Express Train to Hell

Story So Far...

What's this Twisted tale all about you ask? Well, read on to discover the sinister story behind this adventure...

The Sacred Gate Cult

This fairly minor and peaceful cult believes that mankind should be "saved" from evil before the day of Reckoning by making their own way into Heaven under the guidance of God. Their leader is a charismatic Virginian fellow by the name of Carlton Kent, who has been head of the Cult for nearly 5 years now. He has told his faithful that if they lead their lives properly then there will come a day when Heaven will open a gateway for them to simply stride through and take their place in the afterlife.

The cult set up shop about 5 miles East of the "City of Gloom", Utah, and are left unmolested by the rest of the world. About 25 individuals make up the Sacred gate cult, and they lead secluded but content lives. Recruiting mainly takes place in the Mormon-run Salt Lake city where life is hard and many people would like to believe in an easy way out. New recruits are taken to the farmhouse out of town to be evaluated by Carlton Kent himself and if they are deemed "suitable" then they are taken onboard and must sever all ties to the outside world. "Unsuitable" candidates are sent back to where they came with sympathy and told to await the day of Reckoning with a strong heart.

This would all be harmless enough if the Reckoners hadn't hatched a particularly nasty plan for the Sacred Gate Cult and sent a Greater Manitou to whisper in Carlton Kent's ear...

The Reckoners' Plan

The Greater Manitou was to masquerade as a messenger from Heaven and to show Carton Kent false images of a bright future for the Cult, assuring him that all he believed in would come true if he opened his soul for the messenger and let in it's "benign" spirit. Kent agreed wholeheartedly and announced to his flock that the day was at hand and a messenger would inhabit his body to give the cult further instruction. The manitou was then able to posses Kent's body and took the driving seat from that day forth as a Betrayer, a manitou inhabiting a living vessel. Kent's spirit realised what had happened too late but his soul was no match for the fearsome Greater Manitou and has not taken back control once in the six months it has been locked away.

The Betrayer knew what the Reckoners wanted: It was to gather as many innocent folk as possible and deliver them straight into the Deadlands, Hell itself, for eternal suffering at the hands of it's insiduous masters. This permanent supply of fear would feed the Reckoners till they were fit to burst, and that wasn't all. With a willing cult established the Reckomer's could repeat their strategy again and again. The only problem was how to get the innocents to the Deadlands in the first place.

The Hourglass

The Reckoners expended a little of their power infusing an object, that belonged to one of their faithful servants, with the ability to open a gateway to the Deadlands. This took tremendous effort, and the location and form of the evil relic would be uncertain. What's more the relic would only open a gateway to the Deadlands once, and then only for a couple of seconds. The execution of the plan would have to be water-tight.

Fortunately for the Reckoners the relic took the form of an Hourglass in Baron Simone LaCroix's study. The head of Bayou Vermillion had no idea of the power contained within his favourite paperweight, but his unknown masters nevertheless told him to deliver it to Dr. Darius Hellstromme in the City of Gloom. The Baron would not do this for free so arranged an exchange with Wasatch Rail. He would deliver an item of "untold power" to Hellstromme in exchange for an elixir that would improve the performance of his undead railworkers. Hellstromme, being the inquisitive individual that he is, was intrigued by the offer and agreed.

Hellstromme got his scientists to concoct a faulty batch of useless zombie juice that he usually reserved for his Automatons in exchange for the Hourglass. Both parties thought they had fobbed off something useless in exchange for something interesting, and both parties were mistaken. Hellstromme had a key to the Deadlands and Baron LaCroix had a batch of perfectly good upgraded zombie juice, thanks to a little tomfoolerly from the Reckoners who personally twisted Hellstromme's scientists "flawed" formulaes for the elixir!

The manitou inhabiting Carlton Kent was informed of the Hourglass' use and how to activate it. He was also informed of where it could be found but he would have to aquire it himself. Luckily the cult's chief recruiting officer was in the current service of Hellstromme Industries as a scientist and mechanic. Zacharia Smithe is the only cult member who does not permanently live at the farmhouse out of town. He is in charge of selecting appropiate candidates for the cult and lives his life fairly normally. Well, as normally as a "Mad Scientist" can. Wasatch Rail has no idea of Zach's extra-cirricular activities and Kent has told him to keep an ear open for mention of the Hourglass. He is then to hire a low-life individual to steal the relic for the cult and to help out with the second part of the plan in exchange for a fair few dollars.

The Train

Kent knows that the Hourglass has a very specific form of activation. A specially prepared sacrifice must be bled into the Hourglass until the top half bulb is full, then when the blood trickles down and fills the lower bulb the Hourglass will explode and open a gateway to the Deadlands for a brief couple of seconds. The Reckoners have expended a lot of effort so far and would require the living bodies of at least 20 individuals - to lead an eternity of fear in Hell - just to recover the energy they have thus far spent. Only about half those sent through the gateway are expected to survive the journey and the gateway itself will not be bigger than about 10 yards in diameter. The logistics of getting enough innocents through to the Deadlands gave Cartlon's manitou a hunting grounds-sized headache but eventually it figured the problem out.

A train travelling at speed would house enough innocents to make the Reckoners happy and, if the relic were placed on the locomotive, the train would travel at enough velocity to get them all through! Kent did a few calculations and decided that he could realistically get 25 people in each carriage of a typical train. If the train travelled at 50 mph then this would allow the first four carriages of the train through the to the hunting grounds (Engine car, coal/ghostrock car, + 2 passenger cars). Out of the 50 passengers 25 could be expected to survive. This is his minimum target. If he could reach a speed of 88mph he could get the first seven carriages through, 5 of which would be full of innocents, meaning around 60 of the 125 folks would survive to suffer for all eternity in Hell! Not to mention the cultists themselves who he would be taking along for the ride.

Y'see the sacrifice required for the Hourglass to work needs to undergo a special ceremony prior to death. 13 individuals are needed. Kent himself, Zacharia and 11 other unsuspecting cult members would make up the coven. Kent would then take the offering away and slaughter him/her himself in the engine car where the Hourglass would be secured. All he needed now was a train and a way to get it up to 88mph.

Zacharia Smithe is again the man to sort this one out. He is to select a suitably fast train to board with the Hourglass and his hired help. He is also to design a way to speed the train up once it reaches a downhill portion of it's route through the Rocky mountains (meaning a Salt Lake-Denver train is needed). He is also charged with designing an explosive system that detonates if the train drops below 50mph when activated. This would deter anybody from stopping the train once it reaches it's minumum acceptable speed for the passengers to be taken to Hell.

Zacharia did what he was asked and designed a limited superfuel to give the train the boost it needs to hit 88mph. He also constructed the detonation device and has had it shipped out to the cults farmhouse. The cult will meet him on the 1700hrs Ghost Rock Express form Salt Lake at it's last stop before the Rockies, a station known as Hopper's Creek. There Kent will board the train with his 11 disciples and take the locomotive by force (with the help of whoever Zach has hired for the job) the folk at Hopper's Creek will also be joining the passengers for the ride and hopefully this will fill the train to capacity.

Kent's fellow cult members have not been told of their true destination. They still think they are going to Heaven and are taking these "lost and unguided" passengers with them as the ultimate favour to them. They're sure that the passengers will forgive them for their rough treatment once they reach eternal bliss in Heaven...

The remaining dozen or so cult members left behind at their farmstead are the ones that Kent deemed "unready" for the journey, these are generally the younger members who he believes would not go along with his methods at this stage. They will remain with the cult's deputy leader and await their time, when the spirit of Kent will return to show them how they too can reach Heaven. Kent's manitou will be sent unto the Earth once more after this ride to posses the new leader of the Cult (who has been instructed to accept him with an unyielding heart) so the process can begin once more...

The Setup

After extensive and costly research Hellstromme has concluded that the Hourglass has no supernatural usage and his rage at being tricked by Baron LaCroix is tempered only by the fact that he believes he has duped him too. He is having the Hourglass transported to his manor house West of town to serve as a permanent remainder of why he should not trust the "Southron Lord of the Dead" ever again. The Hourglass is loaded aboard a steamwagon with a batch of spare parts for Hellstromme's automaton serving staff and sent on it's way early in the morning with an escort of eight armed men (he doesn't want folk getting their hands on the automaton parts lest they learn the secret of his mechanical men!).

Zacharia Smithe learned of this minor shipment a few days ago and has hired a mean, tough and ambitious Hexslinging outlaw by the name of Tom "Ace" Stark to carry out the robbery. Tom is being paid $1000 dollars for his efforts and took a posse of 4 of his outlaw buddies to take out the steamwagon en-route that morning. The posse lay in ambush and opend fire on the horse-drawn wagon and steamwagon, killing several of the guards. Hellstromme's men took cover and killed one of Ace's men in the return fire. Ace himself stepped from his hiding places behind the wagons and, using his Hexslinging talents, slaughtered the remaining Wasatch hired guns, his bullets cutting through the steamwagon armour as if it were paper. The gang then took the Hourglass and rode with haste back to the City of Gloom to meet Zach at the station and boarded the 'noon Denver train to Hopper's Creek.

The deputies of Salt Lake city found the nine bodies later that morning and alerted Sheriff Eli Waters. The local law knows this is not an attack by the Danites and Hellstromme himself is offering a reward on the heads of the robbers of $100 a man. He doesn't require the stolen Hourglass to be returned as he's sure it's worthless but is offering a further $50 nonetheless for the recovery of the "stolen item".

The posse may see posters offering the reward being put up that morning, or perhaps they are known around town and the law or Hellstromme's agents come looking for them with a proposal. Perhaps the posse are wandering where they shouldn't be and hear the robbery in progress from afar?