Thursday, July 14, 2011

Players: Marc, Natalie, Bridget, Reagan

The place: Tumbleweed, Texas. 1880. The franchise: Kissin' Kates, an all-female band of outlaws (except for Billy, age 7, and Kip, a wiener dog) trying to make it in the harsh world of guns and gangs. The characters:

Matilda McElroy (Reagan): Part gunsmith, part Amazonian warrior, and all action, 25-year-old Matilda filled the role of the group's weapon supplier. Her mysterious past may have included dark days in Mexico... but we're not entirely sure on that one.
Alice the Malice (Natalie): She shoots first and asks questions later. As the group's ass-kicker and horse wrangler, 28-year-old Alice wasn't afraid to put a bullet into anything nearby, be it an enemy, friend, or cornstalk. While not the brightest of the trio, her bold plans nonetheless often netted the team a valuable clue or insight.
Marm Githa (Bridget): Forty-eight but still kickin', Marm put her people skills to use as the group's primary negotiator and tactician. Her penchant for smokin' and eatin' baked beans was well-known, as was her taste in stage performances.

With three new Inspectres players following in the stumbling footsteps of yours truly, we embarked on adventure!

The Mystery of the Haunted Hotel, or Hickory's Liquory Crop

The gang met with a young woman named Sharon, who told them of a mysterious light in an abandoned hotel on her and her husband Hickory's farm. She paid them in gold coin to go investigate. So out they went, with Sharon in the lead. But mysterious signs and colors began occurring as they drew near, leading them to seek shelter in the very hotel they were meant to investigate. They found a clean, furnished kitchen lit with mysterious light, which was odd since the rest of the hotel appeared abandoned. While there, the trio decided to take a swig from a bottle marked "XXX". Not the best plan, since it turned out to be some kind of kerosene-esque liquid. Alice stumbled into a bathroom... and found an odd man there, working at a still and ringing a bell for no reason. He refused to answer their questions and left.

Next they mounted the stairs, but soon discovered why one should not ignore an ominous creaking at the first step. After picking themselves up off the basement floor, they began rooting through some barrels that contained a number of oddly huge onions and other vegetables. Further investigation uncovered a huge kitchen with many pots on fires. A man here first welcomed the girls as new members of the team, but then became suspicious. They overpowered him and stuck him in an empty kettle on the floor. After a bit more searching, they were confronted by Hickory, the man from upstairs (named Jute), and the man from the kitchen. Answers were demanded. None were given. Then Sharon, the alleged wife of Hickory (he denied any knowledge of any woman named Sharon, nor any farmhouse in the area) snuck in and stole Hickory away, to places unknown. This apparently didn't phase the Kates. They solved the mystery, sort of, when they discovered that the men were making a snake oil concoction that caused vegetables to triple in size... and ghosts. It caused ghosts. The three left, their only payment now no longer coins, but giant onions. And Matilda, who'd been drenched in the growth liquid, grew somewhat larger overnight.

The Mystery of the Missing Townsfolk, or First Place for Lizard Tails

The group's second mystery came in the form of an offer from the Sheriff: if the Kates could find the missing persons from town--among them Mayor Anthony and Madame Brixby of the locale brothel--and bring them home alive, the Sheriff would pardon them for their crimes against the town. The gals accepted and rode in to investigate. Some interrogation with the girls at the saloon led to their first revelation: around the same time the people disappeared, men with functional lizard tails began coming in to the bar for service. Alice decided to take matters into her own hands and rode off, while Matilda and Marm spoke to a General Store owner and the City Clerk. Alice, meanwhile, decided to play decoy: she dressed up in a corset and skirts, parked herself in the middle of the desert (where the lizard tail men were last seen) and waited. Oddly enough, a lizard tail man approached and offered to take her back to town. She took a sip from his canteen and passed out, to awaken later in an camp with many other sleeping prisoners nearby.

But this mystery remained unsolved, as our game ended for the night at this point!

Thanks to everyone for a good game. Inspectres has something of a learning curve and is a more difficult game for new players than others might be, but I had fun and I hope you did too!

Favorite moment:

"So let me get this straight: you blew open a locked door, to find a man just standing in there, ringing the shit out of a bell, for no reason whatsoever?"