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Message: <blockquote data-quote="RangerWickett" data-source="post: 2725216" data-attributes="member: 63">One of my favorite scenes from cinema is the three-way stand-off at the end of The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, and for my modern game I have this crazy idea of the penultimate fight of the campaign ending in a similar way. I'm wondering how to make this work.Quick set up:First, understand that this campaign is unusual, combining all sorts of myths in odd ways. The PCs will be looking for the Holy Grail, which is located at Trinity Site, the location where they tested the first atomic bomb. It's the modern day, but they need the Holy Grail to save the world, and if they manage to get the Holy Grail, they will go on to the final conflict of the campaign (which will take place in either England in a vampire-infested Isle of Avalon, or in Japan at a demonic shogun's palace).There will be two other groups who want the Holy Grail too. One group will be represented by human mages dressed in slick black suits, powerful with attack magic and possessing powers over demons and fey creatures. Leading the group is a powerful warlock, who looks like Christian Bale.<img src="http://www.bullz-eye.com/entertainers/images/christian_bale.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />They're the Bad. Then there's the ghost posse, a group of spectral mercenaries sent to defeat the party and bring back the treasure. The ghosts are all Western-themed, and the leader is an actual picture-perfect version of Tuco:<img src="http://www.olympus.net/personal/uvl/Tuco_01.JPG" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />They're the Ugly.(If you've read my storyhour of this campaign, you know that all the major PCs and NPCs look surprisingly similar to famous actors.) And then there are the PCs, who are out to save the world -- not so much because they care about the world, but more because they don't want the bad guys, who are ***holes, getting their way. One of the PCs is a gunslinger, a grizzled man who can take a beating. He might look a little familiar.<img src="http://galeria1.terramail.pl/bruce/f/bw14-04.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />They're the Good. How, though, could I possibly wrangle a three-way Mexican stand-off? I mean, first of all, it's hard to get the three groups together at the same time. Then there's the problem of getting them to not just start fighting right away -- how can I encourage the group to get that excellent racheting tension of looking from foe to foe? And finally, how can I end the fight quickly, preferably in one round?I'm thinking, tentatively, that the PCs reach the area first, and locate a glass-strewn desert that was Ground Zero, sixty years ago. The Holy Grail is buried under the glass, but due to the devastatingly destructive power unleashed by the bomb, no magical healing works in the area. This should discourage the group's feeling of invincibility. As they reach ground zero of Trinity Site, they have to fight the ghost posse (minus Tuco), who are waiting in ambush. You can see the Grail, buried in the glass just below the surface, glowing with magic. It grows steadily more intense during the fight, and either by itself, or with the aid of a PC lending it some power, it flashes with energy and obliterates the ghosts. Preferably this happens when there are only one or two PCs anywhere near being in a condition to keep fighting.They feel they've won, and they're about to claim their prize, when Tuco arrives and fires a gunshot at their feet, driving them back from the Grail. They will have already faced this guy once or twice, so they should know he's too powerful for them to take on their own. Tuco growls out in a Mexican accent that he'll be taking the Grail. But just as he's about to make a move for it, the warlock appears. He tells them all to back away, and . . . he'll have some manner of device that the group will know is like a one-shot ghost-debilitator. Dragon essence.The party just dislikes Tuco, but they hate Christian Bale. However, they know that they can't take Tuco on their own. What do they do? Then they notice that the Grail's is starting to glow again, slowly building to another blast that will give them a chance.Hopefully. Any suggestions?</blockquote>

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