A fitting finale as backs are stabbed and King makes his ploy to change Steaming Rock forever.

Late at night, Cody, Winston, Dutch Daan and Diago met Curtis Mortimer, Philem Quinlivan and his men at the Homestead Inn.

Word had reached them that Clarence King was planning an atrocity at the Apache reservation. They all wanted to prevent it, some for good and noble reasons, others for personal gain.

Cody watched Daan for a moment before walking over and lowering his voice.

“The time ain’t right, but when this is over, we need to talk.”

Daan raised an eyebrow and smiled.

Quinlivan turned to the assembled company. “So, how are we going to stop King?”

Several plans were proposed and discarded before Diago suggested that his man, Hank, could create a distraction with a few sticks of dynamite, getting the Pinkertons and King’s men to leave the main road to the reservation.

Moments later, an explosion echoed along the dusty western trail and rolled across the valley. One by one, lights appeared in the windows of Steaming Rock.

Dutch slipped towards the High Street and found only two Pinkertons standing guard. Both were alert: one outside the Grand Hotel and the other watching the road north towards the reservation.

Dutch mimicked the cry of a great horned owl, the agreed signal that the odds were in their favour.

Once the others had gathered, Diago crept along the riverbed and wrestled one of the Pinkertons to the ground. After a fierce struggle, however, the man broke free and drew his revolver. All hell broke loose. Gunfire tore through the darkness as the two sides exchanged shots. When the smoke cleared, both Pinkertons lay dead in the road.

Quinlivan then suggested that they call upon Hubb McGraw. His right-hand man in Steaming Rock had failed to appear at the Homestead Inn, and Quinlivan feared that something had happened to him. Cody volunteered to investigate while the others pressed on towards the reservation.

As Cody approached Hubb’s house, he immediately noticed that the front door stood ajar. Bullet holes peppered the wood.

He drew his gun and pushed the door open. Moonlight spilt across a pair of familiar boots, the legs still inside them and a pool of blood spreading across the floor. Hubb McGraw had been shot dead.

Cody drew a sharp breath and shook his head. Then he returned to his horse and galloped after the others.

When they reached the reservation, they found a band of King’s gunmen guarding the entrance. The men had not yet seen them.

Suddenly, a howitzer shell exploded inside the reservation. Then came another. Cries were heard from the Apache families.

Cody, Dutch and Daan spotted King and his men upon a ridge overlooking the settlement. They entered a gully, searching for a route up to the artillery position. Dutch’s horse stumbled, and Daan struggled to make headway, but Cody descended into the valley and rode hard towards the foot of the cliff.

Meanwhile, Winston and Diago charged through King’s men at the entrance. Bullets flew after them as Winston spurred his horse onwards. Diago delivered weapons to Kuruk and his warriors, but two of King’s men broke away to pursue them. The remaining gunmen turned their attention to Quinlivan, Mortimer and their men.

Winston and Diago reached the howitzer at the northern end of the reservation. They killed its crew, save for one man who surrendered, but not before the gun had destroyed one of the Apache tents. A second howitzer, firing from the ridge, obliterated another.

I’d told the players that there were six main areas in the reservation and if more than half got destroyed then King would have “won”, decimating the majority of the Apache.

At the foot of the cliff, Cody prepared to climb. Then he heard Daan’s voice cry out from above.

“Look out, King! They’re coming for you!”

We’d discussed with Daan’s player the possibilty of him betraying the group, there had been previous signs that he was up to something - influenced by myself whilst the player was absent. We paused the game at this point, deciding, as PvP was a “ask first” in our game. We debated that Cody’s player would not have put themselves in such a vulnerable position, i.e. half way up a cliff face knowing that Daan was at their back, so instead Cody began at the foot of the climb, still in cover.

Cody wheeled around and fired, wounding Daan.

On the southern face of the ridge, Dutch began the dangerous climb towards King’s position.

More shells rained down upon the reservation. Winston and Diago turned the captured howitzer towards the ridge, aiming at King and his remaining gun. Their barrage was furious but wildly inaccurate, and one shell buried itself in the earth without exploding.

Bleeding, Daan called down to Cody.

“Nice to see you showing some guts at last!”

Cody fired again. Daan groaned and slumped to the ground.

Dutch reached the summit and hurled a stick of dynamite at the artillery crew. The explosion rocked the ridge but failed to destroy the cannon.

King ordered the howitzer turned upon Winston and Diago. The resulting blast struck the ground nearby, showering them with earth but leaving them unharmed. With the battle turning against him, King made for his horse.

Nearby, Smokey and Dutch traded gunfire across the ridge.

Below, both Mortimer and Quinlivan were hit. Seeing them fall, Cody abandoned his pursuit of King and rode back to help.

Winston and Diago loaded the captured howitzer and tried once more. This time their aim was true. The shell smashed into Smokey and the remaining cannon, obliterating both in a thunderous explosion.

Note to the game designers, please can we have stats for an M1841 mountain howitzer!

Kuruk and his people drove King’s surviving gunmen from the reservation, sending them fleeing into the darkness. Clarence King, however, had disappeared.

The survivors gathered around the barely conscious Daan. He looked up at Dutch.

“Go to the mine, son. Give them a proper burial. You always did right by me, the boy I never had.”

Cody raised his pistol to finish him, but his hand trembled.

A sudden volley shattered the silence.

Dutch had shot Daan dead.

A successful Docity roll from Cody but a failed Docity roll from Dutch.

Inside the mine, they discovered the bodies of Daan’s sister and the widow from whom he had swindled a considerable sum of money. They also found a cache of King’s tonic: the poison that had been used to make the Apache people ill.

Groans and outrage from the players, smiles from Daan’s player, a great and very unpleasant turn of events for the group.

Mortimer and Quinlivan eventually recovered from their wounds. In the aftermath, they joined the others in building the railway, securing a new home for Kuruk’s people and restoring Steaming Rock.

But Clarence King remained at large.

I plan to do a roundtable podcast with a few of the players to get their feelings on the ten months of play and I’ll also write up my full thoughts on playing through this campaign. I hope you’ve enjoyed the actual play reports. Next up, the same group is undertaking Vaesen - The Lost Mountain Saga, before, fingers crossed, we can pick up Tales of the Old West again with Gold Country.