Chakota

Silas N'Kwane
Previously:

Chakravanti Initiates Ihsan Ghali and River Vasquez traveled from Denver to New York to investigate the death of a friend of River's. Three men wielding bush knives killed writer Jackson Elias in a hotel room and trashed the room looking for his research into the Carlyse expedition.

They have been making great use of the fact that Ihsan's old acquaintance and River's new boy-person Samir Lakhani is a reality hacker. After speaking with Elias's editor and best friend Jonah Kensington they took a trip to Ju-Ju House. The girls found a business card with the name Silas N'Kwane scrawled on the back.

Downstairs they found tied-up soon-to-be sacrificial victims and a quartet of reanimated victims whose bodies were in the same condition as was Elias's. Whoever was behind the curtain conducting the ritual has disappeared.

They have cut down the victims. River has agreed to stay with them while Ihsan makes sure the way upstairs is clear.

She way is not clear.

When Ihsan steps out into the corridor a shadow cuts down the stairwell and moves towards her. Hesitates just before coming into the luminescence of the kerosene lantern. The blade of a panga knife flickering with the flames' reflection.

Ihsan Ghali
Within the ritual room Ihsan had been patting River's back, sympathetic even though she did seem a little bored with her friend's weak stomach for gore.  She was certainly in the wrong gig if she was going to be doing this every time something exploded or died.

But she was a faithful friend and stealthily picked a few more flecks of carnage from River's hair while she was preoccupied with heaving.  When she was done and left to recover, Ihsan led the way over to the victims.  She had a knife tucked into the deep pocket of her dark pants, and used it to cut through the leather thongs that were wrapped about their wrists.  The people were not in any condition to move easily, let alone defend themselves.  Whatever had been reanimating these corpses and leading the dismantling of these bodies had to be around somewhere.  This was his turf, after all.

So Ihsan volunteered to go on ahead.  River could stay back with the sacrificial lambs, take the time she needed to gather herself back up before skirting around those disemboweled zombies (Ihsan didn't spare the time to clean up the bodies, her priorities were elsewhere).

No sooner had the door closed behind her did a shadow move into her field of vision.  A knife gleamed in the lamplight.  Ihsan bared her teeth-- it might have been a smile but there was too forceful an edge to it to not look somewhat animal.  She gripped the staff with her right hand and kept the gun down at her side for now.

"This is a nice set up.  Well hidden."  She pursed her lips appreciatively, and nodded.  "I have to commend."

Silas N'Kwane
"You are... uninvited."

Out of the darkness shuffles an old man. Well into his seventies. His hair sits thick as a cloud atop his wrinkled head and he is dressed as one would expect a shopkeep to dress. A clean button-down shirt with its sleeves rolled up to his elbows and a pair of khakis belted around his waist. Reasonable shoes.

Except for that bush knife held in hand as if prepared to use it. He is not prepared to use it. He would prefer not to use it.

He lowers the weapon when he gets close enough for the flames to dance in the reflection of his glasses. To see a thin young woman standing with a staff in his corridor.

"Why are you here?"

Ihsan Ghali
She shrugged when he informed her that she was uninvited in this shop.  The gesture said 'eh, what can ya do.'  As he stepped closer to reveal himself an old man Ihsan tucked the gun behind her back, but she kept her grasp on the staff firm.  She'd been involved with Magick long enough to know better than to let your guard down because somebody's a cute little old person.

When asked why she was here, she tossed her head back over her shoulder to indicate the door behind her.

"Because of what's behind that door.  Not to mention what's in the well in the floor in there."  She paused, thoughtfully sucked on a tooth, and added:

"Are you familiar with a Jackson Elias?"

[Because the storyteller recommended it:  Perception 2 + Alertness 2, diff 8]

Dice: 4 d10 TN8 (2, 6, 6, 9) ( success x 1 )

Silas N'Kwane
[manip + subt: pft, no.]

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 3, 9, 10) ( success x 2 )

Ihsan Ghali
[Wits 3 + Subterfuge 2]

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (2, 4, 7, 8, 9) ( success x 3 )

Ihsan Ghali
[pft, yes]

Silas N'Kwane
That isn't a flame she sees dance across his eyes when she asks after Jackson Elias.

They have seen the neighborhood and the people who frequent the neighborhood. Elias may have been able to infiltrate a group of Indian assassins but he would still stand out somewhat. Anyone who would have seen him would have known he was sneaking around.

Whether or not the man had been to the shop prior to his death that name means something to the old man.

"No," he says. The more he speaks the more Ihsan can hear the Kenyan accent creeping into his speech. "I know nothing about what is behind the door. If I were you, I would leave. Now."

Ihsan Ghali
There was a glimmer across the old man's face, and Ihsan's eyebrows raised obviously high on her forehead.  She knew he was lying, and he could see that all over her face in turn.

"Well, you see, I can't just yet."  She jerked the head of her tall black staff to indicate the door behind her this time around.

"I'm not quite done saving the innocent yet."

River Vasquez
It is, after a fair juncture, that River concluded that she wasn't exactly okay with the fact that she hasn't seen (or heard) Ihsan in... well... longer than she had liked. It took a minute, and she had taken the opportunity to use a McDonald's napkin and some makeup remover towelettes to get the stupid blood off of her face.

She looked at the poor, relatively helpless people who had been cut down and seemed to be drugged out of their mind (bonus points! They aren't going to be wandering off).

River doesn't like this, though, and she looks back at the people who, as far as she knew, were not going to remember what the fuck it was that she was going to say to them but she felt the need to say something anyway, "I'll be right back."

She cringed, obviously disliking the way that sounded and the implications it had in the horror movie life that mages seemed to lead. River looked up like the sky might have the answers. In the absence of sky, she just had stone. The young woman turned around and headed off to go find Ihsan.

Silas N'Kwane
As River passes through the reinforced oak door she sees Ihsan's back and a figure stood in the light of the kerosene lantern. Can hear the low echoes of their conversation.

"Innocents? There are no innocents here! You must be in the wrong place." A measured pause. "And I am telling you again, now. You leave. I will not repeat myself."

Ihsan Ghali
Behind her the door opened enough to let River pass through, but Ihsan was more focused on the old man with the knife in front of her.  She raised one eyebrow higher than the other, now, looking incredulous.  For now she seemed to have not even heard the man's demanding that she leave.

After all, he was only holding a knife.

"So do you tell me that the people I found in there and cut down-- they're not innocent?  Do tell."

River Vasquez
She turned to the sound o people, inhaled slowly and set her shoulders back. She's had time to reset, time to be composed, and when River has had time to prepare she can be a force of nature. The young woman went to go join Ihsan and comes upon... the situation.

She blinks.

"Hey, let's... all take a moment to breathe, yes?" like she's the epitome of calm and collected and nonviolent and not at all like she nearly revisited her lunch after having shot some reanimated corpses.

Ihsan Ghali
[+6]

Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (2) ( fail )

Silas N'Kwane
[+4]

Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (2) ( fail )

River Vasquez
[5+1d10]

Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (2) ( fail )

Silas N'Kwane
It's then that the girls realize this man was not joking when he said that he did not intend to repeat himself. He looks harmless. He may actually be harmless. But insanity will still draw blood when it worms its way in.

[Action: Attack Ihsan with machete.]

River Vasquez
This guy might not be a terrible person. He might not be the kind of person who hacks people to death with machetes. As far as she's concerned, River doesn't want to leave more bodies int heir wake than strictly necessary and this? This might not be necessary. She puts her hands up , exhales, tries to catch the man's eyes.

"Wait-don't-"

[Mind 2: Projecting "Seriously calm the fuck down and don't be freaking violent"? Is that an emotional response?]

Ihsan Ghali
[Dexterity 3 + Brawl 1:  The 'Easy now, old fella' grapple]

Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (3, 5, 8, 10) ( success x 2 )

River Vasquez
[Mind 2: Knock that shit off, +1 diff because we're casting quickly]

Dice: 2 d10 TN6 (6, 6) ( success x 3 ) [WP]

Silas N'Kwane
[LOL I'm not anticipating this succeeding but the dice are fickle]

Dice: 2 d10 TN6 (1, 8) ( success x 1 )

Silas N'Kwane
Ihsan sees the old man stepping forward. The flash of the knife as he lifts it and prepares to use it against the intruder.

If he had had it his way he could have caught the two off-guard. Come up behind them and then maybe had a chance at taking out one or both of them. But he didn't get down here fast enough.

The girls are more spry both in body and in mind than their attacker. Ihsan pins his arms behind his back and River's words seem to sink in. Let's all take a moment to breathe.

Though the old man struggles against River he can't break free. The bush knife clatters to the stone floor.

Ihsan Ghali
Ihsan wasn't much stronger than the average adult woman, but she was fit and spry and Silas was neither of those things.  Even at less than her fastest, Ihsan was able to easily see that the man was coming at them knife-first and step around behind him.  Perhaps he would have held his own more easily about half a century ago, but tonight all Ihsan had to do was hold his arms behind him and keep a firm grip.

He'd tried to wriggle out, but River called for him to not and despite the fact that the corridor was dark and lit only with fire for a moment it felt warmer and brighter somehow, like sunlight had filtered its way down to fill the tunnel if only for that moment.

The knife clattered to the ground, and Ihsan made a soothing noise over the old man's head.

"That's it."  And then, to River.  "Are we getting those two prisoners, or...?"

River Vasquez
"I don't know how much time we have to get them out of here and before this whole place closes up and we lose whatever leads are here," she tells Ihsan. She still has her hands up like she's directing traffic. Collected. River has managed to present herself as a collected individual, like everyone in this situation is going to be cool, like this isn't going to go the way of a Tarantino film where they accidentally hit a bump and blow this old man's brains all over the back of their car.

Did they even get a car to come here?

She gave the man a second look, then back at Ihsan-

"Who are you?"

Silas N'Kwane
When Samir spoke to Arthur Emerson on the phone before the girls took their trip to New York he learned that Elias was intending to visit Ju-Ju House in order to look into the activities of a Mombasan exporter named Ahja Singh. That it was the only known U.S. account this individual holds.

Emerson was the guy who has a poor opinion of foreigners. None of the young people on the other end of the line were born in the United States. Samir hung up pretty quickly after that.

"My name is Silas N'Kwame," he says. He is not sedated by her effect but he sounds as if he doesn't have a concern in the world right now. "I am the proprietor of Ju-Ju House. If you do not leave, the others will come soon, and they will feed you to the Chakota."

River Vasquez
"My associate and I will be leaving with your guests as soon as possible," she assured him. The old man sounded a little like her mother at that juncture, unconcerned by frankly explaining that something was going to eat her if she didn't do exactly what her mother said. She had a repository of horrible things that ate unruly children when they were being bad.

The Chakota, however, was not one of those things that made the list.

"What's the Chakota?"