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Region B: Middle East Encounters
Location Discovery[ | ]
| Encounter Text | Location Unlocked |
|---|---|
| You spot the unmistakable silhouette of an old mission on the horizon. | Old Mission |
| You spot the crumbling remains of an old dairy ranch on the horizon. | Butterfield Ranch |
| You recognize the familiar shape of a mineshaft entrance off in the distance. | Kole Ridge Mine |
| You spot an astonishingly large horse apple in the distance. You are literally astonished by the size of it. It is very large. | The Big Apple |
| You notice a campsite off in the distance that appears to have been very comprehensively trampled to ruin. | Destroyed Campsite |
| You spot a plume of smoke on the horizon. | |
| You see a sign that says "Snake Spring: Over Yonder" | Snake Spring |
| You find a flyer for a dynamite store up North. It's charred around the edges, like it got blown here by an explosion.
You mark the address on down on your map |
Dynamite Dan's Discount Dynamite Darehouse |
Non-Combat Events[ | ]
| Type | Encounter | Conditions | Options |
|---|---|---|---|
 ∗ |
Off to the side of the trail, you notice one of those weird cacti shaped like coffee cups. | Repeatable |
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∗ |
Off to the side of the trail, you spot a beer-barrel cactus. You're not sure why they call them that, since they're shaped like mugs, not barrels. | Repeatable |
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∗ |
Off to the side of the trail, you spot one of those weird cacti that produce sealed cans of tuna fish as fruit.
What a world. |
Repeatable |
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 ∗ |
You find a safe on the side of the trail. Ironic, you think to yourself, that it's in such an unsafe location. | Repeatable |
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∗ |
Someone's left a bundle of dynamite on the ground. You approach it cautiously, verifying that it's neither wired to a detonator nor connected to an actively sparking fuse.
What an odd and dangerous thing for someone to leave lying around. |
Repeatable |
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You find an abandoned crate, which has "MINE STUFF" stenciled on the side. Which is the worst grammar you've ever seen, even in a time and place notable for its poor grammar. | Repeatable |
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∗ |
You pass an abandoned campsite, and an old crate catches your eye. On closer inspection, you find it's nailed shut. Maybe the campers used it to sit on, and then forgot to take it with them? Their loss is your gain, if you have a crowbar to pry it open with. | Repeatable |
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∗ |
You spy a burned-out ranch house on the horizon, and pull <horsename> up to it to investigate.
There's nothing much of interest above ground, but you find a locked door leading down into a presumably still-intact root cellar. |
Repeatable |
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∗ |
There's an open grave here, and it doesn't have a skeleton inside. I wonder what they're asking for rent. | Repeatable |
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 ∗ |
Your El Vibrato transponder starts insisting that you head into a labyrinthing network of box canyons. | Repeatable [El Vibrato transponder] |
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∗ |
Off to one side of the trail, you spot a tree branch that's the perfect height for some giddy-ups, which is what pull-ups are called around here. | Repeatable |
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∗ |
You encounter some homesteaders who seem to have run their wagon off the road. Either that or they found a wagon in the ditch and are pretending to be sad about it. | Repeatable |
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∗ |
Off the side of the trail, you see an old man struggling to get a rope untied from a fencepost. | Repeatable |
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∗ |
Off the trail's shoulder, you see some ancient petroglyphs carved into a rock. | Repeatable |
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∗ |
Some distance off the trail, you see a water tower that appears to have sprung a small leak. | Repeatable |
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∗ |
Off the side of the trail you notice one of those furry cactuses. It has definitely seen better days. Its prongs are limp and its hairy coating is disheveled. | Repeatable |
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Combat Events[ | ]
| Type | Encounter | Conditions | Non-Combat Options | Combat Option | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Investigating the smoke of a nearby campfire, you find a bandit snoozing cozily beneath a large and colorful quilt. Which seems like a strange choice for camping gear, right? And then he wakes up and jumps to his feet, revealing that the large and colorful quilt is actually a large and colorfully quilted pair of pants. | One-time |
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You encounter a bandit who doesn't look very bandit-like, due to the lab coat and sliderule-holster. Fortunately, she's also wearing the standard black bandit hat, otherwise you might not have been able to tell. | One-time |
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A nearby cloud of dust turns out to be a bandit on a horse, riding hell-for-leather for unknown reasons. Well -- I know them, but you don't.
You pull your horse up alongside hers, and match her speed. |
One-time |
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There's, uh... a skull? Just sort of rolling down the road toward you? Like directly toward you, and when you step to one side it swerves to match? | Repeatable |
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 ∗ ! |
A wave of heat hits you from behind. You turn around to see a hellcalf, pawing the ground and eyeing you with ill intent in its dead, black, demonic eyes. | Repeatable |
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∗ ! |
You round a corner in a box canyon and find yourself face to face with a pyrobove. You're... boxed in. | Repeatable |
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Some "thwock, thwock" noises lead you to the site (and the sight) of a goblin chopping down a large cactus. When it sees you, it waves his axe at you threateningly and makes some angry-sounding noises. | One-time |
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A nearby hissing sound alerts you to the presence of a snake -- or at least, something that sounds like a snake, which turns out to be a goblin cooking flapjacks on a flat and baking-hot rock. The grayish batter sizzles as the goblin pours out some more, and then they look up and give you a surprised look. | One-time |
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The sound of gunfire draws your attention -- cautiously -- to where you find a goblin shooting a large pistol at some boulders. With the sound of gunfire and pinging ricochets filling the area, the goblin doesn't hear you approach. | One-time |
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 ∗ |
Well, here's an unusual sight -- an old boat out in the middle of the desert. If this were a beach, you could call it 'beached', but you can't call it 'deserted', because there's someone in it. | One-time |
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∗ |
Something at the side of the road catches your attention -- it's a slumped-over old skeleton, wearing a wizard hat. I think you'll agree that's reasonable attention-getting.
The skeleton lifts his/her skull and peers at you. He/She holds up a rusty old can of beans, and scrapes his/her thumb-bone across his/her first two finger-bones in the universal gesture for financial transaction. |
One-time |
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∗ |
You hear a dry cough behind you, and turn to see a skeleton dressed in a moldering old tuxedo and silk top hat shuffling toward you, gesturing angrily with his/her walking stick. The funeral lily pinned to his/her lapel is gilded, as are all of his/her teeth -- guess he/she was trying to take it with him/her. | One-time |
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Before you can react to the sudden howling, a ghost train surges over a hill and roars past, just missing you. Three skeleton train robbers arrive just behind it, and barely avoid colliding with you by pulling back hard on their reins.
The train vanishes in the distance, and the robbers seem really annoyed by your interference. |
Repeatable |
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 ∗ |
You hear a rattling noise behind you, another rattling noise off to your left, and a third rattling noise from somewhere ahead.
You conclude that you've either stumbled into a nest of babies or a nest of rattlers. A quick glance confirms that it's the latter. Not unexpectedly, really. This is no place for babies. |
Repeatable |
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∗ |
Your transponder gizmo bleeps, and you follow the bleeps to one of those weird El Vibrato machines, tromping around in the desert. Fortunately, it either hasn't noticed you or doesn't care. | Repeatable [El Vibrato transponder] |
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