Chapter III - The Street of San Marcos (Charlie & Ezekiel)

[Rex]

Charlie

Charlie will pick up the following:
4 canteens (fill with water)
map
4 days food

$6 plus the food.

[jemmus]

Survival rations are $1.50 per day. You also need mess kits ($2.00).
New PC Ezekiel should roll for 6D6 extra dollars, if he didn't already.

[Rex]

Charlie's sheet is updated.

[jemmus]

Bump

[Rex]

I was waiting for Ezekiel to post.

[Bluetongue]

Sarge Ezekiel goes shopping in the mercantile, replicating the supplies taken by Charlie.

I have added rations and water to my sheet.

sorry I have been away from keyboard for personal reasons.

As far as the route, sticking by the river looks the most sensible and easier to navigate with than many strange gullies and canyons.

Good to go.

[jemmus]

Welcome back, bluetongue! Understood. Stuff happens... nice when it doesn't.

It's around half past noon in San Marcos, Texas. Charlie and Ezekiel are back in town after the morning spent riding to the Tonkawa camp, the events there, and the ride back.
They're stocked up on days out on the prairie and in the rocky desert cliffs and canyons. They estimate that it's around a six, seven or eight days ride to the U.S. Army's Camp Clark, if they push it ride 16 hours a day. And they both rest and sleep for eight hours a day, with neither of them awake and watching. And if they can ride directly to the fort, without any delays, detours, or setbacks.

The biggest part of the ride will be through Comanche territory. There are a few things they know about Comanches.
If there's a wolf pack around, there's probably a buffalo herd around too. And if there's a buffalo herd around, there are probably Comanches around as well. They prefer to use the long Comanche lance for killing buffalo. But that doesn't they don't also carry rifles and pistols for defense or offense against humans.

Ezekiel's good quarter horse and Charlie's good Arabian-Texas horse can probably outrun most Comanche mustang-stock horses. But there are outliers among Indian horses. And Comanches are experts at stealing U.S. Army horses. Most of those are average stock, but some officer's horse are fine animals.

Comanches tend to ride during the day and raid settlements, cattle drives, and settlers wagon trains at night. They aren't known to have, as yet, assaulted a well-armed and defended fixed position such as a fort.

The Comanches thoroughly despise Anglo buffalo hunters, and will form up missions to hunt them down and exterminate them. Plenty of buffalo hunters have come into Texas recently, and more are still pouring in. They tend to travel in groups of three to six or so with a wagon for transporting the hide. They tend to be rough, ignorant, unscrupulous, and thoroughly dirty and smelly men. The hides are sold to merchants who ship them Back East. They're used for leather for belts to turn machine parts at high speed, and there's a tremendous demand for them.

A sign that buffalo hunters have been around is an unusual amount of scavenger coyote packs in the area. And of course a multitude of circling buzzards in the air. The hunters take only the hide, and leave the carcass and meat on the prairie. Many times they take just a fraction of the hides of the decimated herd. Some bulls, cows and calves are shot only for target practice, bragging rights, or for just the hell of it. The Comanches reserve their slowest, most specialized, and most detailed and elaborate torment for a buffalo hunter.

Charlie and Ezekiel can set off now, at around 12:30 PM. The BH rules allow characters to ride and cover ground 16 hours per day. But I think that assumes a large party of characters, with brief watches each, or no watches, or no watches at all. If Ezekiel and Charlie decide to have somebody keep two eyes open at all times, they can only travel 12 hours per day (8 hours rest for tending to horses, cooking and eating meals, sleep, etc. + 4 hours standing watch = 12 hours travel per day). 75% of the estimated miles covered each day. So 6+, instead of the around 5 originally posted. Sorry, if you want to revise your provisioning purchases, please do so and mark your sheets. If you decide not to set watches out on the wide and sparsely populated plains of the lone prairie, you'll travel at the initial rate. 16 hours per day (66 miles) instead of the two-man watches rate of 12 hours per day (49.5 miles per day).

Do you set off now, or wait until tomorrow morning? The time you set out would determine the timing of each 16or 12-hour day of riding (and the time of day while passing through Comanche territory). But you could reset the schedule later, by resting for a longer period sometime.

The two scouts, Ezekiel and Charlie, load their saddlebags with their purchased provisions, examine their horse's hooves, and hold their big heads in their hands, examining the ears, teeth, eyes. And the spirit for a long ride into the frontier and the unknown. The horses seem not to understand the specifics of the journey. But they shake their heads and manes. They're ready.

[Rex]

Charlie

"I suggest we head out in the morning and travel for 12 hours a day."

Charlie will up the food he is buying to 14 days total. Sheet updated.

[jemmus]

If you stay the night in San Marcos, the hotel is $.75. Two cheap meals would be $.50, or you can spend 2/3rd of a day's survival rations. (Survival rations are $1.50/day-- not cheap).

[Rex]

Charlie will still pay for the rations, they are worth it even if pricey.

[Bluetongue]

I am fine setting off in the morning and if we can get on the saloon owner's good side, he might be aware of our endeavour and can recommend to us any other 'lonesome stranger' with sharp eyes and a quick draw hand who might be useful as a third companion.

Bearing that in mind, I will pay my room, hot bath, clean laundry and breakfast.