FeralToaster
Legendary Pubber
- Joined
- Jan 23, 2019
- Messages
- 853
- Reaction score
- 941
Based on everyone's responses (or lack thereof), I'm assuming you've all decided to try following the bandidos.
By the time you saddle up and move along the trail to the location of the abandoned camp, a good deal of time has passed. However, since minimal, if any, effort was made to cover their tracks or hide their passage, the horsemen are not difficult to follow. The greatest difficulty is merely the rough ground you have to ride across, which means slow going as you follow southeast. After a while the trailside scrub diminishes and the land slopes downward into a narrow gully at the foothills of the Santa Rita Mountains. Looking around, you see indications that the gully would be better described as an arroyo, as it looks to have been formed by fluvial processes and has obvious sediment deposits. Fortunately no rain is expected for the nonce and the odds of a flash flood washing down the gully seem slim-to-none. As the dirt walls on either side of the wash are just slightly taller than the height of an average man on horseback, you reckon the route was selected to avoid visibility to any nearby eyes that might casually glance in this direction. A couple of carelessly discarded cigarrillo butts provide ample evidence that you're on the right track.
The arroyo is only wide enough for two horses to travel side-by-side, and due to the way it winds you cannot see too far along, nor tell how far it goes. Additionally, gauging by the position of the sun in the afternoon sky, you estimate you have about three hours before sunset makes it impossible to continue tracking the bandidos until morning light.
OOC very clever Dumarest I tip my hat to you. No, I will not let the party walk into a deathtrap for my need for action. This sort of of riverbed was a magnet for killing cattle and horses. flashflood was only flashiest kind of death (which the local weather doesn't mean that the heavy reains forty miles away aren't rushing to meet you). the loose sediment from the last flood might not yet be compacted and is a great way for cattle and horses to break a leg. The high edges of the riverbed high enough to cover a man on a horse are ripe for a landslide large enough to bury the party. And let us not forget a two by two with limited visibility is great for being counter ambushed by our quarry.
IC
Tybalt face goes pale "Though it pains me greatly to let villians roam free I can feel a trap being set and not by us". I've seen too many innocent cattle die in one of these riverbeds too let our posse enter" Tybalt turns and faces the party "The bandits live another day and so do we. now let us hurry to the J bar ranch before nightfall".