Mini Adventure - A St. Louis Newsie in Bucktooth.

Going to start offering up some adventures, generally one or two session sidetreks instead of full fledged campaigns. Notes on where to find the NPC writeups or which Coyote Trail character template to use for new folks are included, as well as any applicable notes on new or tweaked rules for the GM. To keep things easy for Coyote Trail GM's, I'll set most of these in Shady Gulch, Bucktooth or Maple Ridge, three towns you'll find detailed in the Coyote Trail core rules and the More Trails sourcebook. But I'll try and keep things easy to adapt to whatever setting you're using.

I prefer a campaign style that is spaghetti western realistic, and don't use a lot of Weird West fantasy or supernatural elements, or the Wild Wild West tv show type western steampunk stuff. Ideas here should work well in those kind of settings, but are not tailored to include the fantastical and supernatural elements.

A St. Louis Newsie in Bucktooth

Bucktooth, MT. 1870

A journalist named Roy Cornell has taken up a room at Marty's saloon, and introduces himself to the more cosmopolitan looking members of the PC gang. Roy claims to be a writer from St. Louis, touring Montana to research a seriess of articles on Montana for a hometown newspaper. Roy is obviously a city slicker judging by his foppish outfits and educated Victorian manner of speech. Sensing the predatory appearance of some of Bucktooth's locals, Roy offers the PCs, if they're friendly, 50 cents a day each to escort him around while he conducts his survey of the town. If the gang aren't locals, Roy will also rent a room next to his at Marty's (just 1, if they want more rooms, they'll have to foot the bill)

What Roy doesn't tell the PCs is that he's actually been hired by the Pinkertons to investigate the matter of the discrepancies in Bucktooth's postal records. If this plot hook (More Trails, pg. 12) has been resolved, Roy will be satisfied after a day or two, settle up with Marty and the PCs and catch a stage toward Deadwood and beyond.

If the campaign hasn't resolved the postal records plot yet, Roy's arrival will bring that to the PC's attention, and wrap them up in the investigation. I suggest having the thefts be the work of a two-bit criminal in town, who's attempting to use postmaster Mark Tyndall's autism to cause the blame to fall on him. Roy is just an investigator, and upon either deciding Tyndall is guilty, or uncovering the true culprit with the help of the PCs, plans to wire a message to Helena to summon backup from actual Pinkerton agents.

The villain, one Hank Sherman, is a cavalry deserter now residing at a room at the Rock Red saloon up in Maple Ridge. He's been breaking in to the Bucktooth post office at night and skimming from the safe since he stumbled upon a note postmaster Tyndall had made to remind himself of the safe combination. Sherman has just enough skill in forgery to have stumped Tyndall, who is aware of the thefts but at a loss as to who is responsible and worried that admitting to the losses or having an investigator like Roy Cornell uncover them will cost him his job, if not land him in the Helena prison.

Sherman is not nearly as clever as he thinks, and the PCs should be able to easily trail him to the scene of the crime and catch him red handed. If Roy Cornell is with them, he will run for cover and only use the derringer he carries in his coat as a last resort if in serious danger. Hank Sherman carries a sawed off shotgun while 'working' and has 6 spare shells in his duster coat pocket.

Obviously, if the PCs help clear Tyndall of the crimes, he and his brother (Sheriff Dan Tyndall) will be extremely grateful and counted as allies in town until circumstances warrant otherwise. In addition, the Pinkerton's have posted a $100 reward for whoever is stealing the post office funds, which Roy Cornell will present to the PCs after Sherman is arrested (or killed, the reward doesn't specify)

Stats for postmaster Tyndall, Sheriff Tyndall and the rest of the residents of Bucktooth and Maple Ridge are as provided in the More Trails supplement.

For Roy Cornell, use the Tenderfoot Writer template from the Coyote Trail core book. Hank Sherman uses the Orphaned Outlaw template (also from the core book), but is not an orphan and keeps an anonymous profile around town simply because he's wanted by the Army as a deserter. Reduce Hank's Stealth skill to 2 and remove composure skill entirely, but give him Forgery 2 skill.


In addition to his main reason for being in town, Roy Cornell is in fact actually an aspiring writer in St. Louis. If any of the PCs are charismatic and have exciting frontier tales to tell, he may offer them a few drinks and a few dollars to record their stories back home. Obviously, the gang's behavior while working with Roy, and their general treatment of him will highly influence their portrayal in a newspaper story or even a dime novel they might learn of much later.