1872. It was 1872.

Please forgive this third error of the night, two of which happened before I even started.

>>5785474
>A Glad handing professional trick shootist from Kentucky with a checkered past

>The scion of a wealthy Los Angeles family, built on secrets, seeking their own way

Looks interesting.

>>5785474
>A disgraced Shaolin Monk seeking for succor and new direction in this new world

>A settler who didn’t take too well to homesteading, too many ghosts there now anyway

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I see the council ever returns. We'll see if something pulls ahead by the time my dinner finishes simmering.

>>5785474
>>The scion of a wealthy Los Angeles family, built on secrets, seeking their own way

Writing

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>You have earned 1 Xp.


Your name is Diego, and as far as anyone is concerned that is the only name you go by right now. You have lived well all your life, though your family was very strict with your education…but you yearned to see the world; and though your family commands wealth and respect you felt well and truly overshadowed by your elder brother Joaquin as he took the reins of leading the family. He was never mean to you or cruel, in fact you always looked up to your elder brother…but there was always that distance of a decade between you; and father’s trust in him for serious matters while he refused to see anything in you but innocence.

So, at seventeen with an incomplete but robust education, you left. It’s been two years and you think you have done well for yourself. While not a rich man, you get by. More than that, you follow a strong sense of righteousness. Following your conscience has never steered you wrong before. It may have gotten you into trouble at times, but it was trouble doing the right thing.

That existential matter settled, you ride on, and the narration of your journey continued. Though not the most thrilling of tales just yet. Dawn crests above a distant hill and showers these plains in light. Twofold things are evident, that this great open unspoiled country is a beauty to behold…and you are not so alone in your morning travels.

Ahead of you by a short clip are a gathering of figures. Three men, four horses, two shovels, and a corpse. These men do not look friendly, one sits on horseback and sees you as the other two shovel away covering the body in a shallow grave. Bandoliers and obvious armament and travel supplies lead you to believe these could be either bandits stashing a victim or travelers burying an unfortunately dead friend. Well, no matter, you’re gonna get out of this the way you do best.

(Choose your type)

>You’re gonna be tough and fight this thing out if it comes to it
>You’re gonna be swift and try to lose the whole situation by high tailing it
>You’re gonna do something unusual and clever by half if you need to
>You’re gonna talk your way out of trouble, smile and nod with that friendly hello

>>5785602
>You’re gonna talk your way out of trouble, smile and nod with that friendly hello

>>5785602
>You’re gonna be swift and try to lose the whole situation by high tailing it
Enough diplomancing quests.

>>5785602
>You’re gonna do something unusual and clever by half if you need to

>>5785602
>You’re gonna do something unusual and clever by half if you need to

>>5785602
>You’re gonna do something unusual and clever by half if you need to
IED time

Writing.

>Diego is a Intelligent Adept who...

Gonna be a touch longer compared to last update because I'm also filling out your sheet.

Rolled 10 (1d20)

>Diego's task has been moved down from difficult to demanding. DC 9 established

>Diego is an Intelligent Adept who Crafts Unique Objects, much like a mentor who tutored him in his youth.

You won’t be caught off guard in this situation; slowly you unfold the curved metal device strapped to your forearm. It would look like an old buckler if not for the way it cups forward. Giving the fellas a wide berth, you watch as one of the men draws iron and trots his horse to face you before breaking in a gallop toward you.

With quick action you slip a double linked glass phial into a slot on the back of the dish and pull hard on the line that breaks the stopper what keeps the two liquids apart. They mix into a conflagration while sparking flecks of magnesium shavings ignite into blinding lights as a parabolic burst and focused by the dish disorients the brute and covers your ability to gain distance. It echoes like thunder across the planes as the shovellers scramble to mount their horses to aid their friend and pursue you.

And it is a chase. But the [ONSLAUGHT] of the dish isn’t your only trick, and you do have more ready to mix vials prepared.

>No roll required for effortless [SHATTER]

At a fast gallop you toss another double phial from your waist back over your shoulder. No effort really, just a blind throw. The blast and cursing behind you elicits new blasts, that of gunfire behind you…though at this range firearms on horseback at full ride aren’t necessarily accurate. You remain opposed to being shot. Though as you ride you think you see on the horizon…

>You think you see a moving Steamstack in the distance? You thought the tracks were still under construction
>You see the homestead ranch and encampment of the Newly Established town of Dodge.
>You think you see the fortifications of Fort Dodge!
>A dark figure on a horse riding your way.

>>5785695
>A dark figure on a horse riding your way.

>>5785695
>You see the homestead ranch and encampment of the Newly Established town of Dodge.
Get the hell inside Dodge

>>5785695
>>You think you see a moving Steamstack in the distance? You thought the tracks were still under construction

Leaving the open vote up overnight. Sorry for the slow run, but consensuses are hard to achieve sometimes.

>>5785695
>>A dark figure on a horse riding your way.

writing

There in the distance is a black clad rider on a black horse. The horse carries no supply bags as far as you can see and riding quickly but not in a full run, the rider retains a somewhat relaxed upright posture. He hasn’t traveled far, perhaps attracted to events from the still echoing sound of your explosives as you prepare for another round.

Sunlight coming from behind you illuminates him fully, causing a glint of silver to catch your eye pinned to his breast. No tin star, but a shield. Here you are pursued by bandits and with luck you find some expression of the law, it's a moment of luck you’re sure to cherish. Though you don’t envy that he’s running into the sunlight. As he approaches, you see he wears smoked glasses as dark as both his clothes and his horse.

Riding past, he draws iron after giving you a nod. Slowing your run, you turn hard to face the bandits alongside the newcomer.

“Now, I know I told you boys to stay out of Dodge,” the man says leveling his pistol into the dawn, but still recognizing your antagonists of the moment, “The Captain and the boys at the fort told y’all too,”

He cocks the hammer.

“Am I going to have to tell you again?” he asks with a lackadaisical flourish of his weapon, “Go through all’a that again, but with me losing my damn patience?”

The trio regard the newcomer, with whom they share some history. Having slowed their chase to meet the two of you, the three share quick looks amongst themselves. Though armed and already with pistols drawn, they holster the weapons.

“We heard you the first time, West,” the man whose taken the brunt of your work practically spits whilst parts of his outfit still smolder and smoke before turning to his duo retinue, “Come on,”

They break back the way they came as the man in Black holsters his piece and gives you his full attention. Close enough and without the interference of motion you can read the silvery shield badge he presently bears openly. Department of the Treasury: Secret Service.

>https://youtu.be/hj_nN8E1mnw?si=EzjrvSiPhQiG2av4

The organization that offered the job for which you were requested, by name. Your full name to your surprise and curiosity.

“James West, Senior Field Operative for the Secret Service,” he introduces himself with a tip of his hat, “From that gizmo on your arm I suspect you’re the young man my associate is waiting for; Diego de la-”

“Diego, just Diego is fine,” you offer back whilst cutting him off, “and your associate?”

“Senior Field Technician, Artemus Gordon,” he explains, turning his horse back around, though not quite from the direction he came, “Come on, I can take you straight to him,”

Artemus Gordon! You spent two summers under the man’s tutelage when your schooling was out. He’s now in the Secret Service?

>You follow James West to meet up with Artemus
>You would like to get cleaned up in Dodge first before this reunion

>>5786113
>>You follow James West to meet up with Artemus

>>5786113
>>You follow James West to meet up with Artemus

>>5786113
>>You would like to get cleaned up in Dodge first before this reunion

>>5786113
>You follow James West to meet up with Artemus

>>5786113

>You follow James West to meet up with Artemus

No time like the present

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The two of you ride onward, a scant few miles later you begin to hear the workings of man and machinery at the Rail Camp outside of Dodge.

“Gordon mentioned you were a former student of his,” the secret service agent makes conversation, “I’m not surprised you’re carting around some fringe science bullshit like he is,”

“He was a bit of an inspiration to me, though I do not believe I’ve ever had his knack for showmanship,” you explain.

James West clicks his tongue and shakes his head; unbeknownst to you remembering the distant and embarrassing sound of a coin threaded skirt being shaken.

“Showmanship, bit surprised as that part of things does have a habit of rubbing off on folks,” he coughs dryly, “Damn infectious when it works. So, what was that thing on your arm? Some kind of bullet ricochet thing?”

You regard the folded and now sleeve tucked apparatus.

“Oh, if this got shot it would absolutely need repairs. It’s a parabolic dish,” you explain as James stares at you awaiting further explanation, “It focuses and directs sound, I set off an appropriately loud but not concussive explosive the right distance inside it’s arc and it can focus that into a particularly harmful wave at the right distance,”

“So, that’s what made it thunder on clear skies. What kind of explosives are you packing?”

“An inert two liquid mix, when activated it has similar but not quite the same properties of Nitroglycerin,” you explain with some measure of pride to which West laughs and again shakes his head.

“Hard as you were riding before, glad it was inert, that is not how you transport Nitro,” he reminisces about something.

Not long after it comes into view; along with a train sitting unmoving on the tracks a few hundred yards back. The engine is a deep shade of forest green, and on its coal car emblazoned in fancily painted stencil work is ‘The Wanderer,’.

“He’s in the second car,” West mentions and motions before veering off, “I’m gonna finish my morning rounds,”

The tracks ahead are swarmed with a variety of workers from all over, covered in the dust and soot of the tracks amid their denim and more foreign outfits. Clearing the empty distance toward the train you see it and its cars a flurry of activity as well. Men and women bustling about between cars, some wearing the visors and sleeve bands of accountants. Respectable dresses of the seemingly more scholarly inclined, and duster clad individuals in stetsons or bowler hats.

Your approach to the second car is noticed as you dismount shortly after parting ways from West; leading your horse along at a relaxed gait.

>>5786518

“I’m here to see the Senior Field Technician,” you offer with the title West left you for your former teacher when you reach two of the men furthest from the train, “My name is Diego, and I believe I am expected?”

The two share a look and nod.

“Saw you riding up with the SFO. This way,”

You’re led to the train, your horse tied to a nearby post alongside several others being tended to. The man in the duster passes you to a woman with a clipboard by the entrance to the second car. Noting your first name.

Unlocking the door she leads you into the railcar where a number of people sit furiously going at typewriters whilst a man in a green short jacket and wildly quaffed hair stairs at a many pin-covered map of these United States.

“Visitor for the SFT, Diego de la-” you cut her off.

“Just Diego is fine,” you stop her as the man staring at the map turns around, “In fact strike that from any record you’re keeping of me,”

“Diego! Excellent,” Artemus Gordon exclaims and crosses the corridor between assorted analysts and workers to offer you in a familiar embrace before taking you by the shoulders, “Look at you, a grown man now. Where does the time go? No matter, please, to my office!”

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>>5786523


Another man opens a door in the map leading to the front quarter of the car where a well appointed room with an expensive looking lacquered desk and chairs await.

“It’s good to see you Artemus,” you offer as the door closes behind you, “And what’s this about a job?”

“Straight to the point? Very well. I’m sure you’ve heard about the Secret Service,” he smiles and lights a cigarette and sighs, “Proving beyond a doubt that it was exceptionally misnamed,”

“Security and Intelligence; protection of the office of the President, investigation of counterfeiting and dealing with fringe investigations?” you offer the things you’ve heard.

“Quite right, and speaking of fringe investigations, your gadgeteering was brought to our attention by multiple parties,” he sits back, “And I want to hire you as an agent of the Service as a field technician,”

“I’m flattered, but civil service isn’t something I really expected of-”

“Expectation and need are seldom in step…” Artemus looks tired, the wide eyed genius of your youth seems so much older now, “And I have more fires in need of being put out than I have resources. I’m subcontracting the Pinkertons, but that can only go so far,”

You pause at that, not being the biggest fans of the Pinkerton Detective Agency.

“We’ve a caseload that requires a keen mind, willing to stretch itself against the boundaries of what we believe to be possible and what we believe to be impossible. Rumor of advanced technologies and esoteric practices achieving wonders applied with decidedly heinous intent…strange things are happening in the West. Things that if left unattended will dispoil the American Experiment,” he flourishes and places a badge on the desk, “Please, Diego I need more people out there whose judgment and aptitude I can trust,”

>You take the badge and join the Secret Service
>You need time to think about joining the Secret Service
>You have no interest in joining the Secret Service

>>5786526
>>You need time to think about joining the Secret Service
We're willing to be hired as a contractor, but not ready to commit to permanent employment

>>5786526
>You take the badge and join the Secret Service
Has there ever been a Pinkerton quest before? I can't seem to recall.

>>5786526

>You need time to think about joining the Secret Service

Not to mention - we’re a Hispanic, aren’t we? Do we really want to be cracking Uncle Sam’s whip against our brothers here?

I imagine Diego would need some convincing before signing up with a branch of the US government

>>5786526

>You need time to think about joining the Secret Service
I'm not sure joining the Pinkerton as a hispanic is such a good idea...

>>5786526
>You need time to think about joining the Secret Service

Writing

>>5786662
>>5786746
If I understand correctly, it is not joining the Pinkertons. Technically we'd be taking work away from them since they're only involved because of a lack of Secret Service agents.

This is a heavy request from your former mentor…but it is something replete with conflict. Even if you are far removed from your family, there remains enmity between them and the Pinkertons for reasons that were impressed upon you but not fully explained by your elder brother. A manipulation that he would not forgive, even if your parents had let such things go.

Still, you have many pros and cons to weigh on this matter.

“I need to think about this,” you admit, “I can’t give you an answer just yet Artemus,”

He is frozen for a moment, in the leaned forward position over the badge on the table, before his eyes search you and the room. They, not his face, betray consternation but quick thought.

“I understand,” he leans back, “No, it’s prudent to take your time to think about the offer. Absolutely prudent and I for one am happy you’ve grown into a man of such…reflection and willingness to consider things before making a sudden or rash decision,”

The attempt at flattery helps, you think, but you will need time to consider all of this.

“I will ride out to the Dodge encampment, I’ve reserved space at the Great Western,” you explain and collect yourself, “Is there a deadline you need a decision by?”

Artemus considers this.

“We’re conducting an investigation outside of Dodge, while managing a number of others abroad, but should expect the Wanderer will be moving on once the rail connection finishes in the next two weeks,” he explains, “Though if you want to seek us out or wire us, or find a facsimile office I can provide the contact information- look. Diego if you want to work with us the offer will remain open as long as I’m Senior Field Technician,”

“I was meaning to ask, about those strange titles for yourself and Mr. West,” you begin.

“Blame that on President Grant. He declared us Agent 1 and Agent 2 of this endeavor when we started it out. Demanded we sort out which of us was which on our own. The titles were a, shall we say, happy compromise,”

You nod and take your leave of the office. Again passing through the corridor of men and women at typewriters; and indeed there is what looks like two Baine Electric Printing Telegraph machines at one of the stations.

Stepping from the train car, you regard the officer tending the horses and retrieve Salamander. In no time at all you’re riding through the rail work camp ahead and within dodge proper.

It is at this time mostly tents and facades. Save for the nearby Fort Dodge and the Sitler house, Dodge sits on a convenient trail used since this was Indian territory and a fairly sail-able river. Add the railway to it and this may well become a bustling gateway to the west.

>>5787058

The Great Western Hotel when you find it down the still being constructed main street is as expected. A building facade over a massive canvas tent with internal partitions. Seeing to Salamander’s care in the stable, you then take stock of your supplies in the simple room of canvas walls and wooden floor platform. At least you have a bed, a lamp, a basin, and a desk.

-Inventory
>Scientific supplies to perform your Adept Abilities.
[Memory Erase] single target gas attack that can cause someone to forget the last five minutes
[Shatter] small AOE boom
[Onslaught] Targeted physical or mental damage
>The well worn travelers clothes on your back
>A few changes of smallclothes and assorted clothing items.
>Very Nice Outfit, neatly stored in one of your bags. [Social encounter asset]
>Encyclopedia. [Research Asset]
>Rapier (Your father insisted on teaching you and your brother how to wield this light armament, though you don’t think you had any talent)
>Pistol (A serviceable revolver, though not something you rely upon)
>Chemistry Supplies
>Saddlebag
>A copy of Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein

And you take stock of yourself. Washing up, getting changed, and considering yourself and what you can do.

Diego is an [Intelligent] [Adept] who [Crafts Unique Objects]
Character Arc - Build a Legacy outside of the Mark cast by your family.
Tier 1. Effort 1. XP 1.
Might (10/10. Edge 0) Speed (12/12 Edge 0) Intellect (13/14 Edge 1)
You have Four Recovery Rolls (1 action, 1 hour, 10 mins, and 10 hours)
You are Neither Impaired nor Debilitated.
You are Trained in Light Weapons
You have Inability with Medium & Heavy Weapons
You are Specialized in Horsemanship
You are Trained in Speed Defense
Your training has you Well Read in classical sciences
You are trained in Remembering and Memorizing things you experience directly
You are a trained Chemist
You are trained in crafting intricate mechanisms
You are trained in Identifying the function of any device

How do you intend to spend your day? It's barely passed 9am once you’ve finished.

Do you want to
>Exploring Dodge
>Spend time in a Saloon
>Explore the wilderness around Dodge
>Explore Fort Dodge
>Explore the Rail Camp
>Spend time in your room and ruminate

>>5787060
>Explore the wilderness around Dodge

>>5787060
>>Explore Dodge
Perhaps there is proper breakfast to be had behind one of these facades.

>>5787060
>>Exploring Dodge

>>5787060
>>Exploring Dodge

>>5787060

>Exploring Dodge

Maybe we can find a side quest for a chemist to solve

>>5787060
>>Explore the Rail Camp

Alright, gonna write in a minute.

Well, it’s early yet and your race from harm worked up an appetite again. Or at least the idea of one. The smells of the burgeoning boom town of Dodge have been assaulting your senses since you arrived. The ambient manure from the stablings a few plots down is drowned out by breakfast campfires, tentpole chimneys, and dedicated chow carts with the scent of wood and coals mixed with assorted sizzling fats.

While you’ve subsisted well on canned beans, cracker biscuit ration, and a supply of bacon fat…you hope to have something a bit more appetizing before lunch. Along your way you hear assorted folks talking about a potential gunpowder shortage. Explosive thoughts like that can wait until you’ve had some food.

Not much, mind, but just enough to cleanse your pallet.

Roaming through the camp town of frontiersmen, rail workers, cowboys, soldiers, and settlers; you settle on a chow cart where you’re able to get a few rolled sticks of dynamite. Not the combustible, but rolled tortilla fried with some meat, cheese, and a whole long pepper. As you’re given to thinking idly how your father once told you that this was once a favorite for silver miners whose labors cost them their sense of taste.

Your father, though a respected gentleman and landowner, knew many miners and other workmen throughout San Mateo County. He always tried to impress upon you that though you were lucky enough to come from wealth; he had not, and that it was not wealth or breeding that made anyone better or worse than another.

You linger back to your food and the tales of silver…the thought idly leaves you as a sharp sound and flash of light catches your attention from around a corner. Could it be?

Around the corner there is a wagon displaying a sign that reads “Johan & Sons Photography” as an old white haired man lowers a reflective flash and begins futzing with the box of a large camera as some men awkwardly drop their poses with rail hammer and rifle over their shoulders respectively.

The old photographer shakes the men’s hands and offers up that he’ll get to developing their pictures soon and when they should come back around to pick up their product.

>>5788070

This fellow, who you assume is Johan, begins setting about changing and moving components around slowly. It appears that his sons are not around; and by trade as a chemist you are familiar enough with darkroom processes that you may be able to help this man and earn your way for another few days.

Though, across from this photo wagon is a facade being put up that says “Johnson Apothecary” where you see a young man and woman looking up with pride and making preparations to bring bottles and tins of wares and reagents into the building.

Further, down the street is a stage wagon where a barker, styling themselves as a one Professor Orkney Cadwallader, proclaiming to have created a machine to predict earthquakes with Nostradamian levels of accuracy.

Time to be a helpful chemist and earn some funds.
>Get in on this potential gunpowder shortage, it is easy to make
>Investigate why there’s a potential Gunpowder shortage
>You know the collodion process, see if Jonas and Sons need a hand
>A working relationship with an apothecary is always good for one’s health
>Snake oil salesman are beneath you, though fringe Earthquake science isn’t

>>5788073
>>Investigate why there’s a potential Gunpowder shortage

>>5788073
>>You know the collodion process, see if Jonas and Sons need a hand
Seems a good start. Johan seems to have picked a good vantage point, can hear and see a lot from his wagon.

>>5788073
>A working relationship with an apothecary is always good for one’s health

>>5788073
>A working relationship with an apothecary is always good for one’s health

>>5788073
>>Get in on this potential gunpowder shortage, it is easy to make

>>5788073

>You know the collodion process, see if Jonas and Sons need a hand

This guy is likely to be reputable, respectable, and not a scam artist.

We gots a dead heat? Well then. Gonna leave this vote open a touch longer. Heh, long gone are the days of thirty minute vote windows and one hour updates. As we wait for another vote, may I asked how you fine folks are doing, are enjoying things so far, and what theories you got on where we’re going?

>>5788073
>>>You know the collodion process, see if Jonas and Sons need a hand

>>5788373
Not certain where things will go yet, but have a distinct urge to try for an agent number of Zero. For some reason it sounds right for our friend Diego de la- *ehem* just Diego.

>>5788480
I see you picked up on the clues.

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>>5788749

>>5788763
Yes, his grandfather and namesake. You anons did manage to pick one of the two crossover options in the character lineup. The other was the Shaolin Monk

I’ll be writing at some point tonight.

>>5788800
Only two? Figured they all might be, and some I was just missing them. Thought the former detective might be a setup for Sawyer.

>>5788823
They were jumping off points, but that one could have been him if I had started developing them.

It was an effort to resist throwing in there will be other crossovers to be referenced. The Johnsons for example came to Dodge instead of where the rest of their extended family is in Rock Ridge.

>>5788846
Here's hoping they chose a different locale because they were more open-minded.

Roll. Asset applied against difficulty dc ???

Where were my dice?

Rolled 20 (1d20)

Wtf

>>5789438
Nice crit.

“Excuse me sir,” you offer with a smile and the neatened trim of your pencil mustache, “Are you in need of the extra pair of hands of a professional chemist? I’m well versed in the collodion process,”

Pausing and slowly turning to take your measure, the old man adjusts his spectacles. After a brief back and forth you are able to establish a fair wage helping him out through the next week.. Getting your hands dirty and having time in the dark gives you plenty of time to think. Manning the camera itself grants you access to rumors and information in passing.

Of Johan, you learn that his sons had grown up and started photography wagons of their own. He was figuring to settle here in Dodge because once the rail line finishes he’ll be better able to visit them along his old traveling circuit, and get one of the sons pulling a wagon to refine his trade and take over a storefront.He’s getting on in years and figures demand for photography will always be going up.

The two of you spend some time discussig chemical processes and the errant rumors of the dry plate system supposedly developed in Europe last year. News of it made the rounds in a few circles but the specifics of it will yet head westward at the speed it takes for someone to physically get it here.

He is a kindly soul, sharing and showing off photos he has taken both here and in his travels.

You learn some information in this week among the folk willing to get their picture taken, and in rumor parsing through

That there had been a run on black powder for sale about a week ago; mostly by a handful of men who were said to have been run out of town for starting a saloon brawl with some soldiers off duty from Fort Dodge. A fort that has its soldiers being more tight lipped in the past few days to the notice of the frontiersmen who’ve been in the camp town longest.

Moreover you learn that the neighbors across the way of Jonah’s plot, the Johnsons and their Apothecary, settled in Dodge because the frontier homestead town they were originally heading for had begun having a rough time of it. Extended members of their family already there warned them that the town had fallen prey to repeat attacks by a band of murderers and thieves. Not an all too uncommon occurrence on the frontier. Banditry from deserted soldiers of the Indian Wars or assorted bandits left from the dissolution of forces farther south.

There is a strange mistrust between Fort Dodge’s Commanders and the assembled operatives of the Secret Service. Apparently the hearsay is there is history between the Commander and James West, himself a former US Army Captain.

>>5790020

There’s talk of warehouses going up between the train station to be and the river. And regarding the river; word has it that for the past few weeks it has been suddenly receding three feet or so in depth an hour at a time at irregular intervals. This has the burgeoning river dockmaster concerned. He figures it ain’t someone building a dam, but none of the boats have seen any sluices, gates, or cut channels big enough to warrant that much disparity all at once.

No one knows what to make of the presence of the Secret Service; what with their agents running out into the wilderness days at a time, but they’re paying for supplies in town so that has a few people happy.

About four days into this week the prattling and doomsaying Professor packs up his oversized stage wagon and rides out of town. It's a scant three days before his prospective predicted Earthquake is to begin, under the auspices of getting himself to safety. It is an interesting pitch when you’ve had time to catch it while working the camera outside; the man knew his geology to your mild surprise. Though you suspect he will never return, likely haven earned enough from the few marks he was able to fleece.

It's coming at the end of the week when Jonah pays your wages for all the work with his photography.

>You get 6 Funds
>You get a 2nd XP

>CRIT Info that would otherwise have gone unnoticed.
It is then that you recognize a man in a photo Johan had taken in Dodge before your arrival, speaking with the earthquake professor at the back of his unfolded stage wagon. You’d never seen him in these clothes before, but he looks to be some kind of machinist or tinker, but you remember his face, it was the one those three bandits were burying in the scrub?

What is a man to do with himself? There is a curious disquiet in Dodge and you could poke around…
>investigate that saloon brawl
>investigate the strange quiet of the Fort Dodge soldiers
>you want to further investigate the river depth disparity
>you want to visit Artemus to ask what he’s investigating in Dodge
>you want to go find the man in the shallow grave!
>No, perhaps it is best to stay the course, focus on your decision regarding Artemus’s offer

>>5790022
>>you want to go find the man in the shallow grave!

Please stop linking this quest, specifically this quest, in /qtg/

>>5790054
Did I fucking ask

>>5790022
>>investigate the strange quiet of the Fort Dodge soldiers

>>5790054
Nothing wrong with saying your quest updated in the /qtg/.

>>5790022
>you want to go find the man in the shallow grave!
I'll bet more than a shiny nickle there's a link between this guy, all the gunpowder being bought up, and the water-level issues.

>>5790022
>investigate the strange quiet of the Fort Dodge soldiers

>>5790022
>>you want to further investigate the river depth disparity

>>5790140
The lower the role, the more chaff information you would have been flooded with.

>>5790022
>investigate the strange quiet of the Fort Dodge soldiers

Figured I’d leave things open a few days…and instead of direction we have a three way tie.

First one to three votes takes it.

Wait. No. That is three for fort dodge! I’ll be writing tonight!!!!!

Rolled 20 (1d20)

Rolled 3 (1d20)

wait...gonna test roll as well

There’s so much going on as the week comes to a close, and you’ve some free time where you could poke around…though three things compete in your mind at the moment.

After seeing the photograph of the deadman before he was dead, you have an inkling toward trying to find his body in the scrub. You aren’t a good tracker though so finding that alone could take you weeks until a good rain washes him up.

The fluctuations of the river call to you; but miles of shoreline on both sides and uncertain hours of activity to study means that is an impractical hunt as well.

No, something ties all of this together. And while there are more suspicious things than soldiers being quiet and tight-lipped; the practicality of exploring that as a matter of investigation would seem worthwhile. You may not be the best at interrogating people, but you’re a smart enough person to know when and where to eavesdrop. And spend some of your money.

Visiting Fort Dodge is easy, the trading post there is open to the public as long as the fort isn’t on lockdown. The quartermaster at the counter is easy enough to interact with as you spend some money on new travel rations and supplies. While you remain able to get such things as canned beans and meat; it turns out they’re currently not able to sell more than a pittance of gunpowder either. And he wasn’t in a position to offer why when pressed.

>You spent 1 fund for a few weeks of shelf/travel stable provisions.

So, you’re going to need to learn about this another way. Instead of spending money on goods; it’s gonna be a gamble.

There’s a gambling parlor in town; word on the street that once the train passes through it’ll be one of the first handful of buildings to buy lumber enough to have real walls before year’s end. Sure enough when you got there for a drink there were a few tables with a few groups of soldiers off duty and slinging cards.

Taking time to watch them, you figure which table will have the best chance of telling you what you want to know.

And by happenstance, endurance, and luck, you get just that.

>20 again?

Lieutenant Briggs Mason heads a small platoon out of the fort, and he complains a lot about paperwork without saying what he’s doing paperwork about. All the same he doesn’t like it. Joining the table with a respectable buy in, you last far into the evening, actually managing to clean a few gentlemen out while doing your best to keep Mason in the game.

>>5792288

Plied with whisky and the hour, the off duty Lieutenant eventually lets slip that he’s been cleaned out just like the armory. That something dug into the armory at the fort and took only and just the gunpowder. Opened only the cages in the armory with Gunpowder. Now he’s got this and that requisition and this and that investigation. Everybody is on edge, and he blames that idiot Quartermaster’s assistant who got his keys lifted during that Saloon Brawl the Fort Captain’s old war frenemy broke up; between the quartermaster and some privates and the Canary Brothers. Those three got run out of town in short order.

When further pressed about the Fort Captain’s old war frenemy, Mason hiccups in mockery of the high and mighty secret service agent; James West.

“Oh, if the service found that out we’d be up shit creek with one hand,” he looks at you from his glass sometime after midnight between Saturday and Sunday in a mostly empty room, “You won’t tell no one, will ya?”

“Friend, you won’t even remember telling me,” you smile and spray a small puff from a wrist mounted reservoir into his face as you share a toast with the man, if you’re lucky he’ll have been drunk enough to forget you even joined the table besides the effect of your memory blocker.

>You gain gambling winnings.
>You have 18 funds & new information.

More than that you have more questions than answers.

So, the three men who you found burying a machinist of some kind in the desert started a bar fight with a quarter master’s assistant at the fort to steal the keys. The machinist was somehow connected to the Earthquake Predicting fellow Professor Cadwallader who left town a few days before his predicted was to hit the day after tomorrow.

You’d have bet more than shiny nickel that all these disparate components were connected. And then it strikes you how.

>More of that 20 payoff

You only have a theory about it, a theory with limited proof that ropes in the water level fluctuations. Cadwallader is out in the wilds nearby shooting a well. Pumping water over explosive charges in deep boreholes. It’s a practice that came out a few years after the civil war’s conclusion, to increase oil draws from established wells.

Except, at the level of scale you’re thinking…and with maybe a natural cave system for scale instead of an oil well.

Cadwallader’s predictions aren’t from an earthquake predicting machine. He was about to manufacture an earthquake.

>>5792292

At the moment you can absolutely not prove it as such, but you need to do something with this information. There are good people here in dodge. Where would you even start to look for this kind of madness? Thoughts of the people whose lives you glimpsed through the camera give you pause.

It does not matter if a task seems insurmountable. It needs to be done. If you’re a man of conviction you cannot get the hell out of Dodge.

What will you do, Diego?

>You’re going to search for Cadwallader yourself in the Wilderness
>You’re going to bring your suspicions to Artemus and his Secret Service
>You’re going to bring your suspicions to to Fort Dodge
>You need more proof first, you must find the Machinist’s Corpse in the Wilderness
>You need more proof first, you must find the river drainage

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>>5792294
>>You’re going to bring your suspicions to Artemus and his Secret Service
We raised a good point about how long looking for the body or checking the river could take.
Perhaps our old mentor might have something to assist with a faster survey of the area?

>>5792294
>You need more proof first, you must find the Machinist’s Corpse in the Wilderness

>>5792294
>>You need more proof first, you must find the Machinist’s Corpse in the Wilderness

>>5792294
>>You’re going to bring your suspicions to Artemus and his Secret Service

>>5792294
>>You need more proof first, you must find the Machinist’s Corpse in the Wilderness

Rolled 6 (1d20)

Writing.

Dice Roll vs Difficulty 5 (DC 15).
Skill applied >Remembering or memorizing things you experience directly
Difficulty Reduced by 1 Step to 4 (DC 12)
Horse, named Salamander, applied as asset. Difficulty Reduced by 1 Step to 3 (DC 9)
3 Intellect Pool Spent on effort, Edge reduced cost to 2, Difficulty Reduced by 1 step to 2 (DC 6)

Dice Roll vs Difficulty 2 (DC 6)

Writing

>>5793127
>DC 6
>rolls a 6

>>5793194
An even success with applications of effort.

No…you can theorize all you like but you need more proof before you go to anyone about this and cause a panic or worse be disbelieved. It’s settled…it may be difficult but at first light you begin. You’ll do your best to retrace your route and find that shallow grave.

The buried victim of these Canary Brothers must be found. And you have half a mind to do it.

Gathering yourself up you sleep uneasily. Worried about what you know to more than likely be true. Before dawn comes, you take up Salamander’s reigns fueled by righteous worry, fear, bread, and bacon.

Even if it seems impossible, you have to try. And hours pass after the darkness ends and beneath the burning sun until set do you trace and retrace your steps as best you can figure over and over. It is exhaustive, even with your supplies of food and water. When you can, you chew your coffee grounds, to push yourself further.

And in the end, these things pay off, as you find the signs of the trail of your aggressive chase and remains of your incendiaries. From there you are able to finally backtrack to the start of that fray. Where the upturned but now dried earthen mound waits for your own folding spade, as the flies buzz with fervor.

By the time you’ve gotten him exhumed, the sun has set. Rot and bloat has set in and you smell him long before you see him. By lantern light you come to search a dead man’s pockets and person. Finding folded papers of designs and part prints and instructions scribbled with notes.

The designs are different from the notes, instructions by the designer and critique and applicable ability and alteration by the one who has to actually build it. Holding the lantern close enough to feel its heat in the yawning dark around its reach, you read on.

Water siphons, chain hydraulic pumps to start a natural flow of gravity, rubber tree sap sealants on casings, and hydraulic water pressure spun drills. The Canary brothers left all these things on the man; perhaps in haste since they had to chase you down after killing this man.

You wonder what this man dreamed in his life; of the machines he worked with. Did he have an invention lying in wait for the future to be funded by this dark endeavor…or was he a rude mechanical just trying to eek by.

>>5793407

However, that is not important. What is important is that these designs confirm your fears. If anyone else were to understand these, it would be Artemus Gordon. Wrapping the body in a tarp and preparing to throw it over your resting horse you have a choice to make. The fort leader may believe the proof of the tunneling devices and the crime, Artemus would completely believe the fringe science of the destructive potential for the rest of it. There are choices to be made.

Because tomorrow by noon time, it will be the prophesied Earthquake.

>Rest tonight before riding hard in the morning to warn and intervene as you will.
>Ride tonight, pushing yourself ragged, to warn Artemus and the Secret Service of your discovery
>Ride tonight, pushing yourself ragged, to warn Fort Dodge and the United States Army of your discovery
>Ride tonight, pushing yourself ragged, to try and find the lair and machinations of the villainous Professor and these Canary Brothers

>>5793408
>>Ride tonight, pushing yourself ragged, to warn Artemus and the Secret Service of your discovery

>>5793408
>Ride tonight, pushing yourself ragged, to try and find the lair and machinations of the villainous Professor and these Canary Brothers

>>5793408
>>Ride tonight, pushing yourself ragged, to warn Artemus and the Secret Service of your discovery

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>>5793408
>>Ride tonight, pushing yourself ragged, to warn Artemus and the Secret Service of your discovery
Time is of the essence, but with our keen memory we should be just a horse chase plus a scant few miles to the rail camp The Wanderer was resting behind. Depending on how long the pocket rummaging took, hopefully make it there around 8pm, pass on the warning, and come right back here to backtrack the Canary Brothers.
Seems they were already kicked out of town before that point, and, given the lax handling of the body, probably not the sort to ride out terribly far in the pre-dawn to dispose of a body. If it had been a chase, that might add some distance, but probably not long in the dark or twilight. (Do we recall a spare horse, perhaps with more packed than the others?)
Maybe see if Artemus has a geological map of the area before heading out again.
This is what early morning over-thinking looks like.

>>5793408
>>Rest tonight before riding hard in the morning to warn and intervene as you will.

Write

Rolled 6 (1d20)

Sleep, write laterp

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>>5794644
I tried to find a funny image for waking up a cowboy. I found this instead.

>>5798074
I spent all weekend near asleep; burnt out, and canceled standing raiding plans. Had work and a diagnostic test today for my energy level issues. Rather, to clear my heart health for related treatment.

I’m struggling these days, and thank you for bearing with me as I dust off my QMing hat and give this a try.

A try that will be finished.

>>5798154
Don't force yourself QM. If there's a reason you need to put things on hold then it's best to take a break.
I'd feel more assured if you told us if you were going on one though.

>>5798154
Arty?

>>5812503
>>5814338
I live. Been sick on top of existing problems