Since people still seem to be enjoying after-action reports of my Really Wild West: Doomstone campaign, here’s a write-up adapted from notes taken by my wife Lj (who is playing the fenrin operative bounty hunter named “Sawyer”) as a quick report for Session Four!

You can find Session One here: Part One, Part Two.
Session Two here: Part One, Part Two.
Session Three here.

If you don’t recognize a reference, it may (or may not) be in a previous session, or at the updated campaign notes page.

Day 12

• Heroes spy on the enemy encampments on Neblin’s Ridge. There is a camp at a mine entrance at the base of the mesa, and on top an outpost with a tower and a wind sock, and a couple of miles away a telegraph hut with a wire trailing off to the East. There are multiple species present among the gang running the camps, including seprent-folk.
• Using ask the wind their name, PCs determine the following:
  • A Large serpentfolk (with a snake lower body) wearing onyx armor is Aakath-ka (naga form). He is a Monstrous humanoid, venomous, spell caster
  • The human who seems to be a foreman is – Boston Bob (bowler hat)
    • No special powers, has a price on his head ($200)
    • Busted during the war for smuggling refugees out of cities on military trains for money
• The PCs form the following plan
  • The human mechanic makes a timed cutter box to go off an hour before dawn, to be placed on the telegraph wires
  • Human soldier watches the camp for the day
  • Fenrin operative flies around to check the telegraph (using DaVinci wings), plants the cutter, looks for a way up, and checks the outpost
  • Centaur paladin keeps our camp safe, secure, and secret
  • When the cutter goes off, we immediately attack the outpost up on the mesa
  • Then, we attack the camp at the mineshaft at the base of the mesa within the hour
• Recon
  • The fenrin operative finds a switchback good when it’s dry – will take 3 hours to get from there to the outpost
  • Set the cutter on a particularly difficult place to repair on the wire
  • Spot 3-4 criminals in the outpost watching the Western skies (the direction of the Circle Axe) – packing pistols
  • There is a manticore nest next to the house and a platformed tower with a crane and a windsock. Think this may be Gaotma‘s base of operations, and his minions don’t know he’s dead yet–just late.
• The human soldier spends a day observing and notes
  • Sverfeblin come out of the mine, escourted by some humans and a snakefolk, and pulling a sledge. One of the sverfneblin appears to be in charge of them – has questions for Boston Bob, isn;t happy with the answers
  • Some kind of strange questioning going on – sverfneblin taken to a blackout tend and peered at from outside (are the gang member checking the deep gnomes for some radiation glow?)
  • There is an underground storage, with a trap door in the camp, and boxes from the sled (which seem to be very heavy) are lowered into it.
  • The rowdies who came out of the mine undergo some kind of procedure in a tent that takes 30 minutes
    • They come out rubbing their faces and somewhat cleaner
    • Different rowdies escort the sverfneblin back into the mine.

Day 13

The attack on the Outpost on top of the mesa takes too long and is too noisy, because half the player’s skill and attack rolls were 1 or 2. Even so, manage to defeat all the rowdies, including one dressed in red who apparently could cast spells, but only when accessing his own blood.

LOOT: Sawed off shotgun; 3 bowie knives; cultist wavy dagger; emblem (of a twisted barbed wire, held by pliers, blood drops coming off the barbs, similar in style to the poison emblems fund earlier); $50; piece of paper from a writing desk

Soldier/mystic talks to the dead. One says: “Dark days are coming, mortals will not survive, ascension is the only option”

The letter was as folows:

Dathaca,

I understand your doubts and concerns, but I assure you this venture is worth the risk. Allow me to address your concerns individually.

The Daemon Darklings are mortals best route to gain the powers needed to protect ourselves against the outer powers. Of the Six Dread Fates that have proven able to empower a Darkling, Venom seems most within my reach now that I have accessed the alchemical process of the Aresian War Clouds. That will not be enough, of course. I’ll need a Genus Foci, a Concept of Thought, to draw the lingering spirit of the Comte de Adalgiso back to the Material Plane.

The cost of such an operation will not be insignificant. But with the promise of unlocking the ability of Ascension, and the Theosophic formula to prove it possible? I believe I will be able to procure the needed patrons.

What I lack is the martial backing to ensure our patrons remain our allies rather than our masters. With backers from the Material world, I could perhaps just hire the needed defenders. But against the Scale of Aakath, I have no doubt more… experienced warriors will be needed to protect our interests. My belief is that your contacts, especially Gaotema and his band, will allow us to deal on equal footing.

And yes, old friend, there will be money in it well before we make our fel godlings. I have already received interest from numerous individuals of means, and am sure

This letter was handed to players as a prop, crumpled and stained. Also a few letters had a tiny drop of gold ink in them. The players noticed, and wrote out the gold-flecked letters to discover the spelled )-B-E-Y. With this information, they release the letter had a secret magic message OBEY that compelled the addressee.

Then, the PCs attacked the camp in front of the mine shaft at the base of the mesa.

And discover the Chimera Kid is there, even though they never noticed him in their recon.

• The human solider opens by tossing sticks of dynamite into the tent area, taking out number ruffians.
• Akatha-ka casts spells
• Another red-clad cultists that uses blood magic, but has a neat wire on his wrist he can pull to just shed 1 drop of blood for each spell.
• The Chimera Kid engages the Centaur Paladin, with ram’s head hammer, poison pistol, and fire pistol. He severely damages her, and she him, but then he flies away to engage other targets with his own DaVinci wings, and he drops.
• Akatha-ka targets the fenrin operative with a psychic thrust attack – hate
• The operative fenrin focuses on Akatha-ka with her awareness – she is able to see through his blur
• The human mechanic and her dron Pinion use two sticks of dynomite to take out ruffians in a rifle position, then hold a spot in the middle of the camp for the rest of the conflict. She is poisoned by the Chimera Kid’s pistol as he flies by, though the centaur paladin’s lay on hands later fixes that.
• The centaur paladin turns out Akatha-ka with her smite… and he is of the dragon type. He has significant DR, but the smite ignores it, and the centaur paladin takes him out, then takes out Boston Bob.
• The human solider, rifle in hand, manages to take out the flying Chimera Kid

Aftermath:

• There is an irradiated mutant plant behind a bulwark
  • It was growing out of Sverfeblin skull
  • Dug it up from a grave
  • PCs wonder why did the gang kept it? But decide to destroy it and the skull) with fire.
  • The soldier/mystic uses Grave Words on many of the bodies. The Chimera Kid’s corpse says – “You can’t confuse other worlds with other planes or you’re gonna have a bad time”
• Within the storage under the trap door are twelve ammo boxes – all hooked together like it’s gonna be lifted all at once
  • They are all locked – no keys on any of these bodies
  • The human mechanic picks one open
  • Inside are lumps of unrefined green iron ore – it glows. And gets on her skin through her gloves. She has to clean her hands thoroughly to stop having glowing specks.

LOOT: Six miner hats (butane lights on them)

The PCs choose to pause here, recuperate, then go into the mine itself.

XPs: 2400

Bringing the PCs to 14,400 (15,000 to 6^th)

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