DREAD - Damnum Fatale (THE PURSUIT)

[gardenphilosoph]

FURY STUNTS
A reminder as to how you can spend your fury. Remember, go nuts on it, you can get it back by completing secondary objectives (minimize collateral damage and save as many people as you can).

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
7:51 A.M. - 10/13/08
You speed off on the Crotch Rocket, a hazy yellow figure on a little bike, speeding through the rain which pounds your poncho like a thousand watery bullets, disintegrating on impact.

The Safe Injection Site is a couple minutes away, but you quickly arrive there thanks to the empty roads. Vancouver is a ghost city in this torrential downpour.

As soon as you enter the East Hastings side of town, the rancid scents of human urine and filth assault your sense of smell. Notorious for its high crime rate and ridiculous number of destitute and addicts, the downtown East Side is not friendly at all. Used needles litter the streets, skeletal hookers leaning against aging walls smoking crystal meth and injecting heroin. A couple piles of rags are in front of the actual Safe Injection building...sleeping hoboes. It's early.

Your entrance attracts the eyes of everyone awake, and awaken some of those sleeping. Your bike is pristine, your poncho bright yellow.

You better not linger.

[Kuma Da]

Haze

Haze rolls right up to the side of the Safe Injection Site, studying the layout of the building. I wonder if I can drive in there? Second I take my *** off the seat of the Rocket, somebody's bound to try and jack it.

Keeping one hand wrapped around the accelerator and letting the other drift down by the shotgun, he waits.

OOC: Figured I should ask this before it becomes a priority issue. How are we going to handle phone calls between the teams? Should I PM them?

[gardenphilosoph]

Physically, there's nothing stopping you, save for two solid glass doors...but that's never gotten in your way before. You look around. Besides the regular grime and the destitute, nothing stands out.

OOC: Write what you want to say here, and I will spread the message to the other threads. Also, just to let you know, this Safe Injection Site thing is real, and it's also government-operated, so driving in there with a bike may not be the smartest thing to do...but it's your choice.

[Kuma Da]

Haze

Digging out his cell phone, Haze re-dials the contact's number.

"There's been a change of plans. Meet me outside the front doors of the site. I'll drive you somewhere safer."

[gardenphilosoph]

One of the many rags littering the sidewalk shuffles over to the front doors. It raises what must be its head slightly, and your headlights reflect off its glasses so that all you can see of the witnesses' face are two shining orbs in a cloak of filthy rags and donated clothing.

"Hurry..." he mutters, hacking all the while.

[Kuma Da]

Haze

Haze cuts the connection with a click, turning his attention to the hobo. He shifts uneasily atop his bike.

How the **** do you ask a crazy man about demons without getting meaningless gibberish out of him?

"You're the guy who called the 24, right? Or maybe you know him?"

OOC: Did I hear a cell's ring or buzz from the hobo when I called the number?

[gardenphilosoph]

"Yes, yeah. Quick, before they c-come for me..." his voice is hoarse but aggressive.

OOC: No, you didn't.

[Kuma Da]

Haze

'Before they come for me'? Bit of a pronoun switch there, buddy.

Haze dismounts on the opposite side of the bike from the bum, but doesn't hit the kickstand just yet.

"Where's the rest of you?"

[gardenphilosoph]

"Huh?" the man seems perturbed. Suddenly he reaches for his rags and pulls some off, revealing a thin sickly leg full of sores and warts. "The rest of me is down here! Hahehahooooo..." he laughs mockingly, seeming unaware of the heaviness of the situation.

[Kuma Da]

Haze

"That's not what I meant, but whatever."

Note to self: do not ever, ever touch the hobo. Unless you particularly want AIDS.

On the plus side, if that even counts as a plus, his laugh's the same.

Haze re-mounts the Crotch Rocket."I suppose you haven't had breakfast yet. Hop on. I'll find us a McDonalds. Meanwhile, you tell me about what you know about 41st and Main."

[gardenphilosoph]

The witness delicately mounts the Crotch Rocket, and you wince to think that his filthy rags and putrid body are touching it...blegh. It doesn't take long to find a McDonald's downtown, and you drive to the nearest one. The two of you are a strange couple and attract a couple suspicious looks as you enter the crappy diner. A couple minutes later and you're both sitting down, dubiously crafted fast food in between you.

The hobo begins stuffing food down his mouth rapidly. He hasn't said anything quite coherent yet.

[Kuma Da]

Haze

Haze kicks listlessly at the dirty tile floor. This is taking far too long, particularly if it's a scam. Haze steeples his fingers together over the table. "I hate to rush you, but the things I'm dealing with are urgent. If you don't actually know anything about what happened earlier today, fine. Help yourself to another couple sandwiches and I'll be on my way. But, if you do, could you at least talk around the fries?"

OOC: Rolling empathy to speed things up. [roll]1d12[roll],[roll]1d12[roll],[roll]1d12[roll]

[Kuma Da]

OOC: failed to roll. Trying again. (1d12)[2],(1d12)[4],(1d12)[6]

[gardenphilosoph]

In between mouthfuls of burger and fries, the man talks. "Don't know anything about Main & 41st, 'cept they found all those clothes and bones, right? Right? Saw something in a park, that's what it did. Clothes, bones, yes, yeah."

[Kuma Da]

Haze

Haze becomes instantly more alert. His feet root to the floor and he sits up straight, as if an aluminum rod had just been casually jammed down his spine. "Saw something in a park? Can you tell me which park, or who saw it, or what it looked like?"

[gardenphilosoph]

"Mmmmm..." the witness pauses, trying to remember while openly chewing a gruesome combination of fries and chicken nuggets in his mouth. "...Stanley Park, that's the one, biggest in Vancouver...near that big lake too, Beaver Lake, I think. What I saw, its important, its horrible, that dreadful spider, big, big, big..." He pauses, his eyes bulging in horror. "I like fries."

[Kuma Da]

Haze

"Me too. Fries are good. They've got calories and stuff."

Steer the conversation somewhere safe. Don't freak him out. He's already attracting attention.

"Can you draw at all? Like, pictures and stuff?" Haze passes the man a napkin and a beaten up pencil. "Don't think about it too hard, but can you sketch what it looked like?"

[gardenphilosoph]

The man hastily scribbles onto the napkin.

"It was blue, but that's a secret. She was reading. She didn't seeee it...." The witness is on his fourth burger and second order of fries. Grease trails down his unshaved chin.

[Kuma Da]

Haze

"Where'd it go...y'know, after?"

OOC: That's the most kick-ass improvised prop I've seen in a PbP. Hats off to you, sir.

[gardenphilosoph]

"Don't know. I rrraaaannn..." The man holds his stomach, finished eating, and slumps on to the table. Perhaps he shouldn't have eaten so fast. "It's important, though. I know. I'll tell the others. I saw, I saw it, I SAW IT!!" he shouts, attracting the entire notice of everyone in the McDonald's. Uh oh.

OOC: Thank you! That means a lot.

[Kuma Da]

Haze

****. Double ****.

"It's okay, man. I've got it under control." This is pitched as much to the other customers as it is to the hobo. "Look," Haze's voice drops low, but it doesn't lose any of its strength. All that volume gets translated into a kind of soft intensity. "I deal with stuff like this. That's my job, or my hobby, or whatever. I stop what you drew from getting at people like you ever again."

Standing up, Haze gathers together the leftovers from the meal, packs them into a paper bag, and slides it across the table to the man. Everything else except for the tray gets balled up and tossed out. "I can drop you off at the safe site or wherever before-hand, but now I've got work to attend to."

OOC: Rolling empathy again to get him out of the McD's with a minimum of fuss. (1d12)[2], (1d12)[7], (1d12)[12]

[gardenphilosoph]

With some difficulty, you escort the babbling witness from the McDonald's and as per his instructions back to the Safe Injection Site.

Just as he shambles off your bike he says, in a tone far saner and clearer than anything he's said before, "It's not okay. I need it's power."

He mumbles something just as you rev off.

OOC: Sense roll to see if you can hear what he mumbled. Target difficulty 8. You have a Sense score of 5, so roll 5 dice. Empathy wouldn't exactly work in that kind of situation, but luckily you didn't need to roll.

[Kuma Da]

Haze

As he rumbles off down the street, Haze opens his cell-phone again and punches in Backlash's number.

"Hey, babe. Thought I'd check in. Make sure you weren't worried about me. It's cute, but really, I can take care of myself." Haze waits a beat, then switches tones from mocking to serious. "I thought you and your team might want a heads up about what I just learned. Turns out some homeless man saw something come outta Beaver Lake, over at Stanley Park. Said it grabbed a girl. Dunno what it did with her, but he knew about the accident at 41st and Main, so she's probably clothes and bones by now.

He described the monster as 'spidery' and 'blue', if that helps any. You get any big-*** blue spiders askin' you out for a beer, make sure you turn 'em down. Can't be too careful these days.

Haze, over and out."

OOC: (1d12)[1],(1d12)[10],(1d12)[1],(1d12)[1],(1d12)[10],

[gardenphilosoph]

OOC: What was that roll for? Anyways, where are you headed? Hospital, sewers, Stanley Park, or back to HQ?

[Kuma Da]

OOC: That was a roll for Sense, since option #5 (go screeching into a U-turn and go talk to the hobo again) might hinge on what he mumbled.

[gardenphilosoph]

"The spider, the blue, not the same, they make two!" the man mumbles, giggling at his own rhyming skill.

Before your mind has time to comprehend what he is saying, your phone rings. It's Backlash.

"You know me, you are just so **** cute I would hate to see something happen to your pretty face.", he responded in the same mocking tone.

His tone also turns serious, "Got it, I'll tell the others. Also an update from us, we found a Disciple on our turf, all beat up in the hospital, we are gonna look into it."

OOC: Oh right, that was dumb of me.

[Kuma Da]

Haze

Oh, monkey balls.

Haze hangs up the phone with a "Gotcha," while Backlash's words are still sinking in. They mix with the parting mumble of the hobo in a murky swirl of suspicion.

Two demons. Or a demon and a big ******* blueberry in cahoots. Plus a wounded Disciple--which is starting to sound worse--since I don't know of any other Cabals in the area, and I'd hope they've got enough respect for us to give a heads up before operating on our turf. Which means that they probably chased something here. And it schooled them. ****.

I'd better check in with the other team. Make sure they're doing alright.

Haze guides his bike through the rain towards the intersection of Main and 41st.

[gardenphilosoph]

OOC: Alright, head on over to this thread.

[gardenphilosoph]

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE PURSUIT
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The two of you sped off into the grey fog and pissing rain.

A couple minutes later you arrive at the Safe Injection Site...to a scene very different from the scattered misery of that morning.

There are at least thirty or so homeless at the scene, clad in dirty rags and worn clothes. They are all in a crowd, and have formed a semi-circle around another homeless man, who appears to be preaching to them.

Haze instantly recognizes the preacher's voice. It's his witness.

What he's spewing out doesn't sound too good...

"The end is near, brethren! A prophet has appeared to me, and gifted upon me the texts of an ancient civilizations! The ancients will return and bathe the earth in fire and blood! The only chance of redemption lies before you now! It is I, come here to save you!"

Oh dear.

[Kuma Da]

Haze

No way. No way does he just become this articulate. There's something riding him right now, and it'll lead those people like lambs to the slaughter.

Brandon can break it's hold on him, but I need to dismantle his hold on them.

Haze snaps the kickstand up and dismounts from the bike, leaving it idling as he strides towards the crowd. He goes unarmed, save for the knife in the leg of his jeans, the magic swimming in his blood, and his voice. Holding his arms out in the position of the cross, he declaims in an intense, booming voice "But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Elohim who bought them." Step. Step. His voice trembles off of sidewalks and the sagging sides of buildings. "And they will bring down swift destruction upon themselves. Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up." Haze extends a long, quivering finger towards the preaching hobo. "Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping."

"Peter 2: v 1-3. I suggest you all disperse quietly."

Haze waits a moment, and then tosses a glance back at Brandon. "What? I was raised a Catholic."

OOC: Burning 2 points of fury to bullseye empathy and disperse the preacher's flock.