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Suffer Not
Old Parasol productions is proud to present Suffer Not.
The year is 1911, as the very last of the west is tamed, strange reports from all over the US pile up on the desks of federal officials. Wendigos lurking, witch covens chanting, monkey paws curling. Surely the ramblings of local drunks and madmen. Right? The Interagency Commission of Preternatural and Metaphysical Phenomena is formed to find out. Follow Special Agent Tate Clay and Marshal Birdie Johnson on their tumultuous assignment with the Commission…
Recorded using the Call Of Cthulhu TTRPG system published by Chaosium
Suffer Not
Chapter One: Apollo's Cradle - Episode 1
Suffer Not: Chapter One - Apollo's Cradle
June, 1911 - The Newly formed Interagency Commission Of Preternatural And Metaphysical Phenomena receives a telegraph from one of their contacts. A journalist named Johnathan Creedmoor has gone missing in the Appalachian mountains investigating "strange lights" near an area called Apollo's Cradle.
Fresh on their first assignment together, Special Agent Tate Clay and Marshal Birdie Johnson are tasked with bringing the journalist home and investigating whatever he was looking for.
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Suffer Not is recorded while playing the Call of Cthulhu RPG created by Chaosium.
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Speaker 02:Chapter 1, Apollo's Cradle. June 13th, 1911. Pennsylvania, somewhere in the Appalachian Mountains. A small coyote peeks from behind a bush, his ears held at attention, his eyes wide as he watches an unfamiliar sight. A group of three men walk along an overgrown deer trail, surrounded by a dense forest. It's a hot day, hotter than usual. The forest smells of pine trees with a strange aroma of burnt meat. None of the men seem to notice or care about the smell in the air. Each is exhausted. They are dirty and wet with sweat. The one at the back has the largest load by far. Two bags hang from his shoulders, one containing a few days of camping gear. The other holds camera equipment with a wooden tripod strapped to the side. Squinting his eyes, He looks up toward the setting sun, toward the pink sky creeping through the forest. He stops and stares down the trail, stares into the back of the other two ahead of him. The man in the middle is Shorter, a city boy, wearing an old straw hat that he'd probably bought from a street vendor on the way here. The man in front is the reason he's here, dressed like he's on an African safari. A well-off journalist who clearly has money to toss around. Still standing there, holding the heavy straps on both shoulders, he wonders to himself why he's even doing this. His dad had told him not to, told him he needed to help back on the farm. Something about helping a journalist with camera equipment in the mountains had sounded better than moving bushels of hay and animals. Now he was not so sure. How much longer did the journalist want to go? He lets out a sigh. realizing he doesn't have another inch of ground to give to the man in front. He drops the bags. A loud snap cracks out when they hit the ground. The two men ahead stop when they hear it. They turn and look back toward their assistant. "'Dean, what the hell are you doing?' says the journalist as he starts walking toward his assistant. "'Oh God, the camera! Did you break the camera? I'm done, Mr. Creedmoor!' "'You paid me for three days. That sun right there says the third day is over. I'm going home. I should have been on my way back yesterday, and I'm sure Richie here can handle the camera. Right, Richie?' says Dean as he bends over and digs through the bag with the camping equipment. Pulling out an old canteen, he takes a long swig. "'I'm not even really sure what the hell y'all are out here looking for. Burnt corpses? Old ranger stations?' I've hardly slept because of those damn animals or whatever you're trying to tell me is making that racket. Oh, come on, Dean. What do you want, more money? I'm sure Creedmoor would be more than happy to oblige, right, Creedmoor? Says Richie, looking at his friend, the journalist. I'm certainly not carrying that anywhere, says Richie, pointing at the camera bag that Creedmoor is stomping toward. Creedmoor bends down and examines the equipment inside. Yeah, okay, listen, young man. You're lucky the camera isn't destroyed. You're replacing this tripod before Richie and I leave town, Creedmoor says, sitting on the ground near the open bag, holding the large camera up to his face to inspect. A furious look simmers into relief as he puts the camera back into the bag and gets up. Listen, you stick with us for another two days. We'll consider the tripod square, deal? Shuffling and huffling noises can be heard from the bushes. Hmm? You guys hear that? No, sorry, Creedmoor, you're on your own. I'm already gonna be gone days longer than I had planned, and I got people that rely on me. You're welcome to come back with me, he says, as he turns and begins to walk. Dean, goddammit! I'll double your pay! For god's sake, we're almost there! I can feel it! I appreciate that, mister, but I have to go. Goodbye. Dean turns and begins to walk down the way they had come. Hey, um, who is that? What the fuck are you talking about, Rich? Creedmoor looks up at his friend, and a sudden look of terror fills his face when he looks over to where Richie is pointing. Right there. Look, right there. There's two of them now. Creedmoor looks where Richie is pointing. Up ahead of the trail in the woods, a dark silhouette, motionless, in between foliage about 30 yards away. His eyes dart around. looking for the second when he sees it. Closer than the other, another dark shape. Yeah, I see it. I suppose they could be natives? Another one, there. Creedmoor points to a third, again closer. The first one Richie pointed at. Very suddenly moves out of sight. Creedmoor turns around to call to Dean. Just then, he sees something sprinting out of the woods from his right. The young man hardly has time to move or react before feeling something pierce his skin. He feels it cut through his intestines, through his spine. He lets out an agonizing scream before feeling nothing again. Going limp. June 17th, 1911. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. A tall man wearing a thick mustache and short black hair takes a long drag off his cigar. It's a cheap piece of tobacco, but he isn't picky, and he needs something to occupy his mind while he reads through a never-ending stack of paperwork. Signing a few lines, closing a few envelopes. Papers move from one side of the desk to another, into a drawer, into a cabinet, into another pile. He reaches for the next folder of documents, but pauses, his hand an inch from the top of the stack. A moment passes before he lets out a deep exhale and pushes his chair back, rising to stretch. Across his desk, the door to his office is open, as usual, but today it had a special allure. He decides that his paperwork can wait for a few more minutes or a few more hours and takes a walk into the mostly empty room. What had once been a newspaper publication called the Harrisburg Express was now home to an unusual federal commission that he helped run. The large open room had once been home to dozens of busy journalists and assistants and secretaries. Now it held only two others. In the corner of the office, an older woman with curly hair and her young assistant sat over a desk covered in newspapers and books and notes. Anything interesting, Mrs. Ryplinger? He asks, enjoying the sun coming through the blinds along the far wall's windows. Afternoon, Marshal, she says, and points to one of the open newspapers. Found one about a fella in Arkansas who came up from a lake with the tooth of a dragon. Let's see here. Here's one where a young woman found her husband dead, but she claims it was a ghost that haunted the house. Ricardo and I here aren't so sure on that one. Sitting next to Heidi, Ricardo continues reading his book as if the marshal wasn't there. This was expected. The kid got into a trance when he was studying. That was part of the reason Heidi had advocated for him to come aboard. Thing is, the house was newly built. Ricardo and I couldn't find any record of burial grounds or battles or anything in the area. Probably not worth looking into. There was this one case of what looks like ritual sacrifice down in Macedonia, Mississippi. Big group last year. They found... The room erupts into a flurry of loud beeps from the back corner near the windows. Someone was sending them a telegraph. Looking down at the young man still turning pages, the marshal speaks up. Mr. Santos? Mr. Santos, you gonna get that? says the marshal. Ricardo looks up from his book with a look of confusion, which quickly switches to urgency. Oh, yeah. He drops the book on his desk and runs across the office to the telegraph, throwing the earpiece on and grabbing a pencil. He begins writing. The marshal shakes his head with a smile as he ashes his cigar in an already full ashtray. He looks over to Ripplinger. Have you heard anything from those two new guys? Maybe we could put them on that dragon tooth story, assuming we got nothing better. I don't suppose we have something around here to claim, he says with a chuckle. She looks up with a smirk and a raised eyebrow. I'm sure we have something better for them to spend their time on. They should be coming in around 1030, so soon. If they actually read my letter, they're probably finishing a breakfast over at Coyote's right now. The marshal pulls a pocket watch from his jacket and clicks it open. The time is 9.42 a.m. He turns back to the telegraph just as Ricardo gets up, paper in hand. Status, Mr. Santos? Ricardo lets out a defeated sigh before saying, Um, you know that journalist from Maine, Jonathan Creedmoor? Oh, shit. What now?
Unknown:Oh.
Speaker 02:A few blocks from the office, a large sign displaying Coyote's Diner sits above a small establishment. It's a busy spot, mostly full of locals who know every waitress by name. Except for two federal agents sitting across from one another in a booth. Special Agent Tate Clay, U.S. Marshal Bertie Johnson. Each have a plate of the Coyote's famous browns. And two assignment letters to the Commission of Preternatural and Metaphysical Phenomena. Okay, so you guys are in the diner having some of the Coyote's famous browns. You have your assignment letters. So, uh, Tate is it, right?
Speaker 01:Yeah, that's
Speaker 00:about right. Alright. And you're, uh, Hubert, eh? Yeah, everybody calls me Bertie, though. Bertie, Bertie, alright, alright. Friends and foes alike, so feel free. Very well.
Speaker 01:How'd you get on this duty,
Speaker 00:Bertie? You know, that's a bit of a tale, but long story short, down in Texas, did a stint with the cavalry, ended that, became a ranger, had a run at that for a while, and then decided that as large as the state of Texas is, there was stuff outside of its purview that I needed to take a peek at, so I went up and became a marshal. Yourself?
Speaker 01:Oh, after a, uh, spurt sail in the oceans, I came to investigate some more things, and here I am.
Speaker 00:All right, so you're the money guy. You could say that. And what branch are you from?
Speaker 01:Ah, Secret Service. Secret Service? Secret Service, yes.
Speaker 00:IRS, huh? Boy's keeping an eye on all that money, right?
Speaker 01:Well, I'm here, so I'm not really looking at it right now, but
Speaker 00:somebody is. Fair enough, man. Well, you know, when it comes time to reporting our expenses, good to know a guy who's familiar with a spreadsheet. Yeah, I could probably help you out with that. Yeah, I just might take you up on that.
Speaker 03:Awesome. Well,
Speaker 00:if you do it wrong... Yep, they'll get you. I'll have to bring you in. Federal agent or not. I'm not one to resist arrest, so you'll get me. I'll tell you what, man. I know that this place is famous for its browns, but I'm really digging this sausage. A young woman comes up, a waitress.
Speaker 02:Um, hi, how's everything going, guys? Oh, splendid, ma'am. Can I get you anything? Another coffee?
Speaker 00:Uh, I'd definitely like another coffee, please.
Speaker 02:All right, and for you? Some more bacon?
Speaker 01:Crispy? Crispy? Okay, yep, I'll just, I'll put that on the bill. Thank you, man. All right, yep, be right back.
Speaker 00:So, you heard of the CPMP before? Because, uh, I haven't.
Speaker 01:As much as this letter says we're going to be looking into phenomena, that's still kind of a big word for me.
Speaker 00:Well, you know, I'm really glad that they sent it out there. Because there's more out there than the eye can typically see or the folks typically know.
Speaker 01:Man, I'm glad somebody finally agrees with me.
Speaker 00:Only a fool believes they know everything. The day you do that, it's the day you stop learning. But hell, you might as well hang it up at that point.
Speaker 02:Excuse me, here's your coffee and here's your bacon. Thank you, ma'am. You look up at the counter. There's a clock up above. It says 10 o'clock.
Speaker 00:I don't know about you. I'm a if-you're-on-time-you're-late kind of guy. Let's say we finish this up quick and hit the road. Do you know where we're going? Hey, we just got a couple blocks west of us. We actually got to head east. I guess I'll follow you then. I mean, you know, eat your bacon. I'm going to finish my coffee, but we should probably get out of
Speaker 01:here. Oh, I can take this with if I have to.
Speaker 00:Road bacon, huh? Pats his front pocket. Tate, I think you and I are going to get on just fine.
Speaker 01:I agree. You leaving anything behind coming here? Here, let me show you. Tate pulls out his bill phones. These are my two kids. This here's Bo. This here's Bo and Marsha.
Speaker 00:Bo, you got some whelps, huh?
Speaker 01:Yeah, just a few young'uns about to turn teenager.
Speaker 00:Oh, wow. Well, congrats.
Speaker 01:Yeah, thank you. They're... Kind of my pride and joy.
Speaker 00:I like it. What about the misses?
Speaker 01:Any clips of the next picture? Well, the miss has been gone for a few years now.
Speaker 00:Sorry to hear that. Yeah, life can throw you curveballs, that's for sure.
Speaker 01:That's for sure. How about you? Got any
Speaker 00:pictures? My family's been my work. I don't know what you mean. I
Speaker 01:don't.
Speaker 00:Well, no wife, no kids. You know, I'm moving around a lot, and that's hard as a family man, so...
Speaker 01:Not
Speaker 00:even a lover? Nope, no lovers.
Speaker 01:The broad he picked up at the saloon?
Speaker 00:Well, I mean, you know, it's all about pros and cons, right? Is it worth the squeeze? A little bit of effort, you know, a little bit of release, and then a whole lot of wondering. Let's just say I'm not the type to... To go sowing seeds as I move around. I find that to be the act of a weak man. If you're going to do something like that, you stick around. Well, it's not in my nature right now to stick around because there are greater questions that need answering.
Speaker 01:I would love to say I understand, but I really
Speaker 00:don't. All's the more for you. Give it time. Give it time. So where are you from? Originally? Yeah. Georgia. Georgia. Georgia, huh? Yeah, I spent a few years there. Yourself? Texas. Born and raised. Spent the majority of my younger life there. How old are you? I'll be 37. Oh. Yourself, you look... You don't look...
Speaker 02:How's everything? Still doing good, guys?
Speaker 00:Yeah, I think we're just about to clear up here.
Speaker 02:Okay.
Speaker 00:Want me to bring you the check? Yeah, just... Tell you what... Bertie's going to pull a quarter out of his wallet. Here you go. Keep the change.
Speaker 02:Her eyes get wide. You look back at the clock, and it is approaching 10.30. It's about 10.15, and you remember the assignment letter, which is right in front of you, says that it's about two blocks away. You've got enough time to pay up and get there a little early if you're looking to.
Speaker 00:Yeah, Tate, it's time to get a move on. I'll follow you. Perfect. Bertie's going to roll a cigarette real quick. Oh, you're a rolly guy. Oh, yeah.
Speaker 02:Yep. Tape pulls a pack of Lucky Strikes out of his breast
Speaker 01:pocket of his cotton button-down shirt that has a pack of matches sitting inside. Also pulls up and puffs on a smoke.
Speaker 00:All right, no
Speaker 02:time like the present. So you guys get up, walk out the front door, and you get to the address listed on your assignment letter. It's a modest two-story building covered in windows. The front door is guarded by a keystone, carved into the head of a stag. The door is unlocked. You open it, walk inside, and it's a mostly empty entryway, except for a few tall plants sitting near a table and some uncomfortable-looking chairs. On the right is a door flanked by two tall windows. You can see what looks like heavy equipment through them. To the left is a door labeled Storage. and a staircase along the wall leading up to the second floor. And the second floor is like open. There's like a railing up there that kind of goes around. And then, you know, there's a staircase up there. Upstairs, you can hear talking when suddenly the storage door opens and an older woman with curly hair and a pale complexion looks up at you with wide eyes. Oh, thank God. You must be Clay and Johnson. I'm Heidi Ripplinger. Nice to meet you. She reaches out a hand to shake yours. Ma'am? Heidi, my pleasure. The pleasure is all mine. She says with a smile that quickly leaves. I hate to be so to the point, but we actually need you two on something right away. Here, follow me. I'll introduce you to some of the other folks. She gestures for the two agents to follow her as she turns and walks up the stairs. You walk up them and you see a room filled with a few dozen desks. Most of them look to be empty. The back and front walls are lined with windows. The left side of the room has three doors, one of which is open and looks to be an office. The right side is lined with bookshelves, stocked with a variety of different texts. The shelves are labeled and organized by state and year. On the ends of the bookshelves are a few pieces of art. One depicts an angel flying from a great light, sword in hand. Another shows two men gazing into a great light surrounded by circles of beings. For those at home, those are The Last Judgment and The Empyrean by Gustave Doré. If like you actually want to look up and see what those are real pieces of art. Toward the back of the room, sitting on a desk and smoking a cigar, a tall man with a mustache places a finger on a map, while a younger man in a brown shirt follows and nods, oblivious to the two new agents being led by Mrs. Ripplinger. If they start here, they can probably get to him pretty quick. I'd assume Creedmoor would have started here himself. The man with the cigar looks up as the new agents approach. He gets up from the desk and reaches a hand to him. Good morning. Marshal Johnson and Agent Clay, I presume? Yes, sir. Yeah, that's me. Frank Zwarson, U.S. Marshal. I'm the assistant commissioner here. Miss Ripplinger, how is Ajaya coming with those packs? She's wrapping up now. Should be ready in ten minutes, give or take. She says, walking over to the young man at the desk as he flips through a book, running his fingers along the lines of text. Ahem. Heidi clears her throat to get the young man's attention. He looks up at Clay and Johnson. Oh, sorry, my name's Ricardo. Nice to meet you. He reaches out a hand. Nice to meet you. Ricardo here is one of our overpaid bookworms we call a researcher, says Heidi, with an air of playful sarcasm. Have you found anything good, Ricky? Only a little. Nothing really solid. Speculation about train lights, but I checked and there doesn't seem to be any trains near there. At least not near enough to cause these sightings, but maybe gas igniting from the ground? But I don't think that's likely either. Marshalls-Warson looks over at Clay and Johnson, grabbing his cigar from his mouth. Here, follow me for a second, you two. Let's have a chat in my office. He says, walking toward the office with the open door. You two walk in. seeing a large desk covered in stacks of paper and folders, with an ashtray holding a few old cigars. The window behind the desk has its blinds half-closed, leaving lines of light in the smoke. Zwarsson sits in the leather chair opposite you, smoke trailing from his cigar. Close the door for a second, have a seat, he says, as he opens a drawer in his desk. He pulls out three glasses and sets them down. then pulls a bottle of what looks like expensive whiskey. He pours three drinks and returns the bottle to its home. I have a few traditions I have to get out of the way. For starters, he takes a sip from his glass. I want to welcome you to our assignment. I know Miss Ripplinger sent you two assignment letters already, so I'll make this brief. We're looking into some rather unusual things here. Sometimes it's mundane, sometimes it isn't. You'll need to have a... open mind and a healthy dose of skepticism. I want a clear line of communication and extra due diligence on your part. Now, I've read through your records. I expect your best and better. Are we clear? Yes, sir. Works for me. He looks the two agents over, coldly observing their responses. All right, good. His demeanor lightens drastically. Listen, we have an urgent situation. One of our leads, uh, We'll call him an informant of sorts. He's gone missing. I contacted some folks at the Forest Service. It took a long time to get anybody worth talking to. They won't have people searching the area for at least a week, and we cannot afford to lose this informant, especially on account of the Forest Service being slow. The fellow's name is Jonathan Creedmoor. He's one of the journalists for the Northern Press up in Maine. The majority of his reporting is into the same kind of stuff we're looking for— He has some good leads, but every so often we won't hear from him until he's got a good story to tell. Usually by then it's too late. Either way, he was looking into something in the mountains, not terribly far from here. Read this. Zwirson pulls a folded piece of paper from his pocket, unfolds it, and slides it across the table.
Speaker 00:All right, yeah, I'll read this real quick here. Let's see here. Okay, good morning or good afternoon? Hmm. Hmm. I am accompanied by my colleague Richard Sweetwell and a local named Dean Wood. Maybe Deanne. I don't know. He spelt it weird. Given that some reports indicate potential for nefarious activity in the area, should I not return, please send help immediately. Well, that's a bit ominous. Well, actually good thinking on this Creedmoor, fellas.
Speaker 02:Zwarson looks at his cigar. It's down to its last few minutes of life. Then he looks up and says, We received that telegraph, well, not terribly long ago, this morning, matter of fact. It is my opinion that Creedmoor is not the survival-in-the-type Woods. I also believe that he's been too valuable to let die from natural causes, if you catch my meaning. Not to mention, there is a non-zero chance whatever he's been looking into could be, well, something. Ajaia down in the basement is preparing you two supplies for the search. I'd send more people with you if I could, but we're short of a search party. You know what I'm saying? And from what I've read, you two can handle this. We're going to be
Speaker 00:mounted? Unfortunately not. That'll slow us down a bit. It will, but
Speaker 01:that's what we got. You said you're the assistant commissioner? That's correct. Why isn't Commissioner Elborn here? around. Well, he's out. Huh. Okay. And pardon me for asking, the letter wasn't quite clear. What really are we looking into? This guy's tax records?
Speaker 02:No, no. Creedmoor was looking into some kind of, I mean, all we know is based on what he sent us this morning, some kind of lights in the region. Now, Ricardo and Heidi did a little bit of research, as much as we could in the time that we've had. There's been reports of lights in the region, floating lights. There was an official investigation back in 1908 into it, and what they came back with was that it was train lights reflecting off this, that, and the other. But according to Ricardo, it doesn't sound like that is very likely.
Speaker 00:There's a lot of coal out there. You get yourself a natural gas flume. You know, hits a spark of some kind, who knows what. I mean... Yeah. Not too likely, but possible.
Speaker 02:No, it's not. Well,
Speaker 00:go ahead.
Speaker 01:Sorry, Bertie. Yep. You're having us look into actual what people are believing phenomena. Well... I'm just looking for a confirmation. I still don't quite know what I'm doing
Speaker 02:here. Let me put it like this. The Marshal Service... And the federal investigatory bodies tend to get a lot of reports of very odd things going on. We also see it in the newspaper. We see it in journals. We see it in writings. We see it here, there. You hear it walking down the street that, you know, oh, Banshee went dead and killed somebody. Oh, there's a witch cult in the woods. Oh, there's a Wendigo out there slaughtering folk. There's a chupacabra. There's, you know, a native burial ground is making people go wild. Some man says he has $100 because he rubbed a genie's lamp. Our goal is to figure out whether or not that's actually happening. Does that make sense? Probably the most
Speaker 01:explanation I've gotten, so thank you,
Speaker 00:Mr. Swanson. That sounds like a fact-finding mission all the time, right? Get to the bottom of it. If it's on the up and up, move on. If it's not, dig deeper. That's
Speaker 02:correct. And as I said earlier... Plenty of stuff we look into is mundane, but that doesn't necessarily mean it always is. I want to be very clear. If you come back to this commission saying that some folks are dead and the responsibility is on fucking Dracula, goddammit, you need to bring him back in shackles. You understand? I
Speaker 01:think I know what you're saying.
Speaker 02:And if that son of a bitch doesn't have pointy teeth, don't bother bringing them. Understand?
Speaker 00:Yeah, it's not for us to learn, it's for us to prove, I think is what you're getting at. It's not what you know, it's what you can prove, and it's exactly right. All right, so without evidence, it's just file a report and move on. So to speak.
Speaker 02:Now, for this assignment, find Creedmoor and his party. If you find any evidence of Something unnatural going on with these lights, whatever it might be. Bring that along, too. Understood? We have a train set for Harriet's Paunch at 12 p.m. Find Creedmoor. Find his party. If you find any evidence of something unnatural going on with these floating lights, bring that along, too. Understood? Yes, sir. All right. There's a train to Harriet's Paunch at 12. From there... You should be able to get a ride over to Ranger Station 13 and make your way toward Apollo's Cradle. We've got a general map of the area, nothing too fancy. Looks to be a day's ride from town to the Ranger Station. He pulls a pocket watch out and checks the time. You better get down to Ejea. She's in the basement, through the door at the bottom of the stairs, says storage.
Speaker 00:Yep, yep, we passed it on the way in. So, just so we're all crystal clear here, our primary objective is to get Creedmoor Back home safe and sound because he's a valuable source. Correct. All right. Secondary mission is if we can find out anything about these lights, figure it out, bring back proof. Correct. Heck, bring back one of them lights if they're literally floating around. You put one of them sons of bitches in a jar, you go ahead. All right. Hey, as long as it ain't got wings, right? That's right. All right. Well, that's about as straightforward as you can put it. Agent Clay? Let's go get her shit.
Speaker 01:I think I need a... Pack a few things. I
Speaker 00:think that's what our new friend Jay is doing for us right now, right?
Speaker 01:Oh. More than just what she's got.
Speaker 00:He raises his glass up to you two. Good luck.
Speaker 01:And Tate just
Speaker 02:chugs it.
Speaker 00:I think you're supposed to follow that with, don't get captured.
Speaker 02:So Zwarson gives you guys your assignment. He explains everything. Seems like you guys get what's going on. You guys get up to go down to the basement to get your gear. Hey, go ahead and leave that door open, he says as you guys walk out. Will do. You guys go out into the main office. Heidi is reading a book over Ricardo's shoulder. She sees you two walk out and grabs a map from the desk, brings it over to you. I'm assuming Marshall Zwarson went over the assignment with you two already? That's correct. Okay. Here's the best map we have. The area is pretty remote, so... It's not a lot. There's a train taking you guys to the closest town, Harriet's Paunch. It's about a two and a half hour train ride and another hour to get to the ranger station. Here's the map. She unfolds it and lays it out on an empty desk. You got the little town. There's a train track to it. And then it's just a lot of forest in the mountain. It looks good. Looks
Speaker 01:easy enough to follow.
Speaker 02:I'll take that.
Speaker 01:And Tate will grab the map.
Speaker 02:Ajaya should be ready for you downstairs. Ricardo and I are seeing if we can find anything useful on these lights. I'll meet you by the front door if we find anything, okay? Sounds good. So you guys walk, fold up the map, stuff it in a breast pocket, I'm assuming.
Speaker 01:He stuffs the map inside his blazer vest pocket.
Speaker 02:Okay. So you guys walk downstairs, you open the door that says storage. You walk in, go down a couple of stairs and you see a large room with rows and rows of shelves. You guys walk into this room and there's bars with a counter. It's kind of like a, like an armory. It appears that like these, the bars are new. Like this was a recent addition to kind of secure this room. And there is like a locked door that you could like open to get into it. On the other side of the counter, you see a large mug with a little teabag and steam rising from it. Toward the back of the shelves in the left corner of the room is another door. This one is made of metal with a large latch and an unsecured lock dangling from it. The door swings open as a short woman with dark hair and tan skin kicks it from inside. There's two large packs slung from her shoulders. "'Oi, good morning,' she says." When she sees the two agents, she's like dragging kind of the bags up to you. These things probably weigh like half of what she weighs apiece, you know what I'm saying? Now, Heidi didn't say what kind of munitions the two of you was looking to carry, so I figured I'd wait and ask. Got a pretty wide array of arms behind here. She gets to the counter, plops one bag up there, then plops the other, slides them over to the two agents. Got two small tents, two sheepskin sleeping bags, a week and a half of rations, a few fire starters, a few knives, a couple pairs of spare clothes and canteens. She grabs a large clipboard from behind the counter. What else? Compasses. You already got the map from Heidi, right?
Speaker 01:Yep, I got that.
Speaker 02:Okay, good. If you need boots, you'll have to grab some from the cord whiner on 45th and Nelson. Fellow's name is Chester. He's nice. Tell him I sent you. He'll know where to bring the bill. Anything else? Weapons, you guys good?
Speaker 00:Seeing as how we're going to be trekking through the woods, take a pump-action shotgun. Let me see what I got. What about you?
Speaker 02:You good?
Speaker 01:You know what, Jaya? I could probably use some .44-40 and a little bit of .30 cal if you got it.
Speaker 02:Yeah, give me a 5 or 10. Be right back. You're the best. She goes to walk away and then turns around real quick and grabs her mug. And then walks back. 10 or 15 minutes later, she comes back out. You see a double barrel shotgun strapped onto the side of her shoulder. And then she has a small wicker basket that she's holding with both hands. She plops the wicker basket onto the counter. Well, I'm sorry. Which one of you was which? Oh, I'm a U.S.
Speaker 00:Marshal Bertie Johnson.
Speaker 02:Birdie, Ajaya Vama, nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Here's, I got a box 38 special, here's a 12 gauge, here's a box of 10, box shot, 12 rounds of the special. That should be plenty. So you have, and mark this down, how much 38 special do you think he carries on himself, 12 rounds anyway? 12, yeah, two reloads. Okay, so six in the gun and two reloads, so 18. Yep. So go ahead and add 12. Oh, so 30? Yeah, so you have 30 rounds, and then you have your 12-gauge double barrel. You have 10 rounds. And what was your name? Oh, it's Tate. Tate? Tate Clay. Nice to meet you. Secret service. Here's... Couldn't find a lot of the .44. Here's six rounds, is what I got. And then here is... 10 rounds of the 30. Should be good.
Speaker 01:Works. All right. I got a few with me, so we'll be good.
Speaker 02:Go ahead and sign this for me, both of you. She slides a clipboard with some paperwork on it. You guys both sign it. It's just stating that you guys are taking what you're taking and how much of, you know, what it is. All right. She'll be good. Good luck. Thanks. She takes a big, long sip out of her tea. Pulling out your watch, it is getting close. You guys will have to kind of boogie down to the train station. You guys grab your bags, walk out. Heidi is sitting in one of those uncomfortable looking chairs. She gets up, holds the door open for you guys. You both got your packs and now your shotgun. You don't carry your .30 cal with you, right? No, Tate's planning to go and grab it. Okay, but you guys are kind of short on time. Where does Tate live? I'd say if you are not 10 minutes away, then you wouldn't have time. He would live close to the train station. He's got kids. He goes places, or he goes to see his kids regularly. I would say he's relatively close to the train station. Roll a luck check.
Speaker 01:I can't.
Speaker 02:You can. You must. Indeed, you must. I'm really excited to smoke that revenant later. What'd you roll? A three? A four? You fucker! Okay. Remember that? We'll come back to it. She holds the front door open for you guys as you walk out. She follows you to the sidewalk. We didn't find much. There's a couple of references to strange lights in the woods. Around that area, there's been some folks who have gone missing. Also, in the past year, I don't know, some enterprising writers thought maybe there would be a connection. But honestly, this whole thing could be a load of nothing. But keep an eye out, all right? We've gotten in trouble thinking that before.
Speaker 00:Yeah, we'll keep our heads on swivels. All right. Well, safe travels. Thanks. Well, we'll be
Speaker 01:seeing you.
Speaker 00:I hope so. All right, Tate, I think it's time.
Speaker 02:Let's get a move on, Birdie. You pull out your pocket watch. You have 25 minutes before your train. Fortunately, luckily for you, you got a little extra time. So go ahead and go home real quick. I'll meet you at the station. Birdie, I'll meet you there.
Speaker 01:Yep. Perfect. Tate's going to take off in a pretty quick walk back to his place. And he gets there and it's a modest apartment above a store.
Speaker 02:So he's got to unlock the door, go upstairs, unlock another door that's got like three different locks on it. It goes inside and it's standard wood floors. There's nothing really special about it. Probably a two bedroom. He's got a iron flat safe that he has to push his bed over to get to the safe and puts in his combo. Tate pulls a Craig Jorgensen .30 cal bolt-action rifle out of the safe. He slides a sleeve over it and fashions it to the pack that he's wearing, so you can't really see what it is. It is, I would say, fully loaded, along with his revolver. He pulls a Colt 1987P six-shooter revolver, throws on a holster and holsters it, kind of throws his coat tail up and over the holster, goes into the kitchen area. grabs a very pristine and well taken care of Bowie knife off the counter and straps that to his hip as well before he rushes out and
Speaker 01:heads back to the train station.
Speaker 02:You said a Colton 1987? P. So you make your way back to the train station. Birdie, you're waiting there. The station is pretty busy. There's folks getting on trains, getting off, boarding, exiting. You see people traveling light, folks carrying profuse amounts of crap with them, families, folks by themselves. You look up at the clock. It says 1159. Just then, your new partner shows up.
Speaker 00:Cutting it close, though. I appreciate you waiting for me. Well, you know, I mean, it's a duo mission. I'd rather not miss the train. Well, I'm glad I'm here for it. Absolutely. Well, no time like the present. Let's get a move on. Right behind you. All right, we're going
Speaker 02:to board the train. So you two sit there for about another five minutes. Train's a little late. The decelerating tempo of the engine approaches. You guys have your tickets at the ready, which you were given by Heidi on the sidewalk. You get on the train. Getting to a decently comfortable spot. Man comes up, checks your tickets, and you guys depart. You're on the train for another two and a half hours. What do you guys do? Do you have a conversation? Catch up? It's a pretty comfortable ride in here. Yeah, I've had worse.
Speaker 01:Glad I made it here, but it seems I had a few minutes to spare with the train
Speaker 00:being late and all. You know the old saying, right? If you're early, you're on time. I don't think I've heard that one. Oh, well. Now I know. Words to live by. I figure once we get out there, away from civilization, and we're going through the brush, up in that timber, we'll take things slow. It's a common thing for folks not used to the elements, if you will, to feel the need to rush through. And that's a good way to get noticed by everything out there.
Speaker 01:You have much experience with these elements, Bertie?
Speaker 00:I mean, I spent a bit of time outdoors, if you will. I don't think we'll have much of a problem then. Yeah, that'd be a lot better if we had horses.
Speaker 01:You know, I can't say I've ever ridden
Speaker 02:a horse.
Speaker 00:Sure beats walking.
Speaker 02:Depends who you ask. A woman pushing a cart down the train. Down the cart.
Speaker 01:Can I offer you some coffee?
Speaker 02:She gets to you guys.
Speaker 01:Can I get anything for you guys? Some coffee and...
Speaker 00:Yeah, I'd take a cup of coffee, please.
Speaker 01:A cup of coffee. Got any whiskey? Whiskey? No, we don't. Here's a dry cart, sorry. I'll be good then. Thank you. Here's your coffee, sir.
Speaker 00:Thank you. Bertie's
Speaker 02:going to roll the cigarette and enjoy a cup of coffee. The train ride goes by quickly between the rhythm of the engine, the coffee, the conversation, and the evolving scene from the window. The city turns into vast farmland, into vast forests surrounding mountains. You feel the speed decrease after a while, and the tempo of the engines slow, as you approach a small town on a hill called Harriet's Paunch. It looks like the town only has a few hundred people living in it, not including the farmers and their families in the wider area, who, you would know, congregate here to deliver their harvests. Just outside the train station you see a few dozen people working in the sun. They're unloading bushels of wheat, then loading and operating a large black steam-powered threshing machine, which is filling bags, and a group of people is stacking those near the train station. When the train stops, you are the only two who stand up to get off. Popular stop. You leave the train station and walk into Harriet's Paunch. It smells like freshly kicked dirt and horses. The men operating the threshing machine shout at one another as they labor. Most of them are covered in sweat. A majority of the town appears to be on one street with a few short alleys. You can see an inn, a cobbler, a general store, a pharmacy, and a bank along with a handful of other buildings and homes. The town is surrounded by trees and backdropped by a blue sky and a mountain range in the distance. What do you guys do? I suppose we should stop somewhere and maybe check this map a little.
Speaker 00:I figure we can find a ride out to Ranger Station 13. Or, barring that, maybe get ourselves a couple of horses. I can smell them.
Speaker 01:Seeing that we're at this train station, we can probably find a ride around here. I'll go ask. Do I see anybody operating a vehicle, carriage, kind of sitting around?
Speaker 02:There is a one-horse cart, which is currently being unloaded of hay right now by the big threshing machine. That's all that you see from where you're standing. Tate will go up there. Excuse me, gentlemen. Gentlemen. All the guys working stop to look at you.
Unknown:Yep.
Speaker 01:One of you fine gentlemen, when you're done here, mind giving my friend and me just a quick ride down to the ranger station? Ranger station 13?
Speaker 02:One of the guys, he's a real older looking fella, comes up to you. He kind of waves at all the other guys and they get back to working. This guy's old, he's like balding on the top of his head, but he's got like real long hair that's just kind of like all over the place. Yeah, I can take you up there. I'm going that direction now. later today once they're done unloading. That's
Speaker 01:fantastic.
Speaker 02:It'll cost you.
Speaker 01:What are we talking here?
Speaker 02:How's 20? I'm going to check the map quick. Is the ranger station on there? Yes, it is on there. Roughly how far? If you're getting a ride, it would be half a day. If you're walking, it's going to be Longer, obviously. Like a full day of walking there. You can see some farms kind of interspersed here and there. There is like a main road that goes east a ways. And then there's a... The ranger station is like up from that road. Like at the very end of it.
Speaker 01:You know, that sounds
Speaker 02:mighty fine. It's gonna be a little while
Speaker 01:before I leave. You're just waiting for them to unload, right? Oh, yeah. We could probably help. Bertie! Hey, Bertie! Yep? I got us a ride. All we gotta do is help these gentlemen get the hay off the cart. Wow, and 20.
Speaker 00:Unload the
Speaker 01:hay.
Speaker 00:Why not? Day. Your day. Go ahead. Just put it over there. Bertie's gonna look at Tate like, you know, hey... This might not have been the only ride option, man. Now we're up here laboring. All right, well, whatever. Bertie's going to drop his bag and rest his shotgun on it, take his coat off and lay it over the shotgun, roll his sleeves up. Well, I ain't doing this by myself, Tate.
Speaker 01:I'm getting on it. Tate will set his stuff down next to Bertie's. Always keeping a watchful eye on it, mind you. Okay. Noticeably, and hop
Speaker 02:up on the cart and start throwing hay out. Go ahead and roll a strength. No, I'm kidding. Okay, so you guys hop on it, help the guys out, unload hay, pass it over to this guy. You do that for about an hour. The fellow with the bald head with long hair comes up to you. All right. It looks like it's empty. Go ahead and hop in the back, and there's going to be another couple. He looks over, and he waves at a couple other guys who hop on with you. We grab our gear. Okay, good. And he hops on,
Speaker 00:starts away. I didn't think I was going to work up a sweat prior to this trip, but... What can you do? Well,
Speaker 01:Bertie, a
Speaker 00:little bit of hard
Speaker 01:work is really good for you.
Speaker 00:Is that so? That's what I believe.
Speaker 01:More hands make less work, too.
Speaker 02:You know, my father told me the same thing.
Speaker 01:Who are you? Oh, my name's, um, my name's Jimothy. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you, Jimothy. Take
Speaker 02:clay. Oh... And what's your name? You can call me Bertie, son. So you guys hopped into the back with a couple other people hopped in with you. Where are you guys coming from? Yeah, we're coming out of Harrisburg. Oh, wow, the big city.
Speaker 01:Yeah, where are you going to?
Speaker 02:Oh, we're just going to help some of the other farmers get their stuff. We all kind of help each other out here.
Speaker 01:That's what I like to hear. Yep. That's my old man up there. Driving the cart? Yeah, driving the cart, yep. Hell of a skill to have. Yep. Let's hope this job stays around for a while, right?
Speaker 00:Bertie's going to roll another cigarette and take a little nip out of his flask. God damn
Speaker 01:it. Bertie, hey, you know they're much better like this. And he pulls out his pack of Lucky Strikes.
Speaker 00:You just do what you feel like doing. I'm going to stick to my ways.
Speaker 02:So the cart ride takes a while. Like he said, half a day. And it is just open farmland for a lot of it. You know, rows and rows of wheat. You see the occasional little group of cows and shit like that. About eight hours... Go pass. The fella in the cart with you makes occasional conversation asking about the big city and he seems really excited. Take chats with him openly. What are you guys doing in the area?
Speaker 01:You know, we're looking for some business ventures to get into. Well, this would be a great spot to start one. Business? Yeah, we're looking for working on some imports. Imports? What are you importing? Just getting some more food and goods and such into the city, you know. Oh, into the city. Oh, yeah.
Speaker 00:Bertie's just going to look at tape with like, now you're live with the locals.
Speaker 02:You know, I mean, that's our biggest thing around here is, you know, we get a lot of food out to folks. That's what we all, we all invested in that, that big steam machine about a couple years ago. We all, all together. Oh, it was communal.
Speaker 01:Oh, yeah, oh, yeah, well.
Speaker 02:I love to hear it. Oh, well, none of us can afford something like that all by ourselves, you know, and it helps everybody out. It saves us a lot of man hours, you know, so, anyway, yeah, that's, that's, that's, yeah, yeah. That's
Speaker 01:So he kind
Speaker 02:of continues asking you questions and chatting and asking your opinion on this, that, and the other. Eventually you guys get to the end of the road, and there's like a T-shape at the very end of the road. To your left is thick, dense forest with what looks like a thin trail. To the right is another road and more farmland. The guy driving the cart turns around, looks at you guys. Go ahead and walk down there another while. You'll see it. It's at the end. You guys been to the station before? Can't say we have. Neither have I. But, you know, I've been told it's just at the end of the trail. Go ahead. We have things to do.
Speaker 01:All right. Thank you, sir. Yep, much obliged. I think we'll be on our way then.
Speaker 02:That'll be funnier.
Speaker 01:Ah, yes, here.
Speaker 02:Any hands on the quarter? Thank you. away. He
Speaker 00:goes down. A dime says just down the road at least three hours. I feel it in my bones.
Speaker 01:If I was a betting man, I think I'd take you up on that.
Speaker 00:Let's put a dime on it. Alright, you are a betting man. Alright, dime. Two hours or more.
Speaker 01:Did you just say
Speaker 00:three? At least two hours.
Speaker 01:I'll give you that.
Speaker 00:All right. Let's see. Bertie's going to pull out his pocket watch. What time of day is it?
Speaker 02:Okay. So it was two and a half hours to get to town starting at 12. So 2.30. Then it was half a day to get there. So it would be, we'll say 7.30.
Speaker 00:In the evening? Yeah. And it's the month of? July.
Speaker 02:Right?
Speaker 00:Or
Speaker 02:June.
Speaker 00:Let me double check. I
Speaker 02:think it's June.
Speaker 00:June. Yep. June. June. So if we're lucky, we'll get there before sundown.
Speaker 01:Works for me.
Speaker 00:Yeah, all right. Are you
Speaker 01:afraid of the dark, mister?
Speaker 00:Not in the slightest.
Speaker 02:Let's move. You guys make your way into the forest. It's pretty thick, and it gets thicker as you continue. Trees, brush, squirrels running around, chirping at one another. You hear an owl. You guys keep walking. An hour goes by. You guys keep walking. Another hour goes by. The sky starts to turn a little bit pink through the leaves. And another hour goes by. You're still not there yet.
Speaker 00:All right, well, clearly I won the bet. And it's getting dark here mighty quick. And the way I see it, we've got two options. We can push on ahead, hope we'll run into it soon, or we can just... Admit that we don't know how long it is and make camp right here on the road. Roll a spot hidden
Speaker 02:for me. Both of yous. And you use different dice. I'm switching up. 98. Ooh, critical fail. You are blind. 98. Oh, okay. Dang, you're too smart. I was going to gaslight you. That's what the kids call it. The kids call a lot of things. Yeah, they do. What'd you get off? Let me guess, a seven. Nine under 60. Tate, looking up toward the direction of the trail, just barely through the leaves and the trees and the branches, you see what you are pretty confident might be a tower, like a ranger tower. It looks like you're maybe another hour and a half away from it, if you had to guess.
Speaker 01:Bert, do you want to make another bet?
Speaker 00:You mean, do I want to put more money in my pocket?
Speaker 01:I'd say no more than two hours and we're there.
Speaker 00:Oh, no more than two hours from here? Yep.
Speaker 01:Well,
Speaker 00:I'm not taking that bet.
Speaker 01:So let's keep moving then.
Speaker 00:That was one of the two options. All right, let's keep it on moving.
Speaker 02:Okay, so you guys are in the woods walking down this trail, and the trails... It's rough. Maybe a couple of horses could, you know, make their way through it. Certainly not a carriage like what you were just on. Maybe it could, but that would be difficult. You know what I'm saying? Probably more difficult than an old man who's hauling hay around would be willing to do. You guys have been walking for three hours now and you've chosen to continue walking? Yes. Tate will chop down a little branch to use as a walking stick too.
Unknown:Okay.
Speaker 02:So you grab your like Bowie knife out and like hack one off. Yep. Okay. So you guys keep walking. After about 45 more minutes or so, Birdie, you can start to see what you presume is the ranger tower through the trees and leaves. It's starting to get a little bit dark now. There's a really bright pink in the distance in the direction you guys are walking. And you can see what looks like lights up in this tower. You guys make your way down the long dirt path. The trees around you do a good job providing shade from the sun. Every so often you'll hear the buzz of insects around your ears or the tingle of a mosquito bite on your neck or arm or back. The bushes and brush rustles with the hustle and bustle of small rodents. At least you assume as much. After you guys have been traveling for, what has it been now, four and a half hours, three plus 45 plus another 30, you make your way into a clearing, a large circular clearing. with a tall tower sitting just above the tree line in the middle of this opening. Nearby the tower is a larger-ish building with a chimney and a few windows that sits next to a small shed. Off to the right, kind of by itself, is what looks like a stable. Bertie, having worked with horses quite a bit in the past, you would think that this could accommodate two horses. There appears to be lights up in the top of the tower. What do you do? I knew we should have grabbed horses.
Speaker 01:I'm more wondering what those lights are about. Maybe that's the lights they were talking about.
Speaker 00:I'm pretty certain that's just the ranger up in his tower keeping an eye on the woods.
Speaker 01:That's what I'm saying, but You know, the people could just be seeing that and thinking it's something.
Speaker 00:It's not outside the realm of possibility, that's for sure.
Speaker 01:Maybe they put up new stations that nobody knows
Speaker 00:about yet. That would be a little harder to explain. I mean, well, hell, you just go ask the ranger if there are any more towers in the area.
Speaker 01:That's a fantastic idea.
Speaker 00:Well, I'm just going to go set my gear down by this building here and let's go walk on up and say hi. Works
Speaker 01:for me. I'm going to take mine with me, though.
Speaker 00:Fair enough. Bertie's going to shrug off the pack, leave the shotgun on it.
Speaker 02:Okay, and you're leaving that at the base of the tower? Yeah. And Tate is not. Correct. Special Agent Clay is taking his pack with him. Okay. Bertie's going to lead the way up. Climbing up the stairs, you... travel up the same path that the trees grow around you. The sun is setting off in the distance and it's, you know, just a beautiful pink and blue and like the stars are starting to be visible. You know, there's this like color gradient. And you begin to see the mountains over the top of the tree more clearly. You can see just a little bit two peaks rise up Making a V shape. With the rest all kind of looking like teeth. The trees sway and dance with the wind. Their leaves letting out applause all around you. And when you get to the top of the tower, you can hear some movement from inside. You see a shadow move around. But you can't see inside from where you are. Hello! Hello!
Speaker 00:Ranger in the tower?
Unknown:What?
Speaker 00:Who goes there? My name is Marshal Hubert Bertie Johnson. And my partner here, Special Agent Tate Clay. We're here on official business. And we'd like to come on up and say hi.
Speaker 02:You guys hear some creaking of the floor? All right. Go ahead. Open the door slowly. I want to see hands.
Speaker 00:Yeah, no problem at all. We are armed, but the, you know... They're in their holsters. We ain't here to cause you problems. Okay, I'm opening the door nice and slow. Okay, here are my hands. You got your badge? Here, I'm going to take my left hand back and grab my badge.
Speaker 02:Hold on, Al. How many?
Speaker 00:There's two of
Speaker 02:us. Both of you, come on in. Hands out. Come on in. No problem at all.
Speaker 00:Nice and easy. Birdie's going to pull his badge out and lead in.
Speaker 02:Oh, okay. Before you open the door?
Speaker 00:Correct. Okay. Tate follows Birdie's lead. All right. Now, this is my badge here. U.S. Marshal, Hubert Johnson. Okay. Nice and slowly opening. Heck of a walk down that trail, man. I knew we should have grabbed some horses. Opening the
Speaker 02:door, you look in to see a cot tugged up. Tucked up against the corner, a small end table near it holds a lit candle and an open book sits next to the candle. Opening the door a little bit more, you see two chairs around a small table. Another lit candle sits in the middle of it with playing cards strewn about and a man behind the cards opposite you. His hands are under the table.
Speaker 01:All right, keep coming. Keep coming. Slow, Lack. Slow.
Speaker 02:Yep. Entering the room more, you can see another cot and end table kind of mirroring the other one, as well as a large map on the right side wall above a desk with a small row of books. Standing in front of the desk is another man holding a rifle pointed at the agents. Now, wait right
Speaker 00:there. Any more of you? No, sir. It's just us. Just us two.
Speaker 02:The man behind the table stands up, revealing a revolver in his hand. He approaches you and takes a look at your badges, inspecting them carefully, like he walks up and grabs birdies from his hand. And then he looks over at the other ranger who has his rifle trained on the both of you. He nods at him. The other one nods back at him. He holsters his revolver and grabs Clay's badge, and he paces around for a little bit, looking at him, really making sure. All right, all right. Sorry about that. Strangers in the night coming knocking. He hands the badges back to you. Gentlemen, you wouldn't happen to have your badges on you, would you?
Speaker 01:Oh, yeah, I got mine. Oh,
Speaker 02:here. Go ahead and grab yours. Tate will grab them and inspect them quick. They look legit. Go ahead and roll law.
Speaker 01:That is a 44 over 35. I got no fucking clue.
Speaker 02:You looked them over. They look fine. You have no reason to think that they're fake. Gentlemen, these look fine to me. Yeah, I would hope so.
Unknown:Okay.
Speaker 01:The name's Special Agent Tate Clay, and he holds his hand out to shake it.
Speaker 02:Nice to meet you. I'm Ranger Leonard. This is my partner, Ranger Conrad. What can I do for you?
Speaker 00:What was the name of the journalist that we were pursuing? Creedmoor. We're out here actually looking for a fellow you might have seen come through maybe five, seven days ago. Name a Creedmoor.
Speaker 02:Ranger Conrad is the one with the rifle. He lowers his. He goes... sits down on his cot and kind of holds the rifle like butt on the ground, but he holds it up. Leonard is now talking to you. No, we never saw anyone named Creedmoor. You know, this place has been quiet for about a year now. You know, we meet Abraham once a month at the crossroads for supplies, but that's about it. Can I ask both of you to roll cards? secretly for me real quick. So like in the box, I'll have you do it and then I'll, I'm going to write down what it is real quick. Yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 00:That's fine. Uh, we're under the impression that they came through this way. Maybe they skipped the station for some odd reason. Uh, but that's what we're out here doing.
Speaker 02:Well, I mean, you know, we, we, we go ahead and we send out patrols every so often, you know, folks ain't allowed in, uh, Down there, that direction. So, it's unlikely. I'll say that much. We patrol up and down the wire down there.
Speaker 00:Wait, you said that folks aren't allowed down there? Nope.
Speaker 02:Uh-uh. It's strict orders. Nobody's allowed to venture on past that wire, you know. Why not? Well, that's not for me to know. Huh.
Speaker 01:These orders came from who?
Speaker 02:Uh, the Forest Service. Ah. Who is our employer. You don't say. Ain't that right, Conrad? Conrad nods his head. Hmm. Short,
Speaker 00:short little fella. Well, that's a little odd, but whatever, man. You know, if your bosses tell you something is, then I guess it is, right?
Speaker 02:That's right. I don't question. I just do. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 00:Uh, yep. Perfect. Well, tell you what. It's, uh, Getting late here. I don't know, man, that must have taken us the better part of four hours to walk down that trail. That building I saw downstairs, got some more cots in it?
Speaker 02:Yep, it's got enough to accommodate about six, Pope. We got three. So, should have two for you guys. Go on ahead. Here, I'll walk down with you. I'll get you set up. Conrad, you want to go ahead and just keep it together up here? Conrad nods. You said there's three of you here? Uh, yeah. That's right. Where's
Speaker 00:the third?
Speaker 02:Out on patrol. Should be coming back in a minute now. Alright. We got a horse. We used to have two horses. We got one right now. But, uh, he's just out. And, uh, anyway. We'll take you on down. So he, uh, he takes you down the stairs. Your pack is still sitting there. It has not been stolen. With the shotgun. Ranger Leonard leads you to the larger building, opens the door. Inside, you see six beds, three and three on either wall. There's a, what do you call it, a furnace at the very end with a chimney that also has like a cooktop there. Stove. A stove, thank you. There's a bench with knives and saws and stuff like that. You see cups and plates and Cast iron pans hanging from the wall. There's chests. It looks like three of the beds get used once in a while, and the other three are collecting dust. Well, this will do just fine. All right, well, go ahead and use these ones over here. He points to the right side. This is Leonard, right? Yeah.
Speaker 01:Well, thanks, Leonard. I shall remember your generosity. I'll be down here playing with some cards later if you get bored up there. All right, well, that's fine then.
Speaker 00:Is there any light in here or do we have to... Bertie's going to kind of strike a match and can we still see like there's enough light?
Speaker 02:Yeah, yeah, there's a little bit of light right now, enough to, you know, make your way in and get a lantern burning.
Speaker 00:Bertie's going to go light a lantern.
Speaker 01:Okay. Tate will go and claim
Speaker 02:one of the cleaner of the cots. Anything else that you guys want to do? It's about, what time would it be? About nine o'clock now? All right, so Leonard's back upstairs? Yep, Leonard walks out, leaves you guys.
Speaker 01:Birdie. Yep. I don't know about
Speaker 02:these guys. I agree. Something's a little off here. Go ahead and roll a secret listen check for me. Take clay. As you guys are sitting there kind of saying, you know,
Speaker 01:these
Speaker 02:guys seem a little odd. You listen and you realize you haven't heard anybody go up those stairs. Hand on the
Speaker 00:pistol. We said that quietly. Well, tell you what, Tate. See, I'm going to grab that bunk right there. Figure we get us a good night's sleep and then tomorrow we can assess and see what we got to do.
Speaker 01:Tate's gonna look over at you quick and give kind of the universal, like, watch me symbol. Yeah. Birdie, I think I gotta go use the bathroom quick before I go to bed, but... So I'll be right back.
Speaker 02:Alright. And Tate's gonna get up. He's gonna be ready on his firearm. Walk outside. Roll a... Are you trying to be, like, stealthy as you approach the door? Tate would be trying to make it seem like he's... not getting there as quickly as he is. Right, because you loudly, or not loudly, but like, I proclaimed I'm going to go take a piss. Right. So I'd want to get to
Speaker 00:the door
Speaker 02:quickly.
Speaker 00:Oh, kind of like you're standing by the bunk and you're like, all right, well, hey, I'm going to go take a piss. And then just, like, you're not sauntering, you're moving with
Speaker 02:a purpose. So you get to the door and you hear the sound of feet quickly moving, on dirt. Door opens. Door opens. You look out? Yes, I look out. You look out. You don't see anything. But you do hear somebody in the shed. Like the tool shed that's right next door. It's like right next to the front door.
Speaker 01:I will look back to Birdie and be like try to mouth the words shed to him
Speaker 02:and kind of make my way a little Just keep heading towards the tree line. Out from the shed comes Ranger Leonard, holding a hammer. He sees you walking toward the tree line.
Speaker 01:Oh,
Speaker 02:hey there.
Speaker 01:Yep, just grabbing this. Uh-huh. Oh, Leonard. Oh, yep. Haven't realized you didn't head up yet.
Speaker 02:Oh, I totally spaced. I needed to grab this real quick. Got a nail
Speaker 01:up there. A few planks loose, huh? Yep, got to get out of
Speaker 02:there real
Speaker 01:quick. I'm just spotting the tree line over there just... Good for me to go take a dump quick. Oh, yep. Go ahead. Yep. All right. Yep. No watching. Anyway,
Speaker 02:back to it. Ranger Leonard holding his hammer just kind of awkwardly, you know, is like playing with it in his hands, smacking it in his palm. Yep. All right. Good luck. Right over there. Yep. All right. Thank you, Ranger. Yep. Hey, sleep tight. All right, bye. Ranger. Yeah. Let the door open. Wait, wait. Oh, he runs down like the couple of flight of stairs he'd gotten up over to the shed, closes it, runs back up. All right, good night. He pops into the lodge, looks at you, Birdie. Good night to you too. All right.
Speaker 01:Yeah, yeah, good night. And Tate's going to go, quote unquote... Do his business, which consists of him hiding out in the tree line for a while, watching
Speaker 02:this ranger station. Roll a spot hidden while you walk over there. So I rolled a 10 under 60. Okay. So you kind of go out into the tree line, into the bush and brush and grass. So you go to take a whiz. And as you're sitting there kind of, you know, writing your name on the leaves, you notice a couple cigarette butts. They look not new, but not fresh. Not old, not ancient. They don't look new, but they don't look like they've been there terribly long. You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 03:Yeah.
Speaker 02:Okay. And if you'd like, I'll let you roll an intuition check. Fuck me. That's an 86 over 85. Okay. You don't think anything... Like, it's odd. You find some cigarette butts. You haven't seen... Cigar butts. Other places.
Speaker 01:And rangers weren't smoking, right? No. And in our brief time talking to them. Correct. Say 45-ish minutes go past
Speaker 02:of that and watching the fire tower. So 45 minutes you're sitting in that spot. Bertie, do you do anything in those 45 minutes? The door is still open. Unless you...
Speaker 00:closed it and went to
Speaker 02:bed.
Speaker 00:I did not close the door or go to bed. Okay. Birdie is awake. He hasn't taken off his clothes yet or anything like that. He's just smoking a cigarette. He's just listening. He's a little bored, right? But he's not leaving his post.
Speaker 02:Okay.
Speaker 01:After about the 45 minutes of watching outside, Tate will try to make his way back into the bunkhouse where Birdie's at. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 02:you know, quietly. You do. You don't notice anything odd. You can see a little bit of movement just based on the shadows. The ranger tower has, you know, windows. Obviously, it's an observation thing. From where you are, you can see some shadows move around once in a while. Up in the tower are books and cards. And, you know, you would assume the rangers are entertaining themselves. but you don't see anything odd. So Tate walks back in. Well,
Speaker 01:Bertie, it's a little weird that Leonard was still down here, but I kind of heard him running away the second I got to the door.
Speaker 00:Yeah. Looking for a hammer in the shed. Yeah, that ain't right. Yeah, they're a little odd, a little odd edge for just being up here on a ranger tower, and I really don't like the idea that just west of us here is... off limits. That makes me question why you would make, you know, open forest off limits. I mean, you know, rangers are up here. I mean, they build these towers to keep an eye out for fires. You know, it's literally a fire watch tower.
Speaker 01:Yes, sir. I think we probably don't need to flex our authority, but why don't tomorrow we just say we're leaving and circle back around out of their view?
Speaker 00:We could do that. I think instead we just tell them that we're going out there. We can try. First thing in the morning, we're heading out west and we're looking for Creedmoor.
Speaker 01:I think that's a good idea.
Speaker 00:Absolutely. And if these folks think that we shouldn't be out there, well, let's just say there's a bit of a pay discrepancy between Forest Ranger and U.S. Marshal.
Speaker 02:As you guys are sitting there chatting, you hear a horse whinny in the distance, not terribly far away. And after 15 minutes, you can hear hooves make their way into camp. You hear from up above,
Speaker 00:Bertie is going to, hey, Clay, I'm going to go ahead and step outside for a minute, get some fresh air. Holler if you need me. Bertie's going to walk outside and light a cigarette.
Speaker 01:And Tate's going to sit in a way that he can almost kind of see Birdie out, however it works, out the door.
Speaker 02:Okay, we'll say you grab one of the chests that's at the end of the bed. Yeah, scoot it up. Scoot it up a little bit, sit on it so you can see out the door. And in that process, we'll unsheathe his rifle. Okay. Birdie, you walk outside to take a cigarette. Light it up. Take a couple drags. You see a brown horse with a tall-ish guy sitting atop it. He's looking up at the tower. You see Leonard's head popping over the edge, and he's kind of... As soon as you walk out, they both stop talking and look over at you. Evening.
Speaker 00:Yeah. Evening.
Unknown:Uh...
Speaker 00:You must be our third ranger out here, right? Uh, yeah. Yeah. U.S. Marshal, uh, Hubert Johnson. Oh. What's your name?
Speaker 02:Uh, ranger, uh, Grantee. Uh, nice to meet ya.
Speaker 00:Grantee?
Speaker 02:Yeah.
Speaker 00:Alright, nice to meet you too. How was it out there today?
Speaker 02:Uh, it was fine.
Speaker 00:Bertie's gonna
Speaker 02:casually walk towards him and the horse. The horse looks a little nervous, but not nearly as nervous as he does.
Speaker 00:Uh, Bertie's gonna go, Oh, hey there, buddy. That's a nice mount you got there. Yeah, she's something.
Speaker 02:Yep.
Speaker 00:Yep, yep. Fine looking mare.
Speaker 02:Mm-hmm. I'm going to
Speaker 00:tie her up for the night. I mean, you got to get that saddle off, give her a good brushing.
Speaker 02:Oh, yeah. Yep. All that. Mm-hmm. He kind of starts to, he dismounts and starts pulling her over. Yep. Yep.
Speaker 00:Do love me horses. Wish my partner and I would have got some for the way up here, man. You guys are out here a ways. Bertie, you notice,
Speaker 02:because this is not super hidden, you notice both Ranger Leonard and Conrad are watching you from the tower now. Bertie will tip his cap. Leonard nods to you. It's out of go out there. Ranger, are you following him to the stable? Yep. I
Speaker 00:mean, I'm not like right next to him. I'm 20 feet away, giving the horse time to get used to my scent. Puffing
Speaker 02:on your smoke. Yep. I was fine. Yep. Fine. Nothing crazy. Roll another secret check for me.
Speaker 00:I'm just going to roll it right there and look away.
Speaker 02:Yeah. Okay. That works for me. Yep. Nothing out of the normal. Yep.
Speaker 00:Perfect. He seems nervous. Yeah. I do miss the days, you know, just, you know, up in the saddle, you know, the world, your oyster.
Speaker 02:Yep. Uh, oysters are good. Mm-hmm. He, he starts, you know, taking the saddle off. So how long you been out here? Uh, a while. Yeah. Yep. Uh, yep. A while. A while.
Speaker 00:Uh, pretty, he's going to look at the tower again and just kind of like, does it scream new construction? Does it, get the sense that it's been here a while judging by the trail I would assume it's been here a while because hauling all that shit out there
Speaker 02:you would guess I mean it's not old it hasn't been here for decades you would guess it's been here for at least five years at most at most five years unless you have like a skill for building or something like that maybe what's your education
Speaker 00:My education
Speaker 02:is... Intelligence might be better. I let you argue for either. My intelligence is 85. Go ahead and roll. Go ahead and roll for your intelligence. It's very unlikely that you will fail this. 18. Okay. Looking at the construction, it seems pretty new. You would guess that it has been no more than two years, potentially sooner than that.
Speaker 00:Well, I mean, this outpost couldn't have been here all that long. You know, maybe a year, two tops. You've been here since it went up? Sure. And he starts brushing the horse now. All right. Don't mind me. Just curious by
Speaker 02:nature. Yep. That's okay.
Unknown:Uh-huh.
Speaker 00:Mm-hmm. We're just going to pull out his flask and take a little
Speaker 02:nip. Clay, as this is happening, you can vaguely hear a conversation happening if you're still in the lodge. From how far away you are and the fact that they're now in the stable and you're in the lodge, you can't really understand what they're saying. But you do hear somebody descending from the tower now. Hearing that, he's going to snuff the lantern so there's no light inside
Speaker 01:and try to get up and just out the door enough where he can see what's going on, but still kind of stay hidden.
Speaker 02:So you're like looking out the door still? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Okay. It is now pretty dark out. There is a lantern lit in the stable. Ranger Grantee has like struck a match, lit one of the lanterns so he can brush the horse and get her ready to tie up and himself go to bed. And around that time, down from the ladder comes Ranger Leonard walking toward the stable. You can see him I'm sitting like in the doorway, but that's it. You can't see up into the tower or anything else. It's fine. Tate's just watching Leonard approach his partner. You see Leonard kind of look toward the lodge. Roll like a stealthy check for me real quick and roll it with advantage since you blew out the lights and it's dark.
Speaker 01:I rolled a 71 and a 67 over 60 for stealth.
Speaker 02:As Ranger Leonard is walking toward the stable, he kind of looks back toward the lodge and And then he continues walking and then he stops real quick and looks back toward the lodge. You get the distinct feeling. He knows that you're there. And then he walks into the stable. Hey, uh, everything going all right? Uh, granny? Um, yep. Yep. Going fine. Just, uh, chatting with the, uh, what'd you say your name was? Um, it was, uh, Marshall, the fed federal Marshall.
Speaker 00:Yep. Uh, you can call me birdie though.
Speaker 02:Birdie. Oh, yep. Oh, yep. Oh, hey birdie. Um, Yeah, everything all right?
Speaker 00:Yeah, I think so. You know, just enjoying some fresh air before I get some shut-eye. All
Speaker 02:right. Well, I think it's time we retire. You go on ahead, tire up. Let's get
Speaker 00:back up to it. All right. Remember now, you know, you do what you will, and I know it's maybe bad form to tell a man how to tend to his horse, but I'd say in the future you might want to give it a little more time on that brush down. I mean... She did a lot of work for you. You know, you treat her right, she'll treat you right.
Speaker 02:You look at the horse and you would have noticed this while she was walking up too. And I forget because you know horses. She has a little bit of a limp in one of her front right. Her front right leg has a little bit of a limp to it.
Speaker 00:I'd keep an eye on that front quarter too if I were you. You know, you don't take it easy on her. Maybe check that hoof. Oh, yep, we know about it. Yeah, we got it. Yeah, I mean, it looks like some rough bush out there, so.
Speaker 02:Oh, yeah, it's rough. It can be unforgiving sometimes. Oh, yeah, but
Speaker 00:we're good. Bertie's just going to give the horse a little pat on the hind, and, well, gentlemen, I think it's time for me to hang the hat up, as they say. Yep, and us too. Come on, Granny.
Speaker 02:Yep. All right. Good night. He nods at you. They both walk up toward the tower. You notice Bertie as you're walking back toward the lodge. Conrad sitting there up in the tower, still watching. Bertie's just going to give him a little wave. He makes no acknowledgement in reply. Good night. Tate slips in the door just a little bit, waiting for Bertie to come through.
Speaker 00:Man, you know, it is dark in here. The lantern go out. Trying to be a little sneaky, man. Bertie said that loud enough to let everybody, you know, it's up the lantern.
Speaker 01:I think it's out of fuel. And it's easier to sleep in the dark, so.
Speaker 00:Yeah, well, I got a, I think I saw a can of fuel over in the corner there.
Speaker 01:Yeah, I got that for you.
Speaker 00:And he kind of pulls Bertie in close real quick.
Speaker 01:I'll take first watch, you got second?
Speaker 00:Yep.
Speaker 01:Gotcha.
Speaker 00:Goes and gets the can of fuel. Bertie shut the door behind him when he walked in, though.
Speaker 01:He wouldn't even go get the fuel. Tate goes and relights,
Speaker 02:A, a cigarette, and B, the lantern. I like that image, yeah. He puts it, like, in his mouth, you know, muscle memory to light it, and then lights the lantern. Yeah. Okay. He also pulls out a cigarette and lights that.
Speaker 00:Real quick, in the shack, or in the building that we're in. The lodge. The lodge. Is there anything, like... You put a chair in front of the door, it's obvious that you're barricading, right? Right. You lean something against the door. Bertie's going to lean his shotgun against the door. Just set it up against it. It's not near the handle or anything. It's just kind of leaning there.
Speaker 02:So if the door opens, it'll make a noise type of thing? Yeah, it'll fall. Okay. Maybe
Speaker 00:not the shotgun.
Speaker 02:There are better things to use in the room. Good. I can use my walking stick. The walking stick? Oh, yeah. The walking stick you cut earlier. I want to give you an idea, but I don't want to baby feed you. Well, what's in the room? Well, I described it earlier. Roll an idea check real quick, and then I'll give you the idea. Five.
Unknown:Five.
Speaker 02:And 26. I think I might confiscate those dice from you. These are different dice. I rolled like four 80s. Okay. What did you roll? 26. 26. Okay. So he still has his walking stick that he cut with his bowie knife earlier. And all throughout the rest of the lodge, as described earlier, you see pots and pans and utensils and shit like that hung up on the wall. And there's metal cups, stuff like that in some of the shelves. You would maybe think if you leaned the walking stick against the door handle with one of the metal cups on it, then if the door opens, that would fall and make a loud noise, which would be better than your shotgun. Correct. It'd
Speaker 01:be nice to have that on you if we need it.
Speaker 00:Birdie is a revolver man at heart.
Speaker 01:I got the door, Birdie. Don't worry. And
Speaker 02:Tate will lean his walking stick against it, walk and grab one of the metal cups or cutlery plates, whatever's in this lodge area, and kind of hang it on his walking stick. Whereas if the door opens and the walking stick falls, so will then the clatter. Okay.
Speaker 01:And then he'll take a post in kind of the back corner of the room where he has a... decent line of sight to the door
Speaker 02:with his rifle. So you sit back there, cigarette in mouth, kind of illuminating the rifle a little bit. You pull the bolt open just a smidge to double check that there's a round in the chamber. Close it. Exhale the smoke that you were just inhaling. And you guys go to sleep. Well, you stand watch. Birdie sleeps. Later on, you guys switch places. The rifle goes back in its sleeve.
Speaker 01:Bertie, hey.
Speaker 02:Yeah.
Speaker 00:I, uh, I gotta get some shutout now. Yep, sounds right.
Speaker 01:Alright, I'm up. Tate crawls in onto the cot that he's raped by, slides the cotton sheath back over his rifle, which he does sleep with, by the way. and goes to sleep
Speaker 00:and birdie holds watch
Speaker 02:Hey, everybody. It's Cody coming at you. Got a little bit of a cold. I'm sorry. Please bear with my voice sounding how it does, but really wanted to go over a couple of things with you. Number one, big, tremendous thank you to everybody for listening to the show. Suffer Not has been a long time coming. We've been working on this for a while now, and we've had our ups, we've had our downs, and we're all very excited to finally be able to bring this to you. Also, Special thank you to the handful of people who have stuck around from the previous project I worked on. You know who you are. I know I'm not very good at keeping in touch with people, but I really appreciate you guys keeping in touch with me. We also have a website. I'm not a web designer by any means. I did my best, so please hop in the Discord and let me know how terrible... And horrible it is. No, I'm just kidding. But on the website, we have some merch, shirts, coffee mugs, stickers, stuff like that. Link will be down below. We also have a link to our Patreon where we have a second show called Cylinder Cycle. It's an anthology series where we do one shots and short adventures in different systems. Primarily, Sadesky will be the DM for that one. Not always. Kind of the whole point of Cylinder Cycle is to mix things up, both for us and for you guys. The first show that we'll have on there will be a Dungeons & Dragons. I believe it's called The Haunt, but it's me, Dubois, and our special guest playing through that with Sadesky in charge. We managed to get through it in, I think, seven hours. And we'll be posting that seven hours periodically, once a month on the Patreon. We also have a sticker club and some other stuff on there. Check it out. We also have a Discord. There's already a handful of folks in there, but please hop in, say hi, ask questions, give me all the negative feedback you possibly can, because I know there's plenty. But yeah, I want to host periodically events and stuff with people. I don't know what we'll do, but we'll figure it out. It'll be a good time. But yeah, and I guess last thing, if you have friends or family or coworkers who are bored after 9 to 5 along with you who you think might... possibly be interested in the show or you know they would be please you know send them a link share it with them let them know rep your merch if you end up buying some but overall at the end of the day thank you we'll be posting Tuesdays at 4 stick around thanks bye
