Clockwork Abattoir: Sordid Tales

[Rose-of-Vellum]

[ic=Catena]Sacheverell falters under Catena's grim minacity.

Her words punch through his nonplussed mien like a hot stilettos. When the abhuman cracks her knuckles, Sacheverell panics. He screams for all-too absent henchmen. He feebly attempts to retreat, half-stumbles over Tandy's gleet-stained cot, and tries to hurl a pressured vial at the mercenary's feet.

Catena, however, is too swift. Reflexively, she snatches the vial before it brushes the milden rug and closes the distance between herself and her panicked prey.  

Sacheverell falls to his knees. He blubbers behind his hydroponic mask. He begs. His conceit shatters with the fragility of his mask.

"P-please, I'll tell you everything y-you want to know..."

His confession is comprehensive, if long-winded. His sins are manifold, after all.

Yet, before Sacheverall can complete his absolution, manic footfalls crash down the corridor. Three goons burst into the room, swinging truncheons and floweret-inked fists. As their rose-burning eyes settle on Catena, Dr. Sach's shouts:

"Kill the albino!"

Without hesitation, they rush the foreign mercenary. They howl, froth dripping from their jowls.  

Down the swiftly-filling corridor, other footfalls join the tumult.[/ic]

[ooc]The windowless room is quiet crowded now, so heavy/large weapons suffer a -1 to attack. Because you rolled a 5, you can go twice. DC to hit the crowded goons is 1 (same for the half-kneeling Dr. Sach). Catena can tell the thugs are hopped up on lyssa or some similar substance.

Typically, I would have given you a perception roll to hear the approaching thugs, but there is still a lot of noise coming from two floors below. Additionally, she was distracted by Dr. Sach's "confession". From her interrogation, she learns the following (in a far less linear fashion):

Xalmas Rasch was a regular patron of the Stallion, as Dr. Sach catered to his appetite for new, exotic drugs as well as his taboo 'necrophilia'. Tandy Suckle was his favorite. Sach claims that Xalmas' last visit to the Stallion was eight days ago. Sach claims that Xalmas showed up, already drunk, grousing about his sister's death with Pieng-Luc. He spent a bunch of crowns on ghostgrass and asherat, and rented Tandy for the night. They then went out to find other diversions. They left Pieng-Luc sometime in the early pre-dawn, and went into the Tarnish to meet an alchemist-junkie, an expatriate from Erebh, to buy some thrum. After doing so, they were walking back when they were attacked by a gang of 'pig-things'. Xalmas fought them off, and ordered Tandy to run -which she did, all the way back to Sach. Last she saw of Xalmas, he was hacking at the pig-things -they bled like flesh but sounded like metal. There were dozens of them, but he was being overwhelmed. Sach had contacts check the area, but saw no trace of the attack -or the scores of pig-things Xalmas allegedly defeated. Sach believes that Tandy hallucinated the entire scenario due to their drug binge.

After Tandy returned, screaming and babbling about Xalmas being taken or killed by monsters, he locked her up till she became sober and interrogated her. He was furious that she had potentially lost one of his best customers, but even more afraid of the potential consequences.  Gravespawn prostitution is illegal in Skein (though rarely enforced in the Ebon Ward), but the consequences of pimping one to a noble would be terrible -especially in the current climate-especially if the ghilan prostitute was the last one seen with the missing noble. That kind of attention could bring a terrible crackdown on his entire operation. Even the hint of that kind of attention might cause the Orchid-Eaters to proactively wipe their hands clean of him (and wipe him out). Consequently, he kept Tandy locked up, drugged all other witnesses, and spent the past days trying to wring additional information out of her, hoping fervently that Xalmas would turn up, either alive or dead in some other part of the city.

As for the Watch's records, House Rasch-Lurot had Tandy's name stricken from the records. If word got out that he was involved in 'necrophilia', the scandal would be tremendous, and tarnish the family name for years -and investors would likely abandon the Night-Marrow merchant company and flock to their competitors. At the time, they likely believed -as did Sach- that Xalmas was just missing and would show up in a day or so.  

At this point, Sachs believes that Xalmas may have died from an overdose, or perhaps an interaction between the asherat and thrum. But he isn't sure, and as far as he knows, the body hasn't shown up (though he believes House Rasch-Lurot might have covered that up too).

During the 'confession' Catena would have had time to store the vial. She isn't sure what it is, but there is some pressurized vapor inside, that is likely not too nice to people caught in its blast.[/ooc]  

[Steerpike]

[ic]Catena grunts and seizes Dr. Sacheverell, hurling him bodily into the forms of the incoming thugs. She whips out her slim dagger and leaps forward, ready to jam the weapon into the throat, eye-socket, or temple of anyone still on their feet.[/ic]

[ooc]Catena enters Bloodlust. She applies a level of Grit to both rolls (reducing the cost to 0 with her 2 Edge points):

Throwing the good doctor: [blockquote]Rolled 1d6 : 2, total 2[/blockquote]

Dagger: [blockquote]Rolled 1d6 : 4, total 4[/blockquote][/ooc]

[Rose-of-Vellum]

[ic=Catena]Dr. Sachs gives a watery shout of shock, then pain, as he bowls over the first on-rushing thug. The other goons scatter awkwardly in the cramped chamber. As the second thug fumbles with his footing, Catena's dagger finds his throat. As the blade withdraws, the man flails pitifully, too preoccupied by drowning in his own blood to pose a threat. Meanwhile, the third thug closes and tries to clobber Catena's skull with his nail-studded truncheon. The clumsy strike is predictable -and invites a merciless riposte.[/ic]

[ooc]With your modifiers, you automatically can succeed on the Agility defense roll. Alternatively, you can roll, and risk the 1 for the potential benefit of getting a 5 or 6.[/ooc] 

[Steerpike]

[ic]Catena ducks the truncheon, her dagger flickering towards the thug's face.[/ic]

[ooc]Again, applying a level of Grit for free:

Agility roll: [blockquote]Rolled 1d6 : 4, total 4[/blockquote]

Attack: [blockquote]Rolled 1d6 : 6, total 6[/blockquote][/ooc]

[Rose-of-Vellum]

[ic=Catena]The blade sinks hilt-deep into the thug's face, shattering cartilage and bone in a gore splatter. Horrified by the nigh-effortless slaughter, the sole surviving goon detangles from Dr. Sachs and scrambles to the door.

Sacheverell, meanwhile, fumbles with his apron's pockets. Cracks in his mask, however, obscure his sight. He curses desperately, causing the fracturing apparatus to weakly hiss and drool.[/ic]

[ooc]Prone and half-blinded, the 'doctor' is a DC 1 to hit.[/ooc]  

[Steerpike]

[ic]Catena allows herself the ghost of a satisfied smirk, then sinks her knife into the doctor's back.[/ic]

[ooc]Attack on the doctor: [blockquote]Rolled 1d6 : 5, total 5[/blockquote][/ooc]

[Rose-of-Vellum]

[ic=Catena]Sacheverell screams as the unseen blade slips between his ribs. As his squeal turns to a dying gurgle, the mask's drool blushes a vivid incarnadine.

Three corpses surround Catena like ill-stacked lumber. Their sap clings to her blade.

The hallway -as if awed by the butchery- is quiet.[/ic]

[ooc]The Bloodletter is doubtlessly pleased (even if impossible to fully appease). For 'discovering' Sach's/Tandy's secrets about Xalmas, you gain 3 XP. By my reckoning, that puts you at 4, which you can spend to gain a benefit en route to advancing your tier. You can pick one now or later. Either way, your move.[/ooc]  

[Steerpike]

[ic]Catena flicks her blade clean and sheathes it, then draws her hand-crossbow. Keeping it ready in one hand and aimed generally toward the doorway, she rapidly checks the dead doctor's apron for whatever it was he was clutching at in the moments before his death, then takes a quick glance about for any other objects of note in the room - particularly any valuable drugs or similar substances, but also anything significant Tandy might have left behind.[/ic]

[ooc]Catena will use her benefit to Increase Capabilities, adding 2 points to her Might Pool and 2 points to her Agility Pool. Her current Pools look like this, following these increases (I'm assuming the increases are added to my current totals):

Pools: Might 10/15, Agility 11/14, Intellect 3/7[/ooc]

[Rose-of-Vellum]

[ooc]Aye, that's how it works. Regarding Catena's search of the chamber, please give me a perception check (Intellect-based).[/ooc]

[Steerpike]

[ooc]Perception check: [blockquote]Rolled 1d6 : 5, total 5[/blockquote][/ooc]

[Rose-of-Vellum]

[ic=Catena]Catena's search uncovers a litany of past violences and potentially useful curios.

Behind Tandy's soiled bed and burst manacles, a nightstand's wreckage turns up a pile of cigarette butts, syringes, and a shot-up phonautograph. Although most of the clockwork apparatus is broken, its lampblack barrel –with its inscrutable recording- is mostly salvageable.

Searching the thugs, Catena finds a few crowns; a stack of counterfeit opera tickets, and a warm, sticky nodule that resembles a ruby gallstone.

Sacheverell's pockets, however, are more generous. Rummaging through the slurry of broken phials, Catena discovers an ampule labeled as tar-baby blood; a scrimshaw skeleton-key; a makeshift bottle terrarium that contains a single, vibrant-yellow mushroom; a ceramic vial of demon-possessed black bile; a well-leafed pamphlet of smutty woodblock illustrations; a damp newsrag containing two large, dried, half-opened purple flowers, so dark they're almost black, the bulbs still pliant and fresh; a greasy specimen-bottle full of some manner of ichor; a glyph-sealed glass pot of dark blue dye; a pressurized flask of incandescent spores; and a fastidiously penned field journal. [/ic]

[ooc]Catena automatically identifies the phonautograph, as her first slavemaster had one; she loved to record the sounds of different species thrashing and being eaten in her pet-spider's web. Catena can't read the mostly-intact recording, but a specialist might be able to decipher it (or convert it back into sound).

With an Intellect check, Catena is able to identify other items, with the number depending on her roll:

DC 2:
[spoiler]The nodule is a crystalized version of Scarlett Bliss that Sachs was experimenting with. They key is to the Stallion.
When in darkness, the yellow fungus thrums, causing the glass container to vibrate with an eerie song. [/spoiler]

DC 3:
[spoiler]Tar-baby blood is a level 4 poison that hyper-coagulates blood via injection or injury.
The pamphlet contains miniscule marginalia noting secrets about each slattern's regular customers: their peccadillos, past indiscretions, etc.[/spoiler]

DC 4:
[spoiler]Imbibing the fiend-bound bile will induce melancholia, but grant you certain insights and limited witchcraft.
The bulbs and blossoms are from a rare strain of asherat.
The greasy bottle contains 3 doses of venom extracted from a vermillion orb weaver (level 2, 5 damage)[/spoiler]

DC 5:
[spoiler]When unsealed, the pot's substance acts like pheromones for dreamspawn, attracting them and/or potentially distracting them.
The pressurized vial contains enucleation spores (level 4 poison, causes temporary blindness to exposed eyes and debilitating pain that infamously causes victims to gouge out their own eyes).[/spoiler]

DC 6:
[spoiler]You break Sach's cypher and can read his field journal, which contains detailed notes about his experiments, such as the progressive and synergistic effects of certain drugs and toxins as well as proposed methods to reverse engineer Cerulean Bliss. Overall, it grants a +1 bonus to botany, toxicology, and related tasks.[/spoiler][/ooc]

[Steerpike]

[ooc]Intellect check:

[blockquote]Rolled 1d6 : 6, total 6[/blockquote][/ooc]

[Steerpike]

[ic]Gathering the more valuable items hastily - the crowns, ampule, skeleon-key, bottle, ceramic vial, flowers, specimen-botle, pot, flask, and field journal - Catena pokes her head down the corridor, ensuring that the coast is clear. Time to get out of this place.[/ic]

[Rose-of-Vellum]

[ic=Catena]The corridor is strangely still. Down below, the chaos and crackle of flames roar unabated, but the hallway is quiet. Several doors, once sealed, stand ajar -their split frames revealing bizarre, pungent scenes that mix botanical interrogation and fetishism. Inside one, a fettered castrato sways, his skull and face surgically replaced by a giant orchid-blossom. Further down, a series of waxy topiaries have been pruned into various erotica.

At the corridor's end, the stairway beckons. Smoke -and the scent of burnt flesh and ethanol- drift up the flyposted walls. Looking up, Catena spots the fleeing skirts of some wag-tails. A less-than sober patron sits slumped in the stairwell.[/ic] 

[False Epiphany]

[ic]Alisandre grits her teeth as the weight of the demon's sanity-rending presence crushes against her wards. Blood dribbles from her nose, pat-pat-pattering onto the grimoire's rapidly expanding fungus. Her visions blurs in and out of focus, such that she barely registers the Horned Enuch consuming its ghastly meal. As her fingers dart across the tome's squirming pages and her mind races with arcane formulae, she asks in a hard voice,

"What is the greatest weakness of Symos Mei-Vourne?"[/ic]

[ooc]Spending 1 grit. I also recall from our months-ago chat that questions motivated by envy/jealousy got a +2 bonus? Well, she's pretty dang envious of the dude.

[blockquote]Rolled 1d6+3 : 2 + 3, total 5[/blockquote]

Pools: Pools: Might 6/8 (0), Agility 6/11 (1), Intellect 8/17 (1)[/ooc]