Chapter IV - Comancheria (Charlie & Ezekiel)

[Bluetongue]

'Sarge' Ezekiel

Yes, the wagon train circle is breaking into a line to make a dash up the road to find a spot with water.

viewtopic.php?p=692708#p692708

I guess the river or creek 500 yards away doesn't count.

Making a break for it in daylight is a good thing I think if they stick close together and we drive sufficient horses away in the other direction. I was thinking the Comanches would not be more than a couple of miles away, especially as they out number the wagon train on a warrior vs settler basis.

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

We need to observe but not be observed. Any sight or sound of us will blow our plan apart.

[jemmus]

The river/creek visible on the map isn't visible to the settlers (my bad), but Sykes would know that it's somewhere around from a basic paper map of south-central. But they need to find it where it runs onto flat ground. Trying to drive the wagon over the rough hills with just wild game trails would be next to impossible.

With their Indian Contact skills, Ezekiel and Charlie know that the Comanches (and all of the tribes) keep their mobile villages well hidden and well away from American settlements. U.S. Army General William Tecumseh Sherman, commander of the Military Division of the Missouri responsible for pacifying the tribes, has declared total war on any tribe that doesn't comply with the order to surrender and relocate to its designated reservation. By that he means, any member of the population, male or female, child or elderly, is an enemy combatant. And he wants the buffalo killed, to deprive the Plains tribes of their main source of food.


His subordinate General Phil Sheridan, commander of all of the Army generals in the West, has ordered them to find and destroy any defiant tribe's villages.

The Army has the firepower on its side-- if it can find a village, it will quickly eliminate it, and most of its warriors as well. But the Army units move slowly, and its soldiers are mostly inexperienced and they and their officers don't know the land or have daily wilderness survival skills.

The Comanches and other Plains tribes have mobility on their side-- if they find a detached Army unit (firewood cutters, a detachment cutting grass for horse fodder, wagons gathering stones for a new fort's construction, for example) they will quickly eliminate it, to the last man. The warriors can move quickly over long ranges, and they have been training as hunters and warriors since childhood. They and their horses can live for days and weeks without returning to their base camp in their well-known nomadic territorial lands.

Both sides rely on scouts for knowledge of the enemy's position, movement, composition, and numbers. The Army relies on Anglo, mixed Anglo and Indian, or pure Indian men who have spent years in the area and speak the local languages.

Charlie and Ezekiel guess that Comanches do the same, but the differences might be pretty great. Some of the warriors scout ahead, others dismount and track and follow sign. All orienteer, the old childhood friends who grew up together marking this place or other as they come into sight, and recalling an event that happened there at some time or other.

How do the scouts go about looking for the Comanche horse herd? What direction from the wagon train do you ride?

[Bluetongue]

Ezekiel: Observation (14) [1d20]=11 Indian Contact (13) [1d20]=1

Well there was a group of riders north of the wagon circle and a group south, both of which departed to the west. My feeling is that unless a war camp of braves is located within a handful of miles, five at most, then the immediacy of any threat to the settlers should be reconsidered.

My idea is to locate their camp and sneak around the rear in a wide circle rather than contact any Comanche directly. How do we go about locating them? Well surely these groups of twenty-five plus riders are going to leave a discernible trail since they only left the wagons a few hours earlier.

[Rex]

Charlie

If we don't spot sign of the camp from the tallest point then Charlie agrees to try tracking them. He will keep low/belly crawl while up high so he isn't silhouetted.

[jemmus]

Ezekiel and Charlie ride west, mounting high points to look for signs of the Comanches, their horse herd, or their village. They look for place that would seem to have what a Comanche village would need: access to water, grass for grazing horses, and-- probably most of all-- cover and concealment for the young and the elderly. But the scouts know that the Comanches' perhaps only weakness is their arrogance as the overlords of the southern plains. The fear no other tribe, and do date, no slow-moving Army has ever caught them anywhere close to unaware. Perhaps, with only the wagon train and settlers known to be nearby, they'll confidently let their guard down some. Perhaps.

Need a Scouting roll from each PC to try to spot the Comanches from high points. They'll cover the first hour's scouting of around 4-5 miles.

Scouting
It deals with the bigger questions
like can the character find the indian village?
Can he get an accurate count of the warriors
and their weapons? Can he spot their sentries,
their source of water, or identify how
many different tribes are represented? Skill
checks can determine whether the scouting
character find what he's looking for, whether
he avoids discovery, and whether he gets the
facts right about what he saw.

[Rex]

Charlie

Scouting (14) [1d20]=2 [1d20]=19 [1d20]=11

[Bluetongue]

'Sarge' Ezekiel

Ezekiel: Observation (14) [1d20]=7 Luck (7) [1d20]=11

Sarge Ezekiel: (11) Scouting [1d20]=14

Feels he is missing something.

[jemmus]

Per the rules, mounted men travel 2 miles per hour in hilly terrain. But with being cautious and scouting for signs of the Comanches, they're averaging 1.5 miles per hour. But when needed, horses can sprint and cover from 10 to 16 miles per hour, depending on the quality of the horse.

It's around 10:30 AM, and Charlie and Ezekiel have ridden around 6 miles west from the wagon train. They pick their way up the side of a higher hill, going from bush to tree to bush to maintain cover. At the top they stop and stand their horses under the branches of a thorny mesquite. They scan the hills and grassy plains to the west, southwest, and northwest. Charlie catches a glimpse of something to the northwest. A mile or more away, the open sky over the rolling savannah is interrupted by something. Behind a brushy hill, a faint plume of smoke trails to the south, then dissipates. Ezekiel notices Charlie's attention toward the place and spots the distant wisp of smoke as well. The scouts strain their eyes to spot sign of other plumes of smoke, to indicate the multiple cook fires of a village. But they only see one.

Ezekiel and Charlie know that this far west of the border of civilization, it's likely that only a few types of people would build a fire-- Comanches, their northern allies the Kiowa, or American buffalo hunters. Or maybe, but not likely, outlaws on the run.

[Rex]

Charlie

"Lets see what is over there and how we can utilize the information."

[Bluetongue]

'Sarge' Ezekiel

"Sure, let's go investigate."

Sarge Ezekiel: (11) Scouting [1d20]=18

Sun must be in his eyes today.

[jemmus]

The scouts ride toward the rising trail of smoke, taking precautions not to be caught by surprise. Buzzards circle high in the sky around the area of the smoke. Charlie and Ezekiel ride around the foot of the hill before the smoke and cautiously take a look. The remains of a burnt wagon lie on the ground smoking. Around it are the bodies of four Anglo men, stripped naked and horribly mutilated. Three buzzard hop on the ground, stretching their necks to feast. The effects of slow, unspeakable tortures inflicted on the men before their deaths are apparent. Two stacks of buffalo hides, three feet high each, lie on the ground. The wagon's horses or mules are nowhere to be seen.

[Rex]

Charlie

"Waste of good hides, the Comanche know better must have been in a hurry. Doesn't look very old must be some braves at least nearby."

[Bluetongue]

'Sarge' Ezekiel

Will check any belongings tossed aside to gather any identifying documents or personals of the deceased. At least he can let authorities know should we get to the fort.

If this is recent, I wonder if the Comanche war party are sated with their blood lust and having some violence committed upon the buffalo hunterd, will disregard the wagons that look to pass through their territory.

It's around 10:30 AM, and Charlie and Ezekiel have ridden around 6 miles west from the wagon train

To be honest, six miles from the wagon circle is really about as far west as we ought to go. We can see smoke rise on a clear day from several more and unless more obvious camp are within the horizon, I would suggest we track north a while and failing to locate any Commanche camp, head towards the trail and wagon train.

[jemmus]

The bodies look pretty freshly killed. Ezekiel looks around for any of the slain men's effects, but finds none. Even the men's clothing is missing. There are a couple of spent shells from a large bore rifle or rifles on the ground, as well as the tracks of many horses. The only other notable objects, other than the smoking and smoldering axles of the wagon, are the two neat stacks of buffalo hides.

[Rex]

Charlie

"Lets head back to the wagon train, but we need to keep alert as I am sure they are near by."

[Bluetongue]

'Sarge' Ezekiel

Agrees. No point pressing in further. It might be they even broke camp and ride parallel to the wagin train looking for an opportunity to strike.

"Sure, let's head north and intercept them a few miles on."

[Rex]

Charlie

Charlie nods and leads the way north.

[jemmus]

Turn their horses' heads and back towards the north, to try to intercept the wagon train moving northwesterly on the road toward the town of Fredericksburg and Camp Mason. As they briskly ride through the country highly hazardous country the Mexicans call Comancheria-- "the domain of the Comanches," they think about the scene they'd just seen. The high circling buzzards. The stripped bodies of mutilated and horribly tortured Anglo American men. A single wagon, burnt to smoldering axle trees. A few large bore shells on the ground. Quickly brain-tanned but still wet buffalo hides, neatly stacked. The prints of many unshod "barefoot" horse hooves all around.

In this part of Texas, with a mile or two of flat or gently rolling plains of grass and scrub, interrupted by series of hills topped by shear upright limestone outcroppings, is wide and repetitive and tedious in places, and narrow, blind and wandering in others. The only common thing is: space and distance, and few folk in between. And the need for a good and strong horse to cover the distances.

The PCs can roll Orienteering rolls to navigate towards successfully intercepting the wagon train on the road. Otherwise they can just turn around and ride back the way they came. They know they'll eventually hit the line of the road. The drawback of that, of course, is the most recent attention-getting spot around there is the site last night's wagon train and the surrounding Comanches. And this time, there might not be any circled wagons or rifles behind them....

I hate to keep throwing skills rolls at you guys, but this is a scouts game, so it's a lot about being in the Southwest wilderness, reading clues, and hunting prey and possibly being hunted as well. In old D&D terms, it's a Wilderness Campaign, not a Dungeon Crawl. You have to use every skill at your PC's disposal. It might get a little wild. :)their c

Ezekiel and Charlie can post their thoughts about the massacre site in their private threads for a +2 bonus to any roll (only one), any time along the way. Or they can roll on Indian Contact for knowledge about it for +1 to any roll (only one), any time along the way./ooc]

[Rex]

Charlie


Orienteering (10) [1d20]=13

[Bluetongue]

'Sarge' Ezekiel

Sarge Ezekiel: (11) Scouting [1d20]=9

Ezekiel: Observation (14) [1d20]=19 Luck (7) [1d20]=9

are the two neat stacks of buffalo hides.

Is there much value in taking a few of these each? We can trade them on for silver dollars or gift them to the wagon train. To be honest, I was surprised the Comanche left them behind as the hides would make good garb surely.

Riding along he has some success and some lack of observance. Perhaps distracted by the gruesome scene and thinking it could have been the settlers not the hunters. Used to scenes of death, even firing squads. Gratuitous torture though does not fit easy with him whatever their reasons or pagan rituals demand.