Ep. 157 Dusters & Dragons Chapter One

## Listen

Ep. 157 Dusters & Dragons Chapter One

—Chris

Glorfin, Grum, Leilia, Mathias, and Mikki are gathered at the saloon, playing cards or having drinks. Borne mentions the last of trouble from the Scale Gang, and Mikki promises to check it out.

The prospector comes in, awed by the bravery of Mathias wearing bluestone pistols, and is soon followed by Old Elijah. The big, hulking man has a glassy-eyed look, and he hefts the prospector up and throws in over his shoulder, proceeding to head for the exit. Glorfin puts a curse on him, and Elijah drops the man and coughs up a five-inch slug.

## Synopsis

The day is growing late, and our heroes find themselves at the saloon. Its current owner, Greta Hammerfist, is polishing glasses behind the bar, laughing with the patrons. The Iron Carriage came last night, which means new people in town. It's been unusually quiet around town the last couple weeks.

One of the local ranchers and Greta's cousin, Borne, is talking about how surprising it's been not defending his owlbear herd from the Scale Gang for the last two weeks.

Leilia orders a mint julep, and Greta pouts her bourbon with sage in it. Leilia thanks her and joins Glorfin for a game of cards—buy-in is only five dollars. Mikki is surveying the new crowd when she hears Greta and Borne talking about the last of owlbear rustlers. She thinks it's possible they've moved on, but can check on it.

Leaned up against the bar is Mathias, with his drink beside, duster opened to show off his bluestone pistols. He's mastered the art of getting his head tilt perfect, despite the horns. He tells Borne that maybe he just doesn't know how to take good news.

One of the prospectors comes into the bar and stares at Mathias with awe. He's impressed by the bluestone pistols, and says Mathias must be very brave to wield those, being a fey-blood.

Grum, outside on the corner, sees the town blacksmith, Old Elijah, walking straight towards the saloon—having no care for walking through mud and horse manure. Though they know each other well, Elijah doesn't return Grum's wave as he walks past, but goes right through the double-doors.

Mikki and Mathias notice right away that Elijah doesn't quite look like himself. The last time Mathias saw that look in someone's eyes was after being a part of a huge shootout and barely escaping with his life. The survivors had the same glassy-eyed look that Elijah carried.

Elijah walks up to the prospector, gets within four inches of his face, and with just one arm grabs him around the waist and hauls him over his shoulder like a sack of flower. He turns and starts carrying him out of the saloon.

Mathias gets Mikki's attention, and Mikki puts herself between Elijah and the door. Mathias senses something awesome and dramatic about to happen, and so positions himself to make sure he's a part of it. Grum goes into the saloon and blocks the doorway, telling Elijah to put the prospector down. Elijah keeps walking towards the door and looks as if he's about to shoulder right past Mikki.

Mikki claps her hands, trying to get Elijah to snap out of whatever's holding him. He has a moment of lucidity, in which Mikki sees confusion in his eyes, and then the glassy eyes come back, and he's pushing past Mikki once again.

Grum still blocks the doorway, and Elijah takes a swing at him, but misses. Mikki attempts to keep the calm in the saloon, intent on not letting this turn into a huge shootout or brawl.

Glorfin sighs and gets up from the card table, gun drawn. He tells Elijah to put the prospector down; he's owed a lot of money from the man. Elijah once again looks confused for a moment. Grum says some words and puts a curse on Elijah.

Elijah puts the man down, and grabs his money pouch and throws it at Glorfin. He starts coughing, a horrible, nasty cough, and what looks like a 4–5 inch long slug comes out of his mouth. It's shiny, purple, and has a tiny mouth with rows of sharp teeth.

End of episode.

## Quotes

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## Trivia

* GM Chris is known for the Order 66 Podcast, the podcast that started the d20 Radio network.
* The characters are pregens.