Terrible piano music spills out of the smoke filled saloon. Some idiot is in there, banging away on your favorite keys. At this rate there will be no ivory left.
As you enter, there’s deputy Stanley; drunk enough to have forgotten a boot. It’s his fingers that are mashing down, making a mockery of ‘Ode to Joy’.
*choice
#Welp, guess I’d better shoot him.
(Tests gunfighting. Violence is the answer, and a success here will be answered with violence in time as the Sheriff or Stanley’s Kin takes umbrage. A failure indicates a missed shot, and people start thinking you’re just expressing your appreciation of the music. Put in a call back to it later. Possible trait gain - Music Lover)
#Yank him off that stool.
(Fisticuffs. Success here puts Stanley on the ground, and into his bad graces. He’ll remember it, and act accordingly. Failure here means he just shrugs you off, forcing you into other expressions of violence, say with spitoon, or else requiring you to back down and walk away. Someone might remember how you did back down, which may open up additional conversation options later in the chapter. Alternatively, a stat bonus of some kind as a sop. Or a trait Music-Critic)
#Convince him to stop.
(Open ended here. High persuasion will do it. So will high intimidate. So might a high resolve. Check each in turn, resulting in a slightly different outcome and shift of reputation if successful. If all fail, have the PC learn something via a stat boost.)
#Sing along as horribly as I can.
(A fun option. Possibly gain an ally in Stanley, or else gain a stat bonus or trait.)
#Fix the piano.
(Try a bit of engineering. If successful, Stanley’s playing becomes tolerable and the PC learns something. If failed, the piano breaks and Stanley has to stop playing.)
#Get Stanley hammered to the point of incoherence.
(The non-stat option. Just spend a resource, money or influence, and then watch him down some Wisconsin fire-water until he passes out. Nothing bad happens, and maybe he or someone else remembers you buying him a drink. Tales of your generosity soar, for better or worse.)
#Find a rat and sneak it into Stanley’s pants.
(Okay, I’m really stretching things here. The point is that subtlety or stealth might win the day. A failure here would probably spawn an amusing, perhaps ludicrous scene. “Whatcha doing with that rat?” - "Rat, what rat? (Hide rat). or “What’s it look like?”, or “He loves your music. Give him a kiss.”
Asking an outside observer to try to get their head around the Ch 2 code in particular would be arguably in breach of certain international human rights conventions.