GURPS Kung Fu Cowboys Session 8: The Plot Thickens

Big Po - Hungry Hungry Sumotori
Michelangelo - Friendly Capoeirista
Roberto King - Murderous Dagger Fighter
Dan da Ying -  Helpful Eagle-Stylist

The Railroad Outside Three Trees
Dan asked Wong what he was up to; Wong looked over his shoulder at him, turned to look at the party, and then started to sprint away.  Dan, with move 9, and Mike, who has Move 11, easily caught the runaway, and cut him off on a small hill above the railroad track.  Wong tried to do an Acrobatic Evade, but critically failed and fell on his face, ending the chase.  Mike casually offered to help him up, and explained that they just wanted to talk, but Wong refused and stood up on his own, taking a defensive stance.

As Roberto and Po walked over, Roberto analyzed Wong's stance and deteremined that he was Trained by a Master in Dragon-Style Kung Fu.  Wong locked eyes with Dan and tried to challenge him, but he resisted, and told the others (especially Roberto) that they needed to take this man alive.  Roberto Intimidated Wong, and convinced him to back down, which he did, falling out of his defensive stance.

Dan asked where Wong had gotten his tattoo, and he replied "China".  When pressed, he specified Guangdong Province.  Dan then asked if that was where he'd joined the Black Dragon Clan, accused him of killing Mr. Wilson, and asked for the lemonade recipe and the location of his clanmates.  Wong just said that they were nearby.  Roberto started to use Hypnotic Hands, but Wong looked away; Po moved in to grab him, but he parried the attempt.

Mike said that as far as he knew, Wong was innocent, so he would not help restrain him; Dan took a different tact, and suggested they crucify him.  Roberto noticed that several other workers, two with wooden staves, had followed them, and Po muttered"Finally!" as he finished off his food and threw his robe aside, ready for a fight.  Dan and Mike started attacking Wong, and though he parried the first three attacks, a crit from Mike made it through his defenses for 3 damage.

Roberto flanked around behind Wong to launch a triple Rapid Strike of his own, but Wong seemed to not have any more trouble than usual defending from the side.  Even so, the sheer volume of attacks overwhelmed his defenses and he took a knife to the back.  Po just All-Out Defended and walked into Wong's hex.  Wong tried to Evade between Po's legs as part of a Move and Attack, but failed; he tried to regain some dignity by launching a Flying Jump Kick, but somehow missed Po anyway.  Wong's reinforcements were too far away to do anything this turn, but next turn they'd be in range.

Dan wore down Wong's defenses with a flurry of Exotic Hand Strikes, and Mike followed with a Sweeping Kick, all of which were parried.  Roberto missed and accidentally stabbed Mike, but he managed to parry it with Luck.  The next two thrusts landed home though, and now that his defenses were entirely gone, Po grabbed Wong with an All-Out Attack (Double), though he failed a Takedown attempt.

Wong tried to Break Free, but predictably failed, and his allies closed in but none made any attacks.  Dan tried to Evade over Wong to get to his back, then got parried.  Mike continued kicking Wong, while Roberto stepped towards one of the reinforcements with a staff and feinted him only for his foe to make the parry on a 6.  Po took an All-Out Attack (Double) again, this time successfully throwing Wong to the ground, and then body slamming him.

From the ground, Wong tried an All-Out Attack to the face, but missed.  The goon squad ran in, but missed all of their attacks, and one even fell over after missing a Jump Kick; Dan made an easy Feint on the prone guy and finished him off with a Defensive Attack.  Mike and Roberto took out one unarmed mook each, and Po Pinned Wong, removing him from the fight while leaving him alive.  The two surviving reinforcements struggled with the party, but only Roberto managed to inflict any actual damage.

Po Intimidated Wong into telling his mooks to back down, and they tried to flee; one jumped over the rail tracks, while the other was slowed from his knife wounds and Dan easily grabbed him.  Mike jumped the tracks in pursuit and knocked out that guy with a Jump Kick, while Roberto ran over to kill the last thug only to miss and stab Dan instead.  Mike then jumped back over the track and into close combat to put the last thug in a Scissor Hold, just as Roberto finished him with a pair of more accurate attacks.

Interrogation
Dan commended Wong on the honourable move of trying to save his henchmen, then asked for the location of his friends.  Wong spat back that they could not save "the jade dragon" (whatever that was), and that the rest of the gang would take it when it came into town on the train in two days.  The party, content to know what the plan was, knocked Wong out and Po carried him to the lockup back in Three Trees, but the deputy there wasn't helpful.

The jail was chock full of Irish troublemakers already, and frankly, Roberto, with his Criminal Record and blood-soaked knives, looked way more guilty than Wong, an unconscious man who had clearly been stabbed.  Seeing his countrymen imprisoned set Roberto's Bad Temper off, which didn't make things better, and the deputy moved cautiously to arrest him.  Po tried to throw Wong at the deputy as a distraction, but missed, and then ran away.  Mike was able to defuse the situation with a lucky Reaction Roll, but they wouldn't be getting any help from the law.

Planning
The party retreated to plan their counter-heist; Luckily, Roberto, as a former outlaw, knew quite a bit about trains and how to heist them thanks to Streetwise.  Any valuables would likely be stored in the express carriage, immediately behind the locomotive, with one or two guards.  There would likely be several fancy carriages for the governor and other high society types, all of whom would likely have guards as well.

In terms of getting on to the train without a ticket, there were several obvious options: block the tracks so the train would be forced to stop, jump on top of the train from a hill overlooking the tracks, or ride up behind it and jump aboard.  Considering that the Black Dragons seemed to have been stealing dynamite in the work site south of Three Trees, it seemed likely that whatever they were planning would take place between it and Sweetwater.

The discussion quickly turned to how they were going to get Po on board: everybody else could easily jump on, but he had neither Acrobatics nor Jumping, and his Riding was poor.  Ultimately, they decided to jump aboard the train from an overlook, despite the risks.  They spent the next day scouting for a good location, and Mike found a suitable spot.


Notes:
There was a brief digression on whether Dan's Compulsive Behaviour: Reach Inaccessible Locations disadvantage applies to social standing as well (IE, the upper class is pretty inaccessible).  It does not.

I thank Dynasty Warriors for my amazing ability to name a Chinese province and have it actually exist.

Two mistakes were made on Wong's Flying Jump Kick attempt: you can't Evade before doing one, but you also don't get skill capped at 9.  In the end, it balanced out.

Wong was able to blend in as a civilian, despite being Trained by a Master.

Takedown no longer makes you fall down on a failure, because grappling is bad enough in this game.

Someone suggested having Po use Power Blow to stop the train, so I did the math on how much a slam from a train would do: 14d+98.  Po might be able to survive.