Play@YSDC

This thread currently for Maksim & Thomas only, it will contain spoilers for all other player, so please keep out.

If you're meant to be here scroll down....

Taking out his Smith & Wesson .38 Thomas smashes into the door, but despite his best efforts to shoulder or kick the hotel door open, it won't budge.

Maksim arrives on the landing of the fourth floor, and looks down the hallway just as Thomas makes his last attempt to kick the door open.

[OOC: Warhammer, as you haven't specified a gun, as far as I can remember, I've given him a .38 as it's pretty much the ubiquitous handgun of the day, as a 9mm semi-auto would be now]

NOTE: If you want to post something OOC, please just post it here, marked as

OOC:

"Come here and help me kick this bastard!" says Thomas as soon as he sees Maksim.

It will be easy for Maksim to notice that Thomas is a bit angry, although he won't be able to know why.

Thomas did not bother with explanations for now, as that would only slow them down. Action first, explanations later. he thought. I hope the Russian is as efficient as he fancies himself to be.

Maksim is startled. Why make their move now? "Timour!" he bellows, really not wanting to get into a battle without his friend. Then he comes down jogging down the corridor, unholstering his gun and merely holding it beneath his jacket. "Stand back from the door if you think there's guns in there," he says.

"There's no answer." says Thomas. "I don't know what's happening but I'm armed and ready. Come on, let's both go at it. We don't have time to call for back-up right now."

Thomas will attempt to smash the door in with Maksim's help. If the door still won't budge, he will ask Maksim to stand back and will shoot the lock.

Together the two investigators attempt to kick down the door to room 410, although it doesn’t break open on the first attempt, it does crack loudly, so they kick a second time.

This time the door finally succumbs to the pounding and bursts open, revealing the inside of Jackson’s hotel room.

Before they have chance to look inside Thomas and Maksim are confronted by a large man wearing a hideous African Tribal Headdress, it’s carved design covers his face, and features a long red tongue or trunk that protrudes grotesquely from the front.

In his hand he brandishes a wickedly curved machete which he swings at the startled Thomas.

Beyond the cultist, both investigators catch a glimpse of a second masked figure climbing down over Jackson's balcony to the floor below.

[OOC: Maksim can act before the cultist, Thomas goes last. Please declare your intended actions as OOC posts here; once you’ve both declared something I’ll resolve the combat round as a single post. You both passed secret spot hidden rolls to see the second cultist escaping]

(OOC: Thomas is surprised but is fast to regain his composure, being aware that only a few seconds of hesitation can lead to his death. He will shoot at the cultist, having no doubt he will be all too willing to cut him and Maksim into pieces if they give him the chance. PS: As mentioned in my PMs, Thomas has his gun in hand. Regardless of DEX, doesn't a person with a readied handgun get to act before an opponent with a contact weapon?)

[OOC: Yes, aimed and readied firearms fire in DEX order, before hand-to-hand attacks, but you two were kicking the door down not aiming, so Thomas goes last. Sorry]

Maksim aims his gun and fires. The bullet thuds into the enemy.

OC: Not sure how I was supposed to write that up but I presume I did it correctly.

[color][OOC: You just need to declare your action OOC, that way we don't need to follow initiative order; and I post once per round when everyone has declared their action]

[OOC: Also Maksim's gun is a .45 not a .38 according to his sheet. So it's 1d10+2, doubled for the impale[/color]

Back to the action...

Maksim reacts instantly, bringing his big revolver up from beneath his jacket, he fires at point blank range straight into the cultist’s face. The powerful .45 bullet blasts through the tribal mask, out of the back of the attackers head spattering blood across the battered door.

The cultist collapses to the floor, killed instantly, his machete falling harmlessly at Thomas’ feet. Looking beyond him into the room the investigators see that the second cultist has now disappeared below the balcony.

On the bed lies Jackson Elias’ mutilated body, his throat has been hacked open, as has his stomach. The author’s intestines are spread across the bed, and a symbol has been carved bloodily into his forehead.

Maksim rushes to the window, gun ready. "When people come, this gun is either yours or I'm in jail. I'm not legally allowed to have this."

Thomas is still stood by the door shocked for a moment by the sight of Jackson’s mutilated body. He quickly recovers his composure though.

[OOC: Maksim is immune (Great War veteran)]

Maksim almost steps out onto the balcony but thinks better of it. "Hey, Thomas, stop standing there and come over to look for the other one. I can't be spotted. With my handsome face, I'll be bound to be spotted by witnesses. I'm going to get the others." He heads back for Thomas, presses the gun into his hand unless he resists, and heads for the stairs to look impatiently about.

Looking over the balcony Maksim cannot see the cultist. There is screaming coming from the room below (310).

Across the street Johnny is climbing back into Timour's car. He is looking straight at Maksim.

Sorry you changed your mind as I was posting, lets say you get to the balcony, as I've also been PMing Grafster.

OC: Okay, let's say he went out onto the balcony, saw all of this, ducked down in a panic as he realised he might be recognised and then headed for the stairwell.

Maksim starts heading downstairs, cursing himself for ever being born with a conscience. This was going to get him arrested. This was going to get him jailed.

[OOC: Do you still have the gun? And which stairwell, the main one or the fire escape? Are you going to the third floor, or out of the building?]

OC: Now that he knows there's screaming on the floor below, he'd keep the gun. His conscience won't let him leave them screaming, despite the number of witnesses. He'd go down whatever stairwell's closest, likely the main one, unthinking.

OC: Damn Maksim... Damn having a conscience... Next character I have will be a sociopath...

"Son of a b*tch..." says Thomas to the dead cultist, now staring at Jackson Elias's mutilated body. He can do nothing but stand there for a few seconds with an expression of disgust on his face, while all the gruesomeness of the scene is sinking in.

Coming back to his senses, he rushes down the stairwell after Maksim. "Don't you worry about being seen." he shouts as he runs. "It's called self-defense. They killed Elias, they tried to kill me, and I'm willing to bet my goddamn pinky finger they'll try and kill someone again very soon."

Thomas then follows into room 310, keeping enough distance so that he can fire at the cultist while also avoiding contact and the risk of being stabbed. He was willing to take risks but he was not a trained fighter either, and a melee battle with a machette-wielding cultist did not look like a bright idea right now. Dead, he would be of no use to anyone.

Thomas will shoot the cultist on sight if no one else is in the way. If shooting might accidentally hurt an innocent bystander, he'll react differently depending on the situation.

You've now rejoined the others on the fourth floor landing.

I'm locking this thread now.