⇨ 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

[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...

[whattaprick]

The force of will shoved at them all at once is enough to make Lambert flinch, and unfortunately lose his grip on Rin, who goes sliding to the ground as one knee tries to buckle. But he's still got his sword in hand, and he digs the tip into the ground to push himself up, grinning madly.

"Too lazy to make it yourself?" he manages to grind out, heaving his sword up and at the ready once he's upright, taking a staggering step or two forward. No sense catching anyone else in the magic trap he's itching to slap down on the ground again. Hey, fuck it, if he's going to die it's not without a fight!

[stillwinningthehardway]

Submit? Scout grits her teeth against the heavy, helpless feeling that bows her head and weakens her knees. Her forehead tickles as the feeder set there uncoils and consumes part of the influence aimed her way. She feels strength pour into her limbs and spine, enough to overcome the rest of the compulsion, and snaps her blaster arm up, firing coherent red light at Morningstar, then at a couple of the new figures. She's a good shot, but it's a big cavern, too.

[kingsroads]

Strange swears, putting a hand to his head as the feeling of helplessness creeps into his head. Submit. It's honestly a tempting idea. After all, there's so much potential to put this nasty business behind him. No more carnival. No more nonsense about the timeline. No more worrying about any of the things he finds himself fretting and worrying about.

And then he spots Koel. Well, whether he gives in or not, he's certainly not going to let her be taken again by the vampires, not after they worked so hard to save her in the first place. What would be the use of undoing all that hard work? He rushes towards her, already muttering a spell under his breath as he does so.

[flashover]

Rin slides to the ground after being dropped by Lambert. He's not fully unconscious anymore, but he's exhausted from his berserker rage and the subsequent tail pulling. He just crumples into a ball and groans.

"nnnnoooo dad, I.... dun wanna.... school... today...."

Welp, it's clear he's going to be very helpful during this ordeal.

[amusicaladventure]

Welp. This Satan was absolutely no fun at all.

Okay, she had to handle this super carefully, because some people she really didn't want to see burned had been vampirized. So rather than hang out at the back, Ash clenched her teeth against the mental influence -- which she was damned well going to fight, she had spent her life as a pawn of her own species' limitations and was not about to just lie down when she had a choice -- and shoved up front.

She slapped her hands together at the wrists and spread them, the better to give focus to her magic and aim it at the enemy vampires rather than their friends.

Here comes the sun
Here comes the sun!

The gentle music that rose up around her accompanied a sudden warm summer glow from her hands, that beamed out in front of her.

[starseedling]

Ash's own resistance seems to wake Steven up from his own terrified flinching, remembering that there is something he can do about this - something that he'd brought to be prepared from the start. It's hard to push back against such an intimidating front, but Steven will push forward through the group, raising his shield defensively, and lifting up his crystal necklace.

The pink glow of the crystal will join the light of her song, sending out positive spiritual vibes that he knew had pushed back vampires in the past. If enough of them can hang on, then they can still get through this, right?

[npcarnival]

The sunlight from Ash's song and the glow from Steven's crystal is enough to make the elders hesitate in their approach, emerging from their lightning fast movements and pausing with a look of uncertainty. A few of them have to skip backwards in order to avoid those beams of daylight, and while dodging them isn't hard, it makes getting any closer particularly difficult. Especially when none of their prey seem willing to break ranks quite yet.

Of course, this lack of progress immediately causes Morningstar great frustration, and, having had quite enough already, she decides to take this into her own hands.

"Nevermind!" she declares.

She tears off her black cultist robes, leaving her momentarily naked - only for the flesh beneath to start shifting into something red and hide like. In a flare of red tinged fire, Morningstar swells to at least thirty feet in height, revealing her full demonic form...

Fire flares out from the large spines on her back, creating the effect of a pair of devilish wings. It's much harder for even rays of daylight to affect her, when its so small in comparison.

"I'll do this myself."

She lifts up a foot to crush all of you thusly.

[whattaprick]

The music and the warmth and light that comes with it clears the fog from Lambert's vision, letting him shake the heaviness off his limbs just in time for him to see the monstrous form rising from the ground. It's bigger than an ogre, bigger than even a cyclops, and this was a lot more what he was expecting to deal with when he heard they were up against some kind of demon lord.

Lambert's got no powerful magic to bring to bear, nor does he have any defensive capabilities that extend any further than the immediate range of his person. What he does have, though, is a fuck-off silver sword, a decent throwing arm, and a reckless streak a mile wide.

So though a sword isn't in any way designed to be a throwing weapon, he heaves it forward in an overhand throw with as much force as he can muster, aiming to lodge the blade right between the tendons of that clawed foot she isn't lifting in preparation to squash them with. It's a blur of metal spinning end over end, probably a bug bite at most to such a massive creature if it even manages to stick its landing, but as soon as it's out of his hand he's also darting forward, breaking away in a straight line from the others and summoning a shield to wrap around him as he goes. He can least try not to get squashed flat?

"Nice legs for a goat woman!" If he's already proven to be an annoyance once, maybe he can do it again.

[cuckooed]

Well, ok then, giant foot about to squish them. Koel looks left, then right, and really, if she had any strength she'd be carting people off. Or...moving. She does not, though.

You should all...

She trails off when she sees the sword.

Here's to hoping Lambert made up for his previous mistake, right? She was planning on seeing her grandchildrn graduate, after all.

[mildwildchild]

Throughout the abject chaos of this confrontation with evil incarnate, the phrase "goat woman" catches and holds Jamie's attention.

"Is - is that a succubus?!" he demands.