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

[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!

[flyingsolo]

[ lydia's shot blows the hand away, astrid's following to do the same. jaina steps away from the two hands on top of her, turning to try and swipe more off from lydia but she crit failed her force strike (unsure), hitting lydia with the blow of invisible energy too for 9 dmg, but at least takes out two hands in the process??? ] I don't see anymore coming. Just keep it up.

[ex_psionic439]

[Stands there, dazed and useless.]

NO ONE SAW ANYTHING!

[charismapotion]

[ Venus has no fucks to give, she hisses as the hand gets close and attacks with two claws again (Atk 18, dmg 5.)

Finally, her useless dazed human finally realizes shit's getting real near his feet and brings one of his Converse down hard on the creepy hand trying to get Venus (Atk 20, Dmg 4)]

[flyingsolo]

[ venus deftly slices into the hand, leaving nothing but a mauled ruin. since that one's destroyed, i'll assume mars stomps on the dazed one beside it, squashing that one next ]

[immuno]

[ BUT KEEPING IT UP IS SUCH A PAIN. Lydia turns and levels her gun at one of the hands between her square and Astrid's — awwww yeah atk 27 (crit on 19), dmg 18. Because sometimes you just overkill. ]

[pathology]

[whatever we're just gonna kill all the hands then. astrid shoots again at idk some hand that needs shooting at. but it's an atk 7 so ... whoops.]

[flyingsolo]

[lydia pops off another one and jaina strikes down the two hands in front of her, which just leaves two on astrid, and one on adam ]

[ex_psionic439]

[herp derp, continues to be dazed and useless.]

[charismapotion]

[ Kitty savior makes her fluffy way to Astrid going for one hand with her awesome two claws. (Atk 16, Dmg 4)

Mars...moves over and kicks at the hand on Adam... but being dazed he may have kicked Adam. (atk 10, dmg 5) ]

[flyingsolo]

[ the cat takes down one of astrid's, but mars just barely misses kicking adam lmao. ]

[immuno]

[ Apparently Lydia has been kicking ass in those training sessions with David because she ROLLED ANOTHER 19. So 27 total, dmg 10. She's ready for the Red Room, y'all. ]

[pathology]

[astrid shoots at the last hand up in her business, getting an atk 16! mmm kill 'em. 7 dmg.]

[flyingsolo]

[ annnd that pops the last one! /init

jaina looks wildly around the corner of the room, palm up, waiting for more to emerge, but no more do. ] I think that's all of them. For now.

[pathology]

That better be all of them. Because that was fucking disgusting. [she kicks the dead hands out of her square. shoo, go the fuck away. stop ruining her louboutins.]

[immuno]

[ She puts the safety on and slides her gun back into her purse like THAT WAS SOME BULLSHIT. And then she glances at Adam who will slowly become not dazed over the next like 15 seconds. ]

[charismapotion]

[ Mars holds a hand down to help Adam up, Venus is gonna stay over by Astrid for now. The ladies are clearly the better choice for kitty to be around at the moment.]

[flyingsolo]

We should hurry, either way. [ if anyone needs a hand up still, she'll provide it, but then she's gonna shift her focus to the room. with a 15 spot, she kneels down, indicating some faint stains on the floor. ] Some kind of ... fluid. [ she sniffs her fingers are touching it, wrinkling her nose ] I can't tell what.

[ everyone can make search checks, and/or wisdom checks to identify the smell. they can also specifically choose to examine the book/statue/hieroglyphics/tome etc. ]

[immuno]

[ lydia makes for the tome! decipher script 26? ]

[flyingsolo]

[ it's enough to recognize that the book is written in ancient egyptian, and seems to be some sort of spellbook, but not high enough to translate its contents. ]

[immuno]

Some sort of spellbook. [ Lydia mumbles as she flips through. Raising her voice to a clearer announcement, she continues, ] I'd have to take it with me to figure out what kind of spells. I can't translate Ancient Egyptian without reference material. Given the creepy hands, I'd say it's safe to say it's something sketchy.

[ex_psionic439]

[Adam finally fucking comes to, and after a second of like trying to open his mouth and maneuver his jaw to make the ringing in his ears stop, he makes his way over toward where Jaina is kneeling on the floor.

What? He is going to stay by the most competent person sue him.

He doesn't actually kneel himself, but she's already pointed out the stains so he's just stares at the shit trying to see if he can make out what it is (wisdom 21).]

[pathology]

Oh! Oh! Let me!! [astrid should probably do other things but she wants to play this game of csi: los angeles, so she joins jaina and adam in trying to identify the fluid. wis 15??? investigate 19??? something lmao ... ]