Firing ray guns inside the Devil's Tower is probably a bad idea

After bribing the Chinese guards outside the Temple of Doom Devil's Tower with about $200 each to look the other way for a bit (Mary coughed up the cash, wondering why everyone else thought the money was such a big deal), the party ventured inside the mountain. No dwarves or hobbits anywhere to be seen, although there might be dragons later. Possibly. For now, we dungeoneered and came across a big, black, acidic ceiling blob that ate Gunney's hat.

And wandered aimlessly around the caves, looking for plot. In the end, we came across a ray gun - which caused a huge lightning spark on par with Emperor Palpatine because the cylinder that powered it wasn't correctly re-attached (and now it's dead ... until we use it in a battle scene, where it will probably end up killing us all in a comedic fashion) - and an alien glove with extendable claws, which Sam bravely put on. And found wires shooting out, burrowing into his flesh to hook up with his central nervous system. Healing him while the burrowing was still happening wasn't a good idea, although once it had finished, the new hand was pretty badass, we have to admit.

Amongst the other superpowers developed this week, we discovered that there was a slight mistake on Gunney's character sheet - his pace was in fact 6, not 4 as previously thought, so now he has the speed of a normal person and not an unconscious snail, thereby earning him the "OAPistol" or "OAPeacemaker" superhero name. Oh, and Slick keeps blaming his casual racism on being from the Deep South, because apparently they don't have Chinese people there, or something. We don't know what's worse - that he thinks they're under some sort of curse or that he's trying to sell them cures for jaundice ...

We are lumberjacks and we're OK taking the hobbits to Isengard

Surprisingly unscathed from having swallowed a Manitou last session, Slick decided it would be good from a scientific point of view to start taking note of what happens. Mary kindly agreed when she realised it could prove very profitable for her career as a dime novelist, but probably regretted it when Slick made people-sandwiches and started bottling locks of her hair.

Gunney was with us in spirit, as his player couldn't make it, and spent most of the time being tied up in Sam's wagon ("for his own good", allegedly), while Sam continued working on his steam-powered Gatling gun. Lucky seemed to be having a drinking contest with Jackie, when he wasn't busy driving Sam's steam wagon and accidentally pushing the booster rockets button. Again.

Finally, we made it close to where the Devil's Tower is situated, but to get there, we'd have to ford a river. We could go around it, but it would take too long, and we'd need the wagons, so couldn't just walk across it. So the party turned to lumberjacking for a bit, making ourselves a bridge. Having crossed said river on said bridge and started scouting for the entrance Jackie told us about, we now have the Battle of Devil's Tower to look forward to. And possibly dwarves, although they did look more Chinese than Middle Earthy.

Bringin' out the mad in Mad Science!

We finally managed to proceed on our way toward the Devil's Tower. Jackie, the NPC from the future, really wondered why the hell she picked us of all people to help save the world, seeing as how we've been doing so well this far ... On the other hand, we've met a Sioux who told us some useful information (except for a reliable number of how many baddies await us at that mountain) and gave us a blessing to travel through Sioux territory.

Also, Sam decided to work on his latest invention and left steering of the steam wagon train to Gunney and Reynard, which was ... interesting. Well, it was speedy, if nothing else. The two ladies of the party exchanged knitting patterns, because that's what women do, right? (They more likely compared guns and ammo, to be fair, but shhh!) Slick, when not trying to feed Sam people, spent most of the time in his wagon trying to stop all his bottles falling off shelves whenever we had to brake. And swallowed a Manitou in the process. Oops. May we live in interesting times.

Can I pay you to pick my chips tonight?

We survived the crashing autogyro (helicopter), and Lucky's bag full of heavy explosives (they left a mark, though). When the autogyro finally was ready for take-off, it had a boiler issue, but finally, we managed to touch down at the City of Gloom, where the Mad Science-inclined two had heartfelt reunions with their respective wagons, converted them to work on train tracks, and then we headed off again.

...But not before Slick managed to knock a guard out with Slumbergas, robbed him of $3, which he justified as a "sale" by planting a bottle of coloured water on him (he has such sound morals, that man!) - then he left him in an alley to be eaten alive by a gang of mechanical cats. But at least we're back on the railroad now ...