LogMotW:Quoth the Raven-Jason-4

Game log for the 2022/02/20 session of MotW:Quoth the Raven, as taken by Jason

A bunch of the Scoobies have been to Dallas for a convention, or in Sougand's case, to fussily skip the convention and go bar-hopping. The night before, Sougand has a dream of something needing to be put back in a cemetary.

They're on a bus headed home, about an hour away from Pine Box when Bernie the bus driver says the bus has a problem and needs to pull over. Bernie's picked a small town called Ebernburg to stop in, and he pulls over near Reinhard's Store. It's around six pm. Jacob and Damien goe to check out the store, which is a fairly typical small town general store with a picked-over buffet.

Bernie comes in and announces that he can't fix the bus. They're going to have to wait for someone to come out. Sammy tries to call Chet to ask for a ride home, but has no signal. Jacob asks Sheila at the store if he can use her phone, but she doesn't have a dial tone. Sammy walks down to the church. He notices that it's getting dark and only the church has a light on, though the street lights are coming on. He tries the church door and discovers it locked. When he knocks, Father Template:Miles Gerard answers, and seems quite surprised to find an enormous black man on his doorstep. The padre drags Sammy in by his coat and locks the door behind him. Sammy asks how he's doing, and the priest says, "Full moon night."

In the store, Sheila announces that she's locking up, and chivvies Jacob and Damien out. They buy some packaged preservative-addled food, and then Sheila gets in her car and gets out. In the distance, dogs howl. Jacob worries that when they stop howling, they're going to start eating. They may well be eating people. They need to get the bus passengers indoors. He has a sense that someone's driving those dogs. He decides to encourage everyone to go take shelter in the church. That at least gets Sougand's attention. Sadly, he's the only one who pays attention. Jacob realizes that if there's no signal, the bus driver must have stranded them all deliberately.

Sammy talks to Father Miles some more, and gets confirmation that something bad comes out of the graveyard every night.

Sougand tries to attune to whatever's howling, and feels himself running with the pack, about to attack. He warns Jacob and Damien that they need to lock up the bus right the hell now, and then he chambers a round in his 9mm. Jacob locks up.

At the edges of the sodium lights, the three of them see at least two hunters, each holding two dogs, straining at the leashes. The dogs don't look entirely natural. Their fur seems distinctly spiny.

Sammy asks the Father how long this has been happening, and discovers it's been going on every full moon for decades. Sammy tells him to say his prayers, waits for him to look away, and then teleports back to the bus.

Not everyone was on the bus, and a couple people who held out get et by dogs. Damien opens a window and shoots at the nearest dog, scoring a solid hit. The other dog in that pair lunges at the open window. Sammy tries to yank Damien out of the way, but ends up with a dog grabbing on his forearm. Sammy's busy shoving the dog off of him, so the bullet hits him instead. Jacob rummages in Damien's dufflebag for a weapon and pulls a bowie knife. A hunter starts trying to pull open the door of the bus, and another starts trying to climb through the window. More are coming down the street.

Damien takes another shot at the dog he engaged earlier, and kills it. Sammy gives the dog on the bus a boot. Sougand mutters some curses in Armenian and magically bars this bus to all hunters. There's still a "dog" on the bus, though, which Damien shoots to death. Sammy closes up the windows. Sougand examines the dead dog and sees only the normal sorts of wounds. "Looks like they bleed for bullets just fine, fuck 'em up!" Jacob looks around, ready to protect the passengers, and hears the sound of a horn blowing.

Damien aims at the nearest dog through the windshield, and hits it solidly center mass. Sammy talks to the passengers, asking them to stay down and wait for help to arrive. Sougand tries to use a spell to see where the dogs and hunters came from, and has a vision of a funeral service from the days of yore.

The horn stops blowing and the dogs disappear. Jacob immediately suggests getting the people to safety. Sougand and Sammy agree that the church would be the place to go. Sammy gets the gaggle of civvies moving in the right direction, and Father Miles welcomes then in. Jacob grabs a candle holder to use as a weapon, in case the dogs come in. When Sammy asks about sanctuary, Father Miles says the place is no longer hallowed, because he's been complicit too long. That gets the scooby gang's attention. He explains that everyone either has to survive the night, or break the curse. The master of the hunt seeks his wife, and the curse can only be broken if he's put back in his grave. Jacob and Sammy inquire about the specifics of the curse, and the Father comes clean.

Back before the Civil War, the guy who ran the town did something that caused his wife to commit suicide. He's cursed not to lie at rest until the wife gets her vengeance, or someone puts him back in that grave. Sammy and Sougand go to visit the cemetary, but cannot discover a damn thing. Sougand gets fed up and tries to banish the entire curse. He fails utterly, and feels a cold wind coming up.

In the church, Damien hears the horn blow, and gets people ready to defend their ground. Jacob's in the basement doing research. The priest has made some holy water for defensive purposes.

Sammy grabs Sougand and tries to teleport them to safety, but lands them both in the bus.

Damien gets help from one of the locals and goes up into the steeple, hoping to pour holy water on the hunters and/or dogs.

Sammy gets out of the bus and begins shouting at the hunters, hoping to draw them toward him. He distracts some, but not all of them. He sees something big and shadowy behind them.

In the church, the dark shadowy thing is right across the street. Damien pours water on some of the dogs, causing them all to make noises of doggos in pain. Bad chupacabra! Bad! They repeat the process and scald more dogs, but his helper leaned out too far and fell. Sougand somehow managed to get there just in time to try to catch the civilian. Sammy teleports to the church, meeting Damien at the bottom of the steeple stairs.

The big shadowy thing starts banging on the front door of the church. Damien begins getting more holy water. It becomes clear that the shadowy thing is sort of a giant lichified 1830s cavalryman.

Sougand says some shit in Armenian and leaps up to the steeple, still cradling the civilian. That poor sod decides he's had enough for the day and commences to cower. Sougand goes downstairs.

He arrives just as the doors burst and the dogs, hunters, and shadowy thing start to enter. Sougand gives in to his inner LOTR fanboy and yells, "You shall not pass" at the shadowy thing (in Armenian), barring it from the church. Jacob tries to protect the passengers from the dogs but doesn't have a lot of luck. The dogs eat Father Miles. Damien kills one of the dogs. Sammy banishes the shadowy thing, which dissipates slowly.

Damien tries to shoot a dog but misses, and now has a dog chewing his armor. Sammy goes to help out and boots the dog firmly in the ribs, drawing a yelp. When the shadowy thing vanishes entirely, the hunters and dogs pull back and then fade away.

Jacob has found where the old town boss was buried. The wife is marked as a suicide, burial location unknown. Jacob suggests making a trap for when the monster reappears. Sougand thinks he could do it on hallowed ground with a circle of candles, some salt, and a holy symbol. They could get all the other stuff, but there's no hallowed ground. Sammy decides to see if he can hallow the ground with prayer and magic. Jacob and Sougand go to ratfuck the store for ritual ingredients while Damien tries to do first aid on injured townsfolk. Damien fails.

Chet has noticed that his friendos have not arrived and there's no explanation for the bus running late, so he starts backtracking the bus route. He arrives in Ebernburg in time to see Sougand and Jacob emerge from the store carrying weapons, a 40lb bag of water softener salt, and a shopping basket full of crap. Hi buddy! Jacob fills Chet in on what he missed.

After quite a long period of prayer, Sammy stands up and says it's done. The scoobies begin paying out the circle of salt pellets, and then go banging on the salt with rocks and hammers to crush it down finer into a more continuous circle.

Jacob goes off to find Ebernburg's grave, and locates it with the aid of his trusty flashlight. Midnight rolls around. The horns begin to sound far off in the distance, but there's a feeling of something coming, like ozone in the air. Sammy, Jacob, and Chet dig up old Ebernburg's grave, just to be ready for that.

When they return, Sougand's waiting by the church, and recognizes one of the hunters as one of the people who got killed earlier that night. Chet shoots at a hunter but misses. Jacob's inside, hoping to keep safe. Chet's up in the steeple, prepared to vote from the rooftops. Damien, freshly equipped with a hunting rifle, starts shooting at dogs, while Sougand offers himself up as bait. Ebernburg's shade approaches! Sammy comes running around the side of the church to join Sougand.

Damien takes another shot and kills a doggo dead. Sougand jinxes the hunters. Jacob waits for the enemy to get within shotgun range, while Chet blasts away at one of the hunters with a hunting rifle. Jacob opens fire on the dogs now and puts some buck into one.

Sougand amuses himself by talking shit about Texas to Ebernburg, who nonetheless hates Sammy more. Damien's still shooting at the dogs, Chet misses the hunter he's been lobbing rounds at, Jacob shoots the dog again, but the dog gets to him first and sinks its teeth into him. Sougand takes his Glock to the nearest dog and not only hits it, but misses to duck around its attack. Damien kills a dog with a rifle shot.

Ebernburg steps into the circle. Sougand claps and the trap springs, imprisoning the demon cavalryman in place. Sougand gives him the finger to boot. Jacob wrestles with the dog some more. Sammy punches the nearest hunter, which responds by grabbing on to him. Damien shoots and kills yet another dog, leaving only three still moving. Chet's rifle jams.

Jacob manages to fling the dog off him. Chet strips his rifle down and clears the jam. Sougand tries to shoot a dog but misses and now there's a dog ready to gnaw on him. Sammy head butts the hunter grappling with him. Damien moves in and stabs the dog that had been attacking Jacob, killing it.

Jacob shoots at a hunter and misses. Sougand shoots the dog that's sucking his blood. Sammy moves to protect Sougand, kicking the crap out of that thar dog. Now Damien sees a hunter headed toward Sougand, and intercepts with his knife. Chet goes cyclic to try to distract the hunters.

Jacob also runs in to try to protect Sougand, and manages to draw blood, but the hunter grabs him instead. Sougand's got too many people around to keep shooting his pistol at the dog, so he whips up some mojo instead, attacking the dog with magic. Sammy kicks the dog and it dies. Damien stabs the hunter that's attacking Jacob, driving his blade in deep. Chet heads downstairs and tries to shoot the nearest monster, but can't cycle the bolt. He throws the rifle at the dog that's currently trying to suck the blood out of one of the civvies.

Jacob tries to keep the hunter from biting him by stabbing it in the mouth, but can't manage to keep away from its teeth. Sougand says some kind words about Jacob's dagger and enchants it to do +1 damage. Sammy kicks that thar hunter in the back and Damien stabs it. It is not doing so well anymore.

Chet starts trying to get one of the dogs to come for him, then runs away from it up the stairs. He tells the civilian who's been cowering there to come with him, but the poor guy's nerves are shot, and he keeps stalling. Jacob can't quite connect with the hunter. Sougand curses the hunter eating Jacob again and it dies. He also sees a spectral woman with a noose around her neck running fast across the street.

Chet grabs Brian in one hand, the bell pull rope in the other, and tries to use the roop to descend down the outside of the church. It actually works, and they land gently on exterior ground, leaving the dog in the church with no obvious victim. Sougand sees Ebernburg turn to face his wife, and with his telepathy, can hear him cursing each other. He says, "Hey asshole, we have women's lib now" and curses Ebernburg, which takes the wife-abusing undead shithead's attention off his wife. Sammy moves to the organ loft to intercept the dog, who he assumes will be coming down. Damien moves to protect Sougand, in case Ebernburg starts some shit, or the ex gets angry at him. The wife crosses into the circle. The civilian Chet rescued runs away, fast. Chet tries to figure out what the hell's going on, and Jacob climbs down out of the church, trying to hold his guts together.

Sougand sees the rope around the wife's neck reach out and wrap around Ebernburg's neck, squeezing. He decides to let her have a little fun and focuses on trying to heal Jacob magically. His spell goes awry but Chet thrusts Jacob out of the way before the miss-firing spell can do any harm. The remaining dog attacks Sammy, landing on him. Damien sees this and tries to go help, but trips and falls.

Ebernburg screams as his wife chokes him out. He and his wife vanish from the hallowed ground. Sougand gets knocked on his ass by the magical backlash, and someting weird happens to Jacob that nobody else picks up on yet. This town is still a damn mess, and there are some wounded left. Chet takes Jacob and Sougand to te hospital with Damien riding along. Sammy goes to find the poor guy who ran away from Chet in terror earlier, but fails. He's still searching when the sun comes up. People begin to come back to town when the sun comes up, including Bernie the bus driver and Sheila the store owner. Funny, Bernie seems able to get the bus working again now. Sammy warns him that if he ever pulls any shit like this again, Sammy's coming for him.