Prelude: Leaving the farm

[Bitom]

It's been a week and a half since the stranger came through. The wind has blown his tracks from everything but the mind of the farmer he stayed with. His name was never asked or offered, and he carried a pair of pistols that looked as if they were made by hand.

Things were going bad when he arrived, but his visit marked the differance between things going bad and things going to shit. The expected rain didn't come, and the ground finally cracked open, exposing the roots to the killing sun. The well went dry a day later.

It's probably not his fault. It's probably just coincidence. But it's hard to believe in coincidence with that damned raven still sitting up there on the roof, perched on the cross that was meant to ward him off.

There will be no crops this year, and that means that Lucas is going to have to feed himself some other way. It's ten miles into town, and as the bird mentioned this morning: The devil finds work for idle hands.

[od]

Staring out at the blistering sun Lucas decides it's time to head into town. Heading to the barn he dumps the last water from the rain barrel into the oxen's trough as he begins loading up the wagon with just about everything. He thinks he'll be back but he's left too many farms behind and seen too many disappear to believe such an assumption.

Once everything is hitched up he starts heading towards town, laughing as the raven alights on the wagon to recite it's endless prophecy of doom.

[Bitom]

This time, the bird says nothing extensive. It has come to the annoying habit of quoting bible passages of late, although there is no obvious way that he could have learned them. It croaks out "Lead us not into temptation" and then is silent as the cart plods on down the long, dusty track.

Hours later, the cart pulls into a ghost town. A week ago when Lucas came to shop, the town was bustling and active, even in the summer heat. Everything still seems to be in good repair, but there is nobody out, and no music or voices coming from the saloon.

The bird has nothing to say about that.

[od]

Lucas pulls up outside the general store and glances around. Looking around the town from his perch atop the wagon Lucas releases the holy energy stored up inside his soul and attempts to feel what evil may have caused the town to be abandoned.

DM

Casting detect evil

[Bitom]

Lucas looks around with the sight that God has granted him, and realizes immediatly that there is an evil nearby. Further examination determines that the source of this evil is none other than the raven perched beside him. There is nothing else of note about the town.

As he is doing this, the wind dies down and he can hear a scraping sound of metal on rock coming from behind the general store.

[od]

Hitching the oxen to the post usually reserved for horses Lucas draws his pistol and slowly climbs down from the wagon. Despite being a large man with not near enough experience at sneaking for an escaped slave Lucas attempts to head around back of the general store as quietly as possible.

[Bitom]

Creeping around the back, Lucas finds one of the town men, Jason, shoveling dirt from a large pile into a large hole. Coming closer, he can see that the hole is a mass grave with what appears to be the rest of the town's residents in it. An exact count is impossible, as Jason has obviously been filling the hole for some time.

[od]

Lucas stares at the scene for a moment and then shouts to Jason, "Jason, what happened here?" As he calls he lowers his gun, ready to bring it bear if need be, but trying not to be threatening.

[Bitom]

Jason turns with a start, then sighs. He looks like he's been waiting for someone to ask this question. "Stranger come to town. He come in and sat down, seemed a nice enough fella' We played him in a game a' cards... an' he won a little more than he oughta' He got called a cheat, and he stood up an' shot everyone in the tavern dead, then lined 'em all up like he was gon' measure em for caskets. Popped a black shiny rock in all their mouths and said somethin funny, then they all stood up again. I thought to be glad for a minute, but they weren't alive, still. He gave them all guns and sent them out. They killed the whole town, down to the last kid. You want to do your shoppin, you just take what you want... ain't nobody gonna need it." He turns and goes back to burying the hundred some-odd people of the town of blackstone.

[od]

"So tell me, how is it you're alive." The Lucas asks the man, trying hard to believe the story. Then again he's heard worse and seen nearly as bad a few times.