Burnt Offerings [IC]

[trollthumper]

Hayley scuttled forward, claws raised high and aiming for the softest target on the impenetrable bull. She latched onto the underside of the taureau-trois-graines, and took a stab at where seemed most obvious. However, the bull's hide was too tough, deflecting the assault easily. The attempt to get at its namesake left it open to Equinox's attack, though. The firehose-strength blast caught it right between the eyes, causing it to bellow in pain.

"Y'know, I usually have a lot of respect for the loa," Nick said, "especially ones caught in a metaphysically weird state like yours. But you seem to be acting like a guided missile without much guidance. So I think it might be best if you went back to Guinee now."

Crude claws wrapped around his fingers, rendered in crystallized ectoplasm. He raked them down towards the flash of the bull, but it just managed to dance away from the sharp tips. In return, it tried to repay the favor by goring Nick, but he just managed to sway around it. "Or we could keep dancing. That works, too."

[Dr Archeville]

"Hey!," Dead Head yelled as he tried to leap between the taureau-trois-graines and Nick. "Gonna be hard for you t'rope this critter if'n he gouges a new one in ya!" He scurried side to side, trying to gauge where it would go next, "lemme run interference while you knock it outta the park!"

Mutt joined the revenant in running about, but Dead Head had other plans. Git on in there, Mutt, the thought at him, an' get them fellers out!

Rescue! Yes! Mutt galloped towards the warehouse, intent on finding the two guards he'd spied earlier.

"I got Mutt workin' on extractin', so git this fella on to pasture!"

[Ecalsneerg]

"Skies above," cursed Equinox under her breath, pulling her coat up to obscure the movement of her wand. She circled around slightly, trying to hit the bull on the broadside. <Get clear!>

<Got it!> Hayley dashed away from the rampaging bull, coming to a halt behind her mistress and rolling to a stop. As she did so, Equinox dropped her coat away at the exact second she unleashed a geyser of water, the spray hitting the beast like a liquid freight train. The sheer force of the assault sent the animal tumbling tail over teakettle, landing with a thump on the sidewalk.

[trollthumper]

The blast, at first, just splashed off of the otherworldly bull's flank, like a fire hose hitting a brick wall. But after the initial blast turned to steam against the unnatural heat of the taureau-trois-graines's skin, the continued assault began to wear the beast down until finally, it hit the ground like a boulder being pushed off a tall cliff. It let out a desperately taxed cry, then burst into flame. Scraps of charred cowhide and the vague scent of hamburger filled the air as the bull returned to Guinee.

"Self-barbecuing cow," said Nick. "It's a revolution in the culinary world."

As Mutt helped to lead the two guards out of the warehouse, the scent of cooking beef filled his nose. He didn't salivate; he knew it was one of the citizens of Guinee, and divine cannibalism was decidedly frowned upon. Underneath that, however, he caught something like chicken and gasoline, floating around the warehouse. That made him slightly hungry.

[Dr Archeville]

"Yeah! Great shot, 'Nox!," Dead Head cheered. Though it was far easier for him to 'get' most of Nick's works, Nox's flashier elemental effects often struck a chord of wonder in him. His attention was soon wrenched away by Mutt's triumphant return. "Oh, lookit you -- who's a good boy?"

Hungry Mutt mentally whined.

"Aww, Mutt want a bone? I'm sure we can dig one up back at Parkhurst-"

Nooo. Hungry. For chicken, he thought, laying on the Big Puppy Eyes routine.

"Chicken?," the revenant repeated quizzically. "Whatcha want chicken for? After this I'd think ya'd want steak, or 'least a burger-"

I smell chicken. Like from that food truck I chased! He was panting now, lost in fond memories of playfully terrorizing one of the local 'roving restauranteurs.'

"What, the one with the leakin' gas tank? Ya hounded him so bad he's moved clear to the- waaitasec..." Dead Head looked back to Nick, who could almost hear the marbles falling into place in his skull, "I think Mutt's smellin' chicken & gas, an' if that's what I think that is, you an' I both know who's been called up." He turned back to his dog, "Mutt, can ya track that scent? Show us if it's a food truck with a leakin' gas tank, or an offerin' to Baron Kriminel."

[trollthumper]

Mutt led the heroes back into the warehouse, towards one of the back corners of the building. The scent of smoke hit Nick like a mallet as he got closer - the chicken had probably been soaked to the bone before it was set on fire. Finally, Mutt came to rest before an emptied oil drum, with smoke still curling up from the lip. Down at the bottom lay a blackened and charred pile of bones - at least, the ones that hadn't crumbled into ash under the heat.

"...yeah, there's no way that is good."

"Who's this Baron Kriminel?" asked Curtis. "One of Baron Samedi's brothers?"

"You could say that. Samedi and Kriminel are part of the Ghede, the subset of the loa that deal with matters of life and death. Taking it and, uh, making it. They're not all bad -- many of them are merciful -- but Kriminel makes Samedi look like the teacher's pet. He's a loa of vengeance, summoned to deal out revenge on behalf of the slighted. He doesn't really care about the weight of the issue, as long as he gets to do his job. He's been known to engage in his own little projects, though. But why would he --"

Nick slapped his forehead. "Right," he said. "It's Fete Ghede. Day of the dead."

"Thought that was yesterday."

"That's Dia de los Muertos. Vodoun celebrates it on the 2nd. It's also the day that Kriminel settles his accounts. But why this guy?"

[Ecalsneerg]

"If they're making offerings, it's likely... they might be trying to summon a god. Hell, if whoever's doing this wants to call up Kriminel, we might have a psychotic deity stalking the streets." Siobhan rubbed at her eyes wearily, even as Hayley turned up her nose at the awful odour and settled for licking herself clean some feet away.

She connected some dots in her head. "But who's to say Baptiste was so clean cut. Clean record or not, he had trace magic in his home. Maybe he'd been up to something to make someone want vengeance on him." The witch turned to address Curtis. "Or it could have been a mix-up. How long had he been recorded as living in that apartment?"

[trollthumper]

"About a year," said Curtis, "so if you picked up this trace, then odds were it was his doing. You say this guy does vengeance, though?" She produced an iPad from her jacket and scrolled through her mail, eventually nodding when she found her answer. "Baptiste didn't have a record, but he was being looked at for a missing persons report. He was injured working on a complex in Parkside - broken arm, out of work for a month. His boss, Terrence Dubois, contested the comp claim, said Baptiste had been drinking on his lunch break and returned to the site obviously intoxicated. Dubois went missing a few months later - all we found was his truck, and it looked like someone had slaughtered a deer inside of it."

"Yeah, looks like he trafficked in the dark side," said Nick. "But what about this guy? I mean, looks like he was invoking the Baron, but why? And if he put up a favorite offering, then why did the guy come after him with knives? And what the hell was the taureau doing here?" He pulled on one of the leftover latex gloves, then ran his fingers along the barrel. "This is probably gonna be creepy. Fair warning."

He opened his mouth, and a dry, ageless croak emerged, echoing perfectly off the roof of the warehouse. "The ward has fallen... live poultry, fresh killed... a patron asks for coin for his brother, but it is fool's gold... the beast is called in desperation..."

Nick broke from his reverie, sweeping his eyes across the warehouse. He reached under a shelf, rooting around with a free arm. "I'm guessing this guy was a first timer," he said. "Baron Kriminel likes chicken soaking in gas, but with the assumption that the chicken's alive. He gets sustenance from the agony as much as the charred flesh." He removed a plastic case, supermarket issue. "It's just not the same if the chicken's been dead for a while."

[Dr Archeville]

Dead Head seemed completely unphased by the new voice coming from Nick's mouth. Wonder if Nick & my's ability to see through time is one a' the things 'bout us what unnerves 'Nox.

"An' that poor offerin' may've been 'nough cause for Kriminel to kill the caller. Gettin' some vengeance for himself, as it were." Dead Head scratched his head in thought, unknowing peeling away some of the dried, bloodless skin with his ragged nails, "but maybe... maybe there's just enough of a link 'tween 'em still that he's gotta do what the caller asked, 'least in a roundabout way. Meanin', maybe Kriminel's goin' after anyone who's wronged this guy, even in the slightest. Which might make Kriminel worse, 'cuz he'd be in a baaad mood, havin' to wreak someone else's vengeance on Fete Ghede."

[trollthumper]

"Maybe," Nick said, looking back to the parking lot. "But the guy in the parking lot, Levant, what did he do? He's the one who decided to offer Kriminel the best of the deli counter. Did he have any reason why he'd call on the Baron before tonight?"

"We've got nothing on record," said Curtis. "No felonies, no misdemeanors, not even a parking ticket. Guy's history was clean. For all we know, he could've just been very good about keeping things quiet."

"Maybe..." Nick headed out to the parking lot, towards Levant's body. He bent down, slipped the rubber gloves back on, and took a look over the body. He found what he was looking for on the man's inner arm - a mark, not entirely unlike the symbol left in Baptiste's kitchen. "A veve," he said, "though not for Samedi, and definitely not Kriminel. Hmmm..." He took a closer look - it was a diamond crosshatch, with asterisks between the diamonds and curlicues at the ends. "Can't tell whose off-hand - not one of the Ghede, at least - but he was definitely a vodouisant."

"You're telling me he was a priest?"

"Not necessarily. Maybe he was just a believer. But if he believed in one of the loa enough to get their veve tattooed on his body, he must have at least known his way around the basics. Both our victims at least knew their way around the pantheon. But why would Levant try calling down Kriminel with a bad offering on the one night you'd never want to do that? And what the hell does Samedi have to do with all of this?"

[Dr Archeville]

Mutt faded back into view and he trotted up alongside Dead Head, a small bucket he had fished out of a nearby chicken place's dumpster stuck on the end of his snout.

"Maybe it weren't him what did it," Dead Head offered. "What I mean is, maybe it was his hands, but not his will. I'm thinkin' it'd have to've been out an' out mind control -- not sure this guy'd call up Kriminel, 'least not in that botched manner, if it was jes' blackmail, or some other form a' coercion -- but there's more'n one way to shackle a man's mind. 'Course," he rocked back a bit on his heels, "that jes' raises further questions -- like who'd be able to put a mind-whammy on a voudounista, an' why."

[Ecalsneerg]

"There's always blackmail," offered Siobhan. "Yeah, guy had a clean record. Doesn't mean he was innocent. And that'd maybe be enough cause to coerce him into calling up one of the Ghede."

She frowned a little, mouth small and tightly pursed shut as she thought. "But why? The only people I can see being stupid enough to call up Kriminel would be deeply devoted to him, and nuttier than a bar of fruit & nut. Nobody else is that outright stupid." She knelt down on the ground beside the body to inspect it, and sighed.

"And motives and reason aside, we've possibly got a psychotic deity loose in the city." The witch's face looked paler than normal, and her expression was grave.

[trollthumper]

"Not sure summonings at gunpoint work," Nick said. "The god senses the distress, disbelief, dis-etc. in the supplicant's voice, realizes they're not doing this of their own free will, and either turns it down or shows up to deliver an asskicking. Then again, this is Kriminel we're talking about..." He stroked his chin. "Now, summonings for hire... that would make sense. Or even a summoning by deception - convince someone who doesn't know the whole pantheon that this guy is all smiles, sunshine, and winning lottery ticket when he's a bloodthirsty son-of-a-bitch. Let the summoner take the brunt of the impact. But that raises the question of who summoned the bull..." His brow furrowed. "Unless Samedi has reason to want his family out-of-town..."

Curtis' walkie-talkie crackled to life, belaying a dispatch. "That was 911," she said. "Some drivers said Lantern Hill Cemetery's been... swallowed up. 'Ringed with shadows' is how they put it."

[Ecalsneerg]

Equinox stood up sharply and suddenly, face ashen. "He's going after the dead... Samedi. Last year, it's definitely to do with last year. Kriminel is obviously not happy with Samedi abusing the Pact that badly." She produced her wand again and motioned at Nick and Dead Head to come in close, Hayley instinctively running up to climb up onto her shoulder.

"I can get us there now but we'll have to form a circle. And you'll possibly end up slightly disorientated. Probably best if I don't try to land in the graveyard itself, I don't know what that'd do to us and I'd rather not get my essence devoured before my body can reform."

[Dr Archeville]

"Sonuva-" Dead Head spat. The revenant was pretty easygoing, but when it came to Samedi, he showed he had a temper. "Well, figured it was high time his name popped up again t'trouble us. Though... I'd think Kriminel'd be more after Hades -- he was the one tryin' t'act like a loa. Seems t'me like his plans would've been an even bigger breach o' the Pact." He looked to Equinox and Nick, and Mutt; Mutt just gave the spirit canine equivalent of a shrug.

"Don't worry, 'Nox," he said as he held out a dried hand to her, and the other to Nick, smiling his rictus smile, "if yer body does get ripped a new one, I can hold on t'yer spirit in time fer Nick to get a replacement. Teamwork!," he added, his smile broadening more than it should for a living human.

[trollthumper]

"Don't worry," Nick said. "I'll be on the defensive, Equinox. I'll make sure nothing gets through. Though, if it does... I'll make sure you get something athletic for the next go around."

He linked hands with Dead Head and Equinox, and looked to Detective Curtis. She shook her head. "I'll just drive."

"Seems like a good idea." With Equinox's will, the warehouse around them fell away, and Nick found himself standing before the gates to Lantern Hill Cemetery. He'd be damned if he could see inside the place, however -- it looked like someone had filled every available gap in the bars with shadow. Writhing, grasping shadows. The working was giving Nick's death sense a real work out, and he feared what might be happening to the ghosts inside. To Equinox, however, the magic didn't seem like an offensive thing, or a power booster - while it had some teeth in it, it felt more like a ward than anything else.

"All right. Let's see if we can take a chainsaw to this thing."

[Dr Archeville]

"You chainsaw, I'll plow!," the revenant grunted, not wanting to waste any time while Kriminel was loose and the dead were being tormented. He ran for the gate and practically dived forward, intending to compress and contort himself to fit through the bars (as he had many times before). But a shadowy tentacle lashed as he brushed against the gate and impaled him, slamming into his torso with such force it lifted him a few inches up off the ground! It just as quickly drew back and dropped him, like a sack of meat, and he laid there wide-eyed from the sensations of pain that he so rarely felt. Owing to the supernatural nature of the assault, his injuries did not immediately undo themselves, giving 'Nox and Nick a few seconds to see inside Dead Head's torso before his supernatural recuperative abilities restored him.

"Y'all... y'all don't do that," he wheezed as he got back up.

[Ecalsneerg]

Equinox's already pale features momentarily went even paler, then turned slightly green, as Dead Head's insides were exposed by the powerful ward. "Yeah... that's not a very good idea."

She moved her wand down to her hip, and moved it in a motion reminiscent of a sword being drawn. Indeed, as she did so, there was the sound of sliding steel and her wand was suddenly a long sword of shining metal, seemingly without transitioning between the two forms. "This should be able to slice through most forms of magic... but there's only really one way to find out."

Calling up her will in front of her into a shield of solid force, she stepped forward and thrust forward with her blade towards the powerful working.

[trollthumper]

The blade clashed against the barrier, rebounding against it. The working held up... for a few seconds. The impact was not so much a blade to ribbon as a sledgehammer to a brick wall. It fell in pieces, leaving the gate to the cemetery open.

"That's gotta be handy when the locks are stuck," Nick said. He crossed the threshold into the cemetery, and instantly he was on edge. The cemetery, usually one of the busiest necropoli in Freedom City, was absolutely quiet. Whatever ectoplasm hung in the air was already sublimating, signs that the ghosts who had been standing in those spots had gotten out of Dodge but fast. Either they'd decided to hide in their graves and avoid whatever was about to happen... or they were being dragged right into it.

"We should try the crypts first. If Samedi threw up a minefield around this place, he may want some other form of shelter while he's working whatever he needs to."

[Dr Archeville]

"If'n it's a crypt he wants, I think I know there one he'd want. C'mon!," the revenant called behind him as he charged on, heedless of any danger to himself. One thought kept running through his mind, drowning out all others.

Gotta stop Samedi! Gotta stop Samedi! Gotta stop Samedi!

Which is not to say he had no other thoughts -- though he could act as such, Burton Lee was not a one-track mind type of undead.

Where the heck is everyone? This place is usually hoppin' this time of night. Heck, even when Hades & Samedi threw down last year, I could sense the spirits hidin' out. Either they've gone real deep, or... no, ain't gonna think about that! Gotta stop Samedi!

[trollthumper]

Working their way towards the row of crypts, the source of the spiritual quiet was made clear. Ectoplasm thick as paste was coalescing around the Bilmore family crypt, to the point where Equinox was able to perceive it without death sight - and through the spectral barricade, Nick could see that the door was still open. In the cloudy substance, faces swirled - faces Nick and Dead Head had seen often, regulars of the cemetery. They weren't hiding; they had been stitched together into a patchwork citadel. Through the wall, the trio could hear chanting in some sort of African dialect, punctuated by cursing in French and desperate mutterings.

"Okay." Nick's tone was horribly level. "Dead Head, remember how you plunged into the barrier and said, 'Don't do that'? Screw it."

Nick plunged his hand into the mass of ectoplasm - it was as gentle as wet cement as it rolled over his hand, but he knew how to work it. The mass erupted into tendrils, snaking into the crypt. An unearthly shriek erupted as a man in a tattered tuxedo was hurled out onto the green. With a snap of the fingers on his free hand, Nick dispelled what was left of the barrier, as the ghosts slowly began to break away and filter back into the cemetery. Baron Samedi lifted his head up, staring at Nick with fear and rage in his eyes.

"The little upjumped bokor," he spat. "You've grown some. No need to go running to my big brother for safety this time."

"Funny coming from a man trying to build a spectral panic room. And speaking of your brothers..."

[Ecalsneerg]

Equinox didn't let her fear show on her face, but she had a healthy caution of throwing down with a bona fide deity. She absently held her sword loosely in her hand, but ready to quickly bring it up in case a fight broke out.

She fixed her gaze upon the god before her. "Loa, I assume you're hiding because of your brother, Baron Kriminel. I assume we share a common goal in wanting him to be gone from our realm, and thus I think it would be in your best interests to aid us towards that end." Her voice was calm and somewhat dispassionate. "Nothing is to be gained from us coming to blows here."

[Dr Archeville]

"Yeah, it'd be wise t'come along real peaceful-like, Sammy," Dead Head hissed, hands wrapped tight around the handle of his shovel, "since y'already look like ya done gone through the wringer."

Simon DuLac, Samedi's cheval, looked as fervid and fit as ever, but the loa within him had definitely seen better days. Whatever he'd been through after Papa Ghede had dragged him away a year ago had left its marks -- in some ways, he still seemed shackled.

Not that such a sight put Dead Head off from the thought of beating him with his shovel. Samedi/DuLac was slime, no doubt, and would confess to some delight at seeing him backed into a corner for once.

[trollthumper]

Samedi pulled himself up from the ground, rubbing his chin. "Perhaps," he said, "we may have gotten off on the wrong foot. Desperation drove me to do certain, unfortunate things."

"You mean like push summoners into serving as intermediaries for your family feud," Nick said.

"Where did I say that? But yes. I supposed that Brother Kriminel would be upset with the events of last year, but as I was... occupied last Fete Ghede, he let the matter simmer. And my brother isn't exactly known for patience. I spent the time between trying to talk him down, using a few mediators. They all had some idea of what to ask of Brother Kriminel - maybe not the asking price, but his general purview. Of course, trying to turn that man away from a course of action is like diverting a raging river with a toothpick. It's possible, but --"

"So where is he?"

Samedi let out a gaping rictus, just as the sound of tearing iron filled the air. "That's the thing. I'm assuming you took down the ward out front? Easy, wasn't it? Nothing like divine power? Well... that's because half of it was a cloaking spell."

The rending stopped as suddenly as it had begun, and a bleeding, broken man came walking up the path. He was dressed in slacks and proper dress shoes, but he was naked from the waist up. His chest and arms were covered in shallow cuts that seemed to glow to Nick and Dead Head's death senses - stigmata. He held a knife in each hand, a wretched, serrated thing made to cut and tear. And his eyes burned with an unquenchable fire.

"Brother Samedi. It seems we must discuss business."

[trollthumper]

Baron Samedi took a step back. "Ah, Brother," he said. "Glad you could join us. Have you met my friends? They'd like to have a few words with you."

Baron Kriminel looked for his fellow loa to the others -- just in time to see the gout of spectral flame tearing towards him. It engulfed his head, turning him into the world's most macabre Roman candle as unearthly screams of pain filled the air. Nick watched the grim spectacle as the last trails of phantom flame faded from his fingers. Soon, however, the flame just... winked out, drawn within Kriminel's self. The grin on his face was worse than the burning had been.

"You thought that was clever, didn't you?"

"Wouldn't say it was up there in the joke book, but --"

The knives were up before Nick could blink. He swept forward, swinging for the space under his jacket - and striking deep. Nick choked back a scream of pain as the cold steel bit into his muscles. It took all his strength to keep from falling to his knees, because he knew that if he did, Kriminel would take the opportunity. Fortunately - and this is the probably the last time I'll view this in that light - Samedi was there for him. Words filled the air in an ancient tongue, likely the first words of the first ghost. They bit at Nick's ears, and they weren't even directed at him. Kriminel, however, seemed to recognize the assault for what it was, and clamped his hands over his ears.

"Such a nice trick, Brother. Shame it's worse than useless. Did you think I wouldn't see right through it?"

"Well, you've never really been the smartest of us, Brother. But I've got to say - you're the sharpest blunt instrument I've ever met."