chicago ♔ can't deny the enemy's taken over

[lawofsurvival]

WHO || Des, Buffy, Spike, Myri, Finnick, Archer, Dawn, Vi, Elena, Jaka [closed]
WHAT || Bonding time with Rafael's lawyer by breaking into Chad Beckworth's office
WHERE || NOVA Records HQ, Chicago, IL
WHEN || July 11th, 2013 [backdated]
HOW || Actionspam, single thread

Never a dull moment.

The night of the funeral was certainly eventful: as expected, some of Chad's goons appeared at the cemetery, apparently in search of the buried necklace, and the Knights barely managed to escape with their lives thanks to the appearance of a giant dune-winder worm at the beck and call of a necromancer. Yep. The other team had their own share of adventure at the hotel, and though they couldn't get Nadia to leave with them, they did establish contact, and swiped Decker Greenwall's mysterious hourglass artifact from his room at Dumage's prompting. They also ran afoul of a doppelganger in the employ of the other side, who prompted Elena to begin questioning exactly who or what she might be...

And of course, they finally met with Rafael's lawyer, a last minute replacement for Burt's usual guy, who had met with an unfortunate skiing accident or... something. Jeggred 'Jaka' Teken'Duis, and his brother Nym, garnered a great deal of suspicion from the team from the start, although Jaka seems entirely confident that he can get Rafael off on a temporary insanity plea. Either way, he's agreed to help them look for clues to try to illustrate Chad's role in events at the upcoming trial, and suggested, to that end, breaking into his Chicago office, one of many not-quite-legal suggestions he hinted at during their pow-wow.

All those Knights who are looking to assist him are meeting up with Jaka in a parking garage a few blocks away from the NOVA building, at his invitation.  In fact, he's already there, leaning against his car, when they arrive.

Comments

[slay]

Hey, you wanna pick it up some?

[ buffy notices jaka's being pretty leisurely, and she's looking to pick up the pace as she hurries back towards the others. ]

Giant inviso-bug, not exactly screaming good news for anybody.

[watcherjunior]

[ There's a total look of surprise when Dawn's previous str check gets her halfway free. Sometimes miracles do happen with your dump stat. Since Archer manages to free himself, she'll give it one more go in trying to pull the rest of the way out (str 15).

She's also keeping an eye on that damn spider (spot nat 20, total 24), and if she's able, she's going to reach for her gun, too. ]

[lawofsurvival]

[ i'll allow dawn to try a break out as a move and draw her weapon as an attack action, sure.

jaka, in the meantime, just retorts: ] Perhaps it will teach your friends something about screaming and pointing anytime they see a threat, and provoking it into action. [ he snorts. amateurs. ]

[notaroundme]

[Hey guys, guess who just crit failed her escape artist check AGAIN.]

A little help here?

[Because seriously Archer? Stop the sauntering before she freaks out.]

[isisagent]

[Archer is none too pleased about getting blood on his suit... but that can wait, he follows Myri's lead and attempts to pull Elena free.]

Knew I should have worn my Tactleneck... I got ya, just hang in there.
[He laughs at his own joke, as he pulls with a strength roll total of 18. (Not sure if that's good enough :x)]

[graveflowers]

[Holy balls, Myri is strong. Vi stumbles back with her, the shock at being just bodily yanked out of the web, but she rights herself almost immediately. (Balance 25)

She is starting to hate spiders. She doesn't even kill them, she sets them free in the wild! That shit is going to change. And with her spot of 16, she can finally see it as she glances around to find some nature she can choke it to death with.] You motherfucker.

[Classiest of broads.]

[herebemonsters]

[ elena's crit failed twice, stacking her DC to a 23 as she gets more and more hopelessly entangled... but archer's 18 is enough to knock that down 2 again, so it's back to a DC 21 str or escape artist to get her out.

violet glances around wildly for vegetation, but there's nothing but concrete jungle visible here in the confines of the tunnel (she can roll a spot check to confirm). the spider rears back, ready to smack archer again as he struggles to free elena, but he notices vi stumbling away from the web and chitters with increasing agitation, wheeling around and heading straight for her. it slices at her with one of those hard legs of its, a much less deliberate, refined attack than before as it loses its temper, but still impossible to avoid (atk 28, dmg 10 (with penetration :x). ]

[witchwoman]

No! [Myri shouts as the spider lashes out at Violet, her empathy flaring the moment that the leg struck. Part of her knows that she needs to think about the other two who are trapped, but... It's difficult to prioritize above the immediate need. She keeps her wits about her long enough to remember the missing member of their party.]

Buffy! [She turns her head and screams for the slayer as loud as she possibly can. Turning back, she lays a hand on Violet and her magic all but leaps from her palm to seek out the wound that the spider inflicted (cure minor wounds - +8 hp).]

Are you okay?

[herebemonsters]

[ GURRRRRL DONTCHOO GO HEALIN' HIS SPIDER SNACKS. as myri heals vi, she leaves herself wide open to get bitch slapped by the spider (atk 41, dmg 5). ]

[slay]

[ with a listen check of 24, buffy hears myri's shout, and she also hears what she can easily recognize as the sounds of a battle going on. panic wells up in her chest as she continues to sprint towards the scene. ]

Hold on!

[watcherjunior]

[ That was my bad on my last tag, sorry. Though she's drawn her gun, Dawn's priority is getting free of the web. She struggles again, trying to wrench herself free (str 10). ]

[lawofsurvival]

[ you're fine bb ;) jaka is just sauntering along after buffy, clearly not overly concerned. la la la. ]

IM SORRY LET ME KNOW SOONER NEXT TIME /cries into hands

[notaroundme]

[Elena reaches out to try and grab Archer's arm so that she can assist him in...getting herself out. Because holy shit that spider is freaky and huge. (Escape artist 9 lol)]

[isisagent]

So... Don't freak out, but you're in there pretty good, Elena.
[Archer takes a step back.]

You're gonna want to... close your eyes for a second.
[Archer raises his hand, and begins to cut the web around Elena with the laser on his OMICRON SPYMASTER!]

[IDK how much damage a laser does... "fire-based" things usually hurt webs though. Fingers crossed. I did get a 22 ranged attack against the web, just dunno how much I can hurt it.]

[graveflowers]

[You know what it super disorienting? Getting smacked to your knees arachnid style and then being healed point five seconds later. Unfortunately her brain just feels the pain for a while. Yay! She stands and reaches for Myri, to grab her after she is also spider slapped.] Shit, are you okay? [Fret fret fret.] We need to get Dawn and Elena out. [But Myri is hurt...] Stay behind me.

[herebemonsters]

[ in a truly horrifying turn of events, the webbing resists the beam being trained on it, although archer's precision keeps it from getting anywhere near elena. he can maintain his attack for as many rounds as he'd like to hold it there, if he wishes to keep lasering it, and doesn't need to reroll.

the creature is hardly finished with the girls, and as vi tries to yank myri behind her, it lashes out with its awful mandibles, clamping onto her leg (atk 27, dmg 11). poison courses through the broken skin, and she must make a will save DC 20 or higher. failure results in her being slowed: she may only make a single move or attack action per round, but not both, and suffers -1 to Defense, attacks, and reflex saves. ]

[witchwoman]

[Too distracted by her concern for the others, Myri doesn't have the strength of will to fight off the poison's effect (will 12). She cries out and tries to back away from the spider's grasp, limping.]

Archer, get them out of there. Now! [If it's distracted with her and Violet, then she'll make them use that to her advantage.]

[slay]

[ THE CAVALRY HAS ARRIVED, with artillery. buffy sizes up the situation on the approach, so she maneuvers past the giant insect and drops the artillery without a second thought because dawn's in trouble and somehow, that gets her top priority on instinct. ]

Dawn! [ she grabs onto her sister's arm and yanks to try and pull her out (str 30), all urgency and concern. ]

[herebemonsters]

[ as buffy runs behind the thing, it kicks out with one of its back legs at her (atk 37, dmg 6) >:|

her mighty pull yanks dawn loose easily, however, the webbing ripping free around her ]

[watcherjunior]

[ Imagine her surprise when Buffy drops all the massive firepower she's hauling and comes to help Dawn. She comes free with her sister's first try, steadying herself on her feet just as the spider attacks.

Might as well make use of the gun she pulled before getting free. ]

It's not a giant shoe, but this is worth a try.

[ She fires. (ranged atk 18) ]

[lawofsurvival]

[ dawn's bullet strikes the shell of the spider dead-on... but ricochets off it uselessly :C

meanwhile, at the mouth of the underpass, jaka sets down his own pile of weaponry, and slings a monstrosity off his back that looks like it should be mounted on a turret to operate - but he wields it around like he's freaking seras victoria and kneels, training it on the beast. this takes his whole round, but that just furthers the impression he makes of being a leisurely badass. ]

[notaroundme]

[Elena is just...not okay with any of this okay. She really appreciates the assist, though.]

This isn't working, Archer. Just help them.

[Sorry Myri, but you're the one getting attacked, and thus the one that needs saving right now. And she's going to shoot off a round at the creature (ranged attack 15), hoping that maybe it'll at least help distract it.]

[isisagent]

Lis'sa must have put a Chinese laser in this damn thing. FUCK.
[He gives up on the laser, and responds to Elena;]

...What, and just leave you up here as spider-food? Fuck that! Get your shit together, Elena!
[Archer plants his feet, grabs hold of Elena and pulls with a Nat 20 Strength (+3)]

[graveflowers]

[Vi just yanks Myri behind her (strength 16), putting herself between the cleric and the spider.] No, you back right the fuck off, dude. You are not helping my please don't step on spiders, set them free and in the wild spiel, bro. I like spiders, stop trying to eat us!

[Is she talking to a spider? Sure is. But apparently she had the same idea as Myri (wisdom 21, fambly) and if the spider is focused on her (and not wounded Myri) then it's not focused on everyone else.]

[herebemonsters]

[ the spider's eyes twitch from side to side for a moment and its mandibles click, as if it's maybe listening to violet's words or trying to understand them...

and then abruptly, he lashes out with a hard-shelled leg and smacks vi aside with a mighty blow that sends her staggering -- directly into jaka's potential line of fire (atk 43, dmg 6). it then looks back towards myri, obviously intent on coming after her again. ]