This will be the thread for my new Boot Hill campaign I'm calling Dark Frontier.

I went with Boot Hill because it was the simplest and most straight-forward of the various Western rulesets but still provided enough of a RPG feel. Others I considered were:
* GURPS Old West: The main problem here is I don't care for GURPS. I find having only 4 stats too limiting while the skills are too narrow. And with the 4th edition, I feel the GM has to do way too much work to identify what is and isn't appropriate for his game (4th GURPS to me feels like a toolkit to build your own game, not really a game itself per se).
* Dust Devils: A little too rules-lite for my tastes.
* Dogs in the Vineyard: Too story-game and meta for my players.
* Aces & Eights: Too fiddly and rules heavy for my tastes.
* Coyote Trail: It came the closest to consideration, but I find Boot Hill more straight-forward.

Rules-wise, I'm using most of the out of the box Boot Hill 3rd edition rules with a couple of minor changes.
* I'm automatically giving everyone the literacy skill - in the past, I've always found it too challenging to remember who is literate and who is not and it seemed to detract rather than add to anything in a game.
* I added some more work skills for things I thought were missing.
* I added an advantage / disadvantage component to the game, where PCs get the option of selecting an advantage but then have to take a disadvantage. While the concept is present in all the other games, I stuck with more thematic options and less Feat-like (add +X when Y) type options. The disadvantages in particular are heavily based on the devils from Dust Devils.
* I'm using some elements of Aces & Eights to flesh out underdeveloped areas of combat, but nowhere near as detailed as those rules.

For the campaign itself, I'm having it set in 1876 in the New Mexico territory.

The central town will be called Quebrada Cruz (roughly translated "Broken Cross"). It's a town made up of two smaller towns that grew together, with the usual tensions.

The town layout, surrounding areas, and some of the characters and other color will be based on the small town I lived in during my teenage years, a real small farming town in the Pacific Northwest (with a ton of dramatic license added to make it a fun gaming location). I'm also planning to use quite a lot of the excellent setting material provided in Coyote Trail.

For this campaign, we've gotten a couple of new players to join so we'll be up to six players which will help. Here's what they've come up with:

"One-Eyed" Earl: A 65 year old prospector from California. He's a rough, mountain man type but is missing an eye from an injury earlier in his life.

Jane "Throwy" Deer: A 34 year old Hispanic woman from California. She's very tough and known for throwing knives. She's also related to Earl somehow.

"Tex": A 29 year old cowboy from Texas. He has a dog named "Dog" and a horse named "Tonto" and carries lots of guns.

Squantum: A 27 year old Indian scout of an undetermined tribe. He's tough, if strange, and is hideously scarred.

Sonny Pickens: A 34 year old blacksmith from Kansas. He's a large, tough man and served as a sergeant during the war.

Franklin Hennessy: A 45 year old barber from Maine. He's also quick with a knife or a pocket pistol.

Oddly, all of the characters except Jane are non-religious (she's "Magical Catholic").

Our first session will be a prologue that takes place during the war, 13 years earlier.

*** Prologue - Cast of Characters ***

"One-Eyed" Earl: A 65 year old prospector from California. He's a rough, mountain man type but is missing an eye from an injury earlier in his life.

Jane "Throwy" Deer: A 34 year old Hispanic woman from California. She's very tough and known for throwing knives. She's also related to Earl somehow.

"Tex": A 29 year old cowboy from Texas. He has a dog named "Dog" and a horse named "Tonto" and carries lots of guns.

Squantum: A 27 year old Indian scout of an undetermined tribe. He's tough, if strange, and is hideously scarred.

Sonny Pickens: A 34 year old blacksmith from Kansas. He's a large, tough man and served as a sergeant during the war.

Franklin Hennessy: A 45 year old barber from Maine. He's also quick with a knife or a pocket pistol.

*** Prologue - Scene 1 (of 6) ***

May 1, 1863

The campaign to capture the important economic center of Vicksburg, Mississippi has not been a success for the Union so far. In the latest maneuver to make inroads towards the entrenched Confederate forces, Grant’s Army of the Tennessee is attempting to push inland past the Bayou Pierre to approach Vicksburg from the south by way of Port Gibson.

The operation is carried out by the XIII Corps, under the command of the incompetent, politically scheming Maj. Gen. John A. McClerand, who hopes to get Grant removed from command and replaced by himself. His orders to have the men sleep in the mud has already led to smallpox outbreaks. Combined with McClerand forgetting to issue rations for the men, the push across the bayou has already been a disaster for the Federalists.

Bringing up the south of the Union forces is the 14th Division under Brig. Gen. Eugene A. Carr. Carr is a decorated cavalryman of the Indian Wars who has risen quickly up the ranks after his determined victory at the Battle of Pea Ridge in Arkansas.

The vanguard of the division is the 1st Brigade, under the command of Brig. Gen. William P. Benton. Benton, a lawyer from Indiana who fought in the Indian Wars, was known as a competent commander but has been distracted and lacking in leadership since the death of his wife to consumption two years ago.

Scouting ahead for the bridge is the 33rd Illinois regiment under the command of Col. Charles E. Lippincott. Lippincott is known for being a smart tactician. His initial reports have led him to a plan of landing his forces just south of Port Gibson, starting at the bottoms of Willow Creek heading up Plantation Road towards the A.K. Shaifer plantation house and then on to the Magnolia Church, a local rural Baptist church in Claiborne County where the farm families worship. He believes the Confederate patrols in the area are using the church as a base of operations. If they can, he mentions the colonel would like them to take the church.

Lieutenant Douglas Perry’s platoon is selected to take the lead to scout out the Confederate defenses in the area before the rest of the regiment moves into position. He assigns the squad under Sgt. Sonny Pickens to take point.

Pickens is a young NCO, only 21 years old, originally a blacksmith from Kansas. Underestimated from his short, wiry stature, Pickens distinguished himself two years ago in leading a group of skirmishers in a surprise attack against a Confederate camp in Florida, Missouri.

The sergeant looks over his men. His best man is Cpl. Franklin Hennessy, a 32 year old barber from Maine. Hennessy is an excellent natural shot and known for being very quick with a knife. His other team leader is the corporal everyone just calls “Tex”, a 16 year old young cowpoke from Texas who he believes joined the Union army rather than the Confederate over some incident between the youth’s family and the rebels.

After that, his men are a bit less capable; the more senior of the men is a 52 year old PFC named Earl, a prospector out of California. Earl’s 21 year old niece, Jane “Throwy” Deer, has been a hanger-on to the unit. Pickens has found her skills with knives and rather cold-blooded approach to killing to be useful, despite the fact she appears to be the product of a union between Earl’s brother and a Mexican whore (or at least that’s his theory).

The rather bigoted sergeant is also unsure about the squad’s other unofficial member, a strange 14 year old Indian boy of an undetermined tribe named Squantum who just showed up one day from parts unknown. Squatum acts as a scout for the group and frequently attempts to offer advice in broken English. Pickens isn’t sure if the savage youth is really that ignorant or if it’s part of some act to con them.

*** Prologue - Scene 2 (of 6) ***

After the harrowing push through the southern blockade along the Mississippi River, Pickens' unit's ship makes its way towards the bottoms of Willow Creek. The men get off the boat and make their way inland. The southern bayou land is cold and wet, and very dark.

Sgt. Pickens tells the men they will need to scout ahead and assess the situation. He orders Squantum and Earl to take point, with himself and the privates next, followed by Jane and the team leaders. Tex notes to himself he likes the unorthodox formation, as it puts the "cannon fodder" at the front.

Tex asks if they have a map. Pickens tells him Squantum has it. Tex wants to use an inventive plan of having Jane go on up ahead as a spy. Pickens feels it is too risky and rejects the idea without comment.

Pickens wants them to keep along the tree line as they reach Plantation Road. He wants the men to stay south of the road, but Squantum helpfully points out they should travel on the north side along the road. When Pickens asks why, Squantum says because the house is on the north side and that way they won't need to cross the road, saying sarge is not very smart but Squantum will help him.

Sonny rolls his eyes at the insolent savage but reluctantly agrees, realizing the youth is right that it will be less risky to come up the north side. Squantum offers if the sergeant wants, he will travel along south side and cross the road for no reason. Telling the boy to shut up, Pickens tells him and Earl to lead them up the north side.
 
Using what moonlight there is, Squantum leads the unit through the trees. He gets out a little ahead of the rest, making sure to move quietly without leaving a trace.

As he gets closer, Squantum can see the plantation fields up ahead. He looks around for any slaves at work. He spots a small shack on one corner of the property, where a black man smokes some tobacco just outside.

Feeling the field slaves are more likely to be disloyal to their masters than house slaves, Squantum decides to risk approaching the man.

He tries to quietly approach and pretend to be a slave himself. He isn't very successful at moving quietly and is spotted by the slave. The slave calls out to ask who is there. Squantum responds by trying to sound like a slave and giving his name as Leroy.

Luckily, the wind rustling through the fields is enough to obscure his voice enough the slave takes him at his word. Saying he doesn't recognize the name, and believing the Indian to be a slave trying to escape, he calls out to him to return to his house before his masters find him and beat him.

As Squantum gets close enough for the man to make out his features, he gives a sign for the slave to be quiet. The man looks at Squantum, nods, then heads back into his shack.

Squantum walks up to the door of the shack. He walks up to the door and knocks. He tells the man he is not actually Leroy. From behind the door, the slave tells the scout he and the others inside don't want any trouble.

The Indian tells the slave there will be know trouble from him, and asks if anyone is in the house. The slave cracks open the door a little bit, asking Squantum in a whisper why he is asking. Squantum explains he and his men will take the house and the church, and the slaves will be free.

Although skeptical, the man decides to take the chance for the good of his family. Giving his name as Josiah, the man tells Squantum his masters (A.K. and Betsey Shaifer), are in the house along with a Confederate captain who is using the house for meetings with other soldiers.

Squantum realizes the Confederate captain must be using the house as a sort of headquarters. He asks Josiah if there is a way to get inside. Josiah points out the entrance to the root cellar under the house. Squantum thanks him for his help.

*** Prologue - Scene 3 (of 6) ***

The Indian guide heads back to Sgt. Pickens and the others. He tells the sergeant what he found out, including the entrance to the root cellar. He notes the slave was a good man and that he liked him.

Pickens believes the best thing to do would be to sneak into the house and kill the soldiers then advance on to the church. Squantum again tells the sergeant he is not very smart, saying the captain could make a better captive to get information.

The sergeant isn't so sure. Squantum notes if they just want to kill everyone, they could just blow up the house. Jane voices her approval for that plan.

With the sergeant wavering, Squantum suggests the stealthiest people go inside while the others guard the exits. Jane volunteers to go, as she is quiet and skilled with her throwing knives. Pickens assigns Hennessy to lead the team, as he is also handy with a knife.

Squantum takes point, leading the team across the yard to the cellar door, being careful to keep them in the shadows. He slowly opens the cellar door without making noise and heads down the wooden stairs. Hennessy and Jane follow. After they are all down, Sgt. Pickens maneuvers the others into position, having Earl and Tex take the front with him with the others guard the back.

Down in the cellar, it is completely dark. Squantum lights his lantern to give them some light. The root cellar has some shelves with a few jars of pickled okra on them. On the floor are gunny sacks of potatoes and turnips, but they appear to be rotting.

Squantum decides to help himself to the okra jars, noting he likes okra. Meanwhile, Hennessy looks around for an exit. He spots the ladder up to the trap door in the kitchen floor.

He heads over to listen to see if he hears anything. Detecting nothing, he gives the all clear to others. He carefully checks to make sure the door is unlocked.

Squantum suggests they light the gunny sacks on fire and put them up the trap door to smoke the men out. Cpl. Hennessy doesn't like the plan and insists they follow the sergeant's original orders.

Instead, he pushes up the trap door slightly to get a better look around. He doesn't spot anyone up there, but can get a pretty good view from the moonlight coming in through the window. He does notice a large, cured ham on the kitchen counter with a knife in it.

When he tells the others, Squantum mumbles something about liking pork and wanting to make a sandwich. Hennessy notes he didn't see any bread.

They decide to have Squantum head up first. He carefully opens the trap door and slips up. As the others follow, he cuts off a large piece of the tasty Virginia honey ham and starts eating. The others don't take any of the ham, but Hennessy does grab the knife.

The corporal looks around, noticing there is a narrow set of servant stairs leading up to the kitchen. He also sees the kitchen heads into a dining room and around a corner to the parlor. There appears to be some light coming from upstairs in the parlor where the main staircase is located. They figure the rebels must be upstairs.

*** Prologue - Scene 4 (of 6) ***

Hennessy has Squantum head out to check over all the rooms on the main floor. The Indian quietly moves through the dining room, passing by the fine china and silver on display in the cabinet along the wall.

Unfortunately, as he enters the parlor, the Indian bumps into a side table, causing a vase to fall and shatter. He then hears someone upstairs telling someone else to go check it out. Squantum decides to hide himself behind the curtains on the front windows.

Back in the kitchen, Hennessy and Jane also hear the vase fall. They don’t hear any voices, but they can hear movement from upstairs, including what sounds like two men starting down the main stairs.

Hennessy asks if they should hide. Jane suggests they should kill the men instead. The position themselves in the dining room doorway to hopefully get the drop on the men. They see the men are a couple of Confederate soldiers.

Seeing what Hennessy and Jane are planning, Squantum takes out a peyote button from his pocket and tosses it across the room to get the men coming down the stairs to look in the wrong direction.

The ploy works, and as their backs are turned Hennessy and Jane rush up to stab the men from behind with their knives.

As Hennessy moves to stab, the soldier hears him and turns, only to get stabbed in the kidney. He yells out in pain, as does the other man as Jane’s knife slices him down the back. Jane moves in to quickly slit the throats of the men while they are on the ground.

Back outside, Sgt. Pickens and the others hear the screams. He spotted some furtive movement in the parlor, but otherwise can’t see anything except for Squantum pressed up against the glass, hiding behind the curtains.

Not wanting to risk firing into the house (though he does consider it), Pickens calls for Earl and Tex to move in. Tex, not a very subtle man, rushes up and kicks open the door.

As the door slams open, he spots Jane and Hennessy standing over the dead men. And up at the top of the stairs, the Confederate captain is ready to fire his pistol at Hennessy.

The captain gets his shot off, hitting Hennessy in his left hand. The wound causes him to drop the ham knife he was using.

Tex responds by firing back with his rifle. He hits the captain straight in the chest. He collapses backwards, managing not to fall down the stairs. Some screaming is heard from upstairs, apparently by the homeowners.

Wanting to keep the captain alive as a captive, Hennessy rushes up the stairs to bandage the wounds before the man dies. He manages to stabilize the man then ties him up.

*** Prologue - Scene 5 (of 6) ***

They haul the unconscious captain downstairs while the other men capture the Shaifers who try to run out the back.

The soldiers also make sure to secure the rest of the house while Squantum "secures" the food in the kitchen.

Tex keeps an eye out for any reinforcements or patrols. He doesn't spot anything.

Squantum asks the sergeant if they should question the homeowners. Pickens reluctantly agrees (again) with the Indian, noting the captain will be unconscious for some time.

Sgt. Pickens heads over to A.K. Shaifer and asks him how many rebels are at the church. Shaifer tells the Yankee he won't talk to him and berates him for invading his home and sovereign land.

Squantum, loud enough for Shaifer to hear, tells Pickens he likes the old white woman and asks if he can rape her. Pickens says something about starting with the children first. Squantum agrees to do as he's told.

Shaifer isn't sure what to think of the situation and the ugly Indian boy. Pickens tells Shaifer if he won't talk, they'll burn his house down.

A.K. tells the sergeant he has no honor and refuses to tell him anything. Pickens nonchalantly tells his men to take the family away and torch the house.

Tex tries to stop him, noting it isn't the best idea to bring attention to themselves like that. He suggests they torture the family instead.

Squantum suggests he could rape the old man, asking sarge what he thinks. Pickens isn't really sure how to respond to that.

Tex begs Betsey Shaifer to tell them something, saying Pickens will surely kill them and their children while the Indian eats all their hogs. But the Shaifers remain resolute, and Betsey calls him a traitor. Tex slaps her in response.

Squantum escalates the situation by grabbing the old man and taking his trousers down while making a threatening display with his finger. A.K. Shaifer yells at Pickens, asking what he is letting his Indian do. Tex warns him he is about to find out.

That appears to do the trick. Shaifer yells about degenerate Indians and tells Pickens he will tell him whatever he wants to know if he takes the brutish heathen away from him.

Pickens starts by again asking how many men are at the church. Shaifer says from what he heard the captain talk about, there were a dozen stationed there. And not just inside the church, but around the area on patrols and dug into position behind earthworks.

Tex asks the sergeant to recall what their orders are. He says it is to take the church. Tex reminds Pickens the orders were just to assess the defenses and only take the church if possible.

Continuing on, Tex says they could just wait at the house and pick off any patrols coming from the church rather than assault the church directly. Squantum voices his approval and Earl suggests they could re-use the Confederate uniforms to disguise themselves, possibly even sending one of them to go check out the church undercover.

Pickens asks Shaifer how often the soldiers come back. The man tells him they do not, just the captain stayed here; he usually sent out couriers to the other units.

The men talk amongst themselves to come up with ideas on how they could send fake orders. Tex cautions the units might be familiar with the couriers. They also know they'll either have to wait for the captain to regain consciousness or forge his writing.

Thinking it over, Sgt. Pickens decides the best thing to do is go through the captain's papers to see if there is any writing they can sample to create forgeries. In the meantime, he will send back the privates with the prisoners to the rest of the regiment to give them the all clear to move up to the house. Tex says it is a smart plan, noting that's why Pickens is the sergeant as the others roll their eyes at the obvious attempt to kiss up.

After some discussion, Pickens decides the best idea is to forge orders requesting a couple of the soldiers head back to the house, where the rest of them can ambush them. Hennessy has the steadiest hand, so he writes up the forgery.

The question next is who to send. It doesn't take long before they finally realize the best person to send is Tex, who is eager to volunteer for the duty.

Since the soldiers they killed are covered in blood, Tex checks for a spare uniform for the captain. He then alters it so it can pass for a standard soldier.

On his way out, Tex grabs the Confederate Enfield rifles to complete the disguise and takes off on one of the horses from the barn. He drops off one of the guns in the woods near the halfway point in case he needs to retreat back to it after firing, knowing he won't have time to reload.

Squantum also convinces the sergeant to let him follow Tex on foot so he can keep an eye out for any trouble and back up the Texan as needed.

*** Prologue - Scene 6 (of 6) ***

Tex rides up to the church, stopped a short ways out by a three-man patrol. They call out to ask who he is.

He gives his name and says he is new to the area and has orders from the captain he is to deliver then has to rush back to the house. The men take the orders and authenticate them, allowing Tex to leave.

On his way back, Tex grabs the spare gun. He hangs back a bit to wait to see if anyone comes. About 45 minutes later, the patrol begins making its way back to the house.

Tex heads back to the house at a gallop. He ties up the horse to the front of the house then tells the sergeant there are three men coming.

When they arrive, Tex answers the door and welcomes them. He tells them the captain is upstairs and invites them into the kitchen for some food. Out in the yard, Squantum approaches behind them.

As they head into the kitchen, the others spring from their hiding spots in the parlor. Seeing the attack in motion, Squantum heads in the door.

Hennessy slashes one of the men with a good cut as does Jane. Earl, less skilled with a knife, manages only to lightly wound his target.

Squantum rushes in to hack at the survivor with his tomahawk. It deflects off the back of his skull, injuring Earl in the face.

The soldier responds by stabbing out with his knife, plunging it deep into Earl’s eye that was already injured by the tomahawk chop. Earl collapses from the injury.

The rest of the men stab at the soldier. After multiple attacks, including Sgt. Pickens rushing in to help, the soldier finally goes down.

Squantum finishes off the men with his tomahawk while Hennessy attends to Earl. Hennessy keeps Earl from dying, but the eye is gone. They decide to nickname him “One-Eyed Earl”. Squantum gives him some peyote to help with the pain.

A short time later, the rest of the regiment arrives at the house and stages for the upcoming battle at the church. The lieutenant commends Sgt. Pickens and his men for their bravery and notes it will help lead them to success.

The next day, the Union forces succeed in driving back the Confederates. Although the Vicksburg campaign is long and heavy with attrition, this success and others like it were ultimately responsible for the Union victory there.

All the men involved will look back at this night as a defining moment in their lives. But it will be another 13 years before they are all back together again…

*** Prologue - Session Notes ***

Going into the session, I was a bit concerned. I usually like a bit more of a break between campaigns and we had just ended the Cthulhubusters Crescent City campaign two weeks prior. Then there's the genre - I've never ran something in the Western genre before. And we were adding the two new guys, neither of whom had played a RPG before.

But, everything worked out great. I was able to put together some ideas quickly (luckily, the Western genre is full of stock plots and I got inspired after deciding to model the town after one I am familiar with) and the new guys adapted to it instantly.

For the prologue, I had long planned for something that took place during the Civil War. Almost every Western has an undercurrent of the characters and events being shaped by the war. I went with the Vicksburg area as I recently visited it during my vacation. A harrowing landscape, I'm not sure how anyone survived it. I didn't actually get as far south as this particular engagement, but I thought it would make for the best RPG scenario.

I'm still taking a pretty big dramatic license. Obviously they don't really send a single squad to do this sort of thing, nor would they only find a single opposing squad standing guard. And Jane being involved barely makes sense, even with a healthy dose of dramatic license. The real life A.K. Shaifer house is a more traditional farmhouse but here I have it much more a Georgia style plantation mansion. And of course, history did not record it as a success because a deranged Indian threatened to rape the man (the real life A.K. Shaifer, I'm assuming, was a soldier off in the war himself).

But, it did make for a fun scenario. The players liked having the set mission but still lots of leeway and problem-solving. So much so I got inquiries about games that were set during the war.

The characters certainly made for a rag-tag group of misfits, Dirty Dozen style. Squantum is a particularly odd character; the player is going for a Johnny Depp / Tim Burton type of vibe.

Other misc notes:
* I let the players decide whether they would be Union or Confederate, and had the scenario ready for either option. In the end, because Tex was the only Southerner it seemed easier to go with Union.

* I actually did read the players all of the background info about the campaign and battle to set the mood. They started to get worried they would have to remember facts of it until I explained I was just setting the stage.

* I didn't create the lieutenant until the Tex player (who actually was in the Army) complained about the (implied) situation of having a colonel give orders to a sergeant. I explained I wasn't going to create an entire chain of command just to get the scenario going, but decided it made sense to flesh out the lieutenant giving the direct orders.

* The background detail about Pickens being promoted after Missouri was added by me in the write-up for extra flavor. In game, I made the players decide who would be "sarge". Pickens is played by the somewhat absent-minded player who played Alderman Biggins and Chester Nibbons in the Cthulhu campaigns, so putting him in charge was designed to elicit humor because they knew he'd be an awful commander.

* I made the other players the corporals and PFC. I used the modern rifle squad of the Army to model this unit, but I know that's probably not how a Civil War era squad functioned (or if they even had squads per se).

* Tex is only called Tex because the player didn't bother to give him a full name. I added the part about why Tex was fighting for the Union in the write-up; we glossed over that during the actual session. Tex's original age was 24, putting him at only 11 for the scenario. I bumped his age up to make it fit better.

* Earl was always named "One Eyed Earl" with no surname. We decided at the start of the session he'd still have both eyes at this time (leading to jokingly calling him "Two-Eyed Earl" in the game). Earl is quite old to still be a PFC, but we generally assume he's rather incompetent.

* Jane was just "Jane Deer" until the other players started calling her "Throwy" because her player kept talking about her knife throwing skills. I wasn't expecting a player to go with a female character, so the explanation on why she is there is intentionally vague. Because of that, we decided during the session she must be related to Earl (since they both are from California).

* The Squantum player has him talk in very old, school stereotyped Indian style as part of his eccentric take on the character (and to mock the traditional racism towards Native American characters in fiction).

* There was a 15 minute period during the session where we had to stop because of all the jokes while Pickens was deciding on the formation to use (many, many variations on jokes about him arranging his privates, etc.)

* I didn't give the slave a name during the session. In the write-up, he's named after Josiah Henson.

* The cellar is full of pickled okra because that was one of the parts of the traditional Southern meal I ate while having lunch in Vicksburg.

* A failed Stealth check led to the stereotypical breaking vase.

* Squantum wanted to throw a coin, but we decided he shouldn't have loose change in combat and that a peyote button would be more fitting for his character.

* The original plan was to rush and stab the guards with bayonets, but Tex pointed out getting the bayonets out of the men's backs would prove rather difficult.

* Pickens very nearly ordered his men to open fire into the darkened parlor until the Tex player pointed out how bad of an idea that was.

* The forces at the church probably should have heard the gunfire (since they are only a half mile away) but I wanted to give the PCs a chance to play things out and come up with ideas.

* Everyone was both amused and horrified with how the Squantum player handled the interrogation scene.

* Since the opportunity came up with a bad injury roll, I thought Earl losing his eye during the prologue was a good fit.

*** Session 01 - Cast of Characters ***

"One-Eyed" Earl: A 65 year old prospector from California. He's a rough, mountain man type but is missing an eye from an injury earlier in his life.

Jane "Throwy" Deer: A 34 year old Hispanic woman from California. She's very tough and known for throwing knives. She's also related to Earl somehow.

"Tex": A 29 year old cowboy from Texas. He has a dog named "Dog" and a horse named "Tonto" and carries lots of guns.

Squantum: A 27 year old Indian scout of an undetermined tribe. He's tough, if strange, and is hideously scarred.

Sonny Pickens: A 34 year old blacksmith from Kansas. He's a large, tough man and served as a sergeant during the war.

Franklin Hennessy: A 45 year old barber from Maine. He's also quick with a knife or a pocket pistol.

*** Session 01 - Scene 1 (of 15) ***

The years after the war were not easy for Earl Plissken. With the loss of his eye, he slipped into a stupor of depression and moonshine, living in seclusion for a number of years in the Appalachians. One year, after a particularly hard winter, his poverty forced him to fall in with one of the many coal mining operations in the area that were booming after the war.  While working the mines, he followed reports surrounding new silver ore strikes out west.

In 1870, Earl set out to make his fortune and traveled to the newly founded town of Silver City, New Mexico.  Earl spent the next six years hiring out his services to deed-holders in the region to help reconnoiter their estates and (poorly) assay samples of any mineral findings.  This also involved a great deal of solitude and moonshine, and he likely spent as much effort on drinking and petty mineral theft from his clients as he did on his assigned tasks.

His lifestyle took him throughout the New Mexico territory, eventually leading him to the newly-formed town of Quebrada Cruz (Spanish for either Broken Crossing or Broken Cross, he's heard it both ways), situated in the Whitman County region between El Paso and Tucson. From talking with the locals, he hears how the town used to be two smaller towns a couple of miles apart – a farming town called Cottonwood (named after the local creek stream and spring) and a cattle town called Davenport (named after founder / saloon owner John C. Davenport). But after a fire a couple of years back that destroyed much of Davenport, the rebuilding brought the towns closer together and they merged into one larger town.

Currently, he is engaged in some prospecting work for said clients, and spends the balance of his time in his shack outside town limits in the Redwine Canyon, or frequenting the small shack tavern in the tent city just outside town (ran by a shifty man named Billy Kilburn) when he has some extra cash, as well as the "special cabins" Kilburn's mother runs with the young girls.  Earl feels he is entitled to his bit of fortune after his service in the war, resenting the loss of his eye (and blaming the uppity Injun as much as the government for the incident).  To this end, he is opportunistic toward securing his own profitable estate to sell to the local Redwine Mining Company for a rich sum to retire on.

The solitude and moonshine have made their own contributions to Earl's makeup, giving him a bit of a reputation as the crazy and sometimes violent Appalachian mountain man.  While, indeed, many of the small children in town refer to him as the "Appalachian Mountain Man", and often dare each other to go knock on the door of his shack and run, most of the townsfolk look on him with much less suspicion and simply refer to him as "One-Eyed Earl".

Earl's claim in the canyon sits near the claim of John McReedy and Curtis Tibbs. It is of little consolation to him that their claim has not yet produced any silver either.

*** Session 01 - Scene 2 (of 15) ***

Jane “Throwy” Deer was a passionately adventurous woman, but also effectively short-sighted. She was born Lola Velazquez in Mexico, in a small village near Ensenada. She found the life there too dull and was entranced by rumors of Cuban women who served as Union spies in the Confederate army or disguised themselves as men in order to serve. Only in her mid-teens, Lola had used her unusually masculine height and brawn to muscle her way into the Confederate ranks, determined to be the spy who beat the shit out of the most Confederates behind closed doors. Subtlety not being her thing, she was discovered after a matter of days trying to rig pressure-plates to explode in the outhouses. She managed to escape to the old American frontier, following a lead she had gotten from her deceased parents about an estranged relative named Earl.

She stumbled into work as a bartender in Sweaty Bob’s Beer & Brothel and soon found her place as the surly and generally violent barkeep who walked a fine line between refusing to fornicate for money and drawing enough customers in with her uniquely uncharming personality. Incidentally, here she changed her name to something less noticeable, weary of her patrons’ tireless innuendos like “getting to roll-a round with Lola” or “Velast-all-night-quez.” And after discovering her penchant for throwing anything from darts to bottle to barrels, she took a liking to the bluntly transparent nickname “Throwy,” bestowed upon her by the unimaginative drunkest of the drunk.

While sweating it out at Bob’s, she managed to catch the attention of a troop of Union soldiers who, not at all asking for her help, she relentlessly followed anyway and was delighted to find herself amidst a reconnaissance-and-kill mission on the Mississippi River lead by none other than Sergeant Sonny Pickens. After such adrenaline inducing adventures, she soon grew bored with her routine in Wild West retail and customer service, serving diluted booze and face-punching the same old drunkards. Ultimately realizing the glass ceiling of her current line of work, she decided to pack up her throwing knives and dynamite to follow her wanderlust wherever it took her.

In the years after the war she roughed it along the southwest frontier, leap frogging from settlement to settlement and fist-fighting for money (even winning a stage coach in an arm-wrestling contest at one point). She eventually wandered into the town of Quebrada Cruz, and loved the sense of violent adventure in the air.

It doesn’t take long for Jane to figure out how things really work in town and who the criminal elements are. The Kilburn Brothers, Jake and Billy, seem to hate each other. Billy runs the tent city shack saloon while Jake seems to spend most of his time scheming how he can rebuild his old saloon, the Golden Nugget Theater, that burned down in the great fire a couple of years back. Jake also has his mother running whores out in the canyon.

Then there’s Preacher, a fire and brimstone Methodist minister named Quentin Sadler. Sadler runs a tent revival on the Western edge of town. Most people just see him as a pastor, but Jane knows he has some connections to local criminals.

Finally, there’s the Chinese Tong, or the Hop Sing Chinese Benevolence Society as it is officially called. The small Chinatown area in town is ran by Yi “Eddie” Hong, owner of Hong’s Laundry and the restaurant, Eddie’s.

After a few weeks there causing trouble, she eventually ran across her old Uncle Earl in Billy Kilburn’s shantytown saloon. Seeing Earl brought back fond memories of brutally attacking the rich pendejo Southern landowners and tricking the Confederate soldiers to their deaths.

Not wanting to stay out in the canyon with Earl, Jane stays in a room at a boarding house in town. She decides to take a job as a bartender at Ernie’s Tavern, a small saloon owned by “Big Ernie” Lawson. Jane quickly sizes up Big Ernie as a foul-tempered drunkard, which she likes.

Big Ernie runs the tavern with his wife, Sherry, a former beauty-pageant queen (though that was some years ago now) and his older son, “Little Ernie”. Little Ernie is much shorter than his father, sort of a pudgy bookish-type.

Ernie’s other son, Danny, is a young man in his 20’s who often comes around looking for money. Jane pegs him as a shiftless lay about, a likely a petty thief. She also notices he seems to prefer women of ill repute who are twice his age.

It doesn’t take long working there before Jane realizes Big Ernie has something of a feud going with one of the local sheriff’s deputies, Deputy Stephen Sullivan. It seems Sullivan’s kid died a few years back from alcohol poisoning, and ever since he’s made it his mission to arrest anyone he can for public drunkenness.

Sullivan seems to particularly target Big Ernie and his rougher class of clientele. Ernie takes offense at this, and believes Sullivan is hurting his business. Day after day, Jane hears him complain about the man in increasingly aggressive tones.

*** Session 01 - Scene 3 (of 15) ***

Sonny Pickens came from a large family of seven kids. Not being able to stand being crammed into their small home on the Kansas prairie, he took the opportunity to join up for the war right away so he could be free and on his own, making a little money.

The ambitious man quickly rose to the rank of sergeant, but never really expected to get into a major fight until his unit was sucked into the Vicksburg Campaign. After that long and brutal siege, he left the army after the war and decided to head west to make his fortune. Being planful, he avoided the temporary lure of a fortune in gold to focus on building up a blacksmith business, as it is a useful trade that would never go away.

Sonny heard about the booming town of Quebrada Cruz and decided that might be a good place to ply his trade. He also heard a rumor his old army companion, One-Eyed Earl, has taken up residence there so he figured that would be as good of a place to stop as any.

The Lakeshore & Eastern Railroad recently added a stop to the town, so Sonny booked himself on the next train there out of Santa Fe. He opted for a shared cabin, traveling with a whiskey salesman named Samuel Peacock. Peacock offers Sonny a free sample of the whiskey he is selling – Woodinville Whiskey, a new distillery operating out of the nearby town of Spoke Falls. Sonny tries some and indicates his approval.

The train station stops just north of town, on the hills over the valley where the town is located. Nearby he can see a very large farm with a large mansion on it. According to the signs along the road, Pickens sees the road to the East goes to a town called Shepherd's Grain, while to the West the sign still reads "Cottonwood".

As his luggage is unloaded (including his anvil), he realizes it will be quite a ways to walk down to the town. Nearby, he spots an old prospector type with a horse cart though it is clearly not his old friend Earl. The man calls out, saying "Hey there Sonny!"

After a moment of confusion, Sonny realizes the old prospector doesn't know him by name but is just being folksy. The man gives his name as "Tex" Guthrie, and offers to give Sonny a ride into town for two bits.

As the cart rolls down the road into town, it passes over the small stream of Cottonwood Creek. At the edge of town, the road branches off north for a sign for Ft. Harney, the nearby U.S. Cavalry fort along the Rio Grande.

Across the street from the crossroads is the Black Bear Hotel. It appears to be a series of connected cabins with a fur trading theme. Guthrie tells Pickens he can either drop him off here or at his usual spot, the Trading Post.

Pickens elects to stop off at the hotel. Guthrie unloads Pickens' luggage and heads back up to the train station in hopes of more customers.

Sonny is greeted by the owner of the hotel, an old fur trader named Mark Elwood. He asks Sonny how he's doing. Sonny says he's fine, in town to check on some old friends from the war.

Elwood narrows his eyes, asking which side he fought on. Pickens explains he needed some money at the time and there was more profit to be had on the blue side. Elwood smiles and says he doesn't mind, being a northerner himself. He goes on to say he spent much of his life as a fur trapper up in Oregon before the market fell out of it.

Sonny foolishly shows some interest in the matter, causing Elwood to say he could tell him some stories about it if he has time. Sonny even more foolishly agrees.

An hour later, Elwood is still going with his collection of not terribly interesting anecdotes about fur trapping, fighting with the Nez Peirce Indians, how he's related to both Lewis and Clark, the time a guy showed up to the fort who was left for dead months before, and many other fanciful tales.

Pickens' patience begins to wear thin, so he tells Elwood he still needs to go walk around town a bit. The older man understands, and tells him cabins are 75 cents a night. Sonny remarks that is a little expensive, but Elwood promises that includes his special "lumberjack breakfast" with fresh 'possum sausage.

Not really that interested, Sonny says he'll get back to him later about getting a cabin. He doesn't want to leave his things there unattended, so he starts down the road towards the rest of town lugging his equipment along, including the very heavy anvil.

Moving along slowly, Pickens notices the rough area to the south of town containing a large number of Chinamen. He figures he'll skip checking out that area.

The first business he comes across is Mick's Livery, a livery stable. He decides to stop in, where he is greeted by the owner, a large Russian man named Mikhail "Mick" Tareski. He asks Sonny how he is doing and if he needs a horse. Sonny says he's fine, but does not need a horse yet.

Seeing that Sonny is carrying around an anvil, Tareski notes he is "strong like bear". He asks Sonny if he can shoe horses. Sonny says he can, as he is a blacksmith.

Mick tells Sonny he needs some horses shoed, and offers to let him stay in the stable's hay loft in exchange for the work. The livery owner goes on to say he always gets the best horses for his stable, buying and selling all of the time. He currently has five that need shoed, but he hates paying "that crook Kysar" to do it.

Sonny feels the deal is pretty good so he agrees to it. Mick is excited, and offers to cook Sonny a meal as well. He asks him if he's ever had "Russian Goulash". He says it is very tasty, but has horse meat as one of the horses in the stable died last week. Sonny makes a comment about having been in the military so he knows what it's like to have to eat a horse.

*** Session 01 - Scene 4 (of 15) ***

Squantum made his way to his destination slowly, riding his horse Ching-Chong named in honor of the Chinese merchant who raised him on the South Dakota frontier until he died when Squantum was only 14. He can't recall the man's name, and never did learn to speak Chinese, but feels the horse's name is close enough to how he remembers the man speaking.

Given that he can speak and understand parts of the Lakota language, many might believe the Indian is Lakotan. But Squantum knows better; he is positive he is from a "lost tribe" that dwells at the end of the world (which, despite what the White Man teaches, is flat).

Squantum has spent the last 13 years looking for clues about his tribe. Eventually, he crossed paths with a healer selling magical snake oil who was able to sell him a map to the edge of the world and the exact route to where his tribe is located.

The Indian's mission is now to raise enough money to purchase or hire one of the White Men's steamships to take him there. After taking some of his peyote, Squantum had a vision that has led him into New Mexico and the town of Quebrada Cruz, where he believes he will organize his old companions from the war under their old commander, "Captain" Sonny Pickens. Squantum is dubious of the racist White Man, but his own Indian heritage and ill-favored visage make his old companions his only real likely bet for assistance.

Squantum approaches the city from the West by way of Brown's Butte. As he gets near town, he passes near a ranch with a sign reading, "Lazy FS Ranch". The local ranch hands give him an eye as he passes by. He hails them as he passes; one of them returns a hand gesture of his own.

After a short time along the road, Squantum gets closer to town. He hears a crowd up ahead, and spots a large white tent. He decides it must be one of those crazy White Man religious services where they handle the snakes, like the ones he's seen in other small towns.

As he heads by, he doesn't see any snakes but there is a large group of town folk. They stop their worship as he approaches and stare. The minister at the back tells them all to ignore the Indian and keep their minds on Jesus, but Squantum notices the minister is sizing him up. He also believes the man is rather rough-looking for a preacher.

Continuing in to town, Squantum passes by something called an "Assay Office" but the Indian doesn't know what that is. On the other side of the street appears to be a small Mexican cantina called "El Ranchito"; he spots a couple of Indians mixed in with the Mexicans there.

Squantum rides over to talk with the Indians. One of them attempts to speak to him in a native tongue he is familiar with. When Squantum indicates he does not speak that language, the Indian switches to English. The Indian is offended to have to speak the White Man's tongue and asks what tribe he is from.

Saying simply that he is from a different tribe, Squantum tells the men he needs to find a hardware store and bank. The Indian man tells him the bank won't deal with their kind. Squantum says he'll deal with him.

The Indian goes on to say for buying things he'll want the Trading Post. Squantum again asks about where the bank is, and the man tells him it is across from the town square but notes again that they won't let him inside.

Squantum leaves the men and continues heading down the main street in town. He decides to make his way towards the Trading Post first. He passes by various buildings – some kind of store, a mansion, a church, a newspaper office, an undertaker, a fancy clothes place, etc.