Chance, Harper, and Law #1
The rain is intensifying quickly, coming as suddenly as it did that first night at the trailer, as the night at the church. Three rainy nights in a week that was predicted to be dry.
Crow disappears in a flurry of beating wings. Harper can feel the spirit's mind, as he could at the church. It knows who Agnasci is but doesn't have any particular way of sensing his location. Still, it will do its best to follow its master's command (though perhaps lacking Harper's sense of urgency).
Law spends a few moments removing his jacket so he can put his vest on. Once back in his jacket he hops into the driver's seat and puts his foot down. This late the streets are almost empty and he need not worry too much about traffic.[sblock=Speeding through Nazareth]Simply driving (even if speeding) doesn't require a roll. But when even seconds matter a roll can determine just how efficiently Law manages to get across town. The more successes scored, the more time (even if only measured in mere moments) is shaved off.
Roll: Dexterity 4 + Drive 2 = 2 successes scored[/sblock]Law is making good time, zipping down Main Street in about thirty or forty seconds and quickly turning right onto 15th, heading south toward Longstreet. Meanwhile the three detect the tingle of magic as Chance and Law cast protective spells on themselves.
Harper feels Crow sense something and knows it's honing in on it. It's not Agnasci the spirit can feel, but something else. The familiar is anxious, suddenly as nervous as it was back at the trailer. Harper looks out the window into the stormy night sky, imagining Crow overhead.
Agnasci
BR and Buddha-man lift Agnasci up and carry him past Mad Dog and into the bathroom. Agnasci tries his best to concentrate on Rich - the weak link in the chain. [sblock=Paradox]Roll: 1 base + 4 cumulative = Success with 2 successes
Roll for Bedlam contagiousness: Wisdom 7 = Success with 2 successes
Roll for containing Paradox: Willpower 1 = Failure with 0 successes
Agnasci suffers from a Bedlam paradox. The Bedlam does not pass to others[/sblock][sblock=Spell: Voice From Afar]Roll: Gnosis 1 + Mind 2 - Paradox 2 - BR's Resolve = Failure with 0 successes
Agnasci fails to manifest his spell[/sblock]Agnasci has pushed reality too far this time, and he can't even attempt to contain the backlash within himself. Paradox, having already located him once tonight, finds him effortlessly when he attempts to use improbable magic on a sleeper. He feels it surge into him as his spell shatters in his mind.
Agnasci has been afflicted by a Bedlam paradox. Normally when a player character gains a derangement (such as from losing Wisdom) the player and I would work together in private to come up with something appropriate, but for the short-term derangements that the Abyss punishes mages with I'll do the picking. The important thing to keep in mind is that this is not a mundane derangement - it has supernatural roots. To quote the book: "A Bedlam derangement is generally more dramatic than its mundane counterpart. The player is expected to roleplay it as creatively as he can imagine." Have fun!
For the remainder of the scene (probably the rest of the night - I'll let you know when it's lifted) Agnasci suffers from Irrationality, losing all his reason and lashing out unpredictably at imagined threats: "The mage feels threatened and reacts without logic or reason. Her only way to comfortably deal with confrontation is to act crazy or over the top, in wild hopes that she will scare away her oppressor or at least mitigate her own fears. This behavior persists for the remainder of the Bedlam’s duration. Ironically, she takes dangerous risks that might harm her worse than the actual threat posed. If a bouncer demands to know what she is doing in an offlimits part of a club, she might overreact and get in his face. The truly ironic part about this behavior is that during such a bout, the mage cannot initiate violence, only respond to it if it occurs. She can threaten or cajole challengers, but can’t take the first swing. (That, in fact, is what her crazed behavior tries to avoid.) In addition, her illogical mindset makes her covert spells Improbable to Sleeper witnesses."[sblock=Struggling]Roll: Strength 2 - Brawl unskilled penalty 1 = Failure with 0 successes
Agnasci fails to put up a significant struggle against the bikers[/sblock]The bikers drop Agnasci in the water. He struggles as best he can but he's exhausted and the chains are heavy. Two pairs of strong arms force his head and chest down beneath the surface.
In a violent situation such as this Agnasci can hold his breath for a number of rounds equal to his Stamina (3). After that he'll need to make reflexive Stamina checks (with injury penalties applying as necessary) each round to avoid taking lethal damage.
He thrashes in the cold water but it's futile. With his arms and legs chained there's not much he can do. Seconds pass. Eventually a third pair of hands starts trying to get a plastic bag over his head.[sblock=Drowning]Roll 1: Stamina 3 = Success with 1 success
Roll 2: Stamina 3 = Success with 1 success
Roll 3: Stamina 3 = Failure with 0 successes
Agnasci takes 1 point of lethal damage[/sblock]Agnasci takes 1 point of lethal damage. He has 4 empty health boxes remaining.
Suddenly there's the spark of magic - someone's casting a spell in the room. It's certainly not him doing it. In the next moment his head is back above the water's surface and he takes what gulps of air he can through the not-fully-secured bag.
"WHAT THE HELL?" It's Mad Dog. He and the two others have all released Agnasci. When the mage looks down at himself he sees why: He's not there. Or, he is, but he can't see anything - just empty pockets of air in the water where his body should be. He's invisible. But he can feel the spell coming apart at the seams, unraveling beneath the weight of sleeper disbelief. A moment later he has reappeared and BR and Buddha-man are on him again - Mad Dog alone seems to remember what happened seconds earlier and he can merely gape down at his reappeared captive. BR and Buddha push him back beneath the surface of the water.[sblock=Struggling]Roll: Strength 2 - Brawl unskilled penalty 1 = Success with 1 success
Agnasci manages to buy a few more seconds[/sblock]Agnasci flails in the water and manages to push his head back into the air where he takes more panicked breaths.
"Look at me, Saint Dismas!" Mad Dog is shouting frantically and outside the wind batters the window and a flash of lightning calls back to the biker - it illuminates a dark shape against the privacy window high on the bathroom wall: It's a bird, sitting on the sill outside. Mad Dog smashes his fist into the cabinet mirror above the sink and all the others shatter and collapse from the walls in immediate response, the candles flickering madly. Agnasci feels something moving through the room. Whatever Mad Dog is doing, it's working. "LOOK AT ME!"
BR and Buddha both panic at the happenings in the bathroom and release Agnasci - but something else is pulling him down. In the next moment he's underwater again, looking up at the bathroom ceiling. But he can't see the sides of the bath tub. Instead he's looking up from beneath a hole in an ice sheet and some supernatural gravity is pulling him deeper into black and icy waters. A silver shape flits by at the edge of his vision.
But in an instant the momentum pulling him deeper stops and Agnasci feels his stomach churn as another spell goes off. All around him the water is surging upward and he's pulled with it. He falls free from the tub a moment later, slamming hard against the ceiling of the bathroom. The bikers are shouting and coughing in confusion, all in a pile against the ceiling alongside Agnasci. Above the four of them is the tub, the toilet, the floor. Gravity in the room has been reversed.
"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON, MAD DOG?!" Screams BR in terror as he flails about in the water, trying to get his bearings.
"It's him!" Mad Dog gets to his feet, standing on unsteady legs and completely drenched in water. He reaches behind himself for his gun, pulling it free from his waistband, and points it at Agnasci through the waterfall continuing to pour down from the tub. Click. "GOD DAMN IT!" Mad Dog tosses the soaked gun aside and splashes his way toward the upside-down door and throws himself through it. He's reoriented in midair and crashes into the floor of the hall, now upside-down from Agnasci's perspective.
"Mad Dog!" BR cries as he crawls his way through the water to follow his boss. "Mad Dog! Wait!" He flops through the doorway and flips around before crunching hard against the floor of the hall where he lies in a motionless heap. Water begins pouring out from the top of the bathroom door and waterfalling to the floor of the hall onto Rich's body.
Only Buddha remains in the bathroom with Agnasci, no longer the mage's enemy, just a terrified witness to the unimaginable. Water is flowing at an impossible rate from within the tub, an endless torrent that's quickly filling the room. Candles, shards of glass, and Mad Dog's sketchbook all bob on the surface for a few moments before sinking to the ceiling, where the light flashes once before finally dying. A dark fin passes through the water and Buddha shrieks and flails in response.
Agnasci, limbs still chained, sinks beneath the surface of the water.
Chance, Harper, and Law #2
The group arrives at 15th and Longstreet. The night is silent and still but for the hard rain against the vehicle's roof. Darkened streets lead off into poor neighborhoods in all four directions with no visible indication as to which way to go.
"That way," says Harper out of nowhere. He can feel Crow's presence. Law turns west onto Longstreet, going slower now so that the three of them can keep their eyes peeled for any clue of Agnasci's whereabouts.
They all spot it at once. It's a house with a gravel yard and a chain-link fence. A balding, blond-haired man in a leather jacket is mounting one of three bikes in the driveway. In the yard a spray of water is erupting from a darkened window, arching up toward the sky as if unaffected by gravity, before falling back to the ground with the rain a few feet away. The three mages can see with their mage sight a spell radiating from within the corner of the house.
As Law is pulling up the biker screeches out of the driveway, tearing off down the street to the west. Chance recognizes him from her glimpse into the past at the trailer. He was the one with the carving of her.
Ahead is the biker fleeing the scene, to the left is the house.
