The whole crew shows up, though some of us don't stay long. The group consists of Chris (William Sangaree), Bruce (Cyrus Billings), Dan (Tiang Lu), Nick (Ezekiel Dane), and Sean (James).
…The characters had managed to secure the Old Slave Quarters (also referred to as the Old Wooden Shack) by about 17:00. The survivors include the characters and several badly-warped former captives. Casualties include a number of nutjob hillbilly fleshworkers and a few warped victims killed by temporarily insane characters. A quick search of the area reveals a staggering lack of guns or ammunition, but does turn up several knives. Cyrus takes advantage of this discovery to improve his personal armory.
The characters had previously decided that their next step should be to set fire to the plantation house. This plan is interrupted by the discovery that there are six hillbillies armed with shotguns mustering around the Pig Farm.
Cyrus sneaks out and slips into the underbrush to the north of the Old Wooden Shack, with the stated plan of ambushing the hillbillies from their northern flank after William opens up on them with his shotgun. Both Tiang Lu and James are feeling in desperate need of first aid, but this doesn't stop them from following Cyrus out into the woods. Meanwhile, William Sangaree shares out a couple of his six precious shotgun shells to Ezekiel Dane, despite Ezekiel's rather piteous protestations that he only barely knows which end of the shotgun to point at the thing he wants to die. With that unpleasant task out of the way, William sneaks himself a good firing position (gaining a +30% shift due to darkness) and waits for the hillbillies to get into range.
William takes careful aim, then blows away one of the female hillbillies with a well-placed shot. Chaos erupts. James, Cyrus and Tiang Lu rush from the underbrush to engage several hillbillies, with varying effects. The three hillbillies they attack return fire with shotguns, but only the one attacking Cyrus manages to hit. Two hillbillies rush the door, where Ezekiel lies in wait. Unfortunately, his panicky shot doesn't even come close to hitting them. Ezekiel complains that he should have better accuracy, despite the fact that he's never fired a shotgun before. He complains even more as both hillbillies raise up a cloud of woodchips with their equally poorly-aimed return fire.
The conflict continues for a while, though the hillbillies are somewhat overmatched. The three hillbillies outside are subdued after a savage exchange that included several juicy axe blows and Cyrus' extremely disturbing but ultimately unsuccessful attempt to swarm up one of them like a pack of rabid rats. They kill two of the hillbillies, and incapacitate the third.
Inside the building, Ezekiel manages to squirm like a syphilitic weasel for long enough to survive until William is able to come down the stairs, shoot one of the hillbillies (gathering another juicy charge from the hillbilly's soul), and paralyze another with his City of Industry devil's gaze.
By the end of the conflict Tiang Lu, Cyrus and James are all fairly badly injured. Both William and Ezekiel are doing very well. Tiang Lu's esoteric study of Eastern Medicine proves extremely effective in preventing both himself and Cyrus from bleeding to death. James further improves the situation by using his fleshcrafting magic to partially heal the both of them. Unfortunately, both Cyrus and Tiang Lu fail their Violence tests and spend some time cowering in the Old Wooden Shack.
William and James hear gunfire from the captives' Pen and realize that two hillbillies have attacked the place, subduing the other prisoners after shooting a couple of the more vocal prisoners. They try to sneak up on the two of them, an attempt that they recognize as unsuccessful when the hillbillies open fire on them. Rapid violence ensues, by the end of which the characters are hurt worse, but ultimately victorious. William celebrates his victory by trying to heal his wounds using the souls he's captured. He finds that this doesn't work nearly as well as he might have hoped, as his skill is only 30%.
Thus far, the characters have dispatched a total of 16 hillbillies.
Cyrus makes Grandma B the formal object of his hunt, and sets to interrogating the one captive hillbilly. Ezekiel helps him in the project. Meanwhile, James and William work to drag the dead Freaks out of the building for later burial. Until the opportunity arises, they cover the bodies with brush.
During the time the characters occupy the Old Wooden Shack, they are able to see at least one hillbilly continually pointing a shotgun towards the shack.
Cyrus and Ezekiel interrogate the captive. It turns out that his name is Seth, and he is fairly susceptible to persuasion:
After Cyrus finishes talking to Seth, Ezekiel takes over. He is interested in changing Seth's worldview. He manages to draw a minor charge from him, then turns to convincing the deformed Goblin-passenger that he is the guy's personal savior. He is more successful here, and gains a significant charge. Ezekiel is clearly fanatically devoted to gathering significant charges.
William heads over to the smokehouse to steal some food for the survivors. Along the way, he grabs some torches and other random supplies. He is somewhat disturbed to notice that there is a human body hanging in the smokehouse, next to the animal parts. He and James also find a still and some high-alcohol content liquid. They bring back three two-gallon jugs full of moonshine.
William uses one of his sleeves to make fuses to convert the jugs into Molotov cocktails.
William and James sneak up to the house to try and throw their Molotov cocktails into windows in the house. They bring along cigarette lighters gathered from the passengers to ignite the cocktails. Meanwhile, Cyrus heads towards the back to try and sneak through a window and find Grandma B. His first couple of attempts are none too successful, so he waits for the other characters to start throwing their firebombs and provide a distraction.
As the firebombs start to fly, Cyrus sees a dark figure leap out of a window and run away on legs that don't bend properly. He lets the fleshcrafter go then heads in through the same window.
Inside, Cyrus finds the place starting to catch. He follows Seth's directions to try and find Grandma B's stateroom. He quickly encounters a burly hillbilly pushing a feeble-looking woman in a wheelchair. The hillbilly manages to scare the living shit out of Cyrus, who dodges into a side door and commences a roundabout chase through the burning building. By the end of it, Cyrus manages to escape the hillbilly, though he does become lost in the house. Cyrus hears the hillbilly yelling out, "Grandma B!" and manages to track the two of them down by sound. Another fight ensues, by the end of which Cyrus manages to drive the hillbilly away. Cyrus then lifts up Grandma B's protesting form in a fireman's carry and carts her out of the house.
Meanwhile, William and James open fire on the six hillbillies running out of the building. They manage to gun down a couple of them, and let the rest go. They only barely manage to refrain from shooting Cyrus when he carts Grandma B out of the building.
William manages to locate Randy's truck, which proves to be a fairly battered pickup. James and Tiang Lu load up into the truck and drive it to the nearest town with a couple of the other former passengers, while William, Ezekiel and Cyrus stay behind with the remaining prisoners and Grandma B, alert for the possibility of further hillbilly attacks.
James manages to get in touch with the local sheriff, and returns in the company of two more policemen. The two surviving hillbillies get committed, and the remainder of their Family melt into the forests. The two fleshcrafted survivors (goblin boy and chicken woman) also get committed. The characters follow their progress, and notice that all four of them show up as suicides within a four-day time period several weeks later. It also develops that the pilot was the human body hanging in the smokehouse.
The surviving characters decide to sue the airline for negligence. The airline quickly settles, providing a sum of money and medical care for all of them. The characters end up spending some time in a hospital in Atlanta:
|
Character |
Time Hospitalized |
|---|---|
| Ezekiel Dane | 9 days |
| James | 27 days |
| Tiang Lu | 22 days |
| William Sangaree | 15 days |
| Cyrus Billings | 20 days |
The airline also proves extremely willing to provide some measure of psychological counseling for the characters, especially those who claim that they have terrible memories of horribly warped people and insane hillbillies. The characters notice that the therapists are particularly interested in convincing the characters that flying is safe. Most of the characters take up this offer, and show tremendous improvements in their mental states as a consequence.
As soon as William gets his hands on some of the settlement money, he goes and buys all the handguns he wants at a gun show.
The characters finally get an opportunity to talk to each other about what they do. Cyrus explains that he is a bounty hunter, operating out of Bismarck, North Dakota. Ezekiel is a novelist who writes lots of dark fantasies about strange sucker-tentacle-things that want to sneak into reality. William becomes quite interested when James admits that he is a professional assassin with a negligible code of ethics. This proves to be something of a problem to William, who can't deal with people who live on the world's pain. William resolves this difficulty by shooting him in the middle of the night in the hospital ward.
The characters also eventually are met by three men in suits who carry the sort of aura of confidence only available to government agents. They seem to be going around to all of the former passengers. They ask about anything unnatural or horrible the characters might have seen, and comment that they have sensible explanations for everything that happened. The characters either deny everything, admit everything, or act like it all couldn't possibly be real. The men in suits make a subtle offer: if the characters ever want to help dispose of things like this, they should get back in contact with them.
Sometime later, William Sangaree gets another visit from the three men in suits, who ask him about James Woodward. They ask him if James ever told him anything that disturbed him, or if James ever seemed to be a catalyst for unnatural events. William notes that he James told him that he killed people for money, and that people seemed to sometimes melt around him. The lead man in a suit explains that they will help cover up some forensic evidence that might otherwise connect William to James' death.
William is immediately suspicious, and demands that the lead agent prove that he isn't wearing a wire, and isn't a cop. The agent introduces himself as Philip Gomez, and explains that he represents a group called the Sleepers. They work to make sure that things that shouldn't exist, don't. At some time in the future, they may ask for some favor from him in return. They promise to keep in touch. They also request that William switch to another shrink.
Each character gains 20 experience for the last two sessions. Cyrus spends 15 experience to raise Breaking & Entering from 10% to 15% and I'm Bigger from 20% to 22%. William also spends 18 experience to raise his Harvest the Souls skill from 30% to 35% and his City of Industry Gaze skill from 20% to 22%. Ezekiel spends a substantial amount of time spreading lies among the other passengers, collecting a total of 9 significant charges.