First, decide if the characters will be using the pregenerated characters for the Early Years offered above (Rex the Doughboy, Betsy the Flapper, Rosie the Nurse, Jimmy the Orphan, Agnes the Spiritualist) or not, or a combination of the pregenerated characters and player-created characters. Any combination of characters is acceptable, although there will possibly be a fair amount of combat, so it might be a good idea to include at least one good fighter.

If there is only the GM and one player, the player may be allowed to play multiple PCs. If two players, suggest two PCs each, and so on. If you have more than five players, that’s fine, just make some extra PCs.

Next, make the players comfortable with the idea that their PCs know each other (if possible—see below if they don’t like the idea).

Once that conversation's happened (as discussed earlier), tell them that a rich business tycoon has hired them to find his missing son (again, see the next paragraph if they have a problem with the idea), and they’ve reported to his mansion.

If they are new to the basic concepts of role-playing and can’t get their minds around the idea that their characters already know each other, or can’t accept the idea that a rich business tycoon would hire THEM when they have no reputation yet, then tell them, instead, that that’s okay-- instead, they’ve each answered an ad in the newspaper that reads as follows: “Can you find my son? I’m looking for him. Will pay to find out what’s happened to him. Reply to post office box #63477.” Then tell the players that when they replied, they were told to appear at a certain medium-nice hotel lobby on a certain afternoon. Once there, a limousine arrived and picked them all up and drove them to a mansion, much to their surprise.

Having said this, your players will be caught up on the basic introductory concepts of how they got into this.

At this point, then, they are all (as a group) ushered to the back of the house, where they find a private mausoleum. There, they find the mansion’s owner, one Robertson Evans, an old man of about 65 or 70, in a wheelchair. It’s hard to tell his exact age, since he looks a little sick.

“Consumption,” he says. “That’s not exactly what the doctors call it these days, but that’s what we called it when I was young. Oh, it’s quite slow-- I have a few more years to live, they say, and then I’ll be with my dear, lost Maria. But before that, I need to know what’s happened to my son, John.”

As the interview progresses, encourage the players to question Robertson Evans. He doesn’t really give much to go on, but he should, or at least can, give the following details:

--His son, John or “Johnny” Evans, went missing five months ago.

--Robertson thinks Johnny is very possibly dead, but wants to know for sure.

--Johnny and his father didn’t get along, and had hardly spoken for years.

--Johnny was fond of his mother Maria Robertson, but she died of influenza when he was 14. Johnny’s moods grew darker, and he started getting into trouble at school. Johnny managed to graduate from high school, but flunked out of three of the best colleges on two coasts before coming back to the city of his birth (Rex and Agnes were created for Washington, D.C., but it doesn’t really matter what city you set this adventure in, if you’d like to change it).

--Johnny, if he’s still alive, would now be 24. He was renting an apartment in town.

--There might not be any useful clues to Johnny’s fate in his apartment—most have probably been confiscated as evidence by the police detective assigned to the case.

--The police detective in charge of investigating what happened to Johnny is one Gabriel Barnes. Robertson doesn’t like Barnes; he doesn’t think he’s doing anything to find Johnny any longer.

--Johnny was cut off by his father in college, but he lived off of a trust fund that his mother set up before she died that still kept him in money.

--In fact, it kept him in too much money—enough to help him (not that he needed a lot of help) to fall in with a bad crowd everywhere he went. Johnny had lots and lots of girlfriends who were pretty but problematic; he loved to gamble, especially on boxing matches, he liked to party and spend the money he got every month, and he was always just a razor’s edge away from being friendly with a downright criminal element.

--Johnny has a room in the mansion, but it hasn’t been lived in (just cleaned and dusted by a maid occasionally) since he was 18.

--Johnny’s car, a black roadster, is also missing. Johnny hasn’t collected his trust fund money since he disappeared, either.

That’s about it. If they fail to ask about any of the above, have Mr. Evans just tell them the above facts, but it’s more fun for them to interview him...

If asked the following questions, these are his answers:

--Does Robertson believe in ghosts? Yes, in general; though he’s never seen one, he does believe in life after death.

--Does Robertson drink? He used to, but he’s given it up on his doctor’s advice, and is slowly coming around to a teetotaler point of view these days.

--Is he a religious man? Yes, after his wife Maria died, he started attending her old church, St. Stephen’s Cathedral, where Father Gallaher is the priest.

--Why is he employing us, specifically? Because he couldn’t find any other people who felt like taking the case. Oh, he could have hired people, but they would have just been after draining his bank account for all they could—when he tried to hire people anonymously for a missing persons case, no one with a better reputation was interested—they were all busy, or uninterested, since they didn’t know, when they turned it down, how rich their potential employer was. Robertson feels that the PCs “have an honest feel about you that is rare these days.” If the players think it’s odd that he couldn’t find anyone else to take the case, albeit anonymously, then let them-- it IS odd, as they’ll learn at the end of the adventure.

--How does he feel about having an orphan, woman, minority, or person of low class (hobo etc.) in the group of investigators? He’s fine with it. Barnes is an adult, white male of middle-class, and nothing useful has gotten done on the case, so why not a youth, female, hobo (or whatever) or minority?

--What does Johnny look like? Evans shows them two pictures-- one of a happy 13-year-old boy, smiling, and one of an irritated-looking 18-year-old who looks like he has more fun things to do than to hang around having his picture taken. Johnny is handsome, with dark brown hair, and is otherwise pretty average-looking, but the PCs will now be able to recognize him if they see him.

--What if Johnny is dead? Is there a will? Johnny had no will, and no savings-- nothing of value except his car and some nice clothes, really. If old Mr. Evans dies, the butler or housekeeper with the most seniority at the time of death will inherit the mansion with the instructions that the mausoleum is never to be tampered with or altered.

In the end, Evans really can’t tell them any more, except to give them the address of John’s apartment (locked—Barnes has the key), 20 dollars for expenses with a promise of much more if they can tell him (and prove it) what’s become of his son, and a letter (with a copy for each PC) stating that they are in Evans’ employ and that he hopes that they will be aided by anyone they show the letter to... “Not that that’ll help you with Barnes,” he glowers.

Finally, Mr. Evans says, "I understand that my son may well be dead, considering that he was on a bad road, often with bad companions. However, I want to find out for certain. If you find that he is dead, I hope to at least lay his remains to rest with my wife in this mausoleum, where I, too, will eventually end up. If he is alive, so much the better-- I wrote him out in college, but I have no other relatives I care for, and since he's gone missing, I've come to realize that I would like him to inherit this house, with the condition that the mausoleum remain intact. Please do all that you can for our family."

There’s nothing else Mr. Evans can tell the PCs, and he asks them to show themselves out. He leaves, and goes to read a book—or have a nap—in his library.

--If a Spiritualist PC thinks to check for the ghost of Maria Evans now that Mr. Evans has gone into the house, this is possible. The ghost of Maria Evans, however, knows only one thing-- Johnny has not crossed over to the other side, and she would know if he had. Therefore, he is either alive, or his soul is not yet at rest. Maria has remained connected to the land of the living out of worry for her son after her death-- he took her death very hard, as indeed she knew her would. She, too, like her husband, asks the PCs to please find out what's happened to Johnny.

--If a Spiritualist PC thinks to check for the ghost of Johnny, their attempts are not successful-- yet. (This might be a good time to have the spirit of Maria show up instead.)

--If the PCs demand to see young Johnny's room, a maid can show them to it, However, it's just the room of a rich young man who liked reading classic stories of knights, heroes, and soldiers, and fighting-- perhaps the origin of his love of attending boxing matches. There are also a few pulp magazines under the bed that are several years old, about boxing and other sports stories.

--If the PCs question the staff, they turn up no huge clues... The gardener/groundskeeper, however, knows a small detail...

If the PCs meet and question the groundskeeper, the old man seems like he has something he's holding back information-wise. A Charming check might help.

If the PCs are successful, the man will tell them that "a day or two, maybe" before anyone last saw Johnny, Johnny came back to the mansion in the middle of the night one night (he still owned a key). His car was out front from midnight to around three in the morning. The groundskeeper thought this was strange-- he was afraid Johnny and some of his "no-good friends" might be robbing the place. Instead, Johnny was in his old room, reading his sports magazines. Johnny seemed very upset and jumpy, although the magazines seemed to be calming him down. The groundskeeper presumed that Johnny would stay the night, and that answers would be given in the morning, but in the morning, Johnny and the car were gone. When asked why the groundskeeper didn't tell anyone, he says that he didn't speak up before because he hoped that Johnny had just left town for good, and that Mr. Evans would be well rid of him, if it was in a way that didn’t hurt anyone.

If the players tell Robertson Evans about this, he’s shocked, and encourages you to go out right away and try to follow up on this lead. He makes statements to you meant to suggest that he’ll consider firing the groundskeeper, but the PCs can tell he almost certainly doesn’t really mean it.

There’s really nothing else to find out at the mansion. All of the staff (two housekeepers, the groundskeeper, a butler, and a chauffeur) liked Johnny as a boy before his mother died (if a given employee has been around that long-- one of the housekeepers hasn't, and neither has the chauffeur), but they also all really came to dislike him once he got into high school and onwards. They’re sympathetic to the old man’s desires, but feel like Johnny is, frankly, no good, though they wouldn’t like you to repeat that to Mr. Evans. (If you do, it saddens him, but frankly, he understands how they feel.) None of them seemed to just HATE him, though. If a Nurse PC somehow manages to take a look in Mr. Evans’ medicine cabinet, they’ll find that he seems to be perfectly telling the truth about the state of his health. No one else’s medicine cabinet at the mansion is at all interesting.

----Incidentally, there’re Hobo Signs marked in chalk along the wooden fence around Evans’ property-- they inform any Hoboes who think to look for signs: “Wealthy man lives here, but don’t bother him asking for handout. He is not mean, but has been asked for handouts too often.”



Now, the PCs have to go figure out somewhere else to go and investigate. So far, their next logical step that could possibly be remotely fruitful could pretty much only be one of these:
--Talking to Detective Barnes
--Investigating Johnny’s apartment
--Randomly going around to various bars and clubs in the city and asking if anyone knows anything about where Johnny could be
--Randomly going and interviewing various people involved with boxing matches and/or gambling and seeing if any of them know anything about Johnny’s being missing

Before we deal with any of those, we need to stop and discuss gathering information. There are a lot of ways to get information out of people in The Twentieth Century, so we need to consider what to tell the players if they try any of them and are successful.

--Reporters: Reporter PCs should get an extra bonus to trying to get clues suggesting things like, say, which bars Johnny liked to hang out in best. The bar, such clues should suggest, in which Johnny liked hanging out the most before his disappearance was The Pelican, a dive down near the docks (or the Warehouse District, if you’ve moved this adventure to a landlocked city, in which case change the name to Joe’s Bar and Grill). If the PCs have already been to the Pelican(/Joe’s), it should just lead them to Mickey’s Gym... with a warning that Mickey has some dangerous connections to Racketeers.

--Séance: Remember, Johnny will not appear (yet) for a séance. No other ghosts who know anything will confirm anything other than what Maria Evans might have told the PCs, as explained above.

--Asking other orphans: Having an Orphan ask other orphans for the purposes of information-gathering should just lead having seen Johnny outside The Pelican (or Joe’s Bar and Grill, whichever). If the PCs have already been to the Pelican(/Joe’s), it should just lead them to Mickey’s Gym... with a warning that all the guys in there are kind of mean and don’t like kids snooping around.

--Ask other Racketeers: Having a Racketeer ask his or her network about what happened to Johnny will have interesting results. They will say that they don’t know anything about it, but that they’ll ask around, and to give them 24 hours. 24 hours later, let that Racketeer character roll a Charming roll. If it fails, the character is told that their organization doesn’t know anything about Johnny Evans, but that certain individuals at the top don’t like people who ask too many questions about things that are none of their business, so cut it out, which is a type of clue in and of itself. If the roll succeeds, though, the reply comes back that no one knows if Johnny is dead or alive... but that, confidentially, it wouldn’t surprise the informant if Johnny was dead or scared into leaving town, because asking the underworld about Johnny Evans made certain individuals irritated, like maybe Johnny owed someone money, or worse. Nothing more can be learned this way.

So, let’s deal with the other possible moves the characters could make, starting with Barnes.

--Interview with Barnes

Gabriel Barnes, Police Detective
Forceful: 0
Agile: 0
Insightful: +1
Charming: 0
--Pistols: +1
--Hand-to-Hand combat: +1
--Risky Driving: +1

If the PCs decide to talk to Barnes, they find him at the appropriate precinct police station. Encourage the PCs to ask a few questions, which will lead to the following information:

--Barnes says he’s willing to work on the case, but that no one knows anything and that the case has gone cold.

--If they tell him about the groundskeeper, he’s mildly interested, and says that he'll question him soon. He won't say exactly when. (if the PCs check on this later, they find that Barnes did question the man, but with no added consequences so far.)

--He won't give them the key to Johnny's apartment, and in fact he informs them that since Johnny's rent has run out (he wasn't paying for the apartment in advance), Johnny's stuff isn't there anymore anyway-- the owner has gotten rid of it. Barnes says that he got anything useful already from the apartment, which didn't lead to any leads. Basically, Johnny lived a life involving dates with dames, gambling on fights (boxing matches, that is), and drinking (especially after the first of the month, before his money started getting scarce), and then one day he disappeared. Barnes is perfectly willing to presume that Johnny, who "ran with a bad crowd," might have "found a way to have gotten himself killed," but since no one has found Johnny's car, either, Barnes takes the facts to suggest that Johnny left town in a hurry, maybe because of gambling debts. Barnes will not let the PCs see the evidence, under any circumstances.

--Having said all of this, Barnes refuses to say anything more, and gets increasingly annoyed that the PCs are pestering him. If they push him for more information or favors or permission to do anything else, Barnes immediately starts getting a bit loud and threatens the PCs with arrest for obstruction of justice. He'll do it, too-- arrested PCs will be held in jail overnight. Orphans will be at risk of being declared wards of the state and threatened with being put in an orphanage (until they run away). Hoboes will also be threatened with charges of vagrancy, etc.

--It's easy for Barnes to back this threat up standing in a police station, but he says the same thing no matter where or when the PCs find him. He doesn't do or say anything suspicious if followed, watched, staked-out or shadowed-- he lives alone, does his job, meets with other policemen at a bar nearby the station at night, and goes home and sleeps. If he NOTICES the PCs following him, he'll try to arrest them. If they try pressuring him or trying any unusual tactics on him anywhere else where he can't call for backup and feels threatened, it'll lead to a fight, and Barnes always has a loaded pistol on him, or nearby. Make it clear that the PCs can't get anywhere at this point in the story by bothering Barnes.

--Incidentally, there’re two Hobo Signs marked in chalk on part of the fence near the side of the property Barnes’ house is on-- they inform any Hoboes who think to look for a sign: “Policeman lives here. Police are active in this area.”

--In order to inspect the evidence Barnes is sitting on, PCs will somehow have to break into the station Evidence Room, a pretty insane task at any time, but especially for new characters. (However, if they do somehow manage to look at the evidence, they'll find that it shows that what Barnes has told the PCs about Johnny Evans' life seems to be true-- there's hardly anything but a desk blotter with a few phone numbers on it (all attractive young women who, they'll find out, have already been questioned by Barnes, and who know nothing about where Johnny is), an address book with the name and phone number of the bank and the lawyer who controls the trust fund and the phone number of Mickey's Gym, and so forth-- a matchbook from The Pelican/Joe's Bar and Grill... nothing very solid.)

--If the characters do start a fight with Barnes and don't break it off and retreat, either they'll lose, in which case they're in a whole lot of legal trouble, or else they'll knock him out. If they kill him, they're in a LOT of trouble-- they just killed a police detective! If they kidnap him once he's knocked out, so as to ask him questions later, go ahead and have other police officers show up to save Barnes. Send as many Cops as it takes to win-- say, 5 or 6. The PCs won't win THAT fight, because you can just keep sending in reinforcements. The Cops (if they're needed) got an anonymous tip that dangerous criminals were trying to kill Barnes, and where to find him.

However, it probably won't come to this-- it's more likely that the players will follow other clues. So, let's move on to:


Johnny Evans' apartment:

--Whether the PCs have met with Barnes or not, it's just as Barnes said: Johnny's stuff is no longer inside-- it was thrown out, not that there was much of it. The building's superintendent assures the PCs that Barnes was very careful to take anything remotely useful away.

--The PCs can't go in and see for themselves without the key, or unless they break in. If they're caught breaking in, it'll mean trouble with the law. If they pretend they want to see the apartment because they're thinking about renting it, the superintendent will let them, but there's nothing to learn, even for a Spiritualist.

--The superintendent will tell the PCs, if they ask about Johnny, that he had a lot of dames over-- never for very long, that he always paid the rent on time, and that he liked the prize fights. Feel free to have this NPC direct the characters, if they seem lost, to Mickey's Gym.



--The Pelican/Joe's Bar and Grill:

--This seedy dive is frequented by Bootleggers, men who smuggle alcoholic beverages into dry counties. There are also a number of dames around.

--Asking around about Johnny Evans (or anything, really,) will start a fight with a generic tough guy or two, who doesn't/don't like all these questions.

Generic tough guy/bootlegger:
Forceful: 0
Agile: 0
Insightful: -1
Charming: -1
Hand-to-Hand combat: +1


If there's only one good fighter in the group, you should only have one tough guy attack, if two, then two, and so on.

The tough guys, however, are unarmed. The first time a PC pulls a pistol or any firearm, before they can use it, there's a bellowing shout of "HEY!" EVERYONE in the bar will stop and turn and look toward the bar, because the bartender has just pumped and primed a loaded shotgun, aimed right at the character who was drawing his gun. "Toss your gun over here," says the bartender. The character will either do so, or will get a chestful of shot (don't bother to roll for if it hits-- it will). Once the PC tosses his or her firearm behind or onto the bar, the bartender will lower his shotgun and say, "All right, as you were. But you'd better not break any of the furniture." The fight can then resume, until the tough guy or guys are all knocked out, or until the PCs retreat.

If the PCs retreat, they can come back to the Pelican/Joe's another night, and question people without the tough guys being present.

If the PCs lose the fight (that is, if the tough guys defeat the combat-oriented PCs, and any others who may join the fight—if non-combat-type characters don’t fight, they won’t be attacked), they wake up in/are escorted to a nearby back alley-- minus any money and obvious valuables, if all the PCs were knocked out.

Presuming the PCs win the fight, when the tough guys wake up, they say that they got nervous because they just this morning started a new scheme to smuggle alcoholic beverages into a nearby dry county, and strangers showing up asking questions was just too suspicious.

If the PCs accept this, fine. If they don't-- if they use hypnosis or some other unusual info-gathering method successfully, the tough guy/guys will admit that a strange guy he'd never met before showed up a couple of hours ago and said to pick a fight with the PCs, and gave 10 bucks to do so. The description of the man isn't Barnes nor Johnny-- the stranger was short and fat with dirty blond hair, etc.

Anyway, whether the PCs get that extra detail or not, at the end of the fight (if they win), a pretty woman comes up. She says that her name is Dora Phillips, and that she had a few dates with Johnny Evans during a period when she was trying to make her main boyfriend jealous (it worked-- they've been together ever since, with no bad feelings toward anyone for the little "deception d'amour").

In any event, Dora (who, incidentally, if asked, says she has NOT been questioned yet by Detective Barnes) directs the PCs to Mickey’s Gym, saying that it was a place Johnny liked to hang out and watch the boxers practice and try to pick the week’s upcoming winners, and that maybe someone there might know something.

If the PCs have already been to Mickey’s Gym, however, then Dora gives them a different tip—that the week Johnny disappeared, he said to her that he was thinking of not coming to the Pelican (or Joe’s, whichever) anymore. “When I asked him why not, he said that he might as well be ‘at the trainyard with the bums.’ In fact, he mentioned the trainyard twice—the second time, it was something about ‘going to meet a friend at the trainyard.’ Seemed weird to me, that he was going to meet a friend there, but it was a place he was afraid of ending up... you don’t think the friend was, um... y’know... death, do you? One of those symbolic things? He seemed kind of funny that night...”

Dora knows nothing else useful, not even with hypnosis.

IMPORTANT REMINDER: No one says that the PCs can’t sleep or eat until the case is solved! If they’ve taken damage, or maybe if it’s just late at night, remind them that it’s okay to go home and rest up and start again when they feel refreshed! Otherwise, small amounts of damage they may take can really start to build up over time!




--Mickey’s Gym
There’s a Hobo Sign marked in chalk on the exterior corner of the building that comprises Mickey’s Gym—it informs any Hobos who think to look for a sign: “Well Guarded.”

Mickey’s Gym is run by one Michael “Mickey” Doyle, an ex-racketeer who still has some connections. Doyle, these days, is also involved as a fence, storing stolen goods (mostly small things, like jewelry and precious metals) and selling them on the side—basically, money-laundering for Racketeers. Therefore, Mickey’s Gym, which is an actual, working, legitimate gym for boxers to practice, also has one or two slightly unusual rules—two large men who’ve been taught what to look for are guarding the front door and only entrance to the place, and they search anyone entering for weapons. Anyone found with them has to surrender them before they enter, and they can have them back when they leave.

Door Guards:
Forceful: +1
Agile: +1
Insightful: +1
Charming: -1
Hand-to-Hand combat: +3
Pistols: +1

Basically, if the characters try to pull any unusual tactics to get the guards to ignore their weapons, a fight will instantly break out. Both door guards are armed with pistols, and have extra bullets in their pockets. If the PCs start a fight and lose, they’ll end up in jail. If they start a fight and win, the police will show up about three minutes later, and the PCs will be in a LOT of legal trouble. Try to help them stay out of it by having the door guards explain/hint that “NO ONE upstairs has any weapons. NO ONE.”

If the PCs say they won’t go upstairs without their weapons, they’re free to go elsewhere. If they want to stash their weapons elsewhere and then return because they don’t trust that they’ll get their weapons back, that’s fine. Anyone without a weapon is allowed upstairs without having to answer any unusual questions. (The door guards don’t bother with an Orphan’s slingshot-- they just sort of sneer at it and let the owner keep it. Knives and other sharp weapons, on the other hand, are not allowed.)

So, if weapon-less (except for slingshots and/or blunt weapons) PCs head upstairs, they’ll reach the main gym floor. This large area consists of three boxing rings and several punching bags and various items of exercise equipment. There will be about a dozen boxers around, and three coaches or trainers, and Mickey Doyle.

Boxers:
Forceful: +2
Agile: +1
Insightful: 0
Charming: 0
Hand-to-Hand combat: +2

Coaches/Trainers:
Forceful: 0
Agile: 0
Insightful: +1
Charming: 0
Hand-to-Hand combat: +2


Mickey Doyle:
Forceful: 0
Agile: 0
Insightful: +1
Charming: 0
Hand-to-Hand combat: +2

Mickey Doyle is a large, bald man with a bushy mustache who chain-smokes foul-smelling cigars. When the PCs come upstairs, he goes to his office, a small room in the back, and closes the blinds.

Not long after the characters start asking questions, or if they try to enter Doyle’s office, some of the boxers start a fight with the PCs. Again, it should only be a number appropriate to how many good combat fighters there are in the PCs’ party.

If non-fighting PCs enter Doyle’s office, he’ll come out and watch the fight with the PC. He refuses to answer any questions until the fight is over. If anyone tries any unusual persuasion tactics on him, he will join the fight against the PCs.

If the PCs lose the fight (that is, if the boxers and/or Doyle defeat the combat-oriented PCs, and any others who may join the fight—if non-combat-type characters don’t fight, they won’t be attacked), Mickey will have the PCs thrown out by the boxers present, telling them that if they’re looking for Johnny, his favorite watering hole was the Pelican (or Joe’s), and that they should ask there.

If the PCs WIN the fight, Doyle will answer questions (about Johnny only). He doesn’t know what happened to Johnny, only that the last time Johnny came in, he didn’t seem to be enjoying himself as much as usual, seemed kind of sad or troubled, and mentioned the trainyard a couple of times. If the characters haven’t been there yet, he also mentions/confirms that the Pelican (/Joe’s Bar and Grill) was Johnny Evans’ favorite hangout. Doyle really doesn’t know anything else useful.

If the PCs somehow rob Doyle of the valuables he’s storing, they’ll have to fence it themselves, which will be troublesome, plus they’ll have earned themselves a permanent enemy of the city’s Racketeers. This is also true if they interfere with his operations in any way (for example, find out about them and then report them to the authorities).

There is really nothing to learn about Johnny Evans by breaking into the gym at night, nor at Doyle’s house. If the PCs try talking to Doyle when he’s not at the gym, he’ll feel threatened and start a fight with them, drawing a pistol immediately. Upstairs in the gym, however, he doesn’t carry a weapon, just like everyone else.

When the PCs leave the gym building, no matter what, they are given their weapons back if they had any on their way in.



--The Trainyard:

By now, the PCs should have gotten the idea to investigate the trainyard. A reporter's sources of gossip, as well as any other information-gathering methods (including just asking around), will easily tell the PCs that a young man who likes to drink must have been referring to not wanting to become one of the drunken hoboes and forgotten men who hang out at the trainyard, gathered around steel barrels with fires inside, keeping warm during cold nights. There’s a particular spot that’s known for this, and the PCs can go there.

--There are Hobo Signs marked in chalk on the concrete walls that lead to the trainyard-- they inform any Hoboes who think to look for signs: “Here Is The Place. Guards not active.”

Down here, the PCs can ask questions of the hoboes who are standing or sitting around drinking cheap bootleg liquor. For once, the PCs can get a few answers before any fighting starts.

--Hobos have seen the picture of Johnny-- he was here once or twice about five months ago, but they can’t remember anything else about what he might have been doing here.

--The hobos don’t know what happened to Johnny.

--The hobos don’t actually know anything about Barnes, nor who he is, other than "a guy who came here once or twice about five months ago."

However, after the PCs find a hobo who remembers that Johnny has been to the trainyard before, more hoboes overhear, and come forward quickly, talking loudly to one another: “These are the people the fat man said might come! Use the gun! Use the gun!”

One of the hoboes has been given a gun by the short, fat man with dirty blond hair, with 6 bullets in it. He’s already used two bullets, however, shooting at rats for target practice. The short man said they didn’t have to kill the PCs, but that the hoboes should attack them if they showed up, and use the gun to wound at least one of them (preferably in the arm or leg), so they would give up looking for Johnny Evans.

Of course, target practice or not (the hoboes were unable to hit any rats), even the hobo with the gun won’t be able to choose exactly where his bullets hit, if they do hit at all.

Once the Hobos run out of bullets, the hoboes get scared and attempt to run away.

There is one hobo with a gun (the gun is untraceable). How many more hoboes attack depends on how many PCs are the type who are good at combat. If one, there’s just the hobo with a gun, and his friend, but his friend is too cowardly to fight, mostly hiding behind the hobo with a gun (his name is Larry). If there are two PCs who’re the sort that are good at combat, Larry has a commensurate number of friends who help him fight-- until Larry runs out of bullets.

Larry, the pistol-packin’ Hobo:
Forceful: 0
Agile: +1
Insightful: +1
Charming: 0

Larry’s friend/friends:
Forceful: 0
Agile: +1
Insightful: -1
Charming: -1
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:51, Sun 13 Aug 2023.

So, this fight can end in one of a few ways:

--The Hobos somehow manage to knock out all the PCs. This is unlikely, but it could be remotely possible if the PCs haven’t rested enough. If this happens, the PCs wake up damaged and feeling terrible at the trainyard. Friendly hobos have been watching over them. The friendly hobos say that they feel sorry for the PCs, so they watched over them while they were unconscious. The hobos then tell the PCs that they’ve found one of their number who just arrived (he was at the charity soup kitchen having a meal), who remembers Johnny better than the rest. He says that Johnny drove a nice black automobile, and that at one point Johnny met a man here at the trainyard. The new hobo (his name is Jonesy) says that the other man and Johnny walked off together, and that hours later, the other man came back with two other men, one of them a short, fat man with dirty blond hair, and the tallest man and the short, fat man told the third man that they would be “driving the car to the scrapyard—the one with the drainage pipe-- and leaving it there.”

Aside from the short, fat man, the hobo didn’t get a good look at what any of the men looked like—and even then, he could only see his vague outline and hair color.


--If the PCs hold off the attacking hobos until Larry runs out of bullets, the hobos get scared and try to run away. If the PCs pursue them, they have one chance-- the pursuing PC with the highest Agile score can make a roll. If he makes it, he catches one of Larry’s friends (or Larry, if Larry was the lone attacker), who can tell the story of how Larry was given the gun and five dollars in order to attack the PCs and wound them and scare them into giving up their search. Larry promised to share the money with any of his friends who helped (if Larry was alone, “they wuz all too chicken). Neither Larry nor his friends know the short, fat man, nor how to get in touch with him. The short, fat man promised 10 more dollars to Larry (and his possible compatriots) if the PCs gave up their search... but now Larry/his friend thinks the short, fat man will never return to the trainyard (and he’s right).


If the PC who attempts to catch a fleeing attacking Hobo fails, the hobo/s all get away onto the next-to-last car of a departing freight train. Afterwards, friendly hobos come up and give the previously-mentioned information designed to lead the PCs to Jim’s Scrapyard, a wreckingyard/junkyard on the north side of town.


Remember, by the way, that unless the PCs just completely lose the fight, which is unlikely, they can keep the untraceable gun for their own use (although since it’s untraceable, they’ll be in trouble if a cop catches them with it).



--The Junkyard

Any sort of investigation will quickly enough lead the PCs to decide that the best choice for investigation is Jim’s Scrapyard, a junkyard/wrecking yard on the north side of town that also has a large (six feet in diameter) drainage pipe in back of it, leading to a dirty stream. The weather is turning cloudy and dark (no matter what time of day the characters arrive).

There’s a wooden fence around Jim’s Scrapyard, but it’s old and in bad repair—there are at least two places where someone can squeeze through the boards, even if they’re pretty big.

--There are Hobo Signs marked in chalk on the outside of the fence—they inform any Hobos who think to look for signs: “No bad dogs here, but not a good place to rest. A crime happened here.”

Jim Stanhope is the owner of the junkyard. He’s not an evil man, but the short, fat man did pay him to let them put Johnny Evans’ car in the back of the place, near the drainage pipe, and to say nothing to anyone about it. He won’t say so if asked, but if the players successfully use some sort of unusual techniques (Intimidate, for example, or Street Interrogation), he’ll fess up. It was just hiding a car... who would be really harmed by that? He has no idea it has anything to do with Johnny Evans, or what’s become of Johnny, or indeed who Johnny Evans is. He does not know the name or identity of the short, fat man, nor how to find him, but he thinks he might be a Racketeer. This is, however, only a suspicion (though he’s right).

However, what has happened is that not only did the short, fat man and his companions drive the car to the back of the scrapyard (a good third of a mile away from the shack at the front of the junkyard where Jim’s “office” is), they dumped Johnny’s body in the drainage pipe that leads to the stream behind the junkyard.

Investigating the junkyard will turn up Johnny’s car in the back, by the drainage pipe. (The keys to it are under the driver’s seat.) It’s been wiped down of fingerprints, and there’s not much of interest about it that’ll help solve the case (yet).


The drainage pipe, on the other hand, is an entirely different story. Rainwater in the back half of the junkyard slopes downwards toward this pipe, which has a grate covering it on each end. The end inside the junkyard, however, has rusted out to the point that someone was able to remove it, and move it to the side. Currently, there hasn’t been any rain for long enough that the inside of the pipe is dry.

Johnny’s skeleton, and any other scraps of hair or clothes that remain, is against the grate at the bottom of the 75-foot-long pipe. Johnny, however, is not about to let anyone near his body until the murderer has been found. If anyone tries, Johnny will break the windows and mirrors on his car, and will use them as floating weapons.

The Ghost of Johnny Evans:
Insightful: +2
Charming: 0

The shards of glass and mirror fly around and do 1 point of damage each, but if the party foolishly keep trying to remove the body, they become more dangerous and start doing 1d3 points each. Characters do not get a chance to dodge. There is no way to fight back against Johnny’s attacks-- he will even ignore the songs of Bluesmen/Blues Singers until the PCs bac away from his remains.

A Spiritualist would be handy to have right now-- he or she will now instantly be able to communicate with Johnny Evans (without actually entering the pipe, even, meaning Johnny won’t mistake their communication for an attempt to disturb his remains), and can report the whole story-- Johnny came into contact with Father Aldridge one night while slightly inebriated, and found out that ever since Johnny's mother died, Father Aldridge had become the new head pastor at St. Stephen’s Cathedral, where his mother took the family to worship. Father Aldridge offered to buy Johnny a meal, which Johnny accepted. Talking to the personable and insightful Father Aldridge, Johnny quickly came to respect the priest, and to get religion-- Father Aldridge soon took Johnny down to see the hoboes at the trainyard, and pointed out that a life built around strong drink and gambling inevitably led one to become one of them, and Johnny listened. Johnny decided to change his ways, but one thing bothered him-- his conscience. To make a clean break, Johnny decided to come clean about the various underworld activities he had become aware of over the years-- bootlegging, figures involved in the Rackets-- and decided to go to the authorities. The day after Johnny visited his old room at the mansion, he arranged to meet with a member of the police force at the trainyard, because he had heard rumors that one or two cops were taking bribes from the Rackets to overlook certain crimes.

Unfortunately, the person he arranged to meet with was also secretly the dirtiest cop in town: Detective Gabriel Barnes, up to his eyebrows in bootlegging schemes with a local Racketeer, one Brian “Shorty” Sullivan-- the short, fat man with dirty blond hair. Leading Johnny away from the trainyard, Barnes killed Johnny, then called Sullivan for help in disposing of the car and the body, as an eavesdropping hobo overheard.

Johnny now wants Barnes confronted and brought to justice (or dead, whichever) (and the same goes, although a little less intensely, for “Shorty” Sullivan). Johnny won’t allow anyone to move his body until this happens. Johnny wants the PCs to confront Barnes and make him confess-- or perhaps to force Barnes to come to the drainage pipe so Johnny can take revenge himself, since Johnny cannot leave the area in/near the pipe. Johnny urges the characters to talk to Father Aldridge for confirmation if they need it.

Now, if the PCs DON’T have a Spiritualist with them, they’ll have to use a little deduction about what Johnny wants. They’ll probably look in the pipe, find the body, discover that Johnny is haunting the area, and exit the pipe to plan their next move. At that time, they’ll notice (don’t even bother to make them do an Insightful check) that words have now been scratched onto the side of Johnny’s car (facing the drainage pipe):

FATHER ALDRIDGE WILL HELP ME FIND JUSTICE
THEN I CAN REST

Any kind of research or fact-finding will turn up that Father Spencer Aldridge is the current head of the Evans’ family’s place of worship (he runs the church’s soup kitchen, too). Talking to Father Aldridge will bring out that Father Aldridge had convinced Johnny to change his life, that Johnny had entered confession and told Father Aldridge that he knew a lot about certain activities involving the city’s criminal underworld, and that he was thinking of telling the police, which of course Father Aldridge encouraged as a moral course of action, if Johnny was prepared to face the personal risk such an action might bring... and that was the last Father Aldridge heard of him.

Keep in mind that Father Aldridge had no conception of who Johnny was-- Johnny never gave his first or last name. Also, Robertson Evans hasn’t been to church for a few years-- church-going was more his late wife’s practice than his own. So for all Father Aldridge has known, the anonymous young man he was counseling had no previous connection to St. Stephen’s, and decided to start a new life by leaving town instead of by making an enemy of the Rackets. Or, perhaps, to simply stay in town, stop drinking, and live a quiet life. Aldridge has prayed that the young man hadn’t gotten himself killed (but he did).

So, to put it in a nutshell, if the PCs have a Spiritualist in their team, they now know that Johnny Evans is dead, that Barnes and some men who were probably Racketeers killed him, and that Johnny feels that Father Aldridge can help him find justice.

They will now most likely either go looking for Barnes, or go looking for Father Aldridge. If they go and tell their story to Robertson Evans first, he will insist that the PCs go find and talk to Father Aldridge before they do anything else.

If the PCs go to the police besides Barnes, the police won’t believe them, no matter what--it’s the word of a ghost against an experienced police detective. They might even immediately be held for questioning. Any cops sent to investigate the junkyard will, coincidentally, be taking money from Racketeers, and will come back and report that there was no scratched-up car and no body in the drainage pipe, because they’ll have moved the car elsewhere and re-attached the grate on the drainpipe. Robertson Evans will then see to it that they get out of jail (without a body reported found, there’s nothing to hold them on), and he’ll insist that they go find Father Aldridge.

On the OTHER hand, if the PCs DIDN’T have a Spiritualist along, then all they know is that Johnny is dead, angry, and trying to get the PCs to find Father Aldridge-- they won’t even have any idea that Barnes is responsible yet, NOR that some members of the police force may be corrupt and working with the Racketeers. Therefore, if they go to old Mr. Evans, he’ll tell them to go to Father Aldridge...

However, if they go to the police, they’ll find Barnes first, who will say that he’s been hearing rumors about something going down in the criminal underworld, that he feels that the PCs must have shaken something loose, and that he’s ready to take whatever they have to say seriously. If they tell him all they know, he’ll act amazed, and he’ll want to go with them immediately to go find Father Aldridge. If they don’t trust him (as indeed they won’t, if a Spiritualist talked to Johnny), he’ll try to arrest them for obstruction of justice, saying he feels they know information that could break the case-- and that if they won’t tell him, they must somehow have something to hide. Then they’ll be arrested, or else they’ll fight back and more cops will arrive and they’ll be in even bigger trouble, or else they’ll run away and have an APB put out on them (in other words, the cops will be after them now).

What all this means is that the PCs are either:
--1. Going to go find Father Aldridge
--2. Going to go find Father Aldridge with Barnes in tow
--3. Going to jail for fighting/resisting Barnes
--4. #1, but with the cops on their trail.

Let’s hope they choose #1 or #2. If they choose #3, try to arrange it so that Robertson Evans gets them out on bail, and then immediately sends them to go find Aldridge. At least at this point in the story, there’s a way to get the game back on track without too much trouble if the characters get themselves arrested for something more than just suspicion of something.

--Finding Father Aldridge:

When the PCs (with or without Barnes) ask for Father Aldridge at St. Stephen’s Cathedral, they are told that he’s currently inspecting the construction site of the new orphanage out on the south side of town. (If it’s the middle of the night, there’s no one at the church—they’ll have to go to his home to wake him up, and instead, they’ll find a note on his front door, which reads: “I’LL BE RIGHT BACK-- I’M AT THE CONSTRUCTION SITE OF THE NEW ORPHANAGE—FATHER T. ALDRIDGE.” This is written on stationary that has the address of the new orphanage on top that he’s had printed up-- he went out to inspect it, sat down for a moment to rest, and fell asleep, so he’s still out there. If the PCs don’t rush out there, he calls in to work the next morning and tells his staff that he’s staying at the site for the day to supervise some problems with the construction crew, so no matter what happens, the PCs will only find Aldridge at the construction site.)

The church has no hobo signs-- maybe the hobos feel that everything a hobo would need to know about it (and its adjacent soup kitchen) are obvious. (Aldridge’s house has Hobo Signs, though, which read: “A priest lives here. Kind man, will tell you where to get food,” meaning the soup kitchen.)

--Actually Finding Father Aldridge:

The construction site isn’t quite what you’d call out in the country, but it’s certainly outside of the conveniences of the city proper. There’s a pay phone two blocks away, though, which is where Aldridge or the construction crew has been calling the church from if needed. Mostly what’s out in this part of the county are small farms. (Incidentally, there are no Hobo signs on the new orphanage or the adjacent gymnasium-- it’s brand new, for goodness’ sake.)

Father Spencer Aldridge is a small man with a strong jaw (but he’s certainly not fat, and has reddish-blond hair).







Father Spencer Aldridge:
Muscle: 12
Leg: 11
Hand: 13
Ribcage: 13
Brain: 12
Eye: 14
Jaw: 16
Mouth: 15
Hand-to-hand combat +1

If the PCs arrive at the construction site during the day, they find that Aldridge is the only person on the entire site, happily dribbling a basketball inside the brand-new basketball court in the gymnasium. “Hello, friends! Look, isn’t the place beautiful? The workers just finished half an hour ago, and so they’ve all left! Now it’ll be the work of the parish to move in the beds, the tables and chairs, and to unpack all these crates of sports equipment and other things...”

If they arrive at night, he’s still the only person there, sitting against one wall inside the unlocked gymnasium, asleep. When woken, he sheepishly but proudly explains that he just had to shoot a few baskets in the gymnasium now that it’s been completed, and wore himself out so much that he must have dozed off afterwards (there’s still a lot of crates of sports equipment and wooden tables stacked around the place over to the side).

The PCs, of course, will explain about their mission, about Johnny Evans and his ghost and his mortal remains. Father Aldridge is stunned to realize that the young man was the missing Johnny Evans, whose family used to go to St. Stevens, he’s terribly saddened to find out that Johnny is dead, and he’s incredibly angry when he grasps that criminals must have killed Johnny because he wanted to turn them in and reveal their illegal deeds to the authorities.

At this point, more men enter the gymnasium—either Barnes and “Shorty” Sullivan, or else Sullivan and a henchman. Each new arrival (well, except for Barnes, who just has a pistol (which is untraceable) has (an also-untraceable) machine gun! They’re also carrying one pistol each, with six bullets in each.

Brian “Shorty” Sullivan, Racketeer:
Muscle: 9
Leg: 10
Hand: 11
Ribcage: 12
Brain: 12
Eye: 14
Jaw: 16
Mouth: 15

Here are the stats for Sullivan’s henchman, if you need them:

Racketeer (Sullivan’s Henchman)
Muscle: 10
Leg: 10
Hand: 11
Ribcage: 11
Brain: 10
Eye: 11
Jaw: 11
Mouth: 8

As they enter near the end of Father Aldridge reacting with shock to the end of the sad tale of Johnny Evans, each PC gets one Eye check to see if he or she detects the bad guys coming in the main door (Doughboys get a +1 bonus to this check). If so, then they can attempt to warn everyone to get behind the nearby stacked crates and wooden tables for cover before any shooting starts. Or, perhaps a little less wisely, they can attempt to shoot first.


Here’s what can happen next:

--A PC makes check, shouts to take cover: All the PCs and Father Aldridge jump/push each other behind the cover of the crates and tables (perhaps pushing a table or two on its side so that the top/s are facing Sullivan and Barnes). Barnes and Sullivan then open fire, but the PCs and Aldridge now have good cover...

“It’s a good thing we were discreetly following them, Sullivan,” says Barnes after a moment, who has his pistol out and is also holding the PCs at bay. “You agree it all has to end here, right?”

“Yes... more than you realize, Barnes. I’m afraid that the padre, here, is a little too beloved in this town for me to just bump off with impunity. I’m going to have to pin the deaths of these poor souls—as well as that of Johnny Evans—on the dirtiest cop in town, who’s about to die in a firefight whilst trying and failing to cover up his misdeeds—namely you, Barnes.”

A shocked Barnes (if anyone is peeking) slowly starts to point his pistol in Sullivan’s direction. “What—what’re you—Sullivan, you can’t be...”

There’s nothing the PCs can do in time to stop machine-gun fire from hitting Gabriel Barnes—he’s certainly no longer a threat to anyone.

“That’s a terrible shame. They’ll never get the blood off of this nice new floor,” quips Sullivan. “And I’m about to spill so much more of it, too...”


--A PC makes check, shouts to take cover, but Barnes arrived with them: All the PCs and Father Aldridge jump/push each other behind the cover of the crates and tables (perhaps pushing a table or two on its side so that the top/s are facing Sullivan). They then realize, however, that Barnes has his pistol out, but isn’t behind cover nor firing at the bad guys—he’s got his pistol aimed at the PCs, and he can see them/aim at them perfectly!

“We’ll have to kill them,” says Barnes. “They just told the good Father here everything, and it turns out that he’s the Father-Confessor of the late Johnny Barnes—if he doesn’t know our names already, he’s certainly got enough to put us away now—and to get us mixed up in murder, to boot.”

“I wish it was that simple, Gabriel,” says Sullivan to a shocked and suddenly-tense Barnes. “The padre there is too beloved a man in this town to just blow away—without a fall guy. No, the story the papers will print—as soon as someone explains it to them—is that one of these investigators killed Johnny Evans—who cares why—and signed up to investigate the murder so as so find some other patsy to take the fall for them. They came here because they found out that Johnny spilled his guts to the padre. Fortunately, Detective Barnes, attempting to save the padre, shot them all in self-defense. Sadly, although he’ll kill all of the dirty murderers, Detective Barnes will fail to save the priest, and will, himself, also die in the ensuing firefight.”

Barnes starts backing away toward the back of the gymnasium, away from Sullivan. He also starts slowly raising his pistol in Sullivan’s direction. “If—if you think, Sullivan, that—“

There’s nothing the PCs can do in time to stop machine-gun fire from hitting Gabriel Barnes—he’s certainly no longer a threat to anyone.

“That’s a terrible shame. They’ll never get the blood off of this nice new floor,” quips Sullivan. “And I’m about to spill so much more of it, too...”


--No PC notices Sullivan’s arrival: “Everyone freeze—don’t make a move,” says Sullivan, just as Father Aldridge is finished reacting to the PC’s story. “That’s all I needed to hear.”

“It’s a good thing we were discreetly following them, Sullivan,” says Barnes, who has his pistol out and is also holding the PCs at bay. “You’ve heard enough?”

“More than enough, Barnes. But I’m afraid that the padre here is a little too beloved in this town for me to just bump off with impunity. I’m going to have to pin the deaths of these poor souls—as well as that of Johnny Evans—on the dirtiest cop in town, who’s about to die in a firefight whilst trying and failing to cover up his misdeeds—namely you, Barnes.”

A shocked Barnes slowly starts to point his pistol in Sullivan’s direction. “What—what’re you—Sullivan, you can’t be...”

Father Aldridge suddenly pushes and shoves the PCs behind the cover of the stacked crates and wooden tables. “Take cover! NOW!”

The PCs get to momentary safety, but there’s nothing the PCs can do in time to stop machine-gun fire from hitting Gabriel Barnes—he’s certainly no longer a threat to anyone.

“That’s a terrible shame. They’ll never get the blood off of this nice new floor,” quips Sullivan. “And I’m about to spill so much more of it, too...”


--No PC notices Sullivan’s arrival, but Barnes arrived with them: “Everyone freeze—don’t make a move,” says Sullivan, just as Father Aldridge is finished reacting to the PC’s story. “That’s all I needed to hear.”

“It’s a good thing you were discreetly following, Sullivan,” says Barnes, who has his pistol out and is also holding the PCs at bay. “You heard enough, eh?”

“More than enough, Barnes. But I’m afraid that the padre here is a little too beloved in this town for me to just bump off with impunity. I’m going to have to pin the deaths of these poor souls—as well as that of Johnny Evans—on the dirtiest cop in town, who’s about to die in a firefight whilst trying and failing to cover up his misdeeds—namely you, Barnes.”

A shocked Barnes slowly starts to point his pistol in Sullivan’s direction. “What—what’re you—Sullivan, you can’t be...”

Father Aldridge suddenly pushes and shoves the PCs behind the cover of the stacked crates and wooden tables. “Take cover! NOW!”

The PCs get to momentary safety, but there’s nothing the PCs can do in time to stop machine-gun fire from hitting Gabriel Barnes—he’s certainly no longer a threat to anyone.

“That’s a terrible shame. They’ll never get the blood off of this nice new floor,” quips Sullivan. “And I’m about to spill so much more of it, too...”

--A PC makes check, and prepares to attack with a weapon: The PC hears a pistol cocked at his or her head—Barnes has his pistol out and has it cocked at the PC’s head at point-blank range. “Lower your weapon,” says Barnes, “You’ve forced me to reveal where my allegiance truly lies.”

Don’t give the PCs a chance to see if they can fake Barnes out—tell them before they can say or do anything else, Sullivan’s next words catch their attention and forestall doing or saying anything else: “It’s a shame I’ll have to kill you after you’ve been so useful, Barnes,” says Sullivan.

Then you can proceed as described elsewhere on this page:

A shocked Barnes slowly starts to point his pistol in Sullivan’s direction. “What—what’re you—Sullivan, you can’t be...”

Sullivan concludes: “The padre here is a little too beloved in this town for me to just bump off with impunity. I’m going to have to pin the deaths of these poor souls—as well as that of Johnny Evans—on the dirtiest cop in town, who’s about to die in a firefight whilst trying and failing to cover up his misdeeds—namely you, Barnes.”

Father Aldridge suddenly pushes and shoves the PCs behind the cover of the stacked crates and wooden tables. “Take cover! NOW!”

The PCs get to momentary safety, but there’s nothing the PCs can do in time to stop machine-gun fire from hitting Gabriel Barnes—he’s certainly no longer a threat to anyone.

“That’s a terrible shame. They’ll never get the blood off of this nice new floor,” quips Sullivan. “And I’m about to spill so much more of it, too...”


--And now that Barnes is dead—the fight.
So now, whatever just happened, the PCs and Aldridge are behind good cover, and Barnes is dead, but Sullivan and one henchman (or just Sullivan by himself) is holding a machine gun that still has ammo in it on the PCs, hoping one of them will foolishly stick his or her head up.

There is one hitch in all this—if the PCs thought to leave one or more of their number to stand guard outside. So, let’s pause to deal with that: First of all, if they’re alone, then Sullivan and Barnes sneak up on the PC, perhaps with Barnes distracting the PC guard. Then, at machine-gun-point, Sullivan and/or henchman and/or Barnes and/or nobody makes the guard or guards enter the building, and go stand with the others, at which point things proceed as above. If Barnes is with them, he’ll try to be the one who stands guard, or tries to talk them into not placing a guard (“An armed person standing outside a construction site for no good reason is going to be pretty suspicious, really... no one knows we’re here... damn, I barely know where we are. Let’s not attract attention to ourselves...”) From there, proceed as best seems to fit the above scenarios.

Now that that’s settled—what Sullivan (and his henchman, if any) haven’t realized is that behind the stacked crates, where the PCs and Aldridge can see it (and get to it without breaking cover), but Sullivan (and henchman, if any) can’t, is a side door to the gym.

What the PCs don’t know about Aldridge, but will find out presuming they get out of this alive, is that Father Tracy Aldridge, himself, has quite an interesting past—Aldridge himself was once the son of a criminal, and was raised on adventures selling bootleg liquor, hiding from the police, and tales of his father killing to stay on top. When his father was put in prison for life, though, Aldridge vowed never to be like his father, and worked hard in school to join the priesthood. ...However, this interesting background means that, while he doesn’t get a special bonus to use it, well...

Father Aldridge has a shotgun in the trunk of his car.

He last used it to go and get a young boy away from his parents when his older brother told Aldridge that their father was abusing them. The bruises and scars on the boys was enough for the authorities to make the children wards of the state, and to put the father in prison for a long time. What’s more, the shotgun and a box of shells are still in the trunk of Aldridge’s car, a fact he’s just remembered.

They’ll have this explained to them later—for now Aldridge simply whispers this one fact to the PCs, and his plan: he wants to quietly leave out the side door, while the PCs try to keep Sullivan talking (which will ensure that Sullivan doesn’t realize they’ve ALL gone out the side door).

From here, GM, you’ll have to play it by ear. The most satisfactory ending ends with Aldridge exiting through the side door, getting his shotgun, and blasting Sullivan (you don’t have to roll to see if it will hit if you don’t want to—Sullivan isn’t far from the door, so it’ll hit if you want it to).

A reminder:
--Shotgun: 2d6 points.
--Tommy gun/Machine gun: 3d6 points.

The shotgun will do double damage at point-blank range, which is what the first shot will be from Aldridge’s shotgun if his plan is followed. On the other hand, if Sullivan is there with his henchman, Aldridge won’t go for the double damage—since it’s a shotgun, he’ll try to hit both bad guys. He’ll hit Sullivan, who’s closest, guaranteed, but he’ll have to actually roll a Hand roll (with a -1 penalty) to see if he can catch them both in the same blast. If Aldridge makes the hand roll (with a -1 penalty), each bad guy will get 2d6 points of damage. If he fails it, only Sullivan will take 2d6 points of damage, the henchman, nothing. After his initial blast, Aldridge, without any cover, will jump back outside, and will blast, again, the first person carrying a machine gun who comes through the door. If that does happen, he’ll probably have positioned himself to duck back around the side of the building, and so forth.

Now that Barnes has been taken out, Sullivan’s machine gun (and the henchman’s, if he’s here) will run out of bullets after each one is fired for 3 more rounds.

How will the rest of the fight go down? You’ll have to work that out amongst yourselves. Play Aldridge as a helpful NPC, who’s ready to cooperate if anyone has a better plan.

We don’t know what that would be, exactly, but we can guess—for example, a Bluesman might start playing a song to distract the bad guys, and if properly successful, it could freeze the bad guys in their tracks, allowing the good guys to get in one free shot at them—but as soon as they take damage, the bad guys will be able to ignore the effects of the song, so the good guys had better make it count.

Or perhaps a PC with an extremely high Hand score will want to try some sharpshooting and try popping up/out from behind cover and shooting one of the bad guys in the hand, since a machine gun is a two-handed affair. This can be attempted with a -10 penalty. A score within 5 points of the target goal will count as a hit, but not in the hand. Example: A Doughboy with a pistol and a Hand score of 17 attempts to shoot Sullivan in the hand. He rolls: 9. The 10 point penalty means the score is 19, but that’s within 5 points of having made it normally (19-5 is only 14), so Sullivan takes 1d6 damage—but not in the hand. The Doughboy had better stay behind cover, because unless Sullivan just lost enough health points to need (and fail) a Rib consciousness check, there’s a chance of the Doughboy taking some machine gun damage from Sullivan shortly...

--Since Aldridge is not a PC, he cannot make a speech to attempt to shame the bad guys into stopping what they’re doing, like a PC Revivalist might, and frankly, it wouldn’t work on these particular guys anyway (hardened criminals who just killed a cop in an orphanages’ gym, and a priest is next on the agenda? Come on!). The same goes for, for example, a Flapper’s powers of feminine persuasion (getting them to spare HER, maybe. Getting them to just let everyone go? Not a chance), nor the fast-talking of a Gambler, nor can a Tycoon Throw Money At this particular Problem.

--Orphans are too far from the heart of the city to summon an Orphan Swarm—after all, the orphans haven’t started moving into their new orphanage yet.

--No one has died on the spot where the gym has been built, so a Spiritualist isn’t going to get any help from the spirit world—no, not even from Johnny Evans.

--Anyone wanting to just leave out the side door, get in Aldridge’s car, and drive away, may find that to be a better option than their current circumstances. The problem is that if the henchman is with Sullivan, one of them can drive and give chase while the other uses the machine gun on Aldridge’s car. If the henchman is there, Aldridge will do his best to talk the PCs out of this. Otherwise, you might be able to talk him into it.

--Sending someone (like a non-combat-oriented PC) for the pay phone isn’t the worst idea, but it’ll take way too long for reinforcements to arrive.

The best option is probably to let Aldridge go for his shotgun, to blast the bad guys once and then duck back outside, and then take advantage of the confusion to continue the firefight from behind the excellent cover of the crates and knocked-on-their-side tables.

If you knock Sullivan out, his henchman will surrender, or run for it.

If the PCs run out of ammo (and bright ideas) before Sullivan (and his henchman, if present), well, a pistol shot only does 1d6—they can just rush him. If they run out of ammo and bright ideas before the machine guns are used up, on the other hand, let Aldridge come to their rescue, popping back in the door for another blast just when Sullivan thinks he’s got the PCs right where he wants them. Then, while Sullivan (and, let us hope, the henchman, with the aforementioned get-em-both-in-one-blast trick [or better yet, if there’s no henchman) is reeling from that blast, the PCs (especially those with the highest Rib scores) can jump out and rush him, grabbing for the machine gun so as to keep him from firing it again—they SHOULD outnumber him, after all.


IN THE END:

In the end, do your best to have the PCs realistically win. If all else fails, you can have a farmer with a rifle show up and investigate all the gunfire going on around here.

Presuming the PCs can avoid dying, things can get wrapped up pretty handily in the end. Presuming Father Aldridge doesn’t get killed (he’s fairly tough), he’s an witness whose word is unassailable—the cops will believe anything he says, even if Sullivan and Barnes (and the henchman) are all dead (which really isn’t likely, the way damage works in the game, unless the PCs execute Sullivan [and the henchman] in cold blood, and just for starters, Aldridge would stop them from doing so).

With Aldridge doing the talking, no one will remotely think that the PCs are to blame for any of this mess, and the authorities can start doing a huge investigation to find out what other cops, if any, might be taking bribes from criminals.

Johnny Evans won’t fight anyone anymore who attempt to properly inter his remains in the family mausoleum. Spiritualist PCs can report that Johnny is satisfied now, and that he is with his mother, and that they are content to await Robertson Davies’ passing in a few years before all three move into the light of eternal peace that awaits them in the great beyond.

In the meantime, Robertson Evans will give the PCs 150 dollars each for helping bring the mystery to a tragic but emotionally-satisfying sense of closure (that’s about twice the monthly salary of a successful doctor, so the PCs can add a +1 to their Money score rolls for the next couple of months, or a +2 to their Money rolls for one month).

And, of course, Father Aldridge will now have time to explain to them exactly why the heck he had a shotgun in the back of his car, and who in the world the short, fat man who was arranging for the PCs to get in trouble all over town was/is (Aldridge will know that it’s “Shorty” Sullivan—he’ll know him from Barnes’ naming him, combined with Johnny’s description)...

Perhaps more importantly, the PCs have done good, made the world (and the afterlife) a better place, and should be rewarded with some development points:

--Helping Johnny Evans find eternal peace: two development points for each PC.
--Capturing Sullivan alive: two extra development points for each PC.
--Capturing the henchman, if any, alive: two extra development points for each PC (hey, human life is all of equal value).
--Keeping Father Aldridge alive: 2 extra development points for each PC.
--Not losing any of the fights they get in: 1 development point for each PC.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:35, Sun 13 Aug 2023.