2019.09.08 Devil's Night III

Devil's Night Part 3
Raven's Rock is attacked in the middle of the night.
IC Date	Sometime in the Future and a Long Time Ago
IC Time	Middle of the Night
Players	Pancake, Branton, Jes, Royan, Aldric
Location	Raven's Rock
Prp/Tp	Ravenscar
Spheres	Garou, Gaian,

When we last left our intrepid heroes...

Frostbite and the Devil's Own (and friends) were holding off the attacking banes while Olivia and the Children (or most of them) escaped the house. As they ran into the night, Swift Wind re-witnessed a tableau he had seen played out before, of children running into darkness and Feather Picks the Lock taking his corvid form and flying into the night after them. He joined them as they ran to what they thought was safety.

Meanwhile, the Devil's Own, from what was left of the rooftop of Ravenscarne, knew that they were not running to safety but instead were running right toward danger, as one last monster bane had crash landed in the direction where the odd family of adopted shifters were headed. Death's Jester ran off immediately as he could to warn them, singing the Ride of the Valkyries as loud as he could. Soon Mercy's Messenger gave chase as well, overwhelmed by the death that had already occurred and determined to keep more from happening.

xxxxxThe raven is ahead, flying with his brother that, up until now, had only been a story and long since dead. It passes, also, through the head of Swift Wing that every child and the woman they are with are most likely long since dead and buried in his own time. But, that is not why he is here. He is here to figure out a story, a mystery and.. perhaps.. to fulfil some sort of Timetravel prophecy! What if they do not do these things. Perhaps time will then implode and it will be up to some weird man in a Fez to restart the Universe!
xxxxxSo, Swift Wing follows along.. in utter darkness. Which is not good. Darkness is not good. He calls out, just to see if anyone else will think it is a good idea, "How about some light?"

xxxxxLeaving the house and the horror of a dead child behind and leaving poor Aaryn to the care of her pack. She'd already called up to Branton about a direction to head in, and starts that way, quickly but with backward glances to find out where her man is. That matters, she's unsure if she should or will need to grab him before hitting the speed boost or not. Thank goodness Jes is so noisy up there though, sure she's got them good werewolf senses going since she's in crinos right now, but still, it's a LOT easier to pin point a dude yowling the Ride of the Valkyries than it is to spot one individual fuzz butt by starlight.

Feather Picks the Lock kraas in the affirmative but then suddenly pulls up <<DANGER!>> He kraas. <<We are not alone. Pull up. Pull up!>>

xxxxxDanger? Pull up? Now, those are two things that Swift Wing knows what they mean. It means that if you do not pull up then you will smack into something really bad. So, he does just that! He gives his wings extra movement, beating them hard as he veers upwards, trying to gain as much altitude as he can in as short a time as possible!

Several things happen at once. At Feather's alarm, both Corax pull up and back to opposite sides. Swift Wind isn't sure what they are dodging because he didn't see it, but he feels a hot gust of air blow against his tail feathers as he banks. Then the screams of a woman and children can be heard. Not a scream of pain, but of panic, as if they have just been alerted to danger as well. Then from behind them, the loud strains of the Ride of the Valkyries signalling that the cavalry is on the way.

xxxxxBranton concentrates on the magic of his boots again, following behind once the fire is out. A flight speed of around twenty miles an hour isn't as fast as they can make him run but flying avoids terrain hazards and that makes up for a lot. Cussing he mutters to himself about making eyedrops that give him night vision.

A flame erupts near the ground in the forest below, casting shadows, but also light on the creature that rises up to meet the corvid. What can I say that can't be better said by every Judeo-Christian religious text over the ages. The thing looks like a giant demon had a baby with a cenobite from Hellraiser. Hooved feet, large horns. A face like the demon from Legend. From it's body, innumerable chains are attached, embedded into the flesh on one end and ending with spiked hooks and barks on the other. The chains seem to move of their own accord and swing out for the Corax.

Feather Picks the Lock banks and dives toward the creature and when he gets close, shrieks in rage, taking his Rara Avis form and going for a wing swipe with his razor feathers.

Feather Picks the Lock may have a little bit of the Battle Birb temperament in him, but the skills for straight up battle just isn't there. I mean, he's already fallen through the floor of his house today. This doesn't get any better. He tries to dodge in for the wing swipe, shifting into his rara avis form, but it just makes him a bigger target and he is SKEWERED on the end of one of the chains. His body immediately goes limp as he is slung somewhere into the night.

xxxxxChains. Now that would hurt a whole lot! Swift Wing lets out a loud, startled KRAAA! as that demon-bane appears manifested, sending out snake-like chains in an attempt to swat him out of the sky. But he's not having it. He was not born a Corvid just so he can be taken out by some snot-nosed bane with a chain-fetish! And as he suddenly folds his wings up, he lets himself drop a short distance. Wings extend, giving a hard -flap- to gain altitude as he then sort of rolls around the chain as it tries to strike him. All the while, as he does this, he begins to emit the sound of .. air planes? Ever seen those WW2 movies where they are up in the sky, dog-fighting? And all those engine whine-sounds as they turn this way and that? Those are the sounds he begins to call out with his Mimicry Gift! As if he was teasing the Bane.

xxxxxDeath's Jester comes barreling out of the darkness like a yodeling fur boulder, holding the last note of his howl before changing in pitch to declare, << SHOUT AT THE DEVIIIIIIIL! >> before plowing fangs-first into a metal album cover come to life. His teeth grip leathery skin and pull! They gnaw! They do NOTHING until he gets ahold of a particularly soft chunk of devil and fuckin' RENDS that son of a bitch, REEEEEEEALLY mauling him on that third try!

xxxxxStill making that airplane engine noise from so many Hollywood movies from that era, Swift Wing has his goal set. He is not just dodging the large banes chains. He is going for the face. But not just the face for an eye pluck. This is far too important a thing to risk on that. Instead, he suddenly latches on to the creatures face and.. SUDDEN RARA AVIS FORM! That large, crinos'd raven FLOMPS on to the banes face like so much feather and chicken legs. A claw then suddenly rams into the creatures left eye, ripping his claw along its eyeball!

Death's Jester comes roaring in, his Hispo teeth tearing at the flesh of the demon bane. At first, the bane's armor is too thick but then he finds the juicy spot on the inside of the leg and RIPS IT TO SHREDS. The bane doesn't like this too much so redirects it's chains at Death's Jester but only manages to rip off some fur and damage a bunch of nearby trees. This gives Swift Wing some time to grab the beast by the face and rip across its eye which... OWWWWW hurts the storyteller more than the beast and deals 1 psychic damage.

xxxxxShit, she lost the kids. Shit, she lost the Thunder Chicken. Shit! THIS IS NOT GOING WELL! TWO things she cares about, and they're both not right in front of her god damn it! One thing she definitely cant miss though is the big ol fuckoff tall demonic bad guy of bane nastiness! She's not quite to it YET, and she doesn't have her friggin bow, so she improvises by pointing her left hand up and just ejecting claws at it like a boss. She aims GREAT. But it is large, and her claws are small, and they do no good. No good at all!

The last of the great banes called here finds himself surrounded and at least one great warrior threatens to end it. Normally, this would be a good time to make an exit, but as he thinks these thoughts his forehead begins to glow with an inverted pentacle as bright as the moon. The clouds part slightly and behind them Luna herself looks like she is crying tears of blood. The beast roars in frustration and the fire behind it turns green and smaller bane scrags begin to fly out of the flames, swarming the area.

xxxxxJes grips onto that leg meat for dear life -- or, like... death, just for the demon-bane -- and worries and rends and pulls and... oh shit it's doing something totally metal! The Ragabash unclenches his jaw and leaps out of the way, avoiding a vomit torrent of flame in the process!

xxxxxAnd because the Gull of Battle that is Swift Wing can never, ever, stop with the theatrics? Well, he lets out a loud KRAAAA before he suddenly rams his one claw into the Bane creatures left eye. This time, though, its not just a light scratch. He just SMASHES it in there, exploding the eye in a sudden orb of gooey eye gunk! And in that moment, the raven lets out a loud THUNDERING SOUND with his power of mimicry!

xxxxxWith everything going on its easy to not notice the black wolf that comes barreling through the smoke and fire. Ironsides finds himself a spot to go for, leaping in to tear into a soft, meaty spot on the side of the beast. Laying into it he tears chunks away, his claws raking along it's underbelly to flay it open.

xxxxxBranton can't find the children either and only darkness is visible beyond the fire the big bane has started. Floating over the battle Branton turns his will against the flames, figuring that it doesn't matter where the kids are the fire is dangerous to everyone. Bringing his hands together in a loud clap he calls out "Den eínai!" at the fire.

xxxxxAfter dodging the blast of flame, Deej realizes the demon's done; there are, however, little bane toadies all over the place. He hops up and snaps one in two with his teeth, then scampers and bites a second like a dog attacking soap bubbles.

The roar to the sky sounding what it knows is it's eventual destruction, the demonic bane makes one last desperate attempt to destroy its enemies. Calling forth corrupted fire from within the roar of the inferno, banes shriek across the battlefield. The demon will never know if it is enough. Its eye bursts and its vision narrows. A black wolf erupts from the darkness and tears into its side as it collapses to its knees on legs mangled by Death's Jester.

xxxxxBranton's voice rises above the shrieks of the banes and the death groans of the demon. He speaks for the flames to NOT BE and they listen. The roaring flames revert from green to a more natural color and begin to subside. Not QUITE extinguished, but manageable now. The unnatural darkness behind them remains however.

Finally, the glowing moonlight pentacle on its forehead brightens and then dims and for a moment it smiles one last wicked smile as it explodes, sending the chairs in its body ripping into the trees and towards its enemies and maybe taking one with him.

xxxxxIronsides seems to want something from inside the monster, because he keeps digging at that hole, making it deeper and wider. Finally there's a burp of blood and tissue as he rips open it's belly, then turns his attention towards the smaller ones as well.

xxxxxIris, whose name is IN THIS POSE, closes the last of the distance as the big beastie goes down, taking a couple pot shots at some of the weak banes flitting around, hands erupting in pure white flames for just a moment on contact. Really, super, amazingly painful contact! She slashes her way towards where Death's Jester is. >>Where's Thunder Chicken? Where's the babies??<< Still freakin out, man! >>I couldn't see them!<< She's still trying! It just hasn't worked out yet.

xxxxxJes flicks his tail at Iris in irritation -- he is /tracking/, damn it! -- and sniffs the ground, taking small paces with his ears perked up and turning this way and that. He pads slowly, then darts in another direction, nose to the ground for a bit before he answers. << Scattered, >> he begins, looking around. << Panicked. Off in different directions. But... there were others here. Man-scent, wolf-scent, horse-scent, chemicals... cologne, alcohol, but not... human. All heading into the black. >>
xxxxxThe piebald wolf shifts up to two legs then, and Jes takes out a cigarette, lighting it on some of the remaining embers before kicking them out and adjusting his rose-tinted glasses. "My guess? They were dogcatching. We aren't chasing kids; we're chasing kidnappers."

xxxxxBranton gets knocked to the ground by flailing chains of the creature's death throes but gets himself back up, dusting off and floating up to spot and extinguish the remains of the fire.

xxxxxAs the large bane creature falls, Swift Wing is .. no longer the large rara avis form that was attached to the creatures face. Instead, a small raven appears (small in comparison to the war-form!), flying away from the creatures face. In its claw, it holds a strange looking sliver, like a shard of glass. It is emitting a very strong sunshine in a ball around the bird. It goes flying away with this strange lamp-light, heading into the total darkness a few passes. He looks worried, making calling Kraaaa Kraaaa! sounds.

xxxxxIronsides prowls along the fire line as Branton puts it out, seeking out any of the smaller banes that remain. He makes work of them before hurrying back to join the group, sitting down near Iris and Jes, looking between them to see what the next order is to be.

xxxxxWorried and freakin out, but totally not panicking, Iris shrinks down to homid as well. "We should find Jase, he'll have some tricks to help find them. And get Frostbite back together and in action." she opines, looking to Jes then. "More hands to search if they're lost and scattered, and more people to kick ass if they've gotten snatched." Plus she's worried the poor bastard might be dying right now or something!

The last of the deadly destructive devils destroyed, all that is left is the cleanup. The banes that are left are easily dispatched by Aldric and Iris. The fire is no match for one blessed by Hecate. The light from the fires fade and eventually, so does the strange inky darkness beyond. Try as they might however, they cannot find sign of the children, or Feather Picks the Lock, or those that have so surely taken them.

Devil's Night is over, but the adventure is just beginning.