Jayhawkers

Winter is coming to the mid west of America and in a small woodland clearing, stands an even smaller cabin, one might call it a homestead but only if one was being very charitable.

The cabin is surrounded by small fenced areas, mainly containing animals or crops to feed them. The occupier is hoping they will see them through the winter but who knows, they’ve never done this before.

The log pile is huge but there’s still plenty of work to do, storing the produce that’s been accumulated for the coming snows.

The cabin is a solid affair; whoever built it knew their stuff. Big thick logs will provide protection, although there is the small question as to why there’s no chimney for the stove……maybe because there’s no stove!!

Why any one would leave their horse saddled is also a bit of a mystery, either they are very insensitive to the animals welfare or they are very wary about needing a quick getaway.

The coral is full of cattle, presumably beef jerky is on the winter agenda, should you look closer you might notice that none of the cattle have the same brand, which might explain the saddled horse!

Pigs are notoriously difficult to borrow from a neighbour and so these animals might not be as hot as the cattle, although hot pork sandwiches are one of my favourites as I’m sure they must be the current occupier.

Under a spreading chestnut tree is a long forgotten resident of the cabin, maybe, maybe not.

At this point you might be wondering what the hell this is all about, and quite rightly so.

It’s my back story to a campaign the Mad Lord Snapcase wants to indulge in, and DougnotEM4 and myself are being pulled along in his wake as usual. We will be playing a What a Cowboy campaign and we’ve managed to rein him into a 6 game campaign that at the end of it will see dead Gentlemen of Much Piddling in profusion. Not literally I hope and not me either.

The grave is my reason for an implacable hatred of Saveloy ‘Rooster’ Snapcase and Bertram ‘Barmy’ Snapcase, a hatred that will see Rooster dead in some bloody field and Jack (my character) spitting on his inert corpse, although I’m sure Rooster might have something to say on the matter.

I’m hoping for that to be, “AAARGH” as he hits the ground, lifeless.

Usually in these campaigns we all write a back story to our characters, some more fanciful than others and this time there will be only 2 sides. Doug and I will have 2 characters each and be on the same side, the Mad Lord will have 4 characters and be on the losing side. The Mad Lord has decided the 2 sides should hate each other and so there has to be a reason for this enmity and eventually I’ll get around to my reason for it.

To continue this long winded opening to the game, that is also the opening to my back story, you can see that the resident of the cabin has a small canvas roofed shed and lumber to build another. This is where they will store much of the winter’s supplies, because the skinflint who built the cabin didn’t make it big enough.

However the real reason for this picture is to show off my new tree stumps. Down in the affluent south Snappers and Dougers have bought resin tree stumps and then painted them. I was much enamoured of these stumps but up here in the grim north I have to make do with sticks from the woods. In addition I found some daz that I opened about 5 years ago to make the sacks you can see by the shed. So waste not want not as my old nanny used to say and I made the brown boxes and put some lips on beads to make pot jars. The daz was a nightmare to work, probably because it was so old, but for nowt the results are to my satisfaction and I’m really pleased with the pots.

Ok I’m finally getting to the start of the story, as the owner of the saddle horse is putting the final log on the log pile with a great deal of satisfaction, not to say sore hands. Anyone who has heard the song Big Iron will have heard of Texas Red and the Arizona Ranger. Well this is Texas Red, she’s appeared in a couple of my stories and generally done well, with at least one famous victory to her credit.

The scenario, such as it is, is for Red to survive, ideally driving off any Jayhawkers and remain in possession of the cabin for the winter. Her location on the table was determined by dice roll, as was the arrival location for the Jayhawkers.

Unfortunately for Red, the Jayhawkers arrived just behind where she was working. Four of the meanest hombres west of the Missouri River, Hard Nosed Dave Stone on the left. backed up by Irish Frank with his sawn off shotgun. Waving his Winchester in the air and looking for a fight is Banjo Greg and leading the bunch from behind a big bushy beard is Bertram ‘Barmy’ Snapcase, brother of Rooster Snapcase who will be the victim in our forth coming campaign. Yes it’s a family feud.

Before any of them can react, she turns and opens fire, concentrating on Hard Nose Dave, who is the nearest threat. There’s a soft thruump as a bullet hits the big man, but he stays on his feet, staggering a little as it slows him down somewhat.

Irish Frank ain’t afraid of no man and certainly not worried by the slip of a lass that he sees in front of him. He moves forward and fires both barrels of the shotgun, but his target is fast and she dodges behind the large cart. The buckshot splinters wood into the air but Red is unharmed and Frank has made the mistake of moving from the cover of the remarkably authentic tree stump into the open, pulling his pistol at the same time.

Snapcase for all his faults as a human being, isn’t afraid to lead his men into a fight from the front and he runs forward to the shelter of another authentic tree stump. He aims and fires his Colt Army revolver and if Red hadn’t been so agile he would have put at least one bullet into her delicate body, as it is she dodges his hastily fired shots and ducks behind the wheel barrow.

Like a cat she recovers from the duck back, leans to the side and looks at Irish Frank who has made the mistake of not hiding behind the authentic tree stump. She puts a bullet between his right eye and his left eye and he falls slowly to the floor with a .45 calibre bullet between both eyes and remains inert.

She then falls back towards the cabin, keeping whatever cover she can between her and her implacable opponents.

Banjo Greg shoots and shoots again. Not taking the time to aim he fires wildly and hits Big Grey, Texas Red’s faithful horse. The horse doesn’t flinch, he’s been hit before by wild gunfire. He knows that Red is close by and she will protect him. Of course he might not like the fact that she is using him as cover, but for a handful of oats he’s prepared to forgive a lot.

Hard Nose Dave opens fire and forces Red to back up again. She can’t afford to do this because her saddle gun, a Winchester repeating carbine is holstered in Grey’s saddle. She is fortunate and grabs the Winchester before backing into the cabin.

As she backs into the cabin Snapcase advances, a little precipitously and Red pulls down the shotgun hanging on the wall, swapping it for the Winchester, she advances to the open door and unloads both barrels in the direction of Snapcase. He might be little slow on his feet and just as slow in the head but when someone unloads both barrels of a shotgun in your direction it will make your blood quicken and you might become a little lighter on your toes. He dodges, hitting the dirt, she looks on in disgust to see he is still wriggling around and so she drops the shotgun and draws her revolver, fires and misses again. She slams the door shut, cursing roundly. It would appear this man leads a charmed life.

Greg takes a run at the door, lowers his shoulder and hits it with some force. Her bounces back, swears roundly and glares malevolently at the stout wood work. What he doesn’t realise is that he almost broke the damn thing. 6 rolled on the dice and the door only has an 8 defensive value. A light tap will now knock it off its hinges.

Things are looking bleak for Red, she’s trapped inside the cabin with the three desperado’s outside blocking her escape.

Snapcase moves up to take Greg’s place, with his bulk the door isn’t going to resist much longer. He runs up but fortunately for Red he slips in some horse dung and doesn’t apply his full weight to the door and it resists a little longer than anyone thought it would.

Even so, he eventually breaks the door down and Red resorts to playing her last Bonanza token as he flies through the open doorway. She takes careful aim and fires at point blank range but damn and tarnation she misses. Snapcase is able to aim and fire in return but missing is catching and he misses as well.

Greg fires through the gap left by the broken door but Red dodges the bullet.

It gets worse for Red when Hard Nose Dave realizes there’s an undefended window on the far side of the cabin and he moves to cover it.

Red has to do something and as Snapcase finally breaks down the door, she takes careful aim at his centre of mass but yet again misses that juicy target. She does however hit his left leg and he goes down like a sack of potatoes. She then fires a quick shot at Greg but misses her target again.

Her position is untenable and so when Snapcase falls in the doorway leaving a small gap for her to escape, she sets off running like a hare, hurdling his prostrate form she runs like the wind.

With some incredibly good dice rolls she makes it to the cover of another of the very authentic tree stumps.

There is a possibility that she can make it off the table next turn but I don’t agree with the idea that a table edge provides total sanctuary so she might need to rethink this strategy.

It becomes a little immaterial as Greg chases after her. He’s not read the rules too well and when he catches up, he finds that he only has 1D6 to her 4D6. Even so he puts up a heroic fight and they both take damage.

But as the fight continues he is forced back. Red hasn’t read the rules fully either but has quickly realised that using her pistol as a club isn’t how Mr Colt intended for it to be used.

So she aims the gun and pulls the trigger, BANG BANG you’re dead. Greg falls to the floor and is relieved to learn he’s not dead but he’s not going to get up soon either.

Hard Nose Dave Stone and Snapcase have both followed Greg, chasing after Red but seeing Greg fall as her revolvers spit fire and lead in their direction calls for them to re-evaluate their situation.

And come to the conclusion that discretion is the best part of valour and turn to run away.

Red fires a couple of shots at their retreating backs before moving over to the cabin. She watches them go, cognisant of the fact that her cabin doesn’t have a functioning door and that an implacable enemy knows where she lives. There are a number of decisions to be made before winter sets in and they need to be made quickly.

It’s too late in the year to look for another hide out and even if this one isn’t safe it’s better than the alternative.

Once the snow comes she should be relatively secure……hopefully.

She keeps a track of time and in early February, when the snow is at it’s thickest she sees a lone rider approaching the cabin. A heavy set man climbs down off a weary chestnut stallion and he approaches the door.

She ducks down behind the bed and waits patiently for the door to open, gun at the ready. There’s a light cough at the window and a gravely voice asks “Who are you and where’s Jean” she turns slowly and looks down the barrel of the strangers Walker Colt.

To cut a long story short the stranger is Daniels, Jack Daniels and Texas Red had buried his wife Jean under the chestnut tree. Jean had been shot by the Jayhawkers and died in Red’s arms.

The carpet bagging Snapcase family are responsible for her death and time will tell if they will pay the full price.

Come the thaw Jack will head south to avenge Jeans death, he doesn’t know where Bertram Snapcase will be hiding out, but his rat of a brother Saveloy has bribed his way into the Sheriff’s office in the New Mexico Territory. One dead Snapcase is as good as another dead Snapcase, I think that’s chapter 4, verse 12, in the St James Bible but I’m quoting from memory and may be mistaken.

On the way south he will enlist the help of their offspring, the Kid. The kid is their only child, Molly Daniels, the meanest spitfire this side of the Rio Grande and that’s a lot of territory. God help Snapcase when the two of them hit his town.