The Unseen Servant forums

Boomy
"Hell, I'n need your money, kid. I got my girl Delilah right here- we'll aid and abet your mission. Folk call me 'Boomy'."
The Old Timer flicked the cigarette away, and pulled forth an old-world steel horse. He hurriedly walked it towards the stable along with Peppermint.

FarseersSeeFar wrote: ↑Sun May 01, 2022 12:24 am The Old Timer flicked the cigarette away, and pulled forth an old-world steel horse. He hurriedly walked it towards the stable along with Peppermint.

Peppermint
Trying to keep pace with the old man sets off a bout a wracking coughs, which Peppermint stifles with a handkerchief. Catching up, he looks admiringly at the steel horse. "Oh, that's fine lookin', classic model you got there. I had my hopes set on something along those lines, but ended up with something a mite more... eccentric."

He thumbs a clicker and activates his own steed, a mechanical goat with long, curving horns. "Power up, Barnabas, we're heading out into the desert. Initiate a convoy protocol with the following models..." He rattles off the IDs for Quicksilver and Eyeless'es speeder bikes (I'm presuming that they gave this information to him when he volunteered to go get them). "Everybody, get yer heaters on line, it's gonna be cold out there. Boomer, can you take lead on the convoy? I'll go get the walkin' birds tackle, and follow along."

Peppermint approaches the bird calmly and carefully, knowing from hard experience not to spook one. "Here we go, purdy girl. We're gonna go find Miss Violet."

Boomy

He grunts in agreement, raising an eyebrow at the individual's concerning cough- he'd seen plenty lost to disease- but this kid was still a'walkin'.
Mounting his ride, he whistled at the bird and reared the engine- driving at a pace that would allow for Peppermint to follow.

It's dark-ish now. The town lights provide a diffuse whitish glow where you are. Out in the desert there's starlight; you can see the mesa in that bluish tint, which glints off the panels so that it's like there are stars on the mesa as well as up in the sky.

"So ... you gunna track this thing in the dark?" asks Sheriff Dawkins skeptically. You notice he has a lump of something tucked between his gum and his lower lip.

Peppermint
The caravan of rides returns to the machine shop, so that everyone can saddle up. "I figure we shouldn't let the trail get any colder than it is. Everybody ready? Boomer, you up to heading out into the dessert?

"Sheriff, you've had a minute to consider my ask. Y'got anything for us?"

Passing the reins to Violet, Peppermint says, "That's a fine bird y'got there."

Throwing a leg over his mechanical goat, he instructs, "Barnabas, end convoy mode, but keep pinging the other mounts, in case anyone gets separated."

Violet

tibbius wrote: ↑Sun May 08, 2022 3:29 pm "So ... you gunna track this thing in the dark?" asks Sheriff Dawkins skeptically. You notice he has a lump of something tucked between his gum and his lower lip.

"Reckon I'll give it a shot."

Survival: [1d8]=7

Even in the dim glow of the town lights, the beast's clawed tracks stand out in the dry clay soil. They lead between a pair of abandoned buildings, across a quarter acre of sparse prickly pears, and ... to the edge of the gulch. It's not a sheer drop off, but really steep.

Sheriff Dawkins, who followed on foot, looks over Violet's shoulder in a blatantly condescending way. "So, yuh reckon it went down in there? Reckon mebbe y'should try another way down ... the road south from town goes out to Shady Acres, yuh could head up the gulch from there."

tibbius wrote: ↑Sun May 08, 2022 8:51 pm Even in the dim glow of the town lights, the beast's clawed tracks stand out in the dry clay soil. They lead between a pair of abandoned buildings, across a quarter acre of sparse prickly pears, and ... to the edge of the gulch. It's not a sheer drop off, but really steep.

Sheriff Dawkins, who followed on foot, looks over Violet's shoulder in a blatantly condescending way. "So, yuh reckon it went down in there? Reckon mebbe y'should try another way down ... the road south from town goes out to Shady Acres, yuh could head up the gulch from there."

Boomy
"Roll down a hill, or deal with the folk 'round shady acres. I picked worser poisons in the war, so I'll give the decision to you youngsters."

Eyeless

Eyeless hasn't said a word since the posse made their way from Vee's. It's barrel broken so as not to shoot, he nonetheless looks through the scope of their longhorn rifle to get a close look at the beast's demesne.

Peppermint peers down into the ravine's side to see if it there is any chance of navigating it.
Survival [1d8]=8

Pulpatoon wrote: ↑Mon May 09, 2022 1:22 pm Peppermint peers down into the ravine's side to see if it there is any chance of navigating it.
Survival [1d8]=8
Peppermint perceives it's possible to proceed by clambering down the crumbled clay and rock of the gulch. Vehicles certainly can't go that way, though.

seanfsmith wrote: ↑Mon May 09, 2022 12:35 pm Eyeless

Eyeless hasn't said a word since the posse made their way from Vee's. It's barrel broken so as not to shoot, he nonetheless looks through the scope of their longhorn rifle to get a close look at the beast's demesne.

Scanning the mesa with the scope in night-vision mode reveals a rugged mass of sandstone and clay, carved away by some ancient river that has long since diminished to the muddy warm stream that trickles from left to right along the bottom of the gulch. Just as Eyeless sighs and shrugs, he notices a dark spot near the base of the mesa. A cavern opening? Indeed. A rivulet issues from it into the main stream.

Eyeless

"Cave mouth. There."

They point: sinuous finger circling the top of the outcropping then descending to the cave mouth, then jabbing forward.

"How are we getting there, Peppermint?"

Peppermint
"We could climb down, but I don't know that it'll be any faster than riding the long way down. And I know I'd feel more secure having a quick getaway near at hand."

Thinking a bit, he adds, "Sheriff, any chance you post yerself here for a spell, and keep watch? It'd be good to know if the beast is active while we're making the trip."

The Sheriff and his sidekick look at each other in the dim glow from the town. Their expressions are inscrutable.

"Sho thing," drawls the Sheriff.

Violet

"We may as well ride then."

Peppermint hops back on his goat. He casts an appraising eye over the Sheriff and his sidekick, hoping to gain some insight into their reaction. He wonders if he can trust them to keep lookout.

Whelp, nothin' for it but to keep on moving, he thinks. He kicks the sides of his goat and says, "Git along, Barnabas."

Y'all mosey through town, under the blue white glare of LED streetlights that obscure the stars. It's getting cold in the desert night.

After about twenty minutes of your various steeds proceeding past dilapidated residences and businesses at the pace of Peppermint's riding goat, you reach a place where the buildings are sparser than they are behind you. Here is a road sign battered by buckshot and paint balls. The sign was rectangular and light blue before it got dented down to silver metal in several places. The scuffed lettering reads "Shady Acres" and the bold arrow on the sign points along a gravel road that leads downward to the right.

Peppermint
"Any reason for us t' cool our heels here for a minute? If not, let's git on our way." He continues to trot his robot steed along the path that leads into the gulch.

Should the posse arrive without interruption, Peppermint will keep an eye out to see if the Sheriff is keeping a lookout, and if he is signaling anything that might indicate activity from either the Beast or its victims.

Violet

As they travel, Violet continues looking for tracks.

Going in the direction opposite the tracks of the beast, in order to get down into the gulch the easy way, Violet notices along the roadside the detritus of countless drunken, nip-flinging motorists. Also, marks left by automobile tires swerving on the cracked and crumbled sidewalk. It seems like getting blasted and driving partly on the sidewalk is a pastime round here. In several places, the chain link fences in front of the dry clay yards are dented or torn as if they've been struck by a vehicle.

The streetlights blink and flicker momentarily, then steady on.

The road down to Shady Acres slopes fairly steep, is narrow, gravel, and unlit. Tires and bird feet and goat hooves crunch on the roadbed.

Ahead and below, you see a large scattering of house trailers lit up by white light from sparse high lamps. There appears to be a small fire outside the near edge of the scattering. After about ten minutes you're closer enough to make out a group of people sitting astride motorcycles around a large metal barrel, from which bluish-yellow flames flicker. Loud rockadroid music plays from several speakers. The people look at you as you follow the road to within about a hundred yards from them, a hundred fifty yards from the nearest trailer. The road appears to run right past the fire, and among the scattering of trailers.