Big Po - Hungry Hungry Sumotori
Michelangelo - Friendly Capoeirista
Roberto King - Murderous Dagger Fighter
Dan da Ying - Helpful Eagle-Stylist
Sweetwater Train Station
Another Black Dragon gang member retreated out of the next train car over, followed by Big Po. The old lady failed to recover from stun, and Mike and Dan kicked her to death before she could get up. Roberto failed Bloodlust and stabbed her a bunch anyway. Po tried to Judo throw the guy he was fighting, but missed, and was punched in return for no damage after Second Wind. The old lady's right hand man made a Committed Attack kick against Roberto ("I can't believe you'd attack an innocent man who just killed your boss like that"), but he retreated, breaking Teamwork formation, and successfully parried anyway.
Dan and Mike both feinted and attacked the right hand man, but he saw through their feints and parried both attacks. Po tried to grab the other thug, but he too was parried. The right hand man retaliated with a Dragon Fist to Dan's Pressure Points ("It's okay, I don't need health anymore"), and he started to suffocate. Despite shock, Dan managed to put the right hand man in a Choke Hold, and started choking him out. Though Po urged them on ("Come on, put him out of his misery!" "I can't, I might hit Dan." "Come on, put Dan out of his misery!"), Mike and Roberto just Evaluated while moving slowly forward.
The right hand man made an All-Out Attack Uppercut at Dan to free himself from the hold, but he missed and continued to suffocate, while Dan recovered from the Pressure Points attack. Mike and Roberto grievously wounded the right hand man with a kick and two knives to the neck, while Po grabbed the thug by his arm. The right hand man, now desperate, made another All-Out Attack with Flurry of Blows to make three Uppercuts to Dan's face; one got through for 10 damage, and stunned Dan in spite of Luck.
Po's thug punched his arm savagely, but the sumo ignored the injury. Dan failed to recover from stun, and Mike made a triple Rapid Strike, but only landed one kick on the right hand man. Roberto then followed up and stabbed him in the neck multiple times and continued stabbing after he went down, confirming the kill. Po snapped the thug's arm, and he failed to retaliate due to shock. From the ground, Dan looked over at the dead people he'd been fighting, then over to Po's fight, and resolved to stay down and take a break, followed by Mike.
The last thug surrendered, and Roberto questioned him at knife point. They learned that the old lady was the black dragon, the right hand man was the young dragon, that the lemonade was at Hangman's Mesa, and that he had no idea where Roberto's daughter might be. Po asked what would be the fastest way to become a folk hero, and the thug glibly replied that taking the Jade Dragon and delivering it to his allies at Hangman's Mesa would make him a hero amongst the Black Dragons.
The governor emerged from the train and congratulated the party for saving him from being kidnapped yet again, and gave everyone but Roberto medals as the band from the train disembarked and played a jaunty march. A doctor came out of the train and offered to help the wounded; the thug laughed and, in Chinese so that only Dan would understand, remarked that foolish gweilo medicine could not save anyone. Dan agreed, but then asked the doctor for liquid mercury.
The doctor said that he had no mercury, but many leeches. For some reason, nobody was interested, so he went on his way, denouncing them as "simpletons and irishmen". Roberto tried whistling for his his horse "because that's how it works", but the horse didn't show up, then Po, who hadn't been paying attention, suggested whistling "because that's how it works". That was not how it worked, and the party started a long walk back to their horses, several hours to the north.
Gila Gulch
After recovering their mounts, the party rode back to Gila Gulch to resupply on sinchu roots, and knocked on Apha's door. Nobody answered, so they decided to loiter until he showed up, and half an hour later, he walked into town with a basket full of roots, and deflated when he saw the party were already back for more. Despite this, he resupplied them, and healed Mike and Dan with chi massages (Dan: "Doc, my chakas got stabbed in the neck" Apha: "Come on man, it's chakras and that's not how they work, you should know this"). With that, the party then headed to the farmsteads to the east to stop the fourth and final gang.
The McGinty Farmstead
Riding east, the party passed by ruined farmhouse after ruined farmhouse, arrows littering the dusty pastures around them. Eventually, they spotted people working fields in the distance, and went in to the homestead to question the locals, with Roberto on point for some reason. An older man and his wife sat on the front porch, and immediately surrendered to Roberto when he approached with knives drawn, pleading that they had nothing to give him.
Mike stepped in, and said that the party weren't here to rob them, but to free them from their oppressors, at which the man apologized for his initial reaction and introduced himself as Seamus McGinty. Seamus explained that the Navajo had been coming in the dead of night and stealing his cattle and horses, and that another group, which he called the black riders, had offered to protect his livestock, but they were charging more than the stolen animals were worth.
The party replied that they would only accept food as payment, and Seamus exclaimed that if they solved his problem, they could have all the cabbages they could eat (Po: "You realize that's a lot of cabbage"). Seamus pointed them towards the Navajo camp, and directed them to another family of homesteaders, the Harrises, when asked. Mike insisted that it might not be the Navajo, and asked that they investigate more before launching an attack. the party went to talk to the Harris family before heading out to attack the Navajo.
The Harris Farmstead
The party passed more abandoned land before coming to another inhabited farmhouse, though the family looked to be packing their belongings onto a cart. Po acted first and became the de facto face, and told them to stop packing up, as he would save them from the Navajo. Harold Harris, the father, said that he appreciated the offer, but they were down to their last two horses, and were heading out to Sweetwater before they got stolen as well. Po asked more about the Navajo raids, and learned that they took place at night, and weren't regularly scheduled.
As far as numbers or anything else, though, Harris didn't know anything; it was too dark to see, and he didn't fancy his chances. One of his teenage sons, who had a black eye, piped up that the black riders had one of their horses too; he'd been tailing them back to their camp when they'd spotted him and unhorsed him before sending him back home. Roberto declared that they had clearly been acting in self defence, and accused the boy first of being dead weight, and then of stalking them.
The party decided to spend the night at the Harris farmstead, and they dug potholes, then set up some clotheslines with cord to hopefully unseat somebody if the Navajo invaded that night. Harris gave them some squash, which Po ate raw, and offered them the empty barn. The party played cards to pass the time until Roberto heard hoofbeats and faint whinnying in the distance. The party peaked out of the barn, and saw a group of riders silhouetted against the moon.
Notes:
Big Po's player's frequent absences have been explained as "the actor playing him was only on set for 3 days, so they had to work around that".
The thug thought he could free himself by punching Po's arm, but between DR1 and 28HP, his limbs take 16 damage to cripple, and he can always buy unarmed damage down with Second Wind.
As Roberto has the Quirk Cannot Put Knives Away, the players have determined that he stabs his knives into the side of his horse's head and drives it like a car.
The players technically got 3 Degrees of Failure on their default Traps roll, but I'm going to count it as a success, though the raiders will have to roll rather poorly to fail the Quick Contest.
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