RE: [DL] Need evil marshall ideas .... SPOILERS

["Clint Black" <cblack@ohtinc.com>]

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From: owner-deadlands@gamerz.net [mailto:owner-deadlands@gamerz.net]On
Behalf Of Munch Wolf
Sent: Thursday, May 09, 2002 12:46 PM
To: Deadlands listserv
Subject: [DL] Need evil marshall ideas .... SPOILERS

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<snip of excellent character info>


>What I've been thinking of for a tie-in, would be for
>the Ranger to find a letter from Lady Carlstairs
>(first one shot) to the Baron (or vice versa), saying
>something to the effect, as soon as his allies get the
>mummy essence, she will teach him the secret of
>immortality, or somesuch.  Ergo, when the Baron learns
>the posse individually had a hand in ruining his grand
>scheme, he will be on them as spots to a leapord.  He
>has been a villain in the background, but now he might
>take a more active roll in their destruction.
>Alternatively I could do something with Mina and her
>folk as the villains.  What zany ideas do people have?


Here we go...


The "mummy essence" is in fact the "original" pure form of the Zombie Juice
the Baron uses for his undead minions and Hellstrome uses for his
automatons.  Both of these factions want it immensely and also want to keep
it out of the hands of their rivals.

Mina's people know (through info picked up in the Carstairs adventure) that
both the Baron and Hellstrome were hot for something from South of the
Border and that members of the posse are involved.  Lady Carstairs' cult
included people from both the Baron's and Hellstrome's camps that were
seeking more power through her.


Mina uses connections within the Rangers to get the Ranger wannabe tested by
checking out one of the Baron's men who is reputedly up to something
"strange."  The other players can be Rangers and members of the CCC.  The
report comes from a saloon gal (secretly one of Mina's spies) who saw a man
lose an arm in an explosion out where Bayou Vermillion is digging a tunnel.
The strange part is that no one reacted, and even the man just kept on
working.  The saloon gal offers to lead them out to where she saw them
working.  Insert an adventure where BV isn't cutting a tunnel but searching
for an artifact of some kind.  While the good guys are busy and the bad guys
are distracted, the spy breaks into the Baron's man's office and searches
through his papers for more information on this mysterious item.  Give your
Ranger wannabe the chance to discover what she is up to.  The Rangers are
impressed, and he gets to join.  Since he already knows his posse members,
discovering what the Baron is so hot to get and preventing him from getting
it is his first assignment.


The Ranger pulls the rest of the posse together.  He needs to find out what
this stuff is and what it does.  Since it may be either magical or
"scientific," he needs the huckster and the MS for analysis.  The Rangers
are willing to offer rare hexes and lab equipment (or just plain ghost rock)
IF they are successful.  The kitty is needed because she either has the
stuff or the knowledge on where to get it.

What is the "mummy essence?"  Easy.  Instant harrowed, just add body.  If
poured down the mouth of a recently deceased person, they will come back
harrowed with full dominion.  Furthermore, if drunk by someone living, when
they die they come back harrowed in the same way.

The trick is that it can't be duplicated (at least not by someone without
the resources of a Hellstrome or Baron).  Give the posse two or three doses.
You could allow the MS to use one dose to recreate the scrapper
anti-rejection formula, but nothing more advanced than that (as if THAT
isn't big enough).

The fun part will be with all their different alliances will the posse
realize that this is too much power for any one faction in the Weird West.
And of course, the fact that everyone will be out to get them.  :)



Clint Black

"You smell that? Do you smell that? ...Ghost Rock, son. Nothing else in the
world smells like that. I love the smell of ghost rock in the morning. You
know, one time we had a hill bombed, for twelve hours. When it was all over
I walked up. We didn't find one of 'em, not one stinkin' Yank body. The
smell, you know that sulphurous smell, the whole hill. Smelled like...
victory. Someday this war's gonna end..."