Re: [DL] Need ideas for a new campaign

[Allan Seyberth <darious@darious.com>]

>Here's where you guys come in. The huckster is a female character, but has
a male player, and both me and the player want to change this, so he is
going to play his old character's twin brother, this way I can update the
character to the new hexslinging rules as well. As the new campaign start,
the huckster seek out the pinkerton and the kid in Denver, trying to find
out what happened to his sister. She has just sent a letter, asking to meet
her brother somewhere, but now seems to have disappeared without a clue.

Okay - let me see if I have this straight. . . 

Huckster's twin brother looking for sis.
Pinkerton who gunned down the martial artist.
Gunslinger kid who inherited a Denver house.  

Huckster's sister last seen plotting against the pinkerton, for the death
of the martial artist.

Are the kid and Pinkerton still hanging around together in Denver?  If so.
. . 

The trick will be that the brother doesn't know everything about dear
little sis, despite the near telepathic link between the two.

The now dead huckster's soul is trapped in the house.  (haunting's seem to
be the theme now.)

Her soul by itself was just barely strong enough to linger in the world,
anchored to the house that she was in when she tried to kill the Pinkerton.
(Work with the Pinkerton on this - script out the dramatic showdown between
the Pinkerton and the Huckster - but DON'T TELL the Huckster player what
happened.   The battle has to end up with the female huckster being evil -
using black magic and bloody bones to create monsters)

That way you can give the huckster player psychic insights of what
happened, and gives the Pinkerton player a dirty little secret that he can
withhold from the new Huckster.

Through the psychic link, the brother tracks the sister's trail to the
haunted house - where the trail stops.  It doesn't go cold, it just . . .
stops.

Strengthened by her brother's nearness, the female huckster now has the
/power/ to haunt the house.  Classic malevolent spirit trying to kill all
living things, but focused on killing the Pinkerton.  Creaking stairs,
fatal accidents, cold spots causing front in the air.

As time passes, the huckster's power rapidly grows as her evil nature is
powered by, and feeds on, manitou in the Hunting Grounds.  She takes
complete control of the house, and starts to take control of the
neighborhood.  Unchecked she will become a fearmonger in the heart of
Denver.  Up the stakes by showing the players that her control is moving
towards a cemetery and schoolhouse.   :-)

At her eventual defeat, the sister huckster regains enough sanity to clue
the posse into the dark evil lurking at the heart of the city of Lost
Angels.  It is this evil that damned the entire original posse to serve it,
either before  or after their death.  The martial artist was trying to kill
the rest of the posse in order to speed the curse up.  

No, strike that.  Don't mention the martial artist - maybe the new players
will pick that up on their own.

But, at the end, show the soul of the sister being folded into some form of
crystalline box and drawn to the West - in the air their lingers the
echoing and chilling word . . . "Forever"

That should be enough of a plot hook to get the posse pulling together.
And the creative rewriting of the past should keep your old players off
balance - which is a good thing.

Oh - and don't miss out on the reintroduction of the players to the now NPC
Blessed - who is a devout and high ranking member of Grimme's clergy, and
his dismissal of the posse's warnings - for he is strong in the faith and
under the divine protection of Rev. Grimme .   :-)  

This would also be a time to introduce them into the changes in the city of
Lost Angels as was detailed in the book.  Yet another historical change to
keep the players off balance.  

And the possible introduction of the main campaign plot.  Which might
dovetail into some upcoming adventures that are set in the Maze.  The
Canyon O' Doom adventure has anti-Grimme sentiments that may get tied into
this.

And, at some point, when the posse has become too much of a thorn - then
their old buddy, the good ex-Blessed buddy of theirs, is sent to come
a'calling. 




-------------------
Allan Seyberth
darious@darious.com
Deadlands fan site - www.darious.com/deadlands

Everybody dies.  Whether you die on your feet or on your knees, is entirely
up to you.

Why did the chicken cross the road?

Henry David Thoreau:
To live deliberately ... and suck all the marrow out of life.