Scene I: The Purple Belt Saloon
Posted: Mon May 19, 2025 11:41 pm
Every Night & every Morn
Some to Misery are Born
Every Morn & every Night
Some are Born to sweet delight
Some are Born to sweet delight
Some are Born to Endless Night
— William Blake
PALACE, THE DUST BARRENS
Palace is the loathsome pinnacle of civilization within the western Dust Barrens’ arid hills, but no kinder for its station. Once a proud city-state, now little more than a crumbling labyrinth of collapsed mines, battered buildings, and broken dreams. Homesteaders, exiles, bushwhackers, and deserters abide by the code of the borderlands, where laws are lacking, only honor among thieves ensures cooperation, and rights are settled by gunfights. Incorporation carpetbaggers have often attempted to enforce land claims, but acquisitionists rarely survive their encounter with the Redrum Boys, an outlaw gang who see themselves as masters of the fledgling breakaway state. They leave a few alive, stripped of all but their clothes and a pound of flesh poorer for their efforts, to tell the tale to other would-be capitalists.
Artham "Crusty Scrotum" Scotum, Parcheval “Roach” Meskaró, Cornelius St John Cumflutter III and Stacob “Cadaver Kid” Pains are sitting in a saloon known as the Purple Belt, celebrating their recent success in breaking into the mayor's home and fencing whatever they could carry out, which earned them an extra fifteen silver each (not to mention a one-hundred dollar bounty increase...each). The Purple Belt is renowned for its tasteless décor (lit by horse-shaped candles, while paintings of crocodiles hang from the walls), as well as famous for its avian auctions, where drunken patrons bid absurd prices for the carrion birds known as 'blood vultures' that trappers bring in from the desert—a prize delicacy 'round these parts.
Amid all the clamour of the saloon, our four characters are wondering what their next target should be, when two interesting options present themselves.
The first came in the form of a bankrupt rancher named Fenapple, who they got talkin' with after they first walked in. Fenapple says a rival rancher—Clammon by name—put him straight outta business, and he wants revenge, plain and simple. He'd love for you to help him out, and it won't cost you a penny. If you're looking to make a lotta money, why don't you rustle rancher Clammon's cattle—all forty of them—and run them north, down Bonesome Gulch, which spits you right out at the other end in the Big Nothing: the Outlaw Union's territory. Once you're there you're in the clear: no Dust Barrens lawman can touch you once you're through the Gulch. The cattle are worth twenty-five silver per head in Sickwater. If you make it through with all forty, that's one-thousand silver waitin' for ya on the other side. Split it between the four of ya and that's two-hundred-fifty each. How about that? Fenapple don't want any cut of the money...he's just looking to see old Clammon suffer: that's reward enough.
The second proposal came from the ham-fisted bartender himself, who overheard the prior conversation. "Stay well away from cows", he said. Cows give him the shivers. Used to be a rancher himself, but now he won't touch a cow with a ten-foot-pole. If you're looking for some cash, he's got a better idea. He tells you about a place called Horsehead Ranch. Horsehead Ranch was a luxury resort for city slickers out east who wanted to brag about roughing it in the wild frontier, without having to endure the usual danger or discomfort. Butlers tended to the patrons while they were protected by armed guards. The name stems from an unusual practice by the owners, the Miser family. The greedy Misers thought it was a waste to just bury their priced racing horses when they died, so they had them decapitated and hung the stuffed heads along the walls of the lodge. But not even the ranch could escape the unforgiving fate of the Dust Barrens. The ranch has long been abandoned and today is just another relic of Palace’s more glorious past.
Now, the barkeep informs you that just yesterday he overheard two drunken members of an outlaw gang known as the Loudmouths announce that they're using the old Horsehead Ranch as their base at present. The Loudmouths are led by three wanted outlaws: Mumbling Manny, Tantrum Tammy and Rambling Randy. Now these three each have a twenty silver bounty on their heads, which ain't much, but according to these drunken fools he overheard yesterday, they have a safe on site which contains no small amount of loot! Now, only Tammy, Randy and Manny know the safe combination, but they don't trust anyone else in the gang, so they split up the combination between the three of them. Maybe worth checkin' out?
The gang ponders which of these jobs they ought to consider...
Some to Misery are Born
Every Morn & every Night
Some are Born to sweet delight
Some are Born to sweet delight
Some are Born to Endless Night
— William Blake
PALACE, THE DUST BARRENS
Palace is the loathsome pinnacle of civilization within the western Dust Barrens’ arid hills, but no kinder for its station. Once a proud city-state, now little more than a crumbling labyrinth of collapsed mines, battered buildings, and broken dreams. Homesteaders, exiles, bushwhackers, and deserters abide by the code of the borderlands, where laws are lacking, only honor among thieves ensures cooperation, and rights are settled by gunfights. Incorporation carpetbaggers have often attempted to enforce land claims, but acquisitionists rarely survive their encounter with the Redrum Boys, an outlaw gang who see themselves as masters of the fledgling breakaway state. They leave a few alive, stripped of all but their clothes and a pound of flesh poorer for their efforts, to tell the tale to other would-be capitalists.
Artham "Crusty Scrotum" Scotum, Parcheval “Roach” Meskaró, Cornelius St John Cumflutter III and Stacob “Cadaver Kid” Pains are sitting in a saloon known as the Purple Belt, celebrating their recent success in breaking into the mayor's home and fencing whatever they could carry out, which earned them an extra fifteen silver each (not to mention a one-hundred dollar bounty increase...each). The Purple Belt is renowned for its tasteless décor (lit by horse-shaped candles, while paintings of crocodiles hang from the walls), as well as famous for its avian auctions, where drunken patrons bid absurd prices for the carrion birds known as 'blood vultures' that trappers bring in from the desert—a prize delicacy 'round these parts.
Amid all the clamour of the saloon, our four characters are wondering what their next target should be, when two interesting options present themselves.
The first came in the form of a bankrupt rancher named Fenapple, who they got talkin' with after they first walked in. Fenapple says a rival rancher—Clammon by name—put him straight outta business, and he wants revenge, plain and simple. He'd love for you to help him out, and it won't cost you a penny. If you're looking to make a lotta money, why don't you rustle rancher Clammon's cattle—all forty of them—and run them north, down Bonesome Gulch, which spits you right out at the other end in the Big Nothing: the Outlaw Union's territory. Once you're there you're in the clear: no Dust Barrens lawman can touch you once you're through the Gulch. The cattle are worth twenty-five silver per head in Sickwater. If you make it through with all forty, that's one-thousand silver waitin' for ya on the other side. Split it between the four of ya and that's two-hundred-fifty each. How about that? Fenapple don't want any cut of the money...he's just looking to see old Clammon suffer: that's reward enough.
The second proposal came from the ham-fisted bartender himself, who overheard the prior conversation. "Stay well away from cows", he said. Cows give him the shivers. Used to be a rancher himself, but now he won't touch a cow with a ten-foot-pole. If you're looking for some cash, he's got a better idea. He tells you about a place called Horsehead Ranch. Horsehead Ranch was a luxury resort for city slickers out east who wanted to brag about roughing it in the wild frontier, without having to endure the usual danger or discomfort. Butlers tended to the patrons while they were protected by armed guards. The name stems from an unusual practice by the owners, the Miser family. The greedy Misers thought it was a waste to just bury their priced racing horses when they died, so they had them decapitated and hung the stuffed heads along the walls of the lodge. But not even the ranch could escape the unforgiving fate of the Dust Barrens. The ranch has long been abandoned and today is just another relic of Palace’s more glorious past.
Now, the barkeep informs you that just yesterday he overheard two drunken members of an outlaw gang known as the Loudmouths announce that they're using the old Horsehead Ranch as their base at present. The Loudmouths are led by three wanted outlaws: Mumbling Manny, Tantrum Tammy and Rambling Randy. Now these three each have a twenty silver bounty on their heads, which ain't much, but according to these drunken fools he overheard yesterday, they have a safe on site which contains no small amount of loot! Now, only Tammy, Randy and Manny know the safe combination, but they don't trust anyone else in the gang, so they split up the combination between the three of them. Maybe worth checkin' out?
The gang ponders which of these jobs they ought to consider...
