Ghost
Requirements: Veteran, Harrowed

The character may become intangible, as per the power. The character may make an opposed Spirit roll against his manitou's Spirit (modified by the character's current Dominion). If successful, he becomes incorporeal for 3 rounds. If he wishes to become tangible again before the duration ends, he must spend a Fate Chip. He must remain in that state until his next action — he can’t attack and then go ethereal. While ghosted, the Harrowed is intangible and unable to affect the physical world in any way, though he is still visible, magical attacks affect him normally, and he can affect other incorporeal beings.

If the Harrowed somehow suffers damage, say from a magical or supernatural attack while in this state, he must make a Spirit roll or immediately become tangible. If a Harrowed rolls a 1 on his Spirit die (regardless of the Wild Die) the manitou may make a Dominion check for free. If the Harrowed's manitou is in control, it only needs to succeed on a normal Spirit roll to turn insubstantial.

If the Harrowed would become corporeal in a solid object or being, he is instead shunted to the nearest open space and is Shaken. The Harrowed may not pass through objects containing or made with Ghost Rock (such as raw Ghost Rock, powdered Ghost Rock mixed with other substances, the smoke from burning Ghost Rock, or Ghost Steel). He must also choose one other relatively common material that he cannot pass through, dependent on the Trapping of this ability--for example, a Harrowed who turns into shadow might not be able to pass through lighted areas, while a Harrowed made of mist might only pass through porous materials and through small cracks, and a Harrowed in the form of a specter might not be able to pass through natural earth or might be contained by salt.

First: one "house rule" I'd strongly suggest is this: While incorporeal, the Harrowed cannot harm any corporeal being or item in any way.  Period.  You also can't hurt them by coming out of incorporeal, such as sticking your hand into someone and becoming solid, or dropping an object on them and letting it become solid.  Any clever attempt to bypass this will receive a brief applause, followed by you taking whatever damage you would have dealt.  They take nothing.

So my PDF copy of Stone and a Hard Place has finally arrived...:D Time to look it over!

Ghost

Requirements: Heroic, Harrowed

As his first action during his turn, the Harrowed can become incorporeal with a successful Spirit roll (he can perform no actions, including free actions, before using Ghost). Once incorporeal, he must remain in that state until the beginning of his action on the next round (unless he suffers damage, see below). While ghosted, the Harrowed is intangible—unaffected by the physical world and unable to affect it—though he is still visible and magical attacks affect him normally.

The deader may remain ghosted as long as he wishes, but it requires concentration and inflicts a –2 penalty to all other Trait rolls while it is maintained. With a free action, the Harrowed can become tangible again at the beginning of his turn. If he somehow suffers damage (Shaken, or one or more wounds)—say, from a magical or supernatural attack—while in this state, he must make a Spirit roll at –2 or immediately become tangible.

Notice the vast increase in the rank requirements. As none of the characters meet the rank requirements, you must switch out Ghost for a different Harrowed edge. As I am a nice GM, I will allow you to pick two Harrowed Edges instead of just one to replace the Ghost edge. Use the updated list in the House Rules thread to pick. just make sure they are Seasoned rank or less.

... And it points back towards the camp. The three other dead things nod, and together the long-limbed quartet begin walking back toward the other soldiers...

Allo? I see you guys logging in...

You know, I think Janet's "I wasn't escaping, guv, honest" skit would probably work better if she weren't wearing different clothes to those she had on before getting out of her cell...say, von Steinhof, what is in that flask?

Adrian paused...

Don't worry, I have a cunning plan....

Oh, Dear. It's not another one of <a href="http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20031017">those</a> plans, is it? It's distressing how often Janet's "cunning plans" land her deeper in trouble...

Stray, I wish to blast the demon but is it possible for me to go boom while avoiding the PCs and neutral NPCs?

The Blessed

Blessed are individuals who have been granted supernatural abilities by mysterious and distant powers of good. Some are priests or actual clergy while others are simply chosen for the nobility of their struggle or their soul. Though most are enlightened and good by nature they don’t have to be—sometimes the light chooses even troubled souls to carry out its will.

Blessed are rare in any era, but they are particularly absent when mankind loses faith and the powers of good grow weaker. But there are always a few noble souls who struggle against the darkness regardless. Below are the rules for those who want to play these spiritual warriors.

Edge: Arcane Background (Blessed)
Requirements: Wild Card, Novice, Faith d4+, Spirit d8+
Arcane Skill: Faith (Spirit)
Power Points: 10
Starting Powers: 3 (Protection, plus two of player’s choice)
Available Powers: Armor, banish, beast friend, blind, bolster, boost/lower Trait, confusion, deflection, dispel, divination, greater healing, healing, light (not obscure), numb, protection, quickness, slow, smite, spirit shield, stun, succor, warrior’s gift.

Special Rules

• Crisis of Faith: When a blessed rolls a 1 on her Faith die (regardless of the Wild Die), her Faith is reduced by a die type until she spends an hour in restful meditation, contemplation, or prayer. A blessed’s Faith can never be reduced below d4 by a Crisis of Faith.
• Miracles: The blessed may use Edges that require Arcane Background (Miracles).
• Sinning: Blessed who violate their core beliefs are temporarily or permanently forsaken by whatever forces of good grant them their powers. Minor sins give the character –2 to his Faith rolls for a week. Major sins rob him of all arcane powers for a week. Mortal sins cause the character to be forsaken until the penitent hero completes some great quest or task of atonement to regain his lost powers (Marshal’s call).

New Power: Protection
Rank: Novice
Power Points: 1
Range: Self
Duration: 3 (1/round)

A blessed who does nothing but concentrate on his faith is very difficult for creatures of darkness to oppose. A supernatural creatures that wants to directly attack a blessed using protection must win an opposed test of its Spirit versus the target’s Faith. Casters who present a proper religious symbol add +2 to the roll.

Voodoo

Edge: Arcane Background (Voodoo)
Requirements: Wild Card, Novice, Voodoo d6+, Spirit d8+
Arcane Skill: Voodoo (Spirit)
Power Points: 10
Starting Powers: 2
Backlash: A voodooist who rolls a 1 on her Voodoo die (regardless of her Wild Die) suffers a level of Fatigue. This Fatigue is recovered after four hours of rest per level of Fatigue.
Available Powers: Armor, banish, beast friend, blind, bolster, boost/lower trait, confusion, darksight, deflection, detect/conceal arcana, disguise, dispel, divination, elemental manipulation, fear, fury of the rada loa, greater healing, healing, invisibility, light/obscure, puppet, slow, slumber, spirit shield, smite, speak language, stun, succor, warrior’s gift, zombie.
Special Rules:

• Conjure Bags: A voodooist must have her talismans, amulets, and the like with her or suffer a –2 to her Voodoo rolls when casting spells.
• Shrine: A voodooist must spend an hour each evening at a shrine to the loas preparing her talismans and offering gifts to the spirits. If she does not, she can’t cast spells during the next day.

New Edge

Gris-Gris Crafter
Requirements: Novice, Arcane Background (Voodoo), Smarts d8+, Spirit d8+, Voodoo d8+

This is the voodoo equivalent of the Gadgeteer Edge.

Once per game session, the houngan can create a magic charm and imbue it with mystical energy. This talisman uses any power available to the houngan, though anyone using it must meet the power’s Rank restrictions. It has half the creator’s Power Points and once these are used up they do not recharge. The ritual to craft one of these charms takes 1d20 minutes and must be performed at the creator’s shrine. Activating the device requires the user to make a Spirit roll instead of a Voodoo roll. All effects of the power are based on the result of the Spirit roll.

New Spells

Bolster
Rank: Novice
Power Points: 2
Range: Smarts
Duration: 10 minutes (1/10 minutes)
Trappings: Chants, vévé, fetishes

Bolster grants the recipient courage against the forces of darkness. The affected character gains a +2 bonus to Fear checks. In addition, any time he spends a Benny to make a Trait roll (including Soak, but not damage rolls), add +2 to the total. If the caster gets a raise on the roll, the bonus increases to +4.
• Additional Targets: The power affects an additional target for every additional Power Point spent to activate, up to a maximum of five targets. This does not affect the maintenance cost.

Fury of the Rada Loa
Rank: Seasoned
Power Points: 4
Range: Self
Duration: 3 (1/round)
Trappings: Mystical symbols, animal charms, skulls or bones

This power invites a nature spirit, or rada loa, to “ride” the houngan or mambo’s body for a brief time to grant him some of their savage ferocity. With success, the caster is inhabited by a minor loa that grants him an additional die type to his Fighting, Strength, and Vigor Traits, and +1 damage with all melee attacks. With a raise, the loa increases those Traits by two die types and grants +2 damage. When the spell ends the priest gains a level of Fatigue until he recovers the same amount of Power Points he spent on this spell and its maintenance. (Bokkors invoke fury of the petro loa instead, with the same effect.)

Spirit Shield
Rank: Seasoned
Power Points: 3
Range: Smarts
Duration: 3 (1/round)
Trappings: Hazy shimmer, circling spirits

This spell creates a barrier that can keep out ghosts and other ethereal enemies. It has no effect against demons or undead in physical form. The caster makes her Voodoo roll, and if successful, places a immobile Medium Burst Template centered on herself. Entities wishing to enter the template must make an opposed Spirit check against the caster’s Voodoo skill. If they fail, they cannot pass the barrier while it remains active. Spirit shield doesn’t prevent the entities from “normal” actions such as Intimidation or throwing physical objects. The spell is negated if any living creature of rat-size or larger that started inside the circle cross to the outside.

shamen are going to lose power points (though they may still get the rapid recharge ability in natural settings that Toxic Shamen in HOE get)

(and how is running out explained? God suddenly developing ADHD?)

Why not wait until it is official rather than change it a piece at a time? Or are we play testing changes for the new edition?

Shamans. A shamen is one female shaman. If I see any Anglophone diminuitives to refer to female practitioners (-ess, -ette) I'm'a smack someone.

House rules! House rules!

Moses doesn't like these changes, as they seriously nerf the Lord's most humble servant.

The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away.

New Power: Protection
Rank: Novice
Power Points: 1
Range: Self
Duration: 3 (1/round)

A blessed who does nothing but concentrate on his faith is very difficult for creatures of darkness to oppose. A supernatural creatures that wants to directly attack a blessed using protection must win an opposed test of its Spirit versus the target’s Faith. Casters who present a proper religious symbol add +2 to the roll.

Into the saloon clamps a grizzled old miner, with a bushy beard and bow legs, lugging a gatling shotgun around on his back that's almost the same size he is.</Brown>

And by that, he means the Prospector.

Why, so you can start shooting? ;)

Well, they're both older men that look like every picture of a prospector you're ever seen, and the best pic to represent Coot also was Gabby's pick

"What." he says, flatly.

...what he's done so far has been fully within the context of his role as a US Marshal, even if she doesn't like it. He's not a trigger happy vigilante, but he doesn't believe that the dead have the same rights as the living.

It seems a lot of my NPCs come down on the side of "Harrowed is just folk with an unfortunate disability."

I have the feeling that Wilder's certainty on that will soon be tested... ;)

James' default reaction to any differently alive people is that they should be hanged by the neck until they're...er...really, really bored? Aw, and I was admiring his loyalty there, too.

"I...I have some idea, yeah." Jimmy says. "I don't think the preacher can help me now. I just want you to promise me something. If...if I start doing anything horrible, like hurting people for fun or...or worse, I need you to promise to put me down. Shoot me right in the head. Can you do that for me, Wilder?"

Dead people can't get married or vote. It's even written into the law.

You may have passed the Texas bar, but I can assure you that in your current place of residence, dead people do vote.

Early and often.

Haha! Well, that doesn't make it legal.

Huh? James is going to do what he promised.

Yes, I was admiring him for that...but you seemed to be implying he'd shoot anybody just for being dead anyway, so from that perspective it was less "aw, they're loyal friends" *snif*, which is what I thought before, and more "that request is now a social get-out clause for cold-blooded pragmatisim".

The Blessed

The forces of good lose a great deal of influence in the world After the Cackler, with their chosen no longer able to call down miracles like they were goin’ out of style. That being said, good’s chosen warriors aren’t without their particular advantages.

Blessed are individuals who have been granted supernatural abilities by mysterious and distant powers of good. Some are priests or actual clergy while others are simply chosen for the nobility of their struggle or their soul. Though most are enlightened and good by nature they don’t have to be—sometimes the light chooses even troubled souls to carry out its will.

Edge: Arcane Background (Blessed)
Requirements: Wild Card, Novice, Faith d4+, Spirit d8+
Arcane Skill: Faith (Spirit)
Power Points: 15
Starting Powers: 3 (protection, plus two of player’s choice)
Available Powers: Aim, armor, barrier, beast friend, blind, boost/lower Trait, confusion, deflection, dispel, elemental manipulation, environmental protection, exorcism, gambler, greater healing, healing, inspiration, light (not obscure), protection, pummel, quickness, sanctify, smite, speak language, stun, succor, warrior’s gift, windstorm.

Special Rules

• Crisis o’ Faith: When a blessed rolls a 1 on her Faith die (regardless of the Wild Die), her Faith is reduced by a die type until she spends an hour in restful meditation, contemplation, or prayer. A blessed’s Faith can never be reduced below d4 by a Crisis of Faith.
• Miracles: The blessed may use Edges that require Arcane Background (Miracles).
• Sinnin’: Blessed who violate their core beliefs are temporarily or permanently forsaken by whatever forces of good grant them their powers. Minor sins give the character –2 to his Faith rolls for a week. Major sins rob him of all arcane powers for a week. Mortal sins cause the character to be forsaken until the penitent hero completes some great quest or task of atonement to regain his lost powers (Marshal’s call).

New Edge

Conviction
Requirements: Novice, Arcane Background (Miracles), Spirit d6+, Faith d6+

Some holy rollers seem to have the ear of the Almighty, and this lucky cuss is one such individual. This hero reduces the cost to activate any power by 1 Power Point, to a minimum of 0.

Trappings

Blessed powers are always subtle if not outright imperceptible—usually so much so that only the effects are visible.

Voodooists

As faith begins to wane After the Cackler, those voodooists who rely on the traditional, ritualistic practices find their magic still works. Traditional voodoo rituals, like those of Indian shamans, appease the spirits, allowing houngans and mambos to draw power from the Hunting Grounds. Other voodoo practitioners aren’t so lucky...

Edge: Arcane Background (Voodoo)
Requirements: Wild Card, Novice, Voodoo d4+, Spirit d8+
Arcane Skill: Voodoo (Spirit)
Power Points: 15
Starting Powers: 2
Backlash: A voodooist who rolls a 1 on her Voodoo die (regardless of her Wild Die) is Shaken. On snake eyes, she gains a level of Fatigue that is recovered after four hours of rest.
Available Powers: Aim, armor, barrier, beast friend, blind, boost/lower Trait, confusion, curse, darksight, deflection, dispel, elemental manipulation, environmental protection, exorcism, fear, gambler, greater healing, healing, inspiration, light (not obscure), mind rider, protection, pummel, puppet, quickness, sanctify, smite, speak language, stun, succor, warrior’s gift, vision quest, windstorm, zombie.
Special Rules

• Conjure Bags: A voodooist must have her talismans, amulets, and the like with her or suffer a –2 to her Voodoo rolls when casting spells.
• Miracles: Voodooists may use Edges that require Arcane Background (Miracles).
• Shrine: A voodooist must spend an hour each evening at a shrine to the loas preparing her talismans and offering gifts to the spirits. If she does not, she can’t cast spells during the next day.

New Edge

Gris-Gris Crafter
Requirements: Novice, Arcane Background (Voodoo), Smarts d8+, Spirit d8+, Voodoo d8+

Once per game session, the houngan can create a magic charm and imbue it with mystical energy. This talisman uses any power available to the houngan, though anyone using it must meet the power’s Rank restrictions. It has half the creator’s Power Points and once these are used up they do not recharge. The ritual to craft one of these charms takes 1d20 minutes and must be performed at the creator’s shrine. Activating the device requires the user to make a Spirit roll instead of a Voodoo roll. All effects of the power are based on the result of the Spirit roll.

Trappings

Most voodoo powers are cast through brief chants or rituals. Depending on the spell, the caster may rub a talisman, toss a small packet of dust, or simply touch a necklace. Voodoo spells seldom produce a visible effect, although the results may be evident, such as from a successful use of the healing power.

Also...Catherine?

Oh! You are a bounty hunter... Um. Please don't chase any bounties on escaped whores?

You guys could have like a Midnight Run thing going.

So I'm going to make an executive decision. All current Blessed characters may keep their background as it currently is. You get to benefit from a Grandfather Clause since, canonically, the events of The Cackler happen in 1882, which is 2 years later than our game.

However, any future Blessed characters made in games I run (including new Blessed in this game) will be under the revised rules above.

My schedule is pretty hectic these days... I'll probably won't have time to post much. Just a heads up. ;-)

Hopefully things get less hectic for you. Do you happen to know how long 'these days' is? As in, is it just a really busy week, or is it likely to be hectic for a month? A few months?

My arse (or rather, usually Carl's) has been saved by big critters taking that extra round to get up to maximum fighting-fu too many times for me to be enthusiastic about this change...faster for PCs, yes, and in PBP rounds can take forever anyway, so sitting one out/being at -2 can be a drag, but I don't cotton to weighting combat one way or the other, so this'd have to apply to both, and if it did...nah.

It's hard to get shaken-locked with the current setup unless you're wounded...and wounded folks who aren't undead look mighty strange springing back up again, in my opinion.

You've obviously not seen how much love the dice roller has for me :)

Well, there's a game alert I didn't see coming. I'd certainly be down to saddle up again, though I'm unsure of my ability to keep up with the frenetic pace the game used to have.

Thunder Walker's soul had been saved, and is currently waiting with Laughs At Darkness for the time when his body is returned to him.

Who woke this Van Winkle of a game? Wow ... just wow...

No clue how I was playin' ole James here but sure! Let's go back into the wilds

In reply to Freiherr von Steinhof (msg # 246):

Yeah, I'm having to do a lot of reading to delve into the intricacies of the situation Logan and von Steinhof are involved in because it has been so long lol. But they are some good reads.

Wilder's father's gun is somewhere in the wilderness.

er??? I know I lost that gun but a "prop" is what exactly?

I wonder if Janet is going to come back to finish helping all the villains in Deadwood achieve their aims.

Welcome to the game, Belle!

Don't s'pose ya spent much time down south? Might've run inta ya 'fore now in that case.

I've collected a few o' those in my time :)

Rabbit bids goodbye to Moses, Art, Walks The Night Alone, and Kills Iron Horse. Little Crow just glowers at them all.

((OOC: If you guys want to do a summary of this, go ahead. I'll get on to what happens next after that.))

Sure... but I have no idea what I might have wanted to talk to you about.

Ooooh now that might work.  Belle isn't a bounty hunter herself, but she could easily have been tasked with escorting bounties to the authorities, especially in Union border territories.

Maybe it's possible Logan was the collector?  If so you'd know something about Belle that isn't public knowledge.

My apologies. I did see that but have not bad plentiful keyboard time in the interim.

Logan might have collected and paid out a reward to Belle. Alternatively, he might have worked together with Belle to bring in criminal and shared in the reward. Either way you like it, I'm open to such a connection.

Three years ago...

Marshal Logan West hadn't counted on this.  He was on his way with a wagon full of prisoners already when the steam wagon had come barreling down the trail like a bat out of hell.

They were Wasatch enforcers all right, they didn't bother to hide it.  But they weren't trouble.  In fact they came with a present: Blackpowder Bill, already gift wrapped, though with a busted leg he wouldn't be walking on any time soon if ever again.

She helped him feed the prisoner in.  Curious, he turned to her, this strange woman in otherwise exclusively male company, and asked how he came by this notorious outlaw who was one of the most successful train robbers he'd yet to hear of.

---

The trio, formerly a quintet, ran.  How had it all gone so wrong?

The reliance on its automatons was Wasatch's greatest weakness.  The massive mechanical monsters were responsible from everything from freight loading to security, and the rail yard perimeter was no exception.  The proper Wasatch rail heads around places like Denver and Chicago had fortified, fortress like concrete walls with armored plating, atop which ghostlight search lanters would scan the very horizon itself.  Self aiming Gatling guns were augmented by the nastiest men Dr. Hellestromme could find anywhere, clad in his black and silver uniforms, holding the latest and deadliest personal weapons from his own forge at the ready.

But out here in the territory, they just had a handful of those automaton things that patrolled a set route and called it adequate.  All an enterprising saboteur had to do was watch for a night or two, make notes, learn the pattern, and run through when his watch showed the correct hour before the deadly metal monsters with Gatling guns for arms could complete their circuit.

Human guards you could sneak past, but they were irregular, you couldn't plan it with such precision.  This would be easy, the saboteur had told himself.

He now paid the price of his hubris.  It turned out they did have human guards, if those Wasatch enforcers could even be called human.

The instant Clanton had slid under to start working on the brakeline, it had begun.  He'd been spared the initial assault since he covered by the darkness of the locomotive, but the bright, white hot chemical light banished the night for a split second.  His accomplices screamed and covered their eyes, some not fast enough.

Burke, the serial coach robber he had hired for protection, had managed to do the job he was paid for at least.  He'd squinted in just enough time so that when the boxcar opened and the Wasatch Enforcers made themselves known, they didn't have the drop on him.  Burke punished his Colt's hammer and emptied a copious amount of lead into the Enforcers.  One fell, but another was saved by an armored duster.  God damn Hellestromme.

It was a valiant attempt, but Clanton heard the sound of breaking glass and then saw Burke screaming in horror as the skin and flesh melted off of his hired gun's face.  He didn't scream very long at least, whatever that was, it was potent.

The two parties exchanged gunfire, neither getting much on the other save for the scout Clanton hired ate most of a hot lead salad served from a Gatling Rifle.  God damn Hellestromme.

And now the three of them ran, ran for their lives, but it didn't seem to be a winning race.  Claton heard automatic fire... he wanted to say it was one of those God damn Hellestromme guns, but these were more... visceral.  There was a crack and a report like a weapon firing, but it was a wetter, fuller sound, followed by a soft thud as if a large volume of air were suddenly displaced all at once.

One shot went wide.  He could see the path of the bullet into the ground, and it carved a channel in the dry dirt when it collided.  God damn, that's a huge round!  Were they firing at him with a buffalo gun?  Did these hombres have a damn Gatling .50?

Clanton sure hoped not, for his sake in the moment.  But apparently it was so.

His remaining accomplices weren't so lucky.  The one behind him to his left let out a cry which Clanton knew to be the sound of someone who is either dead or who will wish they were in a few hours.

But ahead on his right, he saw this unlucky sunuvabitch's demise.  The projectile struck him square in the back, and the hole it put in the man was absolutely massive, bigger than anything Clanton could have imagined not being fired from a cannon.

He made it to the fence.  It wasn't much of a fence, just some metal poles, wooden slats and barb wire across the top, but it wasn't the spot they'd worked loose the prior night.  He'd have to climb it.

That wasn't a problem for Clanton, the Widowmaker of West Kansas could climb like his namesake.  He went up smoothly and quickly, only to hear the strange sound one more time.

He screamed in pain and horrible agony.  His leg!  It was in his leg!  He convulsed involuntarily in shock, only to find he didn't fall, he just rotated in place upside down.

The shock of the pain numbed him, and he looked up at his own leg.  Sticking out of it was a railroad spike which had pinned him to the pole.

---

Clanton found himself tied up, not that it was entirely necessary with his leg like that, as the tourniquet on said appendage was removed.  It hurt more not being on any more than it had hurt when it had been applied.

His leg was wrapped tight, but full of fire.  To even consider moving it was pain.  The doctor had been on hand and had already pulled two slugs out of the one Enforcer they thought Burke had killed.

Clanton had been tossed in the back of a wagon atop a canvas tarp.  Presently, someone approached, and Clanton shook with herror when he realized what she was carrying: over fifty pounds of ghost rock accelerant and nitroglycerin.

He had been attaching it to the locomotive when the fighting had started.  He froze in terror because he understood once he primed the packet, it was extremely volatile.  Underneath a train it actually wouldn't jostle that much, where the acceleration was relatively smooth, but the bouncy up-down-forward motion of a person was a completely different story.

His design was certainly not foolproof; a month ago one of them set to explode as the Number 11 was on a trestle hadn't gone off at all.  But there was no reason to believe it wasn't equally as likely to explode prematurely.

The woman came closer, her arms crossed over the deadly bundle, enough to render them both dust in the wind.  He screamed when she dropped the explosive packets around him.

"Shut up."  She told him.  He blinked.  She stared back at him.  He looked at her, confused why they weren't both blown to pieces.  She read his mind.

"Ammonium phosphate, jackass."  She said simply, producing a large syringe.  "Your fancy ass delayed chemical trigger makes it easy to render the payload inert.  Discovered that about a full moon ago when you done went and tried to take out the number eleven."  She continued, looking down at him and produced a small notebook like a Tombstone Epithet reporter might carry.

"William James Clanton, better known as Blackpowder Bill, the so called Widowmaker of West Kansas.  Former miner and explosives expert.  You have destroyed, derailed or otherwise damaged six locomotives in the past year and a half."  She started at him.  Her face was thin and hard, and the kerosene lantern gave her eyes an unholy glow in the night.

"One hundred and fifty one men, one hundred and seventeen women, and twenty nine children, not to mention hundreds of livestock and over forty thousand dollars in property damage.  All for what?  A payday of a couple grand?  How much did you make Clanton?  Twelve, fifteen thousand dollars at most, and that's before you have to give a cut to whatever sorry ass little gang you've hired this time?"

He sat there silent.  He had no answer for her, it was all true.

"Is that all their lives are worth to you Clanton?  If that wasn't bad enough, and it is, you have singlehandedly cripped rail commerce in three counties for this whole time.  You know, I can understand when the Indians attack us.  I get it.  They don't understand what it is we're trying to do, or they do understand and they do all kinds of twisted logic to justify why it's a bad thing.  I don't take it personally.

"But you know better, don't you, William?  You know what it does to people to know that they can't use something as simple as the trains without having to worry about some fool like you."  She finished.

He finally answered her.  "Fuck off bitch.  You're tough as hell when you're talking to one man with a bum leg after a bunch of men have already done the fighting for you.  You can walk around in a man's hat boots and duster carrying the smallest bore rifle imaginable that you probably can't hit the broad side of a barn with.  But you ain't shit.  Only a candy ass little tin horn says something as weak as 'Monium fosfate'".  He tried to mock her, stressing the name of... chemical?  It was a chemical right?

She didn't say anything.  She merely shifted, and the rifle across her back fell into position.  At first Clanton thought it was another of those damn Hellestromme guns and she meant to end him, only... no this was different.  It looked like a Gatling rifle sure, but it wasn't.  It was massive, like a shotgun perhaps, but even then it wasn't quite like anything he'd ever seen.

She pumped the forend of the weapon.  Why did an automatic weapon have a manual pump?  But that question went away the instant he heard the hiss of air.

A plate atop the mechanism opened, and a blackened iron railspike slid into the firing chamber.  That's why it had a manual control, to load one at a time if desired.  If it had been set to automatic he never could have seen it.

Clanton remembered the rail spike that had been in his hip and swallowed hard.

"Are you sure about that?"

---

Marshal West shook his head.  He wasn't sure he believed that story.  Now he could believe that Wasatch had found out about this guy, baited him in, shot up his hired thugs and managed to capture him.  But Belle Ives was a hell of a truth stretcher.

He couldn't quite swallow the bit about the elaborate time activated bombs, acid dissolving a man's face, and shooting Clanton through the leg and pinning him to a pole with a damn rail spike.  How the hell would you even do that?

He flipped the book open.  She waved it off, Wasatch didn't need the bounty.

"Oh and Marshal West?  I think this is his."  She produced a rail spike from a duster pocket, one which was suspiciously deformed like it had been shot into a metal pole, and gingerly opened the coach and casually tossed it in.

Blackpowder Bill screamed in terror as the Wasatch Rail Enforcers piled back on the steam wagon to leave.

Also, twin Gatling pistols?  Right, so you're officially in charge of shooting things.

Also holy crud what a fight.  You might want to Mass Battle rules that sucker...

Also also I have been rereading on Harrowed. Holy crud.

Slam the Hammer
Requirements: Seasoned, Shooting d8+
Your hero has learned how to keep his aim while “fanning the hammer.” When using a single-action pistol with the Rapid Attack maneuver, he suffers a –2 penalty to his Shooting rolls instead of the usual –4 (see Savage Worlds). The –2 penalty to Parry still applies, however. Fanning the hammer of a pistol requires both hands. One hand is used to hold down the trigger while the other slams the hammer back repeatedly.

Fan the Hammer
Requirements: Heroic, Shooting d10+, Slam the Hammer
Your gunslinger is adept at fanning the hammer (see above). He suffers no penalty to his Shooting roll when using Rapid Attack with a single-action pistol, and the penalty to Parry drops to –1.

You've not played in one of Stray's games before have you ?

On the downside, the Gunslinger is usually the only person who is at all competent standing toe to toe with the worst monsters, so a Parry penalty isn't a great thing.

I am just massively amused Wovoka is totally down with Rabbit adding "steal General Custer" to the Deadwoodward posse's To Do list. I hope they remember to get bread, eggs and orange juice too.

Giant eagles.

I am just massively amused Wovoka is totally down with Rabbit adding "steal General Custer" to the Deadwoodward posse's To Do list. I hope they remember to get bread, eggs and orange juice too.