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So close! Martha frowns...though she seems to have avoided slicing her hands off, their combined efforts still fall short of actually disarming the trap...
Not daring to say a word lest the smallest motion trigger the device, hands poised at the almost neutralized device...all she does is look meaningfully at David.
Now what?
Seems to be the meaning of her expression.
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David Regan / Casitive give us one more teamwork roll, and Martha/ Chrisie add those successes for one more primary actor roll! This will either disarm the trap or disarm some Mekhet.
Drum roll~
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Martha allowed herself a brief moment of tension breaking levity at this most dangerous moment...
...red...blue...red...blue...which wire is it?...
She muttered in a hushed whisper. The sort of whisper only a vampire could hear.
Perhaps something clicks in the device? Some reassuring sign that the terrible machine is neutralized?
Or...is there to be a scream of anguish?
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With a great deal of careful fiddling, Martha and David figure out how to remove the inside panel and expose the trap's mechanism without activating it. Once that is accomplished, David holding down the proper triggers while the Herald gingerly sets aside the panel, the mechanism is revealed to be masterfully compact assortment of springs, pendulums, and a nasty-sharp scything blade attached to a flywheel. It is designed so that, once triggered, the flywheel completes a circuit that deploys the blade and pulls it back into the starting position. While at the same time reapplying tension to the activating coils. Once manual access is achieved, it is a simple matter for David to hold the flywheel and counterweights still while Martha merely disconnects it from the tension coils.
What is expressly harrowing, however, is the angle of that blade, and how Martha and David had to lean directly over it to access the inner workings of the contraption. There is much more than a hand in the hot zone, like it had been for Chris Wooding. Someone might have lost an arm. Martha might have suffered a horrifically deep tracheotomy. If her delicate little neck was too close, and she too slow... not even Kindred handle decapitation very well.
Once the danger has past, the gathered Mekhet may remark upon just how modern this device is revealed to be. They are all precision machined instruments, and bereft of any manufacturer's markings.
Anyone wielding Auspex, may note the approach if a decrepit-sounding old truck engine outside.
@Psychangel
David might have been dead and without adrenaline coursing through his system, but he was not immune to the tension in the air. The whole time, it weighed on the Dragon with thoughts of lurking potential disasters. If he was consciously breathing, David would have held his breath. When Martha furtively glanced his way with her silent question, he was close to simply relenting to the monstrous machine.
Though it was now disconnected, David still didn't seem to trust the trap. He waits for Martha to step away before he even takes a single movement. The danger and lurking calamity were self-evident. He could have lost an arm, or worse, and the Grand Wyrm could have been no more. The revelation to how close David was to failing Johan's torpid prophesies would have to come later, in the dark of night.
With the Danger passed, David's shoulders slouched a touch now relieved of the thick tension that snuck in while Martha and David worked.
The gleaming instruments and the razor sharp blade so revealed to them, revealed the mask the sarcophagus truly was. David did not break the relieved silence.
As the two kindred worked, Teo's Auspex enhanced ears heard the click, tink and wirl of the mechanism and tools as the mekhet disabled the trap. The tension of disarming, possibility of sudden and unavoidable harm had the Serpent hissing with pleasure. It's tailing wagging and twitching as if it were one of the California rattle snakes the monk had read about in a tourist book.
If things had gone horribly wrong he would not be sure how to inform the Reeve. Ashamedly his mind had turned to cowardice and contemplations of fleeing the domain had occurred to him. Such thoughts were detestable but were a comfort as much as an an embarrassment. Such thought were as likely to be felt by kine as kindred and he was not so monstrous as to not fear consequences.
After Martha and David had relaxed Teo stepped closer and took the components they had removed and laid them out on near Regan's tools. While there were no obvious markings, that did not mean they could not possibly provide clues later.
It was then Teo heard a vehicle pulling up outside. "Are any others expected this evening Grand Wyrm?" Teo asked quietly, looking back toward the stairs David had led him up earlier.
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"Someone else? I cannot be sure...not to my knowledge...I thought all those who were coming were already here. Perhaps..." she angles an ear to try to identify the arrival...
"...perhaps," she repeats while lowering her voice to a whisper, "...it's a hearse."
Firing up Auspex 1 to see if that helps identify the arrival...
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Emma pulled the truck up to the back entrance which went straight into the morgue area near her office. "OK, my office is right inside. We can get cleaned up and figure some of this out." She got out her keys before she and Kacey loosened the bonds to bring Francesco in. Then she carefully walked him into the building.
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Kacey springs out of the truck and shuts the door behind her quickly with an audible (but regrettably necessary) slam. She intends to be around the truck and helping to secure Francesco as quickly as possible. Allowing Emma to concentrate on what she needs to. She gives a studious look around at their surroundings, but is no expert. As far as she can tell, they are safe and haven't been followed.
"I hope Martin got back to Elysium all right," she says, thinking aloud. "Do you think we should just leave him there for now? It's not like he's going to leave the Do-- er, city without me. Or without knowing what happened to the others."
"Leaving the city will be what all of you do, if you're smart!" Francesco, as usual, butts in with his opinion, regardless of the circumstance he finds himself in. "Dillon's fucked; that thing's going to kill him."
Inside, Auspex wielding Mekhet can hear sounds of three separate voices. None of them sound like conspiratorial intruders, and the first speaker can probably be identified as Emma French easily enough. Martha can easily recognize the sound of the door belonging to some heavy, older vehicle. Though, by the dilapidated groan in makes while it is in motion, it certainly isn't the Reeve's car.
Martha also hears all of the words, especially Francesco's who are louder than the others. She can also easily remember the sound of the voice. The second female speaker, however, is a mystery to her.
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(Skeleton Keys) Keyhole
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