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

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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

[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).]

[ faith wails twice on the iscariot agent, who recoils from each blow but keeps coming up for more. in fact, he will back up and cast searing light at her (atk 25 vs touch ac, 31 dmg if it hits).

the three cultists north of the firewall gather together, backing up and shooting at faith (atk 15/21/19/7), none of which hit, and two of which follow those up with crit fails, backing into each other and falling over in a pile of failure.

rafael's hand tightens in buffy's and they start getting down off from the stage, which will complete on his next turn. reflex saves through the blade barrier please! still within the locust swarm for now, buffy will take 6 dmg and rafael 8, as well as another fort save dc 12 or be nauseated for a round.

felicity's 22 will hit, knocking that guy on his ass, unconscious, even as alainn unleashes fire in the other direction, blasting the remaining mafia member, who flails a bit from the flames but is still up, and backs away five feet, firing at alainn (atk 22/12, dmg 18 if it hits, which probably not b/c of harm's way from rose). it also catches one of the cultists who is faceplanted on the table. isa's sword flashes (atk 23/23, dmg 16), cutting into him as well, but he is undeterred and pushes himself up, charging at her (atk 20) but she deftly steps aside, just as the second cultist around her swings the axe at her (atk 24/22), both of which she manages to matrix dodge under. the cultist behind her continues to fire (atk 17/19) and she continues to dodge the bullets

the other iscariot agent, not done with summoning horrific shit, apparently, keeps intoning more latin, and lo and fucking behold, a towering scorpion appears on the other side of the fire wall. like, ten feet long, and five feet tall. it turns towards where buffy and rafael are climbing down, clacking its pinchers together menacingly, as the cultist draws closer to them, still firing (atk 16/17) and missing even at point blank range.

meanwhile, the priest's storm continues, and acid begins raining down from the cloud coating the ceiling. dealing 2 acid dmg to everyone, no save. bad guys included. but not felicity: she's in a duct like a sensible person. ]

[Oh good. Acid Rain. Sam loves that. The giant scorpion is awesome too. What a great time to come out of his daze.

Sam will take a five-foot step forward parallel to the wall near him, quick draw his gun, and fire off a few rounds at the cultists near Isabella, who probably doesn't look so hot at this point. He'll expend his psionic focus with psionic shot on his first attack and switch targets if one of them goes down (atk 32(crit), 30, 25(crit)| dmg 34, 10, 24).]

[ With a quick jerk of her hand, Rose pulls Alainn back from the trajectory of the bullets, neither of them coming close to their target as she begins to surge (Heroic 1/5) towards the trio of Mafia and Cultist members (and probably provoking an AoO from the Mafia dude as she goes - AC: 38.) until she's flanked by all three.

She'll then unleash a flurry of terrifying strikes, to try and clear a path for Raf and Buffy, and for the others to target the Scorpion, starting with the Mafiosa and then sharing them between the two cultists as she spins in a dance of silver and blood.

Atk 52 / dmg 66 (Critical Hit), atk 46 / dmg 17, atk 39 / dmg 21, atk 42 / dmg 51 (Critical Hit), atk 40 / dmg 51 (Nat 20 Critical Hit) .]

[ by this point, any of the other remaining cowering auctionees who aren't involved in the combat are fleeing for the exits: primarily two doors in the center of the southern wall. for some reason they don't wanna hang around in the acid rain by the giant scorpion. weird.

sam's first two shots finally down the cultist isabella has been trying to kill, so his final shot will go to axe murderer guy.

the mafia guy does try to hit rose as she goes by but she is too fast and furious and she'll step over the fallen body of the cultist sam just took out to take down the axe guy with her first attack. she has enough movement left to swing around towards the last one behind isabella, easily pummeling them. probably... overkill. stab stab.

dean focuses his fire on the mafia guy remaining back over here (atk 39/20/21/26 (crit), total dmg 37), which is enough to take him out as well. ]

[ with a 23 reflex save, rafael leaps down through the blade barrier with no problems, and immediately brings a perfectly aimed punch around to the face of the guy shooting at them (atk 34, dmg 6), which staggers him momentarily. in those few seconds, rafael's attention is drawn up towards the giant scorpion. he looks... disoriented by everything right now to be honest, but that's sure a doozy. ]

[Faith has to hand it to this guy, he's definitely made of sturdier stuff than she'd estimated. His attempt to put the hurt on her, though, doesn't hurt at all as she manages to avoid his light show... of sorts. She also seems to be a pretty hard target to hit and rather than waste time on the ones shooting at her -- seemingly with their eyes closed -- she continues to try and take this guy down. She'll close that distance again, hopefully he's not too far from her that she can't make two attacks.]

Why won't you -- [She throws another blow to his nose (atk 37 | dmg 16)] -- just -- [And another knee to the groin (atk 35 | dmg 7)] -- give up?

[ Buffy finishes her fancy flip through the blade barrier and lands square behind the scorpion (ref 30), catching her breath easily now that she's free of the locust swarm (fort 27). Of course, they have a bigger issue.

She passes her Excalibur pistol off to Rafael for his move action because it's gotta be good for something in his hands, and then she goes for the cultist in front of them.

atk 38, dmg 32 (penetration) +14 vs evil
atk 29, dmg 22 (penetration) +9 vs evil
atk 29, dmg 20 +2 vs evil
atk 34 (crit), dmg 38 +15 vs evil

Provided the cultist goes down, she has great cleave and can just move on to the scorpion. ]

[Felicity is out of easily accessible targets from her position in the duct, but she's sure not getting out of the duct so she can have acid death flashbacks so she's just going to try and shoot the red cultist by the stage. She may be too far away, but she's going to try anyway.

She might get lucky (attack 26, damage 15 with penetration, attack ~~crit fail~~ action point says 14, damage 14 with penetration which that one might not hit).]

[ faith's final blow is exactly what's needed to ultimately take this guy down, as he sinks to his knees, eyes rolling backwards, and falls to the floor.

buffy drops the cultist in two hits, moving in to get in a strike on the scorpion as well.

even with the negatives from the distance, felicity's first shot strikes true, hitting the cultist in the shoulder.

isabella glances around her at the fallen bodies, and gives rose a small nod of appreciation, rushing off around the table to engage the scorpion (atk 27, dmg 7), one eye on rafael and buffy. she yells to them in a loud voice: ]

The doors! Go! [ indicating the nearby exit.

meanwhile, the scorpion turns and swipes at her with its two pincher-like claws (atk 14 & 20) which isabella quickly dodges and ducks, and then gives a clumsy tail strike (atk 8) that she rolls away from deftly.

the only remaining iscariot agent closes with faith as she stands over the guy she just took down, reaching out to grab her shoulder (touch attack 20). if it hits, she must make a will save (DC 20) or take 70 dmg. a successful save takes half.

two of the cultists come around now to shoot at felicity (atk 19 & 7, 5 dmg if the first hits and atk 23 & 16, dmg 9 and 10 if either hits).

the other cultist charges madly through the flames, taking the damage and swinging an axe at rose (atk 25), but still not fast enough to surprise the dhampir.

thunder rumbles out of the darkened cloud, and abruptly lightning bolts crackle out of it, targeting six of them: sam (40 dmg), alainn (43 dmg), rafael (31 dmg), buffy (56 dmg), isabella (45 dmg), and faith (29 dmg). they may reflex save dc 26 to take half damage (or none, if they have evasion). with a 31, isabella leaps out of the way of the bolt entirely. rafael, however, is not so lucky, taking the impact directly (ref 19), leaving him singed and grasping the edge of the stage for support.

and to make matters all the better, at that moment, a pair of doors behind the stage open, as well as the doors that they had originally come through, and more cultists begin streaming in... there appear to be even more behind them. ]

[Sam manages to entirely avoid the lightning strike (reflex 32, evasion), just in time to see more cultists coming in the door behind himself and his brother.

A quick glance around the room has him locating only one door that doesn't have cultists streaming through it, to the south, so he'll start heading 30 ft in that direction before taking a well-aimed shot at the scorpion (atk nat 20, dmg 22 + 7 vs evil).]

[Rose dances out of the way of the Cultist with a deathwish as he comes charging towards her, greeting him with the slice and stab of her stake a moment later; Atk 43 Dmg 17, Atk 40 Dmg 25 (Penetration), Atk 36 Dmg 18, Atk 44 Dmg 66 (Critical + Penetration), Atk 25 Dmg 16 (if that last one even hits).

Whether he's down or not, she takes a moment to assess the situation, her protective instinct wanting to pull her back to Dean, Sam and Alainn, but one look at Rafael? She had to trust the others to be able to take care of themselves.]

Get him out of here. [ Nodding to Rafael as...

...assuming the Cultist is, in fact, out for the count, Rose will use a Heroic Surge (2/5) to move closer to the Scorpion and the Cultists closest to the stage to try and help keep the path clear for Buffy or whoever to get Rafael to safety.]

[ sam lands a perfect shot into the thing's heart, staggering it, but it somehow is still - barely - on its "feet", so to speak. rose straight up murders a guy, and dean whirls around to face the flood of incoming cultists, backing up to stand in front of alainn and firing a shot back to give them some cover (atk 38, dmg 6). to alainn, he says: ]

You gotta pull that firewall. We got people on that side!

[ rafael takes the pistol from buffy, as he manages to push himself back up to standing from the aftershock of the lightning bolt. for a moment, he stares at it with a grim and almost confused look on his face, before tightening his grip and pulling up next to buffy, on the side of the doors, aiming it up at the monstrous scorpion. his grip is weak, his aim shoddy, for the practiced assassin, but it still manages to strike (atk 26, dmg 10). the shot buries itself into the thing's side, and it reels again, but still, somehow, does not fall.

it seems that the half-elf hasn't even noticed the other cultists beginning to stream in the door behind them. ]

Seriously? [Faith glances to the guy that probably just watched her take down all of his buddies without them getting a decent piece of her. (touch ac 32) She slips away from his attack and throws a punch to his face (atk 36 / dmg 22) before glancing around. She's trying to see if Buffy got Raf or not, but there's a little issue with a GIANT WALL OF FIRE blocking her view. Then lightning strikes (reflex 34) and she feels that a little. Shaking it off, she is grateful for her fast healing (+4HP each round) and makes another hit to the guy that apparently might not know he should stop (atk nat 20 / 37 total | dmg 38).

Of course, she can hear Dean yelling for the wall to come down, but she's also pretty sure that she could run through it and take the heat if it came down to it.

Being that she's on this side of the wall, she can't see all the hell going on the other side and will just try to clean up this mess first.]

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