Fantasy Hunter's Moon [IC] [CLOSED]

[Infab]

"Shit. Let's take 'em out quick so we can deal with that vamp!" said Rosanna, moving up to where Erwin and Aleister were with her revolver. She took aim and fired off a few shots at the incoming horde, aiming primarily for the body. Shots to the heart could still kill ghouls, just like shots to the head. They went down just like any normal human.

-----

As the lich collided with Cassandra, he expected to carry her towards the window and out of it. He did in fact move her a few feet, just due to the impact, but not far enough to take her outside. She grinned. "Chill out, my undead friend! If you wanted to take things outside, you could have just asked!" she said, wrapping her arm around Ethraeil's head. She reached down and gripped his arm, before spinning about and sending him sailing into and through the window. In a hail of glass and wood, Ethraeil fell and collided with the cobblestone street. Nothing he couldn't live through, really. The lich had experienced far worse in his life.

As this happened, Jakob attempted to pull Valeria out of the room. She followed, grabbing her own sword from her things and jumping over the bed towards the door. Cassandra glanced over her shoulder and laughed. "Run, Valeria! It just makes things much more interesting!" she said aloud, before returning her attention to the broken window. She stepped over, before casually hopping out the window onto the ground below. The rain was still rather heavy outside, pelting down on Ethraeil and now Cassandra.

-----

The gunfire from the group outside peppered the ghouls climbing the stairs, forcing some of them to collapse and prevent the rest from scaling up to where they were. If they continued their hailstorm of gunfire, the ghoul ranks could be chipped away to nothingness. But that seemed a long way off at the moment, as some of the ghouls managed to climb over their fallen comrades.

 

[joshuadim]

"Damn... you're good." Ethraeil muttered as he got up, just as Cassandra landed near him. Theres no telling what she is... I need to be on guard. He though to himself as he decided to bring out the big guns. Ice formed on the ground at his feet as frost grew in strength at his hands. "But that won't deter me. You're gonna pay for that."

He then raised both his hands and unleashed a wave of ice at Cassandra.

"Revenge is a dish best served cold after all."

 

[EdwardDewey98]

"Erwin! Theodore! Camille!" shouted Jakob. "The Inquisitor is the target! We need to guard her with our lives!" he said, as he rushed back towards his room and grabbing his shotgun. "The Lich is in trouble now, though! So we gotta go help him! He got thrown out the window by that thing, so we REALLY need to get down those stairs!"

 

[K0mori]

Shoved forward by Erwin, Mariette now found herself near the front of the pack, with her two roommates for the night, looking in on the scene unfolding. Rosanna doubled back to take on the ghouls while Ethraeil charged forward, and as the lich met the powerful vampire head on the fight was quickly thrown on its head. Soon, the two of them were down in the street, and Jakob was able to rush forward and help Valeria escape from her room, bringing her close to Mariette. "Mademoiselle, if I may!" the witch said, prominently displaying her tools of sorcery. "With these, we can hide in plain sight. I'm a master of illusion and I can make her see things that aren't real."

 

[Infab]

Valeria looked to Mariette. "Alright. Lets hope it works on her, otherwise we're in for a REALLY bad time!" she said, motioning towards the room she and Jakob had just emerged from. Down the hall, Rosanna continued to fire on the ghouls coming up the stairs as she worked towards the room she had been staying in. She needed her lever-action. She was much more useful with it than with just her revolver.

------

As the ice wave surged rapidly towards Cassandra, she simply stepped out of its way with her inhuman speed. "Oooh, that made me shiver a bit!" she said, cutting Ethraeil a grin. Her blood red eyes piercing through the darkness of the night. A moment later, she'd use that same inhuman speed to slam a fist into Ethraeil's rib cage. The sheer impact forced a few ribs to crack, and knocked him flat on his back in the street.

 

[joshuadim]

Once more Ethraeil was knocked back, caught unaware by Cassandras speed. He knew some bones had cracked, but pain was a concept long forgotten by now. He simply got back up, but this time an uncertainty took hold of him. Just how fast is she?

This time he raised his arm and dark energy swirled around it, coalescing quickly before being released at her with lightning speed.

 

[K0mori]

Having gotten approval, Mariette turned to Aleister. "Monsieur, I may soon need your assistance. If this works, the enemy will believe us traitors. Be ready." She then stepped up to the broken window, gazing down at the fight taking place below. Keeping her eyes locked on Cassandra, she began reciting cryptic words of power as she ran her fingers over the runes inscribed on the moth-bitten pages of her grimoire. Slowly, artfully, she removed the stopper on her vial of blood and allowed it to trickle forth, weaving a scene from her imagination that she hoped to impart upon her more experienced foe. The trickery would only hold a short while, and would require constant maintenance to succeed, but it had a better chance of working than if Mariette simply charged at the woman the way Camille intended to. The goal was simple: when Cassandra returned she would find two vampire allies and a lot of dead inquisitors, unable to see the humans waiting in ambush all around her.

 

[EdwardDewey98]

"Erwin, Camille! Lets get on point! Wesley, Galina, help us out in the back!" shouted Jakob, as if he were still in the Army. "Sister, provide us some fire support!" he said, before darting towards the stairs. He honestly hoped that whatever Madame Mariette was planning with Gentleman Aleister would work. As Jakob neared the staircase, he shot down a ghoul that charged straight towards him. Dead center mass. He pumped the shotgun again, and shot another ghoul in the face. That one had been a constable at one point. "Lets go! Get ready for when Madame Mariette gives us the signal! Inquisitor, please stay behind!"

 

[Infab]

As Ethraeil attempted to combat the powerful vampire that was Cassandra down on the street, Mariette began to cast an intricate hex upon Cassandra. Every step and action she had done countless times before, and this time was no different. The hex was prepared and cast, marking Cassandra down below. Now the question would be if it worked or not once Cassandra made her way back inside.

------

With a bit of brute force, the group punched through the ghouls at the top of the stairs and began to make their way down over the bodies. The ghouls attempted to push back, charging them as they came down, but most were cut down with revolver and shotgun fire. Rosanna also made a quick stop to get her lever-action rifle, and was now racking up ghoul felling shots.

------

The dark spell that Ethraeil cast caught Cassandra by surprise, hitting her in the face and forcing her to stumble backwards in confusion. It seemed as though the spell he cast had robbed her of her vision for a few moments, causing her to swat at the air around herself. "Shit! My eyes!" she said aloud, clawing at her face with one hand while continuing to swat away with the other.

 

[Dmaster]

Camille just replied to Jakob's words with a nod, quite ready to dispatch the ghouls as the vampire leaped out the window. She ran quite quickly to the front of the group, cleaning up any remaining ghouls with rapid stabs to the heart. It is clear that there is merit to the huntress' words, moving like a breeze through swiping claws and biting maws before following up with a quick slash or finishing stab. The group was making good progress to make their way out of the inn, and the Escarian noble made sure she would not get in the line of sight of her allies using firearms. She had not been filled in on the details too much beyond some kind of dark magic at play, but her current focus had been clearing the room out to the best of her ability. Down the staircase she went, tossing out daggers with surprising accuracy at the ghoulish inhabitants.

"I'm with you! The fight has barely even started!" she calls out while her left hand retrieves more silver quills. "Let's hope the animated dust pile can hold his own out there."

 

[K0mori]

Snapping the grimoire closed with one hand, Mariette turned and nodded. "The illusion is in place; I'm certain I completed the ritual correctly. Aleister, you and I have just slain the inquisitors. Their bodies litter the stairs with the ghouls, and their blood is on our hands. We need to keep the enemy occupied. The rest of you- whoever is staying behind with Mademoiselle Valeria, you all are invisible to her eyes, moving about behind the backdrop, so to speak. Be ready to pounce when the moment is right!"

With that, Mariette took a deep breath and calmed herself, straightening up despite the harrowing sounds of combat in the street outside and in the inn downstairs, and walked casually to the end of Valeria's bed. She sat down and pretended as if the battle was over, as if she couldn't see the reality around her.

 

[Viper Actual]

Several things had happened at once. Ghouls had suddenly appeared and then thr lich had charged the vampire standing inside Witlock's room.

Before Galina was able to shoulder her rifle Cassandra had jumped out the window as well.

Galina cursed and then shook her head as Jakob started barking out orders. "Are we setting up an ambush or fleeing? We can't do both at the same time, constable."

She then gestured with her hands at the group clearing the inn of ghouls and the other group which were forming up around Witlock.

 

[Emperor Sagan]

Aleister was unsure on what was happening at first as he emptied his revolver into the ghouls, and when he needed to reload he backed his way into the inquisitor's room. Their enemy and the lich had taken a tumble out the window and into the street below, and the ghouls were still pouring in like maddened hounds that smelled fresh meat. He nodded to Mariette when she explained her plan. An illusion. A very clever trick if it could work, and a deadly mistake if this Cassandra saw through it. He started reloading his revolver and stopped, realizing that if he and Mariette had 'slain' the others, he should have some spent rounds in his revolver. He wasn't sure if that was included in the illusion or not - it wasn't his specialty in magic. Certainly, he knew a thing or two on sorcery overall as he had his own field of spells he could cast, but Mariette was far, far more advanced than he was when it came to illusions and the like.

He followed her lead, taking a deep breath and pretending that the battle was over and that she and him had taken out the others. Aleister leaned against the wall of the room across from Mariette, and held his revolver with the breach-action snapped open to display some spent rounds.

"Should... should I call to her and see if she will enter back into the inn? Will that break the illusion? From the sounds of it, I think her and the lich are going at it still...."

 

[K0mori]

"Leave her be. She'll be lured back by the sound of silence any moment now," Mariette answered, her tone chillingly flat and emotionless. It was obvious that the scene was far from silent, but Aleister began to understand that the tricks Mariette was trying to play on Cassandra's mind were extensive. "As long as no one detonates a bomb downstairs, I can hold her attention away from all that for about... a minute... maybe two. Don't react to anything that happens outside the scene I gave you. If the Duchess or the Constable walks back into this room, if they cross your path, you don't see them, you don't hear them, they don't exist. We have one chance to get this right."

 

[Emperor Sagan]

Aleister nods, grinning slightly. "Ah... I think I understand a little better. This is all like a... a stage play. My dear mistress, one of my longest passions has been the stage. Putting on an act is simply second nature." And especially true for many vampires.

He takes another deep breath to focus himself and clear his mind, and he adjusts his mentality to that of when he was in any position in a play. He and Mariette were the star roles, having just betrayed their former employers to take sides with the lead villain, a dastardly and deadly vampiress, only with the intention of betraying them as well! And here they waited for their villain to step center stage and join the scene, which was to be littered with blood and corpses. It was tragic. He could already hear the accompanying violins playing out their wailing tune.

 

[Radley]

As the group began pushing their way downstairs, Erwin returned to his room. Well there he sheathed his cutlass and reloaded his revolver. After that he three his bandolier and baldric across his chest and took out his rifle.
It was a breech loaded variant, configured for a large and deadly caliber of ammunition

As he had loaded the rifle he slowly peaked into the corridior and down the hall. It was riddled with bulletholes and some ghouls littered the top of the stairs. Turning the other way, he made his way towards Valeries room, where he intended to fire upon camille through the broken window.

As he entered the room he found Aleister and Mariette, seemingly hiding. He eyed the pair with slight suspicion.
"What's going on here?" He asked in a low voice while cocking the rifles hammer half a step.

 

[Infab]

Valeria waved at Erwin from where she sat in the corner of the room, as she had moved there to wait for Cassandra to return. In hand, her long sawback sword. She'd be ready to behead Cassandra should she get the chance to. "Stay low, keep quiet, and don't move. When Cassandra comes back, we wait for a good moment and strike. We need to behead her as quickly as possible." she said, just loud enough for Erwin to hear her. "They've set up an illusion to fool her. Don't bother them."

-----

Down the stairs, the group managed to finish off the onslaught of ghouls that had been sent up after them. Corpses were scattered about, the inn's common room quite the mess from before Cassandra's appearance in Valeria's room. "That takes care of that. Now, gotta hide. Cassandra will likely be back." said Rosanna, nudging Jakob with her elbow and motioning to the others. They could all very easily slip behind the bar, as it was tall enough to conseal them all. The question was if that illusion thing she heard Mariette talking about with Valeria would work.

Rosanna moved over to the bar quickly, vaulting over it and dropping down behind it with her rifle in hand.

-----

As Cassandra continued to rub at her eyes, eventually her vision cleared up. "Cheap shot, lich. I'd expect nothing less from your ki--" she said, before noticing that the lich was now a simple pile of bones on the ground before her. She raised an eyebrow. What happened? Did he finally kill over? She glanced up to the window from where she had dropped before, and noticed that things were now quite silent inside the inn. "Quite curious..." she said to herself, strolling towards the front entrance of the inn.

As she strolled by the windows, she could see inside that the ghouls had all been slain. As well as what appeared to be a few of Valeria's group. Cassandra grinned a bit. Either the ghouls had managed to kill them, or two very special individuals had turned their backs on the group. She moved inside, gracefully stepping over the various bodies scattered about as she walked quietly up the stairs. The sight of more of Valeria's group being dead made her even happier. "My oh my, Raven. Your luck finally ran out!" she said, as she noticed Camille's corpse on the floor at the top of the stairs.

As she strolled down the bullet ridden hallway, she began to sang softly to herself. "Weep for the master that made me, and the raven that heard my last breath...Long have the hunters persued me, and tonight I'm your angel of death." she said, noticing that Rosanna's body lay halfway into another room. As she strolled past, she smiled as she noticed Rosanna's head had been brutally smashed inside. "Fire...blood and desire...lost in the mire, in desolation. Lies...all of us die...and even now I am left to the ravens." Her singing ended when she stepped into Valeria's room to see Aleister and Mariette.

And Valeria's corpse on the floor. Beheaded. Next to her, the lich's shattered phylactery.

"Beautiful work! I knew there was something about you both that I liked." she said, waving her off hand to the side before sheathing her rapier.

 

[Breadman]

Theodore didn't say a thing as Cassandra had been gloating. He did agree with Camille however. She talked too much. He intended to empty his revolver into the vampire's body until he heard the ghouls storming in. Turning around, he started emptying into them instead. It all seemed to happen too quickly as the next moment he knew, they were already at the stairs, with the creatures lying dead.

He followed Rossana's instructions and got behind the bar, waiting for the vampire to take the bait.

 

[EdwardDewey98]

Jakob hid behind the bar as instructed by Rosanna, paying close attention to his surroundings. If that creature walked in, then they'd need a plan to ambush it. The inquisitor would take care of it afterwards, he assumed. When Cassandra walked in, singing her song as she gracefully walked through the dead ghouls, Jakob looked to Rosanna. "...should we sneak behind her? Or let those upstairs handle this?" he whispered, worrying about the others that hadn't followed downstairs.

 

[joshuadim]

Ethraeil had prepared for another attack while Cassandra was distracted by his own spell. He summoned a blade of ice to his hand, a weapon to close the distance between the two. He would've struck had something peculiar not happened. It was almost as if to Cassandra... he wasn't a threat anymore? Silently he followed her, ice blade at the ready for the eventual silent attack. He was confused for a brief moment until he realized this was magic at work. He played the role of silent menace as he followed her right to Valeria's room. They were all fine, including Valeria, and he put a finger to his mouth as to signal to stay quiet.

 

[K0mori]

Mariette grinned, more to herself than to Cassandra, giving the appearance of quiet pride as she stood up from the bed. "Not exactly how I had imagined things going when I came all this way to Grimtham, but these vermin were getting under my skin with all their vile hatred... I was ready for a long grind, wearing down their resolve with magic and honeyed words, but it feels good to get it done quickly. My name is Mariette, by the by, and this friend of mine is Aleister; they brought him here against his will and were forcing his cooperation. I suppose you've done us both a great favor and saved us a lot of grief, Madame Bainbridge, but we barely know who you are."

During this dialogue, the ambush crept into motion. Mariette knew the illusion couldn't last forever, but she felt compelled to try and extract something useful from her foe while she had the opportunity. She could only ask a few questions, and she wanted Aleister to have the chance to speak as well, since the man would likely think of something she hadn't considered. She made her first inquiry count: "When we saw the bodies, we knew it was bait, to bring the inquisition here. I even suggested so much to the Senior Inquisitor so that she expected this sort of an ambush. But why? Is this just sport to you? Or is this part of some greater effort against the enemy? ...Because if so, Madame, how else can I lend my assistance?" She flashed another grin- nothing too manic, just ready for more action. Ready for more killing, if need be.

Be the monster they think you are, she coached herself.

 

[Viper Actual]

Galina was crouched next to Valeria. Her rifle was shouldered and loaded with fragmenting silver-bullets.

Her eyes locked onto Cassandra as the latter returned to inspect the carnage.

Slowly, Galina adjusted her aim. The muzzle of her rifle was pointed between Cassandra's knees and hips.

 

[Radley]

Erwin heard Cassandra approach in the hallway. He cast knowning glances at the party members in the room before nodding and silently turning around towards the door.

As Cassandra entered he steadied his nerves and took aim at almost point blank with the powerful rifle, keeping his aim trained at her heart.

He breathed with utmost reserve, knowing that the illusion might not cover his presence and close proximity to the vampire. He looked back towards Galina, who was also aiming her own weapon. He made a slow chopping motion towards Cassandra before turning her focus back to the target.

 

[Infab]

Cassandra smiled, waving her hands to the side. "Its a mixture of business and pleasure. I've been killing inquisitors and members of the church ever since my rebirth as a vampire. You see, they're the reason I was turned, and I find it fitting that I'm able to show them just how big of a mistake that was. I've turned their slaughter into a business, selling my services to other vampires much like yourselves. Should the church or inquisition come knocking, I distract them, lure them away, and slaughter them." she said, adding a chuckle to the end. Her stance shifted, as she glanced down to Valeria's illusionary corpse. "As for assistance, perhaps you can! My employer is always looking for more recruits. Maybe you'll even be granted the same gift I was." Her glowing red eyes shifted, turning back to their beautiful emerald color from before.

"Things are still in the early stages, however, so for now...just do you! I can easily find you again when the time is right. Here, as thanks for assisting me in this lovely little bloodbath." she said, before reaching beneath her cloak. She drew out two vials of blood, both marked with a blue label. "Pure werewolf blood. Post transformation. Tsavanian breed. I believe they are of...House Romanov! A very nice bloodline, if I do say so myself." She holds the vials out, offering them to both Aleister and Mariette.

------

Rosanna looked to Jakob and the others. "...you guys stay here. Jakob, hold my head." she says, before reaching up and removing her head. She gently hands it over to Jakob, before quietly standing and climbing over the bar. Soon enough, they watched Rosanna's headless body slowly climbing the stairs to join the ambush party.

 

[EdwardDewey98]

Jakob awkwardly held Rosanna's head while her body departed for the stairs. He looked down at it. "Uh...go do...heroic things, sister." he said, gently petting it.