Coldstone

This campaign and story will be largely be dictated by the backgrounds of the characters. Example: if someone wants to make a cattle rustler, there will be large nearby ranches with plenty of marketable cattle.

This intends to be a realistic shorter campaign with gritty realism. The story will be a character driven piece, i.e. character's motivations and goals will hopefully drive the plot forward, no plot for plots sake. Therefore, the plot will be generated from the backgrounds of the characters that are provided to me. (Thanks for that, Clay)

Setting

The year is 1862. It's two years into the Civil War down south. Coldstone is a frontier town upstart just south of the Rocky Mountains in southern Idaho. It is just off of the Oregon Trail between the cursed Fort Hall and Fort Boise and is booming as it's often a stop-over for mail and freight wagons heading between the western states of Californy and Washingon and the more civilized East. Coldstone is booming as it's a waypoint for settlers heading further west or north, it serves as a base of operations or drop/resupply point for trappers. As it's also frequented by prospectors and money coaches, it has a good solid bank. The Union Pacific Railway is building fast from the east and railmen have been riding about spotting and staking and making offers. Western Union telegraph just reached Coldstone a few weeks back and crews are pushing it hard from there westward ahead of the railway, which is currently between Fort hall and Coldstone. There is a telegraph station in Coldstone carrying word to and from the eastern cities. There is also a mailing service horse and saddlebags every 3rd day from Fort Hall to the east or Coronado to the west or Johnsburg to the South. A carriage brings larger packages about once every couple of weeks. Most blacks are slaves or fugitives, even on the frontier.

Character Guidelines

It is not only a time of saddles, revolvers, and stetsons. There are card sharks, lawmen, outlaws, settlers, miners, ranchers, trappers, natives, churchies, rustlers, shrewd businessmen, be they bankers, railmen, oil tycoons, prospectors, or others. You could be a scout, a soldier, an entertainer, and indian agent, a carpenter, a cowboy, a doctor, a buffalo hunter, a snake oil salesman, or everyone's favorite a saloon girl with a heart of gold. There are government agents trying to establish order or going undercover to root out some of the western outlaws. A character could be simply trying to make a living by working some of the new land, or perhaps trying to make a name for him/herself legally, or otherwise, or perhaps just trying to escape his/her past.

The most common weapons available are the Cold "Peacemaker" .45, the Colt Dragoon .44, the Smith&Wesson Model 1 .22, the Sharps Carbine .52, or other muzzle loading rifles and shotguns. It is not necessary that all party members have fire arms and other weapons may be available if supported by your back story.

Characters will start with 100 points. Max of -50 points in disadvantages. No more than a 13 or less than a 7 on any attribute. A 7 would require a good backstory. No more than 4 points into any skill without a good back story.

I will likely assign disadvantages/advantages as I see fit to help weave characters and stories, but will be sure to not break your vision of your character.

Characters

• Long Duk Dong, played by User:Brantdanger
• Maddie Carver, played by Melissa
• Willard Dempsey, played by User:Johnm

Suggested References (at least what I've looked into for motivation)

Movies - Unforgiven, Tombstone, The Long Riders

Reading - http://library.stanford.edu/depts/dp/pennies/texts/dimes_toc.html - Specifically, Jesse James, the Outlaw

What Happened

Long having been in town for a few days had determined that Jeb Sloan, the city's sheriff was fixin' to retire and that there'll be an election in two weeks time for a new sheriff of Coldstone.

Long sought out Willy Potts while staying at a room in Tally's saloon, general store and inn.

Maddy got herself and her hired hands each a room at Tally's as well, and looked to meet Scotty O'Hagar, one of Theodore Lavine's ranch hands.

As it turned out, Scotty and Willy were playing cards with Maddy as Long chatted briefly with Felix Collins.

Scotty left and Long followed him, making the large man nervous, but Long left him with his supplies after Scotty gave Long some clues to Pott's whereabouts. Long followed Potts into Jimmy's hotel across the street from Tally's, where he falsified having a message from Wells, Fargo Company for Potts. Jimmy had his boy Todd fetch Potts, who was leery and stricken that Long had a peacemaker drawn when he came down to retrieve said message. Within seconds, both Willy and Long had been shot through and Potts had retreated upstairs in the hotel. Jeb arrived as well as Doc Baker who then took Long to the "hospital" where he stitched up his leg wound and provided him a crutch. It was later found out that Jeb and Jimmy failed to apprehend Willy who had apparently escaped through a 2nd floor window.

Long spent the following days conversing with locals and Maddy and her men, while resting and stretching out his wounded leg. Meanwhile, Maddy met Mr. Lavine, and began negotiated the purchase of some bulls to fertilize her heard back in Willow Valley. She also spent most of her time reading local news prints, going on leisurely horse rides and eating chocolates while strolling idly around Coldstone. Long had telegraphed Easton at Wells, Fargo Company for more money as well as to provide a status update. During this time, Long learned from John Spencer that Willy was holed up at the Lavine ranch and tried to convince the sheriff, via Clarice to form up a posse and apprehend the criminal. Failing that, he convinced Felix to ride with him and track down the outlaw despite the lack of a bounty. The pair borrowed Jeb's horse and spent every cent between them on a Springfield rifle before riding out in the late afternoon, despite Miss Maddie's protests.

Bounty Hunting, Abductions, and Pursuit

Long and Felix approached the Lavine ranch at dusk and were encountered by an outrider who told them of Willy leaving with a black ranch-hand named Toby. Long decided to veer east in pursuit and not go to the ranch.

After sleeping in the cold under a bush without food or blanket for the night, Long and Felix moved on until they decided to approach a small farmhouse. They found the house empty and barred from the inside, so Long climbed in a window. They discovered the stove was still warm, perhaps from the day before. Felix went out to shoot some game while Long found a cache beneath the floorboards of the small house. In the cache was a locked strongbox containing only two empty sacks, a can of oats, a pot, and a Colt 1855 shotgun.

Meanwhile, Maddie and Spencer approached the Lavine ranch. Just after one of their pit stops for Maddie to purge, they were abducted by Willy Potts and Toby. Seconds after watching Spencer get shot down by Willy, the frantic Maddie was pistol-whipped unconscious.

As Long and Felix were about to leave the farm house after eating some rabbit and oats(found in the cache), they heard the approach of Maddie's wagon. There was a brief fire-fight, where Long shot Toby in the back with his new-found scattergun before the two outlaws made off with Maddie's carriage, horses and cashbox.

Back in Coldstone, after a lukewarm bath a lukewarm meal Maddie recruited Jimmy McDougal and his friend Jeffrey Giles to aid in the recovery of her fortune. She wired for more money, bought horses and supplies and the troupe set out in hopes of catching the outlaws perhaps at Fort Hall, or maybe at the rendezvous at Pierre's Hole.

Half way to Fort Hall, Jeffrey allegedly tried to rob Miss Maddie and Long and Felix chased him off. Jimmy, visibly uneasy about the whole situation, left with him.

The party arrived in Fort Hall in the late evening where Long Dong sought out the Captain of the fort. Finding the one-armed captain, Long didn't seem to make any friends before retiring to his room with Felix.