Chapter 2 - Cash Dollars on the Hoof

[Grognardsw]

Paladin takes his turn with the spy glass, watching Charlie scout the house alone.

[jemmus]

Charlie

Charlie will sneak up and scout the house for himself.

Scouting (14)
Stealth (10)

Charlie is separated and seeing things the others may not see. In this case, I'll PM Rex rather than starting a separate thread.

Scouting. The ability to move through unknown or enemy territory gather useful information, and return to safety again without being detected is called scouting. This skill does not cover the immediate act of moving silently or without being seen, which are more properly covered by Stealth. Instead, 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 check 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.

Stealth. This skill allows a character to move silently or without being seen. Staying out of sight requires cover of some sort, whether it is rocks and brush or a crowd. Usually only a single roll is required to be stealthy. If the roll succeeds, anyone observing the area where the character is has his Observation score divided by three , rounded down, before making an Observation check.

[Grognardsw]

“What’s this about a new sheriff running away?” he asked the Tonkawa.

[jemmus]

Sorry, adding to the last GM post. Charlie is using Scouting and Stealth skills. The rules don't say how to handle those in mounted vs. dismounted situations.
Going to make a couple of houses rules.

Scouting - It's situational. If the terrain, cover, and distance allow the scout to approach and observe while mounted, he just rolls on his Scouting skill. Example: A U.S. Army cavalry troop in camped of the floor of a canyon. The scout is above on the rim of the canyon, and there's a low mesquite tree he and his horse can conceal under/behind. Roll only on Scouting skills.

If the terrain, cover, and distance leave the scout and his mount exposed to sight during the necessary approach, the scout has to take into account a couple of other things if he wants to scout while mounted. Basically, his Scouting skill will have to be averaged with some things about his particular horse's abilities/traits.
1) Average the horse's Coordination + Intelligence scores.
2) Then, average the character's Scouting skill score with the horse's score from 1) above. Per the general guidelines of the rules, you can round up.
3) Roll under that average for a success.
4) But wait, there's more. All characters have the Riding skill. The minimum it can be is 5. That would 0 plus the +5 modifier for such a low roll. (Well, that assumes that the character spent one of his valuable skill assignment options rolling for Riding skill. In which case, the worst of 2d6 roll would be a 2. With a +5, for 7. Otherwise, 0 +5 for Riding 5). If a character can roll under or equal to his Riding skill score, that adds +2 to all of the above.

Stealth movement from horseback - A good horse might be able to pull it off? But not common sense says most horses on four legs probably won't.

In other words:
-Scouting while on horseback is situational. It depends on the terrain, the cover, the distance, and the objective. GM will provide info to the scout as it comes up.
-Scouts can't depend on horses to also be good spies. They have minds concerns of their own, after all.

[jemmus]

Charlie dismounts, takes his rifle, and heads in a roundabout way toward the house. Sebastian settles down for a meal from this packed rations. Paladin asks the Tonkawa trackers about the Blanco County sheriff who ran away. The oldest man explains in a low voice in Tonkawa, and the man in the Army shirt interprets. First sheriff got scared and move away. Nobody want to be sheriff in Blanco County. New sheriff come from Austin. Comanche boys kill new farmers in west of county, steal woman and girl. New sheriff go to check. See very bad thing. Men and boys all cut up, like beef. Sheriff run back to Austin, fast. No sheriff Blanco County again.

Andreas surveys the house with his telescope and passes it to the other men. Through a window, a mustached man wearing a cowboy hat can be seen. He appears to be seated, and is looking downward at something in front of him. Occasionally his lips move as if speaking. Once in a while looks up, turns his head slightly to the left or right, and speaks.

Charlie is nowhere to be seen. It's almost dusk, and it should be dark in around a quarter hour.

[Rex]

Charlie

Charlie returns just after dark.

"Three men playing cards and talking about nothing important. Our horses are in a corral on the back of the house along with a bay horse I haven't seen before. Place is in bad shape, lucky it hasn't fallen down. Seems a good time to make our move."

[ateno]

"We should circle around behind and come from two different angles. Is there a back door, side door?
They dont appear to be much on watch, we got the bible reader up front and three in the main room. We should be able to get to the house without much trouble if we circle around.

Doos string his bow and turns to the Indians and speaks to them in a mixture of english, trade and local langage as he can.

"Its not your fight, but I ask if you c ould gather the horses as we go into the house?

[Rex]

Charlie

"The front and back, both have a door flanked by a window on each side. The other 2 sides each have a lone window."

[cybersavant]

Andreas Larson "Ve should to vatch all vindows."

[Bluetongue]

Sebastian

"Injuns got guns just as well as us. We might prefer the extra rifle power to suppress those bandits."

He says. Really he doesn't trust the Tonkawa to not gather up all the horses and ride off while we are pinned down exchanging gunfire with the first lot of horse thieves.

He loads his pistol, spinning the barrel and cleaning any grit out so that it reduces misfire chances. He practises a couple of quick draws and flourishes.

"I'll play wing man to whoever wants to come ride up to the front door."

[Grognardsw]

Paladin nodded in agreement with the plan.

[ateno]

"I'm really not really good in a shoot out, but my bow is a lot more quiet. I'll be in the groupd coming up from the back?

[Rex]

Charlie

"I am more the sneaky type then the direct front door type."

[redwarrior]

William Speaks up. It sounds like a plan. I'll go with the back door group. Maybe if we lay a lot of fire into the front, we can panic them to coming out the back? If the indians are willing, maybe they could take pot shots at the side windows? He checks the cylinder on his Colt.

[Grognardsw]

Paladin, the gunslinger with morals, said: "If we can get the drop on them, and they surrender, I'd rather not kill them. We outnumber them."

He knew that scenario was unlikely, but felt better for saying it.

He peered through the spyglass, assessing the sitution (Tactics).

"I'll join the front."

Tactics 14 [1d20]=7, Observation 13 [1d20]=13

[ateno]

Doos turns to the Indians and asks if they will cover the windows.



Judge Doos

[jemmus]

The oldest tracker says, Tonkawa not fight white man. Tonkawa shoot white man, white man hang Tonkawa. Tonkawa shoot white man horse thief, same. Tonkawa hold old Army horses.

[ateno]

The oldest tracker says, Tonkawa not fight white man. Tonkawa shoot white man, white man hang Tonkawa. Tonkawa shoot white man horse thief, same. Tonkawa hold old Army horses.

"Of course. it's your choice,"

[cybersavant]

Andreas Larson "I vas scout for der army." He holds ups his double action revolver. "I vill sneak to der side, cover der vindow."




scouting 9
stealth 15

[jemmus]

The window on the right of the front wall of the house lights up with the light of a coal oil lamp. The window on the right wall of the house throw light outside as well. The left window on the front remains dark, as does the outside of the left side of the house. Apparently there's a room in the left side of the house that the men haven't illuminated. If the house is typical of most around here, it has a living room, a bedroom, and maybe a kitchen.

Andreas quietly moves in the faint light of the half moon. Before long he has covered the almost 200 yards down the shallow slope to the house.

Does Andreas go to the left (west) wall's window or the right (east) wall's window?