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

[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. ]

[witchwoman]

[Myri can tell that it wants her, for whatever reason (wis 24). As Vi yanks her back and ends up hurt in the process, Myri's gift screams at her to heal the immediate hurt. She bites back on the urge (will 25) and takes a few steps back, eyes locked on the spider and hoping that she's right... hoping that it will follow her.]

Come on, then! [She shouts at it, waving her arms in the air to try to solidify that it has her attention as she backs away from the rest of the group. Her leg won't let her go to far, but if she can draw it out... maybe it would give someone else the chance to get away, or better yet, to kill it.] Simurghin pest! [Oh look- curse words from her home land. That's fun.]

[slay]

[ the kick from the spider interrupts buffy while she tries to check if dawn's all right - but with the two girls out of the webbing now, she will turn to kick it back (attack 31, dmg 16). then she drops her foot and shouts to the others, because maybe it'll get them to stop doing stupid shit like ... attract its attention to hurt them MYRI WATER U DOIN. ] Any chance this thing has a weakness we know about? [ look the rest of them have been fighting it longer, though it doesn't look like it's been going very well. ]

[watcherjunior]

[ Really? It's just going to hit it and just ricochet away harmlessly? Dawn knows so little about guns right now, but she knows that was a good shot and she just wants to shoot the spider again for it not having any effect. But there's a heaping pile of heavier fire power that Buffy dropped that she's... just going to look at because hell if she knows how to use any of that.

She glances back to Buffy, fighting the urge to shrug. ] I'd say a super-sized can of Raid, but I'm pretty sure we'd probably, like, kill ourselves before that stupid thing dies. [ Maybe they could distract it. If she moves in the opposite direction of Myri, maybe it won't know how to go after. She starts backing away from it (and the webbing), making extra noise. ] No, come this way, you big ugly Shelob thing!

[lawofsurvival]

[ buffy's strike surprises the spider clearly, and his attention is obviously diverted back towards her, despite dawn's best distraction efforts...

meanwhile jaka lets out an entirely exasperated sigh as violet goes stumbling into his sight line, and you can hear his eye roll as he says to her: ] Do you mind.

[ so, despite his clear moment of consideration over whether or not to just go for it... jaka will be holding his action until after violet's turn. ]

[notaroundme]

[Elena clearly isn't expecting the feat of strength that Archer pulls in the next moment, and she stumbles into him, arms catching around his neck to keep herself from falling (balance 9).]

...Thanks.

[And like an apparent badass, she's going to spot the spider over his shoulder, aim, and fire off the best shot of her life. (nat 20 atk....30 dmg)]

[isisagent]

[Ringing noises, followed by yelling;]
JESUS FUCK, ELENA! WHY WOULD YOU EVER DO THAT?! GOD DAMMIT...

[Archer pulls her close, spins them around, and quick draws his Remington Spartan Sawed-Off shotgun mimicking Elena's shot - attempting to exact some Tinnitus-Related revenge, and murder Shelob.]
[Atk is a roll of 26... IDK if that hits or not? 23 damage if it do.]
YEAH. THAT'S YOUR TYMPANIC MEMBRANE RUPTURING ELENA! FUCK...

[He puts one hand up to an ear.]
MAWP!

[graveflowers]

[And while the otp is being sexiful, Vi is glowering at Jaka because fuck you she was just bitch slapped by a spider (again) while he is taking his sweet ass time waiting to fire so they all can observe how sexy he is with his heavy artillery like look at me with my spider killing weapon, watch me not use it, but look hot not doing it.

Fuck everything, Violet hates the world.] Bite me. [But she does turn to dart back to Myri, and out of his line of fire, while the spider is stalking Buffy.]