Savage Tales
The Flood’s many side plots are the second-largest portion of the book behind the Marshal’s section. We have 32 Savage Tales in total, 9 of which are part of three plot arcs which culminate or align with finding a glyph. The rest of them are part of the Tombstone Epitaph’s GOOD INTENTIONS help wanted ads: their entries even begin with their relevant newspaper section as a handout! About half of the latter are immediately available after the completion of Plot Point 3, but the rest either unlock after events as part of the main adventure or after a few in-game months.
Time-Based Savage Tales: The Battle o’ Junction, Ballots and Bullets
Plot Point 3 Completion Unlocks: Fellheimer’s Folly, The Rancher’s Life, Groaning Man Cave, the Russian Menace, Rabid Rance Strikes Again!, The Creature of Archeron Bay, Wanted: Dead or Alive!, Off the Grid, City of Omens and Zeroes, The Scientific Method, Ghost Rot, Harriman’s Legacy, Those Smug Bastards
Plot Point 4 Completion Unlocks: Treasure Hunters
Plot Point 5 Completion Unlocks: Flesh of the Mad Monk, Love Ling the New Flesh
Plot Point 7 Completion Unlocks: Night of the Caretaker mini-arc, The War of the Triads mini-arc, The Rise and Fall of Santa Anna mini-arc, Cult o’ the Dragon, Head Full o’ Nothin’, In Search of Goldnose, Famished!, Hasteli’s Children (after 2 or 3 glyphs)
Night of the Caretaker
In the world of Deadlands, the Whateley clan of Lovecraftian fame not only exist, they’re a powerful yet ruthless family of criminals and fell sorcerers who consort with Things That Should Not Be Consorted With. A branch of their family once owned a creepy mansion in San Francisco, but now it’s on a tall mesa recently rumored to be home to new veins of ghost rock as well as strange glyphs. This Tale begins with some investigation: PCs can find out that the Whateley clan also lived in the now-deserted town of Gomorra. There they can find a seemingly dull-witted yet creepy teenage boy who calls himself the Caretaker and offers to accompany the PCs due to a strange need to find his “home.” He will of course turn on the party when it comes time to defend his kin. A PC with the Whateley Blood Edge knows exactly where this place is, while consulting library archives and questioning miners turns up rumors of black magic and monsters summoned from the depths of Hell as being what scared off many would-be claim jumpers.
Whateley Isle is now a ruined, shoddy mess of its former self, and given that the place was a rickety mansion at its best that’s saying something. Sometime before the PCs arrived Kang’s pirates set up shop with a squad of martial artists, gunmen, demolitionists, and even a few ogres and a sorcerer of their own to claim the island. They knew better than to brush off the tales as superstition. A fierce battle between them and the Whateley’s grotesque minions ensued, with the latter on the verge of losing. Losing ground to Kang’s goons the Whateleys retreated into the caves where they transformed themselves into slug-like monsters. And said caves are where an earthquake glyph can be found.
This Tale is a bit of an open-ended dungeon crawl. Kang’s pirates will try to capture the heroes and interrogate them for what they know, and the cave’s studded with ghost rock which can make for a good fuel source or impromptu explosions for the truly daring. One of the more unique treasures here are pages from the Necronomicon which can grant even noncasters the ability to cast Curse, Environmental Protection, and Puppet (controlling another’s body) but at the risk of being cursed themselves. The Necronomicon’s pages count as a mortal sin if used by a Blessed or Shaman.
What I Changed: I figured that keeping the Whateleys as actual humans, if creepy and deformed, would feel more threatening than over-sized slugs. I had one be a super-strong ogre-like being and another as a one-eyed sorcerer. I did not include Kang’s pirates on account I planned on running War of the Triads after this one so didn’t want to overuse them.
The War of the Triads
This mini-arc includes four Savage Tales with the reward of a glyph at its conclusion. Unsurprisingly they center around a cold war among the Chinese criminal factions turning into a blazing hot one. Although the entry mentions that it should take place during the glyph hunt, the ending of Plot Point Four mentions it being run much earlier which seems a mistake as some of the opposition in these adventures are a bit high level.
There’s also an awful lot of behind-the-scenes politicking in these adventures. The PCs are unlikely to find out several of them unless they manage to pry the information out of various NPCs. Some of it is relevant to the adventure, but others tie into the metaplot or the Triad and warlord’s larger territorial ambitions. It does do a thorough job of explaining where everyone stands and will stand after the civil war’s resolution, but chances are the PCs may not see much of it. Examples include how Thin Noodles Ma’s inability to get the amulet put him in hot water with Kwan and thus said warlord’s spies are still looking over the Explorer’s Society lodge. Another is how the Ravenite shamans Big Pul and Little Pul are convincing Kwan to put Emperor Norton as a figurehead to ensure northern California is put in the hands of an incompetent ruler.
While searching for glyphs Captain Roderick Pennington-Smythe summons the party again to meet in Shan Fan. He explains how in spite of its destruction the Explorer’s Society lodge contains a vault full of precious assets and artifacts left untouched by the Triad looters. Unfortunately the key to opening it was lost in a poker game to Big Ears Tam, and said Society member was thereby banned from the organization.
So you’d think that Pennington-Smythe is planning a daring caper to break into the mob boss’ estate, right? Or maybe win it back in an even higher-stakes poker tournament? Nope, he wants the PCs to work for Big Ears Tam and gain the skeleton key that way. This is kind of a waste, as Big Ears Tam’s stat block has d12+1 Gambling and the Card Sharp Edge which would otherwise never see play.
Sink the Abysmal! Said mob boss is more than eager to meet the PCs at his estate, and offers to give them the key in two weeks time but until then they work for him. The first thing he wants the PCs to do is sink the Abysmal, one of Kang’s warships. After Hellstromme dropped the bombs at the Battle of Lost Angels, Kang lost a lot of men and assets and thus Tam wants to strike while the iron’s hot by taking over the Maze pirate biz.
This Savage Tale is a straightforward ship hunt followed by a tough fight: in addition to steam gatlings and cannons the Abysmal has a crew of 27: Red Petals Su (who can die in this adventure but will try to escape via autogyro), 5 ogres, and the rest a mixture of pirates and martial artists.
Shan Fan Kumite: The next adventure is a classic martial arts tournament. Tam is impressed that the PCs sunk a battleship and wants to either sponsor them as fighters or keep them as bodyguards at the annual Shan Fan Kumite. This tournament is a classic one-on-one non-lethal fight of hand to hand combat. Even if by chance none of the PCs are built for melee the adventure suggests letting unqualified players run NPC martial artists. The first 3 rounds are against average fighters who use the Martial Artist stat blocks in Deadlands Marshal’s Handbook (no supernatural powers), but the 4th round is against Wang Men Wu who uses the Superior Martial Artist stat block.
A character who makes it to the fifth and final round faces Chin-Hsueh Wong of the Shaolin 37th Chamber. Not one who normally showboats at tourneys, Kwan spread rumors that Big Ears Tam is seeking to humble the monks, and then invited Wong to the tournament to let them save face.
Chin-Hseuh Wong is an extremely difficult foe to face, and even the adventure acknowledges it. He’s got a whole host of chi powers and his combat-related stats are top-tier. He can make potentially up to 4 attacks with the Quickness power and Improved Frenzy Edge, and his Parry of 10 makes it very difficult to hit him. Moreso if he uses Deflection, and his Counterattack Edge gives him a free strike at those who fail to hit him. A PC who manages to beat him will gain great fame and respect in Shan Fan.
After the tourney’s conclusion Kang’s agents posing as Kwan’s soldiers will spring an assassination attempt on Big Ears Tam. Tam will declare that if he dies the PCs will never get the key to help motivate them. This is a much less difficult fight than the Abysmal, in that there are less enemies and none have any supernatural powers to break out against the PCs. Long-Haired Tony, Shan Fan’s sheriff of sorts, will also intervene on Tam’s behalf.
Spy Games: The assassination attempt makes Big Ears Tam more paranoid than usual, and hears from his sources that Kang and Kwam are seeking to meet in secret at Dragon’s Breath. Tam wants the PCs to spy on the meeting and relay the information to him. Only then will he give them the vault key. He even gives them disguises and an ironclad of his own for them to make the journey if need be.
Dragon’s Breath is closed up tight, and Kang’s palace within even moreso. The many guests and servants here all speak in Chinese, and Kwan and Kang conduct their meeting behind a paper-thin wall the PCs can conveniently eavesdrop upon. PCs not fluent in the tongue are in luck, for Emperor Norton is present and thus the meeting’s conducted in English for his benefit. Kang denies being behind the assassination attempt at the tournament, but convinces Kwan to invade Shan Fan for the Triad will surely strike if he does not strike first. He’s even generous enough to offer Kawn his naval fleet while they march on the city; Kang’s still smarting over the Abysmal.
At this point the palace staff will realize that there are intruders about and the PCs have to escape the city, possibly encountering hordes of pirates along the way.
Emperor Norton: The conclusion to the War of the Triads involves Kwan’s forces attacking Shan Fan. Tam is horrified at the news but hands over the key all the same. He telegraphs the New Tomorrow Triad and the Shaolin Monks (who learned about Kwan baiting them) for aid. Pennington-Smythe and Dillinger are holed up at the ruins of the Explorer’s Society lodge and ask the PCs to help secure the vault against invaders.
This next part is not a typical battle per se, but in fact makes use of Savage World’s Mass Combat Rules. In fact it’s the first of two times said rules every make an appearance in this Plot Point Campaign. Basically the Shan Fan Triad is one side, and General Kwan’s Army the other. The Triad are outmatched, numbering less than half of Kwan’s forces. The Triad factions of Thin Noodles Ma and Rat-Skinner Hou betray Tam and the New Tomorrow by turning on them mid-way through the battle. Hundreds of ordinary townsfolk also gather to fight for their hometown.
The non-Mass Combat section of this adventure is a standoff at the lodge, where the PCs and said Society members face off against 24 of Kwan’s soldiers (human and a few ogres) along with the Ravenite shamans Big Pul and Little Pul.
Unfortunately, the resolution of the Mass Combat does not matter at all: whether taken as prisoner or basking in glory, Kang himself shows up well after the battle’s resolution and kills his rival-turned-betrayed-ally with a single chest-bursting punch. He makes a brief intimidating speech about what happens to traitors, how everyone who worked for Kwan works for him now, and that he is eager to help Big Ears Tam rebuild the city in exchange for some deals. The Shan Fan Triad realize that having any of their number as a single ruler will repeat the cycle of division, so the assimilationist New Tomorrow Triad convince the others to crown Emperor Norton as leader of California.
Isle of Ghost’s Tears: The contents of the lodge’s vault include a carved stone fragment detailing the location of two glyphs in California; one to be determined by the GM, the other on the Isle of Ghost’s Tears in Shan Fan Bay. The adventure suggests giving out magical relics tailored to the PCs as further rewards or simply antique gold if they’re more money-hungry.
The Isle in question is a bit of a non-standard conflict. The island has been kept off-limits by the Triad on account of rumors of dangerous spirits. They’re right, up to a point. There are definitely spirits of the dead here, mostly those who died in the Great Quake, but the real villain here is a Sin Eater known as Genjia who can take the form of any person it’s eaten. Said corpses have to be improperly buried to be of sustenance, which California has a lot of in the 11 years since.
Genjia pretends to be an insane yet harmless old hermit who will try to mislead the PCs and convince them that the spirits are in the wrong. He will also attempt to kill loners in order to consume their soul. Genjia’s monstrous ability includes rising from ‘death’ in a new grave, and the only way to truly put him to rest is to dismember each of his limbs and bury them separately in sacred ground.
As for the ghosts living upon the isle, they too can communicate with the party but are bound to the island due to the glyph’s magic. They’re not exactly friendly to intruders either, more concerned with scaring them away. The ghosts will do things like appear in their crushed, mangled forms upon death or scream vile remarks about a PCs’ dead relative.
If reasoned with the party can learn that the most powerful and terrible ghost among them is a woman by the name of Meng Chiang-nu. She was the first Chinese immigrant to have died in the Great Quake, brutally tossed aside by her selfish fiance in an attempt to save himself. Even if the PCs initiate combat the spirits are far from united and there are various other ghosts about the area who can give out more information, including Meng who appears as a crying ghost of the island’s namesake.
The resolution to this quest, obviously, is to take care of Genjia. If done she will show the PCs where to find the glyph: in a set of cliffs overlooking the sea caves.
What I Changed: Quite a bit of this adventure arc hinges on the PCs doing errands for a Triad boss, which given my group’s own party composition and backstories was simply not going to happen. Instead I changed things around to have the Chinese Six Companies working with the Explorer’s Society to overthrow the Triad itself. I cut out the whole business with Kang and made Thin Noodles Ma the main villain, whose island fortress sat atop a likely glyph location.
Instead of infiltrating Dragon’s Breath, the PCs were tasked with a covert search and rescue of Emperor Norton in Warlord Kwan’s fortress. The Six Companies would be more than happy to see the largest Triad leader crippled, but wanted to take control of Shan Fan. I had it so that Emperor Norton was one of the few white Americans trusted by the Chinese immigrant community
based off an alleged real-world incident where he dispersed a racist mob from torching San Francisco’s Chinatown by sitting himself in front of the crowd and reciting Bible verses. As Chinese people could not legally own property back then and Norton wanted to feel like a protector and legitimate ruler, he bought up a host of Shan Fan businesses in his name but let community members and employees run them. With him being under the thumb of Warlord Kwan (who was allied with Thin Noodles Ma), this meant that the Triad used his assets for money laundering and a front for illegal activities. Rescuing Emperor Norton would thus give the Six Companies a legal advantage in taking control of Triad-owned property.
I also greatly expanded on the enemies and makeup of the fortress, using castle assets from Roll20 to accomplish this and noting structural weak points, autogyro pseudo-helipads, and other things for the PCs to take advantage of in their infiltration.
I put the martial arts tournament after the rescue of Emperor Norton. The PCs needed to win the martial arts tournament to get close to Ma, as the Triads headhunted goons among said contest’s winners. The PCs donned luchador masks to compete, in keeping with the unarmed combat theme while also disguising their faces: the martial artist PC had the Wanted hindrance in Shan Fan. When they were invited to wine and dine at Thin Noodles Ma’s fortress, they took the opportunity to start smacking heads and dispelling evil when it became clear that said Triad gangster sought to use the glyph’s secrets to generate earthquakes.
I also replaced the Isle of Ghost’s Tears with Thin Noodle’s Ma’s fortress, using the NPC encounters from elsewhere in this plot arc as his various guards.
The Rise and Fall of Santa Anna
Although they’ve been mostly a background element, the Mexican Army will invade southern California in full force sometime after Plot Point 7. Santa Anna himself is leading the charge, and with the Church of Lost Angels as the first stepping stone this creates an interesting situation of Baddies vs. Baddies or Lesser of Two Evils.
Or it would, if the arc didn’t focus solely on defeating one side.
Fort Doom: Our adventure begins when a strangely rich miner by the name of Eldon Strouth managed to find a seacove full of millions of dollars worth of ghost rock. He has not registered a claim for it yet on account that the attention will attract outlaws and pirates so he’s been scraping off enough of the substance to make a comfortable living but no more. He hires the PCs on as hired guns for the princely sum of $45 a day. However said cave is near the US-Mexican border, and during the third night of guard duty in the area the group spots Mexican and Confederate forces clashing. But something’s off about the latter, for their jerky movements and cannibalizing of fallen troops shows they are not among the living.
Santa Anna’s Army of Night destroys the Confederate forces and begins riding up to the City of Lost Angels. A smaller squad goes into the PCs’ path as a possible random encounter.
The only other encounter is a group of outlaws who try to take Strouth’s cave for themselves. Having had enough trouble the PCs’ employer will wish to ride up to the Rockies’ Assayer’s Office in Lost Angels by himself while the party stays on guard. Unfortunately the Mexican Army arrives shortly after he does, and the zombie army clashes against Grimme’s own Guardian Angels and Wasatch allies before being held at bay.
Smash the Machines: A Twilight Legion NPC or one from another allied faction sends an urgent message to the PCs. Although no fans of Reverend Grimme, they believe that the Emperor of Mexico is hardly a better leader for the region. Therefore, the PCs are given 32 sticks of dynamite and plungers to blow up a supply line in Mexicali and cripple the war effort.
Although I do not know much about Mexican history or Emperor Maximilian, the adventure does not explain exactly why the Mexican government would be just as bad for southern California as Grimme’s doomsday cult. On the contrary, I can see some gaming groups letting the two sides duke it out, figuring that even if Grimme wins his forces will be severely weakened. If Mexico wins, well...the Lost Angels just lost a major city and power base. It’s win-win for the PCs!
The bulk of this adventure is a dungeon crawl in a Mexicali mine, which is heavily guarded inside and out by soldiers. The goals in question are a pair of factories which can either be reached openly (bad idea) or snuck into via said mine shaft. Within its many tunnels the party can find entire rooms of captive undead kept docile with a strange plant admixture known as plantagrito. The adventure is open-ended on how and where the PCs wish to plant the dynamite: the GM asks the party how they wish to accomplish their plan and calls for appropriate rolls with modifiers based on how ingenious/foolish it is. Failed rolls do not spell failure, rather it means more Mexican soldiers (both living and dead) will fight the PCs and complicate matters.
Demolishing the factories will cut off the dragon’s head, as Santa Anna’s forces will run out of arms and supplies to further besiege the city. Forced to retreat, their own undead will turn hungry from lack of plantagrito and attack their living peers.
Getting a Leg Up: His Army of Night in tatters, his supply line destroyed, things seem about over for poor Santa Anna. But there is one thing which can turn the tide of battle. He caught wind that his famed prosthetic leg is somewhere within the vicinity; an out of the way tourist trap souvenir shop called Stanley’s Live Bait & Curios. With this good news he’s refocusing his efforts by personally leading a small squad to fetch it for the low, low price of 0 dollars and pesos!
This is not just sentimental value. In the world of Deadlands the ambient history, emotions, and energy surrounding the Leg of Santa Anna turned it into a magical item. The one in the Springfield Museum is a replica, while the real one was under lock and key by the Union’s Agency before it disappeared under mysterious circumstances. One who uses the leg as a prosthetic gains a host of leadership Edges along with a bonus on Intimidation and Persuasion rolls. Additionally any army or group merely carrying it in their possession gains immunity to becoming Wounded by the attacks of anyone under Santa Anna’s command but not the man himself. The trade-off is the person using the leg becomes obsessed with invading and conquering Texas. If Santa Anna himself regains his leg, he becomes immune to all physical attacks save the muskets of the Illinois regiment that captured the leg in the first place.
The PCs are either in the area of Stanley’s or they manage to covertly follow or interrogate a patrol of Mexican soldiers. When they go into the shop and interact with the owner (who tries to sell them all sorts of fake stuff), Santa Anna’s 50 strong forces and two gatling guns surround the shop with the good General demanding his leg back. Fortunately Stanley is aware of the immunity part of the leg’s powers and explains to the PCs his crazy idea.
The PCs are encouraged to go out in style: bullets graze them at most, Mexican guns inexplicably jam, and a host of way too many coincidences makes them obviously charmed. After several rounds of the party strutting their stuff, Santa Anna challenges them to combat, unwilling to needlessly throw his soldier’s lives away.
The famed Mexican General is Legendary in more ways than one: he has more than a few skills at d12 or even d12+1 or +2. His d8 Strength is nothing special but his 13 Parry makes him nigh-untouchable in melee combat, and a 10 Toughness is nothing to sneeze at. He has a number of leadership Edges which will be of no use on account of his soldiers’ harmlessness, and his sole firearm is a Colt Frontier pistol.
If he dies or is routed then all hopes of him conquering California and Texas are squashed. But if he gets back his leg he’ll be gearing up for a big war against Texas in the nearby years.
What I Would Have/Will Change: As of this writing I have not run this particular arc of Savage Tales. I planned to make the Mexican Army’s invasion based on two other particular adventures: Off the Grid and Wanted: Dead or Alive! In the former, the Men of the Grid were at a loss for funding and support and thus turned to the Mexican government due to their shared enmity of Reverend Grimme. For the latter quest Captain Blood’s depredations if not dealt with will weaken the US Navy to the point that they cannot pose a united front against Santa Anna’s forces.
Therefore, helping out the Gridders hastens the invasion, while Captain Blood’s death or capture would delay it. Both quests can cancel each other out; if the Men of the Grid were helped out and Captain Blood not dealt with then they’d invade early by Plot Point 6. If Blood’s days of piracy were put to an end and the Gridders were left high and dry they wouldn’t invade until the PCs found all 7 glyphs (not including this arc’s) and just about ready to take the fight to Grimme himself. In an early invasion I’d pepper sessions with more scenes and random encounters with Mexican Army personnel.
I did have plans for the Mexican forces to assault Lost Angels by the time of the final fight, making things feel desperate as only the most fanatic and poor of the city’s residents stay behind. The PCs will also have to deal with a potentially hostile third party in order to infiltrate the city and make their way to the Cathedral, dealing with Guardian Angel-Mexican crossfire along the way.
Other Savage Tales
Fellheimer’s Folly: This is a miniature dungeon crawl taking place on an island appearing like a conical spike. The top of the island has a corpse pinned to it, a German immigrant by the name of August Fellheimer who gives the macabre place its name. All attempts at climbing or flying to remove or inspect the body result with coincidentally-timed catastrophes such as rockslides or autogyro engines suddenly failing. A member of the Agency is on standby to inspect this strange occurance and shoo away onlookers. He will accept the PCs’ help if they seem like skilled people, which they most certainly are in this case!
The reality of the situation is that the corpse is the result of a black magic jinx woven by Gerhardt Von Stroessner. He killed Fellheimer to absorb his life force which he hopes will grant him immortality if he collects more of the stuff from other sacrifices.
The tunnels below the island are filled with spear and magic blasting glyph traps, with Stroessner at the bottom in a creepy laboratory. Activating traps will alert the mage to intruders and give him time to buff himself up with spells. He also has a demon who pretends to be his servant; he’ll let the upstart mortal know who’s really in charge soon enough!
Things I Changed: I excised the demon in favor of making Stroessner a load-bearing boss. When the island started sinking I called for Agility checks for the PCs to make it out in time, along with Swim checks and possible drowning if they were too slow.
The Rancher’s Life: The cattle rancher Dwight Shelton is looking for some hired help to protect his cattle from whoever is killing them. Hiring the party on for $5 a day, one night a near-dozen Lost Angels land on the mesa via a gunboat and sneak around to start killing cattle. If the PCs kill or drive them off, they return with twice the number with two gunboats and start blasting the ranch with cannonfire. If repelled again the Lost Angels will decide the ranch is a sunk cost and leave them be for now.
Things I Changed: I ran only the first encounter, but I added in an environmental obstacle of cows everywhere. Using firearms or AoE attacks risked killing cattle, something the Lost Angels have no reservations against. If enough cattle die you can kiss your payment goodbye!
Groaning Man Cave: This is less a quest and more a puzzle. This infamous cave is very close to Lost Angels, located in a seaside cove with a pair of two smaller cavities above. Lined with ghost rock, the cave’s “eyes” and “nose” give a constant stream of smoke and the sounds of its consumption make it seem like the place really is groaning.
The treasure in question is $10,000 worth of molten gold heated by ghost rock fire. The entire place is filled with poisonous vapors and radiates dangerous amounts of heat, threatening damage and fatigue just about every round.
The adventure is open-ended for just exactly how the PCs can obtain the liquid gold, and the “After the Flood” sidebar in the Marshal’s Section mentions how the waters submerge the cave but cool off the gold. However, the Environmental Protection power can render a character immune to the negative effects and thus safely retrieve the gold.
What I Changed: I made it so the molten gold puzzle was the end of the adventure rather than the majority. I ran Snatched, a mini-adventure from the Saddle Sore sourcebook, for this Savage Tale. Said adventure is a roguelike dungeoncrawl where the cave’s foundations are generated via card draws, and the goal is to kill enough tunnel critters to clear out the cave. I made it so the gold was the goal instead, but the monsters would stop coming after 30 were killed.
My party’s mad scientist quickly discovered how Environmental Protection could be used to gain the treasure, and with the Gadgeteer Edge he gained temporary access to said power.
I will admit that the $10,000 treasure is quite a bit for the Flood’s “desperate survival, taking odd jobs when you can” stated theme. My own group used the cash to buy various mad science devices from the 1880 Smith & Robards Catalog sourcebook. If you choose to run it, I’d suggest lowering the amount to what you think is reasonable for your group.
Flesh of the Mad Monk: Hao-T’e Zui used to be a good-natured exorcist helping out the Chinese community, but then the met a demon which killed him and took on his form. Now he spreads terror around the vicinity of Devil’s Armpit, gathering human sacrifices possessing remarkable traits to fuel his own power.
The adventure’s open-ended for how and when the PCs find out about Hao’s depredations and suggests making one or more kidnapping victims the children of NPCs they know. Tao-T’e Zui has 1 Chinese ogre bodyguard per hero and his own stats are nothing to sneeze at: he has the Chi Mastery Arcane Background, monstrously high Spirit (d12+2) and Strength (d12+4) scores, several buffing powers, and can roll a Vigor die every round to heal wounds. He is weak to fire and cannot regenerate from it.
Cult o’ the Dragon: Sutton Thacker is a huckster and salesman who formed a group of Maze dragon worshipers. He discovered the remnants of the old native civilization that bound the dragons to their will, and enacted the rites himself. Now the cult’s cave is home to a flock of young Maze Dragons and their parent “Jericho.” Currently Sutton runs the place as a tourist hotspot for the town of Dragonhold, but sometimes the cult kidnaps lone travelers spending the night to sacrifice to their false god.
The rock paintings within the caves tell of the glyph’s location, but otherwise the Savage Tale is open-ended how the PCs find this out and/or deal with the cult. Thacker himself is a spellcaster with a mixture of buffing and offensive powers along with sticks of dynamite and a shotgun, which are some of the deadliest weapons for purchase in Deadlands damage-wise.
What I Changed: I made it so that the Church of Lost Angels and the Cult of the Dragon were at odds, putting the PCs in an “enemy of my enemy is my friend” scenario. The dragon-cult had a glyph within their caves in addition to their famed dragon, and the PCs were tasked with holding off a small army of Lost Angels outside during a skirmish. Sutton Thacker in a fit of desperation activated the glyph to cause a tremor, plunging a significant amount of the army (and the PCs) into a watery cave containing the Maze Dragon. Realizing this was their “holy beast” the PCs escaped by the skin of their teeth via a mad science grapnel launcher.
I also had Garrett Black, the Angel of Death and Grimme’s best assassin detailed in the NPC/bestiary chapter, lead the Lost Angels forces in the battle. He retreated to become a recurring villain
The Russian Menace: A tortured, starving 12-year-old girl is found by Lacy O’Malley or the PCs, and she tells them all about the horrors of Felicity Peak. As detailed in the Marshal’s Section, Gregor Petrov is a Russian nobleman who uses a community of imported serfs to mine the mesas and work the fields. He is also a sorcerer of fell power whose own life force is re-energized by drinking the blood of slain children. With twelve outlaws and an infamous gunslinger by the name of El Jéfe under his employ, he seems unstoppable to the hopeless serfs...but perhaps a fair challenge for crusading good guys.
El Jéfe and the outlaws use Veteran Gunman and Outlaw stats from the Marshal’s Handbook, but Gregor Petrov is a unique one. He doesn’t have spellcasting powers so much as a Blood Boost which can increase all of his physical attributes by one if he has drunk the blood of a child within the last day. He also has the Filthy Rich Edge so he can be outfitted with any sort of mundane, mad science device, or relic the GM wishes to assign him.
What I Changed: I made El Jéfe a Harrowed to act as a sort of foil to our party’s own Harrowed PC.
Rabid Rance Rides Again! A classic “hunt down the outlaw” quest, Rabid Rance is a notorious bandit who has a network of contacts among the mining communities. He finds out who struck it rich and ambushes the now-unlucky prospector with six other gunmen to loot the proceeds of the miners’ hard labor.
Rabid Rance is an optimized gunslinger, with a d12 Shooting, the Quick Draw and Duelist Edges, and has Hip-Shooting to lessen the penalties of fanning the hammer with a pistol. In Western parlance fanning the hammer is when you pull down the trigger of a single-action revolver and rapidly smack the hammer to fire off shots in quick succession. In game terms this allows a character to make up to six attacks albeit at a hefty penalty, making it one of the better damage-dealing options in Deadlands.
The Creature of Archeron Bay: A giant undersea monster is sinking ships around the Maze. The creature itself is believed to be some giant octopus or squid, but the reality is far stranger. The Beast of Archeron Bay is actually a colony of individual strands of kep which feed off of the souls of the living.
The kelp strands are very tough: their Strength is d12+4 and their slaps deal d6 on top of that; they also count as Heavy Weapons meaning they can damage ships. They also can grapple individual opponents, and they have a 19 Toughness to withstand attacks.
What I Changed: I liked the idea of a pseudo-kaiju monster for the PCs to fight, so I still used the tentacle stats but had the monster’s “central body” emerge after several of those were destroyed. The party stuffed bundles of underwater dynamite onto buoys to target with guns in preparation for the battle, which was both clever and fun to use.
Wanted: Dead or Alive! General Gill of the Union Army has a very nasty thorn in his side in the form of Captain Blood. This Mexican privateer acts at the behest of said country’s government to waylay vessels of enemy nations, and his Conquistador flagship is home to 40 sailors and 12 even tougher marines. Captain Blood’s stats are more social and charisma-themed, with some Leadership Edges such as Command and Natural Leader to let his followers spend his Fate Chips if need be.
The ship as such has some pretty heavy opposition due to sheer numbers alone if it can be found, although the PCs get unlikely aid in the form of a grizzled bounty hunter by the name of Hephaestus Girty. The man assimilated into an unnamed Native American tribe and fights with a tomahawk in one hand and a Colt Peacemaker in the other.
Head Full o’ Nothin’: This adventures’ GOOD INTENTIONS is rather vague, but is meant to put the PCs in contact with Suitcase Lee of the New Tomorrow Triad in order to help find one of the glyphs. But just like everyone else in this chapter he cannot help the PCs until they take care of a not-so-small problem for him.
Lee gives the party a brief rundown of the
Taiping Rebellion: a Chinese civil war which occurred when a theologian by the name of Hung Hsiu-ch’uan (Hong Xiuquan) sought to bring about a heavenly kingdom on earth. Proclaiming himself the literal brother of Jesus Christ, Hung formed a rebellion of unheard proportion against the Qing Dynasty, immersing the country in a 14 year war with 20 million dead to show for it.
As for what this has to do with things today, some guy stole the head of Hung and took it with him to California, claiming that the spirit of the man himself speaks through it. Declaring himself the King of the Horizon, this madman’s building an army for a second chance at building a Heavenly Kingdom! And Lee wants the party to destroy/steal the skull and kill the King of the Horizon.
In addition to a 500-man army, the King of the Horizon has a martial artist bodyguard pretending to be a demon by the name of White-Tipped Cap, and the man himself is a competent chi-wielding martial artist.
The King of the Horizon’s skull has no spirit. In fact, the spirit of Hung Hsiu-ch’uan possessed the man’s body and is downright insane. The adventure encourages to play up his comic villainy as an over-the-top megalomaniac, and may possibly drop hints as to the location of a glyph in the process.
In Search of Goldnose: A Russian immigrant nicknamed Goldnose Slim earned the title for his uncanny ability to literally sniff out gold, and also for replacing said nose with a 24-carat prosthetic when some jealous miners cut off the first one. His knack has been so helpful he located four out of six of the richest gold veins in California, earning him lots of money but quite a bit of enemies. He refuses to prospect for ghost rock, but he did find the location of a glyph. Reverend Grimme found out about the PCs’ plans regarding the glyph hunt and hired a bunch of outlaws known as the Hensworth Gang to kidnap Goldnose. This is pretty much the only adventure where the Church acts as a foil during the Glyph Hunt arc.
The Hensworth Gang are nothing special statwise, although their leader dual-wields a pair of Colt Peacemakers and has Steady Hands allowing him to shoot from horseback no problem.
If rescued, a grateful Goldnose is willing to find a claim for the PCs as well as a potential glyph.
The Battle o’ Junction: This is the only other adventure in the Flood where Mass Combat rules come into play. Like the one in War of the Triads it has little in the way of actual stakes. If taken, Junction will become a Lost Angels stronghold and thus a lot less friendly to the PCs, but day-to-day operations do not change much. However, the PC actions do not have a direct effect unless they act as leaders or get involved. In such a case the PCs will control the Confederate side, with the GM the Lost Angels.
Thanks to the scientists of Progress, the Church of Lost Angels is quickly building a fleet of their own to challenge the existing American powers. Several months after the Battle of Lost Angels they’ll send a host of Maze Runners, gun barges, auto-gyros, and an ironclad to annex the Confederate city of Junction. The Angels have the aid of Wasatch rail warriors as part of the deal reached with Hellstromme, and the Confederate forces are slightly under-equipped to retaliate.
Famished! Although this does not reveal or grant a glyph location to the party, it is meant to be stumbled upon while they’re hunting for glyphs. A short while after the Reckoning occurred a Chinese junk crashed on California’s beaches. It carried a very powerful Hunger Spirit in service to Famine and was the epicenter of the first faminite epidemic which swept over the region.
Personal experience from other gaming groups said this was a very dangerous encounter, and I can see why. The Hunger Spirit is outright immune to all non-magical attacks and even magical attacks halve their damage before determining Shaken and wound results. With a Toughness of 10 it will take at least 20 damage to even so much as scratch the fiend. The spirit is attended by 2 faminites for every PC, and it has an AoE ability it can activate freely on every turn to induce fatigue levels from starvation on those who fail a Test of Wills against its d12 Intimidation.
Off the Grid: The Men of the Grid were one of Lost Angels’ early political factions. They had a falling out with Grimme, as they wanted to build the city in a grid fashion typical to many Western settlements while Grimme wanted a circular one to properly channel his evil magic (he didn’t tell that last part to the Gridders). The Church violently agreed to disagree, and now the Men of the Grid are a clandestine insurgent force against the Church.
The Lost Angels Chamber of Commerce put a bounty on the organization and their leader on account that they found a way to sabotage the Churchs’ new naval ships via explosions of unknown origin. The reality is that the Men of the Grid ordered a mad science diving suit from Smith & Robards. With this device they can plant charges of waterproof dynamite created by one of their chemists to attach to and blow open ship hulls.
This adventure is more investigation and less combat. It’s unlikely that the PCs will turn in the Men of the Grid, but rather seek them out for an alliance. They can be met in Bear’s Claw, specifically at a rather tacky Big Chief Chinese Restaurant which serves Chinese food but whose furniture and walls are decorated in a hodge-podge of Native American art. The Gridder’s leader, Anscal Pascal, is cozy with the owner so he has his very own table with a shotgun attached to the underside in case those dealing with him are less than straight.
If they trust the PCs, they can provide them with charges of underwater dynamite, and the adventure mentions that the Men of the Grid can come to their aid during Plot Point Eight. However no specific examples are given either here or in that adventure of what such aid entails. Fighting on their side against Grimme, dynamiting the Church, helping evacuate the city? It’s a mystery!
What I Changed: I turned the investigation into a rescue mission by informing the PCs that members of the Grid are trapped in a mountain valley surrounded by bounty hunters and Hellstromme’s X-Squad troopers. The PCs posed as fellow hired guns before turning on the X-Squadders and rescuing the Men of the Grid. I inserted a bipedal steampunk mecha boss, using its stats from another Deadlands adventure: Shoot out at Circle-R Corral.
Ballots & Bullets: The survivors of Ghost Town formed Perdition at an incredibly fast pace. The lack of government worries many businesses at the lawlessness sure to ensue, and at Dr. Hellstromme’s insistence they plan to hold elections for Marshal and Mayor. Lacy O’Malley is concerned that the powers-that-be will resort to all manner of dirty tricks to get a puppet candidate, so he convinces the ghost rock magnates to set up interim lawmen to oversee things. And our plucky Irish reporter sees the PCs as the best candidates for this! In fact he’s already signed them up by the time they arrive as a woman at the local ore processing station hands out badges.
The two candidates running are Luke “Joker” Watson and Granville Kurtz. Watson is the owner of Perdition’s telegraph office and runs on a populist message of seeing to the laborers’ needs over rich moneyed interests. Granville Kurtz is the heir to a shipping company and presses up the need on how he can bring in wealth and trade. Granville Kurtz is financially backed by his father Masheck Kurtz who is a serial killer and a willing servant of the Reckoners. He’s more than willing to resort to all manner of dirty tricks to get the election to go his way, and if the PCs do not intervene in at least 2 of them the election will go to Kurtz.
Masheck’s schemes include hiring a bunch of dockworkers from Lost Angels to stuff the ballots in Perdition, round up some outlaws to rough up Watson’s supporters, and bribing the town newspaper The Perdition Harbinger to endorse Granville. The adventure is open-ended in how the PCs go around stopping this, as well as what can happen if the PCs poorly handle any interviews/interrogations with the Harbinger’s staff (aka if the PCs come off as hired thugs for Watson that will damage his campaign). There’s also a random encounter table of potential violent mishaps during the election, such as people dueling in daylight, political riots of clashing protestors, and even a train robbery!
What I Changed: I had it so that Kurtz was backed by the Church of Lost Angels, giving the PCs an even stronger incentive to instill a mayor not in their pocket. I also had it so that when the party came to arrest (and thus get a shootout with) Kurtz, they found notes about Famine and the Reckoning in a hidden safe with a Notice roll. This gave an inkling of what’s really going on with Reverend Grimme to the party as well as a useful piece of evidence of trafficking in black magic if they wanted to use it to damage Kurtz’s campaign.
City of Omens and Zeroes: Before its untimely demise in Gomorra, the Collegium served as the largest assembly of mad scientists in California. They ran a ghost rock processing facility near Perdition, and smelling blood in the water Wasatch/Hellstromme Industries wants to hire salvagers to visit and report back their findings for $250. A company representative will contact the PCs specifically due to their prior engagement with Dr. Hellstromme.
The ghost rock facility went quiet due to their equipment digging out the egg of a prairie tick queen, an insectlike abomination whose spawn wiped the entire complex and surrounding town of all life. The PCs will find the old Collegium station a quiet ghost town, the processing station’s sole elevator in a state of disrepair. The lift descends into a storage chamber containing $200,000 (2 to 3 tons) of pure ghost rock. Unfortunately the PCs cannot claim this bounty for a swarm of 60 ghost ticks (prairie ticks warped by ghost rock) will attack en masse at the smell of fresh meat! Besides fleeing the group can ignite the ghost rock to quickly kill all of the ghost ticks. The load-bearing treasure dramatically blows the entire station sky-high if the PCs escape in time.
The ghost ticks’ have rather pitiful toughness; they deal no damage but have d10 fighting and crawl into a target’s mouth on a raise to force them to roll Vigor against Fatigue every round. The poor soul who dies from Fatigue causes said tick to explode out of their ribcage.
What I Changed: The ghost ticks despite being high in number have rather pitiful toughness and no ranged capabilities, meaning that a party with lots of attacks and/or AoE powers can make quick work of them if lucky enough. I didn’t want to have the ghost rock as false treasure, so I had the ticks come in waves of 4 to 6 while the PCs operated a crane to scoop up ghost rock onto the elevator lift. It then became a risk/reward decision of how long the PCs wished to stay in the station in exchange for a greater payoff.
Hasteli’s Children: A Chumash Native American by the name of Hasteli had a daughter who was raped and murdered by white settlers. Filled with anger and hatred, his story reached the ears of Raven who taught him of a way to take revenge. By using the blood of slain white people he could create a blood painting able to instill himself and other disciples with supernatural powers. Ever since he’s been a willing servant of the Reckoners and he now leads a warband known as Hasteli’s Children.
This adventure comes to our heroes rather than the other way around, as Raven becomes aware of the PCs searching for the glyphs and orders Hasteli to track down and “find the white men who seek to undo our plans.”*
Hasteli will use guerilla warfare, using hit and run tactics, bait in the form of cryptic messages and warnings, and environment where they can corner their quarry easily. Hasteli’s Children are 12 in number and fight with bladed war clubs. Their unholy rituals granted them +4 armor and 12 toughness to boot, and they can attack twice with Improved Frenzy. Haseli is not as physically adept but he has the Black Magic Arcane Background and can use the armor, bolt, puppet, and stun powers to harm the PCs or further enhance his war party’s already impressive defenses.
*the adventure has no explanation for this if the party is mostly or entirely made up of women or people of color.
Long Live the New Flesh! Taking place sometime after the PCs freed Sam Hellman, the Explorer’s Society calls for another meeting at the Fallen Angel Saloon in Perdition. The place is a lot livelier than usual with a hoedown going on. Sam tells the party of how two of his fellow Agency members were interred in Peterson Sanitarium after some horror in the Maze broke their minds. After his own time in Rock Island Prison and hearing of the sanitarium’s controversial “therapies,” he wants their help in freeing them and ensure that they’re alive and well.
Dr. Petersen is happy to see the party, although he and the place has an audible aura of creepiness. He’s even kind enough to show them to the Agents’ room... only for them not to be there. In fact the Agents are now undead patchwork men posing at orderlies who the not-so-good doctor sics on the party. Attempts at chasing after the Doctor corner him in the basement. There he unleashes an undulating mass of Neo-Flesh, his greatest experiment, against the party.
The Neo-Flesh is rather frail for a monster (Toughness 9), but it is immune to magic attacks and can dissolve grappled opponents for 4d6 damage and gain their skills, Edges, and Hindrances after incorporating their forms into its mass. It is weak to all forms of alcohol which can deal quite a bit of damage to it.
What I Changed: I sprung this Savage Tale on the party during a drunken bender after their success at Rock Island Prison. They somehow fell upon an abandoned asylum built under one of the houses they were celebrating at, which housed the Neo-Flesh beneath. During the chaos it shied away from spilt barrels of whiskey, tipping off the party to its weakness.
The Scientific Method: In this Savage Tale the PCs hear the sound of a ghost rock steam engine from a cave near the town of Progress. It is home to Professor Vandergrift, a mad scientist belonging to the Explorer’s Society who is willing to tell the PCs about his latest work if they prove their membership. He managed to discover a glyph of his own, and after much testing of various kinds of blood and consultation with native tribes believes it is home to an earth spirit. Furthermore he explains how human blood triggers it, revealing a bandaged arm and applying it to the symbol.
The glyph reacts with a tremor greater than the previous times. The earthquake summons a group of hoodoos, angered at being roused from their slumber and will begin smashing up equipment! If the PCs can save the scientist and/or his notes, they can gain some useful information (determined by the GM) about the glyphs and likely locations.
Also notable is that this adventure, along with Treasure Hunters, can be ran before the PCs discover the existence of the glyphs. It can thus be used as a precursor of things to come.
What I Changed: I made Professor Vandergrift a woman on account a huge amount of NPCs so far have been male.
Treasure Hunters: In this adventure the PCs have the opportunity to find another glyph near a now-demolished hillside California Mission buried underneath layers of rubble. Various salvagers dig through the rubble in search of gold and other fundaments, but a young boy by the name of Junior Watson (related to Luke “Joker” Watson of Ballots & Bullets) went missing. This is a skill-based obstacle adventure, where Climbing rolls are required to avoid randomly-triggered hazards ranging from avalanches to getting stuck between rocks while searching for the boy. They can also find a journal in Spanish belonging to a now-dead Catholic priest who discovered a glyph nearby, and which can be accessed in the mission’s ruins.
What I Changed: I had a Triad goon snooping around the place who was an Enemy of our Martial Artist PC. He had sets of dynamite set up to trigger landslides against them. I also had a pack of carcajou (wolverine-like abominations) ambush the party once they found Junior.
Ghost Rot: A snakeoil salesman by the name of Dr. Thaddeus Carr has been selling alcohol tinged with ghost rock to Union soldiers. This has had some terrible side effects, causing outbreaks of violent insanity and the name “ghost rot” to spread once the drink’s nature became known. The Union does not know the culprit, so the PCs are either hired on by Captain Clement Tyson for a $1,000 reward; or they stumble upon a group of drunk soldiers who flip out on the stuff after inviting the party for a drink. The PCs can investigate the bottles to see the label “Steampress Rye Whiskey” and go from there, as well as interrogating the soldiers over who gave them their shipment.
Catching up with Dr. Carr is not difficult for he is not very far from the scene of the last crime, miles-wise that is. He regularly travels about northern Californian settlements on a regular 16 day route so a few people know his name. He sells the bottles for a very steep $20 each ($440 by modern day standards), and will violently attack anyone who tries to arrest him. He also has a Chinese woman assistant and adopted daughter, Xiu Li, who knows chi powers and will defend him from danger.
Harriman’s Legacy: A salvager by the name of William Blumquist operates a small business specializing in retrieving valuable objects from the Sunken City of San Diego. The last few employees he hired disappeared in the dead of night while out at sea, and so did the hired guns that went on with him next time. He’s willing to hire the PCs on for $5 plus an equal share of salvage found.
Blumquist takes the PCs on a boat ride over the San Diego ruins, and has a diving suit one of them can wear while they explore the depths below. The party is capable of finding lots of valuables at a hefty -4 Notice every four hours, with a success giving 1d20 x 100 dollars in loot. But on the first night 1d6 channel chompers (deep one-like humanoid fishpeople) will climb onto the vessel with stealth and try to drag people into the water. If repelled they will attack the boat in greater numbers the next night at 2d12 strong, and during the third 30 of them at once will attack! Their lair is a series of catacombs on the ocean floor, but the diving suit doesn’t go that far down. Explosives can seal up the entrance, although Blumquist is against that plan given there might be more treasure beneath...treasure his equipment cannot reach.
No, the Savage Tale does not detail the environs of the channel chomper’s domain. As for why it’s named Harriman, an occultist of the same name owned a mansion in San Francisco who consorted and bred with the channel chompers. The monsters were trapped beneath its ruins and were set free due to salvagers mucking about.
Those Smug Bastards: Smith & Robards is looking for hired help to guard some mad science devices from acts of sabotage in Elsbethtown. The culprits are a pair of Shaolin monks from the 37th Chamber. Their leader Chin-Hsueh Wong and Kuai Yao the “Goblin” are the responsible parties, who find the ghost rock-powered devices unnatural creations and worry about the scientists becoming a new ruling class of California...somehow.
The monks are loathe to kill anyone and use non-lethal attacks even against those who respond with deadly force. I talked about Wong’s stats during the War of the Triads arc, and Kuai Yao is pretty tough herself. She is a chi master who has an entangle power to hinder foes, and she has a unique ability where those who see her stupendously ugly unmasked face must make a Guts roll or be shaken and suffer -1 on all trait rolls against her.
Both martial artists are very tough to take down in melee, although Kuai Yao does not have as many defensive options as Wong. The adventure suggests that the PCs can use Persuasion checks and good old-fashioned role-playing to help them see the light or divert the 37th Chamber’s anger towards a more worthy foe.
Thoughts So Far: The Savage Tales are numerous enough to provide many sessions worth of adventures. They are mostly unlinked save for the arcs, being more “small town trouble” than multiple missions for any single faction. The Triad and Mexican plot arcs are a bit weak in motivating hooks, and there’s quite a few combat-free puzzle or role-playing themed ones (Groaning Man Cave, Treasure Hunters, Off the Grid, Ballots & Bullets potentially) which I found to be interesting if needing the right group to pull off well.
The Savage Tale section is larger than the main Plot Point itself and is what I think makes the Flood. On its own the campaign would be rather average, but the many places the PCs can go to and stir up or defuse trouble really gives California’s Weird West its shine.
Join us next time on the final chapter of the Flood, where we cover the new monsters and NPCs found in this adventure!