It was time to return to the city and find what horrors
remained within. Into the Mercedes the party clambered, with steely resolve
etched into their faces.
“What are you waiting for” Bernard asked. “Start the
engine!” In the driver’s seat Cooper’s lifeless form just slumped against the
steering wheel.
Muttering French obscenities under his garlicky breath,
Bernard dragged his comrade out of the car and marched across to Inspector
Heroux’s quarters. Moments later he returned with a uniformed Frenchman. “This
is Lionel,” he said. “He claims to be able to drive”.
There followed a loud graunching sound as Lionel wrestled
with the gear stick of the Mercedes, a jolt as the car jumped backwards,
further sickening noises of metal on metal and finally the car lurched down the
road in a cloud of dust and Gallic adjectives.
“She handles a bit differently from a Citroen” smiled
Lionel.
The intent was to do a lap of the block around the church to
draw out any neighbourhood ghouls, but all that was spied were further corpses
littering the streets.
As the car passed by the church, a figure in robes could be
seen lurking in the shadows of the doorway. Its head turned to watch the party
drive by, and as it did so there was a collective gasp. From within the folds
of the cloak was the sight of a grinning skull staring at them!
Lionel was instructed to drive around the block once more,
but when the car returned the doorway was empty. They shuddered to a halt next
to one of the bodies on the street at what was deemed to be a safe distance
from the church. Mezmer began flailing his little arms around wildly and
reciting arcane incantations, much to the bemusement of Lionel.
“He’s being mystical” explained Bernard.
With a final grandiose flourish of his hands, Mezmer shouted
out “20!”
The party looked on anxiously.
“There is no mythos on this corpse. I would stake my life on
it” he cried triumphantly.
Shane had rolled a 20, a critical failure on his Detect
Mythos
“Vell, in zat case….” said Gunter, and he strode confidently
to the lifeless cadaver. With wide eyes, the rest of the party held their
breath and watched.
“Make sure you’re ready to leave in a hurry!” hissed Gazala
to Lionel.
The stench of death and corruption assailed Gunter, and he
noted that the decomposition was further advanced than he would have expected.
Fighting the taste of bile that was rising in his throat, he swivelled on one
leg and gave the corpse a swift kick. Nothing happened. Another kick also
failed to elicit a response. Looks like the body was dead after all.
“See! What did I tell you?!” said Mezmer.
Not feeling fully comfortable leaving bodies in the street,
the party drove around collected all they could find (five) and tied them to
the roof-rack of the Mercedes. Returning to the camp, they were delivered to
Heroux for cremation.
“Achtung! Achtung!” shouted Hubert in Comic Sans MS. “Wir
können nicht den ganzen tag auf unseren fetten Ärschen sitzen!”
So back to the city they went.
Hubert was the first to spy the robed figure back in the
doorway of the church, but this time chose to greet it with a hail of bullets
from his Schmeisser 28 II. Firing until the clip was emptied, he watched in
satisfaction as the figure danced in a ghastly partnership with every bullet
which hit it. [47 points of damage]
As the sound of firing died away, Hubert strode to the
smoking remains that had fallen to the ground, reloading as he went. His brow
furrowed; all that was left was the bullet riddled cloak of a priest.
“Oh this not good!” cooed Wonton. “No, this not normal! This
look like Mythos!”
A quick check by Wonton showed that Mythos emanated strongly
from both the cloak and the door itself.
“I could have done that” sulked Mezmer. “But I can do this
instead!” And he began to disrobe. Gazala averted her eyes in disgust, Lionel
stared in wide-eyed surprise and Bernard tut-tutted to himself. Before you
could say “Mezmer is about to go invisible”, Mezmer went invisible.
With a degree of bravery that belied his usual desire for
self-preservation, Mezmer advised he was going to enter the church for a quick
look around.
“I think he just likes getting naked” said Bernard.
“I think you just like burning things” said Gazala, as
Bernard began pouring petrol over the abandoned cloak and got out a match.
Stealing his way nakedly into the church, Mezmer paused to look
around him. Finding himself alone and “free”, he began slowly gyrating as he
walked up to the high altar, swinging his little flaccid friend as he went. He
smiled knowingly to himself. Another of his secret little fantasies ticked off…
Suddenly he stopped, and the smile drained from his face.
Where the crucifix should have stood was a wooden pentagram. As he stood
motionless, he began to make out a low murmur – voices? A chanting coming from
the undercroft. His heart began beating faster and louder in his chest and the
familiar fingers of fear ran down his spine. Edging closer and closer to the
steps, but unable to see anything below. “If I just go down a little way…”he
encouraged himself. Gingerly he placed a foot on the first cold step, and the
second foot wavered in the air above the next went quiet. The chanting had
stopped! With barely enough time for a whimper, he scampered back frantically down
the aisle to the safety of the door.
The rest of the party felt the rush of air as he raced past
them into the sunlight.
“What you see?” asked Wonton, to where a small puddle of urine
trickled into existence and alerted him to both Mezmer’s location and his
current level of fear.
Mezmer swallowed hard before stammering “I…I… there….”, at
which point a figure burst through the door. Long yellowed, fingers adorned cruelly
misshapen hands that reached out towards the almost surprised party as the
brown-shirted ghoul sprinted at an unnatural speed.
“Eat lead, sucker!” cried Gunter and he smiled as his finger
curled around the trigger of his gun. Virtually point blank range, can’t miss…..
Click went the trigger [and the dice, which revealed a 20. Fumble, which
Jeff sacrificed luck to avoid, but still a miss]
The reassuring sound of a rifle shot from Gazala, and the
even more reassuring sound of a machine gun burst from Hubert was followed by
the heartening thud of a ghoul hitting the ground.
“Look up there!” shouted Mezmer as he pointed. Quickly
realizing the folly of pointing whilst invisible, Mezmer added the words “In
the tower!” to his cry.
Looking up the party saw what Mezmer had, as the skull-face
watching them from the tower above ducked back out of sight.
Turning his invisibility to the off position, Mezmer
begrudgingly dressed himself once more before joining the others in the
awaiting car.
“Where to, boss?” asked Lionel.
“To the back door of the church. And make it snappy!”
ordered Bernard.
As the car pulled up to the closed back door in a screech
that tested its braking system and the neck muscles of the party members,
Gunter majestically floated down to the ground and approached the door. With
extreme stealth, he made his way across the ground – no dust stirred, no noise
was made – even Gunter was only vaguely aware of his own existence. [Jeff
rolled a 2 on his Stealth roll].
Putting existential thoughts to one side and his ear to the
door, Gunter listened. Nothing. Assuming it must therefore be safe, he slowly
opened the door to peer in. Well, he would have done if the door had been
unlocked. Fortunately his legendary skills as a locksmith could be put to good
use, and a mere ten minutes of drilling and trying to lift the bolt on the
inside of the door resulted in a satisfying “clunk”. “This time” he muttered to
himself, and slowly opened the door to peer in.
“What dat noise?” whispered Wonton. “It sound like wet fish
flopping on ground! It come from that way!” He pointed towards the direction of
the front door.
With the rare (for this party) assumption that discretion
was the better part of valour, they all beat a hasty retreat for the safety of
the car.
“Where to, boss?” asked Lionel.
“Just drive!” ordered Bernard.
As they drove back around the corner of the building, two
brown-shirted ghouls attempted a foolhardy ambush and flung themselves at the
car. Lionel accelerated away, but Bernard directed him to slow in an attempt to
lure the undead assailants further out. After 200 meters however, both ghouls
turned and ran back in the direction of the church.
“I have a cunning plan….” Gunter smiled.
Minutes later the Mercedes slowly made its way back in the
direction of the church. Out of each side window could be seen the muzzle of a
gun; Hubert with his sub-machine gun and Gazala with her rifle. Strapped to the
roof-rack and wondering aloud about this “plan” rode Bernard, with his gun also
at the ready.
As it stepped out into the street, the first ghoul never
knew what hit it. But the party did, for it was hit by bullets from Gazala,
Bernard and Hubert. The second ghoul broke into its supernatural sprint, so
Lionel, unexpectedly demonstrating some initiative, hit the accelerator. The
sound of gunfire came from the roof of the car. “Gottem” said Bernard
nonchalantly, and sure enough the remaining ghoul collapsed in mid stride.
Back to the church the Mercedes sped, where once again
Gunter made his way stealthily to the side door. Hearing nothing, he opened the
door and gestured the entire party to enter with him. Silently as the grave,
with guns at the ready they snuck down the aisle of the church towards the
chapel. As one they stopped. There, gathered by the main door was a gaggle of
brown-shirted ghouls ready to attack anyone who might unsuspectingly enter the
church that way.
With a second bout of enthusiastic reticence, the party
snuck back the way they had come before getting back in the car. Back to the
camp for the intrepid adventurers.
“Eight’s too many” said Gunter.
“Way too many” agreed Gazala.
“Definitely better off avoiding them” said Bernard.
“Well…….”began Hubert wistfully, when he was interrupted by
a sharp squeal from both Mezmer and Wonton.
They had both experienced a sharp jolt in their heads, as if
someone had poked their brains with an electric eel smothered in wasabi.
Jumping to the conclusion that this might mean “something”
may have happened, and furthermore deducing that this “something” may not be
good, Bernard directed Lionel to drive them around the principal sites of
interest. Herschel’s compound, the bank, the newspaper office….nothing to
report at any of them. Nothing obvious had changed, there were no new ghouls on
patrol.
“It's quiet”, mused Gunter. “Too quiet”.
As they approached the church, tendrils of a misty green could
be seen snaking their way from the main door and the tower.
Deciding the back door was probably the preferable location
to investigate, where Lionel parked the car a safe 50 metres away.
“That’s my cue” said Gunter as he jumped down and picked his
way down his well-trodden path. At 10 metres away he paused. Nothing. At 5
metres…still nothing. 1 metre….then at the door itself. Gently he pushed the
door open. Green mist had filled the chapel and was now beginning to creep
silently towards the now open door. Gunter immediately dropped to a crawl and
catching a final gasp of clean air he entered the building. The unmistakable
stench of chlorine filled his nose, so he backed out and retired to the car and
described what he had seen.
Calling on his haunting memories of the Western Front in the
Great War, Herbert confirmed it wasn’t phosgene gas.
“I know science!” exclaimed Wonton. “It sound just like
Green Dragon Breath!”
[Darryl failed his Science roll]
Deciding it best to head back to the camp, they were only 5
minutes from their destination when once more Mezmer and Wonton felt the same
jolt as before. This time Bernard was left rubbing his head too.
At the camp Bernard demanded the support of as many heavily
armed soldiers as possible to assist them in ridding the Earth of the undead
scum. Heroux nodded in agreement, then shrugged. “But alas, they are two hours
away.” Bernard quickly calculated – on the assumption the jolts were 1) indicative
of something bad happening and 2) continuing at the same regularity, then there
would be another event before the soldiers were available. Not ideal.
With a loud harrumph, Bernard instead negotiated the use of
a heavy machine gun. Better than nothing…
For the umpteenth time, Lionel drove the party at high speed
back to the church where the mist was thicker than before.
“Much dragon breath here!” exclaimed Wonton.
The machine gun (Hotchkiss mle 1914) was set up 200 metres from the front, manned
by an excited Hubert with Wonton calling upon all his military experience by
feeding the belts.
Without warning a sub-machine gun burst into life, as
Bernard fired wildly at the tower.
“Mr Skull-face again” he explained.
Gunter high footed it to the door, whistling “The Flight of
The Valkyries” loudly as he went.
[Jeff failed his Stealth roll badly]
Alerted by all this noise and as quick as a flash, a ghoul
burst from the church. Gunter stared in surprise as the long, razor-like nails
tore through his flesh spraying blood into the air.
[Major wound, Jeff saved vs Toughness and survived]
The ghoul bent over the badly wounded Gunter and bared his
teeth ready to tear out his throat. The unmistakable staccato of a heavy
machine gun, and the creature erupted into red haze.
“Lucky I didn’t hit Gunter” chuckled Hubert.
[There was a 50% chance of hitting Gunter in this
circumstance]
Gunter staggered his was back to his waiting party, leaving
a trail of blood behind him.
“Help…me…”he gasped to Mezmer, who already had his first aid
kit in his hand.
[Shane failed his first aid roll]
Mezmer began rolling a large bandage around his own leg,
leaving Gunter to grab the first aid kit for himself.
[Jeff succeeds first aid, and heals 1 hp]
Guessing that the Skullhead on the tower was directing his
troops, the Machine gun was trained on the masonry, and chunks of stonework was
blasted away.
Suddenly two more ghouls launched a frontal attack.
Meanwhile, Gunter frantically tried to unjam his heavy
machine gun to join in the fun.
[Kevin rolled a 20, and had to sacrifice luck to save the
gun]
The second ghoul screamed as it ran, its face etched in
unholy hatred. Until without warning its face was instead etched with bullets
from Gunter and Gazala, blowing its head clean off.
Meanwhile, Wonton frantically tried to unjam the heavy
machine gun to join in the fun.
[Kevin rolled another 20, and this time Darryl sacrificed
luck to save the gun].
The echoes of the gunfire died into the distance, and the
green mist continued to drift. 40 minutes until the next event. Now what?
Kevin - Hubert Gesäss
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