Wilson certainly lived up to his boasting, he flew us nearly on top of the speeding train, and we lowered ropes down to prepare to board the train and confront Stone. Unfortunately Stone noticed us and began to shoot at our plane. Ziggy shouted that Stone was an enemy of the states and we began to drop down the ropes into the train. Even more unfortunately Stone is holding a little girl hostage, who said "This is worse than Plum Tree" which seemed to get a strong reaction from Smoke. I shot the bastard in the head, but he just became intangible and ignored it and clubbed the little girl in the head. Ziggy instead of fighting, tried to pick Stone's pockets while he was distracted.
Then he began to laugh, it was both terrifying and infuriating at the same time, as if the thought of us thinking we could fight him was a joke ... and he might be right. Jackie unexpectedly shot Stone through the girl he was holding hostage. This got Stone to grab his saddlebag and declare that if we wanted the heart so much we should try to take it from him, and at the same time Jackie began to have difficulties breathing and signaled us to kill Stone. I tried to shoot him with my electroshock rifle (since he was completely ignoring my normal bullets), but it phased through him as well. Apparently he was unable to maintain his invisible choke-hold on Jackie while he was phasing away from my attacks, so she unleashed a small hail of bullets into him, blowing several holes in his chest and launching him out of the train.
When we looked into the bag we saw the perfectly cylindrical HoD, and also noticed that the areas that Jackie shot had bizarrely distorted angles. The hostage that Jackie had shot had apparently been real, and while I am not entirely happy with that, she couldn't afford to risk missing. Also it would seem that Ziggy managed to grab The HoD and Stone's wallet, which had a piece of a molar that apparently he could have used to track us (if I hadn't tossed it after I learned that).
Smoke is positively livid about the ammo that Jackie used to actually hurt Stone (more so than usual) and nearly attacks Jackie over it, however before anything comes of it Ziggy restrains Smoke, and we asked her about the rounds. Which she explained were made of depleted Uranium and worked off of the Copperfield effect, which was based of of the Copperfield bomb. Jackie then continued enthusiastically (while Smoke was going absolutely ballistic) about how if it hadn't been for his work at Plum Tree she wouldn't have the rounds she used (which was obviously not what he wanted to hear, If looks could kill ...). Apparently the Copperfield bomb was a dual-nature bomb that had a conventional explosion and opened a temporary rift to the hunting grounds (presumably not the happy hunting grounds).
Even more surprising than Smoke trying to physically assault Jackie was Colleen attacking Smoke after it was revealed that he worked on the Copperfield bomb. Jackie began to explain that Smoke's research was essential to the ability to fight them, and that she couldn't explain until we reached Devil's Tower.
Colleen surprised everyone again by asking if Jackie was from the future, and Jackie admitted she was, which certainly explained how she knew so much and had advanced technology like the Copperfield rounds. Jackie told us that the Copperfield bomb was made as a deterrent for the Confederates. Waltzing Buffalo then began to lecture Smoke about how he was possessed by Manitous. The Copperfield bombs were also apparently banned in the Geneva convention (in 2030). In Jackie's universe Smoke helped Heklstrome build most of his technology. She also revealed that the outpost at Devil's Tower was a portal to the future, and that it works less well in the future.
We were all passed a dossier on 'modern' (futuristic to us) technology, and figured out how she tracked us, it would seem that Bloody Sunday, and bloody Tuesday (out incident in Salt-lake) are fairly well known historical events in the future. It makes sense now, the suitcase the ringmaster had was a Plumtree bomb, and he was apparently a Texas Ranger.
When we asked about what she knew about us from the future, We were told that I was a known as a competent scientist in the future, Cogsworth Copperfield aka Smoke was famous for his Copperfield bombs and many other inventions, and that the Wheatleys (such as Casanova apparently) were known for their "non-euclidian" family tree.
Eventually Wilson was no longer willing to continue flying into Indian territory, and so he dropped us off with his younger brother Eric Stanish, who was much more willing to take risky jobs, for the right price, a price that is coincidentally the same amount that we were paid for breaking Stone out of the Rock ... This seems like it might be a trap, but it's too risky to not try.
This was one of the most intense Roleplaying sessions I have ever been at.
ReplyDeleteThe part where Smoke was trying to kill/beat up Jackie and was restrained by Ziggy while the situation was explained, was based off of what was actually happening at the game table. Smoke's player had a bit of a temper, and what happened at plum tree was not something he (or colleen) appreciated being taken lightly and even seen as a good thing, and reacted with lot's of yelling and roughhousing.
inb4 any comments about this being bad/mean spirited, everyone had fun and noone actually got hurt, except for maybe Ziggy's player's glasses which had their lenses fall out twice while restraining Smoke's player. Deadlands is a game that tends to focus a decent amount on character flaws, such as a past full of misdeeds, or being tricked into doing something that goes against everything the character (and/or the player) believes in.