casablanca ♔ i've signed this contract with my blood

[pickyourbattles]

WHO ||Willow, Paige, Aurelius, Nathan, Cora, Allison [Closed]
WHAT || The Knights travel to Casablanca to track down a vampire unleashed by Strahd into this world
WHERE || Casablanca, Morocco
WHEN || Fall 2016 [back dated]
HOW || Actionspam. Single thread, don't worry about maintaining tagging order.

It's been well over a year since an unexplainable phenomena occurred - the usual mist that hails the momentary gap in the Veil between worlds hung around in Romania, and actually seemed to work two ways for a time.  A time long enough for the Knights to wander into the realm of Barovia, where they discovered a people terrified by the Vampire Strahd of Castle Ravenloft.  Confronting the vampire, they managed to be reunited with their lost leader, Sir Dovan, but they drove an increasingly irritated Strahd to send something else back along with them - an ubervampire of his own creation, one of his bizarre experiments, which he unleashed upon their home world.  There had been no clues as to where the creature had ended up until now.

Six disappearances in Casablanca across the last six months have turned up no bodies, but sightings of a creature that matches the description.  The Knights travel to the last location of one of these sightings - near one of the piers.

Comments

[pickyourbattles]

[ the sound of growls rises around them, and cora can hear them being surrounded, the footsteps growing closer, encroaching on every side. in front of them, the brush parts to allow a huge black wolf to step out, its eyes glowing unnaturally red. it stands over waist high on a human, its dark fur seeming to drink in the light around them. ]

Can you... can you understand them? [aurelius asks cora nervously]

[impetere]

Not exactly.

[But she's going to try and communicate with them as best she can (diplomacy 21). Her eyes glowing gold to show that she's at least partially one of them, more than anything else.]

As I said, we're not here for you. We just want to talk. We're looking for a vampire.

[somepagesturn]

[this is what it comes to. communicating with wolves. Paige still looks nervous, but since she's ready to put up a protection circle at any second, she's holding strong at Cora's side.]

He's very dangerous. They should know that.

[autorevive]

Compared to what, the harmless vampire that just wanders around the countryside pickin' turnips? If they know a vampire, I think they'll know that part.

[pickyourbattles]

[ cora gets the strangest sense of wrongness from the wolf, as though there were more than just animosity at play here. its lips curl back from its fangs and a horrible snarl erupts, teeth gnashing all around them.

and just as quickly, it recoils, turning and vanishing into the dark thicket ]

Should we... should we follow?

[olreliable]

As much as all of the logical, self preserving parts of me say 'oh god no' ... I'm pretty sure that's our only lead.

[somepagesturn]

Willow's right... [unfortunately.] Gods preserve us... Stay on alert, everyone. Be wary of traps. Cora?

[she nods at her.] Take the lead.

[impetere]

[Cora ... doesn't really want to follow them, the wrongness of it all making her skin crawl, but she also knows that given the situation, the wrongness is probably what they should follow. So she simply nods before slowly heading forward into the thicket, keeping her guard up to make sure that they're not ambushed (listen 19, spot 31, survival nat 20).]

[pickyourbattles]

[ ambush is right - as they approach what seems to be a clearing, she would notice that a canopy of leaves on the ground ahead dips down strangely - and see a bit of netting beneath it revealing a trap ]

[impetere]

Stop!

[She throws out her arm as soon as she sees it, stopping right in her tracks to keep any of the rest of the group from going further.]

There's a trap there, in the leaves.

[olreliable]

[Willow's eyes go a little wide]

A trap? As in... for us specifically?

[autorevive]

We've been here for five minutes! You think they can dig that fast?

[impetere]

I don't think it matters who it's for. What matters is it's there.

[She takes a small step forward, eyes peering around to see if she can spot anything lying in wait (spot 31).]

[somepagesturn]

A pit trap seems... very primitive.

[she's gonna cast Detect Magic just in case this is a decoy or if there's something else at play here.]

[pickyourbattles]

I mean, it might keep the locals at bay, at least. [ she senses no magic on the trap at least. cora, however, sees furtive movement quickly skirting through the trees ]

[impetere]

[Cora is incredibly on edge with all of this, maybe it's just the wrongness of the wolves getting to her or maybe it's just the obvious trap and lurking ambush, but it doesn't take much after seeing that movement for her eyes to glow and her claws to extend growling out in the direction of the trees (intimidate 23).]

Pissing off a werewolf is really not your best move. Get out here, now.

[She takes a step forward from her team, not into the trap, but enough to put some distance between them.]

[pickyourbattles]

[ well. she asked for it. out of the woods behind them comes rocketing a figure at lightning fast speed - a pale figure with a dark beard and long hair, eyes red and blazing, fangs bared, a massive bastard sword in hand.

time for init! ]

[olreliable]

Look out!

[Willow jumps and yelps in surprise. Despite the fact that they have been looking for this exact thing, it's still spooky to see it up close and personal. And it's charging. At them. She brought her best spells but in the moment, she doesn't shoot fire or lightning at him. All she can see is him tearing her friends apart, so instead, she raises a hand and fires of a ray of enfeeblement (ranged touch: 22, 6 str damage for 5 mins)]

[pickyourbattles]

[ the coruscating light intercepts the vampire, blasting into his side and causing him to unleash a howl as it saps his strength away. he turns from aurelius to reroute towards willow, although that breaks his charge. one hand reaches out to grab her by the throat (atk 19, grapple 17, 1 dmg if it succeeds + another effect but we'll uh... get into that if he does). ]

NO! [ aurelius goes pale and he raises a hand, shooting a scorching ray of fire at the vampire's back (atk touch 14, dmg 12). shockingly, it seems to have very little effect on him, beside burning a hole in the back of his clothes. ] UNHAND HER!

[olreliable]

[With a crit fail, willow is not having a good day and feeling super drained. She flails and gasps for air, grabbing onto his arm and attempting to shock the shit out of him (shocking grasp - melee touch 12, damage 11)]

[impetere]

[Yeah, Cora is not fond of this either, so she's going to also charge the vampire, this time ready to dig in to his back with her claws (attack 32, damage 16, attack 34, damage 15).]

[risked]

[It does seem to happen all of a sudden, but Allison draws her bow (quick draw) and tracks the target before firing off her first shot (atk 21 | dmg 13) and draws quickly for a second hit (atk 28 | dmg 10). Once she fires the second hit she glances around to take inventory of anyone that she might need to step in front of (during her next turn)]

[herebemonsters]

[ the vampire recoils from the electricity in willow's touch, as cora digs into him from behind, shredding part of his armor. she would, however, notice that the wounds begin to heal over slightly. allison's first arrow whizzes right past his ear, but the second buries in his shoulder. he, however, evinces no reaction to it whatsoever.

at that moment two gigantic wolves come flying out of the woods: one pounces on allison, snapping its jaws at her (atk 9), while another does the same to nathan (atk 17, dmg 9 if it hits). ]

[autorevive]

[it does not hit him thank u very much!! he manages to slide out of the way just in time. but then he is faced with a problem. he has a grenade in his hand ... but if he sets it off right here, everyone will get mad at him. he has learned this from experience. but still wanting to do SOMETHING, he tries to hit the wolf with the grenade in his hand like it's a rock. it uh ... goes about as well as you'd expect. (atk 13 and atk 12, 3 and 4 dmg if those actually hit ... lmfao ... )]

[somepagesturn]

[There's an alarming amount going on right now and Paige can only do so much. The best anyone can hope for is that the fighting ends quickly.

She turns her focus to the vampire, expression gravely serious as she clasps her hands over her chest, drawing on the resolve of both her god and holy symbol of Ravenkind from Barovia.]

I've been waiting for this moment.

[She unleashes Holy Smite which hits every evil creature in the area with 30 holy damage to every evil creature in the area and causes them to become blinded for one round. A will save of 17 halves the damage and negates the blinded effect.]