⇨ HELL

[ringleaders]

Who: Vampire prisoners and rescue squad.
When: Evening Day 67 - Day 68
Where: Vampire Hell
What: The rescuers go to hell. Top levels are in approximate chronological order.
Warnings: Violence, torture, tryhard demons who aren't very creative.

RESCUE MISSION: HELL↴ The air smolders as you travel through the star-shaped portal the Ringmaster has opened - the gateway to the hell dimension that has taken so many if you. Ahead, you can see the grand entrance to Morningstar's fortress, a single point of civilization in the center of a barren, lava drenched hellscape. Of course, you won't be entering from the front. That would be stupid. The Ringmaster's plan is simply in explanation but far more difficult in execution. Her instructions are that she will attack the fortress directly, and that the rescue team is to enter inconspicuously and rescue who they can while she engages Morningstar. She has provided you with silver weapons - daggers, swords, and some projectiles - which you may or may not choose to use. Shedding a trail of orange and green embers, the Ringmaster will sprout her dark, feathery wings and take to the air, leaving the rescuers to contemplate their instructions now that they've arrived. The fortress is large, and as such there are many potential side entrances to find. It will take some doing, but the group will be able to accomplish it. Meanwhile, many of the vampires within will be distracted by the Ringmaster's now very audible arrival, and don't seem to be expecting a secondary attack. The initiative is yours, and the captives are there to be found... but will you succeed? ► GATEKEEPING: For those who don't trust their mettle enough to travel all the way to hell, there is an important job to be done back at the carnival. The Ringmaster's obsidian daggers have opened a portal there, but while the rescuers enter that portal must be protected - both to keep it from collapsing and stranding everyone there, and to prevent anything demonic from escaping onto the carnival grounds and causing havoc. If you need to take it easy but still want to help, this is a good place to be. It's also a good place for nervous hand-wringing about whether any of your friends will make it back alive. ► PLAYPEN: The cavernous pits where the neonate vampires are dumped, in order to engage in a survival of the fittest style battle royale where only the strongest and most cunning will emerge. Those that were turned during the masquerade were dropped down here a couple days ago, and so someone needs to go collect them. Try not to get eaten by the hordes of other starving neonate vampires down there while you're at it. Maybe you could even try to save some of them, if any seem worth redemption. ► CAPTIVES: While the supervisors were initially all caged together in large cell surrounded with a moat of lava, it seems that most of them have now been moved elsewhere. Where they have ended up is a puzzle you'll have to solve quickly - there are plenty of vampire sentries about to try to get in your way, and some of the prisoners may already be significantly worse for wear. If anyone has any powers that help them find people, this would be the time to use them. ► MINIBOSSES: Unfortunately, the enemies here aren't only capable of damaging the body, but the mind, too. In these particular cases, that corruption of the mind has been used pointedly to Morningstar's advantage - two of the carnival's most dangerous members have now been turned against it. If you want to get out of here alive, you'll have to go through them. If you're really lucky, you'll get them out alive, too. ► BOSS FIGHT: Before the rescuers and the rescued can escape, Lord Morningstar will arrive to corner them, with an entourage of elders. Let's hope that she gloats long enough for something to turn the tables.

Comments

⇨ BOSS FIGHT

[ringleaders]

Somehow, the rescue teams will begin to converge. Whether following a success or a failure in rescuing the captives, they'll find themselves herded towards a central area of the fortress, as if the building itself is shifting to force them towards its intended destination. With the vampire population finally beginning to catch on to your presence, the rescuers will be left with few options - it's either keep going forward, or risk being hellishly outnumbered by your enemies.

Finally, the bulk of the rescuers will find themselves entering a vast, cavernous hall, lit up red with the lava that pools in its center. They'll manage to close the gates behind them, preventing more vampires from pursuing - at first, it will seem as if they are alone. Better yet, they will see that the roof opens up here, and that the hazy sky can be seen through the clouds of smoke. For the first time since entering, there is an avenue of escape. Or, at least there was.

Suddenly, a figure cloaked in black will emerge from the lava, stretching their arms high as if in the middle of some arcane ritual. In this same moment, the first of several vampiric figures will appear from the corners of the room, lurking in wait as their leader finishes her fanfare. Stepping off the lava as if it's a solid surface, the cloaked figure will step onto the obsidian floor, several meters ahead of the group - they are human sized.

"So... you've finally arrived," the cloaked figure will purr. "You're mistress was a fool if she thought her distractions could blind me to your tricks."

She whips back the hood, to reveal... perhaps not the human form you were expecting.

"But as they say... winner takes all."

[OOC: This is the boss fight - there will be some help coming in from above! You just gotta survive until it does. This is going to be one free for all thread, so please don't hesitate to banter and otherwise be distracting. Morningstar is a sucker for that.]

[spaghettimonster]

This could be a scene for a very cool, posing, heroic figure to say something witty back at her.

Unfortunately, Papyrus has been in a couple fights with vampires, seen the rules of turn-taking in combat completely ignored, and he's been carrying an unconscious Sans over his shoulder for a while. He is, loathe as he is to admit it, out of cool one-liners. So there's just one question to ask:

"Do they really say that?"

Papyrus has his doubts.

[starseedling]

Steven finds this room super horrifying, and this situation horrifying, so when a figure emerges right out of the lava he's pretty much prepared for the worst. So, it's actually sort of a relief when she pulls off the hood and it's just kinda... this cherub faced lady?

He's still pretty scared! But that could be way worse, right?

It means that he's capable of not jittering enough to look at Papyrus, and pause contemplatively. He bites his lip, uncertain.

"Uh... I think so? I think it's a gambling thing..."

He only ever saw it in a movie.

[periphrasing]

For all she's been struggling and putting up a stink since Steven and Amethyst caught her, Peridot goes noticeably quiet and still when the figure emerges. Her eyes widen and her ears go back against her head, and she whines softly, like a nervous dog.

[cuckooed]

...Really.

From...wherever the heck she is at the moment, along with her own rescuers, Koel can barely croak out a sigh.

She is the leader of this dreck?

They looked so...normal. said the barely audible pot, speaking about the blonde kettle.

[kingsroads]

"It's definitely a gambling thing!" Strange explains, joining the crowd of people who aren't paying as much attention to the boss vampire (who is also apparently a pretty woman?) as they really should be. He's watching her out of the corner of his eye, ready to strike or call up a barrier if needed. But with an entrance like that, he's got a feeling not actually acknowledging the dramatic entrance might actually be a good move.

Besides, talking about poker will certainly take his mind off of how scary this all is and how he still isn't over the fact that he killed a few vampires and he's not entirely sure how they're going to get out of this and so on and so forth.

"If one's playing cards, winner takes all means that if you win the hand, you take however much money or chips are in the pot. I've no idea what she means using it as a metaphor in this situation, however." After all, the likelihood is that this will end up as a fight, not as a card game.

[npcarnival]

Morningstar stares at everyone in disbelief, the raw malice fading from her face and gradually becoming replaced with quiet indignity. She puts out a hand, as if to silence them before they can get any more clueless.

"Fools, I am comparing this battle to a game. Which is exactly what a metaphor is intended to do. It's really not that complicated!"

God, you are so stupid. You couldn't be any more stupid.

[perverses]

A hot vampire chick just rose up out of lava and this is how the conversation is going? Really? Well, far be it for Shima to not add his own two cents, which is just as useless:

"Are you sure cards are really the best way to go here? What about chess?"

[starseedling]

"Ohhhhh..." Steven says, distracted from being scared shitless. "I get it now!"

[mirrortide]

"Wait, we're playing a game? What kind of a game are we playing? What's the prize anyway?" Because this seems like a terrible place to play a game, honestly.

[npcarnival]

"YOU aren't playing ANYTHING!" Morningstar snaps, clenching her fists. "I am the one playing, and I'm the one that will win!"

[cuckooed]

Poker? I'm more of a pinochle girl myself. A wry smile. I wonder if our opponent here knows that one...I can tell her the rules if she doesn't.

[atouts]

"Awfully angry for someone who thinks she's going to win," Childermass adds from behind the rest, where he's hunched over and keeping a possibly less than conscious Joker on his feet. They should honestly be taking this more seriously, but if this is how it's going to be...

[amusicaladventure]

"Hey!" Alice called out, hands to her mouth since she was -- kind of behind a couple of people. "Devil! I challenge you to a rock-off!"

[mirrortide]

"If you wanted people to play a game with you didn't have to kidnap them. You could have just asked." Lapis ever so helpfully points out. Also, importantly she turns to the person who issued a 'Rock-off'?

"That's not really fair to her, since she doesn't have any Gems on her side." Or, well, there's apparently Peridot?

[cuckooed]

Technically, in order to win a game you must have more than one player, in any case.

[spaghettimonster]

"Rock... paper, scissors?" Papyrus offers. "It's not very exciting without explosions, but there's lava here. It can work."

[stillwinningthehardway]

It's so hot in here. Scout's clothes are sticking to her skin and of course, of course people are going off on inane tangents and even the innocent-looking woman who radiates malice is getting distracted and indulging them. Which probably isn't a bad thing honestly, she has long experience with how getting an opponent angry can help.

She finds a place where rock has humped up a few feet, and draws her blaster as she climbs it. The Force isn't telling her this is a good or bad time to launch the first attack, and she's not sure herself. She should wait another moment and be ready.

[whattaprick]

"Am I the only one wondering how her clothes haven't burned off?" Lambert mutters, keeping priorities real. He might also be jealous, because his are pretty singed by now.

[kingsroads]

The inane tangents just continue as Strange turns towards Lambert and in the most 'well duh' tone just replies with, "Magic, of course. I'd imagine there's a spell somewhere for repelling heat and flame."

He actually has no damn clue if a spell like that exists in the first place but hey, Lambert's not going to know that.

[perverses]

"So, are we fighting her or what?"

Shima isn't even sure who to direct that question to, so he'll just look in the general direction of the... other nightrunners? The people with swords? Yeah, those.

[whattaprick]

"Well, the Ringmaster said..." Lambert cocks his hip and raises a hand dismissively as best as he can with an unconscious demon boy over his shoulder, pitching his voice in a cadence that is unmistakably the Ringmaster's.

"'This demon is obviously obsessed with me and is hoping to gain my attention!' Or something like that. So it's probably not a fight she wants." Yeah, let Lambert doing his best Ringmaster impression scar you for the rest of your lives.

[mirrortide]

"Wait, so are they romantically involved or something like that?" It's an honest question, but Lapis isn't really sure she wants to know about the love life of the Ringmaster. "Why'd they drag us into their lovers spat?"

[npcarnival]

Morningstar's fingers are pinching the bridge of her nose, and as the babble goes on that posture becomes more and more tense by the second. Then Lambert totally crosses a line, and her patience is officially shattered.

"Well, I was going to wait for your master to show up so that I could kill you all in front of her..." she says, and then looks up, her eyes gone hellishly red. "But I guess an arrangement of corpses will have to do!"

She floats into the air, and raises a hand, dramatically lowering to point a clawed finger in the direction of the carnival workers.

"GET THEM!"

The elder vampire that have been lurking in the corners thus far begin to come forward, the weight of their mental influence already pushing down on the assembled group. Submit.

[cuckooed]

Dear lord Lambert, why did you do that.

Koel grunts, as she feels the influence start to push at them, at her. She closes her eyes, doing her best to concentrate on mentally fighting the words.

It's hard. She is still badly hurt, and the potion she was given could only do so much in a short time like this. She just... had to hold on. Breathe in, out...

No...