Log:My Uninvited Guests

Grimm Family Matters 2020/09/02 	 Amelia Timewarp Radical Slinger Grimm

15

This three-story manor has a medieval feel to it with stone and large-timber construction, and even an actual stone tower on one corner. The windows are all multi-paneled and immoveable or actuated. There is a large and elaborate stained-glass window on the second floor consisting of three panels.

Last time, on Grimm Family Matters...

Slinger was merrily playing Whack-A-Spider with Cliff and/or Claude, taunting, dodging, and generally doing whatever a spider can.

Amelia had placed a portal on the ground to Middle of Nowhere Antarctica then concealed it, hoping that the jumping spider might jump over it and lure his attackers into the pit trap.

Meanwhile, the others had breached the basement wall at the end of their tunnel. Once inside the house, Shady was able to create a gate directly into the study/den/trophy room (with the fancy stained-glass windows that proved shadow dragon-resistant) to reveal Victor at his desk. With this 'window' of opportunity (the gate, not stained-glass), Grimm and Radical co-blasted Victor into the stained-glass window, from which he bounced back over the desk to skid along the floor.

What was once Victor now looks to be a blasted, shadow-smoking, partially-imploded corpse with more bone visible than is considered healthy.

And now...

Amelia the trapper and Slinger the bouncing mole-spider see that Cliff and Claude both suddenly stop in unison, turn their heads towards the house's mid-level, and vanish in puffs of shadow.

 Amelia says, "Radical, heads up. You may have incoming shadow beasts."

The cacophonous crash of singularity and shadow still rings in Grimm's ear, along with a high pitch extended tone. She takes several deep breathes as she stares at the grizzly results, frozen. The adrenaline finally drains from her, as does the resolve she had to carry this through. What's left behind is a terrible feeling in the pit of her stomach. Her knees give out and buckle. She lands on them, then falls back to sit on her heels while her hand remains outstretched as it was when she cast her deadly blast, staring on in horror.

 Radical says, "Thanks. I...think I know why."

 Radical says, "We may have killed him. By accident. Maybe."

Timewarp turns on Grimm with anger such as she seldom shows. "I said I -wasn't- going to help you kill anyone. What the hell was that?!"

Radical turns to Timewarp, "He's a dark mage! You would think he would have been able to handle that! He KNEW we were here! You KNEW that HE knew!"

"Ummm-- did we do that good of a job scaring the lovely couple off or do you think we should catch up witht he others?" Slinger asks rhetorically. He nods towards the way the others went in and moves to catch up.

Radical adds, "And don't just blame Grimm. I fired at him too." His voice gets quieter toward the end, knowing that he may have made a grave error in judgement in assuming the mage had defenses up.

"I...I..." Gabrielle stammers. "I wanted to find another way..." she says in despair. "I thought he'd be resistant to my powers."

Amelia doesn't even hesitate, "Judging from the tone of Radical's voice I'd say get in there as fast as possible. Which means you going ahead. I'll catch up when I can, Slinger."

Grimm shakes her head and looks up at Radical, her eyes tearing up. "It's...it's my fault. Not yours. You wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for me."

Timewarp knows on some level that Radical is right, but at the moment is feeling overwhelmed, and not a little sick. "I need some air." She vanishes.

Radical steps through the portal to where they see Victor. "Something is off here. He knew we were coming. He wouldn't have let his guard down."

 Amelia says, "Slinger is on his way. So am I but I'm slower. What happened in there?"

Grimm gets up slowly and steps through the shadow gate after Radical. She's trembling with each step. "Was he just that arrogant?"

"See you there." SLinger says, bouncing straight into the hole dug and disappearing down it fairly quickly.

 Radical says, "Grimm opened a portal to his study. She and I opened fire, and he looks...pretty dead. We both assumed he would defend himself, since he knew we were here. We set off all kinds of magical alarms."

 Amelia says, "Don't let your guard down. You don't kill a mage that easily. 100 to 1 it's a trick."

Radical shrugs, "No idea. KEep an eye out for his pet shadow creatures, though. Thye're not gone yet."

 Radical says, "I'm of two minds. I kind of hope he IS dead, but at the same time...I don't really want to have killed him. I'm not sure that makes any sense."

Grimm tries not to get sick to her stomach and get her wits about her. She keeps alert for the shadows, trying to use her shadow sight to scan the interior of the home for them or anything else askew.

Slinger continues moving towards the others until he skids to a halt behind them.

"What is that smell? Its like you guys caught him with the duck l'orange in the oven..." Slinger says as he tries to get a better look on things. "Oh."

Radical scans the room with his magical sight...and dimensional too, in case he's actually watching them from another plane.

Amelia is making her way through the tunnel so she can join the others.

Grimm is more focused on watching Radical's back than what's going on in the rest of the house. She looks over at Slinger as he arrives with a haunted expressin.

Timewarp reappears. She seems to have calmed down entirely. "The servants have disappeared. The house is completely empty. So it must have been a trick."

Slinger weighs the various responses available to him as he reads Grimm's expression. Sure they were so gung-ho before, but he can read body language as well as just about anyone on Earth. He can tell that she's having regrets- the same ones he faces with his new artifical morality.

He remains silent, hoping over Price to comfort Grimm. He keeps his guard up while he puts an arm around her shoulder.

Grimm sinks against Slinger as he puts his arm around her shoulder, covering her mouth. When Timewarp suggests it really is a trick, she's still not sure to believe it when it's tricked her shadow sight so thoroughly.

Radical furrows his brow and he crouches to look at the body. He's a little hesitant, but he knows his dimensional harness should hopefully protect him if Victor springs up as undead. "Maybe he's a simulacrum? Or some other kind of duplicate?"

Amelia arrives and flinches a little on seeing the body. Even so she's still convinced it's a trick. Starting after a moment to catch her breath from the run, she begins casting a disenchantment spell of the body, suspecting its a construct.

Timewarp goes to search the surrounding area for any sign of Victor and friends. Mostly because she can't stand to be in the same place as the body.

Slinger leaves the magicking to the magickers. He rubs Grimm's shoulder and whispers to her quietly, "It'll be alright- either way. We'll find another way or we'll get through this, with your family made whole again."

Grimm sniffs and wipes the tears from her eyes, nodding at Slinger's words. She suddenly thinks on something and looks for that golden light from before.

Timewarp reappears. "Don't know if this is a problem but the hole in the basement wall is shrinking! If we can't make another way out we're trapped!"

Radical looks over toward Timewarp, "Well, trapped until we blow a hole in it again, anyway." He finishes lookign at the body, "Well...definitely dead." He shakes his head and looks over toward Grimm, "What now? Any way we can confirm that thsi is actually him, and he's no longer really a threat?"

As if cued by Timewarp's return and comment, the room dims slightly, if just for a moment. In that flicker, Shady's portal promptly collapses and vanishes with a *PLINK*.

"Of course you are trapped, my uninvited guests..." comes a voice semi-familiar to some along with a chuckle.

This comes from roughly behind the group at the doors to the study. Standing there is a ... nearly-familiar mane. He isn't middle-aged, and looks to be in his early twenties, but is wearing the same tailored suit. If not for very subtle differences, Grimm would swear it was Jonathon.

He's holding the shrivelled, dessicated remains of a woman in a maid uniform, at least until he discards them to the floor.

To either flank are the matched set of the dark demonic duo.

"Welcome to my home. It will be the last place you ever visit."

Amelia straigthens up. "See, told you it was a trick."

Grimm doesn't get a chance to answer Radical. She gasps as the portal shuts suddenly, cutting Shady off from her. She whips around to face Victor, but the sight of him causes her to hesitate in fear briefly due to the resemblance to Jonathon. She takes a breath and pushes down those old fears as she notices the subtle differences. "Yeah, you told us so," she agrees with Amelia, looking to the poor servant who paid the price.

Timewarp quickly fetches materials to tie the three up with. Almost certainly pointless in the case of the demons and likely the magician, but if there are illusions about who can tell who is really whom.

Amelia says, "Just for the record, you wouldn't care to surrender now would you?"

"Oh well look at that." Slinger says, straightneing up a bit. "And here I thought I wasn't going to be able to punch you in the mouth before the da-- evening was over." He gives Grimm a gentle squeeze before releasing her so he can have some move to manuever.

Slinger shoots a webline beyond Vincent Price and yanks himself along it- looking to do exactly as threatened.

And so Slinger is able to get in his punch to the face! Victor's head snaps to the side, but he otherwise doesn't move... except to turn his head back to eye Slinger. "Your annoyance will cease shortly, I assure you."

"I was really hoping for a glass jaw." Slinger says as he bounces from foot to foot. "Oh will it? I wish I could tell you how many times someone has made that promise. I'll eat my mask if you're the one Mr. Lice."

Victor attmpts to ease the annoyance promptly, as delightful imagery of the Qliphothic wafts its way towards Slinger's brain. Meanwhile, Cliff and Claude use their claws upon the ropes and drapes Timewrap toga-tied them with.

Slinger is about to add something else that came to mind and attach a series of explitives when suddenly his lifted finger droops and his arm follows. He wobbles from sides to side- stunned from the mental flaying he's had visited upon him.

Cliff and Claude haven't forgotten the bouncing games played outside. Claude leaps towards Amelia the pit-trap-creator. Meanwhile, Cliff... doesn't even need to take a half step forwards really. Look, it's the mole. Sitting there. To be whacked. It's maw opens wider. It could be smiling.

Amelia hurried casts a barrier spell to raise a wall of force between Slinger and the shadow creature going for him.

Amelia gasps as the shadow claw rakes at her side and draws blood.

Cliff's claws are -barely- thwarted by Amelia's barrier over Slinger, though the protection pays the price. Claude does manage to get a swipe into her with her attention diverted, though.

Grimm is more cautious this time with her powers. She looks to Radical and says, "Try again, with a little less punch?"

Radical snorts, "Less? I saw him take that shot from Slinger. I think he set up a dupe for us."

Grimm nods. "Okay, then more punch."

Radical nods to Grimm and unleashes another singularity at Victor, using both hands to try to focus it.

Grimm raises her hand and sends a dark blast of energy at Victor in sync with Radical.

The results this time are far less spectacular. A micro-singularity flies over Victor's shoulder and a good portion of Grimm's Qliphothic blast is dispersed before it even hits him. The remaining impact is an impact, and he felt it. Just not in any satisfying way for most.

On the bright side, there seems no danger of conscience-torturing murder!

Timewarp decides that the best thing she can do is to try to keep a demon busy so the others have one less opponent to worry about. To this end she starts piling furniture on Cliff.

Timewarp buries Cliff under a huge pile of furniture. She makes sure there are some good firm items - a couple of table tops - between the demon and Slinger.

Slinger starts to come to.

Victory sees Cliff rapidly buried, and Slinger partially obscured as a result. It is no matter, as his eyes were already turning towards Grimm. "Such a spoiled, petulant child. You did -nothing- to -earn- the power you wield. You are nothing but a means to an end; a pretty face my son caught notice of. You don't deserve your gifts... but I can make far better use of them...

Tendrils (metaphysically) of Q magic reach out for Grimm, only to be swatted away. by more Q magic.

Cliff attempts to redecorate Timewarp's redecoration while Claude claws at Amelia.

Grimm raises her hand and makes a swiping motion to redirect the spell. "Maybe not, but I did more good than you ever did with yours. I saved people. I reunited families. I stopped monsters!"

Amelia is clawed again, drawing quite a lot more blood. She bites her lip and powers through, ignoring the would as she was trained to do by the White Circle.

The section of furniture becomes a section of not-quite-so-limiting kindling and tatters. Amelia fares better, only clawed once by Claude.

Amelia speeds up, using mana to enhance her dexterity. She pulls a small blue glowing stone from a belt pouch and tosses it into the air, whereupon it splits into three, one fragment heading for each opponent, breigthening in intensity to a blinding brilliance.

Amelia is a little surprised at tagging Victor but more hoped to catch the shadow creatures, especially with a bright flare of light.

Radical furrows his brow and fires again at Victor. This time he makes the singularity a bit broader. He doesn't have a feel for the kind of defenses that Victor is using yet, so he's testing.

The singularity doesn't seem to be dampened as Grimm's power was... though maybe Radical made it -too- broad? It -is- supposed to be a point of infinit mass, right? Maybe he made it a little too light, as it's effects are ... negligible. On the other hand, they are less negligibile than his prior miss!

Timewarp has no idea how mobile the demons are, but given the ineffectiveness of the pile of furniture she tries another tack. She ages the floor underneath Cliff rapidly!

Maybe it's a good thing that the maid isn't alive to watch as that portion of the floor discolors, warps, and then rots away before the eyes. If Cliff were not free of its furniture prison (which it is), it would have been anyhow as it falls through the floor that isn't there anymore.

Timewarp grins and says to Victor, "Best to surrender soon, or you won't have a house left."

Slinger finally shakes it all off. He frowns.

"Ok. So one of those days huh? Alright, Wiseguy." Slinger says a bit angrily. "Let's see how you deal with a bit more annoyance."

Slinger shoots a line and runs, sliding over the rapidly aging floor to get to Victor.

He attempts to climb all over him and cocoon him in webbing. He's hoping his imagining needs line of sight or perhaps room to wiggle his arms about to do his dark art.

Slinger bobs and weaves, boucning and flipping about and often jsut straight climbing over Price- leaving thick strands of webbing in his wake, until the man is covered from the top of his head on down.

Victor may now not be seen... nor be able to see anything... but the fact that he has gone from annoyed to upset is made evident. Partly by a yell that grows in both volume and drops in timbre as it crescendos. Partly due to the fact that the vibration of it seems to shake and/or awaken the house or room they're standing in (minus the hole in the floor).

The final hint is the suddenly encroaching shadowy ...stuff ...cold... Qliphothic? that now emits from him like an inverse directional lamp in the general direction of the room and those in it. It feels cold as it seeks to sap the very energy from the living it touches.

"Doesn't look like Mr. Lice deals with annoyance very well." Slinger notes as he tries to ignore the tiring feeling he's suddenly washed over with.

"I wonder what he'll think of my stand-up routine. I've been working on it- taking notes. I'm limiting my 'woogha-wooghas' to 2 per joke and everything, Mr. Lice. I think you'll be very impressed. Didn't have room for the foghorn though. Or the mallet... or watermelon. But we'll make due." Slinger says cheerfully despite the drab atmosphere.

Grimm winces, feeling the affects of her powers and strength getting siphoned off of her.

Even Grimm's protective field dims a little from Victor's magic.

Amelia pulls her staff out and shakes it so it expands to full length. Leaping over to bounce off a wall she tries to blindside Victor and swings the staff in an overhead downwarsd strike for an annoying mage skull.

Amelia twirls the staff, "I hope you can at least see this, Will. I still miss you."

What might be a sharp crack is slightly muffled by the webbing, though the impact still transmits through the stretchy stuff. Victor didn't see it coming, but he sure felt it. It's enough to crumple him to his knees... or at least that what it looks like. He is a webbed-blob of an annoying mage right now, afterall.

"Aww yeah! THe hits are just gonna keep coming now, Baby! Whooga-whoogha!" Slinger shouts in Vincent Price's ear. Its almost as if he's trying to be more annoying than he's ever been before. Though he's pretty certain focus helps all types- even magisterators of doom and gloom.

Radical moves a bit to the side to get a clear shot at Victor, not wanting to hit Amelia. He lets loose with another singularity, again adjusting the weapon's settings.

This time, the singularity is more rewarding. It certainly had a nasty impact on Victor. It imploded its way through the webbing and still had enough oomph to shred parts of his suit and injure him.

This might explain the grimace of anger, and possibly even the golden eyes and black veins on his face.

Grimm takes advantage of being able to see Victor's face. She tries to lash out at his mind, though she suspects his powers will deflect that, too.

Victor's mind proves far too hardened... or slippery, for the moment.

Timewarp decides it's time for Claude to join Cliff on the lower floor, so the others can concentrate on beating up Victor - which seems to be going quite well.

Claude go down da hole... Now the game appears to be ...reverse Whack-A-Demon?

Slinger seems to have found a tactic that works.

"Ding-Ding-Ding!" Slinger shouts before he leaps at Price and tries to web him down all over again.

Slinger flips about and replaces the cocoon that Radical broke. "Alright- Act 2!" He annoucnes before he remembers somehting.

"Oh right." He leans over to Price and shouts, "WHOOGHA-WHOOGHA!!!!" Then he whispers, "I really hope you're enjoying our show & getting everything you worked so hard for, Mr. Lice."

Gravity is a b$#@!. Just ask Porter. However, the floor below isn't THAT far down. First one, then the other, of the demonic dark duo reappear by hopping back up through the holes in the floor. Both step back, however, returning to their original flanking of the (now re-webbed) Victor.

The prior hazy shadow emitting from him stops, seeming to retract like an inverse light slowly shut off or a reverse of light creeping into a room as a door opens. His countenance may be covered, but his ire is not as contained as the rest of him appears to be.

Laugther emits from the webs as they stand. "You ignorant fools know nothing of power, even that handed to you by fate. You fight against the inevitable, Daugther of Grimm. A destiny neither you nor your sister will escape. I will show you a glimpse of the inevitable..."

Darkness begins to suddenly emerge from him: through the webbing, perhaps even through him. It is not hazy, nor shadowy. It is utter dark. As it spreads across the room, features are lost.

When it reaches the chandalier overhead, a series of rapid detonations occur. When it reaches the candelabra on the desk, the flames extinguish in small puffs of explosion.

Welcome to The Shining Darkness.

"So ... am I suppsoed to be impressed?" Slinger asks. "I mean. Good job. You turned out the lights. My 2 year old cousin can do that with a step-stool, Lice."

He clearly doesn't know how much trouble they're in.

Grimm pales as she senses where they've suddenly found themselves. "Oh no. This is bad. Very, very bad."

Log:Welcome to The Shining Darkness