Fatebreaker

@Ark1002 I just want to clarify one last time that if Hellbent doesn’t run for it he will be crushed by the falling tower. If that’s what you’re going for, cool. But I don’t want to kill anyone off unless they’re prepared to lose the character. At least, to a certain extent.

That’s more up to Voidus than myself. The story we have loosely sketched out this far has a lot of flexibility, but events might not always be so forgiving.

@kenod That’s a valid point. There were two reasons for me for it to happen. The first is that the tower was already structurally unsound, and wild repeated slashes to the base added enough stress points for the weight of the tower to cause things to shift, aided by the leaning as well. The second was that Voidus and I want actions to have consequences in this story, and that was the consequence that first came to mind. The tower was going to come down soon anyway, but the actions taken sped up the process. Please never hesitate to ask questions. If Voidus or I miss something, we want to know!

@Ark1002 Just a heads up, the tower is falling, backing up isn’t going to be enough. Your character would need to run, or he’ll get crushed. In fact pretty everyone is going to need to move, unless they’re in the basement still.

With a creaking groan the tower began to fall towards the rest of the house, it’s structural integrity compromised by the hacking of the blade.

"Hello! New volunteer?" Stumped jumped, quite literally. He flung himself away from the fellow he had just spiked. "Ambush! I knew it! My metal minds are empty and my kidneys are no good! Totally ruined!" He raised his hands an Soulcast a short stone wall in front of himself to hide behind. Unfortunately, his peg-leg reacted to his use of investiture and began telescoping out at great speed, launching him over the wall to land in a heap. He panicked and searched his pockets for something to defend himself from whatever had just greeted him so casually. Only the powerful and the ignorant could afford to be casual. The powerful have the strength or the resources to protect themselves from the terrors that filled the world. The Ignorant didn't think there was no reason to not be casual. The educated but powerless knew that everything was terrible and being casual was how you ended up getting eaten by refridgeraptors. Stumped continued to pat himself down furiously until he found something in one of his pockets. He whipped a spike from the depths of his lab coat and shouted triumphantly, "Now you're in for it, nameless assailant and foe of the Dark Alley! Behold the power of SCIENCE!!!" And he rammed the spike through his peg-leg. At fiirst nothing happenedd, then he started glowing softly as the bioluminescence spike kicked in. Stumped sighed. This was definitely going to be a PR thing, he was sure of it. He sighed then pulled out a cookie. "Samples?" @ZincAboutIt @Gancho Libre

The server's corpse didn't react, but continued to lay there motionless. The disturbance revealed the face. It was a young woman, somewhere in her mid twenties, with shoulder-length brown hair and a pale complexion. Her eyes were also frightened, as if she was gazing upon some unseen horror. She didn't move, and it looked like she never would again.

The scene was not a pleasant one. The sky was a roiling mass of dark clouds, and a light mist hung in the air. It was night, of that they could be certain, but what hour none could tell. The upper stories of the house lay in ruins. The ceiling had caved in and the walls were mostly in shambles.The floor was a mass of debris, and it appeared none of the furniture had survived. Or the staff either. The various servers who had been present earlier lay about the room, at least what remained of them.Some were buried under fallen rubble, some were impaled with broken pieces of wood. Gedwyn, the young doorman who had greeted the guests lay near the top of the stairs leading to the basement. His body had been crushed by a falling beam. Dried blood pooled out from his limp body, and his sightless eyes were wide in a rictus of terror. Surprisingly, the stone tower was still standing, though from the looks of it not for long. Parts of it had fallen in, leaving dark gaps in the stonework. Near the top a faint light was just barely visible from the first floor. A wind whistled through the ruins of the house, and the tower groaned ominously. It swayed slowly in the wind, then stilled. It was still standing, though no one could say for how long it would remain so.

Once behind bars, the Denizens felt they had humored them enough. One Soulcast a hole in the wall and they walked back in an orderly line, still talking about the tremendous raspberry and what an achievement it was for Science. They returned to the building The government was using and began discussing the furtherance of raspberry science.

Measure twice, spike once. Also, don't be a dummo.

Without warning mist began to stream from under the door, flowing down the steps in a steady stream. It began pooling on the basement floor, slowly filling the room. The house, or what was left of it continued to shake and the low rumble increased in volume. It grew louder and louder, as if the sound was gaining momentum. Suddenly there was a clattering sound from the back of the room. Beads of glass began to fall on the floor at in a random pattern. The onlookers saw one of the wine barrels disappear in a pop, a glass marble falling in it's place. The rumble grew louder. Bricks in the walls of the cellar began puffing into mist now, even as various objects began turning into glass beads. The house shook with more and more violence, until it was impossible to remain standing. The rumble became a deafening ROAR. Finally the cellar door puffed into mist and the stream became a torrent, filling the room in but a second. The mist swirled as the roar became deafening and the house seemed to shake itself apart. Then it went totally still. The mists were motionless and the tremors had ceased. The moment seemed endless. Then there was a tearing sound. It was a horrible dissonance, as if reality was ripping itself in half. The room spun, and a a terribly human scream filled the air. The tremors resumed with a vengeance, flinging people around the room. Just when it felt like they couldn't take anymore there was a stupendous CRASH and then everything went black. ... It was still dark they they began to wake up. There was no way to tell how much time had passed, or how long the had been unconscious, but it was clear that the mist was gone. The objects in the cellar were no longer mist or beads, but they looked like they had been thrown violently around the room. Wine barrels were broken, bottles smashed, the contents spilled across the floor. The cellar door was closed, and there was no telling what lay beyond...

Stumped blinked. The man needed a spike. People didn’t normally volunteer for this sort of thing. Well that was easy enough. He patted his pockets until he found one and pulled it out. He examined it for a second, then shrugged. He pulled out a cotton swab with a mild anesthetic and began rubbing an exposed spot on the fellow’s leg. As he worked he addressed the man. “You might feel a slight pinch.” And he rammed the spike into the limb. As the spike practically disappeared into the flesh, Stumped realized that the anesthesia was probably insufficient for a regular person. Most people didn’t have experience with being punctured regularly. The man didn’t appear to have any other spikes, so getting stabbed was unlikely to be something he was familiar with until now. Stumped braced himself for the screams and thought, “Well, maybe his newly gained ability to taste smells will be of comfort to him.”

“Note: The awakened ovens have revolted. I’m our passion to improve our baking process, we let our guard slip. It was only a moment, but that was all they needed. We shut them down, but not before they got Wellings and Stackton. This has greatly diminished my taste for gingerbread men, as well as been a good reminder on why nothing sapient can be trusted. The other reminders are the burns on my face, but that’s irrelevant.” Stumped muttered as he jotted down the notes onto the wrinkled yellow pad. He was hampered by brace on his wrist and the bandages wrapped around much of the left side of his face. He was walking straight towards a wall, showing no sign that he registered its presence. Just befor he hit it, he smoothly Alleytravelled to an adjacent Alley. He paused to take stock of the new location and, seeing that much of it appeared to be covered in a ghastly grey flame, decided to try another Alley. He hopped between several, avoiding were-koloss in one and HR staff in another. He briefly got stuck in an Alley where everything seemed to be made of molasses, but he made sure to keep his notes dry. Frustrated by the continued interruption, he made a big jump and ended up in one of the outer Alleys. This made him nervous, he was practically outside of the endless corridors that he called home. Outside, where there weren’t any Insquidsitors or thermonuclear ovens or REAL bakers. There were terrifying things like normal people, municipal codes, and, Ovens forbid, morality! He was just about to travel deeper into the Alleys when he heard something it sounded like desperate wails of despair. Being an expert on both despair and wailing, he found himself peeking around the corner to see what was causing all the commotion. Wanting to be cautious, he soulcast a welding mask out of the nearby wall and put it on. This use of investiture happened to trigger his peg-leg, or rather it’s glitch. It became enormously heavy, requiring all of Stumped’seffort to move it a few inches at a time. He grunted in frustration and kicked it with his other leg, which seemed to end the glitch, resulting in a tumbling fall. He looked up from the tangled heap of his limbs and saw a man kneeling on the ground and weeping. “Uhhhh, is this a PR thing? Because I’m not certified for public relations...” @Gancho Libre

A new character, pre-approved by Voidus and Mac.

A DA lawyer spoke up, "I believe the correct phrase is 'Hemalurgy is the only thing keeping the city from dissolving into chaos' , which is true. We apprehended the Jackal after all. We've shown nothing but good will of late, why does the villanization of our benevolent organization continue so? Furthermore, the vote to make Hemalurgy illegal has already failed."