Deadlands - Sessions 5 & 6 Bumper Write-up
The air was thick with the gritty taste of gunpowder as the posse unloaded every ounce of lead at their disposal into the armored hide of the Mojave Rattler. Austin's enhanced bullets detonated with blasts of flame or crackling electricity - and yet it still wasn't enough to bring down the behemoth. Helpless townsfolk ran blindly through the dust, stumbling through the wreckage of their homes. Voices cried out for mothers, fathers, children - for anyone who would listen.
Once again, the posse had become distracted trying to kill the unkillable monster and Miss Appleby had to remind them that the (literal) plot device to defeat the Rattler was located in her workshop behind the school house. Theo escorted the schoolmistress to fetch the mcguffin. Cobb dragged himself after the slayer, his life threatening injuries pointedly ignored until Austin took pity and cast Numb on the dying huckster (the power does not remove wound levels, just allows the PC to ignore the negative modifiers they cause). Cobb feels like he's just chugged a gallon of Red Bull and charges back into combat, blissfully ignorant of the trail of intestines unspooling in his wake.
Meanwhile, in Miss Appleby's workshop, Theo nods his head vigorously and pretends to understand the complex instructions to operate the inventor's device.
"The machine will create a seismic wave that attracts the Rattlers," Miss Appleby explains, "We'll lure it back to the mound and use these canisters of distilled ghost oil to blow it to hell!"
"Hold on," Theo interrupted, "You expect me to lug this heavy gear all the way back to the nest?"
"How else are we going to get it there?"
Suddenly the classroom doors burst open and Antonio rode into the school house. The effect would have been much cooler if he hadn't struck his head off the door frame on his way in, but hey-ho.
"Come with me if you want to live," the Mexican said, swinging Miss Appleby onto the saddle behind him, "Oh, sorry Theo. No more room up here. Guess you'll have to stay and, well... adios!"
Antonio spurs his horse out of the school house (banging his head off the door frame again on his way out) and towards the rampaging Rattler. The monster roars and lunges towards the reckless Mexican, jaws agape and reeking of carrion. Antonio does not alter his course and races straight towards the beast's cavernous gullet. The rest of the posse watch in awe.
"I can't decide if he's really brave or really stupid." Austin said.
"Actually, I think he might be unconscious." Bob Twofeathers observed (repeated blunt force trauma to the head will do that).
Cobb Whately staggered over to see what all the fuss was about. Austin and Bob politely ignored the mongrel dogs worrying the huckster's trailing guts. Having been educated, re: Antonio's predicament, Cobb rolled up his bloody sleeves and cast Quick on the Mexican's long-suffering horse. Suddenly, Caballo's natural pace increased tenfold and the beast rocketed out of danger, leaving a trail of burning hoof prints in its wake.
"Well, let's just hope Miss Appleby knows what she's doing." Austin said.
The rest of the party sat twiddling their thumbs until they all felt a series of tremors shake the very ground beneath their feet. Mommy Rattler must have sensed it too, for she immediately abandoned her rampage and burrowed back into the earth - presumably returning to her nest. Moments later, the towering mound exploded, burying the monster and what remained of her foul brood beneath several thousand tonnes of stony rubble.
While the people of Coffin Rock bury their dead and begin rebuilding their town, the posse recline in the ruins of the saloon and knock back a few brews, recounting their (grossly exaggerated) roles in the days events. But there is no rest for the wicked (or the righteous) and it isn't long before another NPC ambles up with a glowing yellow exclamation mark floating over his head.
"Ohnonono!" Antonio cries, scrambling away from the approaching quest giver, "Piss off, amigo! Can't you see we're drinking here!"
But the prospect of XP is too alluring to resist and the posse agree to hear the fellow out.
"Howdy strangers!" he begins, remembering to observe the finer trappings of cowboy slang, "Remember how we foreshadowed all those missing children two weeks ago? Well now you have to find them. I just this moment remembered that shortly before they upped and vanished, the town was visited by a charismatic - yet likely evil - preacher."
"What makes you think he was evil?" Theo asked.
"Well now, he left this here wooden cross behind when he left. See how it has been inscribed with sinister sigils and daemnic sigaldry? That struck me as odd at the time, but I plum forgot to mention it until just now."
"Speaking as a dabbler in sinister and daemonic rites," Cobb said, "I can vouchsafe that those markings are about a 6 out of 10 on the scale of pure, concentrated evil."
"Wicked priest luring children off to nefarious purpose...." Bob grunted, "Sounds Catholic."
Theo throws the tainted crucifix into the campfire and stares into the flames until it has been reduced to ash. The rest of the party hit the sack, anticipating another early start.
Having learned that the charismatic - yet likely evil - preacher headed off in a southerly direction, the posse gallop after him, hoping to pick up his trail out on the open range.
"I can smell him," Theo assures the others, "The rancid stink of unrepentant evil, the putrid reek of impenitent wickedness! We're drawing near, I can sense it!"
"Actually... that might be my socks." Bob grunted, "Cobb told me that soaking them in horse piss every morning will keep the bad spirits away."
Cobb sniggered.
Yet coincidentally; the posse were drawing near the target of their search. Cresting a scrubby hummock, they spotted a solitary wagon abandoned before them. Anguished cries for food and water could be heard faintly over the rustling of the tumbleweed, yet none of the children had ventured from the bed of the covered wagon. Theo projected his consciousness into one of the two horses hitched to the wagon and establishes that the children are chained to the benches, unable to move. Sharing the mind of a horse has some unforeseen side-effects and for the next few days, Theo finds himself craving apples and shitting standing up.
"Let's get down there and save those younglings." Austin said, being all heroic and pro-active.
"Woah, rein yourself in skippy," Theo replied, "Sure, we could just go down there and rescue the children - OR we could stand about and spend several hours of real time bickering about it."
"I like the second option." Bob said.
So several hours pass and eventually the posse agree upon a ridiculously convoluted scheme to approach the wagon from different directions, on different days of the week, wearing silly hats.
"Finally! Can we go now?" Austin cried, bottling up that homicidal rage into a dark corner of his soul "Hold on, where's Antonio? And what's that ominous rumbling sound? Oh, great. More off those f***ing monsters."
Although smaller than the specimen that had devastated Coffin Nail, the swarm of Mojave Rattlers erupting from the ground to the posse's rear were still worryingly large (each about the size/length of a steam locomotive). Abandoning their painstakingly laid plans, the posse mounted up and galloped towards the wagon. Startled, the horses hitched to the wagon spooked and ran. Antonio and Theo managed to hurl themselves onto the speeding wagon. Antonio took up the reins while Theo traumatizes the terrified children. At this point in the game, there is some discussion as to whether steering a horse-drawn vehicle should be determined by the Driving or Riding die, the jury is still out on that one. Regardless of the die type required, Antonio finds himself careening towards the lip of a deep ravine and after being told sternly by the GM that he cannot perform a barrel roll, grudgingly attempts to turn the panicked horses off to one side.
Austin Ripley sees that the wagon is in trouble and spurs his horse up alongside. He leaps across and lands beside Antonio on the driver's bench.
"How do you steer this thing?" the Mexican cries, "I keep rolling my Riding die, but that's not doing shit. Do you have any skill points in Driving?"
"Stop breaking the fourth wall and hand me the reins!" Austin yells back.
Austin manages to bring the horses under control and turns the wagon away from certain doom. Several of the pursuing Rattlers are too slow to change course and take a nasty tumble into the gorge. They explode when they hit the bottom because awesome.
Meanwhile, Cobb spots a solitary figure watching the chase and approaches warily. The stranger turns out to be a stereotypical native-american shaman - either that or he's one of the Village People. Cobb notes that the fellow isn't wearing assless pants and so decides that it's probably the former.
"Are you controlling those monsters or are you here to help us?" Cobb demands, exhibiting all the social grace of a sexually frustrated cactus.
"Help," the shaman answers simply, beckoning the posse to follow.
The posse follow the shaman passed a series of tribal totems, learning that the carvings mark the boundary of a sacred territory upon which the Mojave Rattlers cannot intrude. He also possesses key plot points regarding the whereabouts of the charismatic - yet likely evil - preacher, whom the tribe call Whiteneck on account of his puritan attire. Apparently Whiteneck and his zealots are holed up in an old civil war fort and doing something awful. What a f***ing surprise.
To be continued....