Lazarus tries to edge towards putting himself in the way, watching Adrian's face for any indication he's about to loose Hell.

Just then, there's a distinct rapping from the kitchen door:

*knoknok*

Adrian could feel a rush of temper well up inside of him. He was a fairly patient man, but he'd never had to reckon with the amount of straight-up assholery in his life that he'd witnessed today. He had been the subject of violence, attempted violence, and threats of violence by nearly everybody - enemies, random strangers, and acquaintances alike - without offering any of them violence beforehand. But he forced himself into a strange calm, trying to keep a lid on a dangerous situation. He might be alright, but he owed the Marshal somethin' and he wasn't gonna let him die like this.

"Mr. Lazarus, I'm going to lower my weapon in just a minute here and holster it, and maybe you can talk your friend into doing the same," he said calmly and clearly.

"Unlike him, I have no desire for pointless bloodshed. But I say this, and hear me clearly. If once having done so, he continues in his course of attempted murder upon the sitting Marshal of Blackthorn, so help me God by my authority as a Deputy I will place him under arrest and I will expect your assistance in doing so. If either you or the other man who entered the room just now offer interference, I will count you accomplices in the attempted murder of a lawman and you will face the consequences. So let's do this then...nice and slow."

Slowly, and carefully Adrian lowered his weapon, moving to holster it.


OOC:
Persuasion: 5
Notice: 7

The persuasion is to convince Lazarus. The Notice is to see if Spades is going to try and shoot again while Adrian is holstering his weapon.

1. Deal with the Devil success with 2 Pair. Boost my Persuasion by one die type to d6.
2. Deal with the Devil success with a Full House, automatic spell success and double duration to raise Adrian's Notice two steps.
3. I'm not using my Joker, but that should trigger a Joker's Wild.

10:26, Today: Adrian Vega rolled 2,5 using d6,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 2,5. Persuasion.
07:57, Today: Adrian Vega rolled 3,5 using d8,d6. check for raise.
07:53, Today: Adrian Vega drew the 11 cards: 9D, 10C, QS, 4H, 5S, RJ!, AC, JS, 5D, 10D, 9S using the Deadlands system.

10:51, Today: Adrian Vega rolled 7,3 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 7,3. Notice.
10:49, Today: Adrian Vega drew the 11 cards: QH, 5H, 10D, JC, 2S, 6C, 4S, 2H, 8D, QC, 2C using the Deadlands system.

Jake quietly shook his head and kept leaning against the wall.

"I'm trying..." the dapper man protests, clearly unused to quite so much violence. "Come on, Spades - whatever Deputy Vega is, there are more of us than there is of him. He can't get you. On the other hand, if you shoot the Marshal, you give everyone a reason to put you down. We need all the live people we can get, whatever their character. Come on, man, he offered to help. I know what Jingles did you you felt...like it felt, he grabbed me for longer...you're off-balance, man. Not thinking st-"

"I'm not crazy! He's dead! He told you he's dead! Look at the hole in him! Why does no-one care about this?" Spades howls, eyes wild.

Lazarus swallows. "Look, he hasn't killed or bitten anyone yet - let's not give him any more good reasons to try, hm? Come on, I can see you don't know what to do, it's all right. Give me your gun, then even if Deputy Vega or the Marshal tries to shoot you, there will be witnesses that they were the aggressor, and we'll deal with them, all right? Come on, just hand it over." He inches in. Spades looks at him, then at the Marshal, tense as a cornered rat. Harry beckons, and holds out his hand.

"Well, they'd better not," Spades mumbles, pushing the gun into Lazarus' palm.

"All right," the tinhorn responds, more for something to say than agreement. He flicks a glance at Adrian to make sure revenge isn't imminent, not entirely managing to conceal his fear of the dark blood spreading sluggishly across Adrian's chest, then licks his lips and addresses Evans before any tirade can come from that direction: "Erm, sorry, Marshal. Would you please get the door? That'll hopefully be your friends."


[[Harry Lazarus, rolled 4,5 using d6,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 4,5 Persuadin'. Juuust enough.]]

"Thanks," he said to Lazarus simply. "I'll get the door."

Adrian moved over to the door and opened it cautiously to see if he could identify whoever was on the other side before moving to let them in.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:13, Tue 13 May 2014.

Adrian climbs over the small barricade and heads past the laundry room to the carriage house door.

"Howdy, Deputy vega!" Alouette chirps, then cranes to see the utter bombsite of the kitchen beyond. "Did you done do rearrange My Man Abraham's world?"

"Howdy, Alouette," he said, though he felt suddenly despondent and resigned at the eventuality of having to explain the situation to the clank. If he wasn't clear enough and very precise, it would probably just get confused.

"Jingles turned into a Chinese vampire. We chased him around with a mirror, because Chinese vampires don't like mirrors. Then Bitter Waters stuck a prayer on the Chinese vampire's forehead, which made the Chinese vampire stop moving. There was also a watermelon that kept hitting us, so we put it in a cupboard. Seven of Spades shot me again, and he was going to shoot Marshal Evans, but we stopped him from doing that. Part of the house is on fire and there's one more vampire inside somewhere, maybe upstairs."

"Where are the others?"

"Who is Jingles?" the clank asks, quite happy to stand there blocking the doorway and witter. "The watermelon was probably a vampire also, but watermelons are minus teeth so they can't bite mortals though you shouldn't eat them, they would be bad for you."

"Self will tell Seven Of Spades to repent," it resolves, then straightens, its priorities jogged. "! Names William Pierce whooped the ass of a man - now the fire is in the house of beds because there was hay and a ghost rock and a thing that exploded when Names William Pierce stuck the man's head in the oven." It pauses. "Self requires damp towel: that is how to make fire stop." It clarifies.

"We're here," the priest's voice comes from the dark room behind the clank. "I think the bunkhouse might be past the towel stage, but the fire on the porch looks to be mostly burning oil. Pierce has accounted for five more of the vampires, and managed t' get the...whatever that was, with a light grenade. Are you all right?"

"I'll be alright Padre. You were right on the call not to burn the house down. There's plenty o' livin' folks upstairs that aren't vampires. Bitter Waters was supposed to go upstairs and get some wet blankets to help put the fire out. If y'all wanna come in, we can see to that," he said, stepping back and opening the door.

"Bitter Waters doesn't like bein' called that, by the way. He said he'd shoot me if I called him that again. Can you tell him to repent too, Alouette?"

"Okay!" Alouette chirps, and wanders off through the kitchen and out towards the stairs with the confidence of a clank that has been here before.

"I thank the Lord's guidance for that," O'Rourke remarks, and does briefly mouth thanks heavenwards as he blows out his dwindling lamp and steps up into the house.

The priest crosses the threshold, light and shadow making a strange play over his frost-burned coat and mauled face, then thinks of something and turns back to William. "Enter with God, my son," he says formally.

The grinding pressure in William's skull from proximity to the doorway ceases. O'Rourke hooks his light on a nearby peg and moves towards the kitchen proper. "Are there any others injured?"

Meanwhile, the clank patters out into the foyer and greets the first people it sees, which happen to be Evans and Lazarus. "Howdy Ambrose! Howdy Pretty Round Man!"

Spades starts to laugh at this random and endearing description, but finds himself being pointed at. "Repent!"

"Wha-?" the wounded man nervously edges away a little. The clank and Dave see each other at the same time.

"Repent!" Alouette points at Dave.

Dave points his gun at it. "You stay away from me."

The Dust Adder swallows and steps backwards, leading the tin can angel's sight to Bitter Waters. Alouette pivots on its heels, and points at him, too. "Repent!"

Harry Lazarus looks perplexedly at Evans. "Um. What is that, and why are we repenting?"

William enters finally, after taking a moment to set up a noise trap. Anybody coming in through that door into the carriage house would set it off. Didn't mean that would give them a warning, but it might.

"Everybody alright in here?"

"Got 'im past the wards, I guess," he said appreciatively of the holy man's handiwork as the priest uttered his formal sounding pronouncement followed by William's entrance.

"Your asshole friend shot me after I saved him from the Chinese vampire. Say, since you and I are friends now, I don't suppose there's any chance you'll shoot him for me sometime? You know...just to keep things fair."

"Come on. Let's catch up with Alouette, and get to puttin' out the fire and dealin' with the...other vampire."

The priest gives Adrian a distinctly disapproving look, and William a one of 'don't even think about it.'

"Just a joke, Padre. Lighten up," he said, flashing the priest a grin.

Evans just begins laughing as all the bad men get called on to repent their sins. "Mr. Lazarus, I'm afraid it will take a while to explain. Let me sum up--the automaton is an angel, and she calls on those she has seen sin to repent. Don't do anything to draw her ire, and you should be fine." He gives Lazarus a grin that is far, far too wide to be pleasant...or even be described as mildly sane.

Then he turns to Seven. "You heard her, Seven. Get on your knees and pray to the Lord Above to overlook your sins, and swear to do no more wrong." All traces of his former bout of mirth have vanished. "And if you don't wish to swear to Him Above, then you can swear to me, for you have wronged me and I shall seek satisfaction for my stained honor if you do not." He looks deadly serious.

((OOC: Snakeoil Salesman time!

23:00, Today: The Amazing Evans rolled 16,5 using d8+3,d6+3, rerolling max with rolls of (8+5)13,2. Persuasion.

I'm just trying to put the fear of God/Evans into him for a bit via a Test of Wills.))

Spades stares at the Marshal. That grin and the fact that there was no weapon being pointed with the threat seem to make it more effective, not less. Still staring at Evans, he carefully sinks to his knees, bracing his bloody hand on the floor, then with one last truly uncertain look fishes out a small medallion of Saint Sebastian, touches his lips to the metal and genuinely starts to pray.

Dave is visibly unnerved.

[[The Seven of Spades rolled 1,3 using d6-1,d6-1, rerolling max (with rolls of 2,4. Resisting Snakeoil. Couple of Raises for Evans.]]

"Some of us have been tryin' to make sure there are as few holes in mortals as possible," the priest says, though he does clap his free hand to Adrian's shoulder in limping past. He heads towards the sink and sets his crowbar down on the counter to pump some water into it.

William rubs his forehead, as if he had a mild headache. The gunslinger seems a little unnerved by the scene in front of him.

He looks around at the various men and notices the bucket standing nearby. There's a distinct wiff of urin smell assaulting his heightened senses.

Then he shakes his head.
"Let me get this straight: While me and the priest were outside dealing with half-a-dozen blood suckers and giant black spider-scorpions from hell, all of you got together and dealt with one. Were you all busy pissing into that bucket?
And now Vega is threatening death and mayhem again?"

His tone is mildly amused, not something you'd expect from the deadly gunslinger.

"Marshal, you might want to reign in your deputy a little. Why don't we all have ourselves a truce until after we've dealt with Marina? Anybody know where she is? Or is it even her?
There's still at least one vampire unaccounted for, the one we met first."

"We let you take on the easy ones, Pierce, to boost your already considerable ego," he said dryly.

"I know you're a little late to the party, Pierce, so I'll try to explain this simply. If you want to talk to someone about keepin' a truce, you'll need to talk to Spades, who started shootin' after we dealt with the Celestial vamp. But if you're done bullshittin', there's still one vampire left in this house."

"Well, two, now that you're here, but don't tell that to Spades" he added under his breath, just for Pierce's hearing.

"Maybe that's the one you keep goin' on about. Go on and get 'er with your bad self."
This message was last edited by the player at 13:34, Wed 14 May 2014.

Jake shrugged then replied, "No." The others talked and talked, Jake waited. He was tired and had no desire to talk or think really as his mind felt like it was on edge of breaking.

Evans waits for Spades to finish his prayers. "Good!" he says. "Now, are we done with all this tomfoolery? Can we actually work together, for a short shining moment, or are we all going to be as ineffective as Mr. Pierce claims we are? I have people to treat, after all."

"Why not?" the clank asks, pattering around the jiang shi ("Howdy, Jingles!") and up near Jake to tilt its head at him. "If you remember God loves you you will have minus sad in, and high probability become a better person," it advises.

Spades, meanwhile, eventually looks up and notices William. "Oh, thank God, you're alive!" He struggles up, the blood from his belly and side smelling coarse but fresh. "Damn, Billy, I thought the Comanches had you for sure...then that guy who ain't Van Owen showed up here as a vampire, so even if you'd 'scaped them I reckoned he'd turned on ya..." the now-ragged hitman runs out of words, genuinely glad to see Pierce.

"I'll be right with you," O'Rourke calls from the kitchen, apparently tending his own wounds. "An' there'll be holy water in the sink here if anyone should need it. Those girls Pierce mentioned; might be best to take them some."

"I think that might be a good idea," he said, walking into the kitchen after the priest.

"I'll take some Padre, if you don't mind." He looked about for a container to see about getting water.

"That's got nothin' to do with repentin' tinny. God loves me regardless of what I've done or how unhappy I am with things that have happened in my life. As for peoples ... well I ain't the worse soul around these parts." Jake said quietly.