IC-Ep 4-The Heart of Darkness(Everyone else)

[Mephistophilis]

Anna scowls at 'young woman', she raises her two lamps and says 'Let's go.' As she passes Story she grabs the knife, 'I know what to do with a knife.'

[Mr. Handy]

Story handed Anna a wooden box, which she opened to reveal an ancient dagger embedded in velvet padding. The dagger had a hilt shaped like the head of an Egyptian ibis, a bird with a long curved beak.

On the other side of the door was a vast room, supported by stone pillars with more extinguished torches in brackets. The walls here were of similar design. At the far end was an altar made of the same type of stone as the walls. It had four horns, one on each corner. Past that was another closed door. In the darkness at the back of the chamber was a large bat-like shape. It was much larger than a man, and it had a horrid tri-lobed burning red eye...

OOC, Everyone except [b]Eugene[/b], please roll Sanity. Sanity loss is 1D6/1D20, so you lose 1D6 Sanity even if you succeed, or 1D20 if you fail. If you lose 5 or more, please roll Idea. If you succeed, you will go temporarily insane. If you fail, you will be able to act normally when it is your turn. [b]Eugene[/b], you do not need to roll Sanity, as you have seen it before. It will get to act before any of you.

[Mephistophilis]

Anna gasps at the sight. She's not sure she had ever, truly believed the descriptions, but now that burning eye stared down at her...

OOC:   Pass Sanity, 1pt loss.

Hide - can't act yet,Blinking she pushes the thought from her mind, [i]'So what are we going to do now, Anna?'[/i] She turns up her oil lamps and places them down, taking out her electric torch and turning it on. She trains all of these on the bat-thing. She then takes out some candles and starts to light them and place them around her.

[Mr. Handy]

OOC, Those were some good rolls, but it's not your turn to act yet. The enemy gets to go first, and then [b]Story[/b] does. After that, the three of you will be able to act.

[aine]

Phyllis shakily holds her lamp and her umbrella before her. The thing at the back of the room is far more terrible than she had ever imagined; that eye is so big and so red. She had just enough strength to force her trembly legs through the door.

Sanity, 63 roll: 34 san loss: 4

[Mr. Handy]

Story had seen many bizarre things, and the Father of All Bats was just one more. Even so, it had some effect on him.

The Father of All Bats opened its mouth, and a flood of darkness flowed out of it. The huge room was quickly plunged into utter darkness, save for the immediate area around the lanterns and electric torches. They did not penetrate the gloom very far.

"I'll have to get closer to be able to use my light," whispered Story. He ventured off into the darkness, only to get completely disoriented and end up back where he started.

OOC, Now everyone may act. You must roll Listen if you are trying to hear where the Father of All Bats is.

[jp1885]

Listen 45 fail, https://orokos.com/roll/887178

Eugene screams in terror as the darkness envelops him. Shuddering with fear, he swings his torch around wildly.

[aine]

Listen, 25 roll:22

“Take heart, Mr Thomson, we’re all here with you!”
Phyllis tries to make contact with Eugene in the darkness. She keeps her umbrella and lamp pointed towards the Father of all Bats.

[Mephistophilis]

Anna hears movement in the dark, she swings her lamplight towards it and imprecisely flings a glass bottle of lamp oil in the direction of the sound.

[Mr. Handy]

The bottle shattered somewhere in the darkness. The Father of All Bats was not visible in the light's short range, but everyone knew it was there. "We need to get close enough to see it first," said Story, venturing into the darkness again and quickly getting lost.

Phyllis Cruckshank/Anna Jerkins, [b]Phyllis[/b] and [b]Anna[/b] could hear by the flapping where the Father of All Bats was at the far end of the room. Then they heard a second creature flapping, right next to it.

OOC, [b]Eugene[/b], you may attempt another Listen roll if you wish. [b]Phyllis[/b] and [b]Anna[/b] can tell where it is now and do not need to roll again for that. Everyone may take another action now.

[Mephistophilis]

'I think I can hear another one...' whispers Anna.

[jp1885]

Eugene sidles over to Anna.

“We’ll never find them all in this d-darkness. If it wants me, it’ll come to me. When it does, you need to strike, even if it gets in me!”

Despite the oppressive darkness crushing in on him, he opens his arms wide.

“I am here, Father of Bats!”

[aine]

“Oh my word!” Exclaims Phyllis. “It’s down at the far end of the room and yes, I do believe there’s two of them. It could be the one with the snaky tail.”
Phyllis stands next to Eugene ready to lash out with her iron umbrella. She also casts a glance backwards; can she see if the door is open?

[Mr. Handy]

One of the flapping creatures approached, close enough that Eugene could hear it - and then see it! It was not the Father of All Bats, but a Jaegerschreck, which Phyllis recognized as similar to the one she had seen before. This one, however, had two wings. It was jet black and dozens of feet long. The light caused it intense pain, but it withstood at and swung its tail at Eugene to grab him!

Story continued to wander around lost in the darkness, but he was getting closer.

OOC, Everyone except [b]Story[/b], please roll Sanity for seeing it. Sanity loss is 0/1D10. [b]Phyllis[/b] already lost 2 Sanity for seeing one of these creatures (but not the same one), so she can lose at most 8. Any loss of 9 or 10 counts only as 8 for her. If you lose at least 5, please roll Idea. If you succeed at that roll, you go temporarily insane. As long as you don't go temporarily insane, you may act. [b]Eugene[/b], please roll Dodge unless you want to let it grab you.

[jp1885]

Long story short,SAN fail, 6 SAN loss, idea extreme success

Overcome with terror, Eugene is rooted to the spot.

[Mephistophilis]

Anna steels herself against the sight of the winged horror. She takes one of her lanterns and swings it against the creature, trying to smash the glass and set light to it.

OOC:   Not sure what skill to use for this, I rolled 30.

[Mr. Handy]

Eugene began to scream as the creature's tail wrapped around him, pinning his arms to his sides. Anna swung one of her lanterns at it, narrowly missing it.

OOC, I'll count that as a Small Club roll, which has a 25% base skill. That misses, but not by much.

Eugene Thomson, [b]Eugene[/b]'s temporary insanity is [url=https://orokos.com/roll/887757]a screaming fit[/url], which lasts for [url=https://orokos.com/roll/887758]12 rounds[/url], including this one. You'll gain another indefinite insanity due to losing 20% or more of your remaining Sanity, but that'll kick in once your temporary insanity wears off - if you survive. You also gain another point of Cthulhu Mythos, taking it to 6%. Feel free to roll that now, for whatever good it will do.

[jp1885]

Cthulhu mythos,Failed at rolling a 12

Eugene continues to scream.

[aine]

Phyllis runs full pelt at the creature, taking her lantern to its eyes if she can. She jams the spike of her iron umbrella into its flesh with the force of 60 years of lifting jam pans behind it.
“Let him go you horrid creature!”

Umbrella, 25? Roll: 18

[Mr. Handy]

Phyllis was unafraid of the creature, but her umbrella didn't even seem to hurt it - unlike her light, which was clearly damaging and frightening it. With a shriek, it fled into the darkness the way it came, dragging a screaming Eugene with it. They were quickly out of sight, but the women could hear that it had brought him back to where the Father of All Bats was flapping around.

Story was finally able to track it down thanks to Eugene's screams. Holding his torch high, he advanced. "Release him!" commanded his booming voice. "And return whence you came!" He gestured at the Jaegerschreck, and it faded away into nothingness, leaving Eugene to fall to the floor with a thump, where he continued to scream - all the moreso because the Father of All Bats was right nearby, glaring at them with its baleful red eye.

OOC, [b]Phyllis[/b] needed a Sanity roll. I rolled for you and succeeded, so you lose none. The chance to hit with the umbrella was your Large Club skill, which is 50%, so that's more than good enough to hit. [b]Phyllis[/b] and [b]Anna[/b], you may both act now.