The man on the ground, shielding his face as best he can, reaches for the knife at his side with one hand, finally pulling it free so that he may soon take some swipes at his assailant. "I'll gut you like a pig!" he spews, between punches.
Out of the dining car, however, comes a shout followed by another blast of gunfire. "Lefty! Get up!"
The ball enters Brick between the neck and the collarbone, and though it doesn't exit the other side it undoubtedly makes a mess of everything inside the man. His limp body falls bleeding on top of 'Lefty'.
The third Bandit stands in the doorway of the dining car, eyebrows fixed in a scowl directed more at his compatriot on the ground than the corpse on top of him.
What do the rest of you do?
--------------------------
Those that escape out the back find no resistance as the only bandits currently in line of sight are either dead or wrestlin'. There's a small landing attached to the back of your passenger car, nearly butted up against a similar landing on the front of the freight. You can see from here, however, that the door is padlocked (wouldn't want anyone going through your stuff, right?). Maybe you could bust that, however?
There a ladder on the side of the car as well, within reach of the landing. Provided nothing is distracting you, getting to it is a menial task, so that could get you to the top of the cars as well.
Maybe you fellas have some other thoughts too? You don't see any other bandits from your limited view point, as and loud clanking of the joint below your feet and the clattering rails is much louder out here, so you're not likely to observe anything interesting that way either.
What's your plan?
"HOW NOW, BROWN COW?!" Diggory screams, flailing both weapons wildly at the bandit that just killed Brick.
---------------------------
Meanwhile, out the back of the car, Edward is bemoaning his bad fortune. "If I had my letter opener I could try picking that lock..." he whines, glancing over his shoulder at the car they just left, where Diggory is trying to stick it in his bandit-cow assailant.
Myles ignores him, and glances at the ladder. He has an idea. Like many of his ideas, it isn't the smartest, but it is an idea. Reaching out with his meathook of a hand, he grasps hold of the ladder and begins wordlessly to climb up onto the train car's roof.
When the second shot is fired, Roy shows no more reaction than at the first. He coolly watches Sal burble and fall at his feet, and jerks the knife out of the woman's chest as she collapses. As "Lefty" starts to get up, Roy steps over, leans down, and stabs the knife in again, aiming to drive it between--or straight through--his ribs.
- - - - -
Spencer stays down behind the seat, starting again when the second shot is fired, but Tekumsah continues moving forward, trying to stay low and hoping that the madmen rushing in with melee weapons will keep the gunmen busy. He thinks about ripping a board from the wall, but the gun tumbling from the woman bandit's hand draws his eye. If he can get his hands on that... well, there's a reason they call them the great equalizers.
The blast from the middle of the passenger car catches everyone off guard, but none so much as the distant bandit standing in the doorway to the dining car. There's a scream in the car as Casey's diminutive gun goes off, and the final standing bandit in view keels over - bracing himself upon the rail for a moment as his gun clatters to the grating at his feet. A second or two later, he too drops and reaches slowly for his gun, but falls still as soon as his hand rests over the grip.
On the other side of the coupling, two men frantically scramble to keep down the bandit buried beneath Brick's corpse. Diggory's wild, swinging branding iron crashes against the grating as the bandit rolls to his side and out of the way. There are a couple more close hits before the enraged cow-puncher drives a thin sliver of steel into Lefty's side.
The bandit looks shocked, having no idea where that thing came from, and was it a letter opener?! "What the f--" he begins, but is unable to finish as Roy bursts through the door and drives his crimson blade - still wet with Sal's lifeblood - deep between the man's ribs.
There don't seem to be any further intruders in this car, but you saw several head up toward First Class as well as the engine. There were also several hanging back by the armored car...
-----------------------------------------------
...the armored car isn't too far by land, but looks like a mile or two from Myles' perspective atop the freight car. Wind batters his back, trying to push him down onto the car or worse, and the rattle of everything beneath him is almost deafening.
Ahead of you (Myles) is a second freight car, with a gap of about 5 or 6 feet between; then there's the flatbed cart with a buckboard and other larger items. Beyond that, finally, is the armored car. You can see the riders, keeping behind the car and careful not to draw too much sight from the armed guards poking rifle barrels through the murder holes. They (the bandits) seem to be biding their time. A few hundred yards beyond that is a large cart, racing as quick as it can but losing ground by the minute on this train -- what could that be about.
-----------------------------------------------
What would you all like to do?
follows Myles up the ladder, with following soon after.
As they reach the top, gestures the saddler to keep low and battle the winds, but as he turns to speak the younger of the pair is already running towards the gap intending on jumping.
Not one to be outdone by a youngster, follows his reckless friend.
Myles notices Thomas slipping from the ladder! "Whoa, WHOA! HANG ON!" he shouts desperately, dropping prone to try and reach out and grab his hand!
Alas, the farrier is too slow to be of any help. Edward, still standing between the two cars, can only gasp helplessly in horror at what happens...
Meanwhile, inside the passenger car...
Diggory, experienced at butchering animals, rears his head back instinctively to avoid the blood spatter that results from Roy's fatal stab. Climbing to his feet and brushing himself off, he notices that Edward's letter opener is still stuck in the bandit's ribs, and pulls it out, wiping it clean on the bandit's pants.
He's about to search the bandit's pockets but he notices the huge Native going for the gun. He settles into a defensive stance with his branding iron held aloft, watching Tekumsah warily to see what he does with the weapon. For all he knew, the native's got his own agenda that isn't friendly to cow-punchers like himself.
As the action in the steerage passenger car comes to a bloody close, Spencer pokes his head out and sees the bandits dead, with a few of the other passengers having stopped them. The realization that others were able to fight back against their attackers fills him with a mix of shame and something akin to hope. He crawls from the seats, stands, and after a moment, he begins to move forward through the car, looking for anything to help him assist the others. He isn't very strong, but there should be a couple of guns lying about...
- - - - -
Tekumsah bends over to pick up Sal's gun, and when he starts to stand up, his eyes meet Diggory's. He pauses, crouched, recognizing the defensive posture and the look in the man's eye. They usually appear right before a fistfight breaks out, but given the weapons in the men's hands...
There isn't time for that. The Comanche shakes his head slightly and nods, his eyes looking past the cowpuncher, toward the front of the train. "Not now, white man. I'm with you." Once it looks like tensions are cooling, Tekumsah starts moving toward first class.
- - - - -
Roy pushes the second body from his knife and keeps moving, not even pausing for the guns. The man has a single purpose in mind, and his knife has done him well this far. He steps over the third bandit's corpse and moves on up toward the first class car.
- - - - -
Diggory straightens his back at Tekumsah's words, but mistrust lingers in his eyes. "After you, then," he says, the tone of his words just a shade more respectful than a sneer, as he puts his back against the train car's wall and gestures with a sweep of one arm toward where Spencer is going.
There's a sudden lurch, causing those standing to stumble for a moment and items in the passenger car to shift in their netting. Someone is trying to brake the train. The loud squeal of the brakes pierces the low rumbling of the tracks. On this incline, the train has little momentum built up and shouldn't take long to come to a full stop.
------------------------
Those of you that head toward the front of the locomotive pass quickly through the dining car. The server that some of you met earlier is standing behind his bar and quickly raises his arms back in the air as you enter, but then gives you a curious look upon realizing you aren't bandits.
There is a crate near the bar that is half full of random liqueurs and spirits, presumably what the third bandit had begun gathering before hearing shots from steerage.
Past the curtain and out the front entrance/exit of the dining car is another pair of small landings over the couplings beneath. The door to First Class is currently closed, but those that approach can hear some shouts from within.
"Keep it coming. Just think of this as a toll for entering the Dark Lands. I'm sure you'll love it here and make this and more back once you reach wherever you're heading. Your cooperation ensures you can actually get there."
-------------------------
The sudden slowing of the steam engine tosses you all for a moment, but Thomas was the only one in so compromising a position as to be thrown.
Now that the train is slowing down, the carriage in the distance should be able to catch up - likely on top of it shortly after you all come to a stop.
With the wind at your back, you could race toward the armored car at a reckless speed, or take it a bit more conservative. Blueboy opts for the former, displaying remarkable agility and physical prowess. In fact, he is almost to the armored car already as he leaps from the second freight car and down onto the buckboard atop the flatbed car.
Some of the bandits on horseback note the reckless approach, but are unsure whether the young man poses a greater threat than the rifles within the iron box.
Barney looks at the dead bandits with no pity. The war had left him with little compassion for the violent. He had seen so much, this was as fitting an end as any other. The ex-cavalryman grits his teeth and follows those heading toward the first class car.
Archie, scared but axe in hand follows him, being the type who needs a leader.
Casey, for his part, stays in steerage.
aces his landing, turning with a winning smile to wait for his friend just in time to watch . As the cooper slides towards a most probably lethal fall, the saddler throws himself to the roof turned ground for them trying to reach his friend with a extended hand... but to no avail.
hits the floor with full force and as the train keeps moving forward those in the roof can watch his body left on the ground like a rag doll.
Holding back his tears, the wannabe doctor fixes his gaze on his goal: the armored car. His friend might have died, but it wouldn't be in vain.
-----------------------------------------
Toward the back of the train, the five riders finally make their move. Amidst the gunfire coming from within the iron box, three of the five race quickly past the murder holes toward the front of the car, leaving the other two behind trying to maintain the blind spot.
One of the advancing riders drops from his saddle from a well placed shot and is dragged for a few yards before coming free of the stirrup. The riderless horse continues to run beside the others. The two riders that made it skillfully grab hold of the bars surrounding the small platform before the box and swing aboard. One flashes a smile toward Blueboy as he presses his back against the box between two of the small windows, just before he drops the barrel of his pistol to its level and fires a trio of random shots in to ricochet around and frighten the guards.
-----------------------------------------
In steerage, Art stays near the front door waving those that are heading further up the train by. Mr. Clean, however, notices that the first man shot on board seems to be stirring. "Quick," he calls to the man's son. "Come here and take of your shirt. I think we can save him.
The woman in the suit, though she offered to help earlier, has had her fill of violence and is now hiding behind that same trunk.
Sal continues to bleed out near the door, and three corpses rattle upon the landing outside the front doorway.
-----------------------------------------
Those of you that advance quickly pass through the dining car (described above) quickly. You can't see into the First Class car without taking the risk of placing your head in a window opening, but there's one in the door at the back if you wish to try. You continue to hear the voices inside as the occupying bandits load up on whatever the generous passengers feel might be less valuable than their lives. You hear no sounds of struggle or protest.
What do you do?
In the steerage car, Spencer picks up a pistol and stands, looking toward the men moving forward. Then he hears the stirring behind, and Mr. Clean's call for help. He hesitates for a moment, and then turns, pocketing the pistol and stepping back toward the wounded father. "Is there any way I can help, mister?" He crouches down and raises his hands. "I don't know much about medicine, but I'm told I've got a steady touch."
- - - - -
At the door to first class, Roy finally pauses for a moment, and turns back to look at the others. "When the door opens, start moving." He sweeps his cold eyes across the makeshift posse, locking eyes with each man in turn, and then turns and kicks the door open full force before stepping against the wall, pressing himself to it and ducking down to try and keep from getting filled with lead.
When the Scotsman locks eyes with him, Tekumsah nods and pulls back the hammer on the pistol. He steps forward, lifts it to eye level, and when the door flies open, he fires at the first person he sees who looks like a bandit.
- - - - -
A giant of a man stands watching the back door, a bandana tied over the lower portion of his face just as the others had and a dusty black hat pulled low. His gun was already raised and trained on the back door, but in truth he was a little lazy on the job.
The door bursting open snapped him back to attention, but Tekumsah's shot went off before the large bandit could pull the trigger. The bullet slammed into the man's stomach and dropped him to the ground - but there was still life left in him, lifting his iron up to zero in on the native.
There are two other bandits visible in the room as well. One in the center of the aisle is wearing a rhinestone studded shirt and a gold-embroidered, black hat. He has a dusty brown shirt in his hands that he is filling with valuables while loosely holding his pistol. The third is a shorter woman with a pistol leveled at an older, distinguished gentleman in a grey derby. Both of them look up from their tasks at the sound of gunfire at the back door.
Diggory immediately pockets the letter opener and upgrades to the knife lying on the ground instead. After a thought, he pockets a light pistol, as well.
In the dining car, his eyes fall on the crate of half-opened spirits and a smile spreads across his dirty face. Holstering his weapons, the cowboy moves behind the bar and grabs as many cleaning rags as he can, glancing up at the light in the train compartment to see if there's anything that could be used to catch on fire. Molotovs would be a very useful weapon in this situation...
He moves faster when he sees that Tekumsah has no intention of slowing down. When the gunshots ring out, he moves with all haste to try and construct some liquor-firebombs.
-------------------
Back near the armored car, Edward winces and covers his face with his hands when Thomas' body rolls limply on the hard-packed dirt. With the train slowing down, he feels safe enough to try and climb up the ladder on the side of the car to follow Myles up to the roof.
Myles is going to attempt something that could very well get him killed, but the gunshots being fired so close by tell him that he doesn't have much time to sit and think of a better solution.
Assuming the riderless horse is close enough (within about 5-10 feet of the train and running alongside), Myles will try to leap off the train's roof and commandeer the bandit's horse.
In the steerage car, Spencer picks up a pistol and stands, looking toward the men moving forward. Then he hears the stirring behind, and Mr. Clean's call for help. He hesitates for a moment, and then turns, pocketing the pistol and stepping back toward the wounded father. "Is there any way I can help, mister?" He crouches down and raises his hands. "I don't know much about medicine, but I'm told I've got a steady touch."
"You could hold him down, and maybe find something he can bite down on while I try to get this bullet out. If it's anything like removing impacted teeth, it should be really fascinating to watch. You're welcome to document it with your camera if you wish." There's an odd pleasure Mr. Clean seems to take in this opportunity that is more than a little unsettling. "In fact, if we can find a way to cauterize this he might be able to keep the leg."
You can't help but wonder... if he's likely to lose the leg, then why are we removing the bullet?
--------------------------------------
The vacant horse rushes ahead of the other two, spurred by the stumbling rider and loose in the reigns, quickly approaching the freight car where several of you have gathered.
For a moment Myles, as you are falling through the air, you ponder whether this was really the right choice. That fleeting thought is lost however as you slam into the horses saddle and manage to grip enough reign and saddle horn to keep yourself riding.
You seem to have a horse now... what do you intend to do with it?
When boarding there was a slight altercation between a salt-and-peppered gentleman with an English accent and a darker skinned boy that boarded shortly after. The disagreement started rather inconspicuously, but grew rather quickly. "There is no way I'm going to share my car with an... an islander. Especially a French one to boot!" roared the 'gentleman', fury red in his cheeks. Rather meekly, the islander took up his luggage and retreated back to steerage, despite the fare he paid for first class.
There is also a couple that boarded, in their late twenties or early thirties, of apparently recent wealth. Both were dressed in finery - bustles and tails, caps and feathers - but looked uncertain in their position. Finally, there was also a stout man that boarded wearing a dark, rhinestoned shirt and a gold-embroidered cap. He looked the spittin' image of a legendary, frontier hero; possessing a confident swagger to match.
-------------------------------
The bandits, however, caught the entire car by surprise. Most didn't realize what was even going on until one of the bandana wearing interlopers was shouting in their face and brandishing his iron. The highly vocal, English gentleman began to act but was quickly put in his place with a barrel 'tween the ribs. Since then, he's been seated near the front under constant watch from the short, female one.
The 'frontier hero' was singled out quickly as well, then forced to strip his shirt and hat, which the boisterous bandit now wears proudly - using his old shirt to gather the valuables.
They've gathered quite a haul from this car as there's been little to no resistance thus far, and most were travelling with a decent bit of valuables.
Suddenly the back door, where one of the three train-jackers was stationed, busts open with a kick and an almost simultaneous pistol blast. The rear bandit drops to the floor from the shot, but can't be counted yet as he prepares to keep his post. The other two bandits turn in surprise...
What do you do?
Silas, Daniel, and Jack sat in one of the stalls, exchanging idle chit-chat. They didn't bother to intervene when the islander was banished to steerage - each decided, for his own reasons, that it wasn't his business. When the stout 'frontier hero' walked by, Silas seemed to take a particular interest in him.
---------------------------------------------
When the bandits took over, Jack and Daniel exchanged a worried look. Silas, however, looked disturbingly eager. He reached for something in his coat pocket, and his stallmates quickly realized what it was.
"Hold on, Silas. Whatever you're planning, I suggest you reconsider." Jack said quietly.
"Yeah. You saw how they disabled that fella in the gold cap. What chance would you have?" Daniel agreed.
Silas grumbled, and slid his pistol back into his pocket, but kept his grip on it. "Just bothers me to sit here doing nothing."
"Perhaps something will draw their attention away from you. Then you'll have your chance to do something." Jack reassured him.
Daniel considered saying "And get yourself killed in the process", but thought better of it.
---------------------------------------------
Sure enough, a distraction arrives with the back door being kicked open. As the bandits turn to engage the newcomer, Silas pulls out his gun and starts shooting at the nearest bandit.
The shot goes wide, and Silas curses quietly.
Meanwhile, Daniel and Jack dive to the floor of the stall, trying to get some scant cover from the benches.
Casey considers his fellow steerage passengers. With a grumbling sigh he turns to the wounded father and attempts to help in small way he can. He was no saint but just leaving a man to bleed out was a bit much. Besides, the man would owe him one...
Bareny shouts to Tekumsah over the rattling train, "You have a plan, redskin?" Bareny doesn't realize the term is a insulting racial slur.
Archie watches, clutching his axe nervously.
"Keep shooting!" is Tekumsah's only reply. He decides that commenting on the insult can wait for a point when there aren't bloodthirsty bandits ready to kill them.
A shot rings out from the large bandit bleeding out on the ground. One of his hands clutches at his side where he was shot, but the other has raised his iron toward the native who shot first.
His pain must be affecting him, however, since the shot pierces the wood paneling a good foot or so from the doorway - far from being a threat to his attacker.
The one who has confiscated the rhinestone shirt and gold-embroidered cap turns in shock as Silas' shot goes off beside him. The bullet bursts through the some bedding on the other side of the carriage in a flurry of down, and the bandit drops his shirt-full of jewelry to return fire.
His shot is much better placed than the first, and likely would have dropped the courageous innkeeper had the man not twisted out of the way at the last moment - the bullet tearing through the fabric of his shirt instead.
The third bandit in this car abandons her watch on the English gentleman and instead rushes toward the young couple.
The husband protests and even tries to fight back for a moment, but a kick to his chest sends him back against the wall, knocking his head against a hook embedded in the paneling and collapsing to the ground unconscious and bleeding. His bride is hoisted to her feet and held in front of the small bandit - the gun pressed to her ribs.
"Everyone without a mask can just drop your guns, unless you want this pretty thing on your conscience!"
The two bandits who have boarded at the back of the train give each other a nod, then one pulls something from his jacket while the other holsters her gun and charges the flatbed where Blueboy is. She doesn't seem very intimidated by him, casting a wink as she leaps from the armored car landing to the flat car and ducks down beside the buckboard - only a yard or so from where Blueboy has stopped.
The first bandit, who had pulled some sort of stick from his jacket, takes a moment to light it and drop it at his feet, then quickly rushes after the second.
In steerage, Spencer looks aghast at Mr. Clean for a moment, and then gives a slow, unsteady nod. "I... I suppose that makes sense. I've heard you can break open a bullet and use the powder for burning, would that work?" He shows the gun he picked from the fallen bandits and then looks down at the man. "Don't worry, sir. We'll help you however we can."
- - - - -
Roy waits for the first round of gunfire to finish before stepping through the doorway into the car--walking directly over the man on the ground. His eyes sweep over the situation and he makes a snap decision, one that comes so easy and natural it hardly feels like he's made his own choice at all. His knife hand goes back, then whips forward, the blade flying free from his hand--aimed to strike the woman bandit high in the shoulder, where the hostage isn't in the way.
- - - - -
When shots ring out against his own, and the man he gutshot fires back, Tekumsah pauses. Things in first class seem a whole lot more complicated than they were in steerage--Guess that makes sense--and he's hesitant to do anything that might ignite a situation here. But then the crazy Scotsman steps in and throws his knife, and Tekumsah decides it might be better to just keep shooting and hope for the best. If it were me at gunpoint, you think these white folks would have even hesitated? With that in mind, he points his gun at his original target, now on the floor, and pulls the trigger again, before slipping into cover against the outer wall of the car.
Silas sneers at the hostage-taker.
"You yellow son of a-"
Daniel grabs his leg, silently begging the innkeeper to stand down. For a moment, it looks like Silas will reluctantly comply...until he sees Tekumsah and Roy continuing their assault.
"If those two ain't stopping, I don't see any good in it!"
He moves across the aisle to the opposite stall, drops into a crouch, and fires at one of the hostage-less bandits.
Jack sighs. "Well, at least he's not drawing their bullets toward us anymore."
Myles will be spurring the horse onward to the first class car as quickly as the beast's legs will take him.
Diggory likes the way Roy is thinking and follows him in. He paid especial mind to the hostages, trying to pull the bride free of the bandit's clutches in all the chaos!
Edward is cowering down behind Tekumsah, trying not to get shot at or seen. There's a time for bravery and a time to be a coward, he thinks to himself.
Roy's single-focused sangfroid is chilling as he quickly paces into the room and releases the blade in his hands. It's a close throw, incredibly close , but the shorter bandit ducks behind her human shield at the last second...
... there's the briefest of screams from the young bride, before the blade buries itself in her chest and deflates her lungs.
Two more shots are quickly fired: one just above the large man on the ground - the bullet digging into the carpet between the sprawled man's legs, and the other from Silas, who leaps the aisle and fires back wildly. It's impressive, even if not entirely accurate.
Finally, Diggory charges into the room - leaping the floored bandit, brushing by Roy and the second as Silas' shot crosses before his eyes, and barrels into the shortest bandit with her hostage. Diggory pulls the bride free and knocks the assailant head over heels into the wall at the front end of the car. She's down against the wall and a bit shocked, but still conscious and ready.
The bride in Diggory's hands, however, is already breathing her last. Her eyes meet the cow-puncher's with mingling sorrow and gratitude before they go glassy.
-----------------------------
Myles keeps the momentum of the horse goin' and rushes past the steerage car and dining car with ease. There are all manner of gunshots going off inside the first class car, but no one seems to be guarding the outside as you approach. There are, however, a handful of bandits at the engine callin' for their own mounts now that the train is about stopped. One of 'em eyes you and points you out to the others. Apparently you don't look like 'Has'.
-----------------------------
"Brilliant!" Mr. Clean exclaims, nodding vigorously as he digs into the older man's flesh for the lodged bullet. "Once I get this out, you can pour a bit of that gunpowder in here and we'll light it up. I've only ever read of that in books, but it sounds positively delightful! Oh, and you-" he looks up at Casey as the cardsharp approaches, "there should be a lighter in the man's pocket. I saw him smoking at the station before we left."
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Roy's blade is just a hair faster than he feared, to the bandit's dismay. Just as Roy foresaw, the short bandit ducks out of the way and attempts to pull her human shield into the path of the twirling blade... but too little too late. The knife catches the woman on the side of the face, just where she had been peaking over the bride's shoulder. An ear is removed along with the mask and a large piece of flesh on the bandit's right cheek.
The outlaw is utterly stunned by this turn of events, when suddenly Diggory crashes into her and sends her sprawling against the front wall as Roy had foreseen. She is bleeding extensively from her cheek, where some of her snarling teeth are exposed - her ear lost somewhere nearby.
The young bride looks quickly to both Roy who's brazen knife-work has wounded her captor, and Diggory who has powerfully freed her from it. "I married the wrong man," she utters, quiet and seemingly without her own knowledge of the words escaping her lips. There are tears in her eyes and she clutches Diggory close, smelling of lilac and fear, even as he stands with adversaries before and behind.
As furious men continue to stream in the back door - the back door that he was supposed to be watching - the wounded bandit takes a second shot at the native framed in the back doorway, then rolls to his right into the stall occupied by the now shirtless 'hero of the west'. It may not be the safest retreat, but it beats lying in the middle of the aisle the way people are flooding in.
It's another frantic shot, splintering the back wall and giving those gathered on the platform outside a reason to duck.
A bit overwhelmed, the other two bandits decide that this is a bit more than they bargained for. "Hell, I aint dyin' over a couple necklaces." Making eye-contact with his wounded partner on the ground, the rhinestone-shirted brigand charges past Diggory and the bride in his arms as the female bandit scrambles from the wall and out the front door.
Before he is out of sight, however, the rhinestone outlaw turns from his position in the front doorway and fires a shot into one of the curtained stalls in hopes that another injury might discourage pursuit.
The wayward bullet proves fatal for the young clerk, against the odds. How ironic that as much as Daniel was warning Silas against the present dangers, that bullet was carrying his name all along.
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Myles, as you rapidly ride up on the platform at the front of the first class car (only the coal car between you and the four outlaws at the engine) you notice a badly injured woman crawling out of the passenger car, as well as a surprisingly well-dressed bandit firing back in. What's your plan?
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The deafening explosion sends a shock through both the armored car and the flatbed attached, sending one of the fleeing bandits tumbling to the boards of the flatbed, while Blueboy and the second stay upright and prepared.
"Come to watch?" the upright outlaw calls to Blueboy as he raises his pistol in the man's direction (they're only a couple yards away from each other now). The second outlaw tries to regain his feet and survey what's going on - while the two riding bandits that held back race forward now toward the smoking door to the armored car.
The trailing cart has almost caught up now. Even in the clouds of dust, anyone who looks can see that the cart is uncovered and transports some large, metallic contraption the size of a 250 gallon still. It should be upon the armored car in a matter of seconds, presumably as the riding bandits are boarding.
Spencer stays focused on helping the wounded passenger in steerage.
- - - - -
At the door to the car, Tekumsah ducks as another shot is fired, and scrambles inside, looking for the man who refuses to die. He kicks open the stall door and fires again, point-blank down at the bandit.
- - - - -
Roy isn't one to see a job go unfinished, and while it looks like the female is making her escape, he lunges forward in any case, moving to grab and restrain the bandit in the fancy shirt. He hits him at the doorway, just after the man fired into a stall, and he tries to knock the gun aside while he slams him against the wall.
Spencer stays focused on helping the wounded passenger in steerage.
With a look of glee from the dentist, and a final yell of agony from the father before passing out, Mr. Clean lifts the bullet from the man's bleeding thigh. "Beautiful," the dentist mutters, then turns to the wounded man. "You should keep this. It's lucky, right?"
Then to the rest of you helping, "If you have that bullet, we could cauterize it now. The sooner we can remove that tourniquet, the more likely he is to keep that leg." With a quick nod, he adds, "And you should check his pockets for that lighter. He'll thank us for the theft later, I'm sure."
At the door to the car, Tekumsah ducks as another shot is fired, and scrambles inside, looking for the man who refuses to die. He kicks open the stall door and fires again, point-blank down at the bandit.- - - - -
Roy isn't one to see a job go unfinished, and while it looks like the female is making her escape, he lunges forward in any case, moving to grab and restrain the bandit in the fancy shirt. He hits him at the doorway, just after the man fired into a stall, and he tries to knock the gun aside while he slams him against the wall.
[dice=Strength]1d20+2
As Tekumsah finishes the large, wounded outlaw - right in front of the ashen faced 'hero of the west', who leaps onto his seat in fright - Roy charges the front door when another gunshot has gone off. A shoulder into the man's raised gun-arm sends the iron clattering to the ground and both of the men grappling against the wall.
"No...Samantha, I..." Daniel gasps, as he breathes his last.
Jack tries not to scream in shock.
"Poor kid." Silas mutters, as he reloads his gun.
Casey loks at the eager 'surgeon' poking around. he grimaces, knowing just how much pain the man is causing the wounded man.
"Easy there, friend." The cardsharp mutters to Spencer, "Unless you have an anvil and hammer, you'll never break the bullet open. Besides, burning will just cause him pain. Surely we have some whiskey or something here that'll clean it? "
The man looks around for an impromptu disinfectant.
Diggory's first reaction to the bride's words is to roll his eyes, but as she holds him close his expression softens for a microsecond.
"Let's get you away from these guys," Diggory says to her, keeping her protected in his arms as he tries to sneak around the battling going on in the car to retreat back to the passenger car.
Edward, who has been crouching in fright, now sees that Roy is struggling for control of a gun with a bandit. This is his chance!
"AAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!" he shouts, running over to the struggle and attempting to flail his arms at the bandit!
Myles, meanwhile, has full command of the bandit horse that he's commandeered, and he sees the well-dressed bandit firing into the car as his next target.
Going to try and grab his clothes and pull him off the train while I'm riding the horse. Not sure what modifier that roll would need but here's the roll:
Myles grabs a handful of the man's collar, immediately pulling him off-balance and away from the two men that have begun assaulting him.
Myles will attempt to pull the well-dressed bandit from the train at risk of his own life.
Rolled a 1...I've overreached!
Myles, the outlaw, as well as the horse go tumbling to the dust beside the rails and the locomotive. The outlaw had lost his gun back on the train, and his fancy new shirt and hat are grey with dust.
The horse howls in pain as it tries to regain its feet, but can't put weight on the front left leg. It appears to be broken. Do instead, the beast rolls in pain in the dust beside the two recovering men.