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]

[ 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.]

[pickyourbattles]

[ the person lifts their head, and while he looks pale, he also looks terrified. ] What did he do to these poor people?

[olreliable]

[Willow stands off to the side since she can't pick a lock (or maybe she can. She disabled that trap. But nah, she's focused on the people in the cage and trusts Nathan and Paige to handle it.) Perhaps some vampire/arcane lore knowledge would shed some light on what's wrong with these people?? Maybe?? It's all I've got (arcane lore 27)]

[autorevive]

[to paige] What, you think just because I have a past as a juvenile delinquent I can pick locks? [he looks SO OFFENDED lmao but still takes a crack at it and uhhh ... disable device 21???]

lmfao

[pickyourbattles]

[ will would notice that they look drained, and disoriented, but none of them appear to have been turned. it is possible the vamp had them under a spell that broke with his death.

the door pops open and aurelius steps inside carefully, reaching down to offer some healing with a potion ]

[somepagesturn]

[Paige gives Nathan a flat look, but doesn't say anything, BECAUSE SHE'S HERE TO OFFER SOME HEALING to whichever one looks the worst off. (Cure Critical Wounds 93) THAT'S PROBABLY OVERKILL FOR A FUCKING NPC, but he's super healed now.

She feels bad because she blames herself for the vampire coming here and hurting them :(]

[autorevive]

[meanwhile nathan's just standing outside the cage with his hands on his hips looking proud of himself uh he didn't expect that to actually work] ... Well, you're right! Don't underestimate me, ya fucks.

[impetere]

[Cora rolls her eyes at that, before crouching down to the nearest person and offering a hand out gently (diplomacy 13). She's not as good at this, but her voice is gentle and she doesn't try to touch them without them giving her permission.]

It's okay. We're going to take you home.

[pickyourbattles]

Of course we are. [ all of the captives are able to saved with some quickly applied healing. a search of the cave shows that the vampire had set up shop there some time ago, and appeared to have been surviving on animals at first based on some bones buried there.

the families are incredibly grateful to be reunited with their loved ones. and the scourge strahd released on this world is forever put to rest.

/mission, unless anyone has wrap stuff to add! ]

[risked]

[victory!]