OOC: Lovely.
20:05, Today: William Pierce rolled 10,4 using d6,d6, rerolling max with rolls of (6+4)10,4. White Chip, soak roll. That's the last of the white chips.
20:05, Today: William Pierce rolled 5,1 using d6,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 5,1. Vigor to resist Fatigue. (Do I need that when I soak the wound?)

"Get off me, you fucking bitch!"

William drops the knife and lightning-fast pulls his Colt Frontier from under his colt, rapidly pulling the trigger!

OOC:Ok...Shooting her in the head. That should at least annoy her.
20:14, Today: William Pierce rolled 1 (total 6) using 1d6, rerolling max with rolls of 1. Shooting, head shot, double-tap, RED.
20:13, Today: William Pierce rolled 5,3 (total: 5)using d10-1,d6-1, rerolling max with rolls of 6,4. Shooting, head shot, double-tap LEGEND.
20:12, Today: William Pierce rolled 3,-2 using d10-3,d6-3, rerolling max with rolls of 6,1. Shooting, head shot, double-tap.
That's.... craptastic.
Colt Frontier: 4/6

Jenny grabs William's Peacemaker, then swirls around and pulls on the heavy curtains!

OOC:
20:17, Today: William Pierce rolled 4,2 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 4,2. Agility trick of Jenny. Grmph. White chip!
20:17, Today: William Pierce rolled 1,1 using d8-1,d6-1, rerolling max with rolls of 2,2. Agility trick.

Initiative:
20:19, Today: William Pierce drew the single card: JS using the Deadlands system. William's card.
20:19, Today: William Pierce drew the single card: 3D using the Deadlands system. Jenny's card.

In reply to William Pierce (msg #66):

The bullets only graze the madam...and even the wounds themselves heal over as he watches!

Marina pulls her mouth away from his arm. Her lips drip with blood. "Language." She chides him, wagging her finger at him.

At that moment Jenny pulls the curtains down. The room is flooded with light, and most of the girls shriek and flinch away from the brightness.

"Girls, there's nothing to fear!" Marina says. "It's still raining outside!"

The vampires turn and look at each other with relief, then turn and glare at jenny and William. Two of the girls leap at Jenny while the others rush the gunslinger.

William feels more fangs sink into his skin as he's surrounded and tackled...

((OOC: Yes, you still need the Fatigue roll...the fatigue effect is separate from the damage.

Also, there's still the -2 to attack from Marina's pheremones, which drops your 6 down to 4.

Jenny still gets the +2 from the Adrenaline surge, which means you got a net of 5 on the Agility trick (+2 adrenaline, -1 wound).

The Bad News: Since it's still rainy and cloudy out, and thus no direct sunlight, they aren't going to be hurt by the daylight spilling in from the window.

The Good News: They still have a flinch instinct, which means you might lower the Parry (or even get then Shaken, if they roll low enough on their Spirit roll to resist).

Vampires: 12:30, Today: Vampires! rolled 5,5 using d6,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 5,5. Resisting Trick (group roll). Tie.

Marina: 12:31, Today: Marina Vanderholt rolled 14,2 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of (8+6)14,2. Resisting Trick. Success.

So since it's a tie, which is middling ground, I'll say the Vampire Dance Hall Girls have -1 Parry until Jenny's next action.

Now the girls get to go. Two of them leap at Jenny, two more come for William. They have a Gang-Up bonus of +1 against Jenny and of +2 against William.

Attacks vs. Jenny: 12:37, Today: Vampires! rolled 1,2 using d6,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 1,2. Fighting! No hits, not even with Gang-up bonus of +1.

Attacks vs. William: 12:39, Today: Vampires! rolled 9,4 using d8+2,d6+2, rerolling max with rolls of 7,2. Fighting!  hit and raise.

Damage: 12:40, Today: Vampires! rolled 9,4 using d10,2d6, rerolling max with rolls of 9,3,1. Damage (with Raise). Total of 13. Ow. That's a Shaken and 2 Wounds for William. They don't drain fatigue with their bite the same way Marina does, though. They have a different power that does that.))

---

Next round:
Marina: AC
William: JS
Vampire Dance Hall girls: 3S
Jenny: 3C

I'll wait to post until you've resolved all the reactive rolls from this round.

OOC: 21:59, Today: William Pierce rolled 3,4 using d6-1,d6-1, rerolling max with rolls of 4,5. Red chip for the soakin'.
1 wound, 1 Fatigue, out of chips, Shaken... and Marina goes first. I see a dark, dark future ahead of me.
Next time I'll just stay out in the rain!

"I expect you wish you had accepted my offer before." Marina says to William as he struggles against the girls. "It could have been so much more pleasant for you."

She slides her fingers through his hair, yanks his head back, and plunges her fangs into his neck. The world begins to swim as he goes lightheaded...

((OOC: 16:36, Today: Marina Vanderholt rolled 4,2 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 4,2. She wants to suck your blood...

That's a 6 after the gang-up bonus.

16:38, Today: Marina Vanderholt rolled 4,1 using d12+1,d4. Damage. 5 total, and since William is still Shaken, that means he suffers 1 Wound.

Also, William need to roll a 6 or better on an opposed Vigor roll or suffer another level of fatigue...yes, things are looking bad.

Next action: JS))

OOC: 08:02, Today: William Pierce rolled -2,4 using d6-3,d6-3, rerolling max with rolls of 1,(6+1)7. Vigor vs. Fatigue.
08:02, Today: William Pierce rolled 0,5 (actually, 4, forgot my second Fatigue level) using d8-3,d6-3, rerolling max with rolls of 3,(6+2)8. Spirit to recover from Shaken.
08:03, Today: William Pierce drew the single card: AD using the Deadlands system. Initiative,again. William has Quick.
08:03, Today: William Pierce drew the single card: 4D using the Deadlands system. Initiative,again. William has Quick.
08:03, Today: William Pierce drew the single card: 2C using the Deadlands system. Initiative.
Hmmm... so next round I go first. We'll see if I can chase her off with what is probably my last shot.... which is at -6 for wounds , fatigue and her damned perfume. Dice Roller to the rescue! ;-)


William feels his strength sap away as he's half-buried under three beautiful women biting him and sucking his blood.
"I... I hope you choke on my blood, you bitch..."

A few feet away, standing mute as ever, he sees a shadowy figure, the same as before. Other shadows appear to the left and right to it.
"Happy now...?" he whispers to them.

Then he starts laughing, almost hysterically.

"Oh, you are the most precious thing!" Marina laughs. "Girls! This one is mine. You can fight over the other."

The vampire harlots dance away from William and swarm Jenny, who goes down screaming as they surround her.

((OOC: Marina falls prey to her Arrogant flaw and orders her minions away. William can take a swing/shot at one of them, if he so chooses, but the minions have the same Pheromones power as Marina has 9though they have a lower Parry).

Assuming both of them escape William unscathed, they're all going to gang up on Jenny, grabbing and biting her. these are Touch attacks (+2 to hit) and they get a +3 gang-up bonus. I'm going to roll a Group Roll against her, to save time. That's one roll with a Wild Die.

01:00, Today: Vampires! rolled 16,10 using d6+5,d6+5, rerolling max with rolls of (6+5)11,5. We want to suck her blood! That's a hit and Raise.

Jenny has to roll Vigor (opposed by their Spirit, which gets a +2 bonus thanks to the Raise) or suffer a level of Fatigue for every success and Raise they get over her.

01:02, Today: Vampires! rolled 3,15 using d8+2,d6+2, rerolling max with rolls of 1,(6+6+1)13. Drain! ouch.

next round: AD. hmm...Does William go before the gaggle of vampire harlots next round?

01:06, Today: Vampires! got the result "Yes" on the magic 8-ball. Does William go before the vampires?

Well, that's as unambiguous as it can get.))

William still laughs, but it dies down into a choking, half-sobbing sound as he hears the screams of Jenny.

He pushes his Colt against Marina's chest and pulls the trigger as fast as he can. He feels the impact in his wrist, but again this seems to not phase Marina in the least.

"How do I kill you...?" he wonders out loud, his blood spurting from his bite wounds, then laughs again. "Jenny said this place was the least crazy in town... I wish I could see the rest."

He coughs up blood and, with all his willpower, manages to spit it into Marina's face.

"I'll see you in hell."

OOC: Ok... Shooting at -6.
09:53, Today: William Pierce rolled -1,-1 using d10-6,d6-6, rerolling max with rolls of 5,5. Shooting (and Praying as a free action). Actually, 0,0, I forgot to add in the +1 for the double Tap.

Colt Frontier 2/6.

"Oh, sugar." Marina says, leaning in close. "You can't. That's all there is to it. If you see me in Hell, it's because I'm the Devil's mistress."

She pulls William's hair again, lifting his lips to hers before she bites down on his lip, sucking the life from him with a blasphemous kiss.

((OOC: 02:21, Today: Marina Vanderholt rolled 7,3 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 7,3. Bite!

02:21, Today: Marina Vanderholt rolled 11,1 using d12+1,d4, rerolling max with rolls of 10,1. Damage. Total of 12, which is a Shaken and 1 wound. not actually enough to drop you yet, but there's still the opposed roll for the fatigue.

02:25, Today: Marina Vanderholt rolled 7,3 using d10,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 7,3. Vigor.

If this drops you to Incapacitated, do you want to attempt your Incapacitation roll or play your Quick Funeral card?))

William Pierce gasps, the fingers of his left hand flexing and shaking... then everything grows dark and his Colt finally slips from his fingers.

OOC: 10:41, Today: William Pierce rolled 0,-3 using d6-5,d6-5, rerolling max with rolls of 5,2. Vigor vs. blood loss, 3 wounds, 2 fatigue.
Inc roll? Why prolong this? I'll play the Quick Funeral card.

Some Mood Music

It's going...he can feel it slipping away from him, like a half-remembered dream fading from the waking mind. Images, once so clear and important, fade, and it's hard to remember just what was so important about it all.

The darkness comes. Smothering nothing. A bleak eternity of dark and empty welcomes William.

And then the pain starts. Needles of flame licking his skin, iron chains cutting into his wrists, dragging him down, down to Perdition...

Then there's the sound of flapping bat wings, and something grabs him and pulls him back from the flames and the chains and the angry ghosts chanting his name in anticipation.

The claws release him, and he falls...

He starts regaining sensation. His burned skin throbs painfully against frigid snow. He's face-down in a drift, and all around him are dark shadows chanting for his blood.

"William! William! William!" They shout, spewing their hate at him as he lays in the snow.

And then one sickening familiar voice breaks above the crowd.

"Billy!" His father shouts, his shadow towering over him. There's the unmistakeable >*slp-slp-slp-slp!*< sound of a belt clearing belt loops. "You've really done it now, Billy Boy!" The shadow looms nearer, and nearer. "Time for you to TAKE YOUR MEDICINE!"

Terror washes over William and he struggles to turn around on his back. All of a sudden he's back in that ramshackle house in Godforsaken Omaha City and he smells Ma's pot on the stove cooking and the mix of his father's smells - sweat, whiskey and tobacco, all assaulting his senses.

He sees the belt buckle first and it looks as large as a baby's head, vicious with spikes and razors.

His hands and feet are numb and he digs frantically through the snow, trying to get away... then his hand touches a small rock and William feels the terror subsize, being replaced by anger and hatred.

"You...."

He crouches, then gets up, slowly. "I should've slit your throat when I had the chance."

The huge shadow halts, examining the situation. "Y'all don't talk back to me, boy." It says, and lashes out with the belt.

The huge spiked head whips through the air and smashes into William's shoulder. Cheers erupt from the shadowy crowd as the razorblades tear his shirt and blood splatters on the snow and the wooden walls of his childhood home.

"Always said you'd come to no good end." The giant shadow rumbles. "Now it's time to straighten you out."

William staggers back from the impact, but he struggles to remain standing.
"You've always been a talker... all big mouth, no brain, no heart. You're such a coward. You never picked a fight with someone your own size!"

He raises his hand with the rock, sharp and glistening wet.
"Come here and I'll straigthen YOU out, you hillbilly backwater no-good gambling son of a bitch!"

William's defiance is met with another stroke of the lash, this time across his face. This is followed with a deep chuckle.

"My, ain't that the pot calling the kettle black. Coward?"

{{Crack!}}

The lash bites into William's left side, breaking a rib.

"What do you call a man who shots a fella because the ne'er-do-wells he's fallen in with will think less of him for not being a rapist?"

{{Crack!}}

Now his leg, slicing through the muscle to the bone.

"What do you call a man who robs banks and murders the workers because they ain't speedy enough?"

{{Crack!}}

Now his other leg, at the knee joint.

"What do you call a man who repays a kindness in the dead of winter with a bullet?"

{{Crack!}}

Now over his eyes, sending blood spilling down his face.

"What do you call a man who pushes his friend out in front of a firing squad to save his own damn worthless hide?"

{{Crack!}}

Now his groin, sending excruciating pain throughout his whole body.

"You want a piece o' me, boy?" The giant says, watching to see if the punishment makes William waver. "Come over here and take it, if you think you're hard enough. Or lay down and take it like the mongrel I always knew you were."

William tries to avoid the blows, but he's slow, so slow. The pain is excrutiating and he sinks down to his knees, tears rolling down his cheek, tears of shame and anger.

As the shadow of his father counts down his sins, he fights against them, preparing an answer, no an excuse, that is washed of this tongue by every slap of the beltbuckle.

I had no choice...

I knew we were running out of time...

He would've told the sheriff...

He would've done the same...

With the last strike his right hand opens, the stone rolling out of his fist, falling into the soft snow next to his knees.

He hears the chanting of the shadowy crowd. Through the veil of blood over his eyes he can barely see anything. But he does see that triumphant smile of this bastard of his father.
His throat is dry, but he manages an answer.

"... they call him William Pierce. They call him your son."
And then he grins through his tears, his teeth bloody.

"Do they, now?" the giant says, then turns to the crowd of chanting shadows. "What do y'all say about this son o' mine? Who is he to you?"

"Murderer!"

"Thief!"

"Villain!"

"Judas!"

The crowd surges forward, shouting epithets. Their voices wash over him, their stories intermingling.

"...coward didn't have the guts to stand up to them, didn't have the guts to join in, just shot me and then called himself a man after..."

"...My wife! My children! You didn't just murder me, you left them penniless and starving in the streets..."

"...took you in out of the kindness of my Christian Soul. And what was my reward? A bullet in the back!..."

"...For six months, we run together. You turned me out 'fore I could scream! You protect the man you're with. You watch his back! Everybody knows that! Except you, you son of a bitch..."

The shadows grab William, one at each limb, holding him down in the snow. The giant moves forward and looks down.

"Sounds like I ain't the one they're mad at, Billy Boy." It says, and raises the lash once again. "Maybe they don't call you my son. Maybe they call me your father."

"No... no...." William protests, struggling against the shadows of his victims.

He let's his head fall back, struggling again, groaning with the effort, to no effect.
He relaxes and looks at the four figures.

"Yes... yes, I was a coward and a thief and a murder and a Judas. And I am sorry. I wish I hadn't done those awful things. But I deserve your hatred. And not a day goes by where I don't condemn myself for what I did to you and your kin."
He struggles again, tries to raise his upper body back into a sitting position, the wounds the belt buckle cut running deep and bleeding profusely, blackening the snow.
"I may be your son... but you are not my father. My father died the day they took the farm from him. You are just the booze and the whores that took him over!"

The Shadows continue to hold him down.

"Not good enough."

"An apology won't bring me back to life!"

"If you're sorry, you're going to need to prove it!"

"Actions speak louder than words, after all."

The giant chuckles again. "Oh, I ain't even that. Your knife killed me, Billy Boy. The wound got sour and the gangrene did the rest. I spent an awful lot o' time fryin' in Hell, but you know what? Looks like the tables have turned. You've died, Billy Boy. Died and gone to Perdition. And wouldn't you know it? The demon they tapped to punish your sorry ass was me. So git yourself comfortable, 'cause we're gonna be here for eternity."

Pierce ponders that for a few moments, the silence stretching, the four shadows still pinning him down.
He keeps looking at the demon that was his father. "Good, then you couldn't hurt Ma and Lily and Aaron no more... for that I'll happily fight with you for all eternity. There ought to be a rusty knife somewhere in hell."

He spits at his father, his spittle mixed with blood. Then he remembers that... fanged bitch drinking his blood, how his world turned dark.

He cranes his head, looking at each of the four figures.
"We have unfinished business between us. I will make it up to you in whatever which way I can. But I have unfinished business... up there... too. I hear that sometimes folk come back when they shouldn't... if you let me get back, I'll make amends. And if I fail, and I get back here... ", he turns back to face the father-demon, " each of you can take your vengeance on me for however long you wish, first."

His tone is grim and his jaw is set tight.
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:32, Thu 08 Dec 2011.

((OOC: Make a Spirit Roll, please. You get a +3 bonus, but it's an opposed roll.))

OOC: 22:44, Today: William Pierce rolled 10,5 using d8+3,d6+3, rerolling max with rolls of 7,2. Spirit!

"That defiance is something I'll have to beat out of you right quick. You got to understand who's in charge here." The giant growls, snapping his spike and razor belt a few times.

The four shadows holding William down look at each other. They stare at each other in silent consultation for quite some time, then turn their attention back to William.

"Once a murderer, always a murderer."

"We let you back, you'll be a monster."

"But they say even the Devil has a purpose to serve under Heaven."

"So yeah, we can let you back."

"But the ogre goes with you."

"And he won't play nice."

"Two souls in one body, eternally warring for control."

"And if you die again, it's for keeps."

"Every night we'll drag you down here and remind you of what's at stake."

"We haven't forgotten what you've done."

"Nor forgiven."

"And we'll be watching."

They release him, and, much to his surprise, he begins to rise up into the air.

"NO! This one is MINE!" The giant shrieks, but the four shadows have now turned on him, barring his way, holding him back as William ascends towards the light...

((OOC: 14:53, Today: The Stray rolled 6,2 using d10,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 6,2. Dominion. Success and raise. You'll start with 1 Dominion.

And can I just say that this has been an awesome RP experience? Seriously, this rocked.))

OOC: That was great! Now, I wonder where I'm gonna wake up again...

((OOC: And you shall find out!...when I open the thread "Blood at Sundown" for posting.))

This thread is closed. Please resume posting on the Chapter 13.2: Blood at Sunset thread.