In reply to The Stray (msg # 690):

Congrats!   Another Deadlands Tale?

Yup. This one uses some names from a previous game, but the content is entirely new.

Well hot damn.  Remember us when you sign the movie deal.

Matt Broaddale is back on duty. :D

edit: @Leopold: Rereading the Whistle Blows prelude we did (that I got uncharacteristically silent in :P), I'm sad it ended there. The Major and the Marshal were a couple of heartbreakers.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:18, Sun 15 Jan 2017.

! !!! Welcome back, Matt! [crazy waving]

@Stray so wait, Wrong Horse's stint in the territories is official canon now?

In reply to Tan Xiaohan (msg # 695):

Well, he's at least been as far as Canyon Diablo.

Welcome back!

They were indeed :-)
@Stray: Should we wrap that up with a short summary? So that Matt and I both know what we know of each other? We can do that in PMs.

Sure! Sounds good to me.

Welcome back, Matthew! It'll be good to have another U.S. Marshal in the mix. We might should discuss our disparate assignments in this territory.

Leo: Sounds great to me.


Logan: Sure. Send me a PM.

<QuantumLeapBakula> Oh Boy. </QLB>

So... I wonder how fast I can intimidate each of them. It probably wouldn't do to backshoot them as they run.

Tolliver own/ed the Saloon, I imagine?

Technically, Tolliver's still alive (just unconscious) but yes, he owns the saloon.

The thugs don't know Tolliver's alive, though. Not that it'd stop them, they just think that this is the only way they're going to get paid...

I think Daisy might be in love. Come to think of it, she'd be a great addition to the Matt/Fairchild/House/etc. rom com/horror show (yes, those Hewitts, and no, they haven't resettled in Texas yet).

Matt also has a slightly-more-than-friendly relationship with a girl in town in his history, too.

Matthew "Lady-Killer" Broaddale, that's him. It helps when backwoods teeth aren't an issue. :P

Also, I got cocky with that 22, and the dice roller sure showed me.

We're allowed to reroll Critical Failures, right? Cuz I either got a 10 or snakeeyes.

So...where is everyone in relation to each other?

Logan, Belle, and Wild Bill were on their way to the back when they met Matthew. Matthew left and met thugs on the way who were looting the building. Jackie and Katy were out front before. Do they not see the thugs now?

I'm afraid this holiday weekend's unusually frenetic posting pace has left me a little disoriented as to what's happening where.

Belle, Wild Bill, and Logan are near the rear of the building, discussing blowing it up more to put out the fire.

Matt is near the barricade across the street, talking to Tolliver's disgruntled employees. He's visible to Logan, as he hasn't gone over the barricade yet.

Katy, Jackie, and Von Steinhof are on the other side of the barricade, near the hole in the wall. They can hear the thugs talking to Matt. They can, if they look into the hole, see Zeke arguing with James.

Maddox is currently working on organizing a bucket brigade. He can see Belle, Logan, Wild Bill, Matt, and the thugs.

The soloution to that one is simple, my friend - turn out the lights (and/or ask nicely that she doesn't bite you).

Double checking that aside from minty and daisy, there was a viking-looking feller with a bag of cash, and a half-chinese guy carrying Sullivan's corpse.


As a player, I have NO idea who these people are, beside former employees. Can anyone chime in on some  context for me? Have they been cheated? Are they morally justified in any of this?

Matt has Knowledge Law d6, but Chris (that's me, hombres) does not.

The thugs're a random bunch of toughs hired by Tolliver to keep his joint in order, and that's all of them: Araminta (Minty), Daisy (teeth), Arne (Viking), William (Bill) and Edward (Ted. Dead. Probably. I don't know if the Stray ever rolled his Aftermath, but that'd be one hell of a flesh wound).

Their last order was to basically start the fight when the PCs tried to walk off with some cash/shoot each other for maybe walking off with cash, which then got joined by a bunch of wizards, mad scientists, outlaws etc. with various personal vendettas...and wound up in the (by then sentient) saloon getting blown up and the general carnage.

I think Minty does genuinely see the whores (who ran off early in the proceedings when Bad!Hickock was shooting everyone...again) as sort-of her responsability, and would give them a cut of the loot, but otherwise yeah...they're just a group of prarie pirates surviving on whatever they can grab.

Minty has a point that Custer is just going to use any confiscated funds to pay his mercenaries, though. I think the morality of the situation - stealing gains already ill-gotten to feed those put out of work/lodging by the fire - is rather greyer than the legality of "looting is wrong"...but hey, Marshal West has a real-life d12 in Law, he'd know. Logan?

Ah, well there's the crux of it in my mind (Matt's got some other concerns rattling around): Are these hired toughs looting for themselves under the guise of "back pay", are they legitimately concerned for and willing to aid the wellbeing of the others? Did Tolliver Ill-Gain the loot? That would mitigate the severity of their crime, to me.

Of course, as a Marshall, Matt is elected/appointed to uphold the Law, not his personal prescription of justice. So it would come down to (in my mind) whether Matt is willing to enforce the property rights of a dead man he knows nothing about (and therefore discharge his duty) over trusting a band of mercenaries to play Robin Hood.


Stray/Anyone who knows: Would a U.S. Marshall outrank any particular military rank? Like, could a marshall pull rank on Custer? Not that he'd go along, but from a legal standpoint?

I think Tolliver was basically Swearengen's main rival, so he's probably about that crooked, with some prettier frontage. Cocaine rather than opium, card tables rather than prizefights, taking in "girls" to work to the bone and discarding them when diseased/exhausted rather than personally trafficking women, that sort of thing.

Pretty sure the whores'd get more from Minty than they would from anyone else, simply because most parties don't think of them as anything other than trade objects. Matt might be more concerned about putting the actual fire out first, though.

A coup on Custer's mini-dictatorship? Oh gods, I would love to see the attempt. You lawing types should buddy up with Col.Manning and try that. Of course, then there's all the unpaid mercenaries to deal with...

I mean, setting aside the feasibility of stopping Custer, he's clearly and explicitly AWOL, right? He doesn't have any authority beyond his force of arms, and Manning was supposed to arrest him, as far as I remember. As a duly appointed lawman, I would imagine that Logan, myself and probably even Steinhof, if he's acting as a part of Manning's detachment, have the legal authority, and perhaps even legal duty, to apprehend this... I mean, he's pretty much a warlord, right? A rogue asset occupying a foreign city. Or if Deadwood counts as Union territory, illegally quartering themselves in private citizens businesses/homes.


I guess I'm saying that if Matt wasn't a pacifist, I could see it happening.


OH, yeah. The fire is probably more of a problem, but Matt's kindof spacey. Plus i wouldn't want to step on the Iron Horse Whisperer's attempts.

Oh yeah, it's an utterly illegal invasion, and likely to set off a war besides. Relatedly, you might want to see Message #18 in this thread: link to a message in this game  :D

Well, he's a pacifist, but if his friends aren't...

Yeah, but she's going to blow it up. [looks at Matt attempting to run into the middle of an inferno for the second time that quarter-hour] Is he part moth or something?
This message was last edited by the player at 22:42, Tue 17 Jan 2017.

Matts options for helping include buckets, extracting people and destroying the building entirely.


And buckets are boring.