Interlude: Fortune Found

A powder-blue sky that seeps into white and yellow edges with the burning glare of a sun whose rays fall on sand, stone, rock, and canyon. The roots and maces populate an orange yellow landscape as the lone cry of a buzzard feathers visibly missing from its wings, circles lazily through air filled with more thermals than not. Effortless to stale off as the heat of the stone bakes upwards towards an unrelenting sky. In the shadow of amesa, ring that its far edges by stone buttes and fairy chimneys tall towers of yellow striped sedimentary stone. We see what remains of a town that once thrived. Dusty rails, the whisper of what was to become a factory, shops and houses, windmill, and the tracks of what we have learned is called a locomotive. Here in the free roads, I would ask each of you to describe a part of this town and I would love for each of you to describe a part of this town, where things didn't quite turn out as the people had hoped. Just off the central thoroughfare, there's a sign that kind of once was held between two posts but now hangs only from the left side. That reads, Elias Wonderworld and is filled with crumbled towers and creatures made out of paper mache. You can tell that there used to be kind of little scenelets or areas for children to explore and play in. However, I think you could very much tell in part by how little is left that a paper mache playland was never meant to live in the desert and that whoever created it was someone who spent day after day remaking and reshaping elements of this kind of playground because they would continuously melt and fall apart. In the shadow of the awning out on the wooden walkway out in front of Elias Wonderworld is a mostly white cat figure of paper mache. It originally was orange with black stripes, the form of a tiger, and out in front as one of the finest pieces to see. The sun bleached it of its color in the better part of a year and a half. The mouth or face of this tiger has melted off and is being kept structurally sound starting at the throat by a massive wasps nest where brown and black striped desert wasps, these angry long-dwinged things buzz matching the waves of heat emanating off the tin roof as these wasps move to and fro flying forth from a headless tiger. Down at the far end of the town where like a governor's mansion or an important person to the town was building their estate behind the house where there's a little bit of a grade to the landscape. It looks like it's the beginning of terraforming to make sort of like a terrace steps for gardening and adding like more plant life to this area, but halfway through the second step there's a massive like rift in the ground where they hit something important and it split the earth and ruin the foundation of the like house and the area around it and the crack seems pointed directly at the heart of the town. The mayor's canyon as it's come to be known moves out from the abandoned terraces. The governor's mansion is a wonder to behold from town. The back of the mansion was never completed, but from the front beautiful marble stone steps and a sort of smear of rust in the central archway at the front because the official seal was pulled down a generation or two ago and melted down for scrap metal. This place has been abandoned for a long time and down in the canyon matching the buzz of the wasps you can hear a occasional of a rattlesnakes tail. It is a hot enough portion of the day that even a cold blooded reptile will seek the shade. At the base of that canyon it's hard to see but there is water deep down there something cool and deep this place was not built by fools. There was a hope once upon a time that this town would thrive and it is impossible to tell if the canyon is the wound that killed it or simply the incision of some divine bureaucratic surgeon who opened something up to see just how bad the rot was. On the outskirts of town our collection of small almost non-descript buildings with what would have been once white picket fences surrounding tiny plots in the back. This was supposed to be housing for the workers in the factory specifically for the workers that had family. There were hopes once upon a time for this to be a thriving town that could become home to families. In each front yard is a tiny planter box. The hope was that everybody would be able to grow some little home crops maybe tomatoes or rhubarb for the table. Now those boxes are home to dust and trash and tiny desert mice. A dusty tired looking group of hunting dogs wild speckled with modeled brown and deep black and patches of what looks like a dusty indigo kind of blue patches of fur speckled over them. Long jackal like snouts and shorter tails almost like deer that seem to have a white underside for them to be able to be raised in communication. Loap, disparately through this tiny neighborhood, Harlow's glades they were called. Glades here was an aspirational name to give to these homes. The dogs sniff lazily hoping for a brave or adventurous mouse to pop their head up. These dogs have been eating mice more than they would prefer. There hasn't been a prong horned antelope around here in a while. The dogs breathe dejectedly and go to find a shadow somewhere to lay down in. Harlow's glades lies in sight of the rotting and ruined back of the governor's mansion. At the edge of Fortunes Fields the town where we find ourselves. Fortunes Fields was supposed to be a small city. At its height it only ever got to a big town. Nowadays Fortunes Fields is a small town. Living in a husk of what used to be inside a larger husk of what was hoped to be. A group of miners and dusty overalls and flat caps come trudging out with their carts from the mine. There hasn't been any silver found here in quite some time but there's some coal. Coal's good. You can sell coal. You just need to get enough that the train that comes to carry the coal doesn't have to burn more coal than the coal you find. Oh my god. That's it. That may be the most sad I could be. The miners and their families. A water tower with a small hook for passing trains to refuel and fill up on water stands with an illegal stent in the side of the water tower for towns folk to come and steal the water because there's not enough to go around otherwise. We see a rotting governor's mansion and a sheriff's office with an open pain of shattered glass that some Samaritan has at least cleaned up from the ground though the window has not been replaced because no one has cared to. This town still has maybe a thousand people here. Not not a big not not nobody not a hamlet not just a stand of farms there's there's a working mine here factories defunct there's a working tavern here though the inn never gets any visitors there's half of a dream flickering here in this space and I'd love for each of you to describe for me if you could somebody with one last chance. There's a like 20 maybe 26 year old woman the daughter of moonshineers good work for a place that is holding on with white knuckles at the very edge of oblivion. The alcohol used to be just sort of strong and poorly flavored but she's been ranging farther and farther out into the desert to find a sort of like scrub brush that grows beneath cacti that she turns into a flavorant and she's just so convinced that if she can get on one of these trains and leave this town and sell this very special alcohol she can't even land she's not no name yet she doesn't know what to call it she just calls it fortune and she knows if she can sell it somewhere she can uplift her family and then maybe the whole town can be about this and there's a way back she just needs to make enough and find the right person and get out of here for just long enough it could be big it could change everything. As this woman is walking through the town someone calls out her name what name could they call out? Millie. Millie. Millie. How you doing there stranger? Oh hi. You look up and see hanging out in front of the general store with about three or four young men that are a rotating cast of kind of Nerduels is Mr. Hollow. Mr. Hollow is not the man who built the general store but he is the man who bought the general store after the former owner of the general store suffered a very bad accident where both his legs were broken. Oh. Got it. Millie like raises her hands and just the glare off of help bright and how much the sun is bouncing off of the hard earth she can barely see it she only kind of knows from his voice and the direction so she doesn't even see the other people that are around but just yells. Oh Mr. Hollow hi hi hi it was a good it was a good and she shifts like she has this big like it's not canvas it's like old plastic that she's shaped into like a big sack and it's very large but it's full of very like sparse dry plant so it probably only weighs like five or ten pounds but it might be like she could fit inside of this bag. It's a good it's a good trip. I'm going to be able to this should probably take maybe four days to you know reduce how are you how are you? Oh I'm doing mighty fine now that you're back in town but I'd be I'd be remiss if I didn't say came up a little light on that last batch you know the the fellas here in town they like a stronger drink. No I know I know I know I'm so like I said before I'm so sorry about that but I think this one it'll be it's going to be so good I just need a couple days and it will be so strong thank you thank you so much for your patience all of all of you all of your patience thank you he smiles and nods the smell of the scrub brush in that bag this is a varietal a hearty desert anesthesied so this like intense licorice kind of smell emerges from the bag behind you for a this like liquor that you make out here this moonshine that is completely clear when distilled and if it touches ice in any way it turns milky white you head off through the town and uh who else is here in fortunes fields today. Harry's a man who was educated abroad he's seen a lot of the empire the neighboring lands and he decided to settle here he settled here in order to try and grow his practice as a doctor but one thing led to another he fell in love of wife passed away and he just always found a reason to stay here in the community you know is everybody here it's comfortable even though it's deeply physically uncomfortable in this part of the world but try as he might he just can't find a reason to hop onto the train and move on to somewhere bigger where he could actually have a thriving medical practice. Harry's office is what was formerly a backroom of a saloon at one point he had a full building it was shiny mahogany clean counters is something he always grumbles about now but it was a much better maintained room at the saloon and has the town shrank and shrank it was important to be near where the action was and that was always the saloon. Harry you hear a commotion as there's a loud clang of mine carts hitting each other and you can hear shouting from the mine entrance looking up the sort of main thoroughfare in the town you see there's dust being kicked up as a group of men rushes shouting ahead of a larger slower group of men who appear to be carrying someone in a stretcher. Whoa hey hey come on over you see it run over oh there's a man you see he has a thick pair of overalls you see he has kind of a checkered shirt underneath it has a shawl coming up around his neck a smaller kind of like skull cap clean to his head he comes up wipes dust and dirt off of his eyes and you see that he comes and says fahad is leg is leg and you see a young man that you would recognize as fahad he has clearly suffered an accident and you can see that through thick wrapping of canvas a dripping wet with blood leg you can't see anything under the knee but from the saturation of blood in the fabric you can tell that this is about as bad as an injury can get in that part of the body. All right bring him on in Harry looking at fahad down there fahad is a handsome he's got deep hazel eyes and long black eyelashes in any other universe he would have like the countenance and bearing of a prince and you see there are like some popped blisters on his hand he's got these dirty overalls on and looking up you can see he's missing a couple teeth that just comes from basically he grew up here he was one he was one of the people that started in the minds as a kid without parents and so just went a couple years without anyone telling him to chew on this certain cactus gum that keeps your teeth from rotting and by the time anyone that wasn't his direct family explained that to him he'd already lost a bunch of his teeth you walk in what did you do as he lands in front of you as he lands in front of me I clear I clear everybody out with with a dismissive gesture of my hand I pull out a knife from my boot and I start to cut off the canvas pants which is starting to pool with blood you see that the tibia in his leg the main leg bone has had a brutal pulverizing break so it's not a clean break if there's probably a couple of two or three inches the mine carts are slightly angled out and you think that his leg got caught in between two of them clanging together and fully crushed and separated so there is a ruined couple inches of multiple fractured bone and you can see the tibia darting out trying to break through the skin under the knee at the dance hall were you lad all right Harry takes takes the knife and and quickly quickly and expertly cuts the canvas from the pant leg pulls a bucket of the precious water that is available here in the back room it's already warm he was already working on cleaning he starts dunking strips of bandages in there ready to set the leg go ahead and give me a medicine check and I'm going to give you your stat block right now hey oh this five on the door pretend he's not going to keep this leg blue dusty white collared shirt pressed pleated striped pants overalls with the metal elements shined just this morning and polished shoes standing at four seven it's oaky page affectionately referred to around town as the railway stooge but personally holds his title as second deputy close to his heart oaky for the most part is a is a is a pretty friendly chap is not but but's job is to kind of maintain the rail the rail station make sure that they don't take too much water and and make sure that there are no delays in the schedule the railway station a long concrete block benches lamps this was made at a time of investment when the name fortunes fields felt appropriate felt a little bit aspirational but like it was going to happen silver was coming out of that mine in droves and you can even see some silver embossments here and there on your desk there is a covered awning that covers most of the exterior concrete block of the rail station a long long stretch you could have an 11 car train come through here it's been four car trains for the entire time you've been stationed here but you could take 11 train cars here there's a small interior area with a countertop that has no food or service at it but there is a samovar would do you think uh do you think that oaky would have would make coffee in the large public coffee maker for himself there very much so there's always fresh coffee at the rest station the best part of his bank and the most involved yeah you know being the second deputy station agent and the person running the concessions stand is not where you saw yourself ending up no but oaky holds in his heart that maybe somewhere some stations in need of a new second agent or even first agent you look and see a calendar um today is a big day there was a holiday which means there was a there was a three day delay so it has been 17 days since the last time a train came through and there should be a train coming through today that'll have food and stuff for repairs it'll it'll be the mining company um the gundring mining and geological speculation company the gundring gundring g-u-n-d-r-i-n-g so that train will be coming along the the rail you don't work for the mining company you work for the rail line but the mining diet they do they they send stuff here every two weeks except when there's a holiday and then it's you have to wait 17 days looking at your desk in front of you you see there's some paperwork there some misiffs that have come through and hopefully there will be some news about a possible transfer or even a promotion given that you're the second station agent and they still they've told you that they were not going to offer a promotion to first agent that you would be replaced there are those that that the old first agent who passed away would be replaced but uh that was about a month and a half ago and they have not replaced the first agent yet. Okay pours himself just a bit of the coffee takes a sip oh now that's just right all right uh and walks over to the mail and starts maybe today maybe today maybe today maybe today maybe today yeah you see there's a little mailbox there's there's a uh and of course the mail is a small probably like 14 foot tower with a little crane arm and the trains sometimes if they don't have anything drop off they'll just set the mail bag up and the hook just snags it off the train as it blasts through fortunes fields on its way to somewhere better uh bokees worst days um uh okay you begin to hear a commotion from the town and i think walking past the general store you see millie out on the street walking past um millie let me ask what kind of animal are you riding in from your adventures in the desert uh and where would you be headed to millie's god oh gosh i wish it was a horse it i really don't think she's riding it i think she's got a little like it's like a mule so it's big enough that millie could ride it but she's so afraid it will die if she adds any stress it's so old old she doesn't know like the vet that here died forever ago and as much as she likes hairy he won't help her with sort of any animal husbandry questions so she doesn't know if the how old the mule is if it's a boy or a girl or what its name was so she just calls it bud and it is hoping to just be as neutral as possible so she's sort of trying to coach bud into continuing to walk bud the mule gradually starts to swerve towards the small muddy wet patch underneath the stent of the water tower right outside of okey's office to go and lick the mud for some spare water okay okey bud we we don't have time for this we have to go what is this sound please please there's water at home please okey you see bud the mule turn and lower his graying nostrils he's got some cataracts there's a little bit of white in his eyes as he begins to nozzle at the muddy patch under the water tower i think okey will open the window from his office that looks out high-down millie hey okey how you doing i'm good trains do today oh you're excited i am you get some of that do you have a little extra coffee oh what would you like some i made it but doesn't seem like anybody to come and buy it by any oh you're so sweet okey's gone oh bye reappears here you go oh thank you thank you you see there's also uh i don't know if you take it there are there is a lovely little canister uh in a little ceramic container of cinnamon sugar which is how people take their coffee out here uh and there's also a dusty cardboard box of milk flakes oh i'm sorry did you want milk flakes in there i'm so good thank you you you're so sweet hey well you know it's real nice for all oh y'all to have me i maybe moving on today we shall see but it's uh it's i've enjoyed my time here we've enjoyed having you uh well good there shucks and while you're doing that uh millie's gonna reach into like her like a little best pocket and pull out a small flask and just pour some bunch of alcohol and do it takes one more sip and then hands you back the cup of uh better coffee are you going to finish it oh i'm good for now um because uh but thank you if you want to you want to fun fish that i'll be oh and hate would hate to see you go away yeah what is what is there oh you know i'm sorry it sounds it's like someone painted liquorish on a bullet and shot you in the metal yeah right i know that all the men like it's stronger so i've been making it stronger you see millie that uh across the train the other side of the train tracks they never even finished the bridge over there uh coming up from uh coming up from harlow's glades you see that one of the hunting dogs sniffs the wind and raises and looks in the direction of bud the mule okay hold on hold that thought i immediately lock eyes with the dog and pull out just a big it's an old like rifle but she's never it's rusted through there's never been a bullet it's just a big club to her incredible and she like just tease up like she's gonna swing away like try it fucking try it you see this is an old you got like an old ruvian rifle which though it has the hammer on the back of it but there's just a place where you insert a small runeck disc that takes a small basically fire elemental and releases it when you shout at the disc so this sort of like little magical like oh it's something that's supposed to shoot and it's got the barrel is really thick so it's like a narrow opening and a wider metal bullets heavy rifle on your back looking out towards that field uh as you sort of brandish it you see that the hunting dog looks at the mule and looks at you you see these dogs are so overheated that many of them ruled out killing this old me also they're they're supposed to go after antelope a mule is like slightly at the upper range there like you see this dog is going if I scare him enough that he has a heart attack can I eat him then and then sees you brandish a thing and just slumps his head sort of disappointedly in between his paws to cover his nose from the intense as you see by the way as the shadow has moved and it gets closer to high noon an entire pack of these hunting dogs is just hugging a two foot shadow at the edge of a house so they're just like basically glued to the side of a house out there from up in a way outside of dr. Harry's office you hear melee melee it's bad we need alcohol got it got it um i got i'm okay takes off oh i'll go have a good day good luck with leaving forever i'm gonna go brush my teeth ha ha ha melee rushing into Harry's doctor's office you see a shattered leg that is just gushing blood onto the table uh Harry go ahead and give me a medicine check you're adding plus five to this uh just to turn it at the wound DC 10 yeah 16 plus five 21 so the bleeding has been staunched um but you can see that the wound on the leg bone shattered blood everywhere and you can see that it looks like it took some time he was probably deep in the mines when this happened you think you think this has been bad for a little while uh but you rush in because Harry this thing has to come off is he still conscious he is still conscious oh okay uh melee's gonna reach behind her and just grab whatever bit of like the roots and shrubs uh that she can like reach without having take the whole pack off because now she's in a small room and quite bulky and snap some off and she immediately throws it into her mouth starts chewing it the thing is like to make this she has to boil it for a really long time because there's like sort of like a latex fluid that's around it so she's like chewing it spitting like just spitting gobs of like like milky white like latex that would be like poisonous and it's kind of burning her mouth uh it spits out and then takes this like wad of like the red root and jams it into Fahad's mouth you jammed it to Fahad's mouth um he's going to make a little constitution check here you see that he begins to chew he begins to get like loopy and out of yeah so he but you see he's still kind of conscious um as you lean over to put that in his mouth um he looks up at you uh Fahad goes just home down it so I'm down in the mind what would you what do you see grandpa he says he says you have to double back to find the silver and he kind of goes out of it again yeah wash your hands wash your hands wash my covered in dust like see there's an old sort of almost like spherical like wide built miners says don't wash your hands that's how you get the clap Jared shut the fuck up why are you here telling you Jared that is not the case get out get out out out everyone out except for millie that's how I got not anything else yeah probably that man is a slut uh and I'm just sort of wiping Fahad's head as he's like drifting out um and then pulling another flask out millie doesn't have a problem this is research uh and it's just grain alcohol that I immediately put in your hand Harry Harry you're holding grain alcohol you're looking down at the leg and there is a saw next to you all right okay here we go here wait sorry I'm sorry here here what are we where are we going where are we going uh well uh the I'm sorry millie but the leg needs to come off you can either be here for it and help me hold him down or you can uh go out into the slune okay I don't need to he's not going to be able to work anymore in the minds if his legs is off well I if the leg doesn't come off he might not make it at all Harry you look down and can see um amidst the mess as you look use water to like clean and look off at the leg you can already see the beginnings of what is going to be like a necrotizing infection in the leg like the legs gonna die I also know that we don't know exactly when the train is coming there's no way to get them on it into a neighboring town with better equipment soon enough give me a medicine check CV has enough time a one no one you think there's enough time right all right okay is there anything you can do like maybe if because he's not going to be able to work and if he can't work he's not going to be able to do anything he isn't he hasn't have any family right it's about it's almost noon I think we can get him over to the station try to put him on the next train okay says the train's coming today yeah yeah okay come on lab we'll get you back to the dance hall yet you guys get for hot up a group of men comes with you um as the men get out um you hear a sharp clap of a little bit of magic and you see that mr. hollow looks out from the center and says fellas fellas oh oh oh where's everybody out in the middle of the day run around you're gonna fall down past out of heat don't you fellow supposed to be working mr. hollow I'm so sorry um there was an accident down in the mine uh and we have to get for hot on the train or maybe his leg will be off so uh we just we're that's what we're doing if that's okay with it's we're just gonna go do that and he goes well I have a contract with the gun-during mining company so I it's my business to make sure that things are going according to how they want things here in town to run you see he walks over uh looks down at for hot who again sleepily kind of looks up and says crap uh they saw him down in the mine he told me where this silver is shit shit and you see mr. hollow looks down raises an eyebrow goes all right well we don't need all of you to do this millie pick three other men will help you get down to the rail station we'll get far down there and make sure he's taken care of oh god um okay sure um and but point at three random three random people I'm not even looking like there's that sense of fear when around mr. hollow that you don't want to turn your back on him or like not not be looking at him so she just sort of taps three different textures of shirt without turning her face from mr. hollow and sends the rest back but you know he's uh I just gave he's got some of the a shrub root in his mouth so he's babbling nonsense because of just for the little deception check 14 14 okay you see uh mr. hollow looks and says all right oh uh i'm sorry he's feeling unwell he looks down at the leg and says oh that's not good you guys are gonna make your way to the rail station okie you see that a group of people are coming towards your rail station including one young man on a stretcher who's being moved uh towards use fastest possible uh okie's gonna come out out of the train station now not just through the window how now what's this mr. hollow except it says got a young man we're trying to move on down to grieves or somewhere they got a better of doctor's clinic all right um uh i'd like to use my skills in railway bureaucracy does it make sense that there would be space on the train that's coming today given it has been uh 17 days 17 days uh give me a railway bureaucracy check the difficulty is five and i had a plus two uh 20 i know what i know and i don't know much else you don't think there are passenger cars on the on the train coming today they could throw you know they could throw them in the in the engine somewhere or something like that like you know there's a like where where could he go yeah you don't think there's necessarily going to be passenger space just one second uh okie's gonna run back in i want to go through the inventory and see if there's something i could like if fahad can fit all like if i can use railway bureaucracy my only skill to create a world in which we in which fahad is considered part of the inventory that they're picking up like if we literally put him on top of a better coal is your space for go ahead and give me a railway bureaucracy check let's go the most essential skill in the west five on a five i think that what you could do the best you can do is give him a letter of passage with your station station agent seal got it i'm gonna pull out one of out of a out of a well kept folder pull out one of my station agent stationery and write a quick note about this man needing passage to the next to degrees gotcha and then run back up all right i don't know if there's going to be i don't know if there'll be space because the train you see it's going to be packed but we'll give him this letter and we'll we'll do our best much appreciate it mr. paid yeah of course thank you okey you see mr. hololux over at you harry and says now this is a hard thing to see you think the boys gonna lose the leg no way of knowing it all depends on when they can get him to grieve you know be ashamed for him to lose that leg that's for certain true real real real real damage to your asset there huh oh you think so little of me doctor i don't think much of you at all he smiles at this doctor with a fucking death wish i think he he's gonna make a little insight check um in roles in that 20 he eyeballs you uh he he's assuming that you are drunk to be this mouthy to him um i am fully focused on what i'm still still trying to staunch the flow of blood i'm wrapping the wound uh i'm uh changing out bandages like really truly in crisis mode this is definitely not the first time that i have uh spoken back to him this way but probably the least cordial that i've ever been mr. hololunod's um and you see he says phahag can you hear me you see you know man looks up and goes uh huh you see he goes you said you saw your grandfather in the mind you you don't have any family son and you see that he goes i had a dream about him though he he's down there he had a silver beard you see mr. hololunod's whole gray beard huh you see it for how the shakes this is no silver silver like like it was made in silver the beard is long and he had a he had a flat cap but he had a long pointed ears in the end his knuckles were dragging on the ground he looked like a kind old man and you see that hololunod's at it one of his young men um give me a uh perception check anyone who wants to uh 30s-1y 13 four milley you you look over the guy he looks at this young guy's name is jack and you see that he's got uh he's sort of a new guy that's shown up in hololos crew jack for a lot of the guys that were with mr. hololunod are rowdy and dangerous and otherwise kind of like you know very impetuous jack's always been a very quiet guy you see he's got vest uh sort of string tie on but you've always noticed him because he has like uh i don't know if you call it just a funny thing of birth that his ears are a little bit folded in so he has that kind of like a little bit of a point they're not long they're the same size as a normal ear but they just fall a little bit like they're pointed and he has some like those side insizers are a little bit baby teeth so he's got kind of two buck teeth and the teeth on other side are a little bit smaller and some more pronounced canines he has like a little bit sharper or longer so he has kind of a little bit of a fucked up smile in a cute way sort of hololux at him as fahad tells this story and you see the kid nods at mr. holo and heads out of the rail station hairy i'm gonna need a medicine check from you 15 plus five for a dirty 20 let's go okay we are going to make constitution saves based on these medicine checks uh he will be making this with advantage he only has a plus one and he needs to get a 12 or higher oh no that is a 10 and a 9 the way we're going to do this is fahad is still alive but as the infection begins to set in his body starts to heat and he starts to get a fever he is going to while alive fail his first death saving throughout he is still conscious but that happens in that first hour uh holo takes off with his men as well as you're working with fahad here mille and ochis or anything else you guys are doing during this time so there's just a man dying in the rail station there's a man dying in the railway station there's a fresh pot of coffee and mille is here with bud the mule outside as holo and the rest leave oh ochis pacing back and forth because this isn't supposed to happen at the railway station and as the second deputy he knows it's his job to keep the railway station clean and tidy however he also understands he's going to walk up to mille mille is there a I don't I don't want to I don't want to I don't want to be insensitive just this is trained coming by the day and a lot of supplies and just doesn't make a lot of sense if I this blood every you know I'm just trying to uh trying to meet everyone here halfway okay yeah come on lad you got a fight this man's dying and you've worried about there being blood in the station well um will that reflect poorly on you yeah yes it will i mean it is the it is the it's the it's the first it's the first agents job but when there is no first agent president it is the second agents job uh second deputy agents job to keep the uh the station um in ship shape mille i need a bucket for the vomit one second one second one second okay you know that everyone in town calls you a steward right yeah yeah yeah and i made a hero it's they're not wrong i just i i care deeply about my job but i also care deeply about this town okay um if i promise to come back and clean up all the blood can you just kind of let it ride right now while our friend Fahad is dying yeah yeah yeah yeah thank you i appreciate it there thank you and thank you for the coffee of course do you need anymore no um no i'll put on a fresh pot okay you don't make costs of Jesus hair never mind we don't need it anymore i uh i'm gonna i i pull out of uh i have many belts and pouches on a bandalier across my chest um and i pull out a little bit of willow bark that i have to uh give it to him go ahead give me another medicine check eleven eleven okay he will make this next constitution save uh flat i can't look 15 uh that's a success okay whatever you're doing is working but i i can't help i i'm gonna go i need to figure out what he was maybe he saw something or i he was raving and that that thing you gave him that it's you know i he was making it up and see pink all offense and it's it's it's it's nothing i need you here please just keep him talking to you no you talk to him keep him alive get him to grease and i'm gonna take off and i'm running towards the mines as you run towards the mines we're gonna roll another checker i'm gonna need a medicine check from doc herring just give him it get her eleven eleven now they're rolling god that's a two that's two death save failures one success or is i supposed to look like that he is he's on his you can you can tell that he is close he is very close how long until the train is scheduled to arrive the train is scheduled to arrive uh this afternoon it's about twelve fifteen right now transposed to be here at 120 okay he's looking his watch up at fahad up at his watch at the schedule at fahad at his watch and it just don't add uh uh you look uh i'll say this too i'm gonna need another medicine check gotta be dc fifteen this is not this is no longer about fahad's livelihood but this has got to be at least a dc fifteen from the doc for something unrelated or related but different fifteen fifteen the infection is visibly spreading through the leg um the train should be here any second but uh this is your last chance to amputate the leg before it doesn't matter anymore before the infection spreads enough that it won't matter anymore all right mr. paid oh yeah yeah i'm gonna need you it is this me right now i'm sorry you know what come over here i need you to hold this young man down all right you all you all you can operate right here all right we're gonna want to move my hands just hold him hold his shoulders here okay uh gonna do it we're gonna operate we're gonna operate right now sorry what are we doing hold him down uh this is gonna be once again a dc fifteen medicine check uh anything below a ten disastrous ten to fourteen means he still got to make a save but there's a better shot fifteen and higher means you save him you know got no family here we go ain't nothing to it but to do it okay so i'm just rolling flat rolling flat let's get him on the die that's a fifteen on the die plus five for a dirty 20 in the middle of your railway station a doctor begins to saw into a man uh the saw connects with the wooden like the wooden bench of the rail station uh keep up quiet a hot pass that i believe he passes out yeah uh uh hokey passes out i'm working in silence there is only the sound of it uh dot the hacksaw going doc you take the leg off alcohol apply clean bandage wrapped up as best you can uh and uh and the fucking the leg comes off uh doctor go ahead you go ahead and give me a constitution saving throughout 12 you collapse tired just like breathing heavily you see in the door with okey is out on the ground fahad is unconscious uh at the door of the rail station you hear and a hunting dog pokes it's little snout into the railway station sniffing after fahad's leg meh i uh nudge it on over to him oh my god someone's gonna get a chance to eat goodness down tonight this this completely super doctor gives a leg to a wild dog that has to be against some oath right some oath there's no settars in this world once it's off your body it belongs to the it belongs to nature um millie uh where are you running off to in town i so millie is very deferential to like the hollow man and mr hollow she hates him and doesn't trust him one little bit he is part of the rot in this town and whatever he is interested in she is immediately interested in so she is running towards the mines because the ramblings of an injured minor shouldn't have been that interesting to him so i'm just trying to sneak up and figure out what they're doing you rush up going to me a stealth check 21 oh baby sneaking up into uh the sort of the top of the mine mine is busy right now but you can you can walk up some some of the guys have gotten back to work but uh there are a couple different areas the place that fahad was injured you enter and get like i assume a little lantern going to head down the line there and with that stealth check you continue on down and you begin to hear of something tapping on the walls give me an arcanic or an or a religion tag there's some little nursery rhyme there's some little thing in the back of your of your mind that was like one two three banging on the knee four five six gather up the sticks seven eight nine heading down the mine tap tap tap tapers gold shine there's something in the tapping and you hear a voice tap tap and you see a little shine from down a little mine area that perhaps worryingly to you does not seem supported by wooden beams okay uh then i'm gonna walk forward toward it turn down the lantern just a little bit i'd like my eyes to try to like acclimate oh i'll do something for us here i think in like dealing with fahad mille has got blood on her hands so i'm gonna wipe blood onto the front of the lantern to turn the light red so my eyes can acclimate to the dark a little more easily uh and keep walking down and in the cadence of like this random person's like muttering uh whenever's it the little the little break for the tap i think i'm gonna like feel across the wall and if i can find a place that's not like soft earth that might be like a little harder rock i'll tap three times to like join in a little bit the sound stops and you hear can i hear where it's coming from further down this unsupported opening yeah she's gonna keep walking forward one two three tap them on the meal four five six and the mine opens up big enough sticks and you see a figure looking at you that looks like a kind old grandpa until you realize that the distance away from you that he is as farther than you think and that his head is massive he is probably if he stood up to full height he'd be like 10 feet tall um his head is disproportionately large for his larger than human body the shortest part of him there are his legs that are probably about three or four feet long but hunched down and you can see his feet are long and he's standing on the balls of his feet so he has almost like a digit of grade ankle but the feet don't look like animal feet they have like like long dirty crusty toenails he's got a dirty old pair of overalls a filthy undershirt but his skin looks clean although wrinkly it's just clothes are filthy his beard is long shining silver and you see that he's got these long ears uh his nose is like this perfectly like sort of spherical but it's got the flared so it's like a spherical front and then spherical nostrils that sort of pop out like little supporting character sort of buds either side pure busted capillary nose like full red to the kind of dollar like sort of dusty beige of his skin silver eyebrows um yellow irises to his eyes his head is about the size of like I don't know like a state fair winning pumpkin just huge huge head got these long ears little bandana tied around uh and you see he's got a lantern hanging from a belt a pickaxe and you see in front of him his lantern shining on a vein of silver that you couldn't span your arms across going in either direction uh wider than a human body hello here what can I call you my name's millie can I offer you a treat oh I'll have the last sip of the last bite but I won't take more than that yeah millie reaches to that first flask uh that made uh oki do a spit take earlier and as she hey like she's holding it out and it's a little afraid to walk forward with it but offers it out she remembers that like when she was younger before her grandparents died uh whenever they would make like a big batch of anything out of like the big stills up behind their house they would pour it out for three seconds for whoever else would pass by and I never knew why I thought it was just like something bad was in the batch and something just sort of clicks into alignment and it she's terrified this is a scary man uh but is gonna kind of take a deep breath and thinks of her family and offers up her flask you see he raises it to you and takes a sip he says and hands it back um he smiles and says millie you can call me tippity tippity it's very nice to meet you tippity is is that yours or this oh well it's the mines yeah we're planning to go around we'll all get rich here look at this the vein of silver you want to get rich don't you I I guess I guess I just don't want to I don't want to be hard up I don't think that's quite the same thing oh you're saying you don't want you don't want all of it oh you'd be happy to give it to you how much of it do you want I'm sorry I don't want to be rude for what why are you why are you being nice you offer me the last sip of your flask one kindness deserves another oh thank you you could be the richest woman in town with this pain is it all oh oh I don't I wouldn't know what to do with it um I'm okay did you see um a young man in here earlier I guess like really pretty eyes and like long lashes and long hair um young man young man got his leg got in by some cards oh yes young fellow with with the hazel eyes yeah that's bad give me an insight to check here too nine I asked the young fellow what he wanted if he wanted all the silver and he said yes but I asked him what he'd be willing to pay for it what he'd give to have all of it and he said anything well it's a tough thing for him to part with his fortune like that his true fortune you understand not his wealth but his luck as he says that Fahad paid with his luck you see that there is a what looks like a small a small pouch in looks just sort of hidden in one of the pockets of typically these overalls and it shines a little bit as he mentions Fahad's luck so so he's already paid for it then yeah well I'd think so yes absolutely but you see sort of smiles here a little bit and goes but you've already paid for a kindness as well and I owe you one and I won't be left in anyone's debt sir I don't I'm not trying to do a weird deal and work you out of something that you negotiated but is there any chance I could get his luck back you'd rather have a poor man's luck than all the silver in this mind yeah for the last sip he tosses the pouch to you and as he does you see that the light in his lantern goes out and you hear the snarl of a jackal nearby tip of the he goes run uh and gets his hand and shoves you out of the mind and uh you see eyes gleaming in the dark as from a predator and you are suddenly back out in the mind you do not see the opening that you walked out to find this spirit but you are holding a small leather pouch in your hand with something shining within it screaming running through the mind anyone that's easy oh my god my god my god my god my god and I book you get for the translation um you book it for the translation as fast as you can you're holding this pouch at this exact moment in the timeline this is uh when you begin to saw into Fahad's leg as the leg comes off and one of the hunting dogs you see a dog taking off with Fahad's leg no um you run to Fahad's unconscious you see herries there you have this small pouch in your hand I'm sick with a uh sick with a steaming fresh cup of coffee just like two passed out people yeah what happened is he okay he's gonna make it yeah he's gonna make it thanks for your help last sorry to be a big shot or push you out of the way and open up the pouch back I do what do I do how do I do uh as you open it light shoots out of the thing the rail station fills with light okay you wake up just to see this light going everywhere um as the light is shooting an all-dreth you see that Fahad's luck returns to him but I would like for uh any what everyone else here to roll a pure luck check and come aboard eleven or higher ten or lower that's a 20 on the down oh oh my god all right go off hairy oh 20 on the day on a nat 20 hairy you look and see these things running off in all directions as it does um the biggest source of light goes straight to Fahad but you see that as the pouch opens other sort of these little moats of shimmering gold light the fortunes of fortunes filtering everywhere on a nat 20 you see that a incredible piece of fairy magic is happening on nat 20 you can grab some for yourself or you can determine something else on a nat 20 that you want to happen with all this luck shooting everywhere well now I'm an old man I've been around here and as I say and there's just something that's always kept me here you know first it was meeting full and then it was you know living our life together and then taking care of all the folks that always needed something from old hairy then it was uh food passing away and she's buried here and uh basically what I'm trying to say is that I don't really I think I think I've had a lot of a lot of this uh a lot of good in my life I think more good than bad and uh I think some of the young folks here could use a little bit of whatever this uh shiny magics is so I think uh maybe I'll take a little bit of that if any of it'll fit into uh what I can distribute through my back saloon room but uh I'll leave the rest of it for the young folks who can use it more on a nat 20 you grab the biggest piece of it and release it and having been released instead of darting frantically hither and yon you see that it tumbles like a tumbleweed out through the doors of the station towards the governor's canyon isolation 14 14 No, you grab some as well boom um uh and okay you got a roll baby 10 You said 11 I said 11 Okay wait a minute wait a minute he sees the turn you and just starts swinging his hands Cross our crosses body. Sorry. I forgot to mention what skill we were using This is a real way bureaucracy And the train pulls into the station You see workers coming off to start unloading from the train. Okay, you're standing there looking Fahad wakes up uh and you see that figures begin to Mark over sort of walk into the town As they do you see that uh the first uh figure sort of walks in uh coming from the railway and goes up and says Oki page At your service. I'm sorry for all the mess First deputy page I got terrible news As your first action is station deputy you're gonna have to give notice to the town Oh The uh The empire is uh launching an assault This is a conscription notice you need every young man in town that can report for conscription to report right away. Oh It's what hey uh I'm reading is it's not it's not to be a It's you see that you have papers that are promoting you and as your first action your communique in the town It's not me. I have to tell every young man to doubt They're going to join the military. That's correct. Okay You see that as Fahad gets his luck back This conscription notice comes through uh and you see that Looking up Fahad's like Something's being like am I gonna have to go to war and you'd look down And you see the station looks down and points at him and uh points to the dog carrying his leg And goes lucky and walks away Millie with that uh luck check You see that there are other figures coming off and unloading the train in this moment You see walking through the town with that luck check Jack approaching and you see him approaching and you see his eyes flicker With a reflectiveness that you saw down there in the dark You don't think jack is human You think that you heard a jackal snarling down there in the dark and you see he's got a Sack in one hand that is twitching and moving as he walks towards the general store How lucky do I feel right now you feel incredibly lucky Then I want to eat in these little dogs They've been trying to get bugged for a while But they like smaller prey And I just want to give like a little side whistle which I can't do like this little Uh to get the dog carrying Fahad's leg Lucky You see the dog turns at the name lucky Snarls cocks its head to one side and charges at jack and you see Right as he crosses the shadow of the bell tower of the old covernor's mansion She crosses some line where he's out of the sun for a moment turns drops the bag goes And turns into a jackal and sprints out of town chased by this hunting dog Uh, you see the bag kicks 123456789 Bursts and the sack is empty as Fahad looks out grabs your hand and goes Hey, oh my god, I don't have to go to work I know where all the silver is yeah, I know where all the silver is We have to find a way to You see Out in the governor's canyon You hear a rush of water as a spring erupts Water rains as it begins to flow that bag opens and a dust devil kicks up from the bag The empty sack where tippity was kept And you see that last moat of light sent down there by the doctor As golden luck fills the town and water flows under iridescent sunshine casting a rainbow light over the village Tipathy has kept his promise You know you watch the jackal flee into the desert And your new dog lucky comes back as Fahad goes What you want to go into business with me? Yeah It's called tapr. It's called tapr Tapr uh, he says all right tapr uh, you just you you got it uh uh and ok you look out and uh As you see the stationational expenses That'll happen here It's been a strange day