Silly Plots 3: With government backing we can make it very silly

[Hattish Thing]

Gothic Cathedral

As Blue enters the cathedral, he frowns a little before whistling a particular tune, one which causes the small drone built into his backpack device to activate, flying up and out of it's container in a flurry of sparks and frayed wires. The battered drone floats lazily through the air before emitting a soft blue light from some sort of orb built into the bottom of the machine. With a cheerful chirp, the drone heads down the hallway to the right of the statue. A small screen built into Blue's technological gauntlet begins to display a 3d representation of anything the drone's orb-sensor detects.

In the meantime, Blue stumbles over towards the statue, snapping a quick picture for later review, although the faulty camera built into his goggles promptly snaps over one hundred stills, due to a jammed button. The treasure hunter retrieves a strange disc from his back before approaching the statue and sticking the disc upon it's chest. Unless something occurs to prevent him from doing so, Blue steps back, putting his rifle up before pulling the matching detonator out of a pocket.

With the detonator in one hand, Blue stares towards the selection of items held in the thing's arms before promptly picking up a stone and tossing it at the revolver, hoping to cause the thing to fall out of the statue's hand. All the while, he mumbles to himself. "Hehe. Stone boobs. Stoobs."

[billtodamax]

The drone reveals a massive main hall lit from above through a hole in the roof. There are two rows of pews that face a dias at the far end of the room with a podium for the preacher sat on top. Just behind that sits a massive organ, pipes rusted and broken. The sides of the room are elevated seating, accessed from somewhere else. Everything is covered in cobwebs and dust.

While the picture is filling in nothing will stop Blue from planting his disk upon the statue, but the rock will hit the revolver with a loud scraping sound before bouncing off - it's part of the statue, it seems.

Seconds after the rock hits the statue his drone will detect a bright red ball of energy fired from somewhere in the stands to the right - whatever figure that fired it vanishing as soon as the shot is loosed - careening toward the drone in hopes of destroying the intruder.

[Hattish Thing]

Gothic Cathedral

While whistling to make up for the deafening silence, Blue glances towards his gauntlet-monitor, grimacing a little as the creepy pipe organ comes into view. Via remote control, he manipulates the drone so as to get a good shot at the many, many disconcerting details scattered throughout the pew-ridden hall ahead. A few phrases, mumbled somewhat incoherently through the corner of the man's slightly open mouth, sum up his response to the unsettling chamber ahead. "Damn, that's... wow. Creepy as ****. Whatever, I guess." At that, he takes a deep breath before glancing towards the detonator in his hand and shrugging a little. Nothing stimulates one's confidence like three bottles of Trogbrew, and an active detonator connected to enough explosives to incinerate a whale.

The drone, in the meantime, has a rough time of things, for it was not built for combat. As the red ball soars towards the drone, it ends up taking the brunt of the attack, it's feeble shields ultimately failing, causing it to crash into a nearby pew. Unfortunately, by this time, Blue's attention is elsewhere, every shred of intellect focused upon the statue ahead. Those weapons were clearly valuable, else they wouldn't be on display, but the stone made it hard to remove the weapons, obviously. The treasure hunter doesn't even notice as his monitor feed goes dark, for he, instead, retrieves a small laser from his pocket. "HA! I knew this thing'd come in handy. I've got your number now, Stoobs."

With a gleeful look upon his face, Blue fires the laser around the revolver, aiming to lop the revolver straight off of the stone with the weapon, the detonator held in his free hand.

[billtodamax]

The revolver (and part of the statue's hand, attached to it) falls to the ground, making a loud thud as it lands in the empty pool. Blue will eventually notice that it's made of stone I'm sure. Maybe when he picks it up and sees the chip in the barrel from where it hit the ground.

Silence reigns in the hall further in.

[Hattish Thing]

Gothic Cathedral

Blue cackles softly to himself before continuing his hum, doing a little dance as he stumbles over towards the revolver, setting his laser away in order to grab the thing. Much to his disappointment, however, the revolver turns out to be a non-functional replica, made entirely of stone. "Aw, ****." Likely, the fact that he hadn't washed the lenses of his goggles in over three weeks factored into the fact that he missed this very important detail. On the other hand, the fact that he'd had enough Trogbrew to down a horse certainly didn't help. The treasure hunter lets out a frown as he glances at the worthless thing before tossing it down the hall.

As it clatters to the ground, Blue turns his back to the statue, stepping as far away as possible before ensuring that his ear-plug like devices were functional. "Ugly looking thing, anyway." At that, he promptly pulls the trigger on his detonator, partially out of frustration, partially just to see what would happen. The instant that the large red button upon the detonator is pushed, causing the explosive disc upon the stone slab to activate. The blast is likely overkill, for the powerful explosives, while oftentimes unreliable, were, after all, purchased off of the intergalactic black market, and were supposedly designed by a mad scientist of some renown.

"Lessee some rubble, eh, Stoobs? Gods, think I'm gonna puke..."

[billtodamax]

The explosives do a brilliant job reducing the statue and the wall behind it to rubble, revealing the great hall to Blue in all its majesty.

He's given almost a full second to appreciate it before a volley of those same energy balls come flying toward the hole his explosives made. The attacker is still juuuuuuust obscured by the dust, but it's definitely a humanoid of some shape standing up on the right side seating.

[Hattish Thing]

Gothic Cathedral

Blue cackles madly as the statue is decimated, the wall blown upon, rubble scattering about in a flurry of crushed stone. "AW, **** YEA-!" The force of the explosion is enough to cause him to stagger back, but the large chunk of rubble which bashes him straight in the face ultimately cause him to fall backwards like a ragdoll, crumpling onto his back where he remains for several seconds, clutching his face, the second such injury in a month. His nose, now crooked and bruised, appears to have been bashed by the chunk of rubble, and the force of the bit of blunt shrapnel bashing into his facial apparatus apparently caused the metal frame of the half-mask to dig into flesh, leaving a nasty cut.

What follows is a rather excessive tirade of curses. "Jesus Christ, what in the ****ing ****, what are the ****ing odds, ****! Gods, **** me right in the *****ing ****, ****!" Just then, however, out of the corner of his eye, Blue notices the shadowy figure, hurling red energy balls. One final curse is spat out before he raises a gauntlet-clad finger to the creature, still wiping blood off of his face, only to wipe it all over his stained blue overcoat. "You, sir, are a piece of ****, hitting a man while he's... oogh.."

"I'm gonna... gonna just..." He rises up, before stumbling back down weakly, settling for the heavy handheld laser he'd used on the statue prior, instead of taking the risk of spending a few additional seconds drawing one of his plasma pistols. "Suck on this... mmf..."

--

The orbs, for their part, collide with the thin forcefield generated by Blue's armor, his laser beam blasting forward, slicing through anything.

[billtodamax]

The laser manages to take a chunk out of the wooden railing the figure was standing behind, but the figure itself seems to... fade away. If Blue's paying attention he'll see it re-aparate on the opposite side of the hall - now with clear sightlines it is a ghostly figure of indistinct gender clearly holding what looks like an etherial AK-47. It aims the gun back at Blue and lets loose another volley.

[Hattish Thing]

Gothic Cathedral

In addition to taking apart the pews, and the wooden railing which surrounds the innermost sections of the cathedral, the laser likely sets various parts of the structure on fire as it traces a thick line of destruction, the beam only growing wider as Blue turns up the intensity of the heavy handheld laser. With sparks now flying off the device, and extraordinary vibrations causing the treasure hunter's aim to falter, the beam soars throughout the cathedral, likely annihilating anything in touches in a glorious haze of faulty technological wrath. As the figure fades, Blue's face contorts into an expression of frustration. "Fight me, you ****ing fart."

At that, he drops his used up detonator, instead reaching for a winch in his pocket which he promptly jams into the side of his heavy handheld laser. With a maddened look on his otherwise generally downcast face, Blue begins to crank the winch with great intensity, aiming it towards any semblance of the ghost as he pumps the winch. This action causes the intensity and width of the beam produced by the heavy handheld to increase exponentially, until the beam is large enough to be of genuine concern to the structural integrity of the cathedral. Of course, Blue's aim suffers exponentially in turn.

One last wind of the winch, unfortunately, snaps the thing straight in half, leaving some of it jammed into the heavy handheld. It takes Blue a second or so to realize what had happened, his eyes going wide as he realizes that the heavy handheld's powerful laser beam was still increasing as if under the effect of the winch.

"OH."

[billtodamax]

Gothic Cathedral

The ghost is hit by the laser and shimmers as it's cleaved in half. It slowly begins to reform, but it's clear the laser has damaged the spirit - maybe just not quite as much as it would a physical being.

Probably not Blue's greatest concern at the moment though!

The laser carves through the old stonework, chunks of stone starting to fall all over the pews, and after a short time there's a ponderous groan as part of the roof starts to collapse, falling onto the dias and smashing the podium under a pile of stone. As the laser keeps tracing over the walls of the hall more and more rock starts coming off the walls, threatening to collapse the entire structure.

[Nova_Eclipse]

[An Epic Quest]

Corvus shrugs and grins at Willa.

"Well, when you put it that way, I suppose I can speak their language, as you put it," he says, his grin growing predatory, before he throws open the door, and shows himself in.

[Hattish Thing]

Gothic Cathedral

Blue grimaces as huge chunks of the ceiling begin to crumble and fall apart as the heavy handheld laser continues to cleave through the cathedral's stone as a hot knife would through butter. He pays little attention to the ghost's process of reformation, instead widening his eyes in horror and shock as the beam continues to grow more intense in both width and temperature. Quite unsure of what to do, Blue shakes his head in frustration before aiming the laser straight down, forced to hold the heavy handheld in both hands due to the feedback given off by the potent beam, powerful enough to cause the whole device to vibrate.

Hopefully, directing the enormous beam downwards will prevent the beam from causing the whole top of the cathedral to collapse. As he does so, he cries out towards the spectral figure, shouting out somewhat desperately. "I dunno if you speak, but, man, if you do, I'd really appreciate if we could just call it for now! 'Cause! I dunno how long I can hold this thing before it gets too hot! Jesus Christ, how does this **** always happen to me?" He turns his face away from the device, stumbling backwards as the metal continues to heat up.

"Hot, hot hot, oh ****, oh ****!"

[billtodamax]

Gothic Cathedral

The ghost seems to consider his response as it finishes forming its body back together (albeit shakily).

Then it screeches at him.

Then it fires at him again.

This ghost is not capable of critical thought!

[Hattish Thing]

Gothic Cathedral

The magical beams of energy connect with Blue, likely affecting him entirely, causing the treasure hunter to grimace and grunt most intensely. In response, the man howls before raising the heavy handheld laser up high, eyes widened as it immediately begins to tear through the floor as the weapon is raised from its position facing the ground. "****! You... you hit me!"

At that point, it's raised up towards the ghost, likely piercing the phantom and punching a hole through the cathedral, sparks flying everywhere. "Shoulda just... taken... the job... in Seaside..."

[billtodamax]

Gothic Cathedral

The ghost is cut in half again and slowly drifts apart as its integrity is compromised enough to prevent it from reforming.

The cathedral also isn't reforming. It's continuing to fall to pieces as the laser cuts a line up through the dias and into the back wall. Masonry starts shifting as a section of the back wall collapses inward, destroying most of the pews and kicking up dust, hurling pieces of furniture around the room. Luckily for Blue he's already safe behind the piles of rubble he's already made.

This cathedral is not going to be used for prayer again that's for certain.

[Gullara]

[An Epic Quest]

Corvus shrugs and grins at Willa.

"Well, when you put it that way, I suppose I can speak their language, as you put it," he says, his grin growing predatory, before he throws open the door, and shows himself in.

[An Epic Quest]

Inside the tavern is typical in a few ways. The evening is young, so most of the patrons look like regulars who don't have many other places to be. There's a few haggard looking people lined up at the bar, with one man slumped over it. A group of four sits at a booth chatting loudly over a meal. Behind the bar is empty currently, but there is a man standing next to a table where a couple is sitting. He wears a smile distinctly reserved for customer service as he takes a food order.

[Hattish Thing]

Gothic Cathedral

Without fully thinking about it, Blue raises his hand up to pump in the air and celebrate, causing the heavy handheld laser to rise as well, blasting up into the sky. "Ha! Yes! Stupid thing, oh, ****, right, the... hmmm."

At that, Blue grips the heavy handheld with both hands and continues to hold it up, so as to avoid causing further damage.

"Gotta be low on battery by now..."

[Nova_Eclipse]

[An Epic Quest]

Corvus eyes the group eating and talking loudly, to see if any resemble an "Azul", even as he makes his way to the bar. He nods to the bartender.

"I'm looking for someone. I was told I might be able to find them here."

[Deathkeeper]

[An Epic Quest]

Willa trots in behind Corvus, an arm hooked around his. For now, she stays silent and lets him talk, letting her presence speak for her. Or something. She's really not sure what her appearance says.

[billtodamax]

Gothic Cathedral

A couple of smaller rocks tumble down from above him, possibly bonking him on the head. Aside from that, nothing else seems to be coming to shoot him, so he has plenty of time to wait for the laser to run out of juice.

The hall ahead of him is completely covered in rubble, almost all identifying features lost under the assault of his laser. Pretty sure there used to be more paths further ahead? Kinda hard to tell now, though.

[Gullara]

[An Epic Quest]

Conveniently for Corvus and Willa, a man steps out from a back room and is behind the bar by the time they walk up there. They would have looked silly talking at the back wall.

The man examines them, playing with the waxed end of his magnificent moustache. "Plenty of people pass through. Who're you looking for?" Despite the fact Corvus is talking, his eyes remain on Willa. He looks a tad perturbed, to say the least.

[Hattish Thing]

Gothic Cathedral

A couple of smaller rocks tumble down from above him, possibly bonking him on the head. Aside from that, nothing else seems to be coming to shoot him, so he has plenty of time to wait for the laser to run out of juice.

The hall ahead of him is completely covered in rubble, almost all identifying features lost under the assault of his laser. Pretty sure there used to be more paths further ahead? Kinda hard to tell now, though.

Having already been bonked once earlier, Blue's reflexes have been given time to set in, allowing him to avoid most of the rubble, albeit hardly graceful. Once the laser's battery runs out, Blue frowns before stowing the thing away, proceeding forward with a somewhat annoyed expression upon his face.

As he realizes the damage done, he grimaces before retrieving a curious golden helmet from his backpack. Setting it atop his head, Blue blinks twice, activating the magical x-ray vision mode.

"Now... if I were money, where would I be..."

[Nova_Eclipse]

[An Epic Quest]

"I'm looking for someone named Azul. I was told I might be able to find them here," Corvus says evenly. No sense in beating around the bush, and if these people are as rough-and-tumble as Willa suspects, Azul will probably show up one way or another, depending on how tough they are themselves. He watches the bartender for any sign of reaction when he says the name.

[Deathkeeper]

[An Epic Quest]

Willa stays quiet. She does notice the man staring at her, but as long as he keeps his eyes below the waist or above the neck she won't confront him about it just yet.

[billtodamax]

Gothic Cathedral

The helmet reveals a path behind the dias, at the moment buried under rubble, that leads down underground to an antechamber filled with weaponry - none of it looks in great condition but it's kinda hard to tell from this far away. Through the antechamber is a slightly larger room that's completely opaque to his helmet.

First problem though! A buncha rubble.

[Hattish Thing]

Gothic Cathedral

Blue's first course of action, (of course), is to retrieve from his satchel his mostly intact hardlight generator gun. After fiddling with the thing for a few minutes, and loudly cursing everytime he accidentally resets the thing, Blue manages to get it to work, soon constructing a pair of hardlight pillars to provide a little more structural integrity to the main hall.

Then, he retrieves more detonator discs, setting to clear the rubble with them.

--

Stepping away, he promptly ignites the discs once the process is done. "Shoulda been an engineer."

[billtodamax]

Gothic Cathedral

With the extra reinforcements it looks like the hall is going to hold for now, and the explosions going off don't seem to change that. He'll see with his helmet that they DO collapse the tunnel when they blow apart the rubble, the front third of it now filled with dirt.

Woops!

[Hattish Thing]

Gothic Cathedral

Blue blinks a few times before glancing towards the collapsed hall. "Well. **** me, I guess." He sits down for just a second, retrieving a greasy looking sausage from his pocket before taking off his helmet. After finishing the snack, he puts the helmet back on before leaving the cathedral.

Using the X-Ray vision, he attempts to find the end of the blocked hall by navigating the outside of the cathedral, until he finds an opening with which to detonate an entrance.

"So much effort..."

[Gullara]

[An Epic Quest]

"I'm looking for someone named Azul. I was told I might be able to find them here," Corvus says evenly. No sense in beating around the bush, and if these people are as rough-and-tumble as Willa suspects, Azul will probably show up one way or another, depending on how tough they are themselves. He watches the bartender for any sign of reaction when he says the name.

[An Epic Quest]

Willa stays quiet. She does notice the man staring at her, but as long as he keeps his eyes below the waist or above the neck she won't confront him about it just yet.

[An Epic Quest]

It's pretty clear that's not the sort of look Willa is getting. He does look back at Corvus to answer the question, however. "Azul? He is one of those outsiders, yeah? You with them?" He gives Corvus a more searching look then. He'd remember if he's seen Willa before, but not this one.

[billtodamax]

Gothic Cathedral

After some time (and more explosions) Blue will eventually manage to drill his way down into the corridor, dropping in at about halfway through. The tunnel looks dusty and unused, and a door sits at the end that blocks access to the antechamber.

It has a bunch of complicated symbols on it that might end up being some sorta dumb puzzle, but the door looks so fragile it can probably just be blasted open and we've seen Blue's problem solving methods in action before.