[DL] Write up of Devils' Tower results. (Very Long)

["Jeff Yates" <jyates@primaryfunction.com>]

Hey List!

Finally finished running the Devil's Tower trilogy.  This is my first
attempt at a post-games writeup, so consider yourself warned ;-)

And since this post involves spoilers all about the Devil's Tower set and
the Deadlands backstory, go away if you shouldn't know this stuff or don't
want to know this stuff!












Scoot now!  Marshal's only!







OK, so here's the story.  My group is very long in the tooth -- couple of
character's with over 5 grit, Shootin' scores of 6 to 8, that sort of thing.
I'm thinking to myself that either the posse needs to retire and try new
characters with a new game focus, or we need to move the existing characters
to a foreign setting.  Since everyone seems to like their PCs, I took a look
at the backgrounds I had to work with.  Dusty Trails, a heroic loyal
good-guy cowboy type.  Jack McKeen, loyal pretty much good guy with great
tracking skills.  Preacher, a new character to replace Jose Whales (yup,
strong Clint influence here).  Preacher is an actual blessed, basically good
guy with mysterious past -- you've seen the movie.  Josie isn't as much like
the movie, but had 8 Shootin and 10 Grit, original character from campaign
start years ago.  Dom Ino, Ferner gunslinger replacement (player has
problems keeping characters alive -- very bad luck with dice).  Charley
Horse, generic gunslinger of a new player in the group -- violent character
with tendencies to, well, chaotic evil (to borrow from DL20). Kenny, very
generic gunslinger, newest player, basically a faceless red shirted PC.
Wolf's Shadow, an indian shaman old wayer abomination hunter (abominations
including mad science items) werewolf whose player tends to be my playtester
trying out new character combinaions.  And Chris, an amnesiac good guy
gunslinger with a strange, sleek Gatling pistol and a badge that reads "U.S.
Customs."

Jose had previously been lost to the posse when, in Canyon o' Doom, he got
himself sucked into the Hunting Grounds.  Jack McKeen really wants to find
Jose and rescue him.  Hmmm... Give the posse another portal into the Hunting
Grounds and mess with them that way?  Nah.  Chris -- his amnesia is brought
about by the trauma of travelling to the past from HOE (carrying a Tokarev
pistol and US Customs badge -- he's a Law Dog).  I set this up on character
creation, so I might as well use it.  So I put the posse on the trail of the
Heart o' Darkness.  Either they'd all be dead and the campaign could start
over, they'd all volunteer to jump to HOE and we basically start over, or
I'd just declare this the retirement point of this posse and start over.

The first book of the trilogy went pretty much as planned.  Dusty did decide
to get and keep one of the rocket launchers from the Mad Scientist's
compound, with a few rockets. But they found and followed all the clues.

The second book actually went better than planned.  They followed both the
clues and the railroading moments.  When they were supposed to go to Rock
Island prison and free Stone, I emphasized the name Jasper (Jasper Stone).
Having a first name seemed to throw them off, so when they finally realized
that Jasper Stone is STONE, their looks were priceless.  Then the very next
moment they learned that Ol' Pete is STONE too.  Total Master Card moment!
But that gets ahead of things.  My posse actually staged the prison break
very well.  The group that normally solves problems (even ones that don't
exist yet) by applying prodigious amounts of TNT and gun fire, _snuck_ into
the prison, _snuck_ up to the warden's office, used wrenches and rifle butts
rather than shooting, and _snuck_ out.  They did pick up a couple of phobias
from failed guts checks, and they also picked up a couple of Gatling rifles
and lever action shotguns from the armory.  _Then_ they learn about two
Stones.  They decided that they were toast, but Stone & Stone had other
plans.  Charley actually tried to draw down on Stone 1.  I rolled cognition
(5d12+6 for Stone 1, 10d12+10 for Stone 2) and wasn't surprised.  Rolled
quickness, added Stone's harrowed power for extra cards, and got a red
Joker!  Fanned 4 bullets into Charley, did NINE wounds draining his chips,
and Charley fell down and played mostly dead.  Stone & Stone left as
scripted and the posse cleaned up the walkin' dead.  Except for Chris (who
has an imaginary friend named Harvey, part of his Loco hinderance with the
amnesia).  The double Stones and all cause a brief psychotic moment (Spirit
check) and Chris's amnesia fell apart.  I gave him the Jackie Wells handout,
noted that he was Jackie's partner, and that he blocked out his traumatic
trip to 1870's.  His real name is Harvey, Chris is just the name someone
started using when he couldn't remember his real name.

That leads us into the third installment in Devil's Tower: Fortress o' Fear.
There are quite a few people on the list that don't really like the feel of
the thing, with the critters from outer space and all.  I did seriously
consider rebuilding the ending.  Instead I decided to just go with it as
written.  It worked out, since the posse reverted to shoot first mode and
never questioned any Crossbreeds with translators.  So I never had to
explain the whole alien thing.  One PC from HOE and players that are
familiar with HOE, so the little green men were actually just genetic
mutations of some sort.  The tech level apparently didn't seem far enough
off from HOE to really get them wondering (that they let me know about
anyway).  So the little green men are mutants, probably from HOE.  Jackie
wells stayed in the back, providing no assistance and next to no clues.

The posse rented the gyrocopter and flew to the top of Devil's Tower, except
the shaman that became a bird and flew his own self.  Found a way into the
airshaft.  Found the Crossbreed child, didn't kill it (tho there was
debate), left it behind.  Proceded to the Folk level, and again _snuck_ into
the rooms.  It was night (their idea) on a day of the full moon.  I rolled a
die to see when moon rise would be...

Sneaking continued until they reached to War Pleader's rooms.  That turned
into quite the fight -- Zabrox's lightning really concerned them.  Rayguns
with reliability 16 didn't, they actually grabbed a few.  The fight went
poorly for the Crossbreeds -- way outnumbered in this room after all -- so
Zabrox teleports himself and the children away.  The room is searched, and
then I pass a note to Wolf's Shadow -- he can feel the moon coming up.  He
figures he's better off being a slavering kiling machine surrounded by
mutant rather than surrounded by PCs, and runs down a level.

Zabrox is on the level below, alerts the soldiers, and heads to the armory.
The soldiers setup an ambush just outside the stairs (ramp).  Overturned
tables for cover, rayguns set to kill.  The werewolf charges down the ramp,
down the hall and attacks one group.  The other group moves in from behind.
I let some of the players run the Crossbreeds, and they battle with the
wolf.  The wolf wins, with no little help from the crappy reliability of the
rayguns.  But he's winded and limps into an empty room.  Zabrox gathers lots
of troops to guard the armory.

The rest of the groups, well, regroups.  The Preacher leads the hunt for the
wolf -- can't have a werewolf running around killing things.  Whether there
was a plan to subdue and restrain I never found out.  The rest of the posse
used silver weapons and rayguns set for full charge and kill.  Preacher
picked up a stunstick and set it for stun.  They actually tracked the wolf
into it's room.  He had recovered half wind, and a new battle commenced.
Too many humans, too few chips, and the wolf dies, silver and lasers
puncturing him.

This is where it got challenging for me.  Stone still had the diamond.  The
posse had it in their heads that the diamond needed to go with Harvey into
the future.  They decided that they needed to find the portal.  They left
the recovery of the diamond for later.  Harvey made some really really bad
"remember" rolls, and couldn't tell which floor had the portal.  They went
down one level and found laboratories in the first to doors.  They abandoned
this floor and head down again.  There's no one at the bottom, and a locked
door keeping them from exploring.  Hmmm...  Dungeon Crawling thoroughness
seems to win out, they head up a level.  Me, I've got Stone arriving
outside.  He Ghosts into the tower at ground level, so I'm looking at the
side-view map, trying to see if he's gonna cross paths with the posse.  I
decide that Stone Ghosts horizontally into the tower, then takes ramps up
towards the portal level.  And I decide that he's doing it now... And I
catch the posse on the lab/portal level, with Stone behind on the ramp while
the posse ponders going down a hall.  I had Stone and the diamond in close
proximity to the posse, so how do I get them a clue that they need to effect
the transfer of possessions?

Well, Stone knows this bunch, they've pissed him off surviving this far like
they have, so he decides to take a moment and eliminate them.  Chips fly as
I use Stone's eight cards to double tap to the head, Hellfire breath, and
dodge.  Lots of damage, and worries that the Hellfire would set off the
explosives the posse always has on 'em.  Then the Preacher gets all heroic
and burns his remaining chips on some Fightin' rolls -- he lights a bundle
of dynamite, grapples with Stone briefly to shove the TNT into a pocket, and
yells out that the posse needs to find very durable cover!  I really don't
have a way to keep this from happening -- the Preacher chipped up his roll
to some stupid high level.  Even Stone has bad days...

I had the Preacher make a demolitions roll to check when the dynamite blows.
His roll shows I should pull one card -- it's a two or three.  Over the next
two cards the posse vamooses down the ramp putting lots of mountain between
them and the TNT.  Dusty, with the rockets from a while back, even tosses an
rocket at Stone's feet on his way out.  Stone's next card is a five.  I
ponder and decide that Ghost can take the harrowed, or the harrowed and his'
gear, but can't split the difference between the harrowed's pants and what's
in the pockets.  So a naked Stone Ghosts away.  The preacher has a four,
sees that the fuse is just about gone, and runs like Stone was chasing him.
The TNT and rocket shell demolish nearly half the laboratories on that
level.

The posse returns, gather up the remains of Stone's belongings, and find the
Heart o' Darkness.  Hurrah!  They had forgot about needing that!  Well, they
regroup again, and head to the other end of the floor.  They've got
basically no chips at this point, and still had to get past Zabrox and his
lightning and a handfull of soldiers with rayguns, and then crack the casing
around the portal and send Harvey and the diamond into it.  They get to the
main lab, and see the soldiers and Zabrox.  Quickness and cards all around!

The Preacher goes first, moves in and left and whacks the nearest guard with
the stunstick.  The taser effect knocks the guard down and out.  I'm waiting
for Zabrox's card to come up, wondering how many will fall without chips to
avoid damage.  Then Dusty uses his last rocket, firing directly on the
portal.  Reliability holds, and the rocket fires.  Bye bye casing, bye bye
machinery, hello exposed portal!  Wait, says I.  The machinery around the
portal provides the energy that powers everything in the place: lights
immediately go out, so the squad of guards with deadly rayguns have to stop
and put on the light amp goggles; and Zabrox's really cool staff, with
unlimited charges because it operates on power from the portal, is totally
inert.  The guards don't go again for a while, so Dusty uses his remaining
three cards to reload and fire the rocket at a random spot in the lab,
pauses while someone shoots the scientist Crossbreed that's silhouetted
against the portal (which gives off faint light, so everyone knows where the
portal is, but it doesn't illuminate the room), then runs and jumps into the
portal.  Harvey and the diamond jump in.  By the time I have a card to use,
everyone has evacuated.  The Crossbreeds begin cleaning up.

Oh, I forgot.  Stone announced his presence in the tower by shooting Jackie
a lot and making her very very dead.

So, I've got a Shadowrun adventure to act as the posse's experience thru the
Hunting Grounds, starting in a bar.  A bar that Jose Whales has been sitting
in, drinking, for a couple of hours (his time).  This gets the whole posse
together, tho the Preacher/Jose player will need to pick which character he
wants to keep.  The adventure even states that weapons and ammo are supplied
by the Johnson, so I can get modern weapons into the posse for use in HOE
later.  I plan on having the Hunting Grounds strip them of most of their
equipment anyway, so they will basically have their clothes, anything they
have in their hands if they get a good Strenght roll to hang onto it, but
holsters/backpacks/slung rifles are empty or missing.

The only real sticky part here is I've got two dead PCs (Charley Hoarse and
Wolf's Shadow) that need to be replaced.  Any ideas you all feel like
sharing as to what I can do to them, since they will be starting the game in
the Hunting Grounds?

Jeff Y.
Marshal for the Dynamite Gang