When should we plan our next game night? I've completely lost track of time.
Friday, February 15, 2013
Monday, February 4, 2013
...or so we thought.
Both the bread truck and the cop car are way to jacked up to go another mile. There was a man with a dog who came out of the dark from the north and approached the scene of the fire fight near the end. I noticed him and and began trying to chase him off for his safety, assuming he was a local farmer coming to investigate the commotion. I even fired a couple of warning shots in his direction to try to get keep him from wandering into the crossfire. I realized something was different about this guy when even after being shot at, it was the farmer who was trying to guide us back to safety. Everything happened so fast, and memories are hazy, but for a moment, it seemed like the dog got into the fray and may have helped us defeat the zombie cops, though no one can remember exactly how.
The farmer and his dog are still nearby when we realize we're not going anywhere unless it's on foot. After speaking to him, and noticing his less than conventional attire and accent, we realize he's not a farmer, but likely a Native American. He offers to take us back to his tribe which, we discover later, consists of three other people and the dog. Strangely, the others don't appear to be entirely Native American, if at all. We rest and rejuvinate for the night, getting as much information as we can from our generous host, which turns out to be little. He tells us that this tribe is assigned to patrol this area of the desert, though he won't say why exactly, and crypitcally insinuates that this "assignment," so to speak, isn't permanent.
We tell the tribe of the events of the past 48 hours and tell them we are on our way to Las Vegas to the next Trinity Convention to see what we can find out, and to see what, if anything we can do with this hard drive. The tribe makes us an intriguing offer: they say they can help if we undergo, and complete a "spirit quest." This sounds fun to me and I assume we're going to take a bite of peyote and a sip of fire water and trip balls for the afternoon. But they tell us it is entirely possible that we, some or all of us, may not make it back from the quest. Even so, our two options right now are to take this spirit quest, or to try to walk the rest of the way to Las Vegas, which if memory serves, was still several hours away by car.
After a night's rest, the tribe takes us to the mouth of a cave. They tell us to descend to the bottom (about a thirty feet down) and follow the walls around until we come to a little house. Inside the house will be a cup that we should all drink from, and the quest would begin. Then they told us merely to find the cat, and the cat would give us our quest. We all made it down, but as soon as we got to the bottom we began hearing sounds like rats. We caught glimpses of them with our flashlight and they seemed both massive and arriving in large numbers. After a moment of confusion and a couple of drawn weapons, we decided to make a run for it, while Bob was covering us with the AK-47. As we ran, the shots from AK were getting more and more distant, and soon they were just muffled pops. By the time we made it to the house, the shots had stopped completely, and we realized that Bob wasn't going to be on the quest with us.
Inside the the house we found the cup and imbibed its contents. We stepped back out of the house and were still in the cave, yet it was somehow different. There was light coming through an opening about a hundred feet above us. There was also now a stream flowing through the cave and some unhealthy looking trees in the distance. We were approached by a rabbit who made a request.
The rabbit showed us the dying trees and a patchwork of yellow and brown grass. He said he and the rest of the rabbits needed shelter and grass to eat, otherwise they would slowly die out. He said the trees were too far away from the stream and the sunlight, but if we could move them closer together, the trees would grow healthy, the grass would grow thick, and the rabbits would survive. When we asked incredulously how we were supposed to move either the trees or the stream, the rabbit suggested we talk to the Mountain, as he felt it was the Mountain who had been causing the distress.
While Jen and I stood dumbfounded, Phil jumped right into action and called out to the Mountain, which to our amazement, answered. Phil asked Mountain if he could divert the stream, and bring sunlight to the trees. The request angered Mountain so greatly, he nearly collapsed on us. Mountain said the trees were parasites, and that they stole his water after he was kind enough to let them live in him. Phil made the genius argument that the trees' deep roots help hold Mountain and keep him strong, and without strong trees, Mountain himself would be at risk of crumbling. Mountain saw the wisdom in this and with a mighty shaking of the ground, Mountain diverted the river to run next to the trees, and he opened himself at the top so that the trees would receive the sunlight. Within minutes, the trees began to perk up and grass began to flourish.
The rabbit from before came back over to us to thank us. We asked him if he could take us to the cat. As we looked on, a magically lighted path illuminated its way deep into the cave. We follwed it for what seemed like an hour, and had we turned back, there was no chance we could have found our way back to the house. We finally came upon the cat, who appeared to have been recently sleeping, but was stretching itself awake as though it was expecting us. We told him we had been sent to seek him out for our quest and he replied we must bring him a rabbit to eat. We implored that we would not be able to find our way back to the rabbits, and even if we did, we certainly couldn't get back here, for the lighted path had disappeared. The Cat looked at an opening about ten feet above him and said he wanted a rabbit from the outside. We climbed through the opening and found ourselves in the desert. Cat, who we didn't notice climbing up behind us, pointed to an oasis about a hundred yards away, and told us the rabbits lived there.
We set off to the oasis and made it about halfway there. Then we realized that for some reason we were not getting there as fast as we should. We looked behind us and saw that while the oasis was fifty yards away, Cat and his den were at leat 400 yards away! We stopped and considered the problem, realizing we could soon succumb to dehydration. We attempted call out to the Desert to allow us to pass, but the Desert seemed only interested in absorbing our blood. To this moment, I have no recollection how we made it to the oasis. I remember being sucked down into the sand and panicing, and I remember finding myself in the oasis a little roughed up, but mostly unharmed. Perhaps Jen or Phil has a clearer picture of what happened. When we were all in the oasis, we found plenty of rabbits scurrying around. Thankfully, none of them seemed to talk or even be intelligent like the ones inside the cave, or I might have had difficulty turning one over to Cat. We managed to scoop a rabbit up in a satchel we had brought and we were were staring out across the desert, thinking about how we would cross, and wether or not it would even be possible to get back to Cat, when suddenly, Cat appeared behind us there in the oasis. We opened the satchel, and Cat seemed thrilled that we had not killed the rabbit (Jen and I had discussed whether or not to kill it, and decided not to, since Cat may have wanted the honor himself). Cat pounced on the rabbit and toyed with it for several minutes before finally putting it out of its misery. He then devoured the rabbit and promptly fell asleep, seemingly forgetting about us. About an hour later, he awoke and addressed us. He thanked us for the rabbit he told us he had granted us new abilities. I can't speak for Phil or Jen, but at this point I blacked out. When I came to, we were with the tribe. I felt quite refreshed as if I had the best night's sleep in my life...certainly the best since that Trinity conference.
The farmer and his dog are still nearby when we realize we're not going anywhere unless it's on foot. After speaking to him, and noticing his less than conventional attire and accent, we realize he's not a farmer, but likely a Native American. He offers to take us back to his tribe which, we discover later, consists of three other people and the dog. Strangely, the others don't appear to be entirely Native American, if at all. We rest and rejuvinate for the night, getting as much information as we can from our generous host, which turns out to be little. He tells us that this tribe is assigned to patrol this area of the desert, though he won't say why exactly, and crypitcally insinuates that this "assignment," so to speak, isn't permanent.
We tell the tribe of the events of the past 48 hours and tell them we are on our way to Las Vegas to the next Trinity Convention to see what we can find out, and to see what, if anything we can do with this hard drive. The tribe makes us an intriguing offer: they say they can help if we undergo, and complete a "spirit quest." This sounds fun to me and I assume we're going to take a bite of peyote and a sip of fire water and trip balls for the afternoon. But they tell us it is entirely possible that we, some or all of us, may not make it back from the quest. Even so, our two options right now are to take this spirit quest, or to try to walk the rest of the way to Las Vegas, which if memory serves, was still several hours away by car.
After a night's rest, the tribe takes us to the mouth of a cave. They tell us to descend to the bottom (about a thirty feet down) and follow the walls around until we come to a little house. Inside the house will be a cup that we should all drink from, and the quest would begin. Then they told us merely to find the cat, and the cat would give us our quest. We all made it down, but as soon as we got to the bottom we began hearing sounds like rats. We caught glimpses of them with our flashlight and they seemed both massive and arriving in large numbers. After a moment of confusion and a couple of drawn weapons, we decided to make a run for it, while Bob was covering us with the AK-47. As we ran, the shots from AK were getting more and more distant, and soon they were just muffled pops. By the time we made it to the house, the shots had stopped completely, and we realized that Bob wasn't going to be on the quest with us.
Inside the the house we found the cup and imbibed its contents. We stepped back out of the house and were still in the cave, yet it was somehow different. There was light coming through an opening about a hundred feet above us. There was also now a stream flowing through the cave and some unhealthy looking trees in the distance. We were approached by a rabbit who made a request.
The rabbit showed us the dying trees and a patchwork of yellow and brown grass. He said he and the rest of the rabbits needed shelter and grass to eat, otherwise they would slowly die out. He said the trees were too far away from the stream and the sunlight, but if we could move them closer together, the trees would grow healthy, the grass would grow thick, and the rabbits would survive. When we asked incredulously how we were supposed to move either the trees or the stream, the rabbit suggested we talk to the Mountain, as he felt it was the Mountain who had been causing the distress.
While Jen and I stood dumbfounded, Phil jumped right into action and called out to the Mountain, which to our amazement, answered. Phil asked Mountain if he could divert the stream, and bring sunlight to the trees. The request angered Mountain so greatly, he nearly collapsed on us. Mountain said the trees were parasites, and that they stole his water after he was kind enough to let them live in him. Phil made the genius argument that the trees' deep roots help hold Mountain and keep him strong, and without strong trees, Mountain himself would be at risk of crumbling. Mountain saw the wisdom in this and with a mighty shaking of the ground, Mountain diverted the river to run next to the trees, and he opened himself at the top so that the trees would receive the sunlight. Within minutes, the trees began to perk up and grass began to flourish.
The rabbit from before came back over to us to thank us. We asked him if he could take us to the cat. As we looked on, a magically lighted path illuminated its way deep into the cave. We follwed it for what seemed like an hour, and had we turned back, there was no chance we could have found our way back to the house. We finally came upon the cat, who appeared to have been recently sleeping, but was stretching itself awake as though it was expecting us. We told him we had been sent to seek him out for our quest and he replied we must bring him a rabbit to eat. We implored that we would not be able to find our way back to the rabbits, and even if we did, we certainly couldn't get back here, for the lighted path had disappeared. The Cat looked at an opening about ten feet above him and said he wanted a rabbit from the outside. We climbed through the opening and found ourselves in the desert. Cat, who we didn't notice climbing up behind us, pointed to an oasis about a hundred yards away, and told us the rabbits lived there.
We set off to the oasis and made it about halfway there. Then we realized that for some reason we were not getting there as fast as we should. We looked behind us and saw that while the oasis was fifty yards away, Cat and his den were at leat 400 yards away! We stopped and considered the problem, realizing we could soon succumb to dehydration. We attempted call out to the Desert to allow us to pass, but the Desert seemed only interested in absorbing our blood. To this moment, I have no recollection how we made it to the oasis. I remember being sucked down into the sand and panicing, and I remember finding myself in the oasis a little roughed up, but mostly unharmed. Perhaps Jen or Phil has a clearer picture of what happened. When we were all in the oasis, we found plenty of rabbits scurrying around. Thankfully, none of them seemed to talk or even be intelligent like the ones inside the cave, or I might have had difficulty turning one over to Cat. We managed to scoop a rabbit up in a satchel we had brought and we were were staring out across the desert, thinking about how we would cross, and wether or not it would even be possible to get back to Cat, when suddenly, Cat appeared behind us there in the oasis. We opened the satchel, and Cat seemed thrilled that we had not killed the rabbit (Jen and I had discussed whether or not to kill it, and decided not to, since Cat may have wanted the honor himself). Cat pounced on the rabbit and toyed with it for several minutes before finally putting it out of its misery. He then devoured the rabbit and promptly fell asleep, seemingly forgetting about us. About an hour later, he awoke and addressed us. He thanked us for the rabbit he told us he had granted us new abilities. I can't speak for Phil or Jen, but at this point I blacked out. When I came to, we were with the tribe. I felt quite refreshed as if I had the best night's sleep in my life...certainly the best since that Trinity conference.
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