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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 3534297" data-attributes="member: 8530">Chapter One-hundred-sixty-three, “Battle at the Taxidermy Shop”, Thursday June 15th, 1882, 3:00 P.M.Kate heads over towards the window and looks inside. The two work men are both still busy with the saws cutting up planks for another casket. Daniel Madson is standing by the desk jotting something down in a ledger book. She concentrates on all three men looking for magic auras and sees an aura around a gold band on one of Madson's fingers. One of the two workmen, the one Nakomo identified as Brice Koontz, has a holstered gun on his belt that the barrel gives off a magical aura too as well. Neither Madson or the other workmen have any firearms on their person, although the workman does have a Buck knife on his belt and Madson could theoretically have something within reach in the desk.Before slipping away to join the others, Kate tried to catch reflections in her mirror although she know the glass would interfere with her results. She made sure to shade the mirror from the sun so as not to flash light into the room. Kate notes that all three men have reflections in the mirror, which is not altogether surprising as the windows are open with the curtains drawn back and sunlight shining in.Chester spots a young man who he recognizes as one of the stable hands from Drover's Livery heading down the street. He motions the young man child over and flashes his badge. He says, "Go to the Marshall's office and tell him that I'm arresting someone here and I could use some help. Can you do that?" The young man says, "Sure Deputy" and runs off. Chester says to the others, "OK. To make this legal, I'm deputizing you for the time being to help me arrest Brice Koontz. Whatever else we find in there is also covered. Got it?"Minerva looks to Chester. "What about the other two? I have no intention of letting them go. Perhaps it would be better if the law were not present." Chester replies, "Hmm. What were you planning on doing with them if they're living?" Minerva looks him in they eye and simply states "Whatever the gods direct me to do."Kate slipped away from the window and rejoined the others. "They seem to have just gone back to work," she said and described the scene inside. "Madsen is wearing a magical ring and Koontz has magic on his gun. I'd guess it's a spell creating his disguise, which means the smoke will keep him exposed. It also means no magic will work in that building. That shouldn't really be a problem. None of the three are creatures, they all have reflections."Jake reaches the back door of Madsen's shop and finds it locked. He kicks the ground and hisses, "Blast!" through clenched teeth. He stomps back to the street, "Red would be telling me I told you so for not learning how to pick locks." Jake reaches the street and see the others apparently moving towards the door. He shrugs and walks quickly towards them, attempting to avoid drawing attention to himself. Once Jake was with them again Kate whispered to him, "No vamps, just disguised humans. I'm going to stay outside." Once they reached the door she let the others go in and stepped away from the building, aware the bullets could go right through a wall.She turns away and then turning back to him waves her hand toward the door and bows slightly, indicating that he should go first. "After you, Deputy Martin" Before they near the entrance Minerva loosens the whip in her belt and uses Nakomo to shield herself from prying eyes as she places a magical sleep bullet in the chamber of her gun. She quickly fills the rest of the chambers with regular ammo. She puts it in her pocket and keeps her hand on it as they enter. Chester bows slightly and opens the door to the shop. He keeps his right hand on his pistol. "Good day folks." Jake rolls his eyes and shakes his head thinking “I hope they do not shoot him too many times“.Madson stops and looks up. The two workmen also stop sawing and turn their heads in Chester's direction. Madson folds up his ledger and takes a step forward away from the desk. "Good afternoon Deputy, what can I do for you?" Minerva waits a few seconds and keeping one hand on her whip and the other on the gun in her pocket, she enters the shop after Chester.Jonathan Harker hangs back, his hand wrapped around the marble that can dispel magical effects. He stayed just outside the door but kept his ears open, waiting for the moment when he would be needed. Nakomo enters the shop after Minerva. She turns to him and exclaims, "There you are! I was looking for you.""Back again Priestess?" Madson says. He then adds "I saw you looking at that stuffed owl this morning. It normally sells for $ 10.00 but I'll let you have it for half that." Minerva hides her revulsion with a smile. "Gracias, No Senor. I was just searching for my ward. Nakomo, come over here and tell me what you think of this owl." she motions for him to follow her over behind the table that the owl sits upon so that they can have cover if it should become necessary.As the others go in, Jake glances around the street and buildings just to make sure someone was not watching them. He listens, just out of sight, to what is happening inside. Jake is finely tuned to the sound of guns, guns being drawn from leather holsters and hammers being locked. He listens intently, poised to leap into the room to save his friends. He promised himself that later on in the day, he would wonder why.Chester draws his gun and points it at Koontz. "I believe you're someone we've been looking for, Brice Koontz. Slowly take out your gun and drop it on the floor." The man who Chester is speaking to slowly raises his hands and says, "I don't know what you're talking about Deputy. My name's Adam Butler." While Chester is watching the man's hands the accused unexpectedly kicks over the sawhorse in front of him, sending the planks flying towards the Deputy. Minerva has had her hand on the trigger of the gun in her pocket and draws her weapon loudly yelling "Stop where you are!Chester steps aside and fires at Koontz. "Don't make this harder than it needs to be." Minerva exclaims, "Harker! The smoke!" and fires a regular round from her weapon at Koontz. Koontz drops to the floor, causing Minerva and Chester's initial shots to both be too high and miss. He rolls to the side while reaching to draw his gun.Madson yells out the phrase "Kerthanwah". Three of the stuffed creatures in the room, a coyote, a red wolf and a hawk, suddenly come to life. Hearing the magical word, Harker steps forward into the room and throws the marble onto the floor, calling out the command for the smoke to fill the room. Chester curses at the miss and draws his second Remington. He tries to find cover before firing on the wolf. He coughs as the smoke fills the room.Kate ran around the back of the building, pulling her pistol out of her pocket. The smoke would probably obscure everyone's vision and she didn't want any of those men trying to escape out a window. Oddly startled, instead of diving into the room Jake steps to the door way to observe what is happening, fearing he will harm his friends if he draws his gun before getting a good look at what is going on in the confusion.Madson points to Chester and says "Tawaka" as the Hawk screeches and flies directly towards the deputy as the coyote and wolf both cautiously move in his direction. As this is happening the smoke fills the room and the false faces and bodies fade away from the three occupants. The three animals continue towards the deputy, these apparently being their natural forms. As the anti-magic smoke swirls around four other stuffed creatures in the room also take to life again, a large squirrel, a wolverine, a falcon and the owl that Minerva had looked at earlier.Nakomo notches an arrow and let's it fly toward Koontz. Nakomo's arrow just missing hitting Koontz, who manages to draw his gun and point it towards Minerva. From the doorway, Jake instinctively draws and fires at the hawk heading towards Chet. Harker pulls a pistol out of his pocket, aims, and fires at the Wolverine. Around the back it didn't look as if anyone were trying to escape through the windows so Kate started to move toward the door again, but spent a few more seconds behind the building watching the windows.Chester's shot strikes the wolf wounding it, and it retreats over beneath the staircase while whimpering. The coyote however charges forward and opens it teeth, preparing to take a bite out of Chester's leg. The hawk flies by Chester's head, raking the forehead with a claw causing a nasty cut. Jake's shot hits the hawk, causing the bird to explode into a pile of flesh, blood and feathers which rains down onto the deputy. The third workman uses the confusion and smoke to start to charge up the staircase to the second floor. Chester tries to see through the gore covering his face and shoots with both guns at the coyote. "Thanks, Jake."Minerva swings her whip at the owl. Minerva's whip motion misses and both the owl and falcon fly out of windows in the room as the squirrel hides inside of a box. The wolverine climbs up onto a stuffed buffalo head to get above the fray. In the momentary lull Harker ducks into the room and heads for the stairs, chasing down the one running away. Kate moves around to the front of the building to where she can see in through the open door, looking to see how long it is taking the smoke to clear.The man who had pretended to be Madson makes a break from the front door. He is a man is in his late thirties, with short curly hair that is turning white and a mustache and goatee. Kate recognizes him from her three months living in Tombstone. He was a rancher who lived outside of town by the name of Ike Clanton who had a reputation for getting notoriously drunk. Kate was still holding the tools she'd bought in the store earlier. She dropped them, then bent down as if picking them up. Mixed in with the fussing she cast a grease spell, causing the ground beneath Clanton to become slippery.Back inside, the workman manages to get up to the second floor with Harker quickly behind him. As Harker reaches the top step he sees that the second floor is a large single room, the black curtains on the windows all drawn, and in the center of the room are a pair of caskets that the workman is charging towards. Jake's first shot is perfect towards the remaining first floor workman, blowing the man's brains out, the next two shots being totally unnecessary but causing further carnage to the body and it begins to collapse onto the floor. Harker lifts his weapon and shoots at the workman ascending the stairs, hoping to stop him before he can wake the creatures. "The creatures are up here!" he shouted, hoping he wouldn't be alone up here for too long.The coyote locks a bite onto Chester's leg. Koontz moves while firing at Minerva, missing on his initial shot. Minerva moves toward Chester and swings her whip to get it off his leg. Chester yells in pain. "Get off. Get off." Downstairs, Minerva's whip hits the coyote hard. It moves away from Chester and takes a bite towards the whip. Chester lowers his guns at the animal and lets loose with two shots, his shots both strike the coyote, killing it. Nakomo notches an arrow toward the man running for the door but delays because Kate is in the line of fire. Nakomo yells to Minerva and runs up the stairs after Harker. She draws her gun and runs up after him.Clanton starts to slip on the ground, falling part way and stopping himself on one knee. He attempts to stand again. Kate pulled out her derringer, still armed with the sleep bullet since she'd not had a chance to give it to Minerva and with the magic missile rod laid against its side and up her sleeve where it was almost invisible. "Just stay there, Mr. Clanton," she said, stepping closer. "I don't think I could miss from this range." Being a coward at heart, Clanton surrenders, raising his hands in the air. Katherine sees Marshall Berg and Deputy Barker rounding the corner of Fremont and Sierra and running in their direction."Marshall!" Kate shouted, still holding the derringer steady and focusing on Clanton. "This is Ike Clanton, I believe I've heard the name Clanton in association with the Cowboy Gang. I know he was in there wearing a magical disguise as Madson." Jake scans around the room, making sure no more of the animals are attacking them.Upstairs, Harker dives for one of the windows, grabbing the heavy draping and yanking it open, hopefully letting sunlight flood into the room. As Harker goes to yank at the window curtain the man draws the bowie knife to throw at Jonathan. Jonathan shifts his weight a bit to drop and roll backward as he takes the curtain with him, trying to land behind the coffin to get some cover. Minerva rushes into the room and fires her gun at the man as he releases the knife. Nakomo works on tearing down the curtains. Chester looks around for more enemies. None look like any threat, so he follows Minerva up the stairs.The curtain begins to rip off, letting in a sliver of sunlight, as the knife enters deep into Jonathan Harker's chest. He remains conscious but is very seriously wounded. Jonathan had seen enough wounds to know better than to try to pull that knife out. He'd only bleed to death faster. Instead he tried to lift his weapon and fire again at the man who'd thrown the knife into his chest.After glancing this way and that, not seeing any threat from the animals cowering in the room, Jake mounts the stairs holstering one pistol and drawing the other. Reaching the top of the stairs Chester fires at the man. Minerva shoots the man in the chest and Chester's shot hits the man in the abdomen shortly thereafter. Between the two shots the man is slain and he falls. Nakomo gets the curtain pulled down, letting in more light but the angle is such that none shines directly into the center of the room where the caskets are. The lid from the casket that the man had pounded on lips open and a man begins to sit up, fangs showing.Minerva yells to Jake as he rounds the corner. "The coffin!" She rushes over to Harkin and cast a heal spell on him. Meanwhile Nakomo notches his last special arrow and waits for a clear shot. The creature launches itself out from the casket, landing like an acrobat on the floor mid-way between the casket and the Indian boy with the arrow.The scene is chaotic as Jake peers into the room. He hears Minerva and turns his focus towards the coffin, noticing that Nakomo has already pulled his bow back and is firing. He points his pistol and cocks the hammer, waiting for Nakomo's action and a clear shot between the boy and the Deputy. Chester tracks the creature with his six-guns and fires when he lands. "Take that." Four of Chester's six bullets strike the creature but cause no permanent damage, the smoke having negated the magical properties of the bullets.Nakomo releases his arrow and lets it fly toward the creature. The arrows of the Goddess Diana however take far more to make ineffective, so retain the abilities granted to them. The arrow strikes the creature in the shoulder and a bright light then flows from the arrow point all over its body and it then explodes, the pieces turning to dust as they wash over the party. The young warrior gives a triumphant cry as his arrow hits its mark "Yes!"Chester holsters his guns and looks around for a piece of wood to be used as a stake. "We gotta get the other one before it wakes up. Nakomo, you have more of those arrows, just in case?" The boy replies, "No, that was my last one, but I do have some holy water and a stick of wood." Chester states, "Good man. Give those to me and go get the doctor. Minerva, I'm ready for your blessing." Minerva states, "Wait, Chester. Let me pray to the gods to protect you from the evil in that casket before you open the lid, then you can drive the stake through it's black heart."Jake walks across the room, keeping an eye and his gun pointed towards the unopened coffin, and looks out the window. Seeing Katherine outside he says, "Somebody better get the Doc, Harker looks bad." Kate didn't look up, just called back, "The Marshall's on his way, I'll go as soon as he gets here."Nakomo fearing that the remaining vampire will rise from it's coffin, ignores the thought of running for the Doctor and instead prays to the gods to favor those in the room. Minerva then says "Nakomo, Open the windows to clear the rest of the smoke first." She then goes to quickly sees to Harker’s wound. After the Priestess casts a healing spell on him, Jonathan tried to slide himself back out of the way of the others. Minerva's high sweet voice fills the room as she lays her hands upon Chester and quickly chants a Latin prayer to the gods to protect him and keep him safe from the influence of dark forces.Upstairs, they cautiously gather around the casket and prepare to remove the lid. Minerva continues to sense evil from it. Assuming the first vampire was the Cunningham mine worker named Joseph who would have become a vampire the previous day, they anticipate the occupant of this one to be either Stephen Wicks or Mortimer Turner, wearing the faces Denny Gaurin and the man from the photograph respectively. The lid is lifted and the vampire still appears to be asleep but it has none of the four faces that they expected to see. Instead, it is their good friend and El Parador neighbor, the furniture maker Cole Rixton. His eyes suddenly open.Chester tries to splash the holy water on Rixton as he raises his stake. "You're one of them? No." The holy water burns and the creature that appears to be Rixton cries out in pain as his undead flesh begins to burn. He thrusts his right arm up, grabbing the blade section of the wooden stake in Chester's hand. Chester immediately discovers that that the creature has incredible strength, as he is unable to push his own arm with the stake forward.Jake takes a side step to get a clearer view. As he steadies his pistol in two hands and aims he says, "You are not Cole Rixton, are you?" Breaking his own rule, Jake aims at the bicep of the creature's right arm that is grabbing the stake. Calmly, steadying his gun, and like any good marksman he holds his last breath and squeezes the trigger gently, like a lover. Once, twice the report of a Colt 45 explodes in the room, expelling two of Pierre's enchanted rounds. "Get him Chet, I had coffee with Cole Rixton this morning."Downstairs, Berg reaches Kate to take Clanton into custody as more shots ring out from the second floor of the Hardware and Taxidermy Shop. Deputy Barker is almost there as well. Kate wanted to run up the stairs, but Harker was hurt and there were enough upstairs to do whatever needed doing. "Someone's hurt, I have to get Doctor Eaton," she said to the Marshall.She ran toward Helen and stopped when she got close to say, "If you go inside, be careful. What's upstairs could have powers you don't expect. Listen to the others." Berg already knows about the undead so says, "Helen, I'm on it. Stay here with this guy, if he moves shoot him. And if any bats fly out of the upstairs windows shoot them dead." Berg then charges in through the front door of the building. Kate then lifted her skirt again and ran to find Doctor Eaton.Jake’s first shot grazes the arm which continues to twist Chester back. Chester releases the wooden stake before his own arm is twisted so far back that it will break. The creature throws the wooden stake at Jake simultaneous to the gambler's second shot rings out. The bullet also strikes the creature in the arm, the bullet entering and exiting without hitting any bone and inflicting minimal damage to the monster. Minerva Holds up her Olive Branch Holy Symbol and prays to the gods in an attempt to turn the creature.The creature abruptly shifts to the side to get away from the Priestess's Holy Symbol, causing the casket to tip over onto its side as he rolls out of it at Chester feet and a few feet from Nakomo. The overturned casket temporarily blocks Jake's next potential shot into the creature. Jake stoops and grabs the stake. "Chet, do not let him take your toys away from you this time." In a high arc over the coffin, he tosses the deputy the stake. Chester catches the stake and aims a kick at the faux Rixton's neck. "We'll find out who you are yet." He flips the stake point down and drives it toward the creature's heart. Chester's aim is true and the creature ceases moving.</blockquote>

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