Play@YSDC

Amanda fires a shot, at close range. The creature explodes, making the slime splash on her face full of anger and fear. Ivy reaches Emma and manages to dab his wound. The water level is rising, however, and now it has reached the waist of the characters.

One of the creatures bites Michael to his stomach, just as he was about to fire, so that his shot is deviated. The detective pushes the thing away from him, but the water around his waist begins to turn red, while the pain seems to devour him from the inside. The sound of the shot fired by Amanda has left the creature disoriented, as it seems to blindly search before preparing to hit again.

Michael,Michael loses 4 hit points. Still conscious but week

Kathryn shoots two more shots, and one of them seems to have hit the shapeless agglomeration in a critical point, maybe the core of something vaguely working as a nervous system. The mud seems to melt and its components are diluted with water in front of Kathryn's eyes.

The last creature attacks Amanda but bites the handle of his rifle.

Seeing how grievously Michael is injured, Kathryn fires at the creature that did it. Her knowledge of these things' weakness serves her in good stead, and she is able once again to hit it in that vulnerable spot. She empties her revolver, but her last two bullets aren't quite as accurate, though one of them does strike a remaining creature.

OOC,Firearms(Handgun) roll (65% skill) shooting at the creature attacking [b]Michael[/b]: [dice]0[/dice] Bonus die for point blank range: [dice]1[/dice] Woohoo! 8-) Another impale: Damage to creature from impaling .38 bullet: [dice]2[/dice] Firearms(Handgun) roll (65% skill) shooting at a creature (the one attacking [b]Amanda[/b] if the one attacking [b]Michael[/b] is now destroyed, which it probably is): [dice]3[/dice] Firearms(Handgun) roll (65% skill) shooting at a creature (the one attacking [b]Amanda[/b] if the one attacking [b]Michael[/b] is now destroyed, which it probably is): [dice]4[/dice] Spending 1 Luck to make that a hit. Damage to creature from .38 bullet: [dice]5[/dice]

Michael collapses into the blood-stained water, quickly oozing life. It looks like this might be the end.

"Hail Mary, full of grace . . ."

Alarmed at the rising water level, Ivy cries out.

"We need to get upstairs! Kathryn, can you help Mike? Amanda, cover us!"

Dodging what remains of the creatures as best she can, she begins to help Emma towards the stairs.

Kathryn continues to fire and as the last two creatures are hit, they disappear quickly in the salt water that generated them. The group can breathe a sigh of relief. Everyone reaches the stairs. The waters still rise a little, but does not reach the upper floor. The water soon become stagnant, and then level down following the tide. Amanda has an incredulous and desperate face, she doesn't know whether to be scared or full of anger.
"There is an infirmary in the city. I will take you there. They will give you a bit of serum and, make a bandage and sew the wounds."

When she sees that her misfortune bringer visitors are out of danger,s he allows herself to worry about his home. Much of what little she had got lost, and she will have difficulty in buying it back.

Salt water causes wounds to burn, but helps avoiding serious infections. No wounds have damaged vital organs, but Michael and Emma have lost some blood, and are still weak. Emma comes back to her senses, and finds herself on the upper floor, in this setting of calm after the storm.

Ivy is stunned by what has just occurred. However, once satisfied that Emma and Mike are stabilised, she ventures back downstairs to see if any more of Martin's belongings survived the flood.

After that she is happy for Amanda to take them to the hospital.

"Thanks," says Kathryn, exhaling with relief. "We could sure use that. I'm the least injured of all of us, but I could do with a visit to the hospital too. I don't know what those things were, but at least they can be killed. I've never fired a gun at anything living before, only inanimate targets." She reloads, just in case there any more of them out there.

"Wha . . . what just happened?" Michael hopes the sawbones have got some morphine, because he's hurting bad.

"A tidal wave hit, and four sea creatures attacked us," says Kathryn, scarcely believing it herself. "Somehow, I managed to kill three of them. Amanda got the other one."

"I am at a loss. What on earth were those things? At least I have Martin's notebook; maybe this will provide us with some clues." Ivy frowns. "This isn't just a simple missing child case, is it?"

"I've no idea what they were," says Kathryn, "but it's good to know they're mortal. You're right, we're in way over our heads. We'll have plenty of time to read those notes while we're in the hospital."

While he's recovering, Michael asks for some reading material from the hospital staff.

"Any old newspaper reports, almanacs, whatever, about sudden ocean floods like what just happened? Somethin' like that gotta be news."

"We were also planning to go to the docks weren't we? However I think we've had enough of the sea for a while. Perhaps I should head to the local library and see what I can find there."