Not really expecting it to do much, but allowing Coyote to try his mind tricks before she charges in, she fires a shot center mass into the risen dead.
Miyuku’s shot echoes over the pond. It is a well-placed shot, her arms instructor would have been proud. The bullet enters at just the right angle to miss the ribcage and hits the heart/lung region. The undead does stagger slightly, and a large chunk of … something blows out of its back. However, the thing continues on without a sound
"This guy's pretty cooked. Think you got this, or are you gonna need me to turn on the juice?"
"If you've got something, I wouldn't complain," Nace says. He steps beside Miyuku and stands with his sword ready.
Coyote takes a step forward, his hands crackling with eerie green energy, then he stops, looking around at the small group.
"Any of you wouldn't happen to be, uh, dead, would you? If so, you might want to back up a little."
"Definitely not dead." Miyuku says, eyes still locked onto the approaching revenant.
”I miss the time in my life when I would have thought that was a strange question. But no, not dead…”
22 Miyuku: [shot-hit]
19 Daniel Theroux: Double Move
14 Miren: pending
14 Ghost Miren: pending
13 Coyote: [detect thoughts]
7 Nace: [readied slash]
Nace readies his sword next to Miyuku as the horror approaches. The report of Miyuku’s gun rings loudly in his ears
Miren frowns at the newcomer's words and calls the spectral child to her side. She steps behind Nace and touches him while whispering tsisteel, and a faint glow flares around the lawman before vanishing entirely.
With the undead creature's slow advance giving her time to take another shot before engaging up close, Miyuku sends another bullet roaring toward it, her shot echoing loudly through the night stillness.
Miyuku sends another bullet through center mass. It blows a much bigger hole out the thing's back. It staggers slightly, but reaches Miyuku and swings at her.
22 Miyuku: [shot-hit]
19 Daniel Theroux: [ATK Miyuku]
14 Miren: pending
14 Ghost Miren: pending
13 Coyote:pending
7 Nace: pending
The wet, rotten smell of the creature that had once been Daniel Theroux assaults their nostrils as the creature barrels into Miyuku, fists flailing.
The drowned, undead...thing hits her, far harder than she expected, the sickening stench, coupled with the intensity of the blow, bringing a momentary wave on nausea, that she shakes off, all sense of amusement and sardonic humor gone, as her eyes and stance reflect the deadly seriousness of a predator in a life and death battle
Nace steps to flank the creature and cuts at it with his sword.
Coyote throws his hands forward toward, releasing a crackling bolt of ghostly green energy... which misses horribly.
"S!$*."
Coyote throws his hands forward toward Daniel, releasing a crackling bolt of ghostly green energy... which misses horribly.
22 Miyuku: [shot-hit]
19 Daniel Theroux: [ATK Miyuku-hit]
14 Miren: pending
14 Ghost Miren: pending
13 Coyote:[disrupt undead -miss]
7 Nace: atk daniel - hit
Nace’s sword cuts a thin wound along the thing’s arm. The wound opens, but little comes out, except some watery pus. The cut seems nowhere as deadly as Nace would have thought given the force of the sword’s blow
Coyote unleashes a green bolt of manifested energy. It whizzes over the undead’s patchy scalp, and flashes darkly in the pond water
Miren calls the ghostly child to her side. We can do little against this, I think," she whispers to the child as she slides forward to touch Miyuku's shoulder.
22 Miyuku: Pending
19 Daniel Theroux: [ATK Miyuku-on turn]
14 Miren: Pending
14 Ghost Miren: Pending
13 Coyote:Pending
7 Nace: Pending
Nace's sword cut and Miyuku's gunshot have damaged the thing, but it still looks terribly vital in a soggy undead sort of way. Its glowing red eyes fix on Miyuku as it prepares to slam her again.
Nace uses his position to swing at Daniel again.
"Alright, running out of options here. Really hoping I wasn't going to have to pull this one out."
Coyote takes a deep breath, then lets it out slowly, seemingly trying to focus. He plants his feet squarely, thrusting his hand out toward the undead thing.
"Okay..."
Nace’s sword cut dribbles more watery fluid, as the two edges of the wound open wider as the thing moves about
Coyote reaches out mentally and releases the flood gates of his memory into the thing’s rotten brain. Swirling visions of walking dead, tortured ghosts, bad peyote trips deep in various Southwestern deserts … anything bad that Coyote has felt or seen crowds the undead’s fragile eggshell mind. It spasms as if being shocked, and falls dead on the ground
With that, silence falls on the campground. As the group takes a breath, they can hear the faint wail of sirens in the distance
"Whatever that was, nicely done!" Miyuku says, holstering her pistol and sheathing her blade after cleaning it. "From the sound of the sirens, we've drawn a bit of attention, so we should probably get out of here."
Coyote reaches out mentally and releases the flood gates of his memory into the thing’s rotten brain. Swirling visions of walking dead, tortured ghosts, bad peyote trips deep in various Southwestern deserts … anything bad that Coyote has felt or seen crowds the undead’s fragile eggshell mind. It spasms as if being shocked, and falls dead on the ground
With that, silence falls on the campground. As the group takes a breath, they can hear the faint wail of sirens in the distance
Coyote relaxes slightly and gives a halfhearted shrug, lighting a cigarette with the tip of one of his remaining fingers.
"There you go," he says matter-of-factly.
He sits down, then flops back on the cold ground, his head resting on his hands.
"Well that sucked. Anybody got any weed?"
Miren sighs at the sound of sirens. "That's the problem with areas with good cell service. Someone's always ready to dial 9-1-1 at the slightest little thing."
She calls the child to her and moves to a point between the two corpses, closing her eyes and concentrating.
Duration instantaneous
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance no
You detect the presence of psychically significant items in your vicinity. Such items are those that might have significant psychic imprints or histories that can be read by the psychometry occult skill unlock (see page 196), or items under the effects of the charge object or implant false reading spells. Items within range that contain significant psychic energy spark a recognition in your mind’s eye, but no other information is imparted. This spell doesn’t automatically detect magic items or strongly aligned items, though such items often have storied histories and might have had previous owners who possessed psychic abilities.
"Not on me," she answers Coyote. "I can never remember where it's legal, so I skip it."
Nace quickly lifts the lid on the well, now that the lock has been opened. "We've gotta move fast." He looks in, shining a flashlight down the well.
The well seems normal. Nace can see where at one point there was a hook for some sort of chain, possibly the well bucket. It looks as if it was recently snapped off
Miren sees that both creatures have subsumed into dark stains on the ground. The only thing left of the two is the ring Sarah wore. Without spending any magic, she can sense that both have gone onto their final rewards
Miren takes Sarah's ring and ponders it for a brief moment, then realizes Nate is correct. "Let's get out of here. We can figure out what to do with this when we're safer."
The ring looks as if it was a nice ring at some point, but the long submersion in the pond looks to have changed it. The diamond in the center has darkened, gaining a reddish hue. The white gold setting seems to have been pitted and marked up
PSYCHOMETRY (APPRAISE)
You can read the psychic impressions left on objects or in places by previous owners and events. Check: Once per day, you can concentrate for 1 minute while in physical contact with an item or location, during which you receive flashes of insight regarding the subject’s nature and ownership. After 1 minute, you attempt a DC 15 Appraise check to decipher the visions. You gain one piece of information about the historical significance or the last previous owner—such as a glimpse of the last owner’s appearance or its emotional state when it last used the item—determined by the GM. You learn one more piece of information for every 10 by which your check result exceeds the DC, as long as you concentrate for 1 additional minute for each piece of information. If you fail the check by less than 5 or the item has no significant psychic imprint, you don’t learn any information. If you fail this check by 5 or
more, the item appears to be psychically significant even if it’s not, and the information you gain is wildly inaccurate. If you attempt to use psychometry on an item affected by charge object or implant false reading, you automatically learn all information imprinted by the spell. You must also attempt a Will save. If the item is affected by an implant false reading spell, on a success, you realize the information was false, and can determine the true information as well. On a failure, or
if the item is affected by a charge object spell, you believe the information is true.
Action: Reading an object requires at least 1 minute of uninterrupted concentration.
Try Again: Yes. Multiple readings on an object or place always give the same results unless its circumstances or ownership have changed, but additional checks might reach further back into an object’s history. You don’t reroll the saving throw to determine if a psychic imprint is false.
You can still use psychometry only once per day.
Nace quickly lifts the lid on the well, now that the lock has been opened. "We've gotta move fast." He looks in, shining a flashlight down the well.
Coyote lazily sits up.
"Fast? S~##, man, we've got at least ten minutes."
Still, he stands and goes to retrieve his backpack.
"So... you want to split up and meet someplace else?"
Nace tucks his sword away and grabs his bag. He looks at Coyote. ”You know The Spoon? Meet there?”
He peers over Miren’s shoulder at the ring.
The ring looks to be an old-style engagement ring. However, the stone has darkened from its assumed clarity. It now seems to have reddish inclusions that twinkle in its depths. The scratches on the band almost seem to be runic in nature, almost like Hebraic script
Coyote walks lazily back to the group, hoisting his hiking pack over one shoulder.
"I guess I wasn't that far off..." he says as he looks down at the ring in Miren's hand. "Might have to take a look at that later, I know a thing or two about dead languages."
"Yeah...we can discuss that later. We should clear out." Miyuky replies, nodding to Miren to stow the ring until they could investigate it in a safer environment.