Desert Rail Quest
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In front of you is an iron train car, roofed with light wood. Unfortunately, it's not doing what it should be doing - going from A to B. That's why you're here - to find the problem, solve it and hopefully get this car running again. Glancing around, the flat expanse of sun-bleached yellow-white sand which stretches out to the horizon reminds you eloquently that this is going to have to be a solo job. The car looks to have slipped off a rail of the long train-track which flows across this land, diverging and reforming like a great iron river. You'd spotted it from the top of the tall radio tower which forms your base of operation - it was sitting still on the track with not a person in sight. Flicking on the transmitter, you'd requested that it make a radio check-in, but none had come. So you'd walked out here yourself, all alone - a work party of one. But not unaided - at your belt hang a set of tools, some medicine, a flask of water and two specialised weapons: a shortsword and a rifle, fully loaded.
This is probably just a routine job, but it could be a trap, a ploy by bandits to lure you in.
[Reasonable write-ins are always welcome.]
>Get straight to work. That car needs to be put back on rails and moving again ASAP. No time for bullshit.
>A little time spent of caution could easily save your life. There could be anything in or around that car - don't rush in like an idiot.
>>356932
>A little time spent of caution could easily save your life. There could be anything in or around that car - don't rush in like an idiot.
>>356932
>>357046
Best have a look around before brushing your feet on the welcome mat, you figure.
You take a closer look at the car. It bears the name, in orange letters: Gussilli's Workshop, Limonetto. Labelling a carriage with a company name is both wise and risky on the desert railway: it helps to establish legal ownership of cargo, but it also alerts bandits to a car's contents. And you're pretty sure there's some corrupt rail overseers who'd steal enough stuff from ' Gusilli's Workshop ' to fill a whole gallery, if they could. But who's here to attend?
You study the sand carefully for any unusual bumps in the sand which might be hiding a caltrop or a mine, but you don't find anything. This place looks to be safer than a childrens' playground.
That's when you hear a groan from inside the train car. Some bastard's in there! Doesn't sound like he's having fun, though.
>Fire your gun into the air and shout "Show yourself, you yellow-bellied sandmite! Come out here with your hands up!"
>Try to sneak closer quietly.
>"Is someone in there? Are you hurt?"
>>357204
>Try to sneak closer quietly.
>>357212
A guy can't shoot you 'till he knows you're there. Usually. You don't see being a slice of emmental in your future. Luckily, sand is a pretty good sneaking material, and you manage to quietly walk all the way up to the door of the carriage without so much as a trampled sandrat to give the game away. No windows on this train car, of course - can't have bandits shooting through the glass. There's nothing for it but to poke your head 'round the door and have a look at who and what's inside.
>Look inside. This'll mean revealing yourself.
>Announce your presence. You don't want to spook them - a spooked person is a shooty person.
>Shoot a few bullets into the car and wait for the blood to reach your feet. The ground can always use a watering.
>>357251
>Announce your presence. You don't want to spook them - a spooked person is a shooty person.
>>357251
>>357255
"Hello!" you shout. "Two things. One: I'm a train overseer. I noticed your car wasn't moving and came to investigate. Two: If you try any funny stuff, I have enough bullets here to fill you with more holes than a merman's fishing boat. But let's not let the heat get to our heads."
The sound of dry retching comes out of the car. You didn't think your speech was that bad. Time to have a look at what you're dealing with. Inside the car is a man curled into a ball, a pile of vomit around him; he looks pale as the midnight sand and he's shaking all over. And he's aiming a rifle at you. Great.
"You look like a lizard that's swallowed a cactus. What's wrong with you?"
The man swallows. "Scorpion. Fucker stung me, maybe ten minutes ago." He half-pushes, half-rolls himself into a sitting position and drops the rifle.
"What sort of scorpion? Tell me, quick!"
"A little yellow one. No bigger than half my finger, it had little tiny claws."
Good job you were given some supplies before your posting, in case of just this sort of arthropodean attack. You sterilise a syringe in a small bottle of surgical alcohol, fill it with the contents of a bottle labelled "scorpion: yellow, small" and inject it into him. Then you give him half your flask of water and hope.
An hour later and he isn't dead. You call that a good result. He's still not looking well, though.
>Ask him about himself
>Ask him about the car's cargo
>Get back to work getting the car back on the line.
>>357341
>Ask him about himself
>Ask him about the car's cargoSorry for voting late. Went to eat.
>>357341
>>Ask him about himself
and why the heck the train car is off the rails.
>>357341
>Ask him about himself
>Ask him about the car's cargo
AND
>Ask him what happened to the train
>>357341
>Ask him about himself
Thanks for the interest. I don't think I'm going to really start this quest and I probably should have mentioned that.
