[HoE] Session yesterday afternoon [LONG]

[Michael <martin_etc@yahoo.com>]

I hosted the second game of the HoE campaign yesterday
afternoon. I need to buy more d8s, speaking of which:
I own 5. 3 players have 3-4d8 Cognition and 2 players
have 4d8 quickness.

Anyway, the posse rolls into Needles, CA. They're out
of gas - Jimbo and Bubba are out of luck, as they have
no room. Andrew has 8 gallons in his trunk. There are
two buildings left standing from before the war: a
church, used as the defacto center of the town's
officials [Law Dogs, mainly - Tara, Mara, Wendy, and
Corky. The later 2 are from DTOB, the first two are my
own. Mara's a brunette who always wears an armored
duster and kevlar vest. She's a genuine Law Dog (3pt
edge kind) and in charge of the town's Law Dogs. Tara
is 21 and a blonde (Andrew bait, really.) Ever since
she got shot in the knee a few weeks back and didn't
die, she wears boiled leather pants and a shirt - if
the pants could stop the bullet a few weeks back as
they did, she feels, they're worth holding onto. Like
I said, Andrew Bait].  There's also an auto-garage.
Andrew parks in the latter, as do Bubba and Jimbo.
Bubba, Jimbo, and Pierre go to the "Eye" Saloon: a
large establishment, even though it's been made
post-war. Andrew wants to put a machine gun on his car
- the player saw the picutre in the junker section
when flippin' through the book (looking at pictures).
Lo decides to cut up his sharpened hubcap that he got
last session to make shurikens. I told the player that
weaponsmithin' would get him 7, plus 2 per raise on a
Fair(5) Roll. He bothced. At least he was honest about
it, and has scrap metal now - the remains of the
hubcap. 

Bubba, Jimbo, and Pierre gamble in the saloon with
"William", the Ravenite owner of the saloon. William
owned a casino in Deadwood previous to the last war.
He keeps his rifle and pistol with him at all times. 

Andrew finds out from "Sam", the owner of the
auto-garage, that there is only one machine gun in
town. Although there are 9 total guard towers (2 per
entrance to the city: the city is surrounded by large
walls (probably old, useless cars, and other 'survivor
establishment' stuff), with 4 entrances: N, E, S, & W.
Each entrance has 2 towers, and there is one large one
in the town center.) The center tower has one machine
gun, but has 2 guards - as opposed to the 1 per other
tower. BTW, Sam might be a junker - I haven't decided
yet, and no one's spent enough time with him to know
him enough yet.

Andrew and Lo go to the central tower. Andrew tells
the guard that he is the mechanic, as is Lo, and they
are here to fix the machine gun. He rolls a 26 on
smarts, lacking Bluff. This is a 13 - I'm using Weird
West rules for dice. Just something I'm better used
to. Is there a reason I shouldn't? let me know. Either
way, he gets in and gets to the top, only to find
Tara. He gets distracted and is unable to get
anywhere, and ends up leaving without the machine gun.
They go to the saloon, but are interrupted as they get
there by the sound of an approaching Convoy. 7
motorbikes pull into town, forming a circle. The
biker's leader requests "the goods". After a
discussion, the posse establishes that "Harvey" told
them to meet him here today to get the "goods". The
biker gang says they'll return 2 days later for the
goods.

The posse goes into the saloon to get dinner; it's 7
PM, and they need something to eat. William's making
them a deal: 2 bullets each nets them a shot of
Whiskey, a slice of bread, and a piece of "chicken",
which oddly doesn't taste like Chicken. 

During dinner, a seemingly drunk man approaches Lo.
"Your chair is broken," he says. "No, it isn't,"
replies Lo. The drunk replies, "Yes, it is," and
proceeds to kick a leg of the chair out from under Lo,
who then falls. 

In the fight that ensues, the posse beats up this
drunk. They then look over their shoulders to find the
4 town Law Dogs watching them. None of them seem
impressed to find 5 guys beating up a drunk. Mara asks
them why they're, "Beating up Jack, the retarded town
drunk." Andrew tries to convince Tara that he had
nothing to do with it. Mara and Wendy leave, as does
Corky, who takes Jack with her. Tara pulls up a chair
and sits by the door. Andrew continues to try to
convince Tara that he had nothing to do with it, while
the other four gamble. At 9:00, they decide it's time
to come up with accomodations for the evening. William
tells them that, of 5 rooms above the saloon, 4 are
available. Lo decides he doesn't need a room. Tara
goes upstairs to the rooms and says goodnight to
everyone. Andrew decides that *this* is *the* place to
stay. Each posse member, save Lo, pays 2 bullets for a
room. Lo buys 2 bottles of whiskey and passes out on
the table later in the evening.

Andrew, once upstairs, bangs on Tara's door, "There's
no room left!!". It fails, and after a short "what are
you doing?" discussion with her, he gives up but
sleeps outside her door.

At 4:30, he wakes up and gets the brilliant idea of,
"get Tara breakfast". Unsure of what Tara will want
for breakfast when she wakes up, so he knocks on the
door to ask. She doesn't respond, and progresively
louder knocks eventually get a response. He ducks in
time to avoid a bullet. She doesn't respond otherwise.

Lo wakes up about this time, not in the saloon
anymore. He is now on cold concrete and there is dried
blood on the floor. He stumbles around in the dark and
finds a staircase running upstairs. He kicked open the
door, only to find Jack - sober. Jack tells him,
"You're supposed to be downstairs.". After a brief
fight, Jack pushes him back onto the stairs landing
and closes - and bolts - the door. 

Andrew goes downstairs for breakfast to discover that
Lo isn't there! He gets Pierre, Bubba, and Jimbo and
they decide to eat breakfast, then they'll run off to
try to find Lo. Breakfast comes with the room: 2
pieces of toast, provided you don't ask how they're
toasted. All except Jimbo eat theirs; Jimbo eats one
of his and decides to do a default "Art: Bread
Sculptin'" roll on his. He comes up with a "Bread
Jesus" [I was laughing too hard at the idea to
disagree]. Breakfast done, the 4 run off to find their
friend.

Early in the search, Pierre runs into Corky, who tells
him that she saw Jack and Lo hanging out together the
evening before, they might want to check with Jack.
They arrive at Jack's place - a two story building,
built post-last-war (ed note: it's really 3: 2 above
ground, plus the basement). As they ask Jack - and his
housemate, Frank - about Lo's disappearance, and the
two are adamantly denying it, Lo kicks down the door
and runs up front. Pierre, using his SA Assult Rifle,
fires off at Frank: total of 3 shots hit (2 1st burst,
1 2nd). All 3 hit locations come up "3", and Frank's
ankles are hit (I determine). Lots of damage done,
Frank leans down. Jack fires, but is soon damaged as
well by Bubba. Lo throws a shuriken at Frank, only to
discover it goes through him. A few shots go through
Jack, as well. Frank leaves through a wall as Jack
runs into the (dark) basement: and it lights up as he
enters. As the posse runs onto the landing of the
stairs, they look down and find what the blood was: a
large, bloody Pentagram (I was looking at XF cards the
night before and got the idea from seeing the
Pentagram on the "The Manitou" card). Jimbo and Andrew
race down the stairs. Andrew tries to shoot Jack
again, and the shot, too, goes through. Jimbo throws
the breaded Jesus and I decide it's crazy enough - and
time to end the game for the night, my SAT's the next
day (this morning)! Jack fumbles with the Breaded
Jesus and falls down into the center of the Pentagram.
Unfortunately, the Law Dogs only saw the last bit of
the fight, and fail to see the Bloody Pentagram on the
floor. The 5 agree to go peacefully to the jail
(defacto, held in the old church). 

Game having ended for the night, I gave each player 3
bounty (red + white). Many picked up stats, but Lo's
still holding on to a total of 5 red chips (!!!). He
had 5 red and 3 white at the beginning of the session.


Anyway, lemme know what you think. Jack and Frank are
probably harroweds, probably killed a few years before
the Last War (I'm thinking 2079 for some reason). 

=====
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Michael Shindler, ICQ #13820058
"The honorable Shosuro Ushiro wishes to meet with you" - Daidoji Arichi
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