As Severance rides away into the night, the monster is pursued by Polkatain and Doc. All three disappear into the darkness from the point of view of the other Lumberjacks. The shot which Severance fired skimmed past Doc who was able to duck and weave away the aim. Doc responded with a shot of silver which plinked off the back of Severance's armor. As the orc attempted to vanish over a hill and Polk's legs grew weary, the gunslinger fired two more shots. One went high due to the buck of the dragon underneath him. The other caught the vampire in the back of his neck. Severance fell off of his robot horse and thudded onto some rocks on the grounds. The gunfighting vampire neither moved nor breathed.

Meanwhile, Nyx found a hatch in the top deck. It's very near where Severance had been standing and has a ladder which leads down deeper into the ship.

Ethan investigates the injuries suffered by Kalista. He finds that the damage is not as bad as it first appeared. Although her own healing abilities could set it right, he did not wait. His energy flowed into her skull both comforting with a warm that washed away any lingering pain and restored her hearing instantly. Ethan had never spent so much of his energy at one time and felt a little light-headed himself from the experience.

End of Combat!
It's another victory for the Lumberjacks

Polkitain trotted over to the vampire and hammered in the stake if there was no armor if there was armor in the way he tried to claw it out of the way so he could stake the monster.

"Good shot Doc ! I bet Nyx owes you something now. Uhm I claim fast fake metal horse though. I can ride like a gunslinger on it."

Doc hoped off Polk's back smiling, pleased with the young dragon and his own efforts. "Me and Nyx can teach you to ride little buddy, don't know if we can teach you to shoot while you ride like we do though. That's a lot of practice. You did real good Polk, you want the metal horse, it's yours. I'll ride it back for you, you just make yourself small enough to sit on my shoulder or somethin' yeah?" Doc will cut Severance's head off, and check his body for anything valuable besides his guns, which Doc was keeping, trophies.

"I will bring the body back, I want to see what happens to them when the sun comes up. My hearing it is coming back, I hate such loud sounds." Polk carries the staked headless vampire body back.

"I just want to look pretty like you and Nyx. You have nice clothes. Gunslingers look very cool."

Doc grinned, "Handsome, men are handsome, women are pretty... well, you can tell Nyx he's pretty." Doc laughed and patted Polk on the back, "We can get you some clothes if we need to, and gunslingers look cool, because we are cool Polk, lotta history out here in the west about gunslingers... long time ago. We can find some books somewhere, I bet."

"I know how to read Doc. So I can read if we find books. Hmmm ok so Kalista and Nyx are pretty and were handsome hombres." Polk smiles.

Polk looks at Sevrins body since he was dressed like a slinger. "Awwww I guess I shouldnt have ruined his clothes huh Doc."

Coming back to her senses she looked up at her husband in gratitude. She pressed her face against his hand, enjoying the momentary contact.

Drawing both pistols, Nyx crouched on the ship's deck and used the barrel of one of them to slowly lift the hatch. As it opened to the day, he spoke softly on the radio, ++ Atop the boat, where Severance emerged. Anyone have sight of him? ++

Doc laughed, "Yes, they are pretty, and we are handsome hombres Polk, and you don't wanna wear no vampires clothes, we'll find your style and make it happen buddy." Hearing his brother on the radio, Doc replies, "Dead, me and Polk are bringin' his body and what's left of his head back now. I got 'im good. Haven't checked all his gear yet, but I got first dibs."

From deep within the ship, Nyx can hear some voices speaking calmly.

Meanwhile, (I use that word a lot, don't I?) Arulas sees a creature run towards him into the dirty-bottomed room. The tall monster is instantly recognizable as a ghoul.

Polkatain was able to get through the armor rather easily. Only duster coat and hat were armored. The rest of his outfit was regular cloth. The vampire's robot horse follows obediently. It isn't obeying Doc so much as following the body of Severance. It doesn't prevent Doc from riding on top of it. The horse can be reset for a different owner if you guys can find anyone with mechanical skills like Robot Electronics or even Computer Operation.

++ Good work ++, observed the 'slinger, with a smile and a pause before swinging down the hatch, ++ Make sure you mount it ++

After a few steps down into the bowels of the boat, he peered down and called out softly in his native tongue, "Who's there?"

Ethan smiled at his wife as she nuzzled his hand in a surprising display of public affection. He stroked her cheek with his other hand and then cleared his throat. "Come on my Lady," he says to her as he stands up and offers her his free hand. "There might be more bad guys inside the ship. The vampires may have been keeping prisoners here too, victims that will need medical attention."

Kalista and Ethan walked towards an entrance to the ship. Which entrance? Including the holes that Polk and Aru made, I could four ways inside the ship. Please pick one.

Nyx dropped out of sight into the dark interior of of the vampires' lair. I am moving you to the other thread.

Kalista wrapped her arm around Ethan's waist. She liked that part of him, it lead up to the wide shoulders in a kind of V. "Prepare yourself." Then she used TK Leap and her own tremendous strength to jump them both into one of the holes Aru made. That should put them in the thick of it.

Ethan had just enough time to think, “Prepare myself for wha…” before his wife used her strength and unknown to him, her psychic abilities, to jump both of them up and down into the battered old ship.  During their flight he hurriedly put back on his helmet, sealing it just as they touched down inside one of the holes that had been made since the battle had started.

Once she released him, he looked around, gathering his bearings before selecting a direction to head down. He activated his helmet’s built in radio as he scanned the dark interior of the corridor they had landed in with the night vision optics of his laser rifle to give his teammates an update. “This is Ethan, Kalista and I are inside the ship. We came in through one of the holes on the top deck.”

OOC – Looking around 360 degrees, floor to ceiling, using the passive night vision scope on his laser rifle.
Ethan rolled 19 using 1d20.  Perception check.

Polk sings an old prerifts song he heard in a cantina on his way back.
"Im a cowboy and on a steel horse ride and Im waaaanted dead or alive."

"I hope that pesky fog is gone Doc."

  Arulas merely laughs as he dispatches the ghoul. "Gotcha Ethan got a ghoul or two running around so watch yourselves. Got some sort of hammer user on the other side of this bulkhead going through it now."

On the radio, Nyx responded to Ethan's report, ++ Inside. Contact, three 'escapees' ++

Doc laughed, "We gotta work on that singing voice buddy." As they approach, he replies to his brother, "Nyx, keep em at a distance til we can check em out. Make sure they're escapees and not messin' with us."

Polk pouted slightly.

"Ok, I'll work on it. Perhaps dragons are not musically inclined."

++ Handshake too close? ++

"Nah, you're too pretty to keep em away anyway brother," Doc laughed, he turned to Polk, "I'm kidding, messing with you. You sing fine, ewe all need practice though. Or we get bad at things."

++ Found three so far: a psi stalker and two men - one's claims to be some kind of ranger and the other is ... well, full of fancy names but wearing rags. Say they've killed a vampire or three ++
This message was last edited by the player at 11:42, Mon 26 Mar 2018.

"Tell Nyx to remember tripwire and boom booms smart vampires set up."

Arulas lashes out with his curved psi-sword, cutting the ghoul in twain. The monster looked intimidating enough with its height and huge jagged jaw, but it almost ran into the cyber-knight's blade. The monster collapses in pieces onto a floor of thick and soft dirt. The large room seems to be where the vampires had slept in the earth during daylight hours.

Kalista and Ethan entered the through the hatch at the top deck. They slipped down a ladder not far behind Ny. Although they are privy to the conversations being played, it's fairly clear also the general directions of everyone inside because no one is hiding their voices.

Ethan also notices the entrance to the entrance to the bridge. The doorway is obstructed by a piece of scrap metal leaned against it, but the bridge beyond is remarkably clean and intact. It appears to be where one or more of the vampires had spent much of the their free time. Musical instruments are lying around as well as old holovid projectors. The windows offer a remarkable view of the surrounding countryside or at least 180 degrees of it. On the window sills, someone has set out several pots of flowers, both native and alien.

I'm moving everybody into a new thread where everyone may communicate freely.