Deadlands - Part 1: Comin' Round the Mountain

As promised, the following is a synopsis of our first Deadlands session, "Comin' Round the Mountain". Our party includes:

Damian
-- Gizelle, a beautiful French female who moonlights as a landmines-wielding mad scientist and cook who favors gunpowder as her secret ingredient

John Conway
-- Dr. Sanders, a bitter color-blind gun-wielding medic, who expresses his dislike of the poor by going out of his way to help the rich

Mary Lewis
-- Lola McGill, a kindhearted lady who dual-wields parasol and pistol

James
-- Alexander Baron, a greedy gun-wielding explorer who excels at both the saber and taking advantage of any situation

Peter Hamilton
-- Dr. Magnus, a short-tempered and secretive mad scientist who fiercely treasures his main invention, a flamethrower with a reinforced casing

Andrew
-- Nicholas D. Wolfwood, a supposed holy man who has experience with a sidearm

I will be relating each session in the third person to avoid any confusion.

"The party starts off on the Skyline, one of the last trains heading West through the Rockies before the close of the season. It is around 2 or 3 p.m. in the afternoon. Dr. Magnus is on the train by pure luck; his greedy partner had attempted to steal his design for a bulletproof flamethrower casing, fleeing in his airship/dirigible. Magnus follows him and sets his canopy on fire with his flamethrower, causing the airship to detonate, flinging him through the air and fortuitously down into the coal car of the Skyline. Confronted by two flabbergasted train workers, Magnus is forced to hand over the flamethrower despite brandishing his shotgun. After a brief introduction with the chief conductor John Crocker, in the locomotive, Magnus follows him back through the train cars towards the baggage car where Crocker plans on storing the flamethrower.

Passing through the sleeper car, they pick up a shadow, Alex Baron, who sees a possible money making opportunity, while Nicholas D. Wolfwood notices them but remains behind. Moving through the two passenger cars, they make it to the dining car, where the rest of the party is located. Lola is enjoying the scenery while people watching, Gizelle is chatting with the cook, and Dr. Sanders moodily watches his surroundings. Gizelle recognizes the flamethrower for what it is and attempts to take it from Crocker, admiring its craftsmanship, but before Magnus can pull out his shotgun again Crocker is able to hold her off. A well dressed older man walks up, by the name of Alan Saberth, and asks Crocker if he can check on his cargo to ensure it is properly stored. Crocker recognizes the man and readily acquiesces, indicating Saberth has some influence with the train officials. By this time, Nicholas has joined the party and they move toward the baggage car, which is right next to the dining car, sans Gizelle and Sanders.

Magnus asks to be allowed in to ensure his flamethrower is properly secured. Crocker agrees, unlocks the baggage car door, and Magnus enters. Nicholas and Lola attempt to persuade Crocker and Saberth to let them in as well; Nicholas is immediately rejected and returns to the dining car but Lola persists. During a brief commotion, Magnus spots Baron sneaking into the baggage car but says nothing. Crocker insists Lola leave and she does so in a huff, proceeding back to the second passenger car. Crocker and Saberth enter the car and Saberth immediately approaches a large heavy wooden box secured in the center of the car. A high-quality lock holds it shut. Crocker places the flamethrower on a shelf; afterwards Magnus makes sure it is secure. Satisfying himself, Saberth turns and leaves, followed by Crocker and Magnus. Baron emerges after Crocker locks the door and crouches by it to make sure they are not coming back.

A brief social scene ensues in the dining car. Magnus sits off to the side, listening and observing everything that goes on, his mind always focused on his flamethrower. Nicholas approaches Saberth and questions him about his reason for traveling West. Saberth explains that he is a representative of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and is transporting a valuable Roman statue of the god Eros to a location out West. Sanders is approached by an attractive redhead but dismisses her for being both poor and a native of Pittsburgh. A young mother asks Lola, who has returned from the passenger car, to watch over her twin sons while she and her husband have a quiet dinner alone. Lola is hesitant but in the end agrees. Gizelle is peddling her French crepes containing her secret ingredient and has drawn a small crowd around her as she expounds on her special cooking techniques.

Baron meanwhile has decided the time is ideal to search the car. He rummages through the baggage and finds a little loose change before examining the box. After handling the lock, he doubts his ability to pick it but, suddenly, noises sound from inside the box. He hastily backs away and, since the door back to the baggage car is locked, heads to the caboose. Entering, he runs into a small group of train workers who are surprised at his entrance. Startled and cornered, Baron commends the men for working hard, telling them the conductor just wanted to check up on them, and then hastily leaves. Avoiding the box, Baron quickly finds a hiding spot among the other luggage in the train.

Back in the dining car, Saberth approaches Crocker and they both head back to the baggage car. Magnus attempts to follow but is distracted as Lola and the young twins get into a confrontation with two older train workers. Saberth and Crocker enter the baggage car and immediately spot Baron, who hastily tries to explain his presence. Saberth immediately moves to check up on the box. Before Crocker can command Baron to leave, the box explodes and Baron sees Saberth get impaled by something lurching under the box shrapnel. Crocker screams for Baron to run, and he does, making it through the door back into the dining car. Turning, he sees Crocker pull the connecting pin, separating the rest of the train from the baggage car and the caboose. The last thing Baron sees is Crocker get yanked back into the baggage car before it disappears around a bend in the track.

Before everyone else in the car can turn to see Baron reappear and the baggage car disappear, a loud explosion is heard from the front of the train and the whole train lurches horribly, throwing everyone forward. Magnus suffers a minor lower abdomen wound, while everyone else stumbles to their feet. All of the train passengers, aside from the party, are unconscious. Nicholas, who steps forward as the de facto leader, convinces Sanders to heal Magnus, despite the doctor's lack of compassion. The four car doors (front, back, and two side doors both facing south) have swung open in the crash.

Looking outside, a group of bandits, some on foot and some riding horseback, come down the length of the train. Noticing the survivors in the dining car, they take up positions south of the tracks, using several scattered boulders as cover. The leader of the bandits leads the horsemen towards the dining car, and has a rather conspicuous bag of dynamite next to him on his horse. Gizelle drops her charming exterior and withdraws two landmines from her leg bag, placing them by two of the open doors.

As the bandits prepare to attack, Baron takes up a position by one of the windows in between the two side doors. Lola follows him, having dropped her gentle pretense, withdraws her pistol, and fires at the lead horseman. The shot lands, blowing his head off. The horse bolts, dropping the corpse and dynamite bag on the ground near the boulders. Baron fires at the dynamite, in an attempt to take out several of the nearby bandits in a single blow, but misses. Lola aims again, landing another direct hit, blowing another horseman and two bandits to smithereens. With their leader and three companions dead in the first few seconds of the fight, the bandits are noticeably shaken and several of those furthest from the car take off. Gizelle rushes forward to the other window to help but slips in the rubble inside the car, shooting herself in the foot.

The bandits rally and fire back at the party, one of the horsemen taking a shot at Magnus through one of the open side doors. The shot goes wild but Magnus fires back, also missing. Moving to the front door, he preps another round, while Nicholas, again grabbing for leadership, steps outside and commands the bandits to stand down. He proclaims himself to be a great holy man who has personally struggled with the fiercest demons. Realizing they are dealing with a car full of firearm capable and most likely crazed passengers, several more bandits take off, while the others hide behind the boulders. Baron rushes outside after Nicholas, not to be outdone for party leader, and directly attacks the remaining horseman with his saber. Sanders takes Baron's place at the window and takes out a bandit sneaking toward the far side of the car. Lola shouts for the bandits to leave before they are killed, but Baron finishes the horseman before he can flee. The last bandit steps forward and takes a shot at Lola, who retaliates by killing him.

With three corpses, the party takes a breather and searches for any loot, picking up spare weapons and ammo. Baron and Nicholas both suggest taking a look at the locomotive to find out what happened, but Magnus and Sanders insist on staying behind, with Magnus desperate to find the baggage car. The cook and remaining passengers in the dining car have by this time regained consciousness and also want to find out what happened to the locomotive.

The cook accompanies Baron and Nicholas to the front of the train. They realize the bandits had blown up a bridge that spanned a small gorge. The explosion and following crash was caused by the locomotive falling into the gorge, slamming into the far gorge wall (the gorge was far deeper than it was wide). This has, up to this point, prevented the rest of the train from following the locomotive into the gorge. Returning to the dining car, the cook and the party get the remaining passengers off the train. At this point, many people want to know what happened to the baggage car and where Crocker and Saberth are, while others opt to build a temporary camp for the night. Baron takes a minute to pull the party aside and relate what he saw occur in the baggage car before he escaped.

Aware of the possible dangers, the party leads some of the passengers back down the tracks. On the way, Denise Mer, a reporter for the Tombstone Epitaph, dashes to the front of the group and attempts to photograph and interview the party members responsible for saving the train from the group of bandits. Magnus makes a grab for her camera, having bad past experiences with reporters trying to worm their way into his labs and research. Sanders steps up and rips off the filament flash unit, warning her that no pictures are allowed. Unabashed, Denise follows the party down the track, where they find the baggage car and caboose in the mounting twilight.

The first sign of danger is the blood staining the baggage car door and side. The ground around the cars is disturbed, with numerous round small circular tracks, almost as if someone on stilts had walked around. Drag marks lead away from the baggage car door, south of the tracks and up the into the forested hills. Magnus and Baron cautiously enter the baggage car, followed by Denise and a couple other people. The box has been reduced to splinters, along with several other bags and supplies. Gizelle's covered cart, while heavily damaged, still contains her extra supply of landmines. Magnus frantically searches for his flamethrower and finds it unharmed, in addition to a small can of extra methane fuel. He and Baron both inspect the box, where they notice lots of gouges on the wood planks facing the box interior. They reason whatever inside must have been trying to get out for a while, and no longer believe Saberth's tale of a Roman statue. A significant amount of blood is also found in the car.

They both move to the caboose. All of the workers previously there are gone, but they find lots of blood and more of the stilt tracks in the blood. Gizelle grabs a round wooden beam, wraps a curtain around it and lights it, making an effective torch. The party moves back outside, where the passengers are growing nervous and antsy as the sun sets and darkness sets in. While a few, including Magnus, want to set out to hunt the creature at night, the majority votes to go back to camp. Before they leave, Gizelle organizes several of the passengers in gathering supplies for additional torches. The party watches the rear as the group returns to the rest of the train.

The camp is set up around the boulders the bandits had previously used as shelter. While the party was down at the baggage car, the other passengers, lead by the cook, took the effort to bury the three bandits nearby. Gizelle sets up a strict parameter, laying landmines around the entrances to the camp, setting up several torches in areas not so close to the central campfire. The remaining passengers are frightened at hearing the disaster that struck the baggage car and caboose and insist on guards for the night. Several party members, Baron, Nicholas, Magnus, and Lola, volunteer for night watch. Gizelle heads to the ruined dining car and barricades herself inside, securing the doors and laying landmines around and inside the doors for security. The crash survivors hunker down for the night.

As the night deepens, the night guards hear the wind and frequent howl of a coyote. Dead brambles rustling in the wind keep them constantly on edge. However, in moments when the wind is quiet, Baron and Magnus both report hearing a skittering sound around the edge of the camp, but far enough from the torches and campfire to stay hidden. As the deepest part of the night passes, Lola thinks she hears the skittering coming from the tracks past the dining car, and while exploring, finds nothing.

Once the sun rises and everyone has recovered from the previous day's events, Lola and Gizelle investigate the tracks past the dining car. They find more stilt tracks outside the camp parameter, with a heavy concentration around the graves of the three bandits, with apparent scratch marks indicating the creature had attempted to dig up the bodies. Magnus observes that it would have been prudent to booby trap the corpses and let the creature kill itself during the night. Gizelle agrees and immediately has the bodies dug up. She spends the morning positioning the corpses, rigged with landmines to blow upon movement, along and around the track line between the dining and baggage cars.

One of the female passengers, who claims to have known Saberth, claims he told her he was not actually transporting museum property. She now thinks he was alluding to some strange monster he was moving out West. The party, upon hearing this news, agree that they cannot wait the creature out, as it could be several days before anyone even knows the train and passengers are missing, and they cannot risk allowing the creature to attack the passengers. They unanimously agree to set out and track the creature into the woods, using the drag trail leading from the baggage car as a starting point.

As they head down the train tracks and approach the baggage car, Denise emerges and insists on accompanying them for first dibs on the story. While Sanders and Magnus resist, the party allows her to accompany them. They make their way up the slope into the woods; there are no signs that the tracks have been covered or doubled back on, and the path is easy to follow.

It is not long before the party comes upon a semi-shaded clearing, with what appears to be a cave on the far side of the clearing in a jumble of rocks against the hill. The party also notices that the ground is trampled and disturbed, as if it had been recently dug up.

An air of unease overwhelms the party, when, suddenly, a hand bursts from the dirt, followed by an arm and torso, and finally the full corpse of Alan Saberth. His head lolls to the side, his eyes dead and limbs lifeless. Five more corpses follow suit and emerge from the earth, unrecognizable due to the damage and rapid decay of their faces. Denise shrieks and cowers behind the party, who line up to face the attack. Magnus and Sanders, more resistant to the shock then the others, attack first. Magnus unleashes the fury of his flamethrower but is too far for any real damage to be done. Sanders attacks Saberth with his gun, blowing a hole in the zombie's chest and revealing a spider-like creature embedded in the flesh. The creature reacts violently, and the zombie surges forward in retaliation. Nicholas steps forward and fires as well, blowing the insect away and ripping the zombie's chest apart, killing it.

Fumbling with their weapons, the party is not able to attack again before the zombies are upon them. However, they are slow and clumsy, missing most of the party in their initial attack. Gizelle unfortunately, armed with several landmines, takes a direct blow to the head and stumbles back to Denise, scrambling for recovery. Nicholas steps forward again and delivers a crushing blow to another zombie, revealing another spider before blowing it apart. The second zombie falls, while Lola blasts another, also revealing a spider. It is now apparent that the corpses are simply shells or vessels for the spider creatures, as each of the spider's appendages extends into the limbs of the zombies.

Baron rushes a fourth zombie with his saber, piercing it through the chest and instantly killing the spider within. The zombie that had gone after Magnus gets a full blast from his flamethrower and is incinerated, leaving only two zombies. Lola continues to fight with her zombie and is able to take it down, while the sixth and final zombie has made its way past the party line and is attacking Denise in an attempt to reach Gizelle. Baron turns and dispatches it from behind but graciously turns down Denise's gushing praise and thanks.

Recovering slowly, the party surveys the clearing, making sure that there are no more zombies. However, the dark opening of the cave mouth looms from across the clearing, and each party member realizes they have found the creature's lair."

To be continued......