Check the Bible for common creatures and flora found west
((If the Bible doesn’t have such info, tell me and I will edit my action))
The Bible helpfully contains a vast amount of information on the local wildlife, sorted by region with tabs carved into the side allowing the book's user to instantly flip to the relevant page. Some of the most dangerous or helpful organisms even have full illustration, though most make due with a few word description. Most of the information is practical in nature, abilities of a particular critter, what to shoot what with, what plants will kill you, how to track this, how to eat that. It is generally sorted so the most urgent critters are first, presumably so you know what to do after seeing your bullet bounce off of their skull if you desperately flip through the book looking for help. Nothing covered in this book is any sort of "common". The only think you can go out the door and know you'll run into is grass, sage, and trees depending on where you live. It doesn't cover any of those things here. If you want to know the weaknesses of a pine tree or how to track a maple you're going to have to look elsewhere.
Even the information for the local region is thick enough that you won't be able to memorize the whole thing without significant effort. It is fairly dry reading even with its subject, it'd be like memorizing all the B words in an Old World dictionary. It hasn't been emphasized before but the Bible is a
thick book. You could probably use it to block a bullet.
Quickly check-in with the local Sheriff. Let him know we're headed Silvershanks, and ask if there's anything we should look out for. Look over any wanted posters outside his office. Barring no immediate obstacles or opportunities, get on the trail before too much time is lost.
Naturally Errant arn't the only law enforcement in the New World. Colonies will typically have Sheriffs and their men patrolling the town and manning the walls. You're less likely to find them in the Frontier (or anywhere else outside of the walls for that matter), but your sedentary cousins in justice can be valuable allies when they're present.
Their responsibilities on the walls usually means you can find the Sheriff's office right by the gate, across from the Express post. This is as good a time as any to note that when you say walls you don't mean like the
walls you have back home. Even well established colonies in Old World style just throw up some logs, give them pointy tops, move some dirt around, and make a couple of boxes for guards to stand in. Its a poor imitation of the massive stonework you have back home. You hear they make some forts that look like they're actually trying, but you haven't seen any yourself (except
maybe a distant glance when you where crossing the border).
Speaking of barely trying, the Old Worlder's whiskers fail to impress compared to those you remember from your homeland. You think this as you look at the four wanted posters outside the Sheriff's office. Two Old Worlders with the names they used back in their homeland. Dray Oddman and Bing Changming, both with tiny patches of facial hair below their nose and on their chin in different styles. The wanted poster just shows a sketch of their face, $20 award preferring alive. They seem to be of different Old-World ethnicities but you think you could probably tell if you ran into them now. It looks like they're criminals who went missing around the time a boat went to the New World, so they're marked as suspected fugitives and had their posters sent with a later ship. They're probably deeper inland by now. The third is a bit more dire. $200, dead or alive, no sketch. This poster is more like a warning letter than a wanted poster, noting that a poisoner was going around the Colonies applying his trade to seemingly random and innocent Old Worlders causing at least three deaths. Last one ain't the sketch of any sort of folk but a beast dubbed "Silvershanks Slasher". It has a closeup of a snarling wolf-like face with a scar across the left eye and a chip taken out of the right ear. $50 reward for its head. It goes without saying that they don't want you to take that thing in alive.
Manning the gate is the Sheriff himself. He is a surprisingly chubby man with a trimmed mustache and a badge similar to yours. You hear that food in the Old World isn't as energy-filled as New World food, some Old Worlders don't seem to adjust to it well to it and gain weight even with an active lifestyle. You ask him some questions and make small talk. He says that the nearby roads are just about as safe as the New World can be thanks to the Errant HQ bringing people in from all over, as long as you stick to them you shouldn't run into any trouble (though he does suggest we don't go out alone just to be on the safe side.) When questioned about the Slasher he states that it has been attacking foragers in the woods around Silvershanks ("But the 'Nearby Silvershanks Slasher' didn't have the same ring to it), travelers should be safe as long as they stay on the well-treaded path. You thank him as he opens the gate and releases you on an unsuspecting world.
Start walking back to the town out partner is in.
As the good sheriff promised, your first walk as an Errant is perfectly safe. A simple dirt path cuts through an open field with no danger in sight. You're passed several times, once by a pair of Expressmen on horseback, once by a family heading west in a covered wagon, and three times by Enforcers and their partners (one group which was on foot and simply in a brisk jog). Each greats you with a tip of the hat and some variation of "Howdy". You make it to the gates of Silvershanks by early afternoon with water in your canteen to spare.
Author
Topic: Errant-Wandering Sheriff of the New World (SG) (Read 3247 times)