Jackrum's Log, 1st Session

Hello hello, this is going to be my introductory post for the series I'm doing (which is my excuse to finally start a blog). This is going to be a sort of post game wrap up, written in character, of the pen and paper RPG I'm currently playing, which is being run by my brother. The game is called, The Seed, and it's a alternate world Western style game in a trade society where the basic currency is bullets. I'll leave the rest for you to figure out from the story. My character in said game is Jackrum Twister, 36 year old Gun Merchant making the transition to Treasure Hunter. He's rather naive about the whole set up. Currently, we only have one other player, controlling Sandra Days (Clutch is an npc). The whole thing is going to be set up like a journal written by Jackrum after each session. Now I know this is an incrediably nerdy thing to do, but I'm cool with that, and my brother says it'll be good feedback for running the game. Note, I'm been running RPGs as a GM for many many years now, but it's been years since I've actually been a player, and then only for a short time... so this is almost as new an experience as it is to Jackrum.
Note 2- The system we're using to play is a homebrew system we're hoping to get published one of theses days, though it's got some work to do before we can completely finish it.
Note 3- As i have no plans to tell anyone about this blog until I get at least a half dozen posts on it, it'll be a long time until anyone I know sees it. If you just happen to stumble across this blog, welcome, and please tell me what you think in the comments. Thanks, here it goes:

Jackrum’s Log, January 17th
My first job as a Treasure Hunter!

Well, it’s finally come, the day I’ve been waiting for so long. Today I am to become a Treasure Hunter for real, and journey with Sandra and Clutch out to the wasteland to make a living. For nigh on fifteen years now I’ve been runnin’ the Brass Twister in Clearwater, buying from and selling to the Treasure Hunters that run through. It’s been a dream of mine to join them for so long, and now that my son Jesse’s old enough to run the shop, I’m finally gonna do it.

The sun’s comin up over the wasteland horizon now, and Sandy and Clutch’ll be comin to get me within the hour. I’d better go get ready.

Jan 17th, Later

Well…I’m just gonna say that didn’t go as planned. We spent four hours riding out to the location Clutch had picked- apparently he’d gotten a bit of info from someone about an untapped ghost town just brimmin with treasure- but before we even got there Sandra’s horse got bit by a snake. Poor thing didn’t last an hour. The ruttin snake tried to bite me too, but luckily enough I’ve got a good pair of boots. That wasn’t the last of our trouble though- turns out that Clutch’s “source” wasn’t quite as reliable as he had thought. There was a ghost town alright, but it was a bit lacking in ghosts. Turns out a rather large bandit posse had the place claimed. I, um, got a little hazy on the details. Got knocked on the head, next thing I know I’m wakin up in camp miles away from the place. Good thing they didn’t get my horse though, I’d hate to lose Tornado. Oh, and Cloud’s got all our gear on his back, so that’d be a travesty to lose him.

Hopefully we’ll do better tomorrow. I’d hate to return empty handed on my first trip.

Jan 18th

I’ve got so much to tell about today, but I don’t know where to start so I guess I’ll just start at the start. Here goes:

We were all slinkin back to town empty handed with our tails between our legs when ol Sandy caught a glimpse of something shinin off in the distance between two mountains. The two of them exchanged glances, and I didn’t know what was goin on but they both seemed to be a little intimidated.

“What ya think Sandra?” Clutch asked.

“I don’t know, Clutch. It’s quite a risky endeavor.” Sandra asked.

Now for those of you wonderin, Sandra and Clutch are my good old Treasure Huntin friends I’ve been supplyin at he Brass Twister for years and years now, and the only Treasure Hunters who’d be willing to let me join they’re posse, bein somewhat older and less experienced than most. That’s okay though, cause they’re my very first choice if I had to pick a posse.

Clutch is Clutch Gallows, 19 years old, wise beyond his years, a real true veteran of the wastelands. He’s a tough kid, carries a nice big Winchester Rifle with a bayonet on it so large you might not even notice the gun. That’s okay though, cause Clutch is strong enough to use it. He’s a real low key guy, quiet, dedicated like. Don’t know much about his personal life, he don’t like to talk about it.

Sandra (I call her Sandy sometimes), is Sandra Days, one of the famous Days Dancin Devil Twins, though I aint ever met her sister on account of her bein dead. She’s a nice girl I suppose…a bit tomboyish though if you ask me. Not near so elegant as my Maria, though she’s gone now too bless her. She’s a famous Gundancer, and no more amazing talent have I ever seen. She’s pretty close mouthed as well, doesn’t like to talk about her past, but that’s okay, ha, I make up for the both of them.

Anyway, we were sittin there on our horses, Sandy ridin Cloud on account of her horse bein dead, lookin off at somethin shiny in the distance, and Sandy and Clutch were havin themselves a discussion.

“What ya think Sandra?” Clutch asked.

“I don’t know, Clutch. It’s quite a risky endeavor.” Sandra asked.

“Er, what’s a risky endeavor?” I asked.

“An old ghost town, called the Crystal Valley.” Clutch gestured towards the distant light. “It’s a Plague Nest, so no one goes there.”

“If no one goes there… that means they’re might be treasure!” I said.

“Treasure… and lot’s of Plagues.”

In the end, we decided to go for it. I certainly wasn’t goin to vote for slinkin back without even a single piece of loot, and Sandra had a bit of a greedy look in her eye. She was always a hard customer at the Twister, and she hated to get cheated, so I knew she didn’t want to miss out either.
As we got closer to the valley, I started to notice bits of glass and crystal littering the ground, which I knew was worthless, and between the two mountain peaks up ahead a huge wall of the stuff rose up, cracked and pitted, a pale translucent green like jade here and there pierced with clearer bits. As we got close, I volunteered to scout ahead.
A massive chunk of the stuff was fallen across the path, blocking it completely, but I managed to find a way to climb up. I was tense as I can ever recall, hair standin on end. Truth is, I aint never had fought a Plague before, and though as an Arms Baron I of course know how to fire a gun I’ve never shot one at a livin soul before. Fortunately, I didn’t meet one though. Turns out we needed to climb down a rather steep cliff in order to get to the valley floor, so we had to leave the horses. I tied up Tornado and Cloud and tried to guess what equipment we’d need in the Plague Nest ahead. From Cloud’s saddle bags, I took an extra rifle, my personal Revolver “Cyclone,” my relic shotgun “Storm,” my custom rifle “Lightning,” four grenades, three stimpacks (which I passed out to the crew), and a hefty knife. I offered the others to pick out whatever they needed. Sandra took me up on my offer, takin a pair of submachine guns and a grenade as well, though Clutch declined. He swore by his rifle, which I think is kinda funny myself. The right weapon for the right situation, I always say.
In the valley, we were ambushed.
Clutch took out the first bugger before we’d even seen em, sniping from up on the cliffs, but the others jumped out from nowhere on either side of us. Me and Sandra drew up back to back, ready to go. In front of Sandra was a gigantic flew, the size of small dog and covered in black moss hanging out from between its armored chinks. It barked just like a dog too, which I had pegged as darn right disturbin. But in front of me was a much more worrisome sight- a giant ant the size of a German Shepherd, jet black, with bright green vines and moss growin all over its back. It gnashed its mandibles and charged forward on six legs.
I froze up, I’ll admit it, but Sandra shouted to get down and started doin what she does. Drawin her twin revolvers she spun and fired, dancing wildly and firing again and again in both directions. The critters seemed quite surprised, and the bullets bouncing around they’re feet made them stumble and fall. Sandy shot them both twice, but they just rushed on forward. The ant was right and front of me, and suddenly I had no idea what to do. Shotgun, rifle, pistol, what was the best choice. I pulled out my knife instead and leapt forward to attack. Honestly… I don’t know what I was thinkin.
My knife crunched right through that ant’s head but out splurted blood thick and green, and where it hit me it burned. I yelped and leapt back but it was too late, it sprayed out like a fountain and drenched me, leaving me lyin in a puddle on the ground, bitin my tongue and tryin not to scream. I think I must’ve passed out from the pain, cause the next thing I know Sandy and clutch were kneelin over me and checkin to see if I was okay. I certainly wasn’t, but I wasn’t goin to start whinin and cryin this early. I used my stimpack (thank god for alchemical medicine), which reduced most of the burn, but it still ached and chafed whenever I moved.

“Here, eat this.” Clutch said.

In his hand was a tiny seed, bloodred, veiny, and pulsating. It did not look very appetizin.

“What is it?”

“A Bloodseed. When a Plague dies, all of the moisture in they’re body is concentrated into a single seed. If we’re lucky, it’ll be a more mature blue, red, or green seed. If we’re not, we get these. They’re not good for much, but they help your body heal faster.”

“We call them Cranberries.” Sandra said.

The thought of eating somethin called a “Bloodseed” made me a bit queasy, but I didn’t want to look yellow so I went ahead and popped it into my mouth. I was surprisingly good- tart, sweet, but with an unfortunate coppery aftertaste. To my amazement though, it did make me feel more alert, as if I’d drunk a half a dozen cups of coffee all at once.

“The other one dropped a red seed.” Sandra said.

“Here ya go Jackrum.” Clutch told me, tossing it over. “That one’s yours.”

There was no more trouble till we reached the little ghost town, a scattering of five old shacks completely covered in a thin coating of green glass, though I was jumpin at every shadow and peerin around every corner. I’d be happy to never see one of those ants again. There was a gun bank, a saloon, a small chapel, a tailors, and a sheriff’s office. In the middle was an old rusty water tower. Clutch volunteered to provide support from the tower, and climbed up while me and Sandra carefully, cautiously searched between every building for more Plagues. We turned up nothin. It was time to get down to business- searchin for treasure.

“Gun bank first?” I asked. Sandy nodded.

We crept towards the door, but the thought of openin it up to find one of them big black ants lurkin inside made me second guess. Instead we creeped around the back, found a big dumpster and used it to climb up to the roof. Unfortunately… I had a little fall, and the dumpster made a bit of noise when I crashed down on it. From the front of the building we heard a shout from Clutch as the door burst open.

“There’s a whole swarm of em pouring out!” He shouted, as he fired.

Me and Sandy got to the roof and rushed across, to where three clunky skeeters as big as a cat were floatin up at Clutch. Called Vampires, Sandy had told me, but to me they looked like skeeters so that’s what I’ll call em. I can see why they called em that though- they went right for Clutch’s neck, jabbin long spikes in to suck out his blood. I lifted my rifle, but it was a hopeless shot- I’d just hit Clutch if I fired. Sandy nudged me and pointed- down below was another ant, climbin straight up the wall towards us.
Me and Sandy teamed up and pumped that ruttin ant full of lead. Its acid blood burst out, but we were too high to get hit and it died soon enough. By the time were done, Clutch had dealt with the skeeters, though they’d done him a bit of a bloody scratch. We gathered up the cranberries from the dead and went back to checkin the town.
In the gun bank we found a lot of old guns, but sadly, one look was enough to tell me they’re were useless. Every one of them was covered in glass. It’d be a waste of time tryin to fix em. We did find one nice bonus- in a sealed (but oddly unlocked) gun safe, we found a flamethrower. Clutch claimed it, as he was carrying the least gear. After that I headed up to the tower to take his spot. Sandy and him took the saloon and the chapel, found a good thick duster full of big deep pockets (I got that one, kept my grenades in there, though all of the sudden I seemed to have an extra one), and a big clunky suit of old armor that Sandy insisted on taking for some reason. Clutch had me switch positions (again) and me and Sandy checked in the sheriff’s office. It was a sad sight- dozens of inmates stuffed in the cells, all covered over with thick glass, hardly decayed at all, faces twisted and screamin. Made me shudder to see it, but Sandy had eyes only for the loot- on the person of the dead deputy we found an old antique coin of solid gold, covered in alchemic symbols. Would fetch a nice price to a collector.
Next was the tailors. More and more clothes were hung on the racks, all covered in glass, but Sandra managed to find a rather fetchin antique dress that she thought would look good on her. I was a bit distracted- in one corner was a little girl, face looked in an eternal scream, covered in thick crystal and glass. It was a sad sight.

“Hey Clutch.” I said outside. “What do you think happened here? This crystal stuff… it looks like it happened all at once.”

“Alchemy.” He answered. “Dunno more than that. Happened before I was born. Before you were born, even.”

After that we decided to have a little huddle and discuss our next plan. On ahead was a small island with a big manor house and a crystal forest. Somethin green was glowin in the forest, and that house may be loaded with riches just waitin to be found. Trouble was, on my turn up on the tower I’d spotted a giant hornet critter flyin laps around the lake, like it was guardin it or somethin.

“I got an idea.” I said. “Instead of headin into that forest not knowin what’s what, we should deal with them Plagues here, on our own terms. I’ve got some landmines back in Cloud’s saddle bags. I could go back and grab em, mine the entrance to this little village. Me and Sandra will hide in these buildins, you can get up on the tower Clutch. Shoot that big hornet from over here, and all the Plagues on the island will probably rush over. We can pick em off as they come.” And not have to get close to any more giant ants.

The others decided they liked the sound of that, though it took close to an hour to set everything up. When I gave the go ahead, Clutch’s shot rang out loud and clear.

“Did ya get em?” I asked.

“No.”

“You didn’t hit em!?”

“NO! It’s a long distance okay!”

It turned out I was right- as the shot rang out, half a dozen of the buggers burst out of the forest like an anthill and came chargin towards us. Two fleas, a couple skeeters, the big hornet, TWO ANTS, and a massive silver beetle that looked like it was made out of guitars and tentacles. I was startin to regret my decision, but with a few grenades, fix shots from my rifle, and all of Sandy’s gun dancin skill, we managed to take all out. That big beetle took three big rifle shots and a grenade before it would die though. I’m glad it never got up to us. After the battle we split up the seeds and I gathered up my landmines (not a single ruttin one of em had gone off, can you believe it?).
The house was a wreck, filled to the brim with Plague eggs. Clutch fired up his flamethrower and we set the whole thing a burnin. I gave Sandy a boost up into the attic to see what was up there.

“Find anything Sandy?”

“Nope, not a thing but dust and cobwebs.”

“Now don’t be thinking about lying Sandra.” Clutch said. “There’s no call for bein greedy.”

“Now, don’t start with that Clutch, we’re all comrades here, right?” I said.

“Of course. I’m just jokin. Sandra knows when I’m joking, don’t you Sandra?” Clutch said.

“Sure do boss.”

Well, that was a bit anticlimactic. We’d hardly found any treasure at all, though I certainly learned a lot about bein a treasure hunter. All that was left was to check the forest. We almost skipped it and went home. I’m sure glad we didn’t.
In the middle of a stand of trees was a big green pillar of crystal, glowin and pulsatin. Nestled inside like a bug in amber was a giant seed. Clutch dropped his gun and ran open eyed towards it, and Sandra was not far behind.

“What’s goin on? What is it guys?” I asked.

“Do you know what this is Jackrum?” Clutch said, eyes shinin with greed. “It’s an elemental seed. An ancient alchemical relic. They use these things to make oasis’s.”

“Oh, that’s good. We could make Clearwater into an oasis town.” I said.

“Are you crazy?!” Both of em shouted. “We could make a fortune off of it. More bullets than we’ve ever made in all our lives. More bullets than you’ve ever made with your shop Jackrum!”

Well, I wasn’t too sure about that- the Brass Twister is a pretty nice shop- but he two of them seemed pretty excited about it. We decided to head back to Clearwater and see about findin a buyer. Turns out it was a pretty profitable endeavor.

Back in Clearwater- my wife’s hometown, though I got here as fast as I could- we popped into the saloon for a celebratory drink. My old pal was there, runnin the place, but aside from two rough lookin gunslingers we had the place to ourselves. One of em kept leerin at Sandra, and the other was playin with a dice. The two of them were a bit unfriendly to start off, but they warmed up when I offered to buy em a round. I decided that the one with the dice might want to make a little wager, and put up the gold coin we’d found in the nest earlier that day against a golden gun one of them had (now why anyone would make a gun out of gold is beyond me). Clutch took off while we were talkin, wantin to get the seed somewhere safe. I watched carefully- and sure enough, the thug tried to cheat me. I have a quick eye though, and I caught em in the act. They blustered a bit, but decided not to mess with us and took off.

After that we headed over to the Brass Twister to resupply. My son Jesse (he’s fifteen years old, and runnin the place all on his own now, bless him) greeted us and resupplied us, though he haggled up my askin price like a pro. Sandra took off, and I was ready for some shut eye as well, when I happened to spot that same pair of scoundrels from the saloon out in the street, along with a shady lookin fella in sunglasses. He had a high reedy voice that carried in on the wind, and I have a good pair of ears, so turns out I could hear em pretty well.

“Well what’s the deal boys?” He asked. “Anything worth takin in this crappy town?”

“Nah, nothin pa, just this second rate gun shop. Nothin in there worth our time.” One of em said.

“I’ll be the judge of that.” The shady man headed straight for my shop. I sighed and went to intervene. Jesse was sure to get offended if he started talking bad about the shop.

“Hello sir, can I help you?”

“I highly doubt it.” The man looked dissatisfied at the various weapons hung on the walls. “No Heavy Arms?” He asked, disdainfully.

“No sir… we have a blunderbuss.”

“How… old fashioned.” He snickered. “Do you know who I am? I’m Dale Canton. Of Canton. I’m the Water Baron of three towns… gonna be four soon.”

“Well you must be very proud.” I told him. I’ve been runnin the Brass Twister for a long time. I knew better than to get in a pissin contest with some big city man.

“Well. See you don’t forget it.” Mr. Canton left with his sons, headin over to see the Water Baron across town.

It’s been quite a day. I can’t to see what happens tomorrow, but I’d better get some rest.

-Jackrum Twister.

Testing...

Hello, this is my first blog post. Sadly, I have nothing to say. I'm really just getting this blog prepared ahead of time, making sure I know how to use it and all, in preparation for next week. Starting next Sunday, I'll be participating as a Player in a new Rpg Game, the first time I have been a player instead of a GM in years, and I plan on chronicling my accounts session by session here on this blog. I plan on using it for other things as well, but I've always wanted a blog and never done anything about it, so I thought his would be a good way to get started. This blog is not really up and running yet and I have no intention of showing it to anyone until I've gotten half a dozen posts or so, so... if you somehow managed to stumble across it, um, welcome to Too Many Hobbies, but I've got nothing for you. Sorry.

Bluespade