[IC]Chapter 1.5 - Cold Tidings

[jp1885]

Listen 55% Hard success!,[dice]0[/dice]

Cynthia strains to listen over the sound of the music and starts at the noise she hears from Jackson's room.

"Jeez, I can hear a scream from four-ten! Jackson's in trouble!"

She readies her pistol and prepares to fling the door to room 410 open.

[Mr. Handy]

Amy approaches the door to Room 410. Normally she likes jazz, but right now it's keeping her from hearing anything.

OOC,Listen roll (55% skill) in the fourth floor hallway: [dice]0[/dice]

[Silver Priest]

Listen 60%,[dice]0[/dice] Question, if I get a normal success on this but not hard do I still check the skill as used?

Marcus can't hear anything, but he has no reason to distrust Cynthia. He rushes to the door of room 410 and tries to kick it open if he's able.

Str 60,[dice]1[/dice] Not sure if this is what I can roll or if I can do it this turn, but figured I'd try anyway.

[Mr. Handy]

Hearing Cynthia's warning, Amy draws her pistol and runs to the door. She is too busy reacting to think about it.

[Zero]

Within Atauchi's mind, there was no other option than to hold his position in defiance of the freezing temperatures and biting wind. Jackson had warned him as well as the others of the dangers Larkin and de Mendoza presented. Had he not done so, the Quechua man may have been cursed to walk the earth as a kharisiri himself. He owed the man a great debt.

Spot Hidden (70%),[dice]0[/dice]

OOC:   Soooo... how does a 2 treat ya, Raiko??

[kabukiman]

Anderson is trying to hear anything beside the music.

Anderson: listen 26%


[dice]0[/dice]
[dice]1[/dice]

[kabukiman]

(Ignore the second role, for some reason when I posted it didn't appeared and when only I posted the second time the first roll appeared. It seems that Anderson is going to hear a concert of jazz and ignore everything else...

[Leonulf]

Rebecca sees Cynthia's reaction and tries to listen.

Listen (60%),[dice]0[/dice]

"I heard it too, I hope you know how to use that pistol."

[Anatomist]

Listen 40%,[dice]0[/dice]

Dr. Sánchez sees the group move forward when prompted by Cynthia. He lets them pass him as he takes position at the hall entrance with the staircase keeping a overview, grasping his gun under his armpit ready to pull, point and shoot.

[Raiko]

OOC,[ooc]Sorry been in meetings at work, and my home internet was down yesterday. @Silver Priest: You need to roll STR or below for this door, so you've just failed. You could spend a few points of luck to succeed. Alternatively you can push the roll, I'll definitely let you get the door open with your second kick - as your first roll only just failed - but you'll have completely lost the element of surprise if the second roll fails. It would be two kicks, and then still needing to barge it open. Pushing rolls isn't a reroll, it's an extended attempt, so the first kick fails unless you spend luck.[/ooc]

[Silver Priest]

OOC:   I don't really want to use luck, but I think I'll try to push it.

[dice]0[/dice] Str 60

Seeing his first kick fail, Marcus tries again, adrenaline coursing through his veins as he realizes Jackson may be in danger.

[Raiko]

Marcus' first kick splinters the door around the lock, his second smashes it wide open. And he and Amy burst through.

Beyond the door is a short hallway, with a bathroom off to the right. The hallway opens into a bedroom with a double bed, wardrobe, desk and a fireplace. French windows on the opposite wall open out to a balcony.

Two men stand inside the room wearing grotesque wooden tribal masks. The masks depict furious, snarling, demonic faces and have dangling strips of red leather, two feet long representing obscene tongues. Both men have been ransacking the room, but have now turned to face the smashed open door. Each holds a large machete type knife with a two-foot blade that bends at 45 degrees in the middle.

A third man, wearing an identical mask, squats over the badly wounded body of Jackson Elias. Jackson lays in a pool of his own blood, wailing in agony. He has suffered a massive abdominal injury, and his intestines hang out of the open wound; his face is also covered in blood. The crouching man has his own machete held high above his head, poised to deliver a killing blow. The man is covered in Jackson's blood, bits of gore coat the blade and splatters run down the nearest wall.

OOC:   Marcus and Amy can see into the room. Amy loses 1 SAN automatically. Both must make a SAN check or lose 1d6 SAN (so for Amy the loss is 1/1d6+1). Sanchez and Cynitha are by the door, in cover, and so can't see into the room yet. The door is just a normal-sized door, so it's mostly blocked by Marcus and Amy at the moment, I'll let you decide whether Rebecca and/or Anderson are in a position to see past Amy and Marcus. The three masked assassins are surprised, and so the investigators have time for a single action each before anything else happens.

[Mr. Handy]

"Jackson!" screams Amy a second after she fires and hits the man about to deliver the coup de grace to her love. Fury and determination make her shot accurate and deadly, striking the man square in the back precisely where his heart would be if he had one, which he clearly does not. And since the shot is from behind, his rib cage offers no protection whatsoever.

OOC,Sanity roll (current level 75) for seeing [b]Jackson[/b]: [dice]0[/dice] Sanity is now 74. Firearms(Handgun) roll (36% skill) shooting at the man attacking [b]Jackson[/b]: [dice]1[/dice] That's an impale! :shock: I don't think I ever specified the caliber of my pistol. Shall we assume it's a .38, which is probably the most common type? Is damage equal to the maximum damage plus regular rolled damage in 7th edition in this case? Also, are we at point blank range? Not that it matters for my first shot, but it may be important for firing multiple shots per round, as the bonus die would cancel out the penalty die. With an uncancelled penalty die, I'm extremely unlikely to hit at all at my skill level.

[Silver Priest]

Raiko,My sheet says my background gives me immunity to san rolls resulting from viewing a corpse or gross injury." Would that apply here? I'll roll just in case for now.

Marcus is prepared for many things, but even he is not expecting the grizzly sight he sees before him.

San 52,[dice]0[/dice] [dice]1d6 possible lose[/dice]

But he keeps his cool and raises his own pistol, firing a shot at one of the men attacking his friend.

Firearms 75%,[dice]1[/dice] [dice]2[/dice] I'd aim for the one Amy attacked in the unlikely event he's still up, otherwise one of the other two. So uh... that's an impale as well. :shock: [dice]3[/dice]

[jp1885]

SAN 57,[dice]0[/dice]

Never one to shy away from a fight, Cynthia pushes through as the gunshots ring out. Pistol drawn, she takes in the gory sight. It is a terrible scene, but her anger at what these masked fiends have done to her old friend overrides the horror of it all.

Seeing the one guy go down, she turns her gun on the nearest survivor and fires, but in her haste the shot goes wide.

Firearms 68,[dice]1[/dice]

OOC:   An equal is a pass, isn’t it?

[Anatomist]

Dr. Sánchez sees his friends firing away at the door, he fights the urge to join in as he thinks it might get to crowded at the door. He shouts out
'What the hell are you firing at!?'

[Raiko]

The masked assassin never strikes his final blow, Amy's shot brings him down instantly. The weird machete clatters noisily to the floor as the man's lifeless body falls on top of Jackson, his head is still twisted in Amy's direction and so the hideous mask still leers at her.

Realising that Amy has dealt with Jackson's assailant, Marcus has time to take aim at the next closest assassin, who had been ransacking the wardrobe. The bullet hits him square in the chest as he spins around to face the investigators. The masked man falls back into the cupboard and his huge knife slides slowly out of his fingers.

Knowing the odds are against him, the final masked man screams and turns towards the French windows.

[kabukiman]

Anderson as soon as he hear he gunshots, start running to the door.

[jp1885]

Having loosed off a shot and missed, Cynthia’s next priority is to help Jackson. The wound may look terrible, but if she can somehow keep him alive until medical help arrives...

First Aid 50%,[dice]0[/dice]

”Someone call an ambulance!” she yells, realising that dealing with her friend’s severe stomach wound is beyond her.

[Raiko]

Cynthia fears that Jackson's injuries might be beyond anyone's help, she doesn't even know where to start. Marcus has seen enough during the Great War to know that his friend is done for.

As well as the massive open stomach wound, Cynthia can see that a tribal symbol has been carved deeply into the skin of Jackson Elias' forehead, exactly like the victims of the Voodoo Murderer!

Jackson's head wound

As Cynthia shouts for an ambulance, Jackson grabs her jacket in his blood soaked hands. His eyes are delirious as he whispers in the wheezing voice, "They're...all...al...alive…"

He then stares past her to Amy, a tear rolls down his bloody cheeks as his consciousness slips away, "Love you…"

The remaining masked assassin dives headlong into the windows in a desperate attempt to escape before he is also shot dead.

OOC:   @Silver Priest: Yes, I forgot about the war veteran sanity check boost. @jp1885: Sorry I missed your previous post – yes an equal roll is a pass. @kabukiman: Anderson is through the door now, and so can fire at the third hitman (with a penalty die, see below). @Everyone: Amy and Marcus can also fire, as it is a new round. The range is point blank (1 bonus die) as long as your have at least 50 DEX, however the masked man is going to smash straight though the French window if he can, so I'm counting this as 'diving for cover' (1 penalty die). So these cancel out into a normal attack roll. Anderson is running and behind Amy and Marcus, so gets 1 extra penalty die. Anyone arriving behind Anderson gets 2 penalty dice (it's getting crowded, not good for a gunfight!). Anyone firing more than 1 shot also gets an extra penalty die.

Meanwhile, out of 23rd Street…

Atauchi hears the distinctive sound of gunshots from inside the Chelsea Hotel, but cannot see anything happening inside. He does notice that a black car is sat idling at the corner of the hotel, near to an alleyway. It must have been waiting there for a while because the snow has melted under the car.