Henry shakes his head and punches the cultist in the face.
Edward rushes toward the Lieutenant-Commander and attempts to yank him from atop his opponent. "Gladstone, stop your roughhousing!" Edward shouts. "Let go of that man and help me! Vipers! There are vipers in the trenches. We have to kill them. We have to kill them all, Gladstone!"
Spittle flies from the old author's lips. Wild-eyed, he grabs at Henry's clothing.
Adrenalin rushes through his body as Edward grabs the Lieutenant-Commander by the back of his uniform and yanks upward.
"Gladstone! There are vipers in the trench! VIPERS!"
Mr. Carter pulls Gladstone away. Wait, was he struggling with a boche?
Hearing the sobbing from the child, the Doctor continues forward. Rather than risk scaring the boy off, he moves forward quietly.
Edward's eyes dart back and forth with confusion. Wait...he was wrestling a Hun?? That makes no sense, and, and, and.. there are snakes!
The cultist swings his axe at LCDR RS' mid-section.
The hatchet cuts a deep gash in LCDR's side.
Dr. Hanmer creeps forward. He sees a small shape, huddled on the ground, wracked with piteous sobs. The fog that coils around this heart-wringing scene almost seems to exert a kind of psychic pressure.
Seeing the small huddled shape fills the doctor with what resembles a feeling of hope. He proceeds forward towards the shape with an outstretched hand offering help. "Don't be scared, child. I'm here to help." Emrys says in his best bedside manner.
She looks up at you with teary eyes; it appears to be one of the phantom twins that was so bedeviling the three of you outside of the farmhouse.
"YOU!" Emrys quickly stands up and takes a step back.
"ARGGH!" Henry cries out as the hatch digs in. He tries to wrench the weapon from the cultist's hands.
Little girl : "Help me please Mister!"
She stands, and Dr. Hanmer sees that she's holding a straight razor in her hand.
LCDR RS grabs for the hatchet, and comes up empty.
Emrys goes for his pistol and aims down sight towards the little girl.
As he stares down the barrel of his revolver - he wonders if he can really fire on this little girl.
Henry lets out a groan as the dice once more go against him. With one last gasp he tries to pummel the cultist into submission!
"What if they're not snakes, after all?" Edward whispers to himself. "What if they are tentacles? Ten-ta-cles?"
Edward's eyes widen.
Demented Little Girl : "Is the mean man going to shoot me?"
Dr. Hanmer, as you stand staring down at your tiny nemesis, her eyes flick to your right, as her twin lunges at you from the fog, swinging a cleaver.
The scene of smoke, mud, muck, broken trees, and twisted corpses of men and horses from the Delville Wood slowly morphs. Where the writhing German soldier had been is now a little girl. Gladstone's body, alive and well just a moment before, is now the slashed and bloody body of Lieutenant-Commander Henry Readington-Smythe.
Edward drops to his knees, presses his hands against his temples, and screams!
The doctor quickly tries to avoid the swing of the clever. "Bloody devil children!" As he is dodging, he attempts to get a shot off at the one that was holding his focus.
She slashes viciously at your calf.
And yes, you can shoot the first of the pair you saw: it'll be a difficulty 4 test.
Colors dance in front of Edward's eyes, slowly coalescing into the shape of the demon slashing at the good doctor. Edward raises his pistol and fires.
While dodging, the doctor lets loose a round form his revolver.
.
The hammer snaps on an empty chamber.
Edward shakes his pistol in frustration. Damn it! Where did I put my extra bullets?
Even as Mr. Carter fumbles with the gun, there is a gun shot, from the swirling fog.
The revolver fires off wildly into the mist. The act of dodging the small child's advances and letting loose a round proving too difficult for the elder doctor. The sense of hopelessness begins to grow in the doctor.
He stares at the child, readying his next move.
Edward holsters his revolver and turns his attention to the Lieutenant-Commander. He kneels, and sees if he can render medical care.
Ignoring LCDR RS, who is writhing on the ground, the 'hatchet-man' stalks forward, advancing on Mr. Carter.
The other devil-child slashes at Dr. Hanmer.
This pair might be Satan's own offspring, their attacks are so vicious.
From his crouching position over the LCDR, Edward suddenly leaps upward and attempts a full, rugby-style tackle on hatchet-man, hopefully grabbing the bastard by the waist and taking him to the ground.
During his action, hatchet-man seems to alternate between between the actual person and some vile creature from another time and place, a time and place that is somehow wrong.
The doctor grasps his thigh where the devil-child had inflicted the wound. "Blasted children! Spawns of Satan! You shall meet your maker!"
The doctor takes aim and fires another round.
Mr. Carter , you successfully tackle your man.
Mr. Carter you grapple your man, pushing him back, but you're unable to bring him to the ground.
Dr. Hanmer, your shot goes wild.
First Devil Child : "Old man, you should have your eyes checked, I don't think you can see all that well!"
Giggling the pair press in on you.
Edward takes his pistol, flips open the chamber, and then fumbles around in his pockets for any extra bullets.
Dr. Hanmer, knowing he may have two shots, at best, left in his Webley, takes aim again onto the children.
"Even a blind squirrel finds a nut eventually children."
Dr. Hanmer, you blast one of the demon children (and expect to loose some stability for that later).
The other hell-spawn slashes at you with her cleaver.
Reeling back from the gash that the other child has inflicted upon him, the doctor looks at the steely black revolver in his hand. "Please God, make this last bullet fly true."
He regains his composure, though somewhat hunched over from the pain, lifts the revolver to take aim while his other hand applies pressure to the wound.
LDCR RS and Mr. Carter are in the paddock outside a small farm-house.
Also there is the cultist that they originally subdued, (crudely bound and knocked unconscious), as well the body of an older cultist that Dr. Hanmer first sedated, and then Mr. Carter shot.
They were also two spectral children, who mocked and taunted you, before disappearing.
The second cultist, fled back into the house, and then returned with a hatchet; LCDR Readington-Smythe struggled with him, and took a grievous blow.
It is this cultist that Mr. Carter is struggling with now.
A woman with two small children following, was seen fleeing the house.
Dr. Hanmer, perhaps unwisely, pursued this woman out in the misty fields.
The woman is not to be seen, but Dr. Hanmer, to his sorrow, found the children; the corporeal models apparently for the apparitions that plagued you earlier. They've attacked him viciously; and he has shot and killed one of them.
LCDR RS, I have you as having lost 16 points of Health in this 'scene': six points from the cultist-mage's spell, and then 10 points subsequently.
You had a Health Pool of 12, which put you at -6; Seriously Hurt but still alive (death occurs at -12).
Now if you were injured before you arrived at the farm house...
And Dr. Hanmer, that is of course a miss, and you're now out of bullets.
Perhaps a retreat might be in order?
Henry sighs and hurls himself at the remaining cultist!
Rattled, confused and a bit light-headed, Edward realizes he probably should've pistol-whipped the cultist rather than digging around for ammunition. And yet his inaction has brought this world into better clarity, at least for the moment, as he realizes that the LCDR is badly wounded, and the good doctor is chasing and, evidently, killing ghosts.
Edward screams: "Lieutenant-commander! Cousin! Don't! There are too many of them... too many of them! We need to pull back or we'll all be killed!"
He then says to himself, "The snakes! Where did the snakes go?"