"Jonah Hex - 2 Gun Mojo!"

The Adventure

Chapter 2 - Dead Men in Mud Creek

The posse are denied their reward for the Traywicks, get to meet the townsfolk of Mud Creek, Slo-Go Smith is attacked by the recently deceased Price gang, and Jonah Hex is thrown into jail!

This is the real setup of the adventure where the posse first gets involved with the schemes of Doc Cross. The journey to Mud Creek should take no longer than a couple of hours if the posse are on horseback and on the way they can get chatting properly to Slo-Go Smith and Jonah Hex. Both are bounty hunters but only Hex has a reputation around these parts, he's not one for manners or conversation but does have a strong sense of what's right and what's not. Slo-Go is just an old has been who's not ready to give up his profession just yet. Remember to play him as a likeable, loyal fellow as the adventure relies on the posse wanting to avenge his death.
Not a whole lot else happens on the trail, unless you're one of those vindictive type of Marshals....

If you really want an encounter for the posse on the trail then have them attacked by Devil Bats (1 for each posse member should do it), or a couple of Dust Devils, or maybe a watering hole has attracted not only the posse but a Desert Thing too! Don't forget to award a fate chip to any posse members who vanquish the abominations

Mud Creek

For full info on the town see end of adventure later...

It's late afternoon when the posse gets to town, and they're probably tired and looking to collect their reward. One of the first sites that greet the posse when they make their way up main street is a photographer taking pictures of the towns mayor between two propped up pine boxes outside the saloon. There is a recently deceased corpse in each coffin and the mayor is looking pleased with himself. If the posse catch the mayor's eye he comes bounding over in his checked black and white suit waving a handful of postcards in the air. "Five cents for a picture of me with the Price gang!" He yells. If the posse get taliking to him he says the following
"Hell, some fellas brought in the price gang a week back - 5 cents and you can have a postcard of me with their bodies, damn, 5 cents and I'll show you the bodies, we got 'em in the barn round back of the hotel"

So who are the pair decorating the porch of the saloon, the posse may wonder?

"Them? They's the Traywicks, won't have those photographs finished till tomorrow - they'll be 5 cents a postcard too"

But of course the posse have the Traywicks with them (Dead or Alive). The two in front of the Saloon aren't Traywicks, if the posse query the mayor on this he tells them the following;

"Two fellas spotted the Traywicks this morning at breakfast, they recognised 'em and drew their pistols. The Traywicks panicked and started runnin' so the fellas gunned 'em down and collected the reward. Damn fine stuff if you ask me!"

A pair of cowboys named Clint and Jesse killed the "Traywicks" this morning. They were drunk and reckoned if you squinted real hard that the two strangers at breakfast resembled the Traywick brothers, so they whipped out pistols and shot them dead. They killed two perfectly innocent men (in this State anyhow...). The posse may well want to go and see the Sheriff to clear this mistake up.

The Sheriff

The lazy dog who passes as the law around here is asleep at his desk, when the posse enter the jailhouse he wakes up to ask their buisiness. They can learn that the reward on the Traywick brothers has already been collected by Clint and Jesse and has probably been turned to whiskey by now in the saloon. When the posse present evidence that they are the ones owed the reward (ie show the sheriff the bodies/captives) he looks a bit embarrassed and says he can't help the posse just yet as the reward money's been spent and he'll have to send off a chit to Nacogdoches to request more money (he'll get on the wire a.s.a.p). The posse are owed $50 for each Traywick they've brought in and the money should be here by lunch tomorrow. Only thing the posse can do now is wait in town. they can gamble at the saloon, talk to any of the people in town (including Clint and Jesse - see later), buy supplies from the stores - which are about to close for the day, or get a room and hit the sack.

The Saloon

If the posse are looking to talk to Clint and Jesse they can be found here in a state of drunkeness. If they are just looking for a drink or some poker they'll hear Clint and Jesse all the same. The pair are no good sons of bitches and are even more onery than usual due to the demon drink. The saloon's half Apache bar lady is taking the brunt of their cusses at the moment. Clint spills his drink on purpose and demands the damned injin clean it up, when he yells she should use her tongue, not her cloth, the bar falls silent and folks stare into their beer (nobody stands up for red folk around here), if the posse do nothing the drunken bullies force her down to their dirty boots to get them cleaned, shouting insults the whole time. Some of the patrons of the saloon even egg them on.
If the posse don't kick their butts then Hex walks in and does it for them. He's blood brother to an Apache tribe y'see and can't stand drunken fellas treating women badly anyhow

Hopefully the posse do intervene and show the pair who denied them their reward the error of their ways. If they're looking to get their reward back then they are going to be disappointed, Clint and Jesse have spent all but $16. They know nothing useful if the posse question them, they simply thought the two cowboys were Traywicks and so shot them dead!

The Indian lady will thank the Posse (or Hex) and carries on with her buisiness, Clint and Jesse leave the saloon in a hurry

Bedtime

There is only one room left at Mud Creek's only hotel, Slo-Go and Jonah Hex take this flea bitten option and squeeze in together, the posse will have to stay at the Saloon which has a few rooms left at $1 a night. It's important to make sure that Hex and Slo-Go sleep in separate buildings to the posse, preferably on the opposite sides of town - you'll see why in a bit

A few hours after the posse are all asleep have them all make Cognition (5) checks, Heavy Sleepers need a higher Cognition TN. All who make the roll (light sleepers automatically pass, and any sentries also pass) hear gunfire coming from somewhere in town, 6 shots in total, then 8 more (a Shootin'/Cognition (7) roll can determine they came from 2 different pistols). If the posse spring into action (which they no doubt will - true heroes always run toward the sound of gunfire) then they soon realise the gunfire was coming from where Jonah Hex and Slo-Go were staying. More gunfire rings out as the posse get dressed/climb out the windows/sprint down main street. 4 shots from a third pistol then 4 shots again from the second. If any posse members are especially quick to respond and get their keisters towards trouble then they are nearly run down by a brightly coloured wagon with "Doc Crosses Wagon of Miracles" painted on the side as it hairs south from the back of Mud Creek Hotel. Giving chase by foot is useless, but if any posse members get a horse they'll soon catch the wagon, only to have someone from the back of the cart shoot their horses from under them (this is Doc Crosses' Wild Bill zombie, he's a dead eye with a pistol). As soon as the posse's horses start getting hit they become too injured to give chase and slow down. Hopefully the posse won't end up confronting Doc Cross just yet, let him get away for now - besides, a truly caring posse ought to check out what's happened to Slo-Go and Jonah Hex

The pair can be found in the barn of the Hotel, apparently dead. Slo-Go has been shot 6 times, his liver's been hit and his lungs punctured, there's no saving him and he passes away. Jonah Hex is lying on the floor bleeding from his head (he's not dead, a bullet just nicked him). Other townsfolks are starting to arrive too, the hotel owner, the mayor, the sheriff, Clint and Jesse, half the damned town in fact! Somebody soon points out that the Price gang's bodies are missing, the sheriff draws the conclusion that Slo-Go and Hex have hidden the bodies out of town for some reason and then had a fall out with each other. Hex shot Slo-Go but the old coot probably got a few shots off himself to put Hex down. When the sheriff smells their guns and realises that Hex and Smith both fired he doesn't hesitate in arresting the scarred bounty hunter and throwing him in jail for murder and corpse theft (is that an actual crime?). The Sheriff also wants to question the posse, seeing as though they came to town with the murderer, and will insist they don't leave town until Hex is awake and can be questioned also (tomorrow morning). The sheriff and his entourage of shouting townsfolk drag hex off to the cells.

Searching the stables comes up with a few clues:

Three empty coffins lie around the stables, their lids broken off (on a Search (5) the posse can tell the lids were levered off from the outside rather than something breaking the lids from the inside)
On a (7) the posse finds Slo-Go's throwing knife, it's on the floor by the coffins, surrounded by empty pistol cases
On a (9) the posse can see that in the hay where Slo-Go had been shot he had made a place to sleep, there are a few bent pistol slugs buried in the wall and floor along with some cases from Smiths own six shooter, Smith couldn't have got a clear shot at Hex from here and vice versa, the shots probably came from over by the coffins, not from where Hex was found unconscious. Similarly Slo-Go Smith's rounds didn't go towards where Hex was, they hit around the coffin area, as did Hex's rounds.

There are wagon tracks leading from the street up to the stables and then leaving south. A Tracking (5) check notices footprints around the wagon made just recently, along with drag marks from the stables up to where the back of the wagon would have been. On a raise the posse makes out the tracks of at least 4 individuals. One set of tracks are especially large and heavy (from Ramona, the fat lady) and one set small and light (Half Pint, the midget). On another raise the posse can even distinguish the wagon tracks on the street from the rest of the traffic - but they've been told not to leave town just yet...
On a Cognition (5) pass the posse notices a leaflet in the mud of the street. "Doc Crosses Wonderous Wagon of Miracles in town now! See proof of his amazing Brown Tonic which vitalizes and refreshes in a way no other tonic can!" reads the sheet.

What really happened?

Doc Cross arrived in town with his wagon of freaks around midnight, he headed for the stables at the hotel to hitch his horses but came across the bodies of the Price gang. He needs dead men's flesh as an ingredient in his zombie goop so he saw an opportunity he couldn't miss. He also saw Slo-Go asleep in the hay (Hex threw him out of the hotel room for snoring!) so tried to be quiet. Unfortunately for Slo-Go he woke up, and when he saw one of the dead Price gang moving toward him (with Doc Cross holding the cadavre up from behind) he started shooting. That's when Doc Cross shouted for Wild Bill to gun the old coot down. Slo-Go didn't have a chance, but Hex had heard the shots and came to the rescue - he put some lead in Bill's belly but the zombie didn't flinch and caught Hex with a slug on his temple which put him down. Doc Cross cursed and loaded the Price gang onto the wagon before getting the hell out of Dodge

What now?

The sheriff holds a midnight meeting outside his jailhouse telling the townsfolk that tomorrow there'll be a hanging - the Traywick gang and Jonah Hex, once he gets a judge to "talk at them" that is. He orders gallows made first thing in the morning, fireworks to be supplied by the hardware store and plenty of fried chicken to be cooked!

There's not a great deal the posse can do just now - Jonah Hex isn't conscious yet, deputies will stop them from leaving town and the sheriff will hear no complaints until morning - he doesn't trust the posse one bit and figures he can keep the reward money for the Traywicks himself if he can just stitch the posse up first.

The posse will just have to go back to bed and think about what they're going to do

Bounty
Helping out the Apache woman: 1 white chip (each)
Figuring out Hex is innocent: 1 red chip
Somehow learning that Doc Cross has a wagonload of super human Zombies: 1 blue chip
Again, don't forget roleplay fate chips!