Arkansas caught it pretty good when Raven crossed the Mighty Mississippi.  He lead most of the undead hordes through Missouri and into Kansas.  But, the madman dragged a tidal wave of undead into motion from Back East and scattered large swarms of walkers into what was left of the states along Old Muddy.  The survivors in the state have had their lives turned over again.  Once safe settlements have been wiped out or scattered.  Still others held firm and find themselves with new hands to work...and mouths to feed.  Alliances and politics within the region have shifted in a big way.  Opportunity for scavengers, wanderers, and rovers...

In fact, the Templars have seen fit to send one of their own to survey the state of things.  Where she goes, lately anyway, goes a large heavily armored relic of the Last War.  The pair find themselves walking east along a stretch of old Confed Route 82 in southern Arkansas headed for the survivor burg of Smackover.  An oil town and settlement on the rise in the region.  Still many miles off though.  At the moment, just a lonely stretch of highway.  Rusting, stripped hulks of cars have been shoved off to the shoulders to make way for trucks.....or road gangs.

A rumble in the distance gnaws at the attention.  Engines?  No...  Thunder...  Black roiling stormclouds moving in from the East.  Rain would be bad enough, but in the wastelands a storm is rarely just rain.  Shelter is usually the best course.  Not that this lonely forgotten highway through empty, scrub forests offered much of any kind of shelter of course.  It looked like there might be something up the road a ways; maybe an old gas station marquee?

---

Another wanderer found themselves trudging through the dark piney woods south of Route 82.  Martin had been trying to stick to the old paved ways as he picked his way north, but a slow-moving, aimless herd of walking dead had forced him well out of his way and into the woods.  Not the best place to be, but sometimes the world just doesn't give you much of a choice.  Unless you /wanted/ to choose to be eaten.  That choice was almost always on the table.

He too heard the distant, ominous rumbling, but didn't get the clear view of the stormclouds due to the trees.  But, he knew the sound.  He knew the darkening of the sky and just how fast the weather around here could turn on you.  What he did not know was exactly how long he had, where exactly along Route 82 he might be, and if he could make it to shelter in time.

---

A fourth lost soul was coming in from a northern route, along an old rural road that she hoped would link up with something more major.  Maggie had been trying to get down into the swampy remains of Louisiana for a long while now, but kept finding routes blocked by undead hordes or road gangs or just roads so decayed they were barely navigable at all. She had to fall back to survivor settlements she had passed.  Most turned her away; suspicious of her and and her snake.  Some gave directions.  Some sold supplies.  Not much, but enough to keep moving.

She kept daring the forbidding forests and highways of southern Arkansas to find the route through.  She was currently trying for Smackdown; having heard a trade convoy south might be found there.  Not that she was anywhere close to Smackover yet.  She hadn't even found Route 82 yet.

Then there was the thunder.  The roiling angry knell that echoed through the skies.  A storm was coming.  How quickly?  Far up ahead she could see what looked like an intersection.  82 Perhaps?
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:38, Sun 02 Sept 2018.

  There wasn't a lot of light in the treeline but there had been enough to keep from turning an ankle or falling into an old culvert or avoid attracting the attention of any of the hungry dead.  With an incoming storm what little light there was would be fading fast so Martin turned back North toward the roadway, hoping he'd left the hungry horde behind by skirting around them.
  Without landmarks, or even a horizon, in sight he didn't have much of an idea where he was.  There certainly wasn't any shelter readily available in the forest but he hoped there'd at least be a rusting relic pushed off the side of the highway he could climb into if nothing else was available.  His mind made up, he turned north and made the best time he could in the direction of the road.

Maggie headed for the intersection as quickly as she could. It might just be a storm but then again it could be something else.

The last storm she was in stripped the flesh of people and she didn't want to be out in the open when this one hit.

Once at the intersection she looked for a sign to indicate what route she was on. She looked both up and down the road to see if there were any living souls on the move but also to we if any of the rusted vehicles would lend her any shelter.

As she stood there a large pythons head came up from over her shoulder and rested gently under her chin

 "Yes I heard it slarana  don't worry we will find shelter before it hits" she said scratching the large snakes head gently
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 09:22, Sun 02 Sept 2018.

The meta-behaviors of the post-apocalypse were interesting.

At first, during the early days, everyone smashed out the windows of abandoned cars because one in fifty might still contain something useful.

Then after a little time had passed, a few people had organized crews to go siphon out any fuel, take the batteries, any hoses, belts, spark plugs, filters that weren't too far gone, light bulbs, tires, etc.

Then came the real desperate sorts, who would take the chairs, seats, belts and upholstery, and a few cottage industrialists who made a bit of a trade re-purposing bumpers and springs into tools or weapons.

Finally no one bothered checking the old cars any more because they'd been picked over so many times already and everyone knew it.

So people began caching things in them and using them as occasional improvised shelters, which in turn led to the likes of Kelly checking them for supplies again.  Granted, it was perhaps one in a thousand rather than one in fifty nowadays, but whatever you could find was also a thousand times more precious so it still paid to look.

But she didn't put a whole lot of effort into this, it was far more conducive to survival to get where you were going faster.  She put less effort into it now.

MacLeod wandered the old roads indiscreetly.  She didn't go so far as to wear the tabard, but she walked with the hilt of her sword at the ready over her shoulder and rifle in hand.

"I don't like the look of that."  She commented if only to her mechanized companion.  Well, he wasn't a Companion companion, but she was barely a Templar templar.

"If that's what I think it is, we're going to need actual shelter and not just an old junker.  Or at least I will."  She corrected herself.  Harry didn't seem to "need" much of anything, at least relative to her.  Without further commentary she pointed her rifle toward the sign down the way.

"Ain't much these days one would much like the look of." The mechanized man in the poncho and wide-brimmed hat said. He looked at the line of rusted hulks. "Don't look like I'd fit well into any of these things anyhow."

He wasn't kidding. He topped seven feet with all the enhancements, and even the cars that had been stripped of seats would be a tight squeeze. And weather...weather and he did not get along. Could be rain, which he'd rather avoid -- the name "Rusty Harry" was supposed to be a joke, not a description, and he didn't fancy having to be oiled like the Tin Man just to keep his already slow pace up. But some of the things that rained these days, well, they'd corrode him even faster.

"You think we both can make it before the storm hits?" he asks. "If not, go on ahead. I'll be along."

Maggie May

Maggie jogged up to the intersection as another boom of thunder rolled ponderously across the skies.  At which point, she noticed a few things.  The sky was definitely getting darker; the leading wispy vanguard of the towering thunderclouds reaching out overhead.  The second thing she noted, to the east, was an old gas station marquee.  An old Gas n' Go mart; part of a chain of such gas stations throughout the old Confederacy.  Someone had taken the time to rearrange the letters on the sign to read:

"Under New Management - Smackover Co-op"

A wall of rusting car and truck hulks had been laboriously pulled around the perimeter of the old station, its parking lot, and a larger, newer looking garage of reclaimed sheet metal.  There seemed to be some sort of gate area just off this main road near the marquee.

But, she also heard something very heavy clanking its way up the road from the West.  A quick look let her see the seven-foot tall, poncho-wearing, cowboy-of-doom striding his slow way towards her like.  Depending on her feelings about being in the path of such a fearsome sight, Maggie may or may not notice the smaller frame of the woman walking along side it.

---

MacLeod and Harry

Its a little unnerving to be walking /towards/ the angry black stormclouds.  Some little part of the old lizard brain keeps wanting to break and run away.  To head anywhere but into the teeth of that storm.  But the rational brain wins out....for now.  Their steady pace is bringing them closer, just beginning to make out the outline of the hulks that make up the wall.

While deciding whether to split or stay together, they notice the other storm-driven vagabond jog into the intersection between themselves and the station.  She seemed to take note of them, just as they could take note of her...

---

Martin

Martin began to see sings of human-made things through the trees up ahead.  It wasn't too much longer before the woods suddenly thinned out.  It looked as though someone had hastily, but thoroughly cleared back the trees and scrub back to some distance.  Maybe to make a clear field of fire from the wall of junked hulks that seemed to be surrounding some old pre-war structures.  At a glance he'd guess one of those gassing stations that fed the cars of the Old World.

From the edge of the woods to the wall was a stubble field of small stumps and hand-shorn grasses.  Nothing moved there.  Nothing moved along the wall either, for all the work they put into clearing this place.  In fact, the only movement of particular note was the scudding of the thunderheads creeping ever closer... ever closer... Boom...roll...  He could feel the weight of those clouds...

Maggie stroked the snakes head "looks like we have company" she muttered as she dropped the hand to a pouch at her belt bringing out a small handful of dried leaves.

At the same time in her mind she was flipping through the pages of the cook book that was stored securely in the inner pocket of her jacket.

In the book her mind found the thing she needed and called forth the Redditch power she controlled.

She kept it under control and moved as quickly towards the gas station as she could at the time she couldn't make up her mind to use it on the two people coming towards her or the rusted metal wall in front of the station. Until she'd made her mind up she moved towards the only shelter in the area before the storm hit

  Martin stopped short at the clearing, avoiding going into the open area but clearly visible in the treeline. WooHoo! he let out a short yelp of elation.  Might not get my face burned off today after all...

  The boy scanned the top of the wall of wrecked cars for lookouts or any signs of life.  He knew what the clearing was...a kill zone.  Almost every settlement had one.  Sometimes it was for a clear field of fire from watchtowers or walls, sometimes it was boobytrapped, or toxic...sometimes it was all three.  He wasn't sure which this might be so he called out hoping to attract the attention of anyone inside and hopefully nothing outside.
  Hey!  Looking for shelter out here! Safe to approach?. Martin waited for an answer but not for long given the oppressively ominous clouds building overhead.  He circled around the clearing at the treeline to find an entrance or signs of anyone alive behind the walls.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:59, Sun 02 Sept 2018.

"Nah, we can see it, we're close enough that's not a problem."  Kelly observed, though she shifted her pack to hide the hilt of the sword.  It was still obvious she had something long and weapony strapped to it, but it helped to not call such explicit attention to it.  Her rifle wouldn't call much attention, it was just an old levergun.  It worked, but that's all it did.  Better than throwing rocks that's for sure.

But then she thought about their predicament.  "Unless you want me to serve as Your Royal Herald."  She was being sarcastic, but warning people Harry was coming might be... prudent.

"Huh... yeah we're not the only ones with this idea.  To be expected though."

"I ain't a royal nothin', just your friendly neighborhood Ironclad demon-powered meat-puppet." Harry shrugs, and revs his chainsaw for effect. "Though a warning to that effect might make everyone stay friendly." He cocks his head, hearing the sound of some fool shouting at the station. "Though maybe we'll see how friendly everyone is by how they treat that idiot. That sounds to be informational...reckon we'll learn real quick how twitchy their trigger fingers are."

At The Gates - Maggie

Maggie, ignoring the approach of others for now, made it to what she hoped was a gate in the wall.  A wall is generally designed to keep people out.  A defensive measure.  The successful idea going back millennia.  But, everyone agrees that it works best when you keep the gate closed.  This junk-wall's gate was a steel plated panel of thick wood designed to be pulled to the side on tracks along either side of the wall.  And it was open.  Just enough to let any wanderer trying to escape wasteland hell-weather...

Lucky.

Beyond the gate, she could see the old station itself and the newer, reclaimed sheet metal garage thrown up next to it.  The station structure itself was original Gas 'n Go convenience store, with the windows replaced by wood panel shutters (currently closed and latched).  A major effort was made to clean up the lot and the exterior of the building to make it almost inviting.  The kind of place a person might /want/ to stop at.

She had heard the shouting from beyond the wall; someone else looking for shelter?  The clanking giant and his companion were still drawing closer as well.  Lightning crashed through the sky now, followed all too quickly by the roll of thunder.  This time you might swear you could hear gleeful howls within the thunderous crashing.

East Corner - Martin

Martin had not been shot.  Which should be a welcome surprise.  Or perhaps not, as there was no real response at all.  Who goes to the trouble of clearing a killing field and building a wall, only to leave it undefended?  Still, the lack of being shot encouraged his quick circle to the front in looking for the gate.

Coming around the corner, he saw what might seem to be a gate...and a strange woman carrying a very large serpent standing in front of that gate.  Beyond her, a giant cowboy strode implacably and noisily along the asphalt of Route 82 towards the gate as well.  Another figure was with the giant, but much less fearsome and noticeable.

Harry and MacLeod

The strange snake-woman had made it to the gate.  There didn't seem to be much response from within.  No yells greeted the previous shouting either.  No warning shots.  Nothing at all from beyond the wall.

Lightning crashed and thunder rolled.  Those maybe-howls tickled at the back of the mind.  And not in a good way.  Worse, MacLeod would swear she saw a face contorted into a scream ripple across the surface of the nearest thundercloud.

Rain was starting to fall down the road east.  Black.

She was about to say something else when she noticed it was closing in fast.

"Come on let's get a move on, as fast as you'll go anyhow.  That's not anything I want to be outside in.  We'll deal with it."  Kelly encouraged.

Still, it bothered her a great deal no one had challenged or responded to the man's cries.

Maggie stepped in and to the left she felt her snakes muscles tighten slightly indicating it's nervousness but Maggie cood to her and brought up a now glowing hand of eldritch fire, it danced blue and hypnotic around her fingers.

Moving forward she headed for the newer construction as it seemed the best building to give her protection. She was all too aware of the mechanical giant and it's companion were just a few yards behind her and she wanted to at least be able to use the building as cover before they themselves stepped through the gate just in case their intentions were less than honourable
This message was last edited by the player at 16:01, Mon 03 Sept 2018.

"Right." Harry said. He trundled forward. Still, he felt uneasy. No response at all to that kid's hails? Not even a "who goes there"? That smelled all manner of foul to him.

  Martin scooted around the corner, happy to see an opened gate, but Drew up short at the sight of the big snake and the lady with the fire licking from her hands.  Woah.  Uh, hey.  This your place? He noted the oncoming pair, Or is it theirs?

In the Lot - Maggie
Maggie slipped away from the gate without answering the question.  Probably all the thunder...or the others following her.  Maybe just impolite.  She moved quickly across the lot, noting a tanker truck trailer in one corner of the lot (just shy of wall height).  The tank was blazoned with SMACKOVER CO-OP in runny red paint.  Otherwise, the lot itself is fairly empty.  The old pumps are still in place, but don't look refurbished to use; now more of a vintage decoration.

On approaching the "newer" sheet metal garage, she quickly spotted that its main doors were chained through a hole in each door and locked with a heavy combination lock.

At the Gate - Martin, Harry, and MacLeod

The three were all in easy sight of each other now just near the open gate; but at a respectful, wary distance.  A quick glance in would show the somewhat refurbished and shuttered convenience store, the sheet metal garage, and the strange snake-charmer with power glittering in her hand.

Lightning crashed again, flaring brightly all around.  The boom of the thunderclap followed almost instantaneously, rattling down into the bones.  Everyone can hear the eerie mad laughing howl rolling away with the echo...

Notice rolls for everyone!  Also, we are breaking this down into Rounds now.   3 Rounds till the Rain.

Ooc

19:03, Today: Maggie May rolled 12,4 using D8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of (8+4)12,4.  Notice roll.

  Soooo, I'll take that as 'ok and come right on in'. There really wasn't time to mince words anyway and followed the snake and the lady into the yard of the co-op, noting the tanker, the old building and the newer garage...along with the absence of anything alive.

  Martin looked the place over for other entrances to the buildings as he hung back by the gate waiting on the other two to pass inside the perimeter.  His 'jimmies' a bit rustled by the seemingly abandoned structure, he kept his hand on the hilt of his sword slung under his backpack until the others came thru the gate.


12:59, Today: Martin Fine rolled 11 using 1d4+1d4, rerolling max with rolls of (4+4+1)9,2.  Notice.

"Seems like it." Harry rumbled as he approached. He tips his hat to Martin. "Howdy." He narrows his eyes, though, when he notices the man's hand resting out of sight. "Now, ain't no call for any funny business, friend. We all just want to get out of the storm." He causally raises one of his arms, which has been replaced at the elbow with a massive, spiky chainsaw. "How about you just keep your hands where I can see 'em? Unless you really think you can take me."

11:49, Today: Rusty Harry rolled 11,7 using d6,d6, rerolling max with rolls of (6+5)11,(6+1)7.  Notice.

Hearing the thunder and laughter was enough for Maggie whether the owner was happy or not she was getting in to the shelter.

Striding to the gate of the building she thrust her hand towards and let fly a bolt at the chain and lock

Ooc

21:48, Today: Maggie May rolled 16,2 using D10,d6, rerolling max with rolls of (10+6)16,2.  Witchcraft spending 2 points for 3d6 damage

21:49, Today: Maggie May rolled 11 using 3d6, rerolling max with rolls of 3,3,5.  Damage.

"Now Harry, there's no need for-"  And then Kelly stopped.

16:51, Today: Kelly MacLeod rolled 4,3 using d6,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 4,3.  Notice.

The wheels spun in Kelly's head.

No one had answered.

They had chained the building up.  With a combination lock.

You don't use a combination lock on a door anyone can access when there's no one around.

The storm.

The hordes that had come through here.

There's only one God damned reason you would chain a building up like that.

You don't lock people inside a building.  No, no, that was wrong...

You don't lock living people inside....

"Shit!"  She answered.  "Harry get that door open and get him in the station, I'll grab her.  Laugh at me later if I'm wrong!"

lol Kelly is sprinting for Maggie May.  Heroically.  Dead sprint.

"You need to get inside the old station!  Now!  Before they come pouring out of there!"

"Wait, wha-" Harry started, and then...

[Orders received. Hearts & Minds Directive initiated. Proceeding.]

Harry felt his body seize up. "Oh, now wait a moment, Kelly ain't exactly..." He muttered, to no one in particular save the computerized voice in his head, now grabbing the reigns of his body.

[Orders received. Peace officer requests aid. Civilians in peril. Directive initiated.]

Harry sighed. There really wasn't much point fighting it. Not if he didn't want to make things worse for everyone around him. He'd been dead a long time. He wasn't sure how long -- just that the demon that had crawled inside him had had a jolly old time with his corpse before The Agency had tracked him down, hung him upside-down over a pentagram, forced him back into his right mind, then press-ganged him into joining the new Cyber Warrior initiative. Since the only alternative was being roasted by waiting flamethrowers, Harry had agreed to be stuffed into the heavy tin can he now was. But they'd also implanted a chip in his head, which did good work keeping the demon inside him down and powering his toys. It also was packed full of commands they wanted him to follow.

Harry could fight it, if he wanted. But that would give the demon in him a chance to get loose. And, honestly, Kelly's assessment made sense.

He clomped over to the door of the old station, and revved his chainsaw up.

{{Grnn! Grnn! GrnnnNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!}}

Sparks flew as he set the spinning blade chopping up the door handle.

  Martin tried to pull the gate closed after the tin cowboy and the woman cane thru the gate, not releasing his grip on the hilt of his sword.  Easy there, Tin Star, I'm not as worried about you two...or the lady & the snake...as I am about why this place is abandoned.  Got a worse feeling about it than any 'o the rest of ya. Martin trued to de-escalate the tension between him and the buzzsaw cowboy.  Admittedly, the arm was pretty cool and he planned on asking about it later but there were more pressing issues at the moment.

  Martin marvelled at the tortured face forming in the clouds above before being snapped back to ground level by the lady's sudden commanding tone.  The snake lady had bolted the lock on the garage door and the cowboy was buzzsawing his way into the old station.  Feeling like something was about to break, whether it be the storm or something more ill-defined, he headed to the old station door to help break in.

In the Compound - Everyone

The blast of shimmering fire slammed into the chain and lock, blasting it straight back through the much weaker garage doors.  Which, ultimately, yields a similar result of the doors being unlocked.  But with a basketball-sized hole in the middle, half on one door and half on the other.

Just after this, Kelly reached the door and shouted her warning.  Her mind's eye filling the whole space with a tidal wave of hungry dead released from their captivity.  The door creaked and rattled....

...Slightly from a gust of wind.  Probably.

But no horrible rush of dead things smashed their way out.



Harry's saw whirred to noisy horrible life as the 'borg started in on the station door.  It tore into the wood with a shower of dust, gouging it deeply.  It tore long, gashing holes, but this door seemed to be made of slightly sterner stuff than the garage.  He would absolutely get through...probably before the storm hit...  Martin arrived to offer a hand, but the saw seemed to be doing fine.  And might accidentally chew through a hand offered wrongly.

Kelly breathed a sigh of relief.  As a pessimist she loved to be wrong sometimes, because being right most of the time was a burden.  Harry would give her the business about it later but that was okay.

She wasn't shy about grabbing the strange woman by the shoulders.

"Con sarn it, are you loca?  Do you know what's been happening in this territory?  That place was locked up in a hurry, how did you know it weren't to keep deaders inside? Now hurry up, Harry will have us inside here faster than you blink but we'll have to barricade the opening."

Maggie actually acknowledged the woman for the first time "and what's to say sitting in that old tin shed will be any better when the storm hits" even so she turned and quickly followed the other woman to the older building

but before she did so she spoke a few words and cast another spell

Ooc
11:45, Today: Maggie May rolled 8,1 using D10,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 8,1.  Entangle spell on the doors.


Suddenly vines grew out of the concrete and wrapped themselves round the two doors

"Nothin', but it's barricaded up.  Someone took the time to seal it.  Less likely they ran off from the place in a hurry because it's full of zombies."

Kelly was careful not to imply it was impossible such was the case.

"The hell is that you're doing anyway?"

"oh that" Maggie replied looking over her shoulder at the vines " you were so insistent that the doors stay closed I thought I'd use some binding vines to seal them up again hopefully it will hold"

With that she moved towards the big metal guy to see if he'd got the door open

Harry sighed with a it of relief when nothing flooded out after them, but he wasn't totally relaxed yet. "Might want to keep any arms you have handy." He said. "I see a lot of drag stains on the ground around here. Most of it looked kinda fresh, too, so we ain't out of the woods yet, like as not, and I got no idea if this door I'm sawin' open ain't where the real flood of deaders is."

Standing next to the group Maggie suddenly moved in a slightly flickering way her left arm dislocated round her back suddenly grasping a metal pole the size of a baseball bat and bringing it back round without even looking in the direction it has been laying in.

She had decided it might be a long night and she didn't want to use all her powers up just in case

Ooc

Maggie's movements are suddenly similar to that of the evil witch / bad monsters in some Japanese horror movies like the original ring etc.....just in case you were all thinking what was happening....spooky  :)

  Martin arrived a little after the others as he'd closed the gate, coming in on the end of the conversation.  He looked on the ground at the drag marks the big cyborg noted after watching the snake lady contort her arms to reach behind her.  He stood at the back of the pack of misfits trying to imitate the way the lady's arms bent, to no great success, as the 'grown-ups' talked. Oh, hey, if you're looking for whatever cleared this place out... I'd check the tanker truck back there.  Something's beating on the walls from inside it., he said flatly, as if this was a perfectly natural occurrence.

"Dammit.  Good ears stranger.  So I had the right idea, wrong locale.  Let's hope it holds them.  Harry we're going to have to start cutting our way in... further in... if it comes to that."

Kelly sighed and replaced her rifle in its improvised scabbard and drew her broadsword without comment.

In the Lot - Everyone

Lightning slashed across the sky around the little station-turned-wayfort.  Each arc threw up a blinding flash and was followed by a crackling, crash of thunder.  The winds whipped at the treetops in scrubby woods around you.  The heavy, menacing clouds were almost directly overhead now; sunlight choked away to a dim twilight.  Dark, black, wet spots began to appear across the pavement as the leading drops of rain came down...

With a crash, what is left of the "new" door to the convenience store gave in.  The splintered remnants tumbled in and the bit of the door still attached to the hinges swung slowly in.  In the waning light, Harry and Martin can see that the interior has a scattering of scavenged tables and chairs; some overturned onto a floor streaked with some dark substance.  The old checkout counter seems to have been converted into more of a bar, with various bottles and glasses behind it.  A few rows of shelves withe some attempts to stock with trade goods and useful things; some of which lay on the floor soaking in a pool of the black stuff.  A few doors off the main room.  Even remodeled and updated with an apocalyptic survivor aesthetic, it was still the same basic layout that Harry could remember for days long ago.

The summoned viney growths grew up from the weeds that cracked the concrete here and there, slithering up and through and around the holes in the garage doors.  Binding it as their master bid.

Spirit rolls from Kelly and Maggie.  For reasons.

As Kelly set her attention on the tanker, she too could make out the rhythmic thumping from within the tank.  As the storm whips up, so too does the thumping.  Whatever it is seemed to be getting almost excited...or perhaps frightened...

Round Three.  One more Action.  Be very clear where you want to end up at the end of this as the rain falls.

Ooc

09:08, Today: Maggie May rolled 4,3 using D6,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 4,3.  Spirit roll.

Now with her improvised club in hand she waited a moment with her back to the others watching and listening to the tthudding from within the tanker.

When she heard the door finally split open behind her she waited for the others to check out the interior before finally taking a few steps backwards and as she crossed the threshold still watching the yard beyond she stepped quickly to the left to use the wall of the building as cover but to still allow her a view outside in case someone or something appeared
This message was last edited by the player at 10:40, Thu 06 Sept 2018.

05:58, Today: Kelly MacLeod rolled 7,4 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 7,4.  Hope I'm Spirited.

Once Harry breached, Kelly wasted no time going in beside him sword in hand,raised up defensively.  She inspected the place quickly, intending to call out immediately if it were clear for the others to enter.

  The splintering of the door and the beginning spatter of the black rain signaled as good a time as any to slide inside the building.  Backing in just behind the snake lady, Martin had yet to draw a weapon but made sure to stay clear of the ones already brandished by the others.
  The dimly lit interior seemed to be in disarray despite the barred entrance, dark snears on the floor not boding well. Got headlights on that chasis? Martin asked the mechanical cowboy.  Those clouds are gonna make it pretty dark in here without some light...

"Sure. Got 'em right next to my handlebars." Harry deadpans. He waits for everyone to enter, then enters himself, and looks for a shelf or table or something he can shove in front of the door, now that the useful bit was wrecked. He'd probably have to hold it there...he wasn't fast enough to move once he'd gotten it in place anyhow.

Everyone made it into the station as the black rain behind cascading down in terrible sheets.  Lightning still crashed.  Thunder still rolled.  Winds still howled.  But, it seemed less oppressive.  Less dangerous with a roof overhead.

Kelly quickly had the main room checked and cleared, forced on occasion to step careful around the oil slicks.  Harry was easily able to move one of the wooden shelf units in front of the doorway, choking off most if what little light was left.  A little leaked through at the top of the door-shelf, a little more at the edges of the wooden shutters.  Too little.

Safe from the storm, for now.  Open RP.  What do you do?  Feel free to use any scenery described or fairly implied.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:17, Thu 06 Sept 2018.

Harry leans against the shelf he'd moved. "And today's weather: excessively creepy with a chance of death by zombie horde. Stay tuned for our five day forecast!" He says. He looks around the darkned room, his eyes shining faintly. "Looks like we've got some real brainers here. An idiot who thinks yelling at suspiciously quiet buildings is a smart idea, and some kind of witch who thinks opening doors clearly locked for people's protection is a smart idea. What could go wrong?"

"and a metal man who thinks he has a sense of humour" replied Maggie with a slight smile on her lips as she looked out the door and shook her head as if remembering something.

With a sigh she whispered something to the large python still coiled round her and it slipped off her onto the floor and curled itself up next to her as if it had gone to sleep.

"Well seems like we are going to be bed fellows until this storm passes through I'm not too keen to find out what's banging from the inside of that tanker sounds like its enjoying the storm though."

Looking round for the first time " any sign of any supplies we can use?" She asked as she lowered the club and placed it against the wall next to her

It was now noticeable that this woman that could control eldritch powers was a very attractive lady even dressed in dirty old looking leathers ....she was still able to carry it off with a certain style

Kelly involuntarily shuddered as if she had seen a ghost.  Perhaps she had...

She returned her sword to its scabbard without comment and breathed a sigh of relief.  She was still figuring out their duo dynamic, but if Kelly knew such references, she'd call Harry the Castello to her Abbot.

"You mean like a basket we can put that snake in?"  Kelly responded.  "Or at least a light, shorty here's got a point."

She made eye contact with Martin.  "Oh relax, everyone's shorty compared to Harry here.  Speaking of the devil..."

She turned and fearlessly banged on the metal chestpiece of the undead murder machine that could totally murder her.  "...behave."

Kelly would scavenge about momentarily.  Right now she wasn't bored yet.

"Whaddya think Harry, want to play the Story Game?  I bet we got real contenders here."

"I am behaving." Harry grinned at the thump. "I may be behaving badly, but I am behaving." He shrugged. "Sure. Sounds good. Let's all tell ghost stories while actual ghosts ride the fallout clouds overhead and somethin' nasty is trying to bang it's way out of a tanker. That won't creep anyone one out at all."

He looked over the group. "I guess I'll start, but I'm pretty boring. Just your average demon-powered meat puppet shoved inside a tin can to protect Truth, Justice, and The Northern Alliance Way. A couple years back, a Convoy Junker found me standing guard over an empty town in Wyoming, and fixed me up so I remembered I was once a man. I traveled with him and his buddies until that dust-up in Denver." he sighs. "Lost a lot of good friends there, so afterward I wandered a bit. I'm a police model, though, and they hardwired a few things into me. I ran across this asshole raider holding up refugees, and my dumbass chip told me I needed to drop him off with the nearest lawman rather than doing the sensible thing and just wasting him there." He patted Kelly's shoulder. "If I hadn't run across her, I'd probably still be hauling his ass around."

He didn't elaborate on that. Kelly could explain that bit.

  Martin laughed melodically at being called 'shorty', No offence taken, Lady.  I've been called worse.. His laugh got awkwardly quiet and he blushed visibly, even in the dim light, at the insinuation by the snake lady of being 'bedfellows'.  He took the remark entirely wrong and tried to hide his reddened face by wandering over to the opposite end of the room in search of a light or other supplies that might be useful.
  He drew his knife to poke around in the piles of goods strewn about the floor and on the shelves in his search.  The talk about the Story Game perked his interest back towards the group,Oh, what kind of Story Game?  I'm always up for a good yarn...  Been known to have a tale or two of my own to tell.

"That's okay Harry, I forgot you're terrible at the Story Game.  Right.  I'll show ya."

Kelly pondered, then pointed at Martin.

"He... is Count Otto Von Lauenburg the Fourth of Lithuania, Sultan of Quatar and Prince of All The East Indies."  She began her tale.  "During the Last War, his grandmother had fallen with a rogue faction of the Indian government.  The scandal was found out and the royal family marked for assassination by the Society of Leopold, who swore to hunt them down to a man.  The last few members stuffed their suitcases with their most precious emeralds and headed to the United States of America just before Judgment Day.  He was separated from his parents by Texas Tummy Twisters, but he suspects secretly he's actually the son of their royal rival, held as a hostage, and now seeks a lost briefcase full of emeralds and the royal dossier so he can know the truth."

She stopped and then pondered Maggie May.

"She... is Jezebel Gomer, the heir to a Junkyard fabrication syndicate which has discovered a way to create ghost rock from styrofoam."  She began again.  "The only problem is, the only way to do it is to unite with a rival Junkyard manufacturing gang, which is why her father tried to make her marry a cobbler.  But she was in love with the haberdasher who moonlighted at the all night flapjack house and ran away from the marriage, only to be betrayed.  She escaped only with a carton full of pre-war stage magic novelties which she uses to affect strange and bizarre displays of inexplicable powers."

She stopped.  "That's how you play the Story Game, you tell the dad blame stupidest thing you can make up and if you accidentally get anything right you win.  I think in the old days they used to call it The Aristocrats.  Truth is I'm not very good at it either, I can't come up with anything far fetched enough compared to most people's lives, like Harry here."

The shelves contained a few squarish packages, some more oddly shaped ones for variety, a few bottles, etc.  Hard to tell what any of it is in the near dark of the old store.  A few sniffs locate a bottle that /probably/ contains some sort of fuel oil.  Some cloth to make a wick....  Something to light it with....  And one could get a rudimentary oil lamp going.

Outside, the storm vented its fury uselessly.  The howling wind no longer sounding quite so fiendishly gleeful.  But that's probably just the imagination.

  Martin listened to the rules of the story Gane, intrigued since he hadn't heard of it before.  Harry's off limits, I suppose, since he told us his story. So I guess at yours, right?. Martin hopped up on the bar, wedging the makeshift wick into the bottle of fuel oil and turning it upside down to draw the liquid into the rag strip.  He thought about his stories as the oil served inti the wick.  He sat the bottle on the bar next to him, Anyone got a lighter or a match or maybe a magic spark?

  He thought a bit more about the stories for the two women while they pushed around for a way to light the cobbled together oil lamp,Alright, I'm guessing Harry's friend here is Ms. Harriet Lumley Wormwood of stately Wormwood Manor and bethrothed of Sir Chasley Carlisle the Third.  Not wanting to be Mrs. 'the Third', Harriet ran away from home on her prized racing goldfish only to end up stranded in the Mojave Desert and nearly drowning.  She was saved by a passing penguin who nursed her back to health.  Harriet had lost her memories and believed herself to be a form of mutant penguin until she was discovered by a band of passing tumbleweeds and returned to civilization where she was drafted into becoming a squire for a knight who turned out to be a statue...

  He then turned to Maggie, You strike me as a Mary...  Mary Christmas, in fact.  A young girl's doll who came to life on Christmas Eve but was teased by the other gifts who were jealous of the love the little girl would lavish on her on Christmas Morning. Before dawn of Christmas Morning, she ran away believing the lies the other toys told her.  She escaped up the chimney and into the attic where she lived with other items stored away by the family over the years.  She learned all about the various generations of the family who had lived in the home but never returned to the little girl she was meant for after hearing how upset the missing doll had made the young girl.  She decided that after that fateful day, it was her responsibility to make sure all the toys treated each other kindly and fairly...or risk the wrath of Mary Christmas.

How'd I do?  I wouldn't mind hearing the real stories though. Like the way Harry told his...

Maggie looked at Martin then the others in turn "ok you want the story of Maggie May then you can have it as far as I can piece it together.....and Martin yours was the closest by the way but be careful what you ask for what is said might not be to your liking"

She moved over to a chair turned it upright and sat down

"Maggie May came to life a few years ago before that time she was nothing the story goes she was a toy, for a wicked family made up of wicked women. One of these women made images of herself so that as she got older she could take out one of her toys and possess it thus live forever." A smile crossed her face then

"You see these women were clever and rich and powerful.... In more ways than one... But they couldn't tell the future."

"So this one with the toys didn't foresee the bombs falling and died in the aftermaths. But at least one of her toys survived deep in an underground bunker but something happened and the toy awoke."

Maggie took a moment thinking back " the toy had fragments of memory but none her own she wondered the wilderness for years realising she possessed some of the powers the wicked women had .....she was scared she would turn out to be wicked herself until she found a baby python and raised it as her own and realised there was the makings of a kind heart in that toy body."

She gave a big sigh "so the toy moved from settlement to settlement offering her abilities to help the needy but after time she had to move in because even though she did good people were suspicious of her and her ...gifts so the toy just keeps moving until she can find somewhere where she can settle down for good"

She was silent for a time then cleared her throat and scratched the head of the snake who had curled itself round her while she talked and now looked at her with concern in her eyes

"So that is the story of Maggie May Devlin" she finally said

Harry listened, and smiled at Maggie's story. It was strange, sure, but he wasn't in a place to judge. He looked over at Martin. "And what's your story, then? Because Kelly's right, I suck at the Story game. Too much time tryin' to get at the truth, I suppose."

Kelly couldn't help but laugh just a little, a rare sight.  She normally just did things like this to screw with people and see how they reacted.  It told you something.

Also, this was the apocalypse.  Entertainment had to be... creative.

"Well, there was a penguin, after a fashion, I suppose.  Right now Count Otto here seems to be winning, he's two for two."

  Martin enjoyed the Story Game. It was an odd cousin to 'Two Thruths and a Lie' but it relied a bit on the deductive skills and imagination of the other players.  This far the other players had quite the imaginative streak but looked forward to their actual stories just about as much.
  He listened intently at Maggie's version of her story, quite a bit more fanciful and cryptic that the metal lawman's tale.  Aw, my tale isn't all that interesting but I'll tell it to pass the time... he replied to Harry's invitation.

  I guess I'm probably the only one here younger than the War.  I came along just a bit afterwards.  My parents had been caught on anacademic road trip wuth another couple from their University when the bombs fell.  They took refuge in the basement of a factory in the nearest town off the highway until the dust settled.  The town, and the factory, was owned by this old Confederate general and run by his niece.  They decided to turn the factory into the center of the community to get a society going again...  It was an old candy factory that had  plenty of cropland to grow the corn and sorghum and sugarcane they needed.  It even had an on-site ethanol plant to power it.
  Mom was a medic and Dad was a...collector, so they did what they could to contribute.  When I was young, Mom died in an outbreak of fevers and Dad went out to scrounge parts and supplies but never came back.  The friends that had been traveling with my Mom & Dad took me in for a while but the Professor starting having nervous breakdowns so I moved in with a couple that had been cops before the War and I grew up alongside their two boys for a while until it was decided that I could live by myself and the others would check in on me and make sure I was fed and taken care of.  So I kind of grew up on my own and earned my keep doing odd jobs for Miss Bonnie, the woman that owned the candy factory, and just kinda finding my own way.  That and mainly handling the old Professor after his nervous breakdown.  I think he remembers me somehow and wasn't quite as hostile towards me when his mind wasn't right.  Anyhow, when Raven's army of restless dead moved thru there wasn't enough room to house everyone in the shelters so I volunteered to leave to see a bit more of the world and find my own adventures.. He shrugged his shoulders as if to indicate that was where his story currently stood.

Lightning flared outside a few beats after Martin finished his tale.  In the sudden flash, from the gap above the shelf-door, the room was momentarily more visible.  The mind's eye catching the image and adding it to the little mental map.  Nothing much had changed, though there was a sudden realization that there were doorways out of the main room.  One near the counter.  One near the middle by the boarded up, once-glass coolers of the old station.  The last two, very close to each other, had the standard images of vague person in pants and vague person in a dress/kilt.  It is generally held that these once meant MEN and WOMEN.

Anyone have any actions outside of the story game?  Which is awesome by the way.  So far we have an unlit lamp and some sketchy notions of what's in the place.  If no one does, I will push the story onward Monday night

As the talk died off somewhat, Kelly searched for a source of illumination.  Any kind of liquid that might burn and a flat, flame-resistant object like a stone or an old plate could be used to fashion a crude grease lamp perhaps.  They did need to check this place before anyone took sleep in here, though they'd check it properly later with natural light.

A bit more searching around in the dark store finds maybe a bit more oil that might work for another simple oil lamp.  Lighting them remained an issue.  The Story Game did much to lighten the mood if not the room.  A kind, brief respite from the savageness outside.  But that savagery remained.  The storm would still rage, however impotently, for quite some time yet.  The wind howled and rattled at the shutters, as though trying to make sure that the survivors knew that it was still there....still hungry...

BANG!

From the backroom area, it sounded like something metal slamming heavily.  Maybe a door?  Maybe something else.  Then it banged again...and again...

"Ok who left the back door open" whispered Maggie while she waved her arms round in an intricate pattern and as she settled into a defensive stance facing the rear of the diner witch fire coated her hands

"It ain't like we explored this place." Harry grumbled. "Could be it was open all along...or that's whatever chased all the people out of there." He felt at the floor, his hand coming away with an oily residue. "hmmm..."

Lightning crashed.....thunder seemed to shake you down to your bones...  Probably just a feeling.

  Martin set the unlit makeshift oil lamp down on the bar beside him and stood up on the bar, squinting into the darkness of the back end of the store. Doesn't make sense that the front of the store would be boarded up tight and leave a back door open.  The storm might've blown it open but I kinda doubt it... My 'monster sense' is tingling.. The kid drew a fanciful looking sword from the scabbard behind his backpack and hopped down off the bar.  He grabbed the oil lamp and stood beside Maggie and tried to light the wick from the weird fire dancing in her palms.

"There's a puddle of oil here that wasn't here before." Harry says, indicating the floor around the shelf he'd moved. "And before you ask, no, I don't have any leaks. None that would dribble this much, anyhow."

"We need to check it out."  Kelly grumbled.  She wished she had a scattergun and a pistol at moments like these.  The sword would have to do.

"There's... something off with this place.  I felt something walking in here."

Unless Maggie would not allow the lamp to be lit from her witchfire, you now have a lamp.  Candle level illumination.  Also, benny to Martin for Eye on the Ball.

So, what's the plan?  Who is checking out the back room?

This message was last edited by the GM at 16:49, Wed 12 Sept 2018.

"I would have thought the creepy 'everyone who should be here is now gone' vibe of the place would have been the first clue." Harry says. He reaches under his poncho and pulls out his sawn-off shotgun, the one he'd modified so that he could swing-cock it one handed like that one robot in that old movie. He raised his chainsaw arm as well. "If someone lights whatever it is up, I'll cut it down to size."

"Ok let's go see who that's knock knock knocking ...." Maggie replied with her witchfire reflecting on her eyes as she strode purposefully towards the rear door.

 once there she reached out a hand and turned the nob  pushing it open quickly and with a graceful step passed through the door and to the left her other hand a ball of flame ready to be thrown

Kelly backed Harry up, as she often did, but outside of chainsaw accident range.  She made no effort to take the illumination out of the mistaken belief it would keep the Count out of the fray.

  Martin watched the others assemble for an assault and sorely wanted to join them but there were things nagging at his Brian that even adrenaline couldn't entirely dissuade...

  Harry had mentioned a grease smear so he went to investigate it, bringing the makeshift oil lamp down beside him as he knelt to examine the smear.  He set down his sword and ran a couple of fingers through the smear and smelled the residue before looking closely at his stained finger tips in the light of the lamp, narrowing his eyes involuntarily as if it helped him think.

Maggie pushed open the door she guessed would lead to the banging noise.  It opened into a largish room, possibly once the storeroom of the original establishment.  The light from the witchfire in her fist illuminated very little, but gave the vague sense of the size of the room.  It revealed a table, chairs, and larger furniture (maybe bunk beds?) before the darkness overwhelmed the feeble light in the further room.  A little more light spilled in from the open doorway across the room, which opened out onto the storm raging across what must be the lot behind the building.  The door is blown again, slamming closed for a moment, then swinging back open...

I am under the assumption that Maggie lead the way in, with Harry and Kelly waiting to follow in?  Notice rolls from all three of you!  And, go ahead and post how you enter/check the room.

Martin knelt by the new front door-shelf to investigate the smear....or more accurately puddle of something.  It was thick, black, and oozing from under the shelf into the store.  It was distinctly /not/ there when the group first entered.  It felt very slick and...well...oily.  In fact, when Martin brought it for a closer examination by the light, he got the very sudden impression that he should /not/ get it too near the open flame for very long...

Martin - Notice for you as well!  Also, was there anything that he was specifically thinking or looking for?

  Martin rubbed the slick substance between his fingers for a minute before looking around  for a loose box.  Before going after it, he took his knife and drew a line on the floor around the perimeter of the puddle so he coukd see how quickly it was oozing into the once abandoned store.

  Returning quickly with a stray box, he scooped a bit of the oily ooze onto the edge of the box lid. Carrying it some distance from the growing puddle, Martin introduced the clean side of the box lid to the flame and set it on a nearby table to see what happened when the flame burned closer and closer to the oily substance.  At first, he was all too close as he watched the box lid burn, stepping back as he realized he'd left his sword on the floor and turned to retrieve it.

19:47, Today: Kelly MacLeod rolled 3,2 using d6,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 3,2.  Notice?

lol no

Kelly moved carefully, back to back with Harry.  The Big Guy didn't have too many weaknesses but being surrounded was one of them, strong as he was it was hard to deal with flankers for anybody.

Connor was up in her grip, held cross body in a defensive posture.  Keep the steel between you and The Problem.

Harry moved in slowly, taking in the corners as he did, waiting for things to leap out at him. He wished he had some sort of cybernetic upgrades for his eyes, but eh. You couldn't have everything, and it wasn't like there was anyone around anymore who could make them for him anyhow.

((OOC: 18:26, Today: Rusty Harry rolled 4,10 using d6,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 4,(6+4)10.  Notice.

Harry continues to See All The Things.))

Ooc
06:46, Today: Maggie May rolled 7,1 using D8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 7,1.  Notice roll.

Maggie wasn't a fool as soon as she stepped into the room she stepped to the left one to stop her being outlined by the light behind her and to give the rest clear access into the space to.

With all her senses on high alert she was ready to send witch fire in all directions
This message was last edited by the player at 05:49, Fri 14 Sept 2018.

In The Back Room - Maggie, Kelly, and Harry

The trio moved slowly into the darkened backroom sleeping area.  They were wary...expecting something...  They were survivors of the wastes and knew when something was coming for them.  Like prey scenting the predator creeping into the area.

BANG!

The door slammed again, pulling attention towards it.  That's when they struck.  Springing from the shadows at the far side of the room, they threw themselves at the three.  Two dead men and a dead woman.  But, like many dead things in this Earth That Is, they move and they move fast.  Hungry.  That black oil smeared all over their clothes; work coveralls.  Oil dripped from their grinning faces as they rushed in...

Round One! Ambush!

3 Oilers start on Hold.  They do not get The Drop because you guys knew /something/ was coming.
Kelly gets no card for failed Notice
Maggie - 9H
Harry - 9S

Oilers charge in a wild flying tackle.  +2 Fighting, -2 Parry.  Oiler Parry is now 3.

Oiler #1 - Maggie make a Fighting roll vs. 6 or be Tackled.  Fail and you are entangled with it and lose concentration on the Witchfire.  Fail by 4 and you are also Shaken

Oiler #2 - Kelly make a Fighting Roll vs. 5.  See Maggie's note for results.

Oiler #3 - Harry make a Fighting Roll vs. 3.  See Maggie's note for results.

After opposed rolls, Harry and Maggie may take their action.

In The Main Room - Martin

Martin carefully began his small experiment with the cardboard, the oily substance, and the small flame.  Before getting to enjoy the results of that experiment, he remembered his sword.  Moving back to retrieve it, he heard the sudden howling charge from the back room.  Which is why he did not notice when the door-shelf suddenly flew into the room as though kicked by a giant....

Round One!  Ambush!

Martin - Agility -2 (for being Surprised) or be hit by the Shelf, taking 8 Damage (AKA, Shaken).  No Action this round for you either due to failed Notice.

We'll deal with what kicked it in Round Two....

Ooc
10:09, Today: Maggie May rolled 2,4 using D6,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 2,4.  Fighting roll.

ooc: it just isn't Martin's day...  Btw, he die roller hates me.  Best I can do is a 2.

05:53, Today: Martin Fine rolled 1,2 using d10-2,d6-2, rerolling max with rolls of 3,4.  Bennie Re-roll (Surprised).

05:52, Today: Martin Fine rolled 0 using 1d6-2, rerolling max with rolls of 2.  Agility Wild Die .

05:49, Today: Martin Fine rolled 2 using 1d10-2, rerolling max with rolls of 4.  Agility roll (Surprised).

Harry had been expecting something like this. He braced himself as the oil-soaked deader rushed him, tossed shoved it back when it reached him, then swiftly stuck the barrel of his shotgun in the thing's mouth. "Eat this." he says, pulling the trigger to paint the wall with its brains.

((OOC: 06:35, Today: Rusty Harry rolled 6,9 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 6,(6+3)9.  Fighting.

Going to take a shot at the oil boi coming at me. I'm in melee, so I have to hit his Parry, but I get a bonus to my roll for the buckshot, which should hopefully counter any darkness penalties should Maggie's light fail.

06:39, Today: Rusty Harry rolled 8,10 using d8+2,d6+2, rerolling max with rolls of 6,(6+2)8.  Shooting.

That's at least a hit, even in pitch darkness, and probably a raise. Going to roll my normal damage and raise damage separately.

06:42, Today: Rusty Harry rolled 37 using 3d6, rerolling max with rolls of 3,5,(6+6+6+6+5)29.  damage.

06:42, Today: Rusty Harry rolled 5 using 1d6, rerolling max with rolls of 5.  damage (with Raise).

I have total confidence that a 42 is enough to put this guy down.

Card for next round: 7C))

11:28, Today: Kelly MacLeod rolled 3,2 using d10,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 3,2.  Fighting.

lol figures.

Kelly fared poorly in the ensuing struggle.

Maggie - Maggie is Tackled!  Your action options are to try and escape, roll Strength or Agility vs. the Oiler's 5 (They are good at this and covered in slick oil.  Hard to get a escape.)  Succeed and you are out but it takes your Action.  Raise and you can still Act.  Any other action is -4.  Post the tackle and the result of any escape attempts/other actions.

Martin - You are Shaken!  Post any appropriate post about getting almost mowed down by a shelf.

Harry is done.  Good shot sir.

Kelly is also Tackled!  But, no escape attempt this round.  Feel free to describe getting tackled if you like.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:03, Fri 14 Sept 2018.

Ooc

17:37, Today: Maggie May rolled 1,1 using D6,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 1,1.  Agility.

18:38, Today: Maggie May rolled 5,1 using D6,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 5,1.  Re-roll agility (1beenie).


This message was last edited by the player at 17:39, Fri 14 Sept 2018.

Kelly was caught completely off guard and went to the ground in a most undignified manner, covered in Oiler, oil and God knows what other debris and filth.

In The Back Room - Kelly, Harry, Maggie, Oilers

The oil soaked dead threw themselves at the survivors.  One crashed into Maggie, pushing her back towards a wall and pinning her arms.  Panic no doubt crept into her mind as the oil-slicked face leaned towards her; the undead strength seeming impossible to resist.  It ruined her concentration and the witchfire winked out.  The room plunged into horrid darkness filled with terrible smells and the desperate noise of the fight.  But, panic can be a funny thing and push your muscles more than you thought they could be pushed.  Just as she hit the wall, she managed to get leverage and throw the thing back...

Another crashed more harder into the surprised Kelly, tangling up her arms and sword as it wrapped oily arms around her.  They both fell heavily to the ground and the undead thing was looking her right in the eye with horrible, gleeful, malevolence as its mouth opened wider...

The third slapped into the side of the cyborg like it had hit a wall.  Harry shoved it back just enough with his chainsaw arm to allow him to bring the shotgun into play...  BLAM!  Its head disappeared and the room was momentarily lit again with the blaze of the muzzle flash.  Then darkness again, only the very faint storm-light through the slamming door...

Round Two!

Maggie - 9S - You are free to Act!

Harry - 7C - You are also free to Act!

Oilers - 6S - Two left. Remain at Parry 3 and will go after Maggie and Harry.

Kelly - 2S - Will go last.  Say something nice to the die roller.  It might be mad at you.

In the Main Room - Martin and Frank

The shelf spun and crashed across the room, Martin caught the edge of it and just that sent him sprawling.  He reeled from the sudden, unexpected onslaught and looked up to the doorway.  Lightning slashed the sky outside, silhouetting the figure in the doorway.  At least as tall as the more friendly, cyborg warmachine in the back room.  Human shaped, but shaped entirely of that slick black oily stuff.  The faint lamp-light glittered in reflection across the oily surface.  Hateful red eyes somehow floated where eyes should be, in the "head" of the monster.  And it hated Martin.  He just knew it....

Round Two!

Martin - KS - First, a Fear Check.  Walking Dead are normal now, but this thing is something far worse and frightening.  Fear Level of the area is 5, this thing is another -1.  But, you are Seasoned so +2.  So Spirit check with a -4 aiming for a 4.

After we deal with that, you can deal with the Shaken status and Action.

Frank - JD - After that, its Frank's turn....

Maggie in her horror used all her strength and dexterity to free herself from the creature.

Now with a moment to gather her thoughts and take a breath to steady her nerves she straightened up to her full height and with a flick of her hands ignighted her witch fire again.

With the flames engulfing her hands she brought them up and let fly the full force of the power at her command

Ooc

03:26, Today: Maggie May rolled 5,3 using D10,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 5,3.  Witchcraft

03:28, Today: Maggie May rolled 13 using 3d6, rerolling max with rolls of 4,(6+1)7,2.  Spend 3mp for 3d6 damage

With the sudden flare of light, Harry could see, so he turned his attention to the oily thing attacking his friend. he loomed over Kelly and the deader, and revved his chainsaw in earnest.

{{RNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!}}

((OOC: Going to Wild Attack the Oiler on top of Kelly, adding +2 to my attacks and damage in exchange for -2 Parry until my next action. With the sudden flare of witchlight, I shouldn't have any darkness penalties, but this hedges my bets.

19:37, Today: Rusty Harry rolled 15,5 using d8+2,d6+2, rerolling max with rolls of (8+5)13,3.  Fighting, Wild Attack.

Nice. Hit and Raise.

19:39, Today: Rusty Harry rolled 1,10 using d10,2d6+4, rerolling max with rolls of 1,3,3.  damage.

11 Damage, however, is pretty crap. Oh well. That should still be a Wound.

Card: 5C

All this is well and good, though I'm pretty sure Frank in the other room isn't going to go down nearly this easily, since he's made of oil.))

ooc:. I'm calling BS on the die roller.  Best roll of 3 tries is  a -1...

05:47, Today: Martin Fine rolled -3,-1 using d8-4,d6-4, rerolling max with rolls of 1,3.  Bennie re-roll x2 Fear check.

05:45, Today: Martin Fine rolled -3,-2 using d8-4,d6-4, rerolling max with rolls of 1,2.  Bennie re-roll Fear check.

05:45, Today: Martin Fine rolled -3,-2 using d8-4,d6-4, rerolling max with rolls of 1,2.  Fear check.

In The Main Room - Martin and Frank

Okay!  Failed Fear leads to Fear Table....

Martin gains: Minor Phobia!  We'll deal with the details of that later, because that will be the repercussions from facing this thing (so no Phobia minuses /now/).  I would Shake you, but you are already Shaken.  Sooooo....

Go ahead, UnShake and Act!

In The Back Room - Maggie, Kelly, and Harry

The room flares to brightness again as Maggie calls down the witchfire.  She slings a hellish ball of that green flame into the oil-soaked deader that had recently gotten a little too handsy.  The bolt throws the thing back into the bunks with a roar; the oily mess covering the now truly dead man bursting into flames.  Which will no doubt spread to those mattresses and bedding...

Kelly struggled with her attacker, trying desperately to fend off the gaping inky maw.  Then she heard the familiar rev of an engine... The saw tore into the dead woman sending the body into even more violent convulsions.  Oil and...other stuff...sprayed and gouted all over the prone swordswoman...

Maggie - Action Complete; Oiler Down.  Fire also started....
Harry - Action Complete; Oiler Destroyed!
Kelly - Fear Check (From the Absolute Shocking Grossness of being covered in this while trapped prone.  And the chainsaw.) Your Check is also at -4, but is Fear/Nausea based.  If you Fail, you are Shaken AND you make a Vigor Check (TN 4) or take a Fatigue Level.  Roll a 1 on the Spirit Die and you go to the same Table Martin did.  As a side note, you have temporarily become Flammable as well.  Congrats!

After that, you may Act!  If that Action will involve moving to the main room, you will have to pause till we finish resolving Martin and Frank's actions.  They would have happened first.

Yikes. o_0

05:12, Today: Kelly MacLeod rolled 1,-1 using d8-4,d6-4, rerolling max with rolls of 5,3.  Spirit.

Well no surprise there.  At least it's not a crit fail.

05:13, Today: Kelly MacLeod rolled 6,2 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 6,2.  Vigor.

Well at least I made that roll.  Fatigue damage stinks.

Kelly was so jostled, so shocked by this turn of events it was all she could do to keep struggling for a moment with an opponent who was no longer intact.

05:14, Today: Kelly MacLeod drew the single card: 6D using a deck of 54 cards.

Maggie cursed herself for not controlling her witch fire and setting the place slight

 "We might want to think about trying to put that out" she shouted as she looked round for something to aid in that task

 " we don't really want to be burned out of here and end up in the storm do we"

Ooc

21:18, Today: Maggie May rolled 2,9 using D8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 2,(6+3)9.  Notice roll.
This message was lightly edited by the player at 20:20, Sun 16 Sept 2018.

  After the sudden, chilling introduction of the giant-sized, oil-coated zombie froze his mind in fright, Martin rallied with the indomitibility of youth.


ooc:
17:33, Today: Martin Fine rolled 13,4 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of (8+5)13,4.  Spirit roll (Shaken).

That a raise, or two, so he still gets all his actions this turn I think...


Martin gathers himself against the grim giant and tosses the makeshift lamp he had at the oily puddle seeping across where the doorframe used to be...unaware that the other room was already on fire.


ooc:

18:32, Today: Martin Fine drew the single card: 2H using a deck of 54 cards.

18:31, Today: Martin Fine rolled 4,6 using d10,d4, rerolling max with rolls of 4,(4+2)6.  Throwing.

In reply to Maggie May (msg # 87):

"Yes, I'll just extinguish it with my handy fire extinguisher." Harry says flatly as he regards the flames. "It's located next to my Dr. Pepper dispenser and slot machine. Any more brilliant observations for us today, Captain Obvious? Like maybe one shouldn't be throwing fire at critters soaked in oil in the first place?"

In the Main Room - Martin and Frank (Dim)

The menacing Thing in the Door began to stalk forward into the shop; "feet" sliding across the ground with a slopping wet sound.  Martin somehow managed to recover from the sight, eyes wide and threw the weapon in hand.  Not the sword...but the lamp.  This little light of his tumbled through the air at the oily thing framed by the stormlight in the doorway perfectly.  It slammed into its shoulder, shattering, and flaring in a brief blast of oily flame.  It roared angrily as its shoulder and arm seemed to disintegrate; oily form roiling over the flames and snuffing them before they could spread further.

The roar continued...got louder as the red eyes turned back to Martin...and then that roar turned into a gushing torrent of black crude blasting into the old convenience store!

Frank was hit!  And took 2 Wounds.  He soaked one, but is still left with 1 Wound and Shaken.  He Unshook and then unleashed the Gusher.

Martin - Roll Agility vs. 14.  Fail and take 7 Damage, Fail with a 10 or Less and take 10.

Round Three for the Main Room!

Frank - 2S

Martin - 2H

We'll hold off here till the Back Room Folks take their actions.


This message was last edited by the player at 07:18, Tue 18 Sept 2018.

In the Back Room - Maggie, Kelly, Harry(No Darkness Penalties thanks to the Fire)

A shout from the main room could have been heard during the fighting with the dead, followed by a much louder and more gurgly roar that was /definitely/ not Martin.  What followed sounded like a firehose being unleashed...if that sound meant anything to post-apocalyptic survivors.

The immediate threat of the oily dead was dealt with, but the fire is going to become a larger problem.  Then there is whatever horrible thing is happening to Martin in the main room...

The door bangs shut again as the winds still howl without.

Round Three - Back Room

Maggie - QD - Act as you Will

Others MUST WAIT...  /Things/ might happen...

If looked could have killed rusty would have died instantly on the spoke as looks couldn't kill....well at least Maggie's couldn't .....yet. she turned away and grabbed one of the other mattresses and throw it on top of the burning one

Ooc

19:49, Today: Maggie May rolled 1 using 1d6, rerolling max with rolls of 1.  Mattress throw.

With a satisfying sigh the witch jumped onto the mattress a couple of times to make sure the fire underneath was completely out

In the Back Room - Maggie, Kelly, Harry, and More Oilers! (Dark)

Moving quickly, Maggie grabbed another of the thin mattresses and smothered out the flames before they could grow to a completely unmanageable size.  This also had the effect of plunging the room back into darkness again, save the wan stormlight from the banging door...

BANG...  Light again....  Bang.....  Light Again....

On the second opening, more of the oily dead swarmed into the room.  Oil bubbling up from their mouths, they burbled a horrible choking howl as they charged in at the three....

Oilers - QD

Harry - Oilers #1 and #2 rush you.  Fighting vs. 6.  Then Fighting vs. 8.  Fail the first and you are Entangled, the second then takes you to the ground and assists in holding.  Fail the second and you will just be entangled by the second.

After that, you have an Action! - 5C

Kelly - Oiler #3 goes for you.  Fighting vs. 5 to avoid takedown.

After that, you have an Action! - 6D

Maggie - Oiler #4 goes for you.  Fighting vs. 5 to avoid takedown.  After that, you should draw a card for the next round because you already acted in this one!

Ooc

09:09, Today: Maggie May rolled 3,1 using D6,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 3,1.  Fighting roll.

09:10, Today: Maggie May drew the single card: AD using a deck of 54 cards.  Initiative.

ooc:

04:26, Today: Martin Fine rolled 3,4 using d10,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 3,4.  Gusher Bennie re-roll.

04:26, Today: Martin Fine rolled 4,1 using d10,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 4,1.  Martin v. Gusher Ag roll.

04:25, Today: Martin Fine rolled 4 using 1d6, rerolling max with rolls of 4.  Fire Spreads.

Okay, per the PM here's the Spirit Roll to Unshake which was really last round's action.

19:48, Today: Kelly MacLeod rolled 11,5 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of (8+3)11,5.  Spirit.

ALL THE UNSHAKING.

19:49, Today: Kelly MacLeod rolled 15,1 using d10,d6, rerolling max with rolls of (10+5)15,1.  Fighting.

No takedown for you!

Kelly snapped out of that funk.  Apparently being covered in the nastiest oil and oil like substances imaginable was enough to get her to remember how to kick some ass.

When the creature reached for her again, she silently prayed to the saints for deliverance.  Mysteriously the creature seemed to stumble just a little, just enough for Kelly to get Connor up.  Fighting most unorthodox, she pushed the creature back with the flat, only to turn it and then line up a textbook cutting arc.

19:49, Today: Kelly MacLeod rolled 5,3 using d10+2,d6+2, rerolling max with rolls of 3,1.  Wiiiiiild Attack!

Oh, I tottally forgot I was using Connor, so that's actually a 7 to hit.

15 damage - Forgot the +2 to damage when I typed it in the die roller

19:53, Today: Kelly MacLeod rolled 6,7 using d8,d8, rerolling max with rolls of 6,7.  Damage - Strength, Sword.

Oh and as a free action:

19:50, Today: Kelly MacLeod rolled 6,1 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 6,1.  Faith.

That Activates Deflection for -2 to incoming attacks to offset the Parry penalty for Wild Attack.  Marked down my PP by 2.

19:56, Today: Kelly MacLeod drew the single card: 2D using a deck of 54 cards.

"Urk!" The sarcastic hunk of metal grunted as the oily dead oozed after him. Made sense he would be a target -- he was the largest thing in the room. So one of them got clawing at him, but he managed to shove the other away with his gun hand.

"Alright, Mr. Huggles," He growled as the dead thing flapped at him. "You wanna dance? My partner wants to cut in. See this?" He raised his sawed off shotgun, spin-cocking it in the process. He pressed the barrel against the dead man's chest. "This is my BOOMstick!"

{{BOOM!}}

((OOC:

First fighting: 18:56, Today: Rusty Harry rolled 5,2 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 5,2.  Fighting.

Second fighting: 18:56, Today: Rusty Harry rolled 12,3 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of (8+4)12,3.  Fighting.

Technically that second one is a 10, as I got Entangled, but it's still enough to keep the second one from bearing me to the ground.

Mr. Huggles here is in for some shotgun action. The buckshot cancels out the -2 penalty I have for being Entangled.

19:00, Today: Rusty Harry rolled 6,2 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 6,2.  Shooting. That looks to be a Hit, no Raise.

19:01, Today: Rusty Harry rolled 20 using 3d6, rerolling max with rolls of (6+4)10,(6+1)7,3.  damage.

Card: AS))

In the Back Room - Maggie, Kelly, Harry, and Oilers! (Dark)

The first of the oilers throws itself at the cyborg, managing to get a grip on the armor plating and try to drag itself up to Harry's face.  The second oiler was shoved roughly back by Harry's shotgun as he tried to bring it to bear on his attacker.  The muzzle touched long enough for the cyborg to quip, but the oiler slid to the side as the blast went off just next to it...

Kelly's sword cut true, sawing through the neck of the dead thing in a single perfect strike.  The body toppled like a puppet with the strings cut in a heap at her feet.  The head, still gurgling horribly, rolled away...

The final oiler threw itself bodily at the witch, just as she was turning around from her successful firefighting effort.  They stumbled back, the dead man clawing and wrapping itself around her.  Oil leaked past the gnashing teeth...

End of Round Three for the Back Room!

Harry - I did not specify about the Dark penalty (which I would have given a pass on for not being clear), but even with that the penalty for any action other than breaking out of the first Oiler's Grapple is -4 by SWD.  Close Combat goes against Parry, so...with either penalty...its a miss... Not that it will last long next round.

Kelly - Even with the Dark penalty, you still hit!  Oiler #3 is down.

Maggie - You are Grappled by a Horrible Oil Zombie!

Now to Martin...

In the Main Room - Martin and Frank

The gout of crude oil slammed into Martin, even as he tried to escape it.  It pushed him back across the room, coating him in a thick layer of Texas Tea.  It was impossible to keep it from getting into his nose and mouth, choking him even as he slammed against the far wall...

The oil man ceased his flooding roar and started to stalk into the store after his prey.  Only to stop as the little flame of Martin's experiment on a nearby table flared with the addition of fuel and fumes!  It began to ripple and blaze across the oil that had hit the table and threatened to continue racing across the abundant fuel in the room.  The oily thing in the door hesitated at the sight and stepped back out into the storm.  Those red eyes never looking away from Martin.

Martin - You take a Wound and are Shaken from that 10 Damage.  If its any consolation, choking on crude oil is considered nonlethal.  You can absolutely still roll Soak.  You are also now Flammable!

Frank's action was to retreat from the flames!

Martin may take his Action!  After which, we go to Round Four!

  Martin couldn't do much more than gather his wots after being hosed down with the oil spew.  His eyes and lungs burned from the fumes as the spray died down and the thing retreated.  Gunshots rang from the back room and the tin-man's chainsaw revved, so he figured the others were in as much trouble as he was...

  Seeing the thing's open fear of the flame dancing on the oil-soaked table, Martin manuevered to put it between him and the oil-coated dead thing.  As he glared back at those red, hate-filled eyes he took off his jacket, hoping to make himself a bit less flammable.


ooc:

06:22, Today: Martin Fine drew the single card: 2S using a deck of 54 cards.

06:21, Today: Martin Fine rolled 7,5 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 7,5.  Spirit roll-Unshake.
  -shrugged off the Shaken but no Raise, so he's limited to Free actions only this turn.

This message was last edited by the player at 11:44, Fri 21 Sept 2018.

In The Back Room - Maggie, Kelly, Harry, Oilers (Dark)

The oiler hissed up at Harry, oil dripping over its lips as it tried to claw its way up the huge can's armored torso.  Its partner had a look in its eye that said it was coming again for the big cyborg...

Maggie's oiler gripped her tightly, desperately holding on to its prey.  It looked her in the eye with malicious glee as it began trying to cough up something...

Round Four!  The staccato lighting from the doorway continues to make the room Dark

Harry - AS - First up and free to Act!  I prerolled your grappler's resistance to any escaping you might try.  Use Strength or Agility vs. a 6 to escape.  Success uses up action, raise lets you also act normally.  Or, other actions at -4.

Maggie - AD - You're Up Too!  I saw your Agility roll to escape of 10, which is a Raise past its 5.  You're out!  Describe the escape and Act As You Will.

Oilers - JC - If any remain, they will go after Harry and Maggie.

Kelly - 2D - Clean Up Hitter.  Patience!

The oil made it easier for Maggie to get out of the creatures grip than she thought it would.

She twisted and her limbs seemed to contort into freakish angles as she slipped out of the monsters reach

But she didn't stop there still facing away from the creature her arms snapped back behind her, this time she was the one doing the grabbing

Ooc
10:42, Today: Maggie May rolled 1,5 using D6,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 1,5.  Wild attack.

Taking hold of the thing behind her she fell forward, her arms spinning up and over her head taking the creature with them.

A body just shouldn't be able to bend to such extent but Maggie's did.

The creature flew over her head and came down on face up inpaled on the jagged and rusty end of one of the metal bed posts.

Ooc
10:50, Today: Maggie May rolled 4 using 2d4+2, rerolling max with rolls of 1,1.  Damage
20:04, Today: Maggie May rolled 8 using 2d8, rerolling max with rolls of 5,3.  Beenie spend damage re-roll.


As she let go Maggie rolled away and came up in a low beastial crouch her limbs clicking back into place with an audible snap
This message was last edited by the player at 20:18, Fri 21 Sept 2018.

Harry struggled with the slippery monster, annoyed that he hadn't hit it with his shot. Those shells weren't easy to come by! "Little...help here..." He grunted.

((OOC: I roll Strength to escape, which fails, and I spend a Benny on the roll, which came up even worse. Gar.

07:04, Today: Rusty Harry rolled 2,3 using d10,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 2,3.  Strength.

07:04, Today: Rusty Harry rolled 2,1 using d10,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 2,1.  benny reroll.

I miss being able to spend Red Fate Chips. :(

Card: 2H

Man, the die roller is just hating on me in all kinds of ways today.))

In the Back Room - Maggie, Kelly, Harry, and Oilers (Dark)

Maggie spun and slid in the oily embrace.  Her arms and joints popped, shifting impossibly.  The sudden move and improbable leverage she managed, allowed her to launch the oily dead man over her head and into the bed frame with a horrific crunch.  It thrashed, trying to right itself with its new shattered bones.  Flopping around for a moment, it struggled back to its feet, pulling itself off the bedpost.  The leftover hole leaked even more of the foul oil as the oily dead charged in again at the witch.

The dead thing pulled itself up the cyborg, hissing and seething oily foulness.  IT heaved convulsively and a gout of the black stuff poured out of its mouth into Harry's face and upper torso.  A reeking, slick sludge that he couldn't keep out of his mouth and nose.  Were he living, it would be a terrifying feeling of drowning in the nasty stuff.  Since Harry was already dead, it was mostly just nasty...  nasty....  It made it hard to talk and got everywhere.

The oiler that had been shoved away, spun on the swordswoman.  Spraying a mist of oil as it seethed a hiss through gnashing teeth.  It charged her in the reckless, headlong way that these things seemed to prefer...

Round Four - Continued!

Maggie - Wild Attack countered the Dark. You hit the Oiler and Shook it.  It Unshook and charged again!  Fighting vs. 7 or be grappled again!

Harry - These guys automatically do a nonlethal damage attack as they try to drown their victim.  You, being dead, are immune to nonlethal damage!  So....  Lucky you?  You have also become Flammable!

Kelly - Your action is up!  First, resist the new Grapple attempt (TN 6) and you'll get a +2 for this from Deflection. Succeed and you can swing away.  It has a Parry of 3 right now.


This message was last edited by the player at 14:34, Sun 23 Sept 2018.

Still in her crouched position she waited, waited and waited until the monster was lunging for her, then with a quick and graceful dive she used the already oil covered floor to her advantage and slid between its legs and away from its grasping hands

Ooc

8:16, Today: Maggie May rolled 8,1 using D6,d6, rerolling max with rolls of (6+2)8,1.  Fighting roll.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:05, Sun 23 Sept 2018.

05:25, Today: Kelly MacLeod rolled 3,10 using d10+2,d6+2, rerolling max with rolls of 1,(6+2)8.  gettoffame.

"Hold on Harry!  I've got my own suitors to dismiss first!"

Kelly found her stride, at least for the moment.  As the thing came near her, she lashed out with what some called a "thank you" cut, as in thank you for giving me a target.  It didn't connect but that wasn't the point, the point was the creature backed off and stumbled.

"No!"  She taunted the creature.  "You're supposed to buy me dinner first!"

And that set it up for a brutal lunge.  Her opponent was clumsy and overextended.  She committed to it and thrust.

Round 2 of deflection.

Kelly is going to Wild Attack (+2) with Connor (+2) in the darkness (-2).

05:30, Today: Kelly MacLeod rolled 9,5 using d10+2,d6+2, rerolling max with rolls of 7,3.  HYAAAA.

Raise.

13 damage - 05:30, Today: Kelly MacLeod rolled 7,5,1 using d8+2,d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 5,5,1.  Damage - Strength, Sword, Raise.

05:32, Today: Kelly MacLeod drew the single card: 8D using a deck of 54 cards.

  Martin realized they were fighting a battle on two fronts and his front wasn't looking too sturdy.  The giant oil-soaked deader was relatively safe from him standing out in the rain but he was stalemated as long as Martin shielded himself with the flames licking at the tabletop.  Ol' Oil Breath ran the risk of setting himself ablaze if he got too close or his oilstream touched flame and ran back to him.  Martin, however, had better sense than to rush out into the storm after him...  So they locked eyes, cool blue to hateful red, for a long moment before Martin unslung his bow and scraped the broadhead through a thick patch of the oily goo coating his pants and aimed at the beady red eyes through the gaping doorway.

  Dipping his oil-coated arrow into the flame dancing across the table top, he aimed & loosed.



occ:
18:06, Today: Martin Fine rolled 3 using 2d6, rerolling max with rolls of 1,2.  Arrow dmg.

18:05, Today: Martin Fine rolled 3,7,4 using d10,d4,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 3,(4+3)7,4.  Arrow strike.  Not sure if that was a Raise or nah.

I feel your pain, Harry.  The Die Roller loves to hate on my characters, no matter the system or game...

In the Main Room - Martin and Frank

Martin dared the flames to light the arrow, stepping back as the fire seared across the oil-covered table and down the legs towards the completely oil coated floor.  Despite the growing intensity of the blaze, he drew back his arrow and let fly...

The tall oily monstrosity's red eyes grew slightly larger as the flaming arrow sped towards him.  As it punched in, the flames roared to life across his chest.  The arrow continued straight through and out across the station lot.  The fire burned and scorched across his oily form.  The liquid roiled and rolled, trying to suck the flames in...smothering them within.

Within the old store, the fire raged and thick oily smoke began thickening through the room...

Round 3 - 4!
Martin shoots and scores!  The burn Shakes Frank.  He missed his UnShake and burned his second benny to Unshake.  His previous Held action is then used up to smother the fire before it gets worse.

Martin does /not/ catch on fire (this time)!

The fire on the table spreads!  Its kinda reaching a quickly out of control level.  Also, oily nasty smoke is filling the main room!  Next round it will be thick enough to obscure sight AND force Vigor rolls...

Round 5!

Martin - 9H - Go!  If your Action includes going to the back room, it will happen /after/ the Oilers go.



This message was last edited by the player at 14:38, Sun 23 Sept 2018.

In the Back Room - Maggie, Kelly, Harry, and Oilers (Dim)

A flickering, red-orange light begins glowing through the doorway back to the main room of the old convenience store.  Thick black smoke curling through at the top of the door.

Connor sliced through the neck of another dead man, ending its second life with sudden brutality.  The body fell thrashing out whatever animus was left at Kelly's feet.

Harry's dance partner continued to growl and spit-up crude nastiness into the cyborg's face.  As the can seemed to be unaffected by the horrible deluge, the deader decided to go back to basics and just tear into Harry with its teeth...

The second deader continued to fume and spew crude sludge as it continued its desperate lunge for the witch Maggie...

Round Five!

Light from the Main Room means its only Dim now!  -1 to attack rolls

Oilers - BJ - Actions noted below...

Maggie - Another Fighting vs 7 or get Grappled!  After that result, you may Act!

Kelly - You are free to do as you will!  One Oiler on Harry, one on Maggie, and terrible firey things going on in the main room.

Harry - Agility vs. 13 or be Bitten!  9 or better, No damage!  Less than 9 and Harry is Shaken by this thing biting him in what's left of his face.  After that, you may attempt to get out of the grapple (TN 5) or act at -4.

Harry gurgled as the thing puked on him, then tried to bite his face. Thankfully, the oil on him had greased him up a bit, and he was able to loosen the damn thing's grip on him. He shoved as hard as he could, sending the thing back a couple steps.

((OOC: 22:05, Today: Rusty Harry rolled 12,1 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of (8+4)12,1.  Agility.

So no damage there. Let's see if I can get free now.

22:05, Today: Rusty Harry rolled 5,4 using d10,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 5,4.  Strength.

Well, that gets me free, but eats up my action.

Card for next round: QH))

Ooc

06:07, Today: Maggie May rolled 4,5 using D6,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 4,5.  Fighting roll.

Kelly's first reaction was to save Harry, that was after all the smartest thing to do... but inwardly she sighed.  He was, theoretically, in less danger than the mysterious chucker of flames.

"Hold on Harry, I'm playing cleanup crew here!  Hey, ugly!"  With a swift figure eight, Kelly intended to take off its head.

So Round 3 of deflection, will have to pay maintenance costs next turn.  Kelly is going to get that thing out of Maggie's face, though she's going to be surly about it.

Improved Trademark Weapon (+2) Wild Attack (+2) Gang Up 2 v 1 (+1) Dim (-1) and you know what, let's make this interesting, Kelly is going for the Head (-4), so it all nets to zero.

06:25, Today: Kelly MacLeod rolled 9,2 using d10,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 9,2.  Fighting.

That is a hit with a raise.  With with the headshot and the wild attack, this is probably going to sting even if I tank the roll...

ALL THE DAMAGE (33) - 06:26, Today: Kelly MacLeod rolled 10,21,2 using d8+6,d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 4,(8+8+5)21,2.  Damage - Strength, Sword, Raise.

06:27, Today: Kelly MacLeod drew the single card: 3C using a deck of 54 cards.

"I'll help Harry mop up!  Don't start any more fires!  Try to put out this one!  Do something!  I'm coming Harry!"

In The Back Room - Maggie, Kelly, Harry, and the Last Oiler (Dim)

The thing lurched into Maggie, throwing its arms around her and trying to bring her down.  Blood and oil dripped from its jaws as it gurgled angrily, glaring at her with hateful, cloudy, dead eyes.    Then, the eyes fell away along with the top half of the head.  A slight spray drew a line across the witch's face and her attacker slumped away like the dead thing it should always have been.

The last oily dead thing stumbled back from Harry, unable to keep the old war machine tangled up...

Round Five Continued!

Maggie - You still have an Action!  One last Oiler and, of course, the growing hell in the main room.

Martin- Still in the Main Room (Which is Increasingly On Fire) - You also have an Action this round!

  The acrid smoke building in the room was a good signal for Martin to beat a hasty retreat.  He WS fairly confident the oversized monster outside wouldn't follow him into the building so, with one last glance at the hateful red eyes, he reslung his bow, drew his sword and expeditiously retreated towards the room the others had dissapeared into.

Staying low to avoid most of the fumes and smoke, Martin cautiously but quickly entered the room with is sword drawn and ready to parry. ... don't shoot, it's me...

Maggie looked over Martin's shoulder "and I was shouted at for setting a mattress alight....way to go " she shouted at Martin over the raw of battle and flames though there seemed to be a smile playing across her lips

With a quick push she closed the door after him realising talking the fire was not an option.instead she placed any rags she could find against the bottom of the door to keep the smoke out then grabbed her bag and let her large friend out.

With a quick few words she got her snake to go out through the back door and scout out a route to the newer building staying here was not going to be an option very soon

The python slithered free of the bag and stared at its master as she made the request.   Tongue flickering it surveyed the room, then slithered for the noisy door.  It banged once in the snake's face, making it rear back, but it bravely soldiered on...and out into the storm....

Meanwhile, the last of the oil-soaked dead staggered back from Harry, hissing and seething its nasty black spittle.  It readied to charge again....

Round Six

Harry - QH - First up!  Swing, batter, batter, batter...

Martin - JH - Second up, we'll see if its still standing and you can go from there.

Maggie - 9H - It should really be gone by now, but you just never know...

Oiler - 6S - I'll be very surprised if it gets to its action and you will all get a Benny.  A pity Benny.

Kelly - 3C - Wait for it....

((OOC: What's the light level like?))

Still spiting out zombie puke, Harry revs up his chainsaw and slams it viciously into the last remaining deader. "Fucking die!" He snarls.

((OOC: So I'm going to Wild attack again to cancel out the darkness penalty.

08:51, Today: Rusty Harry rolled 7,4 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 7,4.  Fighting, Wild Attack.

That should be a hit, assuming no other penalties.

08:52, Today: Rusty Harry rolled 9,9 using d10,d6+4, rerolling max with rolls of 9,5.  damage.

Damage: 18

Card: 5C))

The oiler's hissing increased for a moment as the ripsaw rammed into it.  More of the stuff bubbled up.  Even more poured out as the torso was chewed to pieces.  The saw continued up until the head separated from what little body was left.  The pieces hit the floor...in a horrific mess...

Oiler is done!  In appropriately Ash vs. Evil Dead gore-iffic fashion.

Still like to stay in Turns as you guys figure out what to do this round.  Go for it!

Martin rolled into the room just as the oiler's body hit the floor with a sickening thump.  Sorry I missed all the action.  Had my own tall, dark and oily to deal with...  It's out in the rain, by the way. He was covered in oil & brusises with his sword at the ready.

Kelly surmised the situation.

"I'm guessing that fire in there is well beyond anyone's ability to control at this point.  If I'm wrong please convince me."

"I would agree with you on that assumption" replied Maggie

"I'm just waiting for my friend to slither back with news that the coast is clear and perhaps we can head over to the metal out building "
This message was last edited by the player at 13:14, Thu 27 Sept 2018.

Harry continues spiting out gunk.

"Oh God Harry..."  Kelly was covered in the stuff herself.  "Crap.  I probably need to not catch on fire.  So nasty."

Kelly looked around for plastic sheeting, a storage tub, a piece of plywood, anything that might help as a temporary shelter if they had to run outside.

"God ain't got nothin' to do with it." Harry coughs. "Can we please not set the next building on fire? That would be really great."

Kelly took note of the as-yet-unburned mattresses, as well as the plywood base on which those mattresses lay.  All of which should provide some sort of temporary shelter for a run through the storm.

It wasn't long before the big snake slithered back in through the half open door.  Even in that short time though, the fire must be raging in the main room.  The heat began to radiate through the walls.  Thick, noxious smoke begins finding its way through the stuffing at the door and through other spaces in the old building.  The python made its way as quickly as it could manage to Maggie, shiny with the rain from the storm outside that still will not let up.

Maggie was standing by the door waiting for her snake "hey I acted responsibility and put my fire out." She shot a reply to Harry

After a moment she shouted over to Martin " how's YOUR fire going"

Just then the snake slithers back through the door

The witch talked to her companion before turning to the others

"The way is clear to the other building but there's someone or something by the large metal container which seems to be growing ....oh and the rain is very cold so wrap up warm"
This message was last edited by the player at 07:50, Fri 28 Sept 2018.

  There's still at least one more of those things outside. A big one! Just about Harry's size or maybe bigger. Martin cautioned.  I was tangling with him while you folks were playing around in here.  Almost had 'im but he ran out into the storm.  Sorry about the fire.... He shrugged, We making a run for the other building or has anyone got a better idea?

Kelly sheathed her broadsword.  "Nope.  All right, give me a mattress.  I'll go distract the last one and run around this building the long way, you three get in there."

"I'm big, and already dead. Shouldn't I be the one running interference?" Harry says.

Kelly had a quick response.  "Yeah but you're slow, and just because there's a hole in the door doesn't mean you can get in.  You have the universal key, I don't."

As prepared as you can manage, the group lined up at the door and stared out into the storm.  It still raged.  Lashing down with leaden drops from the dark swirling clouds overhead.  Lightning crashed again, terribly bright after the darkness of the back room.  The peal of thunder was like a punch to the gut.  Black smoke roiled up from the roof of the old convenience store; a wan, flickering orange light highlighting the sky.

Kelly lead the way out into the storm, holding a thin straw mattress over her as a shield against the unnatural fury of the sky.  She made it to the corner of the building and looked across the lot.  She saw flames licking out the wood shuttered windows at the front of the building.  Felt the heat.  It wasn't hard to spot the tanker trailer near the far wall.  It wasn't hard to see the oily, black thing sitting on top of it and reaching down into a hatch.  Black crude flowed up its arm in defiance of natural law.

Closer down the rear wall of the little fortified station is the big sheet metal building.  The last remaining shelter from the storm in this place....

Kelly - You are currently at the edge of the old convenience store, looking around the corner.  Across the lot is the tanker truck and Frank.  You could run to it in an action.  Further down the rear wall is the sheet metal building.  The entire lot is surrounded by the wall of junk and wrecked cars.  If you can think of anything else that might be useful or appropriate to a little survivor fort out in the lot, go with it.  Also!  Fear check vs. seeing Frank for the first time.  Spirit -4 aiming for a 4.

Others - You are either in the building or following Kelly.  Just let me know whereabouts you are.  Harry or Maggie, if you are in position to see glance at Frank as well, Spirit -4 aiming for a 4.

((OOC: 13:27, Today: Rusty Harry rolled -2,-2 using d8-4,d6-4, rerolling max with rolls of 2,2.  Spirit.

13:28, Today: Rusty Harry rolled 0,1 using d8-4,d6-4, rerolling max with rolls of 4,5.  benny reroll.

Have I mentioned how much I really miss red fate chips? Because I really miss the colored Fate chips.

Also really hate how the damn Fear chart always wants to saddle characters with permanent consequences...I'm of the opinion that you shouldn't be at risk for things like Phobias or heart attacks unless you get a Crit Fail. But I'm just being salty right now.))

16:23, Today: Kelly MacLeod rolled 1,6 using d8-4,d6-4, rerolling max with rolls of 5,(6+4)10.  Fear Check.

Kelly didn't really have a great plan, but wait... if people had been holing up in here, they'd have to repair the roof.  These old roofs wouldn't just stay intact forever with some patchwork (mostly improvised patchwork at that). Was there a ladder abouts?

It might be possible to run with the old okee-doke.

Ooc

09:42, Today: Maggie May rolled 1,-2 using D6-4,d6-4, rerolling max with rolls of 5,2.  Spirit roll.

There was indeed ladders about.  A couple in fact, leaning against the near wall of the sheet metal garage easily gained by crossing the open space between the burning building just escaped and the non-burning hoped for sanctuary of the garage.

As the others caught sight of the thing on the tank, lightning crashed dramatically behind it.  Highlighting its inky black shape that seemed to suck up all light and life.  It reached down into the tank again, blackness flowing up along its limbs to ripple across the body.  Its red eyes suddenly blazed and it looked up...

Round One - Duel in the Storm!

No lighting penalties in the stormlight.  The convenience store is a handy torch!

The garage is a standard move away.  The tanker with Frank is a Run away.  If you want to make a move or an action in the hopes that Frank might not notice, Stealth vs. 6.  Otherwise, play ball!

Harry - 9H - Your Fear Result was Adrenaline Surge.  Some little spark in the back of what's left his shriveled lizard brain said NO.  +2 to Trait and Damage rolls /this/ turn.

Martin - 8H

Maggie - 3D - Your Fear result was Shaken.  Before acting, you must roll to Unshake or spend a benny.

Kelly - 5H

Frank - 8D

17:47, Today: Frank rolled 6,4 using d6,d6. Notice!

There's a flash of lighting, and Harry sees a horrible gunk monster. And something in his brain went "No."

[Directive: Hostile identified. Lethal force authorized]

No, this fucker killed all the people here, then brought them back as oil-puking copies of itself.

No, it didn't get to get away with that.

"Yeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh!" Harry shouted, and began running toward the red-eyed son of a bitch, twirling his shotgun lever to crank a round in it. "Die, motherfucker! Dieeeeeeeeeeee!"

{{BANG!!}}


((OOC: heh. Sneak? No. If I'm getting an adrenaline surge in my cold, dead heart, I'ma use it.

Harry moves his full Pace of 4, plus the 2 I got from my Run die, for a total of 6. Then he takes a shot at Frank with his shotgun. He has a -2 from the run, +2 from the surge, and +2 from using shot.

16:33, Today: Rusty Harry rolled 11,6 using d8+2,d6+2, rerolling max with rolls of (8+1)9,4.  Shooting.

Hit and Raise, and I get +2 damage from the surge, too.

16:34, Today: Rusty Harry rolled 23 using 4d6, rerolling max with rolls of 4,(6+6+1)13,1,5.  damage (with Raise).

Next Card: 9C))
This message was last edited by the player at 23:41, Sun 30 Sept 2018.

At the clanking, whirring sound of Harry's charge, the thing on the tanker focused its blazing eyes on him.  It started to rise as the shotgun spun.  Rain spattered across its liquidy surface as it watched the oncoming cyborg and started to reach out an arm that bent and stretched in ways nothing should...

{{BANG!!}}

The shotgun roared, sending its scattershot wall of lead and force downrange.  It hammered into the thing.  His form broke apart at the torso.  "Head" disappearing.  "Arms" flailing out to the sides, slapping wetly across the top of the oil tanker.  Then it started to pull itself back together, flowing back into horrible shape...

Harry - You Shook the hell out of it.  We'll see for how long when we get to its action.

Everyone Else - You are free to act!  Frank goes after all of you.

Kelly gritted her teeth after she saw that.  All plans of getting on the roof of the building and taunting this thing by dropping debris on it while the others made for cover immediately vanished.  Drawing forth Connor, she definitively told the others.  "Go!"

Of course she didn't tell them where to go, or how to go, or what to do once they went, but Kelly couldn't be counted on for everything.  Dying in hand to hand combat to the immortal horrors of the wastes was what Templars did, the rest was up to others.

Not that anyone ever listened!

Oh hell, this is above my pay grade.  It was a weird prayer to the Saints, but it seemed to be effective.  With a battle cry she waded into the fray with the dreaded slayer of men, Frank the Oily.

Try to cast deflection as Ye Olde Free Action.  06:38, Today: Kelly MacLeod rolled 1,2 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 1,2.  Simon's Blessing - Faith.

Poop.  Let's not keep that.

06:39, Today: Kelly MacLeod rolled 2,3 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 2,3.  Reroll White.

Oh to heck with it.  Red chip.

06:40, Today: Kelly MacLeod rolled 5 using 1d6, rerolling max with rolls of 5.  RC.

At least that's a Raise, -4 attack penalty.  So I got that going for me, which is nice.

So Running and Drawing a Sword is an impressive -4 MAP, Kelly will Wild Attack, and Improved Trademark Weapon is another +2 so that leaves it an even d10 roll.

06:47, Today: Kelly MacLeod rolled 2,10 using d10,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 2,(6+4)10.  Fighting.

Hit, with a Raise.

17 damage with Ye Olde Magic Templar Sword - 06:48, Today: Kelly MacLeod rolled 8,6,3 using d8+2,d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 6,6,3.  Damage - Strength, Sword, Raise.


06:50, Today: Kelly MacLeod drew the single card: 9C using a deck of 54 cards.

The actions of the others seemed to have galvanized the group somewhat.

Instead of running for the shelter of the metal she'd and knowing she'd not be able to hold the doors closed against it even with her powers she strode forward into the store.

Planting her legs slightly apart she pulled out two handfuls of musty smelling herbs and the instant she bought her hands up they ignighted with witch fire

With the storm raging all around her Maggie felt her power build the flames locked up her arms and she smiled looking up her eyes were fiery pits of hell flame she softly spoke the words and brought both hands together before her.

Eldritch flames shot forth over the head of her two charging companions towards the largest puddle of reforming creature

Ooc

09:36, Today: Maggie May rolled 1,8 using D6,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 1,(6+2)8.  Spirit roll.


06:43, Today: Maggie May rolled 7,5 using D10,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 7,5.  Bolt attack 2 PTS for 3d6 damage 2 ingredients to give it 2ap for damage

06:44, Today: Maggie May rolled 10 using 3d6, rerolling max with rolls of 4,4,2.  Damage 2ap .

Does the 7to hit give me a raise for extra damage?
This message was last edited by the player at 08:36, Wed 03 Oct 2018.

Sprinting through the rain and oil slicked lot, the apocalyptic swordswoman brandished her blade.  Both were more than they seemed.  A leap and a one armed pull launched her to the top of the tanker.  In the same movement, her blade slashed wildly through the oily thing as it tried to reform.  The lack of resistance nearly threw her off balance, but the oil seemed repelled by the special blade and peeled away from its touch.  The thing recoiled from the new threat "stepping" back as it continued to reform its life-mocking shape.

A blast of flame rocked it then.  Burning across the surface of it with multi-colored magical fire.  It reared again, thrashing for a moment and pouring into and through itself.  A roiling, humanoid whirlpool desperately smothering the flames.  Its eyes reappeared and blazed angrily at Kelly...and her blade.  It threw its arms like monstrous whips to batter her back off its tanker.  As she was thrown away, the thing flowed...crawled away over the other side of the tanker trailer from the three attackers...

Martin watched his companions charge the lot seemingly fearlessly to face the thing that had nearly killed him.  His own hand went to his sword and he started to follow likewise.  To join the storm-fray.  But...something....  He turned away and went to the garage, hacking at the vines holding the doors shut...

Round Two - Duel in the Storm

Well...  That takes care of my Chips!  Bullies the lot of you!

Kelly - 9C - First!  Opposed Strength vs. 26 to avoid getting shoved way off the tanker and onto the pavement.  I assumed you wouldn't for the sake of forward motion.  Of course, the damage is only 4, so you should be fine.  Just prone on the other side of the tanker.  Should you beat 26, I will happily give you a Chip draw for your trouble!  After that, ACT!

Harry - 9C - Act!

Frank - 5D - Will go after you two....  Hidden on the other side of the trailer for the moment.

Maggie - 3H - Wait for it....

Martin - 3C - NPC'd for the moment!

This message was last edited by the player at 08:59, Wed 03 Oct 2018.

05:33, Today: Kelly MacLeod rolled 7,3 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 7,3.  C'mon beat that 26.

lol no

Kelly hit the pavement, but not too hard.  It was soft... pavement.  Well no she'd just landed correctly.  That had been an impressive shove.

But there was no time for anything else but to get back on that horse.  With a strange rhythmic motion, she propelled her body in taut back and forth arcs, the first of which were minuscule, but the fourth and final of which was massive enough to put her back on her feet.  They'd called that a kippup, back in The Pit.

She'd lost her damn mind apparently.

"Oily bastard... come out and plaaaaaay..."

And she was after it.

Round 2 of Deflection

Honestly not sure I can catch him or take further actions against Frank.

Will go ahead and draw card.

05:37, Today: Kelly MacLeod drew the single card: 3S using a deck of 54 cards.

Harry sighed. Damn. Of course the damn thing would be immune to bullets. And now that he was coming to his senses, he was realizing how not-smart this whole idea had been.

((OOC: I'm not really sure I can do anything to Frank without magic, honestly. And I think I need to know if Kelly can actually reach Frank before I try anything. Consider me On Hold.))

Kelly rounded the tanker and found herself facing a narrow space between the outer wall and the tanker.  A dark, constraining narrow space full of shadows and death....

Kelly - Notice to find the hidden, evil, violent oil slick in this picture!
Tn is only a 4.  Its being rushed by a bully Sword Templar.  Poor thing.  Succeed and narrate the finding of the monster and your subsequent attack on it!

Yes but my Notice is not so good, I have a 50% chance of missing that.

18:50, Today: Kelly MacLeod rolled 3,1 using d6,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 3,1.  Notice.

Case in point.

In this case, Kelly sees nothing and will use the Defend Action, so at least of it tries to whallop me it'll have a high Parry to hit.

"Oh Abomination from helllll..."  She taunted.  "Come out and playyyy!"

So why not go for broke since I can't see it to fight it.  Kelly has no Taunt skill and it'll take a -2 MAP since she defended, but she'll try a Test of Wills.

18:53, Today: Kelly MacLeod rolled -1,3 using d4-4,d6-4, rerolling max with rolls of 3,(6+1)7.  Horrible Taunt.

That's not bad, it could roll a 1 or 2 to resist.

Her wish seems to be its command...  A shadow seemed to peel away from the underside of the tanker, stepping out and turning its baleful eyes on the swordswoman.  The oil that forms him rippled along him as he threw his arms out at her and unleashed a torrent of the black stuff flooding down the narrow space at her.  Of course, it stepped out so obviously, giving the Templar a split-second more to get out of the way....

Your Taunt succeeded!  You get a +2 to you next action against him.  Which is totally useable against the Gusher attack!  Or you can save it.

Agility vs TN:5 or take 9 Damage.  Now, your improvised armor won't help...but your Deflection counts as Armor so you have a Toughness of 10.  So, despite best effort, it won't hurt you....just cover you (again) in nasty stuff.

06:37, Today: Kelly MacLeod rolled 3,2 using d6,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 3,2.  Agility.

Well that's nasty.

Kelly wound up covered drenched in that nastiness.  That just pissed her off.

"Oh you are going to die.  Again."

Maggie couldn't see the battle raging on the other side of the truck so she prepared yet another bolt of energy and moved to the opposite end of the truck that Harry and Kelly were hoping to trap the monster between two attack fronts.

When she rounded the corner she let fly with witch fire towards the creature

Ooc

18:16, Today: Maggie May rolled 6,1 using D10,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 6,1.  Bolt attack 2 PTS for 3d6 damage

18:16, Today: Maggie May rolled 10 using 3d6, rerolling max with rolls of 5,2,3.  Damage.

After unleashing its crude gout, the oil thing started to step towards Kelly.  Its "hands" formed into thick, heavy clubs of flowing oil.  Before it could raise them to begin attempting to beat down the brave swordswoman, a blinding burst of glittering magickal fire slammed into its back.  It writhed and lashed wildly, the flames already licking over it, growing.  The heat and fire of its wild roiling forced Kelly a step back...realizing just how coated in the flammable stuff she was...  The ground was...  The tanker was...

It's flaming, oily surface swirled and flowed into itself trying to smother the flames, but this time the flames only grew.  Scorching across the surface of the oily monstrosity.  It lashed out wildly at Kelly with its now flaming club-like fists, but there was little chance of it connecting now.  That fire though....

Meanwhile, Martin managed to hack his way through the vines and push open the garage doors just enough to let him get inside...

Round Three - Duel in the Storm

Right!  So...  Frank is at -3 Wounds, No Chips, and the 2nd level of Burninating (2d10).  The ground and the tanker did not catch /this/ time.  But its more a matter of when not if.  Tick tick.

Harry - You have a Held and can go whenever you like (I went ahead and did Frank's action because there's little he can do but wildly swing and burn)

Martin - Is Doing Things

Frank - Already went.....to Hell

Maggie - You may Act!

Kelly - First, roll 1d6.  5-6 you catch Fire too and take 9, which is not helped by Deflection.  I felt better asking you to roll it this time.  Then you may Act!

12:53, Today: Kelly MacLeod rolled 2 using 1d6, rerolling max with rolls of 2.  Fire!

Whew!

"Can we not launch fireballs at the burning oil monsters please!?"  Kelly wanted to know.  She had to end this fast, though it meant taking a risk and leaving herself open for a counter stroke.  She ran in for the kill.  It was a foolish warrior who would remain on a burning battlefield.

Okay, Connor is at +2, Kelly will Wild Attack for +2, and she will use her +2 from before as well.  Basically if I miss here it's the same as hitting and tanking the damage roll, so Kelly will use the prior one as a template and go for another decapitation (-4), total modifiers +2.

12:57, Today: Kelly MacLeod rolled 11,3 using d10+2,d6+2, rerolling max with rolls of 9,1.  Here goes - Fighting.

Nailed it.

22 damage - 12:57, Today: Kelly MacLeod rolled 13,5,4 using d8+6,d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 7,5,4.  Damage - Strength, Sword, Raise.

13:01, Today: Kelly MacLeod drew the single card: 8C using a deck of 54 cards.

"It's the only thing that seems to be hurting it." Harry observes, keeping his distance. "Aside from your sword...hmmm." he backtracks a bit toward the cheerfully burning building, and consider his options. He was covered in flammable gunk...but that meant, if he set himself on fire, his chainsaw arm might actually be able to hurt the thing...

((OOC: Though I'm not actually going to set myself on fire just yet...I want to see if Kelly's hit actually takes the thing down.))

Seeing that another witch fire attack would likely kill all of them the witch changed her whispering to something different.

This time she wove an intricate dance with her hands and her magic rushed forward towards the creature. She felt its essence shivered at its touch it made her feel unclean but she pushed forward with her power attempting to grasp it and rip it from the creature to weaken it

Ooc
20:28, Today: Maggie May rolled 3,3 using D10,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 3,3.  Lower trait spell attempting to lower it's vigour.

No fire erupts from the witch's hands this time, but something seemed to tug at it.  On fire, its form warped and twisted, stretching out as it wrestled against the many threats to its continued existence.  It writhed and lashed, attempting to get its "arms into the way as the swordswoman swept in again.  Connor slashed through the arms of the thing, which flared into brighter flame as they splashed away.  The swordpoint dove into the "head," right between the red eyes.  It seemed to fold in around the point.  It fell apart then, splashing down across the pavement into a growing hall beneath the tanker.  The flames sprang to brighter life, spreading rapidly across the puddle...

Frank is gone!  Still fire though.  A big oily puddle flaming under the tanker.

Kelly - Roll that d6 again for swinging the sword into the flame as the splashing firey oil.  4-6 catches you this time from the multiple opportunities to burn and you get 18 damage as you light up.  This die roller is a roller-coaster!

So, to be clear, there is a fire under the tanker.  The convenience store is also still on fire.  You are still out in lethal (slowly lethal) rain.

Actions!

"RUN!!!" shouted Maggie as she turned tail and headed as fast as she could towards Martin and the one remaining intact building

05:32, Today: Kelly MacLeod rolled 5 using 1d6, rerolling max with rolls of 5.  Flambé.

She couldn't help but scream.  Kelly was proven right as she was immolated in flames.  From The Maze to Boise to here, she'd traveled a long way to literally die in a fire.  Still she would try to the end, beginning with an immediate drop and roll.

Well let's try for a soak, not that it's going to matter after one more round of this...

05:35, Today: Kelly MacLeod rolled 4,2 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 4,2.  Soak.

"Kelly!" Harry shouts, and begins clanking over toward her. He wasn't sure what he was going to do, exactly...he was covered in oil, too. But he had to try something.

((OOC: Do we have anything at all nearby we can use to douse an oil fire?))

Harry's AI scanned through the surroundings even as the cyborg began to charge forward.  It highlighted various things, offering success percentages of their firefighting usefulness.  The item with the best potential and that was nearest to his path...happened to be the very thing the Templar had brought out into the storm with her.  The thin mattress, soaked in rain.  She hadn't held onto it for long, dropping it as she charged, but something had made her bring it in the first place.  Saints be praised.

I was happily open to other ideas, but that one stuck out to me as a decent smothering device.

Harry - take a Benny for Leaving no (Wo)man Behind!
Kelly - take a belated Benny for Heroically staying in the Fire Fight
-You soaked 1 Wound!  So, Shaken with 2 Wounds!  Gritty Damage indicates that it was her torso that took most of the burn.  Pain and burned flesh reduce her Agility die type till wounds are healed!

No roll needed for Harry to pull Kelly away from the fire.  Between her rolling on puddled ground and his smothering we'll put it out.  Do please describe that action though, Harry!

Cursing Maggie turned back and raced towards Kelly. Skidding to a stop in the wet dirt and mud.

Pulling the spell into her mind she lay her hands on the stricken woman and forced her power into her fingers

Ooc

18:30, Today: Maggie May rolled 2,5 using D10,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 2,5.  succor spell. Remove the shaken

Grabbing the soaked mattress, Harry clanked over to Kelly. "Out of the way!" He shouts at Maggie as he brings the mattress to bear, wrapping Kelly up in it like a human burrito to pat out the flames...and also to make her more convenient to carry back toward the last remaining shelter.

Kelly... went along for the ride.

21:21, Today: Kelly MacLeod rolled 31 using 1d35, rerolling max with rolls of 31.  Cheep.

Well, being wrapped up in a mattress, with the Shaken removed, does give me a dandy opportunity to discretely lay on hands.

21:22, Today: Kelly MacLeod rolled 0,6 using d8-2,d6-2, rerolling max with rolls of 2,(6+2)8.  Faith.

Cash in that blue I just got too.

21:22, Today: Kelly MacLeod rolled 2 using 1d6, rerolling max with rolls of 2.  Blue Chip Benny.

It was a little white lie, let them think they'd just got to her in time.  But she was really not happy at fireballs being lobbed at the oil monster she was fighting.

Of course she couldn't be too mad, basically none of her plans ever worked, why should this one be any different?

The Saints are obviously appreciative of the Templar's actions today.  There is an easing of the crackling, burning pain across her belly and sides.  Better.  Not perfect, but better...

Kelly - When Healing yourself you take double penalties (Penalty for severity of wound AND your own wound penalty.)  So, the roll is at -4.  Your first roll, 8, gets you a net of 4.  Healing one wound!  Your Benny spend would need to have gotten a 4 to take care of the other.  Knowing the penalties were worse, you can take that Blue back as you might not have risked it on the 50/50 shot.

Oh crud you're right.  I'm remembering now why so few ever take the actual Healing Power, other than combining it with mundane Healing skill.  Which is exactly what I will try to do with the chip I just got back probably.

That was better.  Not great but better.  If they hurried some mundane techniques might yet help.

Harry dragged, lifted, and then carried the swordswoman away wrapped in the soaking, stinking mattress.  Her sword was grabbed too; knowing full well how important it was to Kelly.  The cyborg, ungainly bundle cradled in his arms, turned to make for the garage, while the puddle of oily fire continued to sizzle and spread beneath the tanker.  Tongues of flame licking hungrily at the sides of it...

Lightning flashed again.  Thunder rolled, rumbling down to the very bones.  This time though, something answered back...

From within the darkened garage, there was a different thunderous growling rumble.  Like something very big waking up.  The defiant mechanical roar of a huge engine coming to life after sitting idle for too long.  A sudden, eye-aching blast of light poured out of the front of the shed through the half open doors.  Through rust holes and missed bolt holes, stabbing rays out into the stormlight.

Maggie who'd been striding across the yard next to Harry stepped in front of him her hands glowing once more.

It seemed a strange sight a tall attractive woman protecting the huge metal man but she knew with the precious bundle he was carrying meant he'd find it difficult to protect himself so she decided to do it for him

"Oh hell don't tell me."  Kelly grunted.

"Oh, what now?" Harry grumbled. It was a diesel engine...and a thought struck him. "Martin!" He shouted. "That you in the tuck!?"
This message was last edited by the player at 00:43, Wed 10 Oct 2018.

There is no answer to Harry's shouted question.  The roar of the mighty engine drowning out any hope of someone hearing within.  The sound of the engine changed.  Shifting.  The light changed and moved as whatever made it came closer....closer...

The doors to the garage stood no chance at all against the steel might of the big semi that rolled through them.  It peeled them back with a screech of metal and came on through.  Some details of the truck could be made out.  All black and chrome.  Some wear and rust and chipping of the same.  No crazy, bodge-job, apocalyptic modifications.  It wouldn't have been out of place on the highways before the bombs fell.  The image flickers a bit, suddenly looking completely brand new before returning to its current more worn look.  Standing in front of it, engine roaring, the truck seemed aggressive.  Places to be.  Not-to-be-fucked-with...



The lights made it almost impossible to see who might be in the driver's seat.  But, whoever it was didn't seem too interested in who or what might be in the way as the truck exited...

Notice Rolls all around!  And whatever you might want to be doing about or with the rolling truck.
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:37, Mon 22 Oct 2018.

05:38, Today: Kelly MacLeod rolled 5,3 using d6,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 5,3.  Notice.

"Harry!"  Kelly cried down.  "I need you to toss me!"

Ooc

12:15, Today: Maggie May rolled 3,3 using D8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 3,3.  Notice roll.

"Shit." Harry says, already moving to get out of the way of the rolling machine. He moved so that even if it turned, it wasn't likely to be able to just roll right over him...trucks like that couldn't spin on a dime, after all. While doing this he obliged Kelly, rolling her out of the mattress as he moved.

((OOC: 08:26, Today: Rusty Harry rolled 4,2 using d6,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 4,2.  Notice.))

The massive truck continued to roll on its way, turning slightly as it went past the trio.  The beam of the headlights traced their way across the storm-wracked, oil-streaked lot till they settled on the main gate of the little survivor fort.  The main gate which was still shut, though the truck didn't seem to be bothered too much by that fact.  As it passed, the wan light revealed a logo still visible across the door.  BLACK DOG TRUCKING in bold letters below a stylized black mastiff pulling a box trailer by ropes in its snarling teeth.  Lights within the cab and the light from the burning store, showed that it was indeed Martin in the driver's seat.  Though for a moment you would swear it was another man; a little bigger somehow, a beard and cap.  No, no...it was Martin.  Right?

"You know what, he's leaving.  This changes nothing.  And there's still something banging around in that tanker."  Kelly scraped herself up to her feet.  She was hurt but not as hurt as originally thought.

"He's ripped a giant hole in the wall of the last refuge. That changes something." Harry says, looking at said hole.

  Hey! Look what I found! Martin beamed as he rolled down the drivers window.  He turned the giant wheel angling the big rig toward the still closed gates.  Anybody for getting the heck outta here?  Jump on in, Good Buddy!

Kelly was about to argue something, but she stopped.  She looked at "Martin" and asked.

"What country are you the sultan of?"

Maggie stepped to one side as the truck came out of the shed and turned towards the gates.

He witch fire went out and a broad smile creased her lips as Martin's head came into view.

"Well I suppose you have your uses" she said before turning to Harry "dad can we keep him. Please can we keep him" she said in a childish voice before giving him a wink and moving towards the truck

Harry held back. Kelly's reaction tipped him off that something didn't seem right about this situation.

The flames sizzled as the rain splashed down across the puddles of oil around the tanker.  The firey tongues reached up...and up...towards the tanker.  Oil that had splashed and oozed over the sides of it hissed....and caught...  Small at first, but already burning and consuming its way along the sides of the tanker full of crude.  Within, a thrashing and banging grew suddenly louder...almost desperate in intensity...

At the same time, things inside the burning convenience are getting much worse.  Flames pour out of all the windows and the hacked open front door.  Overheating items shatter and pop within the blaze.  Fresher puddles and streaks of crude near the front door have caught.  Making little routes for the flames to begin stretching out into the lot...

Overhead, the storm continues its sturm and drang.  Attempting to drown what won't burn...

I'm just gonna go ahead and light that tanker up.  Die be damned!  Everyone gets a Benny because I'm making it WORSE.

The fire of course is worsening, but I'm also gonna need a Spirit Roll vs. 4 from the Black Rain.  Fail and take a Fatigue Level.

05:50, Today: Kelly MacLeod rolled 3 using 1d35, rerolling max with rolls of 3.  Benny.

05:51, Today: Kelly MacLeod rolled 6,8 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 6,(6+2)8.  Spirit.

Kelly was waiting for Martin or "Martin" to answer, but she wouldn't wait much longer.

Harry was still following Kelly's lead, waiting for her to be sure of things before he acted.

((OOC: 09:32, Today: Rusty Harry rolled 3,4 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 3,4.  Spirit.))

Ooc

20:00, Today: Maggie May rolled 8,2 using D6,d6, rerolling max with rolls of (6+2)8,2.  Spirit roll.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:01, Mon 15 Oct 2018.

  Martin, or at least the body of Martin, smiled back at the swordswoman and replied,  I'd guess I'm the Sultan of Swing, baby... The young man winked, but Quatar is good too.  As ol' Jack Burton says, "Any port in a Storm".  Amirite?  Jump on in and we'll hit the road before we all become Korean Barbecue when that tanker goes up..
 The truck slowed but never stopped on it's roll toward the gates.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:04, Tue 16 Oct 2018.

That was good enough for Kelly.  "Well cut Harry a little slack huh?  Some day when you're a seven foot tall pile of gears and ass whooping you won't move so fast neither."

She ran to catch onto the truck.

Harry wasn't sold, but he really didn't want to be here when that tanker blew and whatever was pounding inside it got out, so he clanked after Kelly.

Maggie looked at the other two then moved towards the truck and climbed in

The trio manage to jog alongside and climb aboard the rolling semi with little trouble.  The passenger door is pulled open allowing the oil-soaked, rain-drenched band to clamber into the surprisingly clean and well-maintained cab of the pre-War truck.  The sleeper section provides ample extra room outside the "shotgun" seat.  Of course, wherever Harry ended up he would likely still feel crammed in.  Seven feet of cyborg doesn't fit anywhere well.

While they try to find their places in the truck cab, oily arms burst out of thehatch atop the tanker.  "Hands" grasp the edges and begin pulling up a familiar form.  Blazing red eyes appear floating in the "head" of what seems to be a larger version of the thing from before.  The flames beneath continue to burn their way up the sides and across the bottom of the.  The Thing glared down at the flames reaching up for it, then turned its hateful look on the truck rolling towards the gate.

The closed gate...

There was only one cure for the fever Kelly had at that moment, but there was no cowbell.  The gate would have to do.  "Punch it!"

Maggie said nothing but searched round for a seat belt she wasn't sure ramming the gate was a great idea but then staying near the tanker wasn't either

  You heard the Lady, Truck.  Get us the smack outta here! Martin looked around at the bewildering controls of the pre-war relic as if he should know what to do.  The heavy gate, which Martin himself closed he remembered embarrassingly, looked directly ahead.  Just tell me what to do... he said in a low tone, hoping the others might not notice, and cleared his mind as best he was able in the frantic situation to let the spirit of the big rig guide him.

Harry, noticing Martin's bewilderment, grumbled "Out of my seat." He grabbed the stick shift and threw the gear into neutral, stopping their rumble toward the gate. "You can move or be moved. I actually know what I'm doing here." He said to Martin.

Whether or not Martin vacated the driver's seat in deference to Harry, the truck seemed to know what it was doing.  Under Harry's hand, the shifter moved itself, the engine roaring and growling with barely restrained power.  Smoke belched out of the stacks.  A ripple went through Martin, his hands and feet working as though they knew what they were doing.  A flicker of the "other" passed over him for a moment.  He slammed into gear and the truck lurched forward, rocking everyone back with the sudden change in acceleration.

The thing in the tanker was attempting to slap at the flames, pouring oil over them in an attempt to smother....but there was too much now.  It only added more fuel to the others flames.  As the truck began roaring towards the gate, it spat a horrible gushing gout of crude oil across the lot in some last desperate attempt to stop the escape.  The truck plowed through, oil splattering the passenger side windows and making the wheels slip on that side.  For a moment, the black semi skidded off course towards the right of the gate!

But "Martin", somehow, steered and downshifted through it all like he had been doing this for years.  Unphased.  He brought the nose of the truck back in line just in time to smash through the gate.  The shock of the impact threw everyone around in their seats as the gate was plowed over and then under.  Metal screeched and threw sparks, igniting the oil on the side of the truck.  Which, now smashed and flaming, skidded into a turn.  The mighty morn blared a victorious series of blasts as it made it to the open road again.

As the flaming, torn, and limping (more and more each moment) truck began heading down the highway, the side mirrors revealed the final fate of the monster left behind.  It raged and thrashed as the flames climbed higher, just visible over the outer wall.  Then suddenly, it, the tanker, and most of the wall disappeared in an explosive burst.  The fireball was enormous.  The wrecked cars of the wall were thrown across the highway behind them.  The blast caught up with the truck; like an angry god kicking them down the road.  Despite his new skills, "Martin" couldn't keep control this time and the truck skidded out of control.  To the credit of the spirit, the truck did not flip and remained on the road.  Now facing the burning destruction of the old station, a tower of smoke billowing up into the angry stormclouds above.

Escape!  Two Vigor rolls to see how badly you get tossed around in the cab of the rampaging truck.  Fatigue level per failure.  Even Harry as important circuitry and actuators get smashed around.

Also!  Spirit rolls!  For....reasons....
 

Ooc

13:51, Today: Maggie May rolled 5,7 using
D6,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 5,(6+1)7.  Spirit roll.

13:51, Today: Maggie May rolled 1,4 using D6,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 1,4.  Vigour roll.

13:51, Today: Maggie May rolled 13,3 using D6,d6, rerolling max with rolls of (6+6+1)13,3.  Vigour roll.

08:35, Today: Kelly MacLeod rolled 6,4 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 6,4.  Spirit.

08:35, Today: Kelly MacLeod rolled 4,2 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 4,2.  Vigor 2.

08:35, Today: Kelly MacLeod rolled 6,5 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 6,5.  Vigor 1.

Well hot damn.  Actually... crap, wound penalty, I missed the second Vigor roll.

Kelly must was tossed about the cab and looked the worse for it.  "Well that was yet another disaster."  She groaned.  Trying to gather herself she made for the back of the cab.  "Make way, I need to... attempt a patch job."

She grunted.  Relentless as Kelly's disposition was, she was the worse for the experience.  She'd have some words later, but just didn't have the energy to do it right now.

Harry, already wedged awkwardly, was saved from being tossed around too much by his bulk and his position. He was still moving to take over the driver's seat so he could get them out of there.

((OOC: 09:16, Today: Rusty Harry rolled 4,7 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 4,(6+1)7.  Vigor.

09:16, Today: Rusty Harry rolled 4,2 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 4,2.  Vigor.

09:16, Today: Rusty Harry rolled 6,2 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 6,2.  Spirit.))

After the rough breakout, the skidding, and the possession, Martin was left, for a moment, unable to muster much fight about turning over the driver's seat to Harry.  The spirit that seemed to inhabit the truck didn't seem to have much to say about it either.

Kelly tumbled into the sleeper section of the cab to find a remarkably soft bed, complete with blankets and pillows.  A few of the overhead storage bins have been knocked open and a scattering of small items are strewn around...






Current Issues
-Damaged Truck
-Fire on the side of the Truck
-Storm
-Where to go?

Everyone is good so far, save Kelly's new Fatigue Level.

Kelly! Could you describe one item that catches Kelly's attention?  Something personal that might reveal something about the Driver.  Have fun with it.

Maggie steadied herself then found a seat

In reply to Prospector (msg # 195):

The cyborg considered the situation. He looked around at the rig. It was an older model, but incredibly condition. But as he sat behind the wheel, he was certain the thing was haunted as fuck. He wasn't any sort of Junker, but his friends in the Convoy had been. Tech spirits could be nototriously finicky, and this thing wanted something from him.

He already had one spirit in him. It had mad him do things. Terrible, half-remembered things before he'd been caught and put in his Tin Can. He wasn't going to let another spirit boss him around. But he also didn't want to fight it...they needed to get somewhere more safe.

Thankfully, he had a few tech tricks. He opened up his Cyberjack, interfacing with the truck's systems. This truck was in such great condition that surely the computerized bits still worked, which would give him an edge. If it wanted something from him, this spirit could darn well give them something in return.

Alright. He sent a message through the Cyberjack into the truck's systems. Talk to me, buddy. Let's see if we can make a deal.

Kelly in the meantime was doing her best.  She found one of the cloth pieces and tore it into strips, abusing Connor's exposed edge just a little bit.

So let's try this.  Worst I can do is crit fail right?

1 wound x 2 = -2, 1 fatigue level, total -3.  What me worry?


23:20, Today: Kelly MacLeod rolled -1,-2 using d6-3,d6-3, rerolling max with rolls of 2,1.  Healing.

Predictable.  At least it wasn't a crit failure.

But it was for nothing.  She gave up and let sleep come.  She was too tore up to really be much good at the moment anyway.

The truck's systems began going through interface mode, as Harry jacked in....


A computer's close interpretation of a woman's voice suddenly chimed, "Okay.  Navigating Home."  The main screen on the driver's console lit up and and started to show a map of the CSA....but seemed to be stuck for a moment.  The voice chimed in again, "GPS signal lost."  The outdated digital map remained, lacking any indicator for current location.

Anyone paying attention out the windows, might notice the fire outside the windows flickering out...

Kelly was a bit beaten, but something wasn't letting her nod off.

"Go home... yeah... we need to go there Harry."

She sounded... weird.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:03, Wed 24 Oct 2018.

  Martin slid to the back to check on the others as the big cyborg took over the driver's seat.  Everyone took quite a beating and he hadn't been around to see how anyone else had fared and was a bit concerned for them.  He'd taken more than a few tough licks himself but was relatively unscathed.
 Kelly and Maggie took up the back so Martin settled into the passenger's seat.  I'm not sure any of that stuff has worked since the War.  Not worked well anyway... he remarked, sighing as the adrenaline from the day's events began wearing off.  Maybe we need to find somewhere to pull off and check the damage after the rain stops.


ooc:

06:18, Today: Martin Fine rolled 2,4 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 2,4.  Spirit roll.

06:18, Today: Martin Fine rolled 6,8 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 6,(6+2)8.  Vigor roll 2.

06:18, Today: Martin Fine rolled 6,5 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 6,5.  Vigor roll 1.

Harry scowled. "Hey! You in there!" He growled. "Do you want to get home, or do you want me to chop you into scrap? You got a voice here." He tapped the GPS display. "Don't you dare mindjack my friends to talk to me. You understand me? We do this square or not at all."

The navigation screen flickers and a message bubble pops in indicating that it is: RECALCULATING ROUTE.  As though that wasn't enough, the woman's voice chimes in again to pointlessly say, "Recalculating rooooooooouuuuuu......  The last word stretched out and distorted, quavering through pitches and volumes.  A pattern tried to force its way through the noise, hard to catch at first, then getting clearer, "...ooommme.  Hommme.  Promised.  Saaara.  Sara.  Squuuarrrre."  The distortion wavered back into the original word, "Route."  The navigation screen shifted, the indicator pin landing on Bullhead, AZ.  Three no-longer-in-existence states away and a thousand miles or more.  The voice of the nav system chimed, "GPS signal lost.

Kelly really just wanted to pass out right now, but could she concentrate a moment?

18:40, Today: Kelly MacLeod rolled 8,0 using d6-2,d6-2, rerolling max with rolls of (6+4)10,2.  CK.

Apparently yes.

Maggie realised what the truck was attempting to do and used her arcane powers to push it out of her mind, bitch she thought to herself, no one takes over her mind without permission.

She also realised being in such tight quarters there was very little she could do to help Harry with the truck so she concentrated on making Kelly comfortable

"That's better." Harry said, looking at the readout. "Hmmm. I don't have any particular issue with that as a destination. It ain't like I have anywhere better to go." He looked over at Kelly. "You think we oughta head that way?"

Martin leans back in the passenger's seat, letting his eyes closed for a bit.  Couldn't hurt to head the way the truck wants...  Like you said, none of us got anything else better to do for a bit at least.  Put some distance between us and the Oil Slick back there.. Fatigue had built up auickly in the short but furious fight for their lives.  The cyborg cowboy seemed to have the hang of driving so Martin drifted off pretty quickly in the comfy chair.

Out the front windshield, the station continues to rage and burn into the stormy sky.  The orange glow reaching out even here down the highway.  That firelight reflected off the front of the truck, the hood and chrome.  If someone was paying attention, they might catch the damage from smashing out the gateway "fixing" itself.  It would be like watching something in rewind, pushing itself...knitting itself back together.  The damaged headlights suddenly springing back into life, stabbing bright beams out into the rain, smoke, and encroaching darkness.

"well thank you for picking us up you have a great rig here I'm Maggie I was wondering what we should call you?" She asked as if she was talking to the driver of the truck

Kelly commented, though her voice was low, waning and a bit flat.

"I'm not sure we want to head right into the back yard of the Mutant King himself though.  And that's after heading through gigantic roving packs of the dead that haven't gotten the memo yet... whatever that means."  Her parents used to use that expression but Kelly had no context for it.

"Yeah, but 'roving packs of memo-ignoring dead' pretty much sums up the entire world at this point." Harry says. "And honestly, I'm curious about why this haunted truck is trying to get to 'Sara.' Whoever she is, or was, the spirit here thinks she was important." Harry stares off into the darkness out of the windshield.

Long ago, before he'd been stuffed into his can, he'd gotten himself killed in a bar fight. His death wound was a stab wound, one of a number of them, and it had been in his chest. He'd been killed from the front. He'd seen his death coming, and he'd faced it down anyway. And for the life -- well, not life, but this existence that passed for it -- of him, he couldn't remember what it had all been about. Oh, bits and pieces, sure. He was certain he'd been standing up either for someone, or to someone. Maybe both. And in the fragments of his memory from before, he remembered a woman's face. Heard her laughter. Remembered the bike she drove on the highway with him. He wasn't sure who she was, and that killed him.

When he'd come back, the demon inside him had been in charge. He knew he'd been up to some horrible shit. He had no idea what the thing in him had made him do, but in the nightmares it sent him when he powered down, it taunted him. Made him see snippets of what it had did with his body. He knew it was trying to break him, and that nothing it showed him could in any way be trusted to be the truth, but he also suspected it had killed at least one person he had known in life. Someone he'd cared about. He knew because the fucker kept showing him her face, with his hands around her neck -- or his hands on a knife, stabbing her -- or his fingers on a trigger, blowing her brains out -- or other, even less pleasant deaths.

When he'd been put in the can, those nightmares had been suppressed. Of course, everything else had been suppressed, too...he hadn't had much free will to speak of, and his actions before the Last War were all a blur. But at least he'd been allowed to forget (for a while) the things he'd done.

That didn't mean he didn't wish to know at least a little bit. So much of who he'd been before was just...gone. And it gnawed at him.

"Closure is a blessing." He said, more to the truck than to his fellow passengers.

"That is a fair point.  I don't wish to suffer the existence of a haunted object longer than we have to, and the best way to unhaunt it would be for it to move on."  Kelly considered.

  Home sounds nice... the kid said groggily, fading in and out of light sleep. Even if it isn't our home, it's his home and it seemed nice.  At lest the way he remembered it.
This message was last edited by the player at 10:08, Tue 30 Oct 2018.

Maggie, suddenly feeling that perhaps she should leave the swordswoman alone, settled into the far end of the couch.  As each offered their opinion, the witch pitched in, "I'd rather ride than walk... So...."

The decision made, the truck was (slowly) maneuvered to head back down Confed Route 82 west.  The steering was rough at first.  The tires rolling with a rough bump through the re-direction.  Quickly enough, the ride smoothed out and the truck felt as though nothing had happened to it at all.

Harry, through his link, was able to determine current fuel and range of the truck.  The tanks were at only a quarter of their capacity, but that was still around seventy gallons of go-go juice.  Diesel, according to the fuel management system.  Potentially enough to get near half-way to Bullhead running the truck unloaded; deadhead.  Depending on how many switchbacks and detours the damaged highway system forced them to take.  Point being, fuel was going to be an issue.

Even without fuel concerns, for those not undead-cyborg-hell-powered war machines, food and water were another issue.  Harry could guess, based on experience on the highways of the Wasted West, that they were looking at near a week and half of travel.  And that's if things went right.

Kelly and Harry had traveled from this direction in the first place and remembered passing near a survivor burg outside of Texarkana.  Might be somewhere to try to get supplies.  Martin might know more about it....

On the Road!  HONK!  This will end the chapter, you guys are welcome to play it out a bit more if there's anything left to say.  Martin has a few special tasks.

First, Martin can Common Knowledge survivor settlements in the area...especially for fuel.

Second!  I drew a card for an Interlude!  This one goes to Martin.  To close out the chapter, I'd like for Martin to find something in the truck while they travel.  This something should be something that tells us something about the Driver's personality (music, books, games, notes, receipts, pictures), be creative.  This thing also should remind Martin of something tragic from his own past somehow.  Write it out, but its your call whether Martin shares it out loud or just thinks it.  You'll start the next chapter with an extra Benny for your trouble.

"Hmmm..." Harry considered the situation. "Hey, I gotta keep us steered, but we're eventually gonna need fuel for this rig. The only place nearby I can think of is Texarcana, but we'll need to find things after that. Martin, I need you to look around. See if you can find any maps. There might also be a guidebook for truck stops along the highways...my buddies in The Convoy always used to check those out when we were on the remains of the highway. Since most of 'em are way out in BFE but were still at crossroads, they made good places to set up survivor camps."

((OOC: drawing on my trucking experience. Truck stops were our lifeblood out on the road -- you'd go there for food and fuel, and many of them also have repair shops for the lighter mechanical issue. Those places would make sense as places survivor encampments would form in a post-apocalyptic world. Or raider camps, possibly.))

Kelly surrendered to sleep.  It wasn't an easy sleep, being as she hurt, the vehicle was moving, and she was hacked off, but it was sleep.

At the very least no one would have to listen to her bellyaching.

  Martin cracked an eye open at Harry's request.  It seemed that demon powered cyborgs didn't get the post-battle exhaustion like mortal folks and for him that was fine.  He wouldn't have trusted himself behind the wheel exhausted, injured and most likely possessed.  Diesel, huh? Can it run on anything else? he mused, leaning forward and rummaging through the enormous, yet packed, glove compartment.  He pulled out faded flyers, fuel and meal reciepts, napkins from a littany of fast food establishments and assortment of catalogs and maps.  He set the giant wad of napkins aside for everyone to clean up with later as he turned back to the glovebox.  Reaching in, he grabbed ahold of something plastic and buried deep.  A couple of quick tugs brought it to the surface.  Melted and clumped together in the crumbling remnants of their bags were an admixture of hard candies.  The Driver must've had a bit of a sweet tooth to keep this much hard candy around and odds are "Sara" didn't like him having it since it was buried under so much junk.  Martin had for the Driver's stash.  With it being hard candy, it was likely still good!  Martin considered prying off a piece to try but stopped once he saw the faded label underneath the hunk of colored sugar; the label read Dominion Candies.
  Memories trickled up and he suddenly wasn't really hungry anymore.  The town where the candy was made was the town he had called home up until very recently.  The glittery facetsof the sugar brought back the memory of faces of the people of the town and he wondered at how they fared.  There wasn't enough room in the factory shelter for everyone and no one was really sure if the shelter would even hold against the oncoming dead horde.   Was the town still there or was it overwhelmed?  The faces of his friends and those he considered family haunted him a bit as he set the clump of hard candy aside and gathered up the books and maps tucked into the useful sections of the glovebox.  Here's everything with a map on it... he settled the clump of papers between him and Harry to look through later.  Replacing the clump of hard candy back into the confines of the glovebox he looked out the window and hummed a bit of a tune he remembered hearing being sung from the factory shelter the day he left, _{...happenings happen, happening happened...}

The Black Dog rolled off down the highway....

Continued in Episode Two - Alternative Energy!