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

[somepagesturn]

[Paige nods, the shock of the battle finally catching up to her.] We'll follow your lead, Cora.

[Her eyes fall on the dust that used to be Strahd's manufactured vampire and lays her hand over her two holy symbols, murmuring a prayer for Barovia and apologizing that she might never get back there. But at least their interference in that world beyond the Veil no longer has consequences in their world. Once she's finished, she turns to the rest of the group, looking them over one by one.]

Is anyone else badly hurt?

[olreliable]

[To Paige:] I'm okay now. Thanks for earlier, though. You always come through when we need you.

[She takes a deep breath before turning to Cora.]

We definitely need to find where he was keeping them. The last thing we want is to go home now and find out there's a group of baby vampires roaming the streets in a couple weeks or something.

[pickyourbattles]

A possibility I hadn't begun to consider yet. [ he shudders ] Do you think you can pick up a... scent from a vampire?

[autorevive]

[uhhh don't mind nathan trying to yank his grenade back out of the wolf corpse. it's totally fine fam.]

I hope we can set all those cunts on fire.

[yes. thank you.]

[impetere]

[She nods at Aurelius' question.]

They mostly smell dead.

[But with that, she will take a deep breath and try to pick up the scent of the vampire and where he might have been holing up (survival 28).]

[somepagesturn]

[Paige winces.] I suppose it'll be a trail worth following regardless then...

[pickyourbattles]

[ it's difficult, but she picks up a scent nevertheless of wrongness, that leds further into the woods. they walk for some time, but remain unhassled by any further wolves or beasties. finally, they track towards a cave, a split fissure in a hill that seems unnatural simply in its strange twisty shape. ]

[impetere]

[She eyes the fissure for a moment, waiting just outside it to see if she can see anything else that might be trouble (spot 22, listen 21).]

[risked]

[Allison follows Cora as well. She trusts her and after all they've seen, she's not about to just go home empty handed. She keeps her bow in hand, fist tight around its grip. She brings up the rear of the group, turning backwards to glance around every few feet. (spot 27 / listen 18)]

[pickyourbattles]

[ cora thinks the coast is clear, but no sooner does she go to move forward than allison spots the rigged up trap in front of the cave entrance, that would send a guillotine-like blade down at anyone who dared enter. ]

[risked]

Wait! [She doesn't shout it, but she does say it loud enough to hopefully catch the attention of Cora in the lead. She still watches behind them, but she moves ahead to point the trap out to Cora and the rest of them.]

We're either headed somewhere that someone doesn't want us to go - or the whoever lives in the cave is bored. [She moves toward the trap, looking at it and trying to see if she can figure out how to disable it. (Disable Device 12) But she's probably not going to make much headway on that.]

[somepagesturn]

Oh. Be careful, Allison. [MOM FRETTING!!] Maybe we can trigger it remotely... Willow and I have spells that could do it without causing damage to the cave...

[She's saying that for Nathan's benefit... A good magic stone or magic missile would probably work for that. No need to bring out the grenades.

sorry Nathan.]

[impetere]

[Cora stumbles backwards at Allison's shout (reflex save 15). She doesn't move far though, ready to grab Allison and pull her out of the way if there's a secondary trigger somewhere that they hadn't seen.]

Maybe that's a better idea. At least that way no one will be in the line of fire.

[pickyourbattles]

[ yeah allison has no idea what she's looking at here. not gonna be any help. ]

I'm going to vote for that one.

[olreliable]

I don't know about you, but my magic tank is about half full already and I'd rather us have as much as possible in case there's more baddies lurking. Let me just--

[She moves over closer to the trap and tries to see if she can figure it out (disable device 23)]

[pickyourbattles]

[ willow figures out the doohickey switches and undoes this weird rube goldberg machine of death with ease. ] Impressive.

[somepagesturn]

[Yaaaay no wasted spells! With the trap gotten rid of, Paige takes the lead, as the resident vampire fucker-upper and team leader]

I'll cast a protection circle if it looks like they're going to be unfriendly, but let's try to talk to them first... The Knights have brought in young vampires before, if that's what we're dealing with here.

[and then, in a much more softer voice:] But stay on your guard.

[olreliable]

[She flashes Aur a quick grin. Even when there's a creepy vampire cave, there's time to be proud of your accomplishments okay.]

Talk to them. Right. [She doesn't sound super into that idea. But she's not going to argue.]

Anyone feel up to having that conversation?

[impetere]

[Cora moves to fall in step behind Paige, because while she is the badass vampire destroyer she is also the cleric. Probably best if nothing actually happen to her.]

We're going to have to at least try.

[And if not ... well, they tried.]

[pickyourbattles]

I can help. [ SUPER DIPLOMATIC, THIS GUY. or something. annnnd he's gonna smile back at willow and head inside.

there's a low groaning sound up ahead, and the smell of filth, including excrement and piss. mmm. aurelius covers his mouth with his sleeve, looking a bit green around the gills. around a bend, they see several cages, where a few shapes lie, clothes so muddied they look more like sacks ]

[somepagesturn]

Oh no... [Paige rolls a NAT 20 fort save, because I guess concern for people overrides the smell of disgusting shit. She runs ahead when she notices the cages, going to the first one.] Hello? We're here to help you.

[pickyourbattles]

Are they alive? [ the groaning at least seems to signify as much, but they don't seem in any shape to talk ]

[risked]

[Allison has smelled some pretty rank things through her training with her father, but she does cover her mouth and nose with her free hand. She looks at the huddled masses, but really has no clue if this is going to be a classic horror movie moment where they get close and they suddenly attack.]

Go slow... maybe no sudden movements, just in case? [Just to ... try and limit the terror factor.]

[impetere]

[Cora has a sturdy stomach, despite her sensitive nose (fort save 22), but this is ... still really gross, and it shows on her face. But she'll follow Allison's suggestion and slowly make her way further into the lair, trying to get a better look at what's going on around them (spot 31, listen 24).]

[somepagesturn]

[Paige, meanwhile, is trying to get the cage open, but... she has no reason to know how to pick a lock, so she's just struggling with it.] Nathan!

[He probably knows something about breaking locks. To the body inside, she says gently.] It's okay. I can heal you.

[Unless they're a vampire and then she can't.]