2020.11.09 Life and Death 6

Preparations

Gus Moliates!
Gus rolls Dexterity + Moliate vs 4 for 7 successes.
Gus rolls Intelligence + Moliate vs 4 for 5 successes.
Gus rolls Intelligence + Moliate vs 4 for 3 successes.

Scene

A few weeks have passed since the raid on the house of the medium cult who, for one reason or another, helped the Shambler on the Tamerlane. What the group did discern however is that there is a sinister plot afoot. Smallpox has hit Prospect. Like any wave of disease, smallpox has hit Prospect like a heavy weight. Hundreds of cases over the course of weeks have exploded into the thousands and the death count has started to tick. Smallpox, followed by deadly fevers, ultimately leading to death.

But no sign of the Shambler. Whom the investigators have pegged as patient zero of the spread of the sickness.

As medical authorities ramp up prevention efforts and begin studying this once-thought eradicated stand of smallpox, the investigators begin to hunt down the Shambler in the hopes of at least stopping the source of the spread so that authorities can do what they need to do.

After days of scouring Prospect, eventually one of you, locates the Shambler, and manages to Bat Signal the rest of the investigators. The Shambler, however, is in a difficult place...a dangerous place. And that, is where we begin our scene.

Prospect Metro is a flurry of activity. The holiday season has begun to see increased traffic along the trainlines. The underground subway terminal is flooded with people taking the metro out of the city proper to one of the adjacent suburban cities. Hundreds of souls wandering too and fro, onto and off of one of the three trains currently bayed. All three, are beginning the final prep and starting their final call for passengers.

---

Beckett takes a glance down at his phone as he approaches the scene, tucking the device into his pocket as he moves. Walking and talking, he speaks to Conn. "I appreciate the help... though I'm not sure how much you should follow me. I don't think this was healthy for you on a cosmic level the last time we did this." He was patting himself down, checking his coat, checking something under his coat. The grimace that cracked his face was of a man preparing for the worst.

---

Bobo leans on his Cane as he approaches the departing train. "Come on, guys... he was hanging around the Subway station when I saw him. I can't say for sure he's our man, but uh...he sure as hell looked like a walkin' plague with my..." Bobo grins, trying to add some levity to the situation. "'Special eyes. Hope I didn't interrupt nothin'. I..." Bobo pauses, scanning the room carefully with his 'special' eyes for someone who looks like a walking mess of smallpox. "I...I don't see 'im. I'll keep tryin'..." Bobo says distantly, gritting his teeth as he stares into the crowds and trains like a madman.

---

The clatter in the dead lands finally caught up, the shuffle of steel and the ripple of chainmail finally making it's way with a jog to catchup to the walking and talking group. Else wise he remains quiet amongst the group, heading up the back and following their direction as he's sure someone else was likely doing the tracking...given it wasn't his strong-suit.

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Conn shakes his head "As far as I know, cosmologically, as long as I don't get stuck on the wrong side of the looking glass; it's all good. But that trick that you need, I'm afraid it only works if I'm in the vicinity, if you've seen Doctor Who; it's a whole big ball of timey wimey stuff. There's another trick I need to acquire to innoculate me more meaningfully, I have a cure for the cosmological concerns, but no vaccine yet." <WRAITH> Gus chases after the Risen who brought him here. The Dead man looks girded for war. His corpus is a mesh of black and blue like the m=midnight horizon crashing into the sea. His feature are smoothed away and any words just emanate from him instead of being pushed past some lips. He looks sculpted, idealized and moves with a grace that suggests his joints were given more flexibility then might be avaiible to a living form. His left arm looks esepecially bulky, the knot of small spikes and blades rests at the end of springy joints that seem more chain than forearm. "Wait up!" he calls doing his best to follow.

---

Beckett is activating some stuff. He only breaks concentration to peer towards the new Ghost. "Oh! A friend."

Beckett enhances his stealth	Beckett rolls Manipulation + Stealth vs 6 for 2 successes.

---

Everyone scans the crowd at the metro...

Scan the crowd!
Bobo rolls Perception vs 8 for 2 successes.	Deathsight
Gus rolls Perception + Alertness vs 8 for 1 successes.
Sigvard rolls Perception + Alertness vs 8 for 2 successes.
Conn rolls Perception + Alertness vs 6 for 1 successes.
Beckett rolls Perception + Alertness + 2 vs 8 for 0 successes.

Bobo sees the emaciated calling of Oblivion on everyone in the train. It is an unnerving sight, seeing drugged-out zombies walking next to mutilated corpses next to pus-filled bloated bodies. All have their due...in time. Death always wins. But one of them stands out above the rest. The strickened dead corpse Bobo noticed earlier, the Shambler, is in Train #2.

Gus and Conn see something else however. They may not see the Shambler, but they certainly see the sudden emergence of people who were not there before. A ghost one moment, then a person the next. He is holding something, and enters Train #1.

Sigvard, the vigiliant soldier, sees another ghost, who presses himself through the Shroud while no one is looking. He too is holding something, and enters Train #3.

"FINAL BOARDING. ALL PASSENGERS MIND THE GAP. ATTENTION. FINAL BOARDING. ALL PASSENGERS MIND THE GAP"

---

"Oh shit." Bobo says aloud. He turns to his compatriots. "I see 'im, he's on Train 2. Deathsights' tellin' me that everyone on that train is about to /die/." Bobo says direly. "We ain't got time to wait 'round. If yer' comin', come on!" Bobo says, before hastily running off towards the second train, hopping over the gap with ease. He's full of desperation, but to an outside observer, he just looks like another wired crackhead like you'd see on the subway every day... his manner of Dress certainly doesn't help.

---

<WRAITH> Gus tilts his head lacking a mouth to express himself otherwise. He leans forward almost resting on his weaponized limb. With his hand, the one that still has fingers he points at Train 1, "Did anyone else see that?". Snapping back up whips his head at Bobo in an angle too sharp to look comfortable. He looks like he is about lurch after Bobo but pauses to see what the rest of the group does.

---

His voice begins to rise as he watches someone shroud-step; but silences himself before shouting. Closer to Beckett for a moment, he grumbles, "We have a shroud-dipper on Car 3 - suspicious activity with a foreign object as well. I don't like it." he lets out to the group best he can - before moving to step onto train #3. With the cramped quarters he can't exactly swing his blade the same, and so move to carrying it with one hand further up the blade past the cross-guard; firmly gripping the leather. His other squeezing the regular grip before moving in, not unlike a spear - with the point of the blade kept low so as to not be actively threatening with it. Of course...seeing others catch other sights and enter other trains, "This doesn't bode well."

---

Beckett doesn't see anything! Too wrapped up with his trinkets, probably. He scowls towards the train, and glances towards Sigvard, dipping his head in a grim nod. He lifts his fingers, pointing towards the train like a gun. His eyes narrow with focus.

Beckett jams the cameras	Beckett rolls Manipulation + Crafts vs 8 for 1 successes.

---

Conn looks to Forrest and Beckett in turn "This isn't my balliwick. I know only enough to know how ignorant I am and, in this particular arena, I defer to my tax collector."

---

Beckett jams Train 2	Beckett rolls Manipulation + Crafts vs 8 for 1 successes.

Train 3 - Sigvard
The third subway tram is packed with people. Thankfully for the dead, navigating among the Quick is easy...No one is causing a ruckus and there isn't any fear of getting one's Corpus shuddered. At Sigvard's feet, in the shadowlands, is a broken vial, wrapped in a vellum tag and written by someone who probably painstakingly labelled it with calligraphic writing. INFLUENZA - 1918. Underneath the tag, is a seal of the Skeletal Legion. But where is the Proctor?

Train 2
Nothing seems to happen, save that Beckett can feel the success of the gift, as an almost ephemeral *pop* is heard in the back of his ears. The festering corpses of the Quick are lined up in seats like cattle going to a slaughterhouse. Everyone from pompous, bloated businessmen to emaciated homeless people line the seats and stand holding hand-straps descended from the ceiling. The Shambler, the fetid corpse of a spaniard, sits idle in the middle of the train cab.

---

"I gotta plan..." Bobo pauses, turning to Beckett. "Where'd everyone else go?" He says cautiously, gritting his teeth. "That ain't good. ...Ya don' wanna mess with one'a these 'thout no backup. ...Specially in public." Bobo whispers, sighing deeply as he begins taking a moment to look around the train, terror written in his eyes as he looks at them. "Somethin' really, really bad is gonna happen if we aren't careful... there he is." Bobo continues whispering, gesturing vaguely with his neck towards the Spaniard in the middle of the train. He seats directly across from him, giving it a moment before he speaks up. "You sure look pale, buddy. First time ridin' the metro?" He asks curiously, subtly scanning the man up and down with his eyes.

---

Beckett checks over his shoulders for station security cameras. If he'd find one trace the wires to the security wires with the box and lift his fingers again. "We need to clear the Mortals out of here. Can anyone take care of that by doing something... spooky?"

---

<WRAITH> Gus bolts toward Bobo and his chosen car before it takes off. His corpus seems stiff at least by the sight of his clumsy gait. He whistles loudly at the others as he continues his jerky trot toward the Risen.

---

Beckett can once more hear the almost inaudiuble *pop* in the back of his ears as his spiritual power finds purchase. One camera several yards down, which had a blinking red light (the only one that does), flickers off.

---

Conn shakes his head "Spooky isn't really my balliwick. I could light the empty spaces on fire, or make the announcey thing sound like it's said there's a bomb threat."

---

"Station evacutation protocol works! Make it uh-- Urgent but Vague. We don't want to deal with a stampede after all." Beckett suggests Conn. Though the ghosts would be left to their own devices on how to clear out the cars. He is focusing on trying to shut down trains number 1 and 2, but running out of steam.

---

<Train 2> - Bobo

The spaniard is dressed in dregs. But he looks worse than that. The pale skin of the risen is not the only thing seen on him. If one looks hard enough they see dark, almost black sheens in it's dimples, and under his nails. And odd look for one of the dead. He looks over at Bobo and says something in Nahuatl. As one of the dead, Bobo hears. "No. But I shall have a front row seat for justice."

---

Beckett Jams the other subway cars
Beckett rolls Manipulation + Crafts vs 8 for 2 successes.	Train 1
Beckett rolls Manipulation + Crafts vs 8 for 0 successes.	Train 3

---

Conn nods and puts his right palm over his right eye, then left to left, then right to right and left to left again before covering his face completely, whispers into his closed hands and puts them over his ears.

Conn Spoofs the Intercom	Conn rolls Manipulation + Prop vs 6 for 4 successes.

---

"Ok!" Bobo replies with the feigned interest of someone pretending to know what he just heard. "Well, 'least we don't have to whisper." Bobo turns to Beckett. "What are you doing? I can...err..." Bobo leans in, whispering something in Beckett and Conns ears. He leans away, a solemn look in his eyes as he stares Beckett down, awaiting an answer. The look on his face is dire, desperate even.

---

Gus notices some Soulshaping	Gus rolls Perception + Soulshaping vs 6 for 1 successes.

<Train 2> - Gus
Gus, as a Masquer, is used to seeing the handiwork of his fellows. The Shambler, even as a Risen, has been moliated and crafted. Which is strange, such things don't really bleed over into the Skinlands. However Gus can tell clearly that the Shambler is a manufactured being, so much so that it is easy to see that the Shambler, under his skin, has been lined with some sort of material. It is however too hard to tell, as the craftsmanship is just SO F'N SLOPPY. Newbs.

---

Conn leans back and quietly says "A bomb scare is probably too much. Having the announcer ay that a line fault is more reasonable and less likely to result in cops instaswarming the place."

---

<WRAITH> Gus tilts his head the other way. He emits a low, "Hmmm" as he inspects. The Masquer edging closer to goover the handi work looking for the deeper signatures of his art. "What is this fresh bullshit?" he asks to no one in particular.

---

Bobo would find Beckett making finger guns at each of the trains and then the station cameras. "I'm making clean-up easier," Beckett leans towards Bobo to listen what dark utterance passes from the Risen's lips. His eyes narrow when he hears what the Risen has to say. "He'd also probably call the police and as 'fun' as that would be, I'd like to bury as few corpses as possible tonight. Nor do I want the Camarilla to catch on to any... antics."

---

ATTENTION PASSENGERS. DUE A TRAIN MALFUNCTION WE MUST ADVISE ALL PASSENGERS TO DISEMBARK. THANK YOU. Which hits people oddly, as Train #3 seems to have it's doors close just fine. Trains #1 and #2 however, go to close then stall, stuttering and rattling that draws everyone's attention. ATTENTION PASSENGERS...

Sure enough, the people in Train 1 and Train 2 begin to disembark. The Shambler merely smiles, rising from his feet and beginning to disembark with no one the wiser, giving Gus a better look at the Moliation. Gus has seen.../some/, variations of this type of sculptwork. Spectres. Explains why it looks so sloppy. Spectres have no class.

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<WRAITH> Gus shakes his head in disdain for the poor excuse of Art. He drifts after the Oblivion stained undead doing his best not to lose him in the crowd.

---

Bobo's eyes are hard set on the Nahua man before him. He's right here in front of them, so close... Bobo bites his lips, so hard that it begins to bleed a little. Those who can see such things, will see Bobo's corpus stretch beyond his body, flinging a small bit of it toward the Nahua. Attempting to pierce the shroud like a bullet... and let a little bit of the Wyld in. Bobo eyes the Nahua carefully, disappearing after him on the train. "Les' see you try'n get away now ya son'a bitch..." He mutters under his breath.

---

The Shambler gets woozy. He looks around as if seeing something and then chuckles to himself, for some reason. He says something Nahuatl, turning to side-glance at Bobo as he speaks as he just stands there. He doesn't seem to have a mind for actually leaving.

The throng of people continue to thin. Train 3 however, kicks to life and begins to move down the track. The population, including the traffic personnel, seeming to ignore the speakers as the train works just fine. The subway car spits off while the remaining two trains continue to befuddle over themselves.

The Shambler says something in Nahuatl. The dead him speak: "My purpose is finished. Your people are doomed." The second thing he says. "Me and mine will give you what you gave us, and the living will bow to Oblivion for what they have done."

---

Conn nods at Beckett "Say the word, buddy," his hand subtlely readies to draw a sword, just in case it's needed, "I got your back if it comes down to it."

---

Beckett peeps to Conn out of the side of his mouth. "What's he saying?"

---

<WRAITH> Gus looks between both Risen muttering something in Spanish which seems to be some sort of reply to the language he doesn't appear to understand. He edges closer and closer seeming distracted by the sloppy craftsmanship that has caught his eye. "Bobo?" he lets his question hang in the air.

---

Bobo blinks carefully. A voice in his head whispers something, and Bobo goes wide-eyed. "Oh shit... you're right. I /can/ understand him." He says aloud. "Thanks, buddy... but ya didn't have to call me a dumbass" He says to his unforseen 'friend'. He turns to Beckett and Conn. "He's saying he's already won, and there ain't shit we can do about it." He spits on the ground, venom on his tongue. He turns a hard eye to the Shambler. "Look, buddy. Y'lost. We stopped the train. I dunno who you are, n' I don't care. Yer' bein' a dick, n' Yer' gonna yer' ass outta this train n' somewhere where we can kick yer' ass in private." Bobo stares him down. "So you might as well gimme a lil' detail on what yer' doin' here. What's the harm, if ye've already won, right?" He says, continuing to stare his fellow Risen down.

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