The clank ticks for a bit whilst its charge turns in the background, belatedly remembering she has a gun.

"High probability plus plus minus snake demon equals snake demon self instructed not to eat Jaquinta and Maria Maria Gracias," it decides. "He went that way and was on fire because Maria Maria Gracias threw a grenade at him but he was not a vampire so he didn't die," it adds, pointing.

"Why are Harry Lazarus and Father O'Rourke and Ambrose minus clothings?" it asks, seeing the others come up, then switches to slightly garbled Spanish to assure the young woman who ran off: "Es Deputado Vega con el Saltando Cosa Non Muerte, es hombre con leyes...no se le debe tirar, porque el está vivo diferente y él sería menos energía y tienen malos pensamientos si lo tiene más agujeros."

The woman just looks baffled. "¿Qué?"

"Howdy Names William Pierce! Howdy Bitter Waters!" the clank greets the same, adding to Jake: "Fear not! Self told Jaquinta not to bite mortals! She almost caught a horse with vampires on but it was dead already and then it kicked her plus hard and went in the sea and then out again where the lumpy rocks go in the water."

The chupacabra continues to eye the bone thing warily. "No me gusta," she remarks.

"Marshal Evans got attacked and was badly hurt. The attack took off some of his clothing as well. Lazarus and the padre gave him some so that he could be plus plus dignity," he explained.

Adrian looked at Jaquinta and the Mexican women that seemed unable to parse Alouette's Spanish. "No te preocupes por esto," he said gesturing at the big bone blom. "Esto va a ayudarnos a combatir la serpiente demoníaca."

Jake shakes his head at all the talk, "We going to go deal with the giant soon to be boots or not?"

Pierce nods a polite greeting at the woman.
"Where do we go now?"

The ragged, zombie-bitten woman edges over towards William, apparently considering his general vicinity to be a safe place.

"High probability On Fire Snake Demon is heading to the Place of Snakes," the clank chirps cheerfully. "Maria Maria Gracias said the snake demon that wanted to marry Sarah had a house under the ground. There were lots of snake houses there from a long time ago."

"Puedo lo rastrear," Jaquinta offers, "Pero el sabe que nostros venimos."

Jake frowns saying, "So we heading to the mines then?"
This message was last edited by the player at 17:02, Thu 30 July 2015.

[Language unknown: "Mo, O witbleure sihiou m manthawas timaou asomiv. Adac somintons, iv k onsundcon pa. Ionas a vir derconsom elort laadiv isivfo in lar whelatvor, ektr ei thobe oeratiour. Al venarteraich viritheen les ei ndday o m,"] he said.

[Language unknown: "Ng onetioshe ut ce t tic,"] Maria puts in, still very wary of the bone 'glom as she sidles up to William. [Language unknown: "Ast...N terousard ous ti u ntlo are, oulstrint, ngwe has ekmi il."]

"What's she saying?" Hank asks Hardin.

"Says she don't want to go back somewheres, so if we're tracking she's coming with," Hardin grunts, his extra arms folded behind his back. The outlaw seems distinctly on edge after being wounded.

"Perhaps we can appeal to the creature's sense of honour and lure it out into a duel," Evans suggests, fiddling with his flamethrower. "Lead on, Señorita Chupacabra, and don't hesitate to tell us if you cross the trail of vampires, either."

"Jaquinta," 'Miss Goatsucker' corrects, and looks to the priest. He nods.

A blurred instant later, Jaquinta is over in the serpent's charred track, taking his scent, then has vanished again, baying from the trackless rock.


[[feel free to consider what to do with Maria/bicker/talk strategy whilst I make rolls and work up the next post.]]

Jake glances at Vega as the other huckster speaks with more bravado than the situation warrants.

"Harry, you do that thing I asked you to do?" he asked the huckster.

Harry looked a little uneasy, but nodded, holding up the spare flask Adrian had given him. "I captured a respectable amount of snake venom in it, in case any of us need reapply it."

"Father, do you know if the Mayor had any luck closing that portal?" he asked the priest.

"He had it closed by the time I got up there again, but after that he insisted on taking a break," O'Rourke explains.

"Rest assured that I gave him a piece of my mind about that," Evans says, wading grass towards the distant chupe. William follows, looking irritated but subconsciously standing a little straighter as the ragged woman trails close behind him.

"Which piece?" Alouette asks.

"...the piece which deals with hellish messes created by stupid witches who think they can get a slice of the country by shovelling Blackthorn into the devil's own furnace," Ambrose rants. "I think by now I've given enough of my own blood, sweat and tears to this miserable scratch on the map to say that it is, in fact, my town too. God knows the people put me there to dispense the law-"

"Yes," the clank agrees, looking at the sky.

"-and I'll be hanged if there's anything legal about giant snake monsters going around abducting women, biting people right and left and threatening to tear the hearts out of Catholic priests!"

"I would hope there is a law against that," the priest says, looking up as the long jumble of rock looms up, spotted here and there by still-burning flecks of daylike flame. He squints to see Jackie, who makes her awful coyote-in-a-steam-press yelping to keep them on the track. "It's going t'get close in there, I think. Probably better to spread out within sight of each other but not so close as to be easily attacked if the thing got into our midst...the other two seemed to have some kind of dark magic, which makes me wonder what this one might do."


[[Jaquinta rolled 13,2 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of (8+5)13,2. *sniff*. Keep following the chupe, I'm getting there.]]
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:39, Thu 30 July 2015.

[[ musics! ]]

---

The group clamber over rocks, some with more enthusiasm than others, passing into the terrain of rearing boulders and cyclopean defiles that once attracted the attention of Wendell's surveyors. The little spots of burning grenade-soloution grow fewer and shortly wink out like snuffed stars across the patches of bare rock, rendering the trail invisible save to a particularly gifted Apache. Jaquinta is always ahead, a grey smudge against grey-shadowed stone when in motion.

The posse eventually enter a steep-sided little canyon currently floored by a thin rainwater stream across the scree. Stunted scrub crouches beside the water and in any patches that maybe see daylight. Jaquinta is traversing back and forth over the scree at the far end where the canyon narrows to a rubble-filled crack, ill-illumined by what moonlight makes it down here.

Seeing that the others have caught up, Jaquinta raises her head, her huge eyes burning green for a moment in the moonlight. [Language unknown: "Ri entineiou ereresout n andst liurom ere ulrat!"] she calls over.


[[Anyone taking the priest's advice to spread out? Harry, give me a Smarts -2.]]

Jake keeps a good 40 feet away from Jaquinta and has been eyeing the creature the entire time. His unease is easily noticeable but he keeps quiet about whatever about Jaquinta that bother's him.  He moves in a wide arc, keeping a lot of distance between himself and Jaquinta, to the edge of the cliff and looks down [Language unknown: "Chlear maoutr for ofred ... p strounoer a son?"]

OOC:

Both Harry and Adrian have taken the priest's advice to spread out, and Adrian has bid Rattleshirt to do the same.

Harry is Smart!

Smarts: 13

08:27, Today: Harry Lazarus rolled 13,3 using d8-2,d6-2, rerolling max with rolls of (8+7)15,5. Smarts!

Looking down where he stands facing the cliff wall at the valley's head, Jake notices little burrow-like holes in the solid rock, perhaps an odd form of erosion. They seem to go back/down a long way.

Jaquinta - who seems likewise wary of Jake - is suddenly on top of the rubble where the canyon narrows to a squeeze, looking into the gap. [Language unknown: "Th sasti een, onsac ic ilckbe. Ionentwhe nt thu wa ai unre, stnelo...lapaur pe strameenc li ut nte der sonbe iotoca, M thuwasour waserscom uness adtiiv moee ine ive."]


[[William, if you're about, give me a Notice -2...basically to pick up the same thing as Harry, but it may have some later effects. I'll make the roll if his player's not available, so don't wait, but I thought I'd give the chance.]]

Off to the side and a little up the slope of the valley, Pierce straightens and scans the valley rim, particularly one spot.

"I figure he went up," the gunslinger growls.

[[08:12, Today: Alouette, on behalf of William Pierce, rolled 4,10 using d6+2,d6+2, rerolling max with rolls of 2,(6+2)8. Danger! ]]

There was a slight buzzing in his head, and for a moment, he saw through time and space. He felt like he'd consumed an entire bottle of wine. "The snake is hiding, I think against the rocks somewhere up there. He is or is going to be above us. I think he's going to try and cause an avalanche on top of our heads, and take us out after we are hurt by the rocks," he said, looking nervously up to see if he can pick out where it was.

"Pierce, can you make anything out up there?" He backed up against the wall, so he'd be less likely to be hit by a falling rock and gestured towards the others to do the same.

Well, can I?

20:14, Today: William Pierce rolled 5,7 using D6+4,d6+4, rerolling max with rolls of 1,3. Super notice.

The ragged woman presses back to the side of the valley seeing Hank's example, clearly not knowing what's going on.

[[You can!]]

"He's up there." the gunslinger confirms. "The bastard's got the high ground."

He spits on the floor, absent-minded. "If I was him, a couple of rocks would make nice work of us here. Then pick off any survivors. We need to get away from here or pull him down here."

He looks at Vega. "Any way for you to get me up there?"

"Only thing I can think of is that you can ride the skeleton monster, and he can make a go of taking you up there real quick, though you'll have to be responsible for hangin' on."

[Language unknown: "Ulelie! Ekhis traateain u berat!"] the chupacabra calls, hopping down into the narrow passage she'd been investigating.

Maria looks uncertainly at the others along the valley walls, tensed to make a break for it.

[[I am far too entertained by the mental image of William riding the glomlet like Major Kong riding the bomb. You may want to roll up a coat or something as padding first.
William, roll Agility to see if you can do that before Ixi does what he's planning.]]