[Tex] Choose Your Own Adventure II: Redmoon Canyon

[perfectlyhuman]

You are a sheriff in Starfall Hills, a small town just a ways off from Redmoon Canyon.

It's a lot like a Wild West town, but in another planet. There are humans and aliens living together, there's a lot of wooden buildings with big round windows. The saloon serves moon brew and Jupiter cola. Everyone wears big hats and books with spurs. An alien with a bunch of tentacles plays the piano in the corner.

Last night, a girl from a nearby farm came to your office to say all of her cattle as gone missing. She told you she thought there were less of them earlier in the week, but that day she came back from from the town market to find the whole field empty. All she saw was an open gate and hoof marks that suddenly ended just a few dozen feet from the canyon.

It's the next morning, and you have to figure out what happened, and hopefully get her cattle back.

What do you do first?

Comments

[perfectlyhuman]

There's not a lot of grass, but it all looks mostly normal. Sand, dirt, grass and rocks. The grass that is there is pretty tall, though.

[rebelarrow]

I follow the tracks to where they end, examining the ground as I go.

[perfectlyhuman]

The tracks all go on a single file out of the farm and towards the side of the canyon, but stop a few feet from it. They all go in the same direction and in the same line.

[rebelarrow]

Do the tracks end at the edge of the canyon, or before it? Either way, I would once again perform a sweep of the area for anything out of the ordinary or that doesn't belong.

[perfectlyhuman]

They end before the edge. There's no tracks going back, either, they just stop there.

But there's also some markings on the ground, like something big and flat was dragged toward the edge. Or pulled.

[rebelarrow]

You stated before that this world has aliens. What are their primary modes of transportation? Do the humans of this world use them as well?

[perfectlyhuman]

Spaceships. And flying car things. Everyone uses them, not just aliens. Technically, humans are aliens on this planet too.

[rebelarrow]

Fair enough.

Is there a way to trace them at all? Do they leave an imprint of some sort in the air?