Seeker's Deadlands: Blood Drive

Game Master seekerofshadowlight

THE BALL IS IN YOUR COURT FOLKS, TOUCH IRON AND DIE OR STAY VERY STILL

Someone give me an Intimidation or Taunt roll here. Also Bennies reset after the zombie attack. Forgot to say that

You have the drop on the men, but there is a moment when you are unsure if the men are going to back down or make a fight for it.

Intimidation & Wild: 1d4 ⇒ 41d6 ⇒ 4
Trait ACE!: 1d4 ⇒ 1 = 5

SWADE says : "In combat, this is a Test (opposed roll). Out of combat, a successful roll means the foe backs down..."
Since we are not yet in combat, I assume a simple Success is enough?
Can others roll to see if they get anything higher than a 5?

The gleam in Flying Eagle's eyes tells the men he means business...

Indeed, this is totally not combat at the moment.

Them men seeing you have the total drop on them seem to stiffen and the one with the spy glass looks to the others and they move hands away from weapons. "You seem to have us at a disadvantage sir." the man with the spyglass says

Winona advances slowly as the rest of the team keeps the men covered, and she approaches one of the men and says, "Pull it out slowly and put it on the ground."

(Assuming he does so, she kicks his gun away, and moves to do the same with the others.)

Once the men are disarmed, Flying Eagle points his gun at the man with the spyglass and says "Why are you spying on us? Who sent you?"

As near as I can tell from the SW forums, if he wants to lie he makes a Persuasion roll, opposed by our Notice roll. Does everyone on our team who hears him get a Notice roll? That would be "realistic", but with multiple rolls someone's much more likely to succeed.
Or, you could treat it as a Test, which would still use Persuasion, but we would be making Spirit rolls instead.

Rodan keep an eye on the bushwackers.

Rufus seeing the situation is under control, Rufus looks around to ensure there is no others trying to attack them.

I think you guys should make some notice rolls and I'll make rolls as needed

The men put their guns down, no sudden moves. "No one sent us, its a free country an't it? We were just checking you out. can't be too careful now days. A fella might get a gun pointed at him or shot in a misunderstanding" He says clearly looking at the gins pointed at him and his men.

Notice & Wild: 1d6 ⇒ 11d6 ⇒ 2

Spending a Bennie

Notice & Wild: 1d6 ⇒ 41d6 ⇒ 2

notice: 1d4 ⇒ 4
wild: 1d6 ⇒ 6

Notice Ace: 1d4 ⇒ 1
wild Ace: 1d6 ⇒ 5

Notice = 11

NOTICE (Smarts): 1d8 ⇒ 2
NOTICE (Smarts), wild: 1d8 ⇒ 1

NOTICE (Smarts): 1d8 ⇒ 2
NOTICE (Smarts), wild: 1d8 ⇒ 3

Wow, that stinks.

The mans explanations sound plausible to both Roden and Flying Eagle, both have been scouts after all. But all Rufus smells is strong Bull Droppings i the way the man speaks and holds himself

Just loud enough for the group to hear, but not the 4 down range.

He's hiding something. I don't know what it is but he is lying.

Rufus keeps an eye out around for anything suspicious looking to pop up.

"Are yer sure? How can you tell?" Rodan question's while keeping the rife on the bush whackers.

Winona moves over to the fellow with the spyglass and starts patting him down, looking for any documents, strange items, or distinguishing accessories.

"Any snide comments about where my hands should go and you'll meet the butt end of my shotgun."

Dunno, just got a bad feeling that they are not speaking the truth.

Keeping his hands where you can see them as Winona pats them down. "No comments at all mam, we are just friendly folk here. A't we boys? The other two nod in agreement , being under the barrels of guns and all. Below, the lone man with the horses seems to notice something is up and he bolts, finding hard away from the hill.

Winona finds nothing out of the ordinary, a few coins. The horses below may have more. But other hat cloths guns and body oder these boys have nothing of note on them.

Speaking to the other men, Flying Eagle says "We *know* you're not telling us the entire truth. Now out with it, or we'll put some holes in one of your friends. He points his pistol at one of the other guys.

After all, If you were friendly, your friend would not be running for the hills.

Give me a intimidation roll here

The man Shrugs "Would you stick around with guns pointed at ya possy? Clive's never been the brave sort."

Can we each try, or only one of us? If the latter, I have a d4 in Intimidation, does anyone else have a higher die?

I am of no help, not skilled in it.

Intimidate: 1d6 ⇒ 3
Wild die: 1d6 ⇒ 5

That should be a success, unless it's contested.

Winona passes her shotgun to her left hand and adjusts her long, heavy coat and says gruffly to the fellow on the ground, "Several men are already dead over this, an' I know 'cuz I helped bury 'em. You wanna avoid further trouble, you best come clean now."

Not trained in it.

If more than one person can try...

Intimidation & Wild: 1d4 ⇒ 41d6 ⇒ 2
Intimidation ACE!: 1d4 ⇒ 1 = 5, same as Winona

I said what I wanted to intimidate them with above.

ALL - even if you're "untrained" in it, that's still a d4-2. Granted, you'd have to get a couple of Aces to get a good score, but that's always possible!
Not that I'm advocating that everyone should roll in this particular case...

I cannot logically see myself trying. I stated I was keeping an eye out for other riders which might try to counter ambush us

Sorry I was totally out of town and off line, meant to update Friday and stuff got a bit too hectic all at once.

"Now hold up! Me and the boys had nothing to do with them!" The two other guys are nodding and trying to talk at once "We hadn't even robed you yet!/ Not us , we won't here! He glares at them and they shut up before he turns back to look at the group.

"Now, me and the boys were just taking a look see. You're group is too big for us to give you any trouble. Maybe we could have been eyeing some of the stragglers or something, but your group is too well armed for four men to mess with. You just let us go and we'll not be no trouble to you folks"

"I think you are just scouting for the rest of them bushwhackers. So if we put you lot in the ground there will be four less that we will have to look out for. How can I know you lot will not bring any trouble if we let ya go?" Rodan asks.

Ummm...how can our PC's know if the Intimidation(s) worked or not? It's not like Persuasion, where we can judge by the character's reaction whether we succeeded...Or is the fact that they are all flustered an indication of success?

Flying Eagle looks at the man who said "We hadn't even robbed you yet!" and says "Robbed us, YET?" with a glare in his eyes.

Looking around, Rufus brings his attention back to the 3 remaining.

So you admit to wanting to rob us.

Normally you know by how they act, you got a few of them flustered so it was successful

The leader look at the man who talked about robbing with a hard glare before trying to turn a friendly face back your way "As I said, we are just four down on our luck Travelers, even if we meant to do mischief you have us rather out gunned and out manned. If would be a foolish bushwhacker that would actually attack your camp. I say we just call this a little misunderstanding and me and the boys just walk away" He frowns "And it will be walking as we now lack horses. What trouble could we cause you at this point?"

"Before we let you go, answer me this : did anyone hire you to follow us?"

The leader starts to answer but the other two are already shaking heads and saying no even as he speaks " No, we are just kinda wandering about. Between jobs you see"

Well, in that case, you can drop all your hardware, and start walking in that direction.

Rufus points in the direction of the town that we started from.

Should only take you a couple of days

"Between jobs? What type of work did you do? Your not very good at bushwhacking people." Rodan thinks of all of the hands lost to the undead.

Rodan, I don't think that we want to hire these guys. If they were friendly, they would have just rode up to the chuckwagon.

Checking to see if they lied about not being hired :

Notice: 1d6 ⇒ 21d6 ⇒ 1

Bother.

The men look at Roden, before the lead Just kinda nods"You heard the man boys, start walking"He tips his hat to Roden, with a last look at the weapons Winona had take and starts down the hill. The other two seems to want to argue but when one starts off down the hill, the other very reluctantly follows, glaring at you as he does.

You are left holding the weapons the three men had. Two converted Colt Army's and a cap and Ball Colt Dragoon as well as a Winchester 73. The colts have five in the chamber and 37 rounds between the two, while the Dragoon has 5 in the chambers and enough cap, ball and powder for 20 shots. The Winchester has a full load,15 shots, but only 12 reloads.

Winona brings the collection of weapons back to Rodan and says, "I suspect this won't be the last we see of them. Whoever hired 'em is gonna give 'em new guns and send 'em out again. But if we see 'em again, I'm not givin' any second chances."

Rodan nods "I agree, they become buzzard food if they come back."

And so it should be.

Rufus keeps an eye out until he sees them ride off.
He then heads over and mounts up to catch up with the group.

You ride back to the camp, after you watch the men walk off on what you think is a safe distance. Even if the man who ran off brings the horses back, it is unlikely he will have extra iron for them. The camp is on the move when you get back, with Luke and a few fellas hanging back to meet up with you as the cattle drive gets rolling.

Luke nods to you "Trouble?" He asks as you meet him in the dusty aftermath of moving cattle.

"They didn't give us any this time, but we suspect they're working for someone, so they might be back later. Best we be extra careful about being followed."

Rufus rides past, then dismounts at the chuck wagon to give his horse a chance to drink. He then mounts up and returns to the drag position.

Luke nods "Would be a good idea to keep a watch out." With that he gives some orders to those with him and you all carry on about the business of moving cattle

Gonna be honest here, I somehow missed the post on the 24th and Monday. Not sure how I missed them, but I did and thought no one had posted yet. I am going to skip some time ahead tommow, let me know if you PCs are doing anything out of the ordinally in say the next week to 2 weeks

"Agreed," says Winona. "Best we keep moving and try to stay ahead. Unfortunately riders will always be able to outpace the cattle, so keep your guns handy."

Agreed, lets keep an eye out as she is right. Riders will be faster than cattle anyday

A week passes with no farther sign of trouble from raiders of cattle rustlers. However, the landscape becomes drier, water harder and harder to come by as you spend day after long, dusty dry day moving cattle. Two days ago was the last time you saw a watering hole. It was a thin, shallow thing with very little actual water in it. More a muddy hole really. Javier filled the water barrels, or did the best he could but water is low and the sun is not gentle to you. Thirst dry's your throat and you have been on strict water rations.

Water has been limited for a while, but almost gone for 2 days. Give me a vigor roll for each day. You can use survival to help those rolls, but water is so limited it just grants you a +2 to your vigor roll

How many days do you need us to roll for?