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Wizards, Whiskey and Wonderful Things - Concluded
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<blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 2796768" data-attributes="member: 8530"><p><strong>Chapter 84, “Assault on the Farmhouse”, Saturday, March 18th , 1882, 8:00 A.M:</strong></p><p></p><p>As Ruby and Jake run out and before diving Ruby quickly makes sure her rifle is ready for action. She takes a dive behind cover with Jake and waits for the explosion.</p><p></p><p>A little more than one hundred feet away Minerva asks Jeff, “Senor Mills, what do you have for firepower?" He begins to reply, "Well Ma'am, I have a.." The conversation is then interrupted by the sound of an explosion in the barn, with part of the barn's sidewall basting out and showering the ground with flaming straw and splinters. It is immediately followed by a louder second explosion and then a third. All six men before them react the same, turning towards the barn while drawing their weapons.</p><p></p><p>The farmhouse shakes from the explosion. The tremendous explosions break the previous silence and cause Nanuet to jump in fright. "Whoa! What was that?" Nanuet catches his breath and gathers his wits. "My guess is Flint is involved in that!" Nanuet says excitedly. Chester says, "That was some blast. Does Flint have a cannon?" </p><p></p><p>Nanuet replies, "Chester, rip those boards off and let them know where we are, but don't go getting yourself shot!" Nanuet gets ready by the door should it open he will attempt to grab and push anyone coming in and move across the space of the doorframe. "I'm working on it." Chester starts pushing and pulling the boards off the window, pausing after each one to check if anyone is looking their way. </p><p></p><p>The first board is no longer gone from the window when Chester sees all three men by the campfire aim and fire their rifles at him. He ducks down as a bullet passes through his left shoulder. Nanuet sees several more bullets then fly through the wall and window boards, several barely missing. </p><p></p><p>Chester collapses as the bullet strikes. "Ow. Get down! There are at least three guards out there firing on our position. Plus there's a fire in the barn. Let's get away from the outer wall. It's not stopping those bullets."</p><p></p><p>Kate watched with wide eyes as the barn flew apart in all directions. When Jakes said a loud noise, he wasn't kidding. She lifted her pistol and took careful aim at the man in the center of the group Minerva had indicated. "Now's the time Flint, one or three, whatever you can manage." Not wanting to tip them off before the dynamite flew, Kate held off on squeezing the trigger until Flint made his throw, using the extra time to aim.</p><p></p><p>Those out front hear the sound of rifle fire from the rear of the farmhouse as the barn begins to engulf with flames from the rapidly catching hay bales. There are now holes in both sides of the barn with flames pouring out. Minerva hears the explosion and immediately begins to pray. </p><p></p><p>Flint is ready to strike a match to light the dynamite when he hears the sound of gunfire from the rear group firing at the farmhouse. "Cover me," he says as he charges out of the woods towards the side of the farmhouse carrying two three-stick bundles that are both still unlit. Thankfully none of the other six men in the two front groups see him immediately, as their attention still focused on the barn. </p><p></p><p>Professional football is still a decade away, as it will be 1892 when the Allegheny Athletic Association decides to start a professional team in Pittsburgh, but Flint's toss of the three bundled sticks of dynamite would have made any future football coach proud. Having moved out into the open to clear the potential obstacles posed by the saplings, the bundle sails high into the air and lands perfectly right inside the still burning campfire near three men with rifles. </p><p></p><p>The men caught the sudden movement with their peripheral vision and knew that something landed into the fire, but none of them managed to see exactly what. So instead of running they just changed targets, turning to shoot at Flint rather than the wall. But only one of the three managed to get his retargeted shot off before the dynamite exploded, and that shot sailed harmlessly above Flint's head. </p><p></p><p>The tremendous explosion that follows covers the entire area with debris, including flaming embers, coals and red-hot rocks from the fire circle. The man closest to the fire is killed instantly. The second is mortally wounded. His soon-to-be-dead companion shields the third from the brunt of the blast, and none of his wounds would have killed him except for the fact that his shirt catches fire. A combination of gunpowder residue and dried alcohol on his shirt cause it to immediately combust. He panics, so rather than dropping and rolling to put the fire out he instead turns and runs away from the farmhouse and towards the distant hills. He will eventually manage to get nearly sixty feet away before the flames fatally overtake him.</p><p></p><p>After the barn explosions Jake checks quickly to see that Ruby and Maska are unharmed. As he is grabbing his rifle off the ground he hears another explosion from behind the farmhouse. "Flint," he mutters to himself and laughs. Looking at the barn going up in flames he says to Ruby, "I guess we won't run back in there just yet. How about we go around the backside of the barn? We need to find Chester and Nanuet fast."</p><p></p><p>Ruby says, "Well, we know they are inside the farmhouse, right?" Ruby says while standing and wiping dirt and debris off. "We can head to the back side of the barn, cross over to the house, shoot anyone in our way." Ruby wipes her face leaving a smudge of dirt across her cheek. "Let's go," she smiles. They quickly make their way to the backside of the barn, staying as close to the wall as they can, avoiding any areas that look like they might have been affected by the blast. They peer around the corner to check out the situation.</p><p></p><p>A fearless light enters Minerva’s eyes as she turns and shoots her rifle, aiming at the man on the right as planned. Kate kept her eyes very carefully away from the man burning to death and fired at the center man of the group Minerva shot at. Minerva's shot goes through the man's back, puncturing a lung and major blood vessel and he collapses to the ground. Kate's shot totally misses. </p><p></p><p>Jake and Ruby stay low alongside the barn and see that the two men who are closest are moving towards the front barn doors. Of the other four, they see one collapse. His two companions begin to pivot around. The man who had been walking between the two is now running towards the front door. Jake and Ruby also see rifle barrels now pointing out from two front windows of the farmhouse, one on the ground level and another on the second floor. Ruby holds up her rifle, takes aim at the man running towards the house and shoots at him.</p><p></p><p>Ruby's shot misses the man, but does draw his attention. He turns yells "They're over there, behind the barn," while pointing towards Ruby and Jake. The two men nearing the barn door move quickly over to the corner of the barn and the one in front peers around the corner while aiming his revolver. Ruby looks to Jake quickly, "Might be time to put that shotgun to use!"</p><p></p><p>Inside the farmhouse, Nanuet crawls towards Chester staying as low as he can. He then drags the former soldier away from the outer wall and to a corner of the room. "Dang It! Chet, I thought I told you not to get shot!" Nanuet says as jokingly as possible considering the situation.</p><p></p><p>Nanuet wraps one of the blankets around Chester's shoulder. "You should be alright for now. Looks like the bullet went through you." The pair flinches when the second explosion occurs. Chester says, "This is some rescue. Flint is really cutting loose out there. Do you hear anything?"</p><p></p><p>Minerva, quickly reloads aims and shoots at the middleman as he starts to run. "Senor Flint, Toss another stick, they are heading for the barn!" Minerva's shot misses. Flint hears her and starts to run back towards the front of the farmhouse along the side wall, the other bundle of three unlit dynamite sticks tucked under his arm. One of the two still standing men nearer to Minerva and Kate turns and fires his revolver twice at Flint, the first shot going wide but the second coming much closer. </p><p></p><p>Minerva gives an unladylike curse while reloading. Aims and shoots at the man who is trying to gun down her friend. Kate looked at the pistol in her hand. "Oh, forget it," she muttered and began casting the last spell Mr. Gonzales had taught her before he went away. She aimed it at the third man in the group and said, "Jeff, time to work!"</p><p></p><p>Jake swings out his saw-off shot and lets the man peering around the corner have one barrel, while he tries to dodge the possible shot from the man's revolver. The man fires first but his shot misses. Jake's shot blows his head off. The man's partner opts to not fire. Jake and Ruby then hear the sound of one of the barn's doors opening. Jake rushes to the corner, peeks and let's off the remaining barrel of the shotgun at any opponent there.</p><p></p><p>A pair of light beams shoots out from Kate's fingers, one striking the man's gun hand and the other on the pressure point of his gun arm. The impact is not enough to incapacity the man but does cause him to drop his weapon. A mask of fear covers his face and he turns around and runs towards the horse corral. </p><p></p><p>The other man continues to fire at Flint, who has stopped to light the dynamite. The man's first two shots miss. The third shot hits Flint in his left hand. The dwarf ignores the injury and picks up the lit dynamite and prepares to throw it. Meanwhile, the man nears the house fires three shots at Jake, the first two missing and the third hitting Jake's shoulder but deflecting off of the duster for no damage.</p><p></p><p>"Jake!" Ruby screams as the bullets come flying towards him. She sees the third hit Jake and she momentarily panics before she realizes the bullet deflected off him. She quickly breathes a sigh of relief, uses two hands to aim her rifle, plants her feet and shoots at the man who just shot at Jake.</p><p></p><p>"I'm Ok." Jake says to Ruby. "I'm going after the guy who went into the barn, we can't have someone behind us." Jake runs across the front of the barn and rolls through the open door and comes up to shoot the man he expects to be hiding behind the door or inside the barn with the shotgun.</p><p></p><p>Minerva curses again and carefully aiming shoots at the man who is firing at Flint. Kate lifted the pistol again and took another shot at the man fleeing from the magic missiles. Minerva and Kate both miss. Ruby however has great success, shooting the man right between the eyes. </p><p></p><p>Flint has run out by the corner of the farmhouse looking for a target for this dynamite. He considers tossing it towards the man shooting at him but changes his mind as a triple would probably also catch Minerva and Kate in the debris field. He then sees the rifle barrel protruding from the first floor window. With his right fist he smashes the shutter and windowpane along the other window of the same room and then drops the dynamite inside. </p><p></p><p>Minerva watches Flint in disbelief "What in Hades is he doing! I told him not to blow up the farmhouse!!!!" "Flint doesn't think very clearly when he's blowing things up," Kate said, trying one more time for the man firing at Flint. Come on Goddess don't fail me now Minerva thinks as she reloads and shoots once again at the man firing at Flint. Kate misses yet again. Minerva is more successful, hitting the man in the arm. The wound does not appear serious, but he stops shooting although he is still holding his revolver. </p><p></p><p>Jake successfully tumbles into the barn and points his gun where he suspects the man is, but doesn't see him there. It is hard to see as the entire building is filled with dark smoke. The hay bales in the balconies are all fully engulfed with flames. The fire has ridden up to the pitched roof, which is now catching the upper beams and cedar shingles. Flaming pieces of hay are falling all around. </p><p></p><p>Jake then notices the man, over by the wagon in the center of the room working frantically to remove the tarp. Jake shoots the man at the tarp with the shotgun, then releases it to hang by the lanyard attached to the stock. Jake's second shotgun blasts takes off the head of this man. Enough of the tarp has now been revolved for him to see that the item in the wagon is a gattling gun.</p><p></p><p>Ruby quickly makes her way over to the barn doors and peeks inside. She sees Jake right there but it's smoky and she can't see anything else, so she keeps her back against the outside of the barn. Instead she turns and looks towards the guns that are pointing out towards them from the farmhouse. Ruby looks for the rifle barrel sticking out and fires. While using two hands and shooting her rifle toward the farmhouse she yells out, "Jake, still have things under control?"</p><p></p><p>The front corner room of the farmhouse explodes in a massive explosion, which blows the rifle and part of the arm holding it out of the front where the window used to be. The second floor above that room then collapses downward on top of the first floor. A cloud of dust and billows up from that corner of the building. Flint is knocked to the ground by the blast but quickly rises. </p><p></p><p>Nanuet and Chester hear the sound of the explosion elsewhere in the building. They then look up at the sound of the window boards being kicked in. They see Jeff Mills standing there with a rifle. He yells, "Good, I found you. Let's go." Chester says, "I'm glad to see a friendly face. Where are the others? And are the cowboys taken out?" Jeff replies, "Not yet. There are still some of them in the house. Let's go." </p><p></p><p>Chester asks, "You have an extra six-shooter on you? They took ours. Probably don't have extra clothes too?" Nanuet and Chester follow Jeff out the window. Chester asks, "So, what's the plan, Jeff? Is there a rally point?" "The plan was to find you. Here," he states and he hands his rifle to Chester, choosing to keep his old cap and ball revolver for himself. Chester laughs, then winces from the shoulder wound. "That's a good plan. Let's not hold it up, then. Lead on." The three scramble back the way Jeff came in.</p><p></p><p>Minerva looks up to see Luna's ghostly white shape silently gliding toward her. Luna gently lands on Minerva shoulder and a stunned expression comes over Minerva's face. She turns to Senora Kate and with tears in her eyes and tremor in her voice says. "Jeff has gotten to Senor Chester and Nanuet." Katherine notices that Minerva is visibly shaken. "The goddess has granted me a wonderful boon. Luna has never communicated with me before without a spell." </p><p></p><p>The man at the horse corral has now opened up the gate and jumps barebacked onto the nearest horse. Kate patted her arm quickly. "Cover me, I need to get closer," Kate said and ran for the gate, hoping to get close enough to cast a Daze spell at the man trying to escape. </p><p></p><p>Kate realizes that the man is a bit too far out of range for the spell, but notes that he is having trouble controlling the horse without any saddle, tack or harness on him. She also notes Chester's horse, which she helped train, is now only fifteen feet away from her. Kate ran for Chester's horse and threw her arms around its neck, pulling herself up. She felt better as soon as she was on horseback. She gave a quick command and they began toward the man on horseback, hoping to get close to him, between him and the gate.</p><p></p><p>Jake quickly looks around and listens for any evidence of others alive in the barn. If he is sure there are none he leaves the barn quickly. "Got him," he says to Ruby. He then scans the outside for opponents. "Good job baby," Ruby says giving him a quick kiss. "I think this is a big enough distraction. Now, onto the house to get Nanuet and Chester?" Up front, the rifle pointing out from the second floor window is pulled in</p><p></p><p>"That's what we came here ..." Jake doesn't finish the sentence when he notices the wounded gang member with the revolver and begins to unload his draw weapon at him. "Alright then." She watches Jake unload his weapon but only for a moment. Knowing there are still men in the farmhouse she takes a good look before starting a full on run to the house. She keeps her eye on the upper window, ready to dodge any shots that might come from there. </p><p></p><p>Jake's first shot is a wound to the man's chest. The man starts to stagger as Jake's second shot goes into his abdomen. Amazingly the man has enough stamina to turn towards Jake and start to raise his gun. Jake then calmly fires his third shot into the man's forehead. </p><p></p><p>Minerva sends Luna out to locate Maska, Chester and Nanuet. She continues to watch the farmhouse and Notices Ruby run inside. She looks in the upper windows and shoots if she sees someone who isn't Ruby at the window.</p><p></p><p>Out back, Jeff helps to get Nanuet and Chester get away from farmhouse, which is now burning in the right front corner. They head in the direction of the stream and woods 60 feet to the side of the farmhouse rear. Chester sits down against a tree. Nanuet asks, "Where are Mr. Jake and the others? Are they coming here soon?"</p><p></p><p>Ruby runs until she reaches the door of the farmhouse. Ruby pulls out her pistol, then kicks the door in, ducking to the side after she does so. The room to her right is now on fire. before her is a hallway running back, with rooms off to the left. She hears the sound of footsteps rapidly descending down a staircase further back. She will not be able to see who is on the stairs until he reaches the bottom of them, twenty feet further down the corridor.</p><p></p><p>Ruby quietly and slowly moves down the corridor, towards the stairs, with her gun raised. She waits to see who is there and if it isn't a friend she will shoot. A man reaches the bottom of the staircase and turns. Ruby immediately recognizes him as the man who Johnny Ringo had signaled to the previous night in the Lucky Lady. He has a rifle in his hand that he begins to raise. She fires and misses.</p><p></p><p>Jake just manages to see Jeff, Chester and Nanuet heading away from the house and yells, "Ruby, get out of the house they are out here!" He holsters his Colt while he runs to the corner of the barn to retrieve is dropped rifle. Then he walks towards the farmhouse watching all the windows. Minerva waits a moment but doesn't see anyone in the windows. She runs down the hill watching for shooters and into the front of the farmhouse in search of Ruby.</p><p></p><p>Kate and the man she is chasing both ride along the roadway leading to the farmhouse. She is far more familiar with riding this way than he is and soon manages to close within distance to cast her planned spell. It is successful and under the influence of it he is no longer able to keep balance on the horse and falls from it. Jake notices this and calculates whether he has a shot at this man without endangering Katherine.</p><p></p><p>Kate knew that the spell would only confuse the man for a few seconds. Kate rode close to the prone man and waited until his eyes cleared. "Try to run away and I'll run you down," she said, pistol in hand. He looks up at her and looks like he is about to say something when Jake's shot enters his side. The man slumps over dead.</p><p></p><p>Back inside the burning farmhouse Ruby sees the man raise his rifle. She tries to duck into one of the rooms in the hallway, while taking another shot at him. Ruby grazes the man in his lower abdomen before ducking into a room. She yells out, "So, how do you like it when someone comes to YOUR home and threatens you?!?" He jumps back to the bottom of the staircase out of her line of fire. She then hears him beginning to utter an incantation that Ruby recognizes as the same one that Sonoma uses to make herself invisible. </p><p></p><p>Crap! thinks Ruby, I have to get him now or he'll kill me... While he is still reciting the words to his spell she comes back out of the room, moves into the hallway to where she thinks she can hit him and based on where his voice was she fires her gun to the area until it is empty. Ruby sees him fading out as she fires her first shot, which barely misses. She hears him starting to move from where he was and continues to fire where she believes him to be. Her fourth and fifth shots both connect and she hears him slump onto the floor, although she is still unable to see him.</p><p></p><p>Kate gasped as the bullet entered the man. She turned her head and saw Jake. "Jeff got them out, it's time to go! Where's Ruby?" After Jake fires he hears the shots in the farmhouse. He drops his rifle and charges for the farmhouse door, drawing his Colt again and dagger in the off hand. Jake does not respond to Kate as he had already turned and run into the house after hearing several gunshots. Kate hesitated, unsure what to do.</p><p></p><p>"Damn it!" Ruby says out loud to no one. She pulls out her dagger and she starts moving towards the stairs, which are closer to the middle of the house. "Nanuet! Chester!" She starts calling out, hoping to hear an answer. As she gets near where she thinks the invisible man fell she will use her foot to kick around before heading up towards the stairs. </p><p></p><p>Jake enters the farmhouse, the fire now beginning to spread. He sees Ruby down the hallway holding a smoking gun in her hand. He does not see who she was shooting at. "Ruby, let's go. The boys are outside!" Jake continues to scan for opponents and steps aside so Ruby can run out the door while he covers her back.</p><p></p><p>She startles when she hears Jake behind her. "They are? Thank your god Jake. There is a guy right there," she points to the area where she thinks the man fell. "He went invisible but I think I shot him anyway. I don’t' know if he's dead or not." She takes another look at the burning house and dodges some falling rubble. </p><p></p><p>She manages to kick his rifle away from him, it then becoming visible. She locates where he is on the floor. Ruby grabs his rifle and gives him a swift kick. "Time to go!" She grabs Jake hand and they run out of the farmhouse. </p><p></p><p>Once Ruby and Jake get outside Ruby runs around until she finds Nanuet and Chester. She dives onto both of them, a look of relief coming over her, "Oh, I cannot even TELL YOU how happy I am you are ok!" She hugs both of them tightly and repeatedly. Chester replies, “"Probably as happy as I am to see all of you. I was worried what those cowboys were going to do with us.” </p><p></p><p>"I believe this is yours," Ruby says to Nanuet, handing him back his necklace at the same time Maska comes running over to Nanuet and tackles him. Then she turns to Jake. "Good job, Mr. Cook, I'm impressed," she says while wiping some dirt off his face. "You didn't even lose your lucky hat."</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><em>DM's note: This was the first full-party combat sequence of the module, I hope you all enjoyed it. Reader's comments regarding the module are always welcomed! </em></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Silver Moon, post: 2796768, member: 8530"] [B]Chapter 84, “Assault on the Farmhouse”, Saturday, March 18th , 1882, 8:00 A.M:[/B] As Ruby and Jake run out and before diving Ruby quickly makes sure her rifle is ready for action. She takes a dive behind cover with Jake and waits for the explosion. A little more than one hundred feet away Minerva asks Jeff, “Senor Mills, what do you have for firepower?" He begins to reply, "Well Ma'am, I have a.." The conversation is then interrupted by the sound of an explosion in the barn, with part of the barn's sidewall basting out and showering the ground with flaming straw and splinters. It is immediately followed by a louder second explosion and then a third. All six men before them react the same, turning towards the barn while drawing their weapons. The farmhouse shakes from the explosion. The tremendous explosions break the previous silence and cause Nanuet to jump in fright. "Whoa! What was that?" Nanuet catches his breath and gathers his wits. "My guess is Flint is involved in that!" Nanuet says excitedly. Chester says, "That was some blast. Does Flint have a cannon?" Nanuet replies, "Chester, rip those boards off and let them know where we are, but don't go getting yourself shot!" Nanuet gets ready by the door should it open he will attempt to grab and push anyone coming in and move across the space of the doorframe. "I'm working on it." Chester starts pushing and pulling the boards off the window, pausing after each one to check if anyone is looking their way. The first board is no longer gone from the window when Chester sees all three men by the campfire aim and fire their rifles at him. He ducks down as a bullet passes through his left shoulder. Nanuet sees several more bullets then fly through the wall and window boards, several barely missing. Chester collapses as the bullet strikes. "Ow. Get down! There are at least three guards out there firing on our position. Plus there's a fire in the barn. Let's get away from the outer wall. It's not stopping those bullets." Kate watched with wide eyes as the barn flew apart in all directions. When Jakes said a loud noise, he wasn't kidding. She lifted her pistol and took careful aim at the man in the center of the group Minerva had indicated. "Now's the time Flint, one or three, whatever you can manage." Not wanting to tip them off before the dynamite flew, Kate held off on squeezing the trigger until Flint made his throw, using the extra time to aim. Those out front hear the sound of rifle fire from the rear of the farmhouse as the barn begins to engulf with flames from the rapidly catching hay bales. There are now holes in both sides of the barn with flames pouring out. Minerva hears the explosion and immediately begins to pray. Flint is ready to strike a match to light the dynamite when he hears the sound of gunfire from the rear group firing at the farmhouse. "Cover me," he says as he charges out of the woods towards the side of the farmhouse carrying two three-stick bundles that are both still unlit. Thankfully none of the other six men in the two front groups see him immediately, as their attention still focused on the barn. Professional football is still a decade away, as it will be 1892 when the Allegheny Athletic Association decides to start a professional team in Pittsburgh, but Flint's toss of the three bundled sticks of dynamite would have made any future football coach proud. Having moved out into the open to clear the potential obstacles posed by the saplings, the bundle sails high into the air and lands perfectly right inside the still burning campfire near three men with rifles. The men caught the sudden movement with their peripheral vision and knew that something landed into the fire, but none of them managed to see exactly what. So instead of running they just changed targets, turning to shoot at Flint rather than the wall. But only one of the three managed to get his retargeted shot off before the dynamite exploded, and that shot sailed harmlessly above Flint's head. The tremendous explosion that follows covers the entire area with debris, including flaming embers, coals and red-hot rocks from the fire circle. The man closest to the fire is killed instantly. The second is mortally wounded. His soon-to-be-dead companion shields the third from the brunt of the blast, and none of his wounds would have killed him except for the fact that his shirt catches fire. A combination of gunpowder residue and dried alcohol on his shirt cause it to immediately combust. He panics, so rather than dropping and rolling to put the fire out he instead turns and runs away from the farmhouse and towards the distant hills. He will eventually manage to get nearly sixty feet away before the flames fatally overtake him. After the barn explosions Jake checks quickly to see that Ruby and Maska are unharmed. As he is grabbing his rifle off the ground he hears another explosion from behind the farmhouse. "Flint," he mutters to himself and laughs. Looking at the barn going up in flames he says to Ruby, "I guess we won't run back in there just yet. How about we go around the backside of the barn? We need to find Chester and Nanuet fast." Ruby says, "Well, we know they are inside the farmhouse, right?" Ruby says while standing and wiping dirt and debris off. "We can head to the back side of the barn, cross over to the house, shoot anyone in our way." Ruby wipes her face leaving a smudge of dirt across her cheek. "Let's go," she smiles. They quickly make their way to the backside of the barn, staying as close to the wall as they can, avoiding any areas that look like they might have been affected by the blast. They peer around the corner to check out the situation. A fearless light enters Minerva’s eyes as she turns and shoots her rifle, aiming at the man on the right as planned. Kate kept her eyes very carefully away from the man burning to death and fired at the center man of the group Minerva shot at. Minerva's shot goes through the man's back, puncturing a lung and major blood vessel and he collapses to the ground. Kate's shot totally misses. Jake and Ruby stay low alongside the barn and see that the two men who are closest are moving towards the front barn doors. Of the other four, they see one collapse. His two companions begin to pivot around. The man who had been walking between the two is now running towards the front door. Jake and Ruby also see rifle barrels now pointing out from two front windows of the farmhouse, one on the ground level and another on the second floor. Ruby holds up her rifle, takes aim at the man running towards the house and shoots at him. Ruby's shot misses the man, but does draw his attention. He turns yells "They're over there, behind the barn," while pointing towards Ruby and Jake. The two men nearing the barn door move quickly over to the corner of the barn and the one in front peers around the corner while aiming his revolver. Ruby looks to Jake quickly, "Might be time to put that shotgun to use!" Inside the farmhouse, Nanuet crawls towards Chester staying as low as he can. He then drags the former soldier away from the outer wall and to a corner of the room. "Dang It! Chet, I thought I told you not to get shot!" Nanuet says as jokingly as possible considering the situation. Nanuet wraps one of the blankets around Chester's shoulder. "You should be alright for now. Looks like the bullet went through you." The pair flinches when the second explosion occurs. Chester says, "This is some rescue. Flint is really cutting loose out there. Do you hear anything?" Minerva, quickly reloads aims and shoots at the middleman as he starts to run. "Senor Flint, Toss another stick, they are heading for the barn!" Minerva's shot misses. Flint hears her and starts to run back towards the front of the farmhouse along the side wall, the other bundle of three unlit dynamite sticks tucked under his arm. One of the two still standing men nearer to Minerva and Kate turns and fires his revolver twice at Flint, the first shot going wide but the second coming much closer. Minerva gives an unladylike curse while reloading. Aims and shoots at the man who is trying to gun down her friend. Kate looked at the pistol in her hand. "Oh, forget it," she muttered and began casting the last spell Mr. Gonzales had taught her before he went away. She aimed it at the third man in the group and said, "Jeff, time to work!" Jake swings out his saw-off shot and lets the man peering around the corner have one barrel, while he tries to dodge the possible shot from the man's revolver. The man fires first but his shot misses. Jake's shot blows his head off. The man's partner opts to not fire. Jake and Ruby then hear the sound of one of the barn's doors opening. Jake rushes to the corner, peeks and let's off the remaining barrel of the shotgun at any opponent there. A pair of light beams shoots out from Kate's fingers, one striking the man's gun hand and the other on the pressure point of his gun arm. The impact is not enough to incapacity the man but does cause him to drop his weapon. A mask of fear covers his face and he turns around and runs towards the horse corral. The other man continues to fire at Flint, who has stopped to light the dynamite. The man's first two shots miss. The third shot hits Flint in his left hand. The dwarf ignores the injury and picks up the lit dynamite and prepares to throw it. Meanwhile, the man nears the house fires three shots at Jake, the first two missing and the third hitting Jake's shoulder but deflecting off of the duster for no damage. "Jake!" Ruby screams as the bullets come flying towards him. She sees the third hit Jake and she momentarily panics before she realizes the bullet deflected off him. She quickly breathes a sigh of relief, uses two hands to aim her rifle, plants her feet and shoots at the man who just shot at Jake. "I'm Ok." Jake says to Ruby. "I'm going after the guy who went into the barn, we can't have someone behind us." Jake runs across the front of the barn and rolls through the open door and comes up to shoot the man he expects to be hiding behind the door or inside the barn with the shotgun. Minerva curses again and carefully aiming shoots at the man who is firing at Flint. Kate lifted the pistol again and took another shot at the man fleeing from the magic missiles. Minerva and Kate both miss. Ruby however has great success, shooting the man right between the eyes. Flint has run out by the corner of the farmhouse looking for a target for this dynamite. He considers tossing it towards the man shooting at him but changes his mind as a triple would probably also catch Minerva and Kate in the debris field. He then sees the rifle barrel protruding from the first floor window. With his right fist he smashes the shutter and windowpane along the other window of the same room and then drops the dynamite inside. Minerva watches Flint in disbelief "What in Hades is he doing! I told him not to blow up the farmhouse!!!!" "Flint doesn't think very clearly when he's blowing things up," Kate said, trying one more time for the man firing at Flint. Come on Goddess don't fail me now Minerva thinks as she reloads and shoots once again at the man firing at Flint. Kate misses yet again. Minerva is more successful, hitting the man in the arm. The wound does not appear serious, but he stops shooting although he is still holding his revolver. Jake successfully tumbles into the barn and points his gun where he suspects the man is, but doesn't see him there. It is hard to see as the entire building is filled with dark smoke. The hay bales in the balconies are all fully engulfed with flames. The fire has ridden up to the pitched roof, which is now catching the upper beams and cedar shingles. Flaming pieces of hay are falling all around. Jake then notices the man, over by the wagon in the center of the room working frantically to remove the tarp. Jake shoots the man at the tarp with the shotgun, then releases it to hang by the lanyard attached to the stock. Jake's second shotgun blasts takes off the head of this man. Enough of the tarp has now been revolved for him to see that the item in the wagon is a gattling gun. Ruby quickly makes her way over to the barn doors and peeks inside. She sees Jake right there but it's smoky and she can't see anything else, so she keeps her back against the outside of the barn. Instead she turns and looks towards the guns that are pointing out towards them from the farmhouse. Ruby looks for the rifle barrel sticking out and fires. While using two hands and shooting her rifle toward the farmhouse she yells out, "Jake, still have things under control?" The front corner room of the farmhouse explodes in a massive explosion, which blows the rifle and part of the arm holding it out of the front where the window used to be. The second floor above that room then collapses downward on top of the first floor. A cloud of dust and billows up from that corner of the building. Flint is knocked to the ground by the blast but quickly rises. Nanuet and Chester hear the sound of the explosion elsewhere in the building. They then look up at the sound of the window boards being kicked in. They see Jeff Mills standing there with a rifle. He yells, "Good, I found you. Let's go." Chester says, "I'm glad to see a friendly face. Where are the others? And are the cowboys taken out?" Jeff replies, "Not yet. There are still some of them in the house. Let's go." Chester asks, "You have an extra six-shooter on you? They took ours. Probably don't have extra clothes too?" Nanuet and Chester follow Jeff out the window. Chester asks, "So, what's the plan, Jeff? Is there a rally point?" "The plan was to find you. Here," he states and he hands his rifle to Chester, choosing to keep his old cap and ball revolver for himself. Chester laughs, then winces from the shoulder wound. "That's a good plan. Let's not hold it up, then. Lead on." The three scramble back the way Jeff came in. Minerva looks up to see Luna's ghostly white shape silently gliding toward her. Luna gently lands on Minerva shoulder and a stunned expression comes over Minerva's face. She turns to Senora Kate and with tears in her eyes and tremor in her voice says. "Jeff has gotten to Senor Chester and Nanuet." Katherine notices that Minerva is visibly shaken. "The goddess has granted me a wonderful boon. Luna has never communicated with me before without a spell." The man at the horse corral has now opened up the gate and jumps barebacked onto the nearest horse. Kate patted her arm quickly. "Cover me, I need to get closer," Kate said and ran for the gate, hoping to get close enough to cast a Daze spell at the man trying to escape. Kate realizes that the man is a bit too far out of range for the spell, but notes that he is having trouble controlling the horse without any saddle, tack or harness on him. She also notes Chester's horse, which she helped train, is now only fifteen feet away from her. Kate ran for Chester's horse and threw her arms around its neck, pulling herself up. She felt better as soon as she was on horseback. She gave a quick command and they began toward the man on horseback, hoping to get close to him, between him and the gate. Jake quickly looks around and listens for any evidence of others alive in the barn. If he is sure there are none he leaves the barn quickly. "Got him," he says to Ruby. He then scans the outside for opponents. "Good job baby," Ruby says giving him a quick kiss. "I think this is a big enough distraction. Now, onto the house to get Nanuet and Chester?" Up front, the rifle pointing out from the second floor window is pulled in "That's what we came here ..." Jake doesn't finish the sentence when he notices the wounded gang member with the revolver and begins to unload his draw weapon at him. "Alright then." She watches Jake unload his weapon but only for a moment. Knowing there are still men in the farmhouse she takes a good look before starting a full on run to the house. She keeps her eye on the upper window, ready to dodge any shots that might come from there. Jake's first shot is a wound to the man's chest. The man starts to stagger as Jake's second shot goes into his abdomen. Amazingly the man has enough stamina to turn towards Jake and start to raise his gun. Jake then calmly fires his third shot into the man's forehead. Minerva sends Luna out to locate Maska, Chester and Nanuet. She continues to watch the farmhouse and Notices Ruby run inside. She looks in the upper windows and shoots if she sees someone who isn't Ruby at the window. Out back, Jeff helps to get Nanuet and Chester get away from farmhouse, which is now burning in the right front corner. They head in the direction of the stream and woods 60 feet to the side of the farmhouse rear. Chester sits down against a tree. Nanuet asks, "Where are Mr. Jake and the others? Are they coming here soon?" Ruby runs until she reaches the door of the farmhouse. Ruby pulls out her pistol, then kicks the door in, ducking to the side after she does so. The room to her right is now on fire. before her is a hallway running back, with rooms off to the left. She hears the sound of footsteps rapidly descending down a staircase further back. She will not be able to see who is on the stairs until he reaches the bottom of them, twenty feet further down the corridor. Ruby quietly and slowly moves down the corridor, towards the stairs, with her gun raised. She waits to see who is there and if it isn't a friend she will shoot. A man reaches the bottom of the staircase and turns. Ruby immediately recognizes him as the man who Johnny Ringo had signaled to the previous night in the Lucky Lady. He has a rifle in his hand that he begins to raise. She fires and misses. Jake just manages to see Jeff, Chester and Nanuet heading away from the house and yells, "Ruby, get out of the house they are out here!" He holsters his Colt while he runs to the corner of the barn to retrieve is dropped rifle. Then he walks towards the farmhouse watching all the windows. Minerva waits a moment but doesn't see anyone in the windows. She runs down the hill watching for shooters and into the front of the farmhouse in search of Ruby. Kate and the man she is chasing both ride along the roadway leading to the farmhouse. She is far more familiar with riding this way than he is and soon manages to close within distance to cast her planned spell. It is successful and under the influence of it he is no longer able to keep balance on the horse and falls from it. Jake notices this and calculates whether he has a shot at this man without endangering Katherine. Kate knew that the spell would only confuse the man for a few seconds. Kate rode close to the prone man and waited until his eyes cleared. "Try to run away and I'll run you down," she said, pistol in hand. He looks up at her and looks like he is about to say something when Jake's shot enters his side. The man slumps over dead. Back inside the burning farmhouse Ruby sees the man raise his rifle. She tries to duck into one of the rooms in the hallway, while taking another shot at him. Ruby grazes the man in his lower abdomen before ducking into a room. She yells out, "So, how do you like it when someone comes to YOUR home and threatens you?!?" He jumps back to the bottom of the staircase out of her line of fire. She then hears him beginning to utter an incantation that Ruby recognizes as the same one that Sonoma uses to make herself invisible. Crap! thinks Ruby, I have to get him now or he'll kill me... While he is still reciting the words to his spell she comes back out of the room, moves into the hallway to where she thinks she can hit him and based on where his voice was she fires her gun to the area until it is empty. Ruby sees him fading out as she fires her first shot, which barely misses. She hears him starting to move from where he was and continues to fire where she believes him to be. Her fourth and fifth shots both connect and she hears him slump onto the floor, although she is still unable to see him. Kate gasped as the bullet entered the man. She turned her head and saw Jake. "Jeff got them out, it's time to go! Where's Ruby?" After Jake fires he hears the shots in the farmhouse. He drops his rifle and charges for the farmhouse door, drawing his Colt again and dagger in the off hand. Jake does not respond to Kate as he had already turned and run into the house after hearing several gunshots. Kate hesitated, unsure what to do. "Damn it!" Ruby says out loud to no one. She pulls out her dagger and she starts moving towards the stairs, which are closer to the middle of the house. "Nanuet! Chester!" She starts calling out, hoping to hear an answer. As she gets near where she thinks the invisible man fell she will use her foot to kick around before heading up towards the stairs. Jake enters the farmhouse, the fire now beginning to spread. He sees Ruby down the hallway holding a smoking gun in her hand. He does not see who she was shooting at. "Ruby, let's go. The boys are outside!" Jake continues to scan for opponents and steps aside so Ruby can run out the door while he covers her back. She startles when she hears Jake behind her. "They are? Thank your god Jake. There is a guy right there," she points to the area where she thinks the man fell. "He went invisible but I think I shot him anyway. I don’t' know if he's dead or not." She takes another look at the burning house and dodges some falling rubble. She manages to kick his rifle away from him, it then becoming visible. She locates where he is on the floor. Ruby grabs his rifle and gives him a swift kick. "Time to go!" She grabs Jake hand and they run out of the farmhouse. Once Ruby and Jake get outside Ruby runs around until she finds Nanuet and Chester. She dives onto both of them, a look of relief coming over her, "Oh, I cannot even TELL YOU how happy I am you are ok!" She hugs both of them tightly and repeatedly. Chester replies, “"Probably as happy as I am to see all of you. I was worried what those cowboys were going to do with us.” "I believe this is yours," Ruby says to Nanuet, handing him back his necklace at the same time Maska comes running over to Nanuet and tackles him. Then she turns to Jake. "Good job, Mr. Cook, I'm impressed," she says while wiping some dirt off his face. "You didn't even lose your lucky hat." [I]DM's note: This was the first full-party combat sequence of the module, I hope you all enjoyed it. Reader's comments regarding the module are always welcomed! [/I] [/QUOTE]
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