For the third and final act of my Dracula’s America solo campaign, Little Church has been swayed by the fire and brimstone preachings of Father Meindrach. He has swayed some of the town that these new heroes are nothing more but Godless heathens come to bring them under a new and terrible yoke. It’ll be up to Wyatt and his posse to weather this day of wrath and end Meindrach’s misguided teachings.
Throughout this campaign, I’ve been trying to mix up the common solo scenarios I usually see with some thematic adjustments. This time, I’m trying to make a villain that won’t directly fight the heroes, but rather buffs his minions into doing all the dirty work. When his buff doesn’t kick in, he has a little extra surprise for the heroes.
One thing that always separates a scenario from a campaign is actions and events that follow from one scenario to the next. Case in point, here we have the saved Billy Buckner awaiting trial. When things start to get crazy, the heroes can let him out and have him join them. He won’t be entirely trustworthy so when things look like they are well in hand, he may just try to slip away and avoid whatever fate had originally in store for him.
Having helped the town twice and seen what the town gets themselves into without strong moral guidance, the heroes start in the sheriff’s office. With no sign that the original sheriff is ever coming back, the heroes took it upon themselves to take over the position.
Spun a certain way, the Meindrach uses the self-appointment to whip up a fury with his most loyal followers. They have declared open war on the heroes and will aim to rid themselves of such corruption. Meindrach will stay close to give them encouraging support. In addition, any harm that may befall the good servant of the Lord, can instead befall a true believer if close enough. This pulls from several existing rules already in the game where a figure can grab a survivor and remove them from the game to replace a botched save roll. Meindrach isn’t grabbing anyone and instead, it is his follower’s zeal that guides them into leaping in front of a well aimed shot.
The stage is set and the town is ready to see it’s epic finale.
Doc steps out and goes forward to gain cover while Meindrach blesses his followers. The followers then come out in force, making their way to the Sheriff’s Office.
After another round, several of the congregants come rushing forward. Most of the Earp Posse get into positions and take some opening shots but Billy Buckner, smoke wagon in hand, lays down a wild-eyed civilian. Virgil takes another one down as well.
The True Believers rush in at the Earp Posse and send them into cover. They take multiple salvos but are still up. Billy was not as fortunate and goes down in a hail of bullets. While not the fate he’d preferred, maybe it was the one he deserved.
Morgan and Doc take up defensive positions while exchanging shots with the True Believers. God is on their side as they continually shrug off solid hits with ease. Their aim is a bit suspect though as the cover and higher ground seem to be helping the heroes weather the storm.
Suddenly, the Meindrach’s words fail him and in his rage, he call’s down the wrath of a less heavenly host, a Hired Sniper! The sniper appears on top of a random building with line of sight on at least one hero. He shows up right behind the Sheriff sign on the heroes’ own building. Even with the height, a good rifle, and Morgan’s back to him, the sniper gets off a weak shot. It hits though but Morgan is made of sterner stuff and shrugs it off.
Virgil is having none of this and takes down two of the True Believers in his path.
Wyatt limps over to get a better shot at the sniper but fails to take him down.
Virgil is able to get the drop on the sniper at the top of the next round and takes him down.
Doc and Morgan down the last two True Believers and Meindrach is without a congregation to incite any more. He gives up and the heroes end the day. With Meindrach in jail, evidence from the other townsfolk show that it was Meindrach all along that led the Buckner Gang to Little Church. Free of his influence, the town may once again prosper and flourish.
The game was a pretty decisive victory for the heroes and I’m fine with that. The game can be a bit swingy so all it would have taken were a few rolls to fail on the heroes save tests or an activation happening sooner (like the sniper getting another round) and this could have snowballed badly. As it was, the heroes won out and that wraps up The Taming of Little Church. I have this in my bright and shiny downloads page if you are interested in checking it out.