The jiang shi turns towards the loud sound with a single hop, then stands corpse-still as though confused or stunned, arms outstretched.

[[You going to move at all/have a direction in mind?]]

OOC:
Generally, I'd like to try and force the thing out of the house, so I guess Adrian would have to slowly 'circle strafe' with the mirror facing the jiang shi and providing cover for the Marshal to hide behind him as he moves, and then towards the jiang shi once he has the right angle.

Out in the hall, the sound of someone yelling right on the porch can be heard through the hole in the wall:

"ANYONE? You're on fire there!" There's some stomping and a pounding on the door, then movement at the hole, trying to clear splinters at eye level.

Jake and John can see Al move cautiously out of the dining room, gun and sharpened spoon at the ready.

"Hello? I'm a priest, I've come to help!"
Al pauses at that, looking anxiously back at the kitchen, then beckons someone to come down for backup.


[[@ Adrian - sure. Aiming for the front door in the hall or the exit Adrian may have worked out is in here somewhere? You have 6 squares of movement to use, and a table to avoid hitting and changing the mirror's tilt, so maybe best not to use all of them. Also I will remind you here to pay attention to details, so's you don't curse me later...]]
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:58, Mon 21 Apr 2014.

Evans cocks his head. "Sounds like Father O'Rourke." He says, then, since being quiet was no longer the goal, he began shouting back towards the front door.

"FATHER! GOOD TO HEAR FROM YOU!" he shouts, watching the creature for signs of it turning toward them. "WE ARE AWARE OF THE FIRE, BUT THERE IS ANOTHER SITUATION COMPETING FOR OUR ATTENTION! WOULD YOU KINDLY GO AROUND BACK TO THE KITCHEN? THERE IS A CREATURE THAT MR. PIERCE SHOULD BE ABLE TO HANDLE!"

There's a brief pause at that, There's a bit of what seems to be discussion and/or moving away out there, then:

"-Oh, and Pierce got rid o' the ting, that dark ting...one of your sunlight bottles. Is it Marina you're fightin'?"

"Afraid not! This is something else! Haven't found the Queen Rat yet!" Evans shouts back.

The jiang shi is now aligned directly with Evans. The corpse opens its mouth as though hoping to bite him at a distance, showing darkened, jagged teeth.

((OOC: Evans is still behind Adrian, so the jaing shi should still be looking straight into the mirror...))

((Provided Adrian's moving carefully wherever he's moving, when he decides...still, even if Evans is hiding behind Adrian behind the mirror, the thing can still hear him and express a vague, presently-frustrated desire to nom his chi. Amusingly - to me, anyway - Adrian's currently "invisible" to the jiang shi as long as he doesn't talk, since the mirror covers his manitou's primary anchor to his body at the death wound and he only breathes from habit.))

OOC:

Adrian is not going to be doing this at a run, but slowly as there are things all over the floor and he doesn't want to trip over anything, break the mirror, or fail to give Evans sufficient cover. At most, he will use three squares of movement instead of six, and his goal is to get Jingles out of the Kitchen, into the Foyer and out the front door of the house.

Jake had somehow managed to doze off, perhaps he was suffering from a little sleep deprivation. Evans yelling woke the hexslinger with a start, "Huh?!? Wha?!?" He looked around trying to figure out what was going on, his head swimming with the happenings prior.

OOC: Still alive/here, just REALLY behind due to the high post rate going on.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:47, Tue 22 Apr 2014.

[[Aw, sorry...I'll handwave that Jake got himself into the library and dozed off as Adrian was going downstairs - things are quieter in here.]]

"Coffee," the slender woman in her undies repeats, holding up a proper copper coffeepot. "Though if you'd rather sleep, there's always under the desk once Abbie's finished her prayer-paper. You look simply worn out!"

"Could you be more specific, Marshal?" William yells from outside.

"I wish I could, but I don't know what it is! Some kind of Celestial undead!" Evans shouts back. "I wonder if the wards will keep William out, too..." he muses to himself as he follows behind Adrian, his gryomounted pistol at the ready. "And I wonder if we should actually invite him in. Sure, he's our tame vampire, but he's still a bloodsucking fiend."

In reply to The Widow Bradshaw (msg # 121):

"Rough day, no way I should be sleepin'" Jake muttered as he pointed at the coffee, "I'll take some of that." He checked the six gun on his hip, before sliding it back into its holster. "What's going on Miss..."

The woman in her frillies pours a mug of coffee for Jake with remarkable grace and hands it over, setting the pot by the fire again. Being taken for a 'miss' makes her actually blush, covering her amused grin with one hand. As Jake wakes up and focuses, he can tell she's probably around 40, though less weathered than the average small-town woman and very attractive. "Mrs. Bradshaw. More precisely, Widow Bradshaw, though that sounds rather final. It's "til death do us part," after all, and I'm convinced the parting can be overcome...somehow..." She sighs and rubs at her bared arms, looking into the fire a moment before shaking out of it, suddenly all sunny smiles.

"The crows told me your name was Bitter Waters - are you one of those fellows who's lived with the savages?" The Widow Bradshaw kneels into a sitting position by the hearth.

Beside and a little behind Jake's chair, an ageing butler with his arm in a sling looks up. "On the subject of savages, sir, do you have news from town?"

The priest's voice echoes from the hall. "All right, we're heading 'round the back!"

Seven makes a bolt to get under the table, realising Adrian's circling will push the hopping corpse towards him; his rapid movement sends a fork skidding against an upturned saucepan. The jiang shi lunges with sudden hideous speed.

Seven cries out as he's tackled, then again as the jiang shi bites into his shoulder. Teeth like razors take an effortless chunk out of his coat and shirt, though fortunately the lethal points only scrape the skin beneath.

Thinking quickly, the fellow at the mini-barricade stands, picks up a crate and lobs it out into the hall - the jiang shi straightens and tries to leap towards the clatter at once, faceplanting onto the hefty table in the way with a dull *smack*. Seven hastily crawls under the table before it gets up again.

As Adrian edges around to keep the mirror trained on the undead, something heavy rolls into his ankle. It's the watermelon, which is weird because it was rolling the other way a moment before. Also weird that it seems to be - toothlessly - trying to maul him.

*zzzrl!* *zrrrl*


[[Rolls o' doom: The Seven of Spades rolled 3,0 using d8-1,d6-1, rerolling max with rolls of 4,1. Notice? He doesn't notice it's Adrian over there. Hilarity may ensue later. He Defends as he tries to move out of munch range, albeit away from the mirror, not really knowing what that's about.

The jiang shi gets a free attack as he moves from its immediate vicinity:
Tao Jing rolled 5,9 using d10,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 5,(6+3)9. fightin'. Hit, even on his raised parry.
Tao Jing, rolled 4,3 using d12,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 4,3. *NOM* -> 7 damage. Shaken for Spades.

The Seven of Spades, rolled 6,3 using d8-1,d6-1, rerolling max with rolls of 7,4. vigour vs. horrible deathage. Fortunately, he remains uninfected and it's already eaten all his Power Points, so it can't nom his vital chi without causing enough damage to Wound.

Harry decides to do something immediately helpful rather than drawing attention to himself with magic:
 Harry Lazarus, rolled 15,4 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of (8+7)15,4. Trick the jiangshi!
Tao Jing, rolled 1,3 using d4,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 1,3. Resist!
The jiang shi is very tricked. It would go after the crate, save there's a table in the way -> Shaken.

The Magic 8 Ball refused to tell me which of the two then-moving targets the vampire watermelon had selected, so this is alphabetical:
Alouette rolled 1 using 1d2, rerolling max with rolls of 1. *coinflip*.
vampire watermelons rolled 5 using 1d10, rerolling max with rolls of 5. *zzrl!*.

Adrian, Agility vs. 5, or be annoyed!

I'll get to Tao Jing when the above's resolved.]]

In reply to The Widow Bradshaw (msg # 124):

Jake shook his head at the comment about living with savages, "No ma'am, I did not spent time with the native population. Bitter Waters is what a rather crazy shaman named me as I'm still rather unhappy about having my wife and son die in my arms. My Christian name is Jake Lawrence." He turned to butler saying, As for town, things are difficult at best. Seems the natives are coming out to play and not in the fun way."

After a moment something hit him and he looked hard at the widow, "Did you say the crows told you my name?"

OOC:
Agility: 17

10:59, Today: Adrian Vega rolled 17,1 using d10,d6, rerolling max with rolls of (10+7)17,1. Agility.

Widow Bradshaw winces. "Oh, that is hard...I don't know what I'd do if I lost my baby, too. I'm sorry for your loss." She leans to lay a delicate hand on his knee in consolation, just briefly but with heavy sincerity for someone apparently content to flit about in undies. The querying of crows just makes her look confused.

"Why yes, they're out in the hallway there." She points out of the open door. "What's going on downstairs, darlings?"

The crows that hear her set up a cawwing.

"Many dead, sir?" the butler asks, tone soft but clearly concerned.

The jiang shi planks for a moment, then swings upright, hops back a couple of paces, then rapidly forward and onto the table. Steady-footed in the face of demonic melon attack, Adrian has to quickly refocus on the dead Chinaman to keep the corpse in the mirror's sights.


[[Tao Jing rolled 7,9 using d8+2,d6+2, rerolling max with rolls of 5,(6+1)7. unshake jiangshi. Unshaken with raise.

Tao Jing rolled 6,5 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 6,5. Agility.
Adrian, 6 Agility to beat, or risk being flanked/run (hopped?) away from.

Initiative!

Adrian Vega JS
vampire watermelon 10H
Ambrose Evans 4H
Tao Jing 3C
Harry Lazarus 3D
7 o' Spades 3S]]
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:19, Thu 24 Apr 2014.

OOC:

Initiative: JS
Agility: 6 (with a Red Chip)

16:29, Today: Adrian Vega rolled 1 using 1d6, rerolling max with rolls of 1. Red Chip.
16:29, Today: Adrian Vega rolled 3,5 using d10,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 3,5. Agility, don't fail me now!
16:28, Today: Adrian Vega drew the single card: JS using the Deadlands system. initiative.

19:14, Today: The Amazing Evans drew the single card: 4H using the Deadlands system.

With the reflexes of a mountain cat, the deputy keeps the mirror trained on the jiang shi.

[[Adrian, go!]]

In reply to The Widow Bradshaw (msg # 128):

"Can't say, we headed out here to try to stop things from going bad ... not sure what's happenin' in town now." Jake paused to listen to the crows before he said, "We should see about leaving, not sure where would be safe but this place is one of the centers of the problem that's happenin'."

"They say a priest is dealing with the porch and people are running around downstairs," Widow Bradshaw translates. "...we really should provide some help to a man of the cross - I'll let them out again in a moment. Would you like a pancake?"

The idea of leaving makes the lady laugh, covering the flash of teeth with her hand. "Oh dear - where would we go, even if we wanted to? We're surrounded by fifty miles of wilderness filled with Comanches, bears, mountain cats and Lord above knows what else on the landward side, and to the East, the Atlantic Ocean!"

She smiles, lowering her hand. "This library, in this house, is the safest place anywhere in a hundred miles. The walls are warded, the door and windows barred to unwholesome things by the Eighth Rite and the Triple Sigil; it's all right. You're safe here. You can sleep if you like."