A Little Night Music

[Jarval]

Aston frowns at the tickets and the note, but eventually relents and lets his friend belive he purchased the tickets.

After all, what harm can it do. It's probably nothing more than my father playing a joke on me. He thinks to himself, not entirely convinced with his reasoning.

**********

Aston settles into his seat, smiling at the surprised dwarf. He listen intently to the concert, nodding along to the more familiar pieces. He closes his eyes to focus entirely on the new composition, and thus is unaware of the lights going out at the end of the piece. His eyes snap open at the scream, however, and Aston starts to panic at the sudden darkness.

"Seamus? Who screamed? What's going on?" He looks over to his friend's now empty seat, and his panic deepens.

"Oh my word, they've kidnapped Seamus!" Aston stands on his chair, looking around desperately for any sign of his friend.


OoC: Spot +2.

 

[Old Fezziwig]

13 Leaffall, 695 NE, about 2340 hrs
The Recital Hall at the Imperial University, University Ward, Tharokas

In the split-second immediately after the woman's scream, pure chaos has erupted in the hall. Mintwhistle has continued to play, the piece growing more and more frenzied and dischordant by the minute. People around you start to push and jostle as they attempt to get out into the hall or over to the wall try and light the gas lamps. You hear a number of other screams as you try to pinpoint the first scream's location.

Valathorn and Roland: The scream, as near as you can tell, came from one of the boxes hanging over stage left, roughly in the vicinity of the Lord Governor's box. Getting up there will be difficult, given the current panic and the presence of the Bluecoats, but it's possible. The stairs are located back out in the lobby.

Ferus: You can hear your aunt calling your name from her seat well in front of you. It might be a bit difficult to get to her, but she doesn't sound like she's in immediate danger. A small, stocky man runs straight into you. "Hey! Move it!" He then shoves you.

Seamus: You dive under your chair. Although you cannot pinpoint the location of the scent, you smell something very "wrong" in the hall. It's a foul smell, and it seems to be coming from all over the auditorium at equal levels of strength.

Traubon: You see a crowd of mostly taller people moving around in a panic. People are shoving each other, running into each other, generally treating each other poorly. On stage, Mintwhistle seems to be completely still, despite the fact that the music continues. Occasionally, you see a shadowy figure or two moving around out of the corner of your eyes, but each time you turn to look, they're gone.

Quintus and Thaern: You have no idea where the scream came from, but the complete and total breakdown of the concert into chaos is distinctly not Elven or proper (which may or may not bug you depending on where you're coming from). A pair of men ahead of you is having a heated argument, and you think you hear someone yell for a medic or priest off to your left.

Aston: Using your sense of smell, you "spot" Seamus under his seat.

OOC: Consider this post to mark the passage of 6 seconds game time.

 

[johnsemlak]

If Valathorn is nearby Roland looks at Valathorn and notices that he too can tell where the noise is coming from. Roland asks... "What do you think that was. Let's check it out."

Roland motions Valthorn (or goes himself if he is alone) to go with him up the stairs in the back.

 

[Shoggoth]

Seamus looks up at Aston. "Can you smell that? What's going on?" Torn between running for it and staying put, Seamus decides to stay under his seat to avoid getting crushed in the crowd and listens for the panic to stop.

OOC: Listen +5.

 

[GnomeWorks]

Roland
"What do you think that was. Let's check it out."

"I'm comin' with." Traubon interrupts. "I don't know what's goin' on, but I don't like it one bit."

If Roland leads, Traubon follows.

 

[Jarval]

Aston sniffs at the air, catching the scent that's bothering Seamus. He growls quietly, not liking the smell one little bit.

"I think we should go with the dwarf and his friends." Aston says to Seamus. "We've got to be safer in a group." He sniffs hard, trying to figure out just what the foul odour could be.


OoC: Maybe one of my skill might help to narrow down the nature of the smell. Craft (alchemy) +6, Knowledge (Arcana) +6, Knowledge (Local) +4, Knowledge (The Planes) +6 (4 ranks, +2 INT).

 

[rangerjohn]

Valathorn nods, "lets go."

 

[Uriel]

Trying to bring some order to the chaos, Quintus moves into the Aisle, trying to slow traffic in order to avoid a stampede of panicked people. Also, he will keep an eye out for anyone looking overly out-of-place <Spot>.

 

[Old Fezziwig]

Traubon, Valthorn, Roland: There's enough light, however dim it is, for you to make your way back to the lobby. It takes you a good amount of time to make it that way and start up the stairs, moving against a flood of people coming out of the balcony. When you finally reach the top of the stairs, you have a choice of two ways to go, one off to the right, the other straight ahead. Nothing immediately indicates which way to go.

Traubon: You're the only one that can see well enough to realize that the two halls are labeled with small bronze plaques. Unfortunately, you can't read Elven well enough to determine which is which.

Aston: You can't pinpoint the nature of the smell. It smells wrong in a metaphysical sense, as if it shouldn't even exist. Meanwhile, the dwarf and the others are gone, or at least out of your range of sight.

Seamus: The panic doesn't seem to end anytime soon, nor can you determine whether or not it's slowing. You can hear an elf yelling for the people to slow down, stop, and exit in an orderly fashion.

Quintus: The crowd begins to slow in response to you. You can't see well enough to spot anyone out of place. Among the various noises you hear, you can hear what sounds like the Bluecoats attempting to calm the crowd down as well.

 

[Douane]

Resisting the urge to "dive" into the fleeing crowd because he realizes that the chances to actually acquire some objects of value would be rather slim given the panic-ridden state of the mob, Thaern leans back in his seat, waiting for a better opportunity to present itself.

In his relaxed state he can't help but notice the two canis next to him.

Man, these guys are two cool customers. Everyone's in a funk 'round here and they start sniffing ..., well, whatever. I should hook them up with some better stuff, though. Never hurts to make new friends ...

Excuse me, good dwarf, you just stepped on my foot. Ever heard of "Gangway!" or "Coming through!"? I swear, people these days ... Wait! Oh no! They are not even heading for the exit. I'm surrounded by compulsive do-gooders! Great, just what I need!

What are they going to do? Flocking around the poor victim, fussing over her and giving good advice? ... Hey, actually that's not that bad an idea. I should help, too. All that heavy jewelry and the big purses, it just gets in the way.

Thaern leaps up with a broad smile and clears the seats in front of him, preferring to get some free space around him. He thens follows/shadows the two humans and the dwarf to their destination.