[DL] The End of Rufus Abelard (rather long as well, I'm afraid)

["Daphne Brunelle" <dbrune4@po-box.mcgill.ca>]

Howdy all!

'Tis time for the long-awaited (*riiight*) write-up of last night's
Deadlands session, which was shorter but not less eventful than our previous
ones.

Once again, here's the list of posse members, for the benefit of anyone who
either hasn't read my earlier posts (which were dishearteningly long, I'll
be the first to admit) or like me has the short-term memory of a not too
agile-minded jelly fish and just doesn't remember who the heck they are:

-Elijah Blanton, aka the Mariposa Kid: NPC would-be gunslinger
extraordinaire and J. B. Taft Doppelgänger (we still haven't told him that
Mariposa means butterfly in Spanish).
-Victoria Anne James, formerly Harrowed, now no longer (whoopee!) thanks to
a complex Indian ritual and the shaman known as Running Bear. Also of the
gunslinger persuasion.
-Winslow "Slowpoke" Monroe, bounty hunter and ex-Marshal of Yellow Creek,
wielder of a pretty darned nifty revolving rifle.
-Reverend Matthew Tiberius Stone, the posse's resident MiB, charged with
bringing Victoria back to Denver (she was Harrowed at the time), and also
with recovering some important photographic plates from Salt Lake City.

Shameless plug time: for more information on these unlikely (or likely for
some of them) heroes, check out Ross's site at:
http://www.geocities.com/weirdwest_2000/


We left our sorely tried heroes in Fort 51, where Monroe, Victoria and
Blanton had settled in the train station for the night, and Stone was being
tended to in the Fort's infirmary (i.e. he was drugged to the eyeballs and
left to sleep off his wounds).

Monroe had received the late-night visit of Anika Sorrenson O'Brian,
not-so-grieving widow of the late Padrick O'Brian, manhunter-at-large whom
Monroe had dispatched to the Great Beyond a few weeks earlier (cf The Adven
of the Mariposa Kid, if you want to hear how that happened). She claimed to
be the captive of one Rufus Abelard, one-time flunky of O'Brian, who had
crossed paths twice already with the posse and earned their unequivocal
animosity (well, what do you expect when you fire on people with a gattling
gun and dynamite? cf The Unharrowing of Hell for the full story). Miss
Sorrenson -who had sneaked away from Rufus- begged Monroe to help her escape
from the clutches of this fiend, who had no intentions of bringing her home
to her father (a wealthy owner of stock in the Union Blue Railroad) as he
was charged to do, but was merely using this as a cover to do much more
dastardly deeds (which she didn't bother to outline to Monroe).

She stole away into the night, and Monroe turned to wake Victoria and inform
her of what had just transpired. Being the heroic type, Monroe felt it was
their duty to help the unfortunate girl, and although Victoria agreed with
him in principle, they both had to accept the fact that there were a certain
number of difficulties facing them should they try anything against Rufus,
who seemed to have a number of connections at Fort 51. Deciding that sleep
would bring better counsel, they both turned in for what remained of the
night.

Victoria, as usual, slept badly (Night Terrors an' all), although one of her
dreams was particularly vivid, in which she was dimly aware of the sound of
a her of stampeding cattle far in the distance. Unbeknownst to her (but
beknownst to us *g*), Monroe had a similar experience, although he was awake
at the time. [I would like to take this opportunity to point out that both
Monroe and Victoria earned their fifth point of grit in the last session
battling a Mojave Rattler. *whimper*] When they arose, there was not a
single solitary head of cattle to be found in the entire town, which caused
them to be somewhat perplexed, until a herd was brought in a little later
that morning (although the cowboys scoffed at the idea that they would have
been heard from so far away).

Leaving Blanton to his own devices, Monroe and Victoria headed into the Fort
to find Stone and tell him of the latest development. They found him rested
although slightly bleary from the laudanum he'd been given, and a good deal
more mobile than they'd left him. He pointed out that the widow Sorrenson
might be in league with Rufus, and be leading the posse into a well-made
trap. They netted out that they (at least Victoria and Monroe) weren't
willing to take the risk of leaving the girl to her fate should she be in
earnest, but either way they had to make sure that Rufus shouldn't be a
cause for concern. The most obvious approach to this problem was for Stone
to speak with the commanding officer of Fort 51 and inform him that Rufus
might in fact be a Confederate spy.

Monroe and Victoria headed back into town in order to find out as much as
possible about Rufus and any potential allies he might have in town. Stone
in the meantime went to pay a friendly social visit to Captain Kyle. As he
approached the CO's office, he crossed paths with a large and burly black
man with sergeant's stripes, very obviously one of the famous Flying
Buffaloes, and with the look of someone you don't want to mess with under
any circumstances.

Captain Kyle, although not a dandy per se, was one who knew and appreciated
the finer things in life, and dressed accordingly. He welcomed Stone
cordially, and introduced him to the rather imposing and weather-worn figure
sitting in his office. This latter, a man well into his sixties with a
tobacco-stained white mustache and the look of someone who'd spent far more
time in the saddle than indoors, was U.S. Marshal Courvoisier, one of those
decent, manly, and upstanding types who don't take nonsense from anyone.

Stone was at first reluctant to say all that much in front of Courvoisier,
thinking that this was more a matter for the commander of the Fort. Captain
Kyle was of course deeply disturbed to hear what Stone had to say, since
Rufus had been serving the Union army as a scout for quite awhile. Stone
informed Captain Kyle that it was very likely that Rufus was working either
for the Confederates, or that he might be playing both sides, and that
either way he ought to be detained and questioned. He assured the Captain
that it was under no circumstances a case of mistaken identity, and that
steps must be taken to ensure that Rufus did not compromise national
security. The Captain was understandably extremely unhappy at having this
dropped in his lap, but then cheered up considerably when it dawned on him
that treason was a federal offense and that he could relegate this
unpleasantness to Marshal Courvoisier. He handed Stone a pile of paperwork,
and instructed him to fill out a report and enlist Courvoisier's help on the
matter.

Victoria and Monroe by that time were settled into the saloon, where they
were contentedly tucking into a breakfast of steak and eggs (and beans in
Moroe's case, which Victoria avoided). Victoria chatted up the bartender,
trying to wangle information out of him about Rufus, but got disappointing
results. Either he didn't know all that much, or he was being very reserved
about it. Still, it appeared that Rufus wasn't a regular visitor, and this
was in itself a little reassuring. As they finished their breakfast and
prepared to leave, the aforementioned U.S. Marshal entered and sat down to
his own meal, much to the approval of Victoria who saw at once something
rugged and manly about him (did I mention the randy hindrance she gained
last session), and mentioned it to Monroe, whose mind just boggled at the
thought. (heehee, I'm having *so* much fun with this...)

Outside, Victoria and Monroe found Blanton coming out of the sutler's with a
package which he promptly gave to Victoria as a present (blushing and
stammering his way through). Leaving that aside for the moment, the three
began discussing what to do with their horses. The fare to get to Salt Lake
City was pretty steep considering their current finances, and if they
brought their horses with them, they would arrive with roughly ten dollars
in their pockets, whereas by selling the horses they would probably come out
ahead for once instead of being broke. As they spoke, they were joined by
Stone who had waded through his morass of paperwork and was looking for the
Marshal. Given that he was only marginally interested in the fate of the
horses, he let Blanton, Monroe and Victoria deal with that aspect of the
morning's activities, and went to find Courvoisier. Monroe also hoped to
take the opportunity to warn Miss Sorrenson that help was indeed on the way,
but the posse was unable to locate her, despite Victoria's and Monroe's best
efforts to get one of the privates guarding the stables to confide in them
(he was obviously lying, but wouldn't reveal himself). They sold three of
their four horses (keeping the fast horse Victoria had been riding up until
now) and made their way back to the sutler's to buy supplies for the return
journey to Salt Lake City and eventually Denver.

Stone found Marshal Courvoisier in the saloon and sat down to discuss the
matter of Rufus and his hostage with him. Courvoisier, being a man both of
honour and action, was more than ready to help Stone and the rest of the
posse succour the young maiden and arrest Rufus for trial in Denver. It
appeared that Courvoisier himself was to be on the same train as Rufus and
our heroes, since he was headed to Cedar City (I think, I'll have to
double-check that). He told Stone of stories of a desperado who seemed to be
making his way West from Denver, riding into major cities on the 13th of
each month and shooting a lawman, and well, Courvoisier aimed to put a stop
to that. Enough said, right? In the meantime, Courvoisier suggested that he
and the posse avoid each other's company until they got on the train so as
not to attract undue attention and perhaps inadvertently warn Rufus that
they were onto him.

The rest of the day passed relatively uneventfully (Blanton's present turned
out to be his quality Peacemakers which he'd converted to double-action for
Victoria), although that night Victoria and Monroe were both plagued once
more with dreams of stampeding cattle. Stone learned how to manipulate
dynmite without immediately killing himself (after Victoria persuaded one of
the soldiers to teach him, much to the amazement of her companions, who knew
what she was doing but had never seen her do it before), as -I think- did
Monroe. And so the next day the posse boarded the train along with a big
herd of cattle. They also observed Rufus get into the caboose along with six
other men and the lovely widow O'Brian. This complicated matters somewhat,
as the posse were installed in the passenger car, and between them and Rufus
were three baggage cars filled with cattle. All in all, not the ideal set-up
if they wanted to ambush Rufus and his men. Blanton volunteered to climb up
on the roof of the train and spy on Rufus (not entirely sure what he hoped
to accomplish except to show off), and reluctantly the rest of the posse
agreed, as long as it was done late at night and as long as he was being
covered by Monroe. After the requisite snide remarks were made between
Monroe and Blanton about age (something about Monroe being creaky in the
joints and Blanton wet behind the ears), everyone settled in to wait for a
propitious time to go a-spyin'.

Apparently, Blanton had different ideas. The first the posse knew of his
nocturnal wanderings was the sound of gunfire from the back of the train.
Monroe, who had gone to sleep in the sleeper car, was awoken by a frantic
scrabbling just outside the door. Stone and Victoria each drew their weapons
as did Monroe, and Blanton staggered in through the door -apparently more
shocked than anything else, and unhurt. This of course attracted the
attention of Marshal Courvoisier, who was understandably annoyed at the
boy's headstrtong foolishness. Blanton had managed not to be seen, but it
was obvious that Rufus and his men had heard him on the roof of the caboose,
and had shot directly through the roof at him.

It was clear that now the posse and the Marshal would have to come up with a
sound plan, since Rufus's guard would be up. As they discussed, they could
hear the cattle moving uneasily in their stalls, obviously disturbed by the
late-night fracas, yet it seemed to Monroe and Victoria that the noises grew
louder, more insistent, and they felt the train begin to shake beneath their
feet. None of the others seemed to notice this, though, and soon the feeling
passed (all guts checks were clear, in other words).

The plan they devised was fairly straightforward (although it took a *lot*
of discussion, which I will spare you, mostly 'cause I can't remember it
all). The only chance they had of taking the people in the caboose was to
surround it, coming from every possible direction, and preferably when the
train was moving, when Rufus and his gang would be less on their guard. Our
heroes decided that the best moment to strike would be when the train left
Cedar City the next morning, right after it stopped for water. Blanton would
jump from the top of the water tower onto the roof of the caboose, while
Monroe would crawl under the caboose and pull himself up when the train
began to move. Stone and the Courvoisier would take the direct approach and
hammer on the door, while Victoria covered them from the roof of the last
baggage car with Monroe's revolving rifle.

They proceeded to put their plan into action the next morning (we were
pressed for time, and Ross was just itching to see what would happen, so we
fast forwarded a couple of hours: GM's privilege).

Crawling under the train proved slower going than Monroe expected, and so he
was not under the caboose when the train actually began moving. Blanton was
poised on the water tower, ready to jump onto the caboose when it passed
under him. In the meantime, Marshal Courvoisier, flanked by Reverend Stone,
boldly approached the caboose and hammered on the door, calling out: "This
is the law. Open up!" At which point one of Rufus's flunkies, panicking,
took him at his word and opened fire through the closed door, grazing the
Marshal along the ribcage, and wounding Stone in his protective armor (ie,
no damage). This shot was immediately followed by a second, fired by another
flunky with a shotgun. With heroic abandon and cat-like reflexes, Stone
grabbed the Marshal and, risking life and limb, took the bullet for him.
Luckily, his armor absorbed the shot (along with a Fate Chip). On the other
hand, both Stone and Courvoisier were mightily put out at being shot at in
so indiscriminate a fashion, and simultaneously they pulled out their
weapons (a gattling pistol in Stone's case) and blasted away at the
miscreants. One of them immediately was down for the count, while the other
reeled momentarily from his wounds.

At that moment, Victoria shot a third man who was watching the top of the
caboose, causing a disappointing four wounds to the noggin (I say
disappointing because she was rolling 7d10). He toppled back into the
caboose amid much screaming (from the widow) and cursing (presumably from
Rufus). As the train began to move, Blanton jumped onto the platform of the
caboose, narrowly missing jumping to his death (after chips were spent
saving his backside) but spraining both ankles, only to be met by Rufus
pointing a Merwin-Hulbert at him. He was shot in the leg for his pains, as
Monroe managed to catch hold of the train and painfully pull himself up
toward the platform of the caboose.

In the next few seconds, Monroe pulled himself further up until his head was
exposed, and was therefore the target of Rufus's next bullet, which hit dead
on, but was deflected by the glass at the very last second (read Legend
Chip). He *did* however manage to catch a glimpse of the widow O'Brian,
either tied or handcuffed to a bed on one wall, before ducking back to
relative safety. Blanton wounded Rufus in the leg, as Courvoisier and Stone
made another foray against the fast-desintegrating door. Stone killed two
more of Rufus's flunkies, leaving two with shotguns and Rufus himself,
although not before taking another shotgun blast that cost him the rest of
his chips and his armour. Tragically, a second shotgun blast tore into
Courvoisier's gizzards, causing a gaping wound that will no doubt cost him
his life (he's not dead yet, but definitely out for the count). Blanton
wounded Rufus once more, as Monroe drew his gun and prepared to wreak havoc
in the caboose. In the meantime, Victoria had run across the roof of the
baggage car and was staring down her rifle barrel into the caboose. She took
careful aim and fired at Rufus's head, and essentially blew him away with a
well-placed shot (7d10 is a *lot* of damage, as a rule). Seeing their
fearless leader's head explode convinced the remain two that surrender was a
better option than death.

Stay tuned for next week's thrilling issue.

Questions, comments, literary criticism? All are welcome, but will not
necessarily be taken seriously :-)

Ciao all!

Daphné "I really don't want to know what Ross is going to do with that Black
Chip I drew" Brunelle
--
 "I've really got to learn to just do the damage and get out of town. It's
the 'stay and gloat' that gets me every time."