Necromancy for fun and profit!

Town disappears! President stunned

Hogbelly, Nevada; U.S. Army officers are baffled by the discovery of a completely uninhabited town in southern Nevada.

According to preliminary reports, the town was discovered in pristine condition.

“There was still food on the tables, whiskey in the glasses, and chips on the table,” said Corporal Wesley Braddock.

Details on the fate of the townsfolk are forthcoming.

– From The Gazette, April 1879

It all happened in the mid-1800s, in a forgotten gambling club in a nameless one-horse town in Nevada.

The town was dying. Everyone knew it, but nobody felt like moving. By day, ranchers tended empty paddocks, miners hacked at dead rock, and the barber would sharpen his razor for hours on end.

By night, the townsfolk would gamble. Nobody played to win anymore – everyone was just as happy to leave even. That is, until a rare stranger blew into town.

He was short, toothless, and wore ragged clothes. The old man showed up at midnight, sitting down at the table looking to play some craps.

Within an hour, the old man, who went by the unfortunately prescient name Joe Gumm, had every chip in the saloon on his side of the table, along with the house dice.

“Win some, lose some,” the troubled gamblers muttered to each other as they went home for the night.

Nobody saw Joe the next day until nightfall, when he appeared at the Saloon doors, looking to play again. Again he won.

So it went for a week, until finally, ol’ Joe met his match.

One-eye Braddock, a gunslinger who fell under the spell of this town, took the old man’s challenge that night.

Yet again, it only took Gumm an hour to clean Braddock’s wallet. Braddock was furious. He gathered his men and stormed out of the bar, vowing revenge.

Shortly after four in the morning, Joe packed up his winnings and headed out the door, bedward-bound.

He wasn’t seen all the next day. Weird thing was, he wasn’t seen all night either. Nor any other night. They found sacks of Joe’s winnings in his room, along with all the old man’s possessions… just, no Joe.

Though oddly enough, Braddock started playing a bit more frequently. He said his new set of dice were nice and lucky. Damn me if it didn’t take him just an hour to clean up.

Some folks say that Braddock’s men collared old Joe and carved dice out of his bones, and that toothless Joe’s lucky spirit still inhabits the little cubes.

‘Course, when Braddock fell ill with the wasting sickness and shriveled into nothing after a particularly lucky streak, some also said that old Joe’s spirit was vengeful, and was exacting revenge on the very soul of anyone who took up his knucklebones.

Me? I say the town just dried up, as they often do. But you’ll never catch me rolling anything but plastic.

Joe Gumm’s Knucklebones – Artifact

A set of four white six-sided dice that are always a little cold to the touch. Two have black dots, two have blue.

When one concentrates briefly on their desired result, the dice always comply. Otherwise, the dice roll as randomly as any other.

There is a downside to this: For whatever reason, be it old Joe’s hunger for the warmth of life, or the fact that there is indeed no such thing as a free lunch, the dice siphon off a little bit of the roller’s life energy.

But hey, it wouldn’t be gambling if there weren’t a downside, right?