Wild West Campaign: The Last Ride Pt.2

When we'd left off, the PCs had snuck back into Arizona (along with Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Bat & Jim Masterson, Texas Jack Vermillion, and Frank Loving), in spite of being wanted there, to stop a last-gasp attempt by some of the remaining Cowboy leadership to reform.

They rode out toward the Chandler Ranch, where they know that Zwing Hunt and Billy Grounds, two of the four would-be new leaders were found, to plan to kill them.

The plan was to shoot them when they were riding out of the Ranch, rather than confront them in the Ranch where their ally and all his hands would be there to fight.  Unfortunately, the ranch had no really easy spots from which to prepare an ambush where they'd be able to see the men coming in time and yet not be spotted themselves.  So Bat Masterson came up with a plan. He'd stay in the hills behind the ranch-house, keeping an eye, while the rest of Earp's Immortals would head out further down the trail the two Cowboys would need to take to get to the Cowboy pow-wow. When he sees them, Masterson will make an indian-style signal fire in the hills, to the Cowboy's backs so they won't be likely to see it (and if they did would probably just think it was some Apaches). When the rest of the Adjudicators saw the smoke from the fire, they'd know it was time to ready the ambush.

The plan worked, though Hunt & Grounds came accompanied by four other Cowboys. Half the party were on a dune firing with rifle, while Wyatt, Doc, Jim Masterson and Crazy Miller would ride out to surround the Cowboys and finish them off.   The ambush came off without a hitch, except that Zwing Hunt made a run for it which gave them quite a long chase (Billy Grounds, in turn, had his head blown off by Kid Taylor in the very first volley). Zwing rode hard, but even though he was quite a ways ahead, Crazy Miller and Wyatt (both on horseback, Earp with a pistol and Crazy with a rifle) tried to shoot at him, as did Other Miller, who was on a dune with a rifle from a very far distance. Crazy shot first, with a rifle, while hard riding. He nicked Zwing in the back, but his own shot knocked Crazy off his horse and gave him a nasty sprain in his elbow.
Wyatt shot next and shot at Zwing's horse, throwing him down.
Then Other Miller shot, and mowed Zwing down.

Their first job done, they took one of the red sashes from a dead Cowboy, and headed to the gulch where the Cowboy Pow-Wow was going to take place.

Their plan was to wait until such time as the remaining two Cowboy leaders: a scotsman named Mackenzie and a southerner named "Dixie" Dick, would be sure to be present. This required a couple of days of laying very low in the hills near the gulch. Then they'd get Frank Loving, the only member of the Adjudicators who was certain not to be recognized by the Cowboys, to come riding into the gulch on the other side, dressed in the Cowboy sash, crying out in panic that the US Marshals were coming!

When the Cowboys heard this, they would flee in the direction of the Hills. There, Earp and the rest of his Immortals would be waiting there and would ambush them, paying particular care to shoot the two remaining leaders.

The plan went off quite well; Doc Holliday killed Mackenzie in the very first shot. Then Other Miller only managed to graze Dixie Dick, but Wyatt Earp shot Dick's horse through the neck, causing Dick to fall to the ground. He was trampled by some of the other panicked Cowboys (who believed it was the Marshal's posse firing on them), and then Other Miller managed to kill him off.

The Immortals fell back and rode away before the Cowboys could get smart to them, and started heading back to Colorado. When they were very close to the border, they ran into a posse of Marshals who quickly gave them chase. The Players noted that this was the very first time they used the Aces & Eights 'chase rules' as the people being chased, rather than the chasers!

The posse was on their heels, when Bat Masterson's horse got slowed down. He wasn't actually on the warrant since he'd not been in Arizona for the first part of the Earp Vendetta Ride, so he told the others to keep going and stayed behind to face the posse, no doubt planning to use his famous gift of gab to keep them busy.

Some of the Adjudicators were concerned, would Bat be alright? But his brother Jim said "knowing him, he'll talk his way out of it and take the train back to Trinidad getting there before we do."

Indeed, the PCs crossed the border and made their way back to Trinidad, only to find that Bat was already waiting for them, having arrived by train from Tuscon.

The team celebrated in Masterson's bar. It was the effective end of the Cowboys as any kind of real organized criminal force, and Wyatt Earp decided this was enough vengeance for him. He planned to head back toward California to see his family. Kid Taylor would be going with him, as his wife and child were waiting there in Virgil Earp's care.

Crazy Miller was planning to go off and buy a ranch somewhere. Jim and Bat had their respective lawman jobs in Colorado and would be sticking around. Texas Jack didn't rightly know what he'd do just yet, and Frank Loving decided to go with Jim to Pueblo.

The party was breaking up. It seemed like the end of an era.  On the train West, Wyatt and Kid Taylor stopped off in San Francisco, only to find that Wyatt's love Sadie Marcus was there, playing a show. They went to see her at her hotel on a rainswept night. Wyatt offers himself up to Sadie, confessing that his vendetta ride has cost him everything. He has no money, nothing to offer her.

She says "Wyatt... my family's rich."

The two kiss and dance and swear they'll live a life of adventure and room service together.

Kid Taylor finds it all a bit disgusting and heads off to find his wife (since Wyatt decides to forget his family and go off with Sadie to her next stop).

Meanwhile, Other miller was planning to go back home to see his family, pick up his wife and then go start a simple life as a businessman somewhere. He figured Dodge City would be a good choice, since that city was still interesting but had calmed down and was no longer a violence-prone town.


Next Adventure: The Dodge City War!


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