⇨ 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

GRRRRRR

[flashover]

WHUMP. Thankfully, Rin's attack is stopped by him being... well, smashed by a giant ethereal demon fist. It lays Rin flat and knocks Kurikara out of his hand. It clatters against the obsidian floor.

Welp. Dog is not attacking. Skeleton is not attacking. Shima and Yamantaka are. Which means his berserker rage is turned on the friend that he actually managed to speak to earlier. He clambers back onto all fours and charges at Shima, lips drawn into a snarl and flames stoked. He stands to slash at Shima with his claws, cloaked in flame. His now forked and longer tongue lolls out of his mouth as he keeps it open to display all his fangs.

"HRRRAAAAAAGHHH!"

[spaghettimonster]

Papyrus dallies a few seconds, looking back and forth as the bones collapse for signs of somebody alive and moving in it. A few seconds too long for the dogs, who push against the blue to rush in, or for Rin, who's looking especially snarly and aflame at this distance.

"Hey, your friend is talking to you!" Maybe that angry sound means something in whatever-the-heck-Rin-is-ese. Doesn't sound like canine, frankly it sounded a lot more like a murderous growl, but... the guy with the black fire doesn't sound panicked yet. They're probably fine. Enough. For now.

Right then. He jumps up into the pile of dust, ending the blue effect on the dogs, and starts digging around.

If Lambert's strange theory was right, and the wolf was Sans, and now... all this dust... Well! Papyrus will have a long talk with the Ringmaster, and maybe a lot of crying. Here's to hoping that doesn't happen.

[osteothropy]

Times is quick to join Papyrus as they run for the pile of dust, joining their siblings' sides. New and Times continue to rumble and growl warily at Rin, but it seems like he's focusing on someone else now - all the better, in their opinion.

Because, as Papyrus rifles through the dust, it won't take long to find Sans.

His brother is laying face down in the dust, yet to get up or move. The blue tainted wounds around his wrists and neck are even more obvious in this form, poisoned deeply from the iron that had been binding him for so long. Ectoplasm is beading heavily around those wounds, as well as coating the rest of his body, looking like the rare monster equivalent of blood stains. The dust sticks to his body messily.

His eyes are shut tight, and the only sign of life is his nearly imperceptible shivering.

[perverses]

Panicking on the inside, Papyrus, panicking on the inside.

Shima's faced Rin before, it's just he was a heck of a lot more rational that time! This version of Rin is probably more likely to tear him apart than regular Rin, but that's only if he can get ahold of him. There's the tricky part because Shima is dodging back and out of the way of every slash. There's at least one close call that tears claw marks across his shirt and it's at that point that he ducks back one last time, snapping out a verse and whipping K'rik up. A wall of black hellfire erupts between himself and Rin.

It won't do anything to Rin, but it does obscure Shima from sight. He's going to have to leap through it if he wants to keep pursuing. Behind them, Yamantaka still looms, closing in to cut off the half-demon's possible backtrack towards the skeletons.

[flashover]

The wall of flame goes up, and Rin balks. Not because he's scared of it, per se, but more because it's surprising.

And totally standing between him and his new quarry. Rin isn't one to turn tail and run, and especially not when he's overcome by the power of his flames. He snarls and unleashes a wave of his own fire. It tangles up with the black and both vanish, and Rin jumps toward Shima, claws on both hands and feet directed at him.

[perverses]

And Shima's already prepared for it, having expected a leap after the wall of hellfire went up. He drops right under Rin's lunge and rolls, taking himself straight out from under where he'll be landing and leaving him able to hop right back up behind him. Guess who's grabbing that tail as it passes by?

That's right, it's Shima.

"Hey, Okumura, guess what I got!"

He's going to wrap that sucker around his arm and pull.

[flashover]

He feels it, like a jolt of electricity up his spine, as soon as Shima grabs his tail. He visibly pales as he looks behind himself, just in time to see Shima crank on his poor innocent tail. The electricity turns into a full on bolt of lightning, a searing, burning, incomprehensibly painful sensation from his tail all the way up to his brain. The free end of the tail thrashes and flails and Rin lets out a noise that is half scream and half roar. He swipes at Shima, but blinded by the pain he can't land a hit. He feels his vision swimming and going white around the edges.

There comes a time when pain becomes so intense that the conscious mind just says "Fuck it, I'm done". Rin is at that point. The screaming becomes a gurgle then stops, and Rin falls flat on his face, completely unconscious. He himself remains partially on fire, but they are innocuous, and the remaining blue flames in the room flicker and disappear.

[whattaprick]

Lambert's personally much more inclined to join the fight that involves the blue fiery demon, but you know what? That kid with the staff can probably handle his own friend and all Lambert's methods lean to lethal, so he'll scramble to join Papyrus and the dogs instead when the bone wolf is dusted (completely missing the tragedy of the annihilated dog).

And.. huh. All right, he'd been a little skeptical about Papyrus's claims (despite his own hypothesis) so when he really does see Sans curled up there he glances over him, frowning.

"I have no idea how to fix this," he tells Papyrus, bluntly. Look, his medical knowledge is usually contingent on the patient having flesh.

There's a screech as Rin gets his tail yanked sharply, and he lifts his head just in time to see... whatever it is Shima is doing with that tail. Huh.

[spaghettimonster]

"Oh, brother..." Papyrus wipes at the worst of the accumulated dust off Sans, frowning at what he finds.

Some of it is sticking to him, which is strange and terrible, but what are those bruises? Wet stains instead of just colorful markings, like they'd been formed over a long time instead of at some abrupt pressure. Going all around his wrists, like he'd been... shackled... oh. Vampires really suck.

"He... We'll need magic. I don't have the knack for healing, either. Just the, heh, bare bones." He could probably, with heartfelt words, manage the minimal increment of health. Of course, Sans would need to be aware for that. Maybe he could follow the sound of skeleton jokes to wakefulness.

For now, Papyrus hefts his brother up with one arm, wraps his scarf around more private bones with the other, and smiles encouragingly at Lambert.

"But he's shivering! That's a good sign." Obviously shivering doesn't mean cold, not with fleshless people in the middle of a literally firey hell.

[perverses]

One wild dance to avoid being set on fire or maimed by raging demon claws, Rin is down and Shima is waiting a minute to make sure. When there's no movement, he looks back at the bull-headed demon looming over him, then jerks a thumb down at Rin.

"If he wakes up growling, smash him again..."

An order Yamantaka isn't too thrilled by, considering how demons tend to feel about their usually cheerful little anti-christ, but an order is an order.

He'll let go of Rin's tail after that and, taking one extra moment to pull the other kid's sword sheath off his shoulder, goes trudging off after Kurikara — the sword Rin dropped — first (and not without some quiet grumbling to himself the whole way; he had said he didn't want to drag a demon around on his back this round! He'd said it, out loud! Where mostly only Lambert had been listening, but still! And yet what are they going to do with Rin, right? What?). Once he has that, though, he'll let the grouching trail off and stop where the other two have gathered, by all the dust and bone dogs and, unsurprising at this point, Sans.

"Soooo, uh," he interrupts. "Does this mean we won?"

[whattaprick]

Shima should really have known better than to say that out loud, because that's just begging the universe to fuck with you, isn't it?

"Looks like it for now," Lambert answers, finally. A real ray of optimism, that guy. He is, however, going to take a moment at this point to check on the body of the vampire from earlier. He may or may not stab her through the heart a few more times with a sword to make sure she really is super dead, and then he's unhooking an empty bottle from his belt and bending down to ... collect some blood. It's a swiftly accomplished task, and he doesn't explain himself as he straightens, before he looks over at Shima and Papyrus, the only remaining conscious corporeal beings here.

"You," he nods at Papyrus. "Stick close to me. You," he points at Shima. "Keep scouting ahead, let us know if the path's clear." Instead of leaving to to Shima to carry Rin, he's stepping towards the unconscious demon, though he does frown up at the towering fire demon.

"This gonna bite me if I touch him?"

[perverses]

"Only if I tell him to," Shima answers, after which he'll shoulder his staff and sheath the sword he'd retrieved just before. The cord from that goes over his head and across his back, settling it so he isn't like to drop it while running around.

Then and only then is he going to give the gates ahead a wary look.

"Great. Guess I'll scream really loud if something kills me... Yamantaka, c'mon."

Sword settled, he takes K'rik back up and shakes the staff towards the fire demon. As before, back at the Celebration, the bull-headed monstrosity will fall apart into black flames, gathering again around the head of the weapon, but not before staring at Lambert and baring teeth in a snarl, like a warning.

[whattaprick]

Lambert doesn't dignify the demon with a response. Instead, he steps over to Rin and hauls him up, slinging him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. It's an ungraceful position, but he doesn't particularly care about Rin's dignity right now, and it puts his tail helpfully close at hand in case he needs to stage another intervention.

"Let's get out of here," he mutters, waving Papyrus to fall in beside him. His shield's not big enough to cover two people walking while carrying people, but he'll keep his sword out and extended.