Deadlands: Harrowed and Hookers - Session 3

 This week's session was dominated by Edward's demonstration of his invention: The Grimm Ghostcharge Generator. It was pretty entertaining to watch him pull out the stops for the whole showmanship schtick.

The show began with our scientist of questionable sanity (what? They're all a bit mad!) making his introduction to the gathered audience. Because it's the old west, we had a few clucking housewives that didn't approve of Jane. Clearly they were jealous that the Native American woman filled out her clothing better than they did theirs.

Jane ignored them as only someone used to clucking housewives could. Or someone used to getting dirty looks for her appearance. Same difference, really.

Edward continued his demonstration by giving the crowd an idea of what his invention could do. The general idea being that his invention would be able to make regular metal as durable and effective as Ghost Steel, be it in the form of armour, munitions or even everyday tools.

Promising stuff if it works! Of course, mad science isn't known for its stability.

However, after having Jane show off one of the demonstration guns so the crowd knew that it hadn't been rigged we moved on to the actual demonstration and not just talk. Jane even spun the cylinder so the crowd knew that the bullets hadn't been tampered with either. Just a normal, every day Colt Single Action Army. Good revolver, but it's not a gold ol' abomination unto Smith & Wesson.

Jane put a bit of sexy flair into her shots as she turned the gun onto one of the metal target plates that had been set up ahead of time. Her first two shots, understandably, pinged against the thick plate with one bouncing off into the unknown while the second one punched into it enough to get stuck.

The sound drew more of a crowd, because who doesn't hear gunshots and want to head toward them? Weird people, that's who!

With the gun fired without the benefit of Edward's invention he proceeded to show off as he applied the Ghostcharge to the gun, explaining in easy-to-understand ways for the masses, that the invention will charge the barrel of the gun to allow the bullet to be propelled further. Though the power of "Electro-Stasis". I plan on having Sister Eldritch go into scientific discussions at some point, although her knowledge is more medical based. Doesn't mean she's not interested in the inner workings. Plus if it works as advertised it'd be quite useful once mass-produceable.

Once the gun was Charged by the power of Electro-Stasis Jane took to the targets again. This time she added a bit more flair and showmanship in with a toss in the air, wave of her hat and two shots fired without really looking at the target. Both bullets punched through the metal to the impressed murmurs of the crowd.

The offensive capabilities of the Ghostcharge thus shown off, it was time for the defensive demonstration. Another gun was shown off to the crowd and Edward used his invention on one of the steel target plates. The plate hummed and glowed with the Charge. Jane took up the second gun, added a bit more sexy flair and showmanship of her own with some cleavage and booty for the purposes of sex appeal and fired off two more shots.

They bounced off the empowered steel plate, much to the approval of the crowd, including three people in particular importance:

Artist is unknown

The first was Diana Berghauer, a wealthy old woman who had talked to Edward earlier in the day (previous session).

Artist is ????

The second was Samuel Smith, grandson to Smith of Smith & Roberts.

Source is Avatar: the Last Airbender

The third, and most important, was a random dude in the crowd that was extremely excited during the demonstration. Cheering and clapping and probably doing other things to show his appreciation. The man was very happy and not at all ashamed to show it off. To the point Sister Eldritch regretted not bringing her medical kit. She could have given him some laudanum.

With the main performance of the demonstration completed Edward moved on to the audience participation portion and allowed people to come up and try their own firearms against the Ghostcharge-empowered steel plate. Samuel, Wade, and Shing Li all lined up. Eldritch considered it as well, but upon seeing that Sheriff Shanker had been drawn by the gunfire, opted to go talk to him instead. Besides, with two of the three security detail distracted she needed to be the responsible one and keep tabs on everything else.

Being that they were friends – and he was aware of it anyway – Eldritch dropped her fake accent and allowed herself a chance to relax. I fully admit this is because I was tired of not using contractions and trying to keep her speech carefully maintained. Shanker was understandably on edge with guns being fired off during the expo. Eldritch tried to reassure him and it was going well until...

Samuel's turn at the shooting display had gone well. He and Edward bonded a little bit over the latter recognizing the impressive, customized nature of the former's gun. Wade's turn, however went... Too well. Wade's shot with his buffalo gun punched through the uncharged plate, through the haybale and wall behind it and kept going until there was a loud pang and and shrill cursing from several stalls over. Shanker fled to check the damage, approving the Sister's offer to smack Wade upside the head.

Which she did! When Wade came to join her after finishing his second shot (which did not do nearly as much damage as the first) the nun had removed her veil and rolled it up like a towel in a locker room. Wade thus punished, the two settled in to conversation while Shing Li stepped up for her go at the steel plates. This included Wade suggesting again that Eldritch should give his rifle a try later when he got the chance to see it perform while Ghostcharged. Sister E agreed so long as Wade would help support her lest she break something. Again. It may have also been an excuse for the two to be... close.

Shing Li's first strike against the uncharged plate rendered the plate completely useless for anything short of scrap metal. Her second strike, the one against the Ghostcharged plate also ruined the plate with a fist-shaped dent and several cracks splitting through it. Though there was no word on how the overly excited man reacted to the second punch, he had gone completely mad with excitement and happiness. We can only assume that he began frothing at the mouth until he passed out and was carried off by his friends. Hopefully to an actual medical tent and not one of the attending inventor's stalls...

The session ended with Shing Li making a mistake: she quietly moved up behind Sister Eldritch and joined the conversation without announcing herself. Thus spooked, Eldritch twisted around, drew her knife and had it against the Asian girl's throat in a flash. The blade was held for several seconds before Eldritch removed and resheathed her weapon with an apology.

Shing Li apologized as she came to the realization that the situation could have ended much, much worse.

Next session will have a short timeskip to where our ragtag fivesome get a chance to just relax and talk to one another at day's end, and probably move into the second day of the expo.

 Session Quotes

• Edward: Edward Grimm coughs into his hand and speaks really fast and really soft. "Admission of culpability nullifies me of all legal fault." He then speaks a bit louder. "Alright then, let's see how my Ghostcharge holds up to that!"

• Wade: He'd crack his neck just a little, rubbing the back of it just a bit sheepishly as he made his way over to Sister Eldritch, the fingers of his right hand tapping agitatedly against the grip of his revolver "So....uh....guess I should've said something about the ammunition?"

• GM: after a moment of stunned silence Mr Over-excited -flies off the handle-, bouncing and screaming and dancing and being entirely too excited! He's having the day of his life with all this noise and destruction and even his friend can't get him to calm down.

• Edward: "Well there you have it, ladies and gentlemen! Even the wonderous martial arts of the orient can be protected against with the use of Ghostcharge! I'm afraid that I'm going to need to rebuild my stall for the next demonstration."

• Shing Li: Shing Li bows to Edward again, then she bows to the assembled crowd. "Am very hopeful all having good time, please continue do so, but must warn that am helping sheriff keep order. Please be on best behavior, am ordered to go after wrongdoers." With another bow and a smile she makes her way through the crowd and off to find where her friends went.

  • Context: This is right after Shing Li's punch tore through one metal plate that had protected against non-Charged bullets, and then seriously damaged the Charged plate. Be on your best behaviour indeed.

Deadlands: Harrowed and Hookers - Session 2

 

No pictures this time around. Maybe sometime I'll make a banner or something to go with this.

Perhaps unsurprisingly given the time between last post and this one, the Deadlands game had to miss a couple of weeks due to health concerns. We did get to our second session on the 20^th, however, and it was fun!

We started with the sun dawning upon the day of the Science Expo. Shing Li, Wade, and Sister Eldritch woke up, did their various morning rituals and preparation. We learned that Shing Li likes bacon. Once finished with their respective morning routines each made their way to the fair grounds where they met up with Sheriff Shanker to get details of their assignment serving as temporary security for the event.

Shanker assigned all of them to the western portion of the fair grounds with the job of keeping watch and dealing with any issues as they deem fit. Such issues would include rowdy people and haywire machine. I'm sure nothing will go wrong.

Shing Li had a minor freak out at being given a badge, surprised that they were being gifted gold. Shanker had to explain it was just gold plated iron and was pretty worthless.

On their way to their section comments were made in regards to Sister Eldritch's habit being... Non-traditional, with a close fit and high-slit sides. Wade danced around the subject a little, while Shing Li proved to be a sledgehammer and bluntly asked if Eldritch was searching for a mate. The answer was yes, and the fact that she had NOT taken vows of chastity and celebacy took Wade by surprise. It was also at this time that Wade accidentally let slip that he thought she had nice legs.

This pleased the nun.

Meanwhile, Edward and Jane were waking up and getting the inventor's setup going. As this was happening an older woman wandered by and introduced herself as Diana Berghauer, a wealthy, independent financier. Presumably she's at the expo to find promising inventors to finance and/or milk for all they're worth. She recognized Edward's surname and brought up the "grisly rumours" regarding his family. Said rumours at least didn't seem to harm Edward's chances of her patronage.

Eventually both groups came in contact with one another when the trio of Shing Li, Wade and Eldritch stopped by on their patrol. Edward and Wade came to a deal where Wade would step up and test out his gun (a .50 caliber buffalo rifle) with the inventor's product.

Around the same time the church bells rang and the expo opened properly to the non-wealthy public. The screaming of ghost rock furnaces filled the air like something only marginally better than a children's birthday party filled with screeching little (redacted). Ahem. Jane and Eldritch both had negative reactions to the sound, with Jane's being considerably more severe. However, the worst was yet to come.

A sudden, terrifying sound rang out near the group as another inventor unleashed his infernal machine upon the weird west. The screaming horror of the ghost rock was but a minor infraction against the eardrums compared to the cacophony of a mechanical orchestra made by a tone-deaf mad scientist.

It was deeply unpleasant. The crowds agreed and began to leave the vicinity. This would be bad for the expo and was, technically, a disturbance, so Shing Li and Eldritch went to talk with the man. The latter mostly went to back the former up in case she faced more good ol' fashioned ol' west racism. Yeehaw! Thankfully that didn't happen, but the man was clearly not going to turn his damned, terrible invention off. So our little martial artist whipped out her combat gloves, took a stance and... punched the ghost rock furnace right out from the machine.

Amusingly, Wade was also getting ready to use his gun to disable the crime against music. Edward was preparing a strongly worded letter, and Jane was having an even stronger reaction. She does not like ghost rock furnaces. Can't blame her too much.

Eldritch just gave the now-emotionally destroyed man some money to go buy booze and get some tea to calm his nerves. Two things of whiskey doesn't constitute enabling substance abuse, right? Tea with cinnamon also doesn't count... Right? Should probably ask the GM about that and how it works with her litany of sins, hmmm...

I'm sure it's fine.

Our session ended with Edward getting ready to put on his demonstration, which is where we'll pick up next time. Will Edward find investors? Will Jane feel better? Will Wade, Shing Li, and Sister Rodriguez have a threesome as God intended? We'll find out~

Quotes of the Session

• Shing Li: Shing Li offers a low bow to the sheriff as he walks away, her black hair flopping a bit as she does so. "Good luck sir on your patrol of unwanteds!" She turns to Sister E and cocks her head a bit, finally glad she could speak to her new friend again, though a curious question on her mind. "Sister, it is making my heart the very happy to see my new friend again, but your new choice of clothing is very interesting. Are you in the wishing to attract a mate with such showy clothing?"

• Wade: He’d grasp his chin in thought with his left hand while extending the index finger and scratching his left cheek a bit with it while muttering loudly enough for her to hear, though he’d think he was being quiet and thinking out loud to himself. “Though her legs are nice….focus Wade..focus…”

• GM: Oblivious Noise Inventor forces himself to speak between heavy sobs "I ... I need a .... DRIIHIHIIIIIIIIINK"

• Edward: Edward Grimm draws the attention of the crowd by stepping up and speaking loud. "Ladies, Gentleman, apologies- apologies! The kind sir's invention had... some kinks that need working out. Let's not make fun of the poor man, we're all here to witness some technological marvels! If you're looking for a show, I've a demonstration of a brand new technology that any laborer, gunslinger, or military man will be excited to take a look at!"

• Jane: Jane Doe gives him a look for a second but, softens a little. "I know, I'm being silly just.." *She looks to the side a little, showing a tiny bit more vulnerability. "My people believe...believed, that the sound was the dead wailing and it was their spirits inside of it. Like their souls are fuel for these machines and the sound is too much."

Deadlands: Harrowed & Hookers - Session 1

 Previous Session (Intro)

 

So! Deadlands did not start on the 23^rd due to acts of Zeus cracking down on one of the players' house. So instead we did a dry run/test of the combat a bit since most everyone but the GM is new to the system. It was nice and educational, and the game was on for the 30^th instead.

And then I got covid over the weekend.

But I was better enough to play (thank heavens for online gaming). So Deadlands: Harrowed and Hookers has begun, muahahahahahaha!

First session was a trio of scenes to establish characters a bit and what they were doing in Chimayo.

Starting with Wade and Sister Eldritch. The former had recently returned from hunting down a bounty alongside Shing Li. Having found no new bounty to hunt down, he opted to attend the expo and was going for a walk the day before. The latter was spending her day running errands for the church, in particular ferrying supplies from the general store back and forth in an effort to rebuild the strength and endurance she'd lost to a number of questionable decisions.

Artist is sunsetagain (pixiv link)

Whilst carrying a few sacks of potatoes, Eldritch was met by Sheriff Shanker, the sheriff (gasp, awe) of the city of Chimayo. Wade soon spotted and joined them, pleasantries were exchanged and Sister Eldritch's foolish decision to try carrying -four- sacks of potatoes back from the general store was remedied by the two men each taking a sack, thus sparing her noodle-like arms from spilling them all halfway there. Both Wade and Eldritch offered to keep their eyes out and help with security at the expo before the trio made their way to the church.

Next up was Shing Li. Our intrepid martial artist was interested in the science expo even if she wasn't entirely sure what it entailed. So she approached a man in unform and encounter some goold ol' fashioned old west racism... Though the guy was probably from back east, a corporate guard, so fuck'em. He was at least nice enough to tell her she was in the right place, and armed with that knowledge she headed to the church, hoping to encounter Sister Eldritch as the two had previously had a pleasant conversation on theology.

Artist unknown

Arriving at the church, Shing Li was met with the sight of Sister Fatima Rodriguez, another nun leaving the church and nervously looking around everywhere except she was going. Upon stubbing her toe and -almost- swearing, Shing Li rushed to the sister's aid which further frightened her and made her -almost- swear again. Sister Rodriguez lets slip that she finds Wade handsome (Sultry Sisters of the Southwest, coming soon to a penny dreadful near you!), and that he and Eldritch are in the courtyard discussing the expo.

Being the helpful sort that she is, Shing Li decides to help Sister Rodriguez out. Can't let her go walking on an injured foot after all. Missing that the nun had been -leaving- the church, the martial artist used her prodigious strength and hefted the sister up and over a shoulder and promptly carried her back inside and to the courtyard. Finally, the dam broke and Sister Rodriguez began to swear like a sailor. Upon seeing this, Sister Eldritch burst into laughter hard enough that she couldn't breathe -and- dropped her accident for a couple of words.

One let down, Sister Rodriguez stomped off, followed soon by Wade to make sure she didn't get into any trouble – or carried off by anyone else.

Finally we had a scene between Edward Grimm and Jane Doe. Things started off with Edward working on his presentation and performance for the science expo while Jane watched. This lead into the pair conversing about the upcoming show, the performance, if Jane should 'slut it up' for the crowd and finally weird holy people and a bit of theological discussion as they made their way to the saloon... Sorta.

And that was that! The session was a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to the next one. There was supposed to be some between-sessions roleplaying on the Discord group between Edward, Jane, Sister Rodriguez and Wade, but with people being busy it might not happen. If it does, I'll recap it in the next post!

 

See you all next time!

Session Quotes

• Sister Rodriguez: ""h-huh WHAAAAAA!" the sister flails as she's suddenly lifted, her feet kicking a little and her arms swinging around in a mild panic attack "W-what are you doing!? I j-just fucking left from there!" quickly she falls into a string of panicked cursing and not actually anything useful to stop the asian 'monster' from carrying her back onto the compound "

• Shing Li: Shing Li comes to a stop at the entrance to the courtyard, lifting her gaze and looking around to see if she sees any familiar faces, her powerful grip not letting up on the sister. After all she wouldn't want the poor girl to be walking on such a horribly hurting foot, she has to do what she can to make sure she's niiiiiiiice and comfortable.

• Sister Rodriguez: "THAT WOULD BE MOST FUCKING WELCOME YES, THIS YELLOW BEHEMOTH JUST FUCKING LIFTED ME OUTTA NOWHERE AND JESUS FUCK ME CHRIST"

• Wade Harper: "Take care Sister!" (I just got strong smartass energy from this one)

• Jane Doe: "Want I should put on the dresses the whores wear? I hear it gets you men all flustered. Might be good if they're thinking more with their cocks then their senses." She didn't much understand why some of those layered dresses were all that hot but, then again, she didn't have a dick. Putting her cigarette back in her mouth."

• Edward Grimm: "Never could quite get my head around the logic of it all. Y'know there's a part in there about a guy with a dick the size of a donkey? True story!"