The fire is put out and the crowd is dispersing. The sheriff starts rounding up some of the cowboys who are left, so the party becomes scarce and heads to the hotel. Magnus is not with us. In the hotel, Lawrence is playing poker and waiting for us. He greets us, and asks if anyone wants to play cards. Thaddeus goes up to bed. Charlotte hangs out with him as eye candy. Bill takes him up on the offer. They both notice that Lawrence seems to be sweating and uncomfortable. Charlotte declines to accompany him, but Maverick agrees to a game of cards. Maverick takes him again for $60. After the game, Lawrence seems forlorn and says to Maverick, “I do believe you’ve played this game before.” Maverick sheepishly admits that he has played “a time or two before.” He offers to buy Lawrence a drink and that seems to lift his spirits a bit. Magnus walks in as the game breaks up. He and Maverick discuss leaving early to avoid notice. Magnus tells him that it should not be a problem.
Von Klemp comes in and sits with them. He talks to Magnus about an item that he wants to sell, namely his lightning gun. He asks for $1000. Maverick says he will loan Magnus $100. Magnus talks Von Klemp down to $450. They agree to meet behind the saloon. VK leaves, and Magnus asks Charlotte to provide backup for the deal. Charlotte agrees and takes a covering position behind the saloon. Maverick and Magnus meet VK and two of his friends from the Sciencing guild. They meet and VK shows Magnus the gun.
Magnus inspects the gun and sees that the gun is more powerful than an off-the-shelf model, but is very likely to explode if used. VK suggests that the user wear chain mail to protect against possible premature electrocution. (?!?!?!) He is also missing a few fingers, probably from failed experiments. The cash is exchanged and the deal is done. The party gets it back to the hotel and retires.
Maverick gets up early and checks his gear and cleans his guns (not euphemisms). There is a significantly increase law enforcement presence, including new law enforcement officers who are rounding up people. He heads back to the hotel and wakes everyone else. We decide to get a light breakfast to go and meet our wagon. At 6 am we meet Earl, load up, and get going. An older man with a large hat and mustache, The county Marshall, is addressing the crowd. Marshall James Carr is rounding up people with the Sherrif. Behind him is a Mexican man with dark hair who is not talking. Several of O’Kelleys men, along with VK, are in manacles and being led away. They are not searching our stuff, (?) but Earl gets us out of town. Marshall Carr says that he has taken over this jurisdiction and is bringing in a judge who will bring law back to this town. We leave. Magnus hints that he had a hand in providing us with a guardian angel.
As we are traveling we notice Lawrence is even more white. A new member joins our stage, Deacon Barton. With him is a 9 year old who is freckled, dirty, with read hair. Deacon says that he is returning to Paradise Falls to return to his church. Deacon came down here to get “The Kid”, and was not able to return before the snows. The kid tries touching Mavericks pistol, but gets his hand slapped. Deacon cuffs him and the kid jumps into the carriage. Deacon says he was told to bring him back to his parents, but doesn’t know the whole story. He takes a swig off of Maverick’s flask. Maverick rides up with Earl, and the rest are in the carriage. Magnus is next to the kid.
The kid talks to Magnus and draws his picture:
Magnus talks to the kid about school, but the kid loses interest and asks to see Charlottes titties. Barton gives the kid the riot act for his rude behavior. Reverend McFarland will give the kid a punishment when they get home, but the kid is not cowed. Some of the kids other drawing are not normal. He has a drawing of a dragon on a pile of gold, with a mouthful of gore. There are other pictures of monsters with gore in their teeth. The kid refuses to share his drawings with Magnus. Thaddeus also asks the kid to show him his drawings, but the kid does not want to share. Barton is annoyed at the conversation.
Maverick plays harmonica while watching for trouble up front with the driver. We keep heading to South Fork. Magnus jumps up on top of the stage, but the kid follows him. Barton tries to stop the kid, but Magnus catches him and pulls him up top. Charlotte persuades Barton to let the kid go. Barton sulks.
We approach South Fork before lunch, a town at the base of the mountains. We are not stopping and things are bad in South Fork. Folks have gone missing and people have seen wired things. The air seems heavy. We just push through. There really is a weird sensation here. Ominous. We should not be here. As if the trees and brush are angry, and are staring at us. We roll through as fast as possible. A few miles out of town it seems to get better, but doesn’t completely go away. Like we are being followed.
We stop for food several miles past the town. Magnus finds some ghost rock near the lunch site. We mount up and keep traveling. The kid wants to see the ghost rock. Magnus tells him to stay in school. There is a big branch across the road. Several people pile out to move it, and Thaddeus lifts it almost by himself. This happens twice more on our travel. It always seems natural. The last time we are cleaning debris, Charlotte notices a shape moving down in the trees off the road.
Eventually we come upon a huge landslide that we will not be able to move. Some dude steps out on top of the rocks and talks to us. Next to him is the biggest Native American we hav ever seen. They are shabbily dressed, and they have some horses behind them. He asks if we are heading to Paradise falls. The Indian, “Jimmy’ does not move a muscle. Maverick talks to the man, Glen. Glen offers to show us a way around if we were able to pay him. The kid is agitated, and Barton is upset. The kid offers to let them suck his little d*ck. Charlotte comes out of the carriage and tries to persuade them to help us. Magnus also chimes in and offers to use dynamite, either on the rocks or on Jimmy. Thaddeus offers to give them 3 bottles of his cure, plus $5. Jimmy is very interested and agrees to show them a way around. Glen introduces them as the Dust Boys. They are good folk, but like to fleece individuals. Earl talks to Glen and finds out that things are bad in Paradise Falls. They are starving up there and haven’t gotten shipments of food in weeks. Things normally come in from the West, but Glen is not sure why shipments have stopped.
We take the back way around and the traveling gets much tougher. We eventually get into more open country and it is beautiful country. Maverick starts looking for deer on the route, but does not see any. Charlotte notices a fleeting shape through the woods which looks like a person a long way off. She doesn’t mention it to the rest of the group.
The country starts getting easier as we reach the plateau. Maverick sees something up ahead. It looks like a wagon that has been totally destroyed. We stop. Maverick and Lawrence scout ahead, Magnus and Charlotte cover from on top of the wagon, and Thaddeus walks behind, checking our six. We slowly close on the clearing. There is white everywhere. Magnus thinks it might be flour. It looks like the wagon was carrying flour up the hill, but bites have been taken out of it. There are parts of bodies, blood, gore, and gut scattered with the flour all wound the clearing. Thaddeus is freaked out and gains a phobia for gore. Lawrence gags, and Earl vomits. Meanwhile the kid has slipped out of the carriage and is gone. Charlotte mentions that she saw something in the woods earlier, and the group asks why she didn’t share that info earlier.
People spread out and start looking around the clearing. The wagon was turning towards Paradise Falls when it was hit. Boot prints and hoof prints go off in several directions. Magnus sees some tracks with three toes, but very few of them. Seems like they flew in and flew out. He sees that there is a trail that heads out of the clearing and heads up the hill. The boot prints and hoof prints head up that way. Earl backs up the horses and goes back down the trail. Barton is concerned abut us finding the boy. Maverick puts a gun to his head and asks why the boy is so important, but Barton doesn’t know. The grave digger from Del Norte steps out of the bushes behind us, and joins the party, saying that he noticed bodies piling up around the group and that it could be good for business. We start up the hill.
We walk up the trail after the prints. Magnus spots a clearing up ahead, with several guards in front of it. There are tents in the clearing. Maverick takes point and keeps walking. Maverick spots the boy off in the bushes. We are hailed by the guards in the clearing.
The party attacks. Maverick drops three guards. Thaddeus runs up and throws a potion, which sails over the guards and explodes in the camp. Maverick is shot by one of the guards. Magnus pulls a magical gun out and evaporates him. Smoking boots are all that is left.
Magnus also shoot one of the guards who is hiding in the woods, but he is still up. One of the guards is taken out by the kid, who throws a rock at his head and knocks him out. Charlotte runs after the kid. The one remaining guard shoots Magnus and hits him good. Fossar runs up to that guard and lays him out with the shovel. Magnus heals himself and Maverick.
The guards have gear from Soapy’s gang. The camp is shabby and has been here for a while. We line up the survivors and start questioning them about the wagon on the trail. They say that some weird thing killed their men. It looked like a child but with a huge head and took bites out of the wagon and his men. As the guy is talking the kid is drawing. The kid asks for more details. Maverick asks why he is drawing the things, and the kid says that he draws everything that he sees. Maverick catches him in his logic and says “If you’ve seen them, where are they?” The kid agrees to show us where he saw them.