[Semi-Open] Into the Cathedral Catacombs

[scramasax]

Who: Anthonies Janvier and Sparado, Hajime Aikawa, Shou Chinen, possibly Richard Stroud, Xander Jarle, Nick Burkhardt, Soren Castor, Davin Carter, John Smith, Toushirou Hitsugaya, and anyone else who might've expressed interest in an expedition delving after dark into the mummy-infested catacombs beneath a local church.
Where: Below the altered St. John's Episcopal Church.
When: Evening of Saturday, September 6th.
What: Investigation and hopeful threat elimination.
Warnings: Violence and encouragement of good old "Lovecraft insanity".

[This log is going to be broken down for free-for-alling section-by-section:
- Area 1 - The Entrance
- Area 2 - The First Hall
- Areas 3 and 4 - The First Room and Stairwell
- Areas 5 and 6 - The Fountain Room
- Areas 7 and 8 - The Arcane Study
- Area 9 - The Shrine
- "Boss Fight"
- Return to the Church

To toss in another character or brush up on what to expect in the catacombs, including areas and monsters, please refer to this post - and, of course, toss in any questions if you've got them!]

Comments

ENTERING - Area 1, before and heading through the passage

[scramasax]

[The church's top floor, serving and furnished as a secretary's office, is empty at present, as is the main floor. No one'll hear or cause a fuss when the switch in the back wall is hit, a panel at its side slides, and a team of yay-many head down the ladder it'll show heading two floors down.]

let's get this party started

[oncedevil]

[There didn't really seem to be anything particularly spectacular about the first floor. It looked more or less like a regular church, but there was still something decidedly off about the place. Maybe that was just the apprehension and knowledge that there was definitely more than met the eye in here. Tony couldn't say. Still, he clutched the hilt of his sword and drug it to rest lazily on his shoulder anyway, even without any sign of obvious danger. It was a comforting gesture, in some strange kind of way. Familiar.

After a little bit of lost snooping his gaze swept over to the others with him.]

This is the right place, isn't it? Sure doesn't look infested.

[Funny choice in terms... He furrowed his brow in mild confusion at his own statement.]

/brings in the tiny white hair bro

[icy_heavens]

[He's been itching to do something useful since the debacle that had been Robyn's kidnapping. That, he'd chosen not to get involved with, purely on a logical level, but staying behind sucks. This, though? He can do this.

[His own blade is still sheathed at his back, but it can be out at a second's notice. Hyourinmaru's presence is heavy in his mind, as ever when he enters a dangerous situation. The first time it had come, the dragon's presence and voice had been unsettling, but time and the knowledge of what he is has turned it into a steadying influence. He needs it here. Something isn't quite right, even at this stage.]

Gonna have to look a little deeper for the infestation, I'd think. This is only the main floor.

enter the bugman

[chalicejoker]

They were deeper in when we found them. This is just the quiet part.

[Hajime is ready this time, and he's curling and uncurling his clawed hands into fists at the memory of the other monsters.]

But there are definitely things here.

[scramasax]

[Anthony nods, mutters - ]

He's uh -- Hajime's right. Until, uhmm -- the passage, it's...

Normal... Uh - [To the extend that a temporally displaced church that appeared quite literally overnight can be, anyhow.

Meanwhile, he takes a stagger where inward-curved section of wall should be, relative to the top of the stairs.]

There's, uh - that opens, in -- the wall...

[gobybessie]

[ While John had offered to come mostly in case someone would end up needing medical attention, he's also hoping to receive an Echo of some sort. You never know where one might come up. In fact, he's even brought along the device that he got a while ago because perhaps, by some chance, he'd end up with an answer to what it was or for it to at least start functioning.

It's hidden in his inner pocket though, and other than that he has absolutely nothing but a bag with medical supplies with him.

He puts his hands in his pockets and approaches the wall at a leisurely pace. It's strange to feel more excited than apprehensive about this, as he's sure he would have been before changing. Sometimes he's still weirded out by how much of a different man he's become. ]

Where's the secret door switch, then?

The First Hall - Area 2

[scramasax]

[The ladder ends in a shadowed spot at a small round end of a long stone hallway, with a low ceiling and, lit orange by fat white candles along it.

A look straight left from dismounting the ladder reach a wooden door - flanked by a couple to a few dark and humanlike figures...]

[icy_heavens]

[Toushirou's not the first down the ladder -- he's let somebody whose been here before take point, since he doesn't know where he's going -- but he lands lightly, eyes scanning the room for threats.

[He catches sight of the mummy creatures, and now his blade is out. One makes a move for them, but Toushirou is faster. Much faster. To anyone who's watching, he'll appear to have vanished only to appear directly in front of the hostile mummy, bringing the blade down on its head, cleaving down through the torso. He doesn't spare a thought as to why he's aimed this way; it's instinct. But just to make sure it's down -- because who knows with mummies? -- he moves one hand away from the hilt and touches each half of the falling body, focusing his power and freezing them solid.

[Another swipe of the blade, horizontally this time, smashes through the frozen body, leaving it in pieces of shattered ice on the floor.]

[chalicejoker]

[Hajime isn't aiming for anything with quite so much finesse as Toushirou. He is a monster, as much as it pains him to admit it, and he fights with all the brute force of one. But even in his near-frenzy--because it's too dangerous to let himself enter a complete one--he's noticed the odd aim the kid's got. Right for the head--it's more ruthless than Hajime might have expected.]

Nice shot.

[icy_heavens]

[Where Hajime is a monster, Toushirou is a soldier. Whether that in and of itself implies finesse, who knows? But it's how he works.

[He just shrugs at the compliment.] I guess. [You'd think he'd be more bothered by chopping something's face in half.]

[chalicejoker]

That's a pretty solid headshot.

[Seems like as easy a way as any to approach the subject.]

The First Room and Stairwell - Areas 3 and 4

[scramasax]

[From a long and straight, cramped cavelike hallway to a neatly-square torchlit room. At the corner ahead from the door is a bare stone pedestal at the top of a set of short stone steps; in a dark corner opposite that are shelves of blue, red, and green pots and urns in arrangement. In the last corner is another door.

It might seem spacious, comfortable, at least compared to the hall - if you wouldn't likely be entering unto so-many walking and blackened skin-bound skeletons.

There'll be more of those and/or mummy-creatures on the descending stairway behind aforementioned door.]

[dominateartimus]

[After getting past the first wave of enemies and traveling past room with the ladder, Xander was on edge. He wasn't bothered by the monstrosities' appearances, but was rather paranoid of something happening to the rest of the group. Yet, he was rather blood thirsty for more destruction against the creatures in this place and it was a way to vent some frustration about his ineptitude regarding the situation on the network. It wasn't healthy by any means, but it helped to quiet the voice in his head.

His grip tightened on the throwing knife he had summoned prior to entering the catacombs. Instead of using it for its intended purposes, he had opted to using it as a normal blade. Sure, he had his flames but that would be harmful by being a hazard to his allies and would consume precious oxygen in the room. He decided on disappearing in to the shadows and dropping down from the ceiling on top of one, taking it down with him while driving the knife in to it. It was a reckless move, but it gave the group a slight advantage.]

[detectivetroll]

[It was a really reckless move. Nick'd been keeping an eye on Xander, when he wasn't sticking close to Anthony, and it's starting to worry him a little.

He circles around, coming in at Xander's back.]

You don't have to take them all on yourself.

[dominateartimus]

[As Nick approaches, he can notice that Xander was making sure that the monster under him wasn't going to move. It was excessive and a bit overkill with what he was doing, but he didn't seem to care that he was getting himself dirty by getting up and personal with them. It takes him a moment for him to realize that Nick was talking to him and turns his head to face the homicide detective. His blue eyes were shining with a dark expression and a chuckle escapes him.]

I know I don't have to, but I'll be all right. They can't kill me. Even if they tried.

[He laughs again and turns his attention back to the creature under him, scanning over the decayed body, wondering what else he can break.]

[detectivetroll]

[...yeah, that isn't any less worrying. They may be undead monsters, but Nick's still unsettled by that laughter, and the amount of enjoyment Xander's apparently getting from this.

He knows this place affects them negatively, and he's starting to think it's gotten to Xander.]

It's down, man, enough.

[Nick punctuates that by grabbing Xander's arm, trying to pull him away.]

The Second Room and Hall - Areas 5 and 6

[scramasax]

[Like the room above it, this room is square, and not terribly cramped. You'll be opening it in all likelihood to the sounds of popping torches, running water, and chirping. That last would not be Vermedi - they'd be little plunger-footed dog-scorpion things. Step too close to one and it's chirping might get flustered - it might even take a sting at you! If it does so, however, its stinger will bounce straight off you and it'll wander squishily elsewhere.

The water-sound comes from a fountain and basin in one corner, the fountain situated at the bottom of a stone slab in the wall carved like a gargoyle. The "water", meanwhile, smells terribly polluted - and if you get any on your hands, it'll feel greasy, sticky.

There's another door in this room behind a heavy and simple decorative tapestry, which will take you to another hall occupied by shamblers ending in another door.]

The Third Room and Hall - Area 7 and 8

[scramasax]

[The next room is a snug, horizontal-lozenge-shaped study or small library, which you're likely going to need to clear out a couple more beasts from in order to investigate comfortably.

There are bookshelves lining each of its lengthwise ends, tidy and respectably stocked. You'll find very, very few of the texts are in any identifiable language - others are in Latin, some in either of the languages represented feature illustrations and diagrams, and some even seem to provide translations or labels between each other.

The high stacks of texts and yellow papers on the table at the middle of the room are of the same natures. The table is ringed with tall, thin lit candles with the books and papers at the center or under them - for an effect like an altar.

Across the room is an opening to another hallway, and in front of the table is a tile on which lie three urns - red, blue, and green - filled with liquid. Spill or move one and a mahogany bookshelf will slide to hide the hallway; keeping the tile weighted will hold it open.]

[chalicejoker]

So Hajime's been tanking through a lot of this mess. He's been throwing aside skeletons, hitting mummies with energy blasts, and, at least at first, having himself a grand old monster-fighting time. His monster instincts like fighting other monsters, and he so rarely gets to indulge them.

And it's starting to wear on him. The monsters they're fighting aren't right. Different from him, somehow. By the time they make it to this room, his grasp on reality is...tenuous. And those monster instincts of his? Part of the reason he never indulges those is because they tend to get carried away and want to rampage and destroy everything on a good day? Now? The monster's freaked-out and convinced he's surrounded by things he doesn't even have words for. (Is it cosmic Lovecraftian horror exterminators? Do they have Raid? Are they finally onto him?)

Hajime abruptly gives a monster howl of rage as he finally loses his internal battle of keep it together, Aikawa, and he rushes at the nearest target. It might actually be a chair. It might be another monster. It might actually be another one of his group. He just doesn't know, and at the moment, he's too wound up and freaked out to care.

[ursoreckless]

This has not been a good time. Sure, Shou was getting in some practice at shooting things, but he was still just your average squishy human with no real powers except the power to look good. He followed in the wake of the others, trading jokes while shooting at things that could get hit and staying out of the way of things that couldn't, and he was doing a good job, but then Hajime was acting weird.

He knew that Hajime had a few issues with his whole bugman instincts. As much as he teased him about the whole 'Lord of Bugman', Shou was only doing it to keep Hajime grounded in being just human wearing a particularly weird suit. When he started to get twitchy, Shou started to pay attention to Hajime more so than his surroundings.

So when he went off the deep end, Shou was right there to smack him on the head with the flat of his hand. "Snap outta it!"

[chalicejoker]

It was going to take more than a little smack from a human to get Hajime to snap out of it. Shou did, however, succeed in getting his attention. There was another monster howl, and Hajime took a swing at Shou. The swing was sloppy--either Hajime realized what was going on at some level and deliberately tried to miss Shou, or he was hallucinating badly enough that he saw something just above Shou's head.

[ursoreckless]

Well. That could have gone better. Shou jumped back, looking around for another way to distract Hajime. At least he got him focusing again, even if that was to try to hit him.

"Snap outta it! I don't wanna be a smear of grease."

The Last Room - Area 9

[scramasax]

[Floorspace-wise, this last room is small. However, its ceiling is high, proportionally grand, like a very-miniature cathedral of its own - above head level are shelves or platforms of enormous urns in dark and rich colors.

You might not even look for those, however - in fact, you'll probably not even look first at any monsters that might be getting to their feet below them. The candlelit shrine made of gold bearing a design like a skewed and stylized star, after all, wasn't made to be overlooked.]

EXITING - With a "boss fight" in Area 3

[scramasax]

[Hopefully you've all held up nicely. Take your time and chat and rest on your way out; fighting nearly anything in here is liable to paranormally fry your nerves a bit whether or not you take any damage.

All the more important that you rest up, as from the top of the stairs leading back up to the first room, you'll hear something shaking the floor and roaring in a dinosaurish fashion.

Go for the eyes.]

OUTSIDE - While and after returning to the main church

[scramasax]

[Thanks, chaps. It was a fun night. 8')]