This thread resumes and concludes a mini-game that was started on page 32 of [Twi] Twilight the lynching: The Gathering Storm. To see the first half of this legendary journey, go to that board.
As you approach the minature Mayan Pyramid, you can see what these men and women in feather cloaks, jewelry and jaguar head costumes are doing.
It's nothing good.
The Mayan Pyramid's steps run thick with blood, all originating from the altar at it's top. At the base, there's a thick cage that currently has no one in it: the door hangs open, and you can see...a teddy bear. A teddy bear lying on the floor of the cage, discarded.
At the top of the Altar, a group of the Jaquar warriors drag a screaming captive from a row of restrained kneeling people and bind her to the Altar. Then a tall, muscular man in a with a simple green feather cloak, a array of gold bracers and necklaces, and a ornate mask carved into the shape of of a snarling jaguar-like beast walks over the the Altar. He has a presence, a sort of internal gravity that causes you all to flinch. The young, young woman strapped to the altar goes eerily still, as if compelled.
This...Head priest, you're guessing, begins to raise the obsidian dagger in his left hand.
Johnny Python brings the rifle up to his shoulder, taking aim with the scope. He fires, shooting a bullet at the dagger itself, attempting to shatter the blade in the Vampyre's hand. Ouch.
The dagger get thoroughly shattered. The thing with the Golden Jaguar Mask turns, and stares right at you. You can't see his face, but you can feel waves of hate and contempt coming off him like fumes from a stove.
He snarls something in ancient Mayan, and all of the Jaguar warriors heft weapons ranging from obsidian edged machetes to steel sword of modern make, and charge at you all, each Jaguar warrior moving with inhuman speed.
He smirks. He starts shooting the weapons of the ones farther back.
"James, this is your time to shine! Same with you, Miguel, Captain. Me, I'll provide support from the back. Go get'em, champs!" he yells, getting to a higher vantage point to better pick his targets.
Johnny Python begins trying to shoot the weapons out of the Jaguars Warrior's hands, with a mixed degree of sucess. Steel and wood doesn't shattere quite as easily as obsidian. He occasionally misses, hitting one of the warrior in the chest and the arm...only to have them shrug it off and keep coming.
One of the Jaguar warriors spots James and swings his Obsidian Machete at him with blinding speed. He looks perfectly human...apart from the black-colored eyes.
James in an act of amazing timing draws his sword just as the giant stone knife goes for his face stopping the blow. With Romeo's guidance he then ducks down and kicks out the back of the Vampyr's knee.
"Oh great," sprach Miguel, "People who've taken the 2012 nonsense to the illogical extreme." Right now Juan thinks back to Catholic school, he had been on the track team, and while not being praticularly good at running and the like, he could throw a mean javellin. He decides it best to replicate that here, with the Spear of Destiny, and instead of trying to set a distance record, is instead trying to hit the Mayan priest. The ghost of Coach Carlos must be proud right now.
These creatures, whatever they are, worshipped the Mayan cosmology long before two movie producers spoon-fed mayan mythology into an overdone Biblical metaphor of a film.
The Spear of Destiny flies forth, and the Mayan Priest leaps away from it's trajectory with a sudden, blind panic: whatever he is, he fears the Holy Object.
He lands on the side of the pyramid with a thump, cracking the stone beneath his feet. He raises his hands, and red lightning crackles between them, forming itself into a great crackling ball of energy worthy of Dragonball Z. He thrusts his hands forward, and giant Red Lightning Bolt flies at the Hierophant with a crack.
James
(One physical point spent, check. Oh, because this is the new level, everyone gets +1 in each plot point stat, Physical , Mental, , Reflex , and Social)
The knee gives easily...too easily, causing the Jaguar Warrior to fall flat on his face.
Then the Warrior behind him drops his sword, opens his mouth to reveal large pointy fangs in a drooling throat, and spits a huge gob of saliva at your face.
The eyes are thoroughly shot out. The blinded Jaguar warrior staggers back, clutching at his face. Then he lowers his bloody hands, and sniffs, and ***** his ears.
Then he's charging right at you, in a fashion that would make Daredevil proud.
Oh, and a lesser priest on the steps of the pyramid, decked out in gold jewelry and tattoos, throws a streak of what looks like black energy right at you.
James stabs the Vampire with the broken knee in the face and quickly whips his sword, pulling the corpse along with it so that the poison hits the corpse and not James.
Python jumps back, prepping himself on the floor against the wall. Theoretically, the bolt should barely miss over his head.
"Python don't deal in theoretics, poster!" he yells, rolling to the side, gun prepped against his shoulder, pointed out at the head priest as he comes to a stop. His snakes are on the ready, one Boa with a silver-plated knife in his mouth and one Taipan with a UV light switch ready to pull. The Spitter is ready for firing. When this sucker gets in close, he's in for some nasty pain.
The Corpse absorbs the saliva barrage. Then it whips it's head around, nearly pulling the sword out of your hand. The action rips a good portion of it's skin off, and you get a good look at what the Vampyr's true form is, underneath it's mask of flesh.
Spoiler
It's tears the rest of it's Flesh Mask free, revealing big, knuckled, clawed hands with rubbery black skin speckled with bits of pink, a flabby belly, wing membranes, and a face that's a cross between a bat and H.R. Giger. It screeches and throws itself upon you. The Vampyr Jaguar Warrior behind him begins to tear free of it's flesh mask as well.
Johnny Python
The Head Priest...you think you recognize the image his gold mask represents: the black horizontal stripe is in reference to Tezcatlipoca, the Mayan dark god of sacrifice and death...Tezcatlipoca summons his lesser priest to him, and they join hands. Whatever they're cooking up, it can't be good.
You see the two Vampyrs confronting James tear free of their skin, revealing the monsters that they truly are. As if it's a signal, some of the Other Vampyrs begin to tear free of their Flesh Masks, And begins loping right at you, some jumping up high in order to glide down upon you...and tear your throat out.
The Jaguar warrior hears a scuff of a boot, and hears the sound of compressed air being ignited. He turns, then hears a dog whine. Before he can make sense of this, he goes to a dark place, with a new mask, and a feeling of blinding pain. And this mask doesn't come off.
Dogwelder vanishes after this act of justice, stalking ahead to find the next vagrant.
John be nimble, John be quick, John shoot a Vampyre that is terrorizing Romeo in the neck. With bullets.
The snakes turn on the UV lamps and the Boa lifts and aims them at the oncoming vampires.
Spitter has taken on Silver Powder, spraying it on nearby cultists.
Taipan is using venom to coat a wooden block thing. It will be wittled down with more acid later.
Johnny keeps up the "Shoot it 'til it dies!" strategy, reloading when needed.
The tongue is severed, and the Red Court Vampyr staggers back, clutching at his mouth: then Jame's bullets take it through the neck, and it falls down, still twitching.
You have and excellent view of the Vampyr with the baby german shepherd welded to it's face picking itself up, flabby belly protruding from it's bulk. It takes a few hesitant steps toward you.
Johnny Python
The Silver has no effect. The UV light is more effective, causing the flesh of the flesh-masked Vampyrs to slowly sizzle: the effects aren't as pronounced as with the Strain Vampyrs. In Bat form, however, the Vampyrs stagger back, their oily flesh catching on fire.
Chest shots don't do much: If you pump three or so rounds into their skull, they'll fall over, twitching on the ground. They must have a weak spot somewhere...
Meanwhile, over by the miniature pyramid, Tezcatlipoca and his followers, throw their heads to the sky, and in unison, chant several chilling syllables of Old Mayan. In the storm clouds above, there's a brief rumble.
Then, an gigantic arc of Red Lightning crashes down in the general area where Miguel, Johnny and the Captain are.
Then another, then another, and another. A barrage of Red Lightning strikes come down upon you like raindrops.
"Oh merciful Glycon, please bless this dead rat in your name so that we might carry out your will. *HISS*" he says, feeding the rat to his Spitter. It proceeds to spit as he takes control of 2 UV lamps, aiming and concentrating them.
The lightning hits the Hierophant, and the controls go haywire for a bit before Miguel can regain control. The air sizzles where the Hierophant was struck, the exterior has been blackened, but is mostly fine. Miguel then directs the Hierophant towards the pyramid, charging like a locomotive as it does so, aiming to kill the high priest.
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Last edited by nanobot_swarm : 10-04-2010 at 05:44 PM.
You set the dog-welded Vampyr's head on fire. It fall down and tries to stop, drop and roll.
An Jaguar Warrior with an intact flesh-mask swings a Chinese Jian at your sword arm. More press in, advancing despite the UV light in your hand.
There's too many of them to fight at once.
Johnn Python
The Holy Venom Spray works wonders the the flesh of the Vampyrs, masked or no, causing a white fire to consume the upper layers of their body. One unfortunate Vampyr gets hit in the gut, where the Holy Venom corrodes it's way through the flesh of the belly, causing a large amount of blood to gush out. The Vampyr falls limply to the ground, clutching at it's mangled side, utterly strengthless.
Huh. That must be why their belly are so large.
Oh, and Red Lightning is bombarding your current location.
Miguel Juan
The Hierophant Mech cuts a bloody swath through the Vampyr hordes, trampling them and batting them aside like insects. Blade ring off of it, and hands and claws burst into white flames at the touch of the Mech's blessed armor. A significant portion of the Red Court Vampyrs are killed by Miguel's charge. One third of their numbers have been killed or neutralized, mostly by Python and Juan.
The High Priest known as Tezcatlipoca snarls, and breaks contact with his lesser priests, and steps forward, the thrown Spear of Destiny lying at his feet. He regards it with a grimace of hate, and then raises his black, black eyes to meet those of Miguel.
He doesn't use magic or physical strength: merely will, will of such a depth and power that Miguel is frozen in place. Strength flees his limbs, and he lies helpless, as the innate power of a god-like being rolls over him.
"Mortals." He snarls in English. "So certain of your place in the universe. Short-lived cattle like you couldn't possibly conceive of the power of a Lord of Outer Night."
{Turn out that this guy is a Demi-God, which allows him to pull the old "Bow Down Mortal" trick on you: unaided, you'll need to spend a Mental Plot Point for each action you take while under his Mojo-whammy.
(Mental Plot point and Reflex Plot point activate!)
Python rolls to the side, dropping the UV lamps for his snakes to pick up and instead pulling a flask of Blessed Water and his gun up to his hand. He pours the water over the barrel of the gun as well as the ammo, takes aim at the head priest's head, and fires repeatedly.
(You only really need a reflex point to do this, Shoveler, so 1 Reflex Point spent)
It's a bottle of blessed oil, and the newly blessed bullets rip through the Lord of Outer Night's torso, leaving wounds that burn with white holy fire.
He doesn't go down. An Unholy Vampyr Demi-god doesn't go down easily. But you shatter his hold on Miguel Juan, leaving him free to act again.
You run past most of the Vampyrs, who seem surprised to see a mere mortal rushing so willingly into their midst. As you near the Pyramid, one of the lesser priests makes a fluttering hand gestures, and sends what looks like a thin slice of black energy at you. And the Jaguar Warriors of the Red Court follow behind.
He rocks back a bit, shots tearing into his flesh: then he turns and looks at you. The Red Court Vampyrs nearest you suddenly go into a frenzy, charging at you in suicidal fury, ignoring even blessed wounds and the surge forth to rip you to pieces.
(I've always visualized the Raid of Chichen Itza as being accompanied to this music.)
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