[1922] Glass Coffins

[Ashdown Crier]

Blackfriars Library looks different. The hardwood floors bear scuffs and the bookshelves in one area have been knocked aside. The plush couches that contained people are now empty, strange stains upon one of them and the style something twisted from art deco and another time cobbled together. The glass cases on the walls that contained historical artifacts have been vandalized: everything now bears The Sigil in glaring quinacridone red.

Near the open mezzanine of the first floor the tables remain but the food is now nearly gone as if it was the end of the night and the reading long over. The contents of the table nearest the library wall have been upended over the floor.

The startling difference is at the far end of the floor. The lectern is gone. There is, in fact, no longer a center area anymore in front of it. No speaker remains, only an empty abyss. The floor breaks away into infinite darkness, one that glitters strangely out of the corner of the eye. No one remains milling about, no one except a select few.

To the west cluster Asiya, Arthur, and Christopher. Disheveled, Arthur and Christopher now look about nervously. Arthur has lost his suit jacket. There are bloodstains on the cuffs of his sleeves. They open their mouths to speak to each other but then close them. Asiya sits with them, no delicate china plate in hand but a journal instead.

To the east is Alexander Shore, hands pressing to his chest periodically and then pulling away as if he expects something there that is not. Alexis and Alois are still there with him; Alexis dabs at a nosebleed, seems shocked every time she sees the blood on her fingers. Marcus has fallen further back, his eyes darting to everything as he mutters to himself.

In the center of the room is a chasm. Sunny Shore sits with her feet hanging into it. She is completely unresponsive, ignoring everything and one around her.

An air of instability fills the area, the mood nervous.

Full character bios here.

 

[Ashdown Crier]

persuasion.
Making it successfully through the meta will be largely predicated on the characters' ability to find the information they need in a timely manner. Persuasion is not an easy thing in an era where the player characters don't belong, so this is much tougher than it sounds. Persuasion is based on a single d20 roll for every question you ask or favor you request. This means if you make one roll to get an NPC to give you an answer to your question, that doesn't carry over and mean they'll answer your next question. You must roll anew for every new question.

Please remember we are roleplaying. Just because you roll high doesn't mean that a character will automatically open up to you and spill all the beans; you still have to earn their trust first! Consider spending a little while buttering them up or intimidating them first: particularly successful attempts will earn persuasion roll bonuses at the discretion of the GMs.

Each NPC has a different threshold for persuasion, which is in the cast post of your main thread. The lower the number, the easier to persuade. Low-rating NPCs are unlikely to have valuable information to share, however.

Sharing information will be vital to the event. You may create your own PRP threads in the event forum for this purpose.

If you chose to purchase an upgrade to your ability to persuade in phase one, please note this at the top of your post. There are three or four people handling each thread, so this makes it easier for all of us to keep track of who's got what bonuses.

Quick Reference of Persuasion Rolls
Sunny Shore: N/A
Alexander Shore: 16
Arthur Noor: 16
Kiel: N/A
Marlene Freeman: N/A
Alexis North: 6
Alois Scholz: 4
Asiya el-Amin: 12
Christopher Ward: 14
Marchus Lacroix: 4

Please quote azuredreams to interact with:
Kiel
Alexis North
Alois Scholz
Asiya el-Amin

Please quote medigel to interact with:
Marlene Freeman
Christopher Ward
Marcus Lacroix

For any NPCs not listed above (Ezra, Melany, Vivien, etc) please quote shibrogane. Arthur Noor is played by the lovely Silverah.

 

[Ashdown Crier]

combat.
Combat will be very simple. Combatants roll 1d20 per round. The lower number takes five damage. Everyone has a pool of 25hp, which is persistent throughout this section of the meta: unless healed by another character, your hit points will not increase or decrease outside of combat. Should both combatants agree (oocly), the fight can end or be interrupted before a combatant is knocked out. Reaching zero means that your character cannot join any other fights for the rest of the meta unless healed. Some fights have the chance to end in death or incapacitation: these will be clearly labeled and clearly avoidable.

There are some exceptions to the five damage rule:

>Your character has a firearm. Firearms inflict 10 damage, but they also subtract 3 points from your roll. You must call that you're using a firearm when you make your original roll and this cannot be retracted.
>Your character is using magic. Magic inflicts 10 damage, absolute, no matter what your opponent rolls, but it takes a round for your character to focus enough to make it do. So you'd call magic (with no roll) in the first round, take 5 damage from your opponent, and in the second round (if you're still standing) your opponent takes ten damage from you. You must still roll to dodge their attack.
>Your character is healing another. Healing doesn't require a roll. You just post that you're healing and who the target is, and they regain 5 health.
>You can't perform two actions on the same round. You can't attempt to block and heal at the same time; nor can you attempt to attack and heal.


ADDENDUM:
In a 2v1 situation where one character is attempting to block for another, all characters still roll. Blocking doesn't automatically succeed. For the block to be successful, both characters (blocker and blockee) have to roll above the attacker. The attacker takes no damage in this situation.

Formula:
A = Attacker
B = Blocker
C = Defended

A outrolls B + C: A succeeds in attacking C, C takes 5 damage.
A outrolls B, but not C: B takes 5 damage, block is successful.
A outrolls C, but not B: B fails to block, but does cause damage to A. A + C take 5 damage.
A is outrolled by both B and C: No one takes damage. Block is successful.

 

[Ashdown Crier]

xxx  

[Micillia]

Darcie O'Hare
Blackfriars Library v2
+1 persuasion
+1 combat/agility
Migraine -1 to all combat rolls

Darcie stood there, heart still beating from the just seconds ago chaos. Her head ached. She looked around, vision a little distorted by the throb of blood pounding in her head. Things were not the same. She was nearby Asiya, Arthur, and Christopher, and was acutely aware of the blood and disheveled appearance of all 3 of them. Darcie looked around, panic rising in her throat, "Acacia?" She called out, not really being able to focus on any one thing. She looked over at the center of the room, and had to do a double-take. Her mind wasn't quite seeing the black endless hole, but the woman was looking quite unwell. Darcie took a step towards the center of the room, one hand holding her throbbing head, the other reaching out to the vulnerable older woman.

KitsuneAura

 

[Daekie]

Alexis Tucker 22/25
Light physical damage, -1 to all combat rolls

A shot rings out -- a shot -- a shot -- there is so much blood --

The world warps around them. Glitches. Restarts. (something just broke)

(Alexis - the real Alexis, not her or a her, them theirs that one who lives and breathes and is real - is bloody, too. They glance with disinterest, but -- they already know -- their mouth is -- they thought, for maybe one godforsaken day, they would be allowed to be free of it. They are back standing with Kiel, again, and -
He isn't real, is he? What of this is real? What of this is real at ********," Alexis whimpers, their mouth bloody from their teeth-like-razors, but there is hardly anything beyond their eyes at all except an awful yawning emptiness.

azuredreams

kiel! guess who/s back, back again

 

[azuredreams]

Kiel offers no response. At first he looks alright but then he twitches, the motion leaving an after image - a smile he gave Alexis earlier - and then he moves away without word.

To sit beside Sunny.

(Kiel, like Sunny, is completely unresponsive and neither will react to attempts to talk.)

Da3kie

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

Preacher Maria | 22/22
+1 persuasion, +1 combat, -1 combat

"What the ********' shitwaffle goddamn piece of ******** was that?" Preacher muttered. There had been shots, and she thought she knew where they came from, her body tensed and she'd dove under and table. A loud siren and now this. Back to relatively normalcy. If one could call Sunny and Kiel, catatonic, staring into the void. People were vaguely hurt, everything around them was ruined and yet the players played their parts. What the ********.

Snatching up a fallen book, Preacher strode over the the rift, mini-rift, weird black s**t and chucked the book at it with all her might. Maybe it wasn't bottomless like it looked.

medigel

throwing a

azuredreams

book in da void

 

[shibrogane]

The book falls forever. No sound issues from the rift.

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

Preacher Maria | 22/22
+1 persuasion, +1 combat, -1 combat

"What the s**t," she said. Kiel and Sunny simply sat there, and she wondered, fancifully, if the robot epidemic was spreading. Rubbing her arms, Preacher stepped away from the abyss. She'd already jumped into one, no need to hit another.

Preacher found herself winding back to the same group of pervert, Alexis, and Alexander. The A names. "H-hey - did ya hear that jus' now?" The siren, the gunshots.... Then, she frowned, looking more closely at each person.

"What's wrong wit ya chest? And your nose? Are ya alright?"

azuredreams

shibrogane

 

[azuredreams]

Alois's hands no longer look right, as if the nails are trying to turn to talons. Except they're not, if one blinks they are normal again. He looks to Preacher. "What are you on about? We were talking."

He was in the process of a particularly lecherous joke but-

"Can't I use this?" Alexis says, staring at her fingers. Then she looks up at Preacher, eyes vacant before awareness lights in them again. "My nose? Whatever do you mean?" She raises her hand and touches her nose. Stares as she comes away with blood on her fingers.

"I don't know-" She appears bewildered.

"Useful," Alois says, "but a waste."

The Semblance of Unity

 

[prolixity]

Jordan Miller - 21/21
-2 persuasion

Jordan reeled on his feet, dizzy and shocked and strange, and put out a hand to catch himself on a nearby shelf. What had happened? Where was he? What happened? "Get it together," he muttered to himself, and rubbed the bridge of his nose, trying to reorient himself.

Still in the library, okay. But changed, altered, twisted, marked by the signs of a fight that had happened or hadn't happened, the cases on the walls graffitied in red, a symbol that he'd seen before, here and there in another time. And in the center of it all, a deep and startling void. Someone sat on the edge of the void, casually and silently, as though she were only dangling her feet off a dock in summer.

What had happened -- it had happened so fast, and he thought maybe the center of it was the man he'd been talking to. He'd had --

Shaky and dizzy still, Jordan turned, looking for Marcus, and moved over to put himself between the older man and the small group nearby. Surely he'd hesitate to hurt an innocent bystander ... wouldn't he? His voice sounding thin and strange to his own ears, he asked, "What did you do?"

medigel

here we go again

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

Preacher Maria | 22/22
+1 persuasion, +1 combat, -1 combat

"Uh," she said. The ******** ******** - his hands... Preacher blinked.

"Whatcha using your blood for?"

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"No, no," Alexis says to Alois, "there has to be a death. There has to be a death." The blood on her fingers is ignored again.

Alois simply scoffs at her, seemingly unaware of anything odd. "I knew you were vapid but I didn't realize just how vapid."

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

Preacher Maria | 22/22
+1 persuasion, +1 combat, -1 combat

"So. I hate, just hate ta butt in, but who the ******** we killin'?" This was parallel to that tithing bullshit Zac had told her about, wasn't it...

"Unless somebody wanna volunteer."

azuredreams