london trial ♔ i guess i'll save the best for last

[mislabeled]

WHO ||Lydia, Sark, Francesca, Cora, Will, Sam, Lila, Carol, Rose, Sydney, Dean, Audrey, Grant [Closed]
WHAT || Audrey Petersen is tried for her involvement in the schemes of Nicholas St. Andrew
WHERE || London, England
WHEN || June 2017
HOW || Actionspam. Single thread, don't worry about maintaining tagging order.

They're calling it one of the trials of the year.  Some of the more hyperbolic tabloids have referred to it as the "trial of the decade" or even "of the new century".

Audrey Petersen, wealthy socialite and wife of Professor Grant Petersen, curator of the Knights' archives has been involved in an extended proceeding ever since the day that the Knights and the London police stopped Nicholas St. Andrew, a charismatic cult leader, from completing a dark occult ritual.  St. Andrew was killed in the assault, but Audrey was taken prisoner, her role in the business less black and white. She now stands trial for the crimes she allegedly committed with her former mentor.  The authorities are still uncertain as to whether Audrey was a willing accomplice or just another of St. Andrew's brainwashed cultist lackeys.  Her lawyers and the popular press have taken to painting her as a victim, but Wynn is hardly so sure.  Dozens of people, including prominent citizens have said they are willing to appear as character witnesses for her, and some have even been obliquely criticizing the work the authorities did in arresting her.  Many of the Knights who were involved in thwarting the Children of Chaos have been asked to come to the trial to provide more insight into the situation.  

Police chief Jared O'Keefe paces nervously outside the doors as they arrive, rubbing his mouth with one hand.  

"Oh good.  You made it.  Now, we've insisted on no cameras anywhere nearby - we want to preserve the sanctity of the Knights' secrecy as much as possible.  The attorneys have a ... bit of a history.  They've sparred in the courtroom many a time.  I believe the plan is to call you up on the stand in small groups."

Comments

[impetere]

[And Cora will go and tear into the creature again, this time doing a full round attack (attack 29, damage 24, attack 35, damage 16).]

1/2

[antiquaria]

[ grant stands up, chin lifting as he raises his head to look at the creature in astonished horror. he seems overwhelmed by the sight before him, not as quick to spring into actions as the others, his eyes settling back down on his wife, taking in her smug countenance. ] Audrey, what are you doing?! Call that thing off! You're going to get everyone killed! Yourself included! [ full round nat 20 diplomacy check...? damn dude.

cora moves forward to tear into the thing, which... is easy to hit, being tremendously large, but the bizarre material that makes up its strangely stringy, fibrous body does not make for easy damaging. jsyk it is immune to penetration and critical damage. ]

[superswank]

[ sydney stares after cora, hesitating at her order to hold audrey back, calling after her: ] Cora! [ but the werewolf girl seems to uh, have that under control maybe, so syd goes to jump over the railing, but... finds it difficult without any way to get a running start (jump 8 lmao). failure. ]

[airforceful]

[Well, shit. Carol's clothes shimmer into her costume as she flies up over the crowd and shoots off a blast of light energy (touch atk 28, dmg 18. Reflex 18 for half damage).]

Thought we were done calling witnesses.

[likedillinger]

[ ref 7, this cthulu fucker doesn't even try to dodge, ok. it just eats all that damage up, but it seems to be burning it slightly so that's... good?? dean yells after his lady: ] Rose! [ but realizes she's right, they need weapons, stat, so he's gonna let her go do that, and look over at sam with wide eyes ] Tell me you've got somethin' out of Lovecraft for this, Poindexter. [ cuz he sure don't. what he does have, though, is some magic, so he's gonna step back and yank out some chalk, drawing a fucking magic sigil on the table with damn impressive speed and accuracy (craft art 20). he dumps a couple coarse looking hairs in the middle, and mumbles some latin, slamming his hand down on the symbol. a glowing light ripples up his arm, the muscles tensing, and he winces a bit, before clutching his hand into a fist as if testing something, and then releasing it. ]

[familybusiness]

[He almost wants to get annoyed by the namecalling...except he totally knows what this thing is and Lovecraft is really not far off at all (nat 20 knowledge check).

He's gonna give Dean a confused look first, though, because what the hell is that all about dude? Are you flexing? Hurting yourself? Stop that.

And then he's glancing back toward where Rose went before looking back out into the courtroom, yelling loudly so that the others can all hear him.]

It's a Khor'dyl! [He's about to go into other specifics when he realizes that probably isn't useful nor does anyone particularly care when it's trying to kill them.] Don't let it grab you or it'll make you its lunch in hurry! Don't think you're out of range, because you aren't, so stay on your toes. If you can hit it with fire, water or acid, give it hell!

[He seems like he's hesitating to do more, and for the moment he's holding action until Rose gets back.]

[mydesigns]

[will is super thrilled to be here with no weapons and a giant cthulu monster. he should've stayed home today. he's staying the fuck out of the way and also asking sam]

What if we can't hit it with those things?

[certainproclivity]

[Sark's gonna stay RIGHT WHERE HE IS just watching, because he's an asshole. And he doesn't have weapons. And if you had just LET HIM KILL HER BACK THEN, SHE WOULDN'T BE CAUSING THIS PROBLEM NOW.]

[mislabeled]

[ well, the horrible ooze cthulu monster is gonna snap out a tentacle - and try to lift cora right up. 24 to attack. if that hits, grapple vs. 41.

also if it hits... 40 dmg... plus 4 alkali dmg, which she will take every round on her turn, as she is now covered in a corrosive sludge that is burning away at her.

either way, it's going to start floating slowly towards the very center of the room also. lila's sentinels get their attacks of opportunity.

affected as she is by the lesser confusion spell, audrey... starts running away in fear towards the outside wall. ]

[littledhampir]

[Weapons gathered, Rose pauses long enough to address Faith's Papa.]

You need to help us clear the courthouse before people end up dead.

[But alas there's no time to explain and it doesn't really need one once he gets to see the Cthulu hour.

And now we get another running montage as Rose races back to the others and with another heroic surge 2/5 she's going to make sure the boys are covered.]

Dean, Sam! [Have your weapons and don't get swallowed by that thing, k thanks.]

[bittersweeter]

[ so theoretically half the sentinels get attacks of opportunity because the monster is in their threat square which would be atk: 12, 8, 15, 25, 10, 11 WOW THOSE GHOSTS SUCK??? (3 slashing damage for the 25)

and lila casts invisibility sphere which puts everyone within ten feet of her into a bubble of invisibility. the whole sphere will not burst if someone attacks, but they personally will become visible. ]

Come on. [ because she wants to move, at the very least to get her own gun, so she might as well take them with. ]

[immuno]

[ lydia will haul ass at all costs after audrey because they did NOT go through all of this just for her to get away. fuck that. she looks to grant like ? ? ?? r u coming ? ?? and vaults the half-wall to pursue (jump 19 thank god she rolled well bc that was about to be so ugly). ]

[impetere]

[Her AC is just 24 so ... yep. Sam's warning comes a bit too late as the tentacle ensnares her and lifts her up off the ground, thrashing in response to try and see if she can get free, but not being quite strong enough (strength check 24).

If this thing tries to eat her, she will not go down easy. But for now, I think that's all she can do in this turn.]

1/2

[antiquaria]

[ grant hurries after lydia, but he's not a super athlete so he's gonna take his turn to climb over the thing carefully ]

[superswank]

[ sydney is going to shoot sark a venomous look ] Don't just stand there. Help or get out! [ and take the rest of her turn to climb over as well. ]

[airforceful]

[Carol is still flying and shoots off another two blasts of light (touch atk 20, dmg 19, touch atk 18, dmg 16 reflex 18 for half).]

[likedillinger]

[ yeah this thing is not very spry ok. so it eats all that damage, making a weird roiling growling noise. dean catches his gun from rose and takes aim up at the thing (atk 32, dmg 5) ] Somebody cut that arm off! [ he shouts, indicating the one currently bringing cora closer to its maw ]

[familybusiness]

[Sam catches his gun too, hesitating briefly once again before he grits his teeth, firing off a round at the creature, aiming in the general direction of said tentacle with the hope he might get lucky and hit it (psionic shot atk 33, dmg 21).]

[mydesigns]

[uhhh will is joining lila in the invisibility sphere in the pursuit of getting some weapons and also NOT DYING. bye y'all.]

[certainproclivity]

[lol that's cute, Syd.]

Oh no, I'm quite fine where I am. It's fascinating to see the consequences of other people's actions play out.

[If it looks like he might be in legitimate danger, he'll book it, but for now, the eldritch horror seems to have its targets.]

[mislabeled]

[ there's a sickening sound as the tentacle is ripped off by the psionically charged bullet, sending cora crashing to the ground. the khor'dyl lets out a screeching noise that fills the building, and then suddenly its remaining tentacles go crazy, flinging out in every direction at the same time in a hideous frenzy.

one reaches out to whack at rose (28 atk, if that hits, grapple vs. 36, 15 dmg + 3 alkali). another goes for lydia (33 atk, grapple vs. 45, 14 dmg + 1 alkali), another for grant (29 atk, 30 grapple, 17 dmg + 5 alkali), another for syd, just barely missing, for carol (atk 21 which i'm pretty sure misses...), for dean (atk 28, grapple nat 20, 22 dmg + 11 alkali), sam (atk 19), and sark (atk 30, grapple 41, dmg 17 + 5 alkali). it lifts as many of them up into the air as it possibly can and audrey comes to an abrupt stop at the wall, turning to survey this horrible spectacle with widening eyes. ]

GRANT!

[littledhampir]

Dean! [In an instant everything else is forgotten, the tentacle reaching for her going wide (AC 36) as she steps into attack the one holding Dean.

Wielding her stake, Rose unleashes a flurry of vicious, cutting blows (ATK 43, 41, 40, 31), stabbing and slicing at the monster in her desperation to free him. (DMG: 30, 27, 32, 23).]

[bittersweeter]

[ all stretched out and murderous, at least all the sentinels can attack now, which they do. (atk 17, 11, 16, 19, 19, 21, nat 20, nat 1 sorry someone, 12, 22, 20 total, 25; dmg 4, 8, 8, 8, 7, 8, 8, 10, 7, 6, 9, 5)

lila meanwhile, scrambles over the railing (climb 24) to get down with will in their invisible bubble, heading toward the weapons and also police chief jared o'keefe love of my life. ]

[likedillinger]

[ annnnnnd jared no more gets in the doorframe than rose's rabid slicing starts hacking off limbs left and right, until the thing collapses in a gelatinous puddle to the floor, and begins melting away. dean and anyone else who got grappled hit the floor as it lets go, and he lifts his head to watch the thing bubbling away ] Jesus Christ.

[ /init ]

[bittersweeter]

[ since she's still invisible, lila darts away from will toward audrey, reaching out her bare hand to idk touch audrey's hand and curse the fuck outta her. (will save dc 32) and lila pops out of invisibility. ]