Hope Springs - Smash & Grab- Serenity Campaign game 4

Well game 4 (and 5 of sorts) last night. This saw the 5 man Scott Mob attempt to carry out an audacious -and sneaky - plan. Their leader and his shootist partner had spent a campaign move turn making nice and being friendly with the locals in the mining town of Hope Springs. The town had only two incumbent lawmen one of which who was partial to a drink.The remaining 3 members were heading into town to cause trouble and make the other two look good in the eyes of the locals.

 It was all quiet.

The 3 strangers rode into town and  met at the Lapetamaine Mining Supply Co ignoring the potential affections of the saloon girls on the way. At the other end of town Scott had engaged Sheriff Duke with his Smooth Talking skills and was busy offering a drink from his hip flask to keep him there. 

Kelly  the other gang Shootist was holed up in the Grand Hotel keeping an eye on the townsfolk, sipping his whiskey with his gun hand.

The 3 men seeing all was still quiet moved into the Mining Supply Co, where the slightly crazed steely eyed Terrifying gunman Sharpe looked hard at Lapetamaine, levelled his weapon and with menace demanded money and dynamite all of course with mo payment. Lepetamaine gulped, thought about making a stand , but failing a panic test handed over the goods. So far so good. 

At this point one of the saloon girls moved over to try and see if she could encourage some custom, through the door of the Mining Company she saw the levelled weapon and the look of fear on Lepetamaine's face , a scream rent the air, as she turned and fled. Sharpe swore as he spun around.

Sheriff Williams across the street moved to see what the problem was, drawing his pistol. One of the gang quickly felled Lepetamaine with a blow from his pistol - one threat gone. The gang then burst from the building one by one heading for thier horses. Williams called for them to stop or he would shoot - he was thinking twice , he was outnumbered 3-1 ... where the hell was Duke when you needed him - no doubt in the saloon. He saw the crazed terrifying look of Sharpe and decided perhaps today would not be a good day to try and arrest them. He held back from shooting, after all he was not sure what had happened. 

At this point Ned Johnson the Dry Goods store owner and members of the Citizens Vigilance Committee decided there was something very wrong here , and that something needed to be done .He picked up his Shotgun stepped out of the store and pointed it towards two of  the mounted gang galloping out of town. He let loose , BOOM, BOOM , but his aim was off just behind the fleeing horsemen.

                                                      Ned lets fly with his shotgun

 The  3rd gang member Dawson shot at the Sheriff before he had chance to recover his composure or got reinforcements , but missed. The stranger from the saloon appeared and fired after the fleeing horseman , but they were out of pistol range..

 

 Sheriff Williams recovered his composure and shot after the fleeing horseman, hitting Dawson with a legwound , but "click" , out of ammo. The 3 horsemen sped off out of town, just as Scott and Sheriff Duke arrived running from the far end of town.

                                          The Sheriffs parting shot, a wound to the last stranger

Lepetamaine was discovered alive but battered , with a $1000 taken and several sticks of dynamite handed over. What were the town going to do... There was a call for a posse !! Hell there were only 3 of them to chase. Scott , and the cool stranger from the saloon offered to join with the two Sheriffs, and  Johnson the blacksmith volunteered to go with them , that made 5 against 3. The bad guys were only a few miles ahead heading out towards Pico Canyon

 The town posse sets off in hot pursuit

The posse tracked the gang through the canyon, Williams an experienced Shootist was vigilant for an ambush as they entered a likely area. All eyes were peeled when a shape was seen moving atop a rocky outcrop

Hmmm , looks like ambush country

Where were the rest of the gang, shots began to ring around from both sides. It was a fine place for an ambush.

  Find some cover boys

The Posse sped through shooting wildly looking to get some cover, , strangely two of them hung back

 

Dawson the previously wounded bad guy was looking for some personal revenge, and drew a bead on his moving target, the shot cracked , Williams fell from his horse, struck between the eyes.

  Long range death!

The blacksmith saw Sharpe , but fired and missed , Sharpe turned & felled the poor blacksmith , filling him full of lead, leaving him seriously wounded and knocked out - to be finished off later. Sheriff Duke was all alone , but he was feeling courageous and spurred forward to engage the bad guy who had killed Williams,calling for support. He found the gangs horses, and thought to shoot them , but seeing he was alone again  he drew his pistol an blazed away at the bad guy on the rocks.

 Sheriff Duke finds the gangs horses, and wonders where the others have gone?

Dukes retribution, but too late, he was then overwhelmed by the gang. 

The Scott gang had eliminated the town lawmen, but had lost a gang member. The two of the Scott gang members who had been in town recovered the casualties, the stolen loot and dynamite and  returned to Hope Springs with a sorry tale of ambush , but they had recovered the loot and killed a bad guy - unfortunately the Sheriffs were dead... seeing as there was was now a vacancy in town could they apply?

After some discussion the Town Committee accepted Scott and his friend for town sheriff and deputy . Hell they needed someone to keep law and order...

A clever plan by Steve produced two interesting encounters. The first proving it was not all about shooting , but some long term campaign planning, Mind he was a little lucky on the card order some turns, but that just made it all the more frustrating for the "good" guys who were always on the back foot. Again this scenario really needed a GM which I did to help keep the other players in the dark for bit. It was all part of building gang experience and resources until the main players start to meet each other.

It will interesting to see where this strand goes as the Scott Mob look to take over the town, will other gangs react , Legends of the West turn up, other random events?  All good fun...

I am going to move the Old West campaign onto a dedicated blog Trouble in Serenity Territory , and keep One Man & His Brushes for the painting and new projects.