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Role Playing Games => BZ's Games => Disciples => Topic started by: BerkaZerka on August 22, 2016, 05:57:10 pm

Title: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on August 22, 2016, 05:57:10 pm
Washington National Cathedral; Monday October 3rd 2016

According to Sarapheen’s instructions, the Disciples were to all meet together for the first time today; Gathering at noon, in the garden pavilion outside the Washington National Cathedral.

It had been a few months, since each of them had accepted the calling to serve as one of the angel’s disciples – And Sarapheen now felt that everyone was grounded well enough in their understanding of the Lingua Intelligentia to begin working together for the purpose that they had been called.

As such, Sarapheen had arranged for the group, officially a ‘quorum’, to base themselves in the Washington DC area.

For now, there was to be four of them.
As Beats and Emend were already from the Washington DC and surrounding area, only Robor and Saint had to relocate – Sarapheen having made all the necessary arrangements for that beforehand.

Sarapheen had also hinted to their being a fifth member of the quorum, but it was unclear why that person would be delayed in joining the group as of yet.

As noon arrived, four men had wandered into the garden one by one.

Of these four men, the first to arrive was a well-muscled man of half latino/half white descent. He wore a sleeveless tank top and had tattoos on his arms, notably vines encircling his left bicep. His hair was trimmed short and he had the stubble-makings of a thin beard, while wearing upscale headphones around his neck.

The second, was a tall well-dressed man with black hair, in a fashionable suit and matching tie that carried himself as if used to the finer things in life.

The third man to arrive, had short brown hair that matched the color of his eyes. He was dressed in plain business attire that seemed to suggest ‘door to door insurance salesman’ for some reason. While not buff like the latino guy, the man clearly cared about fitness and was in good shape.

The last man to enter the garden was a priest, in the black vestments of the church, with white collar. He was of average height, with short cropped black hair and handsome features – his skin pale from a life of study.

Presuming they were all disciples present, that only left the arrival of Sarapheen herself still pending…
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on August 25, 2016, 03:59:18 pm
After a bit, Giles clears his throat and introduces himself.

"Good afternoon, I am the adherent Saint, I follow Sarapheen's calling, I assume you are the others that she mentionned?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Not Aman on August 25, 2016, 04:01:53 pm
"Yes, yes, I'd assume so." Robor says with a nod, dusting off his suit.

"Quite a name you've given Saint." Robor says with a smirk.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on August 25, 2016, 04:04:39 pm
Saint grins, "Perhaps a bit of hubris on my part, but I would call myself what I aspire to be. I find myself at a disadvantage...?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Not Aman on August 25, 2016, 04:25:43 pm
Robor nods.
"Robor, Celtic God of Oak."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: killa_robot on August 25, 2016, 08:18:53 pm
Emend looks at the two men speaking and sizes them up. Robor referring to himself as a God when he's preparing to be an angel seems in bad taste to Emend, so he turns to Saint first.

"My name is Emend. Nice to meet you, Saint," he says, extending his hand to Saint.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on August 25, 2016, 08:26:06 pm
"As with you," Saint says, accepting Emend's offer and shaking his hand.

"I must confess to a certain degree of apprehension, i've yet to meet any other disciples since Sarapheen brought me here. Where are you all from?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Forge on August 25, 2016, 09:38:26 pm
Beats moves forward clearly 'presenting himself' to see how the other men react to his less refined appearance.

"The projects not too far from here, I go by 'Beats'" he taps the headphones as indication of where the name came from then observes the three men again with a faint smile to show he was confident in this situation.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on August 25, 2016, 10:13:08 pm
Ha, I think I like this fellow most of all, Lord. Reminds me of the kids I was with when Father Armand found me.

"It's good to meet you all. I have no doubt we'll get to know each other quite well in the near future."

"How were you all chosen to be disciples?"

"I realize it's a very personal question, if none of you are comfortable saying so that's fine, but I AM a priest, feel free to confess," the Disciple says with a friendly smile.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Not Aman on August 25, 2016, 10:43:18 pm
"Vampires. I think." Robor says. "You?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on August 25, 2016, 10:45:58 pm
Saint clears his throat, a look of reluctance passing across his face before he continues, "My mother sold both her and my soul to a demon and my father killed himself."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Forge on August 25, 2016, 11:50:31 pm
Beats nods to the priest after hearing his bsckground, always respect a man of the cloth, especially now you have first hand experience of the  supernatural being very real

"Stopped a pedo preying on kids in my streets, the worse one behind him is still at large though. Gonna get to im next."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on August 26, 2016, 05:48:23 pm
Saint nods, as if it's only to be expected.

"Should you ever need any help, I am at your beck and call. I have a daughter of my own."

"What about you, Emend?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: killa_robot on August 26, 2016, 06:03:44 pm
Saint clears his throat, a look of reluctance passing across his face before he continues, "My mother sold both her and my soul to a demon and my father killed himself."

"Glad to see I'm not the only one with parents that made poor decisions. My father also sold his soul to a demon, and then tried to condemn me to the same fate", Emend replies. He then offers his hand to both Beats and Robor (in whatever order they shake to him), to properly introduce himself to them.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Forge on August 26, 2016, 07:18:39 pm
Beats shakes the proffered hand, these men seem less put off by appearance than expected "Guess after Demons and Vampires a guy with tats isn't so wierd." he thinks.

Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Not Aman on August 28, 2016, 12:17:57 pm
Robor nods, shaking Emend's hand with a strong grip before turning back to Saint.

"How'd you get a kid Saint?" He asks.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on August 28, 2016, 02:01:21 pm
"I pulled her from her dead mother's arms in the cold four years ago. With some help from a friend, I arranged her adoption."

"..."

"So, vampires huh?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Forge on August 28, 2016, 02:09:46 pm
Beats grins "So you went all crosses and Garlic on its ass?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Not Aman on August 28, 2016, 10:12:21 pm
"I pulled her from her dead mother's arms in the cold four years ago. With some help from a friend, I arranged her adoption."
"Certainly good to hear that the faith is in proper hands." He says, smiling.
Quote
"..."

"So, vampires huh?"
Beats grins "So you went all crosses and Garlic on its ass?"
"Nothing so glamorous, I'm afraid. The monster caught me with it's fangs, but thankfully our blood is corrosive to them. Unpleasant experience to say the least."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on August 28, 2016, 10:48:56 pm
Giles smiles back at John, accepting the compliment, "So you were already a disciple when you were met the beast?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Forge on August 29, 2016, 12:06:26 pm
Beats stares at his arms as if trying to see his own blood for a moment before shrugging.

"Seems like we got a mix of types put,  hey?" He indicates the various clothing
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Not Aman on August 29, 2016, 01:32:09 pm
Giles smiles back at John, accepting the compliment, "So you were already a disciple when you were met the beast?"
He shakes his head.
"Serapheen made me one during the whole neck drinking thing."
Beats stares at his arms as if trying to see his own blood for a moment before shrugging.

"Seems like we got a mix of types put,  hey?" He indicates the various clothing
"Yeah. Definitely." Robor says, nodding.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on August 29, 2016, 06:18:35 pm
"Good afternoon gentlemen," Sarapheen called cheerfully, as she walked down the garden path toward the men gathered near the pavilion.

'Ugh, I hope they don't press Robor on that whole premature calling thing,' the angel thought to herself, 'I don't need anything to remind me of the Arc's counselling session after that one... Yikes.'

Sarapheen was in her human form - brunette - and wearing her trademark long black skirt with white blouse. Even without glasses, she looked remarkably like a librarian in her appearance; and actually tended to act like one more often than not.

"I trust that you've all had the chance to get to know each other a little, while waiting?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: killa_robot on August 29, 2016, 08:26:37 pm
"We have", Emend replies plainly. "I suppose it's time for the next level of our training now?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on August 29, 2016, 10:47:59 pm
"Sarapheen," Saint says, bowing his head.

"It is an honour as always. Why have we been called here?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on August 31, 2016, 04:18:16 pm
"Yes," Sarapheen answered Emend (and in so doing the Saint's question as well).

She took note of Robor and Beat's silence, having expected them to reply to her own question first, before getting into things directly - but so be it.

"Each of you have things that need dealt with in their due time."

"Beats, there is the matter of finding and stopping Th3_Shr3d3r; Robor, you have made enemies among the more dangerous of DC's Underground community; Saint, your mother is the head of a powerful Coven; Emend, Blume and Blumenthal continue to corrupt humanity unchecked."

"There are even things more dire than all these - none of which, including your own issues, you are ready to face yet. Certainly not alone at least."

"It is because of this, that I have called you together here. You need to begin working together in all things. Where one of you is weak, another of you will be strong. Together, you will be able to face greater and greater challenges and overcome them."

"Therefore, I would that you base yourselves out of the Washington DC area - central to the entire Region East. Specifically, out of 'High Oaks Castle' in Great Falls Virginia, twenty miles up the Potomac river from DC."

"The castle was my Quorum's last Sanctum; not too many years back, when I was mortal. Since the destruction of my Quorum, it was left abandoned a while, before falling into the hands of Blume and Blumenthal."

"They took interest in it, due to a natural Hallow under the castle, and passed it along to one of their Thralls, John ‘Jack’ Eaton Jr."

"You may have heard of Jack, he’s CEO of Innovations Incorporated."

"What you may not have heard, is that Innovations Incorporated is a Secular Cult and multi-million dollar Pyramid Scheme – protected by the District Attorney, State, and local Police Forces. Jack is dangerous all by himself, but has also procured the services of a mad witch and hired bodyguards."

"Jack is a monster. He has traded away the last vestiges of humanity for sports cars and gold cufflinks. Unless stopped, he will carry out his unholy pact with Blume and Blumenthal – to mass murder 10,000 of his own employees – greatly enhancing Blumenthal’s Infernal power and dominion upon the Earth."

"Incidentally, the deed to the property that Jack has is a forgery, made by Blume and Blumenthal. But without the original, it is not something anyone can prove. Fortunately, the original deed is still hidden inside the attic spaces of the castle. With it, the rights to the property can be contested and it can be placed into your hands."

“In the meantime, Jack and his mad witch must go. They are to be the targets of your first mission, as a Quorum. You must get into the castle, defeat them and their wards, recover the original deed, and clean up after yourselves well enough to avoid the hassle of a legal investigation."

"In this I will be clear. These two must die. However, you must avoid killing any of the bodyguards, as these men are brainwashed and to be treated as innocents. I realize that their deaths may very well be unavoidable in a variety of circumstances, but I must warn you, that killing them will still impact your psyches in a negative way."

"Once the castle is taken, you will need to bolster yourselves for Blume and Blumenthal’s reprisal - whatever twisted form that might take – though I’m confident they won’t get their hands dirty in any personal way."

"No problems, right?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on August 31, 2016, 05:10:33 pm
Saint looks to Sarapheen with compassion,

"My condolences for your Quorum, Sarapheen. We shall pass on your judgement."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Forge on August 31, 2016, 05:56:09 pm
Beats just laughs "So ya got me off the streets to do a gang hit?" He gives a smile to show he is just joking "If he's a demon slave and is gonna kill innocent to I'm in, too many in my area are taken in by his kinds schemes."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: killa_robot on August 31, 2016, 08:53:44 pm
"So CEOs and demons tend to mix with one another. Greed attracts the worst kinds of people," Emend thinks to himself.

"Who is this mad witch? Any idea what she's capable of?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on September 01, 2016, 01:38:34 pm
"Unfortunately," Sarapheen answered, "she has hidden her past rather well. So we do not know who she was, before she sold herself to the infernal."

"Now however," the angel continued to explain, "she goes by the name 'Mama Kark' - a surname of Germanic origin, that means 'barren, mean, clever, and violent'."

"We have heard that she is, or is close to being, a Master of Spirits and likely to use the Shadow to her advantage. This means that facing her, you can expect to face demons that she is able to call forth to her aid."

"We know that at least one of these demons guards Jack at all times."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Not Aman on September 01, 2016, 07:17:27 pm
"Huh. Always knew that Corp was sketchy." Robor notes.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on September 02, 2016, 10:40:13 am
Indeed, all four of the Disciples had heard the infomercials on late night TV and could remember run-ins with gullible or pushy acquaintances who had sunk money into Innovations Incorporated and wanted to bring them in on 'this once in a lifetime opportunity for betterment of future'.

"Do you want more from your future?" Jack Eaton Jr. would ask in the advertisements. He offered no product or tangible output, promising only a concept and a structure, but people were buying what he was selling.

They paid exorbitant prices for a handbook, 'Innovations for the Innovated' which made them distributers of the same snake oil they were eating up. The handbook encouraging them to advance, through endless tiers of the business structure, by recruiting others and attending costly seminars with Jack. The more they spent or pulled in, the 'higher ranked' they were within the Organization.

Friends, family members, and coworkers would be pestered mercilessly by the distributers into attending 'Information Evenings' - offering a free meal at a fancy venue and some trivial techno gadget (such as an mp3 player) just for sitting through the whole thing.

Of course these were thinly veiled setups to produce 'captured audiences' which would then be subjected to the most manipulative psychological techniques and aggressive high-pressure sales tactics know to man.

These alone would be enough to brainwash the naïve and desperate into the false hope of Jack's get-rich-quick scheme - but Jack had something more that he could ply on his hapless victims.

Jack had real infernal power at his disposal...
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on September 02, 2016, 12:16:08 pm
"Shall we find somewhere to discuss our plan of action, gentlemen?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Forge on September 02, 2016, 09:41:56 pm
Beats nods to the father "Works for me, guessin Serphina has Somthing set up for us?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on September 03, 2016, 08:56:27 am
"No, not specifically," Sarapheen replied to Beats; "That's why you need to go 'clean house' at the High Oaks Castle - so you can have a proper base of operations for these sort of matters."

"In the meantime, the Saint has his quarters at the church, Robor has a hotel room for a week, and both you and Emend are local."

"What I can do for you all however, is provide a layout of the castle and each of you a blessed weapon."

"And, if necessary, I'm willing to soften them up for you first, if you think it tactically advantageous - by which, I mean putting a target on my back and letting them burn all their mana and essence on destroying me."

"I'm immortal, so I'll be bounce back, where none of you would be able to."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: killa_robot on September 03, 2016, 11:12:02 am
"Endangering yourself won't be necessary, Sarapheen," Emend replies. "The map and tools will suffice. This is our task after all."

He'll then ponder about what they can actually do about the situation. It's possible that even with killing the CEO and the witch that Blume and Blumenthal's may be able to sacrifice the 10,000 employees. Maybe there's some way they could dismantle the company first (use Emend's Corporate Executive/Common Sense perks for a check)?
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on September 03, 2016, 11:12:10 am
Saint looks very visibly displeased by this idea,

"No! That is an unnecessary risk, we can deal with this ourselves, I would not have you sacrifice yourself!"

As an aside, a niggling doubt begins to creep into his mind

Lord, am I to kill in your name? I know they are creatures of purest evil, but... can I allow myself to fall down that old path?

"These... blessed weapons, how exactly would they be blessed?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Forge on September 03, 2016, 01:50:56 pm
Beats adds quietly "I ain't one for killing normally but way I see it, they ain't human anymore and killers like them earn what they'll be getting." He slides his brass knuckles out of his pocket "These going to be like holy swords or things that suit us?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on September 03, 2016, 02:22:49 pm
"There are a few things to keep in mind, when 'taking out' the infernal," Sarapheen began to explain.

"First, I understand how this would seem like 'killing' from your perspectives. After all, if you draw your sword across a witch, she will bleed, feel pain, and even beg for mercy."

"But this is all a deception."

"In reality, the witch's soul is already elsewhere - in the hands of a Shadow-hidden demon."

"When you slay the witch, you are only destroying the physical vessel that the demon processes. Additionally, you are freeing the witch's soul by sending it on to Purgatory."

"There, the witch is no longer a witch, but a renewed mortal soul - that in time will once again be born back to Earth, to live life anew (with a clean slate)."

"As testimony of these things, you will not feel the same remorse of spirit in destroying the infernal that you would upon shedding the blood of your mortal kin."

"On the other hand, when you face and defeat the physical incarnations of the demons themselves, you will feel uplifted and glorified in your victories over them."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on September 03, 2016, 02:29:29 pm
In regard to Beats and Saints' questions about the blessed weapons, Sarapheen answers, "Yes, they are archaic by modern standards - swords, maces, bows, plates of armor, and shields. Not something you can simple walk around in public with, but effective in these sorts of situations."

"I suppose I could help outfit you with some modern weaponry too, if you need it - though it will be purchased with your earth monies and not endowed with any power from on high."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on September 03, 2016, 02:51:51 pm
Maybe there's some way they could dismantle the company first?

As Emend pondered how one could legitimately expose Jack's pyramid-scheme, when it was protected at such high levels, it occurred to him that such a thing would be virtually impossible to do while Jack was still alive. The man had some sort of mind-control power or something - able to weasel his way out of allegations and investigations alike.

Once removed however, there would be no one to 'magically' make all the inconvenient truths disappear and Innovations Incorporated would be finished.

Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on September 03, 2016, 03:04:40 pm
"But can we decide the nature of the blessing? If we fight mortal men, I would wish for a fashion... incapacitate them, at least."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Not Aman on September 03, 2016, 08:20:31 pm
"Is that what happened to us?" John asks. "I mean, if the demons steal the soul of the person, did you take ours as well?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on September 03, 2016, 09:25:53 pm
"But can we decide the nature of the blessing?"

"You may, but the power level will be limited to a degree. I don't think I would be able to convince the Armorer to part with a spear of lightning bolts for example. Maybe later however, after you have some experience under your belts and proven yourselves worthy of such gifts."

"Is that what happened to us?" John asks. "I mean, if the demons steal the soul of the person, did you take ours as well?"

"Heaven's no," Sarapheen answered, "The power was given to you under a covenant of service, not for your soul."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Forge on September 04, 2016, 06:16:52 pm
"If they help against demons I'll take one." Beats says grinning "From what ya told me I'd not wanna go bear knuckles with one."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Not Aman on September 05, 2016, 01:03:19 pm
"You may, but the power level will be limited to a degree. I don't think I would be able to convince the Armorer to part with a spear of lightning bolts for example. Maybe later however, after you have some experience under your belts and proven yourselves worthy of such gifts."

"Heaven's no," Sarapheen answered, "The power was given to you under a covenant of service, not for your soul."

Robor breathes a sigh of relief.
"Thats good to hear." He saysz

"Who's the armorer?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on September 05, 2016, 04:41:51 pm
"The Armorer is an ancient Avenging Angel in Elysium that could probably have become an Archangel a millennium ago, but who for his own reasons chooses not to."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Not Aman on September 05, 2016, 05:28:44 pm
Robor furrows his brow.

"Where's Elysium?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on September 05, 2016, 06:47:56 pm
"If you remembered my instruction to you on Cosmology (http://www.bountyheadbebop.com/forum/index.php?topic=1828.0)," Sarapheen replied to Robor, "you would know that Elysium is in the Light Realm of the planet Mercury."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on September 05, 2016, 07:34:31 pm
"The layout then, Sarapheen? Do you know where the guards might be stationned?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Forge on September 05, 2016, 09:02:35 pm
"I can scry out the place easily enough, though, would da witch know I was doin it?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: killa_robot on September 05, 2016, 09:11:59 pm
"Maybe rather than sneaking around an odd castle we should opt to take a more direct approach? I could see if I can get in contact with Jack Eaton Jr and set up a meeting at this castle," he suggests, pausing to gauge the reaction of everyone.

"I've... met his masters, and am a fellow businessman. I could simply say we're on the same side and that we should met to discuss things further. For a mutually beneficial deal. Or we could just trick the guards into thinking such a meeting exists."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on September 05, 2016, 09:15:11 pm
"Presumably his masters would have you, in particular, staked out as a disciple by now, wouldn't they?"

Saint looks to Sarapheen for confirmation on that.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Not Aman on September 05, 2016, 09:19:21 pm
"I have friends in Big Buisness. I'm sure I can get you a legit meeting if you want."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on September 06, 2016, 01:35:04 pm
"Oh, yes," Saraphene answered, producing a rolled up map of the castle floor plans - "Here you are."

"Mama Kark has the attic, basement, and a few rooms warded against scrying - and yes, she would know if you broke through them."

"Her demonic servants are also unlikely to be in the physical world, but in Twilight or the Shadow itself, waiting her command to materialize on intruders."

"As for Blume and Blumenthal; Yes, they are aware of Emend's Discipleship - though I hesitate to say they would bother warning all of their thralls about him specifically."

"Therefore, your plan to attempt initial proximity through the business aspect has potential to be a good ruse."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on September 06, 2016, 01:35:15 pm
High Oaks Castle - Ground Floor
(http://www.bountyheadbebop.com/Disc/Sanctum1.jpg)
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on September 06, 2016, 01:35:21 pm
High Oaks Castle - Upstairs
(http://www.bountyheadbebop.com/Disc/Sanctum2.jpg)
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on September 06, 2016, 01:35:26 pm
High Oaks Castle - Attic Space
(http://www.bountyheadbebop.com/Disc/Sanctum3.jpg)
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on September 06, 2016, 01:35:31 pm
High Oaks Castle - Basement
(http://www.bountyheadbebop.com/Disc/SanctumB.jpg)
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Forge on September 07, 2016, 12:30:27 pm
Beats looks at the scroll for a bit "running with da gangs taught me it was about speed and surprise. Hit them hard and put them down or your gonna be in a world of pain when the rest of their boys arrive, could apply here, we'll hafta get in fast and unexpected."

He pauses

"Would they know if a portal opened up in the building, in an unprotected room?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on September 07, 2016, 12:40:55 pm
"Would any of you happen to be adept in Forces? Cutting off their power would be useful"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on September 07, 2016, 01:02:47 pm
"Someone able to set up wards would have the spatial awareness to sense a gate opening nearby - even outside of the wards," Sarapheen answered Beats.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on September 07, 2016, 07:26:03 pm
"We should arrange an expedition before whatever meeting is set up in order to scout out the castle grounds, their guard patterns and find out anything that isn't visible in the plans", Saint suggests.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: killa_robot on September 07, 2016, 08:03:01 pm
"Would any of you happen to be adept in Forces? Cutting off their power would be useful"

"Forces are my ruling Arcana," Emend replies. "I could handle that."

He then ponders for a moment. "If Jack has the ability to manipulate minds, perhaps those with a... weaker will should stay away from him," he adds. "Should we split up, and take out the two at once, or dispose of them one at a time? The witch sounds like the bigger issue, so maybe the three of you should take care of her while I distract Jack?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on September 07, 2016, 09:32:02 pm
"Perhaps, though I am more worried about what to do if confronted by her servants more than anything. Sarapheen... forgive me for asking but do you know if any of your old quorum haunt the castle grounds? Their potential aid would be invaluable. I also wonder if the witch has made the castle a demesne, or if our access to magic will be restricted by the presence of the mortal guards?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Not Aman on September 07, 2016, 09:32:43 pm
"I can scout pretty effectively, stone can't block my eyes." Robor says.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on September 08, 2016, 12:47:51 pm
"Sarapheen... forgive me for asking but do you know if any of your old quorum haunt the castle grounds? Their potential aid would be invaluable. I also wonder if the witch has made the castle a demesne, or if our access to magic will be restricted by the presence of the mortal guards?"

"My quorum was lost on Tartarus," Sarapheen answered Saint.

"Corianton and I Ascended, because we martyred ourselves to complete that mission, and disincorporated on to Elyseum."

"The souls of Rupert Stiles and Two Moons made it back to Paradise, where they entered rest from mortal toil."

"Only Lex..." Sarapheen seemed to choke up a bit at the memory, "She was... is... still trapped there in Tartarus to this day."

After a pause, Sarapheen composed herself and went on; "So no. None of the former Disciples have any lingering ties to the castle."

"As for the guards, they should all be sleepwalkers, due to Jack's brainwashing."

"That would mean they can witness magic without their own Disbelief tearing it apart - but Paradox will always be a factor, because the power you draw from The Light to fuel your Magic must pass through The Shadow to get here to Earth. And The Shadow willingly corrupts that power whenever it can."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on September 09, 2016, 01:04:27 pm
Saint refrains from his sudden need to offer Sarapheen a comforting hand - an angel of the Lord would not appreciate such a gesture, who was he to judge divinity?

"We are settled then? Robor, Beats and I shall take to the castle grounds tonight and do what we can to examine the area while Emend arranges a meeting with the CEO?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on September 10, 2016, 09:58:13 am
"Regarding the blessed items;" Sarapheen interjects - directing the question to the Saint - "Shall I deliver them to your quarters here at the church?"

She then hands everyone a thick white envelope.

"This should be enough to outfit yourselves with tactical gear - though you will have to use your own contacts to find any dealers."

Looking in the envelopes reveals banded bundles of hundred dollar bills - $10,000 each.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: killa_robot on September 10, 2016, 12:46:45 pm
Saint refrains from his sudden need to offer Sarapheen a comforting hand - an angel of the Lord would not appreciate such a gesture, who was he to judge divinity?

"We are settled then? Robor, Beats and I shall take to the castle grounds tonight and do what we can to examine the area while Emend arranges a meeting with the CEO?"

Emend nods in response.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on September 10, 2016, 12:53:30 pm
"Yes, thank you Sarapheen. I will distribute them to everyone when they arrive," he says nodding respectfully to the angel.

Saint looks down briefly at the envelope and then puts it away.

He honestly isn't even sure what to do with something like that.

I'll probably give the money to Beats. He can likely do more with it than I can, in any case.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Forge on September 10, 2016, 02:04:04 pm
Beats nods and puts the money away "Most of this can go to the church outreach again, I ain't got much use for guns."

"I'll put it to good use" he says aloud
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Not Aman on September 10, 2016, 07:48:11 pm
"I honestly don't need it, Seraphim. Got more of that back home. If anyone wants anything I can probably source some stuff. Not everything though."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: killa_robot on September 11, 2016, 12:09:27 pm
"If there is to be a meeting I don't plan on attending it covered in body armour," Emend replies without accepting the money. "But thanks anyway."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on September 11, 2016, 12:21:54 pm
"No, I don't suppose you will even get a meeting at all, if you don't look the part," Sarapheen replies, "but why all the reticence to accept these resources?"

"You will still have mundane expenses to consider, even after liberating your Sanctum from the Infernal."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Forge on September 11, 2016, 03:02:44 pm
"Co's we are prideful still." Beats jokes "Let's meet at my place, I can have wards set up and people there don't look too close at others business." He adds
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Not Aman on September 12, 2016, 11:29:20 pm
"I use my own money, Seraphim. Won't have it any way else." He says. He turns to Beats.

"You often get buisnessmen meeting at your place? I doubt Emend or I would fit in."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Forge on September 13, 2016, 09:57:09 am
Beats just shrugs "Your choice then."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Not Aman on September 13, 2016, 10:06:06 am
"We should meet at Saint's church. I doubt demons would enjoy investigating a church."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on September 13, 2016, 10:44:32 am
Saint hesitates for a second,

"My daughter... I feel somewhat reluctant to invite inquisitive demons near my home. However, I do have access to private meeting rooms within the Washington Cathedral, much like this one. We can have any meetings required here."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on September 13, 2016, 02:44:30 pm
"Excellent," Sarapheen said with a nod.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on September 13, 2016, 06:55:29 pm
Washington National Cathedral; Thursday October 13th 2016

Using their various connections, the funds left by Sarapheen, and a good deal of Robor's personal resources, the quorum outfitted itself with a surveillance van, tools and hardware, a few kevlar vests, two tasers, and a dozen military tear gas grenades with gasmasks.

Sarapheen had also delivered on her promise to grant them Imbued Items, giving the Saint a sword and Emend a ring, both of which had the ability to sway peoples' emotions, as manipulated by the wielder.

To Robor, Sarapheen gave a sword, imbued with the power to call up an invisible shield of protective force; while Beats received a pair of ancient cestus, that could bring bad luck on those who opposed him.

Following that, the quorum took the surveillance van and spent two days staking out the High Oaks Castle property in Great Falls Virginia.

Useful intel gleaned, was that the property was about fifty acres overlooking the Potomac River, with a fenced in area around the castle about five acres on each side that also included a helipad. A paved road ran through a manned gatehouse in the fence and up to the estate, while a dirt power-line access road ran along the wooded back side of the property near the river. A small gate in the fence was also located there, but was locked and the area overgrown enough that only quads could get through it - or those on foot.

Immediately behind the castle was a fancy garden, statuary, and pond with free ranging white geese. There did not appear to be any guard dogs however.

Cameras watched over the main gatehouse, the helipad, and the front and back of the castle itself, though there were no cameras at the back gate. It was unclear what sort of cameras might be used inside the house itself.

As for security, Jack Eaton Jr. had the services of Talon Securities Corp; composed of an eight man security detail that rotated every twelve hours. At 0600 and 1800 hours, a large black tactical van would drive through the gatehouse, up to the estate, and then dislodge the next shift - collecting the previous and driving back out again.

Observing the transfers, revealed that each detail was comprised of a Leader, a Sniper, a Tech Op, and four grunts, and a Greeter. They wore kevlar vests and carried FN PS90 tactical weapons, except for the Tech Op, greeter, and Sniper. The Tech Op and greeter both carried large tablet computers and had .45 caliber sidearms, while the Sniper had both a Barret .50 cal and a FN FNAR 308.

The sniper always set up on the tower overlook, while two grunts were stationed outside - one on the porch and one on the porch overlook above. The greeter was the guy manning the gatehouse and the movements of the rest (inside), were not known.

Jack Eaton Jr. meanwhile, would frequently come in and out on the helicopter that sat out on the helipad. He had a manservant that piloted the copter and almost never left his side. Mama Kark on the other hand, was not seen at all during the stakeout - though dim lights and shadows could occasionally be seen moving in the attic dormers late at night.

Additionally, a Maid service also visited the estate each day, from 0800 to 1600 hours; while a Chef came in at 0700 to 0900 and then again from 1600 to 1800.

Following the stakeout, everyone met back at Saint's meeting room in the underbelly of the Washington National Cathedral. Up to this point, no magic had been employed in the information gathering expedition, aside from Sarapheen having used Shifting the Odds on the surveillance van, to improve the chances of it getting through the stakeout unseen.

While the stakeout was going on, Emend and Robor successfully negotiated a private dinner meeting with Jack Eaton Jr. at the castle, set for Monday the 17th, 6:00 pm - thanks to Emend's ring and Robor's family connections.

Unfortunately, both Emend and Robor had to name-drop to secure the meeting, so there might be the possibility of Sympathetic Connection, should Mama Kark get wind and start using spells against them.

"Well, that gives you tomorrow and the weekend to plan your assault," Sarapheen remarked. "I feel it is going to be quite the challenge for you, but with the element of surprise and if you can avoid engaging them all at once, I think you have a decent chance of pulling it off."

"I am worried however," she continued, "about the potential demonic guardians that Mama Kark can bring to bear..."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on September 13, 2016, 07:27:22 pm
"As am I," Saint admits.

"We did not see Mama Kark during our scouting expedition, she has clearly chosen to remain secluded within the Castle walls. Do you remember where the mana source is, Sarapheen? I suspect Kark may have made her lair there."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Forge on September 13, 2016, 07:36:58 pm
"Grunts are heavy on the outside and in. Might wanna keep from fighting them all, anyone see if the outside doors got fancy locks, we could fuse the readers so they can't get in once we are inside."

Beats adds
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on September 13, 2016, 07:39:59 pm
"The hallow is located at the bottom of the swimming pool in the basement," Sarapheen answered Saint; "Though its power pervades most of the house, even up beyond the roof itself."

Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on September 13, 2016, 07:43:24 pm
"The hallow is located at the bottom of the swimming pool in the basement," Sarapheen answered Saint; "Though its power pervades most of the house, even up beyond the roof itself."

"A shame then, we won't know where Mama Kark is until we're inside and able to track her resonance.
Robor, if we are to fight this demoness, is there anything you can do to counteract her? You are skilled in Spirit, you can call upon beings from the Shadow, just as she can. Perhaps break the bindings between them and her, or assert your own control? Or is her mastery too great for us to challenge?"

"If we plan our meeting slightly before the shift, and our attack slightly afterwards, we can lock the guards out of their prescribed positions by shutting down the castle's power. In particular, the sniper will be locked out of the overlook tower. It would keep him from having any sort of bead on us, though perhaps it would be better if we were to leave the guards to their usual positions and take advantage of our knowledge to ambush or avoid them?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: killa_robot on September 15, 2016, 05:34:34 pm
Emend looks at Saint and nods.

"However, if the earlier team is still around when this happens they may suspect something is up and stick around to check it out. It may be easier to deal with them as they come up rather than make a scene."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Forge on September 16, 2016, 01:25:50 am
Beats considers the options for a minute or two before replying "When they change over we might get caught with twice the number in da house. I say do it an hour before so they are tired from waitin." He pauses before continuing "I still say we blitz em, take out the suit first then we rush the witch and take her out, I ain't got much for prep and planning but She's gotta have a lotta spells goin so shouldn't be much extra she can load on us before we get her then I portal us out all clean like with the deed no time for security, cops and no questions."

He nods to himself and crosses his arms in a comfortable manner, indicating that he has resolved the issue in his mind as what he thinks is best.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Not Aman on September 16, 2016, 07:17:14 am
John shakes his head.
"There is no way a buisnessman would plan out his meeting when his security team is being swapped." He says.

"I can hold off Mama Kark. If the tainted thrall can be killed quickly, I doubt we will have much to fear. We should have someone on the outside, to distract the guards. The thrall won't go down quietly."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on September 16, 2016, 07:54:06 am
"I would prefer not to do it an hour beforehand", Saint says quietly.

"I will need time to alter the bodies so that we may make our escape without alerting the police that murder took place.

I can employ... Countermeasures, for the guards, but they will be unpleasant. They will live, however, and will likely be too delirious to say anything of what happened."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Forge on September 16, 2016, 10:57:21 am
"Alter Em? That's a bit freeky, why not just carry them out with us and dump Em in the ocean?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on September 16, 2016, 12:57:12 pm
"You remember the part about not intentionally killing mortals, right?" Sarapheen asked Beats... "Or do you simply mean the disposing of the bodies?"

"As for the timing of the meeting and the guard change, I imagine Jack set that up intentionally, so there would be double the guards hanging around (or at least in proximity) in the event that the meeting went south."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Forge on September 16, 2016, 01:06:38 pm
Beats puts his hands up in the air

"Da bodies da bodies, I ain't planning on killing humans!"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on September 16, 2016, 03:45:29 pm
"The bodies of Jack and Kark will still require proper disposal, so that the police do not wonder at a murder and instead wonder at how, say, a swarm of mutant insects stung them to death."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Forge on September 16, 2016, 06:26:26 pm
"That's what I mean, take em with us and dump em where yall never find em. Cleaner, no body means no murder. All they can say is 'Hey the guy that had the fake deed and ran the shady corporation has vanished, he probably fled the country!'"

The Las bit is done in an obvious 'cop mockery' impression
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on September 16, 2016, 06:46:56 pm
"You don't understand, the ways I have to deal with bodies, no one can get around."

A pause then.

"That came out so much worse than I meant it to. I'm sorry, it's just that, i'm skilled in Death magic, I can change the apparent cause of death of a corpse perfectly."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on September 16, 2016, 08:26:11 pm
"Natural causes might be a little less conspicuous looking than death by a thousand bullet ant stings..." Sarapheen throws out casually.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on September 16, 2016, 08:33:54 pm
"Natural causes might be a little less conspicuous looking than death by a thousand bullet ant stings..." Sarapheen throws out casually.

"I would agree, save for all the incapacitated guards we're going to leave behind, many of whom will likely be raving about swarms."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on September 17, 2016, 03:09:36 pm
"I'll cast a group Organic Resilience on everyone, prior to the meeting," Sarapheen offers. "That should help protect you a bit and also with managing the amount of spells you can maintain."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Not Aman on September 17, 2016, 10:10:42 pm
"Many thanks Seraphim. I have no doubts that we will destroy these demons." Robor states.

"Emend and I shall go to the meeting with Beats. Saint, could you activate your bees from far away? I need you to knock out the guards."

"I myself will summon a creature to mess with the guards. I have no doubts that a roaming monster would distract them if necessary."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on September 18, 2016, 09:13:01 am
"You know," Sarapheen replies, "A materialized spirit on the castle grounds would certainly get Mama Kark's attention. She would likely go straight to it to grab it up for her collection..."

"Being that she has Wards, she will have Portal also, so beware."

"But... maybe you can use that to your advantage? Maybe lure her out of the castle to the back acreage for an ambush, before the mundane guards can close in to support her?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Not Aman on September 18, 2016, 09:29:08 am
"You know," Sarapheen replies, "A materialized spirit on the castle grounds would certainly get Mama Kark's attention. She would likely go straight to it to grab it up for her collection..."

"Being that she has Wards, she will have Portal also, so beware."

"But... maybe you can use that to your advantage? Maybe lure her out of the castle to the back acreage for an ambush, before the mundane guards can close in to support her?"

"Hmm... If we scheduled this at the right time, it would make this meeting easily finished. Imagine if we took out Mama Kark before the meeting even started! There'd be no doubt that we'd succeed."

Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on September 18, 2016, 10:24:52 am
"If we aren't careful she might just portal back out, however. Beats, could you set up wards or would that be too conspicuous?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on September 18, 2016, 10:28:12 am
"You could set up a ward after she arrived, before she knew what was going on," Sarapheen suggested.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on September 18, 2016, 10:42:15 am
"This would be perfect then. If Mama Kark is dead before the meeting happens then we won't have to enter a warded castle and fight her in her own territory with all her demons."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on September 18, 2016, 10:44:40 am
"Not quite," Sarapheen points out, "Mama Kark being destroyed, simply means that she relinquishes control of those Wards and Spirits."
 
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on September 18, 2016, 10:46:11 am
"The shadow spirits would serve the thrall? They help her willingly?" Saint says, surprised
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on September 18, 2016, 10:49:44 am
"If she gave them instructions, then they will continue to follow those instructions, until the duration of her spell wears off."

"Presuming no such instructions are in place, then no, the spirits and/or demons would be free to do what they wanted... which probably would not be something beneficial (or pleasant) to the thrall."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on September 18, 2016, 10:53:24 am
"Ah... It sounds tempting then, to simply kill Kark and let the demons kill the CEO once the spells wear off... but I dread what would happen to the mortal guardsmen."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on September 18, 2016, 11:15:34 am
"And having realized that," Sarapheen notes, "now makes you responsible for the potential consequences."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Not Aman on September 18, 2016, 11:45:24 am
"I can bind them, or at least banish them." Robor says.

"It sounds exciting."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on September 18, 2016, 01:43:47 pm
"So after we kill Mama Kark, we will still have to fight her demons?", Saint asks.

"That's a shame. At least she won't be there to heal or help them."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Not Aman on September 18, 2016, 02:43:08 pm
"Spirits are fickle. Any with malicious intentions will be easy to push away."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Forge on September 18, 2016, 08:24:15 pm
Beats considers for a moment "Even if she's stronger than me I can do an extended casting for a strong ward before the spirit is summoned, den as she shows up I slam it down behind her. Emend could be doing the same with a powerful Attack spell too like lightning fingers or somthin."

He grins as he thinks about Emend dressed like 'That guy from the Starwars movie'

"Once she's down her ward should fail too, I can portal us in to deal with the spirits and grab the deed."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on September 18, 2016, 08:34:50 pm
"Portal us in? Have we scrapped the meeting? I think we'd be better off meeting the CEO personally, no?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Forge on September 18, 2016, 08:38:48 pm
"Portal us in? Have we scrapped the meeting? I think we'd be better off meeting the CEO personally, no?"

"Once her wards broke I can put you face to face if ya want." He says with a shrug "Scry it then portal to Scry location."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: killa_robot on September 18, 2016, 08:52:01 pm
"Assuming we can dispose of her without him knowing, it's better if we proceed with the meeting like normal. It already provides us with a means to get in. Though that may be a handy way to get into the attic for the deed," Emend suggests.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on September 18, 2016, 08:52:30 pm
"Once her wards broke I can put you face to face if ya want." He says with a shrug "Scry it then portal to Scry location."

"If the demons will continue to guard the castle then the wards will also still be running. However, I suppose it makes very little difference since she won't be alive to feel you scrying through the wards..."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Not Aman on September 19, 2016, 12:26:55 pm
"If the demons will continue to guard the castle then the wards will also still be running. However, I suppose it makes very little difference since she won't be alive to feel you scrying through the wards..."
"She'll have made her demons attack if the wards are broken."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on September 19, 2016, 02:12:56 pm
Beats considers for a moment "Even if she's stronger than me I can do an extended casting for a strong ward before the spirit is summoned, den as she shows up I slam it down behind her. Emend could be doing the same with a powerful Attack spell too like lightning fingers or somthin."

"You would have to be rather proficient in the time and/or fate Arcanum to pull something like that off," Sarapheen warned, "otherwise you will just draw her attention weaving powers, well before you can bring them together."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on September 19, 2016, 03:22:56 pm
Saint considers for a second,

"Would it be prudent of me to deaden Beat's Aura, that he might weave magic inconspicuously?

Or am I already forced to use it on myself, for all the spells I will wrap myself in come the day of our attack?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on September 19, 2016, 06:17:32 pm
"It may not be necessary," Sarapheen surmised; "As Mama Kark's resonance is with spirits and space."

"Summoning a spirit in the wooded acreage behind the house, might draw her focus as much as her attention. She may not even notice the tell-tale signatures of other active spells in the area - unless she's adept at prime too."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on September 19, 2016, 06:26:34 pm
"Then I will hide Beats from Mama Kark for as long as necessary, that she may not escape us" Saint declares.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Forge on September 19, 2016, 06:28:36 pm
"And I'll not weave nothin extra till she appears, just have ta hit her hard the moment she appears." Beats agrees
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on September 20, 2016, 10:38:07 am
"Everyone seems to agree about luring Mama Kark away from the castle," Sarapheen states, "But you have not decided on how to handle Jack Eaton Jr."

"I would think, keeping the dinner appointment is still your best option for getting easy access to him. He's likely greedy and prideful enough not to risk losing the potential business, even if his mad witch has inexplicably disappeared before hand."

"The fact that any demonic guards and/or spells of protection she cast would still be going, should ease his mind about her absence though."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on September 20, 2016, 10:48:39 am
"I agree Sarapheen. The meeting should go as planned, we can deal with the guards and the demons later.

Everyone agreed? I have quite a bit of work ahead of me, if I may be excused", Saint says, as he makes to get up.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Forge on September 20, 2016, 12:25:29 pm
Beats nods and begins preparing to leave "good to go, gonna be a fun night."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Not Aman on September 20, 2016, 03:08:22 pm
Robor grins.
"Hope Mama Kark's spirits are interesting." He says, turning on his heel to head off to prepare.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: killa_robot on September 20, 2016, 04:47:32 pm
"Everyone seems to agree about luring Mama Kark away from the castle," Sarapheen states, "But you have not decided on how to handle Jack Eaton Jr."

"I would think, keeping the dinner appointment is still your best option for getting easy access to him. He's likely greedy and prideful enough not to risk losing the potential business, even if his mad witch has inexplicably disappeared before hand."

"The fact that any demonic guards and/or spells of protection she cast would still be going, should ease his mind about her absence though."

"I believe the briefcase of bees will be our method to get rid of him," Emend responds. "If everyone is fine with these plans, we'll meet up at the agreed time."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on September 20, 2016, 04:57:24 pm
High Oaks Castle, Great Falls Virginia; Monday October 17th 2016

Preparations for dealing with Mama Kark, in the woods overlooking the Potomac river, out behind the High Oaks Castle estate, began Saturday with the Saint collecting a massive swarm of hornets. He had found them in an old barn and used Control Base life to herd them into a briefcase.

Taking them home, he spent another three and a half hours Transferring Base Features - imbuing the hornet swarm with bullet-ant venom and a hard chitinous hide.

Early the following morning, Saint commenced the ritual Honing the Form, to increase his physical prowess, but the spell took way longer than he had anticipated, finally coming to fruition around 4:30 pm (just an hour and a half before their scheduled dinner meeting with Jack Eaton Jr.).

This meant they would have to deal with Mama Kark quickly, in order to clean up and make it back for the meeting on time.

Emend had also cast a ritual, starting Monday morning, to make two duffle bags invisible with the Invisible Object spell. After seven hours, he had succeeded; and the quorum's assault gear was divvied into the two of them.

Then, with things ready, Sarapheen cast Organic Shield on everyone and opened a Portal to the power-line access trail on the edge of the High oaks property.

Stepping out, everyone could see that the area was heavily wooded and quite undergrown. Tangles of briars,  patches of stinging nettles, and flourishing poison ivy promised to make travel anywhere off the trail a huge pain in the ass. As if to underscore the sentiment, a welcoming party of hungry mosquitoes and biting gnats immediately set to make diner of everyone the second they set foot on the old dirt trail.

Knowing that the portal spell had a chance of drawing the mad witch Mama Kark's attention all by itself, Robor wasted no time casting his spells.

Using his Fleshless Speech rote, Robor gazed around into the Twilight - the ghostly realm on the material side of the gauntlet. With luck, he could summon a spirit from there, much easier than having to actually find and bring one back across the gauntlet itself.

After a few minutes, Robor spotted something. It was a huge plant spirit of some kind, taking the shape of a roiling mass of sticky sundew pseudopods that sort of galumphed across the ground like a bizarre green and yellow starfish. It seemed a bit sluggish speed-wise, but was the only thing Robor saw in proximity.

Casting his Gather the Unseen Host rote, Robor then brought the strange spirit into the material world - where everyone could suddenly see it - as it lumbered side to side a moment in confusion.

All Robor had to do now, was gain control of the spirit, with the aptly named Control Spirit spell. Unfortunately, it took three attempts to finally reign the verdant beast in - all the while it hungrily chased Robor around some thick trees, trying to eat him. Additionally, it instilled Robor with a tremendous ravening hunger, and put the idea into his head that the sweet sticky dew at the ends of the beast's pseudopods would taste awesome.

In spite of his rather unimpressive willpower, Robot knew what happened to insects that fell into a sundew plant's sticky digestive juices, and was able to resist the temptation to give the sweet nectar a try.

At length, Robor finally managed to bring the monster under his control - at least for the next hour.

As everyone stood, suitably impressed at Robor's mighty display amusing attempts at plant wrangling, Robor abruptly noticed another spirit nearby. It was hazy and undefined, but looked small in stature - about the size of a demonic imp or young child. It currently hid behind some trees, peering around to observe the group...
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on September 20, 2016, 05:02:55 pm
Saint, annoyed by the swarm of insects assaulting his senses, attempts a second casting of control base life on the mosquitoes and gnats in an attempt to have them stay away from the party (and hey, they might be some use against Mama Kark).
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on September 20, 2016, 05:53:53 pm
The Saint's spell goes off successfully and the pests buzz off to hover a few yards away from everyone.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Not Aman on September 20, 2016, 06:43:32 pm
Robor nods.
"Her demonic servant is here." He says simply. He beckons his spirit to bring back the imp.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on September 20, 2016, 07:26:58 pm
The plant spirit lurches abruptly in the direction of the smaller entity - which startles silently and then turns to run away further into the woods.

While the small spirit doesn't seem very fast, it easily outruns the incredibly ponderous plant thing...
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Not Aman on September 20, 2016, 07:41:48 pm
"STOP." Commands Robor.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Forge on September 20, 2016, 07:51:16 pm
Beats just grins his face off at the entire display as he warms up some muscles and ensures his space based mage sight is active and ready to pick up the first sign of a portal appearing.

"Let's get ready!" He announces and stands half hidden behind a tree, trying to guess where she will appear "Might be late to say, but if shes scrying first were farked!" He says this grimly as if to offset his grin a moment ago
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on September 20, 2016, 08:13:29 pm
"She will have to scry first, to come here and identify the plant spirit. Hopefully she comes with all her demons."

Some people might wonder at a sentence like that but Saint has no doubt that his fellow disciples will understand him.

Saint places his briefcase of magically enhanced hornets to his left and then sits against a tree.

If Robor had been able to open a breach in the Gauntlet perhaps they could have chased the imp down and slain it before the familiar could reach Kark, but it's too late now.

He sets his invisible bag to his right and carefully opens a flap, setting his hand very near his imbued sword but keeping the bag closed so that Mama kark wouldn't see he was reaching for a weapon in preparation of her coming.

Lord, give me strength for what is to come.

"We have very little time left before that imp reaches Kark. I suggest we prepare, and wait. There is no use in hiding, she will see us with her magicks."

As he sits, Saint closes his eyes and mouths the words of power for Sight and Space, magically expanding his vision so as to create a spatial map of the area. He wanted to see exactly where Kark would be when she showed up.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on September 21, 2016, 09:41:37 am
"STOP." Commands Robor.

The plant monster rolls to a stop at Robor's command, while the other spirit continues on out of sight.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on September 21, 2016, 09:59:21 am
Beats casts Spatial Awareness and monitors the surroundings, while the Saint's Spatial Map spell manifested successfully as well and he suddenly has an acute sense of everything physically around him.

Mama Kark meanwhile, from the dark recesses of her twisted lair - having felt a disturbance in her domain - pinpoints the location of Robor's manifested spirit and begins to Scry over it to get a look.

Beats senses the intrusion, but the plant spirit had lumbered far enough away from the group (chasing the smaller spirit off), that Mama Kark does not notice the presence of the Disciples in her cursory observation of the area.

Beats then feels a portal open and close not too far off.

A moment later, Saint became aware of a human and another large creature of some kind, entering the area near the plant spirit - about fifty yards into the woods from everyone, in the direction of High Oaks Castle.

Robor also senses the entrance of another spirit into the mix, though this one has a weird harrowing vibe to it, unlike any sort of spirit he has dealt with so far.

Due to the heavy underbrush however, no one can actually see anything farther than the Robor's plant spirit at the moment.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on September 21, 2016, 11:24:09 am
Saint immediately sets the swarm of mosquitoes and gnats off after Kark, sending them to harass and hopefully distract the witch. He draws his sword from the bag.

"Beats, you see her?", he whispers, while gesturing to the others that the direction the swarm flies off to is where Kark will be.

"She brought something with her. Robor, bring your plant in, that she does not isolate it."

Saint then pops open the latch on the briefcase but keeps it closed, prepared to send out the Horner swarm if things got hairy.

Once Mama Kark is halfway to the plan monster he'll start circling around to try and get behind Mama Kark and the demon. Once she gets close enough to the plant spirit to begin her casting, Saint will wait for her to begin her chanting before charging forward and hacking at Kark with his sword, judging her to be most vulnerable at this moment. He will have the swarm he commands buzz angrily around her to produce distracting noise, the better to conceal him and Beats, and have the swarm turn hostile once he attacks her.

As he sneaks up on Kark he gently runs his thumb over the hilt of the sword, and activates the emotional urging spell, trying to lull Kark into a sense of confidence and obliviousness.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Not Aman on September 21, 2016, 02:46:05 pm
"It's a weird spirit. Havent seen one like it before." Robor says, picking up his blade.

"Her imp is gonna tell her that we're here. We need to attack now." Robor says, as he commands his spirit to return.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Forge on September 21, 2016, 02:46:52 pm
"Shes here" he says and points before immediatly setting out towards her, attempting to be quiet.

He plans on casting evil eye on her the moment he sees her followed by Ranged lethal blow, the actual Attack using the ranged lethal blows will be a body shot in the hopes that she misses a turn.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: killa_robot on September 21, 2016, 05:21:36 pm
Emend casts Scales of Thought in preparation for the impending fight. He'll then be ready to use Rend the Weave in the event that Kark attempts to cast a spell when the fight begins.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on September 23, 2016, 11:01:19 pm
The Saint's gnats and mosquito's swarm through the woods and into Mama Kark's face, as she uses her Crown of the Incarna rote to wrest control of the plant spirit from Robor. While the pests do distract the mad witch, her power is still great enough to override Robor's spell - though tenuously (Potency 1 Control).

Feeling another mage interfering with her domination of the spirit, Mama Kark then commands the Sklorch (for that was what it was called) to track back to the original master and destroy it. At the command, the plant spirit ripples angrily, turns its undulating bulk towards Robor, and begins a rather jaundiced charge in his direction. The massive tangle of sticky dew and ropey green tendrils manages all the speed of a brisk walk.

Disappointed by the plant spirit's pathetic display of sloth, Mama Kark looses her Cthonian Demon in the same direction - instructing it to devour any and all trespassers it might find. The Cthonian Demon hurries past the much slower plant spirit, casting Entropic Guard on itself, and bursts into sight of the disciples a moment later.

Know as The Worm Within the Marrow, the vile hell-spawn appears as a giant writhing maggot, bloated to the size of a large couch, with grinding mandibles surrounded by a ring of tiny round black eyes. The gaging stench of putrefying flesh clung to its rubbery hide, as stringy gray puss leaked from its underbelly to allow locomotion akin to the unholy union of a slug and sidewinder - it spastically wriggling itself forward with alarming speed.

Where its ooze fouled the ground, greasy fat dumpster flies began to issue forth - filling the air with a loud distracting buzz that began to make hearing one other somewhat difficult.

Robor stands ready with his sword, perhaps feeling it better to let the monsters come to him, rather than run straight for them. That, and he chews on whether to try to reclaim control over his plant spirit - or... dare he make such an attempt on the demon?

Still unable to see Mama Kark beyond the trees and two charging spirits, Beats estimates he can get his Far Strike rote off, before the demonic worm can coverer the distance between them. Uttering words of power and swinging both fists down with all his might, Beats feels his cesti connect with the hard ridge of bone around the giant maggot's bellowous maw - and it give way with a sharp crack under the thunderous blow.

Looking, everyone sees the worm demon's face plow abruptly into the dirt, in a spray of grey and yellow goo! It flips tail over teeth and shudders in pain a moment, before shaking it off and resuming its charge. Even so, Beats is pretty sure he's never hit anything as hard as he just nailed that ugly thing!

As this goes on, Emend casts Scales of Thought in preparation for the impending fight.

The Saint meanwhile, circles wide around the two sprits with his enhanced speed, and over to where he had sensed Mama Kark portal in.

In a small clearing, he sees no portal, but spots a fat disheveled woman waiting, and looking in the direction of the two spirits under her control. She wears a simple grey dress with a navy blue apron, looking somewhat like an old Amish woman, except for her log white hair, which is a wild tangled mess.

Blood seeps through a white bandage wrap on her left arm and she appeared to be without footwear - her bare feet gnarled, and hard enough in the sole, not to be bothered by the briars, stinging nettles, or poison ivy.

No wonder the disciples hadn't seen her when staking the castle out - she didn't fit the refined image of high society that Jack Eaton Jr. prized enough to sell his soul for.

Activating the Emotional Urging of his sword, Saint instilled a sense of confidence in the witch, though the obliviousness he had hoped for did not manifest.

It was unclear if Mama Kark knew of the Saint's presence yet, but she was still far enough away that some ground needed to be crossed before the sword itself could be brought to bear. With his enhanced speed however, a quick charge could be made, culminating in a stroke of the sword at the end.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on September 23, 2016, 11:21:29 pm
Saint now orders the gnats to aggressively attack Mama Kark, the better to distract and annoy the witch (and perhaps even somehow break through whatever magical protections she no doubt has active).

Having seen the vicious beating that Beats just gave the demon worm, he is absolutely certain that his fellow disciples will be able to handle the creature themselves, and so refrains from summoning his hornets and risking them against the worm and the plant (which he believes would simply devour the swarm). It is just him and the witch now.

Lord, fill me with strength, for I face the devil and I find myself wanting

Taking a deep breath and steeling his will (spending one willpower to boost attack by 3 dice), Saint moves as quickly and quietly towards Kark as possible, hoping that the sword's spell and the distracting gnats would allow him to reach the witch before she could bring her magicks to bear.

Let her die now, Lord, for I fear her screams as much as I fear for my life.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Forge on September 24, 2016, 01:01:01 am
Beats lets out a bellow to accompany his knowledge that he had just smashed the giant maggots head into the dirt as hard as he had.

Leaving the complicated stuff to the others he decides that maggots need to be purged so begins concentrating on it, touching it might not be best though so he runs back to buy space before attempting the same spell again.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: killa_robot on September 24, 2016, 11:00:46 am
"Saint will probably need assistance with Kark," Emend thinks to himself, as he begins to circle around the spirits, while keeping them in range, towards Saint and Kark. If the Worm attempts to cast a spell, Emend will counter-spell (Rend the Weave) it. Otherwise, he'll launch a Mind arrow at the Worm.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Not Aman on September 24, 2016, 08:42:13 pm
"I'm gonna go for the demon." Robor says, trying to exert control.

"Kill the witch." He tells the others, as he focuses on weaving his spiritual powers over the demon. There's no way that a desciple's strength can't control a demon, no?
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on September 25, 2016, 03:14:12 pm
While Robor learns that yes, he is capable of controlling the demonic worm in the same manner that he had controlled the plant spirit, he quickly finds that doing so, while simultaneously wresting away the mad witch's own control is much much harder.

After a brief battle of wills with the unseen Mama Kark, Robor loses the contest, though he can tell that it was just barely.

Mama Kark retaliates, but not against Robor.

Having the Ballistic Targeting rote going, she is already aware of the Saint and uses her Breaking the Horse rote with a practiced expertise. As before, the biting gnats and mosquitoes pester the witch, distracting her from her words of power, but she soldiers through it with a wicked and gleeful determination.

Out-stretching her arms at the plant spirit Sklorch, Mama Kark ensorcells it with dark coruscating energies - causing it to discorporate in a sticky pop of gangrenous chlorophyll. She then swings her arms around toward the Saint, the energies following, as if a wrecking ball attached to the end of a long chain originating from the palms of her hands.

Before the Saint can do anything, the energies slam into him.

Expecting to be knocked over (or at the very least buffeted by the blow), the Saint is surprised to find he didn't even feel the ghostly contact at all.

He realizes why, a moment later, when the Skloch - now inside him - tries to exert control!

Shocked, the Saint focuses his will to not only resist the possession attempt, but to also expel the intruding spirit from his very being.

Gritting his teeth and invoking the name of divinity, the Saint finds the plant spirit incredibly tenacious in its resistance to leave, but manages to stand his ground and finds the Sklorch abruptly pushed out from within him to... somewhere else.

Robor meanwhile, still senses the presence of the plant spirit, only now, it has lost its physical manifestation and is back in Twilight.

"Marther Farking Cajiggers!" Mama Kark curses - seeing the Saint foiling her nasty plan for the moment. "Oh don't worry deary; It's not out of the fray yet, hahaha!"

As this goes on, the Cthonian worm continues its charge - straight for Beats. Arriving, it puckers its revolting face and squirts out a black oily substance akin to silly string. The filthy goop spatters over Beats' Cestus-covered hands and begins eating away at the Imbued Items!

Sensing that this is a spell effect (Destroy Object), Emend (who had been circling around to where he had seen the Saint go) uses his Rend the Weave rote to fray the magic that is empowering the goop to dissolve Beats' heaven-blessed weapons. The cesti are saved - only being slightly tarnished by the attack (and in need of a long scrubbing to get rid of the foul stench).

As this happens, Beats retreats back from the worm and hammers it again with Far Strike - pounding his fist deep into the worm's face orifice and causing shockwaves to ripple across the stunned creature's swollen bulk!

The giant maggot thrashes its head back in pain and opens the shattered remains of its mouth to roar in fiery rage!

Beats hears the harrowing sound, and for a split second, feels his heart skip a beat in primal terror. Something within him resists however, and he regains his composure - not being paralyzed with fear, as the worm had hoped.

Clearly, the bloated demon won't be able to take much more of this punishment and is getting desperate.

In the clearing meanwhile (which Emend can now see), the Saint takes a deep breath, steels his will, and charges through the thickets at the witch with his imbued sword.

"Let's see what you got sonny boy!' Mama Kark taunts, carefully watching the weapon and preparing to dodge.

Covering the distance, Saint swings a wide overhand arc - and misses, as the witch simply sidesteps the stroke. Not deterred, the Saint lets the swing continue downward, adjusts the arc slightly, and watches in satisfaction - as the point of the weapon stabs the mad witch in her bare foot.

"Hey!" Mama Kark yells at the onset of the now bleeding appendage, "Watch where you swing that thing! I don't want any of my blood splattered over there," she indicates the area behind her, "just yet anyway!"

She then grins at the Saint and asks, "And what the brikabrack are you supposed to be? The Spanish inquisition or something?!?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on September 25, 2016, 03:40:29 pm
Damn it all! If she attempts another possession, I might not be able to resist this time. If it takes me my comrades are doomed...

Saint immediately commands the hornets to burst out from the briefcase and assault both Kark and himself, while also cancelling his spatial map spell. He has the gnats continue their distracting practices.

I can always cancel the order to attack me if i'm still in control by the time they reach us, but if I lose control, the spirit will not be able to countermand the order. Lord, let me kill this witch now, before I am stung to death by my own creations.

"Well I appear to be in the habit of killing witches!" Saint retorts as he pulls the sword out of Mama Kark's foot and makes a clumsy attempt at an uppercut.

Dammit, I didn't think this was the kind of fighting i'd be engaging in when Sarapheen offered to take me unto the path.

For a second, Saint considers throwing the sword into the area behind Kark, but having seen Emend moving closer with the Spatial map spell before he cancelled it, he knows that for now, he has backup if things go horribly horribly wrong. No reason to throw away his only weapon in a desperate gamble.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Not Aman on September 25, 2016, 03:44:10 pm
"Dammit!" Robor shouts, angrily. This should not be a contest! Sterling's do not struggle against foolish demonic servants!

He attempts it again. The demon will be under his control. Now.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Forge on September 25, 2016, 04:41:12 pm
Beats shakes of the shouts effects off and grits his teeth, this demon maggot was no joke but he was winning and he wasn't going to stop now.

He doesn't try and keep distance this time but casts the evil eye on the monster as soon as possible  before following up with another, hopefully final punch using his lethal blows rote.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: killa_robot on September 25, 2016, 06:53:28 pm
Emend takes one last look at the demon before turning his attention towards Saint and Kark. Robor and Beats seem like they should be able to handle it themselves.

"Witch! We're here to vanquish you and reclaim this castle! Your masters will no longer be allowed to do as they please!" Emend yells, attempting to get her attention. He'll prepare to use counterspell if she attempts a spell. If she attempts to use an item, he'll try and use telekinesis to knock it up and away (using strength for successes).

If she doesn't do anything that requires countering, he'll attack her with a Mind arrow.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on September 26, 2016, 12:48:18 pm
Once again, Robot tries to take control of the Cthonian Demon - and this time, feels the true extent of the mad witch's iron-handed grip on the worm. He realizes that she has been toying with him and that the chances of actually usurping her will in the matter, are about as good as riding a unicycle, blindfolded, across twelve lanes of heavy traffic without getting hit.

That and a sudden realization that the demon is not being commanded at all, but is somehow bound to the witch, through a higher mastery of Spirit than Robor yet possesses.

In response, the giant maggot lashes out at Robor with its filth-strewn maw - tearing into the spirit warden at the hip. Blood streaks the vile creature's foul teeth, as it shakes Robor like a great white, and then tosses him to the side! Robor's pants are torn open in the assault - and a huge gash of flesh is very nearly ripped from his flank!

Mama Kark meanwhile, upon seeing the appearance of Emend, remarks scornfully - "I'll be cajiggered! You really are the Spanish Inquisition!!!"

She then attempts to cast Ephemeral Shield - which Emend immediately works to Counterpell - smacking down the mystical energies before they can comingle into a cohesive spell.

"Yipes!" the mad witch exclaims with a frown - shooing the Saint's gnat swarm away from her face with her hand. "I'll teach you! You impertinent little troll!!!"

At that, the Saint once again feels the presence of the now ephemeral Sklorch, trying to enter his body. Mustering a sense of self, the Saint mentally fights the cloying entity off - preventing it from taking over - but how long can he keep this up? Dealing with incorporeal spirits is more Robor's field than his own.

Mama Kark meanwhile, uses the Saint's distraction to turn and flick blood off her foot into the air behind her. Immediately a swirling crimson vortex opens up and the mad witch runs into it - disappearing from view.

While the vortex still remains, it looks like it will collapse into its self at any moment. With his Spatial Awareness, Beats senses the vortex is some kind of temporary space portal.

Still facing the Cthonian worm that just tore into his companion, Beats can do little about the vortex however; and instead, moves back up to, and focuses on, finishing off the ravening terror before him.

Casting Evil Eye (from his Cesti) on the monster, Beats swings at its head for all he's worth. The Cesti - augmented with his Knife Hand rote - perforate and slice the creature's flaccid gray flesh, until all that is left is a leaking sack of stinky fetid slop!

With no remaining Corpus, the Cthonian corpse abruptly explodes into a chunky shower of raw sewage and rotting stench-maggots. Covered in the ungodly remnants, both Beats and Robor, have to take a moment, to fight off a fit of dry-heaving and retching.

As this goes on, the Saint considers the swirling vortex.

Had the witch not just run through, he would have sicked the killer hornets on her and himself (in a crazy gambit to keep the plant spirit from possessing him). At this turn of events however, he wasn't sure what to do next.

Send the hornets into the vortex after Mama Kark? Follow her himself, before the vortex closed?

Was Emend close enough to make it through as well?
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on September 26, 2016, 03:55:57 pm
After some quick consideration, Saint calls out to Emend.

"Have Beats follow through once it's closed!"

Lord, give me the strength and courage to confront the witch and the demons she has behind this doorway

Saint dashes through the portal after Kark, "I'M NOT DONE WITH YOU YET!"

He has the gnats follow him through, and drops the briefcase open onto the ground as soon as he crosses over, releasing the hornet swarm with the orders to attack Kark, moving forward with the full intention of murdering the witch with his imbued blade.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Forge on September 26, 2016, 04:00:57 pm
Beats gets out of the remains as quickly as possible, pausing to retch once or twice more "Farking nasty Shite" he mutters before running towards the portals location "Da witch is running" he calls to Robor as he runs.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Not Aman on September 26, 2016, 07:45:57 pm
"Ah Fark." Robor mutters, gripping his leg in pain. But he can't stop. If the witch runs, and informs the CEO, the mission is finished. He needs to move.

Robor follows beats. If he can, he'll try and remove the spirit from Saint before he leaves through the portal.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: killa_robot on September 26, 2016, 07:58:55 pm
"Damn witch!" Emend yells, following Saint through the portal.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on September 27, 2016, 03:35:18 pm
The Saint disappeared into the vortex, followed by Emend - who sprinted over and leapt in, right as it collapsed into itself and was gone.

Robor and Beats, left on this side, began hurrying towards the small clearing, intent on following their companions through, with Beat's aptly-named 'Follow Through' spell.

With Mama Kark having fled, Robor is once again able to attempt control of the plant spirit unimpeded, but it resists his will. The fact that it can now try to possess people from Twilight, makes it a somewhat greater tactical consideration than it was before.

That, and it happens to be positioned right where Beats has to cast his spell to re-open Mama Kark's space portal.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the portal, Saint and Emend find themselves running into pitch black darkness - without any flooring under foot!

They abruptly drop three feet, tumbling onto hard stone in a heap - realizing that the vortex actually exits out above the floor on this end.

"Hans my baby boy!" they hear Mama Kark's voice calling, "These bad men want to hurt your mama! Don't let them!"

"Wha?!? Dey wana hurt mama?!?" an angry, slow-sounding, voice replies. "Dey not hurt mama! I hurt dem!"

"Hans chokes bad men! Bad men will be choked good! Den dey not hurt mama!"

With his Spatial Map still going, the Saint 'sees' that he is in some kind of stone vault. From what he saw of Sarapheen's map of the castle, he realizes that this is the vault in the basement, on the other side of the underground swimming pool - beyond five feet of solid stone.

The chamber is filled with tables and shelves, containing piles and piles of stacked cash, gold coins, and glass cases full of jewelry and other unusual or valuable items.

Mama Kark is on the far side of the chamber, casting Follow Through, while a large mannequin-looking creature, in a flannel shirt and overalls, stands between her and the pursuing disciples.

The Saint is also aware of a few dozen large rats, lurking along the periphery of the room.

Emend meanwhile, gets a bead on Mama Kark, Hans, and the Saints' locations, due to their though patterns, but cannot see all the other obstacles in the darkness. He notes that the mannequin-like Hans barely registers on the sentient being scale - and that Mama Kark is currently casting another spell.

As for the killer hornet swarm - unable to see in the dark - it attempts to obey the Saint's orders to attack, honing in on all the carbon dioxide signatures in the room - attacking every living creature it can sense (including the Saint and Emend).
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on September 27, 2016, 03:54:43 pm
Saint curses softly, having the hornets stand down.

"She's got a golem guarding the mana well. She'll be collecting her magicks to her..."

Saint immediately casts emotional urging on the golem to calm it somewhat and buy the two time. He cancels his spatial map spell, momentarily blinding himself, and then reaches out to the swarm to grant them bioluminescence (Transform Base Features), hopefully lighting up the room.

He then sets the swarm(s) not after kark, but on the rats in the room, and prepares himself to deal with the Golem. Saint will rush the Golem and attack with the imbued weapon.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Forge on September 27, 2016, 04:15:22 pm
Beats pauses short of the plant spirit "Robor, I need that thing moved!" He shouts, fully aware it needs to be gone before he can follow through the portals remnants.

He waits on it moving before running forward and casting the spell necessary to follow through it.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Not Aman on September 27, 2016, 04:18:46 pm
Robor grits his teeth. This should not be difficult for him. His magic should not be this weak. Using an enochian word of power, he tries to retake control over the spirit.

"[Insert Word of Power Here]!"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: killa_robot on September 27, 2016, 07:50:28 pm
"You're not getting away again!" Emend yells, casting counterspell on Kark again.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on September 28, 2016, 09:28:59 am
Out in the clearing, Robor moved up to Beats and tried again, to wrangle control of the rebellious Sklorch. After another short match of egos, Robor finally put the feisty critter in it place - asserting his will over the ephemeral plant spirit.

It had taken all Robor had, to establish dominance over what basically amounted to a common houseplant, but it was still a win - and Robor was not going to diminish that, by over-analyzing how the mindless thing had been able to put up such a fight against him in the first place.

With the threat averted, Beats attempted to cast Follow Through, on the closed portal space left by the witch's vortex. Uttering words of power, he felt the magics come together as expected, but then a strange ripple of feedback abruptly cascaded through the spell - threatening to collapse it!

With no small amount of effort however, Beats was able to push the unusual influence out of the spell and stabilize it again - opening a correspondence to wherever it was that Mama Kark (and the others) had gone.

It then occurred to Beats that the Follow Through only applied to him. If he was to bring Robor through it with him, he would need to wrap him in the spells resonance (Mana) and then physically pull him through as he went.

Back in the vault meanwhile, Emend disrupts Maka Kark with his counterspell, as she attempts to flee. As her spell fails to materialize, the witch spits on the floor in disgust and spins to face Emend.

"OOOH! You wicked little thing you!" she growls; "I'll teach you to interfere with a lady's spellcasting!"

Activating a prepared spell of some kind, she moves to a nearby table and picks a large meat cleaver up from a chopping block, to check its sharpness with the edge of her finger.

Of course Emend sees none of this, but does get some very threatening feels from Mama Kark's thought-aura and senses her imminent approach.

As this goes on, Hans lumbers at the Saint with surprising speed and grabs him around the neck with both hands. Even with his own enhanced strength, the Saint is shocked at the creature's tremendous brawn. Unable to bat away its strange waxy arms, or break the grip, the Saint activates Emotional Urging to calm the monster, before it can crush his windpipe.

Confused, Hans lets go a moment and explains, "I sorry bad man, but Mama say I gota crush you." He then raises his hands once again and calmly reaches towards the Saint's neck like a boy trying to pet a puppy.

Taking advantage of the momentary pause in the assault, the Saint casts Transfer Base Features on the hornet swarm, granting a quarter of them bioluminescence. It's enough to dimly light the room - at least to the point where everyone can now see with their own eyes. Speaking of which, it appears that Hans has none - his eyelids having been sewn shut with thick black threads.

Something was also wrong with his skin. He wasn't really a mannequin - he just moved like one - but his skin had the appearance of smooth pale-white wax-soaked leather. From his up close and personal proximity to the thing, the Saint could also see the skin sewn together in fine seems, like one would find on a fabric doll or something.

Taking the room itself in, Saint and Emend can see no obvious way out of the stone treasure chamber.

The killer hornets meanwhile, swoop down and begin stinging the many large rats that slink in the shadows along the outer reaches of the area. The rats shriek in agony as the poison takes effect and try to flee the attack, but the swarm is too many and able to go wherever the rats try to escape through. After a rather terrifying display of insect on vermin brutality, half of the rats appear to be in death spasms, while the rest have disappeared into cracks and holes in the stone - their shrieking still audible, as they continue to suffer and die, due to the bullet ant venom.

"NOOOOOOO!!!! YOU KILL MY FREINDS!!!" Hans cries aghast at the death of his rats - rage once again burning in his face - "I KILL YOU DEAD!!!"

"Oh, you done did it now, mister..." Mama Kark says to the Saint at Hans' outburst. "May your god have mercy on your soul."

Then turning to Emend she smiles, revealing black stubs of poorly looked-after teeth - "Shall we begin?"

Raising the huge cleaver, she moves forward...
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on September 28, 2016, 10:56:00 am
Desperate in the face of such a powerful monster, chilled by fear, Saint screams out then - " Mama hates you! Mama brought us here, mama killed your friends!"

Saint uses the emotional urging in the sword again, trying to engender feelings of betrayal in the simple minded creature and guide its rage.

If he sees it work, he will stand back and wait. If he sees the golem just get confused, he'll attack, spending a willpower to increase his attack against the thing.

He sets both swarms back on Kark, having them focus exclusively on the witch.

"We came here to save people like you! You can be free!"

Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Not Aman on September 28, 2016, 11:50:52 am
"We going?" Robor asks, considering asking his house plant if it has any special healing properties.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Forge on September 28, 2016, 11:51:34 am
Beats shakes off the wierd feeling, he has to get through fast.

He grabs Robors arm and covers him in mana "Time to go" he says simply and steps through, pulling the other decipples with him.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Not Aman on September 28, 2016, 12:15:07 pm
Robor nods.
"Yeah."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: killa_robot on September 28, 2016, 02:06:20 pm
"Gladly," Emend replies, pulling out his lighter. He'll then attempt to use control fire to set Hans on fire, while not getting Saint. If he's able to, he'll also try to get Kark in the blaze.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on September 29, 2016, 02:44:03 pm
Mama Kark seems to move with unnatural fluidity and speed - being on Emend with that cleaver in the blink of an eye!

"Hee hee hee hee hee hee hee!" the mad witch titers - as she swings the heavy blade towards Emend's neck!

Emand manages to bring his left arm up defensively, and feels Sarapheen's spell bolster his flesh - but it's not enough - the blade enters the arm below the elbow, slips between the two bones, and splits Emend's forearm in-two vertically, all the way down to the wrist!

The seven inch long gash goes clear through on both sides of his arm and blood flies out, trailing the arc of the blade! Emend feels the cold grip of shock creeping its way into the back of his mind.

As this goes on, the Saint confuses Hans again with feelings of betrayal.

"Mama?!?" the towering lummox staggers.

"Don't listen to them baby!" Mama Kark warns - "They're just trying to trick you!"

Taking advantage of the distraction, Saint runs his sword through Hans' torso - the blade piercing the strange skin, traversing a sawdust-like filling of some kind, and punching out the back!

Hans doesn't seem to react in any pain, but rather surprise, at the Saint's deception. It is not clear if Hans has actually been wounded by the attack, but such a run-through would be quite debilitating to a mortal.

"RAARG!!! YOU LIE TO HANS!!!"

Hans swings a heavy thick arm at the Saint and backhands him with a glancing blow - but it is still enough to dislocate the priest's right shoulder on impact  - and send him flying across the room!

Realizing that hesitation means death meanwhile, Emend forces himself to ignore his own arm for the moment, and pulls his lighter to use with Control Fire.

Uttering words of power and sparking a flame, he makes the normally small flame radiate like a plasma cutting-torch and then jams it up against Hans' turned back!

A large hole is burned into the monster's bulk and his clothing and wax-imbued skin burst into flames like a gasoline soaked rag! Even the sawdust-like filling inside his body catches alight!

"WHOA?!? WHA?!?" Hans gapes, watching the fire dance across his body as it engulfs him.

"NO! HANS!!!" Mama Kark screams - "MY BABY! MY BABY!!!"

Hans realizes, from Mama Kark's frantic cries, that he's in mortal danger - and fire - while truly fascinating, is not his friend after all.

"UH!!! HELP MAMA, HELP!!!"

As all this goes on, Beats and Robor come tumbling into the room, falling to the floor, as the Saint and Emend had done before them.

Getting up and taking in the bizarre scene, both realize that something has changed in their perspectives. It only takes one glance at each other to see what is wrong though - Beats and Robor have swapped physical bodies in the paradox-tainted Follow Through! (Robor's mind is in Beat's body and Beat's mind is in Robor's body.)

The killer hornets meanwhile, finish off the last of the rats and fly up in a swarm to seek out Mama Kark...
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on September 29, 2016, 03:54:48 pm
Saint gasps with the pain - and with pity for the poor thing that dies even now, not knowing its nearing end.

Lord, let the soul of this poor monster rest in peace - and let the Witch burn as he does now for her sins.

He struggles briefly to pull his cross out from his shirt with his left arm and then picks himself up off the ground, running to Emend.

If he hadn't followed me in... You're not dying on me now.

Saint grabs Emend by the injured arm and casts his Balm of Flesh Rote, channeling his power into mending the disciple's ruined arm.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: killa_robot on September 29, 2016, 04:59:54 pm
Emend looks away from his wound and weakly tries to make sure the two halves of his arm stay together with his other hand.

"So this is the witch's power. It's a good thing we're fighting her separate from the others," Emend thinks to himself as he begins to shiver. If the witch tries to cast a spell, he'll use counter-spell, otherwise he'll dedicate his whole turn to defence. He can't afford to take much more damage after all.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Forge on September 29, 2016, 07:15:29 pm
Beats startles at the realization that the body he is I  is not his own, but there is a battle going on and he is currently holding a sword.

"Farking magic!" He shouts as he moves to the side of Mama Kark and two handed swings the sword at chest height at her like a baseball bat. (Burn a will for more dice!")

'if I don't have my fine control, just swing for the bleechers'
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Not Aman on September 29, 2016, 08:40:07 pm
"What the hell?" Robor mutters, staring at the tatoos covering his body. But now's not the time. He'll try and flank the witch. He still has his fists.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on September 30, 2016, 11:13:46 am
"YOU!!!" Mama Kark accuses, glaring at Emend, "None of this would have happened, had you just let me go! You will pay!"

With that, the wicked witch tries to cleave Emends face in-two!

Emend focuses everything he has on evading the mad witch's blade - scrambling around a counter and ducking the crazy fiend's flurry of blows! The highly determined woman doesn't give up however, and when Emend upends a table to interpose it between himself and the she demon, the demented hag chops right through it!

Emend ends up with the tip of the cleaver in his chest - but a chunk of wood from the table (lodged on the blade) prevents it from penetrating into his vitals!

As this goes on, Robor (in Beats' body), flanks Mama Kark and attacks her with Beats' Cesti. Even flanked, the witch is moving so fast and erratically, that she's difficult to connect with. Robor only manages a few glancing blows.

Up next, Beats takes a baseball-bat swing at Mama Kark with Robor's sword, as she chases Emend past. The witch runs right into the blow, allowing Beats to draw the edge of the blade across her stomach - opening it like a gutted pig!

Mama Kark cries out -  and clutches the wound with her left hand - blood oozing between her fingers and sliced entrails attempting to squiggle out through the gaps!

While this transpires, the Saint rights himself and hurries to Emend's side - grabbing his wounded arm and channeling life magic into it with his Balm of Flesh rote.

Emend feels the power coursing through the wound, knitting some of it back together. It's not enough to fully close the gash, but it does stop the bleeding and tamps the pain down to a more tolerable level.

The Saint's killer hornet swarm meanwhile, dives onto Mama Kark and begins stinging the ever-loving shit out of her!

"Farking farksticks! What the farking fark did you do to these farking farkers?!?"

*swarm, swarm, swarm*

"FARKING WITCH TITS! THAT HURTS! AHHGH!!! MY WITCH TITS!!!"

From behind, the fire-engulfed Hans grabs the Saint in with both arms and lifts him off the ground. The flames dance around the Saint, catching his clothing alight, but do not burn him - Sarapheen's spell soaking the energy into his body (at least for the time being). Hans then attempts to maneuver the Saint into a choke hold of some kind, and will have it set in, if the Saint doesn't break free soon!

The fire is doing one hell of a number on Hans however, and his skin is beginning to char open in spots - allowing burning cinders of sawdust to spill out as he moves.

Smoke from the fire also begins to cloud the enclosed chamber, tearing up the eyes and potentially making it very hard to breath soon...
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on September 30, 2016, 11:32:26 am
Saint closes his eyes and mumbles a brief prayer interspersed with words of power as he casts Body Control - so that his lowered heartbeat and oxygen requirements would ensure he would not lose consciousness even in the choke hold, hoping that his allies would save him. He was powerless against this thing.

"Lord, your son is dying in the arms of this fallen child, protect him, for he loves you and would live to serve you still."

He gives up control of the gnat swarm to do this - but not before ordering them to throw themselves into the fire of Hans' body, so that he won't have to deal with the gnats afterwards.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Forge on September 30, 2016, 02:15:33 pm
Beats in Robors body is too angry to feel bad about eviserating a witch right now so simply proceeds to swing again baseball at style, she should be pretty slowed down by having to hold her own innards in.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Not Aman on September 30, 2016, 02:37:00 pm
Robor moves away from the witch, and tries to pull away the giant from Saint. He was strong. There shouldn't be a difficulty in this. Just need to fight against the flames.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: killa_robot on September 30, 2016, 06:18:56 pm
"Thank you Saint," Emend says, feeling a bit better not that his arm is whole again.

"Now, let's see how long you can last against all four of us!" He yells. If the witch tries to use a spell, he'll use counter-spell. Otherwise, he'll use influence fire to make the inferno on Hans spread to her.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 01, 2016, 11:39:32 am
Spurred by horrendous pain and a wild tenacity, Mama Kark lashes out with supernatural celerity at the one who opened her up with the sword - Beats (in Robor's body)!

Beats' eyes can't even follow the blur of Mama Kark's blade - as the cleaver whips passed, under his chin. For a moment, Beats thinks that the mad witch missed - until blood starts gushing from the wide slash in his neck  - and pouring down the back of his throat!

Everything goes black for Beats, and the others see Robor's body collapse - his neck slit open, deep enough to have compromised the trachea! Blood squirts out rhythmically from the wound, but it won't continue to do so for very long...

As this goes on, Robor (in Beats' body), tries to pull Hans off the Saint - but that's clearly not going to happen. The monster is just too strong; and completely ignores Robor's futile efforts.

The Saint casts Body Control, slowing his breathing and blood flow in a bid to better resist the impending choke. He then tries to extricate himself from the hold - but even his enhanced strength is not up to the task and Hans retains his grip on the flailing priest.

The Saint's hornets continue to harry Mama Kark, who screams like a banshee, while the gnat swarm dive-bombs Hans and is immediately vaporized by the flames.

The flames engulfing Hans meanwhile, burn through his stitching - and he abruptly falls apart! The last of his skin consumed, smoldering sawdust falls away from a human skeleton inside, and Hans collapsed to the ground - reduced to a pile of bones and burning pulp!

With Mama Kark's attention now off him, Emend attempts to transfer some of the fire from Hans to Mama Kark with Influence Fire. A large gout of flame swirls off Hans and shrouds Mama Kark - setting her straggly white hair on fire and inadvertently toasting half of the Saint's hornets in the process.

The fire is the final straw for Mama Kark however, and she passes out, falling to the floor in a burning heap!

The room finally quiet - only the crackling sizzle of human flesh and the buzzing drone of the Saint's reduced swarm breaking the silence.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on October 01, 2016, 12:00:23 pm
Saint extricates himself from Hans' remains and moves over to Robor's body, pressing his cross firmly against the dying mage's forehead, uttering words of power in a healing prayer and firmly pressing down on Robor's neck to try and slow the fatal flow of blood
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 01, 2016, 12:09:42 pm
Empowered by his faith, the Saint completely heals the wound in Robor's neck - watching it seal itself back up, right before his eyes.

Beats, still in Robor's body, regains consciousness.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 01, 2016, 12:52:39 pm
With disaster averted, and the corpses burning themselves out, everyone gets a better look at the contents of the sealed stone chamber.

For all intensive purposes, it is a treasure chamber, filled with tables, counters, and shelves, all containing piles and piles of stacked cash - a small percentage now charred (by Hans flailing around in it while on fire) - gold coins, and glass cases full of jewelry and other unusual or valuable items.

At the far end, a strange workbench catches the eye, it currently being devoid of any projects - only the large cutting board that Mama Kark drew the cleaver from resting on its surface. Under the bench however, are some sealed boxes and what look very much like a set or two of Egyptian canopic jars.

Of other note, is Mama Kark's cold steel cleaver, a strange glossy black horn-flask on a table that is dripping blood, and Beat's realization that someone is now scying on the room...
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Forge on October 01, 2016, 12:55:02 pm
"Farking bitches tits slit ma throat!" He announces as he stumbles to his feet and grabs the sword again. He looks for her with a mix of determination and anger on his face. Upon seeing her unconscious body smoking and wealted up from the bites and stings he grins "Gotta hers then! She dead right?" He asks.

As they check the room out beats freezes "Someone's scryin us!" He looks around frustrated then runs over to his body and grabs his dog tags off it. Sitting down cross-legged he hold his space tag and closing his eyes he scrying back through the connection made by the person scrying them.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: killa_robot on October 01, 2016, 01:14:37 pm
"That's one down," Emend thinks to himself, looking at the witch's charred remains.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 01, 2016, 01:16:37 pm
"Oh, hello... Beats?" Sarapheen's voice comes into Beat's head, "I see you have dispatched the witch. It should be safe for me to come to you now."

At that, Sarapheen's heavenly portal opens overhead and the Angel descents into the chamber in her accustomed celestial regalia, wings, and halo.

Her radiating light conveniently illuminates the room, as the remains of Hans and Mama Kark sputter out.

"You'll need to take her head off to be sure," she points out, "and get the Shade Stone out of the golem's skull and destroy it."

Then looking at Beats and Robor, she raises an eyebrow.

"Oh my, you seem to be all mixed up."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Forge on October 01, 2016, 01:24:03 pm
Beats immediately makes sure to clean his speech up again "Yeh, bit of an accident dere, worked out though, Erm,  though I'd appreciate help putting it right after this..." He takes the sword over to the witch and let's out an audience sigh, hesitating for a few moments before chopping down at her neck...
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on October 01, 2016, 01:38:50 pm
Saint feels greatly unnerved by the incident with the witch. He can't seem to get her screams out of his head, as monstrous as she had been... and that poor golem, Hans.

He orders the surviving hornets back into his briefcase and then shakily begins casting an array of spells, removing his Body control spell to cast Healer's Trance. Somewhat numbed, the priest will quietly ask his fellow disciples the following - "Please stay still everyone, I need to tend to your wounds. Robor... Beats? Your arm in particular seems to be infected."

Saint will heal and purge the sickness from all of his fellow disciples before he heals himself.

He visibly winces when Beats beheads the witch.

Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Not Aman on October 01, 2016, 07:34:47 pm
Robor looks at Beats with horror. His body was moments away from death, and he didn't even feel it. Insanity.

"Would you happen to know how to fix this, Serapheen? It's not as fun as it looks." He says.

"What's a shade stone?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 02, 2016, 08:09:37 pm
Black soot issues from the decapitated witch's neck hole in a disturbing death-rattle like moan. Following that however, the witch remains eternally still.

Answering Robor's question, Sarapheen puts a hand on her chin and looks carefully between him and Beats.

"I don't know," she replies, "Maybe the Spirit Warden Morrow Wind could help? He's pretty good with Mind - Although I suspect one would need Space as well, to fix this, which I don't believe he has..."

Regarding the Shade Stone, she replies, "Shade Stones are used to create a false facsimile of a human soul. Sort of a flawed copy, but a copy nonetheless. They are what allow the imbued to be created. What gives them a mockery of life."

"A skilled witch could also use a Soul Stone, but it's possible she created this golem from the dead, rather than from a living victim."

As this goes on, the Saint uses Healer’s Trance to determine that only Robor's body is infected. He has a nasty little disease incubating in the bite he received from the Cthonian worm earlier. Casting Banish Plague takes care of it however.

Following that, the Saint helps Sarapheen in healing everyone's wounds.

"You should probably all come back to the Cathedral with me now," Sarapheen says afterwards; "You'll need time to clean yourselves up for your meeting with Jack Eaton Jr." She waves a hand at the Saint, who's clothing has been completely burned off and Beats' body who Robor piloted into a flaming grapple with Hans - also in need of some new clothes. That and the ruby red bloodstains covering Emend and the greasy worm ichor all over Robor's clothing.

"You did well, stopping the witch before she could escape back to Jack," Sarapheen commented, looking around a bit. "It appears that she uses this chamber much like an airlock. I can see she has a number of portals exiting the chamber both into and out of the castle."

"The golem was probably her watchdog. To keep trespassers from following through beyond this point."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on October 02, 2016, 08:14:34 pm
Saint hesitates then, "Sarapheen, would you be able to accompany us on the second part of this venture now that the witch is gone? I have exhausted much of my magical energies and I will have to exhaust more to heal us of our wounds. My swarm has also been greatly diminished and I do not have the time to create another one to deal with the guards."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Forge on October 02, 2016, 08:25:35 pm
Beats nods as he looks around, purposely avoiding the which's corpse, he might have killed her as an infernal witch but a body was a body.

"Is dere an easy way to tell where da portals go? Could just pop up beside Jack all surprise like and end it quick."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on October 02, 2016, 08:27:00 pm
"You could scry through," Saint suggests
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Forge on October 02, 2016, 08:30:59 pm
Beats nods again and sits down to Scry for Jack "Well, let's see were he is."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 03, 2016, 07:44:19 pm
High Oaks Castle - Ground Floor
(http://www.bountyheadbebop.com/Disc/Sanctum1.jpg)
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 03, 2016, 07:44:53 pm
High Oaks Castle - Upstairs
(http://www.bountyheadbebop.com/Disc/Sanctum2.jpg)
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 03, 2016, 07:45:11 pm
High Oaks Castle - Attic Space
(http://www.bountyheadbebop.com/Disc/Sanctum3.jpg)
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 03, 2016, 07:45:30 pm
High Oaks Castle - Basement
(http://www.bountyheadbebop.com/Disc/SanctumB.jpg)
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 03, 2016, 07:58:22 pm
It takes Beats a few tries, but he finds Jack Eaton Jr. in the second floor Pub, drinking martinis with his manservant. Two security guards (the Tech and the Leader) are sitting in the nearby Drawing Room.

Beats can feel the Wards preventing him trying to Scry into the Saltwater Pool Room, beyond the thick stone wall of the Vault, and into all but the south end of the Attic Storage Space. The rest of the castle in open to Space, especially now, with the witch dead and unable to sense any of these type of intrusions anymore.

Feeling out the various portal lines going through the chamber they are currently in, Beats notes that the one he and Robor came in through no longer exists for some reason. Other paths go to the garden statuary out behind the house, one that heads into Georgetown University, and then two in the house itself - one to Bedroom Five, and one into the unwarded Attic Storage Space Beats noted earlier.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: killa_robot on October 03, 2016, 08:01:42 pm
Emend walks over to the golem and attempts to take out the shade stone. "I'll take care of this."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 03, 2016, 08:05:25 pm
After some effort, Emend is able to shake the Shade Stone out through one of the skull's eye sockets.

It appears as a thumb-sized smoky black-quartz crystal.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Forge on October 03, 2016, 08:31:05 pm
"Found Jack, he's drinking in da pub." Beats says as he stands "More portals, one goes to da attic where da deed is."

He heads over to look at the kanopic jars while talking "Why not just fry him with da plug at da bar, sure Emend could do it?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: killa_robot on October 04, 2016, 01:47:04 pm
"How exactly do we destroy this?" Emend asks, feeling the crystal with his hand.

"And is the false soul still trapped within?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 04, 2016, 02:21:44 pm
Answering Emend, Sarapheen replies, "just crush it with something hard, like a hammer."

"It still has a false imprint in it," she continued; "a dark and flawed copy of whoever Hans really was, when he was alive."

"The real soul of Hans is not in the crystal. You'll only be hurting Infernal interests by destroying it."

"Now a Soul Stone on the other hand, you would not want to destroy."

"The greater good is served by returning it to its rightful owner, or using high level Spirit to sever the binding the stone has on the trapped soul - essentially setting it free."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 04, 2016, 02:30:52 pm
Saint hesitates then, "Sarapheen, would you be able to accompany us on the second part of this venture now that the witch is gone? I have exhausted much of my magical energies and I will have to exhaust more to heal us of our wounds. My swarm has also been greatly diminished and I do not have the time to create another one to deal with the guards."

Sarapheen nods. "Yes, I can help, now that the witch is gone."

"I was afraid before, that seeing me, she would ignore me spitefully, to kill off one of you. As I mentioned before, I can come back from that, but you cannot. I have seen it before."

"Also I don't think that Jack is initiated so deeply in the ways of the occult to be so influenced. Though any demons that yet remain in Mama Kark's service might be so inclined, so be wary."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on October 04, 2016, 02:59:40 pm
Saint nods. He then cancels the bioluminescence spell on the hornets. He looks about the room and walks over to the cleaver, throwing it to "Beats" (robor in Beats' body).

"I think it's enchanted, the witch did far too much damage for it to be a normal weapon. You should use it, against the demons and Jack."

Saint briefly considered taking the thing himself but he already had the sword - and the sight of Emend and Robor's blood on the thing made him feel sick.

He picks up the glossy-black horn flask dripping blood, then pulls out the two canopic jars and the sealed boxes and begins opening them. He works with a sort of nervous energy, attempting to distract himself from the gory scene that is the room and his own cold, relative nakedness.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 04, 2016, 03:18:36 pm
The glossy horn flask is dripping blood, because it recently held blood. Other than that, the shiny black spiraling cone appears to be the squat horn of some devil and seems to capture the eyes and not want to let them go. Shadows, voids, and unfathomable dimensions dance under its polished surface.

Opening the sealed boxes reveals a collection of children's bones - two entire skeletons - and their neatly pressed and folded skins (expertly cut to preserve their integrity). A blond haired white girl and a little black girl, both about seven or eight years old. The bones matched the skin of the white girl, but the other set of bones are a little too tall to belong to the little black girl.

The two sets of canopic jars hold an assortment of disarticulated muscle tissue and viscera, clearly more than three little girl's worth. Perhaps it includes what came out of Hans too?

At the sight of it all, the Saint's mind reeled!

'These are the remains of someone's children! Someone is missing these girls! Their daughters! What would I do if something so brutally horrific ever happened to Faith?'

The Saint waivered a moment, then collapsed to the floor - having passed out at the thoughts...
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 04, 2016, 03:39:22 pm
"Oh my, how terrible," Sarapheen said somberly, grimacing at the sight of the remains.

Moving to the Saint, she lifted him up - "Are you going to be all right?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on October 04, 2016, 05:05:27 pm
Saint felt himself go cold inside as he looked through the remains. The feeling didn't go away. He just started to feel more and more numb, though the Wrath within him grew hotter than he had ever known it to be, he couldn't feel it for his own horror. Unconsciousness was a welcome surprise.

When Giles Moreau comes to, waking in Sarapheen's arms, he is a Saint no longer.

Jerking back out of Sarapheen's grip, the Killer tells her - "Oh, my dear, don't you worry. I will be."

Can't say much the same for anything else though now can I...

Killer walks right back to where he'd thrown the cleaver to "Beats".

"I think I'll take this after all," he takes the cleaver into his hands and just barely resists the urge to lick the fresh blood off the blade.

"Beats, would you kindly take me to Jack?"

Killer has the hornets come back out of the briefcase and he sets the swarm crawling onto his own flesh, surrounding him. As he does this he casts two more spells, this time giving the remaining killer Hornets a series of long, serrated pincers and mandibles, to make their bites all the more dangerous, and re-casting control body to increase his initiative.

The Killer can hardly keep the smile off his face in anticipation of what he's about to do.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Forge on October 04, 2016, 09:26:01 pm
Beats looks Saint over quickly, he was clearly handling himself differently from normal. He had just found jars  full of children's remains though so Beats wasn't going to complain if he was mad.

"I'll open a portal into da storage room in da attic, should be an easy run to him from dere."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on October 05, 2016, 12:04:18 am
"How many guards between him and me from there?", Killer asks, almost unable to contain his glee at the thought of finally indulging that primal desire... that need.

Oh, even now I can hear their screams...
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Forge on October 05, 2016, 12:10:03 am
"Two in da room, and a barkeep."

Beats quickly checks the rest of the room "Is all this gonna be here when we return or should we loot it?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 05, 2016, 10:32:53 am
"Hold on Beats," Sarapheen replies, "I don't think Jack knows about this vault; he's got way more money than this in the bank."

"This is probably all Mama Kark's; And given that it's hidden behind five feet of solid stone, we don't have to worry about any mortals making off with it."

"There will be time for counting 'the loot' afterwards."

"In the meantime, care to help me scry out the rest of the house? We should know where everyone is in it - not just Jack and those immediately around him."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on October 05, 2016, 10:37:57 am
Killer seems to be getting antsy, "you can do that after sending me to the attic, can't you?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 05, 2016, 10:47:43 am
"No, actually," Sarapheen interjects, looking at the Saint, like she is trying to get a read on him.

"For Beats to 'send' you, would require he go with you. Or take three hours to open a portal for you."

"I on the other hand, can open a portal for all of us, but we need to be prepared first."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on October 05, 2016, 10:56:40 am
Killer starts to take a step towards Sarapheen... and stops.

I'm being stupid. Too long cooped up in this kindly sap. Patience.

"Alright. Is there anything we can do to help?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Forge on October 05, 2016, 03:43:31 pm
Beats nods, calming down a little "Right, let's find dem all first, we can head to the attic after."

He sits down again to Scry out the house as much as possible for enemies.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 05, 2016, 03:44:43 pm
High Oaks Castle - Ground Floor
(http://www.bountyheadbebop.com/Disc/Sanctum1.jpg)
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 05, 2016, 03:44:50 pm
High Oaks Castle - Upstairs
(http://www.bountyheadbebop.com/Disc/Sanctum2.jpg)
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 05, 2016, 03:44:55 pm
High Oaks Castle - Attic Space
(http://www.bountyheadbebop.com/Disc/Sanctum3.jpg)
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 05, 2016, 03:45:01 pm
High Oaks Castle - Basement
(http://www.bountyheadbebop.com/Disc/SanctumB.jpg)
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 05, 2016, 03:45:07 pm
Scanning over the entire house (and grounds) with Sarapheen, Beats discovers all the placements of the Talon Securities Corp security detail.

The greeter is in the gatehouse, waiting on the arrival of the next shift - about forty-five minutes from now. He watches his tablet computer, which is tied into some security cameras and the tablet carried by the tech op in the Drawing Room with the team leader.

Jack Eaton Jr. and the manservant are still in the Pub.

As expected, the sniper is set up on the tower overlook, but also has two security drones (though they are currently parked).

The two grunts outside are stationed in their usual positions - one on the porch and one on the porch overlook above.

That leaves a grunt in the Armory, below the Pub, and one in the Foyer.

Jack's personal chef is in the Kitchen, in the midst of preparing the 6:00 pm dinner, for the scheduled meeting with Emend and Robor.

Jack's helicopter is out on the pad, as would be expected with him being home, while three fancy sports cars are in the garage - a Bentley, Rolls Royce, and Ferrari.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 05, 2016, 04:06:11 pm
"OK, now that we know what we are up against," Sarapheen says, "We can hit the Attic."

She then holds a nearly invisible crystal prism in her hand and opens her heavenly portal - only this time, it is not overhead, being set at ground height, so everyone can simply walk in through it.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on October 05, 2016, 04:12:19 pm
Killer eagerly dashes through the portal, pulling out the Thirsty Cleaver as he does so, and makes his way to the bar room, intending to get close enough to see the two guards before beginning his attack.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 05, 2016, 04:36:11 pm
"I am concerned by the Saint's rather odd change of behavior, following his coming to," Sarpheen remarks, watching the priest run towards the only way out of the Attic - a set of wooden stairs that she remembered went down to a secret door behind a bookcase in the Library below.

As he descended, the Saint (Killer) saw a red velvet rope stretched between two brass posts at the bottom of the steps - attached with brass hooks through rings at the top of the waist-height posts. It was the type of thing you would see at a fancy club or movie premier, where only those on some sort of list could pass.

Then, as he approached, a dark black shadow peeled itself from the wall - literally a shadow - looking like the silhouette cutout of a large bouncer.

The shade quickly reached down and unhooked the velvet rope from one end, opening it and standing to the side for the Saint (Killer) to pass - nodding at him approvingly.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on October 05, 2016, 04:44:36 pm
Killer stops for a second.

Shadows. A sentient shadow. Kark had to be a necromancer, to make Hans. Probably made him using one of those kids she murdered.

Perhaps it's responding to the cleaver. Or maybe it's happy we killed the bitch.


He moves on past the shade, leaving it be for now. His concern at the moment was in blood. He can't stop thinking back those remains in the jars - those horrifically mutilated children...

Oh how they'll bleed.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: killa_robot on October 05, 2016, 04:54:18 pm
"A priest seeing something so terrible done to something so innocent reacting poorly isn't unexpected," Emend replies, following Saint through the portal. "As long as he doesn't endanger anyone I don't see anything wrong with it."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Not Aman on October 05, 2016, 06:58:20 pm
Robor nods.
"It's weird, but we don't have time to worry about that now. We need to find that deed no?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Forge on October 05, 2016, 08:06:57 pm
Beats heads through with Robor "We'll keep an eye on him, though, Jack deserves what he'll get."

He offers to trade the sword for his cestus, may as well have the correct weapons for the fight
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 06, 2016, 01:24:16 pm
"It's weird, but we don't have time to worry about that now. We need to find that deed no?"

"We may have to keep Saint alive first," Sarapheen replies with a frown, changing her appearance to her 'secretary look' and hurrying down the stairs after the Saint (Killer).
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Not Aman on October 06, 2016, 07:46:51 pm
Robor nods. Fighting barehanded lacks in dignity. He removes the cestus and hand it to himself.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 07, 2016, 01:22:35 pm
The naked man running through the house with a giant cleaver - and surrounded in hornets - causes no small stir among those manning the cameras (the greeter and the tech op).

"Shit!" The leader yells, seeing Saint (Killer) approaching their position; "Get the asset to the nest! Alert the cavalry!"

"Got one in the sitting room, coming toward gallery! Montero - how the fark he get past you?!?"

"Stay frosty, there could be more!"

The tech op takes Jack Eaton Jr. (and the manservant) and hurries out of the Pub towards the Billiard Room.

Unfortunately, the cameras caught sight of the Saint (Killer) the moment he stepped out of the Library, so the element of surprise is somewhat diminished, by the distance he still has to travel to get to the target.

As this goes on, Sarapheen, Beats, and Robor head down the wooden stairs out of the Attic and into the Library. The strange shadow silhouette continues to hold the velvet rope for them (allowing clear passage). Robor recognizes the thing as some kind of security spirit - though it doesn't appear to be doing a very good job at the moment.

An obnoxiously loud security siren then goes off - sounding like a car alarm at 150 decibels.

Now alone in the Attic Storage space above, Emend ignores the racket and begins searching around for any sign or clue as to where someone might hide a deed. He notes that the east wing of the castle's attic space is closed off by a sturdy-looking oak door with a brass handle.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on October 07, 2016, 01:47:30 pm
Hmm, perhaps I should have taken a more roundabout way through the overlook. Oh well, no matter, now they'll get to look their death in the eye before it comes for them.

He lets loose the hornets, sending them after the guard leader he believes is in the drawing room, while continuing with his planned course after Eaton.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: killa_robot on October 07, 2016, 02:56:28 pm
Emend looks in the direction the rest of the group ran off in. The alarm being sounded means they've been discovered. While Jack still had to die, they also still needed that deed in order to reclaim the castle. A task that would become much harder after this break-in.

"Reclaiming this castle is a larger blow to them than killing their pawn," Emend says to himself, reasoning this will be the most impactful course of action. Seeing the door as the most likely spot, he'll head over to it. Once there, he'll try to check if the door is enchanted with any magic before attempting to open it (he'll cast Supernal Vision on himself if need be).
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Not Aman on October 07, 2016, 02:58:33 pm
"Shit. That's not good. Saint must have tripped up the alarms." Robor says.

"We need to avoid the guards. Beats, can you see where they are heading to?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Forge on October 07, 2016, 03:24:09 pm
"Not sure but I'll find out."

He casts a spacial map so he can track everyone nearby and call out positions to his allies, he does this while running down the hall to try and get to the stairs to the helipad quickly.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 08, 2016, 09:27:00 am
The Talon Securities team leader steps out of the Drawing Room into the Gallery and aims his FN PS90 at the Saint (Killer).

"STOP! ON THE GROUND NOW!!!" he yells, standing his ground - wondering what the deal is with all the hornets.

Clearly not stopping, the Saint sprints forward with enhanced speed - cleaver ready to open the man's neck!

A burst of fire spits from the team leader's tactical weapon, before Saint (Killer) can close the distance. Sarapheen's spell helps a few to graze off his sides - leaving deep furrows along his ribs - but two punch through, blasting all the air out of his now ruptured left lung!

Adrenalin spurs him onward and the Saint (Killer) swings his blade - watching the man parry it with his firearm. Not to be denied however, the cleaver finds the team leader's hand in the process, and chops off his pinky and ring fingers!

"FARK!" he yells at the loss of his minor appendages - then "FARK! WHAT THE FARK!!! AAAAG!!!" as the stinging hornets dive in on him and begin pumping bullet ant venom into his skin!

As this goes on, the grunt out on the Porch Overlook hurries into the Sitting Room - immediately spotting Sarapheen and the two disciples in the library. He stops in the opening and turns his weapon on Robor (in Beat's body) - "ON THE GROUND NOW!!!"

Sarapheen flicks her nearly invisible crystal prism at the man like a wand, opening her portal under his feet. He falls through with a surprised gasp and the portal closes.

"Sent him to an old sawmill I know of, in Michigan," Sarapheen says, "It's pretty remote and no cell phone signal there either."

With the threat of being shot temporarily abated, Beats tries to cast Spatial Map and finds that he has to yell at the top of his lungs to get any advantage from adding words of power, over the much louder alarm still going off.

Even so, the spell is successful and Beats 'sees' the Saint and team leader engaged in the Gallery down at the doors to the Drawing Room.

He also sees that the grunt from the Porch has now moved into the Kitchen with the chef; while the one in the Foyer has entered the Hall; and the one in the Armory is running up the stairs into the Pub above.

Beats also tracks Jack Eaton Jr. with his manservant and the tech op, as they climb the spiral stairs in the Billiard Room to the Tower overlook with the Sniper above.

Emend meanwhile, casts Supernal Vision and scrutinizes the door and surrounding area - seeing that a Ward and Ban blocked remote viewing and entry beyond the door.

Nothing was on the door itself, which meant that except for a simple lock in the knob, nothing prevented anyone from actually opening it to see what was on the other side.

The Ban meanwhile, appeared to be connected in some manner to the clothing that a person wore - meaning one probably had to be wearing the right thing to enter through the ward.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on October 08, 2016, 10:18:43 am
Killer laughs madly, unmindful of the pain, and continues swinging with wild abandon.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Forge on October 08, 2016, 01:03:41 pm
Beats wants the crystal wand if that's the thing doing the instant portals then has an idea.

"Sarapheen, can you open a portal for me behind da sniper on da roof?" As he says this he pulls on his gas mask and readies a gas grenade.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 08, 2016, 02:32:43 pm
"Yes," she replies, "but we should all go."

"Robor, get your mask on."

"I'll change my appearance again, so they can't use it against me later," she then explains, assuming Mama Kark's face and hair.

It's a bit mismatched (and somewhat disturbing), when coupled with her pert figure and fancy corporate attire.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Forge on October 08, 2016, 06:10:48 pm
"Gotcha." He replies "Just give me a couple o secs to go off first" He adds with a grin

He plans to move through the portal the moment it opens and body blow the sniper, casting evil eye on him right before contact.

He keeps the grenade ready in his off-hand
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Not Aman on October 09, 2016, 10:59:57 am
Robor nods, putting on his gas mask.

"What is Saint doing? Is he okay?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 09, 2016, 01:06:03 pm
"Aside from being completely reckless," Sarapheen comments, "I think he is herding Jack right where we will be."

"Just hope he doesn't get himself killed."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: killa_robot on October 10, 2016, 12:26:30 pm
Deciding that looking in the room would have to do, Emend uses Telekinesis to break the lock off.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 13, 2016, 11:36:02 am
In the Gallery with the Saint (Killer) - and now swarming with the most unpleasant hornets in the history of forever - the Talon Securities team leader panics and empties the remaining twenty bullets of his clip into the Saint's chest!

Headless of the danger, the naked priest walks right into the long burst.

Not even Sarapheen's spell is enough to stand up to the devastating assault - as the Saint's chest is turned to hamburger!

Several major arteries are hit and his heart stops momentarily from the shock.

Blacking out, the Killer's psyche is thrust back into the prison of the Saint's mind - allowing his good and pious side once more to the fore.

Unfortunately, the Saint is still dying and remains unconscious, bleeding out on the fancy carpet.

The team leader continues to yell and curse at the incredibly painful stings and dives into the master bedroom and closes it off, in an attempt to escape the hornets' terrible wrath.

The gambit frees him from only a third of the swarm - who simply fly down to the bottom of the double French doors, to crawl in under them.

The man's cursing yells quickly turn into horrifying shrieks.

"The Saint has gone down!" Sarapheen remarks to Robot and Beats in the Library - Beats able to 'see' it with his spatial map.

"The tower will have to wait a minute," she says, pointing to the air over Beats' head - "I'll need you to catch him. Ready?"

Not waiting for the reply, the angel once again flicks her crystal prism - causing a portal to open a few inches above Beats' head.

Immediately, the Saint's near-lifeless body drops out of it and into Beats' waiting arms.

"Set him there on the couch," Sarapheen directs; "the damage looks too extensive for my magic to heal, but I may be able to stop the bleeding and stabilize him."

Robot and Beats watch, as Sarapheen lays hands on the Saint and allows her healing magic to flow through him.

After a few moments, the flesh has closed itself into a horrific mass of scar-tissue, covering the priest's chest - but at least he stops leaking all over the place.

Feeling like he has a dozen ice picks in his sternum, the Saint slowly comes to (the Killer gone) - remembering himself getting freaked out by what he saw in the boxes and canopic jars back in the vault, but unable to remember anything following that.

He must have blacked out - but how did he get here and why is he in so much pain? Something awful must have happened.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 13, 2016, 11:36:07 am
As all this goes on, Emend casts Telekinesis and attempts to pull the doorknob off the door in the attic.

Bracing a foot on the door and physically pulling for all he's worth (combined with the force of the spell), is enough to rip the knob right off!

Emend goes flying across the floor and lands on his back with a heavy thump.

With the knob removed, it is a simple matter for Emend to turn open the latching mechanism with his handy switchblade.

Pushing the door open, Emend feels something invisible snag his arm.

It takes only a moment for him to figure it out, but the ban appears to be blocking his clothing (not himself) from entering the warded area.

Mama Mark's crazy ban must be 'ban all clothing except my own'.

The door meanwhile, continues to swing open, until a strange laboratory of some kind is revealed on the other side.

Emend sees a number of work benches, similar to the one down in the vault, only these are covered in an assortment of dark or plain colored fabrics and sewing paraphernalia.

What catches Emend's attention however, is a medium-sized dog kennel cage, covered with a sheet, on top of the far bench by another oak door with a brass knob.

Strange braided strands of knotted fabric have been arranged in unusual patterns around the cage, while a rather large diamond hangs directly over it - suspended from a silver wire, hanging off an iron nail in the low attic ceiling.

Something inside the cage snuffles around and then whines, sounding a lot like the cry of a bear cub looking for its mother.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: killa_robot on October 13, 2016, 01:35:30 pm
"I'm glad no one is around right now," Emend thinks to himself, as he removes his clothes and enters the room. Once inside he'll begin to search for the will again, ignoring the cage for now.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 13, 2016, 01:44:26 pm
"I healed what I could," Sarapheen says to Saint in the Library, "but you are really messed up."

"Can you make it back to the attic with Emend, while we pop onto the tower after Jack?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Forge on October 13, 2016, 05:01:33 pm
Beats looks initially worried but knows enough life magic to realize the Saints life is no longer in danger once the healing is over.

"We need to move quickly though, need to catch them by surprise." He says once the healing is done. He still plans to move through the portal immediately but preps one of the grenades so that he can drop/throw it the second he passes through the portal. He also pockets a stun gun ready to use.

"Need this nade going off up da moment I get through or I'm Farked." He mentions aloud, planning on using evil eye from his gauntlets on whoever reacts against him first.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: LadyZerka on October 14, 2016, 03:52:36 pm
"I'm glad no one is around right now," Emend thinks to himself, as he removes his clothes and enters the room. Once inside he'll begin to search for the will again, ignoring the cage for now.


"Snuffle snuffle."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Not Aman on October 14, 2016, 04:34:15 pm
Robor grips the hilt of his blade. The ceo is gonna get it, one way or another.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on October 14, 2016, 06:43:52 pm
What the hell was that?

What's this blood?

Why does it hurt so much? Lord what's happened?


Saint opens his mouth to answer Sarapheen but nothing comes out. He just nods then, looking both embarrassed and incredibly disoriented.

The thought then occurs to him - Where did my swarm go?

He magically reaches out to his swarm, commanding it to come back to him.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 15, 2016, 10:58:21 am
The Saint can still feel a connection to the swarm, though he doesn't know where they are, and has no way of communicating his will to them from here, without more knowledge of the space arcanum.

Sarapheen opens another portal - this time to the tower overlook - where Jack Eaton Jr., his manservant, and the tech op have now joined the sniper to await egress.

Something about the location of the exit creates a surge of paradox with the casting, clawing the angel's mind momentarily with deranged flashes of thought. Sarapheen grits her teeth and self-purges the paradox - feeling like someone just slugged her in the gut three or four times.

"Chopper in five minutes," The tech op says, consulting his tablet. "Some weird shit happening on the cameras - people disappearing in flashes of light... Got to be some sort of trick - - - HOLY MOTHER OF... THERE IT IS!!!"

The tech op gasps in disbelief at the sudden appearance of Sarapheen's portal behind Jack and the sniper. The rest are shocked when Beats tosses a teargas grenade into the midst of them and lunges for Jack.

The grenade goes off, spewing acrid white smoke into the air and obscuring vision - choking and gaging those without a mask.

Beats is stunned however, when a huge mastiff hound slams him off-course (from out of nowhere). The beast, every inch of six feet tall, is a black and red brindle colored thing with a neck and chest as thick as a bull! From the impact, and how far it threw Beats back, it has to weigh at least four hundred pounds.

Great strands of ichorous drool hang from its over-sized jowls and it snarls with sharp black teeth bared. Dried blood mats the fur around its mouth and talon-hooked paws. Muscles flex and tense over its entire body, which has a sulfurous odor and waters the eyes, almost as much as the tear gas now filling the tower overlook.

With the giant mastiff on Beats, Robor is able to maneuver past, to bring his sword down on Jack Eaton Jr. - as the tech op yells - "FREEZE! FBI!"

Not hesitating, Robor pulls the blade down hard! Slashing Jack's face open - deep into his sinus cavities - and lacerating his neck and chest in the process.

The man screams. It is a sound Robor will not soon forget - punctuated by the feel of the man's wet blood spattering all over Robor in the process.

Staggered and pouring blood, Jack tries to flee, stumbling toward the spiral stairs that he had just come up.

Sarapheen tries to open another portal under the sniper's feet, but the spell collapses in on itself and invokes an anomaly.

"We got a sleeper!" she alerts, pointing at the tech op, while trying to figure out what horrible effect she just pulled into the world from the Shadow.

Already freaking out, the tech op interprets Sarapheen's simple motion as a threat to his well being, and fires his .45 caliber sidearm. The bullet bounces off the angel's chest, leaving nary a smudge in her secretarial attire.

"Th... that's impossible..." the tech op stammers.

"Aw nuts," Sarapheen replies, feeling the man's disbelief begin to unravel her Organic Resilience spell.

"THREE ON THE NEST!" The sniper yells into his comms, shrugging off the teargas (as best he can) and firing his FN FNAR 308 rifle at Robor.

The shot rings out loud - but misses - passing through Robor's sleeve and chipping the tower's stone crenellations, as the bullet slams into them.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 15, 2016, 10:58:26 am
With everyone gone, the Saint realizes that he doesn't know how to get to the attic from here. He doesn't remember even being there.

Scanning the library, he sees the still open door in the bookshelves with a set of wooden stairs going up beyond.

Bingo.

Approaching the stairs, the Saint sees a red velvet rope stretched across, blocking the way up. Something moves from the shadows - the black silhouette of a large doorman - like some freaky animated paper cutout. It stands in the way, behind the rope, with arms folded and speaks with an eerie nebulous voice - "You're not on the list."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 15, 2016, 10:58:33 am
Looking around in the attic laboratory, Emend finds nothing that looks like a deed.

As he roots around, ignoring the sheet-covered cage, whatever is inside continues to make noise and begins scratching at the bars. Emend can see the sheet moving where it paws through the gaps.

Then a child's voice is heard, calling through the locked oak door at the far end of the laboratory - a little girl, asking - "Hello? Mama? Are you there? Can I come out and play now?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Forge on October 15, 2016, 11:44:42 am
Beats knew that a sleeper was bad new and had to be dealt with. He wants to pull out the stun gun to try to knock the Sleeper out with it, being attacked by a demon dog came first though.

"Farking Demon dog!" He shouts as he tries to keep the thing off him by punching it in the face using 'knife punch' rote to make the damage more lethal.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: killa_robot on October 15, 2016, 01:31:55 pm
Emend stops and looks at the door for a minute. If this is another one of those golems made by he witch, he'll have to proceed carefully. Emend walks over to the door and attempts to open it, using his Emotional Urging ring to make sure the being on the other side of the door is calm and trusting of him if he can in fact open it. If he can't, he'll first use the same spell he used on the previous door to tear it off (hopefully not flying backwards in the process this time).
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 16, 2016, 06:49:08 pm
"Focus on the thrall!" Sarapheen directs Robor and Beats.

"Don't let up! If we take him out, the guardian fiend should be released from its bond to him!"

'God, I hope so! This is getting hairy!' Sarapheen worries to herself.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on October 16, 2016, 07:17:48 pm
Saint hesitates, then holds the cleaver up to the shadow - not in a threatening manner, he just displays it.

Sentient shadows. Spirit and Death, bound together. He likely won't let me pass, but...

"The one who wrote the list is dead."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Forge on October 16, 2016, 07:34:34 pm
Hearing the cry Beat changes his action and uses the stun gun to shoot at Jack, using evil eye on him as he does.

Gonna get bitten here... he thinks as he fires.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 18, 2016, 12:09:41 pm
The huge mastiff snaps at Beats' neck - its jaws slamming closed with a thunderous crack! Beats turns away from the thing's snapping maw quick enough to avoid losing his head - but the thing's nasty drool splatters his skin and burns furrows into it with an evil hiss!

'Acid!' Beats realizes, hoping Sarapheen is right about its bond to Jack.

Sarapheen meanwhile, has removed her belt and set a silver bearing into it. Giving it a swing around her head reveals it to be a sling - and the 'stone' flies true - striking Jack Eaton Jr. in the back of the head!

The man is knocked unconscious and begins to tumble forward - towards the spiral staircase - but Robor reaches out to grab him and holds him back.

Robor, then running his sword through Jack's heart, ensures the man isn't going to wake up and severs the Guardian Fiend's bond to him with Jack's death.

As this goes on, the sniper takes better aim at the man slicing up his charge and fires - the bullet punching through Robor's torso, just above the kidney! Blood sprays out both front and rear, as the shot passes completely  through - leaving Robor with an unpleasant fiery burning sensation in his back and side.

With Jack no longer a target, Beats uses his stun-gun on the one doing the most damage to his friends, moving forward and pressing the electrodes into the sniper's throat.

The weapon clicks and snaps loudly, causing the man's muscles to contract and spasm involuntarily.

The tech op see this through the smoke, and fires his .45 at Beats, but can't get a good shot due to the effects of the gas.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 18, 2016, 12:09:48 pm
"Get the body!" Sarapheen yells, focusing her Mana to mitigate the paradox being drawn by the tech op sleeper. She then flicks her magic prism again, opening a portal to the attic storage space.

The huge mastiff snorts at the death of Jack and then watches impassively, as the angel opens a portal for the group to escape into.

Robor drags Jack's body through, followed by Beats, and then Sarapheen.

The sniper, no longer being tased, swings his rifle around at the gate, but the shot fires through thin air - as the portal vanishes right before he pulls the trigger.

"WHAT THE FARK WAS THAT?!? WHAT THE FARK?!?" the tech op yells hysterically.

"WE LOST THE ASSET!" The sniper calls into his comms.

A grunt rushes up the spiral stairs onto the tower overlook from below - "Shit, what's going on up here?"

Nobody seems to notice the guardian fiend wander into the teargas and not come out - even as the gas slowly dissipates away in the open air.

---

Beats and Robor Continue in 'The Hell Are We?' (http://www.bountyheadbebop.com/forum/index.php?topic=2165.0)
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 18, 2016, 12:09:56 pm
Saint hesitates, then holds the cleaver up to the shadow - not in a threatening manner, he just displays it.

Sentient shadows. Spirit and Death, bound together. He likely won't let me pass, but...

"The one who wrote the list is dead."

"Not my problem," the deep baritone voice replies apathetically. "If you ain't on the list, then you ain't getting in."

From the shade's mannerisms and the way it speaks, the Saint suspects that (like many bouncers) the doorman's wits may take a back seat to its physical prowess.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 18, 2016, 12:10:03 pm
Emend stops and looks at the door for a minute. If this is another one of those golems made by he witch, he'll have to proceed carefully. Emend walks over to the door and attempts to open it, using his Emotional Urging ring to make sure the being on the other side of the door is calm and trusting of him if he can in fact open it. If he can't, he'll first use the same spell he used on the previous door to tear it off (hopefully not flying backwards in the process this time).

The doorknob proves too secure, to simply rip off unassisted with magic, so Emend focuses his will once again, and uses telekinesis to combine both physical and mental efforts.

It works, but something goes wonky with the casting, and Emend feels a strange shock go up both forearms, as the knob pops off the door. Whatever it was, it leaves his arms feeling prickly, like when they fall asleep and are just getting circulation back into them.

After a few moments, the sensation goes away - and Emend opens the latching mechanism with his switchblade.

Beyond the door is a small room, made even smaller by the sloping attic ceiling. It is decorated like a child's nursery, with a small frilly bed, mirrored dresser, short round tea table, and matching chairs.

Propped up on the bed is a large child-sized doll, with long blond hair, wearing a white dress, black buckle shoes, and pink sash tied in a bow. It stares at Emend with glassy blue eyes and invokes a sense of unease - even revulsion - in the way it looks so realistic and fake all at the same time.

Something about the doll's face reminds Emend of the AMBER Alert he had seen a few weeks ago, about a girl abducted from the Fairfax area. The doll's face is too round - and perfectly doll-like - to be the same girl, but the resemblance is uncanny.

With his Scales of Thought and Supernal Vision going, Emend could tell that the doll had a sentient mind - in fact, it might be reading his mind in some fashion right now apparently - and that she was a golem, imbued by Mama Kark, much like Hans had been - only she somehow felt magically 'more real' than Hans had.

The doll's mouth then moves, almost puppet like - "You are naked..." it states accusingly, in the little girl's voice that Emend had heard before.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: killa_robot on October 18, 2016, 06:48:00 pm
Emend takes a quick look down and confirms he is in fact still naked.

"... That's right," Emend replies, looking for something to cover himself up with. In the meantime, he'll cast Aura Perception to confirm what is going on with the girl (which mixed with Supernal Vision should also tell him her nature).

"My names Emend. What, may I ask, are you doing locked in this room?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 18, 2016, 07:16:09 pm
There are entire bolts of fabric among Mama Kark's sewing paraphernalia, which Emend commandeers to fashion a makeshift toga.

With that sorted, he scrutinizes the living doll closely, and sees an empty void where her aura should be - indicating that she has no soul of her own. However, there is a small self-contained aura inside her chest, that shows mottled, shifting colors, flickering between more solid patterns of white and light green.

If Emend remembers his aura studies, it means the doll itself is not really alive, but whatever that is, in her chest, is (or was) alive at some point. The colors indicate an innocent, who is currently confused and distrustful.

At his question, the doll answers back, "I am waiting for Mama Kark to play with me. She promised to give me a present when she gets back. Have you seen Mama Kark?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: LadyZerka on October 18, 2016, 08:08:49 pm
Meanwhile, the thing in the cage continues to whine and try to get Emend's attention. Hint hint.  ;)
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on October 18, 2016, 09:16:32 pm
"Not my problem," the deep baritone voice replies apathetically. "If you ain't on the list, then you ain't getting in."

From the shade's mannerisms and the way it speaks, the Saint suspects that (like many bouncers) the doorman's wits may take a back seat to its physical prowess.

Saint shrugs then, and sits down, his back against the wall besides the door. Wasn't as if he could do much himself at the moment, and he didn't want to go outside - he might be seen by the cameras.

"Funny then, that you were fine with me being inside a few minutes ago. Or with my friend being in there right now. Say, i'm one of the ones that killed Mama Kark, you think that gives me the right to change what's on that list?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 18, 2016, 10:29:16 pm
"You can't just write your own name on the list and expect to get in," the spirit scoffs at the Saint's suggestion.

"It doesn't matter who leaves - only who gets in. And you're either on the list or you're not."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on October 18, 2016, 10:32:41 pm
"How do you know what names are on the list?" Saint asks.

"I don't see any paper on you."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 18, 2016, 10:38:30 pm
"Trust me buddy, I have seen the list and you ain't on it."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: killa_robot on October 18, 2016, 10:53:23 pm
There are entire bolts of fabric among Mama Kark's sewing paraphernalia, which Emend commandeers to fashion a makeshift toga.

With that sorted, he scrutinizes the living doll closely, and sees an empty void where her aura should be - indicating that she has no soul of her own. However, there is a small self-contained aura inside her chest, that shows mottled, shifting colors, flickering between more solid patterns of white and light green.

If Emend remembers his aura studies, it means the doll itself is not really alive, but whatever that is, in her chest, is (or was) alive at some point. The colors indicate an innocent, who is currently confused and distrustful.

At his question, the doll answers back, "I am waiting for Mama Kark to play with me. She promised to give me a present when she gets back. Have you seen Mama Kark?"

"I actually did see her earlier," Emend replies. "Now if you'll excuse me for a moment," he adds, attempting to use his magical item to calm the girl down for now. Once he does that, he'll walk over to the cage, and after making sure there's no magical trap on it with his mage sights, he'll take off the cloth to see what's been making all that dang racket.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on October 19, 2016, 09:33:58 am
Saint thinks for a seconds then cancels his body control spell.

He proceeds to hold his cross to his heart and begins praying, casting his self-healing spell while speaking words of power and spending a willpower point, steeling himself against the potential coming wave of paradox.

After completing the spell, he continues talking to the shade; "So what's your price? Never met a bouncer who couldn't be bribed."

After he says this he also casts his spatial map spell, hoping to find his hornets with it, so that he could call them back to him.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 19, 2016, 11:46:02 am
It proves very difficult for the Saint to heal any of the scar tissue and internal damage with his spell - but the distracting pain has been reduced to a more bearable level - meaning it did work to a small degree.

Casting Spacial Map, reveals the Saint's hornet swarm in the master bedroom, attacking someone on the floor there - either unconscious or dead.

The Saint also 'sees' the sniper and tech op on the tower overlook with Jack's manservant, launching two camera drones into the air.

As this goes on, a security grunt is making a sweep of the second floor, currently in the Pub, while two more do the same on the first floor and basement - in the garage and octagon room respectively.

The chef is still in the kitchen, and the Saint notes that he cannot see any of the rest of his team - though they are probably all in one of the warded areas that he cannot perceive into.

The doorman meanwhile, considers the Saint's query.

"You know, I'm not supposed to take bribes," he begins, chewing on his words as he goes, "but... with Mama Kark being gone... who would really know?"

He then looks around, as if checking to see who might be watching, then offers, leaning in to whisper - "Look, I can get you in places. Grant you access, you know? In exchange for helping you to have an 'air of belonging', you just need to focus a little more on the 'you'."

The shade points both fingers at the Saint and a broad cutout smile appears in its 'face'.

"Put yourself first. No big deal. What do you say?"

A pang of guilt washes over the Saint at the spirits words. Clearly, it was trying to tempt him with some kind of demonic pact. Power in exchange for his empathy towards others.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 19, 2016, 12:02:31 pm
"I actually did see her earlier," Emend replies. "Now if you'll excuse me for a moment," he adds, attempting to use his magical item to calm the girl down for now. Once he does that, he'll walk over to the cage, and after making sure there's no magical trap on it with his mage sights, he'll take off the cloth to see what's been making all that dang racket.

"These are not my feelings," the doll states flately, as Emend uses Emotional Urging on her - "But I guess they will do."

She then follows Emend out of her room to watch him pull the sheet off the kennel-cage.

Inside, Emend and Doll see a small black bear cub with a rusty iron collar pad-locked around its neck. It stands up at the 'unveiling' and begins to whine - pointing at the collar with its claws.

"My present!" Doll exclaims happily, "Oh I love it! Can you take it out now, so I can play with it?"

With his mage sight, Emend can tell that it is no ordinary bear cub. It appears to be some kind of animal/spirit hybrid and the magical collar around its neck is binding it in some way.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on October 19, 2016, 12:18:01 pm
Saint hesitates, "I'll have to think about it. We've got time after all, don't we?"

Who is that? What the hell happened out there?

Saint tries to direct the swarm out towards the sniper. If those drones managed to get to him... Things weren't going to be pretty.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 19, 2016, 02:32:14 pm
The swarm is still unresponsive.

The thought crosses the Saint's mind, that he must need to be seen by the swarm in order to control or instruct it. With the grunt moving through the pub into the drawing room, there's no way the Saint can make it to the master bedroom before him - especially without being seen.

It should be interesting however, to see how the grunt reacts when he finds the swarm.

"Time... right," the shade answers the Saint.

It remains quiet for a few moments, as if thinking, then adds, "With Mama Kark gone, I'm going to be out of a job soon. I would hate for such talents, as my own, to go to waste."

"What say you hook me up with a position afterwards? You know, some place to guard and keep the riff-raff out (no offense to your present circumstance)."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: killa_robot on October 19, 2016, 02:48:47 pm
Emend attempts to ignore the creepiness of the doll while deciding what to do next.

"Bears normally aren't supposed to be played with. Are you sure this is the present you were supposed to get?" He asks, as he casts read aura to find the nature of the bear out. He'll also glance around the room to see if he can see the key for the collar.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on October 19, 2016, 03:17:20 pm
A bit frustrated, Saint relinquishes his control over the swarm - but not the transfered features. Hopefully the naturally aggressive Hornets would turn their attention towards the grunt, drawing the focus of the rest of the security team.

The thought occurs to Saint that such a guardian could be used to help protect Faith, if it came to it. Or, at the very least, he could continue to protect this castle.

"I have a few ideas. How long till your old contract expires, do you think?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 19, 2016, 05:38:54 pm
"I'm here, until the place changes hands," the doorman replies with a shrug.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on October 19, 2016, 05:42:39 pm
Saint puts on his gas mask and readies a tear gas grenade. He starts looking around the room for somewhere he could hide, or a corner where he could manipulate the shadows into making more discreet.

"Well, my friend up there is searching for the deed to the place right now. I don't suppose you'll be freed once he finds it?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 19, 2016, 05:48:22 pm
"Bears normally aren't supposed to be played with. Are you sure this is the present you were supposed to get?"

"Oh yes!" Doll replies with excitement, "Let him out!"

Looking around, Emend does not see any keys.

It occurs to him that Mama Kark probably still has them on her body, down in the basement, as no one bothered to search her after...

'ACK!' Emend immediately halts his train of thought - remembering that Doll has an unexplained Mind connection of some kind to him.

For her part, Doll doesn't seem to notice the stray thoughts, and remains enthralled about the bear.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 19, 2016, 05:54:58 pm
Saint puts on his gas mask and readies a tear gas grenade. He starts looking around the room for somewhere he could hide, or a corner where he could manipulate the shadows into making more discreet.

"Well, my friend up there is searching for the deed to the place right now. I don't suppose you'll be freed once he finds it?"

With his Spacial Map going, the Saint can simply hide behind the large couches in the library and creep around them, as the grunt walks through, to remain hidden. And that's if any even bother to come in here, once they find the hornets.

He should probably close the secret door in the bookcase however, so as not to draw their attention with it.

"No," the spirit answers from the staircase, "I'm always the last to leave, once the rest have closed up shop."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on October 19, 2016, 06:02:42 pm
A good idea. Though I wonder what would happen if I just left the bookcase open and the guards tried to go through? Would the shade stop them? Perhaps they could take care of it for me? Though then I'd have bigger problems to deal with... and the shade might kill them. No, better to leave it closed.

"So what are your working conditions? I suppose you have certain standards, a pay and all that?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 19, 2016, 06:39:11 pm
"The job is its own reward," the spirit replies, "I mean, I'm the one who gets to enforce the list."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on October 19, 2016, 06:59:30 pm
"Huh. What are you anyway? I thought you were just a spirit given substance by some shadows Kark conjured, but i'm starting to get the feeling you're something else."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 19, 2016, 07:16:24 pm
"What? No man," the spirit answers, "Mama Kark didn't create me."

"I used to work a very discriminating little establishment down in Georgetown, long before I started working here."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on October 19, 2016, 07:20:02 pm
"Were you human? Alive?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: LadyZerka on October 19, 2016, 07:48:24 pm
"Oh yes!" Doll replies with excitement, "Let him out!"

The little bear looks at the doll with terror in its eyes. It then reaches out of the cage and claws the letters "S.O.S." into the tabletop.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: killa_robot on October 20, 2016, 04:09:54 pm
"Oh yes!" Doll replies with excitement, "Let him out!"

"Alright, but let me see it for a minute first," Emend replies, opening the cage. He'll then reach into it, and attempt to use telekinesis to break the collar off.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 20, 2016, 06:53:38 pm
Emend successfully casts his spell, without drawing down any paradox, but the lock on the collar does not budge.

He does however, notice that the cage door can be unlocked from the outside - simply by sliding a latching bar that cannot be reached by the bear cub from the inside.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: killa_robot on October 20, 2016, 07:28:51 pm
Concluding that the only way to unlock the collar will be with the key that's well beyond his grasp, Emend opens the door to the cage so the girl can play with the bear cub for now.

"There you go. Now if you'll excuse me I'm looking for something," Emend says, heading back into the doll room to look for the deed to the castle.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 20, 2016, 09:34:28 pm
Doll squeals with excitement and hurries over to take the bear cub out of the cage. She holds it in her arms as if it were a baby doll.

UsdiYona (the bear cub) notices how strong the false girl's grip is. She could probably get out of Doll's arms if she struggled, but then what? Something tells her that she doesn't want to make Doll mad however. Whatever happens though, she can't let the Awakened man leave her alone with the creepy thing.

Besides, he probably has lots and lots of mouth wateringly delicious human food back in his man den. No way she's going to pass up on that!

Just need to get rid of this stupid collar!

"What should we name him?" Doll asks Emend, rocking the small bear in her arms.

Emend meanwhile, finds a section of loose floorboards in the lower corner of Doll's room, under the foot of her frilly little bed.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 20, 2016, 09:45:08 pm
"Were you human? Alive?"

"I don't know," the shade answers, "I became alive at some point though."

By this time, the grunt sweeping the second floor moves from the drawing room and into the master bedroom, where he encounters Saint's hornet swarm.

"AHHG! WHAT? AAAHHGH!"

The Saint can 'see' them attacking with his spacial map, but they do not follow after the grunt, when he flees the room and shuts the door behind him.

"KILLER FREAKIN HORNETS!" He yells into his comms.

"What?!?" comes back a reply.

The grunt takes a second to calm himself down, before answering back.

"They got Maverick! I think he's dead! A whole swarm of them. Shit these stings farking hurt like a son of a bitch!"

"Any sign of the intruder or asset?" the other voice asks.

"Negative. Continuing the sweep," the grunt replies, rubbing the nasty red welts on his forearms and the side of his neck. "GAWD DAMN THAT SMARTS!!!"

He then heads into Bedroom 2 for a quick look.

Next stop, the Sitting Room and Library.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on October 20, 2016, 09:54:21 pm
"On second thought, we'll have to continue this conversation later, it would seem that I will very shortly have company."

Saint closes the hidden door and prepares himself for the terrifyingly tense ordeal that will be maneuvering himself around the room so that the guard doesn't see him. He keeps an eye out for any plant-life in the room that he could use to his advantage if he is seen.

Lord, please don't make me hurt this man. I still don't know... I don't understand what i've done.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: killa_robot on October 20, 2016, 11:06:17 pm
"How about Mr.Snugglefluff?" Emend suggests, attempting to pull up some of the loose boards.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: LadyZerka on October 21, 2016, 08:18:10 am
'Mr. Snugglefluff'?!?' the bear cub thinks in disgust, 'Who said I was a 'mr.'? Don't they know basic anatomy?'

The bear makes gaging motions with a claw in its mouth.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 21, 2016, 10:17:05 am
"I don't think he likes that," Doll remarks at the suggestion; then ask the cub "what about 'Beary'?"

Emend meanwhile, moves the end of the bed, to pry up the floorboards with his knife.

Sure enough, the original deed is under there, rolled up like a scroll, secured with an elastic band, and covered in dust.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 21, 2016, 10:19:25 am
Saint closes the hidden door and prepares himself for the terrifyingly tense ordeal that will be maneuvering himself around the room so that the guard doesn't see him.

The Saint makes a mental note of the large rubber tree plant in the sitting room, and then ducks down behind the couch.

When the grunt walks in, he doesn't even circle the couch - just making a cursory glance around and then leaving to continue his sweep down the hall.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on October 21, 2016, 10:57:21 am
Huh, that was easy

Saint waits for the guard to get a comfortable distance away before going over and re-opening the secret door.

"Seems the guard was uninterested in finding me at the moment. Hey, can you see anything past this staircase? Something like the spatial map effect I have active right now?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: killa_robot on October 21, 2016, 11:06:02 am
Naturally, Emend reaches down and retrieves the deed. It was the reason he split up from the others after all. He then ponders over what to do about the doll girl and the bear. Something told him that fighting the girl wasn't a wise decision right now. Something also told him he shouldn't make a big scene about leaving.

With that in mind, Emend simply pockets the deed and heads towards the stairs. He'll likely have to make himself invisible soon, but for now he should be fine.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: LadyZerka on October 21, 2016, 12:13:47 pm
UsdiYona sees the man leaving. Hey! You can't leave me here alone with this thing!

She tries to wriggle free of Doll's grasp, so she can go run after the boneheaded dolt.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 21, 2016, 12:51:59 pm
To her utter dismay, the bear cub tries to bolt out of Doll's arms.

"NO! BAD BEAR!" she scolds, her face tightening with anger, as her grip suddenly becomes inhumanly strong.

In the false child's vice-like grip, UsdiYona can feel all the air being crushed out of her lungs - as her ribcage threatens to crack under the pressure!

Twisting enough to get her rear feet against Doll's chest, the bear cub pushes itself away with all its might - abruptly popping free, out over Doll's arms.

Hitting the floor, UsdiYona scurries after the Awakened man as fast as she can.

"BEARY!" the fabricated girl cries, chasing after the fleeing critter.

UsdiYona bolts out of the attic laboratory and down the wooden stairs - crashing into the back of Emend's legs in her flight - sending them both flying through the red velvet rope and into a heap at the bottom of the stairs.

"Hey! Watch where you're going!" the black silhouette of a doorman yells, bending down to retrieve the velvet rope and corresponding brass stands.

After setting them back up across the stairs, the black shade 'dusts' itself off, and then nods at Emend and the Saint (who just happens to be standing at the bottom of the stairs).

"Have a nice evening gentlemen," it says (having not answered Saint's last question), then flattens itself back into the shadows to disappear completely.

Upstairs, the terrible shrieks of a very angry little girl can be heard, even above the blaring security alarm - "MY PRESENT! COME BACK BEARY! COME BACK!!!"

For whatever reason, the girl does not come into view - perhaps trapped in Mama Kark's ward somehow, and unable to leave the laboratory.

Looking, the Saint sees that it was a small black bear cub, with a rusty iron color pad-locked around its neck, that knocked Emend down the stairs.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on October 21, 2016, 03:07:05 pm
"Uhh"

Saint is about to ask Emend what the hell's happening when he hears the angry scream from upstairs - he then proceeds to visibly wince.

"Do we need to run?"

Shutting the hidden door closed, Saint then - assuming the bear is nothing more than a simple bear - tries to establish control over the thing, intending to alter it soon so that it can fight off the guards on their way out.

Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: killa_robot on October 21, 2016, 03:28:19 pm
Emend stands up and brushes himself off. He then looks at where the stairs were, then back to Saint.

"No, we should be fine, but we'll have to deal with a very angry doll girl when we move in," he replies, looking back at the stairs once again.

"I have the deed. Where is everyone else? Is Jack dead? Should I be concerned about this annoying alarm?" He then looks down at the bear. "And it seems we're going to be having a new pet as well. Meet Mr.Snugglefluff."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 21, 2016, 03:58:46 pm
The Saint's magic fails to latch onto the bear cub. Perhaps it is another one of Mama Kark's spirits?
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: LadyZerka on October 21, 2016, 04:02:58 pm
The bear cub snorts at the name 'Mr. Snugglefluff' and walks over to start scratching letters into the wall. They spell out the word 'UsdiYona'.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on October 21, 2016, 04:11:54 pm
"Well... After I blacked out, I woke up here in the library severely wounded. Sarapheen, Beats and Robor went off to kill Jack and I haven't seen them since. I've reactivated my spatial map effect so I can see anywhere in the castle that isn't warded. Jack is not visible, nor are our fellow disciples. It's been long enough that i'm worried something might have gone wrong.

I doubt we're going to get out of here without a fight as long as those cameras are still up. They're still searching the castle for us, but the search has passed this room.

We should escape soon, if Sarapheen was still able to create a portal to us I expect she would have done it by now, and we need to leave before the second shift and the police arrive."

Then, Saint frowns

"Hmm, Mr.Snugglepuff isn't responding to my magic, he might not be what he seems. Is he friendly? What is that he's carved into the wall there?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: killa_robot on October 21, 2016, 05:38:30 pm
"After he blacked out? A lot must have happened while I was upstairs," Emend thinks to himself.

"He should be friendly. Kark had the him locked in a cage, and he was meant to be a present for the doll, so at the very least it doesn't seem like he was on their side. I couldn't find the key to the collar on him, so I'd assume Kark has it on her. Since the collar is magic, we should find out more about Mr.Snugglefluff once we unlock it," he replies.

"Not sure what's on the wall. Maybe it's his real name. Anyway, I could get rid of the electricity, but they probably have a backup generator somewhere. You think your spatial map could guide us out without getting caught?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on October 21, 2016, 05:48:34 pm
"Yeah, we can try... Emend, do you have any idea what happened while I was unconscious? The last thing I remember was seeing what Kark did do those children... When I woke up I had her bloody cleaver in my hands and my swarm... Well, my swarm was out of my range, attacking an unconscious man in one of the bedrooms. Everything hurt so much. Was I ambushed by one of her spirits? Did something jump out from those boxes and attack me?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: killa_robot on October 21, 2016, 06:35:48 pm
Emend gives Saint a confused look.

"After we saw the... bodies, you asked for the cleaver. Then Sarapheen created a portal to the attic, at which point you ran ahead of us and down the stairs. I'm not sure what happened to you after that."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on October 21, 2016, 08:05:30 pm
"..."

Saint clears his throat.

"Right. Well then."

The thought suddenly strikes Saint - did the cameras see him?
Oh, Faith...

The leader.. The leader had to have some pad that would allow him access to the cameras or something. The man in the bedroom.

"We'll have to make a slight detour. I want to erase any footage they might have of events here, keep what we can discreet."

Saint tries to hide the guilt in his voice but anyone listening can tell it's there.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: killa_robot on October 21, 2016, 11:50:39 pm
Emend gives Saint yet another confused look, but nods along anyway.

"I would have hoped everyone was already trying to keep this discreet, but if you have no memory of what happened, and we don't know where the others are, it's better to be safe than sorry," he replies, agreeing to the plan.

"Lead the way."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 22, 2016, 12:33:46 am
With his mage sight going, Emend abruptly notices something odd about something the Saint is carrying.

It's the glossy black horn flask, from the vault, still glistening with streaks of fresh blood.

There appears to be some form of space resonance associated with it.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: killa_robot on October 22, 2016, 08:36:25 am
"Wait a minute. Saint, where did you get the flask you have on you?" Emend asks, pointing to the flask.

"I sense space magic coming from it"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on October 22, 2016, 11:20:31 am
Saint looks at the flask, confused for a second.

"I... It was in Kark's room, covered in blood."

*flashback*

Quote
Blood seeps through a white bandage wrap on her left arm and she appeared to be without footwear - her bare feet gnarled, and hard enough in the sole, not to be bothered by the briars, stinging nettles, or poison ivy.

"Space magic? I think this was how she was creating the portals despite your interference! It must only work with her blood, do you think you could use it anyway?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: killa_robot on October 22, 2016, 11:38:28 am
"Of course," Emend replies, taking the flask from Saint. "Though I won't know what it does until activating it."

With that in mind, Emend attempts to activate the the enchanted item, and have it create a portal to the location where Sarapheen portaled everyone from before they entered the high oaks property.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 22, 2016, 12:28:52 pm
Using prime, Emend is able to activate the enchanted item - feeling it draw mana from him, as the drops of blood within begin swirling around in the cup with the ephemeral magic of Emend's spell.

Reading the process with supernal vision, Emend sees that a miniature portal (to the Washington National Cathedral) has opened in the horn flask's mouth - much too small to do anything more than look through or poke a finger into.

Then the idea occurs to emend, to try 'splashing' the portal out - which he does, creating a full-sized red swirling vortex in the air.

The portal appears functional now, but won't last long - and has a weird anchor to the library. Without wasting too much time trying to analyze everything, Emend guesses that the flask cannot be brought through its own portal and that when Emend travels through, he will acquire a Sympathetic connection of some kind to it.

Of course there will be more time to analyze the exact nature of the magic once on the other side of the portal...
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: killa_robot on October 22, 2016, 12:57:37 pm
"We had better hurry," Emend says, waiting for Saint and the bear to pass through the portal before following himself.

If he can, he'll also attempt to hide the flask in the room. Perhaps on the other side of the secret door.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: LadyZerka on October 22, 2016, 01:00:15 pm
The bear cub meanwhile points to its name, then to itself. Then draws a smiley face on the wall next to the name and runs through the portal.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on October 22, 2016, 04:21:50 pm
Saint hurries on through the portal.

Oh I do hope there is no one waiting on the other side. A naked priest caught with a bear cub in a cathedral, won't that make the news...
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 23, 2016, 03:07:09 pm
Emend is able to hide the demon-horn flask on the first step of the wooden stairs, behind the secret door in the library. After closing the door, he heads through the crimson portal, to join Saint and the bear cub on the other side.

The three of them arrive in the meeting room, under the Washington National Cathedral - that they have been using to study and coordinate with Sarapheen.

The portal they come in through closes rather quickly - except to Emend's supernal vision. He sees that its resonance is still there - but not fixed in space. It appears to be 'following' him around - as if waiting for another trigger to open it back up again.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: LadyZerka on October 23, 2016, 03:14:14 pm
UsdiYona goes over to the whiteboard and climbs up on a chair. She takes a dry erase marker, bites off the cap and uses it in her mouth to draw a picture.

It shows a stick figure with a third leg and a stick figure with a loopy double-u at its chest. The bear cub points at the 'dick man' then to Saint and Emend, then points to the 'boob girl' and finally back to herself.

She then draws a picture of her locked collar in a circle with a slash through it.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: killa_robot on October 23, 2016, 03:30:39 pm
Emend looks at the whiteboard, then to Saint.

"Well, we made it out, though I'm not sure where the others are. Since the castle was in a panic when we left, we should probably wait a bit before bringing up that we rightfully own it. I'll see you in a few days. Hopefully the others show up in that time," he says. Emend then looks at UsiYona.

"... You're a girl, aren't you?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on October 23, 2016, 03:43:56 pm
"Err, yes, it would appear she is. Sorry about that."

Saint commandeers a priest's vestments from the place and then calls out to Emend - "I'll be back shortly, I just have to go out... be seen. Try to examine her collar? Maybe we can get it off while we wait for the others to get back."

Saint is about to leave the church when he stops with a start, remembering something rather crucial. Running back to Emend, he hands the avenging disciple the thirsty cleaver.

"Oh, and we still have no idea what this does, you should probably take a look at it as well."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: LadyZerka on October 24, 2016, 09:58:50 am
UsdiYona smiles and points to her collar with a grunt.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: killa_robot on October 24, 2016, 10:37:00 am
With time to spare now, Emend attempts to identify the purpose of the collar and the cleaver, also giving a quick look around the room for anything that could break the collar off.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 24, 2016, 11:18:32 am
Mama Kark's cleaver presents a disturbing find. It was used by Mama Kark to dismember her victims (mostly children). Apparently, the blade has absorbed the horror that it was a party to - and developed a thirst for innocent blood. This gives it 9's for any attacks made with the blade - and 8's when specifically used against children.

The blade also needs to taste the blood of children (1 Lethal Damage or more) at least once a week, or its owner will lose a non-recoverable point of temp Willpower per week, until the blade has been stated. Should the owner's Temp Willpower drop to zero during this time, the Thirsty Blade automatically gains full possession of the owner and forces him to slay the nearest living child with the blade, regardless of consequences (or witnesses).

The curse itself is similar to the Fate (5) Geas spell, when determining the requirements for severing 'ownership' of the blade.

Yeah...

Probably a good idea to mention this all to the Saint - as he's the proud new owner of the Thirsty Blade (and has a little kid in his care).

The rusty iron collar on the bear cub meanwhile, is a simple ward and ban - preventing anything locked in the collar from using magic. The padlock itself is not part of the enchantment, so removing it won't destroy the potentially handy collar from being used later if needed.

Looking around, Emend finds a pair of bolt cutters in a maintenance closet not too far from the meeting room, and takes them back to free UsdiYona.

As Emend snips off the padlock, it occurs to him that he could easily use his telekinesis to pick open any lock, if only he had the space arcanum necessary, to 'look into' the lock itself as he did so.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: killa_robot on October 24, 2016, 11:49:00 am
Assuming he can, Emend will remove the collar from the bear.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on October 24, 2016, 06:20:08 pm
Saint will go out to use an ATM, talk to his colleagues, make his presence at the cathedral well-known. Then he will go to his apartment and hug and kiss Faith, and ask her about her day. After this he will take a shower, dress back up into his priest clothing and call for a babysitter to look after Faith while he "goes out for drinks with some friends". He will leave the apartment but wait outside, keeping a spatial map active so that he knows when the police are nearby, so that he can walk out to be "caught" without them making any sort of fuss that would bother Faith. He will use a body control spell in advance of being captured and keep it active with the intention of using it to keep himself totally calm and to pass any polygraph tests he might be given.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: LadyZerka on October 25, 2016, 09:31:46 am
Assuming he can, Emend will remove the collar from the bear.

When the collar is taken off, the bear cub stands up into a 12 year old Cherokee girl, with long braded black hair, in native dress of white suede with tan fringe and a beaded headband.

"Thank you for saving me!" she says, hugging Emend. Then frowns, and smacks him on the chest - "Hey! You left me with that doll thing! She tried to crush me like a grape!"

She then brightens - "Speaking of grapes, I'm starving! Do you have any people food? Mama Kark promised me some, but tricked me into that stupid collar instead."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: killa_robot on October 25, 2016, 10:47:31 am
Emend takes a moment to process that the bear just turned into a little girl before responding.

"... I probably would have come back to rescue you," He responds in an u confident manner.

"But more importantly yes, let's go get something to eat," Emend states, trying to ignore the fact that food was enough to trick this little girl into a collar. He'll change back into his normal clothes, then the two of them will head out to get some "people food".
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 25, 2016, 02:59:54 pm
While the Saint is out creating his false alibi, Emend takes UsdiYona across town, to a family restaurant. He is amazed at how ravenous the kid is, and watches her pack away enough food to feed, well... a bear. Other patrons are curious about her attire (though Halloween is only two weeks away, so they just sort of write that off) and find it quite entertaining to see how much she enjoys her food - relishing each taste like a junky getting her first fix in a long long time.

Emend get's quite a few "that's a beautiful costume" and "don't you ever feed that kid haha," comments.

Following the meal, the two of them walk around the park a bit, the girl extremely curious about everything she sees in the city. She clearly hasn't been in one before (or even rode in a car prior to today).

In fact, talking to her doesn't help resolve the mystery about her much, as she only remembers back about "six moons" and that she was in the forest, when she met Mama Kark, who promised her a basket of "people food"- if she could prove her ability to change into a baby bear.

When she changed shape, Mama Kark trapped her like that with the collar, and threw her into the cage.

UsdiYona is not sure what Mama Kark wanted with her, but she did mention stealing a part of her soul to grant Doll the ability to grow up like normal kids.

Apparently, Mama Kark was in the process of setting up the soul-trapping spell, with the large diamond over the cage, when she sensed a free spirit nearby and left - telling Doll through the door that she would be right back and have a present for her when she returned.

Apparently, the most distressful thing about the whole ordeal to UsdiYona was not getting the food she had been promised.

Not sure what to do with her, Emend then took the girl back to the Washington National Cathedral to see what the Saint would suggest - and if Sarapheen, Robor, and Beats had shown up yet.

At first, the meeting room was empty when they returned, but after sitting down to wait a few moments, Beats and Robor abruptly popped into the room out of thin air - looking a little worse for wear.

"Hello," UsdiYona said to them with a smile and a wave.

---

Continued from 'The Hell Are We?' (http://www.bountyheadbebop.com/forum/index.php?topic=2165.msg125499#msg125499)
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: killa_robot on October 25, 2016, 03:34:24 pm
"What happened to the two of you? Where's Sarapheen? Did you get the job done?" Emend asks.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on October 25, 2016, 03:42:32 pm
Under the impression that it will still take a while for the police to get to his apartment (or that they might come to his workplace first), Saint heads back to the cathedral to have a final word with his fellow disciples. At the very least he could warn them before mysteriously vanishing for two days.

On arriving, he warmly greets Robor and Beats both, rushing to their sides.

"What happened? Are you two okay, do you need healing? Where's Sarapheen?"

Then, eyes widening at Robor's wounds, "Lord almighty, Beats, lay down. You must be dizzy from the blood loss."

He begins a prayer of healing over Beats' body then, spending some of his little remaining mana in an attempt to help heal his wounded comrade.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Forge on October 25, 2016, 03:58:07 pm
Beats sits down "I'm Beats." He announces "Farking paradox switched us." He then helpfully adds "Sera messed up and threw us into the spirit place, then exploded."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 25, 2016, 05:15:54 pm
As Beats talks, the Saint uses his Balm of Flesh rote on Robor (in Beats' body) - damn, they need to fix that quick.

A substantial amount of the damage is healed - the bullet passage closing up nicely - and leaving only a tender feeling and possibly cracked rib, left to mend on its own.

As Saint does this, he is once again reminded, by potent levels of pain stabbing around in his own chest, that he is still seriously injured himself.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on October 25, 2016, 07:04:37 pm
After healing Robor, Saint grimaces and sits back down, clutching at his chest.

Through gritted teeth, he says "Ah, yes, sorry. I forgot about it, what with all the... everything. Sarapheen will come back right? She said she was immortal..."

Saint's pain cannot hide the worry in his voice.

Agh! It feels like something is broken deep inside. I stopped before because of the risk of backlash but maybe enough time has passed...?

With that, Saint mumbles a few words of power and recasts his self-healing spell. He did not want to be of weak constitution when the time to give himself over to the police came. He especially did not want to be visibly in pain from an injury.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 25, 2016, 07:46:41 pm
In the quiet calming strength of the cathedral, the Saint utters words of power and wills the twisted scarring across his chest to untangle itself and knit back together in a smoother more natural looking fashion.

When he's finished, three quarters of the scar tissue has disappeared, leaving him feeling much better - at least compared to how he was feeling a minute ago. There's still a nagging pain that lets him know he's going to have to tend to the wound just a little more to completely rid himself of it.

Steeling himself, he casts the spell a second time, half expecting paradox to punish him for his efforts - but the wound heals, and he is finally left whole.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: LadyZerka on October 25, 2016, 08:06:44 pm
"I'm UsdiYona (a girl)" she makes sure to point out to Robor and Beats, giving Saint and Emend a sidelong glance, "Who's Sarapheen?"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on October 25, 2016, 08:10:25 pm
Tired, Saint slumps back against a wall.

"Today has not been a good day."

He looks up at Emend, "any good news from you, Emend? What did we recover from Kark? Where's the bear?"

Then, seemingly for the first time, Saint noticed UsdiYona. Eyes widening, he asks - "Oh my. Hello, who are you?"

"I'm UsdiYona (a girl)" she makes sure to point out to Robor and Beats, giving Saint and Emend a sidelong glance, "Who's Sarapheen?"

Saint opens his mouth to reply, and then closes it again.

Weren't you a bear?

"I'm sorry Usi - do you mind if I call you that? UsdiYona is a bit unwieldy. We were, uh, rushed."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Not Aman on October 25, 2016, 08:35:09 pm
Beats sits down "I'm Beats." He announces "Farking paradox switched us." He then helpfully adds "Sera messed up and threw us into the spirit place, then exploded."
"I need this fixed." Robor says.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: LadyZerka on October 25, 2016, 08:46:22 pm
"I'm sorry Usi - do you mind if I call you that? UsdiYona is a bit unwieldy. We were, uh, rushed."

"Yeah, that's OK. It's better than 'Mr. Snagglepoof' or whatever that was you were calling me..."

"I need this fixed." Robor says.

"What needs fixed?" UsdiYona asks curiosly.

Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Forge on October 25, 2016, 08:50:34 pm
Beats stares at the girl for a second before shrugging "So this someones kid?" Turning to her "Ya dressed up or that what ya normally wear?"

He then leans back and nods to Robors comment "For sure man, no offense but ya also need to work out more."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: LadyZerka on October 25, 2016, 09:02:37 pm
Beats stares at the girl for a second before shrugging "So this someones kid?" Turning to her "Ya dressed up or that what ya normally wear?"

"Oh, is this better?" she answers, changing her outfit to match the Saint's black priests garb, "Or this?" she adds, adopting Emend's corporate attire, "Or what?" she finishes, with a copy of Beat's Kevlar vest and arm tattoos.

Having made her point, she changes back to her native dress. "I like this one better."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Forge on October 25, 2016, 10:11:18 pm
Beats looks confused and a little surprised then grins at her, he had learned too much and seen too much today to be overly scared "I like tha tats better, ya'd fit right in with my boys!"
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: LadyZerka on October 26, 2016, 06:38:51 am
"I can't really do 'boy'," UsdiYona replies, "Just 'girl'."

"Clothing and things are easy, but 'human' is not."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: killa_robot on October 26, 2016, 07:31:14 am
"Sarapheen... exploded?" Emend asks, a mix of concern and confusion in his voice. She did mention before that she is immortal, so she should be okay. Still, exploding couldn't have been a pleasent experience...

Emend then explains to everyone about the collar, UsdiYona, and the cleaver. He then asks again to confirm Jack is dead.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Drakilian on October 26, 2016, 12:19:40 pm
Saint's face goes white at the news about the cleaver.

"...does anyone know how long until Sarapheen reincorporates?", he asks weakly, at the moment completely ignoring UsdiYona.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Not Aman on October 27, 2016, 08:09:12 pm
"Maybe our mentors know?" Robor suggests.

"They might know how to remove this body swap as well."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Forge on October 27, 2016, 08:21:58 pm
Beats sits up a little "Sera said one of them was good with mind magic! Just need take contact one." He looks to the others as if to ask the ones who had other mentors if they could contact them.
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: Not Aman on October 27, 2016, 09:40:01 pm
Beats sits up a little "Sera said one of them was good with mind magic! Just need take contact one." He looks to the others as if to ask the ones who had other mentors if they could contact them.
"I believe my mentor is proficient in the understanding of Mind. He's in Canada."
"Sarapheen... exploded?" Emend asks, a mix of concern and confusion in his voice. She did mention before that she is immortal, so she should be okay. Still, exploding couldn't have been a pleasent experience...

Emend then explains to everyone about the collar, UsdiYona, and the cleaver. He then asks again to confirm Jack is dead.
Robor nods.
"Yeah. He's dead and cold. Body's gone."
Title: Re: Cleaning House
Post by: BerkaZerka on October 28, 2016, 12:11:51 pm
Breaking Newscast
"The self made millionaire, and CEO of Innovations Incorporated, Jack Eaton Jr. was kidnapped from his home in Great Falls Virginia today."

"A security team on-scene, during the incident, reports that a naked man (seen here) created a distraction by breaking through security, which allowed another team of highly trained commandoes to deploy tear gas and spirit Mr. Eaton over the side of a tower and into the woods."

"In a bizarre twist, the leader of the security team assigned to protecting Mr. Eaton, was found dead, apparently suffering anaphylactic shock - after receiving hundreds of hornet stings from a large swarm released into the home. Additionally, another member of the security team was found missing, leading to suspicion of the kidnapping having been an inside job."

"After all, who else but an inside-man would have known about the team leader's allergy to hornet venom and placements of cameras throughout the home. The footage of the naked man is the only image caught on camera, and as you can see here, it appears to have been doctored, creating a loop that abruptly removes the suspect from the camera's view - here in this unexplained flash of light - that creates the illusion of him falling through the floor after being shot in the chest by (who I am being told) was the security team leader himself."

"Both the currently unidentified 'naked man' and security guard (this man, Ernesto Montero) are being sought for questioning. If you see either of them, you are asked to call the tip into local authorities immediately."

"As yet, no ransom demands or contact with the kidnappers has been established."

"Jack Eaton Jr, is best known in the tri-state area for his famous 'Do you want more from your future?' pitch, late-night infomercials, and selling record-breaking copies of his self-help financial advice book titled, 'Innovations for the Innovated'."

"Mr. Eaton has also had a string of investigations, over the past few years, conducted against his business - some accusing it of being nothing more than a cleverly disguised Ponzi-scheme. So far, nothing has been proven and Mr. Eaton continues to surround himself with a loyal growing fan base, ready to adamantly defend his integrity at even the hint of slander."

---

Seeing his face (among other things) plastered all over the evening news, the Saint decides to get ahead of the situation by heading down to the police station to present his alibi before anyone could turn him in.

Accompanied by Bishop Knestout, and others of the senior priests of the Washington National Cathedral (who had personally been with him that evening), it was a simple matter to establish his whereabouts at the time of the crime and to show that he had no bullet holes in his chest - ruling him out as a possible suspect and proving the video footage from Talon Securities had been 'tampered with' somehow.

When the Saint offered to take a polygraph, he was told that it would not be needed - and that the footage of him on the Cathedral security cameras and banking atm, where plenty sufficient.

End