Deadlands Fate – Session 4

See the Deadlands Fate Collection HERE.

This session was recorded and you can listen to the podcast at theRPGAcademy.com.

Episode 5 – Bad Day at the Watering Hole

What Happened?

This session picked up where the previous one left off, with our heroes emerging from the desert, exhausted and injured. In the distance they saw a ranch house and they headed there in hopes of finding some peace. As they neared, they saw 3 teenage boys at a watering hole between them and the ranch house. As the thirsty PC’s approached, the boys were suddenly attacked by tentacles bursting from the ground, trying to drag them towards the toothy maw that had just opened. The Desert Thing (basically a small Sarlacc Pit…) proceeded to eat one boy, and injure another, but the two survivors were saved by the PC’s. Notably, I compelled Martin’s “Quick to run” aspect to make him avoid the fight.

This was a fairly simple fight against a pretty hefty beasty. It was hard to kill, due to it’s stunt allowing it to defend with Physique (due to its massive bulk). I actually think this fight was a good illustration of aspects due to the recurring use of the Desert Thing inflicting a “Grabbed” status.

After the fight the PC’s found out that the uninjured boy, Eric, lived at the nearby ranch house, and the injured boy, Steve, lived in the nearby town. Eric was running away, but now his friend was badly injured, and they needed to take him back to the house to be cared for by Eric’s older sister, Lizzie. After learning that Lizzie was a good looking woman in her late 20’s, Sebastian perked up dramatically. They escorted the boys back to the house, and proceeded to have a very tense meeting with Eric’s family. First they met his older brothers, Samuel, the smart one, and Jared, the big mean one. It was clear early on that Jared didn’t want them there, and Samuel was to handled cautiously. Then they met Lizzie, a very polite, clever, capable, and not to mention sexy, country woman, and Sebastian was all over that action. We had to cut this interaction short due to time, and picked it up right there at our next session.

My favorite part of this was that right from the minute they spotted the ranch house, Scott (playing Martin) was  like, “guys, I’m telling you, this house is bad news!” He did an excellent job playing Martin without this suspicion (as if he wasn’t a character in a horror story), but underlying tension added a lot of fun, and continued into the next session.

 

The Desert Thing

Here is the Fate conversion I did of the Desert Thing from the Savage Worlds system, presented in the Deadlands Reloaded Marshals Handbook.

“Surprising tentacles from the sand”  “Aware of all nearby creatures”  “Very slow moving”

Skills:
Physique +4
Notice +3
Fight +3

Stunts:
Massive Bulk – Defend against physical attacks with Physique
Grabbing Tentacles – Gain a +2 to Create Advantage “Grabbed” with Fight. Attack one zone away.

Stress: 4 

 

-Razorstorm