Friday 29 May 2015

Shadows of Brimstone

After our first gaming session of Shadows of Brimstone, a Weird Wild West dungeon crawler from Flying Frog Games, I decided to write a little narrative.

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.