Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Gutshot!

I have been able to borrow a power supply for my old laptop. This will allow me, from time to time, to post again, until my desktop can be repaired.

Last Tuesday night, we continued on with the adventures of the Who Dat Gang. We had a couple of repeat players, but three new ones (two of which who joined us after they saw the fun we were having. I was the GM again, running the scenario as more of an RPG event as it gave me leeway to allow the players and NPCs to act more freely.

We joined the merry band of cutthroats and bad hombres as they began to enter the mining town of Shewintabaquie. Most of the townsfolk were out mining, except for the various shop owners or employees and the town's lawn men
El Bandito Magnifico Numero Uno (Neil) has his gang split up, entering the town from three points. Neil's two characters, Junior and Wendell entered from the Southern road, heading directly for the General Store. Chris's "bandit" entered from the northern road, opposite Neil, and headed for the Sheriff's office, to check the wanted posters and distract the lawmen (all of whom were leaning against the outer wall of the office, having a conversation). Alex's Chinese twins, the Celestial Trio Minus One, entered the town through the Chinese worker's camp, heading for the bank.
While the Who Dat Gang had had some success in their last adventure, they did lose two men and were being cautious in their actions today. None had their weapons readied, or in the case of pistols, even out. They were playing it cool like.

At about the time Chris's sharpshooting outlaw asked the Sheriff if he was looking for another deputy, Neil's boys entered the general store, which was occupied by the clerk and a tall stranger, wearing a double rig, who had his back to them. The Chinese twins were halfway to the bank.
Neither of Neil's boys recognized the tall stranger in the store, but after a moment, he surely recognized them; he was the bounty hunter who they'd fought in their last robbery and was on the lookout for the gang.
At this time, the Sheriff noticed the rigs on the two horses now tied up at the store. He felt a little uneasy, but didn't know why. He started towards the store, followed by the deputy. The deputized gambler kept watch, while the Chris's sharpshooter went into the sheriff's office to check out the wanted posters.
The bounty hunter got off several shots at the two bandits facing him, plugging them both full of holes. Wendell went down fast, Junior a little more slowly, with the bounty hunter receiving a mere flesh wound in return.
As the smoke in the room cleared, and bounty hunter watched Junior slide to the floor, the Sheriff arrived at the store window.
The quick thinking Sheriff, glanced through the window and seeing two men down or about to end up that way, smashed the window. Whereupon, the loyal deputy stepped up and fired his sawed-off shotgun. Apparently, the sheriff and deputy had had a bit too much whiskey the night before, or even that morning because they failed to notice that the bounty hunter was the only one still in the fight.
Junior took the brunt of the shotgun blast, but as it had been poorly loaded, this meant that the vast majority of the shot remained stuck in the barrel of the shotgun. Wendell caught a few pellets too, as did the bounty hunter, who ALMOST shot at the sheriff and deputy, but began howling and cursing instead.

Sheepishly, the sheriff entered the store and disarmed the two bandits, then began to render them some assistance as they were bleeding onto the floor.
Meanwhile, the Celestial Twins had enter the bank, and finding it empty apart from a single cashier, began to rob the place, carrying their loot to their horses through the back door.
The sharpshooting bandit left the sheriff's office and mounted his horse, heading for the eastern side of town, while the gambler started walking towards the Assay office, across the street from the general store.

At this time, the town drunk,a lowly cowboy of no real consequence or prospects decided that, in all the commotion, he would attempt to rob the assay office and then leave town.
Once the bounty hunter bandaged his arm and reloaded his pistols, he headed towards the north side of town, where the livery stable was located. He'd had enough of the local lawmen. The sheriff continued to do his Christian Duty by the bandits, wrapping their wounds as best he could (scoring a critical in the process, which had a major impact on the outcome for the gang).

As the gambler and the drunk were both heading to the Assay office, the gambler saw the drunk and recognized him as a cardplaying friend of his, counting him as a honest card player and therefore a person who could be trusted (gambler rolled snakeyes for recognition of the armed drunk).
Seeing that the gambler-deputy considered him a friend, the drunk brazenly robbed the Assay office, while the gambler "covered" his actions by keeping an eye on the street. On his way in, he passed a U.S. Marshal on her way out the one who'd fought so valiantly in the last adventure. She and the bounty hunter were teamed up to look for the gang, but she saw the drunk as no threat and headed to the sheriff's office.

The sharpshooter headed to the old protestant church on the far eastern end of town, thinking of robbing the place of its gold, not realizing that Catholic churches were much more likely to have golden candlesticks and the like.
The Sheriff finished rendering aid to Neil's two downed bandits and walked across the street to the saloon, through its back door, and down the alley towards the bank, figuring that maybe the action in the store was a distraction. When he got to the alley, he did notice two Chinese carrying out bags of money, but did not exactly think this was indicative of a robbery (he rolled snakeyes for reaction).
However, the Chinese twins certainly recognized the Sheriff, and told the bank cashier to lie on the floor. They then calmly got on their horses and rode east, as though everything was right as it should be.
As the Sheriff got to the backdoor of the bank, he decided to look inside and call out to the cashier, to determine if something was wrong. Except, the cashier had armed himself with a pistol and promptly shot the sheriff, thinking he was a bandit returning. Here, due to the sheriff's skills, he narrowly avoided a rather serious wound, but his reaction roll was poor (a 3) and I ruled that the sheriff was spooked enough to immediately return fire. And the bank clerk was struck with a light wound, but was then unable to talk for a few moments due to shock.

The Sharpshooter, the Celestial Trio Minus One, and the drunk coywboy all exited the town. At about the same time Neil's two bandits picked themselves off the floor, being far less wounded than they had let on as being, and though no longer armed, their two horses were still tied up out front. They shambled to their horses and left town, unobserved by anyone.

The gang got away with $69,000 USD in bank notes and $1,000 USD in gold dust. The large amount of cash was due to success of the local mine, with the bank not having enough time to store the notes elsewhere.

The drunk was recruited by the gang, but the sharpshooter's curious lack of involvement has caused some of the gang to suspect his motives. He still received his full share of the loot.
All of us involved were laughing through much of the game, due to the seriously poor rolls by the lawmen. They rolled snakeyes no less than four times, and generally fives or less most any other time. Each time snakeyes was rolled it was for a critical reaction roll, where a success would have allowed the lawmen to preempt the bandits and even the drunk. It was especially funny when the sheriff "healed" the two bandits with a critical as I'd given him the choice of leaving them to bleed out, just before.

As I don't have any buildings or figures for the for the period, I relied on Alex's collection to fill out the table.

I ran a similar scenario the following Saturday for a charity food drive, with six players. I don't have pics as they were taken by the staff, but it was another fun event with much joviality and consternation. The black hats ended up losing, after a very promising start, because one character stay one turn too long grabbing money. He was unable to get away as the white hats were able to move and then react to him the next turn.

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