Friday, June 22, 2012

Deadlands Father's Day Special

I should probably post up the previous adventures of the Carrot Stick Heroes, as I call them, but I have enough trouble getting up the will to write this much.  Someday... someday.


Anyway, I like running holiday games.  We've had A Very Deadlands Christmas, where the posse fought the Granch at the top of mount Crumpet, and a Mexican Day of the Dead, where they took a trip to Teotehuacan and pushed an Aztec mummy down about a million stairs.  Fun stuff.  Fathers' Day being all about what I wanna do, I called in some folks and had a heartwarming family game.


Deadlands Father’s Day Special

In the previous adventure, the posse recovered the Amulet of Rahashimir from the Wailing Pit after defeating the earthen guardian and the Half-ogre, Ox.  It was in this pit that they discovered a strange glyph on the wall, though they remain unclear as to its purpose.  With night falling quickly and a storm coming in, the posse sought shelter at a nearby farmhouse.  They were met by Sherilyn Conway and her 10-year-old son, Jamie, who eyed the newcomers suspiciously.  Stella Moreau (played by my wife, Hil), being of the gentler sex and not requiring much space, was offered a bed in the house, while Father Fergus (Played by Matt), Dr. Schlear (Dagon), Jason Shaw (Luc), and Samuel Kraeger (Kiah, standing in for Brian) took the hayloft in the barn.  That is, the barn that was standing.  Another stood not far off, the roof falling in.

Late that night, Stella was awakened by footfalls outside her door.  She and some of the menfolk then heard the front door of the house shutting, and watched young Jamie sneaking out through the drizzling rain with a lantern, to the collapsing barn.  Jason Shaw slipped from the loft and followed, silent as a shadow.  He could hear the boy within the barn, speaking quietly, but could hear no response other than occasional clanks of metal.  Retrieving the other men, they knocked on the barn door, then entered.  Inside they found a nervous Jamie Conway and a great deal of rubble.  Remnants of letters, scraped away, could be seen scratched into the dirt floor.  The posse, familiar with all manner of devilry, suspected witchcraft.  Their confidence was not helped by the nervous child refusing to speak.  Father Fergus stepped forward, his staff flaring with holy light, and a large shape in the rubble lurched forward threateningly.  The whirr of a steam gatling began its ominous whistle, and Jason Shaw made a terrible blunder.

Assuming the child was directly controlling the automaton, he pointed his gun at Jamie and fired, to the horror of his companions (If I haven't pointed it out already, Luc is an asshole).  Two gunshots rang out as Jamie scrambled frantically among the rubble, then the mighty machine charged.  Its large steel claw ripped into his shoulder, bringing him low.  In a moment of panic, Sam fired his pistol at the metal man, the bullets bouncing off uselessly.  Dr. Schlear felt he had a clever idea when he grabbed the lantern from the peg on the wall, hurling it at the machine.  He failed to account for the fact that he only had one eye, and it wasn’t very good.  Nor had he spent much time throwing objects at other objects.  The lantern hit a post, and flaming oil splashed everywhere, igniting the old straw strewn everywhere.  Jamie Conway bolted from the barn, while Father Fergus called a great windstorm into the barn.  The wind whipped up the flames and the entire barn began to go up.  Everyone fled, though the automaton kept right on top of Jason, slashing away with its clawed hand.  Stella stepped from the house, carrying her “Inverted Lighting Rod.”  Seeing her companion on the ground being attacked by a metal monster, she aimed at the machine and fired.  Again, the thing’s armor proved too resilient, and the shot was ineffective.  Young Jamie, running to the house, grabbed at her weapon, screaming, “Don’t kill him!  He’s my Pa!”

Of course, in all the hubbub, little attention had been paid to the horses and wagon that had just come up the drive.  That attention was seized when the leader of the wagon team called, “There it is, boys!  Take it down!  No witnesses!”  The newcomers drew their gatling pistols and opened fire on the automaton.  The night erupted in gunfire, but the barrage did little more than pockmark the metal man’s thick plating.  Jason Shaw, however, was not so lucky.  Lacerated by the claws and taking several bullets, he collapsed in the mud.  Despite their impressive automatic pistols and their “Leave no Witnesses” attitude, the gunmen were quickly dispached, the last of them pinned to the ground under the automaton’s claw.  As the posse approached, holding up their hands peacefully to appease the furious golem, Stella Moreau noticed a great deal of fluid leaking  from the automaton.  Opening a panel on its back, the group discovered a number of guages and dials, all indicating one thing.  The Ghost Rock boiler on this machine was about to blow.  Working frantically, Dr Schlear and Stella Moreau put their scientific skills together and prevented the whole thing from going up in a fireball.
Five of the six gunmen survived the fight, and were taken captive, while an unconscious Jason Shaw was given similar treatment.  He had always been a loose cannon, but it seems the posse felt he had gone too far this time, attempting to shoot an unarmed child (yeah, ya think?).

So that’s where the group stands right now.  Five thugs from a Hellstromme Industries cleanup crew and one half-dead companion.  The tentative plan at the moment is to turn the lot of them in to the authorities on charges of attempted murder.  There are a lot of complications, though, since the automaton is legally the property of Hellstromme Industries, a rich corporation, and Jason Shaw has been part and parcel to a lot of quasi-legal activities of the group.

This should be fun.  I get to run a legal drama!