Between 4 and 5 am Holy Saturday, April 12th, 1879. The Wendell Mine

Charging Bear, Augustus Spotswood, Carl Allens, Mad Irish Murphy, and Wildcat Hawkins make their way through the twisting tunnels, following both the mining cart rails and the seams of Ghost Rock in the tunnel walls. As they go deeper, flashes of silver gleam from the wall. Small veins of silver-lined quartz peak out of the chiseled walls of the mine. Combined with the Ghost Rock deposits, there's plenty of wealth for the town -- if it can ever be taken advantage of.

In a flash of foresight, Dr. Ward had thoughtfully left marks in the walls, allowing the group to track him and the Dust Adders.

Eventually, the man-made tunnels end, opening up into a natural cavern. Ward and the Dust Adders stand in the middle of the cavern, examining what appears to be a skeleton.

Carl scans the ceiling, tensed, trying to forget the weight of rock above it, then glances to the others to check they're seeing what he is. His nostrils flare at the odd scent of the place, deep underground.

Wildcat just calls across to Ward, striding over as she does so. "What's the holdup, Doc?"

Charging Bear's eyes kept scanning the tunnel as the group had proceed through waiting for something to jump out. A slightly shiver ran up his spine, but it was ignored. He'd been having a lot of such feelings of late and they weren't much help at telling him what was truly happening around him.

"Skeleton ... takes a lot to rot the flesh from a man in a short time."

"It is fortunate, then, that this poor fellow was not reduced to bones in a short time." Ward says as he examines the corpse.

The skeleton does, indeed, seem to have been a while. It is dusty, clad in scraps of long-dried buckskin. A second skeleton, that of some large serpent, is wrapped around it, the skull caught on the buckskin around the first skeleton's shoulder.

"I believe this may have been one of the Karankawa warriors who fought Our Enemy back in the distant mists of time." Ward says. "I do not want to disturb the poor devil, but he may have clues as to how the Karankawa defeated the Brood in the first place."

Carl jerks his head to suggest they head onward, uneasy. "..."

"We did git some snake venom on our sharps," Wildcat says, patting her blocky coffin-handled knife, then bends to peer at the semi-mummified bones. "Ah tell ya, I ain't right keen ter mess with more injun magic...an' this fella weren't exactly one o' th' winners ennyhow."

The skeleton has a bow and a quiver of five arrows, as well as a knife that is plunged into the snake. The dagger looks to have been made from an ancient fang, even larger than the fangs of the serpents already encountered.

"Ah, but this Indian magic was employed along our aims." Ward says. "And unless you brought enough venom-coated weapons for each of us, then we will need all that we can carry."

Wildcat looks over the Dust Adders with some perplexity. "Then what are y'all waitin' fer?"

Noting that Carl hasn't come up, she looks back and catches his gesture - two fingers pressed meaningfully to the forehead. (I want corpses shot, so's even if they try to walk, they cain't git no-one.)

The Ranger sighs. "I guess there's no harm takin' their heads off afore gettin' them weapons, if'n we put them back after careful-like. I'm sorry, Injun, I really am. Hey, Festively Plump - get the snake's, willya?" She reaches to work the man's skull off and set it aside.

Murphy looks up at the mine ceiling.
"Forgive us, Jesus.", then he crosses himself.

Henry nods, and goes about pulling the snake skeletons free of the Indian skeleton, then pulls the fang knife from the dead man's hand. "Huh." he says as he looks it over. "Feels warm, and there's a squishy bit wrapped here. Wonder why it's like that..."

{{BANG! AIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!}}

The gunshot screams out of the darkness, accompanied by an unholy wailing. Heavy Henry pitches backward, propelled by the force of the shot, blood spurting from his shoulder as he collapses in a heap.

"Well, well, well..." says a chuckling voice from out of the darkness. "Ain't this all convenient? All my friends and enemies, gathered up in one place! How y'all doin', friends? Miss me yet?"

That's the voice of Nathanial Frost!
This message was last edited by the player at 18:18, Sun 17 May 2015.

Carl walks evenly out between the voice and the rest of the Dust Adders, knife in hand, heading towards the killing darkness. He gives it the finger, with an air of being very bored of this shit.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:20, Sun 17 May 2015.

Praying between gritted teeth that the Adder knew what he was doing, Wildcat takes advantage of the shielded moment to wrest the fallen man's clothing away from his wound and see if anything can be done.

Carl paces, tired, half-naked and very much alive, his lifted curse and continued heartbeat a challenge. Hopefully one that would distract the damn twisted ghost long enough for Jeb to get a stab in.

Augustus's eyes narrowed, but he dropped to one knee behind Henry.

OOC: Is Frost visible? What's the currently layout/area configuration?
If CB can see Frost, then Frost is going to get shot.

Murphy rushes to Henry's side as well.
"It's alright, it's alright, mate. Piece a'cake, you big baby, here, here, let the lady see... Jesus Christ, that is a nice bullet hole, Henry! That'll be a boon with the ladies when it's all nice and healed up."

He gently slaps Henry's face. "Hey, stay with me, mate, alright, focus now!"

He looks over his shoulder towards Carl... and Nathaniel. Nathaniel Bloody Frost. Nobody ever had the decency to stay dead and quiet in this town. He would have to talk to his Flora about it. Maybe they'd move away after all this, maybe a nicer place. Like a snake-filled island in a sea of shit.
Murphy barks out a quick laughter, but brings it down to a chuckle, then slaps Henry a bit harder.
"You'll be fucking alright, I tell ya!"

Henry groans under Murphy's minstrations. He's still alive, but barely.

((OOC: Murphy, you can tell that Henry needs immediate medical attention, but he's still alive. You can either try a healing roll to stabilize him yourself, or you can try to get one of those who actually have healing abilities to help out))

The cavern is as large as a barn, but no figures are visible in the gloom. Nathanial's voice echoes off the cavern walls.

"Aw, Carl, have I made you mad? I'm terribly sorry. Wait, no I ain't. You want to square down with me? Fine. But you ain't gonna punk me like you did last time. It's almost over now, anyhow. Soon the snake will wake, and that will be that. My brother, you, your worthless drunkard of a father, every son-of-a-bitch who wouldn't give me my due when I was alive--all will go down his gullet. Hell, I don't even have to kill you. All I gotta do is make sure none of leave here."

There's an audible *click* of a cocking hammer.

"Of course, it's more fun for me to shoot you like fish in a barrel, with you never seeing which one I'm aiming at, wondering which of you is gonna get it next. I like that plan a lot."

((OOC: The cavern is a big, irregular oblong, roughly fifty feet long and about twenty five feet wide (10 squares by 5 squares, though picture it shaped like a jellybean rather than a box). The skeleton is near the cave mouth you came from, maybe about 15 feet from the cave. There's another exit on the other side of the chamber--it looks like a tight squeeze.

Nathanial Frost is not visible at the moment...anyone who wants to try locating him will need to make a Notice roll at -6 to pinpoint him. Charging Bear, I'd like you to roll me a d6 to represent Jeb's attempt at sneaking up on Nathanial. He's an Extra, so he doesn't have a Wild Die.))

Jeb wasn't stealthy in life and that followed him into ghost hood

Charging Bear drew his cursed pistol and closed his eyes. The noise in the place was what he wanted to focus on, with Frost being hidden from view he needed to let his ears do the heavy lifting.

OOC:
11:22, Today: Charging Bear rolled 1 using 1d6, rerolling max with rolls of 1. Jeb - Notice.

11:23, Today: Charging Bear rolled -4,-1 using d6-6,d6-6, rerolling max with rolls of 2,5. Notice (-6 invisible).
Burn a blue chip to add to that -1
11:24, Today: Charging Bear rolled 9 using 1d6+2, rerolling max with rolls of (6+1)7. Blue Chip (+2 Elan).
1-+9 = 8!
If I can shoot before Frost I will.. or will roll to see if I can :)

((OOC: That's a raise, so yeah, you know exactly where the spirit is. Go ahead and make your shot. Remember that Frost is undead, so your bonus applies. The raise from Notice roll will cancel out some of the penalty from him being invisible. So make your shooting roll, -4 for him being in pitch black, +the bonus from the gun--I think it cancels it out, making it a straight roll.))

Charging Bear smiles ever so slightly then spins slightly on his heels. A single shot roars from the big damned dragoon in his hand echoing through the cave.

OOC: 13:13, Today: Charging Bear rolled 2,3 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 2,3. Shootin'.
Burn a blue to get a +d6
13:13, Today: Charging Bear rolled 7 using 1d6+2, rerolling max with rolls of 5. Blue Chip (+2 Elan).
10 is a hit w/ raise unless noted otherwise.
13:17, Today: Charging Bear rolled 11,5 using 2d6+6,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 1,4,5. Damage (Gun +4 Undead +1 Grim, Raise).
11 (1 wound) or 16 (2 wounds) if a raise

There's an inhuman wail from the area Charging Bear aimed at, followed by more wailing as specteral shouts scream out of the darkness.One of the ghostly bullets wings Charging Bear in the side.

((OOC: Yup, that's a Raise alright, so he has to soak 2 wounds.

He soaks only one leaving him with 1 wound. As a ghost that doesn't throw his aim off any, but it's a definite hurt.

He's going to return fire at Charging Bear, and he's pissed off enough at being interrupted that he's going to Fan The Hammer.

Out of 6 shots, only one hits Charging Bear. I messed up while imputting stuff into the die roller (I hate posting from phones) so ignore that first damage roll--he hits CB for 13 damage, which is 1 wound unless he soaks. none of his other shots roll low enough to trigger Innocent Bystander hits. If you want Jeb to make an attack, he has a d6 fighting, a Strength od d6, and a knife that deals str+d4 damage. Otherwise, someonelese gets an action.

Jeb has no attack penalties, the rest of you have a -4 to hit him because he's still mostly invisble (though his shouts give you a pretty good idea of the gneral direction to aim at.) ))

As the spirit wails and shoots, a dark look passes over Ward's face."Frost," he mutters, grbbing his black bag and opening it, "You should have had the good sense to stay dead. But then, you always were a hot-headed, monumental idiot."

He pulls a large bowl, a tube filled with salt, and a box of matches. He reaches into one of his pockets and removes a small nugget of black coal flecked with white impurities.

"But I would have thought," he says as he begins pouring the salt out in a wide circle, "even in the depths of your idiocy, that you'd have remembered one simple, vital fact about myself before you thought to sell your soul and haunt me and mine."

He placed the nugget of Ghost Rock in the tiny silver bowl, lit a match, and tossed it in. The shriek of the burning rock filled the room. Ward knelt by the burning censure and began a low chant.

"NATHANIAL FROST! I name you! He shouted, wafting the smoke into the circle of salt.

The ghostly gunman stopped wailing.

"NATHANIAL FROST! I Summon you!" Ward shouted again.

Inside the circle of salt a figure began to form. Ethereal at first, it grew more and more solid, the smoke coalescing into the form of a dark-haired, black-clad gunslinger, eyes burning blue, a hole through the center of his head oozing black blood, another, fresher wound on his arm.

The ghost began screaming, though no sound came from it. It thrashed and threw itself at the boundaries of the circle, bouncing off as if the ring of salt were a solid wall.

"NATHANIAL FROST!" Ward shouted, triumph gleaming in his eyes, a feral grin on his face. "I BIND you!

THe ghost of Nathanial Frost stiffened, rigid. Ward laughed.

"What an imbicile  you are, Mr. Frost." Ward said. "Why, the very first techniques I mastered were meant to find and call to the souls of the dead.  I can hardly beleive...."

THe ghost began to chuckle. Ward stopped speking, confused.

"...that I wouldn't have thought of your mojo when I made my pact with Tezcatlcoatl?" Nathanial Frost said, laugs openly now. he moved, unstiffening and reaching down to flick the line of salt, scattering it and breaking the circle as easily as anyone living might have. "Well, as it turns out, I would have, and did. And I was countin' on you bein' so arrogant that you'd try that on me down here. In the snake's very own lair."

THe cavern began to rumble.

"Oh. Oh dear." Ward gasped.

((OOC: Ward attempts to use his Contact Spirit World power to bind Nathanial's ghost into service. He makes his roll, but Nathanial gets a lucky roll on the opposed spirit check and breaks the binding. Nathanial Frost is currently manifested, but uncontrolled. They banter a bit, and now...now not-so-good things are happening.

WArd, nathanial, and Charging Bear have all gone. The rest of you (nd Jeb) still have actions.))

Wildcat scowled back at the ghost a moment, but belayed the remonstrance welling up in her chest. "O Lord, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters."

She shook her head, pausing to tug off her right glove and press the bared palm to the wound. "R'peat this after me, Adder: 'Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise.'"

Wildcat pressed hard against the welling blood, shuddering a moment as pure, cold grace channeled through her. When she took her hand away, there was only the faintest scar under the smears.


[[Wildcat Hawkins, rolled 12,3 using d10,d6, rerolling max with rolls of (10+2)12,3. holy healing, Batman! ]]

Carl had automatically twitched away from Charging Bear's shot and tensed at the binding attempt, disliking it even if the Nate's ghost had been twisted by the Snake into an echo of all the worst in the man.

The rumbling in the walls, however, caused his breath to bate on the indraw with sheer terror, an instant of paralysis. Cave-in!

The aches of his body were starting to drift through the drug-haze; on the next instant the twinge across his ribs told him there was still air, still space, and he could breathe.

Keep moving.

Carl motions the others urgently back towards the walls and starts heading up to the far exit, ready to stand against anything disturbed by the tremors whilst those with magics dealt with Nate. If the ghost took the shift of attention as a slight, so much the better.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:54, Tue 11 Aug 2015.