The next two hundred miles of travel are uneventful. The fog grows thinner as the day wears long, but it never entirely disappears. A few farms and fishing shacks are spread out along the Pecos side of the river, but on the Mexican side where the Lumberjacks are traveling, the banks are desolate wilderness. A few fisherman are working in the river, but they keep close to the Pecos banks.

The largest animal seen is a jaguar (the natural kind) lazing on a tree limb which hangs over the river. The animal is brave enough -- or dumb enough -- to remain still even as the lumbering Behemoth stomps past it. The glimmermount, however, does seem to curiously pick up its pace when moving past the cat.

Eventually, the caravan does reach a sign of civilization. A small village on the riverbanks is surrounded by tall wooden walls. Foot prints in the river mud around the village reveal both human and animal feet of a variety of types. A small and rickety-looking dock does extend into the river, but there are no boats visible.

A voice in Spanish shouts to the party as is approaches. "Go away, strangers! We have nothing to trade and nothing to steal! You were not invited!"

It's not yet night time, but the sunset is scant because of the hazy fog which never completely lifted. Sundown is less than an hour from now.

"Why would you tell us to go away ? Would you turn us out so close to night ? That is as bad as serving us to the night demons."

Kalista held up her hand for the others to stop. She used full volume on her armor projecting her voice to it might be heard. "Ho good villagers, I am Kalista Nugendare Hawthorne, Knight of the Order of Lord Coke. I come in peace with my comrades, The Lumberjacks. We seek neither to trade nor loot, but to help by providing medical care, justice, and we wish to camp within your borders. Please send out your elders to negotiate with us!"

She gave Polktiain a look and whispered,
This message was last edited by the player at 00:11, Sat 18 Mar 2017.

"Oh sorry." Polk nodded it probably was a good idea and Lady Kalista looked like she knew what she was doing.

From the observation deck of the lumbering Behemoth, Ethan watched as first the villagers, Polk and his wife shouted back and forth. He knew the villagers were speaking Spanish but he had never learned the language. “The next time I get the chance I should pick up one of those universal translators,” he thought. However, he didn’t need to know exactly what they said to get the message, which was apparently ‘Go away!’.

He heard Kalista offer them medical assistance in exchange for being allowed to stay the night and he smiled. “I guess that is my cue,” he thought and headed for the sickbay of the giant robot. He grabbed his field medic backpack and headed for the exit of the Behemoth. “Besides, they might decide to do something violent if they think we are pressing the issue. It’s not like a dragon or a cyber-knight need my protection but what the hell but I would feel better if I were out there just in case.”

Ethan exits the Behemoth and at a unhurried pace walks over to Kalista and Polk. His body has the white circle with red cross on each shoulder; the standard symbol of medical personnel for hundreds of years. On his left breast is the Caduceus, the winged staff with twin serpents that had been insignia of the Medical Corp for the military he had served in. “I realize its been a few hundred years but hopefully these people managed to hold on to the knowledge of what these symbols are. Seeing someone dressed like a medic might help put them at ease.”

He stops next to Kalista and waits on the response of the villagers. The only weapon he has is the pistol holstered on his right thigh.

Doc noted the fog, and paid it more attention than he probably should, since Kalista had started dialog with the villagers, he let her continue. "Brother, you sense anything bad comin' our way?"

The voice from within instructs you to wait there for the elders.

After about ten minutes, a small hidden door opens at the base of a timber wall. Three figures emerge, dressed head to toe in slick leather outfits with masks that feature long beaks. Any character with the History: Pre-Rifts skill will recognize these outfits as being something worn by plague doctors in Europe from the Dark Ages through the Reformation. To anyone else, it probably just looks like they are dressing like birds.

The lead figure speaks with the voice of an old woman in thickly accented Spanish. "Hola, I am called Maria Anna, and I speak for village. You were sent away for your own protection as much as for our protection. This village has been infected by a plague from out of the Rifts, and we have no cure for it." She nods to the figure to her left, a bent older woman in a plague doctor outfit. "This is our Body Fixer, Maria Lucia." She nods to a tall and skinny figure to her right. "And this is Father Roberto, our Priest."

"The wild dead will be out tonight. They come every month on the same night, but if you hide within your robot, they will leave you alone. You would be too much trouble while the village is the easier target, especially with our strongest villages weak and sick. We have our plans for the walking dead when they come for us."

"I suggest going in one of two directions to be safe for the night. You may cross the river here. The water is shallow enough, and the walking dead will not follow you to the northern side of the Rio Grande. You may travel due west and you will reach another village in some Golden Age ruins within half a hour on horse. The people there are much less friendly than even us, but they will accept you, lumberjacks."

Maria Anna is a Vagabond who is eyeballing the group. She has decided that you are an okay enough bunch. She adds, "Congratulations on your recent wedding."

  "Maria Anna is it? The wild dead as you call them really don't stand much chance against us. As for leaving we would be remiss in our knightly oaths to walk away. Now one problem I can help you with. I believe Ethan can attempt to help with the plague." he says in  response to the spiel. When the comment about the wedding is said he says quite honestly "Lady I think you got your mask on to tight. Nobody got married."

"Why are people dressed like birds ?" Polk whispers to Ethan.

Ethan considers how best to answer the young dragon, ignoring the impossibly insightful comment of Maria for the moment. He decides upon an straight forward if overly simple explanation. "They think dressing like that will keep them safe from disease," he whispers back. He hoped that answer would satisfy the dragon's curiosity for at least a little while.

When he heard Sir Arulas say his name, his attention returned to Maria and the other two in front of them. "Thank you Ma'am," he said as a way of acknowledging her congratulations, not sure of her proper title but figured that couldn't hurt. "I'm Ethan and I'm a trained doctor with some experience in treating diseases from the rifts." As he says this, memories of his past try to claw their way forward but he forces those demons back into the recesses of his mind. "My friends have good reason to be confident in their ability to handle the 'wild dead' so please don't worry about us. I'm sure you're doing all you can against this alien illness but maybe I could help. I'm fine with entering your town to examine people but if that's not acceptable, perhaps you could bring one of the sick out here? If they can be moved that is."

Ethan wasn't putting up a brave front nor was he being foolhardy or arrogant. He had good reason to be not overly concerned about the possibility of becoming infected. First, he was in full environmental armor, complete with air filtration and even a backup air supply. Second, since being transported to this strange Earth, he had yet to become sick, no matter what the conditions were.

He was also ignoring her comment about his recent marriage for the moment. He would rather concentrate on curing the sick. Perhaps while he was doing that he would discover how she knew.

Polkitain looks at the costumes and beaks with renewed interest.

"Perhaps some kind of talisman or fetish." He says more to himself then anyone else.

He looks to Kalista wondering if he should still stay quiet.

He does whisper "Thank you." to Ethan.

Doc's hands sit close to his pistols when the woman makes her sudden appearance, "Reckon Arulas is right, we gotta help these folks if we can."

Shaking his head at his brother's earlier question, Nyx watched as the bird-masked townsfolk came out and warned them off. His smile was thin-lipped as he watched Ethan and Kalista offer the Lumberjack's help, sure that whilst it was from the heart it would also provide an opportunity for him to test his mettle against the undead.

And so he nods in support of Doc, "Least we can do, keep the wild ones off them whilst they fight this plague"

Kalista nodded to the woman, "Thank you, it was," she looked at Ethan with a smile, "kind of spur of the moment, but I do not regret it."

At the confirmation from Kalista, Nyx's earlier dismissal of the rings as pure adornment clicked into meaning. His eyes narrowed and he glanced at his brother with one delicate eyebrow raised. Now was not the time to raise it, but something was clearly in play between their normally bombastic cyber-knight and the disarming looking medic

Doc grinned and rolled his eyes at his brother, "Yeah, weird stuff goin' on around here... wild vamps and stranger, to be sure."

The elder shakes her head and sighs heavily. "I did not wish to burden you with details, but if you will not leave, then you must know. We have no intention of fighting the wild dead this night. These monsters have raided our village for years, and no matter how high we build our walls, some are taken each month. We have managed to kill a few, but they recover their loses quickly at our expense. The Wild Dead take the youngest and strongest among us first. Now, only the old are left. When the plague arrived, we decided it was time to perform a different act of defiance. We will allow the Wild Dead in tonight, putting up only a token fight for show. When they come inside our walls as they have always done, we intend to destroy the town and ourselves with it. These walls are now a bomb which will fill the countryside with wooden shrapnel. We do not require a cure, merely the strength left to light a fuse."

"You make the choice I might make", observed Nyx, moved and impressed by their fatalism, "Were I long into my time. But death is ... mostly irreversible. We are the Lumberjacks, our trade felling the wild dead and the monstrous like a glade ripe for harvesting. Let us take them this night and keep your strength for tomorrow, when Ethan can help with the plague if we still stand and, if not, you may still have strength to enact your plan"

Polkitain wants to say something but since he was told to keep quiet he just claws the ground a bit to give him something to occupy him.

 "Polk buddy if you have something to say then say it." Arulas says quietly to the young dragon as he kneels next to him. As he rises "Most of the ones left I imagine are your son's and daughters. Am I right? I have the want to help, but I think I understand. I do not like your plan because it just smells of giving up. However if you demand that once more I will ride off until tomorrow when I will come and make sure the deed is done. I will bury the bodies and make sure they do not return from the grave. I would prefer the option given first. We will honor this statement. Even you Ethan. If they ask again we will leave until tomorrow and then we will return."

"I am just curious why people here don't move to someplace nicer without vampires ? I am just trying to understand humans more."

Kalista nodded at the elder. To Polk, "There is too much blood in the sand. They don't have anything left but revenge." She looks at the elder again, "Your choice is valid. I will not interfere."

Ethan listened in horrified silence. "The vampires have made them suffer so badly they see death as the only escape," he thought. It was not the first time he had encountered such despair though he fervently wished it had been. On his Earth he had once seem something very similar, the only difference being the agents of the suffering.

Dwelling on that sad memory would do no one, least of all him, any good in the here and now so he took a deep breath and cleared his mind. He wanted to still help these people but they did not want it. He might be able to somehow force them to let him find a cure but at what cost? How much harm would he be responsible for inflicting upon them in the course of forcing a cure on them? Yet if he did nothing, they would all die, if not by the disease then by their own hands.

To say Ethan was conflicted would be like observing the Pacific Ocean was a good size. Then the words of the Hippocratic oath came to him, 'I will do no harm'. Those were not the exact words but that was their meaning from the dawn of medicine. His oath as a physician was one of the few things he had left from his Earth. It was precious to him and he would not abandon them.

Now that he has the answer to his moral dilemma, he looked at Sir Arulas and then at Mara Anna. "I can't say I'm happy with your plan ma'am but I can understand how people can feel like they have no other option. I am asking, please, that you give us the chance to stop the vampires tonight. If we fail, well then you can still go ahead with your plan, just like my friends have said. If we win, I'd beg you to reconsider letting me help cure this disease."

Pokitain was trying hard to understand.

"If I may speak."  If allowed he then says to the elders.

"You seem to still want to fight even though it means your death. So there is still some desire. We want to help you, would you give us the chance ?"

Polkitain stood near Ethan.

Samuel is in the Behemoth oblivious to the conversation outside, unless somebody brings it to his attention,, as he fiddles with this mechanical bit or or another to see if he can't put silver plated spikes on the outside of the Behemoth.

Doc shook his head, "I ain't goin' out without a fight, period. Even if I know it's one I can't win. We will fight em tonight ma'am. See if our wonderboy Ethan can help y'all after sun up."

The elders listen to what each of the lumberjacks have to say patiently. The respectful tones invoked by these adventurers invoke a mutual respect. The elders silently confer with each other by means of throwing each other a glance. Ultimately, they find Ethan's passionate plea to be persuasive. His abnormally high M.A. doesn't hurt either. The tall elder was himself on the fence until Polkatain weighed in, and it seems that even a juvenile dragon's council carries weight.

Anna speaks for the village again, answering, "If you will take a stand against the dead, you might as well do so here. You may use our walls as you wish tonight, but our people are locking themselves inside their homes where you will not disturb them. This rule remains for your own protection. Even the young doctor should not keep his distance as it would be a pointless danger for him to come too close."

By quick survey and questions, the Lumberjacks learn a little about the tactical situation. The town walls are SDC structures but fairly sturdy. One could walk across the top of the seven meter tall wall if careful. The wall's base is wooden reinforced by a mound of clay, two meters thick. The houses inside are simple wooden structures and not very strong, but there is a chapel large enough to shelter the entire town if pressed. Most houses have small cellars. The river is only five meters from the wall's base at a slight downward slope. The surrounding area has been cleared of trees and other cover for thirty meters in ever direction, but light woods cast shadows beyond that. No ley lines sit nearby. The entire village's population is about two dozen, but there are beds here for four times as many.

La Ciudad por el Rio turns out to be a reverent little town, keeping to the old ways. The Marias turn out to be nuns who wear habits underneath their pestilence suits. They used to be very close friends with the residents of the next town to the west until those people all converted to some alien religion from out of the rifts.

The villagers have no mega-damage weapons, but arm themselves with wooden weapons of their own design.

The dryad who was mentioned in the fairy report is known to these villagers. She lives in a tree by the river which the Lumberjacks must have passed on their way here.

++"Samuel tell me the Water Cannon is ready. We have one maybe two hours left of light. So it had better. An unknown number of inbound wild ones are on their way."

"If we're lucky the wild leeches will recall a little of their past lives. Enough to not simply barrel through these walls", observed Nyx softly as he took in the village's meagre defence, "But we should be prepared for them to be wherever is most inconvenient"

Kalista is thoughtful, "Perhaps the Dryadd could be enlisted to aid us? In any event I believe our best course of action would be to park the behemoth in the gate, use it as a bullwark. Some of us could ride out, but eventually this will come down to defending the wall. We should station our best marksmen on the wall, and let the melee fighters defend the behemoth. That is what I think, what do you all think?"

"Aye, put me on the wall", confirmed Nyx, "With rifle, bow, pistol and blade I will end them"

After a moment he dismounted and looked for a handhold, "But I need somewhere with a decent view"

OOC: His Winchester has a range of a few hundred feet

Polkitain  scratches his head, "Are wild ones unable to turn into bats ? Also maybe we could make a shower like you use to get clean from the river. I will help where I can and I agree we should speak with the Dryad and see if they will help us."

 "We have a matter of hours. Short matter at that. We shouldn't split the group up and we have no idea where the Dryad is. If we want her help it may have to wait til morning. Samuel shuts the ramp and that thing is close to undamagable. You said good vantage point. We need it to be able to be ditched if need be." he says looking around "Polk can you sketch me a map of this town?"

Ethan had taken his helmet off which enabled everyone to see how relieved he was that the villagers had agreed to at least give him and his friends a chance at saving them. "Thank you Senoria Anna," he said to the woman leader of the village. "I don't believe whatever illness is afflicting your village can harm me but I will respect your wishes. I would hope that if it becomes necessary to keep your people from harm, you won't object too strongly to my proximity."

Then he nods his head at her and turns to add his voice to the war counsel his companions are holding. He stands near his new wife and arrives just in time to hear Polk talk about bats. "They can turn into bats?" he thinks to himself. "Wow. Who knew those old movies would turn out to be accurate about something like that!"

"If I can convince Anna to move everyone into one building, I could guard it for a while. I imagine it will take even vampires a little while to get through one of my force fields." He looks at his companions and shrugs. "It will free you up to focus on attacking them and not pin you down to defending one place. You might even be able to ambush them. What if all of you hide inside the village," he kneels and begins drawing a hasty map in the sandy dirt. "If the villagers are all in one building, the vampires will flock to it right?" He draws a single small square for a house. "I'm there and when they get close, I put a force field around the house."

He draws a circle around the square. "That might confuse them for a little bit but I bet they aren't just going to give up. They'll start dog piling on, especially if they don't see any threats right?" He pushes his right index finger into the soft ground around the circle in several places. "Once they have the house surrounded and are focused on tearing down my force field, you should have no trouble catching them off guard." Now he drew arrows into the 'backs' of the dots and then "X" out the dots.

He stood up and brushed the dirt off his gloved hands. "They aren't expecting any real trouble right? Any easy kill? Well lets not give them anything to think any different, at least at first." He looks at everyone in turn. "Well what do you think?"

Polk nods flying above the town to get the lay of the land then returns to make a map.

"They burrow. Or at least some might which is how they hide during the day. Possibly. Never seen one turn into a bat personally, but heard plenty of stories of it so I wouldn't discount it." he jerks a thumb at the bot "If they aren't completely feral that thing will tip them off."

Polkitain nodded, Burrowing that makes sense, dad said some undead are good at tunneling."

"Maybe I can turn into a bat and fool them. I don't know but I am going to keep some stakes with me."

Ethan listened to Sir Arulas as he spoke about what he knew of vampires. "So they are good tunnelers? Yah that would follow as a necessity for hiding from the sun."

He nods his head when the Behemoth is mentioned. "True, we can't count on them to be so oblivious they fail to notice a two story tall walking RV. I wonder if we could hide it somehow? Maybe across the river? If we can't then any plan we make will have to factor in that the vampires will know something about the tactical picture has changed but they still won't know exactly what. Not as good as strategic surprise but tactical surprise should still be with us."
This message was last edited by the player at 21:45, Wed 29 Mar 2017.

"Perhaps in the river", drawls Nyx from where he's trying to get up onto the wall

  "Could be done. Is it watertight Samuel?" Arulas asks.
  He starts looking at the walls with different eyes. "What kind of explosives did you use? The kind to damage modern polymers or the kind that would leave shards of wood? Are they shaped charges?" Arulas starts smiling rather lethally.

Doc looked over at Nyx and grinned, "Hope they don't accidentally blow us up brother. I reckon I'll be up on the wall next to you, that way you can't lie about your kills."

"Just to be clear," Ethan interjects, "the plan of my protecting all the civilians in a central location while the rest of you engage the vampires is a go or no-go?"

  "I need info before I can make a call on that." Arulas quips.

"It's a Go from me. Heck, they might all fit in that robot of yours, which is a darned sight sturdier than the village buildings"

Polkitain nods to Ethan, "Can your shields keep out fog ?"

Polkitain then thought, "These vampires are like beasts do you think we could use blood to draw them ?"

Doc nodded approval of his brothers statement, "Gonna kill as many as we can, I reckon. Them villagers ain't gonna get in our ride, they made they minds up and that's what it'll be for them."

Kalista held up a hand, then closed all but one finger. "Vampires come in more than one variety. If these are wild, then they are little better than animals, hunting blood." She held up a second finger "They could be Secondary, meaning one generation removed from primary. These are cunning predators, who retain more of their faculty." She held up third finger, "Some of these are a third kind, wampires*, who are more like mutations that gain some of the powers of a vampire but are not bonded with the intelligence." Her fourth finger, "Then you have the primary vampire, there is only one of these per intelligence, and they are the most powerful vessel of the intelligence." Her thumb, "Then you have the actual intelligence, a mass of writhing flesh and tentacles. We have to kill the wild ones, catch a secondary and force it to lead us to the intelligence. That is how we fight vampires."

*Wampires are from the Nightspawn/Nightbane sourcebook

She turned to her husband, "Ethan's plan, while good, is flawed. These creatures will quickly overwhelm your field or tunnel under it. Now if we could convince them to let him go into the building with him, then we could perhaps defend the one building. He could use his field to block those that might get past us. This will not be as easy as luring them to one place, but that is a good beginning."

Ethan listens in amazement at the amount of knowledge his wife possesses on vampires. He was a fortunate man in having her as his wife, these villagers were fortunate that she knew so much about their enemy.

When a pause in the conversation came, he spoke again. "Alright so let's start with what we know. We know they can tunnel so I would have to protect the ground with a force field too. We know know what their objective is; feeding on the remaining villagers. We know their weaknesses." he grins in self-depreciation, "or to be more precise, some of us know them. We don't know how many there will be but probably more than us, meaning they can cover more ground and open more avenues of attack than we can effectively cover if we decide to hold them at the walls."

He looks at the western horizon where the sun will be setting before long. "We know they can't attack before sundown and have to leave before sunrise. That gives us a specific window of opportunity for them that is fast approaching but not unfortunately an exact time of attack. That means they will have the tactical initiative for this."

Ethan gestures at the village next. "We know all or nearly all of the remaining villagers are either too old or too sick to be combat effective. That means we can't use them as combat multipliers, even if we wanted too."

He looks at his companions, "If we can agree that is the situation and what we know, I think it becomes clear a forward defense is impossible. There is just too much area to cover and not many of us. We need to consolidate he villagers into one location and mount some kind of static defense there. While the static defense holds, we use a mobile force to attack them from their flanks. I think we only need to come up with the where to place the static defense and what form it will take."

Ethan becomes quiet, clearly lost in thought. He looks up after a few moment. "What about this; if the villagers agree to it, we move them to the river." he points at for emphasis. "Then I create a force field with them and me in it and we submerge. These vampires hate water right? Especially running water? Well where could possibly be better to hide them all? Even if somehow they figure out where they are, there will be damn all they could do to get at them."

"That is somewhat better, but not great. Leaves you open to infection not my first choice. In any case once I know more about the explosives and the walls we should be better off. If they are shaped charges then we have some really big wooden shotguns. If not and they aren't made to damage modern polymers then we are good too. If however they are made to damage modern polymers then we are no better off than we were before." Arulas says as politely as possible.

"Wasn't trying to confuse the issue Kallista which is why I didn't explain everything. More worried that it is mostly Secondaries. I seriously doubt we will see the primary tonight. Might not even see a secondary. Could just be ferals."

The Behemoth -- Yes, it is water-tight.

Explosives -- an inspection of the bombs reveals that the explosives are an archaic variety. This is old fashioned TNT. Although conventional explosives, however, there is a lot of dynamite here. It's found packaged in both sticks and in small barrel casks. The charges are arranged to be well hidden from sight, not focused in any particular way. Charges are arranged all around the interior base of the town wall, within the wall itself in several places, and buried underneath wood piles or wooden structures within the town's interior. The dynamite is wired to electrical cords so that it may all be detonated simultaneously. Some of this dynamite is so old that it is sweating a white powder which means it is dangerously unstable stuff. All and all, the explosion should not pose too much of a threat to mega-damage grade structures, but there is enough quantity of dynamite here to effectively turn the entire settlement into a huge fire and wood shrapnel grenade.

Polk's Map
Polkatain feels confident that the grounds have been adequately cleared enough that he will be able to spot anything approaching the town from the forest. His nightvision is good enough that he can even spot bats in the dark of night so long as he is not distracted -- and provided that there isn't too thick of a fog tonight. The only structure inside the village large enough to hold everyone is the chapel.

The Strategy
The townspeople are willing to go along with basically anything. Having already been convinced to accept aid, they are likewise willing to follow the advice and lead of these adventurers. I just need a quick clarification of whether the plan is to keep the villagers in the chapel, in the river, in the Behemoth, or in the Behemoth in the river.
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:00, Fri 28 Apr 2017.

In reply to GM Zaboem (msg # 50):

ok with everyone's blessing here is the plan. Villagers in the Behemoth underwater. The giant Toothpick Bomb as a failsafe. The party in the town hall or similar structure waiting.

do you want Kalista with you or with the behemoth?

Probably with us. Everybody needs helmets for the failsafe to be effective that or Ethan.

Hangs upside down as a bat from the rearview mirror along with the fuzzy dice.

"So where would you like me ?"

OK that is fine.

"You'll want me on the roof of the town hall, I suspect", offered the pointy-eared 'slinger, "I can snipe from there and warn of whatever is inbound"

"Hey, I think I can help out in the air."

Polkitain hops down and flaps to the floor.

"I could fly trough's full of water over the battle and dump them."

"Good plan, Polk", smiled the elf sincerely, "You can be our artillery"

"So maybe I should stay outside the Behemoth then ?"

"Good plan indeed. Fill near the center of the river where they can't grab you." he pulls a knife and kneels down to sketch a rough plan.

"As I see it we have three rings of defense here at most. The wall, town square, and town hall. None are particularly fortified, but that works in our favor this time. I have two plans and we vote on which one you guys want to do. The rings or the bunker for ease of reference. The rings we set up a ring Defense eventually if needed blowing the explosives and turning the area into a toothpick bomb. Bunker we draw them in and kill them same failsafe. We would set sharpshooters on the wall to soften the vamps up a little and draw them in a few dead and they are more likely to want our blood for personal reasons. We fall back to a concerted stand, and if badly pressed those without helmets get close to Ethan for the failsafe. For the bunker to work we need fresh blood. A good amount at that."

"Would my blood work ? I heal pretty quickly."

Kalista nodded, "Combine them, use blood to draw them, but use the rings to kill them. Bomb is the weapon of last resort. My vote."

Ethan listens to his companions as they discuss how to approach the impending battle. He doesn't know much about vampires, only what he has heard so far but he does understand modern battle tactics. The combat medic knows that allowing the vampires to retain the initiative and set the pace of battle is something to be avoided if at all possible. He decides to ask a question and offer a possible course of action.

"Just like the movies and stories, vampires like to drink blood right?" he asks. "That's what I've been hearing your and what Anna say." He looks at Sir Arulas as the cyber-knight begins listing off possible courses of action. Ethan doesn't think they are bad and if there were more of them, he would support defending at the town wall. Sadly that isn't the case.

"So we need some fresh blood to lure them into one place, like you said right? We can't possibly cover all this area effectively so we shouldn't try. If we do it will give the vampires, which we are certain will out number us by a wide margin, the opportunity to defeat us in detail. Even if they only have the intelligence of a pack of wolves, that would be enough for them to know do that and we have to assume a pack of vampires is as smart as a pack of wolves."

He gestures at the town's wall and how large an area it covers. "We can't know when they will attack or from what direction or directions so they will have the initiative. If we bait a trap like Sir Arulas suggests, we become the aggressors instead of the defenders. We will get to pick the place and and to a degree, the time to strike. Now all we need is the bait right?" He holds up his left hand, "I'm not a fan of bleeding anymore than the next person but for this I will gladly donate a pint." The medic shrugs. "I heal very quick anyways so I should be just fine before they arrive. In addition to spreading my blood around, I could even be the visible bait. I'm no actor but I think I can play the part of a sick person pretty well. If all goes as planned, when they come to suck my blood, I drop a force field over them and another on me. It won't be one hundred percent safe but then what is?"

Polkitain listens to Ethan, "Smart yes, some smarter then others. They can fly so I don't know how much walls will help.

Polkitain paced a bit, "Could we use one of your forcefields to divert the river ? A kind of damn or wedge ?"

"How fast is it that you heal?" Arulas asks.

Looking his mentor in the eye "Anna is it? Really? Well that makes more sense now. Later of course."

"How fast is it that you heal?" Arulas asks.

Looking his mentor in the eye "Anna is it? Really? Well that makes more sense now. Later of course."

Doc nodded along, "Splinters work good I reckon... Y'all want me up top with Nyx, you know to make sure someone actually shoots a vampire or two?" he nudges his brother and rolls an unlit cigarette around his mouth.

"I heal pretty fast in fact you might need to cut me again as the wound might seal up. Or were you talking to Ethan ?"