Act 7: Sleepy Hollow

Day 116

Last week, the Manhattan Knights met Whitetail and his tribe, and learned more about the Living Lands, and now they are looking to investigate a “darkness” in a small town in New York. As all of the Knights are from foreign countries, they don’t realize they are driving toward the place once known as Sleepy Hollow.

They take the leftover army jeep and head along the paths in the jungle that are created by the remnants of the old highways trying to grasp reality.

First Omen

An hour into the trip, despite the “lanes” in the jungle their top speed is barely over 20 kph, they pause and look over their maps to try and figure out if they are on track. By sheer luck they find a highway sign with mile markers on it and triangulate their position. They are almost at their target.

As they move back into the jeep there is a disturbance in the underbrush. Normally they would all hit the deck or run around in alarm, but after the various battles they have faced in Manhattan the now Beta Level Knights stand firm. It is the correct choice.

A herd of panicked animals runs across the field ahead of them, large herbivores with their eyes rolling in terror and the last stragglers in the mass have claw rents in their flesh. As the herd dissipates Kimiko goes to jump into the driver seat and Carlisle grabs her arm. The old hunter knows what follows prey.

“Weird” Raptors

A trio of velociraptors break from cover, they are massive versions of their kind, far larger than any raptors they have seen to date. But the creatures are moving slowly, steadily after the fleeing prey. The one in the led stands out the most as it appears to be wearing a skull like a helmet.

Carlisle thanks his god that the wind is coming into his face and he raises his binoculars to get a better look at the trio of hunting raptors. He suppresses a gasp. The raptors are tall, but also thin and the skull is not a helmet. Most of the flesh has been torn from these velociraptors and they are mostly skeletal.

Carlisle: “Undead. Undead? I didn’t expect such things here in the living lands.” Carlisle survived his day 1 in the middle of Calcutta, and survived 70 days in Orrosh before he was extracted and recruited to the Delphi.

No speaks again until the skeletons are out of sight, slowly pursuing their prey to assuage a hunger they can never fill.

Undead?

Once they are sure the creatures are gone, Kimiko restarts the engine and puts the jeep into gear. This is the first time they have seen unliving creatures in the jungle. Though they all do remember the reports that Warlord Blunt was trying to create “zombies” to work in his fields and army. Several of the lost Delphi members had been lobotomized or tortured to a state of mind death. Though he only had one “success” and that was still a living creature, not an undead.

Being reminded of the horrors of Orrosh has put Carlisle on edge, and now he has a million paranoid worries about the “darkness” in Mount Pleasant. What if it is a piece of Orrosh trying to gain a foothold in North America? Or a hole into the underworld of Aysle? Or a hole into any other sort of hellscape.

Sleepy Hollow

After another 20 minutes of cutting through jungle two things happen.

First, they hit a stretch of original blacktop highway and can hit the gas, but, secondly, they cover a few hundred meters before they arrive at an off ramp that announces that they have arrived at “Mount Pleasant, and the village of Sleepy Hollow.”

Kimiko turns the jeep down the vine and moss-covered ramp and down into the valley below. From the top of the highway they can see that many small houses and several streets are still resisting the call of the Living Lands. Black clouds are gathering above the valley, in a very unnatural way, and even from the highway they can see that some of the street lights still flicker on and off and there are huge bonfires in the far distance, adding to the pall of black clouds above the valley.

As they come down the ramp, slowly, Carlisle uses his rifle scope to look over the bonfire and the town. The town has been reduced to a single main street and several side streets and only the houses on either side of the main street are still core earth. Behind the houses are dark fields and darker woods that are more “Old England” than Jungle.

Bonfires and Battles

Focusing the scope on the huge bonfire reveals several things, first off there appears to be a huge tent or ramshackle structure built beside it. Secondly, the fire is large enough that at least 1 or 2 cars are part of it, and lastly it looks like a junkyard all around it. There are stripped down cars, appliances, and various other things taken from the homes that are dismantled and broken all around the fire.

Kimiko; “Are there any people?”

Carlisle: “Sort of.”

Sasha: “What does that mean?”

Carlisle: “The only people I see are impaled or crucified around bonfire… at least the parts of them that are left. I don’t think I see and entire body anywhere.”

With these words, Kimiko eases down the ramp and comes to a stop at another sign of violence.

Crash Site

There are two motorcycles that have crashed and there is half of one body on the ground. Kimiko puts the jeep in park and the knights get out of the vehicle, Kimiko’s cat-girl follower decides to remain behind.

The initial signs look like the bikes were both heading toward the highway, trying to reach the ramp. But something stopped them, Carlisle thinks the tires might have been shot as there are no intact tires on either of the bikes. The body on the ground is missing its right arm and leg, and appears to have dragging itself from the wreckage of one of the bikes before it bled out. The second rider is just missing.

Carlisle steps past the body and follows the trail of blood back to one of the bikes, he finds the man’s missing leg, it is underneath the bike. He crouches down, the bikes are both BMWs and have been used for a very long time, in a very harsh environment. Something extremely sharp sheared through the right side handle bar of the bike… and presumably the rider’s arm and leg. Checking the leg, he sees that the bone is cut cleanly, not torn or broken at all. Carlisle shares all of these details in a running monologue as he walks the scene.

Kimiko and Sasha

While Carlisle is doing is running monologue CSI… Kimiko activates her alertness and links the other knights together. She puts up a 50-meter radius circle around them, reaching out hunting for minds. So far, she only finds a few vermin.

Sasha crouches down over the rider. She is hesitant to use her psychometry as she doesn’t really want to live through the man’s death. She checks his pockets and pulls out a wallet and sighs. Within is a license and papers in Cyrillic and a handful of Russian cash.

Sasha: “This guy is from Tharkold and he has papers giving him permission to travel on Tharkoldu business. This man was a traitor to humanity.” She spits near the corpse, “If you want more details, I need to touch him…?”

Carlisle shakes his head, “You just gave us more than enough information that I don’t think we need to subject you to that. But what the hell are Russian agents doing here?”

That question will have to wait, as Kimiko senses a very intelligent mind entering her perimeter. Whatever it is it is watching them intently and has its eyes locked on Sasha, it is fascinated by the girl. Kimiko shares this information along the team’s telepathic link.

Sasha stands, and screams: “You gonna come out or just stand there!”

Legend of Sleepy Hollow

A horseman rides out of the gloom, a streetlight flickering to light over him. Headless and mounted on a Nightmare, the Dullahan rears back his mount and charges toward the trio. All three are shocked by these two creatures as it charges toward them, so shocked in fact that they are frozen for the 10 seconds it takes for it to cover the distance to reach Sasha… then they finally start to react.

Within the town a siren starts to wind up, filling the air with a shrill scream. The Dullahan charges past Sasha, its burning sword hacking into her shoulder and the horse knocks her to the ground. The Dullahan swings around for another attack.

As Sasha rolls on the ground she swallows a scream and fighting against the pain of her wound she activates one of psionic powers and uses the telepathic link to boost the defenses of all of her fellow knights.

Bring the Drama!

Kimiko triggers her electric katana and vaults into the air and brings her sword into a savage arc into the Dullahan’s sternum. But somehow the headless warrior turns aside the strike and Kimiko instead decapitates the horse. The nightmare screams, gouting fire from the neck stump. The Dullahan smoothly dismounts from the dying mount and is ready to continue the fight.

Carlisle grins, something dark and dangerous? Something that isn’t a fucking dinosaur? About time. He opens the bolt of his rifle and pulls out a holy water round from his bandolier of special munitions. He raises the rifle, takes a moment to aim, and blows a hole thru the Dullahan.

The Headless Horseman is surprised by the hole drilled through its shoulder. Carlisle takes advantage of this moment of surprise and quickly reloads a new round and shoots again. But this time the round is just a normal one and while it hits almost exactly the same spot as the holy round, it does not create a bloody hole.

Carlisle sighs and then glancing back over his shoulder he can see a mass of Edeinos running down the main street toward them. The siren is calling out everything within the area.

Round 2

Sasha crawls over to a burnt-out car hidden underneath the exit ramp and climbs to her feet. She uses her telekinesis to toss the dead Russian soldier at the Dullahan. This causes him to turn away from Kimiko and Carlisle, creating an opening [very vulnerable].

The Dullahan realizes his mistake too late, Kimiko slashes a line across his back and he swats at her, but misses. Carlisle loads another holy round and shots the Dullahan center mass and the creature drops to the ground. While they finally have a breather, it will only last for a few seconds, as edeinos and dinos are closing in all around them.

The trio gather together in a tight group and ready for the onslaught.

Patchwork Men

The edeinos closing in on them are a nightmare mish mash of parts. None of them are still living, nor are any of them a whole “man.” They have been hobbled together from various parts and sewn, stapled, or even apparently welded together.

Carlisle shoots the nearest undead creature, blowing away a chunk of flesh, but the creature keeps coming. Kimiko lunges forward, finishing the wounded abomination and slicing into the one right behind it.

Sasha tries to look into the near future, and promptly Disconnects [in game terms this is when a stormknight loses the link to their personal reality and they start to change into the current cosm. Sasha has forgotten what psionics are and that she is a Russian, and starts to think that caves are cool].

Ghoulasaur

A ghouled dino charges in from the treeline and chops on Kimiko. Kimiko tries to soak the damage, altering reality to suit her needs, and does manage to make it a lesser wound. But the teeth still break flesh and her blood is flooded with toxins. She pukes up her breakfast and staggers back into Carlisle. She lashes out with her sword, trying to wound the ghoulasaur and it has no affect.

Carlisle gently pushes her back toward Sasha and shoulders his rifle. He takes a single shot and the ghoulasaur’s eye explodes and it drops to the ground. Carlisle is in his element and he’s doubly glad that he allowed the medics in the Dome to rejuvenate his flesh. He feels powerful, and we’re thankful that he does.

This is where the game session came to a close for the night… leaving the players on a cliffhanger…

Sasha is turning into a cave-woman, Kimiko is poisoned and staggered, and Carlisle is rapidly reloading his rifle. Around them is a mishmatch of patchwork monsters and undead dinos.

Carlisle: “Come get some!”