[Games] Last Will & Testament - The Story So Far (from player POV)

[jordangreywolf]

Setting:

• The "Wild West," circa 1882. (Although we're using the Deadlands system, I'm playing this as if history mostly matches our own, and the world is an ostensibly normal place -- although ghosts, monsters, and other strangeness might lurk in shadowy, remote, and forgotten places.)


• Phineas T. Hoyle was an "entrepreneur," gambler, scoundrel, and all around no-goodnik, who has cheated and swindled countless people and left several illegitimate offspring along the way. The PCs are all connected to him in some way, invited to a reading of his last will and testament in a remote location.

The Players:

• Dr. Phillip Goode: Snake oil salesman with an interest in the occult, former partner in one of Hoyle's schemes (played by Digital_Rampage.)


• Professor John Adams: Absent-minded professor/inventor, former victim of one of Hoyle's schemes -- but naive enough not to realize this (played by SV).


• Wohali: Tonkawa scout (and monster hunter) acting as "guide" (and bodyguard) for the absent-minded professor (played by Goober_Chris).


• Juan Oso: Cursed gunslinger, formerly a hired-hand for Phineas T. Hoyle (has the "Grim Servant o' Death" Hindrance which makes him especially prone to "friendly fire" incidents -- played by Urson).


• Sheldon: Drunken brawler and gambler suffering from delusions that he's a werewolf; eldest illegitimate son of Hoyle (played by Urson Jr).


• Job Etheridge: Former street urchin, now private investigator, and youngest illegitimate son of Hoyle (played by Gwendel).

Event Summary:

• (Session #1) PCs are on a train. Various of them have reasons to head out west to the unincorporated town of "The Flat," outside former Fort Griffin, in Texas, circa 1882, for a will reading for the dearly departed Phineas T. Hoyle -- contacted by his lawyers with the office of Thorpe, Thorpe, and Sandal.



• On the way, a nosy reporter pokes them for questions about their shady backgrounds (some more so than others). He gets murdered by one of the passengers after poking around too much (discovering some occult/witch items in one of the bags). PCs investigate, get a confession out of one of their fellow-travelers. Case closed!



• Wohali is visited by a dying Lakota shaman who gives him some cryptic warnings about the machinations of spirits and magical relics, foreseeing that he is headed into a Deadland to deal with the forces of darkness. Before he passes on, he leaves Wohali with a talisman which might aid him in fighting the darkness ... but could also ATTRACT enemies to him (so it's Wohali's choice whether to keep it or not -- and he keeps it).



• In Missouri, bandits try to rob the train, posing as train guards to keep an eye on passengers while their compatriots rummage through the mail/baggage car. PCs are suspicious, raise a ruckus, gunfight ensues. Wohali is grazed by a bullet from Juan in the ensuing fight. Job (youngest illegitimate son of Hoyle) one-shots the head bandit. Bandits are defeated and/or retreat. (End Session #1.)



• (Session #2.) In Texas, Wohali is treated with greater respect, now that he's one of several heroes saving the train from a robbery -- but only SOMEWHAT greater. Sheldon gets on the train at a scheduled stop.



• Along the way, Sheldon is robbed by a coyote, and visits an animal-spirit casino ... if his drunken delusions are to be believed. He loses all his money, only to have it replaced by three eagle feathers, a dead bird, and some snake vertebrae. Oh, and his watch no longer works properly.



• In Albany, TX, the PCs visit a mysterious curio shop that sells relics. They ALMOST buy a tome that would have severely taxed the sanity of the reader (in exchange for some useful insights). Wohali picks up a cursed/blessed sheriff's badge (with a bullet hole through it) that will allow him to take a hit for another person.



• PCs take a stagecoach ride past the former site of Fort Griffin, on to the Flat. Weather is bad, only gets worse: overcast, thundering and lightning, threatening to rain at any moment, yet the rain never comes.



• Will reading is a bit creepy. All the current guests seem to be accounted for in the will -- even Wohali and Brandish's assistant's sister -- even though the lawyer opens a sealed letter before reading it aloud. The lawyer is mentioned as well. There are 13 porcelain relics, each resembling a piece of Aztec art, given out as gifts, in addition to particular additional "rewards." They are told they will be guests of the estate for the 3 days, during which time the office of Thorpe, Thorpe, and Sandal is to determine how the estate is to be split among those who are there for the next meeting in 3 days.



• Descendants of Hoyle (4 illegitimate sons) have the right to stay in the house. For the others, arrangements have been made for them to stay in the hotel of their choice in town (the Planter House or the Occidental ... although the Beehive saloon/brothel is the 'hotel' a couple of the beneficiaries choose to stay at).



• Dr. Goode investigates the study, as per his right, and claims a set of books about the Aztecs (he was allowed his pick of any books in the study). Job later sneaks in and finds a book about the Tonkawa and other local Indian tribes and stories and relics thereof. Job also follows the lawyer to the attic, where he opens up a box filled with various odd items -- bottles of poison, a straight razor, a length of rope, and several other implements.



• Prof. Adams visits the workshop and sees some items that were used in the making of the porcelain relics ... but seems to have no interest whatsoever in investigating further, and tells nobody anything about this. (Grr.)



• Juan and the other former henchmen of Hoyle (2 stagecoach drivers, 1 gunman) stay at the Occidental, the more modest hotel in town. Prof. Adams, Dr. Goode, and Wohali stay at the Planters Hotel.



• Wohali is surprised that he is treated with as much respect as any other guest, and experiences no prejudice, but chalks it up to being a guest of Hoyle. He witnesses an incident in which one of the staff at the hotel in the dining room drops some plates, but all the other staff (and guests) ignore the scene. He goes over to help her. In the kitchen, she breaks into sobs and hysterics, fretting over the fate of everyone and that of the town, and blabbing something about when Doc Cutler came to town (apparently Hoyle's alias), there seemed to be some hope for the town, but now ... (unfinished thought). Wohali tries to comfort her, but his command of English is limited, and he can't follow her rambling through the sobs. (Not sure he understood everything.) He returns to the others.



• Sheldon and Job are the only illegitimate sons to stay at the house. Sheldon helps himself to the first part of his inheritance: he gets the contents of the wine cellar. He finds that his pocket watch no longer works properly. Sheldon believes he is a werewolf, and his watch is supposed to tell him what the current phase of the moon is. If it is to be believed, it is now a full moon and midnight. (It isn't, and it isn't.) (End Session #2.)



• (Session #3.) At the Occidental, a bedraggled fellow who looks like a bank teller who's had a bad run-in with some thugs comes in, singles out someone (?) at Juan's table (him? one of his fellows?) and makes wild accusations about some sort of sacrifices he made to be "one of the lucky 13," and how he's not going to settle for (something-something). Anyway, it's clear that he has murderous intent, especially when three thugs come in that appear to be on his side. A short fracas breaks out, and all four attackers end up dead. The porcelain dagger is broken in the fracas, and Juan finds there was a riddle hidden inside -- he pockets it and doesn't tell the others. Juan helps Ostler (one of the stagecoach drivers) to pull the bodies outside the hotel, while the others try to flag down the sheriff. The guests are frozen in horror at the whole scene, but do nothing to help or hinder.



• Job witnesses the dragging of the bodies out into the street, and fears that Juan has engaged in some sort of murder, and alerts Sheldon. Sheldon heads over to the hotel to investigate.



• The sheriff arrives and is surprisingly blase about the whole ordeal. He takes details, takes names, but does not arrest any of the men there, and seems to wholly accept their version of events without question. When Sheldon gets over to the hotel, the bodies are already gone. He finds a broken piece of porcelain. He finds Juan, gets his version of what happened, returns, informs Sheldon.



• In wee hours of the morning (presumably) - Jake (one of the other illegitimate sons, the gambler) returns, blathering about the horrible service at the Beehive, how cold and strange the ladies there were, how they seemed to largely ignore him and one girl told the same story over again twice -- how the booze was weak as water, the food was tasteless, and the place was perpetually drafty, like he was in a barn. He's shocked to hear about the attempted murder of Juan and company, as the others warn him that they all might be in danger. He relates that Billy (the remaining son) is still over at the Beehive. Nobody has any idea where Dr. Brandish or his companion Patricia might be staying (Juan didn't see him at the Occidental, and they weren't seen at the Beehive).



• Sometime in the morning (it's lighter outside, at least, but still overcast and stormy), Job fixes breakfast (he skipped dinner the night before), going out to the yard to get some eggs from the henhouse, and digging through the cupboards for materials to make his own food. Jake, Job and Sheldon have a meal.



• Job and Sheldon head out on the town, entrusting Jake to guard the house, while they decide to ask around town and find any rumors or clues that might help. They run into Juan outside the Occidental, and then head to the bakery (might as well get some bread while they're at it).



• At the bakery, Sheldon and Job nearly trip over a can of lard and a bag of flour incongruously fallen on the floor right inside the bakery shop's front door. The baker greets them, and there are a couple of ladies in the shop -- one waiting for someone or something, and another perusing the freshly-baked goods. They try talking about the baker, and hear all about bread, bread, and bread. They get a tour of the back area. They find a body of Dr. Brandish in between the two ovens, on the floor -- and the baker seems completely oblivious to the body or to their reactions upon discovering it. They decide to slip out, and find that the two women in the front are now savagely at each others' throats. They evade them and slip out to the street. They retreat to the house.



• Dr. Goode and Wohali wake up at the Planters Hotel and are absolutely famished, but fortunately breakfast is served there. During breakfast in the dining room, Wohali notes that the same staff is serving the guests that was working in the evening -- with the exception of the woman he tried to help -- but he has no context with which to know if this is normal or not. Wohali checks on the professor, who has slept late, then accompanies him and Dr. Goode over to the Hoyle residence, where they meet up with the others. The professor, who forgot to eat, has breakfast at the house as well. Job and Sheldon share their morbid discovery.



• Juan and the other hired men have breakfast at the Occidental, but are on guard -- keeping watch of any points of entry. Juan finds that the porcelain "eagle crown" was lost under a table and abandoned there -- so he quietly slips off with it to his room, breaks it open (and his own as well), and finds two more riddles. He heads over to the house where he meets up with the others, they confer about the strangeness going on, and he fesses up about the riddles when Sheldon shares his discovery of porcelain fragments he believes belonged to a couple of the porcelain figures.



• During the discussion, Job relates seeing the lawyer checking out the chest in the attic, and realizes that he never saw or heard the lawyer come back down, and the hatch/ladder to the attic is still down. He resolves to go check, with Sheldon's help, but takes a detour to investigate a tree reachable from the second floor of the house, as a possible location indicated by one of the riddles. He finds a golden "feather" relic in a bird's nest. Riddle solved!



• Job and Sheldon check the attic, and find that the lawyer is still there: he hung himself. When they relate this to the others (they leave the body there), Jake goes into near-hysterics, and seems about to try to bolt out of town -- on foot if he has to -- but the others talk him out of it, insisting that they all need to stay together in groups for protection until they can sort out what's going on.



• They decide it's time to gather up the others, as they may be singled out for death by someone who wants these relics for themselves. They realize Dr. Brandish, Patricia, and Billy are still unaccounted for. (The two stagecoach drivers went off from the hotel to the wagon yard earlier, telling Juan where they were going -- the group elects to follow up and fill them in on what they know/suspect.)



• At the wagon yard, the two stagecoach drivers are shouting at the yard owner, as it appears their coaches and horses are gone, and the yard owner claims to know nothing of it -- or that the coaches were ever there. Wohali sees that the yard looks normal-ish, with no sign of horses. However, he specifically decides to look for *bodies*. He finds two dead, emaciated horses that appeared to die of neglect. He also finds two *living* horses that look to be on the verge of starvation ... but one with a hostile gleam to its eyes, moving with purpose as if to flank him more like a predator than a horse.



• Combat commences. Sheldon CLOCKS the horse (it turns out he went into an all-out melee boxer build). Suddenly, the OTHER horse has that possessed look Wohali noticed in the first one, and goes on the offensive -- but it's gunned down. (Yay, no friendly fire!)



• They check the adjoining house, find a sobbing woman and two slaughtered children at the table. She says something about how she killed the children because otherwise, THEY would do it, and be far less merciful. The PCs subdue the woman, but then the yard owner comes in, armed with a pitchfork (where'd he GET that?) He's gunned down in short order. (End Session #3.)