Inside 68: Dawn of a New Season (or two)

[Earl of Purple]

Quaint Victorian House

"First place I explored as a proper adventurer, not just an inquisitive nomadic bird." Is currently the only explanation given for the the 'cave'. "Yes, there was a door there. Now there isn't. Hopefully this isn't how the bones found their way into the garden." Because that would imply they're next. Jack looks at the wall, then looks at the table to see if there's any silverware missing and reaches into the pocket she knows she put the grapefruit knife in. She's nabbed other stuff, as well, but she's not sure if she put it in her bag or a pocket somewhere. The grapefruit knife's shape at least means she can feel it better.

Regardless of the contents of her pockets, Jack will reach into her bag and pull out a serviette embroidered with a fancy restaurant's initials to tie about her face, since that seemed like a good idea and she's copying it. She'll toss one to the unidentified young lady, as well. It's fresh; Jack stole it earlier today, and it still smells of lemon. Once she's got her impromptu bandanna on, she'll walk up and knock on the wall, to test how strong it is and if it's just a fake wall over the door. She's also going to see if she can figure out what that thing in the background is.

[Ionbound]

[Quaint Victorian House]

The young lady gives the serviette a briefly dubious look, but applies it as a bandana to herself as well once she sees what Jack is doing, figuring it's better than holding her shirt over her face. As she's tying it on, she replies, "I have a feeling you're going to be disappointed. We need to find a way out of here, quick."

[Lycan 01]

[Adventure Sewer]

[Adventure Sewers]

"Ugh," Lucas groans. "That's going to be a pain to squeeze through."

He'll examine it more closely, holding out his torch.

He's counting his lucky stars that Isaac hasn't gotten slapped by anything and hulked out. That would make navigating down here WAY harder.

...though he could probably just Juggernaut through the wall if he wanted to. Which might bring the roof down on their head.

"Umm... miss?" Lucas asks the drow. "I don't suppose you have any magic that could help us get through here?"

The Drow studies the hole in the wall for a moment, humming softly in thought.

She then lowers her mace, and holds her free hand aloft. It is briefly wreathed in a flickering aura of purple fire, which casts and eerie, baleful glow over herself and the stonework around her. She then touches the mace, and the flames spread across it, before seeming to soak into the metal itself. The silver engraving shimmers and shines, and the mace begins to cast off the same unnerving glow as the now-faded flames. Holding aloft the glowing mace like an eerie torch, she then mutters something in the dark tongue of the Drow. Her eyes glow with a similar violet light, before fading. She gives a small sigh.

"I have cast a spell to detect poisons or diseases within a short distance, though it is blocked by stone, water, or other obstructions. Still, it should help me to keep you lot from wandering into a pool of toxic water, or the maw of an infected creature," she scowls. "Now then..." she grunts, holding the mace higher and approaching the gap. "I suppose I shall light the way for us..."

Spoiler: Mechanics if needed

Show

Cleric Zimelda casts Light and Detect Poison/Disease, using the 5e DnD rulebook for (rough) reference. Nothing too fancy, just a magic glowstick and able to detect obvious poisons or infectious threats within a few squares.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Slumside]

G’nichi slowly steps away from the man. He’s no expert on mammal physiology but he’s fairly sure he got an artery. He goes to look at the crate.
”Keep an eye on him. Stop him if he does anything spooky.” G’nichi doesn’t think he needs to tell anyone from the slums about when to use a knife.
All these things in these crates. They can’t be...

The lady gives G'nichi a bit of a look at that request, in a "really?" sort of way.
Did he miss the part where they had some sort of freakish magical duel? And she's just some mom with a knife?
But she does move...sort of closer to the librarian, holding her knife in a throwing position.

Does she actually know how to throw a knife? Maybe! Probably not.

The librarian just smiles absently, clearly beginning to lose awareness.

Meanwhile...
Lizardhero beholds the boxes!

Which are full of dozens upon dozens of incredibly rusted out or warped weapons, of literally every kind. Swords, axes, knives, a sickle, some sort of bent metal bow, something that literally just looks like a piece of tarnished sheet metal, and on and on...
While many of them are still dangerous looking by virtue of what they are, these are the sorts of weapon that any sane person is going to throw straight into a furnace and melt down to slag. The majority look like they'll snap in half after the first impact.

G'nichi's rapier quivers again. The vague feeling of anger.

[Hattish Thing]

Chalcedony House Gemstone Museum

The window opens quite easily, into an attic room. It's long, and dark, and for a human-sized person, it would be cramped. It's divided into two sections, though it's a loose divide with no walls or barriers. One half, the part where Larza now stands, is long-term storage. Here, there's some antique furniture, a two-metre long log of fossilised wood, a display cabinet with a broken lock and filled with samples of sand, two CRT monitors and a pile of floppy discs, several old mops and brooms and a large wooden crate. The other section is closer to a set of stairs leading down, and appears to be a break area. The break area has a small portable fridge, a standing-light (currently off), three mismatched chairs, a low table with some magazines on it, a small radio and a wall-mounted clock that is propped up against the table.

As she drops into the attic, Larza allows herself a brief second to recuperate. She takes a deep breath before wiping some sweat off of her face, looking about the room as she does so. Fortunately, the place was more than roomy enough for a person of her stature, and as such, the goblin moves through the area with relative ease. The thief ignores the cabinet, as well as the monitors and cleaning materials, and instead sneaks onwards towards the break area, electing to crawl right up the wall with the use of her special gloves. Once atop the ceiling, she'll continue to creep through, her natural darkvision aided by the x-ray vision supplied by her goggles.

Provided the area is empty, she'll aim to raid the refrigerator for anything sweet or alcoholic before having a look down the corner, seeking to proceed deeper into the museum.

"They'll never see me comin'..."

[Rebonack]

[Putti on the Ritz]

A beam of entropy pierces straight through the putti, causing it to squawk in surprise and pain. Apparently it wasn't expecting to get shot at in here. It drops its colorful cube in the process of flailing, drawing its flaming harpoon instead. It rather deftly flicks the not-pointy end of the weapon at Eao, sending a hook on a line sailing toward her. Should the weapon hit, Eao will find herself violently yanked up into close range with the putti and likely find herself on the receiving end of a shotgun blast of tumor-causing energy.

The tumors also explode in a shower of teeth upon reaching fist-size. Lovely.

Likely a good idea to avoid that.

"You fluffing jerk! I'm going to blast your head off and spit down your neck!" the putti shrieks.

What a pleasant creature. Though to be fair it DID just eat a surprise attack. Reacted pretty quickly, too.


[Quaint Victorian House]

The grapefruit knife is still indeed missing.

Either it never appears again (unlikely if this is some kind of pitcher plant for burglars) or it simply hasn't appeared again yet.

OR this is just a completely normal house that happens to have vanishing doors.

That's a possibility too, right?

Knocking on the wall where the door was sounds... like a wall. Nice and thick, just like the other walls. Wood paneling over an inner framing with insulation stuffed between the panels and the outer wall. Hollow, yes. But not secret door hollow. As for the picture? There thing in the background is a black goat.

Something about it is unsettling.


[Golden Flock Orphanage]

Three people approach. Two high school age teens and a nine year old girl. The former two are in cold weather wear while the latter is barefoot in a frilly black and white dress with a forked cat's tail sticking out from under it.

"Okay, this is the spot," says Lucas as he glances up from his phone. "There was some kind of attack here. Really awful stuff. The people who were supposed to clean up got chased out by a pretty hard core haunt. Hard to guess how many ghosts are in here."

"I can hear them," Melissa says, leaning toward the condemned building. "Something really SUPER bad happened in here."

[bc56]

Putti on the Ritz

Eao nimbly dodges out of the way of the hook. She raises the staff to her shoulder again to aim at the putti and fire again. Apparently it's not too adversely affected by having holes disintegrated through it, so she doesn't have high hopes for the second shot, but maybe she can drive it out of its defensive position.

[Rebonack]

[Putti on the Ritz]

"Fluff fluff floofing fluff!" the putti swears as Eao dodges around the hook and fires again, leaving the putti with no real time to evade. It was hoping for a clean kill from a reel-and-shotgun combo. The second beam blasts through the creature's pudgy torso and disintegrates the whole thing this time.

Huh.

Well.

That seems kind of weird.

There seem to be some specifics about the mechanics of the Game that Eao doesn't quite get yet. Maybe it'll be a good idea to ask mother about it once this crisis is resolved?

Regardless!

On up the elevator shaft!

The fourteenth floor is pretty easy to find, mostly because the elevator door has been blasted open. And what's beyond? It looks like it was a fancy party at some point. You know the sort. Some kind of fund-raising banquet slash charity auction. That's not what it is now, though. Tables are blown to bits. Towers of metal marrow, coral-like fungus, gushing sponge, and masses of iridescent bubbles to the room near seconds of floor and wall that have simply stopped existing. A few small fires smoulder here and there. Acid sizzles at the floor. And more than a few heaps of ruined clothing and ash are prominently displayed. Interestingly enough the placement suggests dusted guards. The guests, however, have been rounded up and are being held at gunpoint by two putti, a seer and a hunter.

The other three are up on the raised stage with a fellow who absolutely looks like a warlock. He's got the foreboding robes and everything.

"Please sir, I don't know what you're talking about," pleads a smartly dressed fellow on his knees, a burning harpoon poised above him. "I don't even know what an 'Icon' is in this context. We... he have several consecrated portraits of saints and gods but I don't think-"

"I KNOW you have it here!" roars the warlock, veins standing out on his neck. The poor auctioneer cowers. "Even a worm like you couldn't mistake it for anything else. The power it radiates alone would require special containment and there was a PICTURE of it in your auction catalog. Now I'm going to ask one last time. Where. Is. The. Icon. Of. KOSMOS!"

[Hattish Thing]

The Moonrise Bar

In the midst of the Red Zone, this small bar can be found. Given the danger inherent to the region, this particular section of urban sprawl is rarely tread upon by vehicles as exotic as the one which parks just outside. The thing appears as an armored general purpose vehicle, its chrome exterior covered in thick armored plates which obscure view of the inside. After several seconds, the rightwards door leading into the backseat opens wide, revealing an extraordinarily bright interior illuminated by several long panels giving off a harsh, white light.

A pair of heavily armored gunmen in white body armor emerge afterwards, followed by a single individual sporting what appears to be an extraordinarily light suit of nearly skin-tight power-armor. The chrome plating built into the armor shines in the sunlight, its hexagonal patterned material crafted out of some exotic alloy. An armored white cloak drapes from the figure's shoulders, a tall, stiff collar framing his neck. White gloves shield his hands, and a blank, mirrored helmet with some sort of voicebox-protrusion obscures the man's face.

He enters the bar, flanked by the gunmen, before pausing at the entrance, glancing out towards the occupants of the bar. With a metallic, technological-sounding voice, the figure speaks.

"I'm here for zhe one called Orrey Lauhter. I've a... proposition to make that he vhill vhant to hear."

[Deathkeeper]

[Slumside]

G’nichi slams the box shut.
”Don’t touch any of those. No one should. Something isn’t right.”
He turns around, trying to puzzle together what’s going on.
Well, something has to be done about that. He points with his mind at the obelisk without actually looking at it for safety reasons. Can his sword just smite it again? Or maybe he could destroy the weapons? If the librarian was binding the spirits of these arms into that junk, would destroying the vessels free them?

[Golden Flock Orphanage]

Isaac frowns. Normally he likes to go out in something light in the winter to work out his magic abilities. But he thinks he should save the energy today, so he’s in a coat.
”Are we sure we should start with this one? It sounds pretty hardcore.” An orphanage probably means kids....really does not sound good.

[bc56]

Putti on the Ritz

This will be tricky. Six enemies, and they have hostages. If she misses a shot, she could kill innocents. She makes sure none of them are watching the door and tries to sneak in from cover to cover. The warlock can't kill the man who has information, not without losing that information, so she moves towards the putti near the guests, intending to slash one apart with her wings as soon as she gets close enough.

[Rebonack]

[Golden Flock Orphanage]

"I caught a wraith last night," Melissa says petulantly, crossing her arms over her chest. "I can do this one too!"

"I got some dried garlic and sage from one of those flower ponies over on market street," Lucas says, opening up the grocery bag he has with him. "And a container of salt from Fluxmart, too. We should be able to keep any spirits at bay while Melissa does her thing."

That's what spirits hate the most, apparently.

Food flavoring.

"She insisted that everything she sells is made with tender love and friendship. Ostensibly the positive emotions that went into growing the plants should make them more potent? That's what the article I read by some spiritist said, anyway. The salt is just..." he pulls out the container of salt with a picture of a yellow duck holding an umbrella on the front. "...you know. Normal store salt. I don't know if it's possible to really grow salt with love."

Maybe a kirin could do it? Lucas hasn't been around Carousel Court enough to be very familiar with the crystal ponies. They tend to be a bit more insular.

"Don't we need holy symbols to wave at ghosts, too?" Melissa asks. She may or may not have sneaked down the stairs now and again to watch late night scary movies once or twice.


[Puti on the Ritz]

When the need to be sneaky whilst crossing the room arises, Eao will find herself doing something quite unconsciously. Two steps sideways in time and she drifts, passing out of reality. It feels kind of like turning inside out. From her new vantage point she'll find that it feels like of like looking down on the world from... not above. Something else? But it gives her a view through objects that would have otherwise obstructed her vision. She can also feel tension around her building, fast enough to suggest that she shouldn't remain in this state for very long.

It's plenty enough time to cross the room and skewer one of the putti, though.

To anyone watching, it'll look like Eao's wing suddenly stabs out of the awful little creature's torso before several more strokes rip the disintegrating creature apart. The seer putti probably should have been able to see that coming if it had been paying attention to its shining trapezohedron, but thankfully it was busy focusing all of its attention on the hostages. It's momentarily shocked by Eao's appearance, scrambling with its weapon to point it in the seraph's direction.

The warlock is likewise shocked, but he recovers pretty quickly.

"It's one of Yezekiel's brats! Don't just stand there gawking! Kill it!" he howls.

The putti on the platform level their weapons at Eao!

And another idea comes unbidden. To protect herself, she can draw on the substance around her to fashion a piece of The Tower. The light of truth, the living word, the water of life, the breath of insight. She could create cover with these heavenly materials, calling them into the world with a mere thought. The putti appear to have already done so earlier, it would appear, and the more the world is conformed to the Empyrean the easier it becomes.

[bc56]

Putti on the Ritz

Eao hops back into normal space and disembowels the putti. She's not done yet though. Instinctively, she wills a wall into existence to cover herself and the hostages from attacks from the stage. "Go! Run!" She shouts to the civilians, turning to face down the seer putti.

[Deathkeeper]

[Golden Flock Orphanage]

Isaac shows Melissa his golden bracelets and his mallet.
”That’s why we’re bringing holy relics. Blessed gold and saint’s tusk. We’re covered there. Of course that assumes we’ll live through this. This is still probably not the best idea.” Isaac is quite insistent about that. He doesn’t really know much about haunts. He doesn’t think you can hit them with a hammer.

[Recaiden]

Left Fountain Square

"Yeah, somebody should know how to get out of here. It'd take forever to find the right combination to get out, especially since we don't know how many times we need to leave, nor if it resets if we get it wrong." Which would certainly be a bit troublesome.

Jack's shadow moves over to the graveyard, and also leans on them, taking the offered hand and reaching into a pocket to flip a coin.

Anchor asks a guy pushing a cart down the sidewalk, only to get a puzzled "Why would you want to leave?"
Maybe they'd have better luck in the coffeeshop: There's two people working there, that guy looking out both sides of the same window, four schoolchildren gathered around a table playing cards, a three-legged plant alien, and a sulky-looking gnome.

Throwing a coin into the graveyard? That's an interesting idea.
Anchor's shadow follows along. A gold coin for you, grave at the edge of the field.

Edge of Hive Sewers- Getting Deeper

The metal in Allomancy doesn't channel the power- it just fuels the power.

The light's a good sign, so's the breeze. The breathing isn't a good sign, though. Regardless, the thief sneaks along the tunnel towards both, glad they're probably not in the same tunnel as her.

At the intersection, she sways to determine which route the breeze is taking, and tilts her head to determine where the breathing's from so she can avoid it. She wants to go towards the breeze and avoids the breathing; but if she can't, then the breeze is better. If she can't figure either out, she'll take the narrow crack. It'll hopefully avoid the monsters, or whatever else down here that's breathing.

The breeze is coming from up ahead, not through the narrow crack or the wide breach, but just further down the tunnel. Monsters avoided, it seems.
The tunnel twists to the right, and then curves back to the left, the light growing slowly but steadily brighter (still extremely dark to normal vision).
She'll start to hear more and more sounds from very far up ahead. The direction of the light, and the breeze, and apparently flowing sewage, gently lapping waves, and lots of creatures. All in this general direction. She arrives at a T-intersection, where her little sewer tunnel joins a broader one. The breeze and blue light were from the right. There's also a glimmer of yellowy light from the left, a bit brighter.
And then the breeze stops blowing.

[Rebonack]

[Putti on the Ritz]

A wall of metal marrow filled with solid light springs into being, blocking the first shot from a putti's fission blast launcher.

This is...

Uh.

Well, it's probably a good thing Eao made that wall, because the light of truth just did an admirable job of absorbing both the impact and the radioactive by-products of the weapon. Otherwise those hostages probably would have died of radiation poisoning even if they didn't get caught in the explosion. A spatial distortion fired by the lancer goes right through the wall, but it misses pretty miserably since the putti isn't sure where Eao is. A window behind her shatters. The fisher hops off the stage and begins skittering toward Eao!

And the seer?

They fire a point-blank bolt of mental static at Eao. It'll hurt if it hits, surely. But she's quite resilient and the seer's weapons aren't very potent compared to those packed by the other putti. That's probably why the one she killed earlier was complaining about getting stuck with the role all the time. It just wanted to blow things up!

With cover in place AND a defender, the hostages begin fleeing from the room.

As for the warlock, he looks mad. He raises his hands above his head and begins chanting a spell.


[Golden Flock Orphanage]

"Great! We're set then!" Melissa declares as she walks up to gate and hops right over it with all the deftness of a cat. As she lands pointy cats ears pop out of her hair as her eyes turn distinctly feline. "Come on, little ghosties, come to Melissa the nekomancer!"

Lucas rolls his eyes and moves to open the gate like a normal person and walk through.

[Deathkeeper]

[Golden Flock Orphanage]

Isaac frowns. Don’t go rolling your eyes, Lucas! This whole plan was your idea!
”So, you know how big this place is? If there’s plenty of room I can take point.”
Isaac is in the strange position of being very good at being point man unless it’s cramped, in which case he must be in the back at all costs.

[bc56]

Putti on the Ritz

Eao experiences another new sensation. Pain. She reels backwards, crying out slightly before shaking it off and rushing towards the seer, wings poised to attack. At the last second, she tries to leap over it and strike from behind as she lands.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Slumside]

You're having some pretty solid thoughts here G'nichi, keep going with it.
Just, maybe, go a bit faster.

There's a spot of rust on the end of the rapier, which wasn't there a second ago. It's definitely growing.

There's a raspy sort of chuckle from the librarian, who at some point as slumped the rest of the way to the ground, from his prior sitting position.
Blood pools around him, spreading around the markings on the floor.
"Just...a...form...ality..."
His bracelet gleams again, leading the woman to panic and fling her knife in his direction.

She misses entirely and looks a terrified sort of embarrassed.

There is a great sensation of rushing air in the room, though no clothes actually move in a breeze. Sound briefly cuts out, leading to a brief moment of absolute silence.
Every light on the monolith winks out and those roots coiling around its base begin to fracture, cracks spider-webbing across their surfaces.
Another rush of air, and for another brief moment as the sound gutters away again, those roots look more like flesh. The edges of the monolith, more curved and defined. More tendrils, on the ceiling, going up towards the ground.
The ground is an endless plain of jagged, shattered obsidian.

The ceiling is gone, the monolith is gone.
Something else looms.

Then we're back in the sewer room, a librarian bleeding to death on the floor, a terrified mother staring at the ceiling in horror, boxes of rusted weapons, and a very heroic lizardfellow.
G'nichi doesn't need the sword for his instincts to know something terrible is about to happen.

[Golden Flock Orphanage]

As is clearly visible from the street, this place has seen far better days.
The grounds haven't been tended to in months, leading to that distinct sort of grass/weed overgrowth along the edges by the fence that one would expect from most places like this.

It thins out, however, the closer it gets to the building, until there is a ring of absolutely barren ground directly around the orphanage.

Up until they bypassed the front gate, the building just looked sad and dilapidated. Poorly taken care of, after that unfortunate night, and the various wounds the building took have been since exacerbated by weather and time. A gaping hole in one of the upper walls and cracked out further, as the surrounding wood collapsed and settled. Windows looked dirty, but intact. A portion of the roof seems weirdly saggy.
The sun is attempting to mute the solemn look of the building with its rays. A limp breeze carries the smell of some nearby barbecue.

But then Melissa hops the fence and her friends follow.

A hand has been pressed against the world's throat; the breeze immediately fails and even the sunlight seems to dim. The sounds of the city beyond the fence fade away, muted at best, but mostly gone.
The grass of the grounds, such that it is, looks blighted. Brown in patches, nearly black and limp in others.
Patches of previously smooth paint, seem cracked and faded in the new lighting, and something akin to mud seems to be lining the inside of many of the windows.
Any trace of vibrancy here has been banished, a mockery of shadows before the light.

And the strangled silence over the grounds seems to grow only more tense with every step the group takes on the walkway to the front door.

[Deathkeeper]

[Slumside]

”Shut UP, you arrogant, disingenuous sociopath!” shrieks G’nichi, who rushes up to the fallen man, trying to rip the bracelet off of the man and drag him away from the obelisk and its carvings. It’s hurting his sword. That shouldn’t even be possible. And how many would it have had to drain to produce such a huge pile of rusted masses? There has to be some catalyst. Something he can destroy. He can start by finishing off this zealous murderer, though by the time the man is moved he is likely already dead, as he’s fairly far gone already. G’nichi opts to give him another thrust to the heart if he’s still breathing. Then...what else is there? The bracelet? The obelisk? He can’t destroy the latter with only a sword. He’s running out of options.

[Earl of Purple]

Chalcedony House Gemstone Museum

Inside the minifridge there are an orange, a bottle of water and a tub of yogurt which is a few days out of date. Not sure how much of that qualifies as 'sweet', but none of it is alcoholic. It's also devoid of people; had there been anyone, I'd have mentioned them.

Around the corner? You mean down the stairs? It's steep, with quite narrow steps, and ends in a door that's hidden from the other side. Larza's x-ray vision shows there's nobody immediately outside, but the walls are thick and stone. She can't see far. If she opens the door, she's in a currently empty corridor with waist-high display cabinets on each side. Most are panelled all the way down, but there's a hole in the side of one nearby where a vandal kicked it too hard. Larza can hide in there- or she could climb up the wall and crawl along a set of pipes and cables that run along the top of the room, providing power to the lights.

There's a doorway nearby into what is labelled as the 'Royal Jewellery Collection'. Or further along there's 'Common Metal Objects & Purities', or she can continue around the other corner to whatever rooms are around the corner. Or find another staircase to go downstairs, see what's on the ground floor.

Quaint Victorian House

"Well, we're not going out that way. It's a proper wall. That's a creepy goat in the painting." Jack snags a plate off the table and puts it in her bag as she walks to the door and tries to open it. If the door's stupid enough to remain locked, Jack still has her prybar out to force it open. She also pulls out a wand, just in case there's an enemy about. She's trying to remember where the nearest window is, although she suspects they're going to have to destroy a wall or something to get out.

Left Fountain Square

"Oh, hey. The chicks should know a way out, since they're all in a school uniform. I don't see a school around here, do you?" Hopefully they're not also stuck here. Jack's going to try pulling Anchor into the coffee shop, and look out the window see if it's settled on one view or the other.

Jack's shadow was sort-of expecting the coin-shadow to come back, or disappear. Since it was flipping it to try and catch it again. But it's not the shadow's coin, so if it doesn't come back it's not a big deal.

Hive Sewers- Getting Deeper

That's good, she'll follow the breeze and it doesn't involve climbing down a crack of dubious origin. Then she arrives at a T-junction, and the breeze stops. She'll stop to listen, but if she can't hear anything that would encourage her otherwise (breathing, footsteps, etc) she'll turn to head towards the yellow light. The sun is yellow, here. So hopefully that's daylight, rather than an electric light. She'll avoid stepping in the liquid if she can, since that makes a noise that'd be really loud to her very sensitive ears. If she has to step in it, she'll be slow and try to avoid breaking the surface more than necessary.

[Rebonack]

[Putti on the Ritz]

Ah, that feint was a good idea.

As Eao draws close the putti summons a shining wall of transparent planes! One of the two uses for a shining trapezohedron. But the sheet of immovable barrier doesn't help all that much when Eao vaults over it and skewers the putti from behind! With a cry of "Hax!" the creature dissolves away.

Another distortion bolt rips through Eao's wall, a narrow miss this time that hits one of the feeling hostages, causing space to whirl inward around their leg and-

Well.

Let's just say they fall over with a cry of pain. They're still alive, but getting leg clipped off below the knee doesn't leave them in a position to be alive for long unless someone stops the bleeding in a hurry. In their mad dash to escape someone trips over the fallen man and pretty soon there's a panicked mob.

The blaster putti is busy reloading. It might be a good idea to do something about that before it finishes.

The fisher, meanwhile, loops around the edge of Eao's barrier and gives its harpoon a flick, lobbing the hook toward her. This is the sort of attack that isn't horribly difficult to dodge if you know it's coming. But getting caught by it? That would lead to a shotgun blast of pure unadulterated death going off right in her face. As one might imagine the gun in question looks pretty metal. It has at least two screaming skulls on it.

And speaking of screaming skulls! The warlock finishes casting his spell!

An oily black vortex appears above the crowd of fleeting party-goers and begins disgorging a rain of ethereal screaming skulls trailing black flames.

Where one skull clips through a fleeing person they gasp, the breath snatched from their lungs. Where a second skull passes through them they collapses like a puppet with strings cut. Any further contact with the skulls and their corpse rapidly rots.


[Golden Flock Orphanage]

Lucas shudders.

This place is creepy as heck. He pulls out a light and ignites the bundle of sage, strong smelling smoke wafting into the air from the smouldering herbs. He waves it around a bit with only a vague idea of what he's doing. "There should be enough room in here. And if push comes to shove force is usually pretty good for hitting ghosts."

At least that's what he learned in his Evocation class.

As for Melissa?

When the deathly silence settles over them, when the colors drain, and the tension rises... She smiles.

She smiles wider and wider until she sports a huge sharp-fanged Cheshire cat grin as bright as a crescent moon.

"Oooh, I like it here!" she purrs before reaching out and shoving the locked door open with far more strength than a little girl should rightfully have. "Ghoooooosties! Come out and plaaaaay!"

[Ionbound]

[Quaint Victorian House]

The lady shudders at the mention of the goat, though she's not entirely certain why, as she looks around and replies, "Well...Shirtballs. I guess that means there's only one way we can go, right? Further in. Unless you think blowing down a wall will help. In which case, please, go ahead." With that, she walks to the place where the dining room opens onto the rest of the house and looks around, taking care to not actually leave the room. Just in case.

[Deathkeeper]

[Golden Flock Orphanage]

”Yeah, but things are...different when you’re big. It’s really hard to explain.”
Isaac can’t tell you why it’s just easier to use enhanced physical attacks instead of force blasts when he’s a loxodon. He isn’t sure it actually makes any sense.
”Don’t split up from us, Lissa. Even if it seems like there’s an easy target. We will all need each other.” he warns the cat.

[bc56]

Putti on the Ritz

There are too many enemies to deal with at once, and the warlock is being a jerk, targeting the civilians. She leaps and flies over the barrier she just erected, diving at the fission cannon putti from above. She can't let it get off another shot and kill everyone in the room. She sees people going down, injured or killed by the attacks, and regrets. She can't save them all.

[Rebonack]

[Quaint Victorian House]

The still existing door in the dining room is opened to reveal-!

The main hall.

Just as richly decorated as the dining room, the room is dominated by a black marble fireplace with a roaring fire contained within opposite a grand spiraling staircase with a rich crimson carpet draped down the polished mahogany. At the foot of the banister is a carving of beast with the head of a goat, the body of a wolf, and two partly unfurled stork-like wings. It stares impassively into the room. Mounted above the fireplace is an ornamental sword on a plaque. And above that is a stained glass window featuring pleasing floral and geometric designs allowing colored light to play across the room.

Aside from the door our heroes came through, there appear to be three other doors besides. A pair of highly ornate double doors to the south, a smaller door to the south east with hunting motifs, what appears to be a closet door to the north, and a somewhat plain looking door to the north east.

And of course the grand staircase.

That's a potential exit, too.

Aside from the stained glass window above the fireplace this room doesn't feature any other windows.


[Putti on the Ritz]

Acrobatic evasion!

The fisher swears as Eao avoids its attack, aiming a shutgun blast of pure necrosis at her as she zips overhead. Its aim isn't great and she is WAY further away than it would like, but it's working with what it has available here.

The blaster gives a little squeal of surprise when Eao lands and bisects it. It hasn't really had much experience dealing with seraphs or any of the other more powerful unranked sorts, so it is pretty shocked by just how fast Eao is. It collapses, vanquished, as the warlock turns to flee! His spells take a little too long to cast and having something so lethal right up in his face really isn't ideal. As he runs he begins chanting a new spell, panting between breaths. He would really prefer to avoid getting murdered by a seraph today. He needs that Icon! His nefarious plans hinge on it!

The rain of death continues spitting screaming skulls over the place where the crowd was. By this time everyone who isn't already dead has cleared out of the ballroom completely.

Worst.

Party.

Ever.

[Earl of Purple]

Quaint Victorian House

"You want the sword? I've got a wand and my shovel." She's had no training with a sword, but the shovel's quite simple to use and often underestimated. The first thing she's going to do is fly up to that window and swing her shovel at it. Hopefully it's a way out.

If that doesn't work, she'll check the closet.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Slumside]

The man is definitely on his way off the mortal coil, so G'nichi has free reign to do just about whatever he wants here.
And grabbing that bracelet qualifies.

It fights him, as he tries to claim it. Or rather...those vines fight him. They grip around the bracelet, clutching the man's arm. Yet, as he grows weaker, so do they, enough so that our hero will be able to simply tear them off as a matter of process.
Which reveals a rather ornate golden band, studded with numerous crystals of every imaginable color, that had been concealed beneath the prior bindings.

Slipped free from the librarian, they gleam softly in some minor light, an almost wan white aura that quickly snuffs out as G'nichi begins dragging the man away from the monolith.

His eyes flicker closed at one point, but a twitch brings him back to the waking world a moment later and he glances down at his now bare wrist with a not-all-there expression.
"Oops...fin..."
Then his eyes close and they reopen no more.

The change is immediate.
Another rush of air, absolute silence, and the monolith is gone.

Sound returns with an ugly vengeance as the ceiling explodes upwards and outwards, that prior entity flickering into being roughly where the obsidian pillar had stood. Its writhing arms flick in the air around it and its tentacular legs crush the ground beneath, winding their way through the stone like fingers in mud.
Atop its broad, stone-like chest, dozens upon dozens of skull-like faces cry up at the moon in long-repressed rage and triumph.

The air has become physically heavy, brutally so, the weight of terrible hands pressing down on G'nichi despite nothing being there.
His companion has already slumped down to her knees, in a forced, trembling and painful bow.

Once more, the bracelet gleams, a little brighter, and a little more urgently.
Wherever it is currently gripped, his sword is practically vibrating now, rust now visibly crawling along its length.

Sanity and logic scream for flight. This is obviously beyond his pay-grade, of anyone's rational pay-grade.
The bangle grows warm.

[Golden Flock Orphanage

The atmosphere is unmoved by Melissa's enthusiasm.
One would say that it isn't particularly moved by the sage either, but the burning plant does seem to be doing...something. It's not entirely easy to tell what, given that everything still looks terrible and feels terrible. It just...differently terrible? The difference between a large boulder sitting on your chest, versus a car, perhaps.

And then the sound of Melissa ramming the door cracks through the silence, with the sound of splintering wood and the ping of broken metal, as a lock is jerked loose from its holdings.
Immediately followed the loud rattle of chains, as the door opens scarcely an inch or two before stopping.

Squinting into the gloom beyond the door, it would seem that someone has sealed the other side of it shut with some rather heavy looking iron chains.

[Rebonack]

[Golden Flock Orphanage]

"Ugh!" Melissa groans. "Someone chained the door to keep the ghosts in!"

Or maybe to keep meddling kids out?

She leans in close and peers at them before recoiling with a hiss.

"Eeew, they're iron too!" she protests, her forked tail frizzing up. "Isaac can you break them? I bet you can with your... elephant strength?"

Yeah!

Just elephant your way right through that door, Isaac!

Do a koolaid man impression!

Lucas, meanwhile, seems to be pretty happy that the burning sage idea is actually helping.

Or...

Maybe not helping.

Making things slightly less bad, anyway.

[bc56]

Putti on the Ritz

Eao chases after the fleeing warlock. She doesn't want to let him get that second spell off, so hopefully she runs faster than him. She stretches with her wings to hopefully cut him down before his incantation finishes.