Volume 1
Nightmares of Kidd
The posse stood in front of a gnarled tree, surrounded by a burnt out field. A strange, purple light colored the sky, and looking around on the ground, the posse saw the burnt out field was burnt into a strange design…the symbol was Indian in origin, though no one could place which tribe. Tinhorn prodded Seth forward, as the tree opened into a stairway winding down the steps into the ground.
Green torches hung on the walls, and the posse followed them down, down…chanting rose up from a cavern in the ground, guiding the posse. The cavern opened up, and seven white-faced Indians led by a Shaman were standing in formation, around some kind of portal. They all spotted a figure inside the portal, but Tinhorn alone recognized him: It was Marshall Kidd!
As Tinhorn moved toward the formation and the portal, the seven Indians drew pistols, rifles and blades! Seth, Tinhorn, Jameson and Tontchay fanned out, with Seth drawing first blood, hurling a streaming jet of glowing playing cards at his foes! Tinhorn, Jameson and Tontchay opened fire, trying to get close enough to the portal…especially because Tinhorn and Tontchay recognized the men as members of The Order of Raven – the men responsible for Kidd being trapped in Hell to begin with!
Tinhorn fought in close, and pulled Kidd from the portal! Kidd’s immediate reaction looking at Tinhorn? “Aw, Hell. You got a gun I can use?” Tinhorn handed Kidd a Colt Army, which he proceeded to unload at “Raven”!
Raven launched himself Tontchay, blasting him with his war club (which he had Smited)…while Kidd grabbed a hickory stick and Smited it himself, and went at Raven! Seth drew his enchanted knife and carved away at one of the remaining Ravenite Braves, while Jameson shot across the way and blasted him.
The posse gangpiled Raven, whittling him down with light stabs and slashes…as he finally dropped, Kidd repeatedly bludgeoned him with the hickory stick, ending him.
After taking a moment to thank the posse for saving him from Hell, and to get introductions with Jameson and Seth, he said he’d learned all kinds of new, crazy stuff in Hell…and they had work to do! He said they’d be heading Back East!
Jameson got notably nervous, and refused to go…when Kidd asked why, Tontchay revealed he’s a Union deserter. Kidd sneered at that and threatened to arrest him, but Jameson pulled his rifle on Kidd, prompting Tinhorn to pull HIS pistol on Jameson! Kidd told Jameson he saw the place in Hell for traitors, and Jameson got incredibly nervous, turning back and forth between Kidd and Tinhorn before whirling on Kidd and getting shot dead.
The four survivors emerged from the tree and set out for a rail station to hop a train.
Notes: ‘Night, Jameson.
The posse arrived in Oklahoma, and traveled to the boarding school Tontchay had grown up in. Kidd explained to Tontchay that Miss Stanwyck, Tontchay’s teacher, had drilled a certain way of thinking into him, a way that prevented him from connecting to the Spirit World like he should. Kidd further explained that Tontchay should be a powerful player in the battle between Good and Evil, but that he’d been relegated to a peashooter instead.
Inside the boarding school, Stanwyck was instructing a group of about 20 Indian children. Tontchay entered the school and confronted her. The two sniped back and forth, with her talking about what an awful child he was, when Seth, Tinhorn and Tonchay all caught, for a SPLIT second, her tongue was well over seven inches long. Tontchay drew down on her, and she sneered, her legs twisting, her tongue growing, and claws forming!
As Tontchay prepared to face off with her, the kids transformed into grey-skinned goblins with serrated teeth and claws! Tinhorn and Seth unleashed magical Bursts to each side, ripping through the children!
Miss Stanwyck taunted Tontchay further, but he shrugged it off. A few kids attacked him from behind, and they dove over desks toward Seth and Tinhorn.
The Hucksters cleared out all they could with magic, then Seth drew his knife while Tinhorn pulled his pistol, and the two kept working away at the ankle-biters. Stanwyck’s wicked tongue kept stabbing away at Tontchay, drawing blood and fighting him back.
Throughout her attacks, she kept taunting Tontchay, peeling away at his resolve as her barbed tongue weakened him.
Seth broke free from the kids and rushed Stanwyck, blasting her with magic as well, weakening her for Tontchay to blast her, bringing her down. An extra gunshot for good measure, and Tontchay picked him up a souvenir…her ruler. The last ankle-biter devolved into a crying mess at Tinhorn’s feet, and he blasted it in the head, finishing it off. Marshall Kidd poked his head into the schoolhouse and pointed out it was soaked down to burn now.
As Tontchay lit the match to start the fire, Kidd offered Tinhorn some paper…the deed to the schoolhouse: Owned by Col. Major Thaddeus West of the Army of the United States of America…and father of Tinhorn! They also found an emblem of the letters that Tinhorn recognized as a society called The Protectors and Facilitators of Manifest Destiny…
Notes: One backstory stop down, one more to go…quick transit to New Jersey!
The posse arrived in New Jersey, right outside the West Estate. Tinhorn sneered with derision at coming home, though his mother Janice did meet him at the door. She offered him and his friend Seth some tea, but looked down on the Indian Tontchay and Marshall Kidd (who wasn’t openly wearing a badge at this moment). Tinhorn said he wished to speak with his father, but Janice said he was taking a meeting at the moment.
Tinhorn directed Kidd and Tontchay outside and around back to his office, to listen in…where they heard him grumbling furiously at news that a schoolhouse in Oklahoma had been torched!
Kidd waited until Col. Major West left his office, then snuck in through the window so he and Tontchay could look around.
Tinhorn and Thaddeus butted heads immediately, Thaddeus looking down on Tinhorn and calling his friend Seth little more than a thief. They argued back and forth, when Tinhorn threw the deed down in front of his father. Tinhorn accused his father of all manner of atrocities, but before he could get a straight answer, gunfire erupted through the house.
Inside the office, Tontchay had just found documentation of all manner of atrocities performed by West and the PFMD, not just to Indians, but to Whites that protected them…when a pair of Union soldiers walked into the room, thinking that West was inside!
Kidd summoned God’s Will to protect him from the bullets, while they opened fire on the comrades.
Seth and Tinhorn rushed to the gunshots, but Thaddeus cut them off, and more Union soldiers entered the room! Thad said that he couldn’t harm Tinhorn as it would kill Tinhorn’s mother, so he opened fire on Seth!
Soldiers poured out of the woodwork, trying to pin Kidd and Tontchay down, but they gunned their way through.
Seth used his 54 Card Pickup on West and the soldiers, but West dodged, leaving three soldiers to take the brunt!
Tinhorn and Seth were getting surrounded, when West fired off a crack shot at Seth, and Tinhorn dove in the way…but the bone necklace he had been given by an Indian tribe some months ago was shattered by the bullet. Tinhorn looked in shock at his prized symbol broke, then opened fire on his own father.
A sniper through the window brought Seth low, and one from behind dropped the poor Huckster. Tinhorn blew his father away, but got shot down by soldiers standing around him.
Tontchay and Kidd strode in, killing anything that moved…then Kidd ordered Tontchay to make sure the way was clear: then Kidd shot Seth and Tinhorn each in the chest!
Tontchay stared at him in complete disbelief, when Kidd launched into a deranged rant about how they were evil, dealing with demons, and how he’s never trusted them. Kidd cited Tinhorn’s father as validation of his actions, and Tontchay argued that Kidd was very much wrong. Kidd kicked Seth’s body aside and the two men stared down…but Tontchay was overwhelmed by the strange change in Kidd’s disposition. Tontchay broke under the Ugly Marshall’s glare and drew, opening fire with a deadly blast that should have killed a normal man…while Kidd’s own bullet pierced Tontchay.
Tontchay stumbled back, woozy, as Marshall Kidd fired again, taking careful aim at his heart and putting his deputy to rest.
Four men rode out of New Jersey on horses…one, pale as Death with a horrid face…one, shooting anything that moved, his red skin offsetting his warpaint…one, a well dressed man of some wealth, greedily taking from those less fortunate than him, letting them starve…and one, using his magic to inflict withering devastation on everything that crossed him…
Tontchay’s eyes fixed on a raven, nearly invisible, perched on a branch, backed by the night sky. He drew his pistol and opened fire…the raven fell to the ground and tried to get up, when a rifle shot finished it off.
Jameson sat, shaking as the raven died.
Jameson, Tontchay, Seth and Tinhorn stared around the camp at each other in extreme discomfort…Tinhorn had fallen asleep on watch. Trying to put the nightmare out of their minds, the posse laid back down to sleep for a bit longer…when their eyes collectively locked on the yardstick strewn about the mess of their camp…
Notes: Nightmare session! The group got a healthy bit of doubt drilled into their heads about their present course of action, which is what the Bad Guys want. They all made Notice rolls upon waking up, catching the Nightmare Raven in its act of tormenting them, and put an end to their nightmares. Of course, their gunshots only attracted the Devil Bats circling nearby…
I think we’re picking this back up next week, right outside Crooked Branch…where the opening of the adventure should bear a lot of similarities to tonight…just enough to make them nervous.
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