15996/A rocky ending

A rocky ending
Date of Scene:	24 January 2024
Location:	Darlington Park, Sunnydale
Synopsis:	A giant Cockatrice threatens to turn Darlington park completely to stone. A group of unlikely heroes takes steps to stop it. But the war isn't over yet..
Cast of Characters:	Faith Lehane, Harry Dresden, Phantasm (Drago), Sabrina Spellman, Mon-El, Sinister

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Faith Lehane has posed:
Another chilly night in Darlington park, and the past several weeks have been fairly quiet, maybe a little TOO quiet. Last time Faith was here, she battled a giant stone gazing Cockatrice, aka 'Giant Chicken Demon' which had ended up turning her into a stone statue, along with a handful of shrubbery and wildlife in its wake.

Since then it seems it has come back in full force, leaving a trail of human statues in its wake this time. But where is it now? Shouldn't be hard to find considering the trail of stone statues and broken shrubbery.

Faith is here, having sent out an SOS to the Scoobies and adjacent. She's got her M Scythe with her this time as last time the creature seemed unkillable.

And there is something else, for those with magic sensitivities, they may pick up something powerful and sinister around here..

Harry Dresden has posed:
Harry walks through the area, senses extended to try to prevent getting surprised. His hand shakes and shield bracelet drops in place. He glances to Sabrina and mutters,"You feel that?" His eyes narrow and he looks closer, opening his third eye looking away from the people gathered.

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
While a lot has changed it turns out Nick is STILL on the phone contacts of some of the Scoobies. And being Nick's actually in the country he's made a bit of a side trip.

His entrance is not that flashy. Quite the opposite as the raven makes no sound that a raven ought to make when flying in. This could help explain how he was able to swoop in and perch upon Faith's head. He lingers for a moment, watching as the others come in before glancing down. "Demonic chicken still bothering you?"

Sabrina Spellman has posed:
Sabrina Spellman Nods her head "Yeah " She says as she pulls out a bottle " here.. it's the potion i made to turn you back to flesh if you get caught.. and I made a bunch just in case " She says . But she looks around " Did you get the banishment spell ready? " she asks as she looks aroud ..

Mon-El has posed:
    A bunch of stone statues that resemble humans in the midst of a stroll in the park, in an actual park does seem a bit suspicious and possibly reeks of a bunch of humans suddenly having gotten turned to stone against their will.

    But...

    It -could- also just be a new art exhibit? Lar has certainly seen weirder. However, he keeps his eyes and ears open for any trouble, anyway.

Faith Lehane has posed:
Faith Lehane frowns as she glances around at those gathered. The Raven is given a smirk and nod. "Wassup, Nick? Long time no see." she shrugs, "It was quiet for a bit but seems it's come out in full force again." thankfully the park is fairly quiet now..Maybe a little TOO quiet. As in, there are no signs of wildlife, no birds chirping, no rustling of animals. No crickets even, can be heard, or other insects.

"Yo Sabrina, do you have enough potions to Justine those people? I'm countin' six so far.."

And then she spots an unfamiliar face and frowns at Lar, "Yo, dude, you shouldn't be here, it's dangerous!" she says this as she wields her rather dangerous looking lock a er axe.

And then it happens. A not so distant scream, deeper in the woods, and the sound of something huge rustling up ahead.

She smirks, twisting the axe in her hand, "So what's the plan, we weaken this chicken demon enough for you to banish it back to its original dimension or wherever the hell it came from?"

Harry Dresden has posed:
Harry sweeps his gaze over the area, letting the third eye point him towards any sign of the quiet park denziens or the monster in question. He frowns a little and nods,"I would rather banish it if we can. If we can't then take that scythe and split its head from its neck." he replies and still seeking out any proper trail of the beast or pick up on any sign of it through the woods, looking through the spirit instead of the flesh.

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
The raven gives what seems to be a smile upon its beak. Which, considering the structure of a bird beak is mildly concerning. "Oh well, you know. Life is weird. Curveballs aplenty and families can be weird."

The bird looks over to Sabrina as she asks about a banishment spell. "How'd-" He pauses.

The bird blinks and then looks over to Harry.

Right. Wizard.

Wizards prep. Probably speaking to him.

"By the way this is my first time going after a demonic chicken. Any cliffs notes on how to interact with this one? And... hypothetically if you got something that can take out a vampire with a swat, how well would that translate against Foghorn Leghorn?"

Sinister has posed:
Darlington park after dark is a recipe for places you don't want to be at the best of times. Tell that to Sinister though, he apparently didn't get that particular bulletin. Mind, the man is minding his own business, lost in a good deal of thought as he pauses by a gazebo to the tune of a scream and a rustle. Last time he was here after all, there was a gigantic blob monster. And there had been that vampire that one time.

With a cluck of the tongue, he heads toward a small copse of trees and groomed bushes, stooping there to collect something or other and gazes over toward the sound of voices. One or two he at least recognizes -- the others, not so very much at all.

It is amazing though, how much sound you don't make, when you actually walk about an inch off the ground. He approaches silently, stopping at least within earshot with his head tilted upon one side, a jar of dirt (the thing he picked up) in hand and a distinctly curious expression haunting his face, albeit quietly. Demon chickens? You did hear that correctly.

He clears his throat loud enough to be heard and simply waits, his senses... open, even if his mind is particularly quiet.

Mon-El has posed:
    Lar glances over at Faith when she tells him it's dangerous here, arching a brow at her. "No kidding, doubt that axe you have there is helping the situation any." he remarks, smirking slightly. He didn't blame her, it looked like she was expecting trouble, and his uniform wasn't showing at the moment.

    But as soon as he hears the screams, he's off, shedding his civvies and rocketing into the sky and heading for the sounds of chaos faster than a speeding bullet.

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
There's something about persons out of context. When Nick got the message, it was about chickens. Not of quiet doctors that stalk the night. So, combined with him not expecting the not always good Doctor, Sinister's indirect efforts to quietly approach is successful.

This leaves Nick with the general sense that he's the only person who got called in who wasn't invited to the prepatory meetings. Well, save for the strange guy Faith's trying to get to leave.

Once Lar disappears in a blur, the raven perched upon Faith's head glances down once more. "...I think he'll be fine."

He turns his head to look to the area of sky he last spotted Mon-El. "...I think."

Unless he turns into stone mid-air at least. That'd...

probably be bad.

Faith Lehane has posed:
Faith Lehane snorts and shakes her head, "Chill, I know what I'm doing, this is kinda my job!" And she wastes no more. time dilly dallying, running towards the source of chaos. Another scream is heard before a tree crashes to the ground, turning to solid stone!

When Lar flies towards it! he is the first to see what looks like a giant snake with the head of a rooster and massive hind legs and claws claws like a dragon. It's huge scaly wings posses Horner claws on the fold, acting like powerful forearms when folded on the ground. Finally it has a massive spiked tail and plenty of scaly armour along its body.

Glancing up at Lar, it screeches, turning its deadly gaze towards him, emitting a beam of blinding light which, if he gets hit by it, it will turn him to stone.

Its tail lashes out at a nearby tree, the recently stoned one, sending its massive trunk flying towards the remaining heroes.

Harry Dresden has posed:
Sensing magic in the air, Harry swears softly and raises his walking staff. He levels the staff at the incoming stone tree and studies the angle a moment,"Forzare!" he shouts and fires the force of will at the danger, intent to deflect it, not destroy it. Make sure it goes past them instead of through them.

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
Nick's choice of perch has moved. And with the movement, the Raven finds himself riding into battle upon his Faith-ful steed.

ONWARDS! As they pass a tree, the bird leaps up snapping off a branch before landing back upon Faith. The stick is twisted and held down wing like a Jockey would with it's riding crop.

The hunt is on!

Mon-El has posed:
    Lar quickly dodges out of the way of the beam...most energy projectiles don't hurt him but he has a feeling this one might be magic or something, so it was best not to risk it.

    As the stone tree goes flying, he dives down toward it, aiming to grab it and throw it back at the creature before it hits anyone, aiming for its head.

Sinister has posed:
Sinister's reactions are quick, for a fellow that generally ambles through without getting flapped about things. With the appearance of "Good gracious, it's a cockatrice..." and the far flung petrified dendrite matter, he flings a hand up as Harry similarly deflects incoming tree-ballista -- the result from his end is an arrested forward momentum in the direction it was going and he considers it as it's held in place. The jam jar is put in his leather frock coat pocket and he makes a spinning gesture with the now free limb, rotating the stoned tree so that it might become a very large club, if necessary.

"I feel I missed some kind of information session which explained the presence of a cockatrice in Sunnydale. I suspect getting any kind of sample might be ... unappreciated."

The red diamond in his forehead glows along with his gaze at this point, in a holding pattern with the telekinesis. This makes it very easy to grab for the superstrong and flying types.

Faith Lehane has posed:
Faith Lehane arches a brow as Lar sheds his civvies and takes to the skies. "The hell?" she shakes her head, but with a giant stone tree flying towards her she doesn't have time for anymore chatting. Hissing a curse under her breath, she grips the m-scythe and stands her ground. "Alright, time to see what you're made of!" She slices cleans through it, cutting it in half.

Thankfully Harry deflects it out of the path of the others before Lar grabs one of the pieces, hurling it back at the giant Cockatrice. However, the massive creature proves to be surprisingly fast, darting out of the way, getting only slightly knocked by the side of the tree, causing its flight to falter slightly.

It crashes to the ground, causing the ground to shake and rumble beneath its weight. Somewhere nearby, energy crackles and hisses. For those with magic ability, they might sense a sizeable disturbance in the ley lines..As the battering ram spins at the monster, it swings out its mighty tail, swatting the remaining tree trunk to the side.

The powerful scaly armour combined with its shocking speed makes it hard to hit, harder to take down..But surely it has a weakness? Opening its hideous mouth, it utters another blood curdling shriek, and crouching down, it unleashes a shower of giant razor sharp spikes from its tail and spiny armour towards the group.

Harry Dresden has posed:
Harry grumbles and once the tree is aside he steps forward with the others. He shakes the bracet on his wrist and raises is,"Defendarius." A glowing shield appears and works as a shield against the spikes that are coming at them.

He can't get up to protect Faith or Nick, but Sabrina and he are protected. The other one he isn't familar with seems to be all right without anyones help. He looks at the man and mutters,"Kryptonian?"

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
As Faith moves them forward, the bird prepares the stick, feeding some of it's energy into it. Eventually after the creature gets defensive from the assault from the others, the bird FINALLY does its part. As Faith skids to a stop to do her own moves, the bird flies forward, stick now in talon as he rocks his inner Corvid.

The purplish black bird shows off the agility associated with its type as it loops, barrel rolls and manages to dodge around the spikes flying through the air.

With another loop the bird flies forth, shoving the stick sideways through one eye and pushing it forward to extend into the other. Task accomplished the bird flies flies, taking a moment to get some distance before turning to doublecheck on his handiwork.

Mon-El has posed:
    Lar frowns down at the giant bird...snake...whatever it is thing when the thrown tree doesn't really seem to do much other than stagger it slightly. The Daxamite mutters a curse under his breath in his native tongue. "Okay so you're tough." he says to no one in particular.

    Then it shrieks and spikes go flying. Quite a few of them hit Lar...and they just shatter.

    Should've tried with the magic beam again, probably

    Anyway, the Legionnaire is already on the move, flying through the rain of armor spines until he's right in front of its open mouth before his eyes glow crimson and he aims to fire his thermal vision straight down its throat at full intensity--hot enough to melt steel. If that didn't hurt it, he's not sure what will...

Sabrina Spellman has posed:
Sabrina Spellman Looks out from a tree she was hidding in.. she can see how little eveyrthing is happening she growls she can't help it she brings forth some hellfire and let it loose .. Firing a Blast not at the body but trying to shoot a wing!

Faith Lehane has posed:
Faith Lehane grits her teeth, ducking and darting out of the way of the spikes, she's fast and tough, but the spikes are numerous and fast. She does get cut by a few here and there, causing her to curse and hiss in pain.

"Dammit Harry, if you're gonna work on a banishment spell, now would be the time. Nick, can you get in close enough to find a weak spot? We gotta slow this bird brain down! The rest of us can distract it, buy Harry and Sabrina time!"

With that being said she leaps into action, hacking and slashing at the rain of deadly spikes, trying to get in close enough to deliver a deadly blow.

When Lar comes in like a wrecking ball, the creature opens its eyes to unleash another wave of stoning magic on the area, turning random trees, rubble and anyone near enough into stone, sending random chunks of stone flying as it blindly thrashes its long tail in the air. Fortunately for Lar, Nick sends a stick through one eye, cutting off its stone gaze, causing it to shriek in pain and rage. Either way, when he shouts burning lava down its throat, it shrieks and writhes in pain even more, dropping to the ground, and as an added insult, Sabrina sends a blast at its wing, further injuring it..

But wait what's this? The bird has slowed down, but now it digs its claws into the ground and starts to glow..Starts to heal itself as if drawing from the earth itself. It's badly injured but slowly healing itself and not yet dead..If Harry and Sabrina are going to banish it, now would be the time..As it curls up defensively, hundreds more spikes jut out of its heavily plated armour, making attacking it while it heals even trickier.

Sinister has posed:
"Hmmmmm.... come on, old boy, think think..." -- there is are more spikes, the hand that made a rotating gesture now flings up a 'halt' motion in the air and Sinister's eyes flare coal fury red, and the air congeals a kind of reddish hue with it. A few of the spikes that hit this barrier shatter, others just get stuck in almost thin air. "...Oh! Well..."

There may be a time when he hopes nobody saw this, but it is what it is. The half of the tree he still held aloft is flung toward the beast only as a distraction as the Doctor's molecular cohesion dissipates and he falls apart into... a flock of chickens. No. Not chickens... roosters. There's a dozen of them and they scatter in all directions... crowing like they never knew the dawn was several hours away. If the legends are true, the sound of a cockerel crowing is going to make the beast's ears hurt horribly.

Harry Dresden has posed:
"Nag, nag, nag...." Harry growls as the shield settles. He looks at the ground beneath the monster and begins a chant. He tells Sabrina,"Be ready to help close it."

He keeps the shield in place to protect them and then starts to chant some sort of strange language. He holds something in his free hand and draws a pentagram in the air with it.

Literally he draws it, light glows it to life. Under the beast, the ground glows the same color as the pentagram, esentially removing the ground from beneath the creature making a aperture of sorts.

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
Huh. Well it looks like stick 1 isn't going to take well.

The raven flies over, grabbing a stone branch before loaning it's power to that one.

Second verse.

Same as the first.

With a leap, the bird takes flight once more, setting to shove the heavier set stick through the other eye.

Sabrina Spellman has posed:
Sabrina Spellman Blinks she's pretty sure those roosters will distract it or maybe work .. who knows that was one of her moves.. but she moves to help harry with the spell.. also Taking that immage and pushing it to the ground under it's feet.. Starting to add her power to the mix.. She's half witch half hellish princess hopefully that helps out.. though shes giving the power the skill is all harry.

Mon-El has posed:
    The creature falls, but doesn't seem to quite be dead. "Seriously?" Lar mutters. Of course, he's seen this sort of thing time and again throughout the galaxy.

    But then that woman with the scythe is shouting something about banishing and some of the others are starting to chant something weird. And one of them turns into...a bunch of birds? He has no idea what's going on but he just assumes these people know what they're doing better than he does. So he flies in front of the people doing the chant thing and does his best to protect them from the spike rain, blasting some away with his thermal vision, swatting away others, and blocking still others with his body.

Faith Lehane has posed:
It seems that this creature is truly immortal...But as Sinister...Turns into a bunch of...Chickens. Pardon me, Roosters.

...Roosters?!

Ahhh right. That old legend. Would it work...? Well, it does seem to disrupt its presence in this world somehow, causing its form to shimmer and glitch, causing the healing spell to slow down enough, to disrupt it enough for Nick to successfully blind it in the other eye..

Perhaps it helps boost Harry and Sabrina's banishing spell as its form continues to shimmer and fade in and out, a curious, yellow sigil appearing underneath it. Those chunks of rock and flying debris continue to spin and crash around the party but thankfully Lar manages to shield most of them from the outfall, while Faith steps up, bring up the m-scythe to create another shield, deflecting as much of the rubble and cutting effortlessly through as much of it as she can.

And then, uttering one final blood curdling screech, the Cockatrice suddenly seems to *implode*, vanishing from existence, the sigil slowly fading after.

All the stone statues slowly crack and break away, revealing about half a dozen confused looking people who blink and stare in shock at the varying superheroes.

"Uh......?!"

Sabrina Spellman has posed:
Sabrina Spellman Jumps and shouts " We did it " She beams At that moment a black cat pops out of her coat " HUZZAH.. VICTORY " says that cat before she quickly stuffs him back into the pokect that is clearly too small for him! but yes a cat poped out of a small pocket and talked before he was stuffed back inside " Salem sush.. she spots the people and blinks " Oh boy " She snaps her fingers and Poof goes invisible! Running way!

Sinister has posed:
The dozen roosters dash like they're prone to do, into the shadows, making occasional bok-kok noises, darting past the occasional confused human being. Once they're out of sight, they become remarkably quiet as they all converge on one spot, impacting one another and merging, until Sinister stands himself back up into the shape of a man once again. He dusts hands, flicks sleeves, smooths the line of his lapel and looks back at the group of heros from the shadows.

There's a smile, wryly given and he simply... saunters off into the night.

He came.
He saw.
He crowed.
He left.