|
Post by kilnarak on Dec 30, 2023 5:31:47 GMT -6
After reuniting with Casmir, Moana and Kail walk with the hunter toward the cracked open shutter barring them from the fountain. Casmir ducks under the shutter first, and the other two give him a few moments before following, perhaps to be certain nothing would suddenly appear and snap his head off.
The first thing any of them see upon entering is the fountain, pale gray stone washed red with blood. The next thing they notice are the bodies: Shah is laid out on her side to the left of the fountain, her mouth and torso washed with blood; Ru is to the right, draped half over the side of the fountain. Just beyond him, also draped over to bleed into the fountain is Ari; and the final figure, Ryu, is sitting slumped against one of the pillars holding up the skylight, his face a mask of blood.
As they move around the voices they hear Samael's voice just before they see him: "Agent Caro. What is this? Do you need assistance?"
He is regarding a pale man kneeling over a bloody circle drawn on the floor. Caro's arms are burned black and appear useless, his expression drawn in a mix of anger and pain. He seems to startle as he is addressed - too focused on the spell he had been trying to cast to notice Samael approaching. After the flash of surprise at the other agent, his attention is drawn to the movement of the others rounding the fountain. "You can help--" his voice is hoarse as if from inhaling smoke, and his words are cut off as the beef restaurant behind him explodes.
The explosion is sudden, the loud BOOM of gas igniting and combusting shakes the mall. The force of it knocks Agent Caro down across his ritual circle, and Samael to the floor. The entire area is bathed in a rush of heat, and a rain of sharp bits of broken glass, metal, concrete, and... meat? Got Beef is gone, a gaping crater in the mall's floorplan, the remaining bits of wall between it and nearby stores catching flame. There is a startling amount of charred black viscera in the crater, and the broken edges of the walls weep black ichor.
Then the floor begins to shake, another quake rocking the structure. The column that Ryu's body had been propped against (the body now laying in a crumpled heap on the floor) buckles suddenly. There is a metallic screeching sound as the floors above begin to sag without it's support, and a deeper rumbling building slowly from inaudible to a deep groan. Abruptly the static on the speakers screeches again, painfully shrill. It does not abate. The fountain statue shudders.
Moana and Kail see the stone form of the siren begin to move. She weeps bloody tears as portions of the mall collapse and burn, and her dolphins nestle around her as if in comfort. Her keening is the shrill screech of the static. It hurts to hear it, to look at her. Their minds are shaken.
Casmir and Samael don't see this - the fountain remains a fountain, grey stone washed with gore. Instead, they are aware of a shifting above as the skylight begins to buckle. There is a ripple, as if clouds moving past above, and then abruptly the light is gone. The three remaining columns tremble, vibrating, and then with a screech of metal and cracking of stone, the skylight slumps down toward them. It opens again, the light pouring through bright, bathing the fountain and those around it in harsh greenish light. It isn't a skylight, it can't be a skylight. Long ropes of black and red flesh begin to pour down from the bright hole in the not-skylight, twining together into thick fleshy tentacles that, once formed, veer off to search the site of the explosion - searching for what hurt them.
Alessio winces as he awkwardly pushes himself up using his elbows, gathering himself then rocking back onto his knees. Some of the black char that makes up his arms has broken away when he fell. His circle is broken, the bloody lines smudged away when he fell. He hisses past his grit teeth, flinching again at the static, then looks up at Samael and the others.
"You can help by redrawing that. It doesn't need to be precise. It just needs to be there," he gestures with one of his ruined arms. "And keep that thing off me. It doesn't want us to leave, but I am not staying here."
-
In the crater, Stenson's body is burned black pulses of raw red blood and charred shards of bone. The gore monster looks little better. He should be dead - he certainly shouldn't be conscious - but some corner of his mind is still aware. He can feel his nerves screaming, although he cannot will his ravaged muscles to function. He can see, blearily, that the gore monster is still twitching - still trying to reach him - although it doesn't seem able to move much more than that either. He spends an agonizing span of time aware of it, aware of his ruined body, and then finally something dark descends slowly from above. It touches the monster for a moment, then moves to touch him - soothingly cool on his charred skin. Then it wraps around him, his Siren's arms embracing him lovingly. He sinks into it gratefully as it lifts him up into the blinding light. He can hear her heavenly voice surrounding him as the light engulfs him. Until there is no more pain, no more heat or cold, nothing but her Song and the Light.
|
|
|
Post by luscen on Jan 3, 2024 9:23:19 GMT -6
[CASMIR sees SAM speaking with ALESSIO. Spares a moment of pity for RU. After the explosion, he realizes the reality of the situation, but tries to formulate a plan of attack, asking KAIL if he knows how the moonlight blade works.]
The three approached the shutter, a corner portion of which was opened just enough to crawl through. Casmir eyed it briefly, then gave the other two a measured look; he already knew that he wasn't going to win the vote here, so he "volunteered" to enter the fountain area, first.
"Hope you're fluent in siren," he grunted to Moana as he prepped his sidearm. While it would serve as a warning to the two maneaters that would be at his back, the reality of the situation was that those worker drones might still be down here, somewhere. Or something even worse, at that. They couldn't afford to be careless, here.
The Hunter ducked under the breach, keeping low to the ground as he surveyed the immediate area: he saw the biker just ahead, as well as two bodies near the base of the fountain; one was unfamiliar, but the other was the vampire, Ru. Judging by his current state, the nightwalker had run into a sudden case of mortality that he'd been unable to shake off. Casmir allowed himself to feel the pang of regret at not having been able to save him.
Just then there was a massive explosion that shook the foundation and left the blonde's ears ringing. His feet fell away from under him, suffering from vertigo and dulled hearing, alongside a wave of heat, chalky debris and... the smell of burning meat?
He shook his head in an attempt to clear the fog from it, only to look up and see something that shouldn't even have been real: the skylight of the mall was... melting towards them? And now it was weeping tears of pitch and crimson, which coagulated into a sinuous tentacle of massive size like... a long tongue. A tongue that was now licking its wound- the shop that Casmir had left Jones in.
Which had just exploded.
'We need to leave. Now.'
The Hunter pushed himself to his feet, with effort. He looked back at Kail and Moana. "The mall's a god damned monster." They couldn't fight a bloody building, but if there was a vulnerable spot, a heart in this leviathan, then they still had options. "That sword's supposed to be able to hurt it," he growled, pointing towards the blade the Wendigo was still brandishing. "You found it, do you have any idea how it works?"
|
|
|
Post by Salandis on Jan 5, 2024 3:11:50 GMT -6
[Moana decides on chaos. Uses the horn aimed at the tentacles, passes it to Casmir. Uses the torch on the statue.]
Moana studied the scene. One look at Ari, pitiful and broken with his blood feeding the statue, and she had… locked down. Gone professional, as if this was another job for the boss. The blaze of white hot fury and grief wasn’t something she could let herself feel just yet, or she would be trying to rip out a stone throat with her own teeth. And in a way, she was on a job – Ari was an employee. Mal had a clear cut policy on this.
"Hope you’re fluent in siren” Casmir had grunted at her, and she shook her head. “We cleared them from our shores eons ago,” she said absently. “Ate them.” Let’s see. The building, revealed by the blast, was no building at all. The strange inhabitants, the oddly named stores, even the creatures they had run across, started to make sense. They were already in the siren – already eaten, as it were. All that was left was to die and be fed on. She studied the statue as it cried, then her eyes widened in alarm as the whole place started to shift and change.
She looked at Alessio, at his injuries, and… dismissed him. Whatever he was doing, had been doing, it wasn’t working. The tendrils from above would take him easily, without assistance, but that was almost beside the point. The statue seemed to be the key here. Well, first thing first then.
“The mall’s a god damned monster.” Casmir, stating the obvious. Turning first to Kail, thinking of the sword. And that was a powerful sword, Kail may have a shot. She might have bantered, at another time. When she wasn't as cold as the Fox glacier.
Moana held up the horn that had come from the spider’s den, pointed it up towards the monstrous skylit tentacles, and shook it as hard as she could. As the angry frenzy of bugs swarmed out of it she passed it almost casually to Casmir, knowing he would instinctively understand it as soon as he held it.
Next she grabbed the trusty plasma torch. One shot left, and she delivered it directly to the fountain. Only one way to really find out if the laser could cut stone, after all.
|
|
|
Post by kilnarak on Jan 9, 2024 3:20:10 GMT -6
"'course I know how it works! It cuts, things die!" Kail sneered at Casmir, at least, once his ears had stopped ringing after the explosion. Ignoring the agents, the wendigo turned his attention to the monster above - but it was far away, and he got the idea that hacking at the walls with the sword wouldn't do him much good, so instead he turned his attention to the nearer monster: The Fountain.
The Siren is still weeping bloody tears, her dolphins cuddling up to her in an attempt to soothe her; then the Siren's bloody, blank eyes turn to the party and she screams. The sound is both sharp and deep, it feels as if it sets the whole world to trembling, and the hiss of static becomes the crashing sound of waves. Above, the creature that is the Mall echoes her scream with a deep, bone-shaking rumble. The sound is enough to set everyone reeling, even the pale burned agent who nearly topples again. Kail doubles over, clutching his head with his free hand - he feels as if the sound is worming it's way into him, eating through him. Still, when one of the Siren's dolphin's rushes him, he slices the stone creature in two with his sword, dispatching it.
Moana sees the dolphin as well, rushing at her companion, but he kills it before she can move to help. Casmir, however, does not see the dolphin - instead he sees a massive tentacle slipping down from the creature above, rushing to strike at Kail then recoiling as the wendigo's sword slices into it.
Seeing that Kail was still standing, Moana lifted her box to release a swarm of insects toward the skylight. It's difficult to see what becomes of the bugs as they near the skylight, but the creature's tentacles seem to shiver a little as the blurred cloud of insects disappear into the light. The taniwha doesn't pause to consider the fate of the insects, handing the box over to Casmir and firing a focused beam from the torch at the fountain in nearly the same movement. The beam does not cut through the stone as Kail's sword had, but the Siren does recoil as the focused light draws a line across her face - the stone of her body is white in the beam of light, and she raises her arms as if to protect her eyes.
Alessio flinches when Samael helps him steady himself after the creature roars, and tries to shrug off the dullahan's hand. He hisses past his teeth as the others ignore him - but at least they are distracting the beast. He glances guardedly up at Samael. "Help me draw the circle," he repeats and, after a moment's thought, Samael kneels down to help him. He uses blood from the bodies by the fountain to redraw the circle within a circle, and at Alessio's direction draws other sigils within the outer ring of the circle. Once he is satisfied, the pale agent resumes his chanting. Anyone nearby can feel the spell building, although it's difficult to intuit just what it will do once it's completed - the air grows chill as the enchantment on the circle begins to sap ambient energy from the surrounding area, gradually focusing it in the center...
|
|
|
Post by luscen on Jan 13, 2024 5:19:01 GMT -6
[CASMIR avoids being squashed, tries shooting THE STATUE’S chest cavity. Asks MOANA if she has any spells she can use ]
“Nice,” Casmir sniped sardonically. “Just try not to get flattened before we can get out of here?”
He took the horn Moana had foisted upon him, frowning down at it, only to curse and dive out of the way as a massive tentacle swung around towards Kail. The Wendigo’s blade arced through the air in a singing crescent, however, slashing through the side of it and sending the flailing appendage reeling with a pained roar from the creature above.
The Taniwa, meanwhile, had turned her plasma torch on the statue. Aside from blinding it, however, the siren didn’t seem too put out.
“Don’t you have some kind of sea witch magic or something?” Casmir barked, taking aim at the statue’s exposed torso and taking a few pot shots at it. “A spell or a curse or something?”
|
|
|
Post by Salandis on Jan 13, 2024 23:42:42 GMT -6
[Moana snaps at CASMIR and then casts a spell – at the Siren, and also at ALESSIO]
The statue recoiled, but was still unmoved. Moana cursed and dropped the plasma torch to one side, wincing in pain as the screams seemed to bite into her ears. Rocked back a moment by the effects of the scream, she isn't able to even react when she sees a dolphin charge at Kail - only to witness it sliced in two by his sword. So at least one weapon they had was effective against the stone creatures, that was good to know. And damn if he didn’t look fine holding it.
“Don’t you have some kind of sea witch magic or something? Casmir barked at her, and she snarled, anger bubbling through her icy detachment for a moment. “Oh, yes, we’re all evil sorcerer types, us magic creatures,” she snapped, and then paused.
Goddammit, he was right. She had always had more of an interest in breaking curses, but here was a curse sitting in her mind, ready to use. And what could possibly be more fitting? A spell of water and vengeance, a spell to cause harm to those deserving of it. Her eyes fell again to Ari’s limp body, then looked up at Alessio. Could it be – no. But then, this place was making people crazy.
She stepped back, making sure her eyes and mind held both the statue and the agent. If he had done nothing wrong, the spell would be mostly harmless. She could fix it later, even, and apologise the whole time. In the meantime…
She cast the spell, the words and magic seared into easy reach even as the rest of her abilities seemed locked away.
|
|
|
Post by kilnarak on Jan 15, 2024 23:14:21 GMT -6
The sense of energy building and focusing continues as Alessio, with the help of Samael, continues his spell. The floor in the center of his drawn circle begins to shift and tremble, giving the impression of visual static running through reality. Something is forming in the space, the shape of the ground molding and changing ever so slightly. It just beginning to fully solidify when Moana casts her spell.
Moisture is pulled out of the air as a blade of water forms, hovering infront of the taniwha, then rushes forward to strike her first target: the Siren. The stone of the creature cracks under the assault, and Moana feels a strange itch in her mind, her memory of the spell shivering as if trying to slip free of her grasp. It holds true, however and a second blade forms as her thoughts switch to Alessio - to the idea that he may have caused harm to her friend. The spell doesn't care whether true or not, it feeds on her emotions as it rushes to strike him while he is vulnerable, casting his own spell. The watery blade peppers his ghost-white skin with cuts, setting rivulets of red blood flowing from numerous small cuts. He is rocked by the assault, shuddering as he falls back, his control over the his own spell shaken. The static spreads wide over the floor - the sensation under Casmir and Moana's feet something like sand, shifting and uncertain. Gradually the sensation diminishes until the floor is stable again, the same as before save for a circular hatch where the blood circle had been, a heavy lock holding it closed.
Moana feels the spell shivering in her mind again, trying to pull free but failing. She sees Samael bending over the fallen agent, checking his status. Kail follows up Moana's attack, rushing at the statue to slash at it with the Moonbone Blade. The glowing sword bites into the stone of the statue, leaving a deep slash in the Siren's torso.
Meanwhile, Casmir fires a few rounds with his pistol at the statue - the bullets strike true in the center of her chest, leaving visible holes where they have embedded in the stone. However, while they would have likely been fatal to a creature of flesh and blood, the Siren's stone body seems much more resilient. The hole weeps red and she screams, the sound piercing and panic-inducing. Everyone feels as if they teeter on the edge of sanity, and Kail doubles over, clawing at his arms and screaming about worms in his skin.
|
|
|
Post by luscen on Jan 22, 2024 20:50:05 GMT -6
[OOC: CASMIR tosses the skeleton key to SAM, the tells MOANA to try and shake KAIL out of his hallucinations. He then looks around for the construction tools the WORKERS left behind for a sledgehammer to use.]
Casmir clapped his hands over his ears as the siren wailed, his world tilting sideways. He bit his lip hard enough to taste the coppery tang of blood well up on his tongue, as his eyes darted between his erstwhile companions- Kail was scrabbling at his skin instead of trying to kill the statue, and Moana had sent her spell at both the nymph and the agent, which could have cost them.
As it was, the sign the agent was trying to make flickered and resolved into… a keyhole?
“Gan ceann!” the Hunter snapped at Sam to get his attention. He tossed the small skeleton key towards the other man. “Get that open!”
Turning his attention back to Moana, he pointed towards Kail. “Snap him out of it before he gets crushed!” The two seemed to have formed a camaraderie, he’d be less likely to attack her rather than the Hunter.
‘Be nice if I had a hand grenade,’ Casmir grunted. He could try and get the sword off of Kail, but if he was too far gone, it was too much of a risk. The insect cone wouldn’t help, either, as it was swarming around the “naiad’s” eye. Or whatever that not-skylight was.
Wait… the tools! Casmir remembered the construction tools those workers had left out. If there was a sledgehammer among them, maybe that would do the trick.
|
|
|
Post by Salandis on Jan 27, 2024 15:37:35 GMT -6
[Moana attempts to redirect Kail, tries for the spell again at the statue]
Moana struggled a moment, the spell in her mind trying to break itself free of her own memory. She grimly held it – she might need it again, and soon. Her own footing seemed to shift, like standing on the beach as the tide changed. The spell… wasn’t quite what it was supposed to be. She spared a moment of regret as Alessio fell back, but Ari…
“Snap him out of it before he get’s crushed!” Casmir’s voice intruded, and Moana shook herself. Kail was doubled over, the Moonbone Blade slack in one hand as he clawed at himself. The ground under her feet seemed more solid, and – was that a keyhole? Not her lookout right now.
“Right.” She ran over to Kail, cautious of the hostile architecture and the armed and potentially dangerous Wendigo. “Kail!” she seized one shoulder, giving him a rough shake. “The worms aren’t in you, they’re of her!” She tried to orient him back to the statue, cracked and screaming. “Hit her again, dammit. Show me what you can do with that fancy sword!”
Taking a step back she reached for the spell again. Maybe she had one more shock of it in her to give – the one-two from last time left a massive crack over her torso, maybe if she aimed it a little better she could take off a head.
|
|
|
Post by kilnarak on Feb 1, 2024 5:21:21 GMT -6
Samael helped Alessio up; the pale agent looked to be on Death's door, where his skin showed between wounds and streaks of blood it was a cold, waxy grey. He was not doing well after Moana's attack, after the Siren's scream, but his eyes widened slightly as he saw the hatch - the spell had worked, at least partially. The lock was a problem. Both he and Samael looked up when Casmir called to the dullahan. Alessio blinked as the man threw something, then, upon seeing the glint of glass he hissed and lurched forward: "No you idiot, it will break!"
Samael was quicker than he was, and the Dullahan reached to catch the thrown key, but nearly fumbled and dropped it in his haste. There was a small crack, only audible to Samael, but when he examined the key he found a narrow fracture in its shaft - it hadn't snapped at least, but it likely wouldn't survive the use.
Meanwhile, Casmir had turned to search the tools left by the ill-fated construction crew. He immediately spied a sledgehammer propped against one of the pillars, but as he rushed to grab it the floor shifted again, knocking him off balance. The pillar trembled, slowly rising as the monstrosity above pulled the thick limb up out of the mooring concrete. Cracks ran through the linoleum tiles of the floor, through the concrete below it, widening and opening up into a gaping hole into the darkness so far below. The sledge tumbled down into the depths, and Casmir nearly followed it - but the hunter managed to scramble away from the gaping wound in the floor.
Moana moved to Kail, reaching for him to shake him by the shoulder. Even as the words left her mouth "The worms aren't in you" she saw them, inky black and burrowing, moving through the wendigo's hands, through his face. The sight shook her to her core and a sudden fear took shape inside of her: an intense phobia of contamination. She released Kail, shoving away from him roughly - could the worms travel into her through that touch? She couldn't see them on her hands, in them, but the thought that they might be made her stomach drop and bile rise in her throat.
She moved away from Kail, tried to ignore him and the sudden nausea, turned her attention to the fountain. She found the spell in her mind and took it as a blade, hurling it at the Siren. The water formed again, a sharp and dripping sickle, and it arced out to dig a deep furrow in the statue's neck. More watery crimson blood flowed from the wound in the stone, but the creature's head was still attached. In her mind, the spell shivered and squirmed - almost like the worms in Kail - but it remained moored in place. She had not lost it yet.
Feeling the floor shift she looked to see the pillar Casmir had been headed toward lifting, the floor around it breaking away in chunks to reveal the void below. Behind her Kail screamed shrilly, and suddenly a chunk of floor rose out of the void and went flying directly at the statue. It struck the Siren in the head and the creature's neck, already weakened by Moana's blow, snapped sending the head careening off across the hall.
The entire space shook as the statue broke, the dolphins all falling to smash upon the floor as the Siren was beheaded. Far above, the creature's staticky scream of rage echoed down. A massive tentacle swept down, smashing into the floor beside Kail. A little nearer and he would have been crushed - and it looked as if the creature intended to sweep that tentacle through the room and crush them all. It's fountain had been broken and it no longer had a reason to be careful of harming it.
Both Casmir and Moana braced themselves to try to avoid the blow, but as they did they heard a sharp crack. Samael had inserted the key into the lock and turned it. The brittle glass had snapped, but the lock opened, and the hatch opened. They had a sense of a sudden pressure being released and then the feeling that all the air was being sucked out of their surroundings. They had a moment to consider that before they felt themselves being pulled too, suddenly and sharply, ripped up off the floor and pulled into the hatch in the floor. Alessio and Samael disappeared into it first, the space revealed behind the hatch a swirling void of stars and darkness. Then Kail, the sword slipping from his fingers. Finally, Casmir and Moana were pulled into the abyss. The hatch slammed shut behind them.
-
In the void, the darkness was soothingly cool - not the frigid cold they had expected. There was a sense of comfort in it, a softness that lulled them into a sense that all was safe and well. It felt almost like the pendants had, a sense of safety and stability, but multiplied a thousand times over. They drifted in the dark for ages until, suddenly, they felt solid ground beneath them - solid ground and, perhaps, soft bedding. The darkness of the void became only the darkness of eyes closed in sleep, and the memory of the mall became only a nightmare drifting out of focus to be replaced with more restful sleep.
|
|