***
As Ben's sword slices through one of the cultists, Mal quickly draws her gun and fires at another. "Ain't never learn, do they?" She asks him as the bullet flies from her weapon.
Mal's bullet splatters the brains of one of the cultists along the wall. He falls down, several degrees of dead.
Suddenly she remembers her conversation with the undertaker, Old Walther.
The last man, disengages from the battle, moving behind the wall.
"Snaggy! You hear that shootin'! We're under attack! Wake up you stupid pile of auroch dung!"
His ears ringing a little from the shot right behind him, Ben darted after the last man, but didn't follow him all the way around the corner just yet - no tellin' what kind of help he had in there. Snaggy?
Easing along the far wall, Ben switched his dripping blade to his off hand and drew his odd pistol, wary of any surprises.
"If you-all are smart, you'll give up! Maybe we'll let you live after all," he lied through his teeth.
With determination clear in his eyes, Doc strides down the stairs and out the door. "Let's go, Eppie," he says as he unwraps the pony's reins from the hitching post and moves to mount up. Then he thinks better of it, steps into the street, and walks towards where he understands the doctor's home to be, leading his pony along behind him.
Upon reaching McCady's residence, Doc ties off the pony again, giving her an affectionate pat on the neck as he studies the small dwelling... immediately noticing that the front door stands open. Gripping his cane near the top of the shaft so he can quickly draw the sword hidden therein, he cautiously approaches the house. His eyes narrow below a furrowed brow as he spots the overturned chair and small table on the porch. The result of a struggle? He pauses on the walk and looks around, then steps up onto the porch.
Kneeling down, the gnome touches a spot of red on the planks and rubs the sticky fluid between his gloved fingers before sniffing it. Definitely a struggle, he thinks as he looks up at the house.
Standing and taking a steadying breath, he steps inside.
Suddenly, "Snaggy" appears from behind the wall, wielding an ugly crooked spear. He's got putrid yellow skin, with matted, foul-smelling brown-grey hair and a set of teeth that looked he took a rock to the face.
He drops what looks like a human skull from one of his hands and howls at you in mad gibberish.
With one look at Snaggy, Ben forgot all his concerns about repeated gunfire in these tunnels. With a curse, he brought up his gun and fired while backing away,
but his startlement at seeing the misshapen monster threw off his aim. "Mal! Leland! We got ourselves one ugly bastard in here!"
Mal charges down the hallway after the fleeing cultist, reloading her gun as she goes, nearly colliding with Ben as he backs up towards her, his shout echoing through her brain. Narrowing her eyes and preparing to glare at him, she instead follows his eyes to the hideous creature before them. "Aw hell." She mutters.
***
The good Doctor finds a broken open trapdoor leading down into the depths.
Moving carefully through the small house, alert for sounds of movement and eyes open for the "not-Sheriff," Doc eventually makes his way to the child's bedroom. There, he discovers the bed shoved to one side and a trapdoor recently broken open.
Shaking his head as he clambers into the hole he mutters, "Destructive as ever, I see. But at least they're consistent."
"Unfortunately, that doesn't necessarily equate to 'predictable'," he says to himself as he peers down the tunnel and listens for activity.
"That fellah has ogre blood, or I'll eat my hat," Ben said, not taking his eyes off Snaggy even when Mal nearly ran into him. He got ready to drop his now-useless gun into its holster and do things the hard way.
"He was sleepy just before. Maybe you oughta sing him a lullabye," Ben suggested, cracking a smile. He couldn't help it; bad situations struck him like that, sometimes.
Gizmo and Leland move closer to the enemies.
"That's a whole lot of ugly"
The thug pulls out a flask and drinks it as Snaggy runs in and attacks Gizmo.
"Stupid Kitty!"
Witnessing the raw power Snaggy brought to bear on Leland's contraption, Ben eased back beside Mal and sheathed his sword. Then he expertly went about clearing his fouled gun, keeping one eye on the danger ahead.
"Don't like that I can't see what the other one's up to," he grunted. "If you've got a good shot in you, take it now, Lewis."
Seeing and hearing nothing threatening Doc takes one last look around the room at the glass on the floor, the broken window, the overturned bed... and then climbs down through the trap door.
[ooc]Noticing the potion.[/url]
Mal narrows her eyes when Ben points out that the creature is a half-breed. "Ain't reckon that's a fact like to help us?" She mutters with grit teeth. For a second she seems to consider Ben's suggestion to sing him a lullaby, but raises her gun all the same. "No time for songs."
She lets out a shot at "Snaggy". "'Sides, I got someone workin' hard waitin' on these bodies. Hate to let 'em down." Shooting a glare at Ben as he starts dismantling his gun, she grimaces. "Hardly the time for cleaning, boy. Better give a move on."
Leland reels as Gizmo is stuck a mighty blow and a vicious wound appears on his body.
Gizmo blurs in a whirl of claws:
If so, she will release her held Channel Energy and use Selective Channeling to ignore the two uglies up "north".
Leland, this will include Gizmo! (Did you add the healing from her previous channel already?)
That bring her living comrades nearly up to full. Remember she's not even thinking that she *can* heal Gizmo...
Snaggy howls in agony and then spears Gizmo viciously. He tries to bite the mechanical wunderkind, but misses.
The other cultist casts a spell to summon negative energy into his hands. He moves toward Gizmo and tries to land his spell but the lion is too fast and dodges.
Having cleared and reassembled his gun in record time, Ben went about loading it with measured calm. "Gotta learn that there fast-loading trick from you, girl," he told Mal as he worked.
Leland absorbs another of Gizmo's wounds and nearly swoons before Bukaru's healing washes over him.
Gizmo continues with the mechanical mayham:
(13 dmg)
"Reckon you do at that," she replies, taking another shot at the half-breed, a bit surprised at how quickly Ben got his gun functional again. It wasn't something that she would have been able to do - even in her prime she couldn't take apart and reassemble a gun that fast. It was humbling to see. Still, she was happy to be able to reload a gun faster - it often made quite the difference. It was clear that she could learn from him, and teach him herself, and she knew that staying alive was likely to mean putting aside her pride, so rather than badgering him about his reload speed again, she simply nods. "We get outta this, I'm happy to swap trade secrets."
Snaggy blinks twice at seeing its guts ripped out by the mechanical kitty cat and a bullet hole dead center in its chest. He seems almost too stupid to realize he's dead. But then nature kicks in, and he falls flat on his face still and quiet.
The cultist stares at his dead comrade in horror, and then falls to his knees in front of you, dropping his weapon.
"Please, please don't kill me" he blubbers pathetically.
Having finally loaded his gun, Ben looked at the fallen Snaggy and surrendered cultist with disgust. "Ain't that always the way?" Glancing at Mal and Leland, he grunted in grudging respect. "Not half-bad, the work you done. Maybe we ain't set to get killed on Gulch's errand after all."
Turning his attention back to the cultist, Ben nudged him with his foot, his gun still in hand. The Way of the Gun demanded that you not draw unless there was honor about it; it was fuzzier on when you had to holster your weapon again.
"We come for the girl. You just go on an' tell us where to find her."
"The - the girl? She's - she's with Mistress Matilda. I - I never wanted to hurt the youngin', you know. I swear I never laid a hand on her or nothing. But - but Matilda, you see? She's nuts. Always going on about her being spirited. So she'd slap her around a bit. But not me. I never touched her, I swear."
Okay, he probably roughed her up a little bit.
"She's down the hall a ways. I think she means to hurt the girl. Said she had something special planned for her."
Doctor Loveless arrives just in time to hear about the little girl in danger. He had gone down the shaft and followed it until he ran into a group of duerger who pointed him here.
Moving silently forward with no light, Doc slips unseen and unheard into a position behind Ben, taking a moment to study the situation and listen to the cultist's plea.
Then, while simultaneously poking Ben in the ribs with his walking stick, he comments, "Well, I see you've managed to survive this long, Dalton. Can I take that to mean you've moderated your behavior a bit?"
He looks at the defeated thug. "Interesting friends you're making down here. This... 'situation' just keeps getting bigger and more involved."
Mallory glances at Dalton, with a nod towards the cultist. "Funny thing, Dalton. His swears sound a mite too much like lies for my tastes. You reckon similar?" She looks back at the cultist with disgust. "Tough man, layin' hands onna child."
Expressing little more than a grunt at the Doc's return, Mallory keeps her eyes trained on the cultist, trying to decide what to do with him. A small smile creeps over her face all the same, though. "Nothin' a bit of fire and gunplay can't fix. Thought you skipped town, Doc."
"That had been my intent, Miss Mallory. Tin Star is our destination, after all. I saw no point in dallying here, and had hoped to get a rudimentary laboratory set up before we leave for this folly of Gulch's."
"But there was an... incident on the road, not far outside of town. Which in turn revealed some hints of what's going on around here. Whatever it is, it's big, and it runs deep. It's not even clear who we can trust. And it may take more than, as you put it, 'a bit of fire and gunplay' to resolve."
He looks at the cultist again. "I noted the carnage on the way in. Clearly you've had your own 'incidents.' We need to compare notes with all due expediency. Is the little girl safe?"
"Ah the good Doctor decides to grace us with his presence and I must admit it's a welcome one."
Looking at their prisoner, "It don't matter much if he did hit the girl. An assault charge don't mean much once piled on top of kidnapping and slavery. Tie him up and let's see about saving that little girl."
Unlike Mal, Ben about jumped up to the ceiling and stuck when the Doc poked him. He growled something about sneaky midgets as he lowered the gun he'd brought up to aim at the Doc's face. Once he'd composed himself and listened to what the others had to say, he widened his scowl to encompass both the gnomes. "What the law says is one thing. What a man oughtta not do is another. Oh yeah, it matters if he hit that girl."
He leaned forward into the cultist's face, sneering. "I'd put you down now, only you ain't worth replacin' the bullet." Then he pistol-whipped the man, meaning to put him out for the count.
Ben stood glowering down at the man for a long minute, his free hand edging toward the curving sword he carried. Finally, though, he shook his head and headed after the others.
No point in wrasslin' with the law over not giving the man a fair trial. As Leland had said, the girl was waitin'.
The man looked panicky as Ben drew his hand back.
"No, no wait!"
Ben slugged him good and knocked him out cold.
"Well, let's pick one! Unless anyone has any reason to think the creature was lying, how about C? Let's move, that little girl's life may be at stake!"
"Workin' on it." Mal grunts back to the Doc. Glancing between the doors, Mallory narrows her eyes and shrugs at Bukaru. "Man lied about not hittin' the child. Still, ain't gonna shed any tears if we find more of 'em behind th' door." Making sure her gun is loaded, Mallory approaches Door C, listening for a moment to decide whether she should open it quietly or kick it in.
"All of you know the situation here," says Doc quietly, "I don't. Where and how can I be most advantageous?"
"Um...who ARE you? I am Bukaru, I'm a healer. We are in a cavern full of creatures trying to kill us, while we are trying to rescue a little girl they have captured. What can you do?"
Doc looks at Bukaru as if she's grown a second head. "Who am..." he sputters, then draws himself up haughtily. "I, young lady, am Doctor Miguelito Loveless. And I'd already surmised the generalities of the scenario, thank you very much."
"As for 'what I can do,' it would be more efficient to enumerate the few things I can't do," he adds dismissively, turning away without actually answering the question.
Mallory hears a woman and a man arguing heatedly.
"...and we wouldn't be in this mess, if your crazy fool of a lover wasn't determined to torture that Doctor! We needed his compliance for only a short time longer."
The male voice responds, "If you ever speak of her that way again, I swear..."
Mal turns back with a glare and speaks through clenched teeth. "Hush up, Idjits, or I'm like to leave you both down here for good."
Taking a few steps back from the door, she goes over the plan. "We got an argument inside, heated-like. Reckon we can get a drop on them, though not if y'all start shootin' each other first." She shakes her head in disappointment. "Little girl waitin' for death trumps your ego, Doc. Now either stand with me or go back to the open road. Ain't got no use for foolery."
Mal pulls up her gun, walking back over the door with her typical swagger. With Ben taking point on the other side of it, she rears back and gives it a good hard kick, hoping to blast it clear open.
Doc gives Mallory a sour look. "I did inquire over the little girl, Miss Mallory, as well as politely query how you lot -- better-advised of the situation -- care to employ my remarkable talents. I don't believe that justifies your insulting me. Especially considering that any ego I might have is entirely justified."
Plan or no, Doc quickly shucks his pack, pulls his sword cane, and lines up to rush into the room behind the others.
Ben didn't bother to hide a smug grin as Mal dressed down the Doc. She may be a lyin', shithouse-crazy polecat, but she's growin' on me, he thought, nodding to indicate he was ready as Mal prepared to kick in the door.
"Best take down any spellcasters afore they can make a move," he advised in a whisper before the hells broke loose. "Maybe set 'em on fire like you did that ugly bastard on the train," he added charitably to the Doc. "Once you gnomes got their attention, me an' Mal'll give 'em a few arguments as to why it ain't a good idea to stay in town."
-Posted with Wayfinder
Mal thinks about the poisoned children and the innocent little girl inside and a familiar white-hot rage settles over her. She dramatically kicks the double doors open, surprising the two individuals inside.
You find the Sheriff -- or whatever is wearing his face -- and a shapely woman in a full face mask. They seem surprised to see you. This looks like some sort of industrial room, with wires, pipes and heavy machinery everywhere you look.
And a little girl is tied up, and laying down on a makeshift sacrificial altar 15 feet away from them.
Leland: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (15) + 2 = 17
Ben: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (13) + 3 = 16
Bad Guys: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (10) + 4 = 14
Loveless: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (9) + 2 = 11
Mal: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (2) + 4 = 6
Bukaru: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (1) + 0 = 1
As soon as Leland and his contraption moved in, Ben darted inside, spotted the little girl, and headed straight for her, hoping to get there before the two monsters were able to use her as cover or a bargaining chip.
Ben skidded around in a circle, dropping to one knee beside the girl, his gun ready as the strangers overcame their surprise at the group's dramatic entrance.
Mal bursts in through the door, and as Ben moves towards the girl, her eyes turn towards the man and woman. Eyes ablaze, she declares, "Only sacrificin' today is for The Hangman." She lets loose a bullet at the man, and then moves forward, getting a more advantageous spot where she can provide cover fire for Ben and the girl.
Surprise
Gizmo dashes into the room and Leland follows behind
Round 1, Init 17
Gizmo lets loose on the 'sheriff' while Leland moves over to the little girl.
Doc steps into the room and takes a moment to survey the situation. The "Sheriff," he knows, is a shapeshifter... but according to Gulch, that's a natural ability. "Take down any spellcasters," Dalton had said... and the woman was an unknown.
The gnome raises his arm and then whips it downward, snapping his hand sharply. A ball of flame appears in his palm, and he quickly winds up and throws a portion of the fire at the woman, flames continuing to engulf his hand as he draws back for another shot.