Circle W Ranch, 4:17am Easter Saturday

Round the front:

William slinks warily from the carriage house and along the front of the building, rapped by hail but favoured by the shadows cast by the still-burning bunkhouse across the yard. Hank joins him, cautiously, some strange dog trotting at his side.

There's a steam wagon nearby, though it's been pulled over on its side by a soaked and near-hysterical draught mule hitched to the shortened traces. In front of the porch, a horse is standing with an unnatural stillness whilst a weird mound of fluttering shadow writhes at its feet.

---

Round the back:

Jake watches the rider carefully approach the thing on the ground, then dismount and crouch over it.

William looks at Hank, then jerks his head to the right. He waits for Hank to nod, in agreement and lets the boy take a wide berth to the the direction Pierce indicated before he proceeds.
Standard flanking manuever. The boy had remembered his lessons.

Pierce rested his left hand on one of his makeshift stake, then slowly strides forward, trying to keep an eye on his surroundings while trying to make out who - or what- is crouching there.


20:57, Today: William Pierce rolled 6,9 using d6+4,d6+4, rerolling max with rolls of 2,5. Super-Notice.

Jake pondered what to do, the others probably didn't know about this vampire, and he would have a tough time warning them. His eyes semi-accustomed to the dark looked about for something of use.

OOC: Are any cows still around?

Hank swings out wide, his quadrapaedal companion pausing a moment, tensing, then vanishing in a blur of motion. William catches sight of her off down near the bunkhouse, then again across the yard at the near corner of the feed shed, head low, sniffing.

Neither the mass nor the horse react to William's approach: as he comes a little nearer, he can see crowlets occasionally breaking off the frenzy, fluttering up or hopping about, giving the vampire just enough time to half-heal before the little beaks set in again. There are a few on the horse, too; William notices the beast's eyeballs are missing, and strips of meat have been torn off around the mutilated sockets and muzzle. The animal stands without reaction.

It doesn't smell alive. The crowlets call and cackle to each other over the hail: they seem to be having a great time as their quarry makes inhuman sounds and tries to rise, allowed partway before the crowlets pile up, pushing him back to the mud.

[[They weren't going too fast - if he chased after 'em now, he could probably find a cow.]]

The vampire turns the lump over, then heaves it up over his saddlebow.

Jake frowned, the cattle wouldn't be of much help as far as they were from him. He tried to recall what he can about vampires.

OOC: Literally have zero ideas about what Jake could do that would be helpful, not insane nor suicidal.
10:58, Today: Jake Lawrence rolled 2,5 using d4,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 2,5. Know: Occult - Vampires.

[[Aw, but "insane and suicidal" is what Jake does best! I mean, he got here by deciding to bail out of an upstairs window into a stampeding herd of cattle...you can roll Notice -2 for me if you like, though.]]

The cowboy checks his burden is on there properly and mounts up. As the dead man turns his overly-compliant steed's head to the northeast Jake racks his brains for all he's learned about them so far.

The dullard ones at the church had had the flesh burned off their bones but hadn't died until stabbed with wooden splinters...yet that smart, clawed one that attacked the priest didn't crumble when stabbed in the very heart, just froze up, still unnaturally alive when that thing from outside space (Jake finds his memory of the crawler in darkness is already hazy, as though his mind is trying to erase the sight in self-defense) burnt-froze and tore the meat off him...he'd succumbed to the flamethrower, though.

Shooting didn't seem to work on any of them, even boosted by Jake's 'friends' on the Other Side, though one of William's shots had seemed to do damage - damage the female at the top of the stairs didn't seem to be expecting, either. As far as he remembered, though, Evans' holy hand grenades seemed to work on a combination of quasi-sunlight and the inclusion of priest-blessed ingredients: perhaps Pierce had had his gun blessed. Maybe praying at them would help? The older Dust Adder in the house was almost certainly alive due to singing hymns, he'd seen that in the vision.

The folk in the house had been putting garlic around, apparently to keep the vampires away, and the clank had been wittering about onions...plus the alpha female had been clearly uncomfortable when she stole the bucket of pee; perhaps their heightened predatory senses couldn't cope with extreme scents? The jiang shi had stayed well away from that stuff, but it seemed to be a different sort of vampire altogether, so the cowboy out here probably wouldn't react much to cooked rice.

Jake did recall something else about vampires and rice, though. Dimly-recalled memories stir, of a European neighbour's stories...yes, they'd scatter rice or seeds in front yards when the night drew in, because the vampires would be compelled to count such things. If he had a number of similar small objects, the creature might be distracted with a need to pick them up...


[[In summary, Jake has seen different things affect different vampires, and can surmise there are different types, but he knows wood, blessed things, and strong scent/light are likely to affect all of them to some degree.]]

OOC:
13:56, Today: Jake Lawrence rolled 13,3 using d10-2,d6-2, rerolling max with rolls of (10+5)15,5. Notice (-2 GM).