Sunny returns from the trunk of the crew's vehicle, dropping a chicken bone into a mostly empty bucket. "Alright champ, it's do or die." He licks his fingers, then combs them through his thinning hair. He pauses, looking from Sean to Allison to Arianne. "Uh, any of you seen beanpole? We've got to get started while we've got light." In a series of fluid motions, Sunny undoes his belt and re-tucks his shirt.
There's a pause.
"Sean? He was with you last..."
The two guards turn to look at you. Their eyes are deep pools of black.
Chosen one... they say, in unison, and start walking toward you. Their accents are very strange, not quite French, not quite Spanish.
What do you do?
"He went over the fence. I'm waiting for him to give us the all-clear, or start screaming. If he doesn't do either, I'm going in in a minute or so." Sean says, not taking his eyes from where he saw Tom slip around the corner.
Despite himself, all of Tom's efforts to keep his cool are lost when he looks into their eyes. He starts backing away slowly, making sure to pick up his pace whenever they do to stay a safe distance away.
"Yes?" he answers, in a last ditch effort to remain courteous.
The two continue to advance on you. Unless you turn and run (and even then, frankly), they'll likely be in range to grab you in a moment.
If you want to try to run, that'll be act under pressure. If you're looking to do something else (bargain, fight, cast a spell) that'll be the appropriate move.
Sean figures he's waited long enough, and hoists himself up and over the fence. Once on the other side, he asks one of the others to pass him the duffelbag. "Anyone else comin'? Now's the time." He slings the bag over one shoulder, then opens the zipper, so he can grab the shotgun if needed. He heads for where he last saw Tom, trying to look nonchalant and like he belongs. "Nothing to see here, nope. Just a chap on his way to his unit to store things in a duffelbag... yep."
You come around the corner to see the two cultists advancing on Tom. He's between you and the cultists, so you don't have a great shot on them, but they're also much more likely to grab him than grab you.
What do you do?
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Sean steps forward at an angle, trying to move so that Tom is no longer between him and the two cultists. "Hm. Any of you fellas know where Unit 69 is? Been looking for a 69 for a while now, but I got nothin'." He casually slides one hand into the duffelbag and around the shotgun, ready to pull it out if need be.
That sounds like protect someone to me. Roll plus tough!
The cultist on the left lunges at you, his bare hand raking across your chest. His touch is incredibly, unnaturally cold. Take 2 harm as the chills your divine form.
What do you do?
Sunny was sure Tom was in trouble, so rather than follow on foot, he simply crouched out of existence, leaving some disturbed leaves on the cracked pavement.
Sunny steps out from behind Tom, brandishing his cane. "Stand aside patrons of darkness! You face Son Goku, King of Monkies and supreme being. -oo, and the chosen one. Him, I mean." He points at Tom. "I know he doesn't look like much, but I have it on divine authority that he's the one."
Sunny staggers back, dropping his cane, which crashes dramatically to the floor like a dropped semi truck. "Ow! Balls that's cold!" The monkey king clutches his arms and rubs warmth back into them.
Allison finishes her cirlce's around.
You come around the other side to see the backs of two men attacking Sean, Sunny and Tom. Sunny is on the ground and is injured. From that angle, you have no deals about their black eyes or spooky voice synch.
No. That's what made the fence a good entrance. They can't see you, you can't see them. You'll have to follow Arianne or Sean and pick a side of the building.
Sean, you try to move in at the same time as Sunny. Sunny takes the brunt of the blow, but when he collapses, he takes you down with him. Take 1 harm from the fall and let me know how you plan to get up without the cultists getting you.
When Sean sees Sunny's reaction to getting popped by the cultist, he flings himself off the ground, in front of Tom, knowing he'll take the worst of whatever tries to get to the lad.
You fling yourself in front of Tom and Sunny. The cultist that didn't strike Sunny was about to lunch into Tom, but it grabs you instead. Rather than the chilling blow that Sunny received, he instead grapples you with his unusually strong hands. You're trapped in his grasp.
What do you (or anyone else who can see this: Tom, Sunny, Arianne) do?
Good news: You hit the cultist. He shreaks in pain and releases his grip.
Bad news: You’ve run him through, and the spear stabs Sean for one harm. They’re both stuck on your spear.
What do you do?
You come around the corner to this grisly scene. Neither cultist is engaging with you.
The last thing that Melee needs is another combatant Allison thinks, and turns her staff to face the one engaging Sunny, sending a blast of gale force wind to slam into it
"Hup!" Sunny spins off of the ground, scooping his cane off the pavement, and adding somatic components to amplify the Gale as it passes through his personal space.
He lands on one foot, cane, now staff-length, held out in one hand... then he has to hop as he gets a cramp in his side. "Ooo, ooo, atch~"
Your blast, aided by Sunny, knocks the cultist into the side of a neighboring storage locker. He slumps in a heap on the ground, unmoving.
The remaining one is trapped on the end of the spear, helplessly grasping at the also impaled (but not punctured) Sean.
Particularly unheroically, Tom had watched Sunny and Sean both fall under the two cultists, unable to rally the courage to do anything helpful.
At last, he just barely musters the guts to take out his sledgehammer and use it on the other remaining cultist. "I don't get how you expect me to use that gun on a real monster," he whines.
You have to get in a lot closer and he swipes you for 1 harm. You manage drive the pocket knife into the cultist's neck.
Both the stabbed cultist and the one Allison flung into the storage locker fade away into shadow and mist. You don't know what happened to them to make them less than human...but at least you don't have corpses to deal with.
Sean grabs his side where the spear went in with a wince, trying to check the damage. "Shite that hurt." He looks up at Arianne with a grin. "It was the right move though, and smartly done."
He takes off both shirts, and tries to fashion a bandage out of his t-shirt, putting the Aloha shirt back on over it, then picks up the duffelbag, removing the shotgun before slinging it back over his shoulder.
You're not too badly hurt. It went into you,but not through you. The blood stops after a little pressure.
Tom cradles his wounded arm. "So, the warehouse is now unguarded. No point in secrecy. Whoever might have been in there probably heard us fighting," he notes. "Is everyone alright now?" he asks in the vague direction of everyone else, mostly to Sunny and Sean.
He doesn't make any motion forward towards the building. He rather tries to move backwards, in the middle of the group, or behind all the others. The creepy voices saying chosen one were still ringing in his head for a minute before it strikes him that this was the first time anyone other than Sunny had used those words about him.
Sean nods once. "I'm fine. A touch of whiskey when this is over will see me right. Let's go show these pricks why our town's called Spinethorn."
You can view through the wall, whatever was blocking Allison's spell didn't effect you.
Inside the locker there are two cages, each one with a teenager locked inside. A third teenager is chained to the wall. They all look dirty and afraid. There are more of those worklights, four or five scattered around the room.
There are two more of those cultists in the storage locker, one about a head taller than the other. There's standing around...something. It's...it's hard to see what's in the middle of the room. It's like looking at vantablack, something so dark your eyes just glaze over it.
Sunny grunts and spits on the floor. "That was a disgrace. The three of you should be ashamed. The fact that Tim had to carry you so-called professionals is a joke. You'd all be dead already if I wasn't here. You'd better hope there aren't three of those jokers in there." His face is turning red around the frames of his gaudy glasses, and while it doesn't look like he's injured, he does look like he might throw a tantrum. He may not need a field doctor so much as a couch psychologist. "If they hit me again, you better shoot something, champ, because I'm punching every shadow I see. The moon man can suck it."
Sean shoots Sunny a glare, then steps up alongside the door, shotgun at the ready. He gestures for someone else to pull it open. "Whenever we're ready."
"Ready." Tom opens the door to the storage, the better for someone else to lead the way in to a sure combat.
You slide the door open, surprising the inhabitants inside. There’s a huge black egg in the center of the room, pulsing with a deep violet light within. It fills the center of large, ornate summoning circle. The two teens are in a cage, one is shackled to the wall with silver manacles.
Both cultists turn to look at you, but you have a moment before either acts.
Allison raises her staff, and mutters her incantation, urging forth the wind,a dn knoking one of the cultists off his feel
The shorter of the two cultists smashes into the egg. Suddenly, the egg cracks and shrivels away.
The cultist who hit the egg shakes at his hands in horror. No...the incarnation! he mutters. Suddenly, his mouth opens impossibly wide and his jaw splits apart. The husk of his skin falls away and standing in its place is a shadow monster at least twice the cultist's original size. It looks like liquid shadow, flowing and oozing around a semi-solid frame. Its arms lash out, stretching to cover the distance between it and Allison. Its hands form into razor sharp blades that rake across Allison for three harm.
1. No one seems to be paying too close attention to the kids. If you can get the cages and chains unlocked you should be able to slip them out without incident...
2. The teenaged boy in the chains is closer to you than the cages. The chain doesn't seem terribly secure in the wall.
3. The lights are arranged in a similar way to the way they were in the manor. There are almost certainly Shades waiting to spring out and attack. There's no way to walk to either the cages or the chained boy without crossing through a shadow.
Sean will rush through the door with the others, shotgun at the ready. He pauses for a moment to read the situation, not wanting to possibly wing any of the teenagers with buckshot.
When the melee breaks out, he tries to maneuver into a good spot from which to fire without hurting anyone else.
You’re so focused on the terrifying shadow demon incarnation and not shooting teenage captives that you underestimate the big cultist’s reach. For a man that size, he’s shockingly fast. His arms lash out and he grips you hard. He swings you into the side of the storage locker (2 harm) and pins you there. The veins bulge in his neck, but you notice he has normal human eyes. He’s starting to squeeze; you can breathe right this second but that’s a temporary situation.