Claire spits in the bug's face and pistol whips across the jaw, knocking it back to the ground. She twirls her gun and fires into it's center of mass, blasting it apart with one solid hit. "And stay down, ya' tick."
Watching one of the corpses give Eddy a devestating wound, Samuel quickly pulls the set of fancier playing cards from his coat, flipping open the lid and sending a single card whizzing towards the creature's torso. Crackling with arcane energy, the card slams with unnatural force into the corpse's midsection, the crackling green aura surrounding it exploding with light. "Where's the beast that escaped the train? Something this small couldn't rip a man in half..."
Askuwheteau continues to growl at the undead thing in front of him and thrusts forward once more.
Biff's muscles are too BIG, HARD, and MANLY to be ripped into by such PUNY, WEAK, and COWARDLY claws.
Cornelius reloads and shoots the closest threat with shotgun of shelling +1; it's super effective! Where once the target had a chest, abdomen, and neck, there is now a huge gaping hole, and a lot of blood and grime on the ground behind it.
= Total 9 = Raise
= Total 30
"Actual shotguns, Miss Claire, are also rather useful for leaving shotgun sized holes in bodies...or in this case, leaving body parts in the hole, as I do believe there is more hole than body in that."
Claire succeeds in knocking the creature from its assault and takes aim. One trigger pull later, and a very dead bug lies still on the ground. Samuel throws another card, which bowls over one of the corpses on Eddy with a resounding crack. Cornelius dispatches the other with a roar of his shotgun, blasting apart everything above the waist. Askuwheteau succeeds in tearing a wide rip in the corpse before him with his spear, but the creature spills out onto the ground, hissing and waving its claws.
Biff: 5 of Clubs
Claire: Jack of Spades
Cornelius: 7 of Clubs
Eddy: 9 of Diamonds
Samuel: Jack of Clubs
Creatures: 2 of Clubs
"I enjoy a little flash to my gunslinging," Claire says casually to Cornealius. "Besides, if someone's not expecting a hole the size of their fist in their stomach, then they're more likely to let their guard down." She spins toward the critter next to Biff and lets loose with another glowing bullet. She grins as the rounds slams into the creature's carapace.
"You know Eddy, this reminds me of the time we fought those short Irishmen a few years back! Remember that game we played? Let's do it again!"
Biff then demonstrates to everyone else by trying to see how high he can kick the next bug, aiming a kick to launch it straight up.
Claire's bullet slams into the critter's carapace, knocking it to the side. It starts to hiss, but Biff brings about a mighty kick that lifts both parties clear from the ground. Although the Brit comes back down after about half a foot, the creature sails into the air--in several pieces. The last creature wheels to face each member of the posse as pieces of its companion's body rain back down.
Askuwheteau glares at the annoying, disgusting, little thing in front of him and decides that now is the perfect time to use one of the white-man phrases he's heard sense leaving the confederation. Twirling his spear once than grabbing it in two hands Askuwheteau brings the piercing weapon down on the insect with a low growl of, "F*ck. You!"
Eddy resists the attack mightily, pushing through most of the pain and ignoring the danger presented by such a powerful strike to his thigh. In response, he moves to the last creature and drops his hand in a mighty chop as Askuwheteau stabs with his spear. A cloud of sand explodes up and hides them from the others, but when all is settled the creature is impaled and broken in twain from the mighty Eddy's assault.
Still comes to the clearing once more, as the strange bugs and corpses lie strewn about. Samuel's comment is correct, though: these bugs are too small to have made the tracks you followed here. The only remaining clue is the cave in the cliff...
"That's a mighty nasty gash. We have a medic among any of us?"
Cornelius grimaces at the carnage as he reloads the shotgun.
"Never saw that in basic!"
"I make big holes in people," Claire says, popping her revolver open and reloading. "But I'm not the person to go to if you want to patch holes up."
She looks over at the impossible to exist cave and shivers again. "I have a feeling that those were just the babies. And mama's gonna be waiting to tear us apart inside there." She points toward the cave. She absently spins her cylinder to her enhanced bullets, one finger tracing the rune on the side. "We're in for a bad time if we're not careful goin' in after it."
Samuel goes to retrieve the playing card now speared through the corpse's chest, wiping it off before placing it back in the deck. "Neither am I, I'm afraid. My mother once taught me some first aid when I was younger, but I'm afraid whatever I once remembered is long since gone." Samuel stares at the entrance to the cave, and takes a step towards it ahead of the others. "Claire's right, the mother must be inside. We need to be careful in there, or we'll be in real trouble. These creatures were bad enough, I can't imagine one being all grown up..."
"We'll have to see!" Biff yells, and then begins doing various flexes and turns to see if his muscles were injured.
"Not a scratch on them!" he cries in relief.
Askuwheteau groans slightly as he straightens up, turning to the rest of the party. "I'm afraid that I don't yet have the skills to heal myself or Eddy of our injuries. I will make do for now, though the ride back will be... unpleasant."
"Then let's flush it out, then. Like... a boar hunt, right? A giant, insectoid boar hunt. Right." Samuel brings his rifle up again, moving towards the cave. "We shouldn't fight it out in the open... we'll need to draw it out." Samuel looks about for a moment, before gingerly picking up the corpse of one of the spider-like creatures. He holds it away from himself, before chucking it underhand as far into the cave as he can muster, hoping the death of its offspring will have the creature leave its lair.
"If that doesn't work... who wants to lure it out?"
"It ain't right for a man to ask of his troops what he can't do fer himself. I'll go in."
He takes the creature corpse in his left hand, slings his carbine, and draws his grapeshot pistol, switching it to shot mode.
"If'n I'm in trouble, I'll try to make my scream loud enough to frighten you dern fools off instead of coming to save me."
He starts to head in...apparently ninja-like.
= Total 10
Biff immediately turns to Eddy.
"Pose off. Best man gets to go!"
"The rest of you: Judges!"
As two of the posse face the trouble of injuries on the frontier, and Eddy and Biff engage in what can only be called a dramatic display of manliness (the likes of which were never before seen, and may well never be seen again), Cornelius takes it upon himself to enter the cave. The entrance is small, but after about ten feet it opens up into a room some fifteen feet across. The lighting has dropped dramatically in here, more than might be expected, and it's quite dark. There's no sign of the creature, though.
As Cornealius volunteers to enter the cave Askuwheteau steps forward as well, "No one should enter that place alone, I will accompany you."
Looking around Askuwheteau doesn't see anything in the cave until he notices the crack in the ceiling. Turning to Cornealius, he whispers, "I don't see the creature but that crack in the ceiling is worrying me, I don't believe we should go in any further."
"Yep, you've got a good point. Think you can chuck this deader up there and maybe piss the bugger off somethin fierce so she comes down to us?"
"I don't think that I can make that throw. Though maybe if we just throw the creature in the middle of the room then fire up at the hole to get its attention?"
"Hmm...this'd be a right fine time to have had some dynamite and just collapsed this whole hunk a rock on the thing. Oh well...hindsight. We should fetch the others. We obviously ain't pulling it out. We will need lights, and to stay close to one another. Ed...Run and fetch the rest, and tell em what's going on. This ain't gonna be pleasant."
He chucks the dead critter into the center of the cave.
"Ha! It appears I am the only one who came prepared for night hunting!" Biff cries, pulls out his lantern from his pack, and lights it.
Claire moves forward, keeping near the entrance to the cave and covering Cornealius and the Brits from behind. Her pistol stays firmly trained on the rest of the party, just in case something nasty jumps at them from the darkness. "I don't like this. I don't like this at all."
"The thought just occurred to me...what if we smoked it out? We can ride back to the train, take some lumbar from the wreckage, fill this cave up, and make it hotter than the devil's sunroom in here. If the fire don't get it, the smoke will drive it out, an' were waitin' guns, spears, an' boxing gloves in hand to mud stomp the overgrown centipede."
"That's a pretty good plan," Claire says. "Fighting it in close quarters could go... poorly. But if we smoke the little dosser out, then we can catch it in a crossfire from a distance and tear it apart. The only dodgy part is that it might move if we leave it alone too long. Or it might come after us for stomping on its little monsters."
Askuwheteau moves just behind the brits to act as a second barrier to anything that pops out, then responds to Cornealius. "An excellent idea but i don't think that we have the time to spare on moving back and forth. We should try the direct approach first."
Askuwheteau's face pales at Eddy's actions and a faint whisper can be heard, "What have I done?"
Biff screams, nearly beside himself with excitement.
He looks for something, ANYTHING he can crush between his thighs.
Eddy enters the cave at as quick a pace as he can manage given his leg. He quickly brings the shotgun up to blast at the crack in the ceiling and fires. The roar of the gun is almost deafening in this enclosed space, and the creature drops from the ceiling and falls to the ground. While knocked loose, it recovers quickly and lets out another hiss-clack.
The creature quickly rushes Eddy, targeting the biggest perceived threat. It leaps on him and begins tearing with teeth and claws, and pain shoots through his body as it digs into his flesh. The worst seems to be when it buries its face in his stomach, instinctively attacking where its brood had damaged the man before. Eddy's muscles are even more damaged and he feels his strength fading as he drops.
The posse readies to react as one of their own is assaulted viciously by the monster they've sought, but a chill flows through them as it pounces and attacks so terribly.
Initiative Draws
Asku: 9 of Clubs
Biff: 7 of Hearts
Claire: 10 of Hearts
Cornelius: 6 of Spades
Eddy: 3 of Diamonds
Samuel: 3 of Hearts
Husker: King of Clubs
Claire scowls as the thing's body manages to absorb the shotgun blast from the utterly mad Brit. Sick and tired of these insect beasts, she ignores the creature's hiss entirely and whirls her chamber again, beginning to feel the fatigue of using so much magic in one day. Her entire gun crackles with energy and small bolts of power surge down the barrel as she takes aim. "Eat this you overgrown beetle!" Her revolver roars like a .50 cal as a glowing bullet tears into the creature's hide.
Samuel recoils in horror as the beast plummets from the ceiling and tears deep into Eddy's flesh, but manages to compose himself long enough draw three of the razor edged playing cards and send three flying towards the beast. One of the three glances off the creature's hide, but the other two slam full-force into it, the green light dissipating in a large explosion of arcane power. "Don't worry! I've got you!" he shouts as he moves to draw more cards from his deck if the beast isn't put down.
Cornelius somehow manages to, just barely, steel himself against the threat, and lowers his gun, shotgun blasting the hell out of the creature with it.
Biff is momentarily taken aback by the monster ripping into Eddy, but shakes it off.
"EDDY! THERE'S A MONSTER ON YOU! I'LL GET IT!" he says and unleashes a mighty kick.