Simple America

I arrived last at Ed’s house. My son and I brought in our things as we would stay the night also. The most important thing we brought was the X-Box 360 and Guitar Hero 2. Ed wanted to get his wife hooked on the game so that they could get a 360 for Christmas.

Craig and Preston sat patiently at the dining room table, while I helped Ed get the X-Box set up. Then we sat down and got the 12 to Midnight planning meeting going. We addressed a lot of issues. I must not discuss our meeting any further, but look for some big announcements around Halloween. The highlight of the meeting had to be Trey calling in from the middle of no where in Washington state where he camped. We chatted until his battery died. Once the meeting finished we headed into Caldwell for some Mexican restaurant goodness.

After lunch we played some Arkham Horror. This was the board game Craig bought last time he visited me. Turns out Preston brought his copy too. So we played the game and discovered a few rules we had messed up the last time we played. We’re having a pretty good time, but Preston had to head home. So we put things up and bid Preston farewell.

Then we got ready to play some more Deadlands. First we had to make some characters to join Walt Wately’s posse. Ed’s son already had a character created and I allowed him in to speed things up. Craig thought about making a Japanese Sumo, but then he felt a bit tired and settled for a gunslinger who was afflicted with consumption. Ed made an Italian Catholic Priest that served a small church in Hidalgo, Texas near the Mexican border.

Let me talk a bit more about Deadlands. I think some folks are thinking this is just written story of a computer game. Deadlands is a roleplaying game. Each person has a character and they form the posse or heroes of the adventure. For this game I am the Marshall or game master. I present the posse with a challenge and they react to the events they encounter. When a hero faces down some ornery varmint that wants to fill him full of holes, cards are drawn and dice are rolled to see who gets filled full of lead and who walks away.

Walter Wately took the horse from his Missouri cousins and rode west. He headed to Kansas City, figuring he can find a card game there. He found a saloon soon after he arrived and it was empty save for one rough looking hombre with a nasty cough (Cannot remember Craig’s characters name. Doh!) and the bartender. The two chatted and Walter thought it might not hurt to hire a gunslinger to watch his back. Craig needed the cash so he took on the job not knowing that Wately was being hunted.

After a good night’s sleep in Kansas City, the pair moved on. They were riding towards Dodge City and the morning started quietly. The afternoon heated up quickly. They saw smoke in the distant and heard rifle shots. Spurring their horses, they galloped towards the commotion. In a short time they saw a band of Camancharos attacking three wagons. Leading this raiding party was a huge Indian slicing settlers with his saber. Craig opened up with his rifle and that caused the Indians to charge toward the pair. Craig rode forward to meet the wa rband. He took a shot at the huge Indian and knocked the brave off of his mount. Walter felt good about paying for Craig’s services now. The man could shoot. It looked as if he nearly severed the big injun’s leg off.

When their leader fell from his ride, the other Indians became discouraged and turned back. Walter and Craig kept after them. Another cowboy (Ed’s son’s cowpoke) appeared on the other side of the Indians. Let us call him Billy Bob. He shot ineffectively at the coming braves. Then he fell in range of the Indians and they fired at him with rifle and bow. Billy Bob was wounded by two bullets and three arrows. Things did not look good for this cowpoke.

The Indians looked like they would might escape. Much to their surprise a huge man wearing a tasseled sombrero and priestly robes jumped out of rut where he hid and opened up on the Indians with a shotgun. The first blast took out three of the warriors.  The four survivors charged toward him, but the padre had time for another shot. Two more braves fell from their horses. Another Indian fired an arrow at the priest, and it looked to be straight and true, but at the last second it deflected off of a shimmering cross that appeared in front of the padre. Craig shot and felled another Indian. Alone, the last warrior sped off and the posse did not pursue him.

They went to see how Billy Bob fared and he did not look good. The padre came over and prayed over the cowboy and applied some bandages. Billy Bob felt so much better as the padre’s healing touch got him back on his feet. Then they searched for the huge Indian’s body, but they could not find this individual.

The posse learned that Billy Bob had been hired to guard the settlers as they moved from Texas to Kansas. He had rode ahead of the wagons to check out a house the Indians had set fire to earlier in the day. By the time he returned the wagons were under attack. Billy Bob felt pretty bad as they had less than ten miles to travel before they reached their destination of Peyton, Kansas. Not one of the settlers would survive to see the journey’s end.

The posse decided to take the wagons on to Peyton. There was family waiting for these folks and they could at least deliver their possessions. The town folk greeted the posse with warmth, despite the sad news of the settlers deaths. The town folk were pleased to receive the wagons that contained supplies needed by the locals. The heroes were fed home cooked meals and provided good rooms in the town. Billy Bob even fell in love with a local girl.

The posse went to bed feeling that they had found a safe place to rest their head. They could not have been more wrong. In the middle of the night Walter and the padre awoke to the sounds of footsteps in the hallway. The padre banged on the walls hoping to awaken others in the posse. Then someone pounded on Walter’s door. By now all of the posse was alert with guns or cards drawn. Walter’s door was slammed in again and then again. Finally, the door came off its hinges and Walter saw a zombie trio grinning at him. He did not hesitate and threw a 52 card pick up at the doorway and the power of the magic blasted the zombies straight back to hell.

The posse came out into the hall. All the zombies were, uh, dead. They ran downstairs and out on the street. Somewhere in the distance a horse galloped away. The posse returned upstairs. Once again Walter saw the crossed bones drawn upon blue cards attached to their chests by long thorns. He told the rest of the posse of his plight, hunted by his aunt, Madame Blue.

In the morning the posse packed up. They did not want to endanger the people of Peyton. The mayor presented the posse with a cash reward for bringing the wagons to town. The posse decided to take the Indian ponies to Kansas City. There they could sell them and decide what they would do next.

Kansas is not the safest place in these times. The land is not called the Disputed Territories for nothing. The Union and the Southern states both seek to place this land under their sovereignty. The residents are divided on which nation they would choose and it leads to much blood shed and lawlessness.

The posse ran into four outlaws on the trail to Kansas City. These hombres saw the Indian ponies and wanted to steal them for their own enrichment. They rode up to the posse and demanded they hand the horses over. The party would not be intimidated. They gained the advantage quickly and soon four outlaws lay dead on the road to Kansas City. The posse had four more horses to sell and picked up a couple of nice rifles to boot. They also found a roughly drawn map of Southwestern Kansas. A large X marked the spot, but what that mark indicated could not be deciphered from the map.

The posse arrived at Kansas City and had no difficulty selling the horses. They also received a reward for killing four members of the McPherson gang. But with that reward would come some enmity as Peg Leg McPherson would not be happy that some of his boys had been gunned down. But for thjis day the posse enjoyed a hot bath, a steak dinner, and a night of rest under cotton linens. The morning would see them riding off to determine what this map might lead to.

By now it was after midnight in real life. Ed and Craig were both fading and I was not so wakey wakey either. So the game ended and all of us went to bed.

The next day, Craig left at nine to return to Lufkin. The rest of us played Guitar Hero. I think Tracey, Ed’s wife, became quite fond of the game. That is what Ed desired so mission accomplished there. Now I just try to keep him informed of the X-Box 360 deals.

Around 3:30 my boy and I loaded up the car and headed home. He wanted to play on the return drive, but my mind was jelly and I just could not focus enough. We stopped in Brenham at my favorite Whataburger in all of Texas. They have the best burgers period. Of course my son ordered the chicken basket. Don’t know where he gets that from.

We were near home around six and I decided the missus deserved a birthday cake after being left alone all weekend. We went to Baskin Robbins and got her a Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream cake. She was so happy when we brought that home. And her sister (#4) and best friend were there to help us sing Happy Birthday and eat some cake. Lovely way to end the weekend.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 1st, 2007 at 10:26 am and is filed under Gaming, Stories, Friends. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.