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08:19, 28th March 2024 (GMT+0)

Worst Nightmare: The Gate Opens ((Thunder Walker))

Posted by The StrayFor group 0
The Stray
GM, 911 posts
The Marshal
'round these parts
Fri 6 Sep 2013
at 17:40
  • msg #1

Worst Nightmare: The Gate Opens ((Thunder Walker))

quote:
Though the battle raged on around the fallen brave, to him those moments seemed to be but the last sight of the day as the sunset before all peacefully faded into sleep, and that red that gushed down from his scalp and filled his vision was the last light of a fading sun in a glorious dusk that would precede the darkness of the night soon to come. He remembered another blood red sky like this, far away from the rugged Black Hills where he had grown, near the place where the earth met the western waters and the shattered coast. In the twilight hour of such a day, he met a medicine woman who went by the name Singing River. He remembered her. She was tall and had long black hair and smelled of earth and rainwater and had sharp eyes like a falcon and sang her spirit song with a voice as beautiful as the sound of a rushing river through a forest.

As he lay dying there upon the holy ground of Bear Butte, his fingers twitched slightly. That was how the two of them had talked at first, with hands and fingers, as she was of the Hopi and he had learned only a few words of a language similar to that which she spoke best and she knew none of his. In time, he had spoken her language as well as she did, and she had learned the language of the Lakota. She was strong in the Earth Medicine, and he sometimes quietly cherished a view of rocky terrain and mountains as if their presence was a message to him.

For a time, before her death untimely in the tragedy that had befallen that part of the land and that had claimed the lives of so many that had been close to him, they had been man and woman, and well had he loved her. As the last moments of his life faded, he looked forward to going to the place where there were endless buffalo, and where she would be there waiting for him to join her again.


Thunder Walker drifted into darkness as the world slipped away from him. Even his pleasant memory fades, until all was silence and dark.

For a time, there was only smothering nothing. A bleak eternity of dark and empty had claimed him.

But then gradually, sensation returned. Pins and needles are running through his limbs, his face is pressed in dirt. The smell of smoke lingers about his nose. There's a redness to the sky, and his head throbs and aches.

some mood music
This message was last updated by the GM at 01:06, Sat 07 Sept 2013.
Thunder Walker
player, 328 posts
Dead
Sat 7 Sep 2013
at 18:55
  • msg #2

Re: Worst Nightmare: The Gate Opens ((Thunder Walker))

Thunder Walker pressed his face out of the dirt, feeling for a moment that he had dreamed what had happened on Bear Butte - until the pain returned to him. His body ached from head to toe, but it was a dull ache - almost a memory - and his head was filled with pain, both pain that was real and pain that was from being haunted by memories. Dream or no, he lifted his face up and put his nose to the wind to test the smell of the smoke. What was it? Where was he?


OOC:
 Notice: 3
- I think this is how I'm supposed to respond, to feel out the Nightmare. Let me know if something different is desired/required.
- I just noticed that I've not got any chips, as I gave them all to Eagles. Should I re-roll for them, or can I take some back from him?

13:47, Today: Thunder Walker rolled 3,1 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 3,1.

The Stray
GM, 914 posts
The Marshal
'round these parts
Sat 7 Sep 2013
at 19:06
  • msg #3

Re: Worst Nightmare: The Gate Opens ((Thunder Walker))

((OOC: You won't need chips for this, as you won't need to roll anything. The nightmare will be driven solely by your choices, actions, and responses to the situations you find yourself in. The tests will be choice-driven in nature, and you won't get to know quite how you're doing until the tale is finished. Basically, we're in free-form mode.

I'll be posting more tonight.))

The Stray
GM, 915 posts
The Marshal
'round these parts
Sun 8 Sep 2013
at 03:50
  • msg #4

Re: Worst Nightmare: The Gate Opens ((Thunder Walker))

some mood music

The sky has a hellish glow, red from smoke and fire. Thunder Walker finds himself alone in a town square filled with corpses, most of them white folk from what he can tell. He can hear distant screams, gunfire, and the occasional dull thud of an explosion.

The square is a bloody wreck. Stalls are overturned and smashed, several buildings are on fire, and there is blood everywhere--pooling from the bodies, smeared on walls, and even dripping from the banner overlooking an impromptu stage. The torn, bloody banner reads "BEHOLD THE WAGES OF SIN!"

And just like that, Thunder Walker knows where he is. Gomorra. The Festival of Sin, when the demented preacher Elijah and his grotesquely deformed "flock" staged their "revival," and everything went to Hell. The night of the riots that tipped the scales, pushed the fear that had long simmered in the town to the breaking point. The night the Whateley clan put their ultimate plan into motion. The night that Joseph Eyes-Like-Rain led the Sioux Union to town after months of waiting, to end the threat.

This is the night of Knicknevin's rise.

That night, Thunder Walker had been cracked over the head during the riot, and hadn't woken until the violence and carnage had already passed, though he'd heard what had transpired from the survivors. It looked like maybe--just maybe--he had a second chance to turn the scales.
Thunder Walker
player, 329 posts
Dead
Sun 8 Sep 2013
at 14:42
  • msg #5

Re: Worst Nightmare: The Gate Opens ((Thunder Walker))

The smell on the wind was of fire and blood. Fire and blood and death and smoke. For a moment he held himself steady, listening to the sounds of the gunfire and the screams and the explosions that punctuated the day, almost not believing where he was, not able to comprehend what was happening around him. This was something that couldn't be real, that couldn't again be happening, but it was, and there was only one way that he could react to it: he could fight.

Finding a tomahawk in his hand, he slunk low against the ground, moving at a crouch, seeking shelter against a nearby building and keeping his eyes open for what was around. In his years as a Lakota scout, he had become accustomed to scouting in open country, but there had also been raids on towns. The white man had a great love for buildings, and structures so there was always something to use for cover and shelter, always something in which to hide. Pressing himself against a building, he moved quietly as he knew in a way that he did not think would draw attention and looked to see what he might find. Maybe there was still a war party about that he could join, that he could scout for. Until then, he scouted for himself and for whoever he could save.
Nicodemus Whateley
NPC, 1 post
It's in the blood
P2 T5 W0 F0 Cha -2 (0)
Mon 9 Sep 2013
at 09:03
  • msg #6

Re: Worst Nightmare: The Gate Opens ((Thunder Walker))

some mood music

The streets are thick with the dead. Thunder Walker spies Ferret's Eye and Billy Iron Horse among the corpses, shot full of holes near the First Bank of Gomorra, where the rioting seemed to be the worst.

Even keeping from shadow to shadow, Thunder Walker has the sense that he's being watched. Something else is in the shadows with him. Something lurking. Waiting. Hunting.

Two figures wander through the town square, nonchalant as if they were schoolboys on holiday.

One is a dandy, clean-shaven and neatly dressed in a well-pressed suit, a bowler derby atop his long red hair. He shuffles a deck of playing cards as he walks, inspecting the corpses through ruby-tinted glasses. Occasionally, his clothing ripples, as if something beneath them were pushing out.

The other is dark-haired, and has blue spectacles, a trim mustache, and a stovepipe hat, but otherwise looks near enough to the red-haired dandy that they could be brothers. He carries a cane instead of a pack of cards. There's something wrong with his shadow. It doesn't quite follow along with his movements, and at times seems to move of it's own volition. Sometimes it doesn't even look human.

"Well, Roger." The red-head says. "Looks like the Flock have thrown quite the party."

"I should say so, Nicodemus." The dark-haired one replies. "It seems everything is falling into place quite nicely." He scowls as he stumbles over Billy Iron Horses' body. He kicks it sullenly. "If only it weren't for all these bloody Indians about. Who do they think they are, getting in our way?"

"Oh, they won't be a problem long." Nicodemus replies. "They've made the mistake of moving too soon. Once they're wiped out, the plan can proceed with no more interruptions." And then he looks right over where Thunder Walker is hiding, and smiles. "Yes, there will be nothing to stop us at all."

Roger bends down and rests a hand on Billy Iron Horses' chest. "Well, waste not, want not. Let's get these corpses up and moving. I'd like to see that shaman's face when his own followers shamble forth to slaughter him." his stranger shadow begins to leak away from him, and sink into Billy's body. The corpse begins to twitch and jerk...
Thunder Walker
player, 330 posts
Dead
Mon 9 Sep 2013
at 18:34
  • msg #7

Re: Worst Nightmare: The Gate Opens ((Thunder Walker))

At the sight of those brave members of the Sioux Union who had become close with in recent months and learned much from, he could feel his heart sink. He silently offered a fervent wish to the spirits that as few of his brothers and sisters as possible would be taken in this. He silently chided himself for the thought, and wished more universally that as few of any people would find themselves victims of this horror. Still, he felt most truly in his heart that despite his better wishes, nothing would bring him a sadness as great as if those who were his closest friends, near as close as kin now, would perish. If Joseph himself should fall, or Little Running Bear, the Iroquois that had journeyed from the far Eastern waters...it would be more difficult than maybe he knew how to bear.

He could not shake the feeling of being watched. While his eyes found nothing, and he had found the tracks of no others when he had circled back before at these feelings, they would not be dispelled. Somewhere, somehow, eyes were upon him, and hiding had not helped that feeling. He did not know why he was still walking; perhaps it was simply a manifestation of his own fear and weakness. Fear was something that he hadn't known before, and something that he didn't know now. Others had called it foolishness, but he who watched the thunderstorms quietly even as a babe did not find fear easily. He would not quiver in fear or imagine things watching him. He refused to do so, though it did not shake the feeling.

The men that walked among the dead, though, turned his sinking heart to stone as he felt anger well up within him, fixing a resolve firmly in place. These were among those who were responsible for what was happening here. Long had the Whateley clan been mistrusted by Joseph Eyes-Like-Rain and the other shamans of the Sioux Union, who knew that these strange folk would strike for ill some day. That day had come now, to all of their regret.

Slowly, he settled the tomahawk at his belt as the men walked, though it was still loose. It appeared that he had been undetected, which gave him the chance he would need to plan an arrow in one of them. He did not know what filthy arts they practiced, what dark Ghost Medicine they called upon to serve them, but he could save many lives by putting an arrow through one of their throats. A bow in hand, and arrow knocked, he stayed hidden for a time, but when they began to work their dark magics on the body of Billy Iron Horse, he could stand it no longer.

The anger that had hardened his heart was cold, and he drew back an arrow, hoping to plant it through the head of the Whateley man that was working to raise up his brother from death. There was that he could do. He had no business living, while a warrior such as Billy Iron Horse had fallen. Iron Horse would protect him in life, but in death, Thunder Walker could see that Billy Iron Horse's body would not be used as a puppet for the manitou. At least he could do that much. He drew back his arm, lean but powerful in its own way, and released.
Roger Whateley
Mr. Sebastian, 103 posts
It's in the blood
P7 T6 W0 F0 Cha -2
Tue 10 Sep 2013
at 07:28
  • msg #8

Re: Worst Nightmare: The Gate Opens ((Thunder Walker))

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tg-yC0xcI9s">some mood music</a>

The arrow flies, but slowly...almost hesitantly. The dark-haired man in the top-hat has plenty of time to see it coming. He reaches up and plucks it out of the air, and looks at it with a detached disdain. "It would seem Elijah's freaks missed one." he says, tossing the arrow aside.

"Indeed so." His red-haired companion nods, looking directly at Thunder Walker and smiling. "Well, no matter. Time to swat this little fly."

"Agreed." The dark-hared one says, and gestures to Thunder Walker's hiding place. The shadows explode around the native son, forming arms with grasping claws and hideous tentacles that clutch and squirm around him, freezing him in place. The red-haired boy flips a card out of the deck in his hands and tosses it towards the frozen native. Something hideous squirms on the card face, a tiny demon with razor-sharp claws and teeth, that grows as it approaches the bound man.

The demon begins to claw and bite at Thunder Walker, ripping his flesh as the two continue their grisly work. Over the native son's screams of agony, the two continue conversing.

"Egads. What a waste." The dark-haired one says as Billy Iron Horse struggles upwards into unholy life. "That fellow won't be usable when your pet is through with him."

"It could have been worse." The red-head remarks. "He could have slunk away without us knowing he'd been there at all. He might have been able to warn someone."

The two laugh as they and the lurching corpse of Billy Iron Horse walk away from the square.

By the time the demon vanishes, consciousness is ebbing from Thunder Walker. The many wounds the thing inflicted on him while he was bound in the shadows sting and burn, and waves of fatigue roll over him. Suddenly, a bright tunnel of light opens in the sky. The spirits of the dead rise from the many corpses on the ground, untethered from their mortal frames. Thunder Walker feels it tugging on his own soul as well...
Thunder Walker
player, 332 posts
Dead
Wed 11 Sep 2013
at 00:18
  • msg #9

Re: Worst Nightmare: The Gate Opens ((Thunder Walker))

NO!

He wasn't quite able to form the word. If any scream came from him, at that moment it was a wordless howl, a cry of abject and stark terror the likes of which had never before emerged from his mouth as he was subjected to the twisted, demonic energies that were sent his way - dark powers pulled straight from the foulest manitous that roamed the Hunting Grounds. He had faced men, and he had faced foul creatures, and he had faced dark magic before, but something about that time and that moment sent fear coursing through his veins, pulsing through his body, striking his heart as truly as he had ever shot an arrow that met its mark.

As the column of light appeared above him, he reached for it. It was hard to tell whether he actually reached for it, but he wanted to reach for it. He wanted very, very badly that thing, that bright light, whatever it was that could only be the opposite of the shadows that had bound him. If anything could erase those, if anything could defeat them, it had to be that. He reached for it, perhaps with his arm, perhaps with his mind, perhaps with his heart. After that, he could think no more, and consciousness seemed to quickly fade from him.
The Stray
GM, 937 posts
The Marshal
'round these parts
Wed 11 Sep 2013
at 03:21
  • msg #10

Re: Worst Nightmare: The Gate Opens ((Thunder Walker))

some mood music

Thunder Walker struggles towards the light. He feels himself rising...then suddenly halts. The shadows grasping at him just will not let him go. He struggles with the grasping shadows, but eventually the tunnel closes, and Thunder Walker fins his spirit sinking back into his body. A wave of despair rushes over him as the shadows sink back into the darkness, leaving him battered and in pain, but still alive.
Moses walks from the tunnel onto a street in a nameless boomtown. A wave of dizziness passes over him as he looks over the street filled with corpses.

No. Not nameless. It's all coming back to him now...he isn't Moses, he's Elijah. This is his doing, this street of death. He is the prophet sent by God to usher in the Apocalypse, which would start in this town of Gomorra. His Flock caused these riots, as he demonstrated the perils of sin to the unclean, to scare them into accepting the Lord's blessed path before the end...
Moses
player, 317 posts
A prophet or a lunatic?
P6 T8 W0 F0 Cha -2 W3R2B2
Wed 11 Sep 2013
at 08:32
  • msg #11

Re: Worst Nightmare: The Gate Opens ((Thunder Walker))

The black giant whispers: "Elija...", the name rolling uncomfortably off his tongue.
"Oh, Lord, is this Thy test for Thy humble servant? Is this what may become of Moses?"

Moses/Elijah takes in the carnage around him and nods. "No. Save Thunderwalker, save the world."

He looks around, searching for a sign of the living, his... flock. And an indian who died miles away at the holy mountain of Bear Butte.
Thunder Walker
player, 333 posts
Dead
Thu 12 Sep 2013
at 04:15
  • msg #12

Re: Worst Nightmare: The Gate Opens ((Thunder Walker))

Thunder Walker pulled himself up from the ground, crawling at first, and later with great and deliberate effort, rising to his feet. It felt to him as if pulling himself up while someone was holding him back and seemed to be a great labor on his part. He was full of anger now, remembering what had happened to Billy Iron Horse, and he held the tomahawk he had kept as his belt before, bow now slung over the shoulder. He brought himself up, and wanted to yell at the sky, at the spirits, at the manitou, at those who had brought force against him. But his nature took over, ever the scout, the silent warrior sliding in between enemy lines and striking at their heart, or reporting back with their movements, and he began to slink closer to one of the buildings nearby.
The Stray
GM, 942 posts
The Marshal
'round these parts
Thu 12 Sep 2013
at 05:50
  • msg #13

Re: Worst Nightmare: The Gate Opens ((Thunder Walker))



Thunder Walker sees someone wandering down the streets. At first, rage fills him. Isn't that Elijah? The psychotic prophet who started this whole mess, who whipped the town into a frenzy with the grotesque freaks of his "flock" and his preaching of the end of day?

But wait...no, it looks more like Moses...the other prophet, the one with the quiet assurance and the holy madness to guide him...

...wait, why is Moses here?
Moses
player, 318 posts
A prophet or a lunatic?
P6 T8 W0 F0 Cha -2 W3R2B2
Thu 12 Sep 2013
at 12:23
  • msg #14

Re: Worst Nightmare: The Gate Opens ((Thunder Walker))

The Negro walks around, stopping ever once in a while to turn over a dead body or examine something on the ground, muttering to himself.

Watching him, it may become apparent that he's only examing the bodies of indians further or where piles of bodies are thrown onto each other.
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