Episode 25 – Judas, We Forgive Ya

We get to the cabin and set up accommodations. There is a fight for who gets to sleep on the bearskin rug.  We all go back to trying to translate the book, including Jimmy, Fossar, and Maverick. We get more successes for a total of 15 against translating the book.  We are tired now and decide to cook, rest, and set watches.  Maverick heals Fossar.

While Magnus and Fossar are on watch, Poker Alice appears.  She climbs up and sits near Magnus.  She tells him that a bunch of miners came down and excavated the landslide found some ghost rock and silver that was missed before.  Everyone in town wants to go get it, so there will be a dance tonight and go into the mine tomorrow.    They talk quietly. <pause, more pause, Cary makes off color joke, more pause, Jeopardy theme, more pause>

Alice comes into the cabin and wakes us up.  She says that people are crazy ghost rock and silver fever. She also wants us to know that Fossar is evil,  and is maybe working with the dragon.  As she died, she saw a vision of him being captured by the dragon.  Lucille casts a mind reading spell and finds out that Fossar is indeed in league with the dragon. Poker Alice wants to kill him, but we want to talk. Thaddeus goes out and confronts him.  Fossar admits he was saved by the dragon.  The rest of the party comes out of the cabin.

Fossar explains that he was saved by the dragon, but he is not in league with him. Alice interrupts and says a bunch of people died because he knew Eva was working with the dragon and didn’t stop us. Fossar says that they were idiots because they are church-goers, so they deserved to die anyway. He also admits that he destroyed some wards to help the dragon, but he thought it would all balance out. Gray Owl asks if he means the wards in his sanctuary, and Fossar says yes. Gray Owl says that what he did put the whole town at risk because of his actions, as the evil is growing in the town due to his wards being gone.

Poker Alice says “I’ve heard enough” and raises her guns to shoot at Fossar. Fossar shovels her and she falls down. Magnus heals Poker Alice, and Thaddeus tells Fossar to stand down.

Fossar explains that he saw himself dying alone but then the dragon appeared to him and said he would bring him back if Fossar would do him a favor.   We decide to sneak into the north entrance of the mine, go to the south entrance, and then blow the south entrance so no townsfolk can get in. As they are speaking, they notice that Gray Owl has disappeared.

Maverick, Fossar, Thaddeus, and Jimmy head into the old section of the mine through the north entrance, which takes about 90 minutes to ride to. As we move into the mine we hear miners working. They notice us before we approach and ask who is there. Maverick talks to them, and we find out that they are actually finding more ghost rock in areas that we know were dry before, and there is a large vein of silver as well. Thaddeus inspects some of the ghost rock and sees that it is genuine. Maverick tries to convince the miners, of which there are about two dozen, to head back to town early and that drinks are on him. He flashes some cash and the miners are amazed. They take the money, $10 each, and some of them leave.  Others will not leave so he gives them only $5, and we head back to the cabin.

When we get back we see that Magnus and Poker Alice have left. Magnus has left a note that says “It’s been good, but this is where our paths will part.” Lucille didn’t realize that they had left for good. Fossar inspects the letter to see if Magnus has put a secret message on it, but he hasn’t. Maverick and Jimmy jump on horses and follow the trail of the horses while the rest go back to the book.  Lucille, Fossar and Thaddeus keep on the book for a total of 21 successes.

Jimmy and Maverick see a large cloud of dust as a wagon train is heading up the mountain.  They see a large posse of law enforcement, at least 50 men with three wagons. Several riders approach and see Jimmy, who has not hidden, and spot Maverick, who did try to hide but not very well. A man who introduces himself as Jack Calderon comes up to Jimmy and says that he needs to come with them back to town. Jimmy feigns ignorance but Jack says that he recognizes him as one of Magnus’ friends. Maverick agrees to head back to town with them. Jimmy also agrees but only if he can have Jack’s fashionable hat, a bowler. Making a pretty easy decision, he gives the big Indian the bowler and they all head back to town.