Night. April 11th, 1879. On the road to the Circle W.

Some mood music

The steam wagon rolls across the hills, down the path towards the Circle W ranch. The moon is waning, half full and fading, and something in the air has given it a greenish cast. Falling stars streak across the night sky, and if one didn't know better it would seem as if the stars were slowly going out.

There's a chill in the air. The soft wail of the ghost rock boiler that propels the steam wagon seems to be the only sound around--everything else is dead quiet. No birds, no insects, no nothing. There's no light, either...the distant ranch doesn't seem to have any lanterns lit.

And yet, there's a sense that the approaching wagon and the people within are being watched. somewhere, in the darkness, something is spying on them...and all of them get the feeling that whatever it is, it means them harm...

((OOC: Welcome to Fear Level 5. Go ahead and post your impressions of things, so I know what your characters are feeling (and so I know who has seen this and who hasn't.))
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:45, Fri 06 Sept 2013.

Jake's eyes grew wider and wider as a cold shiver ran up his spine. He could feel them in the dark ... those crows ... that murder of crows ... they were watching him ... they were waiting for him ... just as they had been before. His fingers tightened on the rosary they held, causing the knuckles to turn white as he said a silent prayer to a god he wasn't sure he believed in anymore.

OOC: Great creepy music ... listened to it while I wrote this post

William drums his fingers on the grip of his pistol.

He is nervous. Not because of the fight that lay ahead, but because of the allies on his side. He'd been in plenty of gunfights, had been outnumbered, outgunned, but always had known who he could rely on.

Now... the marshal had sand, he had to give him that. But he seemed to be rather unexperienced in a gunfight. The others seemed more experienced, but...

How are they going to hold up when their friends and neighbours start shooting at them? William wonders.

No. It would be him who'd have to decide the fight. And for that, he would have to become what he wanted to leave behind: A ruthless killer.

The clank can be heard jogging along behind the vehicle, making various observations aloud and occasionally greeting bits of scenery.

"...minus moon compared to Blackthorn, Texas, location 4.8 miles northeast, query refraction? Howdy rock! Howdy crows, skull-clouds, shrubbery! ! Sky is fizzy..."
This message was last edited by the player at 22:00, Fri 06 Sept 2013.

As promised, Adrian rode shotgun, remaining quiet as was his traditional disposition, speaking only when spoken to or when he thought he had something that needed saying. He held his weapon ready to be used, and held his mind ready to use it, though maybe things wouldn't come to that. Maybe. Probably not, though. If anything had shown itself to be true this day it would be that some manner of violence was inevitable. His back itched a bit, or at least he thought it did. He didn't know Bitter Waters that well. Hell, he didn't even know why he called him Bitter Waters. After a fashion, he knew the Marshal and Alouette. Pierce he knew better than he'd like, and liked twice as well as the other man deserved. Adrian was fairly confident that the man knew his way in a fight, or at least hoped that the man would choose the bad guys as the subject for his next bout of violence instead of him.

But then there was the possibility that Adrian could be the bad guy himself at some point.

Evans shudders as he sits in the driver's compartment of the wagon. "I have a very bad feeling about this." he mutters...

...And then the wagon lurches to the right. Eavns cries out and he tries to keep the wagon steady, but it's no use...the wagon raises on two wheels, hovers there, then begins to tip...

Outside, Alouette sees something huge and dark charge the steam wagon, but before it can shout a warning, the giant bull rams the vehicle, sending it lurching...then tipping...

((OOC: Folks, make an Agility check to avoid Collision damage as the wagon gets knocked over. Alouette, you need to make the roll as well, as the wagon is about to tip on to you.

Then draw a card for initiative.

Evans: 3H
Devils Herd: 8S))

It took Jake a moment to realize something was going on, but once he did he moved rather quickly to avoid getting hurt

OOC:
14:30, Today: Jake Lawrence rolled 3,2 using 1D8,1D6, rerolling max with rolls of 3,2. Agility.
14:31, Today: Jake Lawrence rolled 11,8 using 1D8,1D6, rerolling max with rolls of (8+3)11,(6+2)8. Agility reroll - White Chip.
14:31, Today: Jake Lawrence drew the single card: 9H using a deck of 54 cards. Initiative.

Alouette stops at the sight of the black blur to greet it.

"Howdy-!" *CRASH*

The clank looks up, calculating as the darker shadow of the wagon falls over it...then takes a single step to the side and patters up to the bull.

"Cease!"

[[19:37, Today: Alouette rolled 3,7 using d4,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 3,(6+1)7. Agility! Don't think I have any penalties at present, but that should do it...
init. 9H also!]]

This message was last edited by the player at 19:18, Mon 09 Sept 2013.

"Goddammit!" he yelled instinctively. He had been raised Catholic, so he still felt guilty as soon as the words had left his mouth. It made him remember his mother, a strong woman of Irish stock, and how she had washed his mouth out with a particularly foul soap the first time he'd said as much. An extremely religious woman and a school teacher, she had been a guiding force in their family and the community. Any boy in Blackthorn had had her as a teacher at one point or another, and he was hardly the only one to have felt the rough side of her temper. She's dead now, he thought. And so are you, a part of his mind added wryly.

He didn't have but a heartbeat for guilt though, as he tried to throw himself as best as he could out of the way of danger as the steamwagon tipped over.

---

OOC:

Agility:    7 (rolled to avoid Collision damage)
Initiative: 9D

13:36, Today: Adrian Vega drew the single card: 9D using the Deadlands system.
13:36, Today: Adrian Vega rolled 7,2 using d10,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 7,2. Agility.

20:45, Today: William Pierce rolled 6,2 using d10,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 6,2. Agility.


William braces himself and jumps off the wagon, rolling on the ground and gets up in a low crouch.
His hands dart to his guns, checking if they're still in his holster and belt.

Still there... but not for long. He thinks, as his fingers close around the grips.


20:46, Today: William Pierce drew the single card: 7D using the Deadlands system. Initiative.

The bull glares at Alouette, and the clank can see more circling the area. Fire glows in their eyes, and their hooves strike sparks on the rocks on the ground. The bull Alouete faces raises it's tail, and a snake's rattle rises into the night.

It does not look willing to cease.

((OOC: Evans rolls Agility himself: 18:45, Today: The Amazing Evans rolled 5,1 using d6,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 5,1. Agility.

There are five bulls circling the wagon, looking angry and evil and ready to strike.))

---

Turn Order:
Alouette: 9H
Jake Lawrence: 9H
Adrian Vega: 9D
Devil's Herd: 8S
William Pierce: 7D
Evans: 3H

Alouette flaps at the animal like an annoyed butler. "Shoo! Go on, get out of here! Shoo!"

[[Go go gadget 'passively in the way'...intimidate?
08:54, Today: Alouette rolled 3,2 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 3,2. shoo! Yeah...
init. 5D]]

Jake popped his head out of the overturned buggy and wasn't pleased with the site he saw. His instincts took over and he summoned from within himself a trio of mystical cards which he sent flying at the beasts.

OOC: PP 7/10
17:38, Today: Jake Lawrence rolled 1,5,2,4 using 1d10,1d10,1d10,1d6, rerolling max with rolls of 1,5,2,4. Spellcasting (Bolt 3x2d6).
YIKES! Burning a red chip to re-roll that
17:38, Today: Jake Lawrence rolled 5,4,2,3 using 1d10,1d10,1d10,1d6, rerolling max with rolls of 5,4,2,3. Spellcasting (Bolt 3x2d6) - Red reroll.
That I like... skipping dealing with the devil and just burning power points.
So 2 hit for 2d6 each.
17:42, Today: Jake Lawrence rolled 6,8 using 2d6,2d6, rerolling max with rolls of 1,5,4,4. Damage.
I'll drop both those on the same big nasty bull and pray
17:43, Today: Jake Lawrence drew the single card: 8S using a deck of 54 cards. Initiative .

Sitting where he was, Adrian fortunately had been able to throw himself out of the vehicle when things started to go south and didn't land too badly. He raised up his gun on the bull, and smiled slightly when he saw those cards flying at it.

He didn't pull the trigger on his gun, though, and what came out of it wasn't bullets. The trigger he pulled was in his mind, reaching out and dealing with one of those nasty sons of bitches that let him do what he felt he needed to do. Three bullets made of a ghostly white light streaked out of that gun at that nasty bull.

---

OOC:
Cost: 0 PP (Deal with the Devil success)
Spellcasting: 14, 29, and 10.
Damage: 10, 8, 10 (assumes raises)

16:30, Today: Adrian Vega rolled 10,8,10 using 3d6,3d6,3d6, rerolling max with rolls of 3,2,5,5,2,1,1,5,4. Damage + Raise.
16:24, Today: Adrian Vega rolled 14,2,29,10 using d8,d8,d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of (8+6)14,2,(8+8+8+5)29,(6+4)10. Spellcasting - Bolt (3x2d6).
16:17, Today: Adrian Vega drew the 10 cards: AC, 3H, 3S, 10C, 9D, 10H, RJ!, KS, 8H, 6S using the Deadlands system. Deal with the Devil (3PP).

12:13, Today: Adrian Vega drew the single card: 2S using the Deadlands system.

Next Round: 2S

This message was last edited by the player at 17:14, Fri 13 Sept 2013.

The bull does not shoo. It also doesn't seem to feel either of the magical explosive cards Jake hurls into it's hide.

Adrian reaches out with his mind, dueling with one of his nasty Friends On The Other Side. The power rolls through him as the ghostly white light streaked towards the bull.

The bull lowed at Alouette, and charged. The huge horns of the beast ram into the clank, but the automaton's sturdy body withstands the blow.

The other bulls charge. Adrian narrowly avoids one of the bulls trampling him back to death.

Inside the steam wagon, Jake ducks just as a pair of horns rip through the panel of the wall protecting him from outside. The other bulls smash into the wagon, ripping wood from brass and sending pieces of it scattered over the plain.

The assault leaves everyone within tossed about, but otherwise unharmed...but there's an odd whistling coming from the boiler.

Evans goes pale. "Out! Everyone out now! Get as far away as you can!"

((OOC: 22:26, Today: Bane Cow rolled 5 using 1d4, rerolling max with rolls of (4+1)5. Th cow is not startled by Alouette's sudden appearance and mechanical weirdness.

The cows have a Toughness of 12, so they aren't feeling any of those bolts.

Adrian, I spy a Joker in your hand, and since the only way you could get Jacks or Better on your pull is by using it, that means it's Backfire Time!

You get your bolts, but you also take 3d6 damage from the manitou frying your system.

22:30, Today: The Stray rolled 15 using 3d6. Damage. That's a Shaken and a wound for you unless you soak. Nevermind, I missed the second pair.

You rolled some impressive damage, but, again, the bull has a Toughness of 12, so none of the hits penetrate.

There are a total of 5 bulls. The nearest one, the one that's been taking all these attacks, tries to gore Alouette.

22:37, Today: Bane Cow rolled 7 using 1d6, rerolling max with rolls of (6+1)7. Fighting! Hit.

Damage: 6. Alouette gets lucky and the thing can't get through it's armor.

Another bull charges Jake, who is inside the steam wagon. The wagon provides +3 armor to those still inside it. The Bull gets +4 to damage because of it's charge.

22:40, Today: Bane Cow rolled 1 using 1d6, rerolling max with rolls of 1. Fighting! Miss on Jake. I roll damage to see what it does to the steam wagon.

Damage (vs. wagon): 16, which is 1 wound against the Steam Wagon.

Adrian is the target of an attack as well. As he stated he was thrown clear, he doesn't benefit from the wagon's armor.

22:44, Today: Bane Cow rolled 2 using 1d6, rerolling max with rolls of 2. Fighting! Miss. Adrian is safe.

The remaining 2 bulls charge at the wagon itself, attempting to tear it to bits. The Wagon isn't currently moving, so it counts as an inanimate object and thus has a Parry of 2.It has a Toughness of 10 (3)

Damage 1: 18
Damage 2: 34 (!)

The steam carriage is totally wrecked. The steam boiler begins to whsitle, signaling that it's about to blow...

Card for next turn: 8D))
This message was last edited by the player at 06:52, Fri 13 Sept 2013.

William rises from the ground, drawing the ghostly pistol, which already shrieks in anticipation.
He runs away from the wagon and fires a shot at the closest devilish bull.


Alright... first, running.
10:44, Today: William Pierce rolled 4 using 1d6, rerolling max with rolls of 4.

Multiaction! Drawing Pistol (canceled due to Quickdraw edge)
Multiaction! Shooting at Bull (-2)
And since I'm feeling cocky, I'l ladd a headshot (-4) on top of that.

Yes! a hit! Even if it cost me 4 red chips to make the shot....
Total result of 4

10:47, Today: William Pierce rolled 2 using 1d6, rerolling max with rolls of 2. red chip 4, on top.
10:46, Today: William Pierce rolled 2,-1 using d10-6,d6-6, rerolling max with rolls of 8,5. red chip 3.
10:46, Today: William Pierce rolled -4,1 using d10-6,d6-6, rerolling max with rolls of 2,(6+1)7. redchip 2.
10:46, Today: William Pierce rolled -5,-3 using d10-6,d6-6, rerolling max with rolls of 1,3. red chip re-roll.
10:46, Today: William Pierce rolled 0,-2 using d10-6,d6-6, rerolling max with rolls of 6,4. Shooting.

Damage: 3d6+1 for ghost gun, +4 for headshot.

Total of 14. Even after the re-roll due to No Mercy. Un-be-fucking-lievably.

10:48, Today: William Pierce rolled 14 using 3d6+5, rerolling max with rolls of 3,2,4. Blue chip to re-roll damage.
10:48, Today: William Pierce rolled 14 using 3d6+5, rerolling max with rolls of 4,4,1. Pistol damage.

Good thing that William is quick.

10:50, Today: William Pierce drew the single card: JS using the Deadlands system. Initiative.
10:50, Today: William Pierce drew the single card: 3H using the Deadlands system. Initiative.

Evans grabs his devices and bolts from the cabin as well, taking a shot at one of the bulls as he does do.

William's shot flattens against the bull, who bellows in rage. Evans' shot actually punctures the tough hide of another of the monsters, and it collapses, bleeding.

((OOC: You DO realize you just set William up to get gored, right?

Evans scoops up his flamethrower and his gyromounted pistol and runs as well. He fires a 3d6 Bolt at one of the cows (not the same one William targeted)

09:56, Today: The Amazing Evans rolled 1 using 1d6 with rolls of 1. Running die.

09:58, Today: The Amazing Evans rolled 1,-1 using d6-2,d6-2, rerolling max with rolls of 3,1. Shooting! Spending one of Evans' white chips...

10:01, Today: The Amazing Evans rolled 0,18 using d6-2,d6-2, rerolling max with rolls of 2,(6+6+6+2)20. white chip. hit with raise.

10:02, Today: The Amazing Evans rolled 18 using 4d6, rerolling max with rolls of 1,2,(6+5)11,4. Damage (with Raise). That's enough to drop a bull.

I'm not spending any chips on the bulls, because this is just a warm-up encounter, so the bull drops.

Card: 4C))

---

Turn Order:
Exploding boiler: QC
William Pierce: JH
Jake Lawrence: 8S
Devil Bulls: 8D
Alouette: 5D
John Smith: 3H
Adrian Vega:2S

I need Adrian to draw so I know if he can escape from the area of the soon-to-explode boiler or not.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:31, Thu 19 Sept 2013.

OOC:
Drew 2S
12:13, Today: Adrian Vega drew the single card: 2S using the Deadlands system.

((OOC: The boiler explodes. William and Evans are both far enough outside the Large Burst Template that they're safe. Everyone else is going to need to work for it.

Adrian, you're Prone, so you have Cover against the blast. Jake, you're also Prone, but you're right next to the thing, so the cover is moot.

Alouette, Adrian, and Jake can make Agility Checks at -2 to move/roll away from the area of the explosion. The bulls, not being able to recognize the danger, don't get a roll to avoid the explosion.))

The clank is pushed backwards by the impact of the bull. "Cease-!" it insists, but then the threads of lightning crackle over its brass hands with a building roar of static. It grips the bull's horns and throws the near-ton of bovine muscle over one-handed, lenses bright as it looks back towards the cracking wagon frame...


[[19:13, Today: Alouette rolled -1,-1 using d4-2,d6-2, rerolling max with rolls of 1,1. Agility.
19:14, Today: Alouette rolled 2 using 1d6, rerolling max with rolls of 2. red chippit -> 1 spent that before realising milady wouldn't much care, but there you go...]]

((OOC: Still need those Agility (-2) checks from Adrian and Jake))

John's head had cracked against the side of the carriage wall, leaving him in a bit of a daze for a moment. When he noticed the danger of the boiler his eyes widen and adrenaline kicks in, his old ally, and he promptly kicked off the carriage and flipped back over a nearby boulder, shielding himself from the blast in it's lee. Still a bit dazed, he blinked as he thought he saw Allouette physically throw one of the horned things. "If it's not one thing..." He murmured, as he began to gather his chi.

John Smith drew the single card: 3H using the Deadlands system.
John Smith rolled 3,0 using d10-2,d6-2. Agility Check.
John Smith rolled 0,8 using d10-2,d6-2, rerolling max. Spending Benny.
John is now at 5 White bennies.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:31, Thu 19 Sept 2013.

Hearing the sounds of something bad, Jake went about getting the heck out of the wagon ...

OOC: Sorry!
08:28, Today: Jake Lawrence rolled 5,2 using 1D8-2,1D6-2, rerolling max with rolls of 7,4. Agility (-2 GM mod).
woot!

---

OOC:
Sorry for the delay, folks. I've gone ahead and rolled my Agility, and spent both a White and a Red chip to try and improve the result (chips spent already deducted from my tag line).

Agility: 5

20:25, Today: Adrian Vega rolled 2 using 1d6, rerolling max with rolls of 2. Red.
20:23, Today: Adrian Vega rolled 3,1 using d10-2,d6-2, rerolling max with rolls of 5,3. White Chip.
20:22, Today: Adrian Vega rolled 0,1 using d10-2,d6-2, rerolling max with rolls of 2,3. Agility Check.

The boiler erupts, shooting off into the night with a mighty roar.

The bulls bellow as the blast rips through them. One of them is torn apart by shrapnel from the exploding wagon--the rest either tumble from the force of the blast or from the scalding steam. All of them collapse, thankfully...most moo piteously in the quiet that follows.

"My wagon..." Evans gawks for a moment, then looks around the crater left behind by the blast. "Are you all right? Everybody, can you hear me?"

((OOC: 12:14, Today: The Stray rolled 21 using 3d10, rerolling max with rolls of 6,6,9. Kaboom!

Alouette, you're the only one who needs to make a Soak roll against that...everyone else managed to escape. You're looking at a Shaken and 3 wounds.

Each of the bulls is facing 2 wounds. I'm not spending chips on them this time around, so they all fall Incapacitated. After rolling aftermath, if find that only 2 of the cows are actually dead...the rest are out of action but severely injured.

Combat over))

"Critical tilt error...ground not found," says a voice presumably attached to the brass feet sticking out of the crater.

[[22:38, Today: Alouette rolled 4,1 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 4,1. soak attempt.
22:39, Today: Alouette rolled 4 using 1d6, rerolling max with rolls of 4. red chippit. -> 8 -> 1 wound shaken, I think. Put it down to fritzy restraints after the Hawk took over for a second there.]]

Pierce walks up to the wounded bulls and pulls the silver-plated pistol from his belt.
Holstering his eerie gun, he uses Jenny's gun to put a bullet into each of the writhing animals, then carefully reloads.

"Your wagon was very helpful, Marshal."

Brushing debris off himself, Jake looked around at the carnage caused by the explosion. His eyes fell on the automaton, "Evans ... you'd better see to Alouette." his voice sounded slightly raw.

"Aww, hell," he said, picking himself up from the damn ground. He had escaped unscathed for the most part, but he had still been thrown a bit by the force of the blast even if he had been far enough to avoid direct harm. His ears were ringing, and he spoke a little louder than he intended, not really having heard himself the first time.

"Well, that's one way to kill a buncha devil bulls. I think Alouette might need a fixer-upper though, Marshal."

The bulls take ore than three bullets apiece to fully put down, even with the spectral power of the Ghost Gun, but eventually they lie still.

"Fix?" Evans says, heading over to the crater and the ruins of the wagon. "With what? All my tools were in the wagon, and are now spread over this field. In the dark. After an explosion that could probably be heard from the ranch..." He looks over the tilted automaton. "Are...are you alright, Alouette? Need any major repairs?"

((OOC: Evans attempts a Repair roll to determine how badly damaged Alouette actually is.

20:05, Today: The Amazing Evans rolled 3,4 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 3,4. Repair!

How many wounds does that put everyone's favorite clank at?))

"Howdy, Ambrose!" Alouette chirps, apparently unsure how to right itself. "Where did  down go?"

[[just the one, I think, (which it can ignore with Nerves o' Steel) if the handwave many moons ago applied to it as well. Heal's still knocked out, though.]]

Evans checks Alouette over, helping the clank right itself. "I think I can patch the worst of the damage moderately quickly, if the rest of you could kindly fetch my tools from the surrounding debris," he says, "but there's a damaged module that I can't even begin to start tinkering with, not with the kind of time we have."

((OOC: Evans needs 10 minutes to fix the wound (and yes, the handwave applied to Alouette as well) but at least 1d6 hours to fix the Healing breakage. Of course, he'd be taking a penalty without tools. GUys, if you want to help him collect stuff from the ruins of the wagon, roll Notice.))

Jake nodded, "Alright ... I'll see what I can find." the Huckster picked up a burning piece of lumber and used it as a light as he began looking for Evan's tools.

OOC: 11:11, Today: Jake Lawrence rolled 3,2 using 1d8,1d6, rerolling max with rolls of 3,2. Notice.
11:11, Today: Jake Lawrence rolled 7,29 using 1d8,1d6, rerolling max with rolls of 7,(6+6+6+6+5)29. Notice - white chip.
Um ... yeah 29!

Adrian didn't know much about tools or mechanics, at least not in the sort of way that Marshal Evans probably did, but he thought he saw a few things that looked like something the Marshal could use to repair the clank. He gathered up a few promising looking items and dropped them over by Evans. "Stuff like this?" he asked.

---

OOC:

Notice: 11

18:04, Today: Adrian Vega rolled 1,11 using d4,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 1,(6+5)11. Notice.

John looked around trying to see if there were any other threats when he realized that the bulls were no longer attacking. He didn't relax, necessarily, he simply went from ready to lash out at the first thing that moved near him to a calm and somehow coiled tension. He moved about the surrounding field trying to assist in the search for scattered tools.

John Smith rolled 2,5 using d6,d4, rerolling max with rolls of 2,(4+1)5. Notice.

The tools are found in short order. "Now, let's have a look..." Evans mutters as he begins tinkering with the fantastic construct. It takes him a few minutes to look at the problem. "Hmm...this isn't too bad...I wonder if I can nudge that module into something at least semi-functional..."

((OOC: 21:12, Today: The Amazing Evans rolled 5,8 using d8-1,d6-1, rerolling max with rolls of 6,(6+3)9. Repair. That should heal up 2 wounds on Alouette's chassis.

GM, can I apply the Raise to Alouette's Healing power, since there was only one wound to begin with?))

[[Sure, it's to your benefit.]]

John, William and Adrian quickly gather all the nuts, bolts and tools they may. Jake finds a considerable cache of tools caught under their box, fortunately shielding the unclaimed holy hand grenades.

The priest barrels up as Alouette's being fixed, taking a moment to count heads before bracing his hands on his knees to get his breath back. "Thank Christ..." he gasps, seeing they're all there and apparently unhurt.

"Thank you Christ!" the automaton chirps, disturbingly at the ground.

O'Rourke straightens and looks around at the crater and the dead cattle, confused but not asking, and reports to Evans and/or Alouette. "The boy's secure for now. I think he'll be out a while longer, God willing." Although by no means an unfit man, he takes another few moments to breathe, then scans the horizon for Comanches. "How close are we to the ranch?"

William drums his fingers on his pistol grip.
"Close enough to have noticed all this commotion?" he adds.

Evans frowns and looks around. "We should have seen lights from the ranch by now. We've passed the creek, so we can't be more than a quarter of a mile away." He picks up the makeshift grenades. He looks at William. "But yes, close enough for them to have hard the explosion, at least."

"They'll be expecting us, then."
He shrugs. "Someone... or something at least."

He scratches his beard. "Might make them nervous. You should get used to the idea that this ain't be done by talking, Marshal."

"The lights were out before we got here...perhaps they were just...asleep." Evans says. He doesn't look as though he believes it.

Evans' frown is echoed by the priest as the other men stir themselves to start walking.

"They might have simply gone to bed, if Ward found some...unconventional means of repelling the Comanche there," he suggests, then turns the frown on the skull-shaped clouds leering their way across the silvered sky. "-though even in that happy circumstance, the bang may have alarmed them. Question is, do we stand more of a chance o' being shot our own selves if we go in with a lantern, or without?"

"Self can go tell them to fear not!" the clank offers brightly. "Self has warned them not to shoot at self: high danger of injuries from shrapnel, scalding, noxious fumes and/or disfavour of God," it adds.

William stares ahead into the night, his unnaturally glowing eyes scanning the road.
Without turning to the priest he replies: "If they're scared, they'll start shooting at the lantern. If they're level headed, or their leader is, they'll shout a challenge first, then shoot at the lantern, if they don't like the answer."
Then he does turn.
"If it was me up there I'd aim about six inches down and then six inches to the left. That'll keep the lantern burning, but it'll drop the man carrying it. If he's right-handed."
He shrugs.
"Maybe a second shot 12 inches to the right. Just in case he's a leftie."

He looks up ahead again. "Reckon' we can try to scare them into submission or appeal to their good will. You know these folks better, Marshal. Vega. How good's their will, you think?"

There was, of course, the not-too-unlikely chance that Marina had turned them into bloodsuckers already.

[[are you actually giving the road a good look? There might be a thing to see with a Notice roll for you cat-eyed folk...]]

19:24, Today: William Pierce rolled 7,8 using d6+4,d6+4, rerolling max with rolls of 3,4. Notice (Cats Eyes, Alertness).

The moonlight might as well be noon to William's heightened senses.

William drums his fingers on his pistol grip again.
"How many of them sun-bombs we got? And are they dangerous to... well, normal folk? We Light might be useful after all, if it's on their side and not ours. Awfully hard to see into the dark."

"Exploding is harmful to mortals, Pierce William Pierce," Alouette informs him, in case he didn't know.

"I'll just check out the road up ahead. Vega, you want to come?"

"I would trust that Ward, at least, would not start shooting without a challenge." Evans says. "And The Widow Bradshaw baked me cookies and was always more than cordial. But if Arthur's there, things might get troublesome, seeing how I shot him. There might be some resentment there. Of course, he was directing a giant corpse-golem to attack one of the Dust Adders at the time, so I feel my decision was justified. The mayor and I have never seen eye-to-eye, but I always assumed he was just a simple politician right up until he ordered that mob to attack us. It's something of a toss-up, and it depends on who would be hailing us." He trails off. "My god. When did my life get so insane?"

He stops and looks at William. "Trouble?" he pulls the whiskey bottles out. The bottles are half full of some clear liquid solution, and half full of a mix of powders separated from the fluid by what looks like a cardboard divider. The top of the contraption has what looks like a gun hammer, a small-caliber bullet, a trigger mechanism, and gum to keep everything in place. "Three. And they will hurt anything the mixture comes into contact with when the bottle bursts, after a short delay. The sunlight glow comes from a chemical reaction heating the holy water to several thousand degrees Fahrenheit. Any light that comes afterward will be because the grass is on fire."

((OOC: For reference, here are the stats for the sunlight grenades: Sunlight Bombs (Blast power, uses Throwing; 6/12/24, 3d6 damage, Large Burst Template, acts as natural sunlight, sets fire on 1 on a d6, subjects affected glow (negating darkness penalties) and take an additional 2d6 damage on the round after the initial burst).))

"Might be trouble, might be nothing. Won't know until we check it out."

"I'm with the Marshal on that one," he said casually, having given the matter some thought before speaking, as was his manner. Adrian seemed more taciturn than usual since the explosion and the attack; before, he seemed to be winning his battle with self doubt and the beast within. While he seemed like he had the latter in check, he wasn't as sure of himself.

"Ward ain't stupid, at least from what I've heard. Don't know the man myself, but it seems that he'd know better than to light us up just for the hell of it without hearin' a word about it first. As for the so-called Dust Adders," he paused to spit almost casually, "some that I know that ride by that name ain't as bright, and some are. The ones that are hate the Marshal somethin' fierce, and the clank too. Alouette, I mean, pardon. And I think for them, we're all as guilty by association."

When asked by Pierce if he wanted to go ahead, he hesitated for a moment. He wanted to doubt the man, and the Deputy had good reason to do so, but he didn't think that it would really serve Pierce's purpose to shoot him in the back again this time. He gave him a tight nod, taking his oddly shaped guns in hand. "Let's see what's goin' on."

[[Have some soundtrack]]

William leads on. A cool wind prickles over dead skin and shivers through the grass and scrub, bringing with it a storm-scent and a tinny taste akin to blood.

After a little under a minute's walk Adrian can see what the vampire's aiming for - a collection of deathly still lumps in the road, indistinct in shape. Closer still, the cloud-flickered moonlight begins to pick out details: a dog corpse stretched on its side, head drawn back in the dust. A wet, unravelled pile of viscera. A hoof, shod and pointing madly skywards from an orphaned leg and pelvis.

[[Feel free to strategise/bicker a bit if you're minded. Plenty to Notice here, though you'll have to go a bit closer to really make anything out.]]

---

Father O'Rourke sighs. "Perhaps we could persuade them to accept you and our resident angel for the common good if one of us-" he gestures at everyone who isn't Evans, the clank or differently alive, "were to make the approach."

"!" The clank straightens at this, patters a little way away, and returns with Evans' crowbar. It proffers this to the priest.

The priest looks at the crowbar, then the clank. "What would this be for, Alouette?"

"It is a metal stick, so y'all can hold lanterns plus far away, because you can put the lantern on the stick, and if the cowboys are frightened and shoot six inches away, then they won't hurt your hand and do sinning," Alouette explains.

O'Rourke weighs the metal in his hands and tries a short, experimental swing from the forearm, almost automatically, before catching himself. "Thank you, that's a good idea," he says, and goes to look for the carriage's other lantern, glancing across at John and Jake. "Perhaps some wooden sticks would be a good idea as well, while we're out here. I can bless them if you feel the need."

[[guys?]]

"I don't like that. You watch the left, I'll check out what this is. If you gotta warn me about something, make it specific, alright? Like 'run' or 'drop'"

"I'll keep my eyes and ears open and stay a step or two behind if you want, but I'm gonna come with and get a closer look as well. This kinda thing falls under my area of expertise, in a way," he said.

"Hard to tell from here. May just be...hell, I don't know what else it would be, but maybe some sorta ritual sacrifice."

---

OOC:
Knowledge (Arcana): 7

11:17, Today: Adrian Vega rolled 2,7 using d4,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 2,(6+1)7. Knowledge (Arcana).

The only pattern to the distribution that can be guessed at at this distance seems the front end of the animal being generally scattered nearer, with the middle and back bits further away. Adrian has an odd certainty it didn't die of old age.

The dog's completeness is an odd contrast, but it doesn't appear to be a solid colour or specific breed such as might be called for in a ritual. From the way it's lying, however, its cause of death will require a closer look.

Jake checks his Dragoon as the others talks. "Pretty sure this isn't going to end well regardless..." the huckster mutters to himself.

He looks up and inquires, "Do we have anything belonging to someone out there?"

"If y'all have something that belongs to another person, y'all should give it back," Alouette points out, fortunately missing the implication of sympathetic witchcraft about to be performed. The priest just gives Jake an odd look.

Jake couldn't help but roll his eyes at the simple nature of the clank.

"Fine. Then you do the examining and I'll do the watching."

Evans, at O'Rourke's suggestion, begins picking through the wreckage of his wagon for splinters suitable for using as stakes. He picks up the headboard proclaiming "Evans & Jones'", the rest of the sign having cracked in the explosion and fallen elsewhere.

"You know, he never would admit that poker game was honest..." He mutters to himself, then sighs and tosses it away, picking up wood shards and various other bits, including an old, fancy suit that (thanks to the blast) was just rags. He began tearing the jacket to strips and wrapping them around the various stakes he'd collected.

"I don't think so." He says in reply to Jake. "My former partner Phineas Jones could do what you can, you know. It's why I know so much about Hoyle's methods. He'd have thought to collect something of the kind for sympathetic divination. Of course, he also wasn't fool enough to stick around more than a week after we'd arrived and faced down that first dead uprising. No, that was my particular brand of idiocy. And even if I had something, it's probably been scattered to kingdom come...wait." Evans thinks. "Did anyone pull a badge from the Enlightened Society lodge? The only other thing I can think of is my own badge, which the mayor presented to me when I took office."

((OOC: Evans rolls notice in the remains of his wagon to see if he might have something useful.

10:30, Today: The Amazing Evans rolled 5,1 using d4-2,d6-2, rerolling max with rolls of (4+3)7,3. Notice. Well, thank you, exploding die.

Didn't Jake grab an Enlightened Society badge from somewhere? Also, you have that book from the Society hall...could be useful for finding the other members.))

"Who is Hoyle?" the clank asks, then looks curiously at the stakes.

"Are those hickory sticks?"

[[The badge is McAvity's...I have no idea where the Jellicles are at present. Probably halfway to Houston, if they're smart.]]

"A man who wrote a book on card games." Evans says simply. He ponders the sakes. "I don't kn...Sure. Why not?" He holds one of the stakes out. "Have a hickory stick, Alouette."

Jake nodded, "I did ..." He paused and took the badge from his coat pocket. "Unfortunately things sometimes can lose ownership quickly but perhaps a night might not be too long."

The hucksters looked at the badge and for an instant his hand glowed a light blue. The glow doesn't amount to much more than the light of a match before disputing. "Hmm ... no luck."

OOC: Jake really doesn't want to TOUCH that book if he can help it.
13:24, Today: Jake Lawrence rolled 5,5 using 1d10,1d6, rerolling max with rolls of 5,5. Spellcasting - Mind Rider.
13:24, Today: Jake Lawrence drew the 10 cards: 2H, RJ!, JH, 7D, 6D, 10C, 3S, QC, 3C, KC using a deck of 54 cards. Deal with the Devil.
How the heck can you pull 10 cards and no get better than a pair of 3s... ugh.

Suddenly, the badge in his hand glows too, too brightly, and a ripple of power rips up from it and surrounds Jake. The crackle of power rips across him, and Jake feels his muscles spasm...

((OOC: Ooo, failure to pull enough power for the hex on a DwtD, AND a Joker. That means it's Backfire time for Jake, whether he uses the Joker or not. I swear, Jake has the worst luck with hex backfire.

The backfire roll comes up damage, and I roll 7 damage. That makes Jake Shaken.

Knowing that you're going to take the damage either way, do you want to in fact use that Joker, make it 3 of a kind, and actually get some use out of the power?))

"Son of ..." the huckster started to shout but stopped short his eyes seemed to glaze over.

OOC: Note to self stop using DwtD for Huckster stuff ...

Sure let's use the joker ... so I can get a Straight - RJ!, JH, 10C, QC, KC

The clank giggles, pleased to get a real hickory stick, but the sound is soon cut off by a wash of static apparently related to the badge's glow.

[[which badge you got there, Jake? McAvity's or Evans'?]]

((OOC: Aw, almost a straight flush...you almost had another power you could use for free. Remember that you still can use hunch without spending pp, and will do until around noon on April 12th (it's currently just before midnight, April 11th).

Alouette, he took the badge from his coat, so it's going to be McCavity's.))

OOC: The Enlightened Society badge which was McCavity's, given to Jake by Dr. Oswald Franklin over here -> link to a message in this game

[['k, I missed the coat bit. Please excuse me a moment. { {{puffs up to look bigger at Stray}} ) ]]

((OOC: Actually, you got the badge of McCavity himself, way back when you helped capture him when Jake joined the game. Regardless, it's McCavity's, and that's what he's doing right now. *points upthread*.))

The huckster spit, it was mix of blood and saliva. "Not what I was expecting  ..." he muttered as his hands shook. His eyes shifted to the others before shaking his head, "Not much useful information there ... unless we're after  McCavity, Jenny and what's left of Rum."

OOC: Sorry, was trying to find where Jake got the thing and only found that ... oops

Hat tip to Stray for bridging this game's Rum with the character in my failed DL Noir game

"I'm afraid to ask, but what did you see? I don't enjoy the thought of those bloodthirsty maniacs sneaking back up on us while we're out here. Or worse, slipping back into town."

((OOC: Heh, I'd always meant for his fate to be canon, actually. Ever since CB and William let the Jellicles go.))

There's a sharp crackle from the clank, its lenses blazing. "Trails away away the lightning," it says, then reaches out, brass fingertips just barely brushing Jake's throat.

The thing tilts its head with a movement fine as living flesh, breaking the contact as something apparently distracts it. "Five swift forks, black-light striking here-ways, once-wolves." The clank's glance flashes over the huckster again.

"Learn to whistle."

The badge in Jake's hand fell to the ground with a thud. His eyes seemed to focus on nothing as though his mind else where, the huckster's gaze shifted to lock with the clank's but still his eyes weren't focused. He spoke, it seemed as though in response to Evan, but the words sounded like they were coming from a distance, "McCavity and Jenny were or are eating Rum ... rather brutally."

After a moment longer, he shook his head and his eyes seemed to focus again. He shoving away the clank from him shouting "Don't you EVER touch me again!" He stopped and looked around quickly and almost at random as though in search of something or perhaps being watched. "Crows ... ... snakes ... hawks ...  KEEP AWAY CURSED SPIRITS!" Jake dove behind a large piece of debris in a failed attempt to hide.

The voice from the static laughs, pained but wild. The automaton backs a pace then turns with that grace it shouldn't have and takes two more steps to the edge of the road, abruptly dropping to a crouch and making soft bird sounds to itself or something no-one else can see, one brass hand flat against the dirt.

Father O'Rourke gives it a puzzled frown and goes after Jake, a little warily since he hasn't forgotten the man threatening to shoot him point blank. "Come, man," he says softly, crouching and offering a shoulder the way he had to so many during the war. "She'll not hurt you. Perhaps for the others 'tis best to leave well enough alone, hm? Let God shelter and protect you." The priest's tone is gentle, as is his grip on the crowbar in his other hand.

Evans backed away from the conflict. He wasn't very god at comforting folk. Selling to them, yes. But not offering words of wisdom that didn't end with some sort of sales pitch. So instead, he turned and began looking in the direction Alouette had glanced at when something had caught its attention. "What did you mean, black lightning strikes and once wolves?" he asked the automaton as he peered into the darkness. He hefted his gyrostabilized pistol and pulled out his Etheric Disturbance Indicator. The device began to humm and spark as he took a reading...

((OOC: Activating Detect Arcana.

00:43, Today: The Amazing Evans rolled 2,10 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 2,(6+4)10. Mad Science!))

"We're all going to die here Father in this little nothing backwater town. All cause of the clank and the rest of the cursed spirits of this place." Jake said solemnly then an instant later his head whipped around like he'd just heard something. "Crows ... " he muttered softly as he narrowed his eyes trying to look into the dark.

[[ cue <a href=http://youtu.be/-3CPtTd1fqI>music</a>;]]

At first Evans' device is overwhelmed by the field generated by the clank, the needles pointing off the scale with each surge and crackle of static...then the hissing fades as the clank straightens, leaving Evans with a reading that's becoming depressingly familiar. A reanimate.

Two reanimates.

Three, four, five reanimates, fanned out, approaching faster than any man could run. The signal is unmistakeable, but scanning the horizon shows nothing until Evans moves the device back and forth to pinpoint the signals and catches sight of one lurching through the scrub at knee height, head carried low like a wolf's. They were cowdogs, once.

Powerful limbs carry the things forward in a hideously swift rush, the only sound from them the soft brush of paws and fur through sage and grasses, lost under the breeze. They'll be on Evans in seconds.



[[initiative, gentlemen, please.

William and Adrian, please note you're too far away to be immediately aware of this fight/involved without a round or so of sprinting, but please draw init. in case. Notice rolls will still be helpful.]]
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:35, Thu 05 Dec 2013.

"Of course." Evans sighs. "Naturally, the Hounds of Hell would attack right when half the team is either away or having nervous breakdowns. Why did I expect any different?"

((OOC: 19:12, Today: The Amazing Evans drew the single card: 4S using the Deadlands system.))

"... we're all going to die out here ..."

OOC:
08:55, Today: Jake Lawrence drew the single card: JD using a deck of 54 cards. Initiative .

21:45, Today: William Pierce drew the single card: AS using the Deadlands system. Initiative.

How far away are we? Medium range?



William half-turns.
"What's going on back there?"

That Lawrence guy with the shifty eyes seems to be throwing some kind of fit; William can make out the priest knelt or bent low to him, presumably to help. Alouette and Evans seem fascinated by the far side of the road, which Evans seems to be scanning with one of his esoteric...no, Evans is backing a step now, attention mostly on whatever the clank's looking at among the wind-ruffled scrub. Cloud shadows race over the scene; it's likely it will soon start raining.


[[I was going to handwave it as 'about two running rolls', so sure, upper end of Medium. Even Pierce isn't going to spot darkish-mottled dogs on a darkish-mottled background without knowing what he's looking for, though.

You going to roll me a Notice check for prodding the dead horse/watching Adrian's back?]]

08:34, Today: William Pierce rolled 8,6 using d6+4,d6+4, rerolling max with rolls of 4,2. Notice (Cats Eyes, Alertness).

Despite the distraction and hanging back from the mess itself, a detail that's been nagging at William for a while finally demands his attention.


An indistinct shape starts twitching and heaving behind Adrian as he pads past.

Adrian found himself over near what he had tried to inspect from afar, but was still close enough to hear William's question, or at least to make out that William was talking. "What's that?" he asked, turning back to Pierce, but still trying to keep his eyes on the mess of limbs that were on the ground.

OOC:
Initiative:  6H
Notice: 7

The notice is for him looking at the stuff he went to investigate to see if he can spot any patterns based upon his arcane knowledge.


15:30, Today: Adrian Vega drew the single card: 6H using the Deadlands system. INiti.
15:30, Today: Adrian Vega rolled 1,7 using d4,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 1,(6+1)7. Notice.

Adrian is at last close enough to see that the shambles is nothing to do with human action...there are no clean cuts, just tearing and crushed bone. It's like the animal was attacked by wolves - he'd seen wolf kills before, the same long spill as the canines went for the prey's belly - but mad wolves, wolves that just kept tearing and tearing and hardly seem to have eaten anything.

The dog, now, that was a different story...


Suddenly, a dark blot detaches itself from the shadows and comes flailing across the road surface towards Adrian with an insane rocking gait. As it flicks into the moonlight it becomes clear it's trailing bloody, matted mane behind it, dead eyes staring at nothing but teeth chomping with idiot malevolence. It's the horse head, rocking along on its jaw and upper spine in a rapid beeline for Adrian's feet.


[[ *facepalm* I pulled a card just to see if it acted before Adrian and pulled the BJ! ...you both saw movement, so I'm not going to throw it on y'all directly, but here, have more Exposition Pony. It moooooves! ]]

Initiative!

William Pierce AS
Alouette RJ!
Jake Lawrence JD
O'Rourke 9C
Adrian Vega 6H
Dead dogs 5D
Ambrosius Botticelli Evans 4S

Ah, getting all the bad rolls out of the dice roller. Sound tactic, William.

09:23, Today: William Pierce rolled -2,-2 using d10-4,d6-4, rerolling max with rolls of 2,2. Blue chip.
09:23, Today: William Pierce rolled 0,-3 using d10-4,d6-4, rerolling max with rolls of 4,1. White chip.
09:22, Today: William Pierce rolled 1,-3 using d10-4,d6-4, rerolling max with rolls of 5,1. Shooting the horse's head.

No hit and out of chips!

William can't remember if the gun was already in his hand. But regardless if it was already there, materialized there or if he pulled it from its holster without thinking - now the barrel of the gun points at the undead horse's head, but it lurches forward the second he pulls the trigger. Instead of tracing a tunnel through the things brain, the bullet buries itself in the ground, the chamber already loaded again with another ghostly bullet.

"Watch out, to your left!" He adds, as a warning to Adrian.

[[moot with those rolls, but with William's Cat's Eyes I'd say it'd be only -2 if you really want to shoot at the dead horse, since the head is a small target in itself rather than a small target on something.]]

The clank stands and watches the beasts about to run them down.

"Angel!" the priest calls. It looks at him.

O'Rourke swallows. "Please," he asks, looking into the brightness flared in its lenses.

The clank looks back at the dogs, straightening. Sparks shimmer between its brass fingers.


[[08:55, Today: Alouette rolled 6,7 using d8+2,d6+2, rerolling max with rolls of 4,5. call down the light-ning! Damage field activated.
init. 6H

Jake Lawrence, you're up!]]
This message was last edited by the GM at 09:07, Tue 10 Dec 2013.

Jake drew his gun and ATTEMPTED to shoot the horse head, but only managed to not hit his own foot by a matter of inches.

OOC:
10:04, Today: Jake Lawrence rolled 0,1 using 1d8-2,1d6-2, rerolling max with rolls of 2,3. Shootin' (-2 MAP).
YIKES!
10:05, Today: Jake Lawrence drew the single card: JD using a deck of 54 cards. Initiative .

[[ Er, Jake, you're back with Evans & co.

Your problems are the things that shredded that horse, and they're bearing down fast. They are -3 to shoot at, being Small things in Dim light.]]

OOC: Dang it! So I'm now confused ... why did Alouette just go all Tesla on us?

Going to hold my action till something useful comes to mind.

((OOC: Because Alouette and Evans spotted a bunch of zombie dogs heading for us from a flanking direction.))

OOC: Alright ... I miss something and we can move along

[[ Just letting you know in case it changed your action. The dogs are fast-lurching furry death rather than entertainingly animate exposition, after all.]]


O'Rourke straightens and steps forward a pace, holding the crowbar out and ready like he knows exactly how to use it.


[[O'Rourke moves up near Evans (in front of Jake) and goes on Hold, since Evans is about to be in a world of trouble and he doesn't have a ranged weapon on him.

init. AC]]

Adrian, go! I'll get to the hounds in a wee bit.

"Fuck!" It wasn't an elegant statement, but Adrian wasn't a particularly eloquent man. Raising up, as quick as he could, he took aim, drew and fired.

---

OOC:

Shootin': 11
Damage: 19 (if I got a raise) or 8 (without a raise)

The first roll didn't go so well, but I've used a White Chip to good advantage here:
18:44, Today: Adrian Vega rolled 11,1 using d6-4,d6-4, rerolling max with rolls of (6+6+3)15,5. White Chip.
18:48, Today: Adrian Vega rolled 8 using 2d6+1, rerolling max with rolls of 2,5. Damage.
18:52, Today: Adrian Vega rolled 11 using 1d6, rerolling max with rolls of (6+5)11. Raise?

This message was last edited by the player at 23:56, Tue 10 Dec 2013.

Adrian catches the thing at an angle that sends it smearing to a mostly-exploded stop a good two yards away. Staring at it, the intrepid investigators notice part of a bridle still tangled in its mane. That makes no sense at all, however, since it looks like the animal had its throat cut.

[[That's a raise all right, so you get the heavy damage and avoid getting a new BFF attached to your boot. Are you up to date with your Joker chips?

Going sleeps right now, dogs tommorrow.]]

The silent hounds pound over the road surface.

One at once leaps for the clank; the machine allows the beast's jaws to meet over its forearm and flings it aside like it weighed nothing. The hound lies twitching on its back a moment, muscles locked in spasm.

The priest swings, but the cowdogs seem to flow around his blows like saw-toothed, lurching shadows. One rips the side off his sleeve with a lunge and keeps going, heading for Jake. Another hits Evans in the chest under O'Rourke's arm, tearing into the Marshal's shoulder.

Staggering under the beast's momentum, Evans twists away only to find his vision filled with the jaws of another.

Jake, three steps behind the rest of the group, watches the dog that missed O'Rourke bear down upon him. As such, he almost misses the lithe pitbull-cross coming at him from the right; its teeth go through the flesh of his calf like a leather punch.



[[All the rolls!

08:44, Today: Alouette, on behalf of Father William O' Rourke, rolled 3,4 using d6,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 3,4.
08:44, Today: Alouette, on behalf of Zombie Dog, rolled 28 using 1d8, rerolling max with rolls of (8+8+8+4)28. Agility.

08:51, Today: Alouette, on behalf of Zombie Dog, rolled 6,14 using d8+2,d8+2, rerolling max with rolls of 4,(8+4)12. attack rolls, dice issues. (clank, Evans)

08:51, Today: Alouette, on behalf of Zombie Dog, rolled 9,4 using d8+2,d8+2, rerolling max with rolls of 7,2. attack! attack! (Evans, priest)
They miss the priest. Hit 'em, O'Rourke!

09:44, Today: Alouette, on behalf of Father William O'Rourke, rolled 6,1 using d4,d6, rerolling max with rolls of (4+2)6,1. fightin' (held action). Not with a -1 for their size in melee he doesn't. Onwards!

08:57, Today: Alouette, on behalf of Zombie Dog, rolled 2,5 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 2,5. damage! -> 7 damage to Alouette, no injury.
09:05, Today: Alouette rolled 10 using 2d6, rerolling max with rolls of (6+1)7,3. zap damage. 1 Dog is Shaken.

08:59, Today: Alouette, on behalf of Zombie Dog, rolled 5,5,1 using d8,d6,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 5,5,1. damage! -> 11 : 1 wound, shaken for Evans.
09:01, Today: Alouette, on behalf of Zombie Dog, rolled 15,5,2 using d8,d6,d6, rerolling max with rolls of (8+7)15,5,2. ditto. -> 22 damage...good grief...4 wounds, shaken, for Evans. Lucky we have some healers about.

08:52, Today: Alouette, on behalf of Zombie Dog, rolled 7 using 1d8+2, rerolling max with rolls of 5. dog after Jake.
09:02, Today: Alouette, on behalf of Zombie Dog, rolled 2,9 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 2,(6+3)9. dog after Jake. -> 11 damage: 1 wound, Shaken for Jake

Notice! You can hit these things in melee at -1, 'cause despite the darkness y'all know perfectly well where they are, they're just Small.

init. JH ]]

Evans, er...yeah, your go.

Evans yelps, and goes down under the doggy doom...

((OOC: Right. Time to break out the chips. First, White for the easy Soak:

19:30, Today: The Amazing Evans rolled 2,2 using d6,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 2,2. Soak!

ouch. OK, then...Attempt to soak the 4 wound attack

19:31, Today: The Amazing Evans rolled 0,2 using d6-1,d6-1, rerolling max with rolls of 1,3. Soak! Well, fuck you too, dice roller.

Incapacitation roll: 19:32, Today: The Amazing Evans rolled 0,1 using d6-3,d6-3, rerolling max with rolls of 3,4. Incapactiation. No. Now I'm spending chips.

19:33, Today: The Amazing Evans rolled 3 using 1d6, rerolling max with rolls of 3. Red chip.  That will leave him with a Injury that lowers his Vigor by a die type until all his wounds are healed.

No card for me.))

The heavyset bulldog-cross shakes Evans like a bundle of rags until he stops moving, then crouches to leap at the priest.

[[Initiative!

O'Rourke AC
Jake JD
Dogs JH
Alouette 6H


Adrian if you want to head back to the fight, draw init.
William if you want to try shooting at range/going back there, draw init.]]

11:36, Today: William Pierce drew the single card: 7D using the Deadlands system. Initiative.

OOC:

Initiative: JC

12:28, Today: Adrian Vega drew the single card: JC using the Deadlands system. Initiative.

This message was last edited by the player at 21:55, Sun 15 Dec 2013.

The priest's eyes widen, but he manages to duck the beast's lunge as it goes for his throat, shouldering it aside to kneel down to Evans. He mutters softly as he checks the scientist's breathing "The God of my rock; in him will I trust: he is my shield, and the horn of my salvation...my high tower, and my refuge, my saviour; thou...savest me from violence!" O'Rourke's voice rises in alarm as he spreads his palm against a fresh attack, shaken by instinctive fear of long white teeth.

The dog hits an invisible wall of force and falls back. O'Rourke takes a shaky breath and a moment to thank God before checking the damage inflicted on Evans.

"Vega! Pierce!" he calls as he loosens Evans' collar, hoping they can hear. "Walker dogs! - Help Bitter Waters!"


[[19:07, Today: Father William O'Rourke, rolled 3,2 using d10,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 3,2. mime aid (plus Conviction, minus enough to cover Evans). Aw, c'mon...
Father William O'Rourke, rolled 7 using 1d6+2, rerolling max with rolls of 5. red chippit. -> 10

init. 3C

Revised init:

Jake JD
Dogs JH
Adrian JC
William 7D
Alouette 6H


Jake up next! Remember you have 1 wound to soak if you so desire.]]

OOC: Of COURSE I'd like to soak that wound. Burning a white to attempt to soak
14:59, Today: Jake Lawrence rolled 8,3 using 1d6,1d6, rerolling max with rolls of (6+2)8,3. Soak.
Which that'll do :)

---

Jake yowled in pain but reacted as a trained soldier should ... by shooting the dog presently latched onto his calf.

"My name is Jake."

OOC:
15:04, Today: Jake Lawrence rolled 12,1 using 1d8,1d6, rerolling max with rolls of (8+4)12,1. Shootin'.
That hits with raise even in melee
15:04, Today: Jake Lawrence rolled 16,2 using 2d6+1,1d6, rerolling max with rolls of 5,(6+4)10,2. Damage (Pistol, Raise) AP1.
Not too shabby
15:06, Today: Jake Lawrence drew the single card: 8D using a deck of 54 cards. Initiative .
This message was last edited by the player at 20:09, Mon 16 Dec 2013.

Jake fires straight down into the thing's skull, spattering cold brains against his leg. It drops, just meat once more. The one coming at Jake from the front leaps, but only tears a chunk from the elbow of his shirt, barely grazing him.

The twitching dog staggers up and tries to come at the clank again with idiot determination, but just lurches a bit and falls on its side.

O'Rourke continues to administer the most basic aid to Evans, praying in a soft murmur as the dogs thud and scrabble uselessly at the holy shield. Then one circles round for a run-up, rushes and throws itself at O'Rourke's face; the priest flinches as though he did not believe the barrier was there.

That's all it takes: suddenly, the priest has to snatch up his crowbar again to strike at a lunging canine. For a fraction of a second, between smacking the mongrel bulldog hard into the earth and driving the bar in a straight punch into the other hound's ribcage, O'Rourke shuts his eyes and seems to pray forgiveness for his folly.

The dogs mill and circle, dead eyes shining like candles under the moonlight.




[[20:16, Today: Alouette, on behalf of Zombie Dog, rolled 6 using 1d6+2, rerolling max with rolls of 4. unshake doggit.
20:24, Today: Alouette, on behalf of Zombie Dog, rolled 2 using 1d8. *ahem*. No hit.

20:18, Today: Alouette, on behalf of Zombie Dog, rolled 5 using 1d8+2, rerolling max with rolls of 3. dog after Jake.
20:27, Today: Alouette, on behalf of Zombie Dog, rolled 3,2 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 3,2. damage Jake. Jake is not damaged.

20:27, Today: Alouette, on behalf of Zombie Dog, rolled 12 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 5,(6+1)7. damage barrier. Well, bugger.

20:41, Today: Alouette, on behalf of Zombie Dog, rolled 3 using 1d8+2, rerolling max with rolls of 1. attack! attack! Fortunately it misses O'Rourke, but so much for getting some space to heal Evans...

init. 4H

Adrian! ]]

Evans groans and stirs at the preacher's touch.

((OOC: That will get Evans from Incapacitated to moving but with 3 wounds. Do you want me to draw a card for Evans for the current turn, or does he not get an action this turn?))

[[Sorry mate, wasn't doing anything so sensible (fighter brain tends to take over in combats). I'll spend the chip I got from Evans' red on actually making him better next Alouette or O'Rouke gets the chance.]]

OOC:
How far is Adrian from the action? IE, will it be possible to get in range to take a shot this round, or would he mainly be spending the turn getting in range?

[[You might be able to get in range if you ran, but it'd incur a MAP to shoot the same round, cancelling out the advantage. These things are Small in Dim light as well, so ranged attacks are at -3 to start with (unless you're William, who ignores the dim penalty)

I'd recommend just running, I think, but you could always try to distract/Trick the things into running your way/towards William's crazy firepower or something.]]

He couldn't quite make out what was going on, but there was some commotion back where Evans and the others were, and this being Blackthorn and all, the chance that it was anything not bad was slim to none, so he began to high tail it back to where they were, hoping to lend a hand.

---

OOC:
That's what I'll do then. Just gonna move back to within range of the trouble.

Initiative for next round: RJ!

23:38, Today: Adrian Vega drew the single card: RJ! using the Deadlands system.

This message was last edited by the player at 05:38, Wed 18 Dec 2013.

[[18:50, Today: Alouette, on behalf of Adrian Vega, rolled 2 using 1d6, rerolling max with rolls of 2. running!

Yep, he'll be at decent range next turn, even with that.

Ahoy, William Pierce! ]]

William swears under his breath and runs back, squeezing off a shot that goes wild.

22:14, Today: William Pierce rolled 3 using 1d6, rerolling max with rolls of 3. running.
Not sure how far I'm away, but I guess I'm still at medium range... sooo...

22:15, Today: William Pierce rolled 2,1 using d10-2,d6-2, rerolling max with rolls of 4,3. Shooting.

22:16, Today: William Pierce drew the single card: RJ! using the Deadlands system. Initiative.

Ignoring the dog that just jumped at it, the clank turns and slams a hand down on the skull of one of the ones attacking O'Rourke and Evans. The stench of singed fur rises as bone cracks, blackening under the angel's touch.

When the automaton casts it away, the dog does not rise.


[[Aye. They're also Small (-1) and running and firing makes for a MAP (-2), so unless you have Edges I've missed it'd take a minor miracle to hit a nasty rather than, say, Jake, or a clergyman. But hey, you got a Joker!

Anyway.


22:09, Today: Alouette rolled 1,1 using d4,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 1,1. fightin'. C'mon, birdie, you can do better than that.

22:12, Today: Alouette rolled 1, 5 using d4,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 1,5. white chippit. Hmm...
22:14, Today: Alouette rolled 5 using 1d6, rerolling max with rolls of 5. blue for drama. -> 10 Hit, raise.

22:29, Today: Alouette rolled 22 using 4d6, rerolling max with rolls of (6+6+3)15,2,2,3. strength, raise, zap damage. Wow.

Down 1 doggie, 3 to go.

Next Round!

William RJ!
Adrian RJ!
Jake 8D
Dogs 4H
O'Rourke 3C
Alouette 2D
Evans x_x (sorry Evans) ]]

William slows down as he comes closer and pulls the second pistol from his belt.
His eyes dart back and forth, until he settles on his targets.

The grey gun in his right hand screams as he pulls the trigger, the bullet tracing its way to the wolf attacking Jake... a split-second later, the gun in his left coughs once, hitting the wolf attacking Alouette throwing it down to the ground.

Ok... Quickdraw edge allows me to pull the second pistol "for free".
Not a two-gun-kid, but the Joker gives me +2, canceling out the MAP. Trying to fire them both.

Right hand: -1 for size, shooting at Jake's wolf.
12:50, Today: William Pierce rolled 5,2 using d10-1,d6-1, rerolling max with rolls of 6,3. Shooting Ghost Gun.
That's a hit!

12:50, Today: William Pierce rolled 7 using 3d6+3, rerolling max with rolls of 1,2,1. Ghost Gun Damage + Joker.

Wait, what? Oh, nonono.

12:51, Today: William Pierce rolled 11 using 3d6+3, rerolling max with rolls of 1,4,3. White chip, No Mercy.
Sucky, but not quite as sucky.

Left Hand:
12:52, Today: William Pierce rolled 6,5 using d10-3,d6-3, rerolling max with rolls of 9,(6+2)8. Left Hand shooting.
Another hit, this one goes to Alouette's beast.

12:53, Today: William Pierce rolled 6 using 2d6+3, rerolling max with rolls of 2,1. Peacemaker damage + Joker.
Oh, come on, you gotta be kidding me!
12:53, Today: William Pierce rolled 14 using 2d6+3, rerolling max with rolls of (6+4)10,1. Blue chip for No Mercy.

12:54, Today: William Pierce drew the single card: AS using the Deadlands system. Initiative.


...and I just realized I forgot to doubletap. Oh, well.

The dog preparing to sink its teeth into the back of Jake's neck gets blasted sideways out of the air, most of its neck and proximal cranium gone.

The one hit with the normal gun drops and is rolled over by the force of impact, but scrambles up again, paws scrabbling.


[[Sorry, I have been much-distracted.
Zombie Dog, rolled 2 using 1d8, rerolling max with rolls of 2. Dog soak?
Zombie Dog, rolled 5 using 1d8, rerolling max with rolls of 5. other doggit. Well, I made y'all run back here, might as well give you somethin' to fight.]]

A little closer now, Adrian tried his best to stay focused on the targets. He brought that strange gun up to bear on one of them, but he didn't have to pull the trigger this time. A strange sensation seemed to pass through his body the way it always did when he held up a weapon and reached out with his mind into that ethereal world to deal with the devil. It only took a fraction of a second, but it felt like an eternity in his mind, where it seemed that he heard cards shuffling and dice rolling. They flashed before his eyes and he took hold of that power, fusing into his gun, and unleashed it from the barrel of that gun.

---

OOC:
- I'm Dealin' with the Devil for 3 PP as indicated below in my roll. Because of 4 Grit + Hhigh Roller, I get to draw 10 cards to make my hand. My draw was a Flush: Hearts, as bolded in my dice roll below (2H, 3H, 7H, 8H, 10H). I'd otherwise get a raise to the spell with a Flush, but I don't think Bolt has a raise effect sadly.
- I'm going to use those 3 PP to cast three Bolts at 2d6 each (2d6+2 because of the Joker). I roll Spellcasting to hit for the attack thrice, but only get the wild die once, again with the +2 for the Joker (after Dim Light and Size, that would be a -1 instead of a -3).
- As noted below, on my attack rolls, I got a 5, a 4 and a 4 on my hit dice. Assuming I've calculated the penalties correctly, that should be three hits.
- Damage: 10, 6, 5

18:20, Today: Adrian Vega drew the 10 cards: 8H, KD, 9D, 10H, 7H, 3H, 2S, 10S, 2H, 5S using the Deadlands system. Dealin' with the Devil (3).
18:33, Today: Adrian Vega rolled 5,3,4,4 using d8-1,d6-1,d8-1,d8-1. Heads up! Here's another one. And another one.
18:35, Today: Adrian Vega rolled 10,6,5 using 2d6+2,2d6+2,2d6+2. Boom! Boom! Boom!

[[You'd do an extra d6 damage on those for the raise, I think - considering any of our Mad Scientists' damage is dependent on the activation not the hit rolls, I think that's fair.

Were you aiming at Alouette's doggit or O'Rourke's?]]

OOC:
In concert with my previous post, that would bring the damage totals to:
13, 10, 6

Also, we'll go ahead and send them to the dog attacking O'Rourke. Deputy Vega has seen Alouette kick some ass, so he figures the clank can handle itself for a bit and may be more effective if not worrying about other people. Or maybe just that the dog will distract the clank from his witchery.

04:13, Today: Adrian Vega rolled 3,4,1 using d6,d6,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 3,4,1. Raise Damage.

Also, next round initiative: 4H
This message was last edited by the player at 11:52, Thu 26 Dec 2013.

[[yep, that'll get one. song for Adrian! *dance dance* ]]

The mostly-bulldog mongrel goes from long-toothed hellhound to broken meat pinata mid-lunge. The priest kicks it away in horror before realising it's truly down, but the thing does not get up again.


[[Jake! You're up - one doggit weaving about by Alouette left!]]

Jake remained quiet, his eyes scanned the dim light and his eyes strained to hear anything. Crow kowws seemed to echo through out the area but he had seen the dog ... that not so living dog. The hexslinger's service dragoon rang out like thunder in the night.

OOC: 11:28, Today: Jake Lawrence rolled 3,5 using 1d8,1d6, rerolling max with rolls of 3,5. Shootin'.
11:28, Today: Jake Lawrence rolled 11 using 2d6+1, rerolling max with rolls of 3,(6+1)7. Damage (Pistol) AP1.
11:29, Today: Jake Lawrence drew the single card: 9H using a deck of 54 cards. Initiative .

[[These things are -3 to hit at range (-1 Small, -2 Dim light), so that's a Miss. Moving on...]]

The remaining undead dog ignores the fact that Jake is shooting at it and lunges at the clank's leg, momentarily buckling it and pulling it off-balance.

A brief flash arcs between wet teeth and metal and the dog looses its hold, spasming again, snapping with mindless, idiot hate at the dirt.


[[Rolls! First, is it that stupid?

Zombie Dog got the result "Yes - definitely" on the magic 8-ball.
Right then. Zombie Dog rolled 7 using 1d8+2. attack! attack! Hit.
Zombie Dog, rolled 5,3 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 5,3 -> 8 damage: Shaken for Alouette.
20:57, Today: Alouette rolled 8 using 2d6, rerolling max with rolls of 4,4. zap damage. Shaken for doggit.]]


O'Rourke finally gets space to give Evans the most basic first aid and sets to it with a will.


[[Father William O'Rourke rolled 6,3 using d6+2,d6+2, rerolling max with rolls of 4,1. doing something about that incap. There we go.]]


The clank tilts its head at the reeking, burnt and ravaged corpse jacknifing on the ground before it. Then it steps forward with a grace so exquisite its brazen form might have been sliced from the air about it with a razor, and lands one spark-scrawled foot squarely on the canid's head.

There is a crunch, and then a silence.


[[Alouette drops a white to unshake and touches Derpy Dog there for field damage. (+2 touch, -1 size, melee)
21:08, Today: Alouette rolled 3,12 using d4+1,d6+1, rerolling max with rolls of 2,(6+5)11. touch of death! Hit, raise.
21:08, Today: Alouette rolled 20 using 3d6, rerolling max with rolls of 5,(6+5)11,4. zap damage. Yeah, it's dead. Again. Whoo!

Combat over!]]

Pierce prods one of the dead again dogs with his foot while reloading his mundane gun.
Nothing in this town stays dead.

"How's the Marshall?"

"Pretty badly mauled. I'm working on it, but right now I don't have anything beyond faith, and hope the Lord will hear me," he stops there to resume a quiet litany, but William's eyes and nose can pick out the sweat on the priest's brow and the scent of fear mixed in with that of charred dog and Evans' blood. These things have shaken him.


[[lessee...Holy healing -2, Conviction +2, Healer +2, Wounds -3...

Father William O'Rourke rolled 2,2 using d10-1,d6-1, rerolling max with rolls of 3,3.
Father William O'Rourke rolled 2,2 using d10-1,d6-1, rerolling max with rolls of 3,3. white chippit.

Father William O'Rourke rolled 2 using 1d6, rerolling max with rolls of 2. red chippit. -> 4, which heals 1 wound and just barely averts a Crisis of Faith. I'll let the clank have a go in the evening.]]

O'Rourke glances at the returned gunmen, still pressing his palm to the torn vein in Evans' shoulder. "Did you get whatever was up ahead? I heard shots..."


The clank turns its head towards Adrian, but says nothing, merely letting the thread-lightning run off it like water and disappear into bluegreen after-images of light.

14:57, Today: William Pierce rolled 7,6 using d6+4,d6+4, rerolling max with rolls of 3,2. Notice (Cats Eyes, Alertness).

"Reckon we stumbled across their previous prey and put it out of its misery."

Evans hisses at the ministrations, then reaches into his coat and pulls forth a bottle of lineament, which he uncorks and begins rubbing on his wounds. The wound begins to sizzle, and Evans winces. "Dammit!" He grunts while a whitish foam settling into the wound and a heavy alcohol smell rises into the night. The foam seems to be sealing the wound nicely, hardening into a makeshift bandage.

((OOC: Mad Science to the rescue! Evans uses his All-Natural Snake Oil on himself. He has a -2 penalty from his wounds and a -2 penalty from being injured (which is why doctors have a hard time healing themselves).

08:47, Today: The Amazing Evans rolled -2,-2 using d8-4,d6-4, rerolling max with rolls of 2,2. Healing. Fail, so spending a white chip.

08:47, Today: The Amazing Evans rolled 0,1 using d8-4,d6-4, rerolling max with rolls of 4,5. white chip. Fail, but within Red chip range.

08:47, Today: The Amazing Evans rolled 2 using 1d6, rerolling max with rolls of 2. red chip. Total of 3, so need another chip

08:47, Today: The Amazing Evans rolled 3 using 1d6, rerolling max with rolls of 3. another red chip. Total of 6, which means if I get 2 or better on antoher chip, I'm healed up. So doing so.

08:48, Today: The Amazing Evans rolled 10 using 1d6, rerolling max with rolls of (6+4)10. another red chip. 16 total, and where were you when I need you before, Raise? That means Evans is healed up completely.))

"Easy, there, you've lost a fair amount of blood," the priest cautions Evans, helping him sit up and angle himself as the mixture dries.

"One of the ranch hands?" O'Rourke asks William, sounding unsure as to whether that would be such a terrible thing.

The clank stands there looking up at the sky, the soft sigh of static dying down to a murmur, lost under the wind.

"I'm not surprised. This week I've been shot, three times, bitten by vampires, pummeled by an angry mob, beat half to death by Frankenstein's monster, tied up in barb wire, nearly exploded to death, twice, and now mauled by undead dogs. I should think I might have lost some blood over all that." Evans snaps. "I'm beginning to think Underhill had the right idea. We're not even at the goddamned ranch yet!" He seems to be getting a bit hysterical.

"Self has a hickory stick!" Alouette tells Adrian and/or the surrounding area, showing them the same.

The priest looks at Evans a few moments, but says nothing, looking up and over at the dark. "Bitt- Jake, are you doing well yourself?"

William shakes his head and turns one of the dog around with his boot.
"No. A dead horse, wanted a bite out of Vega. Reckoned the dogs got to the horse... but looking at these claws, maybe something else got the horse and the dogs. And I wonder about the rider."

He scans the area with his eerily glowing eyes.
"We should get back to moving. And stick together from now on."

Jake remained quiet, letting the others talk, as his hands went about swapping out used shells for fresh ones from his gun belt. He let the empty shells fall to the ground.

The priest's words broke his reverie but he simply nodded towards the man rather than saying anything ... perhaps he didn't trust himself to say something that wasn't easily viewed as crazy.

The priest frowns. "A horse? That's...worrying. The dogs could have eaten cattle touched by the Serpent, but I can't think of a reason for horses to start walking."

"Witchcraft," Alouette suggests, pattering up from checking over the surrounding area and informing William: "Self could not locate sticky."

It ticks a bit. Meanwhile, the priest squints at the nearest dog, but the moonlight isn't really enough to make out its injuries. "Claws? Like a lion's?"

"Or tiger's," the clank chips helpfully.

In keeping with his laconic nature, Adrian hadn't had much to add to the conversation that somebody else hadn't already said. At Evans' outburst, he did clap the man on the shoulder, and tried to offer a word of encouragement.

"Cheer up, Marshal. Could be worse. At least you're still alive."

Evans looks at the friendly gesture, opens his mouth (possibly to make a sharp remark), then thinks better of it and nods.  He picks up his Aetheric Waveform Detection Device and begins fiddling with dials and adjustments. "Hmm." he says, taking readings from the dogs and then the horse corpse. "Perhaps I can narrow down the possibilities."

((OOC: Gonna break out my Detect Arcane power and see what sorts of readings I can get. I'm specifically looking for hints as to whether this was a spontaneous raising caused by the ambient aetheric entities (aka Shamantic magic) or something external and more forceful (aka Black Magic). Fine distinctions like that are part of the trapping this power.

21:43, Today: The Amazing Evans rolled 6,4 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 6,4. Weird Science!))

The gang mosey on up to the dead horse for Evans to deliberate upon. The clouds are becoming denser now, swirling in great whorls around the sky, dragging their peculiar skull shapes into a long and ragged scarf of mutely screaming souls like an inverted Styx above them.

Adrian shows them the mess that was the horse's head, and Evans kneels here as he had with the dogs, watched by the others. There's still no reaction from the ranch, despite all the gunfire.

The first audible {{CRACKBOOM}} of thunder rolls in from the sea.
This message was last edited by the GM at 10:28, Fri 03 Jan 2014.

Adrian, well-mannered but on occasion uncouth, turned and spat to the side, and looked up at the sky. "I reckon' there's a storm fixin' to hit us. Whenever you done narrowed down the possibilities far enough, Marshal, I think we best get on with whatever we're about and head onto the ranch. And I second Pierce's suggestion that we stick together. Things are dicey enough as it is without us splittin' ourselves up."

Jake watched the storm coming, to his eyes it looked like massive murder of crows all cawing at once as they flew across the sky. For his part the hexslinger didn't seem to mind it, the crows would have him soon enough he was quite sure of it. A simple nod was all he felt was needed to agree with Adrian and Pierce on the idea to not split up.

"Do you possess sticky minus grenade, Deputy Vega?" the clank asks, since it failed to locate anything to stick the posse together with itself.

"!" It straightens suddenly, then shuffles up to Adrian. "Soloution: interlinking selves and walking, like ladies-" it nabs Adrian's arm like an eager metal dance partner, then leans over and drags William in.

"-selves sticking, also with hands to hold objects!" it chirps. It doesn't seem to have considered how they'll locomote like that.

As he was contemplating exactly what a sticky minus grenade might be, he was grabbed by the clank into what ended up as more of a shuffle to maintain his footing rather than a dance or any kinda lady-walk.

"I don't think that's gonna work out very well, Alouette," he offered, when he finally managed to regain his balance and breath, trying delicately to extricate his arm from the automaton's grip.

"It's hard to walk and hold a gun like that. Or a sticky whats-it."

"Logic error, Deputy Vega," the clank protests as Adrian carefully removes himself. "-If y'all held guns and held the hands that were spare, only two people could stick together, and they would go round unless one went backwards: minus efficient for walking forwards."

It ticks a bit. "Self could ask My Man Abraham for sticky - he has the kitchen arranged as he likes it because he is a Creature Of Habit and some of the things in the kitchen are Fruit Preserves, which are plus sticky and go different colours if you done pour forgetting on them-"

The priest clears his throat. "I think perhaps Pierce meant we should stay within a few paces of each other, Alouette...perhaps if you let him go he'd be, er, more efficient at helping keep us mortals safe."

Pierce nods.
"Yes. That's what I meant."
Then he adds to Evans: "How far is it? Are we going to make it before the storm breaks?"

"Storm's already arrived, it would seem." Evans mutters as he gauges his readings. "I'm getting wild readings from all over the place. The aetheric signature is the one I've connected with our vampire infestation. Vampires had contact with the dogs, the horse, the trails around us...everywhere. I think Vanderholt came here. The readings aren't old at all...the decay rate is somewhere within the last three hours, which means the vampire trails only started after the bulk of the Dust Adders had reached town. Right around the time Mr. Milburn and that Seven of Spades character left for here. William, you came to town with Spades...did you recognize that as his horse?"

The priest looks dubiously at what little there is left of the horse to recognise, faintly aghast. "You mean the horse was a vampire?"

"What?" Evans says, blinking. "No, not that. Walker, perhaps, but not vampire. The readings from it aren't THAT strong...just strong enough to indicate contact, like it's reading you having come into contact with vampires recently. We all know how that turned out." He shakes his head. "But with this much vampire activity around here, perhaps someone was attacked while on the horse. Someone certainly used some sort of aetheric disturbance on the poor beast, the sort of disturbance I'm sure Alouette would label 'witchcraft.'"

"I don't particularly remember Spades' horse."
He scratches his beard.
"So Marina got hungry, hm? Reckon we might have to face more than one vampire then. Potentially all of the ranch hands now."

He looks around on the floor. "Guess we'll need a few more stakes."

Evans looks back over at the ruins of his cart. "We have all the wood we'll need, but between the explosion and the gunfire, it's likely that they've heard us coming. It can't be more than a quarter mile from here to the ranch...we could see it if they had any lights on. Let's cut a few stakes and get moving." So saying, he returns to the smashed wheel he pulled Alouette's new hickory stick from and begins pulling a few spokes free.

Adrian joined them in the stake collecting effort, gleefully prying free a handful of pieces of wood, chopping as need be with the scythe that tipped his gun. After some thought, he carefully jammed the scythe on the tip of one of his guns into one of the broader piece of wood, but one light enough that it wouldn't significantly affect the balance of the weapon. He tucked a few into an empty holster, and clutched another in his free hand.

"We know how many vamps we're dealin' with?" He didn't know a damn thing about this sort they were dealing with here, or who the hell Marina was, besides the little he had been able to glean from the various conversations that had taken place in his presence. But he'd read some about their sort before - enough to make him a little dangerous to them.

Pierce breaks a few spokes from another wheel, then sharpens them with a knife into stakes.
"Who knows how many?" he asks, wistfully, as he pricks his finger on a sharpened point.
"Depends how many Marina got... and how many came back already. Also if those who did come back were able to spawn a few more."

He shrugs. "I reckon, all of them. Give or take."

The priest was about to respond to Evans' comment on the vampire he'd temporarily sheltered when the Marshal decided to trek back down the road to the wagon for more stakes. He sighs and tries not to scratch at the slim scabbed spear-kerf scoring his left arm, hooking the carriage-lantern he'd lifted from the wagon over the end of his crowbar in case of need.

Alouette stays with him, since this mortal is technically nearer vampires, though it spends a moment or so doing its weird stockstill stare-at-the-sky thing.

"God says it was right to try," it informs O'Rourke. "-and that you need a hug."

"Wha-" *ouf* O'Rourke considers untangling himself, but then just goes with it and shares a sincere hug with the metal angel. "Thank you, Alouette."

The clank lets go (it is thundering, after all). "Can hugs pass on?" it asks. "Bitter Waters said Don't you EVER touch me again!, but he feels of thin and sadness also."

A few large, unseasonally cold drops of rain crater the dust around the stake-gatherers.

Pierce smiles at the unusual couple of the priest and the clank. A sight almost as unusual.
"Don't want to scare you, though. Far as I could tell, the horse was already dead...ish, when it was torn apart. No blood on those wounds."

Vega chimed in after Pierce started talking about the horse. "And it was clearly runnin' away from the ranch. I'm pretty damn sure the dogs got it," he said.

Why was it running away, though? Or from what? Pierce wonders, but keeps this thought to himself.

In reply to Father William O'Rourke (msg # 148):

Jake rolled his eyes at the clank's words, "You'd feel sadness too if you didn't think you would survive what's coming."

"Oh, you'll survive, Bitter Waters. But sometimes surviving's worse'n the other," he said.

Jake glanced at Vega, "No ... I don't see myself surviving this, the serpent or the crows will have me. I'm not even me anymore, the lot of you keep calling me the name that crazy shaman gave me."

"Regardless we should get moving, too much going on for us not to be sorting it out."

Pierce shrugs.
"Most things in this town don't seem to stay dead for long. So who knows... you may have a long life ahead of you yet."
He grins, revealing his somewhat longer canines.

"And you keep complaining about your name, but never introduced yourself. At least not to me. If you'd prefer me to call you by a different name, you should let me know."

"Jake Lawrence," was all he said.

William nods.

"Pleasure having you on our side, Jake. You alright with me calling you Jake? Not sure if I managed to make the proper introductions myself... Name's William Pierce."

"Self does not know, Bitter Waters: self is not mortal," Alouette points out as the differently alive members of the posse drift back again.

"The Snake will not eat your soul," it reassures him. "Although if you don't done repent your crow friends will probably tear you into very little pieces and then the Devil will sweep all the bits into a bag and use you for grit to help grind up other souls and you'd be all lumpy and squashed and lonely forever which would be sad. Alternate possibility: getting stuck in the ghost rock and burning up like the chickens." It ticks a bit. "You shouldn't do that."

The priest just shakes his head and lights up the lantern, shielding the small flame with his body until there's a tiny tongue of light safely encased in its fragile cage whilst the wide world darkens around them.

"Archangel Sky Coyote did not give you a name, Bitter Waters...he just said your soul like words, so now all the clever mortals know that's how to say it: you are plus self, because Heaven wants to see you come home and see the people self is not supposed to talk about again and be minus hurt."

"You are looked out for," O'Rourke says simply, and the statement has the unassuming ring of truth to it.

"Is your name Names William Pierce now?" the clank asks Pierce, apparently yet to get the hang of ordinary introductions.


[[I'll just give Evans/JohnJohn 'til tommorrow to throw in if they want to before moving y'all to the ranch.]]

"Yes, Alouette. I've been called other things, but that is my name."

Murderer. Killer. Judas. No, it wouldn't do to confuse the clank.

"Okay, Names William Pierce!" Alouette chirps as the gang head on for the ranch house.

The priest leans in a moment to speak quietly to Jake.

Evans, engrossed in sharpening a number of stakes, ignores most of the conversation around him. Once he's finished, he looks out towards the ranch, dark and nearly invisible in the gloom. He frowns, and sighs.

In reply to Alouette (msg # 160):

[[Some musical accompaniment]]

The little knot of men follow the priest's light down an increasingly dark path as it starts to rain. It's a cold and apathetic pour, pluviating upon the just and unjust alike and pashing the soft soil to a sticky mud.

The coyote skulls nailed trophied to the arch marking the steading proper give the travellers dead half-grins, dripping. Pierce's finely-honed sense of danger starts to itch as soon as they're within fifty yards of the place, but nothing stirs, nothing moves until some small black bat or bird whirs off a corral post into the roping rain, its wings a brief flicker through the priest's lantern light, then gone.

A door is banging somewhere. The wind blows rain into the posse's faces, licking cold down coat collars and raised cuffs. As they edge past the corral, a stray gust slams Pierce's senses with the reek of horse blood: horse blood acid with horse terror, horse blood trampled with horse shit and horse sweat, enough to bathe in the stuff if one were so minded. Enough to swim in it. Yet no horses.

The wind switches direction like a backhand blow and continues to howl around the ranch. The door bangs its irritatingly eccentric rhythm, off in the dark.

The priest turns, about to speak, when the first figure becomes visible, stumbling out of the rain.
"Father!"

The man lurches hastily closer, hatless and propping himself on the bunkhouse wall as though wounded, looking around like a hunted beast. "Father, it's Hell out here, there's some sorta-" he catches sight of the readied weapons. "Aw, shit, don't shoot me!" He stops, straightening. It's Alistair Milburn, swaying a little and apparently unarmed.

"Howdy, Soggy Man!" chirps the clank.

"That's far enough. You can tell us what's happened from there."

Milburn glares, but puts his hands up and steps back/aside until he's under the eaves of the bunkhouse. He smooths water out of his moustache, being sure to telegraph the movement. "I don't like stayin' out here," he states, eyes flicking from the gunmen to the surrounding buildings. "There's some kinda...disease, I guess, maybe rabies...the hands got it, started killin' everything - tried shooting them, put them out of their misery an' all but they're that crazy they don't even feel it - then we did a run for the survivors, us in the house."

He swallows. "About then we realised Whateley'd been missin' awhile. He musta got in the same way he got out, brought others...it gets real hazy for me here, on account of this throbbin' head wound." Milburn indicates part of his skull, though being out of direct light the injured area just looks slightly more viscously matted than the rest of his hair.

"I remember a helluva lot of running an' hollerin', the dogs going nuts, one o' the women tryin' to hide herself in the laundry chute...Glenn roaring and I guess it must've been Dave still shootin' at 'em, trying to hold them off...I never saw what got me, Whateley maybe, but next I woke in the carriage house, dizzy an' sick as hell. Guess they figured they'd killed me." He touches the head wound gingerly and shows them a blood-streaked palm, dark smears over pale flesh in the gloom.

"I'm not for sure they ain't. My concentration's...it gets bad when you're dyin', right? I can about remember my own name, but I don't remember what my mama sounds like, or where the ammo is, or if I like pears, or..." he swallows on the terror and clears his throat, going on: "I don't know where the others are. I know there's something bad in the main barn, but I don't remember...figure the infected are still in the house, but there's some kind of mystic science stuff makes it hard to go near it. There's one of 'em out here, though - van Owen's gone completely crazy!"

There's a distant "I'm not van Owen, you colonial tosser!" from somewhere far off in the rain.

Seems Not Van Owen has remarkably good hearing.
This message was last edited by the GM at 10:40, Sat 11 Jan 2014.

Adrian's stomach was rumbling, though he tried to quiet it. Sure could use a good steak right about now. They have cattle at the ranch, right? A good, rare...No...can't eat those cattle. To quiet the stomach rumbling, he found a spell o' words.

"Pull yourself together, Cap'n Mustache. We're the law in Blackthorn, and we intend to have this mess sorted out shortly. Maybe if you hadn't backed Bruebaker's play that one time...eh, that's neither here nor there. Now...who's the fella that ain't van Owen?"

Evans fiddles with his Aetheric detection device as he listens to Milburn's tale.

((OOC: 11:28, Today: The Amazing Evans rolled 6,9 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 6,(6+3)9. Weird Science.))

Evans has to squint a bit and clean the dials of raindrops with his sleeve a couple of times to get a reading: the device starts ticking with the strain despite the Marshal's recalibration.

Tick...ticktickticktickticktick...

"Can it, Senator Sideburns," Milburn snarls. "You don't know what it's like, walkin' around not knowin' whether some pissant little scrap is workin' its way into your brain - walkin' around mebbe dead already and not knowing it." He spits.

"So what're you lawmen gonna do? Arrest them?"

"Self has a hickory stick!"

Milburn stares at the clank, entirely failing to process this interruption. "Great," he says eventually, then looks at Adrian. "Some other nasty English son of a bitch that can cut the ranch dogs either-handed like they was so much smoke. If y'all don't mind, I am going to go inside where he has slightly less chance to dismebmer me like he was threatenin' to do to all Adam and his Ox earlier." He nods at the bunkhouse and carefully makes a start down the wall, still leaning on it.

Pierce cocks his head ever so slightly and gives "Mustache" a hard look.


20:37, Today: William Pierce rolled 8,6 using d6+4,d6+4, rerolling max with rolls of 4,2. Notice (Cats Eyes, Alertness).
Alive or not?

Milburn gives him a hard look back. "What?"

"You're hungry, aren't you?"
Pierce turns toward Milburn.
"I do mind you going inside. Jake", he calls out to Lawrence, "Keep an eye on our backs, will you?"

Milburn pauses like he hadn't considered that, confused.  "The fuck does that have to do with anything? Sorry, preacher."

"Gots to do with fucking everything."
William draws his Ghost Gun, the faces distorted with gleeful hate...

((Agility? Initiative?))
This message was last edited by the player at 20:33, Sat 11 Jan 2014.

"Those are Bad Words, Names William Pierce," Alouette tells the gunslinger, crossing its arms like an annoyed Roland.

[[sure, Agility. Also, give me a Notice -2]]

"You are more right than you know..." Evans mutters at Milburn's "walking around dead and not knowing it" comment.

He looks up at William, who seems to have caught the same information that his device was feeding him.

This whole place was saturated with power, and Milburn was already infected.

"I'm afraid, Mr. Milburn, that that this situation has gone beyond arrest and detention. No, we've moved into containment and destruction. Mr. Pierce!" He says, catching William's eye and nodding faintly. "Do what you must."

23:07, Today: William Pierce rolled 9,5 using d6+2,d6+2, rerolling max with rolls of (6+1)7,3. Notice -2... still leaves me with +2.

23:08, Today: William Pierce rolled 4,4 using d10,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 4,4. Agilit

[[ Alistair Milburn, rolled 4,7 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 4,(6+1)7. Agility]]

"The Hell?!" Milburn's eyes widen at the pistol being drawn, reading intent to kill on William's face. "Oh, shit! You're one of them!"

He turns and starts to run for the corner, much faster now fear has made him forget his injuries. William lines up a shot, but something distracts him at the corner of his eye, some misplaced natural movement that makes his hindbrain scream Danger!



[[22:16, Alistair Milburn rolled 4 using 1d6 Run, Cap'n! He'll reach the corner next turn.
Alistair Milburn drew the single card: 10C using the Deadlands system. init.

What is it with you guys and shooting the exposition? Anyway, now draw init.

EVERYONE ELSE! Make me a Notice roll at -4.
- if you succeed, draw init.
- if you fail...well, you might not die, but sit on those chips in case you get in the way.]]

09:04, Today: William Pierce drew the single card: 9C using the Deadlands system. Initiative.
09:04, Today: William Pierce drew the single card: 4D using the Deadlands system. Initiative

William has the Quick edge! Not quick enough, though.

Jake was too busy looking behind the group to do anything quickly about the danger from the front.

OOC: 09:20, Today: Jake Lawrence rolled -2,-1 using 1d8-4,1d6-4, rerolling max with rolls of 2,3. Notice (-4 GM).

((OOC: 11:07, Today: The Amazing Evans rolled -4,1 using d4-6,d6-6, rerolling max with rolls of 2,(6+1)7. Notice. Evans isn't noticing anything))

OOC:
Not so quick either...

21:16, Today: Adrian Vega drew the single card: 3S using the Deadlands system.

[[Did you take the Notice roll? *checks dice roller* Ah, no. Well, in the interests of expediency, I'll do that for you...

08:10, Today: Alouette, on behalf of Adrian Vega, rolled -2,-2 using d4-4,d6-4, rerolling max with rolls of 2,2. Notice? Adrian doesn't Notice. I'll let you draw again for next round rather than keeping that terrible init.

Alouette rolled 0,1 using d4-4,d6-4. Notice?
Father William O'Rourke, rolled -1,0 using d6-4,d6-4. Notice. They didn't Notice either. Not Van Owen has The Drop.]]

Milburn flees around the corner, stumbling a little in the mud.


[[Alistair Milburn rolled 1 using 1d6 Run, Cap'n!]]

There's a brief moment where everything is so muffled by the rain he might've disappeared.

"Evans," the priest growls, rounding on the scientist. "Are you hunting monsters, or making them?"

Pierce's instincts continue to scream at him, holding his shot. Even he barely sees the unnatural coil-uncoil of mist that drifts off the bunkhouse roof before it floats its ragged way above the priest. The pale scrap is suddenly a mass of shadow, falling-

"These were human beings, whatever they had done, and if we can bring just one-aaAAGH!"

-and Vinny goes off like an unholy hand grenade.

The priest and light go down in a heavy tangle of limbs, flashing claws, and spraying blood, spattering Evans, Alouette and Lawrence with the holy red stuff. Everything becomes a mad dancing mass of shadows and flares of light, but in a few seconds the priest is lying still.

The monster looks up at William and grins.
"'ullo, Billy."


[[Rolls rolls rolls!
Vincent Kaje, rolled 15,4 using d8+2,d6+2, rerolling max with rolls of (8+5)13,2. fightin'. (Frenzy, Drop)
Vincent Kaje, rolled 8,7 using d8+2,d6+2, rerolling max with rolls of 6,5. fightin'. (ditto) Two hits, one Raise on O'Rourke.

Vincent Kaje rolled 6,1 using d12+1,d4, rerolling max with rolls of 5,1. damage priest. +4 Drop -> 11 damage total. 1 wound Shaken for O'Rourke

Vincent Kaje, rolled 9 using 1d12, rerolling max with rolls of 9. damage priest more.
Vincent Kaje, rolled 5,2 using d4,d6, rerolling max with rolls of (4+1)5,2. raise die *dope*. +1 GM incompetence on the first die there, +4 Drop -> 21 damage total. That's...4 wounds for O'Rourke, which drops him. I'll see if he's alive when I come back from work, but yeah.

Vincent Kaje, drew the 2 cards: 10S, AC using the Deadlands system. Level-Headed init.

William, you're up!]]
This message was last edited by the GM at 09:25, Wed 15 Jan 2014.

"Hello Vinnie. I hope you didn't get to Marina yet."

William's Ghost Gun coughs once, the bullet taking Vinnie in the chest. The blond vampire staggers slightly, but his grin widens even more.
Then William is upon him in a blur of action and he drives a stake through Vinnie's chest with all his strength.

"Goodbye, Vinnie." William adds, his voice almost regretful. Vincent had been an ally for a short time, after all.

Alright.... multi-action!
Shooting, then draw a stake (quick draw, so free) and attack Vinnie.
I'd use the hand grenade, but if there's a chance for O'Rourke to survive....

10:38, Today: William Pierce rolled 3,15 using d10-2,d6-2, rerolling max with rolls of 5,(6+6+5)17. Shooting Ghost Gun.
Raise!

10:39, Today: William Pierce rolled 10 using 4d6+1, rerolling max with rolls of 3,2,1,3. Ghost Gun damage.
Uhm no. Spending my white chip for a re-roll (Thanks, No mercy edge!)

10:39, Today: William Pierce rolled 13 using 4d6+1, rerolling max with rolls of 1,(6+3)9,1,1. Damage.
Ugh.
Well, Vinnie can only get shaken by the thing anyway...

10:40, Today: William Pierce rolled 5,8 using d8-2,d6-2, rerolling max with rolls of 7,(6+4)10. Fighting.

10:41, Today: William Pierce rolled 19,3 (total of 22)using d10,d4, rerolling max with rolls of (10+9)19,3. Stake damage.


10:46, Today: William Pierce drew the single card: KH using the Deadlands system. Initiative.

"Demon!" the clank exclaims, somewhat belatedly. The priest makes no reply to this observation.

[[ was that a Called Shot to the heart (-4) or are you just stabbing him with the stake there? Throwing a holy hand grenade whilst y'all are within the Blast template would be a bad idea, yes. Especially as one of y'all is Alouette. Don't...don't do that.]]

This message was last edited by the GM at 13:23, Wed 15 Jan 2014.

No call shot, so just general chest area.
I figured that a damage roll that high might warrant a hit to the heart... If not, but if you allow me to retcon, to not waste the great damage roll, then I'll spend my blue chip for an additional d6. Which will probably turn up as a 1, as usual.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:05, Wed 15 Jan 2014.

[[Hmm...see, usually, I'd give you that, but taking huge amounts of damage and not suffering from it is basically what Vinny Does...on the other hand, he has a reasonable chance of soaking and I wouldn't want to goad your penulitmate chip from you in that instance. Magic 8 ball!

Is't a hit?
18:27, Today: Alouette got the result "As I see it, yes" on the magic 8-ball.]]

Vinny is bourne to the ground under Pierce's ballistic weight. Bones jar. Pierce is close enough to smell the vampire's weird, inhuman scent under the general mess of man and animal blood, the mud and the rain: an alkaline, ashy smell like tin in a long-cold campfire. Vincent makes a harsh noise as the splinter punches through his innards, then snarls and twists himself to tear into William's throat...

...and stays there.

William can feel his stake's point piercing the earth below them, into the element the vampire should have long returned to. Vincent hasn't - or can't - change expression, but the raw fury in those mad blue eyes speaks for itself. Getting up, Pierce rasps his head against the long claws raised to grip his skull and pull backwards, now motionless.


[[Vincent Kaje rolled 3,4 using d10,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 3,4. ouch? Ha! Oh dear, that's a Locked result...congatulations, you have just turned a Greater Vampire into some really, really pissed off public art.]]

Evans, shocked at the sudden violence, begins moving towards the preacher, pulling his bottle of snake oil and instant skin grafts from his coat. "O'Rourke!" he shouts, kneeling down by the man. "O'Rourke!"

((OOC: Is he still alive but Incapacitated? Is he Bleeding Out?))

[[13:05, Yesterday: Father William O'Rourke rolled 0,8 using d6-3,d6-3, rerolling max with rolls of 3,(6+5)11. not dying. He's severely injured and Shaken (blacked out a moment from loss of arterial pressure) but he's still up!

NB Someone has to at least look at a casualty (if it's really not obvious, I might ask for a Notice/Healing roll) before I tell y'all - I've noticed characters sometimes act strangely if their players are certain someone's alive/dead.]]

Alouette looks at the man who has stopped fighting due to the hickory stick. "Is that how to do done whoop the ass of a man?" it asks Pierce.

Then to the frozen vampire: "You are under arrest now."

The priest is breathing raggedly when Evans kneels down to look at him, most of his face red-wet and bearing the marks of Vincent's long claws. Seeing Evans right the lantern, Alouette realises its friend is leaking lots.

"!"

It crouches down to gently nudge O'Rourke with its 'beak'. "Awaken! ...Father?" Getting no response, it lightly touches the man's torn throat. Skin burns and fuses under its brass fingers. "Advise not to sleep in street - bad vampires!"

"Hggk!" O'Rourke says, suddenly awake. He sits up and immediately curls over with pain, trying to blink the blood from his eyes. "...ouch."



[[Father William O'Rourke rolled 13 using 2d6, rerolling max with rolls of (6+3)9,4. injury. Head.
Father William O'Rourke rolled 2 using 1d6, rerolling max with rolls of 2. head wound. General scarring. (Ugly until healed)


08:02, Today: Alouette rolled 2,1 using d8-3,d6-3, rerolling max with rolls of 5,4. Fix!
08:02, Today: Alouette rolled 3 using 1d6, rerolling max with rolls of 3. blue add. -> 5 Heals 1 wound.]]

William slowly gets up, leaving the stake in Vincent's chest.

"Yes, Alouette. That's how you whoop his ass. But arresting him won't be enough. Right now that stake is all that keeps him locked up. No man-made-prison will ever be able to do the same."
He crouches down.

"Stay away from the sun. Stay away from the Church and it's agents. Stay away from fire. A stake of wood to the heart will kill you if you're hired help, or lock you up if you're family."
He nods, looking deep into Vincent's eyes.
"Yes, I remember what you told me. Allies till the end, you said. You'd kill me if I crossed you or got in the way, you said. And I promised you I'd kill you if you crossed me."
He points at O'Rourke.
"He's a friend of mine. Crossing him means crossing me." He leans in a little closer.
"But you were wrong about me. I am not 'just' another fucking Harrowed. I am a predator. And your kind is my prey."

He gets back up. "You want to burn that, Marshal?"

Vinny looks furious, but then again, it's not as though he has a choice.

Evans, not paying much attention to William Pierce, is instead dabbing his strange brew on the preacher. The foaming mess doesn't help O'Rourke's face, but it at least seals the wound up nicely. He looks absently over at William and the staked vampire, then pulls one of the sunlight bombs out and sets it within reach.

((OOC: 20:08, Today: The Amazing Evans rolled 4,2 using d8-2,d6-2, rerolling max with rolls of 6,4. Healing.))

The priest makes a quiet grunt at the sting, but stays still until Evans has finished. He palms blood off his face, checking that no-one else is hurt, then looks over at Vincent and sighs.

[[Jake, Adrian, no reaction? Stayin' alert up there? Considering chasing after Milburn? Anyone anything?]]

"I forgive you, child," O'Rourke tells the vampire, setting a hand on his head. Vinny continues to look furious, clutching nothing.
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:16, Tue 21 Jan 2014.

Adrian couldn't quite process what was happening around him at the time. Well, he probably could of, but he was - quite literally - wrestling with his inner demons. That thing was happening to him again, and he had fallen to his knees, his hands on the ground as he tried to emerge victorious from the struggle within.

OOC:

Dominion: 11

18:08, Today: Adrian Vega rolled 11,7 using d12+4,d6+4, rerolling max with rolls of 7,3. Dominion! White Chip.
18:08, Today: Adrian Vega rolled 5,6 using d12+4,d6+4, rerolling max with rolls of 1,2. Dominion!

Alouette looks to see what Adrian finds so interesting on the ground, then leans to try and see his face. "!"

"Deputy Vega, remember! Let your conscience be your guide - not the demons in your mind!"

Internally, Adrian can feel it stronger than ever, as though some black beak had caught a trailing part of him and was pulling and worrying for all it was worth, trying to drag him away into the dark. He's literally fighting for consciousness this time.

William carefully picks up the bomb.
"I believe your flame thrower will be enough, Marshal. In any event, it's an opportunity to find out what ends these things once and for all. Or, if you're short on fuel... we can use some lamp oil and a match much to the same effect, I guess."

Adrian picked himself up off the ground with what seemed like great effort, as if there was a great weight on his back holding him down, or more accurately pushing him down as he tried to rise to his feet.

"Goddammit, I don't know if I'll ever get used to that. A damn close thing that time, I think." Reaching for his hip flask, he took a long pull of whiskey. It didn't really help him the way it did normal men, but the act made him feel normal.

"Maybe your spirit friend is frightened," Alouette suggests. "Think happy thoughts."

"It's me, it's me, it's me," John Smith, who had gone scouting earlier, jogged up staring warily around. He blinked at Vinny and looked confused a moment, but addressed the Marshal: "No sign of anything behind the house, but there's a light upstairs."


[[JohnJohn's player is in the awkward stages of changing residence but might be about at some point, so I'm bringing him back to the plot. Please don't shoot him for giving y'all information...]]

"Maybe it's frightened and maybe it isn't, but I don't think it's a friend either way. In any case, I don't believe there are many happy thoughts to think about anymore. Not for me, at least," he said, screwing on the metal cap of the flask and putting it back at his belt. It didn't taste right in his mouth; hardly anything did. It hadn't been good whiskey to begin with, and sitting in the flask had given it a bit of a metallic taste that was even worse in his dead mouth than it would've been in a live one.

"For me, there's only death."

William doesn't take his eyes off the locked Vincent.
"Oh, do cheer up, Vega. You're still walking and talking. Which is more than this poor sod is doing.
Sooo... anybody got anything to finish him off? I'm not one to make another man suffer needlessly."

<i>Not anymore, anyways... and not even a son of a bitch like you.</i>

"If you feed it only sadness, it will want more," Alouette points out. "It is probably afraid because we have not done delayed the Apocalpse yet." It chirps. "You could try thinking about shiny - crows like shiny - or holy songs. ! If we go in Doctor Ward's house, self can show you the machine that is like God - it Does!"

It looks at Vinny. "We could keep him under arrest until he is sorry," it suggests. "-Or stand far away and throw holy hand grenades at him."

There's a dull slam from nearby, but then it might be just that swinging door again, wherever that is.

"There's probably at least one lamp in the bunkhouse," O'Rourke says softly, gingerly touching his slashed face. "We could probably do with another light source anyway."

"I'd rather keep the grenades. But the bunkhouse sounds like a good idea.
Vega - you're coming? And Alouette, I can trust you'll make sure Vincent remains where and how he is?"

"If he starts running away, self can whoop his ass again," Alouette affirms.

Vinny looks furious.

Adrian nodded solemnly, taking one of the guns out. "Let's go delay the Apocalypse," he said.

"Go safely," the priest says quietly, reaching to haul himself up on the clank.

[[There's a small/back door relating to access to the tack/cooking hut marginally nearer around the corner behind y'all, closed last time it was seen if any of you saw it, or the main door logically up ahead around the corner Milburn just legged it past, where are y'all headed?]]

Jake remained quiet, he wasn't thinking clearly but that wasn't exactly new for the poor hexslinger in this town. He absentmindedly picked up a scrap of wood or was it cloth he could tell. In the distance he could've sworn he heard crows or was that a rattlesnake ...?

OOC: Hunch!
14:04, Today: Jake Lawrence rolled 13,10 using 1d10,1d6, rerolling max with rolls of (10+3)13,(6+4)10. Spellcasting (Hunch).

((OOC: What sort of information are you trying to determine?))

In reply to The Stray (msg # 208):

ooc: Let's say meaningful event in the last 24-48 hours?

[[ { {{PUFF}} } ]]

[[Is it cloth?  19:13, Today: Alouette got the result "My reply is no" on the magic 8-ball.]]

Jake grips the splinter, rain roping from his hatbrim. Concentrating, he throws his mind out into the darkness. For a moment, the Serpent seems loath to reply, but then a faint fraction of attention turns, strikes. Jake's consciousness rushes away from the mortal world with a pressure in the skull and a snatching away of breath, almost like a fall at incredible speed to incredible depth...


...until at last, truly only a heartbeat later, Jake's mind slams into resistance as heavy and dense as titanic scales and is scraped back into awareness with his next breath.


[[*whistles at the raise* poke the awakening snake god with a stick why doncha...]]

"Well that was informative." the hexslinger said to no one particular. He tossed splinter wood onto the ground were he found it. His hand touched his ear and felt something warm and wet ... blood. "Huh ... seems I'll start to pay that snake sooner than I reckoned."

"Vampire feedin' frenzy. Seems we're in for a heck of a time here folks."
This message was last edited by the player at 21:47, Thu 27 Feb 2014.

Vincent looks furious.

Father O'Rourke makes a noncomittal noise, staying alert and trying to keep an eye on their suroundings. He squints at the doors of the nearer barn a the moment and seems about to speak, but then catches movement at the edge of his vision and startles into staring wide-eyed at the house, his accent momentarily thicker as the words seem to catch in his throat. "Jaysus, what was that?"

[[Father William O'Rourke, rolled -2,8 using d6-3,d6-3, rerolling max with rolls of 1,(6+5)11. Notice? I suppose nearly being shredded by an opportunistic vampire makes one sort of wary...]]

Evans, about to ask Jake to elucidate further, catches sight of the good Father reacting to...something. He brings the barrel of his flamethrower up to bear quickly. "What fresh hell is this?"

"It was...like a lizard or a big spider, someting moving there, on the wall, just went around the corner," O Rourke manages to report, then realises how that sounds. "When I say big I mean...bigger than a dog. Man-size, maybe. Head down like a lizard."

"We might not have time to go looking. Marshal, try your flamethrower, if you please. We can still use the artillery if that doesn't finish him."

Jake frowned as he sorted out the visions in his head. "Apparently these vampires are rather adapt at moving on any surface... floor, ceiling, walls. Torching the place might not be a bad idea."

"But then Doctor Ward would shoot him from ten paces away," Alouette points out, then ticks some more.

Lightning flashes overhead, almost immediately followed by a roll of thunder like a thousand bowling balls on a tin floor. The shadow along the crack of the barn doors seems to stick a moment, then flinch away from the light.

"Much as I'd like to agree," says the priest, still staring at the empty wall, "-we don't know if all the survivors are dead, or where they might be hidin themselves if they're not - could you live with yourself, Bitter Waters, if you condemned even one innocent to burn?" He looks at Jake a moment, then picks up his light.

"Besides, even those poor girls tried to remember themselves - if another one might come to us quietly there's no sense in riling them until they're set to attack f'sure." William gets the frown this time. "Even this fellow," he nods down at Vinny, who looks furious.

"-was only acting by his nature - probably tryin' to save you from associatin' with me." It's a small smile this time, the injured priest not looking much of a predator. "There-"


He's cut off by a last crack of thunder, immediately followed by screaming from around the back of the house: the awful, fractured sound of someone trying to scream terror whilst already crying with pain. It's hard to tell though the rain, but it sounds like a woman.
This message was last edited by the GM at 09:35, Sat 01 Mar 2014.

"I'm inclined to agree with the good Father here. It wouldn't sit well with me to burn an innocent man alive just for the sake of efficiency," he said. "I like to know who I'm killin' before I'm killin' 'em."
This message was last edited by the player at 21:28, Tue 04 Mar 2014.

"Er..." the priest half-starts, distracted.

"Fear Not!" Alouette declares, all other tasks suddenly deprioritised by a mortal being Sad and Loud nearby (which was probably the worst kind of Sad). "Self will help!" So saying, it hares off into the rain.

[[maxed its running die. Hilarity ensues.]]

Jake realises what's going on first - as the automaton gets within a few paces of the porch, several dozen pinprick points of red appear. The porch shadows detach themselves in a boiling, cawing mass. The automaton doesn't notice until they're right above its head.

"Cease!" it tells them, then vanishes from view and hearing under the feathered cloud.


[[19:33, Today: Alouette rolled 0,0 using d4-2,d6-2, rerolling max with rolls of 2,2. Notice? No surprises there.

Close enough? Alouette got the result "It is decidedly so" on the magic 8-ball.

The birdies rolled 10 using 2d4, rerolling max with rolls of (4+3)7,3. attack! attack! (Night Crow Swarm auto-damage) +4 for the Drop = 14 and 1 wound Shakenfor Alouette, who proceeds to muff its soak roll:

20:04, Today: Alouette rolled 3,1 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 3,1. go go gadget soaking. Ah well, Nerves of Steel counts for something.]]

Jake looked back at the priest with cold eyes but said nothing, something about his stance and the way his gaze fell just past the priest after a moment would properly give give one the impression that he would be okay with torching the place.

---

Jake upon seeing red eyes then the birds just shook his head, "Told ya to burn it, they're all dead." His right hand gently touched the rosary that had been his wife's and upon his wrist for so long, "Are there any innocence in this place anymore?"  After the thought passed the huckster drew his pistol and backed away from the murder of crows.

[[music!]]

The crow-demons not currently mobbing the clank with raucous cries spiral out and upward in the wind like ash flakes scuffed from a fire. Whoever was screaming behind the house is getting rapidly hoarse and intermittent, clearly in pain.

O'Rourke gives Jake a look that's only briefly angry, fading in a moment to deep disappointment before he turns to try and call the others to action: "Pierce! Please, since you're best equipped against our foes, would you go round the building right presently, we'll join you. Vega - sorry, but you're dead already - would you try to draw them off Alouette so that the Marshal can get them with his flamethrower. Evans, please."

"You two find what shelter you can, I tink." He gives Jake the light, retaining the crowbar.

"Sure thing, Irish," he said gruffly, taking his gun and aiming at where Aloutte was. If he took any offense, he didn't show it. He moved quickly in an arc, fanning out from where the others were. If he did draw off some of those things, no point pulling them towards everyone else. Holding his gun steady, he aimed his weapon. Gritting his teeth, he his mind reached into that dark place it went from time to time and seized something big with a fist of spirit, wrestling it into submission with all the force of his willpower that he could bring to bear. It was a chancy thing, but he was able to subdue it and its power was his.

"Alright birds," he said quietly to himself. "I got three bullets from Hell with your names on 'em."

---

• Dealin' with the Devil: Adrian needs 3 Power Points to power his hex. I draw 10 cards (5 cards are baseline, 4 cards for his 4 Grit, and one card for an Edge). Here's the draw:
  17:02, Today: Adrian Vega drew the 10 cards: BJ!, AH, 7H, 5C, 5D, 8S, QS, 6H, 4D, KH using the Deadlands system. Deal with the Devil for 3 PP.
• The final hand is a Straight (4D, 5D, 6H, 7H, 8S), which more than powers the Hex. Please note that that the BJ! was not used, so there is no Backlash!
• To hit, I roll a d8 three times, and only get the wild die on one of the bolts:
  17:10, Today: Adrian Vega rolled 4,1,6,5 using d8,d8,d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 4,1,6,5. Three Bolts.
• That's a 4 and a 6 that might hit.
• Here's damage roll:
  17:13, Today: Adrian Vega rolled 5,12 using 2d6,2d6, rerolling max with rolls of 4,1,2,(6+4)10.
• Damage: 5 and 12, correspondingly, if they hit

"Yes, Father", Pierce replies, drawing the second, Jenny's, pistol from his belt.
"But somebody ought to put Vincent out of his misery. He's got the same nature as me, after all. And I didn't attack you."

Guns at the ready, he strides forward and to the side, to come around the corner of the building.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:55, Sat 08 Mar 2014.

"No, my son...you are at least in some part yet human," the priest says softly as Pierce lopes away, but turns his attention to being Evans' backup.

{{CRACK}} {{CRACK}} {{CRACK}}

The unearthly whine of Adrian's hell-bullets cuts the air. One of the crow-mob vanishes completely with an impact, reduced to a puff of bloody feathers. The murder explodes out in all directions, cawwing in alarm.


[[Rules update! Apparently taking out members (cutting or piercing damage) doesn't wound the Swarm itself, which counts as a creature. Grenades & area attacks work, but mind the clank... Anyway. Does Evans get 'em with a flamethrower?

18:35, Today: Alouette, for the NPC birdies, rolled 9 using 1d10, rerolling max with rolls of 9. Agility.

18:32, Today: Alouette, on behalf of The Amazing Evans, rolled 9,4 using d6,d6, rerolling max with rolls of (6+3)9,4. Agility. Gonna roll with Defender Wins here, since they're about to do...this!]]

The weird night crows regroup into two masses. Evans gets his flamethrower up, but is forced to duck with the priest as half the birds barrel overhead in a beeline for Adrian. The others resettle more or less on the clank, hopping and flaring as it flails to right itself.

The birds come at Adrian like a closing fist of little bodies, blacker than the darkness around, wings whispering past his face in a scything of feathers, birds cawing, close...then they fall on him.

Adrian feels their weight hit his shoulders, his front, chest and face, even scrabbling on his back and clinging to his trousers. Then nothing more. They're just...hanging off him, dozens of them rasping away in their harsh voices, like he's the world's most inefficient scarecrow.

[[fudging a little to get William actionwards - you're sort of wedged into the top right corner of the sketch map at present, with everyone else slightly nearer the porch than the X where they were before.]]

Meanwhile, Pierce jogs around the building, alert and on edge. He finds there's a carriage house and cuts around that, too, sparing a brief glare at the loose side door that's slamming in the wind. He peers round the corner warily, into the teeth of the storm, and the first thing that slips under his conscious thought is that something smells amazing. The best steak William ever ate after going hungry for days just isn't in the same league. Aged whiskey might be, but if anything that smells so damn good exists in that realm it's outside Pierce's experience.

He sees the source of the screaming between 25-30 feet away, haloed by a glitter of broken glass - a cowboy is knelt astride her torso, her hair and both wrists pinned back with an ease that belies how hard her heels are gouging into the mud in trying to throw him off. His face is turned away, bent low to her throat. She's small: plump, but no more than a child. Which would explain the scent of virgin's blood.

Pierce is as soon distracted by the familiar shine of a pistol: red eyes echo the gleam from under a nearby tree. The Dust Adder leaning there looks straight at him like caution and darkness meant nothing at all, then merely touches his hatbrim and nods at the girl as though asking if he wants some, recognising another of his kind.

"You don't owe 'em nothin'," he calls over in encouragement, clearly waiting a turn himself. "Ain't a man no more - come join in."



[[monster buddies for everyone!]]
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:01, Sat 08 Mar 2014.

William's jaw begins to ache and he looks at the blood, mesmerized. Then he glances down at the snarling faces on his Ghost gun and with an enormous effort of will looks away, looks at the fellow in line waiting.
He carefully tucks his pistols into belt and holster and strides over.

He lets his mouth hang open, his fangs clearly visibly. They feel larger now, and he tries to not breath to shut out the sweet, sweet smell...

"Howdy", he rasps, glancing over at the girl again and the guy who feeds on her.

Just a few seconds... that's  all I need.

"I'm looking for the Lady, Marina. Any idea where to find her?"

[[take a white chip for sheer cold-blooded bastardy and once again making me look fiendishly smart by setting yourself up for Hell.]]


William gets a faint awareness of a voice as his fingers brush the metal of the Ghost Gun, distant but still clear: uh...we're all sitting on the old man here, he's, um...don't draw us right now, there's an even chance he might get free an' shoot you in the head.

The Dust Adder keeps his pistol out, alert, but it's held low. "Can't say, rightly...we all split up n' went to ground when her husband showed up." He thinks a moment, the same struggle for thought William's seen before, with the girls. "Come t'think...she wasn't about after we tried to light the porch, before Widow Bradshaw called up them devil birds. Prob'ly up high somewheres to watch the fun when Tom and Johnny get back."

The girl quiets to harsh gasping sobs where she lies, weakened by loss of blood.

[[Ginny Bruebaker rolled 1 using 1d4, rerolling max with rolls of 1. vigour vs. blood loss. Fatigue point for Ginny.]]

"Thanks for dealing with Mister, by the way - pity you dint get the priest, too," the once-man looks over. "There really ain't no point seeking salvation when you're going to live forever." He grins. "Sin's for mortals. We...can do anything." His attention snaps to a figure rounding the corner.

"GET OFF MY SISTER!" The sturdy young woman with the skillet certainly has a good pair of lungs. The vampire who was feeding looks up.

"Abbie! Tree! ...gun!" the sister shrieks, and yes, the Dust Adder is already aiming, low because they'll want her alive. To last longer.

[[Abbie Bruebaker rolled 4 using 1d6, rerolling max with rolls of 4. Agility.

Vampires! rolled 4 using 1d8, rerolling max with rolls of 4. Agility. Eh. Reckon they're the defenders here, roll with it for consistency.]]

*clikt*


[[Vampires! rolled 1 using 1d6, rerolling max with rolls of 1. shootin'.]]

"Fucking..." the vampire begins, but trails off, the wet gun dropping from his fingers as Abbie decends upon them like a Valkyrie fresh from Valhalla.


"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!"



[[Abbie knows the only way she's going to get out of this alive is to make sure the vampires never work out they're so much better fighters than she is, so she goes for Intimidate.

Abbie Bruebaker rolled 3 using 1d4, rerolling max with rolls of 3. banzaii!
...plus a GM red because damn, this kid's brave:
Abbie Bruebaker rolled 5 using 1d6, rerolling max with rolls of 5. red chippit. -> 8
William, can you keep your head in the face of fearsome frying pan fury? 8 to beat.

Vampires! rolled 4 using 1d6, rerolling max with rolls of 4. eep. Your new highly stakeable chum can't. He's Shaken. Also, if you like, roll Notice at -4 (-2 for the distraction of Abbie in your face, -2 something I can't tell you yet). It's not important but it may help.]]

Abby ruined my game plan.

20:29, Today: William Pierce rolled 8,6 using d8+4,d6+4, rerolling max with rolls of 4,2. Spirit.

20:31, Today: William Pierce rolled 11,5 using d6,d6, rerolling max with rolls of (6+5)11,5. Notice. Alertness and Catseyes canceled out by the penalty..


William's eyes narrow. The girl with the pan would be dead in 5 seconds, once the vampire would realize who she was: Just a girl scared out of her wits.
Her sister, though, would be dead in one second... unless...

William turns around, his coat billowing, revealing the makeshift stakes he picked up before.
He pulls one, flipping it around in his hand. He lifts the vampire feeding off of the girl, half-turning him, then plunges the stake at his heart, burying it deep in the thing's chest.




Next round initiative: 20:42, Today: William Pierce drew the single card: 6D using the Deadlands system. Initiative.

Fighting. Pretty sure Abby ruined The Drop for me, so I spend a few chips for a total of 12.
Modifiers: +2 Wild attack, Quickdraw cancels the MAP, -4 called shot.

Damage:
20:40, Today: William Pierce rolled 7,7,4 /total 18, plus wild: 20) using d10,d4,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 7,(4+3)7,4. Stake damage.

20:38, Today: William Pierce rolled 8 using 1d6, rerolling max with rolls of (6+2)8. blue chip.
20:38, Today: William Pierce rolled 4,2 using d8-2,d6-2, rerolling max with rolls of 6,4. white chip.
20:37, Today: William Pierce rolled 4,2 using d8-2,d6-2, rerolling max with rolls of 6,4. Fighting, Wild, called shot to heart.

[[ *laughing* she was probably going to anyway, but now she's a witness to you hanging out with the vampires and being untrustworthy...]]

Abbie gasps a little as William darts away and across to her sister - clearly she couldn't see there were two men there, nor any details in the dark. The staked Dust Adder just slumps, his nose, lips and fingertips blackening with the early stages of decay like he's been dead a few hours.

Little sister curls in a ball as soon as the vampire is hauled off her, then starts off at an urgent, scrambling crawl for the wall. This close, the scent of her injuries - several glass cuts as well as the wound in her throat - is almost intoxicatingly strong.

William is, however, distracted by a bounding spot of white near Abbie's dress - it's a Peke, and neither wet enough nor dirty enough to have spent many minutes outside a clean, cosy room. Another thought catches at him: these 'hired help' acted slightly smarter than the whores did...either it was because they were fresher, or Marina's connection to them is sourced a lot nearer...



[[Rounds it is, then:
Ginny AS
William 6D
Tao Tao 6C
Abbie 3S
Ed the vampadder 2H

Oh, and Tao Tao is Small with a bonus to stealth, which is why he was hard to Notice.]]
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:26, Sun 09 Mar 2014.

"Dammit!" Evans shouts as the birds whirl around Adrian. he looks around the field, but since the birds just seem to be landing on Adrian and not actively pecking at him, he turns toward the flock still snapping at Alouette. He aims his flamethrower.

"I'd better get this right..." He mutters as he calculates angles. His instinct was to just douse the demon crows in flaming goo and trust Alouette would be alright, but his own faith in the alimighty wasn't as high as the clanks.

((OOC: Smarts roll to catch the swarm in a burst but aiming it high enough to avoid hitting Alouette in the process.

19:14, Today: The Amazing Evans rolled 6,3 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 6,3. Smarts!))

He thumbs the trigger, and sends an impressive jet of flame arcing just over the fallen clank. He measures the fuel carefully - he was aiming to disrupt the flock more than actually hurt them, though he certainly wouldn't have minded if any of the foul things caught fire. The burst would be easy to avoid, but attention-catching to say the least.

((OOC: Burst!

19:26, Today: The Amazing Evans rolled 4,2 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 4,2. Weird Science.

The birds get an Agility roll against his burst to avoid damage. If he catches the porch with the blaze, the house has a 1-in-6 chance of catching fire.

19:27, Today: The Amazing Evans drew the single card: 6S using the Deadlands system.))

Most of the birds disperse somewhat, low to the ground, hopping and cawwing, though none seem singed. Several knots of them look at Evans like they're considering flying at him, but they seem loath to get far from the porch, like they're guarding something.


[[08:25, The birdies rolled 9 using 1d10, rerolling max with rolls of 9. Agility.

Did he catch the porch?
08:26, Today: Alouette, for the NPC Ward's house, got the result "It is decidedly so" on the magic 8-ball.

Ward's house rolled 3 using 1d6, rerolling max with rolls of 3. on fire? It is not on fire. Also, you want a proper fight? Let me think on't, 'cause some of the things out here, you'd have to run away...clank rolls later.]]

Vinny looks furious.


[[Yep, he's still there. As a note, y'all can hear Abbie's yelling from your side, too.]]

Jake laughed, it wasn't an especially sane sounding laugh however. He laughed so hard he cried. It within moments of him hearing the crows. Part of the huckster longed to draw power as he'd learned to a life time ago, but that sliver of still sane Jake told him that would be foolish with the snake and crows so close.

Fortunately for that sane part still held sway over Jake, who released the Winchester rifle he had on his back.

OOC: Drawing weapon and initiative :)
10:39, Today: Jake Lawrence drew the single card: AS using a deck of 54 cards. Initiative .

[[18:50, Today: Alouette rolled 4,2 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 4,2. unshake clank. Clank is unshaken, thanks to nerves o'steel and the storm.]]

The clank picks itself off the ground and shakes itself, hindered a bit by the way the birdies have pulled its casing out of shape. The mass of currently-grounded little birds hop into formation around it, ready to push it over and start mobbing again at the least move. The  clank crosses its arms like an annoyed Roland.

"Hmm."


[[all right then, combat it is. Consider the crows and JohnJohn On Hold on account of being semi-about and waiting to see what y'all will do, respectively. Hope you've got running shoes...

Jake AS
Adrian: 10H
Evans 6S
O'Rourke 6S
Alouette 3D ]]
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:56, Wed 12 Mar 2014.

"Demon crows and evil giant spirit snakes ... should've stayed in New Orleans ... zombies are much easier." Jake muttered as he turned to find cover.

OOC: Ducking for cover, there a water trough or something nearby?

[[you could duck around the back of the bunkhouse to use the eaves/corner as cover (or even go in there and try to shoot at things outside from a window, if you like), that's not super-far, or even scurry back a bit into the tack shed, which is nearer than the troughs in the corral. Remember it'd mean leaving the light, though, unless you nab it from JohnJohn and leave the others in the dark.]]

In reply to Vampires! (msg # 232):

William snarls, half from frustrated desire to go after that precious, delicious virgin, half to draw attention to himself and away from the girls.
A few more steps bring him closer to the smaller vampire, and he pulls another stake, but this time his opponent twists and the stake pierces merely the lungs instead of the thing's heart.



20:50, Today: William Pierce rolled 4,3 using d8-2,d6-2, rerolling max with rolls of 6,5. Last chip..
20:50, Today: William Pierce rolled 0,2 using d8-2,d6-2, rerolling max with rolls of 2,4. Wild fighting, attack to heart.

20:52, Today: William Pierce drew the single card: RJ! using the Deadlands system. Initiative, gain, due to Quick edge.

YES! That's why I loooove the Quick Edge.

20:52, Today: William Pierce drew the single card: 5S using the Deadlands system. Initiative.

The stake is turned aside on something under the Dust Adder's shirt. William is aware, in a very peripheral way, that something small and fluffy just took a bite out of his trouser-cuff.

[[Oop, target-rich environment...is Ed nearest?
20:08, Today: Alouette, for the NPC Tao Tao, got the result "My reply is no" on the magic 8-ball.

Tao Tao, rolled 5 using 1d4+4. Peke attack! (Bite, wild) Nope. Tao Tao is -2 to hit for his size, but otherwise has no parry next round.
init. KD]]

Abbie backs away from the sudden scuffle, not wanting to stick around to meet the winner if she can help it. Keeping the heavy cast iron pan high she sidles back hastily to her sister's side. Ginny automatically puts an arm around Abbie's neck, shivering and trying but unable to speak.

Abbie leans in a little to take her weight, watching the night as best she can. "Come on, Ginny, I'm here, try'n move. Mama'll meet us. I'll cover you, I'm here. Try'n move, okay? Come on, Cauliflower."
Ginny swallows with a little catch of pain, but complies. "He...he...he bit me...Max, he was dead...he, he..."

[[Abbie does all the moving she can and goes On Hold to lam any vampire that approaches with her skillet. Also switches to Periwinkle, as it suits her better and doesn't make for so much confusion when she whispers...]]


Meanwhile, Pierce lets go as the other vampire comes back at him like an angry rattlesnake and bites him in the face, fangs skidding along the bone of his jaw with the force of impact to sink deeply into the top of his throat.



[[Vampires! rolled 4 using 1d6+2, rerolling max with rolls of 2. fightin'. Hit on lowered parry!

Vampires!, rolled 19,1 using d10,d6, rerolling max with rolls of (10+9)19,1. *chomp* -> 20 damage. Good grief. I make that 3 Wounds Shaken for William.

Top o' the round again, Mister Pierce:
William RJ!
Tao Tao KD
Ed the Vamp 8H
Bruebaker Girls: Defending/On Hold]]
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:01, Tue 11 Mar 2014.

Adrian didn't know quite what to make of the situation at present, with those birds flocking to him like they had, so he just stood stock still. They didn't seem to be hurting him, they were just yappin' at him, and so he figured he'd try and do what he could to keep 'em there.




OOC:
17:57, Today: Adrian Vega drew the single card: 10H using the Deadlands system.

The strange little corbies seem quite content where they are, occasionally fluttering a bit to cling on. Some tiny move of Adrian's sets them all cawing noisily again, though.


[[Jake! Thou art first.]]

In reply to Vampires! (msg # 241):

Ouch...
Ok... implacable cancels two wound modifiers... And I got a shiny new red chip on my next action with the Joker.
Recovering from Shaken: -1 wounds, +2 Joker:
11:20, Today: William Pierce rolled 2,0 using d10-1,d6-1, rerolling max with rolls of 3,1. Recover from Shaken.

Nope. Spending my red chip to cancel shaken and to be able to act.

Fighting attack: +2 Joker, +2 Wild attack, -1 wounds, -4 aiming to the heart. Total of -1.

11:22, Today: William Pierce rolled 1,1 using d8-1,d6-1, rerolling max with rolls of 2,2. Heart Attack! :-).
Well, fuck you too, dice roller.

11:22, Today: William Pierce drew the single card: 10H using the Deadlands system. Initiative.



William feels the flesh from his cheek torn down, and he screams, blackish blood pouring from his wound down his shirt and coat.

He staggers under the attack, feebly trying to push the small vampire off of him.

Jake felt dizzy from all the voices he was hearing. He steadied himself and began to sing Amazing Grace, it was in a low hushed tone much as a child who was frightened might sing it. "Amazing grace, How sweet the sound, That sav'd a wretch like me, I once was lost, but now am found, Was blind, but now I see."

Slowly he lined his rifle up with whatever thing he could see worth shooting and squeezed the trigger.

OOC:  Head shot to the nearest unfriendly vamp type around :)
09:38, Today: Jake Lawrence rolled -1,-2 using 1d8-4,1d6-4, rerolling max with rolls of 3,2. Shooting (-4 Headshot).
09:38, Today: Jake Lawrence rolled 3,3 using 1d8-4,1d6-4, rerolling max with rolls of 7,(6+1)7. White Chip.

09:41, Today: Jake Lawrence drew the single card: 3H using a deck of 54 cards. Initiative .