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Sample file CRATER LAKE CHRONICLES

BY GARRETT J LAHEY

DEADLANDS CREATED BY SHANE LACY HENSLEY

WWW.PEGINC.COM Sample file

INTRODUCTION ��3

THE WINTER OF OUR DISMEMBERMENT ��7

CROSSING THE WITCH'S CAULDRON �� 37

QUEEN OF WIZARD ISLAND ��63

CRATER LAKE CHRONICLES CRATER CHARACTER JOURNAL �� 91

CHAPTER 1 RECORD ��92

CHAPTER 2 RECORD ��93

CHAPTER 3 RECORD �� 94

CHARACTER SHEET...... 95

WEIRD WEST OPTIONS CHECKLIST �� 96

CREDITS

WRITING & DESIGN: Garrett J. Lahey ADDITIONAL MATERIAL: Ron Blessing EDITING & LAYOUT: Jessica Rogers, Shane Hensley, and Ron Blessing PROOFREADING: David Harriss, Andrew LaCara, Adam Loyd, Laurie Marks, René Martin ART DIRECTION: Aaron Acevedo & Alida Saxon INTERIOR GRAPHIC DESIGN: Karl Keesler COVER ART: J. B. Casacop INTERIOR ART: J. B. Casacop, Rita Fei, Wilma Mateusz, Nicula Mircea, Dimitar Spasov, Jon Taylor, WaclawSample Wysocki file OPERATIONS & LOGISTICS: Jodi Black CUSTOMER SUPPORT: Jodi Black & Christine Lapp PRODUCTION LIAISON: Alexander Hau EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Simon Lucas

2 INTRODUCTION

Take a look around, amigo, it’s just you out SUPPLIES here. Nervous? You should be. Because, Before you set out on the Oregon Trail, whether you normally travel the West as you’ll want a few tools within arm’s reach. part of a group or you have always been a The following supplies are recommended: Posse-of-One, you are about to embark on a Deadlands solo adventure! The Savage Worlds rulebook. The unfortunate events now unfolding play The Deadlands: The Weird West rulebook. out under the normal Savage Worlds rules A character sheet detailing your hero, using the Deadlands: The Weird West setting. possibly one you’ve used in other Your hero faces dangers, encounters mysteries, adventures or someone you’ve made and performs feats of daring just like always specifically for these tales. You’ll find a with one key difference: there’s no posse to blank sheet at the back of this book you back your play, it’s just you and your shadow can use. These adventures are originally out here (and truthfully we don’t know how designed for fresh-faced, Novice type much you can trust that shadow). heroes, though Seasoned or even Legendary types are welcome to take a When adjudicating the rules, just follow stroll and sharpen their aim as well. guidelines set forth in Savage Worlds and Gaming dice. Deadlands, and you should be fine. Whenever Two decks of playing cards. You may you make an opposed roll, your character need that second one for a Chase. always sets the stakes. Poker chips or other tokens to represent Finally, it’s best to be specific when you Bennies. gear up your character. You’ll get a chance to A journal for tracking clues and special go shoppingSample before you begin the adventures, discoveries along thefile way. This is key so choose wisely, pardner. You don’t want to to keeping everything straight in your be caught out on the trail without the right head, such as Weird West Options equipment for travel. and Ally stats. You’ll find some useful sheets at the back of this book. If your rations are stored and your guns Scratch paper, coins, or miniatures to are loaded, it’s time to saddle up and get track the position of enemies during ready to head out! combat. Graph paper works great. 3 CRATER LAKE CHRONICLES CRATER

USING THIS BOOK POPULARITY You’ll need to refer to the Savage Worlds rules For chapter one only (The Winter of Our and the Deadlands rules as you play through Dismemberment), your hero has an this here story, so keep those books handy. In additional trait called Popularity. Every addition to the standard Savage Worlds rules, time you rescue a damsel in distress or rub there are a couple of extra things to note the local authorities the wrong way your unique to these solo adventures. Popularity goes up or down accordingly. Add Popularity to your character sheet now MARSHAL and set it to zero. Unlike regular Deadlands adventures, this one has nobody to take the role as the WEIRD WEST OPTIONS Marshal, so you’ll need to fill in there. Most of the decisions the Marshal typically makes As you make your way through Crater are handled by the way the text is organized, Lake Chronicles you earn Weird West but you still need to keep track of the Options. These are used as conditions Marshal’s Bennies. for other parts of the story, so you will need to know which ones you have For these adventures, the Marshal gets one Samplediscovered. Carefully recordfile these in your Benny per session. Luckily for you, these game journal. We have provided a handy are only used to soak damage. Whenever checklist in the character journal at the back there’s a chance to soak damage, just use the of this book. Marshal’s Bennies till they run out. Don’t forget the Marshal gets an extra Benny any Throughout the story, we’ll be askin’ which time an NPC (not your hero or an ally) is Weird West Options you’ve discovered. dealt a Joker as their Action Card. These control the story’s twisted turns. 4 ADVANCEMENT THE STORY AHEAD That’s all the preamble out of the way. It’s If you successfully make it through to the time to hit the trail. end of a chapter, you earn an Advance (the In general the following chapters are set text will tell you when). Follow the standard up to be played one after the other. You can Savage Worlds rules for Advances, and play them in any order you choose, of course, don’t forget to record your choices on your but the logical sequence is as presented character sheet. in the book. The following is a brief overview of the

ADDITIONAL RULES C redits three parts of Crater Lake Chronicles. If you Some of the rules in the standard Deadlands don’t want any clue what you’re about rules or in Savage Worlds have been adapted to face, skip ahead a page and let the slightly for these solo adventures. Where story commence. the rules presented here differ from the Good luck, amigo. You’re gonna need it! usual way of doing things, use rules in this book instead. THE WINTER OF OUR DISMEMBERMENT REST AND RECOVERY Lost on the trail, your hero stumbles across a logging outfit. Here we’re introduced to the If you are the kind of heroic cowpoke who lumberjacks of Cloudcap Camp near Crater uses Power Points, you’re going to need to Lake on Mount Mazama. Your poor sod rest up at some point to recover. needs to find a way over to Wizard Island, At any point the text instructs or allows but not before she dispatches some of the you to remove Fatigue, you may also recover local fauna. 5 Power Points. Between chapters, it is assumed you have fully recovered and you CROSSING THE WITCH'S CAULDRON start each new chapter with full Power Points. If you survive the terrors harrying Cloudcap Don’t forget that you can also spend your Camp, you’ll make your journey across Bennies to gain an additional 5 Power Points Crater Lake, known to the local’s as the per Benny, if things are looking desperate Witch’s Cauldron. There are many ways (unless you’re a huckster, of course... you’ll across. Just watch out for Big Eunice! have to Deal with the Devil for more power instead, amigo!). QUEEN OF WIZARD ISLAND Finally, you get to meet the Queen! Don’t NO SOLO go changing into your finery and lookin’ forward to tea and crumpets, though. She’s It’s possible to use this book as a standard not interested in a sit-down. adventure for a posse, run by a Marshal instead of as a straight solo affair. The Marshal will need to read through the entire thing thoroughly to understand how the Weird West Options govern the flow of the story. A full posse will also require some of theSample encounters to be bolstered to make file them more of a challenge. And finally, of course, the Marshal will need to be prepared to invent additional details to fill in the gaps where the posse inevitably depart from the scripted events presented here. Hey, we said it was possible, not that it would be easy! 5 Sample file CHAPTE 1 R

THE WINTER OF OUR DISMEMBERMENT

BEGINNING the edge of a cliff overlooking crystal blue Crater Lake, consists of four badly weathered wooden shacks. The shadows are long in this You’ve been following that plume of smoke colorless place. for three days when you began your ascent up Mount Mazama. If you have the Agent or Territorial Ranger Edge, go straight to 5. Draw three Bennies (adjusted for any Edges or Hindrances). CLOUDCAP CAMP Through no fault of your own you’ve gotten yourself good and lost on the Oregon At first the camp seems abandoned. Trail headed for Portland. Food is always Then you’re suddenly attacked. scarce in this country. Some folks have resorted to cannibalism in the Cascade Big-Arms Bendy comes out of the fog Winter and found themselves crawling rolling off Crater Lake, roaring like a crazed around on all fours and barking at the moon grizzly. He indeed possesses a pair of by Spring. magnificently muscular Swedish arms, but someone has stitched them onto an Indian’s ’Course you knew all that, which is why body using crude black carpet thread. His you set out in May. You were makin’ good eyes are cloudy, like the eyes of a corpse. progress too when the blizzard suddenly Seems Big-Arms Bendy wasn’t born, he blew in. Like the furious ghost of winter she was made—from spare parts! And he’s came and dumped two feet of heavy wet comin’ for you. snow over the entire state.

WhetherSample you were already travelin’ alone Go to 1 below. file or something unpleasant happened to your companions is your business. Folks don’t ask many questions this far west. In either 1 case you followed that plume of smoke and reached a small logging camp atop Mount Whoa, partner! Before Big-Arms Bendy Mazama on the 23rd day of May 1879, hungry bashes in your brains let’s find out and nearly frost bitten. The camp, perched on 7 how worse for the wear you really are after KEEPIN' WARM wandering three days in a blizzard. What starvation didn’t take out of you, Old SURVIVIN' Man Winter has now come to collect. Make a Vigor roll at –4 (–2 if you purchased Twenty-four inches of snow doesn’t make it the Winter Coat during character creation. easy to find grub out here! The word “Winter” was in the title, amigo). Make a Survival check at –2. Give yourself You may add +2 to that roll if you have access +1 for every pound of food you had the to the environmental protection power. foresight to purchase (with a maximum of +4). Critical Fail: The cold gnaws into your Critical Fail: You were hopin’ that bones. You take two levels of Fatigue. CRATER LAKE CHRONICLES CRATER rabbit carcass you ate was preserved by Fail: Wading in snow for three days the freezin’ snow, but you were wrong. has sapped your strength. You take one You earn a level of Fatigue from bad level of Fatigue. chow. Go to Starvin’ below. Success: Only luck can save you from Fail: Go to Starvin’ below. this blizzard. Spend a Benny now or Success: It takes diggin’ in the snow take on a level of Fatigue. like a squirrel looking for last year’s Raise: You knock off the snow and nuts, but you rustle up enough to get plow your way into Cloudcap Camp, by. Go to Keepin’ Warm to the right. no worse for the wear. Raise: You know just when to move If you are Incapacitated by the cold, go to and when to rest, what to eat and what 18, otherwise, go to Arrivin’ below. to leave lay. Your skills have brought you safe and warm to Cloudcap Camp — well, warm anyway. Go to Arrivin’ ARRIVIN' to the right. You’re still walkin’? You are one tough hombre, but it’s not over yet! STARVIN' If you have the Ailin’ Major Hindrance Is that growlin’ Big-Arms Bendy or and you just failed any of those Fatigue your belly? checks, go to 12. Make a Vigor roll –1 to resist Fatigue due By the time you stagger into Cloudcap to hunger (-2 if you ate that rancid rabbit). Camp (and the massive paws of Big-Arms Bendy) how are you lookin’? Critical Fail: You’re exhausted and take on two levels of Fatigue. If this makes I ain’t staggerin’ and stumblin’! I’m you Incapacitated go to 18. If not, go to ready for a fight! Go to8 . Keepin’ Warm to the right. I might be a little hungry and frost bit, Fail: That gnawing in your belly has but I’m still on my own two feet! Go to you seeing strange shapes in the trees. 15. You take on a level of Fatigue. Go to Keepin’ Warm to the right. Success: You’re mighty hungry, but youSample trudge on. Go to Keepin’ Warm to 2 file the right. Raise: The sight of that plume of smoke Pieces of the patchwork men lay scattered makes you think of cookin’ and cookin’ over the crimson snow. The first leg of this makes you think of food. Even the cold journey is nearly at its end. doesn’t bother you as you dream of mashed potatoes and venison steak. Go Wait! I have one more thing to do to Arrivin’ to the right. before the end. Go to 167. 8 T he W inter of our D ismemberment

If you have Weird West Option 17, go keep all those Weird West Options handy, to 20. you’ll need them). Until next time, Adios! If you have either the Agent or Territorial Ranger Edge, go to 21. You’ve reached THE END. If you’d like to gather the lumberjacks in the chapel for a little Tale Tellin’, go to 63. 3 As you turn your eyes toward Crater Lake and Wizard Island on the far side, you know Making your way to the second largest whoever sent these abominations waits building, you find the camp Mess Shack. for you, none too happy now that you’ve The men gathered inside are fair haired with dismembered his creations. steely blue eyes. Square-jawed, they’re the picture of manliness and determination. They You’ve earned Conviction. Note it on were once tall and strong, yet not one still has your character sheet for next time. all his arms and legs. Of the four gathered, As the fog burns away in the morning sun one has no arms, one has no legs, and two you spy a slouching figure, shuffling his way others have a pair of legs between them. up from the lakeside cliff. Upon entering the “We’re lumberjacks,” one of them explains. village the old man stops abruptly, scratching his head at the sight of the shattered corpses. Whatever face you make leads to a round of uproarious laughter. “This your handiwork?” he says, one eye squinted. The armless man steps forward. “We were lumberjacks. Welcome to Cloudcap Camp. You nod. I’d shake your hand but I can’t for obvious “They pay you to do it?” reasons. My name’s Bendy. They call me Butt-Kicker Bendy, also for obvious reasons.” “Not exactly. Bendy said if I helped get rid of these monsters he would help me Another round of laughter erupts. get home.” “We were logging around this dead The old man snickers. “Yeh, I expect you’ll volcano when someone went over to Wizard be wantin’ to get over to Wizard Island then.” Island (that’s what we call the island on the far side of the lake) and found a nest of Hope wells up within you. “Yes, I deadly giant hornets. We tried to clear ’em believe I do.” out ourselves and lost two thirds of the camp. “Alrighty then. We just gotta get you across That’s when Dr. Shelley showed up from Salt the Witch’s Cauldron first.” Lake City—an inventor of some sort. He told us he could build soldiers out of amputated “Crater Lake?” body parts. Said they’d be immune to the “Yeh, Crater Lake, if you like. There’s only bug venom on Wizard Island. Unfortunately one problem…” he was fresh out of body parts. We had to donate our own limbs.” “One problem…?” you prod. “And you agreed to that?!” “Yeh. It’s only six miles by water to that island, but Big Eunice is between here and “Well, you see, Dr. Shelley had this there.Sample And Big Eunice never sleeps.” mechanical arm—honest, file a clockwork arm — better and stronger than a flesh-and-blood You’ve earned yourself an Advance! arm. He promised to make us all new arms and legs like his.” But don’t go stringin’ up a hammock yet, amigo. The adventure continues in chapter “And that thing outside,” you interrupt, two Crossing the Witch’s Cauldrons (so “was called Big-Arms Bendy because…”

9 “…because he was made from my arms. If you are Harrowed and were Those arms once belonged to me. Dr. Shelly Incapacitated with a shot to the head, used them to make his patchwork soldiers.” go to 11. Harrowed characters Incapacitated “What was in it for him?” you ask. some other way go to 14. Butt-Kicker Bendy shrugs. “Mad scientist, How have you treated the lumberjacks to I guess.” this point? Sounds fishy but you let it go for now. Like meat shields, I used them to “So we all went under the knife and keep me away from danger whenever he worked for a month making those possible. −2 Popularity. things you saw. He went over to the I’ve used them for amusement. Not island—we thought to clear out the nest,

CRATER LAKE CHRONICLES CRATER much harm came to them, but I haven’t but yesterday his monsters came into much cared if they lived or died. −1 the camp and attacked us. So, what’s Popularity. your story?” I haven’t given them much thought. “Well,” you begin carefully, “I was travelin’ I just want to get to Portland. +0 to Portland on the trail when I got turned Popularity. around. Then the blizzard came. I followed I tried to do right by them whenever I the smoke to your camp.” could, but this is their fight more than mine. +1 Popularity. The one-legged man whistles. “Stranger, I heroically tried to save them whenever you’re a long way from the Oregon trail. This and wherever I could. +2 Popularity. here’s Crater Lake. You’re a hundred and fifty miles from Portland—as the crow flies.” As you breathe your last breath, beyond the veil unseen eyes give you the once over. During your tale, Butt-Kicker Bendy thinks quietly then says, “Listen, stranger. If your Popularity is −3 or lower (or if On Wizard Island Dr. Shelly has all sorts you have the Damned Edge) go to 14. of steam powered vehicles. If you can help Otherwise, go to 7. us get rid of these stitched-together brutes, we could get you there. Shelley’s horseless wagons would have you to Portland in no time, blizzard or no. What do you say?” 5 With no other way back to Portland, As a government agent you’ve learned to you’re hired to disassemble one small army read places as well as people, and this place of patchwork corpses. is trouble. There is fear brewing here, and fear draws evil like a corpse draws flies. Remove any Fatigue that resulted from You don’t want to be out at night alone in cold. this place. Butt-Kicker Bendy can attempt one d6 Healing roll on you. He has nimble Return to Cloudcap Camp. toes! Go to 27. Sample 6 file 4 Squealing like a slaughter house pig, Big- This may be it, amigo. Arms Bendy falls face first in the snow. A halo of scarlet quickly forms around his head. If you had allies who finished the fight and stabilized you go to 100. Note in your journal you killed Big- Arms Bendy. 10