4637/Contact: Hookcloaks (1)

Contact: Hookcloaks (1)
Date of Scene:	05 October 2016
Location:	Lumiere
Synopsis:	Oh my god what the hell is this horrific [spoiler]
Cast of Characters:	974, Kushiko, 984, Staren, Athela Valemore, Count Kord, Priscilla

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Carna (974) has posed:
    In the dim passages at the very entrance of the area called 'Guillotine Square', though it appears to be made up of several sub-areas that this is one of, a number of Elites have gone forth in exploration. Their first encounter with the local threats has resulted in a rather one-sided victory, minor injuries among the explorers aside... But also the theft of a new companion, shoved into a bag and spirited away by strangers wearing cloaks with hooks lining the edges. Cyclops-like hoods worn to keep their eyes accustomed to the dark, and shield them from the dazzling fire bombs that anyone other than they would not be expecting...

    They may not be as strong as the Elites, but they know their ambush tactics and how to capitalize upon the hunting grounds they have used for so long. And that is specifically why they can not be allowed to escape with the Shadow named Crow, because once they slip away into the passages and chambers in this sewer-like locale, finding them again might be very difficult.

    Thankfully, there are multiple Elites who are able to get the drop on them, firing at them as they flee, attacking at range or speeding forth to slash in melee range, or bypassing space entirely to skip close the distance near-instantly.

    The foul odors that seem to be visible manifests as a green mist along the floors swirl aside in the passage of the Elite onslaught, and the Hookcloaks stand little chance of escape as a result. Soon, they are down to only two in the first few moments of their attempted flight.

    One being a hook-like polearm and the other bearing the sack with the Shadow in it. The polearm one turns and starts slashing and jabbing at anyone who comes near in the enclosed quarters, trying to buy time for his companion. But though a hook that can pierce shadows is undoubtedly an exotic weapon, it is perhaps not best suited to the wide array of foes he has to face here. Carna attempted to simply run them down like the predator she is, but compared to those who can teleport or fire beams of energy or a wide variety of other abilities and attacks, she is probably not the one closest on the heels of the Hookcloaks.

Kushiko has posed:
So, things are a bit crazy in terms of chasing down the Hookcloaks, right? Right. In the moments in between, the Nova Prime Warframe as ran by Kushiko was /REALLY/ quick--and had the added benefit of being able to close the distance /really/ quickly with her use of the one-way Wormholes.

These dimensional, swirling rectangular (if fray-edged, by appearence) portals would linger long enough once everyone recovered from the blinding effects that the Hookcloaks used--or simply be there for those who could ignore the flash effect to immediately proceed through there. Her shotgun rang with a distinct report, the blast sending some who were fleeing not just, you know, off in another direction, but the Tigris-variant she wielded had the kind of bullets that /sliced through/, literally cutting one of the Hookcloaks down the middle. Geez.

However, there was a strange, odd little /flicker/ of lights as she went after them--and while she was able to release some measure of slowing energy to deal /with/ the Hookcloaks?

The flicker itself gave her pause. <<"I'm sorry,">> she transmits, light diodes on her suit pulsing. <<"Something else is coming. Go after Crow, I'll deal with it--it's after me.">> And shortly after /that/ transmission and leaving the aid she could behind, the black-purple warframe banked, sending herself spiralling through the air and down another corridor. Some strange noises that simply distorted the concepts of space and time could be felt and heard, but not for long before the sounds of her fight simply faded.

Karal Rei Lin (984) has posed:
Karal Rei Lin for one isn't about to let this strange shadow be hoodwinked! A strange, alien thing or not... that Shadow is the liveliest, cheeriest thing in ALL OF LUMIERE. Like hell's she going to let anything happen to it!

    "Get back here or I'll kill you so dead you can forget reincarnation!!" WHOOOOOOSH! She is off in a mad dash, her steps seemingly almost more like great leaps forward... as though her body were about weightless!

    SLASH SLASH!

    But a few manage to defend themselves enough. Sparks fly as Lin's faced with a weapon that screams DANGER to her. She can't afford to get careless. She's stymied even as her blazing blade of pure Essence clashes again and again with the polearm. Eventually she goes skidding backwards, fiercely eying the kidnapper with a dagger-like gaze.

    "You picked the wrong group to kidnap from..."

Staren has posed:
    Staren has manifested some sort of transparent orange 'energy wings' behind him -- they don't quite touch huis shoulders, but they buzz like an insect's as he darts near the tunnel ceiling, following after the hookcloaks and periodically stopping to fire the sniper laser rifle at them. They'll respawn anyway, so no permanent harm done, right?

Athela Valemore has posed:
The portals on a more personal scale was a new thing, but a welcome assest that Athela was not going to waste the extra time questioning. Not when their new companion was being whisked away by nefarious sorts. Already quick on their feet, the portals just expedite their pursuit of the kidnappers. No knight was going to let this travesty stand. Even if Crow was kind of weird and creepy. So were some pokemon. Such was the way of many worlds.

As soon as the portal-hop chase brings their quarry back into view her Vaporeon rushes forward, seeming to melt into a pool of water that quickly slips across the passage floor and under foot. In the chaos of all the others that are soon to follow the puddle-vaporeon is easy to miss and step on, possibly slipping up other Hookcloaks as they tried to avoid the various attacks flung at them.

Athela on the other hand slams her metal-shod boots into the floor to halt her own charge. The fiend with the polearm lashes out, trying to fend them back. A good tactic with a weapon having reach, but prehaps not good enough.

Karal deflects several swipes of the weapon before being pushed back, and that's when Athela steps in with her own weapon at hand. Resolute Blade snaps up in front of her to block the weapon with a rattling clash.

Then Athela abruptly turns as she twists the sword, trying to catch the polearm between the disarming prongs along the back of the weapon's blade and yank the weapon aside. Both to throw the attacker off his balance with his weapon hopefully locked up, and to give the others an opening in his lashing about to get to the one holding Crow's sack.

Count Kord has posed:
    While the others work on targetting the hookcloaks directly, Kord focuses on taking advantage of the confusion to do something unorthodox. He melds into the shadows with a couple flaps of ephemeral wings, and tries to dart well ahead of their prey while they're being hindered or distracted by the others. There's bound to be more than enough people here trying to murderize these ambushers, and they probably won't notice someone trying to get ahead of them and not AT them. The portals help him speed along, and his magical wings help him fly even in these cramped conditions, allowing him to run along the ceiling if he absolutely has to.

    Physics are just a suggestion when Pokemon are involved.

    And then he would simply try to project his sphere of darkness ability down one of their ideal escape routes and wait for them to get sandwiched between his darkness trap and the wrath of the others in the party. He can control darkness to form physical weapons out of it, so walking into the solid black sphere would be a lot like walking into a blender. It would look like a solid wall of void in these cramped conditions.

    This is probably why he could grab Crow's face earlier.

Priscilla has posed:
    'Something else is coming' is a pretty ominous statement, down in this horrific, labyrinthine gutter that is supposed to be even worse than the area before. Nevertheless, it had been Priscilla's idea to add Crow to the party, and her call to get him back, and thus her responsibility to see to that first.

    With the number of enemies drastically reduced after some severe Elite alpha strikes being dropped on them. Priscilla has little clue why they think the Shadow is so valuable, other than assuming their own deaths aren't of huge consequence due to being Lanterns, but she wants to find that out by interrogation rather than running into it. The hook-wielder in front looks thoroughly screwed, and so she employs the Nova portal, and then her magic chuuni eye to get the last, fleeing figure, being pretty hard to miss on a straight and narrow sewer corridor. With any luck, she'll take him alive as well as retrieve the bag.

Carna (974) has posed:
    The guy with the hook is taken down in short order by an overwhelming array of skills, powers, spells, and weaponry. Too fast for Carna to even get involved. And then Priscilla paralyzes the last of the enemies after popping out near him via the portal made by Kushiko. Kushiko's sudden need to depart has left Carna wary though. Especially, the bit about 'something coming', and as it seems her 'prey' has been run down, she is now keeping an eye on her surroundings. The corridor they're in now has a sort of iron-wrought grating above them in the ceiling, and the walls seem to be made up of the same sort of material. Does she hear something skittering?

    She isn't sure why Kushiko had to leave if she's about to be attacked, when she has allies here who can help, but...

    In either case, as one Hookcloak dissolves into spectral fog on the floor, and the other is held fast by magic eye powers, the black cloth sack lies on the floor, moving around like someone struggling inside of a sleeping bag. Crow's muffled voice can be heard from inside.

    "Heeeeey! Is anyone out therrrre?" Little indentations in the surface of the bag keep appearing and disappearing, indicating that Crow has somehow learned to contact physical material well enough to poke and prod, but it doesn't appear he has either strength or fine manipulation skills. Though going from 'unable to touch and no appendages' to 'sort of kind of both' in the time between when it met the Elites and now shows a noteworthy learning rate.

    What else might the Shadow learn if given the chance?

    The Hookcloak struggles as best he can, but has no success against Priscilla's power as long as she maintains it.

Priscilla has posed:
    It's rare that Priscilla maintains that power for more than a moment, but in this situation, she has the Hookcloack completely grappled by her will, now thoroughly focused by her displeasure, and obligation to her charge. Though the unsettling psychic sound is little more than a distant keening at this intensity, her 'not happy' face is significantly more intimidating with the addition of one of her slit-pupil eyes glimmering with baleful sparks. She pulls the man over to her as if it were inevitable, though mostly as a product of not wanting to navigate more gross sludge, before tossing him to someone else -- probably someone burly -- to deal with, and retrieving the bag instead.

    For a moment, she is actually pretty wary about opening it. Seeing Crow poking and prodding at it from the inside rings some little alarm bells in her head, making her fingers hesitate at the drawstrings, but she plucks them off all the same, casually ruining its ability to close. "As a matter of fact, there is." She chides plainly, upending the bag onto the floor.

Athela Valemore has posed:
With the remaining weapon wielder disposes of Athela steps back, though keeps her sword in hand should the other manage to break free of the spell holding it in place. She can only assume the reason Kushiko would rather lead a pursuer away is to keep it from interferring in their retrieval effort.

She looks down as Sprite resolidifys at her heels, smiling just a bit. "You are quickly adapting to the new abilities evolution granted you."

"Vap!" replies the merfox, fluked tail wagging a few times at the praise.

Count Kord has posed:
    Kord trudges back down the stone tunnel, the shadows having evaporated when he trapped absolutely nothing. It was just a precaution, anyways. He steps up to where the party has gathered, and watches the bag raise up into the air where Priscilla has it. It may be familiar to her, because he doesn't make noise or even disturb the air very much with his approach, which would make most people's hair stand on end. He's good at that, they may be kindred spirits. Probably the whole 'death' motif he has going on. He then just reaches up to retrieve the bag from her with a light grasp, not violent but not terribly polite, just holding it until she releases it. Not pulling, not demanding, just waiting. He'd even give her that glowing dead eye stare for a second so she knows to let him handle it, from this angle demonstrating how his weirdo eyes don't look terribly natural. It's probably the most polite approach he can manage.

    Once he has a grip on the bag enough to do what he intends to, he would reach into it with his other hand, grab Crow from inside the bag, and then set him down on the floor, using his ability to distort shadows to help him stay solid while he manipulates the unusual creature.

Staren has posed:
    Well, maybe they won't reform, but ambushing elites in a dangerous place... What else could they have expected to happen?

    Still, the goal was to get Crow back, and with that achieved, Staren stops shooting. It even seems that they've captured one of the hookcloaks! Staren lands next to Priscilla. "You okay there, man?" Staren asks the bag, and after an answer, looks to the last hookcloak, putting away his rifle. "What the /hell/, dude? What was that all about?"

Karal Rei Lin (984) has posed:
Huh. Earlier Crow couldn't really touch much! Now he's managing to do so. Is it a property of the bag? or the hook? Or something else entirely?! Lin doesn't put her weapon away, but it does slightly dim down...

    She casts a glance at Priscilla's rather squeezed prisoner... she decides to reach out and bind up the man in her grasp, pushing a crazy amount of effort into her arms to keep a grip!

    "Start taaaaaaalking."

Carna (974) has posed:
    Crow is shaken around inside the bag to little effect, until Kord grabs it and pulls it out onto the floor. "Whooooaaah!" it lets out as it slides from the bag, and then 'oof' as it lands on the ground. The minimal lighting in here leaves the blob of Shadow somewhat vaguely defined, and much smaller than before, having to stick to any pocket of illumination it can find. "I think I'm okay. That was scary though! Thanks for saving me, everyone!" Crow says, a small puddle that is giving an uncertain tiny smile, hoping that everything is going to be okay now. <:

    The Hookcloak guy doesn't seem interested in talking when questioned, except to rant a little. "The Shadows will consume all! They have to be put back! The Never Tombs must be filled or their nightmares will continue without end!"

    Carna turns slowly while this is going on, focused on the sounds of movement around them. The creaking of metal, the sound of flesh whispering across pipes, the feel of danger increasing.

    "In places yet unfound, home to reason and law, the Shadow shall rise!" The Hookcloak yells as he thrashes against Karal's grip and causes his cloak to suddenly animate and try to tear into her with the hooks along its hem. That's bad, but he just said something odd. Haven't they heard those words somewhere before? Or at least Kord?

    Carna's attention is partially on the escape attempt, but she assumes the others will handle it. She caught a glimpse of greyed flesh working its way through the darkness on the other side of the grating, like an enormous centipede with moldering human tissue stretched across it. She finally says, "There's something in the walls."

    "FREE ME OR BE CONSUMED! WE'LL ALL BE CONSUMED!" the Hookcloak shrieks as he struggles with Karal, even though with Athela and her companion, Kord, Priscilla, Karal, Staren, and Carna there is little chance of getting away.

    Then there's a loud creaking of some great weight directly above. Not the walls, though it may be there too. The ceiling is where it strikes from. Metal grating tears apart as a pair of large, emaciated, gangling limbs with seven or eight fingers as long as Priscilla is tall on each over-sized hand reach down and snatch up the Hookcloak, trying to tear him from Karal's grip, as a continuous stream of some kind of noxious vomit-like substance rains down on the Lantern, setting him to screaming as his flesh swells, purples, and starts to slough off.

    Unless someone leaps to action immediately, the ambusher gets yanked up into the darkness of the ceiling above, and carried off somewhere, leaving behind only a puddle of awful-smelling undead puke pooling in the middle of the passage. A Solar should have been able to dodge something like that, but the dripping hole in the ceiling now, metal twisted and torn like something exploded into the hallway, whispering with the sound of far too many limbs crawling in the darkness, is all the indicator they need that it's time to maybe not stand here for too much longer.

    Crow whimpers and asks, "Can we leave here now?"

Athela Valemore has posed:
Athela Valemore frankly could not give a Rattata's ass about the Hookcloak. The kidnapping fiend was of less importance than the assortment of allies and friends that stood at her side. "Get back!" She barely has a chance to kippup backwards from the sudden screeching and eruption of HORRID THING out of the ceiling as it is, and she'll grab anyone else to yank them out of the way she needs to as well.

That thing... That thing is right up there with the Hollow Barbaracles when it comes to body horrors that have too many appendages in the wrong places. What the hell is with these sort of things?! And now it's.... ugh... that's just horrid on so many levels.

"No objections to leaving!" Ripples of elemental energy sheen across the surface of Resolute Blade as Athela makes a quick swipe with it, sending a pulse of water out to sweep the putrid cascade of filth and decomposing liquid out of the way. Her Vaporeon follows suite with her own water blasts, though remains huddled close at her master's sides. That was absolutely terrifying.

They're not trying to stop the mess, just keep a clear path for everyone else to get by the vulgar display and back into the passages so they can get the holy hells out of here.

Priscilla has posed:
    Priscilla reluctantly relinquishes the bag to Kord, not fully getting how the physics of this shadow handling really work, and having scarce light on her person. At the very least, the Count doesn't seem inclined to be aggressive towards Crow this time, and so a faint breath of what /could/ hypothetically be relief comes from her when the Shadow puddles out. It's noteworthy only because one doesn't normally hear her breathing at all.

    Her attention is torn by the captive Hookcloack though. Despite still thinking of him as little more than a psychotic bandit, fixated on these seemingly harmless creatures, his mad rambling is both provocative and zealous enough to give her pause. The tip of her tail flicks as she turns to study him, only very briefly looking him over. "I beg thine- . . . no, I oweth thee no pardon. Instead, I ask thee what precisely is so worth thine fear and fervour of this little creature, and why precisely why thou wouldst devote thineself to filling something named such. If it must be filled, perhaps jump into it thineself." She offers icily. She doesn't take kindly to him casting her recruiting decisions into doubt, but if there is a danger, she would like to be informed of it.

    Though it seems to have precious little to do with Crow, there certainly is one at least. When Kushiko had indicated that she had sensed something, the crossbreed had not dreamed it would be an entity both this massive and this horrific. Surely, a predator of this size would be more obvious in these filthy, waterlogged, echo-prone tunnels, but even she ends up jumping back as it simply smashes, or else melts, through the ceiling. Her reaction to the horrible fate of the Hookcloak is practically nonexistent, but all her tailfur bristles from the surprise threat.

    "What by the Flame was all of that? I am privy to the knowledge that other creatures but the Unlit stalk these realms, but . . ." She starts backing up down the tunnel, trying to keep Crow with her in her little pool of light. "I believeth now wouldst, indeed, be best a time to regroup, and follow upon whatever intelligence Lady Kushiko is able to gather. There is far too much unknown before we art even to reach the Square."

Count Kord has posed:
    Kord is, for one reason or another, not terribly happy with the Hookcloak's recounting of the prophecy. His words meant something very strange that has yet to be revealed, and Kord himself, being the god-hating man that he is, held only a skeptical stare at the ranting Lantern as he thrashed in his capture. When Carna indicated something was coming, he turned his head to follow the sound of something slipping through the stone. He looks up at the sound of creaking stone and metal, intrigued by it for but a moment.

    He takes a couple of calm, brisk steps back to distance himself from the opening just before the arms slam down to try to tear the Hookcloak up into the ceiling.

    "Yes," Kord replies to Crow, "I think it's time to make a retreat and assess our options." He looks up to Priscilla, having effectively echoed her sentiment, and nods in her direction vaguely. He definitely does not want to linger in this place if a vomit beast is going to try to stuff him in its maw.

Staren has posed:
    "Do you have any plans to consume this guy?" Staren asks Crow. Although he has to wonder, they barely know Crow. What if these guys were right?

    Carna says something about the walls. "Huh?" And then: GIANT MONSTER.

    Many people would have an instinct to run, perhaps... but Staren is from a world where if civilization ran every time there was a big monster, why, it'd have been snuffed out long ago. Yes, he manifests his wings again and is ready to zip out of the way of retaliation, but... beam cannons, lasers, and grenades are soon being directed at the giant monster. It would never occur to him that it's /only/ after the hookcloak, after all.

Karal Rei Lin (984) has posed:
Lin's TOUGH, but having a point-blank bunch of RAZORHOOKS tearing into her flesh and outfit gets an immediate reaction. SCREAMING IN PAIN! She holds on briefly longer than that even as the barbs and hooks tear chunks of flesh from her body and lash open wounds.. wounds that don't bleed quiiiiiite as much or as long as they ought to.

    IT HURTS TERRIBLY, but that's not going to inflict anything serious... right?!

    Makes it hard to listen to the ranting to. But her instincts hear Carna's warning, and sharp senses... the odd noises. She blinks. Glances up--

    D:

    "HYEEEEEEEEK!!" She -doesn't- fight that thing's grasp, letting go of her uncooperative captive in a heartbeat and leaping back JUST in time to avoid getting drenched in UTTER YUCK.

    "FOUL PLAY, CREATURE!"