"Jonah Hex - 2 Gun Mojo!"

The Story So Far...

Let's get down to buisiness with the background on this Twisted Tale. Who exactly is Doc Cross and what's he got planned for his spooky sideshow?

The Alchemist

Doc Cross is an alchecmist and black magician of the most nutty variety, originally his interest lay solely with chemistry and the wonders of science until the manitou that whispered in his ears begin pickling his brain in funny juice. Doc Cross's alchemic research began taking a different slant as he introduced arcane magics into his studies, under guidance of the insiduous manitous, and he decided that he would become the Weird West's first true and proper "wizard". His seniors at Pennsylvania State University began to worry when he turned up to labs wearing a blue robe with yellow moons and stars stitched onto it and finally kicked him out altogether when he "magically" altered his facial features to give himself pointy ears and teeth. Hmmmmm...
Doc Cross found himself unemployed and unhappy, but the manitous picked him up and pointed him in new directions, he was to research into bringing the dead back to life with his powers and create an army of the damned to wreak havoc on all the people who had crossed him in life - starting with the Pennsylvania State University and all it's staff. The good doctor happened upon an arcane text called "The Book of Doches" and gathered that it was possible to bring back the dead if one knew the correct proceedures - unfortunately the key pages had been torn out of his version of the book and the Doc realised he'd have to carry out additional studies of his own

The Goop

Doc Cross didn't really know how he was going to go about his little task of bringing the dead back to life, but when he heard of the rail baron Simone La Croix and his rumoured "tireless railworkers" he headed south to Texas where he spied on the Baron's zombies. Eventually he figured that the Baron used a strange magical elixir to bring the dead back to the world of the living and so, using his own talents of alchemy and black magic and reffering several times to his "Book of Doches", Doc Cross whipped up his first batch of Zombie Juice. Being a patient individual the Doc toured many western locales looking for likely candidates for his version of the zombie juice - the difference between the Doc's and the Baron's goop is that the Doc's actually works on living people too, turning them into physically enhaced mindless slaves. Eventually the Doc found his "volunteers", opting for physically "different" humans to make up his travelling zombie show. A fat lady, a dwarf, a tall thin Indian, and a Wild Bill Hickock look-a-like all featured in the Doc's strange snake oil show as he travelled the west making money by selling "Brown Tonic", an elixir that supposedly makes his freaks super fit, agile, and strong. (The Brown Tonic is in fact useless but serves as a red herring for the posse). The Doc has to make his money somehow after all!

The Problem

Doc Cross has only one small problem with his zombie goop, even though his zombies are super strong and agile they're thicker than a bank vault door. Sure, they follow the Doc's every command but they just can't think for themselves. After hearing about the recent spillage of Bayou Vermillion's batch of zombie juice in Nacogdoches the Doc reckons he can solve this problem. With an actual sample of the Barons closely guarded secret Doc Cross can compare it to his own goop and perhaps modify his formulae. Once he's made a few changes he's off to a cursed Apache burial ground in new Mexico to draw upon an ancient evil power there to turn his spook goop into the most powerful brain battery ever. When he's completed his mission the manitous perched on his shoulders will be deciding his next move - most probably pouring the vile goop down the throats of a couple hundred Apaches of the cursed, long-dead variety.

The Setup

Now how are the posse involved in this story? They've likely never heard of Doc Cross before, and even if they have they sure don't know what he's up to. This adventure is for the curious types, those posses who have to stick their noses into things that "just don't seem right". Like Doc Cross' Snake Oil Sideshow.

Most probably the posse will meet Doc cross purely by chance, and here's how you can work it out...
The posse have been hired to track down a gang of outlaws called the Traywicks. They're a quartet (or a trio, or a quintet depending on how hard you want to make it) of brothers and cousins of the most inbred variety who love whooping it up all around the state of Texas, particularly in the vacinity of a town called Mud creek. The Traywick's version of "Whooping it up" involves cattle rustling, rape, murder, robbery, horse thieving, arson and showing disrespect to their elders - not to mention using cuss words in front of women. There's a bounty on their heads (literally) of $100 each - the law enforcement of Mud Creek is offering this reward and it can be collected there in due course, they'd rather have the gang delivered dead, if it's all the same to the posse, as this saves on feeding the ruffians as they await their hanging...
On the trail of the Traywick Gang the pose are going to run into another character in the adventure, Slow-Go Smith, who is also trailing the gang. He realises he's going to need the posse's help and hopefully they'll team up. the posse will eventually catch up with the Traywicks as they're about to hang a hated enemy of theirs - Jonah Hex - the Two Gun Mojo. You'll have to trust me when I tell you that this is all the set up you should need, future developments will put the posse on the trail of Doc Cross but just to be on the safe side read the adventure first and make some changes to the setup if you feel it necessary (hey, change the whole damned adventure if it suits you - you're the Marshal after all!)

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