Sessions 1 and 2 summaries

2004-08-05T17:07:00.000-07:00

Late september brings a break in the incessant heat throughout Arizona, as well as heavy Combine activity. The town of Haven and its outlying colonies, Blackstone, Artery and Sundown, have been isolated in the mesas of northeastern Arizona since shortly after the coming of the reckoners. Having shut themselves off deep in rugged terrain during the Faminite conflicts, their only contact with the outside world has been the occasional undead assaults from Fort Defiance. In recent months, Combine scouts have spotted their reclusive fortresses, and their investigations have discovered it to be a perfect prospect for a resource collection outpost - rich in resources, inaccessible to foot troops, and easily defensible, with no contact to outside survivor settlements.

THE BLACKSTONE MASSACRE

After meeting with Mayor Devin Fury and leaving on unfriendly terms, Combine forces left the small alliance with an ultimatum - they would require unconditional surrender of all land, workers and resources in return for the continued existence of the area. The result of negotiations was two destroyed automatons and a half dozen dead black hats. Overconfident with their win, the people of Haven took the invaders to be just another force of wasteland raiders, not the true threat they were. Mayor Fury increased defenses around the townships, but even with increased patrols, a pair of raptors full of automatons and a black hat detachment were able to move in to the city during the night, and push aside the resistance to slaughter every inhabitant of the town.

The town's sacrifice was not entirely in vain, though - the smoke rising off their charred bodies piled and burning in the town's church and courthouse offered a smoke signal to the passing craft Badass Betty, hailing the posse within and possibly bringing Haven's last chance for survival. Rachel Learsling, the beautiful junkerette and pilot of Badass Betty, set the VTOL craft down on a runway used for the town's ultralight, and Kevin Lasseter, the templar of the crew, went to investigate the recent ruin. Gabby MacAbee, the group's tale-teller, diplomat and occasional troublemaker, and Lloyd "Pops" Banks, a yankee veteran of the last war, stayed up at the runway to keep an overhead view on the investigation below. When Kevin determined it was safe, he gave the signal and the rest of the posse headed down into town in the darkening skies of evening.

The group found the town to be deserted, noting the smoke from the two largest buildings in town. They split up to investigate the various areas of town. In the general store, Pops found the entire inventory systematically wrecked, and numerous caseless slugs embedded in the walls. Rachel found the town well to be undamaged, and its waters untainted. At the church, Kevin found the doors and windows boarded and locked from the outside, and many townsfolk had been inside when incendiary devices had apparently been launched in. At the town hall and courthouse, Gabby found a large sum of unmarked mine scrip in the assayers office, as well as a supply ledger with the posse's only clue as to the location of Haven, and was horrified to find the remainder of the townsfolk piled and burnt in the courtroom.

The posse gathered the rest of the bodies into the courthouse and offered the souls a funeral pyre, since there was no way a small group like theirs could bury them all. When the dead began to rise, they decided it was a good time to skedaddle out of Blackstone, and look for its parent city. Some distance away, the town priest had escaped the massacre in the ultralight used to move ghost rock to Haven, but had been chased down by raptors. He was left for dead with a bullet in either shoulder, having no way to escape the elements when morning came. Kevin's healing talents were able to ensure his life, but his conciousness wasn't so easy to restore.

While Rachel set to work on restoring the ultralight, the posse made camp for the night. Just past two in the morning, Gabby's watch, a helicopter was spotted in the distance. It was definitely a transport, but it looked as though it had been upgraded to see combat. The pilot was standoffish, but it was determined that the group would follow the chopper back to Haven to discuss the situation. Kevin dropped out of Badass Betty near the edge of town and wandered in to perform his usual test of worth, and the rest slept in Betty til morning.

With morning's light, the crew headed to town hall, looking for answers. They met with Devin Fury, who explained the town's situation and their isolation. Due to their isolation and lack of homeless, Kevin was quickly picked out as an outsider and imprisoned, but he was treated well enough. The party fessed up that he was one of theirs, since otherwise he'd be taken for a Combine infiltrator. The group split up for a while to think on what had happened, until they were called back together again by the discovery of Gabby's use of the large sum of scrip they'd found earlier. It was determined that to pay for the used money, the crew would aid the town.

SETTING OUT TO JUNKYARD

Details were discussed about Haven's situation, and it was decided that the posse would head out for Junkyard to attempt to set up trade for Haven with the Iron Alliance. It came out that the main source of food for the town came from a subcolony named Artery to the southeast of junkyard, where a SA research facility had once been located. The facility had been working on an automated farming system using hydroponics to grow high energy, easily transportable food for military forces, and mad science was involved. At some point in the past, the power lapsed for the facility, and when it came back up, production was severely decreased, not to mention a hostile strain of fungus that began to grow within. Even with the problems, the remaining excess of food would give Haven exactly what they needed to negotiate with Junkyard.

Joining the crew heading out of Haven would be Kid Diamond, a syker who fought in the Faraway war, and one of Mayor Fury's trusted lieutenants. The group headed north, to Skags' Pass, a small community along the Mason-Dixon wall which sold passage across the giant border barrier. Kevin did his usual test of worth and found the people within to be lacking. The rest of the crew entered, and the group set off to have a meet with Skags, the head man for the little place. By all accounts Skags, the portly blue frogman mutant was unpleasant company, but no hostile actions were made against him at the time. The posse set back out again, with Pops plotting all sorts of havoc for the border gate settlement.

First Post

2004-07-14T12:59:00.000-07:00

This page, "From the Ashes", is a website for my Deadlands game. In here I intend to post game session summaries, links to additional information and copies of any graphics or handouts for the game, as well as links to personal pages for each of the characters. As you can see, its empty right now.

Deadlands: From the Ashes

Sessions 1 and 2 summaries

First Post