire had a power or skill, which erased a lot of their servant’s memories. The moment when Martin had purged the taint releasing them, it had activated. It was a formidable insurance policy against the vampire’s servants betraying him.

They were poorly treated by the vampire, they had called master. In the pecking order to the vampires, they were only slightly better than slaves. It would take them a bit of time to recover physically, but psychologically? That was not his area of expertise. The party ate there breakfast and discussed what Father Richard had been able to get from them. They could remember some aspects of their assignment, they had been getting supplies to build up one of their masters allies.

The priest checked through a note book, he had some papers on the table. The party of adventures was gathered around him. “The vampire that they serve is called Islington, the same one that the sisters of final mercy fought. Most of their memory’s about him are hazy, they have been stripped away to prevent them from betraying him. This vampire was interested in forming an alliance with the local archanist. It appears that the local archanist was the grandson of a level 50 master archanist, which set up a lab in this part of the world about 50 years ago.”

Father Richard checked his notes, “the vampire was keeping tabs on the family, this archanist found his grandfather’s notes. He started to experiment learnt the basics of the job. He was encouraged guided, he found more of his grandfather’s notes. Possibly in that place below the warehouse, where his grandfather’s lab would have originally been set up. He found his grandfather’s final lab. If what I piece together is correct, he found the overseer that his grandfather built.”

“He gained the constructs trust, it accepted him as the new master. That was probably the construct you killed last night, the archanist took a year or so to build up his skills, now he seems to have most of his grandfather’s equipment working and the skill to use it.”

The priest took a deep breath, “They have some construct called a foundry mother. With it they can build new walkers and greater walkers. From the description they gave me, these greater walkers are basically heavy versions of the walkers, very tough. The mass production of these greater walkers, is the ultimate goal of this alliance. To bolster the vampire’s ranks with solid fighters. With the correct raw materials they can make these creatures quickly. We need to stop the vampire’s allies. These archanist constructs are not affected by most things that usually affects the undead. Lightning heals them, fire they are resistant to it, silver has no discernible effect.”

“If we don't act, we could find an army of these constructs on our door. You have seen first-hand, the difference between the experiments and the finished constructs. The archanists lab is built under an abandoned farmstead. It looks like the archanist's grandfather was in alliance with Islington or his master 50 years ago. It’s probably what lead to this old archanists death, now that vampire is trying to rebuild that pact with his descendent.”

The priest pointed to the map, “The information from the former thralls is invaluable. We now know where the archanist was based. This man is close to breaking through the level 25 barrier. He is heavily augmented with his grandfather’s master worked devices, making him a powerful combatant. He is starting to create creatures equal to his grandfather, most likely using this foundry mother.”

“What sort of defences are we looking at”? Vivian asked.

“From what the vampires former servants said there is one way in one way out its trapped”.

“What’s a foundry mother”? Alice asked.

Martin remembered a lecture, “A sentient construct, a person built into and grafted with a machine. They can turn other people into machine like constructs, walkers mostly. They are quite large quite bulky, usually using a young woman as a basis”.

“I guess we will have to destroy this one, do these things count as people”? Alice wondered.

Martin shrugged, “they blur the line but they need to be dealt with”. “I can get a little bit of payback for yesterday night, this time I will be more careful.” David looked confident, it was probably bravado, he was a few words away from Vivian hitting him again.

The priest handed them a hastily copied map and some instructions. There Primary objective was to destroy the foundry mother. It could build reinforcements too quickly, it was too dangerous to permit it to exist. They had a secondary objective, to kill or capture this Archanist. The man was calling himself the brass doctor. A third objective was to wipe out all of his constructs, save any prisoners then destroy the profane place. The local leaders had agreed to fifty silver for the complete mission. If they were thorough, the adventures would have a lot divided four ways. It should be fairly easy based on what they had seen so far.

They headed out of the village then followed a trail into the hills. The area was supposedly abandoned. For such a remote place, it had quite a number of foot prints and cart tracks on it. The journey was made in cautious silence, they anticipation of attack at any minute. It was a cold Five mile journey out to the abandoned farmstead. The archanist had taken the basement as a lab, then he had his tireless walkers extend it. They had no idea just how big the lab could be, it had been inactive for a very long time.

There was a passage leading down, it was not particularly well hidden. It didn't need to be, it had other things going for it. Such as the very heavy oak door with iron bands. Martin looked over the door, he grinned it opened out wards. The hinges were visible he had a pair of grips, some twists and pulls. The bars holding the hinges together were removed, the door was easily opened detached from the frame.

They had torches ready, they found a few basic traps along the entrance corridor. A half buried set of spikes a hidden bear trap. The mercenaries were trained for thieves’ ambushes. Even if the mechanisms were in excellent shape, they were not well hidden. A trip wire was the final nefarious obstacle, rigged to an explosive charge. It was relatively easy for them to repurpose it, to remove the second heavy door. Using the trip wire to activate it from a safe distance.

All pretence of subtly and surprise was gone in that instance. Still the group had little in the way of surprise or subtlety in any regard. Alice had spells that were bright and flashy, Martin’s pistols were as loud as fireworks, and the rest wore heavy armour that clanked and rattled about. They made their usual fighting formation. The place was lit by torches some wood some oil. There were some sections of plain earth some stone walls.

A few seconds after they knocked on the door, the first part of the welcoming committee arrived. They heard the approach of scurrying brass constructs, about 30 scurriers rounded the corner. Alice aimed for the middle of the mass and let a fire ball lose. It detonated in the middle of the group thinning the weak constructs by half. Martin with his mallet and David with his sword waded in to finish off the rest, Vivian picked off a few with iron broad-head arrows. They each got five kills completely erasing the first wave.

Ten yards further in they came to a cross section, barking and clicking could be heard from the right hand side. There were 10 brass wolves heading towards them. Though inferior in number, they were quite a bit tougher than the first group of constructs.

Alice let lose a fire ball that damaged the first six, they didn't go down very quickly. Martin emptied both his long range pistols, killing two outright. Vivian switched over to her expensive bodkin arrows, two more attackers went down. David kept his shield up, his sword strikes found the flesh between brass plating and two more went down. In seconds they had more than halved the group of attackers.

David got cocky, receiving one or two bites as he pressed the attack. Even leaving himself open for a second, the damage was still minimal with his armour. Martin used his “wrath” blessing to empower his attacks. The construct of brass and flesh buckled under his blows, spraying preservative fluids and oil all over the corridor. A few more arrow shots and it was all over.

Another five paces in, they were still surrounded by destroyed constructs. A group of more potent and durable enemies approached. There were 4 walkers and 4 greater walkers. The greater walkers had extra armour plating mechanical limbs and dome like heads, it was a dead giveaway showing how durable these opponents would be.

Alice opened up with a fire ball, it hit the first four but did little damage. Vivian put a power shot through one walker and David used a power strike on a second, they were almost gone. Martin waited until his targets were all in range, then used his blessing “hallowed earth” to damage everything in the corridor. Two of the walkers instantly fell, the other two looked like a wind could blow then over, and the greater walkers were less bothered by the damage.

Alice hit one of the greater walkers with two of her fire bite spells. it did some damage but not enough. Vivian put two power shots into a greater walker, down it went. Martin pulled his triple barrelled pistol out and emptied all three barrels into one greater walker. David easily finished off the two remaining injured walkers.

Alice held back her mana for healing, it was not a sprint but a marathon. Martin reloaded his pistol Vivian and David finished off the last three with power attacks and blocks. They took stock reloading and recovering arrows. No more constructs were coming, they were not certain that they had depleted the archanists reserves. He was not stupid enough to let his constructs march into a choke point like the corridor again.

Over the next twenty minutes they dragged the remains outside the archanists lair. They piled them up doused them with oil, setting them on fire. Martin was not sure if it was possible, but the last thing he wanted was for the archanist to run a current through his creations, bring them back to life. When they were certain nothing was going to come back, they journeyed forwards.

They went in deeper, they finally found a room that looked like a laboratory. Cages in one corner for fresh material. Two of them were occupied, a scrawny old woman who was half asleep. The second cage contained a man who was staring into the distance, like there was no tomorrow. He had a serene look on his face, he probably didn't have a clue where he was.

There were workbenches for making components, several forging and metal working tools. There was alchemist’s equipment for producing large amounts of a green preservative chemical. This area looked like a place set up to produce components, which would be made into other items.

There were several places were clockwork mechanisms were being constructed. The workforce returned from deeper inside the laboratories. Four greater walkers entered the room they were much the same as the previous group. Martin pushed over a barrel of chemicals, a fire ball ignited it, the greater walkers were damaged but not out. Vivian and David finished the job, they retreated back and waited, there was not much left of the creatures when the fire finally subsided.

Martin drew his mallet and started to smash the equipment, Vivian and David joined him. They broke the two prisoners out of their cages, Martin used the “purify” blessing on the man. He seemed to wake up and escorted the old woman out of the lab. The adventures did there damnedest to make sure that nothing was going to be of any use, not a piece of machinery not a glass jar of green goo.

They moved further into the lab, finding an area that looked like a mixture between a personal living quarters and an assembly room. There were benches and unfinished experiments, the brass doctor was there he was a fairly young man in baggy lose clothes. He had a pair of pistols and a sword, leather armour and a satchel at his side. A strange geared monocle was on his left eye.

The monocle must have fed him some information. The archanist stared at Martin intently, “oh shit you’re a veteran”! He ducked behind a piece of equipment. Martin needed a breakthrough he looked at the rest of the group, “I will take him you get the foundry mother”. Vivian looked over, “bad idea”. Martin shook his head, “doesn't matter get on with it”. They nodded and headed off deeper into the lab, if Martin was going to make a breakthrough he would need to do it by himself, no assistance.

The brass doctor found his voice, it was high pitched and nasal. “How dare you destroy my works of art, how dare you damage my family legacy.” Martin slowly moved around the lab, to get a clear shot. His opponent did the same. The man worked himself into a fever, “Overseer dt43 was one of my grandfather's greatest works, how dare you destroy him! You didn't leave a body, I could not put him back together”. It gave martin some reassurance, you had to burn the remains so that there was not enough left to rebuild, his guesses were correct.

“Stop hiding and come out”, the bass doctor screeched.

“You first”, Martin shouted trying to get a shot ready.

“You are a veteran looking for a break through, yes”, his opponent hissed Martin was silent

“I am also a veteran, I could have a break through either way, via combat or craft”. Martin made a mental note, that an archanist counted as both a combat and crafting job at the same time.

“One way or another, one of us will break through today one will rise one will fall. I will bring you back as a Construct of unusual resilience”. The doctor kept talking, Martin filled away that useful bit of info, the higher the level of the body used to build a construct the better it was.

Martin stood up, his opponent rose he was faster. “Smite” the arch of electrical energy struck the doctor, but it seemed to be sucked into his body, he grinned “Ha nothing”.

Martin disagreed, “Oh it tells me that what I heard was true, you’re healed by electricity. There is nothing left to save.” He would definitely not be taking this one in alive.

The vampire had definitely been teaching this man how to fight vampire hunters. He knew of Martins most powerful attack. “Your greatest ability is irrelevant against me, it heals this body”. Martin looked at the thermite grenades, “We shall see”. They exchanged voiles of fire, the archanist drew both of his pistols. Martin counted, “guardian angel” no effect both shots were intercepted.

The archanist had a flying bomb, it had a set of silk and clockwork wings, it flew towards Martin. He intercepted it with a pistol focus shot, detonating it in the middle of the room. The archanist had a scuttling grenade with four legs, a second focus shot detonated it.

Martin grinned, “Not good enough” a couple of poison grenades were thrown at him. It was fairly weak stuff and had almost no effect, it did provide a good smoke screen for Martin to close the gap. The brass doctor answered with a handful of poisoned throwing daggers as he realised his opponent was closing, the daggers clattered off Martins armour.

The doctor was just able to avoid a blow from Martin from his trusty mallet. The brass doctor retreated backwards, he remove his hat reveal some sort of mechanism grafted to skull, he flipped a switch, and there was a clicking his body started moving faster.

Martin could achieve a similar effect using focus strikes. His mallet empowered with the blessing, “divide retribution” hit the brass doctor head on. The strike damaged his light armour, he torn what was left of it off. He had a bronze and iron reinforcing plate riveted on over his heart. On his side was a grafted mechanism, it contained five tubes of green goo. He activated it a tube was injected into his body and his injuries healed.

Martin was a little too slow to react, a short sword thrust into a gap in his armour badly wounding him. The brass doctor pulled back, two could play that game Martin's injury disappeared as he used his blessing, “divine favour” to heal. He had plenty of other weapons in his arsenal. The blessing “martyrs sacrifice” tore his body apart but also empowered him temporarily, as if he had gained twenty levels. The blows sent the brass doctor staggering back, a second cylinder was used to heal him back up.

The brass doctor hit a button on his sword, a click and the blade extended another four inches. A surprise as he thrust it forward. Martin had to use another, “divine favour” to heal himself. He used a focus reload then shot the doctor. He mocked him back, “Silver shot, that shit does not help you”. Martin grinned, “OK” his triple pistol was drawn. It had three overload shots each one hit the doctor in the chest plate. He nodded to his opponent, “not bad” a third cylinder was used up to heal him.

The brass doctor paid Martin back with one of his own common tricks. Martin was engulfed in a fire bomb. He covered his own eyes then ducked and rolled putting out the flames using, “divine favour” to remove the damage. He counter attacked with a poisoned throwing knife combined with a focus throw. It hit an artery, only the fourth cylinder of regenerative chemicals kept the brass doctor alive.

The brass doctor was desperate, he attacked with his sword again. Martin was ready “fortress of faith” the blessing stopped the attack. A focus strike with his mallet to the brass doctor’s skull activated the last cylinder, straightening out his crushed neck. The man got up but a final focus strike put him back down on the ground.

The doctor looked surprised, he tried to crawl back he tried to say something but he choked. He stopped breathing. Finally he was dead. Martin was not quite convinced. The man's body shivered, as if something was released inside it. His skin took on a green taint. There was the buzz of electrics from within his chest. His legs twitched the fabric of his clothing ripping with his convulsions. It showed a steel frames over his knee joints. He had comes back as a creature like an overseer.

Martin had one more powerfully blessing, “Wrath of the almighty”. The doctor was hit with 300 points of holy damage. Then ignited on fire for a second dealing 100 points of fire damage. His body froze over as it received a hundred points of frost damage, then 100 points of electrical damage healing him a little. He started to try to get back up. Martin had a wooden stake as the first thing to hand. He hammered the stake into the doctor’s spine, then smashed both his arms, with the mallet.

The doctor looked up, “I am broken, end it”. Martin looked around the room there was a desk full of papers and a stove he walked over. “Tell me of the vampire”, the remains of the doctor stared back fear beyond his own life assailed him. “What are you doing no put that down, those are my grandfather's journals, they could be of use to you to your order. You saw how strong I was couldn't your order use such strength such art”?

Martin fed the first journal into the flames, “Nooooooo please don't something must survive”.

“About the vampire your sponsor”? More paperwork was fed to the flames. “Curse you, you fucking bastard curse you”. Out of journals he reached for the next pile of paperwork “Aghhhhhh no please not his plans, there are useful devices in there”, “the vampires age”. The remains of the doctor shook its head. “Nnnnooooo nnnnooooo you broke my body why, why. Do you have to torment me”? more paperwork was fed to the fire.

Systematically Martin started to destroy his lab, “For those that you killed in your experiments I will send you to hell”. The brass doctor spat back his justification, “They were still alive when I was finished with them. You killed them”! Martin would not be swayed, “I freed them”.

He made sure that every bit of the man's work was crushed before his eyes.

“No not my equipment, nooooooo, burn in hell you mother fucker, I hope Islington kills you slow.”

Martin loaded his pistol, “Good bye I will send your remaining colleges to see you”. There was a single shot killing him.

Martin felt the flow of time freeze, a strange message appeared in front of him.

'A special action has been performed’! Feat of marshal strength has been achieved, you have defeated a worthy opponent, your level limit has been increased to level 50. Your destiny is sealed.

The archanist had one piece of equipment that was not trashed mangled or broken in the fight. Martin picked up the monocle, it showed low light conditions. If he used focus it would show him the level and health of a target, it would be a useful addition to his equipment. Now he was going to make sure that the brass doctor's remains, were destroyed in a manor thorough enough that nothing would be coming back.

Meanwhile the rest of the group came to the last part of the archanist lab, the foundry mother’s lair. It was filled with several pieces of heavy equipment, she was the central element. The foundry mothers were the archanists greatest act of depravity. Not only did they create a mockery of life, but they created these creatures that could perpetuate there blasphemy.

The foundry mother consisted of a chamber that could accommodate a person. Once inside it could convert them into a walker or greater walker. It was shaped like a great bronze boiler, with pipes and gears on the outside. This chamber was attached to a spider like body, with eight piston like legs. The construct was nine feet high. A woman's torso covered in brass armour and steel formed the front of the creature. She was aware of them and had some human features left on her face. Her body rose up, with a creaking grinding noise as her mechanical legs took the weight, there was the whir of gears and the ticking of a mechanism as she readied herself to fight.

“Some playmates for my grandson, I get to rebuild you first”. The old archanist had used his wife for his greatest experiment, it was rather disturbing. Willing or not she was now more machine than human. She had to be destroyed, to stop her replicate more walkers and greater walkers, more minions for the vampires cause.

David approached cautiously, his shield held high. Alice and Vivian spread out moving backwards. The foundry mother took one step forwards, reaching out her hands they extended showing claws. A fire ball hit her in the centre of her mass. It did some damage she paused, “that will buff out”. A bodkin arrows smacked her in the shoulder sinking in deep. The construct let out a high pitched beep and backed off. Two scuttlers with explosives attached to them, dropped down from a shelf at the back of the room and charged forwards. The fuses were ignited.

David closed with the first scuttler, using an adrenalin block to send it flying towards the foundry mother. The redirected attack did far more damage to the foundry mother than anything the group had in there arsenal. Vivian hit the second one with an iron broad head, it detonated harmlessly in the middle of the room.

The foundry mother staggered about, David took the opportunity to close and knock two of her legs out of the way. Down she went allowing David to deliver an adrenalin strike, to a rather delicate piece of machinery. “No get away from me little morsels, you’re not playing fair”

The foundry mother scuttled backwards scrabbling to get up. A hatch opened up and a hose sprayed chemical jets at her attackers. David dodged one and blocked the other, Alice was two far back. Vivian was not so lucky she was hit by the potent poison and almost fell over. Alice rushed in and cast her anti poison spell saving her. David distracted the foundry mother, while Alice healed Vivian back up to full health, an arrow disabled the poison sprayer seconds later.

The foundry mother tried to take David out of the fight, she opened up the conversion chamber that formed her abdomen and tried to scoop him up. He struck out with his blade one two three adrenalin strikes, she gave up badly damaged for attempting the attack. Vivian hit one of her leg joints with a bodkin arrow, David used an adrenalin strike and off it came. The foundry mother tried to adapt to the loss of the limb, shifting her other legs about. It was obvious that she was losing this fight. “It is not my time you will fall, you will be remade into our family”!

The foundry mother was struck by a fire bite spell, then some more arrows she tried to retreat from the group attacking her. She called in her last few allies. A series of crates in the room disintegrated, to reveal reinforcements an overseer and 3 greater walkers.

They were immediately hit by two fire balls engulfed the support group in magical flames. The foundry mother was held at bay. Vivian targeted the overseer dispatching him before he could attack with his chemical thrower. The remaining three greater walkers were quite slow and fell to the arrows and spells thrown at them.

Vivian could see the fight was practically over. The foundry mother’s movements were slowing. She paused Vivian aimed carefully, the construct lost an eye to A broad head arrow. She was stunned as she tried to pull the arrow out. David used a power attack removing a leg sending the construct crashing down. David sunk his sword into the creature’s chest it stopped moving the background ticking of gears slowed and stopped. Drips of oil and green goo slowly spread out over the floor.

The group levelled up, Alice hit level 20 which unlocked the ability for her to have to active spells. She could have a defensive spell and an offensive spell, or duel wield two offensive spells even if it was hard to master. She also gained some bonuses to her standard abilities raising their proficiency. She gained a measure of magic resistance 50 points, that would stop most low level spells. It somewhat compensating for her low health.

David hit level 21 as he had been badly injured when hit in the face, he got the first level of a skill which helped to block ranged attacks. Vivian got the first level of a skill that improved her chance of a critical hit on an opponent. Martin was level 26 one step closer to becoming a master, improved his ability with grenades so that he could better use the thermite he had, when he got the opportunity.

They reduced everything in the lab to scrap. They made sure that every construct was thoroughly smashed and burnt, to the point where it would never be rebuilt or repaired. It turned out that one of the rescued people was one of the missing foresters. He was glad that he didn't become a lab experiment. He could vaguely remember a possible hiding place of local vampire Islington, which was strange considering that Islington could destroy memories.

They celebrated a clear win. They had destroyed the enemy, robbing the local vampire of allies they had saved a few people. They were rolling high tonight.

Night time came, Alice practice using spells duel wielding. She mixed up the spell trying to split her attention, it was good that she had the 50 points of magic resistance but her eyebrows didn't survive worried and embarrassed she went to sleep.