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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 4112915" data-attributes="member: 8530">Chapter Two-hundred-seventy-nine, “Climax Battle”, Thursday, June 22nd , 12:15 A.M. As Nanuet was already in the building three days earlier he is quite familiar with the layout so the quartet has no difficulty in quietly making their way to the outside of the room's south door. Nanuet casts Hide from Undead first since it lasts longer, touching Manuel, Ruby and Kate. He then casts bless and makes sure his rifle is loaded with the exploding ammo. Ruby readies the shotgun and nods to Nanuet and the others, waiting for them to nod in return that they are ready before opening the door. Kate nodded, aware that she was just as armed as the others, but not feeling it. Nanuet takes a deep breath and nods in response to Ruby. Once Gonzales also nods Ruby carefully tries the door knob. If it's unlocked she will throw the door open. The movement of the door is clearly noticed by the bats but neither move, staying hidden in the shadows of the ceiling beams. Maska's more acute night vision sees them more clearly, allowing Nanuet to exactly see them as well through his link. They are too far apart to both be taken out with a single shot. Nanuet tries to spot where the captives are and then moves to a spot away from them where he can still see the bats. Even knowing she should be invisible to the creatures, Kate is quiet as she begins to move ahead, looking for the prisoners. Once Nanuet moves in Ruby readies the shotgun towards the ceiling and hopes the spell really does make her invisible to undead as she moves into the room, heading towards Nana. Although neither bat has move yet Maska sees movement from both as they are preparing to take flight. Nanuet takes aim at the one in the northwest corner and fires. The upper corner of the room explodes into a destructive mess from the pyrotechnic blast, successfully engulfing the bat which drops to the floor in a flaming heap. The room itself takes some damage, the dried timbers starting to catch fire and also blasting some holes through the ceiling and second floorboards on the upper floor. One downside it that the blast also caused a long accumulation of dust on the rafters to fall off, the dust now making the outline over the invisible wolf below. The second bat flies down towards those below. "Well, we don't have much time now. Sorry guys...," Ruby says as she shoots the shotgun up into the air at the rapidly descending bat. The bat flies by the group that has just enter the room, flying out the doorway into the next room. Kate jumped at the sound of Nanuet's rifle, then cringed as Ruby lifted hers and shot. She ran hard for the hostages. With fire in here they were going to have to get out fast. Nanuet cocks the rifle to load the next round and pursues the bat. Ruby looks around the room for some wooden debris. Once she finds a stake like piece she takes it over to the flaming bat creature and tries to stab it. Ruby successfully stabs the bat which turns to dust. Kate reaches the hostages. Nanuet loses sight of the other bat which flies around the corner towards the staircase up to the second floor. "It flew upstairs, I'm going after it!" Nanuet yells to the others. He bounds up the stairs after the bat. "Don't go alone!" Kated yelled. "Someone go with him, it could be a trap!" Late got down next to the nearest person and tried to see if she was going to be able to untie the knots. Ruby runs over to the hostages, joining Kate. "I hope that other one isn't going to get friends! Let's hurry up here." She begins trying to untie Nana. "Wake up Nana!" she says loudly. None of the hostages move although all three appear to be alive. It becomes easier to see as the room becomes illuminated by the flames from the rafters above. Gonzales exits the room after Nanuet. Ruby uses her extensive knowledge of rope to try to get the knot around Nana untied as quickly as she can. "We can't let them do that alone," Kate said desperately, still trying to untie and wishing she had a knife. Finally frustrated with her inability to untie the rope, she cast a grease spell on the rope and tried to then pull it off. Knowing the layout of the building Nanuet is quick to get to the upper rooms. He sees an open door down the hallway, with two shut doors between him and it. He then hears sound from the room with the open door. Nanuet slows down and approaches the room with the open door cautiously. At the same time he mentally calls to Maska to join him. Nanuet waits for a response from Maska before proceeding into the room beyond the open door. Ruby and Kate hear the sound of Gonzales heading up the stairs as they get the last of the ropes off of the hostages. Kate looked up at the corner of the room that was burning, trying to judge how long before the room becomes smoky and dangerous. As long as it seemed there was some time, she wanted to go help Nanuet and Gonzales, then come back for the now free hostages Ruby shakes Nana. "Wake up!" she says again. Speaking to herself, "Perhaps I should try a healing spell? I don't know how else to wake her and I definitely can carry her although I might be able to drag, not that I want to." Ruby shakes her head then starts singing, casts the only healing spell she knows on Nana, hoping that might wake her up. The spell seems to have some effect on Nana, she regains consciousness although appears to be quite groggy and uncertain of her surroundings. Kate deduces that the room will be fully engulfed in fire in a few minutes given the speed that the flames are spreading, fanned in part by the air coming in from the room above. "Damn it," Kate muttered. She put her arms beneath one persons arms and dragged them as far as she could toward the door. "Ruby, I need to go help, can you get Mrs. Parker and the other one out?" Ruby looks at the quickly raging fire. "I'm not sure Kate but I'll try." She looks at her grandmother. "Can you understand me Nana? Can you walk? Can you help me get that other person out? We need to get out of here now. Save the questions for later." The sound of Ruby's voice helps to pull Nana out of her stupor. Ruby exclaims, “Oh Nana, thank the Gods you're alright!" Ruby pulls her grandmother to standing and quickly hugs her. "Okay, no time for that now!" She heads to the other person and tries to lift them, dragging if she must to get them out the door and out of the house. Kate hesitated a moment to make sure the other two women could handle it, then hurried up the stairs. As Maska and Nanuet move towards the doorway they see the vampire inside, having reverted back to his human form. He is kneeling behind the wooden crate that he and the other vampire had carried from the train to the wagon. The top of the crate is open and the creature is reaching inside. He looks up at the doorway at Nanuet. Nanuet doesn't hesitate, not wanting to see what was in the smaller crate. He aims and fires at the vampire. The shot misses, hitting the back wall which explodes into flames, knocking out the window frame and window on that wall to the street below. The vampire drops to the ground to avoid the wave of flame that quickly flow outward, the flames also preventing Maska from getting closer. Nanuet mentally commands Maska to wait as he cocks the rifle. Ruby has to drag the man to get him to move. Nana has to struggle to pull the woman as well. Both Ruby and Nana will continue to drag the other two captives until they get them out of the house. "I should probably go up there, I have the other gun!" Ruby tries to judge how far it is to the door and how long it will take to drag them outside. Nana is having difficulty moving and is not making much headway dragging the woman. Ruby finds the man to be rather heavy. She and the man are now in the adjacent room but still another twenty feet from the front door. "Ugh, they are so heavy! Just keep trying Nana, every bit counts!" Ruby stops for just a second and places the man on the floor. "Let's work together." Ruby heads back to where Nana and the unconscious woman are. Nana takes her feet while Ruby tries to take her under the arms. "Let's go, this room could collapse any second." Together they try to get the woman out. Kate finally caught up to her teacher and Nanuet. The spell was broken so she would be visible, and the heat was intense. She hesitated a moment, waiting to see if Nanuet's next shot would hit before casting a spell. Nanuet takes aim for another shot at the vampire. The vampire ducks behind the trunk. The shot hits the trunk and the wood explodes along with the flames, showering the room with the dirt that was contained within. The flames from the blast cause the vampire's clothing to catch fire. He stands and runs in the direction of the hole in the wall. Kate quickly cast a Disrupt Undead spell at the fleeing vampire. The spell works and the creature stumbles slightly on it's way to the open wall. It then continues forward, the clothes still burning. It is holding a cloth bag in one of its hands. Nanuet takes his last shot with the explosive rounds before the creature can flee from his sight. The delay from Kate's spell is enough to keep the creature in range as Nanuet's final shot strikes its back. It explodes into flames and then crumbles to dust. The cloth bag falls to the floor. Kate looked at the flames in the room and the bag sitting on the floor, trying to see if it could be retrieved. Since the building is on fire, Nanuet directs Maska to get the bag and get outside. "C'mon, let's get out of here before this place comes down. Are the other's outside?" he asks Kate and Manuel. "Ruby and her Grandmother were working on getting them out. I dragged one as far as I could before I came up," Kate panted, even as she began to run back downstairs to help Ruby. "We need to get a fire wagon here before this can spread." Gonzales says, "I think Ruby was getting them out." The three make their way down the now smoke filled corridor. From the top of the stairs they see Ruby struggling to drag the man out the front door, with Nana and the other woman lying unconscious on the floor fifteen feet back. Kate ran into the room and again put her arms underneath the strange woman, the dragged her back toward the door. Nanuet runs over to Ruby's grandmother and does whatever he can to get her out of the burning house. The group manages to get outside of the burning building. Ruby collapses to the ground, out of breath and even weaker than before. She had used her last little bit of strength in the action and was now just about passing out. "Did you get it?" she asks. Kate says, "Yes, honey. Both. I'm sorry I left you to deal with this, but I was afraid of leaving that creature to come on us again." Kate stopped and panted. "A fire wagon needs to get here, and we need to be gone. Or tell them we rushed in to save people and the building was already burning." Gonzales says, "Best if we just leave, otherwise there will be questions. The other two now begin to stir. The man is in his mid-forties, a bit stocky with a long full mustache. The woman looks to be in her mid-twenties. Kate looked sympathetically down at the innocent victims of this nights escapades, but there was nothing to be done for them. Perhaps it was better they just remain confused rather than know the truth. She nodded to her teacher. "Nanuet, can you carry Mrs. Parker, or wake her up perhaps? We should go." Ruby says tiredly, "You're right, we should at least move away from here. These two are waking up, they should be okay, far enough away from the fire." She slowly pulls herself off the ground while Nanuet picks up Ruby's grandmother. "I'm too tired to even think. Where should we go?" Kate started walking away from the building as she answered. "We have two options. Back to the train station, hoping to get a train to Philadelphia, or a hotel to get some rest. I think we could all really use some rest, but we could sleep on the train." Gonzales states, "The train station would also have a telegraph, and we should wire Mr. Eastman to let him know that Ruby is safe. I'm glad these other two are waking up, Ruby and I are still feeling the effects of losing some of our life energy and these two will be worse off, they are lucky to have had the strength to survive the draining." Ruby kneels next to Nana while the others are off doing their own thing. Exhausted herself, she pulls the red hair off her grandmothers face as she looks at the almost mirror image of herself. She sings again to heal her, hoping it would revive her. Nana does open her eyes, although weakly. "Glad to see you back," Ruby says softly. "You've been very brave." Maska communicates to Nanuet that she knows where the vampires had stored their wagon and horses so they head off to retrieve them. As Gonzales glances at the waking pair he comments, "Kate, that man is familiar.....he attended Mr. Emerson's funeral two months back." "What?" Kate stopped and turned to look. "Are you certain?" Gonzales replies, "Yes, and he was seated down near where you were, in the section for family and close friends. He's still rather dazed, I do not believe that he has really had a look at you yet in this disguise if you wish to change." Now that she gets a good look there is something familiar about him although Kate cannot discern where she knows him from. Kate says, "Yes, please Grandfather. I'm sorry, everyone, I can't leave a friend here." Ruby says, "Of course, Kate. Who is he?" Kate says, "I'm not certain, honey, but I've seen him in the company of close friends." Gonzales and Kate do not know his identity, just that the man and Kate have mutual friends. He helps her discretely change her appearance back to Kate and they approach the pair. Kate knelt down beside the man, "Sir? Sir, are you well?" She got out her handkerchief and wiped his forehead. "Can you speak?" He says, "Yes, yes I can. Where am I?" He gestures to Mina and says "I was on a train and an Indian was bothering that woman over there." Kate says, "The elvan man was her companion, actually. The other man was the one bothering her, but that's neither here nor there. You're in Scranton, Pennsylvania. You were inside that house that's burning. My name is Katherine Kale. May I ask yours?" He replies, "William Dean Howells" Kate immediately recognizes the name as the editor of the Atlantic Monthly, one of the country's top literary magazines. The magazine was founded in Boston the year following Kate's birth by the various Massachusetts authors including Mr. Emerson. Over the years she enjoyed reading the magazine and it is one of the things she has missed during her time in Arizona. Kate never met Howells before, but did get to know his eldest daughter Winifred, a girl six years Kate's junior, as they took riding classes at the same equestrian stables. Kate smiled warmly at him. "I knew I recognized you. I hope your daughter Winifred is well. When I knew her I was Katherine Seagram. He replies, "Frederick Seagram's daughter? What are you doing in Scranton? And no, I do not know the woman. I had just boarded the train when I saw the confrontation." Kate replies, "Yes, Fredrich Seagram's daughter. Come now, come along with my friends and I. The lady will be better off here, I think. Things happened here tonight she may prefer not to remember." She offered her hand to help him up saying, “The rest will have to wait for later. Do you know the lady?" He indicates that he does not. Gonzales talks to the female victim, who indicates her name is Constantine Carpenter. She is surprised to hear that she exited the train in Scranton, as she was on her way back to her home in Philadelphia. She says that her husband Julian will be worried. Kate knew she must be exhausted, her judgment was slipping. Once she'd decided to bring Mr. Howells there was no reason not to bring the lady as well. What were they going to tell either one of them, really? "We'll go to the train station," she said. "You can both send whatever telegrams you need to from there and reassure anyone who might be waiting for you." Mrs. Carpenter asks, "How did we get this far from the train station? I don't remember anything." Kate replies, "It's quite a long story. The short version is you were a victim of a known hypnotist. A rather experienced one. He did not take a lady's no for an answer, and sought to use his skills to take her with him. Unfortunately he chose to involve innocent people from the train in his deception. He had his servant bring you and Mr. Howell's to that house. I have no idea why." "I feel so weak," is Mrs. Carpenter's reply. Kate says, "Yes, some of my friends are feeling that way too. We're going to see the Arch-Bishop when we arrive in Philadelphia. You're welcome to come with us." Nanuet returns with the carriage and the group all get inside. Kate gets up front to drive the rig and they begin to make their way westward just as the Scranton Fire Department arrive to fight the fire at the burning house. As the others discuss the plans Nanuet remembers something from the last few moments of chaos inside the house. He calls to Maska to query about the bag that the fleeing vampire had dropped that he had asked her to fetch. The bag contains several bundles of foreign paper currency, a silver-plated derringer, four pocket watches and some women's jewelry.</blockquote>

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