At the back of the building, Darling managed to locate an exterior basement entrance.

Sky Dog paced back out into the grass, pulling up his goggles and hood. He passed his gaze over the spot where the iron bear had fallen, the whisper of vegetation for several moments the loudest thing he could hear. A glance at the pitiless blue heaven and the shaman turned away, intending to make a close circuit of the house and look for traces of anyone who'd crossed the yard before themselves.

Sky Dog's attempt to find tracks in the grass resulted only in an abject failure. Predictably, the Siberian could see the grass but not make out many of the details that might be found there by one more experienced in outdoorsmanship - or at least someone with better eyesight. He did manage to stumble into Dr. Whateley and Randolph Darling, who were standing next to a hatch.

"It's a basement entrance, clearly," Whateley said. "What say you, reporter?"

"Perhaps this is the strongest place, that the people are hiding in," Sky Dog suggested. "Though it does look as though they have gone away for some days. You cannot see another door for this room inside the building."

He knocked on the curious lower room's door, the learnt gesture still awkward from a life lived largely without doors of any sort, much less ones requiring ettiquette.

No response came from the knocking. Whateley reached down to open it, but found that the door didn't give way. "Locked from within, it seems. I'm inclined to agree with your assessment, Siberian."

"It could be that they have taken their raw food there, that was not in the kitchen..." Sky Dog pressed himself into the shade, scrubbing his thumb over his chin in thought, then addressed the door, giving it another few raps for good measure: "Any person here, will you not speak to us?"

In reply to The Marshal (msg # 124):

Randolph notes the cellar door, looking to see whether it has any apparent latch or lock. He keeps a wary eye on it as he continues his circuit of the place. He also scans the ground, looking for any tracks as he goes.

When Dr. Whateley and then Sky Dog join him, he leaves off his inspection to study the cellar hatch with them.

"Do you have any fairy you can call upon to open a door, Doctor?"

Staying crouched above the door, Sky Dog's brows furrowed a little at the reporter's proposition. His knock this time was gentler, his tone concerned. "Any here, it would be well to come out to us, as those with me are not patient...but I am a shamán, and I give you my telling that you will not be scalped or come to other outrages. It is said."

"Wellll..." Randolph draws, shooting a sidelong glance at Sky Dog's back, "That should certainly reassure them."

"A fairy to open the door, hmm," he considered. With a swish of his wand and a flick of his wrist, he tapped it against the door. He reached down and pulled at it.

"No, it's not locked. It's barred from the inside, would be my guess. I can certainly blast it open if you would like."

Sky Dog frowned a little deeper. "It would not be well to do so - a moment."

Moving down from his perch over the door, the shaman stuck the blade of his knife into the crack between the hatch halves and ran it smoothly up, bracing his wrist at resistance and with a small shake loosening the bar in its setting until it clattered free.

Sky Dog at once grabbed the left-hand flap and stepped back, tin beasts scraping against each other, allowing any armed peasant within a bright view of the sky.

Randolph steps back from the opening in case anyone or anything unleashed an attack.

"There's more than one way to skin a cat," he said, as Sky Dog easily pried the door open.

Neither armed peasants nor unleashed attacks emerge from the open door. The daylight from without reveals within a set of stairs going down from the doorway.

Hearing no movement, Sky Dog stepped in to crouch at the doorway and flip the other side open with his knife, peering down.

"It is a large space below - do you think they have not heard us?"

"Well, I suppose either no one's there, someone's there that heard us and decided not to respond yet, or someone's there and hasn't heard us," he said.

Sky Dog looked at the Welshman as though he'd cracked an unexpected joke, and started laughing. The sharp sound of his mirth snapped back in echo from the stone steps, far-carrying as a raven's croak. "Ah...haha, yes. It is so! But if they are not here, I am curious for where they went out again..."

He peered down the stair a little more, then pulled his goggles back down about his neck and edged in to pick the door bar up left-handed, tapping a lower step in seeming thought.

"If the door was barred from the inside and they haven't found a stairway inside," Randolph says slowly, "It would seem to indicate that someone is in that cellar."

"It could be they have made a way under the ground to another place, or hidden the door under mats," Sky Dog said, making his way down door bar and all. His tin beasts whispered against each other with his movement.

"Any here, it is the shamán that comes down to you! It would be well not to shoot at me, this would go badly for your people..." he warned the cellar, decending with the bold skittishness of a scavenger.

From the now fully opened door, the sun shed some light on the first few steps, and progressively less on the succession of those that followed as Sky Dog warily ventured below, followed by Dr. Whateley. A few steps into the room, the light was even fainter, though they could see the room's outline, but they could not for the moment make out the far wall very well.

Of a sudden, the room was bathed in a pale green light that spiilled forth from a melon sized globe that rested in Whateley's hand, pulsating with fay energy. The room was plainly empty, and revealed by the light was a closed door alongside the far wall.

"There is noth-"

Sky Dog hissed through his teeth and shut his eyes, turning away from the sudden light. When the afterimages had faded a little he opened them again, blinking, and silently paced out the corners of the room.

"Is it a common thing for Americans, a room with nothing, under the building?" he asked generally, not turning straight back towards Whateley's light. The shaman seemed distracted, even disturbed by the empty space.

"I think these have been doing something they should not have done," he said, crouching to examine the threateningly angular space from floor level.

"No, it's not common at all," he said curiously. "They also don't usually have a second door."

The shaman stood and rapped his knuckles and the end of his knife against the inner door, immediately drifting away to make another anxious loop around the centre of the room before ghost-staring at the doorway. Somehow the youth managed to give off the impression that if he were a real dog, his white hackles would be up.

Randolph follows the other two men into the cellar. He let's his Gatling dangle from its sling and draws the Colt, judging it to be a safer weapon in a confined space with friends about.

He peers about the room, looking for anything curious.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:10, Wed 17 Sept 2014.

To the truly observant, while there was little for the eye to pick up other than an empty room with a second door, the Siberian and the reporter both picked up a whiff of something unpleasant. The room had a faint but lingering smell of rot and decay.

Tensed, the shaman threw another glance to the opposite upper corner. "Something they should not have done...and maybe they did not go away again," he murmured.

His pale fingers let the bar of wood drop, moving to tug the bandanna back over his nose and mouth as he moved in and tried the door, impatient with its silence.

As the shaman seeks to open the mysterious door, Randolph covers him.

"Go on, Sky Dog," Randolph gently urges, thumbing back the hammer of his Colt, "Open it."

Sky Dog tried harder, working out which way the door ought to go as he pushed sharply near the handle, then cautiously set his shoulder to the wood. "It is sticking," he reported.

"You can do it," said the Welshman in an encouraging tone, "put your back into it."

The door did in fact seem to be a bit stuck, but as Sky Dog jiggled the handle back and forth something gave and with a click it came open at long last, pulling back to reveal a hallway that went both left and right and unleashing upon them a much stronger scent of rot and decay. It was the smell of death.

To the left there was an iron door that hung open, and from the light provided by Whateley's magic the room behind it appeared to be empty. To the right, there was a wooden door that was outlined in a glowing yellowish light.

Randolph didn't care for the implications of the odor.

"Perhaps we should alert the others before proceeding farther. Will you find them, Sky Dog?"

Sky Dog ghost-stared at the room with the metal door, knife unconsciously brought into a fighting stance. He looked round at Darling's comment, narrowed eyes briefly picking up the glow of the light.

"The strong light has not been burning very long," he mentioned, crouching to pick up the door bar. "One there is alive and perhaps not injured; it is well to know where the people are, that they are not behind us with weapons," nodding Randolph at the iron door and clearly bristling, the shaman stepped in to wedge the wooden door shut with the sturdy piece of wood.

As Sky Dog wedges the door shut, he hears a constant pitched whirring sound from the other side of the door, but neither iron devil nor iron bear attempts to stop him from his work.

The shaman tilted his head curiously, catching the odd drone within the room. "It is a sound like grasshoppers, inside," he remarked, but though he looked at the pannelling a few moments in indecision he did not inquire anything of the occupants, instead slipping past the white men to head on up the stairs.

After a few minutes, Randolph is getting impatient. He cocks an ear toward the boards overhead and hears no one moving around upstairs.

"What do you think, Mr. Whately? Shall we proceed without waiting for the others?"

He waved his wand around in a gesture as if practicing something.

"Well, I suppose we could," he said. "Have you weapons at the ready, sir? That is, if you run out of ammunition in that one, are the others loaded?"

Darling eases off the hammer on his Colt and holsters it. He brings up the Gatling on its sling and clicks off the safety mechanism.

"All set," he nods to Whateley.

"How do you suggest we open the door, Mr. Darling?" he asked.

"I think we can just pull out that wedge Sky Dog shoved in there and open it like he did."

Gabby looked down into the cellar area. "Hello down there!" he said. "What's the sitiation?"

Coraline still had her lantern lit when she reached the cellar, anticipating darkness.  When she descended the stairs, she was surprised to see the glowing ball of fae light that Abaddon had produced, and threw the doctor a look of respect.  Still, more illumination couldn't hurt, so she didn't extinguish the lantern.  Her nose twitched as the smell of death and decay reached her.

"What have you found?" she asked as she joined the pair of men.  "Need help with anything?"

Before the inquiries of the others had come, Whateley had at the urging of Darling, pulled open the door, which came back unlocked and threw light from within the room into the hallway.

Inside, an old white woman with a proud bearing and an arm that looked encased in metal wearing what appeared to be a labcoat looked up at them. There was a crowd of other figures in the room that were upright, with vacant expressions in their eyes. Their clothing was assorted and in tatters and their flesh was rotten. There was a screen to the side of the room, and there was something behind it, though the shadows cast from there indicated movement.

The English woman looked up at them and said, "I suppose that's what all that racket was above. You've gotten by my security system. That's a shame. I shall have to build another one wherever I go next. I was hoping to take that one with me. I suspect Shadow and I shall have to hurry." She poured a strange, murky greenish liquid into the mouth of one of the several prone bodies that were heaped about carelessly by her side and with a mechanical device implanted something into its head. Shortly after, it stood up.

"By the by, who are you and why are you trespassing on my property?" she asked, seemingly unconcerned.

Darling blinked at the woman and belatedly answered Coraline's question: "Well, we've found this and I believe help may be indicated."

Addressing the woman he says, sternly, "We are a party of deputies under U.S. Marshall Caleb Morgan, investigating attacks on a nearby town.

"You are under arrest."

"Do we have the authority to..." Gabby muttered, but his words died on his lips as he got a view of the old woman, the rotting corpses, and the equipment. He frowned, swallowed his objections, and raised his shotgun on the lady.

"Dr. Grint, I presume." He drawls. "Gonna have to ask you to step away from the deadder."

She sighed, and it was an exasperated sound. Her tone going forward was patient and resigned. "I knew someone would see through my ruse eventually. Word to the wise - a famously feared name is good at inspiring terror in the countryside among these ignorant bumpkins and fear is a better weapon than ghost rock if you know how to harness it. Shadow's wild animal attacks might have helped throw some confusion about as well. I just didn't think it would be so soon. No matter. I will not be allowing myself to be taken into custody."

She pumped her foot on a humming device on the ground, and a shimmering green field rose up between her and the group of the dozen undead between her and the door.

"Rather than sacrificing yourselves here - I'll just turn you into one of these puppets, and you wouldn't want that would you? - you might as well run back to your master. Tell Hellstromme that he won't be able to stop me. I'm coming for him, and this time I'll be destroying your USA and your CSA before you can finish off the rest of the world."

Coraline's nose wrinkled at the stench of death that seeped from the doctor's laboratory as she took in the scene.  "Before all of the screaming and gunfire begins, might I ask a question, Doctor?  What has Hellstromme done to garner your wrath against him?  We do not know the man, by the way, and are certainly not working for him.  I am very curious as to what you were hoping to accomplish, other than instilling fear in the townfolk, of course."

Having reported in the negative, Korpi fluffed a little at being gently warned against stuffing herself too fat to fly and flapped down to the top of the cellar door, peering curiously inside.

Little liking to decend again, Sky Dog called out from the top of the steps:
"Will the people come out?"

"Oh, he hasn't done anything, so to speak. In many years, he will make some inventions and discoveries, just as I imagine he is doing now. And your governments in their perpetual war will use those for most ill purposes. I figure if I just kill the whole lot off right now I can save everyone a great deal of trouble!" she said with an almost giddy tone of excitement in her voice.

"As for what I'm doing here, you know, a little of this, a little of that. Mainly I'm perfecting my methods. Harvesting fear from the townsfolk is a side benefit. They scare rather easily, though I do say they've put up a bit of a fight haven't they!" She chuckled, and shook her head mirthfully.

"My control of the dead is tremendous, as you may notice. I see that you have remained quite calm in the face of them, which means that you've seen their like before. Well, I have additionally learned a method that through a combination of technology and sorcery allows me to harvest fear itself. Someone who might have been a great man once might but quite certainly now won't say that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself, and he won't get the chance to know how right he would be if I wasn't about to wipe out his ancestors!" She laughed a bit, finding herself quite amusing.

"No, I don't think they will!" he called back.

"Well I have brought the fire into the barn: I have said we will not make outrages on these, but at the least one of them is deserving the stone house for what was there," Sky Dog said, holding the back of his hand to Korpi's chest a moment to keep her from hopping down onto the stairs with him.

"Do you warn them and come out, perhaps - probably there is more work it is well to give to Our Friend the fire there," the shaman called down. [Language unknown: "T pe tio acofit ti mi betenoca, vireverat, o wi la lo e u lo redichthedin,"] he added to Korpi.

"Is this bitch makin' any sense to any o' the rest o' you?" Gabby asks. He glances about the room. "You know, if this here is gonna be a last stand, folks, I'm of the opinion we oughta back out the door, bar it, and set a fire. I ain't seein' much in the way o' good ventilation here."

"Nor," Randolph says to Gabby over his shoulder, "Much in the way of flammables."

And he squeezes the trigger on his Gatling, aiming at the nearest walking corpse.

From where he stood, Daniel heard a lot of jabbering, but couldn't see who was doing the talking. Someone not too pleasant, though, as apparently she had been behind the attacks on the town. He readied his sword, but didn't think it would do much good - the only thing he could strike at was Gabby.

"Reckon we oughta back up, not get all bottlenecked here..." Gabby says as the gun begins whirling. "Sky Dog! We got dedders and we found the witch!" He shouts back towards the stairs as he backs towards the door.

Sky Dog had paled at the burst of gunfire, but the news that the cellar's occupants were other than cowering peasantry allowed him to breathe. "It would be well to bring them back to the door here, so that they come one and two," he called, preparing to decend. "Do you see how they are controlled?"

"Some sort o' device in their heads!" Gabby shouts back.

"Attack!" she commanded at the first sound of gunfire, and there seemed to be a subtle change in the posture and positioning of the undead bodies that were previously only neatly arrayed and dormant seeming. Suddenly bodies that were moments ago limp and unfocused had their shoulders pulled taught, backs straight, and empty, rotting eyes focused in front of them.

"Shadow, it's time to be gone," she said towards her left.

"Fall back, Whateley!" Darling shouts.

He suits his action to his words as he takes two steps away from the door himself. At the same time he fires a burst at the nearest walking corpse, remembering to aim for the head.

"What do they say?" Sky Dog called, baring his teeth at the echoed gunfire.

The first bullet from the Gatling took one in the leg, the reporter's aim thrown off by the weapon's recoil, foiling his attempts to bust one in the head. Whateley stood by warily, his wand at the ready and muttering something - probably an incantation of some sort, though he had tried to fall back at Darling's instruction and assume something of a defensive posture.

Those at the front tried to claw feebly at the two men opposing them, but each of them managed to brush off the clumsy attempts to strike them. "These are just like the ones I saw at the town," he said. "Only not as strong, and slower. Perhaps we interrupted her rituals," he postulated.

Daniel's hand brushed across the part of his clothing above the crucifix that hung on a chain from his neck. He recited a verse from Ephesians that seemed relevant to their current predicament. "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm." His sword was at the ready, though it would likely take some time before he would be able to reach any of the enemy.

"Fall back toward the basement!" Gabby says. "Let's get 'em all in that corridor, keep 'em penned!" He moves back into the central chamber next to Danial, and starts aiming his gun towards the entryway.

"Gabby's right!" Caleb called. "These close quarters ain't good for us, and they're penned in."

A shimmering in the air appeared behind the woman, as if the world itself had somehow parted, giving way to something beyond. From behind the wooden screen, a man emerged, small in stature and his features were almost Asiatic. He wore the skins and furs of animals, and to his shirt were sewn small iron shapes that were hard to make out from a distance.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:55, Thu 09 Oct 2014.

Sky Dog attempted to brush his sister off his head, nodding sharply to the open door. Korpi ignored him entirely, a black flicker at his side as he loped down the steps. Sky Dog spared only a glance at the upper corner, aware of her presence but making no rebuke, knife in hand.

The shaman reached Gabby's side as the raven stretched her legs to land on Dalix's hat. "What happens, Uncle? What do they say?" he asked, stumbling a little on the words in his urgency.

Curious about the strange forcefield that the scientist had erected, and whether it could keep her little tricks a bay, Coraline reached into the nether realm and wrangled a beastie to do her bidding.  A shot of watery light sped into the room, bypassing the undead horde completely to strike at the woman behind the field.

"We done found the crazy scientist who's been sending the dead against the town." Gabby says quickly, filling Sky Dog in. "She's talkin' a lot of gibberish about Hellstromme and killin' off all the folks both North n' South n' great men who now aren't n' harvestin' fear like wheat n' suchlike. It don't make a whole lot o' sense, but she's got a metric ton o' deadders in with her, so we're tryin' to draw them out into the corridor there to blast 'em."

The stream of light that sped out from Cora's hand, nearly invisible save to those paying close attention, cut right through the green field in front of Dr. Grint like a hot knife through butter and caught her in the side of the head, eliciting a scream from the scientist. A look of rage crossed her features as she clutched dearly to the side of her head.

"Nice shot!" exclaimed Whateley.

Gabby continues keeping his gun trained on the door, waiting for the others to get back and the deadders to flood in.

"Into the other room! Everyone!" shouts Randolph, firing again.

Coraline threw a grin at Whateley.  Competitive to the core, she took almost sinful pride in successfully executing a hex, especially as most were so difficult to master and control.  It pleased her that someone appreciated her efforts, especially when that person understood the difficulty required.  Pleased with her results and the fact that the scientist's shield seemed designed to keep physical attacks at bay but did not stop magical ones, Coraline loosed another ephemeral ball of energy at the woman's head while Randolph kept the undead corpses busy with gunfire.

Caleb pressed his body against the wall to let the retreating reporter by before he himself retreated a few steps, raising his weapon and planting a bullet squarely in the head of the one that was nearest to them.

"Miss Hawthorne, if we retreat to the other room we'll have a better angle on the whole situation."

"I think a timely retreat not a bad suggestion," he said, reaching inside his coat for just a moment and looking under it. Wand at the ready, he reached it back and slung his arm forward as if he meant to throw the damn thing. He didn't let go of it though, and the wand didn't go flying, but something went flying from the wand. Like the stream of light Coraline had sent at the woman, this was nearly invisible - ghostly white in color, and it seemed to find the center of the room before exploding outward. There was no noise, nor did it seem particularly fanciful in appearance, but at the same time it appeared to have some effect on some of the undead that made their way towards the, though only one of them was overcome by it to the point of death.

"Yes, I do see the need for that," she answered Caleb and Randolph.  She retreated to the inner room with the others, though didn't miss Whateley's impressive bit of hexslingin'.  "Most impressive, Doctor.  I have never seen that particular one used in combat."

Jostled and curious of the people piling out of the door, Korpi pushed off and sailed over their heads and into the passageway. Two heavy wingbeats earnt her height above the withered, grasping dead ones, heading for the strange light at the end of the corridor.

Green glows and unflickering candles under glass. Korpi's back bristled as she angled her primaries to swing about, not touching the captured aurora glow. It was as though life's friend in the darkness, the hearth-glow, had no part in this.

Swooping on with a cracking wingbeat, Korpi took note of Iron Arm reeling, then beside her...

"Kaw! Kaw!" The raven's high cry of alarm echoed from corners and corridor. Outside as the others fell back, Sky Dog raised his head to hear, frowning.

Then the god, ever watching, laughed in Korpi's throat. Eternity, plucked bones in unknown glades of the taiga, charred blackness after lightning, laughing. "Ha! Ha! Ha ha! Ha!"

"HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!" he laughed back at the bird in mocking imitation of it.

The shaman grinned at the bird, though in truth it was more of a sneer, and he reached back into the tear in the fabric of reality that was behind him as if pulling something out. When he retrieved  his hand from where he had reached, the room seemed to darken, as if every shadow in every corner and crevice of the room had doubled in intensity. Those darker shadows of a sudden pulled towards the place right in front of the shaman, coalescing together and swirling to take the form of something altogether alien to the common man.

It grew until it was the height of a man and kept on until it came to nearly twice that size, but broader in body, almost akin to a bear but wider at the shoulders. Of a face, there was none that could be discerned, but its arms were clear and strong and its legs were stout.

Towering over the shaman and the scientist both, it seemed not keen on what was behind it, but what was in front. Lashing out in a blind rage it attacked two of Grint's undead minions that were nearest it, rending each skull with one of its fists.

---

The shaman stumbled back, his face inscrutable. He threw himself into the tear in the fabric of reality, disappearing into the other side.

Following Shadow, she too threw herself into the gap in reality, fleeing from the conflict.

Korpi banked, beating the air furiously at the sight of a thing that was not a thing.

"AVAKHI!"

Coraline's eyes widened as she saw the beast claw through to their own plane, but she didn't run or tremble in fear.  Her jaw took on a familiar stubborn set and she reached for the cards that were always at her fingertips.  Every monster, no matter the size, could be brought down by one larger and stronger.

With Whateley at risk should Randolph fire at the enemy and Whateley, Cora, and Caleb still needing to withdraw into the larger room, the journalist comes through the door and moves to stand beside Gabby and take a bead on the doorway.

As the others retreated, Daniel waited patiently for their plans to play out. Though he did call out as he asked the Lord for strength. "The Lord gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.  Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;  but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."

As a younger man, Daniel had not given as much thought to the Old Testament and Revelations, as the world had been a more peaceful place. But he found their guidance remarkably useful now that the world around him was anything but.

Whateley whipped his wand back and with a swish and a flick, sent two blasts that were barely visible but nevertheless connected to the dark creature, pacing backward and away from the threats in the room.

"I...think it's best to join the others." He sounded hesitant or uncertain for the first time. "I don't know how that man pulled that thing into our world."

Consumed in blind bird panic, Korpi glanced off a wall, still crying out over the presence of the avakhi. Outside, the shaman gave a winded wince as though he felt the echo of the impact in his chest.

The blasts from Whateley seemed to scour away some of the shadows from the thing that had been summoned on the other side of the large room, dispersing motes of darkness into nothingness seemingly, making it seem smaller if only slightly. However, as it plowed through the undead in front of it, draining them of their essence, it seemed again somehow stronger as if regaining what had been robbed from it.

"Miss Hawthorne, I must insist that we join the others," he said, pulling her after him as he stepped into a shadowy pocket in the hallway.

"Marshal Morgan, try to follow after," he instructed the lawman.

With an economy of movement, Caleb lifted his gun and fired as he swept into the next room, striking one of the dead though not fatally so.

Gabby continues to cover the door with his shotgun.

Randolph takes a position to the right of Gabby and a bit behind him. He begins to slide cartridges into the empty chambers of his Gatling to bring it up to fully reloaded.

“The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and He knows those who trust in Him.”

Persistently pulling Coraline after him, Whateley steps into a pocket of shadows with her,  stepping out of another in the room where the others were, then releasing her, somewhat behind and to the side of the rest of the group. Waiting for Daniel's prayer to end, he spoke.

"The entity the savage brought in from the other world is...you can think of it as evil taken physical form, and it's feeding on the dead raised by that woman, growing stronger. I don't know how to get rid of it, or what makes it vulnerable, but I would be glad of your assistance in doing so," he said.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:51, Thu 04 Dec 2014.

[Language unknown: "...ous romng ma oneta etil...ie fi toati one pro..."] Sky Dog muttered, then was abruptly in motion, throwing himself past the others, straight into the troubled room.

"Korpi!"

"Kaa!"

The shaman swallowed, unable to see the grounded bird, then squinted at the avakhi beyond the shambling dead and slashed the soft side of his left hand. Stance braced, he held up his bloody palm towards That Which Should Not Walk, let it scent and feel the strength of his onnir.

[Language unknown: "On ce nc romisák Tr Sehi. Foest aliv t tin tepotaho. Utnc o unhi moil evetraart."]

Coraline made no protest as Abaddon tugged her into darkness.  She was far more scared of the creature that had erupted from the portal than of traveling through the shadow.  Even so, she let out a breath of relief as they stepped into the other room with the others.  "Just how are we supposed to fight that?  It just... it just seemed to eat up those other things."  Her head snapped to the door as she heard Sky Dog go stumbling through the hall into the other room.  "Don't go in there!  That thing will eat you alive!"

"What thing?" Gabby asks, his gun still at the ready. "Did that bitch conjure up something? What's gong on back there?"

Caleb looked at the empty chamber in his peacemaker and decided it might be best to rectify that situation. He calmly slid a bullet or three into the empty chamber(s) and prepared to pacify whatever came around the corner.

As he thumbed a bullet (or three) into the chamber(s), Caleb replied to Gabby. "That bitch apparently has an ally that she calls Shadow. That ally summoned, well, a shadowy creature that's eating the shambling dead she left behind. It appears to be getting fatter while devouring."

The shaman heeded nothing beyond the threats before him, knife tucked ready along his forearm, bloody palm raised high so that the dark and slowing seep of red rolled across ghost-white skin. [Language unknown: "Oul ou."]

[Language unknown: "K an trwil ons viroustedate ic o ur, Earol Ter. El finte estwerore adrut oreeenvir re ourut Wheintove Eillre oer atund pro ofndpl ma t aian prolareareen stntll anro siisdi ut ar pakor."] The words were low yet pitched to carry, the youth's spine held straight as truth.

Even from further into the room, the ethereal being loomed large over the shaman. It seemed at once substantial and insubstantial, its form wavering like smoke but still somehow having a physical presence, or seeming to. Black tendrils licked outward from its form from all directions, as if it was not entirely held together. It seemed previously intent on making its way through the undead lifeforms around it and consuming their essences, leaving them withered husks at his feet. But at the young shaman's call and the sign he presented, it turned in his direction.

Soundlessly it moved in one swift motion, swimming through the undead as if they did not exist, though it's smoky form did not seem to part. Like a snake moving to strike, one of its appendages recoiled and lashed out at the young Evenki.

It struck him like a whiplash, but he felt no pain from it. He only felt as if the very life essence was draining from him.

Sky Dog flinched, bracing himself back...but when his eyes snapped open again the grimace had become a long, vicious grin. His cut hand flashed out, improbably grasping and gripping the avakhi's lashing limb.

"Do we taste good, little one?" the shaman asked, and though his words were clear, the voice was not his own. His laughter rang from the cellar stone. "Hmm..."

Sky Dog cast the thing to the floor, ignoring its resentful thrashing as it tried to prevent its substance manifesting as black feathers. Struggling between giggles and coughs, he called out to those in the room outside: "I have the avakhi, but my sister is at the wall - it would be well for one to draw back these corpses!"

"Wait, Korpi's in trouble?" Daniel suddenly had the urge to run into a pack of Zombies and give them a taste of his blade. "Th' best laid plans..."
This message was last edited by the player at 17:28, Fri 06 Mar 2015.

With the rest of them focused on the doorway, Coraline took a few quick steps towards the back of the room and opened her hand and her mind. The thrill of the wager filled her as she played the most dangerous game, and as she was wont to do, she won. Spectral cards quickly filled her hand, just as quickly as they vanished, and she drew back to release a ball of swirling energy that crashed into the wall, blowing right through it.

OOC: She's aiming for the spot above where Caleb is on the map.

As if a sledgehammer had crashed into the wall from within, something slammed into it creating a hole that was about two feet in diameter, sending wood and plaster into the room with the dead.

---

OOC:

The attack is successful. I'll update the map when I get a chance, but where Caleb is on the map, the wall that is a space above him now has a significant sized hole in it. At its base, it is about waist high, and a character can shoot through it and target the closest undead in the cluster.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:28, Fri 06 Mar 2015.

With a sigh, Daniel moved over toward the dead thing that was close to Sky Dog and swung the relic sword that had been passed down through the generations to him. It whistled through the air, cleaving in two the skull of the recently reanimated corpse.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:37, Fri 06 Mar 2015.

Gabby, only slightly startled by the exploding wall, took aim at the nearest deadder noggin and let them have it with a blast of 12-gauge buckshot and a wild whoop.

"KRAW KAW KAW KAAWK!" Korpi yelled at the explosions, visible only as a dark fluttering between shuffling dead feet. Sky Dog pressed himself to the wall out of Daniel's way, wide-eyed at all the detonation.

The shaman's attention was snapped back to the avakhi as it struggled up, manifesting and de-manifesting ruffled plumes of darkness. He licked his lips, finding that the god had left him on his own though still close enough to feel: a pressure like talons on the shoulders and a stinging pulse of sheer power singing through his blood, back to the black of the world and ages before human kind.

He cleared his throat and honed his imitation: [Language unknown: "Eris houallout utri ine stwiwe nti nd," ]Sky Dog nodded at the portal. [Language unknown: "A leilou fi moon ntebleich lo t n mantrared. Un t shederare t of ec eraarecon taushoti,"] the shaman grimaced a little, fighting down the god's laughter. Then suddenly his whole stance changed, more poised than tense, more bird than man: he leant to lick the demon's trembling tendril and released it in a flick of his own blood, laughing.

It seemed for a moment to pause, still and silent as the grave, even as its smoky form seemed to writhe. It seemed to recoil from Sky Dog as he commanded it, as if in fear. Then it turned, abruptly, and headed into the portal through which Dr. Grint and the one she referred to as 'Shadow' had previously departed.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:47, Wed 11 Mar 2015.

"Ha! Ha! Hahaha heh! Haaaaaheehehee...!"

Raucous laughter followed the dark one's departure. Sky Dog steadied himself against the wall, threw back his unruly locks and all but bounced on his toes, calling to the walking dead: "You do come on, all you dead ones! See, we are so tall and well to bite on, yes? Ha ha! Here is life for you!"

Squinting briefly to be sure the dead were truly headed his way, the shaman sprang back, leading them up into close confines, grinning.

Whateley ignored the commotion, walking up the place where Coraline had expertly blown a hole in the wall. Using that to his advantage, he pulled back his wand and watched it crackle. With a swish of his wrist, he unleashed two bursts of crackling energy that connected with and vaporized the skulls of two of the undead, causing the bones beneath them to crumble in a pile. The process left him looking, unusually, a little worse for wear.

"Get back in here!" he said, moving near the doorframe to try and save the savage from one of his undead attackers. He cast his wand forward and sparks seemed to dance along its edges but fizzled out at the tip and it seemed to have no effect.

"Yes, I am bringing the dead ones there," Sky Dog said cheerfully, stabbing at and batting aside the undead arms - and foot - attempting to injure his person.

From her vantage, Coraline could clearly see the walking dead and the helpless fluttering bird beyond.  The meaning behind the shaman's torrent of words was suddenly made clear.  If the raven's fearful floundering caught the attention of the corpses, she'd be dead before anyone could reach her.  With a steady breath, Coraline reached between the realms and pulled forth another handful of ghostly cards.  Her lips curved into a satisfied smirk as she twisted the demon to her bidding, draining it of a small fraction of power to use as she willed.

She reached out -- not with her hand, but with her mind -- and touched the smaller consciousness of the cawing animal.  Fear!  It was the predominant emotion that she could feel and she knew it had pervaded the small thing's mind and shut out all ability to reason or think clearly.  The raven was a smart little beastie, but still an animal with an animal's mind and instincts.

By now, the raven's conscious was all too familiar to her.  She had touched the bird's mind once before as a measure of protection, to prove to herself that she could control it if necessary.  After the night that Korpi and Clementine had nearly attacked her, she knew that she'd need a way to protect herself it it ever happened again.  Ironically, she now found herself using the spell to aid the poor creature rather than to banish it.  No matter what the bird had done in the past, Coraline couldn't sit idly by and watch it suffer and possibly die.

With a moment's concentration, Cora found the focus of the bird's fear and pushed it aside to grasp the intelligence beneath with a firm, gentle hold.  When Korpi was able to see beyond the fear and think clearly, she called with the softest of mental whispers.  It was not a command, nor a binding of spirit.  Though Coraline could have easily forced her will upon the raven, such drastic measures were not necessary.  The fear that had paralyzed the creature was overcome and the bird launched herself into the air, quickly flitting through hole that Coraline had blasted in the wall and landing safely out of the way.

The deed done, Cora reached once more into the ethereal plane to risk her life on yet another thrilling gamble.

Not wanting to crowd Coraline at the aperture, Randolph holds back, sparing a glance for the door to the outside.

Not all pleased with her next couple of draws, Coraline begrudgingly released what little energy she'd wrangled and managed a weak ball of energy that sped off through the hole toward the legs of one walking corpse.

Taking a position at one of the apertures, Gabby drew a bead on one of the deaders. He breathed a sigh of relief as Korpi flew past him, then took careful aim and let fly with another hail of buckshot.

Caleb moves a little to get a clear sight of one of the things, takes aim, and then squeezes off a shot.

Daniel heaved a sigh of relief to see Korpi fluttering back in the direction of the posse, but quickly reverted his attention to the creatures. "Back to the grave where you belong!" He rushed the nearest of the still-walking corpses and slammed his blade into its head.

Sky dog's brutal iron point tore through the throat and up into the head of the deader still lurching at him. Flecks of brain came away on his knife as he pulled his arm back, causing Sky Dog to frown as he tried not to gag at the stench of it.

Korpi fluffed up, generally unsettled by events and unsure if her brother needed help. "Ka!"

Sky Dog glanced back and grinned; taking to the air where she felt safest, Korpi made the awkward turn onto the cellar steps and headed for the open sky.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:59, Tue 31 Mar 2015.

Whipping back a crackling wand, Dr. Whateley unleashed something of a frightful bolt. At the end, the sole remaining deader fell to its knees, headless - and there was no head in sight.


"Well, I suppose that's that. All in a good day's work. Is everyone alright?" he asked, looking about and then catching sight of the portal through the hole in the wall.

"There is still that portal, though. Nasty thing, that. Very bad things on the other side. I know a little bit about such things, and it shouldn't last much longer unless that Shadow chap is on the other side maintaining it."
This message was last edited by the player at 18:18, Tue 31 Mar 2015.

Sky Dog wrinkled his nose at the air over Whateley's shoulder, then put two fingers to the bridge with his knife hand as though half-expecting a nosebleed. "Nngh...you will have use for the doctoring in a little while, I think. Ha! Maybe for the shamán Shadow. Do you know what it is, the green wall there?"

He gestured vaguely into the deader-strewn main room, then bent his head forward, pressing his nose to the back of his hand.

Darling breathes out a sigh of relief as the word passes around that all the reanimated corpses are down. He steps up to gape through the hole in the wall at the portal to some other, presumably awful place.

Daniel nodded slowly at the question from the Doctor. "Never gotta good look at it, or anyone else in that other room, neither. What did Gabby an I miss?"

Daniel took a look around the other room while listening for an answer, curious about what happened before he arrived with his uncle. He cast a concerned glance in Sky Dog's direction as the shaman spoke of needing some doctoring, but gave the man a little time and space while looking around for his sister to be certain she was well.

Gabby followed everyone into the room. "So the crazy woman got away through that funky magic door? Hell." He said, and began poking about. "Wonder where all these poor folk came from." he said, poking at the mechanical devices in their skulls (what few skulls were still intact, that was).

"Whateley, you think the townsfolk are safe now?" He asked as he continued exploring the room. "Aside from the possible impending attack o' Quantrill, that is."

"Something of the new sciences, I believe. I think...some kind of field to protect those behind it. Could be a useful thing to have around," he said.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:22, Tue 31 Mar 2015.

"They are not soldiers like the dead ones with Quanterill," Sky Dog observed, apparently too bothered by phantom pressure to start his usual scavenging. The term 'field' clearly confused the shaman a moment, but if the ground could be fenced off in squares, it was only logical that the iron devils would next devise a way to fence off air.

"It may be well to keep back from the door to the shadows of the world there...probably it is a way to the Lower World, but also the avakhi may come back, if he could catch the shamán and the doctor for me quickly."

He gestured at the deadders, sticking his knife under his arm to re-cover his left hand, the cloth taking a red stain like a bright butterly in his palm. "Whateley, can it be told what these ones died of?"
This message was last edited by the player at 22:10, Tue 31 Mar 2015.

"I dunno. I don't like the look of it." Gabby says. "Doors are meant to be passed through. If somethin' on the other end were to poke it's head out at us..." He shudders. "Don't reckon it's a good idea to leave it." He eyes the switch on the device. "Sky Dog, how long d'you reckon your avakhi thing will take to find 'em? Because I'd rather turn this thing off and take it with us, or break it up and leave the crazy woman stranded on the other side."

Coraline took another look into the room with the portal, eyeing the mechanism that kept the green field in place.  She wondered if a good Bash would be enough to make it fail, but was wise enough to not make the attempt.  Knowing little of scientific technologies, she wasn't about to go destroying things that might blow up in her face.  And also, the room was full of rotting corpses.  She wrinkled her nose and drew back, throwing a glance to the cellar door where the sunshine and fresh air beckoned.

Caleb frowned at the conversation and sniffed at the air. "We did leave something burning outside, did we not? Daniel and I will go take a look up top to make certain the blaze is contained, or at least not threatening us here. I agree that the destruction of such a portal would be ideal, but I haven't any suggestion concerning how it should best be done."

With a nod to Daniel, Caleb followed his nose toward the smell of smoke.

"I do not think the...field has relation to the door," said Sky Dog. "The world will heal this in a small time, but if the demon does not catch them, they will only step out of the shadows of the world in a different place."

He set his back to the wall in the corridor and crouched there, trying to keep as many corners as possible in sight. Touching the back of his right hand under his nose, Sky Dog caught the first hints of bleeding and bent forward, pushing his hair back over his shoulder. "...if the shamán Shadow is powerful enough to do the things we have seen here, that one could go miles through the Lower Paths - with the right helper-spirits, that one might go two miles there, but return to the Middle World in the next province. Ugh...it would be well to fetch salt from the kitchen, I think."

"I will wait here, and deal with the avakhi." These seemed like bold words from a pale youth clearly feeling rough and struggling with a nosebleed. "It will have to make the field go to bring them to me, if solid ones can not go through the green."
This message was last edited by the player at 08:27, Wed 01 Apr 2015.

Sniffing at the smoky scent in the air gave Randolph an idea.

"What if we burned this place down? Think that'd destroy any machinery and disable the portal?"

"If you are keen on destroying the machine, I would imagine that would suffice," he said to Randolph.

Picking up a loose pebble from the floor, he threw it at the green field. It passed through, but seemed as if it slowed down, as if it had merely been gently tossed. "I don't think it prevents object from passing through. It just slows them down, like armor."
This message was last edited by the player at 15:01, Wed 01 Apr 2015.

"If the portal is soon to close, there's no reason to destroy the machinery if it can be deactivated.  I'm sure someone would want to study it.  It might even be worth a little cash to the right buyer.  I'm going to check on things outside.  Hopefully that barn hasn't started a prairie fire."  She lifted the hem of her dress as she took to the stairs.

"Huh." Gabby says. "Well, let's just see what this does." He moves over to the switch on the device and flicks it.

With a whoosh, the green field seems to dissipate nearly instantly as soon as he flicks the switch.

Sky Dog flinched a little at the sound, though his spooked glance was directed at the room with the iron door before he looked over at Gabby. He frowned slightly.

"It may be these dead ones have kin in the settlement," he mentioned to Darling, still trying to stem the bleeding from his nose as he waited.

Darlinhg flinches as Gabby flicks the switch. Crazy old coot! But when it shuts down he gives a sigh of relief.

As Coraline starts up the stairs he follows.

"I'll come with you, Miss Hawthorne."

In reply to Sky Dog (msg # 131):

"Reckon you're right." Gabby says as he picks up the device. "hnf. We should git my wagon out here, gather them up so they can be properly looked after." He hauls the generator back toward the exit, then pauses and looks at Sky Dog. "Somethin' wrong?" he asks, his gaze noting the blood dripping from the young man's nose.

"It is...heavy here, very heavy to me...it feels very bad." He shot a weak grin to Whateley.

"Some of your fairies, they are very fat! I think that last one had been eating its cousins...and the avakhi was so powerful I had to ask a favour of the great spirit Raven to help me bind it. More pressing! So, bleeding," Sky Dog explained philosophically, flicking blood at the ground and keeping his head down.

"You sure you gonna be okay?" Gabby asks. "Mebbe we should get out of here. I don't like the idea o' you gettin' hurt by heavy air."

"Well, it's good that you have the Raven's spirit to help you. That was quite impressive, I must say," he said to Sky Dog, sounding sincere.

"It would perhaps be best to leave this place. I don't see what more can be done. As for people that may bear relation to these corpses, I doubt it would give them much cheer to see them here with their heads blown off," he said.

"We should set fire to this whole place, if you ask me."
This message was last edited by the player at 18:40, Thu 02 Apr 2015.

"While I'm with you on the burnin'," Gabby says, "I still think we should do right by these poor folk. There'd be a lot o' closed casket funerals, sure, but better the townsfolk know their dead are at rest rather than ashes that can't be identified."

The shaman tilted his head at the portal. "I will wait until the avakhi is back and goes again, or the door closes itself. It is my buisness, to keep the worlds from harming each other," he winced a little at the crushing sensation at his temples, distantly aware of the god's laughter.

"It would not be well, for me to turn my back and go away, and something from the Lower World to come where it is not supposed to be...but perhaps it would be well, Uncle, if you would fetch down the salt from the kitchen here."

Whateley's suggestion of burning the dead without any attempt to put names to them got a slight shrug. "I do not know your custom for this."
This message was last edited by the player at 19:05, Thu 02 Apr 2015.

"To the townsfolk, these people will already have been buried. They may not know these even exist. We may reopen old wounds for them to tell them that their loved ones have been unearthed, and create a second grieving process for new funerals. Still, if they suspect their dead are about and unearthed, which they very well may given the attacks they've had so far...it may be well to set them at ease," he said.

"I leave it to you. I can retrieve the salt for you," he said, stepping away towards the entrance of the room.

Gabby sighs. "I suppose you're right. I'll get the salt. Need to get this thing out o' here anyhow." he says, and then lugs the device with him as he heads upstairs.

"It is my thought the peasants would have noticed, if these were taken from their burying-place," Sky Dog said, experimentally moving his hand away to see if the flow were truly lessening.

"My thanks for ending the last one here," the shaman addressed Whateley as the man went out in search of fresh air, then settled his shoulders back against the wall, waiting.

Pressure and nausea rendered the youth's vision hazier than ususal, but once his nosebleed had slowed to a trickle he left it to crust and hauled up, pacing carefully amongst the dead to squint up at the strange glowing-wire lanterns and then at the portal again. He re-adjusted his grip on the knife, blinked hard and tried not to sway, a sickened heat rolling up his body.

"Hello down there!" he called as he came down the stairs. He looked uncertain at the sight of the strange looking savage, but even more taken aback at the strange portal.

"Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, what the fuck is that?" he asked. Despite the profanity, he didn't seem to be in shock or losing his cool, but still quite surprised.

"Portal to the spirit world, near as we can figure." Gabby says nonchalantly as he comes up behind Price. "It's where Grint and her shadow buddy ran off to when we attacked 'em." He slides past Price and holds out a bag and several salt shakers to Sky Dog. "This was what I found. Reckon it'll be enough?"

"Well, shit."

"I am Sky Dog," the shaman replied, turning slightly, unsure if the stranger was referring to him.

He scrubbed at the drying blood under his nose and came to investigate the salt. "Ah...yes, I think." He took the bag and weighed it in his hand pensively, casting a quick glance at the corners of the room. "Do you know which way is North, Uncle? There is something in this country...I do not know, but I am always some degrees - yes? - off, in my thinking."

Sky Dog tried to parse the grammar a moment then shook his head slightly. "This will heal to itself soon. I could make it hard for a thing from the Lower World to pass, if I bound it with the name of my cousin who is from the Upper, but I sent the demon the other shamán pulled here to fetch that one and the doctor Grint. So I am waiting."

He backed off a bit with the salt, casting a handful into the room with the iron door as he did so, then crouching to attend to the nearest deadder, murmuring in Evenki as he did so.

"Pretty nasty work here," he said, surveying the scene and the number of corpses, some of them which appeared to be dried out husks and others of which had their heads severed.

"Looks like you folks know how to deal with deaders."

The portal continued to fade, now a barely visible aberration that even a passing glance might miss.

"Reckon so." Gabby says. "Enough to help folks, at least."

"It was worse, what was in the barn," Sky Dog remarked, giving the almost-gone portal a troubled glance, then trying to correct for his high-lattitude instincts in finding the cardinal directions, taking up a soft chant as he sealed the room with salt.

Abruptly, the shaman flinched back, salt flung like snow spray as his hand jerked up to press against his breastbone. "Aah!"

Sky Dog looked up, pale and wide-eyed though unfocused. "Uncle...I would take it well if you would go to see where is my sister," he said, the words a little jumbled with rough urgency.

"Korpi?" Gabby asks, then nods. "Right." He heads out of the basement.

"You alright?" he asked, sounding genuinely intrigued.

Sky Dog rubbed at his chest a moment, straightening. "I am...alarmed...but there is no more injury." He raised his head as though listening to something far off for several moments, then seemed to notice the stranger's intrigued attention and expanded a little:

"My sister and myself, we took some of each others' feathers, a time we were in the shadows of the world," he explained, returning to his duties though not without anxiety in the set of his posture. "It was necessary then."

He nodded, showing that he understood. "Tribal magic," he pronounced. It wasn't a judgment, just a statement.

Sky Dog's brow twitched at the repetition, but the Americans' tendency to talk simply to mark their thoughts seemed to be a common habit and not expectant of reply. The shaman laid out containment curves in the lit room, salting and straightening corpses as he came across them.

"Are you far from your family in this place, Price?" Sky Dog asked, working. He cast a glance back at the thin man, then to the portal.

"Pretty far, but not as far as yours, I reckon," he said, observing the strange ritual.

Sky Dog quirked a smile, as though challenged. "I was given to a wandering shamán when I was very young; it is ordinary to me, to be many months away from my clan...but strange that the months are distance, here. Sometimes I think I am outside Time in America, because I am not migrating."

He scrubbed the reddish crust from under his nose and re-crossed the room to stab overhand at the air where the portal had been. Since the knife did not vanish into the Lower World he waved over the spot, eyes half-closed, then nodded. "It has healed itself." He frowned slightly at the blank spot, then laid the remaining salt on the workbench.

"I suppose it has at that. Good thing, too," he said.

"Well, now we can get outta here and back to town." With that said, he turned on his heel and left the basement heading back up.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:59, Tue 14 Apr 2015.