Inactive [Play-by-post] Three Lonely Graves

[ERYFKRAD]

Spoiler

Sorry about being awol last few days. Got a shot or two and have been insane with work. Can we roll to detect if he's full of shit with us or what? Don't get me wrong, but I'm not keen on letting somebody off the hook that quickly. Plus, I'd like to see if we can get that woman on her lonesome, that way I can ast her properly/

Spoiler

Let me explain. No wait. There is too much. Let me sum up.

Better Yet, let me paste the exchange from roll20:

The Judge (GM):Deputize who, Jones?


ERYFKRAD the Barbarian:Yeah
Way I see he has a debt to us for saving his lives. And to the sheriff for the loss of his men
Long shot, but I felt it worthy of an attempt


The Judge (GM):Interesting


ERYFKRAD the Barbarian:Let him earn his pardon, sort of thing.
Better than a quick hop and a skip


The Judge (GM):Gotcha


ERYFKRAD the Barbarian:I do recognize that it is contrary to the spirit of Frontier justice, but we did tell the fool kid we'd help him.


The Judge (GM):Nah, I can see the logic behind it, just didn't occur to me before you said it


ERYFKRAD the Barbarian:If you want us to sell the idea to him, so to speak, I could attempt it. Knock some courage into him, as it were.*
* No actual knocking him about.


The Judge (GM):Think it's more about selling the Sheriff of giving the deputy star to someone who planned to pillage the town just a day ago
Jones himself looks like he'll take any chance at living he can get


ERYFKRAD the Barbarian:Likely both. He'll take the chance, true, but I see it as him grasping at straws rather than taking it as an opportunity. If he's effectively pressganged into the job, he will ditch it at the first available opportunity, which isn't an outcome I want to see happen without some attempt made to address it.


The Judge (GM):Good thinking

ERYFKRAD the Barbarian:At least he is not without some ability to fight, so I think the Sheriff can be persuaded

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Spoiler

Sorry about being awol last few days. Got a shot or two and have been insane with work. Can we roll to detect if he's full of shit with us or what? Don't get me wrong, but I'm not keen on letting somebody off the hook that quickly. Plus, I'd like to see if we can get that woman on her lonesome, that way I can ast her properly/

Spoiler

Let me explain. No wait. There is too much. Let me sum up.

Better Yet, let me paste the exchange from roll20:

The Judge (GM):Deputize who, Jones?


ERYFKRAD the Barbarian:Yeah
Way I see he has a debt to us for saving his lives. And to the sheriff for the loss of his men
Long shot, but I felt it worthy of an attempt


The Judge (GM):Interesting


ERYFKRAD the Barbarian:Let him earn his pardon, sort of thing.
Better than a quick hop and a skip


The Judge (GM):Gotcha


ERYFKRAD the Barbarian:I do recognize that it is contrary to the spirit of Frontier justice, but we did tell the fool kid we'd help him.


The Judge (GM):Nah, I can see the logic behind it, just didn't occur to me before you said it


ERYFKRAD the Barbarian:If you want us to sell the idea to him, so to speak, I could attempt it. Knock some courage into him, as it were.*
* No actual knocking him about.


The Judge (GM):Think it's more about selling the Sheriff of giving the deputy star to someone who planned to pillage the town just a day ago
Jones himself looks like he'll take any chance at living he can get


ERYFKRAD the Barbarian:Likely both. He'll take the chance, true, but I see it as him grasping at straws rather than taking it as an opportunity. If he's effectively pressganged into the job, he will ditch it at the first available opportunity, which isn't an outcome I want to see happen without some attempt made to address it.


The Judge (GM):Good thinking

ERYFKRAD the Barbarian:At least he is not without some ability to fight, so I think the Sheriff can be persuaded

Spoiler

Basically he is very likely to take the offer but will need some convincing to keep it.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Spoiler

I'm OK with it. Every fuck up deserves a second chance, and if it's true what he says then he was press ganged and didn't have much of a choice. However, did we roll to see if he's telling the truth on that, being sincere and such?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Spoiler

I'm OK with it. Every fuck up deserves a second chance, and if it's true what he says then he was press ganged and didn't have much of a choice. However, did we roll to see if he's telling the truth on that, being sincere and such?

Spoiler

No we didn't.

 

[SoupNazi]

Tencount Cormac is not the smartest man. He's not even the wisest man. Hell, if in a rush, the man could probably confuse the newspaper with Homer's Odyssey. But he's seen a lot of fighters, young fighters, old fighters, and other people facing death or the potential for a major beatdown. He's seen fear in his own eyes and in the eyes of others. With his experience from the fighting pits, he sees something familiar in Seth Jones' eyes; an honest will to fight for one's life. The same spark and the same nervous tick that he's seen in young fighters that he knew are in over their heads, but would punch above their weight on nothing but determination and need alone. Perhaps they were in crippling debt, perhaps refusing the fight would harm them more than getting beat; but either way, they had an honest-to-God will to live, and to fight for that chance.

Cormac was almost certain that if they had given the same chance to live to Seth Jones, and perhaps alleviated his fear of retribution from his formerly fellow Marauders, he'd grab that chance by its collar and drag himself into an honest living on its back. But he also saw the nervous tick in the kid's eye, a tick that kept darting towards Dancing Blades in the other cell...

 

[SoupNazi]

The posse decided to approach the Sheriff about their idea of letting Seth Jones pay off his debt by being a servant of the Law in Santa Fe. His initial reaction is less than open...

"Y'alls want me to do WHAT?!"

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Cormac regards the Sheriff with his best "no horseshit" look.

"Like I says Sheriff. You need a dep'ty.
We coulda killed the boy when he ran into Santa fe on the Loco train. But we didn't. He owes us that.
You lost good men there. He owes YOU that.
I ain't saying this gonna square all he done. But it's a start. And if it happens to be of use to you and this town, so be it.
He's gonna swing tomorrow Sheriff. That could be the end o'that. Or he could start paying back what he owes you, what he owes us and what he owes Santa Fe.
Sure, he might not pay it all up, but that ain't no cause to sell the eff'rt short
If anything the boy ain't a stranger to fighting. i knows it, and you know I knows it, Sheriff. You can't say you have no use of someone that can handle a fight.
You're still the Law about these parts, ain't up for dispute. The call is yours Sheriff, and if he falters outside you can always shoot him agin.
I "spect he will give it his best shot. But that is between you and me, so to speak."

 

[SoupNazi]

​

Sheriff Weller rubs his bearded chin and nods. While he seems to still be not entirely convinced to trust the posse, Cormac's speech appears to make sense to him and after a bit of thought, he pours himself, and Tencount, a shot of whisky. "Well alright, alright, alright. I'll give the kid a shot. There'll be a lot of work with him, but maybe y'all are right. Jones might not be the smartest stick in the bush, but I need men, and I need'em fast. The Army ain't gonna be here for anotha' two-three days, and I need to at least have someone one patrol to be able to warn everyone should the Marauders come back, as we expect'em to."

He throws back the whisky shot before continuing.

"You said he was 'fraid of the other lad, Dancing Blades. I'd ask y'all to stick'round at least until tomorrow mornin', for the hangin' and the deputization - an' ideally, 'til the Army arrives. Just in case. But I know I can't force y'all. What I can do is set up free lodgin' with Eight-Fingered Jack, and a hunned dollahs for y'all to stick 'round 'till then. What say you?"

Before the posse can respond, he adds: "Y'all still got five minutes with'em prisoners. I'm a man of my word, so even though it's unusual to get that sort of private time with'em, y'all still got it."

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Bill Williamson had been standing quietly in the corner, nodding slowly, at times facing away from the group, and just looking at the unremarkable corner of the Sheriff's office, as if it held answers, some hidden message, others couldn't perceive. He slowly walks over to the Sheriff and Tencount as the men down their respective shots. He's stroking his beard slowly, and his crystal blue eyes are flat and dead.

"Poor me 'un a them whiskies, Sharf. I's stays an' help ya leeinch that thar niggerlover," he pauses a moment to cock his head towards the cell where Dancing Blades is held, and says loudly "That thar Niggerlover what cain't properly swings hisself a knife nor a blade neither, not nearly 'nuff ta hits an ol' coot like me."

"Hells Bells, Sharf, might be better if'n we do it in the night, quiet like."

 

[SoupNazi]

The Sheriff slams his empty shot glass into the table, enough to make the stacks of documents on it scatter. He manages to catch them and align them back in the corner of his desk.

"I 'ppreciate your candor, Mr. Williamson, but we'll do things as close to the letter of the law as we can. That means, hangin' at sunrise tomorrow."

He pours himself another, and gets a spare glass from the drawer, pouring one for Bill - and one for Tencount, should he offer his glass up.

"Now, y'all want to retire to the saloon, or yer' still gots questions for my prisoners?"

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Bill takes a quick swig.

"Well, ah 'spose shot while tryin' ta 'scape ain' gonner happen none neither. Tha's fine, but that feller, I reckon thar gonna be trouble in the night. You boys wanna ast' some qwestshuns ta that thar boy now that he's freed, or the dummy?"

 

[ERYFKRAD]

The Army ain't gonna be here for anotha' two-three days, and I need to at least have someone one patrol to be able to warn everyone should the Marauders come back, as we expect'em to.

Cormac takes another swig of whisky. "While we are worrying about this here marauder gang, there anny bridges on the railroad we can blow up, like? Better if these boys and their loco locomotive is on it too."

 

[SoupNazi]

Pouring another round to everyone and himself, The Sheriff doesn't seem too keen on the idea. "Well, we don't know when they're comin' back. There's a few small bridges where it could be done without cripplin' shipments for a year, but y'all could be sittin' in a bush for days waitin' for'em. I ain't gonna stop y'all though, and I'll even conveniently forget who blew up the train tracks should anyone ask, blame them Marauders for it."

He downs his shot glass in one go and continues, "But the woman with no name seems confident there'll be someone comin' to her "rescue", did I understand that right? Mayhaps it's not a good idea to go huntin' marauders just yet?"

 

[ERYFKRAD]

"Put it that way, sure. But if you want to face her rescuers and the Marauders at once, be my guest. I suppose a quick man and a fast horse could at least take a run into Albuquerque on the railroad and see what he can see."

 

[Major_Blackhart]

"Well I ain't that quick none, so's I's abstains from sech a reckless measure. Could be bluster on hers part, but she's got the way 'bout her like some rattler. Overalls, I says we stays put, ready fer the army, and get ourselves armed up. We needs dynamite, lots of it, guns, ammernishun, an' bodies. Gots you folks ready ta kill?"

 

[ERYFKRAD]

"If that's how it is, that's how it is. Guess we'll cross that bridge later, or burn it, Might as well turn in. See if they got a room on the roof."

Spoiler

Major_Blackhart you could tell Sheriff our boy Hardtack done bit the dust. See if that gets us the bounty. Also ask the woman where Wheelerburg is.

 

[SoupNazi]

"Well I ain't that quick none, so's I's abstains from sech a reckless measure. Could be bluster on hers part, but she's got the way 'bout her like some rattler. Overalls, I says we stays put, ready fer the army, and get ourselves armed up. We needs dynamite, lots of it, guns, ammernishun, an' bodies. Gots you folks ready ta kill?"

Spoiler

Do you want to have Isaac try and recruit some locals? Magnificent Seven style?

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Spoiler

Wouldn't be opposed. And it would add to the eventual body count, meaning we could take over the town just that much faster if we wanted to. Install an insane sheep-based religious theocracy that outlaws niggers.

 

[SoupNazi]

On the rest of the interrogation:
The posse asks the Woman with No Name about Wheeler burg, and it's clear it rings a bell. Isaac sees right through her act and makes it clear he wants the truth, lest he sics Tencount and Bill on her.

"Alright, alight. There's a few abandoned burgs east of the Grand Canyon. People were hoping to fnd more sources of ghost rock, since the Grand Canyon is of similar nature as the fissures created by the Ghost Rock. Nothing was found, and the villages were eventually abandoned. The desert there is harsh, and a lot of people died. Nobody goes there anymore - except to die."

On defending the town:
Isaac and the Sheriff go out and call a town meeting, much like the one the original posse came to when they've arrived. They lay out what they know: the cavalry is on its way, but still a day and a half or so out; while a potential Marauder return might be imminent, if they are to go by Albuquerque's experience. The town might need to defend itself. It's likely they will come back in a train again, but this time smarter and more prepared. Either way, their likely targets are - the bank, the prisoners in the sheriff's office, and probably liquor and money from the saloon. So, if there's to be a showdown, it will be on the town square.

The duo then asks any able-bodied man to join them in defending it, while the Sheriff begs the new Casino proprietor to allow women and children to hide on the second floor, in the back part of the casino that is not facing the square. To everyone's surprise, not only do all thirteen able-bodied men agree to join, but the casino manager also agrees. The courier from the post office also offers to go out scouting; he has the fastest horse in town and could make it to Albuquerque and back within the next morning, or turn back if he encounters something on the road. Though he warns that no even his thoroughbred could outrun a train. He departs immediately.

The Gun Store proprietor, aptly named Gunner, agrees to right, but ignores Sheriff Weller's plea to restock people's ammunition; he says he'll provide it on a loan, and if they survive, whatever is bought must be paid off, because then he'll still have a living to make and care for. He's willing to provide a few sticks of dynamite as well, but only for use outside of the city; the Sheriff agrees that using them in town could do more damage than good.

The Sheriff gives full authority to the posse to direct their defense; says he's go experience arresting a single drunk or a trio of outlaws, not organizing defenses.

The Result:
Only about three hours into you getting to organizing, the Courier Boy comes rushing back, panting as he drops off his beautiful stallion next to Bill and Tencount, who are placing some crates for improvised cover.

"No train. But there's a posse camping out near the train tracks. Don't look like no Marauders, mister. But bad people, for sure. Judgin' by the state of the campfire, they've been out there for a while already - no tellin' when they decide to continue. I gots a good look at the camp, and it looks like they came from the way of Albequerque and headin' this drection, sir. At least twenny deep, by my count."

Spoiler

Alright, thanks to due diligence made and some good rolls, you guys get forewarning about the attack. I've put you back on the Santa Fe map, and you guys got time to think of defenses - you all should be able to draw on the map. I've also put possible directions of attack on the map (the big arrows). I'll roll for it when the time comes. So you gotta think of all the angles, or bank everything on one angle, etc. Totally up to you.

Move your tokens where you want to be
Place a red X wherever you want an NPC (13 total + Weller will be in his office)
Place a blue square if you want o build improvised cover somewhere
All rooftops are accessible

If you have any other ideas for the defenses, just let me know. You can even ride out to meet them, but then you won't have backup in the form of the civilians, etc. It's totally open though and I won't force you guys in a specific direction.

It's also a good point for the new characters to get introduced, so Helly Stella Brando feel free to post here with your introduction as one of the volunteers. If you want to discuss the backstory, let me know, but anything works - you could be a glory-seeking cowboy who heard of the Marauders and would like to make your bones on killing some, if you're in it for the inevitable scavenging, or just an adrenaline junkie... or I'm willing to work with you on something deeper, just hit me up.

Once we have the defenses setup and agreed on and the introductions are made, I'll make my final rolls involved and we'll hit this baby off.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Spoiler

I think we ought to kill the prisoners now.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Spoiler

I think we ought to kill the prisoners now.

Spoiler

Public lynching for morale sounds good. As for Oakley, let's knock her out and tie her down unable to move. And put a piano on top.

 

[Stella Brando]

One of the people to volunteer to protect the town is Ann Mosey, a petite and shy-looking young woman. She pushes her curly brown hair out of her face as she says: "I reckon I've got the skills to help this town. I'm a performing shooter. I do trick shooting in front of an audience, you know, shooting glass balls and playing cards and the like. I learnt how to shoot as a little kid in Ohio. Used to drive my mother crazy. I've never shot a man before -- but I'm willing to learn." A few people chuckle. Ann seems quiet -- but determined.


Ewan Wolsely has become a drunk on main street. He has given up any hope that he will ever find his lost sheep. People in the future will wonder why this strange lush keeps calling out the days of the week. He was simply too gentle for this cruel world. He won't be any help defending the town.


[Out of character talk:

• I think we want to funnel the bad guys into an area where they can be shot at from two or three sides. Maybe between the Saloon and Casino, or on the main street. Place the PCs around this central killing zone, with plenty of good shooter NPCs. Make sure they have plenty of ammunition.

• But we also need a few fast NPCs as lookouts at various places around the edge of town, to see what the enemy is doing. Probably not as many as I've placed on the map.

• We should try to block other entrances, if we can. As well as the streets, block off any random doors, stairs, balconies, ladders and things like that. Anything that can be used as a sneaky way into town -- including crates and boxes.

By the way, I found a supplement with a new character -- the Cowhand. I sent it to SoupNazi, hopefully he'll put it on the dropbox.

One more thing: Ann takes the mysterious woman's rifle.]

 

[ERYFKRAD]

These guys definitely have dynamite so it's a good chance that they will simply explode away any cover we build up. It'd be easier to trap them with fancy tricks rather than act out a siege, I think.

The odds are good that this lot will attempt to move into town from the way to the train station, so maybe we should open that up and let the other routes get blocked.
Maybe we should dig up a few trench holes to trap them in. Like, a flimsy wooden barricade immediately followed by a hole deep enough, so if they break the barricade and rush in the hole it will give them pause, and give us the high ground on them. Beyond these fake barricades and holes is the actual cover we will make use of. I am not too sure if we have time to make enough trenches so maybe we could do so at least where we expect them to turn up.

We either make it very clear that we are prepared to fight it out, or, we fake a ghost town look, contrive them into some building and burn it down. This is not really feasible now I think ? Just putting the suggestion out there

Horses and cattle. We either get them out of the way, or we keep them at hand to cause a stampede at these fools if we have a respectable number of animals for it.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Spoiler

I think we ought to kill the prisoners now.

Spoiler

Public lynching for morale sounds good. As for Oakley, let's knock her out and tie her down unable to move. And put a piano on top.

Spoiler

Also commandeer her rifle for the defense of the town and give it to whoever is our best shooter. Even if she somehow escapes, she at least will want to return for the rifle.

 

[SoupNazi]

While the group is organizing the town's defenses in the middle of main square, Sheriff Weller comes up to them with a lit cigar and bothers Tencount Cormac with a few questions and suggestions, having gotten the idea that since the Woman with No Name was so confidently claiming that this "Phillip Idrique" would "soon" come to rescue her from captivity, perhaps that is the group the Courier Boy has seen, and they are indeed coming for her, not for a gunfight. A short discussion between the Sheriff and the posse is taken, and eventually, the Lawman is convinced to pack the Woman with No Name into a caravan, take one guard to accompany him, and take her to Denver straight away, during the night.

The posse checks in on the freshly deputized Seth Jones, and reassure themselves that he is determined to fight with them, and prove that he deserves the second chance they got him. He seems genuinely grateful.

Once the talking is done and everyone wishes good luck to the Sheriff, they return to building up defenses...