"First of all, we ain't gonna be torching nothing in this rain.  Second, we ain't here to torch the place.  We're here to bring the light of the Lord into the dark places, and there here place seems as dark as it gets.  Clemmons, lead the way."

"You're...you're gonna preach at them?" the wounded man queries, a kind of bewildered horror in his voice. He just stands folornly as the others move off, shaking his head a little. "Madness. The whole world's gone fucking nuts."

Both the others have pistols drawn. Clemmons pauses at the carriage house's outer door, tense. "Don't suppose you have any kind of plan for if we are walkin' into a bunch of armed, rabid madmen, by any chance?" he asks.

Behind them, the injured man's coughs turn to retching, faint under the rain, as he tries and fails to swallow whiskey.

In reply to Alistair Milburn (msg # 117):

"Didn\n't you hear the man?  I aim to preach at them.  Lead on!"

[[Did you pick up your cross and/or shotgun again, the Sarah?]]

"Oh," says Wes, with less than gospel enthusiasm. "Right." He gingerly pushes the door open.

{[CRASH]} *CLANG* *crunklecrinkle* *tonk*

Seems someone in the house set up a simple noise trap. Both men flatten themselves instinctively either side of the doorway, but no-one rushes out or starts shooting. Time is suddenly of the essence. Clemmons drops into a low, agile stance and Hank reacts without a word, moving swiftly into the dark carriage house then beckoning the older man on, covering him.

Clemmons is reaching for the doorknob when the inner door is hauled open; a strikingly beautiful barefoot lady stands on the threshold and blinks at them a few times.

"Hey, mister, you c'n have your flask back-" their friend from outside says, leaning in with caution.

The lady blinks again, focuses on him and snaps her fingers. "You." The wounded man's face goes blank and attentive like the lady just threw a switch in his brain. The woman points at Sarah.

"Kill," she says, and slams the door on them.

Then the man is suddenly airbourne, eyes blank and bared fangs aiming for Sarah's ample throat...


[[Agility vs. vampire, please! After that, draw init.]]

13:00, Today: Sister Sarah drew the single card: 3C using a deck of 54 cards. Init.
12:59, Today: Sister Sarah rolled 3,9 using d6,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 3,(6+3)9. Agility.

Fast as he is, Sister Sarah's reflexes are faster.

[[Alistair Milburn, rolled 3,1 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 3,1. vampire attack!! You beat him handily - make your move here, and your 3C'll go in the big mess of init. on the other thread next round, unless things fall out so that the fights're split evenly in two.

What weaponry do you have in hand?]]

Sarah slams her cross onto the ground, creating a shockwave that blasted the vampire off his feet.


21:58, Today: Sister Sarah rolled 15,7 using d12+2,d6+2, rerolling max with rolls of (12+1)13,5. Stun!

Thunder rolls, shaking dust from the ceiling.

Sarah's prompt action throws the vampire off, but only long enough for him to stumble and come back at her, growling low in his throat. Hank, however, steps back for balance, trips and falls over something in the gloom, going down with a crashing clatter and a final *rowrowrowr* of some small washer spinning to a stop. A sudden commotion of cawwing starts up outside.

[[Sarah's thunderclap manages to Shake both her allies. Milburn is also Shaken, but he has the end of his trigger action and the undead +2 to unshake anyway...as a vampire-hunting tip, thrusting a cross in their face (forcing an opposed Spirit roll) or adding Smite to things generally works better than Shaking everyone then mopping up by force.

...if you want to get your calmer, if somewhat ornery, buddy back, your best bet is probably grappling and Persuadin' him out of it, though Marina's near enough to fight your influence, so it'd be at -2.

Anyway, rolls:
Alistair Milburn rolled 3,0 using d8-1,d6-1, rerolling max with rolls of 4,1. avoiding Stun. Fail. Should be 1,-2 there, but no matter...
Hank Miller rolled 0,1 using d6-2,d6-2, rerolling max with rolls of 2,3. avoiding Stun. Fail.
John Wesley Hardin, rolled 2,1 using d8-2,d6-2, rerolling max with rolls of 4,3. avoiding Stun. Fail.

Alistair Milburn rolled 2,4 using d8+1,d6+1, rerolling max with rolls of 1,3. unshake? (end of trigger action) Unshaken, no raise.

Hank's turn: Hank Miller rolled 2,2 using d6,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 2,2. unshake? Fail. He was super-Shaken!]]

Clemmons finds his balance quickest, drawing a pistol in the same action and squeezing off a shot that takes the vampire right between the eyes as he lunges for Sarah again. The man goes down...then twitches, jerks and is up again, unnaturally fast.

[[John Wesley Hardin rolled 2,4 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 2,4. unshake Wes? Unshaken, no raise.
Since he has Marksman to cancel out his unshaking MAP, however, all he really has to worry about is the dark...not being so quick on the uptake and never having fought vampires before, he tries shooting 'em.

John Wesley Hardin rolled -1,15 using d10-2,d6-2, rerolling max with rolls of 1,(6+6+5)17. shootin'. Hit, raise.
John Wesley Hardin rolled 17 using 3d6+1, rerolling max with rolls of 3,4,(6+3)9. damage can has? Wound-level damage; the vampire is Shaken.

Al's turn:
Alistair Milburn, rolled 12,3 using d8+1,d6+1, rerolling max with rolls of (8+3)11,2. unshake? He unshakes with a raise! or so.
Alistair Milburn, rolled 2,2 using d6+1,d6+1, rerolling max with rolls of 1,1. *NOM*. He utterly fails to bite Sarah. Derpy vampire.]]

Sarah's sturdy arm wards off an attempt to bite as the inner door bangs open, this time revealing a sickly-pale young man with his spectacles askew and a rifle raised high. He stares at the fight, trying to work out whom, if anyone, he should shoot. "Where did she go?!" he demands generally, ignoring the people running up behind him.

[[Percy/the Dust Adders generally go on Hold, not knowing what the Hell is going on.]]

William steps into the carriage house, scanning the room for Marina.


10:52, Today: William Pierce rolled 8,7 using d6+4,d6+4, rerolling max with rolls of 4,3. Super-Notice!

Elbowing past Percy, William notices a tubby woman fighting the first vampire they met by flailing at him with a wooden cross, a guy who is either John Wesley Hardin himself or someone who looks a hell of a lot like him (though if he is, he must have been injured in jail or escaping, since descriptions William's seen and read don't include this guy's slight hunchback)...and that the angry, dead young man who's swearing like a miner having just fallen over the toolbox is Hank Miller.

"#'@;*&%£$..."

The mob of crowlets outside the partly-open outer door seem somewhat peripheral after that.

[[Sarah, go!]]

William freezes, his eyes narrowing.
"...Hank?" he rasps, his mouth suddenly dry.

On hold, I guess?

The lad doesn't seem to have heard William over the general chaos, instead trying to extricate himself from the remnants of the noise trap on the floor.

[[He's Shaken, actually, and apparently distracted:
Hank Miller rolled 3,1 using d6,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 3,1. Notice?

Talking's a free action, though, so feel free to get his attention and have a cheerful conversation whilst Sarah gets eaten by vampires over there...]]

(ugh... is there no end to these blood suckers?))

It takes him a second, but then a calmer, more rational part of him takes charge again. One thing at a time.

He focuses on the vampire attacking the woman. Still got two bullets left...

He muses, then pulls a stake from his belt and plunges the stake through the vampire's back, straight through his heart.
He keeps it there a second, just to see if the thing is "family"... or merely "hired help".


23:15, Today: William Pierce rolled 14 using 1d6, rerolling max with rolls of (6+6+2)14. red chip 2.
23:15, Today: William Pierce rolled 1,3 using d8-4,d6-4, rerolling max with rolls of 5,(6+1)7. red chip.
23:15, Today: William Pierce rolled -3,-3 using d8-4,d6-4, rerolling max with rolls of 1,1. White chip.
23:14, Today: William Pierce rolled -3,-1 using d8-4,d6-4, rerolling max with rolls of 1,3. Fighting?


23:21, Today: William Pierce rolled 8,1,7 (total 16) using d10,d4,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 8,1,(6+1)7. Stake damage plus bonus.

23:21, Today: William Pierce drew the single card: AC using the Deadlands system. Initiative.
Chip count already accounted for as of this post.

[[Oh! Sorry, I thought the Notice roll was your action...is that a function of Alertness or something? ...and yeah, 20 damage (with their Weakness) to a Lesser's gonna kill 'im. Since Marina suceeded in doing what she was doing on her action she's out of range for now, so all nonhuman nasties have vacated the vicinity.

...OUT OF COMBAT.]]

The vampire coughs, his eyes briefly something like human and confused as he sinks to his knees, blood that's spurted into his lungs and throat briefly flecking his lips before he keels over, a few hours' decay setting in over the course of a few seconds.

Hank startles slightly at the thud of the body on the ground and looks up at the killer, tensing. Then blinks. "Pierce?"

[[actually, Blood Meridian-based song for you. ^_^ ]]

Certainty takes hold, despite the beard. Startled preacher forgotten, the youth scrambles up, punches William in the shoulder and seizes him into the biggest hug he can manage. "Billy, you asshole, couldn't you hang about long enough to check a man was dead?"

Clemmons/Hardin just looks confused. Percy jogs over to the outer door, drops to a rifleman's crouch and peers out of it, readjusting his spectacles.
This message was last edited by the GM at 08:01, Thu 21 Aug 2014.

William staggers slightly, under the "attack" from Hank. His heightened senses immediately tell him what is going on.

He doesn't know....

"Take it easy, Hank... I had to hightail it out of there."

He gently pushes him away, making sure to keep his right hand available to re-draw the gun.
"What are you doing here? Have you been looking for me?" Then he nods at the others.
"And who are they?"
Then, almost as if it was an afterthought, "and where did she go?"

"I figured," Hank responds with a sidelong look.

"Been looking for you since I remembered where we left off - been working outrider for Union Blue awhile, y'know, scrip for scalps - caught a rifle stock to the head an'...lost chunks of memory, I guess. I still don't know who patched me up, or why I went North..." he shakes his head. "Anyhow, I figure there's some bits I won't ever get back, but once I knew where to start...I couldn't not try'n find you, Billy. I didn't even know if you made it out alive."

"Fell in with Clemmons here south of the States...he's got contacts an' we figured you might hide up in Blackthorn, too. He was headed down, it was getting kinda...hot in the Territories, we bin riding together since. Saved my life from the Comanches, too."

Hardin/Clemmons checks his gun over before putting it away. "Modest, kid - you fought like a demon with half the lance in there before you keeled over."

"It's a blur to me," Hank shrugs. "Guess I was feverish. This here's my all-new sister, Sarah, daughter of that show preacher that took advantage of my mama. She's a bit crazy but her aim's all right. Him I don't know," he nods down at Milburn. "He was quiet enough when we got here, then that woman told him to kill Sarah and he set in with the biting."

"I thought she went back inside the house," Clemmons/Hardin volunteers.

"Can't have - she must have gone through here, or she'd have passed me," Percy throws in. "B-blasted thing couldn't have gone more than a few steps before I was in the room with her..." his eyes widen and he stands hurriedly to see who's nearest the door inside.

"Abbie, Dave, ceiling!"

Inside, Abbie startles and crouches away from the ceiling, wooden sword raised, but her posture quickly confirms to those outside that there's no vampire immediately to be seen. "Clear here!" Abbie calls back.

"Ain't on the kitchen ceiling," Dave reports from further back.

"Who's out there?"

Sarah looked at the two men in confusion.  "Y'all want to tell me what the dickens is going on?"

"The crows're saying to be careful of a pretty lady running this way, presum'bly the one that set this sucker on you," Clemmons replies, toeing the corpse over to frown at the lack of bullet hole between the eyes. "Funny...was sure I got him good..."

Oh, and the kid seems to know this guy," he nods at William.

"Percy," the sickly, bespectacled young man corrects automatically at 'kid', then starts coughing wretchedly.

Sarah looks briefly at the corpse. then with a sudden Bible verse, slams the pointed end of her cross directly into its chest.

The corpse does not get any deader than when it was first staked: looks like this guy was only dead for a few hours, not long enough to crumble to bones or dust like other vampires Sarah's encountered.


[[Handy reference for ya. Incidentally, God says He would much appreciate more audible power trappings, to encourage listeners to recognise thy power cometh from Him and be comforted.]]

Sarah mumbled a few closing words, wishing the man's soul to heaven.  "It's time to move on."  She collected her cross and stood up.  "Which way?"

"Hello!" comes a shout from further inside the house. "Mr. Pierce! Who is that out there?"

Pierce narrows his eyes as Sarah raises her cross, then turns around.
"She was here a moment ago, Marshal! She didn't get out... if she's not in the kitchen, she must hide in here somewhere..."

Williams takes a few steps to the side, readying another stake and scans the darkness.

"They're not vampires, Marshal... I reckon as long as they're not trying to kill us we can handle introductions later."




Is there a carriage in the carriage house? any cupboards, barrels? I'm also looking at the ceiling.

12:14, Today: William Pierce rolled 7,11 using d6+4,d6+4, rerolling max with rolls of 3,(6+1)7. Super-Notice!
This message was last edited by the player at 14:55, Tue 26 Aug 2014.

"Out of the rain way - that woman's not here presently, so-" Hank's brain catches up to his ears and the reference to a CS marshal. "-o, uh...let's see if this place can hold up to a fight."

Clemmons starts and steps up into the house's laundry room. "Oh yeah, we outran a herd of something headed this way, could be Comanch' coming for a second swipe. They git your horses and bunkhouse? Something's afire out there."

"Bunkhouse," Percy confirms, spitting what he's hacked up onto a kerchief. "Save for Spades' horse in the living room, the vampires killed or drove off all of ours - we d-don't really have a choice but to stay."

He follows Clemmons/Hardin in and is promptly tackled into a slightly hysterical hug by his mother.


[[Please move over to the Upstairs, Downstairs thread, folks.]]