Scene IV: Everything Will Burn!
Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2025 1:40 pm
After a night of riotous drinking in the Purple Belt, celebrating their victory at Horsehead Ranch, in which much booze flowed and many wild games of cards were played, the Bean Bunch stumbles into their beds, exhausted from their exertions. Rufus the pig spends the night sleeping in Cumflutter's iron bath-tub.
At first light, just as the first rays of dawn creep over the horizon...
BOOM!
The Bean Bunch are all rudely awoken by a loud explosion from somewhere nearby.
When they scramble from their beds and look out of the upper windows of the saloon, they see the whole damn city is on fire! Fire everywhere! Every building burning! The air is black with ash and smoke. People run through the streets of Palace, screaming in terror, and the sound of gunfire echoes all about. Seeing this, and wondering what the hell is going on, the Bean Bunch gather their wits, their clothes, their guns (and their pig) and run downstairs into the main bar-room.
The barkeep, sweating and panicked, explains the situation to them as succinctly as he can:
The Incorporation — the joint captains of industry from Covett City, Gougen County — have been wanting to buy up Palace for years, to expand their business out west, but the Redrum Boys, the de facto law in Palace, have always kept them in check, sending Incorporation acquisitionists six feet under...or, if left alive, stripped of all their goods, save a railroad ticket straight back to Covett.
Well, he goes on to explain, it transpires that Marshal Betjemen Knapp — chief law enforcer in the Dust Barrens' other major city (and oil capital), Fort Gullet — has just signed all land rights to the Incorporation! Now the Incorporation owns Fort Gullet, they've authorised Knapp to take Palace...by force! Knapp's sent his deputy, Ingo "No Mercy" Makarty with an army of Incorporation goons, soldiers and ruthless bounty-killers, with one mission: to burn Palace to the ground! They're already here, and the city's gone to hell! You should get out while you can! He's sorry about your horses: somebody left a stick of dynamite in one of the saddle-bags and the stable just went out with a bang!
Now, Palace — as the Bean Bunch well know by now — is built like a fortress: it has a high palisade wall all about it — erected by the Redrum Boys — to keep out dangerous desert animals and would be attackers, with only one entrance/exit in its southern wall: a draw-bridge that goes over the nearby river. During the day, the gates are open and the bridge is down, but at night they pull it up, using cranes in the gate-houses, and close it up. You should head for the gates and get out while you can, the bartender says!
You best hurry!
At first light, just as the first rays of dawn creep over the horizon...
BOOM!
The Bean Bunch are all rudely awoken by a loud explosion from somewhere nearby.
When they scramble from their beds and look out of the upper windows of the saloon, they see the whole damn city is on fire! Fire everywhere! Every building burning! The air is black with ash and smoke. People run through the streets of Palace, screaming in terror, and the sound of gunfire echoes all about. Seeing this, and wondering what the hell is going on, the Bean Bunch gather their wits, their clothes, their guns (and their pig) and run downstairs into the main bar-room.
The barkeep, sweating and panicked, explains the situation to them as succinctly as he can:
The Incorporation — the joint captains of industry from Covett City, Gougen County — have been wanting to buy up Palace for years, to expand their business out west, but the Redrum Boys, the de facto law in Palace, have always kept them in check, sending Incorporation acquisitionists six feet under...or, if left alive, stripped of all their goods, save a railroad ticket straight back to Covett.
Well, he goes on to explain, it transpires that Marshal Betjemen Knapp — chief law enforcer in the Dust Barrens' other major city (and oil capital), Fort Gullet — has just signed all land rights to the Incorporation! Now the Incorporation owns Fort Gullet, they've authorised Knapp to take Palace...by force! Knapp's sent his deputy, Ingo "No Mercy" Makarty with an army of Incorporation goons, soldiers and ruthless bounty-killers, with one mission: to burn Palace to the ground! They're already here, and the city's gone to hell! You should get out while you can! He's sorry about your horses: somebody left a stick of dynamite in one of the saddle-bags and the stable just went out with a bang!
Now, Palace — as the Bean Bunch well know by now — is built like a fortress: it has a high palisade wall all about it — erected by the Redrum Boys — to keep out dangerous desert animals and would be attackers, with only one entrance/exit in its southern wall: a draw-bridge that goes over the nearby river. During the day, the gates are open and the bridge is down, but at night they pull it up, using cranes in the gate-houses, and close it up. You should head for the gates and get out while you can, the bartender says!
You best hurry!
