Movie #993: Suspiria

Suspiria is a 1977 giallo horror film directed by Dario Argento and starring Jessica Harper, Stefania Casini, Flavio Bucci, Alida Valli, Joan Bennett, Giuseppe Transocchi, Udo Kier, and Barbara Magnolfi. Most of these folks had their voices dubbed by English-speaking actors. 

Suzy Bannion (Harper) comes to West Germany to study dance at a prestigious academy, and right away shit goes weird as she meets a panicked woman (Eva Axén) coming out of the school as she arrives, yelling something about "irises". She is denied entry, but she does better than Pat, the aforementioned panicked woman, who goes to stay with a friend (Susanna Javicoli) but is promptly murdered by an unseen, knife-wielding maniac.

Next day, Suzy is admitted, but almost immediately starts feeling ill and is put on a strict diet of bland food and red wine (which is pretty clearly drugged). She makes friends with Sara (Casini), who was Pat's friend, and suspects something weird and witch-related is happening. And lo, after a consultation with a professor friend of Sara (a very young and pretty Udo Kier), she learns that the mysterious, supposedly absent headmistress of the school is actually Helena Markos (Lela Svasta), a centuries-old witch! (Whom she stabs, and then escapes as all the other witches die and the building crumbles, because Helena was apparently a load-bearing boss.)

Suspiria is one of those films that I know is hugely influential and well-regarded in horror, but that I'd never seen before. About all I knew about it was "witches" and "dance school," so it was an interesting watch. It is not a complicated narrative - there's not a hell of a lot of narrative at all - it's mostly just seeing the people at this school and working towards the weirdness that we know is in play. Actually, I saw one review that mentioned that it was one of the best cinematic depictions of a nightmare, and I think that's pretty accurate - the dream logic of not being able to run away, random pits of razor wires, unsettling sounds, the idea of your dog suddenly ripping out your throat - it's all very nightmarish.

But the use of color, oh my days. Argento suffuses this movie with blues and yellows and especially reds, and if anything that just highlights the unreality of it all. It's a movie that can best be described as "lush." The performances are just OK (and having everything dubbed doesn't help), but that's not the focus of the movie, it's the visuals and the weird, unsettling sound design and music. 

I'm not as familiar with giallo as I am some other horror subgenres, but I kinda want to check more of it out now.

My Grade: B+
Rewatch Value: Low

Next up: Taking Lives

Movie #992: Superman (2025)

Superman is the more recent cinematic depiction of the Man of Steel (or the Big Blue Boy Scout, take your pick) starring David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, Nicholas Hoult, Nathan Fillion, Isabela Merced, Edi Gathegi, Anthony Carrigan, Skyler Gisondo, Sara Sampaio, and María Gabriela de Faría. 

Far away, the planet of Kypton is explod- wait, no, we're just zooming past all of the origin story shit and picking up three years after Superman (Corenswet) has appeared on Earth. Metahumans have been on Earth for centuries, and people are entirely used to them as a concept, although the political ramifications (particularly of something as powerful as Superman) are still getting felt out. And Supes crash-lands in the Arctic after having his ass kicked by the mysterious Hammer of Boravia, a metahuman apparently representing the titular nation ("Boravia," not "Hammer"), because Supes intervened and stopped them from going to war with a neighbor recently.

We very quickly learn, though, that all of this "Hammer of Boravia" nonsense is just a smokescreen cooked up by Lex Luthor (Hoult), in cahoots with the President of Boravia (Zlatko Buric), ultimately to get access to Superman's Fortress of Solitude to find a way to kill him. And while Supes takes on a giant monster with the help of the Justice Gang - Guy Gardner (Fillion), Hawkgirl (Merced), and Mr. Terrific (Gathegi) - he does! A message from Superman's parents (Bradley Cooper and Angela Sarafyan) that begins innocently enough turns out to be instructions to bloodily subjugate Earth, which immediately gives Lex the government authority he needs to capture and interrogate (and therefore kill) Superman. 

Superman does indeed get captured and put in a pocket dimension with Metamorpho (Carrigan) as a cellmate, since he can create kryptonite, so it's up to Lois Lane (Brosnahan) and Mr. Terrific to save him!

There's a lot more, but that's the broad strokes. I really enjoyed this movie when it came out, and I still do, but some of the flaws are coming into focus on a rewatch. 

For one thing, there is some really clunky exposition in this movie. It's introducing a shitload of characters and concepts very quickly so it does a lot of the initial work doing that by just telling us who they are. The movie assumes we already know the basics about Superman - origin story, basic character, powers, how he protects Earth - and that's fair, we don't need that spelled out. But a little more background on, say, Mr. Terrific would have been nice. If you're familiar with comic-book movies you can kind of accept some of the weirder shit here (pocket dimensions, shapeshifters, teleportation, nanites), but that leads into what I think might be the big problem here...

And that's that James Gunn knows we're all familiar with comic-book movies because we've been watching MCU movies for the past 20 years. He wants to get to the good stuff, where he pushes the envelope a little, but doing that requires the DCU to have the same footprint as the MCU and it just doesn't because of the mess Zack Snyder made. So he's trying to jump ahead to the bits where he can do more innovative stuff as a producer (such as, apparently, Clayface, though I haven't seen it yet). 

Trouble is, as the DCEU taught us, you can't rush the foundational stuff. And when Superman is doing that work, showing us the relationships between Superman and Lois Lane, the staff at the Daily Planet, and letting Nicholas Hoult chew scenery and show us his intense jealousy and hatred, the movie works. Plus it's bright, it's colorful, and it does present some interesting takes on some characters (what if Krypto was...kind of an asshole? And I have to admit, it's a change from what we'd expect). I really do like the movie and overall I think it works, but I think Gunn did better work in the Guardians movies. 

(Also, what's with Jimmy Olsen (Gisondo) being just fucking catnip to every woman ever? I mean, Skyler Gisondo is not unattractive, but he's not, like, a 10, right?)

My Grade: B
Rewatch Value: High

Next up: Suspiria

Character Creation: Pico

Since it is no longer October, I figure let's do a game that's the polar opposite of spooky. 

The Game: Pico
The Publisher: Mythworks
Degree of Familiarity: I ran Wildsea for a while but I haven't played this one
Books Required: Just the one

In Pico, you're playing bugs, as is probably obvious from the cover. The system is the same as The Wildsea (the "Wild Words" system); roll some d6s, highest result applies, doubles means something twisty happens, and so forth. Really, you could call Pico a reskin of Wildsea, because the game play is still very much focused on exploration, but the tone is very different and there have been some system additions and clarifications that I think are really solid. 

And more to the point, your group can find and a tame a picotitan, such this little fella:

So, 13/10, no notes.

OK, so chargen, unlike Wildsea, doesn't use classes or other splats, you're building your bug from scratch. We go in two phases; in the first, we buy our Aspects and Skills with Nectar (which is also the XP currency), and in the second, decide on more RP-focused bits of the character. So in general, what kind of bug appeals today?

Well, this isn't actually the first time I've made a bug character, and I've made a spider, a dragonfly, and a cricket in previous games. How about we make a mantid-like bug and lean into the monk-like thing, make someone who's a capable martial artist and all spiritual and stuff? I'll name my bug Souffle (he's pretty sure it means "teacher" or "made of eggs" or something). 

Step One of chargen is get your Nectar. The GM ("Weaver," in this case) could assign any amount, but the book recommends 25 for starting characters and 50 for more experienced ones. Let's assume I'm just starting out and take 25.

Step Two: Purchase Aspects and Step Three: Purchase Augments. So there are a bunch of these, and I can spend 3 Nectar to buy an Aspect and 2 to buy an Augment for an Aspect. The book encourages me to spend about half of my points (so 12ish) on these, and save the rest for Skills. Sounds good. What kinds of Aspects should Souffle have?

I feel like the arm-blades are pretty important, but suppose we also have some flashy wings that can open up and dazzle other bugs? Like a flower mantis? Let's see here. I want Crescent Scythes, which lets me ignore an Armor Cut when in darkness. I don't think I want any of the Augments for it, though.

And then I want something for wings, too, because there is indeed an Augment called Mask-Patterned that bumps Dazzle to Gigadazzle (which is a good thing). But what kind of wings? Do I want to be good at defense, or carrying others? I think defense. I'll take Vibrawings, which lets me ignore Speed Cut when defending (basically I don't take a penalty if what's attacking me is fast).

So I've spent, what, 8 points so far. I could buy another Aspect with an Augment or two more Aspects if I want to have a little less than half left for Skills. Let's see...ooh, there's a couple for Brain that I like. I think Split Brain makes the most sense, though (basically if something would affect mood, which is a thing in this game that matters, I can mark the Brain track to keep it where it is). Augments? I do like Unknowable, but I think I want to look back over the other Augments real quick.

Ooh, I do like Holoptics (if I'd be surprised, I can instead steal the spotlight), but where does that put my points? I've spent 11, if I spent 3 more I'll be down to 11 to spend on Skills...yeah, I think that's OK.

Right, that puts us over into Step Four: Skills. I can't go higher than 2 in a Skill, and Skills cost Nectar equal to rank, but you have to buy them sequentially (so a rank-2 Skill costs 3 of my Nectar). Let's see here. I know I want two points in Dazzle and Slash, and that eats six of my points right there. I think I'll just buy 1-point ratings in five other Skills, so let's make those...Dance, Fly, Care, Think, and Dash.

Awesome! Next, Step Five: Choose your Moods. Basically I've got three Moods. The middle one is "OK", and then there's a positive end and a negative end. There's a list of them, though I could make one up. 

I think, though, that Souffle gets Detached at the negative end of things. He can use friending Skills (including Dazzle), but his first finding Skills is treated as Giga, so he can Think like crazy. On the positive side, hmm...I keep coming back to Focused, which lets me ignore a Cut when making an attack. I didn't intend for Souffle to be quite so combat-specific, but it makes the most sense. Though truthfully, an "attack" doesn't have to be physical, so this is more broadly useful than that.

Step Six: Bits n' Bobs. Bits are biological, bobs are not, I get one of each (or I could take two of one and zero of the other, but eh). For my bit, I'll take a Droplet of Water. For my bob, I'll take...ooh, a Droplet of Oil. I like the duality.

Step Seven: Mystery. Every bug has a Mystery they're trying to solve, and when they do, it introduces a truth about the world. One of the examples is that glass is solidified music, so that's the level we're on. But all I need is the mystery, at this point. 

Well, how about we lean in to that fluid duality thing and ask: "Why does oil float on water?" (Perhaps because it's more enlightened, but that's something I'd discover in play.)

Step Eight: Name. I know my given name (Souffle), but I get a pseudoscientific name, based on the Aspects and Augments that include some pseudo-Latin words. Specifically:

• Crescent Scythes: Skai
• Mask-Patterned: Tenco
• Vibrawings: Dandan
• Split Brain: Azku
• Holoptics: Toto

I don't have to use all of those, and I can put them in any order I like. So...Tencodandanskai Azku sounds like a good "scientific" name for this weird flower mantis-like bug!

And that'll about do it! Souffle is ready is venture out into the world, trying to discover the secret of oil and water and how it might be applied to every bug everywhere all at once.

Movie #991: Stir of Echoes

Stir of Echoes is a horror movie that came out in 1999, but is based on a 1958 Richard Matheson novel. It stars Kevin Bacon, Kathryn Elbe, Illeana Douglas, Zachary David Cope, Jennifer Morrison, Kevin Dunn, and Liza Weil. 

Tom Witzky (Bacon) is a generally good blue collar dude living in Chicago with his wife Maggie (Elbe) and hiss young son Jake (Cope). He has aspirations of his band actually going somewhere and feels like his life is a bit too ordinary, which is understandable enough, though he could definitely use some perspective because Maggie is great and he's loved, but the movie isn't really about that. Also, Jake sometimes talks to someone that no one else can see, and the movie very much is about that. 

Anyway, his sister in law Lisa (Douglas) hypnotizes him at a party and tells him to be more "open" - and he starts seeing visions. He obsesses over them and soon after learns that Samantha (Morrison), the daughter of an acquaintance, disappeared some months ago. Convinced that it's her ghost he's been seeing, he goes down a rabbit hole trying to figure out what's going on. He has visions that he can't explain, the son (Chalon Williams) of his buddy Frank (Dunn) shoots himself right after Tom sees it all happen, and he has Lisa put him under again to try and stop it...but all that happens is that the ghost commands him to DIG.

He eventually discovers the truth. Adam (Frank's son, the one that shot himself) and Kurt (Steve Rifkin), the son of Tom's landlord Harry (Conor O'Farrell) accidentally killed Samantha and they and their fathers entombed her body in the walls of the house (which Tom is renting from Harry). Tom finds her body and the visions reveal what happened, Kurt and Harry try to kill them, Frank shoots them both, and the Witzky's move the fuck out of that house (though poor Jake is still hearing all the ghosts ever). 

This movie is actually really good and it had the extremely bad fortune to come out in 1999, the same year as The Sixth Sense. But it's a solid ghost story, it keeps a tight focus on Tom and his circle, and it has a great sense of place in this Chicago neighborhood. Likewise, we never get beat over the head with it, but there are some themes of history and secrets and how they have weight and resonance, and not every house has literal skeletons in the walls but a lot of them have ghosts. Kevin Bacon does a fantastic job of disintegrating as the obsession with Samantha takes over, but holding on to his life just enough to know that he's fucking things up. Kathryn Elbe, likewise, is playing a woman who clearly loves her family and wants to help, but her husband and son have a language she doesn't speak. 

Zachary David Cope, for his part, manages to play a five-year-old with psychic abilities about as well as any little kid could. With child performances you never know if it's the kid acting or the kid mimicking the director, but for what it's worth the kid does read as about five, and he reads normal enough that when he does something spooky it has an impact because he's not spooky all the time. 

Illeana Douglas is fun to watch as always and I wish we'd seen more of her character (though, again, I appreciate the focus this movie has). It was cool to see Jennifer Morrison as someone other than Dr. Cameron on House, and it was cool to see Kevin Dunn in a more blue-collar role, because it occurred to me I'm used to seeing him playing lawyers or in movies like Dave. 

There are some jump scares that use techniques that are effective, but very familiar now (camera following a character only now ghost on the couch aaah!), but you can't fault a 1999 movie for that. The score isn't anything special, but there's a good musical use of the riff from "Paint It Black" that Tom spends several scenes trying to identify (because Jake has been humming it; it was playing when the boys killed Samantha), and they do a good job of playing it just off enough that it's hard to recognize.

Overall, effective ghost story and a great Halloween movie. 

My Grade: B+
Rewatch Value: High

Next up: Superman (2025)

Character Creation: The Deepest Dark

And for my last character of the month, I was gonna do The World of Necroscope, but then I wound up spending most of today coming up with games to pitch for the group that just finished Pugmire so I needed something shorter. Hence:

The Game: The Deepest Dark
The Publisher: Ella Watts
Degree of Familiarity: None, though I've played similar games
Books Required: Just the one

This game reminds me a bit of Ten Candles, and also shares some DNA just in presentation with Harvest. You're playing a group of cavers that died in a rockfall, don't realize they're dead, and figure that out over the course of the game, descending through Strata and explore new chambers. 

I find caving fascinating and terrifying. Few things get as visceral reaction from me as the idea of being trapped in a rock tunnel (which is one reason Descent is such an effective movie for me). I think this would be an interesting game, with the right group (actually I think the group that just started Harvest might get into it, but we need to do human sacrifice first). 

So we pick a character class. These are all twinned with another class; that is, there's a Mycologist and an Entomologist, and it's intended for a given group to only have one of those two, which for my purposes doesn't matter. The classes are really themed around motivation more than ability; both of the ones I mention struggle to be alone, f'rex. 

You know, Volcanologist appeals today, for some reason. Let's say that my character is Izuki Nagai, born in Kagoshima, Japan, near the Aira Caldera. Someone told him when he was small that the volcano was going to erupt and kill everyone, and he had nightmares about it for years, which gradually morphed into a strange fascination with the idea of volcanic destruction and what, if anything, could be don't to avoid it. 

The Volcanologist is fixated on averting disaster, and the book asks me to consider what disaster I failed to avert. Let's move it miles away from volcanoes and say that Izuki made friends with a girl when he was at university. Said girl (Samaar) was very wealthy, and she took Izuki and a bunch of their friends out on a boat one summer. There was a storm, the boat capsized, and Izuki said to her before they left port that there was weather approaching that looked dangerous, but Samaar was always more devil-may-care and Izuki didn't press the issue. Now she's dead. (So is he, but that's unrelated.)

So why am I here? The broad answer is "to find something," and specifically I think it's to find evidence of an impending volcanic event. 

My Fear is: "Why can't you let your guard down?" I think the answer I like best for Izuki is "because no one else will save us."

Gender: This is one of those games that treats gender as a defining, descriptive trait rather than just a reflection of sex. In Izuki's case, one of the options (for Volcanologist) is "impossible to see," and I kinda like that.

Izuki is a Japanese man of about 45. He's trim (he's an avid runner, climber, and swimmer), and has no tolerance for spice in his food (it's not that he has a sensitive stomach, it's that he has a sensitive palate). It's easy for him to fade into the background, and more than once in his life, he's watched people run face-first into dangers he's told them about. 

And that'll do it!

Harvest: Welcome to the Island

Yesterday we started playing Harvest (for which I recently did a character for my project). We didn't actually get into the first act, since character and island creation is a pretty involved process and it's better to take your time, but that was fun. (We also had some good discussions about similar games like Ganakagok with a lot of rich imagery that are replayable despite having the same basic setup each time.)

Anyway! The Island:

The village green and the houses around it are in the central/eastern part of the island, and just south is a long, glassy lake. To the east is the coast, wherein you can find wave-dashed rocks and tidepools. Also on that coast, the wrecked ship rotting on the beach. Moving inland along the northern part of the island, we find a Wheel carved into a big, stone block, where the islanders mark the graves of their dead. Further west, herds of highland sheep graze, and then a river that leads southwest and powers the mill. 

In the northwest corner of the Island is a lighthouse the King's men built a decade ago, and just past that, the beach where visitors arrive. A road leads from that beach up past the smithy to the mill, and then splits and leads to the village green, past the oldest tree on the Island (a white oak called the "Age Tree," as the children of the island try to encircle it, and are said to have come of age when they can do it using only five people, five also being the number of spokes on the Wheel).

The other branch of the road leads south to the dozy bees and straw hives, and past that, to the southwest, acres of apple orchards. 

The Island is alive with animals and plants and people, but should the sacrifice fail, we believe that every beast on the Island will die, rotting where they fall. Of course, that might just be a story. 

Our little play concerns four main characters:

• Odysseus "Odd" Gregor, The Dreamer: Odd is a young man of the island, and is (was?) betrothed to Maisie. But Odd dreams of leaving - the Gregors are too old and Odd wants to leave the island and be free of his name. But he can't; his family is ill, and it feel to him to marry, even though neither he nor Maisie want this. Odd is notable for his windswept curls, his faraway look, and the calluses on his hands gained climbing the rocks on the south end of the Island. The power that claims him is the Undertow.
• Maisie Millersend, the Young Blood: Maisie, as mentioned, is betrothed to Odd, but while Odd is bought in to the Island and its gods, Maisie wants out (or that's how she sees it). She sees the island's gods as monsters and Maisie seeks to be kinder, but also wants a partner who puts her, not gods or the Island, first (her first choice would be her friend Stael, but he's a bad fit and they both know it). Maisie's resemblance to her mother (though she is much taller and therefore her clothes don't quite fit) is noticeable, and her family is responsible for keeping the millstone turning. The Sun King watches over Maisie. 
• Charlotte Teller, the Homecomer: Charlotte left the Island and it cost her. It cost her an engagement and her lover's heart, her best friend friend, and her father's trust. But the world taught her to lie and it took away her faith in the gods of this Island (much to the chagrin of Hart, and Charlotte is now working to discredit him by spreading her newfound knowledge amongst the youth). Charlotte wears a shockingly modern gown, carries a journal, and her gaze is fixed in the distance - she has no intention of staying here. She and Maisie are friends, but she fought with Odd before she left (and called him "small-minded"). She may not know it, but the Black Dog contrived her return.
• Hart, the Wise One: Hart has no name but "Hart," at least not that he'd answer to. He is the keeper of the old ways, and some of those ways are brutal. In particular, it was common for years for the youth of the Island to be drowned nearly to death so as to induce visions, but Hart has worked to stop that practice - the last youth who underwent this was Odd, and it made the boy...strange. Hart carries a staff of his office, a huge shillelagh with a knobby top, but that's not nearly so intimidating as his piercing gaze and the unnatural stillness the he exudes. Hart weaves cloth and makes rope, and Odd has been learning the latter craft from him. Hart recently tried to explain to Maisie that, while she might not feel passion or love for her betrothed, being alone can be worse and relationships can change. This isn't speculation; Hart's former love, Siobhan, visits him when her husband is drunk, to make sure he is not wasting away. Hart works to placate the Skinless Mare. 

There ya have it! Next time we'll see whose hand bears the knife. 

Character Creation: Deadlands: The Weird West

Very much "horror adjacent," but there's undead and monsters and shit, it counts.

The Game: Deadlands: The Weird West
The Publisher: Pinnacle Entertainment Group
Degree of Familiarity: Never played this exact edition, but I've run Deadlands pretty extensively
Books Required: Deadlands and SWADE

You know, as much as I've run Deadlands, I've never really delved into the history or setting as-written all that much. Not sure why, it's a pretty compelling setting, and it's mostly 19th century American history which is history I'm actually interested in. But when I've run the game it's mostly focused on whatever area that particular game is set in. I think I might want to run this game "straight" at some point and get into some of the cool setting stuff or the plot point campaign.

Anyway, Deadlands: The Weird West's most important difference is that with the help of magic and time shenanigans, the Civil War actually ends with the Confederacy surrendering in 1871 (so it went on six more years than it did in real life). In the original Deadlands, the Civil War was still going in 1876, which put the GM in the uncomfortable position of having to deal with Confederate soldiers and how slavery played into all of this. There probably is a game that could tackle those topics well, but Deadlands ain't it, pardner, and was never meant to be. It was always meant to be a spaghetti western with undead and ghosts and giant spiders and so on, hence the time-fuckery. All in all, I think it was probably a good move and it doesn't matter much for my purposes anyway. Let's go! 

Step One: Race. Human, that's easy. 

Step Two: Hindrances. Well, I guess I should come up with a concept. Let's make a prospector. I'm kind of inspired by Tom Waits' character in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. I want my character to be crotchety, older, but fucking indestructible ("it didn't hit nothing important!"). But as far as Hindrances go, let's say he's Elderly (which is a fucker of a Hindrance, but it does give me extra Skills), Mean (more like "grumpy", but the effect is much the same), and has an Old Ways Oath (I get a free reroll on Spirit rolls, but if I use an item with ghost rock I lose that benefit for a while as the spirits get annoyed).

Step Three: Attributes. Ugh, I'm gonna regret this, but I'm going to leave Agility at d4 so I can put Vigor to d8. The other ones we can leave at d6 for now. Oh, no, wait, I'm gonna spend 2 Hindrance points to bump Smarts to d8. 

Step Four: Skills. Usual SWADE drill, I get a d4 in Athletics, Persuasion, Notice, Common Knowledge, and Stealth, and then 12 more to put anywhere, and then 5 more to put in Smarts-based Skills 'cause I'm experienced. OK THEN. 

Well, obviously I want Shooting. It'll be expensive to put it above d4, but life's like that. Let's put it at d6. I'll put a d4 into Intimidation, Healing, and Riding. I think I want Taunt at d4 (for now), and I want Survival, obviously. I'll go ahead and put that up to d8. So that's...9 spent, three more. Let's put Intimidation, Healing, and Riding up to d6.

OK, now five points to put into Smarts-based Skills. Let's bump Common Knowledge to d6, Notice to d8, buy Occult at d4, and let's buy Knowledge (Trade) at d4 for miner.

Step Five: Derived Statistics. These should be last, why are they here? THEY COULD CHANGE. WHY AM I THE CRAZY ONE. I DON'T EAT SQUIRRELS, DO I? WELL PERHAPS I DO, ONE OR TWO, BUT ahem. My Pace is 5, because I'm old, Parry is 2, Toughness is 6. 

Step Six: Edges. OK, I want something here that'll make me hard to kill. Um...how about Hard to Kill? Oh, wait, it requires Spirit d8. Well, you know what, I still have 2 Hindrance points, so fine, I'll bump Spirit to d8 and take Hard to Kill as my free Edge.

Step Seven: Stuff. UGH FINE. I've got some shabby clothes, a pickaxe, bedroll, camping gear, a rifle, and a pistol. 

Step Eight: Background Details. Yeah, probably need a little more. My guy came out west from somewhere in the south (it's not important and he's not gonna tell you anyway) looking for gold. Ghost rock was unnatural and remains unnatural, it's gonna kill us all and it gives you the tumors if you keep it around you. Anyway. He's managed to find enough here and there to keep himself alive, but he is sure there's a vein of real wealth somewhere just waiting for him. 

His real name is Nabal Grouse, but he wouldn't answer to that name for nothin' now. Folks out here started calling him Goat, on account of a) he climbs on rocks pretty good for an old fella and b) he's ornery. 

(A larger concern would be getting Goat involved in an adventure, but honestly, give him a rumor of gold and he's with ya. He's also available for hire, if you need a wilderness guide, you could do a lot worse.)

Step Nine: Your Worst Nightmare. Goat sometimes dreams that some sumbitch shoots him in the back just as his pickaxe reveals gold. Then he had to watch the guy dig up his gold, kick him into a hole, and ride off as the vultures start to circle as he lays there, immobile. (No slot on the sheet for this, there used to be.)

And that'll do it!