{"id":21,"date":"2008-08-28T20:02:14","date_gmt":"2008-08-29T03:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gm.thuranni.net\/?page_id=21"},"modified":"2008-08-28T20:02:14","modified_gmt":"2008-08-29T03:02:14","slug":"digger","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/gm.sagotsky.com\/?page_id=21","title":{"rendered":"Digger"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Digger is a character I played in a recent Deadlands game.\u00c2\u00a0 My characters are always quirky (with the exception of Joren who was my attempt at playing comedy’s straight guy), but they’re usually quirky in a funny way.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe not to the other characters, but the PCs usually get a laugh out of them.\u00c2\u00a0 Digger is creepy and he gets a laugh, but it’s not a haha laugh.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s a laugh to relieve tension because there’s no other reaction to a character so creepy and fucked up.<\/em><\/p>\n

Mort “Digger” Buchanon<\/span> <\/strong><\/p>\n

“That Digger ain’t right in the head, I tell you what.” <\/span><\/p>\n

“Why’s that?”<\/span><\/p>\n

Old Pete took a swig of whiskey, and then another.\u00c2\u00a0 “Truth is I couldn’t tell ya.\u00c2\u00a0 But with some folks you jess know.\u00c2\u00a0 Kinda like cussing.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Dan didn’t just know.\u00c2\u00a0 As far as he was concerned Digger Buchanon did a dirty job so nobody else had to.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure he had some weird habits, but who didn’t around here?\u00c2\u00a0 “Is it because of the rabbits?”<\/span><\/p>\n

“Well, that’s part of it,”<\/span><\/p>\n

“Lotsa folks shoot jackrabbits.\u00c2\u00a0 If they didn’t bunnies’ll dig up the cabbages.”<\/span><\/p>\n

“Daniel,” Pete stared longingly at his now empty glass, “it ain’t about the shootin’.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s what he does after that.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Dan didn’t speak, but Pete hadn’t expected him to.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Each jackrabbit gets cleaned up real nice an’ ‘en he puts them in a box made from the same pine he buried your Pa in, and he lays them to rest in god’s earth.\u00c2\u00a0 Other folks shoot a bunny, they get bunny stew for dinner.\u00c2\u00a0 Not Digger.”<\/span><\/p>\n

“So the man likes his work.\u00c2\u00a0 What’s wrong with that?”<\/span><\/p>\n

“What’s wrong with that is his chosen line of work.\u00c2\u00a0 The man is an undertaker.\u00c2\u00a0 He puts our dead in pine boxes and puts those boxes in the ground.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s something what has to git done, I just wish he weren’t so happy about it.\u00c2\u00a0 Sometimes I wonder if he’s just waitin’ for good folks to die.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Dan opened his mouth in knee-jerk protest, then closed it.\u00c2\u00a0 He sat quietly long enough for Old Pete to order another whiskey.\u00c2\u00a0 “Why ain’t we just lynch ‘im.\u00c2\u00a0 Or run him out of town.”\u00c2\u00a0 Neither statement was a question.<\/span><\/p>\n

“He ain’t actually done shit.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what creeps me out about him the most.\u00c2\u00a0 Everybody round town knows he ain’t right.\u00c2\u00a0 Anybody who talks to him for five minutes will come to that conclusion, but there’s no clear reason why.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s like he done somethin’ in his past and everybody knows about it, but we don’t know what it is.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Dan nodded, his protests not five minutes ago already forgotten.<\/span><\/p>\n

“But you can’t lynch a man who ain’t done nothing.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Dan didn’t like it, but what the old man said was true.\u00c2\u00a0 He’d have to scare Digger out of town instead.\u00c2\u00a0 It was only a matter of time before he’d kill someone, and Dan didn’t want to see any of his friends die, especially when it could have been prevented.\u00c2\u00a0 Scaring out the crazy old undertaker was the right thing to do.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dan prepared to run Digger out of town that very night.\u00c2\u00a0 He wore black trousers and his denim vest.\u00c2\u00a0 He made sure to polish his gun, so Digger would see the girth of the Colt Peacemaker’s barrel, even in the dead of night.\u00c2\u00a0 Dan worried for a brief moment that he’d be mistaken for a bandit as he fastened a bandanna around his face, but it passed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Digger lived on the outskirts of town, as social miscreants were wont to do, and Daniel hadn’t realized that the walk would take so long.\u00c2\u00a0 He wondered if the moon was always that big.\u00c2\u00a0 It was yellow and looming.\u00c2\u00a0 Daniel tried not to think about it.\u00c2\u00a0 He had to focus.\u00c2\u00a0 He never quite knew why they said ‘the coldest hour is the one comes just before the dawn,’ but he knew the truth of it tonight.\u00c2\u00a0 Focus.\u00c2\u00a0 The weather didn’t matter.\u00c2\u00a0 If he couldn’t keep from getting distracted, Dan knew he wouldn’t be able to project the confidence needed to frighten this guy.\u00c2\u00a0 Dan saw Digger’s house and was instantly relieved.\u00c2\u00a0 Had he stayed out here much longer, he might have lost his nerve.\u00c2\u00a0 By all accounts, the nightscape was definitely on Digger’s side.<\/span><\/p>\n

As he neared the door, Dan tried to put that last thought out of his mind.\u00c2\u00a0 The windows shed no light, for which Dan was thankful.\u00c2\u00a0 Digger must be sleeping.\u00c2\u00a0 Dan was also thankful when he discovered the door was unlocked.\u00c2\u00a0 Nerves aside, this was going perfectly.\u00c2\u00a0 Once inside, Dan waited a moment to let his eyes adjust before lighting a lone match.\u00c2\u00a0 It was all the light he needed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dan snooped around for a few minutes before noticing a steady ‘tink tink tink’ noise.\u00c2\u00a0 Had that been there the whole time?\u00c2\u00a0 It sounded like it was coming from the floor, so Dan headed for the basement.\u00c2\u00a0 The noise got louder and louder with each step.\u00c2\u00a0 The basement had two rooms.\u00c2\u00a0 The first was a storeroom.\u00c2\u00a0 Dan didn’t know what was in the second, but a sickly yellow light bled from under the door.\u00c2\u00a0 The Digger wasn’t sleeping after all.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe Dan should just leave.\u00c2\u00a0 Nobody saw him come out here.\u00c2\u00a0 He could sneak back up the stairs and out the door just as easily as he had come down in the first place.\u00c2\u00a0 Dan did not want to knowwhat lay beyond the door with the yellow light.<\/span><\/p>\n

And yet he did want to know.\u00c2\u00a0 It had nothing to do with curiosity though.\u00c2\u00a0 Dan was never the brightest kid, but he was an opportunist.\u00c2\u00a0 If he caught the undertaker in some unspeakable act, he’d be fully justified in shooting the man and doing the rest of the world a favor.\u00c2\u00a0 He had brought the gun for intimidation, but now he was actually prepared to use it.\u00c2\u00a0 He’d rather Digger was a dead man than a serial killer in some other part of the county.\u00c2\u00a0 He opened the door.<\/span><\/p>\n

The source of the ‘tink tink tink’ noise became obvious.\u00c2\u00a0 Digger held a hammer.\u00c2\u00a0 In front of him was a six foot long pine box.\u00c2\u00a0 Digger didn’t turn.\u00c2\u00a0 Dan knew what the box was for, but he didn’t know who it was for.\u00c2\u00a0 Usually coffins are made to order when someone dies, and this town was small enough that Dan knew everyone.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Hey,” Dan boldly squeaked, “we don’t like you much.\u00c2\u00a0 Umm.\u00c2\u00a0 You need to leave.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The digger turned and finally acknowledged Dan.\u00c2\u00a0 He stood and Dan quivered.\u00c2\u00a0 This guy was big.\u00c2\u00a0 He took a step towards Dan and Dan held out his pistol.\u00c2\u00a0 He wondered if bullets would have any effect.\u00c2\u00a0 Digger reached towards a shovel, and Dan had enough.\u00c2\u00a0 He fired wildly, and wasn’t even sure if his bullet hit.\u00c2\u00a0 As far as Dan knew he was halfway up the stairs before his bullet hit either the wall or its intended target. <\/span><\/p>\n

On his way out Dan didn’t even notice the frigid air or the gazing moon.\u00c2\u00a0 Dan didn’t even care that he could be thrown in jail if Digger talked to the Sheriff.\u00c2\u00a0 He was just glad to be out. <\/span><\/p>\n

A thunderous boom split the air as Digger took the shot.\u00c2\u00a0 He’d never need much time adjusting to the darkness, and tonight was no exception.\u00c2\u00a0 His bullet caught the intruder in the back of the neck, severing the spinal cord instantly.\u00c2\u00a0 It also woke up half the town who came to see what the commotion was all about.\u00c2\u00a0 While it’s frowned upon to shoot a man in the back, everyone agreed that Digger had been justified in shooting the intruder, even if that intruder was only a lad with no criminal history, you just couldn’t argue with the circumstances.\u00c2\u00a0 Dan was buried a week later in a pine box he had seen just once before.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Digger is a character I played in a recent Deadlands game.\u00c2\u00a0 My characters are always quirky (with the exception of Joren who was my attempt at playing comedy’s straight guy), but they’re usually quirky in a funny way.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe not to the other characters, but the PCs usually get a laugh out of them.\u00c2\u00a0 Digger […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":22,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-21","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gm.sagotsky.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gm.sagotsky.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gm.sagotsky.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gm.sagotsky.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gm.sagotsky.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/gm.sagotsky.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gm.sagotsky.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/22"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gm.sagotsky.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}