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

[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.

[ex_psionic439]

Well, good. That means we stopped it.

[No more flesh golems is the best news. He points over toward Dr. Sickfuck.]

That dude's hella dead. So we win, right?

[immuno]

We're gonna have to do something with that.

[ She turns her gaze on the corpse of Dr. Sickfuck. ]

[pathology]

Well, he died because he was shot, it's not like we can stage it so he died of natural causes or he was mauled by — [she glances at the flesh golem like OR ... CAN WE?????] I mean ... I guess it could wield a gun ... in theory ...

[charismapotion]

[ Mars walks over to Lydia.]

Can I see them? [ The books he means, before looking to Astrid.]

...or maybe we could put them both in the cooler? .... or cremate them? [ It felt a little sickening to even say but he said it.]

[flyingsolo]

We've got the evidence to show what was going on here. If we hand it over to Wynn, he can pull the right strings, make sure they understand what happened here.

[immuno]

Good. Let's get the hell out of here, then. [ Despite her readiness to leave, her eyes stays inexorably fixed on the doctor. Mars' words are clearly hanging over her head. Or cremate them. She turns away finally and hands the books over to Mars, then makes her way out of the morgue. ]

[pathology]

[in that case, she's taking lots of pictures of the crime scene on her own just in case before they leave. BLINDS EVERYONE WITH HER PHONE'S FLASH YAYYYY.]

[flyingsolo]

[ BOOM MISSION SUCCESSFUL /fin ]