cape town ♔ heard you moving up now in the city of gold

[withasouvenir]

♫ these streets -- bastille

WHO || Dawn Summers, Indra Crestrage, Sebastian Trevethor, Shawn Spencer, Taradiddle Gezuntheit, Thea Queen
WHAT || Cape Town Mission
WHERE || Cape Town, South Africa
WHEN || Summer 2016
HOW || Actionspam

The Knights fly into the port city of Cape Town in the height of summer, which luckily for them is actually a comfortable Mediterranean climate. They have come in search of Le Chien de l’Onyx to return it to it's former (and rightful) owner, the elf mage Nieulor -- it had been stolen from him in eighteenth century France and once Nieulor was freed from the Bastille, he had tracked its whereabouts across the globe trying to retrieve it. Finally, he has found it in Cape Town and the Knights have been asked to meet him for further information at the Blanched Escargot, a hole in the wall French restaurant on the waterfront.

Comments

[bloodrager]

[ indra is not 100% sure this is a good idea, but she will reluctantly follow anyway, because shawn seems very squishy and needs an adult. ]

[godblessyou]

Sweet! [Taradiddle is so entirely down for this. Not least because she's pretty sure anything that'll kill them will probably go for the bigger people first. Following behind the scary barbarian lady.]

[watcherjunior]

[ Hmm. Sirens or secret passage. What a terrible decision.

So, of course, Dawn's going with the secret passage, following after Taradiddle. ]

[withasouvenir]

[ the door opens into a narrow, dark passage between this false wall and the actual outer wall of the building. thea follows the rest of them into the passage while sebastian slips out of the front of the restaurant to keep watch on the going ons outside with the police and rendezvous with them later.

a few yards into the passage, the floor opens up and a set of narrow, worn steps pitch sharply down into the darkness. once shawn takes the first step a motion-activated light illuminates the stairs with dim, yellowish light. it shows the stairs lead to a landing and then more darkness. what looks to be an electrical line runs along the edge of the stairs.

it's impossible to tell how far down the stairs go. ]

[pwnspatrickjane]

[Indra is not wrong about Shawn needing an adult. Shawn always needs an adult.

The best example of that is when he stops short just at the top of the stairs that appear out of nowhere (reflex save 20), one arm and leg flailing out ahead of him for a moment before he manages to pull it back again. But that motion is enough to activate the motion-triggered lights, so when they appear to light the way ahead of him, he eyes it for a moment before nodding.]

Cool.

[and then he'll immediately take off again in hot pursuit.]

[bloodrager]

[ wow, she nearly smacked into the back of him ok, good thing she's got reflex saves of her own 8| ] Be cautious. We don't know what we'll find at the end.

[withasouvenir]

[ they keep going further and further down and shawn is lucky that all the lights seem to work because he brings them safely down seven more landings until they stop at a rusted, grimy iron door shimmering with droplets of condensation. ]

[pwnspatrickjane]

[Shawn stops at the door, and doesn't touch it, because that's gross, but simply scans the outside of it, looking to see if there's anything out of the ordinary, or would indicate that there's some kind of danger behind it (spot 22).

He has not forgotten that there are dudes with guns possibly behind that door, but at the same time, if things seem pretty much okay, he's going to just yank it open and barge his way in (will save 10). He's not being super overly cautious right now.]

[withasouvenir]

[ the door is heavy af and the hinges grind as he drags it open into... a tunnel that brightens as the motion activated lights pop on. it's an empty access tunnel built of brick with arched ceilings about seven feet high.

these are the options: a little ways down they can turn right or they can continue straight to the end where they can choose either left or right. the lighting is dim but adequate enough to walk unhindered and without injury, but it doesn't illuminate enough. ]

This is very Ninja Turtles...

[pwnspatrickjane]

Maybe we'll find one.

[You never know! This side of the Veil is weird. But that being said, he's studying the options and then glances back to the rest of the team.]

I say we go straight!

[withasouvenir]

[ thea is going to hold shawn back for a brief moment, at the very least, head tilting. anyone with a listen check of 10+ hears faint music coming from... somewhere. ]

I'm down with straight but maybe not so fast this time.

[bloodrager]

[ indra doesn't hear it at all, tbh ] Caution is usually wise in these situations.

[withasouvenir]

Two against one, Shawn, go slow. [ but she'll give him a nudge and off they go straight. ]

[pwnspatrickjane]

[Shawn rolled terribly, but his senses are sharp enough that it doesn't really matter (listen 17). So he'll hear the music and follow it's lead, inching his way down the corridor and ... possibly humming along to the music he's hearing.

He's really bad at sneaking.]

[withasouvenir]

[ omg shawn please. they get to the end of the tunnel and they can either go left or right, but thea's spot check is high enough to stop them from going left, peering into the dim darkness. it's a grate. cool. ]

This way's a dead end.

[ so to the right! ]

[bloodrager]

We're losing ground. Quickly.

[pwnspatrickjane]

[Shawn nods and follows their lead, getting his head back in the game as they get closer (spot 24, listen 25).]

[withasouvenir]

[ shawn hears the music and their own footsteps but he does see that the hall they're in also ends with a steel grate at the end. he also sees that there is another hall that opens up to the right.

also a rat skitters by carrying a piece of pizza crust and when it turns the corner, shawn hears someone's started surprise at pizza rat. ]

[pwnspatrickjane]

The spirits are telling me we must follow the rat!

[And Shawn will dart after pizza rat, his new form of spiritual guidance, and will round the corner right into the voices to see what he happens to find.]

[withasouvenir]

[ he finds... A SMUGGLER WAITING FOR HIM! since the smuggler won 13 vs shawn's 5 init, he throws a punch but wildly misses (atk 6 wtf) ]

[pwnspatrickjane]

[The fact that Shawn managed to dodge the hit was sheer luck on all counts because Shawn is a lot of things, but he is not a fighter of men, unless you count what he learned from Karate Kid.

So he's going to do what he does best, and try and talk his way out of this (diplomacy 33).]

Hey, dude. No need to get all punchy. I'm sure we can talk about this.

[withasouvenir]

[ this motherfucking fuck crit failed and so shawn's words briefly still him like right, of course, talking. there's a twitchiness about him that speaks to how long he's been standing there alone so maybe he was just started. ]

Sorry, man. There was a rat...

[pwnspatrickjane]

Right? I thought you only see those in New York. Apparently there are pizza rats, all over the world.

[More or less. And while this dude is distracted, he'll see if he can notice anything hanging around (spot 30, listen 21).]

[bloodrager]

[ indra rounds the corner finally, having had to catch up to shawn and his rat ] What is going on?

[withasouvenir]

[ thea rounds the corner behind indra and the two women make the smuggler's eyes go wide. ]

HEY!

[ shawn can here the scuff of another person further down the hall and see a foot shifting around, the angle making it clear the person is on the floor, though sitting or laying it unclear.

but also we in init. ]