Vat:13 Thresh Prince of Bel-Air

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Starring: Koz, Amiri, Pauline, and Joseph
Guest Starring:
Challenge: Zombies; Mennonite spellcasters
Location: Rhode Island
Date Played: 05, 18, 20 Dec 2012

Thresher vs Walking Dead

Joseph: With twenty of the walking dead shuffling around, aimin' to git our brains, Koz finds a thresher. The idea is strategically solid but repugnant in practice. Slowly we're ground to a halt by the engine block seizin' up due to a giant block of ice formin' in it. Reminds me that I might could be due to learn a bit o' the fire magic.

With the thresher dead to the world the zombies start climbin' up towards us. I dodge out of the way, runnin' when I get my chance. I fire my pistol repeatedly, missin' often. (You shoot at the walking dead and see how good your aim is.)

Pauline: This is war. My mind clears as we ready for it. I know that I am doing the right thing, and that strength gives me power. We drive the tractor into the scrum, and my sword arm is true. Between the thresher and a holy sword, we have little trouble with the zombies.

Sinkhole Fight

Joseph: As I'm defending myself, over a ways is a sinkhole that has some of the mennonite bastards. My companions git that under control fairly well.

Pauline: Of course, there are more than zombies. I take several direct shotgun blasts, and I don't even feel them. While I'm busy absorbing bullets, Amiri slips up behind the Mennonites and finishes them off.

That's about when I crash, unconscious and nearly dead.

Splitting the Party

Joseph watches over the unconscious Pauline

Joseph: Pauline, poor, poor Pauline, looks like she's been through a meat grinder. She's got blood everywhere and is barely holdin' on ta life. I'm more than a might winded myself, fighting to not pass out from my efforts. Koz and Amiri decide that it would be best to press forward and try to nip this tragedy in the bud. I point out that this leaves Pauline vulnerable but that is countered with talkin' about the greater good.

Part 2

We Didn't Start the Fire

Joseph: We gather into our van and Koz drives like the coach is on fire. Which is ironic, seein' as we approach town that there is a blaze burnin'. Turns out that it is the courthouse. In the distance we hear the thunder of motorcycles. I plead for us to head out after the varmints, before they can cause more trouble but everybody wants to make sure that the townsfolk are safe. I reckon that arguments for the greater good—stoppin' the mennonites from doing what they're tryin' ta do—falls on deaf ears.

A friendly EMT works over Pauline, getting her bandaged and awake. I start warnin' folks about the walking dead and they start gatherin' in bigger numbers ta listen as Koz closes the doors. I'd rather the truth git out but that's not to be today.

Pauline: I don't know how long it was that I drifted in a vague haze. The boys tell me it was about an hour, but it could have been forever. When I come to, it's nothing but pain and suffering. So I do the only thing I can do- pray. A gentle peace falls upon me, and within minutes, I can actually see my wounds closing.

Between waking up suddenly and Joseph being Joseph, a mild panic has started about the existence of zombies. I tell Maude the truth, and she responds by spinning out the most amazing lie to calm down the townsfolk. That's for the best- they need to worry about the courthouse that's burning down.

Bikers Digging a Hole

Joseph: We catch up ta them and they've parked their vehicles on the side of the road, where Koz takes half of 'em out with the van. We bolt to a safe distance and move in on foot. From the safety of the woods I commune with the land and we git a jump on 'em. Amiri throws, I kid you not, a motorcycle at one of 'em. I batter some with stones and they surrender.

While everybody else is interrogatin' 'em, I check out the hole they was digging and find a flask pourin' out a strange liquid. Examinin' it closely, it radiates of necromantic magics. I freak out and try to use my earth magic to throw the soaked soil outta the pit but I lose my grip and the essence was sucked right into the voodoo.

The mennonite folks admit to be summoning the headless horseman. Which is interestin', given that there are many incarnations of him. We call the VAT and get some further details.

Pauline: By the time we catch up with the bikers, I'm in fine shape, and ready to lay down some righteous justice. We approach carefully. Amiri and Joseph pick some off gradually. I draw the attention of the rest, and before long, we've got them all taken prisoner.

And that's when Joseph tells us what's sitting at the bottom of the hole they were digging.

Out Driving the Headless Horseman

Joseph: Intent on not letting the horseman ride, I throw up the most powerful ward that I've ever created. Then a Bogle appears in front of me. I try to speak wit it but it is intent on violence. I shoot at it a few times and Koz bats the thing away.

So when the horseman arrives it crumbles my ward like it was nothing. Outta the earth comes a horse pulling a carriage with a driver with no head. Despite myself I'm excited to confirm the spirit as a Dullahan, the Irish version of the headless horseman. Which means that gold puts the fear of God into him.

Lookin' at the map we try to outrace him so that we can use some of Amiri's gold to block his path. While racin' him, I remember that Patty asked if we could find out what was inside the carriage, so I toss my eyes inside.

I will regret that for the rest of my days. It was all blood and organs and guts like I have never seen.

Pauline: We call the VAT to prepare, and they lay out a few possible variations on the Headless Horseman to watch out for. Since the Mennonites talked about "pumpkins", I'm half expecting the American version. We don't get that- we get the Celtic version, who is essentially an Unseelie hitman. It races off in its bone carriage, and we give chase.

We manage to block its path with gold, which buys us time, but we won't be able to stop the Dullahan ourselves. We need to stop the people trying to control it- and that means raiding the Mennonite compound.

Part 3

Farmhouse Collisions (on Purpose)

Joseph: At this point I'm not really paying good attention to things, as I'm trying to remind myself that the third eye in Pauline's face isn't real, nor are the worms crawling out of Koz's mouth. Pauline has me climb into a truck and wraps me in disembodied arms and starts driving towards a house covered in blood and manure. As we gather speed, so too does my fear and I jump from the truck, intent on saving my own life.

Pauline: We get to the farm. It's warded, so Koz and I choose the biggest farm trucks we can find, go to opposite corners of the house, and crash into it. Koz makes it in, although the chimney falls on him. I don't leave a dent on the house. Joseph freaks out, but recovers and circles around. I go in through Koz's hole, and see one Mennonite holding three more at gunpoint. This must be Schmel.

Clearing the House

Pauline: Schmel gives me some keys, and points me to the basement. There I find the center of the wards and an ancient sword, thousands of years old, rusted and ruined. Thinking about the Stones, and how Celtic/Welsh mythology have been haunting us, I grab it.

Upstairs, Amiri deals with the power source for the wards.

Schmel points us to the graveyard where his grandfather should be.

A Grave Situation

Pauline: We grab ATVs and race out to the graveyard. I don't believe I have been behind the wheel of so many different vehicles in such rapid succession. We find Grandpa, who goes all cat-like and starts trying to tear the hell out of us.

I don't have the ability to lay out damage that I normally have, but I'm angry and tired and just sick of this, so I slash away at Grandpa. Between that and a few shotgun blasts, we put him down quick. I search the corpse and find a Bible and a grenade. He must have left his NRA membership at home.

It's a good thing I find the grenade- a moment later a fae voice calls to Grandpa, trying to raise him back from the dead. I pull the pin, jam the grenade into one of the openings we created when busy killing him the first time, and clear the area. Ka-boom.

The fae makes herself scarce. We chase a bit, but can't keep up. She escapes.

Passing the Torch

Pauline: That night, we take over the Mennonite's farmhouse, and send them all out to sleep in the barn. I'm not comfortable with that, but Schmel is giving the orders now. I make a breakfast to feed an army, and still manage to find some time to whip up some honest-to-goodness Picksburgh style pierogies for Maude. Little taste of home.

There's a lot of negotiating in the barn, and some external Mennonites show up to guide the discussion. In the end, Schmel takes over the family. His father goes inside and eats a bullet. It's a bad way to end things, but with Schmel at the helm, I think they'll be alright.

The bridge is out, but Team 1 shows up in time to help us wrap all of this up. They rent us an extra jeep, and we clear out the hard way. The VAT van isn't going to make it back by itself, but we make arrangements to get it back to Pittsburgh. I'll probably have to take day or two to fix her back up.

Out of Session

Pauline: I've got a lot of work to do. First, when the VAT van arrives back it Pittsburgh, I'll have to give it a once over and see how bad the damage is. If it's just a busted radiator, I'll take care of it, if it's more serious damage, I'll probably send it out to the shop. I have better ways to spend my time than being elbow deep in rebuilding an engine.

I've got two big research projects: the Sangrophage bones and this ancient sword I'm going to call "X-Calibur". It's not Excalibur, at least I sincerely doubt it, but it's how I think of it. I think "X-Calibur" would make a good name for a comic book, though. Someone's going to probably steal that idea from me.

I'll pray for guidance on what best to focus on, but I'm most interested in what will bring practical results sooner: using the bones to reinforce steel to make an exceptionally light, strong and sharp blade, or restoring and researching X-Calibur's background.

🎲 DM

• This arc was worth a combined 5 XP for the 3 gatherings.
• Additionally, everyone gets one additional level of Hard to Kill.