The blast from Evans' flamethrower envelops the briefcase-waving dead thing. It seems to flinch, just for a moment, then continues to shamble mindlessly onward on fire, bits falling off as it goes. It collapses into a flaming heap mere paces later, leaving a corridor of fire across the grass.

Alouette keeps running to intercept the deadder barely kept at bay by the woman's flailing. "Fear not, mortal! Plus plus help is arriving!"



[[20:10, Today: Alouette, on behalf of The Amazing Evans, rolled 9,5 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of (8+1)9,5. flamethrowin'.
Pit body rolled 7 using 1d4, rerolling max with rolls of (4+3)7. Agility. Hit.
20:32, Today: Alouette, on behalf of The Amazing Evans, rolled 12 using 2d10, rerolling max with rolls of 8,4. damage. That's exactly 1 wound for the taxman, which puts him down.

20:37, Today: Alouette, on behalf of The Amazing Evans, rolled rolls of (6+3)9,(6+6+4)16. fire check. Oh, and both the corpse and the surrounding grass are On Fire. Fortunately the wind is primarily fanning the flames away from y'all.

Alouette spends its turn running to get into grab range, and our damsel tries to kick her deadder over so that she can run away...
21:10, Today: Alouette rolled 6 using 1d6. running.

Maria rolled 1 using 1d4, rerolling max with rolls of 1. fightin'. *flail*

William, go!]]

William barely registers the falling undead in the fire.
He strides forward and, in one swift motion, pulls his eerie Ghost Gun from it's holster, squeezing off two shots in rapid sucession, the bullets screaming towards the.. thing... trying to feed on the woman.

Both bullets hit the back of the skull, jerking the thing's head to the right and back.

Chipcount was: W2R3B4

Total result... 4+3=7
20:17, Today: William Pierce rolled 4,-1,3 using d10-3,d6-3,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 7,2,3. White chip, re-roll everything.
20:17, Today: William Pierce rolled 3 using 1d6, rerolling max with rolls of 3. blue chip on top.
20:16, Today: William Pierce rolled -1,-1 using d10-4,d6-4, rerolling max with rolls of 3,3. white chip.
20:16, Today: William Pierce rolled -1,-3 using d10-4,d6-4, rerolling max with rolls of 3,1. Headshot.

20:19, Today: William Pierce rolled 15 using 3d6+2, rerolling max with rolls of (6+1)7,3,3. Ghist gun damage double-tap.

Initiative:
20:20, Today: William Pierce drew the single card: KD using the Deadlands system. Initiative.

The back of the dead thing's skull thuds softly into the grass some way away, held together by scraps of scalp. The body clacks its jaw a moment on idiot reflex then simply keels over.

The woman flinches away from the fall and crawls rapidly into the longest grass she can find that's not on fire before curling into a ball.

Alouette attempts to halt the last visible lurching form, but the thing just tears free, leaving the clank with a patch of shirt. It staggers in a wide arc from momentum before re-aligning itself towards the nearest moving thing, which happens to be Hank.


[[Y'know, usually I'd try to soak that on principle, but wow, the dice roller must've been missing CB there. Right. Alouette tries to grab the remaining deadder:

21:41, Today: Alouette rolled 3,3 using d4,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 3,3. fightin'.

21:42, Today: Alouette, for the NPC Pit bodies, rolled 10 using 1d6, rerolling max with rolls of (6+4)10. resist!

Alouette KS
William KD
Pit body 7H
Evans 5H
Hank 4C

William, go!]]

12:14, Today: William Pierce rolled 12 using 3d6+2, rerolling max with rolls of 4,5,1. headshot damage.
12:14, Today: William Pierce rolled 1,4 using d10-3,d6-3, rerolling max with rolls of 4,(6+1)7. headshot, doubletap.

William half turns,his glaring red eyes tracing the deader's movement.
The Ghost Gun in his hand barks twice, and the etchings in the gun seem to gleam with satisfaction as the creature is struck between the eyes.

[[All right. Out of Combat!]]

The shambler jerks backwards and fails to rise. The wind rolls the gouts of smoke from the grassfire into dense ropes that reach like dead fingers for the clouds. Hank stops, casting around for any other threat.

Alouette goes over to the huddled lump of human being and greets her. "Howdy Torn Clothes Lady! Do you need a hug?"

The woman looks up at Alouette and just starts screaming again.

"It's alright, we're here to help. Marshall Evans is here as well."

William hopes that Evans will intervene. The gunslinger wasn't a people person when he was alive. Now...

"¿Qué es? ¿Qué es?" the young black woman shrieks, back-crawling rapidly away from Alouette before bolting in a stumbling run and attaching herself in a traumatised cling to William's knees.

The poor state of her clothing and the thin press of her ribs against William's leg suggest she's been a prisoner, probably for a long time. The zombie bites are recent, however, so she's not been stored food...yet there's no obvious person or place out here for her to escape from, not even a dodgy shack. She clings and trembles as Evans wades over.

"Is she hurt?" he asks. "You know, I don't think these were vampires at all - they look rather more like our garden variety revenants."

"High probability location-unidentified bodies near ranch, Texas come from The Pit Where The Bodies Are Buried of Doctor Ward," the clank chirps. "Is Names William Pierce making friends?"

"No. Wasting time, looks more like..."
He turns around, looking back to the wagon.

"Where the hell are the others? They couldn't wait for 10 fucking seconds?"
Looking back down at the girl he asks: "Where have you been?"

"Not for her," Evans says, kneeling to try and get the woman's attention. "I'm sure the others have made themselves useful in establishing the whereabouts of the local preacher. Come on, my dear, let go of Mister Pierce's legs, you're all right now."

"I...I don't know," the woman says, though by the strength of her accent, whether that's a reply to either of them or her best attempt at letting her rescuers know she doesn't know what they're saying is unclear. "I don't know."

Evans gently prizes her arm loose to take her hand. "What's your name? Name? I...Ambrose, he William, you...?"

The woman's eyes fill with tears to find someone that cares enough to ask. "Maria. Maria. Gracias, señores, gracias." Thankfully, she shifts her cling to Evans' hands.

"You people seem pretty sanguine with 'just' dead men wandering about," Hank remarks, bemused. "Anyhow, she ain't Sarah and I think your clank's broken."

Alouette is staring at the sky above the rise - the glow of firelight up there has been joined by a pale and stronger brightness. Static hisses loudly within the automaton's shell.

"Good to meet you, Maria." Evans says, holding Maria's hands gently. He looks over at Hank.

"I haven't been afraid of garden variety walkers since I helped put down a whole graveyard of them six months ago." Evans says in reply to Hank. "And as for Alouette...she's always like that. When she senses...trouble..." he trails off and looks over at where Alouette is looking.

"Oh, dear." He mutters, then looks back a Maria. "Maria, there is trouble...ah, what's the word? Peligroso? Anyway, there is peligroso up there," He points at the top of the hill, "and I have to go stop it. Er...how does that phrase go? Vamos a matar." he points toward the glow. "But...I don't want to just leave you here alone...Alouette! Can you watch over the girl while we fight whatever the holy hell is going on up there?"

"Don't just watch her, Alouette. Protect her."

The clank mutters something in Chumash, then shakes itself. "Primary comand: protect," it affirms.

"Comanches?" Maria asks of the dangerous place, mimicing Evans' pointing.

Evans shakes his head. "Worse." He says, but, not having enough grasp of the language to do more than that, he just shakes himself loose and guides her over to Alouette. "Stay here with Alouette. She's an angel. She will protect you."

"Dame un arma," the woman pleads, turning back to Evans and miming stabbing and pulling a trigger, clearly terrified of being left, even with a tin-can angel. "Pudeo ayudar. Por favor."

Hank puffs his cheeks. "Hardin speaks Spanish, if he hasn't been eaten by snakes by now," he remarks, and looks to William for a sign to start jogging back.

"She wants to be armed, I think." Evans says. He pulls forth one of his whiskey-bottle sunlight bombs. He holds the bottle up.

"This is a weapon." He says. "To use it, you must prime it."

He mimes pulling the wire at the top of the bottle.

"Then you must mix it."

He mimes shaking the bottle.

"Then you must allow the mixture to begin reaction."

He holds up a finger, then a second, then a third, like a countdown.

"Then you throw it."

He mimes an overhand toss.

"It will make a very bright light and a very large explosion, so you will need to shield yourself."

He mimes a duck and cover. He looks at her to see if she understands.

Maria takes the bottle a little uncertainly. "¿Es una bomba?" She nods to the instructions, scratching at the bruises left by the undead. "Tire del alambre, agitarlo, tres segundas, tirar...¿explosión?"

"It is a holy hand grenade with sticky on the inside to end vampires," Alouette explains. Maria just gives the clank a nervous look.

Slowly, William pulls Jenny's silverplated pistol from his belt and holds it out to the woman, handle-first.
"Here. You point and shoot. Won't stop a vampire, but there's plenty of other critters out there."

He nods, reassuringly (or so he hopes), then says to Evans and Hank: "Let's move."

That actually gets a small smile from the woman, but the clank gently stops her from following the men as they turn away. "Ambrose told us to stay here and be in reserve," it reminds her.

Evans nods, and begins heading up the hill.

((OOC: How long will it take us to actually get there?))
This message was last updated by the GM at 17:03, Sat 23 May 2015.

[[Hmm...both o' you give me a run roll and I'll see how much to handwave. We'll wait until Adrian's posted and got a response before shunting y'all over there.]]

((OOC: 11:17, Today: The Amazing Evans rolled 3 using 1d6. Running.))

09:37, Today: William Pierce rolled 10 using 1d6, rerolling max with rolls of (6+4)10. running.

Dead men defeated, the mostly-dead men run off leaving the clank and the woman in each other's company.

[[You guys're back on the main thread, though I'm leaving this one open in case things come back this way.]]

(OOC: Should we just start posting our week you do a transition posting?)

[[I did give William an intro above Jake's call for a Spirit roll there...the others are a little behind you. Of course, you'll see a bit extra now; I'll add that to the end of the next post I make there. Sorry for not pointing you at it more directly.]]