SoB: Laverne Lafferty - 'Loudest and Gayest'

“With music strong I come,
With my cornets and my drums
I play not marches for accepted victors only
I play great marches for conquered and slain persons
Have you heard that it was good the gain the day?
I also say it is good to fall;
Battles are lost in the same spirit in which they are won
I beat and pound for the dead,
I blow through my embouchures, my loudest and gayest for them…”

 Walt Whitman, ‘Song Of Myself’

www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeXSUK…

(Naturally, ‘gayest’ meant something else entirely in the 19^th Century… but Whitman himself was openly homosexual, a man who wrote poetry about love, lust and sensuality.

A good hundred years ahead of his time, Whitman loved word-play, and would have absolutely adored the idea that a word meaning ‘joyful’ would eventually also come to mean ‘homosexual’…)

“The person who said ‘diamonds are a girl’s best friend’ never owned a horse, a dog, or a gun  a giant cornet, a flying octopus, a cursed musket or a shitty tattoo…”

L J Lafferty

The latest Brimstone gal from !  Meet Laverne Jane Lafferty, leader of the ‘Fallen Angels’ posse of Shannedam County. The Angels cross the law/outlaw divide, united in saving Brimstone and its environs from the Darkness. Inspired by the infamous immortal drifter Jessie Cartwright, their motto reads: ‘All alone in Hell. Bored to death in Heaven.’  And it speaks to their heroic and rebellious natures alike.

Laverne (‘EllJay’ to her lover) is the daughter of a legendary lawman, Lawson Jay Lafferty, and is named after him, having the same initials.  Like her dad, Laverne has the Sherriff class, a great all-rounder who is effective while being straightforward to play.  She can cheerlead, boost her friends and heal them (by shouting Health back into them!) and lay some serious hurt down while doing so.  Law characters have fun things to do between adventures too, such as tracking down bandits, having shootouts with desperados, and interrogating prisoners, as well as having access to special shops open only to Law types.

Laverne is a walking contradiction in many ways, a tough woman in a man’s world, the daughter of a legendary lawman and a equally-infamous outlaw.  Unlike her father, she has a hair-trigger temper and likes to settle disputes using force; and yet she is also a sensitive, socially-progressive, East-Coast-educated woman who loves poetry and music and campaigns for women’s rights and the ‘emancipation of negroes’.  Like her father, she is an atheist in a god-fearing state – while she believes in the existence of God (she’s been healed enough times by Evangeline!) she doesn’t consider Him worthy of much respect, let alone worship.  At 27 years of age, she is a natural leader and a ferocious fighter, steeped in her complex history and complicated legacy.   

Laverne is tall like her father, and solid where Lawson is rangy.  Her high Strength helps her throw her weight around, and her strong Luck and Cunning scores help her where brute force doesn’t.  She’s at her best in melee (with a  whopping 4 Combat dice, plus the boosts her gear gives her), but is perfectly happy throwing down with her Peacemaker and cursed Musket, which fires small bolts of green soulfire!

She gained most of her kit on the Lost Legion adventures, where her posse fought against ghostly remnants of Santa Anna’s army that assaulted the Alamo.  Haunted by dark dreams from decades past, the infancy of the Texan Republic, she discovers some shocking revelations about her past and learns to use the enemy’s weapons against them.  Among her gear are many such thematic items, some of which are shown above – a cornet used as a military bugle, a hat that belonged to one of the defenders of the Alamo,  her Hell Musket wrenched from the bony hands of the Legion.  The flag you can see in the background is the David G. Burnet Flag, adopted as the first national flag by the First Congress of the Republic of Texas (Laverne uses it as a blanket on the trails, wrapping herself in something she believes in).

That little floating fellow to her right is her Void Canary pet, an extradimensional octopus that detects the approach of the Darkness.  The poor thing might just explode if subjected to Darkness emanations that are too strong for its little heart, so she uses him sparingly, and only when she has Grit for a reroll.  The story behind him is amusing – her lover Candy found a  Void Canary early in her career, and lavished affection on the thing, much to Laverne’s displeasure.  Eventually, they found a second one (Candy’s is yellow; Laverne’s is green) and despite her misgivings, the Sherriff eventually fell in love with the affectionate little fellow.  Who needs a dog when you have a flying void octopus?

Laverne’s Lost Legion musket and rifle fire green soulfire instead of musket-balls, and she has the option to fire up to three extra shots per round with either… although tapping that energy will eventually corrupt and mutate a living human.  To mitigate some of that corrupting influence, she employs another artefact pried from the skeletal hands of the Legion – a chunk  of bone called a soul-shard, through which she can siphon off Corruption and later bleed it off using Grit.

To round out her gear, she has some more Alamo keepsakes, such as her drum, army tent, and journal – all of which have a little residual magic from the glorious defeat that eventually led to the founding of a free Texas.   

Laverne’s talents are different to those of her legendary father -  while Lawson  uses a high Initiative and gets benefits for going first, Laverne is able to slow her Initiative down and hit harder by taking her time using Fair Warning and Stand Your Ground. Having a  double-move means she gains Grit back twice as fast, which is good because her powers burn through Grit quickly.  She hits harder as she loses Health, and can even return to battle when she’s defeated, shrugging off pain and injury to get back in the fray!  With a mix of healing, strong defence and melee, ranged options, darkness control and heavy damage potential, Laverne is a great all-rounder and an asset to any posse.  And her high Strength allows her to carry a ton of useful gear.

The Fallen Angels are mostly made up of girls like her – young women influenced by the men in their lives, but not defined by them.  This is a new breed of women, those who can make their mark on the monster-infested prairies of Shannedam County.  Most want to honour their illustrious parents, but still do things their own way, and make their mark in their own right.  Whether outlaw or law-enforcer, the Angels have a strong kinship and understanding, and realise that their diversity gives them considerable strength.  Like her deputy Candy Kane, and the priestess Evangeline Hellerbrand, Laverne knows what means to carry the legacy of a famous, heroic father.  The Indian Scout, Cheyenne Sweetwood, and the vampiress Camilla Rodriguez prove that raising hell isn’t just for white girls either.  Candy’s infamous older sister, ‘Tennessee Belle’ is a sometime member when she’s not robbing banks or holding up trains, and the veteran gunfighter Sylvia ‘Silver’ Rush was something of a den-mother to the Angels before she left for the plague-hit town of Seto’s Mill.

Most of the Angels have what Laverne calls her ‘shitty tattoo’; a pair of angel’s wings with the words: ‘Scream – Shout – We are the Fallen Angels’   Unfortunately, Candy’s skills with a needle and bottle of Indian ink aren’t quite as good as her fighting talents, and the resulting tattoo has an endearingly unprofessional quality about it.  But Laverne is stubbornly proud of her ‘shitty tattoo’ and wouldn’t have it any other way.

Laverne Jane Lafferty

Lawman                                               (Keywords: Law, Frontier)                                                                               

Agility                  2                               Level: 6                Defence              4+

Cunning               4                               XP: 5020               Willpower           4+

Spirit                   2                            

Strength              5 (6)                         Initiative              4

Lore                    2 (3)                         Health                   21   

Luck                    4                              Sanity                    18          

Combat               4 (6)                         Ranged ‘to hit’   4+

Max. Grit             5                              Melee ‘to hit’     4+

Abilities

Laying Down the Law: Once per Attack, you may Re-roll one To Hit roll.

Frontier Justice: Use 1 Grit to add +3 Damage to one of your Hits (limit once per Hit)

Iron Will: Use 1 Grit to cancel a Darkness card on the d6 roll of 4, 5 or 6 (limit once per turn)

Strong Leadership: Use 1 Grit to Heal 1 Health and 1 Sanity from yourself and every other Hero on your Map Tile – gain 5 XP for every Wound/Sanity healed from another Hero in this way.

Upgrades (Determination, Law & Order)

Fair Warning: You do +2 Damage on any Hits to an Enemy with a higher Initiative. +1 Max Grit

Long Arm of the Law: +1 Combat and +1 Strength and +1 Max Grit

Man of Action: You may roll 2 dice for Move each turn and choose which to use.

Standing Your Ground: At the start of a turn, you may reduce your Initiative to 1. If you do, you are Defence 3+ this turn.

Temper: Once per turn, use 2 Grit to add (Peril) Damage to one of your Hits, or (2 Peril) P Damage if you are less than half Health.

Never Gives Up: While KO’d, at the start of each turn, roll a d6. On the roll of 5 or 6, Heal d6 Wounds/Sanity (any mix) and place your model back on the board.

Upgrade Bonuses

+1 Max. Grit

+1 Strength. Also, gain +d6 Health/Sanity (any mix; +2/+1)

+1 Spirit. Also, gain +d6 Health/Sanity (any mix; +3/+3)

+1 Luck. Also, gain +d6 Health/Sanity (any mix; +2/+2)

+1 Combat

Dark Stone Resistance: You can hold 2 more Corruption Points before getting a Mutation.

Equipment (weight 10/11)

Shackles (Personal) +1 Strength. Once per Adventure, cancel and Re-draw an Exploration Token.

Void Canary (Artefact, Void, Creature) $350. Once per Adventure, cancel a Darkness or Growing Dread card on the d6 roll of 3+.  On the roll of 1 however, the Void Canary succumbs to the Void energy and bursts (discard) 

Lost Army Hell Musket (Artefact, Gun – Rifle, Lost Army) Weight 1, Hands 2, $900

Range 10, Shots 1, Uses the d8 for Damage. +1 Damage

You may take up to 3 Corruption Hits to add +1 Shot for each. While equipped, you also gain +2 Combat.

Lost Army Pistol (Artefact, Gun – Pistol, Lost Army) Weight 1, Hands 1, $700

Range 7, Shots 1, Uses the d8 for Damage. 

You may take up to 3 Corruption Hits to add +1 Shot for each. While equipped, you also gain +1 Combat.

Flag of the Fallen (Artefact, Flag, Relic) Weight 2, $1250

Once per Adventure, you may cancel d3 Growing Dread or Darkness cards in play (any mix).

Until used each Adventure, all Heroes may Heal 1 Health or 1 Sanity at the end of every turn.

Defender’s Hat (Gear, Clothing – Hat) Weight 1, Upgrades 2, $400.  While there are more Enemy models on your Map Tile than Heroes, you may Re-roll one Defence roll per Attack against you.

Bugle (Gear, Music, Military) Weight 1, $300.  Once per Adventure, you may blow the Bugle to cancel a Growing Dread card on the d6 roll of 3+, or to prevent the Darkness from moving on the Depth Track.  

Military Drum (Gear, Music, Military) Weight 1, $450.

Once per Adventure, use at the start of a turn to give all Heroes +2 Move and +2 Initiative until the end of the turn.  Until used each Adventure, all Heroes may Re-roll an Escape test once per turn.

Journal from the Alamo (Artefact, Book, Relic) Weight 1, $850. +1 Lore.

Once per Adventure, all Heroes may Recover 1 Grit.

Soul Shard (Artefact, Container, Lost Army) $200.  Whenever you would take a Corruption Point, you may place it here instead.  Soul Shard may hold up to 6 Corruption Points at a time. Soul Shard counts as having a DS icon for every 2 Corruption Points here. Use 2 Grit at any time to remove d3 Corruption Points from here. Limit 1.

Army Tent (Gear, Survival, Military) $550.  Once per Travelling/Town Stay, you may Heal d6 Wounds/Sanity (any mix). You also gain 5 XP for each Travel Hazard encountered while Travelling. Limit 1.

Sheriff Badge (Gear, Law, Icon; Law only)

Once per Adventure, give all Heroes +2 Shots with a Gun or +2 Combat (they choose) during their next Activation.

Rope (Gear, Rope) $125 Once per turn, you may roll 2 extra dice for a Skill test. After each use, breaks on the d6 roll of 1 or 2 (discard)

Peacekeeper Pistol (Gear, Gun, Pistol, Law)

Range 6 (10), Shots 3, 1 Hand, Weight 1, Upgrades 1 (0), $250, Law only

Desert Boots (Gear, Clothing – Boots) $2100, Weight 1

Free Attack (Once per Fight) 1 Combat. Uses the Peril Die for Damage.