We got off to a slow start.  Several still needed to spend the Advancements they earned last time.  Additionally, Brian could not get the adventure cards to deal out.  He tried several things including assigning them manually but to no avail.  We also tried rebooting.  Eventually, we got going without them.  The first order of business was to help all the wounded.  Since Doc Hawthorne was just brought back to consciousness at the end of the last game, that put the Indian shaman in charge of it.  He asked that the wounded be gathered outside to get away from any residual evil vibes in the church.  However, Virgil wanted to search the evil reverend to make sure he was really dead.  And not regenerating or anything.  He did have a ceremonial dagger that when touched, felt “really wrong”.  He wrapped it up and put it in his pack.  He then decided to remove him from “his” church and brought him with him to the triage station.  There were some arguments about how far away the body needed to be for Onacona to do his thing.  It seemed rather pointless.  During all that, Onacona hadn’t tended to anyone, waiting for everyone.  But then he cast a spell to give himself a bonus to a skill for 5 rounds (+2 when he activated it with a raise) and it became clear why he was waiting.  The fact that it took more than a round to do proper doctoring was waved aside.  So finally, with wounded Doc’s assistance, he tended to Virgil, one of the Pearl Gang gals, the NPC Laura Giles, Big John, and finally Thomas.  They rolled well enough such that only Virgil was left with a wound (better than the 3).  Hawthorne still had a wound from last time.

Meanwhile, which is to say in the middle of, Phoebe Ann wandered off again.  Of course, she was unwounded as usual.  She decided to move the horses to the hotel.  While doing that, she ran across the Marshal and a couple of deputies.  They wanted to talk to Virgil and gave her a note to give to him.  She returned to the churchyard and the note said for him to meet in the graveyard.  So, everyone headed next door except Onacona who stayed with the NPC wounded.  Phoebe Ann considered getting into the church tower in case there was trouble but Thomas convinced her that without Buster, who was obsessively working on his story, she’d be the one to hopefully defuse the situation with words.  We all expected a “we said” “they said” exchange that would probably end up in a confrontation.  Sure enough, with very little talking, the Marshal and his deputies opened fire.  Turns out there were another 8-9 hiding behind tombstones and on the mausoleum roof.  Brian pointed out that he had just bought the Danger Sense edge.  However, Brian ruled (for now) that this would not stack with his Alertness so he only got a +2 and not the +4 he was expecting.  +4 seemed like an automatic success which seemed wrong to Brian but was exactly what Brian was gunning for.  Regardless, everyone got a Notice roll and only Thomas missed it and lost a round to surprise.  Looking back, we could have approached this fight with a bit more caution but since two of us were already wounded, I think we were hoping to at least delay it a bit.  A sneaking Thomas coming in from the north, for example, would have been a big help.

So, it became the “Shoot Out at the Double Tree Graveyard”.  Heroes shot and dove for cover.  Villains shot and most of them were already behind cover.  That first round, the heroes got hit several times and started burning through their fate chips.  Virgil got shot at a bunch.  The Marshal was a common target and he used all the chips on that side.  When Big John engaged him in hand to hand, he chose to beat on him with his pistol which was probably a win for us.  However, people were hesitant to fire into that melee so shots were scattered amongst the minions.  With most everyone getting +4 for cover, it slowed up.  The fact that we didn’t have any adventure cards contributed to the slugfest nature of the fight.  Those cards inject some uniqueness into things.  The initiative cards were also behaving oddly.  It seemed like each round, more of the low cards were not appearing.  By round 4, Thomas drew a Queen but went second to last.  As long as it went in random order, it didn’t really matter what cards were drawn except that it meant extra jokers.  However, the heroes didn’t get their first joker until near the end at which point several were desperate for another chip.

After one round, maybe one minion was down.  The main deputy fumbled, fell back into the mausoleum, and was never seen again.  Onacona and a couple of Pearl Gang gals got onto the map and ran into the action as best they could.  Even his owl got into it.  After another round, maybe another 1 or 2 were down.  This was going to take a while.  But it was the fate chips that mattered.  Ours ran out and he ran out.  After a couple of rounds, Thomas and Phoebe Ann started risking firing to the melee.  Thomas shook the Marshall and he had to take it.  Phoebe Ann hit him and he had to take the wound.  Hawthorne charged forward and got up against the mausoleum.  The next round, he stepped in and blew the head of the Marshall off.  He informed the minions but they disbelieved him and vowed to fight on to the death.  Heroes started to press forward as the minions started to drop.  Then they started to run but still shooting as they went.  They were all gunned down soon enough.  I think maybe only Phoebe Ann took a wound after using up all her chips on the previous hit with bad rolls.          

At this point, Brian tried to wrap up since it was late.  He wanted to move forward and start talking about long term fallout.  Several were eager to do various bits and pieces but Brian deferred those and wrapped up.  (Those bits and pieces were what most of us excepted the night to be about but the fight took longer than expected.  +4 cover, mainly.)  So, Ms. Pearl offered the Marshal job to Hawthorne who had picked the badge off the body.  He agreed.  Virgil had plans to clean up his church.  We assumed Buster would get the newspaper going again.  Thomas would sign on as a “ranger” and patrol the wilderness around town as a pseudo deputy.  It sounded like Onacona planned to grab onto a similar role.  As an ‘old ways” Indian shaman, his options were limited in town.  Phoebe Ann had previously said she wanted to work over at the theater but was silent this night.  Big John planned to stare at the mechanical organ in the bar which seemed more like a hobby.  The last order of business was for Andy to roll his ailing hindrance.  He had 3 fate chips at the ready but rolled two 1’s.  So, it’s now a major and he’s dying.  Some suggestions on what he can do about it (i.e. buy it off) were floated but nothing was decided.   Lots of loose ends to work through next time.  Ghosts, Indian spirits, rats and bees, former mayor and a town full of people who need to be told everything has changed, etc.