romania ♔ in the end of the night i can feel you breathe

[pickyourbattles]

♬ Night - Zola Jesus

WHO || Willow, Paige, Nathan, Henry, Aurelius, Dovan [Closed]
WHAT || The Knights travel to Romania to investigate a mysterious, magical fog
WHERE || Romania
WHEN || April 11th [back dated]
HOW || Actionspam. Single thread, don't worry about maintaining tagging order.

February in Romania isn't very comfortable, so hopefully everyone bundled up for this little trip into the countryside.  The appearance of a mysterious bank of fog into which several locals have gone inexplicably missing upon entering, has caused Wynn to speculate that it might be connected to the mist that appears when the Veil brings people from other worlds.  Could this be the first instance of a door going the other way?  If so, here's hoping it's a round trip...

Comments

[olreliable]

[Catching his gaze as he looks to each of them for guidance, Willow isn't sure which side she should stand on. This place is terrible, and Strahd wouldn't allow them to live. If they escaped him now and chose to remain, it would be a life constantly on the run. But she knows how important saving his sister is. How could she ask him to abandon that?

Reaching down, she takes his hand- the one not holding onto that wand and gives it a small squeeze.]

We do have a duty. And...resources. [Look she doesn't want to say they can find a way back while the asshole is standing right here, but she can try to imply it for Aurelius. She would work day and night with him to find a way back. Wynn would find it a worthy cause, she thinks. Knightly backing on this one would be great to have.]

[somepagesturn]

Aurelius, please... [Paige follows Willow's line of thinking with her... nat 20 wis lol good job Paige.]

[pickyourbattles]

[ he looks between the both of them, seeing their reasoning, and they can tell that they're swaying him. still, he glances at the others as well, to see what the other dudes think. ]

[count_strahd_von_zarovich]

[Strahd folds his arms. "This spineless little wretch has more willpower than expected. Troubling." He thinks.]

It seems that, once again, I have failed to properly motivate you. Why don't we try it this way - Kavan!

[And a wisp of gaseous fog roils in, and takes form - a bestial, savage looking vampire. Yet with a glint of unnatural cunning in his eyes.]

Allow me to introduce Kavan. The culmination of my efforts to build a better Vampyr. Blood of the ancient Noferatu, a dash of my essence; all of the strengths of a Vampyr, and none of the vulnerability. Infused with the necromantic curse I was able to test on that priest's son. Kavan is an engine of destruction. And he is just the first of many.

[He breaks away from fawning over his creation to wheel back towards the party.]

You have performed admirably in removing the one threat to my machinations. But now you have me troubled. Kavan, go forth and take stock of these "Resources."

[And in an instant, the silent brute discorporates back into fog, and surges forward out of the gates...]

[Strahd faces them, with a large fanged grin on his smug face.]

Somebody should probably warn someone about him.

[somepagesturn]

[R U KIDDING ME RN.

Paige looks like she's about to cast a spell, but it's too late as the creature passes them, and she's left clutching her harp pin and looking between the gate and Strahd like he just fed a bus full of orphans poisoned candy.]

That was.... [a lot of words come to mind, but the only thing she manages to get out as she stammers her way through her anger is a very shrill:] unnecessary

[autorevive]

Are you mental? Fuck this shit! Maybe we'll just let the town get eaten! What about that?

[count_strahd_von_zarovich]

[Gaseous Form isn't fair sometimes. Strahd looks at Nathan, bemused.]

By all means, waste time here with your impertinence. You saw the havoc the plague wrought on this desolate village here. I wonder how much carnage there will be if Kavan reaches one of your large cities?

You would doom thousands just to spite me? I'm flattered, honestly.

[pickyourbattles]

What is wrong with you? [ aurelius sputters at strahd, looking utterly put out, but decided now. ] Come on. We can't ... stay here, with that thing on the loose in our world. [ he casts strahd a baleful stare ] But this isn't the last you've seen of me. [ he tries to make a precious intimidation check. really tho. he got an 18 tho??????????????? it won't scare strahd but he at least doesn't look like an idiot. ] Let's go.

[olreliable]

[Willow is horrified by this turn of events. Swallowing hard, she nods in agreement with Aurelius and moves towards their exit, making sure not to get too far ahead of the group. The point of this is that they need to stick together.]

[autorevive]

[nathan isn't letting all these cinnamon rolls go off on their own, so he moves to join them. but not before flipping strahd off and yelling]

Wanker!

[yes. thank you, nathan.]

[somepagesturn]

[Paige is one of the last to go, because she's still trying to contain her anger, but the urge to protect ALL THE DECENT PEOPLE IN THE WORLD outweighs her need to break Strahd's stupid face, so she follows Nathan out with a huffy noise.]

[wanttobeahero]

[ Call it blind idealism or something like that, but Henry just hadn't expected things to go like this. Heroes saving the world and stopping the bad guy and all. Which...not that they won't, ultimately--he has to believe they will--but this is a huge mess now and another threat. Not unlike his life once in Storybrooke, though. But he's quick to move, to follow his group out. ]

[ironsides]

[ and out they roam into the fog, dizzying and cold to the bone, until they've lost sight of each other in it, and for a moment think maybe strahd has tricked them yet again and sent them to some new torment.

but finally a voice breaks through and the fog starts clearing as they all begin to emerge out into the romanian countryside: ] HELLO?

[somepagesturn]

[Well, that's enough to get Paige to forget she's wet cat pissy.] Sir Dovan!

[she rushes at him as fast as her little legs can go.] Oh thank gods, you're all right.

[autorevive]

[nathan is also happy to see him :'(] DOVAN! We were worried about you, mate! And your hands!

[olreliable]

Dovan! [Willow adds to the chorus of relieved voices, but moves towards Aurelius more than towards their lost friend. She's worried about him too and knows that Paige can do more for Dovan if he's hurt, so she's going to try to be all moral supporty.]

We'll find her. Your sister.

[She's not about to forget about that part of this with all the death and destruction threats that got added on top.]

1/2

[ironsides]

Me hands? What's wrong with me hands, then? [ dovan looks down worriedly at him. he looks tired, and hungry, but all in one piece, at least. ]

[pickyourbattles]

I just hope I made the right decision. [ aurelius says quietly, glancing over at her. he's clearly pained to have left her in the hands of strahd. ]

[autorevive]

Don't worry about it. This Strahd wanker was trying to trick us into thinking he'd unhanded you.

[olreliable]

[Willow can't really say that they made the right call- only that they made the only one they could. She tries to offer him a smile, but it's weak.]

I'll do whatever I can to help. And we'll talk to Wynn about it. We'll need to explain... all of this anyway.

[somepagesturn]

This whole thing is a big mess. I don't even know what we're going to tell Wynn. [Paige runs a hand through her hair and sighs.] We'll figure it out on the ride back... I imagine we have quite a lot to tell you, anyway, Sir Dovan.

[ironsides]

So it seems. Who this Strahd is, for one.

[olreliable]

Bad guy with a capital B. Also apparently we crossed the Veil, which... would be way more exciting if it weren't for the impending doom he sent back with us.

[pickyourbattles]

He... might have unleashed some sort of mega vampire into this world.

[somepagesturn]

He's such a... a....

[THIS WOULD BE A GREAT TIME TO NOT BE AGAINST SWEARING, PAIGE.]