So, we started the IT: A game a little early. Several people didn't show up for a game, and I was chomping at the bit to run something, so I decided to start the players off with a prelude to our main story. Since one player was bringing a new character into the group, I thought it would be cool to run a prelude that introduced everyone to who the new character was, and to show them what led him to his ultimate fate as a member of their order.
This is the prelude of the Half Soldier, an opium addicted former cavalryman. He fought for the Union during the Battle of Utah, and met his initial fate during the Civil War, at the second battle of Gettysburg.
The character in question is Rufus C. Terwilliger. Born and bred in Arkansas, Rufus joined the Union Army at a young age. During the Battle of Utah, he earned the rank of Lt. Colonel, and led a cavalry regiment during the initial years of the Civil War.
The Windup...
In the run-up to the prelude, Rufus was a part of Company B, a brave group of cavalrymen who fought on the western edge of the war. Company B primarily jousted with other horse soldiers, interrupting supply lines and exploratory advances above the Indian Territories. Unfortunately, when the Confederates attacked Gettysburg, General Meade and his men were driven out. Desperate for reinforcements, they called up all of the scouts and rough riders of the Union army. Company B was one of the groups brought to muster.
Meade had a simple plan to retake Gettysburg. The infantry at his disposal would charge the entrenched Confederate soldiers, while cavalry would hit the flanks of the defender's lines. The charging cavalry were meant to focus primarily on the Puckle guns, rapid fire weapons from Europe that could cut the heart out of any forward charge. Company B was instructed to hit the south-west flank of Gettysburg. There, they would hit Devil's Hill, a steep peak which afforded artillery a commanding field of fire.
The Pitch
Before dawn the next day, Rufus led Company B into the woods west of Devil's Hill. He split his forces into three groups. The first were skirmishers, who would charge into the flank of the Confederate infantry with Terwilliger. The second were sharpshooters who would ride along the battle line, targeting officers and the loaders of the dreaded Puckle guns. Lastly, the dragoons would hold back by the treeline. Their heavy guns were to be employed against enemy cavalry and artillery as it presented itself.
With that battle plan in mind, Company B rode through the forests west of Devil's Hill, and awaited the infantry charge that would signal their time to ride...
SWING... And a miss.
The first stages of Company B's attack rode out without a hitch. The Confederate scouts in the woods were shot down without hesitation, mercy, or problem. The soldiers stood ready to ride against the Confederate invaders, eager and ready to retake Union ground.
When the infantry line charged up towards the earthwork defenses of Gettysburg, a cry rippled through their line, which was quickly taken up by Company B's horses as they charged out of the woods towards the far flank of Confederate Infantry. Terwilliger led his saber-swinging men down into the exposed flank of the enemy, while behind him his Lieutenants broke off to engage as they were instructed.
And that's where the battle began to turn. While the skirmishers clashed into the back of the Confederate line, chopping at riflemen and murdering Puckle Gun crews, while the sharpshooters picked off priority targets along the artillery line atop Devil's Hill, while the dragoons fired a fusillade into the responding charge of Kentucky Light Lancers, something terrible was being readied for the battle. The first Air Force readied for war.
And a miss. And a Miss.
For a while, it looked like Company B was winning the battle single-handed. The skirmishers led by Terwilliger had driven off nearly half of the infantry, while the dragoons killed almost all of the light lances of Kentucky. Unfortunately, that's when the Confederate unveiled the hammer and anvil that would win them the day.
From Devil's Hill, a barrage of artillery rang out. Unlike every other shot that had fallen from the Confederate lines, the shells of Devil's Hill had a bizarre, musical quality to them - like Waterford Crystal thrown against a wall. Where the shells landed, unnatural light and energy erupted, ripping the land apart. With a choral sound, thousands of soldiers from the North and the South were ripped down through rifts of greenish light. The artillery on the hill wasn't just killing those it hit, it was ripping them down into some unfathomable place between the spaces of dimension and time.
Rufus watched as the sharpshooters charged the hill, and he watched as they were cut down. Cannons were loaded with the same warped stone fragments that had rained down on his lines, cannons that erupted into the charge that tried to take the hill. Rufus saw Burley, the Lieutenant in charge of his sharpshooters, take a saber of that same bizarre materiel through the throat.
The Lieutenant Colonel threw caution aside, and led his last soldiers in a charge against the hill. Behind him, the dragoons put fire down to suppress the enemy, as Terwilliger charged forth in the last seconds of his military career.
Before he every reached the summit of Devil's Hill, Lt. Colonel Rufus C. Terwilliger was shot. A cannon blast, which would likely have killed another man, ripped through his left leg. His horse was killed a moment later, and fell, crushing the bones of his right leg in the impact. Only through the immediate and capable ministrations of a Union doctor was he able to survive.
From that day forward, though, Rufus was a half-man. His legs amputated at the knee, he could never ride again.
Or so he thought.
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