The bomb strikes the goblin right in the head, smashing then exploding into a ball of fire. The goblin screams for a moment before he is consumed.
Immediately the redundancy spells in the cabin kick in, and a rain is conjured from a plane of water putting out the flames before it can catch.
Leland fires a crossbow bolt that strikes true. And then Ben fires a shot the hits the mark as well. Amazingly, the goblin teeters but holds his feet.
But then, soaring through the smoke, rain and fire a majestic eagle swoops down on the golin.
"Uh-oh", the goblin manages to say before his eye is torn out.
"By the Scorching Eye!" Miss Wen says when she sees the damage done to Mallory. She placed her hand on Mal's shoulder. "Here, let me help you."
The arrows seem to push themselves out of Mal's body and her skin stitches together.
"Does anyone else need help?"
The gnome being treated by Miss Wen calls out weakly. "Leland!"
Leland recognizes hims as Hamish, the apprentice conductor who had greeted him the morning before. He holds out a key in a shaky hand.
"You'll need this to get into the Service Car. There was a man with a skeleton mask. He killed the Conductor with some sort of magic. He just touched him, and rotted him away to nothing. You have to stop him! He's completely lost his religion! He wants to crash the train!"
Hamish swoons and nearly passes out. He is clearly in severe pain, but he stubbornly holds up the key.
As soon as the last goblin falls Doc hoots in delight. "Take that, ya varmints!"
Seemingly unaware of his injury and apparently too focused to hear Miss Wen's offer or Hamish's words, the gnome resheaths his cane sword, grabs his crossbow and surges over the barricade, heading for the next car. "Forward! No dawdlin'! MOVE IT, MOVE IT!"
Leland ignores Loveless with a muttered "Damned fool." and goes over to Hamish to accept the offered key from the wounded gnome.
"Easy there Hamish, no need to get riled up. You did well holding onto to this key. Now you just sit tight and take your ease, and we'll handle it from here. Nobody's crashing this train on my watch."
Patting Hamish on the shoulder, Leland straightens and rejoins the others. "Well there's a madman at the controls with a mind to crash this train. I'm thinkin' we might want to put an end to that sort of anti-social behaviour.'
Mallory reflexively tenses up as the woman touches her shoulder, and starts to shoot her a glare. With all the chaos going on, and that last battle going very poorly for her, Mal hadn't really taken the time to get a look at Miss Wen before, only having glanced enough to determine that the woman wasn't a threat. Whether it was her shoulder feeling better at the half-elf's soft touch, or seeing the lovely Jade for the first time in her purple dress, who could say, but the others were able to see a smile spread across Mal's face for the first time.
She voices a "Thank ya kindly, darlin'. Say, what brings a gal like you out to these parts?". If Jade was planning to answer, she was immediately interrupted by Doc shouting as he jumps over the barricade and charges through the next door. "That boy's gonna get hisself killed." Mal remarks flatly. "Not to mention the rest of us."
It seems for a moment as though Mallory is not going to continue the defense. She's almost been killed once already (surely more than enough for one day), and doesn't seem eager to risk it again. At Leland's reminder of the fact that the train was likely careening out of control, Mal frowns, her surly disposition beginning to resurface. The medicine crosses her mind and she forces the thought out. 'Ain't my problem' she thinks. The image of Doc charging into a room full of goblins and being slaughtered crosses her mind. 'Ain't my problem neither.'
Then she thinks about the train going off the tracks and exploding in a ball of hot metal and fire. 'That one... might be my problem.' With a sigh, she reloads her gun and starts moving down the train car after the Doc and Leland, turning back only to flash Jade a smile and a wink. She says, "Be seein' ya.", and is gone through the door.
Ben found he was of a mind with the hyperexcited Doctor, for not only was he sure they couldn't be far from some kind of bend in the tracks, he wasn't keen on sticking around the lovely and less lovely passengers. Exiting the carriage pronto seemed the right thing to do, before the half-elf was done being distracted with the other gunslinger.
Jamming his hat even lower over his eyes in the pouring "rain," he vaulted the barricade and sped after the others without so much as a nod to the passengers.
Ben found he was of a mind with the hyperexcited Doctor, for not only was he sure they couldn't be far from some kind of bend in the tracks...
Before the Heroes can exit the Diner Car, there's a bend in the tracks. Not a severe bend, but severe enough at the train's current pace, that the left side of the train lefts off the track for a frightening moment, and then eventually slammed back down.
All the passengers are thrown violently to the left. But Loveless and Ira are knocked down and hit some wild, scattered debris.
Losing his balance, Doc thuds into the side of the rumbling car and then falls into a pile of debris, nearly knocked unconscious.
"Purty stars..."
Dazed, he shakily struggles to his feet, wobbling so badly he can barely stand.
When the train lurched, Ben jumped on the wall to dodge debris and keep his feet, then back to the floor as the world settled again. His heart was thumping like a jackrabbit's hind foot as he hopped over the Doc. "No time for gawkin', Doc, get a move on!"
Ben was sweating hard and cold at the thought of what would have happened had he been on a platform between the cars when they hit that bend. He didn't pause by the preacher, either, just jumping over the fellow and bulling on forwards til he could reach Leland. "You ready? How about you, firecracker?" he asked Mal.
Ben slammed open the door and leapt for the far door, intending to jerk it open and be inside before the train hit another bump in the tracks!
As the train slams around a corner, Mal jumps with it, not letting the fact that it's wobbling in the air bother her. She sees Ira and Loveless both crash into the side of the train. She knows the Gnome's not looking well, but doesn't make any stops. 'Ain't nothin' I can do for 'em,' she tells herself as she continues to run after Ben. 'If the preacher can't save 'em, the Hangman will.'
Her knees ache by the time she catches up to Ben at the door, and she's almost out of breath. She pauses only long enough to take a swig from her flask, and after hesitating for a second, offers one to Ben while she draws her gun.
"Doctor Loveless!" screamed Miss Wen. She leaped over the debris and awkwardly made her way to the unconscious alchemist. She placed her hands on each side of his head and funneled arcane healing energies into him.
Desperation bred focus, as the good Doctor's wounds were completely healed with expert efficiency. She smiled down at the gnome.
"You are a reckless one, Doctor. Charming, but reckless."
Ben took a quick swig and passed the flask back, touching the brim of his hat in thanks. "If we get off this train all in one piece, I'll buy you a round in Tin Star. You ain't a bad hand to have along on this trip to Perdition," he said with a grin that almost drew attention away from the sweat running down the sides of his face.
Doc stood up... but too quickly. The train car spins around him and he collapses back onto the debris pile, unconscious.
"Tarnation Paw, kain't somebody else milk Bessie now an' then so's I kin get some decent shuteye?"
When he opens his eyes again, he sees the face of Miss Wen hovering over him and looking concerned. Confused for a moment, he's back at the inn having breakfast... then, suddenly, he remembers where he is.
He quickly sits bolt upright, almost banging heads with Jade. "Got a train to catch!" he yelps as he springs to his feet, letting loose a guffaw at the unintentional pun.
"Talk later gottagoseeyabye!" The words tumble out of his mouth as he leaps off the rubble pile and makes a beeline for the door.
"HEY!!" he barks sharply when he sees Ben grinning at Mal and passing a flask. "Outta the way if'n y'all's just making googly eyes, some of us is tryin' ta stop this here train!"
Shifting his weight as the train car tilts dangerously under him, Leland curses under his breath, "Too much speed."
Slowing only to tip his hat and give Miss Wen a "Much obliged ma'am", Leland scurries after the more reckless members of the group.
"Move people! If we don't stop this train soon, we're in for a world of hurting."
Car 3 was one of two First Class Cabins. And it is a scene straight out of Perdition.
Bodies everywhere. Stacked in some places. Some have been gutted, their insides strewn about like macabre marionette strings. Some seemed to have been chopped to pieces. Many seem to have rotted away from the inside. And yet still others are whole, but look to have spilled blood from every orifice, tracts of crimson leaking from their eyes.
The dead cry tears of blood. And nothing moves.
Ben’s earlier Perception Roll = 19
Everyone but Leland noticed a bloody message written on a window:
Even in his altered state, Doc stops in his tracks and stares, shocked beyond belief at the degree of carnage and senseless loss of life.
"Ye... gods..."
The highly tuned senses of the gunslinger don't even register the Doc walking in behind them. Mallory is too stunned to make much sense of anything. She had seen some truly terrible things in her time, but nothing like this.
When she sees the message, she takes a deep breath, tenses up, pulls her hat down, and starts walking through the scene, forcing her usual swagger, determined not to let the others see the massacre get to her.
Ben stopped cold, wondering for an ice-blooded moment if he'd already been killed on the train and he'd just walked into the afterlife. The presence of the others, and their equally shocked expressions, helped ease him back from that lunatic fear.
This may be worse'n what you seen before, but what you seen ain't all there was, is it? He shook his head violently to rid himself of his traitorous mental voice.
But when he saw the message on the window, a cool wind ran through his gut.
With his gun out and a grim look on his face that couldn't hide his wild eyes, he stalked after Mal, trying to look everywhere at once without actually seeing anything, which was a tricky business.
Leland looks on the scene in the first class cabin with horror, which is quickly replaced with a towering rage.
"This defilement will not go unpunished! This is the Brakeman's domain! Those who ride his rails are under his protection! There is no redemption for those who would to this. Take no prisoners. Tonight we shoot to kill."
With murder in his eyes, Leland marches forward to mete out his God's divine retribution.
"Preach it, brother!" Rather than rushing ahead this time, Doc falls in behind the summoner, content to allow the angry gnome's bloodlust and desire for vengeance drive things forward. Plus they'd soon be within Leland's knowledge domain anyway.
Passenger Car 2 is the other first class car. And sadly it’s contents are even more grisly than the one before. Bodies are strewn about in much the same way except for one terrifying exception.
In the center of a car, a body hangs suspended from chains spiked into the ceiling from its wrists. It is a woman. Or -- rather -- was a woman. It has been stripped naked and on it’s torso is carved another message.
But the message is not the most terrifying aspect of the body. No, the most terrifying thing is that the woman’s flesh has been flayed off of her face, leaving only a bloody skull, her eyes, and tatters of flesh and golden blonde hair.
Mallory walks into the next car, giving the room a sweeping glance before beginning to move on. A feeling in her gut gives her pause, though, and she stops to look at the hanging body, forcing herself to meet what remains of the woman's face, before her eyes trail downward. "Damn shame." Mal mutters. "She lo-" Mal suddenly stops, her eyes going wide. She let out a curse, staring at the woman's torso. "I know what did this."
"Well don't be keepin' it a secret," growls Doc. "What in tarnation we dealin' with here?"
"Whatever it be, it ain't happy," he says as he takes in the scene, fury in his eyes. There are times when killing is necessary, even appropriate. But this...
"Nor sane, I reckon," he adds as an afterthought.
Mal turns to Doc in surprise, almost bewilderment. "Surprised you ain't heard." She nods to the message written in flesh. "Scalpin' Jack's been hackin' people up goin' on twenty years. Fear of him kept me on my toes when I ran off as a girl. Ain't no tellin' how many people he's did this to. Law never been able to catch him, neither."
She didn't go to mentioning the bounty, figuring that if they didn't know about it, maybe they wouldn't go looking for a cut. Instead, she looked at Ben, and then at Leland, and lastly at Doc, and grinned, despite the truly horrific scene around them. "Y'all wanna go kill a bogeyman?"
Ben wasn't familiar with the name, but by the looks of it that was no loss. His bogeymen growing up had been a bit... closer. But nowhere as gruesome as this, even in his childhood nightmares.
"I reckon we're gonna have to, if we want this here train stopped," Ben said, his voice level. "Unless he flew right off and away!"
He paused, then burst Mal's bubble of hope. "Law after him, huh? There a bounty?"
Mal shook her head at Ben. "Ain't ever heard of one. Makes the Law look weak, encourage our types. 'sides, this weren't exactly the kind of man you went looking for. Even the most badass 'slingers I ever heard of steered clear of him."
"Ain't been around in a coon's age. Just now back from schoolin'. Still be there, 'cept... somethin' come up what needed me here."
When Mallory mentions the law, Doc spits on the floor. "Law ain't no count, lady. Them what's straight gotta follow rules set by politicians and judges and generals. Vermin, all of 'em. And the ones what ain't followin' them rules, they's got their own sights set and ain't to be trusted neither."
"Truth told," he adds a bit more quietly, "yer better off trustin' outlaws. Least you know what they's gonna do. A supposed honest man, ain't no tellin.'"
At her question, Doc's eyes narrow. "Don't rightly think he deserved to live in the first place, churnin' out senseless carnage like this here. Let's go put that fool out of our misery."
Upon hearing her comment about gunslingers avoiding Scalpin' Jack, he lets out a guffaw. "Them 'slingers need to strap on a pair. If ya ain't willin' to do what needs doin', ain't no point struttin' 'round pretendin' you are... just gonna get yerself kilt. Don't sound like it'd be no great loss though," he adds with a chuckle.
He looks thoughtful for a moment. "Lissen, I got a way I can hit this feller hard, purty much guaranteed. Once. But it takes a good long tick to prepare, and if I's interrupted, it's gone. If'n y'all can cover me a while when it comes to it, I'll give it a go. Might not take him out, but it oughta put a powerful hurtin' on him."
Ben grimaced at the lost opportunity. "Well, maybe they'll change their minds once we got him." He slapped Doc on the back. "Now that's soundin' like the kinda Doctor's orders I won't argue with! Maybe you can lob another boom-bottle like you did down that ugly bastard's gullet. You do what you have to, and we'll do what needs doing."
Leland is beyond being shocked or disgusted.
"Good. Now we've got ourselves a name to carve on his tombstone. If there's enough of him left to bury after the Doc is done with him, that is. Now move. We've got a rabid dog to put down."
The heroes closed in on the corpse, looking to march past it to face Scalping Jack, when suddenly its head turns and looks right al Mal. It then begins cackling unnervingly.
A profound and overwhelming fear gripped the hearts of Loveless, Leland, and Ira.
It passed quickly, but left its mark all the same. And then the skull spoke. Its voice is distorted, yet distinctly masculine. A cruel rasp, that sounded like an orc gargling molten glass.
“When I threw my bones, they spoke of ones who would try and stop my gift to the Skinwalker. I am not impressed.”
The head then drops. Lifeless again.
A look of annoyance swept across Mallory's face as the skull spoke. "Magic." She spits the word out with a surprising amount of anger, bordering on pure hatred. "Always g&@@&%n magic." Checking her gun (yet again) to make sure it was loaded, Mal and strode off down the train car without waiting for the others.
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Following after the others with a slight limp and a hand rubbing a sore shoulder from his fall, Ira finds himself almost eager to confront what he hoped to be their final foe. A masked man sounded ominous, and one capable of rotting your personhood away even more so... but Ira could not imagine getting touched with the amount of lead and fire that had been sent flying, directed seemingly from on high, toward the goblinoid ravagers.
Car 3 disrupted these hopes with a sharp, sickening slap on the wrist. Ira takes in the sight, aghast. Violence was a part of life, to be sure, but this was on a level he had never before experienced. Ira had wandered through outposts torn apart by murderous marauders and caravans brought to ruin by insatiable highwaymen. Body stacking was common enough in places unfortunate enough to have been touched by plague, and some of the more zealous bandits, particularly those of more monstrous descent, had shown him bodies chopped and torn. It was the rotted ones, that looked as if they were some forgotten relic caved-in by the stress of time, were it not for the blood and the guts and the smell. And the whole ones, too. They were new, and horrible, and deeply disturbing. If it was truly magic, and Ira could not explain it otherwise, he shuddered to think of what creature could willingly conjure such destruction.
”Gods, forgive us. Hangman, forgive me. We should've got here sooner...”
Ira hurries after Leland, appreciating the gnome's righteous fury but fearing where it may lead them. He would have preferred to take a moment to help ferry the dead onward, but it would have to wait until they had dealt with the problems that lay ahead.
Car 2 doesn't cause much of a change in demeanor – inwardly, the urge to gag grows, but Ira resists. He leaves the others to their discussion, but pays attention to Mal's story of the man responsible for the atrocities. He steps nearer to the corpse, about to say... well, something. It would have been inadequate to quell the spirit's suffering, but he would have had to try. But then the body laughs, and Ira can only reach a hand towards his own throat in a futile attempt to stave off the shuddering gasp that wrenches its way out of him. He stumbles back, eyes wide and glancing back and forth across the car, briefly looking for a way out. Ira breathes deep, attempting to calm his nerves even as the corpse speaks to them.
Ira closes his eyes and leans over, placing his hands on his knees. He spits, trying to rid himself of the foul taste in his mouth.
”I regret that we c'n only kill this man. It's too much of a mercy. Deserves worse. Much, much worse.”
And with that, he straightens up and stumbles off after Mal.
The Heroes of Passenger Car 8 walk past the corpse, determined to end Scalping Jack. They get on the connecting platform and peer into the Service Car.
Unfortunately, there isn't much to see. There seems to be some sort of thick mist in the air. Leland, Ira, and Mallory are sure it isn't smoke.
Mal angrily puts the key into the lock. And for a moment, all the heroes stare into each other's eyes, taking in the measure of the other. A brief moment that feels like a small eternity.
Mallory Lewis Initiative: 17
Scalping Jack Initiative: 17
Leland Hopkins Initiative: 15
Dr. Loveless Initiative: 9
Benjamin Dalton Initiative: 5
Ira Kerrigan Initiative: 3
Mal kicks the door wide open.
As the door flies open, Mallory dashes in, dodging immediately to the side to leave the door clear, and hopefully not be ambushed from within the mist. She pauses briefly, staring intently into the mist, trying to hear movement from within, and fires a shot haphazardly into the smoke. She moves quietly around the edge as she reloads, hoping that Jack can't see through it any better than she can.
Mal's shot goes wild, and then a gravelly voice chuckles harshly and says, "Missed me."
"Come out, come out, wherever you are," the voice sang. It then began to chant quietly.
Ben scowled at the foggy interior of the car. "Time to put you down, you crazy bastard," he growled, following Mal into the car as he drew his shining curved blade, keeping it in the hand not occupied with his strange pistol.
He ducked to the opposite side, clearing the doorway at the very edge of the mist. His green eyes squinted in the haze, looking for some sign of something to shoot... and listening for it, too.
Leland moves into the room and fires into the fog:
Crossbow at the ready, Doc steps quietly into the car and shifts to the right... looking, listening, waiting...
Believing he knows where to aim based on the taunts floating through the mist, Doc raises his crossbow and fires.
Leland and Doc fire crossbows into the mist. But their attacks sail wide of the mark.
As Mal continued moving quietly through the mist, she tried to think back to the stories she'd heard of Scalping Jack, to see if any of it would be helpful in this situation, but nothing came to mind. It wasn't like there were a barrel of people who survived encounters with him and spoke of his tactics. Her eyes and ears were strained from trying to locate the killer, unsuccessfully, and worry was beginning to set in. 'Foolish girl, walking into a trap,' she thought. 'I know,' she thought. 'This is why we don't get involved,' she thought. 'I know,' she thought.
'You're going to die in here.' She fired what amounted to nothing more than a frightened warning shot. With mist all around her there was no telling where anyone was, let alone Jack. She crouched lower, loading another cartridge into her gun.
'I know.'
Ben slunk into the mist with a silent prayer to the Shooter that his companions not shoot him down. Easing along, he thought of the banks of the rivers in the Lotus Empire, the way men and trees would appear and vanish into the mist with only a few moments' warning. Only the sound of them, carried weirdly, could tell you which was which. Steady hand, swift killing, he thought, the deceptive peace of that journey flooding him, keeping his step smooth and his gun hand ready.
When Scalping Jack spoke, Ben didn't hesitate. He fired into the fog, peering hard to pierce it with his eyes.
Ira moved into the car and began his litany, vowing to send Scalping Jack screaming to the pits of Perdition.
The heroes hear the satisfying sound of Scalping Jack grunting in pain.
"The Skinwalker thanks you for the gift of your violence, Gunslinger. Do you know what a bullet to your gut feels like?"
And then suddenly, a nightmare appears through the mists -- a man, if it could be called such, wearing a dripping red skull mask, and a long duster with a hood. In one hand he holds a vicious looking morningstar, with chunks of human meat hanging off it in stringy curls.
He looks like Perdition come a-calling.
"Let me show you."
Scalping Jack put his hand on Ben's abdomen. And although there was no shot, for a moment, Ben thought he truly could feel a piece of hot burning lead, churning his insides. A torrent of blood flows from the wound, dropping onto Ben's boots and the floor. Blood also flowed from his nose and eyes -- red rivulets of pain.
Doc quickly reloads his crossbow and then glances around him, seeing everyone but Ben accounted for. Dang fool half-breed's in the fog! Even in his altered state, Loveless realizes that losing a gunslinger means losing a significant portion of their firepower.
And so, rather than blindly firing into the mist again, he turns to Ira and says in a low voice, "I'm going left."
After which he walks forward and disappears into the cloud.