Chapter IV - Comancheria (Charlie & Ezekiel)

[jemmus]

Sarge Ezekiel slaughters the yearling deer, guts it, and drapes it behind his saddle. He and Charlie reach a grove of wild pecan trees not far from a rise that would be good for observation or defense. Charlie mounts his and rides up to the top of the rise and observes in a all directions. He could easily walk on foot the couple of hundred of yards instead, but he rides. A man caught mounted on just two boots in these open spaces is about as good as a goner.

To the northeast, there's a low haze of dust. The herd of cattle rounded up and headed northward toward one of the main cattle trail to the railhead in Dodge City, Kansas. Charlie sees nothing of note except the next rise to west, which is a low limestone cliff, and far to the north, in the open grasslands, a herd of what are probably pronghorn antelopes. Overhead, a redtail hawk circles-- a prey on the ground has been detected, or is suspected. Observation: sucess.Ezekiel skins and butchers the deer and makes a small fire for roasting the liver, backstrap, tongue, and other choice parts. Charlie returns and collects bone-dry kindling and wood for a small, minimal smoke fire. Survival: success. Soon, the aroma of a fine prairielands meal fill the air. The individual squirrels stop on the branches to keenly study the men for a few moments, before going on with their incessant work of rushing to retrieve little, thick-shelled pecans on the ground, and scuttling away with them, in every direction. The scouts dine on an incomparable meal of foodstuffs harvested from the pristine wilds of the prairieland.

When dusk falls, Ezekiel takes watch on the rise. From the west, Ezekiel hears the sound of a wolf giving a short, snout upraised howl. It's silent for minutes. The sky grows dark and the stars come out. A gibbous Moon starts to rise and light the flats and rises, scattered copses, cedar breaks, and grasslands of the broken prairie. Big puffy cumulous clouds slowly, slowly, and ever so slowly move across the sky in the early summer sky.

A wolf to the northwest upraises its snout and cries a long, lonely howl to the Moon. Another does, to the southeast. Another, to the west. And two or three the same, to the southwest. Ezekiel Observation: successful.

Successful harvest, no rations deducted for the day.
TBC

[jemmus]

The Sun sets on the pecan grove at the foot of the rise. The Moon rises to halfway overhead, and the scouts' horses start to become nervous and restless, looking into the darkness of the surrounding trees. A four-legged shape emerges-- a wolf. The big male wolf's head is lowered and it looks at the two men.

The horses look at the horse anxiously, as if considering fight or flight. The wolf sniffs the air and looks at the deer carcass. From the opposite side of the little clear space in the woods, a female of nearly the same size emerges and stops. Charlie's horse snorts and Ezekiel's nickers in reply. The horses turn sideways keeping one wolf to their left and the other to their right. Three younger, but almost full-grown wolves emerge from the darkness from the other sides. The animals form a circle around the scouts, the horses, and the meat.

Actions?

[Rex]

Charlie

Charlie calmly cocks the hammer on his carbine and takes aim at the largest wolf (alpha male if he can tell), if it doesn't run immediately he shoots.

Rifle +1, Coordination 15 [1d20]=1

[jemmus]

That's a clear hit. Please roll the wound location (1d20) and wound severity (1d6). The tables are on p. 38. Since the range is Short, you can move the wound location up or down on the table by Charlie's Rifle skill number.

[Rex]

Charlie

Location [1d20]=18 severity [1d6]=5

Location is chest, I will bump it to head. That is a mortal wound.

[Bluetongue]

'Sarge' Ezekiel

A lone wolf? No, others sneak on the perimeter. I will go towards the horses and shoot at a wolf.

Ezekiel: Rifle (4): Careful Shot vs Dex 17 [1d20]=15

Wound Location [1d20]=14 Severity [1d6]=6

I think I can match Charlie.

[jemmus]

Charlie drops the big male with a shot through the head and killed the big female with a shot to the chest. The younger wolves scatter, then can be heard running to the south as a lamentfully howling pack.

The scouts take turns standing watches through the night. All is quiet except for the buzzing of big mosquitoes and the mournful crying of a whip-or-will somewhere out in the woods. The Sun rises on another clear, hot June day.

25 experience each, please update your sheets.
Please post your Observation rolls and Charlie's Survival roll. Do you take the venison? If so, did you cook it during the night?

[Rex]

Charlie

Observation (16) [1d20]=18
Survival (13) [1d20]=11

Charlie would have cooked enough veni for dinner and breakfast and if he had time dried enough for a couple of days.

Charlie will skin the wolves and clean the hides. Probably worth a bounty at the very least plus the value of the hide.

[jemmus]

Sarge?

[Bluetongue]

'Sarge' Ezekiel

Ezekiel: Observation (14) [1d20]=3 Luck (7) [1d20]=19

I think cooking the meat is best. Taking what we need anc leaving the carcass for the beasts and buzzards.

He seems to take the watchfulness seriously, especially after the gunshots and smell of death about.

[jemmus]

The scouts cook and dry the remainder of the venison. Ezekiel knows that the weight of the meat in his saddlebags will probably make his horse tire more quickly today, and slow it down in a sprint, but the extra provisions could come in handy along the way. They set out at dawn, still heading west.

The ground turns from hilly with bluffs into a plain of savannah grass and scrub trees and bushes. Lonely houses and barns can be seen every mile or so, surrounded by big herds of grazing longhorns. Cowboys sit on horses and smoke, or play guitars or banjos, or just sit. All look curiously at the pair, and most raise a hand in greeting. Charlie and Ezekiel see plenty of healthy mule deer and prairie chickens along the way.

The scouts strike a road running east-west, and following it west, make good progress. They come to a creek, which from Charlie's map, might possibly be the headwaters of the Guadalupe River. The horses drink deeply, and it's another chance to refill canteens. In the late afternoon, the scouts see dust up ahead. Continuing on, they make out a train of prairie schooner wagons on a road and heading north. It moves at a slow walking pace, the wagons draw by teams of horses, mules, and oxen. Settlers, probably coming from San Antonio and headed into the Comancheria to claim state land grant land. To get where they're going, the riders will have to pass through the train, or wait maybe a half hour or so for it to pass.

Actions?

[Rex]

Charlie

Charlie will just rest his horse and wait the 30 minutes.

[jemmus]

[Bluetongue]

'Sarge' Ezekiel

While Charlie watches and counts wagons, I will ride down, greeting an outrider and any wagon driver / foreman.

Sarge Ezekiel: Stature (7) [1d20]=6


I will express an interest in where they go, wishing them good fortune. I will share in regard to the recent Comanche raid on the herd and ask to if they have heard of the anthrax issue.

Having 'bounty hunter' roots, I am also aware not every traveller are legit settlers looking for 'a little house on the prairie'.

Ezekiel: Luck (7): [1d20]=13

Also ask about the fort and any interaction they have had with soldiers or even indian raiders.

[jemmus]

Sorry for the delay posting. I had some technical mishaps that set things back.

The wagon train trails north on the well-worn north-south road, trailing a herd of maybe 75, 80 cattle. It's so slow that geese walk beside wagons, and drive their long necks to snap up plentiful scared up bugs. Men in felt or straw hats or women in cotton bonnets click their tongues and cheeks to urge drawing horses, mules, or oxen forward. The train moves forward so slowly that geese walk beside wagons, snapping up insects disturbed alongside the roadbed. The clucking of numerous caged chickens is heard. All along, from this part of the train to the end, wagon, horse, ox, man or woman is covered with the yellow-brown dust the wagon train raises and floats above it in the air.

A Euro-descent man "dragging dust" as the wagons' rear guard sees Ezekiel and lopes his horse forward to the middle of the train, his hand raised in greeting. He stops about 10 yards out. Howdy! Randall Styles, out a San Antonio. The train is out a Castroville, west of San Antonio. Bound for Camp Mason and Camp McKavett northwest. Then to settle land north purchased from the state. A hundred and sixty acres per family. There's the sound of a small dog growling from inside a wagon, then barking furiously. Ezekiel sees the wiry-haired terrier standing with paws on the wagon's backboard, barking like all of tarnations.

In an instant it leaps out and onto the ground, and runs across the prairie grass to the west. A pretty girl on the seat of the wagon cries in alarm, Mister Grant! Mister Grant! Come back!

Styles says, That little fella will git snatched up by coyotes not the sense not to take on a rattler. I better go git im, Miss Blake adores that dog, and she's all alone after her brother died a fever after a little accident. I'm sorry mister, I ain't even caught yer name yet, but could I ask ya to spell on ridin rear scout for a few minutes? Or to retrieve that dog fer Miss Blake?

At his distance, Charlie can't hear the words spoken over the creaking of wheels, squeaking of wooden joints, lowing of cattle and oxen, honking of geese, voices of settlers talking among themselves along the train, and Mr. Grant's swiftly receding yapping. The wagon train in motion along the road to the forts is a surprisingly noisy thing. But Charlie can clearly see what has just happened.

Ezekiel's and Charlie's actions?

[Rex]

Charlie

Charlie will try and catch the terrier.

As needed rolls [1d20]=17 [1d20]=4 [1d20]=13

[Bluetongue]

'Sarge' Ezekiel

I will doff my hat, gesturing to Charlie to round up the loose dog.

"My scout Charlie can help run him down and bring him back. If'in he don't eat it first." he says.

"Mr Styles ... Ma'am" he acknowledges the duo, reining in his horse behind the wagons to cover for the suitor seeking to impress the spinster.

He wonders what jack rabbit or prairie mammal the dog may have got so worked up about and checks behind at the trailing cattle herd. His thoughts turn to the recent raid on the cowboy herd and considers this wagon train, pacing slow and lulled into a false security by the day's heat and long monotonous hours, may be considered easy pickings.

Ezekiel: Observation (14) [1d20]=3 Luck (7) [1d20]=15

He has bullets chambered in his rifle should any provocations occur.

[jemmus]

Charlie rides his horse after running terrier, passing through the middle of it on the road to the south-to-north road to the fort in Comacheria itself. He and his horse ride up and top a grassy rise, and see little terrier rat-killer barking furiously at dogs of a prairie dog town. Damn prairie dogs. They don't bother anyone. But they have tunnels to burrowed holes in the ground, and openings at the surface.

A horse walking on four legs head down can pick its way between the holes. But a horse running at full gallop risks a tumble and a disastrous fall.
The terrier barks his small head off and semi-circles the rodents, ready to charge in and snap a head and shake it to dead. But then, the dog looks to the west, and stops and whines. Loping along the next rise, probably on the road of the dusty settlers train.... The man rides over the next hilly rises, stops his horse for a long, still challenge. The with a distant whoop gallops to the left and then behind the shoulder of the next rise. The one shadowing the settler train that is.

[Rex]

Charlie

Does Charlie recognize the tribe?

Observation (16) [1d20]=11

Indian Contact (9) [1d20]=16

[jemmus]

Miss Blake is embarrassed by the abrupt attention. She wonders whether Ezekiel might have been a part of the famed but slighted 10th Cavalry regiment. The one given the honor of being called "Buffalo Soldiers" by the tribes. She starts to say, Mr. Ezekiel, were you a Buffalo...? But she stops, face flushed red with embarrassment, and turns her face downward, covered by its bonnet. The girl seems mortified to the core.

Charlie scans the eight horsemen who have ridden onto the crest of the rise. From the location of the place, the shape of the mustang ponies, it would make sense that they would be Comanches. But from the outlines of the headgear, they could be Kiowas ranging south, or southern Cheyenne bands doing the same. All wear eagle feathers in the hair or in a bonnet. One feather for each coup struck by hand on a live enemy warrior. Other feathers claimed and awarded upon leading a victorious campaign. Charlie saw a war bonnet with a train of feathers along the horizon. The little wire terrier changes it attention from the prairie dogs to the riders who have topped the rise. They seem to sit their horses for a moment, assessing barking dog and the lone rider. Then they whip their horses with their slim braided whips, scattering left, right, and forward....

Styles sees Miss Blakes's discomfort and quickly says, Sir, ah guess you have business of yer own, riding west like you and pardner are. But if you'd care to scout for this train, you'd be more than welcome. Fer pay, I'd guess that would grant of 160 acres, in prime cattle grazin land. Right on a creek that flows year round. Ah'm former Army myself. And a cavalry scout as well. But from the other side, of course. He touches fingers to brim. Sergeant, we shore could use extra horses, rifles and eyes guidin these wagons and families to there spots on the creek.

All's quiet on the road north to the Army fort. Except for the squeaking of turning wagon wheels, the huffs of collar horses, the grunts of oxen, the clucks of chickens in wagon, the lowing of trailing cattle, and the honks of stepping alongside geese. And the murmurs of chitchat and talk of domestic business all up and down the line of the chain.

Charlie and Ezekiel have noted quite a bit of firepower among the 40 or so men of the train, Men carrying single shot hunting rifles, and often walking alongside wagons. And about ready to shoot anything the moves or draws a breath.

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