[NEXUS] MaGLoG II: Alcoholic Boogaloo

[ThirdEmperor]

[Halloween Night- Party]

Turning them to their costumes? That sounds like the ravings of some lunatic... But then, so would the entirety of this mad party if he was to try and tell the tale.

If you would hold a moment. Reaching up to his neck, the Wraith grasps at something invisible beneath the guise of his costume. A golden light shimmers from between bony fingers and then said fingers become considerably less skeletal, the illusion falling away.

Beneath is a rather average looking fellow, decidedly alive, garbed in an equally mundane woolen cloak rather than than the unearthly tatters of the damned. There. If what you say's true, the shadows should leave me now.

[Zefir]

The Hanging Thread

As it get's obviouse that Butler's costum won't go off that easy Ezreal will try to help him, as far as possible. He doesn't notice the witch costum comming closer since he fokus to get Butler out of his current one.

"The number of problems is rising. Someone having a plan."

This is mainly directed at the mae with the spear since he knows Butler.

[Reinholdt]

The Hanging Thread


Fortunately, Butler gets help. He wouldn't have been able to get it off on his own.

Unfortunately another one latches on shortly after getting the first one off. And even as Butler's voice gets kind of cackly, he proves he can have a plan too!

"Run sirs!"
Butler shouts, terrified, and going to literally dash through, shoulder down, to get to the portal. Though he can be held up with minimal fuss if the others don't agree with this particular plan.

[Halae]

Halloween Night - Somewhere in the Lobby

"And me."

Especially me, Kate thinks to herself.

...assuming that Ormirrah's using the definition of "poser" that Kate thinks she is. Slang is confusing.

[Halloween Might - Somewhere in the Lobey]

To be fair there, Ormirrah has no idea what she's talking about. She doesn't even really know what a goth is, much less how to be like one, and given inherent magic resistance from being half-dragon, it didn't overwrite her mind completely.

So as it stands? She's just weird.

"Everything feels sort of dark and sinister. More than it's supposed to on Halloween," Ormirrah says. Of course, she's never had a Halloween before, "Do you think there's a way we could fix this?"

[Lost_Deep]

Halloween Might - Somewhere in the Lobby

"That is the question, isn't it?" Kate looks at what may now be the few sources of light left in the room, now that the chandelier is out. "It appears to be that we are somewhat contained to this dark room, and while I would most likely be able to escape it would draw unwanted attention to me. I'm saving that particular surprise for an emergency."

Kate reaches up and feels under her collar... that's what she forgot. She left the holy symbol lying on the bedside table! The masquerade mindset changes this to casually straightening her collar, not breaking her demeanor.

"Apart from that, I'm not sure how useful I'll be."

Think, Kate, think.

"I may be able to do something if I can get access to one of the computers around, but I don't think I can see well enough to find one."

Assuming that some Magbot stayed logged in, anyway. Kate doesn't have her computer with her; she doesn't know if she could hack a computer if she needed to.

Especially since she specifically fixed all the security holes she could find back when she worked for Magtok, and she doesn't know if she can find any new ones.

[Halae]

[Halloween Night - Somewhere in the Lobby]

"I can," Ormirrah states almost proudly. Being half-dragon means well developed eyes, after all. She'll scan the room looking for whatever magbot or computer she might find, including if it's something that's part of a costume. Unfortunately, she's not greatly well versed in what sort of things can connect to a network, as she only came from a medieval fantasy world about eight months or so ago.

[Deathkeeper]

Butler, hold! Ezrael, I need five seconds of concentration. Cover me.
Jace stops moving, and while he doesn't lower his weapon, he clearly isn't focusing on waving it around. He hopes Ezrael blasts anything that gets ideas, but he's too busy with spellcasting to see.
If successful, a powerful wall of gale-force winds is emitted from his hands, first tearing through the space in front of him and hopefully clearing the aisle between them and the exit of its current occupants.

Ahem. Now we run for it.

[happyturtle]

At the Party

The things cackle, pointing at Elias with glee, "She gets what she wants. You she wants, you she gets." Without any other warning, a wide circle beneath Elias and Hekta's feet opens up, the floor disappearing and possibly dropping them into the depths below.

The Office

Should Elias and Hekta fall into the shadows, they will wind up in a grey concrete walled "office" with only a folding card table and a few plastic chairs to serve as furniture. On the table is a man's skull with a candle burning brightly inside, acting as a macabre jack o lantern. In a chair across from them on the other side of the table sits Eris, watching the proceedings in the lobby on an old portable TV with live rabbit ears sticking out of the receiver.

The Fool can do nothing to prevent falling, but he lands lightly and then stands tall, gathering his dignity about him like an invisible cloak. "So? I am here, as you requested. What is it you want?" His tone is very different from the polite young baker's apprentice. He still tries to keep Hekta close, though she could probably wriggle free by now, if she chooses. The blood stained knife has been returned to its pocket by now.

Towards the Light

"I don't know. Please, Elaine. Tell me what you were like? Let me hear the memories again? If you're truly there, don't tempt me with them and leave me to forever wonder."

"This was a mistake." Elaine whispers. Whoever this... voice... is, it isn't her Henry. He had done nothing to earn an afterlife where his memories were stripped from him like this. So either this was some other suffering soul, trying to latch on to anyone who came near, or more likely, a gypsy trick. The old man didn't know Henry well enough to mimic him, so he'd come up with this gambit. "Let's go, Vinny," she says, and she turns away from the light, blinking and covering her eyes to finally shield them.

[Earl of Purple]

The Darkened Way

Gertrude will try to make the hole as large as possible, in particular trying to extend it downwards; she's over two metres tall, and Kayla isn't, so it needs to be lower so they can both escape.

It's at this point that I realise that Gertrude could have prayed to Dalachrech for light.

[Shadowcaller]

[Halloween Night - Lobby]

Kirk doesn't bother to reply to that little jab as he whips out the grappling gun. He hands it off to Dena, seeing as she knows how to use it. Now for something he hopes will be immediately useful. Out of the cloak comes and orb that shines like a miniature sun. He holds it up high, in hope that it drives the shadows back.

At the Party

The things cackle, pointing at Elias with glee, "She gets what she wants. You she wants, you she gets." Without any other warning, a wide circle beneath Elias and Hekta's feet opens up, the floor disappearing and possibly dropping them into the depths below.

The Office

Should Elias and Hekta fall into the shadows, they will wind up in a grey concrete walled "office" with only a folding card table and a few plastic chairs to serve as furniture. On the table is a man's skull with a candle burning brightly inside, acting as a macabre jack o lantern. In a chair across from them on the other side of the table sits Eris, watching the proceedings in the lobby on an old portable TV with live rabbit ears sticking out of the receiver.

Halloween Night - Lobby

The miniature sun dissolves the nearest tendrils outright, the ultraviolet light damaging them in ways that the spectral green fire didn't manage to do. However, the ones far above their heads near the ceiling only fray at the edges slightly before finally reaching for the candles and snuffing out the lights.

Everyone not within the range of either the Wraith's green flames or Dena's tanning orb will immediately be plunged into darkness, and those who dodged the tendrils earlier will now be susceptible to their personality changing effects unless they act very quickly to illuminate themselves somehow.

Meanwhile, Crissy who was by the card tables in the middle of the room may find herself encircled by something physical and powerful as the darkness comes, a thick, muscular tail slipping around her waist and trying to draw her back to the rows of slot machines and their flickering, half-functional screens.

Halloween Night - Lobby

((Considering I don't know the layout of MagGlog I'm not sure if a grappling gun would work here or not so I will reply to this once I'm sure.))

At the party==>The Office

Hekta, not exactly prepared for a shadow-y hole opening underneath her falls helplessly into the darkness below her.

Once they found themselves in the office Hekta will wrestle herself out of Elias grip, suddenly finding it a bit uncomfortable considering how he was acting. She still doesn't leave his side however since she still trusted him more then the place they suddenly found themselves in.

"Yeah!" She joins in. "What do you want?"

[KerfuffleMach2]

[Party - Krystal]

Krystal nods a little. They should, yeah. But, can't say the same about everybody else here.

And then the lights go out.

Damn...that can't be good.

[Party - Alysha]

When the lights go out, Alysha becomes more delighted about the situation. She continues like nothing happened, walking through the crowd.

[ThirdEmperor]

Halloween Night- Lobby

No, not good at all.

The Wizard startles as the lights are consumed and the room plunges into darkness, the green fire guttering for a moment as surprise takes it's toll on his focus. His eyes dart from one direction to the next, as if expecting death itself, or perhaps worse, to come looming out of the pitch blackness on all sides.

We... we should move, stay on our feet. If it was apparent enough the Wizard was close to panicking, his voice makes it clear, barely more than a frazzled whisper.

[UncleWolf]

Halloween Night - Bar

"You're right. We should." Trisha whispers huskily into Michi's ear as she tries to wrap her arms around the elf's neck with a smile. "Hopefully it won't take too long."

Toward The Light

Vinny frowns, but ultimately nods and turns with her, trying to wrap his arm around her shoulder to try and shield her from the memories and pain.

[Lady Serpentine]

[Outside]

It would! Which is probably fortunate, considering how affectionately Spec chose to greet her. Had it not been Trium waiting there, things would likely have gotten quite awkward, especially as they're both in costume, and thus it's entirely possible that the person waiting would also have been confused as to her identity.

In any case, however, as there was no confusion, it's a bit of a moot point, and Spec is likely quickly pulled into a tight hug, and a delighted kiss, quite possibly followed by being escorted into the building, just before the doors slam shut, and the shadows start to skitter towards them.

As the first one touches Trium, her wards flare, likely sending it back rather painfully, and, through the contact between them, as well as their magical bond, spread to Spec as well, just prior to the archmage slipping into being the One-in-Three, and, correspondingly, strengthening the shields by quite a bit.

After which, presumably, they pop out of deadtime in the present?

[Slii Arhem]

[Party - Krystal]

Krystal nods a little. They should, yeah. But, can't say the same about everybody else here.

And then the lights go out.

Damn...that can't be good.

[Party - Alysha]

When the lights go out, Alysha becomes more delighted about the situation. She continues like nothing happened, walking through the crowd.

Halloween Night- Lobby

No, not good at all.

The Wizard startles as the lights are consumed and the room plunges into darkness, the green fire guttering for a moment as surprise takes it's toll on his focus. His eyes dart from one direction to the next, as if expecting death itself, or perhaps worse, to come looming out of the pitch blackness on all sides.

We... we should move, stay on our feet. If it was apparent enough the Wizard was close to panicking, his voice makes it clear, barely more than a frazzled whisper.

Halloween Night - Lobby

A mocking voice calls out over the wizard's shoulder, one only he can hear, "Tsk tsk, you would think you'd remember that this is a costume party young man, and without a costume, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave." With that, a hole opens up beneath the wizard's feet, and gravity momentarily exerts a greater force on the area around him, attempting to force him down inside.

If he succumbs to the short fall, the wizard will find himself deposited on his arse in the alley outside the casino, locked out of the festivities. That's one way to secure your escape.

Halloween Night - Lobby

((Considering I don't know the layout of MagGlog I'm not sure if a grappling gun would work here or not so I will reply to this once I'm sure.))

At the party==>The Office

Hekta, not exactly prepared for a shadow-y hole opening underneath her falls helplessly into the darkness below her.

Once they found themselves in the office Hekta will wrestle herself out of Elias grip, suddenly finding it a bit uncomfortable considering how he was acting. She still doesn't leave his side however since she still trusted him more then the place they suddenly found themselves in.

"Yeah!" She joins in. "What do you want?"

The Fool can do nothing to prevent falling, but he lands lightly and then stands tall, gathering his dignity about him like an invisible cloak. "So? I am here, as you requested. What is it you want?" His tone is very different from the polite young baker's apprentice. He still tries to keep Hekta close, though she could probably wriggle free by now, if she chooses. The blood stained knife has been returned to its pocket by now.



"This was a mistake." Elaine whispers. Whoever this... voice... is, it isn't her Henry. He had done nothing to earn an afterlife where his memories were stripped from him like this. So either this was some other suffering soul, trying to latch on to anyone who came near, or more likely, a gypsy trick. The old man didn't know Henry well enough to mimic him, so he'd come up with this gambit. "Let's go, Vinny," she says, and she turns away from the light, blinking and covering her eyes to finally shield them.

The Office

Eris smiles at the duo and shakes her head, "You're here, so I already have what I want little monster. Imagine, a boy and a girl of your age getting into all kinds of trouble, and no one to suspect a thing. A very enviable position to be in if you ask me." Eris withdraws an apple from under the table, rolling it around in her hand and obscuring it for a moment. It disappears behind the gesture, and is replaced by a single golden seed.

Towards the Light

As they turn away from the light, the voice gives one last plaintive whisper, but it vanishes with the light as they both appear back in the Lobby, just in time for the lights to go out and the shadows to attempt to work their mind-altering magics on the pair.

Halloween Lobby

The ceiling has a few old chandeliers and vents for them to grapple onto, but when the candles go out it will prove to be very difficult to aim the launcher, since the shadows surrounding their little haven of light are completely impenetrable to mundane darkvision. Not surprising, considering the fact that they're being manipulated by a goddess.

"A gift for you. Plant it, and you can sew all the havoc you could ever desire and more, little monster. Between the two of you you could have so much fun." The goddess' eyes blaze with emerald fire as she holds the seed out towards Elias temptingly.

The Darkened Way

Gertrude will try to make the hole as large as possible, in particular trying to extend it downwards; she's over two metres tall, and Kayla isn't, so it needs to be lower so they can both escape.

It's at this point that I realise that Gertrude could have prayed to Dalachrech for light.

The Darkened Way

As Gertrude and Kayla escape the black expanse, they tumble out into a massive green environment. Leafy stalks tower around them, and below their feet sits a leaf that must be the size of a football field. Behind them, their cage is revealed as a huge black orb, attached to the socket of the largest moth most people could ever claim to witness. It's so large that the hole Gertrude carver out of its eye is no larger than a pinprick to it, and it's moving a foreleg up to scratch at the annoying itch that they've become.

They may want to dodge out of the way, lest they be crushed by a leg the size of a skyscraper.

The Hanging Thread

As it get's obviouse that Butler's costum won't go off that easy Ezreal will try to help him, as far as possible. He doesn't notice the witch costum comming closer since he fokus to get Butler out of his current one.

"The number of problems is rising. Someone having a plan."

This is mainly directed at the mae with the spear since he knows Butler.

The Hanging Thread


Fortunately, Butler gets help. He wouldn't have been able to get it off on his own.

Unfortunately another one latches on shortly after getting the first one off. And even as Butler's voice gets kind of cackly, he proves he can have a plan too!

"Run sirs!"
Butler shouts, terrified, and going to literally dash through, shoulder down, to get to the portal. Though he can be held up with minimal fuss if the others don't agree with this particular plan.

Butler, hold! Ezrael, I need five seconds of concentration. Cover me.
Jace stops moving, and while he doesn't lower his weapon, he clearly isn't focusing on waving it around. He hopes Ezrael blasts anything that gets ideas, but he's too busy with spellcasting to see.
If successful, a powerful wall of gale-force winds is emitted from his hands, first tearing through the space in front of him and hopefully clearing the aisle between them and the exit of its current occupants.

Ahem. Now we run for it.

The Hanging Thread

As Jace finishes his spell unmolested, the costumes just stand where they were, completely undisturbed. There's no question that he cast the spell, and it certainly should have moved the air rather violently, but the store's air doesn't move at all. The costumes look like they would laugh at his attempt if they had lungs and vocal cords, but instead they begin to inch forward again, looking for the best opportunity to strike.

One of them, a child's dragon costume, finally runs up and tries to tackle Jace in the chest so that it can make him kid-sized and adorable.

[Halloween Night - Somewhere in the Lobby]

"I can," Ormirrah states almost proudly. Being half-dragon means well developed eyes, after all. She'll scan the room looking for whatever magbot or computer she might find, including if it's something that's part of a costume. Unfortunately, she's not greatly well versed in what sort of things can connect to a network, as she only came from a medieval fantasy world about eight months or so ago.

Apart from the flickering lights of the banks of slot machines, the only functioning bit of technology is a lone Magbot strung up in a massive spiderweb on the ceiling that she can glimpse just before the lights go out. It looks pretty much decommissioned, but if that's how they think they're getting out of here it may be their only shot.

Halloween Night - Lobby

The darkness falls, and Crissy stiffens as the shadows touch her...

...and suddenly, she feels herself being pulled backwards. Bringing a shriek from the brunette half-elf, who's now wondering just what sort of critter escaped from...

"Auntie Em!" Crissy, who dressed as Dorothy Gale, shrieks as she struggles!

Halloween Night - Lobby

"She won't sssave you little moppet. No one will and no one can. Now, let'sss see if your luck holds out in a new kind of game." The naga croons as she tries to wrap her coils around the newly minted Dorothy until the girl is covered from her legs to her shoulders in scaly muscle. If she succeeds, the naga will begin to squeeze a bit every time Crissy exhales, making the next breath just a bit harder to manage.

[Deathkeeper]

(Jace's previous statement is unchanged, it's just now in a more worried tone)
His focused stare at the costumes makes it easy to notice the pint-sized wad of cloth scales suddenly charging him. As it gets close, he lashes out downwards with the spear, attempting to pin it to the floor. Should that work, he aims his free palm towards it and utters a quick By Nethys, let this one work before attempting to blast it with a gout of flame.

[The Bushranger]

Halloween Night - Lobby

"She won't sssave you little moppet. No one will and no one can. Now, let'sss see if your luck holds out in a new kind of game." The naga croons as she tries to wrap her coils around the newly minted Dorothy until the girl is covered from her legs to her shoulders in scaly muscle. If she succeeds, the naga will begin to squeeze a bit every time Crissy exhales, making the next breath just a bit harder to manage.

Crissy does her best to struggle as the coils close around her. And she retains enough of her thoughts to remember two things.

First, she has an augment to her strength from the amulet she wears.

Secondly, that heavy weight tucked under her dress by her waist isn't a paperweight.

So she'll try to keep one arm free long enough to pull out her sidearm and blast behind her in the direction of the naga's voice, even as it squeezes her.

The Traveller particle magnum happens to be set to (heavy) stun.

[KerfuffleMach2]

[Party - Krystal]

Krystal shakes her head to the Wizard's suggestion. Closed room like this? With that stuff pretty much everywhere as it is? Ain't gonna make much difference.

Then she notices the hole. As soon as the Wizard starts falling, she'll try to grab him and pull him away from it.

[Lady Serpentine]

[Den of Doom]

"Someone else's turn to die, you mean," Talia corrects quietly, guiding her flame to touch the mask on the dancer's face, if she can. "You don't really believe she was dancing because she was going to die and wished a chance for a last show, do you?"

Regardless of the response, unless something would stop her, she then tries to call on her connection to Lady Yedesai, hopefully enabling her to speak to at least Violetta, and possibly any others who have died here.

[The Alexandrian]

[Halloween Night - Lobby]

The Commentary

Woah, woah, woah! Dude! Tendrils everywhere! Everywhere! That's just despicable! And disgusting! Who knows where they've been? Eris alone, and she's not the most discriminating of goddesses canonically.

And oh gods they're trying to touch her! No! Bad evil tendrils of darkness and chaos! Bad! Stay back! Stay out of Spec's personal space bubble!

If not for Trium intervening to defend Spec with her solid wall of wards, she'd be as mad as the deranged loons lurking in the shadows of the basement of a forsaken, desecrated temple!

Praise be that it were not so with Spec! She's not a few fries short of a Happy Meal and she intends to keep it that way! Spec resisted the snare of Discord that hath hoodwinked and psychologically transmogrified the merry party people who quested for pleasure, mirth, and entertainment here this night but she's afraid she might not be blessed twice! She's no Ares, but she'll take the fight to the tendrils anyhow! She has to drive them back! It's a bit late but she's gotta be the shepherd of this flock! She must save Trium and the partygoers that haven't been corrupted or she isn't a good person!

But the lights go out, perfect darkness embracing Spec as she smirks. This is her element. Light sears her eyes! It is a shame that this creature or these creatures thrive in the absence of light or Spec would feel right at home playing the part of the huntress of the blind in it! But alas! It cannot be! For the first step is to try to kill the creature with fire.

Oh, she doesn't want to set Eris's world on fire. She just wants to start a fire in...the bar. The bar! O glorious alcohol, you are Spec's savior once again!

The Action

Spec levels her left arm with the floor and takes a bead on the bar. With a brilliant, blinding flash of white light, she attempts to emit a wide laser beam from her left palm courtesy of the weapon's system wired into her left arm. Her aim is to ignite the alcohol to fuel an explosion to set fire to the wall! Her right arm is drawing her big fat sword from her unornamented leather sheath with some difficulty, practically ripping the sheath off of her back to access the hilt of the giant's blade.

If she has any leftover time before her turn is up, she attempts to hack at the tendrils with her crazy huge claymore once or twice! There's a short delay between her individual swings of said claymore for obvious reasons, but she's sure that if she can clear out a sphere around her position, she'll be safe until the fire starts!

[happyturtle]

The Office

"You take it, Hekta," The Fool says.

The Party

Elaine arrives back at the party, and is hit by the tendrils. But she's been fighting against another personality for the last thirty years. Her costume isn't even a person. The concept of Winter may be universal, but it doesn't have much of a personality. Certainly nothing as strong as Billie's. Elaine fights off the enchantment almost without noticing. Almost.

"Vinny? Vinny, can you feel that? Is it affecting you?"

[Zefir]

The Hanging Thread

As Jace finishes his spell unmolested, the costumes just stand where they were, completely undisturbed. There's no question that he cast the spell, and it certainly should have moved the air rather violently, but the store's air doesn't move at all. The costumes look like they would laugh at his attempt if they had lungs and vocal cords, but instead they begin to inch forward again, looking for the best opportunity to strike.

One of them, a child's dragon costume, finally runs up and tries to tackle Jace in the chest so that it can make him kid-sized and adorable.

The Hanging Thread

Ezreal nods to Jace. He holds up his right arm which is the pulsfire gun. He knows that this is just a costum, but he can't resist to fake the function of the weapon with his LANTERN ring. As the costums seem to attack Ezreal presses a Button on his weapon.

"Mystic Shot Online." A Voice appears.

Then a green energy shot of the size of his head got aimed for the child dragon, while he doesn't notice Jace using his spear. When the shot flies he takes another target. He aims for any costum that heads for Butler.

[Reinholdt]

The Hanging Thread -> Lobby

Butler leads the run for it! And according to Slii in OOC, they make it through. Yay!

On the downside, it seems the entire lobby is covered in black mind-altering chaos costume tentacles.

Now Butler is primarily a catboy. But he's also an angel of good sent back to balance the see-saw for the diet. As such, any particularly evil manipulations don't work on him. For instance, there was once a fire that any who gazed in it was confronted with their greatest fear. Butler was unable to see anything in that fire. Of course, he still ran around in a panic anyways because the place was on fire.

Now chaos isn't inherently evil. Though the results can be clearly designated as one or the other, often. And ironically enough, if Butler was still in his veterinarian costume, it'd have at least affected him some. However, the witch costume, not so much. Granted there are some good witches out there that help you get red and blue potions good for your health. But from what I can tell, this isn't that kind in the least.

Of course, it is still very dark.
"Why are all the lights out sirs?" Butler asks, his tail puffing up.

[Slii Arhem]

The Hanging Thread -> Lobby

Butler leads the run for it! And according to Slii in OOC, they make it through. Yay!

On the downside, it seems the entire lobby is covered in black mind-altering chaos costume tentacles.

Now Butler is primarily a catboy. But he's also an angel of good sent back to balance the see-saw for the diet. As such, any particularly evil manipulations don't work on him. For instance, there was once a fire that any who gazed in it was confronted with their greatest fear. Butler was unable to see anything in that fire. Of course, he still ran around in a panic anyways because the place was on fire.

Now chaos isn't inherently evil. Though the results can be clearly designated as one or the other, often. And ironically enough, if Butler was still in his veterinarian costume, it'd have at least affected him some. However, the witch costume, not so much. Granted there are some good witches out there that help you get red and blue potions good for your health. But from what I can tell, this isn't that kind in the least.

Of course, it is still very dark.
"Why are all the lights out sirs?" Butler asks, his tail puffing up.

The Hanging Thread

Ezreal nods to Jace. He holds up his right arm which is the pulsfire gun. He knows that this is just a costum, but he can't resist to fake the function of the weapon with his LANTERN ring. As the costums seem to attack Ezreal presses a Button on his weapon.

"Mystic Shot Online." A Voice appears.

Then a green energy shot of the size of his head got aimed for the child dragon, while he doesn't notice Jace using his spear. When the shot flies he takes another target. He aims for any costum that heads for Butler.

(Jace's previous statement is unchanged, it's just now in a more worried tone)
His focused stare at the costumes makes it easy to notice the pint-sized wad of cloth scales suddenly charging him. As it gets close, he lashes out downwards with the spear, attempting to pin it to the floor. Should that work, he aims his free palm towards it and utters a quick By Nethys, let this one work before attempting to blast it with a gout of flame.

The Hanging Thread

While neither of the two supernatural attacks seem to have any immediate effect, something happens this time that didn't before. Namely, the destructive qualities of the burst of flame and green lantern ray have broken through the wall of shadows separating the "store" from the rest of the lobby, resulting in a massive gout of flame and lasers for all those still in the party to see. After that, Butler comes running out of the scorched room, oddly enough sans witch costume. Andy and Jace can be seen behind him for a moment before the afterglare of the attacks dissipates and the Lobby is plunged back into darkness.

It seems that the costumes, storefront, and employee they encountered was nothing more than an illusion, and Butler (since he stripped out of his KR costume) is left in his normal swimming trunks, with the outfit sitting on the floor next to the wall. Normally, Eris would have tried to evict him by this point, but since she's busy trying to tempt children into spreading good wholesome chaos in another room, she's taken him to be Toby in his Really Bad Butler costume.

So they've escaped, and Butler is Butler because he's in a Butler costume. Now if someone would just do something about those shadows...

[Halloween Night - Lobby]

The Action

Spec levels her left arm with the floor and takes a bead on the bar. With a brilliant, blinding flash of white light, she attempts to emit a wide laser beam from her left palm courtesy of the weapon's system wired into her left arm. Her aim is to ignite the alcohol to fuel an explosion to set fire to the wall! Her right arm is drawing her big fat sword from her unornamented leather sheath with some difficulty, practically ripping the sheath off of her back to access the hilt of the giant's blade.

If she has any leftover time before her turn is up, she attempts to hack at the tendrils with her crazy huge claymore once or twice! There's a short delay between her individual swings of said claymore for obvious reasons, but she's sure that if she can clear out a sphere around her position, she'll be safe until the fire starts!

Near the Bar

Oh look! Speak of the devil and she shall shoot lasers at your liquor. Spec's impromptu light show is quite impressive, and sets a lot of the bar's wooden fixtures on fire, but when it reaches the bottles of admittedly expensive drinks nearly all of them begin boiling within their enclosures and shattering harmlessly. It seems that most of the booze Eris supplied was below 70 proof, and nonflammable for the most part. A few notable exceptions immediately erupt into massive gouts of bluish green fire that spread over the countertops and onto the floor, illuminating quite a large amount of the Lobby for the moment and giving everyone who still has their own personalities some time to think.

Also, probably filling the room with carbon monoxide, but surely that's a secondary concern.

Halloween Night - Lobby

Crissy does her best to struggle as the coils close around her. And she retains enough of her thoughts to remember two things.

First, she has an augment to her strength from the amulet she wears.

Secondly, that heavy weight tucked under her dress by her waist isn't a paperweight.

So she'll try to keep one arm free long enough to pull out her sidearm and blast behind her in the direction of the naga's voice, even as it squeezes her.

The Traveller particle magnum happens to be set to (heavy) stun.

Halloween Night

The naga tenses, and then falls to the floor heavily as the stun gun takes her completely by surprise. She was expecting helpless, frightened prey and instead got a crafty, well armed bundle of trouble. Crissy is still mostly pinned under the snake-woman's coils, but she'll be able to wriggle her way out with some effort.

Of course, as she fires the shot, she's most likely temporarily blinded by two flashes of light. One coming from the wall where Butler just appeared and the other from the entrance where someone is shooting off lasers.

[Den of Doom]

"Someone else's turn to die, you mean," Talia corrects quietly, guiding her flame to touch the mask on the dancer's face, if she can. "You don't really believe she was dancing because she was going to die and wished a chance for a last show, do you?"

Regardless of the response, unless something would stop her, she then tries to call on her connection to Lady Yedesai, hopefully enabling her to speak to at least Violetta, and possibly any others who have died here.

Den of Doom

Whatever connection she might have, she can't tell anything about anyone who has died here. Before she has too long to ruminate on that, however, the spotlight stops. Almost predictably, it shines directly down on our newly arrived trio, and the voice speaks up again as everyone else in the audience breathes a sigh of relief and begins jostling to get a better look at the next victim.

"Three in one? My my, we must be eager to perform. My apologies ladies, but tonight is a solo act only affair, and I'm afraid I must insist you choose amongst yourselves for who is the next under our lights. Decide quickly, or we'll just have to make up your minds for you." Off in the distance, but still distinctly heard, a clock begins ticking. Counting down, perhaps, to when they decide which one of their number will be sacrificed.

[KerfuffleMach2]

[Den of Doom]

Ivaz rolled her eyes as the light fell on them. Of course it would. She really should've seen that coming.

At the announcer's words, she puts her hands on her hips and tilts her head to the side a little. You know, mister, I think we'd be more likely to pick one if we knew what we were volunteering for. Mind laying it out for us? Hopefully, her voice is loud enough to carry to wherever the announcer is holed up.

[Deathkeeper]

Halloween Night
...And then the room was gone. Jace found this turn of events a bit confusing
But how did we-and the-Never-mind. Magic. Moving on.
Seeing that the room is currently illuminated by a few energy beams and exploding bottles, he attempts to slap a slightly more permanent Light spell on his familiar.
What's that for, Boss?
One, to see if it would work, two, because I'm going to consider any part of the environment hostile in this place from now on, and that includes shadows, and three, you convinced me to go to a deathtrap, so I don't mind putting a spell you find embarrassing on you.
Zebes always got self-conscious when glowing brightly, which is why he normally has such spells cast on something tied to his neck.
Regardless, he turns towards Ezrael and gestures an offer for him to come with them closer to the center of the lobby to get a better view, since right now from where he's standing he can't see much past a few folks he doesn't recognize well and what appears to be a large snake on the floor.

[Shadowcaller]

Halloween Night - Bar

"You're right. We should." Trisha whispers huskily into Michi's ear as she tries to wrap her arms around the elf's neck with a smile. "Hopefully it won't take too long."

Toward The Light

Vinny frowns, but ultimately nods and turns with her, trying to wrap his arm around her shoulder to try and shield her from the memories and pain.

Halloween Night - Lobby

A mocking voice calls out over the wizard's shoulder, one only he can hear, "Tsk tsk, you would think you'd remember that this is a costume party young man, and without a costume, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave." With that, a hole opens up beneath the wizard's feet, and gravity momentarily exerts a greater force on the area around him, attempting to force him down inside.

If he succumbs to the short fall, the wizard will find himself deposited on his arse in the alley outside the casino, locked out of the festivities. That's one way to secure your escape.

The Office

Eris smiles at the duo and shakes her head, "You're here, so I already have what I want little monster. Imagine, a boy and a girl of your age getting into all kinds of trouble, and no one to suspect a thing. A very enviable position to be in if you ask me." Eris withdraws an apple from under the table, rolling it around in her hand and obscuring it for a moment. It disappears behind the gesture, and is replaced by a single golden seed.

"A gift for you. Plant it, and you can sew all the havoc you could ever desire and more, little monster. Between the two of you you could have so much fun." The goddess' eyes blaze with emerald fire as she holds the seed out towards Elias temptingly.

Halloween Lobby

The ceiling has a few old chandeliers and vents for them to grapple onto, but when the candles go out it will prove to be very difficult to aim the launcher, since the shadows surrounding their little haven of light are completely impenetrable to mundane darkvision. Not surprising, considering the fact that they're being manipulated by a goddess.

The Office

"You take it, Hekta," The Fool says.

Halloween Night - Bar

The moon elf is about to reply to that when the light suddenly goes off, shrouding them both in complete darkness. Probably only leaving Michicora's eyes as tiny wells of light.

That was the least of the huntress concerns however as the second personality started to make it's presence known the instance the darkness enveloped her. "I... what do you mean Trisha?" Michi replies nervously, suddenly feeling rather embarrassed. What was going on?

Halloween Lobby

"...I'd never imagined that would work." Dena admits as she see the darkness being turned back by the orb. "I mean, I considered using it but I didn't think it would do anything." Stupid Kirk, why did his ideas work all of sudden?

Too bad it was getting harder to aim, magical darkness was a problem but she thought she had an solution. "There are some sunrods in pocket number 32 on the left side Kirky." She tells the other drow while scanning the darkness which now edged just outside the warm glow of her orb. "It might be able to pierce this darkness." The sunrod, all adventurers friend.

The Office

The little demon gives the seed a curious glance, just waiting for Elias to accept it from the scary woman. As he declines she gives her a brief look and then quickly dashes forward, attempting to snatch the seed out of the woman's hand and then retreat back again at the blink of an eye.

[Gullara]

[Halloween Lobby]

"It's a wonder you find anything in this thing." Kirk retrieves the sunrods from the pocket. It occurs to him that this might not work, since they might not be able to see through the darkness between the two patches of light. It's worth a shot at least, so the drow tosses one of the rods up toward the ceiling.

[McBish]

[The Darkened Way]

Kayla wishes she had sometime to stop and enjoy not being stuck in darkness, or being so small. But instead she is quickly moving to dodge the giant insect leg coming down to crush them. If it looks like Gertrude isn't going to move out of the way in time she will try to help her get out of the way as well.

[The Alexandrian]

[Lobby - Near the Bar]

Lights! Camera!

Heeheeheeheehahahaha! Fire! Fire! Burning fire! Heehee! Pretty fire! Beautiful fire! Burn! Burn it! Burn it all! Ahahahahah-*Cough!* *Wheeze!*

Ahem! Uh, sorry about that little outburst! Spec just has a little tiny case of, ahm, severe pyromania built into her. But only just a little tiny dab, I swear! And she's not a very good pyromaniac because staring at fire for too long is uncomfortable for her and would quickly melt her eyes out.

But a little carbon monoxide poisoning never hurt anyone! That's a blatant lie, but it has never hurt Spec so until the carbon monoxide threat level is higher than that of the evil possessed magic darkness, that chemical mumbo-jumbo doesn't weigh on her mind at all!

Action!

With a whispered incantation, Spec's big fat sword roars to life in an awe-inspiring swirl of fire flowing out of one of the brands on her hands! Woosh! Yay elemental channeling! With her big fat fire sword, Spec attempts to cleave through a nearby wall if she can, possibly rending cement and steel and smashing open a road to anywhere else?