ooc: Thanks! Perfect!

IC: You do manage to avoid detection. Mostly because whatever is going down with Nolan, Lily and Cas, is causing quite a ruckus. You hear crashing and shouts coming from the building and about six people go rushing inside, not seeming to see you in their efforts to help. The witch looks quite confused but obediently goes wherever you tug her.

As you pull her along like a dog on a leash, you find yourself worrying about your friends and about the tricky situation you're now in. If this woman somehow got free, somehow suspected the truth, you'd be as good as dead.

She seems to get increasingly confused the further you go down the road. It will take about twenty minutes to get back to the city at this point, and with the moon shining down on you in the darkness, and the spring night chill about you, it's eerie indeed.

From time to time the woman will start to struggle slightly, making mumbles as though asking for explanation but each time you're able to assuage her fears until at last you are within the city itself. Out of sheer lack of options you decide to head back towards the inn and hope Marcus and Henry are somewhere there but fortunately as you creep down the dark and silent street, a familiar voice calls out to you. It's Henry! Marcus is with him and he runs to you, the other men following from around the corner on horseback. Jo! What? What is going on?! The witch is looking very antsy beneath her gag...

ooc: Did you ever roll your use rope by the way? If not do so now...

Turning towards the witch, Josephine smiled,

"Don't worry, my informants don't know what the plan is yet, but let me use them to secure our plans against those damned hunters." she said, turning back towards Marcus and Henry, Josephine waved them over, holding a tight grip on the witch to ensure that she couldn't slip free even if she wanted to now, but she maintained a "subtle" hold, so the lie would still be effective.

As Marcus and Henry approached, Josephine leaned forward, and whispered in Marcus' ear,

"I've tricked this witch into thinking I'm against the hunters. We need to maintain the lie until we can properly secure her more, and question her in safety. Let's maintain the lie until we reach somewhere we can chain her down for good, and keep her gagged, or she'll cast herself out of here." she whispered, waving her hand so Marcus could spread the word.

Turning back towards the witch, she 'whispered' conspiratorially to her,

"Alright, these fools are going to search for the information on the hunters for us, and then we're going to capitalize. Are you ready to put two notches on your belt for killing two of the greatest hunters in the country?" she tried to appeal to the witch's ego, to keep her distracted.

If Marcus and Henry led her and the witch somewhere, at all times she made sure the witch stayed gagged, and was unable to loosen her bonds. She had literally no priority other than making sure her extremely trussed up captive couldn't free herself. With the multiple bonds covering each limb, she assumed she wouldn't be able to, but she was now adding full-time watching and checking of her bonds and gag, to make darned sure the woman wasn't able to get free.



18 on use rope! Do I get a benefit since I've essentially used my skills to trick her into helping me make it more effective on her? I'd asked her 4-5 times how to make it "more effective, to sell it" so would that help at all? Or could we treat it like "taking 20" because of the fact that it wasn't under duress and she was helping?

ooc: 18 is good enough, especially combined with the fact that she was helping you so I'll take it! Yay!

Marcus's eyes don't even widen as you whisper your plan, he's that good of a liar apparently and he plays the part of ignorant hunter perfectly. Meanwhile the witch looks relieved at your communication, as though she's been properly convinced you're still with her, and dutifully plays her part. It's almost enough to make you laugh considering how outlandish everything turned out! Eventually you end up taking back alleys to the inn, not wanting to be seen by passerby, and Marcus slips in to prepare the room, claiming he's going to make sure it's safe. He's not gone more than two minutes before he gestures you inside one of the bedrooms. As soon as you step in you're surprised how quickly he's prepared it. Impossibly fast actually. The bed has been pushed to the corner of the room and in the center is a circular pattern in even more intricate symbols than the devils traps you're used to. How did he do this so quickly?! He gives a tug on the rope and the witch stumbles into the center, much as she tries to struggle. Immediately she stiffens, eyes wide as she holds perfectly still. Marcus, handsome in his smugness, snaps his fingers and the gag falls off. The witch says nothing, but is completely calm. Nice work Jo! Now, before we start questioning this little imp, would you mind telling me what the hell is going on?

"How did you prepare that so quickly?" she asked softly, pointing at the symbol in the middle of the floor with a confused look on her face. That needed to be asked, because THAT was random as all hell, and she was starting to get worried a little bit about the hunters.

"And why did you un-gag her?" she asked a few questions to make sure things were still going according to plan...

Marcus chuckles at your questions and raises a hand reassuringly towards you. It's alright Jo. No need to worry. Just a little trick I picked up in Egypt. I'm half Egyptian you know, he adds with pride. Magic there is much older and more advanced than anything this novice would know, he makes a face. I'd get into the details with you about it now but not with her listening. I guard my secrets jealously. Don't even tell other men of letters about half of them if I can avoid it. I worked hard, not gonna let just anyone piggy back off my years of sweating and bleeding! But I ungagged her because I thought the plan was to question her correct? She can't use her piddly powers to hurt you if that's what you're worried about. The circle prevents her from using any magic.

Nodding, and breathing a sigh of relief, Jo agreed verbally,

"Alright... I'm sorry, kidnapping usually isn't in my bag of tricks." she said, shrugging, "I just knew I couldn't fight off the demon inhabiting my father's body... I'm not able to handle something that strong, and I knew I needed to get some form of help to help us save Lily and Castiel." she said, launching into the details of the fight with Marcus, so he was up to date I don't want to manually type it all out, haha, hopefully that's ok!

When she was finished, she looked nervous, uncertain and pensive...

"What can I do to help? This seems like some pretty heavy stuff, and if you tell me to go shotgunning at the demon, I will, but I don't think that's the best move."

He takes you a bit further from the witch as you explain everything, and nods soberly. Well that is very bad indeed then. Hm. If either Castiel or Lily were at their full strength they would be more than enough for this demon, but weakened as they are...Yes. Your uses tend to be with your pretty little mouth. You can either stay here and question the witch while the rest of us go try to rescue our wayward angels, or you can come with us and see what use you'll be. I've seen your aim though. I wouldn't hold it against you if you wanted to stay... he gives a small smile. You get the feeling he's trying to lighten the mood. No doubt he realizes how terrible this all is for you, what with Lily in danger and your father in his particular situation...

ooc: No worries! Summarizing is a glorious thing!

"No way... I'm going, and that's final." Josephine said, hefting her shotgun, "Lily and Castiel need me, and that's all I need to know." she said, nodding towards the door,

"After you."

Marcus raises an amused eyebrow but gives a nod. Alright. Just make sure I'm not in front of you when you shoot that thing hm? his lips twitch with amusement.

From there he leaves two men with the witch as promised and the rest of you race back to the lake district, Henry coming with you too. By the time you return though, things have quieted down. You go into the building and find broken glass, shattered crates, bullet holes in the walls, and an alarming amount of blood, but neither Cas, Lily, or your father can be found. Plenty of dead demons, but you care little about that. Marcus orders his men to spread out and search all the buildings but they turn up nothing. You do, however, notice a trail of blood leading into the woods...

Marcus sees it too and forms a search party quickly, the two of you in front. You lose the trail a couple times but thankfully always find it again. Finally you run across a figure slumped on the ground before you. It is Castiel. He's unconscious and bleeding heavily. Meanwhile you notice the bloody trail continues on without him.

Before leaving, Josephine leveled a pointed finger at the two 'guards',

"She's already gone to the bathroom, she isn't sick or in pain, and she can breathe just fine." she said, thinking through all of the tricky things she would say for a chance to escape, "Just leave her there, and if she has issues, just tighten the bonds. Nothing else." she said, waggling her finger at them.

It was probably adorable, Josephine's tiny figure seemingly trying to lecture these fully trained and adult men, but she didn't see it. She was serious, when her friends were in trouble, and she marched off with Marcus in a hurry.

---

Moving with Henry and Marcus, Josephine is glad that they have the same fire she does about finding their friends.

When Castiel appears ahead, Josephine sprints forward in worry, rushing to his side,

"Oh my God, Castiel, are you alright? Where's Lily? Is my fath..." she paused, swallowing, "Is that demon still fighting her?" she asked a bundle of questions, all while searching him for injuries that she knew how to patch up...


20 on treat injury! This is great, except it means my next shotgun blast is DEFINITELY going into Marcus' eyeball, lol!

Ooh, but I have an excuse to rub Castiel! And get away with it! Mmmmmmm!

ooc: Hahahaha! That's probably true knowing you! Marcus had better watch out!

IC: It's difficult to know the extent of his injuries, but you do a good job of slowing the bloodflow and getting him stabilized. He sits up with a grown, and you prop him against a tree. Regarding your questions, he points the direction of the blood, still holding his head. He's....chasing her. Hurry. He looks ready to pass out again any second but he's obviously animated about you going after them.

Should you choose to do so, you find the trail is difficult to follow in the dark. Marcus seems to do amazingly well at finding it though and you keep at his heels as he tracks them like a bloodhound, Henry lumbering behind looking winded yet determined. At last you see them. They are several yards ahead and your father has just thrown Lily through several branches until she slams into a tree and collapses in a heap. Even from here you can see the blood clearly came from her. She's absolutely covered in the stuff. You have a decent shot from here, and thus far no one seems to notice you and the others yet, though that won't last long. Still, demon or not, you do know if you shoot the demon enough, the vessel that is your father's body may not survive. Even if the demon withstands it, will your father ever be able to repossess his own form again? You know that most demons have such rough lives that their meat suits immediately fall dead upon vacating them. Will your father be left to such a fate if you can ever extract Nolan from him?

Ooc lol the name I gave my dice roll took itself seriously. And my guarantee about Marcus would be bad if I wasn't alone at the front! 15:54, Today: Josephine Hartley rolled 1 using 1d20.  Pew pew please miss my dad


Josephine had her heart skip a few beats, but as she saw Lily being thrown, she lifted her shotgun, knowing she was alone and it was up to her, and through tear covered eyes she pulled the trigger at what used to be her father.

Maybe it was because her eyes were mostly on Lily, maybe it was because of the thought of shooting her father... Who knew? Either way the miss was likely to be horrifically bad. Her hands were shaking, she was crying openly and she was afraid for her friend, but one thing even the demon inside of Lily would recognize is that she chose to shoot her own father to protect her.

So, ineffective certainly, but she was making a hell of a statement as she shouted,

"Leave my friend alone!" she cried in desperation, at the very least wanting to change the demon's focus to herself so Henry could save Lily...

ooc: Hahaha! That's hilarious! Really nice post too by the way.

IC: The shot goes wide and in your stress you aren't prepared for the kickback and the gun slips from your hands. Nolan turns to face you, a smirk of amusement on his face. He starts towards you. You never did take to guns like I wanted, did you little Jo? he chuckles. It's unnerving, to hear him talk to you so. He's clearly mocking you, using your father's memories to taunt you, but it's the closest you've come to having your father back in years, even if only for a moment. Lily struggles to her feet then, swaying and bleeding heavily. It would seem I'm outnumbered. Interesting. Well then... he lifts Lily into the air suddenly, though it only takes a gesture to do so. Either you all lower your weapons and back off, or she dies. Right now. What'll it be Jo?

Her voice shaking in anger, Josephine shook her head and stepped towards him,

"No." she said coldly, leveling her gaze on the specter inhabiting her father, "You have lost your touch at negotiating, and you will not win this." she said, stepping closer, "She will not die, Lily's spirit simply won't let it happen. Instead, you will understand when you're playing a losing hand, and you will drop her, and discuss things reasonably." she said, leveling her shotgun at him,

"Now."



Psh, I don't know why I ever bother with rolls, lol. I rolled a 3 for intimidate, I guess it would be, so even with my +10, its only a 13. Screw it haha.

Nolan simply laughs at this, to your chagrin. Maybe if you were a better shot that would faze me my dear. But such as it is... He moves like lightning then, and to your shock he sends Lily flying towards you with a flick of his finger. She slams into you and you both go down hard. He starts running, and Henry raises his rifle but Marcus stops him, pushing the barrel of the gun to the side so that the shot misses. Jo's father's still alive in there! We've got to try to keep him in one piece! Aim for the legs. I'll see if I can't slow him down. he shakes his head as he tears off after him. It surprises and touches you that the man has the wits and heart to think of your needs at a time like this. Most hunters would have blown the demon away, knowing that the host was simply a lost cause. For some reason Marcus is showing mercy. Judging by Henry's look of surprise, it isn't often done.

As they tear off after the running man, Lily helps you to your feet with a look of apology. She's bleeding all over but as always she's determined. Sorry about that. He's a slippery one. Now come on. He's not the only thing to fear in these woods. Let's try to get around the side of them!

ooc: Go ahead and roll a general dexterity check to see if you're fast enough to pace them. You do have some clean shots you can try too, if you want to risk your father's health. Good luck!

Rolling over, Josephine felt like this hell was never ending for her, but she rolled on top of Lily and gave her a huge hug, grinning in her face, despite the horrific circumstances,

"Glad to see you alive, hon." she said, winking before she rolled painfully to stand up.

Once on her feet, she was a bit wobbly after the painful hit, but she shook it off, and took off with Lily. She wasn't intending on shooting him at all, she figured there must be another way, but she didn't want to hear her father was alive, and then let him get away completely!





OOC I'm not sure how to roll a general dex, but I rolled a 1d20+2 (my dex mod) and got 9!

Lily returns the hug gratefully, and as you race off to loop around, you find you're more tired than you realized. Lily always was the faster of you two anyway; even wounded and weakened with whatever experiments they did to her.

She tends to hold back for you though, not wanting to leave you by yourself, so by the time you loop around to the side to try to cut them off, two important things have happened. First. You see Henry, the hunter who you drug into all this, who you woke up in the middle of the night, begging for help, impaled on a tree branch, hanging about five feet off the ground. The branch has pierced his back and through the other side to his stomach and he hangs there, gurgling and shaking as blood drips heavily down his body. H-Help me.... he gasps. Second. You see two figures in the distance, no doubt your father and Marcus. They're too far off to make out properly but one aims at the other, shoots, and they go down in a heap.

Pointing towards her father, Josephine cries out to Lily,

"I don't know what we can do about my father... he's too strong!" she said, stating the obvious, "We need to help Henry and Marcus! Screw my father, let him leave if he's not able to fight the demon. We need to help these poor men!" she said, turning to look at both injuries.

She didn't honestly know how to help Henry, because as far as she knew, that was a mortal wound.

"Castiel!" she said, shouting his name at the top of her lungs, "I don't know where you are, but these innocent men are going to die for nothing, and I need your help!" she said, hoping that her prayer would reach him (if he was still alive).

Lily looks at you with grim agreement at your decision to let your father go. You're right. We'll find him later, when we've recovered. But go. Go to Marcus. I'll double back for Castiel. She turns to Henry then, her face turning sad as the man still hangs there, trembling. I think...I think if I pull you off you'll bleed out. Can you try to wait? In response he groans in pain, blood pouring out of his mouth but he manages to give a dry smile. Go on then. I'm not goin anywhere. She nods and tears off the way you came, shouting as you did for the angel. Before you can go to Marcus though he gurgles to you, If I die...my shop. Floorboard under my bed. There's a....box. Find Constance...please!

When you've finished with Henry, should you go investigate, you find Marcus bleeding heavily from his stomach, lying on his back and staring up at the sky. He's alive, but won't be for long. This is all such a mess. S-Sorry Jo, he gasps. I almost...had him but...didn't want to kill...your... he falls silent, still alive but fading quickly.

ooc: Roll a heal check.... please.

Rolled a flat 14, but no marker for heal skill on my sheet?

ooc: If you have no marker on your sheet that's fine, it's still something you can try to do anyway.

IC: You try to stabilize him and you do a better job than you anticipated, but he's still going to bleed out soon without help. The best you can do is keep pressure on the wound, the warm blood soaks your hands and clothes and he turns a deathly pale, just gasping and staring up at the trees. Time seems to stop and with each quivering breath you fear it will be his last. Then finally, you hear swearing several yards off. You glance back and see two figures by the tree Henry is hanging from. Lily. Then they are running towards you, well one is running and the other limping, but as they get closer you are relieved to see Castiel with her. He looks barely able to stand but he's there. Lily drops to the ground beside you, looking at Marcus with worry. Hold on Marcus! It will be alright! she orders, looking frantically to Cas then. He sinks to his knees and puts his hand on the man's forehead, closing his eyes in concentration. Moments later the man's color returns, his breathing strengthens, and though he looks incredibly weak, he struggles to a sitting position. Meanwhile Cas looks ready to faint himself, but Lily steadies him. I couldn't save the other one. I'm sorry. Castiel says quietly.

Seeing Castiel come, Josephine's heart jumped with joy, and she waited eagerly, nearly jumping up and down as she saw him approach,

"Oh my goodness, Cas!" she said, seeing the state of him.

As he dropped to his knees, and healed Marcus through his magical work, her eyes widened, and when he struggled to sit, she threw herself at him in a massive hug, wrapping the angel up in her comforting arms,

"Thank you so much Cas. I know you did everything you could. I'm just sorry I couldn't have done more to save you all." she said, a slight wet look appearing around her eyes. Kissing him wetly on the cheek, to further emphasize her point, Josephine didn't want Castiel feeling guilty. He did literally more than anybody else could have for Marcus, and she was glad he did, and thankful for his help.

The four of you sit there a while, the moonlight shining down on you and the dark forest full of sounds of the night. Crickets, frogs, the hoot of an owl. It would almost be peaceful if you couldn't see poor Henry's body several feet away. It seems Cas at least pulled him down from the tree, but it's a terrible reminder of your part in his death. You personally persuaded him to help you. You can't help but feel a stab of guilt.

Meanwhile Castiel gives a grateful nod at your attention, though as always his face is expressionless. Marcus sits up, weak and shaky but he thanks the angel sincerely, his eyes are also drawn to Henry though. He sighs, putting a bloody hand on his head as though exhausted. Well we lost him. All this, for nothing. Though we got you back Lily, that's something. Hopefully we can track him again but...he's strong. Too strong. I don't know if it's going to be possible to save him Jo. I think the demon inside him knows that's what's keeping him safe. Our hesitation to risk your father.

"Then we need to find some outside help. Maybe somebody from another time, or place, or something. There has to be something we can do." she said, not willing to give up,

"I've come to terms with the fact that my father is dead. That doesn't mean I don't want him to survive, but he will kill me himself if I let people die to save him." she said, gritting her teeth. She may not have believed what she was saying, but she knew it was correct,

"So we'll focus on finding somebody else more powerful to handle him, and we'll just look after the other Hunters until then. Let Lily and Castiel rest up, and then hunt again when we're healed." she said, putting the end to hunting her father's demon.

Marcus nods gravely at your decision, putting a comforting hand on your shoulder. I hate to say it, but that's the wisest course. I'm still sorry. I'm sure it's hard, losing him twice. he shakes his head.

After a few more minutes gathering your energy, you head back through the woods, Lily and Marcus carrying Henry's body, Marcus looking particularly unhappy about it.

You reconvene with the other hunters, who take his body back to town to deliver it to the mortuary. In the meantime your mind goes back to his final words about Constance and the box. Should you decide to act on them, you find yourself back at the shop, rooting out the box under the floorboards. There is a sealed letter to a woman named Constance Harrington...

ooc: Ok, you can open the letter and read it if you like etc and I'll post the contents for you, though she'll probably know you did that down the road. Also, if you want to try to find her you can roll a gather information check. Also let me know any plans you have the rest of the night/the next day while everyone is resting up.