My Life As A Gamer: Running Through The Rifts (Pt. 4)

(Following from yesterday's post.)

The Cattle King's Bounty

The future El Paso of RIFTS Earth is the result of a hustler and swindler by the name of Wyatt Halloway (Vampire Kingdoms, Revised, pg. 124), who managed to hustle and swindle his way into ownership and control of a pair of silver mines and a cattle ranch.

Halloway is now a middle-aged man, a widower, with adult children and fraternal relations (with their own adult children) of mixed quality.

The disappointment is the violent alcoholic and his equally worthless ons. The blessing is a far more popular brother that operates the town's hospital with his own household as key staff. That the former are often in the care of the latter is something of a running scandal in El Paso, for those who deal in rumors and gossip.

Alexandros, out of necessity, does do just that.

Halloway fancies himself as King of El Paso, and he has the private army of mercenaries and lesser scum to back that claim up. That army is often dispersed doing what El Paso's town militia--also in Halloway's pockets--does not: roam the surrounding region dealing with security issues, which happens to coincide with dealing with troubles afflicing all of the outlying towns, villages, and homesteads.

What it does not do very well is proper security work. Sure, he can garrison his fortified ranch just fine. He can garrison his silver mines just fine. He can patrol the roads just fine. What they do not do is coordinate properly, as they are assorted mercenaries and not a unified military command under common and competent discipline; this is a well-armed, and well-funded, gang but that is all that it is: a gang. If Wyatt didn't employ them, they'd be either engaged in the very banditry they prevent or they'd be taking work elsewhere.

And it is this lack of competency, of command, and of control that lead to a diplomatic delegation from another regional power wary of the encroaching Coalition States to fall under attack by some party unknown because it came by a route other than those commonly patrolled or otherwise pacified by Halloway's mercenary menagerie.

Unable to detach enough of his men to handle the hunt himself, Halloway decides to put out a bounty- and that attracts the transient adventurer and mercenary population like moths to a flame.

The Problem Put To The Prince

The Referee asks Alexandros's player "What do you do?"

"The party survived, right? To the hospital then. It's time to ask questions."

This is, ultimately, an Intelligence skill check but there's some modifiers to account for first.

Alex first speaks to the hospital's receptionist, who's one of Halloway's nieces. For this, he's mask-off but covering his Tattoos; he's making deliberate use of his princely charm, and one look at the young woman's eyes shows that this isn't the first time a man's tried to charm her. It may the first time a man succeeded; a Physical Beauty of 24 gives Alexandros a Charm/Impress chance of 70%. (This is what passes for a Reaction Roll in Palladium's rules.)

A roll of 56 makes the desired impression upon the lady and makes the follow-up request for information easier. Not that Alexandros was in bad shape; a Mental Affinity (Charisma) score of 20 gives him a 60% chance to impress a target. With her charmed by his looks, Alexandros asks about the party and how they're fairing. A roll of 42% get the desired result and she reveals what she knows:

• The party were a group of homely D-Bees escorting a young mustached man in three identical ATVs. They were rushed into the emergency room late in the day, just before sundown, by a bunch of Halloway's men.
• The young man is alive, but comatose. Some of the D-Bees are injured; assistance from the El Paso Magic Shop had to be called upon for them. Halloway is covering expenses.
• The D-Bees in question doesn't speak American, and what they did speak didn't seem to be their native tongue either.
• They were their as part of a long-standing diplomatic negotiation of an alliance, to which Halloway would marry his daughter to the young man to seal the deal.

Alex overhears them from outside their room, and he recognizes that they speak Dragonese (aka Elfish); a Language check further reveals that they are not native speakers, but instead speak with an accent and a lack of vocabulary that marks them as adult learners. Their accent also marks them as not being from the region they're representing (a Colorado barony).

This is good; he avoids needing to use his Tattoo or Invocation magics to get around a language barrier. He attempts to get an indirect look via a mirror in the room--a cheap anti-Vampire measure--and the player asks the Referee if he recognizes the D-Bees in question. "They look like the sort seen in Splynn's slave markets. The Ogre is a Tattoed Man, the slim man may be a sorcerer (Stapha Mystic), and the blue-skinned man looks like he's in command."

Still mask-off, but now shifting his body language to his full princely stature, the player has Alexandros enter the room and address them with full royal majesty on display. "I come to praise the retainers of a princely man for their valor, as a princely man ought."

Again, the Charm and Impress checks are made, and again they succeed. So inclined to regard him warmly, his Intelligence check gets a bonus to push his success chance over 50% and thus get what he came for: information on what happened, and speculation on whom or why.

Summarized, the missiles were the initial attack. They counter-fired and intercepted the volley, but that exposed their location to another party hunting for them- a gang on motorcycles that rushed in on them and opened fire once in range. They radioed for assistance, but for that turned out to be 15 minutes they were kept on the backfoot by both of their attackers- but they did not seem coordinated as friendly fire occured several times. There's been no time to go back and for the dead.

It's midday. With this being a sensitive matter with competition to boot caution is not as certain as it otherwise would be. Alexandros gets the location of the encounter--right on the edge of El Paso's claimed territory, which is about 25 miles away from Halloway's ranch (which, in turn, is 80 miles northwest of El Paso).

A mischievous wink to the lady out front as he leaves ensures that he's got a hook into the family. He mounts up on his magical horse and heads northwest. By mid-afternoon, he's there and sees the wrecked ATVs and several hovercycles as well. Corpses, some whole and others not, run across several miles of open terrain. One of the intact corpses, near a wrecked bike, is that of a mutant feline wearing Wild Cats gang colors- and so do many others.

"Two attackers, not coordinating, on a target from well out of town but friendly to Halloway."

And that's when Alexandros comes under fire himself.