switzerland ♔ the words tightening around my throat

[silverguardian]

WHO || Nyna, Cara, Felicity, Stiles
WHAT || The Knights are sent to hear about a prospective job from an art collector
WHERE || Bern, Switzerland
WHEN || April 13th, 2015
HOW || Actionspam

The streets of Bern swell with the myriad sights and scents of its industry: the wood and polish of carpenters' shops, tantalizing aromas wafting from dozens of bakeries, and the heavy oil scent of artists.  Meanwhile, hundreds of rich colors give the district an appearance of a holiday festival.  The townhouse of Asheron Coyl comes into view, perched on a small rise that overlooks the street.  A low fence covered in vines abuts the street.  A gate opens onto a flagstone path that wends past frozen flower beds, fountains, and sculpted shrubs to the front doors.  A bell hangs next to the gate, reading "Please ring bell" in several languages.  With an 11 disguise check, Nyna didn't really bother to dress all fancy, opting instead for her paladin armor, sorry guys.   She can be the sexy bodyguard.  

Comments

[silverguardian]

[ nyna gets directions to the next house, and then off they go down the block.

a shiny black car stops in front of a house marked number 14. a handsome man in a charcoal and cream outfit and black cloak steps out of the car carrying a wrapped painting under one arm - only one package - and a polished ivory walking stick in the other. with a few quick glances at his surroundings, he makes his way towards the front gate. as he steps inside, something unseen strikes him from behind, sending him sprawling across the lawn. the painting flies out of his grasp.

nyna curses in elvish and draws her giant sword. ] Stand down! [ she seems to be addressing whoever or whatever is invisible, and she's pretty terrifying about it (nat 20 intimidate check???) but since the thing is invisible, no one can really tell if that had any effect on the attacker. it doesn't, however, stop it from pummeling the fallen gentleman twice (atk 24;atk 16; dmg 18 total). the blonde man lets out a cry of pain, his body jerking against the might of the unseen force. ]

[mordsith]

[Cara rolls her eyes. WHY INVISIBLE?! Regardless, she moves over to the man on the ground and seeks the invisible assailant, trying to punch it with her closed fist.

She assumes that if she aims over the gentleman that she'll hit her target. (atk nat 20 + 7, dmg 10) She's sort of hoping that she can knock it on the head to distract/disorient it and maybe haul it off the guy and hold it in place... but we'll see what she can manage with that first blow.

The first blow, by the way probably happens in slow-motion with her hair whipping around looking all bad ass.]

[allmydreams]

[Welp. Since the thing is invisible and Felicity is not dumb enough to shoot into her people in combat with the thing she can't see - she does not have that kind of skill - she's going to notice the fact that the the guy who got out of the car, happens to look like the guy they've been tailing. The fact that he's down to one painting is not a good thing, but since they are definitely not going to let him make this delivery, with Nyna and Cara both engaged with invisible guy, Felicity is going to make a break for the painting.

She darts quickly past the fight (tumble 14 action point says 28) ready to grab the painting if she can make it to the other side without being attacked in the process.]

[silverguardian]

[ cara feels her weapon strike, raking into the foe, which emits a horrible inhuman screech. she feels no blood spurt forth, and finds that even its body does not feel... totally there, as if the creature itself were composed of air.

felicity manages to breeze past them and pick up the painting itself, while nyna moves in beside cara to try to stab the thing and aiming for right near where cara stabbed (atk 28, dmg 9).

the air creature turns and slams each one of them once (atk 17 @ cara, dmg 9 if it hits), (atk 15 @ nyna, which misses) ]

[mordsith]

[The attack misses Cara and this is not the sort of thing she expects to be fighting. It is solid enough to accept a beating, but not solid enough to feel as though it is there. She doesn't like it.

She turns to Stiles, who is probably still there.]

Make sure he does not flee!

[Because, who knows what is gonna happen. Of course, now she's going to try and track where the thing went (listen 17) and will strike out with her agiel where she believes it might be. (atk 19, dmg 5) ]

[killingtodeath]

Who? Him?! [He points to the guy that the invisible thing was beating up on before they showed up. Sure he seems sketch but Stiles isn't exactly the 'hold em down and keep em here' type. He's squishy. So he will just... watch the guy to see if he tries to do anything???]

[allmydreams]

[Felicity drags the painting away from the rest of the fight, making a face at it for a moment, before glancing back to the rest of the group.]

Any chance one of you remembered to grab that lighter?

[silverguardian]

[ it's still where she left it but now that it's aware of them, her weapon whizzes inches close to it, close enough to feel herself barely miss it.

meanwhile, the man in question scrabbles away from the tussle, yanks out a small handgun from his coat and points it up at the invisible thing. but doesn't have time to fire, yet.

nyna stabs twice, deft swings cut shearing paths across the thing's 'body' (23 annd a crit; dmg 9+28). the stalker fixes its attention on her, slamming at her twice (atk 28/30, dmg 21 total), its amazingly accurate blows causing weighty thuds, the second of which slams nyna backwards with a cry that's cut off as her eyes roll back and she slumps to the ground, dropping her sword. ]

[mordsith]

[Her gaze flickers to see Nyna fall, but Cara knows she cannot allow this creature to simply slip away. Her attacks continue, this time with both of her agiels (atk 24 & 17; dmg 8 & 8).]

[killingtodeath]

Whoa! [Stiles follows the guy who now has a gun?! And as much as he wants to think that he might not kill his teammates, he really can't be sure??]

Hand it over, buddy. Nice and slow. [He puts on his most stern face while he holds out his hand (intimidate 21)]

[allmydreams]

[Felicity will not do anything to dissuade Stiles from his intimidation tactics here, but she will pull her gun in response, training it on the guy they've been following just in case he tries to turn on Stiles.]

[silverguardian]

[ cara would feel her blade strike home... and the creature evaporate beneath her grip, apparently defeated.

the man keeps the gun trained on the space around cara, looking over at stiles and felicity like TEH FUCK DO YOU MEAN HAND IT OVER.

"That thing's trying to kill me! Are you insane?" he argues.

nyna's sword sweeps through nothing, and she looks to cara, registering that it's in fact gone. ] It's alright. Whatever it is, we've stopped.

[ /init ]

[allmydreams]

[Felicity doesn't drop her gun, however, because while she may still have the painting and the thing may be dead, he's still got a gun pointed in the general vicinity of her teammates.]

And you've been delivering killer paintings. Sorry if we're not really inclined to give you the benefit of the doubt.

[silverguardian]

[ he pushes his way up to his feet, staring at her incredulously.

"Killer paintings? What does that even mean?" he protests, his voice accented. "I delivered a quartet of paintings for a man willing to pay well for my services as a courier. I don't understand what's so lethal about that." ] Why don't we all put the weapons away and talk about this civilly? [ diplomacy... 12 lmao nyna sounds pretty angry still and ISNT PUT HER SWORD DOWN SO that's not very convincing. he does not look convinced. ]

[killingtodeath]

[Sense motive 15 to see if he believes this guy has no idea that the paintings are aliiiiiive]

[mordsith]

[Cara glances to the guy with the weapon aimed at them and does not afraid. (intimidate 23)]

You would do well to lower your weapon before I lower it for you.

[allmydreams]

[Felicity will just keep talking but her weapon doesn't come down either. Not until the delivery man's does.]

Really? Because Asheron Coyl was murdered by octopus creatures that came out of a painting that you delivered. Belfor nearly got hundreds of people killed by opening his in the middle of his party and I heard the screams of whatever was in it as it burned.

[She'll pause for emphasis, before standing the painting she has up a little more.]

Should I open this one too? See what's inside?

[It's mostly being used to call his bluff and find out what he really knows, but she has every intention of doing just that if he doesn't believe her (bluff 25).]

[silverguardian]

[ he seems on the level, stiles. glancing at cara, he frowns and at least lowers the weapon.

"Look, I don't know anything about that. I admit that I thought it was a strange job, but the money made it worth the trouble."

nyna looks over at felicity, then back to him. ] The man who hired you. Who was he?

[ "I'll admit that my natural curiosity led me to track the man back to his home on Sandalwood Lane, but I don't know his name, nor did I have time to ask around about him yet." ]

[allmydreams]

[Sandalwood Lane. Felicity files that away for later, but she knows that there's still one painting unaccounted for.]

Where's the fourth painting?

[One in her hand, one they burned, one at Asheron's. Maybe it'll make her life easy and it'll still be in the limo and they can destroy both of them at once.]

[silverguardian]

[ "You mean the third. I already delivered it, to Endrik Archerus, on Blauer Saphir."

nyna grimaces. ] We have to hurry there. [ to the man: ] Which house was it, on Sandalwood?

[ "I saw that it was on that street, but I lost sight of which house he entered, I'm sorry. Please... Whatever this was about, I was merely hired to do a courier job. I knew nothing." ]

[killingtodeath]

I need your gun. [He's pretty tired of this lack of weapon business and taking this guys gun seems the best option right now.] If we're going to fix this mess, we need to be ready for anything.

[Diplomacy 37]

[allmydreams]

And a lighter, if you have one.

[If he doesn't maybe the limo driver has a road flare or something.]

[silverguardian]

[ "I don't," he says stiffly, eyeing up stiles. "If I give this to you, I need your assurance that I can go, that I won't be held responsible for any of this." ]

[allmydreams]

[Felicity will try and help matters by putting her own gun away before making her way over to the limo driver, flashing him her most winning smile as she tries to see if he has what she needs (diplomacy 21).]

Hi there. Any chance you have a road flare?

[silverguardian]

[ he does???? he looks confused, but smiles at the pretty lady and digs it out from beneath the seat. there u go. ]