Log:Army of Darkness, Scene 1

Army of Darkness 2013/10/28 	 Expatriate Ghost Lightray Snow Ten Yameen 1

Reports come in through multiple channels: police radioing for backup involving a meta-level threat, PDA photos and video shots being posted to the internets in realtime. There's a robbery in progress on Pennyroyal Lane, conducted by a giant... demon... for lack of a better term.

Ten swings hurriedly across town. "Demon" is for her always worrying, but at the same time not to be ignored. As she crests Colonial Heights she scans for the "giant demon".

A birght dot of light grows brighter as Lightray flies down from the sky above the city. Sunlight is wrapped around his body in protective field as he absently fingers a black band on his upper arm. He scans Pennyroyal Lane with all his senses looking for the reported demon.

Ghost was already the the Artist's District, picking up a commissioned brooch for one of the friends back on Undermoon. While possibly not up to the craftsmanship of Fae jewelry there's a demand for the more 'primitive' style of Earth artifacts. So the sound of sirens comes direct to her ears, and of course she has to investigate. Curiosity, catt killer. Hopefully not Ghost killer.

Considering that several recent chains of events, some somewhat innocuous, proved related parts are greater schemes, Yameen is most vigilant of current events. A giant demon is anything but innocuous, and certainly worthy of investigation. She reaches a nearby rooftop from the northwest and stops to survey the area. The reports are likely exagerrated, but what could one easily mistake for a giant demon?

Snow was actually hoping for something to do in hero guise, so was monitoring channels and when the call goes out, she changes and then slides around on her ice slides towards where the robbery was occuring, arriving at the scene and looking around so see where she might be needed.

Expatriate just happens to be near somebody with a police scanner. What luck! Zooming into the air, she flies to the scene.

On the scene, the heroes can see the monster in person, and it lives up to the reports. I t stands roughly 8 feet tall on cloven feet, with dark furred skin covering a bulky, muscles frame. It's eyes are deep hollowed sockets with blue-white light smouldering inside those twin pits. It has a pair of bull horns that arc forwards, with the tips within its field of view.

The store being robbed is a curios shop on Pennyroyal, called Lucky Find. The demon stands outside the shop barking orders to robed DEMON agents who are inside. "It must be in there." the demon says. "Don't stop searching until you find the box!"

The police are on the scene already, a handful of officers are trying to establish a perimeter, shouting "Keep back! Keep back!" There are already a pair of cops lying unconscious on the ground within 5m of the monster.

Ghost shouts out a warning, "Yen. Watch those horns. Jusging from its physique I'd expect it to favour goring attacks using them."

Ten,once she's about 15m from the demon, decides to hit first and ask questions later. She rams herself forward straight at the demon with her expanding staff, almost a horizontal pole vault.

Ten says as she fails to budge the demon, "Huh. Dense as you're ugly."

The monster stands firm, not budging an inch, even though Ten strikes him solidly. "Hello, Ten," he says.

Ten thinks. o O ($^#!)

Ten says, "Um - have we met?"

Snow watches as Ten's attack doesn't seem to do all that much to the Demon, and then she shakes her head and slides a bit closer before she gathers frost in front of her hands and hurls a few icicles at the demon.

Snow's icicles crash into the demon's thick hide. He seems to weather the ice well enough.

"How could I not know you," the monster says. "Your name is known amongst the ranks of the underworld, along with others who have defied the Reaper."

"Enjoy what is left of your wretched existence. The Reaper is coming; the ledgers will be balanced."

Ten thinks. o O (Damn. I was hoping the Reaper didn't know about me, just his underling....)

Ghost calls out, "Anyone with the ability to affect an area ought to concentrate on the DEMON agents. The guys in the store. The demon is a treat that I feel confident Ten can contain and Ten and I between us can drive off." Meanwhile she looks with intent focused gaze at the ground beneath the demon's feet.

Ten says, "Hey, thanks for the good wishes. So, what are you doing here? I mean, you look the kind of demon who would find a bit of shoplifting beneath him..."

The monster stumbles and falls to the ground.

Brimstone climbs up to his feet. He opens his maw, and sucks in a deep breath that causes everyone feel a chill deep within their bones.

Ghost says, "Change of priority, lets take that demon out of the picture."

Lightray shudders slightly but flies to where the police officer's lay and takes up a protective postiion between their apparently unconscious forms and Brimstone. He divides his attention between keeping an eye on Brimstone and an eye on his minions. "I name you Brimstone, minion of the Reaper. Physical titan and lifeforce vampire. And you are wrong, demon. The only ledgers that matters lie in the Courts of the Holy." His voice is quiet, deep, and strong.

The demon tenses as the lifeforce enters his body and relaxes as it begins to soothe his body from the attacks he's suffered.

Expatriate drops from above the shop, falling faster than gravity can account for, feet first toward the demon. She yells in accented English as she impacts (whether she impacts the demon or the pavement), "Ten, if we keep this guy close enough to his agents, he will clear them out better than I can inside fragile store, but we need to get any other bystanders back!"

Expatriate slams down into BRimstone with incredibel force. The demon grunts but seems ready to retaliate.

Expatriate is not so lucky. The impact leaves her momentarily woozy.

Yameen is not a kabbalist, and not a demon expert. Casual observation reveals that it is very resilient and, with the sudden weakness she feels, a devourer of souls as another mentioned. She observes it further for several moments, then leaps down from the rooftop to steet level.

Brimstone turns his smouldering eyes on Ghost. "Do you think a mere cantrip will stop me?" he roars, just before he tries to suck in more life energy.

Ghost tells the demon, "Yes. You might want to consider this. So far I've only used a training cantrip, and you're down on the ground. Do you really want me to start using combat spells?"

Lightray lifts his hand and fires a bolt of sunlight towards the Brimstone's opening moputh as he opens it to suck in life.

Brimstone's flesh burns as Lightray's magical sunlight cuts into him.

Brimstone's injuries from Lightray's blast begin to close.

Yameen continues to close towards the curio shop and, by necessity, the soul-stealing demon. The theft of life-force is quite uncomfortable, and could be fatal to many. Knowing the that creature is resilient, she aims more to hinder than directly harm. A slight leap when she reaches the beast, and she goes for the eyes with pointed fingers.

Brimstone's laughter comes as a bass, throaty rumbling. "I don't need to see you -- I can smell your life force, well enough to taste it!"

Ten can't do much to clear all the civilians away, so instead she tries to prevent Brimstone attacking at before by binding his mouth shut with her staff. She just hopes the demon isn't as strong as he is tough.

Ten constricts the coils of her staff, tangled about the demon's head and right arm.

Snow slides down to the front of the store, and holds up her hands into the store itself as frost flies and collects before a large blast of cold flies into the store as she tries to disable the agents.

The blast of cold causes most of the DEMON agents to cry out. Snow frosts them and the store alike, damaging a number of the shelves and racks of items.

Lightray tries to get a handhold on the two police officers and drag/fly them out of area of the combat over to their fellow officers on the perimeter.

Lightray hands the officers over to their people. "They are in deep shock. They need help and maybe a priest. Excuse me, I need to get back to it." He starts to fly back to the combat.

The shattering of the storefront, racks, and inventory pulls Yameen's attention from the demon. Despite the fact that it is large, next to her, and draining everyone's life-force. Her eyes widen at the senseless destruction, then turn to glare at the ice-launcher. "Are you careless or merely inept?! You do not need to destroy the entire building to stop them."

Brimstone frees himself from Ten's hold.

Ghost takes a Astral Step back and up, reappearing on a rooftop some 20m from Brimstone. Dropping to one knee and bracing she fires a stinger dart at the demon.

Ghost hears the solid *thump* as the hyper-speed dart punches into the demon.

Yameen moves away from the demon, past Snow, and into what remains of the store. Yelps of pain do not mean that any or all of the burglars were stopped.

Snow looks over at Yameen as she passes by, "Oh quiet, next time I will just let them wreck the inside since everyone else was ignoring them, and in the long run they would have done more damage." she calls out and then looks back at the two that are still standing within. One of her hands is covered in frost as she summons a snowball and hurls it at one of the two still standing.

POOFT! Snow flattens one of the two remaining DEMONites with a snowball.

One of the officers LIghtray removed from the scene starts to convulse and the glowing wonged hero remains behind to deal with him and his partner.

Ghost stays on one knee and fires a second stinger dart at the demon while maintaining the Trip cantrip.

Brimstone gets thunked by a second dart.

Ten says, "Come on, with your breath you should keep your mouth closed," as she tried to reentangle the demon's head and arm.

Ten resecures and retightens her staff about the demon.

Brimstone uses his hands to pry Ten's hold from his head and neck.

Yameen focuses upon the last remaining looter and closes on them. Whatever the target of their search, it is a safe assumption that they not be allowed to succeed. She grabs for the robed figure's arm with intent to leverage them to the ground.

Yameen twists the arm to straighten it and lock the elbow, then continues the movement. In addition to the sharp pain, the owner of the arm has no choice but to follow and ends up on the ground.

Snow sees Yameen take out the other agent so she turns and throws a blast of frost energy at the Demon, since it really is the only threat left.

Snow's blast misses Brimstone; he rolls onto one shoulder avoiding the blast.

Ghost continues a hopefully winning approach. But as well as firing her Spetdod and maintaining the Trip cantrip she rises to her feet, guessing she may the target of the demon's next attack and wanting to be able to react.

Brimstone and turns to blast Ten with twin eyebeams from his eerie sockets.

Ten weaves aside from the eyebeam blast and tries once again to restrain the demon's head. "Eyebeams *and* bad breath? Looks like I've been doing the right thing.

Yameen leaves the fallen agent to be interrogated once the demon is dealt with. She moves back the way she came, towards Brimstone.

Ten once again entangles the demon, this way taking care his eyes aren't pointing at anyone, but she doesn't have such good leverage for hurting him.

Snow wasn't too happy that her last blast missed and tries to blast it again with another frost ray.

Brimstone begins to fade from sight. "You may have stopped me today, but I will return. The Reaper is coming and he is raising an army. If you survive, perhaps we will meet again. But I am doubtful…" He teleports away, leaving a foul stench in the air.

Ten sighs as the demon escapes her staff once more, more convincingly this ti

Ten sighs as the demon escapes her staff once more, more convincingly this time. "Figures he'd get away. At least we have the humans to question - they must know what he was after..."

Yameen was moving to assist Ten with wrestling the creature, when it up and vanishes. She is momentarily surprised, then notices that Ten is not so. "This disappearance is common?" Now that the demon seems gone, if not in the way Yameen had intended, she returns to the store. Before rousing any of the unconscious agents, she surveys what and/or where they searched.

Ten says, "Don't know about 'common'. But in my experience demons get away before you can ask them questions."

Ghost says, "The creature has departed. I am unable to track it. Ten, you seem to have some prior knowledge of this beast. Can you comment? And may I say a well done to all involved here. The beast was more powerful than I expected, my expectations being based on its need to have humans present."

Ten goes over to the agents too. "Best check their pockets too, in case one of them found whatever."

[To Ghost] Ten says, "I know nothing, really. Other that that it was a servant of the Reaper, as is the demon who gave me my powers. And it seems to know about me, which is disturbing."

Ghost also heads to where Ten and Yameen are dealing with the agemts. She checks each out for magical items and removes any such from the agents before they recover consciousness.

Ghost accesses her memory and nods, "The threat of the Reaper coming with, I quote, an army. Should we take that seriously?

Rose enters from MagLev System.

Ghost says, "Demon instructed these minions to continue the search for a box. Mayhap one of these will provide further details on interogation."

Ten says, "I take it seriously. I mean, the demon could of course have been lying. But this Reaper is a seriously powerful demon - demons like the one we just met seem scared of him. And I know some of Colonial Bay's heroes have caught his attention."

Yameen cannot discern a pattern in their search, but they could well have had none. "A demon of standing and power, then." She knows little of demons, but the fact that others fear it is significant. She searches pockets for information and then looks over the shop for a box that could be their target... which could be any of many possibilities in a curios shop.

Ghost nods, "Including you, it seems, Ten. Could you post what you know on HeroNet? It may give others who encounter either the Reaper of one of his minions advantages in any such encounter."

The frequency of meta-human fights in Colonial Bay is such that they don't necessarily inspire the mass hysteria they do in other cities but they do still draw sizeable crowds. Seeing the commotion Rose withdraws a little way to don her costume and then takes to the air, flying to the scene in her cowled robe, approaching at moderate speed and from a direction she hopes provides maximum visibility. As a precaution she raises a shimmering shield of oily black droplets that seem to form some sort of protective barrier an inch away from her skin.

Ten says, "Like I said, really, I don't know anything useful...."

Ten says, "... but if anyone finds out anything useful about the Reaper or his underlings, *I'd* like to know!"

A diminutive cowled figure slowly descends onto the scene, looking around to attempt to determine what the situation might be. With the conflict apparently over the tiny person moves forward. When it speks the voice has obviously passed through some sort of distortion. "Is everything under control? Is there something I might be able to help with?"

Ghost says, "I will need to inform her Highness of this. Tem, could tyou come to the Enbassy and speak with her if she requests it?"

Ten says, "I'll do that - but at the moment I need to run! I'm late already....."

Ten swings hurriedly off in a roughly westerly direction.

Ghost says, "A pleasure seeing you in any case. And likewise to you, although I do not know your name. I am called Ghost."

Ghost is speaking to Yameen at the end of her comment.

Yameen looks to Ghost and looks her over in a quick survey before she nods. "I am known as Yameen. If I discover any new information of this Reaper, I will inform you, though I am not a kabbalist nor demonologist."

Ghost addresses the new arrival, "The demon has departed. The police may desire assistance with dealing with the agents who were searching the store here for something. I must go and inform her Highness of this and of the threat the demon issued." She looks at Yameen Thank you. Neither am I. My magical tradition is in the aspect of Elemenatal beings, not demons. There is one here who probably would be able to shed light on the subject. He goes by the name or Harlequin. Should you come into contact with him, could you ask him to contact me?!

The cowled figure nods and surveys the scene. "SO, it's likely they were after some artefact of infernal significance?" The darkened cowl slowly sweeps across the scene. Though distorted the voice of the robed figure sounds distracted. "I'm Ebon Star, I;m not an expert but I;ve studied some magic, maybe I can help."

Yameen nods to Ghost as she departs, then turns her attention to Ebon Star. "A box of some type, which is of limited help. I do not know whether it is the box or its contents that is siginifcant." Given that she resumes browsing the shelves, scattered items, and shatered remains of others, it can be assumed that the item in question has not yet been identified and located.

Ebon Star nods. "A box... okay." The tiny figure starts delicately picking its way through the store, head swivelling as it walks. Rather than pick anything up it just seems to stare with that darkened cowl.

"A search would be more simple were the store not half-destroyed," Yameen notes and eventually ceases her search. "It is also possible that the item is not here." Perhaps one of the DEMON agents will be able to provide more information, and she moves to one to see if consciousness can be returned.