CLOSED ♔ hell won't tolerate hymns

[flyingsolo]

WHO || Jaina, Lydia, Astrid, Adam, Mars
WHAT || The Knights investigate several ritualistic murders
WHERE || Los Angeles, California
WHEN || April 8th, 2015
HOW || Actionspam

A string of ritualistic killings has the LAPD calling the Knights in, as there are suspected ties to magic or Shadowkind. Two new bodies have been found recently, and the murder scene is a back alley in a nightclub called the Alchemy Room. It's located in a rough part of town, known for its clubs, bars, and extravagant nightlife. The lights of a patrol car illuminate a gruesome tableau. Among the garbage that litters the alley lies the body of a young man in a trenchcoat, covered in body. Hanging from a fire escape some 10 feet above him is the body another young man, dressed in the latest fashion and dripping blood from the ears and mouth. His legs are caught in the bars of the fire escape, and his face is twisted with shock. How he could have ended up in that position is a mystery. An empty autoloader pistol lies beneath his outstretched hands. A single officer is waiting for them when they arrive, and she tips her hat to them, pushing herself off the car where she's leaning.

"Seen a lot of things in my day, but this..." She shakes her head and clucks her tongue. Jaina's eyes narrow in the darkness as she looks past her at the scene.

"What made the police think this was connected to the other murders?" she asks.

"Its a tentative link, I won't lie to you about that," the officer admits. "All the other bodies were missing at least their hands, and these are both in one piece. But there's some kind of knife on one of the bodies." She nods towards the one on the ground. "We haven't touched it yet, just in case. To be honest, we've heard plenty of stories about what touching magical artifacts can do to a person. But it's covered in markings, definitely some kind of ritual thing."

Comments

[ex_psionic439]

[Shoves his way over to rip that shit out?? Like, let's be proactive about possible lethal injections, guys.]

Are you ok?

[flyingsolo]

[ that was exactly the fort save, so while she feels a pain as the poison courses through her, her body fights it off. ]

[pathology]

I'm fine, okay? I'm fine. I think. [she shudders a little bc being surprise poisoned is gross even if your immune system is awesome.] What the fuck?

[immuno]

He's going through an awful lot of trouble to keep people out, whatever he's hiding.

[ And she gestures forward into the room. IT'S NOT INSENSITIVE IF ASTRID ALREADY SAID SHE'S OKAY, RIGHT? Lydia is tryin'. ]

[ex_psionic439]

[Has the decency to help a bitch up of the floor?

Unless she was working that shit from an upright position, in which case he will just hover near her in case she feels faint or something idk.]

[pathology]

[she was probably crouching a little and then fell into a sitting position from the shock of being poison darted, ok, so adam can help her up. she's ready to move on with lydia, though.] This better be worth it.

[flyingsolo]

[ jaina will take the lead, in case anything else happens once they're inside.

the doors open to reveal a grand room that resembles a temple. a gold-plated statue of some egyptian god surrounded by several huge pillar candles on stands dominates the center of the room. the floor is inscribed with a circle, crisscrossed by lines and framed by what appears to be hieroglyphics. several small statues stand on marble pillars throughout the room, and a large tome sits on a fine teak podium. along one wall is a huge book shelf stuffed with books, papers, and ancient-looking tomes. the room smells vaguely of frankincense and other exotic incense.

without warning, the strange sounds they heard downstairs become audible again, originating from all points within the room. dozens of small creatures come scuttling across the floor towards jaina. at first glance, they look like enormous spiders. as they draw nearer, however, they are recognizable as hands - severed human hands - crawling across the floor on their own. ] What--

[pathology]

Nope! Not fucking worth it! [she doesn't know what to do besides pull out her gun and shoot at the hand(s) closest to jaina????? like how do you fight a swarm of severed hands, ok. but her atk was only ... 9 .... so .........]

[flyingsolo]

[ yeah, that's a miss, her shot nicking a dent in the floor instead. jaina pulls up a hand, palm out, trying to force strike the nearest square's worth of hands (strike 21). they all fail their saves, each one taking 10 dmg, which takes out each of the four. ]

[ex_psionic439]

[The movie lied, the nest is in the attic. Fortunately, it doesn't take a genius to realize that hands =/= brains. Which renders his go-to response on par with taking the time to paint a target on himself.

Instead, he takes a step back while at the same time s-so smoothly (read: not at all) pulling out his excalibur pistol and popping one of at a random hand in the sea of severed hands that is scrambling toward them.

It doesn't even matter which one he was aiming at because his attack was lower than Astrid's (attack 7). This team is full of winners.]

[charismapotion]

[ And Mars had just finally sat Venus down on the floor to start working one of his spells, instead like Adam he went on and took out the gun. He didn't care for the weapon but he worried his fire attacks indoors could be worse. He took aim fired a few shots aiming for the head, and back. (attack 11)]

[immuno]

[ Well, after training with David, Lydia brought her gun this time. She pulls it out of her purse with a move action, levels it at one of the hands and fires off a shot (atk 11 ...) ]

[pathology]

It's gonna take us all day to shoot at them, can someone do more magic or something? [she tries to shoot again with a whole 10. :'| ]

[flyingsolo]

[ wow y'all. just wow. no one can hit the little things, which scurry forward, running between all their legs, except mars since he's in the back. four of them attack jaina (9/8/12/14) but she easily evades them. 3 come clawing out at lydia (atk 8/10/19, 6 dmg from the one that hits), and it also gets a free trip attack with no AoO and no touch attack. lydia can make a str or dex check (whichever is higher) vs its 17, otherwise she is knocked prone.

2 come out to attack astrid (atk 12/22; 2 dmg, and an 11 trip attempt, same rules as above). 3 of them move past her towards adam (atk 16/16/7 IDK HIS DEFENSE so 3 & 1 dmg if the 16s hit, and 6 & 11 trip attempts if so).

jaina lifts her hand to force strike the four on top of her again (strike 19) and they all fail their reflex saves and take 5 dmg each, wiping those out as well. ] Don't let them drag you down!

[ex_psionic439]

[His defense is 15 so both of those 16's hit, but I don't think he trips? Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

I guess having like severed hands crawl up on you is panic-inducing because he fires off another shot and probably comes a lot closer to hitting one of his teammates than he does any of the hands currently swarming him (attack 4...).]

Any time you feel like frying these fuckers would be great, man. [Get on that shit, Mars. There has to be one person here besides Jaina who is marginally competent right...?]

[charismapotion]

This is such a bad idea. Everyone duck!

[ Mars moved forward trying to get in front as he cast Scorching Ray, with two rays (14 atk, 6 dmg / 15 atk, 3 dmg) ]

[flyingsolo]

[ there's no room for mars to get through but he can strike two from where he stands, melting two of them by adam.

four more converge on jaina, and she avoids all but one (atk 18/6/21/nat 20, dmg 2), but the attack manages to knock jaina on her ass prone.

four of them are still on lydia (atk 22/15/14/nat 20; dmg 1 & 14, trip attempts 3 & nat 20...), probably also dragging her down.

three attack astrid (atk 22/nat 20/6; dmg 1 & 6, trip attempts 1 and 3) and the one left on adam (atk 19; dmg 1 if it hits; trip attempt 15). two more skitter through towards mars (atk 13/23; dmg 1, trip attempt 2). ]

[immuno]

[ i'm not even rolling that dex check man there's no humanly possible way she'll make every one since the last round. LYDIA IS GOIN' DOWN.

And since Jaina just said "don't let them drag you down" without specifying outcomes, she's reasonably horrified about being knocked prone under an army of disembodied hands. To be fair, she'd be horrified by this turn of events regardless, but the ominous warning didn't help.

In a perfectly proportionate reaction to the level of trauma that comes with being covered in creepy monster hands, she lets out an ear-piercing banshee shriek, a tremulous wail that echoes through until her next turn. Creatures within 40 feet must make a fort save, DC 17. Creatures that make their save are sickened for 1d4 rounds; creatures that fail their save are dazed for 1d6 rounds. Including allies sry :'| Dis ain't some Black Canary selective channel shit. Sickened creatures take -2 on all their rolls; dazed creatures cannot act (but take no AC penalty).

Prays to jesus that the hands have shitty fort saves ... ]

[pathology]

[astrid passes her trip attempts but that doesn't change the fact that HANDS ARE ON HER EW UGH JESUS. but her fort save was ... 16. so now she is dazed. THANKS LYDIA.]

[flyingsolo]

[ jaina easily makes her save (fort 26), but all the hands in her square fail, as do all but one in lydia's. both of astrid's, adam's, and one of mars' fail also. so basically dazed handz everywherez. jaina doesn't waste time doing another force strike (strike 11, dmg 7) although it's a pretty shitty one. two of those fuckers get nat 20 reflex saves and are still up, but she takes out two of them. ]

[ex_psionic439]

[Adam gets smacked by a hand for one damage, but manages to keep his footing because he makes his save against the trip attempt.

It doesn't really matter though because he fails his fort save against Lydia's scream and ends up just as dazed as Astrid.

Fortunately the hand that was all up in his business and groping him is also fucked. Thanks for the assist, gurl.]

[charismapotion]

[ Fort save... 1. Mars is dazed enough by the scream, that he's kinda screwed for the hand on him.

However, a certain black kitty didn't fail, with her fortsave being 18. She moves swiftly towards Adam, to save her boyfrand from groping hand using 2 claws (atk 11, dmg 5) ]

[flyingsolo]

[ venus' paw misses the hand, which is at least distracted from attacking mars, targeting the cat instead (atk 17 dmg 3 trip attempt 3, it's hard to trip a cat ok). the only other moving hand is on lydia, clawing at her as she lies there (atk 22, dmg 2). technically it deals double damage when you're prone but thaT DOESNT HELP WHEN YOU ROLL A ONE ]

[immuno]

[ As her shrieking stops a full six seconds later, she looks around, watching the numbing effect it appears to have on all of them. She remains startled for only a moment, however, as the hand claws at her. She raises her gun and fires at the offending hand (atk 21, dmg 8). ]

Taking them one at a time isn't going to work. We need to figure out a way to get them all at once.

[ Rolls how many rounds people are dazed/sickened for: Astrid dazed for 1 (so she's fine now), Jaina sickened for 4, Adam dazed for 5, Mars dazed for 2, Hands that failed their save dazed for 4, Hands that made their saves sickened for 3. ]

[pathology]

[astrid comes out of her dazed-ness like] The fuck? [and then goes back to doing what she was doing before — idk shooting at a hand. any hand that's still up. atk 23; 9 dmg.] Ugh, maybe there's like, a slightly bigger hand somewhere that's controlling them!