They're Dust Adders...they've heard a rumour Jesse's back, but haven't had it confirmed as Carl's been too exhaused/out of it to mention such. She's not popular with them, but so long as Carl's alive they'll respect his position on the matter. For now it's truce.

Mike probably has more sympathy than Henry does, knowing exactly what Jesse was like and that he probably went for Wildcat (who'd chased Jesse across county lines to make a technically-illegal but hilarious arrest by dropping him down a privy three years back...he was nearly hanged before the technicality came up, walked free only to be kidnapped by his small-time criminal associates, who'd also been left for the law to mop up and were out for revenge, and needed him to help them catch up with their boss...Jesse - and Carl, when he heard of the mess and went to fetch Jesse back - almost died violently several times in the ensuing shennanigans, came away with nothing, and put all the blame on That Damn Ranger). He probably thinks she's a misguided young gun and/or puts it down to her being a Protestant, though he's not about to be her BFF either.

Henry wasn't as close to Jesse and probably cares less/is more neutral towards the Ranger, if still wary. A lot of the Adders have petty (or not so petty) convictions and they know the Rangers wouldn't approve of them harbouring the Shaw Brothers or Ward's actions to 'safeguard' his herd.

Blackthorn in general and the Dust Adders in particular have one major driving force, and that's work. A threat to Ward and/or the town's economic stability/sufficiency - such as it is, and though Wildcat thinks it's bad now, they've clawed their way up from dirt - is considered a threat to everything they are and own. So that level of wariness.

I have to share this with y'all. The mighty Greater Vampire willpower of Marina Vanderholt vs. a d4 warding:

Alouette, for the NPC Ward's house, rolled 7 using 1d4, rerolling max with rolls of (4+3)7. ward check.
Marina Vanderholt, rolled 2,5 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 2,5. spirit!
...
Alouette, for the NPC Ward's house, rolled 3 using 1d4, rerolling max with rolls of 3. ward check.
Marina Vanderholt, rolled 3,3 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 3,3.

18:40, Today: Alouette got the result "Very doubtful" on the magic 8-ball. does Marina deserve a chip?

She is fuming.

Does Evans have both the remaining holy hand grenades on his person?

I recall him offering them more than once, but I haven't "seen" any except on him and among William's stakes (and I know he used his, because there is a very singed eldritch abomination drumming her appendages and looking peeved back in the Hunting Grounds).

He's offered them, but no one else has taken him up on it, so he does still have both.

Thanks.

Additionally, Murphy rocks. Just in case it needed said.

Why, thank you. It does bear repeating ever once in a while. The little Irish guy has little to go for him, after all.

Maybe not as much as Rex Marksley, but hey, a silver tongue, ridiculous amounts of courage, a beautiful wife and the ability to survive random NPCs' attempts to kick his nuts into orbit have to count for something.

Ah, carrying it like Moses. :-)

Behold. And then be afraid.

Oh wow. I can't believe that's even a real thing.

I am kind of concerned as to hte potential relevancy of that to, um, anything. In the world. Ever. What?

If it was Marina complaining about society being mysogynistic and thus giving her a good supply of non-people to drag away and murder for kicks, food or minions, I'd point out that the core tragedy of Marina's existence is that for all she has phenominal monster powers, she's lost the ability to, well, live and grow.

She'll always be trying to be the man with the stick, never understand she - or any other woman - has worth beyond her body, never overcome the trauma or the need to avenge it, never come back to the daylight world with some drifter or farmer who doesn't give a damn about her past...she's got this massive power, huge strength and all this influence, but underneath it all is a ninteen-year-old backalley whore who just doesn't want to get beaten up again. That's all the Vampire Queen really is, and will ever be, and her immortality's come at such a price there is no end for her.

I think at some level, Marina actually knows that, and has for a long time. That, gentlemen, is living in Hell. Which is where demons come from.

No, there's no relevance, I just came across this soul-shattering thing online and felt like I needed to share it to ease my pain.

Oh, at least it's not mainstream-endorsed assholery. 50 Shades of Grey, anyone? (I refuse to touch the thing as it literally reduced a police officer friend of mine to tears of sheer despair, but I understand the plot to be "rich guy sexually abuses the hell out of naieve idiot, claims it's S&M"...and this has a film now.)

Anyway, sorry to vanish, I found a collared dove fledgie that I think must've fallen from its nest last thing at work, then came home to find my aunt had posted me cheese, which had got delayed somewhere and become an amorphous cheesemass singularity, so several things to sort out. Onwards!

Yeah... you all don't want to piss William off. :-)

And that was/is an... can't think of an adequate adjective... read. Kinda makes me want to look at FATAL myself. It can't be that bad, can it?

Against my better judgement, I have, in fact, looked at FATAL. And it is, in fact, horrific.

When a clearly sexist and pulp-playing reviewer says something's incurably broken in its mechanics and rabidly mysogynist in its content, you'd probably have more fun hammering 6" nails into your sinuses.

On the theme of hammering and mysogyny, I've come to the conclusion that I am in fact profoundly disturbed by the acts of wood-through-ribcage violence in Dracula being the nearest thing to sex in a mainstream Victorian novel ("Oho, your wedding night coming up, is it laddie? Here, have a hammer."). Good grief.

As for Hardin's good side arms (to be fair, Lou did ask him what kind and was told it "didn't matter" so long as they got Hardin free), you can blame Bob Dylan. I mean, "every" means more than "both" or even "some" of his hands to me. Likewise I will forever think of the Arizona Ranger that rode into the town of Agua Fría as wielding a big iron rather than anything else.

Almost-unrelatedly, this little weird western version of a certain folktale is the awesome and y'all should read it now:

http://www.lightspeedmagazine....nting-vixens-spring/

Out of curiosity, what exactly does holy water do in Deadlands?

Universally speaking, it harms European vampires and can be used to trap or injure demonic entities. Other uses tend to be up to the GM, but it'd certainly help bless/heal things so far as I'm concerned.

In reply to Alouette (msg # 131):

It can break a posession, right?

If the possessed party could be induced to drink it or be partially submerged, with the attendance of an individual qualified in exorcisim, then I personally'd waive the system's looooong requirements for sanctification and do it as a Dramatic Task or something. You'd probably be better off using it as a boost to Smite (washing rounds/a knife in it, holy-weaponising random objects) than attempting to trap any one beef to exorcise, though.

Alouette's been trying to persuade O'Rourke to bless the local water supply pretty much since the start of the game, but, well, it talks like a tinhorn priest on peyote at the best of times...

NB remember that Sarah has only guessed it's holy water through a glimpse of the priest getting some in jars as makeshift anti-vampire grenades...unless she's Detecting Arcana she doesn't automatically know these things.

Ahoy, world, general question: are we happy with this as combat, or would y'all sooner have it as a Situation? I admit that aside from the scenario in general I have no idea what was intended for this scene (except maybe that Marina wasn't supposed to literally walk straight into the arms of a well-warned PC...the dope) and am very much playing it by ear.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:41, Tue 02 Sept 2014.

What about as a boost to Dispel?

I'd allow it to help counteract a Black Magic spell, for sure. Percy'd appreciate that.

The cows don't have any spells on, mind: all their weird comes from their super-serpent buddies.

I have some Stampede rules from the Blood Drive adventure series, if that would help.

Sure, I'll compare and contrast with what I've got/what's happening. Any thoughts on the Situation vs. Combat for this scene?