[NEXUS] MaGLoG II: Alcoholic Boogaloo

[Shadowcaller]

Outside

"I will." Hekta promises as she puts back the seed in her pocket. "But first, we're going home. If you stay here, you will die." She states. "Are you sure I can't carry you even a little bit?" I'm not sure how far away the bakery is.

[happyturtle]

Outside

"Do you know how to make a splint?" Elias asks. Who is going to kill him? Hekta? Eris? He figures Hekta is just exaggerating for effect, repeating his words to her. Besides, he hurts too much to really care much.

[Shadowcaller]

Outside

The demon scratches her head. "I... no. But I think I saw I picture of it in one of Silas books once. Isn't it when you tie around a plank or something around the broken part?" Silas being the enigmatic mentor Elias never met but Hekta keeps mentioning.

[happyturtle]

Outside

"Yeah. It doesn't have to be a plank. Just something that can hold my leg still and keep it from moving." Elias groans. Or Hekta could try to find help. But Elias doesn't think of that, and probably Hekta won't either.

[Shadowcaller]

Outside

Hekta nods, "Okay, just lay still here." She says somewhat unnecessarily and goes to look for something to help Elias leg with. It doesn't take long for her to return with what appears to be a broom, matching her witch costume.

"So where should I tie it down?" We can probably skip a bit as Hekta is working on Elias leg, tying the broom handle to his leg with scraps of her clothes that she have no calms about tearing off.

[UncleWolf]

Halloween Night - Air Vent

Seeing their chance to get away from the dragon, Vinny will try to grab Elaine by her dress and toss her up into it before leaping in after her. If both things are successful, he'll reach into his pocket to grab a special cigar and hold it like a stiletto in case something follows.

[The Bushranger]

Lobby

Finally noticing the girl, Jace moves over to her
Calm down, we'll get you out of there.
Jace plants his spear under the serpent's flank and attempts to lever it up for the girl to crawl out. If she still can't, he'll call over Ezrael to pull her out
Boss, we've got life signs where we don't want them.
Well, that's not good. Keep an eye on it while I hold this thing up, Zebes.

Ezreal is right behind Jacen. As he sees the poor person under the serpent body he rush closer to help. While Jacen uses his sear on one side Ezreal creates a car jack made of green light to lift up the body as well. Then he tries to drag out the woman since the car jack seems to work on it's own.

"Are you all right?"

Crissy is hauled out, and takes a moment to catch her breath, before shaking her head and looking around frantically.
"Where is she! Where...where is..."
And she realises that although she knows there's somebody here she desperatly needs to find...she can't remember who.

And so she breaks down in tears.

[Deathkeeper]

Lobby

And so she breaks down in tears.

Lobby
Oh, my. Jace wasn't prepared to be handling this sort of thing tonight.
Now, come on, there's no need for that, we're here for you. Who is she? Is she around here somewhere? Either way, we can't stay here next to this thing; it isn't safe Which is to say it was comparatively more dangerous than the rest of the also unsafe building.
He offers a hand: his left, having recovered his spear with his right hand. His familiar currently sits on his right side. He continues to mentally inform Jace
I don't like this at all. Tonight's getting way too complicated for my tastes. I really just wanted a normal party for once.

[happyturtle]

Vents

Elaine finds herself tossed through into the vents. Still screaming.

Then a strange thought enters her mind: What would Billie do?

Not scream like a murder victim, that's for sure. Elaine squares her shoulders, takes a deep breath, and then grabs hold of her dress, and starts to tear it off to about knee length.

[Zefir]

Lobby
Oh, my. Jace wasn't prepared to be handling this sort of thing tonight.
Now, come on, there's no need for that, we're here for you. Who is she? Is she around here somewhere? Either way, we can't stay here next to this thing; it isn't safe Which is to say it was comparatively more dangerous than the rest of the also unsafe building.
He offers a hand: his left, having recovered his spear with his right hand. His familiar currently sits on his right side. He continues to mentally inform Jace
I don't like this at all. Tonight's getting way too complicated for my tastes. I really just wanted a normal party for once.

Lobby

Since it seems that Jacen is able to handle her, Andy can have a look around. The darkness is still around, but since they returned he didn't notice any offense from it.

"We can barly see in this dark room. We should get her out of here and then return."

[Halae]

Kate doesn't try to save the magbot, either, so it hits the ground. With a bit of luck the inner workings of these things are tough enough to take a fall or two.

The important workings, anyway.

Once that's done, Kate will start to search the magbot. "Help me find some kind of maintenance hatch," she will tell Ormirrah.

Ormirrah silently runs her hands over the face of the magbot. A poor shell of existence. Dark and listless, no point to life. How very fitting.

Then she'll look for a maintenance hatch. Logic dictates it's on the torso of the back of the head.

[The Alexandrian]

The Office

Eris laughs, skin-tinglingly and nail-scrapingly creepy noises coming from her lips as Spec makes her intentions clear, "Brave hero, come to save the hearts and minds of those poor fools from the wicked witch and win the waning day? How... boring. It's not very chaotic at all, is it? There's no spontaneity, no Oomph! It needs something... bigger." Eris taps a perfectly manicured nail against her chin as she seems to consider it, but the look in her eyes tells Spec she already has something in mind.

"Tell you what, if you go back out there and kill something under my thrall, all the others will go free, by my word. Maybe you've got some more issues to take out on that champion of Hatred? Or you didn't like the costume someone came with? After all, they're all insane, right? A perfect reason to put one out of their misery if it means curing the others. Besides, you know that if it came down to you and me the only reason I'd let you get a hit in edgewise would be if I was secretly a masochist, and I don't think gambling on that possibility will win you many chips."

[The Office]

It is Spec's turn to laugh (good-naturedly) as Eris spins her little proposal. She shakes her head from left to right, perhaps giving Eris Eskimo kisses if Spec is in close proximity to the errant goddess.

"A brave hero I am not. I'm an opportunist, an escaped gladiator, and a hitwoman. My reward, in this case, would be my separation from you, because you're creepy and would probably send shivers down my spine were adrenaline not flooding my everything, and the respect I'd net from the people out there 'under your thrall' *Points at wall with thumb.* for saving their sorry hides. Killing one of them would reverse the second reward and the first reward is trust-based. As I learned the first time I was paid with a check that bounced, you get the money up front, you get collateral, or you decapitate the guy who will inevitably cheat you."

"As you pointed out, I probably can't decapitate you. The minute I walk out of here, I lose whatever infinitesimally small bargaining power I have and you could break you word with impunity. The tiny facts that you've broken the 'sacred' contract between guest and host and you're completely bonkers lend your word no additional credibility."

"So if that's all that's on the table, I'll think I'll fold. But if you're feeling lucky tonight, we could play a different game with smaller stakes. It's called Go Fish."

Spec hums, the brands on her hands radiating with unearthly light. She stretches, raising her arms high above her head and attempting to stare into Eris's eyes, mostly undiscouraged even though negotiations aren't going well for her and Eris is starting to seriously creep her out. She's also lying through her teeth. She is very much a heroine, but she's neither crazy nor gullible...and Eris scares her a little.

"What do you want to do with your thralls and what will you give me if I don't try to sabotage your plans for the evening?"

[Slii Arhem]

Halloween Night - Air Vent

Seeing their chance to get away from the dragon, Vinny will try to grab Elaine by her dress and toss her up into it before leaping in after her. If both things are successful, he'll reach into his pocket to grab a special cigar and hold it like a stiletto in case something follows.

Vents

Elaine finds herself tossed through into the vents. Still screaming.

Then a strange thought enters her mind: What would Billie do?

Not scream like a murder victim, that's for sure. Elaine squares her shoulders, takes a deep breath, and then grabs hold of her dress, and starts to tear it off to about knee length.

Halloween Night - Vents

Rather than following after them, Kashi sends up a short burst of flame to coax them to get a move on. Nothing that'll burn them, it's too brief for that, just enough to singe their hairs if they stay too close to the opening.

He then looks over at the other drow. Well, he could always use more crew couldn't he? The dragon maneuvers himself around to Kirk and Dena and tries to push them towards the opening with his snout, indicating that they should crawl inside now.

Halloween Night

Gertrude is also spat out, and comes into contact with a lot of shadowy dark tendrils. She stands up, and looks around cautiously. She's still a bit dazed at the moment, so doesn't do anything more.

Halloween Night - The Lobby

Kayla's heart is racing as they get ejected back into the lobby. She doesn't even notice as one of the shadowy tendrils brushes the back of her legs. As Ms. Monroe's personality starts to take over Kayla the overwhelmed look on her face starts to get worse. She looks around the party trying to figure out what is going on and where there is a safe place to stand and get a drink. She figures she will need one.

Halloween Night - Lobby

Kayla and Gertrude are safe to catch their breath for now, but in the darkness around them strange flickering flames begin to appear in pairs as the gremlins make another appearance just out of their easy reach. One to their left begins to cackle while another rubs its claws on a stone hanging from its belt to create a grating, screeching sound.

The others, farther back and engulfed entirely in shadows but for their eyes, begin circling back and forth and chanting intelligibly.

Kate doesn't try to save the magbot, either, so it hits the ground. With a bit of luck the inner workings of these things are tough enough to take a fall or two.

The important workings, anyway.

Once that's done, Kate will start to search the magbot. "Help me find some kind of maintenance hatch," she will tell Ormirrah.

Ormirrah silently runs her hands over the face of the magbot. A poor shell of existence. Dark and listless, no point to life. How very fitting.

Then she'll look for a maintenance hatch. Logic dictates it's on the torso of the back of the head.

Halloween Night - Magbot

The magbot does indeed have a hatch! It may need some prying open with a handy knife or other flat object, but it's there right in front of them. If they have/can find such an object, they might be able to break the rusty screw holding it down to reveal...

That the Magbot is full of spiders. Not big ones, in fact most of them are distinctly babies and only barely large enough to be noticed distinctly amongst the swarming red mass of their fellows that writhe and twitch as their comfy, warm little home is exposed to the elements so harshly.

[Lobby]

Ezreal is right behind Jacen. As he sees the poor person under the serpent body he rush closer to help. While Jacen uses his sear on one side Ezreal creates a car jack made of green light to lift up the body as well. Then he tries to drag out the woman since the car jack seems to work on it's own.

"Are you all right?"

Lobby
Finally noticing the girl, Jace moves over to her
Calm down, we'll get you out of there.
Jace plants his spear under the serpent's flank and attempts to lever it up for the girl to crawl out. If she still can't, he'll call over Ezrael to pull her out
Boss, we've got life signs where we don't want them.
Well, that's not good. Keep an eye on it while I hold this thing up, Zebes.

Halloween Night - Slot Machines

The naga begins to stir, her tail twitching and her nostrils flaring as she starts to recover from the stun gun slowly but surely. She's not quite awake, but those vital signs the dragon familiar detected are growing stronger with every second.

[The Office]

It is Spec's turn to laugh (good-naturedly) as Eris spins her little proposal. She shakes her head from left to right, perhaps giving Eris Eskimo kisses if Spec is in close proximity to the errant goddess.

"A brave hero I am not. I'm an opportunist, an escaped gladiator, and a hitwoman. My reward, in this case, would be my separation from you, because you're creepy and would probably send shivers down my spine were adrenaline not flooding my everything, and the respect I'd net from the people out there 'under your thrall' *Points at wall with thumb.* for saving their sorry hides. Killing one of them would reverse the second reward and the first reward is trust-based. As I learned the first time I was paid with a check that bounced, you get the money up front, you get collateral, or you decapitate the guy who will inevitably cheat you."

"As you pointed out, I probably can't decapitate you. The minute I walk out of here, I lose whatever infinitesimally small bargaining power I have and you could break you word with impunity. The tiny facts that you've broken the 'sacred' contract between guest and host and you're completely bonkers lend your word no additional credibility."

"So if that's all that's on the table, I'll think I'll fold. But if you're feeling lucky tonight, we could play a different game with smaller stakes. It's called Go Fish."

Spec hums, the brands on her hands radiating with unearthly light. She stretches, raising her arms high above her head and attempting to stare into Eris's eyes, mostly undiscouraged even though negotiations aren't going well for her and Eris is starting to seriously creep her out. She's also lying through her teeth. She is very much a heroine, but she's neither crazy nor gullible...and Eris scares her a little.

"What do you want to do with your thralls and what will you give me if I don't try to sabotage your plans for the evening?"

The Office

Eris laughs, high and grating as if Spec had just told a joke worthy of such an obnoxious guffaw, "If I didn't want a little conflict my naive little moppet, why in Hades' filthy underdrawers would I arrange this sham of a soiree? But no, everyone out there is being boring. They're trying to escape, survive, and keep their sanity and loved ones intact. Honestly, and I am being honest, as boring as your idea of a final confrontation is it's the only attempt anyone's made to defy me yet. You're the best I get, and your best offer is trying to blackmail me into leaving me alone?" Eris sighs artfully and cups a hand beneath her beautifully sculpted chin.

"What's a girl got to do to stir up some real trouble around here?"

[Lost_Deep]

Halloween Night - Magbot

"Here. And here is the screw keeping it on, gone to rust. Can you get that off?"

If Ormirrah does pop it off, Kate will open it... and stare at the mass of spiders in silent horror.

[Earl of Purple]

Halloween Night- Lobby

Gertrude reaches into one of her bags as soon as the noise begins and brandishes a red-and-white sphere before pressing a button and summoning a cratered rock with four stumpy legs and a similarly stump-like head with two spot like eyes. "Shuckle, use Flash!" After she speaks, the Shuckle nods and emits a sudden burst of light from inside its shell which steadily fades to a constant, day-light level of ambient light being cast from the holes in its rock-like shell. The supernatural darkness may very well prevent the light from extending as far as it normally does.

[Halae]

[Halloween Night - Magbot]

Ormirrah will attempt to take the hatch from Kate and gently place it back where they took it from. It's clear from her expression that no much of dire circumstances in the world will make her deal with that.

"We're finding another way out."

This is not an order, but a simple statement of fact.

[Slii Arhem]

Bar

Trisha tries to wrap her arms around Michicora before attempting to do the same with her own "shadow". Michicora will likely feel an intense cold from the touch, but surprisingly no actual hateful emotions, before it slowly turns comfortably warm against her. If that's all successful, the pair will appear as an egg shaped mass of darkness next to the mangled bar, with tendrils of shadow reaching out from it to poke and prod, telling Trisha where objects are.

Bar

The hole carved in the wall by Spec's massive sword is too slim for Michi and Trisha to get through even if they could use the Hatred to pass through the barrier of shadows beyond. Trisha can tell this with her own prodding tendrils, and if she has any way of widening the hole then perhaps they might get free.

However, rather than be repelled by the Hatred, Eris' power seems to be attracted by it. Though the shadows don't try to touch the people inside the egg, but caress and wrap around the egg like a warm, comforting embrace.

Magbot

A few adventurous baby spiders are smushed or trapped outside the Magbot's body when the hatch is placed back down, but the vast majority are left back inside.

[Lost_Deep]

Halloween Night - Magbot

"I heartily agree."

Kate will try to grab Omirrah by the shoulder and lead her away from the Magspidernest.

[Halae]

[Halloween Night - Kate and Ormirrah]

Ormirrah is grabbed and pulled away! Not that she would have resisted at all towards that, "I'm thinking we should probably see about the source of all this. Do you know what caused it?"

[Lost_Deep]

Halloween Night - Kate and Ormirrah

"Someone claiming to be Eris, the goddess of chaos. Let me remember... there was some chant at the beginning about facing your sin in a den, but I don't remember the details. That might have been connected to one of the doorways, though, which have been sealed. Now, there is something that I can do which will give us a number of options, but I am hesitant to due it due to the amount of attention it would attract. And it would ruin this outfit utterly."

Ruining the outfit is not really that big of a consideration, masquerade mindset. The whole getting the attention of the goddess of chaos thing is, though.

[Halae]

[Halloween Night - Kate and Ormirrah]

"Well, if it's Eris or somebody pretending to be her, wouldn't she appreciate someone brazen enough to talk directly to her?" Ormirrah offers. It's not like things could get much worse.

[Lost_Deep]

Halloween Night - Kate and Ormirrah

"I am a bit hesitant to do so... attracting the attention of such a being might have long-term implications. I have a history of long-term effects from such meetings. Or just random meetings on the street. I would rather not discuss it right now. Talking to Eris is on my list after the aforementioned attention-getting method. However, barring finding another way out we may have to try that. Perhaps we could see if we can muscle the door open?"

Kate is very hesitant to gain Eris' attention. Quite understandable, given her history, which she doesn't want to go into right now. Possibly out of fear that Eris will read her mind and decide to mess with her.

[Halae]

[Halloween Night - Kate and Ormirrah]

Ormirrah nods, "Give me a second then and I'll see what I can do about the door."

And then, rather predictably, rmirrah will head over to the entrance and attempt to force the door(s) open with sheer brute strength. While nothing to scoff at, due to being a half-dragon, she's never been focused on her physical strength, so it's entirely possible she simply can't do it.

[Slii Arhem]

Halloween Night - Lobby

The flash lights up the area around Gertrude and the Shuckle, but it's not the lobby anymore. The stand in a dark cave with very little visibility beyond the bright circle Shuckle emits, stalactites dripping a slow and steady beat against the puddles of lime-infused water at their feet.

The gremlins Gertrude might remember seeing have vanished, but it seems that the burst of light has woken a resident of the cave. The sableye claws its way out from the rock tunnel it was hiding in, eyes glinting like fierce diamonds as its rows of needle-sharp teeth separate from each other with a cackling hiss.

Halloween Night - Doors

The shadows part tauntingly as Ormirrah approaches the door, revealing a bare patch of wall where the entrance should be. Well, not entirely bare. As it comes into view deep red liquid leaks out of it in the form of a message.

Turn back now and head into the depths. The Den and its mistress await you.

The ink, or whatever the substance may be, runs down from the tail of the last y to the floor, and then begins creeping past Ormirrah's feet off into the darkness of the casino.

She can still try pushing on the wall where the door should be though, if she thinks it would help. Or she could follow this new clue to wherever it might end.

[Lost_Deep]

Halloween Night - Doors

Kate looks at the letters and watches the creeping drop of blood.

"Well... it appears to be that our only choice is to see where the road goes."

[The Alexandrian]

[The Office]

"So lemme get this straight, everything you've done tonight, all of this personality overriding and the setup for the party itself, is and was just because you're bored and have nothing more fun to do? Lady, you are insane."

And insanely beautiful. Drop-dead gorgeous. A knockout. A tall, cool glass of water. A wicked, bewitching angel. And she's pouting or close to pouting. That's a mighty powerful arsenal she's flaunting on the table.

Luckily, Spec has a girlfriend and an ungodly willpower stat! Well, she had an ungodly willpower stat, but she was so focused on trying not to show any signs of fear or nervousness that she didn't even notice the ice prism protecting her slowly melting and sliding off of her light source until it was too late...

Y'know, maybe she misinterpreted this whole ordeal. Maybe she didn't, but she simply must find a way to slap a beatific smile onto Eris that matches her truly divine body. So what if a few people burn for it?

Spec bites her lip, drawing blood as she fights to resist her anime self with all of her willpower. Space Princess Ezzah Chrinthos conquers her within half a minute and whispers to Eris conspiratorially in the next, perhaps leaning far closer to her than is strictly necessary as she licks her own bloody lower lip and shamelessly ogles the goddess.

"Fine, fine! I'll help you out, lady! To be frank, I was gettin' pretty bored with this snooze-fest as well. And I'll offer you a word of advice in exchange for a kiss. I'll even spare your life after you put up your dukes later tonight."

"Those morons outside are running away because you haven't given them a good reason to stay and fight. You've tossed something their way that has 'em spooked and so they're taking flight, unlike stunning warriors like you or me."

"What you've gotta do, sweetie, is push their buttons. You mentioned loved ones, so kidnap the weak lovers in relationships with the strong lovers and let them know that you'll mail them their lover in pieces if they don't play our game by our rules. Have them attack those who have no loved ones to kidnap. Drop a doppelganger or two into the mix to make blockheads with lots of friends attack other blockheads with lots of friends. Bake in an enclosed space for five minutes and bada bing bada boom, you've got yourself a satisfying plate of complete anarchy."

[Gullara]

Halloween Night - Vents

Rather than following after them, Kashi sends up a short burst of flame to coax them to get a move on. Nothing that'll burn them, it's too brief for that, just enough to singe their hairs if they stay too close to the opening.

He then looks over at the other drow. Well, he could always use more crew couldn't he? The dragon maneuvers himself around to Kirk and Dena and tries to push them towards the opening with his snout, indicating that they should crawl inside now.

[Halloween Night - Vents]

Kirk doesn't much like the idea of going where a dragon wants to herd him, but at the same time he likes staying in this darkness even less. The drow grabs hold of the vent and lets go of Dena to climb in. Hopefully this will get them out somewhere.

[McBish]

Halloween Night - Lobby

Gertrude you really shouldn't wake up sleeping monsters. Sleeping monsters are fine, awake hungry monsters aren't so good. Normally Kayla would stay calm headed and maybe even be helpful here. Not now though, instead she will try to clutch to Gertude's non-fishy arm and try and pull her away from the monster looking terrified.

"What is that? We need to get away from it."

[Halae]

[Halloween Night - Doors]

Ormirrah frowns. She's worried. Very worried. But she's not letting it show, not in front of Kate, or at least trying not to; the observant will pick it up, "Right. Let's go see what Eris has to say about this."

I imagine they walk... towards wherever Eris is? Where is that, anyways?

[Earl of Purple]

Halloween Night- Lobby Cave

"Don't worry, I'm sure I can defeat this Sableye. Shuckle, use Rock Throw." The Shuckle nods and ducks its head into its rock-like shell before a boulder comes flying out of said rock-like shell, aimed at the Sableye's head. Gertrude doesn't really know much about Pokemon, but she does know that May is a trainer and is behaving as she thinks trainers behave- unafraid of pokemon, willing to do most anything to complete a pokedex except threaten the lives of any pokemon.