Dark*Matter: Discovery, The Chicago Ripper

[Shayuri]

Meredith grabs her sword and pulls an inch of steel from the scabbard as she crouches near the side door, ready to jump out and put some slashing on the demon. She can hardly hear over the pounding of blood in her head, but it's not fear that drives her. In fact, even the fear she feels seems swept up in the vortex inside, a maddening swirl of emotions that in the end boiled down to one thing; utterly alien to Meredith, yet feeling as natural and cozy as a knit cap.

Bloodlust.

(basically readying weapon and delaying an attack for when the door's open)

 

[kinem]

Diego holds his shotgun with the explosive rounds, preparing himself to attack as soon as he can. His heart too is pumping, but in his case, he's nervous. He tries not to think of all the things that are likely to go wrong any moment now - from blowing up the victim with an errant shot, to being blown up himself.

 

[Falkus]

Cade, in a brilliant display of driving, pulled the SUV up to the alley, blocking the van, the cultist and the fiend inside.

The cultist saw the SUV arrive, and came to the right conclusion. "Deal with them! I'll take care of the girl!" he shouted at the Murdergaunt, which responded with an odd, high pitched whistle.

Meredith came out of the SUV, swinging her blade like she'd trained all her life. The blade felt perfectly natural in her hand, and it blazed brightly white as she opened up a nasty cut on the demon's chest. It let out another whistle, one that gave indication of pain, as its blue blood splattered over Meredith and the side of the SUV.

Larry fired his shotgun, but missed, due to the fury of the melee, blowing a largish hole in the alley wall.

Across the street, the team could hear Lieutenant Quinn radioing for backup as she ran towards the combat.

The Murdergaunt glared at Meredith, angered by its wound, and struck at her with its serrated spear arms. She smoothly ducked under the first one, which tore right through the side of SUV, but the second arm impaled her right leg. It pulled out its arm, and a vicious grin appeared on its face.

Diego and Nick both fired their shotguns from within the van. Diego was a bit quick on the trigger, and he blew another hole in the alley wall, but Nick's aimed was truer, and he hit the fiend dead in the chest with a ten gauge, high explosive round. Once again, it let out its pained whistle as it stumbled from the wound.

The cultist pulled out a knife from under his robes, and continued dragging the young woman deeper into the alley. She was making panicked sounds.

[sblock]
Meredith hits, dealing nine points of damage to the Murdergaunt
Meredith takes eleven points of damage from the Murdergaunt
Nick hits, dealing twelve points of damage to the Murdergaunt

Initiative order
Meredith: 21
Larry: 20
Quinn: 19
Cade: 18
Murdergaunt: 15
Diego: 13
Nick: 13
Cultist: 6
[/sblock]

 

[industrygothica]

"Meridith!" Nick screams as he watches the creature impale her with its spike-like arm. Quickly, he racks another shell into the chamber of his shotgun and gets a little closer to the fiend, hoping to give Meridith an opportunity to back away and recoup.

 

[iwatt]

"I'll go for the girl." Jumping out of the van, Larry tries to rush towards the sacrifice, heedless of the monster in front of him. Once past, he'll try to catch the cultist using his shotgun as a club.


OOC: If necessary I'll suck up the AoO. It might allow the others to swarm the beast. I'll use an Action Point if I'm too far and have to double move to score an attack. I I can reach him with a single move, I'll just use the AP to improve my chances to hit him.

[sblock]Question: if I kill the sacrifice before they use the knife, does that end the ritual?[/sblock]

 

[Shayuri]

Meri cries out in pain, but doesn't retreat! Driven furiously onward she shouts something incomprehensible, but that sounds distinctly defiant and challenging...then raises the sword above her head with both hands and brings it down towards the murdergaunt's revolting, inhuman head!

(Hee...oh my, I hope this thing goes down before it can full attack me again. Note to GM, using an AP on this attack. Holy sword wants to HIT!)

 

[Friadoc]

Quickly Cade scrambles up to the roof of the SUV, so as to gain an edge from the elevation, before firing off his first round into the Murdergaunt - it's a holy round.

Hopefully it'll give Larry the chance he needs to get by the thing and stop the cultist.

"Damn it!" Cade shouts as he notices Quinn running over. "Quinn, stay the hell outta the way!"

OOC

I definately want to make this first shot count, so I'm dropping an Action Point to increase the attack by 1d6.

 

[kinem]

Diego reloads and gets out of the SUV, trying to take extremely careful aim, and blow the monster away. No time to think, now.

(ooc: Penalty for firing into melee. He will use an AP.)

 

[Falkus]

From what Nick was able to dig up on the ritual, all it takes is a death and a specific phrase. Anybody in the alley right now could serve as a sacrifice, except for the Murdergaunt.

Meredith brought her sword down heavily onto the demon, with another white flash of holy energy. The fiend ducked to the side, but still had a chunk carved out of his shoulder.

As Larry ran after the cultist, he opened himself up to the demon, which stabbed him as he ran past. The spike went right towards his heart, tearing through his clothes and every layer of the kevlar vest he was wearing, except for the last one. The light layer of anti-stab mail.

The cultist ducked under Larry's wild swing with the shotgun, however.

Lieutenant Quinn ran up to the edge of SUV. "Freeze, pol-" she started to shout, then a got a good look at the Murdergaunt. "Oh god, what the hell is that?" she said, bringing up her Glock and firing off two rounds instinctively. Both bullets hit the Murdergaunt in the forehead. Unfortunately, Quinn's weapon hadn't been blessed. The bullets impacted, flattened themselves, and then fell off, without even breaking the thing's skin.

Cade fired his shotgun, missing badly, however, as he tried to hit the creature without hitting Meredith.

The Murdergaunt whistled again, and smiled a horrible grin. It leaned over the SUV and stabbed Quinn in the left shoulder, and pulled her screaming into the alley, impaled on its spike. With it's other arm, it stabbed at Nick, the man who just shot it. The spear like arm penetrated into the side of his chest, and then Nick was pulled out of the car by it

Diego fired his shotgun, hitting the creature square in the chest with an explosive ten gauge shell. It penetrates, and blows out a significant portion of its chest. However, fiends are tougher than humans, and though it's looking poorly, it's still not dead.

The cultist pushes his captive away with a curse, and turns on Larry, quickly opened up a long gash on his arm with his knife. "Your deaths will serve as well as hers!" he snarls, and vicious expression on his face.

[sblock]Meredith hits the Murdergaunt, dealing 12 points of damage

Nick takes ten points of damage from the Murdergaunt, and has been impaled. He automatically gets hit by the Murdergaunt on its turn, and can't move away from it until he spends a move action breaking free.

Diego critically hits the murdergaunt for twenty-six points of damage

Larry takes six points of damage from the cultist[/sblock]

 

[iwatt]

With all the power of his voice, Larry shouts at the girl. "Run. Run away!" With a mad grin he looks at the cultist and moves to interpose himself between him and the girl. "Come on, you can do better than that. I won't even be able to brag about this itty bitty scratch."


OOC: Larry will go full defense while he taunts the cultist on focusing on him.