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

Entry tags:

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

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[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).]

[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. ]

[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.]

Edited 2019-01-16 18:53 (UTC)

[ 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'. ]

[ 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. ]

[Faith is pretty sure this isn't the outcome they were looking for. Having the auction take place was the one thing they were trying to stop and here it is... starting.

Faith knocks the guy out with her elbow (atk 33 dmg 19 // just in case - atk 31 dmg 13) and moves to catch him and slump him against his partner. Glancing to the group, she knows that she'll follow whatever they decide, but they probably need to decide quickly.]

So are we going to make a scene or try to grab him after they pay for him?

[ Buffy's answer is nonverbal, but nonetheless clear and communicative.

She rushes into the auction to make a scene aka get up towards the stage. She didn't come all this way just to lose him again. She's faced down regenerators and worse and survived and she's not going to be afraid of a room full of priests. She's not this close for nothing. ]

[Alainn's hand shoots out to touch Buffy (Reflex 25), not in an attempt to stop the other woman ~~she's not stupid~~, but to cast Protection from Arrows and Bullets upon her. As that is her full round action she can't cast another one yet, but she will turn to Rose and say- ] "I have a spell for you as well Rose, don't go too far."

[**The spell will give Buffy the maximum amount of damage reduction possible- 100 hp. Once the 100 has been met, it will be dispelled.**]

Shit. I can't see the stage.

[And she's going to try and quietly twist her body around in the duct, seeing if she can quietly change the angle she's looking and get eyes on Rafael (dexterity 23, move silently 30).]

[ ♫ i'd come for you - nickelback

as buffy books it out into the main room, she finds herself facing a room scattered with tables facing a stage on the far end of the room. two cultists are heading down to flank the bottom of the steps, after apparently delivering their charge, who now kneels next to a snakeblooded priest standing over him in front of a pulpit.

rafael's head hangs so that only the matted curls are visible, but his outline is unmistakable, even with the slump of those shoulders, hands evidently tied behind his back. he barely moves, even as the priest begins announcing that they will be starting bids at eight hundred thousand dollars...

no one, it seems, is expecting the slayer to come booking it into the room, and given that they are all taken by surprise, she makes it about halfway across the room before they start reacting, exchanging looks, and reaching for various weapons. she makes a quick circuit around a table that looks packed with mafioso types, making a beeline straight towards the steps. felicity squirms in place just enough to see everything as well, and to realize what buffy has decided to do.

meanwhile, out in the hallway, isabella jerks her head after buffy's fleeing form. ] What is she doing? [ and without another moment of thinking about it, she draws her own blade and rushes out, fast on the slayer's heels, rapier flashing in the light.

by this point, however, the three mafia guys have pulled berettas, and fire them off towards isabella and buffy. the first guy, wearing a pinstripe suit and red tie, finds his gun stuck and curses in italian, slamming it with the palm of his hand. a second sends two shots after the slayer, which come nowhere near her, and the third focuses on isabella, one shot grazing her hair, but not making contact.

meanwhile, the cultists in the room begin to converge on them, clearly hoping to stop either of them from reaching the stage, as two others block the steps. one cultist draws an uzi and fires at isabella, and she quickly avoids the hail of bullets. another follows closely after her and tries to seize her but his hand closes just short of her. another comes around the table the other way to follow buffy, attempting to strike her from behind, but again, unable to keep up with her incredible speed.

while most of the tables seem cluttered with businessmen who didn't come prepared for a fight, the three in catholic priest robes at another table across the room are another story entirely. one dark haired man with a long scar down his cheek stands and casts flame strike, a column of divine fire roaring down abruptly right where buffy and isabella stand (41 dmg, ref 20 for half). isabella, unfortunately, was not expecting the sudden blast of flame, and takes the full brunt of it. a second priest draws two guns, firing across the middle table towards them with a barrage of bullets. one of them strikes isabella (penetration damage, 16 total) right in the shoulder, the other shattering various glasses on the table he shoots through. the third priest moves towards the stairs as well, clearly en route to intercept them if possible.

meanwhile, the orator waves a hand, crying "Heretics!" and an immobile, vertical curtain of whirling blades shaped of pure force springs into existence surrounding the stage. ]

[Sam mutters a swear under his breath as Buffy and Isabella both charge in, followed by the sounds of fighting and gunfire. He takes a brief glance back at Rose and Dean before he charges in as well, hoping his disguise is enough to make him recognizable to a handful of the people in there, and moves to the bottom corner of the room.

He uses his move action to become psionically focused, then lines up several of the attendees straight ahead of them (MMCI), before raising his hand and focusing inward, sending a ray of cold energy blasting from his fingertips through them (53 cold damage, fort save dc 25 to halve).

The effort leaves him dazed until the end of his next round, a line of blood oozing from his nose as his hand lifts to his head. Whoops.

At Brooke's request, Rose is going to hold her action until Alainn casts her spell and then follow Sam and Dean.]

Edited 2019-01-23 04:26 (UTC)

[ clearly none of them were expecting that, as evidenced by the way they all failed their fortitude saves, getting hit with an arctic chill that leaves them covered in little icicles, but still on their feet. dean glances over at alainn, and then at rose, clearly feeling some relief that she's going to wait to get the spell cast on her before charging out. that doesn't mean he's going to wait, however, especially not when sam heads out the door. ] Sammy! [ he starts to push past where faith stands over the two unconscious cultists, and freezes in the doorway as he watches his brother channeling incredibly powerful psionic energy that leaves him bleeding and stunned. dean's eyes follow the line of cold and then trace back to sam's face with horror, but there's no time to chew him out now, and instead he comes out and gets in front of sam, raising his gun in a protective gesture. he won't be able to fire this round, however. ]

[So after her writer double checks just how much HP she's starting with, because DAMN DANIEL WITH THAT HELLA DAMAGE, Faith watches Buffy just charge into the room. That's one way to make a plan...

Actually, that's pretty much every plan Faith's ever made. DO what you want. Face the consequences later.

Of course, having others charge in before her means everyone is probably expecting the cavalry -- or at least more people.

Faith watches as Dean moves to his brother and with Rose waiting for Alainn, she figures she can at least try to start clearing a path. She moves toward the outer rim of tables, toward the Iscariot types that might be looking to get a cheap shot on Buffy as she makes her sprint toward her man.

She opens with a direct blow to the jaw of the first one she comes up to. (atk 40 | dmg 18) Following it up with a second hit to the side. (atk 34 | dmg 17) She'll throw a third hit to the same guy, hoping to make an example out of him {if they all hit}. (atk 30 | dmg 18) + (intimidate 30 - if that's even the right thing) and then look for her next target.]

Edited (helps if I finish the tag....) 2019-01-24 06:13 (UTC)

[ She takes the full brunt of the fire damage, wincing against the bellowing column, but it doesn't stop her. She charges on past the cultists, mafia, and iscariot flunkies alike, while they bunch and swat their guns in her direction, dodging deftly all but one hit that clips her (dmg 5), and makes her way up onto the stage.

The blade barrier blocks the stage, but Buffy takes one look at it, as if second guessing, and then dismisses it entirely. She'll recover.

She leaps through it, up onto the stage, and (using heroic surge), gets up behind Rafael and makes an effort at removing his restraints. He'll be more useful to all of them if he can fight — assuming he still has it in him. At the very least, he'll be more mobile to make a quick escape. ]

[Alainn is going to do two things in quick succession.

Using her quicken spell feat she is going to snap a hand to Rose's shoulder, whispering quickly under her breath to cast Haste upon her, nodding at Rose and saying- ] RUN!

[The next move she is going to make is to take her full round action to cast a Wall of Fire straight through the half of the room that does not contain the rest of her team in an attempt to cut off some of the opposition.

That will be all she can do again this round, so she will watch as her spells hopefully do some good.

**The spell works exactly as stated**]

[Felicity fishes out her Excalibur and after weighing her options for a moment, takes aim and takes two shots at the cultist that's closest to her, to try and take some of the pressure off Isabella (attack 28, damage 10, attack 26, damage 13 with penetration damage, if those hit).

She hopes that doesn't give her away too much but will try and duck back into the vent for cover once that's done.]

[ love lost in a hail of gunfire - bleeding through

faith's sock to the jaw of the iscariot agent she approaches actually sends him slamming into the table, unconscious, his pair of guns clattering to the floor.

buffy goes careening through the blade barrier recklessly, somehow managing to avoid TAKING ANY DAMAGE WHATSOEVER and rips Rafael's handcuffs apart, the metal breaking easily in her grip (str 24). his head still hangs, but starts to raise up groggily at the sensation...

felicity's shots take down the cultist, who crumples to the floor.

isabella whirls around in place, stabbing recklessly at one of the cultists behind her with her rapier, trying to drive them back. (atk 20, atk 25, dmg 17 total).

one of the mafiosos reaches over to try to tip the table on its side as cover but can't get it turned over by himself, straining against the weight as the other two open fire in dean's direction (atk 26/24/25/24, dmg 7), all of which he manages to narrowly avoid except the first, which strikes him in the arm.

isabella, in the meantime, is surrounded by three cultists now, one of whom turns and fires at her with his uzi (atk 14/14), the bullets spraying out and somehow managing to miss her, as she dodges the punches of another cultist, who wheels a fist over her head, crit fails, and slams face first into the table instead. a third cultist grabs an axe out of an emergency box on the wall, and turns to swing it at isa's head (atk 16), but she ducks aside from that as well.

trapped by the fire, the cultists north of the wall of flame fire their uzis at faith (atk 19/14 16/9 24/16 dmg 23 if the 24 hits). the cultist closest to them fires up at rafael with an uzi, but misses both times, due to the angle. another heads up the stairs, but stops outside of the blade barrier, before attempting to follow buffy through - but is nearly sliced to ribbons in the process (56 dmg), and he falls unconscious back down the steps.

the scarred iscariot agent turns to faith, scowls and reaches out to try and grab her wrist, but totally fails at doing so (atk 13 touch). the final iscariot agent raises a hand, intoning something in latin as he points his palm towards where buffy is freeing rafael on the stage. there is a sudden loud buzzing noise around the slayer's head, as a cloud of thousands of winged vermin begin manifesting around her and rafael. the swarm of locusts begin biting, doing 8 dmg to buffy and 13 to rafael. she must make a fort save dc 12 or be nauseated for a round. the cloud of locusts fills that half of the stage, obscuring them from the sight of everyone else, especially in tandem with the blade barrier. rafael begins jerking his head around as the bugs bite him, and seems to be coming around from the injuries, although he is still clearly confused as he raises his head.

the priest now stands separated from buffy and rafael by a wall of flame and swarm of locusts, and raises both hands to the ceiling, intoning something in yuan-ti. the ceiling begins to be covered with an enormous black cloud, and impossibly, lightning begins to rumble behind it, and huge claps of thunder echo through the room. everyone must make a fortitude save DC 24 or be deafened for 20 minutes. ]

[Sam is still reeling from his attack (dazed and cannot act this turn), but he wipes the blood from his nose with the back of his hand, squinting ahead at him as Dean and Rose fill the space between him and the rest of the room.]

I'm fine, I've got it. We gotta keep moving.

[At least he sounds like he's coming around? Cool. Except now he's deaf (fort save 19).]

Edited 2019-01-29 19:06 (UTC)

[ Rose barely has a moment to register the blood trickling down Sam's face before a bullet clips Dean and then all eyes are on the group of men closest to them.

With a growl, Rose doesn't even blink at the clap of thunder (Fort 35). Closing the distance she heads straight for the one who shot Dean and with very little fanfare, thrusts her stake into his chest. Atk 54. Dmg 76. (Critical Hit with Penetration Damage. This is fine.) ]

Edited 2019-01-29 19:20 (UTC)

[ rose's stake buries right into the man's heart, and blood spurts out all over her hand as he weakly scrabbles at her hand before going entirely limp and sliding back into the table with a great clattering of plates and glasses.

dean raises his gun to aim at another of the mafia guys, two of his shots landing home (atk 27/25, dmg 13&7), while another misses, and a fourth goes flying past the man, past the cultist, and straight into isabella's rapier arm, nicking her for 3 dmg (crit... fail). he at least appears to still have his hearing and shouts out: ]

We need a path!

[ rafael manages to finally turn his head enough to make out buffy's face through the swarm of insects coating the air around both of them and he stares in utter disbelief and confusion for a few seconds, as he lifts his hands from where they have been freed behind him to swat at the creatures uselessly, the chains of the cuffs hanging off his wrists. ]

Buffy? [ he manages to cough out, although whether she hears it or not... we will see. either way, he seems to realize that they need to get away from these insects, and manages to struggle to feet, vainly shooing them away from his face as he reaches out for buffy's hand and tries to pull her towards the front of the stage. his grip is warm and with a surprise strength that seems to speak to his rapidly improving condition upon seeing her there. ]

[The hail of bullets seem to all miss her as if she's the star in any movie with a male lead. After a quick double check to make sure she's not actually hit, she glances to her next target -- which thankfully opts to just make a dumb move by reaching for her. She turns to him and punches him in the nose. (atk 41/dmg 20) Even before she checks to see if she needs to give him another hit, she glances to the stage, trying to get a status check on Buffy and her progress. It seems to be going well - except then she watches the priest make with the dark cloud action and she watches as something clearly happens to some of the team. (fort 34) Unaffected, she throws an elbow at the scarred iscariot she already clocked, trying to disengage from him -- and hopefully leave him on the ground at her feet. (atk 36/dmg 21)

Dean calls for a path and so she looks to see where she should move next.

(I assume, she did her full action and so now she can't move - opposite of what it was before?? If she can move, then she'll move toward the "make a path" area.)

[ She does hear him, as her fort save is a 24. Good. It means he's alert, and she might be able to use him if things get hairy. She takes his hand, a wall of fire on one side, a barrier of blades on the other, and opts to start ... pulling him back towards the edge of the stage behind them, where it looks like maybe Cultist Black is. Gonna try to climb down that way and help Rafael down from the stage as needed. ]

[Annnd we're just gonna action point that first Fort Save ~~crit fail~~ and she will barely squeak by with a 25!

She turns to the Mafia guys, taking a 5-foot step in front of Dean, Rose, and Sam, extending a hand and casting Burning Hands upon them (for a total of 17 damage).]

Making a path!

[While being in the ducts has been great for Felicity staying out of sight, being in a metal box is not great when a sudden loud noise fills the air and thunder fills the space, reverberating off the walls until everything goes silent (fort save 23).

Being deaf is not great, of course, but she's going to still try and make an effort to help. She doesn't know what's going on but she's going to keep trying to shoot the bad guys. Specifically Blue Mafia Dude (attack 19, damage 12, attack 22, damage 10 if they hit).]

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