House of Fear
Jul. 14th, 2011 02:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kihouAfter Rebecca's adventure through the Nevernever, we now proceed to an auction held by fear vampires. Zero failure modes.
Conversation at Lewis's where there is banter re: Rebecca's adventure in the Nevernever. Rebecca treats the subway location list like a puzzle at Mike. Meanwhile, Lewis calls up James Keith and tries to convince him not to bid on Spring's Majesty, describing it as looking like May's Tear. Rebecca lies to customers to help Lewis sell some high-priced things giving him Extra Spending Cash. Redcrosse calls Mike and tells the list of interesting things up for auction.
The auction is in two rounds, one for miscellaneous jewelry and one for big-name items. Things for sale at the auction in Round 2:
Mike makes a potion of Effortless Leap/Wire Jump, a One With Surroundings potion, and some Calming Incense. Rebecca makes some smoke bombs and grabs some firecrackers.
Mike tends shop while Lewis makes some preparations. "Dude, this is a thing. I don't know what it is, but it's pretty."
Lewis is making an enchanted item that make vampires look ridiculous: a flower that shoots runes that put ascii art on your face, giving you the aspect "Looool".
Rebecca grabs a ninja cat suit she has which may or may not be making her feel cool and confident.
Mike and Lewis wear suits; Mike is going as Lewis's body guard.
Lewis and Mike have cell phones, Rebecca's is off. They go in and get looked over by the guard, who says "Don't leave any possessions behind when you leave."
Pass through a stark snow-covered yard into the great hall.
Santiago is wearing a cloak and seems to have a large backpack on underneath it. They chat about the shield and Tyler Winklevoss; he'd been in manacles last Santiago saw at Madon's fortress.
People here: James Keith, Jilli, some other auction people, criminal-looking people, people in hooded cloaks.
Mike talks to Jilli. Jilli: "I like hearing the stories behind such things."
Rebecca is on the roof of the first story trying to get into a guarded storage room on the second floor. Rebecca throws a firecracker and distracts 1 of 2 guards. "Unknown loud noise in sector 3, partner investigating." She hexes the walkie-talkie, causing the guard to go report in person. Quickly picks the lock.
Storage room has wooden crates, a glass display case w/ numbered jewelry, a second case with a cardboard box on top of it.
Crates are in Ancient Etruscan. Conveniently, Rebecca knows how to read Etruscan. The crates are labeled Crowd Control, Reagents, From Zajak. Cardboard box read Divya Narenda, Grand Lodge of Masons, blah blah, Boston, MA. Each glass case has 60 items, for 120 jewelry items total. Crowd Control contains tasers, tear gas canisters, pistols, pepper spray. Rebecca takes 2 pistols, taser, 1 tear gas canister. From Zajak: cardboard box labeled Jewelry, fake May's Tear. Divya's cardboard box contains the Scroll of Truth, which she takes.
Big goon and Jarvis come in and get the two display cases and Zajak's jewelry. Rebecca hides behind the crates. Jarvis: "Let's keep there from being any further mistakes."
In round 1, Lewis bids a small amount of money on jewelry that looks cool, doesn't win anything. James Keith buys some stuff, Jilly doesn't bid.
Jarvis makes a speech and offers refreshments. Intermission between first and second parts of the auctions. Lewis and Mike go out the door where the jewelry came from to investigate.
Rebecca texts Kate asking if she knows where Spring's Majesty is. Texts Saskia similarly. Rebecca feels trapped, not knowing how to get out of here before she gets found with the guards standing outside. She panics and sends a river of salt streaming out from the storage room and both ways down the hallway. Guard there tries to use Walkie-Talkie, other guard loses balance.
Mike: "Is that supposed to happen? [To Lewis] Do vampires cause salt?" Lewis invokes "Sit down, young man" to get one of the guards to show him to the restroom.
Other guard: "Section 3 to base, do you read me?"
Mike throws fireworks, distracting him, letting Rebecca get out as the salt peters out, then rejoins Lewis. "Dude, do magic artifacts… create salt?" Rebecca slips out and climbs up to the roof over the second story.
Rebecca explores the 3rd floor; storeroom is dusty. Sees that the guest bedroom's in use, looks through drawers, finds a journal.
Today's schedule:
2:13pm: Preparations
8pm: Auction Begins
10:13pm: Arrive
10:42pm: Majesty Arrives
11:07pm: Rendevous
11:39pm: Base window closes
Flips through looking for names. Finds people referred to as "Mentor", "Paleface", "Buddy", "Cold Shoulder", "Slimy Fish", and "Prof".
Rebecca calls Lewis at 9:45pm and then bugs the door to the great hall. Lewis goes to prepare something in the bathroom real quick before the auction starts again. (He makes an attempt to have an innocent impression for a suspicious vampire arriving at the restroom for the second time.) (Announcement that auction will resume at 9:55pm.) Tries to prepare something that will apply "Time Flows Differently" on the scene. Incorporates an unwound pocketwatch set to 10:42pm. Sets watch to run fast, misaligns some gears. Lashes to notebook with a facing page to draw the circle.
Jarvis comes out. "Due to unfortunate circumstances, Divya Narenda will not be able to present his item this evening."
Santiago steps up to present on the Shield of Courage. Gives a historical speech, then says "But first, why don't I show you it in action?" *bursts it out and swings his sword at Jarvis, shield glowing with a blinding light*
Jarvis leaps backwards onto the second-story balcony. It looks for a moment to the crowd like there's going to be a fight, and Mike gets ready; then Lewis stands up and applauds, convincing the crowd that this was a staged demo. Santiago loses is nerve, the shield starts to fade, and he runs off. Rebecca texts Lewis to congratulate him and ask which way Santiago went ("East."). Jarvis returns downstairs, tells the crowd that Santiago has gone to prepare the shield for transport, and begins the auction. "Jarvis is a drama vampire."
Bidding starts at $5000, several people are very keen. Goes for $80,000 to "the man in the dapper cap", who wears a leather jacket and looks well-dressed.
Meanwhile, Santiago is running out the east door, chased by two vampires. Rebecca tries to drop smoke bombs to interfere with his pursuers and slings another one to cover his escape, hopefully, making the area Shrouded in Smoke. Santiago leaps behind a snow-covered hedge, trying to avoid leaving obvious footprints. Rebecca slings more fireworks around the corner as a diversion; however, this draws the attention of the vampires to the roof. She does a quick escape and manages to get back into the dusty storage room before the vampires find her.
At 10:10pm, Jarvis talks up Gregory Fu. "The man everyone wants to be with. He will be represented by the esteemed Tyler Winklevoss."
Mike notices a small crash from the west at 10:13pm.
Lewis tries to win the auction for Gregory Fu, competing with the man in the dapper hat, a man in a hooded cloak who seems to have a good read on Lewis, and a muscled guy with a dramatic scar. "The man in the hooded cloak" wins, but ends up with Crippling Debt to someone. Lewis, meanwhile, draws a lot of attention to himself.
10:30pm Tyler talks to shadowy cloak dude. Zajak describes May's Tear; the party can clearly tell the one he has is fake.
Rebecca sneaks out of the storage room and ties a rope to a heating pipe and to her ankle. Rappels down mission-impossible style looking through windows.
10:42pm, during the May's Tear auction, Rebecca sees Weeks in a classy black winter coat grab a brown-wrapped item that appears in midair.
Just then, time goes wonky. Rebecca goes up there quickly. She sees Weeks staring at a pocket watch and moving it around quizzically.
Rebecca throws the scarf at weeks and grab the wrapped package. Kate falls out of thin air onto Weeks. "This is not exactly what I had in mind."
Weeks tries to grab it back, since he "Saw it Coming"; Rebecca uses "Like Time is Actively Trying to Gyp me" and wins.
Kate unsteadily gets to her feet.
Weeks gets a weak hold on R's shoulder.
Rebecca drops a smoke bomb and goes for Kate's hand.
Mike runs up to the balcony.
Kate: "We need to lose this guy before we go anywhere."
Rebecca tries to escape Weeks's grip.
Weeks tries to pull Rebecca away from Kate.
Lewis uses his living letters to start a simple thaumaturgy, which takes him a bit.
Mike knocks into Weeks, giving him a Weak Grip.
Rebecca slips out of Weeks's grip.
Kate tries to step sideways, but seems to hit her head on an invisible iron plate and falls over.
Lewis opens the Sight. Uses Lore to figure out where it might be. There are iron symbols that look like knots over all the doorways.
Weeks tries to grab the package back, but barely fails.
Mike grabs Kate and runs out.
Jarvis jumps onto the balcony.
Rebecca loops her rope over the balcony and leaps down to the ground and heads toward Lewis.
Weeks leaps down and is right behind Rebecca.
Lewis notices that Weeks is less affected by the spell. The Sight reveals that Weeks is a "Draconic Warlock".
Jarvis attacks Rebecca.
Rebecca reverse pickpockets the package into Lewis's pocket while bumping into various people as a decoy. She's not quite as steady as she things, and ends up "Fallen on her Face", but no one knows where it ended up or whether she still has it.
Weeks grabs Rebecca.
Lewis grabs Weeks. "Sit down, young man." "Mind your own business, old-timer."
Meanwhile, Mike is outside with Kate. Kate: "It just startled me. I'll be OK. Go help your friends."
Jarvis stands up and calls to the guards: "There has been a theft. No one leaves the room without being searched."
Mike bursts back in right as a guard goes to keep people from leaving.
Will they make it out alive? Find out next time! (The answer is yes.)
Conversation at Lewis's where there is banter re: Rebecca's adventure in the Nevernever. Rebecca treats the subway location list like a puzzle at Mike. Meanwhile, Lewis calls up James Keith and tries to convince him not to bid on Spring's Majesty, describing it as looking like May's Tear. Rebecca lies to customers to help Lewis sell some high-priced things giving him Extra Spending Cash. Redcrosse calls Mike and tells the list of interesting things up for auction.
The auction is in two rounds, one for miscellaneous jewelry and one for big-name items. Things for sale at the auction in Round 2:
- Scroll of Truth (Divya Narendra of the Grand Lodge of Masons)
- Templar Shield (Santiago Iglesias of the Knights of St. James) (A knight's shield, at least 400 years, said to have been carried by a Knight Templar in battle.)
- Gregory Fu (Tyler Winklevoss representing Power)
- May's Tear (Erwin Zajak, Harvard University)
- Spring's Majesty (Kevin Weeks, under protection of House Malvora)
Mike makes a potion of Effortless Leap/Wire Jump, a One With Surroundings potion, and some Calming Incense. Rebecca makes some smoke bombs and grabs some firecrackers.
Mike tends shop while Lewis makes some preparations. "Dude, this is a thing. I don't know what it is, but it's pretty."
Lewis is making an enchanted item that make vampires look ridiculous: a flower that shoots runes that put ascii art on your face, giving you the aspect "Looool".
Rebecca grabs a ninja cat suit she has which may or may not be making her feel cool and confident.
Mike and Lewis wear suits; Mike is going as Lewis's body guard.
Lewis and Mike have cell phones, Rebecca's is off. They go in and get looked over by the guard, who says "Don't leave any possessions behind when you leave."
Pass through a stark snow-covered yard into the great hall.
Santiago is wearing a cloak and seems to have a large backpack on underneath it. They chat about the shield and Tyler Winklevoss; he'd been in manacles last Santiago saw at Madon's fortress.
People here: James Keith, Jilli, some other auction people, criminal-looking people, people in hooded cloaks.
Mike talks to Jilli. Jilli: "I like hearing the stories behind such things."
Rebecca is on the roof of the first story trying to get into a guarded storage room on the second floor. Rebecca throws a firecracker and distracts 1 of 2 guards. "Unknown loud noise in sector 3, partner investigating." She hexes the walkie-talkie, causing the guard to go report in person. Quickly picks the lock.
Storage room has wooden crates, a glass display case w/ numbered jewelry, a second case with a cardboard box on top of it.
Crates are in Ancient Etruscan. Conveniently, Rebecca knows how to read Etruscan. The crates are labeled Crowd Control, Reagents, From Zajak. Cardboard box read Divya Narenda, Grand Lodge of Masons, blah blah, Boston, MA. Each glass case has 60 items, for 120 jewelry items total. Crowd Control contains tasers, tear gas canisters, pistols, pepper spray. Rebecca takes 2 pistols, taser, 1 tear gas canister. From Zajak: cardboard box labeled Jewelry, fake May's Tear. Divya's cardboard box contains the Scroll of Truth, which she takes.
Big goon and Jarvis come in and get the two display cases and Zajak's jewelry. Rebecca hides behind the crates. Jarvis: "Let's keep there from being any further mistakes."
In round 1, Lewis bids a small amount of money on jewelry that looks cool, doesn't win anything. James Keith buys some stuff, Jilly doesn't bid.
Jarvis makes a speech and offers refreshments. Intermission between first and second parts of the auctions. Lewis and Mike go out the door where the jewelry came from to investigate.
Rebecca texts Kate asking if she knows where Spring's Majesty is. Texts Saskia similarly. Rebecca feels trapped, not knowing how to get out of here before she gets found with the guards standing outside. She panics and sends a river of salt streaming out from the storage room and both ways down the hallway. Guard there tries to use Walkie-Talkie, other guard loses balance.
Mike: "Is that supposed to happen? [To Lewis] Do vampires cause salt?" Lewis invokes "Sit down, young man" to get one of the guards to show him to the restroom.
Other guard: "Section 3 to base, do you read me?"
Mike throws fireworks, distracting him, letting Rebecca get out as the salt peters out, then rejoins Lewis. "Dude, do magic artifacts… create salt?" Rebecca slips out and climbs up to the roof over the second story.
Rebecca explores the 3rd floor; storeroom is dusty. Sees that the guest bedroom's in use, looks through drawers, finds a journal.
Today's schedule:
2:13pm: Preparations
8pm: Auction Begins
10:13pm: Arrive
10:42pm: Majesty Arrives
11:07pm: Rendevous
11:39pm: Base window closes
Flips through looking for names. Finds people referred to as "Mentor", "Paleface", "Buddy", "Cold Shoulder", "Slimy Fish", and "Prof".
Rebecca calls Lewis at 9:45pm and then bugs the door to the great hall. Lewis goes to prepare something in the bathroom real quick before the auction starts again. (He makes an attempt to have an innocent impression for a suspicious vampire arriving at the restroom for the second time.) (Announcement that auction will resume at 9:55pm.) Tries to prepare something that will apply "Time Flows Differently" on the scene. Incorporates an unwound pocketwatch set to 10:42pm. Sets watch to run fast, misaligns some gears. Lashes to notebook with a facing page to draw the circle.
Jarvis comes out. "Due to unfortunate circumstances, Divya Narenda will not be able to present his item this evening."
Santiago steps up to present on the Shield of Courage. Gives a historical speech, then says "But first, why don't I show you it in action?" *bursts it out and swings his sword at Jarvis, shield glowing with a blinding light*
Jarvis leaps backwards onto the second-story balcony. It looks for a moment to the crowd like there's going to be a fight, and Mike gets ready; then Lewis stands up and applauds, convincing the crowd that this was a staged demo. Santiago loses is nerve, the shield starts to fade, and he runs off. Rebecca texts Lewis to congratulate him and ask which way Santiago went ("East."). Jarvis returns downstairs, tells the crowd that Santiago has gone to prepare the shield for transport, and begins the auction. "Jarvis is a drama vampire."
Bidding starts at $5000, several people are very keen. Goes for $80,000 to "the man in the dapper cap", who wears a leather jacket and looks well-dressed.
Meanwhile, Santiago is running out the east door, chased by two vampires. Rebecca tries to drop smoke bombs to interfere with his pursuers and slings another one to cover his escape, hopefully, making the area Shrouded in Smoke. Santiago leaps behind a snow-covered hedge, trying to avoid leaving obvious footprints. Rebecca slings more fireworks around the corner as a diversion; however, this draws the attention of the vampires to the roof. She does a quick escape and manages to get back into the dusty storage room before the vampires find her.
At 10:10pm, Jarvis talks up Gregory Fu. "The man everyone wants to be with. He will be represented by the esteemed Tyler Winklevoss."
Mike notices a small crash from the west at 10:13pm.
Lewis tries to win the auction for Gregory Fu, competing with the man in the dapper hat, a man in a hooded cloak who seems to have a good read on Lewis, and a muscled guy with a dramatic scar. "The man in the hooded cloak" wins, but ends up with Crippling Debt to someone. Lewis, meanwhile, draws a lot of attention to himself.
10:30pm Tyler talks to shadowy cloak dude. Zajak describes May's Tear; the party can clearly tell the one he has is fake.
Rebecca sneaks out of the storage room and ties a rope to a heating pipe and to her ankle. Rappels down mission-impossible style looking through windows.
10:42pm, during the May's Tear auction, Rebecca sees Weeks in a classy black winter coat grab a brown-wrapped item that appears in midair.
Just then, time goes wonky. Rebecca goes up there quickly. She sees Weeks staring at a pocket watch and moving it around quizzically.
Rebecca throws the scarf at weeks and grab the wrapped package. Kate falls out of thin air onto Weeks. "This is not exactly what I had in mind."
Weeks tries to grab it back, since he "Saw it Coming"; Rebecca uses "Like Time is Actively Trying to Gyp me" and wins.
Kate unsteadily gets to her feet.
Weeks gets a weak hold on R's shoulder.
Rebecca drops a smoke bomb and goes for Kate's hand.
Mike runs up to the balcony.
Kate: "We need to lose this guy before we go anywhere."
Rebecca tries to escape Weeks's grip.
Weeks tries to pull Rebecca away from Kate.
Lewis uses his living letters to start a simple thaumaturgy, which takes him a bit.
Mike knocks into Weeks, giving him a Weak Grip.
Rebecca slips out of Weeks's grip.
Kate tries to step sideways, but seems to hit her head on an invisible iron plate and falls over.
Lewis opens the Sight. Uses Lore to figure out where it might be. There are iron symbols that look like knots over all the doorways.
Weeks tries to grab the package back, but barely fails.
Mike grabs Kate and runs out.
Jarvis jumps onto the balcony.
Rebecca loops her rope over the balcony and leaps down to the ground and heads toward Lewis.
Weeks leaps down and is right behind Rebecca.
Lewis notices that Weeks is less affected by the spell. The Sight reveals that Weeks is a "Draconic Warlock".
Jarvis attacks Rebecca.
Rebecca reverse pickpockets the package into Lewis's pocket while bumping into various people as a decoy. She's not quite as steady as she things, and ends up "Fallen on her Face", but no one knows where it ended up or whether she still has it.
Weeks grabs Rebecca.
Lewis grabs Weeks. "Sit down, young man." "Mind your own business, old-timer."
Meanwhile, Mike is outside with Kate. Kate: "It just startled me. I'll be OK. Go help your friends."
Jarvis stands up and calls to the guards: "There has been a theft. No one leaves the room without being searched."
Mike bursts back in right as a guard goes to keep people from leaving.
Will they make it out alive? Find out next time! (The answer is yes.)
