Rising to imitate the ghouls' demeanour, Joey speaks in a crackly, hissing voice as he beckons, "Joooiiin usssss Daaaave.. It'ssss not sssssoo bad to sssspeak sssstrangely!"
Dave falls to his knees, holding one hand up in an imitated pleading gesture. "Nay! It can not be so! Mine tongue hath already twist'd and mine mind is not mineth! I hast a hung'r. A hung'r that only hands can satisfyeth."
"You two really want to get yourselves shot. Can we have some volunteers...?" Picking up the old cellphones, Valda looked to see if they had a charger among them. The pictures or details on the phones might help. [b]"Of course, these also mean that we don't have Patient Zero yet. I'd bet these are hikers and travellers and such."[/dice]
The investigator snickers as he looks at Dave and says, "She's right.. C'mon, Ccccccarl! Let's see if these guys have IDs on them. Maybe we can see if they're all from the same place or different locations. Hell, depending how expired they are we can see how long this undead operation has been going on."
He then returns his attention to the wallets that were looted already to check for any driver's licenses or state IDs, even taking the time to see how long the credit cards have been expired, while Valda investigates the phones.
"Too bad I didn't bring my charger.. Though I doubt my iPhone's cable would fit these... electric typewriters."
No chargers among them. From their IDs, these three appear to have been locals. One of them has an Elm Street address, though it's on the opposite end of town as this one.
Tossing the IDs back by the bodies, Joey rises and replaces his spent shell with a fresh bullet.
"Talk about having a NIghtmare on Elm Street.. Whatever did this to them must've hit hard and fast. These three were locals. There's probably more lurking about.. We'll need to be careful. And how about that banging? Did they stop because they know we're here? Or was it these ghouls just trying to lure us here?"
He glances to the house before them before letting lose a short sigh in frustration. There's just too many questions and not enough answers! After a moment, he turns back to face his comrades and asks, "How about it? We search this house for clues and see if we can't find the whereabouts to our distressee Marilyn inside. If not, we move to a different, more suspicious-looking house."
Dave sheaths his sword, standing up and dropping the humour in one swift move. "I'm game for that, but we need to be careful. Don't want to give these things to chance to drop down on us. I could go in for a cursory look first, to make sure nothing hostile's inside."
"Unless someone can see a barn, that seems like a plan." Making sure her gun was fully loaded, Valda waited to back Dave up if he needed it.
Dave makes a cursory check of the house before anyone else enters. There is no one there.
The team explores the house; it does not seem to have been inhabited for some time. There's a flyer on the table for a "community bonfire at Jack Ullman's". The address listed matches one of the drivers licenses you just examined, a farm on the south end of town.
Suddenly, you hear a distant popping sound, followed by three more in
rapid succession. Gunfire, perhaps? After those four sounds, all is silent.
Several years ago, about this time of year. Long before Marilyn would have arrived, based on the model of her van.
Instinctively ducking his head and turning about-face, Joey crouches beside the doorway and peeks out to see if he can notice any activity down the road they travelled. "Looks like we're not the only ones that decided to go sight-seeing today.. Do you think we were trailed?.. You guys should give this place a quick one-over while I stand guard. I'll call if we're under siege."
With his pistol drawn and ready, Joey waits for the others.
There are no more gunshots, and no one else comes around. The group is pretty sure there's nothing else of interest in this house.
Investigate the shots? Continue looking for Marilyn? Something else?
Dave walks out, holding the flyer, and takes a cursory look around. "Wherever those came from, it's worrisome. I suggest checking it out. And it seems, by the way, that whatever went down here really was quite a while ago."
"I dunno," Valda replied thoughtfully, "You'd think an undead army of flesh gnawing monsters would eventually spread out a little. Maybe someone or something is keeping them bottled up here?" Valda shrugged. "But yeah, let's follow the shots. Hopefully our lady friend has been doin' it for herself."
|
Isagoras exits, looking for the sound of popping. "The path to knowledge is never the route of safety. 'Twere it so, I would never again sojourn from my dusty library and thick, hide-bound tomes. Another of some action hath sounded the call, so let us procure ourselves unto the source and see what hath transpired so egregiously."
It doesn't take long to find the source of the shots. A police car sits by the side of the road up Elm on the other side of Main. Its drivers door is open, its emergency lights (but not siren) are on. Whoever was in the car seems to have left the area—there’s no-one to be seen. However, there is a revolver lying on the ground by the car, and blood is splashed liberally around.
Perception checks all around.
Dave's eyes seemingly glow beneath their shades as he looks around the area.
Maria whispers a quick Catholic blessing in Spanish and makes the sign of the cross.
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Leaving the others to scan the horizon, Isagoras wraps the gun on a bit of rag and puts it in his extremely old fashioned leather backpack. If looked at with questions, he'll reply that they'll need to return it to it's rightful owner when they find them. Then he inspects the car, looking for clues. He quite simply doesn't trust anything right now and wants to makes sure this isn't some ghost-car come to haunt them.
Including the blood, Dave notices drag-marks leading away from the car which start in the dusty yard just beyond. They seem to be leading toward to south end of town.
"Well, I guess that explains what happened to the cop..." Valda sighed, and followed the drag marks. There wasn't much chance they could save the bleeder cop, but perhaps they had a partner. Or perhaps they could simply stop him from rising again. "I am starting to consider the idea that applying fire to this whole town is a reasonable solution. That, or trying to arrange the local KKK's next meeting here. If we have to shoot crazy ghoul things, I'd like to shoot white supremacist ones."
Dave shrugs his shoulders, leading the party in the drag mark's direction.
Maria comments, "I think I'd prefer to stop this before we need to shoot anyone..." as she follows Dave.
As you walk across the yards of Black Rock, now completely dead and dusty, you come across a dark pile, perhaps 10 feet across and 5 feet high. At first glance, it looks like a heap of tree roots and the knobby stumps of branches. But closer examination reveals it to be a pile of bones—or pieces of bones, at least.
The tracks continue on.
|
|
Isagoras covers his nose somewhat, but is otherwise unmoved by the charnel sight. "Egad. The spoor of our prey is an ominous sight. I have known of such dumps of refuse afore, but none so prodigious as this. We must be seeing quite the infestation here, or a colony that has been established for some time.
Shall we tarry here and search for greater clues, or sojourn in our previous vector?"
Isagoras goes up to the pile and gives it the briefest examination, before catching up to the group.
The bones appear to have been crudely cut with manmade instruments—saws and cleavers—and were probably stripped of flesh before being piled here.
"Well that's unsettling."
"Unsettling is putting it lightly. Makes me wonder if these were cannibals that got themselves turned into demonio necrófago by the sheer depravity."
Sticking close to the crew, Joey chews on his lip as he thinks to himself about the scene before them.
Burned bones that have been chopped and sawed?.. Cannibals that turned into hellbeasts?... I'd rather just stick with the fire hell-summoners...
With a grim expression, Joey removes his sunglasses and turns to face the others, speaking in a low and serious tone.
"...I guess that's why they made cannabis illegal, am I right?"
Quickly returning the sunglasses back over his eye, Joey snaps his fingers and grins as he clicks his tongue, cleverly trying to hide how disturb he is by the situation.
Nice one Joey! Stacy's surely going to like that joke!
Stacey continues filming the entirety, her narration of evens voices over as you continue following the tracks of the dragged police officer.
On the far end of town, you come upon a dilapidated on the southern outskirts of town. Due to the town's small size, it's still less than a mile from where you parked your cars. The door stands open, revealing a deep darkness within, contrasted with the bright desert sun outside. A smell of death and decay wafts out from inside, as well as a mechanical whirring of gears.
Dave slaps Joe on the back, "Nice. I was gonna say they bit off more then they could chew, but that one works just as well."
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"I'd have made a munchies joke to go with the pot one, but I'm far too subtle and cool for that." Valda approached the open door, gun raised, ready to spray the area with shotgun pellets and magic at the first sign of danger.
The light shines into the barn, and danger, it would seem, is not far afield.
A picnic table, covered with gore, has the squirming body of a man in a sheriff's uniform tied to it. A tool stand sits next to it, filled with butcher's cleavers, electric knives, and various other cutting and rending instruments.
Over the table, cleaver in hand, stands a ghoul, his tongue lapping the air in anticipation of the feast to come. Four others are in the room.
And just behind them, a large chipper shredder (literally large size category) whirs. You get a sense from it that it's anticipating the feast as much as or more than the ghouls.
Initiatives:
Joey:
Dave:
Valda:
Maria:
Isagoras:
Ghouls/Shredder:
__________________________
_________G________________
_____G___TTT______________ I
__CC______G_______________VJD
__CC______________________ SM
_______G__________________
____________G_____________
__________________________
Order is basically PCs then badguys, so go ahead and post your actions regardless of initiative among yourselves.
"Help the cop!" Valda moved off, aiming her gun at the two to one side, and opened up, once again embuing the weapon with magical power.
"Got it!"
Stepping forward and crouching in front of Stacey, Joey takes aim and fires his pistol at the Ghoul closest to his side of the table. Seeing the man in such a helpless and hopeless position makes Joey realize exactly how close he was to being in the officer's position.
Son of a b%#~@... These things are no joke - we need to take them out quick!
Dave rushes over to the one primed to stab, while shouting, "They can use f$+%ign weapons?! I thought these things were just zombies!"
"Izzy, I could use some crowd control over here before they start swarming me!"
Maria spontaneously casts Cure Light Wounds (losing Burning Hands) using her Spell Deck ability to throw a card at the lead ghoul.
Valda's two ghouls fall to the ground, destroyed.
Joey's shot misses. Dave and Maria's ghouls are both injured, but not destroyed.
Stacey stops filming and moves near Dave to try and untie the officer.
Holding on Isagoras before the ghouls act.
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Isagoras sneers the sneer of one holding a hidden ace. He weaves in front of him NEW sigils of Calling and Power. Before him the very air is rent as the fabric of space-time is weakened and mana flows forth. "Crowd control you say? A most interesting assentation. One might be inclined to beielve that such things are accomplished with a atmospheric effect of mind-altering ululations, or perhaps a great cloud, touching and clinging or entreating to alternative actions.
But what if we could weave the threads of the penumbra so that the crowd is not so much controlled, as the individuals are themselves found to be engaged on an individual level?
Such incantations of course could only be committed by one who has--"
Somewhere, someone shouts "Get on with it!" and his oration is broken.
"Very well. I SUMMON!"
In front of each of the three remaining zomb ghouls, an eagle appears. The enormous winged birds screech a high pitched cry of annoyance and bloodlust into the face of each undead monstrosity and immediately start pecking at their face and eyes.
The first eagle drops the one Dave had already injured, leaving the way clear for Stacey to untie the officer.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
__________________________
__________E_______________
______E__TTTG_____________ I
__CC____GSXD_______________J
__CC______E____________V__ M
_______X__________________
____________X_____________
__________________________
Each ghoul moves past the eagles (AOO from each eagle, please).
Stacey:
Dave:
The first attacks Stacey, biting her on the shoulder. She screams, then immediately stops moving. The second moves around the table to get at Dave, but misses.
Then, shockingly, the chipper shredder acts. A cable reaches inside it's "maw" and, pulling a clump of shredded human flesh out, drops it in the mouth of the stunned police officer. Immediately, the look in the officer's eyes goes from shock to one of fiendish evil.
Another cable lashes out at Dave, but he's just beyond its reach. However, I do need Dave to make a Will Save.
+2 if an emotion affect.
Dave distinctly gets the feeling that the machine was trying to "talk" to him emotionally, to lull him into approaching. Dave shrugs it off without effort.
Seeing Stacey drop, Joey calls out, "Stacey!! No!"
Joey rushes towards their position and stops just shy of Dave, firing another round but this time at the ghoul beside his friend.
"Try and keep your distance from that 'machine,' guys! It's got a mind of its own! He yells to the others as he sees the shredder feeding the officer gore and beckoning Dave.
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
The eagles screech in irritation as their rightfully gained prey tries so bold a move as to escape from their clutches.
Isagoras answers Joey calmly, his deep voice speaking as if commenting on the freshness of breadstick appetizers.
"Still thyself. If a possessed metallic ripper capable of shredding a thick tree now staking claim to self-awareness is the worst thing we see today, we shall consider ourselves lucky. SUMMON!"
Another Eagle appears next to the machine. It screams in frustration and inhuman rage, rending at the metal with it's own steel-sharp beak.
The three original Eagles were big in the 70s yet keep touring move over slightly, giving the ghouls their full attention.
.
__________________________
___________E______________
_______E_TTTG_____________ I
__CC____GSXD_______________J
__CC_____E_____________V__ M
___E___X__________________
____________X_____________
__________________________
Seeing the eagles get a handle over the ghoul next to stacy, he'd move back to blank with the other eagle. Of course, he also shouts out, "Why the hell does more weird s@*@ keep happening?!"
The three original Eagles were big in the 70s yet keep touring
If they're not careful, those eagles are "gonna hurt someone, before the night is through".
Okay, trying to keep up with the party's awesomeness...
.
.
.
.
.
.
__________________________
___________E______________
_______E_GTTX_J___________ I
__CCE___XSX_______________
__CC____DE_____________V__ M
_______X__________________
____________X_____________
__________________________
Maria and Valda still have actions in round 2 before the baddies. The former officer is now a ghoul and a threat.
The only other threat was the machine (which was not overly damaged by the new Eagle in front of it).