Deadlands1 / Session7


Morning on Sunday, March 18th, In Phoenix

Deputy Love handcuffed to coach for the last night. Mac rounds up a few older men to accompany us on the trip south. Father Michael gives Mass and blesses the church their building.

We head south again. Judith drives the wagon, Huddleston rides shotgun, Dr Wolf on top, looking back.

Rainstorm coming. Reach the ferry. Ferryman's closing up for the day on account of the coming rain. We start to plead our case, but the ferryman's not hearing it until Mac scowls and says it's official government business. The man then brings the cable ferry back across, it's reasonably mechanically sound. We make it across.

Slow ride through the desert and the rain to the Gila, which is swollen. Cow floating by, Father Michael pulls a hell slug out instead. Campout in the rain. Minor bridge repair, a couple PCs across, then NPCs carrying gold, then most of the horses. Then the stage, driven by Anna, pulled by two horses. It sways and nearly collapses, but makes it across. Then Onatah, John Love, and Father Michael.

Head into the small town of Maricopa Wells, a stage stop. A little talk with the people there.

Tuesday, March 20

Head south, pass the burned wreck of smouldering stage. Judith spots a burned corpse in there. Dr Wolf salvages material from the wreck while a grave is dug. Father Michael gives last rites, and the poor man is buried. No effects providing identification are found.

A woman approaches us, saying that her father was shot. Judith and Dr Wolf go check him out. "My god, there's a bullet in him." "That shouldn't be there." "I agree." They do a fine job cutting the bullet out and surrounding necrotic tissue. She offers a small sheep by way of payment.

We continue on southeast past a few trading posts and stage stations. Around a corner is a steam stage being attacked by a horrible tentacular monster. Onatah is scared to the point of paralysis and Judith is gasping, nigh swooning.

An opening volley is notable for Dr Wolf's shots through the tentacles rendering them useless. Mac shoots it in the side repeatedly with his shotgun, inflicting gaping wounds. Judith drives the stage forward alongside the steamwagon and calls for the pilot to jump across. Father Michael rides around the outside and fires into the beast; it drops dead.

Dr Wolf helps to repair the steamwagon, and gets the inventors card and a promise to send a token of thanks if he wins. Father Michael and Miss Judith check out the corpse of the beast - it's a smaller version of a Mojave Rattler (a Sonoran Rattler?). Just as well we killed it while it was small.

Eventually we start heading south again. At sunset we opt to camp on top of a rise rather than on the low ground at the stage station. John Love is once again chained to the station, and the rest of us split up to watch in pairs.

Mac and Onatah wake up in the middle of the night. Stage moving away. They give chase. Judith hears, shouts, "Rustlers!" The camp stirs. Mac and Onatah are chasing Huddleston on the stage (Love is unconscious on the stage, a mook from Phoenix was knocked out on the ground). Onatah fires an arrow through Huddleston's knee. Huddleston moves over a horse tied to the stage and tries to ride off. Mac yells out to stop, but Huddleston doesn't. Mac fires both barrels after the fleeing man; one hits him good in the guts and the other misses. Onatah looses one last arrow at Huddleston, grazing his other leg. Huddleston falls unconscious from pain and blood loss as his horse carries him off.

The stage is thundering toward a cliff. Onatah tries to leap onto the stage, but misses and falls to the ground. Mac rides ahead and yells at the horses to turn them away from the cliff and they veer off to the side a little. A brave man from Phoenix tries to grab the horse's reins but can't. Judith rides alongside and hops onto the stage. Phoenix Mook grabs the reins successfully, slowing the horses but steering them back toward the cliff by accident. Father Michael rides between the horses and the cliff, firing his revolver into the ground and yelling to warn them off. The horses turn and bump into each other, then Judith brings the wagon under control.

By the time John Huddleston is found, he has bled to death. Father Michael says a quick prayer over him. Then all retire for the night.

Wednesday, March 21st

A brief funeral is held at the next stage stop for John Huddleston. ("He died as he lived, screaming like a girl." - Anna) We stop in briefly to talk to another steamwagon driver.

We continue south, it's quiet for a while. We're passed by two guys riding as fast as possible, we look behind us but they aren't obviously fleeing from anything and they weren't wounded. Farther ahead we see smoke to the south. We speed up a little to see what's up.

Suddenly there's an explosion in front of the stage. It veers off the road and rolls onto it's side. Judith falls off and one of the horses breaks it's leg. Bandits appear in the road!

Father Michael takes cover behind the wagon and calls out, "Save yourselves and turn from this life of sin! This sheriff is deadly and it shall not profit a man, if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his lives and soul." Mac levels his shotgun and growls out a warning. The bandits ask what happened to John Huddleston. We explain that he's dead, buried at the Pacheco Peaks station.

The impromptu leader calls out that if we turn over the wagon, they'll let us go. We don't want to. They spread out and begin firing. Mac is saved from wounds by his overawe-ing presence and the intervention of Fate. We respond with a hail of fire, knocking out three bandits.

Then another Sonoran Rattler bursts out of the road! Dr Wolf fires at it, inflicting a wound. Father Michael rides out calling out that "The Lord's wrath is upon them, but I shall save you!" He fires twice, and the Sonoran Rattler falls. The bandits quickly surrender to us and drop their weapons and flee; we collect 10 guns and 4 horses from the bandits.

The sheep was wounded in the fall, but Judith tends to it's wounds.

We turn our attention to the wagon. Judith is finding a horse to replace our dead horse; Dr Wolf reinforces the wheels; the wagon is unloaded from gold, then righted. The gold is loaded.

While the gold is loaded, Judith fashions a way to drag the Sonoran Rattler down to Tuscon with us.

It's a long slow ride dragging the beast, across a river and to Tuscon. The Rattler is left next to a Welcome to Tuscon sign, tentacles posed over it.

We then head to Camp Lowell nearby and drop the wagon off so the soldiers can be paid. There is much celebrating! YAY!

Page last modified on October 21, 2012, at 11:32 AM