From The Jackals To The Shepherds 07: Four of Hearts

The Woods: The Map: Dave – Taylor Help The Show On Patreon Riverhouse Games Website Twitter Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe via RSS! Riverhouse Games Thanks You! Thank you for listening to this Riverhouse podcast. You can find more podcasts at RiverhouseGames.com as well as games and resources about queer & LGBT+ tabletop gaming. Thank you to … Continue reading From The Jackals To The Shepherds 07: Four of Hearts

The Woods:

The Map:

Dave – Taylor

Help The Show On Patreon

Riverhouse Games Website

Twitter

Subscribe on iTunes

Subscribe via RSS!

Thank you for listening to this Riverhouse podcast. You can find more podcasts at RiverhouseGames.com as well as games and resources about queer & LGBT+ tabletop gaming. Thank you to the people backing the Riverhouse Games Patreon:

Nyssa MacKinnon, Jalyn Euteneier, Rohit Sodhia & GamersPlane.com, Alec Walker, VJ Brown, Paul Bennett, Amanda Coyle, Rob Abrazado, Tobie Abad, Patrick ‘The Tyrant of Boredom’ West, and Emmeline Duplois, THANK YOU! If you want to see your name in upcoming Riverhouse games or podcasts, you can set a small monthly subscription at Patreon.com/RiverhouseGames

Battlebards Tracks used:

Elven Dirge – Farewell – Score Music – Philippe Payet

Heavenly Plane – Caelum – Score Music – Maria Milewska

Transcription:

For a long time, we were at war with The Jackals. But now, we’ve driven them off, and we have this – a year of relative peace. In this moment, there is an opportunity to build something.

A week has passed.

As we prepare the generator for activation, we gather the machines we have brought with us from the city. The generator looks like it can power many of them, but we know that it will be wishful thinking to believe it has the capacity to power all of our needs. Therefore, lining up our rescued machinery, we sit and think about what devices are needed, and what devices are only wanted.

Gerrard who has passed had brought with him his electric tiller, a machine designed to prepare ground for gardening. With a single tear running from her eye, Eileen carries the machine from her shack to the center of the town. Out of both respect for the dead gardener as well as acknowledgement that this device would be useful for helping to grow the season’s crops, we wordlessly place the machine into the need pile.

Young Mx Llyana, with the assistance of a few helping hands, drags a large sled to the center of the town. The sled holds an electronic well digger, a significant machine capable of boring into the earth. Xe urges caution of the river, citing the danger of the woods on the other side. If the town decided, they could power the well digger to put a source of water much closer to their new homes, and only venture to the river on rare occasions. Xer arguments, however, are not unanimously agreed. Some of us point out that the river offers more than just water.

An old man hobbles to the front of the community. His name is Miles Leverage, or Old Miley to the youths. His worn overalls hang to his bones wetly, and a fishing rod, smooth with age, sprouts up from where he has it tucked into his belt.

“Hm, now see if we move the drinking water closer to the town now that’ll just make it more lonely when I go down to grab fish out of that river. It’s already lonely enough spendin my days down there but every once in a while a friendly face is appreciated, but if fishin’s the only thing of use down there there’ll be no one to keep me company as I’m swallowed up by the beast next time it decides to show it’s head.”

Llyana rolls xer eyes at Old Miley’s protests, but does not argue as xe drags the well digger to the want pile.

Perimeter lights find their way to the need pile as setting watch for the beast is much more efficient when the watchers can see in the night. A beaten jukebox is placed in the want pile and we commit ourselves to be more musical in our day to day lives to make up for it. A small icebox is kept in the need pile as it could offer use storing food if we ever have a surplus.

As the spring rain falls, we activate the generator. It sputters to life, sending a cloud of smoke into the sky. One by one we connect our machines to it and they hum to life. The community cheers in celebration.

With the power of the generator flowing through it, the electric tiller promises a great boon to the community. The efforts of Eileen and the others gathering food from the woods are not unappreciated, but the community is larger than their collections and more often than not the food collection in the center of the town offers paltry options.

With the help of Llyana, Eileen sets about scoping land for a small farm. Perhaps with crops growing through the days which grow ever warmer, we’ll be able to harvest and bring a bounty of food to the community. This project will take a while, estimates place it at four weeks to set aside an area, till the earth, and prepare the soil for planting. As they get to work, the new electric lights shine out into the darkness.

A week passes.

Thank you for joining us for the seventh episode of From The Jackals To The Shepherds. If you like this show please give us a rating on iTunes, tell a friend, or share us on social media. As always the intro for the show was read by Dave Lapru, who is also our mapkeeper. You can find Dave on twitter at plantbird, and I’m at leviathan files. Please consider supporting the show on Patreon at patreon dot com slash Riverhouse Games. Music for this episode was provided by Battlebards dot com. Until next week, I hope your week goes well.