london ♔ tonight darkness will shadow the light

[superswank]

WHO || Sydney, Sark, Francesca, Will, Sam, Lydia, Cora  [Closed]
WHAT || The Knights follow a possible lead into the ritual that cult leader Nicholas St. Andrew is attempting 
WHERE ||London, England
WHEN || Feb 26th, evening  [back dated]
HOW || Actionspam. Single thread.

The Children of Chaos may not be what they appeared to be.   According to intelligence provided by Julian Sark, a previous employee of the cult's leader, Nicholas St. Andrew, the cult was founded merely as a way for St. Andrew to dupe his 'followers' into completing several objectives for him.  Including the theft and activation of two ancient idols, which, when coupled with some horrible ritual that seems to involve the removal of human hearts, might just grant St. Andrew some kind of supernatural power.  

Naturally, this is precisely the sort of thing the Knights are interested in stopping.  After pow-wowing with all those who had confronted the cult over the last couple years, Wynn's team heads out to investigate the most recent attack, which took place in an alleyway at night.   Jared O'Keefe is on hand when they arrive at the scene, and greets them with what information they've discovered.

"The victim was a white male in his early twenties, named Philip Juneau.   He worked as a lineman for the phone company and was responding to a report of intermittent service outages at the time of his death, according to his service log with the company."  He points to the nearby entrance.  "Our killer must have been waiting for him.   He didn't get his work done this time, however, thanks to the pizza delivery man's timely arrival."

Comments

[immuno]

Of course it is.

[ BELABORED SIGH. ]

[impetere]

[Cora's going to just glance back at them with a AT LEAST YOU DON'T HAVE TO SMELL IT WITH YOUR SUPER SENSITIVE WEREWOLF NOSE - she totally gets all that down in a look - before she turns and points to the tracks she's found.]

There are tracks going this way.

[She's going to follow them, obviously, but the last time she was on a mission involving the Children of Chaos she got yelled at when she wandered off alone.]

[mydesigns]

[meanwhile, at this point, will finally snaps out of his weird trancelike state. yep, while all y'all were quipping and starting their way down the sewer ... will was still blankly staring into space. #justwillgrahamthings.]

I know what happened.

[immuno]

[ Oh, Will's still here. Lydia thought for sure he was never coming out of that absent seizure. She blinks twice at him. ]

What are you, clairvoyant?

[ Don't mind Lydia drawing hearts around his name in her mental notebook. She's dead-people-psychic too, Will. MFEO. ]

[mydesigns]

An empath. I see things, understand things the way other people can't.

[familybusiness]

Well, why don't you tell us what you saw?

[He's not trying to be an ass, really. Someone had to say it, at least he was nice about it?]

[mydesigns]

[OMFG HE WAS GETTING TO IT OK LYDIA INTERRUPTED HIM.]

The victim was heading down the alley. Nicholas St. Andrew snuck up on him, distracted him. While they were talking, another figure came up behind him. The uh, creature. Whatever it is. [will starts pantomiming how st. andrew would have done these movements to the air, ftr.] Then St. Andrew injected him with sodium penethol, laid him down, and started his ritual. Carving the symbols on his chest, cutting him open, doing the incantation, taking out his heart, and then ...

[he shakes his head.] I don't know after that.

[immuno]

Well, that was thoroughly disturbing.

[ She shakes it off like wow Will you are fucked up minus 15 points nvm. She turns away, looking to Cora. ]

You said you knew where he'd gone?

[impetere]

[She nods and then points in the direction the tracks are leading.]

Tracks head this way. I'm willing to bet the sewer entrance we're looking for is in that direction.

[Will's graphic retelling of the crime also doesn't really seem to bother her, but that's mostly because he's Will the Dog Whisperer and she's already determined him to be good people.]

[certainproclivity]

[Sark fixes Will with a curious look that gradually turns... as amused as he'll allow himself.]

Then we should hurry, while time is still on our side.

[superswank]

[ sydney nods, and they follow cora's trail, which leads to a manhole cover right where francesca's sources claimed there would be one. syd pulls the cover off with manly strength check of 22, and looks down, the odious aroma of the sewer rising up to greet them. she doesn't flinch away from it with her awesome fort save though, just turning to start climbing down. ] Let's go.

[immuno]

[ Lydia will gently touch a hand against the back of Will's arm like come on, Special Needs, don't hang back all catatonic when we start moving, and when she's sure he's not having another seizure, she'll follow after Cora and Syd.

And she stops, nose crinkling with distaste at the sight of the manhole. The smell doesn't get to her, but the fact that it's a sewer still doesn't thrill her (fort 18). She sucks it up and moves to climb down behind Sydney because ain't nobody else peeking up her skirt. ]

[mydesigns]

[wow excuse u lydia HE'S FINE NOW. X( well. as fine as will graham gets. but he follows after her, also not gonna let anyone peak up his skirt lol i mean what. his fort save was only 9 though, so he is ... definitely nauseous. CRIME SCENES SMELL DIFFERENT THAN SEWERS.]

[impetere]

[Cora follows down after Will, managing to keep it together, probably because she spends a lot of time with teenage boys or something (fort save 22). That being said, once she's in the tunnel she's going to try and track the scent again, knowing that the sewer will make it all the harder (survival 30). This isn't her first rodeo, though, so she's hopeful she'll be able to find it.]

[certainproclivity]

[Sark rolled a 9 too, so he... retches a bit as he first catches whiff of the scent and follows the others down with a grim expression. goodbye shoes. goodbye suit.] If I had known St. Andrew would take to the sewers in a dire situation, I would have killed him long before now.

[impetere]

It probably was the were's idea, not his.

[Maybe that's giving the were too much credit, but ... it's what she would do if she didn't want to be found.]

The smells of the sewer covers their scent - makes them harder to track.

[More fun information from your friendly neighborhood werewolf.]

[immuno]

Smart. [ Lydia is not above complimenting the enemy when they have a good idea. But she looks at Cora. ] Harder, but not impossible—you can still track them?

[certainproclivity]

[Sark meanders closer to Sydney. I say meander, it's more like he sidles up to her while avoiding touching the walls. Close to you~

No, really, he wants to talk to her, as he glances over at Cora and Lydia] Wynnfalshond seems to start them young, doesn't he?

[It's a sort of jab at the pair of them. He knows how young he started and he's certainly heard certain things about Sydney, herself. It's fascinating.]

[familybusiness]

[Gonna say Sam caught that with a listen 21. And after the weirdness at the briefing, Sam will just step up to Sydney's other side, glancing over at the man.]

I don't think that's relevant to the mission, do you?

[superswank]

[ honestly sydney looks kind of annoyed by both of you tbh. sark, for being a creeper, and sam, for acting like sydney can't rebuff him on her own about it.

there's no expansive metal tubes down in these sewers, rather it's a series of numerous interconnecting brick and cement passages. some that they pass are filled with several feet of fetid water carrying all manner of waste and garbage, while a few look dryer. pipes above bring fresh water up to buildings, and dump waste water onto the tunnel floors. doors, garage-style gates, and portcullises lead into what are probably building basements, access hallways, and storage spaces, and it doesn't take them long to realize how maze-like it is down here.

cora feels pretty confident about which way to lead them, and they walk along the little rim beside the stream of sewer water, sydney maintaining perfect nat 20 balance as it narrows out, relieving of her of anyone walking right next to her. she ignores both of them, sticking to the subject at hand, nodding ahead. ] Someone's up there.

[ indeed, a light shines from just ahead, illuminating a group of youths dressed in identical jackets. most are sitting on the floor around a coleman lantern, but a few are standing, lounging against the tunnel walls. the smell of cigarette smoke cuts through the odor of sewer. there look to be ten of them total. ]

[mydesigns]

[

no i changed my mind i'm leaving it but i'm gonna write a real tag later ... someday ]

[impetere]

[Fortunately being a teenager and dressed in a leather jacket and combat boots, Cora looks a lot like the street kid she used to be which she hopes will give her a little leeway as she approaches them. Her hands stay down at her sides, indicating that she's not there to pick a fight, she just wants to talk (gather information 17).]

Hey. You guys seen anything weird come through here in the last couple hours?

[superswank]

[ sydney eyes up the gang members, standing behind cora but doesn't say anything, letting the girl who seems closer to their age talk for now. there are some low, jibing laughs and sounds from them as they look across the group, a predatory note to their wide grins and the looks they exchange with each other.

"Maybe. What's it worth to you, sweetheart?" one of them calls, proceeding to make kissy noises. he's smacked in the chest by another one of the guys, who raises his chin and says: "What do you mean by weird?" ]

[impetere]

[Cora is less than impressed with the kissy faces and her face says as much, but when one of them actually offers to be useful, she refrains from saying that it was worth her boot in his face. She glances back to Useful Guy and holds up her hand with two fingers.]

Two people. One of them might not have been human looking. They probably wouldn't have stopped to talk to you unless you got in their way. One of them had blood on his hands.

[Because sedated or not, there's no way you start cutting out someone's heart without getting blood on you. That much is true.]

[familybusiness]

[Sam stays back, presumably with most/all of the others(?), as Cora talks to them, but he's sure watching in case anything goes sideways. She can hold her own, but they've still got numbers on her.]