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Charlie

Charlie will hold until he has a target.

Paladin peered in the dark, aiming carefully with eyes and ears and instinct, and fired his pistols at the retreating rustler.

- Paladin's pistol 21 [1d20]=12 other pistol [1d20]=2 With all those modifiers, the first shot missed but the second hit. If folks are wondering, I rolled a 20 for ambidextrous and am using one of the house rustler’s guns in my other hand.
- Paladin other pistol - Location Table 10 [1d20]=12, Severity Table 11 [1d6]=2 Abdomen, light wound.

Sebastian

Fires off a couple of carefully aimed shot at the fleeing riders.

Sebastian: Careful Shot vs Coordination 18 [1d20]=5

Sebastian: Careful Shot vs Coordination 18 [1d20]=13

Gideon McLaury's long-barreled Navy Colt also roars twice. He cups a palm behind his ear and listens intently. Think I got him with my first shot, but sope, don't hear no body drop. Just a galloping horse. But I bet that boy caught more than one slug or arra. They was flying around him like mad yella jackets. By the way, I startin to like y'all boys' style. Ya ain't stingy with yer ammunition when it comes to firin blind at a skedaddling horse thief. Well, let's see what that dead ole rustler got on him.

The walks over to the rustler lying in the grass and nudges him with his boot. Yeah, deader'n a door nail. Shot right through the ticker, or close enough. Lot a blood, hard to tell in the dark. Winchester lever-action rifle. He kneels down. Pistol carried under a trousers belt. Double-action Colt. He tosses the revolver over by the rifle. Wallet. He opens it and thumbs through the contents. Forty-four dollars and 36 cents. He tosses the wallet over to the rifle and pistol. Pocket watch, brass. Tickin. Pocket knife. Shame that his horse run off with his saddle bags. Horse thieves tend to carry all kinds of stuff with em. They never know fer sure where thar gonna sleep that night, don't ya know.

He stands and walks over to the stuff and puts the small items in his pockets. He tucks his Navy Colt under his belt and holds the double-action in one fist and the rifle in the other. I'll just borra this pistol for a minute until we're done keepin an eye on these prisoners. It takes 10 minutes to reload that ole cap and ball thing, and ain't got them 10 minutes right now. Y'all seen what I'm carryin, we can divvy everything up later. He gestures with the pistol barrel toward the darkened house. Don't forgit we still got them two bodies over their to check. He gestures with the pistol barrel toward the bound and gagged rustlers. Maybe two more to check before long too. Heh heh. He grins and starts walking toward the prisoners and Sebastian standing at the corner of the corral.

Combat Turn time scale has ended, back to Strategic Scale. In other words, regular non-combat turns posting. It's probably around 9:45 to 10:00 PM. (Only Gideon is in possession of a watch).
In the past 13-14 hours, the posse set out from San Marcos with Hays County Deputy Sheriff Harold Riney, visited the Wiley ranch outside of Stringtown, retained and followed Tonkawa trackers, found their stolen horses, and had two violent encounters, inside the old, quiet lamplit room of the house and out on the wide, moonlit spaces of the open prairie. Their horses are in the corral, and presumably the Tonkawa trackers are still waiting behind them holding their $5 rental Army horses. They have two horse thief prisoners and three horse rustler bodies. Six unsaddled horses-- claimed to be of good quality-- the horses of two dead man have stampeded off into the night. And the riders of the posse are exhausted.
If your want to move again tonight, please post a Strength roll. If you have Indian Contact or Law skill, please post a roll for some possible insights. If you have any other Work Skill you creatively want to roll on, please roll. (BTW, successfully using a work skill gains experience points. You guys are at around 2/3 to 3/4 of the 100 XP needed to go to "2nd Level." (There are no levels in BH. Instead, you spend XP to raise Skill scores or Attribute scores. Kind of a fluid and flexible system).

Paladin blindfolded and gagged the two prisoners so they wouldn’t see anymore faces other than his and Sebastian. He reinforced their leg and arm binds, and tied them to a post away from the cowboys conversations.

“These two,” Paladin shoved mustache man, “will have some time to think about whether they sign a certain confession, or prefer a noose.”

“That is tempting Andreas,” said Paladin. “If he’s still alive, he may get friends and come back for revenge. I say we take all the horses, and the loot for our troubles, and head back now.”

“Let’s get a good distance before divvying up the gear and getting some sleep.”

When they get underway, Paladin tied the prisoners to a horse each, trailed by a rope to his horse.

Paladin asked the Tonkawa to cover the cowboys tracks for a half-mile, then split off, hoping to evade anyone tracking them back to San Marcos.

Charlie

"Makes sense, good plan."

Charlie will get his horse and make sure she is in good shape and then saddle her up to roll out.

Sebastian

Would be fine checking the horses and leaving quicker than hanging around for more trouble. He lifts the three dead. Are we taking them with us to collect any bounty or burying them here?

"We should take them with us I think. Right thing to do,

Doos does not have any treats, but gives his horse a good rub down before unsaddling the army horse and saddling his.

If he has time he will look for his arrows or buy 5 from guides.

"Also we should give the guides the money from their pocket before we split it,"

Doos points ar the ones tied across the horses.

The tired posse starts preparing to hit the road again for a ride by night. Charlie and Andreas find the Tonkawa trackers patiently waiting with the poor Army horses. The men surely heard all of the gunfire, but they don't ask any questions. The fact that the posse members returned in a calm state probably states the facts plainly enough. The younger man in the Army jacket says, We'll go with you and take the horses to their owners. Then we'll choose our horse. They personally distribute each old, broken down horse to its appropriate rider, solemnly nodding to each "contract fulfilled."

Charlie and Andreas head toward the corral with their saddles. They notice that the horses are alert and looking north into the darkness. A horse whinnies, and from the darkness, there's an answering whinny. The hear the sound of hooves and the saddled horse of the first rustler shot from horseback canters up, followed by six bareback horses with ropes around their necks. The look at the men and slow to a stop. They're good young horses, stronger and maybe faster or more intelligent than average. The saddled horse approaches the corral gate and is greeted by a couple of the horses in the corral, as if they know it. The horse has saddle bags and a rifle sheath, in addition to its saddle and bit.

Gideon says, Ya'll boys don't seem to have no compunctions about shootin at a horse thief, but you seem a little squeamish about searching the bodies. He searches the body of the rustler Doos dragged toward the house. Single action pistol, cartridge firin. Gun belt. Thirty-two dollars and 20 cents. Huntin knife in a boot. Mr. Doos has this un's lever-action carbine. He goes into the house, strikes a match, and lights the lamp. Then takes cigarette fixings out of his pocket, rolls one, and lights it using the burning lamp wick. He searches the rustler shot in the house. He calls out. Single action revolver, cartridge firin. Five dollars, 85 cents. Maybe y'all won't be so shy about searching them live rustlers.

He can be heard muttering, Not only are they squeamish, they don't know nothing about empty farmhouse shoppin. He takes the lantern and opens the door to the house's other room. He calls out again. Dang, not a damn thing except some dirty bedrolls, beat-up mess kits, and an old Sears & Roebuck catalog. It's quiet for a moment. Ladies undergarment pages been ripped out. Not that I was lookin for em-- I just happened to notice. Either these boys was very pious, or very, very depraved. I got mah own guess as to which, but I'll leave it to you all to make yer own guesses.



Need a Strength check from every fatigued posse member riding out to get a "second wind." A fail means a 30% - 50% reduction in all attribute scores and skills. (Except for Stature and Luck, those are fixed). Please roll a Strength ST, and 2d10 in case the Strength check fails.

Charlie

Strength check (14) [1d20]=9
[2d10]=6

"Gideon, in this situation its the victor goes the spoils, but we were not going to search them till the light of day, besides we are all tired and need to get on the road, money is not going anywhere."

Sebastian

Sebastian: strength skill check vs 15 [1d20]=20 [2d10]=13

"Perhaps I could rest a while", too much riding and excitement seems to have opened some old wounds.

Charlie

"Rest would be good but I am not sure this is the best place. Maybe after an hour or so riding?"

William comes in from the field, feeling fairly fresh, all things considered, the night air and the fighting were kind of invigorating. Sorry I wasn't able to get that last fellow in the dark. If Y'all wouldn't mind, I'd love to get me one of those rifles or carbines floating around for when he comes back with any friends he might have. We should check those horses over yonder, if they have out of county brands, they're fair game for takin' or sellin'. But if they're a local brand, we need to get them to their owners or the local law.


str [1d20]=6

Charlie

"Good point on the horses. I could use a revolver if we have an extra now."