Purgatory 101

Team Ranger: You and your birds head into the General Store, a two-story yellow building on Purgatory Gulch's main street. The store itself is laid out with most of the goods attractively arranged on shelves BEHIND the long counter, the idea being that a customer will present their basket and list of desired goods, and the smiling human man in the vertically striped shirt and the clean green apron will whisk your basket away (empty) and return (filled) to settle up your total purchase price. The goods you could pick up on your own include some woven baskets and a variety of brightly colored sacks. Also on your side is a "hall tree" for people who want to put their hats on the shelves and hang their coats or their weapon belts while they shop. Civilized!
 
You could walk around the counter to stand on his side, of course. The gentleman mostly hides the flinch when he sees loose birds of prey. He is certainly happy to see the two people! "Good mahrnin'," "Welcome to Purgatory, ma'am, sir. I'm Mayor Blaze, but folks here call mostly call me 'Jaeke'. What can I do for you on this fine day?" He probably stood up from the rocking chair when he saw the shadows of approaching customers through the glass in his front door. On a table close to the rocking chair he has a kettle on a trivet, a small stein with lid, a book with a bookmark hastily inserted (the spine is away from you so not sure what it is he's reading!), and a dull gray-brown Oatman hat with a kerchief tied neatly onto the hatband. Hanging on pegs nearby are five more steins with lids, all about the same size as a coffee mug. On the countertop are a stack of five baskets, an old brass cash register, a flyswatter, a box of jumbled plain jugs (they probably hold no more than 2 cups of fluid, and were definitely made by amateurs), two heavy lanterns (unlit), and an extremely bent fireplace poker. There's also a polishing rag and a spray bottle more than half full of some kind of fluid. I glance around to see if she can see any signs of someone else being in the store right now - an apprentice or helper of some kind., but I don't see anyone! Granted: there are stairs on the western interior wall of the building, leading up to a second floor. I suppose there could be someone up there. But one mug in use, one rocking chair set in place, this is probably a one-person shop. Probably.
 
A grin spreads over Bruthazmus' face. He tips his hat a bit at Jaeke, then reaches up to the owl on his shoulder to give him a scratch under the chin. "Well, Jaeke, a lot of that depends on what you have. I had a bit of a spat with something ugly out on the longgrass and so lost an arrow or two. So I might be needing some fletching. Then some dried meat, trail bread, those are always nice. That is if that storm that hit the plains didn't slow down any supply caravans coming this away. What might you have?"
 
"Well then. Hmm." Jaeke thinks over his wares dramatically. But then, you might start to form the impression that Jaeke does everything dramatically -- that "dramatically" is his base state of body language. In another setting, he would have become the head of a theatrical troupe. "I want to be a smart businessman," he says, "but I can't rightly bring myself to take advantage of you good folks. You just want some good healthy chicken feathers. Not even the whole chicken. If you simply got to buy some, I recommend you visit a farm or a ranch and offer a couple of copper to pick over the henhouse while the hens are out eating. Most everyone around these parts has got chickens." Jaeke seems to catch himself being foolish. "What am I saying? Tell you what. You go on down to, hmm, Ayrshire could use the unexpected funds and no mistake. But that is something of a hike from here. Salers are going to be out working, you would have to search around for someone. Chiamina farmhands will all be out fightin' the weeds too, but they get noisy enough that you should be able to do business. I can give you directions there after we are all settled up here, no trouble." He looks inquiringly at both of you to see if his solution suits you before he will reach for a basket and start gathering Bruthazmus's other requests.
 
Bruthazmus nods thoughtfully. "That'll do. Thanks for that, Jaeke, much appreciated." He glances over at Zhang Sephia. "Man's got a nice store, don't you think, Sephia?"
 
I agree. " It is a nice store with a nice selection. Right neighborly of you to be thinking of saving our money. That is always a resource that there is never enough of. (light laugh) Tell me Jaeke, has then been anything odd or weird around here lately??
 
"Well," he says with a Sincerely Troubled expression, "that storm was a tetch odd, of course." His eyes flicker to look out his doors briefly as he thinks about recent goings-on out in the street. "Even with the padre and Miss Melinda bringing some of their resources to bear, we had four days of hard scrubbing to clear the grime away. Today has been my first day to set a spell, and that's a fact. Padre's been checking on the outlying farms as he is able. I spent what turned out to be the last week of the storm slogging from main house to main house, farm, and ranch, passing around some of my stores to keep folks eating. Almost lost my burro more times'n I can count." He looks Downcast for a beat. Then the metaphorical sun comes out as he raises his chin again. "Sure does my heart good to see folks come in across the grasslands! So long as you don't want stew spices, I can probably accommodate anything you need, or tell you a better place to get it. I've got some nice bunny jerky to sell you, Mister...?"
 
Bruthazmus nods. "Bruthazmus. Name's Bruthazmus and bunny jerky will do me just fine. How much would a couple of Geldarian silver coins bring?" He scratches the fur on his chin. "Odd you say? Well, I'm not one to judge, but over near Aquitaine, it seemed downright off-putting. How do you mean odd for here? It send frogs flying around on pigs?" Jaeke gives Bruthazmus a hard look in the eye for a second. He follows that up with a thoughtful look up to the owl and down the length of the ranger's coat sleeves. He makes up his mind about something. "You'll forgive me for sayin' so, mister, ma'am, but you two kind of advertise that you are not from around here. You need someone to take you in hand, give you the lay of the land, sort of thing." He sets the basket back down on the counter. "You expected anywheres at a particular time?" Bruthazmus chuckles. "Sorry Jaeke, I'm used to the prices back in Aquitaine. How much for the jerky?" He glances at his carved sign. "This is why I never put the jerky on the list," he says, "because the prices goes up and down about as wildly as a rabbit in the witch garden. This week's price is eight copper for a quarter-pound bundle. Eggs is always eggs, cheese is mostly cheese, but rabbits," he shakes his head in genial dismay.
 
Bruthazmus nods. "Fair enough then. A quarter-pound bundle if you please." He scratches his chin once more. "And, well, speaking of Aquitaine, we came out this way from there at the askin' of a young goblin boy. Seems his Da and their caravan found more trouble than they could handle out on the longgrass. Given the two-legged demonic cow we fought last night, I'd say it was a lot of trouble. Did a goblin caravan come back into town out of the storm? Or come through before the storm? We're looking to make sure they're safe and sound." Jaeke blanches. He takes in a careful breath. "Those poor souls," he says. "In that nasty storm." He presses his lips together tightly while he thinks. "No," he says at last in a firm clear voice, "I have not seen hide nor hair of the Bicchieri Caravan since late last winter." He reaches for the basket that he had put down when he was thinking of playing cultural guide. "I'll just get you that jerky and a loaf or two of bread, shall I?"
 
I glance askance at Bruthazmus and turn to the mayor. "Now then, calm yourself. We did not mean to upset you. We are simply trying to do our duty to the earth and the creatures upon it. We were asked by a young goblin boy to find his pa and we are determined to help the boy and his father. Would you be able to assist us in this endeavor? We are not here to ruffle the feathers of anyone - your mayoship included." Bruthazmus shrugs at Sofia “What? You’ll never know the answer until you start askin the question.” For a split instant there, Jaeke was about to blurt something out. He presses his lips together tightly again while he steels his resolve. "I hoped the storm had made the Bicchieri Caravan hunker down somewhere, not driven them off completely -- nor worse. I'll ask around where I can before the afternoon heat sets in. The chapel door's the only one to open if someone knocks during siesta." The lines around his eyes are still sharp -- this is a person who has committed himself to doing something frightening.
 
"But you could ride out to meet the mail coach, see if you can spot any wagons in the arroyo along the way. Or maybe they spotted something. The land around hereabouts will fool you -- looks like grass or scrub to the horizon, gentle hills, and right down the middle will be a deep trench in the earth. We have warned the stagecoach team more'n once about using the arroyo for a road. They reckon the steep walls help discourage bandits. They reckon as far as natural hazards go, even a flash flood would not dare to mess with the tax assessor on their rounds. Anyway, lapir can swim." Bruthazmus chimes in, "Lapir horses? Those are the black and white 'paint' horses orcs like. Good animals." Bruthazmus tilts his hat back on his head a few inches. "Though about the caravan. We found where they hunkered down, at least we think so. A little mesa south of here. We spent the evening there and wound up having a bad time with some sort of devil-taken cow. The thing walked on two legs and came at us with a halberd. Mind you, I like beef as much as the next person. But I'm not so fond of it when it stabs back. Ever hear tell of something like that?"
 
Jaeke replies "Yer talkin' the same burrow milk as Ranger," Jaeke says discouragingly. "We in the town proper pretty much try to stay out of the troubles between the farmers and the ranchers." He walks off into the shelves of the shop to fill the basket. I try to smooth things out again and ask about the Ranger. He fills us in on the history of the ranch hand turned blacksmith with one of his buddies. Bruthazmus pays for his purchases and we leave with two different destinations on the opposite end of town.
 
We stand outside the store and debate our next move. I remember seeing Miro heading south so we think it might be better to go north and find that mail coach. Bart mentions how weird it is that Jaeke thinks that it might have seen something when the caravan was to the south. Then he has a thought and suggests that we should talk to the naiad since she has a part in the farmer versus ranch battle. He also says that while we could probably talk to her just fine, it would be better to have both the druid and the stormborne around. Apparently Miro has something in his blood that forces him to use magic which will allow him to make a connection with the ruler of the lake. We figure it will be better to go together as a group and so we just stand in the middle of the street and wait for everyone to meander back to use. First to arrive is Jesse with another chap that he introduces as the Padre. We discuss the situation and decide to get a means of transportation and head to the stable. The Padra saddles his mount - which is just odd-looking. Then the stable boy brings out two mounts - ALMOST normal looking horses. The druid makes friends and starts to saddle his mount, but Bart almost gets his ear bitten off. The stable boy brings out an actual horse - albeit old and careworn. We all get together and head out to follow Lee Chung's tracks.
 
We catch up to him rather easily since he is walking and we are riding. We exchange information and determine that we are all interested in speaking with the naiad. We continue heading towards the Tarntaise Farm. We are almost there is the farm when the Padre notices Chef. Lee Chung explains the situation about the kobold and we get to the farm. There we see a sign showing what can be bought. Lee Chung and Jesse buy some Rutabega beer cheese soup and Bart gets an ale. I abstain since someone will need to have a clean mind. I suddenly remember that Miro will need food and order a jug of the beer cheese soup for him. That seems to be making the farmers happy.
 
Jesse opens the conversation casually by asking about any damage from the storm. He responds by talking about the rabbit hutches being broken - almost like they were damaged on purpose. When he inquires about our storm experiences, Lee Chung jumps in to talk about the caravan we are tracking. Then, just when he is about to say something, his dad walks back out with the jug of soup for Miro. He gets his payment from me and then he lets me know that the jug can be re-heated on a campfire and that under no circumstances can the jug be taken into the saloon. The son obviously wants to tell us something and just as obviously does not want to say it while his father is there. Jesse jumps in to save the situation by offering to bless the fields. The farmer takes him up on the offer and they go off to take care of his heritage rutabaga field.
 
Then Lee Chung asks him what he wanted to talk about and he gives us a story about a banshee or ghost haunting a local cemetery. Then there is a side conversation about time versus thyme and when we get back to the topic at hand, he tells us that they had gone to the local cemetery to check for anyone needing help when they saw a lot of dead bodies - not buried. He recommends that we check it out - if we are determined to do so - at noon since that is the best way to counter any ghostiness. We gather Jesse and head out towards town while waiting for WrongWay to bring news of Miro's location.
 
WrongWay appears and indicates that Miro is southwest and then Spiro appears and attaches to Brathazmus who feeds him. Both animals agree that we need to go west and Spiro disappears, but WrongWay has better directions for us to follow and we start heading towards Miro. Approximately forty-five minutes later we meet with Miro and I give him the food. He begins spouting information about what he has been discovering which includes that the blacksmith has been kidnapped along with his anvil, the person he is with has a magical fire poker, the brand on his face is not magic, and that there were a lot of wagon tracks and hoof marks.
 
We end up back in town and the padre gets the guy who he refers to as Ranger settled down.
 
I get up high enough into the clear, cold air. I can see the group as a small dot, though I doubt they can see me. I start spying out of the land and I can see various ranches and outbuildings. The canyon does look like it was smacked straight down into the land. I can see grasses and various animals grazing at the entrance to the canyon North and a bit east of a pond is a dust cloud that should be the stagecoach. There is nothing odd I see on my first pass, but I feel drawn to both the shiny and good to eat and I am seeing nothing that interests me. However, on the upper slopes of Oatman Canyon, there is a much larger farm that appears to be physically laid out to be in a defensible formation. They even have thorny bushes set up in place of walls. The most outstanding feature is the occasional glint of glass in a perimeter. There are several ranches with herds of cattle with ranch-hands around watching them. South and west of the canyon in another large ranch in the "badlands". It has large stone barns with on every east-facing slope is that design Miro showed us - te yellow triangle. No cattle are close to the buildings - except for one and there is a smoke pit active in that building. It strikes me as weird that most of the buildings don't have smoke or activity around them. There is one farm that looks to have cabbages growing - but they are in rows. In the far distance, I can see a hint of the Warden Road.
 
The direction the party is going is roughly the same as where we had the encounter last night and there is a scar on the land. That area appears to be dead with reddish earth and none of the muddy, dusty look the rest of the land has. I spiral down and land with the group just as they reach the edge of the scar. The priest stares in abject horror and Bruthazmus shares what he learns which amounts to this is BAD. Jesse takes a look with his druidic skill set and learns that something evil has sucked the life out of the entire area - even down to the microbes in the soil. Bart chimes in with a suggestion about a dryad being evil and Miro suggests maybe there is an undead blood born. Padre mentions that his mount refuses to walk into that area so Jesse and Bart volunteers to walk in. First, Jesse pulls up a baby cactus and holds it over the dividing line to see what happens. Nothing does so Bart joins him. Jesse re-plants the cactus and we head towards the center of this area which is also where the cemetery should be.
 
We move to the center of the scar and see some graves that are comprised of dirt and debris from a caravan. It is now mid-afternoon and the sun is beating down mercilessly. The graves on the west side seem to be higher than those on the east side closest to us. There are not really markers for the various graves, but there are markers of various kinds to indicate perhaps who was buried where. It almost looks like an earthquake, but yet doesn't. Jesse heads to the willow bough and Bart heads towards the bone to look for signs on the undead. Miro just starts poking things. I stand by observing to regain energy after the flight.
 
Them Miro declares that someone is going to die with strong intent. Apparently the storm we all experienced was created by a storm master sorcerer who was killed by someone who then grabbed their storm and put it into a bottle. Then we hear whispering from behind us with a voice that promises retribution. No one among us can understand what she is saying and then suddenly Lee Chung appears. I ask him to translate what the lady is whispering since she sounds very mad, but he can't hear her, and neither can I anymore. Jesse mentions that someone used an earth-moving spell to bury the bodies, which is a very high-level spell. Padre doesn't know anyone in the area that would be able to do that level of spell work. Then Bart pipes up with the information that all of the creatures that had been in this area were raised by a necromancer.
 
Jesse points at a small section on the lip of the scar that appears to greenish. I fly over and check it out and can see where this was an area where water had dripped and everything that had been safely in the water died once they dropped out of the water. I land lightly on the area. I do not see anything else in the area of note. I look back towards the group and suddenly see a ghost. I fly back down so I can hear what Lee Chung is saying. He seems to be arguing with her. Then she mentions the caravan and can see that the name means something to us. Then she appears to be giving him instructions. After a while, he turns and translates it. One, we have to release a storm and help the stormborn to move to the next life. Two, we have to take the pendant Jesse found back to the mountain so she can rest. Three, we must stop them.
 
She disappears and we help the padre finish up his prayers so we can head back to town. The is an argument about what might be causing this, but demonic plant-based seems to be winning. It does still appear that there are three different factions that are fighting for power in this region. We head back towards town to meet the stagecoach and see what stories it has to share. I fly up so I can check on the progress of the stagecoach. I also see a few other small dust clouds that are probably people working on their land. It is hot and the air shimmers, but it is not moving very much at all and I keep moving so I don't overheat. Xifeng makes a dive for a suslik but doesn't get it. I swing back around, but the group hasn't made it very far.
 
Then I see Miro rejoin the group. Why does he always run off?? Then I see them stop and start talking, then the padre heads off westward and as I get closer to them, I hear disjointed conversation about the farm and what is going on. I head out so I can fly high enough above the Padre's head so I can warn him of approaching danger. We get to the farm and the first thing we notice is that the rabbit hutches here were also bashed open. The group splits up to check various parts of the ranch and I fly up to do a patrol over the ranch house and a 15-yard circle around the farm to keep an eye out for problems.
 
The farm itself looks okay but does need to be tidied. As I start to fly a wider circle, I see the dust cloud from the stagecoach has gotten longer. And now there is another dust cloud that seems to be closer to the pond. There also seems to be something that captured the rabbits as they were attempting to leave. The more I think about the dust cloud from the stagecoach the more concerned I get. Once I see everyone gathering in the farmyard, I spiral down and share my concerns. We find out what Bruthasmuz discovered from the mules and we help him to get the barn fixed up for the helpful mules. While in there working, we find a few bottles that have writing on them to spray on plants and to NOT consume anything that has this potion added to it. Then we head out to meet the stagecoach just in case it is being attacked.
 
As we leave, I fly up and can see several dust clouds as the attackers are running at different speeds. I decide to fly ahead to get some information to take back to the group so they will know what is ahead of them. I can see a stagecoach and six-horse team with a driver and another person who is firing a crossbow. There is a stampede of cows chasing them! They are stuck in a ravine and no way for them to get out of it for a couple of miles. The driver reaches beneath the seat and pulls out something from under the seat and blows five, long, steady notes and then puts it back under the seat. I fly down and tell them help is on the way and then fly back to inform the group.
 
Padre heads out immediately and Bessie - in her flower hat - agrees with him. Jesse speeds out after the Padre and the others follow as quickly as they can. So much for getting there all at the same time. I stay in the air so I can keep all the different parties informed of the status. Jesse says he will cast entangle at a bend once the stagecoach passes. I say I can also cast that spell and move to the bend directly in front of the herd. I cast the spell, but it partially hits the side of the wall and I only catch part of the herd. I fly over the stagecoach and see that there is a person inside who has a wand. They are firing blasts of a red energy ray that is hitting the cattle and appears to be hurting them. I spiral down and land on the top of the stagecoach, tell them I am here to help, and start firing arrows at the cows. I send Xifeng to Bart so she will be out of the way. Not much she can do against a cow.
 
Then I hear Miro yell something about releasing something and a lightning bolt hits several of the cows and sets them on fire. The smell of rosemary and garlic fills the air. Then the halberds come out and I know our hell bovines are here. The stagecoach goes around a bend and rocks a bit. I hover and fire at the group of cows that have appeared out of a side canyon. I manage to hit from the air and set another one on fire. Then Miro sends a snowball into the same group and then Bart is suddenly riding one of the hell bovine towards the ones behind the stagecoach trying to stop the stampede.
 
I glance around the stagecoach and remind everyone there that I told them help was on the way! And then the battle is over. I bang on the roof of the stagecoach and tell them it is safe to slow down and my friends - who are mostly harmless - as we head into town.