Flintlock & Tomahawk: Endgame

[Old Fezziwig]

Initiative
Cale, Zombies 15
Sykes 11a
Abcott 11b

Round 3
The zombies, far from the most clever of combatants, repeat their attempts to grapple the pair of you. Sykes is able to shake his off, but Abcott is not as fortunate. Cale pulls himself off the ground and reaches out towards the barrister, his long fingers stretching out, their tips cupped and hollow. Grappled by the zombie, Abcott cannot slip away, and the fingers hit him in the chest, sinking into his flesh. He immediately feels older and weaker [8 hp damage, 4 points Con damage], and Cale cries out in rapture as he siphons off the energy.

Meanwhile, Sykes ducks away from his zombie and darts over towards Speid's body, dropping his weapons and picking up the dead Scotsman's claymore. The weakened Abcott is barely able to wrench himself away from the twin grasps of Cale and the zombie, although he'll have to pray that he can get away from them before they renew their attack.

Abcott 18/33 hp
Sykes 24/38 hp
Cale lightly wounded

Spoiler

41/49 hp

Zombie 1 unwounded
Zombie 2 unwounded[sblock=OOC for Rookseye]My bad. I completely misread that.[/sblock][sblock=OOC for Everyone]Another round, please. Because this is the ultimate encounter of the adventure, I'm going to move to one action per post. Things can, as you've seen, happen fairly quickly, and I want to make sure your investigators have a fair shake at things.[/sblock]

 

[Committed Hero]

Abcott faces Cale, his features twisted with hate. "We have come here to destroy all that you hold sacred. It ends tonight!"

He will again swing his musket at the man.

 

[Rookseye]

[sblock] My apologies for the delay, foolishly failed to notice we had turned a page due to having bookmarked page 2...

Sykes charges (+2 to attack, -2 to AC) with the claymore to strike a blow against Cale.[/sblock]

"Die, you bloody...filthy... damnable... yellow... ABOMINATION!!!"

Sykes charges forward, eyes wide as dinner plates, enraged curses and imprecations barking from his lips, the gore-caked claymore clenched tightly in his hands. He swings wildly at Cale's horridly bulbous head.

[sblock]

Charging claymore attack = 15

Claymore damage (if needed) = 7

[/sblock]

 

[Old Fezziwig]

Initiative
Cale, Zombies 15
Sykes 11a
Abcott 11b

Round 4
Cale advances on Abcott again. He babbles and drools as he reaches out towards the barrister. "Hjasfa hjasfa il'a ftaghe fatih fathi faith faith faith Chastr havels slevah rtsahc aliv'asf gurgrasf." His horrible bloated face smirks momentarily before he sinks his fingers back inside the man. [8 hp damage, 1 Con damage] He pulls more energy out of Abcott. As he does, he howls triumphantly. Meanwhile, the two zombies stagger towards Sykes, their jaws snapping. As he tries to defend, the two of them latch on with their mouths, biting into his shoulder and neck. [8 hp damage] Despite his best efforts, the militiaman is unable to shake them free right away.

When his turn comes around again, however, he kicks one off of him, sending it flying into a wall, where it bursts into a ball of flame. The other one seems to be twitching slightly rhythmically as this happens, worrying your shoulder. As this happens, Abcott swings the musket at Cale, hitting him across the side of the head. The butt of the firearm almost sinks into it, as if hitting a large, soft pillow. The former preacher seems unfazed.

 

[Rookseye]

Searing pain dampens the militiaman's surging adrenaline from the bite. With the pain, an absurd intuitive inkling floats through Sykes half-mad thoughts, and a fear that the twitching zombie clinging to him will combust like his brethren cements itself in his mind. He kicks out madly flailing his arms in an attempt to break free of the creature.

"Errarghhhh...Off...off!"

[sblock] Trying to break the grapple, and push away from the zombie. Opposed Grapple= 25 [/sblock]

 

[Committed Hero]

[sblock]Can I attempt to trip Cale?[/sblock]

 

[Old Fezziwig]

[sblock=OOC for Committed Hero]Yes. I'm assuming that's your action in this post.[/sblock]Conditions
Abcott 10/33 hp
Sykes 16/38 hp
Cale lightly wounded

Spoiler

46/49 hp

Zombie 1 unwounded
Zombie 2

Initiative
Cale, Zombies 15
Sykes 11a
Abcott 11b

Round 5
Cale again reaches towards Abcott, his eyes glowing with anticipation. His tongue, thick and black, spills out of his mouth, and he attempts to lick his lips. His fingers once again sink into Abcott, this time pulling out all the remaining life in the barrister's body [9 hp damage, 3 Con damage, which ends up being an additional 6 hp damage, dropping Abcott to -5 hp]. Meanwhile the zombie attached to Sykes, continues to worry his shoulder [16 hp damage, Massive Damage save (Fort against DC 15): 8, failure]. The militiaman blacks out from the pain, the last thing his eyes see is a flash of bright red flame as the zombie attached to him explodes some six seconds later.

Epilogue
Meanwhile, a young girl, her hair tied back with a pink ribbon and her dress dirty, takes advantage of the distraction caused by the battle and sneaks out of a wrought iron cage. She begins the difficult ascent out of the crater where she had been held. Despite her imprisonment, she is, aside from the trauma of the entire ordeal, physically unharmed. When she reaches the edge of the crater, she slips into the woods of the Connecticut River Valley and heads off towards what she thinks is the east. And somewhere, maybe, much later, Abcott's wife spies the head of Faith, with its dirty pink ribbon, and bursts into joy.

The End

 

[Rookseye]

Very enjoyable game KL, having been there from nearly the beginning, I have to tip my cap to you for persisting despite the defections, delays, and numerous Scottsmen

Thank you for the epilogue also, things looked bleak from the beginning of that encounter, and the happy ending (at least until the Hastur spawn bursts out of Faith's neck and eats Abcott's wife) was a nice touch. More than half of CoC games should end in such a fashion, regardless, heh...

If you are ever recruiting for another game, KL, please drop me a line, I'd be interested in doing so, whether CoC or D&D.

I'm not sure if everyone is "Cthulhu'ed out", so I figure I'll check with you before I consider posting the 'Civil War' scenario, either of you still interested?

 

[Old Fezziwig]

There were times I wasn't sure the game was going to make it, but I'm glad that we finished it. As for the epilogue, it's happy. Mostly. I had to drop that "maybe" in there. If you're curious, I have a little wrap-up in the last post of the OOC thread talking about the game. I said it there, and I'll say it again here — thank you; I enjoyed having both of you in this game a lot.

I will be running another game sometime soon. I'm not sure what yet — I'm considering a few different systems and settings (I'm considering all/any of the following: D&D/Eberron or Ptolus, Burning Wheel/Middle Earth-ish, d20 or True20/Wheel of Time, WoD/Mage the Awakening, Mutants & Masterminds 2e, and Arcana Evolved/Ptolus), and I have no idea what I'd like to do. They'd all be one-shots, as I've got two ongoing campaigns, so one-and-done is appealing.

Regarding the Civil War scenario, I'm absolutely game for it whenever you're ready. It'll be nice to be on the other side of the screen for a bit.

 

[Committed Hero]

I agree with Rookseye; sorry I came late but glad I did.