TEXT: Western Seeds II
  Authors: Paul Lippincott, Scott Moore, Robert W. Thomson
  Editors: Joseph Browning and Suzi Yee
  Seed Art by Ian Armstrong
  Requires the use of the Dungeons & Dragons, Third Edition Core Books, published by Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
   
  Introduction
   
  Welcome to Seeds and to the 42nd product in the new line by 
  Expeditious Retreat Press. Seeds are story ideas, plot ideas, 
  creature ideas, adventure hooks, anything that can grow into 
  an enjoyable gaming experience. Each seed is small (only 
  a paragraph or two at most) and each Seed product will 
  be small as well (only four to fi ve pages), but just 
  like their namesakes, they have great potential when 
  provided with the right environment.
   
  We’re pleased to introduce Western I to our 
  line of Seeds products and are happy to announce 
  we’re accepting submissions for additional western 
  seeds as well as seeds for the other genres (horror, supers, 
  fantasy, sci-fi , modern, pulp,  and post-apocalyptic). Western 
  Seeds I is four pages packed with adventure ideas suitable for 
  western gaming. We received this bunch from an open call at ENworld 
  and RPGnet and we hope that you’ll be inclined to send us your seed 
  ideas for perusal and possible inclusion in future Seeds products. We’d 
  love a continual series of Seeds created by the very people who enjoy 
  reading them the most.
   
  So drop by the Expeditious Retreat website, check out our 
  submission guidelines to fi nd out more about the process, and then 
  send us your seeds. Hopefully you’ll soon be reading the latest Seed 
  containing your successful seeds. Whew! Enough with the alliteration 
  already, on to the fun!
  Joseph Browning & Suzi Yee
  A popular stagecoach line, which primarily deals with transportation 
  of passengers, is occasionally utilized for transporting valuable cargo, 
  such as banknotes or gold dust, between several small townships 
  in the area. One of the stagecoach company’s employees, 
  Bartleby Foster, has hatched a plan to rob one of these 
  “special deliveries” while it is traveling between towns. 
  Bartleby has several accomplices and has supplied 
  them with the times and routes that the coaches 
  will be traveling. His gang plans on attaching the 
  coaches, stealing all the valuables, and making the 
  attack appear to be the result of an Indian massacre. 
  Although there are a few Indian tribes in the region, 
  they are generally peaceful and keep to themselves, never 
  interfering with the towns’ affairs. A few rational individuals 
  in the townships recognize this fact right away, fi nding the attack 
  strangely uncharacteristic of the region’s tribes. Others, however, are 
  infuriated and are looking to gather parties together to go raid the Indian 
  camps in retaliation for the crime. Bartleby, of course, agrees that this is 
  a good plan and speaks up the idea any chance he gets.
  The 1836 smallpox epidemic rages throughout the Upper Missouri 
  River country, yet the Assiniboine insist on coming to Fort Union to 
  trade buffalo robes for guns and tobacco. Can the PCs convince the 
  friendly but suspicious tribe to stay away for their own safety?
  
  An aging Ohio River boatman and knife fi ghter has traveled West 
  in the early days of the fur trade. He takes a shine to the same young 
  Blackfoot woman a PC is married to and will go to any length to claim 
  her as his own.
  It is 1851 and Alexander Culbertson is traveling from Fort Union on 
  the Missouri River to Fort Laramie, near the Platte River for the great 
  conference and treaty session with the Plains Indians. Who will act as 
  guide for him, and hunt buffalo and pronghorn to feed the contingent of 
  Indians traveling with him?
  An attractive girl working in the local burlesque show 
  has a troubled past. Over a year ago, she shot and killed 
  a man she wrongly believed responsible for killing her 
  family. Once she realized her mistake, she went on 
  the run and changed her identity. Now, she is trying 
  to fi t into her new life and avoid being identifi ed 
  while trying to fi nd her family’s killer. All the while, 
  however, she knows there are others out there are 
  searching for her, as there is a price on her head for 
  murder. Not only for the man she killed, but for her family 
  as well, as since her disappearance, she has become the prime 
  suspect in their murder.
  A group of mean-spirited and unsuccessful prospectors have decided 
  to abandon their efforts and take over another, more successful claim by 
  force. They rough up an old prospector who has had moderate success 
  in the past and tell him they are taking over his claim, sending him away 
  on his pet burro with only a canteen of water and barely a day’s food. 
  When the ragged old prospector arrives in town, shaken and distraught, 
  and conveys his problems, several concerned individuals form a posse 
  and decide to go confront the new prospectors. The prospectors are 
  particularly well-armed, however, and have access to a substantial 
  amount of dynamite in addition to their long fi rearms.
  While relaxing in the town saloon, a verbal argument breaks out a 
  couple tables away over a card game. Although not noticeable at fi rst, 
  voices escalate to the point that the entire bar quickly realizes a fi ght 
  might be starting. Johannes Griplighter, a cantankerous scoundrel that 
  most townsfolk would classify as a professional gambler, has kicked 
  back his chair and is standing, screaming at Denton Philpot, the well-
  respected owner of the town’s general store, accusing him of cheating 
  at cards. Denton has, of course, just won the pot for the second time, 
  and remains seated, stuttering and stammering while declaring his 
  innocence. Johannes is armed, although he has not yet drawn his pistol, 
  which lies holstered at his hip. The characters have one round to act 
  before Johannes fl ies across the table and starts a fi stfi ght with Denton. 
  Depending on how the situation plays out, it is quite possible that 
  those within the bar will notice additional playing cards 
  falling out of Denton’s sleeves should he get injured or 
  roughed up.
  Dinosaur bones have been discovered in Wyoming! 
  Great, huge beasts that once walked the earth! Two 
  scientists from back east, one from Chicago and one 
  from New York City, are organizing parties in St. 
  Louis to retrieve the fossils, but both want to be the fi rst 
  on the scene.
  Buffalo keep using the telegraph poles along the Union Pacifi c 
  railroad in Nebraska and Wyoming as scratching posts, with the result 
  being that the poles are knocked down and the wires broken, disrupting 
  communications. The railroad is offering a reward to anyone that comes 
  up with a way to keep buffalo away from the poles.
  Sitting Bull is coming back from Canada to surrender at Fort Buford, 
  Dakota Territory. The army needs several people to go with them to the 
  Canadian border, driving wagons with supplies of food and clothing.
  
  Someone robs the Great Northern Hotel in the small cowtown of 
  Havre, Montana Territory. All evidence points to the fact that the thief 
  was none other than Pete Wolf, but the problem with that theory is that 
  Pete Wolf is sitting in prison in Deer Lodge and has been for the past 
  six months.
  The owner of the local saloon is being pressured to sell his 
  establishment to a gang of ne’er-do-wells who are currently charging 
  the owner protection money. The gang is defi nitely not looking for an 
  easy way to get into the saloon business, but is instead interested in the 
  building the saloon is housed in. Not only would it make a great hideout 
  and storage area, but they have heard rumors that the old man 
  who owned the building before it became a saloon may have 
  hidden something valuable in the walls of the building. 
  The saloon’s current owner has never heard these 
  rumors. He loves running the saloon (except for the 
  occasional gunfi ght or unruly gambler) and is terribly 
  distressed over the position he has been put in.
  The characters get hired as ranch hands at a fairly 
  large cattle ranch just on the outskirts of town. After 
  working there for several weeks, they eventually discover 
  that several of the cowboys on the ranch are actually former cattle 
  rustlers. If confronted, they claim to have served their time and to now be 
  reformed. They beg the characters not to inform the ranch owner of their 
  shady past, as they are afraid they’ll lose their jobs and this is their chance 
  to earn an honest living. Can they be trusted or do old habits die hard?
  A corrupt town assayer has been cheating clients out of their gold, little 
  by little, for quite some time. Although he has been accused of keeping 
  some of his customer’s gold dust for himself on a few occasions in the 
  past, there has never been any proof. A long time prospector who recently 
  left the town and moved to Dallas discovered that the gold dust he had 
  examined by the assayer over the past couple years had been laced with 
  sand and pyrite. He is planning on returning to the small town near which 
  he staked his claim and confronting the assayer when he gets there. The 
  assayer has been mixing his stolen gold with silver and minting his own 
  counterfeit coins and ingots to pass off at face value.
  A large band of Blackfoot suddenly attacks the unsuspecting mountain 
  men at the 1833 Green River Rendezvous.
  There is no end of trouble when a party of gold prospectors fi nds 
  the teenaged daughter of the commanding offi cer at Fort Laramie has 
  stowed away in one of their supply wagons.
  A group of train robbers have decided on a unique 
  approach. They have all booked passage and purchased 
  tickets for the train they plan to rob, and will be getting 
  on the cross-country ride at different locations. Once 
  they are all onboard, each plans to rob an individual 
  passenger car, and then head to the back of the train. 
  Once they have all reached the caboose, they will 
  separate that car from the rest of the train. The characters 
  are onboard the train, hoping to catch some well deserved 
  rest on a return tip from their latest excursion.
  A group of would-be bank robbers plans on impersonating a famous 
  gang of criminals who are still at large. They believe if they can make a 
  clean getaway, their crime will be pinned on the infamous gang they were 
  impersonating, and no one will be any wiser that they were actually a 
  gang of copycats. The robbers are actually members of the same family, 
  the majority of which live quite a distance away. One cousin, who does 
  live in the bank’s home town, works as a teller there. He will be working 
  there on the day of the heist and has already supplied his cousins with 
  layout maps and details of the bank and the surrounding area. After the 
  heist is complete, the robbers are supposed to leave their cousin’s share in 
  a predetermined location and then head back to their home town.
  
  The US government is sponsoring a land grab on a new parcel of 
  land recently acquired under a settlement with a local Indian nation. 
  This is the characters’ chance to obtain land for a ranch, farm, mine, 
  or homestead of their own. There are several other ruthless characters, 
  however, looking to obtain prime sections of land for themselves. They 
  have no qualms whatsoever about taking any necessary steps to ensure 
  they get the property they want. Mounted rangers on horseback are on 
  hand patrolling the area to witness the land grab and to enforce order but 
  they can’t be everywhere at once.
  Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer has been defeated at the 
  Battle of the Little Bighorn. Captain Grant Marsh of the steamboat 
  Far West is taking the wounded from Captain Benteen’s 
  command down the Yellowstone to Fort Buford. He 
  needs a small group of very brave people to go by 
  horseback directly east overland to Fort Abraham 
  Lincoln, Dakota Territory, and take them the news.
  The Civil War is over and more people are moving 
  west. A West Texas cattle rancher, tired of all the Eastern 
  Tenderfoots that have been arriving lately decides to head 
  north to the relatively unpopulated lands of Montana. He needs 
  several good hands to help drive his large herds of cattle and horses from 
  San Antonio all the way to the Sun River Valley of Montana.
  Lucky Strike
  Charles “Lucky Strike” McGee has got to be the luckiest prospector 
  in the West. He’s brought back gold from every single trip he’s made 
  into the hills since he fi rst arrived in town a year ago. Folks greet him 
  with a mix of respect and suspicion – if he is that good a prospector, 
  he’s one-in-a-million. Trouble is, the local land registry has no record 
  of McGee ever staking a claim. The local Sheriff can’t arrest him for 
  squatting, since there’s no evidence that he’s actually grabbed a piece of 
  land. Has ol’ Lucky Strike found some secret gold mine up in the hills? 
  Or is he getting his gold by some less lawful means, like claim jumping 
  or perhaps even worse?
  A few of the local boys mean to fi nd out, but time is short. McGee 
  is leaving in an hour on his last trip before winter sets in. Everyone is 
  quietly scrambling for equipment and supplies, but once McGee leaves, 
  that’s it. All that can be done is hope the party has enough skill and 
  supplies to discover McGee’s secrets.
  Hide and Seek
  Thomas Creel won’t be remembered by history, but he’ll never be 
  forgotten by the families of the three lawmen he gunned down in cold 
  blood. Sheriff Benton just arrived back in town with the news, 
  and is gathering up a posse to run down Creel and bring 
  him back for justice. There’s no lack of volunteers. The 
  dead lawmen were well-liked in these parts, and word 
  of the shooting is giving everyone an appetite for a 
  hanging.
   
  In fact, the Sheriff has whipped up the crowd into 
  such a frenzy that nobody seems to be considering 
  some of the more curious points of this case. Though 
  Creel was no saint, he also wasn’t the kind of man to 
  kill three people without cause. Another thing: Creel and 
  Sheriff Benton used to be close but they had a big falling out 
  two months ago. Afterwards, Creel packed up and moved out of town. 
  Nobody’s quite sure why and Benton won’t talk about it, but most 
  folks fi gure it has to do with that train robbery that happened ‘round 
  then. Rumor has it that the robbers slipped right past Creel’s posse, and 
  Benton held him responsible.
  Did Creel shoot the lawmen? He’d have to be awfully good to take 
  down all three, but if he didn’t pull the trigger, who did? Does Creel have 
  a friend or two out there with him? And why is Benton trying so hard to 
  turn the posse into a lynch mob? What is it about Creel that has Benton 
  all fi red up? Maybe there was more to the train robbery than most folks 
  thought. The only way to know for sure is to fi nd Creel before the posse 
  drags him back to the gallows for a necktie sociable.
  
  The Magnifi cent Steven
  Steven MacKutcheon is the only son of rancher “Black” Angus 
  MacKutcheon. Angus knows his son has no head for the cowboy life, 
  so instead of teaching him the ropes so he can one day take over the 
  MacKutcheon ranch, Angus sent Steven to New York for some fancy 
  schooling in the hopes that his son would fi nd success in the bustling 
  heart of Gotham.
  No such luck. Shortly after his arrival, Steven started reading dime 
  novels and fi lled his head with all sorts of romantic and glorifi ed notions 
  of the West. After a few years, Steven’s come home with the belief that 
  he’s been missing out on all the action. Unfortunately, he’s not much 
  more than a mail-order cowboy: he has all the clothes, but none of the 
  experience. Angus is at a loss, but doesn’t have time to mind the 
  boy. A dispute about the boundary between his lands and a 
  neighbor is getting very ugly, and what Angus needs now 
  more than anything else is a six-gun guardian angel or 
  two to look after Steven until the feud gets resolved. 
  The job is trickier than it sounds. Steven has a knack 
  of slipping away only to show up later where he can 
  get into the most trouble. Protecting Steven from the 
  feud is easy. Protecting Steven from everyone else 
  might well prove impossible.
  A Fist Full of Dullards
  Robbing the bank in Tumbleweed should have been easy. Walk in, 
  wave around a shooting iron, walk out with the cash. Unfortunately, a 
  bunch of complete idiots had the same idea about an hour ago. They 
  robbed the bank, led a merry chase through town, and fi nally got 
  cornered about three miles farther west – without the money. All fi ve of 
  them are in the hoosegow back in Tumbleweed, and all of them claim 
  they don’t know what happened to the bank’s money. There might still 
  be a way to get some good from this turn of events. All that has to be 
  done is bust the idiots out, get them out of town and then question them 
  in the hope that one of them was lying to the sheriff about the cash. 
  Assuming the idiots don’t have idiot friends that might try an ill-timed 
  rescue, what could possibly go wrong?
  Sinners
  Frank Malone is a self-styled missionary. He’s spent his life 
  teaching the Indians about the Good Book from a mission near the 
  treaty territory of the Ishwanee tribe. Frank is considered a decent man, 
  but most townsfolk regard the Ishwanee with suspicion. It’s no big 
  secret that there’s a deposit of silver somewhere on their land, though 
  nobody’s ever found it. Not that folks haven’t tried, but the Ishwanee 
  were very good at catching trespassers. The railway also wants to build 
  a line across Ishwanee land. It would be good news for the town, but the 
  Ishwanee so far have refused.
  This morning, the mission was set ablaze and poor Frank was 
  discovered staked out in his front yard with all manner of atrocities 
  visited on his body. The town is in shock, but already some folks 
  are talking about taking action against the Ishwanee. The 
  Sheriff is begging for calm. He’s sent for the Cavalry, but 
  it could be a day or two before any soldiers arrive. In the 
  mean time, he’s got his hands full keeping the town in 
  line. Still, there’s a mystery about who killed Frank. 
  If it was Indians, it wasn’t the Ishwanee – they’re not 
  a violent people, and certainly don’t mutilate bodies. 
  Maybe someone had a grudge against Frank, though 
  that’s hard to believe. More likely someone has a grudge 
  against the Ishwanee, and is trying to make it look like the 
  Indians violated their treaty. If that happened, the Ishwanee 
  would be rounded up and sent to a reservation, making it a lot easier 
  for someone else to use their land. Somebody’s got to fi nd out what’s 
  really going on. It won’t win them any friends, but it will right the sins 
  committed against Frank Malone and the Ishwanee.
  
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  System Reference Document Copyright 
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  liams, based on original material by E. 
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  Western Seeds II, Copyright 2006, 
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  Moore, Robert W. Thomson
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SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Deadlands [multi]/Misc/Western Seeds - 2.pdf