Rantings of a Bastard

So we're in an abandoned dwarven city, looking for a specific forge/workshop, which turns out to be guarded by a massive rune-golem (a combination of engineering and Rune magic). As things turn out, the one specific NPC who was sent with us can get past it and take five people with her as "assistants".

There just happen to be five PCs.

So I say, "Alright. The five going with her are Bartok, Padraig, Soolin, Aldric and... T-Pain."

So, going into last night's game, my players (all Mad Scientists), were working their way through caverns underneath Denver, searching for "the bad guy" (who they believe, correctly, for a change, is a man named Zenas Hardaker), who among other things, had set fire to a building on the University of Denver campus, and attacked a Denver Pacific railyard facility.

They quickly find a man who had been held prisoner by Zenas, who gives them some information, and come upon plans for a drilling machine and powerful explosives. (Almost immediately on finding the plans for the drilling machine, Zenas was referred to as "The Underminer".) They also find a map indicating possible targets, which include other Denver Pacific facilities, a smelting facility north of town, Zenas' brother's business, a bank, and City Hall.

Continuing to search for him, they, by sheer luck, avoid an ambush encounter, and make their way back to the surface of Denver, finding themselves on the opposite side of the river from where they started. They make their way back to the University (where they have quarters and labs), and assemble equipment and a catalyst to neutralize the explosives, in order to fail his dastardly plans. (Yes, this was said. Also, one of the PCs lost respect for Zenas when he saw that one of the targets was a bank. "Revenge, this I can understand. But bank robbery? Such is the activity of common criminals, not men of science!")

Taking to the air.... oh yes, one of them has an airship. With gatling guns. (At this point, they ask if the ordinance against using gatling weaponry in Denver applies to firing it from the skies down into the streets.) Taking to the air, they begin to search Denver for signs of Zenas' attacks, quickly spotting the first large scale explosion, and zeroing in on his location.

At this point, all hell breaks loose as gatling guns, lightning guns, and rifle fire fills the air. In quick order, one of Zenas' goons is removed from play (8 wounds to the head, for those that play Deadlands), and the steamwagon/drilling machine takes some damage from the lighting gun of Baron Professor Doktor Adolph von Blitzberg. The steamwagon comes to a screeching halt, as Zenas attempts to active the drilling mechanism and tunnel to safety. (Hey, he's a mad scientist. It's not supposed to be a well-thought out plan.)

This is when I completely fail the reliability roll on the drilling mechanism, and it detaches from the steamwagon, spinning and skittering across the street and into an opposite alley (where it mangles an alcoholic bum). By this point, one of the PCs (who normally pilots the airship, but has turned that over to his lovely assistant) has parachuted down to land on the steamwagon, to deal with Zenas' other minion. Who is quite obviously dead. And still trying to kill people. (Cue a Guts check, and an attendant roll on the 'Scart' table.)

Shortly thereafter, the steamwagon lurches forward, with another of the PCs having landed near it and trying to stab the driver with a cavalry saber. So one PC is 'roof surfing' (and blowing zombie minion to bits with a double-barreled shotgun), and another PC is being scraped along the side of a building as he clambers inside a moving vehicle. Meanwhile, the other two PCs are taking potshots at the steamwagon with whatever weapons they have (not always successfully).

The good people of Denver then see a damaged steamwagon come careening out of an alley, whereupon the driver loses control of the steering and it tips over, scraping to a halt in the middle of the road. The PC who was roof-surfing on it? Instead of trying to throw himself clear, he walks the corner of the steamwagon as it tips over (at speed), ending up standing on the side of it. He then snaps his shotgun closed, having reloaded it, and says "Stand back, this involves SCIENCE!" He is backlit by another strike from the lightning gun when he says this. (The zombie minion was still moving.)

Mere seconds later, Zenas is dead, the explosives are neutralized, and a crowd is gathering and applauding. (Hey, some of them aren't even sure this wasn't part of a show.)

This is going to lead into the next game (next Monday) where, going in, they are now aware that the NPC who gathered them all together was apparently aware of Zenas Hardaker's mad plans for at least the last few weeks.

So, we did character creation for Deadlands: The Weird West tonight. As per previous agreement, all the players made Mad Scientists.

We have one who is a specialist in electromagnetic effects (heavy on the electro part), another who works on automatons (who has a chunk of Cave Johnson from Portal 2, personality-wise), an alchemist/medical doctor, and an aeronautics specialist who has said that his end goal is a heli-carrier (he knows he's not going to get there, but that's what he's shooting for).

And then there's my old Mad Scientist, Mortimer Q. Atkinson, who's going to be an NPC in this game, who has done things that shouldn't be possible according to the rules. Because at the time, we didn't have the books that said "You can't do this unless you do it this way." And we never changed him to fit those rules.

I have to wonder how long it will be before these characters leave a smoking hole where their laboratory(ies) used to be.