RE: [DL] Stone D20 (SPOILERS)

[Allan Seyberth <darious@darious.com>]

Spoilers.





 >Let me try and make this clear one last time. Those
 >stats given for Stone are guidelines. Something to
 >make it a little easier for the Marshall when he's
 >running him. There are two constants for Stone: 1) He
 >can't die. 2) He can't be stopped. He may be delayed,
 >but never stopped.

Right.  While Stone may have been loosely based on Pale Rider - this is 
what I think of whenever the subject comes up.

"Listen! And understand! That terminator is out there. It can't be 
bargained with! It can't be reasoned with! It doesn't feel pity, or 
remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead!"

So the party took Stone out in that first round of combat.  Stone took four 
of them out.
And unlike the rest of the party - Stone'll be back.  :-)  There are a 
hundred ways to bring him back - spiritual possession of another host is 
always a good one.

Give the posse the reward - if they planned one hell of an ambush and 
managed to down Stone, let 'em.  They planned it, they did everything they 
could, they deserve the kill.  Great job - lots of experience.

Now.
You get to have your fun.  Stone will be back, and boy is he going to be 
pissed.  It is now time to start hunting the posse.  Stone is powerful, 
cunning, ruthless, evil and now the posse has made the mistake of making it 
personal.
Stone may even let the posse live for a couple of years, after all - he's 
got time and maybe more important things to do in the interim.  But one 
day, maybe when the PCs are all old and happily retired. . . one at a time 
they start dying off.


Or you could run it as a big combat scene.  A few months down the road when 
the party has forgotten about it, Stone returns - only this time Stone is 
the ambush.  For example, the hotel the posse is staying at explodes in the 
middle of the night.  Some party members are hurt, but more importantly the 
posse is running around without their armor and a large part of their Mad 
Science gear.
In the chaos and confusion Stone, with all his powers, should easily be 
able to take down a couple of party members right then.  A hail of bullets 
cuts down one of them as they leave the hotel, a second one is cut down 
when Stone ghosts in behind him.  The rest of the posse groups together for 
survival somewhere - hopefully outside of the burning hotel - and a bundle 
of dynamite drops into the middle of them.  After the explosion the 
remaining party scatters for the hills, to be followed via a well placed 
Trackin' Tooth, etc. etc. etc.

I am envisioning the end of High Plains Drifter - where one guy is dragged 
from the saloon by a bullwhip and then beat to death.  The other two leap 
out and find - nothing.  Then as they search the town, the 2nd one gets 
hanged (IIRC) by a cunning trap.  And at the end, the leader is facing 
Clint Eastwood and goes "but... you're dead!"   Right before he gets gunned 
down.


I would say that if the posse manages to beat Stone the second time, then 
let 'em go.  There has to be a way to beat him otherwise there is 
absolutely no reason to being a hero in the Weird West.  The key is it 
should take brains, not just raw dice power, to do it.

In one sense, Stone is the Cthulhu of Deadlands.



-------------------
Allan Seyberth
darious@darious.com

I want to thank you for making this day necessary.
                 -Yogi Berra - On Yogi Berra Appreciation Day in St. Louis 
in 1947.