Night. April 11th, 1879. The local church, Blackthorn, Texas. Good Friday.
some mood music

---

Turn Order:
Itza-Chu: 8S
Father O'Rourke: 7H
Vampire girls: 3H

---

The crazed Apache takes his eyes off the preacher and on to the screaming, swooning vampire. "So. Little mosquito girl get'em free, huh? Looks like'm you need a better swattin', Darlin'."

He swing his spear wildly, lashing at first the preacher, then the girl. His weapon is long enough that he doesn't actually have to move much to endanger both his targets. Of course, the wild flailing doesn't help much.

"Monster!" The preacher shouts, rosary in one hand. "This is the house of GOD! He provides sanctuary to all who ask, and YOU WILL NOT VIOLATE THAT!"

And with that the father begins to recite something, a verse which Darla felt weigh heavy on her.

"And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning! From every beast I will require it and from man! From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man! Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image!"

And though his concentration seemed to slip, just for a moment, Darla felt the Eyes of Heaven turn to her. Turn and glare, yes, but turn and watch out for her as well...

((OOC: Itza-chu leads off with an attack against both the preacher and the vampire girl. He knows the vampire is Not Human, since he killed one of the troupe when he was nailing them to the wagon wheels on the hilltop. his spear gives him enough reach that he doesn't actually have to move to reach both combatants.

Itza-Chu is using Frenzy (two attacks, -2 to each) with a Wild Attack (+2 to attacks, -2 to his Parry until his next action). This cancels out the bonuses and penalties and will leave him with a Parry of 6. The order of attacks is Father O'Rourke, Darla, Wild die.

Itza-Chu rolled 3,2,2 using d10,d10,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 3,2,2. Frenzy! (With Wild Attack). No. Going to spend a Chip on this...

Itza-Chu rolled 2,2,1 using d10,d10,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 2,2,1. white chip. Even worse! Looks like a no-hitter for Itza-chu this round.

Father O'Rourke is Shaken, so he needs to deal with that first. He spends a White Chip to get a full action without a roll. He attemtps to cast Deflection on the "poor, helpless woman" being assaulted by the crazed Apache.

Father William O'Rourke rolled 1,5 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 1,5. Faith! That's a success, but it's also a Crisis of Faith for the poor reverend. I'll spend O'Rourke's other chip on this.

03:03, Today: Father William O'Rourke rolled 4,5 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 4,5. white chip. Success!

Darla gets protection from attacks for 3 turns. Any incoming attack suffers a -2 penalty while it lasts.

Cards:
Itza-chu: QS
Father O'Rourke: QS))

---

Vampire Girls up next!

Darla squeaks, letting herself fall to the floor, then gasps and shudders briefly at the blessing. It hurt, somewhere...but that just helped her focus.

Darla scrambles back onto the outer step, not wholly faking the fear but with enough presence of mind to make not-quite-wholly-effective attempts to cover her pale thighs, pressing her petticoats down between in a manner that just highlights how little cloth there is between her and nudity.

"N-not on the altar...not even you, you wicked bastard - the earth'd crack an' the lightning strike you down, y'hear? Haven't you done enough to me? What more can you want?" she hisses in a fine show of helpless bravado.

[[Aiming to use the ability Seduce to draw him out/switch him from 'kill outright' to 'pursue and play with' - any rolls for that? Otherwise:
Vampire Dance Hall Girl rolled 4 using 1d6, rerolling max with rolls of 4. foul trickery!

The others continue to sneak and may well be on either side of the door by now.
init. 5C]]

In reply to Vampire Dance Hall Girl (msg # 2):

((OOC: I think you could use Persuasion as a Test of Will, with the penalty applying to his resistance check. Do you want to do that instead?))

[[Sure...oo, they even have Persuasion, nice.

17:12, Today: Vampire Dance Hall Girl rolled 10 using 1d6, rerolling max with rolls of (6+4)10. persuasive briar patchin'. ...aaand I keep forgetting Darla hasn't been fed yet, so 9.]]

"Want? What more can I want?" The psychotic Apache leers, then laughs, a high, blood-curdling screech that claws at the ears and freezes the blood. "I am calamity! I am ruin! I am rage and terror and fear! I am brother to ravens, companion to owls! My skin is red, my bones burn with the heat of the white god's Hell! Pain! Pain! I want to watch'em you writhe, squirming, screaming, as I take'em you apart! I want to break'em you down, down to base blood and bone! I am Crying Shrike! No man or spirit or god may hinder me! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

With that, he turns fully to face Darla, his piercing laugh stabbing to heaven.

---

As Jake, Danny, and William head toward the church, they hear a woman screaming, and then a strange, screeching laughter...

---

((OOC: 14:12, Today: Itza-Chu rolled 3,2 using d6-2,d6-2, rerolling max with rolls of 5,4. Resisting Seduction. That's a Success and Raise for the vampire. Now, since this isn't a normal ToW, he won't be shaken, but he will focus his efforts on Darla.

That's the end of this round, BTW...I'm going to wait until Jake, Danny, and William draw their cards to see where they are in this fight.))

---

Turn Order:
Danny Boy: BJ!
Itza-chu: QS
Father O'Rourke: QS
Jake Lawrence: 9S
William Pierce: 9D
Vampire Girls: 5C
This message was last edited by the player at 22:35, Mon 17 Sept 2012.

OOC: Card card who's got a card
18:14, Today: Jake Lawrence drew the single card: 9S using a deck of 54 cards. Initiative.

00:29, Today: William Pierce drew the single card: 9D using the Deadlands system. William Initiative.

"Oh, for God's sake!" Danny curses as he hears the screaming, and begins running toward the church, ducking down an alley to shave some distance.

((OOC: Danny boy starts running toward the church. He has a Black Joker, so he gets +2 to his run die. Kind of a waste of a joker, but eh.

Danny Boy rolled 8 using 1d6+2. Running! Max movement!

Card for next round: 2S. eek.))

With that shrieking laugh, Itza-chu springs forward, thrusting his spear forth. Darla feels the shaft pierce her belly, despite the preacher's spell of protection, sliding through her guts and out her back, the tip digging into the door behind her.

((OOC: Itza-chu and Father O'Rourke have the same initiative, so they roll opposed Agility checks to see which one acts first. Itza-chu beats out O'Rourke, so I resolve his action first.

Thanks to Darla's ToW, Itza-Chu is now focused on her. He tries to strike her with Frenzy, and another Wild Attack (lowering his Parry again). His modifiers are -2 (Frenzy), -2 (Vampire Seduction), -2 (deflection), +2 (Wild Attack). That's a total of -4 to his attack. If he DOES hit, though, his spear is a wooden weapon and will really, really hurt Darla. he's aiming to wound, not to kill.

Attack: Itza-Chu rolled 5,3,0 using d10-4,d10-4,d6-4, rerolling max with rolls of 9,7,4. Frenzy! (With Wild Attack). Hit!

His damage is +4 (Weakness), +2 (Wild Attack). Ouch.

Damage: Itza-Chu rolled 8,10 using d10,d6+6, rerolling max with rolls of 8,4. 18 Damage total. That's a Shaken and 2 Wounds for Darla, who is an Extra and will be Incapacitated if she doesn't soak.

Father O'Rourke is going to hold his action to see if Darla soaks. He has healing power, after all.

Itza-chu's card: 7S))

---

Darla needs to Soak. O'Rourke is On Hold. Jake Lawrence is up next.

[[00:13, Today: Vampire Dance Hall Girl rolled 0,4 using d8-1,d6-1, rerolling max with rolls of 1,5. epic soak attempt.
00:14, Today: Vampire Dance Hall Girl rolled 0,1 using d8-1,d6-1, rerolling max with rolls of 1,2. last chippit. ...even worse. Sorry, girls...somehow I think holy healing'd do her more harm than good, too.]]

The men down the street hear the woman's frantic screams go from fear to raw agony, cutting off with a kind of sobbing groan.

"NO!" the preacher screams as the girl collapses. He rushes past the surprised indian, places his hands over the girls' belly, and pulls on the spear, attempting to yank it free. As he does this, he prays.

"Almighty and merciful Father, by the power of your command, drive away from this poor woman all forms of sickness, disease, and injury. I ask you to mend all that is broken, root out every sickness and disease, open all blocked arteries and veins, restore my internal organs, rebuild damaged tissues, remove all inflammation and cleanse her of all infections, viruses and destructive forms of bacteria. Restore strength to her body and joy to her spirit, so that in her renewed health she may bless and serve you, now and forevermore..."

((OOC: You soak 1 Wound of the two, but yeah, the healing might make that worse...

Father O'Rourke move up to Darla and attempts to Heal her. He doesn't have any penalties, because Wounds on Extras drop them directly to Incapacitated without going through the penalty track. If he heals the Incapacitation, she can act as normal.

However, because she's a vampire, this might actually kill her. She will need to succeed on a Vigor roll, otherwise the magic will be fatal.

Father William O'Rourke rolled 2,11 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 2,(6+5)11. Faith! Success and Raise!

Darla, roll Vigor. You get a +2 bonus from O'Rourke's raise. If you succeed, the healing works as intended and Darla can act as normal. If not, then the magic destroys her.

Card: 7S. Tied with Itza-chu again.))

---

Darla needs to resolve a roll. Jake Lawrence's action is up!

Darla jerks convulsively like she's been stabbed again, a long, whimpering wail that sounds like nothing human torn from her throat as the tears break out. Her belly is cold and the tears strangely tinted. Her gaze, however, in that instant hazed with pain as she reaches to touch the priest's face, is almost human.

"oh, sugar...I'm so sorry..."


[[00:40, Today: Vampire Dance Hall Girl rolled 8,6 using d8+1,d6+1, rerolling max with rolls of 7,5. staying (un)alive! Go Darla! ]]

Jake runs after Danny Boy, though he's not as fast.

OOC: Running closer, trying to get a line of sight.
07:26, Today: Jake Lawrence rolled 3 using 1d6, rerolling max with rolls of 3. Running.
9 squares closer

07:27, Today: Jake Lawrence drew the single card: 2D using a deck of 54 cards. Initiative.

William followed the other two, but then took a turn to the right. He hadn'tbeen in too many churches, but he knew that usually there was a back entrance near the altar. And O'Rourke had seemed to be the kind of priest who stuck to traditions. Hopefully, that included basic layouts and arcchitecture of churches, too...


13:42, Today: William Pierce rolled 2 using 1d6, rerolling max with rolls of 2. running.

13:43, Today: William Pierce drew the single card: 10H using the Deadlands system. initiative.

Cool fingers trace briefly down the padre's cheek before Darla turns, faster than she should be able to, catching the spear at the point and midshaft and using it as a lever to fling their attacker stumbling through the doorway.

[[Reckon that'd be either an opposed strength roll or an Agility Trick:
13:23, Today: Vampire Dance Hall Girl rolled 3,4 using d10,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 3,4. strength!
or
13:23, Today: Vampire Dance Hall Girl rolled 7,3 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 7,3. agility!

...if Itza-Chu gets past the doorpost, the others will attack.
Their next init.'s 7H regardless.]]

The wild Apache's face is comical as the girl catches him off balance and sends him stumbling across the threshold of the church...

((OOC: Itza-Chu rolled 2,2 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 2,2. Agility. That's a fail, so Itza-chu goes stumbling out the door. The girls will get a +1 Gang-Up bonus on their attacks against him, and his Parry is currently 6 thanks to his Wild Attacks.))

[[what, no surprise bonus for the sneaky girls? Ah well.]]

There's a pale flash across the doorway, bearing the Apache fully to the ground and trapping his spear under him. Itza-Chu feels a lithe, cold form sitting on his upper back and slender hands pressing him down. "Hi honey."

The girl who made a wild swing at him with something shiny stalks round into his field of vision, testing the edge of her cleaver. "We'd like to take you somewhere...for dinner."

Meanwhile, Darla hugs the priest whilst she still hurts enough to do anything platonic.

[[20:07, Today: Vampire Dance Hall Girls rolled 25,2. Wampairs! *dope* forgot the +1
Bella: Grapples w/26
Carmilla: has a cleaver! ...and a 3!]]
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 19:28, Wed 19 Sept 2012.

The insane Indian is too winded from the fall to make an appropraitely clever come-back.

---

((OOC: Not enough to get the drop...he was wondering where the other two were, in fact. Itza-chu will attempt to resist the grab, but I think he's caught. Itza-Chu rolled 9,2 using d10,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 9,2. Grab? Yeah, he's caught and Shaken.))

---

Turn Order:
William Pierce: 10H
Itza-Chu: 7S
Father O'Rourke: 7S
Vampire Girls: 7D
Danny Boy: 2S
Jake Lawrence: 2D
This message was last edited by the player at 06:33, Thu 20 Sept 2012.

12:45, Today: William Pierce rolled 9 using 1d6, rerolling max with rolls of (6+3)9. run, billy run. Ok, the running die doesn't ace, so it's just a six. Still good enough.
Shooting: Quickdraw cancels the MAP for drawing, but still running. Also, one wound.
12:48, Today: William Pierce rolled 3,1 using d10-3,d6-3, rerolling max with rolls of 6,4. red chip re-roll.
12:47, Today: William Pierce rolled -2,1 using d10-3,d6-3, rerolling max with rolls of 1,4. Shooting.
...and I'm outta chips.

12:52, Today: William Pierce drew the single card: 8D using the Deadlands system. initiative



William burst through the backdoor. In a split-second, he saw the priest, the girls, the indian and as if by itself his pistol sprang into his right hand.
But as he raised the barrel of the colt, he realized he knew those girls. Oh, that could be interesting. Thus distracted, the bullet intended for the indian splinters the door frame instead.

The bullet catches Bella's attention for a fraction of an instant, and Itza-chu immediately begins to squirm. He pulls his arms in, gets them under, and pushes up sharply, getting enough leverage to get his knees beneath him as well as he attempt to toss the girl off of him.

((OOC: Itza-chu spends a chip to Unshake, then attempts a Strength check to escape the grapple, and is willing to burn through a lot of my stored red chips to succeed.

Itza-Chu rolled 6,11 using d10,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 6,(6+5)11. Strength.

Red chip 1: 4
Red chip 2: 3

That's 18 total for Itza-chu's escape attempt. Bella needs to roll Strength or Agility to keep hold. If Itza-chu scores a raise, he also gets his full action. If not, he can still move away, though he'll provoke some attacks if he does.))

"Eep!" Bella gets thrown forward as Itza-Chu bucks to his knees, but rolls to a crouch alarmingly fast.

[[3, with her white in.]]

Itza-chu begins to giggle as he stands, spear in hand. Then he stabs forward once, twice, spearing both the girls attacking him through the chest...

((OOC: That means Itza-chu gets his full action, which he's going to use to Frenzy on both the girls. Again, he's willing to blow through my chip stack to do this.

He Wild Attacks to counter his Frenzy penalty. One attack against Bella, one attack against Carmilla.

Itza-Chu rolled 3,2,13 using d10,d10,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 3,2,(6+6+1)13. Stabbity stabbity stabbity!

Itza-chu will hit one of them (it's on the wild die, so I get to choose which roll to replace) but wants to kill both, so he spends a red chip to bump the other roll. Itza-Chu rolled 5 using 1d6, rerolling max with rolls of 5. red chip. That leaves him with a 13 and a 7, which is a hit and raise against Bella and a normal hit on Carmilla.

For damage, he gets +2 (from the Wild attack) and +4 (from their weakness to wooden weapons).

Damage (Bella): 15 damage total, which is a Shaken and one Wound for Bella (which will kill her if she doesn't soak).

Damage (Carmilla): 11 Damage total, which is only a Shaken for Carmilla.

I want to resolve the damage before I move on to Father O'Rourke's turn.

Card: 4S))

The spear catches Bella as she springs, punching through her breastbone and shearing into her vitals. By the time the point emerges from her back a split second later it's splintering the edge of naked vertebrae made friable by age, ribs and outstretched forearms crashing into Itza-Chu in a cascade of metacarpals and phalanges. Her skull bounces off his shoulder, then off the doorframe with a dull *bonk* before shattering to dust and rocking pieces on the church threshold.

[[It's like being at work...
I rolled that soak just 'cause I feel kinda responsable for the li'l ladies, but 1 it was...]]

Carmilla's stood shocked at how fast her sister crossed the threshold of existence and only manages to knock the spear coming for her slightly aside, snarling as the head gashes a deep rut all the way across her chest.

The demented Indian, still giggling about his handiwork, takes the opportunity to run toward the graveyard.

((OOC: He doesn't get far, because it cost him some movement to stand up, but now he's further down the street.))

---

Father O'Rourke is going On Hold, so it's the Vampire Girls turn.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:48, Sun 23 Sept 2012.