Deadlands - The Ferner Five: The Road To Hell

Are you ready to start the Devil's Tower Trilogy? I hope you are. It all starts with The Road To Hell. And we all know what that's paved with...

Chapter One: A Journey Of A Thousand Miles...

If you're reading along in the book, you'll see that this chapter is for the Marshals (so you player types stay out). As such, I'm going to skipping over the information there as I don't want to spoil the ending for those who haven't read or played this adventure. And, as always, if you're going to be a player in this adventure, come back after you finish it so you can see how the professionals do it. Okay, I'm kidding, but these guys really did this one right.

Once again, I've run this adventure with more than one party and it's been a few years since I did it with these characters, so you'll have forgive any mistakes or gaps in memory. Let's get started, shall we?

We return to the Ferner Five arriving in Salt Lake City, having a nice quiet journey from the fair town of Baracho (translation: the Marshal wasn't in the mood for more sidetracks). As the train pulls into the station in Salt Lake City, the posse is beset by dozens of Mormon “Elders” trying to spread the good word of their faith. Penwood is dismissive, Ming kind of smiles and nods, Heinrich pretends to not speak English, and they take one look at Deiter and change their minds. Or he Overawed them. Or both. Meanwhile, Phil got off the train, grabbed his bags and just pushed past them, vanishing into the crowd. Phil had his own adventure and is Sir Not Featured In This Film. Sorry for you Phil Fans, but his does get more involved as the adventures continue.

Once they had cleared the platform and entered the city proper, they began searching for lodging for their visit. Ming made some money, and got an excellent cover, by being Penwood's valet and carrying his bags. With the standards and large stacks of cash they carried, Penwood and Heinrich put everyone up in the Salt Lake City Hotel, the best place in town. It's $12 a night, which is pretty hefty, but it's worth it. The only bad side is that people seem to have nightmares when they stay...

After figuring out their accommodations for their stay, I had the map spread out and let them where they wanted to go. Only Penwood's player had really read up on the town, but I would read the sections aloud when someone asked about it. They made their plans for the next day, as they were tired from their travels and the thought of spending a night in a real bed was appealing, so they retired early.

The next day, they broke up into teams and had them do what they wanted. There was a visit to Smith & Robard's, Hellstromme's show room, Warwick's Books & Manuscripts, and a few other places. Having noticed the soot covering most everything, and hanging in the air above the Junkyard, Penwood bought face masks for everyone. Awful kindly of him. But, it ruined some of my fun. Marshals, you know what I'm talking about.

After they did their exploring and shopping, they all returned to the hotel and sat down for dinner. And drinking. Thankfully, there were no “soiled doves” involved this time. This time... And they bedded down for the night.

Chapter Two: Sign On The Dotted Line

After a good night's rest (with everyone making their rolls, the bums), they sat down for breakfast in the hotel and discussed their plans.

And that's when an Indian man (as in, from India, not the misnomer the Native Peoples of the Americans were given, I know it's a little confusing) sat down at their table. He introduced himself as Mr. Hanuman and said that he represented someone who would like to hire them for a job. Instead of answering their questions right away, he pulled out some papers from his valise and I got to drop some information about each character's backstory in front of the group. All while trying to do the British accent of Hanuman. I thought I did alright, but you'd have to ask the players what they thought.

Anyway. After cowing the posse, he told them he would only tell them that they were to be hired to find a stolen item. The item was acquired legally and required the utmost confidentiality (even from law enforcement), thus they would need to sign an NDA before getting any more information. After a bit of hemming and hawing, they agreed and signed the forms. The promise of $10,000 in gold or goods also sweetened the pot.

And that's when Hanuman dropped his little bombshell. They would be working for the illustrious Doctor Darius Hellstromme. There were some worried looks around the table, followed by some questions. Hanuman explained that a very large black diamond, the Heart of Darkness, had been purchased by Dr. Hellstromme and then stolen. He gave the posse an article about the gem to read (which Penwood's player read aloud for everyone) and let them ask more questions. He explained that there was a dummy gem in Hellstromme's manor that someone had already tried to steal, but had been caught before it was taken. The thief didn't know very much and it was kept quiet. Meanwhile, the real gem was being held at Hellstromme Industries Plant #13, the luckiest of numbers as we all know, and it had been stolen not too long ago. At the posse's request, he set up a time for them to look over the plant and ask questions of the few witnesses. That being a relative term.

After Hanuman left the posse, they discussed what to do. They agreed that they would take a look at the plant. I believe the idea of talking to the sheriff as discussed, but they thankfully turned away from that idea (brief aside, the last group that I had went to the sheriff right away and properly fucked everything up).

Once they had picked up some last minute things, they arrived at Plant #13 and got to investigating. Thankfully, they all had a high Search skill, as well as doctor. They found several leads and got a list of the missing items. Their search turned up some unusually shell casings, the smell of methane, and the odd burn pattern. The autopsies turned some some more clues, mostly that one had his head smashed to pulp and another had been tortured with a knife for a bit before finally dying. All in all, they did a good job of collecting the information.

Sadly, there were no witnesses to the robbery, as a mysterious fire had broken out right before it happened. One of the guards did remember seeing what looked like a falling star right before the fire broke out...

The list of missing items included the MAXIS suit (a steampunk suit of power armor), the Clockwork De-Moler (I love this thing, by the way), the shooting knives, the Steamjack (a steam powered jackhammer), the Quadpiston (a rough and ready steamwagon), and, of course, the Heart of Darkness.

Chapter Three: The Hunt

With these clues in hand, they began the search. When they started, I told them that there were a few important places they could visit shown on the map. Ming's player said something about Cat's Used Goods and earned himself a Fate Chip for that bit of insight. I was actually surprised that he had guessed one of the places right off the bat. Since they went to several places, I'll detail them in separate sections:

Cat's Used Goods -

When the posse arrived, they found Cat to be a bit polite but a bit standoffish. They didn't look like her usual customers, so she was on guard. Thankfully, Penwood had quite the silver tongue and good arguments, so she told them that the Clockwork De-Moler was stolen and they didn't want to harm the person who took it. They did have the misfortune to deal with the “Well-Intentioned Louts” and got kicked out. But, not before finding out the most important information, that the items had been recovered from Sludge Creek.

Sludge Creek -

Following up on this lead, they found the remains of the Quadpiston, but not much else. Since they looked like they had money, some of the down and out folks offered to sell them some information. Penwood tried talking them down, but was still able to get the information they needed about who had pushed the Quadpiston into the creek. It was group of men (and possibly a woman) that pushed it in. One of them was really hairy (which the posse started to assume was a werewolf, which I didn't correct them of) and another looked like a pit fighter by the name of Zik with a big steampunk cyberarm. The two who took the stuff from the top of the Quadpiston, people down on their luck like the person they were talking to, left town with the money they got from selling the stuff to Cat.

As the posse had been so tight-fisted about their money, I didn't give them all of their hints. They had near $10k between them and these were the people who had to live near a creek so polluted, it would burn you. Call it karma...

Granny Smith's Arms Factory -

When investigating the odd shell castings (.44 Evens, for those of you who care), some of the posse ended up at Granny Smith's, as she's very well known for being able to supply rounds for the oddest of weapons. Penwood was there, because he thought he should pick up more rounds for his .454 revolver. He managed to slip in a question about the casings, talking about how it involved “murder most foul” or something like that. He got three names: Slimy Pete, Walter Hot Iron, and someone else I forgot. Only one of those names were a lead, but I didn't tell them that. I always use Slimy Pete and every posse chases that red herring. I don't know why.

The Monkeywrench -

When you're dealing with mad science, you need to go to where the mad scientists are. So, Ming and Heinrich (I think he was the one to go, being a mad scientist and all) went to this bar to throw some money around. While they were there, they heard that Dr. Brunhoff had finally completed one of his battlesuits and it was expected to be shown publicly soon. Asking some follow-up questions, they learned that he was part of a mad scientist Co-Op in a hacienda outside of Salt Lake City proper.

On the way out, Ming brushed up against one of the caulk boards that lines the walls of the bar and accidentally erased something. Thinking quickly, he wrote in something random in Chinese. As he hurried outside, he heard exclamations that the equation had now been solved. I have to say, I loved this little joke. And that earned him another Fate Chip.

The Co-Op -

As the posse arrived to this location, they were greeted by the sound of heavy gunfire and screams. So, not that unusual for the rest of the Weird West, but out of place in a mad scientists lab. Okay, a little out of place. As they got closer, they saw a man in a powered armor suit blasting away with a Gattling gun arm and smiling like a loon. So, we started combat. Ming went first and ducked into the first door on the right. This led to something that could distract the mad man, possibly giving them an edge. Then Penwood popped around the corner with his bolt-action rifle and fired. It was a hit. Head shot! The only place that wasn't armored, by the way. And then started rolling damage. And kept rolling. Because his dice exploded. All told, he did 30(!!!) damage to the poor bastard's noggin and it exploded like an over ripe melon. After this show of force, they were able to get all the information they wanted from one Dr. Brunhoff...

Dr. Brunhoff spilled his guts, telling them about how Dr. Gerlach (a former assistant of his) was working on something similar for Dr. Hellstromme. Then, Brunhoff was approached by Doc Snead of Marshal Rex's gang about how to deal with automatons so they could steal the Heart of Darkness. Turns out, it was the same the the MAXIS was being put together. In exchange for some rockets and information, they made a deal. When the gang stole the Heart, they'd give Brunhoff the MAXIS.

In a cop show, this would be the moment the “case broke wide open.” But, there was a bit more than that to it...

The Steamer -

Now, before I talk about this one, I've had this encounter happen twice, so my memory is a bit mixed up on what happened this time...

After doing a bit of investigating, the posse figured out that one of Marshal Rex's gang would hang out in the Steamer, a bar in the Junkyard. It's named that because of some leaky pipes that fill it with steam. Original, huh? Anyway, the posse tracked down Casper Zed, the hairy man from before. They confronted him and he told them he'd talk with them outside. They thought he was a werewolf, but he was a huckster. Well, he tried to put a magical whammy on them, but failed. Which was lucky for them, as the posse had no magical back-up of their own. Walter Hot Iron, the guy who used the odd rifle caliber, backed up Casper, but he was taken out without too much trouble from the posse. Gunplay was their forte, I guess you could say. They put a few holes in him and started making him talk. He squealed like a pig and told them where they could find Marshal Rex and the rest of the gang.

Which leads us to...

Chapter Four: The Showdown!

Time for the big, climatic battle of this adventure, folks! Now, given how fast things were going, I figured the gang was unaware of what was happening, but this posse was ready for some heavy combat, so I had Rex use his Unholy Host power to summon up four Walkin' Dead and give them shotguns. I figured I could always give them a boost if I needed it later.

Somehow, the posse tracked down Phil and roped him into helping. Which was another reason why I upped the encounter.

As the posse approached the old smelt works the gang used as a hide out, Dieter and Phil were up front. When the Walkin' Dead appeared, Deiter tried to Overawe them, but it didn't work. You can't scare something that's already dead. The fight was on. One of the zombies got a shot off before the posse took them down. The fight was over really quick. Even I was a little surprised by how quickly.

During the fight against the Walkin' Dead, Phil landed an axe blow right at the neck of one of the Walkin' Dead and cut it clean off. And it kept moving, trying to bite Penwood's foot. There were Guts checks all around. Thankfully, the succeed.

As they enter the works, the posse split up. Phil and Deiter took a set of stairs on the outside of the building to the second floor. Meanwhile, Ming and Penwood took the front door and Heinrich took the back. The fight went something like this:

Penwood squared off against Elvira Santiago, the lady who used the blades on the worker in the plant. He got stabbed in the leg pretty good.

Heinrich, after waiting for everyone else, got the drop on Zik and stopped him from putting on his arm, making the fight so much easier.

Ming helped take down Elvira. She hid behind some piles of scrap and threw knives. As there were six piles of scrap, I rolled a d6 and made a note that she was behind pile #3. I had Ming roll when he pushed one over, to see which one he pushed. He rolled a 3. Fuck me running... So, he was able to knock her down and do some damage. The wounded Penwood was able to put his gun on her and she surrendered.

On the second floor, Phil and Deiter (as well as Deiter's damn monster of a wolf dog, I'll explain later) went up against Marshal Rex himself. Phil's axes and Deiter's bullets were enough to make him throw down his guns so he could live to see another day.

All told, this whole battle took maybe an hour of play time, from start to finish. What could have taken a lot longer, and been a lot harder, was made easier because of dumb luck and good thinking. I'm not angry, not at all. It was still satisfying for everyone involved. I think this was when I started to figure out two things: Phil was their lucky charm and these guys wouldn't be blundering into too many stupid fights.

After taking down the gang, they did some searching. Again. They found some money and some notes. It turned out that the gang had been hired by a man named Stone (did you feel a chill? I hope so) to bring the Heart to Lost Angels. They sent Doc Snead to LA to turn the rock over to Stone. So, they never would have found it there. The sheriff turned up a short time later and hauled the gang away.

In the morning, the posse turned up to tell Hanuman what they had found. Overhearing a conversation, they get paid only $500 for their work. However, Dr. Hellstromme is willing to pay the remaining sum, if the posse is willing to travel to LA and retrieve the Heart of Darkness and bring it back. The posse, not being fools, took the offer. Which will lead us to the next part of the adventure: The Heart O' Darkness!

Brief note: The posse used their money from the gang, the reward money, and some of their own cash to buy a fully kitted out steam wagon, as well as a Velocipede for Deiter. As they got ready to leave the Junkyard, they found that Phil had been playing for a Skullchucker team and earned enough for Velocipede of his own. And kept the snazzy Worm Leather to protect him if he fell off.