Dark Jack

Night of the Hunt - a Bloodborne RP

I am writing my next post at the moment (a longer one, I can reveal) and was repeatedly referring to your post, bloonewb, when I noticed a sentence that had escaped my notice the first time I read it:

However, even at a full near-run, she found she did not even become slightly winded. Is this the saint's blessing, this strength that fills her?

bloonewb

Was this just a spur-of-the-moment expression assuming that her Hunter-transformation was the result of the blood of a saint, or did Morgraine actually accept Adelicia's blessing (which is to say, her blood)?

Night of the Hunt - a Bloodborne RP

He is not, no. There is a Church Pick on the ground a ways off from him, but it has been snapped to pieces. Otherwise all that is immediately obvious would be a burned-out torch on the ground next to him. She could search his corpse if she wanted to see if he had anything else of use, but she wouldn't be able to tell at a glance.

Night of the Hunt - a Bloodborne RP

Currently working on the outline of the time-skip before actually writing it, and I'm debating how far to skip ahead. Essentially, the trip to the Cathedral Ward, which would be Morgraine and Victor's ultimate destination, would have several minor encounters and situations that I'm unsure whether Morgraine would actually stop and want to interact with. And so, for the time being, here is a brief outline of what the journey will entail so you (bloonewb) can figure whether Morgraine would react strongly enough to interrupt the time-skip and RP events:

Firstly, outside the clinic they will be on a plateau with a row of seemingly uninhabited houses to their left, and a ledge with a guard rail to their right beyond which is an view from above of the rooftops and streets of Old Yharnam, with smoking pyres and packs of beasts visible. Victor will close and lock the door to the clinic and light the censer beside it.

Just a little further away, Victor will ask Morgraine to watch Adelicia for a moment while he enters the only house on the street with a lit censer, citing it is to "check on them". There will be some minor commotion inside as he unceremoniously kills several of them before returning and ushers Morgraine and Adelicia onward.

A ways down the plateau, after the city beneath it transitions from Old Yharnam to Yharnam proper, they will arrive at an elevator. Outside the top of the elevator will be some blood smears, but little else of note. At the bottom of the elevator, however, they will find the remains of a battlefield with copious amounts of spilled blood, one dead church servant, a dead church giant, three dead and thoroughly mauled scourge beasts and, a little ways away, a dead Hunter in the garb of the White Church, lying face-down with the back of his garb torn apart and a broad strip of skin seemingly having been cut off his back.

Next they will arrive at the shelter, where they will simply deposit Adelicia before moving on, now much faster since they aren't limited by the speed and stamina of a relatively normal human.

And finally they will arrive at the Cathedral Ward.

That's about the outline of the full trip. For the sake of a balance between brevity and proper RP, I'll let you decide which would be the first among those that would cause Morgraine to go "Hey, wait minute!"

Night of the Hunt - a Bloodborne RP

All right... moving at a bit slower pace than would be ideal, but progressing nonetheless (though I'd still really like to hear from @rocketrobie2).

Does Morgraine have any reactions to get out of the way about Torquil going through the lantern or Arcturus deciding to stay behind before the time-skip, @bloonewb?

Night of the Hunt - a Bloodborne RP

@rocketrobie2, @DrabberRogue, please sound off so I know you're still around?

Night of the Hunt - a Bloodborne RP

Eastern Yharnam, Hunter's clinic, reception

“Following? Hey, the lamp'll be there come the day.”
Torquil looked slowly from the woman's face to the hand on his shoulder, to the door leading to the outside, past which Victor would lead them to the Cathedral Ward. But even when the most recently awakened Hunter turned to follow their church-ordained guide, Torquil remained rooted in place, struggling with an internal conflict that felt as though it was on the verge of tearing him apart.

“The lantern'll be there come the day,” the female Hunter had said, as though it was purely curiosity driving him, which could not be further from the truth. Torquil was, at his core, a fairly unimaginative person and was mostly unburdened by things like inquisitiveness and the desire to explore. It was probably a big part of why he so readily accepted the loss of his memories and his new role in life: he did not have the ability nor the desire to imagine what his life might have been like before, nor to conjure up alternatives for what his new life was to be used for. His past was gone? Fine, it was not as though he was using it for anything. He was a Hunter employed by the Healing Church now? Sure. Then that was what he was. He did not second-guess or deliberate over things he had no ability or reason to change. In that respect Victor might have been right: Torquil might actually be considered a simple person. He was content with what he knew and how things were. Simple.
But he was not stupid, nor incapable of making basic logical deductions. Victor could not see the lantern nor the little men, which meant that both of these entities were probably unrelated to him entirely, making them separate actors. Victor wanted them to follow him to the headquarters of the Healing Church to be briefed, armed and resupplied; this was logical. Strategically sound. Conductive of survival on a “Night of the Hunt” such as this.
But Victor was also not there for their sake; he was just here as an escort for the blood saint and had stressed, right from the start, how indifferent he was concerning the rest of them. Rats, just a moment ago he had called Torquil a “mumbling imbecile”! They had found him laying in a pool of blood, on the verge of death, and had saved him by using a blood vial on him... a blood vial that they had only found in time because of the little men.
And the little men... they were an enigma, which had initially caused Torquil to treat them as a potential threat, but since then he had had time to observe them. Though inhuman and scary-looking, they seemed to treat the sleeping Hunters with equal parts curiosity and affection, and though occasionally rude they had always seemed to try to show the Hunters things that were useful. Trapped in the back room, the little men had had insisted that they try to break out, before the clinic had come under attack. Later, when they had decided they needed to find the key for the front door, the little men had immediately endeavored to show them where the key was hidden, along with the location of even more blood vials.
They were the ones that had insisted on the Hunters to examine the lantern, and they had been the ones that had shown him how to light it. They had warned against the blood saint, the blood of which Victor kept trying to offer them, and they had promised that the lantern would offer “safe haven in the Hunter's Dream.” Following Victor towards a safety he knew existed was the logical, obvious choice, and thus the one Torquil would have normally picked without a second thought... but the little men had done nothing but proving themselves helpful and trustworthy. The lantern was an uncertain safety, an unknown; picking it was not logical. It was a decision made on a basis of faith.

Torquil turned fully towards the lantern. Uncertainty. The lantern appeared to actually take them somewhere; the disappearance of the large man was evidence of that much, but they had only the word – which, though it was a word they had no reason not to believe, was still only a word – of the little men that it lead to safety. The other side could be anything. It could be dangerous. A trap.
The big man had gone through it.
He could be in danger.
If Torquil went with Victor, they would travel to the Cathedral Ward. Known. But the big man would be left alone, possibly in danger, possibly unable to return. Possibly safe. Unknown. If Torquil went, he would either rejoin the big man and be there to save him, or he would rejoin him and be safe in the haven promised by the little men.

Stepping forward with determined strides, Torquil approached the lantern, his eyes locked on its glowing form. He clutched the hatchet in his right hand, licked his lips. The little men at the base of the lantern-wielding skeletal arm beckoned him closer, eagerly invited him to traverse its light. He continued closer.
Only once he had gotten so close that he could reach out and touch the lantern if he so desired did Torquil feel had he had felt earlier, the first time he had stared at the lantern; the embrace of the light, the assailing drowsiness. It was quick, yet felt gentle.
And then Torquil, too, vanished from the Hunter's clinic.

---

Torquil senses a power inside him stir, shrouding his being before dispersing.

Hunter's Dream

Torquil immediately reawakened in a new, strange place, where he immediately registered several things:
The world seemed to be covered in blood, despite it raining.
There were two figures ahead of him, a woman and a Hunter of indeterminate sex, moving towards a house atop a stairway before him.
The big man was right next to him.
And Torquil's hatchet was gone.

Night of the Hunt - a Bloodborne RP

Those two ways aren't the only two ways for the characters to get trick weapons, nor are they equivalent; going either place will provide different degrees of freedom in which weapons are available and how willing the ones supplying the weapons are to part with them. Essentially each of the factions in the RP - the white and black Healing Churches, the Vilebloods, the Fire Dancers, the Followers, even the Harrow - along with the Hunter's Dream have the potential to be a source of proper Hunter-weapons, with more scattered across the IC world to be discovered and claimed, including quite a few original and unique ones. The Hunter's Dream is only known concretely to Nigel, and by inference to Morgraine, Torquil and Arcturus, making the White Church the only one actually known to them at the moment.

Do the characters have anything else they want to do at or near the Hunter's clinic, or are you okay with me fast-forwarding a bit, since at least Torquil and Morgraine appear to be opting out of interacting with the lantern? @bloonewb and @DrabberRogue?
(Also, maybe a little something just to give a gist of what Arcturus is thinking about all this?)

Night of the Hunt - a Bloodborne RP

I mean, I don't think I'm spoiling too much by saying that there is currently two venues for the characters to get proper trick weapons: they can get them in the Hunter's Dream, or they can be granted trick weapons by the White Church in the Cathedral Ward.

Night of the Hunt - a Bloodborne RP

Eastern Yharnam, Hunter's clinic, reception

Glancing sullenly at Adelicia, seeming rather dissatisfied with her presence, Victor shook his blood-soaked head.
“Her name is Adelicia. She's...” He looked around in a decidedly aggressive manner for a moment, as if daring anyone to interrupt him. “She's a blood saint. I'm Victor, and I am a Hunter. I escorted her here so she could give you 'her blessing', but that was before they called a Night of the Hunt. If you want some of her blood, just ask. First stop is going to be getting her to the nearest shelter, then I'm going straight to the Cathedral Ward.”
He paused for a moment before nodding at Torquil, who seemed to have gotten distracted from the conversation and was now staring at the lantern with fascination. “The mumbling imbecile over there said his name was Torquil. He's freshly turned, like you.”

Having said that, Victor turned around and, tugging the box he was holding under his left arm, moved to exit the reception and head outside. Adelicia hesitantly followed.

Night of the Hunt - a Bloodborne RP

Eastern Yharnam, Hunter's clinic, reception

Great, another chatty one, Victor thought sarcastically, standing up with the ornate box still held in his left hand and turning toward the newcomer fully. She was a strange one. She had clearly come to Yharnam anticipating becoming a Hunter, given her choice of garb, yet she also seemed to have decorated herself with all sorts of curios that were quite out of place on a Hunter. She was brash, blunt and prone to sarcasm, yet strangely polite and cooperative. There were a lot of contradictions in her, which both annoyed and intrigued Victor.
Watching the female Hunter help Torquil – who mumbled something that sounded vaguely grateful in return – back into a more proper stance, Victor took his time to examine her form closely, noting how small she was and how she had emerged from the back room without arming herself. Hardly seemed like the stuff good Hunters were made of; small fighters might be harder to hit and better able to get to vulnerable spots on their opponents, which could be dangerous out in the world, but here? In Yharnam, where nearly everyone had received blood-treatment and could regenerate almost any wound, all that mattered was doing as much damage as possible and making your enemy bleed. Sure, he had seen Hunters with flimsy weapons, like threaded canes, take down beasts, but only through continuously putting themselves in harm's way to inflict one small cut after another until the creature finally succumbed.
Well, it undeniably worked, but it just did not make sense to him. Why take the risk of having to attack over and over again when you could pick up the biggest, most devastating weapon around and hopefully finish the fight in one hit?

Only once the woman spoke to him again did Victor's attention refocus on her, his prior musings forgotten as he immediately realized two things: this Hunter was special, too, since she could see the damned lantern the others had talked about earlier; and he had failed. One of these new Hunters, these temporarily ignorant special Hunters, had somehow managed to find a way to untraceably evade him by, presumably, teleportation. He had heard that special Hunters could do that, but he had no idea that it was so easy that even freshly turned ones could manage to do it.
Fell asleep, she said? Victor had heard that these immortal Hunters vanished when “killed,” only to inevitably show up again somewhere else. Maybe this vanishing also applied to other states of unconsciousness, like sleep? If that was the case, he needed to get these remaining Hunters to the Cathedral Ward as quickly as possible, before they had time to learn the extent of the true power they possessed.

“I have, actually,” Victor replied to her final question, making a considerable effort to stop himself from smirking over the fact that he could make that claim truthfully. “I came here with another Hunter who was taken by some huge and invisible monster, just outside this building. It picked him off the ground and he disappeared without a trace.”
He was pretty sure that the two instances of Hunters vanishing were not comparable, as such, but these people did not need to know that. What had happened to Raine was undeniably terrifying, and it was better if the remaining Hunters were discouraged from trying to follow the missing one's example.
“This lantern you speak of,” he added after another moment, “is also invisible. To most, at least. It seems all of you are rare, special Hunters and can see things the rest of us can't. Stay away from it; we've wasted enough time already. We should get moving.”