Plotlogs
Shifting Shadows Sr William 250227
In the wilderness of Lauriea, a group embarked on a desperate mission to neutralize a dangerous shifter causing breaches of secrecy. The shifter, suspected to be Marcus Summers, a werewolf gone rogue with multiple forms, including a bear, a snake, and an eagle, drew their attention due to his connection to a newly discovered artifact. This artifact, believed to be experimented on by the Fae, comprised two pieces—one draining magic from the Godrealm, feeding the other to empower the shifter with monstrous shifting abilities.
Upon tracking the shifter to a secluded wooden hut, the team, comprised of Lilian, Benjamin, Seamus, Antoinette, and led by Sam, found themselves in a silent and eerily empty patch of forest. Their plan split between distraction, stealth, and direct confrontation, with Lilian utilizing her vampiric abilities and summoning a penguin minion named Pengu for assistance. The confrontation escalated quickly as the shifter, able to morph into deadly forms, resisted their efforts to subdue or distract him using a combination of magic, physical force, and cunning.
Despite their preparation, the battle turned chaotic. The shifter demonstrated formidable resilience and power, shrugging off most of their attacks while lashing out in blind rage, partially induced by Lilian's ritual of madness. The group's magic, particularly from Sam, strained to hold the beast at bay. The fight intensified, drawing on everyone's strengths, from Benjamin's defensive strategies to Antoinette's keen instincts for recovery of the artifact amidst the turmoil.
The fight reached its climax as the group, bruised and battered, managed to weaken the shifter enough for Antoinette to bravely retrieve the cursed bracelet, the source of the shifter's augmented power. However, their victory was overshadowed by the arrival of a sinister, life-draining vulture, marking an ominous closure to their harrowing ordeal. It fed on the shifter's body in a grotesque display, hinting at deeper, darker magic at play. Despite the unsettling witness, they relayed the artifact to a representative from Venice, extracting a vague promise of gratitude and the slim possibility of research access in the future.
In the aftermath, the team, particularly focused on their injured and traumatized members, regrouped outside the gates of the Other. The mission had taken a heavy toll on them, physically and mentally, leaving behind a lingering sense of unease and many unanswered questions. Yet, their bond, forged in the fire of combat and shared peril, emerged stronger, a silver lining to their clouded, mysterious venture. The shadow of the vulture and the enigmatic forces behind the artifact loomed large as they retreated to the relative safety of Haven, their mission completed but far from over in its implications.
(Shifting Shadows(SRWilliam):SRWilliam)
[Wed Feb 26 2025]
In the wilderness somewhere in Lauriea
Somewhere on the wilderness of Lauriea, the thickness of the vegetation is overwhelming. Trees as far as sight reaches, grass growing taller than it should, easily up the knees or hips of some, brushes, logs and fallen trunks here and there, with the ocassional rock on sight. The air dripping with pure magic, sticking to every living being that walks in the area, almost like some thick sugary liquid. Though, despite how vibrant life seems to be about here, all of the fauna in the area seems to be missing, not even smaller mammals or monsters on sight - Even the magical animated plant monsters of the Other seem to keep their distance from this place.
Hidden between the several tree trunks, one can spot a little makeshift wooden hut, big enough to house a person or two, at least composed of three rooms by the look of it, at least from the outside, marks on the ground and the cork of the trees seem to lead in that direction. Not too far from it, a hole in the ground seems to be covered by a bunch of wooden logs stuck together with some sort of orangish resin that acts as glue, almost looks like an attempt of a bunker with very lackluster entrance security, or the den of some animal, covered with wooden planks.
It is night, about 28F(-2C) degrees, There is a new moon.
Wearing full skimpy armor over her skimpy dress, Lilian is on Benjamin's arm, cuddling against him with a unstrung bow in her other hand as she waits around.
Unlike Lilian who has skimpy Benjamin has a metaphorical slab of beaten iron plunked into the ground and leaning heavily against himself.
Seamus is his usual unarmed self looking very much like the bait.
Antoinette also looks relatively unarmed, apparently she's not planning to get into any tangles. Probably on team stealth mode, but she does have a knife on her at least. And maybe some other things up her sleeve.
[OOC: A little OOC rundown of everything before we begin. The color of this same message I will use for privates or stat/discipline dependent messages. I will also use it for OOC if needed, but that will normally come with the brackets and the ooc disclaimer. I will also normally wait for every player to post before I move on to posting my next message, but if for some reason you feel like I'm taking too long, feel free to continue interacting with each other, no need to strictly wait while doing nothing unless you /need/ a reply from me. Now, for this plot in particular, if you have brought weapons and are worried about getting xp, feel free to drop them on the ground, they are only needed in case I need to probe your disciplines. This whole plot is going to be in a single room to avoid having to chase players around and some people seeing some things and others not, so things that would normally be other rooms, have been worked into places - If you need some info about a place, do express it and I will give a short emote with what you can see, only join them if your character actually gets there - Some things will happen when you get in certain places, or only if you do. And that would be all, make sure to have fun, and feel free to tell me at any point for any reason ]
[And with that said, I will proceed to post the first message to kickstart everything]
Still within the confines of the town of Haven, not yet in the wilderness by any means, the last couple natural lights of the day bathe the sky, painting it in orangish tones that are quickly giving pass to the darker colors of the night as it approaches.
But that isn't where our group is meeting, no. Instead, it is nearer to Suncrest Lane, in particular, by the side of the gate to the Other. A solitary man waits resting against his black car there, checking his watch every so often. Dressed in a formal suit that would give out he's likely just came out from work, either that or he's doing a poor job to dress for his surroundings. Not particularly high, but definitely a bulky man, with rounded facial features and olive toned skin.
As the group slowly arrives and gathers closeby to the gate, the man directs his eyes to each of them slowly, examining them closely before straightening himself, letting out a little sigh and taking a couple steps closer. He takes a moment to look around the area, and checks his watch one more time, before finally saying "Thank you for answering the request.".
His voice seems to have some sort of arabic accent that is half faded, almost accustomed to talking like an american "Venice could not let the situation keep escalating at the pace it was going" Much like they might have supposed before, this man is the agent sent by the Venetian council to brief them on their mission, and to whom they might have to report later on "We've had to deal with five cases of mundane sightings of a beast halfway between man and bear. And as you can understand, we simply cannot allow such breach of the secrecy to keep going.".
And with that he reaches towards the car to retrieve a folder from inside, checking a paper or two before half reading to everyone "The source of the issue has been narrowed down to a particular shifter coming out from the Other and causing trouble both in border territories and now sightings have been extended to the forests near Haven. Its shifting abilities have been deemed unusually strong, showing no signs of diminishing strength for presenting multiple shifted forms, as well as more dangerous kinds of shifting".
"Its power source has been tracked down to a newly discovered artifact which we suspect the Fae are experimenting with, consisting of two essential pieces. One of them gathers magic from its surroundings, and sends it towards the other, which acts as a receiver, working even across different worlds - The magic drain has been tracked to the Godrealm, where a ritual to stop the drain is being performed right now " And with that the man, the man passes the page and puts the the folder away, crossing his arms, pointing a finger towards his own ear and telling them "Whenever you have retrieved the artifact, use a private channel to contact me".
Then he slowly passes his eyes all over the group once more before ending with a little "The artifact we suspect is a golden bracelet that remains visible even while shifted. Are there any questions?".
Seamus opens his mouth as if to ask a question but thinks better of it and shakes his head no before tacking on, "I am sure people who know better than me can bring me up to speed if I embarrass them."
Quietly, Sam lets the man speak, adjusting the ceramic vest he wears under his suit jacket. He looks towards the man, and he smiles a little. "Has there been a new caretaker for the artifact after?"
He smiles somewhat, and pauses. "Secondarily, I assume that ending the shifter, should it come to that, is an acceptable resolution, as well, yes?" He pauses. "That is, if covert fails."
"You said the sightings are of a manbear hybrid. You also said they have many forms and no diminished dangerous from it." Benjamin points out in a soft spoken new yorker's accent as he looks from the contact out towards the Haven's misty woods. "Do we know any other um... Animals or shapes they've presented or just the man bear... pig... I mean manbear." he corrects himself.
There's an inquisitive expression on Antoinette's face as she listens to the man give his mission briefing. She herself remains quiet for now, simply absorbing the information and listening. Occasionally her gaze flits toward the gate area or thereabouts, keeping an eye out.
"The priority for the artifact is to be removed from the equation- At least at this point in time, we only know of it being in possession of the shifter so far, and we suspect it comes from some sort of True Fae at the other side of the gate- The plan is for Venice to take care of it once this part is retrieved, and the part in the Godrealm is stopped" The man simply answers to Sam with a couple shakes of his head, pressing both hands together and rubbing them slowly as he continues speaking "As for the death of the shifter, it isn't something that worries us really- Given the time it spends offworld, there should be no Sanctuary involved, so if it's necessary, kill it before it flees the scene or ends the rest of the group, it is a priority to retrieve this artifact".
Then his gaze switches to Benjamin, to whom he says, reaching for a little paper within the folder once more "There are rumors of forms, as well as the true identity for the shifter, but we only have a couple confirmed. It is likely Marcus Summers, a werewolf who disappeared thirteen years ago- We know of a hybrid bear form, a snake form, and an eagle form. We've heard rumors of some draconic one, and two aquatic forms, but these are yet to be confirmed- It is not a stretch to assume just like how he's able to hybrid shift, that he could attain monstrous or mythological shifted forms"
"A werewolf with other forms." Benjamin says with a kind of look to Lilian and only now does he notice Sam with an awkward smile, somewhat forced and a lift of his hand. Whatever he was thinking of seems to slip his mind for near a minute before he finally clicks back on and amends, "Lily, if they're still a werewolf deep down isn't there a ritual we can use to drive them to lunacy might help keep it from outfoxing us or hiding itself during our hunt?"
Seamus pulls out his lighter and a thin cigar, lighting up as he waits, to keep warm and his hands busy. "Mm hmm hmm," Seamus says following along as if this is perfectly normal.
"How strange to have so many forms." Lilian muses softly as she clings to Benjamin's arm. "Is it in the other we're fighting him or is it near Haven itself?" That being said she starts to cast a ritual of protection on herself, followed by a mind ward as the other talks
"I believe the artifact is in the Other from the sound of things." Antoinette looks to the man for final confirmation on that. "It would be easier to fight him there too, wouldn't it?" A genuine question posed to the group. She doesn't have much experience in off-world dealings like this.
"Um. It'd be easier in the fact no witnesses. Also isn't magic and other supernatural abilities stronger in the other. Its own and ours?" Benjamin asks Antoinette with a nervous hand coming up to rub a hicket marked neck.
"Very well. We can speak of containment and such at a later date. Color the Haven branch interested." He nods over to Lilian and Benjamin. "I can assist with a lunacy ritual, perhaps a mental leash to weaken him..." Sam muses a little.
Following suit, he too starts drawing his own ritual form, bolstering his mind and body. "If push comes to shove, I'd prefer to fight him in the Other, as I doubt I could match a shifter in a fair square-up. Me and Lily have defeated weres before, our magic works quite well, on the living."
"Now, what furthest he's been able to be tracked is to a small section of the woods in the border territory of Lauriea... The location has been marked and will be sent shortly to your devices so that you can path once you get into the Other" The man says as he reaches for a tablet within his vehicle, taking his time to tap a couple things here and there, before every single one of the phones of everyone present emit a light beep, the location that he had been tracked to appearing when everyone's devices, which to confirm everyone's suspicions, doesn't seem to show any place here in this world, the map apps almost going crazy at the information input, confirming it is likely in the Other that the whole ordeal is going to happen. But upon listening to the several comments made by the different people, he clarifies "We doubt he's still a werewolf- Wolves and magic don't mix well, and while the mysterious nature of this new trinket could allow a wolf to change into other things for all we know, no disturbances have been caused in the same areas by wolves- In any case, a new moon has been chosen as the date for a reason- If there's any wolf left in him, he will be weak today"
"So I guess the question here is... How much do we want to fight a monsterous shifter versus how much do we want to skirt this and try and lift the artifact. I'll be honest I don't lug this..." Benjamin knocks his knuckles against the literal slab of iron. "Around because I'm a good fighter, I do it because I can hide behind it. So if there's any way we can do this on the sly, I'd prefer it."
Seamus thinks about this a moment then holds his cigar in his hand as he checks over the phone and looks over to Antoinette, "Just so I am abundantly clear, we are going to not here to play fuck around and find out with someone who may be able to shift into fuck knows what, just to steal a bracelet. That about the sum of it?"
"A bunch of you can distract him while I sneak in and steal the artifact and then you can retreat?" Lilian suggests with a tilt of her head as she leans into Benjamin's shoulder and nuzzles against him.
simply nods some, sending off a brief text and then arranging a few supplies on her person so they're handy if it comes up. Otherwise she seems to have heard everything she needs to hear. "Quiet and quick would be the ideal route I imagine." Antoinette decides, nodding to Seamus. "It might get dicey if he's -wearing- the thing but." A wry smile here. "If a fight breaks out we let the people who are good at that do the fighting and we can definitely do up some distractions I'm sure."
Benjamin says "You say a bunch of us, but I count three guys and two girls... and of the guys I'm the only one sporting a heckin' big shield because Sam is an arcanist. So I'm hearing let Seamus be mauled to death or Benji distract the crazed shifter."
"Agreed with Benjamin." Sam nods to Benjamin. "Subterfuge would be better, we do not know if gifting the bracelet to him is some sort of fucked Fae game, so we don't really want him to be too aware of our plans." The jock pauses a little. "I can frame it as a Forged Fortune business call or something.
He grins, and taps his chest, showing off the hidden body armor. "I'm mainly an arcanist, but I can fight, Ben. Just shifters tend to fight better. So I'm not taking my chances." "
(fix) "Agreed with Benjamin." Sam nods to Benjamin. "Subterfuge would be better, we do not know if gifting the bracelet to him is some sort of fucked Fae game, so we don't really want him to be too aware of our plans." The jock pauses a little. "I can frame it as a Forged Fortune business call or something."
He grins, and taps his chest, showing off the hidden body armor. "I'm mainly an arcanist, but I can fight, Ben. Just shifters tend to fight better. So I'm not taking my chances."
Lilian glances over at Benjamin, "You're not wrong. I suppose we can all act and pretend we're there for .. something else. Charm the bracelet off him so to speak.'"
Lilian points out you can gain rpexp while wearing armour in plots by the way as she continues to stand prettily in her skimpy armor.
Seamus takes a breath, "Will it be to death or will it be a little chomping? Will I come out looking like I need to shave every night?" He doesn't have a firm grasp on how werewolves actually work
Antoinette is clearly volunteering herself for being one of those 'just out of sight' people. "I can have Fuil nearby as well and ready to help if a fight does break out." She considers Seamus with a beat of amusement, "Try not to get in the way of its jaws or claws at all if you can help it."
Benjamin listns to Antoinette and Sam but for Seamus, "Oh we would probably heat up a piece of metal and cauterize it, that normally prevent the lycanthropy from taking. That's what the school books say."
Sam says "It lowers the chance of getting the woof."
Benjamin says "So why don't Lily and Sam approach under the guise of supernatural politics whatever... Seamus can sneak in with Toni and I'll run interference for the two if the monsters attention turns?"
Benjamin says "Either Lily and Sam convince him to remove it or slow play him or he's distracted by them and Toni and Seamus nick it. Either way I help whichever group gets the ire."
The man glances between everyone gathered as they discuss, but seeing as they are no longer posing questions to inform themselves, he simply nods his head in recognition and adds "Your society communications should be able to temporarily access a channel to contact me - Please do so when you've recovered the artifact... Until then, I will leave the planning and the logistics to all of you"
And with that, the man opens the door of his car and steps into it. Starting the engine and giving a light wave with his hand before heading out towwards the road back to Haven, leaving the group discussing alone in the middle of Suncrest Lane, just by the entrance to the Other.
Sam says "Likely the gate interfering. All right. Lily, you up for some door-to-door preaching?"
Antoinette leans over to murmur something to Seamus as the plan is discussed, there's a light frown at Seamus' words and then tells the others, "Neither of us are actually good at pickpocketing." She decides. "Soo we might want someone who -is- good at that on the inside instead just in case."
"I can only be in one place at one time. But given I'm not dumping my armor I'm probably better for the sneaking party. Ben who is also good at acting can go with Sam. As his uh.. bag carrier. And I'll be a cat and let people know if it's safe to follow." She looks over Antoinette and Seamus, "How stealthy are you both?" Lilian asks softly.
Seamus says "I am good at forming a distraction. I am not bad at hiding. "
Benjamin looks down at Lilian as she switches tact and then lifts amber eyes to Sam, "I can be an assistant, I'm a professional assistant."
Sam says "Marcus Summers, yes? "
Benjamin says "That was the name, yes."
Sam says "Lovely. So. Any last additions?"
Antoinette shakes her head, "Ready on my end." She slips her knife into the pocket of her hoodie for easier access and then lifts up her hood to be ready when the time comes. Just in case.
"We need a signal to know if he has the bracelet on. There's no point us sneaking in if it on his wrist." Lilian points out as she continues to cast rituals, this time protecting and mind warding Benjamin.
"Sure. I'll loudly remind Sam about our other appointments tonight if he has it. If he doesn't have it than we just you know keep distracting him." Benjamin says slowly and then furrows his brow, "That makes sense right?"
Seamus is by all measures the least helpful person here, except maybe for the sneaking. While everyone else is doing, what he affectionately refers to as "That Twin Peaks bullshit", he stands around smoking.
Sam says "If he has it on, I propose we go for incapacitating him."
And with everything out of the way and discussed, the group steps into the Other, crossing the gate that takes them into the magical world of the Fae. Vibrant colors and exuberant plants everywhere your eyes go, with the lovely addition of the odd sensation of always being watched and stalked, like something is ready to pounce on you every second you spend on its streets.
But the party isn't really going to be walking there this time, they have been given a particular location, in the middle of one of Lauriea's forests, it isn't something you can reach without normally facing hordes of monsters and nature itself resisting the approach. No, instead they are forced to path there - And the walk takes quite a couple of minutes.
When they step out in their location, they are dropped in a spacious area, surrounded by incredibly tall trees and gigantic foliage, which provides some level of coverage if anyone wanted to hide. In the distance, between the various tree trunks, one can see a little wodden hut, probably having two or three rooms given the size, but it doesn't seem like there's much animal presence around, not even the plant-like monsters that haunt this realm, every life that seems to be able to leave the place has done so, leaving just an eerily quiet ambiance for everyone
[You should now all be on the room we are actually in, feel free to join the thick of the forest if you're outright hiding, but otherwise no place should suit you]
Antoinette takes a moment to assess the area they comes out in, admiring it, and then making a motion to a particular spot as she says, "Going to follow from a distance." Finding a good spot to start from and taking some time to try and plan out a path forward that will give the least amount of trouble when the time comes.
Stepping out of the pathway with all the utter confidence and arrogance of a cock-sure Hand operative, Sam snaps his fingers at Benjamin as he tucks his phone away, and heads towards the hut. Speaking in an even cockier rendition of his normal attitude, he nods some. "Intern Johnson, remind me, why are we in the middle of... Lauriea of all places? You know I have a lot to do this week." He doesn't much try to stay hidden, though one hand is on a hidden sheath at his belt, and his shoes trample branches like someone who is un-used to the woods. "I swear, if another fae bothers us on this trip, I am blowing a casket. A CASKET, Johnson!"
Seamus has to swallow hard to avoid throwing up after pathing and when they pop out he mutters under his breath as he looks around, astonished by the sighs and sounds of this strange new worlds, almost dropping his smoke in the process. "Holy Mother...." He shakes his head and refocuses before adding to Antoinette, "It's... ah... my first time."
Benjamin falls in to step with Sam and then hucks the shield into the gym bag and hauls it on his back. Obviously the cocky Hand operative has more important things to do than defend himself and so the belabored assistant must. In a british voice sounding somewhat put upon, "The potential new society recruit. Marcus Summers, a werewolf last seen in this area. Sir." and then looking around he loudly wonders, "Do you want me to go poke the thicket for 'em sir?"
Turning into a cat, Lilian(bengal) sneaks on her belly towards the hut, keeping low in the underbrush. Given she's alot smaller than the others she can probably get alot closer to the hut than the giant human sized people.
As Sam and Benjamin reach the entrance to the hut, it becomes apparent that no one is opening the door to receive them, despite how little they did to conceal themselves. The hut itself seems to be oldish, it was certainly not something that was put together in the last couple of months, and some claw marks decorate the outer walls and even the door to some degree - Though strangely enough, it seems mostly still standing, despite how these forests can encroach anything built within them, or how monsters might try to ransack places.
It is all made equally disturbing and nerve wracking by the lack of noises coming from birds or small mammals, even going as far as to make those hidden self conscious of the rustling sound of leaves and grass as they move around, given the general silence of the space. But despite the wait or the act, no one seems to come out to greet the two men. And if they were to knock of check on the door to any degree, they would find it offers no resistance, it doesn't seem to be locked by any means, opening towards the inside with the littlest amount of strength put into it
Meanwhile Lilian(bengal) picks her way through the underbrush like a predator, circling around the hut to find any back entrances or windows.
A pause, and Sam looks over to Benjamin. "Well. Let's just make ourself comfortable, shall we?" He pushes the door open, tilting his head aside, as he, briefly, but without much dropping his act, allows Benjamin to stop him from doing the brash thing. After all, suit or no, the man /is/ a jock.
Benjamin does as instructed and knocks on the door which he then opens to reveal at least some of the interior. Not wanting to just walk into a death house, he turns to Sam and says, "I think he's our sir... I shall check for... signs." and then he does exactly that walks around the hut and encroaching forest looking for... signs with 0 woodsman skill or bushcraft or anything beyond being a New York and maybe having a knack for differentiating different smears of dirt from one another.
Antoinette is alert on the walk up, careful in her steps and trying to keep an eye and ear out for any activity happening outside that isn't from their own group. However she would wait just along the edges of where forest meets hut, waiting for a sign from one of the others that it's okay to move in to the hut, still keeping a lookout
Seamus follows along behind Antoinette staying low to the ground as the they walk through the underbrush
The main room inside of the hut seems to be quite a mess, as if someone had tried to stuff all the functionalities a house should provide into a single place. Presenting kitchen appliances, a tub, a desk, a fireplace, there's even hides to a side, and papers to another. This wouldn't be much if it was all in order or the room was bigger, but it isn't - It's pure chaos of a room, and a small one at that, making moving around hard without stepping or something or hitting anything on your way inside.
But that is only revealed to those who are in front of the opening door, when it happens. And instead, Benjamin tries to circle around the house, which for the most part seems just the same as the entrance, wooden walls marked with claws. A couple windows from different walls seem to reveal the same main room that has been discovered with the door opening - But aside from that and probably more noticeable, a section of the hut, located to the northwest, seems to be missing its ceiling completely, and a fraction of a wall. Nothing seems to be inside, almost like it's been deliverately cleared out, all but a single flower resting inside of the room
After the fruitless search outside Benjamin says in a british villian accent, "Nothing outside sir, not even an easy trail to follow."
[With the door open, people should be able to enter the main room freely, also, given the roofless room has been spotted, should be also accessible. Either by the broken wall from the outside, or a door in the northeast of the main room]
After pausing a few moments, Sam enters into the house. He nods slowly, and licks his lips. "I smell someone, though." He speaks a little, carefully moving about the main room, causing some creaking. He has pulled a rather human-looking fingerbone from under his vest, its runes glowing scarlet as the jock looks through the house, ducking low to avoid hitting his head on the roof.
There's just a touch of a frown as Antoinette motions for Seamus to follow her toward the entrance of the hut, primarily still playing the part of lookout, though she seems slightly tensed as she slinks up, like she's ready just in case anything happens.
Crawling into the back room, Lilian(bengal) stays to the shadows as she looks around the hut, her feline nose sniffling delicately with her acute sense of smell.
Seamus follows Antoinette to the hut and sees the single flower. "This is a trap," he mutters, "A trap with a calling card."
But despite the intrusion, no one seems to come to greet the pair - If it wasn't for the signs that someone has been here lately, one might as well think the hut has been abandoned to its luck. Leaving Sam and Benjamin in a room full of nothing but every day appliances and junk, even the papers that seem to have something written in them are intelligible, almost reminding of some child trying to write rather than what a normal adult would do.
The room itself has two doors, one to the northwest, and another to the northeast, the first leading towards that roofless room, the second to a bedroom, not that the party knew that yet. Though, making their way from the forest into the hut, the hiding gang might have noticed a weird hatch-like piece of wood laid around outside, with a clear hole underneath it, that seems to be out of the way enough at first to be spotted when looking about the house, but coming from the greenery it is even likely they stepped onto it.
Sam says, dryly, "Fuck it, I'm not touching the suspicious flower. I know the Other. Fuck that."
With that, Sam pushes at the north-eastern door, his heavy footsteps creaking on the floor as he does so, his eyes casting a glance about as he enters, ducking his head low still.
Being close to the ground Lilian(bengal) can of course see the hatches and wood. She meows a warning to those following her and makes her way into the room with the flower. Finding something on the floor - a cup, Lilian(bengal) bats at it with her paws towards the flower while running for the outskirts of the room.
Benjamin likewise is not touching the mysterious flower in the Other and follows after Sam and wonders, "Should I shout for him sir. A little Marcus Summers, come out and play? Perhaps find some bottles to really sell the bit?"
Antoinette looks back the way she and Seamus have come, "It's probably a trap." She murmurs in agreement to Seamus, gaze lingering on the direction of the wooden hatch. "There may be an alternate escape route, Sam. We'll keep an eye on it for now?"
Sam says, from the other room, "Gotcha! Lemme know if the flower turns up to be super cursed."
And just like that Sam enter the bedroom, a small room lacking any windows, and clearly dark, the jock might be able to somewhat see due to his night vision, the little furniture there seems to be, or the mattress on the floor, but the theater kid, without night vision and this late, cannot manage to see anything in here, it is almost walking into the shadows themselves
To the flower is also, to clarify, in the roofless room, not in the main room, just clarifying that, the main room is Diogenes 101
Benjamin flicks out his trench lighter and flick, an unflickering and unfaltering golden flame appears casting an even glow almost like a picture or a memory of fire. It also illuminates the room much better than a lighter might.
Seamus taps his temple and grins, "Not just a hat rack." He follows Antoinette along, definitely not a lost puppy dog but for sure not white knighting.
Poking around, Sam starts shamelessly rummaging through the bedroom's things, pulling at the drawer... locked. He then PULLS on the drawer, repeating the process with the wardrobe. Seems the Jock is not really one for subtle lock-smithing. But well, brute force is sometimes a beautiful thing, as he tries to 'unlock' the drawers and wardrobe.
And as Benjamin lights the room, Sam is already trying to force the different furniture kinds, which don't present that much of a deal. The wardrobe goes open, only to reveal a couple of clothes hanging from it, with two pairs of shoes underneath, something pretty normal, all of them to different degrees of dirty - But to be fair, it was so far out in the forest, it's hard not to get resin or dirt on you somehow. The drawers on the other side crack easily, one of them completely empty, the other containing different pages that probably at some point made up an entire notebook, but at this point, its condition is so poor that they might be considered individual sheets of paper
[With most of the exploring done, everyone should feel free to join any places now, I will say though that if you're to join the hatch, the space there is limited, it is narrow, so probably one at a time. Otherwise, you have free movement now]
Antoinette flashes a brief grin to Seamus in turn, head tilting briefly as she look from here toward the roofless room. "Maybe we should take a closer look at the hatch hole?" She asks, looking back the way the came. "Or we can risk the cursed flower."
Lilian(bengal) can't join the roofless room but that's where she is rolling the cup towards the flower.
Lilian(bengal) also looks at the flower to see if it's cursed
Seamus takes a breath, "Well... you are a mystical nurse. What's the worst thing that can happen? Oh Lily is batting at the flower. Maybe the roofless room?"
CRACK, creak, sigh. Sam rummages through the papers, then looks to the strange planks on the wall, knocking at them a few times, perhaps trying to find some kind of hidden hatch or stash. Of course, the jock has exactly zero detective skills, so he's mostly relying on pure luck of the brash, perhaps.
[To join the roofless, try using roof or less, since room defaults to the main one]
"My set of skills is very specific. Plenty of the worst things can happen." Antoinette comments wryly but nods. "But sure. Let's go to the cursed flower, you go first." She insists to Seamus
Lilian(bengal) stays at the limits of the room after batting the cup at the flower, her hackles raised as she watches the reaction.
Seamus takes a breath and leads the way to the room squinting as if that will protect his eyes and standing as small as possible. Since you know flowers are know to explode
As Sam leaves the papers behind and goes for the planks, they give out quite easily, probably due to the strength of the jock, inside the walls, there seems to be a small space where some weapons are hidden, a gun and a dagger in one, a longer sword in another - The missing shifter seems to be unarmed right now it seems, even if he's nowhere to be seen
Lilian(bengal) keeps silent as the thorns erupt in the room, staying a black only shadow as she observes the flower.
Seamus glomps onto Antoinette and screams like a little girl, high pitched and terrified when the eldritch horrors that are mouth petals and violet sky eyes
Sam says, calling out, "Y'all aight over there? Did he turn into an eagle? "
Antoinette is entirely frozen in place even as Seamus glomps on to her. Her breathing is barely detectable. "Do. Not. Move." She tells the man through gritted teeth. She can maybe(?) vaguely hear Sam now that there's no way out, but she can't quite bring herself to try and respond. Maybe he heard Seamus screaming though!
Benjamin turns to look around at the lack of a response and then to Sam, "Did you hear a scream just then because no one is responding."
The scream from Seamus coming from the roofless room is at first only heard by those around, but as a couple of minutes pass, there is a noise outside the hut, and even if still in the bedroom, Sam and Benjamin can easily see one of the windows on the main room from where they stand. The wooden hatch had been sent out flying into the air, landing somewhere outside. A snake seems to crawl out from the hole in the ground, but soon enough it is enveloped in a mantle of shadows and pure gore, that cover the body as the figure walks towards the house, soon after dissipating, leaving a more humanoid figure walking towards the hut.
As the figure approaches, it becomes apparent that it's a man, but not just any man, something somewhere in between human and animal. Standing at six feet and a half and with a width matching such size.
Lacking any shirt, it gives a good sight of the amount of brown hair covering his body, an unnatural amount of it spreading all over his back and arms, extending all over his shoulders and stretching towards his chest and tummy, in a way that it would almost seem like he's wearing a coat, were it not for the spots of skin that are showing.
His forearms, biceps and legs look unnaturally swollen and thick, and his fingertips end up in claws instead of normal nails. His mouth seems to be extended slightly forward, almost as if almost making a snout but not quite there, and his mouth has clear sharp and sizable fangs. Standing somewhere between man and beast, the beast being a bear in particular.
More importantly, wrapped around the upper half of his right arm's bicep, the target the group is after. A golden colored bracelet that seems to cling to his flesh and fur, almost as if it adapted to always be skin tight despite the obvious display of hybrid shifting. Mostly smooth and ring-shaped, but with some triangular spike-like shapes on its upper half.
Seamus lets the scream die out of his voice when Antoinette tells him to be quiet but there is still a panic in the man's eyes as he slows his breathing and focuses on her cheek.
Seeing the man, bear, were thing wearing the bracelet, Lilian(bengal) crawls to a spot that's empty and shifts back into a human. She immediately starts to draw runes in the air as she stays hunched down a low as possible, giving the bearman arthritis.
Like a prowling predator, Sam crouches down, and moves to the main room, trying to get a good view of the man. He nods to Lilian, and clenches his hand, red runes glowing up as he sends a whisper of magic into the shifter's body, hoping to slow down his approach enough for Lilian to finish whatever she is doing, even as the jock grabs his knife: A strange, oily kris knife of an odd materia..
Given there is still an element of stealth involved Benjamin moves to follow Sam staying a few yards back and near cover while doing so. He isn't a sneaker and he has a fuck off heavy shield in his bag on his back so he's also not quiet.
Although she hates how it feels, Lilian stays to finish casting her ritual, giving the bear arthritis and slowing him down before she tries to find a path out of the thorns room, to get away from that magical presence. Once safe, she adds her slowing magic to Sam's before starting to cast a ritual of madness on the beast.
Antoinette slowly, very, very slowly starts to relax, not quite taking her eyes off what she's seeing though she does eventually say, "I don't believe we're going to die, Seamus." Her voice is just above a whisper. "I think this is a very, very, very advanced illusion..."
The bear-man seems to slow down in his tracks when he goes out of sight from the window's perspective - Like simply walking around the house to get to the entrance, but there's an audible grunt as the magic is cast in his direction, first comes Sam's spell, which even if out of sight, is clearly slowing him down, evidenced by the fact that he isn't really coming inside the main room.
Then Lilian's ritual hits, cast faster than most can manage it causes the out of sight man to let out a loud "Fuck!" that can be heard everywhere within the building. Followed by that, comes the sound of cracking bones and blood dripping, almost like a rain of it, but everyone is kept in darkness as the shifter conceals himself behind the walls - A moment later though something more reptile-like shows its face through the front door, an oversized lizard, almost the size of a man, with green scales armoring its entire body, letting out a burst of flames from its mouth towards the inside of the building, already taken an aggressive stance at the approach of his resting place
Antoinette murmurs, "Let's try very slowly backing out toward where the hole that leads outside." She thinks she remembers the direction. Leave the fighting to the fighters.
"Right," Seamus says relaxing and stepping back from Antoinette and relaxing a little bit smoothing the front of his coat as he backs away slowly in the direction she indicates. "Don't make eye contact and back away slowly. Right."
Blood drips from Lilian's lips where she's bitten herself to sacrifice for the ritual of madness which should make the bear start seeing illusions of enemies soon. Lilian clutches her focus as she looks over at Seamus and Antoinette, "Go very slowly. There's something alive in there but I'm not sure what. It's powerful." She adds with a grimace as she gets to her feet once her ritual is completed and heads for the front door. Benjamin and Sam are trapped in with the bear at the door Afterall.
Benjamin is whispering "fuck fuck fuck fuck." as the spells fail to put the monsterous shifter down. Then it's turned into a snake dragon man and the colleged aged guy is hefting his gym bag down and getting out the cold iron slab of metal. "Fuck fuck fuck fuck." he continues to whisper, then he grabs a fucking javeline spear out of the bag and goes, "Fuuuuuuuuuu-aaaah-ck." pitching the whisper a bit higher as the spear is produce and he grunts hefting the full weight of the torso sized piece of metal onto his shoulder. From here it's a pitched whisper, "You going to talk to that sir?"
Antoinette nods once to Lilian, keeping a light hold on Seamus' arm as she moves with him, slow and steady. Her other hand is poised though, prepared to cast some kind of magic if necessary, gaze darting to and fro for trouble.
"Aight, Fuck this." Sam rakes his knife across his palm, and he places both his hands together, another arcane focus, a charred ring with a dragon biting it's own tail glowing up.
"By the binding of the Firestarter, by slain dragons, and by blood and victorious knights..." The jock incants, and he shakes his head, his voice lowering into a hiss.
"HALT!" He speaks that word with arcane authority, though it's clear to those near him that standing, potentially, in the brunt of that fire, and wielding arcane magic, especially at a shorter incantation rate, is draining on the Jock.
Seamus lets himself be guided backwards, acknowledging Lilian's warning with a firm nod. As he quietly steps backwards he brings his fists up to guarding stance, apparently going to go golden glove on a werefae.
And Antoinette seems to be right in her assessment, and whatever the people in the roofless room were seeing, seems to be illusory in nature to some degree, allowing them to walk around unscathed - It seems that Seamus and her are going to leave through the missing bit of wall, considering in the other direction is the main room with the fighters and now some fire caused by the draconic attack.
Lilian is greeted by the delightful sight that what was a bear-man before is now a green scaled dragon, the size of a man, with the bracelet stuck on its front right leg, seemingly having changed in size and girth to adapt to the shifting without breaking or loosening.
But the second ritual hits the shifter, whose eyes seem to unfocus from the intruders, and instead dart around the outside of the cabin- Once having aimed the fire breath towards Sam and Benjamin, it is now flailing its neck and head violently in every direction, breathing fire and setting the forest around them aflame, tail swinging around trying to knock down a couple trees.
And just in line, another spell, Sam binding comes, holding the beast in place, but not stopping the madness or the rage of the reptile - Unable to move or keep fighting invisible enemies by conventional means, it shoots another beam of fire that hits the cabin, now properly on fire. Grunting and complaining in annoyance at whatever is keeping him down, it tries to shift once more, returning to that half ursine half human look of his, towering over the rest of the people around, eyes filled with rage and the growls of a wild bear heard everywhere around the forest
"Pengu." Lilian calls out softly, tearing a small rift in space where purple starts to glitter as she waits for her penguin minion to come. Unshealthing her katana, Lilian approaches the reptile from behind even as she waits for her penguin. "Keep it distracted it had madness." She calls out as she waits for an opportunity to path and slice off the arm.
Antoinette exhales in clear relief once she and Seamus seem to get clear of the room. "Holy shit. Are you alright?" She asks the man, swallowing, expression tinged with nerves, focused on making sure he is, in fact, alright enough before doing much else.
Trembling, Sam clenches his hands into fists, sweat pearling on the Jock's brow as he remains in place, his mouth twisting into a snarl. "By power stolen, and by birthright denied..." He snarls, anger flashing into his expression.
"Your Power is undone. Thou hast no BIRTHRIGHT!" He strains, then his voice shifts a little. "I Thee CONSUME!" His voice is strange, detached, like it comes more from that knife than anything else.
"She had a penguin named Pengu in a pocket dimension," Seamus says blinking a little bit as they hear the conversation but not see the action, probably. "Because of course she does. Somehow pocket penguin is the most normal thing about today." He looks back to Antoinette, "You know... mental breakdown is back on my bingo card but otherwise I'll survive. You?"
After the ray of fire blasts into the building there is a lift of the shield to protect himself from falling debris or the beam hitting himself. Benjamin sees Sam more or less standing against the ursine hybrid man shouting some very dramatic things. Leaning the weight of the cold iron slab onto his shoulder he jogs out to play blocker between Sam and any wild actions the ursine might have taken.
Blood drips onto the floor steadily from Lilian's lip as she holds the katana out to the side in a two handed grip. Her sapphire eyes dart to Benjamin and she bares her fangs as he puts himself in harm's way.
A faint laugh escapes and Antoinette nods to Seamus, "I'll freak out later if I need to. I think I'm good." She takes another breath. "I've got a snake. A krait. Maybe you'll get to meet him sometime." She nods toward the front of the house. "Let's circle around. See what the situation is." Though there is a fleeting glance back toward the roofless room as if to try and glimpse the thing that might actually be in there.
The blade seems to land properly once Lilian paths and hits the leg of the dragon, but its scales seem to be resistant enough to withstand it, leaving behind only a hint of a cut, a wound just above the leg, but no severed limb. And soon after the mad shifter is turning into the bear hybrid form, which flings the heavy arm in the direction of the pain inflicted to him. The quite heavy arm sending the woman flying a couple feet back, his strength not only inhuman but also combined with that of the beast.
Seamus and Antoinette seem to have made it out through the missing bits of wall, which leaves them right behind the hut, on the opposite side of the fighting, just to watch the fire spread through the vivid and vibrant vegetation of the Other, the normally cold temperature rising with every second that the flames spread.
Benjamin on his side could be doing better, he manages to protect himself from the debris and fire, but he can certainly feel the impact of all of those things, and the rising temperature makes it painful to even hold the shield, though so far he seems unharmed from something that could be much worse, considering Sanctuary isn't going to protect anyone in here from the beast.
Lastly, Sam's attempts seem to subdue the beast to some degree, making it crouch in its binding, but it doesn't seem to last for long, as after a couple seconds it stands back up, and it appears to break out of the previous binding, once more moving around the area - But the arthritis and the madness aren't gone, so it's quite anticlimatic that after setting itself free, it starts swinging heavy blows at thin air
Lilian gets thrown backwards, careening across the ground to land in a heap next to a bush. Blood continues to drip her from lip as she lies there, trying not to attract attention from the bear but looking rather still and injured to her companions.
By now there's heavy thudding noises as the rift tears open and a massive emperor penguin starts to waddle out. It looks at Lilian for a moment in a puddle, then turns towards the bear in a silent screech, flapping it's flippers as it approaches the bearman.
A chuckle, cold, detached, and unnatural flows from Sam's mouth, and in an instant, the jock stands next to the were-bear. Magic abandoned, a dark, sickly light comes from his form, and he starts stabbing that blade at the beast. He growls, hatred burning in his face as that divine light oozes around him. He does not stop or relent, instead just stabbing again and again and again at the beast, something seemingly having snapped in the Jock's mind. All that flows from his mouth, that foreign, angry voice hissing out with malice is "How... DARE... YOU?!" Stab. Slice. Stab. Stab. Hiss.
Seamus nods and follows Antoinette as they circle around. After they are a few steps away, "You're normal right?Does this ever get easier?"
While Benjamin might have hauled his ass into harms way it is in fact Lilian which gets smacked. Lifting up his spear he chucks it at the ursine shifter with a *hyah* and off it goes. Afterthat a slip of his hand into the back pocket and a knife appears in hand. However since Lilian has a giant penguin of doom, he doesn't go running to try and intercede mostly because this huge slab is to damn heavy. Sam goes vanishing and so the only thing he's left protecting is... himself!
Antoinette considers the fire with a frown, brow furrowed. A glance up to the sky and then back down to the flames, quickly starting to move back around toward the front of the cabin with Seamus in tow. "Not particularly. You just get better at compartmentalizing the bullshit." She gets line of sight on what's happening in the main room, adding a quiet chant in Gaelic . Her amulet glows and with a flick of her fingers there's some additional light, brief though it is, added to the situation to cause further distraction to the bearman and give Sam an upperhand.
Lying on her side, violet hair stained with blood Lilian turns towards the bear being stabbed by Sam and reaches out a hand towards it as if trying to reach the bear. "Bleed for me." She calls out, causing the blood from the bear's wounds to start spurting for her.
The bear man growls and complains, in pain and anger, human speech left behind despite his appearance being somewhere in between. First it's Sam with the stabbing, and then it's the summoned minion. The knife seems to piece, the bear skin seeming more manageable than the draconic scales.
But an animal cornered is even more dangerous, closing his fist, the shifter aims it towards the penguin first, delivering a blow straight to its face that sends it towards the ground, the minion seems to enduring it and soon enough rejoin the attack, but an impact like that could have easily disfigured the face of any human, if not straight up having pulled it off.
Next in the sights of the animal is Sam, who is so viciously stabbing at the tank of a man, the bear blood pouring all over the place, retreating the arm once more to charge a fist much like the previous, with a surprising speed - But that's when Antoinette's illusion lands, forcing the beast to blink and hesitate for a moment, something on the corner of his vision distracting him just enough for Benjamin's spear to land on his shoulder, halting any attempt to rip off Sam's head with a punch.
Now stabbed everywhere, bleeding out, and attacked by a minion, the animal tries to retreat - It shift fact into a dragon, becoming a mangle of fur and blood for a couple seconds, the sound of bone cracking as the green scales start covering the figure, returning to being a simply oversized lizard, two wings poking from its back, it attempts to start flying, wanting to run away, but Lilian's spells hit him, his wounds open even more, and the resistance of his body against the pain and the attacks ceases momentarily. The winged beast falls to the ground, landing pathetically, barely able to register much right now, almost seeing red- Mad and light headed, barely able to move any longer it attempts to crawl away, though he is quite slow like this
Seamus winces as he watches the fight and mutters, "May need to let Lily feed," he observes before relighting his cigar and just watching
Benjamin hauls the cold iron shield across the ground, its weight scrapping until he is able to retrieve his spear and then looks around trying to spot a black cat or Lilian letting the others deal with the crawling monstrosity. "Lily." he calls out with a frown, "Surely you survived." he adds with a frowning expression.
Antoinette shifts uncomfortably in her hoodie with the rising heat, attention shifting back toward the flames for a moment and then falling back toward what she can see of the dragon. "It should be safe to go to her. Relatively speaking." She decides to Seamus, spotting Benjamin already on the move. She starts to move around toward where the dragon was trying to crawl off though, presumably to help Sam finish the job.
A hateful expression on his face, Sam extends a hand, and he growls. The runes on that fingerbone glow up, angrily so, and he speaks, a singular word uttered in malicious disdain. "Die." He snaps his fingers, Lilian perhaps knowing the spell cast.
Succesful or no, the jock then teeters forward, landing face-first onto the ground, something strange, and oily flickering around him as it leaves his body. The arcanist is out for the count, however, all that anger and magic and on the spot ritualism having drained him quite a lot.
With the flames spreading, the forest is now a chaos of fire, the temperature being unbearable, even the hut being now in the process of going down into debris, smoke and flames - If they wanted to check or retrieve anything from inside, it might be their last chance, or too late at this point, the structure not looking like it will last for more than a couple more minutes.
But the main attention is on the shifter beast, not in the flames surrounding the scenario, the crawling dragon, that seems to gasp somewhat as the magic from Sam reaches him. Crawling stopping, and the shape of the lizard changing back to that of a man. Despite the healthy or tanking form he seemed to hold while changing, his real human figure seemed much more slender, clearly lacking nutrition, quite tall and unkept, bags under his eyes and scars all over his body.
The man though doesn mouth words, instead he seems to make a couple final noises as he starts suffering a heart attack right there. Bracelet still on his right arm's bicepts, and blood everywhere around him, the beast seems to have gone down, finally dead.
Antoinette almost seems disappointed to see the man turn back into a proper human as she draws an amulet out of her bag and tosses it on, letting the magic of it flow through her as she draws her knife out and gets to work. Her expression is stoic and set as she gives the bracelet a quick assessment and starts cutting away at what's necessary to get the bracelet with little regard for the dying and eventually dead man and much more skill than she naturally has. "We need to get the fuck out of here!" She calls back to whomever can hear once the bracelet is in her hands.
Seamus makes to comment on not feeding Lilian now but Antoinette's argument to make like a tree gets his attention and he falls in, ready to run as far as he needs to with the rest of the party
"Carry.. Sam.... and me..." Lilian rasps out to Benjamin, Antoinette and Seamus who is apparently making out to run while half the party is on the ground.
Sam is most definately a green heap of lightly toasted jock on the ground right now, no real sign of movement coming from the jock as people start to do the wise thing, and leave.
"Toni... blood... bite.. can..." Lilian croaks out softly from the ground, her fingers reaching for someone as she lay in a crumbled heap of skirts and violet hair.
"Toni... blood... bite.. can..." Lilian croaks out softly from the ground, her fingers reaching for Antoinette as she lay in a crumbled heap of skirts and violet hair.
Antoinette manages to successfully recover the artifact from the corpse of the shifter, cutting here and there until the skin-tight trinket is in her grasp, no longer with the main, that seems to almost drain even more when it comes out, getting even slimmer and more boney-looking.
But much like the nurse says, the fire is getting worrying, they should be getting out of the place soon enough, unless they all want to end up engulfed by the spreading forest fire.
Out of nowhere, a solitary vulture appears on the sky, flying in circles for a good couple seconds and slowly descending onto the back of the now deceased Marcus Summers. Its head tilting to look at the corpse, before looking at the people around, in a very bird-like motion. It leans its body forward before stabbing with hits beak a couple times at where the heart of the man would have been, seemingly intent on ripping out the organ.
Your gaze seems to be snagged towards the flying creature and the restless attacks against the man's corpse, you are quite literally unable to take your eyes from it, no matter how hard you try, forced to watch until eventually bones are broken, blood is splattered and the heart is pulled out and smashes within the beak of the vulture.
Then the bird focuses on Antoinette once more, looking at the artifact in her hands, and letting out a cheerful chirp, or as much as a bird like it can manage, it is an animal after all, it has no human expressions like a smirk, a laugh or a face of happiness.
Except it's clear that that isn't an animal, its mere pressence seems to be tugging and stealing the life force of everyone present here, and just looking at it gives an uneasy feeling even to those not familiar with magic, it is a pressence most evil and ancient, but it seems intent on letting the party go just how they intend.
With the fire spreading in the forest Benjamin moves towards Lilian finally having found the violet-haired woman. "Okay..." he reaches out with a soft skinned hand and then offers his wrist to the crispy vampiress.
Lilian watches without much expression as the vulture eats the man but turns her head to bite, Benjamin's wrist, drinking hungrily as the wounds on her body heal from the blood.
As the vulture eats, Sam, or rather, Sam's body, sits up, like a puppet on invisible strings. It stares at the scene, then, when the feasting is done, Sam's body crumples again, the toy seemingly discarded for now. The tugging at his life-force does not speed the jock's recovery, at all, and he still seems out for the count, despite his rapt 'attention' for the heart-eating right before.
Seamus stops a little way from Antoinette and looks back at the rest of the group and walks a little closer. "What can I do?" he asks the group looking a little out of sorts rather than running away.
Antoinette successfully retrieves the bracelet, ready to get up and moving but the mysterious vulture lands and something about it seems to keep her rooted in place. She stares, barely blinking even as sweat beading her brow starts to drip into her eyes. She doesn't quite look as horrified as maybe she should. There's a morbid curiosity deep within those dark blue eyes. The chirp in the aftermath startles her out of her near-trance, looking down at the bracelet and gripping it tighter. She nods once and starts to quickly scramble back, "Help me get Sam." She tells Seamus, half stumbling backward toward Sam to grab for him and start to try hauling him back to his feet.
Seamus nods and goes to the other side of Sam from Antoinette to get under his other arm, so that Sam can drape his arms across both Seamus and Antoinette's arms. "Right. Sorry."
Groggily, Sam leans heavily on Seamus and Antoinette, sort of stumbling along as he groans, clearly in pain, but very much alive. He briefly feels around, then puts his knife back in it's sheath, before just leaning on Antoinette and Seamus both.
Now, the party arrived here pathing, and it definitely had to be the way out unless they planned on facing the flames and whatever awaited in the woods of the Other, luckily enough, there was still people awake that would be able to manage such a thing, and hopefully before that tugging at their life essence was too much to represent some serious risk.
The bird though seems to remain among the party, watching as they move around trying to scramble their way out. I hops off the body of the dead man, leaving it discarded, and the moment the animal jumps off it, the forest itself, in the form of roots and branches seems to reach for it and take him away into the mysterious woods. Just leaving an unusually peaceful vulture staring and slowly pacing back towards the group
Staggering to her feet after drinking of Benjamin, Lilian turns to Sam, Antoinette and Seamus. "I'm sorry." She tells Antoinette, not bothering to wait or ask for permission as she moves to the woman's side with supernatural speed and sinks her fangs into Antoinette's throat. She drinks a couple of swallows before she grabs them with one hand and Benjamin with the other, pathing them back towards the gate.
Benjamin tilts his head in pain as he continues to hold out his wrist for Lilian to feed on his blood, his already pallid skin growing flush from his heartrate spiking then pale again as Lilian drains. With the trenchlighter from earlier he uses some pitcograms drawn in the unwavering flame to create the path back towards Haven.
Lilian gets with the pathing everyone out from the vulture as fast as possible
Seamus closes his eyes when they are pathed, holding on to Sam with all his might, still very uncomfortable with this mode of transportation.
Antoinette bristles as she's fed upon in some brief state of conflicting emotions but just stays silent, renewing her grip on Sam and working with Seamus to make sure they get him along the pathy Lily and Ben are carving alright.
Lilian catches Antoinette's eye beforehand so the woman doesn't even feel the bite.
And a couple minutes later, after walking the path in the woods, the entire party is once more right in front of the gate to the Other, from the inside. Greeted once more by the vibrant colors and plants, the Crossroads not too far away, displaying people of equally bright hair colors.
The temperature of the air is back to a cold one, and there is no longer the intense light of the flames spreading around, they are back to safety- If you could consider the entrance to the Other safe. Tired and mangled, their health drained after so much magic and rituals, and the ominous visit at the end, but safe - Now only one thing remains, and it is performed a couple minutes later by Antoinette, the one who retrieved the relic.
Contacting the Venice representative, and being told to wait where they met originally, right outside the gate, the group waits and waits. The arab man from before ends up returning with his car, and takes the artifact, putting it safely in some sort of container before nodding his head towards the group, the little compensation he offers on his own being a little "Venice thanks you for your services. Thanks to you, this trinket will not cause more breaches of Secrecy"
Using the time to rise onto his feet, Sam just nods to the venice contact, smiling a little. "If you need to compare research, you know where to find us." He smiles, and ticks a somewhat weary nod to the man. "The other half was succesfully broken, yes?"
Seamus releases his grip on Sam and turns away from the group, throwing up when they are done pathing out. "Sorry," he mutters going back to help Antoinette with Sam, "Still getting used to this nonsense."
[OOC: And well, with that, the end of the plot. Feel free to add some finishing touches if you want or want to get them out of your system, and do tell me when I'm good to finish, and if you want any rewards. Sorry for it taking a little longer than intended, didn't expect to do so much writing and privates after leaving certain chunks prewritten, but hopefully everyone had fun]
"I would be interested in an opportunity to study it if it ever arises." Antoinette adds to the man, lingering close to Sam just in case he needs support. Seamus gets a smile, "At least the nausea gets better."
"I doubt it will, this will be studied and strictly kept by Venice for a long time, at least given the extent of things it can achieve" The man replies to Antoinette, putting the artifact with its container away and commenting "Draining the Godrealm to boost a person beyond the point of monstrosity is quite dangerous if left unchecked" With that, the man seems to take Sam's number, with little comments for the throwing up or the pathing comments other than offering an understanding nod. And with that, he gets back into his car, closing the door after it, and driving off once more towards Haven, leaving the party alone once more
After arriving back in Haven Benjamin listens to the Venetian agent speak and then huffs and puffs walking back over to Lilian, "That went way worse than last time, are you okay?" there is a glance for Antoinette some concern on his expression there too.
Upon tracking the shifter to a secluded wooden hut, the team, comprised of Lilian, Benjamin, Seamus, Antoinette, and led by Sam, found themselves in a silent and eerily empty patch of forest. Their plan split between distraction, stealth, and direct confrontation, with Lilian utilizing her vampiric abilities and summoning a penguin minion named Pengu for assistance. The confrontation escalated quickly as the shifter, able to morph into deadly forms, resisted their efforts to subdue or distract him using a combination of magic, physical force, and cunning.
Despite their preparation, the battle turned chaotic. The shifter demonstrated formidable resilience and power, shrugging off most of their attacks while lashing out in blind rage, partially induced by Lilian's ritual of madness. The group's magic, particularly from Sam, strained to hold the beast at bay. The fight intensified, drawing on everyone's strengths, from Benjamin's defensive strategies to Antoinette's keen instincts for recovery of the artifact amidst the turmoil.
The fight reached its climax as the group, bruised and battered, managed to weaken the shifter enough for Antoinette to bravely retrieve the cursed bracelet, the source of the shifter's augmented power. However, their victory was overshadowed by the arrival of a sinister, life-draining vulture, marking an ominous closure to their harrowing ordeal. It fed on the shifter's body in a grotesque display, hinting at deeper, darker magic at play. Despite the unsettling witness, they relayed the artifact to a representative from Venice, extracting a vague promise of gratitude and the slim possibility of research access in the future.
In the aftermath, the team, particularly focused on their injured and traumatized members, regrouped outside the gates of the Other. The mission had taken a heavy toll on them, physically and mentally, leaving behind a lingering sense of unease and many unanswered questions. Yet, their bond, forged in the fire of combat and shared peril, emerged stronger, a silver lining to their clouded, mysterious venture. The shadow of the vulture and the enigmatic forces behind the artifact loomed large as they retreated to the relative safety of Haven, their mission completed but far from over in its implications.
(Shifting Shadows(SRWilliam):SRWilliam)
[Wed Feb 26 2025]
In the wilderness somewhere in Lauriea
Somewhere on the wilderness of Lauriea, the thickness of the vegetation is overwhelming. Trees as far as sight reaches, grass growing taller than it should, easily up the knees or hips of some, brushes, logs and fallen trunks here and there, with the ocassional rock on sight. The air dripping with pure magic, sticking to every living being that walks in the area, almost like some thick sugary liquid. Though, despite how vibrant life seems to be about here, all of the fauna in the area seems to be missing, not even smaller mammals or monsters on sight - Even the magical animated plant monsters of the Other seem to keep their distance from this place.
Hidden between the several tree trunks, one can spot a little makeshift wooden hut, big enough to house a person or two, at least composed of three rooms by the look of it, at least from the outside, marks on the ground and the cork of the trees seem to lead in that direction. Not too far from it, a hole in the ground seems to be covered by a bunch of wooden logs stuck together with some sort of orangish resin that acts as glue, almost looks like an attempt of a bunker with very lackluster entrance security, or the den of some animal, covered with wooden planks.
It is night, about 28F(-2C) degrees, There is a new moon.
Wearing full skimpy armor over her skimpy dress, Lilian is on Benjamin's arm, cuddling against him with a unstrung bow in her other hand as she waits around.
Unlike Lilian who has skimpy Benjamin has a metaphorical slab of beaten iron plunked into the ground and leaning heavily against himself.
Seamus is his usual unarmed self looking very much like the bait.
Antoinette also looks relatively unarmed, apparently she's not planning to get into any tangles. Probably on team stealth mode, but she does have a knife on her at least. And maybe some other things up her sleeve.
[OOC: A little OOC rundown of everything before we begin. The color of this same message I will use for privates or stat/discipline dependent messages. I will also use it for OOC if needed, but that will normally come with the brackets and the ooc disclaimer. I will also normally wait for every player to post before I move on to posting my next message, but if for some reason you feel like I'm taking too long, feel free to continue interacting with each other, no need to strictly wait while doing nothing unless you /need/ a reply from me. Now, for this plot in particular, if you have brought weapons and are worried about getting xp, feel free to drop them on the ground, they are only needed in case I need to probe your disciplines. This whole plot is going to be in a single room to avoid having to chase players around and some people seeing some things and others not, so things that would normally be other rooms, have been worked into places - If you need some info about a place, do express it and I will give a short emote with what you can see, only join them if your character actually gets there - Some things will happen when you get in certain places, or only if you do. And that would be all, make sure to have fun, and feel free to tell me at any point for any reason ]
[And with that said, I will proceed to post the first message to kickstart everything]
Still within the confines of the town of Haven, not yet in the wilderness by any means, the last couple natural lights of the day bathe the sky, painting it in orangish tones that are quickly giving pass to the darker colors of the night as it approaches.
But that isn't where our group is meeting, no. Instead, it is nearer to Suncrest Lane, in particular, by the side of the gate to the Other. A solitary man waits resting against his black car there, checking his watch every so often. Dressed in a formal suit that would give out he's likely just came out from work, either that or he's doing a poor job to dress for his surroundings. Not particularly high, but definitely a bulky man, with rounded facial features and olive toned skin.
As the group slowly arrives and gathers closeby to the gate, the man directs his eyes to each of them slowly, examining them closely before straightening himself, letting out a little sigh and taking a couple steps closer. He takes a moment to look around the area, and checks his watch one more time, before finally saying "Thank you for answering the request.".
His voice seems to have some sort of arabic accent that is half faded, almost accustomed to talking like an american "Venice could not let the situation keep escalating at the pace it was going" Much like they might have supposed before, this man is the agent sent by the Venetian council to brief them on their mission, and to whom they might have to report later on "We've had to deal with five cases of mundane sightings of a beast halfway between man and bear. And as you can understand, we simply cannot allow such breach of the secrecy to keep going.".
And with that he reaches towards the car to retrieve a folder from inside, checking a paper or two before half reading to everyone "The source of the issue has been narrowed down to a particular shifter coming out from the Other and causing trouble both in border territories and now sightings have been extended to the forests near Haven. Its shifting abilities have been deemed unusually strong, showing no signs of diminishing strength for presenting multiple shifted forms, as well as more dangerous kinds of shifting".
"Its power source has been tracked down to a newly discovered artifact which we suspect the Fae are experimenting with, consisting of two essential pieces. One of them gathers magic from its surroundings, and sends it towards the other, which acts as a receiver, working even across different worlds - The magic drain has been tracked to the Godrealm, where a ritual to stop the drain is being performed right now " And with that the man, the man passes the page and puts the the folder away, crossing his arms, pointing a finger towards his own ear and telling them "Whenever you have retrieved the artifact, use a private channel to contact me".
Then he slowly passes his eyes all over the group once more before ending with a little "The artifact we suspect is a golden bracelet that remains visible even while shifted. Are there any questions?".
Seamus opens his mouth as if to ask a question but thinks better of it and shakes his head no before tacking on, "I am sure people who know better than me can bring me up to speed if I embarrass them."
Quietly, Sam lets the man speak, adjusting the ceramic vest he wears under his suit jacket. He looks towards the man, and he smiles a little. "Has there been a new caretaker for the artifact after?"
He smiles somewhat, and pauses. "Secondarily, I assume that ending the shifter, should it come to that, is an acceptable resolution, as well, yes?" He pauses. "That is, if covert fails."
"You said the sightings are of a manbear hybrid. You also said they have many forms and no diminished dangerous from it." Benjamin points out in a soft spoken new yorker's accent as he looks from the contact out towards the Haven's misty woods. "Do we know any other um... Animals or shapes they've presented or just the man bear... pig... I mean manbear." he corrects himself.
There's an inquisitive expression on Antoinette's face as she listens to the man give his mission briefing. She herself remains quiet for now, simply absorbing the information and listening. Occasionally her gaze flits toward the gate area or thereabouts, keeping an eye out.
"The priority for the artifact is to be removed from the equation- At least at this point in time, we only know of it being in possession of the shifter so far, and we suspect it comes from some sort of True Fae at the other side of the gate- The plan is for Venice to take care of it once this part is retrieved, and the part in the Godrealm is stopped" The man simply answers to Sam with a couple shakes of his head, pressing both hands together and rubbing them slowly as he continues speaking "As for the death of the shifter, it isn't something that worries us really- Given the time it spends offworld, there should be no Sanctuary involved, so if it's necessary, kill it before it flees the scene or ends the rest of the group, it is a priority to retrieve this artifact".
Then his gaze switches to Benjamin, to whom he says, reaching for a little paper within the folder once more "There are rumors of forms, as well as the true identity for the shifter, but we only have a couple confirmed. It is likely Marcus Summers, a werewolf who disappeared thirteen years ago- We know of a hybrid bear form, a snake form, and an eagle form. We've heard rumors of some draconic one, and two aquatic forms, but these are yet to be confirmed- It is not a stretch to assume just like how he's able to hybrid shift, that he could attain monstrous or mythological shifted forms"
"A werewolf with other forms." Benjamin says with a kind of look to Lilian and only now does he notice Sam with an awkward smile, somewhat forced and a lift of his hand. Whatever he was thinking of seems to slip his mind for near a minute before he finally clicks back on and amends, "Lily, if they're still a werewolf deep down isn't there a ritual we can use to drive them to lunacy might help keep it from outfoxing us or hiding itself during our hunt?"
Seamus pulls out his lighter and a thin cigar, lighting up as he waits, to keep warm and his hands busy. "Mm hmm hmm," Seamus says following along as if this is perfectly normal.
"How strange to have so many forms." Lilian muses softly as she clings to Benjamin's arm. "Is it in the other we're fighting him or is it near Haven itself?" That being said she starts to cast a ritual of protection on herself, followed by a mind ward as the other talks
"I believe the artifact is in the Other from the sound of things." Antoinette looks to the man for final confirmation on that. "It would be easier to fight him there too, wouldn't it?" A genuine question posed to the group. She doesn't have much experience in off-world dealings like this.
"Um. It'd be easier in the fact no witnesses. Also isn't magic and other supernatural abilities stronger in the other. Its own and ours?" Benjamin asks Antoinette with a nervous hand coming up to rub a hicket marked neck.
"Very well. We can speak of containment and such at a later date. Color the Haven branch interested." He nods over to Lilian and Benjamin. "I can assist with a lunacy ritual, perhaps a mental leash to weaken him..." Sam muses a little.
Following suit, he too starts drawing his own ritual form, bolstering his mind and body. "If push comes to shove, I'd prefer to fight him in the Other, as I doubt I could match a shifter in a fair square-up. Me and Lily have defeated weres before, our magic works quite well, on the living."
"Now, what furthest he's been able to be tracked is to a small section of the woods in the border territory of Lauriea... The location has been marked and will be sent shortly to your devices so that you can path once you get into the Other" The man says as he reaches for a tablet within his vehicle, taking his time to tap a couple things here and there, before every single one of the phones of everyone present emit a light beep, the location that he had been tracked to appearing when everyone's devices, which to confirm everyone's suspicions, doesn't seem to show any place here in this world, the map apps almost going crazy at the information input, confirming it is likely in the Other that the whole ordeal is going to happen. But upon listening to the several comments made by the different people, he clarifies "We doubt he's still a werewolf- Wolves and magic don't mix well, and while the mysterious nature of this new trinket could allow a wolf to change into other things for all we know, no disturbances have been caused in the same areas by wolves- In any case, a new moon has been chosen as the date for a reason- If there's any wolf left in him, he will be weak today"
"So I guess the question here is... How much do we want to fight a monsterous shifter versus how much do we want to skirt this and try and lift the artifact. I'll be honest I don't lug this..." Benjamin knocks his knuckles against the literal slab of iron. "Around because I'm a good fighter, I do it because I can hide behind it. So if there's any way we can do this on the sly, I'd prefer it."
Seamus thinks about this a moment then holds his cigar in his hand as he checks over the phone and looks over to Antoinette, "Just so I am abundantly clear, we are going to not here to play fuck around and find out with someone who may be able to shift into fuck knows what, just to steal a bracelet. That about the sum of it?"
"A bunch of you can distract him while I sneak in and steal the artifact and then you can retreat?" Lilian suggests with a tilt of her head as she leans into Benjamin's shoulder and nuzzles against him.
simply nods some, sending off a brief text and then arranging a few supplies on her person so they're handy if it comes up. Otherwise she seems to have heard everything she needs to hear. "Quiet and quick would be the ideal route I imagine." Antoinette decides, nodding to Seamus. "It might get dicey if he's -wearing- the thing but." A wry smile here. "If a fight breaks out we let the people who are good at that do the fighting and we can definitely do up some distractions I'm sure."
Benjamin says "You say a bunch of us, but I count three guys and two girls... and of the guys I'm the only one sporting a heckin' big shield because Sam is an arcanist. So I'm hearing let Seamus be mauled to death or Benji distract the crazed shifter."
"Agreed with Benjamin." Sam nods to Benjamin. "Subterfuge would be better, we do not know if gifting the bracelet to him is some sort of fucked Fae game, so we don't really want him to be too aware of our plans." The jock pauses a little. "I can frame it as a Forged Fortune business call or something.
He grins, and taps his chest, showing off the hidden body armor. "I'm mainly an arcanist, but I can fight, Ben. Just shifters tend to fight better. So I'm not taking my chances." "
(fix) "Agreed with Benjamin." Sam nods to Benjamin. "Subterfuge would be better, we do not know if gifting the bracelet to him is some sort of fucked Fae game, so we don't really want him to be too aware of our plans." The jock pauses a little. "I can frame it as a Forged Fortune business call or something."
He grins, and taps his chest, showing off the hidden body armor. "I'm mainly an arcanist, but I can fight, Ben. Just shifters tend to fight better. So I'm not taking my chances."
Lilian glances over at Benjamin, "You're not wrong. I suppose we can all act and pretend we're there for .. something else. Charm the bracelet off him so to speak.'"
Lilian points out you can gain rpexp while wearing armour in plots by the way as she continues to stand prettily in her skimpy armor.
Seamus takes a breath, "Will it be to death or will it be a little chomping? Will I come out looking like I need to shave every night?" He doesn't have a firm grasp on how werewolves actually work
Antoinette is clearly volunteering herself for being one of those 'just out of sight' people. "I can have Fuil nearby as well and ready to help if a fight does break out." She considers Seamus with a beat of amusement, "Try not to get in the way of its jaws or claws at all if you can help it."
Benjamin listns to Antoinette and Sam but for Seamus, "Oh we would probably heat up a piece of metal and cauterize it, that normally prevent the lycanthropy from taking. That's what the school books say."
Sam says "It lowers the chance of getting the woof."
Benjamin says "So why don't Lily and Sam approach under the guise of supernatural politics whatever... Seamus can sneak in with Toni and I'll run interference for the two if the monsters attention turns?"
Benjamin says "Either Lily and Sam convince him to remove it or slow play him or he's distracted by them and Toni and Seamus nick it. Either way I help whichever group gets the ire."
The man glances between everyone gathered as they discuss, but seeing as they are no longer posing questions to inform themselves, he simply nods his head in recognition and adds "Your society communications should be able to temporarily access a channel to contact me - Please do so when you've recovered the artifact... Until then, I will leave the planning and the logistics to all of you"
And with that, the man opens the door of his car and steps into it. Starting the engine and giving a light wave with his hand before heading out towwards the road back to Haven, leaving the group discussing alone in the middle of Suncrest Lane, just by the entrance to the Other.
Sam says "Likely the gate interfering. All right. Lily, you up for some door-to-door preaching?"
Antoinette leans over to murmur something to Seamus as the plan is discussed, there's a light frown at Seamus' words and then tells the others, "Neither of us are actually good at pickpocketing." She decides. "Soo we might want someone who -is- good at that on the inside instead just in case."
"I can only be in one place at one time. But given I'm not dumping my armor I'm probably better for the sneaking party. Ben who is also good at acting can go with Sam. As his uh.. bag carrier. And I'll be a cat and let people know if it's safe to follow." She looks over Antoinette and Seamus, "How stealthy are you both?" Lilian asks softly.
Seamus says "I am good at forming a distraction. I am not bad at hiding. "
Benjamin looks down at Lilian as she switches tact and then lifts amber eyes to Sam, "I can be an assistant, I'm a professional assistant."
Sam says "Marcus Summers, yes? "
Benjamin says "That was the name, yes."
Sam says "Lovely. So. Any last additions?"
Antoinette shakes her head, "Ready on my end." She slips her knife into the pocket of her hoodie for easier access and then lifts up her hood to be ready when the time comes. Just in case.
"We need a signal to know if he has the bracelet on. There's no point us sneaking in if it on his wrist." Lilian points out as she continues to cast rituals, this time protecting and mind warding Benjamin.
"Sure. I'll loudly remind Sam about our other appointments tonight if he has it. If he doesn't have it than we just you know keep distracting him." Benjamin says slowly and then furrows his brow, "That makes sense right?"
Seamus is by all measures the least helpful person here, except maybe for the sneaking. While everyone else is doing, what he affectionately refers to as "That Twin Peaks bullshit", he stands around smoking.
Sam says "If he has it on, I propose we go for incapacitating him."
And with everything out of the way and discussed, the group steps into the Other, crossing the gate that takes them into the magical world of the Fae. Vibrant colors and exuberant plants everywhere your eyes go, with the lovely addition of the odd sensation of always being watched and stalked, like something is ready to pounce on you every second you spend on its streets.
But the party isn't really going to be walking there this time, they have been given a particular location, in the middle of one of Lauriea's forests, it isn't something you can reach without normally facing hordes of monsters and nature itself resisting the approach. No, instead they are forced to path there - And the walk takes quite a couple of minutes.
When they step out in their location, they are dropped in a spacious area, surrounded by incredibly tall trees and gigantic foliage, which provides some level of coverage if anyone wanted to hide. In the distance, between the various tree trunks, one can see a little wodden hut, probably having two or three rooms given the size, but it doesn't seem like there's much animal presence around, not even the plant-like monsters that haunt this realm, every life that seems to be able to leave the place has done so, leaving just an eerily quiet ambiance for everyone
[You should now all be on the room we are actually in, feel free to join the thick of the forest if you're outright hiding, but otherwise no place should suit you]
Antoinette takes a moment to assess the area they comes out in, admiring it, and then making a motion to a particular spot as she says, "Going to follow from a distance." Finding a good spot to start from and taking some time to try and plan out a path forward that will give the least amount of trouble when the time comes.
Stepping out of the pathway with all the utter confidence and arrogance of a cock-sure Hand operative, Sam snaps his fingers at Benjamin as he tucks his phone away, and heads towards the hut. Speaking in an even cockier rendition of his normal attitude, he nods some. "Intern Johnson, remind me, why are we in the middle of... Lauriea of all places? You know I have a lot to do this week." He doesn't much try to stay hidden, though one hand is on a hidden sheath at his belt, and his shoes trample branches like someone who is un-used to the woods. "I swear, if another fae bothers us on this trip, I am blowing a casket. A CASKET, Johnson!"
Seamus has to swallow hard to avoid throwing up after pathing and when they pop out he mutters under his breath as he looks around, astonished by the sighs and sounds of this strange new worlds, almost dropping his smoke in the process. "Holy Mother...." He shakes his head and refocuses before adding to Antoinette, "It's... ah... my first time."
Benjamin falls in to step with Sam and then hucks the shield into the gym bag and hauls it on his back. Obviously the cocky Hand operative has more important things to do than defend himself and so the belabored assistant must. In a british voice sounding somewhat put upon, "The potential new society recruit. Marcus Summers, a werewolf last seen in this area. Sir." and then looking around he loudly wonders, "Do you want me to go poke the thicket for 'em sir?"
Turning into a cat, Lilian(bengal) sneaks on her belly towards the hut, keeping low in the underbrush. Given she's alot smaller than the others she can probably get alot closer to the hut than the giant human sized people.
As Sam and Benjamin reach the entrance to the hut, it becomes apparent that no one is opening the door to receive them, despite how little they did to conceal themselves. The hut itself seems to be oldish, it was certainly not something that was put together in the last couple of months, and some claw marks decorate the outer walls and even the door to some degree - Though strangely enough, it seems mostly still standing, despite how these forests can encroach anything built within them, or how monsters might try to ransack places.
It is all made equally disturbing and nerve wracking by the lack of noises coming from birds or small mammals, even going as far as to make those hidden self conscious of the rustling sound of leaves and grass as they move around, given the general silence of the space. But despite the wait or the act, no one seems to come out to greet the two men. And if they were to knock of check on the door to any degree, they would find it offers no resistance, it doesn't seem to be locked by any means, opening towards the inside with the littlest amount of strength put into it
Meanwhile Lilian(bengal) picks her way through the underbrush like a predator, circling around the hut to find any back entrances or windows.
A pause, and Sam looks over to Benjamin. "Well. Let's just make ourself comfortable, shall we?" He pushes the door open, tilting his head aside, as he, briefly, but without much dropping his act, allows Benjamin to stop him from doing the brash thing. After all, suit or no, the man /is/ a jock.
Benjamin does as instructed and knocks on the door which he then opens to reveal at least some of the interior. Not wanting to just walk into a death house, he turns to Sam and says, "I think he's our sir... I shall check for... signs." and then he does exactly that walks around the hut and encroaching forest looking for... signs with 0 woodsman skill or bushcraft or anything beyond being a New York and maybe having a knack for differentiating different smears of dirt from one another.
Antoinette is alert on the walk up, careful in her steps and trying to keep an eye and ear out for any activity happening outside that isn't from their own group. However she would wait just along the edges of where forest meets hut, waiting for a sign from one of the others that it's okay to move in to the hut, still keeping a lookout
Seamus follows along behind Antoinette staying low to the ground as the they walk through the underbrush
The main room inside of the hut seems to be quite a mess, as if someone had tried to stuff all the functionalities a house should provide into a single place. Presenting kitchen appliances, a tub, a desk, a fireplace, there's even hides to a side, and papers to another. This wouldn't be much if it was all in order or the room was bigger, but it isn't - It's pure chaos of a room, and a small one at that, making moving around hard without stepping or something or hitting anything on your way inside.
But that is only revealed to those who are in front of the opening door, when it happens. And instead, Benjamin tries to circle around the house, which for the most part seems just the same as the entrance, wooden walls marked with claws. A couple windows from different walls seem to reveal the same main room that has been discovered with the door opening - But aside from that and probably more noticeable, a section of the hut, located to the northwest, seems to be missing its ceiling completely, and a fraction of a wall. Nothing seems to be inside, almost like it's been deliverately cleared out, all but a single flower resting inside of the room
After the fruitless search outside Benjamin says in a british villian accent, "Nothing outside sir, not even an easy trail to follow."
[With the door open, people should be able to enter the main room freely, also, given the roofless room has been spotted, should be also accessible. Either by the broken wall from the outside, or a door in the northeast of the main room]
After pausing a few moments, Sam enters into the house. He nods slowly, and licks his lips. "I smell someone, though." He speaks a little, carefully moving about the main room, causing some creaking. He has pulled a rather human-looking fingerbone from under his vest, its runes glowing scarlet as the jock looks through the house, ducking low to avoid hitting his head on the roof.
There's just a touch of a frown as Antoinette motions for Seamus to follow her toward the entrance of the hut, primarily still playing the part of lookout, though she seems slightly tensed as she slinks up, like she's ready just in case anything happens.
Crawling into the back room, Lilian(bengal) stays to the shadows as she looks around the hut, her feline nose sniffling delicately with her acute sense of smell.
Seamus follows Antoinette to the hut and sees the single flower. "This is a trap," he mutters, "A trap with a calling card."
But despite the intrusion, no one seems to come to greet the pair - If it wasn't for the signs that someone has been here lately, one might as well think the hut has been abandoned to its luck. Leaving Sam and Benjamin in a room full of nothing but every day appliances and junk, even the papers that seem to have something written in them are intelligible, almost reminding of some child trying to write rather than what a normal adult would do.
The room itself has two doors, one to the northwest, and another to the northeast, the first leading towards that roofless room, the second to a bedroom, not that the party knew that yet. Though, making their way from the forest into the hut, the hiding gang might have noticed a weird hatch-like piece of wood laid around outside, with a clear hole underneath it, that seems to be out of the way enough at first to be spotted when looking about the house, but coming from the greenery it is even likely they stepped onto it.
Sam says, dryly, "Fuck it, I'm not touching the suspicious flower. I know the Other. Fuck that."
With that, Sam pushes at the north-eastern door, his heavy footsteps creaking on the floor as he does so, his eyes casting a glance about as he enters, ducking his head low still.
Being close to the ground Lilian(bengal) can of course see the hatches and wood. She meows a warning to those following her and makes her way into the room with the flower. Finding something on the floor - a cup, Lilian(bengal) bats at it with her paws towards the flower while running for the outskirts of the room.
Benjamin likewise is not touching the mysterious flower in the Other and follows after Sam and wonders, "Should I shout for him sir. A little Marcus Summers, come out and play? Perhaps find some bottles to really sell the bit?"
Antoinette looks back the way she and Seamus have come, "It's probably a trap." She murmurs in agreement to Seamus, gaze lingering on the direction of the wooden hatch. "There may be an alternate escape route, Sam. We'll keep an eye on it for now?"
Sam says, from the other room, "Gotcha! Lemme know if the flower turns up to be super cursed."
And just like that Sam enter the bedroom, a small room lacking any windows, and clearly dark, the jock might be able to somewhat see due to his night vision, the little furniture there seems to be, or the mattress on the floor, but the theater kid, without night vision and this late, cannot manage to see anything in here, it is almost walking into the shadows themselves
To the flower is also, to clarify, in the roofless room, not in the main room, just clarifying that, the main room is Diogenes 101
Benjamin flicks out his trench lighter and flick, an unflickering and unfaltering golden flame appears casting an even glow almost like a picture or a memory of fire. It also illuminates the room much better than a lighter might.
Seamus taps his temple and grins, "Not just a hat rack." He follows Antoinette along, definitely not a lost puppy dog but for sure not white knighting.
Poking around, Sam starts shamelessly rummaging through the bedroom's things, pulling at the drawer... locked. He then PULLS on the drawer, repeating the process with the wardrobe. Seems the Jock is not really one for subtle lock-smithing. But well, brute force is sometimes a beautiful thing, as he tries to 'unlock' the drawers and wardrobe.
And as Benjamin lights the room, Sam is already trying to force the different furniture kinds, which don't present that much of a deal. The wardrobe goes open, only to reveal a couple of clothes hanging from it, with two pairs of shoes underneath, something pretty normal, all of them to different degrees of dirty - But to be fair, it was so far out in the forest, it's hard not to get resin or dirt on you somehow. The drawers on the other side crack easily, one of them completely empty, the other containing different pages that probably at some point made up an entire notebook, but at this point, its condition is so poor that they might be considered individual sheets of paper
[With most of the exploring done, everyone should feel free to join any places now, I will say though that if you're to join the hatch, the space there is limited, it is narrow, so probably one at a time. Otherwise, you have free movement now]
Antoinette flashes a brief grin to Seamus in turn, head tilting briefly as she look from here toward the roofless room. "Maybe we should take a closer look at the hatch hole?" She asks, looking back the way the came. "Or we can risk the cursed flower."
Lilian(bengal) can't join the roofless room but that's where she is rolling the cup towards the flower.
Lilian(bengal) also looks at the flower to see if it's cursed
Seamus takes a breath, "Well... you are a mystical nurse. What's the worst thing that can happen? Oh Lily is batting at the flower. Maybe the roofless room?"
CRACK, creak, sigh. Sam rummages through the papers, then looks to the strange planks on the wall, knocking at them a few times, perhaps trying to find some kind of hidden hatch or stash. Of course, the jock has exactly zero detective skills, so he's mostly relying on pure luck of the brash, perhaps.
[To join the roofless, try using roof or less, since room defaults to the main one]
"My set of skills is very specific. Plenty of the worst things can happen." Antoinette comments wryly but nods. "But sure. Let's go to the cursed flower, you go first." She insists to Seamus
Lilian(bengal) stays at the limits of the room after batting the cup at the flower, her hackles raised as she watches the reaction.
Seamus takes a breath and leads the way to the room squinting as if that will protect his eyes and standing as small as possible. Since you know flowers are know to explode
As Sam leaves the papers behind and goes for the planks, they give out quite easily, probably due to the strength of the jock, inside the walls, there seems to be a small space where some weapons are hidden, a gun and a dagger in one, a longer sword in another - The missing shifter seems to be unarmed right now it seems, even if he's nowhere to be seen
Lilian(bengal) keeps silent as the thorns erupt in the room, staying a black only shadow as she observes the flower.
Seamus glomps onto Antoinette and screams like a little girl, high pitched and terrified when the eldritch horrors that are mouth petals and violet sky eyes
Sam says, calling out, "Y'all aight over there? Did he turn into an eagle? "
Antoinette is entirely frozen in place even as Seamus glomps on to her. Her breathing is barely detectable. "Do. Not. Move." She tells the man through gritted teeth. She can maybe(?) vaguely hear Sam now that there's no way out, but she can't quite bring herself to try and respond. Maybe he heard Seamus screaming though!
Benjamin turns to look around at the lack of a response and then to Sam, "Did you hear a scream just then because no one is responding."
The scream from Seamus coming from the roofless room is at first only heard by those around, but as a couple of minutes pass, there is a noise outside the hut, and even if still in the bedroom, Sam and Benjamin can easily see one of the windows on the main room from where they stand. The wooden hatch had been sent out flying into the air, landing somewhere outside. A snake seems to crawl out from the hole in the ground, but soon enough it is enveloped in a mantle of shadows and pure gore, that cover the body as the figure walks towards the house, soon after dissipating, leaving a more humanoid figure walking towards the hut.
As the figure approaches, it becomes apparent that it's a man, but not just any man, something somewhere in between human and animal. Standing at six feet and a half and with a width matching such size.
Lacking any shirt, it gives a good sight of the amount of brown hair covering his body, an unnatural amount of it spreading all over his back and arms, extending all over his shoulders and stretching towards his chest and tummy, in a way that it would almost seem like he's wearing a coat, were it not for the spots of skin that are showing.
His forearms, biceps and legs look unnaturally swollen and thick, and his fingertips end up in claws instead of normal nails. His mouth seems to be extended slightly forward, almost as if almost making a snout but not quite there, and his mouth has clear sharp and sizable fangs. Standing somewhere between man and beast, the beast being a bear in particular.
More importantly, wrapped around the upper half of his right arm's bicep, the target the group is after. A golden colored bracelet that seems to cling to his flesh and fur, almost as if it adapted to always be skin tight despite the obvious display of hybrid shifting. Mostly smooth and ring-shaped, but with some triangular spike-like shapes on its upper half.
Seamus lets the scream die out of his voice when Antoinette tells him to be quiet but there is still a panic in the man's eyes as he slows his breathing and focuses on her cheek.
Seeing the man, bear, were thing wearing the bracelet, Lilian(bengal) crawls to a spot that's empty and shifts back into a human. She immediately starts to draw runes in the air as she stays hunched down a low as possible, giving the bearman arthritis.
Like a prowling predator, Sam crouches down, and moves to the main room, trying to get a good view of the man. He nods to Lilian, and clenches his hand, red runes glowing up as he sends a whisper of magic into the shifter's body, hoping to slow down his approach enough for Lilian to finish whatever she is doing, even as the jock grabs his knife: A strange, oily kris knife of an odd materia..
Given there is still an element of stealth involved Benjamin moves to follow Sam staying a few yards back and near cover while doing so. He isn't a sneaker and he has a fuck off heavy shield in his bag on his back so he's also not quiet.
Although she hates how it feels, Lilian stays to finish casting her ritual, giving the bear arthritis and slowing him down before she tries to find a path out of the thorns room, to get away from that magical presence. Once safe, she adds her slowing magic to Sam's before starting to cast a ritual of madness on the beast.
Antoinette slowly, very, very slowly starts to relax, not quite taking her eyes off what she's seeing though she does eventually say, "I don't believe we're going to die, Seamus." Her voice is just above a whisper. "I think this is a very, very, very advanced illusion..."
The bear-man seems to slow down in his tracks when he goes out of sight from the window's perspective - Like simply walking around the house to get to the entrance, but there's an audible grunt as the magic is cast in his direction, first comes Sam's spell, which even if out of sight, is clearly slowing him down, evidenced by the fact that he isn't really coming inside the main room.
Then Lilian's ritual hits, cast faster than most can manage it causes the out of sight man to let out a loud "Fuck!" that can be heard everywhere within the building. Followed by that, comes the sound of cracking bones and blood dripping, almost like a rain of it, but everyone is kept in darkness as the shifter conceals himself behind the walls - A moment later though something more reptile-like shows its face through the front door, an oversized lizard, almost the size of a man, with green scales armoring its entire body, letting out a burst of flames from its mouth towards the inside of the building, already taken an aggressive stance at the approach of his resting place
Antoinette murmurs, "Let's try very slowly backing out toward where the hole that leads outside." She thinks she remembers the direction. Leave the fighting to the fighters.
"Right," Seamus says relaxing and stepping back from Antoinette and relaxing a little bit smoothing the front of his coat as he backs away slowly in the direction she indicates. "Don't make eye contact and back away slowly. Right."
Blood drips from Lilian's lips where she's bitten herself to sacrifice for the ritual of madness which should make the bear start seeing illusions of enemies soon. Lilian clutches her focus as she looks over at Seamus and Antoinette, "Go very slowly. There's something alive in there but I'm not sure what. It's powerful." She adds with a grimace as she gets to her feet once her ritual is completed and heads for the front door. Benjamin and Sam are trapped in with the bear at the door Afterall.
Benjamin is whispering "fuck fuck fuck fuck." as the spells fail to put the monsterous shifter down. Then it's turned into a snake dragon man and the colleged aged guy is hefting his gym bag down and getting out the cold iron slab of metal. "Fuck fuck fuck fuck." he continues to whisper, then he grabs a fucking javeline spear out of the bag and goes, "Fuuuuuuuuuu-aaaah-ck." pitching the whisper a bit higher as the spear is produce and he grunts hefting the full weight of the torso sized piece of metal onto his shoulder. From here it's a pitched whisper, "You going to talk to that sir?"
Antoinette nods once to Lilian, keeping a light hold on Seamus' arm as she moves with him, slow and steady. Her other hand is poised though, prepared to cast some kind of magic if necessary, gaze darting to and fro for trouble.
"Aight, Fuck this." Sam rakes his knife across his palm, and he places both his hands together, another arcane focus, a charred ring with a dragon biting it's own tail glowing up.
"By the binding of the Firestarter, by slain dragons, and by blood and victorious knights..." The jock incants, and he shakes his head, his voice lowering into a hiss.
"HALT!" He speaks that word with arcane authority, though it's clear to those near him that standing, potentially, in the brunt of that fire, and wielding arcane magic, especially at a shorter incantation rate, is draining on the Jock.
Seamus lets himself be guided backwards, acknowledging Lilian's warning with a firm nod. As he quietly steps backwards he brings his fists up to guarding stance, apparently going to go golden glove on a werefae.
And Antoinette seems to be right in her assessment, and whatever the people in the roofless room were seeing, seems to be illusory in nature to some degree, allowing them to walk around unscathed - It seems that Seamus and her are going to leave through the missing bit of wall, considering in the other direction is the main room with the fighters and now some fire caused by the draconic attack.
Lilian is greeted by the delightful sight that what was a bear-man before is now a green scaled dragon, the size of a man, with the bracelet stuck on its front right leg, seemingly having changed in size and girth to adapt to the shifting without breaking or loosening.
But the second ritual hits the shifter, whose eyes seem to unfocus from the intruders, and instead dart around the outside of the cabin- Once having aimed the fire breath towards Sam and Benjamin, it is now flailing its neck and head violently in every direction, breathing fire and setting the forest around them aflame, tail swinging around trying to knock down a couple trees.
And just in line, another spell, Sam binding comes, holding the beast in place, but not stopping the madness or the rage of the reptile - Unable to move or keep fighting invisible enemies by conventional means, it shoots another beam of fire that hits the cabin, now properly on fire. Grunting and complaining in annoyance at whatever is keeping him down, it tries to shift once more, returning to that half ursine half human look of his, towering over the rest of the people around, eyes filled with rage and the growls of a wild bear heard everywhere around the forest
"Pengu." Lilian calls out softly, tearing a small rift in space where purple starts to glitter as she waits for her penguin minion to come. Unshealthing her katana, Lilian approaches the reptile from behind even as she waits for her penguin. "Keep it distracted it had madness." She calls out as she waits for an opportunity to path and slice off the arm.
Antoinette exhales in clear relief once she and Seamus seem to get clear of the room. "Holy shit. Are you alright?" She asks the man, swallowing, expression tinged with nerves, focused on making sure he is, in fact, alright enough before doing much else.
Trembling, Sam clenches his hands into fists, sweat pearling on the Jock's brow as he remains in place, his mouth twisting into a snarl. "By power stolen, and by birthright denied..." He snarls, anger flashing into his expression.
"Your Power is undone. Thou hast no BIRTHRIGHT!" He strains, then his voice shifts a little. "I Thee CONSUME!" His voice is strange, detached, like it comes more from that knife than anything else.
"She had a penguin named Pengu in a pocket dimension," Seamus says blinking a little bit as they hear the conversation but not see the action, probably. "Because of course she does. Somehow pocket penguin is the most normal thing about today." He looks back to Antoinette, "You know... mental breakdown is back on my bingo card but otherwise I'll survive. You?"
After the ray of fire blasts into the building there is a lift of the shield to protect himself from falling debris or the beam hitting himself. Benjamin sees Sam more or less standing against the ursine hybrid man shouting some very dramatic things. Leaning the weight of the cold iron slab onto his shoulder he jogs out to play blocker between Sam and any wild actions the ursine might have taken.
Blood drips onto the floor steadily from Lilian's lip as she holds the katana out to the side in a two handed grip. Her sapphire eyes dart to Benjamin and she bares her fangs as he puts himself in harm's way.
A faint laugh escapes and Antoinette nods to Seamus, "I'll freak out later if I need to. I think I'm good." She takes another breath. "I've got a snake. A krait. Maybe you'll get to meet him sometime." She nods toward the front of the house. "Let's circle around. See what the situation is." Though there is a fleeting glance back toward the roofless room as if to try and glimpse the thing that might actually be in there.
The blade seems to land properly once Lilian paths and hits the leg of the dragon, but its scales seem to be resistant enough to withstand it, leaving behind only a hint of a cut, a wound just above the leg, but no severed limb. And soon after the mad shifter is turning into the bear hybrid form, which flings the heavy arm in the direction of the pain inflicted to him. The quite heavy arm sending the woman flying a couple feet back, his strength not only inhuman but also combined with that of the beast.
Seamus and Antoinette seem to have made it out through the missing bits of wall, which leaves them right behind the hut, on the opposite side of the fighting, just to watch the fire spread through the vivid and vibrant vegetation of the Other, the normally cold temperature rising with every second that the flames spread.
Benjamin on his side could be doing better, he manages to protect himself from the debris and fire, but he can certainly feel the impact of all of those things, and the rising temperature makes it painful to even hold the shield, though so far he seems unharmed from something that could be much worse, considering Sanctuary isn't going to protect anyone in here from the beast.
Lastly, Sam's attempts seem to subdue the beast to some degree, making it crouch in its binding, but it doesn't seem to last for long, as after a couple seconds it stands back up, and it appears to break out of the previous binding, once more moving around the area - But the arthritis and the madness aren't gone, so it's quite anticlimatic that after setting itself free, it starts swinging heavy blows at thin air
Lilian gets thrown backwards, careening across the ground to land in a heap next to a bush. Blood continues to drip her from lip as she lies there, trying not to attract attention from the bear but looking rather still and injured to her companions.
By now there's heavy thudding noises as the rift tears open and a massive emperor penguin starts to waddle out. It looks at Lilian for a moment in a puddle, then turns towards the bear in a silent screech, flapping it's flippers as it approaches the bearman.
A chuckle, cold, detached, and unnatural flows from Sam's mouth, and in an instant, the jock stands next to the were-bear. Magic abandoned, a dark, sickly light comes from his form, and he starts stabbing that blade at the beast. He growls, hatred burning in his face as that divine light oozes around him. He does not stop or relent, instead just stabbing again and again and again at the beast, something seemingly having snapped in the Jock's mind. All that flows from his mouth, that foreign, angry voice hissing out with malice is "How... DARE... YOU?!" Stab. Slice. Stab. Stab. Hiss.
Seamus nods and follows Antoinette as they circle around. After they are a few steps away, "You're normal right?Does this ever get easier?"
While Benjamin might have hauled his ass into harms way it is in fact Lilian which gets smacked. Lifting up his spear he chucks it at the ursine shifter with a *hyah* and off it goes. Afterthat a slip of his hand into the back pocket and a knife appears in hand. However since Lilian has a giant penguin of doom, he doesn't go running to try and intercede mostly because this huge slab is to damn heavy. Sam goes vanishing and so the only thing he's left protecting is... himself!
Antoinette considers the fire with a frown, brow furrowed. A glance up to the sky and then back down to the flames, quickly starting to move back around toward the front of the cabin with Seamus in tow. "Not particularly. You just get better at compartmentalizing the bullshit." She gets line of sight on what's happening in the main room, adding a quiet chant in Gaelic . Her amulet glows and with a flick of her fingers there's some additional light, brief though it is, added to the situation to cause further distraction to the bearman and give Sam an upperhand.
Lying on her side, violet hair stained with blood Lilian turns towards the bear being stabbed by Sam and reaches out a hand towards it as if trying to reach the bear. "Bleed for me." She calls out, causing the blood from the bear's wounds to start spurting for her.
The bear man growls and complains, in pain and anger, human speech left behind despite his appearance being somewhere in between. First it's Sam with the stabbing, and then it's the summoned minion. The knife seems to piece, the bear skin seeming more manageable than the draconic scales.
But an animal cornered is even more dangerous, closing his fist, the shifter aims it towards the penguin first, delivering a blow straight to its face that sends it towards the ground, the minion seems to enduring it and soon enough rejoin the attack, but an impact like that could have easily disfigured the face of any human, if not straight up having pulled it off.
Next in the sights of the animal is Sam, who is so viciously stabbing at the tank of a man, the bear blood pouring all over the place, retreating the arm once more to charge a fist much like the previous, with a surprising speed - But that's when Antoinette's illusion lands, forcing the beast to blink and hesitate for a moment, something on the corner of his vision distracting him just enough for Benjamin's spear to land on his shoulder, halting any attempt to rip off Sam's head with a punch.
Now stabbed everywhere, bleeding out, and attacked by a minion, the animal tries to retreat - It shift fact into a dragon, becoming a mangle of fur and blood for a couple seconds, the sound of bone cracking as the green scales start covering the figure, returning to being a simply oversized lizard, two wings poking from its back, it attempts to start flying, wanting to run away, but Lilian's spells hit him, his wounds open even more, and the resistance of his body against the pain and the attacks ceases momentarily. The winged beast falls to the ground, landing pathetically, barely able to register much right now, almost seeing red- Mad and light headed, barely able to move any longer it attempts to crawl away, though he is quite slow like this
Seamus winces as he watches the fight and mutters, "May need to let Lily feed," he observes before relighting his cigar and just watching
Benjamin hauls the cold iron shield across the ground, its weight scrapping until he is able to retrieve his spear and then looks around trying to spot a black cat or Lilian letting the others deal with the crawling monstrosity. "Lily." he calls out with a frown, "Surely you survived." he adds with a frowning expression.
Antoinette shifts uncomfortably in her hoodie with the rising heat, attention shifting back toward the flames for a moment and then falling back toward what she can see of the dragon. "It should be safe to go to her. Relatively speaking." She decides to Seamus, spotting Benjamin already on the move. She starts to move around toward where the dragon was trying to crawl off though, presumably to help Sam finish the job.
A hateful expression on his face, Sam extends a hand, and he growls. The runes on that fingerbone glow up, angrily so, and he speaks, a singular word uttered in malicious disdain. "Die." He snaps his fingers, Lilian perhaps knowing the spell cast.
Succesful or no, the jock then teeters forward, landing face-first onto the ground, something strange, and oily flickering around him as it leaves his body. The arcanist is out for the count, however, all that anger and magic and on the spot ritualism having drained him quite a lot.
With the flames spreading, the forest is now a chaos of fire, the temperature being unbearable, even the hut being now in the process of going down into debris, smoke and flames - If they wanted to check or retrieve anything from inside, it might be their last chance, or too late at this point, the structure not looking like it will last for more than a couple more minutes.
But the main attention is on the shifter beast, not in the flames surrounding the scenario, the crawling dragon, that seems to gasp somewhat as the magic from Sam reaches him. Crawling stopping, and the shape of the lizard changing back to that of a man. Despite the healthy or tanking form he seemed to hold while changing, his real human figure seemed much more slender, clearly lacking nutrition, quite tall and unkept, bags under his eyes and scars all over his body.
The man though doesn mouth words, instead he seems to make a couple final noises as he starts suffering a heart attack right there. Bracelet still on his right arm's bicepts, and blood everywhere around him, the beast seems to have gone down, finally dead.
Antoinette almost seems disappointed to see the man turn back into a proper human as she draws an amulet out of her bag and tosses it on, letting the magic of it flow through her as she draws her knife out and gets to work. Her expression is stoic and set as she gives the bracelet a quick assessment and starts cutting away at what's necessary to get the bracelet with little regard for the dying and eventually dead man and much more skill than she naturally has. "We need to get the fuck out of here!" She calls back to whomever can hear once the bracelet is in her hands.
Seamus makes to comment on not feeding Lilian now but Antoinette's argument to make like a tree gets his attention and he falls in, ready to run as far as he needs to with the rest of the party
"Carry.. Sam.... and me..." Lilian rasps out to Benjamin, Antoinette and Seamus who is apparently making out to run while half the party is on the ground.
Sam is most definately a green heap of lightly toasted jock on the ground right now, no real sign of movement coming from the jock as people start to do the wise thing, and leave.
"Toni... blood... bite.. can..." Lilian croaks out softly from the ground, her fingers reaching for someone as she lay in a crumbled heap of skirts and violet hair.
"Toni... blood... bite.. can..." Lilian croaks out softly from the ground, her fingers reaching for Antoinette as she lay in a crumbled heap of skirts and violet hair.
Antoinette manages to successfully recover the artifact from the corpse of the shifter, cutting here and there until the skin-tight trinket is in her grasp, no longer with the main, that seems to almost drain even more when it comes out, getting even slimmer and more boney-looking.
But much like the nurse says, the fire is getting worrying, they should be getting out of the place soon enough, unless they all want to end up engulfed by the spreading forest fire.
Out of nowhere, a solitary vulture appears on the sky, flying in circles for a good couple seconds and slowly descending onto the back of the now deceased Marcus Summers. Its head tilting to look at the corpse, before looking at the people around, in a very bird-like motion. It leans its body forward before stabbing with hits beak a couple times at where the heart of the man would have been, seemingly intent on ripping out the organ.
Your gaze seems to be snagged towards the flying creature and the restless attacks against the man's corpse, you are quite literally unable to take your eyes from it, no matter how hard you try, forced to watch until eventually bones are broken, blood is splattered and the heart is pulled out and smashes within the beak of the vulture.
Then the bird focuses on Antoinette once more, looking at the artifact in her hands, and letting out a cheerful chirp, or as much as a bird like it can manage, it is an animal after all, it has no human expressions like a smirk, a laugh or a face of happiness.
Except it's clear that that isn't an animal, its mere pressence seems to be tugging and stealing the life force of everyone present here, and just looking at it gives an uneasy feeling even to those not familiar with magic, it is a pressence most evil and ancient, but it seems intent on letting the party go just how they intend.
With the fire spreading in the forest Benjamin moves towards Lilian finally having found the violet-haired woman. "Okay..." he reaches out with a soft skinned hand and then offers his wrist to the crispy vampiress.
Lilian watches without much expression as the vulture eats the man but turns her head to bite, Benjamin's wrist, drinking hungrily as the wounds on her body heal from the blood.
As the vulture eats, Sam, or rather, Sam's body, sits up, like a puppet on invisible strings. It stares at the scene, then, when the feasting is done, Sam's body crumples again, the toy seemingly discarded for now. The tugging at his life-force does not speed the jock's recovery, at all, and he still seems out for the count, despite his rapt 'attention' for the heart-eating right before.
Seamus stops a little way from Antoinette and looks back at the rest of the group and walks a little closer. "What can I do?" he asks the group looking a little out of sorts rather than running away.
Antoinette successfully retrieves the bracelet, ready to get up and moving but the mysterious vulture lands and something about it seems to keep her rooted in place. She stares, barely blinking even as sweat beading her brow starts to drip into her eyes. She doesn't quite look as horrified as maybe she should. There's a morbid curiosity deep within those dark blue eyes. The chirp in the aftermath startles her out of her near-trance, looking down at the bracelet and gripping it tighter. She nods once and starts to quickly scramble back, "Help me get Sam." She tells Seamus, half stumbling backward toward Sam to grab for him and start to try hauling him back to his feet.
Seamus nods and goes to the other side of Sam from Antoinette to get under his other arm, so that Sam can drape his arms across both Seamus and Antoinette's arms. "Right. Sorry."
Groggily, Sam leans heavily on Seamus and Antoinette, sort of stumbling along as he groans, clearly in pain, but very much alive. He briefly feels around, then puts his knife back in it's sheath, before just leaning on Antoinette and Seamus both.
Now, the party arrived here pathing, and it definitely had to be the way out unless they planned on facing the flames and whatever awaited in the woods of the Other, luckily enough, there was still people awake that would be able to manage such a thing, and hopefully before that tugging at their life essence was too much to represent some serious risk.
The bird though seems to remain among the party, watching as they move around trying to scramble their way out. I hops off the body of the dead man, leaving it discarded, and the moment the animal jumps off it, the forest itself, in the form of roots and branches seems to reach for it and take him away into the mysterious woods. Just leaving an unusually peaceful vulture staring and slowly pacing back towards the group
Staggering to her feet after drinking of Benjamin, Lilian turns to Sam, Antoinette and Seamus. "I'm sorry." She tells Antoinette, not bothering to wait or ask for permission as she moves to the woman's side with supernatural speed and sinks her fangs into Antoinette's throat. She drinks a couple of swallows before she grabs them with one hand and Benjamin with the other, pathing them back towards the gate.
Benjamin tilts his head in pain as he continues to hold out his wrist for Lilian to feed on his blood, his already pallid skin growing flush from his heartrate spiking then pale again as Lilian drains. With the trenchlighter from earlier he uses some pitcograms drawn in the unwavering flame to create the path back towards Haven.
Lilian gets with the pathing everyone out from the vulture as fast as possible
Seamus closes his eyes when they are pathed, holding on to Sam with all his might, still very uncomfortable with this mode of transportation.
Antoinette bristles as she's fed upon in some brief state of conflicting emotions but just stays silent, renewing her grip on Sam and working with Seamus to make sure they get him along the pathy Lily and Ben are carving alright.
Lilian catches Antoinette's eye beforehand so the woman doesn't even feel the bite.
And a couple minutes later, after walking the path in the woods, the entire party is once more right in front of the gate to the Other, from the inside. Greeted once more by the vibrant colors and plants, the Crossroads not too far away, displaying people of equally bright hair colors.
The temperature of the air is back to a cold one, and there is no longer the intense light of the flames spreading around, they are back to safety- If you could consider the entrance to the Other safe. Tired and mangled, their health drained after so much magic and rituals, and the ominous visit at the end, but safe - Now only one thing remains, and it is performed a couple minutes later by Antoinette, the one who retrieved the relic.
Contacting the Venice representative, and being told to wait where they met originally, right outside the gate, the group waits and waits. The arab man from before ends up returning with his car, and takes the artifact, putting it safely in some sort of container before nodding his head towards the group, the little compensation he offers on his own being a little "Venice thanks you for your services. Thanks to you, this trinket will not cause more breaches of Secrecy"
Using the time to rise onto his feet, Sam just nods to the venice contact, smiling a little. "If you need to compare research, you know where to find us." He smiles, and ticks a somewhat weary nod to the man. "The other half was succesfully broken, yes?"
Seamus releases his grip on Sam and turns away from the group, throwing up when they are done pathing out. "Sorry," he mutters going back to help Antoinette with Sam, "Still getting used to this nonsense."
[OOC: And well, with that, the end of the plot. Feel free to add some finishing touches if you want or want to get them out of your system, and do tell me when I'm good to finish, and if you want any rewards. Sorry for it taking a little longer than intended, didn't expect to do so much writing and privates after leaving certain chunks prewritten, but hopefully everyone had fun]
"I would be interested in an opportunity to study it if it ever arises." Antoinette adds to the man, lingering close to Sam just in case he needs support. Seamus gets a smile, "At least the nausea gets better."
"I doubt it will, this will be studied and strictly kept by Venice for a long time, at least given the extent of things it can achieve" The man replies to Antoinette, putting the artifact with its container away and commenting "Draining the Godrealm to boost a person beyond the point of monstrosity is quite dangerous if left unchecked" With that, the man seems to take Sam's number, with little comments for the throwing up or the pathing comments other than offering an understanding nod. And with that, he gets back into his car, closing the door after it, and driving off once more towards Haven, leaving the party alone once more
After arriving back in Haven Benjamin listens to the Venetian agent speak and then huffs and puffs walking back over to Lilian, "That went way worse than last time, are you okay?" there is a glance for Antoinette some concern on his expression there too.