On:
In: Deadlands, Fallen Flags

There comes a time in one’s life where you need to look at the decisions that you’ve made, and decide that enough is enough. That just because you’ve spent a great deal of time and effort pursuing something, that alone does not mean that you should continue without purpose, or with misguided purpose. There is a great bravery, I believe, to certain forms of failure, to certain forms of concession, those that cause you to grow in the process, and lead to further success. If one spends their entire life, shortens it even, in the name of a single, unenviable and wrong-headed ethic, then they have written their own epitaph long before their time has come. The drive to persist, to continue, is written deep into the fabric of the human ethos, but doomed is the starving man that walks unstoppably and inexorably toward the center of the desert. That is why, Dear Diary, I believe our time is at an end. You have chronicled my failings dutifully, and it is time for me to find the truth in them, rather than persist foolishly. May that gun one day melt in the fires of Hell.

-Recovered from a dust-stained page in the diary of an unnamed debt collector, written late August, 1877

Continue Reading

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

On:
In: Deadlands, Fallen Flags

There comes a time in every notable life when one must choose to use their strengths to pursue either wealth or their convictions. With luck, one might find the former while chasing the latter, but the latter almost always dissipates in the search for the former. And so it is with my work; Do I build to change war, change peace, change work, change leisure, and in doing so, become a titan of industry? Or do I do what I can to seek answers to the most fundamental questions at the heart of mankind, those that one asks shivering in the darkness when the light of day has absconded with life’s distractions? Is there a God? If there is, He is much crueler than we could have ever imagined. Is there life after death? Assuredly so, as the survivors of the risen Gettysburg Cemetery can attest. Can one return unscathed to the ones they left far, far too soon? I’m damn well going to find out. The secrets of our fragile, unraveling reality are buried deeper than we have ever thought to dig. But just as our species used its intellect to cease the fumbling of our fingernails against the unyielding earth, so too shall we use the fruits of this New Science to uncover the bounty below. And anyone who tries to stop me shall become track for my wheels, and fuel for my fire. My love, you departed believing that my work pulled me from you. It will be the final thing to reunite us. This I swear.

-Document recovered at great difficulty from the home of Darius Hellstromme, mid-August, 1877

Continue Reading

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

On:
In: Deadlands, Fallen Flags
Agency Internal Dossier TOP SECRET – US EYES ONLY Verification Code 2-15-19-19-B Subject: Dr. Darius Hellstromme, Multiple Degrees, Multiple Universities Author: “Tom Bondsley”, Field Agent

Alright, here’s where the (alleged) spy work gets tricky. There’s any number of fictionalized accounts of Hellstromme’s life and upbringing, ranging from him being some kind of heaven-sent angel of technology and war to him secretly being one of his own automatons, looking to fill the world with beings like him. To be frank, I don’t think he needs to be an automaton to do that, his college is doing perfectly fine at it by their own mundane means. Anyway, as near as I can tell, here’s the procedure of events. He was born to a poor London family in the 1820s, and was recommended to the military engineers by his factory-owning uncle. From there, he went off to India, and… something happened that changed his outlook on the use of technology. I’ve lost three men so far trying to figure out what. I think one of them is oiling a set of gears somewhere now. Either way, he came out to these parts, chasing the smell of ghost rock. And I get the feeling that between The West and him, one is going to end up killing the other before the rock runs dry.
Continue Reading

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

On:
In: Gobblin

Things were nice and peaceful in the goblins’ village. They lived on the remains of a human summer camp, enjoying their moldy leftovers and abandoned cabins. Their simple lives are disrupted when a tiny robot throws a poster on their wall offering fabulous prizes for those who can brave “Gameshow Planet,” the crumbling old tv studio that used to hold all sorts of ridiculous human contests. Three of their boldest goblins take it upon themselves to prove that they have what it takes to earn their prizes, dodge deadly traps, scale collapsing sets, and learn the identity of the mysterious Mr. Springtime that hosts these sadistic games.

Continue Reading

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

On:
In: 10k Lakes, Red Markets

Another day in the upper ten thousand lakes, another potential dollar for the enterprising crew of Freelance, a taker group that has made a name for itself in many ways, most of them bad.  A few new takers enter the fold and a few old ones come about to help the expanding business of Meadow Lands, the residents of which are looking to get into the business of more than simple farming.

This is part of an ongoing interpodcast series.  This episode can be consumed on its own but the greater archives of RM10k Lakes can be found here.

Continue Reading

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS