Scion: Legends of the Wild West - Part 1a: A Fistful Of Scions

[z-Olivia Jennings]

"Mornin'," Liv said, her eyes raking over Cherry with interest. "Look ta be inna bad place. We kin't pick ya up now, but we kin get ya on our way back so ya don't have to hoof it back ta town."

She gauged the woman's weight, the weight of her gear and said, "Ah think Coby kin carry ya, if ya wanna put yer gear behind th' Marshall." She tilted her head back to the sun, letting the hat brim block the morning sun. "But ya'll have ta wait just a spit for us to conduct bizness."

[Cherry]

Inwardly Cherry was still cursing the loss of her horse, but outwardly she remained calm and impassive as she regarded the coffee-skinned woman, her golden eyes gleaming as they caught the rising sun's light.

She cocked her head a little to the side and her lips quirked in a pretty smile that didn't quite touch her eyes as she said, "That's a mighty kind offer ma'am, and I'm much obliged." She paused for just a moment and it almost seemed that was all she had to say, but then she added, "But my horse is dead because I jus' rode all night from Dodge City t'be here, so's I could help the two uvya with whatever this 'business' o' y'all's is."

Cherry straightened her neck out and squared her shoulders as the saddle fell from her hand and hit the ground with a muffled *thud*.

"We can pick it up on th'way back", she said, obviously speaking of her saddle though she didn't so much as glance at it, and obviously intent on going with Liv and Craig and not waiting for 'just a spit' until they came back.

Obviously, whoever she was, she wasn't much for polite conversation. Or explanations.

[Craig Rogers]

Craig sighed. He wasn't that dim. This lady wasn't gonna take "no" for an answer. He sighed, if she'd been sent here to this moment in time it was fate that she go.

"Ms. Jennings, if she was Sent, then it's her fate to come along. I'm not too keen on turning down an offer of aid, especially for what we're gonna be doing."

He looked to the new woman. "Nice to meet you ma'am. I'm Marshal Craig Rogers, welcome to the hunt."

He offered her a choice. "You can ride with me, or Ms. Jennings, your choice." His horse snorted and he pat and ruffled the big horse's mane. There was some unspoken communication there, but the Big Marshal just smiled.

[z-Olivia Jennings]

"She ain't said as such," Liv said easily, but her hand was on the blackened thigh bone tucked under the saddle pad. "All's she said was that she rode through th' night to 'help' with our bizness. She ain't said who sent her. Or e'en her name."

Addressing the stranger, she said, "Afore we cozy up together, Ah'll need a spot more talkin' from ya, no offense meant ta ya. If ya be workin' for, say, a powerful pa or ma who wants ya here, good fer ya and us. And if you be workin' for someone lower than a snake inna grass... well, Ah gots a response for that, too." A black eyebrow quirked upward in a mixture of expectation and cynicism, as if saying, And I'm not a sucker for a pretty face like the good Marshall here.

[Cherry]

An equally black eyebrow quirked upwards on Cherry's brow with an expression that seemed to say, And I'm not just a pretty face.

One corner of her mouth rose in a half-smile and this time it did seem to touch her eyes a bit. "Folks call me Cherry", she said, "an'I'm here cause o' my Mother."

She didn't say "at the request of" or "at the will of", because her mother hadn't made a request or given an order that she could accept or follow. Durga had simply made her desires come to pass, and had been just gracious enough to let her daughter know about it afterwards. Which was as to be expected from a Goddess like Durga.

Cherry pushed her hat up her forehead a bit so that the other two scions could see her better as she pointed out, "Now I don't know who the two uvya are, whose children y'all are, or what yer bizness is. I only know my Mother wants me ta help out the both uvya, an' I mean ta do jus' that."

Her golden gaze fell pointedly, and with a glimmer of wry amusement, on Liv once again and she added, "That enough talkin' forya?"

[z-Olivia Jennings]

Liv's lip curled a touch, though she seemed more bemused than angry. "Ah'm Liv Jennings, this is the Marshall Rogers," she said. She kicked her foot out of her stirrup and leaned down, offering the woman her hand. When Cherry clasped it, Liv pulled the other woman up behind her on the saddle.

"Let's ride," she said, touching her heels to Coby's side. She hoped that this woman didn't expect her to ride Coby to death - that wasn't happening.

[Ouroboros]

An hour later the found the mining camp. What was left of it at any rate. The tents and equipment had been savaged and lay torn or crushed in sections and pieces. Were it only that perhaps it would have been easy to dismount and get to the task at hand, but there were bones and body parts strewn among the ruin. Cracked bones and clothing dyed rust red with dry blood. A skull half covered with flesh stared up at them as a scavenger bird picked at the remaining meat.

OOC: There are any number of boons or skills to use here so feel free to do what you like, just let me know what and make sure you account your Legend and/or WP spends in the Drops of Ichor thread

[Craig Rogers]

Craing shook his head. "Damn. Seen something like this before, but not on this scale... Poor guys never had a prayer." He dismoounted from his steed and nodded. He began looking around for clues as to why this attack occurred, seemingly in the middle of nowhere.

"I'll do this the old fashioned way, when we're finished, I'll dig these poor guys a grave, I think they've suffered enough as it is."

Click to reveal..

Per+Inves

(08:32:30) ChatBot: (Craig_Rogers) rolls 5d10 and gets 9,5,10,6,10. 5 successes

Int+ Inves

(08:31:56) ChatBot: (Craig_Rogers) rolls 4d10 and gets 8,1,1,1.

[z-Olivia Jennings]

Liv helped Cherry dismount, letting her off in an area not riddled in gore. She watched Craig work for a moment, then closed her eyes and pulled the thigh bone from under her girth. The bone was blackened from fire, but someone had then carved symbols and words of power into the object. Drawing a deep breath, Liv held the bone and opened her eyes.

As always, there were her soldiers, ever silent and watchful. They stood in a semi-circle at her back, their eyes hungry black holes in their gray skin. She ignored the Buffalo Soldiers and looked past them, her eyes looking for the dead miners. She'd love to get information from the source.

Click to reveal..

Death 1 - Death Senses, no cost to activate

[Cherry]

Cherry stood in the midst of the charnel grounds that the campsite had become and tried not to let the sights and smells overwhelm her. She could see even the most far-flung of the corpses clearly enough to count the grains of sand sticking to its blood-caked and tattered skin, hear every fly hovering over the rotting remains as though it were buzzing in her ear, and she would not have been able to smell the rotting of the corpses any better if she'd pressed her nose against them. It was most unpleasant.

Pushing such distractions to the side, Cherry focused her mind and her preternaturally sharp senses on the more subtle details of the scene before them. Details that would hopefully reveal to her something of what had happened here (not that it wasn't fairly obvious already) and in what direction those responsible had gone when they were finished.

Click to reveal..

Awareness Roll: (09:56:13) ChatBot: (Centimane) rolls 6d10 and gets 7,9,3,4,9,8. With Epic Per that's 6 successes. This is just a general Awareness roll to "see what she can see", assuming there's anything more than the obvious to see.

Survival Roll: (09:58:38) ChatBot: (Centimane) rolls 5d10 and gets 2,4,5,8,8. With Epic Per that's 4 successes total.

Using Predatory Focus to find signs of the attackers, get an idea of about how many there were and in which direction they went. No cost to activate.

[Ouroboros]

The marshal and the bounty hunter got down to the rough work, moving about the area, checking for clues on the ground and, less pleasantly, the remains. The two were quiet and Liv made no more than an occasional whisper as she consulted the dead. Craig and Cherry both noticed the human leg bone in the mulatto woman's hands. The object was black as coal except where runes on its surface glowed with white light.

Cherry picked up a shattered humorous, inspecting it. "Teeth marks, an' tha marrow has been sucked right out."

Craig lifted a femur and nodded, it too was broken and empty. "The marks sure look like wolves' teeth." He hunkered down and pointed, "These look like wolves too, but bigger than I ever seen."

The two kept looking, there were plenty of tracks and no short supply of broken bones savaged of their flesh. Flies buzzed in the air even at this early hour and thankfully there was a light dry breeze to keep the smell to a minimum. Cherry identified the trail that the beasts had come in and departed via.

Craig completed his own inspection of the area, collecting a handful of other bones. "Take a look here," he said turning a couple of the remains over to Cherry, "these here aren't animal."

Cherry nodded but before she could reply Liv spoke up, "They're human." The three were silent for a moment as that fact settled on them. "These spirits, they didn't move on and they saw somebody commanding the wolves and sharing in the-" she gulped, looking suddenly queasy, "in the feast."

Liv looked down at the half dozen immaterial men before her. Most bore signs of their deaths, the raking wounds of wolves' claws or the gory result of a strong bite and the tearing of the flesh as the wolf worried away at the prey. They looked at Liv with with pain in they hollow eyes. One of the men, a black man, thin and bony, pleaded, "Find 'em miss. Find 'em an' avenge us."

[Cherry]

Cherry's expression remained set at Liv's words, but her jaw muscles could be seen to tighten as her teeth clenched.

After a moment she cleared her throat. "Ask them", she started to say, but then paused an instant as she seemed unsure of how to say what she was about to say. The pause was very short however, and then she said, "Ask th'spirits here if they can give us any more information. Numbers, an' the like. Please."

Unlike some of her fellow scions, Cherry still found such things as cannibal wolfmen and people seeing and speaking to the newly dead to be a bit unsettling.

[z-Olivia Jennings]

Liv nodded, looking a bit uneasy herself. She looked to spirits as Cherry spoke, swallowing hard. Despite being familiar with talking with spirits, she found it difficult speaking to people with horrendous gashes across their bodies. It was distracting talking to someone when you could see their Adam's apple working in the rip in their throat.

She looked to the spirits and, not sure if they were heeding Cherry, added, "Kin we have the numbers o' those who attacked ya? Any details ya kin give will help us avenge ya." She was more than willing to do this; no one deserved to die and be served up like a plate o' campfire beans. Anger and the need for Vengeance flowed through her. She choked back the worst of her rage for now. Now was the time to focus and prepare; unleashing her wrath on behalf of the dead would come later.

[Craig Rogers]

Craig nodded. "You're the only one here who can." Meanwhile Craig began digging a grave for the remains. There was no way he'd let them sit out to be picked over by the carrion birds, they'd suffered enough. He wouldn't be able to give them a proper marker, or even separate graves, but he'd at least see to their safe passage to the other side.

[Ouroboros]

The shade answered quickly, his voice still tinged with mortal pain, "Dere was two ov 'em, big beasts like no Godly wolf evah born. An' ah man, or pr'aps not ah man but ah thing in ah man's guise. He was direktin' dem like dey was 'is pets." The other shades murmured their agreement, two great beasts like wolves but unlike wolves and somebody or something directing them.

As Liv spoke with the dead men Craig wasted little time in finding a shovel, of which there were plenty in this mining camp, and got to work on a grave. The soil was hard and rocky but these men deserved a place of proper rest.

"Miss, ya goin' ta be careful now, dat man beast, 'e was bigger den yo' frein' dere, and twice as ugly as tha mo'nin afta. We don' know whut 'e was but 'e was trouble to be sure." The man looked at her with pleading eyes, and Liv knew that he could see who she really was, that he knew that she had the power to put them to rest so that they could move on to Ville Au Camp.

[z-Olivia Jennings]

"It's alright," she assured them. "We'll take care'o this. The Marshall'll put yer bodies ta peace, an' we'll git yer souls ta folla. An' don' worry about us - we kin take care'o ourselves."

She helped Craig dig the graves, wishing that they had time to sort and name the dead. Still, putting them in the ground was a start. It still took time, and she was dirty and sweaty when they finally finished. "Aight," she said, looking from one to the other. "Kin either o' you track? I kin make a stab at it, but it ain't my thing."

[Cherry]

Cherry nodded at Liv's question."I've ah-ready figured out th'way they came in an' the way they wennout. Seems they weren't too concerned with bein' followed."

She pointed and indicated where the 'wolves' had come in, briefly recounted the path they'd taken as they'd chased down and torn apart the miners, and then showed them the trail they had taken as they'd left.

"We goin' after 'em now?", she asked, glancing pointedly at their horses and the distinct lack of supplies they were carrying for an extended journey. Not to mention the fact they only had two horses between the three of them, which was hardly ideal. Cherry knew she could handle it if they wound up spending a week or more out in the wilderness with little or no supplies, but her companions she'd only just met and just because they were children of one god or goddess or another that didn't necessarily mean they were any less susceptible to hunger or thirst than the average mortal.

"Cuz I ken't say from here how far out they mighta gone... I s'pose I could track 'em on foot while y'all went back inta town fer whoever it was ya left back there. I could double back an' meet y'all back here at midday."

She looked to her new companions and silently waited to hear their thoughts, suggestions or approval of her own idea.

[z-Olivia Jennings]

"Naw, Ah got five men waitin' to help us back in town," Liv drawled tiredly. Turning, she called to Coby and the small stallion pranced over to her side. "We don' have to leave ya here. We kin just start back here iffen you want ta hit town fer somethin'. Or ya'll - you an' the good marshall - kin stay here an' Ah kin hoof it back fer supplies an' my posse." She mounted up as they mulled over their options. "Ah don' care which way ya'll wanna go, Ah jus' need ta get my gang so that we aren't fightin' with even numbers."

[Craig Rogers]

Craig nodded. "Let's get the others." He looks to Cherry. "Much as I'd like to say for you to go on ahead on foot, I don't think it the best course."

"We can wait here, and see if there are any useable supplies here, while you go back Ms. Jennings and gett your friends. Once you get back, we can head out after the wolves."

[Ouroboros]

Liv and Craig worked together to get the grave dug but it still took time. The ground was hard and rocky and by the time the remains were laid to rest the sun was closer to the zenith than not. An hour long ride back to town and then gathering up and readying her men followed by another hour long ride back to the encampment had the sun high in the sky and the temperature pushing well past civilized and into hellish. It was past high noon when the finally got started but between then Craig and Cherry had managed to salvage rations and a few bedrolls and blankets. Enough for themselves to cover their lack of supplies.

Cherry led them out and even without her preternatural tracking skill the way was easy. There was little rain in the badlands at this time of year and the canyons and bluffs broke up all but the harshest wind leaving the tracks in fair condition even now after a couple of days. The long strides of the wolves and their human (or whatever) companion however couldn't be matched for speed by the group. Eight people on seven horses could move only so quickly and less so for having to maintain a trail that nearly disappeared over stretches of occasional hard rocky shelf.

The sun burned skin and baked sweat off the bodies of the trackers all afternoon, and by the time it dipped toward the western horizon like a globe of molten glass Liv's five companions were looking like the need for a rest was imperative. The scions, with their god derived stamina, were better off though even still a meal and break from the trail would do them well, and would do their horses well. Still the trail beckoned and Craig's and Liv's mounts were more than mere mortal steeds, if the scions wanted to continue into the night that was their divine right.

[z-Olivia Jennings]

Liv looked to her companions, seeing the thoughts in their eyes. They could all press on, but the decision was coming down to her. Alone, she would have never risked it. The presence of the other Scions gave her options.

"Boys," she said, tipping her hat back as she glanced up at first star of the evening, "let's make camp here. Marshall, Ms. Cherry, if you'd like, we could push on after dinner. Give us and the horses a meal and a rest. What do you think?"

Her men exchanged nervous glances but said nothing. They were used to Liv taking off like this without warning. Liv caught their looks and said, "Don't worry, I'll be fine." She patted the burnt thigh bone in its resting place and gave them a meaningful smile.

[Cherry]

For Cherry, the course of action was simple - they needed to go on. Had everyone else in the party been of a mind to stay put, she would've as well - she wasn't suicidal after all - but it would have been difficult for her. After seeing what those wolves and their cannibalistic master were capable of, the idea of stopping for the night and resting comfortably while those monsters were still out there was not one that Cherry favored. As it was, having to stop the search and wait until after everyone had eaten their evening meal was apt to test her patience terribly.

Still, she understood that even other scions needed to stop for a rest from time to time. She didn't. But some did. And as for the mortals... well, she was surprised they'd lasted as long as they had, honestly.

Cherry nodded at Liv's suggestion. "Alright", was all she said.

[Craig Rogers]

"We move on." He nodded. "We can't give those monsters a chance to massacre another group of innocent people."

He nods to his horse and gives him a pat. "Grunir and I are ready to go." He'd grabbed one of the pickaxes from the mine, mostly as an afterthought. It'd be god to have a variety of weapons for this hunt.

[z-Olivia Jennings]

Liv nodded and hobbled Coby before loosening his saddle girth. As the stallion eagerly began to graze, Liv turned to help her men set up camp. "Are you sure?" Pete asked as they spread a ground layer down for his tent. "Can you trust these guys?"

Liv hesitated only moment. "Yah, Ah kin. Papa said there'd be others like me to help me," she told him, smiling with assurance. "They're jus' here ta help."

There was no more discussion. Camp was made and dinner cooked, and by the time sunset was done they were back on the road. "Kin ya see inna dark?" she asked Cherry. "Otherwise, trackin's gonna be ah bit'a trick."

[Cherry]

"Not in the dark, per se", Cherry answered quietly. "But so long as there's even a bit o' light, I'll be fine."

She glanced up at the stars and the moon overhead and then back down at her companions. "Let's just hope it don't cloud over none.

What about y'all?", she asked. If she were leading a couple of blind folks about in the night, Cherry figured she might as well find out about it now, rather than later.

[Craig Rogers]

"I can't no, no better than anyone else. I'll manage though. worse come to worst I'll be our decoy."

He nodded, "I can see well enough right now thanks to the moon, but anything ling distance is right out."

[z-Olivia Jennings]

"Don' worry about me none," Liv said, smiling and tugging the brim of her hat a bit tighter on her head. "I ain't gonna have any trouble t'night." She cleaned out her food tin and packed it again. She poured a last cup of coffee and downed it, wincing at the bitter taste of the dregs.

"A'right," she said, standing. "Ah'm ready ta go if ya'll are."

[Ouroboros]

Despite their earlier protests that they could continue after a meal and short rest most of Liv's companions had either drifted to sleep or showed their fatigue obviously as they scions readied to depart. With words of farewell and assurances that things would be ok Liv and the others left, returning to the trail now two days old.

The two horses allowed themselves to be directed down the path as indicated by Cherry, riding with the marshal on his massive stallion. The three scions moved through the moonlit night in relative silence. The darkness slowed their ability to follow the trail significantly, their horses unable to move faster than a steady walk over the uneven rocky ground for the minimal lighting. The hours wore on until well into the night, the moon starting its downward journey out of the sky they came to the open end of a box canyon. The trail led within.

[Cherry]

Cherry gazed into the canyon for a few moments, and then turned to her new companions.

"Be a shame ta waste alla them big, strong fellas ya brought along withya", she said softly to Liv, unconsciously smiling a very shady lady's smile as she spoke of Liv's (male) companions. Old habits died hard.

She took another look into the canyon's depths and then unexpectedly slid off the back of Craig's horse. She pulled the Henry from over her shoulder and slid one delicate hand into the rifle's brass lever-action reloader, and then began to amble unhurriedly towards the canyon's head.

"Why don't y'all go round 'em up", she called quietly over one shoulder. "You'll make better time what with the sun comin' up an' with only one rider a horse, an' I can keep an eye out here in the meantime. Be easy to keep 'em boxed in 'til y'all come back, what with the way out bein' so narrow an' all."

Of course Cherry knew there was no particular reason to send two riders back to camp for Liv's mortal friends, but there wasn't any reason for two scions to stand around guarding the open end of a box canyon either. Plus, Cherry figured she could retreat up one side of the canyon or the other more quickly and easily than either of her companions (though it was always hard to tell, when it came to the children of the gods), if things went to hell.

And besides; it just wasn't in Cherry nature to ask for help.

[Craig Rogers]

"Even so, it'll take the better part of a day to ride back to camp and back here. No, we said we'd forge ahead with the three of us, and that's how it's gonna have to be."

He didn't like it, but it was true. He checked the gun his Father'd given him and smiled. Shoot true old friend, I'm gonna be counting on you. He made sure the whip was ready at his hip, and hefted the pickaxe. "Let's get to it then, I wouldn't want to keep these things waiting on their order of Justice."

[Cherry]

Cherry stopped her amble and turned to look at the big Marshal. Cocking a pretty eyebrow at him, she drawled, "Well, sure. It'll take most o' the day to get there an' back if ya move at the turtle's pace we used gettin' out here. But even if y'all were to let those fine lookin' stallions trot all th'way back ta camp, I reckon ya'd make it back here long before the day was over. If ya tried gallopin', ya might even get back here 'fore noon."

Cherry swung her Henry up and let the barrel fall on one shoulder as she smirked at Marshal Rogers in mild annoyance. "But I guess if yer horse is too delicate for such things then there's nothin' for it", she said, the sarcasm evident in her tone, "I suppose we must go on then."

More softly, but still plenty loud enough to be heard, Cherry muttered, "Makes a body wonder what we bothered bringin' 'em all for, though. Coulda made better time without 'em."

[Craig Rogers]

Craig looked at Cherry hard. "Ain't nothin' delicate about Grunir, at all."

He nodded. "Besides they'll be able to rack us easy enough, and after a night's rest they'll be riding hard after us. In the army, it was always good to have Reinforcements you know you can count on, if they might be needed."

"I say we handle this, just the three of us, and if we're not done when they get here, then they'll help us get done quick."

[z-Olivia Jennings]

Liv kicked a foot out of her stirrup as the other two bantered back and forth. "Pete 'n the othas will be comin' fast as they kin," she said easily. She twisted and maneuvered so that she could hook her free leg around the saddle horn and stretch, feeling the long hours in the saddle as a slight tension in her body. "'Till then, Ah reckon we shoul' leave th' horses here and go it on foot. They'll be a detriment in tha' canyon shoul' we have ta climb out."

She kicked her other foot free of its stirrup and slid to the ground, sending a plume of dust up at her landing. She pulled her thighbone out from its place on the saddle and used a bit of rawhide to tie it to her belt. "'Sides, it won' be th' three o' us. Ah gotta ace in my sleeve iffin' we get in o'er our heads." She considered a moment and then decided that it was time for full disclosure. "Ah kin call some more men. What'd Papa call it? Ah, yeah... summonin'. But it's best ta do this at night."

[Cherry]

Cherry smiled slyly at Craig's retort, but said nothing. Instead she held her piece after Craig finished and listened silently to what Liv had to share, her golden eyes gleaming softly from within the shadows cast by the moon on her straw hat and her expression unreadable.

"Fair enough", she said simply when Liv had finished. Cherry turned and regarded the canyon's shadowed entrance, considering. "Yep", she said in her soft voice, "was gonna suggest we leave the horses in any case. Won't need 'em in there..."

She continued to stare thoughtfully into the canyon for another moment. Finally, she turned to Liv and Craig. "I ain't really used ta workin' with others", she offered as a kind of disclaimer, "so y'all tell me if this idea's bosh er not; but hows about I climb t'the top o' the canyon and follow y'all from there with my rifle? That way I can offer coverin' fire from the high ground if'n things come a cropper an ya need to skedaddle outta there."

[z-Olivia Jennings]

Liv considered, then nodded. "Sure," she drawled out. "Marshall, ya got enough light that you can follow me?" She hoped so; they'd look damned funny if she had to lead him by his hand. She checked to be sure she was full up on ammo and that she had all her Relics with her. "We ready ta get ta millin?" she asked after she was done.

[Craig Rogers]

"I'll be fine, there's enough for me to see far enough. After travelin so long in it, my eyes are used to it by now." He was ready to go, and nodded.

[Ouroboros]

The Scions didn't bother to tie up their horses, there was little need and plenty of reason why time may be of the essence later. Walking side by side Liv and Craig headed into the mouth of the box canyon, the walls of which rose up steeply on either side. The floor of the canyon was a convex affair wide enough for the three abreast leaving them plenty of room, the floor was strewn with pebbles and larger rocks signaling that once water had rushed through here cutting away the looser light soil and leaving the rocky remnants behind.

As they moved deeper into the canyon the tall steep sides cast deep shadows that cut off the light of the moon and all but eliminated visibility for Craig. Even Cherry's divinely enhanced eyes would have found it too dark to see beyond the reach of the end of her weapon's barrel. It was damn dark. Ahead they could smell something awful, something that overpowered the scent of everything else.

They'd progressed less than a dozen yards into the canyon before only the dark child of the Loa was the only one able to see. Looking above Liv could see that the walls were growing closer at the top of the canyon and that soon the apparent canyon would become a very real cave with little hope of more light for her companions, or her spectral followers, to see by. They needed light, or a different tactic altogether.

Cherry, alone, scrambled up the loose scree on the outside of the canyon's mouth and toward the top. It took some time, and stealth was no option given the terrain and loose rocky soil but she soon attained the top and was able to walk carefully along the edge of the gap. Ahead she could see that the opening narrowed and eventually disappeared. Looking down into the canyon itself was basically impossible, too little light passed in through the steep walls to illuminate the inside; the marshal would be blind within, and even Cherry would have been all but blind were she down there.

OOC: Picture is to give you guys an idea of what the mouth of the canyon looks like.

Cherry, per our discussion, your rank 2 Samsara Boon (Karma) activates as Cherry realizes that the creatures they are hunting have become aware of your presences.

Edit: fixed my boo-boo, Cherry is up above now.

[Cherry]

Cherry cursed mentally as the darkness within the canyon increased to the point where even her nearly all-penetrating gaze was stymied and rendered all but useless. She'd said they should've waited 'til daylight and gone back for Liv's companions. Now what were they gonna do?

Kneeling at the canyon's edge, she called down in a loud whisper - not that it really mattered at this point - "Hey! Y'all might wanna consider retreatin'. They know we're here, an' I don't know 'bout you two, but I cain't barely see nothin down there!"

[Craig Rogers]

"Damn, knew I shoulda brought a stick of dynamite." He sighed. "I can't see either." This whole situation had him annoyed. There was little that could be done.

[z-Olivia Jennings]

"Aight, change o' plans," Liv said, her voice low and calm, "Ah kin see. Marshall, back out slowly. Take yer time, don't push yerself an' stumble an' break sumthin. Ah'll cover ya'll's retreat - Cherry, if Ah start firin' do what ya kin."

Liv took the point and secured her rifle to her shoulder. Her guts clinched tight with fear, but she held the rifle steady. She was determined to get out of this alive.