A Western Adventure - Big Trouble in Little Whiskey

When the Insurance man comes calling in Little Whiskey you'd better have the money to pay him or alternatively a big gun and lots of ammunition, preferably with some amigo's to back your play.

The town is booming and Little Whiskey is growing at an amazing rate, another new building has been erected in record time and to the right of it there is the lumber for yet another one. There’s money to be made out west, if only in the haulage and building trades.

Sh*t Houses seem to be getting bigger with each new building going up. You can tell people are here to stay because they are fencing off their plots as well.

(DEW these fences have pvc blister material bases holding them up, I thought this was unique until I saw you were doing the same thing with commercial bases.)

The new business is the Westmoreland Grocery company, the front woman for the business is Sarah O'Riordan but she has partners. Silent partners who have a big interest in the unopened business round the back and up the stairs.

Sarah got her red hair from her mum, who incidentally wants it back, and her surname and fiery temper from her father, who couldn't care less. He left home when she was 3 and has not been seen since. Even she is not sure if her move out west is because of her mothers demands for the hair or if she is looking for her long lost father, and what she'll do if she finds him.

She's shown here looking very satisfied with herself. Goods are shipping in and soon she will be open for business.

However she is still the temporary manager of the Wells Fargo office next door, they have not sent a new man out yet, so she is Manager of two of the four business in town and so has good reason to be satisfied.

The obligatory view up Main Street.

The obligatory view down Main Street. You can just see the bases under the posts holding up the rail fencing.

At this end of town there is a lot going on. Joe Turner and Jane Grey are long standing trail partners, they are moving a small herd of pedigree cattle to Arizona to form the breeding stock for a more drought resistant strain of Texas longhorns.

You should recognise Jim Smith by now bushy beard, pot belly and no - he’s not looking anymore cheerful.

You may have noticed these desperadoes earlier. Little Whiskey had seen a number of hard bitten gunmen (and women) drifting in to town, they always seemed to end up at Whiskey Jacks place. There he is watching them. Is this some sort of firing squad, has the law come to Little whiskey? Saves a hanging I suppose.

No - just target practice, I wonder if this is what's called shooting fish in a barrel! Who knows what’s in the barrel?

Whiskey Jack has decided to take out a Building and Contents Insurance Policy on the Tail Feathers Saloon and these four are it.

Alice De Witt likes to keep her Henry .44 carbine close but her Colt Navy closer still, next to her is Texas Red who hopefully you will have encountered before, a young lady who is building a reputation for getting shot as well as a reputation for getting back up afterwards.
Then there is J.J. Tucker late of the Arizona Rangers, he quit after that fracas up in Montana and now he is making a living as best he can, he remains faithful to his twin Walker's Colts, old fashioned, impossibly slow to load but getting shot with them is like being run over by a train.
The fourth man you met briefly in the last episode, drinking in the bar, Mississippi Sam Shaw who hails from Missouri (same joke as last time but I didn't hear anyone laugh) He carries twin Colts but has a liking for a short barrelled double barrelled shotgun pistol, quite an unusual gun.

Another gratuitous shot of Sarah looking as smug as smug can be. Whose going to be a wealthy woman she is thinking, the only store in a 200 mile radius is bound to make money but she has a much more lucrative business opening upstairs. Well as soon as the weather improves and I can spray undercoat outside and then get the figures painted - don't hold your breath.

Sticky Fingers, with his back to us, blending into the grey crates, is checking off the timber and other stores brought in for the new building by The Undertaker Haulage Company, the proprietor and driver of this business are just to the right.

Huummm 11 pictures just to set the scene, I’m sorry about this - some may say overkill - but I’m really enjoying myself.

Alice Morgan is leading a bigger band of cutthroats than last time.

Ahh – no this is the Bill Samuelson gang, there he is in his black duster and to confuse us all, he’s wearing a white hat. If Bill is involved there’s going to be Big Trouble in Little Whiskey.

Alice is the local Insurance Agent and she's come to impress on Whiskey Jack the importance of paying your premiums on time. Bill is the accident that you insure against. Of course he could be the Act of God that means they don't pay out.

You might remember, but in the 1st game Alice arrived at the Way Station and she explained to Jack what insurance was for and that he should be a good boy and pay his premiums, Jack decided he didn't want to.

To try and avoid some considerable confusion the outlaws names will be in italics for the rest of this story. More especially as I have two women called Alice, a bit of an oversight on my part.

The gang are coming up against that well known Bounty Hunter and Haulage Business Contractor “The Undertaker” he will sort them out, although he doesn’t seem to have clocked eyes on them yet.

Bill’s men have their guns out and The Undertaker, Mary and Ebenezer are given 2 choices – drop your guns or die. Well would you think twice about that choice? They passed their Brains test and didn’t do anything rash or indeed fast.

Sneaky Steve is left behind to cover them and make sure they don’t raise the alarm.

The rest of the gang run across the street to the coral. The three J’s are there, Joe Jane and Jim are given the same choice, and as Bill’s gang don't appear to be after their cows Joe and Jane comply in the same manner. Jim failed his Brains test and was about to swing his hammer but realised how many he was facing and thought better of it, failed his guts test.
In the distance Sarah sees this happening but as she’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer she doesn’t realise what's happening and doesn't raise the alarm.

It’s looking easy so far. Lefty (did you work it out) is making sure these pilgrims don’t make a noise while the rest of the gang move towards the Tail Feathers Saloon.

I did roll a dice to see if the cattle chased the outlaws but it was a bust, although it would have been funny.

Target practice finished and the desperadoes set off to the saloon for a well earned drink. Totally random dice for direction and distance. Honest.

Bill is down to 6 men as they move towards the Tail Feather Saloon.

He has split his force into two. He is outside the saloon door with Frank MacAulay behind him and Dangerous Dave tucked in over by the window.

Round the back is Snake Eyes Pete just by the window nearest us, with Nasty Nick to his left also by a window and beyond him is Alice Morgan by the rear door.

The Desperadoes inside, totally unaware of what is about to happen.

This sort of seems very flawless but Alice kept failing her activation and Bill was all the way round the saloon and ready to dive in with his two men and Alice was still in the coral. Then Bill failed activation for 2 moves and Alice got into position. As they were about to go in - they both rolled the same dice for activation and so activated together at the same time – it was amazing.

I know it probably doesn’t sound so amazing when I tell it, but you had to be there.

Ok have you got the scene in your minds eye - because now it goes wild.

Whiskey Jacks 6th sense tells him there is trouble brewing and he reaches for his shotgun just as Bill and Alice kicked in the front and back doors simultaneously, Pete and Dangerous Dave fired through the windows simultaneously. In fact it all happened at the same time.

Dave’s shot hit Texas Red in the leg and she went down, stunned more than hurt. Pete fired at Whiskey Jack but the suns glare off the window screwed up his shot and he missed, well that’s what he said later. Then Nick fired and hit Jack in the leg and back and he went down as if dead. Frank couldn’t get in the action because he was stood behind Bill. Alice Morgan has a short barrel shotgun and she hit J.J. Tucker in the chest and he went down OOF. Bill Samuelson went in through the front door both guns blazing, he hit Mississippi in the leg and Mississippi went down in shock rather then hurt badly. Alice De Witt with the Henry carbine drew her pistol and fired at Bill, she missed but he ducked back through the door. He doesn’t like it when people shoot back.

This is the situation after turn 10. It’s carnage in there.

This sort of gives some impression of how I am keeping track of the situation but it was moving so fast and confusion reigned supreme.

Turn 11 Nick can see Alice De Witt through the window but fails to activate, I think it was the smoke and noise that did it. Ruben the bartender didn’t activate last turn – too surprised I guess but now reached for Bessy his shotgun that he keeps behind the bar but Alice Morgan shoots at him from the back door of the saloon but misses, she also runs out of ammo in her six gun, so both guns empty.

Dangerous Dave outside the front window drops his shot gun pulls his revolver and before Ruben can level Bessy he fires but hits the bar, a big solid lump of wood. Ruben who is leading a charmed life so far fires 1 barrel back at Dave, this also misses but blows the rest of the glass out all over Dave and he ducks back, doesn’t want the 2nd barrel.

Pete fires at Ruben (it’s not Rubens day is it) but misses (maybe it is his day after all) Alice De Witt has been waiting for everyone who threw better activation dice to go and now it is her turn. She fires at Nick who didn’t activate (go back to the beginning of the paragraph) but misses him, and he ducks back out of sight. Bill who had ducked back through the door last turn now throws the door open but doesn't enter and with both guns blazing fires at Alice de Witt but misses, she ducks back behind a table.

Still turn 11 Frank pushes past Bill and enters the saloon, brown hat and two guns, you can see Alice De Witt brown hat and Henry carbine cowering behind the table. You can see Ruben – white hair standing tall behind the bar. Ruben fires the 2nd barrel and misses, Frank runs out the door. Well so would I except maybe I wouldn’t have gone in, in the first place.

Turn 12 a quick recap for anyone who is not keeping up.

The good Guys (I know it’s open to debate) are all in the saloon. Ruben with an empty shotgun, Alice de Witt hiding behind the table Texas Red and Mississippi rolling on the floor moaning but not badly hurt and about to get up. J.J Tucker rolling on the floor moaning and not about to get up and Whiskey Jack very still on the floor and not about to get up anytime soon.

The Bad Guys anticlockwise from Alice Morgan by the back door of the saloon and has 2 unloaded guns. Nick hiding behind the wall. Pete still stood in the window but stunned by the noise and gunsmoke, first it’s sun on the window and now gunsmoke, the man has an excuse for everything. Frank has now left the saloon and is hiding behind a beer barrel outside. Bill Samuelson is outside the front door waiting for another brave or stupid moment to come on him and Dangerous Dave has ducked back to the livery and out of harms way.

OK - have you caught up – well we’ll start again.

This is Dangerous Dave hiding out by the Livery, loading his shotgun and this is the best bit.

Rose – you remember Rose, well since being shot she has been resting up in the Livery, (I think Big Jim Smith has taken a shine to her, well you would, wouldn’t you) Attracted by all the gun fire she creeps quietly out behind Dave and pokes the long shotgun in the small of his back and says “Howdy stranger, Drop your gun – Please” she was very well brought up. – He does.

Frank hiding behind the beer barrel.

No they are not going to shoot each other they are both re-loading, slowly as it turns out.

At this point none of the outlaws activated apart from Bill, he was slow though, but the Desperadoes did activate, Red and Mississippi got up, Ruben reloaded the shotgun like lightening and Alice De Witt looked at the door from behind the table.

And that’s when Bill black duster, white hat, jumped back into the saloon a gun in each hand.

This is still turn 12 I believe. When Bill was last in the room there had been Alice and Ruben still standing, he didn’t know that the other two were now on their feet and ready for anything or he wouldn’t have gone back in.

Indeed he shouldn’t have gone back in because Alice de Witt fired 1st and missed but Mississippi shot at almost the same time and hit Bill with both barrels of his shotgun pistol and Bill went down like the proverbial sack of cabbages. (I think it's Proverbs chapter 3 verse 27 where the quote about the cabbages comes from.)

Turn 13, at this point I realised that Alice Morgan actually has 2 six guns as well as the shotgun so she still has 1 gun loaded and still in her holster. Nick left of the barrels is now reloaded, Ruben the barman failed to activate and just stared at Pete framed in the window between the barrels. Mississippi also saw Pete framed in the window and shot at him but missed. Pete saw his Boss on the saloon floor and this shot from Mississippi was the final straw and he ran away.

Nick now jumps back in front of the window and saw Mississippi who fired first and missed, Nick fired back and Mississippi went down OOF, Texas Red spun round and fired but also missed and yet again Nick fired at her and she went down hit in the right arm, dropping her Colt Lightning but not hurt badly. Alice De Witt fired at Nick and also missed, he returned her fire, missed with the 1st shot and then there was a dry click, out of ammo, bugger. Alice De Witt took deliberate aim, Nick filled his pants and she pulled the trigger CLICK, she was also out of ammo but she has the Henry.

Pete running away and Frank decided to join him. Rose off to the left of the picture didn’t see this because she was back in the Livery tying Dave to one of the stalls.

It’s like a slaughter house now. Alice Morgan failed her brains test and passed her guts test. With Bill down she is the de-facto leader of the gang but instead of doing the sensible thing and pulling out with the rest of the gang she dived into the saloon.

Ruben white hair was as fast as a cat on a hot tin roof, yep he was asleep, Alice Morgan red hair shot at him and missed. Alice De Witt blond hair brown hat fired at Alice Morgan and missed. Ruben white hair wakes up, fires and misses, Alice Morgan fires back and misses. Ruben is out of ammo and so hits her with the shotgun and she falls to the floor unconscious.

It was crazy – they were within arms reach of each other and I just kept rolling crap dice.

I did read about a gunfight in the old west where 2 guys were chasing each other round a card table and both emptied their guns at each other and only 2 or 3 shots hit, but neither was injured enough to go down. So I suppose it's possible, if unlikely.

Turn 15 Texas Red gets back up. Yes!! - She broke her record this time and got shot twice and got up twice. Huuummm on reflection she got shot twice in the last episode but didn't get up. Good job they haven't invented airplanes as she would never get through the metal detectors at the airports with all that lead in her.

With the Boss and now Under Boss down and Frank and Pete running away Nick decided to go as well, they picked up the other two who had been standing guard and rode out of town. Dangerous Dave is under Livery Arrest with Rose.

An exhausting game.


If there is anybody out there please let me know and if you are still here – thanks for reading.