Cynthia pauses for the moment, letting the shock of battle subside, then snaps back to action. She hurries to Howard's side, kneeling down and placing her shotgun on the ground, checking him for any signs of life, or any hope of saving him.

The Count made a grab for Miss Holloway's arms as she ran past but missed. As he slung his rifle and with drew one of the pair of revolvers he yelled

"Wait"

as he hurry after her revolver pointed at any of the cultists who may make an attack on them.

He said a silent prayer for both men as he moved to Gavigan's body. Making sure he was dead he riffled through the man's pockets.

As he lay in Cynthia's arms, Howard's eyes were glazed over, staring upwards. Unseeing. His chest was still pierced by a club with a single, wicked spike. Not surprisingly, there was no rise and fall of breath, nor did her compact mirror fog up with a trace of breath. There was no pulse of life in his veins.

The Count discovered Gavigan he was wearing conventional clothing under his black robes. As he started to search, he discovered the man was not, in fact, quite dead. He opened one eye and focused the dilated pupil on Bathony. Smiling, blood leaking down from the corner of his mouth, he whispered with a kind of Satanic glee, "see? We... they... They... have come. Don't... you hear... them?" With that he sighed, breath rattling in his throat.

Outside the front door, where they left a couple of Darlington's men to keep watch, there was a shout of terror! "Oh my God! NOOOoooooo!"

The Count was a bout to slap some more information from the vile man when he inconveniently expired. At the yell from the sentries the Count added his own call:

"To me, to me, form ranks and close the door."

He changed the magazine in his rifle and tried to find some cover for the group.

In reply to Count Sigismund Bathony (msg # 96):

While Cynthia and The Count were busy, the Perkins brothers ran over to the hostages and freed them.

As Bathony heard Gavigan's parting words, CSM Jones came up beside him and asked,

"Do you want us to bayonet these other louts? Make sure they're all dead?"




"Good lord, sir! The shouts are coming from outside, we should let those poor devils in! Or else they'll get slaughtered!"

"Of course Colour Sergeant. Lets get them in and barricade the door"

He moved back to the door and tried to spy the constables.

The Perkins brothers began bayoneting all the bodies, without mercy. If they weren't dead before they were now! (Tom had exchanged his Lee-Enfield sniper rifle with CSM Jones' stock Lee-Enfied as the sniper rifle lacked bayonet lugs.)

Bathony moved up to the front door, CSM Jones in support, the latter with Webly in hand.

Opening the spy-hole, he could see nothing and no one outside.

Keeper's Note: Going to hold this action here, let others have a chance to react.

JM stood silent for a moment as the smoke cleared and the cultists lay dead or dying on the floor.  He had a good deal of experience in the War but little of it was so up close and personal.  After his moment he went forward and check Gavigan with the Count.  He shuddered at the man's words, feeling that there was a wicked truth to them.  As the Count moved to the front door, JM riffled through the corpse's pockets to see what might be found as far as clues.

In reply to John-Marc Falcon (msg # 100):

Molly just stared at the carnage, holding her weapon in her hand.  Her mouth was open and she was breathing hard but for some reason she couldn't seem to move.  She knew she wasn't hurt but seeing all of that carnage and then watching the men go through the corpses pockets...

Molly turned to the side and threw up.  There wasn't any way to stop it really and she certainly wasn't going to help walk in with all that gore and blood.  Mungo might have handled it but now that the main action was over with Mungo had retreated and it was poor Molly who stood there wondering what in the heck she had gotten herself into.

After not spotting the constables through the spy-hole he was loath to call out for them in fear of giving their position away to the Cult reinforcements he was sure where probably just outside.

He closed the spy hole and suggested reinforcing the interior door and taking the table cloths off the dinning table in the other room to cover the bodies of their friends.

There was a moment of ominous quiet. Inside the grand ballroom, they quickly began to barricade the front door. There was also a stairwell up which wasn't explored.

Overlooked in the confusion and melee, Rashid and Ai'Yesha seemed to be fine, starved but alive.

CSM Jones seemed to be a little concerned they had done nothing to assist those outside. "Have ye gone daft? Why don't we open the door? Or look out a window? What the deuce do you think is out there?

"If no one has the stomach to help those poor devils, I'll go myself. I'm opening the door!" Grabbing a rifle, he pulled back the bolt to the front door and opened it, disappearing outside.

JM called out to CSM before he could open the door.  "Wait, let's be more careful about this than charging about.  Some of you check upstairs.  Molly, can you see to Rashid and Ai'Yesha?  Make sure they are ok and see about arming them."

"Jones, wait!  Let's look about before charging out the door."  He'll head to the door and cautiously open it."
This message was last edited by the GM at 09:29, Tue 12 Feb 2013.

In reply to John-Marc Falcon (msg # 104):

At the door, CSM Jones stopped and waited for JM to look outside.

"Those men are in trouble now! What the devil do you suppose is so threatening out there? A tribe of bloody Pathans waving their scimitars? A fire-breathing dragon? If they're men, we'll shoot them down like dogs! Fine, do get a ruddy move on, then. Sir."

He hefted his pistol and trench club, looking impatient.

Meanwhile, the Perkins brothers looked at each other and JM. George replied, "by "Some of you check upstairs"? You mean us, yes? Or Cynthia and the Count?"

While the men are arguing, Cynthia works to repose her lost friends, and cover them respectfully. If time permits, she unjams her shotgun and reloads it.

Sean shook his head and motioned to the Perkins brothers.  "Take miss Holloway with you and check up stairs."  With that settled he looked to the Count.  "Let's see what we have out here, at least in the immediate vicinity.  I don't want to split us up too badly if things go to hell."  With that he looked carefully outside for their companions.

Molly, for she hadn't turned into Mungo yet, stared at John-Marc for a minute before nodding.  She closed her eyes and when she opened them she was, once again Mungo.  It was a little thing that she had learned to do when she had to track down a story that was a bit unsavory.  She currently couldn't think of anything that would be more unsavory than where she was.

"You heard him men.  Let's go and see what's upstairs shall we?  I'll do the looking and you blokes can do the protecting.  If I have to fire the shotgun, please make sure that you're behind me.  Today hasn't been a stellar day for results with it.  How about one in front and one behind until we run into something?"

Of course Mungo didn't wait for the men to agree but just started up the stairs before Molly could object.

In reply to John-Marc Falcon (msg # 107):

"Agreed, hopefully the light from the house will illuminate the area, but no wondering into the dark. Lets see if we can find where they were standing ?"

"Colour Sergeant cover fire from the door if the balloon goes up. Oh and Mr Perkins if you and your brother could take a position by one of the windows in the upper level when it is clear it would be much appreciated."

With that he steps over the threshold and into the unknown. He only moves a few feet from the door and tries to see if he can workout where the constables were standing.

Cynthia takes her time to make peace with her two lost friends before standing, grabbing her shotgun and cycling it, to clear the jam.

"Why are we going upstairs? What further business do we have here? Fire the flare and let's be to safety."

(She does follow as she talks though, otherwise she'll be left with no one to nag.)

The two victims were gruesome to look at. Phil's eyes were closed, face contorted. Howards eyes were open and staring at nothing, his mouth open in an expression of the deepest existential horror. Once done with paying her respects, Cynthia racked the shotgun and the jammed round ejected easily. She reloaded as she followed Mungo, as well as the Perkins brothers upstairs.

At the front door, JM and Bathony stepped outside. CSM Jones covered from the doorway. There was a fair amount of light from the electric lamps, plus they had their battery-powered hand torches. They could see nothing in the immediate area, the two men they'd left there were just... gone. No bodies, no blood. JM saw something in the light of his torch as he played the beam around. There, a glint! It was one of the Lee-Enfields the detectives had possessed, dropped in the weedy gravel of the driveway.

Molly, then the Perkins brothers, followed by Cynthia stood at the top of the stairs, looking left and right.The stairs led into an upper foyer in the middle of a long corridor running the length of the mansion.  The corridor seemed empty, with several doors opening off either sides and ends.

The Perkins brothers decided they had no time or need for a detailed search so they just chose a couple doors on the south side of the corridor, overlooking the front. "Okay, I'll check that door there, you get the one beside, then we cover out the windows facing the front!"

The Perkins brothers went ahead and opened their 2 randomly-chosen doors. It turned out these doors led to empty bedrooms filled with trash and dirty clothing. They opened the windows and threw open the shutters so they could cover JM and Bathony.

Outside, JM and Bathony heard (and saw) the Perkins brothers opening the window shutters, rifle barrels poking out.

Hopefully with the two men covering him the Count moved towards the rifle in the grass. He had his own weapon hard into his shoulder, he was aware that his breathing sounded loud to his own ears.

"Mr Falcon, if you would not mind."

He couched once he was in arms reach of the discarded weapon making himself less of a target for sniper fire as he retrieved it.

Mungo saw the garbage in the "empty" rooms but knew from past experience that you can also learn stuff from garbage.  While the men stood guard, Mungo carefully looked through the garbage and around the room to see if they could find any more clues.  If she didn't find any, she'd then tell the guys that she was moving to another room to look at things.

JM felt better knowing that the men above were covering them.  He glanced about seeing the discarded rifle and then frowning.  "I have you covered Count."

A quick count of the upstairs doors by Cynthia revealed about 6 doors on the north side (including an obvious W/C), 1 on each end of the corridor, plus 9 on the south side (with a second W/C). Keeper's Note: Molly can make a Spot Hidden roll.

After picking up the rifle, Bathony carefully looked but didn't see anything in the darkness. Neither did JM. It seemed quiet outside. Keeper's Note: the Count can make a Listen and Spot Hidden Roll, JM can make a Listen check.

Looking around, Bathony couldn't see anyone outside, neither friend nor foe.

However, he thought he saw something up on edge of the peaked roof. That area was shrouded in shadow because of the placement of the outside electric lights.

Standing in the doorway, JM thought he could hear an outboard motor from one of their launches, out on the river, but was unsure. More frighteningly, he could hear some kind of scraping coming from up above him. Something very large.

Inside and upstairs, Cynthia and Molly could also hear the roof creaking a little. And some muffled scratching. In one of the rooms occupied by the Perkins brothers, Molly found a packet of sketches (along with sketchbooks, drawing implements, easel, etc.) tossed in a pile in the corner. There were sketches of the mansion, the obelisk, circles of cultists engaged in foul sexual rituals... and what looked to be a dragon of some kind?

JM steps back into the doorway.  "There is something big up on the roof, watch out everyone."