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]

[ mage hand can only move something up to five pounds, unfortunately, which he does not qualify as. astrid's shot pings uselessly off him. ] This isn't working!

[ jaina keeps firing, but her expression clouds with frustration, and she looks like she's considering doing something desperate. (atk 18/24; dmg 22) the shots seem to be damaging it quote a bit at this point, actually. ]

[immuno]

It is when we actually hit it!

[ Goddamn, y'all. Herself included. With a WELL-SPENT ACTION POINT, Lydia hopefully ?? manages to hit it with atk 17, penetration damage 17 jesus. ]

[ex_psionic439]

Why's this thing coming after me??

[Said while backing up a few steps and firing at the flesh golem to try and deter it (attack 18, damage 7)]]

[flyingsolo]

[ the 17 just barely manages to avoid hurting it, pinging uselessly off it, but adam's shot breaks through. adam backs into the wall and the golem steps up right in his space. luckily it's... too slow to also attack rn. ]

[charismapotion]

Try using your mind powers!

[ mars yells over to him as he he pulls the gun from his bag and fires a shot; sadly he's a terrible shot and missed (Crit fail)]

[pathology]

[astrid is still ... making sad attempts to shoot the thing, too. (atk 15)]

[flyingsolo]

[ mars just accidentally... blew out the light with that shot. so we're back in the darkness 8D YAY! shots ring out in the dark anyway as jaina keeps trying to fire at it (atk 15/12). the first shot hits it uselessly but the second misses, striking the wall right beside adam's head. ]

[immuno]

Will you just hurry up and die already?!

[ Frantic shouting, brought to you by Lydia as she fires her gun into the darkness. Which doesn't look all that dark when you have darkvision #swag (atk 24, penetration damage 14). ]

Mars might be onto something. Magic doesn't work on them, but you can still try to reach it telepathically! What's the point of being in the Dragon's Mind if it can't teach you to dominate a golem?

[ex_psionic439]

Jesus Christ you guys are the worst back-up ever. [Said while ducking away (after the fact, but that shit was still too close for comfort so of course he is gonna react) from a stray fucking bullet hitting the wall right next to himl. And now everything is dark and even more horror movieesque, but he knows that shit is right fucking there.

Up until now he has been working under the assumption that golems are mindless drones or whatever, and from his perspective mindless probably had some sort of resistance to mind-affecting abilities (due to lack of their own will?). Look it made sense. But uh, the bullets aren't doing enough damage fast enough because no one could actually aim a fucking gun, what does he have to lose?

Granted, he might die but he's honestly expecting to be shot in the face by one of his friends at this point anyway.

Since he's basically up against a wall and the flesh golem, Adam is going to use his move action to regain psionic focus, which he does easily with a nicely timed nat 20. Why the FUCK didn't he shoot for crit damage. I guess he works well under pressure. Anyway, that bumps the will save against his Inflict Pain to 18.

That'll be a -4 penalty on attack rolls, skill checks, and ability checks if the golem fails. If it makes the save, it takes only a -2 penalty to those instead. You know, assuming it has a mind at all. And if it doesn't he is going to be sfm @ u Lydia.]

[flyingsolo]

[ bad news bears.

adam reaches out with his mind towards the creature and finds... absolutely nothing waiting for him. hooray :')

he doesn't have long to be pissed about this before a giant golem fist comes flying at his head (atk 25, dmg 24), its fist colliding with thunderous force. ] Adam!

[charismapotion]

[ Mars has no other ideas but figuring the only good idea at the moment is him putting the gun back he blasts another ray. At least the fire seemed to slow it down. (Atk 15, dmg 20) ]

[pathology]

[astrid is not going to shoot her gun because there is no light and the monster seems to be trying to maul adam?!?! WTF?!?!]

Are you okay?!

[holding action basically.]

[flyingsolo]

[ another two shots split the darkness (atk 27/17, dmg 12). with a hideous groaning sound, the creature staggers backwards... and then there's a giant SLAM as it hits the ground, luckily falling back instead of onto adam.

/init ]

[immuno]

Adam!

[ Lydia lowers her gun and rushes to her friend's side, completely disregarding the guy they just murdered and the corpse of the flesh golem. ]

We need to get you to a cleric.

[pathology]

[with her usual amount of indignance] I can help him!

[ex_psionic439]

[Yes, do healing, because after the blow he just took it's likely that there's something broken idk. He was like two points away from massive damage and his baby bitch hit points are almost gone.

Which is why Adam just kind of loses his footing and slides down the wall after the flesh golem keels over. They can probably pick up that he's more surprised to still be alive than anything but uh, yeah hurtin' too.

Or I dunno maybe that blow to his head knocked out their social link altogether. The fact that he isn't taking the opportunity to make a crack at how much they suck at aiming screams I could use a doctor rn tho.]

[immuno]

[ She crouches at Adam's side and shoots Astrid a withering look over her shoulder, one that clearly wants to make an argument about whether or not a tourniquet and some band-aids are comparable to magical regeneration, but she bites her tongue. Not the time (will 16). ]

Then, do something. [ She snaps it out, voice thick with enough concern to make it evident that her bitchy attitude is born more out of worry than any real animosity. Adam's one of the few people who's actually been decent to her and valued her in her life, ok. ]

[pathology]

[now that they aren't in combat, she can at least pull out her flashlight and use that to guide her over to him and also as a light source while checking out his various injuries. she uses her med kit and brings him up 7 hp, which is literally the best she can do. she tried so hard :'( ]

[ex_psionic439]

[That like doubles what he had before ok. He ain't mad, even if his skull is possibly fractured and he is probably going to be sporting the world's biggest migraine for a while.

When Astrid's done working her magic (haha, see what I did there), Adam is markedly less dazed--enough so that he is able vocalize his feelings regarding their current situation.]

Are we done yet? because fuck this. [Yep. You can stop worrying now, he's going to live.]

[flyingsolo]

We should search the man's office, see if we can find any other evidence in case anyone else was connected to all this.

[immuno]

[ Lydia pulls herself away from Adam with a 20 total will save and looks at Astrid. ]

You should see if there's anything you can do for the doctor. He might have answers his paperwork doesn't. [ But then she goes to the office with Jaina to look around (search 25). ]

[pathology]

[she looks at lydia like really???? but goes over to his body to check on him before announcing, loudly so lydia and jaina can still hear:] Well, he's dead, so ... no. [/gently loots his body? search 19?]

[flyingsolo]

[ baker has a ruger service-six revolver in a concealed carry holster, and he also has one of those whistles around his neck.

in the office, lydia finds several strange books dealing with egyptian mythology and the mummification process, plus a journal describing the procedures required to remove body parts for the creation of a flesh golem. the latter tome is written in ancient egyptian, but translated notes are scrawled in english along the bottom of the pages. ]

[immuno]

[ Lydia brings the books out, still reading the notes at the bottom. She knows enough about biology to digest it, no pun intended. ]

According to his notes, it sounds like this was the goal. [ She gestures with the journal to the golem. ] Those people were just the steps to build it. I didn't see anything about other conspirators, though.

[pathology]

[well astrid is definitely taking the gun and the whistle. thx bro. r.i.p.]

Weird.