Third Session: IthinkIcanIthinkIcanIthinkIcan

The party jumped the first train Monday out of Salt Lake City. Unfortunately for them, Johnny Appleseed had visited Temple services the night prior. There, he prevented the execution of a young woman accused of adultery. Appleseed managed to get the young lady out to where everyone else was staying without incident, but a few inhabitants of Salt Lake City saw her joining the party as they boarded the train.

The Nauvoo asked enough people enough hard questions to finally suss out where the supposed adulteress had gone, and quickly moved to respond.

Meanwhile, the party enjoyed a few hours of scenic countryside as they rode along the rails. They saw tall grasses full of pheasant that lined the tracks, small scrub towns along the railroad, and the rise and fall of telegraph wires... wires that carried a message down the line to the next town with an appreciable group of Nauvoo Soldiers.

When the train passed the small town of Bethlehem, Nevada, a force of 20 cavalrymen dashed out in pursuit of the train, intent on stopping it and getting the accused woman back...

As the game started, I laid out a series of 3x5 cards labeled as the different cars of the train. I did it like this for a couple of reasons. One, I wanted the players to have a clear picture of where they were on the train, and where the train cars were in relation to each other.




As the night went on, this became more important. See, the train was a dynamic actor in the night's game. When the train turned, I'd shift the car(d)s so people could get a clear idea of how the turning affected what they could see. Each turn started with the train taking an "action," determined by random roll. I got some great ideas for this from the brilliant Matt Sheridan, so I owe him a lot for this session. I only regret that there were so many cool ideas and too few turns to use them all.

Anyway. John Henry and Rufus were hanging out in the Livestock Car with Appleseed (Appleseed's player couldn't make the session, unfortunately). Teddy was moving around between the Passenger, Lounge and Observation cars, while all the ladies were resting in a private car leased by Molly Brown. The Nauvoo stared by riding along the train in 5 groups of 4, each trying to get on a different car along the length of the train.

Almost immediately, Rufus bailed out of the train and shifted into the Rider, while Teddy and John Henry climbed to the top of the train. At the rear, Anna-Maria shifted into her Four-legged Feral Female Form. The fight that progressed was... interesting, to say the least. The Nauvoo Soldiers did fantastically well when attacking, but miserably when rolling checks for things like climbing and staying atop the moving train. A handful of them died by falling between the cars, and many others were simply knocked from the train and out of the fight.

Eventually, all of the swarming Nauvoo soldiers were dispatched, though none of the party managed to escape unscathed. After the last enemy was driven from the train, the Rider and Anna-Maria both collapsed from exhaustion.

Fortunately for the party, none of the passengers were able to clearly identify the soldiers, and Molly was able to convince them that a group of bandits had attacked and been repelled by her associates. The train continued on to its final destination, Carson City.