DREAD - Damnum Fatale (THE PHARMACY)

[gardenphilosoph]

DREAD: The First Book of Pandemonium
DAMNUM FATALE

THE CABAL
VENGE played by BLOCKHEAD (1/2 Spells. 5/5 Armor. 2/3 Armor.)
HAZE played by KUMA DA (2/3 Spells. 10/12 Fury.)
KILL COUNT - I
NEW CONTACTS: Shirley Bath (Safe Injection Site Nurse)
SHUTTER played by ICARUS SMITH
CHERRY played by BORED TEEN
BACKLASH played by SILENT BISH (5/6 Spells.)
OX played by VARGEN
BRANDON played by DJDEMIKO (6/6 Spells. 2/3 Armor.)
KILL COUNT - I
BAPTIST played by LORDENTROPY (1/2 Spells.)

THE MENTOR
Galadriel, as she has been sarcastically dubbed, is a gorgeous woman with sparkling golden hair and stunning azure eyes, always garbed in a long flowing white robe that somehow manages to stay perfectly clean. She has saved you all from the brink of death, whether it be from a demon or from yourself. She loosely manages the Cabal, but is rarely in contact. Occasionally she'll leave messages or leads, but that is the extent of her interaction with her hand-trained Cabal.

THE HEADQUARTERS
A gift from Galadriel, the Cabal lives in a decrepit, abandoned mansion built in the property rush of the late nineteenth century. It has not seen habitation for over fifty years, and has the marks to show it. Peeling paint, rotting wood, mold and moisture stains, the house is literally falling apart. It has recently been retrofitted by the Cabal to serve their own purposes, now containing such things as an armory, prison cells, a communications room, a gym, and the popular always popular lounge room.

THE TRANSPORTATION
THE WARLOCK - The Warlock is a 77' Dodge Warlock that the Cabal found in an old junkyard on one of their earliest missions. It has its fair share of dents, scratches, and bullet holes, but its been given a fresh new black paint job for the latest mission. It is a reliable beast and the Cabal's main form of transport. It can fit two in the cab and up to six in the back. It has plans to have bullet-proof plating installed inside, but so far, it's just a regular truck.

THE SKULLRUNNER - The Skullrunner is a demon in its own right. Galadriel's parting gift, it was supposedly obtained from U.S.S.R. army surplus and shipped to America through underground black market networks and such. It was supposedly army surplus, but judging by the blast marks, dents, and bullet impacts along its side, it has seen its fair share of action. The Cabal has customized it, giving it a black paint job with a massive flaming skull decal on the front. A maximum of eight can fit inside. Unfortunately its extras don't work at all - the communications inside are dysfunctional, and the jammed machine gun up top is more dangerous to the gunner than the targets. Still, it has been designed to keep rolling even when missing some wheels, and is capable of crossing shallow to large bodies of water. The Cabal hasn't actually been able to use it yet without attracting the hammer of the law enforcement, but they wait with a sense of hope mixed with dread that one day they'll be desperate enough to bring out this beast.

THE RULES
Most of the rules are available here, but for any questions or inquiries, feel free to post directly onto the thread. Dice rolls will be handled by the forum, though care must be taken to make multiple dice rolls separate, since you can't see individual dice rolls here. For example, instead of rolling 5d12 you have to roll a d12 five times. The thread will be strictly in-character, but you can speak out-of-character by putting OOC: before whatever you're gonna say.

REMINDER - PLAY HARD & DIRTY
Remember, this is unlike any other game you've played before. The entire game should be a lead-up to glorious death scene for your character, a baptism by fire and blood, death and smoke. That's not to say commit suicide, but don't be afraid to take risks. That means expending Fury to pull off crazy stunts, and giving the most off-the-wall descriptions and stunts you can without inverting the rules of physics too badly. Below I'll post what you can do with FURY, which can be gained by completing secondary objectives. Also, remember that when you DO die, you instantly get 12 life and 24 fury to ensure that you go out in a blaze of glory.

FURY STUNTS
Below are fury stunts are their costs. You have 12 fury to start off with, and more can be gained, though 12 is always the maximum.

HARDCORE (1) - Recover one point of life. Can be done as many times as you wish.

KILL SHOT (1) - Roll one extra die. Can only spent one point at a time.

SECOND CHANCE (1) - Reroll, but only if first roll was a failure.

**** PUNCH (2) - Describe a sneaky, underhanded maneuver. Player gets Director's highest die.

SUICIDE RUN (2) - Describe a futile gesture that's pretty much guaranteed to fail. Roll 2 dice and add the values.

CLUSTER**** (2) - Describe a desperate plan that's will probably put you in the hospital if not in a grave. Roll a single die against Director's lowest die.

BULLSEYE (2) - Roll an automatic 12, doesn't apply to Combat or Spell rolls.

MIDDLE WAYNE (3) - Describe a brutal, merciless maneuver worthy of a serial killer. Roll two extra dice, and damage is taken by target even if Director wins roll.

BOHICA (3) - Bend Over, Here It Comes Again. Describe a maneuver so foolhardy and dangerous that it leaves the Disciple grievously wounded. Brings you down to 1 life or 0 if you only had 1 to begin with. Director only rolls one die, damage doubled if hit.

THE SITUATION
6:14 A.M. - It was pissing rain outside. Torrents of water pelted the shattered windowpanes and boarded-up windows of the HQ, making the old mansion quiver and shake. The basement had an inch of water in it and the first floor was spongy, it had rained so damned much. There hadn't been a case in a while, thank God. Galadriel had said that an absence in cases was never a good thing, but the Cabal had to disagree. For once a week had gone by where they hadn't been stabbed, shot, or set on fire. It had been good.

That had been until that morning. Galadriel must've come during the night, but none of them saw her and she hadn't contacted them, which wasn't unusual for her. She only left one thing behind. There was a hastily scrawled note on the refrigerator. It read...

Heads up. There's something big in town.

Stapled to the note was a part of a newspaper article from this morning's newspaper, quickly torn out and stapled on.



ACCUMULATED EVIDENCE
1. Napkin Sketch (blob at Beaver Lake)
2. Victim's Bone Sample (partially dissolved)
3. Chrysalis Sample (blue mucus, stringy)
4. Victim's Injuries (barbed lacerations, deep puncture marks)
5. Victim's Last Memories (cocoon, dog-sized demon)

THREAD LIST
Main Thread
PG 1-4 (THE TRIGGER (0))
PG 4-6 (THE HOSPITAL (1A))
PG 6-7 (THE RESEARCH (2A))
PG 7-9 (THE VOUZIRE (3))
PG 9... (THE PHARMACY (4A))

Secondary Thread
PG 1-3 (THE SEWERS (1B))
PG 3... (THE SEARCH (4B))

Secondary Thread #2
PG 1 (THE WITNESS (1C))
PG 1-3 (THE PURSUIT (2B))

[Blockhead]

Venge took the note down off the fridge and swore under his breath. ****sake, he was beginning to enjoy his time off 'work'. He opened the fridge and grabbed a bottle of beer. Taking the note and beer into the lounge, he sat on the ripped, stained couch they had found in a park one day and awaited the others to wake up. He sipped his beer slowly, savouring the taste. He always savoured the taste because he knew in his mind that this beer might be the last beer he ever got to drink.

[gardenphilosoph]

OOC: I didn't realize that this forum censors swear words. Too bad, as they sort of come with the flavor of this game, but it's not a big deal. It actually makes it sort of funny, since you have to guess exactly which swear word they're using. In any case, this takes place in a large city somewhere in North America. If it has to come down to names, then it would be Vancouver, BC, Canada. Sort of an odd choice considering how American this game is, but it's where I'm from, and I like playing games on home turf. Most of your characters are American, and we have one European, so we can always assume that they were shipped off for the Cabal here. You know, distancing them from their old lives and whatnot.

[Blockhead]

OOC: I filtered it myself, I don't want the forum police arresting me for swearing. And ok, Vancouver it is.

[gardenphilosoph]

OOC: You can get banned for swearing?! Uh-oh.

[Snacs]

OOC

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OOC: Setting's fine for me or whatever, I'll be fudging on directions anyway. I mostly assume there is a park,a Hospital, etc, with a temperate to slightly northern set of four seasons, like the Northeast US. that ok?:P I figured if the thread is public you probably would get banned, yes, since there is no age requirement for joining I believe-shrug-

"****" Was the first words out of Shutter's mouth when he woke up. He felt terrible. He glanced aside at the soft, blinking red glow of his alarm clock and felt cheated.

He sighed and swung his legs off his bed, glad the room he'd picked as his own had a raised platform for the massive, sagging canopy bed that had come with it. Thank god for Discount Mattress.

He slipped his feet into the well-worn boots he'd bought four years ago, as always surprised the sturdy things had survived all the **** that had been going on in his life since he died.

He squelched his way down the sagging, creaking halls, grumbling as he fixed his belt. He didn't know why, but he knew he wouldn't be lazing about today.

He stopped in the kitchen, sighing as he noticed Venge sitting down with a beer in one hand, looking blissful. The muscle-bound **** never had that expression when there wasn't work to do.

Of course, he might be a muscle-bound ****-head, but he was their muscle-bound ****-head, and he managed not to get me killed yet. That little guilty part of his train of thought interjected, and he only grunted a good morning as he swung the fridge door open.

The fridge itself was massive and relatively new, a present from Michael Stanton for saving his cousin from that 'gas leak' a few months back. That had been a fun one.

"What a ***** day"He said conversationally as he pulled out a Coke in a glass. Only way he'd drink soda, in a glass bottle. Plastic sucked the damn taste out, and he didn't have the stomach for alcohol, never did.

Spoiler

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OOC: I love the language and writing in this game, by the way/

[bored_teen]

Cherry walks in with the morning's paper, looking bedraggled and alarmed. "Hey Venge, check this out!" he exclaims, looking at the article on the front page. He looks up and takes note of the expression on Venge's face. "Judging by your pleasant and sunny demeanor, I take it we have another case?"

[Blockhead]

Venge finished sipping his beer and put the empty bottle beside the couch, with the rest of the empty bottles from previous drinking sessions. Venge, having been a heavy drinker, was used to drinking any and all the time and was quite capable of holding it until the 10th round.

'You bet your *** we got a new case. Galadriel wants us to check it out.' Venge nodded at the paper and main article Cherry was holding. 'She left us a lovely note on the fridge. Doesn't say much, as always.' He grumbled.

[Snacs]

"Least it's something right?"He said casually, sauntering over to snatch the paper from Venge's fingers. Galadriel always did have the best timing for these things.

"Why the **** am I awake so early?"He said to no one in particular, and shook his head as he flipped the paper in his hand over.

"Great. Sewers. I still remember the last time we were in the sewers. I'll never look at Cabbage the way I used too"He said idly, and when his bottle was empty tossed it, to pinwheel into a large industrial-sized plastic garbage in one corner of the room.

He wondered a bit groggily if it was going to float if it kept raining like this.

[Kuma Da]

Haze

I've gotta start waking up later. Sometime during the normal half of the day, after the crack of noon, where I can yawn and roll over and speculate for a few minutes about whether I really want to get up or not.

Rubbing his eyes, Haze rolls out of bed. The floor-boards creak under him, but they hold. That marks another day of not waking up just to fall screaming to his death. Haze is pleased and makes a mental note to shift his room down to one of the lower floors. Per usual, he forgets about it by the time he's shrugged into his bathrobe and stepped out into the corridor.

Man, it's sounds like the wrath of God comin' down out there.

Haze side-steps a puddle, fed by the constant plunk plunk plunk of water from the ceiling. It's gotten pretty big, but a dip in the warped floor is keeping it contained. For the time being, at least.

Just like the rest of my problems. Here's to hoping it stays that way.

Moving on autopilot, Haze shuffles to the kitchen. He makes coffee, pops a bagel into the toaster, and then retreats to the living room with his bounty. Only a few beats after he's flopped down on the couch does he notice that he's got company.

"Mornin', Venge. Found somethin' worth reading?"

Reposting character sheet as a handy reference:

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Name: Nathaniel Hayes (Haze)
Drive: Protection
Discipline: Lore

Strength: 1
Sense: 5
Soul: 3

Combat:1
Magic: 3
Armor: Reinforced bomber jacket (3 damage.)

Fury: 8/12
Life: 12
Cash: 1

Skills:
-Lore: 1 (New age religions)
-Linguistics (Undergrad major in Latin): 1
-Driving (Years of 'just going for a drive' to clear his head and then whipping around winding roads for a few hours have left their mark): 4
-Empathy (Graduate Major in Psych): 3
-Medicine (Studied in order to better take care of Laura): 2

Weapons: Remington 1100 Tac-12 combat shotgun (range 2, damage 2, firefights 2.) Butterfly knife (range 1, damage 1.)

Spells:
-Nephilim (4 rounds, range 1. Fly at automobile speed, dive-bomb +1 attack dice.)
-Bile (4 rounds, range 2. Magic check v. victim's defense for BLAAARGHLE!)
-Discern (immediate, range 2. Magic check v. soul for target's secret urges.)
-Carapace (12 rounds, range 1. Blood armor makes for 1 extra defense die v. physical, or 2 v. magic.)
-Chiaroscuro (5 minutes, range 3. Target is highlighted against a film noir world, enabling tracking.)
-Carnation (1 minute, range 3. 1 damage for 1-3 heal, 2 damage for 4-6 heal, or 3 damage for 7-9 heal.)

Contacts:
-Mak-tak: A.K.A. Makoto Takehashi. A slim Japanese man in his late twenties who runs a downtown garage. He's also Nathaniel's motorcycle racing buddy. They've known each other since college, where Mak-tak eventually dropped out. Mak-tak has a cousin in Kobe who's part of a bousouzoku (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosozoku).
-Laura Hayes: Nathaniel's older sister, although he's been looking out for her for as long as he can remember. She works as an investigative reporter for the Inquiry (a small local paper that focuses as much on religion as it does on public affairs,) and still takes a colorful cocktail of pills every day to balance her various conditions.
Laura is a believer in New Thought. Specifically, the Church of Unity.
-Shirley Bath: Receptionist at the Safe Injection Site.

Gear: multi-tool knife, bowie knife, bread knife, Disposable cell phone, bolt cutters, duct tape, mag light, 5 highway flares, luminol, two-way radio, Hewlett Packard laptop, several cartons of marlboro cigarettes, embossed silver lighter, 1999 Suzuki Hayabusa sport bike (called 'the crotch rocket' by Mak-Tak,)

Appearance: Nathaniel Hayes is of medium build, with faded blue eyes and a weathered face. His hair looks kind of washed out, but it was probably a bright straw-blond at some point in his life. When he's not trying to dress professionally, Haze wears dark jeans and a leather jacket. Generally speaking, there's a t-shirt beneath it. Nine times out of ten, that shirt bears the emblem of an old punk band.

Haze stands at about 5'11'', and while he's not likely to tower over anyone, there's a casual wireyness to the way he moves. Like an old lion that watches the world through half-lidded eyes. It's not that he can't tear someone apart, it's jut that it's usually not worth the effort.

Haze looks like he's in his late twenties.

Resposting backstory as well:

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I'd been meaning to do a full write-up of this in short-story form, and maybe I still will, but that'd take more time than I have at the moment, so here's the cliff notes version instead.

-Nathaniel and Laura grew up in a small house in the countryside in New York. Nathaniel's biological dad was a bit of a deadbeat and skipped town not long after his son was born. As a young kid, Nathaniel was okay with this. It was him and his mother, Margaret Hayes, against the world.

-Five years later, Margaret met and married another man; Richard Sommers. He was kind enough, and had a stable desk job, but he was always somewhat sickly. Together they had Laura, who was plagued with medical problems from the day she was born. Nathaniel always resented his step-dad for this.

-Nathaniel struggled his way through high school and into college, becoming more successful than he'd expected. He got his master's in psychology, and started work as a counselor for troubled children.

-Barely a year into his work, Nathaniel tried to counsel a girl named Annabel Murphy. She fit the profile of an abuse victim and went to great lengths to cover it up (makeup, long, baggy clothing, etc.) Nathaniel's first instinct was to suspect her parents, but after meeting with them several times, he was unable to find anything suspicious. The more sessions Nathaniel had with Annabel, the more nervous and withdrawn she became. This tension reached its peak one cold day in November when she answered his "how are you today?" by reaching up and trying to throttle herself.

-Nathaniel was severely rattled by that, met up with Mak-tak after work for a few beers, and consequently came home pretty late. The first thing he heard after opening the door to his apartment was a sort of wet, dragging sound. Hurrying into the kitchen, he found Annabel there. Sitting amidst the ruins of Wheeler. Wheeler had been his Irish Setter. Now she was a loose pile of red, with the occasional recognizable bit of jaw or a lone lolling eye.

Annabel stopped moving a piece of intestine around like a choo-choo and looked up. Her eyes were wide with fear. In a voice several decibels too deep she said "I hope you remember this forever." Then the lights flickered and went out.

-Haze has no clear memory of what happened after that. His mind must have broken--gone greenstick--and it's taken him a long time to slide some of those slivers back into place. The best he can figure is that Galadriel had been tracking Annabel for some time, and showed up on the scene not long after. The demon had not finished with Haze by that point, and was caught unawares by his Mentor-to-be. There wasn't a firefight, but parts of his apartment ended up stained with sulfur and bile. Except for a few minor lacerations, Haze was inexplicably unharmed.

-The same didn't apply for Annabel. Caught in the crossfire between demon and Mentor, she was literally ripped apart. One of Haze's first shaky memories after the encounter is of driving out into the countryside in Galadriel's car with a young girl's body and several pounds of distributed dog wrapped in towels in the trunk. According to Galadriel, he wouldn't be of much service to 'the cause' if he was imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit. While Haze doesn't have doubts about that, part of him still wonders if there's a way he could have picked up on what was happening before hand. If he could have given Annabel a chance to live.

-After the incident, Haze quit his practice. He told his closest friends and family the he was going freelance, and left it to them to pass the word on. He cut ties with his colleagues, girlfriend, and moved into a dilapidated mansion near the city with a few other like-minded people.

Edit: think I'm gonna switch to past-tense after this post. It fits the tone of Dread a lot better.

[gardenphilosoph]

OOC: Just a reminder - your character sheets are up top where your character's names are, you can just click on them. I'll keep them regulated. So far the game's going great. It's a good crowd. Don't be afraid to go on without the other players - they'll find their own way.

Also, did I mention that when your characters split up in this game they actually split into separate threads? It's the greatest advantage of horror on play-by-post, I think. When your character is physically away from the team, he/she's in his own thread and you're not allowed to read the other threads, if only by the honor rule. It makes for a fun game. I've ran a couple really intense CoC games that way.

[Blockhead]

'New case. Sewers. In the papers. Now get some damn clothes on!' Said Venge, shuffling along the couch slightly to allow Haze to sit down. Somewhere in the ceiling above, a patch of water begins to drip liquid down onto the floor near the couch. Absent-mindly, Venge positions an empty beer bottle beneath the dripping. 'Shutter has the note and Cherry's got today's paper.'

[gardenphilosoph]

The snores of the other three Disciples echo from various places around the house, mostly downstairs. They're dead asleep.

Lightning illuminates the room suddenly through the boarded windows. Seconds later, thunder rumbles, the sort of thunder that makes everything seem like its vibrating, even if just for a second.

The snores continue.

[Kuma Da]

Haze

Haze glanced first over Cherry's shoulder, then Shutter's. "Yeah, that's a little weird. Our Lady of Elves seems to think it's something big, right? But can we be sure it's not a run-of-the-mill disaster? Man, I heard something similar happened in Baltimore a few years back. Sewers got all hot and stinky during the summer, something struck a spark, then the next thing you know there's manhole covers flying up into the air. Apparently it drove these huge swarms of rats and **** out into the streets, too. Nasty business, but not necessarily occult."

Grimacing, he downed his coffee in a few swallows. The liquid was a teeth-staining black, but it hit his system hard. Smashed in the dashboard of his head and hot-wired it awake. Setting the mug back down, he swapped it for Venge's used beer bottle--now a quarter full with rain.

"We need a better rainwater management system here. One that doesn't rely on Venge getting ****faced....no matter how happy he might be to comply with that."

Navigating around the sofa, Haze headed to the kitchen and dropped the bottle in the sink. It landed nose-deep in a train-wreck of used plates and cups.

Meh. I'll move 'em to the washer later.

Still moving, he fished his bagel out of the cooling maw of the toaster and wandered with it back into the living room.

"Before anyone goes sniffing for demons, I'm gonna see if I can't get a better idea of what happened."

Haze kept his laptop on a spindly coffee table in the living room. It didn't exactly pick up the strongest signal from there, but it would probably let him page through a few news sites and get the whole--or, at least, the whole Civilian--version of the story.

OOC: Haze is going to try and pull up the sewer-explosion article online, plus do a little bit of cross-referencing with similar cases. If there needs to be a roll, go ahead and roll for me. Also, 'though it wouldn't apply to this one, if I ever earn a coolness or drive dice, go ahead and roll it. I'm not picky about having to roll everything on my own so as to properly mojo it.

[DJDeMiko]

OOC: ok, someone explain the spoiler thing to me again and I'll fix this.

OOC: Can we grab each others characters to a small extent in these posts? Obviously for small stuff and never stuff the character wouldn't do. As an example I want to have someone pound on Brandon's door to wake him up.


IC:

Brandon snores in his bed unperturbed by the lightning and thunder. A few moments later his breathing speeds up and his hands begin twitching; he mutters jibberish.

Brandon never really got the hang of going to bed early. When you spend most of your nights catching glimpses of terrifying creatures, some of which lurked in your own home, you learn to fear sleep. Even if you drifted off early, even if you managed to feel peaceful, you couldn't shut those visions out of your dreams.

[gardenphilosoph]

OOC: Don't worry about spoilers, just bold the OOC part as I am doing. I personally don't mind that, but you'd have to get the permission of the other players to do it.

In case anyone's wondering about the title, it basically means 'God ****s you over.', which I find appropriate to the scenario. Don't wanna give away too much, though.

[DJDeMiko]

OOC: everyone has permission to use my character. Just keep it simple, in character for him and if possible kick butt.


IC:

In his dream, Brandon stands in the dark surrounded by his teenage friends, long since dead. One by one, something huge and unseen in the darkness grabs one of the friends and pulls them back. It only takes a moment for the victim to disapear into the darkness, but somehow dream time allows them long enough to beg for their lives and for Brandon to help them. He reaches out to help them, to blast the creature with his powers, to do anything. But nothing happens, he's normal again and helpless. One by one they are pulled back into the darkness as he stands impotent to their need.

[gardenphilosoph]

Haze pulls up his laptop and does a quick search for news articles on the internet. Nothing comes up, save an online version of the 24 Hours article. Seemingly, its the only newspaper to have covered it yet - not surprising, considering that the 24 is a locally run paper. The Province and the Vancouver Sun, both larger papers, are absent of the story.

The article in full reads...

Early yesterday morning, a small explosion ruptured a sewage main beneath the intersection of Main & 41st. It is not known what caused the explosion, as no one witnessed or heard anything that morning. What is known is that a waste system maintenance crew working nearby was caught in the explosion. One is dead, and two are in critical condition in St. Paul's Hospital. What complicates matters is the fact that at the site of the explosion a large amount of clothes, accessories, and bones of several recently missing people have been found. It is not known if these two events are related. Numbers have not been verified yet, but early reports are coming in of up to two dozen skeletons of the recently missing have been found.

OOC: I'm making a Sense roll for Haze. Target difficulty is 4.

(d12)[8]
(d12)[1]
(d12)[11]
(d12)[8]
(d12)[11]

[gardenphilosoph]

OOC: Nice! You got two elevens, which means that you got a high score of 13. Impressive, though you only needed to get 4.

Haze recognizes the pattern. The Cabal's seen it before. Local smaller newspapers have the story while the bigger ones don't? Impossible, regularly. There's been government interference here. The bigger companies have been bought off to keep silent, while the smaller newspaper has already released the story before any action could be taken. Something's suspicious here.

[bored_teen]

"I guess I'd better go get dressed if we're gonna go hunting." He runs back upstairs and throws on a pair of jeans, his hoodie, and the ever popular Wal-mart shoes. He hears the snoring, and follows it to the source. He bangs on the door yelling "WAKE UP! WE'VE GOT A CASE!"

[Silent_Bish]

Backlash

Slowly the patter of the rain invaded his sleep. He was having such a nice dream, a sunny day on campus even though the colors were washed out, like pictures from long ago. Then the clouds rolled in and the rain started to fall from the sky like angry little tears. A stroke of white hot lightning splitting the tree he was sitting under causing his eyes to...

...snap wide open, "****, I am still alive." Throwing his legs over the side of the bed he sat up, casting a glance around his seccond story room. Here and there a piece of plaster having fallen from the ceiling, a stain in the corner evident of a leak somewhere in the wall, and the musty smell that always got worse when it was raining. Elbows on his knees he rests his head on his hands, rubbing away the last traces of sleep and dream. He zips up the old, faded jeans he was sleeping in and buckles a simple black belt. He takes a minute to stretch out his shoulders before pulling on a black T-shirt proclaiming in bold white letters "Easter has been cancelled: They found the body!". Slowly he continues the daily ritual, first his left foot into an old but well cared for combat boot, and then his righ*Squish*. "****", was all that escaped his lips as he looked up and saw a new leak that formed at some point during the storm, directly over his boot, "Someone up there hates me". With nothing else to do he laces up his boots and heads down to the kitchen, scowling a little at the squelching sound being made as he walked.

Throwing open the fridge door he grabs a carton of Tropicana and an old piece of ham someone left over from last week. Unceremoniously kicking the door closed he strolls into the lounge, passing by Cherry as she starts to yell, and slumps down on the old couch next to Venge. Casting a glance at Haze, and Shutter, a cold familliar feeling settles in the pit of his stomach. "****, we got a job didn't we?" Without much ceremony he wolfs down the ham, balling up the saran wrap it was in and launches it at the garbage can in the corner. Almost making it in, the little ball bounces off the rim of the can, landing next to it in the corner. With a small sigh he takes a large pull from the carton of juice, Might as well get the ******* inevitable over with. He looks over at Haze typing away at his lap top "How big is the pain in our *** going to be this time?"

[Blockhead]

Realising he was hungry, Venge made his way over to the kitchen and poured himself some forgotten labelled cereal. He opened the fridge, only to find they were out of milk. "**** it." He shut the fridge and proceeded to crunch down on the dry cereal. After he had finished, Venge positioned the bowl on top of the already overpilling sink. He walked back into the living room and sat on the arm of the couch. "Yeah, another day, another case. What have you got Haze?"

[DJDeMiko]

The moment the bang of Cherry's fist on the door rings through the bedroom Brandon's eyes snap open and his hand grabs the gun under his pillow.

Cherry through the door - "WAKE UP! WE'VE GOT A CASE!"

Brandon smiles, gets up and dresses.

He heads downstairs, grabs a pop tart and a coke from the kitchen and then to the lounge. He moves to the broken down lazy-boy recliner, sits in it sideways with his legs dangling over the arm and turns to address the other Disciples.

"I don't know about you $&@*$#@, but I think today's going to be a great day! I don't like going that many days without killin me a demon."

[Silent_Bish]

Backlash

After finishing off the carton of juice it followed the same trajectory as the plastic wrap, this time bouncing off the lip into the maw of the barrel. Eyebrows climbing up as Bradon storms into the room, "Yeah right Brandon, a day with a ******* demon is like a day on the farm." piling as much sarcasm as he could into the comment. "Some of us may be screwed B, but you, you are just ******* twisted."

He shifts forward on the couch, snatching up the newspaper clipping that was left by Galadriel from wherever it was lying around. "Great, sewers. Again." He slumps back onto the couch, wincing as he gets stuck by an out of place spring. "Well Haze, any thoughts where we should start looking? Scene of the slaughter obviously, ugh. We need a ******* union."

[Snacs]

"Hopefully not as big as that one down on Wash street six months ago. ****er was the size of a small house, eh backlash?"He said, tapping the side of his nose with a snorted laugh.

"least with all this God-awful rain will get some run off, sewers won't smell as bad"he said idly, with a sigh.

"I'll call Lily, her paper probably covered the story as well, she might've heard something someone else didn't"He said helpfully, and for his own breakfast he snagged a piece of bread, toasting it and lathering the now charred toast with honey, biting into it with a noisy crunch.

"****ing Nutter"He remarked as he watched Brandon head down to wake their last remaining team member.

With a sigh he finished off his toast and rooted around in his pockets, coming up with a plain,unmarked cellphone, looted from a clearance bin months ago. It had four contacts in it. Lily, Michael, 911, and the one chinese place that'd deliver to the run-down mansion.

He thumbed to Lily's number and hit send, sighing as he nudged an old,battered pot towards another leak with his foot.

"We're going to be ****ing underwater this keeps up. What the hell was Gladrie-Oh, Hey!what's up lily?"He said with a lot more enthusiasm and warmth than expected, lounging back against the bar set into the corner of the living room.

[not sure what checks I use for contacts,or if the Director uses them somehow so..:p]

[Blockhead]

"Let me bring my scuba gear." Venge said sarcastically. Might be worth seeing the two injured workers in hospital. See if they saw anything except a ******* explosion.

Venge walked over to a hat-stand in the corner of the room. His trenchcoat hung from the highest peg, covering one side of the stand. Putting it on, Venge checked the inside pockets. Ritual knives, check. Grenade, check. He then walked through the lounge, past the kitchen, through an empty room and into the makeshift armoury. Opening a metal container with 'Venge' labelled on it he made sure his battle-axe and P90 were secure. He then dragged the box back into the lounge and sat on it, waiting for the others to decide what to do. He would put the weapons on whatever transport they were taking, it didn't seem likely they would be returning to the mansion for a while.

[Silent_Bish]

Backlash

Backlash rolls his eyes and lets out his own little chuckle. "Yeah, I remember that thing. Our one witness swore what she saw couldn't have been bigger then a Doberman. But that son of a ***** was a Volkswagen sized chia pet from hell."

Closes his eyes for a moment and listens to the rain, the water dripping here and there in the old mansion, running through what was left of the gutters outside. "Might not smell AS bad, but we are gonna be up to our knees in water. Lets hope it doesn't wash too much of the evidence away."

Quiets down as Shutter makes his call, Hopefully he can get something from that reporter. Noticing Venge getting ready for their little picnic he levers himself up off the couch. Taking a moment to stretch once again, he walks into the armory to his locker. First he shrugs into a shoulder holster, making some small adjustments to the straps. From the top shelf he grabs his 9mm, loading in a clip and checking the safety, which he then slides into the holster and locks down. Also from the top shelf comes a knife in a sheath that he clips to his belt. Finally he takes out a jacket and a backpack, slamming the locker closed when he was done. Reappearing back in the lounge he sets his backpack and jacket on an old wire spool they use as an end table, and sink back into his spot on the couch.

[Kuma Da]

Haze

"Wait a minute, guys. There's a little more to this." Haze's voice rang out. There was a note of warning riding the words. "That explosion must've been centered on some sorta ******* sewer mausoleum. Clothes, bones, pocket watches n' **** all recovered from the site. So, either we've got a crocodile with a rocket launcher on our hands, or there's something a touch more eldritch living in the sewers." He trailed off for a moment. " 'course, there's a chance the explosion might've already killed the whatever-it-was, but who wants to bet on that?"

Haze stood up, yawned, and stretched.

"I'm gonna go get properly dressed. You guys should fan out and see what you can find. Right now, it's looking like the two hot sites are St. Paul's hospital and the intersection of Main and 41st. If we've been super duper good, said all our prayers and eaten all our vegetables, there's a chance that the forensics fairy might've left some debris around the site of the accident. A scrap of clothing clinging to a lamppost, or a femur catapulted into an alleyway. In this weather, those aren't gonna last too long, but if we're quick we might be able to recover them."

"The men at St. Paul's are probably less of a priority. Odds are against them having seen anything, but they're still worth investigating. Plus, if there's still a demon on the loose, it might try to bump them off. We want to be there when that happens."

"Other than that, we might wanna send someone down to the department of water and sewer. See if we can't get a look at some of their records or maps. I've got a feeling we're all gonna be waist deep in **** before this is over. You might want that SCUBA suit, Venge."

Turning around, Haze headed upstairs to get Dressed. The capital D meant that there were going to be weapons involved.

Equipment: Taking the mag light, highway flares, duct tape, leather jacket, multi-tool, cell phone, lighter, cigarettes, and strapping the secured sheath of the bowie knife upside-down to his calf and rolling the leg of his jeans down over it.

OOC: Can we all settle on either past or present tense for our writing? This half-and-half business is throwing me off. For what it's worth, my vote is for past tense. Fits the postmortem tone of Dread a bit better.

Also, everyone else is welcome to NPC my character for small things in their posts. I mean, don't go adding long lost lovers to his backstory or jumping him into the mouths of demons (that's for me to do,) but just about anything else is fair game. If I really object to something, I'll let you know.

[Blockhead]

Venge got up and walked into the kitchen again. He grabbed yet another beer. He sat down on his metal container and began to drink it. "The hospital doctors might need some 'persuading' to let us see the workers." Venge smiled, put his beer down and cracked his knuckles. "Then again, it might be easier if we posed at friends and tried to see them. I'll check out the hospital, anyone want to come with?" Venge picked up his beer again and finished it hastely. If we're off to the hospital, the Skullrunner's a no-go. I'm going to put my weapons in the back of the Warlock. I'll be outside when you're done ****ing about.

With a grumble, Venge dragged the metal container to the door. He unlocked the several bolts and headed outside. It was cold, wet and dark. Venge stood at the wooden steps leading down to the path for a second, taking it all in. Nice.... He wandered over to the Warlock parked nearby. The back was soaking wet, but luckily the water was trickling down and off the end of the open hatch. Venge, with almost no effort due to his incredible strength, hoisted the container onto the back on the Warlock and secured it. He then sat in the back, looking out over the horizon in the pouring rain. In the distance an orange light appeared. The sun was coming up, but the rain didn't seem like it would end anytime soon. No matter.... Venge thought as he laid back, allowing the rain to fall onto his face. Venge actually liked the rain. He liked it for the same reason he liked most other strange things that nobody else would appreciate to like. Because he would miss it if he died.

[DJDeMiko]

Brandon

"The hospital sounds boring," Brandon says and finishes his soda. "I'm going into the sewers and I'm going to find me a demon to kill."

He gets up out of the chair, walks over to the staircase and pauses, "Hey after we are done and . . . you know shower the sewer off us, whose up for some Chinese?"

Brandon heads back to his room to gear up.

Gear -
Loose fitting black shirt
Old ankle length light brown trench coat
Khaki water-resistant cargo pants tucked into boots
Water-proof shin-high brown hiking boots
Sawed off shotgun strapped onto lower back
pistol holster under left arm
Large hunting knife strapped to right side waist

After dressing Brandon heads back down with a big smile on his face and looks around.

"Who are we waiting on?"

OOC -

Spoiler

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We need some sort of communication system, ear piece walky talkies or some such.