The Bells

On the trail of the Beam of the Turtle and the Bear, a group of four travellers and a billy-bumbler made camp beneath a sky of strange stars. Lying together, sharing whispers and quiet laughter, was a young man and his dark-skinned wife, her strong arms held protectively across his chest. Close at hand an old gunslinger stirred the fire, throwing red-orange light onto his lined and tired face.

A boy, looking much younger than his eleven years, had been giggling as he fed scraps of rabbit meat to the furry creature resting in his lap. Then, unnoticed by his human companions, the boy’s eyes went wide then rolled back in their sockets. Only the billy-bumbler, his gold-ringed eyes fixed attentively on the boy, was alert to the sudden change.

“Ake! Ake!” Oy’s sudden bark of alarm drew the attention of the gunslinger from his old memories, of the couple from their shared whispers. Exhaling in a long, slow breath, Jake now looked far older than eleven. “What is it, Jake?” the gunslinger asked softly.

“Chimes, Roland,” the boy replied. (“Imes, olan,” the billy-bumbler repeated in his hoarse whisper.) “I can hear chimes... but not in my ears. In my mind.”

Roland Deschain of Gilead. Eddie Dean, Suzannah Dean, and Jake Chambers of New York City. Oy of Mid-World. Four gunslingers and their billy-bumbler companion.

Roland Deschain, Cuthbert Allgood, Alain Johns, and Jamie DeCurry of Gilead. Naomi Reechul of Delain. Four gunslingers and their weird-woman guide.

The world has moved on and there are now gaps in time and space – between this When and other Whens. There are dangers that cannot be put down with lead when reality grows thin. But a true gunslinger does not shoot with his hand.

The Bells is a two-session story of gunslingers and lost romance set in the post-apocalyptic Western of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower books. Rules from the Unknown Armies game. Remember that the TURTLE loves all creatures.
by james o’rance