They have already seen the building from two thousand miles away thanks to a certain Virtual Adept they summoned to the Hotel Monaco the night Jackson Elias died. It looks different at nighttime. Everything does but where the daylight revealed the griminess of the sidewalk and the grayness of the crumbling tenements stood over it nighttime has covered up the graffiti and the detritus. Cast the cultists guarding the place into shadow. Darkened the windows and flooded the streets with neon lights and color.
Nestled in a dirty alley off of 137th street, east of Lenox Avenue, the alley is short and opens into a twenty-square-foot court. They have seen the doors that open off of it. One of them they know leads to Ju-Ju House. Another door leads to what used to be a pawn shop. It is boarded up and of no use to them.
Three armed guards are outside smoking cigarettes and talking shit. They aren't paying attention.
River Vasquez
She cast her attention off to the guards outside, adjusting her grip on her rather large purse and exhaling.
There are three armed guards who aren't paying attention. They're shooting the shit and, generally, just doing what armed guards do when they have a terrible time ahead of them. River exhaled, rifled through her purse and heaved the kind of dramatic sigh that only comes with a performance.
It's weird to see someone focused on projecting unfocus.
"So, what do you think is going to happen with Tyrion?" like she's planting a seed and waiting for it to grow.
[Mind 2: Go home, you're missing Game of Thrones right now. Diff 3 +2 (sphere), -1 (taking time)]
Dice: 2 d10 TN4 (2, 6) ( success x 2 ) [WP]
River Vasquez
[Go the fuck home]
Dice: 2 d10 TN5 (9, 10) ( success x 2 )
Ihsan Ghali
The day had been long and Ihsan was tired. For somebody who traveled as much as she did, Ihsan did not sleep in motion very well. After their day of in-room brunch and booze and Awakened weed and bothering Samir into using his "deck" to help them dive into an entirely new world of mystery and intrigue and--
well, murder. Honestly, in reality, this was something terrible; an underground world of men who dealt in blood and sacrifice and worshiped Old Gods who came from Africa but weren't actually from Africa. The whole day, Ihsan's eyes had been alight with intrigue. She was a woman who loved the discovery, the adventure above all.
Should they leave that same afternoon? Samir found them some flights that would get them there by night.
Yes! Let's go solve a mystery! Let's go save the day.
But a late flight followed by an early morning with planning for confronting death cults and whatever the fuck was in that well meant for little sleep. Before they'd left that morning Ihsan had left a small circle burned inside a dresser drawer (this, a side-effect River had learned by now of any casting that Ihsan made), and set her mind free of fatigue.
So, later that night they were in an alleyway with three men guarding the door. Ihsan was alert, bright-eyed and tense both. She dressed dark and had her staff with her, and followed River's lead. She had to admit, the girl was good at getting them in. So she piped up as well when asked about Tyrion.
"Who's Tyrion? Isn't he from that Game of Thrones?" Seriously.
the chakota
What the girls have on their side is that they don't arouse suspicion walking through this neighborhood.
The three guards come to attention as River and Ihsan approach them. One of them scowls through his cigarette smoke. The other one shifts and considers whether he wants to stand up. The third one hawks a wad of saliva against the side of the building.
At the question the skinniest of the three men laughs.
"What is a Game of Thrones?" he asks.
"It is a TV show," says the fellow to the girls' left.
"Is it on now?" says the fellow to their right.
"There are breasts," says the fellow to their left. "Many breasts."
"Ooh," says the skinniest of them.
And off they go. It's not like anyone is going to notice they're gone anyway. No one comes to the shop unless they're supposed to be here.
River Vasquez
Is it on now?
River nods, as though she knows, "HBO is reairing the fifth season in the interim."
She might very well be full of shit, but the men are headed on their way and she doesn't think anything of it. Looks sideward at Ihsan and shoots her a bright, delighted sort of grin. Away the men went and and now, they ladies could enter the shop without too many problems.
Ihsan Ghali
River was grinning at Ihsan with delighted victory when the men fucked right off to go find a television set and watch some goddamn Game of Thrones (whatever that was-- Ihsan had heard plenty of people talk about it but never saw it herself, and apparently it was a hit or some shit). Ihsan was grinning right back, and the smile looked sharp like teeth made to rip. How good to have found a friend who was as into thrilling escapades as she was.
She turned her head, ears and hair both covered with a dark gray beanie, and switched from watching the men leave to peering toward the shop front. There were windows, sure, but the curtains were drawn and they wouldn't be able to get much of a peek through at anything. As she did this, she reached into the bag she brought along with and pulled free a folded piece of paper, upon which was a map that Samir had bestowed upon them, per Ihsan's insistance.
The storefront first, with the door down below hidden away in the floor. She studied what came next for a few moments, planning ahead, then looked up at River with her eyebrows raised.
"Can you find out how many are inside?"
The map was tucked into her back pocket, and next from the bag came what looked like a slim black velcro wallet. As Ihsan walked to the front door, she revealed that it was actually a lockpicking set. She knelt down to get in front of the lock and readied herself to start picking at it once she got a number from River.
River Vasquez
[Life1/Mind1: Who's there?]
Dice: 2 d10 TN4 (7, 10) ( success x 2 )
Ihsan Ghali
[Herp derp I was supposed to roll Larceny. Dex 3 Larc 2, diff 5 (per jamie saying the lock is shitty)]
Dice: 5 d10 TN5 (1, 1, 1, 7, 8) ( success x 2 )
the chakota
From the courtyard the girls cannot see inside the building. Curtains cover the display window and the glass door but the door is easily overpowered with a lock pick. Inside they find the shop interior devoid of other people.
It is even dirtier in person than it was on a computer screen in a hotel room yesterday. Dust covers the tribal artifacts and bric-a-brac thick enough to scrawl a message into it and if they think it difficult to breathe in here no one would blame them. That oppressiveness they had felt from a distance settles over them once they're inside in the dark.
They already know there's a trap door beneath a faded rug behind the shop counter. They have to lift it and descend the cramped stairs in order to reach the basement. The trap door has an inlaid steel handle and the hinges whine as they do so.
Yesterday the corridor was pitch black. Tonight a kerosene lantern hanging from the center of the ceiling lights the way to the reinforced oak door standing between them and the chamber.
It is not until they reach this door that River begins to feel signs of life. Three of them. She senses the presence of four other minds but no signs of life to accompany them.
River Vasquez
She stops at the door and feels... something.
She stops, reaches out to touch Ihsan's arm as if this would be enough of a warning to let her know that something was up. Also, the fact that river is digging through her purse to find a freaking hand gun. That would also be a sign that something was up.
"There's three life signs, but four minds... and they're not attached," the young woman looks, and sounds, about as confused as she actually is. LIke she can't quite think of why these two things wouldn't be attached but, frankly, she doesn't seem to like it.
"So... there's that." River shoots Ihsan an apologetic smile, like it's totally her fault that there may or may not be roving consciousnesses floating around here.
Ihsan Ghali
Ihsan walked with her staff carried aloft, so it wasn't tapping on the ground to give them away. Her black sneakers were quiet on the floor as it was, so she didn't have to break up her stride too much to keep herself from betraying their position.
When they made their way through the corridor she glanced this way and that, on the alert for anything that may be coming upon them. When she reached the door at the end of the hallway Ihsan tucked the knobbly looking staff under her arm anand waited for instruction on what came next.
"Not attached to bodies? There are ghosts?" She smiled. "I can fight ghosts."
She did reach for the gun in her handbag, not too disimilar from River's, all the same
the chakota
They know the layout of the inside of the chamber already. They don't know whether the door is locked or not until they try it. It is not locked.
They are here to rescue the people they saw strapped to the long poles jutting from the entryway wall. They are not here to take in the ambiance but it encroaches upon their attention anyway. Wall niches contain torches and the torch flames dance as if to awaken a dead god. That curtain behind which Samir refused to look yesterday flutters. The girls can hear murmuring behind it.
The victims are a man and a woman. They are held to the poles by leather thongs tied around their wrists. They are still alive but River can tell they have been drugged and they are only conscious in the loosest sense of the word.
At the center of the room sits the pit they saw yesterday. Eight feet across and covered by a thick slab of stone. If they lose their damned minds and decide to try and open the pit they will have to use the nearby pulley to do so. Samir did not see necessary to look inside it from a distance either. He has enough problems maintaining his sanity without throwing it on the ground at the first available opportunity.
The girls only have a few seconds to take in the chamber before the first of the guards stumbles out of the alcove. Four approach altogether. They are in the same condition as was Jackson Elias's body. Intestines dangling and threatening to tangle their legs. The cult rune Samir pulled out the ether carved into their foreheads.
Carved. Not drawn. The three men who killed Elias had to take their time about it.
These reanimated corpses take their time too but they don't have much of a choice.
Ihsan Ghali
[Willpower]
Dice: 6 d10 TN7 (1, 6, 6, 6, 9, 10) ( success x 2 )
River Vasquez
[Okay Ms. Vasquez]
Dice: 5 d10 TN7 (1, 1, 2, 9, 10) ( success x 2 )
River Vasquez
River has a few moments to take things in, she has a few moments before the world around her becomes a series of sensory details that she compartmentalizes so that she doesn't have to really think about what horrors she's witnessing.
This is a place of ritual, a place of things that River Vasquez knows that she shouldn't try to understand lest it seep into her consciousness and make sense to her. Sometimes, there are epiphanies one shouldn't have. Sometimes, there are mysteries we like to keep unsolved.
She tightens her grip on her gun, doesn't try to think of what she is actually seeing. There's just bodies, just animated shambling fucking corpses that have endured the same fate as her friend had not too long before this and now is not the time for her imagination to get the better of her.
"Get in and get out?"
River is very much a forced degree of calm. She trains her gun on one of the bodies.
Ihsan Ghali
The door swung open and there was only enough time for a quick glance about the basement space-- enough to see a flash of the pully and hole-cover set up, enough for plenty of drums as well. She was hunting for the couple of people that they were here to save when a more persistent, threatening movement grabbed attention.
The sight of the zombies shambling out from behind the curtain that Samir simply refused to look behind had bile trying to bubble into her throat. How the intestines hung out and swayed with each step like something heavy and soggy made her sick. She would have preferred to know about them ahead of time, but she didn't necessarily fault the techie man for refusing in the first place.
"....Ah," she said at long last. "Not ghosts. Zombies."
With her right hand she gripped the center of the twisted old black wood staff, and with her left she raised the gun and took her best approximation of aim.
"So much for just getting in and out."
[Init! + 6]
Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (5) ( fail )
River Vasquez
[5+d10]
Dice: 1 d10 TN7 (4) ( fail )
the chakota
[HORDE RULES WHAT +4]
Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (9) ( success x 1 )
the chakota
[lol you haven't met this bitch yet +5]
Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (5) ( fail )
the chakota
ROUND 1 DECLARE ORDER
river: 9
??: 10
ihsan: 11
zombies: 13
River Vasquez
Nope. No, none of this sits well with her and all she can think of it do is to stop the onslaught of offsettling beings. She isn't going for center mass this time, because she has literally just seen mvoies about zombies and none of this is okay.
"Oh, screw this," river says. And fires.
[action: zombie headshot time!]
the chakota
[Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.]
Ihsan Ghali
[Let's just try hitting the thing first- shoot a gun!]
the chakota
They've both seen movies about zombies. River and Grace ganged up on Samir to make him watch Zombieland recently. They both know what's going to happen when those reanimated corpses cross the room.
[Movement, no action this round.]
Ihsan Ghali
[Dex 3 + Firearms 1]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (1, 5, 6, 10) ( success x 2 )
Ihsan Ghali
[Damage: 4 +1 suxx]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (2, 2, 4, 6, 8) ( success x 2 )
River Vasquez
[Headshots! Dex3+Firearms2]
Dice: 5 d10 TN8 (3, 5, 7, 10, 10) ( success x 3 ) [WP]
River Vasquez
[Firearm4+2(succ)+2(headshot)]
Dice: 8 d10 TN6 (2, 5, 6, 6, 7, 7, 10, 10) ( success x 6 )
the chakota
The two open fire. The reports echo in the stone chamber. Later they will experience the joy of tinnitus. Right now adrenaline is protecting them from the unpleasant sensation of temporary deafness.
Ihsan's first shot takes off one of the corpse's arms at the elbow. River's first shot hits at such an angle that the momentum and force obliterates the head and leaves the body crumpled on the floor.
The three continue advancing. They can feel the lashing of magick beginning to unfurl behind the curtain.
River Vasquez
[seriously, pewpew: Headshot number two!]
the chakota
[Unseen Asshole: Psychic Attack on River. Sorry River the Decision Die is a dick :( ]
Ihsan Ghali
[Headshot seemed to work]
the chakota
[Zombies are still marching on.]
Ihsan Ghali
[Blam! WP]
Dice: 4 d10 TN8 (3, 4, 7, 8) ( success x 2 ) [WP]
Ihsan Ghali
[Dmg 4 + 1 + 2]
Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 1, 3, 4, 7, 9) ( success x 2 )
the chakota
[Sorry, River :(]
Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (2, 3, 4) ( fail )
River Vasquez
[Completely oblivious to someone trying to hurt my brain! Pewpew]
Dice: 5 d10 TN8 (1, 5, 5, 7, 10) ( success x 2 ) [WP]
River Vasquez
[Damage]
Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 9) ( success x 1 )
the chakota
[zombies! +4]
Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (9) ( success x 1 )
the chakota
[man behind the curtain! +6]
Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (5) ( fail )
River Vasquez
[derp 5+1d10]
Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (5) ( fail )
Ihsan Ghali
[Init + 6]
Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (6) ( success x 1 )
the chakota
Ihsan's second shot drops the armless zombie. River's second shot takes out the eye of one of the two remaining creatures but that only succeeds in slowing it down.
The stink of them reaches the Chakravanti moments before their arms reach to grab and pull them nearer.
Whoever is behind the curtain stays there for now. The girls may not even realize he's there yet. Whatever effect he attempted to cast fizzled before it could strike its target.
[Init order is the exact same as last time good job everyone.]
the chakota
Zombie 1: CHOMP RIVER.
Dice: 4 d10 TN5 (2, 3, 4, 9) ( success x 1 )
the chakota
DAMAGE
Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (3, 9, 10) ( success x 2 )
the chakota
Zombie 2: CHOMP IHSAN
Dice: 4 d10 TN5 (2, 6, 7, 9) ( success x 3 )
the chakota
DAMAGE +2
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (2, 3, 4, 7, 7) ( success x 2 )
Ihsan Ghali
[Sooooak]
Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (3, 5, 8) ( success x 1 )
River Vasquez
[Soak: Oww.]
Dice: 2 d10 TN6 (3, 9) ( success x 1 )
Ihsan Ghali
[Headshot!]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (4, 6, 6, 10) ( success x 3 )
Ihsan Ghali
[Damage!]
Dice: 8 d10 TN6 (1, 6, 7, 7, 9, 9, 9, 10) ( success x 7 )
the chakota
[NOPING OUT OF HERE]
Dice: 3 d10 TN5 (3, 8, 9) ( success x 3 ) [WP]
River Vasquez
[Per+aware]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (4, 5, 6, 6, 8) ( success x 3 )
Ihsan Ghali
{Per + Aware]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (1, 4, 9, 10) ( success x 2 )
the chakota
As she recoils from an attack that is aimed at her neck Ihsan spins back into a strong firing stance and fires a shot that not only goes through her attacker's skull like it's moving through a tomato but it hits the corpse attacking River.
Suffice to say by the time the gunshots have stopped both of the Chakravanti are splashed with blood.
The almost-victims watch the display with glass-gone eyes but they are both still breathing.
As the last shell casing bounces across the floor a strong flare of devotional resonance comes up from behind the curtain. A sense of departure and emptiness joins the oppressive air in the chamber. Whoever that was was not only responsible for the reanimated corpses but just used Correspondence magick to remove himself from the premises.
The entire affair took less than ten seconds.
River Vasquez
[None of this shit is okay. WP]
Dice: 5 d10 TN8 (4, 6, 6, 6, 10) ( success x 1 )
River Vasquez
River is covered in blood.
She stands there with a gun in her hand and her body stiff and her eyes wide and she is breathing shallow and her head hurts and her stomach turns and there is the smell- oh god, that smell. River stands there, covered in blood and trying to process the fact that something just tried to eat her and someone has fled and-
"..."
She hasn't started screaming yet. Hasn't stripped off clothing or started crying or anything of the sort. Her heart is beating loud and harsh in her ears and she looks back at the almost-victims of this disaster and-
"... we need to get them down."
Her voice sounds miles away. It's probably because of the fact that they just started shooting guns in a stone room.
Ihsan Ghali
The first time that a gunshot rang hard in Ihsan's ear some sensible voice in the back of her mind warned her that this was a bad idea and maybe her ears won't ever be the same if she just keeps going. But there aren't a lot of choices, and they were Mages for christ's sakes, she could just get someone to help fix her ears another time.
When the hail of bullets ended, Ihsan looked over at River and how pale she certainly was for all of the blood on her clothes and skin. She spied a chunk of viscera in River's hair and reached over to pluck it out, flicked it onto the floor, then clapped a hand on the woman's shoulder to offer her something reassuring.
As they stood there a ripple of Magick worked its way through the room, and they both sensed it much like a smoke cloud that indicates when a villian or ninja has left the room. Ihsan's lips pressed into a line and she looked over to the nigh-comatose captives as well.
"We should get them down," she said as well. She wasn't hearing well enough to recognize that River had said something through the ringing in her ears just yet.
the chakota
[Heh heh heh. COMMERCIAL BREAK.]
River Vasquez
[stamina: WTF is that a chunk of]
Dice: 2 d10 TN8 (3, 7) ( fail )
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