Part 25: One, Two, Three Sheriffs! Ha Ha Ha

Update 25: One, Two, Three Sheriffs! Ha Ha Ha



We ended up parking at one end of the only part of Redding that you could really call a street. You'd think that would make it a one horse town, but it had a casino, a bar, and a hospital lined up in that order along one side of the road. And on the other side, keeping an eye on them, was a building marked with a star.



We started with the casino, since I'd been getting most of my work from such places. The local mayor also running the town casino told me a lot about what kind of place we were getting into.

"Mr. Mayor, is there any work for a traveler here in Redding?"

"Well, there's the Sheriff, and then the mine owners are looking for someone to retrieve some kind of part for one of their machines."

"When you say the Sheriff, do you mean he has jobs or that you have a job you want us to do to the Sheriff?"

"'cause I'd take the second option kind of personal."

"What? No, I understand that Sheriff Earl Marion is looking for someone to fill in for him until his bum leg heals up a fetch. You might go talk to him. His office is just south of here, across the street.

"Oh. Yeah, that sounds pretty good. What's the deal with the mine?"



"So between everything that they do, what's your role in all of this?"



"Man, we gotta lotta deeds to tell you about. We been all over the wasteland, done all kinds of things."

"I think he's talking about land deeds, not people's deeds. That's more the Sheriff's line."

"Yep, all kinds of private property. Why, right now, I have a Jim-dandy of a deed for sale."

"Oh really?"

"It's the deed to the Great Wanamingo Mine just outside of town. I can sell it to you for only $1,000, too. Special offer; just your luck to hit me on a generous day like this."

"I feel it's appropriate to phrase my next question this way: This ain't my first rodeo, Mayor. What's the catch?"



"I can do critters. Just hope it's not more of those damn giant hands. How much of a profit are we talking here?"

"More'n double? Sounds about fair, considering, and I can't afford to pay much more."

"Sold."



For some reason the Sheriff wasn't quite what I was expecting. Maybe having met Marcus made me a bit prejudiced in regards to Sheriffs, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

"How'd you know I'm a Ranger?"

"Simple. It's tattooed on the back of your neck."

"It is? Damn, I thought you recognized the secret hand-shake I gave you. Wait, why didn't you guys tell me about that tattoo?"

"We figured what you didn't know wouldn't hurt you. Also, there isn't actually a tattoo."



"Oh, I see. What else do you do as Sheriff?"

"Drink. Screw. Play chess. Enforce the law."

"Let's go with that last one."

"Can't, my leg's all busted up. Took a nap out waiting for a caravan and a gecko started chewing on my kneecap."

"I imagine that also takes a crimp out of option two."

"Well, I wasn't much of a dancer before this happened, and I reckon I won't be afterwards, neither. I can gimp around, but Doc Johnson said I better not if'n I want it to heal right. Sure could use some help, though."

"What kind of help, and how much?"



"That doesn't sound too bad. Where's this squatter live?"

"Way to go Ranger, good to hear it. The Widow Rooney is way behind on her rent. Her house is just across the alley from here, to the west. You just have to kick her out of her house - unless she can come up with the rent she owes."

"So… how much does she owe?"

"Hell if I know, I just know it's about six months worth. I'm supposed to know things, not know everything."



And that's how I ended up as the acting Sheriff of Redding. To be honest, I expected them to run me out of town or hang me by the end of the week since I had no idea how to be a Sheriff.



"I can't stand the idea of anybody kicking an old lady like you out. How much do you owe in back rent?"

"Well, I owe Ascorti six months in back rent. $120 for this flea hostel. I just don't have it. Some of my brahmin took sick and died, and I couldn't pay. If I don't get him the money soon, he's gonna have the Sheriff evict me."

"About that… I'm kind of doing the Sheriff's jobs for him. I'm the one that's supposed to kick you out now. Why don't you let me pay your back rent for you? I have little use for money. I'm the Chosen One"

"I'd hate to take money from someone touched in the head. Uh, Mr. Chosen One."

"It's nothing. I'm happy to do it. Here's the $120 you need."



"You paid me almost as much as her back rent was to kick her out. I'm only out $20."

"And he's spent more than that on a drink."

"And a lot more than that on a bath. That probably because it included the girl."

"I don't have any stories, but I'm pretty sure he barely knew what money was a few months ago."

"Uh.. yeah, what's that next job again?"

"I hear the miners from both the Morningstar and Kokoweef mines here in town are fix in' to stir up a ruckus at Lou's Malamute Saloon. I'll pay you $300 to break it up. You get over there right away. It's right across the street. In fact, I think I hear them starting up now."

"$300… so I can't buy more than $300 worth of drinks, or else I'm not coming out ahead on this one."



By the time I got to the bar there were two ringleaders yelling at each other from across the room about how much they were going to tear the other one up. Nobody's broken a bottle yet, but I figured more drinks wouldn't help the situation so I did the only sensible thing:



I tossed them both in the slammer to cool down for the night. Separate cells, obviously,



"Oh, c'mon. It's only the two, and the rest of them are behaving nicely even though they don't realize we only have about one more cell open. I promise I won't just arrest everybody involved on the next job."

"Yeah, about that…somebody cut up a whore over at Lou's Malamute Saloon. Just across the street here in downtown. Go find out who did it and bring them in. I'll pay you $500 for doing it."

"Okay, I'll go arrest everyone involved."

"Thought you'd see it that way."



To go hunting for the murderer I had to head over to the other side of town where all the miners lived. It was also where they had mole rat rodeos, which was about the damnedest thing I ever saw. Didn't work out too well for the mole rats, either. At any rate, finding the murderer wasn't that hard.



One of the miners just straight out confessed, but seemed to feel like it'd all been okay since the whore had made fun of his mother. I could see where the temptation could have come from, since I'm pretty sure she drank while she was pregnant.



Despite the fact that it would be simpler, I brought him in to the lockup instead of just killing him outright. I had promised the Sheriff, after all.



"I guess it saves time when you already know the verdict going in to the trial."

"At least we don't have to hang his horse this time."

"You live a strange life. What's the next job?"



"gang with him. I'll give you $1000 to get rid o' the varmint."

"Why do they call him Frog Morton?"

"His name's Morton, and they call him Frog 'cause he croaks people. Ready to go get 'im?"

"Ohhh. Ouch. That's terrible. The pain, the pain…"

"Hey, don't blame me. He's the one who came up with the pun. Just one more reason to kill him."

"We'll defend the peace of Redding, and the English language."



After taking the job we stopped in to talk with the town doctor. It was pretty likely we were going to need his services.

"I've heard they call you 'Painless' Doc Johnson. Why is that?"

"It's because my patients usually pass out before they get to screamin' too much. It's kind of a joke."

"I think I need to get going. I just remembered an important appointment that I have, uh, somewhere. Uh, goodbye, Doc."

Of course, I couldn't escape that easily.



"Where does all the Jet come from?"

"All of the Jet here in town is shipped here from the Mordino family in New Reno. It comes mostly in bulk packages, and then I process it into user-ampoules… so I end up selling all of it right here."

"You must make a tidy profit out of that."

"Not at the prices I charge. If I didn't do it, then some other quack would be preparing the chem with germ-encrusted, rusty equipment. I'd never get this population disease-free after that."

"If you say some other quack, does that mean you a duck too?"



"So if you don't want New Reno to control Redding, just who do you want in charge here?"

"The way I see it, Redding's best chance is with Vault City controlling things here. That's where I'm from - so I might be biased - but I really do think that Vault City can do a better job of helping the citizens of Redding."

"There's no might be about it. I think they might be better off with the Mordinos, and that's saying something."



After that I took the Mayor's advice and went to visit the local mining companies. I didn't make it past the first one before I got an offer of a job, and I was okay with that since my last arrest had come from their rival.




The price was $1000, and Dan McGrew over at the other mining company was in New Reno's pocket. The decision wasn't hard, and I was planning on going down there anyway so it wouldn't hurt to look around.



Frog Morton was holed up near the mine elevator, so he was on the way too… along with the entire rat population of Redding, for some reason. All the people living in that section of town had probably left before they got eaten.



Frog Morton wasn't exactly stupid, either. He'd posted some sentries in the abandoned buildings along the way to the mineshaft, and they had a pretty good set up. Pity about them only having shotguns and leather armor.



We managed to catch two more of them at the edge of a large warehouse like building, paying attention to everything except for the door they were supposed to be guarding. I was amazed at the time that their sudden deaths didn't drawn more attention, but I guess gunshots outside were a daily event in Redding.



Frog must have heard that we were coming for him, but for some reason they expected us to come in the front door instead of the back. I don't think even the regular Sheriff would have been dumb enough to do that, and a couple of shots with my revolver put down a pair of them before they even knew what was happening. After that it was 3 on 4, and they didn't have Marcus.



Even if I hadn't know who he was, it would have been easy to tell Frog Morton from the others just based on him having the fanciest gun. It was a hell of a small machine gun, and the ammo was like nothing I'd ever seen before… just blocks of gunpowder with the bullet embedded inside.



"An explosive plate trap… why would they put that in front of the elevator? To keep people out of the mine?"

"Spirits say those not to keep people out, they to keep things in."

"Heh. I wonder how dangerous those critters down there, and how many times he's sold that deed knowing that the people wouldn't come out?"



Right at the bottom of the elevator we stumbled out into a… nursery. It didn't go well.

"I think that's I just found out what a Wanamingo is. And it's pissed."



I didn't know what the hell to make of it, so I just shot at where the eyes would have been if it had any. Worked well enough, although finding the right spot was a bit tricky.



They were tough as hell, and by the time we got the first one down two more were coming up the corridor. Cassidy was taking a breather, and I was fumbling for the stimpacks.



We made it and were able to push them back through a feeding area full of the bones and splattered viscera of previous victims. I didn't want to look to closely at what kind of things they'd caught.



Getting up to level 15 opens up a few more perks, including one of the better perks in the game. Tied for 3rd, maybe 4th. Bonus RoF just drops your AP cost to fire a weapon by 1, whether in burst, single, or called shot mode. We can get two aimed shots per round now, which massively increases our damage output, or just drop three regular attacks per round on weaker enemies. Skill points go to small guns and energy weapons.



The mining machine with the chip we were looking for was just a short, wanamingo filled walk down the hallway. Also, it was surrounded by wanamingos. Did I mention that there were wanamingos?



Eventually we found our way to an area of the caverns that showed signs of human habitation, if by human habitation you meant the discarded beer bottles of teenage drinking parties. There were pig rats helping themselves to leftovers, amazingly unmolested by the wanamingos.



I say amazingly because there were a pair of them in an offshoot just a few feet away. Piles of bones indicated that they'd gone out for the occasional snack.



We found the last pair in a sprawling cavern that they hopefully weren't converting into a new nursery. We'd made a point of smashing every single egg we found, because I didn't want those things coming back.



The Wanamingo Mine is a treasure trove of experience, to the point where we get another level. More points for small guns and energy weapons!



Eventually we found a locked door that turned out to be the casino basement. The mayor could have saved us a lot of time by letting us know about it, but that would have involved unlocking the door and I don't think he wanted that. By that point I was pissed off enough that I left it open and hoped that we'd missed one.



Luckily the Mayor was as good as his word, paying two and a half times the price of the deed. And me? I took the money and ran, since that meant the mine was now somebody else's problem. I still wasn't sure we'd gotten all the damn wanamingos.



"Brothers? You didn't tell me that Frog had brothers."

"Heh, two catches in one day. You really gotta read the fine print in this town."

"Didn't I? Must have plum darn slipped my mind. Yup, that's what it did. Well, he's got three older brothers… even meaner than he was, from what I hear. Let's see… Toad, New, and Snake Morton, if I remember aright."

"I can see why they're pissed with names like that. No problem, Sheriff, just three more notches on my gun. Although I don't do that, because by now I'd have had to replace the handle."



Finally, we stopped to collect our fee for the mining chip. It was time to make a trip to Vault City, and then we had some business to settle in New Reno.