Jacinta followed the others through the thicket of thorns, and suddenly realized why Murphy hadn't joined in the fun downstairs.  He was in another reality altogether.  Or they were.  She couldn't really tell which.  Chasing the bastard was getting damned confusing.

The butt of her rifle resting casually on her thigh, she waited motionless beside the others with a clean line of sight to the man.  His talking, she surmised, was a stalling tactic.  There was no way in hell he'd be coming quietly.  Ever cautious, she scanned the surrounding area in search of other threats.


Notice: 6

21:46, Today: Jacinta Castillo rolled 6,5 using d8+2,d6+2, rerolling max with rolls of 4,3.  Notice.

Bauer looks about, her attention resting on several of the skeletons resting nearby before it shifts to Murphy. Seemingly echoing Castillo’s thoughts, she mutters, ”After all this killin’, all the folks he’s put to misery, there’s no way he’s just gonna up and surrender.”

Castillo scans the posse’s surroundings, alert to any hint of danger. The scout finds no signs of activity amongst the barren trees and sharp rocks. Aside from Murphy and those that have come seeking him, the only inhabitants of the lonely mountainside are those long dead.


Murphy nods. ”Roswell. Probably to be held in Captain Ayuso’s guardhouse until a judge arrived to set a trial.”

“You know, I’ve half a mind to take my chances with a good lawyer. I imagine half of what would be said in that courtroom wouldn’t be believed by those listening. Regardless, it isn’t an option.”

“The first buildings in Roswell were built on 1869. That’s...what?...almost seven hundred years from now. In fact, if I have my dates right, in just a matter of days, Richard the First will be meeting Saladin at Arsuf. It’s a few centuries before anyone from across the Atlantic sets foot anywhere near here.”

“Of course, that means all the land off the mountains is unspoiled. So you and your people will manage. You’ve got plenty there among you who know how to get by with just what nature gives them.”

"Mr. Longley. If anyone knows how to get by with what nature gives them it is me. And you..."

Tamsin sighs heavily.  "Mr. Longley, your time has passed. I wish you could see that."

She doesn't sound sad, so much as she sounds defeated.

Albert grunted. "Course walkin' inta the past ain't so good fer yer mind. If that's when yer sayin' this end o' that tunnel's at. So long as ya don't go back through, seems ta me the town and its folk'll be safe enough."

Kansas Kate was no philosopher, but she took issue with that.

"If'n some'un goes back twenny year an shoots a whore, an' that whore don't pump out a whorespawn, half of us don't never exist."

She didn't elaborate, but she felt like she didn't have to.

"Now mebbe it don't work like that, hell if ah know, but hell if ah'm takin' that chance neither."

Wayland's attention jerked away from Murphy at Kate's summation of possible issues with time travel.  His brow crinkled in thought as he slowly looked back to the man they'd all come to see, muttering quietly, "Whorespawn...  Spawn...  Any spawn...  Spawning...dawning... Little footprints...  Every little step could change a thing...  Really?  Fascinating...  Kill him, change the past...  Might not dawn...spawn...  But then we couldn't kill...  Circles...  Antinomy..."  He paused, then spoke again in a more normal tone of voice, "But, if we're here and we do then we can't have not been.  Right?"  The doctor looked again to Kate, the Temporal Mechanics Specialist.

"He didn't say anything about him staying here," Jacinta pointed out.  "I think he means to strand us."   Her roving gaze returned to the man himself, dark eyes staring him down.

”My time has passed,” Murphy says quietly, seemingly contemplating River’s words. ”Almost, Miss River. Almost. I have one last task to complete before I can rest, whether that be in a retreat from the world, or death, I’m not certain. But then, and only then, will I be finished.”

Cooper’s statement brings a smile to Murphy’s face. ” I suppose from your point of view, that might be correct Mr. Cooper. Save for one detail. Constructing a passage to this particular moment in time wasn’t a simple undertaking. It involved a considerable expenditure of power. It was done for a very good reason, mind you. And with the hard work came certain...advantages. Among them, the passageway opens and closes on my command. And on my command alone. I opened the way because each of you seemed extremely eager to meet with me. But if you were to suddenly decide to try to go back the way you came, I’m afraid you’d find the path blocked.”

He chuckles. ”Señorita, you’re one of those that could thrive here if you chose. The untamed wilderness is virtually your home. If you and your friends want to head down the mountain, you can have the run of the place as far as I’m concerned.”

He gestures to the left and right. “You can likely tell what happened here. This was the site of a battle. A time where the forces of creation and destruction met in open combat. They have a hard time coexisting, after all. There’s a lot of power here, lingering in the earth, in the bones of the fallen. I came here to gather it. To sharpen my focus before the end.”

“I’m not going to try to defend my existence to the likes of you. Since I was young, I sensed that I was an agent of ruin and I embraced it. But consider the world you’re so desperate to defend. Ask Ranger Lee to recite for you some stories from that book he and his fellow lawmen work to keep secret from the uninformed masses. Horrors that would fray the mind. Most of you have seen your share. A couple of you have even become monsters.”

“Or forget the things that lurk in the dark. There’s plenty to be terrorized by in the light.” He points to the three Regulators. “You think those bloodthirsty boys would be do gooders if they hadn’t found vengeance as an excuse for their killing? If they hadn’t ever met John Tunstall I can guarantee you they’d be tearing across the territory, stealing anything they could lay their hands on and shooting those that resisted them dead.”

“Why do you think we need so many enforcers like Bryan Lee, or Pat Garrett? Or the U.S Marshals? This land, this frontier, is descending into chaos. But it’s nothing to be terrified of. It’s simply the swinging of a pendulum. The balancing of a scale. Dissolution is pushing to have its day. To ascend, just as it must from time to time. And yes, I’m helping it along.”

“You know how you stop the spread of entropy? You feed it. You satiate it and let it go to sleep. Lincoln and the valley are consumed. A tragedy? Of course. But what comes after? Life and new beginnings. You clear away the old to make way for something better.”

"Oh that tears it!"  Kansas Kate threw her hands up in sheer frustration.

"Ah ain't never heard o' so much horse hockey in a stable wut ain't been cleaned in a month of a sinner's Sundays!"  She kicked a skull.

"Do ya listen to yerself man?"  She mocked him as best she could, trying for a deeper inflection.  "Ah'm an agent of ruin!"

She shook her head.  "Are ya twelve years old son?  Ya better because ya ought to have most past sech nonsense."  She paused.  "HORSE SHIT!"

She then uncharacteristically calmed down.  "Ya's right about one thing though.  Ah let mahself become a monster.  Ya talk a lot of shit Murphy or whatever th' hell yer damn name is.  Heh, guess that's somethin' we has in common ah ain't got no damn idea what th' hell mah name is neither.

"But ah knows this.  Ah was a better monster than you will ever be, an' a better man too cuz least ah learned me somethin'.  Ya know that's a damn shame when yer losing a cock measuring contest wit' a female.  An' ya know what?  It don't matter.  It don't matter a damn.  Ya think anyone here is th' least bit impressed by any o' that?"

She gestured around, her voice whispy and yet loud.   "They ain't.  Not a bit.  Ain't no one impressed with yer little stunt here neither.  Ya didn't even do this yerself, this here's power from beyond.  If ya picked up a shovel an' pick an' done this, ah might be impressed then, but t'ain't so.  No one gives a damn 'bout yer load of fresh, hot pig shit wrapped in pretty paper.  Do ya know what matters, what matters a damn at all?  It ain't killin', it ain't stealin', it ain't yer damn 'ruin', it ain't yer damn 'en-troe-pee' or whatever nonsense, it ain't nothin' excitin'.  It's... whatever in th' blue hell th' opposite of all that bull shit is, ah ain't got no word fer it.  If yer so great and grand an' smarter an' better 'n me and ya can't figger that out, that's the damnedest thing ah ever saw an' I once seen a drunk doin' unspeakable things to a donkey."

She stepped closer and looked right at him, practically whispering.  "If ah do one god damn decent thing in my sorry life, it will carry more power'n glory 'n'if I kilt all these folks layin' dead here mah damn self.  Get over yer shit, you sorry ass bastard."

Murphy smiles. ”Somehow, Kansas Kate, I knew it would be you that ended up speaking for this rabble. There’s something that’s very fitting about that. Throughout most of your...existence, it does seem that violence, and violence alone, is the only tool you possess to interact with the world in any meaningful way.” He shrugs. ”A shame you and your father there couldn’t come to some kind of peace before this happened. But, I’ve killed you before. I’ll certainly do it again, if that’s what you require.”

He stands. All across the shadowed slope of the mountainside, the dead stand with him.

”I’m presuming, by your silence, that the rest of you are in agreement with her. So let’s see this done.”

OOC: Everyone kindly give me an initiative draw.

She smiled at him, that wicked, wicked smile.

She'd been worried, for a time, that realizing she'd been so wrong would make her lose her edge.

She shouldn't have been.

"Ya'll had a damn army last time, sonny boy.  This time, ah gots th' damn army."

13:51, Today: Kansas Kate drew the single card: AH using the Deadlands system.

Also, playing this on Murphy, no reason to delay it:

7S - Karma Thief
“The hell?”
Take a fate chip of any color from any other Wild Card (this may include other player characters).

After all, it's a perfect reversal of fortunes, it seems Double Kay ought to steal some of old Murphy's mojo.  I'll take the best color he's got.

Jacinta frowned at the rising dead.  "Always comes down to this, doesn't it?"


22:19, Today: Jacinta Castillo drew the single card: 6C using the Deadlands system.  Initiative.

Dr. Wayland snapped out of his temporal musings and swung the lightning gun to bear.  To Jacinta, he answered the rhetorical question unnecessarily, "Yes.  Always.  Always this."

10S

12:33, Today: Dr. Ezekiel Q. Wayland drew the 2 cards: 9H, 10S using a deck of 54 cards.  Draw!
This message was last edited by the player at 16:48, Sat 03 Apr 2021.

Albert chuckled at a bit of the back-and-forth between Kate and Murphy. Or whoever either of them actually was. "Agreement? Mebbe with the general sentiment, but I ain't smart enough to put it like she does."

He looked over at Jacinta with a lop-sided smile, then to the others. "I ain't no believer in fate, but this seemed ta be our destiny. Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more."


OOC: 10:09, Today: Albert Cooper drew the single card: 9C using a deck of 54 cards.  Initiative.

Bryan didn't think that Murphy was the type to be talked down nor that he would go quietly into the night. They had all come here knowing that arrest and apprehension wouldn't be the likely outcome. He had offered it as a matter of course, a mechanical, rote offering to comply with his obligations as a lawman insofar as what people saw. But as a Ranger, he had greater obligations and those including ending the existence of Lawrence Murphy.

OOC:

Actually not the worst initiative I've drawn!

21:28, Today: Bryan Lee drew the single card: 9D using the Deadlands system.  Initiative.

13:19, Sun 04 Apr: L.G. Murphy drew the single card: BJ! using a deck of 54 cards.  Initiative.

13:20, Sun 04 Apr: Marshal drew the single card: 3C using a deck of 54 cards.  Initiative - The Dead.

11:42, Today: Marshal, on behalf of Tamsin River, drew the single card: 8H using a deck of 54 cards.  Initiative.

11:43, Today: Marshal drew the single card: 6D using a deck of 54 cards.  Initiative - Allies.

OOC: Kansas Kate, your theft will transfer one red chip to your hand.

Initiative Order

BJ! - L.G. Murphy
AH - Kansas Kate
10S - Dr. Ezekiel Wayland
9D - Bryan Lee
9C - Albert Cooper
8H - Tamsin River
6D - Allies (Bauer, Garrett, Billy the Kid)
6C - Jacinta Castillo
3C - The Dead

Murphy possesses a Parry of 8 and a Toughness of 12.

The Dead each possess a Parry of 6 and a Toughness of 8.

Bearing spears, tomahawks, and clubs, ancient implements of war, the dead begin to move across the slope, approaching the posse from every side.

Murphy spreads both of his palms open, each aimed at the ground at his feet. From the earth, shadows emerge, drawn to the ruthless killer. They surround the tall man, swirling about him like tendrils of smoke in a windstorm.

Power Points expended: 4

Initiative Order

BJ! - L.G. Murphy
AH - Kansas Kate
10S - Dr. Ezekiel Wayland
9D - Bryan Lee
9C - Albert Cooper
8H - Tamsin River
6D - Allies (Bauer, Garrett, Billy the Kid)
6C - Jacinta Castillo
3C - The Dead

Murphy possesses a Parry of 8 and a Toughness of 12.

The Dead each possess a Parry of 6 and a Toughness of 8.

Kansas Kate, it is your turn.

First things first.  Spend a White, play this:

3S - Shakin’ in Thar Boots
“Nobody move or I push the button!”
Your hero must do or say something that gives his foes pause. All foes within 12” lose their next action.

She pondered what to do exactly.  She wasn't real big on mojo, despite having been close to it. Well, maybe that's why she wasn't so big on it.  Even at her lowest point, she'd refused the dark gifts of the Wichita Witches and wanted to know nothing of it, even after they literally tried to burn it into her.

But she figured there was some connection here, between Murphy and all them dead critters.  There had to be.  If you got through to the man, you go through to them dead critters too.

So Kansas Kate said the worst thing she could think of.  Which for her, was something.

"HEY MURPHY!"  She paused to ensure she had his attention as she smoothly pulled her not as commonly used, but sometimes the right tool for the job, rifle out of its scabbard and with a smooth whirl of the lever chambered a round.  "I'M GONNA SHOOT OFF YER PECKER!"

Now, she knew, even with the rifle, that was a damn hard shot.  It was such a small target.

But the damned thing is, she just might make that shot.  Murphy couldn't dismiss it out of hand.  And if he was apprehensive, he'd hesitate, and more importantly, he'd look down at his wedding tackle involuntarily.  It was a cruel trick, like driving nails into a hollowed log and putting a shiny object in it to catch a racoon.  The animal couldn't help it, it wasn't fair.

It was especially cruel because she wasn't actually going to shoot him in the dick at all.  She wanted to put that slug right through his noggin.

Looks like Murphy is easily in Short Range of the rifle.  Quick Draw, now I have a rifle!  It's like the Old Spice Commercial.

Kansas Kate probably is not going to be able to do this, but she is going to take her best shot (pun intended) at sinking this in one.  She is taking a Head Shot.

19:50, Today: Kansas Kate rolled -2,-2 using d12-4,d6-4, rerolling max with rolls of 2,2.  Shooting.

Not a good result, but to be fair she would have missed on that roll anyway.

Right, let's throw a Red chip into that.

19:50, Today: Kansas Kate rolled 1 using 1d6, rerolling max with rolls of 1.  Red.

That's fine because I spent that Red to spend this White.

19:50, Today: Kansas Kate rolled 6,5,7 using d12-4,d6-4,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 10,(6+3)9,(6+1)7.  Reroll with a White.

There we go, there's a 13.  That, is a Headshot with a Raise.

19:58, Today: Kansas Kate rolled 25,2 using 2d8+4,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 7,(8+6)14,2.  Damage.

27 damage, that's what Mommy likes.

19:59, Today: Kansas Kate drew the single card: 9H using the Deadlands system.

Having taken her shot, she figured the reprisal was going to be worse than eating the last one in like at the whore house and quickly came up with her Toothpick.

Quickdraw Edge abuse!

The attack would leave Murphy shaken with three wounds. He will, naturally, attempt to soak that damage.

14:53, Today: L.G. Murphy rolled 23,1 using 1d12+1,1d6, rerolling max with rolls of (12+10)22,1.  White Chip - Soak Roll.

Right. That will do away with both the wounds and the shaken condition. He is, however, true to Kansas Kate’s prediction, notably more pissed off.

The shot rings out across the mountainside, its report especially loud in the pervasive quiet. The bullet is on target, as best that the outlaw can see, but if there is any effect on Murphy from the attack, Kansas Kate observes none within the swirling shadows that surround him.

OOC: Before proceeding further, everyone kindly give me a Notice roll.

Also, anyone who has the Knowledge: Occult skill can also provide me a roll using it, if they choose.

Initiative Order

BJ! - L.G. Murphy
AH - Kansas Kate
10S - Dr. Ezekiel Wayland
9D - Bryan Lee
9C - Albert Cooper
8H - Tamsin River
6D - Allies (Bauer, Garrett, Billy the Kid)
6C - Jacinta Castillo
3C - The Dead

Murphy possesses a Parry of 8 and a Toughness of 12.

The Dead each possess a Parry of 6 and a Toughness of 8.

Dr. Wayland, you have the floor, sir.

I tried!  Your turn everyone else!
15:34, Today: Kansas Kate rolled 5,5 using d6,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 5,5.  Notice.

Even as Kate was leveling her rifle, Dr. Wayland was moving off to the right.  He brought his lightning gun up to his shoulder, thumbing the release on the clockworks.  The strange weapon clanked...and whirred...and hummed to power as the rifle shot barked out.  Wayland skidded to a halt and pulled the trigger.

With a snarling snap, bolts of lightning arced out from the emitter.  The bolts whipped and crackled, slashing and burning their way through the dead...  Carving up the turned earth of the hill...  Heading for Murphy...

Well...  I'm guessing on the cone...  But the book says its 9" long and 3" wide at the widest point.

I think there's a point on the right side where he could get to and fire.

I think it should catch 5 or 6 deaders and Murphy?

Shooting 11 vs. Agility or take...  37 for the Deaders and 17 for Murphy.  I mean...
 I'd like to switch that, but them's the labels on the rolls...

Next Initiative - 7C

02:34, Today: Dr. Ezekiel Q. Wayland drew the 2 cards: 4C, 7C using a deck of 54 cards.  Initiative Draw.
02:20, Today: Dr. Ezekiel Q. Wayland rolled 17 using 2d10, rerolling max with rolls of (10+2)12,5.  Lightning Damage vs. Murphy.
02:20, Today: Dr. Ezekiel Q. Wayland rolled 37 using 2d10, rerolling max with rolls of (10+9)19,(10+8)18.  Lightning Damage vs. Deadites!
02:11, Today: Dr. Ezekiel Q. Wayland rolled 6,11 using d10,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 6,(6+5)11.  Ride the Lightning!

Notice: 9

00:18, Today: Jacinta Castillo rolled 7,9 using d8+4,d6+4, rerolling max with rolls of 3,5.  Notice.