los angeles ♔ just somebody's unholy hoax

[eldritchweaver]

♬ dear god - lawless, sydney wayser

WHO || Katniss, Toby, David, Jeanne, Kenzi, Paige
WHAT || A team of Knights is tasked to infiltrate the Dead Zone in Los Angeles and try to gather intelligence
WHERE || LA
WHEN || November 21st, 2017, just after midnight of the 20th [ 5 days after the Incident ]
HOW || Actionspam

[ The strike team has limited time to prepare before they are asked to report to the dragon's fire wing. Hasmed has one of the castle's valued greater teleport scrolls ready to go, explaining to them that they will be dropped at an office building that is outside the LA zone. It is currently in an evacuated sector that is under limited military scrutiny, and still has power and internet access. They are to use that location as a jump point for evacuation when ready to leave, using an instant connectivity spell with Sir Zero to return.

Having studied the area carefully via scrying, Sir Hasmed's spell functions perfectly, and the group finds themselves in the large lobby area of an office building that feels strangely quiet, and is dark around them aside from some gently humming electronics. the crackling energy of the spell fades from them, gusting a few papers off the top of the receptionist's desk. ]

Comments

[behindcloseddoors]

[ as they walk past an alleyway, katniss notices something... well and truly bizarre. the wall of the building bordering the alley seems to be bubbling, almost roiling, darkening to black and purple. ]

[anthophobia]

[Her eyes go a little wide and she looks over at Jeanne before gesturing toward the insanity she's witnessing.

She whispers:]

What the heck is that?

[arretez]

[ jeanne's expression clouds further, eyebrows knitting together. (arcane lore 27) ] It looks like... a portal? [ she seems to hear herself and looks at katniss like "oh balls". ]

[somepagesturn]

[Paige's eyes turn to the men she was just suggesting they knock out, realizing how that might actually be a horrible idea with everything that might be here.]

But did something just come through or did it just leave...? [She tries to listen for anything shifty, herself, but her listen was a 6. She tried.]

[generaldavideus]

[David immediately reaches for his Excalibur, because either way that's not a good sign, and he begins to scan the area for other signs of trouble (spot 14, listen 14), but he's also ... not doing great there.]

Let's not take a chance either way and keep moving. Everyone keep an eye out for anything else weird.

[morethanasidekick]

[ Meanwhile Kenzi is making up for my lack of computer access with a Nat 20 Spot check. At least if something tries to eat her again, she'll see it first?! ]

Yeah, I don't know if you've noticed... but weird seems to be the norm in Los Apocolypse...

[And shocking nobody, her earlier Bluff was a 44. Slipping it in here for the record.]

[behindcloseddoors]

[ silencio - OFF ost

as the bubbling seems to stop while they walk past, it's kenzi who notices something more disturbing: a glimpse of something greenish vanishing around a corner at the end of the alleyway. she doesn't get a good idea of size or shape, but it moves strangely, almost like it just sliiides around that corner. the other soldiers did not seem to catch it. ]

[morethanasidekick]

Uh... anyone here pack a proton energy pack, cause... Slimers cousin just went thatta way.

[A beat, as she glances at the rest of the group and remembers her audience (Wis 18).]

Ooze monster.

[generaldavideus]

Probably zero chance it'll let us keep it as a pet though.

[David remembers Ghostbusters. Though it was a terrible nineties cartoon.

... Don't expect him to keep up with much else.

He'll just keep his gun up and eye the alley. Since they don't want to walk into an area with a potentially volatile portal in it, he checks to see if there's another alley cutting through down the way (spot 25).]

[somepagesturn]

Oh dear. [ahahaha Paige is an holy weapon of destruction. she deals with undead. this is crap.]

[behindcloseddoors]

[ the 'oh dear' draws a strange look from the two younger soldiers, who glance at each other again. david notices that there is an alley between the next two buildings that might connect. either way, two of the soldiers peel off to go down this alley after it. ]

[generaldavideus]

[David is about to tell them that there's possibly another way but ... they're the ones who have been giving them uneasy looks, so he's less worried there. It's callous, but right now they kinda need to be.]

There's another alley up here. Maybe we can cut it off.

[He points in the direction he means.]

[anthophobia]

[Katniss clenches her jaw, because they're supposed to be doing recon, not running after random monsters.

But not doing it might also blow their cover, so that's problematic.

...Yet another moment where she would rather be doing this alone, whoops.]

[somepagesturn]

[Paige looks pretty conflicted, herself, both because letting people potentially get eaten is bad, possibly running into monsters is bad, and being chased by Scary Mask Guy and his army because they "deserted" is ALSO BAD, so there are no good decisions here.

Just gonna follow the leader...]

[behindcloseddoors]

[ as they are making their way around the block to the connecting alley, there is the unmistakable sound of sudden screaming followed by frantic gunfire. ]

[generaldavideus]

[Look part of doing recon is seeing what kind of dangers there are that are at risk of spilling out onto the world. David doesn't necessarily go Full Viking and charging in blind. He will come to a stop at the end of the alleyway and see what he can see, holding out his arm so that the rest of the team doesn't cross his line (hide nat 20, spot 22).

So if the dudes are already dead and there's nothing they can do, he's not going to risk the rest of the team, but if they have to kill something to keep their cover, then they might have to try and kill something.]

[behindcloseddoors]

[ it's... hard to tell what he's looking at for a moment. one of the soldiers has his back to david, about fifty feet down the way, firing chaotically at the scene before him. his screaming friend is currently being dragged by tentacles back towards a roiling mass of claws and eyes and fangs. its shape changes moment to moment, mouths opening here and there to gnash with hideous teeth. orange, reptilian eyes opening everywhere on its body, rolling around to look at everything it can see. the unfortunate soldier being gripped by it has his mouth open to scream, but his face seems to be melting, the sound of his shouts morphing concurrently as his body shifts and changes. ]

[somepagesturn]

[Paige can’t see what’s going on, but she can hear it, and she looks HORRIFIED.]

What are we going to do? [because she knows they have to make the choice soon, and she knows what she wants to do, but the way Solace and Hasmed talked, there’s no room for stupid heroics on this team. She might get left behind. And she has a responsibility as the cleric.]

[generaldavideus]

[Yeah, David has not missed these kinds of life or death decisions. At all. But he's the leader of the team and he knows what they need to do. So far the creature hasn't seen them, and has two pieces of cannon fodder to distract it. It's a cold as fuck decision, but someone has to make it. He just hopes he can convince the other two to keep moving so that it's only two bodies instead of four.

They definitely can't save the one, and while he could theoretically mercy kill one to save the second, keeping the creature preoccupied is the priority. He shakes his head, before making a gesture to fall back (diplomacy 25 for the two babies so that they come with).]

We can't save them. We need to keep moving.

[anthophobia]

[Katniss suddenly feels like she might be able to trust David's decisions.]

Then let's keep moving.

[And if anyone hesitates, she'll try to grab them by the elbow to drag them along. She doesn't want to leave anyone behind.]

[somepagesturn]

[Paige sucks in a breath and nods, steeling herself against the pain of going against what she knows is right, but her eyes leak a bit, regardless (will save 11). She presses her hand over where her pin would be if her disguise didn’t cover it and mentally asks Milil to sing a dirge for them in apology for her inaction, and hopes this doesn’t reflect poorly on her in his eyes, and then follows David.]

[errantdetective]

[Toby isn't happy about this either. Too many people have died on her watch, and every heroic instinct in her screams that this is where she charges in and kills the monster, saving the poor kids.

They could beat it. She's sure of it. But it would cost them. And there are so many people here to save. They can't save everyone.

She swallows and nods and keeps moving.]

[behindcloseddoors]

We can't leave them! [ the youngest soldier pipes up, moving towards the corner to try and get a glimpse] What the hell is it? Our job is to clear the sector or at least report this shit.

[anthophobia]

[Katniss looks Done with these randos they've got trailing them.]

You go in there? It's your funeral. You know how to report something yourself, don't you? Why don't you get on that instead of getting on other people's cases.

[arretez]

It is a chaos demon, [ jeanne tells the boy, yanking him back behind the corner (str 21), her tone quiet but forceful, the knowledge of what awaits them down that alley giving an edge to her otherwise light voice. ] You cannot fight it, none of us can. A touch from its claws can turn you.. goutte. Shapeless, formless.

Report it. No one can go down that alley, it must be blocked off.