The Astrologer's Tower continued

===> COH <===> 1/28/2020, 8:21:05 PM <===

	THE ASTROLOGER's TOWER - THE STORY SO FAR...

	Out in the middle of the Cobre desert, had ventured a small party consisting of Mo, Emrick, and Jiang. There in the middle of nowhere? They had run into Kaati! Then? They were attacked by the wraithly animated corpse of a ghoul - one of the Della Passaglia, who served the Giovanni family. This was to prevent them from reaching an obfuscated observatory tower, which was pulling down eldritch lightning from the heavens above, despite there not being a single cloud in the sky! Having survived the animated corpse's attack, and the initial barrage of mystical lightning (due to some of Kaati's mystical countermojo!), everyone had ended up huddled over by the tower's front door! Mo had just finished "summing up" for Kaati.

	Given all the commotion of the lightning, and summing up? Alzbeta would have several rounds of time to herself to situate herself in medias res!

	AND NOW OUR STORY CONTINUES...'


	A Mr. Fu leaves the group to run a perimeter check while Mo and Kaati play catch-up, a bolt of eldritch lightning blasts him! The flash is blinding, and the hard desert earth is left scorched! Did the little Great Dragon get vaporized? NO! Though he glows a bit brighter afterwards. He spies the incoming wraith that accompanies the AS YET UNSEEN ALZBETA and growls, "YOU! Another of the Della Passaglia???"

	Ying Yue wouldn't be able to see the one that is obfuscated, but if there is a wraith, that might be visible. "Are you sure? Not everyone is a member of that organization."

	 Worry flashes onto Kaati's face as she catches sight of that lightning strike. The dragon's outside her protective circle, vulnerable, though everyone else is hopefully inside it. She looks back to Ying Yue. "I couldn't quite see through it from *outside* that veil thing, but maybe if I touch it I can get more of a map going, and draw it out. See what's alive, what's moving... so we know what we're up against here?" Then she looks to the others with her and says, quietly, "It may take a little time. But it'll help, yeah?"

<WRAITH> The wraith child gurgles blood, but does not otherwise respond to Mr. Fu

Emrick just pulls a rock out of his bag, he can't see anything but having a weapon in hand is probably a good idea anyway. "Uh, sure, do it to it, we'll watch your back." and with that he pulls out his knife as well and moves away from the door so Kaati can touch it if she needs to.

	Alzbeta, still invisible notices as Mr. Fu starts yelling, at what she realizes is her companion. She tries to shoo him away, but he never listens, it's a haunting. Alzbeta continues to walk forward towards Mr. Fu.

	Mo watches as Fu departs. But who was he to do anything other than worry silently. The dragon was HIS keeper, not the other way around, after all. And at least in the lightning? Fu was in his native element, so to speak. His attention snaps back to Kaati - "You ... you can do that?" He has a sawed-off shotgun in a holster slung over his back, but is otherwise unarmed.

"Should be able to," the small woman says, looking up at the tower. And up. "Depending on how well warded it is," Kaati adds. Setting herself at the center of her circle, she sets down the rifle at her feet, then tugs a small frame drum from her messenger bag. She starts hitting the earth with one heel, and her fingertips take up a very soft heartbeat rhythm.

	Mo eyes Kaati and nod, then raises up a finger. "Wait - I can help you do your thing, if you'll let me." He looks to Em and Jiang - "Actually, all of you, come closer."

	"It is just a child." Ying Yue states, and there is pity in her voice, "Would a child be part of the Della?" she asks curiously, as if her range of knowledge might not cover that.

Emrick moves however close Mo needs him to be, and keeps an eye out to the area around the tower, incase some other zombie thing does happen to show up

Kaati keeps her beat, but looks over to Mogui, dark eyes obsidian-bright. "Help would be welcome, but how? My way isn't like most."

	Mo focuses on Kaati, and then the young Chinese gentleman bends the forces of fate around the woman! Anyone with Awareness will sense his sorcery at work, and those with Entropy related senses will taste the fortune-bending flavor! (OOC: Kaati is now at -1 diff on everything for the night!)

	Mo's focus for the Art is mudras - everyone will see him using his hands to gesture arcanely and channel his will into the fatebending!

The Dreamspeaker draws in a swift, audible breath, her head tipping in a birdlike way as she watches. Then her breathing settles, and her gaze returns to the tower. She starts chanting softly, in that strange-sounding language, her words cajoling in one moment, demanding in the next.

	Fu nods at what Jiang says. "Could be coincidence, but. The Della Passaglia serve spirit masters." A pause and then the tiny dragons voice booms like /THUNDER/ - "IN THE NAME OF THE JADE THRONE, STATE YOUR BUSINESS!"

	Alzbeta notices the spirit following her being noticed, and figured she's going to be found out anyway. She shrugs and seems to step out of nothingness to be right beside Kaati. "Look, I know people don't always want to listen to some strange girl they just met," Alzbeta starts. "Heed my words, and you might live through this night yet." Alzbeta looks around at the others, seemingly not weirded out by the fact that there are dragons among them. "The buddy system. It's really important. Everyone pick a buddy. Make sure you account for them, and make sure they account for you. If everyone knows where their buddy is, it'll be ok. The problem is if you lose your buddy and someone just wanders off, we may not realize it until days later and they're being tormented in some infernal realm. Trust me, it works." She smiles and rocks back and forth on the heels of her feet, a sweet smiles on her face. "Oh, and one more thing ..." Alzbeta then launches into a Nostradamus like prophecy regarding the things they will soon face and encounter.

Emrick raises an eyebrow and an arm, but doesn't throw the rock at the newcomer, once it's obvious she's /not/ a zombie.

	Mo smiles as he exhales slowly - "There. I've aligned you with the Tao," he mutters to Kaati before he looks to Em and Jiang. "We still good, fam? Where's Fu?" BUT THEN? ENTER ALZBETA! Mo startles, reaching for his sawed-off when someone new appears, and doing his best to put himself between Alzbeta and Kaati, protectively.

Kaati's drumming didn't falter at the shout. Didn't falter at Mo's magic. But when someone unknown materializes *right there*, she about jumps out of her skin, whirling, knife drawn from behind her back and her posture taking on a defensive position. Yeah. Frame drum in one hand, knife in the other. "*Fuck!*" And then... cue crazy words from crazy random interloper. It takes the Dreamspeaker that long to recover her breathing, before she can get out, "Who. The fuck. Are you?"

 "Fu will be back. He is much too stubborn to let anything out there stop him from collecting the things that he needs." Ying Yue says, just as there is another invisible that enters the fray. As long as nobody starts to do anything to try and injure each other, she would remain her composed self.

	"Alzbeta la Hafiza Ashen Priestess of Sand and Ash," Alzbeta says. "Yeah, I know, I'm not crazy about the repetition of the word Ash either. Anyway, I was in my cave, near the gaseous fissure saying my rosaries while I communed with Great Fungus, and all the sudden I had this vision of things to come. My vision went all kinda wonky, and next thing I knew I was here. Guess something is about to happen that Dark Father wants me to bear witness to. He has tasked me with remember all that ever was, is, or will be. Gets the ol' noggin' kinda full sometimes." She looks to the shotgun being pointed at her, but doesn't at all seem disturbed by it. "Mind if I have the shotgun? I'm kind of a natural with it. Spot had me playing dodge with the shotgun, but I kept hitting my friends in the chest and they decided they didn't want their clothes to get ruined." Alzbeta then looks to Kaati, "Want to be my buddy leather-acorn lady?"

	The lightning outside Kaati's warding circle grows fierce and furious - BLINDINGLY so. Despite being immune, Fu hustles back towards the crowd. "We should go inside when we can." The dragon eyes Alzbeta, "I am Fan Feng Fu. Welcome to the dollhouse."

	Mo, he had bags and bags of /joss/. The problem was that it was tainted, and made life more interesting than it had a right to be. Thus? he hands the sawed-off to Alz. "Sure. My fists are registered as deadly weapons anyway." Then he looks to Kaati, satisfied that Alz won't blow her head off. "We good?"

Emrick hits his wall of weird shit in dangerous places limit in his brain and says "Cool, nice ta' meet ya', everyone lets not kill each other and all that good shit ya? Cool." he states in a matter of fact kind of way. "Can I just open the door now before my distinctly non magical ass gets fried?"

	Kaati studies the strange woman almost sidelong. "*No*," she says emphatically, shooting Emrick a look. "*Information*. Give me a minute here." She returns her attention to Alzbeta, eyes narrowing.

	"Tools can be useful, but you should not rely on them more than you rely on your own abilities." Ying Yue says with a nod towards MoGui when he says he'll use his own hands.

	Alzbeta happily takes the shotgun and looks down the barrel to ensure that it's loaded. After that she aims the shotgun in front of her. The grip on the gun is pretty decent, but her aim waivers slightly. She seems to have no concept of only aiming at things you intend to kill, it's more: make the shotgun see what you see, and pull the trigger when necessary. As she looks around, she'll eventually point the shotgun directly at each and everyone of you. As she does all of this, her tongue sticks out ever so slightly in order to help improve accuracy and increase damage.

Kaati's eyes narrow a little MORE, when she's looking down the barrel of the sawed-off. "Don't do that," she says quietly. "It's rude." And then her brow furrows, and she actually draws *back* a fraction, like she's looking at a very large poisonous snake--which is weird, given that the woman seems innocent despite the obvious crazy.

	And then she nicks her left forearm with the knife, her gaze hard on the newcomer for a moment before she looks to the Tower again. The keen of eye might note that she does *not* turn her back on Alzbeta.

	Drumming and chanting resume.

	Mo seems nonplussed at the shotgun-waving. He was confident in being lucky enough any blast would miss him and hit one of his companions instead. SAY WHAT? He makes his way over to Jiang, and nudges Fu towards her. "Do you mind if Mr. Fu rides with you?" Since Em had a mechanical dragon already.

<WRAITH> The small bloodied Mexican boy begins to choke on blood as it laughs, knowing what's about to happen.

Emrick just waits by the door since he can't do much else right now.

Kaati tenses almost imperceptibly for a moment, watching Alzbeta, an instant where it seems like ANYTHING could happen.

	Alzbeta's nose twitches. What was that? Another twitch. She definitely smelled something that time. Alzbeta begins to look around, the shotgun slowly lowering. She sniffs the air, and starts to follow her nose. Her eyes lock right onto Kaati just as blood begins to come out of her. Alzbeta's little tongue becomes hungry and lascivious. She licks her lips, and begins to walk forward towards Kaati as if she was on auto-pilot ...

	"I thought that you and Mister Fu were companions, but if you prefer it that way, I will have him stay with me." Ying Yue says. She still sounds calm, but she is balling and unballing her fists at the moment, and as soon at Alzbeta starts to walk, she reaches out to calmly put her hand the other woman's shoulder. "Focus."

Emrick raises an eyebrow to Alzbetas approach and puts the knife away and instead produces a taser from his coat, he's not very subtle about it either.

	Mo nods to Jiang, "We are, but. I'm the trigger in these types of scenarios, y'know? And he's too precious to fall victim to something as trite as trap blowback."

	Fu leaps up and onto YY's arm, eventually making his way to settle on her shoulder.

	The hand on Alzbeta's shoulder is meaningless to her. There's blood here. Blood from ... that strange woman ... Alzbeta gets that strange feeling again. That weird feeling she sometimes gets that she knows she shouldn't get. Alzbeta quickly turns to look away from Kaati, saying, "Right, Buddy... can't eat ... her ..." That's not quite it, but it's also enough to end her bloodlust. Alzbeta lets out a little sigh, gets a goofy smile on her face, and stares off into space thinking about something ... or someone. Crisis averted.

Kaati's gaze flicks to Ying Yue as the woman steps in. Still, she holds position. She trusts none of them, least of all the newest. After a moment, though, she returns to her ritual. *Definitely* not turning her back on anyone. Drumming. Chanting, and the stomp of a boot with that heartbeat rhythm. She builds energy, and then drops to a knee, setting the drum aside and beginning to draw furiously on the ground with a stick. Her left hand, though, keeps hitting the earth, keeping the beat alive.

Emrick pulls a small box from his coat pocket and then opens it up, inside is a silver necklace with a pendant on it that looks exquisitely made. (crafts 5) He takes a moment and unceremoniously fastens it around Moguis neck, if the man lets him or isn't paying attention. "I can't do, well, anything that all these people can do, but this should help you with your own magic at least." he tells Mogui with a nonchalant shrug. "I uh, was gonna wait to give it to you at a different time, but it's useful now." he nods

	Mo is indeed not paying attention, having gotten all fidgety with the ritual and the passing of time. Over 100 year walking the Earth, and he hadn't managed to improve his patience. Not. One. Bit. He reaches up for the knocker on the door. "Now? Can I knock now?"

	Mo white-knuckles the door knocker. He'll lift it up off the door, and hold it in place. Not letting it knock back down on the door. NOT. LETTING. IT. KNOCK. BACK. DOWN.

	Mr. Fu? he watches the dhampyr with no small amount of amusement from YY's shoulder.

	"Probably for the best to be patient, none of us knows exactly what is in there. For all we know by opening the door we might wake him up if he is still there and alive." Ying Yue comments quietly.

"I have it," Kaati says softly, hands going still. "Come look."

	Alzbeta slowly raises the shotgun again, she places herself in the lead of the group. "Is there anything I should not kill, or just fire on whatever I see?"

Emrick switches out one pair of glasses for another and then moves over to look at what Kaati is pointing out.
"First level, second level... a ghost of some kind, here. A spider automaton, here. And something like... a homunculus? Here." She points all these things out on the map, her voice flat. And then she's slinging on her gear.

	Fu whispers to YY. "Thomas has always had impulse issues. I've as yet been unable to help him master them. But he's young yet."

	"As am I, and I have some issues too, but we will be going in and exploring. We just have to wait..." Ying Yue comments, but quiets down for Kaati's explanation. "See, plenty of things to be curious about, and now we will not miss any of them."

	The line of Mo's jaw tightens! "Now? Now now now?" It looks like he might break off the knocker!

	Alzbeta aims her shotgun at the door, but she keeps turning back to steal little glances at Kaati.

	Messenger bag once again at her hip, Kaati holds the rifle across her body, at the ready but muzzle down. She murmurs something in that odd tongue and then says, "Yes. Go."

Emrick nods and while looking at the map says in a monotone voice "Photo capture, digitalize, flatten, expand, split by level, level one, level two, save as lightning tower. Pull up level one twenty percent." all the while a small light blinks on the side of his bulky glasses. He nods then and in a normal voice says "Cool, map uploaded. Dibs on keeping the automaton." he adds "I can't fight ghosts. So yes, please kill that and we'll see about the homunculus." he hits the button on his glasses "Hopefully this doesn't boot down in there, I left the laptop in the jeep so it's network is real small now."

	Mo exhales. FINALLY! "OLLY OLLY OXEN FREE!" shouts the youth, and then he's knocking on the door. As the knocker makes contact with the door, the door opens up!

	"Let us be going. Thomas seems to be impatient and I am sure that this new woman just wants to kill what she can." Ying Yue says with a roll of her eyes.

	"Oh, before we get to the carnage," Alzbeta says. "One question, what are their sins?"
"Thomas, huh," Kaati murmurs. She slants a look to Alzbeta and says, "Probably minions of an evil master. But let's just find out, yeah? And don't forget. Buddy system."

	In the center of this room is a sizeable table, ringed by six chairs. Against the east wall is a glass cabinet stocked with serving china and four bottles of wine. In the southwest corner, under the stairway, is a statue of a medusa embracing a king. Behind the statue is a stack of boxes.

	"Likely you would have to ask them that. I doubt anyone here knows. Also the Automaton likely has no sins as it is a construct." Ying Yue says as she walks in.

	Mo makes his way inside, muttering. "MOGUI - not Thomas. MO. GUI." Then he cases the room, after clearing the corners and doors. "Boxes behind the statue."

	Alzbeta smiles as she looks to Kaati. "Right. Buddy ..." she says as she bites her lower lip. Quickly she shakes her head and looks back to the door. Trying to concentrate. Alzbeta looks to Ying Yue, "If they're without sins, why are going to kill them all and let God sort them out?"

Emrick nods and gives a low whistle. The tiny golem on his shoulder launches into the air to do a loop around the room to survey things. Meanwhile Emrick heads for the boxes. "Name's Emrick." he says to whomever doesn't know. "If you find anything you think is trapped or needs fixing or is heavy or you don't want to touch just let me know."

	Fu sighs, nodding to YY's remarks. "He was given that nickname in /1915/." Then he gives YY a smile, "We are buddies, yes. Birds of a feather?"

	"Not birds, but I understand the idiom." Ying Yue says to the small dragon on her shoulder. Then she looks to the newest member of the party, "We are not here to kill anything. We are here to retrieve an object."
Kaati stays somewhere behind Thomas's shoulder, watchful. Letting him lead might not be the BEST idea, but he seems rather insistent.

	Mo goes over to mess with the boxes behind the medusa-embracing-king statue. He bends down to knock on them. "They're hollow!"

	As Mo messes with the boxes? A trap goes off! A guillotine blade falls from the ceiling! But it misses Mo's by a hair's breadth, as his foot got caught on the statue.

	"*Impulse control*," Kaati says pointedly. "Maybe we should *not* just go around poking at random shit. Just sayin'."

	Mo grins, "I'm the trap triggerer! This is why Mr. Fu is over there," he says, pointing at Ying Yue.

	Now that the boxes have been moved, a trap door is revealed!

	"He is not that young then." Ying Yue says as she watches the man set off a trap. "Maybe we should just push him down to set off all the traps before we get to them." She jokes. Her tone gives it away as she doesn't seem capable of deadpan.
Emrick says "Wait so this place is trapped specifically to kill you Mo?" Meanwhile the dragon glides back to his shoulder, not having found anything.

	Mo grins and shakes his head, "Not me. I'm lucky. But folks less lucky than me, yeah."

	Alzbeta continues to aim the shotgun at the door, her tongue sticking out ever-so-slightly.

	Most everyone can feel that moving the boxes and revealing the trap door seems to have set off a magical effect. Its an area effect, to boot, that is slowly unspooling!

	"Fuck," Kaati says. "Let's move. We set something off with moving stuff." She looks over to Alzbeta, and suggests, "Us first?"

	Alzbeta nods to Kaati and begins to walk towards the door, shotgun aimed forward. She steals a little look at Kaati and smiles.

Emrick moves towards the door with the others.

	Those with 2+ successes will notice things in the room vanishing from view. Those with 3+ notice that there might be a pattern (Enigmas check for more specificity!)

	The trap door opens easily enough and leads down to a set of stairs. At the bottom of the stairs is a room. A crowded room - boxes and such. Everything down there is lit by some sort of radiant building material embedded in the walls. It looks like a lab, with dozens upon dozens of empty vials and such. Except for the one containing the aforementioned homunculus.

	"Well, you said there was an item you want ... " Alzbeta says. "Let's go in there and get it, some of the things are starting to disappear in a very precise manner." Alzbeta begins to walk forward with her shotgun out.

===> Log ended by user <===> 1/28/2020, 11:26:48 PM <===