[DL] First (?) Total Posse Kill [long story about our last adventure]

[Markus Finster <markus.finster@chello.at>]

So, yesterday, it finally happened. I'm pretty sure for the first time. 4 
Characters went into a situation, none came out alive.
It was during the climax of "The Crucible" (the adventure in the back of 
Smith & Robards). I tweaked it a bit though, and changed the background 
story to play in the CSA, the final stop of a Dixie Rail line being Roswell.

Let me spin the tale for you... and don't worry, I'll add Spoiler warnings 
when I possibly reveal too much.

So, we started in Dallas, Texas, on a Sunday in February 1877. Two of the 
posse attend church. One because he's religious, the other because the evil 
voices he always hears since a little "incident" in the Canadian woods only 
quit down while he's on holy ground.
Outside waits the gunslinger with their guns.

So I guess, I should introduce them a bit: Already mentioned, the 
gunslinger, called William P. Hayes, former Captain of the 27th Mississippi 
Regiment, Company D - a sniper company. He fought for 14 years (!) in the 
war until he finally had had enough and left. He turned to the outlaw life 
but only recently he made it into the "upper class of scum" when he shot CS 
Major who recognised and wanted to arrest him.
With him is Ralph Bonham, Canadian from Quebec. He learned the Hexslinging 
Business from Doc Holliday a few years ago. When he went back to his 
hometown he saved a lady from a drunken attacker. Unfortunately, he killed 
the assailant. Fortunately, he was acquitted. Unfortunately (again), the 
dead guy was the son of Octavien Rolland - the richest man in Quebec. He 
puts a pricetag on Ralph's Head and Ralph decides that he always prefered 
the American way of life and moves south.
Third, we have Dave Sparks, Mad Scientist and Member of the Agency (what 
the rest of the posse doesn't know). He's on an assigment to go south and 
gather intelligence on the movement of the Mexican troops.
The fourth is a Halfblood-Zuni Indian with a dog as his sidekick (the dog 
having the traditional old indian name "Buddy"). He calls himself Flaming 
Wolf. He entered the adventure just in time to die. But I'm disgressing.

When the bells are ringing again and the people come out of the church, 
somebody falls down. Then another. And another. A bullet strays Hayes, so 
he finally get's it: Someone is shooting at the good people of Dallas (and 
at the two player characters as well!). The noise of the bells is so loud 
that the shots can't be heard. But after a few more seconds, panic rises. 
Some push the people back into the church, some want to get out. The heroes 
somehow manage to get out. A few more shots and wounded later they figure 
out that the shots come from the clock tower of the mayor's office. The run 
there , up the stairs and try to stop the assassin. But he pulled the 
ladder up, so they can't easily reach him.
They're not the type of guys who would negotiate, so they rather throw the 
Shootist up - he takes a shotgun blast into the chest, but manages to fires 
of 4 shots, hitting with three, severly wounding the assassin.
They take him down and give him to the Texas Rangers.
One of them recognises Hayes, but the Texas Rangers Captain let's him go... 
for now.

	("But Captain, that's the killer Hayes!" - "No, he's not, Private. Not 
Today. Today he's someone who helped the Texas Rangers out. And we won't 
owe anything to someone of his kind, now would we? Tomorrow - that's 
another story. But he'll be probably long gone before them, I reckon'.")

They heroes get the hint and prepare to leave. After Bonham gets his wound 
stitched up from a local sawbones, they are apporached by Private Elbert 
Steen. His CO wants to talk to them.
Now the adventure really starts: Lt. Larkin hires the characters as extra 
guns, since most of his men were wounded or killed in an explosion last 
night. He asked for reinforcements at the Texas Ranger Company HQ, but the 
two acts of terrorism (Bomb yesterday, Gunman this morning) leaves the 
Captain with no man to spare.
The characters glady agree - it's a cheap and easy way to get out of Texas.

Now, here's where the SPOILERs begin...









SPOILERS

Allright, let's cut to the chase, now, shall we?
The posse loses the cannon as well as three of the soldiers in the 
Devilsbattack. They all survive the train wreckage at their arrival at Fort 
Clark.

There, the posse manages to get a few insights of the Fort Clark Soap Opera 
(mostly because of Prv. Steen). They're not really that uncomfortable, when 
he is found dead after the first night. Well, they already went through 
some trouble and kind of expect that it follows them. Reluctantly at first, 
they start an investigation. After they find the first clues and especially 
after the second murder, they get more suspicious and encouraged to dig a 
little deeper.

They find the Ghostrock-chip near Robbins body - as well as the letter, 
which they show to the Colonel only. He has Lt. Goree arrested so that his 
guilt may be determined by a court martial.

Sparks, our Mad Scientist Agent wanders off alone the next morning, curious 
about tht Ghostrock thing... So he walks into Dr. Roberts Workshop and 
starts to look a bit around. He finds the Rockdevil hiding in the 
Ghostrockbin and opens fire. The Devil hits him one or twice with his 
claws, but all damage is chipped. When some of the other players as well as 
the sergeant appears at the scene, the Rock Devil has shadowalked into 
hiding - Dr. Robert claims, that he didn't really saw anything except that 
Sparks was shooting at the Ghostrock ("You must never shoot at Ghostrock! 
Didn't they teach you anythin' at you fancy university!?") Sparks claims 
that he saw something and that he was attacked - but, as one of the players 
points out: "Then how come, you don't even have a scratch?" Nobody believes 
Sparks, and instead think that he was a bit jumpy - understandable, given 
the murders and all...

So, the next night the tank opens fire and all hell breaks loose.
Now it gets really interesting:
Sparks runs out into the yard, takes a few moment to assess the situation 
and runs back for his flamethrower. Wolf runs back to the workshop - not 
because he thinks that something sinister is going on there, but rather 
that this building should hold the longest against the tanks shells.

Now, Bonham opens fire at the tank with his rifle, while the vehicle takes 
out the Steam Gatling on one of the towers, installed the very same day by 
Sparks (he salvaged the one from the train). He hopes to take out the driver.
Hayes takes it a step further - he charges the tank with dynamite in his 
hands. He makes it, dodging the Steam Gatling Bullets, only to be caught by 
a few rounds of the rifles of two of the tank's crew who fire out their 
vision slits. Bonham kills the driver and the gunner with extremly 
well-placed shots and Hayes manages to kill one of the other two, severly 
wounding the fourth. He climbs up the tank, opens the hatch and throws the 
dynamite in. Then he runs as fast as he can - he's still caught by a 
massive explosion, but is relatively unhurt.

In the meantime, Wolf sees the Wichita Witches sneak in through the tunnel 
- he opens fire with his bow, when suddenlx the Rockdevil drops from the 
ceiling and attacks him. Wolf is "saved" by a few shotgun blasts who 
destroy the Rockdevil, but hurt him as well. He misses his Vigor-roll for 
the shock-test and stares down the barrel of a peacemaker of one of the 
witches. Seconds later, he has a nice round hole in his chest and is 
bleeding fast and out of wind. The Witches let him lay in his blood and 
move on.

Sparks is finally back with his flamethrower He opes fire and catches the 
Witches off guard - killing 3 of them with one burst. Unfortunately, three 
fire back at him, one being Esmeralda, wo throws Bolts of Doom. Two or 
three rounds later, a "high-energy"-bolt crushes his chest and kills him.

Bonham is finished with the tank, so he turns around and ducks into cover. 
He has four Witches to face, the rest are taken care of by the other 
soldiers. But he concentrates his fire on the false witch - while she falls 
lifeless to the ground, a Bolt o' Doom from Esmeralda hits him square in 
the chest, killing him on the spot.

Hayes comes back into the fort and opens fire, but he is wounded, and 
tired, and he goes down with multiple gunshot wounds. He takes two of the 
witches with him before he loses consciesness - and then he bleeds to death.

In the workshop Flame wakes up again - only to see Dr. Roberts standing 
above him. He tries to reach for him and to ask for his help - when he 
realizes that Roberts isn#t here to help. Roberts swings a big axe down at 
Wolf - and botches, hitting his leg and cutting a deep wound.

Buddy, Wolf's dog comes to him and watches as his master slowly dies, lying 
next to Roberts, who's bleeding to death as well - since none of the 
Witches care for him.

That was the end of the posse, as well of the fort. The Witches won the 
battle but took heavy losses themselves. So they retreat and leave the dead 
behind.

Two days later, an armored Dixie Rail train arrives, bringing 
reinforcements - they will find only two survivors: both the Indian and the 
Agent drew Jokers and came back.


So, I hope you enjoyed that! ;-)

Markus