The Tale of Trapper Oak

They say legends aren’t born overnight. It takes years to build your reputation enough to even get close to being put in the tier of legend. But not for Trapper Oak. Trapper Oak was we call a mountain man. Word was that as a young boy he lived in Appalachia raised by a bear he called mama and was taught how to survive by his bear brothers and sisters. Some say he’s from the Rockys deep in the Maelstrom Wastes that he was a man born to a Coyote who tried to eat him as a babe, but he snapped his Coyote mother’s neck with a flick of his baby wrists. But no matter what the stories and tall tales say about his birth, the real story begins when he was a man.

Trapper Oak was a quiet one didn’t like to talk and didn’t appreciate too many people talking to him. He could always be seen looking like a walking bush. His camouflaging skill was so good he could simply crouch down and look like just another shrub. The story goes that one day he walks into the sheriff’s office in the Town of Cross and drops down a squirming sack and a sheet of paper before leaving the office without a word. On the sheet of paper was printed a Bounty notice for one of the most notorious outlaws the state of Missouri ever had, Charming Dale.

Now Charming Dale had gone around the state of Missouri robbing folks for all they were worth by quite literally talking the dollars out of their pockets. They say he had such an amazing power of persuasion that he could talk a crazed seeker into giving him his only gold fleck. The Powers that be have been after this man for Years sending everyone from bounty hunters to the Continental army after him but that silver tongued bastard would talk his way into an escape from even the most hardened of veterans. That is until Trapper Oak came a callin.

Now no one knows how our hero Trapper Oak was able to resist the sweet words that would come out of his lungs, but it could have something to do with the dirty handkerchief shoved in his mouth along with his missing tongue.

After that day though Trapper Oak became a legend he roamed from town to town ripping bounty notices off of walls and stuffing them in a pack only to return a few days later with the poor scoundrel hogtied and thrown in a sack and unceremoniously dropped on the doorstep of the local sheriff.

That is until one day, witnesses say that they saw Trapper Oak walking into the town of Smith from the Maelstrom wastes, his bush camo gone, his demeanor changed, and his eyes the pulsing black and white of a Dreamer. Folks say he glided into town his feet not even touching the ground, they say they were afraid of him many had gotten used to his normal unfriendly demeanor and had accepted him for what he was, a damn good Bounty hunter. But now he was something else a changed man maybe not even a man anymore. Too long under the maelstrom and that could happen to you too you could turn into something that sure as hell ain't human no more. For the legend Trapper Oak though that day would be the last day anyone saw of him as the story of his prowess went into history every bounty hunter that tries to make a name for themselves out there will always be compared to the legend of Trapper Oak.