Log:Chaos Reigns, Scene 5

Chaos Reigns 2014/12/18 	 Chen Cheshire Amy Grimm Carpenter Randal Duran Snow Starfish Lazare

5

This area is part of Colonial Bay City, but you wouldn't know it. Woodsy homes, set back away from the roads, are barely noticeable when passing by. Many of the driveways are still gravel or packed dirt. The rural feel of the area has been preserved with simple 2-lane roads cutting through the forested countryside. Various evergreens, birch and even some large oaks grow unfettered in this designated "green acres" section of town. The scattered houses blend into the natural setting, the muted wood tones and angular architecture hidden behind wooded lots. It's peaceful and serene, and wildlife appears to have taken refuge in this natural landscape.

At a recent press conference held by Detective Carpenter in regards to alleged murders (by a demon, no less) in the Harrisburg district, a small geometric shape arrived claiming (in binary) to be an emissary of the Lord Anthereon, one of the Lords of Order. It warned of something of huge import, though details were sketchy. It requested that the heroes contact the agent of Order on this plane, The Cartesian, to let him know what was impending...

The heroes are given a location by the emissary, and they along with Detective Carpenter arrive at the house to find Randal Duran injured in the back yard of the house. During conversation, it is revealed that he is The Cartesian. The potential issue that needs to be dealt with is an artifact of great power, the Ataxianate. It has the ability to control Entropy. It can increase it immensely, or dampen it until it's non-existant. Both extremes could be costly to the entire planet if the device is unleashed...

The forces of Chaos would like to use the device to their own ends, as would the Lords of Order. The Cartesian let the heroes know that he may be ordered to use the artifact to do his superiors' bidding, but he would likely refuse to do so. He also knew how to destroy the object...it had to be done with a ritual where it was made: Egypt.

Both Chen and Cheshire are still at the home of Randal Duran, along with the detective. The other heroes who were there have gone off to investigate other possibilities.

Randal seems to be feeling a little better, despite his obvious injury to his head. He stands, "I should be able to cast a spell that will track the entropic field that the artifact generates. Remember...the Ataxianate changes shape. I can't guarantee what it will look like."

Cheshire ponders. Speaks without moving her lips. "Is the MacGuffin dangerous to touch? If we can locate it, I can almost certainly obtain it."

Randal blinks, but then smiles, "I've never handled it myself. Based on the reading I've done, the artifact isn't dangerous in and of itself. However, it is a living entity. It may try to get you to unleash its power if you take a hold of it. Rather...there is a being of great power bound within the object."

Grimm(#2694POeACcF?)

A fair skinned young woman standing at 5' 6" with layered, textured long black hair. Shes wearing a half-buttoned up red flannel shirt with blue and dark red cross-lines on it, and an army green tank top underneath. Charcoal grey cargo capris end just below her knees, finished with ankle-high flat brown boots with a series of straps and buckles. The flannels sleeves are rolled up to her elbows.

On her right wrist is a black banded bracelet. A silver banded ring adorns each thumb. Her left eyebrow is pierced with a silver ring just past the arch. Her left ear has a helix piercing with a simple silver loop earring, with standard lobe piercings with black spiral hoop tribal earrings. Her eyes vary from blue to pitch black depending on her powers and mood. Dark eyeliner and eyeshadow shade her eyes, and her fingernails are painted a dark purple.

Goldie(#2559PeACcF?)

A sleek well groomed golden retriever with the most soulful pleading eyes ever seen, Especially when begging for sausages. The handsome bitch is large for the breed but friendly to nearly all, a wagging tail and alert almost intelligent look.

Cheshire(#2471PeCcF?)

A petite teenaged girl, barely 5' tall, fair skinned. Her most striking feature is her hair. Pink on the right, brown on the left, irregular length, varying from shoulder to midback, gathered in a loose pony tail at the nape of her neck. Her eyes are similarly mismatched, one green, one blue. Which is which seems to change from time to time, between blinks of her eyelids.

She's wearing a mid-thigh length pink waistcoat/blouse of sorts, with white lace lining and lapels, over a black corset/leotard like top, low-slung black pants with a black leather belt, and knee-high side-buttoned white leather high-heeled boots. Black gloves complete the ensemble.

She's carrying a pink and white lace parasol with a black handle and ribbing.

Detective Carpenter(#861TOnp)

Detective Carpenter is a clean shaven young man with a crewcut, making him look like he might be ex-military. He's relatively muscular for a police officer, with the requisite tie and long trenchcoat.

Randal Duran(#1076TOn)

An older man, most likely in his 50s or 60s. His goatee is grey, and his head is completely bald. There's a pair of round-lensed glasses on his face, and he's wearing a nice blue button-down dress shirt with black slacks.

Randal says, "But first...before we do that, I should hide my identity." He says a few words in a language that most would be hard pressed to identify, let alone translate, and his form shifts. His face and clothing look completely different.

Cartesian(#992TOn)

An older bald man with paper-white skin. His facial features are gone, covered by a spell of disguise. His clothing consists of a black trenchcoat, white dress shirt, and black dress pants.

Carpenter watches the spell being cast and nods slowly, "Right, well, we'll leave that out of the official report, eh? What now?"

The Cartesian nods, "Now I cast a tracking spell, followed by a portal. That should get us close to the location." He pulls out an actual old magnetic compass. It looks like an old US military item. He casts another spell, and the compass spins to face southwest. "Ah ha. I think I have a fix." Yet another spell, and a glowing purple portal opens up. It's opaque, so the other side cannot be seen.

Goldie woofs and leaps through the portal.

Cheshire curtsies to Cartesian, hops through the portal.

Carpenter draws his pistol again, "Well...nothing ventured, right?" He takes a deep breath and steps through the portal, following the others.

The heroes arrive in the cemetery in the middle of town, close to a cluster of mausoleums. The air is cold, and like any time anyone spends time in a cemetery on screen, there's water falling from the sky. There a fine drizzle, making everything damp.

Cheshire, fortuitously, has an umbrella. Well, a parasol, but it works just as well. Peers around, observing.

Goldie sniffs and listens as well as looking around.

The remaining people come through the portal, with The Cartesian showing up last. The portal closes behind him. He looks around and holds up the compass, and it spins wildly. "Well...it's nearby someplace."

Grimm follows through the portal after listening to the chatter, mostly keeping an eye on her shadow as it tries to play with other shadows.

"Oh boy, the cemetery. My home away from home," Grimm replies dryly, which is the opposite of what she is right now. Her shadow sight expands and she feels about the whole area as she orients herself.

There's an audible screech in the air, coming from all around you. It's like the cemetery itself is responding to your presence.

Cheshire headtilts, trying to figure out a source of the screech. Not finding one, she seems unconcerned, content to wait for the inevitable attack. She's already fought zombies in the past couple weeks. Perhaps this time it'll be a banshee.

Standing at a gravestone, a lone figure in a red cloak gazes over the epitaph. The hood is up, concealing the head from all angles except forward, the cloak providing some cover from the rainfall. Grimm would recognize the figure with ease. After a moment does the figure turn her head, to reveal... some teenaged girl's face. She recognizes more than one, but only one knows her in the present identity she has chosen to wear. She steps behind one large gravestone, and out from behind another, much closer to her destination people. "Something different happens," she observes, noticing the screech sound but letting the heads of the other persons pinpoint any immediate threats.

Starfish(#1309PenACcF?)

Description frequently varies by scene. Often clashing colours and mismatched with zero fashion sense.

The Cartesian turns slowly, "Agents of Chaos, I think. We will have company imminently." As soon as he finishes his sentence, Lazare steps out from behind a nearby mausoleum.

Lazare(#2715TOnp)

A young (mid-20s?) Caucasian man dressed in a dark suit that seems to shimmer in various colors as the light hits it from different angles. His necktie is pitch black, however. His hair looks markedly unkempt, like he's just woken up from a nap.

Lazare grins, "Cartesian. I wondered if we would run into you here. We're after the same thing, after all. You must have fought off those demons earlier. That's...unfortunate."

Snow was passing overhead on her way across the city when she heard the screech and changes the route of her ramp to slide down to the graveyard. She glances around.

Amy is in the park feeding the ducks, as she often is. On hearing the screech she goes to investigate.

"Agents of kay-oss," the red-hooded figure says disdainfully, eyes rolling before she turns attention on Grimm. "See why I use the distinction?" In a blur of motion she acrobatically leaps in a backflip onto the top of a gravestone, perching there in a crouch. "You have no idea what you are in for," she announces to the Lazare. Or so she seems to. The real her is hiding invisibly behind a mausoleum wall, watching. Her clone, an illusion. An extremely convincing illusion.

Cheshire curtsies to the new (and damp) newcomer. Smiles.

Grimm glances sidelong to Carpenter. "Heck if I know. Say, what do Mantises sound like?" she asks with a roguish grin. She cross steps closer to the Detective just in case things go down. Grimm may be able to recognize Cows/Starfish, but of course, at the time, she WAS kind of busy flirting with one Malcolm Gibbs and wasn't paying much attention. "Don't really know the distinction between you and them, Cows or Chaos," she cracks at little Red Riding Hood.

"Well, they pronounce it wrong," the red-hooded clone replies.

Grimm suddenly gets an odd look on her face. Starting with the gravestone Starfish jumped on. Then the ones next to it. Then all around her. "Uhhh, guys. Something wiggy's all around us. Stay away from the gravestones, just in case?"

The shadows, of which there are many around the tombstones despite the dark skies, start to move, taking the form of humanoid creatures. There are at least six of them. Perhaps more.

Goldie growls a warning at the nearest whatever-the-heck-it-is to her.

Lazare shrugs to the red-cloaked woman, "I've seen more in my lifetime than you think I have." He grins, "Besides...new experiences are what life is all about. Like...for that man whose gravestone you're on? He's had an interesting life. In fact...he's now living TWO lives as we speak." The gravestone is labelled with the name 'Dorian Perrault'.

"What if I think you have seen everything?" comes the response, a deadpan expression on the perching figure. "though I suppose that would take a while." A peering at the gravestone comes next, then the cloak draws back as the figure produces a pair of tonfa, which seem to hum with power as they glow bright white. "This is going to be easy."

Cheshire strolls up to Lazare, stopping just in front of him, in her usual non-euclidian way moving quickly without looking like she's moving quickly. Looks up at him. Smiles. Speaks without moving her lips. "Are you controlling those?"

Lazare blinks, watching Cheshire move, "How delightful. I'm impressed. But to answer your question, no, I'm not. They are however working for the same team, so to speak. As are the other demons that are on their way. This is too important to just let Order do as they like."

Cheshire nods. Smiles again. Folds her parasol in one smooth motion, and launches a series of kicks and parasol strikes at Lazare.

Lazare gets struck a couple of times and he tumbles backward. He's actually laughing as he hits the ground.

Cheshire finishes her flurry of blows by popping open her parasol and resting it on her shoulder again. No point in getting wet needlessly. Smiles.

Amy isn't too sure what's happening but figuring Lazare is probably a bad guy she chucks some bad luck in his direction. "He is the bad guy, right?"

The "bad luck" motes dance around Lazare.

Goldie toughens her skin and morphs to Master Chang, the elderly Shaolin monk. Reaching out to Detective Carpenter she tells him, "Standing inside a ring of demons is our job. Be safe." and her arms stretch to deposit him 30m away behind a thick large gravestone.

Carpenter complains, "Hey!" He ends up set down outside the circle, well away from the fighting.

Snow is spiralling down on an icy ramp as she comes from above, "WEll that almost looks like ganging up? Demons? Nope, don't like them," and she slides to a stop, above the ground still and about 16m from the group. but it puts her a lot close to the bad guys. She raises her hand, frost forming around it and blasts at Lazare, "Take out the biggest one first, is always a good plan to go with."

The blast of cold launches Lazare from where he is, tossing him backward nearly thirty meters to land on the hard ground.

Lazare lands with a thump, and shakes his head, starting to clear it.

With the ward she was guarding placed out of her protective reach, Grimm can now let loose a little if she needs to. "Shadows. Of course it'd be shadows. No wonder people think I'm a vil," she mutters under her breath. Lazare may not control them, but since he seems to be the smartest of the group, he may be something akin to their General, in a chaotic sort of way. The scion did say that he was like a counterpart of the Cartesian, which makes him important. Considering he was just talking about someone living two lives, he's about to have a splitting headache. Grimm cranes her head to look at him with an unnerving stare, but stands there and does...nothing?

The shadows move toward their targets, attempting to make contact, reaching out shadowy limbs to touch...

The shadows managed to touch Grimm, Goldie and The Cartesian, attempting to drain the life force from their bodies. Slowly, energy starts to leech away into the shadows themselves.

The illusion of the red-hooded figure flits back away from the group of shadows, standing in a combative stance slightly lower to the ground than a full standing person (it is a 1m cubed image after all!). from behind it, and through it, a beam of violet energy flows from the real Starfish to one of the shadow demon things.

The shadow demon that's hit immediately disperses, shreds of darkness fading into nothingness.

The illusionary red hooded figure, moves both tonfas in swirling arcs, standing ready again.

Carpenter starts running back toward the fight, though it'll likely be over by the time he gets back.

The Cartesian shouts in his arcane language, and a bolt of mystic energy is loosed at one of the shadows...

The shadow is hit with the blast of blue magic, and a hole is ripped straight through it. Again, like the first, it dissipates.

Grimm grits her teeth as the shadows touch her, feeling not just her life force, but her very powers drain away with it, feeling that much more like she did before she was infused with the darkness. "Uhhnn! What'd you...DO to me...?" she pants, suddenly feeling very blind without the extra senses. Even the cold of the rain, which didn't bother her before despite her light clothes, chills her to the bone and she starts to shiver in the winter air.

Cheshire notes that the Shadows are fragile, at least to beams of power. Effectiveness of parasols: unknown. Decides to find out. Swiftly strikes at the one attacking her.

The shadow seems much more resistant to a physical attack than its friends were to the magic and energy being thrown around. The parasol sails straight through it, though the shadow makes a screeching sound.

Cheshire flips open her parasol again. Headtilts. Shrugs. Smiles.

Lazare gets back to his feet and dusts himself off before he incants a spell as well. A spherical shield of black and purple energy appears around him.

Finding the first trick worked okay, Starfish repositions herself, though not her double to the same location. Another gravestone far from the location goes she, invisibly, while her double seems to charge at one of the shadow demon things with tonfas a frenzy. Not at all connecting of course.

Amy tripped and fell to the ground as the shadow thing tried to touch her, which is why it missed. "Hey, no grabbing!" Getting to her feet, she hurls the rock she tripped over at the shadow.

The rock goes straight through the shadow, getting a similar reaction to Cheshire's strikes. It screeches again...a sound somewhat like nails on a chalkboard.

Amy says, "Ow, there's no need to scream like that, it's not like it really hit you!"

Chen changes her physical makeup although it's not instantly obvious. Except she's now moving with a fluid grace that almost defies imagination. Che knows it's more important to reduce the numbers rather than deal with the one in front of herself, so she stretches out a hand to punch the demon Cheshire parasoled.

Chen's followup strike was apparently enough...it doesnt' dissipate immediately. Instead, this one fades out, but the end result is the same.

Cheshire curtsies to Chen.

She's not going to say it is she? Yes, she is. The fatal words. The pride goes before a fall words. Chen turns to Lazare, "Are /these/ all you have?" she says distainfully.

Snow takes in the situation, it seems those fighting the shadows have it well in hand and so she slides after where she blasted Lazare. She moves quite a bit closer, and then considering the glowing shield or such, she raises one of her hands and an icicle forms in it which then flies at Lazare, "No fair hiding behind a bubble."

Lazare grunts as the icicle strikes the bubble, which collapses and shatters into glass-like shards.

Grimm starts to feel some of her channeling abilities return. There's a tingle as she starts to feel her surroundings again in a flood of sensory input, and the feeling of the cold stops bothering her again. She stares daggers at the shadow that touched her, then flickers out like a thing from nightmare and reappears four meters away from the shadows. She throws her hands down and opens them up, and darkness pours down from them like tar, pooling around the ground at her feet and turning it black. "You won't touch me again," she growls as more darkness pours from her, forming four giant black tentacles, ten meters long each. One of the tendrils waves and snaps out like a whip at the shadow that drained her, trying to fling it towards one of the mausoleums.

The shadow is grabbed and thrown toward a mausoleum. It splashes around it, landing on the surface.

The remaining shadows flow toward Grimm, Amy, and The Cartesian, reaching out...

The Cartesian seems somewhat resistant to the shadow demon's drain, but he's still starting to flag a bit.

Grimm resists a little, but she still finds her senses failing her again as the cold creeps back in and she wavers.

Carpenter continues to run back toward the heroes...but he's still well back from the fighting. And he knows better than to fire a firearm at shadows.

The Cartesian lets loose with another spell at a shadow demon...the blue energy lancing outward...

...and it misses cleanly, not striking anything at all.