We start looking around the gory clearing. The wraith children all exploded and turned to goo when they died, but we have several wolf carcasses. Susan is scratched but OK, but Earl is in rough shape. He is fatigued and out of it. Thaddeus goes around and heals everyone who is wounded, except Fossor. Lucille heals Fossor magically, but he is still blind in both eyes now. He gingerly gets into the carriage. The horses are in bad shape. Lucille casts a spell and begins speaking with them, and they calm down. Deacon Barton is hiding in the carriage. He comes out looking for the kid, but the kid ran off. He angrily blames the group for losing him, but refuses to go out and look. Lucille uses the drawing of Magnus that the kid drew to Mind Ride him. She sees that he is running full out up steeper hills. She consults with Jimmy, who nods his head and confirms that this is a couple of miles away to the north.
Jimmy, Maverick, and Lucille start heading north searching for the kid, but Jimmy picks up an animal’s trail by mistake and realizes his error after they’ve been hiking for about 10 minutes. They double back and Jimmy catches his trail again, but it is slow going and they are at least 30 minutes behind the kid. At Maverick’s urging, they finally give up and return to the wagons, though Jimmy wanted to continue.
Meanwhile Magnus, Thaddeus, Lawrence, and Charlotte go and get Soapy’s men from the nearby camp that had been tied up. They are actually happy to see us and we get them up and start moving back towards the wagons. We navigate and meet up with Earl. The kid search party also comes back empty handed. The Deacon is furious and again blames the group for being reckless, and that they will have to answer to Reverend McFarland once they get back to town. Magnus and Maverick retort that they saved his life, and the kid was not their responsibility. Barton shuts down and will not talk with them any further. The posse continues heading toward town.
The terrain has less trees and is becoming more rocky. We start having a strange feeling of dread that’s similar to when we were near South Fork, but not as strong. We see the town, which is quite large for the area. There are several hotels and bars, but it is awfully quiet. There are some people milling about, and we hear a blacksmith. There is a naked, starving child wandering the street looking hungrily at the wagons as we roll in. Its mother scoops it up and closes and locks the door of her house. Barton steps off of the wagon, pays Earl, and departs for the church.
We roll up to the Sheriff’s Office and ask for the sheriff. The deputies give us a little grief, but go get him. The sheriff has a bushy beard and has extra leathery skin. He asks us to bring the prisoners into the office. His name is William Light, but everyone calls him Cap, because when he was a kid he wore a….hat. We tell him our story. He questions the prisoners briefly, and they deny any involvement in attacking the supply caravan. They say that they were the ones being attacked, and describe the Starvation Spirits. Magnus says that he doesn’t know what they are talking about, and the Sheriff believes his lie. He locks up the cowboys.
As the group is speaking with Sheriff Cap, Lucille sneaks in and searches around the office for something. She is not noticed by anyone.
The sheriff tells us that the mayor has become a recluse and has not been seen in several months. His son is trying to help, but there has been a rampant criminal element for the last year, and the town is getting stretched to its limits. People have been complaining about supernatural things, but he doesn’t believe them. About 9 months ago the silver and ghost rock mines started drying up, and 6 months ago the mayors wife passed away. He descended into apathy and eventually disappeared. The food shipments have also dried up the last few months. He says that they have tried to find out what is going on by sending a couple of posses out, but they did not find anything. He doesn’t have enough manpower to continue to send men, and would be happy if we’d volunteer.
He tells us that the flyers the posse received advertising the town (the reason that they decided to come) are several years old. Jenkins had the idea of doing a “marketing” campaign to bring more people to the town about for years ago, but he hasn’t since. Once the food shortage started, a woman named Lorelei took a bunch of people down toward Spar City, in spite of the heavy winter. As a result the town is sparsely populated. He also says we should talk to the mayor’s son at City Hall about some of the empty buildings. The Sheriff thanks us and we head out.
Earl bids everyone goodbye. He thanks us and shakes everyone’s hand, but Lucille demurs. The posse pays him $3 apiece for the trip. Earl takes all of the baggage to the Paradise hotel and checks in there for the night. Charlotte, Lawrence and Fossor go with him.
The posse looks around the town and sees that only the blacksmith, two hotels, three bars, a gambling club, a dancing club, the bank, livery stable, and a couple of other businesses are open. The third hotel, one bar (The Long Draught), butcher, barber surgeon, general store, and the school house are closed up.
Maverick drops some food at the door of the naked child, and then he and Jimmy go to the nearby Denver Exchange Gambling Club. Things are slow here with only a couple of patrons. In addition to gambling tables and a bar, there is a makeshift boxing ring in the back. A short man in a bowler and waxed mustache is sparring with a large man with lots of hair, called Bruno. Maverick and Jimmy walk up and order whiskey. The man in the bowler is also the bartender and introduces himself as Bat Masterson. He is writing a book about the town, which is focusing on the nightlife and crime, and that he doesn’t believe the supernatural occurrences that people have reported.
Magnus, Lucille, and Thaddeus head over to City Hall and meet the mayor’s son, Rusty Jenkins. He is a wiry man in his early 20s, with reddish brown hair and spectacles. His desk is covered with papers and he looks overwhelmed and exasperated. Magnus introduces himself and asks about the town. Rusty relates that things have gotten bad the past few months, especially with supplied drying up. Magnus boasts that the posse stopped a group of criminals while they were hijacking a shipment, and that they intend to stay and improve the town. Rusty laughs and says that not many people as idealistic as them have come to the town in the past couple of years. After some conversation, Magnus convinces him to lets us squat in the Long Draught. He will draw up a contract and get back to Magnus in a couple of days. He still seems upset, and we ask what is bothering him. He explains that his dad became sick about 2 months ago. He used to be inspiring and idealistic, but is not the same man that he was. He rarely comes out of City Hall, even though Rusty has tried to get him to go home to “The Compound”, which is the Jenkins family’s group of homes south of town. Rusty’s two brothers, sister, and their families still live there. Thaddeus and Lucille convince Rusty to let them examine his father.
Thaddeus and Lucille go upstairs to Jenkins’ room, which is dark and smells terribly. Thaddeus finds nothing wrong medically with him, but Lucille does detect a curse which is affecting him. They go back down to talk to Rusty to convince him to let them treat his father. Rusty is skeptical, but Lucille says that she knows some things about the supernatural. Rusty gets a strange look and says he did not believe in the supernatural, but there have some strange deaths in the last two months, where people seemed to have been shot but the bullet holes burned them like they had been hit with hellfire. The locals are mostly not aware, and thought that the people were killed by criminals, but some have reported seeing a “Pale Rider” shoot them. Rusty did not believe them until two weeks ago, when he saw a glimpse of a horse and rider, both with glowing red eyes, gun down a miner in the street. He now believes us and asks Lucille to help his father. He also seems to recognize Lucille — he says that he knows her face from somewhere. She says that she doesn’t know him, and we quickly take our leave.
Everyone except Charlotte and Fossor meet up at the Long Draught and unpack their things. Lucille pulls us aside and explains that she is wanted for a crime, and there is a wanted poster of her in the Sheriff’s office. She asks the group to help her get the poster so she is not found out. Maverick and Jimmy go into the Sheriff’s Office and convince him and the deputies to have a drink. The Sheriff is surprised but agrees. They leave one deputy, Dalton, to watch the prisoners. Magnus comes in, goes to question the prisoners, and smacks one of them on the head with a shotgun barrel, making a scene. Dalton restrains Magnus and tells him that he can’t hit the prisoners. While this is happening, Lucille sneaks in and steals the poster. She takes it back to the Long Draught and burns it.
Maverick and Jimmy takes the sheriff and deputies for a drink at Big Ed’s, one of the remaining local bars. Ed is at least as big as Jimmy. As they walk in, a man is at the bar and looks like he is rooted to his chair and drink. He is shabby and stinks horribly. Maverick buys the Sheriff drinks and talks about what is happening in town. The sheriff obviously doesn’t believe in the supernatural occurrences. After keeping the Sheriff busy for a while, they part ways and Maverick heads back to the Denver Exchange to find a card game. He wins some more money.
Thaddeus stays at the Long Draught and sets up to brew his potions. He works into the night.
The next morning, the party gets up and explores the rest of the town. Maverick goes to the blacksmith and asks about a replacement pistol. The smith is a lanky black man who is working iron with his two sons. He has some gear such as pistols and a couple of longarms, but it is a limited supply. Maverick doesn’t find anything to his liking. He asks the blacksmith about what is going on in the town, and the man agrees that things have been hard but suggests that Maverick keep his head down as he and his family are doing, to get through the town’s current difficulties.