new zealand ♔ when lies turn into truth i sacrificed for you | you say that i'm frozen

[lissatrinall]

♬ where i can never be - gary numan

WHO || Lis'sa, Kenzi, Bo, Klaus, Rebekah, Mars[Closed]
WHAT || The Knights investigate a mysterious carnival that may be linked to some magical winter weather
WHERE || New Zealand
WHEN || August 11th [forwarddated]
HOW || Actionspam. Single thread, don't worry about maintaining tagging order.

Strange winds have blown in, bringing on an unusually chill winter in New Zealand. The ground crunches underfoot with snow, the days growing shoter and stars holding court in the darkness reigning above. An unnatural cold permeates the town, and the river's jubilant voice is frozen under the ice. Birds abandon their nests for warmer climes, their songs silenced by winter's grim embrace. But the frozen riverbank now hosts a shimmering respite from the gloomy cold in the form of garish tents, joyful shouts, and sumptuous smells. Vaale's Carnival has come to town.

Gaiety and laughter cut through the cold wind, and even the sky-shy sun peeks its face from around the gathering winter clouds. Children squeal with delight and gasp in awe at the sights, sounds, and smells of Vaale's Carnival. The Titan's Wheel creaks and groans as a burly lumberjack tests his might wit a hefty spin, a family rushes giggling into the sprawling ice maze to the north, and dozens of happy skaters flit about the rinks atop the frozen river. Carnival dolls are handed to wide-eyed townspeople as prizes and a menagerie of freakish creatures and glowing lights beckons the curious. Garish skirts and scanty veils call others to a different breed of voyeurism altogether. Treats and wonders abound for young and old to enjoy, and for a time, the harsh winter is forgotten in joyful revelry. There's nothing to indicate any sinister going on whatsoever, as the group surveys the happy smiles of the crowd.

* Please make a list of all items your character is carrying in an entry in their journal before tagging into this post! They are free to have requisitioned any equipment or weapons they desire beforehand.

Comments

[charismapotion]

I have an idea.

[ He moved with them, once inside the labyrinth he cast Dancing Light .]

As long as we dont go too far, we should be able to follow them back out.

[lissatrinall]

[ it's not hard to follow the bloody hoofprints - and if it were, the scream up ahead should tell them they're close. as they round a corner, they see the hulking minotaur standing over the lifeless corpse of his most recent kill, smiling as he licks the blood from his axe.

lis'sa draws her gun immediately. ] Careful.

[succubestie]

[Bo pulls a blade from a sheath at her thigh, gritting her teeth.]

Always am.

[More like never, Bo. Honestly.]

[asuma]

[Klaus can probably take a hit better than anyone here and I guess he is feeling uncharacteristically selfless at the moment (or maybe he just wanted to see the real life Minotaur up close before they turned it into a stain on the cold hard ground who knows) because he uses his vampire speed to move himself to the front of the line so that he can make himself the most appealing target.]

It's not that I can't appreciate a good massacre every now and then. [Said while casting a glance over the latest corpse left in the creature's wake.] This lot in particular seems to have it coming more than most. Though I suppose asking you nicely to stop murdering anyone else for the time being is too much to hope for.

[No diplomacy check because he doesn't expect it to be willing to reason/he isn't even trying tbh. But at least Klaus can say that he didn't jump the gun and if it prevents Mars or even Kenzi from getting their squishy little butts curbstomped right out of the gate then, well, he's done his good deed for the year. Y'all welcome.]

[lissatrinall]

[ he was probably onto something with that assumption about the minotaur's capacity for reason. this gets driven home when its reaction is to open its jaws and let out a horrible roar, the stink of death on its breath. it raises its greataxe and charges klaus, since he's presented himself as a target, but the swing goes wildly over his head (atk 11). lis'sa moves to the side five feet, and fires twice into its hide (atk 20/18: dmg 8+5=13) ]

[morethanasidekick]

[It's like those kids books except instead of 'See Spot Run' everyone gets to 'See Kenzi Run', off to the side, away from the hulking mass of man-beast as she pulls out, of all things, a crossbow and I sure never bought Quick-Draw for her so all you get this round is the quip to go with her pant-wetting terror.]

Holy halitosis batman. [As she tries to load a bolt into her crossbow.]

[charismapotion]

[ Klaus is getting a hug one day. Mars is very squishy, don't let him break.]

Klaus! Be careful! [ He called, moving back quickly as he tries to think of a spell to use. He couldn't think of a spell to use. Opps, yeah he's useless for a moment or two here.]

[succubestie]

[Bo moves in, ready to sink her blade into its side, but it proves (likely) to be too fast or tough for her (atk 14)]

[asuma]

[As Bo moves in to idk give this bitch a paper cut, Klaus uses the opportunity to position himself on the opposite side of the creature so that he can attempt to knock some sense into it except he is not doing much better over here whoops (attack 13 wtf we are bad luck for each other, gurl).]

[lissatrinall]

[ "Hold still!" growls the minotaur as they both manage to hit him, despite what their brackets said. he swings his greataxe at bo's head, but it's slow, and easily avoidable (atk 12, 10), and in frustration, turns to try and catch klaus with a horn ... and crit fails, losing the grip on his axe and dropping it.

lis'sa fires twice more (atk 30/14: dmg 10+4)... and the combination of attacks are enough to drop the thing, which teeters and then falls over. klaus should make a reflex save (dc 15) to avoid being crushed for 1 dmg

/init... ]

[asuma]

[Well he nat 20'd that reflex save so he just sidesteps that shit with the grace of a fucking swan apparently.]

Well then, now that we've all been thoroughly disappointed-- [Because wow he was expecting a lot more fight out of a fucking minotaur but whatever. He kicks the creature's axe aside just in case it decides to resurrect itself or something.]

I don't suppose you lot managed to find anything useful. [Like what just happened ain't no thang. He really doubts it but they were here for the weather not rabid mythical beasts rite?]

[succubestie]

The fortune teller gave me something, told me to use it when the time was right.

We'll see if she was crazy or not soon enough.

[charismapotion]

[ Squishy sorceror, is totally moving towards the minotaur. Curiosity getting the best of him, plus the pity for a creature that had been stuck in a cage. he kneels to see if its still still alive while Bo talks.]

[morethanasidekick]

[/throws in a trash tag cause pretty sure people feel they should wait for me idek.

And yeah Kenzi maybe just finished loading the bolt in her crossbow.... A+ skills for this chick. Why did you bring her again?!]

Dude, are you crazy?! [Yes Mars, she's talking to you.] Pretty sure the don't poke the bear rule also applies to minotaurs, even possibly dead ones.]

[asuma]

[Seriously, bro. Klaus is going to reach for the back of Mar's collar to pull him away from the downed Minotaur just in case it decides it wants to get back up and give it another go. Hey, you never know.]

How specific of them. [Seriously, if anyone had ideas on where to go from here, now would probably be the time to drop them.]

Perhaps we ought to inform the park's management about this little mishap and do a bit more snooping while we're at it. I can't imagine they would keep the park open following the deaths of several of their guests.

[charismapotion]

[ Yep, Mars is easily pulled back by Klaus, he may be tall but he's light as can be.]

It's dead, I just wanted to see if it was maybe being controlled or something. [ Only half a lie, but he was curious. (bluff 15) ]

[lissatrinall]

What is that? [ lis'sa is busy looking at something rounding the corner- a little red fox, with a note strapped to his back. he stops in front of them, sits on his haunches, and looks up at them expectantly. ]

[asuma]

Not suspicious whatsoever. [To answer Lis'sa's question.

But there is a note, and so Klaus will approach the creature carefully. He's going to try and get a look at the note in case the fox attempts to run, however (spot: 27). If not, he will attempt to snatch that shit.]

[lissatrinall]

[ the fox just calmly lets him take it like wtf bro do you think i'm going to bite, and then scampers off.

it's rolled up parchment, written in fancy script, and says:

Hail Champions,

A bleak and bitter frost has fallen across the land, and I fear it has reached even into the hearts of my people. Aided by agents of an ancient evil, they are about to visit such destruction upon the people of your community as has only been seen in nightmares. If you would aid me in combating these villains, please come swiftly to the grove beyond the west entrance of the carnival. Do not be started by my appearance.

-Syntira. ]

[asuma]

[Foxes are skittish ok and Klaus is kind of an apex predator over here. Although I guess he would have no interest in nomming a small woodland creature--he's not Stefan.

Back to the matter at hand tho. Allow Klaus to bask in the beautiful penmanship (he appreciates that shit ok) before he relays the message aloud to the rest of these chucklefucks.]

Hail Champions. A bleak and bitter frost has fallen across the land, and I fear it has reached even into the hearts of my people. Aided by agents of an ancient evil, they are about to visit such destruction upon the people of your community as has only been seen in nightmares. If you would aid me in combating these villains, please come swiftly to the grove beyond the west entrance of the carnival. Do not be started by my appearance. Signed, Syntira.

[Yeah, I just copied and pasted that fight me. But after he's done reading, he hands it over to Lis'sa since she's like the ~senior knight~ or whatever and will probably want a closer look.]

Seems rather convenient, if you ask me. Then again, we haven't exactly been making headway here ourselves.

[The invite included a location at which they could begin, at any rate. Which beat wasting any more time seeing the fucking sights that the carnival had to offer as they had been up until now. Klaus was all for it.]

[lissatrinall]

[ lis'sa inspects the note, curious. ] It's a lead. As you say, we're disappointingly short on any others.

We'll proceed cautiously.

[asuma]

Normally I might suggest that one or more of us remain hidden until we know what it is that we're dealing with, but as we've already been outed I sincerely doubt that our doing so would grant us any true advantage.

Shall we be on our way then? [To the grove??]

[charismapotion]

[ he just stands to follow Klaus. ]

[lissatrinall]

[ onward! ]