rome ♔ watch your worlds fade to black

[behindcloseddoors]

♬ three in the morning - homestuck

WHO || Alanna, Kate, Bo, Rose [Closed]
WHAT || The Knights investigate a strange series of fires
WHERE || Rome, Italy
WHEN || Jan 15th, evening, almost 6pm [backdated]
HOW || Actionspam. Single thread, don't worry about maintaining tagging order.

The Knights arrive at the scene of the fire several hours after the fact.  It's clearly gutted the building, located in a commercial district of Rome.  Only one fire truck remains, along with several police cruisers and a van marked 'Arson Investigation Unit' in Italian.  The police team seems hard at work combing over the scene.

A small sign in Italian hangs half-legible over the door.  Though the fire is out, the building still smolders, even as water drips from the blackened timbers and stone.  

Comments

[succubestie]

Keep moving, ladies!

[Seriously can we not try to fight the giant fire ghost in the burning building.

Once she realizes the girls can breath on their own and get a move on, she lets them go so they can book it toward the door. (Full movement)]

[behindcloseddoors]

[ bo and kate will make it back out to the lobby which i will address in a moment... but the charred one moves after them, heading straight after moretti now that the path is clear. which means alanna gets to step in with an attack of opportunity! ]

[trebond]

[ swing and a miss! alanna's sword goes straight through the charred one again (atk 13). ]

[littledhampir]

[Now it's probably Rose's turn to miss but she can't not try as she aims her gun at the charred one and... doesn't shoot when it hits her that if the bullet goes through it, she's going to shoot her teammates instead. (Wisdom 20 total).]

Any idea what the hell this thing is? [Looking around to see if there's anything that might be of use against a flaming mess of WTF. (Spot 29.)]

[behindcloseddoors]

[ she doesn't see anything through the smoke, other than a sprinkler system above, which the smoke is finally reaching and enveloping.

meanwhile, out in the hallway, a gigantic fire is blazing at the far end of the hall, and worse, moretti has stopped in the doorway that leads out to the lobby, because a huge fire is consuming that room as well, blocking his way out. ]

[trebond]

Our weapons won't do any good.

[ Alanna looks to Rose. ]

We need to catch up with the rest. Lead it out into the open, and then we can figure out how to battle something we can't hit.

[ She turns to chase after where the others ran out at full speed. ]

[killmypatience]

[Kate stumbles out into the hallway, and catches sight of both Moretti and the fire (spot 27). She glances around before reaching forward to try and grab the man's shoulders and get his attention (grapple 9).]

We need another way out of here.

[That's mostly to Bo, but she wants Moretti's attention because he knows the layout better than she does.]

[succubestie]

Clearly.

[She doesn't stop moving, heading down the hallway toward the other doors, trying to get a look inside the rooms to see if she can find another exit, like a breakable window. (Spot 28)]

[behindcloseddoors]

[ moretti yanks out of kate's grip, but does turn to look at her. ]

It's too late. [ bo moves down the hall past two doors before she looks into the men's bathroom and sees a window high up. ] It's-- [ and he screams again as the thing emerges behind kate, smacking at her with a flame covered hand (atk 18, dmg ... 11 :( ) she must make a reflex save dc 15 or her clothes and hair catch on fire for an additional 5 dmg. DON'T DIE, KATE ]

[littledhampir]

[Meanwhile, oblivious to the fact that one of her teammates may or may not be dying (GDI), in what is probably the worst decision in the history of the world, Rose in her ultimate wisdom figures if the sprinklers won't go off and put the damn fire out on their own, she's going to give them a helping hand by shooting at the pipes overhead. (Atk. 26, Dmg. 12).]

[behindcloseddoors]

[ the pipe bursts... and moments later, water starts pouring down around the factory. this will give kate a +4 to her reflex save not to catch on fire, and some of the flames start dying out slowly (i'll update the map with which areas tomorrow).

unfortunately... it seems to have no effect on the charred one. because he's a fucking ghost. whoops. moretti screams and runs after bo as fast as his legs can carry him. ]

[trebond]

[ When the charred one slashed at Kate, Alanna forgets that she has fucking magic and goes into full knight mode trying to ... stop the bad guy. And tries to slash at it again. And misses. Again. Jesus fucking christ. ]

[killmypatience]

[Yeah, that doesn't go so well. She takes the hit hard and tries to roll as she hits the ground to try and put the flames out, but it doesn't work out as well as she'd like (reflex save 14). She just barely makes her fort save, however, provided that the additional damage doesn't make the DC higher (fort save 10).]

[succubestie]

Shit!

[Bo ends up running back for Kate, because fuck no she's not letting one of her people go down, and if that makes her run past the charred one, so be it.

Bo pulls off her leather jacket and attempts to use it to bat out and smother the flames that start on Kate's clothes.

The thing can have Moretti. She gives zero fucks at this point.]

[littledhampir]

[And seeing as Rose is probably more than 30 feet away from the others, now that it's raining in the factory she's going to use a full round to try and catch up to the rest of the group and maybe realize what's going on with Kate and the Charred one in the process!]

[succubestie]

[The Charred One's hand whizzes over her head as she moves past it, and she manages to put out the flames beginning to cover Kate, as well as keep herself from catching fire, too (reflex save 33)]

[behindcloseddoors]

[ the charred one doesn't even seem to give a shit about bo saving kate down there, really. after its half-hearted attempt to smack her as she passes, it just moves beyond them both as rose emerges into the hallway, heading after moretti, and unfortunately for him, catching up. he turns to face it with growing horror, and a strange crackly voice from it seems to say: ] You will pay. [ it reaches for him, but he's actually pretty fast, and ducks out of the way. ]

[trebond]

[ Alanna drops to her knees beside Kate, extending her hands and looking hastily to Bo. ]

Protect him. Stop the beast. Go!

[ Purple light emanates from her hands, flowing into Kate as Alanna casts cure moderate wounds over her (+10 hp). ]

[killmypatience]

[There's a groan. A really loud groan, and she feels sore and disoriented, but she's awake which is something. She moves slowly, but turns to face Alanna and trying to get to her feet.]

Ow.

[Yeah, that's about how useful she is this round.]

Where's Moretti?

[succubestie]

About to be ghost food.

[Ugh, Alanna, how is she supposed to hit something that she...can't hit?]

You realize this place could blow at any moment, sprinklers or not, right? We need to get out of here.

[Basically fuck Moretti at this point.]

We can get out through the bathroom window.

[behindcloseddoors]

[ idek what happened to init order here. i'll just do them both together cuz it's easier????? a+ gming.

moretti sure is glad he dropped his gun back there, i'll tell you what. instead of fighting back, he breaks into the bathroom for that window, presumably, although that means they can no longer see him. the charred one follows after him, not stopping, and they both vanish into the men's room.

meanwhile, the sprinklers have stopped the flames from spreading further, and start putting out small patches of fire here and there. ]

[littledhampir]

You mean the one where Moretti and that... whatever the hell that thing is?!

[Rose might be on board with screw Moretti and get the hell out of here but looks like they may be headed in the same direction anyway, the Dhampir starting towards the door they disappeared through annnnd... Pretty sure that's all she can do right now so tra lala lala as she runs.]

[behindcloseddoors]

[ when she heads into the bathroom, she's greeted with the sight of moretti standing beneath the window, looking up at it desperately, as the flaming ghost looms up behind him with its singular fixation. whoop. ]

[trebond]

Great Mother.

[ It sounds like a plea for help because she is fresh out of patience with all y'all. Running off to where she can't heal you. When she's certain Kate can stand on her own, she books it after Rose because jesus don't just charge in there on your own gurl. ]

[killmypatience]

[Kate is ambulatory, so at least there's that. She still feels like she was hit by a truck but what can you do. She glances towards where Rose and Alanna are running off to, before glancing back at Bo and shrugging.]

Guess we're going ghost hunting.

[and with that she's just going to start moving towards the bathroom window, hoping there's something they can do so that a man doesn't just get deep fried, deserving of it or not.]