Tale #1a: The Pygmy Goat Ranch

[Bluehorse]

Sheriff Wyatte

Looks to the line and then to Loam. He lowers his firearm and steps away from the lines drawn in the dirt, but still holds the shotgun at the ready just in case; slow to fully trust, but willing enough to try.

Alright. I'll bite. What's this all about?

[Samwell Turleton]

Loam sticks the butt of his walking stick into the ground near Wyatte's feet and pauses there for a moment before dragging the line back towards George and Lenny who busy themselves burying the debris. They have made good and quick work of it. Loam puts a hand to the ground and the dirt vibrates in the area that Lenny and George were standing in leaving an even and clean surface. Loam continues the line across that space.

The lines curve but do not cross. The lines fill the space between the boulders. The lines curve around you all so that you are a part of the pattern they form.

Loam pauses again near the center of the space and crouches over the stones placed in a spiral shape. He rings his bell once again and the sound reverberates intensely in your ears. The stones clatter like little chimes adding to the feeling of being in a space of transcendent sound. Your vision is seared through with color as if you had looked at the sun and the flood of light into your eyes is indigo, viridian, ochre, cobalt, and alizarin. The colors writhe in your eyes like snakes coiling their bodies into a knot around one another. The snakes of different colors arrange themselves and you are looking back at the lines in the boulder field, or it may still be a vision, and the lines are snakes of different colors forming one complete image that you can't fully identify.

Make a +Creep roll

[Marullus]

Creep: Lenny [2d6-1] = 11-1 = 10 George [2d6] = 3

[Bluehorse]

Sheriff Wyatte

What the F.....! he is cut off from finishing the phrase as his eyes are dazzled by the light. He clutches his shotgun tightly, trying to blink the display away.

Creep -2 [2d6-2] = 11-2 = 9

[Samwell Turleton]

Wyatte & George
The bell’s ringing ends.

The snakes slithering along the lines that Loam marked in the dirt all become a pure indigo in Wyatte and George’s vision.

The creatures vibrate as they move and George and Wyatte hear the following story.

Tale of the Budding Flower
In days of languor and plenty there was a serpent that grew restless. The serpent traveled far from its home where it came upon a budding plant in a pool of clear water. It had never seen anything like it before. It liked to observe the plant and the serpent had the time. The serpent watched as the buds of the plant transformed into leaves, shoots, and flowers. It saw that the plant was becoming beautiful, large, and strong. The serpent noticed that as the plant grew bigger the water was becoming murky. The serpent circled the water and grew annoyed at the budding plant.

How could the plant not realize that in its growth it was making the beautiful water murky?

The serpent waited and watched. As the water became less clear the flowers began to wilt. The colors went out of the petals and they began dropping from the flowers into the pool of water. The leaves turned brown and dry, dropped into the water, and the plant perished. A small seed from the plant was all that was left.

The serpent remained by the water's edge beyond the life of the plant and observed the water become clear again.

In time the small seed from the plant started to sprout. The serpent decided it would help the plant grow but only so big so that the plant could thrive and the water would remain clear.

Lenny

The bell’s ringing ends.

The snakes slithering along the lines that Loam marked in the dirt all become a pure cobalt in Lenny’s vision.

The creatures vibrate as they move and Lenny hears the following story.

Tale of the Cavern's Glow
In a cavern where no light could reach there lived a serpent. It could travel wherever it wanted and it knew of only darkness. One day a faint glow appeared in the distance and the serpent became curious. It traveled through the tunnels and caverns seeking the glow but the glow was always out of reach.

One day the serpent decided it would try a different approach. The serpent coiled itself up and rested its head in the center of its coiled body. It waited, and waited, and waited. The glow became brighter as the serpent waited but it also seemed like the glow was closer. The serpent couldn't wait anymore.

The serpent uncoiled itself forcefully striking at the glow. The glow shattered in an explosion and sent fragments in all directions as far as the serpent could see. All of the little pieces much dimmer by comparison to the glow but a beautiful tapestry of glittering and shimmering lights.

The serpent having touched the glow realized that it had changed as well. Its body became transparent. A piece of the glow had entered inside the serpent and was shining through the coils with an indigo, viridian, ochre, cobalt, and alizarin light.

The serpent was amazed by the explosion and at seeing so many fragments in all directions. It resolved that it would explore to find its favorite fragments.

Jeremiah

The bell’s ringing ends.

The snakes slithering along the lines that Loam marked in the dirt all become a pure alizarin in Jeremiah’s vision.

The creatures vibrate as they move and Jeremiah hears a story as well.

Wyatte = High (Indigo)
Lenny = High (Cobalt)
George = Low (Indigo)
Jeremiah = Low (Alizarin)

1 = indigo
2 = viridian
3 = ochre
4 = cobalt
5 = alizarin
Lenny [1d5] = 4, George [1d5] = 1, Jeremiah [1d5] = 5, Wyatte [1d5] = 1
Jeremiah [2d6] = 3

[Bluehorse]

Sheriff Wyatte

Blinks and looks around trying to dispell the fog of the vision.

What...? No... Stop it... That makes no sense... I have a job to do...

[Samwell Turleton]

Jeremiah sits heavily on the ground contemplating the vision. The dust blows gently over him and he blinks against it as it brushes against his face.

Loam remains crouched and leans his staff against a shoulder. He raises his hands horizontally to the ground and they begin to tremble. As he does this the surface of dust begins to drift outward from him exposing a stone surface. Your eyes are still dazzled by the light and you continue to see the imprint of the colored light in your eyes moving along the lines that Loam traced in the dusty surface. You begin to understand that the lines the snakes travel along form a larger image. The image is an abstraction of a large serpent.

[Marullus]

George knows about people thinking they know better, that they can do thinking for him. He hates that. "F'ing snake. We gonna farm and it's gonna grow," he mutters tersely as he comes out of his reverie.

Lenny laments, petting the white ruff heavily with his left hand. "Can't touch or it will break. No, no, no...." Wet tears run silently down his face, continuing to star absently at the blue lines before him. George comes and puts his hands on Lenny's shoulders. "S'alright, Lenny. He didn't mean to break it... It's alright...

As the dirt vibrates away, George sighs heavily and sets down his shovel. "Damn rock. Can't shovel THAT."

"Sheriff! You gotta come see this."

[Bluehorse]

Sheriff Wyatte

Shakes the last of the vision away and sets a firm expression as the no-nonsense Sheriff walks over to inspect the rock.

He looks at Loam and gestures to the rock. why all this when you could have just said sweep the dirt? And what is it for?

[Samwell Turleton]

Gold Bluff_v5.jpg (164.71 KiB) Viewed 901 times

[Samwell Turleton]

As the dust blows away from the center of the boulder field the edges of the stone clearly forms a circle that gently slopes away on all of its edges. The surface is covered in tooled markings and holes penetrate into the stone at regular intervals. Loam stays in his crouched position and slowly looks to George, Lenny, Jeremiah, and Wyatte.

[Samwell Turleton]

Gold Bluff_v6.jpg (164.16 KiB) Viewed 886 times

[Marullus]

Lenny pets his white rabbit fur muff. George looks expectantly back at Loam. After an uncomfortable silence, he says, "...What?" They look around, confused.

Investigate: Lenny [2d6] = 5 George [2d6-1] = 9-1 = 8

[Samwell Turleton]

George looks at the stone surface near to him and sees words etched into the stone in long rows across the entire surface. The rows of words snake around the surface and appear to be in different languages. Forming distinctive breaks in the long strings of words there are crude images of plants.

Loam leans his ear towards the ground and then stands up abruptly with what appears to be a movement of surprise and concern. A viscous black liquid begins to seep from some of the holes near his feet and in around the surface of the stone. He takes a few steps away from it and plants a bandaged foot into some of the fluid. The bandage rots away exposing Loam's blistered gray skin. A bolas skips across the stone where he was just standing and he looks towards the gap between the two large boulders to the north.

Wyatte hears the yip, yip, yip of dogs and turns to see a bolas hurtling through the air at him. The weights at the ends of the rope cinch your legs tightly together and you fall to your side. Two dogs with fur a mix of tans, brown, and black lunge for your throat as you fall to the ground. You bring your arm up to deflect the snapping jaws of one but the other latches onto your forearm.

George hears a similar bark of a dog as his legs are snapped tightly together and he falls to the ground. He feels a sharp pain in his calf as a dog latches on and twists its head from side to side.

Lenny Assess [2d6] = 11 George Assess [2d6] = 3
Wyatte - Assess [2d6-2] = 7-2 = 5
Assess Rolls - Jeremiah [2d6+1] = 10+1 = 11

Wyatte
Painted Dog 1 [2d6] = 3, Painted Dog 2 [2d6] = 7
Handler - Bolas [2d6] = 8
-1 Vitality (Bolas), -1 Vitality (Dog Bite)

George
Handler - Bolas [2d6] = 9
Painted Dog 3 [2d6] = 9
-1 Vitality (Bolas), -1 Vitality (Dog Bite)

Loam
Handler - Bolas [2d6] = 5

Notes: North is up in the image.

You will all take actions simultaneously and then I will put a turn order to it.

The entangled characters can't move but have use of their arms. You can attempt to disentangle yourself, you can be assisted in disentangling yourself, or you can put off freeing yourself to take some other action. You can justify the use of an attribute of your choice for that action.

[Bluehorse]

can Wyatte still fire on the dog with the shotgun using one hand? Any credit for point blank?

[Samwell Turleton]

The shotgun is labeled a close weapon. I don’t think that term was defined clearly in the rules but I feel this would be a distance and a circumstance you could use that weapon in.

There isn’t an additional bonus for the weapon for distance unless you use your throw lead skil, which I read to say that you can fire both guns at the same time and add a +2 bonus to the damage on a successful roll.

Note about throw lead: there doesn't appear to be a limit to the use of it, which I think is fine as the ammunition/reloading is a limitation that restricts the skill.

Note about psychic bond: You are able to split water or vitality throughout gameplay. I am interpreting this rule to mean that you can shift the damage as it is taken. To do this, please declare it per round if you intend to move damage taken to the character that didn't directly receive it.

Let me know if either of you interpret the rules differently, I am happy to compromise and would like to be in agreement before getting too far into a conflict.

[Bluehorse]

Sheriff Wyatte will go down with a grunt and point his guns at the attackers that are upon him. It was time to Throw Lead.

Throw Lead [2d6+2] = 7+2 = 9

[Samwell Turleton]

Could you clarify how you would like to direct the attacks?

The shotgun can target either of the dogs.

The six shooter can target either of the dogs or the handler standing in the opening to the west of the boulder field.

[Bluehorse]

i like that idea.

Shotgun at the dog on top of Wyatte

Six-Shooter at the handler because potential chaos is always fun.

[Marullus]

Lenny roars up to his feet, shovel in his beefy hands like an extension of his arm. "The Man-dogs!" He cracks the dog that is attacking George, blood welling in a half-moon bite mark on Lenny's shin as George gets bit. (3 harm, messy) If the dog is still aggressive, he hits it again - is not, he hits the one coming after the Sheriff. (are there other dogs?)

George keeps his calm as he finds himself the surprise chew toy of a mangy cur. He rolls away as Lenny hits the mutt and pulls out his knife, cutting himself free of the bolas. (Backbone)

Lenny attacks twice [2d6+3] = 9+3 = 12
Lenny attacks twice [2d6+3] = 6+3 = 9 George cuts himself free [2d6+3] = 10+3 = 13