Session 17 - Between a rock and a hard place Report
General Summary
The echo from Jericho's shotgun blast fades off into the distance as all eyes remain transfixed on the strange stone lying on the ground in front of the decrepit old house. Katy, Marcus, and Patch all stare glassy-eyed at it as it moves through its queer colors and patterns. All start to murmur, to themselves or maybe to some unseen being. Volk suddenly slaps Patch, shaking him out of his trance.
Stirge calls out for help from inside the house, echos of deep concern in his voice for Dundee, Prete lying as an afterthought. Jericho quickly wraps the remains of the tarp back around the stone, hiding it from view but not from thought. Katy prompts Marcus to move with a shake of his shoulder from Volk and all but Jericho drag themselves inside.
Dundee's head rests in Stirge's lap, the older man kneeling in the filth of the long-abandoned house. Katy sits down next to the Stirge's son-in-law and declares that, despite Stirge's claims of the Dundee's death at the hands of the Scraphawks, Dundee is in fact still alive and breathing. Prete, on the other hand, looks sallow and sunken, his chest obviously injured even beneath his old undershirt.
While the rest are checking on the wounded men, Jericho scoops up the stone and rushes around the back corner of the house, looking for a place to stash it out of sight (and hopefully out of mind) of the rest of the group. A half dozen paces inside the overgrown edge of the clearning, he finds a small tangle of vines and brush, quickly stuffing the bundle inside of it. He returns to the house and enters the back room.
Marcus has a hard time keeping his concentration on the happenings in the room, but eventually the Hawks get to tell their story of how they came upon Dundee, him sitting and staring at the rock, and the eventual fight with both Prete and Dundee over control of the rock. Jericho points out the distinct lack of bullet holes in the men as evidence that they really meant them no harm. It's quickly determined that both men, but especially Prete, need to get somewhere for more thorough medical attention than in woods. Jericho devises a plan to make some makeshift stretchers for the two from small trees and some of Volk's lighter rope. Heaving both men up on the stretchers, the group sets out from the house and clearing, headed towards Stirge's farm.
The journey is slow, both due to the added burden of carrying two grown and seriously wounded men, but also due to the general condition of the party and the denseness of the wood. A little over halfway to the farm, one shot rings out from up head, followed a half-minute more by another. The group decides to try and pick up the pace, eventually causing Katy to stumble and almost dump Prete off the makeshift gurney. She rights herself and the group begins again.
Not soon after, a crashing is heard through the brush and Lacinda, Stirge's daughter and wife to Dundee, bursts through near the party. After she can tear her eyes away from her husband, she tells that Micah had come running from the boats as if chased by the Devil himself. On his heels came a roiling wave of things from the water. Knowing that her husband had been sneaking off deep into the woods, his visits growing longer and longer these last few days, she ran from the house to try and find him. She doesn't know what has happened in the last few minutes. Stirge drags her from her husband's side and starts to run back, disappearing into the fading darkness ahead.
The group shuffles who is carrying who and follows after the two at a pace they can maintain in the dark and tripping undergrowth. Once more, a shot shatters the night sounds from just up ahead. The group reaches the edge of the wood as it opens onto the grassy fields around the farmhouse proper. What they see makes their stomachs drop in worry and fear. In the distance, dozens and dozens, maybe even stretching into hundreds of the things that have invade Elmont roil across the plain ahead. Soft bangs against the house echo out over the hundred yards or so to the house - the whole of the structure seems surrounded. But its what they see close by that strikes home the most: two dark shapes lie recumbent in the grass with three more of those strangely hunched beings standing over them (and occasionally dipping down into them). Once they can think again, the group edges backwards from the edge lest they be seen.
Jericho and Marcus discuss what to do next. Jericho wants to go get the truck and use that to get back to Elmont proper for help until they realize that the way to the truck is behind them, back over the field and across the lake. The same field currently controlled by monsters from Deep Lake. Their second plan is to try and get back to the Skree farm and meet back up with the Mainer and his men. Marcus explains that his Protective Force sounds impressive, but it really has only a few people that can actually fight and one of them is barely alive. Lacking a better option, the group circles back through the wood in an attempt to reach the two-track leading back towards the Durns' farm. They head out, slower and quieter.
After a short while, the wood opens up slightly, the artificial openness of the road showing up clearly in the bright moonlight. Katy checks on Prete, but to her dismay he seems to have passed at some point during their flight. She cries silently as Marcus stares down at Jericho. "Not now, but when this is done, there'll be a reckonin'," he says in his slow gravely tone. Jericho nods in understanding. They tuck Prete's cooling body back into the woods a bit, hopefully safe from these things and their scavenging and start back down on the road, back down to where this fated day began.
Notes
Prete has died from his injuries sustained fighting Jericho.
Patch
Charles Volk
Jericho Caurd
Report Date
07 Oct 2020
Primary Location