Elaina watches as the video of the attack replays again. She had come in from the eastern gate only a few minutes before. As much as she wanted to help when she had learned of the attack, it was mostly taken care of, and a strange outsider was unlikely to be welcomed near a crime scene anyway. Now, she eats her bowl of soup and the hard as a rock heel of bread. Soaking it in the broth helps soften it, thankfully.
She turns back to her meal, wondering if the heroes that keep getting brought up would be willing to help her get to Castle Refuge. There are rumors of them being in two different places tonight. Maybe...
She shakes her head at the thought. No, she shouldn't go looking for a bunch fo strangers in a city she's never been in before at night. That is asking for trouble, and she has had her fill of trouble for a while. Maybe tomorrow will be better. Once she has had a good night's rest, she will be ready to learn more about the town and the heroes. For now, she just needs to finish her soup and rest.
= Jack Hearts
Arsenio’s body bursts into flames, as only the titular Burster can truly manage. As the flames wash over his body, it casts light about the small dimensions of the Apothecary shop. Were this just a normal darkness, like that of a power cut during a starless night, the flames would have lit up the room as bright as the store’s own lights, or perhaps even brighter. As it is however, the light spills out only a short distance, as though it has to fight through the cloud of darkness for every inch in gains. Arsenio can see the rough features of the room, the location of the shelves and the walls, but the light is sparse, shining more like a candle within the room than the conflagration it truly is.
What he sees in dark are mad shapes; something akin unto animals merged with men. The forms are frantic and moving, so details are hard to make out. They are smaller than men, perhaps four feet tall. Wings beat furiously from their torsos, and dark black fur envelops them. The light of Arsenio’s fire glints off of teeth and claws, and red gleaming eyes.
There are too many to count in the brief moment of light - more than a dozen is the initial impression. They are everywhere, slashing and clawing at the investigators in the shoppe. Inspector Micheaux is one her back some ten feet away, wrestling with one of the creatures she is holding away from her face. A massive pool of blood five or six feet across sits almost at Arsenio’s feet, a pile of what looks like entrails resting within it. All the beasts seem occupied with other victims, and none approaches Arsenio’s flaming form, at least not yet.
= Joker
= 4 Hearts
= Ace Clubs
= 5 Clubs
Wraith’s meager light flickers into existence as she lights her napkin afire. The light it produces is visible, but so dim you can see it only when looking directly at it. A moment later, a few emergency lights kick on; whether as a reaction to a cut in power or to the darkness is anyone’s guess. They are brighter than the burning napkin by a fair margin, but cast nowhere near as much light as they should. The air is thick with darkness, almost as if it were saturated with a dense fog, but one made up of darkness instead of mist.
Shapes and people are the hardest thing to make out, being most visible as they move in front of lights, leaving their silhouettes sharply outlined.
Screams sound out in the dark; initially those of the panicked people, but in just a brief second, they are overtaken by some sort of animalistic screeching. People start screaming something different a moment later; not the screams of panic and alarm you heard before, but screams of fear, and of pain. Something is attacking people out there!
= 10 Clubs
Ambassador Gregor had decided to go out for lunch. In the square again, despite the warnings both you and Wraith provided. While Wraith had officially be assigned to him as courier, he had reported that she would be sufficient bodyguard, even though that was specifically your duty. Knowing her to be rather hot headed, and more than a bit flighty, you decided to follow along, though at a distance to be discrete. When everything goes dark, you are just as surprised as everyone else; however, as a psychic, you detect an oppressive presence located throughout that darkness. There is a mind attached to it. Something supernatural, massive, and very very evil.
= 10 Diamonds
While fear of wandering around an unknown city at night kept you in for the night, in the morning, things were different. You followed a few of the rumours sightings of the heroes mentioned on city citynet during the morning, only to get frustrated. However, around noon, the rumours all seem to coalesce, and all seemed to agree that they were I the town square, getting lunch at one of the city's nice restaurants. While you had little chance of getting a table (particularly with a the long line waiting for seating), and even less of being able to afford a meal there, you decided to wait nearby, hoping to get a chance to approach them as they leave.
When things go dark, your first reaction is not to the loss of sight, but to the sensation of an oppressive alien mind that floods the area. You sense something of immense power and dark will, all dominating from a building near you. While you had waited, you saw a police barricade had been erected around the Apothecary shop. You had just visited the location yesterday, looking for a few herbs. The lizard man that had attended the shoppe had seemed quite knowledgeable, and had answered all your questions patiently. Thinking something might have happened at his shoppe since you were there was a bit of a worrying concept. It is now from this shop that the power seems to be eliminating.
= 3 Clubs
As the shadows move around him and claws and other sharp things start poking through the little light there is, Jace's combat training kicks in and his vibroblade moves through the darkness like hot knives through butter until it starts striking the things..
'Thumper' moves forward skidding to a halt, when he sees the black mass. 'Can these things be harmed?
He attempts to will himself to fight these things.
His hands will not stop shaking. He thinks back to his Training in the Fed, Closes his eyes. After a moment his eyes open and his hands are steady.
Boomer was with Wraith and the ambassador, and was momentarily confused by the sudden darkness :
Having recovered, he chooses to stick close to the ambassador and shoot anything that comes near them.
With the fear behind him 'Thumper' jumps back into action. Closing in he raises his empty hand the revolver appearing as it lines up with his eye, the revolver whispers when it is time to fire 'Now'
Hearing the screams and seeing the source, Elaina pulls out her shotgun and tries to cast a spell, one that would help her move and act quickly.
Elaina freezes as she sees the roiling shadow sweep towards her. She can feel what is in it, what's controlling it as it washes over her. The screams and the pit of fear in her belly as she worries for the shop's kindly proprietor and everyone else nearby cause her to start shaking as her nerves get the better of her.
Calm down, Elaina. Calm down! You're okay. Get your head on straight and see what you can do to help.
Now, let's go see if we can teach some monsters some manners.
Elaina pulls out her shotgun and draws a rune in the air before her as she starts making her way to the shop at the center of the chaos.
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Brother-Sergeant Aterro Dominatus stalked the city streets with surprising stealth for one in heavy combat armor. His initial training for the Imperium of Man was as a Scout, so moving silently was not unknown to him. Between that and the adaptive photo-receptic cells of the advanced heavy plate, he was easily able to keep an eye on the ambassador.
Still, Wraith was a competent fighter, and they should be okay as long as nothing unusual happened.
And then something unusual happened.
He would not allow himself to give in to something as weak as fear just because of a little darkness. A Space Marine wouldn't do that, and a Cyber Knight wouldn't do that. Now that he was both, it was simply out of the question.
The training of two lifetimes ignited his senses, and he could feel the presence of something...unclean. It reminded him of the instant when their warp-shields failed and demons made of emotion stalked the ship.
Before he came here.
Forcing the thought from his mind he summoned his Psyker Blade and charged the Unclean presence.
He didn't care what it was he was attacking, it just needed to be cleansed.
Victory was commemorated. Failure merely remembered.
Arsenio calls out to Micheaux.
"Inspector, cover your face and eyes. Burster fire incoming!"
Without waiting to see if she complies, he forms three super-heated compact balls of flame below his outstretched finger, and fires them in rapid succession at the strange dark creature mounting her.
Boomer holds his position, ready to fire upon any creatures that approach his little group.
"Does anyone have any idea what the source of these creatures is? If so, nullify it!"
As Elaina moves with her quickened pace, she draws another rune on her shotgun.
Filigree of light trace over the shotgun as she finishes the rune. She nearly loses the spell as she tries to keep from tripping in the near pitch black. She wonders, again, why she hasn't learned a spell for light and continues to make her way to the shop.
I've always played it as being effective immediately.
Jace
Jace charges forward and slices at one of the flickering shapes in the dark as it flies past. On the first strike, he mistimes the attack, aiming for motion that isn't there. His second strikes true though. He feels it cut through hair and skin, but the blade essentially bounces off any of the deeper flesh and bone. He hears the creature hit the ground flapping, and trying to right itself behind him.
Arsenio
Arsenio tosses his fire towards the moving creatures. The first shot clips the monster grappling with Micheaux, yanking it off her and incinerating it. His second shot takes another of the monsters, with the same results. The last shot goes wide of a creature, impacting the rear wall off the shop. The wall bursts into flame, with licks of fire climbing up the surface towards the ceiling. Smoke billows up the wall as well. On the bright side, the level of light in the room increases substantially, now having two sources of blazing light, instead of one.
Elaina
Elaina overcomes her fear and dashes towards the source of dark power.
Attero strikes one of the monsters from the air, slicing one in two. Like the other sources of light, his blade looks muted in the unnatural darkness.
Thumper draws out his revolver, and drawing a bead, takes one of the creatures solidly out of the air.
K-842 seems frozen with the suddenness of the situation, staring around him at everything, and at the same time nothing.
A creature flies at Arsenio within the confines of the shop, clumsily crashing into him as though expecting to be immune to the flames. He quickly discovers that he is not, and is incinerated before his claws can touch the burster's flesh. As it closes, Arsenio gets a slightly better view, seeing a bat-like monster, with almost human-like proportions on its 4 foot frame, but dense black fur, huge ears, claw tipped fingers and fangs bigger than a baboon's.
The bat-thing Jace knocked to the ground with his sword attack, flips upright, and flies at the Juicer, while a second creature attacks him for his trouble.
Wraith can be heard on her radio, shouting something that sounds like a machine command protocol, while the ambassador fires at the monsters with an almost comically large plasma pistol.
The creatures are flapping a screeching all around you in the dark. There are vastly more creatures than there are in your small group, and all around you can hear civilians being attacked, crying out in fear, and some screaming out in pain.
Elaina turns and lines up a snapshot on the creature that just tried to rake her with its claws. Shards of white glowing ice rocket from the upper barrel and slam into the monster, freezing and burning all at once. She doesn't stick around to admire her handy work, moving towards the source of this disaster. Once she has some distance from her assailant, She ducks into the alleys, choosing to avoid any fights she can in order to end the threat at the source. Unfortunately, she cannot see well in the dark and trips over something, causing a racket.
Turn 1:
Fire on her attack, 7 shots remaining in her shotgun. Succeeds with a 7 doing 16 damage.
Run towards the apothecary's shop.
Turn 2:
Continue running towards the apothecary's shop.
Try to duck into an alleyway to avoid notice. Failed with double 1's. Spent a benny and still failed with a 2.
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Aterro slivced through the...thing that he had set upon with a satisfying blow, but as his armor's visual scanning picked up, he realized that the air was just. Full. There were so many. More than the filthy xeno tyrnids would even call upon.
His tactical mind filtered through the data it had, searching for a way forward. Since this plague was all but unknown, it seemed futile to wade through it, searching for a mother-hive or main node to slay. One could walk for hours through this evil-fog and never find the source. Meanwhile Throne knows what would happen in such an aimless search.
His mind did then recall that he was on a mission, to protect that civilian. And he was even fighting back, showing him a rare breed for his ilk.
And that was settled. He'd get the desk-rider out and re-evaluate once that was done.
"Wraith! Lets get the ambassador out of here! We need to get to your ride!"
"Aces, wizworm! We's gonna dance the red, red kroovy 'till we walk the sky!"
Aterro managed to wade through her odd patois to figure out that she was going to fight until she could fly. Probably. That would have to do.
Unwilling to waste his strength against the endless masses, and wanting to concentrate until something worthwhile came up, he closed down his guard and followed the girl, alternatingly pushing the ambassador ahead.
Boomer says into his comms : "I repeat, does anyone have any idea what the source of these creatures is? If so, let us all know so we can all nullify it!"
"The source of the creatures appears to be a nearby shop. Arsenio was there this afternoon. I will lead the way."
With that, K-842 directs his weapons toward the fountain of creatures pouring out of the roof of a nearby shop and moves quickly in that direction.
Jace, seeing the creatures move before they even think of it, easily dodging their claws and fangs. When he hears K8 give the location of the source, he knew what he had to do. Blades going to the side in a spiral of steel, he bolted in a full burn run, using some of the creatures as stepping stones to get across the way towards the source of the infestation..
How far are we from where we had to leave our heavy gear?
Arsenio concentrates, buoying himself and Micheaux on a current of heated air.
Then, he shouts at Micheaux. "Move, now! Get out of the building! I can hold them off until you're clear! Head out and then UP! I don't think they can fly!"
Arsenio concentrates, buoying himself and Micheaux on a current of heated air.
[dice=Psionics]1d8
[dice=Wild]1d6
[dice=Psionics]1d8
[dice=Wild]1d6Then, he shouts at Micheaux. "Move, now! Get out of the building! I can hold them off until you're clear! Head out and then UP! I don't think they can fly!"
'Thumper reaches into his kit bag, 'Without his bot Ace is gonna need some help' he pulls out a toy soldier and an empty snow-globe bulb, he tosses the solder into the globe and wraps the whole thing in brass tape.
He races after Ace.
Here
In the shoppe:
Arsenio calls out to the detective, having given her the power to fly. However, she looks around the shoppe in a quick moment, and then back to Arsenio. In that split second he's able to read a whole host of emotions that cross her face, but the last look is a determined one with a plain meaning; she's not going anywhere without her men.
She concentrates a moment, and you sense psychic power welling up inside her as she brings her powers into focus.
Another of the creatures leaps at her, and you catch the flurry of movement before another bounds at you.
Its hair flashes and burns, and while the creature skreeches, it doesn't get incinerated like the last one. Micheaux also manages to deflect the creature aside, a glimmer of a psychic shield visible for a brief moment as she moves.
I can understand that! Yeah, I always Copy All before touching any of the lower buttons, because Paizo. ^_^
Outside
K-842 confidently announces the apparent source of the swarm, before tearing off into the dark. Jace and Ace, hearing him, both move in that direction, though Jace moves fast enough that they quickly lose sight of each other in the blackness.
Each of Jace's friends takes a swipe at him as he leaves, but he moves fast enough to outpace them.
Thumper works some of his magic, getting a device ready. Seeing the rest of his mates gone, he starts moving through the darkness with them, towards that feel of oppressive supernatural energy.
However, he doesn't run quite as fast, as quickly loses sight of the juicer and the borg. To add insult to injury, his flying friends seem to be able to keep up with him just fine.
His Mage Armour keeps him protected against the first attack, and the second. Then he runs smack into a third creature that seems to have him dead to rights. However, while his underwear may need a change, his armour holds through this last attack as well.
Elaina blasts a creature with her shotgun, the icy blast ripping it apart. The silvery light of the shards actually seems to make the body fly apart like a shadow before a flare. She moves quickly, trying to get towards the Apothecary shoppe, trying to avoid the flying swarms by moving quietly through an alley. Unfortunately, the ally turns out to be very occupied. Immediate upon stepping into the narrow space, she steps on the foot of one of the monsters, hunched over with a few of its kin, latched onto a fallen civilian. Four pairs of red glinting eyes and blood stained teeth look up at her with anger, hatred, and hunger.
Attero continues to fight to defend the ambassador, while he fires his oversized plasma pistol at the flapping shapes. Wraith reports that her flight suit’s auto retrieval setting should be arriving any moment, and indeed you can hear the jets of a power armour suit approaching.
= 6 Clubs
= 5 Hearts
= Ace Spades
= King Spades
= 4 Clubs
= 3 Hearts
= 5 Clubs
= Jack Diamonds
= 6 Hearts
= 8 Hearts
Arsenio, Attero, Thumper
Baddies
Micheaux, Ace, K-842, Elaina, and then Jace.
Jace's enhanced reflexes allow him to use the flapping of the wings as a sort of echolocation tool as his mind sorts and reacts to all the incoming stimuli in neat orderly rows. Sometimes it pays to stay on the meds..
Elaina clamps down on a scream as one of the creatures gets a lucky hit on her and tries to grab her. She replies with butt of her shotgun to the beast's nose, knocking it back.
She is still free, but the odds are not in her favor with four of them to herself.
"Oh this is bad. This is real bad."
Thumper kneels for a moment closing his eyes and whispering to the circuitry embedded in his boots.
Glowing friction-less force surrounds the boots and Thumper goes sliding away on them, like a downhill skier, after his faster friends.
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Aterro parries and dodges the demon before him before aiming a powerful counter-swing at it.
= 12(!)
= 20
"Die foul Xeno! Faith is -my- shield."
Even as one hand fights back his own personal opponent, his eyes go wide as he sees another vile demon attacking the ambassador. With his other hand he swings his massive pistol over and pulls the heavy trigger twice in quick succession.
(raise!)
(also raise!)