Bloody Sunday for us started at 6 in the morning when we returned to Lost Angels at 6 in the morning, on a Sunday in the middle of April in the year 1876.
After we got to the docks, we quickly headed to the pi shop to meet the owner. We informed him that the meat pies people were being fed were made using human flesh, and that without doing that the population of Lost Angels was likely not sustainable, but that we should take him down anyway to stop his atrocities (and get the HD back) and that we needed to act fast since he was planning something big today. So we quickly mobilized the troops, while we were tasked with convincing the population that Grimme was evil and we were the good guys. A daunting task, but if anyone could pull it off, it would be our ragtag group of actors, especially with Cassanova and Malady to help. We were advised that bullets might not be enough to win this battle, we would need to cut away his support. We agreed that that was most likely true. The pi shop owner eagerly pulled out a massive Gatling gun and the rebellion began getting pallets of dynamite ready with labels for different places.
When we exited the pi shop,the city was completely deserted and the sky was completely cloudy (which was odd considering we were in a desert) and gave off a ... bad feeling. The air was strangely think, and the smell of ozone was everywhere. We decided to rush to the church, which when we got there was enormous, holding the entire population of the city within it (hundreds of meters in either direction). As we got there the clouds began to release their contents, burning what it touched, it seemed that the sky was full of acid rain. So we ran into the atrium of the church, and before we entered Old Pete tossed a pair of extra colt walkers to Jasper, matching the pair he had. After we entered the atrium we loaded our weapons and prepared for a showdown with Grimme. The guards at the event seemed very anxious and Jittery, and the inside of the auditorium seemed to be the eye of the storm raging on outside. The auditorium was full of pews which I pointed out would make good sniping points to take out Grimme before he managed to do whatever he planned to do. The Auditorium also seemed to have somewhere around 20,000 people in it.
We also spotted our objective, the Heart of Darkness was sitting on the pulpit and glowing, which probably meant we were too late, but we couldn't give up when we were this close. So we began taunting and rally the people against Grimme to varying degrees of success. Smoke, as usually decided to go out and bellowed across the massive stadium "You sick cannibalistic FUCK, how could you butcher your own followers, and make them into those meat pies" (the last part may have been a bit different, I was rather busy trying to kill Grimme before he could finish what he was doing. Unfortunately, despite having shot him squarely in the eye, he didn't even flinch and at the same time, the air seems to shatter behind Grimme and a colossal Creature appearing to be a demon shows up standing at least 60 feet tall. Strangely Grimme turned to face it and began glowing, looking for all intents and purposes to be a divine conduit for some wrathful god. Why he went through such lengths to summon a demon to fight it is quite a puzzle to me, perhaps he was proving to his worshipers that he was an actual divine messenger. The demon releases and aura of his own, but its aura is harsher than Grimme's and is less oppressive feeling. Grimme begins to look enraged at the demon, while the demon begins to laugh, which was truly a grating sound to hear.
The Demon then breathes out a cloud of thick black smoke over the crowd, causing thousands of abominations that seemed as if they were dredged up from our worst nightmares. The smaller abominations quickly began tearing into the crowd of people in the stadium while Grimme was wrestling with the demon. As we were fending off the human sized monsters, a towering creature nearly 15 feet tall with one eye and 5 globuous pustuoles began advancing towards us and breathes out a stream of fire at Ziggy bellowing "Die! ... Again". (Interestingly it seem to be aware that he is harrowed). Smoke tosses a flash grenade at it, and like so many of the devices he used it acted weirdly with half of it flying off and hitting a wall while the other half exploded with lethal force. (Well it seems to be working out for us fairly well so far). Eventually with more shots and effort than It normally takes to kill something we managed to blow the demon thing in half, but were quickly attacked by more of the smaller amorphous creatures swarming the stadium. As I glanced back at the podium I noticed that the Heart of Darkness was gone. The smaller creatures began fusing together into an emaciated looking but much bigger demon, and the fire breathing one with pustuoles reformed itself. Apparently the giant one is something known as a fear-monger.
Malady was attempting to rally the people in the stadium, and despite a good if corny effort the few who tried to rally were quickly cut down by the creatures, and soon they all ignored him in favor of fleeing in terror. The huge demon apparently grew wings from its back and began to fly above us, restricting some of our abilities to hurt it (or re-kill it), and the emaciated fused one breathed out a swarm of stinging insects all over us. Ziggy in a dramatic act knifed the flying demon in the back with a silver dagger he had and held on to. We continued to fight the two monstrosities and eventually take the big one down again and had the fused one severely damaged, when Grimme dramatically punched the massive demon in the face, causing it to bellow out "He's too strong, we must flee my brothers" (I suppose as far as performances go it was well staged, if a bit brutal).
The demons begin to retreat, melt, explode into lawyers, accountants, bugs, and other unsavory demon things (I am not joking about the lawyers and accountants one, apparently a few of the monstrosities were actually made of what appeared to be well dressed corpses with briefcase). The church was completely totaled from all of the fighting with 'demons' that had been going on, and there were still a couple hundred people who were still alive out of the tens of thousands that were there before, the carnage was ... staggering. Outside the church was a scene of destruction and Armageddon, and when we looked out at the waters, the rock, which we had only recently completely destroyed and sunk (by accident, but we still did), was perfectly intact. All around us are dead and dying people, this was the stuff of nightmares, the visions of this day will likely haunt me for the rest of my life along with the many other horrors I have seen, and what might be. We managed to find Jasper uninjured and returned to Storinjor's warehouse where we were planning on meeting after we attempted to stop the incident, which sadly we failed at, but we survived, the warehouse, appeared to be relatively unscathed. Old Pete had managed to snag the heart of darkness while everyone was distracted by the demons, which was a relief at the time, because Grimme had only had the stone for a brief time and he caused all of this, we were glad he no longer had it, and that we would finally be able to return it and wash our hands of the damned rock. Jasper appeared to have no nose and looks famished when we see him. Old Pete then took off his mask, and instead of what we had seen before it was a spitting image of Jasper Stone's face. Old Pete then told Jasper something like "Shall we, the future awaits".
I will admit that this completely took me by surprise, I had trusted old Pete, and we went through all of the horrors of the rock, and the Sunday massacre only to have the prize stolen from our grasps from our only ally in the city. I may have temporarily lost my wits and began spewing all sorts of conspiracy theories about how everyone was Jasper Stone in disguise and that stone killed stone, or something like that, I have trouble recalling exactly what I said during that brief time. The two Jaspers left through the wall and we couldn't really follow them through, being unable to apparently phase through solid matter. Before we could try to think of a way to catch up to them and get the stone back, 10 zombies armed with guns came out of the crates in the warehouse and began opening fire on us, much more quickly than most zombies I have encountered (apparently I have encountered zombies a few times before?). After a bit of a shootout and a flash grenade, Ziggy pulls a vial of nitroglycerin out of his hat, and throws it at the zombies, setting the warehouse on fire. (honestly, what is it with boys and their need to set everywhere we visit on fire).
In an unexpected twist, Grimme sent some of his angels to extend his THANKS to us for helping save his city. I was rather irritated at him, but given that he could have completely destroyed us without much effort on his part I Grimaced (hah) and accepted it. Apparently Grimme, the angels, and the populace considered us heroes. The city was full or makeshift infirmaries since the city was in triage mode, saving who they could and putting off grieving for later, if that would ever come in this city of tragedy. Walking to the pi shop we found that it was completely destroyed by what looked to be a large amount of shaped charges. We decided to head out of Lost Angels before Grimme decided we had overstayed our "welcome" and silenced us, and as we left we got our weapons back, and for some reason I felt much safer having both my new rifle and my old rifle, they have both saved my life on more than one occasion, I even decided to name my rifle Demon Slayer, it certainly lived up to that name already. As we were leaving the area, I felt something on the edge of our vision, and other sense that was similar to what I felt when the ringmaster died. Then I noticed that Grimme's followers here were building a church, which seemed rather odd why they would choose now to expand, given the lowered population and the similar amount of space in the city. Perhaps Grimme's little show was more than just a play on the emotions of his followers ...
Wednesday, December 25, 2013
Entry 15: Breaking The Rock
We began making preparations for our upcoming raid on The Rock, while waiting for sundown when we were to meet old Pete at the docks. I was being taught how to protect myself from attackers we were likely to face, Smoke was directing lab assistants to help him make flash grenades, and the others were also training in various combat techniques for when things most likely go bad during our mission.
We met old Pete at the docks and got into a relatively small boat. We were warned of the dangers of the defenses surrounding the rock, including the mutated sharks that spanned 8 to 20 feet and were covered in red armored growths, as well as the patrolling maze runners that would shoot anyone approaching the rock on sight with Gatling guns. Suffice to say, we were extra sure to be quiet and not rock the boat.
Luckily we managed to slowly get through unnoticed by either the maze runners or the sharks as we slowly moved to the sewer entrance, with reddish brown muck coming out of it. The smell nearly floored some of us it was so intense. While at the sewer entrance, old Pete informed us that we would need a key to get to Jasper and the HoD, and that two people had the key, one would be in the top floor in Grimme's office, and the other would be on the warden, and that when we were ready to leave we should send up a flare. He also provided us with a scrap of cloth to convince stone that we could be trusted.
After sneaking in through the sewers we came on an opening into the furnace room, where two scientists were babbling about something or another, it wasn't anything noteworthy. So we snuck in and I electrocuted one of them unconscious and Casanova intimidated the other into going back to work. And then we knocked him out just to be safe.
Of course then we heard foot steps coming our way, and so we quickly hid ourselves and the unconscious workers, while Malady used his magic to make himself look like Grimme himself and began shovelling coal into the fire. After somehow convincing the person that it was some sort of religious symbolism that the coal was the unbelievers fueling the flame of the belief of the true followers he headed off with the person to attempt to get the key we needed. Meanwhile we began to look around the hallways, and when I used my newly crafted spirit lens (it allows me to see into the spirit world, I figured it might be useful for this mission) to look into one of the dead ends, I saw terrible things, that I dare not try to recall.
So we avoided that hallway, and opened another door, only to find there were 3 people butchering human bodies, who quickly attacked us, and if it weren't for a lucky deflection on my part one of them would have taken my head clean off. I retaliated by shooting him point blank in the chest. Cassanova and Ziggy run in and attacked another with their sword and throwing knives respectively. and the third was quickly finished off.
We continued sneaking through the hallway, but were attacked by a man with a shotgun, and a for lack of a better word supernatural "song" was playing casing all of us except Coleen and Smoke to go up the staircase past a pile of bubbling bones, which horrifically coalesced into a slurping, laughing, burbling mutant. Luckily we managed to shake off the effect, and Malady showed up in the room with the man we had moved to, with the warden held hostage. So we returned down the stairs to help coleen and Smoke fight the blood golem. The sight of it was revolting and caused many of us to lose the contents of their stomachs. I Took my rifle and shot it in the center of mass, hoping that it would be damaged by that. and then a third time before it could reach me, which was enough to destroy it.
The monstrous blood golem was apparently created using an object that the warden threw (a bone) which he had 3 more of.
Finally after more searching of rooms we found a storage room, which was full of flour for "meat pies" as well as ghost rock fuel. At this point it was fairly clear how Grimme was keeping people fed, and some of us were quite shocked by this despite the clues left for us in previous rooms. After that we went down another hallway and found 2 locked doors which, led to 5 cells that seemed to suppress all arcane effects, in which I felt strangely fine, unfortunately the cells were empty so we had to search elsewhere for where Jasper was being kept.
Another path led to a torture room with a creepy man sharpening knives, Smokes ended up tripping and alerting him to our presence. So I reacted quickly and nearly shot him perfectly, but he chose that moment to duck upon hearing a noise so the shot was a glancing shot. Luckily Ziggy threw his knives at the torturer and killed him, a rather fitting for him I suppose.
The next room had several large ovens, several cutting tables and gore covering the floor and walls. Occupying the room were 3 chefs that were nearly as wide as they were tall, and they towered at nearly 9 feet tall, wearing bloody chef's hats and wielding blood stained cleavers. These chefs began SLIDING towards us on the gore covering the floor, and I began to fire at them but was quickly blinded by a bright flare of light as a flash grenade went off in front of my face. Luckily Cassanova was able to use his pistol to damage one of them (female possibly, I didn't really want to check). And the other two were dispatched fairly easily, although they did get a few good hits of their own in before we took them down.
Unfortunately, 2 angels showed up around the corner to investigate the loud explosion he heard, smoke is not very good at stealth operations. One of them managed to scream out something like "Code 66ba-argh" as he was silenced but not quickly enough. We quickly retreated to the store room as 2 flights of angels showed up with more reinforcements on the way. Luckily what Smoke lacks in stealth he makes up for in the ability to create explosives (often unintentionally) and so we devised a plan using flour, some of the fireworks I kept from our show in junkyard and smoke's flash grenade to make a trap for the angels. The flour would be tossed out, the flash grenade would be thrown causing the flower to spread through the air, then the fireworks would be set off igniting the flour. So Cassanova, being an actor at heart, Yelled "Feel the true wrath of God" to the angels as smoke tossed his grenade, Colleen used some sort of magic and asked if god could create a being more powerful than himself to the angels, causing them to stand in confusion while Cassanova rescued Malady (Still disguised as grimm) from the angels, and then I threw the fireworks, and we slammed the doors shut.
The explosion was nearly deafening and knocked the large iron doors we were bracing and had bolted clean off their hinges, and we fled out of the warehouse as the stockpiles of flour and ghostrock began catching fire. Throughout the compound code 666 was being repeated over a series of tubes that lead to all of the rooms and hallways. We headed down the staircase quickly only taking the time to set up a tripwire trap to trigger another "flour-grenade-firework oh my" trap (we didn't have time to think of a good name).
We reached a room with bone sculptures along the walls depicting people eating themselves, it was quite unnerving, but fitting considering the cannibalistic tendencies of Grimme and his followers. The room also contained a lamp, a heavy black curtain and an alter, to whatever monster Grimme actually worshiped most likely, there was also a thick locked door that we attempted to lockpick, which broke the lockpick before deciding we should try the key we took from the warden. When we used the key, the door practically sucked in the key like a devouring maw before releasing it and opening, revealing a huge room with a throne on the far side so red that it was almost black, and the entire room was filled with bones that were about 3feet deep in most places, and more like 8 feet high near the walls. The room was made more unnerving as every so often it almost sounded like there was rattling and shifting among the bones.
Deciding to not go anywhere near the throne unless necessary we instead traversed the bones cautiously and entered the northern most door of the room, ending up in Grimme's Laboratory, which also had some jail cells in it, as well as a emaciated body on a stone slab. We also spotted an anatomical drawing of something called a faminite near the table. The creature in the drawing may have at one point been human, but significantly altered by some occult method. The laboratory was also filled with racks of alchemical and chemical solutions. We also saw a man in one of the cells when we investigated them, surrounded by candles with a pentagram on the floor surrounding him. Walzting buffalo used his whip to extinguish a candle, and the man began looking healthier. We showed the man the cloth and he told us his name was Jasper Stone, and having confirmed he was who we were looking for we freed him from his cell. We mentioned that we need to pick up the heart of darkness before we made our escape which caused him to make a lot of weird faces, which considering it was the reason he was imprisoned and tortured by Grimme, I didn't give a second thought. We split up to search for the HD more quickly since we were running out of time, so Ziggy and I being the stealthiest looked in the other room coming off of the bone pit room, which contained bone sculptures that were most likely made by Grimme himself, clearly Grimme is a people person (I suppose making jokes about the horrors Grimme was committing might be tasteless, but better to not let things get to you and try to fix them than mourning.).
Finding nothing of value we returned to the stairs only to find it guarded by a small army of guardian angels (~60 give or take some if my estimation is right) and that our trap was disabled. Smoke throws one of his flash grenades at the trap to set it off so we can escape from them. Apparently though the grenade was made in a bizarre was that caused a simple flash grenade to be extremely lethal, as Smoke explained it later, it had somehow ended up being a poly-nitrogen grenade instead of a magnesium grenade, suddenly being blinded by his flash grenade became a much preferable option than having this happen to us. So we all bolted out through the flames before the stockpiles caught on fire completely, unfortunately as we were escaping through the sewers (luckily out escape rout was still intact after the initial explosion), the flames reached the flour and coal, as well as the alcohol reserves, and worse, the room above it was full of dynamite, so we had very little time to escape before we went down with the island. We barely made it out of the sewer vent before the fire spread and ignited the methane in the sewers. Luckily Old Pete was there waiting for us, and we quickly pile in the boat, while Ziggy pulls a whistle out of his hat and plays taps, and Old Pete increases the boats speed by a nearly 100%, and we manage to outrun both the maze runners and the monster sharks, as the island goes up in flames behind us. During this time Smoke was shell-shocked at the damage his grenade has caused (indirectly), it must have hit extra hard since he is a pacifist, and does not want to kill people, which is why he made flash grenades in the first place. Colleen appeared to also be near catatonic, and given her fear of fire coupled with the explosions we nearly were caught up in was understandable.
Old Pete pays us $1800 in union gold for getting Jasper out of the Rock, Again it seemed reasonable considering what we had just gone through. Old Pete then informed us that Grimme was going to do something big today involving the HD, and that we needed to get to the church, but that we should go to the pi shop first.
We met old Pete at the docks and got into a relatively small boat. We were warned of the dangers of the defenses surrounding the rock, including the mutated sharks that spanned 8 to 20 feet and were covered in red armored growths, as well as the patrolling maze runners that would shoot anyone approaching the rock on sight with Gatling guns. Suffice to say, we were extra sure to be quiet and not rock the boat.
Luckily we managed to slowly get through unnoticed by either the maze runners or the sharks as we slowly moved to the sewer entrance, with reddish brown muck coming out of it. The smell nearly floored some of us it was so intense. While at the sewer entrance, old Pete informed us that we would need a key to get to Jasper and the HoD, and that two people had the key, one would be in the top floor in Grimme's office, and the other would be on the warden, and that when we were ready to leave we should send up a flare. He also provided us with a scrap of cloth to convince stone that we could be trusted.
After sneaking in through the sewers we came on an opening into the furnace room, where two scientists were babbling about something or another, it wasn't anything noteworthy. So we snuck in and I electrocuted one of them unconscious and Casanova intimidated the other into going back to work. And then we knocked him out just to be safe.
Of course then we heard foot steps coming our way, and so we quickly hid ourselves and the unconscious workers, while Malady used his magic to make himself look like Grimme himself and began shovelling coal into the fire. After somehow convincing the person that it was some sort of religious symbolism that the coal was the unbelievers fueling the flame of the belief of the true followers he headed off with the person to attempt to get the key we needed. Meanwhile we began to look around the hallways, and when I used my newly crafted spirit lens (it allows me to see into the spirit world, I figured it might be useful for this mission) to look into one of the dead ends, I saw terrible things, that I dare not try to recall.
So we avoided that hallway, and opened another door, only to find there were 3 people butchering human bodies, who quickly attacked us, and if it weren't for a lucky deflection on my part one of them would have taken my head clean off. I retaliated by shooting him point blank in the chest. Cassanova and Ziggy run in and attacked another with their sword and throwing knives respectively. and the third was quickly finished off.
We continued sneaking through the hallway, but were attacked by a man with a shotgun, and a for lack of a better word supernatural "song" was playing casing all of us except Coleen and Smoke to go up the staircase past a pile of bubbling bones, which horrifically coalesced into a slurping, laughing, burbling mutant. Luckily we managed to shake off the effect, and Malady showed up in the room with the man we had moved to, with the warden held hostage. So we returned down the stairs to help coleen and Smoke fight the blood golem. The sight of it was revolting and caused many of us to lose the contents of their stomachs. I Took my rifle and shot it in the center of mass, hoping that it would be damaged by that. and then a third time before it could reach me, which was enough to destroy it.
The monstrous blood golem was apparently created using an object that the warden threw (a bone) which he had 3 more of.
Finally after more searching of rooms we found a storage room, which was full of flour for "meat pies" as well as ghost rock fuel. At this point it was fairly clear how Grimme was keeping people fed, and some of us were quite shocked by this despite the clues left for us in previous rooms. After that we went down another hallway and found 2 locked doors which, led to 5 cells that seemed to suppress all arcane effects, in which I felt strangely fine, unfortunately the cells were empty so we had to search elsewhere for where Jasper was being kept.
Another path led to a torture room with a creepy man sharpening knives, Smokes ended up tripping and alerting him to our presence. So I reacted quickly and nearly shot him perfectly, but he chose that moment to duck upon hearing a noise so the shot was a glancing shot. Luckily Ziggy threw his knives at the torturer and killed him, a rather fitting for him I suppose.
The next room had several large ovens, several cutting tables and gore covering the floor and walls. Occupying the room were 3 chefs that were nearly as wide as they were tall, and they towered at nearly 9 feet tall, wearing bloody chef's hats and wielding blood stained cleavers. These chefs began SLIDING towards us on the gore covering the floor, and I began to fire at them but was quickly blinded by a bright flare of light as a flash grenade went off in front of my face. Luckily Cassanova was able to use his pistol to damage one of them (female possibly, I didn't really want to check). And the other two were dispatched fairly easily, although they did get a few good hits of their own in before we took them down.
Unfortunately, 2 angels showed up around the corner to investigate the loud explosion he heard, smoke is not very good at stealth operations. One of them managed to scream out something like "Code 66ba-argh" as he was silenced but not quickly enough. We quickly retreated to the store room as 2 flights of angels showed up with more reinforcements on the way. Luckily what Smoke lacks in stealth he makes up for in the ability to create explosives (often unintentionally) and so we devised a plan using flour, some of the fireworks I kept from our show in junkyard and smoke's flash grenade to make a trap for the angels. The flour would be tossed out, the flash grenade would be thrown causing the flower to spread through the air, then the fireworks would be set off igniting the flour. So Cassanova, being an actor at heart, Yelled "Feel the true wrath of God" to the angels as smoke tossed his grenade, Colleen used some sort of magic and asked if god could create a being more powerful than himself to the angels, causing them to stand in confusion while Cassanova rescued Malady (Still disguised as grimm) from the angels, and then I threw the fireworks, and we slammed the doors shut.
The explosion was nearly deafening and knocked the large iron doors we were bracing and had bolted clean off their hinges, and we fled out of the warehouse as the stockpiles of flour and ghostrock began catching fire. Throughout the compound code 666 was being repeated over a series of tubes that lead to all of the rooms and hallways. We headed down the staircase quickly only taking the time to set up a tripwire trap to trigger another "flour-grenade-firework oh my" trap (we didn't have time to think of a good name).
We reached a room with bone sculptures along the walls depicting people eating themselves, it was quite unnerving, but fitting considering the cannibalistic tendencies of Grimme and his followers. The room also contained a lamp, a heavy black curtain and an alter, to whatever monster Grimme actually worshiped most likely, there was also a thick locked door that we attempted to lockpick, which broke the lockpick before deciding we should try the key we took from the warden. When we used the key, the door practically sucked in the key like a devouring maw before releasing it and opening, revealing a huge room with a throne on the far side so red that it was almost black, and the entire room was filled with bones that were about 3feet deep in most places, and more like 8 feet high near the walls. The room was made more unnerving as every so often it almost sounded like there was rattling and shifting among the bones.
Deciding to not go anywhere near the throne unless necessary we instead traversed the bones cautiously and entered the northern most door of the room, ending up in Grimme's Laboratory, which also had some jail cells in it, as well as a emaciated body on a stone slab. We also spotted an anatomical drawing of something called a faminite near the table. The creature in the drawing may have at one point been human, but significantly altered by some occult method. The laboratory was also filled with racks of alchemical and chemical solutions. We also saw a man in one of the cells when we investigated them, surrounded by candles with a pentagram on the floor surrounding him. Walzting buffalo used his whip to extinguish a candle, and the man began looking healthier. We showed the man the cloth and he told us his name was Jasper Stone, and having confirmed he was who we were looking for we freed him from his cell. We mentioned that we need to pick up the heart of darkness before we made our escape which caused him to make a lot of weird faces, which considering it was the reason he was imprisoned and tortured by Grimme, I didn't give a second thought. We split up to search for the HD more quickly since we were running out of time, so Ziggy and I being the stealthiest looked in the other room coming off of the bone pit room, which contained bone sculptures that were most likely made by Grimme himself, clearly Grimme is a people person (I suppose making jokes about the horrors Grimme was committing might be tasteless, but better to not let things get to you and try to fix them than mourning.).
Finding nothing of value we returned to the stairs only to find it guarded by a small army of guardian angels (~60 give or take some if my estimation is right) and that our trap was disabled. Smoke throws one of his flash grenades at the trap to set it off so we can escape from them. Apparently though the grenade was made in a bizarre was that caused a simple flash grenade to be extremely lethal, as Smoke explained it later, it had somehow ended up being a poly-nitrogen grenade instead of a magnesium grenade, suddenly being blinded by his flash grenade became a much preferable option than having this happen to us. So we all bolted out through the flames before the stockpiles caught on fire completely, unfortunately as we were escaping through the sewers (luckily out escape rout was still intact after the initial explosion), the flames reached the flour and coal, as well as the alcohol reserves, and worse, the room above it was full of dynamite, so we had very little time to escape before we went down with the island. We barely made it out of the sewer vent before the fire spread and ignited the methane in the sewers. Luckily Old Pete was there waiting for us, and we quickly pile in the boat, while Ziggy pulls a whistle out of his hat and plays taps, and Old Pete increases the boats speed by a nearly 100%, and we manage to outrun both the maze runners and the monster sharks, as the island goes up in flames behind us. During this time Smoke was shell-shocked at the damage his grenade has caused (indirectly), it must have hit extra hard since he is a pacifist, and does not want to kill people, which is why he made flash grenades in the first place. Colleen appeared to also be near catatonic, and given her fear of fire coupled with the explosions we nearly were caught up in was understandable.
Old Pete pays us $1800 in union gold for getting Jasper out of the Rock, Again it seemed reasonable considering what we had just gone through. Old Pete then informed us that Grimme was going to do something big today involving the HD, and that we needed to get to the church, but that we should go to the pi shop first.
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Entry 14:City of Angels
We arrived at a town near Lost Angels and left the wagons there with Cookies staying behind to guard them and walked the rest of the way to the city. We went into the city and passed through the checkpoint leaving our obvious weapons behind to be picked up when we leave, luckily I was able to sneak in my electroshock rifle.
Smoke cursed at some minor thing and reacted poorly when told that he should refrain from cursing in a city with extremely strict punishments for things like that, which if he paid attention to the dossier I so kindly let him read he should have known. It was about this time that we noticed how underfed and hostile the populace of the city seemed to be towards us, since we were well fed.
We quickly headed to Hardwick's and to the presidential suite where there had been a large amount of explosions. We bribed Hardwick to allow us to investigate and when we examined the place and questioned Hardwick on what happened, we were told that Grimme himself and 2 guardian angels had come for jasper and that the room had scorch marks which didn't seem to have radiated in any way, which was completely abnormal. We tried to ask around for who may have ratted out Jasper and told Grimme about the Happy Dance, and we found that the inquisitor of the guardian angels might know. When we got the the inquisitors office we saw one of the most obese men I have ever laid my eyes on, when we asked who the informant was, he pushed a file on the table that was open on the table into a drawer and told us they don't reveal who the informants are.
Luckily for us I was able to read where the informant was located and saw that he was in Murphy's Flophouse, so we headed there. When we got there we found that Sneed was there and had been drinking for a few days strait and sharing drinks with all of the other patrons, with the large sum of money he had obtained from delivering the Heart of Darkness to Jasper and then selling both of them out to Grimme.
Apparently Smoke was an old friend of Sneed's and managed to talk the other patrons down from a fight and subtly asking Sneed about why he did what he did and where the heart was. Sneed was not responsive at first, but Smoke managed to calm him down and convince him to tell us, after getting him back to his room, he fell unconscious after talking to Smoke for a bit. Leaving us slightly at a loss as to what to do.
Soon after that a man showed up and told us that he could help us, he admitted to being a thief who had managed to escape from The Rock, Grimme's island prison, a feat which drew my attention, and said that he knew where Grimme had the heart and that if we helped him free his partner from the rock, he would help us get the HoD back. He told us to meet him in the labyrinth where we could speak more freely.
We met him there and he took off the mask he was wearing to reveal a maimed and repulsive face with a pentagram carved into his forehead, and told us it was from his torture at Grimme's hands. We were convinced to help him rescue Jasper in exchange for his help, maybe look around a bit in the rock for my mysterious benefactor while I was there. He told us to talk to the innkeeper and tell him the password of "Pi" to get directions to where we needed to go. So we got directions from him to an abandoned warehouse full of individuals who were ready to shoot us down until we told them the password and who sent us and our plan to break into the Rock. Upon hearing our plan they equippedd us with some of the highest quality armor and weapons, and we were equipped with matching black leather dusters, except for me of course as I already had one, in exchange we promised them that while we were in there we would try to find out how Grimme was keeping all of his followers fed in the barren desert so that they could rebel and eliminate him without causing the entire city to starve. So now we are training and waiting for nightfall to begin our infiltration, they also kindly provided me with a new rifle to use.
Smoke cursed at some minor thing and reacted poorly when told that he should refrain from cursing in a city with extremely strict punishments for things like that, which if he paid attention to the dossier I so kindly let him read he should have known. It was about this time that we noticed how underfed and hostile the populace of the city seemed to be towards us, since we were well fed.
We quickly headed to Hardwick's and to the presidential suite where there had been a large amount of explosions. We bribed Hardwick to allow us to investigate and when we examined the place and questioned Hardwick on what happened, we were told that Grimme himself and 2 guardian angels had come for jasper and that the room had scorch marks which didn't seem to have radiated in any way, which was completely abnormal. We tried to ask around for who may have ratted out Jasper and told Grimme about the Happy Dance, and we found that the inquisitor of the guardian angels might know. When we got the the inquisitors office we saw one of the most obese men I have ever laid my eyes on, when we asked who the informant was, he pushed a file on the table that was open on the table into a drawer and told us they don't reveal who the informants are.
Luckily for us I was able to read where the informant was located and saw that he was in Murphy's Flophouse, so we headed there. When we got there we found that Sneed was there and had been drinking for a few days strait and sharing drinks with all of the other patrons, with the large sum of money he had obtained from delivering the Heart of Darkness to Jasper and then selling both of them out to Grimme.
Apparently Smoke was an old friend of Sneed's and managed to talk the other patrons down from a fight and subtly asking Sneed about why he did what he did and where the heart was. Sneed was not responsive at first, but Smoke managed to calm him down and convince him to tell us, after getting him back to his room, he fell unconscious after talking to Smoke for a bit. Leaving us slightly at a loss as to what to do.
Soon after that a man showed up and told us that he could help us, he admitted to being a thief who had managed to escape from The Rock, Grimme's island prison, a feat which drew my attention, and said that he knew where Grimme had the heart and that if we helped him free his partner from the rock, he would help us get the HoD back. He told us to meet him in the labyrinth where we could speak more freely.
We met him there and he took off the mask he was wearing to reveal a maimed and repulsive face with a pentagram carved into his forehead, and told us it was from his torture at Grimme's hands. We were convinced to help him rescue Jasper in exchange for his help, maybe look around a bit in the rock for my mysterious benefactor while I was there. He told us to talk to the innkeeper and tell him the password of "Pi" to get directions to where we needed to go. So we got directions from him to an abandoned warehouse full of individuals who were ready to shoot us down until we told them the password and who sent us and our plan to break into the Rock. Upon hearing our plan they equippedd us with some of the highest quality armor and weapons, and we were equipped with matching black leather dusters, except for me of course as I already had one, in exchange we promised them that while we were in there we would try to find out how Grimme was keeping all of his followers fed in the barren desert so that they could rebel and eliminate him without causing the entire city to starve. So now we are training and waiting for nightfall to begin our infiltration, they also kindly provided me with a new rifle to use.
Entry 13a:Secret Messages
I have decoded the shorter message I found with the dossier
"Be mindful of trusting the ghosts of the
past they ended my life and began yours
Miranda Dethewright"
And upon reading that I recalled an vague memory of a lot of anguish and pain, and I remembered a 5x5 grid along which diagonals are drawn.
----------
a b c d e
f g h i j
k l m n o
p q r s t
u v w x y
I have decoded the message that I was given with the dossier and it reads:
"I know you've never liked relying on typed briefings but please trust the cipher and my personal
assurance that these measures are necessary. If I could show my face to anyone without half the
Agency going apoplectic, you'd be the first one I'd visit.
I'm told your last assignment was completed in exemplary fashion; everything went off perfectly,
and the oddest thing left at the site is a funny smell. As well know by now, we can't keep you
in-house for long enough for anyone to get to know you, and that's a risk we can't even think of
taking now of all times. We need you out of here. You never existed, of course, but It's time for
no one in our happy family to be able to count heads and come up one too many. (If we're only one
off, I'd put on a parka and get to hell, but the point remains.)
You're going to Lost Angels. (Yes, I'm comfident enough in this cipher to use proper nouns.) As
for what you're doing, I'd tell you to check the dossier and make the logical assumption, but
since you can't access the dossier officially anymore and I'd rather not have you sneaking into
our facilities just to check out books again, I'll give you the short version.
It is, I'm afraid, more troublemaking. The Guardian Angels, Grimme's local army, have been
"taking care" of non-cult in the city in a fashion so quiet even you would admire it. They're
busy making unpeople of people few would miss, and while it's raising hackles it's also beginning
a pattern. If allowed to continue, the Guardians will get confident, and then they'll get cocky,
and then they'll start branching out. We need that pattern disrupted.
Basically, we need people disappearing that the Angels can't account for. Guardian Angles would
be nice, albeit above the bottom rung; so would affluent, faithful Angels. Don't have a pattern
on this one. Just go in and pick off the most upright pillars of the community you can find. I'm
hopeful this will appeal to your sense of humor.
As usual, leave no traces.We don't want to send people into a panic, we just want the region
destabilized. Do that, and keep doing that, until your recall button pings you. Then come home.
And do be careful; this is a cooling-off period for you, not a major incursion. That also means
"please don't steal quite as much from our resources as usual". You have carte blanche as always
given your lack of officicial support, but we have trouble getting supplies out there.
One last thing: If you get a chance to safely learn anything about the Rock, that would be a very
good thing.
Good luck, Miranda
- A Kindred SpiritX"
"Be mindful of trusting the ghosts of the
past they ended my life and began yours
Miranda Dethewright"
And upon reading that I recalled an vague memory of a lot of anguish and pain, and I remembered a 5x5 grid along which diagonals are drawn.
----------
a b c d e
f g h i j
k l m n o
p q r s t
u v w x y
I have decoded the message that I was given with the dossier and it reads:
"I know you've never liked relying on typed briefings but please trust the cipher and my personal
assurance that these measures are necessary. If I could show my face to anyone without half the
Agency going apoplectic, you'd be the first one I'd visit.
I'm told your last assignment was completed in exemplary fashion; everything went off perfectly,
and the oddest thing left at the site is a funny smell. As well know by now, we can't keep you
in-house for long enough for anyone to get to know you, and that's a risk we can't even think of
taking now of all times. We need you out of here. You never existed, of course, but It's time for
no one in our happy family to be able to count heads and come up one too many. (If we're only one
off, I'd put on a parka and get to hell, but the point remains.)
You're going to Lost Angels. (Yes, I'm comfident enough in this cipher to use proper nouns.) As
for what you're doing, I'd tell you to check the dossier and make the logical assumption, but
since you can't access the dossier officially anymore and I'd rather not have you sneaking into
our facilities just to check out books again, I'll give you the short version.
It is, I'm afraid, more troublemaking. The Guardian Angels, Grimme's local army, have been
"taking care" of non-cult in the city in a fashion so quiet even you would admire it. They're
busy making unpeople of people few would miss, and while it's raising hackles it's also beginning
a pattern. If allowed to continue, the Guardians will get confident, and then they'll get cocky,
and then they'll start branching out. We need that pattern disrupted.
Basically, we need people disappearing that the Angels can't account for. Guardian Angles would
be nice, albeit above the bottom rung; so would affluent, faithful Angels. Don't have a pattern
on this one. Just go in and pick off the most upright pillars of the community you can find. I'm
hopeful this will appeal to your sense of humor.
As usual, leave no traces.We don't want to send people into a panic, we just want the region
destabilized. Do that, and keep doing that, until your recall button pings you. Then come home.
And do be careful; this is a cooling-off period for you, not a major incursion. That also means
"please don't steal quite as much from our resources as usual". You have carte blanche as always
given your lack of officicial support, but we have trouble getting supplies out there.
One last thing: If you get a chance to safely learn anything about the Rock, that would be a very
good thing.
Good luck, Miranda
- A Kindred SpiritX"
Entry 13:On the road again
After the fiasco at the inn, and collecting our bounty for ... "catching" most of the Tremende gang, we were deciding what to do next. Colleen helpfully pointed out that she found someone named sneed escape on his whirligig and when we investigated we found evidence in his house that he was leaving for LA1. I decided to share with them the dossier I had for Lost Angels with them, after properly disposing of any reference to the Agency in the (it seemed like the right thing to do).
During the trip Smoke managed to lose all of the wheels on the wagon he was driving, so we had to collect and repair them before moving on, while we were repairing the wagons, Ziggy went off to hunt for food, and only succeeded in scaring of a camel that was apparently on fire but not being burnt, I suppose its called the weird west for a reason.
During the trip I have been working to decode a note my mysterious benefactor had left me with the dossier and upgrading my shock rifle to be concealable since Lost Angels does not permit people, who aren't one of the Angels, to carry weapons.
1I am starting to think that me having the dossier was not a coincidence, did I prepare for this before losing my memories, possibly warned with visions?
During the trip Smoke managed to lose all of the wheels on the wagon he was driving, so we had to collect and repair them before moving on, while we were repairing the wagons, Ziggy went off to hunt for food, and only succeeded in scaring of a camel that was apparently on fire but not being burnt, I suppose its called the weird west for a reason.
During the trip I have been working to decode a note my mysterious benefactor had left me with the dossier and upgrading my shock rifle to be concealable since Lost Angels does not permit people, who aren't one of the Angels, to carry weapons.
1I am starting to think that me having the dossier was not a coincidence, did I prepare for this before losing my memories, possibly warned with visions?
Entry 12:Wild Night
I should have seen that coming, of course Rex's posse wouldn't just ignore us after snooping around. Last night Rex and his posse surrounded the inn we were staying at, the first found Smoke who was downstairs drinking, and began interrogating him, like smokes would ever give in, he of course tossed a flash grenade and dove for cover instead. Rex had brought a decidedly ugly woman with him and she was using the stolen launching knife as one of her weapons, as well as several other hidden knives. After the Maxis incident I had decided to get myself a lethal weapon, especially considering the possibility of needing to deal with the undead, so I had bought myself a .50 Caliber Bullard express, which I have used in the past if the familiarity is any indication. I shot Rex in the head then with a perfect shot, or I would have if he hadn't managed to dodge using some unnatural speed at the last second.
While this was happening Ziggy jumped out of a window to engage Casper Zed who was guarding the side of the buildings. Casper pulled out a deck of cards and reached out in the direction of Ziggy's chest, presumably in an attempt to stop his heart (which may have explained why some of the guards of factory 13 died of seemingly natural causes), but given that Ziggy was already dead that was not successful. Ziggy then tossed a knife at Caspers head nearly killing him, Casper reponded by making a massive cloud of explosive gas (which smelled like swamp gases similar to what we observed at warehouse 13) , which promptly detonated and shook the building we were in.
The ugly woman engaged in combat with Cassanova and Malady, while Colleen began taunting Rex to break his concentration. I tried to eliminate the ugly woman so we could focus on taking down Rex but shooting in a melee is not as easy as it sounds and my rifle was deflected away before I could shoot.
Ziggy snuck around to the window and threatened Rex with a flask full of Nitroglycerine, which he apparently pulled out of his hat, apparently I underestimated him as a magician. This works about as well as it could be expected to when threatening someone with explosives you are holding. Rex panicked and shot the flask of Nitro. causing a massive explosion shaking the foundations of the inn. I am honestly amazed it was still standing, which was sufficient to take Rex down, causing the ugly woman to Rush to him. I shot her in the back of her head, never turn your back on an enemy you are fighting.
After that the entire police department showed up with tanks and steam-wagons and enough firepower to level the city block, apparently the explosions drew some attention.
As we were recovering and licking our wound we discovered unsurprisingly the Ziggy was dead (re-dead?) and that there was a corroded bullet in his heart. Vuduladi offered to use her magic to return the body to the state it was at the point of death (the first one), which was sucessful and repaired all of his wounds except a single wound to his chest. Ziggy demanded a mirror, and I cracked a joke to alleviate some of the tension in the air (something to the effect of "I'm right here" , since my name is Mirrors). However curious to find out what is going on we got him a mirror.
Looking into the mirror, Ziggy begins to berate himself and tells himself to take better care of himself and to get his body pickled (with alcohol) so it doesn't rot as much. Smoke at this point was impatiently demanding to know what was going on, in between cursing. Ziggy just stared into his eyes and Smoke went dead silent and retreated.
When questioned on who he was the second person responded that he was Ziggy's 'roommate' amd gave Ziggy back control. I am starting to think this is not just a case of multiple personality, there is something off with his roommate, I have never seen Smoke cowed that easily by anyone.
While this was happening Ziggy jumped out of a window to engage Casper Zed who was guarding the side of the buildings. Casper pulled out a deck of cards and reached out in the direction of Ziggy's chest, presumably in an attempt to stop his heart (which may have explained why some of the guards of factory 13 died of seemingly natural causes), but given that Ziggy was already dead that was not successful. Ziggy then tossed a knife at Caspers head nearly killing him, Casper reponded by making a massive cloud of explosive gas (which smelled like swamp gases similar to what we observed at warehouse 13) , which promptly detonated and shook the building we were in.
The ugly woman engaged in combat with Cassanova and Malady, while Colleen began taunting Rex to break his concentration. I tried to eliminate the ugly woman so we could focus on taking down Rex but shooting in a melee is not as easy as it sounds and my rifle was deflected away before I could shoot.
Ziggy snuck around to the window and threatened Rex with a flask full of Nitroglycerine, which he apparently pulled out of his hat, apparently I underestimated him as a magician. This works about as well as it could be expected to when threatening someone with explosives you are holding. Rex panicked and shot the flask of Nitro. causing a massive explosion shaking the foundations of the inn. I am honestly amazed it was still standing, which was sufficient to take Rex down, causing the ugly woman to Rush to him. I shot her in the back of her head, never turn your back on an enemy you are fighting.
After that the entire police department showed up with tanks and steam-wagons and enough firepower to level the city block, apparently the explosions drew some attention.
As we were recovering and licking our wound we discovered unsurprisingly the Ziggy was dead (re-dead?) and that there was a corroded bullet in his heart. Vuduladi offered to use her magic to return the body to the state it was at the point of death (the first one), which was sucessful and repaired all of his wounds except a single wound to his chest. Ziggy demanded a mirror, and I cracked a joke to alleviate some of the tension in the air (something to the effect of "I'm right here" , since my name is Mirrors). However curious to find out what is going on we got him a mirror.
Looking into the mirror, Ziggy begins to berate himself and tells himself to take better care of himself and to get his body pickled (with alcohol) so it doesn't rot as much. Smoke at this point was impatiently demanding to know what was going on, in between cursing. Ziggy just stared into his eyes and Smoke went dead silent and retreated.
When questioned on who he was the second person responded that he was Ziggy's 'roommate' amd gave Ziggy back control. I am starting to think this is not just a case of multiple personality, there is something off with his roommate, I have never seen Smoke cowed that easily by anyone.
Monday, July 29, 2013
Entry 11:They do not Bleed
When we got to the sheriff's office we turned in Brunhoff, who was unsurprisingly panicked and made a deal with Ziggy that if Ziggy saved him from the hangman's noose he would pay him quite a bit of money. We also convinced the sheriff to tell us about the marshal's badge we found and he told us it belonged to a local crime lord Rex Tremende, and told us that if we caught Rex it would be greatly appreciated (in the form of money from the sizable bounty on him and his gang).
Since we were no longer forced to stay in the city they returned our wagons and replaced the parts they removed from them. We then began looking around for parts to use in the construction of devices, which we were unsuccessful at.
During this time Ziggy went off alone to try and find out more about Rex, after a while we became concerned that he was missing, and so malady, who is apparently a huckster of no small skill used a spell to look through Ziggy's eyes, and was treated to the sight of a gun barrel to the head, so we quickly fired up our steam-wagons and go towards where Ziggy was. When we got near, he jumped out of the window and ran into the wagon, and as we were making a hasty retreat, he informs us that the people in there were not alive, triggering a memory of mine1.
The rest of them were somewhat concerned as entered what seemed to be a trance and repeated a mantra "They do not die, they do not feel pain, they do not bleed ... they do not bleed". It would appear that this is not the first time I have heard of the walking dead, and I got the feeling dealing with them was unpleasant to say the least.
An equally surprising revelation was that upon treating some of Ziggy's wounds he was not properly bleeding and his body didn't appear to be healing at all, or living at all, with the exception of a faint unusual rhythm for his heartbeat. We then began questioning him on what was going on, but he replied that he had no idea what was going on either, however given the circumstances the rest of us were still somewhat suspicious of him. So Colleen used some sort of magical power to ask a question that baffles the person asked into an incapacitated state, however when she did this instead of being incapacitated Ziggy underwent an extreme personality shift and became quire annoyed at the troupe, but revealed little of value. When the effect wore off and the original Ziggy returned he demanded that she never do that again, and when we questioned him further on what he said under the effect he claimed to have no recollection of saying any of it. Logically I have concluded that in addition to being dead, he also suffers from multiple personality disorder.
Having had a busy day, we have decided to sleep at a local inn, and I found an entire Dossier on the city of Lost Angels, in a stitched seam in my duster which I plan to read after writing this entry.
1 The memory involved someone talking to me and saying "These are some of the hardest to take down, they do not die, they do not feel pain, they do not bleed, they do not bleed ..." and then the memory faded.
Since we were no longer forced to stay in the city they returned our wagons and replaced the parts they removed from them. We then began looking around for parts to use in the construction of devices, which we were unsuccessful at.
During this time Ziggy went off alone to try and find out more about Rex, after a while we became concerned that he was missing, and so malady, who is apparently a huckster of no small skill used a spell to look through Ziggy's eyes, and was treated to the sight of a gun barrel to the head, so we quickly fired up our steam-wagons and go towards where Ziggy was. When we got near, he jumped out of the window and ran into the wagon, and as we were making a hasty retreat, he informs us that the people in there were not alive, triggering a memory of mine1.
The rest of them were somewhat concerned as entered what seemed to be a trance and repeated a mantra "They do not die, they do not feel pain, they do not bleed ... they do not bleed". It would appear that this is not the first time I have heard of the walking dead, and I got the feeling dealing with them was unpleasant to say the least.
An equally surprising revelation was that upon treating some of Ziggy's wounds he was not properly bleeding and his body didn't appear to be healing at all, or living at all, with the exception of a faint unusual rhythm for his heartbeat. We then began questioning him on what was going on, but he replied that he had no idea what was going on either, however given the circumstances the rest of us were still somewhat suspicious of him. So Colleen used some sort of magical power to ask a question that baffles the person asked into an incapacitated state, however when she did this instead of being incapacitated Ziggy underwent an extreme personality shift and became quire annoyed at the troupe, but revealed little of value. When the effect wore off and the original Ziggy returned he demanded that she never do that again, and when we questioned him further on what he said under the effect he claimed to have no recollection of saying any of it. Logically I have concluded that in addition to being dead, he also suffers from multiple personality disorder.
Having had a busy day, we have decided to sleep at a local inn, and I found an entire Dossier on the city of Lost Angels, in a stitched seam in my duster which I plan to read after writing this entry.
1 The memory involved someone talking to me and saying "These are some of the hardest to take down, they do not die, they do not feel pain, they do not bleed, they do not bleed ..." and then the memory faded.
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