[IC - MEXICO CITY] Brooks's House

[Raiko]

Cameron:

"Get inside, now!" shouts Cam, he tries to stay by the door back into the kitchen long enough for everyone to get in from the patio, before slamming it shut.

[Mr. Handy]

OOC,I'm sorry, I'd thought the birds had come at us after we'd left the building. In that case, yes, I'll get back inside. I'll edit my post.

[Overlord87]

OOC:   Don't forget to roll against the Stability loss.

[Raiko]

OOC,[ooc]I did in my previous post. Spent 2 pool points and still perhaps failed.[/ooc][ooc]Regarding the second post, I'd waited for clarification that we were on the patio, otherwise I'd have wrote that in my original post. Cam will do his best to wait until everyone else is inside and then shut the door - keeping his head and arms covered as much as possible with his coat - as per the first post.[/ooc]

[carnage_lee]

Christopher Fontana

Christoper's thoughts and musings on the evidence that they'd found in Brooks' secret room is brought to a halt as he almost walks into the back of someone. He looks around, confused and his eyes lock on the large bird that lets out a wet gurgling caw almost a parody of a regular crows call. It's then that he notices that the birds beak is wrong, no not the beak something inside... it has a mouth... teeth.. his vision seems to telescope in on this weird an unnatural feature.

Suddenly everyone is moving and Christopher is pushed back into the room, he makes out the dark flapping shape as a flock of Grackles swoops down, all flapping wings, evil beady eyes and wickedly shard curving beaks, snapping ... that horrible flat gurgling 'cawing' sound growing louder and louder.

OOC:   Stability Roll: 2pt spend - [dice]0[/dice]

[ShyberKryst]

Professor Jonathan Cornwall
Stability Test

OOC:   [dice]0[/dice]

The Professor rubs his eyes to clear the strange vision from his mind, but then he notices the flock descending and yells "Back inside! Everyone back inside!"

[Overlord87]

Madness descends upon you as you start to scramble away. Huang Yan is the first to recover from the shock, and rushes for cover, getting back inside the apartment. The others are caught in the open as they start to run. You can see them more clearly now, and each of them has this sort of horrible mouth under their beak, filled with rigged teeth, spouting out some disgusting, greenish bile. They are all around you in a matter of seconds, cawing and screeching... and maybe... you can hear sounds that resemble words, not from a known language, yet they seem to be words, something closer to human language than any natural bird should ever be able to produce. You flail around your arms, trying to keep them at a distance as they tear your clothes and scratch your flesh. One of the monstrous birds charges straight at Jonathan, and when it's close enough, some sort of horrible tongue springs out from the mouth, piercing his shoulder. The wound immediately starts to burn as it comes in contact with the vile-looking greenish fluid. Then Jonathan rushes past is as he runs back inside.

The group splits, as Christopher, Jonathan and Ian fall back inside the shrine room, while the others make for the safety of the kitchen. You close the doors behind you and pray that the flock will decide to leave as quickly as it has arrived. Barring Jonathan, who is bleeding from the wound on his shoulder, the rest of you managed to survive the assault with just some harmless scratches and a ruined set of clothes.

Spoiler:

OOC:   I rolled Stability for Ian to move things forward. Holly loses 5 Stability. Cam loses 7 Stability (5 loss + 2 failed spend). Huang Yan is ok. Jonathan loses 5 Stability and 4 Health. Christopher loses 7 Stability (5 loss + 2 failed spend). Ian loses 5 Stability. I have updated your sheets. For Christopher and Cam, this is a huge loss. It will have no permanent effect, but your characters should definitely be shaken from the experience.

[Raiko]

Cameron:

Cam slumps to the floor as he slams the door shut, sitting with his back to the glass so that he doesn't need to look at the birds any longer.

He wonders whether it's even worth trying to continue against things so far beyond his understanding, god created all creatures great and small, but how could Nectar pervert god's creations so? Those mouths! What the hell?

After a minute or two he gets shakily to his feet and puts his Astra back into its holster, someone had to do something and the others still needed Cam's talents, even if he wanted to run.

"If the birds don't go, we need to find another way through to get the others out, I don't fancy going back out there with those things. How solid do you think that wall is?" He points to the nearest wall that divides the apartment from the hidden shrine.

It's clear to everyone that Cam, normally so brave, will be of little use trying to get past the flock.

[Mr. Handy]

Holly leans against the wall, gasping for breath, and slides down next to him. "I don't want to go back out there either," she says, squeezing his hand. "I don't know if we can break through the wall or not." She experimentally taps on it to gauge its thickness and see if the others hear her and tap back. "I think we need them to come to us. That shrine is a dead end, but once they get here, we can all go back downstairs and out the front door."

OOC,Architecture might help determine whether or not it's possible to get through the wall, but only [b]Christopher[/b] has it, and he isn't with us. Can I use Psychoanalysis at this time to try to get [b]Cam[/b] some Stability back?

[HelplessBystander]

"Dearie me, this is worse than I thought it would be, to be honest." Huang Yan said, looking somewhat pasty as he recalled the vivid image of the birds.

[leonardolad]

Ian Morin

"Oh God... Oh God... Oh God..." Ian mutters while recovering his breath. "I'm not crazy... Oh my God. Am I? I mean... I didn't take the Nectar! That was real, right? You heard that... they were TALKING!"

After a few more breaths Ian starts to calm down a little, realizing their situation is not good. "Christopher, Jonathan... Are you OK, fellas? Jesus... Looks like we're trapped here. There's no way I'm going out of here through that door. I'll dig these walls with my fingernails if I have to."

[Mr. Handy]

"I have an idea," says Holly, digging into her medical kit. "I've got plenty of sedatives here. I can dose the feed with them and toss it out for the birds. Then we just have to wait for them to fall asleep."

OOC,Using Pharmacy to make this happen.

[carnage_lee]

Christopher Fontana

Christopher struggles to get the image of the weirdly altered birds from his mind... was it possible... did they have teeth.. mouths. How could that happen, it's not natural, he shivers. His mind keeps replaying the sudden attack, each time the unnatural mouths uttering their wet bubbling calls. His mind whirls, realising that some thing, some power had warped these birds, mutated them into foul caricatures of their normal forms. Brooks must have given these ... things ... a taste for blood too, as evidenced by the finger bones in the abandoned coop.

With a shudder he manages to get his breathing under control and tries not to panic further as he realises that he's trapped! Not alone, some relief washed over him as he hears Ian babbling. Ian's words about the walls help Christopher to focus.

"... one of these walls must have been plastered over, Christopher closes his eyes for a second trying to picture the floor-plan of the pent house apartment, trying to decide where the original door would have been*. "Here.. I hope.." Christopher starts tapping at the wall above the altar* careful to avoid the orange stain. "This is should be where the original doorway would have been.."

OOC:   *Christopher has points in Architecture - so it seems a fair use of the skill to be able to extrapolate where the original door would have been. **Assuming that the original door wouldn't lead into the kitchen. I'm hoping the doorway wasn'r bricked in but merely covered over - we can move the altar and break through the plaster - perhaps using the altar?

[Overlord87]

Holly and the others in the apartment can hear Christopher tapping on the walls. It should be possible to communicate, if you raise your voice high enough.

OOC:   You can locate the original door and, with some work, break it open. Does Holly still want to proceed with her plan of sedating the birds?

[HelplessBystander]

"Well...it's not that bad, I mean, sure, it rooks rike something you find inside a circus with what deformed lumps that one would describe as bodies. But if you're too worried about it...eh try not to think about it, m'kay?" Huang Yan said, blinking repetitively and wiped up the sweat that had fallen off of his eyebrows.

[leonardolad]

Ian Morin

Yes... Yes! That's a great idea, Christopher! Right here, you say? Ian grabs one of the candlesticks on the altar and starts pounding at the wall where Christopher said the door should be.

[Raiko]

Cameron:

"Thanks Holly, I should be okay as long as I don't need to go out there."

After walking to the part of the wall where the sound of knocking is loudest Cam bangs back with the side of his fist. He taps out H-E-L-L-O in Morse, assuming that somebody inside will understand.

"Do you think it'll be enough to knock them all out? I was thinking of getting a sledgehammer, I'm sure I can convince the guy downstairs not to get in the way."

OOC:   I'm assuming that Huang Yan is talking to himself? Apologies if he's talking to Cam, but I didn't think it looked like a reply to anyone in the kitchen.

[Mr. Handy]

"Any time," says Holly, looking around. "Surely there's something we could use on our end to help them break through the wall. I'd rather not let the concierge see you bringing a sledgehammer back if we can help it. You can't exactly hide it in your pocket. If we can't break open the wall, we can try drugging the birds then. That's not without risk, as we'd have to open the door to the balcony briefly."

OOC,I'll hold off on my plan for now. Let's try getting through the wall first.

[Raiko]

Cameron:

"You're probably right, maybe there's a toolbox with a regular hammer."

Cam searches through the cupboards of the kitchen first, if he doesn't find a toolbox, he goes for anything strong and heavy enough to use to smash the wall.

[Overlord87]

You push away the altar and start pounding on the wall. It requires some time and no small amount of effort, with the rudimentary tools you have available, but eventually you succeed. You greet each other with a smile, still shaken from the encounter with the birds, but happy that at least one problem is out of the way.