On an overcast and foggy day, the Lumberjacks head south following the Rio Grande River. At no point is the river shallow enough to cross easily, and no ferry is large enough to carry the Behemoth across. There is, however, a ford where the riverbed is shallow enough that the Behemoth could cross there with passengers or horses riding on its top. The party reaches this ford by mid-day.

They cross paths with a band of Cactus People who are crossing from the Mexican to the Pecos side. The friendly family of deebees are floating their covered wagons across the river. They report that life on the Mexican side is getting too hard for them. Being nomads, they are accustomed to wandering the outskirts of the Vampire Kingdoms and being more or less ignored as they are too aliens to be converted and too weak to be considered a threat. Recently, however, the vampires have become more frequent in the wilderness and more aggressive, bullying the nomads or stealing from them. Also, the weather has grown too unpredictable and dangerous recently. This large family has decided to try its luck in Pecos instead.

Polkitain is a bit fascinated by the cactus people and asks them all kinds of questions about what they do, what Mexico is like and are their people friendly with dragons. If they have horses that are spooked he will try to keep away from them.

He would ask what the vampires look like and do they know how to fight them.

Doc is a little put off by the fact the family just gave up. But the life he and his brother chose wasn't for everyone. "Best of luck to y'all!" he says with a tip of his hat. "Weather... reckon it's the vamps controllin' it? Can they do that?"

 Arulas chuckles at the by play between Polk and the Fennodi. When Doc asks about Vamps he merelyrics shrugs and says "Maybe let me think on it. That would be more than a little scary though. Vampires controlling the weather. Clouds with no rain not good."

Made my Monster Lore roll with a 49. Failed my Magic Lore with a 98.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:23, Sun 12 Mar 2017.

Kalista agreed, "Yes a very ominous beginning to our quest."

According to the lore, some rare and powerful vampires like Master Vampires have been known to create weather in small ways like summoning fog. It's nothing that anyone would call dangerous weather. Vampires do occasionally, however, ally with other powerful evil creatures that have various powers. Dangerous weather could be done by such an ally, like an evil Elemental Fusionist maybe, or else it could be unrelated to the vampires.

The Catci return Doc's greeting with overly-friendly waves. Their carts are pulled by some sort of deebee animal species similar to oxen. The animals are reacting skittish because of Polkatain, but they are panicking the way Earth animals tend to do. They answers Polkatain that they live as scavengers, fishermen, and gardeners until they find a place safe enough to settle and establish a permanent farm. Mexico is beautiful but very warm. The humans who live there tend to huddle together in small walled villages where they are not friendly to strangers. There are friendly creatures around, like a psi-pony they know, but these are few and tend to wander around also. Most vampires look like humans -- maybe humans with longer teeth -- but all humans sort of look alike to these guys. The vampires are shape changers who can sometimes become wolves or bats or even small clouds of smoke. These peace-loving deebees do not attempt to fight the vampires, so they wouldn't know how.

Whilst the others treat with the Cacti caravan, Nyx ranged ahead and around the Behemoth. He was uninterested in the tales of farmers, though he wasn't any more unfriendly than usual. They simply reminded him too much of the gardens of home and the endless chanting and tree-worshipping in the tales of his extended family. He had embraced the West for all it offered, an excuse to escape as much as a path he chose to walk

When they had put some distance between them, he edged his robotic horse closer to the cyber-knights until he was close enough for conversation

"You noted the clouds were ... omnious, knight?" he began, "I had not thought to see superstition? We will have peril enough in the coming days. Hunting such a hunter. Does the weather seem such a portent?"

 "Ominous. I guess so. We are clearly dealing with more than just vampires now. What I don't know, but something. For all I know it could be our missing Shifter friend. Point is something is controlling the weather to some degree." he shakes his head. "We don'the know if the two are connected yet. So let us not get ahead of ourselves. But no I don't like it."

Calista shook her head, "Not in the way you mean, Nyx. Vampire controlling weather  take a possible weapon out of our hands."

"Oh, I can understand that", stated Nyx with a rueful shake of his head, "But I had not made the leap from bad weather to maliciously controlled weather. Sometimes it simply rains"

We should have gotten a bunch of water balloons then I could fly around dropping them on Vampires. If they can make fog like you said does that mean we are dealing with more powerful vampires ?"

A little more quietly and almost embarrassed, "Can they control people like the tree did ?"

Ethan is riding inside the Behemoth since unlike the others, he still does not possess any sort of riding animal or other means of mechanical transportation. In truth he had no desire for a riding animal, mostly because he had no idea of how to ride one, much less take proper care of it. Veterinary science had not been part of his medical training.

When the lumbering science facility on legs found a spot to cross the river and in so doing, found the caravan of Cactus People, Ethan became curious. He had heard some off hand comments about D-Bees that resembled humanoid cactus but he had never heard them describe in detail. Now that he had the chance to interact with a family group, he took as much advantage of it as he could. Unlike veterinary science, xenology was an interest of his.

If time and the Cactus People allow, Ethan speaks with them and should any of them be suffering from any injuries or illnesses, no matter how small, he will offer to treat them. He will not charge anything more substantial than casual conversation with them.

FYI Kalista wears a wedding band under her armor, I am sure you all saw it at some point before she donned the armor.

Kalista smiled at her husband's thoughtfulness and generosity. Where she had seen potential enemies, he saw only people in need. She is truck again by the level and depth of her feelings for him. She trotted her horse over, "I can help, I am trained in emergency medicine."

On Ethan's hand was a matching wedding ring to the one on Kalista's though currently it was concealed underneath his field gloves. He looked up at the sound of the horse approaching. He smiled at his wife and waved at her. "I don't think we have any emergencies on our hands but I'll never turn down the assistance of such a lovely nurse," he says cheerfully.

Kalista gave her husband a good natured eye roll. She hopped down off her horse and asked it for sentry mode. She made her way over to Ethan, "What can I do to help?" She is serious, not playful, and expects the same from him.

Polkitain would play with the Cactus people children if allowed and give them rides on him.

  "Huh that is odd." is all he says about the rings. "It could mean we have less of a weapon or it could mean we are at a bit of a disadvantage." He activates his Comm gear and says ++"Tell me that thing has ultraviolet lights. Just as a precaution."++

Ethan heard the serious tone in Kalista's voice and noted it however his smile remained in place. It was part of his 'bed-side manner' that he had developed over the years. Still, he answered her question seriously though his baritone remained relaxed as there was no danger or emergency in sight. "Nothing much at the moment. They," he waves his right hand at the Cactus People, "seem to be in good health. I was about to ask if they had any medical knowledge of their own kind they could share with me."

Kalista would of course note the hand-held mini-computer in Ethan's left hand. Clearly he is prepared to take notes on anything he might learn.

Whew, I had to set up another computer to get here.

The Cactus Family is reluctant to allow Ethan to examine them. Soon enough, the friendliness of the Lumberjacks wins them over, and they confess that they do have medical issues. One of the mothers has a broken bone in her arm which is a couple of weeks old and has been healing but not healing well. Injuries are limited to a few bruises, but the entire family has become infected with ringworms, a parasite unknown to them until they immigrated to Earth generations ago. Their oxen-like creatures have a few wounds were they have been nicked by wild animals like coyotes -- or possibly worse. It turns out that these deebees are not plants like they appear but animal-like lifeforms with the appearance of plants. If Ethan expresses this discovery, the family will become very alarmed. The vampires had been mostly ignoring them for years because everyone was assuming that they were not the preferred prey, but if the vampires learned what they are, their kind could be actively hunted.

14:29, Today: Kalista rolled 69 using 1d100. of 85% paramedic.

Kalista lent what assistance she was able to her husband.

Polkitain comes back with the children, "This is fun, wish we could do things like this more often."

Ethan examines each of the Cactus People that come to him with their ailments in a professional and diligent but personable manner. He attends the female with the broken arm first as that type of injury is something that specifically covered in his trauma treatment training from the military. He compares how her arm is aligned against those without a broken arm to give him a guide. Then after receiving her permission, he touches the broken area gently and sends a small fraction of the power he had developed since being rifted onto this Earth into her arm. All the while he talks to her calmly, asking her questions about her children and other subjects which should be both pleasant and distracting. The results of his touch are immediate. Any fractures instantly knit themselves back together and any of the surrounding muscle and tissue are likewise healed without scarring.

Next he tends to any of them possessing severe bruising before moving on their beasts of burden. Once that is accomplished, he turns his attention to the ring worms afflicting them. First he collects a sample and using his medical scanner and hand-held computer, verifies that they are in fact Dermatophytosis. After the computer confirms what his eyes had told him, he brings out the standard cure; a small tube of Terbinafine. He applies an infinitesimal amount to an uninfected spot on one of the Cactus People and waits for a reaction. If there is none, he proceeds to apply it to an obviously infected area, describing what the medicine is and more importantly, how to apply, for how long and many times a day. Ethan wore his gloves throughout the treatment process but made sure to wash his hands with each new patient.