O'Rourke gazes at him a few seconds longer, then lets it be.

"¡Liberame!" the floor demands, hopelessly. Al, the grizzled Dust Adder, notices Jake's gaze.

"Speedy down there figured hidin' in the house from this crazy storm was a good idea," the cowpuncher tells him. "Priest saw him, not me, but he was all licking the blood off the floor, so we figured once the leprechaun hid in the cellar, best make sure he stays there."

"¡No soy 'leprechaun'! ¡y soy señora, así!"

The priest sighs. "I said that I saw something like it back home - that same half-dog, half-child movement, mostly, and the size. Not all the...Fair Ones are leprechauns. 'Leprechaun' just means one of Themselves' leatherworkers, anyway."

"¡Liberame!"
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:51, Tue 26 Aug 2014.

"Okay!" Alouette chirps, then straightens. " ! Should self take Mister Hardin's guns away? Then he would be minus guns, therefore minus probability of shooting men, women, children or pets."

"Wait, John Wesley Hardin?" Percy queries from behind his mother's fussing. Even Abbie on her stool is staring.

Watching Hank, meanwhile, Pierce can see the telltale tensing: that's a lad sizing up how to shoot and/or cut his way out of a room at need, who doesn't trust the present company.

"That really depends on Mr. Hardin, now, doesn't it?" Evans says smoothly. "We could certainly use another good gun in this situation, but I'd hate to take it away from those who know how to use it without cause."

23:44, Today: William Pierce rolled 12,1 using d6-2,d6-2, rerolling max with rolls of (6+6+2)14,3. red chip.
23:44, Today: William Pierce rolled -1,1 using d6-2,d6-2, rerolling max with rolls of 1,3. Smarts.
Will I rue me blowing chips on these rolls? Probably.


"Wild Bill Hickok let Hardin keep his guns when he returned to Abilene", William offers.
"Hardin never made no fuss about it. At least, that's what Bill told me."

<small>Yeah, I can drop names, too!</small>

William keeps looking across the room.
"Wait - where's Vega?"

"Which guns are good guns?" Alouette asks.

"I...yeah, okay, you got me," Hardin sighs.

"No fuss sir, none," he adds, looking curiously at William.

Abbie has paled somewhat, wooden sword forgotten in her hand. Hank tries giving her a smile, though it doesn't come out right at all. Percy sets his shoulders back, glowering, but then has to fend his mother off far away enough to resume coughing.


"Deputy Vega went to give paper to the Chinese," the clank informs William helpfully.

"Good!" Evans says. "Glad we have that settled. Now to find that bloody vampire."

"You should be fine unless you kick a...." William starts a reply to Hardin, but then stops in his tracks as his eyes glance over something.
"Fuck", he mutters.
He points to a hole in the wall, the laundry chute.
"We just might have lost Vega."

He walks over to the chute and throws in a quick glance.
9:46, Today: William Pierce rolled 5,5 using d6+4,d6+4, rerolling max with rolls of 1,1. Super Notice.

Hmm... Snakeeyes. Do I need to spend a chip to re-roll?

The door opened, and a beefy woman in a preacher's gown stepped in.  "Land sakes, does anyone want to tell me what in tarnation is going on here?"

"A secret society of wizards made a deal with an ancient Indian snake god for reasons I don't know." Evans says to the newcomer. "They found Ghost Rock in the town's old mine and were planning to exploit it. A band of partisan Union guerrillas wandering far from home discovered this but were captured by the local gang of cowboys and forced to work the mines until they caught sick, died, and raised again as Walkers. Meanwhile, the snake god began waking up and drawing monsters to this place. It seems to get stronger the more people are frightened. Some of those monsters, a troop of vampire whores, tried to escape the town when it was attacked by Comanche who had been made immortal by a misguided scientist who took a picture that somehow captured their souls. They failed, but the queen vampire of the lot wound up here, got loose, and began eating all the farm hands. She's currently loose somewhere in the house. If that sounds like a lot to take in, oh, believe me, you don't know the half of it."

He looks at William. "Damn!" He pulls out a sunlight bomb and his flamethrower and begins heading back towards the library.

"Lot to take in?  Son, who told you how to tell a sermon?  If there's demons in need o' huntin'. I'm here to help."  Sarah rolled up her shirt sleeves.  "Sounds like there's work to be done.  What exactly are you facing, and in which order?  Y'all best get your act together if you're going to be taking on the legions of hell."

William keeps his eyes on the laundry chute.
"Not a legion. Just a very, very dangerous vampire. You'll need to be very careful around her. She will easily kill you all, even if you'd face her together.
But she's trying to takes us down, one by one."

From his tone, some might get the impression that William is admiring her tactical approach.

"Your guns won't hurt her. She will fear you, Sister, as your kind seems to have some power over theirs. But don't count on it. I saw another of her kind maul Father O'Rourke without much difficulty."
He looks from Hank to Hardin and Percy.
"Forget about your guns. Sunlight would kill her, but that's a few hours away. Fire doesn't agree with them either, but too dangerous in her. You've seen the bunkhouse. They're like kindling."

He spreads his arms. "Look around, get yourself a nice sharp stake. Or two, even better. Run a stake through her heart. It won't kill her, but it will lock her up. I'll handle the rest."

He nods at the laundry chute and asks Evans: "Marshal... could we use one of your grenades for a trap right here? If she tries to escape back down here again, a blast from one of these things would alert us to her plans and mabye even take care of her."

"Those are Bad Words and should not be used in polite company," the angel chides before Evans starts pushing his way back to the main kitchen.

The interior of the laundy chute is metallic and dark. Traces of flour from the kitchen floor sweetly outline where a lady's bare toes trod a little way up. The room above must be in darkness.

"It comes out in Ward's bedroom - there's a crucifix in there, I think, but nothing else that'd stop her...Percy, no!" Widow Bradshaw grabs for her son.

"Ma, if she does to Vega what she did to me...I was so sure her thoughts were mine, she was...right in my head. I shot Dave, almost killed Al. If Abbie hadn't stood in front of him like that, I'd have shot the priest, too...and if She can make me shoot my pals and a holy father, She's going to have no trouble getting into the goshdarn library."

"Percival Merritt Bradshaw, you are sick and if you get killed I will die of sorrow, so stay in my sight." Widow Bradshaw draws herself up to her full height to stare the young man down.

"Tarnation is not going on in here, Shiny Fat Lady," the strange metal...thing tells Sarah. "We all are done doing delaying the Apocalypse. Why does your hat feel of Satan?"


[[@William - no need, I reckon superpowers are superpowers. Also, take a red chip for very smart use of environment/resources.

wait, where'd Sarah get a gown from? Also, did she bring her shotgun, or just the cross?]]

About then, the screaming starts.

"VAMPIRE IN THE HALL!" a voice yells distantly from upstairs.

Evans nods at William's suggestion. "Could work..." Then he hears the shouting. "Go! I'll set it up! everyone, clear out!"

((OOC What would I need to roll to set up the booby trap? Weird Science?))

Sarah looks at the mechanical angel.  "Well, I'll be!  I ain't never seen nothing like you?  How is it you can smell the devil when you ain't got a nose?"

OOC: Sarah's shotgun is on a sling, so she's always got it with her. It's not being held at the moment, though.

"Alouette! There's time to talk later!"

Trusting that the clank will follow, and hoping that Hank still considers William as a friend, Pierce ascends the stairs.
Pistol and stake in hands.

"Self does not smell, Shiny Fat Lady: self contains internal quantifying aetheric sub-barometric instruments, also- ! " told to go help, the clank abruptly patters off after William.

Abbie is already loping out into the foyer. Hank, frowning, casts about for a stake.

---

As folk pass through the kitchen they begin to notice the dust shaking loose from the ceiling. "Floor vibrating!" Alouette observes.

"¡Ellos vienen!  ¡No puedes salir!" the voice under the pantry floor cries, accompanied by a frantic scraping at the boards.

[[@Evans - Sure, sounds legit.

@ Pierce - you can about make it to the bottom of the stairs; draw in for next round]]

"This might be the least strange thing I say all day, but what the dickens is under that floor?" Sarah wondered aloud, as she followed the clank up the stairs.

10:54, Today: William Pierce drew the single card: QD using the Deadlands system. Initiative.

Jake nodded to himself muttering, "Yep ... never a dull moment."

"Vaya con dios, senora." Jake said down to the thing under the floor then headed toward the direction of the shouting

[[Roll me your running die, Sarah - from where she was with her Obese-reduced Pace she won't make it onto the stairs, but I need to know if she'll be in range of the fight next round.

William, hie thyself over to the Big House thread, and fear not! I'm going to make a shiny new one for the Big Encounter soon to sweep all this mess up.]]

"One of the little people that is like a dog with pointy bits," the clank chirps. At the corner of her eye, Sarah sees a young Catholic priest with rust-brown hair and blood-streaked hands filling a jar with water from the sink.

"¿Adonde vayar? ¡Hé! ¡No me dejes ahi! ¡Hé! ¡Cabrónes!"

From the sounds of things, everyone else is heading after the vampire, too, but there's an audible and increasing rumbling sound...

Meanwhile, Evans carefully arranges his sunlight bomb in such a way as to activate when someone comes down the laundry chute.

((OOC: 13:05, Today: The Amazing Evans rolled 5,3 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 5,3. Weird Science.))

20:48, Today: Sister Sarah rolled 3 using 1d4, rerolling max with rolls of 3. Running.

Cunning use of socks rigs the chute against easy escape.

The foyer is dark, but Sarah can see the clank's lenses glowing faintly in their depths as it pauses, staring towards the front door, static sighing in its shell.

[[That puts you in the foyer outside the kitchen - mind the puddle of pee and the just-visible corpse on the floor that looks like it got shot, impaled then stomped on by something with massive horselike-but-cloven hooves (long story), and don't worry, there'll be plenty of action to go round presently.]]

Before Sarah can go more than a few steps, a wild-eyed Texas longhorn bursts through the door.

[[please put your next post on the upcoming brand-new thread from here.]]