Category Archives: Savage Worlds

Episode 20 – Welcome to Neverland Ranch

Shortly after getting back to the Triple Tap.  Lucille walks in and says the man in black shot her and rode away.  She is just grazed and is OK.

Lorelei is handling the map and realizes some liquid has been sprayed on it.  It is oil, which probably means there is secret writing on the map.  Lawrence runs over to the hotel and gets ink, and then puts it on the map.  We see strange symbols and writing, but it doesn’t seem recognizable.  Robert Ford/Lucille looks at the map and sees the same, it is organized but she can’t read it.  We crash for the night.  An hour later we are awakened again by the door opening and closing.  Fossar walks in.  He remembers dying in Poker Alice’s body, and hearing her consciousness scream and fading away.  Then he saw himself decomposing, but then woke up in the mines.  He got up and ran, but might have seen our bodies in there as well. We rest for what is left of the night, and Fossar gets some food.

April 29th.  When we get up we sense the same danger that we felt in South Fork.  Glen Reese finishes scavenging the herbs for Grey Owl. When he gets back we head for the mine entrance with the excavating equipment.  Some of Lucilles followers show up but we tell them Lucille had to leave town.  The blacksmith makes a few more grenades before we leave.

Once at the mine opening he sets up the excavation equipment and we start widening the hole.  Grey Owl shows up, still in the kids body.  He looks concerned.  Someone destroyed all of the wards at his camp.  He looks at the mine map and says that it seems to have some Native American symbols but he can not translate it without books from his camp.  We find the opening and Glenn notices some evidence of Fossar leaving the tunnel.  We start digging at the rubble and are able to get through after an hour.  We head into the mine.

It is very quiet and I takes us an hour to get back down. There have been some small cave ins, but we can get through.  But then we Come to a large cave in.  We start digging our way though it.  After a while we get through.  We get back to the cave with the zombies but their bodies are gone.  They were dragged off.  We  keep on and eventually come to the river that we encountered before.  Sill no sign of our bodies.

We go under the river and come out in the next chamber.  Still nothing.  We go on to the next chamber and find a huge zombie mining operation.  They are digging silver and ghost rock.  We back out to the prior chamber and ask Grey Owl if he can get us to the hunting ground.  He says he can, and starts the ritual.   After some time he says go now and we jump back into the river.

Something is poking us and we are in a forest and covered in pine needles.  We hear something about 100 feet away, chanting.  We see a clearing with stone slabs and bodies attached to them.  There are 5 or 6 creatures chanting or dancing around the bodies.

Lorelai steps out of the woods and drops one of the zombies with a shotgun.  Robert Ford hits another with his rifle, and the blacksmith drops the same one.  They chant at us but nothing happens.  Lawrence kills another.  We rapidly dispatch the other two and run to check the bodies. Maverick and Grey Owl are missing, but the rest are here.  The kid (Grey Owl) shows up and says we are not in the hunting grounds but actually are in the woods outside of town.

Grey Owl starts trying to put Lucille back in her body.   He dances, chants, and Lucille feels like she is falling away from Robert.  She wakes up and is back in her own body.  Next she and Grey Owl work on Thaddeus.  He wakes up, then Magnus, and finally Jimmy.

We start tracking the way Maverick’s body was taken.  It seems to be back towards town.  The tracks lead into the town.  Lucille and Magnus run back to the Triple Tap and get supplies while we keep following the tracks.   We get to the Paradise Hotel and the tracks go inside.   We go inside and see Maverick playing cards.  Clearly someone is using his body.  Thaddeus take him to the bar and talks to him, but Maverick pulls a gun on him.

Episode 19 – I’m Harrowed Curious…..

We follow Grey Owl/the kid east then north off of the path.  The terrain gets rockier and more hilly.  There is a small mining shanty and he fiddles with the lock on the door.  It is nasty inside, with papers strewn everywhere. They are drawings, some of which we recognize.  At the center is a drawing of the dragon.  The kid says it is a manifestation of greed in the area.  They are primordial evil spirits that live in other realms, but this one has come through to our side. They work through others to undermine communities and make chaos.

We start poking through the mess and find a map of the mine.  Grey Owl says that the kid is Seth Fry and he has ability to manipulate energy as well as see  and document it.  His father was a famous gunslinger who was killed and his mother relocated to Paradise Falls.  She died and he went into foster care, but ran away and lived as a thief.  He was approached by a consciousness and was able to observe and draw what he saw.  He has some sort of connection to the powers, but because he only watched he was not corrupted.

We also find a box with a spot for a gun and knife, but they are missing.  The box is monogrammed with his fathers initials, MF (Merton Fry).  However the marks left by the weapons look plain, so they must be unadorned.   He says the weapons were there when he left the shack last summer.   The letter says Merton left Seth the weapons, but that they take a terrible toll.  We look for some other stuff but find nothing.

Poker Alice realizes that the Man in Black had a powerful gun that could be one of the missing weapons.

We take the box for the gun and knife. We head back to town, and on the way Grey Owl explains that our bodies are still in the Hunting Grounds where the dragon is still living.  The fact that we are still alive means that he has not killed our bodies.  Grey Owl used his last magic to move us away from there.  The dragons body does occasionally appear on this plane in the secret chamber in the mind.   Grey Owl can get us back there, but needs special herbs and time to complete the ritual.  We help collect the herbs.

The blacksmith and Lawrence go back to the shop and get a few more guns, 2 pistols and a shotgun.  He also makes a battle axe from spare parts, and grenades.  Poker Alice steals some dynamite from the mine store.  Glenn Reese has the Poker Boys start gathering the herbs Grey Owl needs.  Lorelai gets laid.  Robert Ford goes back and manages his club.

In the middle of the night we are awakened by commotion on the north end of town.  It is the Man in Black.  We run after him and shoot at him.  The blacksmith hits him with a grenade.  He shoots and wounds Poker Alice/Fossar.  He shoots a burst of flame out of his hand, and Fossar is wounded.  We all shoot at him again with no effect.  He guns down Poker Alice, and Lawrence tries to drag to her to safety.  Maverick hits him with a hammer, which he shakes off.  Then he slashes Maverick with a vicious looking knife.  We shoot more with no effect.  Maverick hits him again but no damage.  Lawrence keeps pulling Alice to safety, and she is slowly bleeding out.  Poker Alice dies.  He slashes the blacksmith one last time, then wheels and charges out of town.  Maverick hits him with one last grenade, to no effect.  Jimmy also misses him.  The only good thing is we confirmed he has the knife and the gun.  We all head back to the Triple Tap.

Episode 18 – Now sh*t gets weird.

We  finish slaughtering the ghouls.  We realize that the ghouls are actually slaughtered miners who were brought back to life.  We also see that this part of the mine opens into a natural cavern.  We then spend 20 min debating about burning or burying.  We decide on burning, then move on into the natural cave.

Jimmy and Thaddeus slip but both are OK.  We continue down until it opens up into a bigger cavern.   We hear dripping water, and the corridor ends in a pool of water.  Magnus casts environmental protection on the party and we walk into the water.

The water feels viscous but not necessarily evil.  It tastes oily.  We go about 30 feet and emerge and the liquid sluffs off us.  We can’t see anything, even with the magical assistance, and we no longer feel the water behind us.  Fossar sees something glowing in the distance, and we can still hear each other.  The point starts glowing brighter, and Lucille recognizes it as the dragon moving towards us.  Orange tendrils envelop us.  Thaddeus throws a potion but it has no effect.  A disembodied voice says “Very clever Thaddeus”.

A huge orange dragon head looms over us.  The voice says its has been waiting to meet us.  He says he has influence and asks us to join his legions.  We see idealized vision of ourselves.  He says we have much to offer each other.  All of us have arrived hear by running from our past.  Thaddeus tries to persuade him that we will not be changed from our present course.  Magnus hit him with a bolt, but it passes right through.  The voice says you have lost an ally and we see   Grey Owl on the same slab that we rescued Jenkins from.  The voice says you have made your choice and the tendrils start pulsing and we see Grey Owl look at us.  He pulls out a pouch and crushes it. Dandelion fluff or something swirls around us and we see the dragon head withdraw.  The sense of vertigo increases and we all black out.

We each see a different scene when we awake.  Thaddeus senses someone else that he has a psychic connection with someone else.  It is Madame Lorelai.  When he opens his eyes he feels someone pressed up against him, and it is actually a young man, named Jeremy.  Looking into a mirror he looks like Madam Lorelai.

Fossar wakes up and sees blinding light.  When his eye clears he is under a tree and is a woman.  He is guarding the perimeter of the town.  The dragon is still in his mind, but he just senses that this is good. He is Poker Alice.

Jimmy wakes up and is stirring a pot of food in a teepee.  There are many more teepees upside and he is in the camp of the Dust Boys.  He is Glenn Reese, manager of the dust boys.

Maverick is a blacksmith.  He looks down and he is shaping a buckle for a horse bridle.  A boy runs in and says Dad, everybody is saying that there was an explosion in the mine.  He is Roland Chambers, the blacksmith.

Lucille is pouring something, then takes a shot.  Then one more.  Then one more.  He invites people on the street into his hotel.  It is really a tent.  He is Robert Ford.

Magnus is sitting comfortably but realizes he doesn’t want to be the guy in charge.  He is playing poker and wins $200, but thinks about parking it in and heading to the bar.  He is Lawrence.

Our consciousness is fighting with their consciousness.  Thaddeus heads to the Triple Tap.  Roland/Maverick also heads to the bar.  Fossar touches herself then heads to the mine.  Magnus heads outside from his bar, but heads toward the mine.  Lucille walks outside, and feels that the dragon was trying to corrupt our souls, but Grey was sacrificed himself to save us and send us to another body.   She heads to the Tripe Tap as well.

Magnus and Fossar sees that the entrance to the mine is collapsed.  They  see people holding back the crowd.

Magnus and Fossar meet at the mine, and then decide to head to the  bar as well.  Jimmy finally wanders in after some pointless screwing around.

We decide to see if we can find the back entrance to the mine and get in to recover our original bodies.  First we hit the blacksmith shop to look into the cellar where Roland has some weird magic stuff.  We see that he has a hydraulic pump that can wash away the stuff in the mine.  We find a small ghost rock boiler.  Thaddeus also sees some bottles that can give off toxic caustic vapor pills.  Also some oxygen tablets that can be used to breathe under water.  There is also a salve that can heal, some rusting oil,,and some slippery oil.

We head to the mine and find the kid standing at the entrance.  He has Grey Owls spirit riding shotgun.  He leads us toward a different path, and we follow.

Episode 17 – Let’s not go to the Deadlands, it’s a silly place

Thaddeus gets together some supplies and takes them to Grey Owl.  As we are leaving Charlotte comes up and she is dressed very well.  Charlotte explains that she is back in the business, and Madame Lorlelai is her mistress.  We fill her in on our adventures.  She says the town is starting to come back to life, but she is concerned about the guy running for mayor, George Riley.  He is giving speeches saying that we are taking over the town.  She also says we should tell the town how we will be distributing the food, because they are starting to get worried.

We get to Grey Owls camp.  He is not currently around, but we see one set of hours tracks that arrived recently then headed off east.

Magnus wanders around town and meets Robert Ford.  Robert is trying to get the dance hall reopened.  He agrees to go talk to the mayor with Magnus.  The mayors office has been cleaned and organized.  Rusty is there and greets them.  He is happy to see them and they talk about how to distribute the supplies.  Rusty suggests giving them to the general store owner for distribution, but Magnus suggests the church.  Eva is giving services there and she will distribute the food.

We get back to town and find Lucille’s worshippers outside the Triple Tap.  Maverick suggests they should not bother her, but go do good deeds.   Jimmy steps up and says “I am Good Deeds”.  <ba dum dum>. We look around for the invisible drummer.  Thaddeus brews more of his potions.  Everyone turns in early.

Next morning, April 28th, we wake up and the church people show up to help us load the food.  We take the food over to the church.  Eva meets us and thanks us for the food.  Magnus realizes that she was one of the people in the vision where we also saw Lawrence being possessed.  She is free now.

We go to see Riley speak.  Lucille casts puppet on him.  Magnus engages him in conversation. Riley starts to say some bad things about us, but Lucille has him say other things.  He challenges Magnus to run for Mayor, and Magnus accepts.  Riley starts  to say he learned something about us, but Lucille uses telepathy to threaten him if he says anything.  He goes pale and endorses Magnus.  People keep coming up to him and introducing themselves.  We ask Rusty to help organize them into work crews to help building the town. We decide to head to the mine, after stopping at the Triple Tap for supplies.

We get there and starts head in, bu the meet the assayers on the site.  They head up with us.  He tells us that the mine is publicly owned so if we can get it going again the whole town will benefit.   He takes us to the junction with the older part of the mine then heads out.  We stealthily head back to where we saw the zombies.

As we get to the bottom we hear walking coming towards us.  We come to an open room and see 11 ghouls.  Fossar shovels one.  Another attacks him, but he kills it.  Lucille casts havoc and 3 of the ghouls fly against the walls.  Jimmy steps up and kills one of them.

 

Episode 16 – I will taunt her a second time, then smack her brain hole

Anita backs away from the barn, cursing and calling for help.  Magnus hits her with a bolt but she shrugs it off.  Jimmy tries grabbing the bag of spices from her neck, but she dodges.  Fossar taunts her and Thaddeus hits her with a potion, but she ignores them both.

Fossar taunts her a second time.  This time she seems affected.  She screams and moves away.  Several zombies appear from the old Indian longhouses and start moving toward us.  Thaddeus shoots and misses.  Magnus tries to pull out a new gun from his magic sack, but it fails miserably.  The gun blows up and injures him.  Jimmy runs up and slashes her.  Her head scarf flies off and the top of her head is missing.  Her brains are exposed, but she took no damage from the axe slashes.  He yells and swings again, aiming at her brain. Brains spray out and she seems injured for the first time.

Fossar keeps up his taunts, and Magnus shoots her again but with no damage.   The zombies move in and swarm Jimmy.   One hits but does not damage Jimmy.   One of the miners is killed by another zombie.  Jimmy swings wildly and kills Anita but smashing the last of her brains.  The zombies go crazy.  Thaddeus hits Jimmy and the zombies, trapping all of them.

Thaddeus shoots another zombie and kills it.  Fossar runs up and smashes another with a shovel.  He splatters it and is covered in infectious gore, but shrugs it off.  Jimmy breaks free and eliminates two more zombies.  The last zombie shoots Magnus with a bow and wounds him, but Fossar removes its head.

Thaddeus grabs the spices and gives some to Maverick, but it has no effect.  He starts to feel better after a while.  We drag the bodies into the barn and light it on fire.  We heal everyone who was hurt.  We search the town and find some newer tracks going into the homes.

We follow the tracks and find tons of supplies in some of the houses. We load up the wagon, and scrounge up another wagon as well.  What we can’t carry we hide in a cellar and booby trap.   Knowing it is too far we decide to spend the night before heading out.  We stash the wagons in a barn and set up watches.

About 4 am we hear noise coming down the street.  A tall man in black is dragging something.  As he gets closer we see that the man is dragging a body.  He talks to Fossar and says come down here, you got a live one.  Fossar walks up to him and sees it is Bat Masterson and he is moving.  We buried him because he was dead and cold.  The man in black says the dead around here don’t stay dead, so he helps by giving the dead an elixir that keeps the animating demon at bay.  The person can then lead a normal life, they just aren’t breathing.

The man in black introduces himself as the prospector.  He gives a bottle of the elixir to Fossar, then he says farewell and leave.  The condition of the recovered dead is “harrowed”, returned to the land of the living.

We head to Spar City, spend the night.  There is no one around.  We head out early and get to Paradise Falls in mid afternoon.  There is a large encampment that wasn’t there when we left.  They are the dust brothers, Jimmy’s kin and friends.  Jimmy greets them and talks to them, and so does Magnus.  We take the supplies to the Triple Tap.

We are greeted as heroes when we come in with the supplies.  We see several of the buildings have been repaired and the town is slowly coming back to life.

You also see a lot of signs talking about the new guy running for mayor.  We get to Triple Tap and a bunch of people are outside chanting.  Lucille is sitting in a chair in the corner, and these are her worshippers.  She leads the crowd out, then comes back in to talk to us. We bring in the rest of the food.  Thaddeus heads up to his lab to work on the new potions and the spices.  He realizes he can replicate the  Elixir but needs to find some more rare ingredients.  He can talk to Grey Owl to get the rest.

Episode 15 – Attack of the Brunch Wolf

The noise is coming from all around the campsite.  Jimmy lets the party knows that the creatures like to attack from the side.  Maverick deals with the devil and now can see very well in the dark.  He flies around looking for the source of the noise.  They hear more grunting calls from across the hearing.  Jimmy backs into the clearing and closer to the. Fire.  Fossar keeps shouting “Where are they?”

Magnus preps a spell and Maverick lands inside the clearing.  Everyone is still waiting for something to happen.  Jimmy starts having more flashbacks about how he was attacked by a large female Sasquatch after he stumbled into its young.   Fossar thinks he sees one of them off in the distance.

Thaddeus stumbles into the clearing. The group tries to get a fire going but fails.  The miners say they want to go and start heading back to the road.  We follow them as a group, with Maverick and Thaddeus flying above them.

As we were are strung out we are attacked by a group of large creatures.  Maverick shoots one but it shakes it off.  Fossar also swings at one but does no damage.  Bat and Lawrence are terrified and take off.  The wendigo swings at Fossar and misses.  Another one attacks the miners and hits, leaving him shaken.  Fossar swings but misses.  Thaddeus drops a potion on one and shakes it.  Jimmy screams and run at the female that he remembered from his flashback.  He sinks two tomahawks into it, leaving it shaken.

Magnus blasts one with a ray gun.  Fossar swings at the same one and takes a huge chunk out of it, but it returns the pain with interest. The other one attacks Jimmy but misses.  Jimmy hits it again and Thaddeus blows up another one.

The combat continues until all of them are dead.  The last one falls on Jimmy as it is dying.  Only Fossar and Jimmy were wounded.  The posse pushes the dead thing off of Jimmy, and he and Fossar both drink a potion from Thaddeus and feel better.

Jimmy remembers being discovered, half-dead and mute, by the Dust Boys after his first encounter with the female beast, and being given his name by the leader, Glenn.

We get back to the horses.  Lawrence comes out of the woods.  Bat and Ollie say they are going on to solve the supply train problem.  We realize that is just 5 miles away and decide to head there too.

Chuck tells about his visions and says we will run into zombies at the supply station.

We get into town and it feels like Del Norte.  The supply depot is completely burned down, and there doesn’t seem to be anyone else around.  There are teepees and long houses of a Indian settlement not far away.  There is smoke coming out of a chimney from a ranch house on the edge of town.  We head there and see hunting rifles on the porch and see deer hanging.  We smell cooking food.  We knock and the door is answered by a short Native American woman, Anita.  We come in and talk to her.

She says that Soapy’s men arrived in town in February and burned the supply depot, and drove everyone away, a whooping and a hollering.   Anita and her husband hid in the cellar and have lived off of hunting ever since, but it is dangerous here and they do not venture outside often.  She says we will need to go NW to Lake City (25 miles) to get more supplies.

She serves stew and puts some extra spices in Jimmy’s.  When Maverick asks for spices she refuses. He eats it anyway.  Maverick decides to go upstairs and see the husband who is supposedly resting.

Meanwhile we go into the barn to see if we can help her repair it.  It smells like chemicals but we can’t place it.  She asks us to replace some of the rotten wood as it’s causing the barn to be unstable. She asks Jimmy to go get some wood from behind the farmhouse. He obliges, but suddenly we hear shots from the house.

The group in the barn moves back out, except for Anita, Thaddeus, and Magnus.  We hear Maverick shout from the house “Husband’s dead!”  Anita shouts “Kill them!” and runs out of the barn.

Several moaning shapes jump down from the hay loft right behind Magnus. They appear to be undead Indian braves, all covered with disgusting pus-oozing sores.

Thaddeus chases Anita and hits her with the butt of his shotgun as she tries to close and lock the door.  She takes no notice of the hit, and is definitely not of this world.  She hits him back with magical energy and he stumbles back.

Magnus brings up a barrier at the back of the barn, and throws a stick of dynamite over it to pulverize the zombies.  The blast is so powerful that it goes through the barrier and wounds him, but it does destroy the zombies. However a substance sprays onto Magnus and he is infected with the pox.  Maverick starts convulsing from eating the stew, which was apparently poisoned. He vomits blood and looks exhausted but is still standing.  The miners also vomit, and Bat and Ollie collapse to the ground. It appears that they aren’t breathing.

Episode 14 – Literally, it is literally a thing, literally. Literally.

The heroes return from Spar City after having saved the remaining survivors. On the way back into Paradise Falls, the wagon train finds Alice on the edge of town. Magnus hops off the wagon to speak with her. Turn out  she is out there to get a breath of fresh air. She confides to Magnus that she’s doing what she can to behave and watch out for the town, but it’s difficult. She hasn’t had a drink in several days. She also admits that she has a Pony Express message for Magnus, and is curious why someone would risk sending a rider to such a volatile area, and questions his motives. Magnus takes the message and then proceeds to talk to Alice about her importance in the town. The two hop back on the wagon and make their way into town.

Once in town, the refugees meet family members they haven’t seen in months and there are lots of tearful reunions. Everyone throws praises at the posse and calls them heroes.

Magnus calls the group together and explains that he received a message from a friend in Salida who told him that the Priest and the Irishman were seen in South Fork. The group realizes that they will need to get some rest before they continue on with their next task, and head to the Long Draught.

After a while, Rusty comes to the posse and lets them know how much he and the town appreciate their help reuniting those who had left a few months ago. However, he notes that the supplies are in a dire situation and they have only a week left of food before nothing is left. In the posse’s absence, a group of people including Lawrence, Bat Masterson, Ollie O’Malley and six minors when to Clearwater to finally discover why the supply chain has been down for so long.

The group breaks and goes their separate ways. Magnus sees Alice hanging around the outside of the Long Draught and invites her in. She agrees, not expecting an invitation from him but not hating the idea, either. She and Magnus go up to his room and spend the rest of the afternoon up there.

Jimmy and Fossar head outside to spar. As they fight, a crowd gathers and Maverick takes bets from the townspeople. After a long battle, Fossar finally lays Jimmy out. Maverick pays out the bets and keeps 20%, but takes the two fighters to the bar for drinks.

Alice can be heard from Magnus’ room by the other posse members. Magnus summons some assistance for Alice’s pleasure. Magnus and Alice continue and Alice collapses from exhaustion and the two fall asleep.

The rest of the gang drink and fight through the night, and return around midnight. Maverick gambles with the locals and loses for the first time. He quits while he’s behind and heads back.

In the morning Alice has left Magnus’ room and the rest of the group begins to rise about 10 am. Maverick makes his way to the stables and tries to buy a horse to feed the town, saying that if they don’t start eating the horses that everyone will starve. He tries to intimidate the owner and the owner runs to get the Sheriff.

About this time Chuck the miner comes running into to town. He is all distraught. He goes on about Lawrence, Batt and the rest being ambushed by some sort of creature with huge claws.

As the rain moved in the group hurriedly gets on their horses and begin back to where Chuck was attacked. On the trail Chuck explains how he is able to see the supernatural.

We come upon a broken wagon with a dead horse on the side of the road. The horse’s throat has been ripped out. Fossar looks the site over and determines that there are tracks in and out of the woods. Maveric flies into the air and sees the tracks go off quite a ways and the tacks coming back have a longer stride (the person was running). Tommy sorts through the wagon and finds just a torso under some grain.

Maverick finds a camp site off the road. Fossar enters camp and investigates a pelt. He looks at it and it not something he recognizes. He rips it off the tree. There are six bodies littering the camp site.

Some mumbling can be heard coming from one of the tents. Fossar approaches the tent and and throws some dirt at it. Lawrence pops his head out and asks who’s out there.

Inside the tent Bat Masterson is lying very injured. Fossar just wants to bury everyone. Ollie is in there also. Ollie looks at the pelt and is not able to figure it out.

Magnus enters the camp and makes his way with Tommy and Chuck toward the tent. Magnus calls out to Fossar and he comes out of the tent. Lawrence and Ollie beckon Magnus to come help Batt. Magnus enters the tent. He states that he needs some room and then pulls a device out of his bag. Magnus puts it on Batt and fixes him up. They then lead Magnus to the other tent and Magnus fixes up the two wounded guys in that tent.

Shortly after that a sound comes from the woods.

Bar names; Triple Tap (marms, veins, beer)

Episode 13 – Zombie Church and their debut album Flesh Door

Fossar breaks into the room an says “What is happening?!”  Everyone pauses for a moment and Charlotte just stares at us.  She starts move toward the door.  Thaddeus throws a sleep potion but she resists it.  Fossar swings at her and connects twice with the sharp side of his shovel and she is bleeding profusely from the head and neck, but still takes off running.  Maverick pushes her towards the corner and she falls down.  Magnus shoots her with a stun gun but she resists and still tries to get out the door.  Fossar knocks her down and she is bleeding out.

We heal her and tie her up.  Lucille look at her and casts a spell.  She says that the spirit infecting her will need to be killed to free her from it.  If not she will die anyway.

We leave her and head through the door she wanted to use. Lucille stays with Charlotte.  We open the door and see a dark room.  Jimmy goes in first followed by Fossar and Maverick.  We see a room with alcoves with 4 corpses in each.  The door slams shut and the the corpses sit up and start vomiting blood.  The blood rapidly rises up to our ankles and keeps going.  Magnus teleports us quickly back to where we came from.

We head to the next door in the entry room.  It open onto stairs that go up.  We start heading up the stairs to another door.  It does not budge when we try to open it.  Magnus lights a stick of dynamite and we run back down to the entry room and close the first door.   BANG!  We head back up the stairs,  and see a cruciform room.  In it are parts of zombies that are recollecting themselves and we see them forming larger zombies.

Jimmy charges in and attacks two of the zombies. He swings but does no damage.  Fossar runs in and swings wildly.  He dismembers one of the zombies and wounds another.  The zombies attack and miss us.  Maverick charges into the room and shoots.  He drops one and hits another.  Magnus and Thaddeus step in the door and shoot, which evaporates another zombie.  Maverick drops the last zombie with three well placed shots.

We search the rest of the room but there are just caskets and body parts.  There is a door on the far wall.  We blast this one open as well.    Beyond is a large room with pews and an altar.  The pews are full of zombies and there is a large worm towering over the altar.

They attack us but miss.  Jimmy hits and wounds one.  Maverick drops that one and wounds another.  Fossar charges and wounds one of them, but his shovel breaks.  Thaddeus hits the worm with a potion.  Magnus also hits it with a fireball.

Fossar is shovel-less but still tries to kick the zombies.  Pointless much?  Maverick shoots two of them and wounds them.  Magnus launches another fireball.  It fries 3 of the zombies and wounds the worm.  They all swing at us, and miss.  The worm moves closer, and Tommy Hawk gets a surge of adrenaline.  The worm attacks Fossar with his tongue and drags him in closer.   It also misses Thaddeus, who throws a potion back.  Jimmy dispatches one zombie and wounds another.

Thaddeus throws a different potion (banish) and we see the orange energy get pulled out of the worm, and it is now making  a different sound.  Clearly whatever was motivating it was removed from the creature.  Fossar breaks out of the tendril and tries to pull its tongue out but fails to move it.  The remaining zombie attacks Jimmy but misses.  The worm strikes at Jimmy and wraps him in its other tongue.  Maverick hits it with a bolt, but again it seems unfazed.  Jimmy tackles the tongue and slices himself free.  Magnus blasts it with a shotgun.

Maverick tries to deal with the devil and cast a spell, but it backfires on him and he has a headache.  He still shoots and hits it.  Fossar kicks it again in frustration, to no effect.  The worm bites Jimmy and gives hm a scar.  He attacks back and shakes the worm.  Angus misses.

Jimmy and Thaddeus wound the worm.  It bites Fossar.  Everyone else misses.

The worm and zombie attack and hit Maverick, but he magically ducks and evades the damage (thank you cards).  He shoots back and  wounds it, but it is still moving.

The worm bites Jimmy and he falls down and is bleeding out.  Maverick finally puts the worm down.  We heal Jimmy, and find the strongbox on the dais.  We open it and see a lot of papers including the founding papers, 2 sets.  One set has Jenkins and Otto Strauss, and another that does not have Otto’s name.

We take the box and catch up to the people heading to Paradise  Falls.  We take the papers with us and head back to town.

 

Session 1 – Kung Fu Tournament

The year is 1840 in central China, which is near the end of the Qing Dynasty. We are north of Chengdu in the city of Fuxian (Fu County, now known as Mianyang). It is a sub-tropical, semi-mountainous region.

There are several kung fu schools in Fuxian, the largest being San Chuan (literally “Three Fists”) at 150 students, which is run by Master Shifu, one of the three original masters that founded the school. He is elderly and kind, but firm. This school teaches a variety of styles and is fairly progressive in its outlook, mixing wrestling, forms, weapons along with sparring, acrobatics and iron body training.

Smaller but no less influential is the Black Lotus school, a very regimented group of 50 students who are less kind to styles other than theirs, and also any outsiders. Black Lotus is headed up by Coiled Snake, a master of the Shaolin snake style, along with his son Spitting Snake. Here the training is focused on endurance drills such as horse stance and practicing forms with heavy rings on students’ arms. Anything less than perfect in technique and skill is not tolerated.

We meet two students of the San Chuan kung fu school: one named Zizou Ming (literally “Smart Ass”), an 18 year old of average height and build who has been studying at the school for a couple of years. His family sold his sister to be able to afford training with the venerable Master Shifu. Zizou has been training in wrestling, forms, and specializes in the rope dart weapon.

Tiaowu Jiu (literally “Dancing Wine”) is a mountain of a man at 6′ 2″, towering over his other countrymen. He started out as a dishwasher and janitor at the school several years ago, and now at age 20 has finally been accepted at the school after proving himself. He is often still treated as the janitor, however. Also he is addicted to rice wine, and hides clay pots full of it around the school for when he has a hankering to drink. He swears that drinking helps his fighting ability. His specialty is in brawling, and very few challenge him in this regard except for the higher level students.

Lung Po (literally “Broken Dragon”), 17 years old, began training at the Black Lotus school last year after finally being accepted. He has been hanging around there since he was a young boy, always waiting for his chance to become a student, but was never allowed to train because of his low standing. After showing his martial prowess and his acrobatic ability which he uses to bounce around obstacles with ease, the teachers finally let him begin training. His weapon specialty is brass knuckles with claws, and thrown knives.

It is mid-summer and very hot, and the students at both schools are training hard. At San Chuan School, Zizou and Tiaowu practice their forms and then transition to wrestling. Tiaowu is winded after a few wrestling matches with the large SiHing nicknamed Big Nose (his real name is unpronounceable), and sneaks away for a nip of wine. No one notices him. Zizou is paired with Mei Mei, the daughter of Master Shifu, who is notoriously arrogant and proud. After beating Zizou soundly in the first round, he comes back and throws her. Her face is red with anger at the humiliation, and stalks off.

At the Black Lotus school, Lung Po has spent the whole morning in strength drills and forms, and is now practicing staff forms. He does not like staff at all, preferring smaller and more agile weapons, and is not doing well. However even worse for wear is his friend Fei Wan (“Flying Over”), the only person at his social level at the school. Fei comes from a rich family, but is so terrible at martial arts that the other students shun him. Fei tries hard on the staff but trips and accidentally breaks it in half. Lung helps him up and finds him another staff, but one of the SiHings, a temperamental man named Barking Wolf, yells at him and beats him. Fei gets up to try again and breaks a second staff. Barking Wolf grabs him by the nape of the neck and drags him into the building, fuming.

Lung Po uses his acrobatic ability to sneak away from the other students training and bounds to the second floor, looking down at Barking Wolf and Fei Wan, and sees Barking Wolf begin to beat his friend senseless. He gives him several body blows and then superman-punches his face into the floor, knocking him out and dislodging several teeth. Without even thinking, Lung loosens his belt as it’s his only weapon, then jumps onto Barking Wolf’s back, choking him out. Before Barking Wolf can fight back, Lung strikes him in the side of the head and knocks him unconscious. He drags the limp SiHing into a closet, and notices a small scroll sticking out of his robe. He snatches it and then tends to Fei Wan, taking him gingerly to the barracks and binding his wounds. He is still mostly knocked out but cries in pain. Lung goes back to the training floor and resumes staff work, hoping that no one saw him leave.

At San Chuan school, it’s lunch time and as Zizou gets his bowl of soup and goes to sit down, Mei Mei pushes past him and sits down in the chair instead. Zizou squeezes next to her and asks her what her problem is. She says that he must have cheated in order to win, since she is a much better fighter than him. He denies it and says that he meant no disrespect, but she is having none of it and walks off in a huff.

Near the end of lunchtime, Master Shifu comes out and says that their school has been asked to participate in a city-wide kung fu tournament tomorrow morning, and he wants the kwoon spotless before they leave. All students will spend the remainder of the day cleaning, and tomorrow morning they will leave for the tournament. He is planning on asking several students to perform their special techniques they have been training for. All are dismissed and go to begin the cleaning work.

Zizou gets a bucket of water for cleaning and again runs into Mei Mei, who is also carrying a bucket. He apologizes again for upsetting her and says that perhaps he just got lucky. She thinks it over and finally agrees, saying that maybe that’s what happened and perhaps if he was lucky today, that he would be unlucky another time. She “accidentally” spills some of the bucket’s contents on his shoes, which did not contain water but mud, and walks off with a smirk. Zizou is glad that she did not douse him entirely, and thinks that he is making progress with her. Nearby, SiHing Big Nose asks Zizou how he got Mei Mei to notice him — Big Nose has been trying for years.

Back at Black Lotus School, at lunchtime Lung Po sees some of the teachers discussing something in the hallway where he fought Barking Wolf. He comes forward to inquire what they are looking at, and one of the SiHings says that they found blood on the floor, but they are not sure what it was from. He suddenly realizes who he’s talking to and orders Lung Po to move along, and he complies. Nothing more is said about it, and Barking Wolf does not reappear.

Later in the afternoon, Lung Po and the other students practice horse stance with a candle or sharpened stick underneath them, and heavy rings are placed on their arms. Lung Po has placed the stolen scroll in his pants, hoping that no one finds it. Spitting Snake, the Shifu’s son, comes around with a small heated cauldron that he places between students’ arms to hold up as well. Lung Po’s arms burn, but he makes it through the trial. After this, everyone is told to prepare for evening meal and lights out. Fei Wan is still in his bunk, whimpering with pain, but seems to be recovering. After lights out, Lung carefully reads the contents of the scroll. The letter is from Shifu Coiled Snake, and apparently Barking Wolf was being thrown out of the school for misconduct. He was to leave by the end of the day, which explains why he was so hard on Fei Wan. Lung quickly hides the scroll in another student’s bunk and goes to sleep.

The next morning at breakfast, Shifu Coiled Snake announces that they will be leaving for a tournament shortly, and everyone will be ready to go right after the meal. Everyone runs to comply. The school leaves, and Lung Po and Fei Wan, the lowest standing among the students, take up the rear.

At San Chuan School, Zizou is chosen to take one of the school banners to the tournament. As he is walking, he notices Mei Mei next to him with a larger banner. She does not acknowledge him, but he sees that he still has her attention. Tiaowu grabs a nip of wine before leaving and hurries to catch up with the group.

At the tournament, five schools are participating. San Chuan, Black Lotus, the Crane School (nothern longhand and shaolin techniques), the Five Element School, and Lo Han School (a mix of kung fu and tai chi students). Vendors have brought their carts selling street food and wine, and townspeople are crowding around to watch. The day begins with demonstrations, and Master Shifu does not disappoint with a mesmerizing spear form. At one point he shoves the spear into the ground and appears to defy gravity as he balances on it with one hand. Shifu Coiled Snake follows this with a spinning form that leaves the audience dizzy, and breaks wood and bricks as he spins.

After this the students begin to perform, with demonstrations of acrobatics and iron body displays. Big Nose shows his iron head technique, with students breaking pieces of wood over his head. Next is forms. San Chuan starts out. Zizou is chosen to demonstrate the rope dart and provides a flawless presentation of the form. Next is SiHing Lozu then Mei Mei. She has difficulty with her rhythm, though, and Zizou sees this. He encourages her by pantomiming the form and showing the rhythm, and she improves. She has a slight smile as she finishes and everyone applauds. Zizou and Tiaowu also perform to good responses.

Sparring and wrestling starts next, and Tiaowu is paired with Big Nose. The fight goes on for several minutes with Big Nose using his iron head against the big man. They continue to trade blows until Tiaowu advances with a ridiculous combination, striking Big Nose in the leg, body and finally the head. He lifts the SiHing above his head and hurls him into a vendor’s cart. Wontons go flying and everyone cheers. The man who owns the cart curses Tiaowu out, but he is grinning from ear to ear. After this, when others are fighting, Tiaowu goes to a wine vendor and gets a free bottle of wine, which he downs immediately.

Zizou fights Mei Mei and it’s a draw. Zizou respectfully looses his next fight but then beats the next oppent.Zizou then fights Lung Po and loses once, then wins twice. The two warriors are respectful to one another. Zizou continues on and defeats 2 more opponents.

Lung Po fights ??? and wins?

Tiaowu fights Spitting Snake in an incredibly long battle. Spitting Snake throws dirt in his eye.

Tiaowu fights a Lo Han student, and loses?

The inter-school matches conclude, and after observation by the Shifus, the final contenders for the day are chosen. The first match is a student from Five Elements against a Lo Han student, and Five Elements wins. The second match will be Zizou against Lung Po, and the third match will be SiHing Lozu versus Spitting Snake. After this the winners are to fight.

As Zizou and Lung Po are getting ready to fight, a commotion is heard in the crowd. Men with robes and hoods are coming through the crowd with swords, scaring the townspeople and slashing at anyone who gets in their way.  Master Shifu barks at them to stop what they are doing immediately, but they still advance. He tells his students to get ready to repel the fighters. Coiled Snake tells his students to snap to attention as well.

The first four men go down easily, with the students from both schools working together. Master Shifu takes one out with precise strikes to several nerve points, paralyzing him. Mei Mei stuns one of them, and Zizou grabs his rope dart and slashes one of them across the back with a spinning move, whips it around his leg and then out to strike the second man in the face, taking him out. Tiaowu and Lung Po join the battle and the other man is taken out.

This leaves just one, who takes his mask off and reveals himself to be Barking Wolf. He addresses Shifu Coiled Snake and says that he will pay for shaming him, and even if he dies that his revenge will be complete. He lunges at Coiled Snake, ignoring all the other attackers, but Tiaowu tries to grab him. He slashes Tiaowu savagely and the big man falls down, unconscious. Mei Mei and Zizou both attack, but are unable to bring him down. Mei Mei slips while kicking and twists her ankle, falling to the ground. Lung Po leaps at Barking Wolf from behind and slashes him with his brass knuckle claws, and Barking Wolf falls, bleeding out.

Barking Wolf continues to crawl toward Shifu Coiled Snake, but passes out short of him and expires. Coiled Snake looks up at Lung Po and nods, which is the most attention and respect he’s ever paid the boy. He then turns sharply and walks away, motioning his students to follow him.

Episode 12 – Beating off evil

Maverick starts rounding up wagons and horses to transport people from Spar City.  Thaddeus stays up late and works up a new potion to deal with the strange new creatures we have been finding.

The next morning we find a bunch of people (5) sitting outside of the Long Draught.  Magnus approaches them and asks what they want.  They have covered themselves with symbols that match what Lucille  was drawing on buildings.  They immediately bow down to her.  She asks what they want and they say they are following her holy writings.   Some of them claimed that she protected them and helped them find food and good fortune.  They ask her to tell them the path. She tells them to help Maverick load the wagon.

Robert quits his job and says F@(k this I’m moving to Montana.

We jump in the wagons and start to Spar City.  We have horses tied to the back of the wagons.  Jimmy is out in front as our scout.  We raise a huge cloud of dust as we ride, moving at super speed.   Thaddeus is snoring in the back of one of the wagons, but Jimmy senses the spirit of Grey Owl speeding us along.   We don’t stop, and soon we the outskirts of Spar City.  We see smashed buildings and fire scars.   We see someone in the road in front of us.

Jimmy rides up to the person.  He sees that it is a kid.  We stop behind Jimmy rides around in front of the kid.  It is the kid, and he is drawing on his sketch pad.  He says this is a bad time.  Jimmy looks at his sketch pad.  The town on the pad shows huge tentacles crushing the buildings.  We feel a sense of unease that is extremely strong.  There is something very wrong with this town.  Maverick asks if there are people in the church.  Lucille detects arcana on the kid.  She can tell that he is slightly magical.  He says that he is not going into the town and starts to walk away.   Thaddeus mounts his own horse and we start moving into the town with Jimmy, followed by the wagons.  We notice that there is no vegetation around the town, and all of the field around it are dead and cracked.  The church is the only thing standing.  We see bones all over the ground.  Some have meat on them but others are bare.  There is no sound but the carrion birds.

Lucille says not to touch the bones, but we can’t stop the horses from stepping on them.  Thaddeus’ horse rears and starts running out of town.  Lucille talks to it and suddenly it turns around and heads back into town.   We get to the church.  Lucille sees the energy coalesce around us and warns us to watch the bones.  Jimmy starts riding around to crunch up more of the bones.  We see recent signs of activity, such as freshly dug graves with crosses on them.

We move up to the church.  Lucille does not detect anything from the graves, but there is a lot of magical energy coalescing in the area. Jimmy tracks around the graves, and sees the tracks go straight back to the church.  Charlotte jumps down and looks at the graves.

Maverick shoots one shot to let anyone on the church know we are here.  There is a sound like a large exhale and we see skeletons pop up around us.  They seem to be made out of many different people and are screaming in pain and rage.  They pick up stick and attack us. Charlotte shoots one with a shotgun and it disintegrates.  We see an orange energy as the skeleton disintegrates.  Jimmy lets out a war cry, WHICH WE HEAR.  He is surprised, but still jumps off his horse and still tomahawks another skeleton.  There is still blood coming out of the skeletons, which is weird.   The skeletons move in.  One swings at Jimmy and misses.  One swings at Charlotte and his arm falls off.  One swings and Thaddeus and connects, and another hits Maverick.   Maverick returns the favor and blows three away.  Thaddeus shoots another in the face.   Lucille is obviously casting a big spell, and 4 zombies pop up out of the graves of the townspeople.

Joker for Maverick.  He mows another three down.   Charlotte blows way one of Lucille’s zombies.  Jimmy cuts down two in front of him.  Magnus blows away the third, and the ground rumbles as the last zombie sinks into the ground.  Lucilles shouts not to kill the last zombies, which are hers.  We ride up to the church and announce ourselves.  After some convincing the doors open and we see a women and man.  They see Lucille’s zombies and shut the door immediately.

Maverick flies up to the steeple (this is new).  The group in the church shoots up at Maverick and misses.   Charlotte talks to them and tries to persuade them, but fails miserably.  Thaddeus also tries to persuade them to come out.  The woman opens the door and  tells everyone inside that we are friends.  Magnus pulls out a bowler hat and convinces them to come out of the church.

They open the doors and 40 people come out.  We load up all of the people on the wagons, plus putting the rest on the extra horses and the backs of ours.  The person we talked to initially is Madame Lorelei, and the guy is Fred Lawson, former proprietor of the General Store in Paradise Falls.   We ask about the town papers, but Lorelei says she hid them under the floorboards of the church and they heard noises under there so they haven’t gone back. Once they arrived at Spar City there were 80 people here and things were OK, but this spring the vegetation started dying off and supplies ran out.  A few weeks ago, there was a large fight in the center of town over who was hogging the remaining resources and the townspeople massacred each other, even the women and children.  The survivors from Paradise Falls barricaded themselves into the church and were spared, but the town was destroyed, and soon after the corpses rose up and attacked them.  They have been hiding in the church ever since.

We load up everyone and escort them out to the edge of town where the weirdness ends.  Then we go back and go into the church.  It smells from all the people living here for weeks, and is extremely dark.

We find the loose floor boards and climb down to a small crawl space.  Maverick and Jimmy crawl down.  Both notice that there are racks of old moldering books, and notice that there are a lot of foot prints around an area where there was obviously a box.  The tracks lead up to a wall behind the box.  The Indian sees nothing, but Maverick finds a secret door.  Two passages lead off, and we follow the right into a large room.  There are catacombs under the church.

As we walk into the room we feel the same rumbling as above.  The lights go out, and a voice says it has heard of us.  It says ‘I  have heard of you, and I thought that you would come. ‘  We see a vision of ourselves in our idealized selves.   We are captivated for a few seconds, and then we see the same orange tentacles rise up and the visions turn to evil.

Corpses start piling out of the walls.  Jimmy runs up to two of them and drops one.   Charlotte blasts another one.  Maverick drops another three.  They attack and miss us all.  Magnus shoots one, and Lucille controls another.    Thaddeus blasts another.

Thaddeus moves quickly and blows away another.   Jimmy drops the last two.  We see the energy drift out of their bodies and go under the wall.  A door is visible.  Charlotte opens the door and sees a hallway.  She charges in……

We see another large room where the light is sucked out of the room and we hear the voice again, but instead of ourselves we see of others being pulled apart by the evil orange tentacles.  They all are affected and then start behaving strangely.  They are all possessed.   One is another woman from town, and Lawrence is also affected.  Off in the distance we see the kid furiously writing and drawing a huge mosaic, which shows each of the people being affected by the tentacles.  The voice says “My brother told me about you, but I will be the one to destroy you… “  As Charlotte turns to look at us, her eyes are orange.