[DL] Devils in the Gloom (long)

["Daphne Brunelle" <dbrune4@po-box.mcgill.ca>]

Hey all!

After an eventful Thursday night session, here is the much-anticipated
write-up. :-)

Do I need a disclaimer to say it's *really* long at this point?

Here's the list of usuall suspects in our posse for those of you just tuning
in or who haven't made the effort to remember the names of our characters,
in alphabetical order:

-Elijah Blanton, aka the Mariposa Kid (no, we *still* haven't told him that
mariposa means butterfly in Spanish), NPC would-be gunslinger extraordinaire
and doppelgänger to J.B. Taft (the fastest draw in the West).

-Victoria Anne James, formerly harrowed gunslinger, now very much alive
thanks to the Navajo shaman Running Bear (yay!).

-Winslow "Slowpoke" Monroe, ex-Marshal of Yellow Creek and former bounty
hunter, now somewhere in between jobs and escaped convict (on a practically
completely trumped-up charge, I hasten to add *g*).

-Reverend Matthew Tiberius Stone, preacher and MiB, whose primary mission
consists of finding a lost agent in Salt Lake City (and more importantly the
photographic plates he had with him), also charged by the late U.S. Marshal
Courvoisier to stop the mysterious 13th-Day Killer (more on that in a
moment), and entrusted to bring Victoria to Denver, except that now she's
not harrowed anymore, which has put him in a slight quandary, to say the
least.

Shameless plug time: for more information on our intrepid heroes, you can
visit Ross's website at: http://www.geocities.com/weirdwest_2000/

We last left our fearless foursome (well, that doesn't really apply to
Blanton just yet *g*) on a train on the Denver-Pacific line, in the bloody
shambles that was left of the caboose. To sum up, there had just been a
particularly gruesome shoot-out between them (accompanied by U.S. Marshal
Courvoisier) and one Rufus Abelard, suspected of treason (and the kidnapping
of a young woman, Anika Sorrenson who was shackled in the caboose), and six
of his flunkies. Rufus bit the biscuit during this incident, as did four of
his henchmen, and Marshal Courvoisier took a fatal wound to the guts.

As Victoria set about freeing Miss Sorrenson (and plying her with a good
deal more liquor than she was probably used to), Reverend Stone set about
tending to the fast-fading Marshal Courvoisier. With his last dying breath,
Courvoisier told Stone that the 13th-Day Killer was sure to be heading to
Salt Lake City (basically a mysterious gunslinger outlaw who rode into
cities on the 13th day of each month and killed himself a lawman) asked him
to make sure that the Sheriff in Salt Lake City shouldn't be killed. He
cautioned Stone to stay clear of the Dayknights when in Salt Lake City, and
just before expiring gave him the name of one Professor Alman who would be
of assistance. He also cautioned Stone to steer clear of the Dayknights who
were a law unto themselves in Salt Lake City. Reverend Stone performed the
last rites (actually started a little early and got cut off by an annoyed
glance and an "I ain't done yet!") and closed the now-glassy eyes of the
Marshal.

Victoria got Miss Sorrenson out of the (now really messy and bloody) caboose
and sat her down outside, where she appeared to be in complete shock. Monroe
and Stone began searching the caboose for the paper that Miss Sorrenson had
said Rufus had in his possession that gave him complete power over her, but
with no success. Stone did find a small paper that had been hastily thrust
under a rug, with the name Professor Thaddeus Alman, Deseret College of
Engineering, on it. When Victoria questioned Anika about the paper, the
latter confessed that she'd never in fact seen it, that Rufus had her under
his power whether he had the paper or not.

Monroe in the meanwhile had collected the various firearms that Rufus and
his men had been wielding, and gave Rufus's Bullard Express o' quality to
Victoria (who practically drooled over it). He also found in excess of $950
in golden eagles. He then proceeded to interrogate the two remaining
prisoners whom he'd shackled together, but got very little information out
of them (they had been pretty much on a need-to-know basis), while the
engineer and a bunch of other people from the train came running to find out
what had happened. Mistrustful of the posse (despite the fact that Stone was
now sporting the -rather bloody- U.S. Marshal's badge that Courvoisier had
given to him), they sent for the town Marshal, a small, portly
self-important man who "took charge" of the situation and the two remaining
miscreants.

It was only later that Victoria, who had been keeping half an eye on Miss
Sorrenson (worried that the girl was going to keel over from shock) noticed
that the widow in question had disappeared, seemingly into thin air. A
thorough search produced nothing, until the Reverend Stone discovered horse
tracks leading south into the desert, as one of the locals began complaining
vociferously that someone had stolen his horse. At this point the posse
understood that they had been played like cheap fiddles, and that in all
likelihood she had betrayed them. Monroe (being the heroic type) was in
favour of going after her, believing that she was ill-equipped to face the
desert on her own, but Stone and Victoria (for once agreeing with each
other) dissuaded him from this course of action. After all, they only had
one horse between them, she had probably a good head start on them, and they
urgently needed to get to Salt Lake City. Reluctantly, Monroe allowed
himself to be convinced, and they boarded the train once more. That night,
as they sat in the passenger car, listening to the cattle in the cargo cars
lowing and moving restlessly, Monroe and Victoria both heard the commotion
grow suddenly much louder, and felt the whole train begin to tremble
violently, when the feeling went away as suddenly as it had come (I'll take
this opportunity to remind our readers that Monroe and Victoria both
recently earned their fifth point of grit fighting a Mojave rattler, and
that Ross was exceedingly put out to boot at having Patrick O'Brian killed
during their first encounter with him -he was meant to be a major antagonist
for our heroes).

The rest of the journey was relatively uneventful (all guts checks were
made, etc.), and they arrived in Salt Lake City late on the morning of March
7th. As our unsuspecting protagonists stepped onto the platform and prepared
to make their way into the city, all of them gawking unabashedly at this
unprecedented sight, they heard a terrible commotion from behind them.
Turning around, they saw that the cattle being unloaded from the cars were
resisting the attempts to keep them in some kind of orderly procession, and
then, under their horrified gazes, the cattle cars shuddered violently and
exploded under the pressure of a stampeding herd. (Yessir indeed, the
Devil's own Herd had come to Salt Lake City, complete with two real
mean-lookin' diablos.) The herd hurtled out of the wreckage and thundered
onto the platform, headed straight for our hapless heroes, who only just
managed to get out of the way (except for Stone and Blanton, who were
buffeted about slightly by the leading cows).

The herd was upon them now, apparently being pushed and harried along by two
huge steers with scaly skin and sulfrous red eyes, whose hooves struck
sparks from the cobbled street. Blanton went bust on his guts check, and
therefore nothing good happened to him (poor guy has 2d4 guts, what d'you
expect?), but on the other hand he wasn't killed. Victoria and Monroe both
quickly moved aside and whipped their rifles of their shoulders, while Stone
intelligently decided that getting higher up was a good plan. Monroe got off
his first shot, fanning his revolving rifle and nailed the large steer
headed for him right in the head as well as in the chest, but it seemed to
shrug off the wounds (read: lots of Fate Chips spent by Ross) and continued
charging at him, although he managed to throw himself out of its way with
almost as much finesse as a trained matador. Victoria was not as fortunate,
as the diablo aiming for her reached her before she could fire at it, and
she could only throw herself desperately to the ground at the last minute
while it leaped over her (read: all six of Victoria's chips went into wound
prevention). Stone had managed at least to perch himself atop some luggage
where he was temporarily out of immediate danger of being trampled.

Needless to say, Blanton didn't make his guts check any time soon. Victoria
managed to shoot the huge steer barreling toward her in the chest with her
new Bullard-Express, but that seemed to anger it more than anything else,
and it charged at her, passing right through Reverend Stone without
apparently causing him injury. Monroe in the meantime managed several times
to get out of the way of the diablo trying to kill him before getting the
opportunity to shoot at it again (again fanning the rifle), wounding it
slightly in the chest. Victoria twisted out of the way of the other charging
bull, but hesitated slightly, unsure of which way to go (read: no more
action cards), and thus was directly in its path when it charged again.
Risking life and limb, Stone quitted his pile of luggage and pushed Victoria
out of the way, only to have the diablo run him down. It appeared that being
in contact with Victoria made him vulnerable to the creature's attacks. He
managed to let go of her at the last minute, and felt only the rasp of the
monster's skin as it momentarily came into contact with him. Leaping to his
feet, he attempted to drag Victoria into the nearest station building,
hoping to escape the fearsome bull.

Well, that didn't work too well, because the diablo followed them. Monroe in
the meantime was busily trying to get off another shot at his bull, which
was snorting fearfully, sulphrous smoke billowing from its nostrils and
various wounds. Knowing its power over the gritty hero, the gruesome
apparition fixed its red glowing eyes on Monroe and attempted to overawe him
(succeeding just barely after Ross spent the Black Chip I drew a while back
-someone from our posse correct me if that's not what Ross used it for: I'm
having doubts). Unsettled by the manifestation of evil before him, Monroe
nevertheless did his level best to put it out of existence. Victoria
hip-shot at her diablo, hitting it in the head but doing no really
significant damage before it barreled straight into her midsection and sent
her tumbling head over heels into a far corner (4 levels of wounds to the
guts). Luckily, she managed to recover herself sufficiently to hip-shoot two
more times, injuring the diablo severely in one leg and sufficiently in
another, enraging it all the more. Turning Ross's loophole against him (ha
ha!), Stone reached out and, touching Victoria, shot at the onrushing devil
bull with his gattling pistol, further wounding it in the head. Bellowing
with rage, the bull charged at him, and Victoria threw herself desperately
away to avoid contact with Stone, and the creature passed right through the
preacher's head, where one can only shudder to think of the consequences.

Blanton meanwhile had not fainted with terror, but was just about as
effective as if he had (hey, nightmare bulls from hell are scary for most
people). Monroe's bull, figuring "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," tried
overawing him once more, but this time, drawing on his inner steel and
nerve, Monroe gritted his teeth and refused to let himself be intimidated
any further by the beastly brute, which didn't prevent it from crushing him
beneath its horns (one Legend Chip later, Monroe was still boasting three
wounds to the guts). Victoria and Stone, given a window of opportunity, took
it. Victoria hip-shot once more, this time hitting the bull in the chest
where it had previously been wounded, stopping it dead (literally) in its
tracks. It skidded to a halt, obviously crumpling under its own weight,
sulphrous fumes wisping toward the ceiling as it breathed its last, and
Stone (touching Victoria again) pumped several more bullets into its head
from his gattling pistol before collapsing from exhaustion (wind loss). The
diablo followed suit, excepting only that it was dead and Stone very happily
wasn't.

At the death of the first diablo, the herd of cows (the real ones *and* the
Devil's own Herd) became completely frantic, threatening to trample
everything in sight. Victoria managed to drag the unconscious Stone to a
nearby staircase where they avoided the onslaught, and for the first time
Victoria was able to look around to see what had happened to her other
companions. To her horror, she saw Monroe standing directly in the path of
the second diablo and the entire herd of cattle. Monroe, out of bullets,
attempted to speed load his Patterson, but to his (and Victoria's) dismay
the cylinder slipped from his grasp and rolled away along the platform out
of his reach for a good few minutes -minutes that he obviously didn't have.
Shouldering her Bullard Express, Victoria shot at the diablo, unfortunately
missing with her first shot. Taking better aim on the following shot, she
nailed the evil bovine in the torso and it collapsed and skidded into
Monroe, ironically protecting him from being trampled by the rest of the
herd.

Leaderless now, the remaining cows began milling about confusedly, lowing
and bellowing stupidly, while many local people began roping them and
leading some of them away. Victoria collapsed on the stairs, looking about
dazedly for someone who could assist them, while Monroe searched for his
cylinder and Stone recovered from his shock. Luckily for them, a young man
made an appearance shortly afterward, introducing himself as Dr. Victor
Yates. He tended to Victoria (who looked like she'd been on the losing side
of a brawl with a barbed wire fence), preventing her from expiring on the
spot (always a good thing), and then proceeded to invite them all back to
his practice in the Junkyard (well, he was a Gentile, what do you expect?).
Reaching out suddenly, he pulled the U.S. Marshal's badge off Stone's duster
and thrust it in a pocket, warning him that it was unsafe to wear such
trappings in the city.

Blanton, having slightly recovered from his terror, although he was still
dazed and shaking and practically went catatonic when bulls were mentioned,
had somehow managed to pick up most of the posse's gear, except for Stone's,
which had inexplicably gone missing. What the posse didn't know (because
they were busy fighting Los Diablos de la Muerte as Ross called 'em), was
that in the stampede one of the real cows had in fact trampled his gear,
causing the dynamite in it to explode, sending the cow rocketing in several
gory pieces to various parts of the station and beyond, and launching all of
Stone's equipment even further, including his prized tomahawk, which we
figure is even now embedded in someone's door ("Martha, the Injuns are
attackin'! Fetch my rifle!..."). You get the picture.

Hailing a hansom, Dr. Yates brought the posse to the edges of the junkyard,
at which point the driver (an unpreposessingly religious-looking type in a
stovepipe hat) refused to go any further, and they had to proceed on foot.
The Junkyard is an impressively depressing place, with a thick layer of
smoke and filthy charcoaly dust covering eveything and floating through the
air, cutting a good deal of the light. The posse gazed in dismay at the
closely packed houses, the labyrinth of pipes and wires which would have put
Daedalus to shame. The filth, the darkness and the squalor fell like a pall
upon our normally intrepid heroes, prompting Victoria to clutch Blanton's
arm and mutter: "Mother of God, I've died and gone to Hell -again."

Dr. Yates led them into his small practice where Victoria collapsed in a
chair while he tended to Monroe's injuries. Blanton and Stone each found a
place to sit, and Stone lit himself a cigarette, prompting a wry remark from
Dr. Yates that he needn't bother, all he had to do was put his head out the
door and inhale. Dr. Yates then taped up Victoria's injuries and looked over
Reverend Stone, who was still suffering from the wounds he'd sustained
fighting the Mojave rattler almost two weeks before. Stone inquired whether
he knew the man Marshal Courvoisier had recommended the posse seek out. Dr.
Yates didn't know him, but was indeed aware of the Deseret College of
Engineering. He also pointed the posse to two hotels where they might find
lodging during their stay, the Salt Lake City hotel, which the posse figured
would be out of their price range, and the Restful Arms. Stone in the
meantime was trying to remember what information he knew about Salt Lake
City, especially since he was charged with finding a fellow agent who'd
disappeared along with some highly important photographic plates (as our
more devoted readers will know). For the moment he knew only that it was out
of Salt Lake City that the famous Nevada Smith worked, whose adventures had
been chronicled by the now just as famous I. M. Hymme. Resolving to seek
Hymme out as soon as possible (Stone remembered that he was rumoured  to
frequent the Deseret Cafe), Stone followed the rest of the posse as they
took their leave of Dr. Yates (leaving him 15 silver dollars in payment for
his services, which pretty much caused his eyes to pop out of his head) and
made their way toward the Restful Arms hotel.

Predictably, they got somewhat lost in the maze of the Junkyard, and it took
them roughly three times as long to make their way out of there as it had to
go in, and night had fallen by the time they reached the first Mormon
residential area. It wasn't all that dark, of course, since Salt Lake City
is famous for its electrical lighting, and our heroes were more than
impressed with the buzzing lamp-posts which lined the streets. As they
walked toward the hotel, Monroe suddenly spotted something and instinctively
pulled his companions back around the corner they'd just turned. Holding
their breath, they saw one of the most unprepossessing men they had ever
beheld, who seemed at once old and wizened and yet walked -or more
accurately, swaggered- jauntily, exuding malevolence as he passed by,
seemingly without noticing them. Stone had heard enough descriptions of the
man to realise that this was the infamous O. P. Rockwell, leader of the
Dayknights, and so the posse were quite relieved that he appeared not to
have seen them.

The manager of the Restful Arms, although rather doubtful at first of the
four rather ruffianly types who walked in, was eventually persuaded to
provide rooms for them (Victoria did her level best to disarm any
apprehensions he might have had -gotta love persuasion skills *g*) as well
as baths, which they all sorely needed. Since they had come very close to
losing all their belongings at the station, Stone was anxious that they
should divide the money they had obtained from Rufus between them so that it
wouldn't be all in one place should an emergency arise, which they did
shortly before retiring for the night.

The next day they woke up fairly early due to the noise and bustle coming
from the street indicating that the day's activities had commenced.
Breakfast was served without coffee to everyone's dismay -Victoria and
Monroe were especially distressed to hear that coffee and alcohol were
frowned upon, as was tobacco, which was bad news for Monroe and Stone.
Luckily for Blanton, he apparently doesn't have that kind of vice (give him
time *g*), so he wasn't *too* put out by this news. The rest of the morning
was spent buying clothes (it's amazing what kind of damage a stampeding herd
of cattle will do to your duds). Victoria, to the amazement of pretty much
everyone, actually bought herself a dress and a skirt as well as the usual
shirt and trousers (shock! horror! *g*).

The posse then proceeded to Jennings' Tannery (I *think* that was the name),
which they had read in the paper had purchased the diablo carcasses in order
to stuff and mount them in the train station -it's good publicity, after
all. The owner (presumably Mr. Jennings, but I might be wrong) was a rather
large man with an equally large mustache, was very impressed upon learning
that it was in fact our heroes who had dispatched this "rare breed of
longhorn" into the bovine equivalent of an afterlife, and in light of this
fact he offered to equip them on the house. In the meantime, Blanton was
busily clutching Victoria's hand and doing his level best not to run out of
the shop in terror at the sight of the two diablos collapsed on the floor,
which still managed to look evil and malevolent (but very dead). The posse
spent a good deal of time there re-equipping themselves, since a lot of
their stuff had been either lost, trampled or otherwise destroyed the
previous day, then left the tannery, going in the general direction of the
town jail.

Thus we leave our heroes, rather the worse for wear but happily very much
alive, walking down one of the main streets of the City o' Gloom, in search
of the man they must protect from the 13th-Day Killer. Stay tuned for the
next thrilling instalment -although we're not entirely sure when that will
be due to some minor (*ahem*) scheduling difficulties. In the meantime, you
can always console yourselves for your lack of entertainment with the series
finale of "Nikita" next weekend, or "Buffy" re-runs, or whatever else floats
your boat.

Questions, comments, litcrit, all are most welcome (I'm sure the rest of my
posse will leap in if I've gotten anything wrong or forgotten something
important).

Thanks for getting this far,

Daphné
--
"Why is it every time I go somewhere with you it ends in violence
and terror?"
                                        -Buffy the Vampire Slayer