Serious Plots 7: Why so srs?

[Leostales]

A Dark Door
When they try to enter, they find they are physically unable to do so, Ravanys was right that there is a charm preventing people from entering. Any attempts to pierce the darkness with a match or whatnot will fail.

[KerfuffleMach2]

[Dark Door]

Ravanys nods a bit. True. Can still enjoy the music, though.

Ravanys tries to step down the stairs, but she can't move forward. At all.

Oookay... She takes a step back, looking around the alley a bit. Seeing if some kind of explanation jumps out at her. Well that's weird. Any ideas?

[Morty]

[Dark Door]

"Our client said there's a password," Fayyaad says. "Might as well try it." He tries to "knock" on the invisible barrier and repeats: "Listen to them, the children of the night. What music they make."

[Leostales]

The Toxin House
Suddenly, a light turns on in the middle of the hallway, removing the darkness. At the end of the hallway is a troll wearing a button up shirt, a tie, suspenders, and a fedora. He carries a tommygun which is pointed at the ground (which means he's not expecting trouble from you.) "Hurry through, it doesn't stay on forever you know." at the end of the hallway is a halfway open ordinary door.

[KerfuffleMach2]

[The Toxin House]

Huh. So that's how it worked.

Ravanys gives Fayyaad a quick glance and shrug, before strolling towards the door. Trying her best to not get her legs or tail tangled up in the skirt she was wearing for this. Stupid skirt. She knew it was gonna get in her way at some point. First sign of trouble and it was gone.

[Leostales]

[The Toxin House]

Beyond the door is a small room with a desk. Behind the desk is a spectator wearing glasses, with a bow tie pinned beneath his chin. "All weapons must be checked in at the desk," he says.

There is another door to the right.

[Murkus]

[The Void]

Belfidius slowly rolls himself onto his belly, pushing up with one pair of his quavering arms, but he doesn't seem to have the strength for standing up. For the moment, it seems the way is clear.

[The Vault]

The thing is upon them. Mirdath looses a little cry of dismay. Eschelle takes a lunging step forward and swings with as much might as she can muster in so confined a space. She had a back-up weapon or two, it was true, but nothing blunt. What use was a spearpoint or a dagger against a skinny metal thing like this?

The air rushes in the little corridor as her hammer falls. A crash, a scream of protesting metal. The black thing floats back with fresh dent in its chassis. Then forward comes those ebony hands, clasping clawed phalanges, and Eschelle has the haft of her hammer caught. She sets her shoulders and struggles with the guardian. The lady looks... overmatched.

"Jim!" Eschelle calls. "If we can't take this thing... Unnh!" She's forced back a step. "You ought to take Mirdath and go 'round! Bring us that soul back!"

A gun blast sets everyone's ears to ringing. It pings off the guardian's skull, imparting another visible dent, and for a moment lady Eschelle gains the upper hand. Michalson's senses will reveal to him a distinct lack of magic where his enemy hovers. A lack of any force, heat, or energy at all. If one had to guess, the barrier is more likely of a magical nature than non.

[KerfuffleMach2]

[The Toxin House]

Ah. They knew people would show up with weapons. Well, might as well play into those expectations.

Ravanys gives a quick nod, then reaches into her coat pockets to pull out the revolver Metalhead gave her and a simple combat knife.

She had her own revolver and another knife hidden under her skirt. She also still had the small teleporter on the back of her belt. She wasn't quite sure it'd work in another reality like this. But, better to have it just in case.

[Leostales]

The Toxin House

"All weapons please. You can keep the teleporter."

The Spectator's eyeglasses are magical and enable him to see weapons.

"Look, its a strange new bar, I get it. But if I let you through with weapons I can let anyone through with weapons. If you wanna kill vampires, that's none of my business, just don't do it in here."

[Morty]

[The Toxin House]

Fayyaad hands over his staff. He doesn't need it for pyromancy, though it does help. And he needs it for defence.

"We're just here to take a look around, nothing more," he says innocently.

[Leostales]

[The Toxin House]

"Doesn't matter what you're here for, I won't tell, but for god's sake don't bring in weapons."

[KerfuffleMach2]

[The Toxin House]

Well. Better hope the teleporter works.

Ravanys gives a sigh before pulling out the last of her weapons.

Can't blame a girl for wanting protection. She gives a slight grin to the spectator. Clearly trying to be friendly.

[Morty]

[The Toxin House]

Fayyaad simply nods and prepares himself to enter. Whatever they find inside, they'll just have to improvise.

[The Vault]

Michalson isn't sure how to interpret that. Is this thing anti-magical, like he is? Nonetheless, he focuses his will and training on it. Suppress, equalize, wash away, make real what isn't real. Those words and more of such nature speed through his mind as he performs the most basic, but by no means easy, Rite of Denial. He tries to get a hook into whatever powers this monster and its barrier and at least weaken it.

[Leostales]

The Toxin House

The Spectator returns the smile. (of course he's been smiling for the entire conversation) "Go on in."
The door swings open.

Beyond the door:
The club is basically a big auditorium, except instead of seats, there are tables facing the stage. On the opposite end of the stage is a bar. The room is lit by red and green lights. Various ogres circle the tables operating as waiters and bouncers. Sitting at the tables or waiting at the bar are some curious characters including numerous vampires, a couple mind flayers talking to a man with steam coming out of his nostrils, an asian man with long fingernails, and a retro robot wearing a top hat and tails.

The stage show is even...curiouser. A man and a woman are doing some sort of strange (somewhat erotic?) dance. The man is wearing a mask with long ears pointing up (similar to Batman ears but longer) and a demonic face. The woman looks like a female nosferatu. The scene is quite...unsettling.

[KerfuffleMach2]

[The Toxin House]

Ravanys looks around for a moment. There was a lot to take in.

Huh. Guess we don't have to worry about sticking out much.

She finds the bar, and nudges Fayyaad a bit. Come on. Let's get a drink and find a table. Blend in, wait for the man of the hour to show up.

[Morty]

[The Toxin House]

"If we weren't here on business and I didn't suspects many of the guest would like to eat us, this party might be entertaining," Fayyaad says. "As things, stand, yes, let's try to blend in."

[Leostales]

The Toxin House

Some time after ordering and sitting down at a table, the bizarre dance stops. An ogre brings a microphone on stage, and Scarson Fineblood walks up to it. His eyes are sharp, gleaming red; his ears as pointy as his teeth. He wears a brown trench coat over a tweed suit.
The room is hushed.

"Well its been another successful year. Prohibition's making us rich. Things are looking favorable in Europe. And best of all, we've gone a whole year with no betrayals. I'd like to personally thank the following: Doctor Zhang (the asian man), The Thinkers (the Mind Flayers), and my own dear friend, Beehive." Beehive arrives from back stage. Scarson hands him the mic.

"Thank you Scarson, but you were wrong about one thing. There have been betrayals."
"Oh yeah."
"Muller! (a vampire), Ludwig! (an ogre), and...Metalhead!" He points to the retro robot in the tuxedo. Curiously enough, he looks nothing like Metalhead.
"You have a lot of nerve showing up in here." Scarson snarls. "Beehive, punish these traitors."
Bees start to come out of Beehive's mouth, more come out from hidden areas in the restaurant. Under tables, behind tapestries, etc. These bees devour Muller and Ludwig's flesh, stripping them to the bone.
They circle around Metalhead as if to taunt him.
"How I've waited for this day."

Before they can react, the psychic voice of the Spectator says to Fayyaad and Ravanys "Do nothing."

[bc56]

Vault Z

"Yow! Cut that out!" Jason says as his neck is jabbed. Once he sees the thing falling back towards him, he smiles and sidesteps away from it, hopefully allowing it to continue sailing away from him until it runs out of momentum. If he can do it enough, maybe he can get the thing to orbit him.

[KerfuffleMach2]

[The Toxin House]

Ravanys will keep an eye on the crowd, feigning drinking from her glass every so often. Gotta keep up appearances.

Her attention goes right to the stage when Scarson finally appears. This guy was clearly in charge around here. Especially when nobody seems to bat an eye at him ordering the execution of three people.

And then bees. That was...unexpected. And weird. Ravanys raises an eyebrow at Fayyaad. This Beehive guy was definitely a danger.

She doesn't get to dwell on it too much, though. Because suddenly there's a voice in her head. She jerks her head a bit in surprise. Then dons a slightly confused expression.

No duh. Also, who are you?

[Leostales]

The Toxin House
"Its me, the spectator. I'm a friend of Metalhead's. It is extremely important that you don't interfere with his execution. Trust me on this."

[Morty]

[The Toxin House]

"I don't know the first thing about time travel, but I assume it'd have some catastrophic consequence," Fayyaad thinks back, looking at the spectacle with disgust and revulsion. What a vile pack of criminals.

[Earl of Purple]

Vault Z

It's still falling towards him; he'd have to wait for it to be almost in reach with its fork to side-step. Once he's managed that twice, it drops to the floor and springs to attack again, fork held up and ready to jab again at Jason's neck, now it knows the weak point.

[Leostales]

The Toxin House
"Interference will be the thing that causes long-term effects, Metalhead has this handled."

At this point, the bees stop circling Metalhead and cover his body, biting all the crucial circuits that keep him functioning, and then they leave. The rest of his body collapses into a heap of parts on the ground.

"I know this may seem distasteful to some of our patrons, but I'm doing this for everyone in here. The humans call us unholy monsters, but we're not the ones that impale them when they're sleeping. We're not the ones that use psychological warfare with "holy" symbols. They are the monsters not us.

Every dollar we gain is used in our war against them. And these traitors would have us allow the humans to dominate us.

So yeah, they deserved it.

Now, I wish you all a Happy New Years. Some of you were invited to my New Years Party at my mansion tonight, I will see you then."

With that he leaves the stage.

[KerfuffleMach2]

[The Toxin House]

Ravanys sighs a little bit. Of course I'm not gonna interfere. I don't wanna get attacked by everybody here. There's a little bit of biting sarcasm in her tone.

Once he leaves the stage, Ravanys glances at Fayyaad, bringing her glass to her mouth as if she were taking a sip. She speaks to him in a low tone, so only he hears.

Invite only to the after party? That'll be tricky.

[Morty]

[The Toxin House]

"We need to secure an invitation or sneak in," Fayyaad whispers. "But the first plan depends on how many people are invited and how well he knows them. If he's personally sent an invitation to everyone, it'll be hard to fool whoever checks them."

[Gullara]

[The Void]

Once the bug-man has fallen, Astrana quickly lets go of him. But as she see's Val's expression, far more furious than she could recall seeing him before, she also backs away from the door in case there was collateral damage.

But then Val stops himself.
For a moment, Astrana had almost thought...

She blinks when Val exerts himself and somehow manages to pull away the bar, she can only stare for a moment.
However, she quickly gathers her bearings and rush towards the celldoor and squeezes herself between the bars. Then she attempts Val's hand to squeeze it before asking, "Which way?"

[The Void]

Belfidius slowly rolls himself onto his belly, pushing up with one pair of his quavering arms, but he doesn't seem to have the strength for standing up. For the moment, it seems the way is clear.

[The Void]

Val stares at Belfidius for one hard moment more, gripping that bar like he means to use it, but then he's brought out of it by Astrana's touch. "Th-this way. We need to get back on deck. Getting out might be complicated." He drops the metal bar and takes Astrana's hand before hurrying them back the way he came. Who knows what's going on above deck now.

[KerfuffleMach2]

[The Toxin House]

Ravanys nods a bit. And sneaking in will be difficult without scoping the place first. Unless...we could possibly go in disguise. Think it's a catered event?

[Morty]

[The Toxin House]

"I'm not sure how well I can pretend to be a servant," Fayyaad admits. "But the idea has promise. People often overlook servants. Unless he's using his own staff."

[KerfuffleMach2]

[The Toxin House]

Ravanys winces slightly. Yeah, private staff makes it difficult. Wish we could have gotten some more info, first.

And you wouldn't have to be a servant. Maybe you could be a cook. She gives him a slight grin.

[Morty]

[The Toxin House]

"You do not want to see my attempts to cook, believe me," Fayyaad says with mock horror. "Our information really is too sparse for my liking. We need to try to find out as much as we can without raising suspicion."