Seeker's Deadlands: Blood Drive

Game Master seekerofshadowlight

Echo's

Sorry guys, had a rough week and time blindness got me again. Flying Eagle you can take the advance.

You do know they are leaving in two days. They have one more show then they plan to leave the rea, hitting smaller towns off the rail paths.

"Well this changes things. Do we hit them while they are still in town or wait until they have moved and get them in transit when we don't have to worry about hitting innocent bystanders?"

No problems Keeper, I sometimes get so wrapped up in my personal projects I lose track of time too.
I hope that means everyone gets an Advance...

"I'd suggest we attack once they've left the town. Not only does it avoid hurting innocents, but we won't have to explain why we're attacking them and blowing up their stuff."

Agreed, but not close enough that the town can send help right away. So we need about 10 miles or so

He takes a moment.

Shall we ride out and look for areas that would make good spots

"Hey, I hadn't thought of that - we could scout out good locations to ambush them from."

Keeper - have they made it public which town they're going to next?

"Heh, now I feel like a bandito. Or bandita, I guess."

But we are not doing any theft but some jugs.

I would like to buy a Derringer and 40 bullets before leaving town. The Derringer will remain tucked between my belt and stomach at all times.

Please let me know how much that will cost, thanks!

The cost for the Derringer and 50 shots ( standard box) is $7

You recall the name Paterson, which is a town about 16 miles south of Denver. Its on actually on the railroad, but has a well traveled trail. Leaving now then sitting up somewhere along the tail could be easy. Although you are likely to move faster than a few loaded wagons.

So we are looking at a spot about 8 miles south of the city, that they may be off to first.
Shall we go find a spot while they are still here?

"Let's do it."

Any reason we shouldn't go as a team?

"I'm ready."

Not that I can thinak of.

Alright, lets go.

Rufus goes down, and saddles up Devil Eyes.

I should be up to normalish posting rates starting next week, a lest a few times a week again

With knowledge of where they are heading and a well used trail in front of you making headway and scouting the area is not an issue. Now you just need to find a good ambush spot.

Give me some kind of roll for this, be it survival or profession or another skill you think would work for finding ambush spots

survival: 1d4 ⇒ 2
wild: 1d6 ⇒ 6
wild Explode: 1d6 ⇒ 5 = 11

Would Notice work? Keeping our eyes out for a good outcropping of rocks, etc.

Survival & Wild: 1d6 ⇒ 41d6 ⇒ 6
ACE!: 1d6 ⇒ 3 = 9, Raise

Survival: 1d4 ⇒ 1
Wild die: 1d6 ⇒ 2

Both Rufus and Flying Eagle Spot a number of places they think might work. Given what they estimate on the speed of such a caravan, you think you can guess where they will camp.

A day later, soon after the sun sets you can make out the camp site just about where you thought it would be in the dark.

I'll leave it up to you how far away you are. You can see fire a good clip in the dark after all. The land is mostly grassland, no real hills but its not totally flat.

How tall is the grass in general? 6", 12", 18"?

I know that a single man on a good horse can travel 50 miles a day, and while I don't know about covered wagons, they've got to be able to travel well more than 10 miles a day. If their campfire is only a couple of miles away, we've got to act *tonight*. But I agree we need to come up with a plan of action right now...

"Maybe sneak up around them in a circle, light the sleep bombs and throw them in the group? Of course, the sneakin's gonna be the tricky part..."

Wagons depend on the team, there were cases during the settling of the west in the 1800's that the wagons set up camp in sight of the area they had left in the morning.
Average for wagons during that time frame, were usually around 12 to 14 miles per day.

How about we catch them when they get here, instead of us going to them.
Sleep bomb them while they drive by, and then we can do what we need to.
If we go to them, we risk waking them up

Keeper - is there any place near us where we could be completely hidden? A pile of boulders, an outcropping of rocks, some really tall grass? I'd be willing to spend a Bennie to influence the story to create something...

To answer a few things. 1:Grass height is roughly 18"- which gives you cover but movement can still be seen so things like stealth are needed. 2: Wagon speed- they are about 10 to 14 miles a day was average - these might move a bit faster or slower, I am gonna say this one moves 12miles per day. 3- If you spend the bennie, then yeah you can find just the kinda spot you are wanting

Benny spent.

Looking ahead along the well-worn wagon trail to the next town, Flying Eagle spots a 25' long cluster of many 5'-15' tall pointed rocks that look like they were just pushed up out of the ground by the gods (or tectonic activity), the closest of which are within 10' of the trail.

"What about there? It looks like those rocks provide multiple hiding places with total cover along their length."

Looks good, now the nuts and bolts, is that we start with those sleepy bombs. Hopefully we get everyone, and then we can do what we need.

He pauses.

We should be seeing them about noon, so we got a bit of time.

Rufus rides well past the stones, and then circles wide and comes back to the standing stones. where he ground hitches Devil eyes. And the others horses as well

Now to finish getting ready for the ambush

He rolls in the dirt in the stones, to get his cloths about the same colour as the ground, then gets some plants that he uses to break up the outline of his hat.

He then settles in to wait, with the intention of getting fully into cover when the wagon comes closer.

Not exposing myself, just observing, and when they get closer (I.E. 1/2 mile), move slightly to get set for the ambush

"Since the caravan might be spread out, I'd suggest that two of us hide at either end of the rock formation, and the third hide in the middle. When the person at the far end hears the caravan's leading edge reach them, they throw their sleep bombs, which will signal the other two to do the same."

Flying Eagle will do the same as Rufus as far as camouflaging himself.

How many sleep bombs did we end up with ?

You have 10 bombs

As it gets near dusk, you see the trail of dust from a group of travelers approach. It is the caravan of the theater troupe. Three wagons, and about a dozen horses make them way to the spot you though they would camp. As you watch from your hidden spots, they set about sitting the camp up.

Winona stays crouched down in the sagebrush, doing her best to remain very still until she hears a signal from one of the lads.

I'm confused - we had them in sight at their last camp, Flying Eagle could *see* the rock formation from there, so it had to be maybe just a few miles away from their last camp. I was thinking they'd follow the trail and pass by the rock formation during the next day, but it sounds like they've now made *camp* beside it???

I guess they are in no rush, but I agree, it is a bit confusing. But I will take it.

Sorry, maybe I got confused. I though you were looking to find an ambush spot they would camp at and hit them with their pants down so to speak. If that was not the plan, sorry I goofed then.

Well, if they are sleeping, they will be easier to sneak up on.

Rufus suggested that we ambush them while they were traveling, just so we *wouldn't* have to do any sneaking. Altho I never explicitly said it was my intention to ambush them as they rode by us, so that's on me. But I put the wagon trail right beside the rocks for that very reason...