new orleans ♔ there's always a siren singing you to shipwreck

[dragonsclaw]

♫ Butterflies and Hurricanes - Muse

WHO || Buffy, Alainn, Rose, Sam, Dean, Faith, Felicity, Isabella  [closed]
WHAT || The Ex-Knights of Failboat head off to interrupt an auction for Rafael Giovanni's life...
WHERE || New Orleans, LA
WHEN || A couple weeks post-LA
HOW || Actionspam

Held in the grasp of the Knighthood's enemies for a stretch of time that has been an aching splinter in the heart of the ones who love him, Rafael Giovanni's life now stands up for auction.  Having made a number of powerful enemies in his days as the vigilante assassin The Black Scourge, including the secret Vatican police known as Iscariot, Draken Crombe's organization sought to capitalize on the many who sought revenge by sending out word that Eterna Jade was not, as his trial had seemed to prove, the Black Scourge at all, and offer the chance to kill or torture Giovanni to whoever would pay the largest sum.

The Knights, being made aware of this, did what they could to stymie this auction from coming to pass, and Buffy Summer and Jack Chessing managed to at least thwart it several times, leading to its cancellation and inevitable rescheduling elsewhere.  However, none of this led to Giovanni's actual location. 

The capture of Draken Crombe finally allowed them to learn of the latest plans for the auction - to be held at a location in New Orleans, a temple of some sort.  It seems that Crombe's other followers still intend to follow through with ridding themselves of Rafael, making it clear that even with Crombe in Knights' custody, the villains still have some organization or leadership.  Tia Ellison rattled out the plan by invading Crombe's mind, learning of the way that he had been psychically manipulated by the Mind Master for years, and doing what she could to start to heal his shattered psyche.  

Jack Chessing, eager to see Rafael rescued after their many efforts, cautioned however against sending too many on what might be a mission from which there is no returning.  To that end, they've tried to split the forces of their magic-users, fighters, and researchers.

Now, it's up to a few to save their friend... without losing any more.

Comments

[behindcloseddoors]

[ annnd faith starts to hear footprints exiting the auction hall in their direction... ]

[slay]

Forget uniforms. Can you get into the auction hall?

[ Buffy's officially on team 'burst in and pull out guns the minute Rafael's on the block.' Buffy is maybe not thinking 100% clearly. She's been waiting for literal months (years??) at this point. ]

[likedillinger]

You got eyes on the floor? [ dean pipes up right after buffy on the headset ] Any idea what we're dealing with in there?

[msattentionspan]

[Aaaand this seems headed straight for a charge in, no risks calculated type situation fast approaching.]

They have eyes on the floor -- I have someone headed my way, from the auction hall. I can take out whoever's headed this way -- but we're looking at everything happening right now.

[She's going to move to press herself against the wall that's near the door that she assumes is going to open at any moment.]

[klep]

[Felicity inches a little bit closer, trying to see what she can see from the floor (spot 37).]

I've got eyes, but I'm coming at it from an angle that might be a bad one.

[likedillinger]

[what felicity can see is that the room itself seems to be rather vast, and filled to the brim with people, many of whom are dressed rather elegantly, although some are in robes of varying styles and colors that seem like vestments of some sort. she can't see rafael from this angle, but she can make out snake-bloods in white robes milling through the crowd, as well as more guards like those they saw outside.

outside, dean looks to buffy, his hand itching towards his weapon ] We gotta get in there. Now.

[klep]

I can't see Rafael from here, but there are a good amount of snake-bloods and a ton of people. I'll try and keep you posted, but I agree, you guys should get in here as fast as you can.

[And she'll keep a look out from here while you guys work your way inside.]

[familybusiness]

If you've got this here, I'll get down and help Faith.

[And then he's gonna wiggle on out of this vent since she's staying put, landing back on the ground.]

[savemyself]

You do not have to tell me twice. [ isabella snaps somewhat testily at dean's words, immediately drawing her own weapon and making a beeline towards the back door unless someone stops her ]

[attollores]

[Alainn will follow Isa, pulling out her own gun and readying a spell in her mind as they run up to the door. One quick glance up and around shows her Fede in the trees above the complex, ready to be the teams' eyes and ears as they're inside.]

[likedillinger]

[ dean doesn't wait another moment, looking to rose and nodding at her that he intends to go in there, before drawing his own gun and heading after alainn. ]

[klep]

[Felicity just settles in to get comfortable, keeping quiet and watching as things play out to see what she can feed the rest of the team.]

[behindcloseddoors]

[ the door from the auction hall into the hallway where sam and faith are waiting opens, and two figures step through, snakeblooded bald men wearing long white robes. they stop when they see sam standing in the middle of the carpet, which will allow faith a sneak attack... ]

[msattentionspan]

[Faith catches sight of Sam dropping out of the vent and nods at him, then at the door - sort of giving him a bit of a heads up that someone is COMING IN HOT (and it's not her). The doors swing open and two figures slip through. Thankfully, Sam is pretty un-missable and they look right at him. Faith moves in with her sneak attack and hits the one closer to her first (atk 37 / dmg 19) and moves from that guy to the second one and tries to get in a hit to him too. She figures with this moving toward a full-on attack, she might as well not take her time with this. She steps in past the guy she had just struck and makes her move on the second one, clearly losing her sneak attack advantage (atk 25 / dmg 17).

With those two attacks delivered (or not), she glances behind them to the open door to see if anyone else is headed this way.]

[familybusiness]

[No one else has headed this way, or even noticed thus far (spot 27), so instead of surging forward and following Faith's lead by attacking these guys, he reaches out with his mind instead, using Far Hand to pull the door to the large room shut as quickly as possible with a jerk of his head.

The longer it takes for them to get noticed, the better, he figures.]

[littledhampir]

[ Dean doesn't even need to wait for confirmation, her stake is already drawn and she's moving as one with Alainn and Dean (Declaring In Harms Way for Alainn as she goes )

/insert tension building montage as it's gonna take a full round to get there ]

[likedillinger]

[ /TENSION ACCELERATES as dean also skids around the corner towards the scene. he's gonna pull up short next to sam, however, pulling his gun up to take stock of the situation/start aiming at the dude still standing ]

Don't move.

[msattentionspan]

[With one down and one left, Faith reaches to grab the standing guy by the back of the neck.]

I can easily let you join your friend or you can tell us what we want to know.

[slay]

[ Buffy too doesn't need telling twice. She tears off after the others. It's reassuring, honestly, to see Sam and Faith already in the thick of it — she trusts them to handle it more than just about anyone else involved here. ]

[attollores]

[Alainn sees that they seem to have this guy handled at least, so she will keep a lookout, casting See Invisibility upon herself. Gonna make sure that they are seeing everything there is to be seen around them.]

[klep]

[As the rest of them get into it with the guards outside the door, Felicity is keeping her eye on the room in front of her. In order to better assist, should it come to that, while keeping her cover, she deftly tries to get the grate out of the way so that she could shoot out of her little hidey hole if needed (disable device 29, move silently 37). If the grate pops out, her hand quickly snaps forward to attempt to catch it and tuck it into the air duct with her (reflex save 24).]

[savemyself]

[isabella, having taken a headstart of starts, shoves in front of buffy and rose to see into the hallway, right as felicity carefully removes the grate from the duct, attracting zero attention from the thrumming room full of auction attendees. with that gone, it's easier for her to see more: and she sees plenty. the room is swarmed with more of those cultists in white robes with shiny bald pates, but in between them are littered groups in tuxes, catholic priest robes, military uniforms...

it seems like rafael truly has made his fair share of enemies.

the cultist in faith's grip swallows thickly, staring down the barrel of dean's gun and a ton of other armed people making their way towards them. he mutters something in a sibilant language that none of them can understand, making no move to resist or break away from faith, but his forked tongue licking his lips nervously, and slitted eyes darting between them all. ]

[familybusiness]

[Sam will hold his action, turning to Buffy instead.]

I don't think he's in there. They've gotta be keeping him somewhere else. I don't think they know we're here yet, but we probably don't have much time.

[Someone will miss these two guys soon. He turns to the cultist.]

Prisoner. Where?

[He holds his hands up as if they were handcuffed together, then motions around vaguely, hoping to get his point across. He's hoping these two were the ones sent to retrieve Rafael before they ran into Faith's fist.]

[littledhampir]

[ With a quick survey of the immediate threats in the room, Rose is also going to hold her action and try to pick up on what's going on beyond this room. (Listen 32)

LBR. If the plan is diplomacy you don't want Rose 'helping'. ]

[likedillinger]

[ the man glares back at sam, but dean keeps the gun leveled at him and snarls angrily (intimidate 22): ] Answer the man!

[ and he stammers finally: "You are too late. They are bringing him now."

what rose hears seems to attest to the fact. there is a sudden hush falling over the room inside, the conversation dying down, as a loud voice announces: "Ladies and gentlemen, this is the moment you have been waiting for~!"

above, felicity can hear the voice as well, which seems to be coming from the far end of the room, and indeed, everyone has turned to look that way, which is at least in the opposite direction as the hall they are all in. but from here she cannot see the stage. ]