The Lady in White
Location: Justice Hub – Echo of a Hunter's Catacombs
@BananaHunter and cryomancer spoke for some time in the musty half-light of Actaeon's transplanted domain. Though as it turned out his excursions from the sandy tunnels did not range as far as Pithy might have hoped, he offered some useful tidbits about the surrounding areas. In this manner, he expounded upon the places which Oren, the announcer and a persona hitherto unknown to Actaeon, had named. The Governance Hub was a place where numerous civilians worked and lived, many in service to the city itself. Rather than a king, lord, or other such sovereign, the City of Echoes once had a council of notable citizens who saw to the metropolis' affairs. Numerous departments, each with their own function, designation, and so forth, filled the place, and it sported a higher degree of affluence than the surrounding city. In the other direction, the coastline awaited with its many stores, apartments, warehouses, and shipyards. Actaeon, with some relish, described the great abandoned boats as being like giant, bloated corpses looming above the docks.
As for Pithy's inquiries about a vault and College personnel, he was less certain. Actaeon could rattle off a few names that alone meant nothing to her, and he didn't know anything about a storehouse of treasures—though he postulated that, if his catacombs had been by some arcane method interposed into a new world, they might have overwritten what previously occupied that space. To him, the whole situation was fascinating. For the sake of conversation, the hunter attempted to steer the talk towards his new acquaintance's own origin after his knowledge dried up, but Pithy politely rebuffed his questions. Following that, the two were at a loss, and even if somewhat put-out by the Lady in White's secrecy Actaeon offered her advice as to the best place to stay nearby. He, perhaps needlessly, accompanied her in order to guide her back the way she came, and bid her farewell under the insane dance of light in the generator room.
The Fungal Knight
Location: Amusement Mile
@BananaWithin the unusual building, Bonesword found nothing out of the ordinary. A sort of pirate playground, doubtlessly meant for the entertainment of the younger generations, dominated the place. An immense hole carved into the pier, with wooden walls and numerous ropes, rock walls, and staircases, allowed energetic visitors to descend all the way down to the water to enjoy a self-contained saltwater pool. Perturbingly, though, the center of the pool sported what appeared to be a dead mascot slumped over on a large, plastic facsimile of a sea spire. Considering the skeleton's last run-in with a dead body, and how the rush of blood seemingly beckoned a freakish occurrence, leaving this one alone was surely the preferable option.
Beyond those things, all that Bonesword acquired was a rain-proof place where he might be able to spend the night, even if he did not need sleep.
Smiley
Location: Parking Garage near Main Street
@ScreenAcneA terrifying display of fire and hatred—yet with nobody to watch and applaud. With the certain death of their devoured comrade, the platoon of soldiers had decided to depart with great haste. To cover their trail, they dropped a few grenades, and like lightning the soldiers were out of there. Fear gave them wings to fly fast and far, unhindered by a fascination for the supernatural or an excess of respect for the fallen, and with their task already complete nothing remained to hold them back. A garble of unknown language into a handheld radio led to the arrival of a pitch-black transport chopper with two rotors, and into it the squad disappeared. In no time at all, the flying machine vanished into the rising storm. They left the peace permanently shattered, stained by blood and flame.
Whether their guesses were right or not, the ladies kept them to themselves, clearly less than happy about Teller doing his best to take over their operation but not caring enough to argue. Following his direction as best they could, Amelia and Guðrún embarked on their hunt for ghosts.
Blythe Towers, when the trio came to it, certainly fit the bill in terms of spookiness. In an entire abandoned city, an isolated location needed something special to stand out as particularly neglected and derelict, but this condo in particular went above and beyond. Coated in dust and festooned with webbing, stuffed with broken down, strewn-around furniture, and offering ambiance to spare, it put Amelia on edge in particular. If Guðrún was feeling frightened, she buried it beneath a scowl while the trio explored. Still, they encountered nothing extraordinary until they reached the top floor. Even in the stairwell, a red flag confronted them in the form of a carpet of ash. A layer of the black powder blanketed the upper floor completely, and one door at the end of the hall was open. Within was an apartment with snuffed-out candles and, despite all the soot, only one thing out of place: a lit cigar on the coffee table, and a symbol burnt into the wood. It was a clawed left hand with the pinky and index fingers extended overlaying a circle of feathers.
On the way out, however, the College ladies were startled by a rat running across the floor, and on instinct Guðrún immediately warped herself and Amelia away in a vortex of dust and ash.
Out of the bank of fog, Oren's drone appeared. The frenetic, high-pitched hum of its rotors served to disturb the heavy quiet that inundated the Settlement following the Queen of Terror's decapitation. For the second time in less than ten minutes, it projected a two-dimensional image of the announcer, but this time his indelible grin looked rather bemused, like the face of a teenager whose brother had turned off the television in the middle of a show he was trying out. He held up his hands in congratulation. “Well, well, well! That was fast. Guess you assassin types don't mess around. Even got a sense for the theatrical. Lemme tell ya, -and this is purely instructive- if people went to the movies and paid full-price for some tickets, but the credits rolled right after the intro sequence, doncha think they'd feel robbed? No matter. Your next opponent isn't a dumb brute, that's for sure. Here, kid. For you!” A wooden box detached from the drone's bottom with a loud
clack, and it smacked into the moist grass by Jin's feet.
You got:
36.
HoleWhither will you wander?Opens a hole or tunnel through a surface its placed on, and can be peeled off, picked up, or thrown
The look on Oren's face, even before he continued speaking, indicated he wasn't quite done yet. “Now that I mention it, you'd be better off bunking down for the night in one of these cabins rather than looking for Round 2. There's a stupid heavy rain coming that'll just ruin your day. TTYL!” As the first few drops began to pour from the sky, and lightning flashed through the clouds, Oren's flying machine beat a hasty retreat. All around Jin, the Settlement's cabins and trailers lay scattered in a random pattern, with numerous soon-to-be-useless fire pits all around. Most of the makeshift abodes bore locked doors, but such a mundane obstacle could pose no issue for a trained assassin. If Jin took his time deciding where he'd spend the night, however, and happened to glance skyward, a massive black shadow in the air could be glimpsed a couple miles away. For about a quarter hour it remained before the storm grew too thick to see it, and the rain began to pound on the Settlement's wooden roofs.
Raining cats and dogs was one thing, but during the night following the Crucible's first round, it practically rained lions and wolves. Lightning split the heavens and thunder shook buildings to their foundations, all amidst the uproarious deluge, though that wasn't to say it didn't serve as the perfect sleeping aid for some. Even still, the inferno that had been the Forest King in the middle of upper-left region of the City -known as the Park- did not die out, sustained by the chemicals soaked into the wood by the efforts of Seraphim's opponent. The hours drifted by, long and peaceful enough despite the inclement weather for all who needed it to get some sleep, those who hungered to scrounge up some food, and those plagued by excessive curiosity to toy with their new items. At around four in the morning, the downpour ceased, but it left its mark behind. Throughout the entire City of Echoes, enough water had accumulated to badly flood certain areas of it. Urban areas with proper drainage systems fared the best, but the Governance Hub's somehow deficient ducts left it in a sorry state, and the Historical District sported spots that were positively swamped. With the death of its tentacled ruler, and the riotous churning of the ocean, the phantasmagorical city of Rl'yeh sunk back beneath the waves.
However, risen waters weren't all that awaited those who woke at the break of dawn.
At six o'clock on the dot, the four explosive payloads planted beneath the heart of Downtown Commercial District by an unknown black ops squad detonated. The noise -and tremor- that followed were nothing short of cataclysmic. Not a soul was too far away to hear the guttural
krakoom, and the quake shook clocks off walls as far away as the Settlement. In the area surrounding Main Street, however, the apocalypse had surely come. The earth itself tore apart, and into a great yawning blackness an entire city block plummeted noisily. For more than an hour afterward, the dust in the region blotted out the sun, and afterward the City of Echoes bore a gaping wound. Yet, the implications of the calamitous blast were perhaps more terrifying than the explosion itself. In any normal city, the devastation would have been immense, but only here did the earth open up and the buildings crumble down into dark. Far beneath the Commercial District, it seemed, the ground was hollow, and even after the dirty clouds blew away the air was thick with questions. What could possibly be down there to warrant such a brutally direct, uncaring approach to accessing it? Who had blown the ground open in the first place?
One thing was for sure—the City of Echoes wasn't quite so abandoned anymore. Black helicopters zipped through the white, cloudy sky far above the reach of any contestant, and unidentified flying objects far more strange-looking hovered between buildings as if searching for something. Even they paled in comparison to a great black shape above even the clouds, not unlike a monstrous bird, casting an inky black shadow down as it hovered over the chasm that separated Uptown and Downtown.
At six-thirty, each remaining contestant's phylactery came to life, its internal microphone abuzz with a familiar voice.
“Good morning! Your friendly, neighborhood announcer here! Before you ask, lemme just say: we don't know what the hell that explosion was for sure. Honestly, a lot of weird stuff is going on, and the grand old Inquisitional College has let me know that we're not standing idly by. Starting today, roving College teams are gonna by going around the city, trying to get a lead on everything that's going on. If you see's 'em, feel free to say hi, but play nice. Furthermore! There have been a few discoveries that the College has seen fit to share. For a while, the top nerds have been studying these things called 'Echoes', which appear to be places that don't belong 'phasing in', so to speak. As far as they know, it's places only, but who knows what's going on? There are also what we're calling 'Factions'. All we have are photos and radar data, but there are new movements all throughout the city, especially the sky. So, keep an eye out for anything weird, and feel free to report to me or any College teams you find. If you help out the nerds, the nerds will help you with artifacts. You know those things you got from my boxes last night? Well, the College has loads of them, and they're sharing with anyone who's caring.”
“Anyway, now that the prelude's out, on to the main announcement!”
There came a sound of rustling papers, and Oren clearing his throat. “First off, Round 2 is now is session. All of ya need to find and beat your second opponent by the end of the day. Your world has grown larger: your first foe was in your zone, but Round 2 is intra-zone, so get ready to explore. Now, ya might ask me: oh brilliant and handsome Oren, I wanna kick some ass so bad, but how am I gonna find some ass? Well, allow me to introduce my new subsystem: phone a friend! Starting in thirty minutes, ya can call me for some help up to three times, and I can steer ya in the right direction or give ya the low-down on your surroundings. Oh, and if ya like, ya can ask me to permanently link your and your opponent's phylactery coms for a nice (or not-so-nice) chat prior to the main event. Sounds fun, right? You betcha! Get out there and give it all you've got, folks, or you'll regret it!”
The microphone clicked off, leaving each contestant with a boatload of new information, a reminder of his or her mission, a handful of boons to help attain it, and a deadline in which to do so.
For Gaben's Chosen, however, his mic gave a slur of feedback, as though his communicator was too close to the transmission's source.
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