No rest for the wicked
It's that time again: Singe brings you another thrilling installment of Steampunk-ernatural. Following last week you'd be forgiven for thinking we'd had all the drama we could cram in... and you'd be oh so very wrong.
We left our heroes at the top of a cliff, hoping to chase after the necklace thieves. They followed the tracks, which lead them to a church in the shanty-town outside Cliffside where Father Rudepar was accosted by the locals who thought he was one of the Lost Angels. Dean Malcom scared the living shit out of the entire crowd before they could set fire to our 'beloved' (ha) Preacher and got the complete story out of them - three of the young'uns had been found dead (at this eyes filled with tears, and the mood became uncomfortable for everyone) and someone had seen the Lost Angels leaving the area... Lost Angels, we might add, with giant glowing wings.
Sammy Jacob headed to the scene of the crime, and found the bodies of the youngsters... who seemed to have been stripped of flesh in a unsettling manner. Hoping to get a little more information he cast 'Hunch'... and the manitou gave him information. Oh god did it give him information. (Black Joker. Holy fuck). Jacob found himself viewing events from the perspective of one of the children, as demonic beings with horns and tattered wings stripped the meat from him with their teeth. The youngsters eventually died, but Jacob was not so lucky and suffered through the whole thing. To the rest of the posse he seemed to be having a fit, and that was followed closely by a heart attack. The Preacher did what he could, but things seemed dire. Dean (fuck it, I'm not striking it through this time, you'll see why) Malcom (using the legend chip and 'the voice') took over, saying "Don't you go dying on me now. Without you it means nothing. You die on me now I'll be lost and this demon son of a bitch is going to win. You can't let that happen so I'm telling you, don't you fuckin' die on me." etcetera etcetera, adding with his newly found faith "If there's anyone out there listening, don't you take him. Take me" which did the trick. An apparently comatose Jacob was carried back to the hotel by his understandably rather pissed off elder brother.
Evie sent a late night telegraph to Shelby detailling that things were going bad really fuckin' fast, and returned to the hotel to find Haskins and the trackers ready to make a move. Malcom understandably was not going anywhere. Negotiations with Haskins, even with Evie's awesome persuasion skills, did not go very well: his mission was the digsite and nothing else, and he'd have no qualms replacing us. Evie's orders were to stay on the expedition at all costs, so she knew full well she'd be carrying on, and with Jacob in the state he was in there was equally little doubt that Malcom would not be joining them.
Jacob then woke up and freaked out, seeing demonic faces and feeling his flesh ripped from him. Malcom again stepped up to the plate and calmed him down as only an elder brother can, saying they'd stared down a fuckin' demon so he wasn't going to let Jacob be beaten by this stupid fuckin' thing. Jacob calmed... and passed out again. So yeah, he wasn't going anywhere.
Evie and Haskins negotiations take 2, with the help of an apparently genuinely sympathetic Sophie: they couldn't wait for Jacob to recover, but they'd consent to leave behind one of the wagons and one of the guides, along with a map and instructions to meet us at the first campsite. Just to rub salt into the wound, Evie also recieved a telegram saying it was vital she stayed focused on the mission: the stolen talisman could be used by the Lost Angels to summon the reckoners (um... basically? To bring agents of the Apocalypse onto this plain) and the place we, and likely they, were heading was a portal to the Deadlands (the plain where all the evil spirits are), so on no account was she to consider leaving the mission.
Evie took Malcom the map, and said her goodbyes. She and Rudepar left with Haskins, Sophie and the guides and had a mostly uneventful journey, with Rudebar using his horsemanship skills to subtly delay their progress, giving Malcom and Jacob a better chance to catch up. Their journey and indeed their night passed largely uneventfully, with the only source of excitement being a wandering sheep.
If only the same could be said for Dean and Sam Malcom and Jacob.
Night fell with the boys following in the original expedition's wake... and those flesh-eating bugs from last week? Just got bigger. And more numerous. And swarmed towards the cart. Oh shit.
With Malcom taking over at the reins (and doing a sterling job given his lack of skill) it fell to the still shaky Jacob and a rather rubbish guide to face down the hideous flesh-eating swarm. Malcom urged the cart on faster and faster, almost succeeding in escaping, as Jacob fired off soul blast after soul blast with little success. The beetles overpowered the guide and made it onto the wagon. Malcom spurred the horses on... and the cart careered into a rock, the front wheel crumpling uselessly. Jacob fell off the cart, rolling into bushes, the swarm passing over his head in search of the tasty flesh of the unfortunate guide, slowly circling Malcom as those bones became barer. Malcom screamed back to Jacob to get up front, not knowing that he had fallen off. He waited. And waited. No reply came. Looking back, all he could see were the bones of the guide and a swarm where, presumably, Jacob was. Malcom dived onto one of the horses, slipping and sliding, trailing along the ground as he grabbed at the reins, bumping along the ground, managing eventually to swing up onto the horse just as the bugs noticed the other horses pulling the cart. Malcom used his claws to cut the reins and galloped away from the cart, thinking his brother dead.
Jacob was not dead. He headed back to Cliffside. Here his adventure ends :(
The morning dawned. Evie and Rudebar were having bacon and eggs with Sophie. Enter Dean Malcom. Without Sam Jacob. After trying to find out what happened from a silent and grave Malcom Haskins urged the party to move on. Malcom, very... well, as you'd expect Dean Malcom after Sam Jacob's presumed horrible death, carried on, knowing that Jacob - though he'd never admit it - had fallen hard for Evie and would want her looked after on this crazy mission.
Speaking of Evie, it was now 4 days since she and Jacob ended up finally falling into each others' beds... and certain things that should have been happening as per their usual monthly course... weren't. Not a good day for Evie either, then (guilt trips from having intended to use faking that as a way to get Jacob and Malcom to be meat shields? Check. Feeling rubbish for Malcom, who after all had saved her life just 2 days back? Check. Seriously considering a career move so she couldn't be co-opted into shit like this? Oh hell yes).
A sombre party boarded the boat and negotiated some rapids. Understandably none of us were too concerned with what was going on, or with Haskins' usual boring lectures. Thus passed a melancholy sort of day, noteworthy only because Malcom and Evie both picked up on some crazy vibes - Malcom the moment he boarded the boat, dismissing it as part of the grief, and Evie when they made camp, recognising the feeling as one she'd encountered early on in her training on a mission which turned out to be to close a portal to the Deadlands. Evie also knew from being a Colorado native, and reading MIB files, that this area was one the Hopi believed all creation sprang from... which was sort-of true, because there was a portal here leading to the Hunting Grounds. Which probably now lead to the Deadlands. Suffice to say neither of these discoveries filled her with much glee.
That night Haskins intended to head off and search for relics. Evie convinced him that it was a stupid move, being as every other time he'd done something of the like they'd run into all sorts of hellish things... and being also as she couldn't vouch for Malcom not gutting him seeing as his crazy crusade had already cost them Jacob. Her persuasive skill back on form (33! Boo-ya!) Haskins meekly agreed.
On Rudebar's watch, there be Injuns in the camp. 6 of them, armed with knives. Malcom shot 4 of them, and a bowman who had been training on the camp from above, Evie tried to shoot but her gun jammed, and the Priest beat one of them into unconsciousness. The Preacher was all for killing the unconscious hostage, and Malcom was just itching to kill everything now Jacob was dead. Sophie advocated mercy, of which the Preacher was offering none. Cue yet more persuasion, which didn't work out as well as the Preacher passed the decision on to Malcom and he was in the killing mood, understandably. Sophie eventually snapped him out of it with the line "They have brothers too", and so Malcom felt very guilty and spent the early hours digging graves for the ones he'd shot. Sophie released the hostage, much to the Preacher's disgust, and they argued about prejudice and justice.
Day 13 of the journey. Evie understandably was not happy about it being day 13 (superstitious bitch that she is) and went through a few rituals before boarding the boat. Also not happy because there was still nothing to dispel her concerns about the fallout from her brief relationship with Jacob. Back on the boats, the party negotiated some more rapids with very little drama.
Arriving at their next campsite they found that someone had beaten them to it, and was cooking dinner for the party. That someone was a brick shithouse of a man by the name of Denver, a second agent sent by Evie's boss Shelby to ensure the job got done - Evie being more of a thinker than a do-er; very good archivist, not so good as a field agent - who she introduced to the party as "insurance" sent by her financial backers, having used the Dinero excuse before to justify why a simple archaeologist had access to such fantastic toys. Malcom was not convinced, but didn't really care what the true story with her was. Everyone else bought the excuse, no questions asked.
The night of Day 13 proved to be, quite literally, hell on earth. And you thought last week was bad, readers. Here goes:
Sophie rushed out of her tent with a note from Haskins, saying he'd gone off alone to search for relics and would be back in the morning. The Preacher, who had thus far been resisting the booze, succumbed to its influence once the two trackers started drinking to commemorate their brother who'd fallen back with the bugs and stayed behind, while Evie, Denver and Malcom set out after Haskins. They found him in an archaeological reverie, digging up shards of pottery and rejoicing over his important find. He called Evie out on her archaeologist coverstory, saying she ought to be excited as well, and she faked it pretty bloody well... well enough to convince him to head back to the camp and catalogue his find.
Malcom, who had melted into the shadows thinking Haskins had made himself an easy target, spotted a group of people surrounding the rest of the posse... and found a gun pressed to the back of his head. The rest of the group were surprised by around 40 men pointing shootin' irons at them... the Laughing Man Gang they'd heard about in Cliffside, and their leader, Chuckles. He told them to put their guns down and lead them back to the camp where his boys would take possession of everything the group had, and outnumbered like that they had little choice but to agree.
Then zombies happened.
Lurching out of the treeline, figures in ragged clothes with putrid flesh hanging from them started grabbing members of the gang. In the chaos that followed Malcom yelled to the group to run for it. Evie, Haskins and Sophie obliged. Denver and Malcom covered their retreat... and it seemed to be going well, with the zombies nomming on the Laughing Man Gang. Two ghouls broke off from the group and started chasing the party. Malcom, taking a bead on both of them, shot one... which did very little to it. He pulled the trigger of his other faithful Peacemaker... and it jammed. Screaming a warning to the rest of the party about bullets not affecting them properly Malcom found himself overwhelmed. Both Denver and Evie took shots at the zombies and between them took one of the attackers out... but not before it had taken a bite out of Malcom. The second zombie also took the opportunity to chew on Malcom's legs before he could bring the blessed weapon from New Harmony to bear and blast its brains out.
Denver then did what he likes best, and got some dynamite out, tossing it towards the zombie hoard as Evie, Haskins and Sophie made their escape. Malcom (drawing that damned black joker) couldn't get out of the blast radius in time and for the second time in the campaign was blown up. Denver carried him to safety.
Back at the camp, as day 14 dawned, Rudebar patched Malcom up yet again with his prayers. Once recovered, Malcom stormed into Haskins' tent, pushing past Sophie and grabbing him by the throat. He basically said that last time he'd told Haskins he'd break his legs to stop him doing something stupid; this time? He'd kill him outright, and if Sophie got in the way she'd die too. The trip had already cost him a brother, and plenty of other things, and he wasn't in the fuckin' mood to put up with Haskins' bullshit.
Unknown to everyone, Malcom had discovered that despite being apparently healed necrotic flesh had formed where the bite marks once were... Basically he has about a week to live. Apparently whatever he was praying to took him at his word on the 'take me, not him' thing. Or else he's just an unlucky son of a bitch. Whatever. He resolved then to make sure that the job got done, so his last days could accomplish something good after all the bad he'd done on account of the family curse.
Still no change in the state of Evie.
Back on the water again. Yet more rapids. Still negotiated them well enough.
Night fell. On Evie's watch three members of the Laughing Gang - stragglers from the attack - tried to sneak into the camp. She tried to wake Malcom and was spotted and told to drop her gun, which she did... instead pulling one of the flashbang-buttons from her Agency Duster and throwing it straight and true (unlike Rudebar last week), blasting the three of them into nice little pieces of meat... and getting shot in the back by an unseen 4th gang member. The bangs woke Malcom, who killed the remaining assailant. Rudepar's miracles patched Evie up.
We leave the party this time on the dawn of Day 15th. Jacob is back in Cliffside, blissfully unaware of the fate befalling his brother and his sort-of-lover (and out of the campaign as his handler's now playing Denver... there's no way he could catch us up). Evie is increasingly worried that she might have been 'compromised' by Jacob's attentions. Denver is... well, we don't know much about him yet. The Preacher is apparently back off the wagon, but keeping us on our feet well enough to be reassuring anyway. And Malcom... well, things aren't going too well for him *cough*. Their journey continues next Sunday, as the remaining members of an increasingly somber and dysfunctional party head into what might well be the mouth of hell.
Thoughts on the session: it was epic, no doubt about it, and filled with some of the best and most intense moments thus far. Jacob's heart-attack for one - Malcom's response was just
. The bug chase was tense, and we knew we were going to lose one or other brother there... the worst part of that? If we hadn't split up, it would probably have gone pretty well. As it was, Evie and Rudepar were blissfully unaware and we, the handlers, were gnashing our teeth in frustration. And then the zombies...
... and yet the mood isn't 'oh my god, that was awesome'. It's pretty bloody sombre, actually. Understandably, maybe. We're agreed it was awesome, don't get me wrong, but bloody hell: the brothers were undoubtably the stars of the campaign, and with Jacob presumed dead and Malcom on his way out.... yeah. Add into that the extra emotional complications, and it's a recipe for an intense experience, especially as we're in character for insanely long stretches - tonight was about 4 1/2 hours. It's odd how much you come to care for fictional creations, aye?
On the Supernatural front, it's both amusing and epically tragic that things keep mirroring the Winchesters
Also... dude, how pointless was Malcom using the legend chip? RP-wise it was beautiful, but hot damn!
Next week isn't going to get any easier, by the by. Evie's going to have to tell Malcom, because she's terrified and he's the only Forge left as far as she knows. Malcom might well have to fess up to her that he's not going to be around for Baby Forge either. It's strange that the interpersonal drama's taking a front seat in what is essentially an action-packed campaign, but hey, we'll roll with it.
See y'all in 9 days time for the next installment.
We left our heroes at the top of a cliff, hoping to chase after the necklace thieves. They followed the tracks, which lead them to a church in the shanty-town outside Cliffside where Father Rudepar was accosted by the locals who thought he was one of the Lost Angels. Dean Malcom scared the living shit out of the entire crowd before they could set fire to our 'beloved' (ha) Preacher and got the complete story out of them - three of the young'uns had been found dead (at this eyes filled with tears, and the mood became uncomfortable for everyone) and someone had seen the Lost Angels leaving the area... Lost Angels, we might add, with giant glowing wings.
Sammy Jacob headed to the scene of the crime, and found the bodies of the youngsters... who seemed to have been stripped of flesh in a unsettling manner. Hoping to get a little more information he cast 'Hunch'... and the manitou gave him information. Oh god did it give him information. (Black Joker. Holy fuck). Jacob found himself viewing events from the perspective of one of the children, as demonic beings with horns and tattered wings stripped the meat from him with their teeth. The youngsters eventually died, but Jacob was not so lucky and suffered through the whole thing. To the rest of the posse he seemed to be having a fit, and that was followed closely by a heart attack. The Preacher did what he could, but things seemed dire. Dean (fuck it, I'm not striking it through this time, you'll see why) Malcom (using the legend chip and 'the voice') took over, saying "Don't you go dying on me now. Without you it means nothing. You die on me now I'll be lost and this demon son of a bitch is going to win. You can't let that happen so I'm telling you, don't you fuckin' die on me." etcetera etcetera, adding with his newly found faith "If there's anyone out there listening, don't you take him. Take me" which did the trick. An apparently comatose Jacob was carried back to the hotel by his understandably rather pissed off elder brother.
Evie sent a late night telegraph to Shelby detailling that things were going bad really fuckin' fast, and returned to the hotel to find Haskins and the trackers ready to make a move. Malcom understandably was not going anywhere. Negotiations with Haskins, even with Evie's awesome persuasion skills, did not go very well: his mission was the digsite and nothing else, and he'd have no qualms replacing us. Evie's orders were to stay on the expedition at all costs, so she knew full well she'd be carrying on, and with Jacob in the state he was in there was equally little doubt that Malcom would not be joining them.
Jacob then woke up and freaked out, seeing demonic faces and feeling his flesh ripped from him. Malcom again stepped up to the plate and calmed him down as only an elder brother can, saying they'd stared down a fuckin' demon so he wasn't going to let Jacob be beaten by this stupid fuckin' thing. Jacob calmed... and passed out again. So yeah, he wasn't going anywhere.
Evie and Haskins negotiations take 2, with the help of an apparently genuinely sympathetic Sophie: they couldn't wait for Jacob to recover, but they'd consent to leave behind one of the wagons and one of the guides, along with a map and instructions to meet us at the first campsite. Just to rub salt into the wound, Evie also recieved a telegram saying it was vital she stayed focused on the mission: the stolen talisman could be used by the Lost Angels to summon the reckoners (um... basically? To bring agents of the Apocalypse onto this plain) and the place we, and likely they, were heading was a portal to the Deadlands (the plain where all the evil spirits are), so on no account was she to consider leaving the mission.
Evie took Malcom the map, and said her goodbyes. She and Rudepar left with Haskins, Sophie and the guides and had a mostly uneventful journey, with Rudebar using his horsemanship skills to subtly delay their progress, giving Malcom and Jacob a better chance to catch up. Their journey and indeed their night passed largely uneventfully, with the only source of excitement being a wandering sheep.
If only the same could be said for Dean and Sam Malcom and Jacob.
Night fell with the boys following in the original expedition's wake... and those flesh-eating bugs from last week? Just got bigger. And more numerous. And swarmed towards the cart. Oh shit.
With Malcom taking over at the reins (and doing a sterling job given his lack of skill) it fell to the still shaky Jacob and a rather rubbish guide to face down the hideous flesh-eating swarm. Malcom urged the cart on faster and faster, almost succeeding in escaping, as Jacob fired off soul blast after soul blast with little success. The beetles overpowered the guide and made it onto the wagon. Malcom spurred the horses on... and the cart careered into a rock, the front wheel crumpling uselessly. Jacob fell off the cart, rolling into bushes, the swarm passing over his head in search of the tasty flesh of the unfortunate guide, slowly circling Malcom as those bones became barer. Malcom screamed back to Jacob to get up front, not knowing that he had fallen off. He waited. And waited. No reply came. Looking back, all he could see were the bones of the guide and a swarm where, presumably, Jacob was. Malcom dived onto one of the horses, slipping and sliding, trailing along the ground as he grabbed at the reins, bumping along the ground, managing eventually to swing up onto the horse just as the bugs noticed the other horses pulling the cart. Malcom used his claws to cut the reins and galloped away from the cart, thinking his brother dead.
Jacob was not dead. He headed back to Cliffside. Here his adventure ends :(
The morning dawned. Evie and Rudebar were having bacon and eggs with Sophie. Enter Dean Malcom. Without Sam Jacob. After trying to find out what happened from a silent and grave Malcom Haskins urged the party to move on. Malcom, very... well, as you'd expect Dean Malcom after Sam Jacob's presumed horrible death, carried on, knowing that Jacob - though he'd never admit it - had fallen hard for Evie and would want her looked after on this crazy mission.
Speaking of Evie, it was now 4 days since she and Jacob ended up finally falling into each others' beds... and certain things that should have been happening as per their usual monthly course... weren't. Not a good day for Evie either, then (guilt trips from having intended to use faking that as a way to get Jacob and Malcom to be meat shields? Check. Feeling rubbish for Malcom, who after all had saved her life just 2 days back? Check. Seriously considering a career move so she couldn't be co-opted into shit like this? Oh hell yes).
A sombre party boarded the boat and negotiated some rapids. Understandably none of us were too concerned with what was going on, or with Haskins' usual boring lectures. Thus passed a melancholy sort of day, noteworthy only because Malcom and Evie both picked up on some crazy vibes - Malcom the moment he boarded the boat, dismissing it as part of the grief, and Evie when they made camp, recognising the feeling as one she'd encountered early on in her training on a mission which turned out to be to close a portal to the Deadlands. Evie also knew from being a Colorado native, and reading MIB files, that this area was one the Hopi believed all creation sprang from... which was sort-of true, because there was a portal here leading to the Hunting Grounds. Which probably now lead to the Deadlands. Suffice to say neither of these discoveries filled her with much glee.
That night Haskins intended to head off and search for relics. Evie convinced him that it was a stupid move, being as every other time he'd done something of the like they'd run into all sorts of hellish things... and being also as she couldn't vouch for Malcom not gutting him seeing as his crazy crusade had already cost them Jacob. Her persuasive skill back on form (33! Boo-ya!) Haskins meekly agreed.
On Rudebar's watch, there be Injuns in the camp. 6 of them, armed with knives. Malcom shot 4 of them, and a bowman who had been training on the camp from above, Evie tried to shoot but her gun jammed, and the Priest beat one of them into unconsciousness. The Preacher was all for killing the unconscious hostage, and Malcom was just itching to kill everything now Jacob was dead. Sophie advocated mercy, of which the Preacher was offering none. Cue yet more persuasion, which didn't work out as well as the Preacher passed the decision on to Malcom and he was in the killing mood, understandably. Sophie eventually snapped him out of it with the line "They have brothers too", and so Malcom felt very guilty and spent the early hours digging graves for the ones he'd shot. Sophie released the hostage, much to the Preacher's disgust, and they argued about prejudice and justice.
Day 13 of the journey. Evie understandably was not happy about it being day 13 (superstitious bitch that she is) and went through a few rituals before boarding the boat. Also not happy because there was still nothing to dispel her concerns about the fallout from her brief relationship with Jacob. Back on the boats, the party negotiated some more rapids with very little drama.
Arriving at their next campsite they found that someone had beaten them to it, and was cooking dinner for the party. That someone was a brick shithouse of a man by the name of Denver, a second agent sent by Evie's boss Shelby to ensure the job got done - Evie being more of a thinker than a do-er; very good archivist, not so good as a field agent - who she introduced to the party as "insurance" sent by her financial backers, having used the Dinero excuse before to justify why a simple archaeologist had access to such fantastic toys. Malcom was not convinced, but didn't really care what the true story with her was. Everyone else bought the excuse, no questions asked.
The night of Day 13 proved to be, quite literally, hell on earth. And you thought last week was bad, readers. Here goes:
Sophie rushed out of her tent with a note from Haskins, saying he'd gone off alone to search for relics and would be back in the morning. The Preacher, who had thus far been resisting the booze, succumbed to its influence once the two trackers started drinking to commemorate their brother who'd fallen back with the bugs and stayed behind, while Evie, Denver and Malcom set out after Haskins. They found him in an archaeological reverie, digging up shards of pottery and rejoicing over his important find. He called Evie out on her archaeologist coverstory, saying she ought to be excited as well, and she faked it pretty bloody well... well enough to convince him to head back to the camp and catalogue his find.
Malcom, who had melted into the shadows thinking Haskins had made himself an easy target, spotted a group of people surrounding the rest of the posse... and found a gun pressed to the back of his head. The rest of the group were surprised by around 40 men pointing shootin' irons at them... the Laughing Man Gang they'd heard about in Cliffside, and their leader, Chuckles. He told them to put their guns down and lead them back to the camp where his boys would take possession of everything the group had, and outnumbered like that they had little choice but to agree.
Then zombies happened.
Lurching out of the treeline, figures in ragged clothes with putrid flesh hanging from them started grabbing members of the gang. In the chaos that followed Malcom yelled to the group to run for it. Evie, Haskins and Sophie obliged. Denver and Malcom covered their retreat... and it seemed to be going well, with the zombies nomming on the Laughing Man Gang. Two ghouls broke off from the group and started chasing the party. Malcom, taking a bead on both of them, shot one... which did very little to it. He pulled the trigger of his other faithful Peacemaker... and it jammed. Screaming a warning to the rest of the party about bullets not affecting them properly Malcom found himself overwhelmed. Both Denver and Evie took shots at the zombies and between them took one of the attackers out... but not before it had taken a bite out of Malcom. The second zombie also took the opportunity to chew on Malcom's legs before he could bring the blessed weapon from New Harmony to bear and blast its brains out.
Denver then did what he likes best, and got some dynamite out, tossing it towards the zombie hoard as Evie, Haskins and Sophie made their escape. Malcom (drawing that damned black joker) couldn't get out of the blast radius in time and for the second time in the campaign was blown up. Denver carried him to safety.
Back at the camp, as day 14 dawned, Rudebar patched Malcom up yet again with his prayers. Once recovered, Malcom stormed into Haskins' tent, pushing past Sophie and grabbing him by the throat. He basically said that last time he'd told Haskins he'd break his legs to stop him doing something stupid; this time? He'd kill him outright, and if Sophie got in the way she'd die too. The trip had already cost him a brother, and plenty of other things, and he wasn't in the fuckin' mood to put up with Haskins' bullshit.
Unknown to everyone, Malcom had discovered that despite being apparently healed necrotic flesh had formed where the bite marks once were... Basically he has about a week to live. Apparently whatever he was praying to took him at his word on the 'take me, not him' thing. Or else he's just an unlucky son of a bitch. Whatever. He resolved then to make sure that the job got done, so his last days could accomplish something good after all the bad he'd done on account of the family curse.
Still no change in the state of Evie.
Back on the water again. Yet more rapids. Still negotiated them well enough.
Night fell. On Evie's watch three members of the Laughing Gang - stragglers from the attack - tried to sneak into the camp. She tried to wake Malcom and was spotted and told to drop her gun, which she did... instead pulling one of the flashbang-buttons from her Agency Duster and throwing it straight and true (unlike Rudebar last week), blasting the three of them into nice little pieces of meat... and getting shot in the back by an unseen 4th gang member. The bangs woke Malcom, who killed the remaining assailant. Rudepar's miracles patched Evie up.
We leave the party this time on the dawn of Day 15th. Jacob is back in Cliffside, blissfully unaware of the fate befalling his brother and his sort-of-lover (and out of the campaign as his handler's now playing Denver... there's no way he could catch us up). Evie is increasingly worried that she might have been 'compromised' by Jacob's attentions. Denver is... well, we don't know much about him yet. The Preacher is apparently back off the wagon, but keeping us on our feet well enough to be reassuring anyway. And Malcom... well, things aren't going too well for him *cough*. Their journey continues next Sunday, as the remaining members of an increasingly somber and dysfunctional party head into what might well be the mouth of hell.
Thoughts on the session: it was epic, no doubt about it, and filled with some of the best and most intense moments thus far. Jacob's heart-attack for one - Malcom's response was just
. The bug chase was tense, and we knew we were going to lose one or other brother there... the worst part of that? If we hadn't split up, it would probably have gone pretty well. As it was, Evie and Rudepar were blissfully unaware and we, the handlers, were gnashing our teeth in frustration. And then the zombies...
... and yet the mood isn't 'oh my god, that was awesome'. It's pretty bloody sombre, actually. Understandably, maybe. We're agreed it was awesome, don't get me wrong, but bloody hell: the brothers were undoubtably the stars of the campaign, and with Jacob presumed dead and Malcom on his way out.... yeah. Add into that the extra emotional complications, and it's a recipe for an intense experience, especially as we're in character for insanely long stretches - tonight was about 4 1/2 hours. It's odd how much you come to care for fictional creations, aye?
On the Supernatural front, it's both amusing and epically tragic that things keep mirroring the Winchesters
Also... dude, how pointless was Malcom using the legend chip? RP-wise it was beautiful, but hot damn!
Next week isn't going to get any easier, by the by. Evie's going to have to tell Malcom, because she's terrified and he's the only Forge left as far as she knows. Malcom might well have to fess up to her that he's not going to be around for Baby Forge either. It's strange that the interpersonal drama's taking a front seat in what is essentially an action-packed campaign, but hey, we'll roll with it.
See y'all in 9 days time for the next installment.