One more character to make and one more to finish up gave us a slightly slow start, and then a bit of anarchy once one of the new characters came into the game (from an already established character) gave us a bit of a hiccup, but we got past it.
The party came across a farm house where a lack of activity and slightly shifting curtains in an upstairs window made the characters suspicious. They figured out that there were Indians in the house up to no good. Several of them moved in to see if they could help. The ninja had a great plan to sneak in and cut all their bowstrings, but the first warrior he tried it on saw him and raised the alarm … and then was quickly dispatched. Two more came running, but the ninja hid behind the couch until one left.
On getting a look at them, the Indian leader who had been captured last session told the ex-miner that these warriors were not of his tribe, but another tribe who did not typically conduct this kind of raid. Despite this, no one attempted to take one alive. The assassin took one out right next to the house, and then threw a shuriken in a perfect shot to take out the arrow shot from a second story window at one of his comrades. The price of saving his comrade was that he took an arrow to the chest, but it was not a serious wound. He then drove the archer back with more shuriken, climbed to the second story window and killed a warrior in that room. The one he injured ran, but was sandwiched between the assassin and the Romanian witch hunter who was coming up the stairs.
Meanwhile, the ninja snuck into the kitchen where another Indian had his hand over the mouth of a teenaged girl. The ninja took out that target, while one of the Alchemists came through the front door and burned the weapon and face of the remaining warrior in the living room.
That took care of the immediate threats. The rest of the family came out of the basement and thanked their rescuers, and invited them to eat supper and stay the night – also, this is where the Romanian witch hunter came into the game, because he was visiting his cousin, the owner of the house.
Sleeping arrangements were made with the captured Indians (from last week’s encounter) bedding down in the barn, still tied up. Several characters set up outside to guard the barn, and the rest stayed in the house. The ninja decided he would guard the bedroom door of the teenaged daughter.
In the middle of the night, the ninja was set upon by a shadowy figure over eight feet tall. He fought it off, but just barely. The noise woke the house, and there was a bit of an uproar trying to figure out what was going on. Returning to the comments of the Indian leader (from a previous encounter, not this one), the group quizzed him on what he thought was happening. His opinion was that some kind of evil spirit had possessed the band of warriors who had attacked during the day, since that tribe normally stayed far out of the way of white settlements … but that meant that someone in the house was the source of the possession. When pressed for more information, he said the spirit might be the one they know as “Koyaanisqatsi”.
You might be familiar with the movie of the same name. I’m not sure how that came to me in that moment. Part of what I was setting up was the teenage-offspring-has-serious-issues-aka-poltergeist kind of idea, but then, not even remembering exactly what it meant, “Koyaanisqatsi” popped out of my mouth. One player said “Is that really an Indian word?” and I answered “Yep.” ”What’s it mean?” he said, seeming like he was not completely sure he believed me. And again, it just came out, and without missing a beat I said “Life out of balance.” To which the player replied “… whoa.” It was kind of a serendipitous age-and-experience-impressing-the-young moment. (It should be stated that the Hopi word “Koyaanisqatsi” is a description of a state of being, not an evil spirit. I’m just borrowing the word to fit into something in the game.)
At this point the cousin of the witch hunter took exception to what was being said. He vehemently denied that it could be any of his household causing the problem, and he told the characters they would have to leave immediately. The ex-miner took out a stick of dynamite and said “I don’t think so. I think we’ll stay until morning.” The head of the house backed down, saying “Fine. But first thing in the morning!” The ex-miner pushed his advantage, saying “And I’m cooking you breakfast.”
However, a couple of characters noticed a haunting, hunted look pass briefly across the face of the teenage daughter, and the Indian leader said that it could be very dangerous to leave the situation as it was, since the evil spirit could be sent into anyone (foreshadowing, anyone?).
That’s where we left it, except to figure out the fallout taken by three characters. Fallout, in Dogs in the Vineyard, is essentially “consequences”. Anyone who has to “take the blow” – i.e. match what’s put forward on his/her opponent’s two dice with three or more dice – takes fallout. The assassin took an arrow in the chest; two other characters had to take a blow as well. The more serious the fight, the more dangerous the fallout – so if you take the blow when you’re just talking, it’s not really possible to die from it; but if you take the blow when someone is shooting at you, it’s a lot more serious. When you take fallout, there are various options to choose from, but I’m not going to list them all here. Check what they got, below, to get an idea.
The Romanian witch hunter took a blow while everyone was arguing hotly about the evil spirit and whether it was being channeled by someone in the house; so he decided to reduce the die size for his relationship with his cousing to d4, meaning that it had gotten more complicated. The assassin took the arrow to the chest, but I don’t recall what his fallout was … I’ll post it when I check with him. And the ninja also took a blow during the fight with the 8-foot-tall monster, and he decided to take a new 1d4 trait “Shadowy figures scare me.” Two of the three rolled 1s as part of their fallout roll, which means they will gain something good out of their encounters as well; this slipped past us as we were doing this stuff at the very end – so we’ll have to take care of it first thing next session.
