"Hey, you leave my Ma alone," the skinny lad says, interposing himself between William and Widow Bradshaw. The widow leaves off shrinking against Evans when her son turns and crouches to check on her and throws herself at him, gathering him with an instinctive, animal movement to her chest. Percy puts up with it, seeing she's upset. "I'm all right, Ma. I'm fine. My chest even came clear just now; I can breathe again."

"I don't think it was her that brought it, Billy - my sister started talking to the steer that did that-" Hank nods at the partly-splintered doorpost, "-and it kinda stopped being a cow and exploded into a snake-man-thing. It said it'd stop the cows and make everyone healthy if it could get someone from the house and she didn't try to stop it. Sarah agreed, but said it couldn't take one of her flock, so it took the priest...and it took her."

"Lost hearts to bring the serpent's kin/a fire in the old circle, the black knife bright again..." the clank murmurs up on the counter. William - and Adrian, as he joins the party - notice in looking that way that John Wesley Hardin has four arms.

The widow whimpers faintly. After running her hands through Percy's hair enough to neurotically reassure herself her baby is most definitely alive and safe, she takes a deep breath and gives him a proper hug. "I didn't call the creature, no, but Dexter...it was his project, to put the little healing entities in the cattle, because of the, the nasty Fever - all the beef around was dying, it was so terrible...we thought we might lose it all again, there'd be nothing to eat. Only Ward found Tezcatlcoatl, sleeping: so much power for good, you know, if we just tapped the entity or the ones like it...I-I tried-" she bursts into tears again.

"-I can't talk about it. I can't. I'm a wretched excuse for a woman, but...but...I don't know how many there are. Of the bigger ones. Not many. Ward took some of the hands to put Tezcatlcoatl down properly, he said, but I don't know what he meant to do...and he's as bad as me but maybe worse, because I've got Percy and all his girls are dead, and his son, but I was scared of the Comanche and I didn't say anything and I didn't stop him and what is he going to do he's going to die-"

"Breathe, Ma," Percy reminds her.

"-and Nathaniel - Nathaniel, it turned him into a kind of spectre. A ghost that can harm people! He could be anywhere...and I tried to get Whateley to see if he could do anything about it when Nate struck Percy with the curse, but he tried to shave hours off Percival's life, so I punched him and he went off in a screaming huff and then he- he-" she gestures at the general destruction.

"-and poor Miss Thingy - Sarah - I didn't even think, I, I was just so worried these past few days with all the awful things in town...Landers getting shot and the Ranger blowing things up, and, and I heard there was an Indian who came in and raped a woman...and the dead Federals, oh, I'm sure it's Ward did that, and he might have starved them some, maybe, but not murdered them...but, but I sort of knew they were there and I didn't stop him, and I wrote Sarah I was lying awake from it all, with the walkers, and her last letter said she was in the area and that she'd drop in on me to visit and I didn't even remember with everything going on. I didn't even realise that was her...and she came, and now one of the big snakes has her and there's nothing you can do to those: they don't die unless they kill each other. Like Gus, they don't die...you can kill them but they don't die, and I'm going to Hell and I'm frightened and I want to kill myself but I can't."

Percy hugs back at this, hiding his own distress. "Ssh, Mama, ssh."

PM:

Upstairs, Gangatsu starts re-lighting the hallway lamps as folk venture out to see what's going on.

In the foyer, Dave throws his coat over and stomps out the last of the flames on the body of the cow torched by Evans, hindered somewhat by the quartet of young puppies under his arm and one in his shirt.

"The hell?" he muttered quietly as he saw the four armed man. No one else seemed to be having much of a reaction to it, so he thought perhaps he'd address that situation later if at all.

"Take it easy Percy. Pierce ain't gonna do anything to her while we're around. Mrs. Bradshaw, you know me and my kin, and I hope you know I'm just here to help. I believe I've shown that so far. I respect that you've got a society and it has secrets; I'm in much the same position. But we can help, and you know things we need to know.  Things are gettin' worse before they'll get better as it is, so this ain't the time for secrets."

Adrian starts fumbling about the area to see where the edibles are kept.

OOC:

• Adrian Deals with the Devil and I drew a Straight, giving him 6 power points to use for the spell.
• Adrian's Spellcasting result is 10, so it goes off with a raise.
• His Persuade ability goes up two steps to a d12.
• After the use of a white chip, Adrian's Persuade result is a 4.

Note: Above results were retrospectively reduced by 1 to account for Fatigue.

15:53, Today: Adrian Vega drew the 11 cards: 10S, KH, 2D, QC, 5S, 8C, AS, JD, 9C, 8H, AC using the Deadlands system. Boost.
15:57, Today: Adrian Vega rolled 5,11 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 5,(6+5)11. Spellz.
15:59, Today: Adrian Vega rolled 4,5 using d12,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 4,5. White Chip Reroll.
15:59, Today: Adrian Vega rolled 2,1 using d12,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 2,1.

This message was last edited by the player at 22:03, Tue 18 Nov 2014.

"I don't-" Widow Bradshaw falters. "What do you need? I mean, I-I don't know how to get them back..." Her eyes go wide, already bright with salt water. "Oh Lord. Oh, no."

"I think I know what he's going to do." She eases away from Percy, looking around as though kitchen objects will miraculously turn out to be something - anything - that might help. Adrian, rifling cupboards, finds an odd lack of fresh produce at present: there are some eggs that look fine, a certain amount of dried goods and preserved items, but the only meat to be had besides a jar of some kind of pickled fish is found among the cans in the pantry. Devilled turkey, tuna, and an excessive number of that SPAM stuff he'd seen in the general store, presumably to supply the cat.

"Liberarme, por favor," the floor under his boots pleads, then resumes a scared, doglike whimpering.

"We - the Society - we used ghost rock for our contact with major entities because it has an extremely similar aetheric signature to human life-essence under duress...to get similar results without it you'd need to...to make someone very afraid and then hurt them a lot before you killed them. You could contact Tezcatlcoatl that way...or draw down a physical manifestation of something less massive and he's going to kill the priest, he's going to torture the priest to death and those heathens used to cut right up into the ribs whilst they were still alive, ohgodhecan'thecan-" the widow trails off into a wordless whine of distress, before bursting out: "-and he called Sarah his wife! He's going to...to.."


[[All right...anything specific you want from her?]]

Adrian sorted through the food. He kept the eggs and the spam in one area, the pickled fish and tuna disdainfully moved to another side. He first went for the turkey, setting to it like he was on a mission as he listened to the widow.

"No time for that. Where you think he done took 'em?" he asked between gulps.

Adrian looks curiously at the ground where he heard the voice, though he tried to stay focused on what Widow Bradshaw was saying.

"¿Que pasa?" the floor asks, scratching at the hatch currently wedged down by a table. "¿Hay alguna mas peleas?"

"I don't know!" Widow Bradshaw cries in exhausted despair. "I don't know...I don't know..."

"All the snake stuff was Ward's project," Percy says, half-accepting and half simply catching his mother as she falls back against him. "There might be notes'n stuff somewhere in his study or the library."

"I think a thing like that should leave some track, if we're fast enough with a good lantern," Hank opines.

Hardin hooks his normal thumbs into his gunbelt, putting another hand on his hip and rubbing his jaw with the last. "Reckon we're jest down a couple preachers - the way that thing was going it could be halfway to Mexico by now. Sorry, Hank."

"I'm going to search for 'em even if you don't," Hank says quietly. "She's my sister and he's Billy's friend, which makes him good as my friend too."


[[The Widow Bradshaw rolled 3,2 using d8-1,d6-1, rerolling max with rolls of 4,3. any ideas, Liz? Nope.]]

Evans begins making a more detailed examination of Liz's wounds as she speaks. Listening to the folks around him speaking, he added his own thoughts to the mix.

"If we're going to save the town from those snake entities, we're going to need to know what we are up against. On the other hand, folks are in danger, and I do not relish the idea of that...thing having it's coils on either O'Rourke or--Hank, was it? Hank's sister. Thus, a conundrum. Have we dealt with the vampire plague here sufficiently that we can mount a rescue?" He glances at the floor. "Liz...who is that trapped beneath the floor?"

((OOC: Going to spend 10 minutes treating Liz's injuries with Healing.

22:18, Today: The Amazing Evans rolled 1,8 using d4,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 1,(6+2)8. Healing. Even with the -1 penalty from Liz's wounds, that's a success.))

"Rattlesnakes. They're all big rattlesnakes, and they're smart," Percy says whilst his mother grits her teeth against Evans' movements as the Marshal dresses her wounds. She shudders at the mention of snake coils on the kidnapped.

"Ss...the one my birds have got outside will need finishing off...there's at least one more out there...but, but we don't know where the Comanches have got to..."
She looks over at the wedged table. "I don't know...sounds like a Mexican."

"Some kinda leprechaun, I heard," says Dave, joining them with his armful of orphaned dogs. "The Hell happened here?"

"¡No soy 'leprechaun'!" the floor protests.

"Self is high up!" The clank observes cheerfully. "...self is stuck," it adds, looking at the floor and failing to calculate a safe jump vector.

"More vampires, huh? I'll handle them. meanwhile, you figure out how we get the priest and the nun back."

Pierce takes a moment to make sure he has three steaks with him, then makes for the door.
As he passes Hardin, he gives him a slight nod. "Looks like you got a rough day, too."

"Says it ain't no leprechaun," he clarified for the others.

After Adrian had dispensed with the turkey, picked up the tuna. It all seemed to taste like ashes in his mouth anyway, but he was feeling better. Popping open the can, he found a spoon and began to work on this one as well. Kneeling down to speak a little closer to the floor, he addressed whatever non-leprechaun was talking to him.

"La lucha ha terminado...no te preocupes," he said to the floor, curiously. "Quién...Cuál eres tu?"
This message was last edited by the player at 15:26, Wed 19 Nov 2014.

"A herd of snake spirit-infested cattle driven by vampire cowboys stampeded through the house. Then a nun called out one of the snake spirits, and made a deal with it that if she went with it, it would call off the attack." Evans says. "Mr. Baines, could you help Alouette down from her perch there?" He looks over to Liz. "Those birds...you control them? Or they are at least friendly to you? Do you think you could ask them to search for the missing preachers once the vampires are dealt with? A birds-eye view of the matter would make finding them much easier."

"Huh," is all Dave's remark to that. He looks warily at the clank, then hands Evans a puppy. "Hold that, then," he scowls, passing the other three in his arms down to the Bradshaws. The one in his shirt whines for its siblings a moment, but quickly settles against his chest as he goes to offer his hands to the clank to steady it.

"I can ask them. They're not terribly predictable, but they respond well to cake...if...I think the sugar's upstairs, but I-I could get on that." Her look is a little pleading, desperate to do something to help. One of the puppies on her lap starts licking her fingers.

"You sure?" Hank asks William, ready to back him up at a word.

Hardin just flicks his plaster-dusted hatbrim with his extra right hand, having clearly passed the point of exhasperation at least as long ago as Pierce himself. "Tell me about it."

The floor speaks in soft murmurs of Spanish to Adrian as he eats his tuna.

Evans takes the puppy with as much grace and decorum as he can muster. "Yes, that sounds good." Evans says to Liz. "We need some starchy food for those who were attacked by Toe Jingles to keep them from transforming into even more vampires, so that cake would serve a double purpose. Good idea." He smiles at her. Then he looks at Hank. "You should probably find ammunition first."

"There's a Chinese priest or somethin' up there makin' prayers to put on the Chinese vampires. Seems to keep 'em in their places. If you ask me he should keep crankin' em out just in case things get outta control with 'em," he said before going back to the strange task of talking to the floor in Spanish.

"I'll get the stove hot," Widow Bradshaw says with determination, handing her puppies to Percy. "Percy, darling, see if you can find out if the serpent sorcerer meant he'd cure the men infected with hopping death disease as well as you when he said he'd chase disease from the house."

Percy looks a little bemused, hushing his armful of dogs until they settle. "Dave, do these go upstairs?"

"Yeah, I figger the living room wards're shot. Nothin' to be done for the horse, but might as well keep 'em safe. Cat'll have to make do."

Hank starts a little and looks about for the gun Hardin threw at him. "That work on vampires?" he asks.

The floor growls suspiciously at Adrian's answer, though there are some words in there.

"What? Guns? Tickles them." Pierce replies as he pushes the third stake into his belt. Then he picks up a fourth. "Got to get real close and personal with them."

He throws Hank the stake. "If you want, I could use some backup. But I got some experience with them by now. Don't try to proof anything. You look out and distract them, got it, Hank?"

I think that's what I told you when you were desperate to join up with me the last time, too. Pierce realizes.

Hank catches the stake left-handed. "Sure," he says, probably thinking he's sincere.

Adrian looks warily at the pickled fish. I'd rather go downstairs and bust open that watermelon, he thought as he looked at the floor for more conversation.


"Hold on one sec," he said, looking for some loose floorboard the priest might have pried up to stow away a prisoner.

[[Dude, you're in the kitchen, you went down there after Pierce. Also, never eat The Fruit That Sucks Back. Nor anything else with blood-based regenerative powers. That is almost as bad an idea as drinking the zavarka...though it might result in an even more horrifying Alien parody...zzzrl!]]

"Muy bien," the floor assents. The hatch to the cellar under the pantry is weighted closed by the repositioned kitchen table. A man of Adrian's strength should be able to shunt it off quite easily, though now his spirit friend has had a chance to evaluate the turkey he feels abruptly drowsy.


[[At least until he realises he doesn't have to. Looking up a large can of turkey then how many ulbs are in an ozz, I think you're de-Fatigued, though Little Friend is suggesting some sleep sometime. It might get insistent in a bit, so watch out.

On which note, it's about 2.5 hours 'til William's bedtime, too...]]
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:23, Mon 24 Nov 2014.

"Before y'all go, I think the priest trapped some kinda thing down here that speaks Spanish. Some kinda leprechaun, I think. Anyway, it says that it'll come help you fight the other vampires," he said. Just in case it was a trap, he had his gun out and pointed at the hatch as he put his weight against the table to push it aside. He opened the hatch warily with one hand, quickly flipping it open and pulling his hand back, letting the thing come out but ready for trouble.

"Let's see what we got here. Ven aquí"

OOC:

Yeah, that was a joke Adrian made to himself. He didn't actually ever seriously intend to eat the watermelon. I'm not sure he actually knows it's vampiric, but he still probably figures it'd be bad to eat a fruit that can attack you.

Hardin looks over warily at Adrian's warning. There's a scratch and a scrabbling from the dark cellar, then the creature is suddenly there, its leap too fast for the eye to follow. It looks like a cross between a Xolo hound and Jake the Alligator Man with a stringy mop of greyish-white hair running down in a mane between the spikes flanking its backbone.

Huge dark eyes narrow at both the light and the gun. "Me llames un leprechaun un otra vez, voy te morder," she warns Adrian.

"Howdy, Dog Lady!" the clank chirps.

"-the Hell is that?" Hank asks, squinting as though that'll help make sense of the abomination.

The creature raises its head and sniffs, then looks back at Adrian quizzically, muscles tensed to move if he tries anything. "¿Sabes tu amigo es un vampiro, sí?"

[[Technically she should cause a Guts check, but you knew she was there, so I'll leave that to any poor sod currently out of the room/not expecting her...]]
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:42, Tue 25 Nov 2014.

Jake sat there in the mud, his heart still pounding in his chest. He felt like sitting there a bit longer but in him made his eyes scan the area looking for what was going on.

OOC:
08:32, Today: Jake Lawrence rolled 4,5 using 1d10-2,1d6-2, rerolling max with rolls of 6,(6+1)7. Notice (-2 GM).

Between the description of being a Mexican woman and a coyote, he wasn't exactly sure what was going to turn up or if he could trust it's motives

"Sí, lo sé...Everyone go ahead and relax. He lowered his gun as an example, sufficiently certain that if it meant to attack them it would've done so already. And it was outnumbered. "This is...Josefina. Josephine, I guess you can call 'er if it's alright with 'er. She's differently alive too. Says she'll help us do for the other vampires. The bad ones. And she understands English, though I don't think she speaks it."

"Me llamo Adrián. El otro vampiro se llama Guillermo. Él no es amigo, pero estamos en el mismo equipo. Nos está ayudando a matar a los otros vampiros."
This message was last edited by the player at 15:55, Tue 25 Nov 2014.

"Jaqui am. No speak English, too bad English," the thing confirms, suddenly on the shifted table beside Adrian to sniff at his emptied cans. "-Pero comprendo la mitad o más bastante bien."

The creature seems thoroughly amused by Adrian's easily-won trust, but seems inclined to keep the word given to the priest: given the way she moves, she could easily have been across lots before Adrian finished pulling the trigger. "Si tú lo dices...el mulato es muerte también," she adds, looking warily over at the vampire-hunting party. "¿Son seguros?"

Hardin looks thoughtfully from creature to Hank.