Afternoon at Purgatory Gulch

We all get back to town and the stagecoach riders offer to buy us a round of drinks. Miro, Jesse, and I follow them into the saloon while Brathazmus stays to look over the stagecoach itself. Apparently there are some questions he has about it. The padre and Lee Chung head off towards the chapel. The padre to refresh himself and probably pray after the chaos of battle. Lee Chung will probably question that Ranger guy.
 
Inside the saloon, there is a disco light??? and the color scheme shows someone who had a repressed personality and I do use HAD very seriously. There is a pesky behind the bar and I ask for a Ginger Burst which is served in a stein. Jesse inquires about food and she thinks that she could make us some rabbit sandwiches since it is early and she can understand why we might feel a might peckish. He starts a conversation with Ms. Amore and she tells us about how every ranch tends to have a rabbit hutch around so that they don't have to kill a cow when they need meat for the stewpot. This brings up the whole cow conversation and she mentions that she has been closing up early since not a lot of people have been around - neither ranchers or farmers. They continue talking about the area and continue onto the "troubles" between the ranchers and farmers. She also mentions that there is a strict rule about not fighting inside the saloon. Then the stagecoach guys walk in and say hi to the lady. They mention they brought some things for her and offer to take it down to her storeroom. She declines and gives them the sandwiches the Jesse had purchased. They introduce themselves as Sundown and Dusty, two orcs. They tell us about how Scorpion, who is the tax collector for the region. However, she is coming here every three months and bringing money in instead of taking taxes out. Apparently she is trying to help build up the infrastructure so that the town won't die out - AGAIN. The closest orc tribe has told every group that has tried to settle here about how this just isn't a place to try and make a living, but they keep on coming in and doing well for a couple of years and then staying even when it is apparent that they aren't doing well - until they die out. At which point Ms. Amore comes back in and they quickly switch topics back to the troubles and helping us to navigate those waters. Apparently once you 'pick' a side you are fair game and doing work can be as simple as doing a season of picking or roping cows.
 
Jesse asks their opinion of the various ranches and we hear about Grandmammy Clementine at Corriente Farm and her penchant for sowing drama. They say that they will be staying overnight and ask about what we will be doing. I suggest we can stay at the abandoned farm we were at earlier and Jesse counters with the padre's church. Sundown gets up to go get another round and Dusty complains about how much he is talking. Then just as Sundown returns, Brathazmus walks in to join us. He says he will take a mead with coffee grounds. Ms. Amore refuses but sends him some Expressed Rage and a mug of mead. He combines them and drinks. Then Jesse catches Bart up on the conversation we had with the stagecoach guys while they also keep an ear open for Miro and the expected trouble he will bring. I ask what we can do to get ready for the oncoming cattle rampage since we know they will be coming. Then we hear a crack from outside and Bart starts walking outside to check on the noise and then we all hear Miro say "oops". We all get up and rush out and see the doors of the general store open a bit and Miro with a woman holding a wand. They appear to be ready to enter combat and we hear Miro yell "I'll keel haul the lot of ya....come at me you undead bastards."
 
Brathazmus asks Miro what is up, pulls out his weapons, and heads that way. I step back inside the saloon and tell Ms. Amore that there is trouble in the general store and that she might want to batten down the hatches. Wow, Miro is catching! Then I fly onto the boulder beside the store in order to have a bird's eye view of the battle so I can maybe see inside the store over the heads of the combatants and fire an arrow or at least watch for anything escaping. Scorpion takes aim at one of the undead things and Bart ambles to the back of the building to make a back door so he can attack from the rear. From here, I can see a swarm of the creatures heading straight towards Miro. There are snakes and scorpions in the mix and I can hear Bart smiting things behind the building. Miro begins backing up to give us all more room and suddenly three scorpions jump at him when suddenly Miro is there, but not there. Then Lee Chung starts to hit those same scorpions and manages to hit one. Chef then attempts to hit one and get knocked back. I fire an arrow into the group and the door and I can hear them sizzle from here. Then Scorpion attempts to do something, but it obviously doesn't work. Jesse steps in and manages to smack some around with his staff.
 
Another round of combat goes by with nothing very fancy happening, but the bad guys (or animals in this case) are not having a good day. Now the thunderstorm that Jesse created has entered the store and we can hear it doing something inside the store. I am not sure that Jaeke will be truly happy for us to have entered this particular fray. Then Lee Chung does another attack and now the street is clear. From inside the store, we hear another sound like thunder maybe. I leave Xifang on top of the boulder to keep an eye open for trouble and I fly down to look in the new back door. I can not see much, but there is debris around the entry hole. I can tell that Bart was here and I can see him ahead of me about ten feet in front of me. He appears to be having fun with a barrel so I walk up behind him to assist when I get a chance. I can also see hints of the thunderstorm when it has a lightning flash. I see a sidewinder coming up beside Bart to try and bite him so I fire at him and start making his day go from bad to worse. He starts running for the door and I swing at him as he is slithering by and end his life without damaging the body at all. I think there might be some uses for this.
 
I glance over to the saloon and can see the two guys from the stagecoach watching as we begin to clean up after the fight. Then they mosey on up and one offers some of his peanuts to Scorpion who is apparently not hungry. Then Padre runs up and starts talking about getting a talking bottle and undead creatures. He wants to burn them so that they can't be raised again, but Lee Chung wants us to search the bodies first to see if they found whatever they were apparently looking for. I refuse because they are dead after all and that is just gross. It is impossible to get that smell out of your feathers!!
 
Then Scorpion takes Miro off to look for something and the others start looking through the dead bodies to see what they can find. I fly down and go to collect that red sidewinder. I am almost positive that that is the same skin as what is on my hatband and I am guessing this skin can be used to make something interesting. I borrow one of Lee Chung's knives and gut the snake. It is rotten clear through and the sun is going down as I manage to finish pulling the skin off, then wash and return Lee Chung's knife. Then Miro starts yelling about the crazy lady wanting to go out of the town and look for the mayor. Lee Chung pops into the conversation to start talking about the information he got from Ranger. Which leads to a conversation about some book with personal items from almost everyone in the region. Apparently the previous person used a census book so they could find anyone who gets lost. Scorpion tells us that she has the book secured so that no one can use it for evil purposes. Then Jesse explains why we want to go see the niaid at the pond and how every time we are being sidetracked from going. A theory is tossed out that maybe there are two groups that are attempting to use nefarious means to attack others. When we bring the Padre into the conversation and he agrees that we have two different groups involved. I then suggest that maybe each side of the troubles has brought in a heavy hitter in order to end the problem once and for all.
 
Padre then suggests that we put everyone into the schoolhouse overnight so that we can protect the townsfolk overnight and then we can head out in the morning and maybe solve the problem tomorrow. Scorpion starts summarizing the situation and we all begin to work on getting everyone to the schoolhouse for the night. Miro disappears into the bar - supposedly to ask about who last saw the mayor. The Jesse calls in a couple of vultures to chat with him and they tell him about how strange the cattle are acting and that there are some small groups that are out and seem to be looking for something. They will meet up at the blacksmith shop sometime later - but not that much later. Miro tells us that the bartender will get everyone in town headed that way. Brathazmus is going to head out with the fighting Mollies and spend the night at the empty ranch we found earlier today - Braunvieh Farms. Scorpion manages to open the door to Ms. Melinda's and is greeted by a ball of acidic gas. Lee Chung and the Padre head to the church to move the beehives inside and bring Ranger to the schoolhouse. Then, one I mention that the cows are probably tracking Ranger, Jesse comes up with an idea to use Ranger to get the cows going around in circles.
 
We split up to get ready for the night of terror ahead of us.