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Somewhere in North Central, late at night, with the chattering din of the city playing in the backdrop, some can suddenly hear them. Screams. Not the defiant, angry roars of a fight breaking out, but thready, high-pitched shrieks of terror. Screams that are moving through the city.
Rena had dragged Guy along for a stakeout, trying to get to the bottom of all of this. Weirdly enough the homeless runaway kid has issues with people going missing. Who'd have thunk it? And then there's a scream. "Fuck," Rena says, her eyes widening before hardening, "Guy, hope you can run. See you there." Rena takes a stance like she's about to run a sprint professionally and then activates Celerity and is gone.
Guy growls as he hears the scream and Rena runs off, and then he simply disappears as well.
Artie wasn't really one to pay that much attention to the news but even he could spot a pattern. Noticing that people were going missing and an odd smell in the same areas had piqued his hackles and so here he was looking to do somethibg about it. He hoped it was just a creeper and not people being Taken, but he wasn't taken chances where that was concerned.
And so as he patrolled, the sound of distant screams drew him in. Damn, how he wished he was faster... But regardless he was off in a dead sprint, gawers be damned.
Eerily, all of the light seems to work against pursuers. Street lamps are conveniently out, you might swear that you just saw one blow out as you got closer to it.
For those who arrive at the source of the screams, they follow the horror bellows to a parking garage that goes underground.
An eerie parking garage.
There's a way inside, and the sounds of those screams are getting weaker, further away, like they're being dragged down into the belly of the beast. The light inside is just as thin, and the smell hangs thick in the air: sulfur. It's almost putrid, and there are no cars in this parking garage, caution tape covered in dust lines everything. Everyone who chased the screams and has arrived converges on the first floor, one lonely ceiling lamp flickering unreliably in the corner. A staircase seems to have caved in - ? - and is covered in rubble. The only way down is the way the cars go, it looks like. But then the screams stop completely, and the air, though foul, grows so terribly still... at least it's a moment to gather bearings.
Rena gags. "Fuckin hell, Guy, it smells like a rotten egg factory in here. You might need to cover me. I'm Quicksilvering down there." Yet again, she gets into sprinting pose and rushes 96 speed down the car ramp. She's keeping any eye out for anything worth heading towards and if she sees it, she's heading that way even if she has to double move.
Beowulf, never one to hesitate in situations involving monsters, advances down into the belly of the darkness under the cover of Invisibility.
Arthur can clearly perceive that this is not the first time someone has been dragged here. And the smell... it permeates. It's been around for a while.
Arthur arrives alongside the vampires and looks surprised to see them. "Oh. Hzhey Guy. I'm glad you're here. Didnct wanna go alone." He muses to his friend in a whisper.
As they slip inside, the smith takes a look around, crouching, staff in hand looking at... Tracks."they've been here before.. Dr-dragging the um... V-victim." He informs the others.
He growls and blinks down after Rena.
There's an excess of spiritual activity here. Vermin spirits, tiny shadowy rats, skitter along the corners. Blightlings waste away on the rot of urban decay in the collapsed stairwell. As Rena books it down through the levels of the parking garage, just for a moment, she sees it there in the corner of her eye, and then Guy does too...
A very strange creature lurking
But it's there and gone, and all that's audible is the scurrying of rat feet through those long, dark corridors. Whatever it is, it knows this area well, and it disappears back into the pillared shadows at will.
The lowest level of the parking garage, once everyone arrives there, is surely the most pitch black, and the smell of sulfur is almost choking down here.
No sooner has the party gotten the opportunity to get their bearings in the disgusting lower level of the parking garage than it becomes apparent that there are puddles of some sort of ichorous substance on the floor; some even seem recent, smoking, like they're burning slow holes through the concrete. Those who can see in the dark see movement in the far corner, a creature, hunched over.
"Guy? What the everloving fuck is that?" Rena says, too scared to hide her fear at first. Then she remembers that this... thing is kidnapping and maybe murdering people. "Fuck it, I'mma beat the shit out of it."
"Hey you! You ugly asshole! I'm going to kick you right in your gross monster dick!" And she charges it in a manner resembling a certain Mr. Jenkins. Only she's running weird, zig zagging and crossing herself so it's hard to keep track of where she's going or if she truly is going for a crotch shot.
Keeping quiet, Arthur ducks behind a pillar and comes back out with a lantern in hand. He pauses a moment as he makes contact with one of the older puddles of disgusting fluid. To those who can see him he frowns before flicking on the lantern and setting it down to shed some light on the situation.
On the way towards the creature crouched in the corner, erupting in the direction of those headed towards it, a massive column of fire and flame shoots out, a searing, singing gout.
Rena nearly bolts. When a gout of flame burns past her, it's all she can do to not. Her beat pulls at her gut, telling her to escape the hellfire. But she doesn't. Guy is here and fuck if she's letting Guy see her sweat. So she runs up to the thing, visibly preparing a kick, before juking around and hitting it in its center mass. She shakes her hand off as she pulls it back, shouting "Hey, this thing's skin is like concrete! Use pigstickers if you got 'em!"
“Shall we see what we have behind door number one?” He asks as he makes his way to the service door. “More blood this way, so...prepare yourself.”
Artie notices the air doesn't just smell like sulfur, it smells like... like burning sulfur, and the smell of clothes after they've been in a house fire. Dozens of people have been dragged through this dust, in trackmarks that go back the last... it's hard to say. The new ones cover the old ones. Maybe weeks. Maybe longer. Maybe much longer.
"Kinda like ghosts. Only less dead. Name's Rena," Rena explains from her zero occult dice of experience. "Yeah, Boss. 'M down to take down more of this shit. Can keep kicking ass. Might need a bite though. Runnin' low."
"... There've been... a lot of people dragged down here. More than the news has been saying and... Hang on. Don't open the door. I th-think its on fire."
The sound of footsteps, running down the parking garages levels, starts out distantly and then pounds closer towards the lower level.
Beowulf is already moving to open the door when Artie's warning comes. He stops, and turns to the sound of footsteps.
Down from the upper levels, panting and gasping, appears Nevermore, black coat flying behind them. "I'm... I'm here. Where's... the... thing?"
They stop, resting their hands on their knees. "Oh... oh damn. I need... to start jogging more..."
"It's on fucking fire? Might not be able to do it then." She turns around, seeing Nevy. "Oh shit, it's that rich goth! You're here too!" Rena calls out, her mouth full of fangs.
Nevy sees the mouthful of fangs. "Holyshit!" And they turn and start running.
"N-nevermore? What're you doing here?" Artie asks after the new comer appears. He looked like he was ready to try hiding until he caught the familiar sound.
"I'm not sure. The sulfury smell is burning. Like... Um... N-not just stinky."
"Nevermind..."
Guy’s appearance ripples back to normal before the steps bring Nevermore into view, and when he sees them, he grins. When Nevy runs he simply vanishes, and reappears standing in their way. “Ah...fancy meeting you here.” His chin is covered in black ichor and blood, though, spoiling a friendly appearance.
"Not on fire." Beowulf replies, 100% certain. "Or it's not a big fire, at least." He stares blankly at Nevy's appearance, and their rapid departure, then tries the door.
"I can help out then... I have to call you something other Beowulf. I refuse," Rena says, heading over to the door. As Nevy bolts, she lazily says, "ah shit they're mortal, ain't they."
At Artie's voice, Nevy again skids to a halt. "Wait..." They turn again, looking around the group "Artie?"
It's unlocked. It opens easily. There's a staircase that goes down another level, covered in displaced dirt and earth and smashed concrete. The smell is more powerful. By entering through the door just a little bit, one could see down around the curving stairwell at the lowest level, where a giant hole smashes through the wall. Earth and gravel that has been displaced and displaced again sweeps over the entrance. It is entirely unpassable, blocked by earth, but it's clearly a tunnel that's been dug and redug several times, and there's bits of coal in the gravel on the floor.
“We should talk,” he says from behind Nevy, further up the ramp. “Also we’re in the middle of investigating, so. Please come along for now.”
"Um yes?" He replies looking toward the pair closer to the exit. He lifts one hand and waves.
"Do... Are you sure you should be down here Never? It's kinda d-dangerous" he warns, turning to look and frown at the door and its new wave of funk.
"Is it the disappearances? It wasn't ghosts, I could tell that much."
Rena calls back, "'F you can actually see ghosts, there are spirits everywhere 'round here." Then she walks into the door. "Fuck is going on here?"
"You try having old English majors for parents then. See what name you get." Beowulf says brusquley. "Rats dig tunnels. These are big rats, so they dig big tunnels."
He walks back to the group, sticking his head in the doorway. “Huh. If the blockage is only as deep as I am tall, I can get through that.”
Nevy glares at Artie. "There are people getting hurt. I can't just... not help." They look at the others. "Yes. I can see ghosts - and spirits, but I don't have as much experience with that."
Propping his pole over one shoulder, Artie turns and joins the others at the door. "Hey Guy. Bring the lantern p-please!" He calls over his shoulder squinting in the wan lighting.
In addition to the flecks of coal and the growing smell of sulfur coming from the makeshift tunnel, the group will notice that the tunnel forges in the west, northwestward direction, and that it has been dug and redug many, many times, by something powerful enough, and perhaps specifically wrought to do such a thing. The rats scurry through the cracks, the ones that escaped stomping, and their old droppings seem to indicate they've been coming this way for a while.
"Oh! Y-you're already back. Hang on then..." Artie says, surprised to find Guy at his side so quickly.
He trts over to get the lantern and returns, following the others down into the makeshift sort of pit, holding the lantern up.
Poking around with the staff, he dislodges a bit of the black coal. "Is that coal? Like... The n-natural stuff? Um... So no fire. Got it."
Beowulf holds a coal fleck to the light, staring at it like it might hold the keys to understanding the universe. Then he puts it in another glass tube and stows it.
"...It was the rats. Dammit."
"No fire," Rena says intensely. "I oughtta give y'all my number. In case we make any break throughs on this. And we probably oughtta check coal mines. Ain't Pennsylvania got a bunch of those? Is Centralia near here?"
"Hmm... Let's see if it knows stuff..." Artie mutters passing the lantern off to anyone who will hold it for him.
Leaning into the tunnel he speaks: "Hey there, Tunnel. I used to have to live in the dark just like you. Can you tell me about the thing that keeps digging you maybe?"
<More Rat Hosts, sometimes dragging a victim, through the tunnel, and then coming back alone, though often hours later.>
Beowulf mutters to himself, and gives Artie a strange look. Then he just stares at him for longer than is usually considered polite.
"How deep do you go, b-buddy?"
Rena steps up to Nevy and Guy, remembering to hide her fangs. "Hey, rich goth. We gonna have any problems here? Figure since you can see ghosts we won't, but you know, never hurts to ask." She cracks her knuckles.
Nevy's jaw firms. "If you keep threatening me while there are other people getting hurt we might."
And at that blatant threat Beowulf's head whips around. The big man takes one step towards the trio, glaring daggers at Rena. Oh hey, where'd that lighter come from?
Turning a bit, Artie presses his ear to the dirt and seems to be listening to his answers, nodding a bit in affirmation.
After a few seconds, he steps back and cleans off his face. "Wow. I-it's like a really b-big ant hill. It's super long and deep and goes a bunch of places. And there are a bunch of um... Wh-what'd you call em? Rat hosts? Th-those. They sometimes drag the people they take with them but never bring 'em b-back."
“Rena, it’s alright for the moment.” He looks to Nevy. “No one’s getting hurt right now, and we’re just making sure we’re all on the same page.” He glances to Beowulf, raising an eyebrow, but saying nothing before he turns back to Rena. “Take your foot off the gas, you’re getting too hungry to make good decisions.”
Then he frowns. "Wh-what's wrong guys. Stop fighting. I d-dont think anyone's trying to be mean. J-just... Secrets can be important ok?" He suggests, looking a bit concerned.
"Not k-keeping secrets can get people in big trouble. R-right?" He looks between them all one by one, not pointing that at anyone.
Adam withdraws slightly. "Mm. Rat hosts. The people they capture are probably turned into more Rat Hosts. If you meet more of them, aim for the heart, because that's where the rat controlling the body is."
Rena grumbles a bit and turns away from Nevy. "Yeah, alright, whatever." She heads over to Artie, asking him, "you know where the hole goes? And if the people are still alive?"
When Rena turns awy, Nevy almost collapses in relief. "So..." they say, a little weakly. "I did some... looking around, in the park. I saw some rat... spirits? There too. And... another spirit, too. A really big one."
The smith shakes his head no. "S-sorry. It didn't know that. There's probably a um... Whats it called a um... Ch-chamber that's its own space. The people go down alive though! J-just knocked out. So that's... Better?" He says, brows drooping when Beowulf points out that they were probably getting turned.
A massive spirit
Nevy's face pales. "Wait... you said they were dragging people down one at a time?"
Artie holds up his phone and spends a second to get a good picture of the drawing. "Y-yeah. I only saw each thing dragging one person each. S-so maybe they aren't that strong?"
“Hmm. It’s...tied to ritual sacrifice? That’s fun.”
"Hmm... Alright. This i-is bigger than I expected but it's way different than I thought which is g-good. Guy? Wanna meet up and talk later? I gotta go talk to some p-people about this first though. Do the rest of you wanna trade numbers? M-maybe do a group chat?"
Nevy looks sick. "I... didn't recognize that thing, before. That's..."
“Trading numbers is good. Yes, let’s meet up later, Artie.” He looks to Rena. “You good for now, or do you need to eat?”
"You have some to spare?" Rena says, scratching at her arms, "I'm real hungry, to be honest." She gives Artie her phone number. "Text me if you know more. Don't be a stranger."
“No, I don’t, and when I get too hungry I can’t focus at all, so it’s not a great time to share.”
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