The Oak Hill Boys – Jack, Royce, Ezra, Louis and Shady – head over to the Winslow jail to visit with Buck Thompson. Their goal is to get Buck’s ivory handled Colt peacemaker, upon which is etched the other half of the clues they need to find $25,000. (The boys already have the other half of the clues, which were etched on a matching pistol).
After talking their way past Deputy Jacob Munz and Sheriff Gus Caruthers, they talk with Buck.
Buck was in the pokey for his part in a failed attempt to rob the Winslow Savings & Loan a few days ago. The boys confirm this, as well as the idea that Buck robbed the same bank 25 years ago. He tried again recently because he was in desperate need of funds and couldn’t find his friend Cole Wright. Buck needed money for his farm near Privilegio, which has seen better days. Buck bought the homestead from Bill Cooley, but has fallen behind in his payments. He’s now deeply in debt and doesn’t want to lose the farm. The prisoner no longer has his gun. Sheriff Caruthers took it.
Jack then learns Caruthers sold the weapon to a colorful man in town named Count Bartasz. The Count is from Germany and on an extended vacation, taking in parts of the American Wild West. The wealthy man is something of a tourist. But if the Boys want to talk with the Count, they should hurry. He’s leaving on the next train out of town.
The Boys quickly leave and just catch the train. They make their way back to the private rail car and have a “conversation” at gunpoint with the Count. Seems as though the Count is very surprised, a bit foppish, and ultimately quite taken by the Boys, seeing them as genuine American cowboys.
Bartasz and his entourage seem quite harmless and the Yankee Westerners learn the gun is in the storage boxcar. Leaving the Count, they head back through the train. And as they enter the boxcar, see four men rummaging around. The Oak Hill gang isn’t the only crew looking for the gun. During the ensuing gunfight, two men race off with the silver Colt, moving through the door at the other end of the boxcar. Jack and Royce eventually kill one of the men after facing off with him on the train’s roof, leaping from car to car as the landscape whizzes by them. The last man is found by Ezra and Louis in the stable car, hiding away in the Count’s carriage. The second pistol is now theirs! They now have the complete “map” on how to find the money.
Turns out the $25,000 is not so easily found. The Oak Hill Boys follow a series of clues that lead them digging up graves and finding what seems to be a key that then needs to be inserted into a rock formation called “The Finger of God” on the outskirts of the Tusacana Mountains.
The key points out a well hidden entrance to a cave – and another series of tests for the men. They make their way through quicksand, a strange turning room and collapsing pillar platforms…only to come into a large cavern to battle a large, fire-breathing lizard. Many shots, fire breaths and curse words later, the lizard is defeated. And finally, the saddlebags containing the money are located.
As the Oak Hill Boys leave the caverns, they’re surprised to see a large posse of hardened men, taking cover in the rocks and hills below them. They’re all wearing black bandanas. It’s Wes Ribbon’s men, being lead by Wes himself. See, he ended up surviving being shot by Buck Thompson and Cole Wright 25 years ago after they all robbed the Winslow Savings & Loan. And Wes aimed – literally – to get his money back.
A prolonged and fierce gun battle took place.
But once the smoke cleared, the Oak Hill Boys ended up with the money. Wes ended up dead. And now, all Jack and Company needed do was follow the last wish of a dying man – get Cole Wright’s half of the money to his wife, Lydia, in Clearwater…
Note
The Ivory Trail is actually a module. Written by grindoctor. Thanks for the great adventure! Players loved it.
Dry Gulch Bugle 