# "They Rode to Perdition" starring Arcade's Gang (D&D/Boot Hill)



## Silver Moon

_A Boot Hill/D&D hybrid campaign.   

*Arcade’s Gang Modules (Boot Hill/AD&D Hybrid)

Module #113  – “Welcome to Promise City, Arizona”, Chapters 1 to 16, Played October & November, 2002.  

Module #119  – “The James Gang Comes to Town”, Chapters 17 to 28. Played August & September 2003.

Module #123  - "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral", Chapters 29 to 38.  Played December 2003 & January 2004.

Module #124  - "All the Difference in the World", Chapters 39 to 61.   Played February to June 2004.

Module #126  - "League of Extraordinary Cowboys", Chapters 62 - 67.  Played June and July 2004.

Module #127  - "Curse of the Banshees", Chapters 68-73.  Played July to September 2004.

Module #129  - "The Elephant Smugglers", Chapters 74-80.  Played October 2004.* 

*Module #131  - "The Man From Atlantis", Chapters 81-95.  Played February to May 2005.* 

*Module #132  - "Louie, Louie", Chapters 96-97.  Played June 2005*. 

*Module #134-  "Tombstone", Chapters 98-100.  Played October 2005.

Module #137  - "The Hooded Riders", Chapters 101-102.  Played November 2006. 

Module #159  - "They Rode to Perdition", Chapters 103-up.  Played June and July 2012.

Playing Characters* (Players by ENWorld name)

*Arcade*, "The Mysterious Stranger", male human fighter/druid (Enchantr)

*Hank Hill*, "The Gunslinger", male human fighter (Biz1489)

*Yee Lui-Buliang (Louie)*, "The Chinaman", male half-orc fighter/thief (CelticWolf)

*Morgana * Talks-with-trees O’Shea, "The Indian Maiden", female half-elf druid/bard (Kriskrafts)

*Sure-shot Sam*, "The Kid", male human fighter 

*Qualtaqa*, "The Noble Indian", male centaur fighter (Silver Moon)_


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## Silver Moon

*Promise City, Arizona*

*Chapter 1, "Welcome to Promise City", April 16, 1881:*

The oriental half-orc Lu-Buliang Yee (nicknamed Louie) is part of a railroad crew laying tracks between the towns of Tombstone and Promise City.    Thus far they have only gone a few miles east of Tombstone, heading north to circumnavigate the Dragoon Mountain Range.    He and four of his half-orc buddies are given a few days off, and decide to visit the Promise City establishment known as the Cottage of Wang Li, an opium den.  Each is attired in their samurai-style armor, with swords slung to their belts.   Hitching a ride on a supply wagon, they are dropped off on Promise City’s Main Street, and proceed directly to Wang Li’s.   Each pay fifty cents and partake of the house’s finest product.  After about an hour Louie passes out, remaining this way for the remainder of the day.   

April 17, 1881:

The mysterious stranger known only as Arcade reaches one of the twin peaks of the Dos Cabezas (Spanish for “two hats”) Mountains.    From this high vantage point he can see the town of Dos Cabezas twelve miles to the northwest and the town of Promise City five miles to the south.   Deciding that a loose shoe on his horse needs to be seen as soon as possible, he begins to lead his horse down the mountain in the direction of the closest town.  He is wearing standard western attire. 

Five miles southwest of Promise City, a trio heads out from the “Rocking H” ranch, one of three cattle ranches in the area.   The Rocking H currently has approximately 700 head of cattle, and is situated near a tribe of pacifist elvan Indians, many of who work at the ranch as hired hands.   The trio is heading to town to bring a wagonload of 42 fresh cattle hides to the tannery.   Duke Snyder, a thirty-year-old cowboy, who has worked on the Rocking H for several years, is driving the wagon.  Accompanying him, riding on their own mounts, are a young man and young woman.   The young man is Yosemite Sam, a fifteen-year-old boy from California who has been at the ranch only a short time.   The woman is Morgana Talks-with-trees O’Shea, a druid/bard who lives amongst the nearby elvan tribe.    Both of the men have seen Morgana assist with the animals, and heard her singing at both tribal and ranch campfires, but do not know much about this very attractive woman.   She appears fully human, but both men have heard rumors that elvan blood also flows through her veins.   Running alongside her is her “dog”, which Duke heard was part-wolf, but it looks full-wolf to him.   Both men are attired in standard western garb, and Morgana in traditional female Indian attire. 

They arrive mid-morning at Promise City, traveling through town to Driscoll’s Tannery.   The proprietor, Tector Driscoll, purchases the hides for $ 1.00 apiece.  Duke Snyder says he needs to purchase some supplies for the ranch and that he will make sure that their horses all get fed and watered.  Since this is the first time that both youngsters have been town Duke suggests that they go check it out, and get a bite to eat before heading back to the ranch.   Morgana notices a ‘Help Wanted’ sign in the Tannery window and inquires about it.  Driscoll says he is looking for an assistant, telling Sam the job pays $ 10.00 a week.   The boy appears less interested than the woman, who answers “We’ll consider it.”  They exit the tannery, heading west towards Fremont Street. 

Meanwhile, Arcade is heading out of Weller’s Blacksmithing, a one-story wood-sided business at the south end of Fremont Street.  The blacksmith told him to come back in a few hours for his horse, which will have new shoes then.    Arcade heads north up the street to check out the town.

The half-orc Louie had woken up thirty minutes earlier, finding his four companions had already left.   He speaks briefly to Wang Li, finding the man not very helpful.   He then leaves the shop, and decides to go look for something to eat.   He wanders over to Freemont Street, and enters the Union Market, a grocery store.   He purchases a ten-pound bag of rice, and heads back outside.   Louie goes only a few feet when four cowboys walk up to him.  Two block his path, so he turns to go around them, only to have the other two move to block him.  One of the men makes a derogatory remark about Louie’s race and nationality.  The half-orc says that he does not want trouble, and only wants to leave.   One of the cowboys says that he can, once he has paid the town toll.   Louie says he saw no toll booth, and is answered “We’re the moving tollbooth.  Pay up.”  Two of the cowboys start to poke at him and push him.   One then shoves a pistol into the half-orc’s back. 

Sam and Morgana walk around the bend at this moment, and see the half-orc being harassed ten feet in front of them.   Morgana speaks, telling the cowboys to stop, that four to one isn’t playing fair.   Two of the men glance her way, one waving a pistol in their direction and saying “Mind your own business.”   A deep voice sounds out from the other direction, and all of the men look up.  They see the man Arcade standing there, gun in hand, who says “I believe the lady asked you to play fair.”    As the cowboys turn to face this newcomer, Morgana reaches behind her and pulls out her bow, strings it, and then draws an arrow back.  Sam reaches his pistol and slowly moves it out of its holster.  

The leader of the cowboys says “This is between us and the half-orc, why don’t you others just move along.”  “Why don’t you play fair?” Morgana inquires, drawing back her arrow as her companion Sam raises his gun towards the man pointing a gun towards the two of them.     Arcade says “Looks to me like you boys started this trouble, not the half-orc.”   

Louie feels movement from the pistol at his back, and realizes that the man will most likely shoot soon, so pivots around to stop him.   The cowboy is surprised by this, and is pushed back by the half-orc.  The cowboy then fires a shot, which misses due the half-orcs continued movement.   The sudden gunfire causes the man pointing towards Morgana and Sam to now take aim at them.  Before he can get the shot off, Sam fires, hitting the man on his gun arm shoulder and causing him to drop the gun.   The shot hits an artery, causing the man to howl in pain, and grab the shoulder to stop the bleeding.   Morgana lets her arrow fly towards another of the foes, who is drawing his gun at them.  Her arrow hits for a fatal shot, sailing through the man’s head. 

The man near Louie fires again, but the bullet bounces off the half-orc’s armor without penetrating.  Louie swings a punch into his foe, for a perfect haymaker across the chin, knocking the man out.   Both Arcade and the leader simultaneously fire at each other.  Arcade’s first shot misses, but the leader’s hits, grazing Arcade’s brow and knocking his hat from his head.    Arcade’s second shot hits, striking his foe in the chest for a serious but non-lethal wound.    The two wounded but still standing enemies now back up to the nearest wall.    The one with the arm wound says to the leader “Cletus, they killed Leroy”.  The leader, Cletus, says to the group “OK, you won, let us go.”   “I don’t think so,” Arcade replies.   “What do we do with them?” Louie asks.   Arcade answers “Let’s take these men to whatever passes for law enforcement in this here town.”   

Sam ties a rope around the hands and shoves rags into the mouths of the two wounded cowboys as Morgana retrieves her arrow and searches Leroy’s body, pocketing $ 15.78 in cash.  “Looks like he’s paying for the drinks” Arcade comments.   Louie picks up his unconscious foe.  Arcade gets his first good look at Louie, who is even unsightly by orcan standards.  “You are one ugly bastard,” the mysterious stranger states, adding “I think I like your style.”

*Chapter 2, "Lookin' fer some honest work?", April 17, 1881*

They all head down the street to the Promise City Marshal’s Office and Town Jail, which isn’t very far away.   Leroy’s body is dragged by Sam, and left outside of the front door.   As they enter the one-story brick building, Marshal Bret Hollister stands up from behind his desk.   He questions these unknown people about the wounded locals that they dragged in, and does not appear very inclined to do anything about the situation.  Arcade asks the Marshal why he didn’t respond to the sound of six gunshots right down the street, and Hollister answers “People shoot off guns all the time around here, usually just to celebrate something or just to announce their arrival.”   Hollister orders the group to remove the rag from Cletus’s mouth, who blurts out that “They killed Leroy!”   Arcade gestures to Louie and says “These guys were picking on my friend.”   “They weren’t playing fair,” Morgana interjects.  

After a long pause the Marshal says “So what, who cares about a coolie?”   Louie replies “Yeah, well I’d buy more things here if I don’t get shot.”  Arcade comments “Maybe they should put that slogan on a sign at the city limits?”  Hearing the phrase ‘buy things’ brings about a reaction from Hollister, who asks to the half-orc “You were buying things?”   Louie holds up his bag of rice, saying “Yeah, they came after me just as I was coming out of the Union Market with this.”   Looking at Cletus and his companion, the Marshal says “You boys were picking on customers of the people who pay my salary?  I though you were smarter than that.”    He opens the jail, and the two troublemakers reluctantly get into the cell.  The unconscious one is locked in another cell.    The one with the arm wound is beginning to look a bit pale, and asks for the doctor.   Morgana offers to help, but the Marshal says to them “I think you folks have helped enough.”  

Looking at Arcade, who appears to be the quartet’s leader, he says “So, what is your business in Promise City?”  “Just passing through,” the man replies.   “You may just want to keep passing through,” the Marshal answers.  Arcade replies “Maybe, but right now I’m a bit thirsty.”   They leave the building, turning west onto South Street. 

They reach the Indian Head Saloon, one of the many watering holes in this town.  Morgana comments “I like the name of this place.”  They enter the single-story clapboard building, which is relatively small being only 15x20 foot.  The interior consists of a bar with six barstools and three tables with four chairs each.   Behind the bar is the bartender, the only occupant of the building, who introduces himself as Porter Norris.   He doesn’t appear to have any problem with Morgana bring her wolf in with her.   They order a bottle of whiskey and a pitcher of beer.  

The four sit at one of the tables.   The mysterious stranger introduces himself as Arcade.  “Funny name” the half-orc comments.   Morgana is amused, having heard the word before, and says “Oh, does that mean you play with yourself a lot?”  The cowboy gives he a lecherous look and says “Nope, I let others in to play with me.”   Sam attempts to change the subject, saying that he works on the Rocking H ranch, near Morgana’s tribe, and this is their first visit to Promise City.   Morgana comments “I don’t normally stick up for strangers, but they weren’t playing fair.”  Louie thanks her and says that it is also his first visit to this town.  He tells them that he works for the railroad near Tombstone, but is not really happy with the work.    “You’re welcome to hang out with me mate,” Arcade tells the ugly guy.   

Morgana’s wolf begins to growl.   “Maybe you should feed him something” Sam suggests.   Morgana realizes that the wolf  is staring towards a corner of the room.   She stands up and drops her mug, the beer splattering that section of the room.   She sees a large droplet of the beer floating in the air about a foot above the floor, and blurts out “We know you’re there, make yourself visible.”    A field of invisibility then drops from a female halfling, attired in a dress with a scarf draped over her head.   

The halfling approaches the table, and speaks with an Australian accent to the bartender, saying  “Mr. Norris, could you please bring me a seat and a bottle of my usual.”  A tall barstool is brought over, which she sits herself on, bringing her to eye level of the table’s other occupants.    Morgana lectures the halfling that it is rude to eavesdrop.  The halfling gestures to Arcade and Louie and says “Well, I heard him call the other one ‘Mate’, which is a term used where I come from, so was curious about him.  Besides, I was here first.”   “Why were you invisible?” Sam asks.   “Because I can, I dabble in magic, and it keeps me out of trouble,” she answers.    “She’s got a point there,” Sam answers, looking towards the half-orc.

The bartender brings her a glass and a bottle of pink champagne.  Some of the others inquire as to what it is she is drinking, and she has extra glasses brought over for them to each sample.  The halfling explains that she and her brother have been in the town for a month, that they are members of the British Empire, and her brother works as a servant for an English Duke.   The Duke has part ownership of a few mines in the Arizona Territory, including a ten-percent share of the Liberty Hill Mine, one of the four mines in Promise City, and has been checking out his investments.    

“So what exactly have you been doing for a month?” Louie asks.   She replies “Helping to mine the silver, mostly the Duke, as my brother and I are not very strong.”   “This Duke must be broke if he’s doing the work himself,” Morgana observes.   The halfling answers “He’s actually doing financially okay.  This is the most promising of the mines he has invested in, so he is doing what he can to support himself and the other two owners.  They are now working on their second minehead, the first mine having struck water and flooded out the previous autumn." 

Morgana then asks “What exactly can you tell us about this town?”   The halfling answers “It’s only been around for a couple of years.  It started with the ranches.  Hills and mountains surround this valley so it gets enough runoff to support fertile grasslands for the cattle to graze.   Silver was discovered here two years ago, and four separate mines soon sprang up.  The town grew up right around the mineheads.   Lately the town has gotten good sized, and the townsfolk are now split into two different factions, the law and order crowd and the rough and tumble crowd.   The law and order crowd, led by the merchants, wants to bring an end to the lawlessness and turn Promise City into a safe and civilized place.   The other crowd feels that this is just a scheme to steal their claims and property.  Morgana astutely comments “And the orderly group would also restrict the amount of drinking, gambling and prostitution that they miners have come to enjoy.”  “That too,” the halfling answers. 

The halfling asks what they are doing in town, and Arcade answers “Just traveling through.”  Morgana mentions that the tannery was looking for work.   The halfling says “If you’re looking for work the Duke will hire you.”  Louie answers “Mining sounds like work just as hard as what I’m doing now.”    She replies “Well, that’s not the only help we need.  There’s been some mischief and vandalism lately at our mine, which the Duke would like to put a stop to.”   “Guard work, that sounds like something worth doing” Arcade states.   The halfling says they will pay $ 10.00 a week, and to Morgana she says “$ 15.00 for you if you bring the wolf.”   Sam asks who is doing the mischief.   “We’re not sure,” the halfling answers, “Could be a rival mine, or perhaps some of the Apache Elvan Indians trying to stir up trouble.  Ours is the only one of the four mineheads not facing the town, being over the southeast hill, so would be the most convenient and inconspicuous for the Elves to get at.”  “Potential Indian problems?” Sam mulls.  “Could be worse,” comments Arcade, “Could be halflings sneaking in to steal all the champagne.”


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## Silver Moon

*Promise City, Arizona*

Chapter 3, "Finding lodgings ", April 17, 1881:

The halfling recommends they get lodgings at the El Parador Cantina and Hotel, which is where she and her brother are staying, the Duke staying at a fancier place in town.   She says that the Cantina is run by some Mexican Wood Elves and Spaniards, and is more tolerant of non-human races than some of the other lodgings in town.   Arcade asks “But will they let in a big hairy beast that licks itself clean each day and scratches inappropriately, or the dog?”  She says they probably would let the group in.   “What kind of dump is it?” Sam asks.   She replies “Oh, it isn’t a dump, or my brother and I wouldn’t stay there.   It’s clean, but not very fancy.  It is also the closest lodgings to our minehead, and is located adjacent to the church of Celts and Druids” pointing to Morgana, who is wearing the holy symbols of that religion. 

The female halfling concludes negotiations for the party’s newfound employment, as guards at the Liberty Hill Mine.    She suggests they stop by the mine later, and if she isn’t around to just tell the other owner that she hired them.  As she is leaving Morgana says “Wait a minute!  What’s your name?”  The halfling replies “Susan Freefoot Hillfarer of Sydney, but you can just call me Sydney Sue.”   

The group have all finished off their beverages, and order another pitcher of beer and bottle of whiskey.   They decide to leave.  Morgana sends Sam back to the Tannery to inform Duke Snyder that he and Morgana will not be returning to the Rocking H ranch.   Arcade heads back to the blacksmith shop to check on his horse.  Morgana heads over to the Church of Celts and Druids, with Louie choosing to accompany her.

As she approaches the church she notices that there is a grove of trees behind the building leading up to the hillside.   The trees are of several hardwood types, and significantly larger than any others around, having been obviously planted by the druids and magically enhanced to grow in this climate.   A player that previously lived in southeastern Arizona, comments “The trees are useful and grow, so they obviously are not from southern Arizona.”   She has a brief conversation with the priest in charge, Thomas Valdez, who indicates that in addition to the Celtic and nature gods they also worship the North and Central American Pantheons at this church.   Morgana gets permission to stay in the tree grove. 

The game is interrupted by the sudden appearance of a player who has been absent for the past several games.  The DM explains to him a brief description of the setting and rules, and hands him dice to roll up a character.    The player inquires as to the exact timeline, and is informed that it is mid-April of 1881, approximately half-a-year prior to the infamous ‘Gunfight at the OK Corral’ in nearby Tombstone.  Another player comments “Great, we can still get tickets.”   Another comments “The OK Corral?  Wasn’t that where Wyatt Earp went up against Ike and Tina Clanton?”  The first answers “Yeah, right after they sung the song ‘What’s Guns Got To Do With It’.”

Sam from Yosemite tells Duke Snyder that he and Morgana are staying in town.  Duke says “Fine kid, I hope you two are very happy together.”  Sam tries to get their back-pay from Duke, who says “Hey, I’m not the paymaster.  You need to take that up with the ranch owner, Forest Morand.” Duke says that he will pass the request on to Forest, for them to eventually get the money due them.

The group meet up outside of the El Parador Cantina and Hotel, and head inside to find lodgings.   Arcade, Sam and Louie each get a room for twenty-five cents a night, with stabling for Arcade and Sam's horses for another twenty-five cents each.    They head upstairs to check out their rooms, with Arcade commenting “All of the comforts of home, except that this also has a roof and walls.”


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## Silver Moon

*Promise City, Arizona*

Chapter 4, "Standing Guard", April 17, 1881:

The Liberty Hill Mine, located just over the hill from the El Parador.   After an inordinate amount of time spent deciding whether they will walk over or around the hill, the group makes their way to the mine.  They arrive at the Mine head, and are greeted with “What do you want?” by a human in his mid-thirties, wearing dirty jeans and a plaid flannel shirt.  They explain that they have been hired as the new guards.    “I already have a guard,” the man replies. 

Morgana states that “Sydney Sue hired us.”   “Oh, well that Englishman who she works for can pay you then.” he replies.   He finally introduces himself as Graf Holzer, the owner of the mine.   “We thought the Duke owned it?” Louie states.   Graf says “He and my other partner each own part of it, but I own a full fifty percent for myself.”   

Another man walks up from inside the mine.  The well-armed human looks to be between eighteen and twenty years of age, and also gives the appearance of someone who knows how to use his weapons well.   Graf introduces him to the others as “Hank, the guy I hired today to watch the mine.”  “Looks like we’re working together,” Arcade says to Hank.  “Fine by me,” Hank replies, taking a very appreciative look at the woman dressed in native attire.  Arcade whispers to Hank “Watch it, I think she’s sweet on that Sam character.”

They enter the mineshaft, which only goes in around seventy feet.   Looking at the roughly dug out walls, Arcade comments “We love what you’ve done with it.”    Graf says “Hey, this one is fairly new.  Our first mine got flooded out last year.”    

The group asks about the recent trouble at the mine and he explains how all of the recent vandalism occurred at night, so that is when they will be needed.   They ask about other troubles in town, and are told that the owner of another mine, Justin Boyer, had his house burned down recently, and that he has been living in a tent since then.   They decide to go investigate this. 

Hiking over the hills to a spot about 350 feet to the north, they reach the Belle Mine.  Not far from the mine is the aforementioned burnt out wooden building.   They also see the owner’s tent home, not far from a large storage shed.   Looking at the shed Hank comments “He has a wooden structure he can use to live in and he stays in a tent?  This guy can’t be too bright.”

As the group begins to investigate the scene a grizzled middle-aged human rushes out of the Belle Mine head to stop them.   “What are you doing around my building?” he states in his scratchy voice, confirming that he is Justin Boyer.  They introduce themselves as new guards at the Liberty Hill mine, and say they are interested in finding out what happened to his home.   He says that employees of the Silverbell Mining Company burned it down, because he refuses to use their ore smelting operation, shipping his ore off to Tombstone to be processed.   He explains that Silverbell charges too much, despite the fact that the cost of transporting the ore two days away costs him more in the long run.   Hank concludes that his earlier assessment about the man’s intelligence was correct. 

Morgana inquires about the fire, having already concluded by the debris that it originated from the inside near the northwest corner.    He confirms this, saying that it went up fast while he and the others were in the mine, and as they fought the blaze he saw that a window near where it started was broken.   There is no actual evidence that anyone from Silverbell started it, although he insists they were responsible, as nobody else had a motive.   The party suggests other possible motives, but he dismisses them. 

The group departs, heading back to the El Parador for more drinks and some food.   They start to ask Hank some questions about himself, such as what his last name is.  The player draws a blank, stating “Hey I’m dealing with a work in progress here.”  The other player responds “Yeah, so is your character.”     

The conversation at the El Parador centers about how stupid that Boyer guy was.   Arcade looks at Louie and Sam, and says “Well, some of our company shouldn’t talk.”  Morgana mutters “I believe my dog is smarter than some of our company.”  As no names are mentioned nobody appears offended, assuming the reference was to others in the group. 

Louie makes a comment about their previous problems in town.  “What happened?” Hank asks.   Arcade replies “We kinda killed a couple of guys just to watch them die.”   Morgana supplies some details about what happened earlier.    The group decides to all go to their rooms for some shuteye prior to their evening guard assignment.   Louie makes a comment about needing his beauty rest.   Arcade answers “Won’t do much good.  You’re one of those fellows who can get up at 4:00 A.M. just to scare the dark out of the sky with your looks.”

A few hours later the group head over to the Liberty Hill Mine, just as Graf and his two miner workmen are finishing up for the day.   They lock up the Mine head, but leave the storage shed open for the group to guard from.    Both Morgana and Louie take up positions outside, hidden in the shrubbery.   They also set some traps to alert them of anyone approaching.  The three human cowboys settle down inside the shed.  The cowboys make a mental note of the amount of dynamite in the shed, deciding that it might be of future use. 

April 18, 1881:

A short while after midnight Louie hears a horse nearby, and alerts Morgana.  She has him go get the others, and climbs over a hill to check out where the sound came from.   She sees a group of five warrior Apache elves holding rifles.   One of the five has climbed off of his horse, and is beginning to climb the hill she is on the top of. 

The others move up to the ridge on the hill, but about forty feet away from Morgana, being careful to not be seen.    As the Apache warrior gets closer Morgana stands up.   All five warrior elves raise and point their rifles at her.   Morgana raises up her hands, indicating that she is not holding a weapon, and says “Do we speak or do you leave?”    

The Apache climbing the hill returns to the others.   He climbs onto his horse and all five ride away to the southeast, soon disappearing behind other hills.    Hank comments “She got five Apaches to go away just by talking to them?”  Arcade mutters “Damn, we gotta start being nicer to her.”    

A discussion follows, with Arcade concluding that the Apaches were the source of the vandalism at the mine.   Louie says that may not be true, that it could have just been a coincidence that they were riding by.   Arcade and Hank don’t buy it.  The group resumes their guard positions.   The remainder of the night is uneventful.


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## Silver Moon

*Promise City, Arizona*

Chapter 5, “The Legend Begins” April 18, 1881:

At down Morgana and her dog do some hunting, catching a few rabbits.   She returns to the others. The workers arrive at the Liberty Hill Mine, and the party head back towards their lodgings.   As they near the El Parador the smell of freshly baked corn bread reaches them.   They enter the building, and sit down for a breakfast of steak, eggs, corn bread, refried beans, milk and beer.  Louie comments about the beans being rather strange.   Morgana offers the rabbits to Dorita Figueres in return to stabling Morgana’s horse.  Following breakfast everyone heads to their respective bunks to sack out for a fair amount of the day.   

Mid-way through the afternoon everyone gathers back together in the El Parador.   The innkeeper, Pedro Figueres, has a note for Arcade.   It is from a Parker Baxter, who offers to buy Arcade a drink during either lunch or supper.   Parker states that for lunch he will be at O’Reilly’s Café and for supper he will be at The Gay Lady.   Arcade mutters “The Gay Lady, I’m not going to any Lesbian Blues Bars!”    He figures it might be too late for lunch, but decides to try O’Reilly’s Café, getting directions from Pedro.    

Morgana questions whether walking around town is safe for them.  Arcade answers “Don’t worry your pretty feathered little head about it.”  She replies “Pretty Feather is my cousin.”  Arcade, Louie, Morganna and Sam head across town to O’Reilly’s, sticking primarily to back alleys rather than the main roads.   The building is a small one-story wood-framed structure.  A sign on the door declares “Best Breakfast in Promise City according to the Editor of the Promise City Herald."

The group enters, seeing two occupants.   One is the bartender, a short balding man with spectacles named Walter O’Reilly.   Arcade inquires about Parker Baxter, and is directed to the other gentleman, seated alone at a table with a half-filled bottle of whiskey beside him.    Baxter is a middle aged man, rather plump, wearing fancy but food stained clothing.    As the party approach he motions for them to sit down, saying “You must be Arcade.”   “A’Yup,” Arcade answers, “Your note said something about a drink.”    Baxter yells across the room “O’Reilly, how about some glasses.”   

The waiter brings four glasses, which Baxter pours whiskey into, refilling his own glass as well.  He introduces himself as the Editor of the Promise City Herald, and wants to get the details of their big shootout for the next edition of the newspaper.  “Not all that much to tell,” Arcade answers.  Baxter is filled in on some of the details of how the fight started. 

Baxter has to press them all to get any details.   They find out that the one who Sam shot died this morning at the Doctor James Eaton’s house.  Baxter says “Mike Keegan had lost too much blood.  Doc Eaton did what he could, even used leeches.”   Morgana states “Leaches wouldn’t do anything to help with bullet wounds or blood loss.”   Baxter asks Sam “Have you put a notch on your gun yet Son?”  Arcade interjects “No, he’d cut his fingers trying.  He’s too young for us to trust him with a knife yet.”   

Baxter turns to Louie and Morgana, asking “So, which one of you put the arrow in Leroy Harris?  Morgana takes the credit for that.   Baxter asks Louie “And you’re the one who punched Chris Fargo?”  “If that was his name,” the half-orc replies.   

Baxter says to Arcade “And I hear that you are the one who shot Cleatus James..”  Morgana interjects "Any relation to Jesse James?”  Baxter answers “Not that I can confirm, but Cleatus claims to be a fifth cousin three times removed.”    The newspaperman tells the party that James and Fargo left town this morning, shortly after Keegan passed away.

Baxter tells Arcade “You seem to have earned yourself a reputation.  People will be frightened of you now.”  Arcade gestures to Louie, and says “Him too, but just for his looks.”   Baxter makes a comment about “People will think twice of running a foul of the Arcade Gang.”  The group raises some objections to the new team name, which appear to fall on deaf ears.   Baxter says that the paper will be out in two days.  Arcade requests permission to drop by and check the copy first. 

As they leave Louie asks Arcade “Should I get a gun?”  Arcade asks “Do you know how to shoot?”  Louie says “No, only with a bow.”  Arcade answers “Skip it, you might hurt yourself.”


----------



## Silver Moon

*Promise City, Arizona*

Chapter 6, "Almost famous" , April 18, 2002, 5:00 P.M. 

The group returns to the Cantina for dinner, which consists of, not surprisingly, rabbit stew.  The Cantina begins to get a bit crowded.    The Mexican half wood elf  with a handlebar mustache that they saw tending bar the night before comes in, dressed very differently, now in a fancy suit.  He sits at a table, and takes out a deck of cards and pile of chips.   The man introduces himself as Carlos Ramirez, and invites them to play cards with him.   Arcade says “Sam, he seems friendly.  Why don’t you join him at his table.”  Sam wisely declines.   

Pedro and Dorita’s daughter enters the room, wearing a sundress and holding a guitar.   She begins to play and sing, with many of the patrons calling out her name, Sonoma.   Arcade mutters “Why would anyone name their daughter after a car”  (OK, it’s out of period, but it was funny.)  

Louie does a double take as the gambler’s identical twin brother Jose enters and takes his usual place behind the bar.   Morgana walks over by Sonoma, and joins her in a duet, which the wood-elf doesn’t seem to mind.    A pair of female wood elves, wearing dance hall clothing and a lot of make up sit at the bar, leaving a few barstools between them.    Arcade tries to encourage Sam to go talk to them.  The boy again wisely declines.   Arcade shakes his head, commenting “You won’t play cards.  You won’t sit with the harlots.  Other than killing people, what do you do?”    

The group eventually finish their drinks and make their way over to the mine.  Hank is on duty, and says "You're late.  The workers left a few hours ago."  "And what's happened since then?" Arcade asks.  "Nothing" is Hank's reply.  "Then what are you complaining about" Arcade answers.     The night is uneventful.

April 19, 1881:

The day also turns out to be rather uneventful.   After eating a light breakfast at the El Parador Arcade decides to head up to O'Reilly's to see what the "Best Breakfast in Promise City"  is like.  While the food is actually not as good as Dorita's cooking, O'Reilly's serves hot coffee, which the mysterious stranger greatly appreciates.   

They sleeps until mid-afternoon and then just spending the day at the Cantina.   They again show up late for their jobs, figuring that Hank can handle things without them for a few hours. Once again Hank chastises them for arriving late to work.   This night is also uneventful.

April 20, 1881:

The party has breakfast, Arcade going straight to O'Reilly's to get a hot cup of coffee.  They sleep until mid-afternoon.  By the time they awaken the newspaper is out, reminding Arcade that he forgot to stop by and check the copy.    The paper is four pages long, two pages of which are ads (the largest two ads being for the two establishments that the Editor goes drinking at).   The story of the exploits of the 'Arcade Gang', under the banner "Shootout on Freemont Street"  is on the front page, but it is not the top story.   The story is surprisingly accurate, with even the exaggerations still having a basis in truth, for example it says that "between six and twelve shots were fired", when the reporter had been told the correct number was six.     The only disturbing item was the final quote from Cleatus James, said to be the "cousin of Jesse and Frank James".  Cleatus says he will go round up his famous cousins and come back to Promise City where "there will be a reckoning".  

The lead story in the paper concerns the water pipe going from the creek to the pump house of the Breakheart Stamping Mill and Smelter.   The pipe broke during the night, flooding the hill and a few basements and forcing the mill and smelter to close for the day.    "Hold on," says Arcade "Are you telling us that a broken pipe is more important than a group of strangers wandering into town and killing a few people?"     Morgana finishes the story, and says "Well yes.  It says that the Breakheart is the only smelter in town, which processes the ore for three of the four mines.  The mines keep the town employed, so if the ore can't be processed it is big news."


----------



## Silver Moon

*Promise City, Arizona*

Chapter 7, "Morgana's Investigation, April 20, 1881, 3:00 P.M. 

Morgana wanders over to the Breakheart Mill and Smelter, seeing a group of workmen working on the broken pipe.   The pipe is metal, around a foot in diameter, and runs for 150 feet.  The break was just before the Breakheart building, at the top of the hill.   She speaks to a well dressed gentleman supervising the repairs, finding him to be Elton Hubbard, the owner of the Silverbell Mining Company, the parent company of both the Mill & Smelter and the adjacent Breakheart Mine.   

Hubbard says that the pipe broke in the middle of the night, and it took over an hour before he could get the water pump turned off, the controls having rusted in place during the past year.  The house at the bottom of the hill that got the most flooding was his own, something that his wife is very upset about.    He asks Morgana why she is so interested in this.   She says she works as a guard at the Liberty Hill Mine.   Hubbard replies "Oh, well tell your bosses not to worry.  They can bring their ore over here at the end of the day.  We'll have this working again in no time."    

Morgana wanders up to the workmen, examining the break in the pipe.   She notices that the break is about six inches in diameter, and that several rivets are missing.   She speaks to her dog and the two look around the immediate area for the rivets, not finding any.   She points this out to Hubbard; suggesting that is was sabotage rather than an accident, because the rivets are missing.  He dismisses this, saying that "When the pipe burst the pressure would have sent them flying far away, and they were then washed down hill by the water."   She rechecks the angles and flood erosion, not buying this explanation.   She inquires as to who might hold a grudge against him, being told "Only that crazy guy at the Belle Mine.  He says that I burned down his house because he doesn't use my smelter.  A lot of hogwash that is, I don't give a damn if he wants to cart his ore all the way to Tombstone, I'm busy enough with my own and the other two mines in town."

The group hangs out again at the El Parador until well after dark. They arrive late at the mine again, earning them another rebuke from Hank.    Morgana decides to go check out the area a bit further away from town.    She comes across a series of a dozen or so fresh horse tracks.  The tracks do not show that the horses had horseshoes, making her think Apache.

She returns to the mine, informing the others of this.   They decide that it should be further investigated, asking Hank if he can keep any eye on things there on his own.  He replies "Well, it's not like you haven't left me alone here before."   The group retrieve their horses from the El Parador stable (Louie riding with Sam), and head off out of town following the tracks.

The tracks head towards the distant hills and mountains to the east.   The group continues into the hills.   Morgana hears the distant sound of horses, and has the party stop.   She dismounts, and moves up on foot, peering over some rocks.   She sees a group of 8 Elvan Apache warriors on horseback, stopped in a circle and talking to themselves.   

The others hear the sound of horses riding up behind them, and turn to see nine Elvan Apache rapidly riding up, each holding shotguns.    Two other Apache warriors, each holding a repeating rifle, then rise up from behind rocks to both the left and right of the party, as the ones who Morgana was watching now ride up to the group as well, leveling their own rifles on the party.

Outnumbered 19 to 4, Arcade suggests that his party "Stay calm, and keep your hands away from your weapons."   Morgana has assessed who the leader of this group appears to be, and begins to approach him, raising her hands in the air to show that she is unarmed.


----------



## Silver Moon

Chapter 8, "Hail to the Chief," April 21, 1881, 12:15 A.M. 

The leader of this group of Elvan Apache Indians approaches Morgana and asks why she was following their tracks.   She tells him "There was trouble in the town, I wanted to talk to the people who may have been responsible."   He asks, "Why do you, one of the people, work with them" and he gestures to her three associates.   She answers "Who I associate with should not matter to you.  What is important is that I wish no trouble to come to your people."  

While this is going, and with most of the Indians' rifles still pointing at the other three Sam whispers to Arcade "What should we do?"  Arcade sarcastically whispers back "How about this for a plan.  Louie and I will take out the nine in front of us, and you can get the other ten."  Sam gasps, and exclaims "No!"  Arcade says "Then why do you just calm down and let the lady do her job."  

Morgana returns, and tells the others that they will all be taken to the Apache Chief.    The Indians separate the three party horses, and lead them for several more miles, deep into the hills.   The DM begins to describe the terrain, then turns to one of the players and says "You lived in Southeastern Arizona for a few years, why don't you describe it."  The player answers "Imagine a whole state of kitty litter."

They eventually are led up and down through a series of winding trails through the hills, which the party concludes is to confuse them about the path taken.   Eventually they approach a campfire, with about twenty Apaches standing around it.    All but the leader of the group that brought them stop.  The leader dismounts, instructing the party through Morgana to do as well.   Some Apache braves are to each side, using rocks as cover with their rifles still trained on the party.    

An Apache Shaman steps forward, speaking in elvan.   He tells Morgana "Instruct your friends to upholster their weapons.  Tribesmen will come forward and then take the weapons.  They will be returned to you when it is time to leave."   Morgana translates, and the party does as instructed.   Once disarmed, the Apache Chief steps forward.   The Shaman tells Morgana that he will cast a spell, to allow all present to be understood.    He chants and then throws some powder into the fire.  A bright flash of many colors quickly follows.  The Shaman moves back. 

The Chief introduces himself as Geronimo.  He tells the party the history of his people.  "This group of Apache is the tribe known as Chiricahua Elves.  Twenty years ago the humans forced a confrontation with the Apache chief Cochise.  Cochice was a man of peace.  He was falsely accused by a human Army Lieutenant of kidnapping a human boy.  When Cochise said he knew nothing of this the human called him a liar, and had members of Cochise's family as hostages until the boy was returned.  Cochise then took hostages of his own, and the Lieutenant retaliated by killing three hostages, Coshise's brother and two nephews.   What followed was ten long years of war, during which 1,500 humans died.   

Nine years ago peace was negotiated between Cochise and an Army General named Howard.  It was agreed that the Chiricahuas would be allowed to live here, in these hills and mountains that we call our home.    Seven years ago the great chief died.  Soon there after the humans broke the treaty, saying that we needed to move to a reservation in the land known as New Mexico.  We have resisted this relocation, and will continue to fight for what is ours.  I see more and more humans coming to this place, and will do what I can to stop this."

Morgana replies "The humans will come.  They breed far too quickly.  Fighting them is not the way."  Geronimo replies "I do not wish to fight them.  My war is with the Wood Elves to the south, in Mexico.  They killed my family, and I seek vengeance.   I do not wish to carry on two wars at the same time."   Morgana answers "That is wise.  War with the humans is one that you cannot win.  They are great in number, and will continue to come."  

Geronimo asks, "Why did you seek us out?"  She replies "To keep a large war from igniting.  Just one can make war, like peace.  We have told none in that town that it was your people who have caused the trouble.  They believe the trouble was natural.  It is time for your people to stop, while the humans still believe that."   "Why do you help them?" the Chief asks.   She answers "I believe in a balance, and that balance is peace."   The Chief says "But they take what is our."  She replies "They protect what they believe is theirs.   A balance must be sought."   

Geronimo turns, and looks towards the darkness  "You have heard."   A voice replies "I have," as a pair of centaurs ride forward.   One is attired as an Indian chief, the other as an Indian brave.


----------



## Silver Moon

*Promise City, Arizona*

Chapter 9, "The Noble Indian", April 21, 1881, 2:00 A.M. 

The party looks up at the pair of centaurs.  The one attired as a chief asks Morgana "You are familiar with our people?"   She replies "I have heard of your tribe, but have never actually seen one of you."   He answers "We do not usually travel the far to the south.  We prefer to roam the wide open plains rather than the deserts and hills."   "What brings you here now?" she asks.

He looks towards Geronimo.  The Apache Chief answers "They came as messengers of warning.  They say that we of the people need to talk to the humans.  Talk has never worked.  Treaties are signed and then the humans break them.  The time for talking has passed."    The centaur leader speaks again "I do not agree.  This woman, one of the blood, feels that a balance can be sought.  I agree.  An ambassador must be chosen to speak to the humans for the Apache, so that this balance can be found."

The centaur then looks directly at Morgana and asks, "What is your political influence with the people of the community."  "Little to none," she answers.  Arcade speaks up, saying, "We were just passing through."   The centaur ponders this, then asks her "Are you safe among the humans?"  "Yes" she replies.  "We make sure she is safe," Arcade answers.   She then says, "I have found worthy companions.  They have accepted me as part of their group.  We look out for each other."  "An honorable thing," the centaur answers.  

Geronimo speaks again, saying, "They have no influence.  They can be of no help.  We must make life hard for the humans so that they will leave."  The centaur turns to Geronimo and says;  "Things are changing.  I have met the man known as the Territorial Governor, to negotiate safe passage for my people.   Things in this land are changing.  Within the next few years they plan to turn this Territory into something called a State.  That will bring more people, and more soldiers.  This is not the time to cause trouble with the humans."

Hearing this Morgana speaks again.  She tells Geronimo  "We came to this camp tonight in peace.  I mean you no harm, but listen when I tell you that this is not a place for you, or those of the blood.  Making things difficult for the humans will only bring you trouble.   I can try to help your people if you let me, but please listen to what I am saying."   Geronimo answers "I hear your words, and believe your conviction to them, but this is not my way."    

The centaur again speaks, saying to Geronimo "Will you wait, and do as I have asked?"  The Apache Chief replies "As you wish."  He then turns back to Morgana and her companions and says, "You may go."   Their mounts and weapons are brought to them.  The centaur chief says something to his centaur companion in an unknown language.  The companion stays with the Apache as the other centaur rides off, leading the party away from the camp. 

They travel silently for the next hour, with the Chief taking them on a different winding path through the hills.    They finally reach the plains, and the centaur continues to ride with them.  Morgana asks his name, and he replies " Quletaqa.  In my language that means 'Guardian of the People' _[DM's note: translation from the Hopi language_].    Arcade asks, "Why do you travel with us?"   The centaur answers "This is the land of the Apache.  I ride with you now so that you will be protected by me.  When we reach the human settlement I will then be protected by you."   "What did he just say?" Louie asks.

Morgana asks Quletaqa "Why do you want to go to the human settlement."  He replies "To represent the Apache.   It is too dangerous for one of their tribe to go.  If and Apache were to go to talk to them, and the humans were to kill that Apache, then Geronimo would go to war.   It is therefore best that a non-Apache serve as ambassador to the humans.    She asks if he is the Chief of his people.  He replies "No, I am a sub-chief.  Serving those of the blood, no matter what tribe, is what I have dedicated my life to."

"I don't like the sound of this," Sam mutters.   Arcade says "Nothing to worry about kid, I've figured this one out."   _[Arcade's player then postulates that "The DM has thrown this new guy in as his own playing character, in case one of us wants to DM a game in this setting."  The DM replies "You are 100% correct.  I wanted a character whose personality was like that of a Paladin, and thought that this might work."  "Yeah, but only if he doesn't get himself shot dead first," Louie's players states.]_


----------



## Silver Moon

*Promise City, Arizona*

Chapter 10, “Hello Ma’am. Have I seen you some where before?”, April 21, 1881, 4:00 A.M.:

The group arrives back at the mine.  Hank Hill takes one look and the centaur and says “Who the hell is he?”  “Say hello to your new partner, he will be helping with guard duty,” Morgana tells Hank.  Hank just rolls his eyes, and mutters “This place just gets weirder and weirder.”  Another player says “Yeah, this is a different planet and a different game system, and the party is still brining home stragglers.”

The sun is just coming over the horizon, and Louie comments “We might as well stay here until the miners show up.”  Hank sarcastically answers “You haven’t been here all night, why start now?”   Ignoring Hank, the others stick around for the next hour. Graf Holzer arrives and asks what is with the centaur.  Sam answers “He followed us home and says we get to keep him.”

As they head towards their lodgings, the centaur Qualtaqa follows behind.  Arcade decides to ignore Qualtaqa, but Morgana intervenes, getting Dorita to find him lodgings in a private part of the stable.   Louie gives the centaur the advice of “Whatever you do, don’t go to the store.”  Sam interjects “Yeah, you don’t like rice do you?  Buying some will only get you in trouble.”

The group all have a nice breakfast at the Cantina.   Sydney Sue joins them, and they discuss what went on the night before.   With the addition of the centaur, and since his presence will keep the Apache Elves from attacking, she tells the party to “Take the night off, you’ve earned it.  The centaur and that Hank guy should be able to handle things on their own.”  The group head to their respective rooms.   

When they awaken mid-way through the afternoon Pedro hands Arcade a note, which is from a man named Job Kane, who invites him to a game of poker that evening at the Lone Star Dance Hall and Saloon.   The others try to talk him out of going, but Arcade says that it sounds like something interesting to do.  Morgana asks if he would like company, and Arcade replies “Sure, a guy walking into a poker game should have a beautiful woman on his arm.”   That gives her an idea, and she says to Sam “Come on, I’ve got something to take care of.”   The two of them then leave.

Louie says to Arcade  “I really think that I should get myself a gun.  Will you help me pick one out?”  Arcade replies “Sure, let’s go,” and the two head out for the only gun store in town.  On the way there Arcade asks the half-orc “Exactly what are you looking for.”  Louie replies “Something that is cheap and easy to use.”   Arcade gestures up to a pair of saloon girls, sitting on the second floor balcony of a saloon they are passing and replies “Cheap and easy?  How about one of them?”

They enter the shop, Arcade telling the proprietor “My friend here wants to purchase a firearm".  The man tries to interest them in his most expensive new rifles and pistols.   They eventually decide on a used Colt 45 caliber handgun.  They purchase the gun, a used holster, and four boxes of ammunition for a total of $ 15.95.    Both then head off a quarter-mile south of town.  Arcade sets up a series of tin cans atop rocks, and spends the next hour teaching Louie how to shoot.  

Meanwhile, Sam and Morgana go clothes shopping.   She finds the best clothing store in town, and purchases a women’s wool waist-cut suit jacket and matching pants, a silk/cotton blend blouse, and a good pair of women’s shoes, for a total of $ 19.50.  They then go to another shop and she buys some scented soaps and imported French bath oils.   They then return to the Cantina, with her having Sam carry all of the purchases.    

Morgana inquires to Dorita about where she could get a bath, and is given directions to a nearby bath house.  She tells Sam “I’ll handle this one on my own, stay here.”   She arrives at the bath house, purchasing an hour in a private tub.   Following the bath she dries and fixes her hair up, puts on the new clothes, and then exits from the back door of the place, bringing her Indian clothing back to the church she is staying at, then returning to the Cantina.  She enters the room, looking like a refined Easterner, with no resemblance to the Indian maiden that she previously appeared as.  Sam comments to her “Wow,” and goes to sit down by her.   She tells him to sit at another table instead, wanting to be sitting alone and surprise Arcade when he returns. 

A short while later Arcade and Louie enter the room.   Arcade immediately notices the attractive young woman.  She looks somewhat familiar to him, but he fails to recognize that she is Morgana.   He pulls his chest up and swaggers over to the table, saying to her “Hello Ma’am.  Have I seen you somewhere before?”   She increases her voice a few octaves from her normal speaking voice, and replies “You definitely have Mr. Arcade.”  He thinks for a minute and asks “Virginia City?”  She answers “I believe it was in an alley way that we met.”    He answers “I really don’t think that would be the case.  What would a fine woman like you be doing in an alley?”   

Meanwhile, Sam is sitting two tables over busting his gut, and trying rather unsuccessfully to contain his laughter.  Louie has also recognized her, and has headed up to the bar for a pitcher of beer and some glasses, enjoying the entertainment almost as much as Sam.   Louie heads over to the table just as Morgana responds to Arcade’s question with the reply of “What would I be doing in an alley?  I’d be putting an arrow through the head of a local thug.”   As Arcade’s jaw drops Louie slides a mug in front of her, casually saying “Here Morgana, have some beer.”   

Arcade regains his composure and says “I knew it was you.”  Morgana, Louie and Sam all burst out laughing at that.  Sam says “You did not.”  Louie comments to Arcade “Yeah, he’s right.  With your poor observations skills how did you ever get to be the leader?”   Arcade ignores both of them, not being able to take his eyes off of Morgana, and tells her “You sure clean up nice.”


----------



## Silver Moon

*Promise City, Arizona*

Chapter 11, "Lookin' for trouble or staying out of it?", April 21, 1881, 5:00 P.M. 

Still mesmerized by her change in Morgana’s appearance, Arcade cannot take his eyes off of the attractive young lady.  She tells him “You wanted to bring me with you to the poker game.  You’ll be playing against an experienced gambler, so I thought it might give you an advantage if your opponent had something else to look at.”  Louie comments “Yeah, but I think Arcade will be distracted too.”  It is getting towards evening, and Morgana says, “I guess we should get going," She and Arcade stand, link arms, and head out the door.

Sam and Louie continue to drink their beer when the centaur Qualtaqa enters the Cantina and heads over to join them.    Several patrons give this odd-looking Indian stares, and a cowboy comments “I hope he cleans up after himself.”     “What’s up,” Louie states.   “Shouldn’t you be heading off to work?”  Sam asks.   Qualtaqa answers “I will soon enough.  But first I need to go and talk to one of the town leaders.  I hear he spends evening at the Long Branch Saloon.”  Sam tries to talk the centaur out of going, to no avail.  

Qualtaqa leaves, and Sam says to Louie “Shouldn’t we go with him.”  Louie answers “I’m not going anywhere.  I don’t want to get into any more trouble.  I’m staying here where it is safe.”  “Fine, suit yourself,” Sam answers, and charges out the door after the centaur.   Sam catches up to him and again tries to talk the noble Indian out of “This crazy idea of yours.”   

The reach the Long Branch Saloon and the centaur marches inside.   As soon as he enters the piano player stops playing and the entire saloon becomes totally silent.   Qualtaqa announces that he is looking for Hamilton Fisk.   A well-dressed man at one of the tables stands, and states that he is Fisk.   

Qualtaqa approaches the table, and announces that he is acting in the capacity of ambassador for the Apache.    “What do you want from me?” Fisk asks.   Qualtaqa replies “You are said to be one of the most influential people in the town.  The Apache would like to have peace, they do not seek trouble.   I want assurances from this community that they will be left alone on their lands.”   Fisk replies “I don’t want trouble from them either, but I’m not the one you should be talking too.  Talk to the Deputy Sheriff, he’s in charge of Indian relations.”   Qualtaqa answers “It is important that all town leaders agree.   If you wish to talk to me further know that I am staying at the El Parador Cantina, and know that I am protected by the group called Arcade’s Gang.”   

Sam nearly faints upon hearing that, as the centaur turns and exits the building.  A stunned Sam chases after him, stopping Qualtaqa outside and yelling “What did you tell them that for!”  The Indian replies “Because it is true”.   “We’re not protecting you!” Sam yells.   “Then why are you standing here with me?” is the centaur’s response.  Sam doesn’t have an answer to that one.

Meanwhile, back at the El Parador, Louie has just finished off another drink.  Unfortunately for him, his idea of staying behind to keep out of trouble doesn’t exactly work as planned.   Two tables away, a Mexican sitting in the corner stands up.  The person tosses off his sombrero and poncho, revealing himself to be the human Chris Fargo, the man that Louie had broken the jaw of several days earlier.   Fargo has his gun drawn on the half-orc, stating “I’ve been waiting a long time for you to be alone Ugly.  Now you’re gonna die.”


----------



## Silver Moon

*Promise City, Arizona*

Chapter 12, "Shootout at the El Parador Cantina", April 21, 1881, 5:45 P.M. 

Looking down at the gun barrel of Chris Fargo’s revolver, the half-orc Louie now regrets staying back alone at the Cantina.   Neither the bartender, Jose Ramirez, or any of the other five patrons appear willing to make any moves to assist.  Fargo repeats his threat of “You’re gonna die right now, you Ugly varmint”.   Louie and the others present have same trouble making out exactly what Fargo is saying due to the man’s broken jaw.”

Just then the halfling mage Sydney Sue is descending from the second floor, and sees her employee being threatened.    Using the staircase as cover, the 2’10” woman quickly scurries down to the first floor.  She then makes her way over to them from beneath the tables, to keep the gunman from spotting her.    

Fargo continues to threaten Louie, and asks the half-orc “So, are you gonna beg for your life?”  Before he can answer Sue acts, using what little strength she has to push the flimsy table up into Fargo’s gun hand.   He fires, but the table knocking against him is enough to deflect the shot, the bullet striking the wall eight inches away from Louie’s head.

This sudden movement gives Louie the chance to draw his own gun from its holster, and he fires a shot back at Fargo.   Since the half-orc had never fired a gun until three hours earlier, his marksmanship leaves a lot to be desired.  The bullet hits Fargo in the left arm, which is unfortunately not his gun hand, and not does it hit any main blood vessels.  This only serves to make Fargo angrier. 

Fargo now take careful aim at Louie, pointing his gun directly at the half-orc's chest.  He is totally ignoring the female halfling, who grabs the human’s leg and casts a Shocking Grasp spell.   The spell has the desired effect, sending an electric jolt through the gunman and throwing off his aim, the bullet grazing Louie’s shoulder and deflecting off of the half-orc’s oriental armor.   Louie takes aim and fires again, this time hitting his foe squarely in the chest.   The gunman falls dead in front of Sue.

The tavern is totally silent for the next minute, then the patrons of the Cantina applaud.  Louie walks over towards the body of his foe, and one of the Mexican wood elves asks the half-orc “You aren’t gonna eat him are you?’  “Nah, I never eat anything that died of lead poisoning” is the half-orc’s reply.   He does take a few minutes to help himself to Fargo’s gun, gun belt, and the $ 10.91 that the man was carrying.    Meanwhile, one of the human patrons of the Cantina makes a hasty exit out the door.  

Once the gunfire ceased, the Cantina’s owners Pedro and Dorita Figueres enter the dining room and find out from Jose what has happened.   Louie apologizes to them for the mess.  Pedro tells Louie not to worry about it, but does ask Louie to help him haul Fargo’s body outside, leaving it on the street near the door.   Pedro tells Louie that there has never been a shootout at the El Parador before, so the two bullet holes in the wall from Fargo’s shots will add some notoriety to the place.   Dorita has Jose pour both Louie and Sue a drink “on the house”.   

Before they finish their drinks the Marshal arrives.   He takes a look at Louie and says “You again!  I thought I told you to get a move on.  I don’t like trouble makers in my town.”   “I didn’t start it,” Louie states.  “But you did finish it,” answers the Marshal.  Louie replies “Well, he wasn’t that good a shot.”   The Marshal tells the half-orc to get up, that he’s going to jail until this is all sorted out.  Louie opts to not resist, telling Sue “Let the others know what has happened.”


----------



## Silver Moon

*Promise City, Arizona*

Chapter 13, "Deal’em and weep.", April 21, 1881, 5:45 P.M. 

Arcade and Morgana walk arm-on-arm into the Lone Star Dance Hall and Saloon.   The three-story building is approximately thirty foot square, with a small dance stage on the side wall near a staircase leading to the second floor.    The bar is along the far wall, with two patrons sitting in bar stools.   There are also five tables, with a single man sitting at two of them, cards and poker chips on the table in front of each man.    Arcade heads straight towards the bar, ignoring the two gamblers.   All of the men in the building are almost mesmerized by the sight of Morgana in her high-class attire, as this town does not get many attractive female visitors of wealth.  

The two reach the bar, and Arcade orders himself a whiskey, and a glass of wine “for the lady”.  The two nurse their drinks, and size up the two gamblers, attempted to evaluate which one is the one who called for them.   Morgana whispers to Arcade “You do gamble, right?”  He replies “I came here with you didn’t I?”   

The better dressed of the two gamblers eventually speaks up, saying “You Mr. Arcade?”   He replies “Just Arcade, Mister is what I call my mother.”   The gambler answers “I read about you in the paper.”  “Must have missed that,” Arcade answers, the asks “Are you the Job Kane that invited me here”.   The gambler answers “I am.  The paper says you are ruthless.”   Arcade replies “Newspapers tend to be a bit jaundiced in their outlook.   I just do whatever needs to be done.”   “Care to play a hand of cards?” Kane asks.  “Sure,” replies Arcade, and he heads over to the table with Morgana.  She quietly tells Arcade “If you put me up as a stake in this game I will shoot you in the head.”

Arcade buys $ 25.00 worth of chips.  The two begin the game, with each only putting a dollar chip into each hand.  Kane wins the 1st hand, Arcade the next three, and Kane the 5th.  Stakes do not raise until the 6th hand, where Kane wins the $ 12 pot.  The winning alternates sides for the next five hands, the 12th hand being rather juicy for both.    Arcade is confident with his full house, queens high, and the pot is raised up to $ 32.   Kane also has a full house, but only 10’s high, so Arcade wins.    Morgana realizes that Arcade is now $ 10 ahead of where he started, and wants to cash in that amount.   Kane hands Arcade the $ 10 bill, which is then passed directly to Morgana, Arcade telling her “Buy yourself something nice.”    Another ten hands of poker are played, at the end of which Arcade is only down $ 1 from his initial stake.    

The game is then interrupted by the arrival of Sam, who charges into the building yelling “Louie is in trouble” to Arcade.  Both Arcade and Morgana give the youngster a dirty look.  Arcade tells Kane “Please excuse me a minute while I see what the kid wants.”   Morgana stays at the table, flirting with Kane.

Arcade walks Sam over to the far wall by the dance floor, with Sam blurting out   “Louie is in Jail.”   “And…” Arcade asks, needing more information.   Sam states “You know that Chris Fargo who was after him…well, not anymore.”  “Louie shot him?” Arcade asks.  “Yeah,” Sam replies.   Arcade asks “What started it?  Louie wasn’t trying to buy rice again, was he?”  “No, the guy came looking for him,” Sam replies.  “So it was self defense.  Go bail him out,” Arcade answers.   Sam also tells them about Qualtaqa’s speech at the Long Branch Saloon, but Arcade is not overly concerned about that.  

Arcade shoves Sam out the door, with Arcade yelling “And don’t interrupt me again".  Arcade returns to the table, Kane asking “What was that all about?”  Arcade replies “One of my companions got into some trouble?”  “What kind of trouble?” Kane asks.  “Shot and killed a guy,” Arcade replies.  “Is that all?” Kane answers as he starts to deal the next hand.   Morgana does not comment, continuing to play the part of the dumb girlfriend. 

They play another three hands, after which Arcade is still down only a dollar (and actually $9 ahead counting what Morgana took).   The tide of the game then shifts with the 26th hand, with Kane winning the next three hands, with Arcade loosing another $ 10, now being just below where he had started.   His luck then changes, with the 29th hand dealing Arcade a four-of-a-kind Jacks.   Kane also appears to have a very good hand, and both players keep raising the bet, not stopping until all of Arcade’s chips are in the pot.   Arcade considers buying more chips, but a stern look from Morgana convinces him to call the bet.   Kane then reveals a four-of-a-kind hand, Queens high, and takes the pot.   

Kane thanks Arcade for a good game.  Arcade replies “Well, it was a learning experience….but it was an honest game.”   “We only play honest games under this roof,” Kane replies, a fact that does not agree with what they heard about the gambler at the other table, Tom Lucky.  Arcade answers “Glad to hear it, but my personal preference are honest games that I can also win.”  Arcade and Morgana then head back to the bar.

She asks Arcade “Louie killed someone?”.  Arcade says “Louie shot a guy in self defense.  I assume the other guy is dead, since Louie is now in jail.”  “Is Louie hurt?” she asks.  “Sam didn’t say”, Arcade replies.   They then engage the barkeep in conversation, finding out that the ‘Law and Order’ faction of the town is headed up by the lumberyard owner Neil Cassidy, general store owner Zeb Cook, and town doctor James Eaton.   Morgana comments “I had better check to see if Louie needs some healing.  I wouldn’t trust him to that doctor.”  

Tom Lucky then wanders over to the bar and  asks Arcade “Up for another game.”  Arcade replies “Not tonight.  The lady would prefer that I pay her some attention, if you know what I mean.   Being broke I can handle.  Being broke and lonely is another matter.”   “I understand” Lucky replies.  Arcade and Morgana then leave the Saloon.


----------



## Silver Moon

*Promise City, Arizona*

Chapter 14, "Aftermath", April 21st, 1881, 8:00 P.M. 

Morgana and Arcade arrive back at the Cantina, seeing Sam there alone.   "Didn't you go bail Louie out?" Arcade asks.   Sam answers "I wanted to, but that centaur insisted that he wanted to come along too, and I thought he would just make matters worse."  "I'll do this myself," Morgana states in a huff, and walks out the door.   

She arrives at the Marshal's office.  Marshal Bret Hollister clearly does not recognize her in her new attire, and asks, "What can do for you Ma'am."  "I want to bail Louie out," she says, gesturing to the half-orc, then asks, "How much is bail?"   Hollister now realizes who she is, and replies "How much do you have?"  She answers "Ten dollars."  "That'll do," he answers.  

As she goes to hand over the money she says, "I will get this back, won't I?"   He replies "Sure, as long as the ugly guy shows up in court.  If he skips town or gets himself killed then you lose it."   She looks to Louie and says, "Try not to get yourself killed."   The Marshal unlocks him from the cell, advising the half-orc "And try not to kill anybody else either, that'll look bad to the judge at your trial."  

They return to the Cantina, where the other patrons treat Louie like a celebrity and Arcade tells him "You did well".   Sam suggests that they find somewhere else to stay, but Louie answers "Nah, the guy who wanted to hurt me is dead, and I like the free drinks."    

Morgana states that she will be heading back to the druid church next door.  Arcade asks to accompany her.   They arrive at the grove, and Arcade finally reveals to her that he is also a follower of the druid faith.  They have short services to the nature gods, after which she invites him to see where she spends the nights.  He takes that as an invitation, and the two of them then find a quiet place together in the tree grove behind the church, where they take the relationship to a whole new level.  

April 22nd, 1881:

Sam and Louie come downstairs for a late breakfast, and notice that the others are nowhere around.  Pedro says he has a note for them from the newspaper editor.  Sam comments "Louie, it's for you".  "Actually for you and Arcade," Pedro comments.  "Must be about yesterday," Louie states.   They wait around until early afternoon, and Arcade still does not return.   Louie concludes, "He must be busy.  Want to join me to go see this guy?"   "Sure, I'll go with you, as long as you don't shoot me," Sam jokingly comments.

The two of them make their way over to O'Reilly's Café, where they find a very intoxicated Parker Baxter.  Baxter pours them each a drink and another for himself, and pulls out his paper and pen to take some notes.   

"So, you shot up Chris Fargo?" Baxter asks.  "He didn't leave me any choice," Louie answers.   Baxter says, "Well, I've been asking around.  Apparently when Cleatus James left to go get his cousins he told Fargo to stick around and keep an eye on you.  So what happened?  You saw him and decided to take him out?"  Louie says "He drew on me first, and fired the first shot.  He missed so I shot him back.  Both of my shots hit, his missed."  "So you just cut him down in cold blood?"  "I guess you can call it that," Louie answers.  

Baxter then turns to Sam and asks "And you condone this Mr. Arcade?"  Sam says "What, No!"  "You don't condone this Mr. Arcade?" Baxter then asks.  "I'm not Arcade!" Sam yells back, "as to whether I approve or not, well if somebody had a gun on me then I would kill him."  Baxter frantically jots that down.    The editor then turns back to Louie and says, "If it was just self defense then why were you arrested?"  Louie answers "I don't know.  Ask the Marshal."  Baxter replies "I did.  He said you were a trouble maker."  Louie replies "I don't cause trouble, it comes to me."   Baxter jots that down, finishes his drink, pours himself another one, and then says "Thanks for the interview."  Sam and Louie finish their drinks and then leave.  

April 22nd & 23rd, 1881:

These two days pass by surprisingly uneventfully.   Arcade and Morgana spend a lot more time together.   Louie continues to be congratulated by the Mexicans and other patrons of the Cantina, although they no longer buy him free drinks.   Sam wanders around the town, managing to stay out of trouble. 

April 24th, 1881:

Sydney Sue meets the four of them for lunch at the Cantina.   She pays them for their first week's work.  She says that with Hank and Qualtaqa handling the night guard chores they aren't really needed anymore, but she offers them a chance to "stay on retainer for half-wages, without having to work unless trouble comes up."  That sounds like a good idea to the four.   She adds "Well, as long as the town knows I've got you guys hired that should be enough of a deterrent, given your new reputation."  "What do you mean?" Arcade asks.   "Haven't you seen today's paper yet?" she asks, "with the big headline "Arcade Issues Challenge!".


----------



## Silver Moon

*Promise City, Arizona*

Chapter 15, “Yellow Journalism”, April 24th, 1881, 1:00 P.M.

“WHAT!” Arcade exclaims, upon hearing from Sydney Sue what the top story in today’s newspaper is.  He looks around the room for anyone who may have a copy of the paper.   He sees a Mexican wood elf reading one at a corner table, and walks in that direction.  “May I please take a took at that?” Arcade asks.   The elf looks up, sees who is talking to him, and frantically throws the four-pages of newsprint at Arcade, stammering out “S-s-s-s-sure, kept it, just don’t hurt me!”   Arcade shakes his head and goes back to his friends with the newspaper.

The headline *"Arcade Issues Challenge!"* takes up a third of the front page, with the story below it.   Morgana takes the paper from him and begins to read the story:  

_“For the third time this week another long-time citizen of our fair city has been placed to rest on Boot Hill, the victims of newcomer Arcade and his gang of rabble-rousers.  The most recent fatality is part-time carpenter and occasional wrangler Chris Fargo, who was gunned down in cold blood on April 21st at the El Parador Cantina.   The half-orc member of Arcade's Gang known as Louie shot him.   This is the gang member that had initiated the gunfight on the 17th, which left Larry Harris and Mike Keegan dead at the hands of Arcade and his followers.   

Arcade has apparently staked out the El Parador as his headquarters, and anyone who runs afoul of his gang there will suffer the consequences, as Chris Fargo was unfortunate enough to discover.  Fargo attempted to defend himself from the half-orc, reaching for his own sidearm.  This was hardly fair, as Fargo was still recovering from a beating at the hands of this gang from earlier in the week, so not fast enough.  The half-orcs first shot struck Fargo’s arm, incapacitating him.  The half-orc then fatally shot the defenseless human in the chest.  Louie, like his mentor, feels no remorse at all for his actions.  When asked by this reporter about second thoughts for his bloodthirsty act of bravado the half-orc said “He had it coming to him.  He drew on me so I shot him.”  The half-orc then issued a challenge to the town, saying that “Trouble can come and find me, I’m ready.” 

Arcade was asked by this reporter if Louie spoke for his entire Gang, and the mysterious stranger replied “Sure he does.  I condone his actions.”  The gunfighter then issued his own challenge and warning to all, stating that “If somebody points a gun in my direction I will kill them.”_ 

Morgana looks up, saying “That’s the end of the story.”   Arcade slams his fist on the table, exclaiming “I never said that!”  “No,” Louie comments, “Sam did.”  “That wasn’t exactly what I said,” states Sam.   “If Sam said it then why am I quoted?” Arcade exclaims.  Louie states “That Baxter guy was totally drunk at the time and thought Sam was you.”   “I think we need to go talk to him,” Arcade answers.   They get up to leave, with Morgana comments “I find it interesting that those thugs and deadbeats are now written up as respectable ‘long-time citizens’, especially since this mud hole of a town has only been in existence for a little over a year.”  

The four leave the tavern, without noticing the three related stories on two other pages of the paper.  On page 3 is a story about Qualtaqa, the Indian centaur.  It has an almost factual account of his conversation with Hamilton Fisk at the Long Branch Saloon about being an ambassador for the Apache.  The story includes the reference to his now being protected by Arcade’s gang.   It also mentions that the centaur is working as a guard with Arcade’s gang at the Liberty Hill Mine.  The newspaper editor then speculates that there may be a connection between Arcade and the Apache tribe, especially with the Apache woman and her pet wolf as part of his gang. 

Another almost factual story recounts Arcade’s card game at the Lone Star Dance Hall and Saloon.   Most of the quotes about the card game are from Tom Lucky, the gambler who had watched from an adjacent table.   Lucky talks at length about the “classy looking dame” who was with him, and then about his own challenge of Arcade to a game of cards.   Lucky’s final quote was _“He turned me down for a game.  At the time I didn’t realize what a ruthless gunslinger the guy was, so I guess I should consider myself lucky that I didn’t play him.  He had already lost to Job Kane, and was already upset.  Loosing to me might have really set him off.”_

The final related story is one page 4, and concerns Cletus James.   It reminds the readers that Cletus left town a few days ago to go fetch is cousins Jesse and Frank James, of the infamous James/Younger Gang.   It then says that  Cletus had told Chris Fargo to stay behind and keep an eye on the Arcade situation.  The newspaper editor speculates that with Fargo now dead at the hands of Arcade’s Gang the James Gang will definitely be seeking retribution.   The story concludes with _“Woe to the poor citizens of Promise City who will be caught in the crossfire between these two vicious groups of killers.”_

Next:  The conclusion.


----------



## Silver Moon

*Promise City, Arizona*

Chapter 16, “Freedom of the Press?”, April 24th, 1881, 1:30 P.M.

The quartet of Arcade, Louie, Morgana and Sam arrive at O’Reilley’s Café looking for Parker Baxter.   The bartender and owner, Walter O’Reilley, tells them that the newspaper editor has not come in yet this day.  The group get directions to the office where the newspaper is published.  

They arrive at the office, the only employee being a teenage boy who is carrying a box of type letters.  They enter, the boy looking up and asking “If you people are looking to buy a paper we’re sold out.”   “People call me Arcade,” the man announces, which causes the boy to let out a yelp and drop the box of type onto the floor.   Arcade walks up to the boy and says “I don’t like what I’ve been reading in the paper.”   The boy exclaims “Please don’t kill me, I have a wife and kid to support.”   That comment takes Arcade by surprise, and he asks “Wife and kid?  How old are you boy?”  “Fourteen” the boy answers, adding “We kind of had to get married.”  

“OK, listen up kid,” Arcade says. “I won’t kill you provided that you do two things for me.  First, tell me where I can find Parker Baxter.  And second, promise me that you will NEVER AGAIN set the type for any story about me.  I mean it, if I ever see my name in this rag again I’m going to hold you PERSONALLY RESPONSIBLE!  It that clear?”  The boy nods, and agrees to both terms.   The group then leave.

They arrive at the Baxter house, a large two story brick structure.   The front door is unlocked and slightly ajar, so they enter.  Nobody is on the first floor, and there are dirty dishes from the previous night as well as several empty whiskey bottles.  “Must be upstairs sleeping it off,” Louie concludes.

They make their way upstairs, finding Baxter passed out on the bed, wearing a pair of long underwear that he apparently had on the day before.   The pudgy middle-aged man has a day’s growth of beard and smells like he’s been showering in booze.  Morgana tells Louie and Sam to go back downstairs and get some pots and pans from the kitchen.  They soon return, and she instructs them to “Bang those together near his head while Arcade and I thrown open the curtains.”    As they do so Morgana adds to the racket by letting out a high pitched scream. 

The sudden onslaught of light and noise immediately wake the hung-over newspaper editor, who yells out “WHAT IS HAPPENING!”   Arcade gestures for his companions to stop making noise and says “I have a bone to pick with you?”  “Who are you?” the confused man states.  “ARCADE!” he yells back, “And that rag you print is as yellow and sorry as your liver.”   “What, Huh?” Baxter states.  “I’m sick of the lies you are printing about me!” Arcade answers.

Baxter regains some composure, and says “What are you talking about.  Those were direct quotes.”  “I didn’t say any of that!” Arcade replies.  “Sure you did, you told me all that a few days ago at O’Reilley’s”.  “That wasn’t me you drunken louse, you were talking to him” Arcade says, pointing to Sam.   “You want me to print a retraction?” Baxter says.  “No, just leave me out of your paper all together…..or else!” Arcade answers.   “You’re threatening me?” Baxter exclaims.  “Not a threat, a promise,” is Arcade’s answer.  

Baxter then gets uppity, stating “How dare you!  You break into my home!  Threaten me!  And have no respect for the freedom of the press!”   “We didn’t break in, the door was open,” Sam states.   Baxter mutters “The young lady must not have locked it on her way out.”   Arcade sarcastically states “Shocking!  Imagine that, a young lady could actually bring herself to leave such a fine specimen of a man as you.”   

Louie joins in the fun, stating “What should we do with him?”, and smiles a grin showing off his fangs.   Morgana suggesting tying him to the bedposts so that he can think about what he’s done.  The others go along with the idea, and the man soon has his arms and legs lashed tight.   Baxter protests loudly until he is told “Shut the hollering’ or we’ll gag you too.”   Arcade then instructs him “If I ever see my name in your paper again I’ll be back, is that clear.”  The man nods.   They start to leave, and Baxter says “Are you going to let me go?”   Morgana states “We might let the kid or works for you know to come by later.”  Louie says “Yeah, or we might just set the fire to the first floor.”   They all exit the building, being sure to lock the door behind them.

One consistency with the real wild west is that Arcade’s reputation was created by the press rather than actual fact, especially considering that he was the only member of his quartet who didn’t kill anybody during this module. 

The End (for now).


----------



## Piratecat

Cool!


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## Silver Moon

*Thank's PC*



			
				Piratecat said:
			
		

> *Cool!   *




Thanks Piratecat!  I'm really glad that you enjoyed it.


----------



## Silver Moon

*Follow-up*

Arcade's player is currently writing a module that will bring the characters to 1881 Victorian-era England.  Should be an interesting place to drop a group of cowboys and indians. 

And while the characters are still in England, Morgana's player has a few thoughts on how to use them in that setting too.

I'm not sure which of those modules will actually be ready first, but I am personally looking forward to getting to play the centaur paladin-like Indian.


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## Silver Moon

Bump, as this was referenced twice in recent threads and I want to make it easier for readers to find.


----------



## Silver Moon

Referenced in "Plots & Places" for an upcoming game with this campaign setting, so Bumped to be more easily found.


----------



## Silver Moon

*"The James Gang Comes to Town"*

Chapter 17, “Three months later…”, July 29th, 1881:

A little over three months have passed since we last visited with Arcade’s Gang, which has been a relatively quiet time for them in Promise City.    During the month of May, Circuit Judge Nathan Isby came to town for Louie’s trial.   After hearing testimony from the El Parador Cantina witnesses the Judge declared Louie innocent of murder, declaring that the killing was done in self-defense.    Marshal Bret Hollister was not pleased with this decision, and has continued to suggest that Arcade and his associates should move on.

Also in May, Morgana and Sam finally received their back pay for work on the Rocking H Ranch.  The ranch owner, Forest Morand, sent the money to them via his son Zachary, who owns the Morand Cartage Company in the northeast corner of Promise City.   Zachary mentioned that he might want to hire Arcade’s Gang as additional guards if he ever needs to have a valuable shipment to send.    

In early June the railroad line being constructed between Tombstone and Promise City ceased construction.   The official reason was that the railroad company needed to temporarily allocate their resources to complete a railroad line in the northern part of the state, however the rumor has it that Kris Wagner, owner of the local Wells Fargo Stagecoach, bribed them to stop construction as it would have severely hurt his business. 

In mid-June the Liberty Hill Mine struck a very profitable silver vein.  Additional miners were hired, and Arcade’s Gang was reinstated as full-time guards for a three-week period while the majority of this vein was mined.   The Gang has now returned to being only on retainer, at half-wages.   The English Duke and his male halfling associate have now moved on to visit his other mines, but the halfling’s sister Sydney Sue has decided to remain in Promise City. 

Arcade’s Gang has continued to be omitted from mention in the papers.   During this time they have also taken on a few odd jobs.  Arcade and Morgana have started doing some large animal veterinary work, and Morgana has also assisted as mid-wife for a few human births.   Louie has done some odd jobs at half-orc Charlie Wong’s Laundry, where the owner’s daughter Mary Wong seems to have taken an interest in him.  Sam has worked part-time at Driscoll’s Tannery.    Overall, the Gang’s individual incomes have exceeded their cost of living, for a slight profit for each (3d20$ and %cents).

While the town itself is not very large, being a mere four by six city blocks, the Gang has stayed pretty much in the poorer southeastern corner of town, where most of the non-humans reside.   They occasionally see a few wealthier towns folk coming into the El Parador Cantina to partake of the female entertainment, but otherwise have had minimal contact with the more respectable members of town.   Furthermore, the banker Frank Condon, doctor James Eaton, and Great Western Boarding House Owner Bill Watson have formed the Promise City Civic Association, whose main goal appears to be to institute Law and Order to the town and run out “undesirables” like Arcade’s Gang. 

The Gang has made friends with the employees and residents of the Cantina, as well as several neighbors.   The Cantina is owned by wood elves Pedro and Dorita Figueres, whose daughter Sanoma sings and dances to the maraca and concertina music provided by Estaban Fuente, who also serves as the Cantina’s bouncer.   The Cantina’s three resident harlots, Estaban’s sister Maria, Pepita Alverez, and Angelica Husesca provide other entertainment.   Angelica’s four-year-old half-elvan son Ricardo assists the Cantina’s human workman Grant Keebler.  Estaban has also been teaching the lad how to pick pockets.  The other two employees, who reside elsewhere in town, are the bartender Jose Ramirez and his twin brother Carlos who runs a gambling table at the establishment.  

In addition to Arcade, Sam, Louie, Sydney Sue and the centaur Qualtaqa, there are now four other long-term residents of the Cantina, all non-human.   These are an older wood elf named Manuel Gonzalez, who is believed to be a retired priest; Juan Gomez, a charismatic wood elf hired gun, who has had moderate luck with gambling; Kentucky “Shotgun” Krugg, an ogre who was once a slave, who works as both a hired gun and a miner at the Liberty Hill Mine; and Nils “Great-Axe” Svelsfjord, a dwarven prospector who has been trying to stake a new claim in the hills near town. 

The neighbors that the Gang knows best include their associates Morgana, who resides in the tree grove behind the adjacent Celtic & Mexican church, run by the priest Thomas Valdez, both half-elves.   Their associate and fellow mine guard Hank resides across the street at the Great Western Boarding House.   The half-orcan Wong family resides nearby, and consists of Charlie and Li Wong, and their children Mary and Harry.    Another family that the Gang has come to know is the Toluccas, who are chicken farmers of the wood elf race.   They consist of Juan and Maria, and their children Roberto, Consuela and Manuel.   Roberto is infatuated with the female entertainers at the Cantina, and Consuela often sings along with Sanoma and Morgana.  

Other friendly neighbors who spend time at the Cantina include Cole Rixton, a respectable human who owns a nearby furniture store.   Hannibal Brown, a human who runs Brown’s Ice House next door also begins his day with breakfast at the Cantina.  The party also sees his children Maxwell and Liza, both in their early twenties.  Liza is a flirt, who has currently caught the attention of Rixton, Hank and Juan Gomez.   Maxwell dislikes both Hank and Gomez, wanting her to take up with only Rixton.   Ice House employees Samson Hill and Beecher Lawson also spend time at the Cantina, usually with the female entertainers.  

The last two neighbors that the party has gotten to know are a pair of successful gamblers who live in the house behind the Cantina.   They are humans Conrad Booth and Paget Flashman.  These two usually have their first meal of the day at the Cantina around noontime, before heading over to the their tables at the Long Branch Saloon.  Pedro is content that they have no interest in gambling at the Cantina, as they have a less-than-stellar reputation and have been banned from two other saloons in town.


----------



## Silver Moon

*Chapter 18, “News of the James Gang Arriving Soon!” July 29th, 1881:*

It is the middle of the morning, and Arcade, Louie, Morgana and Sam meet on the first floor of the El Parador Cantina for breakfast.    The meal is interrupted by the arrival of Angelica Young, the teenage wife of the typesetter at the Promise City Harald.    Her one-year old son Mark is situated in a pack on her back, and she is carrying a stack of the latest edition of the Newspaper, selling them at the various taverns and saloons in town.   

The main stories in the prior week’s paper had been rather exciting, concerning the shootout between Billy the Kid and Sheriff Pat Garrett in the nearby New Mexico Territory.   Since she is holding a larger than usual stack of papers, indicating a large print run, everyone present assumes this edition will be equally exciting, and every patron in the tavern pulls out a nickel to purchase copy.    Everyone at Arcade’s table does the same, despite the fact that the half-orc Louie is only beginning to learn to read.    All four get caught up in the story on page one, which has the headline *“James Gang Arriving Soon!”* in huge type across the top.  

The story reads as follows:

_Outlaws Frank and Jessie James have been identified as being the leaders of the Gang responsible for the robbery of the First Bank of Albuquerque, New Mexico Territory, on the morning of July 19th. Two guards were killed during the attack and three citizens were wounded including the Bank’s President, Josiah Holbert.  

The James Brothers had become famous while members of the James/Younger Gang, which disbanded following a failed robbery in Northbridge, Minnesota on September 7, 1876.   Under the leadership of Jesse James the gang became active again in October 8, 1879 with a train robbery in Glendale, Missouri.  They next struck on September 3, 1880, robbing a Wells Fargo Stage in Mammoth Caves, Kentucky.  The Gang's subsequent robbery was of a payroll officer in Muscle Shoals, Alabama on March 11th of this year.      

On June 10th they held up a bank in Riverton, Iowa.  Three current members of the James Gang, Jim Cummins, Bill Ryan and Clarence Hite were spotted in late June watching a bank in Wichita, Kansas, but departed prior to United States soldiers arriving on the scene.   Iowa is fourteen hundred miles to the northeast, Wichita is a thousand miles to the northeast, and Albuquerque is only three hundred miles in that very same direction.  It would appear that the James Gang is now moving is a straight line towards southeastern Arizona Territory.  

This reporter finds these movements of the James Gang to be either a frightening coincidence, or clear evidence that Cletus James has made good on his threats to bring his notorious cousins to our fair city.    Readers of the Promise City Herald will recall that Cletus James was the leader and sole survivor of a group of four citizens that were ruthlessly gunned down in our city during two separate incidents on April 17th and 21st of this year.  The individuals responsible for the attacks on Cletus and his friends remain within Promise City, and are presently staying at the El Parador Cantina.  

When asked about the impending situation Marshal Bret Hollister was quoted to say “If both of those gangs want to kill each other, that’s fine with me.  We don’t need any of their type around here.  I just hope the good citizens of Promise City are able to stay out of the line of fire._

Morgana is the first to finish reading, and comments “This James Gang does not impress me, being recognized at all these different places.   Why would they rob all of those places and also let people know that they did it?   Wouldn’t robbers that were any good keep from being identified?”  Sam comments “Maybe they don’t care.”   Louie adds, “More likely, they want people to know who they are, to enhance their reputations.”  

Arcade comments “Damn, why did the paper have to print where we are staying.”   “Hey, at least they didn’t mention any of us by name” Louie comments.  It then appears that other patrons of the establishment have the same concern, as several short-term guests get up and inform the Cantina owner Pedro that they will be checking out, and then hurry up to their rooms to pack.    After getting Morgana to translate a few of the bigger words, Louie comments “Doesn’t look like the Marshal plans to do anything to stop them.”  “Except maybe hide behind his desk,” Morgana mutters.  

They all then turn the page, reading page two, which begins with the headline*“Billy the Kid still at Large, May have joined up with the James Gang!”*   The story reads as follows:

_As reported in last week's edition of The Promise City Herald, the notorious outlaw and convicted criminal William H. Bonney, also known as Billy the Kid, remains at large.   He was last sighted on July 13th in Fort Sumner, New Mexico Territory, where he shot and killed Sheriff Pat Garrett. 

Earlier this year Bonney had been captured, and on April 13th Judge Warren Bristol sentenced him in Lincoln County, New Mexico Territory, to hang a month later.  On April 28th Bonney escaped from the Lincoln County Jail, killing both of his guards.   Following the escape Sheriff Pat Garrett and two of his deputies began searching for Bonney.  The trail led to Fort Sumner, where Bonney and Garrett had a mutual friend.  A shootout followed at the friend's home, leaving Garrett dead. 

This reporter finds it to be an interesting coincidence that both Billy the Kid and the James Gang were committing crimes in central New Mexico Territory during the same week, and speculates that there might be a connection.   Bonney could have certainly traveled the one-hundred-sixty mile trip to Albuquerque during the intervening six days between the murder of Garrett and the bank robbery.  Bonney could be of great assistance to the James brothers, knowing the New Mexico Territory well._ 

The bottom third of the page is filled with the following ad:  

_Come and Dine at O’Reilly’s Café –Often called “The best breakfast in Promise City”!  A nickel will buy you fried eggs, beef stew, coffee and toast. O’Reilly’s also serves up a mighty fine lunch. Located on Front Street right off of Main Street, just behind the First National Bank of Promise City._

After reading the page, Sam comments “Pretty shocking news.”   Arcade casually replies, “I would certainly agree with that statement.  Since when has O’Reilly’s started to serve beef stew with their breakfasts?  We’ll have to go back there again soon to try it.”


----------



## Silver Moon

*Chapter 19, “A visit with the Deputy Sheriff”, July 29, 1881:*

The gunslinger and mine guard Hank awakens mid-morning.   It is after breakfast hours at the Great Western Boarding House and too early for lunch, so he decides to head across the street to the El Parador Cantina for something to eat.    Along the way he passes the woman selling newspapers, and buys himself a copy.   Entering the Cantina, he sees the four part-time mine guards that he works with sitting at a table reading the newspapers, the half-orc holding his upside down.   

Hank pulls up a chair at the table and sits down.  Arcade nods in his direction, and then looks back at the paper.  Hank orders a mug of coffee from Dorita, and begins to read his own newspaper.    When he gets to the bottom of page one he stops and says to Arcade “What exactly did you do to tick off this Cleatus James character?”   Arcade answers “Not much, I just shot him in the chest.”    “Any particular reason?” Hank asks.   Arcade answers, “I didn’t care for the name Cleatus.”  Louie interjects “He was picking on me, and Arcade decided to help.” 

Hank asks, “What exactly are you going to do now?  The paper tells where to find you.”  Arcade replies “Well, I could just stay with Morgana in the tree grove behind the church.”  “Only if or when you are invited!” she emphatically responds.   “This is the wrong time to be fickle,” Arcade tells her.  Morgana replies, “I’m not fickle, I’m independent.”

Louie asks Hank “Are there any rooms available at your boarding house across the street?”  Hank replies “For you?  Forget it.  The Boarding house owner is one of the men who wants you guys run out of town.”   Louie says “Well, why don’t we just shoot the guy and take over his place?”  

Everyone goes back to reading his or her papers.   Hank reads page two, which mentions that Billy the Kid may have joined the James Gang.  “Mighty bad news, this James Gang coming to town.”   Arcade replies “Yeah.  I’ve heard that El Paso is good this time of year.”   Morgana comment “Run away?”  Louie says, “We could all go work for the railroad.  It’s far away from here.”   Arcade says, “We could find a place that we could fortify and hold up in, and wait for them to come.”  Morgana states, “Why bother? Given how accurate this paper has been before I doubt they are even coming here.”

Hank says, “I hope you learned your lesson about this.   Don’t leave anyone you fight alive, it will only come back to haunt you.”    The group speculates about what the James Gang will do.  Morgana comments, “If I were them I’d hit the two banks first.”   Hank asks, “Would the banks in a little town like these even have enough money to interest them?”  Arcade replies, “Well, there are four working silver mines in this town.  The banks are probably sitting on a decent amount of cash.”  

They ask Pedro his opinion, and he suggests they go talk to the law.  “Why bother?  The Marshal is quoted in the paper to say he doesn’t give a damn,” Sam comments.   Pedro replies, “Not him, he’s just paid to look after things in town. I meant the Sheriff, who is the law for Cochise County.  The Deputy Sheriff’s office is at the corner of Main and Front streets.”   The five decide to go and talk to the Deputy Sheriff.

As they enter the small one-room brick building the Deputy Sheriff asks what they want.  Arcade introduces himself, to which the Deputy Sheriff says, “Oh, I’ve been expecting you guys.  I guess I owe you an apology.”   “What for?”  Morgana asks.   He replies, “For using you as bait.  I worked with Parker Baxter on the text of those newspaper stories.”   “Any particular reason?” Arcade asks. 

The man introduces himself as Colin Hunter, saying that he works for County Sheriff Johnny Behan, whose office is in Tombstone.    Behan had summoned him to Tombstone two days earlier to discuss the James Gang situation, after which Hunter returned to Promise City and met with Parker Baxter to work on the newspaper stories.   

“But why did you pinpoint us?” Morgana asks.   Hunter replies, “I have very limited resources to guard against the gang, basically myself and two other deputies that will be coming in on today’s stagecoach, so needed to try to narrow the number of potential targets.  Look at the ads in the paper.  Several of them make references to where the businesses are in relation to the banks.   My office is situated equidistant to both banks, one across the street the other two buildings south of here.  That should attract the James Gang to both of them as targets.”  

“And us!” Louie exclaims.   Hunter answers “Yeah, but you’re Arcade’s Gang.  You guys can take care of yourself just fine.”  “How do you figure that?” Hank asks.   Hunter answers “Parker Baxter has told me about what you guys are capable of.”  Morgana interjects “Parker Baxter is also a drunk, why would you believe anything he says?”   Hunter answers, “You guys are too modest.  Everyone in town knows of your Gang’s reputation.”


----------



## Silver Moon

*Chapter 20, “Acquiring Allies”, July 29, 1881:*

Arcade asks the Deputy Sheriff, “Do you know how many members are in the James Gang?”   Hunter replies “No, not yet.  But a pair of Federal agents will be arriving on tomorrow’s stagecoach with more information.  You may want to come back then.  Actually, what I’m really hoping for is that the newspaper will scare them off completely.  I’m sending out copies of this paper to be circulated around Tombstone, and the towns of Galeyville and Dos Cabezas, which they will probably travel through one of those places to get here unless they come over the mountains.  Jesse and Frank prefer to take places by surprise, and this publicity may be more than they bargained for.

Morgana says that she knows something about the gang, and then spins a bard’s tale about once when Frank and Jesse James were on the run following a robbery, and were given food and lodgings by an elderly woman who did not know who they were.   During breakfast the following day she told them of how the bank was foreclosing on her farm, as he could not come up with the $ 900 she needed to pay in back taxes.   The boys took out $ 900 of their loot, gave it to the woman, and told her to bring it to the bank and to be sure to get a receipt.    She did as they instructed, after which they then robbed the bank to get back their $ 900, plus a bit more. 

Hunter thanks her for the story, saying that he had not heard that one before.   She replies “You’ll hear that and more if I wind up dead because of your story in the paper.  I’ll come back as a ghost and haunt you for all eternity.”   The Deputy Sheriff is unsure of how to take that comment.   Louie comments, “She does a pretty good job of haunting us while she is still alive.”    The Deputy Sheriff decides to break the now increasing level of growing tension by inviting them to join him in a drink.  

They walk down the street to the Long Branch Saloon, one of the larger establishments in town, and he buys them all a drink.   This saloon does not allow anyone to hold firearms, and the Deputy Sheriff and the party are required to check their guns at the bar.   Morgana comments, “I’m sure that is why those gamblers Booth and Flashman prefer to gamble here.”   

They have a pleasant conversation with Hunter, who explains how he and one other Sheriff’s Deputy in Galleyville are the law for the Eastern half of Cochise County.   His primary work responsibility is Indian relations, which is why he normally leaves the law enforcement in the town to the Marshal.   Since Marshal Hollister has chosen to not involve himself in this current situation it falls upon the County Sheriff’s office to do so. 

Following the drinks at the saloon, Arcade’s Gang decides to wander over to O’Reilly’s Café, to see if the newspaper editor might be there.   He isn’t, but the smell of freshly made beef stew is enough to prompt the group to sit down for an early lunch.   During lunch Arcade declares, “We need a plan people!”   Louie says, “Maybe those Federal agents will help.  I hope they arrive in town before the James Gang does.   Morgana suggests, “I think we need to talk to the Apache Indians.  They could prevent the James boys from getting here through the mountains.”  “Good idea,” Arcade comments. 

The lunch is interrupted by the arrival of a well-dressed gentleman who introduces himself as Dick Lester, and asks if he can talk to them about some business?  “What type of business?” Arcade asks.   Lester explains that he is the town undertaker, and wishes to see if any of them would like to make arrangements for themselves at Lester’s Funeral Parlor.   He begins to explain about the different types of caskets that he has available.  Morgana says, “You’re not taking my measurements!”   _(Lester replies with a comment that Eric’s Grandmother would not approve of.)_   Arcade then forcibly ejects the man from the Café, with the undertaker yelling back “Fine.  Be that way.  At least I’ll get paid for issuing the death certificates.”   Arcade replies, “Yes, but they won’t be ours.”

The group decides what to do next, and Louie suggests they go harass the typesetter at the newspaper office just for fun.   Arcade says, “No, I like Morgana’s idea about talking to the Apache.  Let’s go see what the centaur thinks of that idea.”   The group heads back towards the stables at the El Parador, and find the centaur.    Hank actually does the talking, knowing Qualtaqa best due to the two guarding the mine together on a full-time basis.   Qualtaqa suggests that the group all stand guard duty this evening, and that he will then go talk to the Apache.  

The group then heads back into the Cantina, where another round of drinks are ordered.   Currently sitting down for lunch is the hired gun wood elf Juan Gomez, who gets into a discussion with Hank about the James Gang.   Gomez jokes about the situation maybe ending the fact that they are both rivals for the hand of Liza Brown.  Hank comments “I’ve about lost interest in her anyway.  She’s a bit too pushy for my taste.”   Gomez says that he was only kidding, and that they can count on him to help out if they need any help against the James Gang.    The dwarven prospector Nils “Great Axe” Svelsford is also in attendance, and he too offers to assist them. 

Morgana approaches another Cantina resident, the elderly Mexican priest Manuel Gonzalez, and comments “Are you worried about the James Gang coming here?”  He looks to her and asks, “Are you?”  She replies, “Yes, of course I am.”   He comments, “Then I may be able to help you.   Are your friends trustworthy?”   She replies, “I do not know the gunslinger Hank that well, but I would trust the others with my life".   Gonzales says “Let me go speak to Dorita about this.”  He heads into the kitchen.  

A few minutes later Dorita approaches the table, and asks the party to join her for a private discussion in the part of the Cantina where she and Pedro live.   The party follows her into that section, where Gonzalez is already seated in a chair.   She says that if they are willing to keep a secret she might be able to offer them great assistance in the upcoming battle with the James Gang.  The party all assure her that they can be trusted. 

She then tells them that Gonzalez is her grandfather, and that he is not a priest but a wizard.   Wizards are not trusted in most parts of North America, and Manuel even more so, as he fought with Santa Anna’s army at the Alamo.     Although it happened 32 years ago, feelings about the Alamo, and of the deaths of the Texans at the hands of the Mexican soldiers and mages, still run deep.  She explains that Gonzalez had lived in west Texas until recently, when his identity was found out.  He fled, and has been living here with his granddaughter ever since.    

Gonzalez explains that he is a rather powerful mage (8th level) and is willing to help the party in their upcoming fight.  He also offers to apprentice a member or two of their party, which Morgana immediately accepts.   She tells the elderly wood elf that in the event that he casts any offensive spells in battle he should make it appear that they come from her instead.    Arcade thanks Dorita and Manuel for their generous offer of assistance.   She says, “Well, I like you guys and you are good customers, but personal self-interest also enters into this.  Chances are the Cantina won’t be getting much business until this situation is resolved.”


----------



## Silver Moon

Chapter 21, “Seeking out more information and assistance,” July 29, 1881:

The group head back to their respective rooms to get some sleep, as they are planning to be up for quite a bit of the night.   Around sunset they meet back up in the Cantina lobby for supper, finding them to be the only customers.   They then head over towards the Liberty Hill Mine just as the six miners are finishing up for the day.    The mine’s principal owner, Graf Holzer, says “Howdy.  I heard about what is going on.   Talk to Kentucky.”   

The party approaches the miner and hired gun Kentucky “Shotgun” Krugg, an ogre who had also been a slave prior to the Civil War.   Krugg says, “Mister Holzer says that I can help you guys instead of mining for the next week or so.”   “You don’t mind?  It could be trouble,” Morgana comments.   The ogre replies “Sounds like easier work to me.  I got the nickname ‘Shotgun’ for a reason.”  Morgana asks, “What do you use for shot?”  “Usually scatter,” the Ogre replies, “Been shooting all my life.”   Arcade comments, “Wait a minute?  They trusted a slave with a gun?”   Krugg smiles and says, “Sure.  I helped protect the master’s livestock from predators.”   “In Kentucky?  What type of predators?” Morgana asks.  Krugg grins and replies “Wolves, foxes, bears and rustlers.”

The ogre says he is going to go get some food and shuteye, and will join up with them in the morning.  Once the miners are gone the centaur Quletaqa heads off to the northeast.  The others settle into a quiet night of guard duty.   

July 30, 1881:

Shortly after midnight Morgana hears the sound of horse hooves approaching.  The centaur is seen approaching alongside a mounted rider.    They approach, the rider dismounting.   Arcade, Louie, Morgana and Sam recognize him as the Chief of the Apache.   The Indian leader gestures to Hank, and asks, “Who is this?”   Arcade sarcastically replies, “He’s my lover,” which earns him a dirty look from Hank.   “Who are you?” Hank asks.   The Indian replies, “I am Geronomo.”  Hank is taken aback by this, and mutters, “Well I’ll be damned.”  Morgana adds, “You probably will be.”  

Geronomo thanks the party for keeping his ambassador Qualtaqa safe within the town.    Morgana says, “You are very welcome.  We now have a favor to ask of you.”   She then explains about the group of human bandits known as the James Gang, that they might be trying to get to Promise City by way of the mountains.    She explains that the Deputy Sheriff has used her and her friends as bait to attract them to this region.   He asks about the safety of Qualtaqa, and is assured that the centaur should be okay as long as he maintains a low profile in the Cantina’s stable and not spend time around the town itself during the next week.

Geronomo agrees to stop any groups of armed humans who try to travel though the mountains.  “Why are you so willing to help us?” a skeptical Arcade asks.   The Chief gestures to Morgana and then Louie saying, “She is of the people.  He is…of something.  You humans protect them, and my ambassador.  I will help protect you as well.”   He then tells Morgana, “Let your Deputy Sheriff know that we will stop all groups of armed humans we see.  To avoid confusion and mishaps please have him keep the soldiers away from the Mountains.”  Morgana answers, “I will”, with a smile coming to her face as she realizes that was actually his primary motive for agreeing to help.   The Indian chief rides off.   The group remains on guard duty until dawn. 

At dawn Morgana heads immediately to the Deputy Sheriff’s office.   An unknown armed human answers the door.  She says, “I’m looking for the Deputy Sheriff.”  He replies, “I am Deputy Sheriff Billy Breckenridge.”    “No, the usual one,” she replies.    “Let her in,” Colin Hunter’s voice yells out.   She enters, with Hunter and another man still lying on two of three cots in the room.   Hunter says “Billy and John joined me yesterday.  Guys, this is the female member of Arcade’s Gang.”    She tells them about the meeting with Geronomo, to which they thank her and agree to get word to the Army to stay out of the Mountains for the indefinite future.   She departs.

Being up all night the Gang decides to sleep until mid-afternoon, telling Kentucky to wake them if any trouble starts.     Once awake, they eat and just hang around the Cantina until it is time for the afternoon Wells Fargo stage to arrive from Tombstone.    Arcade, Louie, Hank, Morgana and Sam head over and watch for the stage.   Two well-dressed men wearing side arms exit the stage, each carrying a travel bag, and walk directly to the Deputy Sheriff’s Office, entering it.   

The group walks over in that direction.   Arcade suggests that they wait, but Morgana decides to barge right in.    She comes back outside, and gestures for the rest of the Gang to join her.   The Office is rather cramped with ten people now inside it.    Colin Hunter first points to Morgana and her companions, introducing them as “Arcade’s Gang, who I’m sure you have heard about.”  “Otherwise know as ‘the bait’”, Louie interjects.  Hunter then gestures to the two better-dressed men, one a handsome man in his late thirties wearing a green suit, the other a heavier-set man in his early fifties wearing a gray suit, and states “And these two gentlemen are from the Federal Government.”  

The more handsome man extends his hand in greeting towards Arcade, and says “Hello.  My name is James T. West, and my associate is Artimis Gordon.”    One of the players comments, “I guess we should have seen that one coming.”


----------



## Silver Moon

Chapter 22, “Night of the Lady Safecracker”, July 30, 1881:

Louie comment, “West?  You mean this whole part of the county is named after you?”  Ignoring the orc, West tells the deputies and gang, “Artemis and I have been on the trail of an expert safecracker, who we believe is now working with the James Gang.  “Your Gang?” Louie comments.   “No!” West exclaims.  “But you said your name was James.”  “My first name is James!  The gang is Frank and Jesse James.  Anyway, we believe that this safecracker is now working with them.  An individual matching her description was working with them at the bank robbery in Albuquerque eleven days ago.”      

West asks, “How much do you guys know about safes?”   Morgana replies “A little..” and then goes into a lengthy description about locking mechanisms, tumblers and types of combinations used.   West and Gordon are both amazed at this Indian woman’s knowledge of such things.  

West then says, “Artemis, for the benefit of everyone other than her, why don’t you give us a short history about safe manufacturers.   Artemis Gordon begins “Most of the large East Coast banks originally started with large vaults and safes made by the Chubb Brothers of England, but due to the high cost of shipping such heavy objects across the ocean a number of United States safe companies soon developed.   Currently there are about a dozen domestic manufacturers, although the market is dominated by the three largest, the Mosler Safe Company of Hamilton Ohio, the Diebold Safe and Vault Company of Canton Ohio, and the Harrisburg Safe Company of Harrisburg Pennsylvania.   

Harrisburg Safes use to be the top company, with their reputation being built upon the fact that the locks were uniquely engineered to be unbreakable and robbery-proof.   They became the second largest after the great Chicago fire ten years ago, where a number of Diebold safes were found to have their contents intact, as the publicity from that then made Diebold the main company.  Harrisburg Safe’s popularity continued to wane  following the death of the company’s Chief Engineer and Locksmith, with Mosler now being the second largest.” 

West continues “The United States Secret Service became involved in the case two years ago, as a result of a counterfeiting ring that ravaged the states along the east coast.   Most counterfeiters are caught when trying to distribute the fake money, but this ring operated by secretly breaking into bank vaults and then replacing real currency with the fake, the thefts often going unnoticed for some time.  What our investigation found in common with these thefts was that all of the banks involved had safes and vaults from the Harrisburg Corporation.”  

Gordon continues, “We visited the Directors of that company, who reluctantly divulged the suspected identity of the person responsible.  Her name was Mae Clarke, the widow of their former Chief Engineer and Locksmith Josiah Clarke.    Following her husband’s death in a plant accident she had approached the Board of Directors about hiring her.   They knew that she had visited her husband’s private workshop everyday, bringing him lunch and sharing a private lunch hour with him.   She told the Board that she never actually ate with her husband, using the lunch hour to test out the latest lock designs.   She said that she also tested every safe and vault before it left the plant, and volunteered her skills at the same pay scale that her husband received.   They did not believe her, and only gave her a small stipend as compensation for her husband’s death.”   “The equivalent of a gold watch,” Arcade mutters.  “Stupid men,” Morgana adds. 

West continues, “Artemis and I decided to go meet this woman.  We approached her house, and the attractive thirty-year-old woman let us in.   She must have suspected why we were there, as she lured us into her study and then shut the door.  We quickly discovered that the wooden walls, floor, ceiling and doors to that room were only a façade, and we found ourselves locked inside of a metal vault.”  Morgana mutters “More stupid men.”   Gordon glares at her, and says, “We were not without our resources.  We managed to escape the trap, but by that time she was long gone.”   

West continues, “For the next year that she was on the run, banks and private homes that had Harrisburg vaults and safes found themselves subject to robberies.   The company worked to replace the locks on all products they had sold during the prior decade, assuming that she had a copy of the combinations, but she managed to get the new locks opened just as easily.   As the company’s reputation back east waned and they rapidly lost business to their two competitors, they decided to send the Harrisburg sales force west of the Mississippi River.”  Arcade interjects, “What?  They just assumed that a woman wouldn’t be able to travel west on her own?”

West says, “Apparently, but as you have surmised, as the company’s products moved west, so did their nemesis.  For the past year Mae Clarke is rumored to have been working with the Douglas Gang*, as most of their robberies were at locations with Harrisburg products.   Two other Federal Agents captured the leaders of the Douglas Gang during a robbery in California a few months ago.  A woman matching Mae Clarke’s description was with them, but she once again managed to escape.  She now appears to have moved on to the James Gang.   It is not surprising that Jesse and Frank would want someone with her talents, as their disastrous robbery attempt in Northfield, Minnesota was foiled in part due to their being told that the safe was on a timed lock and could not be opened.”  

Gordon continues, “According to the records from the Harrisburg Company three safes have been shipped directly here to Promise City.   The Silverbell Mining Company purchased a large vault as well as a smaller wall safe.   Condon’s Bank purchased a large vault.   Cook’s General Store is also said to have purchased a number of safe from a California distributor, some of which were probably Harrisburg models.”  

West says, “We hope to catch her here.” Arcade says, “I don’t know.  Once she’s gotten use to riding on a horse you’ll never get her back into civilized society.”  That earns him a dirty look from Morgana.   She then comments, “It sounds to me like a case of poetic justice.  I’d say she is entitled to ruin that company.  My inclination would actually be to help her.”  Arcade interjects, “I have to admit, it does sound somewhat appealing to me.”   

Morgana continues, “I wonder if she is willing to take on an apprentice.”  “Or five,” Louie interjects.  The Federal agents are taken aback by this turn of the conversation, and West reiterates that she is an accomplice to a group of outlaws, who killed two people in the most recent robbery.   Louie comments, “Yeah, we know.  We read about it here,” pointing to his newspaper, which he is again holding upside down. 





*_(Don’t strain your brain trying to remember who this gang was.  The original “Douglas Gang” were actually from the Boot Hill chronology, being playing characters in the original game play tested by Gygax and Blume prior to the game system’s publication._


----------



## Silver Moon

Chapter 23, “Checking out safes and pianos”, July 30th, 1881:

The group returns to the Cantina from the Deputy Sheriff’s Office.   The old wizard Manuel Gonzalez is waiting for them, and asks Morgana if she would like to head off into the desert with him for the magic training.  Arcade mutters, “Is that what they’re calling it these days?”  Louie picks up on the innuendo, adding, “Yeah, he wants to show her his wand.”   The rest of the day is uneventful.

July 31st, 1881:

Arcade, Louie and Morgana sit down for breakfast in the Cantina in the middle of the morning to discuss what to do next.   Morgana suggests visiting the buildings with Harrisburg brand safes.   Arcade and Louie disagree, stating that it isn’t their problem.  She heads off on her own, while the other two just hang out in the Cantina. 

She first goes to the office of the Silverbell Mining Company, and convinces the clerk Earl Hogan to go find the owner, Elton Hubbard.   Hubbard vaguely remembers her from when she investigated the broken pipe to the smelter three months earlier and asks what he wants.   She warns him about the safecracker.  He says he already knows, having conversed to the Federal agents the day before.   She asks to see the vault, to which he is rather skeptical saying, “What business is this of yours?”   She explains that she is looking out for the interests of her employer, the Liberty Hill Mine, which uses his smelting operation.   

She manages to convince him to show her the vault, a large Harrisburg model.  She copies down the serial number and notes the manufacturing date of 1779.   She asks about the wall safe, which he refuses to show her, stating that it is well hidden and will not tell her which of his four buildings it is within.   She suggests to him, “If it is that well hidden I would suggest you keep all of your money there for the near future, rather than in this vault.” 

She next heads back to the Deputy Sheriff’s Office, to converse again with West.  She asks how long ago Mae Clarke’s husband died, and is told four years.  She then asks if the new locksmith was an apprentice of the late Josiah Clarke, and is told that he was.  She replies, “Then the age of the safes won’t make a damned bit of difference, she knows all the same tricks to get into them.”    

She convinces West to join her for a visit at Cook’s General Store, as they have not been informed yet about the safecracker.   They cross the street to the store, and speak to the proprietors Helen and Zeb Cook.  They currently have three safes in stock, two Harrisburg models and a Mosler.   The Harrisburgs are both older models, and the shop’s owners are informed that, “The safecracker knows the combinations, and will have no trouble opening them.”   They are currently using one of these for their own receipts, and decide to move their money over to the Mosler.   West asks about past purchasers of safes, and is told that one was sold to the Palace Saloon and another to gambler Conrad Booth.   Neither Helen nor Zeb remember which manufactuer's brand those were. 

Morgana returns to the Cantina, knowing that Conrad Booth usually begins his day there with the noontime meal.   When the gambler and his housemate Paget Flashman arrive she joins them, telling them about the potential safecracker.   She asks to see Booth’s safe, which he agrees to show her following the meal.   Flashman is offended, saying “You won’t let me anywhere near it.”  Booth replies, “I trust her more than I trust you.”   

As Booth and Morgana get up to go she says, “Come along Louie.” The orc follows, and Arcade decides to join as well.   Booth seems annoyed at the inclusion of the others, but proceeds to his house, which he unlocks and then leads them upstairs to his bedroom, which also has a locked door.   Once inside, he moves a painting on the wall, behind which is an older model Harrisburg safe.   Arcade suggests that he find a less obvious place to put it, but Booth explains, “I can’t easily do that.  I don’t own the place, I rent it from the Condon brothers.”   Louie suggests finding something bigger to put in front of it, with Arcade suggesting that Booth purchase a four-posted bed for that purpose. 

They leave, and Booth rejoins his companion to head down to the gambling tables at the  Long Branch Saloon.  He thanks the party for their advice, to which Morgana replies, “No problem, just remember to not cheat any of us at cards.”    Arcade says to Morgana “It’s been a while since we’ve done any gambling.  We should do that again.”  She replies, “You just want to see me in a dress again.”  He answers, “Not necessarily.”  

The three discuss plans of how to proceed, coming up with a plan to change the sales records over at Cook’s General Store, assuming that the James Gang will go there first.   The three head over and are surprised when Zeb Cook tells them he doesn’t keep written records saying, “Why bother.  Until the County or Territory institute a tax there is no reason to go to that extra work.” 

Before leaving, Morgana takes an interest in one of the most exotic items for sale in the store, an upright piano.   She sits down on the piano bench, and begins to play Mozart’s Fortieth in C.   “Having fun?” Arcade asks.   She replies, “Yeah I am.  The Cantina’s has been too quiet these past few evenings.  I need to find somewhere else to perform.”  Helen Cook is impressed by the music, and suggests, “There are a number of the nicer saloons have pianos.  Or you might want to buy this for your Cantina.  It can be purchased at a price of only $ 100.00.”   Morgana doesn’t comment on the price, and asks, “What is the best saloon in town?”  Helen replies “The Palace Saloon.”  “The same place that bought that other safe from you?” Morgana comments.  Helen replies “Yes”.


----------



## Silver Moon

*Chapter 24, “The Palace Saloon”, July 31st, 1881, 4:00 P.M.*

Morgana goes to the bathhouse to clean up, using the scented soaps, and then fixes herself in her “Eastern” attire, with the corresponding change in hair style.   She then heads north up Freemont Street, to the corner of Freemont and Sierra.  The Palace Saloon is a large three-story wood and brick structure on the corner.   

Morgana enters the building.  The first floor consists of a bar along the entire opposite wall with a wall-sized mirror behind it, a dozen tables, a small table with a roulette wheel, a staircase along the eastern wall and a small stage with piano along the western wall.  There are currently around a dozen patrons, in addition to the bouncer, bartender, gambler and four saloon girls.   The furnishings in the building are fancier than those of any other drinking establishment in town.   She notices that, like the Long Branch Saloon, patrons here are required to check their firearms. 

She informs the bartender that she wishes to talk to the owner, and is directed to the gambler sitting at a table nearby.   She approaches the man, and asks about employment as a singer.   He looks her over from head to toe, introduces himself as Evan Adair, and says, “Come back this evening and sing a set.  Depending on the reaction we might then talk about a regular job.”  “Fair enough,” she says.    

She heads back to the Cantina, telling Arcade and Louie about her audition this evening.  They have a light supper, and she then leaves to head back to the Saloon.   Arcade and Louie decide to go listen to her, and both clean up and dress in their best clothing.   They head off in that direction just as it is starting to get dark. 

She enters the Saloon and notices that a good size crowd has gathered.  Card games are going on at two tables, every barstool is filled, and the chairs at most of the tables are occupied.  The bouncer, whose name appears to be “Dave” is now acting as a second bartender alongside the other, who she hears people refer to as either “Deacon” or “McCoy”.  

Morgana has to wait until one of the six saloon girls now present finishes singing a series of bawdy songs.   Adair introduces her as “As newcomer to town, who has hopes of becoming an entertainer.”    Morgana sits at the piano, and begins playing and singing a part from a Norse Opera, which the patrons have little reaction to. The then follows it up with a dozen songs running the full spectrum of highbrow classical to lively raucous bar songs.   She plays the piano for most of these, but sings a few without accompaniment.   

Midway through her performance Arcade and Louie arrive at the Palace Saloon.   The bouncer stops their entry, informing them that the orc Chinaman is not allowed inside.  “We came to hear the woman sing,” Louie says.   The bouncer replies, “I don’t care why you came here.  Hit the road.  We don’t like your type here.”   “What if I promise not to buy any rice?” Louie asks.   “Humans only,” the bouncer exclaims.  The two eventually give up, and head back to the Cantina.  

She waits until Adair completes a game of cards before wrapping up her set, and then approaches the man, who now has one of the saloon girls hanging on his arm.  “Well?” she inquires.   He replies, “Not bad at all.  It is a bit noisy and crowded now to talk business.  Why don’t you stop by tomorrow mid-afternoon and we can talk about regular employment.”  “Fine, I’ll see you then,” she says, and exits.   

She arrives back at the Cantina, excited about how well the audition went.   Louie tells her, “We’re sorry we weren’t there to support you.  We tried.”  Arcade gestures to Louie, and says, “They had a humans only policy, and wouldn’t let him in.”   Morgana replies “Really?  Well I just think I’ll wear my regular clothes for my appointment tomorrow.”  

August 1st, 1881, 1:30 P.M. 

The morning is uneventful, with Morgana receiving more magic training for Manuel Gonzalez and Arcade taking Louie a short distance out of town for some more target practice.    After lunch Morgana heads over towards the Palace Saloon, attired in her full Indian regalia.   

As she starts to enter the Saloon the bouncer Dave moves to block her entrance.  She attempts to move around him, and he moves to further block her.   “I have an appointment with Mr. Adair.”   “I don’t think so Indian,” the bouncer answers.   In response she begins singing, duplicating one of the songs from the night before.  “Now do you believe me?” she comments.   “Quit your whaling.  I said go away,” the bouncer replies.   

The bartender comes over to the door asking, “Is there a problem?”  Morgana interjects, “Yes.  I have an appointment with Mr. Adair, and he won’t let me in.  I sang here last night.”   McCoy does a bit of a double take, and then says, “You didn’t sing here dressed like that.  Go clean up and then come back.”    She refuses, emphatically stating “Go get Mr. Adair, I have an appointment.”  McCoy leaves, but rather than coming back with the owner he returns with a loaded shotgun, which he levels at her and says, “I believe you’ve been asked to move along.  Go.”   “Lady, you’re leaving or you get shot,” the bouncer comments.

She defiantly holds her ground, and then begins to sing again.   McCoy continues to point the shotgun and her.  Both he and the bouncer attempt to talk to her, but she cannot hear them over her singing.   She attempts to raise her voice to an octave that will break glass, and is almost there when she feels a hand on her shoulder. 

She turns, and is facing the town’s Marshal Bret Hollister.  He tells her, “Ma’am, I would strongly suggest that you move along.  I can’t have you standing here blocking the doorway keeping patrons from entering.”   She points to the two in the doorway, and says, “I’m not blocking anything, they are.  And nobody has even tried to enter.”  “Only because she’s making a scene,” the bouncer exclaims.   Hollister tells her, “I’m afraid I have to agree with them.  If you won’t leave on your own I’ll have to arrest you.”   She finally gives up and walks away; telling the men in the doorway “Your boss won’t like hearing that you made me miss my appointment.”  

She heads back to the Cantina and pouts.  Louie tries to cheer her up, with Louie suggesting that they go back and burn the building to the ground.  “Only if we remove all of the booze first,” Arcade comments.   Louie replies, “We can’t remove any of it.  They won’t let us through the doors.”    Arcade says, “Why don’t we send Sam after them.”  Morgana comments, “What is he going to do?  Meek them to death?” 

Hank enters the Cantina and joins Arcade, Louie and Morgana.   She continues to pout and complain, and Hank asks what she is upset about.   Arcade says, “She went over to the Palace Saloon to make trouble.”  She replies, “I did not!  What difference does it make how I dress to go to an appointment.”  Arcade answers, “If it really didn’t make any difference then why didn’t you go in your Eastern attire?  You knew your Indian get-up would cause trouble after what happened to me and Louie!”   “What happened?” asks Hank.   Louie interjects, “They wouldn’t let us in last night.”  Arcade adds, “Yeah, I think it was because Louie didn’t have a tie.”   Hank surmises, “I would imagine that the patrons there would have been happy to throw him a ‘necktie party’.”  

Arcade looks back to Morgana and says, “You can’t tell me that you really expected any other outcome?”  She evades his question, and says “I wore these clothes because they are more comfortable.  I didn’t want to have to put that corset back on.”  Louie asks “What’s a corset?”  Arcade replies, “It’s like a bellows, except that you fill it up with boobs instead of air.”   Hank comments to Arcade, “Have you ever thought of writing a Dictonary?  Morgana offers to let Louie wear one.  He declines.   The four continue to just sit around the Cantina, being the only customers.


----------



## Silver Moon

Chapter 25, “Arrival of the James Gang”, August 1st, 1881, 2:30 P.M.

Meanwhile, two miles northwest of Promise City, a group of ten riders have now approached a burnt out barn alongside an abandoned farmhouse.   Former Promise City resident Cleatus James had brought this group to this location.  The group had circumnavigated way around the towns of Tombstone and Dos Cabezas to avoid being seen.   The open fields that they then traveled through for the past several miles belonging to the Lazy S Ranch.  These fields were deserted, as the Shaw family that owns the ranch, and their hired hands, are all away on a cattle drive.  This allows this group to approach close to town without being noticed.   The old farmhouse had once belonged to the Shaw family, before they built their larger farmhouse five miles further west, so was deserted.  

This group was comprised of nine men and a woman, with the group’s leader being the notorious outlaw Jesse James.   All but one of this group had participated in the robbery of an Albuquerque, New Mexico bank two weeks earlier.   Following the robbery the money was divided up, most of which was then sent “home” to locations in Missouri and Utah with two other gang members no longer with the particular group.   

Shortly after that the Gang crossed path with the notorious William H. Bonney, otherwise known as Billy the Kid.   Billy proved to be quite useful, knowing the New Mexico Territory well, and was able to get the gang safely away from the posse that had been pursuing them.   In the time since then the young outlaw had begun to overstay his welcome, making unwanted advances to the Gang’s only female member Mae Clarke.  He had also begun to challenge and question Jesse’s decisions and authority. 

Almost as annoying was Jesse and Frank James’s second cousin Cleatus James, who had used his family connections to discover the James Brothers secret hideout two months ago, and then talked them into making this trip to southeastern Arizona.   The current plan was derived based on Cleatus’s knowledge of Promise City, and where large quantities of money would be located.  The plan called for the team to later split up into two groups, and neither Jesse nor Frank had any reservations about sending Billy the Kid and Cleatus as part of the group with the more dangerous assignment.  Accompanying that pair would be the Ford Brothers, Charlie and Bob*, whom Jesse had begun to sense a bad feeling about   

*_Note: In the real timeline, James Gang member Bob Ford was the person who betrayed and killed Jesse James in 1882 to collect the reward money._ 

It was decided that this building would be the rendezvous point for later this evening.  The horses were fed and watered, while the Gang ate a light meal.    Frank James walked around the building with his friend Bill Ryan, deciding upon a secret location for Ryan to stash the loot from the first phase of the planned robberies.  The Gang then mounted up and rode towards town.   Cleatus called for them to stop at a hilly area not far from town, where Ryan then took all of the horses and rode back to the abandoned farmhouse while the other proceeded on foot. 

From a hill overlooking the town Cleatus pointed out to the others their two initial objectives, a small clapboard house on the outer end of the town’s northeast corner, and a large three-story clapboard home, the westernmost building in town, not far from the hill with the smelting operation.    Cleatus led his quartet to the smaller of these two buildings, while Jesse, Frank, Mae, and James Gang members Jim Cummins and Clarence Hite headed around the western end of town, cautiously approaching the building from the rear.  

The larger building had a locked back door, which locksmith and safecracker Mae Clarke was quickly able to open.   The five quietly made their way inside, and caught the live-in housekeeper Hazel Thomas by surprise.   Once Jesse James identified himself by name and brandished his weapon Hazel did not hesitate to show them the secret location of the safe belonging to the home’s owner, Elton Hubbard.    Mae cross-referenced the safe’s serial number to a list that she carried, and then correctly dialed the combination.  The contents of the safe were emptied into a satchel.  Mae then left behind a hand-written note, and then relocked the safe.  Mrs. Thomas was then gagged and tied into a chair on the third floor, and the group departed. 

Across town, Cleatus led his group into the 10x20 foot two-room building that was home to Scott and Mona Taylor.   Guns were shoved into the faces of the Taylors, who were told to not make a sound.   The windows and shutters to the building were the all shut, and the couple were gagged and tied to the center support beam of the building.   The group waited for almost an hour, until there was a light rap on the door.   The door was opened, and their other group entered.   Jesse James then introduced himself to Mona, telling her exactly what she was going to do next, and what the lethal consequences would be to her husband if she failed to do as instructed.  

Mona was untied, the gag removed.  She then left the building, accompanied by Jim Cummins and Mae Clarke.   Mona and Mae both carried cleaning supplies, with a pistol hidden inside the pile carried by Mae.  Cummins had an armload of firewood, with his sawed-off shotgun concealed inside of it.  They passed two other homes, and then crossed Sierra Street, going up to the large two-story wooden home that was the home of bankers Morgan and Frank Condon.   Mona was employed as the cook and housekeeper for the bankers and quickly unlocked the door using her own key.  A few people passed by on the street during this time, but do not pay any real attention to the trio.   

Mona then led them directly to the hidden wall safe.  Mae Clarke took one look at it and then let out a string of explicative, as it was a Mosler model rather than a Harrisburg.   The safecracker calmed down and took out a set of tools, and then spent nearly an hour on it before the safe’s door finally opened.   The effort proved to be worth the wait, as the safe is stuffed full with cash.   The money was piled into a pair of buckets and covered with rags.  She again left a prepared letter in the safe, then shut and locked it.   The three returned to the Taylor residence, where Mona was again tied and gagged.  

A quick count of the money from the Condon safe showed a haul of almost $ 11,000 as well as a ring of keys that is immediately handed to Cleatus.  Over $ 4,000 was taken from the Hubbard safe.  The rest of the contents from the Hubbard safe are various deeds and other legal documents, which Cleatus tossed into the wood stove and then lit.   Frank James puts the money into two satchels, and made his way towards the hills to the north.   He returned a half hour later saying, “Bill has it.”   Bonney tells the bound Taylors’ “If we hear any sounds coming from this building during the next two hours we will set it on fire.”   

It is now getting towards evening, and the Gang splits up again into the two separate groups, heading off in different directions.   The group with the James Brothers head through back alleyways and wait over half an hour until Sierra Street looks to be deserted before they casually cross it, then make their way behind more buildings over to back door of Cook’s General Store.   The store is still open for business and the five outlaws decide to hide in a nearby storage shed and wait until the store closes for the day.  

The other quartet had made their way around the outskirts of town, and come up from the south, their destination being the home of gambler Conrad Booth.   They make their way along the south hill, going around Brown’s Ice House to the back door of Booth’s house.   Ice House employee Beecher Lawson notices this quartet at this back door, but since they use a key to get inside, assumes they have permission from Booth to be there.  Cleatus James’s back was to Lawson, so he didn’t recognize the former town resident. 

Lawson does mention this to Ice House owner Hannibal Brown.  Brown replies,  “Probably just some house guests.  I saw that a new bed was delivered there yesterday, which he must have purchased for his friends to sleep on.   I’ll be heading over to the Long Branch Saloon in a few minutes with today’s ice delivery, so I’ll ask Booth later if he’ll be needing more ice during their stay.” 

Back next door, once inside the building, the four outlaws spend a short while looking for the safe.  Using the stolen keys they get the upstairs bedroom doors unlocked, and eventually find the safe on the bedroom wall behind a large four-posted bed.   Once that is done their only instructions are to wait until Mae Clarke arrives to then open the safe.   Cleatus continues to peer out of a second floor window at the El Parador Cantina next door, hoping to get a glimpse of the man who wounded him several months earlier, the mysterious stranger known as Arcade.


----------



## Silver Moon

*Chapter 26, “Strangers at the Booth House”, August 1st, 1881, 5:15 P.M.* 

Given how quiet it is in the almost deserted Cantina, Arcade’s gang has no difficulty in hearing an argument going on inside of the kitchen, which is surprisingly in Common rather than Spanish.   At the sound of Dorita yelling, “Take it back” Morgana decides to go see what the commotion is all about.   She enters, seeing Dorita arguing with Hannibal Brown, the owner of Brown’s Ice House, who is carrying a large block of ice with a pair of tongs.   “What is going on?” Morgana inquires.   Booth sees Morgana and says “Good, you’re here.  Get the rest of your Gang.”  Hearing that, Arcade, Hank and Louie enter the room. 

Dorita hasily yells out, “He brought this block of ice saying it is a present from that gambler Conrad Booth!  I have enough ice until my regualar delivery tomorrow, and don’t need it.   I am a good judge of character, and that Booth wouldn’t give his own mother a present.  The only reason he would give me anything is because he must have been caught cheating and banned from the Long Branch Saloon, and wants to gamble here.  Pedro will never allow that!”   She yells this so fast that Morgana misses half of it, but Hank caught it all and repeats the parts that she missed.  

Brown says, “No, he sent me here for another reason.”   Brown then tells them about the four strangers seen entering the Booth house, and that Conrad Booth says he has no idea who they are and that he isn’t expecting any guests.  He told Brown to bring deliver the ice and then pass on the message on to you, so as to not look suspitious.    Dorita says, “So he doesn’t want anything from me?  And I get to keep the ice?”  “Yes,” Brown replies, which begins to calms down the agitated wood elf. 

The group discusses how to deal with this turn of events.  They decide to do some reconaissance, talking the centaur Qualtaqa into making a trip over to the Liberty Hill Mine and back via both sides of the booth house.    The centaur returns to the Cantina twenty minutes later, reporting that all of the curtains on the building are drawn, but he saw some movement at a second floor front facing window.    

The party discusses tactics, coming up with an initial plan of geting dynamite from the mine and then blow up the building.  Arcade says, “That might be difficult, since the building is mostly made of brick.  It could be very dangerous trying to try to get lit sticks of dynamite inside, and that Sam kid doesn’t appear to be around for us to send to do that.”  “How about sending that centaur?” Hank asks.  Morgana suggests that letting the Apache’s ambassador get blown up may not be the best tactic.  She convinces them to wait until she’s had a chance to talk to Booth before doing anything.  

She heads over to the Long Branch Saloon.   Booth is sitting alone at the table, and she goes to join him.   Keeping his voice low, he reiterates about not expecting any guests at all, and suspects the four might be after the money in his safe.   She says, “Give me your key and we will go check it out.  We’ll try not to get any blood on the curtains.”  He hands her the key and replies, “Why would I care about blood on the curtains.  I rent.”  She says she will make it appear that she is his housekeeper, and raising her voice asks him “For some money to buy groceries.”  He hands her a $ 20.00 bill, and with a twinkle in his eye, says “Better buy quite a bit.  I hear I may be having some house guests.”  

She heads towards the door, and is almost outside when one of the saloon girls asks Booth, “So Conrad, are you getting a little Indian on the side?”   Morgana does a quick about face, and yells at the woman “Listen B**ch, I make my own way though honest work!  I don’t have to…_(phrase deleted to keep from offending Eric’s Grandma)_…for a living.”   The saloon girl’s jaw drops and she does not respond to Morgana’s verbal barrage.  The rest of the bar is silent, except for a low murmor of “catfight, catfight” from several patrons.   Morgana storms out of the building.   The DM comments to Morgana’s player “Congratuations, in the course of a single afternoon you’ve now made a scene at both of the fanciest saloons in town.”  

She heads directly across the street to Cook’s General Store, purchasing a large quantity of groceries.   She tells them that she will have to go get somebody to help carry her purchases.  They ask her to be quick about it, as it is already past their usual closing time.   She returns to the Cantina, explaining her plan.  She says, “I will play the part of the housekeeper and Louie will act like the lowly Chinese servant.”  “Well, he’s pretty good at that,” Arcade comments.   She continues, “We will bring the groceries into the card sharp’s house, look around, and kill anyone we see.  We’ll leave all doors ajar, and you guys act as our backup.  Come running at the first sound of trouble.”  “Sounds rather risky,” Hank states.   Arcade comments, “The riskiest part is her bringing Louie with her to a grocery store.  Haven’t you heard what happened the first time he tried to buy rice?”

Before leaving they check to see who else is around to help out.   The ogre Kentucky joins them, and the magic-user Manuel Gonzalez gets into position near a Cantina window, to cast spells if needed.     They leave and Hank tells Arcade, “She’s insane you know.”  Arcade ansers, “Yes.  She is quite mad.”  

Morgana and Louie arrive at the store and pick up the groceries.   Once they are gone the Zeb and Hazel cook close up and lock the store, leaving out the back for their home.  Once the two are out of sight the five members of the James Gang exit the nearby shed and proceed to the back door.  Mae very quickly picks the locks the back door and the five head inside.   

They find the three safes that the store has for sale, and Mae quickly opens both Harrisburg models with the correct combinations, finding them both empty.   The Mosler model will take longer to open, and she gets out her tools.   While Mae works on the safe, her four associates have started using acid and chisels to dissolve and remove the mortar on the brick wall separating the store’s western wall with the First National Bank next door.   The sounds of their efforts are muffled by noises from the Peacock Saloon and Gay Lady Dance Hall and Saloon, both located on the other side of Cook’s store.  

Meanwhile, Morgana and Louie walk past the front of the Cantina, and head down the alleyway between it and the Church, towards the front entrance of Conrad Booth’s 25x20 foot two-story house.  He allies watch from inside the Cantina windows, guns at the ready to fire at the house’s upper windows at the first sign of trouble.    

Morgana and Louie head up to the front door, which she then unlocks.   They proceed inside, leaving the door slightly open.  The large front room is unoccupied, and they walk past the staircase to the second floor on the rear wall of this room and through the doorway into the kitchen.  The room is also unoccupied.   Louie puts the groceries down on the table as Morgana unlocks and opens the back door.    

Arcade, Hank and Kentucky have now left the Cantina via the side stable door, and cautiously make their way towards the Booth house from the side, using the Brown’s Ice House wall as cover.   Hannibal Brown, his two children and other two employees wave at them from inside and Brown mouths the words “Good Luck”.   Hank mutters to Arcade, “I tell you what.  I think we’ve got ourselves a fan club.”


----------



## Silver Moon

*Chapter 27, "The Promise City Shootout of 1881", August 1st, 1881, 6:30 P.M. * 

Hearing a few boards creek from above, Louie gestures upstairs.   Morgana nods, and loosens her sleaves to give herself better access to the throwing dagger on each wrist.  She also pins her cloak to the side, making more accessible the concealed tomahawk strapped to her back.   Morgana hands Louie some towels to carry, which he hides his pistol inside.   She then wets a rag and loudly says, "Let's go clean the upstairs." 

They head up the stairs, with Morgana taking her time washing the staircase railing.  At the top of the stairs is a landing, with the doors into both second floor rooms both slightly ajar.   "Let's do the back room first," she says, and then opens the door its full length.   The 10x20 foot room appears to be unoccupied.  Morgana moves around to the far side of the bed, and starts to make the bed while not taking her eyes off of the closed curtain in front of the room's only closet.   Louie says, "There's a spot," and leans down on the floor beside the bed.  While he appears to be cleaning the floor he looks under the bed, not seeing anybody.   

A man with a rifle then steps through the doorway to the room saying, "Stay right where you are."  The closet curtain is then slid to the side, to reveal a young man with a pistol, who steps out of the closet.  Morgana's hands are currently filled with the two bedsheets, and she flings one at each of the foes.    One brushes against the man in the doorway and falls to the floor, but she is more successful with the closer one, the sheet completely draping over the man.   

The man with the rifle reacts to Morgana's sudden movement, turning his rifle towards her.  Still lying on the floor by the bed, Louie draws and fires his pistol up at the man, hitting him in the left shoulder.  Louie also slides most of his body under the bed to make himself a smaller target.   The man with the rifle swings it back in Louie's direction and fires.   The bullet goes into the orc's shoulder, but his armor manages to slow the bullet  enough to keep it from penetrating very deep.  

At the sound of the gunfire Arcade, Hank and Kentucky charge through the back door and head in the direction of the stairs.   The ogre has the longest pace, and makes it to the staircase first, starting to charge up it with the two human gunslingers right behind him.    A man with a rifle then steps out onto the landing from the front room at the top of the stairs.  

Back in the room upstairs, Louie and the first rifleman each shoot at each other, both hitting, but neither fatally.   The man covered by the blanket starts to pull it off of him.   Once the man's gunhand is uncovered Morgana makes it the target of her first throwing dagger, slicing into the man's wrist and causing him to drop his pistol, as he yells out an explicative.   

The rifleman on the landing fires into Kentucky's chest as the ogre fires his shotgun up at the man.  The ogre is struck, but the bullet misses all vital organs.  Kentucky's shotgun blast fired too low, totally destroying the top two stairs below the landing, with only a few pieces of shot striking the man's feet and legs.   The man receives only minor wounds from this, his feet and legs being covered by heavy leather boots and chaps.  Both Arcade and Hank fire around the orge at the man on the landing, Hank's shot missing and striking the ceiling, but Arcade manages to hit the man's side for a minor wound. 

Louie's next shot misses, but so does his wound opponent's.   The man near the closet manages to finally get the sheet off of him, and Morgana notices a second pistol holstered on his belt.   He begins to reach for it, but is not as fast as the Magic Missile spell she throws.   This knocks him back, giving her time to toss her second dagger, which strikes him for what appears to be a rather painful hit in the abdomen.   At this point she is already reaching across her back for her remaining weapon.  

Bounding off of the last intact step, Kentucky "Shotgun" Krugg leaps towards the rifleman, and fires his shotgun when the barrel is pointing directly at the man's face.   The man's head is obliterated and the torso collapses onto the landing.   The back of the man shooting at Louie is now only two feet away from the ogre, who decides to use his now empty shotgun as a club to strike the man.   Before he can swing the shotgun, a shotgun goes off from the front room.   Hank and Arcade both see the shot enter the ogre's back and exit his chest.  Kentucky's body then collapses onto the landing.  

Morgana's tomahawk flies though the air just as the man is unholstering his pistol.  The tomahawk lands with fatal impact in the man's groin area _(not unlike the tomahawk throw by Jay Silverheels from the now classic Johnny Carson Tonight Show segment)_.    Outside the room, both Hank and Arcade intentionally fall forward from the top intact stair, their shoulders landing against the two bodies, Arcade fires his pistol into Louie's foe in the rear room and Hank firing his rifle at the shotgun holder in the front room. 

Arcade misses, but Louie manages to get a fatal shot into his foe this time, and the  antagonist collapses.  Louie looks across the landing into the front room and into the face of his former nemesis, Cleatus James.   Blood is spurting out of James's shoulder as a result of Hank's wound and he drops his shotgun, but still stands.   The players joke about the being called Arcade's Gang, and how he is the worst shot of the group, still having never killed anyone. 

Louie stands up and yells at Cleatus "Me Bad Thunder" (the translation of his orcish name) "Don't mess with me."   The orc then fires his pistol, the bullet passing over Arcade and Hank's heads, but missing the opponent.  Hank also fires his rifle again at James, but also misses.  Cleatus draws his pistol with his unwounded arm and takes aim at the orc.  Before he can get the shot off Arcade pivots around and fires up at James, killing him. 

Meanwhile, over at Cook's General Store.  Mae Clarke has finally gets the safe to open, finding $ 865 in cash inside.   Enough bricks have mpw been removed for the petite Mae to crawl through to the First National Bank, and she begins working on the lock to the bank's latest model Diebold vault while the others continue to remove more bricks to widen the opening.    They then hear the distant gunshots.  Clarence Hite is handed the cash from Cook's safe and told by Jesse James "Sounds like the shots are coming from where the others are.  Go and investigate.  Just act like an innocent bystander.  If the others can use our help come back and get us.  If they are beyond help, get out of town, and we'll meet you back at the rendezvous."


----------



## Silver Moon

Chapter 28, "The Death of Billy the Kid", August 1st, 1881, 7:15 P.M.

The smoke begins to clear.  Arcade and Hank do a quick check of the second floor to verify that no other enemies are hiding.   Morgana casts a few Cures onto the wounded Louie, who has three bullets in him and would now be dead without the added protection from the armor.   The bodies are each searched, with Arcade finding $ 18.51 and a ring of keys on Cleatus, while Hank and Louie find less than $ 10.00 on each of the riflemen.   Morgana however finds a total of $ 146.52 on her opponent as well as the two high quality pistols.  

The furniture in Conrad Booth's bedroom has been moved, and the wall safe uncovered but still unopened.   The group debate trying to open it, but decide not to since "None of them made it out alive, so they would assume that we stole it.  And if the safe is open Booth would say the money we found on these guys is also his."     Arcade hands Morgana the key ring, and she is surprised to find them to be regular keys instead of  skeleton keys and lockpicks.  

The party hears shouting outside on the street, and peer out the front window.   Deputy Sheriff Colin Hunter is peering around the corner of the Cantina pointing a rifle at the building, and yells out again "What's going on in there?"    Hank yells out, "The fight is over.  We have a bunch of dead bodies in here."    Hunter cautiously approaches the building and heads inside.   A crowd begins to gather on the street outside. 

Hunter asks Arcade "So, what exactly happened?"  Arcade replies, "We walked in here and killed everyone."  The others give a little more detail.   "Anyone hurt?"  he asks.  Hank replies, "The ogre bought it."  Morgana adds, "The orc got shot a few times too, but he'll live."    Hunter begins to check the bodies, confirming the identity of Cleatus James.   He does not recognize the two riflemen.  He freezes up at the sight of the one Morgana killed, and says "I'll be right back."  

Hunter returns along with Deputy Sheriff Breckenridge, who takes a good look at the body and says, "Yep.  It's him."   "Who?" Morgana asks.   Breckenridge replies, "William Bonney.  Also know as Billy the Kid."    She asks, "Is there a reward on him?"  Breckenridge says, "I believe that there is.  Don't know the amount though.   We can find that out."    

Arcade, Hank and Louie begin talking about each wanting a share.   Morgana only hears part of the conversation and thinks they are talking about her.   "Nobody gets to share me!" she yells.   Arcade says, "We don't want you.  We're talking about he reward."  She replies, "Well you don't get either."   

Things begin to calm down and word spreads through the town like wildfire about the death of Billy the Kid.    Conrad Booth arrives soon, pleased to see that his safe is still intact.   Hank tells the gambler, "Sorry about the mess."  He replies, "What do I care.  I 
don't own the place."   

The newspaper editor Parker Baxter approaches the party back at the El Parador Cantina, and tries to convince them to let him write up the story collaboratively with them.   As he put it, "This is big news, and it is going to be written up by other people if I don't.  You're better off working with me on the 'official' version."   They agree, requiring to see a written version before anything appears in print.   At Morgana's insistence the story credits it all to Arcade's Gang, without going into too much detail as to who killed who. 

Meanwhile, Clarence Hite had heard that Billy the Kid and his companions were dead, so headed out of town.   He found Bill Ryan, who was waiting with the horses.  Hite filled in his friend and then rode back to the rendevous point.  An hour later Ryan saw Jim Cummins and Mae Clark heading down the street, looking like a couple, and carrying luggage appropriated from Cook's General Store.   They joined Ryan and then tied the luggage filled with money from the First National Bank onto the horses of their four recently deceased companions.    Cummins and Clark then rode off with the extra horses, leaving Ryan to wait for the James brothers.  A half hour later Frank and Jesse James  cautiously made their way back, and then rode away to rejoin their companions.  

August 2nd. 1881:

By the time the party awaken for the day word about the other robberies committed by the James Gang is now all around town, with a total of over $ 22,000 having been taken.    A posse is being formed to go look for the outlaws.   Arcade, Hank, Louie and Morgana have no interest in joining the posse, but volunteer Sam so that the gang can't be accused of not helping out.  

Conrad Booth expresses his gratitude to the party by extending them $ 500 in table stakes at his gambling table.    It is also discovered that there was a $ 500 reward for Billy the Kid, placed by the Governor of the New Mexico Territory.    Agents West and Gordon verify the death of Billy the Kid and assist Morgana with the paperwork to file the claim for the reward, warning her "Territorial Governments aren't known for their efficiency, so don't expect to receive the money anythime soon."  The bodies of Billy the Kid, Cleatus James, Bob Ford, Charlie Ford and Kentucky Krugg are laid to rest on Boot Hill.   

August 3rd to 10th, 1881:

The posse fails to locate the six surviving members of the James Gang.    Elton Hubbard, Morgan Condon and Frank Condon experienced the greatest losses from the robberies, and have to sell a number of properties owned by them around town to stay solvent.   Cook's General Store also has cash flow problems, and they sell the piano to Morgana for a bargain price.  

Gambler Conrad Booth's reputation is increased by the newspaper publicity, and he buys his house from the Condons and kicks gambler Paget Flashman out.   He moves down to living on only the first floor, keeping the second floor as it was left following the Promise City Shootout, to show exclusively to people who choose to gamble with him.  

Arcade's Gang are treated as local heroes by about half the town, while the more respectible people in town blame them for attracting the James Gang to their community in the first place.    

The End (for now).


----------



## Silver Moon

*Module #123 - Gunfight at the O.K. Corral*

*Chapter 29, “Another Ten Weeks Have Passed…”, October 23rd, 1881:* 

Another ten weeks have passed in the town of Promise City.   Arcade’s Gang continues to be either the most famous or most infamous group of citizens depending upon who you talk to, with the story of the “Death of Billy the Kid” having been reprinted in newspapers around the world.    Equally famous now is the gambler Conrad Booth, whose poker table at the Long Branch Saloon is often filled, especially when Arcade decides to join the game.   The $ 500 in table stakes that Booth extended to Arcade is now down to $ 280, which is still an ample amount to keep him coming back.   

The Gang continues to work as part-time security at the Liberty Hill Mine, although it is primarily their reputation that has kept trouble away from the mine, with the actual guarding now limited to only a few hours each night (and that mostly by Sam).   Even Louie has discovered that people in town tend to shy away from him, fearing trouble from the Gang, although he still hasn’t gotten up enough courage to attempt to purchase rice.  Louie continues to court Mary Wong over at the laundry, commenting that “I now seem have the best starched shirts in town.”

Arcade has added to his “mysterious stranger” look by purchasing for himself a black leather duster and hat, as well as making sure that his mustache is always well waxed.   He and Morgana have continued to have a precarious relationship, with him noticing that “She only calls me ‘Sweetie’ whenever I’m winning at cards and she then takes my winnings.”    Although she had allowed the initial newspaper reports to credit Billy the Kid’s death to the entire gang she has allowed word to get around town that she was actually the one who was responsible. 

Midway through the afternoon on this cloudy autumn day Deputy Sheriff Colin Hunter wanders into the El Parador Cantina and over to the table where Arcade, Hank, Louie, Morgana and Sam have just finished their mid-day meal.   “Mind if I join you?  I’ve got a couple of things to talk about.”   “Help yourself,” Arcade states.   Morgana quips, “What are we accused of doing this time?”  

Hunter says, “I wanted to update you on the reward money.”   “Do you have it?” Morgana asks.  He replies, “No, but it looks like you will get it.  That Federal Agent James West helped pull the right strings to get the payment started.”   A discussion about West follows.  Most of the party remembers West as being a Caucasian in his thirties but Arcade seems to remember him a colored gentleman in his twenties.   Hunter tells them that “The New Mexico Territorial Legislature has now put together a bill to authorize the appropriation.”   Hank comments, “That doesn’t sound to me like that money will be coming here anytime soon.”

Arcade says to Hunter, “So you traveled here all the way across two states just to tell us “no money”?  Hunter replies, “Nah, I just walked here from down the street.  The information came in today’s mail.   Although, there’s one more thing I’d like to talk to you about.”   Louie says “Ah, I get it.  You were trying to soften us up by telling us ‘no money’.”  

Hunter states, “The other thing I wanted to tell you is that my boss, the County Sheriff, wants to talk to you.”    Arcade says, “Fine, have him pull up a chair.”   Hunter answers, “Actually, he’s not here in Promise City, he’s in the County Seat, Tombstone.   We’d like you go there on tomorrow morning’s stagecoach.”    Morgana again states, “What are we accused of doing this time?”  

Hunter replies, “Nothing as far as I know.   I think he wants to talk to you about the Apache.   Sheriff Behan was the one who talked the army out of going into Geronimo’s hills.”   Arcade comments “He probably wants to make new conditions for the Indians.”  Arcade gestures to Louie and asks “Can I bring the ugly half-orc with me?”   Hunter replies, “Bring whoever you want.”  Morgana interjects, “Fine, all five of us will go.  And you’re paying the round-trip stage fare.”  Hunter reluctantly agrees to this.   Hank volunteers to ride shotgun atop the stage. 

Hank says, “Should we think about bringing along Hakuna Matatta?  Maybe he could help pull the stage”  Cassie states, “The centaur’s name is Qualtaqa, and no, we’d probably better leave him here.   But I think that he and I should probably check in with Geronimo before we go.”   Louie asks, “Do you need me to go with you?”  Morgana replies, “I’m the one who single-handedly took down Billy the Kid.  I don’t need anybody.”   She gets up and leaves.  Hank comments, “I tell you what.  Somebody sure sounds sure of herself these days.”   “Tell me about it,” Arcade comments with some frustration.   

Morgana and Qualtaqa ride out to the hills and shortly after nightfall meet up with Geronimo.   The Apache Chief reiterates that the humans should stay out of his hills and keep the treaty that was originally made with Cochice.   Morgana states that she will do what she can to keep the humans away, but wishes to first confirm that the Apache have not been causing trouble with any human settlements.   He states that the only raiding parties that the tribe has conducted recently have been against the enemy wood elves across the Mexican border.    She thanks him.  Geronimo concludes the discussion by stating that “If the humans come into my land they can expect war.”

Back at the Cantina, the group decides to call it an early night, as four-hour stagecoach rides and hangovers do not make for a good combination.   

*October 24th, 1881, 8:30 A.M.*

The gang arrives at the Wells Fargo office for the morning stage to Tombstone.   The two drivers assigned to this run are Chuck Nevers and Newton Gilly.   Hank knows Gilly from when he boarded at the Great Western Boarding House, and the two exchange handshakes.    A mailbag and a few boxes are loaded up onto the stage.    

They travel for the next four hours across the Arizona countryside, on the winding dusty trail.   None of the three men up top are all that talkative, with fewer than forty words being spoken during the entire trip.  As they near Tombstone they reach where a five-mile long section of railroad track had been sited, with the road now being much smoother.    They pass by several buildings and farms along the outskirts of town.  A large number of buildings are seen a half mile in the distance.   Newton tells Hank, “There she is.  The bustling community of Tombstone.”


----------



## Silver Moon

*Chapter 30, “Welcome to Tombstone”, October 24th, 1881, 1:00 P.M.:*

The Wells Fargo stage rides into the community of Tombstone.   The city itself is rather small, consisting of two main streets named Allen and Freemont that are intersected by six other streets named First through Sixth  (a map of 1881 Tombstone can be found at the following link: http://ferncanyonpress.com/tombston.../tombsmap.shtml  ).   The Stage lets the group off at the corner of Allen and Forth streets, with Newton Gilly pointing out to Hank where the County Sheriff’s Office is located.  

Arcade’s Gang enters the brick building, finding it to be about twice the size of the Deputy Sheriff’s Office back in Promise City.   Both jail cells are currently unoccupied and the only one present is a Deputy Sheriff who introduces himself as Jeb Dalton.   Hank steps forward to shake his hand saying, “Hank Hill, and I tell you what.  I’d like to introduce you to the group responsible for killing Billy the Kid.”   Dalton’s jaw drops and he exclaims “Arcade’s Gang.  The Deputy asks to hear the story but Arcade only answers, “He met an untimely end.”   The Deputy then says, “The Sheriff has been expecting you.”   “Well, go get him,” Morgana comments.  

Dalton leaves and quickly returns with Sheriff Johnny Behan.  Behan dismisses his deputy and asks the Gang to have a seat, thinking them for coming.   He says, “The United States Cavalry commander over at the nearby Fort Huachuca is wondering when the soldiers can head back into the Dos Cabazes and Chiricahua Mountains.  They had agreed to stay out while the Apache who lived there stopped all Caucasians in order to prevent the James Gang from coming through there.  That was almost three months ago, and the James boys now seem to be long gone.”

Morgana had arrived wearing her Native American garb, and speaks up, using her bard abilities to add a level of persuasiveness to her appeal.  She tells the Sheriff that the threat to the County from the James Gang still remains, what with a beloved cousin of Frank and Jesse having been killed in the Promise City robberies.  She also reiterates that there have been no skirmishes of any kind between the Caucasians and Apache since the travel ban into the mountains was enacted, which is making life easier for both the Cavalry and the County Sheriff.  She emphasizes that the current agreement should remain until they have definite proof that the James Gang are not planning to return on a quest of vengeance.

Sheriff Behan concurs with her assessment and says that he will speak to the Army about maintaining the present status.   Several party members sense that there will be a quid-pro-quo to his acquiescence, which then follows.   He asks them to do him the favor of handing around Tombstone for the next several days.   “Any particular reason?” Arcade asks.  

Behan says, “Well, yeah.   Deputy Hunter has told me about the two factions that have developed over in Promise City, with the cowboys who like the rough-and-tumble lifestyle as opposed to the Promise City Civic Association..”  “Who want us run out of town,” Morgana interjects.   “You want us to stay here so that they get their way?” Louie inquires.    Behan interjects, “Oh no, this isn’t about Promise City at all.   We actually have the same situation here in Tombstone, only worse.   The tension between the factions have been escalating and I’m afraid that things are  about to fly off the handle ”   “So you asked for us to make sure that they do?” Arcade asks. 

Behan replies, “Oh no, I think your presence in town will help to defuse the situation.”  All of the members of the gang burst out laughing at that suggestion.   The Sheriff states, “Don’t laugh, I’m serious.”   Morgana comments, “You expect us to be a claming influence?”  Arcade points to Louie and says, “This guy gets shot at just for going into the grocery store!”   Hank adds, “Yeah, and another member of our group is seventy-five percent horse, and he’s the nice one!”   Behan replies, “Dagnabit, don’t you underestimate yourselves.  Your reputations precede you.  Both sides will think twice about causing trouble with you around, at least until they can figure out whose side you’re on.”  

Morgana asks, “Exactly where do you fit in?”   He replies, “I’m on neither side, but I am a bit more sympathetic to the cowboy way of life.   I admire folks who live off the land and put in an honest day’s work.   That law-and-order group is nothing but a bunch of money-grubbing bullies who take advantage of those who are less fortunate.”   

“So who exactly are these folks?” Arcade asks. Behan replies, “The law group is comprised of three brothers known as the Earps.  Virgil Earp is the Marshal of Tombstone and his brothers Wyatt and Morgan help him out.   They own a number of business interests in the town, including a saloon, a number of buildings and stakes in several local silver mines.   They tend to push people around and act like the own the whole place, although I guess they do own a fair share of it.”   Arcade comments, “I’ve heard of those Earps.”   

“Who heads the Cowboy faction?” Hank asks.   Behan answers, “A group known as the Clantons.    Newman Haynes “Old Man” Clanton started a ranch out by the San Pedro River eight years ago.   Most of the cowboys in the region work for them at the Clanton Ranch.  They are rumored to also be involved in some less-than-honest practices, such as cattle rustling, but nothing has ever been proven.   The patriarch of that group is a man named Ike Clanton, and he doesn’t taken kindly to being pushed around by anyone, let alone the Earps.”  

“And if they don’t take kindly to authority figures what makes you think they’ll listen to us?” Morgana asks.   Behan replies, “Well, I think they’ll think twice about taking any shots at the people who killed Billy the Kid.   Rumor has it that back when the Clanton Ranch got started William Bonney was one of their ranch hands.”   Arcade interjects, “Hold it, are you saying that we killed one of the only guys who ever put in a good days work around here?”  

The Sheriff says, “Look, I’m not asking you guys to do anything except hang around the town for a few days and intimidate both groups of potential troublemakers.”  Morgana says, “Fine, but we’re only staying a couple of days.  Any longer than that and I’m sure Louie would get shot.”   Behan glances at the half-orc and says, “My, my, I believe the little lady likes you.”    Louie answers, “She supports the whole gang, and I’d watch the ‘little lady’ comments if I were you.  She was the one who actually killed Billy.”     

Hank says, “So, will any of the bars in town actually let the half-orc in?”  “Sure, as long as you’ve got cash.   There are around a dozen bars in town, three of the main ones right on this Street.”    Arcade says, “Sounds good.  If we get thrown out of a bar we’ll just move onto another one.   We’ll make sure that people know we’re here before the night is through.”  

Morgana says that she would like to freshen up before they go anywhere.   Hank says, “I tell you what, why don’t we find us a place to stay before we do anything else.  I’m sure one of these taverns must have some rooms.”   “Actually, I’ve already found you a place to stay,” the Sheriff interjects adding, “Head down the street a block to the Harwood House, near the corner of Freemont and Third Streets.  It’s right after Fly’s Photo Gallery and Boarding House and near Jersey’s  Livery Stable.”

“Any particular reason why you picked that place?” Arcade asks.   Behan replies, “The owner, Jake Howard, is a friend of mine and he said he had some rooms available.  If I’m paying for your stay here I want it to be where I can get a good rate.  Besides, it’s safer for you to stay somewhere that doesn’t have a tavern, especially given your group’s reputation.”   Sam comments, “Yeah, some drunk might try to make a name for himself by killing us in our beds.”


----------



## Silver Moon

*Chapter 31, “What’s Up Doc”, October 24th, 1881, 3:00 P.M.:*

Arcade comments, “Sheriff, you said that the Earps owned a Saloon.  Which one?”   Behan replies, “Haffords Saloon at the corner of Allen and Fourth.”  “We’ll make sure we hit that one tonight,” Hank states.  They thank the Sheriff for his hospitality and he thanks them for helping out.

The gang heads over to the Harwood House, which is on Freemont, the back of the building facing towards the O.K. Corral over on Allen Street.   They introduce themselves to Jake Harwood (brother of William A. Harwood, Tombstone’s first Mayor) who has been expecting them.  He says he has five rooms available, four on the second floor and one on the first, and asks how many they will need.  “We’ll take all five,” Morgana states, “And make sure that mine has a tub in it.”    He hands her the key to the first floor room, saying that he prefers to not have to lug the water upstairs, and says he will get the tub filled right away.   

Morgana’s key has #3 on it, and the others are #6, #7, #9 and #10.   “How many guest rooms you got here?” Hank asks.   Howard replies, “Ten, four on the first floor six on the second.”   “Who are the other two living on the second floor?” Arcade asks suspiciously.   Howard replies, “Two long-term tenants.  Neil Tolsohn is in room #5.  He’s a bartender down the street at the Occidental Saloon.   The guy in room #8 is Rex Hooper.  He works for the Territorial Governor as a member of the Arizona Rangers, and is usually away on patrol, so you probably won’t even see him.” 

“Let’s meet back here in a hour,” Arcade states.  Everyone heads to his or her respective rooms.  Morgana tells Howard to go fetch the water.   She inspects the tub in her room, casting a Clean Cantrip on it to eliminate evidence of past bathers.    She waits for Howard to draws her bath for her and then departs.  She then casts a druid spell to heat the water up to a comfortable temperature before sliding into the tub.   She sings during the bath, her voice resonating through the building.  

When they join up in the lobby she changed her appearance, looking once again like a dignified upper class Easterner rather than an Indian maiden.   Jake Howard does not act at all surprised by the change, and she comments to Arcade “He’s more observant than you are.”  “That’s not saying much,” Louie comments.    Sam has brought his rifle, which Howard says needs to be left back I the room, stating “There is a city ordinance against carrying firearms in the street.   Nobody ever bothers about side arms, as long as they stay holstered, but carrying around a rifle is asking for trouble.”  Sam quickly brings it back to his room, actually feeling safer without it now that he has heard about the city ordinance.   

They all head over to the Paradise Saloon for some supper.   It is still early, with only a few patrons in the establishment.   Each of the men order either a beer or beer and a shot of whiskey.  Morgana orders wine, and is brought a glass of a vile smelling maroon-colored liquid that may have once been wine but was clearly not stored properly.   She reconsiders and gets a beer instead.   They each order the house special for the meal, a bean and beef stew with freshly baked bread. 

Arcade attempts to drop his name several times during the meal but the bartender either has never heard of him, doesn’t believe it’s really him or doesn’t care.  At the end of the meal the three humans decide to go bar hopping.  Morgana decides that she wants to go shopping instead and Louie offers to accompany her.   “Alright, but don’t let him try to buy any rice,” Arcade warns.    

The two of them head over to “Cole’s General Store” on Freemont Street, where she asks to see what they have in stock for material.    She buys a few yards of a dyed linen material and asks the proprietor if there is a tailor in town.   He gives them directions to a place over on Allen Street. 

As the sun sets in the distance the guys head down the street to Haffords Saloon.   By this point it is started to fill up with patrons.   They stand out, as there do not appear to be any cowboys in this establishment, with the patrons all look to be residents of Tombstone.   A good-sized man with a thick mustache is sitting at a barstool drinking heavily, so Hank and Arcade move up to the bar, sitting on either side of him.   

Hank nods in the man’s direction and introduces himself saying, “Howdy, name’s Hank Hill.  I just got into town a few hours ago.”   The man downs another drink and replies, “Hello, name’s Doc Holliday.  What brings you to Tombstone?”   Arcade speaks up, saying “He’s with me.  Are you a Physician?”  “Yep,” the man replies, as he orders up another glass of whiskey.    Arcade extends his hand in greeting, giving Holliday a firm grip while stating “Name’s Arcade.”   Holliday’s handshake tightens in response as he says “Arcade?  From Promise City?”  “A’Yup,” is Arcade’s response.   “Why are you here?” Holliday asks.   “Got bored, decided to check out a few other places,” is Arcade’s answer. 

The three continue to sit at the bar drinking, without any further conversation.   After an hour Arcade pays the tab then leaves, with Hank and Sam following him out.    Once out on the street Hank says, “I’ve heard of that guy.  He’s suppose to be bad news.”   “That’s what I’ve heard as well.   Shouldn’t take too long now for word of our arrival to get back to the Earps.”   Hank replies, “Think you’re right there.  I tell you what, we should now find us a cowboy bar, for word to get back to that other group.”  

Across town, Morgana and Louie are at the Dubois Tailor Shoppe, where the proprietor Jacques François Dubois has been taking measurements to fit her for a dress.   During the fitting she converses with him in fluent French, getting him to talk about himself while revealing nothing more than the fact that she is unmarried about herself.  Louie continues to play his usual role of being her valet.   The Frenchman has shown her several examples of his work throughout the shop and she is pleased with what she sees, pointing out which lace she wants him to use to.  

When he is finished he inquires as to when she wants the dress to be finished.   She says, “I guess I’ll want it as soon as possible, as I don’t know how long my team, Arcade’s Gang, will be in town.”    The man’s jaw just about strikes the floor at hearing that, and he stammers out “Arcade’s Gang!  Sacra bleu!   The one’s who shot Billy the Kid?”   She replies, “Actually, he wasn’t shot.  I killed him myself with my knives.”   Louie adds “That’s not entirely true.  It wasn’t just your knives, you finished him off with a hatchet.”   The tailor’s face turns pale.  She then sweetly asks, “Now, when did you say the dress would be ready?”   He swears that it will be completed by the morning, even if he has to stay up all night working on it.   She thanks him and then departs with Louie, the two of them heading back to the Boarding House. 

The other trio has found themselves their ‘cowboy bar’ further down Freemont Street, namely the aforementioned Occidental Saloon.    “You Neil Tolsohn?” Hank asks the bartender.   The man replies “Yah,” in a thick Scandinavian accent.    Hanks replies, “We’re boarding over at the same place as you.”  Arcade adds softly, “But you may want to keep that fact to yourself.”  Hank interjects, “You’re about to find out why”   Arcade then raises his voice and states “Name’s Arcade.  You might have heard of me.”   Everyone inside the building reacts to hearing that, and the trio is soon being bought drinks and asked to tell the story of the ‘Promise City Shootout’, as the incident has come to be called.

They stay at this Saloon until close to midnight.   One of the more interesting people they meet is the notorious Johny Ringo, who tells them of a near shootout that he almost had a few months back with Doc Holliday.    He says that he and the Doc had cleared the streets and were both fixing to draw on each other when Deputy Sheriff Billy Breckenridge intervened and with a few other bystanders managed to stop the fight.  Arcade comments that he met Breckenridge back at the Promise City Shootout, and that the Deputy Sheriff was the one who positively identified Billy the Kid’s body.   As the evening progresses Ringo speaks loudly of his desire to kill Wyatt Earp, who he considers to be the worst one of the Earp brothers.


----------



## Mathew_Freeman

Interesting stuff. I look forward to seeing how the Gunfight at the OK Corral works out with these characters involved! 

As a point of interest, what sort of classes and levels are the characters and NPC's in this?


----------



## Silver Moon

Tallarn said:
			
		

> Interesting stuff. I look forward to seeing how the Gunfight at the OK Corral works out with these characters involved!



I'm looking forward to it too.  Next week's game should be very interesting indeed!   (BTW Tallarn, Kriskrafts plays Morgana)



			
				Tallarn said:
			
		

> As a point of interest, what sort of classes and levels are the characters and NPC's in this?



The character classes are listed in the first post.  Our group starts all new playing characters at 2nd level, zero experience.  At the start of this current module all were still at that level, although some will be at 3rd by the time we finish (assuming they are still alive).    In accordance to Boot Hill rules, most NPC's are also in the 1st to 3rd level range, although the Earps are currently at 4th and Doc Holliday is 6th.   Here's the next chapter, from last Sunday's game:


*Chapter 32, “And this bird can sing”, October 25th, 1881, 7:00 A.M.:*

Morgana and Arcade are the first two awake, and head outside for a private Druidic ceremony welcoming the sunrise.   They head back inside, seeing a different man now at the main desk than we there the night before.   He introduces himself as Howard A. Harwood, Tombstone’s first Mayor and also Jake Harwood’s brother.  “So you own this place?”   Howard replies, “Yeah, I let Jake manage the place, my primary occupation is selling lumber, but there has been so much building lately I’m sold out.  That’s why your rooms were now available.”  “You stored lumber in our rooms?” Arcade questions.  Howard answers, “Sure, I needed to keep it somewhere.”

Louie soon joins them and says that he is hungry.   Howard tells them “Most of the taverns aren’t open this early, but several never close so you could get something to eat there.  You might want to try the Bird Cage Theater down the street.”   The three of them head off, soon seeing the place that they had been told about (http://clantongang.com/oldwest/birdcage.html).   The building has three sets of front double door and they enter through he center set.   

Upon entering the building they quickly surmise the facility is a den of iniquity with multiple gambling tables and 14 cage-crib compartments with pull around curtains suspended from the ceiling along the walls where various female entertainers can do performances, both public and private.   A dance hall stage lines the far wall.   All of the walls have numerous bullet holes in them.  

Morgana is attired in her Indian maiden clothing while the half-dozen other females seated in room are wearing pieces of sheer material that barely qualifies as clothing.   A poker game is going on at one of the tables in the basement.   The three sit at a different table on the main floor and a middle-aged woman wearing a cloth bathrobe comes over and asks what they would like.  “Whatever’s good for breakfast,” is Arcade’s reply. 

The party eats a breakfast comprised of an oatmeal mash, hash brown potatoes and beer that are surprisingly good.   Shortly after nine both Hank and Sam wander into the place and join the others.    Morgana inquires as to whether she can use the piano along the side wall and the older woman says, “Sure, go right ahead.”    Morgana begins with a few lively European pieces followed by a classical piano concerto.    

Hank finishes his breakfast and then wanders downstairs to the card game.  Three players are attired in suits and ties, the other two are dressed as cowboys.  “Game been going on long?” Hank asks.  “Started after this place opened, eight months ago,” is the response.  “You guys been here all that time?”  Hank inquires.  One of the better dressed men replies, “Most of it, players keep coming in and out.  Care to sit in?”   “Don’t mind if I do,” Hank answers, pulling up a seat. 

There is not much conversation at the table during the next hour, although Hank does find out that one of the men playing is an Earp brother, although not one of the three that the Sheriff spoke of.   This one is James Earp, who says that he is the proprietor of The Sampling Room Saloon, another Tombstone tavern.    During the hour Morgana begins singing to the piano music, again alternating the pieces to provide a diverse and eclectic array of songs that illustrates her full vocal range.  A pair of grizzled prospectors enter the building, one human the other dwarven, and she shifts to playing and singing a Norse opera, singing half the lines in the Dwarven language. 

The dusty old human prospector wanders over to the piano.  He has long white hair and a matted beard.  He smiles at her, revealing that he has several missing teeth, and says, “You’re new here.  I haven’t tried you out yet.”   Morgana adds into the next verse of the song the line “And you’re not going to.”    The rebuffed man wanders over to the bar, and Louie whispers to Morgana “You never know, he might be rich.”   The man complains to the Madame about the attitude of the ‘new bird’.   The woman replies, “She doesn’t work her, but she sure can sing,” as Morgana reaches the conclusion of the song, hitting the highest octaves of the line “We’ve all died and gone to Valhalla.”

Hank has had very good luck at the table _(The DM having told the player “You have a 70% chance of loosing, roll percentiles to see how badly you did” and the player then rolling a 93!)_  After less than an hour he has nearly doubled the $20 he had first put into the game, and decides to start loosing so as not to anger the other gamblers at the table.   One of the men glances upstairs and asks, “So, why do you hang out with an Indian and a Chinaman.”  Hank replies, “It’s a job.” He then gestures up to the other table and adds “My associate Arcade keeps all types of folks with him.”   The men at the table all show some surprise at the mention of Arcade’s name and one says, “I take it he’s the older one?”  “Yeah,” Hank replies.   

Having now established his reputation Hank feels that it is now safe to cash out of the game, ending up $ 15 ahead.   He wanders back up to the other table.   One of the harlots eyes the cash in his hand and follows over to the table, trying to catch his eye.  Hank does not appear to be overly interested so she walks up to Arcade and asks, “Care for some company?”   Arcade gestures to 15-year-old Sam and says, “I’m more concerned about my friend here.  He’s twenty-two and has never known the comfort of a woman.”   She says it will cost $ 5 to which Arcade says, “I’ll give you $ 10 if you make sure it stays out of the newspaper.”  Hank interjects, “I’ll make it $ 15 if it does make the paper.”  

She takes the money from Hank, and then leads Sam up a rolling staircase and to one of the oversized bird cages.  The curtains are then pulled shut.   Morgana switches over to playing some love songs.  When he doesn’t return right away she begins singing a song making up lyrics about how he is forever gone.  Sam eventually makes his way back to the table.    Hank says to Arcade, “Looks like he survived.”  Arcade replies, “Yeah, I was afraid at first that she’d come back and give you a refund.”  

Morgana decides that it is time for her to go pick up her new dress.   Louie agrees to accompany her but the three humans decide to stay where they are, Arcade commenting, “I think Sam needs to rest a spell.”   They head over to the tailor shop and Mr. Dubois enthusiastically has the dress ready.   She examines the intricate workmanship, concluding that it would have taken him far longer than the fifteen hours to make, and yet he doesn’t look tired.   She tries it on and it fits like a glove.  

She concludes that since France is know for its mages that he must be one, but he denies that when she asks him directly.   He wraps up the dress and they leave the shop, with Dubois breathing a sigh of relief.  She comments “Looks like I found myself a tailor.”  Louie replies, “Yeah, but next time you might not want to scare him so much.”    “Why not?  It gets me this level of quality.” she replies.


----------



## Silver Moon

*Chapter 33, “The Clantons and the Earps”, October 25th, 1881, 11:00 A.M.:*

Morgana and Louie head outside, seeing a pair of men down the street at the West End Corral unloading a wagon of freshly slaughtered beef into the adjacent meat market.   One man is older than the other, a bit heavy set, with a goatee and mustache.  The other is younger and clean haven.  They head down that way and Morgana approaches the wagon, looking over the beef.   She asks about purchasing some and the older man replies, “You’d have to ask the meat broker inside, we’ve already sold it all to him.  

Arcade, Hank and Sam make their way around the corner and join up with the others.   Arcade gestures to the wrapped up package she is holding and asks, “Did you get your new glad rags?”  Louie answers, “Yes, and then she try to buy hunk of cow.”    Hank asks her, “What would you do with it?  Never mind, I don’t want to know?”   Arcade decides that “cow” sounds like a good idea, and suggests they find a restaurant that serves steak.   “You eat steak?  I thought you were a druid?” Louie comments.  Arcade answers, “I’m a druid, I’m not dead.  It’s alright to eat animals as long as they are treated properly and killed humanely.”   Hank comments, “You’re a druid?  Why do I hang out with you?”  

Two buildings are nearby, the Alhambra Saloon and Big Nose Kate’s Saloon and Grand Hotel.   The two men have finished unloading the wagon and enter the Alhambra.   Arcade decides the other looks fancier, and to go there.  Hank comments, “Not sure about the name though, why would a woman want to point out that she has a big nose?”  Arcade replies, “I don’t know, maybe she got the idea from the tavern her sister opened, Wide Ass Mary’s.” 

They enter the building and are very impressed with the interior.  There is a wide and handsome staircase covered by an elegant carpet and supporting a heavy black walnut banister.   Upstairs they see a main hallway leading to several rooms.  Downstairs has a parlor and the walls are adorned with rare and costly oil paintings.  The furniture is of walnut with rich cushions of silk and a piano is in the far corner.  The adjacent dining room is of the same good taste, with three chandeliers, handsome centerpieces on each rich walnut table, and place settings of cut glass, china, and fine silverware of the latest style in cutlery. 

A woman whose facial features clearly indicate that she is the Kate the place is named for approaches them.   She takes a close look at their rustic attire and asks if they are sure they are in the right establishment.   After Arcades introduces himself she immediately reconsiders, apologizes for the misunderstanding, and ushers them over to a table.   Arcade comments to his Gang “Having a reputation has its advantages.”  Hank replies, “Yeah, I’ll bet there have never been any orcs or Indians in this place before.” 

The meal is excellent as this is obviously the best restaurant in town.   All of the other patrons dining in the room appear to be respectable citizens, the men wearing suits and ties and women in fine dresses.   While waiting to order desert everyone hears some shouting out in the streets.  Several of the patrons get up and head over to the window to see what is going on.   The party stands up and go over there as well, except for Morgana who says, “Why should we care.  We’re not getting paid.”  Arcade reminds her, “As a favor to the Sheriff for keeping the humans away from the Apache.”  “Okay, fine,” she replies and follows him to the window. 

A man in a suit is arguing with the two cowboys who unloaded the wagon in front of the Alhambra Saloon.  In addition to the yelling the cowboy then raises a fist and his sidekick does likewise.  “Who are those people?”  Morgana asks.   Hank says “The better dressed one is Doc Holliday, I don’t recognize the others.”   Kate says “That’s Ike Clanton and his friend Tom McLaury.”  A man in a black suit approaches to break up the argument.  He threatens to arrest them both, and they each head their separate ways.  “And him?” Arcade asks.  “He’s the Tombstone Marshal, Virgil Earp,” is Kate’s reply.   “Would he really have arrested the Doc?” Hank asks.   Kate replies, “Sure, he’s arrested his own brother Wyatt before for disturbing the peace.”  

They watch Virgil Earp continue down the street and enter the Crystal Palace Saloon.  “Why’d he go in there?” Louie asks.  Kate answers, “He has his office on the second floor.”   Arcade decides that it is time for him and his gang to pay the Marshal a visit.   They head down to the Saloon and up a staircase to the second floor.   There are offices there for Town Marshal Virgil Earp, Judge Wells Spicer, and one belonging to County Sheriff Johnny Behan.  Only Earp’s is currently occupied.   

They enter and Earp asks what he can do for them.   Arcade identifies his group, to which Earp says, “Yeah, I heard you were in town.  You’re not planning on starting any trouble are you?”  Arcade says, “None at all.  From what I saw in the street others are causin’ you trouble.”  “Nothing I can’t handle on my own,” Earp replies.  Hank says, “I met that Doc Holliday last night.  Seems like one tough customer.”  Earp answers, “I can handle him just fine without any of your help.”  The group figures they’ve overstayed their welcome, so leave the office.

Arcade, Hank and Sam decide to continue to check out the various drinking establishments in the town.   Louie heads down to the West End of town, known as ‘Hop Town’, which is the Chinese Quarter.   Morgana head back to the boarding house, takes a long bath, gets fixed up in her new dress, and then returns to Big Nose Kate’s.    Kate recognizes her despite the change in appearance and welcomes her back.  Morgana asks if she can use the piano and Kate says, “Help yourself.”   Morgana spends a few hours playing and asks if she can come back at play in the evening, which Kate is happy to agree to.

The gang meets up for supper in the Chinese Quarter, with Louie directing them to the best place for oriental cuisine.   They then head over to the Oriental Saloon, finding it to be a gambling hall for humans with oriental décor.  They are also told that the Earps have a major stake in the gambling operation of this establishment.    The games are higher stakes than Hank is willing to try out, and he suggests that he and Arcade find somewhere else.   Morgana heads back to Big Nose Kate’s.  Louie and Sam decide to go back to the boarding house and get to bed early.

Shortly after her arrival at Kate’s Morgana sees Ike Clanton and Tom McLaury come downstairs, apparently staying at the Grand Hotel.   They each down two shots of whiskey at the bar, then head out in search of a poker game.    Morgana spends the evening playing, with people dropping change in a cup she’s placed atop, her end of night total being $ 3.68.    She also finds out that Big Nose Kate is Doc Holliday’s girlfriend. 

Across town, Hank and Arcade have made themselves at home at the Occidental Saloon.  Hank once again has good luck at cards, being up $ 63 by around midnight  _(The player rolled a 98 for his percentile roll this time)_.   Arcade whispers to him to start loosing before he gets them both shot.   An inebriated Doc Holliday enters the saloon and joins the game at about this time.  After Hank looses around $ 20, a little to each other player, he bows out of the game.  Virgil Earp enters around the same time, and stands at the end of the bar nursing a beer. 

October 26th, 1881:

At around 1:00 A.M. a very drunk Ike Clanton and Tom McLaury stagger into the saloon.  They sit at a table and start a card game with Pony Deal and Buckskin Frank Leslie, two of the people that Hank and Arcade and played with at Johnny Ringo’s table the night before.   Holliday finishes his current hand, then gets up and walks over to that table.   Holliday bellows, “I heard you’re going to kill me, Ike.  Get out your gun and commence.”

Clanton shows that he is unarmed, while Virgil Earp makes his way over to the table.  He approaches Holliday and suggests that the two of them leave.  Before they are out the door Ike Clanton yells to Holliday, “We’ll kill you tomorrow when the others come to town.”   Holliday wants to head back inside but Virgil manages to get him to leave.  Clanton gets up to follow them out, but McLaury manages to stall him a few minutes.   They then leave, with Hank and Arcade behind them.  

Once out on the street they see Virgil Earp and Doc Holliday are now a few bocks away heading west, but Wyatt Earp is standing in the middle of Allen Street glaring at Clanton.    Ike yells to him “Tell your consumptive friend, your Arizona nightin’gale, he’s a dead man tomorrow!”   Wyatt matter-of-factly replies, “Don’t you tangle with Doc Holliday, he’ll kill you before you’ve begun.   Earp heads off in the direction of his brother, while Clanton and McLaury head east back to Big Nose Kate’s.   Hank and Arcade decide that the excitement for the evening is over, and head back to the boarding house.


----------



## Silver Moon

Chapter 34, “At the Breaking Point”, October 26th, 1881, 7:00 A.M.:

The sound of a rooster crowing in the distance wakes Morgan, lying in the bed in Arcade’s room alongside her occasional lover.   She washes up and dresses and tells him that she will be heading back to Big Nose Kate’s.  Arcade says that he will be along with the others once they are awake.  

She walks into the Saloon, finding Ike Clanton, Tom McLaury, Sheriff Behan and another man playing a card game called Fero.   Kate confirms that it was an all night game.    When the current hand ends Behan attempts to talk Ike into going up to his room to sleep.   Marshal Virgil Earp enters the Saloon at this point and suggests it as well.  Ike asks Virgil to deliver a note for him to Doc Holliday, which Earp refuses to do.   Ike then says, “You’re in together with him, well give a note to your brother Wyatt,” and scribbles out something else.  Virgil refuses to do that as well.  Clanton curses and then he and McLaury go to the bar and order drinks.    Morgana approaches Earp and Behan, saying, “Clanton appears to be very drunk.”   Behan replies, “Yeah.  I figured if he stayed up all night and kept drinking he’d spend today sleeping it off.”   “Let me see what I can do,” Morgana comments.

She heads over to the bar and picks him pocket then goes into the next room and reads the notes, both of them threats.   She returns and starts playing the piano, with soothing songs.   Clanton and McLaury eventually head upstairs, to presumably sleep.   She then goes out to do some shopping and is not there when the other members of Arcade’s Gang arrive.  “Where’d the little lady go?” Hank asks Arcade.  Sam warns Hank, “I don’t think you should be calling her that.”  Chinaman Louie comments, “She wouldn’t move so quickly if her feet were properly bound.”  

Ike Clanton comes downstairs carrying a rifle and hurries outside.   “That doesn’t look good,” Arcade states.   They head outside, soon running into Morgana and tell her that Ike Clanton is running around with a rifle.  She heads back inside and tells one of the employees to go find Kate, or else her boyfriend might get killed.    She goes back outside and they all head down the street. 

Ike Clanton is further down the street and is now arguing with Virgil and Morgan Earp.  Clanton argues that he needs his rifle for self-defense, that Doc Holliday threatened him.   Virgil confiscates the rifle and Morgan begins to shove him around until Arcade’s Gang approaches.   At that point they march Ike over to Justice of the Peace Wallace.   Virgil tells the judge that Clanton violated the town ordinance about having firearms in the street.  Clanton again claims self-defense.   The Justice fines him $ 27.50.   

Just then another commotion occurs outside on the street, as both Wyatt Earp and Tom McLaury had heard that the others were at the Justice’s place and arrive simultaneously from opposite directions, bumping into each other.   Wyatt actually apologizes but the drunk and sleep deprived McLaury just yells insults in return.   Wyatt removes his Buntline Special from its holster, picking it up like a club, but then reconsiders hitting McLaury after Arcade walks up to them.   

Clanton and McLaury head back to Big Nose Kate’s while the three Earp brothers head away the other direction.   Arcade’s Gang decides that the situation has been defused, and all head off to get a bite to eat at Kate’s.     Clanton is back at the bar and Arcade comments “Good thing he didn’t get shot back there, he wouldn’t want to get any blood into his alcohol system.”  Morgana decides it is time to do something about his drinking before the man loses all control.   She goes to the bar and sits beside him, then uses her bard abilities to plant a suggestion that he should drink coffee rather than beer.  She then convinces him to head upstairs to get some sleep.   Feeling a sense of accomplishment, she then joins the others for a meal.   

A short while later they see Tom McLaury outside in the street, talking to a pair of cowboys who have just rode up.   The three of them head off.   “That doesn’t look good either,” Arcade comments.   The Gang heads over to the Tombstone Jail to see if Sheriff Behan is there.  He isn’t, so they then go to the second floor of the Crystal Palace Saloon to check his office, but he  isn’t there either.  (Actually, he’s at his home sleeping, having staying up all night with Clanton and McLaury.)   Just as they are about to leave Virgil Earp arrives back at his adjacent office.   

The Gang no sooner starts to talk to him when somebody else runs upstairs, yelling, “The Clantons are over at the gunshop.”   Morgana says, “Can’t be, Ike is sleeping.”   The man replies, “No, Billy Clanton, he and Frank McLaury just got into town.”   Arcade states, “The last time a Frank and Billy came to a town we were in there was trouble.”   The Marshal lets off an explicative.  “What gunshop?” Hank comments.   Earp replies, “Only got one in town, Spangenbergs over on Fourth Street.”   “Mind if we tag along?” Arcade asks.  Earp replies, “If you do you’d better keep your guns in their holsters.”  “No problem,” Hank states.   

They all head down to the gunshop.  When they arrive to see Frank McLaury standing outside of the shop arguing with Wyatt Earp.   Billy Clanton and Tom McLaury are also standing there, putting cartridges into their gunbelts.   Wyatt tells his bother Virgil, “Caught them coming out the shop with a new Winchester rifle and ammunition.”  Tom McLaury tells Virgil, “Since when is buying a new rifle a crime?   It’s not loaded.”  “Keep it that way within city limits,” Virgil replies.   Frank McLaury shoves the rifle into a saddlebag on the back of his horse.”  Wyatt comments, “Well, he didn’t tie that horse up properly.  It wandered up on the sidewalk.  That is a crime.”    Virgil manages to calm his brother to clam down.  

The Earps and Arcade’s Gang all follow Billy Clanton and the McLaurys back to Big Nose Kate’s, then continue on back to the Crystal Palace Saloon.   The Earps sit at one table and order lunch.  Arcade’s Gang takes a different table and orders food for themselves.    During the meal Wyatt keeps glancing over at the other table.   After the meal the two Earps head upstairs to Virgil’s office.  Arcade’s Gang decides to head back to the boarding house. 

They then see both McLaurey brothers, both Clanton Brothers, and somebody that they do not recognize (Billy Claiboure) standing together with two of their horses in the alleyway off of Freemont Street between Fly’s Photo Gallery, the Jersey Livery Stable, and the Harwood Boarding House.  Arcade gestures for the group to head into the boarding house, as these men are standing outside of the Morgana’s room.   They all head to her room, and Louie uses his thieving skills to carefully raise up the glass windows with the curtains still drawn, so that they can discreetly hear what the cowboys are talking about. 

They hear the men talking about bushwhacking Doc Holliday when he comes by, saying that this is the route he always takes going from Freemont to Allen Street.    The party talks about how to deal with this, deciding to go talk to them, but reconsider when Sheriff Behan shows up.  The Sheriff speaks to the cowboys and then confiscates a shotgun that Ike Clanton now has.   He wants to take the handguns too, and the newly purchased rifle on Frank McLaury’s horse, but McLaury defiantly states “I ain’t giving up my weapons till you disarm the Earps, they have been threatening to kill us.”   Billy Clanton says that he won’t give up his guns, as he is planning to leave town soon.”  Behan warns them that if they set foot on the  street carrying loaded firearms they will be in violation of the law and subject to arrest.  He then leaves.

The Clantons then flag down a kid and hand him a note, saying “Give this to Doc Holliday down at Haffords Saloon.”   Arcade and Morgana decide to go follow the kid and intercept him if at all possible.   The others are told to stay in the room and continue to listen to the cowboy’s plans.    Unfortunately they are slowed down getting out of the boarding house and are unable to reach the Saloon before the messenger gets there.   They enter the building, seeing Holliday reading the note.   Wyatt, Morgan and Virgil Earp are all in the room, as is Sheriff Behan. 

Holliday finishes reading the note and says “Ike Clanton is challenging me to a showdown over at the O.K. Corral.”   Virgil says that he needs to go and disarm the cowboys.   Behan says that he has already disarmed them, taking both a shotgun and rifle away from Ike Clanton this day.   Virgil says that he will have to see that for himself.   It appears that both Earp brothers and Holliday are preparing to go with him.   Arcade speaks up at this point saying, “No.  You wait here, I’ll do it.”   The Earps exchange glances then look back at the leader of the now famous Arcade’s Gang.   After a long pause Virgil says, “Go right ahead.”    Arcade and Morgana leave, heading north to Freemont Street and then east to return to the alleyway.


----------



## Silver Moon

*Chapter 35, “Confrontation in the Alley”, October 26th, 1881, 2:45 P.M.*

Arcade and Morgana walk down Freemont Street towards the alleyway.  Arcade comments, “It’s too bad your druid spells duplicate mine, I’ve already got that covered.”  She smiles and says “Never hurts to have more of a good thing, and as for cover, you’ve never complained before whenever I was uncovered.”  

They clear the corner building and look down into the alleyway.   The five cowboys are still standing there.  At the sight of Arcade the one who they do not know (Billy Claibourne) runs behind the nearest building.    Both Clantons and both McLaurys stand their ground as the other two walk further down the alley.   Ike Clanton backs up towards the Photo Studio wall and Tom McLaury pivots his horse around to provide him with some cover.  Billy Clanton says where he was while Frank McLaury actually moves forward, walking his horse a bit so that he is now closer to the new Winchester rifle sticking out of the saddlebag. 

“What do you want?” Frank asks.   “We’re just here to talk,” Arcade replies.   “I don’t think there’s anything in particular for us to talk about,” Tom states.   Morgana interjects, “There is if you’re looking to be causing trouble.”   “We’re not causing any trouble here,” Billy exclaims.   Morgana says, “Really?  Then let me refresh your memory.  Ike Clanton has just challenged Doc Holliday to a gunfight at the O.K. Corral and you’re all waiting here in the alley to bushwhack him when he passes by here on the way to the corral.”   They appear a bit surprised by her knowledge, but Frank is quick to recover, saying, “This is a private matter between Ike and Holliday.”  “Then why are the rest of you here?” Arcades states.  Frank replies, “To make sure it stays between just those two. We don’t trust the Earps to stay out of it.” 

Arcade and Morgana stop walking when they are ten feet in front of Frank.  Ike is the furthest back at around thirty feet away.   Morgana says, “I believe that one of the Earps is the Tombstone Marshal, and has a right to enforce the law.”  “His brothers don’t have the right to bully everyone,” Tom exclaims.   Ike blurts out, “That Marshal has already taken a rifle and shotgun away from me.  _(DM’s Note: It was actually Sheriff Behan who took the rifle)_.    Frank says, “Look, this doesn’t concern you.  It is a local law enforcement matter.”  “How do you know?  Maybe it does concern us,” Morgana replies.  

After a long pause Frank states, “You’re Arcade, right?”  “A’Yup,” is the response.  “I’ve heard about you,” Frank states.  “All good I hope,” Arcade replies.   Frank answers, “What do you care about this for?   Arcade gestures over to a nearby window of Harwood’s Boarding House and says, “You see there?  That’s where my lady friend here is staying.  She doesn’t take kindly to cowboys disturbing her afternoon by having gunfights outside her room.  She’d also rather not have any stray bullets finding their way inside, if you know what I mean.”   “That room?” Tom states, pointing.   Arcade raises his voice and says, “Louie, wave hello to the cowboys.”   The half-orc moves the curtain aside with his gun barrel and smiles a toothy grin, exposing his fangs.   

“So you just want us to move away from where you’re staying?” Frank asks.   Morgana yells out, “No!  We don’t want you shooting up the town.  Violence is wrong, and we’re going to stop you from killing each other whether you like it or not.”    Frank blurts out, “Oh, shut up little lady.  Arcade, are you going to let your woman talk for you?”    Arcade replies, “Keep poking at her and you’ll see exactly what this ‘little lady’ is capable of.”     

Morgana takes that as a cue for a little demonstration.   She casts a “Gather” cantrip, which is a low-level wizard apprentice spell used to pull one or more small nearby objects over to the spellcaster.  In this instance the items she decides to gather are the bullets and cartridges along the front of Frank’s gun belt.    Everyone is started when the dozen or so shells levitate out of the belt and then fly forward, landing in a pile in her outstretched hand.  “She’s a witch!” Ike yells. 

Morgana decides to play that for all it is worth and replies, “I could be.  They didn’t hang all the witches back in Salem Massachusetts you know.”   In a dramatic gesture she then tosses the bullets to the ground and then states, “I could have just as easily had these bullets explode while inside of all of your gun belts and weapons.   Or I could pull all of your weapons out of your hands and have the barrels twist so that they can never be fired again.  Is that what you want?” _(DM’s note: Actually, she can’t, but the cowboys don’t know that.)_ 

Tom says, “Lady, we just came to town to conduct business.  That’s not against the law you know.”  “And have you concluded your business?” she replies.   “I believe we have.  We just came to help out our friend Ike.  I think we’ll be going now,” Frank states.    “Sounds like a plan,” Arcade answers.    The cowboys turn south towards the corral.   Morgana yells out, “Head directly out of town, we don’t want any more trouble from you.”

When Morgana had started to cast her spell Louie decided to head outside as back up, going out the rear door of the boarding house.   He relaxes at the sight of the four cowboys now heading away, leading the two horses.   Arcade and Morgana have decided to follow them.   Hank and Sam now decide to also exit Harwoods.   Arcade glances behind the next building, expecting to see the man who first ran away, but he is long gone.     They follow from a distance of around thirty feet as the cowboys approach the corral owner, pay him, pick up two saddles, and then go and get their other two mounts.   

Frank McLaury climbs up onto his horse and the other three lead theirs towards the outer gate of the corral over towards Allen Street.    They no sooner step foot on Allen Street when Virgil Earp’s voice sounds out from somewhere on the street with, “That’s far enough boys.”   

Morgana and Arcade exchange glances.  Because of buildings on either side of the corral they cannot see where Virgil is.   Arcade points to the two corral areas on either side of the gate.  He and Morgana then each climbing over the fence and making their way forward along the walls of the buildings on both sides, also using the fences as cover.  Morgana lifts her skirts up to keep her new dress out of the horse dung as she walks.     They each get to the end of the fence, with Allen Street on the other side.   Morgana sees the three Earps and Holliday are lined up across the street near her.   All three Earps have drawn their handguns and are pointing them directly at the Clantons and McLaurys while Holliday is holding his hand inside of the duster he is wearing.


----------



## Silver Moon

Next Chapter (and thanks to Mr. E. Gary Gygax for the suggestion of adding Johnny Ringo and his friends into this scenario)

*Chapter 36, “Standoff at the O.K. Corral”, October 26th, 1881, 3:00 P.M.*

Marshal Virgil Earp states, “You are under arrest for attempting to disturb the peace.”   Ike yells back, “We’re not disturbing anything.  We were just going.”   Morgan Earp blurts out “You’re not going anywhere.  You’ve been looking for a fight, now you can have it.”  Both Billy and Ike place their hands on their guns but do not remove them from the holsters yet.   Tom has no visible weapon, but his shirt is tucked out and unbuttoned, allowing him easy access to whatever might be concealed underneath. 

Billy Clanton maneuvers his horse around to provide himself some cover.  Frank McLaury lowers his right hand and starts to slide the Winchester rifle out from his saddlebag, using his horse to shield this movement from the Earps and Holliday.   Morgana is climbing over the fence nearby and tells Frank, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”    Morgana hops down onto Allen Street, landing at the midpoint between Virgil Earp and Frank McLaury.  

Her sudden arrival draws the attention of all potential combatants, creating a distraction for Arcade to climb over the fence to a location on Allen Street twenty to thirty feet behind the Clantons and McLaurys.   Louie uses this opportunity to get right up to the corral fence along Allen Street.   Further back, Sam and Hank are hurrying to catch up, having just reached the rear fence of he corral.   Out of the corner of their eye they spot four armed cowboys hurrying down Third Street toward Allen Street. 

The tension rises as Doc Holliday and Ike Clanton begin trading accusations against each other.  Arcade then states, “The cowboys were planning to leave town just now.  Why don’t you let them?”    This startles both Billy and Ike Clanton, as they were not aware of anyone behind them.   Billy pivots around and draws his gun, still holding it down and to the side, unsure of which direction to point it.   Ike also draws his gun as he yells to Arcade, “You stay out of this.”    

Wyatt and Morgan Earp both prep their guns.  Billy and Ike doing likewise, as do Louie and Arcade.  Doc Holliday removes a shotgun from under his duster and levels it towards Ike.  Frank gets his rifle ready to fire, still holding it concealed behind the horse.  Virgil yells, “Hold on, I don’t want that,” while also cocking his revolver   Morgana yells for everyone to stop acting stupidly.   Wyatt yells at her “Lady, this isn’t your fight.  Get out of the way or you might get hurt.”  

The half-orc Louie calls them all foolish!   He yells to the Earps, "You want law in town, make it peaceful nice place, but if you get dead in shooting, that not happen, then what?"  He then turns to the Clantons and yells "You have nice ranch, grow good cows, make good meat to sell, get much money.  If you shot dead, you no get to have money.  Go home, stay alive, grow cows, have much money for good life."   Arcade comments "I think there is something to be learned from that 'Chinese wisdom'."

Wyatt Earp starts to take aim and Billy Clanton yells out, “Don’t shoot, I don’t want to fight.”   Arcade yells out, “They were planning to leave!”  Virgil yells back to Arcade, “You said you were going to disarm them, but they sure look armed to me.”   Tom yells over “I have nothing.”    At this point Arcade notices two rifle barrels protruding from two different alleyways behind where the Earps are standing.  He yells, “Who are your friends?”   Nobody answers, not knowing whom he was addressing and what he was talking about.   Hank and Sam are now closer, weapons drawn, and Hank yells over to Arcade “There were four more of them running down the side street.”  

Virgil again yells to Arcade, asking “Why didn’t you disarm them?”   “Hear that, he’s in with the Earps,” Ike yells.  “They’re all still armed.  It looks more like Arcade is in with them,” Wyatt exclaims.  Louie mutters, “Great, they all think we’re the enemy.”  Arcade glares angrily at Virgil and states, “Well, I don’t think I like what’s happened here.  It sounds like this was all a set-up.”  He then raises his voice, slowly are loudly articulating each word, and states “And I don’t take kindly to being set up!”    

Morgana yells over to the Clantons and McLaurys “You were about to ride out of town.  Why don’t you lower your weapons and just go.”   “And get shot in the back by them?” Ike exclaims.  A voice then sounds from further down the street, about forty feet behind the Earps stating, “I don’t think the Earps will be doing that.”   Holliday doesn’t waver in his attention to Ike Clanton, but all three Earps glance back to see who is behind them.   Both Johnny Ringo and Buckskin Frank Leslie have now emerged from the alleyways, each holding a rifle in the direction of the Earps.  Two more rifle barrels are now sticking out from the alleyways, although nobody can ascertain exactly who is holding them.  

Virgil Earp yells, “Johnny, this isn’t your fight.  You stay out of it.”   Ringo replies, “I’m not looking to join in a fight.  I’ve nothing against a fair fight, but this was starting to look more like an execution to me.”   Leslie walks forward until he is alongside Ringo and the two of them continue to move forward.  Virgil yells, “You hold it right there Johnny and let’s sort all of this out.”   

Ringo and Leslie stop, now around thirty feet from the Earps and Holliday.   Behind them, both Pony Deal and Billy Claibourne step slightly out of the alleyways, pointing their rifles towards the Earps. While everyone was looking back Frank McLaury used the distraction to raise up his rifle while his brother Tom reached his hand under his shirt and withdrew a revolver.   Sam, Hank and Louie remain behind the corral fences, each with their own firearm at the ready. 

Morgana looks back and forth at the sixteen gunmen standing on or alongside Allen Street and exclaims, “I’ve had enough of all of this bull-excrement.   You men seem determined to kill each other!  There’s no reason for violence.   This can be resolved peacefully.”    

Meanwhile, a Tombstone resident named Billy Allen* is now sitting at a second floor side window of his family’s business, Allen’s Hardware.   A prominent founding family of Tombstone, the Allens had constructed most of the buildings along what was then named Allen Street.  Their businesses on this street include this two-story brick hardware building alongside the O.K. Corral.  At the sight of Earps and Holliday marching along Allen Street Billy had hurried on ahead to see what was going on. 

Billy Allen had then slipped in through the back door of his family business, escaping the notice of his other family members who were now busy watching the commotion out on the street through the front window.  He quietly grabbed up the rifle that they kept beneath the counter for security and headed upstairs.   Looking down at the standoff on the street below, he assesses that the Earps and Holliday are now surrounded and outnumbered by the cowboys three-to-one.   

Allen was pleased by this turn of events, as he harbored a grudge against Wyatt Earps because of  an incident at the Oriental Saloon several months earlier.  Wyatt had accused Allen of cheating at cards and then barred him from the establishment, much to the embarassment of the Allen family.   “Hope you Earps all get killed,” Allen mutters.  However, just when it looks like bullets are about to fly the woman in the green dress steps forward and tries to play peacemaker!   “Not if I can help it,” Allen says to himself.  He takes careful aim at Wyatt Earp and then pulls the trigger on his rifle.  

Morgana’s speech is interrupted by the sound of a gun going off, following by an exclamation from Wyatt Earp as the bullet finds its mark.   Holliday’s immediate reaction is to make sure that his shotgun is pointed directly at Ike Clanton’s head.  The shotgun then fires.  



*_During the original Gunfight at the O.K. Corral one or two shots were fired at Wyatt Earp from outside of the alleyway.    The identity of this “mystery gunman” was never determined, but the majority of historians and scholars believe that it was Billy Allen who was responsible. _


----------



## Silver Moon

*Chapter 37, “Bringing things down a Notch”, October 26th, 1881, 3:15 P.M.*

At the very instant that Morgana hears the gun go off she changes her dialogue in mid-sentence from her plea for peace to that of a spell incantation.   Since she is facing directly towards the Earps and Holliday she casts the spell right in front of them.   The casting time is fast, but not fast enough to prevent the initial bullet from striking Wyatt Earp in his left leg.  The spell does takes effect simultaneous to Doc Holliday’s shotgun blast.   

She had cast another Gather spell, which draws smaller items towards her.  In this instance, the spell grabs all of the various pieces of buckshot as they exit the barrel of the shotgun.  She not only pulls these pieces of metal towards her, but also modifies the spell for maximum visual effect.  While slowing the movement of the metal through the air she sends send it swirling around in a corkscrew formation, creating a dark spiral that travels from the shotgun and her outstretched hand   This commands the attention of all of the gunmen, stopping what was about to be a cascade of shots from all directions _(and subsequently spoiling all of the DM’s fun)._ 

Doc Holliday’s face turns red with anger over her interference, as he knows that his shot at Clanton would have been successful.  _(DM’s Note: It would have too, it rolled up as a fatal shot to the head, at which point all hell would have broken loose on the street.)_ “She’s using witchcraft again!” Ike yells out.   Morgan Earp exclaims, “She’s a witch?”  

Morgana now has their undivided attention, and she retorts, “I can do far worse than that.”  With a dramatic gesture she flings the buckshot out onto the street in front of her as she states, “I could have sent this flying into any one of you.   I’m through playing games here.  Stop this foolishness….NOW!”    

A long pause follows, broken when Wyatt tells Morgana, “Lady, you can call this situation whatever you want, but somebody shot me!”    Only a small amount of blood shows on his torn pants leg, and he seems to have no difficulty standing, so she says, “It doesn’t appear to be very serious.  I can heal you if you’d like.”   “You’re not getting anywhere near me Witch Woman,” Wyatt replies.  

Arcade speaks next saying, “That shot sounded more like a rifle than a revolver.”   Everyone’s gaze turns to Frank McLaury, who is the only one in front of the Earps holding a rifle.   Frank looks towards Virgil and with some desperation in his voice says, “It wasn’t me.  This rifle is brand new and hasn’t been fired.  You can check it.”   Arcade states, “It wasn’t him, I would have seen him move.   All of you would have too.”   The Earps realize that is true, as they were watching Morgana when the shot went off.  She was near Frank, so he was also directly in their field of vision.  

Morgana says, “Maybe it would be a good idea if everyone put down all of your guns.”  Virgil says, “Lady, I’m the town Marshal here.  I’m supposed to have my gun out in a situation like this.”   She says, “Okay, that’s fair, but that doesn’t apply to everybody else.”   Ike says “I’m not lowering my gun until they do first.”

At this point in time three more armed gunmen arrive people enter Allen Street from Third.  They are recognized as Sheriff Behan and Deputies Breckenridge and Dalton.   All three are holding rifles, pointed towards the people before them.    Morgana sarcastically comments, “Great, that’s all we need.  More guns!”  Arcade yells over to the Sheriff, “You took your sweet time getting here.”  Behan replies, “I had to go gather my deputies.  What’s going on here?”   Arcade answers, “There was almost a shoot-out, but my gang has now been bringing things down a notch.”

Billy Clanton reiterates, “All we want to do is leave town.”    “But nobody trusts anyone to lower their guns first,” Morgana states.    Sheriff Behan hands his rifle to Deputy Breckenridge and walks forward.  As he passes Johnny Ringo and his boys he gestures for them to lower their weapons, which they then do.    Behan walks up beside Virgil Earp, at which point he removes his own revolver and points it up into the air, nodding for Virgil to do likewise.    The Sheriff then says, “Looks like us law enforcement officers have everybody covered, why don’t all of you civilians lower your arms?” 

Virgil instructs his brothers to holster their weapons, which they reluctantly do.  Holliday takes a bit more verbal prodding to get him to lower the shotgun.  Behan nods to Ringo and his friends and they now stow their weapons.   Arcade and his gang are next, followed by the McLaureys and Billy Clanton.   “You too Ike,” Behan states adding, “Your rifle and shotgun are waiting at Big Nose Kate’s.  You can pick them up on your way out of town.”  Clanton finally puts away his revolver, while never wavering his attention from the cold-as-ice gaze coming from Doc Holliday. 

Tom McLaury and the Clantons climb up onto their horses and then ride east along Allen Street.   Arcade walks over towards Morgana as Louie, Hank and Sam exit the O.K. Corral and join up with them.    Deputies Breckenridge and Dalton manage to get Johnny Ringo and his friends to disperse.   The Earps continue to watch as the Clantons and McLaureys stop briefly at the Grand Hotel and pick up their things, then ride on and out of Tombstone.  

Once Ike Clanton is finally out of visual range Doc Holliday turns his attention towards Morgana, giving her an angry stare that would send shivers down the spine of most people.   She chooses to just ignore him, but Arcade takes a keen interest in the renewed grip Holliday has on his shotgun and that his other hand is now slowly moving towards his gun holster.   Virgil Earp has noticed this too and says, “Doc, why don’t you go have a look at my brother’s leg wound?”   Wyatt states, “It hurts like hell.”   

Morgan Earp assists his brother as they and Doc Holliday walk west back towards Wyatt’s home.   Virgil holsters his weapon and accompanies them.  Sheriff Behan gestures to his two deputies to discreetly follow them.  As the Earps turn north onto Second Street Holliday Doc Holliday again glares back angrily at Arcade’s Gang.    The Sheriff walks over to Arcade and says, “I think you’ve made enemies of Holliday and the Earps.”   Louie adds, “And the Clantons, and the McLaureys, and just about every other armed person in town.”   

Morgana tells the Sheriff, “We held up our end of the bargain, now you hold up yours.  The Army stays out of the mountains.”   “I’ll do what I can,” Behan states.   Arcade interjects, “You’d better.  We almost got killed here.”  Louie comments, “And the next time these guys decide to kill each other you call somebody else.”


----------



## Silver Moon

_Thanks to E.Gary Gygax for his suggestion of adding Johnny Behind-the-Duce to the storyline.   Historical information about this man and why he felt an obligation to the Earps can be found at the following link: _ http://members.aol.com/margeebee/shortsty.htm 

*Chapter 38, “Ambush on Freemont Street”, October 26th, 1881, 3:30 P.M.*

Sheriff Behan nods and walks away, heading back in the direction of the Tombstone Jail.  “Now what?” Hank asks.  “We get out of town before one of more of these groups decides to shoot us,” Arcade answers.   “When does the next Stage leave for Promise City?” Louie asks.  Hank replies, “It left a little over an hour ago.  The next one won’t be until tomorrow afternoon.”
Hank says, “In that case, should we be standing right in the middle of the busiest Street in town?”  Morgana says, “Actually, it is probably the safest place for us to be right now.”     

Arcade suggests, “How about we buy some horses?”   “And saddles, and barding?  That would cost more money than we have with us right now, and we already have horses back in the other town.”  Sam exclaims.   Hank suggests, “Let’s just stay at the boarding house until tomorrow.”  Arcade comments, “That may not be safe.  They know we’re staying there.”   Morgana says, “We could get a hotel room somewhere else.  How about the Grand Hotel?”  You’re forgetting that the owner is Doc Holliday’s gal,” Arcade mentions.   Hank says, “How about the Bird Cage.  Sam had a good time there.”   Louie suggests that he ask some people in the Chinese Quarter to give them lodgings for the night.”  

Arcade suggests, “We can decide later, let’s get back to the boarding house and pack.”   They cautiously make their way the block back to Harwoods and each get packed up.   They decide to have Hank stay in the most defensible room guarding the bags while the others go and secure lodgings.    On their way out Sam comments that even the Stagecoach ride won’t be safe, that it could be ambushed.  Arcade stops and asks Howard Harwood “Isn’t holding up a stage a Federal crime?”  Harwood replies, “Only if it is carrying mail at the time.”   Morgana suggests “Let’s head over to the Post Office and see if any mail will be on that stage.”

The Tombstone Postmaster says he doesn’t know yet.   Morgana decides to confirm that some will be, by writing out and then posting a letter to the El Parador Cantina.    Sam suggests that they check in with the Sheriff.   He is not in his office at the Crystal Palace Saloon, so they head over to the Tombstone Jail.   He isn’t there either, but Deputy Breckenridge is saying, “Behan is home sleeping.  He was up all night with Ike Clanton trying to make him too tired to cause trouble today.”   They express their concerns about their own safety and Breckenridge offers to help keep them from getting shot.    They happily accept his offer, with Louie commenting that he’s already been shot up enough for one lifetime.  

Breckenridge locks up the jailhouse and the five then begin to head over to a residence in the north part of town.   Morgana has them stop at the tailor shop, where she drops off a copy she has written out of the “Gather” spell, telling Jacques “You may find this useful.  They proceed on, and Breckenridge knocks on a door which Deputy Jeb Dalton opens the door.  Dalton is informed that he is now on duty for the rest of the night.   The five then wander over to the Occidental Saloon on Freemont Street for some supper.   

Over the meal they talk about their experiences and Breckenridge is surprised to discover how inexperienced the fighters in Arcade’s Gang actually are, given the team’s reputation for having taken down Billy the Kid.   Morgana reminds the Deputy, “Be serious, you were there that day.   I didn’t even who I had killed until after you identified the body.”   Breckenridge assures them that he has ample experience (5th level) to help guard them.   He says he might even know a safe place a bit out of town for them to hole up for the night.    Arcade suggest that they pick up their bags and get there soon, as it will be getting dark in another hour. 

Breckenridge takes the lead heading down the street, with Arcade and Morgana walking  behind him and Sam and Louie in the rear.   They see the boarding house only two blocks away and make their way towards it.     As soon as they all pass by an alleyway a fighter/rogue named Johnny Behind-the-duce slips out from the shadows and raises his high caliber rifle.   He takes aim at the leader of Arcade’s Gang and fires.   

The shot enters Arcade’s back just below the left shoulder and just misses the heart by around two inches, exiting through the upper chest and ripping open a major artery.   Arcade staggers and throws his right hand up over the wound to stop the cascade of blood from the wound.   Morgana’s immediate reaction is rush up to Arcade and cast a spell _(stealing an idea from the Star Trek: The Next Generation western episode “A Fist Full of Datas”), _ tossing up a Shield spell to give some protection to herself and Arcade from further attacks.    

Sam and Louie both pivot around in search of the gunman, spotting him in the alleyway and partially shielded by the side of the building.  Both draw their revolvers.   Up in front Deputy Breckenridge draws his gun and also looks back.   With Breckenridge temporarily distracted, Doc Holliday steps out from behind the fence of the Freemont Street Corral and fires his shotgun point blank into the Deputy.   Holliday had harbored a grudge against Breckenridge ever since the Deputy broke up a showdown between him and Johnny Ringo the past summer, and wasn’t going to let the man’s presence deter him from the ambush of Arcade’s Gang.  

Breckenridge falls to the street in intense pain with a mortal wound to his abdomen, his innards spilling out onto the street.   Arcade attempts to draw his gun and fire, but is overcome by the pain of his wound and the shot goes wild. The gun then falls from his hand, and Morgana has to grab him to keep Arcade from collapsing, while still maintaining her spell. Breckenridge also fires off his gun before passing out, the shot not even coming close. _(DM’s Note: I rolled very well with both of my shots, successfully taking out the player’s two best gunmen in the very first round of battle.   Luck, however, was about to now shift to the players.)   _ 

Holliday then unloads the second barrel of his shotgun at Morgana and Arcade as Johnny Behind-the-Duce fires his rifle point blank at Sam.    The Shield spell only grants partial protection but is sufficient this time in deflecting the buckshot from Holliday’s hastily fired and poorly aimed shot.   Sam’s attacker likewise misses as Sam and Louie both fire their guns simultaneously.   Both of their shots hit perfectly, Sam’s striking Johnny right between the eyes while Louie’s enters the brain just above the left temple.  Either one of the shots would have been instantly fatal and the body drops to the ground.   

Sam pivots around in the direction of the shotgun blasts while Holliday drops his now empty shotgun and pulls his revolver from its holster.   Sam lets off a shot in that direction, the bullet deflecting off of the wall of the brick building to Holliday’s right.   Holliday aims and fires at Morgana, who is once again saved by the Shield spell as it would have otherwise struck her.   The barely conscious Arcade attempts to cast a Heal Metal spell but is unable to.  Meanwhile, Louie has charged forward to the body on the ground, first confirming that he is dead and then quickly checking the pockets for valuables.  

Sam’s next shot is phenomenal, hitting Holliday squarely in the chest.  Holliday drops his gun and falls backwards onto the ground, presumably dead.  Sam and Morgana look around the area for more attackers, seeing none.   A crowd begins to gather.    Morgana cancels her spell and then casts a healing spell onto Arcade.   It is not a very powerful one, but is enough to stop the bleeding and begin the natural healing process.    

Arcade asks if she has any more healing.  She tells him no, that most spells that she took this day were offensive rather than defensive.   Arcade says that is what he did too, but that he has a single more powerful healing spell.   She tells him to cast it on himself if he can.  Instead, he staggers forward over to the body of Deputy Breckenridge, finding the man to be barely alive.  Morgana comes to assist.   They lie the Deputy down on his back, position his exposed parts back to where they belong, and Arcade then casts his spell.   Several people in the crowd gasp in awe at seeing this.  Arcade lies back barely conscious after that, the spell having used up all of his remaining vigor.   

Big Nose Kate arrives on the scene and takes the dying Doc Holliday into her arms.   A short while later they are joined by Tombstone’s primary physician, Doctor Elias L. Farnum.  He checks Holliday and informs Kate that he has died.   The doctor the helps the crowd lift Deputy Breckenridge onto a buckboard to bring back to his home.   Arcade tells Farnum, “I did what I could for him, but it may not have been enough.”  Franum replies, “He’s a tough one, he’ll pull through.”  

Sam and Louie help Arcade up on his feet.   Morgana eyes the crowd, not knowing who might be friend or foe, and questions the safety of remaining where they are.   Arcade mutters, “Does anyone know what happened to Hank?  They could have gotten to him first.”    Arcade’s concern is soon alleviated, when Hank rides up to then in a wagon pulled by a pair of horses, the group’s bags sitting in the back of the wagon.   “Hurry, get in, we’re going,” Hank exclaims.   They all climb aboard and Hank rides them out of Tombstone as fast as the horses will go. 

“Where’d this come from?” Arcade asks.  Hank replies, “Sheriff Behan loaned it to us.   He’s grateful for what you did for his Deputy, and thought we should get out of town before the Earps showed up.   He said for us to just drop the horses and rig off with Deputy Hunter back in Promise City and let him return it to Tombstone.  So, what exactly happened?”   Louie exclaims, “We made two men go dead.”  Arcade laughs and says, “Yeah, Sam got to have all of the fun on this trip.  He got a girl and shot both of the bad guys.”   “I shoot one too!” Louie proudly states. 

Hank says, “This could mean more trouble for us.  That Doc Holliday was pretty well known.”  Sam comments, “The other one too.  I heard some of the people calling him Johnny Behind-the-Duce.  They said he was being held for murder when he escaped from the Tombstone Jail last Spring.  Nobody had seen him again until today.”  Louie asks, “Promise City safe place now?”  Arcade comments, “Not sure.  We need to go back and get our horses”  Morgana exclaims, “And wait a few days until someone is fully healed!”   Arcade nods, realizing he isn’t going to win that argument.  Morgana then states, “I have an idea.  There’s somewhere I’ve always wanted to visit.  Let’s go to Europe.”  

In the weeks to follow, the newspapers around the world print several exaggerated and inaccurate accounts of the incidents that day, further adding to the legend of Arcade’s Gang.   Morgana’s use of witchcraft at both the “Gunfight at the O.K. Corral” and “Ambush on Freemont Street” now credit her with having tossed around both fireballs and lightning bolts.  The three of the fatal shots that killed the two opponents are all credited to Sam, who the papers now dub “Sure-shot Sam”.  Other papers refer to him as “Sammy the Kid” due to Arcade stating Sam’s age as 22 while he looks his actual age of 15.   

A New York City publisher prints a totally fictitious unauthorized biography of Arcade, which quickly becomes a best seller.   As he had a healing spell to save Breckenridge’s life, the author concludes that he was once a priest.   The biography recounts how he was an altruistic Priest of the Roman Gods, who headed west along the Oregon Trail with his wife and children.  His family was then attacked and killed by outlaws who left him for dead.  The half-breed Indian witch woman Morgana found him and nursed him back to health.  They then began his current quest of vengeance, first hunting down the killers of his family.  He then dedicating his life to bringing his own form of justice to the world, picking up the other Gang members along the way.

*The End (for now) *


----------



## Mathew_Freeman

*appluase and cheering*

So, onwards to Europe? Who's famous in Europe around this time that they could go get involved with?


----------



## Col_Pladoh

SilverMoon,

Great stuff, and thanks for the mention. Fact is I have been a fan of Western history for many a year, mainly encouraged thus by my old friend Don Kaye.

Your hybrid campaign is so interesting that I am sure many a D&Der will give the genre a try...if they can find a copy of bOOT HILL, that is

I know I am ready to play some Wild West adventuring right now!

Cheers,
Gary


----------



## Silver Moon

Tallarn said:
			
		

> *appluase and cheering*  So, onwards to Europe? Who's famous in Europe around this time that they could go get involved with?



Thank you Tallarn,  
I’m thrilled to say that I don’t know exactly what lies ahead in Europe, as I will not be the DM for that module.  I’ll actually get to play for a change, my character being Qualtaqa, the Native American centaur from the first module.   The DM (Arcade’s player) is planning to bring the group to Victorian England.   I suspect that we may encounter several literary characters, as he is a fan of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen comic book series.

The campaign will then be picked up by Kriskrafts (Morgana’s player).  She recently watched a History Channel program about Great Britain’s invasion and occupation of Egypt in the summer of 1882, and plans to use that as the backdrop.   I have a collection of around two-dozen Egyptian priest and soldier miniatures for her to use with this.  Her modules are always quite entertaining and different, and usually have both a historical and mythological basis, often taking place in a setting with a rather extreme climate.


----------



## Silver Moon

Col_Pladoh said:
			
		

> SilverMoon, Great stuff, and thanks for the mention. Fact is I have been a fan of Western history for many a year...I know I am ready to play some Wild West adventuring right now! Gary




Thank you very much Gary, although I really should be the one thanking you for co-creating both the Boot Hill and AD&D gaming systems in the first place.  I appreciated your suggestions on the NPC's for this tale, it added to the game.   I'll keep you apprised of future adventures of Arcade's Gang.


----------



## Silver Moon

I've calculated experience points, and most of the Gang have now enhanced their abilities (reached 3rd level) and are preparing for their next adventure.  The next module is scheduled to begin in another week.


----------



## Col_Pladoh

Silver Moon said:
			
		

> I've calculated experience points, and most of the Gang have now enhanced their abilities (reached 3rd level) and are preparing for their next adventure.  The next module is scheduled to begin in another week.




Howdy Pilgrim!

Well that's right interesting. I'll sure want to read about the action...soon as I finish reading the last report on the D&D game taking place in the East, that it

Adios,
Gary


----------



## Silver Moon

*Chapter 39, “The Latin Lover,” November 14th, 1881:*

Arcade’s Gang is sitting around in the El Parador Cantina, thankful that the events of Tombstone are now behind them.    Arcade complains to Morgana about the spurious biography about him that is now circulating, stating, “It says I was a priest.  I could never have been a priest.  I couldn’t get used to the underwear.”   Morgana comments, “Yeah, and what was that crap about me being the Indian maiden that rescued you!”   Hank mutters,  “Yeah, who would believe that you are a maiden.”  That earns him a dirty look from her. 

Arcade gestures to Sam and comments, “Yeah, well most of the press lately has been about old “Sure-shot” here.”   Louie interjects, “Yeah, me be careful now.  Me not stand next to Sam.”  Hank jokes, “Well Sam, part of your new reputation is ‘cause you look so young.”  Morgana exclaims, “He is young!  He’s only fifteen!”   Hank laughs, “Can’t be!  The paper says he’s twenty-two.”  Morgana snaps at Arcade, “Why did you tell that to the dance hall girl?”  He replies, “I was afraid she’d charge extra if she found out he was underage.”

The party is then interrupted by a boy who works across town, who informs Arcade that somebody wants to talk to him over at the Palace Saloon.    After the boy leaves Arcade continues to just sit at the table.  Hank says, “Aren’t you going to go see what he wants?”  Arcade replies, “Nope, not going there.  They wouldn’t let me and Louie into that place to hear Morgana sing.”   She exclaims, “I wouldn’t sing there again if they paid me.  That saloonkeeper needs to learn not to tick people off, especially if he doesn’t know who they are.”   Arcade comments, “It’s safe to say the everybody knows who you are now.  I’d bet you’d be allowed into any saloon in town.”   

The centaur Qualtaqa enters the Cantina and heads over to the table.  He is followed by a wood elf.  The elf is of average height, slim build and attired in regular cloth clothing rather than the Mexican-style attire worn by most of the wood elves in the area.  Qualtaqa tells the gang, “This is new friend I tell you about.  He move in here when you in Tombstone.”    “What brings you to Promise City?” Arcade asks.  “I got lost,” he replies.   

The elf introduces himself as Aiden and comments that he got a room at the Cantina because it was the only place in town that would allow someone of his race to stay at.   Morgana quickly sizes up the new guy, noting that the hands are free of calluses and he has no visible weapons or holy symbols denoting a religion.    She casually walks over to Dorita and says, “What’s his relationship with your Grandfather?”   She replies, “An apprentice.”  “Thought so,” Morgana responds.  She wanders back to the table and comments, “Dorita says he’s okay.”

“Anything I should know about this town?” Aiden asks.   Louie exclaims, “Don’t buy rice.”  Arcade adds, “Yeah, and if Louie here buys rice you’d better reload your weapons.”   Morgana gestures and says, “This is Arcade.  He doesn’t actually kill anyone but he gets all the credit.”  “I have too killed someone!” he exclaims.    She then gestures again and comments, “This is Sam.  He’s a sure-shot, but otherwise needs a lot of help.”   Hank adds, “Hey, we got him some help back in Tombstone.”   She then says, “And that’s Hank.  He’s a member of the gang but doesn’t admit it.”   “Probably smart of him,” Sam comments.  Louie says, “It good to be part of respectable gang.”   Sam states, “Respectable?  Did you join up with some other gang?”   Arcade adds, “And are they looking for more members?”   

Aiden asks, “So, are all of you from around here?”  Sam saying “Nope, California.”  Hank states, “Texas”.   The centaur comments “The plains of Oklahoma.”  “China,” Louie adds.   Morgana and Arcade don’t offer their home locations, but both shake their heads no as to being locals.  

Aiden asks, ”So, what brought all of you to this town?”   “Got tired of working on a cattle ranch,” Morgana comments, and gesturing to Sam adds, “And he followed me so I got to keep him.”  Louie says, “Me on vacation from railroad.  No like work, not go back.”    “What about you, are you from Mexico?” Arcade asks. 

Aiden comments, “No, I’m from further south, namely South America.  I had to leave my town and can’t go back there for the next few hundred years.”   “Why? What did you do?” Morgana exclaims.   Aiden comments, “Well, let’s just say my chief’s daughter was very pretty.”    Hank exclaims, “Ah, I get it.  We’ve got ourselves a Latin lover here.”    

Morgana asks Aiden, “Didn’t you shake the blanket afterwards?  That way you’re not married and don’t have children.”    Arcade asks what she is talking about and she starts describing in detail a Druidic infertility ritual, commenting that she does this herself after every time she’s together with Arcade.   He replies, “Wouldn’t know anything about that, I’m usually asleep by then.”   Hank mutters, “I guess we now know who isn’t a romantic.”    

Arcade says, “Well Aiden, you’re welcome to stay with us.  We’re the most popular people in town.”  Louie adds, “Yeah, place where everyone knows your name and likes you or is afraid of you.”  “Or both,” Sam adds.   

Curiosity has now gotten the better of Hank and he tells Arcade.  “Well, if you’re not going to head over to the Palace Saloon to see what this is about then I will.”  “Suit yourself,” the gang leader replies.   Hank says, “Anyone care to join me?”   Sam volunteers, as do Louie and Aiden.   Morgana decides she will tag along, just to see if the non-humans will be allowed in.    Arcade and Qualtaqa stay at the Cantina.

The five head over to the Saloon.   The eyes of Dave Carleen, the saloon’s bouncer, light up at the sight of them approaching and he moves to block the door.  Hank comments to the man, “You may want to step aside for Sure-shot Sam and his friends.”    Sam causally moves his hand towards the holster of his gun, the movement being noticed by Carleen.   The man quickly reevaluates the situation and then steps to the side, holding the door open for the five of them to enter.   

They walk over directly to the bar.   A nervous bartender named Deacon McCoy breaks out in a sweat and glances over to one of the gambling tables.    He bartender then very reluctantly comes forward and with the words stuttering out of his mouth informs the party that they are required to check their weapons.  Hank and Sam are the only two with visible weapons and they unbutton their gun belts and leave them on the bar.    

The piano player had stopped playing and everyone in the room looks towards the bar.  A card game has come to an abrupt halt, with the gamblers looking in the party’s direction with facial expressions that vary from fear to disgust.  Some people get up from other tables and hurry out the front door behind them.   Aiden whispers to Morgana, “Do you guys always have this effect on people?”  She relies, “No, usually the reaction is far more violent.”

Evan Adair, the gambler and saloon owner gets up from the table where the card game had been taking place and approaches them.  He gestures to a side door in the room and says, “Would you care to step into the lounge or do you plan to just stand here and kill all of my business?”  Louie states, “We no kill business, just bad guys.”   “We’re not looking for any trouble,” Hank states.  He and the gang follow Adair into the side room, the door then being shut behind them.


----------



## Col_Pladoh

SilverMoon,

If I were playing a PC in your campaign about the time he and his comrades were ushered into a side room in a hostile saloon and the door was closed, he'd be looking for the nearest window to bail out of even as he had his hidden gun drawn and pointed in the general direction of that closed door.

Cheers,
Gary


----------



## Silver Moon

Col_Pladoh said:
			
		

> If I were playing a PC in your campaign about the time he and his comrades were ushered into a side room in a hostile saloon and the door was closed, he'd be looking for the nearest window to bail out of even as he had his hidden gun drawn and pointed in the general direction of that closed door.



Good point Gary, the Gang was a bit too trusting on this one, even though everybody except Sam did had concealed weapons.   If this had been a planned ambush I'm sure they would have thought twice about going through with it with Arcade absent from the group.    Thanks for the reader's comment, keep them coming.   Now on to the next chapter:


*Chapter 40, “Point me in the direction of Albuquerque”, November 14th, 1881:*

The Saloon owner Evan Adair demands, “All right, what is it that you people want?”  Hank replies, “We don’t want anything. We were notified to come here.  One of your guests has a message for Arcade.”    The party describes the boy who delivered the note.  Adair opens the door and yells out “Somebody go and find Jimmy, NOW.”  

The boy soon arrives and when asked tells his boss “Yes, Mr. Duncan had me deliver a message to the El Parador Cantina.”   Adair tells the party, “Duncan’s an Easterner staying up on the top floor.”  He turns to the boy and orders him to “Go get him down here RIGHT NOW.”    Jimmy hurries off and his employer also exits the room.    Hank comments, “I tell you what.  You’d almost get the impression that guy doesn’t want us hanging around here.”

A man soon enters the lounge.   He is wearing a wool suit with a pressed shirt, a bow tie and freshly shined shoes.   Beneath the coat jacket they can see an empty gun holster.   The man introduces himself as Detective Duncan of the Pinkerton Detective Agency.   “We didn’t do it,” Sam blurts out.   “Do what?” Duncan asks.  “Whatever you want us for,” is Sam’s reply.   Duncan answers, “I have a message for Mr. Arcade.  He doesn’t appear to be with you.”   Hank interjects, “We’re Arcade’s Gang, you can give it to us.”   Louie points to Morgana and says, “She’s a very personal assistant to Arcade.”  

Duncan states, “I’m sorry but the message is only for him.  Please have him come here.”   Hank says, “Listen, Arcade doesn’t go to people, they come to him.”   Duncan asks, “Does he always inspire this degree of loyalty?”  “Yep,” Sam answers.   Duncan states, “Look, I came all the way here from Boston and….”   Hank interrupts with, “Then you shouldn’t mind traveling a few more streets to find him.  Follow us.”    

They head back to the bar for Hank and Sam to collect their firearms.   The bartender also hands a gun to Duncan, which he inspects and then quickly slides into its holster.   Morgana notes that it is a top quality piece that also shows some wear to it.   They exit the Palace Saloon and Duncan comments, “Why is this Arcade so reclusive?”   Morgana replies, “He’s just being careful.  We’ve run afoul of a number of people lately, including the James Gang, the Clantons and the Earps.”   Louie interjects, “James Gang all dead.”  Hank replies, “Not all of them.  Frank and Jesse got away, and Arcade shot up their beloved cousin Cleatus, so they may come back for revenge.”

Duncan says, “Ah, so that’s why you’re being so protective.”  Hank is still very uncertain of this man and gives him an icy stare while commenting, “It doesn’t hurt to be careful.  You never know exactly who might have been hired to kill him.”   The Pinkerton picks up on the insinuation and sternly replies, “My agency does not engage itself in hired killings.”  “That’s a nice change,” Morgana casually answers.   “How did you know to find Arcade here?” Sam asks.   Duncan states, “News of your exploits have traveled far and wide.”   “And those accounts are rather exaggerated,” Morgana interjects.   

Duncan laughs at that and says, “Oh, I don’t believe everything I’ve read in the papers.  If I did I would have expected to see a shootout taking place on every corner in this town.”   The half-orc comments, “No.  Louie no buy rice today.”   Duncan replies, “Oh?  You get a lot of rice-related violence around here?”   “More than you’d suspect,” Hank answers.  The detective then asks, “So what can you tell me about this Arcade?”  Hank says, “Don’t make him angry.”  With Morgana adding, “You wouldn’t like him when he’s angry.”

They arrive back at the El Parador, where Arcade is still seated at the same table and drinking a beer.   Morgana introduces the visitor as “Detective Duncan from the Pinkerton Agency in Boston.”   Without bothering to stand up or shake the man’s hand Arcade states “I’m Arcade.  What do you want?”   Duncan says, “I have a letter to deliver to you from England.  You need to sign for it.”  Arcade is given a form and fountain pen, and he signs it.   Duncan then hands him a closed up envelope, which Arcade nonchalantly opens up and scans the contents of the note inside.

“Well?” an impatient Morgana exclaims.   Arcade states, “My father is ill and I have been asked to return home.”   The centaur asks, “You’re from England?”  Louie blurts out, “You not talk funny.”   Arcade glances up and says, “I am originally from England, and Louie, you’re hardly one to complain about how other people talk.”    Duncan states that he needs a response from Arcade to deliver back.  “I guess I probably should go,” Arcade states.   The detective retorts, “Could you please be more definitive?”  Arcade crumbles up the paper and says, “Yes.  I’ll go.”   “Thank you,” Duncan replies and then exits. 

Hank says, “I tell you what.  Maybe some of us should go with you.   The Clantons and Earps are a bit too close for comfort, so what’s to keep them from coming after us once word gets out that you’re gone.”  Louie utters, “Sam now has big reputation.”  Hank asserts, “Yeah, for shooting up those guys in Tombstone!  Sam’s the one they’ll be gunning for first.”  Sam turns to Arcade and emphatically states, “I’m going with you!”   

“I’m going as well,” Morgana comments.  “Me too!” Louie exclaims.  “What the hell, I’m in,” Hank comments.   “And I,” states the Centaur.   Aiden says, “Sure, sounds good.  A few thousand miles further away from my homeland can only help.”  “Do they have gangs in England?” Louie asks.   Sam replies, “They will now.”  Hank jokes, “So Arcade, you’re bringing Morgana home to meet the folks?”  Arcade ignores the comment. 

“How are we going to get there?” Sam asks.   “Boat,” Arcade answers.  Louie says, “I be on boat before.  Long ride from China.  Me down at bottom of boat.  Want to stay on good part of boat this time!”   Aiden comments that he’s never been on a large boat before and has some concerns.  Morgana comments that she doesn’t know how to swim.   Hank tells her, “If it sinks in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean knowledge of swimming really won’t make that much of a difference.”   

_[One of the players comments, “Nobody has to worry.  It will be another 30 years in Arcade’s timeline before we have to worry about him DM’ing us on a major ship disaster (alluding to the fact that this DM is a “Titanic” aficionado).   The DM laughs and replies, “Are you kidding?  The Titanic wasn’t the first ship in the White Star Line to be lost at sea.  For that matter, it wasn’t even the first one to sink after hitting an iceberg.”  “That’s reassuring,” another player comments.]   _ 

Hank says, “I don’t see very many ocean liners picking up passengers here in southeastern Arizona".   Sam states, “We’ll have to take a train.”  Louie states, “Me build choo-choo, never ride on one.”   Morgana now has a panic stricken look on her face and says, “Oh no.  That means’s we’ll have to go to Boston.  That’s where my family is.”  Glancing at her Indian attire Aiden comments “You’re from Boston?”   Hank interjects, “Her last name is O’Shea.  Where else would she be from?”   

“First we need to get to train,” states Louie.   Hank says, “Closest one would be to the west, but we’d have to go back through Tombstone to get there.”   Arcade says, “No.  We’d probably be better off taking the eastern stage through the New Mexico Territory instead.   It’ll make for a longer stage coach ride, but probably still worth it in the long run.”   Morgana says, “Well, if we’re going that direction anyway let’s stop off in Santa Fe and check on that reward money that’s owed to us.”  The group decides that would make a good cover story about their immediate absence.  Cantina owners Pedro and Dorita are told that the gang will be away for a long time but to let everybody think they’re expected back at any time.  They arrange to leave their horses at the Cantina stables but give the owners permission to go ahead and rent out their rooms.   

Hank checks with the Wells Fargo Office to see about taking the stagecoach to Santa Fe.  He is told that the stage normally only goes as far east as the neighboring town of Galeyville, but is directed to check with the Morand Cartage Company, as they occasionally make longer trips east.    Tempel Morand tells Hank that he was planning to make a trip to El Paso in December, but is willing to move up the trip a few weeks.  He gives the party a very reasonable price for the transportation, being thankful to have Arcade’s Gang along to help protect against bandits that occasionally cross over the boarder from Mexico. 

The group spends the five days traveling the 175 miles east along the rough and nearly barren land until they reach the town of Las Cruces, New Mexico, which is a day’s travel north of El Paso.   The trip had been uneventful, encountering only a few very small communities which Arcade describes as being “About the size of a postage stamp and built around the skeleton of a dead oxen, the family having stopped because that was where the ox pulling their wagon died.”  

In Las Cruces they change to another stagecoach to travel the 225 miles north to Albuquerque.  They make good time on this well-traveled roadway that runs parallel with the Rio Grande River, arriving in Albuquerque five days later.   They then travel northeast on another stage for two more days to the community of Santa Fe, the capital of the New Mexico Territory.


----------



## Col_Pladoh

SilverMoon,

You have a remarkably peaceful player group. My own would have been in rebellion had I not livened up the stagecoach journey with an Indian raid, an attempt at highway robbery by a gang of bandits, and at least one shootout at a cantina along the stage route. They favor play akin to what's seen in the "Trinity" movies, Clint Eastwood's Westerns, and the good old John Wayne ones

That was a slick way to move the play from the West to England, certainly!

Cheers,
Gary


----------



## Silver Moon

Col_Pladoh said:
			
		

> My own would have been in rebellion had I not livened up the stagecoach journey ....That was a slick way to move the play from the West to England, certainly!



The DM of this module came from a gaming group where the primary DM spent the first several weeks of every module on long and usually tedious travel segments.   Because of that experience, he usually leans the opposite direction and hits the "fast forward" button for multi-day travel.   When writing the Story Hour I actually expanded on the ride to Santa Fe from what took place during the game.   I am anticipating far more detail from him for  the ocean voyage, given his expertise on ocean liners of that era. 

As for our group's patience, if there are fun role-playing opportunities they are quite willing to hold off on combat.   In the "Chinese Take-Out" Story that you're currently reading Gary the group actually gamed for five straight months before their first combat encounter.   On the other hand, now that I actually get to play instead of DM I'm itching for some action!  

_[There will be two more chapters from last weekend's game, the next one of which should be posted by Thursday night or Friday morning.] _


----------



## Col_Pladoh

Ho SilverMoon,

My group is a mix of one teenager, and four or five each of players in their 20s and 30s, only one female at the present time. They are happiest with about 10% of the time spent in roleplay, 70% in exploration and problem solving, and 20% combat--a bit of the latter in every session rather as the dessert

Cheers,
Gary


----------



## Silver Moon

Gary, Sounds like we're a little different than your group was.  Right now we have a group of seven ranging in age from 38 to 50.   Now for the next chapter:


*Chapter 41, “A Day and Night in Santa Fe”, November 27th, 1881:*

The group exits the stage in Santa Fe and Arcade suggests, “Why don’t we spend the next hour scraping the dust off our tongues.”  They head to the office of Territorial Governor Lionel Sheldon.  The Governor’s Executive Secretary is taken aback at the group of three human cowboys, two elvan Indians, a centaur Indian and a half-orc who charge unannounced into the office and demand an audience with the Governor.   Morgana is tired and cranky from the long uncomfortable journey and with no attempt at tact or diplomacy announces, “I am the killer of Billy the Kid and I want the reward money.” 

The Secretary attempts to dismiss her, which upsets Morgana’s friend Qualtaqa, who says, “I’ll find him for you.”   The centaur kicks open the doors to the next room and charges in, finding the Governor sitting back in his chair and smoking a cigar, his feet propped up on his desk.   The rest of Arcade’s Gang follows him in, with the Secretary frantically apologizing to Governor Sheldon for letting them get by.  

Morgana blurts out. “I want paid the money you owe me!”.   The Governor is confused and says, “Madam, I’ve never see you before in my life.”   She then explains who she is and what she wants.  He states that he didn’t personally promise her anything, that it was his predecessor Governor Wallace who had offered the reward money.   She reiterates that the proper paperwork was filed over three months earlier and that the Territorial Governor had made the offer in good faith.  He attempts to then tell them he doesn’t have the money on hand.   Louie gestures to the fancy desk, velvet curtains, stocked bar and humidor of fine cigars and says, “All this stuff cost a lot.  Money around here somewhere.”   

Qualtaqa loses his patience with the stalling and grabs the Governor by his lapel, lifting him off his feet and up into the air.  “Pay her!” the centaur states.    Sam says, “You’d better do as he says.  That guy keeps Geronomo happy.”  Aiden whispers to Hank, “Should he really be threatening this land’s chief?  Where I come from doing that is really bad.”    Hank whispers back, “Nah, this won’t get bad until one of us decides to shoot him.”   Aiden replies, “Shoot which one?  The centaur or the governor?”  Hank replies, “Take your pick.”

The Governor is a retired Civil War General and is unaccustomed to being manhandled.  He is about to order his Secretary to fetch nearby Army troops when he reconsiders, figuring that if soldiers draw weapons on Arcade’s Gang it will probably just get a lot of people killed including himself.   He says, “All right, I’ll see what I can do.  Come back tomorrow.”   This is unacceptable to Morgana, who insists that they be paid right now.   

Governor Sheldon says, “We’ll have to see the New Mexico Treasurer.”    “Let’s find him,” Morgana states.  The Secretary leads them to the Treasurer’s Officer, with Qualtaqa still holding the Governor high in the air.   Qualtaqa then grabs the Treasurer with his other arm, lifting him up into the air as well.   The centaur is eventually convinced to let the man down so that he can pay them.  The Treasurer says that he has to go to the bank, which he can’t do until the following day.   Arcade says, “In that case we’ll all just stay here until then.”    Governor Sheldon tells the Treasurer, “Go find the Bank President right now and pay these people what they are due!”   The Treasurer leaves with Morgana and Hank insisting on accompanying him.   

Morgana is eventually given a stack of bills totaling $ 500.   They head back and collect the others, the centaur finally letting the Governor down.   Morgana tells Sheldon “It was nice doing business with you.”   Louie adds, “Yeah, if you’re ever in Promise City look us up, we’ll buy you a drink.”  The party decides it is best to head straight from there to the railroad on the off chance that they might now be in some trouble with the local authorities. 

At the Acheson, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad Station they find that the next passenger train heading east won’t be leaving until the following morning.    Morgana again expresses reservations about returning to Boston.  Arcade suggests, “We don’t have to go there at all.  We can book passage to England out of New York City.”   She agrees to that, and they purchase tickets to travel by rail east to Topeka, changing trains there to Kansas City and Saint Louis.

The group debates spending the night right at the train station, but Arcade says, “I want to spend the night at a decent hotel for a change.”  They head out and find lodgings at one of the better establishments in town, which requires Qualtaqa to stay in the stable.  There are some initial concerns by the hotel management about people of Louie and Aiden’s races staying there, but as soon as Arcade drops his name those issues are immediately dispelled.  Arcade and Morgana decide to splurge, getting themselves the fanciest room in the hotel.   The other four share a pair of rooms with a connecting door and alternate having one stay awake and on guard all times “just in case.” 

This is the first time on the journey that Arcade and Morgana have had any time alone and she comments, “You still haven’t told me anything about this family of yours.”   He replies, “You haven’t told me about yours either.”  She answers, “Yes, but we’re on our way to visit yours.  I’d like to be prepared for whatever we are walking into.”    “I wouldn’t know where to begin,” he states.  She replies, “How about telling me why you ran away from England.  I’m sure it wasn’t just because you don’t like to drink tea.”   He says, “I didn’t like what was expected of me, as the first born son of a Lord of the Manor.” 

She is a little taken back by that and says, “Lord of the Manor?   Wait a minute here.  What is your real name?”   He replies, “Josiah.  Josiah Arcadian.  My father is Lord Arcadian and he has a large estate.”   Her mind is now racing and she says, “Okay, so you want out of this?”  He answers, “With father dying there’s no easy way out.”  She asks, “Do you have any brothers?”  He says that he has one younger brother but would rather not talk about him.   She replies, “Well we need to come up with some way to solve this problem for you.”  He responds with, “I’m guessing lots of ammunition.”  

“So, what exactly prompted you to run?” she asks.   He answers, “Seemed like a good idea at the time. Go to America and disappear into the melting pot.  I figured I’d get as far away from civilized society as I could.  I barely found Promise City myself and I live there.  I presumed that nobody else would find me there either.  Instead, I’ve now become world famous.   I should have just faked my own death when I had the chance.”   

After a long pause he says, “I thought I would have more time, Father was in fine health when I left.”  Morgana gives him a passionate embrace and says, “Well, I can relate to what you’re going through.  You’re not the only one who is running from family.”    He then astonishes her by asking, “Can you see yourself settling down with me and being the Lady of a large estate?”  She asks, “Is that what you want?”   “I wouldn’t want to without you,” he replies.   “And the others?” she asks.   He answers, “The hole-in-the-wall-gang can head back west…unless you want to keep Sam around to help out.”  She replies, “I’d rather keep Louie.   Look, let’s just take this one day at a time.”  He answers, “Fine, but I’m still sticking with my old motto of ‘When in doubt, shoot it’.”


----------



## Col_Pladoh

SilverMoon,

Enjoyed the account, and I am honestly anxious to read on, see how the group gets East and what happens along the way, in NYC, the ship to England, and onwards. Good show.

My group is active when I am there to GM, but I never know if as few as four or as many as 10 will show up for a session. 

Cheers,
Gary


----------



## Silver Moon

Col_Pladoh said:
			
		

> Enjoyed the account, and I am honestly anxious to read on, see how the group gets East and what happens along the way, in NYC, the ship to England, and onwards. Good show.



Thanks Gary, I've been enjoying your comments  (and other readers should feel free to comment too!).   What follows is the final chapter from last week's game.   I'd also like to thank CelticWolf (Louie's player) for assisting with the writing of this chapter (19th century railroads is one of his hobbies). 


*Chapter 42, “Train kept a rollin’ all night long”, November 28th, 1881, 10:00 A.M.*

After the long ride on the stagecoach with none of his own type of food, Louie buys some more rice and makes riceballs for the rest of the trip east.  Unlike when at home in Promise City, he manages not to get shot at or harassed while shopping here in Santa Fe.  After finishing the cooking of the rice balls, he offers some of them to the rest of the group, saying "They not go bad, and keep you going all day!" but there are no takers.

The eastbound train pulls out of Santa Fe.  The train has a combination of passenger and freight cars, including some cars designed to hold livestock, and it takes some persuasion on Morgana’s part for the conductor to allow Qualtaqa to ride up with the passengers.  The party is seated in a wooden coach with wooden slat seats, oil lamps nailed to brackets on coach walls, and an old wood and coal stove in the middle of the car for heat.   The brakeman would come along periodically with a long handled stick with a hook on the end to open the vent in top of the coach to regulate the heat.   

The party spends the day on the uneventful ride east through New Mexico, Oklahoma and Kansas.  Qualtaqa points out when they pass by areas where he as been before, giving the party a short history of the plains.   Several  comments are made about how flat and boring Kansas looks to be.  They have a long stop-over at Topeka, where the party gets out and has a meal at the train station before continuing on to Kansas City and then on towards Saint Louis.    

November 29th, 1881:

Twenty miles after passing through Columbia, Missouri there is a mechanical problem causing the train to stop.  They ascertain from the conductor that the malfunction relates to the patented air brake system, as two of the tubes had burst thereby rendering the vacuums partly inoperative.  It takes almost eight hours for replacement parts to be obtained and installed, and the train eventually continues on its journey.  Despite the long wait, Louie still can't find any takers for his rice balls.  Most of the group makes do with jerky and other dried and salted traveling foods.  They do not reach Saint Louis until mid-afternoon.  The party decides stay overnight in the city before continuing onward. 

November 30th, 1881:

The party spends the day traveling on train a from the Chicago Railroad Company which runs between Saint Louis, Missouri and Chicago, Illinois.  This train also experiences a few delays, stopping once near Springfield, Illinois because a train on the same track ahead of them has broken down, and later to wait for a track gang to get clear of the right-of-way after repairing a spread in the rails.  Between these problems and the periodic stops to take on more water, Hank comments that the journey might have been quicker if they had rode on their own horses. The train they are on is eventually rerouted around Decatur, Illinois, with them arriving in Chicago in the early evening.  They decide to spend the night at a decent hotel in the city.

December 1st, 1881:

Arcade is encouraged by the party to find a “more mechanically sound railroad” to get them to New York City.   They go to book passage on an afternoon train from the Union Railroad.  They are told that in addition to having a series of freight cars, a baggage car and several passenger coaches this train also has a sleeping car with berths for passengers to sleep in.  Arcade debates using some of the traveling funds given him by the Pinkerton Detective for this luxury.  He reconsiders after a gentleman nearby tells him, “I tried that once.  We never slept a wink with all that shunting and jolting that the train was doing."  Once again they have trouble in getting permission for Qualtaqa to ride with the other passengers. 

Since they have half-a-day until the train departs they decide to do some shopping.  Qualtaqa acts as their guide, having actually been to Chicago once before.  He comments that his pervious visit was before the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, and that the city has changed considerably since then.  Sam's eyes are practically bugging out, since he's never seen such a city before!  The rest of the party seems to find the youngster amusing, though Aiden seems to be somewhat awed by it all too.  Arcade and Morgana are most at ease in the city.  They purchase a number of supplies to keep occupied during the long ocean voyage ahead.  The party warns Louie not to push his luck by buying rice again.  The train pulls out of Chicago mid-afternoon. 

December 2nd and 3rd, 1881:

The train ride east is uneventful but also turns out to be very long.  There are no mechanical breakdowns, however the train is ‘a local’ rather than ‘an express’, with stops at almost every community located along the tracks between The Windy City and The Big Apple.  And it's not just for passengers - it seems that there are freight cars to switch at nearly every town.  The train drops the passenger cars, goes back-and-forth a few times shuffling the freight cars, then picks up the passenger cars again, whistles for departure, and crawls away again.  The party invents many new ways to take naps!  There are also lengthy stopovers along the way at Fort Wayne, Akron, Youngstown, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg and Allentown.  It is in the very early hours of the Fourth when they finally roll into New York City.  The party proceeds to the nearest restaurant for a meal, finding a place that is open all night long.    

December 4th, 1881:

Leaving the restaurant just as the sun in rising, Arcade decides that the problems they experienced getting Qualtaqa aboard a train will be magnified trying to book him on a passenger ship.  Under the assumption that if you look hard enough just about anything can be found in New York, Morgana suggests that they find some type of magical means to transform him into a two-legged humanoid.  They make inquiries as to sections of the city with large Spanish, Portuguese or French populations, whose native countries are known for using wizard magic.    

She is eventually able to find a merchant mage in the French section who trades in magic and says that he has a magical talisman that would do the transformation.  Unfortunately it has a $1,000 price tag to it, and the man is unwilling to take in trade Qualtaqa’s only valuables, ten marble-sized gold nuggets.  Morgana and the Centaur head over to the Dutch Quarter of the city to get the nuggets appraised and sold, resulting in a little over $300.  

She comes up with another idea, of finding a wizard who knows a polymorph spell.  One of the other players comments, “I get it, we’re doing ‘Mage Eye for the Horse Guy’.”  It takes a while, but she is able to locate a French Wizard who for $100 agrees to cast the spell as well as provide her with a scroll to later cancel it.  The party decides to have Qualtaqa be transformed into a half-elf in order to be consistent with his Indian clothing and broken-English.     

Before the spell is cast the other members of he party insist on covering him over with a blanket and also having a pair of pants on hand for him.  The horse-section of his body disappears, being replaced by a pair of legs.  Qualtaqa needs considerable help from the others to teach him how to walk in this new body.  He also concludes that his 12-foot long spear will no longer work as a primary weapon, as he can’t use it as a lance.    He asks about getting “fire sticks” (guns) and is told by Hank, “Why don’t you just stick with your bow.”    Arcade comments to Morgana, “I think I like him better this way.  Will we have to change him back?”  She replies, “I never told him about the scroll.”


----------



## Mathew_Freeman

Great stuff! Detailed and interesting, yet the characters still manage to shine through.



> Everyone tells Louie not to try and push his luck again buying rice.


----------



## Col_Pladoh

SilverMoon,

Has the player whose character is Louie ever tried the old SSI game, _Rails West_ by Martin Campion? It was a favorite of mine, and I've known Martin since the 1960s when we were members of the International Federation of Wargaming. When I was a lad the railroad station here in town had a potbellied coal stove, and the C&NW passanger cars pulled by a steam engine were illuminated by gas lights I loved to see those big, high baggage carts in action too.

Cheers,
Gary


----------



## CelticWolf

Col Pladoh,

Apparently you're a bit older than I am - my first railroad memories are of the New Haven "Jets" (electric passenger locos) gliding into a station with (fairly) modern coaches with (gasp!) electric lamps and heat.  Anyhow, SilverMoon was correct that I'm interested in railroading, but my favorite time period is a bit more modern - the 1950s - 1960s, when diesels finished taking over from steam and headed into their second generation.  However, in learning about that I've picked up a little bit of the history, of course.  Still, I had to look up a few of his references to assist in and verify the story details.  I have heard of the _Rails West_ game, but have not played it...  You say it's good, huh?  Perhaps I'll check it out some day.  Thanks for the tip!

Louie go buy rice now!

"Louie's Player"


----------



## Col_Pladoh

CelticWolf said:
			
		

> Col Pladoh,
> 
> Apparently you're a bit older than I am - ...  I have heard of the _Rails West_ game, but have not played it...  You say it's good, huh?  Perhaps I'll check it out some day.  Thanks for the tip!
> 
> Louie go buy rice now!
> 
> "Louie's Player"




CelticWolf,

Indeed I am now pushing age 66. Those trains I mentioned were running up until about 1952 on the C&NW spur line from Chicago that ended in Williams Bay on Lake Geneva at a roundhouse. My mother told me that in her youth the train on Friday was called the "Millionairs' Special" and was met by coaches with matched teams and liveried coachmen and footmen. There were about 50 large estates on the lakeshore then, and the owners were conveyed to their summer weekend residences in style!

As for the _Rails West_ game, if you enjoy trading in stocks and bonds, controlling and taking over other rail lines, and attempting to build the biggest and best system, you'll love it

Cheers,
Gary


----------



## CelticWolf

_"Indeed I am now pushing age 66. Those trains I mentioned were running up until about 1952 on the C&NW spur line from Chicago..."_

I guess I'm a relative youngster at 51 then!   My memories are from when I lived in southern Connecticut as a kid, and my Dad would ride the New Haven up from New York when his ship came in.  And those electric locos were so huge, but so quiet (hence "Jets"), and very eye-catching in the NH white, orange (OK - "Socony Red"), and black paint scheme - you can see how it made an impression on me!

_"As for the Rails West game, if you enjoy trading in stocks and bonds, controlling and taking over other rail lines, and attempting to build the biggest and best system, you'll love it"_

Well, I generally perefer playing strange characters and killing things, as I only get to do one of those things in real life...   But it's always fun and energizing to try something new - we'll see!

Thanks,

C.W.


----------



## Col_Pladoh

Hey CW,

Do you play the _Rail Baron_ boardgame? We really enjoy that game every so often, and _Empire Builder_ is fun too. Just concluded a RB game where three of us were all vying for the win, and I managed to pull it off with a few tricky moves.

Cheers,
Gary


----------



## CelticWolf

_Do you play the Rail Baron boardgame? We really enjoy that game every so often, and Empire Builder is fun too._

I'm really not a hard-code gamer, so I haven't played a lot of different games.  It's mainly D&D now, along with the variants & hybrids that SilverMoon throws at us occasionally.  But other than that, I play few games.  Back in high school/college I played some PanzerBlitz, as I was very into WWII then, otherwise just a few conventional games.  Sorry if this disappoints...

Actually, I'm having a lot of fun with the Boot Hill/D&D hybrid - Louie is a different character for me, and all the wild events keep it interesting.  Very enjoyable...

Thanks,

C.W.


----------



## Col_Pladoh

Hi CW,

Funny you should mention _Panserblitz_. Avalon Hill asked me to write the game for them because of my co-authorship of the _Tractics_ miniatures rules, but at the time I was being a miniatures snob and disdained translating table top play to a boardgame. The Avalon Hill Company also published _Rail Baron_.

I'll cease the hijack of this thread with this last admionition: If you get a chance to play, give RB a try. It is a great game for railroad fans

Cheers,
Gary


----------



## CelticWolf

_Funny you should mention Panserblitz. Avalon Hill asked me to write the game..._

Intersting coincidence!  I guess the gaming world is pretty incestuous... 

Anyhow, nice talking to you, and thanks for the gaming advice!

Slàinte,

C.W.


----------



## Silver Moon

*Module #124 - Game #2*



			
				CelticWolf said:
			
		

> Actually, I'm having a lot of fun with the Boot Hill/D&D hybrid



I think we all are CW.  And Gary, no need to apologize for the thread hijack, I didn't have the next chapter ready to post until now and it's great to finally get another member of the gaming group here on this board.   


*Chapter 43, “Booking Passage”, December 4th, 1881:*

The gang continues to walk around.  Louie comments “We in big ugly city.  Buildings big ugly squares and roofs all wrong.  Roof should have slant shape.”    Hank comments, “A’Yup, and it’s mighty cold here too.”   Morgana interjects “Of course you think it cold.  You’re from Texas.”  “And mighty proud of it,” he replies.   "Figures," Sam mutters. 

The group considers that since they are in New York City they should maybe pay a visit to the publisher who had put out the bogus biography about Arcade.   “We could get some of profits” Louie exclaims.   Morgana expresses that she is also interested in setting the record straight.   Hank comments “Hold on.  I think we should go see him to thank the man.  Any press is good press.”   Morgana disagrees.   

Sam states, “If we do see him it will be all over the papers.”  Arcade comments, “We haven’t identified ourselves to anyone since leaving Santa Fe, and it’s safer for our friends back at the Cantina if everyone thinks that we might be returning at any time.  I'd also like to keep the European trip quiet for the time being."  The gang decides to skip the visit to the publisher.

Arcade suggests that they go book passage on the ship.   Morgana again states her reservations, given that she can’t swim.  “Why you no swim?” Louie asks.   She replies, “I never learned.  Back in Boston it is not considered proper for women to display their limbs and there weren’t many opportunities for swimming when I lived out on the barren plains.”    Louie inquires about the type of boats available and describes the Chinese boats he is familiar with.   “Aren’t those called junks?” Morgana asks.   Hank interjects, “Now now, let’s not be insulting his boats.”

Morgana suggests that they find some lodgings first, thinking that they would have an easier time booking passage if she is dressed as an Easterner.    Arcade comments, “How about we form a circle and open up our coats to shield you?”  She replies, “I’m serious!  I’d like a chance to wash up to.”  Arcade glances at Hank and comments, “I think someone else should think of changing too.”   Hank retorts “What’s wrong with what I’m wearing right now?”   Arcade replies, “Three things.  First, it’s on you.  Second, it’s always on you.  Third, it’s never been off you.”  

They continue in the direction of the docks.   Sam mutters, “We should be careful about this.”  Arcade says, “Play it cool, boy.”    _That comment prompts the players around the table to start snapping their fingers, whistling, and singing the lyrics to the song "Cool" from “West Side Story.”  The DM eventually stops them with the comment “Right city, but I think you’re about a century too early.”   A player says, “Yeah, and the Jets greatly outnumber the Sharks, Aiden’s the only Hispanic in the group.”_ 

They come upon a rather average looking inn named the “Evening Repose”.  The gang goes in and gets a distasteful look from the arrogant manager.   They ask about staying for the evening.  “Are you sure you can afford to stay here?” the man asks.   “How much?” Arcade asks.  He replies, “3.00 a night for a large common room with bunks or $2.00 a night for regular rooms.”   Morgana tosses $ 6.00 at the man and says, “We’ll take three rooms, and I want a bath drawn in mine.” 

The manager appears reluctant to give them the keys.  Hank says, “Look, we won’t be any trouble.”   “We don’t tolerate that here,” the manager states.   Sam says, “We’re only staying until we can find a ship going to Europe.”  The manager replies, “Are you booking passage or working it?”   “Just give us the keys,” Morgana states.   The man does so, and sarcastically asks, “Do you need help with your bags.”  “We can handle that ourselves,” Hank snaps back. 

The group head to their rooms and all freshen up, with Qualtaqa borrowing a shirt from Sam.  Morgana bathes and then dresses up in her best suit.   Arcade changes into his best clothes.  The reassemble in the lobby and Arcade asks the manager about where to go to book passage.  He says, “This is a hotel, not a ship.”   Arcade says, “What ship companies are nearby?”   The man states that there are a number of ocean liners including Cunnard, White Star and Blue Star with offices down the street.  The group departs. 

They arrive at the offices of the White Star Line, which has portraits on display in the lobby of their various ships.   “These look nice,” Aiden states.   Arcade makes an inquiry and is told that the ocean liner Oceanic will be departing from New York to Liverpool on the sixth.    Arcade and Morgana are asked where on the boat they want to book passage in 1st Class, 2nd Class or Steerage.   Louie says, “No want bottom of boat.”   Morgana reminds Arcade that the listing of all 1st Class passengers is printed in all of the social registers.  He replies, “Good point, 2nd Class sounds like the best bet.”  “Just so not below,” Louie states. 

As Arcade is buying the tickets, Sam expressing some concern about ocean travel.   Hank finds the picture on the wall of the Oceanic, and says, “The engraving plate says it was launched in 1871.  This ship’s been making this journey for ten years now.  It’s safe.”   “It only has to sink once,” Sam replies.    The clerk points out that the Line has a good service record, having not had a ship sink in fifteen years.   Hank comments, “It’ll be safe.  Heck, if we find that we like it we may want to continue travelling on White Star Line ships.”  

The group leaves the ship office and finds a nice seafood restaurant near the docks for a nice supper.   They return to the hotel and turn in for the night.


----------



## Col_Pladoh

Hey SilverMoon,

What was the price you charged for 2nd class passage fron NYC to London? did you use actual prices from that period? If so, where did you find the information?

You'd never guess I am a game designer...

Cheers,
Gary


----------



## Lazybones

An interesting story; very unique setting and I particularly enjoyed the juxtaposition of historical features with D&D elements.  Thanks for posting; helped speed a particuarly slow afternoon at work.


----------



## Silver Moon

Col_Pladoh said:
			
		

> What was the price you charged for 2nd class passage fron NYC to London? did you use actual prices from that period? If so, where did you find the information?




Gary, Try this site:   http://www.theshipslist.com/trivia.html#fares
Is hows that 1871 transatlantic prices for the White Star Oceanic were $80 for 1st Class state rooms and $30 for steerage; By 1889 due to increased competition White Star prices had dropped to $ 50 for 1st Class, $ 30 for 2nd Class, and $20 for steerage.   



			
				Lazybones said:
			
		

> An interesting story; very unique setting and I particularly enjoyed the juxtaposition of historical features with D&D elements.




Lazybones, I'm glad you are enjoying the story.  The juxtaposition is part of what makes this campaign both fun and unique.   Just what a group of people who have been playing together for over two decades needed to keep things fresh and exciting.   As CelticWolf has noted, many of the players have characters here with personalities that are very different from those of characters we play in our other campaigns.   Now for the next chapter:


*Chapter 44, “Target Practice”, December 5th, 1881*:

The gang meets for breakfast and discusses what to do this day.   Qualtaqa asks Morgana “Do you still have fire-sticks you took from man you kill in closet?”   Realizing that he is referring to the guns that she took off of Billy the Kid she replies, “Yes, why?”  He states, “I need weapon.”  “You have your bow,” Sam interjects.   Qualtaqa replies, “That for distance.  Up close I always fight with hooves.  No longer have hooves.  Need new weapon.”   

She indicates that she is very reluctant to give him a type of weapon that he has never used before.   Hank however states, “No problem. Don’t worry son, I’ll set you up with a gun.”   Sam comments, “Isn’t that a bit out of character for you Hank, a Texan offering guns to the Indians?”   He replies, “As long as it’s not Mexican Indians….no offense Aiden.”  The wood elf replies “I’m not Mexican.  I’m from South America.”   “Those are all the same to him,” Louie adds. 

Gesturing back to Qualtaqa, Morgana exclaims, “But he doesn’t know how to use one!” Hank replies, “No problem.  We have two days until the ship leaves.  I’ll teach him.”   Qualtaqa indicates that he has still has almost $ 200 to buy the gun with.  “Great, let’s go find a gun shop!” Hank states.    Morgana says, “Hold on, save your money.  If you’re going to get one anyway I might as well give you one.”   Hank asks, “You’re actually going to give him one of Billy’s fancy colts?  I tell you what, you can give it to me and he can have my gun.”    She replies, “Hell no, I’m keeping both of those for myself.  You can have another one that I picked up.”  

She retrieves from her luggage and removes a gun belt, holster and single-action revolver that she took from the body of one of the Ford brothers back at the ‘Promise City Shootout’.   As they get up to leave Arcade arrives at the table and asks where they are going.   Hank says, “I’m taking Qualtaqa out for some target practice.”  Arcade comments, “Why don’t you save time and just shoot him here.”    Hank replies, “No, I’m going to teach him how to shoot a gun.”  Arcade responds, “Why don’t you teach him something useful instead, like how to write his name in the snow.”   Hank comments, “I don’t think he could do that, his name is way too long.”  Qualtaqa quips, “I could have back when I still had horse body.”    Arcade states, “Well, I guess showing him how to use a gun is a good idea.  Get him all trained so he doesn’t shoot any of us by accident.”  

They head out and find a store where they buy several boxes of ammunition.   They ask the store clerk about places to shoot.  They are told they’d best get out of Manhattan for that, and he suggests they cross the river to Brooklyn, which has several vacant lots and fields.   As they head east Qualtaqa asks, “What we shoot at?”   Hank replies, “Empty bottles work well.”    Qualtaqa replies, “Should we buy full bottles and empty them?”  “Ah, I see you have done this before,” Hank replies.    They actually manage to find several discarded empty bottles along they way, which they pick up and carry in a bag. 

They reach the river and peer out at one of the city’s main conversation pieces, the nearly completed Brooklyn Bridge.   “That some structure,” the Indian comments.   Hank replies, “Yeah, some guy tried to sell me the deed to it yesterday, but I was too smart for him.   Only a fool would buy an unfinished bridge.”    The find passage on a ferryboat to get across the river to Brooklyn.  

They walk a short distance until they reach some farmlands, finding a field that looks to be deserted.   Hank explains and demonstrates to his pupil about the various parts of a gun and how to hold it properly.   Only after Qualtaqa appears to be comfortable holding the weapon does Hank head over and arranges the bottles atop a small stone wall.    From a distance of around thirty feet Hank then draws his weapon and instructs Qualtaqa to watch closely.

Hank fires off two shots which don’t come anywhere close to the bottles. _(the player having rolled a pair of “2”)_  He then fires off two more shots _(again rolling poorly)_, one of which hits the wall a few inches away from the bottle and the other going high.   The gunslinger turns to his pupil and says “Okay that was a demonstration of what not to do.  I hope you saw what I intentionally did wrong.”  

Hank reloads and then fires off four more shots.   The first three are closer to the bottles but still miss.   The fourth one finally hits and breaks a bottle.   “That’s how it’s done,” Hank states.  The DM comments “Are you sure you actually hit it?  Maybe it just shattered on its own from glass fatigue.”    Hank suggests that Qualtaqa give it a try.   The Indian fires off four shots, two of which hit and break bottles.    The players around the table laugh, commenting that the novice is a better shot.   Hank’s player states, “It just goes to show what a good teacher can do.”   

They continue to practice until all of the bottles are broken.   Hank says, “You seem to have the hang of it.  Let’s go get a belt.”   Qualtaqa says, “I have belt.  It have holster for gun.”  Hank says, “No, I mean let’s go wet your whistle.”  “Like Sam do in Tombstone?” the Indian replies.  Hank says, “No, I mean let’s get a drink.”    

They head back across the river and back to the Hotel, joining Arcade at the bar of the adjacent restaurant.  “How’d he do?” Arcade asks.   Hank replies, “Just fine.  What are you up to?”   Arcade replies, “Got myself a dilemma.  I’m thinking that I should propose to Morgana, but would that be moving too fast?”   Hank comments, “Well, I’ve never known you to either think very much or move fast.  Why start now?”  

They are then interrupted by the arrival of Morgana.   She comments to Arcade, “I’ve been contemplating that we shouldn’t show up empty handed.  We should buy some presents to bring to your family.”   “I don’t think that would make any real difference,” Arcade replies.   She says, “No, I’m serious.  You should bring them something.”   Qualtaqa says, “You bringing Arcade’s Gang.”   Arcade looks at Morgana and says, “Yeah.   In other words I’m planning to show up on their doorstep with a Chinaman, a Spanish Indian, an elf who prefers to be a horse, Sam the man-child, a drunken Texan and my half-breed girlfriend.   What makes you think they’ll even open the door?”


----------



## Col_Pladoh

Jolly Good Account, Old Chap!

Quick question: Do you give bonuses for hitting stationary targets in a non-threatening situation?

Cheers,
Gary


----------



## Mathew_Freeman

Just making sure you know how much I enjoy reading all the player quips in the story hour!


----------



## Silver Moon

Col_Pladoh said:
			
		

> Quick question: Do you give bonuses for hitting stationary targets in a non-threatening situation?



I would, but I'm not the DM this time around and each DM in our group does experience points their own way.    I find that one big advantage to doing a "Story Hour" is that it helps with remembering everything that was done for when I sit down to do experience at the end of the module. 




			
				Tallarn said:
			
		

> Just making sure you know how much I enjoy reading all the player quips in the story hour!



Glad you like it.  That's the style of our games, heavy on the role playing with lots of humor.   If you enjoy the style of this thread you'll also enjoy this other "Story Hour" of ours.   We ran this action-packed Dungeon Magazine module last fall using chracters from our regular D&D campaign (during the months between "James Gang" and "O.K. Corral).   It's a quick read, with three dozen chapters covering 9 games.   If you read it please feel free to comment in the thread when you're done.  

http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=63210


----------



## Silver Moon

*Chapter 45, “The Perfect Englishman”, December 5th, 1881*:

The group decides that presents for Arcade’s family would be a good idea, and decide to buy a selection of quality items that are uniquely American.    They buy up some good tobacco, some herbal liniment, and several bottles of Kentucky whiskey.    Louie heads over to Chinatown for a good meal and also comes back with an assortment of Chinese trinkets to use as gifts.

The group also decides to go purchase several changes of clothing for the voyage, with Louie finally being able to wear something other than his Coolie outfit and armor.   Qualtaqa is still having trouble adjusting to wearing shoes.  Arcade comments, “Well, I at least hope we’ve gotten him out of the habit of nailing the shoes to his feet.”   Morgana insists that Arcade go to a fine clothier to get himself a tailored suit of the current fashion.   She tells him, “That looks much better.  It will help for when we meet your family.”  He replies, “Unless I have my clothes treated with arsenic and strychnine I don’t think it will make my visit any easier.”   

Hank asks about how long the ship voyage will be and is told it will be two weeks, give or take a couple of days depending on weather.  Louie is uncertain about the types of food that will be served onboard the ship, and decides that he will need a lot of rice for the voyage.   Just to be on the safe side Morgana insists on sending the rest of the gang with him to buy it.   

A light snow has fallen in the city and it is a cold blustery day.   Hank says that, “I hope there’s warmer weather where we’re going.”   Arcade comments, “Are you saying that you’re actually expecting to find better weather in England?”   Hank replies, “Why?  What’s wrong with the weather there?”  Arcade answers, “Haven’t you ever wondered why so many world explorers are from England?  They’re all trying to get away from it because of the weather.”

Arcade and Morgana find a nice restaurant to have dinner at.   He again expresses his concerns about going home and she reiterates that all they have to do is make sure his brother is competent enough to run the family.  She comments, “You’ve been away for a while.  He might have gotten better since you’ve left.”   “Doubtful,” he responds.   She says, “We’ll find a way to make him competent.”  “Well, that would probably require magic.  How many mages are we bringing?”  

As they are leaving the restaurant he says, “Why don’t you guys go on ahead, and I’ll catch up on a later voyage.”  “How much later?” she asks.  “Just a couple of decades,” he replies.   She retorts, “Look, you were the one who agreed to this trip.  You could have told the man ‘No’”.  Arcade answers, “He had a gun.”  “So did you,” she replies, “Besides, what is the worst thing they will do?”  He answers, “Make me stay.”  She replies, “They can’t make you do anything you don’t want to.  When you want to leave we’ll leave.”  “More easily said than done,” he states.

They wander back into the hotel, where Hank and Qualtaqa are at the bar.   They approach them, and Morgana says, “Arcade is having second thoughts about this trip.”   Hank says, “What are you afraid of.  You’re now a celebrity, everyone will shower you with praises.”   Morgana states “Why?  Just for killing a bunch of outlaws?”   Arcade answers, “Yeah, I’m the perfect Englishman of this era.  I went to a foreign country and killed the natives.”  

Hank invites Arcade to join them in tavern hopping, gesturing to Qualtaqa and stating “Want to go get a belt with me and New-Legs.”  Morgana thinks that is actually a good idea, whispering to Hank “Get him drunk enough to pass out.  If he’s unconscious tomorrow we’ll have an easier time getting him onto the ship.”  

They grab a table at an local tavern.   Qualtaqa is unaccustomed to the change in his metabolism due to now being one-quarter of his previous body weight.  He therefore drinks more than he should based upon his past experience, and falls into a stupor.   

Hank asks Arcade, “So, what is it that you are all worried about?  You afraid your family will yell at you for being away for so long?”  Arcade replies, “They’re English.  They don’t yell.  They give you the silent treatment instead.”   Hank replies, “Huh?  What’s the silent treatment?  I’m from Texas, I'm afraid that we don't know much about being silent.”   Arcade replies, “Well, it’s like what Sam does, except they’re also angry with you.”   Hank says, “Well, that’s real different than Sam then.  When he gets angry he shoots the person dead.”  “Think we can get him angry with my family?” Arcade asks.  Hank says, “We can’t go around killing everyone we meet.”  Arcade responds, “Why not?  We have up until now.”


----------



## Mathew_Freeman

The perfect English gentleman of the times, indeed!


----------



## Silver Moon

*Game #3 - 3/07/04*

*Chapter 46, “Boarding the Oceanic“, December 6th, 1881:*

Qualtaqa awakens with a rather nasty hangover.  Morgana prepares him a herbal tea to help fix the impairment.    The gang checks out of the hotel and prepare to head down to the docks to board the ship Oceanic.  

Morgana and Arcade have changed into their nicest clothes.    Aiden, Louie and Qualtaqa are instructed to carry all of their bags, to make it appear that the non-humans are all servants.   Hank comments, “I tell you what.  I could get accustomed to this.”  Qualtaqa comments that Hank should have changed into better clothes.  Hank replies, “Listen New-Legs, I’ve got me all the clothes that I need.  If I need fancier duds when I get to England I can buy them there.”

They arrive at the docks and get a good look at the ship that will take them to Europe.   This particular class of ship bridged the gap between steam and sail, with both means of propulsion available to it.   In addition to the single steam funnel towards the center of the ship there are four large masts.   The sleek mostly metal vessel is 412 feet long from stem to stern, with a maximum width of 41 feet.    A unique feature to this ship was an iron railing that did not hinder water from running off the ship in stormy weather.   This was also the first ship afloat with well-lit and well-ventilated passenger lounges that extended out to both sides of the ship, rather than being just in the center.  A dozen large lifeboats sat atop the deck, six on either side.  

As they near the ship Arcade states, “I forgot something.  I’ll be right back.”   The others won’t let him leave, realizing that if they do he won’t come right back.   Hank says, “Look here, you signed us up for this you’re going too.”   Qualtaqa tells Arcade, “Sir, You took money from that man to go on this journey.  You have a duty to do so.  That honorable thing to do.”   Arcade replies, “I took the money to get out of town so that the James Gang wouldn’t show up and blow my head off.”   Hank says, “I thought it was the Clantons and Earps who were now after you?”  Louie interjects, “Would it be shorter to make list of people not trying to kill us?” 

They climb up the ramp to the ship.  Hank leads the way and looks a little bewildered muttering, “This is my first time on a big ship.”    A uniformed man stands in front of them and says, “Punch your ticket.”   Hank blurts out, “Punch?  You picked the wrong guy to pick a fight with.  I’m a Texan and I have a gun.”   Arcade just stands there, so Morgana hurries forward and tells Hank to back off.  She then hands the man the paper boarding passes for the ship passage.   He uses a metal punch to put a hole in each, and hands them back.   Hank states, “Why didn’t he tell me that was all he wanted.”   Morgana tells Arcade, “You could have said something.”  He replies, “Why?  If Hank hit the guy we just wouldn’t have been allowed on.  What’s wrong with that?”

They find their assigned cabins and drop off the luggage.   They feel the movement of the ship leaving the docks.  Hank suggests that they go check the place out.   Arcade says, “I’m gong to go up to the railing and wave to the people on shore.”   Morgana blurts out, “Oh no you’re not.  You just want to jump over the rail and swim back to shore.”   He snaps his fingers and mutters “Damn” in response, as that was exactly what his plan was. 

She has them wait until the ship is out of New York Harbor before the gang head up above deck.   As they walk around she notes that Arcade is eyeing the lifeboats.  “Don’t even think about it,” she states.   “Just interested in our safety,” he replies.   Louie says, “This ship safe.  This boat way too big to sink.”   As the ship reaches the open water it picks up speed as a cold stiff breeze hits them, and the gang decides to all head back inside.    Morgana and Arcade head back to their cabin, while the others check out the ship’s interior.   Qualtaqa also heads off on his own, while Aiden heads back to the cabin, feeling a bit queasy from the ship’s movement. 

Hank leads the others into a large room with the sign “Smoking Lounge.”   The room is filled with smoke, and several tables have people at them smoking cigars and pipes, drinking alcohol, and playing cards.   Hank’s player comments, “Oh yeah, in this time period those vices were not only accepted but actually encouraged.”   The DM replies, “Absolutely.  About the only thing you can’t do inside this room is shoot someone or have sex with them, and both of those restrictions are just to keep down noise complaints.”  

The gang approaches the bar in the room, and Hank begins by slipping the waiter some cash.  Hank then asks the man about the tables with the gamblers.  “I would advise caution,” the man states.   The waiter directs him to the game that he feels is the most honest.   Hank wanders over and asks if he can sit in.   A man with an English accent gestures for him to have a seat.   Curious about what type of game they are playing, Hank asks,  “You know Texas Hold’em?”  The man extends his hand for and handshake and replies, “Pleased to meet you Mr. Holdem.”   Hank tries to explain that while he is from Texas, he was referring to a type of card game.   They discuss card games that they both might know, deciding upon stud poker. 

Meanwhile, Qualtaqa has made his way into the ship’s library.   The majority of the books are written in either English or French, which are two written languages not known to the centaur.   He does, however, known the Scandinavian Dwarven language, used by the Dwarves who came down from Canada and traded with the Indians prior to the American Revolutionary War.  This is because one of these Dwarven trappers had lived with Qualtaqa’s tribe, and had taught it to him.    There are a few texts written in that language and he begins reading, happy to have found something to do during this long voyage.   

Back at the card game, Sam and Louie wander over to watch.   “What you doing?” Louie asks.  The two card players have been exchanging small talk, and Hank starts to talk about the places each one has been.  The Englishman comments that “You strike me as a man whose been thrown out of a lot of different places.”  Hank comments to Louie, “I’m starting to think this man and I must have met before.”  Louie replies, “Why?  He no shoot you yet.”


----------



## Silver Moon

*Game #4 - 3/14/04*

*Chapter 47, “The Question”, December 6th, 1881*:

Morgana asks “So, exactly where in England are we going?”   He replies, “Northern Part.”  “Scotland?” she asks.   He answers, “No, northern England.  Although this gang probably would like Scotland.  That place is filled with people who drink, fight and kill people.”   The two of them then get into another argument about going to England, which ends with her yelling, “You’re the one who agreed to this!”  He answers, “Well, it was one of those ideas that seemed good at the time, but becomes less so the more you think about it afterwards.”  

They continue to argue, with Arcade suggesting that they get Sam polymorphed to look like him and take his place.   “We don’t have to stay,” she states.  He replies, “They may try to make me.  I guess I could always kill them.”   She replies, “No, we’re going to be on our best behavior, and only kill them if it is absolutely necessary.”

Back in the smoking lounge, Hank lifts up his hand and says, “Hold on Louie, I’m sensing that somebody is talking about killing people.”   Hank shakes his head and says, “Nope, must have been wrong.”   Hank continues to try play cards and keeping Louie from eating the poker chips.   The gaming companion has introduced himself as Lord Reginald, and much to the man’s annoyance Hank keeps calling the guy “Reggie”  

They get into a political discussion with the Lord praising his queen and the monarchy.   Hank says, “I like our President system.  That Chet Arthur is doing a fine job.”  Lord Reginald replies, “Well, I guess you colonists would need something like that.  Without a societal upper class who would you have to become a monarch?”   This leads to a class discussion, with Regional stating that “People of better distinction should be in charge.”   Louie interjects, “If you so great why you travel second class?”   “I’ve had a few recent reversals in my business dealings,” the Lord replies.  

“What brought you to America?” Hank asks.   Reginald answers, “Business.  I’m in the import/export business.”   Louie says, “Well, I have businesses too.  I with both a silver mine and a laundry operation.”  “Ah, you’re industrialists!  Perhaps I could interest you in some investments,” the Lord states.   Hank interjects, “We’re just a couple of fellas who don’t mind putting in a hard day’s work.  So, what’s this bad luck you’ve been having?”  Reginald replies, “My business involves trade with India, and there have been some disturbances with the native population.”  Hank nods and says, “A’Yup, I’ve had some trouble with Indians myself.”   

Reginald says, “No, I’m talking about India.  Bombay, Delhi, Calcutta.”  “Those places anywhere near where we’re going?” Hank asks.   “No, but they’re all part of the British Empire,” he replies.   Hank says, “I tell you what.  If that turns sour fer ya why don’t you pack up and come to America.”   Reginald answers, “But then I would be surrounded by Americans.”  Louie interjects, “Americans not so bad.  Most okay, and only shoot you for rice.”  Reginald answers, “They shoot you for rice?  I would have thought that they would shoot you for free.”  

Hank interjects, “Yeah, but we stopped them.  We’re all pretty handy with a six-shooter.”  Reginald replies, “Ah, marksmen.  Have you ever tried shooting grouse?”  Hank answers, “Grouse?  Can’t say that I ever met him.  Is he a German fella?”    Reginald replies, “No, it is a type of bird that live on my estate.”   Louie says, “You own a whole state?”  Reginald explains his family holdings.   Hank replies, “So you got yourself a big spread, like a ranch.  How many head of cattle?”   “None,” Reginald replies.  “Doesn’t sound like much of a spread to me,” Hank replies.   They play for another hour and then wrap of the game, Hank coming out about even.

The group assembles in the second-class dining room and are served a fine dinner of roast chicken.  Arcade comments that the meal isn’t nearly as fancy as what they would have had in first class.  Louie interjects, “But lot better than steerage, where seat, table and plate would have been same thing.”  Arcade says, “This cruise in nice, I hope we never get to England.”  

Hank asks, “Why do you hate your home so much?”  Arcade doesn’t answer, and Louie interjects “No like that all English people have noses in air.”   Hank says, “Yeah, I read in a book that they’re uppity.”   Morgana comments, “You’ve read a book?”  Hank replies, “Yeah, I read two a year.  I like that Mark Twain fella.”   Morgana turns to Arcade and asks, “Are you going to answer his question?”  Arcade replies, “Ocean voyages are a time for contemplation not exposition.”  Hank says, “Well shoot boy, I’m getting mighty suspicious of you not wanting to go home.”  Arcade states, “It’s about duty and responsibility.”  Louie says, “Me run away too.”

Arcade says, “Well, I for one don’t want to manage a big estate and have an arranged marriage with some rich girl.”   Morgana slams her silverware down on the table and exclaims “WHAT!”  An aura of silence follows.   Hank removes his napkin and says, “Louie, I think we should be going.”  Both start to rise when Arcade says, “No, come on guys.  Please stay,” as he moves his hands down to his side.  This is followed by the “click”  “click” sound of him preparing his handguns, and Hank and Louie decide to sit back down.  

“An arranged marriage!” she states.   Arcade replies, “So I glossed over one little detail.”  She says, “I asked you directly about that!”   “I forgot?” he meekly states.   “You lied to me,” she exclaims.   He replies, “This is why I didn’t tell you.   I was trying to protect you.”  Hank whispers to Sam “You normally have to go to one of those fancy shows to see tap dancing like this.”   Arcade heard the comment and says, “You’re not helping.”   Hank attempts to change the subject by asking about the estate, but Morgana isn’t buying it.  Arcade again tries to explain that he was trying to spare her feelings.   Louie comments, “I think water buffalo dung getting very deep in here.”  Qualtaqa says, “I don’t see any water buffalo.” 

Hank says, “Arcade, didn’t you say you had a brother?  He can have these responsibilities.”  Arcade answers, “He’s an idiot.”  Morgana says, “You’ve been away for ten years.  He’s probably been trained to take over instead of you.”  Arcade replies, “Yeah, sure.  Is that why they sent a detective half-way around the world to find me?”   Morgana says, “Maybe your fiancée sent him.”   Qualtaqa suggests that when they get to England that Morgana challenge the other woman to a duel for Arcade’s hand.”  She replies, “Women don’t duel.  They have cat fights.”  Hank says, “This is starting to sound better.”  Louie adds, “We could sell tickets.”  

Qualtaqa turns to Arcade and says, “If it be that long girl in England no wait.”  Hank says, “He’s right.  If she’s rich her Pa probably wedded her off to someone else by now.”   Arcade turns to Morgana and says, “I don’t care about here anyway, that was just something my parents set up.  The person I want to spend my life with is you.   That’s why I got you this,” as he takes a fancy box out of his pocket and opens it up, revealing an engagement ring.     Her mouth hangs open in shock as he asks, “Will you marry me?”


----------



## CelticWolf

'_Louie says, “Well, I have businesses too. I with both a silver mine and a laundry operation.”_'

Louie is, of course, BSing the Englishman (or as he would put it, "piling up water buffalo dung") - his "interest" in the silver mine is as an occasional guard, and he hangs around the laundry and helps out occasionally because the owner's daughter likes him.  Louie is not overly bright but has street-smarts (ie, a decent wisdom), plays dumb and talks dumb but finds ways to say things for good effect sometimes, and as a former conscripted laborer is trying to fit in with this new society and make himself look good.  He's certainly proud to be part of a "respectable gang"!

This is definitely a fun game for us players!

Louie's Player


----------



## Silver Moon

*Chapter 48, “The Answer”, December 6th, 1881:*

Morgana does not respond to Arcade’s question.  Qualtaqa asks, “Can’t a ship Captain perform marriages?”  Hank says, “I tell you what, I think yer right about that.”  Louie interjects, “Hey, look, she’s speechless.”  Hank says, “That she is, I didn’t think that was possible!  Hey Arcade, you should ask her to marry you more often.”   

She finally regains her composure and points to the ring saying, “Where did this come from?”  He replies, “I bought it a couple of days ago in New York.”  She asks, “Did you buy it for me or for that other fiancée of yours?”   Hank says, “Well, we’re all waiting for an answer?”   Arcade says, “Why don’t you guys run along.”  Louie says, “Yeah.  We go find ship Captain to marry you.”  Arcade replies, “On second thought, why don’t you guys stay.”  

Arcade says to her “I bought it for you!  Well?  Are you going to answer my question”   She asks, “What’s wrong with the type of relationship that we have now?”  Hank whispers to Qualtaqa, “That’s a man’s line.  Are you sure she’s not a guy?”   The Indian replies, “Pretty sure, but to prove I guess you have to ask Arcade.”   She looks Arcade squarely in the eyes and says, “Look.  If you’re only doing this to get out of the situation with your family…”  A shocked look crosses his face and he interrupts with, “Do you really think so little of me?”   She replies, “Well, okay then.”   “Okay?” he states.  She answers, “Yes.  I’ll marry you.”  

Hank says, “Well don’t that beat all.  Two druids decided to get married, and on a ship in the middle of the ocean!  There ain’t no trees for hundreds of miles.”   “So you going to stay in England?” Louie asks the couple.  Morgana replies, “If Arcade wants to leave we will.  Even if we have to carve Sam into a boat to row back across the Atlantic.”  Sam spits out his drink at that comment.   Hank says, “I can’t image living anywhere other than Texas.”  Morgana comments, “Hank, you live in Arizona!”  “But I’m going back to Texas at some point,” he replies.   

Arcade says to her, “So, where would be the ideal place to have the proper ceremony?”   “Why wait?” she replies.   Hank, Louie and Qualtaqa get up and Hank says, “Great.  We’ll go find the Captain.  Sam, you keep an eye on them.”  “Or maybe a gun,” Louie adds.   “This was sudden” she comments.  He answers, “I’ve been thinking about this for a long time.”    

The three are unsuccessful at meeting the Captain, being stopped when they try to head up to the First Class section.   They then send the Captain a note asking to speak with him later.    “Ship people strict about keeping people separate,” Qualtaqa adds.  Louie adds, “At least they didn’t shoot at us.”  _The DM interjects, “Actually, the White Star Line really should take up the practice of shooting anyone who attempts to sneak into First Class, especially if they look like Leonardo DiCaprio.”  _ 

“I guess they will have to wait,” Qualtaqa says.  Louie comments, “Hope they no change mind.”  Hank replies, “Yeah, well why do we really care anyway?”   The three return and tell the couple that the Captain is unavailable.    “Must be busy, owning ship this big,” Louie states.  “The Captain doesn’t own it!” Arcade comments.   Hank says, “Why not.  If I was the owner of the ship I’d name myself Captain.”   “The owner has several ships,” Arcade replies.  “That works for me too,” Hank replies.   Morgana says, “Great.  Now Hank wants to be a shipping magnate.”   Arcade comments, “Him?  He’s barely qualified to guard a mine shaft.”   

Getting back to the topic at hand, Morgana tells Arcade that they don’t need the Captain, that they can declare themselves married on their own.    Qualtaqa asks, “Don’t you need druid priest to do that?”  Arcade replies, “No, we’re reformed.”   Hank says, “I should write a song for you guys.”   _The DM comments, “You can’t.  They don’t have Country and Western songs yet because trucks haven’t been invented.”  _ 

Arcade says, “Well, you decide what you want to do.  It’s your wedding ceremony.”   Morgana answers, “We don’t even need a ceremony.  You asked me and I said yes.  That’s all there is to it.”  Hank whispers back, “Are you sure she’s not a guy?  I’ve never known of a dame who didn’t want a big wedding.”   

“There isn’t anything more than that?” Arcade asks.  She replies, “Sure there’s a lot more.  What I expect from you is a lifetime of fidelity.  You don’t ever sleep with another woman, and you don’t ever mistreat either the children or me.  Do that and I won’t leave you.”   “So you get to decide when we are or aren’t married?” he comments.   “That deal don’t sound all that fair to him,” Hank comments.  She answers, “Sure it’s fair.  Family and lineage always works through the woman.  The mother is the only constant, since you can never guarantee who the father is.”   

“I don’t know that I take to that interpretation,” Hank comments.   Morgana replies, “You don’t have to.  I married him, not you.”   Louie says, “Hope not, the bed wouldn’t be big enough for all of us.”   Arcade comments, “Especially Hank, since most Texans sleep alongside their horse.”  Hank replies, “What’s wrong with that?”  

Arcade turns back to Morgana and asks, “Any more rules that I should know about?”  She replies, “Yes, you’re not allowed to intentionally kill any of my relatives.”   He mutters softly, “Note to self.  Make it look like an accident.”   She adds, “And in time of famine you don’t choose yourself over the children.”  Hank mutters to Sam, “The guy’s a English Lord, and she’s worried that there won’t be enough food for everyone?”  Louie comments to Sam, “See what happen if you get married.”  

The newlyweds get up to retire for the evening.  Hank says, “Hey, we sent the Captain a note, what do we tell him if he shows up?”  Arcade replies, “Tell him you want to marry Sam.”


----------



## Silver Moon

*Game #5 - 3/21/04*

*Chapter 49, “Arrival in England”, December 7th, 1881:*

Breakfast conversation is a continuation of the nights before.  Morgana continues to anticipate problems from Arcade’s family.  Arcade says, “You’ll do fine, just be on your best behavior.”  Louie tells Morgana, “That mean you should not toss tomahawk into people’s privates.”   Morgana asks Arcade, “What exactly is your mother like?”  He replies, “I’m not really sure.”   Hank interjects, “What are you talkin’ about, she’s yer Ma.”  He replies, “I was raised in an English manor house, so we didn’t mix very much.  I was actually raised by a nanny.” 

Arcade again suggests that they skip visiting his family.  Louie objects, stating, “I spend money on new fancy clothes.  Want to wear them.”  Qualtaqa again reminds Arcade that he accepted money for this trip so therefore has an obligation to fulfill and that anything short of that would be dishonorable.”   Arcade looks him squarely in the eye and says, “I don’t understand?  The guy offered to give me money so I took it.  I never said I’d actually go.”   Qualtaqa says, “You gave him the impression you would.”   Arcade answers, “And I meant it at the time.  I’ve just changed my mind since then.”

Morgana again asks, “So, what exactly is your family like?”   Arcade replies, “I can’t really say.”  “Well, damn it, could you at least take a guess?” Hank exclaims.  Arcade answers, “Well, I haven’t seen any of them for the past ten years.   And before that I went from a private nanny to boarding school and then off to college.  I’ve spent maybe an-hour-and-a-half of my life with them, so how would I know?”    Hank says, “Well that nanny shouldn’t have been raising you, that’s yer mother’s responsibility.”  Arcade answers, “And why don’t you tell her that when you meet her.”  Hank replies, “I tell you what, I believe that I might.”  “Yeah, that’ll go over well,” Arcade replies. 

Hank says, “Well okay, so if you won’t talk about yer family what can you tell us about the English in general?”  Arcade replies, “They keep to themselves.  They don’t like strangers.  And they shoot at the their neighbors.”  “Sounds a lot like Texans,” Hank replies.   Morgana asks, “Are there any druids?”  Arcade replies, “Hell no, they burned most of them centuries ago.”   She next asks, “What are their attitudes towards sex?”  He replies, “The English consider it fun, even the way they do it, so like everything else fun in Victorian England it isn’t allowed except for when absolutely necessary.”  Hank slaps Sam on the back and says, “Dang son, looks like you’ll have to go without for a while.”

Hank turns back to Arcade and says, “I wish you weren’t bein so secretive about this family of yours.”  Louie interjects, “Sounds fair to me.  He surprising his family with us, so he surprise us with family.”    Hank asks, “Well, will be meeting any of your family’s friends?”  Arcade answers, “The English don’t have friends.”  “The just have tea,” Morgana adds.    “Any basic rules we should know?” Hank asks.  Arcade answers, “Yes.  First, don’t shoot people indiscriminately.  Second, don’t be a foreigner.  Third, don’t be a member of the lower classes.  “Looks like we lose on all counts,” Morgana states.  Arcade replies, “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you!”  

“When we get there?” Louie asks.  Arcade replies, “We should dock in Liverpool in another ten days or so.”  “Ship stop in a pool of liver?   Ugghh!”  Louie comments.   Louie expresses some concern about going to an upper class home.  Arcade replies, “Relax, I’ll show you the ropes.”  Louie replies, “Last time someone try to show me a rope it was tossed over a tree limb.”  Hank decides to go play cards again with his friend ‘Reggie’.  Arcade advises against it, saying that he wouldn’t trust a down-on-his luck English Lord, adding “And I ought to know.”

December 8th to 16th, 1881:

Nine uneventful days of sailing across the ocean pass by.   The party members spend most of this in either the smoking lounge or library.   Morgana entertains those in the lounge at the piano.  Aiden spends the entire voyage in the cabin with extreme motion sickness.  

December 17th, 1881:

The ship arrives at Liverpool, England.   Surprisingly, no ‘Beatles’ jokes are made, despite several fans of the lads from Liverpool being around the table.   Arcade tells the party that he is in charge.  Hank (whose player is the party leader in our other campaigns) comments, “Yeah, I’ve been wondering about that.  Why do you get to be the leader of this gang?”   Another player replies, “Because you missed the first three game nights of this campaign!” 

They no sooner leave the ship when a man who says that he works for Lord Arcadium and has been awaiting him confronts Arcade.    He has a carriage parked nearby, and the party heads over towards it with their bags.   In the process of exiting the ship Aiden gets separated from the others and wanders off (his player having now missed several consecutive games).   They decide not to bother looking for him. 

Hank offers to “Ride shotgun up top to protect against bandits” but his offer is rebuffed.  At the command of the household servant several porters assist the party with their luggage.  “My, these folks are mighty neighborly,” Hank comments.  “Perhaps you and your Stetson hat may wish to enter and sit down,” the servant states.   He does so, Louie commenting, “He likes your hat.”  “Maybe I should buy him one,” Hank comments.   Hank bangs on the carriage roof and yells up “Hey, ain’t it about time that you yelled Giddy-up?”   Arcade sarcastically mutters, “Oh yes, he’ll fit in just fine here.” 

In the carriage ride Hank suggests that after they finish this trip they should visit his family in Texas.   Arcade doesn’t respond, being heavily in thought.  Hank tells Louie, “I’m starting to worry about that boy.”  Louie replies, “Me too.  What should we do to make better.”?  Qualtaqa suggests that they get him drunk.”  Louie says, “If he relax maybe he no longer act like stick up his butt.”   Arcade blurts out, “Hey!  How big do you think this carriage is?  I’m sitting right here!”   

They travel for several miles before the carriage pulls into a train station.   Arcade tells them that his family home is still a long way off, and they will have to take the overnight train to get there.  Several more porters assist with the bags and the party climbs onto a fancy passenger car of the British Rail Line.   Louie comments, “Me like to ride choo choo.”   

They settle down in the club car for supper.   Sam begins to have second thoughts about this visit.  Hank says, “Look kid, we didn’t come all this way just to turn around and go home.”  Arcade says, “Well don’t blame me.  I wanted to turn around back in New York.  My home is a trap”   Hank says, “Well, better to be there than being shot at by the James Gang, the Clantons and the Earps.”  Arcade replies, “Ask me that again in a week.”  

Morgana again brings up his mother, asking what she is like.   Arcade replies, “Just a typical mother.  I’m sure she does things that your mother did.”  Morgana says, “Really?  She dances naked around a fire?”  Hank and Sam both spit out their drinks at hearing that.  Hank comments, “He was probably thinking more along the line of baking cookies.”  “Mine did that too,” Morgana adds.  Arcade keeps watching the exits, and seems anxious to run every time the train slows.   As an extra precaution she casts a Sleep spell onto him, and then has the others help carry him back to their sleeping berth. 

December 18th, 1881:

The group gets back together for breakfast.   Arcade looks like he’s going to be ill.   Hank says, “After all this acting up yer doin, I tell you what.  If we get there and this family of yours isn’t so bad I’m gonna kick yer ass.”   Arcade replies, “Well, it’s not like we’re going to find them eating babies or anything like that.”   Louie interjects, “They should be proud of you.  You lead respectable gang.”  “Ixnay on the Anggay” Arcade comments.  

Hank says, “Don’t worry boss.  If they bug you and you find that need a good belt I’ve got my hip flask handy.”   Arcade say, “Don’t call me boss!  You don’t work for me!”   “Then why did you hire me?” Hank replies.   Arcade answers, “I didn’t hire any of you?  Didn’t you notice that none of you got any six-month performance appraisals.”   Louie interjects, “That just cause if you say something bad about Sam he shoot you.”  

The train ride continues, with the group looking out at the pastoral fields and rolling hills.   Hank says, “You got some good lookin’ country here.  A mite green, but looks like a good place to ride.  When we get to yer home I’ll have to borrow me one of yer horses.”   Arcade and Morgana joke about how funny it would be to watch Hank participate on a fox hunt.   She concludes that it wouldn’t last long, as he’d probably shoot the fox dead just as soon as it was released.  “And then complain about the lack of meat on it,” Arcade adds. 

They exit the train and get into another carriage on this cold windy damp day.  It rides along for another hour, with more picturesque hills in the background.   “When we get to you place?” Louie asks.   Arcade replies, “We’ve been on my family estate for quite some time, and are almost to the manor house.”    The carriage pulls up in front of a large three-story manor house made of dark stone.   Louie looks at the building and says, “You people make ugly castles.”   Hank says, “They have to build them tough over here to hold up to the lousy weather.”  

The servants unload the bags, with Hank’s making a loud crash on the ground.  “What’s in there?” Louie asks.  Hank replies, “My traveling things.  Shotgun, pistols, ammunition.”  “What about clean clothes?” Arcade asks.   “I’ll buy ‘em if I find I need any,” Hank replies.   “Do you really think you’ll need those firearms?” Arcade comments.  Louie interjects, “From way you talk sound like we may need to shoot our way out of here.”    

They reach the door, which is opened by an older man wearing a suit.  Hank thrusts out his hand and says, “Pleased to meet ya!  You must be Arcade’s Pa!”  The man makes no attempt to shake his hand and replies, “I am the butler.”   Louie says, “We go in now?  Want out of wet weather.”  Arcade leads the group into the building.   The butler asks Arcade “Will you be needing quarters for these servants of yours?”  Arcade squirms and says, “They are actually my associates.”   

The man eyes them suspiciously and says, “I see.  And will they be joining us for dinner?”   Hank blurts out, “Danged right we will!  I’m starved!  Where’s the grub!”    “I’m sure that the cook could put together something to your liking.”  Qualtaqa says, “Don’t care what it is just so it’s food.”  The butler states, “Ah yes, it is good to have such true connoisseurs under our roof.”


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## Silver Moon

Our DM just sent out the following email:

_"Just in case you're not grateful enough for a dull ocean passage, here's a sample of the kind of fun one could have on a White Star ship in the 19th Century..."_

1 April 1873: Off course and steaming at full speed, Atlantic runs aground on Golden Rule Rock, off Mars Head, Nova Scotia, at 3:15 a.m. Her stern is fully submerged and her hull is ripped open by high seas; many drown, many more are swept out to sea. The only survivors are crew members, unaccompanied men and one child; every woman, every married couple, and all the other children are among the 562 or more dead.  Those who survive do so by climbing the rigging or traveling across lines which have been secured to nearby rocks by the third officer and two quartermasters. (Sources: The New-York Times,various dates in April 1873)

Game #6 of  the module resumes tomorrow and I should have the next chapter up by Monday.


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## Silver Moon

*Game #6 - 4/04/04*

*Chapter 50, “Dinner Preparations”, December 18th, 1881:*

Arcade heads off to go see his father, leaving the rest of the gang standing in the lobby.  The uppity butler continues to be snotty with the party.  Morgana makes a reference to her husband and the butler interprets her to be referring to Louie.   She corrects him, saying that she is the bride of young Lord Arkadiam.    The butler’s face takes on a surprised expression and he sarcastically comments, “It is nice to see that Josiah’s tromp through the hinterlands has paid off.”     Louie asks Hank, “Did he just call her Josiah’s tramp?”  Hank replies, “I think he said he likes her hinterlands.”  

The gang complains again about being hungry so the butler brings them into a parlor and has the cook bring out a plate of cold mutton which the men tear into using their hands rather than utensils.   The butler watches this with a look of revulsion and says to Morgana, “And these people live with Josiah?”   With a large piece of mutton hanging from his front fangs, Louie replies, “We part of his respectable gang.”

The butler asks her, “How many rooms will you…people be requiring?”  Hank  says, “Give us each one.”   “Except the honeymooners,” Sam interjects.   Hank adds, “But if you all are short on space I guess Sam and I could bunk together.”   The butler shows them to their rooms.   Louie asks if he can break up some of the furniture to get a fire going in the fireplace to cook rice.   The butler says, “Sir, I will send one of the house boys up with some firewood to make you a fire if you wish one.  As for the cooking, I am sure that the cooks will be more than willing to meet your culinary wishes.”  “Like to cook own rice,” Louie replies. 

Arcade soon joins Morgana in their room.  “Well, how is your father?” she asks.  He replies, “Confined to his bed.  And other than being totally insane he seems to be fine.”   “So he’d fit right in with our group,” she jokes.   He answers, “No, I mean it.  He’s crazy.  He’s in a good mood, but he keeps spurting off nonsense."   “And your brother?” she asks.   He replies, “Still in London.  He’s expected back for the weekend.  I surmise that he’s probably off spending away the family fortune.”  

There is a knock on the door, which Morgana opens to find the other four gang members standing there.   Hank is looking on the wall at a framed map of Great Britain and comments, “No wonder there aren’t many places in England with the letter L in the name, this Wales place has them all.”    “Get in here,” Morgana comments.   They come inside and the door is shut.   

“What’s the low-down?” Hank asks.   Arcade replies, “My father is totally nuts, as in crazy.”  Louie quips, “I thought that was just part of being English?”   “Was he happy to see you?” Qualtaqa asks.  “He was happy, but he didn’t know who I was,” Arcade replies.   Hank says, “That makes sense.  I’d be happier if I didn’t know you.”  

“That butler no like us,” Louie states.  “Yeah, not exactly being welcomed with open arms,” Sam mutters.   Hank replies, “Still better than our usual reception of being met by people carrying arms.”   “So, should we try to fix the guy?” Louie asks.  Morgana comments, “He might have just gone on a wind walk and can’t find his way back.”   “A what?” Arcade comments.  Not wanting to hear the long explanation from Morgana that will follow, Hank interjects, “How’s yer Ma?” 

Arcade replies, “She was present in the room but she didn’t speak.  We will be joining her in the main dining room for supper.”   Morgana comments, “Dinner would be formal.  We should probably all wash up and change first.”  “I’ll go change,” Hank comments.  “I thought you only had the one set of clothes?” Arcade replies.  Morgana interjects, “I sewed him a new suit to wear on the ocean voyage.”    Arcade mutters, “We should probably burn the old ones once they are off of him.”  Hank replies, “I was just gonna put the new ones on over the old ones.”    

Arcade looks to Morgana and says, “I’m telling my mother that he’s one of your friends, not mine.”  “Hey, I have my uses,” Hank comments.  “Name one?” Arcade replies.  Hank answers, “Well, if you ever need someone to call somebody a mangy sidewinder then I’m your guy.”  Arcade replies, “If I ever decide to call somebody that I can guarantee that you’ll be present in the room.”   “Good”, Hank replies, not realizing that Arcade was referring to him.  Arcade says, “Listen.  We need to get to the bottom of what’s going on before my no account brother shows up tomorrow.”  Hank replies, “You mean there’s someone in the family who’s worse than you?”  

The conversation drifts back to how to handle Arcade’s dilemma.   Morgana suggests, “Well, if your brother isn’t competent why don’t we just tell them that Sam is a son who you fathered in America and leave him here to run things.”   Arcade replies, “That’s a hard sell.  He’s fifteen and I’ve only been away a decade.”  Hank says, “So what?  We told the newspapers he was twenty-two and they believed it.  If we can add seven years why can’t be subtract five and say he’s ten.”    “We’ll just say they grow’em big in America,” Qualtaqa jokes. 

Qualtaqa asks, “So, will this Queen of yours be joining us for dinner?”  Arcade says, “I doubt she’s in the neighborhood and I’m sure that she has made other arrangements.”  Hank says, “Dagnabit, I was hoping to meet the dame.  See if you can set that up before we go.”    Arcade just rolls his eyes.   Sam says, “I’m not too sure about formal dinners.  What are we supposed to do.”   Arcade decides to gear his reply to his audience and says, “There will be lots of silverware.  Just approach it like you would eating a buffalo, start on the outside and work your way in.”    

Looking at the rest of the party, Arcade tells Morgana “Maybe we should just lock all of them in their rooms, and slip them some food later."  Qualtaqa says, “I’ve been to formal dinners before.  I dined with President Grant at the White House.”   This surprises them all and Hank says, “You’re just making that up!”  Qualtaqa replies, “No.  I serve as Ambassador for Comanche.  I bring Chief there to sign treaty.   We signed treaty, eat dinner, then leave.”    Arcade says, “If he’s been around civilized society before why is he such a mutton-head?”   Louie adds, “He eat mutton hour ago, maybe that why.”  

Arcade calls one of the servants and instructs them to “Have the butler find appropriate clothing for my friends for dinner.”   He instructs the gang to “Let the servants help dress you.  They know what they’re doing.”    The group each goes back to their respective rooms.    Morgana, Arcade and Hank change into their formal clothes.  The butlers soon arrive at the rooms of Sam, Louie and Qualtaqa with the clothing that consists of starched shirts, pleated vests, wool pants and suit jackets with long tails.    Louie is 
disappointed that he wouldn't be able to wear his new (Chinese-style) clothes that he bought in New York.  Both Louie and Qualtaqa look surprisingly comfortable in this attire, but Sam’s ill-fitting suit makes him looks like a fish-out-of-water.  

Everyone arrives in the dining room.   Once they are all present the butler enters, gestures to the main doorway to the room, and announces “I present to you Lady Willamena Arkadiam.”


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## Silver Moon

*Chapter 51, “The Formal Dinner”, December 18th, 1881:*

“Darling, it is so nice that you could join us this evening,” Lady Arkadiam greets Arcade with, in such a casual manner that one would think he had been away for a day rather than a decade.   Louie interjects, “We make sure he come.  We help.”  Arcade gives Louie a dirty look for that comment.   Qualtaqua rises and tells her how her son is a great man in America.  She thanks him for his kind words, and then asks, “So, who exactly are you?”

Arcade handles the introductions, beginning with Qualtaqa and Sam.   When he gets to Hank Arcade cannot remember his full name, but Hank covers by rather eloquently stating, “Henry J. Hill Madam, and I am grateful for all of your hospitality.”    Similarly, Arcade does not remember Louie’s full name and just calls him Louie.  The half-orc corrects him by stating “My name Yee Lui-Buliang.   I travel from China to gang up with your son.”    

Arcade then introduces the young lady at his side, stating “And this is Morgana Walks-with-trees….”, he doesn’t finish, as he is concerned that if he mentions her last name of ‘O’Shea’ it will cause problems, as his mother is not fond of the Irish.   That becomes a moot point however when Morgana concludes the sentence by stating “Arkadiam,” and Arcade sheepishly adds, “my new wife.”  His mother has no reaction at all to this, turning instead to the butler and asking that the first course be served. 

A multi-course meal follows, with most of the cuisine being rather bland, comprised primarily of boiled food.    Louie blurts out “Why your food not taste like anything?”   She ignores that comment, and then asks Sam, “Where is it that you come from young man?”.   He replies, “Yosemite California, Madam.”   She replies, “California.  The place where they have all the gold.  Do you have a lot of gold?”    Sam is hesitant to answer and Qualtaqa says, “We are not preoccupied with worldly treasures.”  To that Hank adds, “In other words we’re poor.”  Louie interjects, “We involved with silver mine.”  She replies, “Why would anyone care about silver when all that gold is just lying around.” 

Addressing Qualtaqa she then asks, “And you are from where?”   He replies, “Oklahoma.”  She comments, “Oh yes, I’ve heard of that place.  Now are you from the mountains of Oklahoma or from along the ocean?”   Rather than correcting her he says, “I can show you around if you ever come to visit.”   “And you race?” she asks.   He replies, “Indian.  I serve as an ambassador for the Indian people.  I have served as ambassador for the Apache, Comanche and Hekawi Tribes.  I once dine with President Grant at White House.”   She answers, “How nice.  Is that where you met my son?”   Qualtaqa answers, “No, we meet in Arizona.  Your son great man.  Him kill lots of people.”  Arcade clears his throat at that and glares at the Indian.   In a weak attempt to salvage that, Qualtaqa adds, “But they were all very bad men.”   

She turns to Hank and asks “And where are you from?”  He answers, “Texas, Madam.”    She says, “Oh yes.  I remember reading about that place.  That’s where that awful Mr. San Antonio killed Jim Crockett and David Bowie at that fortress.”   

She then asks Louie a few questions about China and if he is a soldier.   He replies, “No, I build choo-choo.”  She asks, “So, have you been to that British island we have there?  I think it’s called Bing Bong.”   He answers, “If you mean Hong Kong, no I haven’t been there.  I am from Shandong Province and sailed to America out of Shanghai.”   She replies, “Oh, I understand.  You were shanghaied to America?”  She then goes back to eating without any more conversation.  Arcade whispers to Morgana, “She’s totally ignoring both of us.  She must really be furious about our marriage.”   Morgana replies, “Then we’ll have to make it a point to be very loud tonight to embarrass her further.”   

After a very long period of silence Louie asks Arcade’s mother, “So why you call for Arcade to come home?”   She replies, “To assist my husband with the family business.”   Hank asks, “What type of business is it you do?”   She states, “My husband is a magnate.”  Hank, thinking she said magnet, quips, “I can see the attraction of that job.”   She goes on to describe several of the businesses they have interests in.  Hank says, “Sounds like you have your fingers in various pots.”   Louie says to Hank, “No, she using silverware.”  Hank asks her if she knows of a Lord Reginald, stating that they met him on the ocean voyage.  Qualtaqa also mentions the English Duke who is part owner of the Silver Mine.   She indicates that she if familiar with who both of those men are, but doesn’t actually know either of them.     

Arcade states, “Mother this was a fine meal.   Thank you so much for preparing such a warm welcome for my associates and I.”   Acknowledging his presence again she asks, “So, is everyone in America as colorful as your companions?”   He replies, “Yes, they have this whole melting pot thing going on there.”   She states, “Well, I don’t know how you are able to deal with a place filled with people who have no class….I mean a classless society.”   Morgana jumps into the conversation, and speaks of the merits of America.    The mother asks her, “So, how exactly did you two meet?”   Louie states, “Me go by rice.   Get beat up.  They help.”   She is confused by that answer, but just passes it off and calls for dessert.   The meal finally ends and she departs.

Arcade leads the gang into a sitting room and offers them cigars and brandy.   “That seemed to go pretty well,” Hank comments.   “You’re kidding, right?” Arcade replies.  Louie says, “What you mean.  She like us.”  “Except Morgana,” Sam adds.   Arcade replies, “She was only being polite.  The two types of people that English aristocrats hate most are foreigners and poor people, and you’ve just established that you’re both.  She can’t stand any of you, especially Morgana.”  Morgana says, “She might change her mind when she finds out my Grandparents are wealthy Bostonian.”  Arcade replies, “But that’ll be negated once she finds out that they’re also Irish.”    Louie gestures to the newlyweds and says to Sam, “How come they rich and not us?”   

Hank asks Arcade about the family business.  He says that the family has interests into several things including manufacturing, mining, transportation and the import and export of merchandise.  He concludes by saying, “That plus the inheritance is how they can afford such a place as this.”   “How big is this place?” Qualtaqa asks.   Arcade replies, “The main building here has over 200 rooms.  There are many more rooms in the various outbuildings.”  Louie whispers to Sam, “Did he say the outhouses have several rooms?”  “Think so,” Sam replies. 

They then discuss Arcade’s brother William, who Arcade says is worthless.   “You want us to shoot him?” Louie asks.   Arcade answers, “Hell no!”  “Him really love his brother,” Qualtaqa states.  Arcade answers, “Not at all, but if he’s dead they’d make me stay here forever.”   

Qualtaqa suggests that Arcade could decide to head back to America to manage the family’s business interests there.  Hank says, “So, should we head over to this London place to see this useless brother of yours?”   Arcade replies, “No need.  He’s coming home tomorrow."    “Is there any way of finding out what he’s done with the family business interests?”  Morgana asks.   Arcade suggests checking in his father’s office later that evening after the house has gone to bed.   

*December 19th, 1881:*

Shortly after midnight the gang sneaks down to the office.  The doors to the room are locked, but Louie has no difficulty picking it.   The gang heads inside and lights a lantern.   They begin searching, finding the room covered in dust and the last recorded document being in the handwriting of Arcade’s father and dated the previous June.    Arcade is checking a desk on the side wall, so is out of sight of the doorway when a voice exclaims, “What are you people doing in my father’s office?”

They rest of the gang looks up at this well-dressed young human male who bears some resemblance to Arcade.  “You must be William,” Sam states.   “You haven’t answered my question!” he exclaims.    Qualtaqa says, “We are your brother’s accountants.  We do business for him.”   William replies, “If our business is so important to him then he’d be here.”   Morgana says, “We came here at the request of my mother-in-law.”  William looks confused until Sam explains, “This is Josiah’s bride.”   William uses that opportunity to make a rude and sexist remark about women in general.   Hank steps between the two of them to prevent Morgana from physically attacking the young man.  Before she can respond some other way Arcade speaks up saying, “Well, well, it seems some people never change,” as he walks into his brother’s line of vision.  

William states, “So you were hiding in there.  I didn’t think you’d bother showing up at all.”   The tension is thick enough to cut with a knife, and Qualtaqa tries to ease things by suggesting that they all go riding together in the morning.   William says to his older brother, “Who are these people?”   Louie interjects, “We his respectable gang.”  “We kill many outlaws,” Qualtaqa adds.   “Is there much money in that?”  William asks.   Hank answers, “Not as much as I’d like.”    Sam says, “We’re are involved in law enforcement in the United States.”  

“That’s where you are all from?” William asks.  “Yes, we live in Arizona,” Morgana states.   “Isn’t that where England ships all its criminals to?” William asks.   “I think that you’re thinking of Australia,” Arcade states.   Hank interjects, “Yeah, Arizona attracts enough criminals from the United States, we don’t need more from other places.”   

William just shakes his head and tells Arcade, “Well, it seems like you’ve decided to bring the retched refuse of America with you.”   Louie whispers to Sam, “I told you English were all stuck up.”   Hank says to William, “Son, there’s no need for insults here, but you seem a might peeved that your brother is back.”   William totally ignores Hank and says to Arcade, “It’s late.  If your ‘accountants’ are done here I would suggest that you all turn in.   I for one am very tired.”   Arcade adds, “And drunk too from the smell of it.”    The brother walks away. 

The office door is shut up and everyone heads off to his or her respective room.  Qualtaqa says to Arcade, “You had bad opinion of brother and we now all agree.”  Arcade says, “He was a fool before and still is now.”   Qualtaqa says, “I think we should bring him back to Promise City.”  Hank replies, “He wouldn’t last an hour there!”  “I think that’s the idea,” Sam comments.  Morgana says, “No need to go that far.  Just ship him up to Ireland.  He wouldn’t last ten minutes there with his attitude.”


----------



## Silver Moon

*Game #7 - 4/18/04*

*Chapter 52, “Lord Arkadiam's Health”, December 19th, 1881*:

Everyone returns to each of his or her respective rooms.   Arcade and Morgana decide to work off some of their frustrations, after which she suggests that since the whole house is asleep it would be a good time to go and check in on his father.    “Fine let’s go,” he states, stepping out of bed.   As she slips into her clothes she suggests, “Shouldn’t you put something on?  It wouldn’t be appropriate for the young Lord of the manor to walk down the hallway naked.”   He replies, “You’re right.  I’m an English Gentleman.  I should be wearing a hat.”    

Once attired they quietly make their way down the hallway and to the room.   Arcade’s father is sleeping very restlessly as they enter and shut the door behind them.   They approach the bed and the Lord calls out “Come back for more?”   He does not appear to be talking to them, and Morgana softly asks, “Sir.  To whom do you speak?”  He continues to ramble on an assortment of phrases, none of which make up coherent sentences.   She asks “Are you traveling or are you here?”  He starts to call out about “Danger.”  “Be calm, you’re safe with us,” she says in a soothing voice, which appears to have a relaxing effect on him.   She also casts her healing spells onto him, with no discernable differences. 

“I don’t like it here,” he exclaims to her  “Where are you?” she asks.  He replies, “Damn it, can’t you see?  Another one who doesn’t know what’s going on.”    She replies, “I see that you are lying in the bed in your room at the manor house.  Is that what you see?”  He answers, “No, it’s much brighter and much louder than that?”   _One player quips “Maybe he’s at a Rolling Stones concert.”  Another player retorts, “Maybe.  Mick Jagger’s old enough to have been around in 1881.”_

Morgana tells Arcade, “I think we should try something.”  He answers, “Right here?  In front of my father?”   She explains that she wishes to follow his soul-thread, which anchors his spirit to his physical body.    She will need Arcade to act as her own anchor.  He does not fully understand what she is talking about but agrees (a sign of a good husband).    She casts a spell incantations and her body appears to go limp in his arms.   A conversation then begins between Morgana and Lord Arcadiam, with Arcade hearing what is said even though neither of them is moving their lips.   She is able to derive that something is seriously wrong and that the Lord blames his son William for the problem.  She then returns to her physical body and they go back to their own room. 

At 7:00 A.M. the gang meet for breakfast in the formal dining room.  Morgana explains to the others about the visit and what she discovered.  Qualtaqa suggests that it sounds like William may have given his father some type of narcotic, and suggests that she cast a Neutralize Poison spell onto him.   Before they can plan further Lady Arcadiam joins them.  While continuing to ignore Morgana she gives a friendly greeting to the other members of the gang.  

Hank asks about borrowing horse to take a ride around the estate.  She says, “What a lovely idea.  Perhaps I’ll join you.”   “That would be wonderful” Qualtaqa replies.  Arcade whispers to Sam, “Yeah, right.  I doubt she even knows where on the grounds the stables are located.”    Qualtaqa continues to try to impress her with flowery language and courtesy.   He goes on at length about Arcade’s keen business sense and leadership qualities.  Arcade whispers to Hank, “If Newlegs keeps up with this B.S. I suggest that we have him run for Parliament.”

Morgana decides to take advantage of being totally overlooked by excusing herself from the table and heading back upstairs.    She heads directly to the father’s room, finding the bed empty, unmade and not even warm.   She checks the adjacent rooms and bath facility, but he is in none of those places.  She returns to the dining room, whispering this information to Arcade.   He suggests that the group go for a stroll around the gardens.  They head outside. 

He leads them directly to the duck pond, Morgana filling them in about the missing father.   Arcade says that he will cast a Reflecting Pool onto the pond.   He starts the spell, seeing his father sitting at a desk and reading a book in a brightly lit room.   Morgana suggests, “Pull back on your focus”.  

The image zooms out, to reveal the desk is located in a vast room filled with machinery.   He continues to pull back and up, in order to locate where the room might be.  They discover that it is deep underground, heading up several stone staircase.   They eventually reach the surface.  As he pulls up higher they find themselves looking at a part of a city near a river.    Arcade pulls up even further and announces, “That’s London and I recognize the Parliament Building.”  

They then see William approaching and Arcade ceases the spell before his brother sees what they were up to.   “What are you doing over he?” he exclaims in an accusatory manner.   Qualtaqa decides to cover for the party by taking advantage of the fact that William already views him as an uncivilized savage, stating “Saw you had pond with ducks so wanted to throttle one and then eat it.”   William is appalled, and lectures them about leaving the birds on the estate alone.  Louie interjects, “What?  You no like to eat duck?  I have good recipe for Peking Duck.”   Qualtaqa gives the young Lord assurances that they will leave the birds alone.   

Morgana then comments about wanting to go shopping in London.   They invite William to show them around the city.  He becomes very suspicious.   “You can show us the sights,” Sam states.  William replies, “That won’t be necessary.  I’m sure you’ll have no trouble finding people who will tell you where to go.”

Qualtaqa suggests that they spend the day riding around the estate.   William exclaims, “Planning to ride all the way to London?”  Arcade says, “Not at all.  We’ll tour the estate today and go to London tomorrow.”    They invite William to join them but he declines, making a derogatory comment about his brother’s companions.   Louie corrects him, declaring “We be respectable gang, on both sides of ocean.”  

They reach the stables and start to pick out horses.   Qualtaqa comments that he and Louie will wait there, as neither of them knows how to ride.    “What? You were a horse!” Hank exclaims.  Qualtaqa replies that while he is personally familiar with how a horse travels he has no experience with sitting atop one or how to command it to move.   Arcade states,” Well then it’s high time that you learned.  You too Louie, each of you grab a horse.”

It takes quite a while to teach the two new riders the basic mechanics, although the one who seems to have the hardest adjustment is Hank as the English saddles are different from the Western version that he is used to.   They ride off, with both Qualtaqa and Louie each thrilled at acquired a new skill.   “They seem mighty proud of themselves,” Hank comments.   Arcade replies, “Sure do, let’s slap their horse’s butts and see how they react.”   Morgana exclaims “Don’t you dare!  I’ve already used up all of my healing spells today on your father.”

They spend the next hour riding around the estate.  From a frozen hilltop Morgana spots a group of buildings in the far distance and asks her husband about it.   Arcade says, “That’s the local village.  The tenant farmers that tend my father’s lands live there.”   She says, “Then we need to go check it out.  They may know what has been going on.”   “Is there a tavern in the village?” Hank asks.   Arcade replies, “Yes, and they call them ‘pubs’ over here.”   Hank replies, “I don’t care what they call it as long as I can get me a drink.”  They ride on in the direction of the village.


----------



## Silver Moon

*Game #8 - 4/25/04*

*Chapter 53, “The Local Pub”, December 19th, 1881:*

The gang ties up their horses outside of the pub and head into the building.   It has a relaxed atmosphere to it, with a dozen tables with two-to-six chairs at each, six barstools along the bar, a piano sitting in the corner and a dartboard on the wall.    As Arcade is the only one of the group who can speak with an English accent they decide to let him initiate the conversation.   He gives the barkeep a warm hello and says that there are six in the party.  They are gestured to sit at one of the larger tables in a corner of the room.    A round of the local beer is ordered up for the table. 

“Nobody seems to know you,” Qualtaqa observes.  Arcade replies, “Not surprised.  I've been gone a long time and my parents also never allowed me to come to this pub when I was younger.”    When the bartender comes back they order some food and a second round of drinks.   They then engage him in conversation about the local happenings.  The man replies, “Strange things ‘ave been ‘appening ‘ere as o’late.  It’s not right.  Don’t like it, don’t like it at all.  I ‘eard that the Lord’s eldest is coming ‘ome.  Maybe ‘ell put things to rights.”

They press him for more detail as to these strange happenings, but he doesn't state anything specific, saying that it is just a bad feeling and there have been an eerie sting of bad happenings.   Morgana inquires as to when these things began and are told, “Seems to me ‘bout last summer.”   When he goes to get the food they discuss this, noting the time coincides with when Arcade’s father took ill. 

The man returns with a platter of mutton.  They ask him to speculate about the cause of the disturbances.  He chocks it all up to progress, blaming the railroads and the influx of new people to the district.   Morgana inquires about magic being the source of the problems but he dismisses it.   He then says, “Some o’you talk odd.  Where be you from?”   Hank replies, “America”.  “Ah, Colonists!  What are you doing ’ere?” the man exclaims.   “Just came for a visit,” Morgana states.  Hank adds, “Yeah, I wanted to visit that Queen of yours.  I heard that she’s a mighty fine lady.”  The man laughs and tells him, “I’m afraid she doesn’t frequent me pub.”   Louie interjects, “She should.  The food and beer good here.”  

They ask about the Lord’s son William and the response and tone of voice used makes it obvious that the barkeep doesn’t hold him in very high regard.  The man repeats that it is a good thing that the elder son will soon be returning.   Morgana engages the man in a debate about the hierarchy of English society and how in America everyone has a chance to succeed.  Louie adds, “Me start as poor laborer but now have interests in silver mine and laundry.”   The man states that he is happy being a barkeep, just as his father and grandfather both were.   Hank says, “Well, it is an honorable profession.”    

They finish up the meal and Arcade pays the tab, leaving a generous tip.  The barkeep invites them to come back in the evening, stating that there will be some entertainment.    “What entertainment?” Morgana asks.   The man replies, “A local troubadour.”  Hank says, “I think we might just do that.”    

They approach the door and Arcade holds it open for Morgana to exit.  She steps into the doorway and almost collides with a well-dressed handsome young man with a lute strapped onto his back.   He apologizes, stating the he would never wish to cause any harm to one as beautiful as she.   She smiles back, commenting about the lute and asking if he is the performer that she heard would be playing there that evening.   He smiles and confirms that he is, saying “I work the boards here.”  Louie softly says to his companions, “He a carpenter?”  Arcade replies, “I think he means the floor boards of the stage.”  

Morgana tells him that she is also a bard and asks if he might be interested in performing a duet.   They both continue to stand in the doorway conversing, blocking the doorway.   He introduces himself as John Wesley of Harding, and that he has just returned to the community after a long absence.   “And why did you come back here?” she asks.   He answers, “I heard that an old friend of mine will be returning and wanted to be here to greet him.”    Hank turns to Arcade and softly says, “Does he mean you?”  Arcade replies, “Yeah, he  and I go way back.”   Qualtaqa says, “He’s only standing ten feet away.  Why hasn’t he recognized you?”  Arcade replies to him, “If you just met a beautiful young woman, who shares the same hobbies as you, would you notice anybody else in the room?”

The five men decide to make their way back to the corner with Arcade sitting so that his back is to the adjacent tables.   Picking up on their movement back into the tavern, Morgana directs the bard over to a small table next to them.   Rounds of beer are soon ordered up for each tables.   

She tells him that she is from America, originally from Boston but has also spent a lot of time in the Midwest.  He says that his family are English nobles from the area.  He says that he has traveled abroad, and has spent a considerable amount of time in America, mostly in San Francisco and New York City.  “That true?” Louie asks Arcade.   He replies, “Yes.  He’s from the neighboring estate to ours.  We were childhood friends and traveled together to America ten years ago.   I was the quiet one and he was the troublemaker.”  “Looks like some of him rubbed off onto you,” Hank comments. 

Morgana and John continue to talk about musical instruments and songs.   He implies that there is something magical about the lute that he uses.  She indicates that she doesn’t have an aversion to using magic.   He answers, “Well, being as close as we are to France some of their magic does tend to filter through this area.”    She asks, “So are you here now to work?”   He replies, “Later on tonight.  I just stopped in now for a drink, and am so glad that I did.  It’s not often I get to spend time with another from our profession.”  She smiles and says, “Maybe we’ll get a chance to see which of us is the better performer.”  He replies, “We could do that, although I’ve never performed before in a competition.”  Arcade spits out his drink upon hearing that mistruth. 

John then says, “I’m sure that we will perform very well together.  I have many talents to share with you.  Although some of those talents are much better suited for a private setting.”   Hank whispers to Sam, “Is this where somebody gets himself shot?”   Morgana replies to the proposition, “I think that my husband might have something to say about that.”   The man’s jaw drops in shock, as she then raises her voice and asks, “What do you think dear?”   The surprised troubadour hears a chair move immediatley behind him and then hears a voice from long ago state, “Well John, I see that you’re still the ladies man.”   The man’s head jerks around and exclaims “Josiah!”


----------



## Silver Moon

*Chapter 54, “Reunion”, December 19th, 1881:*

Arcade says, “Why don’t you join us.  I see that you’ve already met my bride.”    The bard glances at Morgana and laughs, “Yes, and I see you were both having some fun at my expense.”   She smiles and replies, “It wasn’t hard John.”  “I beg to differ.  And please call me Wes” is his answer.   Looking back at Arcade, the bard says, “I own you one.”   

Wes slides his chair around as Morgana walks over to the other table, sitting beside her husband.  Looking back at Morgana he comments “So, you two are married?”   Arcade replies, “For a while now.”   “At least a week,” Qualtaqa interjects.  Morgana adds, “His mother isn’t too happy about it.”  “I can imagine,” Wes replies, adding “Well I for one think you’ve made a good choice Josiah.  So Morgana, would you happen to have any sisters?”   She replies that she does not.  Wes asks, “So, how did you meet?”   “I buy rice,” Louie comments.  “These are my business associates,” Arcade comments, gesturing to the others.  

The bard takes a quick glance around the table and smiles, amused that his friend is now keeping company with an elf and a half-orc.   Arcade says, “Louie is correct, we met in America when he was buying some food and some local hoodlums decided to beat him up.  Morgana and I both intervened to help him out.”  “Me too,” Sam comments.   “Always the do-gooder,” Wes replies. 

“And what have you been doing with yourself for the last decade?” Arcade asks.   Wes tells them about his travels across America and Europe, making his way through life using his gift of song.  “Uh huh, with an occasional influx of family resources,” Arcade comments.  Wes replies, “You know me too well.  Yes, unlike you, I have made it back here from time to time.  I heard you were coming back now so decided to come see you again.  But tell me, exactly what have you been up to.”

Arcade answers, “This and that.”   Qualtaqa says, “We’ve become a respectable gang.”  “Hey, that my line!” Louie interjects.    Wes replies, “Seriously, what have you been doing in America?”  Morgana says, “Well, a while back I attacked Billy the Kid.”   Wes laughs and says, “Sure you did!  You can always count on a bard to spin up a tall tale.  I guess anybody can claim to have shot at him now that he’s dead, so he can’t refute it.”   Morgana says, “I did not shoot at him, I killed him with my tomahawk.”   Louie says, “It was when we fight James Gang.”   A surprised look crosses the bard’s face as he puts the pieces together, commenting “We?  Hold on….Arkadiam…Arcade…you’re Arcade’s Gang?”   “Lock, stock and barrel,” Hank replies.  “Make that double-barreled,” Sam adds.  

The bard laughs and says, “And you used to say that I was the one who always caused trouble!”   Arcade replies, “Wes, please keep that information under your hat.  We’re trying to keep a low profile over here.”   He replies “And who would I tell that would actually believe me?  So, what brings you home?”  Louie says, “Big boat.”   Wes says, “No, I mean, why did you come home Josiah.”  Louie interjects, “He try not to but we make him.”

Arcade states, “My father is in poor health.  But it’s more than that.”   Morgana says, “Something magical seems to have poisoned him.  It seems to have started around five months ago.”  Arcade adds, “We think that William has something to do with it.”  Wes replies, “Wouldn’t surprise me.”   Qualtaqa says, “William has had direct access to the family fortune for five months now.”  Wes replies, “I’m surprised there is anything left.”  Arcade answers, “There may not be, that’s one of the things we’re tying to find out.”    

Morgana then begins discussing music with Wes and Qualtaqa whispers to Arcade “Do you trust him?”  Arcade replies, “With my life.  Why?”  Qualtaqa replies, “Because he’s a bard who has been in the country recently, and probably knows his way around London much better than you do.”  Arcade replies, “I get it.  And he would also know of places for us to hide out if we run into trouble.”   Qualtaqa answers, “If?, I’d make that ‘when’.”  They invite Wes to accompany them to London the following morning, to which he graciously accepts.   He in turn invites them to hear his performance at the pub that evening, to which they graciously accept, with Morgana again agreeing to perform a duet or two.

The group says their good-byes to Wes and ride back to the Arkadiam Estate.    Arcade’s father is back in his bed and rather incoherent.   The group dress for a formal dinner, at which Arcade’s mother is pleasant but the conversation remains at a superficial level.   Following the dinner the group change back into their comfortable clothes and take a pair of carriages back to town.   They find a nice table in the far corner of the pub and settle in for a pleasant evening, with Morgana joining Wes on the stage for several folk songs.   They head back late in the evening. 

December 20th, 1881:

The group meets for breakfast and Morgana slips away to check on the father, who is fast asleep and does not wake when she attempts to make him.   After breakfast they then pack for their trip.   Most decide to leave behind their western-style clothing as well as their larger weapons, such as rifles and the long spear.  They get one of the servants to drive them to the train station.   They make a detour over to Wes’s home and Hank comments that he’s seen towns that are closer together than these two neighboring estates.  The main manor house is elaborate but not quite as ostentatious as the Arkandiam’s.    Sam asks “Will he be sober enough?  He was drinking all night long.”   Qualtaqa replies, “We won’t need him to be sober until we reach London.  He can sleep it off on the train.”  

Morgana heads up to the door and knocks.   A butler arrives and she asks for “Young Lord John.”  The man replies, “I believe that the master is still abed.”  She says, “Well go wake him.   Tell him that Lady Arkadiam is waiting to go to London with him.”   The butler gives her a quick visual appraisal, and walks away muttering “I guess the rich can marry as many times as they want.”    

Wes eventually makes his way downstairs, and says to her “I didn’t think you meant today and I certainly didn’t think you meant in the morning.”   She replies, “We’re going now.  Get your things.”   He replies, “I’m an artist.  I need my sleep.”  She answers, “You can sleep on the train.  Hurry up.”    Realizing that he isn’t going to win this one, he gathers up a few belongings and follows her outside.   Before the carriage even leaves the front walk he is already curled up on the seat and fast asleep again.   “Wish I could do that,” Louie comments.   Qualtaqa says, “They say that bards and soldiers can learn how to sleep any where at any time.”  “And in his case, with any one,” Arcade adds. 

They arrive at the train station and only have a short wait until the next train to London. Along the way they discuss how the following evening is the Winter Solstice, a high holy day for both the Celtic and Roman deities, which are the two main pantheons worshipped in England.   They decide that could work to their advantage, as the evening of the 21st will be very busy with holiday celebrations that might work as a distraction.   It might also help with a cover story, Morgana being a Celtic priestess.   The train stops at several towns along the way, arriving in the city approximately two hours after


----------



## Silver Moon

*Game #9 - 5/02/04*

*Chapter 55, “The London Shopkeeper”, December 20th, 1881*:

They shake Wes awake.  He grumbles and comments that he is hungry.  Louie offers him a rice ball, to which the bard replies, “Never show me anything that disgusting again this early in the day.  I need a bard’s breakfast.”  Morgana states, “He wants a beer.”  “Or at least a bottle of wine,” he replies.    

They exit the train station and the gang asks Arcade if he knows exactly where the scry appeared to reach the surface.   He says, “I think the docklands, but could have come up at an angle, so it might be further away.”  “Let’s try to find the spot we saw,” Qualtaqa states.   Wes says, “Well, if we’re heading to that part of town we’d better get there now.  I wouldn’t want to be in that part of the city after dark.”   Hank says, “What are you worried about?  You’re with Arcade’s gang.”  Wes replies, “Well, don’t take offense at this, but I’ve actually gotten to know you guys a bit now.  Your group is more impressive as a concept.”   

They head through the crowded city in the direction of the docks.   They pass many people selling their wares along the street.   Wes goes to a street vendor and purchases a meat-filled roll, which he then consumes.  Along the way Morgana notices a curio shop with several items in the window that hint of French design.  She says, “Hold on a minute.  I want to check out this store.”   Hank exclaims, “We don’t have time to go shopping.”  She replies, “If this shop is what I suspect it might be it going here could actually save us a lot of time.” 

They enter the building and Morgana approaches the proprietor, an elderly woman standing behind the main counter.   They exchange small talk for several minutes.   Morgana has been busy looking around the room and makes mention of her interest in viewing unusual tomes.   The woman says, “We don’t have much interest in books, but I might have a few.”    She leads her into a back room, moving a glass with a dead fly inside it off of a pile of dusty books, revealing some magical tomes beneath.   

Morgana smiles and says to her in an archaic version of French, “Your ruse is impressive.  A non-wizard would not suspect you use these daily.”  The woman replies in the same version of French (and language that of her companions, only Wes can deduce the occasional word of) “Yes, you’ve passed the test.  I personally like the dead fly detail myself.  He’s actually just playing dead, being a personal friend of my familiar.”   Morgana says, “I’m glad you decided that you can trust us.”  The woman replies, “And can I trust your companions?”  Morgana replies, “Yes, I trust them all with my life.  They’re very easy to underestimate, but are all people of good character.”  “Then you will be trusting them with my life as well,” the woman replies.

The older woman then changes to the English language and says, “I may be able to help you find that which you seek.”   Arcade says, “That would be appreciated.  I need to locate where my father is.”   The woman replies, “What can you tell me about where he has been?”  Morgana says, “It’s as though he were simultaneously here and on another world.”    Arcade describes the large room he saw his father inside and the tome that he was reading.  Morgana adds that “Even when he was home he was not really there.  We don’t know how to combat this,”  The woman replies, “Your suspicion that he is linked to the tome is probably correct.  You must separate him from it.”  

Morgana says, “And I’m uncertain how it is that he appears to travel the fifty-mile distance in a very short time?”   The woman replies, “And you mean to tell me that you can’t?”   Morgana answers, “No.  I’m afraid that I’m still a novice at using magic.  But I do have other talents which I have made good use of.”    Arcade says, “We think that this location is near the docklands.”  The woman replies, “That is not what I sense, but the docks do have the most open space in the city, and I believe the place you seek is in a open space.”  

The woman’s gaze then turns to Qualtaqa and she asks Morgana “Do you want me to fix him?”  Morgana replies, “No, we needed him in this form.”   She replies, “Why?  It is not his destiny.”  Louie interjects, “But it easier for him to ride on boat and train like this.”   Qualataqa asks the woman, “You can tell people’s destiny?”   She replies, “Yes.  I can read their auras.”   It is obvious that Qualtaqa wishes to asks something else, but hesitates.  Morgana says, “Go ahead.  You want to ask her.”   Much to her surprise however, rather than asking about himself he asks about what is in store for Morgana.   The woman replies “She is destined for greatness as well as happiness.”  Qualtaqa says, “And the Elvan people?”  “As you believe,” is her reply.

Hank gestures to Sam and says, “And what can you say about his destiny.”   The woman smiles and tells the boy, “You may find some who will do if for free. You just need to know where to look.”    Arcade comments, “You appear to know much of us.”  The woman replies, “I should.  I have been expecting all of you.”    “Do you have anything else to tells us?” Morgana asks.   The woman says, “There are things you know and things you do and sometimes the things you know interfere with the things you do so you need to take that into perspective.”   Louie mutters to himself in his native tongue “And they say that Chinese philosophy speaks in riddles.” 

Louie asks about purchasing an item for his girlfriend and is shown a number of items selling for the British equivalent of $ 5.00 to $ 10.00.   Hank points out that even if he goes for the cheapest it will still be the most expensive gift that Mary Wong ever received.   Louie buys a cameo with gold plated edging.  

Morgana thanks the woman for her assistance and asks if they can come back if necessary.    The woman tells her that she is always welcome to return.   “Even if it is decades from now?” Wes comments.    She replies, “Yes, the shop will remain here until the war.”  “War?” Arcade asks.  She replies, “Another third of a century from now.  Most of you will know of it.”  Gesturing to Sam she says, “The young one will play a key part of it.”    Arcade thanks her for her advice, while Sam just looks very confused.  

As they leave she whispers something into Qualtaqa’s ear.    Morgana looks back and gives her a puzzled look.   The woman’s last comment to them is, “Zero is your friend.  Look low.”  

The group exit the building and head in the direction of Tower Bridge.   This is not the best part of town and Wes acts uncomfortable.  Aracade asks him “What’s the problem?”  The bard replies, “This intrigue thing just isn’t my style. I feel exposed the way we are proceeding.  I prefer buying people drinks and then outsmarting them.”   Morgana comments, “Like you outwitted me.”  Wes replies, “You two set me up.” Arcade says, “No, you did that to yourself.  But don’t worry. We have you covered.  You’ve saved my butt often enough, let me return the favor.”   Wes glances back at Morgana, wanting to make a comment, but Sam laughs and stops him with “Don’t even try.  You’re not going to win with her.”   He appears to take that as a challenge, thinking up a smart comment to make to her, but stops when Louie says, “Give it up.  When even Sam laughs at you there no hope.”


----------



## Silver Moon

*Chapter 56, “Greenwich”, December 20th, 1881:*

They cross tower bridge, a large stone structure lined with buildings.  They reach the other end, and are continuing through a poorer section of the city.  Hank comments about the smell.   Arcade replies, "You're one to talk about a smell, Mr. I-only-change-clothes-and-bathe-once-a-year."   

Morgana notices that they are beginning to get noticed by some of the people in this district, including many low-lifes who are eyeing the nicer clothes worn by Arcade, Wes and herself and comments about that to the others.   Wes starts to sing a bardic tune, adding the magical 'Suggestion' to his lyrics of "Don't look at us.  We're not really here."  To that another player suggests, "They're not the droids you're looking for."    The people start to ignore them.  "It worked," Sam comments.  Wes replies, "Magic tends to work well in London."

That comment gets Morgana thinking, and she says how through her combined Indian and druidic heritage she has been taught to detect the magical ley-lines through the earth.  She casts a spell to detect this, a variation on Detect Magic and is almost overwhelmed by then seeing before her one of the strongest magical earth ley-lines that she has ever seen.  Furthermore, she begins to notice that it appears to intersect with a second equally stong line a few miles ahead.   Arcade comments, "That's Greenwich.  Where the Royal Observatory is located." 

Since they know know where they are going to Wes flags down and hires a  hansom cab to take them the remainder of the four miles downstream from Tower Bridge along the banks of the River Thames to the Royal Observatory.   Once they escape the main part of the city, the land opens up to a park, which makes most of the group feel more comfortable, especially the druids. 

Nearby is the Royal Naval College with its great baroque architecture; Arcade explains that this had been the Greenwich Hospital designed by the great architect Sir Christopher Wren and that other famous British architects contributed to its buildings.  Louie mutters, "Still too square, no Feng Shui in these people..." Arcade ignores him and talks about how the Hospital was closed in 1869 and that it was being turned into the Royal Naval College just about the time he left Britain. 

Sam and Hank are just gawking at the cluster of huge buildings. Qualtaqa compares it to Washington, DC, calling on his recollections of the White House and other buildings there. Arcade asks, "Didn't we burn that town in 1812?"  Hank and Sam each give him a whack while Morgana just rolls her eyes.  Louie looks puzzled, so Morgana gives him a quick history of the War of 1812 as they near the observatory building.  When the Royal Observatory comes into view, Louie says, "Well, at least this one has some round parts!" (See http://www.nmm.ac.uk/uploads//jpg/PU2226.jpg for a picture.) 

Morgana becomes quiet, feeling the power of the ley lines that go through the area. Hank asks, "Why's this place so all-fired important?" Arcade tells him how important navigation is to sea-faring peoples like the British, and how they needed to find their east-west position accurately. So they established this location as the Prime Meridian, measured as 0 degrees longitude. From there, using accurate clocks invented by clockmaker John Harrison, they could measure their position.   Wes comments, "That strange woman did tell us that "Zero is your friend."

Hank still looks a bit puzzled, and Arcade has to remind him there are no landmarks at sea. Sam asks if he can explain it without all those fancy words. Arcade gives up... Louie complains that the British had to make themselves important again by picking a spot in their country, to which Morgana reminds him that there are some of the strongest ley lines in the world intersecting here. 

Arcade points out the domed Meridian Building behind the main part of the Observatory. "That's where the new telescope sits," he comments, "Its location marks the exact Prime Meridian." (This was erected in 1850, so it is pretty new!  Especially by British standards.)  "Measure, measure, measure - science and technology!" mutters Morgana, "I hope they haven't ruined the magic!"   Hank tries to tell her, "Well, little lady, progress marches on!" She says, "Things have worked just fine for a long time!"   Arcade tries to distract her, pointing out how the building is built so nicely into the landscape, and pointing out the many old trees around.  This helps get the group back on track as they prepare to enter the building.

They enter the building and trying to find their way around.  They ask a receptionist if they can look around.  She says that they are welcome to but reminding them that it is nearly 4:00 P.M. which is traditonally "tea time."  

As they make their way through the building, they go past a room with several timepieces in it (the Harrison gallery).  Louie pokes his head in and says, "Fancy clocks!" Afraid that Louie is sizing them up for their street value, Arcade explains that they are national treasures, the original Harrison clocks. "They were the first truly accurate timepieces that could be used to determine your east-west position when navigating around the world." Hank says, "I tell you what, I can tell time close enough by looking at the sun!" Qualtaqa concurs, but Sam asks, "What do you do on a cloudy day?" Morgana interjects, "There are plenty of magical ways to tell time accurately - you shouldn't need machines to do it!" Arcade shushes her, reminding her of the local views about magic. The group actually manages to move quietly for a while after this!

Qualtaqa reminds them of the woman's other clue of looking low, and suggests that they find a way to get into the basement.   Morgana says, "Yes, the ley-lines will be even stronger as we get deeper into the earth."  "Plus we know the book is underground," Sam comments.   Qualtaqa warns, "Yes, but we may not want to actually go there and take on this foe until we have a better idea of who they are and what they are capable of."  


_Special thanks to CelticWolf for his assistance in writing this chapter (and for pointing out edits now made to prior chapters). _


----------



## Silver Moon

*Game #10 - 5/16/04*

*Chapter 57, “Confrontation with Evil”, December 20th , 1881:*

_The evening’s game begins with CelticWolf commenting that “I saw a special on the History Channel about Billy the Kid and they got it all wrong!  They didn’t say anything about Arcade’s Gang, Promise City, or any of the stuff that actually happened."_


Back in the basement of the Royal Observatory the group continue to look for but not find any entrance to underground chambers.   Morgana sings and keeps looking for patterns in the ley-lines on the floor.    Hank suggests that they just stop and head back into London to question William.    Morgana insists that the answer must lie where they are and how she can tap into the energy focus of the Earth itself.   Hank replies, “Well I’ll leave that up to you little lady.  I ain’t getting involved in any of that peculiar stuff.”   

She isn’t able to come up with anything more definite.   Arcade points out that the original scry did not show an actual entrance, so even though they may be above the cavern, the door may be elsewhere.   He then says, “For all we know, this place is just where the local astrology nuts go.”  

Morgana wants to try one more thing, and explains how she needs to locate the ley-line in the earth that reaches to North America to talk to her ancestors.   “Can it work from this distance?” Qualtaqa asks.  She replies, “Distance should not matter if I can find the right line.”  She attempts this, locating it, and asks it how they should proceed.   A voice says to her in a Yiddish accent “What, you want that I should tell you everything?”   Morgana’s player protests “Hold on, what’s with the accent?  Morgana is Irish and Indian!”  The DM replies, “You don’t get to pick your spirits.”   The conversation continues, but she doesn’t get told anything useful.  

They decide that they need to return to London.  Before leaving Morgana suggests that they may want to hire a student at the University to do some research for them in the event that they have to return.  Arcade says, “I don’t think that we want to involve any schoolboys in this mess.”  Wes points out that most of the students are sons of Lords and other wealthy individuals, so wouldn’t really need extra money.    

Next she suggests that they maybe should leave Sam behind to look around, as he could blend into the University pretending to be a student.   “Like Sam would really fit in here,” Hank comments.  “Like Sam can even write,” Arcade quips.   Sam doesn’t like the idea either so they abandon it.   

They hire a hansom cab to take them back to London.    Arcade gives the drivers directions to the business district where the Arkadiam business office is situated.  They arrive at a large multi-story building and exit the carriage.   They pass by the door of a ground floor counting house with a weathered old sign reading “Scrooge and Marley”, a lone clerk inside the main room working at a ledger well into the evening hours.  

Arcade leads the group through a door with a number of brass plates mounted to the wall beside it, one of which reads “Arkadiam World Headquarters”.   They take the staircase up several  floors, finally stopping on the fifth floor.   They approach a door, where light is seen coming from under the door.    “That’s it,” Arcade whispers.    Louie observes, “Light under door steady, not a fire.”  Qualtaqa replies, “True, but my guess is that the office may be on fire by the time we leave.”   Morgana approaches the door and listens at it.    She comments that she hears William’s voice inside and it sounds like he is casting spells.   

Louie and Morgana both get their throwing daggers ready.   Arcade, Hank, Sam and Qualtaqa all get out their guns.   Wes unstraps his lute from his back, to which Hank asks “You planning to hit him with that thing?”  Wes replies, “You fight your way, I’ll fight mine.”    Wes suggests to Arcade, “Maybe you should go in first. He’s your brother.”    Hank says, “Yeah, and at the first sign of trouble we’ll come in shooting.”    

Louie checks the door, finding it locked.   He starts to reach for his lock picks when Arcade says, “Don’t bother.  I have a key.”    He uses the key to open the door and enter the room.  The others follow.    The office is comprised of a single room with filled bookcases running the long walls to both sides.   William is sitting at the far end of the room, behind a large desk with a large glass window behind him.   The rooms is lit by gaslights on the walls and William has three books open in front of him on the desk.   The books all appear to be ledgers with accounting notes.

William looks to his brother and exclaims, “Why are you here.”  Arcade replies, “What are you up to.”  He states, “Managing the family business.  Somebody had to after you ran off.”   The party all move forward, the gunfighters all holstering their firearms.   Morgana and Louie continue to keep their daggers up their sleeves within easy reach.   Qualtaqa and Sam approach the right side of the desk while Morgana move up along the left side.  Arcade marches right up to the center of the desk directly across from William.  

“What do you people want?” William states.  “To audit the books,” Qualtaqa replies.   Hank draws his gun again and says, “It’s time for you to come clean.   We know you’ve been up to no good with the business and with your father.”   Ignoring the Indian and the gunslinger, William tells Arcade “Why are these….people here?” Hank yells to Arcade, “Make him tell you what is going on.”   Something about the way he says that catches Morgana’s notice, and she begins to hum a native song that is the incantation to a detection cantrip.  She notices a wavy aura superimposed over William and tells Arcade “Something else is here, masking itself as William.” 

Hank points the gun in William’s direction and says, “She’s got a strange way of looking at things but she’s usually right.   What type of weird supernatural stuff are you up to boy?”   William glares at Hank and says, “You should have come earlier when I was handling snakes.”  “I want to know what you’re up to now!” Hank exclaims.   “Just reading my books,” William replies.   

Morgana takes a good look at the books, changing her lowly stated song to a blessing and she suddenly sees through the illusion covering the books, revealing them to be magical tomes.   She glances at the books in the bookcase, but they all appear to be just ledgers.   She tells the others what the books really are.   “You’re spoiling all my plans,” William states.   Arcade says, “Get used to it.  That’s what sisters-in-law do.”    She says to William, “Are these books what you are using to bind your Father’s will?”   

Sam reaches out to grab one of the books but Qualtaqa stops him.   
Morgana continue to disbelieve the illusions and sees a larger image of pure evil superimposed over William.  “It’s here.  The evil behind this is in front of us,” she states.   William’s voice deepens and he exclaims “Damn you!”   He slides his chair back, closer to the window.   Morgana pulls out one of her two vials of holy water, but instead of tossing it at William she pours it onto the books, and they burst into flame.   Qualtaqa mutters to Sam, “Guess I was right about the fire.”

William is enraged and yells at her “You fouled up everything!   But I will still prevail.  You mortals are now all stuck.”   “Mortals?” Wes comments.   Morgana replies, “That’s not really William.”  He gives an evil laugh and replies, “William is in here too.”   She blurts out, “And we will separate the two of you.”   “Why don’t we just kill him,” Hank comments as he raises his gun.   “Not sure how I feel about that.  Not really opposed,” Arcade comments.   Morgana says, “No, you would just kill William and the evil would then inhabit one of us.”  

William backs towards the window and Morgana now notices something out of phase about it, realizing that it is really a portal.  She tosses up a Web spell to prevent him from going through it.   William curses.   “Grab him,” Arcade yells.   Hank does as instructed and Arcade gives his brother a solid punch across the face, knocking him unconscious.  Sam uses his cowboy skills to hog-tie William.   They drag him to the other side of the room and away from the portal.    Hank says, “And where were you planning to go in such a hurry?”   The evil one smiles and says, “To be with my father.”  Morgana states, “I think he’s telling the truth, but I don’t trust him not to call out for help.”   Wes assists and a Silence spell is then cast upon William.  

The group discusses going and finding a cleric or high priest to assist them with this, but conclude that might take too long and the father needs rescued immediately.   Qualtaqa agrees, stating that  “Now is the time to free him from the book.”   They decide to leave Wes behind to guard William while they head through the portal.   Morgana casts a “Protection from Evil-10-foot-radius” spell onto herself.   Despite being unconscious, William's body recoils and rolls out of the effect of the spell.  "Guess the creature didn't like that," Hank mutters.   

Morgana kisses Wes on the cheek and says, “We’ll be back, and if not, they you’ll have quite a story to tell.”   She dispels the web and the six then enter through the portal.  



_[Next Chapter: The long awaited combat encounter.]_


----------



## Silver Moon

*Chapter 58, “Battle against the Evil”, December 20th , 1881:*

The group land on the other side of the portal, landing in a large underground room.   The room is lit by gaslights along the walls.   Arcades father is sitting behind a desk reading from a large tome.  Behind him are large pieces of machinery, with various gears, pulleys and cranks.  The gears are all moving and slowly turning in a counter-clockwise direction.    The men in the group withdraw their firearms and the party begins to move closer to Arcade’s father.  

As they near Morgana comments “He’s totally oblivious to us.”  Arcade states, “Yes, he is mesmerized by that book.”   Morgana moves in close enough for the protection aura to surround Lord Arcadiam but there is no discernable effect.   Louie starts to grab for the book, but is stopped by Qualtaqa.   Lord Arcadiam continues to stare blankly at the book, muttering odd words to himself.   “We need to stop him,” Sam states.   Hank says, “I’m not sure, seventy-year-old men reading books aren’t my usual foe.”   Louie comments “He afraid of old men?”  Sam states, “No, he’s afraid of books.” 

Gesturing to the moving gears Hank asks, “What’s with all the machinery?”   Arcade comments, “I don’t know but it can’t be good.”   They are unsure of what to do next, but that decision solves itself when Wes’s body goes flying through the portal and lands in a heap at their feet.   Morgana notes that he is still breathing, so is unconscious rather than dead.   They look to the portal and see that William has crossed through, standing there with his arms hands on his sides and leans his head back and lets out an evil laugh.   He then states “We Elders are not to be underestimated.” 

“Elders?” Hank asks.   Louie says, “I thought his father was old one.”   William then bellows “Chumagohta is not to be taken lightly.” Morgana tosses holy water onto the book in front of Lord Arcadiam and the water steams instantly away, leaving the book intact.  William says, “You’ll have to do better than that.”    Hank grabs Lord Arcadiam and pulls him out of the chair and away from the book.  The old man collapses into a heap on the floor.  Louie uses his dagger to push the book off of the desk.  It lands on the floor and closes shut, with the party seeing the title spelled out on the cover, which reads “Necronomicon”.  

William continues to laugh and a mystical opening begins to appear beside the machinery.  Qualtaqa tells Louie, “I have an idea.  Grab the other end of the desk.”  The two of them lift up the large oaken desk and then hurl it into the machinery, causing considerable damage  At the sight of the machinery being harmed William yells out “NO!” and begins to undergo a transformation.  The machinery continues to turn, although the damage causes many of the gears to screech and grind, with several of the metal pieces banging against each other.   

William continues to polymorph, becoming a large green creature, presumably Chumagohta.  He is approximately ten-feet in diameter, with over a dozen eyeballs floating around in his protoplasm form.  He also has several dozen tentacles, grouped together from several points along the body.   At the sight of this creature Arcade, Hank, Louie, Qualtaqa and Sam all have the same idea, drawing their handguns and commencing to fire into the creature.   Morgana begins to chant.  

A deep voice bellows from the creature yelling out, “The difference engine was only to control the device.  The portal will open regardless.”    The group sees that the inter-dimensional rift behind them, with it expanding by several feet every minute.   A structure made of white marble begins to form inside of the rift.   

Qualtaqa stops Louie from shooting and has the two of them kick the desk further into the machinery, this time causing the gears to slow their turn to a crawl to the sound of grinding metal, as smoke and sparks appear in several places.   The creature yells “Even if you stop the dark ones from coming the portal will stay open.”    The rift continues to grow, the building now appearing to be a small Greco-Roman temple with a marble floor and ceiling and supported by marble pillars.

Arcade, Hank and Sam have scored over a dozen shots into the creature that is slowly making its way across the room towards them.   A few eyeballs have been shot out and parts of tentacles have been shot off, but the creature still appears to be primarily intact and relatively unhurt.   The creature retaliates, targeting Arcade, who is overwhelmed with fear.  He drops his gun and runs back towards the portal to the office in London.   Morgana attempts to stop him and is then targeted by the creature as well.  She is also overcome with fear and runs towards the entranceway alongside her husband.  

Qualtaqa decides that desperate measures are needed and fires his gun directly into the Necronomicon at point blank range.   The bullet makes a hole into the book.  The book then heals over almost instantaneously, expelling the spent lead, the cover sealing up to look as it had been.   Qualtaqa decides to try something else and pulls off his jacket, using it to wrap up the book without having to touch it directly.   Hank and Sam continue to fill the creature with lead, having inflicted in excess of 100 points of damage at this point.  Several stalks of tentacles have drooped or fallen off although the creature continues its forward progress towards the party. 

The creature yells “Yogoroth and The Dark One will still rise from the Ocean’s Depths!”  Hank bellows back, “Oh, shut the hell up!” as he fires two perfectly fired shots point blank into two of the creature’s eyes.    Louie comments, “That building now here,” the marble temple now standing in the room where the machinery had been.  

Louie joins the other men in shooting at the creatue, scoring a few shots.  Qualtaqa charges towards the side wall with the book, cursing the fact that he no longer has horses legs to carry him.    The creature stops and begins to change direction towards Qualtaqa and the book.   Qualtaqa in turn changes his direction too, charging towards the entranceway, as Morgana and Arcade reach that location.  

The creature also moves back in that direction, although his movement is greatly slowed by the ever-decreasing number of tentacles falling off of it, as Sam and Hank reload their guns and commence firing again.    Tentacles lash out at Qualtaqa, almost grabbing him.   He starts to call out to Arcade and Morgana to “Catch the book” but they have already exited the room.   With his last ounce of strength the centaur turned half-elf dives through the portal with the book, the doorway closing up behind him.   Hank mutters an expletive as the creature turns around and continues to move towards him, Louie and Sam, now trapped inside the room with it.


----------



## Silver Moon

*Game #11 - 5/23/04*

*Chapter 59, “Looking for a Book Depository ”, December 20th, 1881:*

Arcade and Morgana find the fear dispelled from them as they look around the room of the office.   Qualtaqa is still carrying the tome, which he sets onto the floor and tells them what has transpired.   Concerned about the other members of the party, they attempt to locate the portal, but find that it no longer exists.   They discuss what to do next.

Back in the underground cavern Hank says, “I don’t care what this thing is, let’s kill it!”   He charges towards it, firing as quickly as he can.  Louie and Sam take that as a cue and do likewise.   Clusters of tentacles are blasted to bits and fall off of the creature.   It begins to move away from them, which only prompts the trio to quickly reload and commence firing into it again.    The last of the tentacles slump to the ground and nearly all of the eyes have been destroyed.    All three gunslingers then score perfect hits with their next shots and the gelatinous creature explodes, leaving behind an unconscious slime-covered William lying face down on the floor.

The three of them notice that the machinery has completely stopped but that the temple building is now totally inside the room.   “What the hell is that thing?” Hank asks.   “No idea,” Louie comments.    “Maybe he’ll know,” Sam says while gesturing to Wes.   Hank takes out his flask of whiskey and pours some into the bard’s mouth.   It has the desired effect with the bard regaining consciousness.    They quickly bring him up to speed as to what has happened.

Wes is in awe of the stone temple, saying to the others that he thinks he knows what it is.  He tells them of legends that describe such a structure as being the Portal of the Planes.  “So it’s evil?” Sam asks.   Wes replies, “No, it is a mystical device.  Think of it as a doorway to anywhere and everywhere.”    Louie exclaims, “Great, we can use it to get out of here.”   Wes replies, “Yes.  It works for those who are pure of heart and noble of purpose.”   Hank exclaims, “Pure?  Noble?  I’m screwed!”  Wes says, “I think it will work.  You just need to have clear intentions of where you want to go.”   

They discuss what to use for a destination.  Sam suggests they go back to Promise City.  Louie suggests they go to the Arkadiam Estate.  Wes says, “We should join up with the others.  Wouldn’t they have gone to that French witch-woman to have her look at the book?”   Hank says, “They just left here a few minutes ago. They’d still be back in the office.”  “Let’s go there then,” Wes comments.   Louie picks up William and Sam takes Lord Arkadiam.  They each then walk into the portal while visualizing the office in their minds.

Arcade is still discussing what to do next with his two companions when a gate of light appears in the room and the others mysteriously walk through it.   Both groups give a brief recap.  William begins to regain consciousness, not knowing who any of the people are except for Wes and his brother.   Arcade slugs William back into unconsciousness “Just in case.”    

Morgana points out that they can’t bring William anywhere until they find some clothing for him.   A coat is found on a nearby coat rack which they put on him.   Sam asks, “Won’t it look odd us carrying around two unconscious guys?”   Wes replies, “Not around here at this hour of the night, if anyone asks we’ll just say that they are drunk.”   Hank adds to this cover by pouring some whiskey onto William’s coat. 

They decide to head back to the magic shop, so head downstairs and flag down a pair of hansom cabs to take them.   It is late and the shop is closed up but there is a light on in a second floor window.   The party knocks loudly at the door.  Eventually the woman is seen coming near it.  Hank says, “I have a pretty good sense about people.  I suppose that I can do the talking.”  Morgana disagrees and moves to the front of the line.

“What do you want?” the woman asks.   Morgana states, “I need some healing magic for two associates.”   She opens the door and begins to let them in, but stops as soon as Qualtaqa reaches the doorway holding the draped tome.   The woman points to him and says, “You and your bad book go away!”    She is adamant that the evil thing isn’t coming into her shop.   

The party discusses what to do with the book.   Wes suggests that they bring it to France.  Hank exclaims, “We ain’t going to any foreign country.”   Louie says, “If we go there on boat we can throw it into ocean.  Ocean very deep.”   Morgana points out that one of the creature’s comments referenced monsters rising from the deep, so tossing it directly to them might be a bad idea.  Hank reiterates, “We ain’t going to France.”   The French shopkeeper says, “Yes.  Keep that evil away from France!”   She then forces the party out of her shop slams the door shut in their faces.   Hank mutters, “I hope the boys back in Texas don’t get wind of my being involved with a book.” Arcade says, “I’m sure nobody would ever associate you with any books.”

Hank gestures to the very incoherent Lord Arcadiam and says, “Forget about the book, we need to get this babbling idiot taken care of.”   Arcade does not like Hank’s description of his father but says that he agrees with that course of action.  Morgana looks to her husband and says, “I’m starting to worry about you.  You’re now taking advice from Hank."   Qualtaqa says they should all return to the Arcadiam Estate.  Sam asks, “Why?”  Hank interjects, “Because it isn’t France.”    Louie says, “We could get rid of father and brother there.”   Qualtaqa says, “Oh yeah, that too.  I just wanted to pick up our other weapons.”   Arcade says, “We can’t bring them back like this.  That monster might just get hold of them again."   Morgana suggests that they go find a Celtic church to heal both men.  

With Wes’s assistance they find the largest Celtic church in the London area.   It is late getting late in the evening and all appears quiet.    Qualtaqa comments, “I would have thought there would be more night-time activity here?”   Morgana says, “Think of this as the calm before the storm.  The Winter Solstice holiday is tomorrow night.”   The see a long rope attached to a bell and ring it a few times.  A window is thrust open and a man wearing green clothing pokes his head out and yells down to them “Who rang that bell?”    Morgana states that she is a follower of his religion and that she seeks healing for two of her associates.  

The man soon lets them into the large cathedral-like building filled with various potted trees and other assorted flora.   There is a large opening in the center of the roof and the stars can be seen above.   Despite the opening directly to the outside, the building appears to be rather warm inside, with a large fire pit with fire in the middle of the floor.   As Qualtaqa approaches carrying the book the man’s eyes flare and he steps back.   Morgana gestures to Lord Arcadiam and William, telling the Celtic druid “It was that which has corrupted the minds and souls of the two who I seek healing for.  Both have been touched by the great evil.”  

The priest has the two men placed upon benches and examines them why still paying close attention to where the book is.   Taking that as a cue, Qualtaqa asks, “Would you know of a good way for us to get rid of this thing.”   The druid says, “Yes, throw it into the fire.”   Qualtaqa does so.  The fire immediately blazes up then just as quickly becomes completely extinguished, the fire pit area now radiating cold instead of heat.  Qualtaqa comments, “The book....it’s gone!”

The priest replies, “Yes, an evil artifact of its powerful can never be destroyed.   The holy flames of my church were anathema to it, and it fled to another location far from here.”   Louie comments, “Just so it not come back to us.”    The priest casts various healing spells on the Lord and his son, saying that it will take some time for the magics to work.  He offers to let the group spend the night at the church, which they accept.    He also offers to let them join him in a ritual, which all but Morgana decline.  They then discover that the drinking of alcoholic beverages is involved in these rituals and reconsider.  

The fire is relit and the priest and Morgana each dance around it while the others drink.   “What are they doing?” Hank asks.   Wes comments, “I believe it is a fertility rite.”  Louie asks, “Dancing causes that?”  Wes replies, “Well, the more Puritanical religions think so.  The Queen believes so too.”    

This leads into a debate about monarchies.   Hank comments about how the people should be allowed to vote for their leader and how he doesn’t believe in Kings.”   Arcade replies, “Well in that card game last week I remember you praying for Kings, Queens and one-eyed Jacks.”    The debate rages on with Wes pointing out the advantages of England being a monarchy.  Sam comments “I didn't know they had a king here?  I thought it was an autonomous collective.”


----------



## Silver Moon

*Game #12 - 6/06/04*

*Chapter 60, “Back to Hastings”, December 21st, 1881:*

The group awakens in the Celtic church in various states of disarray with only vague recollections of what may have transpired during the night.   Hank comments that he is in desperate need of black coffee.   The druid priest says, “I don’t have any of that but we have other stimulants that I can offer you.”  Hank chooses to pass.  

Lord Arcadiam and his son William are still unconscious but their coloring is much better and they look to finally be sleeping peacefully.   “They look much better” Morgana comments.   The priest says, “Yes.  They had been possessed by great evil but with the departure of the book that seems to have passed.”   Hank comments, “We know, we ran smack up against some of that evil.”  The druid exclaims, “You fought that evil?  Tell me about it!”   Hank replies, “Well, it was real scary like so we whooped it.”   “Ah, such detail,” the priest sarcastically replies. 

Arcade tells the man, “We thank you for helping us out in our time of need.”  The priest answers, “We’re Celtic, we live to help others in need.”  Hank says, “Well, what can we do to repay you for your hospitality?”  The man answers, “Speak well of us.  Tell the world of our assistance.”  Hank answers, “I ain’t go not problem with speaking well of folks who help us.”    

The priest then approaches Qualtaqa and says, “Are you comfortable in that form?  It is unnatural to you.”   He replies, “Yes, but the others find it more convenient in the city.”   The priest replies, “Perhaps I can help.”   He hands Qualtaqa an amulet and casts a spell.  He then instructs Qualtaqa to remove his pants and touch the amulet and his true form will return.  The party insists on draping a blanket over him first and he does as instructed, returning to his centaur form.  “We’ll never get him on the train that way,” Arcade mutters.   “Touch it again,” the priest states.  He does so, and transforms back into the two-legged elvan form.  Hank comments “Quick let’s get him onto the train before he changes again.”  

They head to the train station and board the train, arriving back in the Hastings area by late morning.    A messenger is sent to the Arcadian Estate to get the coach and they arrive home shortly after lunch has been cleared.   William and his father are still barely conscious and are taken up to their respective rooms by the servants.    Hank tells Arcade, “The first thing you have to do when your brother wakes up is give him a good ass-whooping.”  

Lady Arcadiam makes a grand entrance into the room.   “Did you have a good trip to London?” she asks.   Hank replies, “Yep, and a successful one too.   Your boy was in a mess of trouble but we got him out of it.”   She replies, “Oh?  You managed to get his marriage annulled?”    Hank says, “Pull up a chair and I’ll tell ya’ all about it?”   She states, “In your profane vernacular?”  Louie mutters, “She use too many big words.”   Hank says, “Ma’am, I’m well educated.  I’ll have you know that I went to the Sam Houston Grade School.   And you should be thanking us.  We’ve been very busy helping out your husband with his illness?”   She replies, “Oh, so now you’re a doctor?”  Morgana says, “No, that’s me, but that’s another story entirely.”   

Hank says, “Ma’am, this was your son’s fault.  He got involved with undesirables.”   She replies, “I know.  He married one.”   Hank says, “No, I mean your other son.”  Lady Arcadiam has no interest in hearing anything further and leaves, heading back upstairs.   Hank says, “I’m beginning to think that everyone here is nuts.”  Louie comments, “No, just English.”  

They head upstairs and stop in at William’s room, where his mother is doting over her son.   Hank starts to tell her that he was the cause of all the trouble.  She replies, “Oh, you must be mistaken.  William is a good boy.  He cares deeply for his parents and would never abandon them or break their hearts by marrying below his station.”   Hank decides to quit while they are behind and the group head back to their rooms.    

Morgana suggests that they gather more information from the servants.   Qualtaqa suggests that they start with the Butler, as he is the head of the household staff and may have been involved.  The DM comments, “Oh yeah, the butler did it!  Give me a little more credit than that!”    Morgana says that the kitchen staff is the place to start, as they interact with everyone in the household.   She heads downstairs to the kitchen.

The only one currently working in the kitchen turns out to be the main person she was looking for, the head chef.  He is French and she begins a causal conversation with him in his native tongue, eventually getting to the subject of Lady Arkadiam.  He indicates that her demeanor changed shortly after her husband took ill, how she was generally unpleasant prior to that but now had a happy almost rosy disposition.  “Yeah, except for when she’s dealing with me,” Morgana comments.    She also discovers that for the last several months Lady Arkadiam spends a great deal of time alone in the gardens outside, which is now seen as rather strange behavior for cold December days. 

She then asks about William and a look of utter disgust crosses his face and he spits into a bucket on the floor.   He says that the “Young Master” doesn’t do any work and now acts as though he was the Lord of the Manor.    She then asks about how the household was prior to Lord Arkadiam taking ill.    

Following the conversation she heads back upstairs and fills in the others.   Qualtaqa comes up with a bizarre conspiracy theory about how William and his mother may have had their personalities magically shifted into each other’s bodies.   Hank says, “I think you’ve been smoking too many peace-pipes.”  They discuss Lady Arkadiam’s visits to the gardens.   Louie suggests that he use his thieving skills to do surveillance there.   

He has to wait over an hour in the cold before she arrives but the time pays off, as once she is alone she removes a small glass marble from a hidden pocket in her dress and begins holding and caressing it.   When he relates this to the others they conclude that it is a magical device that is controlling her and suggest that Louie attempt to pick her pocket to get it away from her.   Arcade is less than thrilled with that idea and sarcastically comments, “And what exactly is the proper etiquette for feeling up a seventy-year-old woman?    They collectively decide to have him attempt it just before dinner in another hour or so. 

Most of the party gathers for dinner with Louie waiting patiently by the staircase for the Lady’s arrival.   As she approaches he tells her “May I have the honor of escorting you to the dining room and try to prove that we are not all savages?”   He is less than convincing, as his smile as he states that clearly displays his fangs.  He brushes against her but is unsuccessful at obtaining the marble.  

Qualtaqa gets the Lady to spend much of the meal in conversation by asking her about William and having then talk incessantly about her favored son.    Hank mutters, “My, you sure are proud of that boy.”   She turns to him and says, “And are your parents proud of what you do.  What is it?  A poker of cows?”   He replies, “Just plain poker is my preference.”   Louie chuckles and earns her attention, with her asking him “And what do your parents think of you?”   He replies, “I eighth of twelve children.  They barely noticed me.”  She comments, “Eighth?  Your poor mother.  Having children must have been like firing them out of a cannon.”  He replies, “That how I was born.  That why my name means Bad Thunder.”  

During all this Qualtaqa keeps refilling her wineglass but this seems to have no effect on her, which he whispers to Hank.  Hank mutters back, “No surprise there, she probably has a high tolerance to alcohol.  These folks don’t work and don’t believe in sex so all they have to do is drink.”   The Lady starts to get up to leave.  Qualtaqa suggest to Morgana that she attempt to obtain the marble.   She reluctantly does so and is successful, Lady Arkadiam collapsing onto the floor as soon as the marble leaves her person.    Servants rush to the Lady and Hank says, “She had too much to drink.”  “Again?” the butler mutters and orders her brought upstairs. 

Arcade tells Morgana, “Good job.”   She looks at him with a vacuous expression on her face and says in a chipper voice, “Anything to please you dear!”   “Uh oh,” Sam comments.   Morgana says, “My what a happy day this is.  Whatever should we do?.”    Arcade says, “What would you like to do?”   She replies, “Whatever you wish to do is fine with me dear, your opinion is all that matters.”   

Qualtaqa pulls Arcade and Hank aside and starts to discuss ways to get the marble away from her.  Arcade says, “You actually expect me to conspire to take a device away from my wife that makes her blissful and obedient?”   Qualtaqa says, “This is not the woman you chose to marry.”  Hank replies, “No, she’s better.”   Qualtaqa says, “You’ll get tired of her acting like this.”  Hank says, “Yeah, after a couple of decades.”   Arcade says, “Perhaps we can move to Stepfordshire. I hear that all the women act like this there.”  

_Next:  The Conclusion_


----------



## Silver Moon

*Chapter 61, “Conclusion”, December 21st, 1881:*

Arcade reconsiders his current situation and says, “Maybe we should get that thing away from her.  It will happen eventually and the longer we leave her like this the angrier she’ll be with me.”  Hank replies, “Well, whatever you do you know it will wind up being your fault.”  Sam comments, “Maybe she like’s this way better.  How are you feeling Morgana?”  She answers, “I feel fine.  I was thinking, maybe I should start knitting some baby booties.”   Arcade exclaims, “Get that thing away from her NOW!”   Hank laughs and comments, “What’s the matter?  Don’t want the pitter-patter of little feet around the hacienda?” 

Hank retrieves his leather gloves while the rest of the gang lures her out into the garden and away from Arcade’s family and servants.   Arcade grabs her while Hank reaches into her pocket and pulls out the marble.   He then grabs the hat off of Sam’s head and drops the marble into it.  “Okay, you can let her go now,” Hank states.   Arcade does so, and she appears to have returned to normal.   Arcade asks Hank, “Is that thing affecting you any?”  Hank replies, “Not at all, Sam has it.”   Louie asks, “It affect Sam?”  “Who could tell,” Arcade comments. Qualtaqa want to destroy the marble but Morgana insists on putting it inside of a small wooden chest instead. 

Morgana says, “Well, it looks like Lady Arkadiam is better, let’s go check on her husband.”   The group of Hank, Louie, Morgana and Qualtaqa head upstairs and the Lord is still sound asleep.   Hank removes his flask and puts it to the man’s lips.   With the taste of the whiskey the man awakens and sits up yelling, “Gads, that tastes awful!  Where’s the good stuff.”   “Sir, do you know we are?” Qualtaqa asks.   Looking around the room and recognizing he is in his bedroom he says, “No, and I really don’t care.”  

“Sir, what is the last thing that you remember?” Qualtaqa inquires.  He replies, “I was having drinks with a couple of friends at the Hellfire Club.”   “The what?” Hank asks.  The Lord replies, “A private gentleman’s club in London.”   Hank says, “We think you got poisoned there.  You’ve been in bed here for a long time.”    “Tonight is the night of the Winter Solstice,” Morgana adds.  “You mean Summer Solstice,” he replies.   She answers, “No.  Winter.  You’ve been incoherent for the last half year.  By the way, I’m your son’s wife.”   The man looks her over and nods his approval. 

Louie says, “Your wife seem to want to keep you asleep.”  “My wife is a pain in the butt,” he replies.   Morgana says, “She’s better now.  She was under the influence of a magic spell but we healed her.”   The Lord replies, “But she’s probably still dangerous.  She has a tongue that can cut through any decent folk.”  Morgana adds, “Yes, I’ve been on the receiving end of that.”   The Lord says, “Oh just ignore her.  We’ll it’s nice to see that William has finally settled down.”   Hank starts to correct him but Morgana stops him, whispering to him, “Not yet, he’s had enough shocks for just now.”  

Not having heard that comment, Qualtaqa then tells Lord Arkadiam, “Your son William has been in charge of the family funds for the last half year.”  The Lord exclaims, “WHAT, Get me out of this bed.”   Hank says, “Your son Josiah will fill you in on what has been happening.”  “Josiah?” the man exclaims.  Morgana says, “Yes, he’s here.  I’m Josiah’s bride, not Williams.”   He turns back to Hank and says, “Maybe you should give that flask back to me, I think I’m going to need it.” 

They asks for some more information about this Hellfire Club.   He says that it is a private establishment with a limited membership that has been in existence since the mid-1700’s.  The group try to persuade him to not go there again.   They decide to let him rest and depart.  They find Arcade and fill him in on his father’s condition.   Arcade and Morgana then decide to head outside for a private Solstice ceremony. 

December 22nd, 1881:

Arcade and Morgana make their way back inside a few hours after dawn.  Morgana comments to him, “If your mother was that nasty to me when under the influence of the marble how mean will she be to me normally?”  “Let’s find out, here she comes,” he comments.   She is surprisingly pleasant to both of them and escorts them to the breakfast table.   The others soon join them.  

During the mean conversation she asks about the actual wedding ceremony.    Morgana is rather vague, but Louie blurts out that it was on the journey from America, aboard the ship.   “What type of ship?” she asks.  Louie describing to her the liner Oceanic.  She is impressed that they booked passage of such a fine ship, commenting about the ship’s Captain performed the wedding ceremony, with nobody correcting her.  

The meal is interrupted by the arrival of Lord Arkadiam, who yells to his wife “Damn and Blast it Woman!  Why didn’t you wake me up earlier!  I have lots of business dealings to check on.”   Hank says, “Howdy, pull up a chair and get yourself some grub first.”   He gives Hank an odd look and says, “Who are you and where the hell did you come from?”   The reply is, “Name’s Hank and I’m from Texas.  My old man fought at the Alamo.”   Arcade mutters to Morgana, “He actually has parents?  I just assumed he congealed inside of that 10-gallon hat of his.”

After the meal Arcade’s parents each go off their separate ways.   Morgana suggest that they all go check on William.   They arrive in his room to find him sleeping.  Hank shakes him and says, “Wake up you mangy sidewinder.”   William wakes with a start and exclaims, “Who are you?”  “I’m your sister-in-law,” Morgana blurts out.  He exclaims, “My what?  I’m not married so I don’t have a bride with any siblings.”  She replies, “No, I’m married to your brother Josiah.”   “And we’re Josiah’s associates,” Qualtaqa adds. 

William exclaims, “I need a good stiff drink.”  Hank says, “Not until you answer a few questions.  You got yourself into a mite bit of trouble there and we had to bail you out.”    William says, “I can explain.  I told him that if he just gave me another few weeks I would pay him in full!”   Qualtaqa says, “That’s all taken care of.”   “It is?” Sam whispers to him.  Qualtaqa whispers back, “It had to have been.  It’s been half a year, so they would have collected by now.”

Morgana asks him, “What do you know about your father getting sick?”  “Father is sick?” he asks.  Hank says, “Let’s cut to the chase.  Have you been to the Hellfire Club?”  He replies, “Yeah, that’s where I ran up the debt.”  “How much?” Morgana presses.   He replies, “I couple of pounds.”   She stares intently at him and he corrects it with “Okay, a couple of hundred pounds.”   She continues to stare and he finally says, “Okay fine, it was a hundred-thousand pounds.”   Hank asks her, “How much is that in real money?”  “A lot” she replies. 

Morgana says, “And what were the terms for the repayment of this?”   William replies, “He gave me a few weeks and asked me to run a few errands for him in the meantime.”  “What errands?” she asks.   He replies, “Well, he wanted me to deliver a book for him.”  She replies, “And you looked at this book?”  He answers, “Well, I was curious what it was.”    Louie interjects, “Know anything about a magic marble?”   William says, “Yes, he gave me one of those two.  It’s here on my nightstand in this small lead box.”   He opens the box and is surprised to find it empty.  “I’ll take that,” Hank says, grabbing the box out of William’s hands and handing it to Morgana.  She examines the various runes carved onto it.  

Hank says, “So what’s the name of this varmint how made you his errand boy.”   William replies, “One of the Hellfire Club leaders.  His name is Alister Crowley.”   Morgana exclaims, “Uh oh.  Not good.  I’ve heard of him. He’s a powerful wizard.”  Hank says, “Then it’s best that we don’t tackle him ourselves.  We’ll turn this over to the local sheriff.”   William is still confused.  Morgana tells him, “I believe that your debt is paid, but I’d suggest that you stay away from the Hellfire Club just in case.”  

The group return to their rooms and fill in Arcade.   He comments, “Well, that Crowley guy will probably not be happy about our taking away his toys, but I’m glad my family is back to normal.  Now we can leave.”   Qualtaqa says, “We should probably stick around a few more days just to make sure.”   Sam says, “Sure, why not.  It’s the middle of the winter back home.  I’m sure that things have quieted down after we left.”  Hank comments, "Yeah, I'm looking forward to getting back."

Meanwhile, back in Promise City, Arizona a worker from the Silver Belle Mine named Arthur “Bullhead” MacGinnley has just been shot dead and is lying face down on the floor of the Long Branch Saloon.   The patrons of the establishment all stare at the man who fired the shot, the newly appointed Town Marshall Wyatt Earp.   Marshall Earp casually steps over the body without even looking at it and heads out the door.   The gambler Conrad Booth comments to Hamilton Fisk “If Arcade and his gang have any brains they won’t be come back here anytime soon.”


----------



## threshel

Excellent!

J


----------



## Silver Moon

*Module 126 - Game 1 - 6/13/04*

*Chapter 62,"Hogmany", December 29th, 1881:*

The Gang has remained at the Arcadiam Estate for a week, with Louie commenting that it is nice to have servants waiting on him instead of him having to serve.   The formerly possessed members of his family have gone back to their former personalities which is not quite ‘normal’.   However, Arcade point out that “We’re rich, so we are allowed to be eccentric.   We’re not even the most eccentric family in the district – that would be the Greystrokes.”  

Wes comes by and invites the gang to join him for a short trip.   He planning to head up to the city of Dunedin in Scotland for a New Year’s Eve celebration known as Hogmanay.    This causes a debate as to when the “New Year” starts, with Morgana insisting that Spring Solstice makes the date and Louie insisting on the Chinese calendar.    Wes ends the argument by saying, “Look, it’s a fun party.  Do you want to go or not?”    

Arcade, Louie, Morgana and Sam decide to join him.  Qualtaqa opts to remain behind, as he has been enjoying his private runs around the estate in centaur form (plus the fact that his player is the DM for this module).   They take the train up to Scotland, discovering that the English refer to the city as Edinburgh.  Morgana comments, “I don’t understand why these English insist on changing the names of everything.  They did the same thing in America.”  

*December 31st, 1881:*

The group arrive in Dunedin just as the celebrations are beginning.   Wes explains how Hogmany is basically a city-wide open house, with people wandering from house-to-house being invited in for food and drink.    Wes and Morgana both offer up song to reciprocate their hosts, and their voices soon attract others to join the group.   By dawn they have acquired fifteen others to their group.    One of these is a dwarven cleric of Odin, named Angus McDuff, who invites them to accompany him back to his village.  He had accompanied his neice Meagan to the celebrations.   Wes however has other ideas, as a lovely young human Lass who joined the party has taken an interest in him, so he says he will be spending time with her instead.   

*January 1st to 15th, 1882:*

They take a carriage of Angus’s north to the other side of the bay, to the area of land known as West Fife, travelling until the reach the village of Culross.   Culross is home to the MacDuff Clan of dwarves, although around half of the village’s population is human.    Angus introduces the party to his brother, Meagan’s father Donald.    Donald says he has been looking after the home of some friends who had gone off to fight in a Clan Skirmish in the Highlands, and that the gang can lodge there.   “How long have these friends been away?”  Morgana asks.    “Oh, three, maybe four years,” Angus replies.   

The village of Culross is quiet and pleasant and the party soon find themselves falling into the peaceful and rather simple life of the village, staying for two weeks.    Morgana gets involved with using her druid skills to help with the livestock, casting “Fertility” spells onto the sheep and goats to increase the flock.    Louie finds that he gets along surprisingly well with the dwarves, as the antipathy between his and their race never made it as far as Scotland.    Sam spends most of the time flirting with the young ladies of the village.  Arcade just enjoys the break from his parents and brother.  

*January 16th, 1882:*

The gang’s respite comes to an abrupt end with the arrival of an English gentleman in the village.   He is a very large human man with wide shoulders and a muscular build.  He is a man of his early twenties, with a neatly trimmed dark beard and mustache.  He is attired in find woolen clothing and riding a large horse.   The man is directed to the cottage the party is staying at and knocks on the door.     The gang opens the door and eyes the man with suspicion.     “Who are you and at do you want?” Arcade states.   The gentleman replies, “Please allow me to introduce myself.  The name is Bond, Campion Bond.”


----------



## Silver Moon

*Chapter 63, “Your Mission, If you Choose to Accept it”, January 16th, 1882*:

Morgana asks, “And what can we do for you Mr. Bond.”   He replies, “Actually, I believe that we might be of mutual assistance to each other.  May I come in?”   She gestures for him to enter and the door is then shut.  He has a satchel hung over his shoulder from which he extracts a large envelope sealed with wax and hands it to her, stating, “Here is a letter of introduction.”      She very carefully breaks the seal, then removes a piece of parched paper from inside and starts to read:  

“To whom it may concern.”   “What,” Arcade exclaims, “It’s not even addressed to us?  Just some general form letter!”    Morgana gives her husband a look that silences him and she resumes reading.  “Please allow this letter to serve as an introduction to Mr. Campion Bond and for me to request that you afford him every courtesy.   Mr. Bond is a civilian in the employ of Her Majesty’s military.   Your assistance in helping him would be greatly appreciated.”  She then adds, “It’s signed Willaim Ewart Gladstone, Prime Minister of Great Britain, and is marked with his official seal.”   Arcade casually tells him, “If you’re expecting us to be impressed you’ve found the wrong people.”

Bond says, “Actually, I came here to offer you some assistance and to see if you might also do something for me in return for some monetary compensation.”   “What can you do for us?” Sam asks.  Bond states, “It has come to my attention that you’ve recently run up against one Allistar Crowley.”   Arcade exclaims, “What do you know about Crowley?”  Bond replies, “Quite a bit actually.  My operatives have been watching him for quite some time.”  Morgana says, “Ah, I get it.  You’re a spy.”  

He replies, “My associates and I gather information that is important to protect the British Empire.”   She says, “Right, a spy.  So since Crowley uses wizard magics that automatically makes him an evil person in the eyes of your government.”   Bond says, “Actually, I personally take a far more enlightened view towards magic than many of my associates.  I see it not as good or evil, but rather an instrument that could be used by both.   In Crowley’s case, he uses magic in such a way that potentially causes further harm.”

Arcade interrupts, “Yeah, but back to her original question.  What do you know about Crowley?”   Bond replies, “He is an ambitious man who craves power and has manipulated the Hellfire Club to be the primary base for his power.   Rumors have it that he is in league with demons and devils and that he spent most of his youth residing on an evil dimension.   I tend to believe those rumors, as he now has the appearance of a man in his early to mid twenties and yet it is documented that he was actually born on October 12th, 1875, a mere six years ago.”

“And you think he’s after us?” Arcade comments.   Bond replies, “I know it for a fact.  Two of his operatives followed you to Edinburgh.  And they are waiting for you there now for when you to return to it.   I, however, have the means to transport you away from this village undetected and return you safely to your family estate in Southern England.”     Louie says, “These guys waiting for us?  They’re wizards?”  Bond replies, “Yes, but at very low power levels.  It is safe to assume that Crowley is unaware that you are also the group of American vigilantes known as Arcade’s Gang, otherwise he would have sent a more formidable group to deal with you.”   

“So we could easily take these guys?” Arcade comments.   Bond answers, “Yes, but that would also draw attention to yourselves and raise Crowley’s suspicions.   You’ve done a fine job of keeping a low profile during your British journey until this point.  In fact, I would not have been aware of who you really are if my people hadn’t also been trailing the lawyer that first sought you out in America.”

Louie says, “So, if you get us out of here what do we have to do in return.”   Bond replies, “I have an associate who is currently in a prison on an island off the coast of France.  I would like for your group to rescue him.”    “Why is he in prison?” Morgana asks.    Bond replies, “My associate is a physician named Dr. Henry Jeckel.    He is also an alchemist, but since the majority of magical-based plants in Britain have been outlawed and destroyed he needs to go to the Continent to gather components for his various magical potions.   He was on one of these gathering expeditions in France last month when he was captured and imprisoned, accused of being a British spy.”  Morgana says, “Well, they’re right.  He works for you, so he is a spy.”  

Bond replies, “No, he is not in the employ of my Government at all.   I have secretly been sponsoring his work without the direct knowledge of any of my superiors.”  “Why?” Sam asks.  Bond replies “I expect to have need of him in the future.  I have a vision of one-day gathering together a group of gentlemen who can put wizard magic and magical abilities to work for the protection of the Empire.”  Arcade exclaims, “Extraordinary!”   “Indeed,” Bond states, “But until magic is more readily accepted I must do these activities in secret.  My superiors do allow me a wide degree of latitude as my results warrant it and it still maintains a level of plausible deniability for them.”    

Arcade says, “Well look, I have no problem with killing Frenchmen for you, in fact it sounds like fun, but what’s in it for the rest of the gang?”   Bond states, “I am prepared to remunerate you a thousand pounds.”   Sam says “A thousand pounds of what?”   Morgana says, “British money Sam.”   Louie inquires “How much is that in real money?”   Bond replies, “The current exchange rate is two-point-one American dollars to the pound, so that would be approximately $ 2,100.”    Louie is very interested in the sound of that but Morgana shakes her head no and says, “That’s all?  It hardly seems worth the risk.  A prison will be very well guarded.”  Bond replies, “This one has primarily political prisoners and is rather lightly guarded.”  She responds, “I still don’t feel motivated to do this.”

Bond smiles and says, “Ah, but there’s something else in this for you.  Dr. Jeckel isn’t the only prisoner being held at this prison.  Have you ever heard of a woman named Louise Michel?”   Morgana says, “The name sounds familiar, but I can’t place it.”   Bond says, “She is a French author, poet, revolutionary and anarchist.  She was born in 1830 and has had a very colorful life.   She was a French patriot who helped fight in the wars against Germany.  When Paris surrendered to the Prussian Army in 1871 she helped to lead the insurgency against the occupying army.   After the war she was a founder of the French Commune, which strongly opposed the Versailles Government that then took power.   Most of the leaders of the Commune were executed and she was sent into exile.  However, she recently returned to France and was captured.   She is now being held prisoner and you can free her at the same time that you rescue Jeckel.”

Morgana says, “Why would I care about rescuing her?”     Bond replies, “Because she is also a high-level druid, in fact, she is one of the most powerful druids in all of Europe.   You’ve made an enemy of a powerful wizard.  Having a powerful druid as your friend can only be of help.”    “Why come to us?” Sam asks.   Bond replies, “My using the British military for this mission could not only spark another war, but would also bring Dr. Jeckel’s work to the attention of my superiors.   Using your group will not, plus at least two of your group apparently know druidic spells.   If some witnesses are left alive at the prison that see you tossing druidic spells and speaking phrases in French they will just assume that you are all French followers of Louise Michel.”  

Louie says, “Okay, so Arcade gets to kill some Frenchmen, Morgana gets to free a druid and I’m in it for the money, but what does Sam get out of it?”   “I’ll take money too!” Sam exclaims.  “We all will,” Morgana adds.    “Where exactly is this prison?” Arcade asks.    Bond replies, “It is called the Chateau d’If, and is located a mile off the coast of Marseilles, France’s second largest city.”   Arcade exclaims, “That’s not on the Atlantic!  It’s on the Mediterranean Sea!”   Bond replies, “Yes, but I have the means to get you there both quickly and stealthily.  You could be there in a matter of days”   “That must be some fast ship,” Arcade comments.  Bond smiles and replies, “Indeed it is.”    

The gang briefly discuss the situation and agree to undertake the mission.    Bond says, “Splendid.  I will speak to your host about getting you to a rendezvous point tonight while I will go make the arrangements for your passage.   Expect to see me again around midnight.”   He exits, speaks briefly to Donald MacDuff and then hands the dwarf what appears to be a pouch of coins.   Bond then mounts his horse and rides out of town. 

The Gang spends the next several hours packing up provisions.    As night falls they climb into the back of the MacDuff’s wagon, and are driven by Donald and Angus several miles from town, to a quiet spot along the coast at a long deep inlet.   They stop where a good-sized rowboat is sitting along the shore.   They put the provisions into the boat and all climb in.  

The two dwarves handle the rowing out into the bay.    A nearly full moon lights the sky, and they row until they are a far distance from shore.   The MacDuffs then stop rowing, letting the boat drift softly in the waves.    Sam comments, “Why did you stop?  There’s nothing around here.”    Donald replies, “The big man told us to wait here.   He paid me enough to keep my family fed for a year, so I’m doing exactly what he told me to.”     

Ten minutes later Morgana says, “Wait, something’s wrong.  I’m not sure exactly what.”   Louie points a short distance off of the bow and says, “Over there.”   They notice a disturbance in the water, as hundreds of air bubbles now break as they reach the surface.  A faint red glow is then seen rising up from the deep.   The boat shakes as a crimson-colored hundred-foot-long giant squid brakes the surface of the water, its tentacles stretching towards them and its large glowing eye clearly visible.


----------



## Silver Moon

*Chapter 64, “The Nautilus”, January 17th , 1882:*

Both Sam and Louie draw their pistols and fire at the crimson beast as it rises to the surface, creating a wave that pushes the rowboat back.  “I thought these things were all in Loch Ness,” Angus exclaims. 
The bullets bounce off of the creature with a distinct sound of metal striking metal and Arcade orders them to cease firing.   He states, “It’s not a sea monster!  It’s some type of ship.”   Taking a closer look, they notice that the tentacles are all firmly mounted to the side of the craft and that the squid’s glowing eyes in the front appear to be made of opaque glass, with people underneath.    

Angus comments, “If you ignore the beastie decoration on it looks to have a cylindrical hull.  I’d guess that it’s around two-hundred feet long and twenty-five feet wide. It looks like it is tapered at both ends, like a cigar.”    A doorway at the side of the craft then opens up.   Standing inside the lit doorway is Campion Bond, who gestures for Angus and Donald to row over to him.   

Campion helps the party off of the rowboat and through the doorway.   Much to their surprise Angus joins them, with Donald then rowing back to shore alone.   “You’re coming?” Louie asks.   Angus replies, “It sounds like a fun adventure.  I was getting bored back in the village.”  Arcade says, “I can see that.  Taking care of sheep was about the most exciting thing going on there.”

“Welcome to the Nautilus,” Campion states.   Morgana acts very apprehensive about this ship and gets nervous when the doors shut behind them.  They are then approached by a tall man wearing what appears to be a naval officer’s uniform, but not from any Navy that they are familiar with.   He has a neatly cropped beard and mustache of a tannish-blond color and appears to be in his fourties.    

Bond gestures to the man and says, “Allow me to introduce you to Captain Andre Nemo.  He is a scientist, mechanic, engineer, inventor, freedom fighter, and to some a pirate.  He is also the creator of this wonderful craft that you are riding in.  The Nautilus, otherwise known as the Sword of the Ocean.”  
Captain Nemo greets his guests and noting Morgana’s discomfort assures her that the vessel is safe.  He states that from the Nautilus he has seen the world over and over, from above and below.   Louie is also concerned about the vessel’s safety and Arcade says to him, “Louie, I’m sure it’s far safer than the vessel that you crossed the Pacific Ocean in.”

Nemo takes them on a tour of the vessel.   They head down a metal ladder to the level below. The first room reached is a combination drawing room/salon/museum, that is thirty-feet long, eighteen-feet wide, and fifteen-feet high. This incredible room contained an organ, an art collection of great value and very large number of marine specimens.   There was also a fountain made from a shell about six-feet across. Finally, the salon had two large oblong windows protected by sliding panels.   

Louie mutters, “These Englishmen just get weirder and weirder.”  Angus whispers to him, “Nemo’s first name is Andre, so he is probably from either Belgium or France.”   Nemo turns to Morgana and gestures to the large pipe organ and states, “I was told that you are a musican.  Please feel free to utilize this instrument at your leisure.”   Louie mutters to Sam, “Yep, he’s a sailor alright.   He just invited her to have some fun with his organ.”  

Morgana becomes concerned at seeing fish swimming outside the window and yells out “The ship is sinking.  We’re all going to drown!”  Nemo assures her the vessel is seaworthy, but also pulls on a lever that lowers metal screens outside of the window, which causes her to relax somewhat.   Nemo speaks to one of his crewmembers and the man goes on ahead and lowers the screens on other windows prior to the group’s arrival.  

Moving aft through watertight bulkheads, the next room is the library.  Nemo states that it has over 12,000 volumes, which they are free to read any of during the journey.   The room has several nice and comfortable pieces of furniture in the room.    Next they arrive at the captain's dining room, with a long oak table and fine chairs.  Nemo says that they will be taking all of their meals in this room.. Both of these rooms were exquisitely furnished.  They pass a central staircase leading to the deck platform.   Nemo tells them that they will take the stairs to go topside when it is safe to do so. He states “Further back are the galley and storerooms.”  He then cautions them to avoid traveling the front of the ship, stating that the wheelhouse and Captain’s quarters will be off limits to them.   

Next he has them take a ladder another level down, leading to an underwater airlock for ocean access.   Morgana becomes hysterical at seeing that, yelling out “There is a hole in the bottom of your boat!  We’re all going to drown.”   Nemo assures her it is safe and shows her various pieces of diving gear that they use when venturing outside.   She is unconvinced.   He calls over a crewmember and asks the man to show them up to their quarters.   She keeps muttering, “There’s a hole in the boat.”   

Morgana and Arcade are given one room, Louie and Sam another, Angus and Campion are each shown their own rooms.   The beds are comprised of bunks built upon a type of gyroscope mechanism, to keep them level and still even when the ship is moving at steep angles.  The rooms are state-of-the art and include hot and cold water taps and also flush toilets.  The group sleeps for the remainder of the night, being woken by the sound of a crewmember knocking on their doors to escort them to breakfast.  

Breakfast is comprised of a combination of both familiar and unfamilar foods.   Nemo explains that he and the crew eat primarily food harvested from deep in the ocean but that he made sure that “surface” foods were also brought on board for this journey for the comfort of his guests.   Following the meal the Captain excuses himself, and heads off to the front of the vessel.   Campion asks the party to join him in the library.   

Campion states, “Our voyage will take eight days.  Your time would probably be best spent reading the books that I have set out for you.”  He gestures to a desk, with half-a-dozen books on it, one in Chinese, one in Dwarven, one in French and three in English.  Campion says, “These are all translations of the same book, The Count of Monte Cristo written by the French biographer Alexander Dumas.   “I’ve read it before,” Morgana states.   Bond replies, “Yes, but you’ll want to read it again now for different reasons.  The book tells of the Count’s imprisonment at your destination, Le Chateau D’If.  The details described in the book about the cells, layout of the prison and daily routine of the guards are apparantely still quite accurate.  You won’t find a better reference source than that to prepare for this mission."

He then shows them a panting of the Marsailles side of the Chateau D’If, pointing out that the dock and exterior doorway is the only entrance into the building.   “Then we should probably come in from the other side,” Arcade comments.  Louie adds, “Yeah, those walls look easy enough to climb.”   “Well, we have a week to plan this,” Bond replies.  

“Do you know this Captain Nemo very well?” Morgana asks.   Bond replies, “Not really, but I know of him.   Andre Nemo was born in Nantes, France, a childhood friend of the French biographer and novelist Jules Verne.  Nemo's career as a worldwide adventurer began at a young age, when he left the comfort of his shipbuilding father to journey into the great sea of mystery. In his career, Nemo has seen wonders that have been hidden to all other eyes, fought creatures long thought imaginary, and transported himself in ways previously thought impossible.  He enlisted to fight in the Crimean War.  Nemo was captured by an Ottoman caliph and ordered to turn his genius towards the eventual creation of this great sub-marine boat, The Nautilus.  This tremendous vehicle is much like its creator - fast, elegant, and deadly.”

“Why is he working for you?” Arcade asks.   Bond replies, “He is a true enemy to oppression, Nemo has often waged a personal war against war itself, claiming affiliation to no soverign natiion.  He is often considered a pirate.  Nemo is in fact a freedom fighter, dedicated to bringing down injustice in all countres.   His interest in this mission is the rescue of the French Druidess Louise Michel whose writings he knows and admires.”  The gang begin their readings.  

*January 17th to 23rd:*

The journey continues.   At no point during the trip does Morgana become comfortable with this mode of transportation.    A couple of times during the voyage, while the vessel is out of sight of both land and the main shippings lanes, it surfaces and rides atop the waves.   The party are envited to climb up to the topdeck and outside during these times, and Morgana is releaved to see the open skies and breathe in fresh air again.  She is still bothered by the fact that when riding at its highest point 90% of the vessel is still beneath the waves. 

Angus is fascinated at the mechanics behind the construction of the vessel.   He spends much time with the ship’s engineer down in the engine room.   He also regales the party with much of his newfound knowledge, but they have little interest in hearing about propellers, watertight bulkheads and diving planes.    

During the passage through the Straight of Gibraltar the Gang are asked to remain totally silent, as magical devices being are used by the Spanish and Portuguese to guard the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea.   Nemo explains that they are “crawling slowly near the bottom” during this time so as not to draw the attention of the forces above, who would drop bombs upon them from magically-created winged mounts if they were detected.    Once into the Mediterranean the remainder of the journey is uneventful.

On the afternoon of the 23rd they arrive at a point a few miles southwest of Le Chateau D’If.  For the first time the Gang are escorted to the main bridge of the Nautilis.   Nemo lets them each peer through the periscope at the island.   He explains that they are still a good distance off, that the periscope also utilizes magnifying glasses for better viewing.   Arcade comments, “I get it.  Objects in Mirror are larger than they appear.”    

They decide to wait until after midnight to mount the attack.   Nemo offers the gang use of his underwater geer, but Morgana flatly refuses.   They plan to use the longboat instead, with Nemo agreeing to get as close to the Island as he feels is safe before releasing the boat.    He agrees to keep watch on the island.   It is decided that if they send up a signal he will bring the ship up to the dock and doorway alongside the prison.  




Source Material:  The exterior design of the Nautilus was derived from Alan Moore’s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen;  The interior of the Nautilus was taken nearly verbatim from Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea;  The life story of Captain Andre Nemo was derived from Kevin J. Anderson’s novel  Captain Nemo.


----------



## Silver Moon

*Module #126 - Game #2 - 7/11/04*

*Chapter 65, “Le Chateau d’If”, January 17th, 1882:*

The five gang members climb up to the surface of the submarine and make their way to the longboat that is uncoupled but still tied to the ship.  The ship dives lower to where the waves wash up alongside the large rowboat as it nears the island.   While around 500 feet out the submarine dives deeper as the ropes are released, the Gang rowing to the island from that point.    They manage to make it to the rocks undetected and quickly exit the boat, pulling it up onto shore and hiding it from sight behind an outcropping of rocks.   

They cautiously make their way to the outer wall, the full moon shining the cloudy skies above.   They make their way around the main tower and down across the sidewall of the fortress.   The only illumination other than the moon is from magical red lights at the distant guard barracks.  Louie successfully scales the wall despite the annoyance of the extra layer of clothing worn atop his regular clothes, worn to give them the appearance of being French druids.    

No guards are on this level of the wall but he spots the back of a guard’s head in the uppermost level of the adjacent tower.   He also sees more guards in an open courtyard area two levels below him.  He makes his way carefully over to the tower itself, so he will not be seen unless the guard looks directly down the side of the building.   Louie then lowers a rope down and helps to pull up his four comrades, motioning for them to be very quiet.   

They decide to use the tower itself to get out of sight and travel, with Louie unlocking and opening the doorway at this level.   They head down instead of up and are disappointed that it only descends one level.   From there they have a better view of the three guards in the courtyard now immediately below them.    The area is partially lit by two more of the magical red lights, but Louie believes he can move low on stairs side ramps alongside the walls and not be seen.   The group is in agreement not to use firearms at this point, with Arcade and Morgana positioning themselves with throwing knives as Louie’s backup.   Angus stands ready to cast either a Silence or Hold Person spell if needed.   Sam plans to charge back up the tower to the top if the guards there begin firing. 

Louie manages to successfully get to the lower level and makes his way up to the first of the three guards.   The second and third guards don’t realize anything is wrong until after Louie has slit the throat of their ally.  The third guard falls from a combined knife attack from the two druids above.  The final guard raises his rifle towards Louie, but the half-orc is upon him before he can fire and stabs the dagger into the man’s heart.    

Much to the party’s surprise (and also the DM’s) the two guards in the tower did not hear any of the commotion below.   Louie pulls the three bodies back and out-of-sight as his friends carefully make their way down to that level.   They decide to continue downward. 

A staircase goes down from that point and they descend.   The next level appears to be fifty-foot square, the southern two-thirds of it are comprised of cells with stonewalls on three sides and iron bars in between.   There are no guards or prisoners seen on this level.  The northern third of the level is only accessible through a locked iron door, which Louie is unable to open.  As there are no sounds from behind that door and no light from under the door crack they decide to just continue further down.

The next level is identical to the on above it, with Louie again unable to pick the lock on the iron door.  They see a faint amount of light coming from the bottom of the stairs and the next level down, which appears to be the lowest level of the structure.   They very carefully make their way down.  The layout of this level is similar to the two above, except the hallways and cells appear to make a square shape around the entire 50-foot square instead of having the separate northern section.   As such, the hallway goes both directions and turns from the staircase bottom in the middle of the western wall, with the light coming from around both the northern and southern hallways.  

Louie very carefully moves forward and peers around both way hallways.   He finds the place symmetrical with both halls running to the far eastern wall, with another hallway connecting them thirty feet beyond the bend.   The light appears to be coming from someway along this eastern hallway and there are armed guards standing at the intersections.   The guard at the “T” intersection of the southern and eastern hallways is holding a shotgun.  The guard at the “X” intersection of the northern and eastern hallways has a revolver sticking from an unfastened holster on his belt. 

The party pulls back and plans their next move.  The three spellcasters all run through their current spells and the Gang all review what they have for weapons.   The group brainstorms about a number of strategies using various spells and maneuvers after which Arcade states “Or we could just shoot them.”   They conclude that they are deep enough underground that the sound of gunfire is unlikely to be heard by the guards at the top of the tower.   

They discuss using a Silence spell to further help muffle the sounds.   Morgana suggests that they use the spell to keep one guard from noticing anything while they deal with the other.   Angus is sent back upstairs to cast the spell onto a coin.   Once he’s gone Arcade comments, “There’s a major flaw to this plan.  It’s dependent upon a Scotsman voluntarily giving up a coin.”   

Angus soon returns, the coin bringing the Silence to them and preventing any further verbal plans.   Morgana moves to the southwestern corner while Angus and Louie go to the northwestern one.  Arcade decides to stick with his wife and Sam follows the other two.   The Silence is now away from the two druids, allowing them the possibility of spell use.   Morgana spots a prisoner in the cell halfway down, around ten feet from the guard, and points this out to her husband.   She says, “Be ready to shoot him.”  “The prisoner?” Arcade comments.  “No, the guard.  I’m going to distract him once they toss the coin.”  

At the other corner Angus rolls the coin down the hallway, the spell on it preventing any sound from coming from the metal striking the stones.   It rolls for around fifteen feet before hitting the bars to a cell, which then deflects the coin into the cell.   “Damn,” Louie mutters.  Angus whispers back, “No, it’s still okay.  The radius will still cover the guard and is far enough away for me to cast a Hold spell. 

Morgana steps out into the hallway and catches the guards’ attention, calling out “Bonjour”.  She then attempts to talk to him in a fake French accent as he raises his shotgun in her direction.   Angus notices that while the coin prevented sound from coming from the northern hallway, the guard before him still heard Morgana’s voice from the southeast and also saw his friend move.   The man begins to draw his gun as Angus tosses the Hold Person spell, which successfully freezes the man.   Meanwhile, Morgana continues to try to talk to the man, trying to act friendly and non-threatening.   The man however, says nothing in reply as he takes aims and then fires his shotgun.


----------



## Silver Moon

*Chapter 66, “The Prison Battle”, January 24th, 1882*:

While Morgana attempted to negotiate with the prison guard her husband Arcade peered around the wall.  He was careful to not lean far enough to be seen by the guard, watching the man’s hands on his shotgun rather than his face.   When the guard began to take aim at Morgana Arcade reached out and grabbed the side of his wife’s dress.  As the man’s finger began to depress on the trigger Arcade yanked her back towards him with full force.  Thus, she was pulled out of the way just as the shot from the gun flew by, missing her by less than an inch. 

Morgana became furious.  Arcade wasn’t sure right away if the target of her anger was the guard who shot at her or him for interfering.   He figures it is the guard she is mad at when she began the incantation of a Magic Missile spell and then charged back out from behind the wall.   She sends a pair of missiles flying from her fingertips, striking the man.  The man staggers back but regains his footing and then discharges the second barrel of his gun at her.  She had begun retreating once the spell was cast, but is not quite fast enough to completely miss this blast, sustaining a minor injury in her arm.  

Arcade yells to his wife, “That’s both barrels.  He’s empty, let’s go.”   The two of them charge around the bend and rush towards the man.   The man drops his shotgun and starts an incantation.   Arcade thinks, “Oh crap!  I forgot that they also use magic here.”  Three Magic Missile bolts shoot from the guard’s fingertips, two striking Arcade and one striking his wife.  

Arcade draws his gun and fires back, causing a wound to the guard’s shoulder.  The guard turns and runs, with Morgana’s tomahawk then landing in his back between the shoulder blades.   The man staggers, giving Arcade time for another shot, a fatal hit to the head.   The man falls dead at the intersection of the southern and eastern hallways.  

Arcade and Morgana then make the serious error of assuming that he was the only guard near that intersection and stop to converse with the prisoner in the adjacent cell.   They then hear the sound of another spell incantation back near the “T” intersection.   They turn and are surprised when a pair of Chinese Orcs armed with axes and swords charge around the bend towards them.    Arcade lets off a shot, which clips one but he continues to charge.  More orcs follow the initial pair from behind the intersection.    

Morgana deduces that they are hopelessly outnumbered and decides to play dead, falling to the ground alongside the wall.   At this point a total of five orcs fill the hallway.   No more appear to be coming, so Arcade casts a Heat Metal spell onto the armor and weapons of these foes.   Morgana’s bluff pays off as the orcs charge by her towards Arcade, the lead one swinging his sword right at Arcade’s head.   Arcade ducks, the sword knocking his hat off of his head.  Arcade shoves his arm forwards, jabbing the barrel of his gun into this orc’s chest and fires.  The orc drops but his sidekick is now upon Arcade and swings an axe down towards him, hitting the fighter/druid. 

Back at the other hallway, Louie had been charging forward in the direction of the held guard, with Sam and Angus behind him.   Their footsteps were silenced by the spell from the coin, which also prevented them from hearing the shotgun blasts.    Two prisoners in cells a short distance behind the held man are yelled at them, but the silence also prevents these men from being heard.   Just as Louie rushes towards the intersection Angus notices what the men were yelling about, as a rifle barrel is sticking out from behind the bend, aimed squarely at Louie’s chest.   

Louie exits the range of the Silence spell and then hears the two prisoners yelling at him in French.  Unfortunately he doesn’t know the language, but he then sees the rifle barrel just a few feet away from his chest.   In a move that would make any baseball coach proud, Louie drops back and slides along the stone surface towards the man around the bend, temporarily delaying the shot.   This guard however follows Louie’s movement with the rifle and once Louie comes to a halt fires point blank into Louie’s chest.  

Louie is in anguish as the rifle bullet travels into his chest.  It hurts like hell, but Louie soon notices that he is still alive so figures it wasn’t a mortal wound.   He is actually correct, as the bullet miraculously missed all of his vital organs and bones, exiting from Louie’s lower back and stopping as it struck his armor pressed against the stone floor.   Louie is still holding his revolver and fires a point blank shot back up at his assailant, breaking the bones and hitting a vein in the man’s shoulder.  

However, the guard standing over Louie is also a ‘tough guy’.  He ignores the pain and kicks the gun out of Louie’s hand simultaneous to shifting his rifle over to his other hand and shoulder for a second shot.   Louie is lying helpless at this point and concludes that he is about to die.  This would have been a correct assumption if not for Sureshot Sam rounding  the bend right then.   Sam lives up to his nickname by firing and placing the bullet right between the eyes of his opponent.   Louie grabs up his gun as Sam helps him to his feet.   They then notice a robed man further down at the other end of the eastern hallway. 

Not far from the robed man, Arcade is still fighting with the orcs, all of whom are now taking damage from the Heat Metal spell.   He fires into the one with the axe but misses.  Morgana has pulled out Billy the Kid’s pearl-handled colt revolvers from the pockets of her shirt and fires, dropping the last orc in line.   The next one turns towards Morgana and she fires two shots up at him, one connecting fatally.   Arcade meanwhile shoots the one with the axe, dropping him.   The sword of the remaining orc is now glowing red-hot from the Heat Metal and he drops it.  Arcade and Morgana then successfully catch him in a crossfire. 

The robed man now focuses his attention back down to the other end of the hallway and starts to cast a spell in the direction of Louie and Sam.   Louie is holding his gun and his shot is faster than the spell, hitting and incapacitating the wizard’s right arm.   “That should end spells,” Louie exclaims as he starts to charge down the hallway towards the wizard.   The wizard counters with another incantation, falling back upon the only spell left in his repertoire that doesn’t require any arm gestures.

Louie is around fifteen feet away from the man when he becomes enshrouded in a field of magical darkness, which continues back to where Sam and Angus are also now standing.    Louie decides to holster his gun and draw his sword.   He then marches forward through the darkness, swinging the sword from wall to wall in the assumption that it will eventually connect with the wizard. 

The wizard has backed up, stopping just shy of the intersection.  He no longer hearing sounds from the summoned orcs in the southern hallway, but decides not to look that way as he hears the sound of Louie’s feet on the stone floor marching towards him. The wizard draws his gun with his good hand and then sees the front of Louie’s sword exiting the darkness.   Using the sword movement to guess Louie’s location he fires.   Unfortunately for him, this isn’t the hand he normally fires with so the shot is off target.  The sound of his gun going off just a few feet away from her refocuses Morgana in that direction and she starts to crawl towards the intersection.   

The wizard’s shot barely misses Louie and continues on through the darkness.   Fate works against the party as the shot-in-the-dark strikes Sam right in the middle of his chest.   Sam yells out and falls.  They are still inside the Magical darkness but Angus has been through enough battles to deduce from the sounds what has just happened and quickly finds Sam’s fallen body.   Angus casts a Cure spell to keep the boy from immediately dying.  He decides that he needs to get them both out of the intersection before any more bullets come flying their way.   He lifts up Sam and heads back the way they originally came.   He is soon out of the darkness but in now inside the area of the silence spell, so has to carry the dying boy further the hallway before he do any more healing. 

Louie has now charged out of the darkness and cuts the wizard down with a bludgeoning blow from the sword.   Morgana reaches this point sees this, taking a few point blank shots into the wizard.   Louie continues to hack the man as she fires again.   Arcade comes around the bend and points out that the wizard is very much dead so they should probably stop attacking him.


----------



## Silver Moon

*Chapter 67, “Finding Nemo”, January 24th, 1882:*

Louie and Morgana finally stop attacking the wizard.    Morgana notices that Louie is bleeding onto the floor and points that out to him.  He replies, “Yeah, I got shot again.  Could you help me out?”   She casts a Cure spell onto him much to his relief.   Once partially healed he decides to check the wizards body for valuables.  

At the end of the hallway two male prisoners dressed as druids yell out to Arcade and Morgana in French that they want to be let out of the cells.   She gestures to the bodies and asks which of the two guards has the key.   They reply "Neither of them" and then describe for her the guard leader.   

Morgana doesn’t see anyone matching that description, but she now notices that the remainder of the eastern hallway is not just dark but is covered in magical darkness.   She extracts from her satchel a tube containing a stone with a Continual Light spell cast on it, using that to negate the darkness spell.    She finds the body of the man with the key and uses them to unlock the pair of druids at the end of the southern hallway.   She then unlocks the other pair of druids at the end of the northern hallway.     

Meanwhile, Louie continues to check out the bodies while Arcade looks around for cells with more prisoners.    Further down the northern hallway Angus has exhausted his remaining Cure spells in his attempt to keep Sam alive.  Morgana asks what has happened and he gives her a status report.   She offers to use her remaining Cure spels but Angus replies, “Save it, we might need it later.  He needs far more than low-level healing spells at this point.   We’d be better off finding either that high-level druid or medical doctor that we came here to free.”  

Morgana asks the druids “Where’s your boss?”    One gestures to the eastern hallway and replies, “Somewhere around here.”   In addition to the cells the eastern hallway has two locked metal doors.   Morgana calls under one of the doors, “Is anyone in there?”   A male voice with an English accent says, “Yes.  Who is there?”   She replies, “We're here to help.  Who are you?”  He replies, “My name is Doctor Henry Jeckel.”  “Pay dirt!” she comments.  She quickly gets the cell unlocked and Arcade ushers the doctor down to where Sam and Angus are. 

She does the same to the other door, finding the occupant of the solid stone windowless room to be Louise Michel.   Morgana explains that they have come to rescue her.   Louise thanks them for the effort but defiantly tells them that she isn’t going anywhere.  She plans to remain in her cell until she is taken to Paris and has an opportunity to defend herself before the crowds.    Arcade cuts her off, telling her in French “Lady, That isn’t going to happen.  They’re planning to kill you quietly.”   She does not initially believe him but thankfully her four druid followers do and they manage to convince her that it is better to go than to take that risk.   Louie helps unfasten a pair of shackles from her wrists and she finally exits the cell. 

They all head back to where the Doctor is examining Sam.   “Well?” Morgana asks.   Dr. Jeckel replies, “The bullet is still inside him and near the heart.  I can’t do anything for him without my medical bag, which would be up in the Prison Superintendent’s Office.”  Arcade says, “Yeah, right.  That’s over in the other building with all of the sleeping guards.  We’re not going there.”    Angus says, “The ship we came here on has state-of-the-art medical facilities onboard.  We’ll have to take him there.”   Jeckel replies, “Trying to move him will probably kill him.”   

Morgana asks Louise Michel, “What can you do for him?”     The senior druid replies, “I have no spells right now Mademoiselle.  The shackles on my wrists were magical and prevented me from praying for spells.”   Arcade whispers to Louie, “Go back and get those.  We might need them at some point.”   Louise Michel offers, “I can start praying for spells now.”   Arcade replies, “We don’t have the time.  The guards in the tower may have heard the gunshots.  And even if they didn’t, it’s only a matter of time until the three bodies we left up above get discovered.  I don’t want to be trapped down here and give them time to get organized, and it wouldn't take them long to bring in more soldiers from Marseilles.  We’ll have to risk moving him.”

Angus says, “We’ll never be able to get him over the wall.  We’ll have to go to the boat dock instead.”  Arcade replies, “If we can even find it and we don’t have time to hunt where it might be.”    Morgana asks the druids if any of them know where it is but none of them do, having been blindfolded when they were brought in.  She then asks about the other prisoner and they tell her they have no idea who he is, that he was already in prison when they arrived.

Morgana goes back to the other prisoner and asks in French “Who are you?”  He replies, “My name is Philippe Gaston.  They call me ‘the mouse’.”   She asks, “And why are you imprisoned here?”  He answers, “For thievery and escaping from prison.   No other prison in France could hold me, so they put me here on this island.”   She asks, “Do you know how to get to the boat dock?”   He replies, “Yes, of course.  Before they placed the guards down here with the new prisoners I managed to slip out of this cell multiple times.  I’ve been all over this island.  But I am not a strong swimmer and there were no boats, so there was nowhere else to go except to come back here.”   She lets him out and brings him over to the others announcing “I found a guide.” 

A mattress is taken from one of the cells and Sam is gently rolled onto it.   The four male druid prisoners carefully lift it up.  Angus, Jeckel, Morgana and Louise walk with them along both sides of Sam to offer assistance as needed.   Philippe takes the lead, followed closely by Arcade and Louie.   They make their way up several levels.   It remains quiet up above and they see the two guards still standing atop the tower, looking bored.   Philippe points to another corridor and says that it leads them down a side corridor and a flight of stairs, ending at the doors to the boat dock.   

Morgana says, “We need to find Nemo and signal him to bring the ship around.”   Louie gestures to the guards and says, “Those guys up there are rather inept at noticing things, but they'll probably spot your magical light stone.”   Arcade replies, “Maybe we could be more subtle.   Morgana and I each took a Faerie Fire spell.”    Angus says, “Doesn’t that only work on people.”  Arcade replies, “It works on any living creature, including plants.  We could light up some grass along the shore where Nemo should be looking for us.  They guards above might not notice.”   Louie says, “Go ahead, I’ll cover you,” and using his newly acquired rifle takes aim up towards the guard tower.  

Arcade and Morgana make it over to the side wall and cast their spells down, turning the seaweed right below the water and plants and foliage along the shore a glowing shade of greenish-yellow.    They head back the others and all make their way down to the boat dock.   The door is opened a crack, with Angus peering out.  

Ten minutes pass, which seem like an eternity to the group.    The Nautilus surfaces alongside the dock.   Angus waits until it is fully stopped and on the surface before throwing open the doors.   There is no point in being quiet at this point, as the sight of the massive red giant squid rising up to the island has caught the attention of the inattentive guards above.   

The guards who sound an alarm and open up signal lights.   Alarms and lights also go up at the adjacent guardhouse.  The party hurries the makeshift stretcher with Sam out and onto the ship.   The tower guards are late to notice this movement below, and do not start firing their rifles until the Nautilus doors are closed with the party all safely inside.    

Sam is brought to the infirmary as Dr. Jeckel confers with Campion Bond.  The rescued prisoners are all brought to private quarters.   For the first few minutes they hear the sound of bullets bouncing off the hull of the ship and then the sounds cease.   Campion informs Nemo that they need the vessel to stop so that Sam can be operated on.   The Captain tells him it will have to wait, as half the French Navy is docked in Marseilles and they need to get as far away as possible in the next hour.

An hour later Sam still lives, but only due to healing elixirs provided by Nemo’s chief medic.  The ship comes to a complete stop and Jeckel begins the operation.   It takes considerable time, but the bullet is found and removed with a combination of Jeckel’s surgical skills and Morgana’s careful use of a “Gather” spell.   He closes up the incision, which she uses her remaining Cure to seal up.  They conclude that Sam will live.   Louie then points out that he also still has a bullet in him, which takes considerably less time to find, remove.  Arcade provides the Cure spell as the finishing touch on Louie. 

The Nautilus resumes its course.   At around 3:00 AM the ship comes to a halt along an isolated cove in Southern France.  At this point Nemo activates a loud and smoky diesel engine, to give the guests the impression that this was a regular surface ship.   Louise Michel and her four associates are put to shore and warned to stay clear of the authorities.  The Nautilus then moves off, sailing on the surface with engine sounding for the next thirty minutes. Nemo then kills the sham engine and dives again.  They go full speed for another hour.

The submarine surfaces again and pulls into a different isolated cove to let off Philippe Gaston.   Bond makes sure that ‘the mouse’ is clearly under the impression that Louise Michael was the objective of the prison break and that they brought along Jeckel because they needed his medical skills and Gaston because he knew the way out.   The ship then chugs out to sea and dives when it is safely out of sight.  

*January 24th to 29th, 1882:*

The Nautilus makes an uneventful trip back to England.    During this return trip Jeckel uses his apothecary skills to help identify a trio of elixirs that Louie found on the wizard guard.   Morgana is given a scroll with three spells also found on the wizard.   The rifle from the prison guard leader was of excellent quality so Louie decides to keep it as his.   Sam spends most of the journey back recuperating in bed. 

*January 30th, 1882:  * 

Under the cover of darkness the Nautilus surfaces along the coast a few miles away from the Hastings estate belonging to the Arcadiam family.    Bond pays them the agreed upon amount.  Nemo’s crew then rows Arcade, Angus, Louie, Morgana and Sam to shore.    The rowboat returns and the Nautilus vanishes beneath the waves.    They make their way back to the manor house.


----------



## CelticWolf

Wow!  It's almost like I was there!    

Slàinte,

CelticWolf (Louie's player   )


----------



## Silver Moon

We've now played three games now of the next Arcade's Gang module, this one gamemastered by Morgana's player and set in Ireland.    I should have the first Story Hour chapter from it up in the next couple of days.   

In the meanwhile, please check out my second campaign set on this same world titled "Revenge, Renewal and the Promise of a New Year."   It is set back in Promise City while Arcade's Gang is in Europe and has a very colorful cast of characters.  The link is as follows:

http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=99053


----------



## Silver Moon

*Module #127 - Game 1 - 7/18/04*

*Chapter 68, “Off to Ireland”, February 6th, 1882:*

The group has been back at the Arcadian Estate for a week.  Qualtaqa and Hank are happy to see the others back after their month away.   During that time apart Qualtaqa spent a considerable time over at the neighboring Greystroke estate, conversing with the rather odd young Lord and also with the local Celts learning some introductory priest spells.  Hank devoted the time to teaching all of the local pubs how to sing “Yellow Rose of Texas”.   The gang also notes that Hank has started to add the phrases “blimey” and “I say” to his vocabulary. 

Morgana decides that since the group is relatively close to Ireland they should make a short visit over to it to see the land of her ancestors.  She says that she has a standing invitation to visit from a Jane Fandesca who knew her Grandmama O’Shea.   Louie comments “So you want us to go see the ‘old country’”.   Sam comments “She have Native American, to her America is the ‘old country’.”    Hank asks “So, what do they do in Ireland?”  Arcade replies “Grow potatoes and die”, never realizing how much that comment would serve as a harbinger of what the gang would soon face. 

Louie comments that he knew quite a few railroad workers who were from Ireland.  Arcade says “And the operative word there is ‘from’, nobody in their right mind would want to actually go to that place.”  “Are you calling me insane?” Morgana asks.  “Well, you married me,” me replies.    Sam says “Isn’t Ireland where they drink a lot?”  Arcade replies “Only on high holy days, like days of the week that end in the letter ‘Y’.” 

Morgana states that “Grandmama is the reason that family left Ireland.  She had a sense that the famine was coming and urged the family to leave.  They then relocated to Boston.  I’ve never been there myself and would like to see where my father and grandparents lived.”  

Hank says, “Okay, but you’ll then owe me a visit to my home state of Texas.”   Louie comments “Would that be worse than Ireland.”  “I’m afraid so,” Arcade mutters.   Sam tells Arcade “Be fair, you got to show us where your family lives.”  He replies, “Did I ask any of you to come?”  Louie says “Actually, you asked for us to come instead of you.”   He replies “Well this is only one family home.  My grandparents live in India.”  “I think I’ll pass on that trip,” Sam states.

The group makes their formal goodbye to Arcade’s parents and brother and take the carriage to the nearest port city of Portsmouth.   There are four large ships docked there at the moment and they make inquires as to whether any are going to Ireland.   Louie comments “Just book me on a ship that has no leaks and no rats”.  “They probably charge extra for that” Sam replies.  One will be departing the next morning for America, but with a stop along the way in Dublin, so they book passage on it.   They find lodgings at a local inn for the evening. 

February 7th, 1882:

The gang gets their passports stamped and boards the ship and is shown to their quarters.  Louie is again grateful that he doesn’t have to ride on deck beneath the waterline.  Sam starts to notice the various women who have boarded prompting comments from Hank and Arcade about the boy’s lecherous ways.  

The voyage gets old fast as the English Channel and the Celtic Sea are not very fun places to be on cold windy days in early February.  A snowstorm starts up cutting visibility down to nearly nothing.  The gang heads back to the their cabins.  They no sooner get there when Morgana screams out “The Fey, it’s coming.  She’s angry.”  Hank looks at the others and asks “Did you boys go and get another woman mad at you again?”
Louie asks “Sam, who did you pick up this time?”

Morgana clams down and says “It was just a feeling.  Don’t you guys know anything about the islands?”  “Only the Polynesian Islands,” is Arcade’s response.   She replies, “No the Celtic islands….Morgan Le Fey…don’t you know any Celtic history.”  Angus says “I do, but I thought that she was just a person of legend.”   “Only if you consider my father’s first wife a legend.  She’s my step mother, who I was named after,” Morgana replies.  She then adds “She doesn’t like Grandmama.”   

“Great, we’ve found ourselves in the middle of a family feud,” Hank exclaims.   “In the middle of something” Sam says and gestures to the porthole.  A sudden storm has come up with lightening and massive gusts of wind.  Clouds begin to swirl around the ship.   “I really hate the weather around these parts,” Hank comments.   “Is your Godmother causing this?” Louie asks.  Arcade answers, “Must be the reason for the prefix of ‘God’”.

Morgana says “I’ve never had a problem with her.  We’ve always gotten along.  She wasn’t too fond of my father taking another wife….”  The ship starts to rock and both Sam and Louie act concerned.  Arcade says “Don’t worry, this is English weather.  Give it a minute and it will change.”  

A swirling vortex appears in front of the ship and they pass through it. The storm intensifies and then just as abruptly ceases completely.  The ship then rests upon the calm seas, with the sun shining down from above.  The temperature is also considerably warmer.”   Hank says to Arcade “Guess you were right about the weather changing.”

The ship appears to be at rest alongside a large lush island.   A wooden dock comes out to the side of the ship.   Arcade, Angus, Hank, Qualtaqa and Sam also notice that they appear to be the only people moving on the ship, all other passengers standing still like statues.   Morgana is not among them. 

Concluding that she isn’t on board the ship, they head out along the dock and towards the Island.   A tall, regal looking woman approaches and stands before them.  She is wearing a green gown and robe and has long black hair.  She introduces herself saying, “My name is Morgan Le Fey, welcome to Avalon”.


----------



## Silver Moon

*Chapter 69, “The O’Shea Family Curse", February 7th, 1882: * 

“Where is my wife?” Arcade demands.   “You claim her?” Le Fey asks.  “As she claims me,” Arcade answers.  “But you say that she is yours?” Le Fey inquires.   “As much as any man can claim a woman,” is his response.  “And you are willing to share her fate?  And claim her debts?” the woman responds.   Hank comments to Arcade, “Should you check with your lawyer before answering?”  Arcade says, “It would help if you tell us what this is all about.”

Le Fey says, “When the O’Shea family left Ireland a disharmony overtook the land.”   Arcade mutters, “Something that made Ireland worse than it already was?  I find that hard to believe.”   Le Fey describes the potato famine, which forced much of the population of Ireland to immigrate to America.   Arcade asks “This disharmony.  It is something that is within our power to fix?”  Le Fey says, “Yes, it is.  But she cannot go with you.”  “We’re not leaving without her,” Arcade adamantly states.  

Le Fey says, “She cannot go.  And the problem is not here, it is in Ireland.”  Hank blurts out “And we’d have been there by now if you hadn’t interfered.”   Le Fey says, “There is a curse on the land.  Any O’Shea who walks there will die instantaneously.”  “Maybe she should stay here then,” Sam comments. 

Arcade then asks “So, Milady, exactly what is it that we need to do to restore this balance?”   She replies, “The curse was placed upon the land after the family left.  This curse needs to be lifted for an O’Shea to set foot there again.”   “Good thing we brought a priest,” Hank mutters, gesturing to Angus.   Arcade says, “Nah, that’s for dealing with spirts of the dead.”   Qualtaqa says “I may be able to help, I know something about earth spirits.” 

Arcade asks to see his wife before they go but Le Fey says that is not possible.  “What will you tell her?” he asks.   She replies, “I do not need to tell her anything, she is in stasis.”  “Statis?” Sam asks.  Le Fey says, “To her it will seem like it was instantaneous.”  “She’s made that complaint before,” Arcade mutters.  

The group returns to the ship.  The swirling clouds return and they find themselves back at sea just as when they left.   The remainder of the voyage is uneventful and they dock in Dublin.   Arcade suggests that they find a pub since he believes that there is a local law stating that people are not allowed to be sober.  They see that around a quarter of the people are attired in kilts, and several of them are dwarves, so Angus blends right in. 

They decide that the best place to start this investigation would be for Angus to make an inquiry at the nearest Norse church.   They are given directions and soon reach a large stone structure dedicated to the Viking gods with Angus translating runes about the door as reading “Temple of Odin”.     They enter and are greeting by a large blonde female human wearing armor and a hat with horns on the side.   “Looks like she just came from an Opera,” Arcade mutters.  

Angus asks about a library and is given directions.   They reach a large room full of books, but most are written in either dwarven, Gaelic or Scandinavian languages, which only Angus can read.   Arcade finds several books about the Celts, some of which are written in common.   Hank mutters, “What’s with all these strange languages that sound like you’re clearing your through or spitting when you speak them?”  Angus replies, “Well, the phrase ‘will work for pancakes’ sounds more impressive when spoken in Gaelic.” 

The workers in the library are being generally uncooperative.  Hank says “Hey, maybe we should offer these guys some money.”   Qualtaqa goes over to the person who appears to be in charge and sets down a pile of gold coins and says “Perhaps you can find us something to eat or drink.  You can keep whatever is left.”    This results in the pile of coins immediately disappearing several people running around and a pitcher of mead and a platter of meats and cheeses being brought to the party.  

The woman who initially greeted them arrives and introduces herself at the Librarian and asks if there is anything specific she can help them find.   Arcade decides to get straight to the point and says, “Yeah, We want to find out everything we can about the curse on the O’Shea family.”    Upon hearing that every patron in the library comes to a complete halt and silence follows.   Everyone who had pocketed some of the gold coins puts them back in the pile, nobody wanting to have any association whatsoever with this curse.

“Are any of you O’Sheas?” she cautiously asks.  Louie gestures to his half-orc Chinese self and exclaims, “Do I look like an O’Shea to you?”   Arcade assures her “None of us are, but we are associates friends of the family and would like to see the curse lifted so that the family can have the option of returning.”  The woman replies, “Odd, I thought they were all dead.”   The woman is hesitant and suggests that it is getting late and the library will soon close so maybe they should leave.

They decide to find a tavern and inn.  Angus says to Arcade, “And it might be best to NOT mention your wife’s family.”  They find a place to stay where Hank complains to his companion about the food, saying, “Why is it that they feel the need to boil everything?”  Arcade says, “Well at least they boil it in beer.  Over in England they boil everything in water instead.”


----------



## Silver Moon

*Module 127, Game #2 - 8/01/04*

*Chapter 70, “Lady Wilde”, February 8th, 1882:*

The group returns to the Norse church and continue making inquiries.   Arcade questions against it, saying that he wouldn’t want regular church attendance to become a habit.  They go anyway and discover that the pile of coins still remains untouched so Qualtaqa takes it back.  The woman again asks the party what their relationship is to the O’Shea family.   Louie says, “One of them is a missing member of our gang.”  “Gang?  What gang?” she asks.   “Respectable gang,” is Louie’s reply.  Arcade interjects “We owe them a debt which we wish to take care of.”  The woman is still hesitant and asks, “What is this debt?”   Hank points to Arcade and blurts out “Him, they let him marry into the family.  We owe them big for that.”

The woman suggests “I’ve been told that for the details you should go check with the Wildes.  Lady Wilde has done extensive research about the curse and would probably know the most about it.”   They get directions and head over that way.  Arcade comments, “I’ve heard of an Oscar Wilde, is she related?”   “His wife,” the woman replies.  Arcade comments, “I believe that he is a writer or actor of some sort.”   “They have writers in Ireland?” Hank questions.   Angus replies, “Sure they do.  The phrase ‘will work for pancakes’ sounds far more impressive when spoken in Gaelic.” 

Arcade asks, “Before you go, what else have you found out?” She says that they were all attractive and charismatic redheads whose occupation was that of the bard.   She says that they supported their neighbors as well as the people who lived on the O’Shea lands.   She says that around forty years earlier the O’Sheas left and the potatoes then turned black.  The people blamed the O’Sheas for that but they could not be punished since they were no longer around.  So instead, eight other druids who remained on the O’Shea land were blamed.  These people were burned at the stake.  It is these people who are the spirits that blame the O’Shea family for their fate. 

Hank says “We don’t need the history lesson, just tell us how to banish these banshees from Ireland.”  The Norse priestess replies, “You need to free them of the injustice and then the spirits can move on.”   Angus says, “I guessed that banishing banshees would be no easy task.”  

Hank exclaims “Dagnabit!  Why do you keep getting a Texas gunslinger to go after foes that he can’t shoot!”?   Arcade says, “Sometimes I wonder why we do these things.”   Sam interjects “To save your wife!”   Arcade replies “We haven’t been married that long, I guess we’re not all that attached.”  Qualtaqa says, “The O’Sheas owned a sizeable plot of land here that you stand to inherit if we do this.”  Arcade replies, “Well, I guess that would be okay, except for the part about it being in Ireland.”   Sam says, “Think of it as something to annoy your mother with.”  The woman is thanked for the information at the group departs. 

Not knowing exactly what to do next they decide to hit a pub and discuss it further.   Angus suggests returning to the Norse church.  This results in numerous insults being made at the expense of the large priestess there dressed as a Valkrye.   They discuss the possibility of talking to a city official but decide that none would let them in.  Louie disagrees, again reiterating that they are a respectable gang.    Arcade says, “It sounds like we need to set the record straight to free these banshees.”  Hank suggests finding a newspaperman stating, “Maybe they’re not as corrupt over here.”   

Hank says “It sounds like the banshee’s curse causes the kids to die right after they are born.  We should probably go look for some pregnant women.”  Arcade comments, “That shouldn’t be too hard to do in Dublin.”   Louie says, “Let Sam do it, he’s good at charming women.”  “Pregnant women?” Arcade asks.  Hank interjects, “Sure, he helps them get their start!” 

They decide to go and visit the Wilde home and a butler answers the door.  They are informed that the Lord is currently away on a lecture tour in America.  Arcade says that it is actually his wife who they wish to see and introduces himself as Joshia Arcadiam, the son of Lord and Lady Arcadiam of England.   The butler says that she is currently home.   They are brought inside to meet her.  

Lady Wilde soon joins them.  She is a very petite human woman who is near the end of a pregnancy.   She appears to be fascinated by the fact that one member of the party is a half-orc and another is an elf.   She invites them to join her for tea.   

Arcade introduces himself and gives a short summary of what led them here.    She is extremely interested in this information as she indicates that the baby who she is carrying has O’Shea blood and could also be subject to the curse.   Qualtaqa assures her that they will do everything in their power to prevent harm from coming to her unborn child.   Arcade says that the best thing she can do for the baby is to share with them everything she knows of the O’Shea family and the curse. 

She proves to be a wealth of information, indicating that Morgana’s father is considered to be the Father of the Plague, the potato famine that has ravaged Ireland.   She says that while the druids were killed four decades earlier that a secretive sect of druids still remain and that it is them who he should seek out.   They thank her for the information and then leave.  Louie comments, “Is it just me, or the more we travel the weirder these missions get.”


----------



## Silver Moon

*Game #3 - 8/29/04*

*Chapter 71, “Do you know where the druids are?” February 8th, 1882:  * 

The gang decides to follow up on the premise that there may still be some druids in Ireland who could assist with ending the curse.  They discover that whatever druids may be around will be difficult to locate, that they no longer congregate in large groups.    

Next they investigate the potatoes themselves, finding out information about the black fungus that destroys the vegetables.   Unfortunately nearly everyone they speak to believes the O’Shea family was responsible.   They finally give up seeking information for the day and find another pub and inn in that section of Dublin, where lodgings are found for the night. 

Hank attempts to tip the bartender heavily and then get information from him.  He in able to provide information as to where he thinks the druids may be located and gives them directions, adding that he believed they usually had their ceremonies during midnight of the full moon (it is almost full at this point).   

They head up to the hills following the lead.    There are no druids around although the party discovers evidence of a fire circle that was probably used by them.   They then run into a mysterious man dressed as a druid and under the assumption that he is one ask a series of questions about the banshee.  

The man replies “Problems, problems, problems.  Mortals should not play with things they do not understand.  There is a problem with the potatoes but you need to find out who it was that started it.”   “And it wasn’t the O’Sheas?” Sam comments.  The man replies, “The O’Sheas saw what was coming but could not prevent it.  The potatoes came first.”   The man then wanders into the nearest grove of trees.

“Now what do we do?” Louie asks.  Angus replies “Sounds like we need to find somebody that knows a lot about potatoes.”   Qualtaqa says, “No, more like somebody who can help remove a fungus.”  Hank says, “Can’t do that with a gun.  I think we’re not the right men for this job.”  Louie says, “Maybe we should just dig up a potato and talk to it?”  Qualtaqa supports that idea, but Arcade dismisses it and since he is the only druid in the group that works as a veto.

“We should ask that man some more questions,” Sam comments.   “He’s gone,” Qualtaqa observes.   Arcade uses his tracking skills and looks at the ground to find which way the man went, finding none except for him and his companions and states, “I don’t think he was ever here in the first place.”   Qualtaqa replies, “Then we can still talk to him.”  

The centaur asks out loud, “What can you tell us of the curse.”   The man’s voice echoes from the trees “In O’Sheas blood they will bring the death when birth is given on the land.”  The voice then ends.   Hank says, “Great, it sounds like we have to follow around a pregnant woman.”   Arcade says, “Should be easy enough to find one around Dublin.”  Hank replies, “I was referring to that Lady Wilde.”   “Maybe there is a way to purify her?” Qualtaqa muses.  Sam interjects “Let’s just tell her not to eat the potatoes.”   Angus replies, “Or make sure that her kid never touches the ground, the comment was ‘on the land’.”  “So you want us to catch the kid as it comes out?” Louie asks. 

Louie then suggests, “Why don’t we just find a banshee and ask they what they want?”    Hank replies “Maybe we already did.  That guy we were speaking to was probably one.”   Arcade replies “Nah, banshees are all women.”   “I think he was a human druid,” Qualtaqa states, “And used a ‘pass without trace’ spell to hide his tracks.”   Louie yells into the trees “Any more suggestions for us before you go?”   The voice replies, “Go to the higher hill and inform the others.  But don’t stay on the hill after midnight.”   

They head up to the higher hill.   Nobody is around but there is another fire ring that does not appear to have been used.   Hank notices a plant spring on the ground and investigates, telling the others “Look, it’s mistletoe, and it’s still warm.”   Since it is now around 10:30 P.M. and they conclude that there isn’t anyone around.   They decide to return for the pub and inn for the evening and maybe check back the following night. 

They reach the inn and sit down to order a round of drinks.  Qualtaqa makes a number of suggestions as to what they can do next.  The ideas are not well received, with Angus, Hank and Arcade instead debating about what the centaur’s new nickname should be.  Arcade likes “Shecky”, Angus favors “Trigger” and Hank is partial to “Hooves-for-brains.”   Qualtaqa gets frustrated and tells them “If you don’t like my ideas than what would you suggest we do?”   Hank replies, “We should hit all of the pubs and teach the people there how to sing ‘Yellow Rose of Texas’“.  Arcade likes the idea of pub hopping but has reservations about teaching a bunch of drunken Irishmen to sing.   

The discussion goes back to the banshees.  The conversation is interrupted when pair of barely visible spectral forces pass over the party.   Sam asks the bartender “Did you just see two invisible women go by?”   Angus had not seen them and says to Sam “I think ye ‘ave ‘ad a wee bit too much to drink Laddie.”   Arcade points out that Sam is only drinking water.  Angus then tells Sam “Then maybe you should start drinking instead Lad.”    A high-pitched sound begins and several of the crystal glasses in the room shatter.  “Looks like magic,” Louie comments.   Angus says “Nay, ‘tis the banshee.  They have found us.”  Arcade replies “Good.”   Hank interjects “Not so loud, the barkeep will make us pay for all the broken glass.”

They then see the dust on the floor rearrange itself.  First it makes the shape of a crescent moon.  Hank replies, “Great, it wants us to go to the outhouse.”   It then makes a few other shapes, of a building and then a hillside.  Louie says “No, we saw those shapes last night near the druid’s mountain.”   The final shape is that of a well.  “I think we went by one last night that looked like that,” Sam comments.    

They all head off towards the farm and well.   They hear sounds from up on the druid mountain.  Qualtaqa transforms back into a centaur and charges up the hill.  Angus decides to follow.   The others check out the well.   Arcade casts a ‘Detect Magic’ spell and discovers that the well has a faint residue of magic to it.   Peering down the well he detects a heavy layer of magic at the bottom.    

Arcade decides to go down to investigate, climbing up with both of his feet in the bucket and handing onto the rope.  He asks to be lowered down.   They do so and as he reaches the waterline and continues.  The rope then goes slack.  They crack the bucket back up but without Arcade.  Louie looks at Sam and Hank and comments “We be Sam’s Gang now?”


----------



## Silver Moon

*Chapter 72, “Mother Nature” February 8th  & 9th,  1882:   * 

Hank shines the light down the well and doesn’t see anything except water.  “I’m going down too,” he exclaims.   Louie lowers him down with Hank sending up continuous commentary.  He reaches the water level and becomes silent.   The group then hears sounds coming from the hill with the druid fire ring.  Qualtaqa transforms back into his centaur form and charges up the hill Angus follows.   Louie and Sam continue to stay by the well.   

Angus follows the trail up to the glade.  A bonfire is lit in the fire ring and a group of druids are dancing around the circle.   He watches as Qualtaqa moves forward to join them, speaks with the druids, and then joins them in the dance.    Angus decides to sit down and watch from a distance “Just in case Trigger needs my help.”  

Arcade and Hank have gotten back together.   They passed through the water without getting wet and found themselves in a strange land, covered with lush green grass and trees of all varieties.  It is also daytime.    They wander about out into a grove of apple trees.   The apples themselves then yell out “Shake us down, shake us down.”   Hank mutters “Hermes help me, the danged fruit is talking.”   Arcade asks the applies “Why do you want shaken down?”  They yell back in unison “We’re over-ripe, we’re over-ripe.”  He shakes the tree and the apples fall. .   Hank mutters “Food that tells you when to pick it, go figure.”  

They move on and soon arrive at a woodland cottage.  They enter the building and find it deserted but smell the aroma of freshly backed bread.  They then hear voices yelling from inside of the over and open he door.  The six loaves of bread baking inside yell out “Take us out, take us out, or we will burn.”   

They do as instructed and Hank says “Is that better?”  He then looks up at Arcade and says “I can’t believe that I’m talking to bread.”  He replies “That’s better than loafing around.”  Hank replies, “Well, that’s a slice of life”.  Arcade answers “Just trying to get a rise out of you.”  Hank responds “And be known as a heal”.  Arcade stays “It’s the yeast you can do.”   They continue to exchange bread-related puns for another few minutes.   Their ally Louie then joins them.  He says that it took a while but he eventually managed to convince Sam to lower him down. 

Louie is brought up to speed about what has transpired.  He suggests that they ask the bread about how to cure the potato fungus plaguing Ireland.  They bread says that it does not know.   Arcade says “We probably have to find some talking potatoes to find that out.”  They continue on and soon come to another cottage, this one surrounded by a white picket fence.  

They see a woman with red hair in a blue demin dress and white apron who looks to be in her late teens or early twenties tending a garden near the cabin.   “Hey, somebody who looks normal,” Hank comments.  He and Arcade get the woman’s attention.   He asks “Is this your home?”  She replies, “No, I just work for the old lady.”  “Is she home?” Arcade inquires.  “Who are you?” the woman asks.   Arcade says “We are the three mysterious strangers who you legends speak of that will come from a faraway place who are destined to come here seeking information.”  “Huh?” Hank asks.  Arcade mutters back “Generic legend.”  

They are taken inside and introduced to Old Mother Hubble, who tells them that this is her home.   They introduce themselves and Hank then asks her “How long have you been here?”  She replies, “I’ve always been here.”  Arcade says “And what did you do before that?”  She answers, “There was no before that.”  “For you or for everyone?” he inquires.   “All people and things.”   He mutters to his teammates, “I think she’s a druidic deity.”   Hank answers “Mother Nature?”  “Something like that,” Arcade says. 

Hank asks her “What is this place?”  She replies, “It is my home.  I already told you that.  Are you dim?”    Louie talks to her about the potato problem and asks if she knows of a cure.   She says that she is very much aware of the problem.  It was caused not by nature but by humans importing non-native potatoes from South America which had the fungus.   Hank says, “So we just need to stop them from importing potatoes.”   Louie says “I think we need to fix bad potatoes already there.”   

Louie asks if she can give them something to fix the bad potatoes.  She replies “What will you give me in return?”   Arcade looks at Louie and says “How do you feel about half-orcs?”  Louie interjects “What about Sam?”   Hank says “I think that she would prefer something of value.”   Arcade turns to Louie and says “I think you would be very happy here.  Lots of food to eat and fields to run in.”  The half-orc replies, “I’m not the centaur, we left him back up top.”  Hank interjects “Perfect!  We’ll trade him instead!”  

Arcade asks “What do we have that you would want from us?”  She says that she will be happy to take in return the promise of a future favor whenever she calls.   Hank says, “Ma’am, you can count on that.  We Texans always keep our word.”    The woman then points to the young woman and says “And you can take her back with you.  She has been down here long enough and it will now be safe for her to return to where you arrived from.”    

She also gives them each a crystal sphere.  She also hands Arcade a vial of black powder, telling him that as a druid he will be able to get it to the right person to end the potato famine.   She tells them to talk to find the great druid to help.  The four head back to the well.  They climb into the bucket one at a time and tug on the rope, with Sam then pulling them each back up.   

Back up on the hill, the druids have completed their ceremony.  They indicate their pleasure that Qualtaqa decided to join them.    They then disappear into the forest.   Angus head to his comrade and the two notice that the land on the hill is now a fertile green color.  A potato is picked and it is free of the fungus.   Qualtaqa says “Their ceremony is purifying the land.”  Angus replies, “Yeah, but all that dancing only fixed around an acre or two.  I think it’s too little too late.”  They head back down the hill, Qualtaqa transforming back into elvan form. 

The two groups meet back up and the woman, Meagan Kelley, is introduced to the others.  They head back to the inn and obtain a room for her.  The group then retires for the evening.


----------



## Silver Moon

*Chapter 73, “Freeing the Banshees”, February 9th, 1882:*

The group sits down for breakfast and discusses what to do next.  Hank says he doesn’t wish to go back to that strange place adding, “We Texans aren’t that fond of fairyland.”  Arcade says, “I’m not sure we’re much better off than yesterday, all we did was talk to an old woman who spoke in riddles.”  Sam comments, “You also brought back a young woman,” gesturing to Meagan.  Louie says, “Right, we traded up for a new party member, we just need to get rid of some of the dead weight.”  “Feel free to jump down that well anytime you want,” Arcade says to Louie.

Qualtaqa asks Meagan about where she is from.  She asks him his name before answering which he states.  She then comments that his name is difficult to pronounce.  “Just call him Trigger,” Angus states.  In answer to his original question she says “I am from right around here, but it has changed.  There are a lot more buildings now.”  They ask her more questions and determine that she was last here in 1844, shortly after the O’Shea family left.  She recalls only being in ‘Fairyland’ a short while.  They determine from further questioning that she has had druidic training and would most likely have been killed had she stayed in the area.  Angus asks her questions about the potatoes of her time and discovers that the fungus predated the O’Sheas being blamed, which is consistent with the other information that they had obtained.

They suggest that Meagan go visit people who she would know from her own time as they may have information.  They follow her to the home of a childhood friend named Gwenyth, who had some druidic training.  The man at the house says the she was killed almost forty years earlier and that a young woman like Meagan could not possibly have known her.   When pressed the man indicates that he is the woman’s son.   They try to convince the man that his mother’s spirit is trapped and that they are seeking to free it.  He is uncooperative until they offer to buy him a drink.  Hanks says, “This is further evidence that every problem in life can be solved by just going to the pub.”

After multiple rounds of drinks they find out information from him as to how to access another mystical realm via traveling back down the well to find a place where the answers may lie and to look for a waterfall.  They leave him at the pub and all head off to this magical plateau and then enter a cave in search of this waterfall.   They reach strangely colored stones.  Arcade is allowed to pass through but the others are stopped.  Angus complains, “Great, now we need a new leader.”  “I volunteer,” Hank states.  The others all laugh at that suggestion.  

Arcade reaches the other side and is bombarded with questions from some sprite-like creatures.  He identifies himself as being a druid.  They tell him “The druids are gone, why did you return?”  He explains his mission to clear the names of the Banshees due to the potato famine predating he departure of the O’Shea family.   He is told that he needs to make this information known to the public, perhaps by creating a public spectacle.  “That’s something that we’re good at,” he replies.  He is told to gather the remaining druids. 

Hank manages to get by the barrier.  He moves on, going by the water that is a deep green color. Hanks takes a shot into the water but nothing happens.   He is told by little pixies “Speak with the Fey”.  He eventually catches up to Arcade, who brings him up to speed.  “What do you want to do?” Hank asks.   Arcade replies “Give up.”   Hank asks “What about Morgana?”  Arcade replies, “We’ve only been married for a couple of months.  It’s not like we’re really attached yet.”  Hank says “Well come with me back to Texas then, we have lots of pretty girls there.”  Arcade replies, “But to do that I’d have to actually go to Texas.” 

Meanwhile, the other have wandered into a different section of the cave filled with grass, trees and other vegetation.  Louie climbs up a tree to look around and deduce another way to get where they want to go.  He leads Angus, Meagan, Sam and Qualtaqa in a direction of a waterfall that he saw.  It takes them a full three hours of hiking to reach that area.

As they move on Meagan begins to recognize the surroundings, having been there once before.  They reach a wide and swift river, which she says was only a small stream the last time she was there.  Sam suggest that they swim across.  Another player says, “Why don’t you change into your bathing suit firs.  Of course, in the 1880’s a bathing suit would be made of wool and cover more skin than your regular clothing.”  They decide to follow the river until they reach the waterfall.

Louie discovers a path and recognizes Arcade and Hank’s footprints.  They head up by some rocks and continue onward.  The grass and vegetation beneath their feet attempts to grab them but the group pushes on.  They eventually find the waterfall, which Qualtaqa senses to actually be sentient.  Sam says, “We have a problem then.  None of us speak ‘Water’.”  Hank’s bullet then exits the waterfall and strikes Louie in the shoulder for a minor flesh wound. 

On the other side of the water Hank and Arcade hear sprites giggling.  Hank makes derogatory comments about the little creatures.  Arcade pleads their case and explains what they are seeking to accomplish.  Arcade is commanded to go forth and through another waterfall.  He gets to the other side and is asked “You wish answers?”  He replies, “Yes, that and maybe a towel.”

They continue onward.  They find a red-haired naked man encased in a giant crystal.  Arcade approaches it and is about to walk into and through the crystal but Hank is prevented from doing so, the object being solid to him.  Arcade reaches the man inside and converses with him, explaining that he is a druid who is married to an O’Shea.  He gives the man the magical powder to the fix the potatoes.  They are told that they must now make it publicly known that the druids were not responsible and that the descendents of the women killed must be present with this is revealed.

Hank and Arcade depart, joining up with the others.   They return to Dublin and locate the Mayor of the town so that he can witness and declare the innocence of the women.  The druids from the hill are led into the city by the banshees.  They remove their hoods, showing them to be the children of the banshee.  Arcade explains what has been found and that the potato fungus has been removed from the land.  The Mayor declares the innocence of those killed and the spirits move on.

The group decides to go retrieve Morgana.  They debate taking another ship but then realize that any body of water would work.  They find a lake and take a rowboat out into the center, passing through the vortex into Avalon.  Morgana is returned to them and she does not realize that three days have passed.  They return the boat back to the lake, heading to Dublin and finding new lodgings. 

The others want to leave but Morgana insists upon spending a few days in Ireland.  Louie just complains about how cold and wet it is.  Hank agrees to stay but clarifies it with the comment “And by that I mean you can spend a few days checking out the country while we spend that time sitting in a pub.”

February 10th, 1882:

Louie suggests that Arcade take his wife on a side trip to ‘Fairyland’.  Once she hears of the place she wants to go so he reluctantly brings her.  When they reach the man encased in the crystal they enter and converse with him.  It turns out that he is Morgana’s father, a person who she has never actually met before.  They have very little to talk about so the visit is brief, with Arcade being uncomfortable around the unclothed man now that he knows that it is his father-in-law.   The two return to the pub with the others. 

*End of Module*


----------



## Silver Moon

*Module #129 - Game #1*

*Chapter 74, "The American", February 11, 1882:*

The group is contacted at the Pub and Inn and notified that Mrs. Wilde wishes for them to pay her a visit.  “Must be to thank us for making sure her baby isn’t killed by the banshees,” Sam states.  They arrive at the door and are admitted inside by the butler.   As they are being shown to the sitting room they hear the sound of a baby crying.  “She must have had the baby early,” Louie comments.   

They are shown into the main room where a still pregnant Mrs. Wilde is entertaining a friend of hers who is holding a week old baby.   The baby continues to cry and the mother says, “Hush hush, you’re making a nuisance of yourself.”   She turns to Morgana and her friends and says, “You really must forgive little James, when he decides that he wants something he’ll yell loud enough for all the world to hear.”    The guest then says “Thank you for your company Mrs. Wilde.”  She replies, “My pleasure Mrs. Joyce.”  The guest departs. 

Morgana and Lady Wilde have a pleasant conversation and they discuss the banshees and what the party has done.   As the group gets up to prepare to leave Mrs. Wildes says, “And would you like to know why I called for you?”  “Wasn’t it to thank us?” Morgana stated.   She answers, “No, it was to deliver a message to you.   I had sent a telegram to Lord and Lady Arcadiam letting them know how gracious and helpful their son has been and this morning I received back a telegram addressed to Josiah Arcadiam.    

Arcade takes the message but hesitates to open it.   They decide to look at it in private and thank Mrs. Wilde.    Once they are back outside Morgana urges him to open it.  He replies, “Back at the pub.  If it’s from my family I should probably get a drink or two in me before I read it.”   The Texan Hank agrees saying, “It’s cold here.  Nobody should stand outside in this weather.  Back to the pub.”

They are soon sitting at a table, each with a large tankard of ale.  After consuming two tankards Arcade finally reads the telegram.  He says, “It’s from my brother.  He says that he has a job back in England for me and my friends.”   The group raises objections to this, emphasizing that all they want to do at this point is return to the United States.    Hank says, “Let’s find out what this job is first.  We could maybe make transportation back part of the payment.”   Morgana says, “Don’t let his brother make the ship arrangements, he’d book us on the bilge deck.” 

Arcade speculates that any work that his brother lined up can’t be anything good.”   Louie interjects, “But we cured him of that evil monster that was possessing him.”  Arcade answers, “Yeah, but that still leaves his worthless self.   I wouldn’t trust him for anything.”   Hank says, “It could be that government guy you did the job for.”   Arcade exclaims, “Ah, service for Queen and country.  It never ends.”  Louie says, “I no have a country.”  Hank gestures to Arcade and says, “Borrow one of his, he’s got two.”

The group makes arrangements to return for London, departing on a ship leaving that evening. 

*February 14, 1882:*

The group docks at Southampton.  They return to the Arcadiam estate.  The butler shows a look of disdain when he opens the door to the group, also noticing their luggage.   “How’s it going Geeves” Hank exclaims and barges into the house.    Arcade asks about his brother and is told that he is in London and not expected back until the weekend.    

It is only Tuesday, and Morgana asks, “Should we wait?”   Arcade answers, “I should probably spend a day or so here visiting with my mother, I don’t know when I’ll make it back again.   We can head down to London on Thursday.   At dinner Arcade discovers that his mother was less than pleased at his choice of going to Ireland, given her disdain of the Irish, but was at least pleased to hear that his visit there was productive.  

*February 16, 1882:*

Arcade says goodbye to both of his parents and they are driven to the train station, catching a 9:00 AM train to London.  It is a cool, brisk morning and both Hank and Louie complain once more about the weather.  They make their way up the stairs and knock on the door.  William Arcadiam’s voice states “Come in.” They enter. 

William looks up from her ledgers and states in a monotone voice,  “Ah good Josiah, you received my message.”   Arcade sarcastically replies, “Don’t get all bubbly and emotional about seeing me again.”  William ignores the comment and says, “I was at a dinner the other night and was speaking to an American who has need of people with your particular skills and talents.”

“What exactly is this all about?” Arcade asks.   William replies, “It’s about passage back to America.   The American has some valuable cargo he wishes to transport there and has need of guards to watch over it.   Your group has proven that you have the necessary skills.  You were planning to return there at some point, so why not get free passage and spending money in the process?”

Morgana asks for more details and William replies, “Mother notified me that you were coming here today so I contacted the American.  He has arranged a lunch for you over at the Savoy, during which he will explain all of the details.   Now if you don’t mind, I have important work to get back to.”    “Bye” Arcade states, and heads out the door.  They others follow.

They take a horse drawn carriage over to the west end of the inner city to Strand Street.  They arrive at the 230-room hotel considered by many to be the best in the world.     They enter the building, leaving their luggage and firearms checked at the registration desk, and head into the dining room.   Arcade identifies himself as Josiah Arcadiam and the head waiter brings them over to a table with a lone gentleman seated at it. 

The man is heavy-set, white haired and bald on the top.   He has a large nose and pleasant smile.  He is wearing a well tailored dark wool suit, white silk shirt and bow tie.   As Morgana approaches he stands and waits for her to be seated before retaking his. He looks familiar to both Arcade and Morgana but they cannot place exactly who he is.   Arcades states, “I am Josiah Arcadiam, my brother said you wished to see us but did not give us many details, including your name.”   The man says, “My apologies then sir, allow me to introduce myself, I am P.T. Barnum.”


----------



## Silver Moon

*Chapter 75, “Narrative of a Blockade Runner”, February 16th, 1882:*

Arcade introduces the other members of his party to Barnum and then asks, “What can we do for you sir?”  Barnum replies, “As you may have read in the newspapers, I have recently purchased a large African elephant by the name of Jumbo from the London Zoological Society.   I am seeking assistance in transporting him to America so that I can add him to my circus.”  

The gang is momentarily silenced by the unusual nature of the assignment.  Hank exclaims, “Are you sure that you have the right people?  We’re a group of gunslingers not animal movers.”   Barnum replies, “From what William Arcadiam has stated, several of your group have talents with calming and befriending animals.  Those skills could be of use to have Jumbo remain tranquil during the long ocean voyage.”  The druids Arcade, Morgana and Meagan exchange glances with one another and nod agreement.

Barnum then states, “And unfortunately some your other skills might also be needed.”  “And why is that?” Sam asks with hesitation in his voice.   The Connecticut businessman and showman replies, “My purchase of Jumbo has not been without controversy.   He has resided her in the London Zoo for the last two decades and many consider him to be a national treasure.   Protesters now assemble daily outside of the Zoo.  There is also currently a petition before to the Queen to prevent me from removing the animal from the county.   It would therefore be most expedient to move the animal before such a petition could be acted upon.”

“So you want us to steal an elephant?” Louie asks.   Barnum replies, “I cannot steal what I legally own.  I purchased the elephant for the sum of $ 10,000 and have the paperwork and documentation to support that.   The London Zoological Society wishes has reluctantly admitted that they can no longer afford to feed Jumbo so also desire for the removal of him.  What I need now are some people to help facilitate the transportation.”

“How are you planning to ship him?” Morgana asks.   Barnum replies, “That piece of the equation is already taken care of.   Are you familiar at all with a ship Captain by the name of John Wilkinson?”   Hank is the only one who had heard it before and says, “Didn’t he serve with the Confederacy during the war?”   

Barnum replies, “Indeed he did.  A graduate of the United States Naval Academy, he served under Captain Farragut prior to the outbreak of hostilities.   He commanded the Confederate blockade running ship The Robert E. Lee, which successfully broke through the Union blockades on twenty-one occasions.   Following the war he lived in Nova Scotia for many years before eventually returning to his native Virginia.  Five years ago he published a book, Narrative of a Blockade Runner, which became a best seller.  With the proceeds from the book he was able to purchase himself a vessel and return to life at sea.   When I learned that he and his ship were here in Great Britain I hired him for this assignment.  Ah, there he is now, allow me to introduce him to you.”

The large man joins them in his early sixties.  He has a round face and very full beard and mustache.  His hair is primarily dark, but with enough gray strands to indicate his age.   Introductions are made and Wilkinson displays the good manners of a fine Southern gentleman when addressing Morgana and Meagan.   

The group is served an excellent meal, during which the conversation is primarily small talk.   Towards the end of the meal Barnum makes mention to Wilkinson that Josiah Arcadiam and his friends are otherwise known in America as Arcade’s Gang.    Wilkinson smiles and says, “Ah Phineas, the reason for this luncheon is now clear.  These are the guards and animal handlers that you referenced?”  Barnum answers, “Yes, they are known for being able to work quickly, which is I believe what we need.”

“Could you explain that in a little more detail?” Morgana asks.  Barnum replies “Yes.  It is imperative that we move Jumbo to the ship before the protesters can organize to prevent it.   That would mean moving it at night, and to move him to a proper port facility would take far too long and require days of paperwork.  That bureaucratic delay could allow for enough time for Queen Victoria to issue an edict barring me from being able to take Jumbo.”   Louie says, “So I was right.  You are stealing an elephant!”   

Wilkinson says, “Actually, the lawbreaker would be me.   My current ship is narrow and very maneuverable, originally a former Confederate blockade-runner.  I propose bringing her up the Thames River until the bridges present an obstacle to passage.  I should be able to get my ship most of the way to London and within five miles of the Zoo.   The timing of this would need to be well coordinated with the team bringing the elephant to the ship, as an illegally docked ship will soon bring the British authorities.  If I have not exited from the Thames by dawn the passage might be blocked by the Royal Navy.”   

The group is intrigued by the prospect but also cautious.   Morgana says, “Before we do this I need to see Jumbo.”    “Why?” Louie asks.   She replies, “To make sure that this is what he wants.  I will not force a creature into a life of captivity against its wishes.”   Barnum says, “He is already in captivity.  He’s in a zoo!”  She replies, “But after twenty years he would consider it his home.  I need to see how he feels about the idea of relocation.”   Hank comments, “That’s the Indian side of her talking.”

Wilkinson says, “Well, go do that now then.  I cannot remain in London that much longer because of other shipping obligations.   I’ll also need at least a few hours notice to get my crew ready and the ship’s boilers up to full steam.”   “So you’re looking to move the elephant tonight?” Angus states.   “No time like the present,” is Barnum’s reply.  

Barnum then says, “No as for payment.”  Arcade cuts him off and says, “Let’s not be premature.   We can discuss that after my wife decides we are willing to do this.”   “Very well, I am staying here on the top floor in Suite Number Two.”   “We’ll be back,” Hank states.    They get directions to the zoo and head outside.  Arcade states, “I didn’t want to talk about payment terms in front of Barnum.  It sounds like he really needs us so we should be able to negotiate a good fee.”   Sam comments, “It’s an elephant.  Let’s see if we can get paid by the pound.”


----------



## Silver Moon

*Chapter 76, “Jumbo”, February 16th, 1882:*

The London Zoological Society first opened its doors to the public in 1847 and quickly became one of the most famous Zoos in the world.  Situated in northeastern corner of Regent’s Park, which ironically began as a private royal hunting ground for King Henry VIII, the park now protected animals from being hunted to extinction.    Arcade’s Gang walked this cold damp day the three miles to the northwestern part of the city, a short distance beyond University College, to their destination.  

They had been forewarned that there would be protesters waiting outside of the Zoo, objecting to the removal of this ‘National Treasure’.   The expectations and fears were raised.  The gang had been familiar with heated and violent protests that had taken place in recent years within the United States, including the 1874 Thompkins Square Riots in New York City, the 1875 Anthracite Coal Strike and the Anti-Chinese Riots.   But what awaited them ahead they had not anticipated. 

As they rounded the bend to the Zoo’s main gate, weapons at the ready, they saw that the full extent of the protests were a pair of well-dressed English gentlemen politely stopping passer’s by and handing out leaflets.   “That’s it?  That’s the protest?” Hank exclaims.   “Good thing they want a group of armed gunmen for this,” Arcade sarcastically comments.   Morgana says, “I don’t know.  They might get more people if we actually try to take the elephant out of the zoo.”  

They enter the Zoo and ask where the elephant is kept.   They are given directions to the Elephant House.  When they arrive Morgana explains that Barnum has sent them to plan out the logistics of moving the elephant.    They are introduced to its lifelong trainer and caretaker, Matthew Scott.  Before heading inside Scott explains, “The elephant was captured in the African jungles back in 1861.  It is estimated that he was born in the Sudan in 1859.  He was first taken to Cairo and then was told to the zoo in Paris. He was then acquired by the Royal Zoological Gardens in London who swapped a rhinoceros for it.   He was tiny and in poor health when he first came to me, but now some twenty-years later he is the largest known elephant in the world, the largest creature in captivity for that matter.” 

They enter the room and get a look at the pachyderm.   It stands over eleven-foot high.  Mr. Scott says that it weight six-and-a-half tons.    Hank comments, “Sam, you wouldn’t even be a snack for that thing.   Scott points out that “He doesn’t eat meat, only hay and vegetables.”  He also points out that “Jumbo is harmless, during the last twenty years he has carried thousands of children on his back for rides.”

“Jumbo?” Louie comments.   Scott says, “Yes, an African word.   Most people believe it to translate as ‘elephant’ but the name actually is derived from the Swahili word ‘Jumbe’ which translates as ‘Chief’.      A player comments “I figured he was called Jumbo just because he is so big.   The DM points out that the player actually has that backwards, that in 1882 there was no word ‘Jumbo’ in the English language and the term became a synonym for big as a result of Barnum’s promotion of this elephant.  

Arcade comments, “We heard there is trouble resulting from the sale.”  Scott says, “Yes, the sale of Jumbo has caused a great uproar throughout England, with people asking Parliament and Queen Victoria to act to stop it. The Zoological Society, on the other hand, was more than happy to accept Barnum’s offer of $10,000 for him.   The truth is that the Society is having financial difficulties, due in no small part to the vast amount needed to be spent each day to feed Jumbo.”   

Morgana asks Scott, “How do you feel about him going away?”  Scott says, “Fine by me, since I’m going with him.  That was part of the deal.    What the Society has not made publicly known is that lately Jumbo has become irritable and downright nasty at times, with an occasional temper tantrum.  They fear a possible accident, so they are anxious to have him gone.”  Sam exclaims “Hold on, you’re saying he could go on the rampage!”   

Scott answers, “No, he’s a gentle giant.  The truth his that his bad moods are only the result of the Zoo having cut back how much they feed him in order to save money.  He’s hungry, that’s all.”   Arcade says, “Let’s make sure that we stock up on lots of food for this trip.”  Hank sarcastically comments, “Damn, I left my Wagon of Endless Hay back home.”

Morgana casts a Speak with Animals spell to talk to Jumbo and ensure that he is willing to leave.  She has a hard time getting past his primary concern, namely that he is hungry.    Only after promises of food soon does he begin to understand what she is asking.   Since he doesn’t appear to remember living anywhere else he doesn’t quite understand the idea of leaving, although as long as his keeper is going with him he is agreeable.  

She tells the rest of the Gang that he is willing.   Arcade tells Scott, “Stick around when they close up the Zoo and let the managers know we’re coming tonight for him.  We’ll have all of the paperwork.”    Scott replies, “Then I’ll head home now to pack.   Be sure to bring at least a wagon full of hay, otherwise we’ll never be able to get him to move.”   He then adds, “Jumbo also enjoys eating gingerbread.”   “We’ll be sure to look for a bakery,” Louie comments. 

They flag down a cab to take them back to the Savoy Hotel, along the Thames near the Waterloo Bridge.   They discuss how much to charge Barnum.    Louie suggests a full $ 10,000, the same price he paid for the animal.    Sam says, “Too much, we’re not paying for the ship and crew, just working security.”  “And bringing it to the ship, that’s no small task,” Hank comments.   

They continue to discuss whether to take the assignment or not.   Hank says, “Let’s not rush into this.  I think there’s more here than meets the eye.”  Louie says, “We have to go back to America anyway.  Why not get free passage and money for the trip?”    Morgana says, “No, Hank’s right.  Let’s find out everything that Barnum wants from us before we agree to anything. 

They meet up again with Phineas T. Barnum, and say that they saw the elephant.   Arcade presses him, “What exactly are you looking for from us?”   He replies, “To help get the elephant from the zoo to the ship and then provide security.”   Arcade replies, “And you don’t mean just security for the elephant?”   He replies, “Well, obviously not.  You are expected to help protect the ship is well.   If it sinks, Jumbo will drown.  And so would you, I might ad.”   “Sink?  From what?” Louie asks.   

Barnum replies, “From potential trouble on the high seas.  We have no idea if the British Government might try to use the Royal Navy to get his back.”   Arcade comments, “They would start a war over an elephant?”   Barnum replies, “Hopefully not, but that’s part of why I hired the Captain and ship that I did.  He should be able to bypass any ships attempting to block his passage, that’s what Wilkinson does best.”   

They start to discuss Price.  Barnum starts with an offer of $ 2,000 but they are able to talk him up to their asking price of $ 3,000.    The fact that he quickly agrees to that causes both Morgana and Arcade cause to be concerned that there is more going on than they know.    Sam asks, “What port in the United States is the ship going to?  New York?”    Barnum replies, “No, it is sailing to Galveston.”  Upon hearing the name of the Texas port, and without bothering to check with any of his companions, Hank immediately grasps Barnum's hand in a firm handshake and exclaims “You got yourself a deal!”


----------



## Silver Moon

*Chapter 77, “The Streets of London”, February 16th, 1882:*

Morgana leads the group north of the city to some farmlands where they locate a farmer who owns a wagon, two draft horses and enough hay to fill the wagon.   They offer him 50 pounds for a one-night rental of the wagon and horses and explain where he will be able to find them in the morning.   He expresses some concern about collateral until Arcade produces a passport identifying himself as Josiah Arcadiam, son of Lord Arcadiam and comments, “If there’s any damage to the animals or wagon you can file a claim with my brother William at our London office.”

The gang piles into the back of the wagon while Arcade and Morgana alternate in using their druidic animal handling skills to lead the animals towards the zoo.   They arrive back well after the zoo’s official closing hours but notice that the pair of protesters are still outside handing leaflets to passers by.    Arcade comments, “It’ll be several hours until that ship gets there, should we wait?”  Morgana replies, “No, we don’t know how much time this will take, we should get going.”  Arcade mutters, “She said the same thing on our wedding night.” 

Scott is ready and anxious to depart, and loads his suitcases up towards the front of the wagon.   The horses begin to panic when they see Jumbo but Morgana manages to calm them down.   They locate some ‘blinders’ to position on the animals to keep them focused forward rather than at the large animal that will be following them. 

Coaxed by a wagonload of fresh hay, Jumbo heads out from his cage and follows it through the zoo.   They reach the main gate, which the Chief Zookeeper opens to let them out.   Both protesters head immediately over and demand to know what is going on.   Louie whispers to Arcade, “Try telling them that you’re taking him out to be cleaned.”   

Morgana says to the main protestor “I'm taking it home to my workshop, my dear. "I'll fix it up there. Then I'll bring it back here."  The men just continue to stand there staring.   Hank comments, “What was Barnum worried about?  Those guys make Sam look assertive by comparison.”   Arcade says, “I still think we should have disguised it.”  Morgana replies, “There wasn’t enough time for me to knit him a hat.”   Arcade replies, “We could have put a dress and wig on him, they would have just thought that he was Queen Victoria.”

They don’t know what to say in response and the Gang attempts to make a quick getaway, or rather, as quick a getaway as is possible with a seven-ton elephant.   They head out into the streets, pulling the wagon with Jumbo following.    They get odd looks from passersby but nobody attempts to stop them.   “Taking an elephant through the streets is sure attracting attention,” Louie comments.   Arcade replies, “Don’t go blaming Jumbo, I think it’s you who they’re staring at.” 

A man dressed as a British soldier does asks, “What is going on?”   Hank replies, “It followed us home so we’ve decided to keep him.”  Morgana shows him the copies of the sale paperwork from the Zoo and Barnum.  “I guess it’s legitimate,” he says and wanders off.    Hank says, “This doing things legally seems odd.”  “That was easy,” Sam states.   Arcade replies, “Only until he tells his superiors and it then goes up the line.  If Queen Victoria really wants this creature to stay in England we might have trouble.”  “Best that we hurry,” Hank comments. 

They pick up the pace and Jumbo moves along faster.   They head southeast, through Russell Square and onward, going by the Lincoln’s Inn Fields and the Drury Lane Theatre, turning east onto Fleet Street.    When they have gone about a little more than a mile and are approaching The Temple and Gardens, Jumbo stops and sits down in the middle of Fleet Street.    Morgana casts a speak with animals and determines that he is tired.   The trainer Scott says, “That’s no surprise, this is more walking than he’s done in ages.”    [DM’s Note:  Back in our history, when Barnum tried to move out of London he did the same thing, sitting down on the streets and refusing to budge.]

They are unable to tempt him to move with hay so Arcade sends Sam and Louie out to find some fruit or sweets to try to coax him to move.   He and Morgana are now both out of Speak with Animal spells so he suggests that they meditate for more spells.   Hank says, “I’ll stay here and guard the elephant.”  Everyone laughs at that and Arcade asks Hank “Do you think somebody is going to steal a seven-ton elephant?”  He replies, “Why not, we did.”   Morgana interjects, “We didn’t steal him, we have a receipt.” 

Louie and Sam engage in interesting negotiations at several restaurants in an attempt to buy food.   They eventually make their way back with a bag of apples, several bunches of carrots, a five-pound bag of sugar and a bouquet of flowers.   Jumbo shows an interest in what they have, but not enough of an interest to get up.   A crowd has gathered.  

*February 17th, 1882:*

It is shortly after midnight when Arcade and Morgana finish studying their spells.    Morgana talks to Jumbo first, trying to convince him to get up.    A group of soldiers arrive to “move the traffic blocking impediment off of the street”.   Morgana uses this to her advantage to play her own version of ‘Good Cop/Bad Cop’, convincing Jumbo that the men may harm him unless he moves.  She then lets him sample some of the sugar.  

Jumbo rises to his feet and the wagon is urged onward.   Morgana begins singing a bardic song, interspersed with lyrics to convince the soldiers not to follow, that they have accomplished their mission.    One player mutters, “Ah yes, the old Jedi mind trick.  Move right along, these aren’t the elephants you’re looking for.” 

They manage to get her to keep moving west, soon reaching the Thames River, which they walk alongside.  They continue for another hour-and-a-half.   By this point they are in the east suburbs of the city.    They’ve managed to stretch the food as long as they can, but eventually run out.    Jumbo is tired again, and without the added incentive of the food, decides to stop.    Arcade casts a spell and talks to him, concluding, “This elephant isn’t going to go any further.” 

“What do we do now?” Louie asks.   “Might as well just wait here for the ship to arrive,” Arcade comments.    Sam points out “There aren’t any docks around here.”  Arcade replies, “So what, we’ll improvise.  Elephants can swim.”


----------



## Silver Moon

*Chapter 78, “Frolicking”, February 17th, 1882: 1:30 A.M.*

To avoid drawing undue attention to the elephant Louie had been sent out to ‘borrow’ some sheets and blankets to cover over the sleeping Jumbo.  They then cover over the bed lines with loose hay to make it appear to be a haystack.    They had been stopped for well over an hour when the distant shape of a ship is seen coming up the Thames River. 

The 230-foot-long steam ship comes into view, moving slowly and cautiously up the river.   It has two funnels, two schooner-rigged masts and large paddlewheels on both sides.   It is currently running without any lights although the moon provides ample illumination.    The party waves it down and uncovers the elephant.  The ship comes to a halt and anchors are dropped.   Several men climb onto a dingy pulled behind the ship, which is rowed over to shore, pulling behind it a thick rope tied to the side of the ship. 

They reach the shore and four sailors secure the boat while a rotund swarthy man with a long dark scraggly beard climbs out and approaches the group.   He introduces himself as Paolo Vitalio, First Mate of the steamship Advance.   Introductions are made as the sailors set up a three-sided ten along the shores with the open side facing the water.    Meanwhile, to large steel doors set on the side of the ship back from the paddlewheel are opened.  

Sailors on the ship begin sliding and dropping out of the ship’s hold several twelve-foot-square pontoons fastened together with thick ropes.   The ropes go through the floats a foot from the top and side of each pontoon.   The first pontoon is attached to the rope pulled ashore by the rowboat and the four sailors start to pull them across.   Hank, Sam, Louie, Qualtaqa, Angus and Arcade all pitch in and help haul them across.  

When they are finished there are ten pontoon making a bridge out to the boat, however the river current is causing them to rock about and there is around a foot of empty space between each pontoon so Morgana questions how Jumbo will be able to safely cross.   “That’s my job,” Paolo states.   He puts on a pair of rubber gloves and then stands inside the tent and takes the end of the two ropes from the first pontoon.  He then begins to cast a spell.  

His hands start to glow and electricity begins to spark from his fingers.   The ropes then change their consistency from hemp to steel cables and then steel rods, making the bridge to the ship solid and straight.   Sailors from the ship then head out with twelve-foot-long and one-foot wide wooden planks, placing them atop the rods between the pontoons.   One of the sailors on shore tells the party “Hurry, we need to get the animal onto the ship.”

Morgana wakes up Jumbo and then casts a Speak with Animals spell onto Jumbo to help prompt him into crossing the bridge.   Scott takes some flowers that he had picked the previous hour and starts feeding them to Jumbo, luring him out onto the bridge.   They soon cross over.    Back on shore the spell is ended and the rods soon become ropes again.   The crew on the ship quickly pulls the pontoons back while the sailors on shore take down the tent and row back to the ship with a now exhausted First Mate. 

Inside the ship Scott helps fasten Jumbo to some large chains and elephant sized manacles in the center of the ship’s hold that are fastened into the floor.   Arcade says, “Must be to keep the weight steady and balanced.   Paolo says, “And to keep him from eating all the hay.”   Only noticing a half-dozen pallets of hay bales Morgana comments, “This won’t last long.”  The First Mate replies, “We are picking up more tomorrow.”  He invites the group to follow him topside. 

They approach Captain Wilkinson who says, “Welcome to the Advance”.  He turns to Jumbo’s trainer and asks, “Mr. Scott, is the animal secured?”  In an imitation of a James Doohan voice a player replies, “Aye Captain, there be elephants here.”   Anchors and pulled up and the ship resumes its course.   They have to travel forward a quarter mile to a wider section of the river allowing them enough space to turn the ship around.   This takes time and several constables on shore arrive and start blowing whistles.  

The ship then begins a mad dash back down the Thames.   On the ride up Wilkinson had made multiple notations to his nautical charts of the river and significantly increases his speed.   With both paddlewheels turning full force and a full head of steam the ship quickly reaches the English Channel.    

Wilkinson continues to sail out into the channel as fast as possible, having his crew raise the sails as well to catch the early morning breeze and add extra propulsion.   By the time the sun rises over the eastern horizon they are no longer within sight of land.    A United States flag is then run up the flagpole and the First Mate tells the Captain “The American name is back on.”    The Captain tells them, “You are now on the Frolic.” 

Wilkinson invites the crew to join him for breakfast in the Captain’s lounge.   Several baskets of breads, jams, fruits and dried meats await them along with a honey-mead to wash them down.   

While they eat Wilkinson tells them the history of the ship.  “It was originally built at the Caird and Company shipyards in Greenock, Scotland.  Launched on July 3rd, 1862, she was purchased by the State of North Carolina and crossed the Atlantic under where she joined the Confederate Navy as a blockade-runner under the name Advance.   For the next two years she successfully eluded over forty Union vessels on a total of twenty blockade runs.  

She was captured in September 1864 and purchased by the United States Navy who re-commissioned her as the USS Advance, who ironically then used her to attack the North Carolina coast.   After the war she was re-commissioned as the USS Frolic and stationed in the Mediterranean Sea.  She next patrolled the North Atlantic fishing grounds and was then pressed into service by the Navy in South American waters.  She was decommissioned in October of 1877, the same year I published my book, and I purchased her last year with the earnings from my book.  She is a fine ship with a lot of surprises.  I operate her with a crew of twenty.  When flying the American flag I use the name that she was sold to be as, the Frolic, but to me she will always be the Confederate Naval Ship Advance.”  

Following the meal the group are shown to their quarters, which are rather small and cramped.   Having been up all night, they all quickly fall asleep.  They awaken mid to late afternoon and see that they are sailing west.   Wilkinson tells them that they are traveling parallel the cost and just out of sight of land.   Louie complains about the wet misty weather. 

February 18, 1882:

At dawn the Frolic sails into the English port of Plymouth, England.   Waiting for them along the dock are thirty pallets of hay bales, which are loaded into the hold out of reach of Jumbo.   Wilkinson checks all of the paperwork and the ship sets sail again mid-morning.   

Once at sea Wilkinson talks to Scott, Arcade and Morgana about the possibility of Jumbo charging at pallets of hay along the sides of the hold just outside of reach of Jumbo.   Scott assures him that Jumbo is well behaved and would not do that.  Wilkinson says, “No, you do not understand.  I want you to train him to do that.   Meet me with the rest of your group in my lounge and I will explain why.

Once assembled in the lounge Wilkinson tells them, “Back during the Civil War this ship was successfully used to bring contraband through the blockades at considerable risk but also considerable profit due to the scarcity of the cargo.    This ship was constructed for just that purpose.   I have continued to carry out that tradition.”   The group exchange glances trying to deduce what he just told them.    Angus says, “So, are you saying that you are a smuggler?”

The old Captain smiles and says, “Exactly.   I had missed the excitement of that life and wished to return to it.   The restrictions within the United States and other anti-wizard magic nations has created an underground economy for wizard magics and certain spell components used with wizard magics.   The opposite is also true, as with anti-clerical magic nations restricting items and components used for that.   This in turn has made a lucrative market for my unique talents to tap.”

Arcade asks, “So, what are you smuggling now and where are we going?”  He replies, “At the moment the only cargo on this ship are bales of hay and one large elephant, all of which I have official paperwork for.   

Within the next two days I will be changing direction and head into the Azores, which are a colony of the pro-wizard county of Portugal.    There I will off load half of this hay and replace it with pallets containing hay bales on the outer sides and wizard-magic contraband in the center.   The most precious of these will be in four pallets, which will rest two to either side of Jumbo.  If any inspectors decide to investigate those I wish to have the elephant charge towards them, which should prevent thorough inspections of them.”

Hank asks, “So are we actually going to Galveston?”   Wilkinson says, “Absolutely, it is our official destination.  But first I plan to make three unscheduled stops in the United States, in places that support large Spanish and French populations who have difficulty getting the items that we are picking up.”   “Where?” Morgana asks.   He replies, “Locations near Key West, Florida, New Orleans, Louisiana and finally near Galveston, Texas.”  

“So, that’s why you really needed us as guards?” Louie asks.   Wilkinson replies, “Yes, that is the main thing Barnum is paying you for.  He needs you to get his cargo there safely, and it won’t if the English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Greek or Italian Navies commandeers this ship.  We might also run into trouble from the United States Navy or local authories at any of the three unoffical stops.  There’s also the remote possibility of being attacked by pirates, as their type still prowls the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico.”    The party is surprised by these revelations but do not appear to be overly concerned.  “Should make for an interesting cruise,” Arcade comments.


----------



## Silver Moon

*Chapter 79, “The Azores”, February 19th, 1882:*

One day into the voyage the ship is stopped by an armada of four British ships who inspect the vessel.   Captain Wilkinson insists upon receiving a written report from the Inspector General confirming that everything onboard the ship appears to be in order.   Scott and Morgana continue to train Jumbo to charge towards the hay bales alongside near him. 

*February 20th, 1882:*

Two days after leaving the British Isles the Captain makes a course correction to the south.  The Captain also changes the ships flag to a Peruvian one and the First Officer uses a magical device to change the name on the steam of the ship to now read “Isabella” instead of “Frolic”.    

Wilkinson explains that the ship is registered under three different names in three different countries and that he keeps three separate sets of books.   He tells the party that First Officer Vitolia is officially listed as the Isabella’s Captain due to his being of Portuguese descent, as that they are now sailing into waters claimed by Spain and Portugal.    

Hank asks, “United States, Peru, what’s the third country.”    Wilkinson replies, “Switzerland, that registry listing the ship as the “Heidi”.    Arcade comments, “A ship from a landlocked country with no port?”  Wilkinson replies, “Not entirely true.  They have several port cities along the Rhine River, which flows through Germany and then into the Sea and Ocean.   The main advantage is that the Swiss are neutral in regards to clerical and wizard magics so I fly that flag when I am uncertain who I may encounter.” 

*February 22nd, 1882:*

They arrive at the Azores island chain.   He bypasses the major ports on the two most populous islands, bringing the ship to the island of Pima.  Wilkinson explains that “Paolo has family on this island and they have arranged the cargo.   We’ll be staying here until tomorrow if you want to go on shore and do some looking around and shopping.”  Morgana welcomes the opportunity to get off of the ship.   Hank comments, “There must be some people here who want to hear about Texas.”  Arcade replies, “Why would you think that.  There are people in Texas who don’t want to hear about Texas.”

They visit the largest town on the island and encounter language problems as most of the inhabitants only speak Portuguese, which none o the party know.   They discover that the town has a Magic Shop.   They head inside and are happy to discover that the proprietor does speak English.   

He has a variety of items for sale but most are out of the price range of the party.   His elixirs and potions are within the party’s range and he describes a number of them.  They opt to purchase one that increases the Speed that people move at and another that creates Invisibility.   Hank also purchases a magical rope.  

*February 23rd, 1882*

The contraband is all loaded onboard hidden within pallets of hay bales.   Wilkinson had planned to offload and replace that number of pallets of the Plymouth-loaded hay but since Jumbo is eating at a faster pace than anticipated all are retained, moving those that won’t fit in the hold up to the top deck.  

The ship resumes it’s passage to America.  Once they are out of sight of the Azores the ship’s name and flag are changed to the Swiss “Heidi”.   They are stopped later in the day by a pair of Spanish warships who conduct only a superficial inspection. 

*February 25th, 1882:*

The ship reaches the main shipping lanes between American and Britain.  The ship’s name and flag are changed back to the American “Frolic”.   Later that day they encounter a large British warship that conducts a short inspection.   Jumbo charges at the British Officer-in-Charge on cue, prompting them to quickly conclude their search and find everything to be in order.   Wilkinson insists on getting that in writing.  

*March 2nd, 1882:*

The Frolic sails parallel the Island of Cuba and then approaches the Florida Keys.   American warships are patrolling the area for pirates so the stop at Key West is done as expeditiously as possible, using the pontoon bridge to quickly get the contraband to shore where the buyers of it await.   Some kegs of rum are loaded onboard and a celebration is held that night for both the passengers and crew.   

*March 4th, 1882:*

After two days of sailing up the western coast of Florida as well as the Alabama and Mississippi coast they approach Louisiana.   They avoid the Mississippi river inlets, sailing instead to a marshy area along the Chandelcur Sound, forty miles east of New Orleans.   They dock near a small island with a dozen or so buildings, where the pontoon bridge is again used to offload the contraband.   Wilkinson has both his crew and Arcade’s Gang very visible with all of their weaponry, as he is less trusting of the person he is selling this cargo to.    The transaction takes place without incident and they depart.  They set sail back into the Gulf of Mexico to head directly towards Galveston.


----------



## Silver Moon

*Chapter 80, “Pirates of the Caribbean”, March 6th, 1882, 2:00 PM*

A trio of ships is seen approaching from the south.   They fly no flags and Wilkinson declares “They be pirates.”   Arcade suggests, “Let them come on board and realize the only thing to steal is an elephant and hay.”   Wilkinson says, “Not a good idea.  They might get angry and decide to kill either Jumbo or us.”   

As the ships near the group gets a better look at them.   One is a large wooden-hulled merchant vessel of 1850’s design, often used for whaling, known as a bark.    Another is a smaller merchant ship with a steel plated hull.  The third is a Civil-war era metal-hulled warship.    Wilkinson reveals to the party some of the modifications that he made to the Advance, namely four well-concealed cannons.    He has his crew ready the artillery pieces while still keeping them camouflaged.  

One thing that the dwarf Angus had brought on board is a dozen sticks of dynamite.  He fastens them together is three sets of four and puts a two-minute fuse on each.   The group discusses how to get these to the enemy vessels.   Paolo Vitolia indicates that he has the ability to Teleport to a location within sight and could go to one of the vessels and back, and that he could bring up to two people with him.   Both Angus and Hank volunteer.   The ships are now close enough to see crew on each vessel.   Arcade, Louie and Sam decide to lay down some covering fire to distract the enemy while the others launch the attack. 

They teleport unseen to the roof of the forecastle on the warship.   Paolo tosses a Fireball spells down into a group of crew gathered on the main deck and firing on the Frolic.  He then uses a spell to levitate a lit packet of dynamite sticks up to the steam ship’s funnel and drops it down simultaneous to Hank lifting up Angus and shoving another packet down the ship’s main gun.   

“What about the other set of dynamite?” Angus asks.   Paolo says, “No time, this one’s about to blow.”   Hank point to the Bark and says “How about we bring it there?”  Paolo says, “I only have one more teleport left.”  Angus says, “They’ve got a dingy.   We can borrow it to get back.”     They teleport off the warship just as the first set of dynamite explodes in the ship’s bowels, followed by a second in the powder magazine.  Massive sections of the ship fly off as fire engulfs the vessel. 

The explosion has one side effect of attacking the attention of the Bark’s crew to the rear, where several of them see the trio teleport in.   The pirates begin to fire at them and Paolo is hit.   Angus and Hank pull him down and behind some barrels.   The wound is not deep, but they are now caught in a crossfire between two groups of armed pirates on the vessel.    Seeing that their friends are in trouble, Wilkinson turns the Frolic so that its two after cannons can fire onto the bark.  

Paolo is still capable of casting spells, and tosses a Fireball up into the main mast of he ship, which creates an effective distraction coupled with the cannon fire from the Frolic.  A few of the pirates are also picked off by rifle fire from Arcade, Louie and Sam.   Paolo casts an Invisibility spell onto Angus, who heads off below deck with the remaining set of dynamite sticks.

Angus soon returns and they fight their way to the rear of the ship, jumping overboard and climbing into the dingy.   Pirates fire down from above until a loud explosion rocks the ship and it begins to rapidly sink.   Angus cuts away the dingy and they begin to row away.   

The remaining pirate vessel begins to fire its own cannons at the dingy.  Wilkinson has the Frolic make a wide starboard turn to put it between the remaining ship and the oversized rowboat carrying Angus, Hank and Paolo.   The crew of the Frolic move the cannons and both ships fire broadsides at each other, causing minimal damage to both ships.  Jumbo’s trainer Scott panics when an incendiary cannonball crashes through the side of the ship and sets a pallet of hay on fire.   With help from Jumbo and Morgana they are able to get several barrels of water poured onto the fire and extinguish the blaze. 

The pirate ship manages to pull several dozen crewmen from the water of the sunk and sinking vessels and then sails away back to the south.   The Frolic pursues for a half-mile, then turns back to go collect the three in the dingy.   One paddlewheel is damaged so they raise the sails and use those as a primary means of propulsion while repairs are made to the wheel.    Temporary repairs enable the wheel to again be used, although Wilkinson explains that maximum speed is no longer possible. 

*March 8th, 1882:*

At sunset the lights of Galveston, the largest city in Texas, are seen to the west.    Wilkinson keeps the ships lights off and flying without a flag heads north towards the community of High Island near the base of the Bolivar Peninsula fifteen miles northeast of Galveston.    They crawl into an isolated inlet where the remaining contraband are off-loaded via the pontoons into a caravan of waiting wagons.   The ship remains anchored in the inlet for the night.  

*March 9th, 1882:*

The ship is stopped by a pair of United States warships upon leaving High Island and subjected to a detailed search.   Wilkinson is unconcerned as everything left on board is legitimate cargo.   He explains that they had to make an emergency stop due to the damage caused by the pirates, as it affected the ship’s steering and he didn’t want to cause an accident getting into Galveston Harbor.   The Navy is suspicious but finally releases the vessel in the afternoon.   By early evening they are docked in Galveston.


----------



## Silver Moon

*Module #131*

*Chapter 81, “Galveston”, Thursday, March 9th, 1882:*

By early evening they are docked in Galveston, the largest city in Texas and 82nd largest city in the United States.     The city was a bustling metropolis with 530 businesses totaling $ 30 million in annual sales that including 147 saloons and 10 hotels.   The population of approximately 25,000 was mostly human of English, Scottish, Italian and French descent with a minority population of approximately 25% being ex-slaves of Ogrish descent. 

The only remaining cargo on the vessel is Jumbo.  Arcade quips “Funny that we had to sneak the other things off.  Normally you’d think that of everything that was on this ship the elephant would be the most objectionable.”  Hank says, “Nah, I think Louie still holds that honor.”

A group of men hired by P.T. Barnum is waiting to take possession of the elephant Jumbo.  The documents are examined and the signatures and writing match those of the documents that the party had been given.   The group helps the men in getting the elephant off of the vessel.   The trainer Scott accompanies the men and the party wishes him good luck in the United States. 

Arcade comments “I think we need to spend some time on dry land.”  “And away from elephants,” Sam adds.  Arcade says, “Yes.  Tomorrow I need to go shopping for a new duster.  I don’t think that all the ‘Clean’ cantrips in the world will ever get the elephant smell out of this one.”   The group decides to stick around Galveston for at least the weekend while they get reacquainted with being on dry land.  Meagan and Angus bid the party farewell, deciding to go see the county on their own  [DM’s Note: Their players had left the gaming group.]  

The party decides to find lodgings for the night.    They find lodgings at the Houston Hotel.   Morgana comments, “I thought Houston was another city?”  Hank exclaims, “It is.  This hotel is named for the great Sam Houston, the father of all Texas.”  Louie comments, “Wow, he was busier than my father, and I have lots of siblings.”  

They secure lodgings and Hank then asks for directions to the nearest bar.   The hotel manager suggests the Palace of Gold Saloon next door.   Louie says, “They have palace here in United States?  I thought there no royalty here?”  Hank says, “Nah, that’s just the name.   We don’t need royalty, this is American, the land of opportunity.”  Sam says, “Right, you make your own future.”  Looking over the group Arcade comments, “Maybe we should have gone with royalty instead.”  Hank says, “Here’s a place that anybody can go on to become Mayor, Governor or even President.”   Morgana interjects, “Unless you happen to be a woman, an elf, an orc, an ogre, or any combination of those.”

Several games of poker are going on and Arcade comments about maybe joining one.  Hank says, “Okay, but don’t cheat.  If you get caught cheating in Texas I’ll say I don’t know you.”  Arcade replies, “That would almost make it worth getting caught.”   They watch the games going on which are Faro rather than Poker.  It isn’t their game of choice so they head down the street to the Lucky Ace Saloon and soon find a poker game that Arcade and Hank can join.  They play for a couple of hours, Hank ending the night up $ 65 and Arcade up $ 17.   Morgana had spent that time playing the piano at singing at the Saloon, finishing the night with $ 2.83 in tips.   They head back to the hotel.

*Friday, March 10th, 1882:*

The group enjoys sleeping late.  They eventually get up and have breakfast.  They decide to do some shopping.   Morgana sees and purchases a silver-plated harmonica.  Hank says, “That’s great, the next time we find ourselves arrested and thrown in jail you’ll have something to play.”  Sam asks hesitantly, “Hank, how much trouble are you planning to get us into?”  Louie says, “We no have to look for trouble, it finds us on its own.”   

They start the day at the bank where Barnum had given them the paperwork to be paid for their work.   It takes a while for the bank manager to process everything and get them their funds, which they take in a combination of big and small bills.   The $ 3,000 is divided up into equal packets of $ 500 for each.  Sam comments, “Angus and Meagan should have stuck around.”  Arcade says, “This is part of why I wanted them to go.  Their loss, our gain.” 

Next they find a clothing shop where Arcade purchases himself a new black leather duster coat.   Louie looks at several dresses.  Sam laughs, “I don’t think those are your style.”  Louie says, “It not for me.   For Mary Wong back in Promise City.   I should brink her present after long trip.”  Arcade asks, “How long did you tell her you would be away?”  He replies, “I not say.  How long were we away?”  Morgana replies, “Four months.”   Hank tells Louie, “Maybe you should make that two dresses.”   Morgana suggests he get her lots of presents.

They go to a general store when Louie buys lots more presents as well as a large truck to put them all in.  Hank sees a copy of a book he hasn’t read yet by author Mark Twain.  This leads to numerous jokes at his expense question whether he has ever owned a book before or even knows how to read.  Hank insists that he is a fine reader and that he makes it a point to read a book every year or two.    

Louie and Qualtaqa each pick up one end of the truck to lug with them.   It has now gotten hotter outside and Louie comments to Hank, “Is Texas always this hot?”  He replies, “Nah, it’s only March.  It gets a lot hotter in the summer time.”   They head back to the hotel to unload their purchases.   They spend the rest of the day and evening just relaxing and hanging out are the various saloons near the hotel. 

*Saturday, March 11th, 1882:*

The group sleeps late into the morning.    Over brunch they read in the local newspaper about a shooting contest taking place that afternoon.  It costs $ 10 to enter and the 1st prize winner get $ 250, 2nd prize is $ 150 and 3rd prize is $ 50.   Arcade, Hank and Sam all decide that they want to participate.   

The contest is taking place down on the peninsula outcropping from the city.   There is a large turnout, with nearly 300 participants.  Hank comments, “I’m not surprised. We Texans are usually armed and proud of our marksmanship.   The contest is for revolvers only.    Several rounds are held narrowing the number of participants down to the best twenty, of which both Hank and Sam qualify.  

A series of final shoots follows.   Hank finishes in 5th place.   Sam manages to take 2nd place, loosing to a local saloonkeeper named Clem Hawkins.   Sam accepts the prize money.  When asked by a local reporter for his name Sam replies, “Melvin Smith”.    A number of people offer to buy drinks for ‘Melvin’ and the rest of the group goes along, spending the rest of the day celebrating his good fortune.  

*Sunday, March 12th, 1882:*

Worship services to the various gods are traditionally held on Sunday so Morgana and Arcade decide to head off into the nearest wilderness for their own Druidic ceremony.   Qualtaqa heads off for private mediation.   Hank, Louie and Sam spend the morning at the hotel sleeping in.  

Over lunch the party reaches the conclusion that it is time to head back to Arizona.   They visit the train station in the afternoon and purchase tickets for a train to Houston that will arrive there at approximately 8:00 P.M.    The group checks out of their hotel and head to the train station.


----------



## Silver Moon

*Chapter 82, “The Bounty Hunter”, Sunday, March 12th, 1882, 8:00 P.M.*

The train carrying Arcade’s Gang arrives in Houston, Texas.  They discover that the next passenger train west doesn’t leave until the following afternoon.   Arcade comments, “I’m shocked that there aren’t more trains leaving from here.  I would think that anybody who came to this city would want to leave right away.”    Hank protests until Morgana says, “If Texas is so great then why did you leave it?”  

They find lodgings for the night at the Shining Star Inn near the train depot as they don’t want to have to lug full trunk any further than they have to. 

Monday, March 13th, 1882: 9:30 A.M. 

The group sleeps late and grabs breakfast at the Inn.   The breakfast consists of steak, eggs and chili.   Morgana gets a salad instead.   Breakfast conversation consists of Hank regaling the group on the wonders of various Texas chili recopies.    

Morgana says that she’d like to go do some shopping.  They soon find themselves at the fanciest jewelry store in town and Morgana looks at a number of shiny pieces of nice jewelry.   She buys a silver necklace with three quartz pendants. 

Louie takes an interest too and the proprietor asks him “Is there something in particular you would like to look at?”  He replies, “Yeah, something nice so I don’t get hit in the side of the head by girlfriend.”   The man also has for sale table settings and asks, “Would she be interested in some silverware or good imported china?”  Louie replies, “I from China, that enough for her.” 

Hank tells Louie “So what? You just find another gal.”  Louie says, “Mary Wong only Chinese girl in Promise City.  Only other woman I know is Morgana and she already married.”  Arcade says, “As big and heavy as that hope chest is I’d say you have nothing to worry about.”   Hank adds, “And even if she is angry and kills you, that chest is big enough to bury you in, so you’d still get some use out of it.”  He buys some jewelry and the comment is made “That’s the most he’s spent since he bought rice.” 

It is around 11:00 AM when they are walking down a less traveled street and hear a voice yell out from an alleyway “Drop it”.   They look in the alley and see that the comment was made from a very tall man in cowboy clothes, Stetson hat, with long blonde hair and holding a revolver.   He is pointing the revolver from point blank range into the back of the head of another man.   That man is wearing worn farming clothes and holding a shotgun and pointing it out of the alleyway directly towards Arcade.

Morgana exclaims, “What is going on here?”   The tall man says in a Texas drawl “Be right with you Ma’am, just as soon as this guy lowers his shotgun.”   Arcade, Hank and Sam all draw their revolvers and point them towards the shotgun-toting farmer.   “What is this all about?” Arcade states.   The tall Texan replies, “This here guy is a bounty hunter.”  The Texan reaches into a left hand pants pocket and pulls out a rolled up sheet of yellowed paper, which he tosses to Arcade.

Arcade unrolls it to read “Wanted!  $ 2,000 reward for the capture of Arcade’s Gang”  He reads the remainder, accusing them on three murders in Promise City on January 2nd .  The reward cites to total amount for the capture and killing of the entire gang and lesser amounts specifically for Arcade and Sure-shot Sam.  Hey, “We’re being accused of something that we actually didn’t do!” Sam exclaims.  

They tell the bounty hunter “We didn’t do this.  We weren’t even in the United States at the time.”   He replies, “Not my problem.  Bounty’s still valid.”   The Texan tells the bounty hunter, “Cole, these guys are on to you.   Best to quit while you’re ahead.   Empty the ammunition out of your weapons and go.”   The man does as instructed but also tells the Texan “You’re a dead man.  Nobody orders Irby Cole around.”  “I’ll take my chances,” the Texan replies.   

Once the bounty hunter walks away Arcade says, “Thanks, but why’d you do that?”  The Texan replies, “Not here.  Let’s go somewhere private to talk.”   The group hadn’t checked out of the hotel yet since they didn’t want to have to lug Louie’s trunk around so they go back there.   When asked for a name the man replies, “Tex”.

Once they are all back in the room and the door is shut and locked Hank asks “What was that all about?”   Tex replies, “Around ten weeks ago a group sought revenge against a guy staying at the Comstock House back in Promise City.   He drew on them as did two of his friends and the group shot the three dead.  The three dead men worked for Elton Hubbard, owner of the largest mine in town and he issued the reward.”  

“But why did they think it was us?” Louie asks.   Tex replies, “The consisted of a tough male gunslinger, several human cowboy-types, an Indian, a half-orc and a centaur.”    “Okay, that does sound like us,” Sam comments.   Tex says, “Yes, but there were some key differences.  The centaur was female and the Indian was male, but they decided not to let those facts get in the way of the accusation.”  “Figures,” Louie comments. 

Tex continues, “Your gambler friend Conrad Booth has seen some the group and insisted it wasn’t you but Hubbard was sure that is was.   The bounty hunter Irby Cole hung around town a few weeks before leaving.”  Arcade comments, “But We just got back in the county a few days ago and haven’t been using our names.  How’d he find us so quickly?” Arcade asks.   Tex replies, “Bad luck on your part.  Cole lives here in Houston and he saw you this morning.  Your group doesn’t exactly blend it.”

Morgana says, “Okay, that tells us who he is but not who are you and why you decided to help us.”   He reaches down and removes a ring from his right ring finger.  Once the ring leaves his hand he transforms into Manuel Gonzales, friend, wizard and Morgana’s teacher from back in Promise City.  “Ah, that explains a lot,” she says.  He replies, “Yes my little bird, it should.  I imagine you all have a great many more questions.”


----------



## Steve Jung

So that's what Cole and Gonzalez have been up to. Cool.


----------



## Queenie

Whoops, our bad... sorry Arcades Gang!


----------



## Silver Moon

*Chapter 83, “A Change in Direction”, Monday, March 13th, 1882:*

The gang asks Manuel Gonzales about the disguise and he tells them “I couldn’t go around town as myself.  I’m still wanted by the Texas Rangers for my participation at the Alamo.”  Hank says, “I’ll pretend that I didn’t hear that.”  “You’d better,” Morgana comments.    Several players make comments in reference to the ‘Texas Rangers’ baseball team. 

Sam asks, “So, how are things back in Promise City.”   Gonzales replies, “Pretty quiet these past few months.  The new town Marshall Wyatt Earp keeps a tight reign on things.”   Morgana interjects “Earp is now the Marshall!”   Arcade says, “Hmmm, I may have accidentally left a light on over in England.  We should go back and check.” Louie says, “Want to go home.”  “Back to China?” Gonzales asks.  Louie says, “No, Promise City.  Have things for Mary Wong.  She still there?”  He replies, “Yes, the Wong Family is still there.”    

“How are our horses?” Morgana asks.   Gonzales hesitates then says, “Yours is fine.  So are Arcade and Hanks.”   The others notice his omission of Sam’s and the young man says, “What about mine?”   Gonzales says, “I’m sorry Sam, I’m afraid it’s dead.  A friend was riding it and got shot at.”   Sam yells out “What!”   Gonzales interjects, “But I have a friend who owns a ranch and we will find you a fine replacement.”  “Oh, okay then,” Sam says, apparently not having been too attached to the mount. 

Arcade asks, “So how do we go about clearing up this misunderstanding about being wanted?”   Gonzales replies, “That’s easy.  Your passports show when you entered and left Great Britain.  I’ll take those back and use those to clear this all up.”    Hank says, “Hey, how did you know we were in Britain?”  He replies, “Morgana is my apprentice.  I’ve been keeping an eye on you guys.   In case you hadn’t heard yet, two days after you rescued that French druid she caused the collapse of the French government.”   Morgana asks, “So, she’s running France now?”  He replies, “No, nobody is, or more accurately lots of people are simultaneously claiming to be.  In truth the France is in a complete state of anarchy.”   “And that’s different than before?” Arcade quips. 

“How long will it take to clear our names?” Louie asks.   He replies, “I’m not sure.  But the Judge is in town so it shouldn’t take too long.”   “So we’re stuck here in Texas!” Arcade exclaims with no attempt to hide the anger and distain in his voice.   Hank exclaims, “That’s great!  We can visit my family in McKinney!”  Arcade mutters, “A whole family like him?  I think not.” 

Gonzales replies, “Actually, I have another errand I’d like you to take care of in the next few days.”   Arcade says, “If it doesn’t involve staying in Texas I’m all for it!”   Gonzales says, “Good, I need you to go to Louisiana.  There is a person in New Orleans I would like you to meet.”   Arcade exclaims, “New Orleans!  We were just there last week!  We’re going backwards!”   Morgana mutters, “At least it isn’t Texas.” 

“Why do we need to go there?” Louie asks.   Gonzales replies, “I need to you meet up with the Grand Arch Mage Andre Marc Guilleault.”   “A Frenchman?” Arcade says.  “Well, it is New Orleans,” Morgana states.  Gonzales says, “Yes.  He’s new to the United States, is in some trouble and doesn’t know anybody here yet.”   “So the first people you want him to meet are us?” Hank questions.   “Yeah, that’ll give him a favorable impression of the county,” Arcade sarcastically states.  

Gonzales says, “What he needs is your area of expertise.  He needs to have some items stealthfully removed from a ship before it sets sail back to England.”   Arcade says, “Hold on just one minute there!  Are you asking an Englishman to help a Frenchman steal from the English?”  Gonzales says, “I’m asking my apprentice and her friends to help a wizard protect and save some valuable artifacts before they are destroyed by the ignorant and unknowing.”  Arcade says, “You’re calling the English ignorant.”  The elderly wood elf replies, “Of magic, yes. And if that ship reaches England with these artifacts just how long do you think it will take that evil wizard who controlled your family to get possession of them?”   Arcade ponders that and says, “Okay, those are valid points.”   

“And you think they’ll be safer with the Frenchman?” Morgana asks.   He replies, “Not at all.  But while I’m sure that Guilleault would want to study them he understands that right now the priority is to get them to safe keeping.  He’s agreed to let me hide them for now.   What I need you to do is help him get the items off the ship and bring them by train back to Arizona.”

“What’s so special about these items?” Louie asks.   Gonzales says, “Guilleault believes them to be Atlantian.  Wizard magic was first discovered on the lost continent of Atlantis although the only references to have survived are in the writings of Homer.   “The Iliad and the Odyssey,” Arcade says.   Gonzales says, “Yes, plus a third test that is the basis for most wizards spells.  Few copies of that volume survived the burning of the Library of Alexandria.   There is no telling what secrets these artifacts might hold.” 

Hank says, “Look Manny, we appreciate what you did for us with the bounty hunter and all, but I’m still not all that fond of the idea of running off to Louisiana to steal a bunch of magic trinkets”.  Gonzales says, “Did I neglect to mention that Guilleault is rich?  I’m sure that I can convince him to compensate you for your efforts.  Perhaps a useful magic item for each of you.”   “Let’s go,” Arcade and Sam say in unison. 

In addition to the passports they convince Manuel to bring Louie’s truck back to Promise City as well as giving him a large quantity of their money.  “Put it in the El Parador’s safe,” Morgana instructs him.  He replies, “The El Parador doesn’t have a safe.”   She says, “Use some of that money to buy one.  Just make sure it isn’t a Harrisburg model.”   He says that he will check on them and get back to them in a few days.  

Gonzales gets beside the trunk.  He sets up a brazier, which he lights, and tosses in some powder.  He then casts an incantation which teleports him and the trunk back to Promise City.   The others pack up and check out of the hotel.   They head to the train station, keeping a close eye out for that bounty hunter.   They board an afternoon eastbound train that two hours later brings them to the town of Beaumont, Texas.    

At Beaumont they have the choice of taking a late night train that will bring them to Baton Rogue by dawn or to stay overnight and catch a morning train to Baton Rogue.  They opt for the latter, figuring that they wouldn’t get a good night’s sleep on the train and wanting to be fresh and on alert for the meeting with the wizard.  “Good, another night in the Lone Star State,” Hank interjects.   They others groan at that prospect as they all head off to find lodgings.


----------



## Silver Moon

*Chapter 84, “The City of New Orleans”, Tuesday, March 14th, 1882, 9:30 A.M.*

The group sleeps in and misses the first eastbound passenger train of the day.   But that also means that they have time for a nice breakfast consisting of steak and eggs, and also Chili for Hank.    They do some shopping with Hank buying himself a Texas flag.  “What are you going to do with that?” Morgana asks.   “I’ll think of something,” he replies. 

They board a train shortly after 11:00 and cross over into Louisiana shortly after noon.  Arcade comments, “Is there where I do my ‘we’re out of Texas’ happy dance?”   Morgana says, “Don’t celebrate too quickly, we’ll probably be traveling back through Texas to get home.”   “Gods, I hope not,” Arcade exclaims.    “Avoiding it would take us hundreds of miles out of our way,” she replies.   “It would probably still be worth it,” is his response. 

The train stops at the Louisiana communities of Vinton, Sulfur, Lake Charles, Jennings, Crowley and finally Lafayette where they have an extended layover while the train takes on water and coal.    It pulls out of the station at 3:30 PM and thankfully has no stops until Baton Rogue, which they reach shortly after 5:00 PM.    They investigate transportation to New Orleans, finding that the rail system doesn’t extend there yet.   A riverboat down the Mississippi River is leaving in a half-hour so they hurry and board it, being thankful that they managed to rid themselves earlier of Louie’s trunk. 

The boat makes a leisurely ride down the river.   Hank plays a few hands at one of the gambling tables, winning a total of $ 11.00.   Morgana and Arcade wander around deck together hand-in-hand taking in the scenery.  Louie complains to Sam about having to ride another boat.   Qualtaqa, in elvan form, just enjoys the ride.   The ship docks in New Orleans at 10:45 P.M. 

They exit the riverboat and walk through the city.  Sam asks, “How are we going to find this arch mage?  All we know is his name.  This is a big city!”   Qualtaqa says, “Tenth largest city in the United States according to the boat conductor.”  “And that French guy is new here too, folks won’t know him yet,” Hank exclaims.   Morgana states, “They might, he’s a Grand Arch Mage, so would be rather powerful.”   Arcade says, “Let’s do it tomorrow, I’m tired.”

They head towards one of the better parts of the city, stopping at the multi-story ‘Vin de Fleur’ hotel off from Jackson Avenue.    They check into a three-bedroom suite on the third floor.   Arcade says, “This room is nice.  Why don’t we just stay here until Gonzales gets around to contacting us?  He told us yesterday that he’d get back to us in a few days.”  Morgana replies, “No, we don’t know when he’ll get to this city.”    Unbeknownst to Morgana, Gonzales is actually in New Orleans right then, at a Creole nightclub less than a mile east where he is currently dancing with his other apprentices following a dinner with the French mage  (as referenced in the “Wizards, Whiskey and Wonderful Things” Story Hour, Chapters 40 to 43.)  

*Wednesday, March 15th, 1882, 8:30 A.M.*

The group sits down for breakfast at the ground floor restaurant of the hotel.   Arcade declares, “I’ll have the French Toast, or as they call it here, toast.”    After breakfast Louie says, “Where we go to find French wizard?”  Morgana says, “Might as well start in the city’s French Quarter.”  They decide to keep the hotel room for another night so as not to have to lug all of their possessions.    They travel south and then east, soon finding themselves in Jackson Square, with an oversized statue of Andrew Jackson riding a horse in the part and a large Roman/Greek church cathedral across the street from it.   

A very large man with a long dark beard approaches them.  “Would you be Morgana?” he asks.  He is dressed rather simply and so assuming that he isn’t the mage she replies, “Yes, who are you.”  He replies, “My name is Maurice, I am a friend of Manuel’s.   He asked me to keep my eyes out for you.”  Morgana is skeptical and says, “Exactly what did he tell you?”  Maurice says, “He asked me to watch out for his ‘little bird’.”  “Okay, it’s legit,” she tells her friends. 

He leads them to a building on Burgundy Street where they walk up a short flight of stairs to an exterior door.  He unlocks the door, the hallway on the other side, with stairs going both up and down.   He leads them down, into a large forty-by-sixty foot basement room.   As houses in New Orleans don’t have basements due to the low water line the party immediately realize that magic is part of this building.   

The center of the room has a stage with a piano and dozens of other musical instruments, with chairs arranged around the remainder of the room facing the stage.   A bar is in the northwest corner of the room and a kitchen in the southwest corner.    A high elf is on stage playing an odd wood pipe.  Two other people are in the room, a wood elf and a dwarf.   The wood elf makes a gesture at the end of the high elf’s song and the elf and dwarf leave.   

The wood elf approaches them and says, “Hello, my name is Pasqual Alvaro.  I own this establishment.   We are old friends of Manuel and he asked us to offer you our assistance if he could.”   Maurice says that he will go contact Guillieult to arrange for a lunch meeting.   An elvan Indian arrives who Pasqual introduces to the group as his wife, Rain Tchoupitoulas.   Morgana takes an interest in all of the unusual musical instruments.  Rain explains, “We operate this as an invitation only private club, where those who appreciate the universal language of music can come and share in each other’s songs.”   

The group stays at the club until Maurice returns, stating that an 11:30 A.M. meal reservation has been made at Commander’s Palace, the finest restaurant in the city.    Pasqual tells the party, “Manuel was unsure if Guillieult could be fully trusted.  Be careful.   If you run into any trouble or need a place to go to avoid him please feel free to return here.”   Morgana thanks them and they party heads off to lunch.

They head to Louisiana Avenue and to a large two-story wooden building painted teal green with white trim that has a three-story clock tower in the corner.    They enter the building, which has multiple private dining rooms off from the main room.     It is early and they are just opening for the lunch crowd.    The host approaches them and Morgana mentions Guillieult.   They are shown to a table.  Shortly thereafter a man dressed in elaborate clothing joins them.


----------



## Silver Moon

*Chapter 85, “Your mission, if you choose to accept it”, Wednesday, March 15th, 1882, 11:30 A.M.*

The man introduces himself to them as Marc Andre Guillieult.  He is tall and thin with a full head of white hair and a white-and-gray van dyke beard.  He is attired in an ivory-colored three piece suit with gold necktie over a white shirt, gold cufflinks, gold necklace, four gold rings with fancy gems.  They introduce themselves.  

He says, “Thank you for coming so quickly.”   Arcade replies deadpan “We travel light”.  The waiter arrives and Guillieult orders for the entire table in French.   He then reaches into a vest pocket, removing a pinch of green powder, which he causally drops onto the flames of a lit candle in the center of the table and makes a short incantation.  He explains, “That will keep others from eavesdropping on our conversation.”

As the meal is served he hands Arcade a copy of the New Orleans Times Picayune newspaper, stating, “This was from two days ago.”   Arcade reads:  

_Mystery at Sea   The British merchant ship, the S.S. Jesmond, made an unscheduled stop in its journey on its way to our city. It had departed from Messina, Sicily with a cargo of dried fruits on February 26th. 

When the ship reached an area 200 miles west of Madeira and 200 miles south of the Azores they noted that the ocean had become unusually muddy and that the vessel was passing through enormous shoals of dead fish. The ship's Captain David Robson then saw smoke on the horizon, which he presumed came from another ship. 

The next day the fish shoals were even thicker and the smoke on the horizon seemed to be coming from the mountains on an island directly to the west, where, according to the charts, there was no land for thousands of miles. Captain Robson anchored offshore, worried that this uncharted island was surrounded by reefs. Even though the charts indicated an area depth of several thousand fathoms, the anchor hit bottom at only seven fathoms. 

Robson went ashore with a landing party and found a large island with no vegetation, no trees, no sandy beaches, bare of all life. The shore they landed on was covered with volcanic debris. With no trees they could easily see a plateau beginning several miles away and smoking mountains beyond that. 

They headed toward the interior in direction of the mountains but found that progress was interrupted by a series of deep chasms. To get to the interior would have taken days. They returned to their landing point and examined a broken cliff, part of which seemed to have been split into a mass of loose gravel as if it had recently been subjected to great force. 

The sailors then found an arrowhead in the broken rock, and Captain Robson send for picks and shovels form the ship so that the crew could dig into the gravel. He and his crew soon uncovered crumbling remains of massive walls. They continued to dig near the walls for better part of two days, finding bronze swords, rings, mallets, carvings of head figures of birds and animals, and two vases or jars with fragments of bone, and one cranium. 

Then they found what appeared to be a mummy enclosed in a stone case, encrusted with volcanic deposit so as to be scarcely distinguished form the rock itself. The rock sarcophagus aboard the Jesmond as dark clouds began to roll in off of the horizon, and Robson resumed his course.  This reporter has examined the artifacts and they appear to be authentic. Robson's plans to donate the artifacts to the British Museum upon his return to England._

Morgana states, “So you believe that this mysterious island that suddenly resurfaced was Atlantis?”   Hank says, “Can’t be, that’s a city in Georgia, not an island.”   “Atlantis! Not Atlanta, you dolt,” Morgana exclaims.   Guillieult reiterates what Gonzales had told them about the dangers and risks of these items falling into the wrong hands, adding “Especially the sarcophagus.” 

Louie asks, “What’s so special about it?  Just box with dead person.”   Guillieult says, “Not just a dead person.  To receive such an elaborate burial coffin he would have been an Atlantian Emperor, one of their most powerful mages.    Atlantian wizard magic was renown, but their knowledge of clerical magic was lacking.   Whatever ailment killed this Emperor could most likely be reversed using today’s medical science and the most powerful of clerical magic spells could be used to resurrect the dead.   This man from Atlantis could be revived!  There is no telling what knowledge he might possess, which could be abused and corrupted by whoever possesses him!” 

The group ponders this.  Morgana says, “There is another unpleasant possibility.  Don’t powerful wizards have the possibility of become powerful undead when they die?”  Guillieult says, “Yes, I believe the term you are looking for is that of a Lich.   A Lich could be equally dangerous if allied with an nation seeking conquests.”   

Guillieult then says, “Mr. Gonzales indicated that you might be able to help me to remove those items from the ship they are on before it sets sail.”  “When will that be?” Morgana asks.  He replies, “Saturday.”  “No problem,” Hank exclaims.    Morgana says, “Actually, there could be many problems.   How many men are on the ship and how many guards?”  Guileful replies, “When I looked yesterday there were a dozen city police on the dock and a small skeleton crew on board.”   Louie comments, “When you say skeleton crew you mean few of them, not undead, right?”  Guillieult replies, “Oui.”  

Arcade says, “Look, before we agree to anything I’d like to take a look at this ship.  Why don’t you give us directions to where it is docked and we’ll go have a look?   We can meet you back here at supper time.”   The French wizard agrees.    Arcade’s Gang gets up and departs, leaving Guillieult with the check for the meal.   Once outside Louie comments “The food was good there.”  Arcade says, “I thought so too, that’s why I wanted to get a free supper as well.” 

They wander through the city and down to the earth and stone levee that protects the city from Mississippi River flooding.  On the other side of the levee are stairs down to the docks.   They group keeps their distance, but manage to get within a few hundred feet of the Jesmond.   The dozen New Orleans police are standing on the dock in different spots in groups of twos and fours.   Arcade says, “We’ll need to find something to distract them.”  Sam says, “We could hire some prostitutes.”  Hank replies, “That would distract us.”  Louie adds, “Then just hire them for Sam then.” 

Arcade says, “We not only have the problem of the police, but getting a sarcophagus and those other items off might attract attention.  These docks are a fairly open area.   It might be easier if we just steal the entire ship.”   They debate the merits of that plan.  Hank agrees to the plan provided they agree to sail it to Texas.   Arcade says, “We can hire a crew to sail it around South America and on to Arizona.”   Hank says, “There are no ports in Arizona!  It’s all mountains and desert!”  Arcade replies, “I didn’t mean all the way back.  You can sail up the Gulf of California in Mexico to Puerto Penaso, that’s only around fifty miles from the Arizona border.”  Hank replies, “I still like the sound of Texas better.” 

Morgana asks, “What is the alternative?”  Arcade replies, “Fighting our way onto the ship, find the items including a large stone sarcophagus.  Take them off of the ship and then bringing them through a crowded city, and then finding a way to get them to Baton Rogue to put on a train.  Stealing the ship is a much easier solution.”  

Louie comments, “Seems like a big thing to steal.  Let’s just put a hole in the side of the ship and take it out that way.”   Hank replies, “Easier said than done, and we’d still have to sneak it through the city without being seen.”  Arcade says, “We would all wear hats as disguises.”  “What about the sarcophagus?” Sam asks.  “Put a hat on him too,” is Arcade’s answer.   

Morgana says, “If we steal the ship we would still have to sail it close to 100 miles downriver before we reach the Gulf of Mexico.   They could get word ahead to Navy ships to cut us off.”    Hank points and says, “I see Navy ships docked right over there.  We could wind up having a running gun battle down the Mississippi.”  “Sounds like fun,” Arcade replies.   “But not necessarily easier,” Morgana comments.

Hank says, “I like the idea.  It’s like piracy!  As soon as your steal-the-boat plan is approved I’m going to go out and buy myself an eye patch and a parrot.”    Louie says, “Why not wait until Saturday and steal it as it leaves?”  Morgana replies, “Three days from now?  It might be too late then.  We’d better assume that the French and Spanish already know about the items and are working on their own plans to steal it.”  Louie says, “So we’re one of a dozen or so groups planning the same thing?”

“Maybe they already taken it?” Sam comments.  Arcade says, “The police wouldn’t still be there if they had.”  “Only if the police know,” Morgana adds.    Hank says, “Yeah, the police seem to only be on the dock.  Somebody could have come in by boat on the water side.”  “Hey, we can do that,” Arcade says.   Morgana adds, “I can’t swim.”  “Then don’t fall into the water,” Hank exclaims.    

Morgana says, “Why don’t we try to get on board now and find where these items are.”   Arcade, “Because we haven’t agreed to do this yet.   Let’s meet this guy for supper and see how much he’s planning to pay us before we risk arrest or worse.”   The others concur and they head back to their hotel to just relax until suppertime. 

They meet with Guillieult for supper.  After the meal Morgana asks what type of magical assistance he can provide.   He explains that he has a large number of spells at his disposal, although he would need to first study for them.    “Could you make our whole group invisible?” she asks.   He says that he can.   Louie says, “Can you make large hole in side of ship?”   He says that he can do that too, that a Passwall spell creates a temporary hole.    

Arcade says, “So it comes down to either my idea of stealing the ship or Louie’s idea of rowing out to the ship, putting a hole in the side of the ship, pulling out a one-ton coffin, rowing it across the water and back across the harbor without sinking, and sneaking it through the city.”   Guillieult replies, “Either of those plans is viable.”   The group continues to debate both options.


----------



## Queenie

I can't wait to find out what's going to happen!


----------



## Silver Moon

Stay tuned.....

*Chapter 86, “The Heist”, Wednesday, March 15th, 1882, 5:30 P.M.*

Hank says, “Hey Arcade, It’s a British ship.  Your family is all high-muckity-mucks in England.  Why do you just use that to get on board, say that your are an Emissary for the King.”  “England is ruled by a Queen!” is his reply.  “Yeah, whoever they have now,” Hank replies.  Morgana sarcastically comments, “You’d hardly know he just spent several months there.”  Arcade says, “The problem with that plan, other than the fact that I have no desire to associate with a bunch of lower-class sailors, is that we sent our passports back so I have no identification.”

Morgana says, “Mr. Guillieult, would you presently have an Invisibility Ten-foot Radius spell memorized so that we could go scout out the ship?”  He replies, “Oui, when we conclude the meal we can find somewhere private for me to cast it on you.”  “Won’t you be joining us?” Sam asks.   He replies, “For the heist, absolutely, but you do not need me for the scouting.  You are experienced at that, I am not.”  Morgana glares at the others and says, “We can do this part without him.”   

Louie quips, “So we sneak in, find the things, then sneak out.”  Arcade says, “Sounds uncomplicated enough.”  Louie asks, “So do we sink boat on our way out?”   “Only if the items are already gone,” is Hank’s reply.   “Why would we have to sink it in that case?” Sam asks. Hank answers, “No reason, it just sounds like something fun.”

Arcade looks to Guillieult and says, “There’s still one fundamental question to be answered, what’s in it for us?”   The Frenchman replies, “Mr. Gonzales indicated that some additional incentive would be in order.  I have managed to pull together a half-dozen different magical items that I can reward you with.   The first of these is a magical leather duster that affords additional protection to the wearer; the next item is a Hacksaw of Cutting, that will cut through any object; I have a case of twelve 44-40 rifle cartridges that create a fire where they strike; I have an Invisible Tent large enough for two people to comfortably sleep; I have a pair of boots that allow the wearer to walk on water; and last I have a pocket watch that is a Polymorph Item, allowing the person holding it to change their physical image to one imprinted on the watch.  

Morgana inquires about the image and he explains, “Your friend Gonzales knows how to imprint the image, which reminds me.”  He then reaches into his pocket and hands her a ring saying “He asked me to reset and recharge this for him, it is also a Polymorph Item.  Please give it to him when you see him next.”   The group decides that the payment plus enough money for train fare back to Arizona is sufficient.  Next they discuss the possibility of maybe using some of the items, specifically the Hacksaw and Boots, to assist with the present operation.   

The meal ends and they all head outside.   Arcade is still uncertain as to which of their two plans to go with.  He suggests to Guillieult “Why don’t you study spells for use with either idea.  How long would that take you?”  He indicates around five hours so Arcade says, “Fine, meet up with us down by the levee near the ship at around 11:30 tonight.”  “We’re doing this tonight?” the wizard exclaims.  Arcade says, “Sure, the sooner we do this the better.”    Morgana then has the wizard cast an Invisibility Ten-foot Radius spell onto her so that the gang can go investigate the ship. 

They silently make their way down to the dock, being sure to all stay close to Morgana.   They carefully circumnavigate around the policemen and climb up onto the ship.   Most of the ship is deserted, with them seeing four men working in the engine rooms and another two running around the ship performing routine maintenance.   

Arcade tells the gang “See, stealing this ship will be easy, there are only a handful of folks here who we’ll just get to assist us.”  Morgana says, “And they’ll do this just because we ask them nicely?”  Hank says, “No, they’ll do this because we put guns in their faces.”   Morgana says, “It’s unlikely they will be willing to just stay on as crew, they’ll see us as pirates.”  Arcade replies, “So, we dump their bodies in the Gulf of Mexico.”   Louie exclaims, “Kill the crew?  Arcade, these are Englishmen.  They’re your own people.”  He answers, “Yes, but they’re the lower classes.” 

Morgana doesn’t favor that plan and says, “Maybe we can just make them forget or confused about us.   If that wizard can do a Mass Invisibility spell maybe he knows some type of Mass Hysteria spell.”  “Mass hysteria?  Haven’t we been doing that all along?” Sam comments.   The group then discusses the timing of this, deciding that the early morning hours would be best. 

They decide to check out the Captain’s quarters, encountering two more crewmen on board, the Captain’s Yeoman and the ship’s cook.   They check some maps and logs, noting that the ship’s next port of call is the Island of Barbados.   Arcade points out how that would give them documentation to sail across the Gulf and they’d just have to turn south prior to that island. 

They make their way down to the ship’s hold.   Between Louie and Morgana they are able to get the padlocks off of the doors to the hold.   A survey of the room finds the sarcophagus and four large chests with the other artifacts, which they also open.    Morgana makes paper rubbings of all of the magical writings on the sarcophagus and other tablets in the trunks.  They find a section of the hold along the river that the Passwall spell could be cast and confirm that they are still above the waterline.  They depart, replacing but not fully closing the padlocks.

Getting off the ship they are nearly caught by the policemen who hear some of their movements.  They have a quick discussion and conclude that coming in by boat on the opposite side of the ship might be the best approach with either strategy in order to avoid being heard by the policemen.  They head back to their hotel to discuss this further, during which time Sam, Hank and Qualtaqa inadvertently wander too far from Morgana and become visible. 

Sam and Hank check out of the hotel with all of the group’s luggage.   They head back for the dock, leaving Sam, Hank, Qualtaqa and the luggage on the levee wall to wait for Guilleault while Morgana, Arcade and Louie head off in search of a boat to use.

They find one that meets their needs further upriver fastened to a deserted dock, a long wooden pram-style boat that appears strong enough to bear the weight of the casket.   The four invisible party members climb onto the boat and untie it from the dock, so that it sails downriver appearing to have just lost its moorings.   They allow it to sail by the Jessmond before starting to steer it towards the bank.   They land it on the opposite side of a dock out of sight from the Jessmond. 

Guillieult arrives with a borrowed wagon drawn by a pair of horses.   The group’s luggage is loaded up into the wagon and Qualtaqa agrees to stay and guard it while in elvan form.   Guillieult casts an Invisible Ten-Foot Radius spell onto himself, Sam and Hank.    He also casts an Invisibility spell onto the boat and they make their way across the water towards the Jessmond, bringing the boat to where they believe the hold to be, although they are not completely certain.  

*Thursday, March 16th, 1882*

Shortly after midnight Louie, Morgana and Arcade make their way up to the railing using Hank’s magical rope and then head back down to the hold.   They open up a porthole window and point out where Guillieult should cast the Passwall Spell.    He does so, with the group then dropping down ropes to anchor the boat to the side.    Once in they decide to try to go with the plan to take the items rather than stealing the ship, as doing so could hopefully be done without alerting anybody to the theft. 

Guillieult has a Tensors Floating Disk spell, which at his level is of strong enough to create a force platform that will hold the trunks although he is unsure about the sarcophagus.    They have him using this spell and Boots of Levitation that he wears to make several trips with his force platform, bringing each of the chests to the boat.   

At Morgana’s suggestion, before attempting to bring down the sarcophagus he first goes into the water and casts a Mud to Stone spell on the river bottom so that if it falls it will not sink into the multiple feet of mud and silt covering the bottom.   This proves to be a very good idea, as the weight of the sarcophagus is too much and begins to tip the boat, so Sam and Hank push it off before the boat sinks.   Guillieult casts a second disk spell and then brings the sarcophagus back up to the surface of the water.  The decision is for him to just maintain it on the platform until they reach shore, with him changing the levitation boots to the water walking ones instead. 

Back in the ship, Morgana, Arcade and Louie close the portholes and she then casts a Dispel Magic to end the Passwall spell.  They move some crates in the hold and cover them with tarps to give the appearance that the missing items are still there.  They then exit through the ship, locking the door behind them.  They slide back down the rope to the boat.   Hank asks “When does the explosion go off?”  Morgana asks, “What explosion?”  He replies, “I thought you were going to blow up the ship to cover our escape!”  Guillieult replies, “It is covered, nobody knows that we are here.”  

They manage to row back to where the wagon has been left.  Guillieult first moves the sarcophagus up onto the wagon and then uses the floating disk to bring the trunks.   Once everything is loaded onto the wagons the items are covered over by blankets and tarps.   Qualtaqa steers the animals through the streets of New Orleans, leaving the populated areas on the main road west of the city at around 2:00 A.M.


----------



## Silver Moon

*Chapter 87, “Go West Young Man”, Thursday, March 16th, 1882, 6:00 A.M.*

The group proceeds westward on the road northeast for the remainder of the night.  They reach the town of La Place, Louisiana shortly after dawn and have two choices, heading north along the isthmus between Lake Maurepas and Lake Pontcharta or continuing northwest.   They decide to go the northern route as that will get cut thirty miles off their journey, getting them to the train station in Hammond Louisiana several hours sooner than going to Baton Rouge.   

Along the way they pass through a town where a casket making operation is located.   Guillieult has them stop and purchase the largest size casket, which is big enough to contain the stone sarcophagus and therefore disguise the item.   They also purchase black mourning clothes for Morgana and Arcade, with Guillieult explaining “If you tell the people on the train that he died of a very contagious disease they will not attempt to open the casket.”   Morgana tells Arcade, “Dear, your Uncle Horace died of smallpox.  We’re bringing him west for burial in the family plot.”

They press on, reaching the train station at Hammond, Louisiana at 2:00 P.M.   They have a three-hour layover until the next train west so use that time buying supplies, including additional ‘mourning’ clothes.   Guillieult says that he will return from there to New Orleans.  

The Frenchman purchases the group tickets for the train that will bring them to Houston, followed by another train that will take them to Indian Junction (later Oklahoma City) where they will change trains again that will take them through Indian Territory (Oklahoma), north Texas, New Mexico and on to Flagstaff, Arizona.   They will then take another train south and east to Tombstone by way of Phoenix and Tucson. 

Because of the number of train transfers and layover times between them Morgana is concerned about the moving of the casket, as it will weigh far more than a normal casket should.   Guillieult has brought the materials for scroll creation so uses the next few hours to imprint his remaining five Tensors Floating Disk spells onto the parchment for her to use when needed.  

By a quarter past five they are westward bound.   Not wanting to let the artifacts out of their sight, Morgana manages to obtain permission for her and Arcade to remain in the baggage car, explaining that they cannot leave the body “for religious reasons”.  The train makes stops at what appears to be every town along the rail route, but most of the party does not notice, as they have been awake since fairly early Wednesday morning so sleep soon overtakes them. 

*Friday, March 17th, 1882, 4:00 A.M. * 

The train reaches Houston, Texas.   Arcade has some difficulty getting Hank and Louie to wake up to exit the train, as they want to sleep for a few more hours.   They have a long layover until their next train arrives.  

Arcade decides that it is best for them to all just wait at the Houston train station.   Hank says, “Ah, I get it.  You don’t want to be seen around a town where a bounty hunter was after you three days earlier.”   Arcade replies, “No, I just don’t want to be in Texas.  If you guys wander off we might miss the train and we’d have to stay here longer.”   Hank exclaims, “What’s wrong with Texas?”   Arcade replies, “Well, it’s big, flat and full of cows.”   Hank snaps, “I’m from Texas.”  Arcade adds, “That too.”

By 8:00 A.M. they are riding north of the Train to Indian Junction by way of Dallas.    Qualtaqa and Louie join Morgana in the baggage car for this leg of the journey, leaving the three human males in the main passenger car.   The train makes stops at several small towns along the way.   

At 11:30 A.M. they reach the town of Corsicana, Texas, which is around fifty-five miles south of Dallas.  At that stop a man from the railroad enters the train holding a telegram and looking for “Josiah and Morgana Arcadiam.”    Arcade is napping and Hank says, “Bring it here good man.”   Sam says, “Why do you want it, you can’t read.”  Hank says, “I can to. There’s no point in waking up Arcade.”   The clerk then says that there is a “Ten dollar fee.”   Hank shakes Arcade and says, “Hey, wake up, you’ve got a telegram.”  

Arcade grumbles about being awakened and then reluctantly pays the clerk.   He looks at the message.  “What does it say?” asks Sam.   Arcade replies, “Well, the first line reads, “Please pay the Clerk Ten Dollars.”   “Great, we’ve been scammed!” Hank exclaims as the train departs the station.    Arcade says, “Nah, the rest is important.  It was sent by Morgana’s mentor.  It was sent from that town in Louisiana where we boarded the train.”  He reads the remainder of the telegram to Hank and Sam:

*YOU HAVE DONE VERY WELL THUS FAR STOP 
BRITISH SHIP STOLEN BY SPANISH MILITARY THURSDAY DAWN STOP 
FRENCH MILITARY FOLLOWED TRAIL NORTH STOP 
GUILLIEULT BEATEN AND HOSPITALIZED STOP
FRENCH KNOW YOUR PLANNED ROUTE WEST THEN NORTH STOP
SIX TO EIGHT FRENCHMEN ON TRAINS NORTH THAN WEST STOP
WILL REACH DALLAS ONE HOUR PRIOR TO YOUR SCHEDULED ARRIVAL STOP
TAKE ALL NECESSARY PRECAUTIONS STOP
I WILL PLAN TO MEET UP WITH YOU TOMORROW STOP 
MANUEL* 

The telegram sends Sam into a panic.   Hank says “Relax Son.  It says there are only six to eight of them.  We’ve handled worse.”  Arcades says, “Yes, I’ll get to kill me some more Frenchmen.  Sounds like fun.”   Sam points out that the others may not agree and need to be warned.   The three contemplate trying to get back to the baggage car on the moving train but opt instead to just wait until the next station, Ennis, Texas, which is thirty miles south of Dallas.     

At the stop the three head back to the baggage car and hand Morgana the telegram.   She makes the immediate decision that they are getting off the train NOW!   Hank starts to argue but she cuts him off, pointing out that the awaiting Frenchmen are probably powerful wizards.   She casts another Disk spell from the scroll and they quickly unload the casket, trunks and suitcases.   The train departs north.   Arcade points out “That train will soon reach Dallas, it won’t take the Frenchmen long to realize we’re not on it.   

Hank points out that his home of McKinney Texas is just a little ways north of Dallas.  They look at a railroad and conclude there is no easy way to get there without first going through Dallas.  They inquire about southbound trains back to Houston.   The next one isn’t for another two hours, but there is one arriving in thirty-five minutes going to San Antonio by way of Waco and Austin.   Arcade says, “That’s even better, it brings us closer to home.  We could transfer there to another train to El Paso.”   

While they are waiting Hank sends his mother off a telegram from the train station letting her know that he was in the area.  He then buys them all lunch at a local restaurant, some famous Texas Chili that the others conclude could be used to light fires with given how hot it tastes.  Arcade complains at great length about the food.  Hank replies, “I’m not taking food advice from an Englishman!”   

They soon board the southbound train, which is an express rather than a local and gets them to San Antonio stopping only in Waco and Austin rather than all the other small towns along the way.     At 5:15 P.M. they transfer over the westbound train to El Paso.   While on this train they debate whether from El Paso they should continue north or if it would actually be quicker to buy a wagon and head overland to Promise City, as it is only 180 miles due west from the Texas town. 

At 7:30 P.M. they have passed Fort Hancock, Texas and are nearing the town of Acala, Texas, fifty miles southeast of El Paso when Hank notices something very unusual out the window.   “What in Sam Houston’s name is that?” he exclaims.   Sam and Arcade look up to see a long black cigar-shaped object, 240-feet long and 60-feet in diameter, 100 feet up in the air and flying parallel to the train.   Suspended beneath the object by cables, ropes and rigging is a rectangular compartment, twenty-five feet long and ten-feet high and wide.   They see people inside the compartment.  

Sam says, “Some type of hot air balloon I think.”   Arcade says, “Not like any I’ve ever seen or heard of before.  It isn’t flying with the wind, and it seems to be keeping up with this train when we’re going close to fifty miles-per-hour!”   The object starts to move closer and lower towards the train.  Hank comments, “You don’t suppose it being here now is just some sort of coincidence?”  “Not hardly,” Arcade says as he opens up his travel bag and removes his sidearm.


----------



## Silver Moon

*Chapter 88, "The Dirigible", Friday, March 17th, 1882:*

Arcade, Hank and Sam watch as the airship moves closer to the train.  It flies at an altitude of eighty feet above the train from the caboose to the engine.   It then begins to drop back and descend.  Once it starts to lower Arcade yells, “Let’s go!”   The three exit the passenger compartment and climb the ladder up to the roof of the car.  

They soon see that their assumption was correct as the dirigible is now matching the speed of the train and hovering twenty-five feet above the roof of the freight car where Louie, Morgana and Qualtaqa are inside with the artifacts.   A trapdoor beneath the dirigible’s passenger compartment opens and a rope ladder is dropped down.   

Arcade and his gang members are two cars back.   They move as quickly as they can upon the roof of the passenger compartment, being careful of their footing as the engineer has poured on extra steam and now increased the speed of the train to fifty miles-per-hour.    The train engineer has the train barrel through Fabens, Texas, which had been the last scheduled stop before El Paso.   The Fabens Stationmaster quickly tends a telegram twenty-five miles up the line to El Paso alerting them that it appears that a train robbery is in progress. 

The three gunslingers successfully jump from the passenger compartment to the rear baggage car, one car back from the one with their friends.   Just then a man begins to descend from the rope ladder.   He is facing forward towards the front of the train, so does not see the three on the roof.   He is attired in a uniform of the French Foreign Legion.  “Well, I guess that answers one question,” Arcade says.  

They move forward across to the front of the railroad car roof.   The first French soldier is now ten feet down the ladder and a second one has now started to descend.  “Cover us Sam” Hank exclaims and he jumps across onto the next freight car.   Sam draws his revolver as Arcade then makes the jump.  Inside the car, Morgana and Qualtaqa both hear the thumps on the roof.   They shake Louie to awaken him.  

Hank and Arcade both draw their own revolvers and move forward towards the end of the rope ladder now dangling fifteen feet in front of them.   Sam tucks his gun back into his belt and jumps across himself.   Hank fires a shot into the back of the French soldier who is lowest on the ladder.  The shot is not fatal but does cause the man to release the ladder and fall the remaining ten feet to the train roof.   The man hits hard and is unable to grasp the roof before he slides off, landing on the rail as the train wheels then crush him. 

Hank grabs onto the ladder and begins to climb up.   Arcade fires up into the other soldier, killing him with the second shot.  The man’s body falls the fifteen feet down, barely missing Hank, and bounces off of the train’s roof.   Below, Louie and Qualtaqa have both drawn their weapons, uncertain of what all the sounds above them mean but fearing the worst. 

Hank scurries up the ladder as quickly as he can, having an easier time once Arcade also grabs onto it and adds the extra weight.    Hank is less than five feet from the dirigible’s trap door when a French Soldier holding a rifle looks down below from the compartment.   Hank had anticipated that and had his magical rope ready.   He lasso’s the man's rifle, pulling it from the man’s grip.    The man reaches out through the trap door to grab the rifle, unable to do so as Hank flings it to the side.  

Sam reaches the bottom of the ladder now and Arcade yells, “Just stay there and anchor it.”  Sam does as instructed, which pulls the ladder taut.  That enables Hank to quickly ascend the next two rope rungs, grabbing the arm of the man who had reached for the rifle.    Hank pulls him down and through the trap door.  The man falls the twenty-five feet down, kicking Arcade as he passes by.  “Hey, be careful,” Arcade exclaims.    The man lands on the passenger car next to Sam, who uses his foot to immediately shove the soldier off the train.  

At this point Hank reaches the trapdoor and pulls his upper body inside, revolver still in hand.   He sees seven men inside.   One is the driver of the vehicle, who is at the front of the compartment and concentrating on steering the vehicle forward.   Five are French Soldiers attired identically to the three who had left via the ladder.  The soldiers are all carrying rifles, which they draw to their shoulders and take aim at the intruder.   The remaining man is human with a thin mustache and attired in a suit.    Upon spotting Hank he begins to cast a spell with the incantation in French. 

Hank ignores the firing squad taking aim at him and fires his revolver into the spellcaster.   The man is hit in the chest, stopping the spell.    The five soldiers fire, with four shots missing and going through the open doorway with one hitting Hank in the shoulder.   Ignoring the pain for the moment, Hank takes a second shot into the French mage, fatally striking the face.

Hank is then pleasantly surprised to see that the soldiers are using older single-shot breech loading rifles and have to all stop to reload.   He empties his revolver into them, dropping two and wounding two more who manage to remain on their feet.   The remaining three shoot, again with only one connecting, for a serious shot in the chest.   Hank manages to remain awake and lowers himself out of the doorway and a few rope rungs down the ladder as Arcade climbs past him, revolver in hand.  

Before Hank passes out from the pain he uses his magical rope to entwine himself to the rope ladder.  Meanwhile Arcade draws his arm through the doorway and peers inside as the soldiers are finishing reloading for their next volley.   Arcade shoots one between the eyes and yells in French “Surrender.”   Ignoring his yell, the two remaining soldiers both fire.  The shots hit Arcade's newly acquired magical long coat and deflect off for no damage.   Arcade pivots and gut shots two bullets into one of the men who Hank had previously wounded, causing him to drop.   The remaining soldier drops his rifle, raises his hands and yells out in French “I surrender!  I surrender!”   

Sam is halfway up the ladder and Arcade yells down, “It’s under control.  We won.”   Arcade climbs up into the airship and points to the pilot.  “You going to cause me any trouble?”   The pilot shakes his head and replies in a German accent “Nine, No.”   Sam reaches Hank and says, “He’s passed out, and we need to get him down.”   Arcade says, “No, get him up here.”  He points his gun at the surrendered soldier and commands him to help Sam pull up the ladder and Hank.  

Once they are inside Arcade kicks the trapdoor shut then tells the pilot “Pull up and away from the train but keep pace with it a quarter mile back.”  “Yah,” the pilot answers.    Arcade has Sam cover the pilot and soldier while he searches the body of the French wizard.  He finds three vials of elixirs one of which is marked with the French word for “Heal”.   Arcade pours it into Hanks’ mouth saying, “What the Hell, he’ll be dead otherwise.”  

Hank regains consciousness and mutters, “Did we win?”  “Yeah, you just stay put,” Arcade replies.   They continue to follow the train as the skies darken.   Once they see the buildings and lights of El Paso in the distance Arcade commands the pilot to land, stopping the airship behind a hill around two miles south of the town.    They help anchor and tie down the vehicle down to rocks and trees.    

The prisoner is made to remove the bodies of the soldiers and wizard from the airship, finding one of the ones that Hank shot to still be alive.   Arcade allows the man to give him basic first aid.   The two soldiers and the pilot are then tied and gagged.   Arcade tells Sam “I’ll stay here with these guys.  You head into town and get the others.”   Sam heads off on foot towards El Paso.


----------



## Steve Jung

So that's how they got the zeppelin. Cool.


----------



## Silver Moon

*Chapter 89, “Down in the west Texas town of El Paso”, Friday, March 17th, 1882, 7:00 P.M.*

Louie, Morgana and Qualtaqa were unsure of that was happening outside of the moving freight car.   They had heard a number of loud thumps and bangs on the roof above them, followed by gunshots, and then the sounds abruptly ceased.   The train continued on for another twenty minutes before coming to a stop.   They then heard sounds outside which Morgana interprets to be military officers giving orders to a large number of troops.   She instructs Louie and Qualtaqa “Keep your weapons handy but not drawn, we don’t want either of you getting shot by accident.”

The freight car doors are then opened from the outside and they see around a dozen armed United States Army troops facing inside.  The train conductor is standing beside them and he tells the sergeant in charge “It’s alright, they’re supposed to be in there.”   “At ease men,” the sergeant says.    Morgana asks the sergeant “What is going on?”   He replies, “Attempted train robbery Ma’am.  Nothing for you to worry about right now since the Engineer managed to outrun them.  But you’d best get away from this area as soon as you can just in case those robbers may not have completely given up.  Don’t worry though, it’s nothing that we can’t handle.”

Louie goes to the passenger compartment to find the others. They are nowhere to be found and the conductor does not remember seeing them leave.   He returns and tells this to Morgana.  She replies, “Well, they’ll just have to find us.  Let’s get all of our things unloaded.”  She uses another Floating Disk spell from the scroll to again levitate the casket as Louie and Qualtaqa act as pallbearers, moving it to the side of a building at the far end of the railroad depot where Morgana maintains the spells so that she can continue to move it later.  Louie and Qualtaqa go back to move each of the four trunks of artifacts and the group’s luggage.   

While all of this is going on a battalion of nearly one hundred soldiers have taken up positions around the train depot in anticipation of a possible enemy attack and are now in the process of moving two cannon into position.    Amidst all of this Sam soon wanders into town.  He reaches the train station and soon locates the others.  He updates them as to what has transpired.    Morgana has him go with Louie to rent a wagon and horses to haul the things back to the others.   The items are loaded up and the wagon is ridden out of town. 

As they ride around the hill two miles away Louie is flabbergasted by the size of the airship.  Morgana is still maintaining the Disk spell and asks Arcade, “Are we loading onto that thing?”  Hank is feeling much better now, having now received both of Arcade’s healing spells and exclaims, “Hades Yes, I’m keeping it!”    

They check out the size of the compartment and conclude that all of the items should fit inside but that the weight might be too much.   Morgana says that she will keep the Disk spell running under the casket to keep the weight down.   They have a debate as to what to do with the prisoners.  Louie says, “We could just turn them over to the Army.  They didn’t seem to be too happy about the train being attacked.”  Arcade says, “They’ll be even less thrilled when they find the attack was by a foreign country.”  Hank says, “That’s why we keep a large army around here.  There are border disputes regularly, although those are usually with Mexico and not France.” 

Qualtaqa points out that the horse and wagon should be returned.  He offers to take them back along with the prisoners.   Since he is not overly thrilled with the concept of flying through the air he offers to travel back overland in his centaur form rather than flying.  He says that he will meet back up with the party in Promise City.   Arcade agrees to the plan.   They decide to leave the dead bodies where they are but make sure to search them first for any valuables.    Qualtaqa becomes a centaur again heads north, leading the horses and wagon back to town with the two French soldiers, the German pilot having been left with the others to provide flying service.  

Since the Disk spell only has a couple of hours left on it they decided to head off right away.   Morgana unties and ungags the pilot and asks him his name to which he replies, “Hans Schmidt.”   He then asks, “Who are you people?”  She replies, “Your new bosses.”  She then tells him their destination.  Hans consults his maps and estimates that the winds are in their favor so they can expect a cruising speed of forty-five to fifty miles-per-hour, which would get them to Promise City in approximately three-and-a-half to four hours.   “That sure beats the three-and-half to four days it would have been overland,” Sam comments. 

Hank fastens his Texas flag onto the dirigible.  “What are you doing that for?” Louie asks.   He replies, “It’s my message.  Don’t mess with Texas.”   “Shouldn’t we fly the country’s flag?” Sam asks.   Hank replies, “Son, haven’t you ever heard of the Republic of Texas.  We were a country.”   Arcade tells Sam, “Stop arguing with the guy.  Nobody’s going to see it at night anyway.”

The dirigible is untied and takes to the air.   Morgana has the pilot fly low and well south of the town to keep from being spotted and then due west towards Cochise County, Arizona.  The first one hundred miles of the flight are along the New Mexico/Mexico border.    Hank is as excited as a kid in a candy store.  He gestures to Hans and tells Arcade “I’ve never seen anything like this before.”  Arcade replies, “You’ve never seen a German?”  Hank says, “No you idiot, the airship.”  

Morgana asks, “So Hans, what’s the story on this contraption?”  Arcade interjects, “And why were you working for the French Army?”    Hans says, “Ah, this airship is a German and French collaboration.   It is a prototype that was pressed into service prematurely by French wizards who were financiers of this project.    They arrived at our Mexican factory early this morning.  That wizard who you shot ordered my employers to have me fly the craft to Pecos, Texas.  That is where those soldiers boarded.” 

Arcade says, “So you aren’t a soldier working for the French Army?”  Hans replies, “Nine, no.  I am a civilian under the employ of Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, a retired German General.”    Hank says, “You aren’t any more.  You now work for Arcade’s Gang!”  Hans blinks and says, “The American gunslingers?”  Arcade says, “Yep, that’s us.  And you can consider this airship to be officially confiscated.   Do you have a problem with any of that?”  Hans replies, “Nine, no.  Although the Count should probably be notified of these developments.”

“So who is this Count?” Morgana asks.   Hans says, “Ferdinand von Zeppelin was born in Konstanz, Germany back in 1838.   He joined the Prussian Army when he was twenty.  Five years later he traveled to the United States as a military observer and consultant to the Union Army during your American Civil War.    That was when he first went aloft in a balloon, which the Army used for reconnaissance of Confederate troops prior to battles.

 When he returned to Germany he tried to convince them to invest in balloons but found little interest.   He fought bravely during the Franco-German war of 1870 to 1871, which had begun when Emperor Napoleon III invaded Germany.   France had some initial victories but then Germany fought back with a vengeance and eventually defeated France.  Zeppelin was promoted to Brigadier General during the war.   He was in charge of one of the Brigades that occupied Paris during 1871.  

That was when he met the French balloonist Henri Giffard.   Giffard had created the first dirigible almost twenty-years earlier.   Giffard had come up with the cigar-shape for the craft and the use of fore and aft rudders and propellers but consistently had difficulty making the concept work.   He used a series of helium-filled balloons fastened together but had difficulty keeping them together in the aerodynamic shape during flight, his longest flight being only seventeen miles.   His steam- powered motors could also achieve a maximum speed of only three miles-per-hour, making them impractical compared to other modes of transportation such as rails.  

The Count von Zeppelin and Henri Giffard then began a collaboration that has now lasted a decade.   The count introduced the idea of using a rigid frame covered by a single rubberized cloth and using hydrogen rather than helium in the balloons.    They realized that the key to better speed was a better engine and developed the idea of a battery-powered electric propulsion device.   Unfortunately that also substantially increased the weight, so magical levitation devices were needed to counterbalance it.

When political upheaval occurred they realized that Paris wasn’t the best place to develop the craft, but German was also impractical due to restrictions on the use of magic.   They eventually settled upon establishing their factory in the city of Chihuahua, in the Mexican Province of the same name, which is immediately south of west Texas and New Mexico.    This airship was the first full-sized working prototype.   The Count will be very upset when he hears of its loss.”    

Arcade asks, “Won’t he just build another one?”   Schmidt replies, “He was strongly opposed to the French backers taking it today.   This will most likely end the collaboration with Giffard.   The Count was becoming disillusioned with that relationship anyway and this will just be the last straw.   The Count no longer needs him anyway to continue this work.  I’m sure that he’ll just build a new factory somewhere else.”   Morgana smiles and says, “I think I know just the place to suggest to him.”   

Arcade says, “That’s not a bad idea.   If this von Zeppelin worked with the United States Army before he can build upon this relationship.   I’m sure that he can blame this current mishap entirely on the French.”  Hans says, “That would actually be rather truthful.”   Morgana says, “We can work out the details later.  Let’s just continue back home.”  

As they reach the southwestern tip of New Mexico, where Hidalgo County dips thirty miles further south for the border to then continue parallel to Arizona, they see lights and movement some forty miles south above the Mexican town of Ascension.   As they continue west they see this light moving away from Ascension to the northwest.   Hans says, "Those are probably the other Frenchman."   "WHAT!" Louie exclaims.   

Hans says, "The dirigible only had space for ten people and they had five wizards and three dozen troops.  The other French wizards in Pecos spoke of using teleport spells to bring them to Mexico where some cannon were stored.   I believe they were going to set up somewhere between El Paso and your home, assuming you would be traveling overland."    "That would have been helpful to know before!" Arcade exclaims.   

Hans replies, "Why?"   It looks like they are travelling to the high ground of the Animas Mountains.   We have no lights on and are too far away for them to spot us and will be long gone by the time they reach the mountains.     "Unless something goes wrong," Sam states.   

Fifteen miles later, as they approach the first of the Animas Mountains, Sam's words ring true as the Floating Disk spell ends and the one-ton weight of the stone sarcophagus is added to the compartment.   The added weight is too much for the dirigible, which begins to rapidly loose altitude, dropping towards the mountains at a steep angle.


----------



## Silver Moon

*Chapter 90, “Home Sweet Home”, Friday, March 17th, 1882, 1:00 P.M.*

The Zeppelin begins to fall at a rate of almost fifteen-feet-per-second towards the cliffs and mountains that are only a little more than a thousand feet below.    “We need to lighten the load!” Hank exclaims.  Arcade gestures to the door and states “Feel free to jump out.”   Hank says, “Just push the whole sarcophagus out, you can’t hurt the guy, he’s already dead.”  Morgana refuses, rumbling through her backpack for the scroll that has one remaining Floating Disk spell. 

Hans uses his skills to adjust the fore and aft rudders, propellers and planes to change the angle of the descent from the steep twenty-five degrees that they started at to a more reasonable ten-degrees, which also slows their descent to ten feet-per-second.  He says, “I’ve gotten us an extra minute or so.  I’ll look for a possible landing site, but most of what I see are jagged rocks.”    

Arcade tells Morgana, “Look, I don’t want to hurt the artifacts but I won’t get us killed trying to save it.  When we get closer to the ground it’s going off!”   “Hold on!” she exclaims as she pulls out the scroll.   She begins to read the spell as the Animis Mountains draw closer and closer.  They are within fifteen-seconds of crashing when the spell finally goes into effect and Hans is once again able to fully control the craft.   They gain altitude again for the trip back to Promise City.

As they approach the New Mexico/Arizona border Hans changes direction to have them fly well north of the towns of Rodeo, New Mexico and Galeyville, Arizona so as to continue to avoid being seen.  They travel directly above the mountainous rock formation known as Cochise Head, situated where the Chiricahua and Dos Cabezas Mountains meet.   The skies to the west of them are now filled with lightning storms that appear to be moving eastward, causing Hans to be concerned.   He spots a good potential location for the airship to stop, in a valley five miles northeast of town between Bowie and Fisk Mountains where the cliffs on the southeastern side of Bowie Mountain will provide both concealment and protection to the craft.  He strongly suggests that they stop there. 

The group discusses specifically where to go.   Hank and Arcade want to fly the Zeppelin right down the center of Main Street to announce their triumphant return, but the others are against that given that they do not know the status of Gonzales trying to clear their names as well as what reception they can expect from Marshall Wyatt Earp.   Hans is also concerned with the prospect of drunk cowboys firing their guns at the hydrogen-filled Zeppelin.   Morgana points out that the final Disk spell will run out in a few hours, so they’d best come up with an idea soon.

Since it is Friday night and the mines nearest town are closed for the weekend they consider unloading the artifacts and storing them in a mine.    The most obvious choice is the Liberty Hill Mine, which the Gang had worked at before as guards.  It is also just a short distance from the El Parador, where they had left their horses.   They decide to fly within a half-mile of town, unload the items, and then have Hans fly the craft to the location that he had identified.   Arcade, Morgana and Louie get off with the artifacts while Hank and Sam stay with the airship to ensure that Hans does as instructed with it. 

The trio with the artifacts finds a secluded spot near where they exited the craft to store the four trunks, leaving Arcade to stay and guard them, as Louie and Morgana head into town with the Disk spell still running and carrying the sarcophagus.    They approach the mine, whose doors have been locked for the weekend but Louie is able to unlock them.   The sarcophagus is levitated inside and lowered, with Louie helping to push it off of the disk.    

They then make their way over to the El Parador’s stables, where Morgana and Arcade’s horses are found and saddled up.   Louie heads inside and inform Dorita, the Cantina and Inn’s owner, that Arcade’s Gang is back and is taking two of the horses.    She confirms that her Grandfather was able to help clear their names of the murder charges.  

Saturday, March 18, 1882:

Shortly after midnight they head back to the mine, where Louie agrees to stay and guard the sarcophagus while Morgana rides back to where they had left Arcade and the chests.  The chests are slid onto the Floating Disk and then brought back to the mine prior to the spell elapsing where they are unloaded beside the sarcophagus.   Arcade returns the horses to the El Parador then rejoins his wife and Louie in the mine where the doors are secured and they then go to sleep. 

At 8:30 A.M. Sam wakes up Hank and Hans when he notices a trio of men a few hundred yards away and approaching, two humans and a dwarf, one armed with a rifle.    Hans and Sam both strap on their side arms and exit the passenger compartment with Hans as the other trio approaches.   The dwarf is the first to speak, pointing to the dirigible and says, “What the hell is that thing?”   Hank replies, “A type of balloon.  It is a secret weapon of the United States Army so don’t tell anybody.”

Sam asks the men who they are.  The humans introduce themselves as Humphrey Lewis and Charlie Mearl and the dwarf as Torvald MacNaulty.   Lewis and MacNaulty say that they are owners of the Fisk Mountain Mine, with mining operations on the opposite side of the mountain southeast of the valley.   Mearl is one of their guards.   The miners offer to bring over a fresh pot of hot coffee and some hot breakfast, which Hank happily accepts.   

They spend the better part of the morning chatting with the miners and being shown a tour of the mining operations, which are still in their infancy although they have struck a rich vein of silver.   The miners are noticeably impressed when they discover that the others are members of Arcade’s Gang.  The miners give them an update of what is going on in town.   Hank is concerned about Wyatt Earp and is relived to hear that he is temporarily away.   Sam asks, “So, with him gone who is in charge.”  “Sounds like we are,” Hank interjects.   Lewis assures him that there is a pair of deputies, including Wyatt’s brother Warren.  

Morgana gets her two companions up at around 9:00 A.M.   She sends Louie over to the El Parador to get breakfast for the three of them and also to leave a message for Manuel Gonzales as to where they are.   After breakfast Arcade gets his and three other horses and rides out to the dirigible to bring the others back to town.   The miners and guards agree to guard the dirigible for them, which Hans makes sure is well secured with both the controls and compartment’s door locked up with chains and a padlock.  

Around 10:30 A.M. they are all back together.   They leave Hans with Louie to guard the artifacts while the others head over to the El Parador.   Gambler Conrad Booth is enjoying his first meal of the day and approaches them, letting them know that he had been the one to meet with Judge Isby and has cleared up the misunderstanding with the wanted poster.  He returns their passports to them.  They think him for his efforts.   

Gonzales soon joins up with them, lighting a candle and casting a spell to place a spell around their table giving them privacy.    He is thrilled that they made it back safely to town.  He becomes concerned when they tell of the French wizards and soldiers they had spotted in New Mexico.   He says, “That’s a problem.  They’ll soon realize they missed you and probably come here.”   “Sounds like we have some unfinished business to take care of,” Arcade states. 

Morgana asks about what to do with the items, mentioning where they are currently located.  Gonzales says that the four trunks are not a problem, that he has somewhere safe within the building to put them and will get the employees of the El Parador to help him move them once it gets dark, adding that a heavy rainstorm is expected from noon until almost midnight so should also help to provide adequate cover for the transfer of the chests.   

The sarcophagus is a different matter altogether and he suggests hiding it in a cave in Apache Territory where the Indians would not let the French find or get to.   They will need to use the dirigible to move it, so will not be able to do so until well into the night once the lightning storm ends.   

That plan will also give the group most of the day to rest, although there are currently no available rooms at the El Parador at the moment as a recent Dwarven Festival called Moradin’s Day has taken place and the inn is now full up with dwarves.  Hearing that, Arcade decides that the deserted mine would probably be a better place to sleep anyways.   Dorita offers to save them some rooms once the dwarves move out.  “Well fumigated I hope,” Hank adds. 

Louie announces that he is going to go visit his girlfriend Mary Wong.   Hank says, “You’ve sure gone a long way just to get yourself slapped.”  Morgana says, “I think he’s hoping to get kissed instead.”   Gonzales shows him where the trunk of items for her has been placed.   Louie drags the trunk over to the Wong house and knocks on the door.   Mary’s father, Charlie Wong, answers the door.   He takes one look at Louie and says, “Go away, we already got one,” he exclaims.   “One what?” Louie says.  “One everything, you go away,” he states.

Mary pops up in the room and expresses pleasure over Louie’s return and asks her father to let him in.  Louie presents the chest, which he opens to show it filled with presents.  Charlie reconsiders and lets him inside.  

It rains for most of the afternoon.  Morgana checks with her druid mentor, an elderly wood elf named Mother Jimenez and confirms that the storms will cease at 11:00 PM.   They plan on sending Hans and Hank to ride back out to the Zeppelin at 10:00 PM to fly it to the mine just as soon as the storms cease.  They also decide to bring along all of their weapons in case they decide to deal wit the French sodliers afterwards.  The group sleeps for the afternoon.   Gonzales arrives at the cave at around 6:00 PM, offering to watch after the artifacts while the group heads over to the El Parador for dinner.


----------



## Silver Moon

*Chapter 91, “Establishing Roots in the Community”, Saturday, March 18th, 1882, 6:00 P.M.*

The Gang sits down for dinner at the El Parador.  Dorita brings them all full plates of food and Morgana compliments her cooking saying, “I’ve really missed you cooking.  The food over in England was awful, they boiled everything!”   Arcade exclaims, “Who are you to complain about boiled food!  You grew up in an Irish household.”  

The gang gets into a debate about what to do with the dirigible with Hank insisting that they need to keep it as their primary mode of transportation.   Louie says, “But you’re a Texas cowboy, aren’t you supposed to have a horse as your main transportation?”  Arcade says, “Nah, he’d rather keep the horse as his primary love interest.”   Hank says, “The balloon is a wonderful invention.   I think you should all embrace the concept of the balloon.”  Louie says, “I’d rather embrace Mary Wong.”  

While they are dining Gonzales returns accompanied by the male employees of the El Parador who are carrying two of the trunks.  He assures the party that he left trusted guards back at the mine.  He heads upstairs with them, keeping a watchful eye on the trunks.   They then depart and soon return with the other two trunks.   Gonzales heads upstairs and does not immediately return. 

Conrad Booth arrives for dinner and is gestured to join them.   Arcade asks, “So Conrad, how is it that Wyatt Earp got to be the Marshall of this town?”    Booth replies, “Well, the Merchant’s Association hired him primarily to keep you guys away.”    Hank says, “Guess that didn’t work too well.”   Conrad says, “Well, he helped lay down the law right away once he arrived, killed a couple of guys who were disturbing the peace.”

“And since then?” Louie asks.   Conrad replies, “He’s been kept pretty busy.  A group of cattle rustlers known as the Cowboy Gang have been causing trouble the last few months.   Then in January the infamous bank robber Deadeye Douglas and his gang robbed Condon’s Bank.   Earp also had a shootout with one of the saloonkeepers in town.”   “And here at the El Parador?” Morgana asks.  He replies, “No great change since you left.  Dorita and Pedro make sure that things stay peaceful around here.   Too bad you didn’t get back sooner, they held a pretty exciting party here two nights ago.”   

“Anything else new in town?” Hank asks.  Conrad replies, “Well, Several houses and businesses were destroyed when the dynamite shed at Sam Slade’s Hardware blew up.     The owner of the Lone Star Dance Hall and Saloon ran off with a saloon girl so his wife sold the place.  The new owners now call it the Lucky Lady.  The owner of the Trail Dust Saloon was the one who shot at Wyatt Earp.  He’s now dead and his saloon is the Arizona Territorial Office Building.    And the town just got a new Priestess for the Greek and Roman church in town.”

Booth then asks, “So, what exactly did you guys do over in England?”   Morgana gestures to Arcade and says, “We got married.”  Arcade adds, “And we visited my family.”  Morgana adds, “Yeah, I discovered that my brother-in-law and father-in-law were possessed demons and monsters.”   Conrad says, “A lot of people think that about their in-laws.”  Louie says, “Yeah, but we managed to help them get better.”  Arcade looks at Morgana and says, “You want to talk in-laws?  We found your father naked and living in a cave.”   Conrad says, “So, she’s half-elvan, Native American elves do that.”  Arcade says, “Except that this was the human side of her family and in Ireland.” 

Louie interjects, “We also smuggled an elephant out of England.”  “An elephant?” Booth exclaims.   Morgana says, “We brought it across the Atlantic for P.T. Barnum’s circus.”   Conrad says, “That guy sure gets around.  He sent Buffalo Bill Cody here to Cochise County to hunt down a dragon.”  “Did he find one?” Sam asks.   Conrad replies, “Yeah and he killed it then dragged it back east for Barnum to stuff and display at his museum.”

Conrad asks, “So, are you back to stay?”   Arcade says, “Planning to, looks like no rooms at the inn at the moment.”  Conrad says, “Just on weekends, that’s when the dwarven miners come to town and since this is the only hotel that takes non-humans they come here.   They should have some vacancies tomorrow night, Monday at the latest.”  Morgana says, “We should seriously think about buying a house.”  

Sam notices a copy of a newspaper lying over near the piano with the banner “Tombstone Epitaph – Promise City Edition” and comments, “They have a new newspaper?  Did that other one go out of business?”   Conrad says, “The Herald is still barely hanging on, only publishing every –other-week at this point while the local edition of that Tombstone paper comes out every four to five days.   An overeager halfling reporter is in charge of it and has had a lot of success.  His paper’s tend to be three or four times the size of the Herald.”  

Arcade rubs his chin and says, “You know…that Baxter guy who runs the Herald had himself a pretty nice house.  You say his business is in trouble?”   Conrad smiles and says, “Yes, it certainly is.”  Arcade says, “Maybe we should go pay him a visit.  I’ve always been interested in the news business.”  [Hank’s player quips, “Sure, with the blimp we could do our own eye-in-the-sky traffic reports.”] Sam asks, “But what about that overeager halfling competitor?”   Hank says, “We could hire him, he’d probably just want a couple of pies a week.”

Once the dinner is over they decide to go follow up on this idea.   Morgana and Arcade make their way over to the Promise City Herald’s offices, finding them closed but the typesetter Josiah Young inside.   They knock on the door and the terrified boy lets them in exclaiming,” I didn’t write anything about you!  Honest!”  They explain what they want and their interest in becoming his new employer.   He expresses relief and satisfaction about that idea.   They ask about the building, being told that Baxter owns both the office and his home, plus the building that Young and his family live at and rent from Baxter.  

They decide to go pay Baxter a visit, finding him half-drunk at the Gay Lady Variety Hall and Saloon.  They help escort him back to his home without explaining what they want.   He is rather intimidated but appears to sober up as soon as they tell him they want to buy him out.  He says, “You want to buy my paper?”  Hank says, “Yeah, Louie here has always wanted to be a beat reporter.”   Arcade says, “Yes, we’ll send him out to report and he’ll get beaten.”  

They begin to negotiate price, indicating that they want all three buildings including the contents of both the newspaper office and Young household but that Baxter may keep the furnishings and contents of his house provided that he and his things are out of it by noon the next day.    Baxter starts by asking $ 1,200 to which they counter with $ 500.   They eventually settle upon a price of $ 950.   They drag him over to the office of lawyer Mitchell Berg to handle all of the necessary paperwork and witness the cash transaction.  

Next they stop by the Alhambra saloon to look for the Tombstone Epitaph’s reporter, as that is where he stays when in town.  The saloonkeeper Steve Lord tells them “Chumbley came in on the early afternoon stage but left again for Tombstone an hour later as he needed to go back and revise the front page of his paper.  He should be back tomorrow.”   “We’ll catch him then,” Arcade states. 

They head back to the El Parador to relax and celebrate their new business venture.  Conrad Booth has already left for his gambling table at the Long Branch Saloon.  Morgana sits down at the piano and begins to play and sing some lively tunes, including many from the pubs that she visited in England, Ireland and Scotland.  Gambler Carlos Ramirez is leading a card game, working girls Pepita Alvarez and Angelica Huesca are entertaining a pair of male patrons at another table, and many of the other familiar Saturday night regulars eating and drinking. It continues to pour outside.   

A stagecoach pulls up outside and lets two human woman off who head into the Cantina.  One heads into the kitchen to talk briefly with Dorita.  The other woman takes a seat alone at one of the tables and gives the Gang a curious look.   The first woman comes out from the kitchen accompanied by the Cantina's handyman Grant Keebler.   She asks Keebler to escort her friend over to the bathhouse.  After they leave the woman heads upstairs.  When Keebler returns Sam asks who the two women were.  He says that the one who he walked to the bath house if Miss. Florencia, the town's new Priestess and that her friend is Mrs. Kale, an El Parador resident and the pianist at the Lucky Lady. 

The others continue to relax as they still have a few hours before they have to head out.   The place starts to get crowded with patrons on this rainy Saturday evening.   Dorita and Pedro’s daughter Sonoma no longer waitresses there, having established a ranch a mile outside of town, but they are now assisted by a young human girl named Ginnie.   

By 9:00 PM the place is packed with elves, dwarves and a few humans with Morgana accompanying elvan musician Estaban Fuente with entertaining the house.  An hour later the storm is at its most violent point, with loud clasps of thunder and lightning striking near, so Hank opts to wait a while longer before riding out to get the balloon.   

The weather continues to get worse, with a few exterior shutters being torn from their hinges and blankets of water striking against the walls.    An almost deafening clasp of thunder sounds accompanied by a massive bolt of lightning that forks just above the El Parador and strikes the ground on all three sides of the building but does no damage other than three burn marks on the ground.   The storm then begins to slow down in intensity, allowing Hank and Hans to then ride off to get the transportation.


----------



## orchid blossom

If Kate knew she wasn't news with Conrad, she might be just a bit miffed.  

Seriously, it's fun to see when the campaigns affect each other.  Good thing it doesn't happen too often or it would be horribly complicated.


----------



## Silver Moon

_Yes Orchid, it can be a little challenging running parallel campaigns with two different gaming groups, although thus far the overlaps have been minimal.   Right now the 'Arcade's Gang' posting is a few character days ahead of the "Wizards, Whiskey and Wonderful Things" Story Hour, and so much happened in our Play-by-Post game during those days that it will be at least a dozen chapters until we get to that same point in the story.   Now, back to this tale...._


*Chapter 92, “The Atlantian’s Mausoleum”, Saturday, March 18th, 1882, 11:00 P.M.*

Arcade, Louie, Morgana and Sam accompany Manuel Gonzales back to the nearby Liberty Hill Mine where Gonzales dismisses the two men he had left on guard duty.    He has brought with him some magical levitation devices.  They are magnetic so he attached them to the metal handles of the casket and casts the incantation to activate them. Nothing immediately happens.

“Well, when will those things kick in?” Arcade asks.   Gonzales replies, “They already have, but the total weight of the stone sarcophagus still exceeds the lifting capacity of the devices by a good 300 to 400 pounds.  We’ll still have to help lift it ourselves even with the magic doing the majority of the work.     They decide to wait until the dirigible has arrived to move it, given that Hank is also one of the strongest in the party.   

The rain has now ended but the damp stormy weather has managed to keep most of the townsfolk inside, so nobody sees the large dark object approaching from the northwest.   Hans uses his skills to turn the Zeppelin around and lowers it so that the large rear door of the passenger compartment is as close to the mine entrance as possible.     Hank helps the others to move the casket on board, with the levitation devices being sufficient to carry enough of the weight to get the craft airborne. 

They fly back northeast until they are clear of the town and then turn to the southeast.   Gonzales directs them deep into the heart of the Chiricahua Mountains, home of the Apache.    Hank has a stray thought and says, “Hold on a minute, what’s to keep us from being attacked by Apaches?”   Morgana tells him that a short while ago she had sent a bird to deliver a message she wrote out to the Apache Shaman.   Sam asks, “Do we have any way of knowing that it delivered the message?”  Arcade says, “Sure, when we see a barrage of flaming arrows flying up at us we can assume that it didn’t” 

It is a relatively short flight as they see the distant lights to the east of the town of Galeyville, Arizona.  Gonzales directs them to towards the side of a mountain around two miles away from the town.  He has Hans fly towards a point about two-thirds of the way up the mountain along the eastern side.   They see a road up the mountain through the thin forests that ends at a clearing with a large pile of rubble near the entrance to a large cave.   Gonzales has Hans bring the Zeppelin to a plateau over a hundred feet above this where two more caves head into the mountain.   

There is not enough room on the twenty-foot-wide and fifty-foot long plateau for Hans to land so he hovers just above the outer edge of it as Hank uses his magical rope to safely get himself, Arcade and Sam down onto the plateau.   Ropes are then used to help secure the sarcophagus, which is then lowered down to the plateau that the other three pull it onto.   Sure shot Sam is pulled back up to watch Hans while Morgana and Gonzales slide down the rope to join the others.  Hans then flies the blimp a little bit further out so that there is no risk of the wind blowing it against any of the jagged rocks on the mountainside. 

Before doing anything else Morgana tells the others to wait until she has spoken with the Apache, who she says are nearby and now observing them.    She makes some animal calls and hears similar ones in response.  A group of four men all in native garb comprised of three high elves and one human come out from hiding.   The leader of the group is the Shaman Kajika, who they had all met the previous year at the same ceremony where they met Geronimo.  He introduces his three companions as Kanweock, Gray Fox and Harvey Knowles.   

Morgana eyes Knowles suspiciously.  Kajika explains to her in the Apache language, “He helped our tribe to survive the last winter.  Game was scare and he brought us cattle.  When the human authorities sought to arrest him we offered to provided him sanctuary with the tribe.”   She asks, “Why were they after him.”  Kajika replies, “The cattle were not his.”   She says, “Can he be trusted?”  Kajika replies, “Yes.  The United States Army knows that he is now here under our protection.  If he leaves our land he will be arrested and imprisoned.  His leaving would also jeopardize the most recent treaty with the military so we will ensure that he does not attempt to leave.”

Morgana translates this for the others.  “Why did they bring him here?” Arcade asks.   Knowles answers directly “Because the Apache are afraid of these caves and will not enter them.  I used to live in them so know which passageways to take.  Consider me your guide.”   Gonzales says, “I know of these caves.  Please bring us to the cross-shaped room with the three chambers deep within the mountain.”  Knowles says, “Yeah, I figured that was where you wanted to go.”   Knowles takes a torch and leads the way. 

They head into the cave to their left, which begins with a twenty-foot diameter room with a passageway in the rear.  It continues for fifty feet before curving right at a downward angle.   After another hundred feet it reaches a T-intersection at which point Knowles leads them to the right.  They continue down a series of downward sloping corridors and avoid a number of side passageways that sprout off from it.   A few sections of the corridor are narrower and it is difficult to get the sarcophagus through them.   They eventually reach a section with a pit and narrow wooden bridge crossing it.  Hanks rope is used to help get the casket and people across this section.   

On the opposite side of the pit is an iron door.   The door is locked but Knowles has a key.  He opens it to an X-shaped room that is lit with magical light.   Each of the two sections of the X is sixty feet long and twenty feet wide.  They walk to the center of the room where they can see that the at each of the other three sections of the X there is a chamber.   Dust and rubble cover the room and the chamber on the left has a partially collapsed roof.”  “What was this place?” Sam asks.   

Knowles replies, “Native legends say that the Dark Elves once lived here.   Most recently it was the Headquarters for the Cowboy Gang’s leaders.  That ended in January when the Earps cornered them here.”  He gestures to the chamber with the partially collapsed roof and says, “The Gang’s leader Curly Bill Brocious died in there after the Earps tossed in some sticks of dynamite.”   

He gestures to the chamber at the opposite end of the doorway and says, “That was Johnny Ringo’s room.   He escaped and still has another key to the iron door to this room.”   He gestures to chamber on the right and says, “Better room belonged to Tom and Frank McLaury.  They both died here”    Arcade says, “The McLaury brothers?  We kept those from getting killed by the Earps last October in Tombstone.”    Louie comments, “Looks like all we did was postpone it.”

The casket is brought into the chamber to the right.   Gonzales casts a spell and then removes the levitation devices.  He then casts some magical wards onto it casket.  They then exit the room and he casts another spell, which appears to create a stone wall blocking the doorway.  They exit the chamber and the door is locked.   Gonzales then casts another spell on the iron door and pockets the key.   

Gonzales warns Knowles “For everyone’s safety please make sure that nobody attempts to come down here to open these up….that includes you.”   Knowles replies, “I won’t, robbing from the dead isn’t my style.  The Apache will make sure nobody disrupts your mausoleum.”   

*Sunday, March 19th, 1882:*

It is shortly after midnight when they all exit the caves and Morgana speaks to Kajika about keeping the caves safe from all intruders.    Hans flies back in and the magical rope is used to pull the others back up to the Zeppelin.   Arcade says, “That was quick and easy.  How about we spend the rest of the night finding out what those Frenchmen are up to?”   The others agree and the Zeppelin turns east towards the mountains of New Mexico.   They fly over the northern end of the Hidalgo Mountains, not seeing anyone and continue east towards the Animas Mountains.  

Towards the southwestern end of these mountains they find evidence of where a small army had camped out.  From here there are fresh horse tracks of two-to-three dozen animals as well as wagon wheel tracks from eight vehicles heading west.  Arcade estimates the tracks to be between six and eight hours old.   He says, “Looks like they spent the day here and are traveling at night.”  Morgana says, “Make’s sense, that’s the easiest way to travel in rugged terrain with a hot daytime sun.”  

Sam asks “What’s with all of the wagons?”  Hans interjects, “Those may not be wagons but cannon, that’s what they went to Mexico to get.”  Arcade investigates further and says, “I think he’s right, these ruts look to have been made by horse drawn two wheel vehicles not four, and are rather close together to be wagons.”   Hans is concerned about cannon being fired up at the airship.   

Hank says, “Don’t worry, we’ll take this slow and careful.  We can travel much faster than them so they aren’t going to get away.  There’s no need to be reckless.”  Arcade gives Hank and odd look and says, “Who are you?  You look like Hank Hill but you sure don’t talk like him.”   Louie interjects, “He finally found something he cares about, not his teammates but his vehicle.”   Hank says, “You all can better defend yourself now than it can.  But once I mount a gattling gun on it that’ll be a different matter.”

They have the Zeppelin fly low and to the southwest, the moon providing enough light to illuminate and follow the tracks twenty-five feet below the passenger compartment.   The trail continues on towards the southern Hidalgo Mountains.   They land near the first of the mountains, with Arcade getting out and checking the tracks, which he says are only a few hours old.    They decide to fly north of the tracks and circumnavigate around the first couple of mountains.  

They continue to watch diligently, finally spotting some movement in a valley a little more than a mile to the southwest.  They immediately pull back behind a mountain to keep from being seen and fly on ahead and around this mountains to a point a mile ahead of where the French are riding.   Hans flies as close as he can get using the mountain as cover.    

They decide to set up an ambush on the ground, and only have the Zeppelin fly in from behind if they run into trouble.   They discuss who to leave behind to guard Hans.  The German pilot assures the party that he is as anxious to defeat these Frenchmen as they are and that the prospect of living in the United States appeals to him.   Gonzales says, “I say we trust him….and I also have the means to find him anywhere in Mexico if he does attempt to escape.”  Hans says, “I will not leave.  I would not want Arcade’s Gang to come hunting after me.”  “Good man,” Arcade replies. The six exit the dirigible, giving Hans instruction to fly back around the mountain and wait in the rear until he sees a signal of light from them.


----------



## Queenie

Silver Moon said:
			
		

> Knowles replies, “Native legends say that the Dark Elves once lived here.   Most recently it was the Headquarters for the Cowboy Gang’s leaders.  That ended in January when the Earps cornered them here.”  He gestures to the chamber with the partially collapsed roof and says, “The Gang’s leader Curly Bill Brocious died in there after the Earps tossed in some sticks of dynamite.”
> 
> He gestures to the chamber at the opposite end of the doorway and says, “That was Johnny Ringo’s room.   He escaped and still has another key to the iron door to this room.”   He gestures to chamber on the right and says, “Better room belonged to Tom and Frank McLaury.  They both died here”    Arcade says, “The McLaury brothers?  We kept those from getting killed by the Earps last October in Tombstone.”    Louie comments, “Looks like all we did was postpone it.”




Poor Ruby... never getting any credit. Course, that's probably a good thing in this case


----------



## Silver Moon

*Chapter 93, “The Hidalgo County Battle”, Sunday, March 19th, 1882, 1:30 A.M.*

The party moves out to until they reach a dry riverbed.   During the annual rainy season a river up to fifteen-feet wide and six-feet deep covers this bed, but now it is dry and the French are using the riverbed as their roadway through the valley, given that it travels along a low and easy path with a minimum of obstacles to tow their cannon around.  

The six observe the approaching French Army from higher ground, counting a total of thirty-eight horses, sixteen of which are paired and pulling the total of eight cannon behind them.  As the cannon are being towed with the barrels pointing towards the rear they decide that a frontal attack would be best, since they would then need to turn the cannon around in order for them to be deployed.   The group carefully climbs further down the hillside to the riverbed without being seen.    

They choose a spot along the road where a series of boulders, some up to ten feet high, can be used to provide cover to the party.   They decide to split into groups of three, with each group on a different side of the road to catch the enemy inside crossfire.   Arcade, Gonzales and Hank and Arcade go to the southern side while Louie, Morgana and Sam remain on the northern side.    Each group member finds a good rock to hide behind that is no more than twenty-feet from his or her next teammate.   Each trio then stays together initially at the center person’s rock, to plan and then move out when the enemy close in. 

As the approaching forces get closer the group can see that they are comprised of four distinctly separate groups of individuals.   There are ten-mounted French Foreign Legion troops attired the same as those fought earlier, all of which are paired up with each pair pulling a cannon.   Accompanying these forces are fourteen Arabs riding Arabian horses.  They too are paired, with the first four leading and acting as scouts with each of the other five pairs riding behind each pair of Legionnaires.    

Following them is a group of six mounted men dressed in civilian garb, who Gonzales concludes are probably the French wizards.   The final group of eight is French Soldiers wearing the uniforms of the regular French Army.   Three of these pairs are enlisted troops who are pulling the remaining three cannon.  The other two appear to be officers, a French General and his aide, a Major.  

Each team members evaluates these threats differently.   Gonzalez is most concerned about the wizards; Arcade thinks the officers should be the main targets; Sam and Morgana are both concerned about the Arab scouts because they are closest to them and probably the most experienced with fighting in rough desert terrain; Louie sees the Legionnaires as the greatest threat; and Hank just wants to shoot somebody.  

The plan is for Arcade’s trio to initiate the attack, but not to begin until all the enemy has moved up along the road so that they can all can be seen by the party.    Hank positions himself on the tallest rock, looking down at the enemy below while Gonzales moves to a spot closest to the enemy so that he will have a clear view of the wizards and their specific actions.    

Arcade takes the first shot, the bullet striking and killing one of the Legionnaires hauling the second cannon.  Hank immediately fires his rifle at that Legionnaire’s partner, seriously wounding him and causing him to both drops his gun and fall from his horse.   This effectively leaves the cannon blocking the roadway/riverbed, causing all of those behind to have to stop while cutting off the eight troops in front from the remainder of their battalion.  

Gonzales next lets loose a Fireball spell two-thirds of the way back, which envelopes over four of the wizards and two mounted Arabs.  Pair of the wizards appear to have magical fire protection on them and are minimally harmed although their mounts are both killed as are all of the others caught in the blast.   This pair immediately runs for cover behind the nearest rocks.    This move has the effect of further dividing the battalion, with the thirty troops not yet engaged in battle in the roadway now comprised of the front eight, a middle group of twelve, and the final group of ten.

Louie and Sam both fire at a pair of Arabs in direct line of sight from them at the end of the front group, killing one and wounding the other.   Morgana watches the two unhurt wizards towards the back, holding off on throwing her Magic Missile spell until they begin spells of their own.  

The four Arab scouts in the very front of the Army ride forwards towards higher ground.   Louie and Sam both fire at them, prompting the quartet to keep on riding.  Hank pivots around on the rock and fires two more rifle shots, striking the pair of Arabs now at the front of the middle group.   Arcade shoots at a Legionnaire behind those Arabs, missing, but striking his horse, which collapses to the ground.    

Morgana releases her Magic Missile at the two still unhurt wizards, disrupting their spells.   Unfortunately her hiding place is not far from the front of the middle group and the sight of magical light flying out from her position causes the remaining nine Legionnaires and Arabs in the middle group to concentrate their fire towards her.  She immediately ducks down behind a rock to avoid being hit.   Gonzales now lobs the second of his three Fireball spells towards the enemy in the rear group, catching the two wizards who Morgana had struck in it as well as four of the regular French army troops, their mounts and two cannon and killing all of them.      

A pair of Legionnaires now cut the cannon they are towing loose from the mounts and charge the rock that Morgana is hiding behind.   Sam stays low on the ground and crawls out from behind the rock.  He fires a fatal shot up into the closest of these, the man falling back in the saddle of his horse.   Louie deals with the other by standing and unloading his shotgun into both the man and his horse.   Unfortunately this move also makes Louie a prime target for the other seven troops who had previously fired at Morgana as well as the one that had been previously dismounted.   All eight fire at Louie with two shots hitting, one rather seriously.  The half-orc collapses in pain behind the rock   Sam stops shooting and crawls over to help protect his ally.   

With Morgana and Louie drawing the attention of the remaining enemy troops that leaves Hank and Arcade free to rain fire down upon the other troops, with them concentrating on the rear four in the second group.   Both Legionnaires are killed and the horses are shot out from beneath the Arabs, who run to the cannon that the Legionnaires had been pulling to use it as partial cover.     The two lone mounted Arabs at the front of the second group opt to ride away and gallop off the road towards the south and past the rock that Hank is on top of, with him deciding to just let them go.   

The two French Officers in the rear order the remaining pair with them to turn the last cannon around and fire at the rock where Hank’s shots are coming from.   They have the cannon half turned when Gonzales lets fly his final fireball, dropping all four of them.     The burning debris, bodies and adjacent grass and brush resulting from the fireballs now illuminate the entire area, assisting the remaining foes in better seeing their surroundings. 

Morgana manages to get over to Louie and cast a healing spell onto him as Sam moves to another rock and fires at the two remaining Legionnaires in the middle group, killing one of them.   The remaining three Legionnaires and Arab in the front group have managed to regroup and move to slightly higher ground, concentrating their fire down on Sam, Morgana and Louie, with Louie getting shot once more.   Sam fires back, supported by shots from Arcade and Hank, wounding one Legionnaire and killing the Arab.   

One of the two remaining front group Legionnaires now gets Arcade within his sights for what would have been a fatal shot but at the very last second a well-placed shot from Sam keeps him from firing while a very angry Louie dispatches the other.   The remaining wounded Legionnaire in the front group decides to surrender.  

Shooting has now ceased.   Gonzales casts a spell to allow himself to detect invisibility and then has Arcade and Hank accompany him towards the rocks where the protected wizards have retreated to.   No one is present and Gonzales concludes that the pair has managed to teleport away.    Sam is ordered to climb the hill and confirm that the six Arabs who rode off have left the area.    

The two Arabs cowering behind the cannon are tied and gagged.   Gonzales discovers that the French General and Major are both still barely alive with severe burns.   They are both securely tied up before Morgana casts healing spells on them to prevent them from succumbing to their injuries.   The General remains unconscious while the Major temporarily wakens before falling unconscious again.   

Most of the party is surprised to discover that the only surviving Legionnaire is not French but Italian.   Arcade tells them “That’s pretty common, the French hire mercenaries from many countries.   He introduces himself as Joseppi Franjoluppi and asks that the party not kill him, saying that he is no soldier and never even fired a gun until that day.    “What were you doing with these troops then?” Morgana asks.   He replies, “I was the Company Cook, I work as chef back in my native Milan.”     

Arcade and Hank exchange glances and Arcade says, “An Italian Chef?  You interested in staying here with us?”  He replies, “Here?  In Tunisia?”  “What makes you think we’re in Tunisia?” she asks.  He replies, “That where French Wizards say they bring us.”     Morgana says, “Guess again, you’re in the United States.”    “America!” he exclaims.   “The good old U. S. of A.” Hank replies.     A wide grin crosses Joseppi’s face as he pulls his Legionnaire hat from his head, tosses it onto the group and stomps on it.  “I quit Legion,” he exclaims.    Arcade then helps heal the bullet wound in Joseppi’s arm that he had just a short while earlier caused.  

The Zeppelin in signaled to fly in and land near where the battle is fought.   It is decided that the two French officers and the pair of Arabs should be turned over to the United States Army.  The closest Army Fort is near Deming, New Mexico, which would be a two-hour flight to the northeast.   They decide that Arcade should lead that group and be the one to talk to the army due to his reputation as the Gang’s leader.  They also decide to bring the four undamaged cannon with them, but to keep for themselves for potential future use instead of giving them to the army.   Gonzales attaches one of the four levitation devices to each and then activating them in order to not weigh down the Zeppelin.  

Gonzales does not want to leave behind the fifteen horses that survived the battle, six of them Arabian stallions, since his granddaughter Sonoma now owns a ranch.   Morgana and Louie offer to ride back west to Promise City with him and the horses.   They decide it best to also send Joseppi with the riders to avoid having to explain who he is to the U.S. Army and potentially lose their newly acquired chef.


----------



## Silver Moon

*Chapter 94, "Heading Back", Sunday, March 19th, 1882, 7:00 A.M. * 

As the sun rises up on the eastern horizon the Zeppelin reaches crosses above the town of Deming, New Mexico.   The site of the town had been a stagecoach stop since 1850 but it had not been officially declared a town until the previous November.   It derived its name from the maiden name of Mary Deming Crocker.  She was the wife of a railroad magnate of the Southern Pacific Railway system, the town being the direct result of railroad expansion to the West.  The Southern Pacific Railroad was building toward the Pacific coast and reached this point in late 1881, where they decided that this would be a good location for construction of a roundhouse and repair shops.   

The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad had been laying track south from Albuquerque, New Mexico parallel to the Rio Grande River.    They had originally planned to intersect with the Southern Pacific Railroad at Las Cruces, but with the roundhouse and repair shop now at Deming they decided that it would be the best location for the railroad junction.   As this location was soon to be the intersection point of two major rail lines a town began to develop almost overnight.   

It began as an erection of a city of tents and shanties, which then started to expand into more permanent structures.    As 1882 progressed settlers began to flock in by rail, stopping at Deming as it was essentially “the end of the line”.    Substantial buildings and many stores were soon constructed.  

A short distance to the north an army fortress known as Fort Cummings had been established on high ground between the town of Deming and the rock formation known as Cooke's Peak.   The oldest part of the Fortress was a protective wall that had been built by Colonel Philip Cooke and his troops when they first patrolled this region back in 1846, when the land was officially still part of Mexico.   The present Fort had been initially established back in 1863 to monitor and the Apache and other elves of this region and was kept busy back in the days of Cochise's uprisings.   The fortress's importance has now risen given that the natives might wish to hinder the railroad operations.   

A wooden stockade was built on the lower hill while a high stone and adobe wall surrounded the upper hill.   The Forth had originally been occupied by troops from California's Company B but was now manned primarily by New Mexico based cavalry troops of mostly Ogrish blood known as Buffalo Soldiers, with humans as the commanding officers.    

Arcade, Hank and Sam wisely have Hans land the airship out of sight of the fortress on the opposite side of a hill a half-mile away from the Fort.  Hank decided to stay with the airship and guard the prisoners while Arcade and Sam approach the wooden stockade fortress on foot.  They soon reach the guardhouse doors and identify themselves, asking to see the commanding officer. 

The reputations of ‘Arcade’ and ‘Sure-shot Sam’ have preceded them and the two are quickly ushered into the headquarters of fortress’s commander.   He had earlier received telegram dispatches from El Paso about the attempted train robbery by French Troops in a balloon that had come up from Mexico, so they had put the Fort on alert, the Mexican boarder being only forty miles away.   

Arcade and Sam briefly explain about how they were on that train and repelled the attack, commandeering the balloon as their own.   They then tell of the second invasion that they just stopped down in Hidalgo County and mention having prisoners to turn over.   The Captain sends a squad of troops with Sam to go retrieve the prisoners, also bringing Hank back to the Fort as well.   The three are treated to a fine breakfast and regaled as heroes by the soldiers and officers. 

They then fly back to Arizona, arriving at the valley between Fisk and Bowie mountains mid-way through the morning.   Sam, Arcade, Hank and Hans ride back in town, arriving at around 11:00 A.M., discovering that the other members of their party have not returned yet.   Hank comments, “No surprise, we had the faster means of transportation.”  

Since their house down the street is still unfurnished they inquire about rooms from Dorita, who has three available.   Arcade and Sam each take one room while Hank and Hans take the other and all four immediately fall asleep. 

Simultaneous to this the group of Louie, Morgana, Manuel Gonzales and Joseppi Franjoluppi are at the ranch a mile south of Promise City owned by Gonzales’s granddaughter Sonoma.   Louie remembers Sonoma from when she waitressed at the El Parador and Morgana knows her well as they both are druidic apprentices of an older wood elf woman in town named Mother Jaminez.  

They had been riding for most of the last six hours, through New Mexico and then through the Chirichaua Mountains where the Apache welcomed Morgana’s return and helped accompany them on the shortest route to the ranch.  The ranch is a bustle of activity, having just received an influx of sixteen cows and close to a dozen horses that Sonoma’s business partners had just rescued from cattle rustlers.    Emery Shaw, owner of the nearby Lazy-S ranch had helped her partners herd these animals to the ranch as gratitude for several rustled cattle with the Lazy-S brand having been returned to them. 

Sonoma agrees to board the horses that the party had obtained beyond those needed by the quartet to ride back to town.    Morgana asks Sonoma* about the rustled cattle as is told that those with local brands have been returned to their owners but that the other brands are not known so will take further to find.   Morgana casts some healing and hair-growth spells over the brands, effectively erasing them, and tells Sonoma to now just consider them hers. 

The quartet ride back to town, arriving back just before noon.   Morgana tells Gonzales and Joseppi that they can each keep the horse that they have been riding this day.  Upon hearing that the others have returned and are upstairs sleeping.    Dorita heads upstairs to let Morgana into Arcade’s room.  Another room is also now available which Louie and Joseppi take.   Having been awake all night and morning, the group decides to all sleep throughout the afternoon.



_*[DM’s Note: It was fun watching these two characters interact, as while they are each from my two different Western campaigns set on the same world they are actually both played by the same player.]   _


----------



## Steve Jung

Silver Moon said:
			
		

> _*[DM’s Note: It was fun watching these two characters interact, as while they are each from my two different Western campaigns set on the same world they are actually both played by the same player.]   _



How did you end up playing that out?


----------



## Silver Moon

*Chapter 95, "The Mirror", Sunday, March 19th, 1882, 4:00 P.M. * 

Towards late afternoon there are several gunshots fire outside, but the group is all so tired that only Hank is awakened by them.   He sits in bed for a while debating whether to get up or not when the shots end.   He decides to go back to sleep but just as he is about to fall asleep is awakened by the sound of more gunfire, with this sounding closer than the other shots. 

Hank gets up and looks out the window where he sees an Indian standing at the intersection of South and Fremont Streets and shooting at somebody to the east.   He also notices that the lower end of Fremont Street is littered with burning debris that appear to have been clothing and a mattress.   

The Indian then gets shot by a human in western garb further up Fremont Street near the County Claims Office.   Another cowboy who is standing at the intersection of Fremont and Main Streets then shoots this man.     Not knowing who any of these people are, or what is going on, Hank decides to head downstairs to investigate.    Not bothering to put on his shirt, vest or pants, he straps his gunbelt on over the red long johns he was sleeping in, dons his Cowboy hat, and heads downstairs to the Cantina lobby. 

He goes to the front door of the El Parador, by which time the town’s new Priestess is busy tending to the rather wounded Indian while other people are checking the other dead cowboy.   A wood elf wearing a Deputy’s badge is talking to the man who had fired the final shot but does not appear to be planning to arrest him. 

Hank overhears something being said about Johnny Ringo, a man who he had met last October in Tombstone.  Hank looks around but the gunslinger doesn’t look to be anywhere in the vicinity, nor is he the dead cowboy.    Hank is then spotted by Bill Watkins, owner of the Great Western Boarding House across the street.   Hank had lived there until Watkins evicted him the previous summer.   Watkins glares angrily and Hank.  Hank smiles back, then heads back inside and upstairs to bed, figuring that whatever the commotion was is now over. 


It is close to 8:00 P.M. when Arcade’s Gang is all awake and sit down for dinner at the Cantina.   Each group tells the other about what they have been up to since leaving the battle site.    Gesturing to their new chef and new pilot at the end of the table Arcade asks, “What are we going to do with them?”   Morgana calls Dorita over and makes arrangements for the two new hirelings to keep the rooms at the El Parador where they are staying this evening.    

Sam comments, “So right now we have us a Chinaman, an Italian, a German, an Irishwoman, an Englishman, a few Americans and are eating at a Mexican restaurant.”  Arcade comments, “Yeah, it’s like we’ve founded our own filthy little League of Nations.”   Hank interjects, “Don’t forget, Texas was its own country too.”  “Like you’d ever let us forget,” Louie states.   Hans is told that he can keep one of the extra horses for himself, as he will need it for the five-mile ride out to where the Dirigible is parked.  He is very thankful for that, saying that he always wanted to have a horse of his own. 

Following the dinner they head over to the Alhambra saloon to find the halfling newspaperman Chumbley.    The fast-talking hyperactive little man is very surprised to hear that Arcade’s Gang is back in town and even more surprised to hear that they have bought out his competitor.   He is then flabbergasted when they make him the offer to be Editor of the paper.   Chumbley is a good negotiator and manages to convince them to pay him a significant amount of the profits from each paper as his salary.  He says that he is very interested but will have to first speak to the owner of the Tombstone paper John Clum before he can formally accept their offer. 

Monday, March 20th, 1882:

Morgana meets with the County Claims Manager to finalize the purchase of the valley where the Dirigible now sits.   She purchases the entire 300-acre valley for $ 5.00 an acre.    The group meets and decides that they will possibly offer a rental agreement to Count von Zeppelin rather than attempting to resell the property to him. 

Tuesday, March 21st, 1882:

Morgana and Hank travel with Manuel Gonzales via teleport spell to Chihuahua, Mexico to meet with Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin to explain to him about the status of the dirigible and Hans Schmidt.   She strongly suggests to von Zeppelin that due to the French invading America he would be very wise to distance himself from them and that incident as there will probably be serious international repercussions.  

She suggests that he should probably relocate his operations to the United States and to Promise City, Arizona in particular and suggests that she might know of an ideal location in that area.  They then spend an hour of so walking around the city, during which time Manuel bumps into elvan woman who he introduces as “an old friend” although neither Hank or Morgana think that she looks very old at all.  They eventually are ready to head back, with Morgana gesturing to Hank and saying, “You can’t go leaving a Texan down here in Mexico, he’ll try to annex it.”  

Wednesday, March 22nd, 1882:

Chumbley accepts the position as Editor of the paper.   After a lengthy debate about the new name for it they decide upon calling it the Promise City Mirror.    Arcade visits Burton Lumley, owner of the Gay Lady Saloon and current President of the Promise City Merchant’s Association to make him aware of the change in ownership of the newspaper. 

Thursday. March 23rd, 1882. 

At the morning meeting of the Promise City Merchant’s Association Burton Lumley introduces Josiah Arcadiam as the new owner of the Promise City Mirror, formerly the Promise City Herald, and states that he will be taking Parker Baxter’s membership in the association.   

The main order of business that morning is the appointment of a new Marshall and new Deputy Marshall as Wyatt and Warren Earp have both resigned.    Some of the Arcade’s Gang members consider volunteering for the positions but opt not to.   The positions are filled by others present at the meeting.   Afterwards Hank complains about not getting to wear a badge.   Morgana says, “What do you expect?  The other day you went outside without wearing pants.”    Sam says, “Well, at least they accepted Arcade as a business owner.”   Louie comments, “That means we really are now respectable gang.”


----------



## Silver Moon

*Chapter 96, "LOUIE, LOUIE", or "THEY'VE KIDNAPPED OUR CHINAMAN"*

*Monday, April 10th, 1882:*

The day begins with Charlie Wong running into the El Parador Cantina screaming to the owners Pedro and Dorita Figures something in the Orcan language that nobody present can understand. They eventually deduce that it has something to do with his daughter Mary and her boyfriend Louie both being missing. Dorita sends handyman Grant Keebler over to the house where Arcade’s Gang resides. Morgana is up early, as usual; she gets the message and has to go rouse the others.

Arcade and Hank complain about the interruption and how they don’t want to have to walk all the way down the street to find out what is going on. Morgana points out that today is the day that their chef Joseppi has off, so breakfast has not been prepared yet. Reflecting upon Dorita’s excellent cooking the two reconsider and state that a visit to the El Parador is in order.

The group of Arcade, Hank, Morgana, Qualtaqa and Sam arrive at the El Parador and talk to a frantic Charlie Wong, who states that Mary Wong and Louie have both been kidnapped. Hank says, “Calm down, they probably just wanted some alone time.” Charlie hands them a ransom note that had been left at his laundry shop. It reads:

TO ARKADS GANG

WE GOT YER CHINAMAN AN HIS GURLFREND TO. IFFEN YER WANT HIM BACK BRING 500DOLLERS TO WHERE WE TELL YER TOMORER, AN 100DOLLERS FER THE GURL. DONT GO TO THE MARSHALL OR THERE DED.

THE OBANNON GANG

Arcade comments, “It could be legit. Louie doesn’t know enough English to write that out.” Morgana adds, “Yes, and with the few words that he actually does know his spelling is better.” Arcade says, “Maybe we should just view this as an opportunity, that Louie was really getting to be a bit of a pain.” Sam comments, “But they took Mary too, she does our laundry.” Arcade says, “Okay, we want to get at least her back.” Hank says, “We need Louie too. The bad guys shoot him instead of the rest of us.” Qualtaqa is miffed. "They're calling themselves a gang. We're the gang! We can't have anyone else be the gang!"

“Exactly where did you find this note?” Morgana asks. Charlie says that it was at his laundry shop, that Mary went there first thing in the morning to get the laundry started and that Louie often stops by to assist her. They head over to the shop. Morgana tells her allies not to touch anything until they examine the place for clues. One of the players makes a comment about the game now being “C.S.I. Promise City”.

They find Louie’s rifle propped up against the wall in the corner. Charlie says, “That’s where he puts in while he’s working.” Arcade examines the floor for tracks and declares that there is some evidence of a struggle but no bloodstains. Qualtaqa tries to find tracks outside with deep impressions to indicate if people left recently carrying something heavy. He concludes that “Somebody recently swept the street”. A dusty broom is then found in an alleyway, which Charlie concludes belongs to his shop. The group also sends Joseppi to discreetly visit the Marshal, and get their newspaper reporter Angelica Young to the sheriff.

Qualtaqa comments, “We need to get Louie back. He has a good heart.” Morgana says, “Not so loud, if the kidnappers hear that they’ll sent it back to us in a box.” Arcade says, “I still don’t know if we should bother.” Sam asks, “Are you afraid to go up against this Gang to get him?” He replies, “I don’t know that afraid is the right word, more like indifferent.”

The group's assistants (Joseppi and Angelica) arrive from their trips around town to try to find out more about this O’Bannon Gang, stating that they found that the leader is a part-time gambler who isn’t all that good at cards. He is known to have gotten into a few fistfights over in Tombstone, but nothing is known about him heading a gang. The general consensus is that he isn’t all that bright. Arcade comments “Maybe instead of opposing him we should hire him.” Sam says, “Did you hear everything we just heard about this guy. He’s stupid, clumsy and useless.” Arcade replies, “And how does that differ from Louie?” Silence follows that comment. No further information is found about the O’Bannons.

The gang discusses possible plans to find Louie and/or deal with this other gang. There is talk about using the airship to search, but since they haven't allowed it to be seen locally and certainly haven't let on that they own such a thing, they decide not to bring it out just yet. They also talk about putting notices or articles in the newspaper, but decide that they should have something more to work with before it becomes public knowledge. Morgana casts a "Reflecting Pool" to look for Louie. She sees him tied up in a cave and Mary nearby. As she pulls back her vision, she sees it is located in some unfamiliar hills. While the rest of the group discusses setting some traps for the bad guys, she goes to the cantina to wait for some of the local dwarven miners to come in for their next meal, hoping they will recognize the location. She is told that it looks like the site of the "First Strike" mine, the one that started the little "Silver Rush" that was the beginnings of the town. The mine is rumored to be haunted, and no one has been there for many years.

The gang splits up to do a little more research. Hank and Sam seek out their gambler friend Conrad Booth to see if he knows anything more about O'Bannon, but he hasn't. Qualtaqa rides out to the Apache to see if they can help - not much they can or want to do, but they will keep their eyes open for any unusual movement. Arcade grills their halfling reporter Chumley, since he knows Tombstone, but he doesn't know any more about O'Bannon than they already knew from the sheriff. Morgana checks at the local boarding houses to see if any newcomers rented a room for the night last night.

After they regroup for dinner they make plans for the night, to see if they can capture whomever is delivering the next note. Qualtaqa will take up a position in the hills above Boot Hill, where he can see much of the town. Hank takes a cot in the laundry in case they return there. Sam sets up in the entryway of their house, and Arcade and Morgana on the roof, hoping the messenger is stupid enough to deliver the note there. They also instruct their pilot Hans to fly the dirigible to hide in the low hills about 1 mile from town in case they need to start a quick pursuit.

*Tuesday, April 11th, 1882:*

The morning begins with Pedro bringing the next ransom note, which had been left at the back door of the cantina, to the house:

TO ARKADS GANG

BRING THE MUNEY TO THE OL FIRST STRIKE MINE AT NOONE TODAY. NO TRICKS OR THER DED. WE MEEN IT.

THE OBANNON GANG

The group reads the note and discusses strategy over breakfast. “If we pay the ransom and get them back what’s to keep this Gang from just grabbing somebody else later?” Hank gestures to Sam and comments, “Sounds good to me.” 

First , they check for tracks by the cantina, but by then the morning crowd has covered over anything that might have been there. They then go to a lawyer friend to get information about the mine. He reports that a Joshua Macomber filed a deed in 1868, brought one load of silver ore into Tombstone, hired a few helpers and went back, and was never heard from again. The group checks a few other locations in town to see if anyone knows or has seen anything, then heads back to the cantina for a late breakfast. Qualtaqa finally shows up, having stayed at his post in the hills until now. Their dwarven friend, Nils "Great-Axe" Svelsfjord, shows up and they ask him about the mine. He knows little, since it wasn't worked by dwarves, but has heard the old stories about how Macomber's assistants may have turned on him, and there was an explosion or shootout at the mine and that was the end of things; supposedly their ghosts haunt the mine to this day.

The group decides to fly out to where it says to bring the ransom note. Qualtaqa runs to the blimp to alert Hans, while Morgana heads to the church to get holy water and any other kinds of blessings or protections from undead. Arcade and Hank go to the bank to get money for the ransom, in case they actually decide to pay it.


----------



## Silver Moon

*Chapter 97, "The O'Bannon Gang", Wednesday April 12th, 1882:*

They travel seven miles to the northeast towards the abandoned mine referenced in the note. They reach the area and find fresh horse tracks leading into an opening in the hillside. Hans spots movement; the gang sees someone leading a horse into the opening. They fly around to the back of the hill and disembark. Hank and Arcade sneak over the hill to a point above the opening, but can't see or hear anything, Morgana joins them just in time to hear someone speaking inside. 

A voice is whispering loudly, "Vasquez! Wake up, you lazy...", to which another voice replies, "I'm awake - shut up!" A little more such banter is heard and it goes quiet again. Our gang tries to make a plan. Morgana goes invisible and scouts. She sees a wood elf in stereotypical Mexican "bandito" garb reclining by the opening, and another man a little further in. The elf, apparently "Vasquez", hears her and sticks his head out but can't see anything and returns to his post. She waits quietly but can't see or hear anything beyond the two men, so she leaves and reports back to the rest of the gang.

Morgana heads back down, with Qualtaqa following at a distance. Above, Hank readys his magic rope while Sam and Arcade get out their guns. After allowing a few minutes for the still invisible Morgana to reach her position, Arcade tosses a rock down. Vasquez comes out to check what's happening, and Hank snares him with his rope. Morgana sneaks behind him and into the opening as Qualtaqa walks out into view to serve as a distraction. Arcade and Hank pull Vasquez up the hillside as the other man ("Smoky Mountain" Joe) looks out. 

Joe draws his gun as Qualtaqa charges - they miss eachother. Vasquez is struggling in the rope and Hank is losing his grip, so Arcade shoots the Mexican. “So much for us having the element of surprise,” Morgana mutters to herself. Hank switches the rope over to grab Joe as Qualtaqa continues past him into the tunnel opening. Hank and Arcade try to pull Joe up as he continues to struggle; when he manages to get his gun hand free, Hank shoots him.

Morgana and Qualtaqa continue to scout further inside. The tunnel goes around a bend and opens into a chamber where 6 horses are stabled. Morgana quiets them. Outside the others climb down, and Sam lights a candle as they enter the opening. Morgana hears voices arguing further down the tunnel past the horses and continues scouting ahead. Just then Arcade, Hank, and Sam catch up with the other two. Arcade notices bits of silver in the walls, reflecting the candle light and the light of a small lantern hanging at the other end of the "stable" area. Just as Morgana passes the lantern, she hears the voices getting closer and sees several figures walking up the tunnel towards her. She quickly knocks down the lantern and "Faerie Fires" these new opponents, catching them totally by surprise. As they pull out their guns, Hank yells, "Drop'em!"

One of these opponents moves out into the open, revealing himself to be a half-ogre holding a shotgun. He yells, “You guys are Arcade’s Gang. I should kill you all! You got my cousin Shotgun killed.” Hank interjects, “So? That’s no reason to make this personal.” One of the other O'Bannon gang members surprisingly also says, "Yeah, Blue, I told you not to make it personal!" Morgana reflects back and says, “If you mean Kentucky 'Shotgun' Krugg we didn’t kill him, that was the James Gang.” Sam comments, “Yeah, go threaten them instead.” The half-ogre points his gun and fires. Hank fires back, downing the big guy. O'Bannon says, "See - I told you never to make it personal!"

The other member of O'Bannon's gang now charges forward. He is holding two guns of his own and commands “Freeze you mangy sidewinders.” Arcade continues to point his gun back and says, “You like to use Western clichés? Fine. Why don’t you drop’em and reach for the sky!” The man continues his charge, firing wildly. Arcade dives behind a rock as he fires, his shot also missing. Hank and Sam both draw their revolvers and fire, both shots missing and striking the rock walls, ricocheting wildly. 

Sam gets off a second shot which wings the man in the shoulder. The man continues to charge and fire, one shot grazing Arcade’s leg. Arcade ignores him and fires again, missing. Qualtaqa moves over and "Heals" Arcade. Morgana uses a "Gather" cantrip to stop as many bullets as she can as the other O'Bannon gang member now joins in the gunfight. Morgana now uses a "Magic Missile" spell to wound the onrushing bad guy, which doesn't seem to bother him much. Hank shoots a lethal shot into the still-charging crazy man as Arcade casts a "Heat Metal" spell on his guns, forcing him to drop the weapons as his last living act.

The remaining O'Bannon gang member is still firing, and wounds Sam in the chest. Qualtaqa rushes to Sam's aid while the rest continue firing. The bad guy is wounded, then his guns heat up too much from the effects of Arcade's "heat Metal" spell, which had caught him too. He drops them and tries to run away, tripping over the body of the half-ogre. Morgana pounces on him and holds a knife at this throat and tells him to give it up, which he wisely does. He is grabbed and tied up, complaining all the time that this wasn't how it was supposed to happen, that all he wanted was a little money and fame for taking down Arcade's Gang. He is told to stop whining, and anyhow they were no longer wanted, which surprises and disheartens the man further.

Suddenly, two shots ring out from further down the tunnel. The group quickly confirms that all opponents in this area are dead and then head into the cave, fearing the worst for Louie and Mary, making the captured bad guy lead the way in case there were further traps. They find Mary Wong in a room off the side of the main tunnel. They confirm that she hasn’t been harmed. Sam asks, “Where’s Louie?” She gestures around a corner in the room, where he is found holding a gun on a young woman who is wounded, and loosening the ropes with which he had been tied up. Hank says to Mary, “I’m surprised that they didn’t tie you up too.” She replies, “Why would they do that. They had guns, I didn’t, and I’m only a woman.” Arcade says, “Only a woman?” He then gestures to Morgana and comments, “Mary, you should try living in my world.” 

Sam and Qualtaqa check on Louie, and find that he is all right. He explains that the gang had taken his pistols, knife, and sword (!), but missed his derringer, and when he heard the commotion in the other room he used the distraction to free a hand, draw his gun, and wound the woman who had been holding a gun on him and Mary. The woman complains, "That Chinaman has more weapons than anyone I've ever seen!" Arcade comments, "Ever met a Scotsman? We think Louie's really Scottish..." 

The woman introduces herself as "Mystery Liz" and Louie says, "She only one in gang not crazy... or stupid." She says she had been the scout for the gang, and had delivered the notes. When she sees the captured man, she yells at him, "O'Bannon, you idiot! I never should have listened to you! Look at the mess this turned into" The man mumbles something and just about everyone tells him to shut up.

Louie retrieves his stuff, and comments, “Mary thinks she saw a ghost”. Sam asks “Where?” Mary’s eyes grow wide and she exclaims, “There he is!” They turn to see the semi-opaque apparition of an old human miner. The spirit states in a gravelly voice, “Who is in my house? Are you trying to steal my mine? My gold?” The group replies in unison “No”. Morgana decides she doesn't want any more to do with the ghost mine (first thing she's ever been afraid of since the gang met her).

Hank says, “You want gold?” He pulls out a $1 gold coin and tosses it towards the spirit commenting, “Here, there’s something for you to play dead with.” Arcade says, “We’ll all be going now.” Morgana adds, “Have a nice day.” Just then, a handful of skeletons show up behind the ghost and advance towards them. The gang rapidly exits the cave. The horses are startled by all the commotion; Morgana uses "Speak With Animals" to calm them and explain that it would be in their best interests to go along with the people and exit the mine quickly. The horses comply with alacrity as the skeletons come clattering up the tunnel.

They quickly check the bodies of the O’Bannon gang, finding guns and a small amount of loose change. Louie hands Mystery Liz's gun to Mary Wong, saying, "This make nice souvenir, or maybe you even use it someday." Mary is a little tentative, but takes it anyhow. They gather up the O’Bannon horses, two for Louie and Mary and another two for the prisoners. Sam and Qualtaqa tie the prisoners to the horses and lead them to town, with Louie and Mary guarding. The rest ride the airship back to Promise City.

The gang heads over to the office of Town Marshall Mitchell Berg. They inform him of what transpired. He asks, “Why didn’t you come to me from the start?” Morgana replies, “The ransom note said not to. We didn’t want to put Louie and Mary in danger.” Berg replies, “Those notes always say that. And since when has your gang ever done what they were told?” The group treats those questions as rhetorical.

The Marshall comments, “So you decided to just attack and kill them on your own?” Arcade says, “We brought two back.” Hank adds, “We kinda killed the others.” The Marshall says, “Well, there’s not much more I can do, your gunfight took place out of my jurisdiction. But I’ll hold these two for kidnapping since that happened in town.” Morgana thanks the lawman. The gang decides to head back to the El Parador. Louie says he will walk Mary home and then join them.

A short while later Louie arrives, with a depressed look on his face. He announces, “Charlie Wong say I have to either quit gang or stop seeing Mary.” Hank exclaims, “What! We save his daughter and this is the thanks we get! He’s taking away our Louie!” Arcade says, “Well, I would have preferred cash, but I guess that will work as a reward.”

Morgana says, “I’ll go deal with this.” She and Louie head over to Wong’s laundry. Louie decides to wait outside while she goes in. He then hears some rather loud shouting going on inside. A few minutes later Morgana storms out of the building dragging Mary with her. “What happened?” Louie asked. Morgana does not reply and continues on towards the El Parador with the orcan girl in tow.

When they arrive the others also ask what happened. Morgana replies, “He told me that as he father he could control Mary’s life. I disagreed and pointed out that this was America, not China, and different rules applied. From there the conversation and tempters escalated. He made the mistake of asking me what I would do with her if she were my daughter. So I decided to accept that as an offer.” Arcade says, “Hold on, Honey, did you just adopt Mary?”

Mary asks Morgana, “I try to be your daughter now?” Morgana replies, “No, you can try to be a free woman entitled to run your own life.” “Doing what?” Sam asks. Morgana asks her, “What do you know how to do Mary?” She replies, “I can do laundry, watch children, and cook.” Hank exclaims, “This is great! We can now have Chinese take-out whenever we want.” “And can get freshly starched shirts,” Arcade comments. The group decides to hire her on, if she'll agree. She is very tentative, but after a long conversation with Louie, conducted mostly in orcish, with the gang only being able to pick out "America", she agrees. As she exits to get her belongings, Louie says, "She agree to stay on with gang, but still thinking about marry me or not." Mary comes back a little later carrying the hope chest Louie gave her previously, and wearing Mystery Liz's gun!

Morgana makes arrangements for her to live with the gang’s other employees, the Young family. Angelica Young is very happy to add the woman her to the household, as she would much rather work as a newspaper reporter than as a stay-at-home mother, and Mary is happy with the idea of helping to raise the children. Reflecting on the number of employees they have of different nationalities, Arcade mutters “We really have established our own League of Nations.”

*Thursday, April 13th, 1882:*

The gang hears some hammering outside, two days after having returned from their rescue mission. They discover one of the town deputies putting up wanted posters for Mystery Liz. When asked why, he answers, "She is one slippery customer! Somehow she escaped the jail last night, and disappeared." The gang comments on how that's one more person with a grudge they'll have to stay alert for...


----------



## Silver Moon

*"Tombstone”*, Module 134, Played October 16th, 2005.   [Note, this short table game module takes place between the PBP module "Here there be Vampires"  & "Ballots and Bullets"]


*Chapter 98, “You did what!”, Tuesday, May 23rd, 1882, 2:00 P.M. *

Six-weeks have passed since Louie and Mary were rescued from the O’Bannon Gang. During that time things within Promise City have been relatively quiet and peaceful. Arcade’s Gang has fallen into a daily routine where they have been keeping a low profile as respectable newspaper publishers. The Promise City Mirror has proved to be successful in the hands of Editor-in-chief Chumbley and ace reporter Angelica Young. 

Morgana has kept in touch with Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin who after a brief visit to Promise City decided to follow up on her suggestion of relocating his ballooning factory there from Chihuahua, Mexico. He has indicated that the railroad cars with all of his equipment and men will start to head north by the month’s end. 

The group gathers at the El Parador Cantina in the afternoon to sample the new collaboration from their chef Joseppi Franjoluppi and the Cantina’s owner and cook Dorita Figures. The two of them have come up with a crunchy, baked spicy corn chip snack. The group decides that the snack is a grand success, especially when dipped in salsa. They have a long debate on what to call the item, eventually settling on the name of Dorita’s. 

“Oh there you all are,” a voice exclaims from the doorway and they look up to see Deputy Sheriff Colin Hunter enter the Cantina. He has a paper in his hand, which he says is a telegram from Cochise County Sheriff John Behan asking for Arcade’s Gang to go see him in Tombstone. 

“What did we do this time?” Arcade asks. “Nothing as far as I know,” Morgana answers. “Maybe this is about the O’Bannon Gang? That took place on County land rather than town land,” Louie states. Hank says, “What’s there to talk about. They kidnapped our friend and his girl, we got them back.” Sam adds, “And they fired first, it was self defense.” 

Hunter states, “I doubt it’s about that. Those two who you brought back were tried and then hung. I honestly don’t know what this is about, possibly the Earps. Behan and his posse have been hunting after Wyatt Earp and his boys ever since they abandoned their badges and became vigilantes. He hasn’t had any success in catching them so maybe he wants you to help out.” 

The group talks about it. They have little-to-no desire to hunt the Earps but decide that it would probably be best to answer the summons from the Sheriff to at least find out what he wants. Hunter offers to buy them tickets on the next day’s stage. “What time does that stagecoach leave?” Arcade asks. The Deputy Sheriff replies, “At 9:00 A.M.”. “That early? Forget it, we’ll ride there ourselves,” is Arcade’s answer. 

Morgana decides that before they leave she will head upstairs to visit with her teacher, the elderly wood elf and Dorita’s grandfather named Manuel Gonzales. She enters through his room at the inn and says the magical command word to open up the inter-dimensional portal that leads to his secret sanctuary, a creation from the powerful Merlin’s Magnificent Mansion spell. 

She enters through the doorway to see that the forty-by-sixty foot Great Hall has been redecorated since her last visit, with the pool and fountain along the back wall now being considerably larger than it had been before and filled with fish of various shapes and colors. The walls, floor and arched ceiling are all tiled in marble. The only aspects of the room that appear out-of-place are the simple and unmatched wooden tables and chairs in the center of the room. 

Each of the two long walls has a pair of doors on it. Those to the right are his private rooms, a bedroom and a study. To the left are a library and a combination workshop/laboratory. She checks the left rooms finding him in neither. Next she checks the study and then finally the bedroom, opening the door a crack. He is seated on the bed, awake but heavily in thought, his chin resting upon his upturned hand. 

She knocks upon his doorway, which breaks his concentration and he looks up. He stands up and comments, “Ah, my little bird. What can I do for you today?” “Is this a bad time?”, she asks. He replies, “It has been a difficult day thus far but will hopefully improve. Just seeing you makes it better.” They exit the room and he leads her into the library. They sit in two of the cushioned chairs their as he fixes them each a cup of tea. 

“So my dear, how can I help you?” he asks. She tells him of the summons to see the Sheriff in Tombstone and the speculation about it perhaps being about the Earps. A panicked look suddenly crosses his face. “Teacher, what is wrong?” she asks. He replies, “You would be best to avoid this situation altogether. It may very well concern the Earps. I saw former Marshall Wyatt Earp and his followers just this morning.” 

She replies, “Here? They were in Promise City?” He answers, “No, a few miles east. I went there to cast Invisibility spells upon three of them.” “You did what!” she exclaims. 

He replies, “I really didn’t have much of a choice. He threatened to expose one of my students for using wizardry and witchcraft if we didn’t cooperate. He’d actually approached her and not me, but I wouldn’t let her put herself in a dangerous situation. So I went to the rendezvous in her place but even after I agreed to help him he still threatened potential harm to me.” Morgana mutters some profanity about Wyatt Earp and stops to regain her composure. 

She then says, “So he now knows exactly who and what you are?” Gonzales replies, “No, I went in the magical guise of the human named Austin. I would not put my family in danger of him knowing who I really am and where I live. I will refrain from using that personae again unless I’m required to deal once more with Mr. Earp.” 

“Which ones did you make invisible?” she asks. He replies, “Wyatt, his brother Warren and a man named Sherman McMasters. There were three others with them who are still visible, as are all six of their mounts.” “Do you know where they were going?” she asks. 

He replies, “I imagine that they’re now on their way back to Tombstone, continuing this mad obsession of his to eliminate the entire Cowboy Gang. I strongly suggested to him that he abandon that quest and use this magical gift to safely leave the Arizona Territory but I sincerely doubt that he’ll heed my warning.” 

He sees her thinking and says, “I hope you’re not seriously thinking of taking them on.” She replies, “No, this isn’t our fight. But the Earp brothers still don’t like us for killing their friend Doc Holliday, even though that was in self-defense. And I’m certainly not happy about him threatening you or any of your students.” Gonzales says, “Then what will you do?” She replies, “I don’t know, probably still go to Tombstone to hear what the Sheriff has to say. I’ll go see what the others want to do.” 

Morgana reenters the Cantina shaking her head in disbelief. “What is it dear?” Arcade asks. She replies, “Not here. We need to get to Tombstone as quick as we can.” Hank exclaims, “Great! We’ll take the H.M.S. Sam Houston.” “H.M.S. ?” Morgana questions. Arcade replies, “I think it stands for Hank’s Magnificent Ship.” She says, “Fine, whatever. Time is a wasting, grab your horses and stuff and let’s ride out there.” 

The group of Arcade, Hank, Louie, Morgana, Sam and their pilot Hans Schmidt are soon riding the five miles northwest to the protected valley between Bowie and Fisk Mountains where the dirigible is anchored. Morgana and Louie help to deactivate the various traps and protections around the ship. The horses are fed and watered while Hans works on getting the batteries and engines going, but before long they are on their way heading the sixty miles west towards Tombstone, flying several miles north of the main road to avoid being spotted.


----------



## Silver Moon

*Chapter Ninety-nine, “Bait”, Tuesday, May 23rd, 1882, 3:00 P.M. *

“Okay, it’s just us now. What’s going on,” Arcade asks. Morgana briefly explains about the three invisible Earp vigilantes heading to Tombstone. Arcade and Hank say a few choice pieces of profanity about Gonzales helping them. She replies, “He didn’t have a choice. Wyatt Earp threatened one of his students.” “So what’s the plan?” Sam asks. Arcade replies, “Simple. We go there, warn the law that the Earps are coming, and then come home.” 

Sam exclaims, “And what if these invisible Earps come gunning for us?” “Why would they do that?” Arcade asks. Sam says, “We killed their friend Doc Holliday.” Arcade replies, “Yeah, but he had it coming.” Louie adds, “The Earps may not see it that way. From what I hear they’ve been going around killing anybody who they don’t like. That may include us.” 

Sam adds, “They also might not be happy about our telling the law that they are on their way to Tombstone.” Arcade says, “They won’t know we were the ones who told them.” Morgana says, “Well, they might if they happen to be invisibly standing in the Sheriff’s Office when we talk to Behan.” 

Arcade asks Morgana “Do we know when they’ll reach Tombstone?” She replies, “No, they were east of Promise City late this morning so it should take them a bit of time. But if they hurried they might be there already.” “And they’re all invisible?” Louie asks. She says, “No, just three of the six are, and none of their horses.” Hank says, “Okay, so you’re saying that we should be on the lookout for six horses with three riders.” “That’s actually not a bad idea,” Arcade comments. 

Hans Schmidt suggests they get the telescope and the pair of binoculars out of the map box for this surveillance. The work out a rotation, alternating with two of them scanning the road on the distant horizon which Hans flies a bit further south for them to better observe. As they near the Dragoon Mountains, still about fifteen miles from Tombstone, six horses with three riders are spotted. The riders have left the main road and are headed towards the mountains. Hans immediately turns the airship to the north and lowers the airship’s altitude to put the mountains between them and the riders. 

Hank comments, “So, what do you make of that? They’ve left the main road and are riding away from Tombstone.” Arcade replies, “They’ve been riding their horses hard all day, the mounts and riders are all probably tied. I’m guessing they’re planning to stop and hold up in the Mountains. That way they’ll be refreshed and alert when they sneak into town. That’s what I’d do if I were them.” 

Hank says, “I say that we should go in and get them right now.” Arcade replies, “Using what? By the time we’re close enough to shoot at them they’ll be close enough to shoot back. This huge bag of air above us is flammable and makes a really big target.” 

Hank says, “So what? Hans, didn’t you say that the covering over the balloons was reinforced and magically protected?” The pilot interjects, “Yah, it is, small arms fire should bounce off. But if they have magical ammunition, that could pierce it.” Morgana says, “The odds are pretty high that the Earps have some magical rounds with them.” Hank says, “Okay, scratch that, we’ll go back to Plan A.” 

They proceed onward, reaching the outskirts of the Tombstone shortly after it has gotten dark. They park the airship a little over a half-mile away using the hills with the stamping mills and smelters to block the view of the dirigible from the town. Hank instructs Hans “Cut the engine but keep the batteries charged, we probably won’t be long.” Arcade adds, “But if anybody comes snooping around just get out of here. We can always take the stagecoach back to Promise City if we have to.” 

The five walk into town, reaching it at around 9:00 P.M. They intentionally choose to arrive from the less crowded part of town and making their way unseen via the back alleyways. They decide to start at the more remote County Jail building, correctly assuming that Behan wouldn’t want to see them at the smaller County Sheriff’s Office above the Crystal Palace Saloon given that his office there is adjacent to that of Town Marshall Virgil Earp. 

They knock lightly on the door to the Jail. Sheriff Johnny Behan opens it up and they see that he is alone inside. “You called for us?” Arcade asks. He says, “Yes, come in.” Getting right to the point Arcade asks, “Is this about Wyatt Earp?” Behan says, “Yes, Those Earp Outlaws have run roughshod these last ten weeks, murdering innocent men. Their friends are harboring and helping them, making it nearly impossible for myself and a handful of deputies to catch them over and above all of our other regular duties.” 

Arcade and Morgana exchange glances without comment. Behan continues, “Well, one person says that he’s had enough and that person is the United States President Chester A. Arthur. The President has telegrammed the Territorial Governor saying that if the lawlessness continues here within Cochise County he’s going to declare Martial Law and will be sending in Federal Troops to resolve it.” 

Hank exclaims, “Damn! If this place is swarming with Federal Troops there’s no way they’ll miss seeing the Sam Houston. They’ll confiscate it!” “The who?”, Behan asks. “Never you mind,” Hank replies. Arcade adds, “And given our gang’s reputation they might take us into custody as well. I think we’re in agreement that we don’t want the Feds around here.” 

Behan replies, “Good. Then I’d like to deputize your group. With you as part of the Posse we should be able to find those Earp Outlaws right away.” “Or scare them off when they hear we’re on the case,” Hank enthusiastically adds. Arcade ponders that for a minute and says, “No, Wyatt doesn’t scare and we already know that he hates us. It sounds to me Sheriff that you want to use us as bait to draw them out.” Behan’s facial expression gives away the fact that Arcade’s assessment is correct. 

A long tense period of silence follows. Arcade turns to his associates and says, “Let’s go home. Morgana adds to Behan, “Have a nice life.” Behan exclaims, “Hold on a minute, are you saying you won’t help out?” Arcade replies, “We’re not bait! This isn’t our problem.” Louie comments “But the Earps could become our problem.” 

Morgana says, “Sheriff, I’m going to do you a really big favor, which is more than you deserve. I have some information about the Earps.” Behan asks, “Where is this information from?” She replies, “Never mind that and don’t ask. Wyatt Earp and five of his men are on their way here right now, they’ll be here by morning. And three of them are covered in magical invisibility.” He interjects, “Wait, how do...” Hank cuts him off with, “You hard of hearing? She can’t say how she knows, but trust her on this.” 

Behan says, “But I need...” Hank cuts him off with “Sheriff, just say ‘Thank You’ to the nice lady.” Morgana doesn’t wait for the dumbfounded Sheriff to answer, interjecting a “You’re welcome.” 

Arcade says, “Sheriff, I only have two more things to say to you. Good bye and Good luck.” With that he walks out of the building with the others following him, slamming the door behind them.


----------



## Silver Moon

*Chapter One-hundred, “Bombs Away”, Tuesday, May 23rd, 1882, 9:30 P.M. *

The gang makes their way quietly out of town. Once they are clear of all the buildings Morgana mutters, “What an idiot.” Arcade comments, “Seems to be a lot of that going around, the Earps are idiots for coming here to stir things us. That’ll just get the Feds to come in even quicker.” Morgana says, “And from what I’ve seen the Feds just know how to barge in, take over, eat everything in sight, and take whatever they want from the local businesses.” Hank says, “They can’t do that, that’s our job.” 

Arcade says, “Why don’t we just hope for the best, assume they’ll find and kill the Earps and we can just set back and die of old age.” Louie says, “Sounds good, we respectable gang. They leave us be.” Morgana mutters, “Unless they put these invisible Earps into an even more psychotic rage and they come gunning for us.” Hank says, “You think the Feds and the Earps will all just leave us out of this mess? Would anybody care to take any bets on that?” 

Morgana says, “So this is still our mess, whether we want it to be or not.” Arcade says, “Well, we can resolve this now if we want to. We have a pretty good idea where to find the Earps.” Hank says, “But they’re sure to be at a defendable spot where they’d see us coming.” Arcade replies, “Who said anything about going in on foot.” Louie says, “We talk about that already. If we close enough to shoot from balloon they shoot back.” 

Arcade states, “We could fly higher and use something other than rifles.” “Like what?” Sam asks. Arcade replies, “Well, right now we’re in the biggest mining town in Arizona. How hard do you think it will be to find some dynamite?” “The stores would all be closed now,” Sam adds. “Who said anything about stores?” is Arcades reply. 

Realizing that the mines would store their explosives a distance from the town the gang checks out the various storage sheds near the hills. They come upon three locked and windowless sheds. Louie picks the lock on the first one, finding it filled with picks, shovels and wheelbarrows. The next shed has a much better lock, which takes Louie longer to get off. Inside they find two unopened crates, each labeled as having a hundred sticks of dynamite. They decide to take both, also gathering up a burlap sack that they fill with fuses, wires and blasting caps. 

Louie and Hank carry the first crate, Arcade and Sam carry the other, with Morgana holding the sack. They take their time, very carefully making their way back to the dirigible. They crates are opened up and then carefully loaded on board as Hans gets the engine going. 

As soon as they get airborne Arcade suggests putting the dynamite into bundles of six sticks with a single fuse and detonator in the center of each bundle. The group quickly gets to work at this task. As they near the Dragoon Mountains they have Hans kill the engine and continue to drift forward to the east in silence. 

A campfire is seen in the distance, camped on a plateau halfway up the southeastern side of a mountain, with horses tied up in a group a short distance off. Morgana peers through the binoculars and says, “It’s them. The three visible ones are sitting around the fire.” The trapdoor at the bottom of the passenger compartment is opened up, with the four men each standing on a different side. 

Morgana says she can shoot a Firefinger spell from her finger that they can all uses to light the fuses from. Louie says, “Good, I didn’t want to have to light other fires here with all this dynamite lying around.” Arcade says, “Okay, each of you guys take a bundle in each hand and put two more bundles near your feet to grab right after the first ones are gone. We’ll light the ones we’re holding all together. Just make sure that you get them all outside instead of dropping them on the floor by accident.” 

Hans continues to steer the dirigible forward towards the light of the fire, which is now approximately 500 feet below. Morgana holds her hand with outstretched index finger over the center of the trapdoor and the four men simultaneously hold up their fuses up to light. Arcade flings his two bundles down together towards the fire and Hank does the same. Louie and Sam aim and drop theirs one at a time. By then Arcade and Hank already have their second bundles up to the flame. Louie and Sam grab their next bundles. 

The gang had previously worked as mine guards, which now pays off for them. They had learned enough from the miners at the Liberty Hill Mine to generally estimate the right fuse lengths. Arcade’s first two bundles had been dropped just a bit too early and hit the ground a short distance away from the target without immediately detonating. The ‘thunk, thunk’ sound catches the attention of the men. Before they can react however Hanks bundles land, one almost directly on top of Turkey Creek Johnson, and the twenty-four sticks of dynamite simultaneously explode. Louie and Sam’s first two bundles then reach their destination and explode, both a distance off but stilling spreading rocks and debris over the area. Sam and Louie’s next pair of bundles land near the horse corral, killing one mount and wounding two others. 

Gunpowder, Dust, flames, burning campfire logs and Johnson’s body parts cover the area as the next eight bundles of explosives rain down. One of Arcade’s is a direct hit on the already wounded Texas Jack Vernillin, the explosion ripping him to bits. Both of Sam’s bundles, as well as the final ones from both Arcade and Louie, fall directly upon the remaining horses. 

As the dirigible begins to drift away they conclude that they are too far off for another volley. They gaze down below at the carnage of dead horses and Arcade says, “Looks like nobody’s riding away from this one.” 

Morgana peers down further back with the binoculars at Earp’s man Charlie Smith and says, “No, but one of the men is limping away. There’s also no telling what happened to the invisible ones.” Hank yells, “Hans, turn this thing around for another pass.” The pilot replies, “I’ll have to start up the engine.” Arcade says, “Go ahead, I think they already know we’re here.” 

Hans fires up the engines gives the ship’s wheel a hard turn to the right. The ship turns a full 270-degrees in the start of a figure-eight maneuver, now coming in from the south. Arcade asks his wife, “Got another one of those fire spells?” She says, “Yes, one more.” He announces “Okay folks, same thing as before.” 

As the now noisier dirigible nears rifle fire shoots up from below, the shooters using rocks for cover. “Damn,” Sam exclaims as a bullet deflects off of the floor to the passenger compartment. Hank exclaims, “We can’t wait until we’re above them this time.” Arcade says “You’re right, everyone brace the dynamite so it doesn’t shift. Hans, pulls up steep.” The pilot does as instructed, with the change in altitude causing the compartment to now pitch at a twenty-five degree angle. That has the trapdoor now angled forward instead of straight down. 

Arcade instructs the others “Light’em and pitch them out. Aim for the rifle discharges” Both Louie and Arcade’s first pitches are close to on target and the shooting stops. Louie and Hank’s next bundles also land in that vicinity. The dirigible then moves forward to the point that it is over the target zone as they each light and drops their final two bundles, with one from each hitting right where they want it to. 

They have Hans level off, complete the figure eight and begin to descend. They have him hover above the ground as they drop the rope ladder and climb down for a quick reconnaissance. 

Four men are confirmed dead while another is unconscious but still alive. Hank and Sam drag him over to the ladder and tie him to it. Warren Earp is among the dead but his brother Wyatt is not. They find tracks heading a short distance off which then disappear abruptly. “Looks like he used magic to escape,” Morgana exclaims. “Then we ought to get out of here too,” Arcade states. They climb back on board and pull up the ladder with the man, performing some simple first aid on him. 

They arrive back near Promise City at around 11:00 P.M. Sam heads over to the El Parador to borrow handyman Grant Keebler’s wagon and they bring the wounded man back there, the man’s wallet having enough in it to identify him as being Sherman MacMasters. Morgana gets Manuel Gonzales and he helps them sneak the man up to his bedroom while Louie and Sam go with Hans to bring the dirigible back to the valley and ride the horses back to town. 

They heal him to the point that he is barely conscious and he verifies that he is Sherman MacMasters and that Wyatt Earp was with them at the campfire. He then passes out again. A short debate follows about what to do with him, settling upon the notion to release him somewhere far away with forceful instructions for him to start a new life. They question destinations that Gonzales knows to teleport to, settling upon Athens, Greece. He and Morgana take the man and they teleport away. She is back by midnight and the gang all turn in for the night. 




_DM’s note: The Players decided to end the module at that point, with no plans to revisit this campaign at any time soon. I had originally planned for this module to last several character days, with the fate of Wyatt Earp being a significant unresolved loose end. 

So decided to pick up the storyline here with my other gaming group, in our Play-by-Post campaign also set in Promise City.  As a segway I ran a short “prelude” set the day prior to the Arcade’s Module to directly involve those characters in the Wyatt Earp plotline. We have just now the full module, which starts the day immediately after the events above. The Story Hour for this module is titled "Ballots & Bullets".    _ 



And as always, Reader's comments to this Story Hour are welcomed!


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## Silver Moon

*Module 137 - November 5, 2006*

*Chapter 101, “Boom”, Thursday, June 15, 1882, 6:00 P.M. * 

The Story so Far: (events from the parallel module “Ballots and Bullets”)  

On Tuesday, May 23rd, 1882 , returning from Tombstone via airship Arcade’s Gang carried out an aerial assault with dynamite upon the renegade Earp gang  (Module #134).   The United States Army was credited for the attack on the Earp Gang.    Two days later a major fire took place in Tombstone and Wyatt Earp was seen alive and uninjured in Tombstone on that day. 

Three weeks have gone by since then.   An election is set for the upcoming Tuesday for Promise City to elect a Mayor, Town Council and Town Marshall.   Five different political parties have been formed.  Hank Hill of Arcade’s Gang is running as an independent candidate for Town Marshall.

During the last three weeks there was a outside the Marshal’s Office which left four dead including a Deputy, followed by sporadic killings which included a few candidates for office one of them being Deputy Sheriff Colin Hunter who was running for Town Marshall.  Many of the dead were affiliated with Cowboy Gang are were presumably killed by the renegade Wyatt Earp. 

Last Saturday night a mine owned by the Mayoral frontrunner was attacked by a group of eight hooded riders who threatened him unless he withdrew.   The following morning while most of the town was in church a group of seven hooded riders attacked the northwestern end of town, dynamiting homes and businesses of a half-dozen candidates including the Freedom Party Headquarters (the Palace Saloon).  Two riders were killed in the attack. 

Two arrests were later made including bank clerk whose boss was Mayoral candidate Derek Avery.  Avery is later found murdered. Several attacked candidates withdrew.   On Monday Freedom Party candidate Bob Skull was arrested for Avery’s murder and jailed with the two arrested hooded riders.   They used magic to escape and a posse failed to find them. 

Yesterday Hank Hill transported two Town Deputies south via airship to meet a wood elf rancher in Mexico who provided circumstantial information linking Law & Order Party Town Marshall candidate Ashley King and the hooded riders.   They returned to town as the Town Marshall debate was that night and Hank Hill did a good job of fending off criticisms and answering some tough questions.   That night the hooded riders return to the previously hit mine and are were attacked by the miners, one rider being killed. 

Two hours ago Deputy Marshall Chester Martin was involved in a shootout at a hardware store which ended with three dead including cattle rustler Billy Clanton and bank robber Brice Koontz with an arrest of Billy’s brother Ike Clanton.  

*Thursday, June 15th, 6:00 PM*

Arcade’s Gang is now sitting down to a fine dinner in their home prepared by their Italian Chef Joseppi when gunshot sounds are heard a short distance to the south.   “Should we go see what that is?” asks Sam.    Arcade replies, “Nah, that newspaper Editor who works for us will tell us what happened.”   Morgana says, “He’s done a good job, we should do something for him.”  Arcade says, “Okay, Louie, why don’t you head over to the store and pick up a bag of Halfling Chow.”   More gunshots fire.  They decide to ignore the weapon’s fire and continue eating.   

There is then a massive explosion, shaking the entire building and causing various dishes and small objects to fall over and onto the floor.   Flying debris rains down on the roof and several of the house’s windows become cracked and broken.   Hank exclaims, “I hope nobody was smoking on the Zepplin.”   Morgana says, “That’s miles away, that blast was close.”   Sam says, “Sounded like it was just a bit to the south.”   Morgana says, “Ah yes, the dynamite shed over at Slade’s Hardware.”   

“Didn’t that blow up just a few months back?” Louie asks.   Morgana says, “Yes, they made him move it further from town.”  “Not far enough,” Arcade comments, surveying the damage their own house just sustained.   “Maybe we should put somebody else in charge of the dynamite,” Morgana suggests.   Hank says, “Yeah, that Sam Slade doesn’t know he’s doing.  I’d sooner put Freddy No-thumbs or Billy Firestarter in charge, they’d be safer with dynamite.”

They decide to head outside to survey the damage.   Dozens of people are heading in a southward direction.   The dust is still settling and Morgana spots some boot-shaped dust floating feely in the air and moving steadily.  Signaling Louie that there appears to be somebody invisible present the two move in on either side of the moving dust particles and the two then grab a man between them.   A short struggle follows with the man becoming visible.   Hank grabs him from behind, the man turning out to be Bob Skull, who had excaped from the town jail three days earlier where he was wanted on murder charges.   

They quickly discuss whether there was a reward for this guy.   Deputy Sheriffs Frank Leslie and Dave Nagle are seen nearby and the prisoner is turned over to them.   They march the man off to jail.   Skull’s friend, the Palace Saloon owner was near where Skull was grabbed but denies knowing that the other man was following him.   Morgana does not believe Adair but they have no evidence to the contrary.  

Reporter Angela Young comes by and is swearing a blue streak.   “What is the matter?” her employer Morgana asks.   The very pregnant young lady says, “That explosion caused me to go into labor.  This is the biggest story this week and I can’t cover it because I have to have this baby instead!”   Louie quickly retrieves his girlfriend Mary Wong to assist Angela over to Doctor Eaton’s house, where Eaton’s wife Beth is a trained widwife. 

The gang continues south where they spot a huge crater where the dynamite shed used to be.   Town Marshall Berg arrives on the scene with Fire Marshall Jeff Mills and some of the fire brigade.  Berg asks Deputy Chester Martin, "What in blazes happened out here, Deputy?" He looks at the crater. "Slade's shed blew up again? And who are these men?"   Chester says, "This here's Elmer Koontz, wanted for robbing Condon's Bank last January. Mad Dog Moore was helping Elmer hide out in Fisk's house." The newspaperman Chumbley is nearby and hears Chester's summary while taking vigorous notes in his notebook.   

Marshall Berg tells Chet to keep an eye on the prisioners as he heads up Silverbell Hill to inspect the damage to the stamping mill, smelter and mine and make sure there are no serious injuries there.   Chester replies, "Yes, sir. Looks like Liberty Party headquarters didn't make out so good."   Jeff Mills and his fire company put out the buring blankets and curtains that had been previously thrown out the windows of Fisk's house as well as small brush fires caused by the previous fireball.   A small crowd has gathered further west down by Baines Butcher Shop. Chester sees the members of Arcade's Gang over there. Marshal candidate Hank Hill notices Chet and starts to head over in his direction.   

Deputy Marshall Chester looks down at the prisoners to note where they are, then he looks up at Hank and waves. "Coming out for all the excitement, Hank?"  Hank says "Yep, I hear that Sam Slade was careless with his dynamite again. Looks like this building took quite a beating. You have things under control over here?"  Chester nods. "Something like that. He's going to have to store that stuff outside of town from now on. That's twice this year." He nudges the unconscious Koontz with his foot. "These two aren't giving me any problems. Looks like the Liberty Party is having some problems, losing their house and all.”   

Hank kneals down and looks closer at the three dead bodies near the door, recognizing one as Marshall candidate Charlie Villars and another as council candidate Porter Norris. "These guys weren't killed by the dynamite, those are gunshot wounds. Looks like Earp decided to take out the Liberty Party. I wonder if he was the one who blew up the shed to try to cover up his handiwork?"  Chester replies, "Hard to say. I was inside when the shed went up. If Earp did this and he's still around, the other Liberty Party guys should stay out of sight." 

Around fifty feet further east the two young sons of the town butcher begin to point to something alongside the back wall of the butcher shop.   “What is it?” Morgana asks.   Hank takes a quick glance and says, “Looks like a dust-covered guy passed out drunk.”   Arcade says, “Not fair, that’s my spot to pass out drunk in.”    They head over there, and as they get closer they see that dust is the only thing covering the unconscious man, as he is completely naked.   They then recogninze him as Wyatt Earp!

Hank says, “Somebody should go get the Marshall.”   Morgana replies, “No, maybe somebody should make a citizen’s arrest Hank, perhaps someone WHO IS RUNNING FOR TOWN MARSHALL!”   Hank says, “Yeah, good idea, I can do that.”    Hank gets Sam and Louie to help him carry Earp over to the Marshall’s Office.  

Hank goes back and tells Chester, "Oh Earp is around, my friends have him. I'll bring him over to the jail right now."  Chester does a double-take. "They... what? Uh, yeah, bring him by. I'm going to take these two in now." Chester hauls Moore to his feet. He slaps Koontz in the face. "Let's go, you two. Time to go."

Morgana locates the newspaper editor Chumbley to have him write up Hank’s arrests of both Wyatt Earp and Bob Skull.   They head over to the Town Jail where Chumbley asks Hank about what transpired.   Hank says, “We all heard the big explosion.  I grabbed by my guns and then saw this strange patch of dust that turned out to be that Skull guy using invisibility, must have been how he escaped before.  So I grabbed him and turned him over to the Deputies, since they have a jail Skull hasn’t busted out of yet.    I then head over here and see Wyatt Earp.  I figure he’s up to no good, probably was the one who set off the explosion, so I arrest him too.”  

Once the reporter has all of the information and things in town start to calm down Hank suggests that the Gang head over to the Long Branch Saloon for some drinks.   He buys drinks for whichever eligible voters also happen to be hanging around.  The Gang stays there for the rest of the evening and then wander back home.


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## Silver Moon

Chapter 102, “Fall of the Hooded Riders”, Friday, June 15, 1882, 5:45 A.M.  

Arcade’s Gang are woken up an hour after dawn by their wizard friend Manuel Gonzales.   While the early hour is unwelcome he was wise enough to bring with him a pot of hot coffee from the El Parador.  He appears agitated as they sit down at the breakfast table to see what he wants.    He begins, “I have spent the last several days out at the ranch a mile south of town that my Great Granddaughter Sonoma co-owns.  Wyatt Earp had coerced her and her business partner into assisting him, which could have led to difficulties if the authorities found out.   I went out their to dissuade him from bothering them in the future.”   

“Well, that’s not likely to happen now that he’s in jail,” Hank states.   “As I have heard,” Gonzales replies.   “I hope you didn’t wake us up this early just to thank us,” Arcade interjects.   
Gonzales replies, “No, another matter of grave importance has come up.  You are of course familiar with the Hooded Riders who attacked the town last Sunday morning.”   Hank says, “Yeah, those explosions woke us up way too early too.”  Louie comments “Two of ‘em were caught but broke out of jail on Monday.  What about them?”    Gonzales replies, “I found them.”   

That information causes the Gang to perk up and Morgana exclaims, “Where?”   Gonzales replies, “At the Perez Ranch, just over the hill from my Granddaughter’s ranch.    I have been friends with the Perez family for many years and it occurred to me that I had not seen any of them around the last few days, so headed over there at dawn to say hello.   I didn’t see any of the Perez’s but did see two human-sized men with brown hoods.   I assume that my friends are being held hostage by the men with dark hoods, so came back here right away to alert you.”

The group does some quick planning, grabs there gear, and mount up.   They quickly ride out to Sonoma’s ranch and leave her to secure their horses.    Gonzales makes his way up the hill between the two ranches accompanied by Arcade, Hank, Louie, Morgana and Sam.   They stay low and watch the Perez Ranch from a distance, which is comprised of a ranch house, barn, and two smaller storage buildings.   He says that three members of the Perez family reside there, Ricardo Perez, his wife Francesca and his father Hosea.   They also have a cow, a small flock of sheep and a couple goats who reside within the barn. 

The group discuss how to proceed.  Gonzales indicates that he has been a guest at the Perez house before so knows the interior.  He draws out a short diagram in the dirt, indicating that there are four rooms on the first floor and three rooms on the second floor.   They make an assumption that the outlaws would currently either be awake on the first floor or asleep on the second floor.   

Morgana asks about the use of Gonzales’s teleport spells.  He indicates that he has two but adds that he is only capable of teleporting up to three other people in addition to himself.   Another  drawback to using that the spell is that it requires the use of a small fire to activate, but it is unlikely that anyone in the farmhouse will be looking due east because of the rising sun.   The group concludes that the best course of action would be for him to teleport three of them into a second floor bedroom and then incapacitate any outlaws sleeping inside of that room.    

Reviewing abilities it is decided that he will take Arcade, Hank and Sam with him, as Louie and Morgana have the best change of stealthfully approaching the house on their own.  It is decided that the pair will go under the cover of invisibility and approach from the far side of the barn so that the large building will help to shield any disturbance of dirt and dust from their approach plus the sounds from the barn animals would obscure any sound that they might make.    They set up a signal for Louie and Morgana to make when they are in position and the pair set out to circumnavigate the ranch and come in on foot from the far side.  

Fifteen minutes later a pair of riders are seen coming towards the ranch from the north.   Louie and Morgana are now some 500 feet from the barn and freeze in place while the quartet up on the hill lie down low to avoid being spotted.    A hooded man exits the farmhouse to greet the riders being handed the reins from the men as they dismount.   The hooded man leads the horses off towards the barn while the other two head towards the house, each pulling a brown hood from the coat pockets and placing it over their heads before entering the building. 

Gonzales says, “That’s a good sign, the Perez family must still be alive or the men wouldn’t bother to cover their faces.”   Hank says, “I recognized one of those guys before he put the hood on, that’s Ashley King, he’s running for Town Marshall.”   Gonzales says, “Hmmm, yes, ironically on the Law and Order Party ticket.  Seems to me that on Sunday the Hooded Riders didn’t attack any place owned by Law and Order Party candidates.”    Arcade asks “How many of them did you see at dawn?”   Gonzales says two, including the one who is now in the barn.  With the two new ones that makes at least four who are awake.  There’s probably a few more based upon prior accounts of the riders.”  Sam comments, “Maybe, maybe not, the second floor bedrooms might be empty then.”  

Louie and Morgana make their way more cautiously towards the barn.   It has large double doors in the front and a single door in the back..   The back door is latched from the inside but Louie manages to slip in a knife and lift the latch.   Morgana says she will head up to the front to signal those on the hillside that they are ready.    She follows through, stirring up a small pile of dust in that corner of the building.   “That’s it,” Arcade states.   Gonzales ignites the fire in the brazier needed for his teleport spell and immediately casts the spell before any of the outlaws below notice the smoke.    

Guns drawn, they arrive in a bedroom which is unoccupied although the bed appears to have recently been slept in.  Gonzales immediately extinguishes the fire in the brazier before the room fills with smoke.    They make their way out into the corridor, hearing voices from downstairs.  They second bedroom is also unoccupied.   As they approach the third and final bedroom Hank peers down the adjacent staircase, seeing an armed hooded man near the bottom of the staircase, who is thankfully facing away and talking to somebody else on the first floor.   Hank signals for the others to proceed, that he will cover the man below.   

Arcade opens the door as Sam draws his gun.   An armed man in the room is asleep in a chair near the door.   Tied and bound on the bed are the three Perez family members.   Arcade uses his rifle butt to strongly strike the man on the head while Sam grabs the man to keep him from falling out of the chair.   He is now unconscious and they pull off the hood, recognizing him as Jason Snavely, one of the hooded riders who had escaped from jail.    

Hank moves away from the staircase and guards outside the door as the others shut it.  Arcade quickly ties the unconscious man up as Sam unties the three Perez family members, with Francesca confirming that they have been hostages since Monday.  Gonzales suggests that he use his remaining teleport to get the hostages away to safety from the building and Arcade replies “Good idea, that’ll leave the rest of us free to act.”   Gonzales gets the brazier going again and then teleports him and the Perez’s back to Sonoma’s ranch.   Arcade suggests shooting the one at the bottom of the stairs before he spots them.  Hank says, “I can’t shoot somebody in the back.”  Arcade replies, “I can.”  Hank answers, “Sure, you’re English.”  

Louie gets impatient waiting and decides to head into the barn.   As he moves forward he accidentally trips on some hay ropes and falls to the floor with a crash.   The man in the barn securing the horses draws his gun and fires in the direction of the sound.  Louie jumps behind a wooden water trough and fires back, making himself visible.    Near the front doors, Morgana swears and waits by the door, anticipating the outlaw inside to soon exit.   Instead, the front door of the farmhouse opens and two hooded men exit, moving quickly towards the barn and holding revolvers.   Arcade heard the front door close and looks outside the window, seeing two people head towards the barn.   He says, “Morgana and Louie are distracting them, let’s head downstairs while they are split up.”   

Hank hears movement on the staircase.   He steps out and fires at the man, the hooded rider being hit in the leg and tumbling down the stairs.    Hank, Sam and Arcade hurry downstairs.   Hank is the first down and sees one man at the far side of the room below and fires a shot, hitting the man in the shoulder.   The man returns fire, missing Hank but hitting Sam in the side.   Arcade, Sam and Hank all fire again and the hooded man falls dead to the floor.   The kitchen door then opens a crack and shots fire out at the heroes.

Morgana casts a Hold Person spell at the pair of hooded riders approaching the barn, causing one to freeze in place and the other to run for cover behind the nearby stone storage shed.  He starts to fire at the corner of the barn where he heard her voice.   Inside the bar, shots continue to be exchanged, with Louie having been stuck twice before he gets an incapacitating wound into his opponent. 

The shot fired from the kitchen didn’t hit anybody, giving Hank and Sam time to move for cover behind the living room furniture while Arcade hugged the side wall out of the kitchen door’s line-of-sight.    Hank and Sam both return fire to their opponent, Sam striking the doorframe while Hank’s bullet splinters the door above the hooded man’s head as he fires back.   Arcade makes his way through the door in the side wall, leading to the dining room that is adjacent to the kitchen.   As Hank and Sam continue to command their opponent’s full attention Arcade casually walks into the kitchen, picks up a frying pan, and clubs the hooded man on the head from behind. 

Louie reaches the front of the barn and opens the door, only to be shot at by the man behind the storage shed.  Louie returns fire, distracting the man so that Morgana can get away from the barn and over by the farmhouse.   Arcade and Hank exit from the rear kitchen door and Morgana catches their attention.   After a minute of coordination they work out an ambush to surround their remaining opponent, with Louie continuing to fire from the barn and Sam from the front door of the farmhouse while the other three make their way around and behind him.   

Once the man is surrounded Hank calls out for his surrender.   Instead he turns and shoots at Hank, resulting is the heroes all firing back from different directions, with all but Morgana hitting.   The man falls dead to the ground.   Hank rushes forward and removes the hood, revealing him to be Ashley King.    One of the other two dead is town baker Don Hudson, the other is a man who they do not recognize.   

The group better secures the four wounded, pulling off the hoods to gag them.    Other than Jason Snavely one is a private tutor from town named Icabod Shackelton, another is Kirby Watkins, son of Hank’s former landlord.  The final one is a teenage boy who they don’t know.  They put them in the back of the Perez’s wagon along with the three deceased.  They hitch up some draft horses and head over to Sonoma’s ranch where Francesca Perez agrees to accompany them into town as a witness to the hooded riders' crimes.


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## Silver Moon

Starting up this campaign soon so rebooting thread for quick reference.


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## Silver Moon

rebooted for quick reference


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## Silver Moon

*Arcade’s Gang in “They Rode to Perdition”, Module #159 – 4 games played 6-24-12 to 7-15-12

Cast of Characters (Owl Hoot Trail Character Class in parenthesis):*

Lord Josiah “Arcade” Arcadian – male human fighter/druid (shaman) 

Morgana Talks-with-Trees O’Shea Arcadian – female half-elf druid/bard (shaman) played by Kriskrafts

Hank Hill – male human fighter (marshal) 

Louie (Lu-Buliang Yee) – male half-orc fighter/thief (ruffian) 

“Sure-shot” Sam – male human fighter (gunslinger) 

Professor Branford von Snicthellstein III – male Halfling gadgeteer (gadgeteer) 

“Silver” Jake Cooke – male fighter/thief (scoundrel) played by BaradtGnome

Introduction – My friend Kevin Kulp (PirateCat) was co-authoring a new Role Playing Game titled “Owl Hoot Trail” for Pelgrane Press.  It was a fantasy western that combined elements of a traditional western with fantasy elements similar to D&D 3rd Edition and utilized the ‘Open Game License’.    Kevin was aware of my Arcade’s Gang campaign, which used comparable rules, and asked if we could play test his module with character sheets modified for the “Owl Hoot Trail” system.  We were happy to do so, and one player created a new character using the gadgeteer character class from that system.

_Note: The RPG is still in print and can be obtained as a physical book or as a PDF at the following link  Pelgrane Press Secure Checkout     The module “They Rode to Perdition” is included with the RPG, and it includes many scenes and encounters that my players did not play out in their game._

*Chapter 103: "The Annoying Halfling", February 4, 1883:*

It has been over seven-months since Hank Hill became a Deputy Marshal in Promise City, Arizona and during this time the group known as Arcade’s Gang has done their best to become respectable citizens in the growing mining town.   Several new streets have been added to the town and a municipal park covering the equivalent of three city blocks is being constructed as part of this.   Two large brick houses are now under construction on Park Street, one for Lord and Lady Arcadian and the other for the remainder of Arcade’s Gang, both houses looking out upon the southwestern corner of this park.  In the meanwhile the group continues to reside in their current home further south in town.

The day begins with the arrival of Hezekiah Chumbley, the Halfling from Australia who has been editor of the Promise City Herald for the last fifteen months, with the gang’s Morgana as the newspaper’s publisher.   Sam makes the mistake of asking “What is the news for today.”   This is followed by the enthusiastic newspaperman speaking non-stop for the next ten minutes.  He is finally stopped by the gang’s chef Joseppi Franjolupi, who thrusts a mug of coffee and a plate of food into his hands.

The Halfling stops to eat, after which he says, “I could also use some help from you.”  When asked for what he produces a telegram which he says is from his cousin Caledonia Roundhill, the shopkeeper of a mercantile store in Perdition, New Mexico.    “Where in perdition is that?” asks Arcade.  Chumbley says “Around two-hundred miles northeast of here.  There are no direct train routes so it would probably be easier for you to get there on horseback.”   “Why us?” Louie exclaims.  Chumbley replies, “Because she asked me to, and I am asking you.  I have been working for you for over a year and have never asked you for anything.”   Morgana says, “Except for a better printing press, higher-quality-ink, a backlog of paper, an expanded workshop, and more employees.”  Chumbley says, “Those weren’t for me, those were for the business, that doesn’t count.” “Money out of my pocket counts,” she replies.

“Hold on, what does your cousin need?” Hank inquires.  Chumbley says, “She’s been in Perdition a long time, back even before it became part of the United States and was still owned by Mexico.  Her father started the store, but he died a long time ago.  Our grandfather raised her after that but he died two months ago, this was the first that I heard of his passing.   She was engaged to be married and her fiancé was expected back in town following a business trip, he never arrived. 

The stagecoach that he was on was found overturned and burnt, the seven bodies including him, the drivers, and other passengers lying tied and bound in a nearby ditch.  She says that it is the work of a gang known as the Killers of Carcass Creek.  The gang is led by a man called “One Bloody Knife” and there is a reward of $500 for him, dead or alive.  The other ten gang members have rewards of $50 alive, $25 dead, more alive since they could then testify against their leader.  But the capture or elimination of the entire gang is worth the most, a flat $2,000. 

Arcade heads over to Chumbley and says, “Thanks for the information” as he walks the little man to the door.  Arcade then shoves him outside and slams the door behind him, and then locks it.   The Halfling stares to bank on the door and then starts yelling from outside, asking if they will do it.  Louie says, “You realize that he is not going to go away.”  Morgana says, “We should probably let him back in.”  When Chumbley fails to be let back in or hear a response from inside his inquiry then turns to begging.    Arcade says, “We should probably agree before he starts crying.”  The chef Joseppi is clearing the dishes from the table and Louie points to him saying “It’s all his fault, once you feed them they never go away.”

Professor Branford von Snicthellstein III, the gang’s newest member and gadgeteer, comes downstairs wanting to know what all of the racket is about.   “Chumbley!” they all exclaim in unison.    The gadgeteer rolls his eyes.  He has mixed feelings about the Australian, but has some sympathy as they are two of the only four halflings living in town (with the other two being Chumbley’s wife and child) so he decides to let him back in.  Rather than walking to the door however the Professor pulls a recently installed lever on the wall near the icebox which causes the door across the room to unlock and open on its own.   Chumbley bounces inside saying “So you’ll do it?”

They chat for another ten minutes for more information and it becomes clear that Chumbley has never been to Perdition.  He knows from his cousin and grandfather that there had once been some mining there, but the town is primarily known for its cattle ranch, owned by a half-elf named Alberto Criojo, whose family has been there forever.  He says that the Native American side of Criojo’s heritage is Navajo.   The town itself is a good hundred miles east of Navajo territory, with the local native America tribe of that area being the Haqat, who also refer to themselves by the traditional elvan name of “The Shee”.   This leads to a ridiculous number of pronoun-based puns regarding the words “he”, “she” and “them”.    The group reluctantly agrees to undertake the mission.

Deciding that they are light on thieving skills for a mission of this type (and because a player from my former Play-by-Post campaign also set in Promise City wanted to pay) they decide to extend an invitation to Silver Jake Cooke, gambler and co-owner of the Lucky Lady Dance Hall and Saloon and also the Silver Palace Saloon.   He is knowledgeable of mining operations, being co-owner of the Fisk Mountain Mine.   They head over to the Lucky Lady to discuss this with him.

After considerable back-and-forth conversation about this Jake agrees to join them provided “The next time I am in need of a favor, that Arcade’s Gang would look favorably upon granting it.”  They agree to those terms.     They decide to leave the next morning.


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