Rift City: The Heist, Part II

Intense heat licks at Clover’s fur as she dives out of the fireball’s path with only inches to spare. The others are not so lucky. A battered Nyx smolders in the road, unconscious. Keys is on his feet but looking rougher by the second. Knowing the angel won’t stop until they’re all dead, Clover makes a choice. Ignoring the agony in every step, she launches herself back at the seething celestial, channeling all the ki she can muster. She strikes.

The angel seizes, incapacitated a second time. Now is their chance. The companions still standing lay into him with everything they have. Before they can land the killing blow, he recovers his senses and slips off the road, vanishing beneath his invisibility spell once more. But not before vowing his vengeance. They are marked by the Syndicate. Fairly confident the angel won’t return until he’s thoroughly licked his wounds, Clover and Keys tend to Nyx, bringing her back from the brink. For a moment, the singed party gathers themselves. That was too close. Once they’re no longer on the verge of passing out, they turn to their new Warforged friends, Scout and Rast. Scout, it seems, remembers Keys from the time before the Shattering, when Keys was Striker. He also knows they are carrying something related to the power cores, but the boxes these two are holding do not contain the scale the party so desperately sought.

With a little magic, Nyx opens the chests to see what they’ve liberated instead. The first vault box produces a multicolored crystal with what appear to be tentacles and eyes within. Nyx identifies this as a chronolometer and adds it to her gear. Next, she finds a mysterious sort of pocket watch, which she also stows. The clockwork theme is undeniable. They need to find the Nexus soon. However, the fact that they risked it all and still didn’t recover the scale sends Clover into a spiral. She needs to find Brendel. Nyx and Keys will escort Rast and Scout to the Inventor’s League, where perhaps they can learn more about the Warforged and their cargo.

Unsure if the angel is still watching, Clover heads to the Darkheart.