Ignore the stats at the beginning, I'm just using this to keep track of XP etc, and read on to follow the adventurers as they begin their descent..
Shadows of Brimstone Campaign
Scott – Jim ‘Shady’
Mathers – US Marshall – 360 XP - , $50, 6 DS
Personal Item - Silver Dice
Starting Skill – Hardened Resolve
Gear
Artifacts
Mark – The Man in
Black - Gunslinger – 310XP, $25, 4DS
Personal Item – Hand Mirror
Starting Skill – Quickdraw
Gear - Axe
Artefacts -
Pete – Amber
Lafayette - Saloon Girl – 270XP, $75, 5DS
Personal Item – Shackles
Starting Skill – Acrobatic Dodge
Gear -
Artefacts -
Mike – Father
Padraig O’Shaughnessey - Preacher – 370XP, $100, 9DS
Personal Item – Concealed Flask
Starting Skill – Missionary
Gear -
Artefacts -
Becs – Anna O’Shaughnessey
- Rancher – 335XP, $175, 6DS
Personal Item – Worn Eye Patch
Starting Skill – Farmstead Defender
Gear -
Artefacts -
Wrighty – ‘The Sherriff’
- Law Man – 425XP, $100, 3DS
Personal Item – Personal Journal
Starting Skill – Frontier Justice
Gear – Pistol, Hunting Knife
Artefacts -
Duane – Benito ‘The
Bomb’ Nachos - Bandito – 450XP, $100, 6DS
Personal Item – Ace of Spades
Starting Skill – Explosives Expert
Gear –
Artefacts – Book of the Mad King
Journal Entry – 20-5
They
say every story needs to be told. But this one really needs to be told. Hence I
keep this journal. Just in case.
Our
adventures started in the saloon, don’t they all? A likely band. We were all
drawn to Lestina, a small town a good few miles from where Brimstone once stood.
All drawn for our own purposes but really we all knew we were drawn by the
DarkStone. We’d all heard the stories, fortunes to be made from the stuff, and
fortune favors the brave. Sure we’d all heard the stories of what it brings
too. Living dead, daemons, and holes to other worlds. But here we were anyway.
A
less likely bunch of fortune seekers you would never find.
The Man in Black, a fearsome gunslinger
that built his reputation in Arizona and New Mexico, I’m sure you’ve heard the
stories and yes, it’s true. A vain bastard that carries a mirror with him wherever
he goes. He says it’s for luck! Well I don’t know about that but he’s so quick
he even seems to have time to check his hair before drawing, and still guns the
other man down.
Benito Nachos. ‘Benni the Bomb’ the
group likes to call him. A crazy son bitch Mexican. He thinks that every
problem can be solved with dynamite, and the crazy bastard always seems to pull
a stick of it from somewhere! Filthy greaser carries a ‘lucky ace’ with him,
lucky for him, not for the poor saps that are around him when he blows. And the singin, man, the singin! I swear to
god that I gonna gun the son bitch down someday if he don’t stop to goddam
tuneless greaser singin.
And
talkin of God, the next member of our unlikely posse claims to represent him. Father Padraig O’Shaughnessey. A less likely
preacher you wouldn’t find anywhere. You ask me he more likely worships the
drink, I aint ever seen him without the goddam hip flask he carries. More
likely he’s too drunk to read the sermons from the book he carries, but some
say they seen him spread fire from the skies. Well I aint sure bout that but
with what we’re searchin for a preacher might come in handy.
And
then there’s his daughter Anna. Bright
as a button. Owns a ranch up towards Sedona. She’s never seen without her
huntin rifle and man can she shoot! Wears an old tattered eyepatch to help with
her aim. More likely here to look after her old man than to find the DarkStone,
but that Stone will more than likely buy her a pretty head of cattle when she’s
done here. Wouldn’t surprise me if she don’t end up the biggest rancher in the
state, if we live to tell these tales.
The
next member of our band is a real do gooder, least that’s what he’ll have you
think. Jim Mathers, a fancy dressed
US Marshall from out East somewhere. But I heard the tales ‘bout him. Flashes
his badge like he’s the almighty himself, but I know ‘bout those Silver Dice he
carries, and how he got em. Driven out from the East is the real story, Jim ‘Shady’
Mathers they called him out there. A crooked lawman with a flashy smile and a gambling
problem. Sure he’s here for the stone alright, and he’ll get his share so long
as he remembers who the real law in these parts.
The
girl he has in tow is Amber Lafayette.
Some hussy from a saloon Mathers picked up along the way to Brimstone Country
no doubt. She dresses real fine, all comfortin to the men in our group. But she’s
quick as a snake an always finds somewhere to hide that hold out pistol she
carries. Damn girl carries round a pair of shackles with her, not sure if it’s
to tie up the ‘bad guys’ for Jim or to tie up the boys. She probly charges
extra for that!
And
me, well people call me ‘The Sherriff’.
That’s all you need to know for now. This journals for our stories if we aint round
to tell em ourselves.
Journal Entry – 26-5
We
been kickin round this town for best part of a week now when we got wind of our
first big score.
We
was in the saloon, Jim takin the locals at Liars Dice and Benni eatin matches
or some shit when this crazy old man came over to Amber and started tellin her
a tale. A tale of an old DarkStone mine up in the hills. Anna’s been up in them
hills a few days before with her old man, looking to snag us some mustangs, and
she took no time in working out the missing details. The mine was near Cake’s
Cave, bout a days ride North West of town.
Tomorrow
we’re saddling up them mustangs and headin out.
Journal Entry 27-5
2
days it took us to get up to the mine. Damn alcoholic preacher went and traded
his mustang for a pack mule. Said the horse was the creature of the devil.
Still the mule should come in handy for carryin all that stone back to town. We’re
holing up outside the mine for the night. Somethin bout it don’t seem quite
right and we’re all agreed we aint goin down there in the night. Maybe the
stories are right an there are creatures from other worlds down there.
Journal Entry 29-5
I’m
still writin, so that means I’m stiil ‘live. The rest are too, but let me tell
ya Jim aint lookin too clever. Gone near lost his mind.
Let
me tell ya how it went down.
The
mornin broke yesterday and The Man in Black was into the mine like a shot.
Crazy son bitch he is I tell ya. We managed to scrounge one lantern between us
an Amber was carryin it. The mine was wrong I tell ya, no one wanted to get too
far away from that light, which seemed to suit Amber just fine.
Black
was racin ahead an just inside the entrance we found a crazy old prospector.
What the hell he was doin here I couldn’t tell ya. Well he seemed a friendly sort
at first, even offered us some healing herbs, but just as we were headin on our
way I saw something weren’t right. God damn it if he didn’t collapse down in
front of Black and start shakin like the preacher does when he aint had his
whisky. You wouldn’t believe what happened next, neither would I if there weren’t
to others round to bear witness. God damn old man’s chest snapped open and 8ft
tentacles bust from it! Well Black took one down straight way with his pistol,
He’s as fast as people say, if not faster. I nailed the other one while Jim
fired what he says was a ‘warnin shot’ with his shotgun into the roof of the
cave. Goddam warnin shot! Well that tentacle came straight for him, whacked him
right in the kisser. Anna tried to take it out but that girl can’t shoot for
shit. Black took it down. Shook us all up a bit I tell ya. Amber stayed round with
Jim to ‘comfort him’, the Preacher was there too tryin to read some bullshit
from his book. Benni, Black and I pressed on ahead.
As
we went deeper into the mine that strange feeling grew stronger. Sort of hard
to say what it was, like something evil coming from deep in the mine. Trying to
get out. Maybe it was guarding the DarkStone?
The
next room we came to was worse. As we entered there was something scuttling in
the darkness. Some big red armoured things with mean lookin claws. Slashers we
called em, and hangin from the ceiling half a dozen HellBats, worm like things
but with wings. We’d heard stories ‘bout these creatures before. Things had
laid siege to Fort Landy for a week people say, took the army all the bullets
they has to get rid of em. Well these
things were fast, but Black was faster, took one of em out before it even
looked up. The others swarmed round us. Anna opened up with her rifle at one
and Benni took another out. I did for a fourth and Jim blasted that shotgun of
his at one of the slashers. Tough bastards they were, the shot just bounced off
its crab like hide. The Preacher was
still tryin to read from his blasted book, swear that man needs glasses, and it
fell to the rest of us to take out the beasts. Black hit one right between the
eyes, droppin it in one shot and I took out the other.
Don’t
know what happened next but Black went off lookin for some loot. Not sure what he
found but when he came back he wasn’t sayin nothin, and looked white as a
ghost. There’s something bad down here for sure and I got the feeling we gotta
stop it before it gets out. Good job Benni got that satchel of dynamite.
Still,
after rootin round we found signs of the DarkStone we were searcin for and
continued down into the mine.
As
the shafts weaved round we came to an openin with some of the stone in the
walls. Benni rushed in and started prising it right out the walls. But I think
something must have heard us! From the shadows more of the Slasher things
appeared, HellBats dropped from the roof and dead miners started getting up
from the pile of bodies in the corner. The HellBats flew straight towards Black
but Anna was there with her rifle. Shootin like a deamon she took out what must
of been 5 of those suckers while Amber finished the other one off with her
little hold out Pistol. Jim took the head off one them Slashers with his shotgun
and I took care of the other. Benni had lost it. He started reachin into his
satchel and tossin dynamite at them dead things like no tomorrow, he blew the
shit outa them! Crazy son bitch. But I tell ya he was pretty banged up. The
Preacher must have found the right page in his book ‘cos he healed him up real
nice.
This
weren’t the stash we were looking for so we continued down into the darkness,
that old lantern that lil ol Amber was carrying seemed to the only thing holdin
the evil at bay. The next passage we came to was flooded waist deep in water.
More dean men came for us from the depths but they were struggling to get
through. It was like shooting fish in a barrel and Benni started launcin that
dynamite again, where the hell does her get it all from? And the Preacher, well
he raised that fire people talked about, went and burned up them piles of bones
real good.
When
we reached the bottom of the mine the darkness seemed real strong, we knew we
had to be quick before it got out from this cursed place, but this was bad,
real bad. More dead men lined then room and HellBats swooped from the stalactites
but there was something else, something big! Harbinger of Doom the Preacher
called it, thing must have stool 15 feet tall with wings spannin twice that.
Well, as I said, I’m the law round here and the folks find it quite inspiring
when I show em my badge. Jim did the same shoutin ‘F.B.I.’! He’s a strange one
he is, not sure where out East he’s from but we sure don’t talk like that round
here. Well I tell ya the posse went crazy, shootin like they were possessed by
daemons themselves. Black laid into that ting with his deadeye shots and Anna
got that huntin rifle singin a sweet song as she finished it off. But there was
something unnatural to it, started getting in our minds. Amber and the Preacher
finished off the HellBats and Benni blew the shit out of them dead folks with
his dynamite, but we almost had to drag Jim and Benni out of that room.
Jibbering like idiots about hidden worlds, frozen rolling plains and deadly swamps
they were, Still we got our stash.
And
here we are, Benni clutchin this strange book he found deep down in the mines,
Father Padraig stashing a haul of DarkStone so big it barely fits in his bag,
good job he brought that pack mule. He’s lookin mighty strange the Preacher, as
if the stone is changing him in some way.
Well
we’re gonna hole up here for the night before we head back to town, hopefully
it’ll be a quiet journey home.
