Order of Magnitude V: The final chapter

So this should be the final entry. The entire campaign lasted a bit over a year and a half but unfortunately a lot of the exact details were lost due to my faulty memory. However this part is still fairly fresh.

After fleeing the ruins of Shan Fan (and cursing the fact that their plans to steal the Denarians airship came to nothing) the posse heads south along the edge of the Maze, tracking a rumor that one of the coins was lost somewhere in this area. Unfortunately at this point Nicodemus and co. are in hot pursuit. Normally the posse would probably have stood their ground and fought. However, they've found through several tussles with Nicodemus that he's fairly unkillable, seemingly completely invulnerable to even the most lethal headshots or Max's hexes (those who have read the dresden files know why). With this in mind they decide to high tail it away from the Denarians ASAP.

However, the airship is closing in fast and they're running out of supplies in the california deserts. It's at about this time that they run into a band of native americans. They manage to make peaceful contact and with some decent Persuasion rolls from Jethro they are invited back to the tribe's village. It's about this time that the Denarians appear on the horizon. It looks like a horrific battle in the making but then the Indian shaman who leads the village stops it cold. He calls lightning to turn the airship into torch and when Nicodemus and crew arrive on foot he banishes them from the tribe's lands. It's clear to everyone at this point that they have stumbled upon Plot.

So, spending some time to talk to the indians they learn some important things. First that this tribe does possess the coin they're looking for. It's kept at the bottom of a deep well in the center of the village along with several other nasty artifacts of evil. The shaman is bound by a duty to the spirits to guard any sources of wickedness and evil here, never permitting them to leave. In exchange the spirits grant him gobs of power while he remains in the tribe's territory and the rest of the tribe defends him from physical dangers. What's more he's able to fill them in on some information such as the source of Nicodemus's invulnerability (an artifact called the noose of judas he wears around his neck) and where he's headed next (Death Valley). Since he wasn't able to collect the coin here he'll likely just kill one of his own denarian crew and take their coin to complete the set he needs to forge the Crown of Tears (Plot Device...of EVIL!) and gain the combined powers of the 18 denarians he'd forge into the crown. That's not the only bad news though, which brings us to Max...

order of magnitude IV: Big Trouble In Shan Fan

So after quite a few sessions of the players running around gunning down my carefully constructed villains I start playing hardball by letting the Denarians off the reigns. They use the standard Deadlands demons as a base and adding on a few extra powers each plus many additional minions. Unfortunately things are a bit fuzzy in this area so I can't provide exact details but essentially the players make their way into the main plot. At this point several of the silver coins are in safe-keeping in the hands of the church, several are in the hands of the campaign's Big Bad and his minions. However, several are unaccounted for and the players learn the Big Bad is working to get his hands on as many as possible with the intent to forge it into a Mcguffin of Doom, essentially merging the spirits of the fallen angels in the coins into a single, uber-powered critter o' darkness.

Lasciel, Max's personal succubus, doesn't want any part of this merging so she's tentatively helping the crew (even as she works to claim max's soul for herself) and with some info from the church the posse learns that at least two of the currently unclaimed coins are far to the west, at least one is in Shan Fan. So, heading to the coast the crew have a few run ins with Guardian Angels and a few restless ghosts but not much of note.

Upon arrival in Shan Fan the PCs learn of intense in-fighting and intrigue among the gangs that rule the city, all partially under the control of a single deadly individual: The Dragon Emperor. The PCs spend some time planning, scheming and keeping an eye out for clues. However all this careful planning goes completely out the window when the Tumbler gets stolen. This leads to a wild vengeance-fueled shooting spree across Shan Fan in a quest for their steam wagon. This is cut short when they stop for drinks and they scarf down some poisoned dumplings from a double agent. They wake up, strapped to wooden wheelchairs inside a huge metal room. It's at this point it becomes clear that I'm now stealing from Big Trouble In Little China.

Shortly after they wake up an incredibly pumped-up martial artist shows up to dump them in an open pit in the center of the chamber, a huge well of twisted, tortured ghosts. After an intense fight (considering they're all completely disarmed) they toss the martial artist down the well and head off (neglecting to seal the chamber behind them. something that will become a significant issue later). They charge around through the underground facility they find themselves in, beating up martial artists and the occasional mutant and finding their equipment again. That's when they stumble their way to the silver coin and it's current host. A horribly tortured and blind man impaled on several shoots of bamboo and tied hand and foot with the coin resting against his forehead. The Dragon Emperor (wise enough not to allow the fallen angel to use him as a host) had been using the coin as a source of advice and information. The players pop a bullet in the host and take the coin but it's at this point that all the ghosts finally make their way out of the well the player's left open: pouring up through the ground and walls in vast numbers. Having no chance against this many enemies the players run for it, finally making it to the surface (they're on the island of Ghost Tears) and rushing to grab a rickety boat tied up at a makeshift harbor.

Trying to sail the boat proves hopeless as absolutely none of the PCs invested in either Boating or Swimming. They quickly are dashed against the rocks of the maze and all seems lost but they're caught in the net of a friendly Chinese fisherman who speaks not a word of english. Exhausted they fall asleep belowdecks. They wake up shortly afterwards and find the boat is moored and seems to not only be empty but much, much older and more withered than it was before (ooooooh....spooooky) and a cryptic fortune cookie left behind. They don't have time to consider this since there's the sound of explosions outside. They find themselves back in Shan Fan which is currently being shelled by the Big Bad's blimp while the Dragon Emperor's forces fight back with rockets and battle kites (think the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen comic).

The players are desperate to get out of town but they're still equally desperate to find the Tumbler. They rush back into town and search desperately for their wagon. Fortunately they manage to find it among the armory of the Dragon Emperor. They make some effort to rescue people as demons begin to fly down from the Big Bad's airship and slaughter the people of Shan Fan. Unfortunately this turns sour when one of their rescued refugees turns out to a Denarian in disguise who attempts to carve up the players and take their coins. They manage to drive it off and escape from the burning city, heading towards where they believe the next coin to be and approaching the campaign's climax.

Fun With Science!! (a list of Miss Hart's inventions through Mad Science and her Mcgyver Edge)

*Galvanic Umbrella (bolt)

*The Gunny-Gun (Blast)

*Reanimator Serum (Zombie)

*Healing Elixir (Heal...looks almost identical to the reanimator serum)

*Explosive Squirrel (blast with trappings to make it function as a mobile, remote detonating mine)

*Anti-Gravity Hoop Skirt (flight)

*Turbo Chargers (Speed, modified to work for the Tumbler)

*The Iron Maiden (a custom-designed Legendary Power, essentially a power suit combining several powers (armor, boost trait, Bolt) into one device, at the cost of being difficult to maintain and activate)

The Order of Magnitude II: Things start to get silly

So, on the last Order of Magnitude post I introduced you to my motley crew. You may have noticed that it's a pretty big group by most RPG standards. This is mostly because it's almost impossible for me to turn anyone away from a game. However, the sheer number of players combined with several very effective combat builds means that I have a heck of a time challenging these people without simply wiping them out. Eventually I hit on the proper balance of brutality and restraint to keep things interesting but for a while I settled mostly for hurting the player's hearts and minds directly by engaging in very silly plots. 

The first was started around Halloween and although it was technically tied into the main plot it certainly wandered pretty far afield. At this time the players had managed to learn a bit about the Denarians, evil fallen angels possessing humans, and their seemingly invincible leader, Nicodemus. They're heading west to try and learn more about the master plan that seems to be set in motion. However, middle of the road they are swept up by a tornado, carried for miles and deposited in Kansas (I know, not one of my greatest story hooks). The process leaves them unharmed but smashes the Tumbler (their steam wagon) which forces them to stick around while Miss Hart makes repairs. 

Shortly after their landing the players run across a blocky, bald man named Charles in a cornfield and his dog being attacked by a large group of animated evil scarecrows. Easily dispatching them the posse learns that there's evil afoot in town (predictably) and after a bit of digging they even find evidence that Nicodemus visited this place a few years back in disguise as a priest and spent several years at the local church before faking his death. They decide to visit the place, poke around and make a few disturbing discoveries behind a secret doorway. 

Heading back to their hotel they tuck in for the night and Max hares while everyone else is sleeping in another ill-advised attempt to complete the ritual with Lasciel for more evil power. However, he's interrupted when he sees a man, carrying something in a small blue blanket. Max recognizes him as Linus, a mentally handicapped man who they learned had been cared for by Nicodemus while he was in town. Linus heads up to a large tree by the hotel and buries several objects from his blanket in the ground and then hurries off. Max decides to check this out and digs up the shallow hole. 

In the hole he discovers several large black seeds with sharp-edged shells. After cutting himself accidentally the seeds burrow into the ground and the tree suddenly animates into a nightmarish horror that proceeds to try and eat the boy. Fortunately his allies respond quickly and after a furious battle they manage to put it down. 

(Do you get it yet?)

So, clearly this Linus fellow is up to something so the players track him down to his farm. They fight a few more animated scarecrows and evil, crawling squash. They discover some very bizarre botany experiments being done at Linus's farm involving huge vegetables and satanism. In addition there's a diagram of a giant pumpkin patch a few miles away grown in the shape of a pentagram. The posse heads on over, guns at the ready, and spend some time dealing with more evil vegetables and a barricade of scarecrows created by tying human corpses to posts. These aren't animated but do produce an aura of terror that makes it difficult to pass. Fortunately the posse has serious guts and manage to make it through. 

(How about now?)

So, they finally make it to the pumpkin patch as night falls where they see Linus performing a ritual with a pumpkin the size of a house. They try and snipe him before he can finish but he leaps forward and merges with the shell of the pumpkin. The pumpkin rips free of the ground and attacks with several huge vines and spawns several lesser-pumpkin beasts. The battle is suitably epic and ends with the extremely unwise use of several pounds of high explosives carried by Jethro. 

By the way, if you haven't figured it out by now then you might want to stop reading before you lose all respect for me. For some reason I was inspired to write a Peanuts-based horror adventure. So yes, I did in fact send my Deadlands players to fight both the Kite-Eating Tree and the Great Pumpkin. No, I don't really know why.

*Orphaned Scene*

 This is a scene that the players never actually stumbled upon themselves. That sort of thing happens sometimes but I'm including it here on the off chance someone might find it interesting. This was one of the deeper chambers hidden in the church that the players (wisely) decided to leave alone.

Behind a large iron door there is the sound of quiet movement and possibly a voice. The door is locked and quite tough but if it is broken or picked the players can find a large chamber that appears half science lab and half torture chamber.  The room is quite large and the player's lights only illuminate about half of the chamber. A set of heavy iron bars divide the room and the portion behind the bars is in darkness. From this area the sounds of quiet sobbing can be heard. If the PCs approach or call out then they'll hear a whispering female voice asking them to leave, begging them not to wake the others. Should the PCs approach closer their lights will reveal a huge form consisting of several human bodies apparently sewn together to form a single, horrible undead monster. The light will wake it and without it's master to restrain it the monster is more than powerful enough to rip the iron bars from the ground and attack the players. 

In the original Deadlands this was a creature called a 'Glom (a big one, 10 corpses) but in other games it could be some completely original horror.