Jackrum's Log 4

You know, I always thought that doing the right thing was a clear and simple choice, that those that did evil did so on purpose, out of a lack of empathy. Whenever a villain in a book I read when shout out “I was trying to make the world a better place!” I would laugh. What a ridiculous notion, that someone could ruin the lives of others without even realizin it.

Now, though, I know how it feels first hand. There’s a lot of blood on our hands now. I can’t deny it. But I’m not going to try an’ justify it. I know now what I have to do to make up for it. And I tell you what, I’m gonna get to it with a vengeance.

Startin’ with Mr. Canton.



Earlier-
The last time I wrote, everything was going good, and our town was lookin’ like it was growin’ strong. We thought we were developin’ stability in the area, that we were makin’ things better for everyone. That all changed on the mornin’ the Grim Reaper came to town.

I had just finished speakin’ with my friend Cameron about settin’ up a citizens organization to make policy decisions for the town. Sandra was there too of course, lendin’ her thoughts, and we were all set to break for lunch when we happened to notice a traveler approachin’, across the water. Somethin’ about him just felt wrong… He was a tall, huge man, ridin’ on a jet black horse, with some huge object strung over his back like a spear. There were a family across that way, buildin a farm near the entrance to the gulch, and as soon as he saw em he headed over to talk. Getting down off his horse, he seemed to embrace the farmer- and then the blood started sprayin’. The air filled with the screams of the farmer’s wife and daughters.

Our self-appointed sheriff Russell was nowhere to be seen, so we rushed for the boat to head across. Course’ that’s where we found Russell, dead drunk and lyin in filth. I’d of like to sacked em then and there, but there was an emergency goin’ on. We told him to get into town and get everyone to safety, to stay in they’re homes and get they’re weapons ready.
By the time we made it across the lake, the farmer’s wife and chillins were dead as well. It was a horrible sight- he’d cut em near in two, with that massive blade on his back. I was startin’ to get a really bad idea of who this fella might be…

We soon ran across more corpses- the remains of the loyal Briar Cats Leer had summoned up for us, killed tryin’ to defend the Oasis. When we found the assailant my fears were confirmed. It was Isaac Grims, a.k.a. the Grim Reaper of Vash. The man who killed half the town with a homemade scythe, who’d been hanged for his crimes, and had risen again from the grave unrepentant. When we met him and Vash and fought alongside him, I’d assumed the stories must have been mere rumor. Now, it was obvious they weren’t. Grims was here to do to Leer’s Canyon what he did to Vash, years and years ago.

Grim wasn’t in a talkin mood. He refused to stop, he was headed right for the middle of the canyon, where the main town had risen up around Leer’s grove. With no other choice, we opened fire. Now, I’ve never before fired a weapon at another man hopin’ to kill, and I still had hope that we could simply incapacitate him, but it was becoming obvious that Grims was gonna kill a lot more people if we didn’t stop him.

Me and Sandy had gotten very good at what we do. Everyone of our shots hit. Grims body was riddled with bullets…but he didn’t slow. He just kept walkin’ towards us, pullin’ that big scythe off his back as he went. And to my amazement, the bullet wounds just closed themselves up, the blood left behind on unmarked skin.

“Aim for the head!” Sandy shouted. I did, firin’ three rifle shots right in the head, takin’ out one eye. Didn’t matter. Just healed back up, kept on comin‘.

Sandy fired too, but Grims was suddenly chargin’ towards her, swingin’ that scythe. I put spurs to my horse and charged to meet him. Good ol’ Tornado ran him down, trampled under hooves, but Grims jumped right back up. We kept ridin’ round him in circles, pumpin’ em with lead. I emptied three rifles to no effect. Finally, Sandy had a plan.

“Maybe he can’t heal if the damage don’t stop. Jackrum, use the flamethrower!”

I had almost forgotten I even had it. We’d found it on Clutch’s horse, and I’d left it with Cloud ever since. I snatched it up fast and let loose with a huge stream of flame.

It worked…kinda. You could clearly see Grim’s skin tryin to come back together, but the flames kept burnin’ it away. The fire had made a difference, but it wasn’t gonna kill em.

Enough of this, I thought. Come into our town and start killin folks?! This is all we got for your kind here!

I drew Storm, my sawed-off ancient shotgun that fires depleted uranium shells. I only had one left, but when it hit Grims in the face it exploded with a massive show of light. All of the fire went emerald, and I could see Grim’s bones through what was left of his skin. There was a sound like a clap of thunder… and then he dropped. Grim’s body fell away into dust, leavin behind a broken scythe, a burned journal, and a smallish red stone that had come out of his chest. When I picked it up, it flowed back and forth in my hand, almost like liquid.



Time passed. We put the dead to rest in Leer’s Grove. I felt it was a small consolation that they’re deaths were not in vain- from each body, there would come another Elemental Seed, and with it, another little piece of paradise somewhere in the region. Still, I couldn’t help but notice an odd stench around the base of Leer’s tree. I’d assumed that the ‘recycling’ process would be clean and efficient…but it smelled like some part of Clutch was still down there. I hoped it would be absorbed soon, it made me squeamish.
I found Sandy fightin’ with Virginia. Apparently, Virginia was demandin Grim’s journal, the red stone I’d found, and frankly, bein’ a bit of a bitch. Sandy was tryin’ to teach her some manners. Virginia just switched over to me, shoutin and carryin’ on about the stone bein’ a “Philosopher’s Stone” and a source of immortality or some such nonsense. Of course, I didn’t think it was that crazy after what I’d seen Grims survive… but I was shocked at Virginia’s insistence that we should use the stone. She wanted to do to herself what Grim did and bust into Canton, take Gust back by force. She refused to see reason- that we didn’t know exactly what the stones effects were and that injectin it into her was a really stupid idea. We were interrupted by Leer, who had come off her grove for he first time.

“What is that!?” She looked horrified, much less composed than usually. “Get it away… get it out of the valley, do it now!”

“Now, calm down Leer, we’re still tryin’ to figure out what it does-”

“Get. It. Out. Now. I won’t have it in my Oasis.” I noticed the last surviving Briar Cat had turned up… and was standin’ behind Leer. Like a threat. “Don’t let it touch the water.”

“If you know something about it Leer-”

“Memory Fractured.”

Apparently, this was not something Leer was willing to discuss. I was frankly getting a little tired of Leer’s “memory problems” but we had more important things to deal with at the time. After a long argument with Virginia, we decided to head back to Vash, to investigate the Winchester Manor. We were hopin’ to find some clue as to why Grims attacked us and how he had gotten a hold of such a powerful relic. We also hoped to find something alchemy-related. Since our entire town was founded on alchemy, we hoped to understand it better and try and perhaps reclaim it for society, to see if we could use it to make the wasteland a safer and more prosperous place. We also hoped we might find something that could be traded for Gust’s release. Virginia was getting more and more upset and anxious, as the day of Gust’s execution was only ten days away. We brought Luck with us; to be honest, I didn’t trust him to stay out of trouble without me around, and the thought of treasure was incentive enough for him to come.
We reached Vash in the middle of he night, and managed to convince Virginia to get some rest and go in once the sun came up. Fortunately, Virginia was a lot more reasonable after some rest. Near midday, we broke through the manor’s doors and found ourselves in a cavernous space. A massive symbol of alchemy- a 5 pointed star with a horse, star, sun, dagger, and tree engraved on it was embedded in the marble floor. Half a dozen doors led off the main room. Me and Sandy decided it would be best to take one floor at a time, so we ignored the stairs and opened one door at a time. We found:

A hallway that stretched on for nearly a hundred yards, sloping down the whole way, ending in a shadowy stairway going down.
A massive windowless room, filled with chairs.
A long hallway that zigzagged out of sight.
A blank wall behind a functional door.
We followed the zigzagging hallway and soon ran out of light. Though many windows could be seen from outside the manor, we had yet to run into a single one inside. Virginia and Luck carried lanterns while me and Sandy kept our hands on our guns. I don’t know then what we thought we’d run into in this old ruin, but the place was severely creepy and we weren’t about to lower our guards.
After narrowing so that we had to walk sideways, single file, the hall curved around so that we were coming almost the way we had come in. I did some quick map making in my head- if I was right, this hallway should have opened up into the huge chair filled room, but that was obviously wrong. It must have sloped down or up somehow, so that we were above or below that room now. Of course, I hadn’t noticed any slope whatsoever…
The hall ended abruptly, in a single square room. The room was empty but for a well, and a single chair. Virginia walked over to the well and dropped a brass casing into it. I was shocked at this casual disregard for wealth, but I quickly noticed something far more alarmin’. The shell never struck the bottom.
With no other option, he started back for the main hall. Then Luck shrieked and shouted for us to run- he’d heard, from behind us in the empty small room, the single chair had been knocked over. I shouted for everyone to get behind me, and I drew my shotgun, waiting at the halls end. Anything comin’ down that hall would have no room to dodge, so if we were gonna fight I was thinkin’ to do it here. I slipped on my night vision goggles, but I couldn’t see anything in the well-room, just a thick black shadow. After a lengthy stand-off, I fired a round into the room. No response.

When he returned to the Great Hall I was lookin’ forward to seein’ some sunlight. But when we opened the door, only darkness met us. Though we had returned by the same hall, we were now in a different room altogether, though it’s proportions were similar to the Great Hall. Where the main door should be though, a tall tower rose and disappeared into the ceiling. We searched this room for a time, and found numerous secret passages leading to an old stable, a tree growing in a sunlit room, an empty room that seemed to stretch on forever, and a pair of long hallways. We followed one at random, no longer able to rely on logic or common sense. We discovered a small parlor lit by a kerosene lamp, and at it’s end there was a glass door with a dagger drawn on it’s window. It was locked, so we broke through and found ourselves in a small library. Virginia and Luck rifled through the shelves, lookin’ for alchemy books, but I was much more interested in the open window at the east end of the room. I breathed a sigh of relief as I came to the window- then stared in astonishment at the sight. The window did not lead to Vash. There was indeed as sky overhead, gently raining, and trees and mountains in the distance- but the ground was covered in wooden floors as far as I could see, and the geography was completely alien and dissimilar to the area around Vash. I explored the outside of the window briefly, with Sandra providin’ cover from the window, but found only an old boot.
I started checkin’ the shelves as well- Virginia had collected quite a few valuable books- and found one that looked interesting. When I tried to pull it out though, I heard a click, and the staircase pulled aside to reveal a staircase leadin’ down. I honestly don’t know what I was thinkin’ but I headed down. I found some… interesting things down there… it was… um, I found a Seed, let’s leave it at that. But on the way back up, I found myself in a different part of the house, all alone.

After wanderin’ alone for a long time, I found myself an exit. Feelin’ much relieved to be back on Vash soil, I nonetheless was quite worried about the others, so I started makin’ my way from window to window, shoutin’ for em. Finally, I found a window where I could hear a faint noise, the sound of distant speaking… unfortunately, I was far from certain that the voices were any of my companions. Still, it was all I had to go on, so I hopped inside and headed for the door. Behind me, the sunlight suddenly died out…
I turned around to see some kind wall of black moss blocking out my view of the window. Before I could ponder this conundrum, it suddenly lunged forward. Something sharp stabbed into me in four places, piercing through my tough coat like it was baby. I unloaded the shotgun in the darkness, and heard an inhuman squeal of pain. I rushed around the mass in front of me and leapt through the window. I was bleedin’ badly, but was far more worried about the creature that was after me. I waited, watchin’.
From the window, a tall, hairy leg emerged, taller than me and jointed in several places. It was followed by 7 more, and then a bulbous, shaggy body squeezed through. It was a Plague, but worse than any I’d ever seen before- a massive spider made of interwoven strands of moss and vines. The fight was desperate and frantic, but once I’d made it on to my horse it had become clear that I could not handle this thing alone. I came up with a desperate last ditch plan. If this failed, I was a goner…
I fired my rifle, blastin’ two of it’s legs. I hoped that would slow it down. Then I turned my horse and rode at full speed down the long ramp that led up to the manor. We were goin’ too fast, the horse was fallin’ as much as runnin’-I was worried he’d break a leg-but I had no time to slow it. I drew out my ace in the hole- a uranium grenade. I threw it as hard as I could, and when we hit the bottom I leapt off the horse and scrambled for the nearest bit of cover I could find. The blast lit up the whole sky green, and when I came around there was a massive crater filled with bits of glowin’ green spider.

Heavily injured, with no options for medical support, I ate the strange Seed I found in beneath the house.

I drifted, strange sounds and images in my head. The Seed worked as I had hoped, bolstering my bodies natural healing and givin’ me the strength to keep going- but it was doin’ something’ else too. When I came too, I saw Sandy’s face leanin’ over me, but inside and behind her I could see something too- some kind of outline of light, like I could suddenly see into the very fabric of reality. Very mystical like. I reached out, and my hand disappeared into the fold in the air before me. I tried puttin’ something else inside- a single bullet- and found that I could store things within and draw them out at will. For some reason, Sandy and Virginia did not seem too impressed with my reality altering powers. They seemed to think it was some kind of trick.
Anyhey, while I was trippin’ out, Sandy had run into some trouble of her own. She killed some Plagues, but eventually found the place where ol’ Grims had been stayin’. They’d found some paintin’s that looked important- including one of Leer, and another of Grims, some creepy young lady covered in crows (whom I surmised was Old Lady Winchester at a younger age), and an older man who looked like he could have been Dale Canton’s grandpa. Well, we’d got what we came for, so we headed back to Leer’s Canyon.

And that’s when things went south. We arrived at sunset, and spotted a single figure standing silhouetted by the light, seemingly staring directly into the sun. At the entrance to the canyon, we approached cautiously, and to are surprise, found the familiar figure of Clutch Gallows standing alive and well. His skin had gone grayish, the veins livid against his skin. His body was filthy, covered in dirt from his grave. And his eyes were a curiously pale color, and seemed to move independently from each other, staring in separate directions at once. In his hand, he held the Elemental Seed created from his life-force.

“Hello again…” He said. “I’m back… good to see you again.” He grinned, as though he were in on some private joke. “I’ll be back to see you… Right now, there’s something I have to do. I think I’ll take this Seed. It’s only fair. It’s mine, after all.”

If only we had thought to stop him. At the time, we were torn, feeling guilty over his death and mistreatment of his body, and we had no idea what he was up too. We rushed quickly to Leer, to see if she could explain this. Unfortunately, Leer was not in a talkative mood. She had barricaded herself in the tree and was covered in vines, sleeping. All of the graves dug for Grims victims were empty, dug up. They must have set out in separate ways, each with a Seed, ready to plant a half a dozen more of Leer’s cursed Oasis. And then, of course, she’d want to spread more. And all she needed to create more Seeds was more dead bodies…
It got worse. Cameron came and told me how, just this morning, he’d found ten people dead in they’re beds, strangled by some dark growth coming out of the ground. The townsfolk had buried them in the Grove- ten more Seeds in the making.
Now the town is broken up, everyone going they’re own ways. What we thought was our paradise, a new hope for the wasteland, is the fortress of a monster. I’m not sure what we are going to do, but we have to do something. This was our doing; our fault. We’re the only ones to blame.
Virginia found some useful information in that book of hers. It seems that the Philosophers Stone, when applied to water, will cause a quick growth of glass that will cover everything, just like in the canyon where we found Leer’s Seed.
We’ll see how Leer likes that, but I cannot feel hopeful. Her minions are already out there, growing.

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.