They reached the site of the sacrifice in a short time, Thomas and Stanley leading. Circling up and around, they came to the edge of a small cliff overlooking the clearing at the foot of the mountain. Carefully pushing the vines, creepers and ferns that grew on the edge of the cliff (and cascaded over), it was unclear if they were too late to save Liisha or not. She was laying on a stone altar in the middle of the clearing, which was a shallow oval mound about 20m across.

This dry ground was ringed with torches that burned and lit the swampy clearing with an evil smoky orange-yellow glow.


There were three priests there; one making some kind of beseeching prayer while the other two performed a ceremonial dance beside him. They were facing the cliff, although it was likely with the torches in their eyes they couldn't see the figures on the cliff above them.
This message was last edited by the GM at 08:54, Wed 01 May 2013.

Stanley aimed his shotgun, then paused, listening.

"They pray to the "Guardians". Of their gods. They say they are sending this "messenger" to tell the "Strangers from Beyond" it is not yet time for them to return."

"Typical priests - expect someone else to do the work for them!" groused Linus, who looked as if he was about to bolt out and grab Liisha from under their noses.

In reply to Linus Spruance (msg # 3):

Walker looked at the targets.

He pointed to the priests, and held up 3 fingers.

He pointed to the first finger, and pointed at the left-most priest.
He pointed to the middle finger, and pointed at the middle priest.
He pointed to the third finger, and pointed at the right-most priest.

He pointed at Ken, and then at the first finger.
He pointed at himself, and at the middle finger.
He pointed at Lorain, and at the third finger.
He pointed at Linus, and held up two fingers, pointed at his eyes, and then he turned them away, looking over everything.  Same thing for Stanley and Neva.

Finally, he turned back to Lorain and Ken.  He mimed counting to three, with his hand, and after he counted to three, he mimed pulling a trigger.

Then he held his palm up, and looked at the others, head tipped, and quizzical.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:16, Wed 01 May 2013.

Linus nodded in understanding.

"What about fetching Liisha?" he asked quietly.

In reply to Linus Spruance (msg # 5):

Walker whispered back quietly, "Kill all, scene safe," his tongue against his front teeth, changing the sibilant "s" sound into a lower frequency "th" sound.

He looked back at the others for any other questions or ideas.

In reply to Thomas Walker (msg # 4):

Neva nodded to Thomas and without saying anything moved her position to make sure she could cover more area.  She was ready and just waited for the others to go into action.  With luck, they would be in time.  Without luck....well sometimes it didn't pay to think on that.

Ken watched the scene carefully, looking for signs of other natives besides the three priests.  At Thomas' motions he nodded and readied his gun.

There wasn't time to engage in much debate over what was going to happen. Whatever was going to happen needed to happen now, and with Liisha they'd have to take out the priests anyways before rescuing her.

Thomas gave the "go" signal and he, Lorain and Ken fired. Ken and Thomas' shots hit home. Their targets fell over. Lorain didn't know how to use a pistol so hers missed, and the priest bolted like a shot into the swamp, disappearing from view.

Seeing the priest flee into the woods Ken ran forward to Liisha.  "Let's get the hell out of here!  He'll be back with a gang of angry friends."

In reply to Ken Jenkins (msg # 10):

Neva saw that they had scared off the priest and while she was tempted to hit him, she didn't like to shoot people in the back.  She wouldn't be so kind if he brought back others before they got out of there.  She kept an alert out and her gun ready as the others got Liisha.  She'd cover them and keep her eyes peeled for the priest and others to return.

Linus scampers forwards as well to aid in rescuing Liisha.