Deadlands: Legacy of the Red Fist

Saturday I ran a session in my occasional Deadlands game. It was long (we didn't have multiple sessions so we devoted basically a whole day to it), so let's get into it.

So, the game as a whole is here, but most of these characters weren't present. Sheriff Mark has given up on his quest for vengeance and settled into his life in law enforcement in Novygrad. Lillie Carmicheal, likewise, has a schoolhouse to mind, and Nikolai's adventuring days are long behind him. But Sam Kelt - also known as "Shortstop" - still wants to find out what really happened to his parents and why (his master, Chen, died of cancer a few months back) and Suzi Love, the devotee of the loa Erzulie, is going with him to keep an eye on him. Deputy George, too, goes along in case they need something shot.

They first stop in Denver and take a meeting with Mina Devlin. Since the Black River Railroad was involved in the Kelts' death and Sam knows it, they figure she's got information for them. She agrees to talk to them, but only if Suzi returns her magic whip. Suzi doesn't exactly have pleasant memories of the thing, and agrees. Mina tells them that the answers they seek can be found in Shan Fan, far to the west on the edge of the Great Maze. Sam's parents worked for Union Blue railroad, but Iron Dragon Rail was the company that really orchestrated their deaths.

And so we cut to several weeks later when the three of them arrive Shan Fan. As they're putting their horses into the livery, they see a warehouse nearby, in which there's a bit of a scuffle - a bunch of tong are beating the shit out of a guy in gambler's garb. Shortstop, not liking the 8-to-1 odds and not wanting to watch someone get murdered, intervenes, whereupon the factory foreman squares off with him. Said foreman is a martial artist, too.

Suzi throws Fear at a bunch of them, but the characters aren't alone. A frontierswoman, there to sell ghost rocks, jumps in to help protect the gambler. A young kid, too, sneaks in out of curiosity and then throws a blast of energy from a weird gauntlet, stunning a bunch of the tong.

Shortstop trades kicks and punches with the foreman, and the foreman recognizes Shortstop's style. "You are a student of Red Fist Chen!" he says. "Killing you will bring honor and glory." Whereupon, he slices open Shortstop's neck with his fingers.

Problem is, Sam has Suzi on his side, and she heals him. The frontierswoman shoots the ghost rock lantern and it falls to the floor, setting the building on fire. The tong scatter, and Suzi calls up elemental magic and sucks the whole fire into one tiny burning feather (seriously, she rolled like five raises). The characters realize that the foreman has fled, leaving more questions. They head back to the inn that George was setting up rooms in to talk this over.

The frontierswoman introduces herself as Jolee Jessup; she was just there to sell ghost rock to the tong, as she does. The little kid calls himself "Specs," after the glasses he's always adjusting, and he has something of a fixation on ghost rock, too. The gambler, it turns out, is a Pinkerton named Harold Faire, here in town looking for a fugitive named Rattlesnake James (George offers to help find him, but Faire says he's happy to help out Sam first - he's not even sure James is in Shan Fan). The characters sit down to dinner at the Strangled Serpent and start eating, trying to figure out their next move. Shortstop is disconcerted by the fact that the foreman referred to Chen as "Red Fist;" he isn't sure what that means. Specs, having lived on the streets in Shan Fan, recognizes the name as something the tongs use with fear and reverence. Red Fist was a kind of bogeyman.

And then Jolee collapses, Sam and Harold get slurred and sleepy, and Suzi and Specs start blinking. Their food has been drugged (George isn't affected, but he arrived late).

They hear people being cleared out of the dining room (they're in a private room), and George goes to investigate and gets punched in the face for his trouble. It's the foreman, Wan, again, with his muscle, come back for Shortstop. A fight seems imminent, but Harold throws down a playing card and the whole room goes black, and Specs shows them a way out into the city and a place to hide. Seems Harold is a huckster.

They meet up at Specs' hovel, and realize that they're being watched. They decide to sleep on it.

The next morning, Shortstop goes up to the roof to do his exercises and clear his head. He talks to a crow and asks about Chen (showing the crow a picture), and the crow recognizes the old man. He was a brutal warrior and killer, the crow says, called "Red Fist" because he was capable of splitting a man's head with a single punch. Shortstop is taken aback - the Chen he knew was an old, humble, quiet man, capable of fighting, sure, but not at all violent. He talks to the others and they decide to go to the Iron Dragon railroad headquarters and ask about Shortstop's parents.

The assistant they talk to shows them into a boardroom, where they find one man waiting for them: Master Kang, the owner of Iron Dragon Rail. He admits to know Sam's parents, but taunts him, saying that Chen didn't teach him enough. He then says that he's face Sam in a fight - if he knocks Kang down, Kang will tell him everything. If he knocks Sam down, Sam agrees to leave Shan Fan forever (Suzi clarifies this means "leave unharmed"). Sam agrees. Suzi tells him he's going to lose (and Specs is terrified of Kang, and shows it), but Sam says "A warrior does not run."

Kang utterly demolishes him in less than a minute. Sam is unable to so much as land a blow, and Kang remains relaxed, flowing away from Sam's attacks like a branch in a breeze. Finally Kang gets bored and strikes so fast that the others can't see it, knocking the wind out of Sam and putting him on the ground.

The characters leave town and go to Jolee's camp outside the city. Sam is despondent, and asks Suzi for a big favor - he needs to talk to Chen. Suzi hesitates; Chen is dead, and communing with the dead is dangerous. First, they decide, Suzi and Harold will go to the trainyard and see if they find anything there.

They arrive and talk with the workers, but one them points to Harold and says, "Pinkerton! Your friends are here! I told them you were here!" Harold looks nervous...and then four Pinkertons show up and arrest him. They're about reading to shoot him right there (apparently "Harold" is actually a gambler named Jonathan Hart, who killed Harold Faire and took his badge). Suzi stops them from killing him, saying that they need to follow the law, and the Pinkertons agree. Suzi realizes, though, that they're just going to take him out of town and hang him.

She races to get the others, and Specs uses his tech to see through Hart's eyes. They find that the Pinkertons are at the edge of the Maze, and about to push Hart over the edge. The characters ride up and confront the Pinkertons; the lawmen fight them and Jolee has to shoot a couple, a couple get thrown over the edge, and the last one surrenders. Suzi dresses him down for being about to murder a suspect, and sends him and his wounded compatriots on their way. Clearly, though, Hart's not out of the woods.

The others are annoyed at Hart for lying to them and putting them in this position, but they fall back to the camp, and Suzi agrees to perform the ritual for Sam.

The ritual takes days, but they eventually sink into a trance, and Sam finds Chen washing clothes. "A shirt gets bloody," says Chen, "and it can never be not-bloody. It can be clean enough, so clean you can't see the blood, but the blood remains."

Sam asks about Chen's past, and Chen admits it - he was a violent, brutal man. He worked for Iron Dragon, and he was there when Sam's parents were driven into a canyon. He was there to make sure they were dead, but not to kill them - that was someone from Black River. He isn't sure of all of the particulars because that wasn't his job. But over the trip, he became friends with the Kelts. He was unable to save them, but their son, Sam, was riding with him when they were killed, and Chen left Iron Dragon and took up residence in what became Novygrad.

Sam says that he wants revenge, and asks who will teach him now that Chen is dead. Chen says that he didn't teach Sam everything he knew because what he knew was murder - he didn't want Sam to become the next Red Fist. Sam was something else - "Shortstop." Sam needs to find a way to become a master on his own, to find his own style. He tells Sam that while a warrior never quits, a wise man knows when to walk away.

Sam, says Chen, has a choice. He can pursue this matter and try to learn the truth, or he can go back to Novygrad and find peace. Sam asks how, and Chen tells him to ask Lillie, Mark, or Nikolai - all people with fraught and violent pasts who settled into fulfilling lives. Sam asks if Chen can find peace, and Chen says he found his peace the day he made a home with Sam.

Sam returns to the waking world, and tells the others than he can find answers with Chen's old rival, Steel Gaze...also known as Wan.

Suzi and Jolee go into town and talk with Wan, who agrees to meet Sam in a neutral place - the Seven Devils Plateau. Sounds benign enough. Specs, though, notes that it's not, it's down a big stone staircase and near the water, enough that sea beasts sometimes jump out. It's a treacherous place for a fight.

The two groups meet on the Plateau - the tong and the characters - and Sam talks with Wan. Wan reveals that the Iron Dragon and the Black River were feuding with the Union Blue railroad - the railroad that employed the Kelts as surveyors. They were scouting out land for a new Union Blue line, but if they died suddenly and did not send word back, Iron Dragon could sweep in and claim the land for its own line. Black River agreed to kill them, in exchange for use of the new line for a predetermined number of years (that time had just expired, in fact).

So who really killed the Kelts? Wan didn't know. He'd arranged their deaths, but it had never been personal. Probably the men who really did it were in Mina Devil's employ, and at that time such rough characters were probably based in the town of Coffin Rock, north of Denver. "Everything is complicated," says Wan. "You want it to be simple, but it never is simple." He tenses to fight.

"A warrior never quits," says Sam, "but a wise man knows when to walk away." And he and the others start up the staircase.

They have a long ride ahead of them back to Colorado. Hart decides to ride with them because he knows his days are numbered alone. Jolee figures it's time to go east for a while, and Specs has nothing better to do here in Shan Fan. Maybe he can find some interesting ghost rock to play with back there?

"Besides," says Suzi, "Nikolai would love you all."

Deadlands Prep: Into the Black River

So! Waaaaay back in 2011 when my stepsons were tweens, I started running a game of Deadlands. We played a few stories over the years, but never frequently (due to distance). Today, though, we are playing what might be the final story in the campaign (but you never know).

Michelle and Al feel that their characters' stories have kinda run down, so they made new characters. Kai is joining us, so he made a character last night. Will and Sarah are sticking with their original characters, so today, we finally get to find out what really happened to Shortstop's parents.

Players, if you happen to be reading this, stop here.

#RPGaDay2015

Here we go!

Favorite Horror Game: It's honestly a two-way tie between the new World of Darkness and Chill, with the classic World of Darkness a very close third. The only reason CWoD doesn't edge closer is because it so often wasn't a horror setting - sure, you got some very creepy, beautiful horror moments (a lot of them from Wraith), and then you got the WAAHHH-HOOOOO of Werewolf, Vampire, and Mage.

NWoD hasn't had as much wah-hoo, and has stayed pretty consistently horror. Plus, it's horror that I like, which is appropriate, since there hasn't been a lot in NWoD that I haven't worked on in some way.

And then Chill, of course, for me has always been about the people who fight the monsters. One of the thing that frustrates me about real life is that our monsters aren't the kind you can melt with salt or destroy with an incantation; our monsters are people, and people have their own struggle, even if those struggles make them monsters. It's nice to play characters who are unequivocal heroes.

Favorite RPG Setting: Hmm. Well, in the interest of not being too one-note, let's move away from WoD. I like Deadlands, but I don't know if I'd say favorite. There are some problematic elements there. But on the other hand, hucksters! Really a brilliant idea.

Oh, wait, I know: Edge of Midnight. Noir, Dark City inspired RPG with physics-magic. Very cool game.

Deadlands: The Deathy Conclusion

Well, no one actually died.

So! Last time, the characters learned the Jean Decoundreau, apparently the one responsible for all of this craziness, died outside Denver just after Nikolai met him. They discussed various options, including road-tripping to Denver to check the guy's grave, but then Mark figured out that he could just telegraph the Marshall's office up there and have them look at said grave.

And indeed - a few hours later the reply came. "EARTH DISTURBED. GRAVE EMPTY."

Nikolai, realizing that he and other members of the community were compromised, went up to his house to avoid being around folks. Suzi started working on some gris-gris to help protect people, and went to Pastor Jacobs to deliver one. Lillie went up to Nikolai's house to give him his.

She realized when she got there, though, that something was wrong. The whole place was covered in night ravens, and the lights were out. She opened the door, and ravens swooped in, trying to scare her off, but she was having none of it. One of the servants approached, and came at her with a knife, but she backed off and called up a whirlwind, scattering the birds. This attracted enough attention for the others to head up.

They got there, and discovered that Nikolai's servants were mind-controlled and armed. They fought, making sure not to seriously injure anyone. Suzi walked in, figuring they wouldn't hurt her, but they actually targeted her specifically - apparently Jean didn't have the same love for her that he had in the past. They worked their way upstairs and checked Nikolai's room, and he blasted them with magic (still controlled). Suzi, figuring this had worked before, smooched him, and he managed to break free of the magic, but was still too dazed to be of much help.

The characters forged ahead, up to the attic, and there, surrounded by night ravens, was Jean. He used a fear power, scared Suzi into running and Lillie into a phobia of ravens. Lillie called up a blast, but had to deal with the Devil to do it, and wound up getting mind-fried for a few turns. Suzi turned the fear right back on him, calling on Erzulie to put the fear of a jealous lover into him. Jean fled, leaping out the hole in the wall, trying to fly...but Suzi saw Erzulie reach out and pluck the "wings" from his back. He fell, impaling himself on the wrought-iron fence.

Suzi was remorseful - she hadn't wanted to see Jean die, just to see him pull himself together. But the loa are cruel and unforgiving, it seems. She exorcised his body, and saw the manitou rise up and vanish, and they buried him in the newly re-consecrated cemetery. I'd like to think someone carved "Love is stronger than death" on his headstone.

Deadlands: Love is Stronger Than Death, parts 1 and 2

Yesterday we played Deadlands! And then again today, actually. So here's what happened:

We open in Novygrad, in the cemetery. The characters have been awakened from a sound sleep - well, not so sound, but never mind - by a disturbance in the churchyard. Hideous, dog-like things are digging up bodies and eating them. Mark, Lillie, Suzi and Shortstop are at the churchyard, and Nikolai joins them (Mark notices that he's fully dressed, unlike the others, who pretty obvious just rolled out of bed).

Nikolai casts a Blast spell and kills several of the creatures, and the others attack the characters. Shortstop kicks one, Mark shoots another dead, and Suzi wraps Mina Devlin's whip (which she acquired here and first used here), and the wolf sits and looks blank-eyed. In the distance, the characters hear a rooster crow - odd, since it's the middle of the night.

Putting this aside, Lillie throws her own Blast spell, incinerating the rest of the wolves, including the one Suzi captured. The characters identify these things as cemetery wolves, scavengers that eat carrion, but that can't enter consecrated ground. How'd they get in here, then?

Mark notes that Nikolai seemed well-prepared for this, and Nikolai mumbles a reply - he seems out of it. The characters spread out and find a scent of rum on the cemetery gates. Mark goes into the church to look for Pastor Jacobs (Lillie's one-time fiancee and current enemy, though they tolerate each other well enough for living in the same town), but can't find him. He finds a note saying the pastor has gone to visit family.

This rings false to Lillie (who happens to know Jacobs' family is back east), so she casts Hunch. She sees a man made of shadows rip the gate off the hinges, then extend a shadowy whip from his hand, grab the pastor, and throw him into a grave. Suzi takes his Bible and uses Mind Rider, and sees the pastor in a dark place, pounding on something above him. Figuring him to be buried, Suzi tells the others, and they get started digging.

Meanwhile, Shortstop has gone to the saloon to check on the chickens (he heard the rooster, too). He sees a black rooster that he's never seen before in the yard. He uses Beast Friend, and the rooster (who has a surprisingly deep voice and threatening manner) informs him that he's there at the behest of "the mistress." Asked to describe said mistress, he describes Suzi, but notes that this is just one of her forms.

Shortstop, not able to parse this, takes the rooster with him back to the churchyard.

Back there, they townsfolk have dug up the pastor, who by some miracle (hee!) is still alive. He manages to gasp "Nikolai!" before he passes out. And where is the town's patron, anyway?

The characters ask George (one of the deputies, who acquitted himself well in the first story and got promoted to wild card) to go to Nikolai's house to check on him. He does; meanwhile Shortstop and Suzi question the rooster (whom Shortstop has nicknamed "Bob"). The rooster says that the he is here to protect Suzi, and in fact grows calm when Suzi holds him, but flips out when anyone tries. When asked what he's meant to protect her from, he says "night ravens." He also finally nails down the "mistress" - Maman Brigitte.

The characters head back toward the saloon. Suzi grabs Nikolai's favorite shot glass and uses Mind Rider, but sees nothing (and suffers a crisis of faith into the bargain). And they hear a gunshot coming from up the hill, near Nikolai's house. They charge up there and find George, leaning against the gate, bleeding out. Suzi uses her healing miracle and saves him, and he says that he didn't see who shot him. The characters enter, and find Nikolai, asleep in bed. Informed what's going on, he summons his servants, and at Lillie's suggestion, says that they'll all take rooms at the saloon tonight.

They leave the house, and note huge ravens atop it. Mark shoots at one but misses, hitting a window. The characters head for the saloon, where everyone has a drink. Nikolai notes that this isn't his glass - which is why Suzi's Mind Rider didn't work, she wasn't using an object with any connection to Nikolai. She tells them a little about Maman Brigitte; she's a death loa, she likes cigars and hot rum with peppers.

"Like that?" asks Nikolai. Suzi looks down - that's the drink she's made herself, without noticing.

End of Part 1. 

Suzi doesn't remember making the drink, and it's becoming obvious that a new loa is showing an interest in her. But it's late, so everyone goes to sleep in the saloon, except Mark, who goes to the jail, as he feels is his duty (and gets a bennie for Heroic).

There, he dreams of being in his old town, with everyone he ever knew slaughtered around him, including the other characters. He sees Annabelle, the witch who did it, and levels Justice, his shotgun...but she turns around, and then falls dead. There is no vengeance, nothing he can do to find peace. And then his shotgun crumbles away to nothing...and he awakens, feeling exhausted.

The others, though, wake in the saloon feeling refreshed, including Nikolai, who says he's felt dazed and drunk the last few days. Suzi decides to go on a vision quest and speak with Erzulie. She does, and meets the loa in an opulent bedroom.

She asks Erzulie why Maman Brigitte is suddenly interested in her. Erzulie tells her that she gained her interest when she used the whip. Suzi says that she might be interested in this new path, and Erzulie (known to be a jealous loa) says that that's fine, which means it totally isn't. Suzi asks if Erzulie will help her, and the loa says she will. Suzi awakens, unsure of her path.

Lillie goes and teaches her school, Shortstop is assigned chore upon chore by Master Chen, and Nikolai stays in the saloon doing some paperwork. At the end of the day, the characters regroup, and Lillie casts Hunch to see if she can figure who stole Nikolai's glass.

She sees the shadow-creature enter the bar and grab it with its whip-like hands...but now she can see a person underneath all that darkness. She thinks that person is Spencer Jacobs, the pastor. Concerned, she informs Nikolai of this, and Nikolai decides to have everyone in attendance when they speak with Jacobs ("everyone" here meaning "adult PCs").

Shortstop, meanwhile, is training, when Chen comes to find him and tells him his friends need him. He goes shuffling off down the road, confused as to why the chores, and then the training, and then the advice.

In the saloon, Jacobs enters and sits with the characters. He opines that there has been entirely too much black magic, here - that, of course, is why we're having all these troubles. He's reluctant to talk about his own experiences, but when the characters press, he tells them he was at his writing desk, and then he saw Nikolai, and then he woke up in a coffin.

Suzi approaches, puts a hand on his shoulder, and uses Dispel. Jacobs, apparently in response, pulls a gun and shoots at Mark.

Lillie lunges across the table and casts Armor on Mark, in just enough time to deflect the bullet. Nikolai flings cards...and casts Blast on the immediate area, damaging everyone (including himself!) except Suzi.

The four fellows at the next table all stand in unison. Two go across the room to the gun check, one attempts to grapple Suzi. One shoots Mark, wounding him, and another leaps on top of Lillie. Shortstop arrives and fires his slingshot at the one with the gun, but misses. Suzi gets one guy to snap out of it, and then whips Nikolai around the neck. She feels an immediate resistance on a magical level, but isn't sure why. Nikolai yanks the whip out of her hands, and she runs over to him and kisses him, trying to snap him out of it.

He blinks, and the smiles and says, "j'taime, mon belle Suzi", and they both vanish into the shadows. The others snap out of it immediately. Lillie sends Shortstop for the doctor, and gathers up Mina's whip.

Suzi and Nikolai reappear, somewhere dark. She asks him who he is, and he says his name is Jean. "I've known you for years," he says. "I saw your grandfather die. I'm here for you now."

She asks him why, and he replies, "Love is stronger than death." She asks his full name, and he replies, "Jean De-" before Nikolai finally shakes off the spell.

Back in the bar, everyone reconvenes, and Suzi and Nikolai exit the storeroom (Nikolai can't actually teleport too far). Obviously, this problem extends far beyond Nikolai - the preacher, Nikolai and several of the townsfolk are under someone's intermittent control. Lillie offers that the whip might be a problem - it seems to correspond to several of the more unfortunate events. Nikolai says that he doesn't remember much, but when the whip went around his neck, he heard a man and a woman arguing in a tone of voice that reminded him of his parents fighting. He also remembered meeting a man in Denver, who dressed in black and carried many trinkets, much like Suzi. He'd been drunk, though, so the conversation escaped him.

Suzi, unsure of what all this meant for her, decided to commune with Erzulie again. The loa told her that Maman Brigitte had a husband, and that Jean Decoudreau had loved her for a long time, but that he had his own loa following him. Suzi decided (I think) to stick with Erzulie; Maman's path was interesting and tempting, but would ultimately involve changing everything about who Suzi was.

Nikolai used Hunch and found the name "Decoudreau" as well. He gave that to Mark, and had Mark contact the Marshall's office in Denver. Lillie took the whip to the blacksmith, and had him burn it. Shortstop went home, and asked Master Chen why he'd had him train all day. Chen tried to explain, and then demonstrated the way of Quickness, saying that his English wasn't good. Explaining was too hard - the only way for Shortstop to learn was to train.

Mark sent a telegraph to Denver. It came back shortly: Jean Decoudreau murdered outside of Denver eight months ago.

Next time: The exciting conclusion!

Game Prep

Running Deadlands tonight, so I ought to do some prep, yeah?

Deadlands: Lynched

So, last night I ran a one-shot. I gave my players an option for five different games, most of which were pretty indie (hollowpoint, Geasa, stuff like that) and then Deadlands. They chose Deadlands.

I hunted around a bit and found the whole page of Deadlands stuff, including the one-sheets, which are self-contained encounters and scenarios. Perfect. There were a bunch I could have used, but I wound up going with Lynched, so here's the result.

First, our characters:

• Suzi Love, who you might know from regular installments of my Deadlands game. She's traveling back to Louisiana on family business. 
• Jack Vance, huckster, gambler, and all around shady customer. He's traveling west from Baton Rouge after some unpleasant business involving poker.
• Clement Brown, mad scientist, physicist and man of knowledge. Traveling west trying to get to the Great Maze and get some more ghost rock (and hoping the warmer climate will help his condition; he's a sick man). Traveling with...
• Pearl Hart, gunslinger, gambler and muscle for hire. Work's been kinda slow, but she's hoping it'll pick up as she and Clement get west. 
• Olaf Dunbar, tinker and tradesman. He's headed south, working his way down to New Orleans, selling his services as he goes. He's traveling with Bobby, his young ward. 

The characters all roll into the small town of Eastman's Creek. It's mostly a hub for the homesteaders around it, but as Pearl and Clement hitched their horses, the saloon is deserted. No lights lit, no one behind the bar. They look around a little, and Pearl goes behind the bar to pour a drink. 

Olaf rolls in shortly after, and Bobby goes scampering in. Olaf looks around and notes that the place doesn't seem abandoned - it's clean and maintained. He sniffs and smells dinner cooking, and goes in the back and finds a man cutting vegetables. The man turns out to be Eli, the owner, who is surprised to have any business. And there's more coming - Jack rides up just then, looking for a room. 

Eli scrambles to get dinner going (Olaf insists on helping), and asks Pearl to light the lamps. Olaf notes that Eli is nervous about something, but doesn't indicate what. Suzi arrives just then, as the sun sets, and Olaf and Clement wind up carting her immense trunk up to her room (she travels in style, financed by Nikolai). 

Dinner (gumbo) happens, and folks head off to bed. Suzi asks if there's a tub; Eli says there is, but it's in his room because he wanted to clean it. Suzi uses the tub (her ritual bath), and Eli sits with Jack, drinking whiskey and talking. Jack asks him what's really going on here, and Eli explains.

Some nights ago, a man and his wife were dragged out of their home and hanged from an old oak tree. The townsfolk were unable to find any evidence of who did it, but they cut the people down and buried them. Then, the next night, another man was dragged from his bed and hanged from the same tree. The townspeople are scared - there's no law in this own, just a marshall that comes through every so often. 

The night passes uneventfully, and in the morning Eli says that he needs to go check the tree. Pearl, Clement, Suzi and Jack volunteer to go with him, while Olaf (who is not only taking care of Bobby but has the Yellow Hindrance) stays behind. After the group leaves, Eli's wife shows up, and profusely thanks Olaf for all his help. 

At the tree, the characters see no new bodies. The oak is old and dead. Suzi casts Dispel, but nothing seems to happen. Jack casts Detect Arcana (and deals with the Devil, unnecessarily), showing off his magic to the others. He confirms the presence of dark, pervasive magic, here. The characters decide that tree's gotta go. 

Pearl and Clement stop off at the house of the first people to die on the way back. Something big smashed through that door, and there are fingernail marks on the floor from where the people were dragged out, but no footprints. This would have taken several men to smash through the heavy door, but no evidence suggests that's what happened. Clearly, we're dealing with something worse. 

Everyone regroups at the inn, and Olaf offers to rig up an accordion saw. Then they figure they can cut the tree down and burn it. That takes much of the afternoon, and as evening falls, everyone heads out to the tree.

When they get there, they see bodies...four bodies, hung from the branches. As they approach, the "nooses" pinch off and the bodies land, and advance on the characters. 

Clement fires off a Burst from his ghost-rock cannon, and Shakes three of the zombies. Jack casts Entangle, but deals with the Devil (again, unnecessarily), doesn't get the hand he needs, and winds up Entangling Suzi, Olaf and Clement instead. Pearl shoots at the zombies, but it doesn't seem to help much. 

The tree whips a noose out and catches Clement around the neck, yanking him to the tree. He fires his gun and severs the noose, but the tree cracks him across the face, nearly killing him. Olaf, freeing himself from the Entangle, drives the carriage over to help, and Suzi calls up a windstorm to blind the zombies. Olaf grabs Clement puts him in the carriage, and starts riding away, but the tree whips Jack and Olaf with its nooses. Olaf has a tool in his pocket and slices the noose, and Jack casts Trinkets and conjures one, so they drop to the ground.

Suzi casts Elemental Manipulation and lights a zombie on fire. She whips it with Mina Devlin's whip, and it goes quiet, staring at her. She orders it to hug the tree, and it does...the tree immediately starts to burn. Clement, deciding to let the horses take him where they may, turns around and fires his cannon at the tree, severing its nooses and some of its branches. The tree goes up in flames, burning to ash in instants, and blowing away on the wind. 

The characters head back to the saloon, where Eli and Olaf tend the wound (read: Clement), and Olaf thanks them all heartily. The townsfolk pay the characters what they can, and everyone continues on their journey. Who knows, maybe we'll all meet up again. 

Character Creation: Deadlands Reloaded

Yee-haw! A zombie! 

The Game: Deadlands: Reloaded
The Publisher: Pinnacle Entertainment
Degree of Familiarity: Probably the longest Savage Worlds game I've run so far, and I played the original a bit.
Books Required: The Player's Guide and the Savage Worlds book.

Yeah, I did a character for the original Deadlands game, but that was three years ago tomorrow.

Good lord. I've been doing this chargen thing for more than three years. I started just over a month before Cael was born.

BWAAAAAAAA.

And I'm nowhere near done.

Oof. Anyway, yes, I did a character for the original game, but this one's different, the backstory is different, the system is different, and I just got through running it, so screw it.

Well, Step One is race, but "human" is the only option. I can do some concept first, though. I want to play a mad scientist.

Dr. Charlie McDermott graduated with a degree in Chemistry. The day after he got his degree, though, the whispers started. He just had this weird urge to go west, out in the disputed territories, looking for...he wasn't sure what. He's used up the money that he had saved getting here (in style), and he's kind of gullible and susceptible to the blandishments of women of dubious virtue, but he's here, and he's hoping the whispers will stop.

They haven't. They've gotten worse. And they get louder whenever he sees the sunset. He fears that his final stop might have to be the Great Maze.

Good start! Attributes! Obviously I want Smarts high, so I'll put that up to d10. I'll put Spirit and Vigor at d6, because making soak rolls is important.

Skills! I need Weird Science, obviously. And I want Knowledge - Chemistry. That eats six points right there because I want them at d8. I'll skip Guts, because I don't mind Charlie being a tenderfoot, but I'll take Notice at d6, Shooting at d6, Investigation at d4, Persuasion at d4, Riding at d4, and Repair at d6.

Special Abilities. That is, Hindrances. I want Pacifist (Minor). I'll take Lyin' Eyes - untruth just don't come easy to ol' Charlie. And because I think it'll be funny, I'll take Grim Servant o' Death. I get a bonus to damage rolls, but I also run the risk of killing my friends with my gadgets (coupled with Pacifist, I find that amusing).

I would take Alchemy, but I only get one sodding power anyway. Eh, what the hell. I'll take that as my free Edge. I still get my four points to play with. I'll buy Fighting at d4 so my Parry doesn't completely suck. For the other Skill point, I'll buy my Weird Science up to d10. I'll take the New Power Edge so I have a little bit of choice in the matter. That also makes me crazy to start with, but I'll get to that. Last point, I'll buy Notice and Investigation up one level.

I get 20 power points, 10 of which I can use in Alchemical preparations. For my powers, I pick Boost/Lower Trait and Stun. Either of those makes sense as a chemical effect, and I figure Charlie has a medicine bag full of little vials that he can quaff and make himself stronger, faster, charming or whatever.

As usual, I get some money to spend, and as usual, I can't be buggered to do it. I think I'd spend it on a good horse (as opposed to a bad horse, some fancy and impractical clothes, and of course, some glass vials to brew powders and potions in.

Character Creation: Deadlands

 A Little Meatier: Finished.

Now, the question is, can I get 25,000 words of Splish Splash done before 9/1, which is when final drafts of the book I was just redlining...did I ever give that a funny name? I could call it Get Off My Bloody Lawn, I guess.

Anyway, I might not get all of it done before 9/1, but it's not due until mid-September, so as long as I can get, say, 20K done before I go to Pennsylvania next weekend, I should be OK. So I'm done working for today, and it's only 3:30, which feels pretty good. I shall now do something I enjoy: Make a character. Ah, but what? I don't want to do one that'll take me all day, but I worry about saving the Tri-Stat characters (which take a while because they're point-build) for last, because then I'll have no leverage at all to do one that's quick.

Hmm. OK, let's do this:

The Game: Deadlands
The publisher: Pinnacle Entertainment.
Degree of familiarity: Never ran it, but played a bit with my brother back in the day, and of course there's a currently-on-hiatus game.
Books required: Just the Deadlands book, but since I have Quick and the Dead, I may use it.

 
Deadlands, the game of the Weird West and a weird system, but one I rather enjoy. Yes, it's bizarre and uses cards, too many different dice, and some wonky-ass probabilities, but I've never had anything but fun with it.

OK, so I play a huckster in the above-linked game. I'd like to do something different this time around. I've been listening to this book on CD that my kiddo got from Wendy's or someplace that involves a cowboy who originally came to the West to write a book, and wound up wrangling herds of wild horses. I think that's a workable concept - a guy whose not originally from 'round these parts, but is part of the local scene now. He's even forgotten his original purpose in coming out here. I don't think I want to make it about a book, though. I think his original purpose was to find a man, the man who his brother asked him, while dying in the streets of New York, to kill, thus avenging his death. But it's been years, and my character has lost sight of that vow.

And in a way, that's good, because the guy he's sworn to kill isn't really human anymore (not that my character knows that).

My character's real name is Rick Bell, but since he's from New York, most folks call him "Easter" (short for "Easterner"). It just kind of stuck.

Right, so that's Concept. Now we do Traits. I break out a brand-new deck of cards, shuffle, and deal 12 cards: 8H, KC, 7S, 10D, 8S, 6C, 5C, 3H, 7H, KD, 4D, Joker (woo!). Drawing a card for the Joker's Coordination gets me: Spades! Rock out!

OK, so the way this works is that the suit tells you Coordination (number of dice) and the card tells you the type of die. So right now, I've got:

4d12 (thanks to that Joker)
3d6
1d10
4d6
2d8
4d6
1d6
1d6
3d6
3d6
2d10
2d6

Well, balls. Doesn't take much thinking to figure which ones I want to jettison. I'll lose the two 1d6s, thanks. While I'm thinking about it, I'll draw for my Mysterious Past, since I got a Joker (normally the Marshall would do this, but y'know). I get a 10H, so checking the back of the book, I have a Favor. Apparently I did someone a good turn a while back, and now he can bail me out of trouble at certain points. Interesting. I'll let that percolate while I assign my Traits.

I want this guy to be good in a gunfight, so that'll mean keeping Quickness and Deftness high. Likewise, Nimbleness deals with Horse Ridin', so I want some points there. I think I'll throw my massive 4d12 into Deftness, and my two 4d6s into Nimbleness and Quickness. I don't want to die easily, so I'll put 3d6 into Vigor. I'll put 2d8 into Strength - I'm no powerhouse, but I get by.

Easter's not educated, but he pays attention, so I'll throw 3d6 into Knowledge. I want to be a decent tracker, so I'll put 2d10 into Cognition. I'll put 3d6 into Smarts and 2d6 into Mien (he's a nice guy, but not someone you notice, really). That leaves 1d10 for Spirit. That's OK - I like that the Coordination is low, but his potential there is high.

Traits:
Deftness 4d12
Nimbleness 4d6
Quickness 4d6
Strength 2d8
Vigor 3d6
Cognition 2d10
Knowledge 3d6
Mien 2d6
Smarts 3d6
Spirit 1d10

Now, Aptitudes. I get 22 points for these Skill-like things. Let's get to it.

Well, duh. We'll start with Shootin' (Pistol). I'll put 3 there. To complement that, we'll do 2 into Quick Draw and 2 into Speed-Load (Pistol). Better take a point in Fightin' (Boxing). Definitely 4 in Horse Ridin'. One in Sneak, one in Teamster. Three in Trackin'. One in Scrutinize. One into Search (which is really 2, since I get a free point). Two into Trade (Telegraphy) - that was Easter's job back East, before his brother's death got him out here. That last point will go into Guts. He's seen some shit since he's been here.

Hindrances. I can take up to 10 points, and use them to buy Edges or Aptitudes. Since I don't have to worry about spells with this character, that'll be nice. OK, let's see what we got here.

I'll take Curious. It's 3 points, it's pretty much required for PCs, and I figure it's a big part of why Easter's brother is still unavenged. I need Enemy to represent my brother's killer. He's a badass, but he's not really tracking me (not yet), so I'll just take him at 1 point. Heroic - see Curious. 3 Points.

I waffle about Oath a little, but in the end, I think it fits. It's why my dude's out here, after all, it's just that he gets distracted easily. 1 point. That's the end of the useful ones from the core, so I take Tuckered from The Quick and the Dead, for 2 points. I figure Easter got laid up with some nasty lung butter for a while, and sometimes, well, he just loses his wind.

Edges. I have 10 points to use, but if I want to up Aptitudes, I'll have to use these points, too. Let's see. I'll take Brave; that adds to Guts checks. I'll take Sense of Direction; sounds good for someone who's navigated his way cross country. I'm tempted to take Veteran of the Weird West, but honestly I think Easter's experiences have been more on the mundane side of things...so far. I will, however, take a point of Belongings, to represent my Fast horse (not Bad Horse).

The other six points go into Aptitudes. I'll boost Shootin' to 5 (2 points) and put 2 into Fannin' (4 points). My last two go into Shootin' (Rifle) and Survival (Desert).

I get $250 to buy shit. I know I want a good pistol, so I'll lay out the money for a Peacemaker. And the gun belt, and the quick-draw holster. I'll buy a Winchester, too, for huntin', and some rounds for both. I'll just throw in $25 for clothes in general. Canteen, backpack, bed roll, lantern, rope, shovel, saddle, saddlebags, hatchet. That probably leaves me some money leftover, but screw it.

And that'll about do it, actually. Oh, right, there was that favor. Well, I think what happened was this: That lung butter I mentioned earlier was the result of wading into a river to pull out a young lady whose stage had overturned. She was grateful. Easter got deathly ill, but got top-notch medical treatment. Turns out the young lady was the daughter of a very rich Confederate industrialist, and he always looks after those that do him a good turn. Easter doesn't know who she was or who paid his doctor bills, though he does wonder sometimes.

And that's about it.