408/That Local Flavor

That Local Flavor
Date of Scene:	13 August 2014
Location:	The Secret World <TSW>
Synopsis:	Trying to find the high ground for a look around brings our heroes nothing but draug and misery.
Cast of Characters:	Kotone Yamakawa, 40, Staren, 151, Riva Banari, 513, Wuyin Tsai, Inga, 543
Tinyplot:	Dawning of an Endless Night

---

Wuyin Tsai has posed:
Kingsmouth has not changed appreciably in the span of days. The dead still roam the streets, with slowly-increasing numbers. The draug continue to linger at the beaches and the docks, slowly encroaching on the land-dwellers' town. The cloud of fog at the edges of the island remains, a roiling wall of grey with streaks of curious black rippling behind the surface.

Two things have changed for the better.

The first is the entrance to Agartha, the Hollow Earth, with its balmy, honey-scented air wafting out of the shimmering golden portal beneath the Earth's surface. The clearing next to Boone's camp has had a signpost added to it, constructed from old boards and rusted nails, facing the overgrown longship that juts from the rock -- the first place people step in this strange place. A map has been pinned to it, with red circles and arrows giving direction from the portal to the less-crowded safe haven on the other side of town.

The second is that haven. The Kingsmouth Volunteer Fire Department is a two-story building, with the bottom floor functioning as a berth for the (missing) fire engine and the upper containing a kitchen, a bunkroom, and a largely-empty commons. The building is surrounded by a fence of bone, a strange sort of ward that seems to be keeping the undead fire fighters from crossing into the safety of it. The locals don't tend to go near it; none have come to see yet, anyway.

Having rigged up a rope ladder to the landing outside the exterior entrance to the second floor, Wuyin sits on top of the fire department's roof. He's looking out over the town with a pair of binoculars, and scanning the horizon out to sea now and again. He doesn't really like what he's seeing.

The sun is going down. Everything seems quiet -- at least, for now.

Eleanor Lamb (40) has posed:
    She's certainly not a local, but Miss Lamb has a vested interest in coastal towns, for any case. They tend to be places where Sisters show up. What's more, the people here seemed like they could use a nice, helpful person who just happened to have More Powers Than Normal. She never likes to call herself a superhero after all. Tha'ts presumtuous.

    That said, Miss Eleanor's dragged a nice, safe generator out here to help bring limited power to the fire department when needed, and has been bringing foodto the Seer In Charge when need be. Tonight, she's curled up over in a corner, helping sort through IDs and wallets of the people she's been helping out. By freeing them of their undead torment, at least. These people have names and families, after all.

Riva Banari has posed:
Thankfully, electricity and weater aren't something the fire department generally lacks.

Getting that slight edge of zombie smell out of the upholstery, however, might be a little harder. Riva brings in another crate of supplies, having lost the flip against Wuyin /again/. She suspects chaos shenanigans but still cannot prove anything. She just has no idea how his coin can come up heads sevn times in a row.

Yes, she checked to make sure it wasn't a double headed coin.

Regardless, Riva has also been acting as gobetween and guide for people coming to the area to investigate. Something about it seems to capture people's interests, and for one, Riva is happy for the help.

The motions of the restless dead are endless and unceasing. Riva swears she's killed the same zombie multiple times on occasion. Day is a gray sunless haze, and night a deep, suffocating darkness. There are no sun or stars in Kingsmouth.

Riva will have asked people to keep their flashier toys at home. It's not like people can ship a battleship through the Warpgate and Agartha anyway. Maybe a compact car, if you're really careful and watch how you drive across the branches of the World-Tree.

Riva sets down the crate in the common room of the fire department second floor and collapses once again on the couch, grunting. She's not in her Templar uniform, she is clearly not in the mood to stand out right now. It's not like she's carrying herself with impermeable knightly dignity at the moment anyway. "Ugh, this place is terrible." Riva grouses. "The sooner we can find out the source of the disturbence and get rid of it, the better."

Inga has posed:
The Seer is currently outside the building, moving slowly around the fence, checking her wards and making a few adjustments as necessary. The bone-fence should continue to hold up as long as she continues to channel more of her magic--anima, as Riva and Wuyin say--into it. The bones are clean at least, all flesh cleaned from them before they were inscribed with the runes of protection.

The bent woman stops by a skull, leaning forward on her carved wooden staff to inspect it more closely, eyes widening, going distant as she examines..she is cloaked, a long braid of white hair hanging out from the side of the hood. She leans the staff aside for a moment, pulling a long knife from her belt. She slices a thin line across her palm, then smears it on top of the skull, nodding suddenly with satisfaction. "That will do it," she comments, obviously satisfied.

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    Ainsley has visited a couple of times to make sure that Kingsmouth is not being overrun by the hordes of the undead, so there's already a little area set up in the firehouse on one of the bunks that would have normally been used by the now-undead firefighters. She's currently seated at the edge of the bed, with her hands busy writing notes in the various notebooks she carries around. The studious creature lets her tongue stick out in her distracted state.
    She made a working map of the current threat zone a while back and made sure to pin it to a corkboard she found in a storage closet. It's labeled meticulously and there's even minor cartography corrections on it. It labels houses that haven't been checked yet, regions that display larger-than-manageable numbers of undead, and what little areas of the island's wilderness that she's actually scouted.
    It may or may not have been used during the course of investigation by Wuyin or Riva or even Inga. Maybe Eleanor? Ainsley made sure to label the map itself as 'Tactical Map - Please Update As Needed' so it's probably been editted innumerable times by now.
    Ainsley's dressed for the region but also has a heated blanket wrapped around her shoulders. Being cold-blooded is pretty painful in a cold fisherman's island like this one. She's got her daggers with her, as well as the longsword, the three weapons carefully arranged on the mattress for regular maintenance to ensure they don't grow dull, scabbards not far from them.
    It's also good to have them in arm's reach in case something attacks.

    She seems to be keeping to herself, for the most part.

Finna (513) has posed:
    With the threat of undead and other things seemingly omnipresent in the Multiverse - if it's not Lordran, then it's Kingsmouth apparently - Finna has started getting a little fed up with the restless dead and whatever supposed to keep the Multiverse from being a craphole. THEY ARE DOING A BAD JOB.

    And so it is that a strange creature lands on the Firefighter's HQ roof not far from Wuyin. A... fox? A white-furred arctic fox? It looks that way, maybe. Kinda. The overall body shape is right, but the tail's a fuzzy, tapering sort of lizard tail, and foxes generally don't have feathered white wings.

    The tiny creature trill-yips once at Wuyin in what's CLEARLY a questioning tone. Wuyin'll get that impression, anyways. What's going on here?

Michael Knight (543) has posed:
A black, brand new 1982 Trans-Am rolls into town. "Michael, I'd prefer it if we limited our visits to this world. The passage here was fraught with all sorts of extraneous data. I'll be scrubbing my sensors for a week. And another thing--those passages were absolutely treacherous, even with my processing capabilities. I don't think it was intended for automotive use."

"Relax, buddy. You made it through in one piece," he says. "Just keep your scanners peeled."

"I always do," replies KITT. "Speaking of which, I'm picking up a number of anomalies here, and an unknown energy source approximately seven hundred yards away."

"Well, let's go check it out."

Staren has posed:
    Staren steps out of Agartha -- wearing normal clothes instead of armor this time -- then takes to the sky on transparent orange energy wings. /Best/ magic item. The journey is somewhat disconcerting though. Nothing but fog as far as he can see, the only evidence of movement the claims of his inertial navigation system. Fortunately, the technology is accurate, and he comes in for a landing on the roof. Finna and Wuyin get nods. "So, no changes yet?"

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa has been doing what she could the people at the police station would be in for a bit of a shock when Kotone showed up with supplies. It wasn't huge but several stocked medkits, and two crates of MRS were what she delived. They seemed to be military grade but there were no marking to hint at where they came from and it's best not to ask, right? Either way she's made her way through town dispaching zombies that got in the way no finally having made her way to the hide out at the fire department. She's also got some plan or another to help out with setting up shop here in the fire house.

She makes for the firehall still with some supplies on her for there, but the XCOM issue battle rifle is out and ready, and a pair of townie zombies get pumped full of reaper rounds as she makes her final approach to the fireall. So she might be spotted by someone whose on the roof or outside as she closes, she does spot Inga and makes for her. Also the sounds of her gunshots would be more than enough to announce her arrival.

Wuyin Tsai has posed:
That is definitely a fox, Wuyin thinks at first. Then he sees the tail, and the wings, and acknowledges that it's trying to ask him a question.

That is definitely not a fox, Wuyin thinks.

"Nothing I can see," he replies to Staren. "Some shapes in the water. Bigger Draug, perhaps...?" He shrugs his shoulders, and then looks to... the fox. Fox-/thing/. "This is Kingsmouth. The inhabitants died en masse from something, and arose as the walking dead. At the same time, these creatures, the Draug, dragged themselves out of the ocean. And you," he finishes, staring with a brow raised, "are not a fox-bird-lizard-thing at all, are you?"

A man, supposedly the 'last of the cowboys' and dressing the part, watches Michael and KITT as they depart the Agartha portal. He doesn't stop them, but he does tip his hat and go back to keeping watch. On their way, they'll clearly pass a barricaded police station, with the fences shored up with cars and debris, rifles tracking the zombies that try and throw themselves on the car.

This almost certainly goes badly for the zombies.

There's a man on the roof of the station near the sharpshooters. He waves, though it's hard to tell if it's in greetings or him beckoning. It is very easy to pass right on by.

Eleanor Lamb (40) has posed:
    Miss Lamb huffs a little bit as she shuffles over to the others, wiping off her messy hands with a washrag. "I really do not like any of this. It's to be obvious, but I have issues with Things In The Water in particular, I suppose. Call it my nature."
    She smiles over at Inga, and hands over a wrapped granola bar to her friend the seer. "The girls say hello. You seem to have made an impression."

Inga has posed:
Inga flinches at the sound of gunshots. While she recognizes what the sound is by now, she does not think she will ever get used to it. "So noisy," she grumbles, shaking her head as the wound she'd inflicted on her hand reknits itself in only a few moments. Satisfied with the bone-fence, Inga looks upward toward the roof, where there is apparently a gathering. She leans on her staff and gives Wuyin a 'really? on the roof?' sort of look. How was she supposed to get up there, hmm?

Kotone arrives, and Inga turns toward her, nodding her head in greeting. "Kotone, I thought that might have been your gun I heard," she says. At least the word isn't too strange.

Eleanor soon approaches as well, with an offering of something no less! Inga takes it, raising her eyebrows in confusion. She crinkles it between her hands, looking at the shiny plastic. "Thank you...what is it? Heh, tell them I said hello as well. I would like to visit again soon certainly--they seemed to enjoy braiding my hair," she says, indicating that her braid has a few ribbons in it."

"Mmm, since there are so many of us about perhaps we should venture out and try to learn more about what is happening here. Not all the locals are dead--or even undead--We should endevour to speak with them," she adds.

Inga looks up to the roof then, calling; "What do you say? Shall we go try to speak to some of the townspeople?"

Finna (513) has posed:
    With another quiet yip of acknowledgement, the creature hops up on Wuyin's head, licks his nose, and then leaps over Staren to land past him. Except... when the creature lands, it's a woman with a fox tail and ears, dressed in an outfit of sewn leathers that's DEFINITELY not the local fashion. All in all, it screams 'huntress.' So does the bow she's got slung around her body, and the quiver of arrows.

    "I am and I'm not!" She casts a glance over her shoulder at Staren. "You lead quite a strange life. Undead here, undead there... is danger your middle name?"

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    Ainsley sucks in a breath, and then stands up. She gathers up her supplies for a little recon trip, just like she did the first time she showed up here. She doesn't seem to think about asking the others whether they want to go or not. She just picks a nearby window to climb out of and onto a rooftop. Once there, she used her vantage to scout the nearby buildings and moves from roof to roof with care and slow movements until she finds a spot where she can climb down without being accosted by the undead.

    Then, and only then, does she plot a course to the lighthouse she spotted on the map earlier. A town with the geography this one does is bound to have a lighthouse, and a lighthouse is a place of significance during heavy fog. It could be worth checking out.

    She tries to avoid attracting too much attention from the undead, but there's only so much she can manage on that front.

Michael Knight (543) has posed:
Michael Knight and KITT pull into the police station, the latter's engine rumbling quietly before coming to a stop. "KITT, wait here."

"Shall I go into surveillance mode, Michael?"

Michael chuckles. "Not now," he says. "I'm just gonna go upstairs and have a chat with that cop on the roof. See what's up with all of these..." He jerks a thumb behind him at the trail of undead townies littering the ground. "Zombies," he eventually utters with some difficulty. Multiverse newbie coming through! Michael steps outside of KITT, the door closing after him. He then ascends the stairs of the police station to speak with Deputy Andy. "Hey there," he says.

Eleanor Lamb (40) has posed:
    Eleanor smiles over at Inga, and helpfully unwraps the granola bar and lets her figure it out from there. She also flips at one of the long dangly ribbons. "They don't really get to do that with other people, no. I mean, I have short hair and so do many other of the ladies that come over, so." A little shrug. "That's life. And I wouldn't mind meeting some living people for once. Far too many dead and awful things out there for my taste."

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa says "Inga, so I see the fort's held down. I brought a few things mostly some rations and such. Given the station is more in need of medical supplies. Still I brought a few things. You also seem to be caching on better too."

She smiles honestly at inga then looks over to Miss Lamb.

"Hello, Miss and I think all the help here is needed. It's beyond words to see something out of a zombie movie, or Lovecraft come to life."

She also takes sight of Wu as well it seems things are holding pretty well here.

Staren has posed:
    Staren shrugs, and sighs. "I hate that we're getting nowhere with this... Usually during a zombie outbreak, more stuff happens, and we get more clues about who's behind it. The mad scientist bragging about his experiment, the corrupt businesswomen using it as a distraction while she tries to take over the world, the necromancer shouting about how now everyone has to bow down to him or else... at the very least, a prophecy about a chosen one. But this time... /nothing/." he shakes his head.

    Then he looks to Finna. "So, what are you?" And then it's on Wu's head. "I, um..." and then it's the woman from yesterday. "Oh, it's you." He shakes his head again, "No, but... interesting or strange might be?" He turns to face her. "I tried retreating and leaving the multiverse to itself. But I got lured out, and now..." He holds his hands out, gesturing to indicate this place. "I gotta help. So many people I can help. It's /way/ more meaningful than fighting a pointless war. And I see so many interesting things along the way..." he smiles, "Meeting interesting people and learning more about the Multiverse. And the more I know, the more I can do. Until one day..." He pauses as memories flash through his mind.

    A cop trying to fight an obvious super flying over the street -- the same cop lying in a bed, doctors shaking their heads, a crying little girl and a sad teenager looking suspiciously like her.

    A mechanical man, nailed to a gate with a spike through his head. The same man, sized up, siphoning energy from phase rock while /everyone/ tries to damage him. The flying city-sized mechanical 'dragon', the news of all those killed... and at last the news that the threat was over.

    A greyed-out Twilight Sparkle, ignoring all reason and slamming the door in his face so she can sulk alone.

    Recieving the news that the mission failed. Inspecting the bodies of his friends and realizing he will never speak to them again.

    Staring in horrific realization at the sky of a war-torn Ravnica as the mighty dragon tackles the man-turned-monster into a portal, never to return.

    "One day..." Staren blinks and shakes his head. "One day, well... One day... I'll be able..." he frowns. "I'll be able to do something about more stuff, alright?" For some reason, telling people he barely knows that one day he'll be able to step up and be the hero even when noone else is able to just sounds... silly.

Inga has posed:
"Well they are a delight, I'm more than happy to spend time with them," she informs Eleanor, smiling warmly.

Inga looks back to Kotone, her smiling turning wry. "I suppose so, though I do not think I will ever get use to the noise of those things. They are very effective however. Amazing, really. Such things must really have changed warfare..." Inga trails off, waving a hand. "Have you two not met? Look at me introducing people. Eleanor, meet Kotone. Kotone, Eleanor--a fellow wise woman," she explains.

Something catches her eye then, and she watches Ainsley roof hop, blinking. "Hmm...should she be going off alone?" she asks no one in particular.

Riva Banari has posed:
Riva took a lot of time to transfer her own notes to the tactical map provided. It's scribbly. Riva's been doing a lot of running around and attempting to not die when she isn't engagingin in multiversla hijinx. However, this area is the limit of her knowledge.

Riva gets up and fiddles nervously with a couple objects near Eleanor. "I think by the time this is done you're not going to be alone, Miss Lamb." Riva replies. She looks over to Inga and nods. "We should have enough firepower here to handle most of the problems. I think." She pauses. "I hope. There's still survivors, most of them at the police station. I have marks for most of the others I've seen."

She taps at the map, and looks up, thinking for a moment as she looks around. "Where'd Ainsley go?" She suddenly asks.

Finna (513) has posed:
    "Creatures fromt he sea and a strange... plague that raises the fallen as hungry dead..." Finna shivers, but quiets to listen to Staren's explanation.... "You've led me into another mess..." She frowns at Staren. FROWNS.

    But the expression lingers very shortly indeed, since she doesn't seem a tually UPSET about this. "If whatever did this spreads..."

Inga has posed:
Inga looks to Riva, smiling. "Shield-Maiden Riva," she greets, looking over at the map. "I have gone out some, but I have not ventured far to be honest. I am...concerned about going far on my own, even if you say I am, uh...well nevermind. Shall we explore this way?" she asks, pointing toward the Lighthouse. "I believe that is the direction Ainsley is heading," she adds, looking to Eleanor.

...Girl power team?

Wuyin Tsai has posed:
Wuyin blinks. He turns around, and... "A shapeshifter," he remarks aloud. "You have chosen an interesting time to come here. I do not suppose you are with one of the larger groups, then?" He glances at Staren. "A friend of yours?"

He turns back, looking down and nodding. "Certainly. I think we have enough people to make the journey less perilous." He raises a hand to wave at Kotone, and asides in Eleanor's direction, "They seem to have issues with /us/, too. Mutual distaste."

Wuyin glances at the people up top. "Coming?" He hops off the rooftop, dropping two stories and landing lightly on his feet in the yard. It doesn't seem to have fazed him.

---

Deputy Andy is tired-looking, but alert enough. He calls down, "Hey. You've got a working car," he observes, in a questioning tone. His accent is local, and heavy, but not thick enough to be impenetrable. "You picked a wicked bad time to come into town, mister. We haven't gotten anyone back out. Not since the fog came in, anyway..." He frowns, looking kind of disturbed, and then shakes it off. "Um, anyway, if you see anyone else breathing, could you tell 'em here's the safest place in town? There's been a couple'a people passing through, and we tell 'em all the same."

Ainsley doesn't run into trouble from the zombies if she doesn't start any. Getting onto the rooftops will get her down to the waterfront; they're close enough together that if she's acrobatic, she can hop between them, and none of the zombies seem to be able to get that high. Once she gets there, though, she'll see that the high point out there -- a water tower, it looks ike -- has a long, barren road all the way to it, with sand and scrub grass on either side. It's very, very open -- and it looks like there are a few draug on the coast nearby. It /is/ a good vantage point, though...

Staren has posed:
    Staren tilts his head at Finna. "/I've/ /led/ you?" He looks back to Wuyin and shrugs. "She was there last night... I don't think I actually got her name..." He starts to look back at her, but then... Wuyin's taking off! "Where are you going? Coming where?" Staren hops down off the building. "You said not to bring our shiny toys, so I didn't bring the armor and weapons... ah well, I've still got some others..."

Eleanor Lamb (40) has posed:
    Elle smiles at Kotone, and murmurs. "Eleanor Lamb, Leftentant with the Union. Introductions will have to wait though, it would seem the secretary is off on her own for some reason." She smiles happily, and winks at the Delivery Girl. "That said, I think you're going to be a great help. Come on though, our guide is already leaving." She happily follows Wuyin, hopping out the window with a rather acrobatic slide down the side of the Building.

    Though, she's got something new up her sleeve today, or rather down her satchel. She happily slings a hand inside and pulls a rather... heavier than usual wrench. It's not a one handed wrench like Uncle Jack had, but rather a heavy, two handed industrial sized spanner. This she merrily props up on her shoulder, and follows along.

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    'A few' draug is more than 'zero' draug, thus making Ainsley's trip, to what is OBVIOUSLY a water tower now that she has seen it, an impossibility. She makes a face at the sight when she peeks over the edge over another rooftop, and siiighs at the fact that she has to rebuild the Thaumostatic Harness. Otherwise she could just, like... hover over to the damn thing, or at least make a token effort at it. Flying too high would put her right in the fog layer overhead. On a cursory glance, it doesn't seem there's any obvious way across via boat, especially not with a water-based monster horde in the way.
    She rubs at one of her cheeks, and looks down at street level, where the majority of the undead happen to be. She looks around for buildings with shuttered windows or curtains she can use to conceal herself while she goes through them looking for people or anything she can use.

    Deciding against that, she sits down on the edge of a rooftop and dangles her feet down. She waits for some of the others to show up while she eyes the sand-dusted road for a while. "Might have to brute force that," she murmurs to herself, uneasily.

Michael Knight (543) has posed:
Michael Knight smiles at Andy. "Oh, you don't know the half of it," he says, looking back down at KITT as the Trans-Am's electronic eye scans left and right. "But believe me, I'm here to help. If I see anybody, I'll point them in this direction. Stay safe, officer." He nods to Andy, then heads back downstairs and gets back in, starting the engine up.

"I'm impressed, Michael. I believe that was the first time you've spoken to a police officer without me getting impounded."

"The day's still young, buddy. Now, come on. Let's head for that energy source--and keep an eye out for any life signs."

The car makes a decent pace as it heads for the warded fire department, weaving in and out of the lanes to avoid parked and abandoned vehicles. "I'm detecting some leaving this building up ahead," says KITT. "It appears to be a fire department. Shall we say hello?"

"Let's," says Michael, pulling the car around so as to be parallel with the departing party. He rolls the window down. "You guys townies?" He eyes them. "Guessing not..."

Finna (513) has posed:
    "Oh, haven't you gotten the idea yet? I'm no enemy!" Finna remarks brightly, eyes full of vigor and familiarity. "Come on, who was it that said she'd run through that trap-filled fortress to end the plague? The name is Finna... Finna Snowdancer. Not from around here, I'm afraid.... AT ALL." She shrugs Wuyin's way, all while sprouting a grin full of mischief. "... Bt there's thing I want to see, and things I don't want to see... prime example of the latter: THIS mess spreading. Sounds like a plague."

Inga has posed:
Inga looks to Wuyin, nodding. "Lead the way then Wuyin," she says. She will likely lag behind, unless...

Inga looks to Staren, raising her eyebrows. She really doesn't want to have to ask.

Inga /really/ needs a horse. Or something.

Then, a car pulls up. Inga leaps back like its some horrible monster. She's never seen those things in motion before and is a bit freaked out. They move so quickly! She reaches to touch the blade of her knife, though she doesn't draw it from her belt. It's more a gesture of warding than anything.

Riva Banari has posed:
Riva seems reluctant to leave the safety of the place at first, but sighs, drawing herself up and steeling herself as everyone seems intent to follow up on Ainsley. Not that she wouldn't... Just maybe in another minute or two. "One day you're going to have to explain that 'shield-maiden' thing to me, Inga." Riva replies to her, walking along to screen them against possible zombie and/or draug encounters.

Then KITT rolls up. "Holy cow!" Riva says, clearly surprised. "Is that a Trans-Am?" She asks, leaning in to peer at it. "Wow, loaded, too. Hey, um... No, we're not from the town. You might want to keep an eye out, lots of zombies and worse around. Getting hard to drive with all the clutter."

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa gets a grim look on her fgce and she nods to Inga.

"Yes the gun and it's kind changed how wars are fought heavily."

She thinks it's not bes to overload Inga with tales of war so brutal she doubts even a Valkyrie would find much if any glory in.

"Hello, Eleanor."

She moves to offer her a hand if she'll take it

"She should be able to hable it she's stronger than I am."

Wuyin Tsai has posed:
Deputy Andy gives Michael a wave when he takes off, then resumes his position on watch. He doesn't look any less bothered by this whole affair.

KITT remains unimpounded.

---

"I believe missiles are counter-productive when the sound will draw more of the dead," Wuyin replies. "Something less noticeable is better, I think." He looks over at Finna. "I could tell. It might be a plague; it might not be. It is definitely spreading. We are looking to stop it. You are welcome along if your goals conveniently go with ours."

He heads out to the edge of the bone fence, nodding at the rest of the group. He's a little concerned about Inga's impairment -- but less so when the car pulls up. He seems impressed by it. "Well, that was convenient," he mutters. He lifts a hand and raises his voice a little more. "We aren't from around here, no. We were about to head to the peninsula that way," he points, "to draw off some sea monsters for a friend of ours. Care to help?"

Eleanor Lamb (40) has posed:
    Eleanor smiles a bit, and is keeping the slower pace with Inga. Sorry, she's just happy to be using something bigger today. She even swapped out her gene mods to accomidate the heavier wrench! Hooray.

    The Trans Am gets a little blink of surprise from Elle though as she holds up on her escort of the Seer. "Goodness, that's a fancy car." A little snicker of breath as several other people freak out about it.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa looks at the car along with Riva and she goes wide eyed.

"Yes, yes it's a Trans-Am! I never seen one up close before! Oh man a car that operates without any intergrated computer systems."

No Kitt she has no idea just yet. She looks like sort of college girl in some very almost sci-fi clothing. She's also got a nasty looking assault rifle across her backl.

"No we're out of towner and that cat's sexy, as I said I not actually seen an actual trans-Am"

She looks at Staren for a mment then back to Wu, she's glad to not doing this alone.

"

Inga has posed:
Inga smiles to Riva. "It is a simple explaination. A shield-maiden is a woman warrior. I suppose many are shield-maidens...but you remind me of one in particular. I shall tell you the story sometime," she says.

As Wuyin moves up to talk to the man in the 'car' (such an innocuous word for something so terrifying!) Inga moves out from behind the bone fence to start walking. Best she get a head start.

Seeing Finna gives her pause, her eyes widening. "A fox spirit!" she breathes, then bows her head to the creature.

Staren has posed:
    Staren blinks. "I didn't say you were an enemy... Nice to meet you then, I'm Staren." He follows after Wuyin. "Well, I don't have many missiles on me today anyway..." And then: CAR! "That /is/ convenient!" He glances back to Inga. "It's just a car... I mean a machine... I mean a thing for moving people fast. Like a manmade horse, kind of. No, a horseless carriage, I suppose. See, someone's inside driving it..." He points at Michael, then looks at him. "So who are you, anyway? You from the Syndicate here about the job offer? Wanna fight some sea zombies?"

Riva Banari has posed:
"Oh. That makes sense!" Riva nods. "I'd love to hear the story sometime." She smiles to Inga, and then sees her reaction to the car. Hmm. "This is one of those self-propelled carriages that we were mentioning before."

Michael Knight (543) has posed:
Michael Knight beams--and if KITT could beam, he'd be doing the same thing. "Heya, gentlemen," he says with a nod. Then, with a smile. "And ladies. The name's Knight--Michael Knight. I'm with the Union and looking to help out."

"Ahem." A disembodied voice clears its throat.

"Oh, and, uh... this is KITT." He gently pats the door of the car.

"Short for Knight Industries Two Thousand," the AI elucidates. "Pleased to make your acquaintances. You'll find I'm more than equipped to handle the rigors of this particular environment, undead or otherwise."

Finna (513) has posed:
    "But what connection might the.... draugs, you called 'em, have with it? What makes the dead walk around here...? Where I'm from, it's usually nasty magic or badly done funerals."

Finna (513) has posed:
    Naturally, Finna's following along with Staren and Wuyin! What else would she be doing?

Inga has posed:
Inga looks to Staren, an eyebrow rising as he tries to explain, a grin appearing as he gets a little flustered. "Yes, I can see that..." she says, still eyeing the car distrustfully.

Inga frowns to Riva somewhat, her shoulders slumping. "You are going to suggest I ride in this self-propelled carriage, aren't you?" she says, her voice resigned.

Inga look to Michael then, nodding her head to him in greeting. "I am Inga--IT TALKS!" she then exclaims, stepping back again. Her eyes narrow suspiciously. "Is this another of those...Cyber..tronians?" she asks, remembering her conversation with Blurr.

Wuyin Tsai has posed:
"Nice to meet you, Michael, KITT. I am Wuyin. These are... well, they'll make their own introductions, I am sure." He gestures vaguely. "If you're with the Union, tune in to... this frequency," he pulls out his phone and shows him the display for a second, "to keep in touch. I'd better hurry." He starts down the street at a jog. He doesn't want to leave Ainsley hanging; he'll let Staren handle the, uh, convincing-Inga-into-the-metal-dragon thing.

"The fog is the only connection we have thus far," he explains as he starts off, speaking over his shoulder to Finna. "It was at the start of it. We are hoping to find the source and put an end to it, though it is slow-going. The undead don't seem to be contagious, though; it isn't a disease in that sense, at least." Wuyin's news is hardly comforting.

Eleanor Lamb (40) has posed:
    "No, I'm not expecting so. Most of them do not have 'drivers'." Eleanor snorts genially, and holds out her hand to Mr. Knight. "Eleanor. It's nice to see a living face out here, sir." She does tap the business end of the wrench on the pavement though. "And as much as I'd like to continue introductions, I believe Ainsley is going to need assistance, so." She bows a little, and then scoots her way down Belmont, moving at a decent clip despite the giant spanner.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa pauses at the moment at Kitt she looks to them for a moment. She stare for a moment.

"An AI? ... I'm impressed it seems my comment about you was in error Kitt. I am sorry about that."

She doesn't mind the idea of going for a ride.

"Same general idea Inga."

She tyiolts her head fo r a moment.

"Kotone Yamakawa, and I'm a freelancer I techinally am a mechanic and vechile designer but ... well I keep falling into jobs like this."

Kotone's also moving at a good clip too all things considered.

Staren has posed:
    Staren blinks at the cough. He leans to look in the window and see who else is in there... and then looks slightly taken aback when Michael explains. He stares out into space for several seconds as he looks up Michael's Union profile, then: "They put an AI in a /car/?!" He's just... what? Why would you do that? Why not in a robot? He stares for a moment, then decides well, he's heard stranger things. Calm again, he smiles and extends a hand, offering a handshake to Michael. "Staren. The Union's problem researcher." He blinks, then looks slightly annoyed at a thought. "I mean /Researcher/ of /Problems./"

    Beat. Calm again. "We still don't know why the dead are rising here. It's proving a difficult problem to research, though."

    Wuyin takes off. Staren glances around at the party. He reaches into his bag and pulls out a magitech staff that looks too long to fit inside. Draining his spirit battery a little, he casts Speed Up on the party (does it work on cars? Let's find out!), then runs after Wuyin.

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    Ainsley stares out at the draug. Her head slowly turns to survey the surroundings, content to stay where she is until the coast is clear of any potential Draug violence. Then her head stops. She stares at something in an alley. A slumped figure, long since deceased, long since overtaken by the draug. It still writhes with the last vestiges of sea life.

    Her mind travels to an odd thought. 'Who were these people...?'

    And then her face tightens as a horrid BUZZ fills her consciousness, and a compulsion hits her. The only way to get knowledge burned into her brain OUT is getting it onto paper.

    She turns and slams the Armor Journal against the rooftop, wrenching it open with clawing and desperate fingers, like a mad poet having just gained masterful inspiration.

    She mutters what she writes as she does so. This doesn't come out as a single language, but as a mix of them, all fighting for dominance and making it impossible for anyone but her to understand the whole of it.

    "... writhing lamprey nests..."

    "... bubbled in his brain...

    "... /sores and wriggling growths/..."

    "... out of one body cavity to be eat by something hiding in another..."

    And the last part she practically stabs into the paper, because her mind doesn't interpret it as nuanced words but as sounds that she should never hear and wants to reject as quickly as possible. She hisses out the sound--

    "Draug-draug-draug-draug-draug!"

    -- and she grows still, staring at what she just wrote in absolute bewilderment.

    "Hmm."
    Despite the intended neutrality of the sound, it is more unsettled and shaky than she can suppress.

Finna (513) has posed:
    "A FOG that causes... oh heavens." Finna shivers, but then catches sight of Inga's actions towards her. The young woman blinks... then casts a sly, mischevious smile over INga's way. No reason to dispel her misconceptions, that might be fun to play with later!

    But seeing with Wuyin now, she has little to say. Her ears turn about left and right though... and she takes a good look at the talking car. ... a VERY good look. She has IDEAS bubbling there!

    "...If the draug come from the waters, perhaps looking IN the water might lead to something."

Riva Banari has posed:
"And it has an AI? That's /awesome/." Riva replies. "You really know how to pick your cars, man. And nice to meet you, KITT! I'm Riva. We're here to um... deal with some problems. Do some exploring. Learn things about how things got this bad and deal with it."

She snerks slightly at Staren's introduction, and shakes her head. "Come on, man. We gotta go catch up to Ainsley. Um..." She looks over to Inga, thinking. "It'll be perfectly safe! You should try it." Riva says. She looks over to Michael and KITT. "It'll be okay, right?" Provided it is, she helps Inga into the car and then bolts off with the help of Staren's speed booster. INCOMING TEMPLAR.

Inga has posed:
Inga sighs in resignation. She cannot believe she is doing this. With Riva's prodding, Inga will climb into the car, glancing nervously to Michael. She reaches out on either side of her, holding on for dear life. "Very well, let us get this over with!"

Michael Knight (543) has posed:
Michael Knight considers. KITT does seat four. "It woudln't be a bad idea, Inga," he says he says to the witch as she climbs in. "KITT here can't crash unless I specifically tell him to." The door shuts after that.

"Michael, I'm noticing increased efficiency of my primary and auxiliary engines. I estimate a substantial increase in speed."

Michael sighs. If only this was the open road! "Well, let's not test that TOO much." He presses his foot against the pedal, then keys into the radio frequency Wuyin mentioned via a console on KITT's advanced dashboard. The car appears to be doing sixty miles an hour, and, true to Michael's word, effortlessly avoiding obstacles--save for zombies. Best to leave the others with as little work as possible. "What's this friend of yours look like, Inga?"

Wuyin Tsai has posed:
The speed boost helps carry the party down the street. They reach the bottom of the hill post-haste. The road winds off to the left, passing what looks like a draug-infested deck with a snack bar and numerous beach umbrellas over round tables. There might be something to check out over there, but... maybe on the way back.

At this speed, the road is mostly clear all the way to the house at the edge of the sea-wall. The wall is at least thirty feet high, with stairs leading up to it and onto a raised walkway running the length down to the aforementioned water tower. There is a cluster of the dead near the side of the house -- Jack & Wendy's Bed and Breakfast, the sign reads, fresh and new -- and what looks like a note pinned to the door.

The draug by the coast are starting to come up towards the road, following the sound of the engine. Wuyin, sprinting along in KITT's wake with the rest of the group, breaks off to intercept them. He flings a handful of fire at the nearest draug, scorching the club-fisted monster's chest with the first and hammering at it with more of the same. It breaks off, coming after him -- but the rest keep going.

Inga has posed:
Inga's knuckles are white as the car moves. Her face however, is looking decidedly green. "Feels... a little like...Agartha.." she comments, trying not to /scream/.

"W-what friend?" she asks, looking to Michael, her eyes wide and obviously terrified.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa is a bit uncertain as they press onwards, she gets the strange bit from Anisley and records the audio for later use here. This is where Kotone picks up the speed running with both the speed boost and her own cyborg body as she moves on ahead after Wuyin and eeryone else. She opens fire at one od the Draug.

"Go back to hell where you belong!"

She snaps off another shot but her shots are not the most aimed things in the world. Still it's enough to hopefully set up the others to do something.

Staren has posed:
    They're going downhill? Even better than running: Staren's shoes include integrated skates! Wheeeeee... Oh hey, draug snack bar. Staren slows down, flings a little insect camera drone out of his bag, then skates on. As long as he's in radio contact with the drone, Dawn will monitor the feed and guide it to search for survivors, or anything odd (say, dead bodies clearly not from this world, signs of recent survivor presense, or the occult.)

    As they approach the sea, there are... draug. Great. Staren stops, transforms his belt into armor (third best magic item) and then rapidly shifts through various elemental alignments as he pelts draug with the armor's plasma cannons, trying to find a weakness. Holy? Electricity? Fire? Come on, /something's/ gotta work, right?

Riva Banari has posed:
Riva runs along the seawall, pulling her pistols. Green bullets of energy arc throguh the air to join the other projectiles intercepting the incoming draugr. "I was afraid of that." Riva grits her teeth. "Doesn't look like too many, though. Hold on for a minute and we should have the way clear! Take them down!" One of them lunges at her with an arm that ends in a blackened coral spike, and drives it into the ground. There is a low rumbling beneath Riva's feet, but she backflips in the nick of time, the ground erupting in water and a clash of impaling spikes a moment later before they withdraw. "Take them out or they'll chase us across half of Kingsmouth!"

Eleanor Lamb (40) has posed:
    Eleanor... has faced similar things. These are far too eerily reminiscent of Splicers for her taste, right up to the horribly mutated bodies. More of a nautical theme though, rather than 'cancer' theme from back home. In either case, the young lady huffs and puffs as a group charge in at her.
    The huffing and puffing if followed by a sudden BURST of air and energy as the Messiah leaps from the pavement off into the matted, tacky sand of the shoreline, the heavy end of her club-like wrench coming around in a graceful arc to SLAM into the crown of one of the draug. "ON IT, RIVA."

Inga has posed:
While on the way to the water tower, Inga forcefully throws herself against the back of the seat, her neck craning to look upward--though her eyes are not seeing. They've gone white as she begins to speak, the fever of a vision seizing her.

"Initiate the seagull scream cadence.

They thought the fishing boat lost. Then it returned to port weeks overdue. It brought no relief. It brought no comfort.

It only brought the fog."

Then she screams like a seagull, harsh and screeching.

The vision leaves her and she slumps back, breathing heavily. "Another...I will remember..." she says breathlessly.

When the car comes to a stop, Inga practically falls out of it. Indeed, she stands, then promptly falls to her knees, her head spinning. "Uuuugh," she groans, reaching for her knife. Draug. Battle has been joined.

Time for some self defense!

Inga stabs herself.

Blood wells from her hand as she moves it in a circular motion, a shining crimson aura surrounding a nearby ally--Eleanor as it would have it. As soon as she can do it again, she uses the same spell on Riva.

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    The sound of thumping feet follows KITT, but doesn't stop for anything. While the draug are focused on the vehicle, the noise, the violence, and the coast was determined to be clear, Ainsley climbed down off her perch and made a break for it. She began to jog the whole way there, her sandals scrunching against her claw-toed feet and her tail whipping back and forth behind her as it corrects her balance like some sort of raptor. She even leans forward a bit, giving her the /appearance/ of more speed.
    Actually, she's going stupidly fast for such a diminutive creature moving on-foot. The daggers she has clutched in her hands are enhancing her speed to the limit that they can handle in combination with her body and mana affinities.

Finna (513) has posed:
    EWWWWW, Draug. Finna's not taken any car rides, but she has somehow managed to keep up with Staren ON FOOT despite his rocket skates things! Which, well...

    "Those things are great! What ARE they?!" She.... doesn't... seem... TERRIBLY bothered by the Draug, all things considered. They get peered at, and Finna sticks her tongue out, making an utterly disgusted face...

    But, on the bright side, she doesn't eem nauseated or terrified by them!

    "THAT... is a draug?!" Seems Staren has the right idea here. She nods approvingly at him, unslinging her bow and drawing a few arrows, which are quickly added to Staren's volley. She proves a very adept shot indeed, sending severla arrows toward what she HOPES are vitals - hearts and heads!

Michael Knight (543) has posed:
Michael Knight winces as Inga stabs herself. He assumes, judging by the handwaving and the 'Unknown Energy Detected' that flashes on one of KITT's displays, that it's magic, and feels somewhat... disappointed that it's not as flashy as he'd like. He hears the chatter on the radio and responds. "Roger," he says tersely. He then stomps on the accelerator, sending the Trans-Am roaring towards a cul-de-sac.

"Michael, please slow down. Michael. Michael!" Screeeeeeech.

A cloud of white smoke erupts from the car's rear wheels, and Michael leans on the horn to be as big a distraction as possible. Zombies and a few draug come rushing from the woodworks to try and get a piece of that Molecular-Bonded Shell.

Wuyin Tsai has posed:
Staren's drone reports some weird interference for a second, but it clears up swiftly -- only for a /different/ kind to kick up as he gets further away. It looks like wireless communication out here is a little tricky to keep consistent. Maybe the fog is doing something to that, too?

Finna doesn't get a response from Wuyin about scouring the sea. He shrugs slightly, as if to say, 'you'll see.' They /are/ going to a higher point...

Draug first, though.

Wuyin moves in close, engaging the draug with his straight sword. He starts cutting it to bloody ribbons, mixing it up with fiery bolts and immolating blasts to keep things fresh. He seems to be nickel-and-diming it to death, and avoiding most of the punishment in the process. He casts lightning towards the group of undead chasing KITT, broiling the cluster that wants to get run over, and pulls a second draug out of the cluster. Now Michael only has to worry about not getting the windshield smashed up by one sea zombie.

Kotone's measly 45% accuracy shooting manages to tag one of the draug, bullets slamming into its chest and one into the jaw. Irritated, the spike-armed thing turns to face her, lumbering forward and stabbing its arm into the ground on the way. The sand underneath her churns for a telltale second, the only warning before some sort of coral spikes shoot up below her. Look out!

Eleanor's graceful wrench-fu clocks one of the other club-armed draug something fierce. Its head cracks, and it actually staggers for a second before it can recover. It spins the big bludgeon-for-an-arm in a wide circle, a surprisingly swift counterattack from the thing with the impacted skull. It might look an awful lot like a... well, we were gonna go with 'nail,' but that isn't really a hammer. We'll go with it anyway.

Staren's plasma cannons have great effect, blasting chunks of bloated, rotting flesh off the creature he's picked up. Swapping elements finds that they don't have any particular weakness, but holy power /does/ seem to hurt them. Arrows do too, as Finna finds out; shafts sprout from the vulnerable flesh as it lumbers forward, spewing bolts of water with enough force to seriously injure right up until it literally eats an arrow. Two on one, it seems, just ain't fair.

Ainsley goes zooming forward at incredible speed. She catches up pretty fast, bypassing the brawl on the beach and spotting the note on the door to the Bed & Breakfast. If she doesn't stop to read it, she can get up the stairs and onto the sea wall without a problem -- a place where there doesn't seem to be any draug or undead at all, all the way out to the water tower on the far end. It looks too small to be a water tower, though there's a ladder that leads up onto a catwalk around the exterior near the top.

And then there's the matter of the woman's body hanging beneath it, dangling from a rope looped carefully around its neck. It looks distressingly recent.

Eleanor Lamb (40) has posed:
    There's a gleam in Eleanor's eyes as that aura overtakes her, and... well. Blood. Mmm.

    The Sister cries out in somewhat glee as she takes another swing at a nearby draug, as she notices the attack coming in a moment too late... just in time for that aura to burst, saving the girl from a great deal of pain, to be sure. She cries out happily, a joyous noise as she plants that spanner in the dirt, swings it in an upwards arc, and attempt to punt one of the smaller draug into the air for Riva.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa is at least not panic prone, right? She does tag one it's annoye and i's turning to face her. she's moving faster than it can, however she leaps with all of her agumented body's power which does get hert out of harms way but dispells any illusion that' she's normaly she lands hard on the ground rolling awy and teies to come back up and fire a shot at it.

Inga has posed:
Inga turns next to using her blood to form spears that fly forward into draug, hoping to help out with the offense a bit. With the melee combatants, she's unlikely to take too much attention!

Then a draug surges forward and whacks her hard with his club-claw, sending her flying to the side. She hits the road with a sickening crunch.

She doesn't get back up.

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    Ainsley halts at sight of the corpse and the combination of the different stories that she's taken in. She looks up at it with some uncertainty...

    She approaches the body, and looks for where the rope is tethered, and seeks out a way to let the body down. She moves with a quick and productive purpose, not wanting the corpse to remain there for very long. And once she has dealt with the sight, she would carefully arrange the body on the concrete frame beneath the tower, folding the woman's hands across her chest.
    "This was a tragedy," she murmurs, gently. "I'm sorry."
    She carefully investigates the details here. It /looks/ like suicide, but that doesn't necessarily mean it /is/. She's not got any medical training to speak of, but she has read enough to at least have a passing knowledge of how to tell the difference.

Staren has posed:
    (OOPS! This armor actually doesn't have the elemental switch function built into its cannons and forcefield. Staren will find out soon enough, though!)
    Staren sees that even the 'normal' draug have water magic attacks. Good to know. Hmmm...

    Armor? Check. Weaponry? Check. Haste spell? Check. Horde of enemies? Check!

    Staren's wings appear again, translucent orange energy, buzzing like stylized insect wings as he flies up to the draug, drawing beam sabers on the way and attacking -- first a fly-by attack, then he darts in and out or circles around, slashing and stabbing, different element each time until he notices Holy is the best. Stabbign and slashing, darting from one sea zombie to the next!

Riva Banari has posed:
Riva catches Staren zipping along on skates, and grins despite herself, laughing as she calls out, "Retractable skates? Really?" She laughs as Inga provides a crimson blood shield. With the invigorating, proteective field, Riva watches Eleanor send one flying ,setting up for her.

Suddenly, Riva throws her guns into the air, sending them spinning as she turns, a was h of Anima erupting outwards as she draws her blade. The power, growing and feeding back ever since she began fighting, spills through the blade with a familiar golden light, and Riva launches into the air, striking like an arrow as she launches in for the flying Draug. The blade punches straight into the aquatic horror, releasing a distuptive blast of light as she twists the blade with a finality.

She wrenches in the air and lets the Draug hit the ground, Riva using the doomed horror as a cushion, and she flip-kicks, slashing downwards before spinning and hurling the blade at a third.

The pistols then drop straight down into her hands, and she spins, drilling both draug with a hail of anima murderbullets. Funny, for how new she acts normally, she sure is kicking it up a notch all of a sudden.

Finna (513) has posed:
    "THESE ARE NOT ZOMBIES!" Finna yelps, finding herself leaping UP and over some of the draug! They're spraying water, and she's not gonna get soaked. Hopefully Staren can similarly dodge. Because her idea of dodge is 'sail about twenty yards straight up into the air, execute a few somersaults-- "Eiiiiiyahhh!!"

    And come down on the next draug with a few punches to the face. On landing, she kicks backwards, TOWARDS the rest of the draug, and while soaring through the air manages to twist around, draw her bow again and set another few arrows flying!

Michael Knight (543) has posed:
Fwooooosh.

A searing pillar of flame erupts from beneath the Trans-Am, lighting the single remaining zombie on fire. It crumples under the infernal assault. "A bit excessive, don't you think, Michael?"

Michael looks through the window to see Finna's midair shenanigans. "Not in present company." He gives a look to the beach and figures the rest of the group has things well in order without him. "Engage Auto Cruise mode and get us to that water tower--the lady up there's going to need a ride when she's finished."

Wuyin Tsai has posed:
Eleanor cracks another draug across the face, sending it spinning, and hurtles a second into the air -- only for Riva to take it out and start laying into the rest. Kotone joins in, a few more shots flying into the mass of bodies. One goes wide, dangerously close to the other combatants; a couple score hits, though, slicing into arms and legs. Finna's fists find that the sea-dwellers are spongy on the outside and dense on the inside, but just as prone to well-placed arrows as they are bullets.

The carnage keeps going, but the Draug don't. They stop coming in from the water, the group of the worn down and felled, one after another. Staren's holy-aspected sabers help with the clean-up, disabling them and keeping them from spreading out. Wuyin does his part a moment later, rushing straight into the cluster of them, brimming with Anima.

There's a FLASH, bolts of lightning spreading out from him across the ground. A sudden BANG follows, a blast of flame erupting in a ring, igniting the air and the draug inside the radius. The abrupt CRACK and rush of wind brings frigid cold down onto them, turning the cluster into an impromptu ice sculpture.

They stop moving after that. A few more shots wouldn't hurt, though.

Michael finds that the sea wall the 'water tower' is on extends far out into the bay, beyond the beach. He also finds that the water is at very low tide, and KITT might be able to tell that it's shallow all the way out. It's a drop from there, though.

The corpse is tethered to the rail above, on the narrow walkway around the 'water tower.' In actuality, it /is/ a small lighthouse; it looks like it's been styled after an old water tower, with a presumably-powerful, compact light facing out into the water. The tether is a rope, like could be found on any of the boats nearby, and it and the body don't seem to have been here long.

She cuts the body down. Something suddenly comes into view, easily identified at close range: a pendant on a chain, dangling from its neck. It glows with a hazy light, giving off some kind of obvious magical power. It's hard to tell what it could /be/, but it's definitely ensorcelled somehow.

A sudden shriek cuts the air on the sea wall. A figure manifests behind Ainsley, the source of it: a woman, ghostly and insubstantial, wearing a ragged dress criss-crossed by spectral chains that make it cling to her like some kind of crude straightjacket. She screams in torment, writhing in the air, each motion casting waves of sickening green energy downward towards the lizard lorekeeper. She seems just substantial enough to have a physical presence, but still clearly spectral.

It is a long run out to the end of that sea wall where Ainsley is.

Eleanor Lamb (40) has posed:
    Eleanor lets out a smooth and even breath as she plunges the business end of her wrench into the head of a draug, smashing it still. There.

    There is an awful lot of them coming up the path, though, and the Sister is about to chase after them, when she sees the crumpled body of Inga. "H-hell. BOTHER." The end of that turns into a bellowing, angry challenge at the offending Draug, a noise that peels across the sound like a siren. The happy hunter has turned into a protective sister, it would seem, as that wrench crusts suddenly in sharp and jagged ice, and Eleanor charges. "GET AWAY FROM HER!"

    The Sister skids to a stop, plants both her feet, and with her best cricket swing, aims a shot straight across the ribs of the draug with the massive, frosty wrench.

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    The process of paying respects is cut off VERY RUDELY by the tormented spirit of the dead. Ainsley looks up at her, wincing. She looks down at the pendant and, with a certain gentle care but an urgency, she removes it from the corpse. She stands up and faces the ghost, and /frowns/ at it. Because if it's the spirit of this dead person, they will recognize what she is about to say. She holds the pendant up, maybe
    She speaks in a form of old Spanish, the most magic-attuned language she can think of that she can speak fluently. The most it does is make her sound a lot more like a wizard.

    "<I WILL PUT YOU TO REST, PEACEFUL OR NOT!>"

    Without realizing it, she has charged lightning into one of her hands. "<Listen to me! I can give you the peace you need, but you must listen!>"

    She is rolling to negotiate with a tormented ghost of a suicide victim. Bonuses: Possible pendant belonging to ghost.

    She has also backed up to avoid the sickening waves of green energy, because it felt icky and she didn't want to be exposed to it any longer than she had to.

Staren has posed:
    "Ha-ha!" Staren smiles as he sees they've dispatched the draugr. He's considering shooting at the ice sculptures for good measure when he hears the scream.

    Vision is easily magnified. Ainsley! Why didn't he bring his sniper rifle?? Oh well, he'll have to make do... Staren turns towards them, and draws his laser pistol. A thought through the wireless interface switches it to double-barrel, long-range mode, holy element.

    The smartlink and targeting software puts a reticle in his vision. The robotic body doesn't shake or jitter -- limbs can lock in place, or move more finely. It is almost like aiming in a videogame. If the Banshee doesn't realize he's a threat and doesn't move too much, this could be very easy.

    The crosshairs move over the banshee, and two invisible beams of light fire.

    Here's hoping that light doesn't just go right through ghosts!

Finna (513) has posed:
    As the draug topple down, Finna skids on landing and ends in a crouch, bow slung over her back again. Her tail's going a mile a minute - so is her heart, really - and she's bearer of a feral but TRIUMPHANT grin. "Hah! They're NOT zombies, but they're nearly as pathetic." Pathetic, huh?

    Those familiar with the full ways that the Exalted work might question that claim, judging by the VERY faint corona of silvery light leaking from Finna's skin, and the extremely faint crescent moon emblem gleaming on her forehead. The very beginnings of an anima flare.

    And this gives her enough time to see Wuyin in action, too! She claps a few times, excited by the show! "Ooooooh! Flashy!" She's just opening her mouth to speak again when her ears both turn towards the water, picking up on a distant scream.

    The grin fades, her face pales... And just like that, she drops to all fours. It looks REALLY unnatural at first, but in a matter of seconds as she starts moving, that matter's corrected. Her body shifts and reshapes, clothes replaced with fur and human body melting down and reforging itself as a white-furred fox.

    The sprinting fox all but soars over the ground, as though rocket powered! No simple beast this, not with that kind of speed on display!

    Destination: that SCREAM.

Riva Banari has posed:
For all of Riva's styling, it doesn't help if a draug aggros on the support. Riva hears the crunch and gets a cold feeling running up the back of her spine as she looks over at what happens to Inga. It doesn't take long for the raging Eleanor to deal with the problem. The sudden frosty wrath of Eleanor gives Riva pause for a moment, as a second problem arises. A ghost. Ghosts are bad news. But Inga needs medical attention, and it's not /here/.

The plan presents itself in the form of the Knight Rider. He'll get them back to the building, while Ainsley can get backed up. Or hacked up, depending on the ghost.

Riva winces. Man, that was a morbid thought. And terrible.

She turns, speeding up her movements with Anima as she rushes down the sea wall along Finna at high speed. She doesn't see the laser Staren is firing, but then he's using a /cool/ laser. "WE'RE COMING AINSLEY!" Riva yells, pistols out and ready for when she gets in range.

Wuyin Tsai has posed:
The local draug are thinning. There are a lot of them in the water, but there weren't more than a dozen or so near that stretch of shoreline. The late-to-the-party stragglers are scattered and easy pickings. Bludgeoning them to death seems to be working much better now that they don't have friends to try and pick up the slack.

Ainsley's attempt at diplomacy gets another shriek. The spectre's eyes are black with a speck of glowing white, rolling in the spirit's head. There isn't a hint of sanity or rationality in there at all -- and that light intensifies, bringing searing pain along with the stomach-churning sickness this time. The railing above it starts to rattle, the metal shaking dangerously.

Staren promptly shoots it in the head with invisible holy lasers.

The spectral woman's head and shoulders vaporize, discorporated into a whitish mist. There's a weird blackness in the core of it, a twisting kind of smoke that runs counter to the rest of it. It fades away, the filmy spectre's cry echoing distantly as it comes apart. There wasn't much holding it there.

The light in the amulet goes out, and everything goes quiet again.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa is able to not die thankfully she's very lucky there she's trying to not look too hard at these things, all she's thinking it's not cryaldids thank you god it's not horrible space bugs who want to give you the kiss of death. She's back on her feet now and then hears something has gone wrong and she pauses looking about.

"Tch, you get cockly like that and you'll be mulched."

she makes sure to take another shot and she's gong to try to follow but the water looks to be thankfully shallow enough to not need to swim to chase after everyone else, but it seems it's not needed.

Michael Knight (543) has posed:
KITT wheels around, his engine roaring. Spikes jut out from his wheels as he and Michael both race towards Inga's last known location. The car comes to a halt once she's located, kicking up clouds of sand as it wheels around to place the passenger side door right beside her. It swings open, as does the driver side door, that Michael might jump out and assist with getting the injured witch inside. "KITT, I want you to run a medical diagnostic as soon as she's in the seat."

"Understood."

Eleanor Lamb (40) has posed:
    Eleanor drags Inga's body into the car and grumbles. "Mr. KITT, she is going to present as dead. This is thankfully a temporary situation, but I do not relish the idea of leaving her out on the beach." Eleanor is very carefully holding Inga to her chest as she bites her lip and tries to quietly assess just how bad it is.

Staren has posed:
    Staren is trying not to panic. Ainsley doesn't have to hold out for long, she can take it. He'll fire again as soon as he ca-- oh hey, he oneshotted it. He blinks, then lowers his gun and activates his teleporter.

    A few seconds later, he appears near Ainsley. He opens his mouth to ask if she's alright, then realizes what he just did. "AAH!" he pats down his body and runs internal diagnostics to make sure nothing is amiss. "I just teleported!"

    Beat.

    Beat.

    "And I'm okay. I... maybe the fog only affects longer-range transport? Or transport in and out of this region?"

    Beat.

    "Are you okay? Um... not every day a banshee attacks you."

Finna (513) has posed:
    And there goes the ghost. Finna halts her charge, jaws opening wide in a toothy gape. But then, oh dear, the beach. Well, if there's no ghost to claw uo, there sure are a lot of draugs left to march on the town. The fox yelps and stands up straight, sizing up the group...

    once again, her body ripples and shifts, gaining height and switching to hind legs. Joints twist balance shifts, limbs extend... but oh, there's no sign of clothes this time. Or any loss of fur. If anything, the fur's thickening to render clothing unnecessary to protect a little modesty. The faint silver aura thickens, gaining bluish purple streaks and stirring up like a fire being fanned. Now the moon emblem's shine from her forehead is all but impossible to miss!

    "What a waste, showing this off here and now... but it'll do. Can't have any of these monsters getting far. So... come on," Her flesh ripples further, growing dense but sleek muscles. Her tail no longer wags, having instead extended for full balance benefits. Raising her hands, she cracks a feral grin from a still vulpine maw, and test swings at the air with nasty-looking claws that trail silver light with every motion. "Let's play!"

    Unleashing a bestial snarl at the remaining draugs, Finna sets in for a mass slaughter, letting the Beast of the Moon within loose to play a little. As a whirlwind of claws and teeth she barrels into the remaining Draugr, aiming to rip, tear, rend, disembowel, more speed and sharp claws than brute strength.

    The beach is gonna get messy, fast.

Riva Banari has posed:
And then the ghost vaporizes before Riva gets there. And Staren teleports in to check on Ainsley. Riva gasps as she arrives and looks over Ainsley for damage. "Are you okay?"

And then she hears something horrible happening over there. Riva looks over to see Finna transform, and her eyes widen, staring as the beastman goes down and starts murdering a large swath of draug. She seems to be taking her time backing /that/ up.

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    Ainsley looks at Staren. Her neutral face conveys her absolute measurement of all the factors meant to determine an answer to his question. There is a long pause, while she looks down at the pendant, and checks herself for injuries. She scrunches her brows, as the aches of her body and her mind tell her of the end results.

    "No," she tells Staren. "I will live, but I still grow even more tired of sights like this." With that honest answer conveyed, she turns to leave... at perhaps a more relaxed pace than is reasonable. She knows that others are fighting a ways off, and it may not be a good idea to stick around at this point. In fact, she kind of wants to leave Kingsmouth for a day or two.

    She's been shaken pretty bad. Her eyes are watering, the sign that the stress is getting to her.

Staren has posed:
    Staren hears /something/ and glances back... oh. A monster is tearing apart the draug. Well, that's good.

    Staren looks back to Ainsley. He nods assent about these sights getting old. And then... is she crying? Oh dear. What can he do?

    Staren slowly holds his arms out. "Um... hug?"

    There is no rat here to do it. It seems like what Twilight would do, too.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa watchess Finna just twist and warp into something out of nightmare some unknown sign on them. She twists twings around bringing up her battle rifle and taking aim at Finna, she's also cursing in English, Japanese and french. Thankfully the first shot is wild and will miss but yes Kotone hd no real wanring, when your traine dby people where any sort o shape shifting suddenly by an ally means the enemy's done something to them...

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    Ainsley looks at Staren as if she doesn't understand for a second. She wasn't really raised in an environment where hugs were a normal thing. And then she accepts it, and pats his shoulder once, turning to leave. She doesn't linger to enjoy it, though it might've helped.

    Like most things of this nature, it's not really clear.

Wuyin Tsai has posed:
The draug are a serious threat to the magically-adept, the well-armed, and the prepared members of this town.

They do not fare so well against an Exalt going to town.

The Lunar starts shredding the remaining draug before they can get on the beach and seriously threaten those of them that are injured, helping the injured or not altogether in the right head-space for a fight. The place gets very secure very quickly.

It also gets very bloody very quickly.

Wuyin does his part. He quickly moves up to Kotone as she shoots at the friendly monster, rears back, and socks her one right on the jaw. It should be enough to jar her out of her panic, but not enough to actually hurt her. "/Friendly/," he hisses. "Put the gun /down/ and get back to the street."

Michael Knight (543) has posed:
"I can confirm that she is indeed clinically dead," says KITT once Inga's body is placed in the passenger seat. Michael just stands there with his hands in his pockets. "Michael." The black Trans-Am gets no response. "Michael," hisses the car's voice modulator. "You're staring."

"Oh! ...sorry. I was still getting used to zombies, and then they whipped out werewolves and temporary death on me." He faces Eleanor and nods. "We'll get her back to the fire department," he assures her. The confused crusader climbs into his noble steed. "KITT, engage Auto Cruise Mode." The car rumbles to life and heads off towards the fire department.

Eleanor Lamb (40) has posed:
    Eleanor murmurs. "Today you've also met a catman scientist, a lizard girl scholar and now a genetic abberation. Welcome to the Wide Wdie World, Mr. Knight." A forlorn pet at Inga's hair, and she sighs. "Maybe this time she'll come back without that awful limp."

Finna (513) has posed:
    Heads are rolling, guts are spilling, tentacles are quivering and draug are dying. It takes Finna only a few seconds to dispatch one. Her claws rip through flesh like a hot knife through butter, leaving shreds and tatters in their wake. This is not how a predator fights, for a predator would stop to consume and sate itself.

    This is how a MONSTER fights. Without stopping, without mercy. The draug's occasional blows that get through strike... but leave welts and bruises that heal in seconds. Clumsy brunt force won't do it. One, two, three, four draug fall in succession, the creature tearing out throats and pouncing new targets as a snarling mass of muscle, fang, and claw. There is no real style to its ferocity - with claws like those, does it really NEED one?

    Then, a bullet goes whizzing by her head and slams into the sand. Finna reacts with lightning speed, springing HIGH off the slain draug and landing in the sand in a low stance with legs bent like coiled springs, turned Kotone and Wuyin's way.

    The Deadly Beastwoman's breath is heavy from exertion and still very much sounds like a predator on the hunt. Tense and bloodthirsty, there is nothing but MURDER in that gaze.

    And yet, for a good five seconds or so, she doesn't budge an inch. No, she blinks a few times... then finally, finally when she does move, it's to stand up straight in a more.... HUMAN demeanor, and GRIN at Kotone.

    Toothily.

    "Don't do that again. Had you been closer, that could've gotten bloody!"

Staren has posed:
    Staren was never particularly huggy either, parents and girlfriend notwithstanding. Still, it seemed like the thing to do here. He pats her on the back a couple of times, then lets her go. He's not sure what to say.

    "Uh," he raises his hand to scratch the side of his helmet, forgetting he's wearing armor for a moment. "I see you don't have your thaumostatic harness. Maybe it'd be safer if you got in the talking car?" He'll either lead her back to KITT, or follow her back at a short distance in silence. Buddy system!

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone's jaw would feel solid far more solid than a human jaw should it's like punching metal or something close to it relaly. Kotones head snaps bac from the hit. It's enough to jar her out of it, much like Kamina, Wuyin has learned the correction punch. She stabbfers

"She... just turned into a ...look if that..." She looks a bit mortifed now shoulders her rifle again and mutters something about magic and such. Ya she's from a world that's about as magically active as she's made of flesh. Which is to say none relaly.

"You may also best wish to warn your allies, that you can do that. No it won't happen again either. I have no desire to have my body torn apart a second time."

Finna (513) has posed:
    "I noticed it's not very fleshy." Finna remarks airily. Though, then she gets a really good look at herself... her very visible nose wrinkles... "ewrgh. I'll go find a river.... don't trust /these/ waters one bit." THANKFULLY, the rage she entered has quickly subsided.

    "Good riddance to stinking zombie wannabes! Kinda regret having a nose now..."

    Finna beelines away from the mass of corpses, but keeps some distance from Wuyin and Kotone. "I mean it, is there a river around here? This stuff might be bad if I just wash it off wherever!"

Wuyin Tsai has posed:
Wuyin points back towards the way they came. The fire station was on the river.

There are totally draug across the river, too.