The Inside Scoop on Gaming

I love the Deadlands setting. I've visited the Grand Canyon twice and loved every minute of it. (Well, aside from the climbing out part.) So how did I like the Deadlands treatment of the Grand Canyon? Let's find out.

(WARNING: Spoilers throughout.)

Chapter One: How It All Begins

In our world, Major General John Wesley Powell, the first white man to explore the Grand Canyon, died in 1909. In the Weird West, however, Powell vanished along with the rest of his men on their third expedition into the Canyon in 1873.

Now, in 1877, his journal, his knife, and a mysterious Indian talisman have come into the possession of Rutherford Ellington Dillenger, the flambouyant English dandy and travelling museum curator who was first introduced in the Hucksters and Hexes adventure "Abra-Cadabra, Arab Cadaver". Dillenger has come to Salt Lake City, the City o' Gloom, to announce a new expedition into the Canyon in an attempt to determine Powell's ultimate fate. The expedition is to be led by an intrepid, world-trotting, bullwhip-toting archeologist (hmmm…) by the name of Dr. Edgar Haskins and his "bodyguard", the tough-but-lovely plains gal Sophie Miller.

Unfortunately, the evil Reverend Grimme of the Church of Lost Angels knows what Dillenger and Haskins do not: that the Indian relic found with Powell's journal is the Talisman of the Heart, which will lead its bearer to a Heart of the Old One. It seems that the shamans who first locked away the Reckoners all those years ago were successful because they removed their own hearts and left them in this world before entering the Hunting Grounds.

In this case, the Old One was a shaman of the Havasupai, the only Indian tribe living within the Grand Canyon. A misinterpretation of the Havasupai's claim that the Talisman of the Heart would guide its bearer to the tribe's "greatest treasure" led Powell's greedy men to their doom in the caves beneath the Canyon.

Grimme's dark masters have assured him that were he to eat a Heart of an Old One, he would gain vast powers. Grimme wants that heart, and he dispatches one of his toughest cronies - one Father Emmanuel Wilkes - to get it back. Wilkes is backed by a large group of gun-toting Lost Angels and by Brother Cain, a huge, ugly, ass-kickin' demon who goes around disguised as a huge, ugly, ass-kickin' man.

The action starts with the players at Dillenger's announcement. Getting them there shouldn't be too hard: after all, this announcement is a Very Big Deal. Less curious sorts can be ordered to accompany the expedition by the Agency or the Texas Rangers, or they might be there working security.

And speaking of security, Wilkes's first attempts to get his hands on the Talisman of the Heart by hiring a group of local goons to steal it. The gang decides to make this robbery a big production number by attempting it right in the middle of Dillenger's announcement.

This is where the heroes come in. Presumably, they will step in to mop of the floor with these mooks, thus earning the respect of Dr. Haskins and an offer to join his expedition.

This is a pretty weak hook unless the posse happens to contain a goodly number of individuals who would be of use on such a trek. I found it hard to believe that the experienced Dr. Haskins would drag a whole group of tenderfeet into the wilderness just because they beat up some chump crooks in the middle of the biggest city in the Weird West.

Chapter Two: Canyon Bound

The journey proper begins with a train ride from Salt Lake City to Cedar City, Nevada, on Smith & Robard's Denver Pacific ghost rock train. This is a nice chance for as much character interaction as the GM wishes to offer up.

The only action during the ride is provided by a master cat burglar creatively named "The Cat", who will sneak into one of the PC's rooms in search of the Talisman. If he's spotted, there could be a dramatic chase and fight atop a moving train; however, the guy has an 8d12 in Sneak. Unless his victim is remarkably perceptive and/or remarkably lucky, the victim will wake up to find that everything of his not nailed to the floor has moved on to greener pastures with only one of the Cat's calling cards to show for it - a sure-fire way to piss off a player.

In the case of my group, the victim was a Southern gunslinger with the hindrances of Bloodthirsty, Vengeful, and Mean as a Rattler. Unfortunately for the Cat, he also was haunted by the friendly ghost of his dead brother, who woke him up in time for him to blow the Cat to smithereens as he was shimmying back up a rope from the skylight.

My advice would be to have the Cat slip up at some point, with the quality of the PC's roll to wake up determining how soon, not whether, s/he notices this slip-up. Otherwise, ignore the Cat altogether.

Not much happens for a while after that. The expedition leaves the train at Cedar City and takes a barge ride down the Great Meadow Wash to its confluence with the Virgin River. It's here that the expedition may or may not pick up a tail in the form of Ho Li Kwan, a martial artists from a group of Chinese Taoists dedicated to fighting the Reckoners. From here on out, he can step in to save the PC's hides as often and as subtly as you like.

The trip now takes the group overland from the confluence to Cliffside, a ghost rock town literally on the edge of Marble Canyon. For every day until they reach the cooler climate of Kaibab Forest, each character must make a Survival: Desert roll to keep from losing Wind or, on a botch, from having heat stroke. While realistic, I found this to be somewhat pointless on days without planned encounters: the PCs get the Wind back each evening, so this really amounts to a check to see if any PCs die a meaningless death.

And speaking of meaningless, on the second day of the overland journey the posse has a chance to help the Flying Buffaloes kill a whopping big devil bat. This has no connection to the rest of the adventure whatsoever, and has the feel of a random encounter. Unless you feel the need to throw the gun bunnies in your group some red meat, this encounter can be removed without missing a beat.

Next up is New Harmony, Arizona, one of those places in which everyone has disappeared for no discernable reason, leaving uneaten meals on tables, untouched groceries on shelves, etc. This is nice and creepy, but it also has "Plot Hook" written all over it, when in fact there is none. If you have particularly curious players and are unwilling to make up a side adventure on the fly, beware.

The (presumably friendly) encounter with a ghost rock convoy on its way to Fort 51 that follows two days later highlights an ongoing problem I had with this adventure, and it has to do with the characters' status in the expedition. Specifically, unlike many adventures in which the PCs are hired to do a job, the boss - Dr. Haskins, in this case - is right there with them. Unless your players and their characters are very assertive, you may find them allowing Haskins to do the talking. I don't really see a way around this problem without fundamentally altering the premise of the adventure, unfortunately.

Finally, not long after the expedition enters the Kaibab Forest, it is attacked by a pack of fourteen feral coyotes under the magical domination of Father Wilkes. Small and weak - too small and weak to require a Guts check, in fact - the coyotes have only numbers and surprise on their side. Unless they truly catch the posse offguard - which is unlikely, since the coyotes' Sneak isn't all that great - this encounter will quickly devolve into a turkey shoot.

Chapter Three: Living on the Edge

The posse arrives at Cliffside. Run like a fortress by a ruthless Sweetrock Mining executive and filled with colorful characters and places, this was perhaps my posse's favorite part of the adventure. What's more, Dr. Haskins and Sophie are not constantly hovering around the characters, so that problem of the characters being overshadowed doesn't really carry over into this chapter.

While the posse spends a few days hanging about and interacting with the locals, they are spied upon by the Lost Angels - including Father Wilkes -- posing as street corner missionaries. Wilkes was in the crowd as the posse's train pulled out of the station in Salt Lake City. If they spotted him there and spot him again now, there may well be a confrontation. The writer warns that although the sheriff and the locals see the Lost Angels as a nuisance, they will not tolerate an outright attack upon them. If your PCs are as brash as one of mine was, however, this won't stop them, so be ready for a potential mess.

There are only two set encounters in this chapter. The first is an attack by a swarm of pesky bugs out of the Hunting Grounds called sickle beetles. Unless the characters are really unlucky and/or too dumb to heed the locals' warnings to get inside, this will be mostly a bit of foreshadowing of the hazards to come. The second is an ambush by the Lost Angels (sans Father Wilkes and Brother Caine) on last night of the posse's stay in Cliffside. This is an important fight: the Angels are after the Talisman of the Heart. If they get it, the posse will spend the next three chapters chasing after them. If they don't, it is the Angels who will be chasing the posse.

Chapter Four: The House of Stone & Light

Now the posse descends into the Grand Canyon itself.

The chapter begins with several pages describing the Canyon's Weird West incarnation, complete with weather, geography, local Indian tribes, and, of course, wandering critters.

Considering that this chapter is the namesake of the adventure, I was doubly disappointed by just how boring this chapter was for my players. Basically, the PCs must resume rolling daily Survival checks (unless it's raining) and must roll to stay on board their boats as they shoot the Canyon's many rapids (unless they take a slower overland route). This became very tiresome.

The daily random encounters - which range from animals to ghouls to more killer beetles -- didn't do much to liven things up. This may well have been due to the logistics of running the combats, since in addition to Dr. Haskins and Sophie, you know have the three guides hired by Haskins added to the mix.

One element that would have improved the sense of awe and wonder about the Canyon would have been descriptions - or better yet, pictures - of the Canyon's many formations. As it is, the best the GM can do is: "…and now, you're passing the breathtaking Shiva Temple formation." That's nice. Yes, I've been to the Canyon, and yes, I have a book about it that contains these pictures, but the point is that I shouldn't have to consult outside sources for this information.

The one mandated encounter in this chapter, aside from its ending at the Havasupai Indian village where all the trouble started, involves the posse's capture by the infamous "Chuckles" Ryan and his gang of Laughing Men. Now, this could have been a really and truly cool confrontation in the tradition of "The Wild, Wild West," since we're told in The Quick and the Dead that Ryan enjoys running his captives through gauntlets of traps, goons, and beasties for his own amusement. This time, however, "Chuckles" apparently just wants to steal all of their supplies - a death sentence in the Canyon. Fortunately for the posse, a pack of ghouls decides to attack the Laughing Men at that very moment, allowing the posse to escape in the ensuing chaos. And that's the whole encounter. A great opportunity lost, in my humble opinion.

Chapter Five: The Depths of the Earth

The posse arrives at the Havasupai village. They are welcomed by Torak, the shaman who, lit up on firewater, spilled the beans about the Talisman of the Heart to Powell's men. Saying that the spirits have instructed him to help the posse, he tells them that if they want to know what happened to Powell, they should travel into the nearby Anasazi caverns, following the pull of the Talisman if they have it or the trail of the Lost Angels if they don't.

And so the dungeon crawl begins, complete with the requisite traps and wandering monsters.

Actually, it's not so much that the monsters are wandering; rather, most rooms in the caves have a 1- or 2-in-6 chance of containing random monsters. Because there's a big whopping ghoul colony smack in the middle of this level of the caverns, ghouls are the most common encounter. Other possibilities include Anasazi ghosts (who hate all other Indians for pushing them off their land), fungi from the lower levels (see below), and, of course, the ubiquitous walkin' dead.

There are some set encounters as well, of course. Most notably, unless the posse is uncannily sneaky, they will most likely be captured while passing through the unavoidable City O' Ghouls. There they will be dragged before the ghoul king, who turns out to be Lawrence Croft (get it?), the formerly human member of the Powell Expedition who caused all the trouble in the first place. He decides to have mercy upon the posse if anyone mentions Powell, since he feels bad about getting all those people killed. (Once again, my posse turned to Dr. Haskins, Da Boss Man, to do the talking for them.)

Other challenges include a bat cave filled with noxious knee-deep guano and an Anasazi supermummy who will lay a whuppin' on the posse if any of them mess with his piles o' artifacts. (The latter is quite likely if Dr. Haskins is alive at this point, although a quick bit of fast talking by my posse's shaman talked the good doctor out of it and saved everyone's hides.)

This chapter didn't drag nearly as much as the one before, although it did feel as though the author relied on numerous opportunities for random encounters in lieu of more fully fleshed out locations. As a result, it ended up feeling like an extended prelude to the following chapter.

Chapter Six: The Land Beneath

The expedition works its way down to a vast chamber that's been changed into an pseudo-Hunting Ground due to the presence of a large open portal to that realm. The whole place is filled with giant alien fungi, giant alien insects, morlocks (basically friendly hairless fungus-chimps), and even free-roaming manitous.

Even though this place completely lacked any vestige of "Western" ambiance, I had a great deal of fun freaking out my players with it. As on player correctly pointed out, the place is highly reminiscent of a Mi-Go lair from Call of Cthulhu.

And despite the fact that this was probably one of the two best chapters in this adventure, I do have two very stern warnings.

The first is that portal I mentioned earlier. The posse will come across it before they reach the resting-place of the Heart of the Old One. It's hovering in the middle of a tunnel, meaning that if they're following the pull of the Talisman of the Heart, it will be pointing right at the portal until they pass it. If they pass it. If someone in your posse doesn't confirm that the Talisman is not, in fact, leading them toward the portal - as, thankfully, the bearer of the Talisman did in mine - you may well find your posse stepping right into the Hunting Grounds and right out of this adventure. Right before the grand finale, no less.

And speaking of the grand finale, that brings me to my second warning.

After the portal, the posse will find the Heart of the Old One in a bag atop a pedestal surrounded by paintings depicting the story of the Old Ones and their preparations for war with the Reckoners. And at the base of the pedestal, the body of the Havasupai Old One himself! Seems he escaped the fate of his fellows when Raven and his Last Sons hunted them down in the Hunting Grounds by punching a hole back into this world - the aforementioned portal - and made it this far before collapsing in an attempt to take his heart back. What the posse needs to do is to put his heart back in his chest so that he can return to life. And it is at this point - or thereabouts - that Father Wilkes and company decide to quit screwing around and attack the posse outright.

Now, then, if the posse restores the heart, the Old One gradually wakes up - just how gradually is up to the GM, since he'll start wiping out the bad guys when he does. In the upper and (especially) lower caverns, the proximity to the Hunting Grounds gives additional power to shamans and hucksters. While the Old One is waking up, however, a ghostly chanting begins that negates that advantage in the huckster's case and, in fact, gives them a -2 penalty for hexslingin'. This same penalty applies to all actions taken by evil beings.

In theory, this penalty will give the posse a chance of beating Father Wilkes, Brother Caine (in demon form), the five Bloody Ones (walkin' dead) Wilkes summons, and the six Lost Angels left out of Wilkes's original group of 16. However, even with the penalty, the sheer power of Wilkes and Caine alone is overwhelming. Wilkes has five levels in both Bolts o' Doom and Cloak o' Evil, meaning he'll be throwing 5d20 blasts while hidden behind a shield giving a -10 penalty to his foes; in other words, a mini-Death Star. And Caine in demon form is Size 12 and has three points of armor; in other words, a demonic tank.

In my case, it probably would have been a slaughter without the immediate intervention of the Old One, despite the fact that I decided to have Ho Li Kwan chip in at this point... except that the group's huckster blew a Guts check while watching another posse member restore the Old One's heart and ran into Wilkes & Co. while they were still out of range of the penalty-invoking chanting. As a result, he was able to tap into the extra power boost from the portal and blast Caine with a couple of truly impressive Soul Blasts that took the demon out of the fight before he got in a single blow. This in turn allowed the rest of the group to concentrate most of their fire on Wilkes before he could get up his Cloak o' Evil. By the time the managed to do so, he was so wounded that a single lucky tomahawk chop from the group's combat monster shaman finished him off.

In short, unless your group is amazingly tough and/or lucky, be ready to have the Old One wake up quickly enough to save them. This may not be entirely satisfying, but it is a result of the PCs solving a puzzle, and so it isn't entirely a deux ex machina.

Conclusion

I expected to be blown away by the Weird West's treatment of the Grand Canyon. I was not. This isn't a bad adventure, really; it's just not as spectacular as it could and should be. It's an acceptable resource for the Grand Canyon, but the Weird West-specific material beyond the caverns is minimal; if you just want Canyon info, I'd recommend a real world resource. And as far as the adventure itself is concerned, it could be a lot of fun, but it needs work. Tighten things up by deciding upon more fixed encounters and getting rid of most, if not all, of the random ones. Make the encounters in the Canyon more intrinsic to the Canyon itself - there are ancient cliff dwellings just begging to be haunted, for example. And, most of all, put the characters in a leadership position in the expedition, either by making Dr. Haskins a less competent NPC who needs protecting or, better yet, by putting a PC explorer/archeologist in his place.

Because it is a fairly epic adventure with a lot of potential, I'd give it a 3.5 for Substance if I could. As it is, I'll be a nice guy and bump it up to 4. It is fairly well written and contains acceptable artwork, although I thought the descriptions and images of the wonders of the canyon could have been more evocative. Again, a Style that would be 3.5 rounds up to 4.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Canyon O' Doom