Kivas Session 1

It's another typical night at Daffy's Casino when the town's Sheriff unexpectedly arrives bearing a (somewhat ridiculous) bouquet of flowers and asks to speak to Daffy privately. She takes him back to her office, and while the bulk of their conversation is too quiet to hear it clearly ends with her asserting loudly that there is **NO** way she's selling her casino. He storms out.

Shortly after that several of the PCs notice that several of the *patrons* are clearly coordinating something together. What that is becomes clear shortly as one of them suddenly accuses the player beside him of cheating and starts a brawl. This turns out to be a bad idea: while Abraham's interference nearly gets him knocked out, Daffy's newest bouncer Teddy is *really* good at his job and handles all six of the goons in four seconds flat. Vic digs through one of their pockets and finds that whatever else he was, he was *really* well-paid - a shiny double eagle along with some smaller coins, nearly a month's wages.

The authorities are summoned and arrive in the form of one Deputy Houghton, who hustles the thugs away without any investigation (and seems awfully familiar with them, to boot). It's clear that this was an orchestrated brawl, and that (some of) the town's lawmen are involved.

In conversation with Vic, Daffy admits that this is the fourth brawl in four nights, and seems concerned both with the fact that Vic picked one of the thugs' pockets and that they were paid to do it. She also reveals that the sheriff appears to be sweet on her, and was asking her to 'retire' - in order to marry him.

The next morning, breakfast is interrupted by (the only) two reporters from the Grande Times: Chuck Foster and Rose Alexander. Foster seems remarkably incurious for a reporter, but Rose pelts the group with questions that reveal an obvious anti-nonhuman bias. They get very little information before Foster finishes his breakfast and the pair leave.

Teddy pays a visit to the local sawbones "to see if the guys he hit last night caused him too much trouble", but surprisingly the doctor says that he hasn't heard anything about it.

Vic makes contact with a local fence and starts accumulating the gear she'll need to start cooking up potions.

That evening at the casino, three men sporting reasonably fresh bruises walk in - and one of the bar's staff point out to Teddy that those three had been in there three nights previous and started a brawl. After checking with Daffy, it's made politely clear that the troublemakers aren't welcome back in the casino, and they leave without incident.

Shortly afterward, Phil (the dealer at the high-stakes faro table) comes to Daffy because he's "unable to cover the bets again". This makes Terry suspicious, and he asks Vic and Abraham to join the table and see if they can spot a cheater. It doesn't take long for them to tag "Hard Luck" Hank cheating by collecting his bet when he should be giving it over to the house. When confronted politely by the bouncer, Hank maintains his innocence but starts collecting his money off the table - and one of the other patrons' coins, too. Things immediately get much worse for Hank, as Abraham quickly finds cheating paraphernilia and almost a thousand thollars worth of golden eagles on him. Terry's got one treatment for cheaters: Hank is stripped to his skivvies and tossed in the local stable's manure pile, much to the enjoyment of many of the casino's patrons.

While the group is reasonably sure that he had an accomplice (Athena, a vampy Catfolk), she got away before any of them thought to stop her. The recovery of Hank's ill-gotten gains go a long way to keeping the casino from immediately going bankrupt, but Abraham, Ren, and Vic are getting the sense that as kind as Daffy is, she's lacking is business sense and the casino's difficulties run deep.