Round 86: Rescue or Ruin, Part 3

[midpointmods]

PLAYERS: Bucky Barnes and Jo Harvelle VS. Hajime Aikawa, Taako, and Yoda
LOCATION: Miner Flats
GOAL: Rescue the miners without dying; or, kill everyone.
WARNINGS: Attempted murder, claustrophobia
OTHER: Questions and info available here!

The surface level of Miner Flats is a mess of scaffolding, narrow cart tracks, and piles of rubble, a scattering of tents and shacks near the mine’s entrance. The only real building is the general store, even here in this remote location, but it’s hardly any more impressive than the shacks themselves, and a shed nearby houses a single, overlarge donkey. The overall area is nothing impressive to look at - the real fun is underground.

The mines are a series of tunnels that switch back on each other, turn and twist around, sometimes with rails for a mining cart and sometimes not. The tunnels on the first and second level feed into a single massive central room full of carts, ore, and heavy mining equipment. For all this is ostensibly the stage for a show, the mine does appear operational. Even if, this week, it also appears completely empty.

Moloch Von Zinzer is the only person out on the grounds when Soldat and Jo arrive for their mission in the late afternoon, but there’s no opposite team to worry about. (Yet.) They can gear up, get any advice from the manager of this run-down mine that he’s willing to give, and head in as soon as they’re ready. There are lives at stake, after all. Finding those lives will be a trial and a half, because none of the suggested tunnels on the map below the second level seem to match up with reality, and some of those passages get pretty tight at times.

Von Zinzer is also the only person out on the grounds when Taako, Hajime, and Yoda show up the next day, ready to take out the first team; or at least do their best and try.

Round 87: Bring the Bison Home

[midpointmods]

PLAYERS: Isamu Fuwa, Yaiba Yua, Inara Serra, Sara Lance, Quicksword Irene, Misty Day
LOCATION: Sooey Jail to The Ranch
GOAL: Herd 40 heads of bison to the Ranch with preferably no losses
WARNINGS: Big animals and related injuries
OTHER: Mods will be involved with most bison-related shenanigans; feel free to have other conflicts come up, or message us if you’d like to play something specific out! As usual, drop any questions here!

It’s a beautiful day in the open prairie when the double-sized team head out with their three cattle dogs - Scruff, a slightly neurotic border collie with way too much energy; Barker, an Australian cattle dog with an attitude and a missing ear; and Saint, an older short-haired mutt who seems the most experienced, but also the most tired - in search of bison. The herd is a bit scattered, splintered into three groups with a couple of stragglers, and so the first task is to round them up, along with the first big decision. Does the team split up or stay together to collect each group as a unit?

The second task is to get them moving in the right direction. Not too hard, as the dogs clearly know their job here and are quick to nip at heels and bark and (generally) follow the directions of the herders. The bison don’t seem to mind traveling, but they’re slow, so better keep it steady.

The third task is to keep them moving in the right direction. And here’s the tricky one, because there’s at least two of the bison at any given time trying their damnedest to go the wrong way-- sometimes at the front of the herd to try and lead them all astray, sometimes at the side trying to escape. They don’t respond as well to the dogs or to being crowded by horses. It seems like they’re just of a mind to be troublemakers.