switzerland ♔ the words tightening around my throat

[silverguardian]

WHO || Nyna, Cara, Felicity, Stiles
WHAT || The Knights are sent to hear about a prospective job from an art collector
WHERE || Bern, Switzerland
WHEN || April 13th, 2015
HOW || Actionspam

The streets of Bern swell with the myriad sights and scents of its industry: the wood and polish of carpenters' shops, tantalizing aromas wafting from dozens of bakeries, and the heavy oil scent of artists.  Meanwhile, hundreds of rich colors give the district an appearance of a holiday festival.  The townhouse of Asheron Coyl comes into view, perched on a small rise that overlooks the street.  A low fence covered in vines abuts the street.  A gate opens onto a flagstone path that wends past frozen flower beds, fountains, and sculpted shrubs to the front doors.  A bell hangs next to the gate, reading "Please ring bell" in several languages.  With an 11 disguise check, Nyna didn't really bother to dress all fancy, opting instead for her paladin armor, sorry guys.   She can be the sexy bodyguard.  

Comments

[trebond]

[ definitely with her! ]

[killingtodeath]

[Yep stiles is also going]

[behindcloseddoors]

[ felicity opens a door here that leads to a bedroom. a plush area rug covers part of the floor on the west side of the room. a long chest of drawers topped by a gilded mirror rests against the eastern side of the northern wall. a heavy dark oak desk occupies the eastern wall, and a wide armoire is centered against the southern wall. two paintings on the west wall depict horrible creatures - the first shows a huge monster with the thickly muscled, slime-covered lower body of a giant humanoid and the upper body of some sort of horrific squid with humanoid arms that split into five long, barbed tentacles. the portrait to the east is of a small, emaciated child holding a ragged, bloodstained doll. she wears a mischievous smile and has dark gaping holes where her eyes should be. a curious weapon rack on the western section of the north wall holds nearly a dozen pencil-thin rods of wood, stone, bone, and other less-identifiable materials. dark purple drapes partially cover narrow stained glass windows in the west and north walls. ]

[allmydreams]

[WHY IS IT ALWAYS CREEPY CHILDREN is pretty much her first thought, and she keeps her guns trained on those paintings in case they decide to come to life the second they enter the room. She then glances back over her shoulder at the weapon's rack.]

Anyone recognize any of those?

[Because she sure doesn't (knowledge 4).]

[trebond]

[ 13 if it's knowledge arcana? ? ? 15 if religion, 11 if history. otherwise lmfao 10 ... ]

[killingtodeath]

[Knowledge arcane lore 18 or general int 14.]

[behindcloseddoors]

[ nope! it doesn't appear to be ... anything remotely real, just the product of a highly disturbed mind. ]

[trebond]

Not in the slightest. And I can't say I'm sorry about that.

[killingtodeath]

[Stiles will go check out those weapons, grabbing one of the rods to try to see just what it is.]

Should we torch them? Or are we going to try to peek inside for this guy we're still looking for?

[allmydreams]

[Felicity pauses before shaking her head.]

I'm pretty sure the guy we were looking for is the one that came out of the painting a couple rooms back. Let's torch these and keep moving until we find the painter.

[trebond]

[ Alanna's good for that. She'll cast produce flame again to give her ten minutes of burning purple fire in her hand. She torches the painting. ]

And any others we find before he shows himself. [ Felicity's got the right idea. Kill it with fire. ]

[druidisms]

[ gus doesn't have any more fire spells prepared that are a low enough level to warrant using on a painting so while alanna torches them with her purple flames, he and mellie will be keeping an ear to the ground (spot 22, listen 19) and standing guard in case anything decides to fall out of the rest of the paintings. ]

[killingtodeath]

[Stiles is just standing around, expecting terrible things to jump out of the paintings at any moment. So he fidgets and watches as Alanna torches them.]

[behindcloseddoors]

[ the rods on the rack don't seem magical - perhaps they're just decorative? as he steps towards it, however, a sigil flares to life on the wall above it, glowing a blue rune like shape that prompts everyone in the room to make a will save DC 20 or fall into a deep sleep.

meanwhile, alanna torches the paintings, but as her flames touch the canvas of the one with the bizarre octopus creature, the nightmarish creature looms out of the canvas towards her, its eyes glowing hellishly red, its appendages unfolding and reaching out as if to draw her into her own flames and consume her. she must make a separate will save... ]

[druidisms]

[ gus seems unaffected (will save 22), but his attention is immediately drawn to his companion as she tips over with a dull, heavy thud as all 1800 pounds of her slumps to the ground, eyes shut. ]

Mellie!

[ she snores softly. ]

[trebond]

[ with a will save of 21, Alanna stays awake despite the rune, blinking through the grogginess just barely, in time to catch sight of the bizarre creature lumbering toward her from within the frame. she doesn't let up her efforts to burn the painting the ground, and tries to resist whatever the fuck is going on (will 27). ]

[allmydreams]

[FLASHING SIGILS ARE NOT A GOOD THING. Thankfully, Felicity manages to force her way through the effects of the spell and stay awake, at least for now (will save 24). She turns on her heel towards Alanna when the octopus creature comes out of the painting with her gun up, shooting at the thing to try and get it off her (attack 28 with precise shot, damage 17 with penetration damage if it hits).]

I hate these stupid paintings.

[Helpful commentary with Felicity Braddock.]

[killingtodeath]

[Meanwhile, there's a strange groaning noise that you might think is the bear, but no it's the sound of Stiles crit failing his will save and collapsing into a sleepy heap.]

[behindcloseddoors]

[ alanna recognizes the octopus as an illusion meant to frighten her to death. ignoring it, she finishes lighting up the painting, just as stiles hits the ground in a deep sleep. ]

[trebond]

What — [ thud. She turns to look behind her and rolls her eyes. ] Oh for Mithros' sake. [ She drops her hands and heads over to Stiles, nudging him with her boot. ] Wake up, will you?

[allmydreams]

[Oh. Well, that was an overreaction on her part. She has had a long couple of days, don't judge her. Since Alanna is waking up Stiles, she glances over to Gus with an apprehensive look at the sleeping bear.]

Is this one of those situations where waking the bear up will end well?

[druidisms]

It's one of those situations where everyone might want to be out of the room. [ he's not going to slap the bear with people around tbh. if it can even be broken that way. he crouches down next to mellie, peering at his companion and trying to suss out the sigil that had flared to be sure of the spell. (spellcraft 20 total) ]

[behindcloseddoors]

[ it seems to be a heightened symbol of sleep, but it's a simple enough matter to wake up those who have fallen prey to it. it's likely designed to thwart lone intruders - or those with less willpower overall. ]

[druidisms]

It's just a sleep spell. Slap him and everyone get out of here so I can wake up Mellie.

[allmydreams]

[Felicity will not wait to see if Stiles will respond to Alanna (sorry Stiles) and she will just step forward and crouch down next to him to slap him right across the face (attack 14).]

Sorry, Stiles, you can be mad at me later.