All Deadlands players please read!!!!

The game is being run using the Deadlands Classic rules and is set in a new boom town I have created in the northern part of the Maze called Saint George in 1876.
My intention is to run the game as a very reactive Sandbox game with the focus more on the players goals rather then an over bearing plot. Im hoping the players will become involved in the goings on and the progression of this relatively new boom town and hopefully they will become invested in its future. The players have all been told this so how well they take to it remains to be seen.

This will all so be the first game where I am intending cast aside the shield when it comes to rolling dice. I have decided that open dice roles will may add to the games intensity and hopefully start to dissolve this plot armour my players have started shrouding themselves in.

“Well if ye must know lad I was hoping the ol’ saint’s name might help in keepin’ away them thrice damned maze dragons.”[SIZE="1"] - Old man Hanlan.[/SIZE]

The game will be based around the relatively new boom town of Saint George located in the northern most region of the Maze near the Oregon border.

A year ago the town was tiny, its survival based around a small family of Scottish shipwrights (the Hanlan family) that had settled there and set up shop making all manner of ships and boats for local miners (also the odd pirate too but only under duress you understand:smallwink:.) That and the occasional miner that would wander into town to sell fundament to the local Rockies representative then blow all the money he had made on either cheap booze or cheap women, gambling or a healthy mix of all three (sometimes if the locals were lucky he might spring for a bath too:smallamused:).

Things started to change about four months back when a series of big earthquakes struck the northern section of the maze, after the dust had cleared and things started to return to normal the local miners started striking ghost rock deposits any where they decided to swing a pick in the maze around Saint George (or so the stories go.) As soon as word got around Saint George rapidly became the most talked about topic in all of California and every man women and child keen for a slice of the pie had up and high tailed it north in hope of making their fortune (or stealing someone else’s.:belkar:)

The game will be largely about factions and reputation, it will be about the PC’s actions and they way the elements of the world react to them. My plan is to start with only a hand full of major factions and add more as the town grows.

There are a lot of options for me when it comes to this, but to start out I will keep it simple.

The Hanlan family founded the town, own most of the land and are keen to keep control of things, in the grand scheme of things tho they are little fish in a rapidly expanding pond.

The “Rockies” or Greater Maze Rock Miners Association have been in control of the lions share of the ghostrock (or fundament) going out of the Maze since not long after the great quake. Unfortunately they can see their power disappearing as the Rail barons from back east rapidly close on the Maze. Holding sway of the mining activities in this new boom town may be more important then ever.

Kang and the Iron Dragon railway have come swooping out of Oregon and are laying new rail as fast as they can on their way to Shan Fran and Lost Angels but this new mother load at Saint George is only a minor detour for a big potential pay off.
So as his rail gangs start on a small line to town Kang orders Red Petal Su to send some of her pirates to Saint George and start preparing things for the Iron Dragons arrival.

I have informed my players that I will be running this game as a “free for all” with “open PvP”. I have set this from the word go so the players know where they stand, if they don’t want to be friendly they don’t have to be. All so telling them now means they can’t say “why did you let him kill me is thought we were all meant to be friends!?!?” later on.

I have told them that if they start running around mindlessly killin’ each other that I will be knocking there heads together but if their respective plans are in opposition to each other and it ends in them reaching for their guns then so be it.

Haha truthfully not much more then a few slightly more educated green horn's.

We did some character gen for 6 of the 8 players (my intention is to have a broader range of players with only five players playing in each session) and out of them two have decided to completely rebuild their characters since then.

By the looks of it we have something like this so far;

We have Player C a farm born lawyer from the east who is a bit of a keen rifle shot and is has been sent west on an errand for the company. (think a young Atticus Finch)

We have Player T a New York born “opportunist,” a man who knows how to turn a “situation” into a “profitable situation” and has the sand to take a few risks to get it done.

We have Player Y a bounty hunter ( who's player had the misfortune of drawing all four deuces during character creation, for those not in the know that’s about the equivalent of rolling two 7's for stats in DnD). Apart from that we don't have any more info for him yet.

We have Player J a mad scientist, I think he is going to end up being a bit of a flyboy but due to the player having a good knowledge of the rules I wasn't to involved in the gen of his character because as I was helping others.)

We have Player V who had a foreign legion deserter but he is now leaning towards a saloon girl or entertainer (possibly “adult” entertainment possibly not.)

Player D a near blind knife fighter that is now looking at a hex slinging geezer who has been around the bad parts of the west for a long time.

The two players left to generate are apparently thinking of an almost monk (left before he took his final vows after a vision from god) and a Maze Pirate styled after Ted Hamilton’s portrayal of the pirate king. But both of those remain to be seen.

We all so had a little bit of a mini combat game loosely based around a king of the hill style scenario. I was trying to help the new guys get their heads around the basics of the mechanics and all so show them how deadly the game can be. A lot of these guys have been playing 4e lately so I wanted to show them that standing in the middle of a room blasting away at a half dozen enemies generally just ends up with you in a pine box. I think they got this message especially after the quote “wow dying is easy!” from one of them. :smallbiggrin:

As an added bonus it helped me remember the rules a lot more then a read over and helped me figure out what I need on my Marshal cheat sheet as the DL Classic Marshal screen leave a lot to be desired.

Player C: James Doolin is a lawyer from New York. Once upon a time he was the best shot in Morgan County, Alabama. Now he spends his days filing contracts and drawing up wills. Why'd he leave Alabama? Well, sir, he keeps that to himself. He's in California on business.

Marshal Notes: Interesting character with a decent amount of potential, we will just have to see what happens.

Player Y: Grace Armand - Half blood indian Which smeller/Holly Warrior.

Marshal Notes: I really dont know much more about this character at the moment, the player was going with a bounty hunter at first but has decided to head down this path now.

Player J: Jebediah the Pilot - A string bean, absent minded mad scientist/pilot with a past that most of the time he would rather forget.

Marshal Notes: He can be a really strong player when he wants to be, we will just have to see what he does with this.

Player V: Tavish "Big Mac" MacGregor - Tavish came to America a fortune-seeker, the oldest sibling in a family where his father had left. Intent on finding riches to let his clan of 6 brothers and 4 sisters able to live in peace and happiness in this bold new land. Tavish, however, was not the sharpest spoon in the drawer, and got drunk, ended up enlisted in the North's army. Fighting for pitiful dollars to protect those riding the gravy train. Filled with spite, he finally received mail from home to find his mother had died of the Consumption while he'd been gone. Enraged at first, then hollow inside, Tavish faked his death in a skirmish with the Confederates near the Mexican border and wandered south. He'd hoped to find wealth in Mexico, but, once more, got blindingly drunk and ended up enlisted in the French Foreign Legion.

Tavish spent two years staring into the wasteland of the Mojave, no action, only alcohol to drown failing his mother. After the two, long years, endless, soulless patrols of the desert, he simply walked out the doors of the fort he was stationed in, and never looked back. Surviving off the land, he eventually found his way to California, burning with rage and intent on saving his family at any cost.

Marshal Notes: Im not sure how many skirmishes were fought in the civil war near the Mexican border but hell, this is the Weird West. Generally a strong player but im not sure how keen on this character he is. will just have to see what he does with it.

Player D: James "the Joker" West - Born in California. he grew up a curious child. as he grew up he showed great potential in finding things for people. he took up being a detective when he was 23 and was offered a job in Iowa. he took up poker for a bit of a hobby while he was there and found himself catching onto a strange fellow that kept winning every hand he played. think this as foul play he confronted the man and wished to know how he did it. the man refused. rather then giving up he watched him every night at the card tables, one day he spotted a hand of cards appear in his hand like magic. this only made him more curious, he broke into the man's house and found the book of games. he studied the book for many hours and started seeing the strange pattern and code hidden in its writing. the man went back to the poker tables with very little knowledge of the thing he was going to unleash. as the games were playing out he was waiting for the opportunity to cast his spell to make his fortune in one hand. the stranger he stole the book from joined his table and he decided to do it. he begun his mental battle with a nasty demon and won his fight. the effect was not what he had first thought. the hex was one of terror. the room went dark and and the people on the table recoiled in fear. Not understanding what he had done the stranger struck him and ended the hex. all the onlookers looked around for the dark arts wielder and James pointed at the stranger. the man was hung in the streets by morning and James left Iowa and headed home. still curious he continued to read the book through the day. night came and so did the nightmares. his dreams were filled with demons and fire like he had never seen. sleep was no longer pleasant. he continued to read the book and managed to find a few miner tricks he could pull off without any problems. when James got home he continued to study his book and was almost ready to try a new trick. he travelled out of town and set up a camp where he could try his new hex in piece. James had taken to keeping a shotgun with him as to keep from looking abnormal. the hex he was going to try was something called a soul blast. he needed to beat a powerful demon to obtain this power so he brought bandages and such. he begun his mental duel with the demon and his target was a cat he had captured earlier that day. he continued to practice for many days honing his skills. finally after 2 weeks he had managed to create a hex so powerful it instantly killed the cat without any harm to himself. he went back home and decided he was ready to try a new job opening in the north of California......

Marshals Notes: Bit of a strange guy, bit of a strange character history. Never played with the guy before so we will just have to see what happens.

Player Y: Grace Armand

Biography:
Abandoned by her mother (a whore), she was left at a convent to be raised as a nun. weaned on bible stories she found great wisdom in the good book, however from an early age it was obvious to all that she was not suited to life life of solitary prayer and introspection. From the moment she could form opinions, she began fervently arguing with anyone available as to the merits of her interpretations of the good book.

At the age of 15 she accompanied one of the nuns to the local town to help purchase supplies, and as this was the first time she had left the convent she quickly began preaching to all present the error of their sinful ways. Not wishing to see such idealism go to waste, she was trained to work as a travelling missionary, spreading the light of god to the furthest corners of the country.

While travelling through a small border town in Nevada, only a few days travel from the great maze, she picked up the trail of a coven of hucksters and reported their whereabouts to her superiors. This was then passed further up the chain until it arrived at a member of the order of St. George, who was quick to track down and eradicate the coven. This man contacted Grace, and told her to keep an eye out for any similar events, recognising her natural talent.

After two years helping root out unnatural beings and gatherings, she was given more freedom to deal with such entities as she felt fit, in a trial to see whether she fit to be inducted into the order of St. George.

Marshals Notes: I worry about this character a bit, its stated as a holy gunfighter rather then a real monster hunter and im just not sure how much use she will find for her skills. I will just have to see what she tries to do and work from that.

Player R: Brother Ezekiel

Biography: was found as a baby by monks from a monastery in the Canadian Rockies (mother mauled by a 'mountain lion'), and raised by an order of monks who had taken a vow of silence. He left the monastery the night before he was to take his final vows, and has spent the last couple of years slowly walking across America, and has just recently arrived in California. Along the way he has survived as a travelling healer, taking donations in exchange for healing the righteous.

Marshals notes: This character looks strangely similar to the above character stats wise only slightly more like a monster hunter. He prefers a club over a gun but as per Grace, I am worried what he will find to amuse himself when there are no monsters available.

In attendance we had Jebadiah the mad scientist, Big Mac the deserter, Sister Grace the nun with a gun, James Doolin attorney at law and finally Player T locked in his Boston born opportunist by the name of John Steel.

Our posse starts out sitting on the inside of a stage coach about two days north of the town of New Opportunity bound for Saint George. Their coach driver Mr Beauchamp has the miss fortune of being shot out of his seat by a group of Kwan's army raiders who are closing in from the west right as the session begins. So as the stage coach bumps over its now deceased driver the posse go scrambling for their shootin' irons and try to get a bead on the situation.

Unfortunately for them all of their rifles and the majority of the gear has been stashed in the luggage case on the top so they only have their pistols handy and a quick look out of the windows tells them that there are 5 men on horse back and a steam wagon with a mounted Gatling gun getting closer by the second.

The posse has some minor luck with return fire but it quickly becomes apparent that the Gatling gun is going to cause major issue due to its ability to just spray fire at the stage coach and catch the occupants with stray rounds. Adding more fuel to the fire it appears that man ridding shotgun on the stage coach, a Mr Mertrum has caught a couple of rounds himself and is having a hard time keeping the four wild horse pulling the coach under control.

Mac and Jebadiah manage to pull themselves out of the stage coach and up onto the roof while the others lay down some covering fire at Kwan's men that are starting to surround the coach. Mac fishes through the luggage and get his trusty Bullard express which he puts to use folding the fella' behind the Gatling gun clean in half. Jebadiah drags himself over to the drivers bench and helps the wounded Mr Mertrum bring the coach under control.
Meanwhile inside the coach the two eastern boys and the rather dangerous nun are still having mixed success at getting rid of the horseman with their 6 guns. Steel is the first one too feel the affects of the fight and although the side of the coach manages to take the bite out of the lead Kwan's boys are throwin' he gets the wind knocked out of him and falls to the floor of the coach in a daze.

Things aren't looking overly sunny for the posse at the moment, the raiders are down in numbers some what but all of the posse have a wound or two to show for it and when Grace calls on her God to aid her in healin' Steel's gut wound only to have the holy light fizzle out on her and the wound replicate itself back on her things become a little grim. To add to this between being picked at by the remaining couple of horse man Mac has spotted another 5 of Kwan's men trying to catch up to the coach about a hundred yards off to the south.
This sight must have put the fear of God into the posse because between Grace, Mac and James they manage to cut down the last two riders but not before the steam wagon throws itself into the side of the coach. As the three posse members that are still inside the wagon get jumped around like crickets in a hot can the steam wagon driver catches some stray lead, blacks out and promptly gets thrown out into the desert. The out of control steam wagons smashes into the side of the cart once more before coming to a skidding halt back behind the coach.

Well with Kwan's reinforcements slowly closing the gap and Mr Jebadiah throwing a longing eye back at the steam wagon now sitting abandoned in the desert, Mr Doolin manages to convince the posse that stopping and reasoning with Kwan's men may be in their best interests. So much to Mr Mertrums objections Jebadiah starts to slow the coach down while Mac hands down rifles to those in the cabin below.
Unfortunately for our sore and sorry posse when the raiders get within about 50 yards they start firing on the coach with their rifles and the angry Scotsman on the roof with the big rifle doesn’t hesitate to return the gesture. Jebadiah manages to bring the coach to a speed where it can be turned and for his efforts (and a botched doge roll) ends up with his head being burst like an over ripe melon by one of the raiders rifle shots:smalleek:. A gruelling fight ensues and the posse manage to fight off the remaining horse men but not before sustaining some nasty wounds.

After the fight the posse are all slightly reeling from the death of their companion, that coupled with the fact that they have some rather serious wounds and the only man with any medical knowledge has just had his grey mater dashed across the Californian desert makes things a bit glum. They bandage themselves up as best as they can and Mr Mertrum manages to get the coach into Saint George just as the sun goes down.

As the coach pulls up in front of the Saint Georges sheriffs office the local law man, a Mr Earl Hicks wanders out and seems to be more annoyed with the sight of a bunch of shot up strangers then thrilled with the fact that the coach made it to town in (almost:smallwink:) one piece. The fact that Mr Mertrum is a regular around these parts gets the Sheriff to send a deputy out to fetch the local saw bones while he questions the posse as to what happened.
Mac gives an angry recount of the past days events and seems to be further enraged when the Sheriff plays off the raiders as just another part of the charm of the west. Mr Doolin however begins to question the Sheriff about the where abouts of one of the local citizen's, it turns out Mr Doolin is here to deliver a will for a client back east and after convincing Sheriff Hicks of his legitimacy he gets some answers.

The Man Mr Doolin is looking for, a Mr Michael Thomas Preston or better known in these parts as “Lumberjack Mike” is apparently a rather sought after man. According to the Sherrif him and his partner known as “Pickles” are reputed to have struck the mother load in the near by maze and now every money hungry gun and their dog are out looking for them in the hope of partakin' in the local past time of “claim jumpin'”. Hicks doesn't know where Mike is and says he hasn’t been around town in a month or two but while reading through the will he does seem to be amused by the fact that Mikes father was a war hero who he refers to as “the Blood Wolf”.

The posse drag themselves across the road to the #1 Saloon and get rooms and a drink from the bar tender known as Jessie two. Except of course for sister Grace who heads of to the local church to make confession and seek aid and information from the resident priest.

After cleaning themselves up and getting a meal Mac makes friends with a fellow Scott by the name of Caleb Hanlan who turns out to be the drunkard black sheep of the family who not only founded the town but still own half of it. He gives Mac and Mr Doolin a rather slurred run down of the town, mentioning that his father Conner and eldest brother Owen run the local ship yards while his other elder brother Bram owns the saloon their sitting in and acts as the town mayor.
He mentions the fact that the Rockies ship is in so the town is full of drunken miners fighting and having a good time after selling of the fruits of their labour but when it comes to Lumberjack Mike or Pickles he knows them but doesn't know where they are. Mr Doolin enlists the aid of Mac and Steel to help him track down Lumberjack mike for the price of $10 a day and the incentive of a bonus when he is found.

The next day the three men set about town trying to find out more about Lumberjack Mike while Sister Grace noses about the place for any signs of unholy activity.
Mac introduces himself to the Hanlan patriarch and figured out the difference between the slightly classier high town up on the ridges plateau and the seedy low town down at the waters edge of the Maze.
Steel does some sniffing around the Rockies people working the docks buying up all the miners fundament and all so has a look in the seedy low town bar the miners and sailors frequent locally known as “Bills”.
Mr Doolin introduces himself to the Mayor in the hope of finding a more permanent residence and all so makes the acquaintance of the new district head of the Rockies, a Mr Edmund B. Clay who has just relocated his offices to Saint George.
Grace had a long talk with the local priest Nicholas and then went into town and had a chat with both Sheriff Hicks and Conner Hanlan.

All and all this is the sum of what they found out;
*It does seem that everybody is looking for Mike and Pickles tho no body seems to be any wiser as to where they are.:smallyuk:
*Between the two of them they have seven claims registered with the Rockies but everybody seems to think that none of them are the mother load.:smallconfused:
*The Iron Dragon Rail road is about four to six months away from getting to town and everybody thinks that’s why Clay has come to town in a hope to secure the region for the Rockies.:smallamused:
*The local area of the Maze is home to a white Maze dragon known as Sally May, a few of the locals have seen her and lived but apparently she doesn’t come too close to the town docks. :smalleek:
*An old drunk miner claimed that Mike and Pickles had an Indian shaman turn them into ghosts so they could sneak in and out of town.:smallsigh:
*Sister Grace receives warning about the coloured man who works as Muscle for the Rockies in town know as Voodoo Tony.:smallconfused:
*Finding Mike may not be as easy as Mr Doolin had hoped. :smallannoyed:

Well one session one player death, not the best ratio for me but I guess when you play with your dice in front of the shield that’s what can happen.

The stage coach ambush
The plan for the stage coach encounter was that the first group of raiders would give the posse a chance to do some shooting early. I find with a bunch of new character they are generally keen to test out their new toys and skills so its best to give them a fight rather then have them go looking for one. The idea was for the first group of raiders to put the hurt on them but ultimately get defeated and the second group to put a bit of emergency and drama into their escape.
All was going to plan after the first group but I guess the sight of that basically functional steam wagon and Gatling gun being left behind in the desert was to much of a draw. In the end it cost one character their life and the others some hefty scars that will take a while to heal. While it does sound negative to have a player die in the first fight of the game it did achieve some good things.

Firstly it defiantly seemed to sink in that combat is a risk no mater what you do, Jebadiah caught 8 wound ranks of damage to his head from a single rifle round (5 being enough to kill him outright:smalleek:) and he just didn't have the chips to get out of it. Hopefully the guys give some thought to things before using combat as an answer and maybe start thinking about their tactics in fights a bit more.

Secondly they all felt the pain of taking negs from wounds in combat. To begin with they were all rolling well for initiative and getting lots of actions, their shooting was good and they were feeling confident. How ever once the wounds started to take effect they all began to feel it, all being mainly dnd players with the mindset that you are 100% combat effective till that last hit point goes and then coming across to this was a big shock.
Turns out in Deadlands that shooting a man while trying to hold your guts in is not as easy as it sounds and when the fresh and unwounded riders road in the advantage of reinforcements really sunk in:smallbiggrin:.

Thirdly the open dice approach seemed to be well liked, from the mouth of the player who lost his character during the session “it made him feel more involved in the fight.” Getting the players to take turns doing the rolling for me all so sped things up a lot. The long and the short of it is the old me wouldn’t have let a player die in the first encounter, the dice being out in the open took that choice away from me but in the end the players felt the true ramifications of their own actions. Was it a bit scary? Yeah for sure. Am I glad I did it? Big yes!!

The first Day in Saint George

This went well and all things said and done I was happy, I got a most of the info I wanted the players to find to them. I did have another combatish encounter set up in case I needed it but the posse was still a bit tender from the stage coach. I had to make sure that I spread the spot light around as Mac and Mr Doolins players are both very … enthusiastic?!? roleplayers but in the end they all got a fair share of the game I think.
The game seemed to be more focused around Mr Doolin's goals once they got to town but when it comes down to it he had more goals and ideas/hooks for his character in his history then the rest of the characters combined (the others main goal was generally making money, with the exception of Grace who wants to be a saint).

The Rockies boat departed town early in the morning on Saturday the 8th, since then the town has got much quieter as the miners get their fill of sinin’ before resupplying and heading back out to their respective claims.
Mr Clay oversees the completion of the Saint George branch of the Greater Maze Rock Miners Association and it opens for business on Wednesday the 12th.
The young Mr Mertrum’s leg wound from the stage coach becomes infected and on Thursday the 8th the local saw bones Chuck is forced to perform the amputation from the knee down.

Well firstly Mr Doolin decided that this trip over to the west wont be as quick and painless as he was hoping and with that in mind he started looking around town for more permanent accommodation, he also cancelled his employment deal with Mac and Stone but promises them a reward for any information that leads to him finding Lumber Jack Mike. Unfortunately for him he finds that Saint George lacks some what in available houses and during a meeting with the town Mayor he finds out that this is due to an issue with timber supply. It turns out that Kwans raiders have set up shop some where out along Mitchell’s trail that runs north into Oregon and have been stoping the Hanlan’s lumbar supplier from being able to get their deliveries into town. The Hanlan’s are now forced to wait it out till the Iron Dragons railway reaches town for a new supply line but that is at best four months away.
According to the mayor Kwan had a negotiator of sorts come to town and offer the mayor an alternative source of timber from down south but the prices were outrageous and he couldn’t even meet the required quantities.

Mac spends his week getting friendly with old man Hanlan and his crew of workers down at the docks. He makes himself a few dollars and all so gets the chance to meet the rather strange Chinese man known as Xin who makes the ghost rock engines for the Hanlan’s ship yard.

Sister Grace spends her week making a few quiet inquires into the Rockies enforcer Voodoo Tony. From what she finds out the “Voodoo” part of his name might be nothing more then a nickname but the fella’ does seem to take an awful lot of pleasure from the killing and hell raising involved in his role in the Rockies.

Player T’s character: John Steel
Occupation: Gambler
Gender: Male
Age: 32
Birthplace: Boston, MA
General Appearance Quirks: not even the nice suit he wears can hide that John is a little rough around the edges. With unkempt hair and hands that have never done a hard days work in their life, apart from the odd game of poker.

Marshals notes: It appears I have been referring to this character as Stone rather then Steel, he finally got his chr bio up on our forums over the weekend so I realised my mistake.

Player S’s Character: Captain Artimus Pennybottom (Cap'n Red Art)
Occupation: Pirate Captain
Gender: Male
Age: 33
Birthplace: Cornwall England

Biography:
Artimus Pennybottom was born in Cornwall into a Naval Family. His great grandfather sailed against America for the King in the war of independence, he defected and was hanged. Artimus was a first class seaman in his majesty's service. He was court marshalled for fornicating with his Admiral’s wife and step daughter, at the same time. He escaped death by stealing a great galleon from the docks at the royal Cornish naval port. He sailed to the states and started a new. With his military background he got work at the start of the civil war working for the governor of California. He was under command of a fleet commander of the navy for the Northern forces and his duties were to take crews out into the maze to monitor piracy. Two years he spent out in the maze of which he spent most of his time performing blatant acts of piracy himself. Stealing large amounts of ghost rock from lesser pirate vessels and taking most of their women. His deeds went unnoticed from the navy and his commander, during this time his crew called him Cap'n Red Art. Captain Artimus Pennybottom was discharged from service once again. This time because he was caught buggering the Governor’s wife. He escaped into the maze and slipped into obscurity. The governor later died and he was free to sail the maze as captain of his own ship. The Galleon he stole from his home land he came to call "The Golden Coin Purse". It had been decked out and improved over the years with the money he stole. His crew grew, mainly with military deserters and escaped slaves. It was Sergeant Bull Rogers, an ex-Texas Rangers, who started the mutiny against Cap'n Red Art. Arty's most loyal followers helped him survive by killing most of Bull's mutineers but eventually they had to jump over board. Sergeant Bull Rogers lost most of his loyalists and several fingers thanks to Captain Artimus and his rapier, but he still has his ship. It is now Captain Red Art's goal to get a new crew and re-claim his 'Golden Coin Purse'.

Marshals Notes: I realise there is no governor of California at this stage in Deadlands but I didn’t get to see the history until just prior to the session, Im sure we will sort it out. Apart from that this character has major comedy value and scored him a lot of laughs during the session. He is dead keen on recapturing his beloved ship “The Golden Coin Purse” which should lead to an interesting story.

Mr Doolin, Mac and Steel are sitting in the tap room at the #1 on Thursday morning quietly working through their respective breakfasts, the place is empty except for Jessie two who is methodically cleaning all the bottles that reside behind the bar and whistling quietly too himself. The first sign that something is amiss is when the whistling stops and looking up you notice Jessie eyeing two silhouettes moving down the boardwalk out front on either side of the main door.
A moment later the door swings open and the fattest Chinese you have ever seen enters the saloon. He stands about five and a half feet tall and must weigh around 300 lbs if he’s an ounce. Dressed in loose pants an open vest and those strange sandals that the Orientals seem to prefer, his chest, arms and massive belly are exposed too the world and covered in many intricate and colourful tattoos. His pudgy head is completely shaved eyebrows and all, the sight would be comical if it wasn’t for the fact that out of the corner of your eye you spot Jessie two nervously edging his way down the bar towards the spot he keeps that old scatter gun stashed.

The man makes his way confidently over to the table where the three of you are eating and with out a word pulls out another chair, which much to its protest he takes a seat on. He looks all three of you over slowly one after the other as you sit awkwardly trying to finish your mouthfuls before giving a big warm smile and bowing his head to you.

“Honoured gentleman please allow me to introduce myself, I am humbly known as old father whale. Mr Doolin I come before you and your esteemed associates to discuses a mutual interest of ours.”

As Old father Whale chats happily away, a cheerful smile planted squarely on his face, two rather surly looking men with the appearance of dock hands enter the saloon. One makes his way over to the bar while the other leans against the wall just to one side of the main door, both men clearly wear pistols at there hips and long knifes. The shadows of the figures moving about the boardwalk outside can still be seen.

“I am told that you are seeking out the gentlemen known as Mr Lumber Jack Mike and Mr Pickles and seeing as how I also seek these two gentlemen that we could be of assistance to each other. What I most humbly propose is that in the event that either of us locates these men we could share the details of where they currently reside in the hope that both of our goals could be achieved. I know I would be most appreciative to you and your associates for any assistance you could offer me in finding these gentlemen and even a man as lowly as I could be most generous in rewarding you for your effort.”

At this point the overpowering tenseness of the situation is broken some what by the sounds of heavy foot falls on the boardwalk outside. The door swings open and Sheriff Hicks takes three strides into the Saloon, he pauses a moment as he takes in the scene and then heads over to the bar and loudly orders a shot of whisky. Old Father Whale turns slowly and regards the sheriff with a big smile.

“Sheriff Hicks I would be honoured in joining you in a toast but unfortunately I find it is too early in the morning for my appetite for whisky to be roused.”

For a moment the air in the saloon turns to ice and there is barely a sound as the Sheriff turns, whisky in hand to eyeball the Chinese man. The seconds drag for an eternity as the two lock eyes and nobody else moves a muscle, the fact that you are in a room filled with tense and armed men comes screaming home.

“F&^% you fat man!” is the Sheriffs reply and he downs the whisky on one go, plants the glass back on the bar and then strides out of the saloon. Old father whale laughs happily and then heaves himself from his chair.

“Gentlemen you have honoured me with this meeting and I humbly ask that you consider my offer, Mr Jessie I will take care of these men’s meals.”

He pauses for a moment as the man at the bar places money on the counter then he performs a small bow to you.

“Mr Doolin, Mr Steel, Mr MacGregor … a pleasant day to you and may the fortunes bless you and your families.”

He finishes his bow, gives you one last smile then turns on his heal and walks out of the Saloon chuckling quietly to himself.

In attendance we had Big Mac the Scottish soldier of fortune, Sister Grace the trigger happy Nun and Introducing new characters Jack Dawkins the nimble fingered kid with a devil on his shoulder, Red Art the English Pirate looking for his lost ship, Brother Ezekiel the holy man following a vision and James West the Pinkerton out for vengeance.

The session starts on the outskirts of town in the early morning, Friday the 14th of April 1776. Brother Ezekiel and Jack Dawkins (Player R and Player J) met up in the wilderness a couple of days back and have been travelling together ever since.
Road weary and tiered they trudge down Dock St towards the #1 Saloon just as the stage coach from New Opportunity rolls into town.

As they come up on the Saloon they spot two men disembarking from the stage coach, one a smartly dressed gunslinger with two Gatling pistols at his side (the undercover Pinkerton Mr James West, Player D’s character) and a rather flamboyantly dressed fellow with a loose white silk shirt, gilded boots and a feathered cap (Red Art, Player S’s character.) Ezekiel waves at West and Art and Red Art regards the strange pair (One a classic monk in brown robes carrying a large cross on his back and the other a small boy who looks like a poor street urchin) and claims that he has heard this joke before .

The four chat for a moment and make introductions as a boy comes by handing out fliers with notice of the celebrations planed for Rockies office grand opening in town to be held on the following night. Apparently the celebration will involve free drinks at the #1 all night, a fire works show and for the next month all fundament sold at to the new Rockies office in town will get .25c extra per pound. Ezekiel then heads off to find the local Church and West and Art tag along, Jack the Kid decides to head in to the Saloon.

They spot the Church down the main street to the south and once they arrive are greeted by the local minister Nicholas who introduces them to Sister Grace who has been staying there. They ask a few questions about the town, Red Art makes some rather suggestive comments to Sister Grace before they all head back to the Saloon.

Jack meanwhile enters the #1 Saloon which raises a storm of laughter from Mac who is sitting having his breakfast with Steel and Mr Doolin. The boy ignores the Scotsman’s laughter and heads up to the bar and orders a meal and a beer but is turned down on the beer by Jessie two on the account of being too young. He finds himself a table out of the way not long before the others arrive back from the Church.

Red Art orders a couple of drinks and introduces himself to Mac who he then try’s to persuade into helping him recapture his ship “The Golden Coin Purse” and offers him a position on his crew as reward. Ezekiel orders himself a meal but has to take his dog (A wolf hound by the name of Cerberus who I may have forgotten to mention) outside as no animals are allowed in the Saloon. Mr West orders himself a drink and does a little chatting with Jessie two regarding the news in town, Jack uses this distraction as an opportunity to lift a whisky off the bar which West happens to notice.

The PC’s spend some time chatting between each other;
Jack gets a bit unnerved by the amount of attention he is receiving from older men.
Mac helps Art plan the recapturing of his coin purse, and Ezekiel organises a room for him and the boy in the #1.

Art goes to introduce himself to the Sheriff who seems less then impressed to be interrupted while reading his dime novel and as Art leaves Mac arrives which only sours him further. Mac buys the Sheriff a drink and enquires about a job the Mayor has offered him to eliminate the local Kwan leadership, the Sheriff knows that they are hiding up near the Oregon border but aside from that has little interest in offering Mac more help.

Mr West goes looking for the Hanlan’s middle son Caleb who is more commonly referred to as “that no good drunk Hanaln kid.” He manages to find him sleeping off last night in an alley in low town, after an hour or so rouses him some what and then offers to buy him a drink at what passes for a saloon in low town.

The kid is concerned only by getting as much food and drink into him that the others are buying so sticks to the saloon where Grace and Ezekiel are feeding him.

Mac does a round of the town trying to dig up any new information on Lumberjack Mike and Pickles but hears nothing new except for the rumour that he may have been seen near Parkons shaft.

As much as West try’s to prevent it Caleb gets himself shamefully drunk and proceeds to give West the sob story of his life along with insulting half the “patrons” at Salty Bills. West ends up buying Caleb a further bottle of heavily watered whisky before convincing him to leave Bills by dragging him kicking and screaming into the street. West continues to drag Caleb up Dock St to high town in an attempt to get him home to the Hanlan’s manor but is interrupted by Mac who takes offence to seeing his fellow Scott and drinking buddy being man handled. Angry words are exchanged, little helped by Caleb’s drunken ramblings (at one stage he complained that he had been wrongfully arrested and he can’t have molested that horse because it was his ) but all of it is forgotten when Old Father Whale arrives.

Whale greets Mac who seems unimpressed by the impromptu meeting and then introduces himself to West. Both West and Mac decide to leave Caleb sleeping in the street and West heads to the #1 while Mac and Whale head down to the docks for a chat.

As they approach the dock Mac notices that the three surly dock workers who were tailing Whale have become five but Whale seems friendly and his only interested in discussing business. After a few minutes of wheeling and dealing the two agree that Whale will provide Mac with information on the Kwan’s forces in the area in exchange Mac will pass on any information he gets on Mike and Pickles plus he will owe Whale a favour. Mac doesn’t seem to like the idea of owing Whale a favour but is assured it is nothing to get overly concerned with.

The next day Grace and Ezekiel head to church for their morning prayers while the Kid takes a look around town. It seems a long line of miners outside the Rockies office has appeared trying to taking advantage of the celebration offer but besides that there are people around setting up for the night’s festivities.

West goes to see Mayor Bram Hanlan looking too help out with the day and the Mayor after a quick size up of West writes him a note and sends him to see the Sheriff. When he gets to the Sheriff’s office Hicks seems less then impressed to have the Mayor forcing help on him, the Sheriff tells West to pull up a chair out front and that he will yell if he needs help.

The town already seems much more rowdy with all the drunken miners even at this early hour of the day so Mac picks up a few bits and pieces from the general store and then heads down to low town to see the slightly eccentric “engineer” Xin about getting a scope made for his Bullard express rifle.

Grace and Ezekiel get to chatting and the monk offers to do some miracle healing on the gut would which has been causing Grace some grief since the gun fight in the first session. Grace accepts and a short while later the wound in her belly is little more then a fading memory, after this Grace informs Ezekiel that she intends to do some poking around to get more information on the Rockies enforcer Voodoo Tony and he agrees to accompany her to the Sheriffs office.
The Sheriff tells the holy couple that he doesn’t know where Tony is but if he was a betting man he would guess at the Rockies office and when they arrive there it takes some effort to push their way through the crowd of miner’s keen to offload their fundament. The inside of the Rockies office looks some what like a bank with clerks sitting behind iron bars weighing up ghost rock and handing out money, behind them is a big vault door across the back wall. One of the clerks listens to Graces request to see some one in management and he runs off to get Tony who greets the pair with his signature Cheshire cat grin.
Tony shows the two of them upstairs to a rather lavish office where the local Rockies boss Mr Clay is playing a game of patience behind a big polished timber desk. Mr Clay asks them how he can be of service and seems to be slightly amused when Grace tells him that they are actually here to see Tony. Grace seems a little unsettled by the situation but presses on to ask Tony about the origin of the Voodoo part of his name and is informed that it is nothing more then a nickname he picked up back in his home town of New Orleans, he then tells Grace that she shouldn’t worry because he is a dedicated Church goer. At this Grace seems quite flustered by the situation and Ezekiel makes an excuse about her recovering from an injury and that she probably just needs some fresh air. As Tony shows them out the sound of Mr Clay laughing to himself follows them down the stairs.

Meanwhile the day wears on and the town gets progressively rowdier as the local miners settle in for some heavy drinking. West keeps an eye on things but apart from the occasional fist fight nothing too bad happens.

Later that night Main St is in full swing and the area is chocked full of drunken miners. Mr Clay makes a speech about the prosperity that the new Rockies office will bring to the area and encourages everyone to drink up and have a good time just as the fire works show begins.

Everything seems to be going swimmingly until there is an blood curdling scream from up Main St! Sadie the kitchen hand from the #1 comes running down the street yelling about a hulking demon with glowing red eyes in the alley besides the general store, the posse and half of the people in ear shot pull out fire arms and take off towards the alley.

The alley is dark but seems to be unoccupied and once they retrieve a lantern they make their way in to discover a headless corpse crumpled up on itself about half way down. Mac and West notice a that the area and the body seem to be surprisingly lacking in blood but there is a small splatter trail and some heavy boot prints leading further away from the Main St. The Sheriff arrives at this stage and shoos away the crowd, he gives the body a quick eye ballin’ and recognises the man by a tattoo on his arm as “Stickweed Anderson” a local trapper that comes into town on occasions.

The Posse race down to the end of the alley following the trail they found which turns in the lot behind the store and enters another alley that runs behind the #1 onto Dock St. By the time the trail reaches the street the blood splatters have finished and the boot prints are lost in the festivities. Grace calls on her faith and uses a miracle to confirm that who ever they were chasing headed west down Dock St back towards the crowd outside the #1 to which seems strange to Ezekiel because a Demon should not be able to mingle in amongst the people like it seems to have.

The posse pushes through the crowd looking for anything unusual but apart from Voodoo Tony giving Grace a big grin everything seems to be normal. Back in the alley the body is inspected and it seems to be fairly fresh but lacking most of its blood, what ever removed the head left a rather jagged tearing cut and apart from a few scraps of wet hessian the alley way is fairly empty.

Sadie is questioned and recounts that she had been returning to the #1 from her home and had ducked into the mouth of the alley to avoid a fist fight between two miners, she was standing there a moment when she felt a cold tingly feeling on the back of her neck and turned to see two eyes like the firs of hell staring at her from down the ally. She remembers that the “Demon” was big and terrifying but doesn’t recall seeing a body or any one else in the alley.

The investigation comes to a staggering halt and Grace, Eze and Mac head to the #1 to have a chat with Sadie while West returns to his spot outside the Sheriffs office. The Sheriff and his Deputy Tommy get the body onto a wagon and head off to the undertakers and apart from the new topic of conversation everything starts to settle down some what.

All of a sudden a fight erupts between two groups of miners out front of the #1, harsh words are exchanged and accusations of claim jumping are made, hands hover dangerously close to pistols as the tension builds. The Turner crew and the McLaughlins have had bad blood between them for years and it looks like it will explode in town and with the Sheriff off at the undertakers Mr West is stuck in the middle of it.
Guns are out all of a sudden but no one seems to be willing to fire the first shot, Mr West approaches with his Gatling pistols drawn trying to talk both sides down. His gentle approach seems to back fire on him tho and the Turner crew open fire on the McLauhlins, the hail of gunfire bringing most of them to the ground so in the McLaughlins defence West goes to work with both of his pistols peppering the Turners with a scary amount of lead, for his trouble he catches a slug or two as well.

With everybody a bit sore and sorry when the Sheriff arrives he manages to stare down the lot of them and manhandle them off to the goal once all the drunken miners have been cleared out.

We had an incident about half way through the session that forced Red Art’s and the Kids players to leave, it also lost us about an hour’s game time. Aside from that tho things went ok, I have all of the people currently interested in the game playing now and the foundations are laid for us to build upon.

There has been a lot of out of session messaging on our forums as the players start to set up their own goals and agendas but so far it looks like the game is gaining some nice momentum.
So look like next session I can start making things interesting

The Turners and the McLaughlins after having their weapons confiscated are all released from gaol the next morning apart from one of the Turners named Ike, Ike seems to have a Gatling pistol slug lodged near his liver that the sawbones Chuck is unable to do anything about. The Turners are taking Mr West’s involvement in what they call a fair fight as a rather sizable grievance and stare daggers at him as they leave the Sheriffs office.
Mr West approaches the McLaughlins in Bills saloon later that day and offers to help them find a new claim in a hope of settling the feud between the two groups, once the McLaughlins are finished laughing at the Pinkertons offer they thank him for his help in the fight but don’t seem to think the gunslinger in the pretty suit will be of much help to their mining endeavours.

Ezekiel spends his time trying to dig up any more information on the murdering Demon who has come to town but within a day he is hearing stories of 40ft flaming hell spawn biting the heads off cows . The only decent witness to the event Ms Sadie is getting so frazzled by the constant barrages of questions she is receiving at the #1 that Sheriff Hicks steps up and threatens to pistol whip the next person who mentions the words Demon or murder anywhere near her.

Mac receives a visit from Old Father Whale letting him know about the local Kwan’s being led by a man named Bartel, an ex Union deserter who is seconded by a man known only as “The Bear”. Bartel is known to be a smart and resourceful leader who has his men dug in near and old abandoned tin mine up near the Oregon border.

Mr Doolin spends a bit more time poking around in the who’s and how’s of the local government while Sister Grace checks in with Father Nicholas about his theories on the supposed Demon in town.

A body washes up near Xin’s workshop and it turns out to be the muscle bound dock worker Jim Steple who has a rather nasty gun shot wound right between his eyes .

Around sundown on the 17th the Turner lad Ike finally succumbs to the bullet in his gizzards and Mr West is confronted by a very angry and very drunk member of the Tuner crew not long after in the #1. The man yell’s at West labelling him a murderer and claiming he will pay for his actions but before things turn nasty the remaining Turner crew show up and drag the angry drunk back to low town .

Finally as the sun rises on Saint George on the morning of the 18th, Mr Doolin and Mac are making their way down stairs for breakfast at the #1 when they are approached by Jessie two who informs them about a rumour that Pickles was spotted in low town last night .

In attendance we had the long winded lawyer Mr Doolin, the card loving Mr Steel, the cross toting monk Ezekiel and his “friend” young Jack Dawkins, accompanied by the well armed Agent Mr West and the randy Pirate red Art.

The session starts just as the bar tender from the #1 saloon Jessie told Mr Doolin that Pickles had been spotted in the tent city in low town last night. As you may or may not remember Pickles is a known associate of Mr Mike “Lumberjack” Preston who is Mr Doolins main interest in Saint George on account of him being the future recipient of the last will and testament that Doolin is here to deliver. So Mr Doolin grabs Steel and heads off to low town in the search of any lead on Lumberjack Mike.

Marshals Note: At this point there was only Mr Doolins and Mr Steels players in attendance. It was going to be a session with people arriving and leaving at all different time due to other commitments.

When they arrive at tent city despite the early hour it is already a bit of a mad house, it appears that Old Father Whale must have heard the rumour of Pickles trip to town as well and has a few of his more intimidating “dock hands” searching the area for any signs of the man.
Doolin and Steel approach Whale who gives them a warm smile, they exchange pleasantries and he tells them that all tho his men have been turning the place over for an hour they have found no sign of Pickles. The three of them wander further into tent city and come across two of Whales men arguing with an angry miner outside of his tent. The miner seems to have taken an issue with Whales men wanting to search his things and Steel and Doolin look on in shock as the two dock hands proceed to beat the miner after a nod from Whale. Mr Doolin interjects and manages to persuade the miner into spillin' his guts rather then loosing it, so he tells the group about another miner named Blacktooth Curtis who despite not having done a lick of work in the last two years came wandering down from high town last night with a monster load of supplies and the kicker... him and Pickles used to be buddies.

With this new information the two set off hot on the trail. At Nicks general store the find out that Blacktooth did come in for a big load of food and mining supplies just as he was closing up last night. They then return to low town to scour the docks, Salty Bills Saloon and all the alley ways in between looking for Blacktooth but all the get for their troubles is;

* The docks are fairly quite but they get a gun pulled on them by a hungover cowboy who doesn’t appreciate the early morning wake up .

* Abused and then propositioned by the rather homely cleaning lady come waitress at Bills Saloon. She does however let them know that Blacktooth is a regular but she didn't see him in the Saloon at all after lunchtime yesterday .

* A walking tour of the lavatory/dumping ground/low rate flop house commonly known as the alley ways around Bill's Saloon. This netted them a massive loss of appetite and a smell that may never properly wash out of Mr Doolins expensive suit but apart from that nothing .

In pure desperation they headed over to the Hanlan's shipyard as it appeared to be the only place in low town up and running at this early hour and by luck one of the workers there had spotted Blacktooth heading into high town this morning on his way to work.

Back to high town they go and drop in on Sheriff Hicks to see if he has spotted Blacktooth today. In exchange for them leaving him the hell alone he informs the pair that he saw Blacktooth heading south down Main street in the direction of the church a while back. At the church they find nothing and the pastor hasn’t seen Blacktooth but while they are chatting they hear a gunshot from back in the direction of town.

They arrive at the Rockies office which they had passed on their way to the church just as the Sheriff and Deputy Tommy run up from the other way. Standing out the front of the office is Voodoo Tony, gun in hand staring down two of Whales dock hands. Tony informs the Sheriff that the two “gentlemen” had been harassing a miner who had just finished a transaction with the association and Tony had been forced to step in, as no one was hurt the Sheriff sends the dock hands back to low town with a stern warning and eyeballs everyone else before heading off. Mr Doolin attempts to pry some information out of Voodoo Tony but makes the mistake of mentioning his some what dubious relationship with Whale which instantly turns Tony cold to him. After the less then nothing Tony gives them Mr Doolin and Steel head inside to see the Rockies manager Clay who confirms that Blacktooth did just sell some Ghostrock here and that no he doesn’t think it strange that Blacktooth has suddenly taken up mining again after two years.

Marshals Note: At this point Ezekiel's, Jacks and Arts players arrive.

Some what depressed by their lack of success with the morning Steel and Mr Doolin return to the #1 for breakfast where they run into Red Art and the Kid Jack Dawkins. After breakfast Doolin recruits Art and the three of them head back towards tent city while Jack heads out to introduce himself to the local street kids.

Meanwhile Ezekiel returns from his morning prayers at the Church and heads over to the Sheriffs office with the intention of furthering his investigation of the Stickweed murder (or as the being a massive pain is his ass as the Sheriff sees it.)
The Sheriff doesn’t seem to know any more but in attempt to remedy two of his problems in one foul swoop he asks the Monk to go out to see sawbones Chuck at his tannery about some break in he was squawkin' about last time he was in to see to Mr Mertrum wound. Ezekiel follows his noes north until her arrives at the tannery where Chuck explains that after he got back from the Rockies celebration the other week his side door was open even tho he bars it from the inside, all tho nothing was missing some damned fool had scattered his tools all over the place and taken a sack of hooves he was going to sell and dumped them on the floor. Chuck seems to think it might have been some sort of critter attracted by the smell of the blood but Ezekiel seems to think that the break in and Stickweed may have more in common the Sheriff Hicks realised .

Meanwhile in lowtown Art, Doolin and Steel notice that Whales boys have gone from a strategy of “turn everything upside down in the hope that Pickles will be under it” to the more reserved tactic of “stand around town giving everybody the evil eye until somebody confesses to being Pickles.” So far it doesn't seem to be working as they all appear tiered and bored. The three lads do another pass through the tent city before heading back to Bill's Saloon but neither Blacktooth or Pickles are anywhere to be seen and a quick questioning of Whales nearest thugs lets them know that they lost Blacktooth some where between high town and here. A few drinks and a couple of lost poker hands later and Steel finds out that Blacktooth hasn't left town in forever and that two days ago he didn't have two nickels to rub together .

The three of them return to high town to poke around looking for more leads when they come across Caleb Hanlan leaving the #1 in a foul mood due to his brother cutting off his bar tab again. He proceeds to complain about having to drink at Bill's instead and the fact that a lot banging and crashing in the scrap yard behind Xin's workshop woke him from his slumber this morning, with exception to those details Caleb is as useless as ever.

The group run into Whale outside the flop house in low town who doesn't seem to be having any more luck then they are, he has men posted on all the exits from town but so far his net has caught nothing. At this point Jack the kid spots Doolin and Co and follows them on their way over to search Blacktooths dwellings in tent city, Doolin attempts to question some of the local Chinese living around the area with his limited knowledge of their language he picked up in College but his fumbled attempts cause a women to grab her child and disappear back into their tent . This show causes the kid to fall over laughing which draws the attention of Red Art who offers the scruffy looking lad some coin if he can find Blacktooth.

Jack sets about talking to the local street kids and ends up hearing that one of them saw Blacktooth hiding out in Xin's scrap yard so he high tales it over there to take a look. It turns out his source was right as he finds Blacktooth and the man he assumes to be Pickles staring glumly at a small camp fire hidden behind some old ship parts, Pickles however hears him creeping around and comes looking with scatter gun in hand. Jack vamooses back to Mr Doolin and the others to tell them what he has found and collects his reward.

Mr Doolin, Steel and Art are over at the scrap yard as quick as can be with young Jack Dawkins following not far behind. They approach the camp site calling out their non violent intentions but when they get there it is empty except for the recently extinguished fire sending a trail of smoke up into the breeze.
They start poking around when a noise from further back in the scrap yard leads them to find Blacktooth cowering behind a section of an old boat. Despite Mr Doolin's reassuring words Blacktooth swears that he doesn't know Pickles and that he hasn't seen him but his nervous glace over Doolins shoulder gives away Pickles trying to sneak away down the small path between Xin's workshop and the side of the ravine.

Art stays to watch Blacktooth while Doolin and Steel take off after the old miner Pickles, his long duster flapping out behind him as he turns and high tales it up the dock. Pickles doesn't seem to be paying attention to Doolin's shouts but as he passes the first warehouse he spots two of Whales boys further up the dock and quickly ducks right into one of the Alley ways. Whales men notice the commotion and start heading too the ally but a quick thinking Doolin convinces them that Pickles has just been spotted over in Tent city and Whale needs to know immediately. As the two thugs depart back in the other direction Steel and Doolin edge slowly into the quite alley, crates strewn up and down its length making for plenty of hiding spots..
Steel takes a few tentative steps down the alley until he spots what looks to be the tail of Pickles duster poking out from behind a crate a few more feet on. He continues slowly forward as Mr Doolin try's to talk Pickles out from back at the mouth of the alley but as Steel finally gets to the crate he looks over to find that there is just a discarded duster laying on the ground?!?

As Steel realises he’s been tricked a now coatless Pickles steps out from behind one of the crates between the two men and jam's his scatter gun in Mr Doolin's face. “Lose the gun boy or you'll be able to use that fancy suit to strain the chunks o' skull out your BRAINS!! ” is Pickles opening argument and the flustered Mr Doolin struggles to regain his composure and convince Pickles that he means him no harm. As Doolin tells Pickles that they are only interested in finding his friend Mike so he can carry out the requests of his fathers will it becomes some what apparent that Pickles may not be all there in the head. His hands and mouth are stained black from years of Ghost rock mining and his eyes dart frantically around the area, not only that but the constant twitching of his hands has Doolin worried.
Pickles seems to have no interest into taking the pair to see Mike or in giving them the details of Mikes whereabouts but he offers to deliver any items in the will to Mike next time he sees him. Mr Doolin refuses this offer but in return offers Pickles assistance in his plight in exchange for Mike's location. Pickles seems to be paying less and less attention to Doolin and edges his way past the lawyer and out onto the docks, when he notices that Whales boys are no longer about he takes off with a bolt and runs up to docks to one of the moored boats. The boat is a small Maze runner called the Louisa Grey and with the turn of a valve and the pull of a leaver Pickles starts up its Ghostrock engine and steers the boat out into the maze!

Marshals Notes: At this point we gained Mr Wests player and lost Mr Steel and Doolins players.

Mr West finally rouses himself around midday and heads down stairs at the #1 for a meal, after which he takes to the town looking for work. He doesn't seem to be having a lot of luck until an irritated comment from old man Hanlan about “those damn Kwans holding up me timber!” sends him back to the Mayors office. The Mayor reluctantly offers him the supposedly “secret” bounty on the Kwans local leadership but advises him that he will no doubt need help.

West mosses back over to the #1 for a drink where he runs into Art, Ezekiel and Jack who all sit down to swap tales of the day over a whisky or five when West is approached by a young lady. She timidly tell West that “some man” told her to come find him, apparently this man has information relating to Stickweed's murder and wants to meet West in the lot behind the general store right now.
Despite the warnings from Art and Ezekiel about the likeliness of it being a trap West assures his friends he will be fine and heads off to the lot by himself.

West makes his way down the alley besides the general store as the sun sets off on the horizon sending long shadows over the ground. When he gets to the far end of the alley no one seems to be around but the growing dark makes it hard to see much. After calling out and getting no answer he decides to head further in but a dozen steps later the eerie silence is suddenly broken by,

“YOU'LL PAY FOR WHAT YOU DID TO IKE YOU SON OF A B%^CH!!” and the crack of a rifle shot!

It seems the three remaining members of the Turner crew have set out to even the score for Ike Turners death and Mr West has just wandered right into the middle of their ambush. Travis Turner plugs West in the back with his rifle knocking him to the ground and leaving him stunned and bleeding . Luckily for West Ezekiel, Art and Jack were slightly paranoid and decided to tail West to the other end of the Alley, the sound of the rifle shot is enough to spur them into action so they draw weapons and charge after him!

Travis seems intent on makin' sure West stays down so he plugs him again for good measure just as West starts to get his wits about him, Turners two side kicks take shots as well but their aim seems to be slightly lacking compared to their leader. Art is the first to make it into the lot and dashes right towards the closest Turner but the man shoots and Art has to dive behind some empty barrels to avoid the bullet which barely grazes his leg. Ezekiel is not far behind Art, praying too his god for the strength and wisdom to guide his hand he charges across the lot at the gunman on the far side while Jack tries to sneak up on Travis Turner.

Art springs to his feet again and chases the man who shot at him around behind the #1's chicken coup, the man turns to fire his pistol but Art's rapier is faster and he rams it right through the man’s stomach. Turner's man stands there for a moment gaping at the sword protruding from his gut's until Art gives him an impressed look and says “Wow that’s really in there! My word” after which he unloads both barrels from his scatter gun into the poor fella.

Meanwhile Ezekiel charges across the lot towards the gunman in the back who fires one into the monks gut’s, it leaves a nasty wound but the holy man’s righteous fury keeps him up and charging! He wields that big honking cross he is always carting around like a club and brings it down on the man's arm breaking it and knocking the gun from his hand, then Ezekiel's cross comes around a second time and knocks the sense’s outa' him.

It seems the sight of a rabid frothing monk charging across the lot has confused Travis Turner long enough for Jack to sneak up behind him and lift his six gun out of the holster. The kid takes it in both hands, points it at Travis's back, ***** back the hammer and says “Hey mister … ya drop something?” Turner throws a glace over his shoulder at the kid and decides to buck the odds swinging his rifle butt in an attempt to knock Jack down, Jack try's to dive out of the way but gets caught in the thigh for his troubles and flops to the ground in pain.

Ezekiel comes rushing to the kids aid but Travis levels his rifle at him and he is forced to duck for cover. While Art makes a dash from across the lot and tries to slice open Travis with his rapier, however the miners swinging rifle is able to keep him at bay. Ezekiel is up and into the fray but it seems that Travis is an old hand at brawling and manages to fend both men off at the same time, his rifle butt catches Art in the gut but he looses it deflecting Ezekiel's cross.
Travis gives the holy man a kick to the “robe” then quick draws his knife to fend off Art as the Sheriff and Deputy Tommy appear at the mouth of the alley. “WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON DOWN 'ERE!” yells the law man which Ezekiel ignores as he tries to club Travis again but still can't land a hit on the plucky miner. Art manages a shallow cut on Travis as the Sheriff yells for them all to drop their weapons but Ezekiel is practically brimming with rage and hell fire and pays him no heed. The Sheriff provides enough distraction for the monk to finally score a hit which knocks Travis to the ground, this pisses Hicks off something mighty and he promises Ezekiel that if he tries to swing that cross again he will shoot it out of his hands!
The group finally relinquish their weapons under the death stare of Sheriff Hicks who rounds them all up and drags them back to his office to sort matters out.

The game is starting to get some momentum at this point but there seems to be one major issue that I am facing. The game is meant to be very character driven but despite my explanations and conversations with some of the players they don’t seem to have got their heads fully around this idea. Many of them seem to think that “Player driven” is just a fancy word for sandbox game which in a way it is but they seem to be under the impression that if they wander mindlessly around town enough asking NPC’s for jobs that eventually they will find something to do.
Red Art’s and Doolins players seem to be fine and Mac’s player is finding his feet quick enough but the others seem to be struggling some what. I don’t want to feed them random hooks every time they go looking and all tho I have thrown some out I have made sure they are either vague and confusing or overly difficult where as with player driven plots I have tried to keep them moving well. This may be frustrating a couple of the players because they are feeling some what left out but as I have said to them “my goal is to hunt monsters and bad guys!” is really not a strong enough motivation for the game im trying to run.

Should i switch the game to suit the players?
No is my first thought as I tried explaining to them what the game would be like prior to character generation but as many gaming books over the years have advised a plain “No” is never as beneficial as a “yes but”. Maybe adding some hooks into the game that get them more involved in the goings on of the town so they get more of a feeling for their surroundings could be beneficial.

Ehh enough on that for the moment, if you have any thoughts to add please don’t hesitate.

Otherwise im happy, the open rolling is working well as I saw this past session;

West’s player had to watch as the ramifications of his actions were spelled out by the dice so he couldn’t complain to loudly about a killer DM. All so Travis Turners impressive display of brawling aptitude considering his mediocre skill level became a tough and amusing battle due to the players watching both sides of the dice rather then the DM just trying to drag out a fight if I did it behind the shield.

I think Doolin and Steels players were a bit annoyed when the Kid found the man in they had been looking for for the last 3 hours in about 15 mins. Truthfully this was bad Marshalling on my account in hindsight but in the same breath I needed a way to build even a small relation ship between Jack, Doolin and Steel. All so I was having an issue that session with Doolin and Steels player wanting an NPC’s confirmation that what they were thinking was right every step of the way rather then going out to check on their own theories, between that frustrating me and my head struggling with the cold I made some choices which could have been handled better.

What comes next?
There have been some between game antics regarding Art and his ship “The Golden Coin Purse” and West is trying to get together a Posse to take on the local Kwans. I am thinking of adding some more major NPC’s to the mix to make things interesting but I we will just have to wait and see.

Well it seems that the Undertakers business is on the up and up ever since Pickles and Mike struck it big!

After the shoot out in the lot behind the general store the Sheriff drags all the living participants back to his office. It is quickly apparent that the Turners plotted the ambush and Art, West and Ezekiel are released while Travis Turner and his remaining offsider Al Winston are locked up to await the arrival of the circuit judge. The Sheriff doesn't seem too happy about this as it might be months before the circuit judge next comes to town and with the constantly growing population of Saint George his little gaol spends more time full then he would like. The Mayor and Hicks can be heard arguing about it long into the night after everybody else has headed over to the #1 but luckily one cell is freed by Pastor Nicholas offering to look after the recovering Mr Mertrum at the church.

It’s hard not to notice that Saint George is getting more and more crowded as the days go on, it seems every time you glance outside the #1 another wagon load of fortune hunters have rolled into town. There is a waiting list on renting a room at the Saloon and the tent city in low town continues to expand to the point where little space is left.

A rather sleep deprived looking Mayor Hanlan invites Mr Doolin to his office to proposition him, he wishes to maintain a sense of law and order in the town and to do that the Turner crew need a fair trial not a lynch mob. He doesn’t have the time to wait on the circuit judge so he asks if Mr Doolin will sit in as Judge for the trial.

This week all so sees the return to town of infamous gunfighter and bounty hunter Buck Woods, a man whose reputation is built on a merciless hunter’s instinct and a shoot first shoot last attitude. The most widely spread story about him is the one in which he had his ring finger bitten off in a whore house by a Comanche magic women with the name “Laughing Crow Jane” he had been trackin’ across three states. Apparently Jane used the devils arts to trick Woods into her bed but when she went to scalp him half way through their dance Woods came to his senses, gouged out one of her eyes and got her in a fish hook hold. She bit clean through the finger before the fight was over but caught five .44 slugs for her troubles.

Young Jack was poking around low town during the week when he found Blacktooth Curtis passed out in an alley. The man looks like he took a short cut down the ravine to get to low town recently because his nose is broken, his arm is in a dirty make shift sling and he is missing a couple of his namesake teeth.

Sister Grace gives a rather hell fire and brimstone sermon at the church on Sunday about the need for vigilance in the faithful after the murder of Stickweed Anderson, she urges them to keep a careful eye about because the killer is likely someone they know. This seems to unnerve most of the regular church goers but Voodoo Tony finds it most entertaining.
After that she spends her time “snooping” around the docks keeping an eye on the boats coming in and out. Turns out that full nun’s getup isn’t the best outfit for keeping a low profile but she does manage to pick up rumours of a Pirate by the name of Dancing Toad Charlie and his ship the Lazy Sunrise attacking a mining camp in the nearby maze at a place called the Hollow.

[QUOTE=Art]It was the 1st of April 1875 when Captain Artimus Pennybottom made port in Oregon no more than 50 miles north of the border. It was a day that was living up to it's name sake. Art had been a fool to think he could sit idly back whilst those two merchant vessels fought over the trade rights to that port and take the spoils after they killed each other. The Golden Coin Purse was hit and started taking on water. He sailed north of the battle and managed to make port safely in some po-dunk town that was safe in it's obscurity. A few of his crew, that he hadn't taken the time to learn their names, were killed in this recent endeavour and he needed to recruit.

The pickings were slim here. No locals looked to be the type to sail at short notice and the jail house was full old men and drunks. Hardly the type to be worth the exploitation. Art was about to give up and sail north a bit further when he settled down in the towns only inn for a drink. He sat at a table with one of his more menacing crew members. A big Negro man who worked on the deck but was handy with a six shooter and handier with hammer. His handle was Smith but everyone just called him Corn-Bread. So Corn-Bread and the Cap'n sat there drinking when they saw a bunch of guns sitting at the table in the corner.

Captain Pennybottom was eaves dropping when he overheard their leader complaining.

"Boys I tell ya we will find work out here".

"Bull you been say'n that for months and we ain't found ****".

"Watch your tongue boy I am still you sergeant".

"You ain't sergeant o nothing Rogers you a joke".

"Cooper one more word out of you and I will give you a lead smile".

"Bull I don't think you got the lead any more. You wouldn't kill me and leave the three of ya'll with no one who can read. Plus I got all the money".

The Sergeant stood up and levelled his colt army in line with Cooper's face.

"You idiot Cooper. If I kill you I can take the money. Oh and I can read just fine".

*BANG* the bullet went straight in his mouth and left a messy puddle on the wall and floor behind him.

The sergeant sat down and then heard a loud belly laugh and the start of a slow clap.

"I like your style Ranger. The name is Captain Artimus Pennybottom and this is my associate Corn-Bread. You seem to be a long way from Texas. What brings you here"?

"I ain't no Ranger any more English, and I ain't got time for the law. I am out of work, money and patients so if you have been sent by the union I am not planning on answering to any of my crimes and you got a fight on your hands".

Corn-Bread gets up and walks over to the table. His sheer size makes the other two men with Bull shrink into cowardice and out their hands on the table and clearly away from their shooters.

"Ha ha. I am not the law and I care less about your crimes than I do about your dead friend there. Though I did see someone behind the bar duck out when you gave the inn a new paint job. This is a pathetic little town indeed but I imagine they have a Sheriff who probably doesn't appreciate murder in his towns private businesses. Tell you what, rather than explain what I do I will make you this offer really quickly. You and your boys here finish your drinks and make your way to the dock’s, get on my ship and have Corn-Bread show you to your bunks and I will tell the Sheriff you made you way for the stables. You work for me now and if you are willing to get your hands even dirtier then they are you will make a lucrative living. If you decline my offer I will have Corn-Bread here take you to my ship anyway and we'll have our cook turn you into chum for the fish. Your choice really.”

Now Bull Rogers was a brutal man but he knew when he was out numbered even in a room with only two enemies. He might be able to pick these two off but no captain comes into a bar with out men outside. So he chose to make this the light his boys were searching for.

"Boys it looks like we got a new boss".

"Excellent, Corn-Bread take these gentlemen to the Coin Purse and find them rooms, I believe one just opened up. So you two what are your names?"

Sergeant Bull Rogers answered for them "The little ugly one is Matt King but we call him Matty the Plague, and this big feller here is Bob Stackhouse. He's slow but strong and handy with a long arm."

"Right, have the Plague work in the powder store with that little Davie no toes he'll fit right in down there. Bull and Bob can start by helping board up the port side until we sail, after that we need some more shooters so get them on deck duty and send Bull up after we sail."

They sailed out and before long were heading back into the maze. It took some time for Bull to settle in to duties. He resisted the Captain's command for a while but his boys Matty and Bob were happy on board the ship. They hadn't sailed before but were learning the ropes pretty quick. The Golden Coin Purse was a pirate vessel but there was a certain class on board. The Captain kept things running well and made sure his men were fed, boozed and laid regularly.

Eventually Red Art saw that Sergeant Bull Rogers could be a commodity for the ship. When ever they made port Art would take Bull out recruiting. As menacing as Corn-Bread was Bull seemed to have a knack at convincing people to sail with them, usually by disposing of the first naysayer.

Captain Red Art never really had a first mate as such. He had his muscle and he had his shooters but he never gave any one that appointment, but if it was to be assumed Bull fit the bill.

The problem Sergeant Bull Rogers had was that he was too impetuous, it was what got him chased out of Texas. In the year or so he sailed with Captain Artimus Pennybottom he had got the fear into a few of the crew but not more then the captain himself so when the mutiny began he had only a handful of loyalists on his side.

He had Stackhouse but Matty the Plague was too scared to turn on the ship so he stayed below deck. So it was purely surprise that won the day for him although it was a flawed victory. There were 15 men that stood behind Bull when they knocked on the Captain's door. It took a few seconds for them to realise that Corn-Bread and Ugly Pete had cut 5 of them down from the back. Bob grabbed Ugly Pete by the shirt front and he yielded as soon as the gun touched his lips. Corn-Bread kept fighting with a few of the Captain's crew behind him but Sergeant Bull was in no mood to lose. He took out nigh on 20 men with his 6 shooters and Stackhouse's rifle. Now it is hard to say who died on board but when Captain Artimus emerged form his room he could see only chaos.

Bull was covered in pink mist and had his eyes focused on the Cap'n now. Cornbread was wounded but still smashing faces in with a mallet. Ugly Pete was on the floor with a gun to his head as Bob Stackhouse fought off a couple of young crew men with his other hand. He didn't know the names of the 4 men standing beside Rogers but he recognised them as the new recruits that had come down from Washington. Bull had convinced them to turn quickly. That made Artimus quite mad and with rapier in hand he cut his way through them like butter. Sergeant Bull Rogers was actually stunned, he hadn't seen his Captain get blood on his own hands yet and had no idea he was so lethal. Stunned he actually let Art's scatter gun reach his belly before he grabbed the barrel with his left hand. With a dirty smile Cap'n Red Art hit blade to barrel and cut three of Bull's fingers and the thumb of his left hand. If only he didn't stop to laugh.

Bull pistol whipped the Captain and Art saw that Corn-Bread had been thrown over board. The Cap'n knew he could keep his ship and live so he followed suit and jumped overboard. Both Corn-Bread and Artimus got hold of a small bit of drift wood and made their way form the Golden Coin Purse.

They stuck together for some time but the Captain eventually sent Corn-Bread off to try and find out if any one else had survived with out turning over to Bull. It had been a while since he heard from him and he had begun to think he was on his own.

Then one day in a town called Saint George Captain Artimus had been working with a lawyer and some other rif raf trying to get a crew together when he walked into a bar named Bill's.

There he found his first lead in ages......[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Marshal]Art, you wander into the Bills’ on the evening of the 20th only to spot a familiar face ordering a drink at the bar. Little Davie no toes the yellow bellied ships boy who worked the powder store on the Golden coin purse for you, he stayed on with Rogers after the mutiny mainly due to his general dislike of both fighting and swimming. As you approach the bar he turns and drops his glass in pure terror but you manage to grab him by the scruff of the neck before he makes for the door.

“Cap’n Red I swear to you on me ol’ mothers grave I ain’t had nuffin’ to do wif dat’ mutiny and the only reason I dun’ stayed with Bull for so long is on account of me bein’ unable to find a ways to escapes him!!!”

Your ever keen eye notices the growing stain around Davies unmentionables and with little more then a raised eyebrow on your account he continues to spill his guts.

“I managed to get away just recently you see Cap’n! Bull had to put the Purse ta’ anchor in a little cove down south a ‘ere after we’s got broadsided by a Union Iron Clad a weeks back. Now ‘es all ‘old up in Injan territory wif ‘is new crew trying to get the Purse Sea worthy again! That new lot ‘es sailin’ wif at worf a gob of your spit if you ask me Cap’n, deserters and card cheats da lot of ‘em.! So that’s when me an Ugly Pete dun conspired to makes ow’ escape an made off wif one o’ da’ long boats!”[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Art]"Little Davie No Toes.... I never thought it would be you I saw first. I notice your smell hasn't improved. So you and Ugly Pete escaped you say? Pete yielded at the sign of steel but at least I could believe he escaped. How did you get the balls to leave? You can't even contain yourself now. Regardless what is this talk of the Purse? Did Bull send you? I swear to you in the name of the mad King George that if you are lying to me I will cut your little willy of and make you eat it."

I will go on to question him about the crew that were left alive.

"Have you seen Corn-Bread?.. and What happened to Bull's boys? Matty the Plague and Stackhouse? How many does he have on board now"?[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Marshal]"Matty's dead Capan', Bull had him keelhauled not long after you jumped ship. It won't pretty Capan' but Bull jus' kept sayin' it was what would happen' to any who wouldn't follow his lead."

Davies eyes go a little distant as he recalls this.

"As for dem others, Stackhouse is still on 'e Purse but he ain't to keen on dat fact. Corn-Bread i ain't seen hide nor 'air of and Pete ..." his mouth curls into a big dirty grin at this point, "Pete's out back wiff dat buck tooff barmaid attendin' to his manly urges!"

"The escape was mostly Petes doin' Capan' but he needed some one else workin' de oars wif 'im. I thoughts that Stackhouse would a' been 'is first choice but Bull dun let him up on deck to ofen'."[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Art]I contemplate his words briefly and stare through him as I think out loud.

"Hmm Bull always lead with fear more than any real skill. A man whose only followers are loyal through fear will quickly lose said loyalty when doubt begins to rise. Stackhouse is fierce but from the start I could sense his doubt in Bull. I am not surprised that ugly little Plague Matty is dead. When I saw he didn't surface in the fight I knew then it was only a matter of time. I give him credit though he didn't kill you, though he did wipe out so much of the crew it's a wonder he had enough men to sail to port at all."

I sit him down and order over 2 shots. When the barmaid doesn't come a smile forms on my face.

"Actually it has been so long since I has seen old Ugly Pete I can't wait for him to finish. Let's you and me go pay him a visit".

I put my arm around Davies' shoulder and stand him up. "Lead the way my stub footed friend the three of us need to have a little chat".[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Marshal]You find Ugly Pete in a small and sparsely decorated room out the back of Salty Bills Saloon, he has the barmaid strewn across a small and filthy looking cot and he is hunched over her rutting away like a possessed Corgi. At the sound of the door opening he unleashes a torrent of profanity that is only achievable by a true sailor as seasoned as he but once he finally glances to see who has entered he chokes on his words mid sentence. He stands gaping like a stunned mullet for a moment before his words finally return to him and in utter disbelief he says, “Cap’n?!?”[/QUOTE]

In attendance we had the boys from back east Mr Steel and Mr Doolin, we had Mac the Scotsman, Art the Pirate, Mr West the Pinkerton and Grace the Nun.

Ok this session begins with Art confirming the loyalty and sorting out his two returned crew members Davie no toes and Ugly Pete. The two of them have told Art that his beloved ship “the Golden Coin Purse” is a lot worse for wear after a run in with a Union Iron clad and is now beached and under repair further south in the Maze, deep in Injun’ territory but still in the clutches of his nemesis Bull Rodgers!. The ever swelling town of Saint George is a little shy of accommodation but he outfits his boys with some new gear and organises a camp site for them out the back of the #1.
Art then goes on to investigate the Maze runner that Pickles escaped on, the “Louisa Gray” and finds out from Owen Hanlan (eldest of the Hanlan boys and leading hand at the ship yards) that he did build the boat a year or so ago tho not for Pickles but for a man named [INSERT NAME HERE]. He then tracks down Blacktooth Curtis who is looking very sore and sorry for himself due to a rather intense “conversation” he had with Old Father Whale and his boys not long after Pickles left town. Art pries open Blacktooths lips with a drink or two and finds out that Pickles had payed him to buy supplies and load them onto the Louisa Gray as well as sell of some Ghostrock for him but had told him little else. Blacktooth doesn’t appear too happy about their deal considering the state it has left him in but he has no idea where Pickles has gone.

Art passes this information onto Doolin and Steel along with his “gut feeling” that Pickles has headed south along some of the more popular channels in the Maze. Together the three of them hatch a plan to charter a vessel and head into the Maze in the hope of locating Pickles and attempting to scout and possibly recapture Arts ship.

Art heads of to secure a ship from the Hanlans but finds that with the exception of the large galleon they are currently working on their cupboards are bear and it looks like their lumber supplies are too slim even to finish it. Owen promises to keep an eye out for any ships which may be up for charter but he makes no promises and Art is unable to find any more promising prospects.
After Art informs the others of this including the newly arrived Mac and West they get to discussing the possibility of trying to claim the Kwan bounty which the Mayor has offered as a way to aid in funding their trip into the Maze. Mac has some information he received from Whale regarding the local Kwan leadership and their location but he keeps this to himself simply telling the others that he should be able to locate the Kwan base of operations at a mine up near the Oregon border, he all so agrees to divide the “$300” bounty between all parities involved evenly [Marshal Note MN: The Mayors bounty is actually $500 but it is some what “secret” due to the Mayor trying to avoid escalated confrontation with the Kwans. Mac and West are the only two posse members to officially be offered the bounty but West seems to have forgotten the reward value, im sure that info will surface sooner or later.]

Meanwhile at the church Sister Grace is performing her morning prayers when she gets a visit from Voodoo Tony. Tony tries to subtly threaten Grace about sticking her nose to far into his business but she completely misconstrues it and ends up thinking that he is suggesting that the local pastor Nicolas may be the person responsible for killing Stickweed Anderson :smallamused:. [MN: lol it’s an interesting idea but maybe a bit to cliché for my tastes.]

The posse put together a tentative plan to use a barrel of lamp oil to smoke the Kwan raiders out of the mine and shoot them as they come out. They disperse to collect the required equipment for the trip with West and Doolin borrowing a horse and cart from the Mayor thanks to a hefty deposit and Steel picking up the lamp oil from the general store. Mac returns to the mad scientist/engineer Xin to see if his vague request for a scope for his rifle had been fulfilled and due to some sort of miracle it had [MN: That miracle in the form of some crazy high dice roles.] Xin was happy to part with the scope but had little interest in money, rather he made Mac promise to honour him a favour at a later date [MN: Mac seems to have a thing about owing favours to people.]

The posse (including Arts two man crew of Davie and Pete plus Sister Grace who they drag in for spirituel guidance) head north by north east up Mitchell’s run for two day before they come upon two burned hangin’ trees which is the marker Mac was looking for. They keep on north until they find the small rarely used trail Mac had heard about which heads off to the east, a quick investigation shows that some horses had been on the track recently. As the sun begins to set they lead the cart off the road and into the woods out of sight then gather to discuss their plan and that is where things get interesting.

As the posse starts going over their plan of attack things quickly become heated, Mac who has tried to take lead of the group has laid out a strategy and a few of the others aren’t to keen on it. His plan involves West and Art rolling the barrel of lamp oil up the centre of the track to the mine with Mac, Doolin, Grace and Steel following behind them off to the sides in the woods keeping an eye out. Once at the mine they will take the oil to the entrance and use it to “smoke out” Kwans men where they will shoot or capture them [MN: Im not sure who I lost more respect for at this point, Mac’s player for the plan or the rest of the group for even considering it.] Steel and West how ever were keen to try and sneak up the track and try to scout the mine before progressing further. The argument actually got so heated that Doolin had to step between the drawn guns of West and Mac and calm them both down to prevent a shootin’ then and there :smalleek:. In the end they conceded to Mac’s plan on account of him having all the information which got them here in the first place [MN: Im fairly sure that it was plans like this that got CO’s shot in the back in ‘Nam.]

So the sun has well and truly set as the posse leave Ugly Pete and Davie to watch the cart, West and Art start to roll the barrel up the track while the rest of them move through the trees keeping a carful eye out. It only takes them a short while before they spot signs of life further up the winding track and as they get closer to the camp fires their plans go slightly askew.

Ahead of them the track opens out into a decent sized clearing which seems to hold an old log shack and at least a dozen tents set up in orderly lines off to its side. As the track ends it is flanked by two horse traps just as it opens up to the clearing which seems to be guarded by a couple of men with rifles, further behind this the posse can see barricades set up to defend against people coming from their direction.
This gives the posse pause for a moment but the noise created by Art and West’s barrel rolling draws the guards attention who point their rifles and start hollerin’ “Who goes there?!” at the top of their voices! Art reacts first walking up to the horse trap with his hands in the air claiming that he is here to deliver lamp oil, the guards don’t seem to be buying this and keep their rifles trained on him but once he his close enough he rushes forward and attempts to skewer the man with his sword.

At this point all hell brakes loose!
Art and the guard attack simultaneously with the guard taking a nasty slash to the face and Art taking a glancing rifle shot to the guts [MN: Goodbye two fate chips!] Doolin and Mac get into firing positions at the edge of the woods while Steel and Grace try to hook around from either side, the shooting quickly draws more men from out of the camp and it’s not long before the lot of them are knee deep in a fairly vicious gunfight.
There is plenty of cover around which both sides quickly take advantage off with the exception of Mr West, he seems dead keen to stick to the barrel plan which not long ago he had been adamantly against and continues rolling the barrel up between the two horse traps as fast as he can. Being the only man with minimal cover he surprisingly draws a lot of fire which both fortunately and unfortunately for him hit the barrel he is rolling, one of the bullets just punctures the side splattering oil every were but the other hits the metal banding throwing off a decent enough spark to set the lot to blaze.

Final outcome small fireball at West’s feet. :smalleek: [MN: Goodbye some more fate chips.]

So while West performs a quick stop, drop and roll the rest of them exchange lead with the raiders, Mr Doolin puts his grandfathers rifle to good use picking of a few of few of the more entrenched men while Art rushes forward and Steel performs a good flank. Mac’s bullets seem to keep hitting cover rather then flesh while Grace attempts to sneak up behind a raider crouching behind a tree that from this point on will forever be know as a bullet magnet [MN: That tree deflected so many rounds that the players were considering chopping it down and making armour out of it.] The Kwans manage a rather ineffective flanking manoeuvre after the bellowed commands of a man standing back near the log cabin, but Grace manages to get behind the lad at the tree and screams out for him to surrender just has West extinguishes the fire on him and gets his wits back.
West determined to get back into the action draws both his Gatling pistols and opens fire on the raider behind the tree hitting both his target and Grace. Steel takes a couple of glancing hits but the lad seems to have a bit of a glass jaw and goes to ground with the wind knocked out of him. Mac and Doolin take care of the Kwan flank while Art finishes of a lot of the injured raiders by rushing them with his sword and scatter gun. As the posse starts to get control of the fight the stocky bearded man who was shouting orders and another remaining raider retreat back to through the cabin door.

The posse does a quick check that they are still all breathing and that none of them are bleeding too much, there is a small row between Mac and West about his stray lead hitting Grace but they get silenced and then all head for the cabin. It is a fairly basic single room structure with heavily boarded windows and they all take positions around the front door with the exception of Steel who flanks around to the south through the rows of tents.
The door is booted open and the posse rushes the cabin to find it free of people but there is another open door on the far side of the main room. Steel hooks around the back but it is dark as sin back there with little but star light to work from, he can see a small shack just back from the main cabin sitting next to what must be the entrance to the mine in the side of a small rocky hill. There are some large dark blotches further north but he runs quickly to the back door to meet up with the rest of the posse.

Inside the cabin is fairly sparsely furnished but they are attracted to a couple of sturdy looking chests locked with heavy iron pad locks. The locks are removed and the group are all smiles as the lids are open to reveal one full with a few hundred silver dollars and the other with what looks like 20lbs of Ghost rock. The remaining Kwan raiders are almost forgotten at this point as some of the posse members start talking about what to do with the find and West starts cramming silver dollars into his back pack :smallamused:. Once again West and Mac almost come to blows but it is calmed down again and the group agrees to deal with the loot later and track down the remaining Kwan raiders who had retreated from the first fight.

The posse wander back out into the pitch black night at the back of the cabin and assuming that the remaining Kwans must be hiding in the small shack near the mine entrance they head up to the door creeping through the darkness. They stand themselves in a nice tight group at the front of the building and taking up firing positions on the shack door then Doolin steps forward and shouts “Come out with your hands up we have you surrounded!” There is a moment of deadly silence until they hear the sound of laughing to the north and somebody shouts “Ow how wrong you are!”

They glance to the north as the old familiar sound of Gatling guns clicking into gear start to sound, Steel manages to dive for cover behind the shack but the rest stand like deer’s in a spot light as the muzzle flashes reveal the deadly truth of the situation :smalleek:. About 50 yards away there are two open toped steam wagons sitting idle up next to what looks like a small horse coral, on the back of the wagons stand one Kwan raider to each manning pivot mounted Gatling guns. In between the two wagons stands a bald man with a large moustache who is still laughing to himself as the Gatling guns start to fire away on the posse, the man fits the description of Bartel who according to Macs sources is who they are here to kill.
The bullets start whizzing around the posse and they are all forced to dive for cover, West being in the worst position takes a hand full nasty rounds to both the leg and guts which leave him knockin’ on deaths door :smallfrown:. Mac and Grace attempt to return fire while Doolin drags West clear of the kill zone and into cover behind the shack. The rest of the posse quickly seek cover and attempt to pick off the gunners, Mac lands what looks to be a nasty shot on the stocky one with the beard who is spraying bullets wildly at the group but it only stops him for a moment before he laughs and continues to fire [MN: This was the first time I used a fate chip against the players to turn a 4 rank wound into a 1 rank wound, needless to say they were not amused.]

As the posse hides from the Gatling guns behind the shack they hear Bartel yell out “I wonder if they know they are using our munitions store as cover!” after which he continues to laugh :smalleek:. Almost white with fear now the posse comes up with a quick plan, Art takes a mad dash towards the mine entrance to draw fire while the others use the distraction to pick off the raiders on the guns. Art catches a couple glancing blows for his trouble but between Mac and Doolin they manage to clear the guns and start to push the advantage [MN: Another couple of chips gone from Art.] As they advance on the wagons Bartel jumps up behind one of the guns and starts to fire on the posse again but Art catches him with a load of buckshot from his scatter gun.

As the smoke clears the posse quickly rushes to patch up wounds, Sister Grace selflessly risks her own hide to drag West’s more solidly back into the land of the living. She takes on the mantle of the truly blessed and the area is coated in a soft golden light that radiates from her as she knits up the wounds in West’s gut through the power of her faith alone. West however isn’t out of the woods yet as his right leg has been shattered by the bullets and is leaking dark blood at a horrible rate, she takes a moment to summon her faith again and then sets her mind to healing the leg as well. This time how ever the power of the lord is not with her and she gasps as mirrored wounds open in her own leg but they are not so server [MN: She spent her last blue chip to ensure that she didn’t end up with a severed leg as well.] Luckily Mr Doolin drawing on some of the basics he learnt back at Collage managed to stem West’s bleeding and stabilise him some what before he bleed out. While this is happening Mac walks over to the cart and stands over the still cooling corpse of Mr Bartel, knife in hand he sets to the grisly job of severing the head and places it in a sack [MN: A bit gory and no doubt the Mayor will be thrilled with his enthusiasm.]

I just thought for a reference I would put the info that Mac received about the Kwans from Whale here as a reference.

Quote :

Originally Posted by To Mac
Old Father Whale runs into you on the way back to the #1 on Sunday evening,

“Mr MacGregor I have found the information you requested, Kwan’s forces in the area are run by a Union deserter by the name of Bartel. You can tell him by his clean shaven head and well manicured moustache, he has a second known only as “The Bear” but I know little more about this man then his fondness for yelling at the bandits in his command. Bartel is a smart man and a fine soldier Mr MacGregor and from what I am told he is entrenched near an old silver mine not far off Mitchells run up near the border.
If you follow the run north until you come to the two burned down hanging trees just keep on north looking for a small track that branches of to the east. This track will lead you to the mine but I caution you against approaching by that path.
Kwan has at least twenty men in this area but how many will be in camp at anytime is unknown, I do know that they have at least two armoured steam wagons that they have been using in their raids.

Be careful Mr Macgregor, I wouldn’t want you dying before you can for fill your end of the arrangement.”

Whale gives you a slow smile before bowing his head and heading back off in the direction of low town.

“Good hunting Mr MacGregor”

I had to stop the group from getting itself TPKed on a couple of occasions during this session, firstly by aiding Doolin in stoping Mac and West shooting each other less then a mile from the Kwan camp and secondly by dropping the skill level of the Kwan raiders at the camp due to the weak plan that the posse came up with.
Looking in hindsight Mac has had a grudge against West for no apparent reason since they first met and I think this poorly thought out plan was an attempt to get him subtly killed, he new that going in through the front would be a bad idea and he adamantly pushed for the plan that involved West pushing the barrel up the middle of the road. The problem was it probably would have got a few of them killed in the process and possibly a TPK which could have ended the campaign then and their. It still ended up being a hard slog for them and West is now down one leg for the foreseeable future.

I am slightly worried that Macs hostility to West is based on OOC bullying by Macs player as West’s player isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed but he is all so the youngest player in the group and the newest to join. Mac’s player might be a touch too keen to see some PvP in the game and looking for very vague reasons to kill him. I will have to keep any eye on it but West/Wests player isn’t happy and I can see him doing something stupid in response.

Mac has how ever lost a lot of value in the eyes of Art, Doolin and Steel and they have since started diminishing the trust they put in him. So wether this ends up being a smart play for Mac or his downfall remains to be seen.

Well Jack the Kid’s player and I sat down for a one on one session a week ago after his unavailableness to attend the last session. Jacks player has been struggling with finding his place in the game and I figured this might help him some what.

So with the rest of the posse off chasing Kwan’s around the border Jack decides to get himself better aquatinted with the goings on about Saint George. The town was seeing more and more fortune seekers arrive every day and as Jack passed the #1 Saloon a voice straight out of his past caught his attention, sitting at one of the card tables was the man who killed Jacks pa’! :smalleek:

Built like a brick outhouse and armed like a man lookin’ for trouble Jack watched on as he sat casually playing poker with a couple of miners and some eastern dandy, his voice boomed around the #1 and his style of cards seemed to involve talkin’ his opponents in handing over their chips with insults and loose threats. Jack managed to flitch a lucky Jackalope foot that was hangin’ from the man’s belt before Sadie found him and ushered him into the kitchen for his lunch.
While he was eating Sadie told Jack that the mans name was Buck Woods and that he was a some what infamous bounty hunter around these parts, Sadie didn’t seem to happy about him being in town on a count of his rather abrasive demeanour.

At Sadies suggestion that a boy of his age needed some learnin’ Jack headed up to visit Father Nicolas at the local church. Jack was a little apprehensive about dealing with the Pastor due to his more recent encounters with other members of the faith (namely the other PC’s) but he quickly decided he liked the man. They played checkers for a while and talked of this and that and the Pastor said he was more then welcome in the church when ever he wanted.

On his way back to town he passed the Rockies office where Voodoo Tony was enjoying a cigar on the front porch. After one of Tony’s trade mark grins and a brief exchange Tony offered the kid a dime to run to the Saloon and find a man by the name of Buck Woods and tell him that Mr Clay would like to meet with him at his earliest. Jack agreed and rushed back to the Saloon only to find that after an “altercation” Buck and the two miners from his table had been dragged across to the Sheriffs office.

At the Sheriff office Jack arrives in time to hear Sheriff Hicks shouting at Buck, the Sheriff warns Buck to pull his head in while in town but the man only smiles at the suggestion and doesn’t seem worried. Jack enters the office to deliver his message but finds that the 6 and a half foot tall Buck is even more intimidating on his feet then he was back at the Saloon :smalleek:, after hearing the message Buck excuses himself and heads off in the direction of the Rockies. Jack tail’s the man and after receiving his payment from Tony he watches as Buck is shown into the Rockies office and out of sight.

Jack takes a quick dash down the side alley into one of the empty lots off the main street, its early evening now and the place is blanketed in shadow. Using one of the tricks his pa’ taught him and the newly acquired Jackalops foot as a focus Jack casts a Hex that allows him to ride shot gun on Bucks eye balls, this means he can see what Buck sees but no sound unfortunatly. He watches as Buck is shown into Mr Clay’s office and takes a seat across from him at his fancy desk. Mr Clay puts the deck of cards he was playing with to one side and then talks to Buck about something for a minute or two until Mr Clay reaches into a desk draw and pulls out a large bludging pouch. The kid watches on as Buck opens the bag and eye balls it’s contents which by Jacks figurin’ must be at least a hundred silver dollars, they chat for a moment longer before shaking hands and Buck then gets up and leaves :smallconfused:.

The next day involves a brief visit to the Church again where Jack recites bible versus to help the Pastor prepare for his sermon while he does some cleaning around the place. They get into a discussion about heaven, hell and other such things and Jack seems doubtful at Nicolas’s suggestion that forgiving a man can be a lot harder then killin’ him.

Jack heads back to the Rockies office in the hope of finding more work and after some contemplation Tony seems willing to oblige him. Tony is interested to hear what Old Father Whale is doing with himself today and after some bargaining they agree that a dollar’s pay should ensure that the Kid keeps a careful eye on him. It turns out that the obese Chinese man sticks out some what in low town and jack is soon hot on his heals, he watches on as Whale talks with miners and people around the docks making a slow circuit of the area. He notes the two unruly looking armed deck hands that follow the large man around and all so the 2 or 3 more subtle ones that are always within shouting distance. He follows the fat man through his rounds and watches from the shadows as he has his lunch in a small shack on the edge of tent city but its after that when things get particularly interesting.

Whale meets with a tall Asian man in an alley off the docks whose features are concealed under a large straw hat. Whale kowtow’s to the man who he calls Charlie and the two share a quick hushed conversation, Jack has the presence of mind to carefully sneak his way into earshot. “Charlie” speech is short and sharp in contrast to Whales slow and carefree banter but the key parts of the conversation Jack picks up are that “Kang is sending the Bleeding Lotus into town and if she isn’t adequately protected Red Petal Su will have both their heads.” After this the conversation ends abruptly with Charlie leaving the docks via a small waiting maze runner, Jack follows Whale a little longer but decided that he has learned all he will and heads back to find Tony.

Tony listens patiently to the kid as he rambles through his description of the day’s events and seems generally impressed by his efforts. He only has one question when Jack is done, “Did they say who or what the Bleeding Lotus is?” Jack thinks for a moment and decides that it is a ship.