The Good, the Bad, and the Undead

[Bozwevial]

[spoiler]Wisdom check:1d20+3=7[/spoiler]

Bones glances at the sky, attempting to judge the amount of daylight left, then gives it up as a bad job. I'm a doctor, not a sundial.

[j0lt]

Standing up in his stirrups, Jackson scowls as he looks around.  "I don't think we'll have any chance of catching up with that thing before nightfall, and I sure as hell don't want to be tracking in the dark.  Liable to break a leg or fall in a sinkhole that way.  What do you fellas reckon we should do?  You wanna push on some more and hope we find somewhere to hole up, or should we just find a suitable spot near the tracks and set up camp?"

[BowenSilverclaw]

OOC:
[spoiler]Say J0lt, can me and Cedric still see the rest of the gang? Are they close enough so we can communicate verbally?[/spoiler]

[j0lt]

[spoiler]Yes, you're usually within 20-50 feet of each other, depending on how far out of the way the winding canyons take the horses.[/spoiler]

[jacemachine]

I look around at my companions. I don't reckon I'd know too much about what a suitable spot to hole up would necessarily look like. Perhaps one of them would speak up.

[BowenSilverclaw]

"Looks like we've only got about 3, maybe 4 hours tops, 'till the sun goes down, gentlemen." Frank shouts to his companions on horseback when they're close enough.

"Any of you seen a nice spot to hole up for the night yet?"

[jacemachine]

[spoiler]Wisdom Check 1d20+1=6[/spoiler]

I look around, but I don't know anything about this sort of deal. I hadn't camped out under the stars since I was 12. As far as I was concerned, we could camp right where we were, and we'd be fine.

"Anyone have a better idea than camping here? I'm not really a Survivalist."

[MasterVega]

"I'd prefer somewhere with fewer places to watch," Cedric remarks as he takes in his surroundings, looking for a defensible - but also easily escaped - location to set up camp.

[spoiler]Survival: 1d20+8=25[/spoiler]

[j0lt]

Cedric finds a suitable place that has plenty of room for men and horses as well as cover from the wind and prying eyes.  Not far from the main trail of bootprints, either.  The light slowly reddens as dusk approaches.  By sundown your tents and bedrolls are all out and you're sitting around a nice small fire eating whatever food you had on you when you left the train.

[jacemachine]

I sat by the fire listening to the crackle of the flames. It was nice to not be in motion, for once. First it was the train, then the horse. Nothing felt quite as nice as terra firma.

"Where we ya'll headed, back before the fiasco at the train? I've been asked to go to a small church outside of San Francisco to lead the flock until another padre arrives in a few months..."

[MasterVega]

"'Ever there's steady work in construction, really," Cedric replies before taking a mouthful of water from his canteen. "Always been good at building houses, never been that good at stayin' in 'em."

[Bozwevial]

The doctor bites the corner off a square of chocolate before answering. "Well, I travel around. Most of my work gets done on the road--I'll spend a while in town, patching people up to pay for my room and board. Occasionally, I deliver a baby. And even more rarely, I run into another critter like the one on the train."

[BowenSilverclaw]

"Was headin' to San Fransisco myself. Didn't really have any idea yet what I was gonna do there, figured I'd just see if there'd be a job for me somewhere 'till I'd have enough money to travel again.

Like the doc here I usually don't stay in one place for too long. I didn't figure I'd encounter any critters like that hoppin' maniac though, otherwise I'd have been prepared a bit better." Frank replies to the priest's question.

[jacemachine]

"What I don't understand is how is it that you all seem to have had this sort of encounter before-- you act like this is old hat."

I was regretting the lack of alcohol at the moment. I had been snacking on a tin of crackers that I had brought along in my rucksack. They spilled open during my tumble from the train, I managed to replace them in their tin, and dump the crumbs out off to the side.

[MasterVega]

"Truth be told I've only run into..." the former soldier thinks for moment before giving up on his search for a better term, "somethin' like this once. If there's anything I learned in the army, though, it's to capture or kill the guy who's attacking you before figuring out who... or what, I guess, he is. On that thought, what the hell is this guy anyway?"

[j0lt]

Sighing to himself, Ulysses pokes at the campfire with a stick before looking up at the others.  "Well, reckon I might as well let the cat out of the bag.  No harm in you folks knowing the truth..."

He reaches into his black doctor's bag, pulls out a small cigarillo and lights it with the end of a burning log pulled from the flames.  After resettling the log and taking a long drag, he begins to speak again.  "It's all true.  All of the monsters and dark things that haunt your nightmares, everything you've ever thought you spotted lurking in the corner of your eye.  They all exist.  Some people have been naturally gifted, or cursed, depending on your point of view, with the ability to see these things for what they are.  My reason for being on that train wasn't travel.  I've been tracking that jumping son of a bitch since I first heard that it had gotten on the boat from England."

"You see, I'm part of this organization, calls itself the Fellowship.  I guess you could say we're professional hunters.  We have agents all across the country, and over in the old world as well.  I've seen, and killed, things you wouldn't believe.  Most of these silver bullets I've got are left over from my last hunt.  Some farmers had a werewolf problem up in Pennsylvania.  Anyway, this is what I do."  With that, he tosses the remains of his cigarillo into the fire.

[jacemachine]

I didn't speak, for fear that my natural cynicism would leak out of my mouth. I couldn't discount what I had seen that day, but WEREWOLVES? He HAD to be pulling our legs... I looked around at the others, hoping they would react. I wanted to see how this would go.

[Bozwevial]

"Werewolves, huh? Never actually seen one, but I've patched up a few werewolf injuries before. Hell, I actually met the guy who was doing 'em, oh, a year or so ago. Poor fella didn't know he was one, and he had cut himself on his silver knife. I told him he was just allergic, which probably wasn't too far amiss. Just to be safe, though, I also told him that he was gettin' ill every month because of a disease, and that it'd be safer if he went to a cabin out in the wilds somewhere every month, about the time of full moon. Real casual like. Think it worked, too, since people stopped coming by holdin' their guts in." Bones seems remarkably relaxed about the whole affair, which is explained partially when he takes a small pull from the flask in his pocket.

[spoiler]If that's a bit of a stretch, or it assumes knowledge that's not common, let me know.

Just in case, a Knowledge check: 1d20+7=20

[/spoiler]

[MasterVega]

"Werewolves? Damn, the only thing I saw was some four-legged critter kinda like a wolf... but bigger and different somehow. I don't guess that could've been one?" Cedric muses.

[spoiler]Int check for info on werewolves: 1d20+1=2
Hell... I think Cedric may have a very limited concept of werewolves... like... they're men who have something to do with wolves...[/spoiler]

[BowenSilverclaw]

"I was taught by my father. Old man never told me how he learned about all this stuff, but it sure as heck helped me survive an encounter with something that's usually relegated to myth and folklore more than once."

John replies to the priest's question before taking out a mouth harmonica and playing some tunes to relax somewhat.