Maverick and Magnus notice that Lucille is staring at the gravesite at the funeral.  She is sweating and looks shaken. Maverick asks her what is wrong.  She says she needs a horse, and needs to go to Grey Owl now.

Rusty asks Magnus for help in rebuilding the town.  We will meet with him tomorrow.  He is also talking to Bat Masterson andRobert Ford, not Lawrence.

Lucille tells us that she saw a bunch of visions over the grave site.  First was a floating vision of Soapy and he was talking to someone she couldn’t see.  He was begging not to be punished, but ends up being burned as punishment.  His spirit is destroyed.  Next she sees Edward O’Kelly being reassembled from the parts that we left him in.  He begs for death but is brought back anyway.  Next Jenkins is floating Christ like over his own grave and then gets pulled down by orange tentacles.  Finally she sees a vision of a dragon’s head made of orange fire.  It looks right at her, opens its mouth, and blasts fire at her.  She sees Grey Owl standing between her and the fire, but she sees him burned and fall to the ground.  Here endeth the vision.

We grab some of the newly freed up horses and head out of town.  The town tries to have a meager banquet for the funeral, so we give them the bacon, not a euphemism.   We also see the girl that Maverick gave food to when we first rode in.  She smiles and waves as we ride out.

As we ride through the forest we hear a loud buzzing coming from the trees on both sides of the trail.  We see giant wasps dropping out of the trees.  Magnus casts a wall behind the party, right in front of the wasps.  Most of the party rides on but Maverick slows and turns. 2 of the wasps hit the wall, but one slides around it and attacks Thaddeus.  It hits him, but he is able to recover and gallop away.

Maverick just got two jokers in one deal.  No really.  He shoots the one wasp that made it around the wall.  Really, really shoots it.  Bug goo rains to the ground.  Lucille, Charlotte, and Thaddeus keep riding.  One surviving wasp slides around the wall and attacks Magnus.  It stings him, but does not damage him.  He unloads with the lightning gun and Magnus invents the bug zapper.

We regroup, but more wasps swarm out of the trees, including the extra large queen.  Magnus evaporates one.  Maverick blasts the queen with a bolt, and two shots, but she is still up.  Lucille casts a windstorm that blinds the queen and one other.  Thaddeus blasts the queen with a scattergun and puts her down.  Charlotte blasts another one.  Several of the wasps attack the party, and Charlotte is hit.

Maverick gets another Joker.  No really.  He drops three wasps.  Charlotte ends the last wasp.  Jon hates reshuffling.

We finally get to Grey Owls tepee.  It is really quiet, but we still have the same sense of calm.  Lucille opens the tepee and sees him on the floor.  Thaddeus tries to heal him but he declines.  Lucille heals him.

He explains that we need to help Jenkins, and that Lucille possess all that she needs.  She must enter the hunting grounds, and rescue Jenkins.  The Manitou is trying to turn Jenkins into a dark spirit.  Lucille must find him in the hunting grounds and rescue him.  The sprits there can not be killed but can be dispersed.  We need to find him and remove the tendrils of evil that are penetrating him.

Grey Owl starts the ritual.  While he’s starting, Magnus imbues a device that can be used to cast Smite on mundane weapons, allowing them to damage the spirits.  Grey Owl gets more heated in his ritual, and a tear in reality appears on top of a pond next to his tepee.  We see a strange land and sky beyond.  We jump through the tear, and land roughly in the new world.

There is a starry sky, visible through the haze.  There is a little ambient light, but we can’t tell where it is coming from.  The ground is sandy and rocky.  We hear a constant low level of screaming, but cant tell where that comes from either.   We move forward, but see other creatures try to get back out.  A burst of energy stops them and the vanish into dust.

Lucille stops and casts a spell.  A spirit appears in front of her that takes the form of a bison.  It sniffs her, and then lowers its head.  Lucille asks it where she can find Jenkins.  The buffalo turns, and disappears, but we see glowing buffalo tracks leading off in the distance.  We follow the trail, but off to the sides we see the ground moving.  We make rock markers as we move so we can find the way back.  We hear some screaming that is getting louder.  We crest a ridge and start down the steep rocks on the other side.  Lucille slips and starts to slide, but Magnus quickly teleports her to the bottom of the ridge.  The rest of us climb down after her.

We see a rocky grotto.  Jenkins is laying on a slab in the center, and is surrounded by demons, who are glowing orange.  The demons are dancing around Jenkins, and orange tentacles are invading his body.

Now Lucille gets the Joker.  She casts fear on the group, but it has no affect.  Three of the demons run at the party and attack, and Magnus and Charlotte are wounded.  Magnus casts a wall in front of the demons.  Thaddeus runs towards Jenkins.

Maverick also runs up and drops two of the demons.  Magnus teleports in and grabs Jenkins, but Jenkins can not teleport away with him.  Magnus appears without Jenkins.  Thaddeus runs in and starts cutting tentacles.  He cuts one away, but realizes we need to get 19 more.

The rest of the party moves up.  Charlotte, Magnus, and Maverick all shoot tendrils but nothing happens.  Lucille manages to cut one, but Thaddeus misses.

The party keeps sawing at tentacles and another several snap.  Maverick find and axe and with a might swing snaps several of the tentacles.  He swings again and several more snap.  Thaddeus also cuts a few.  We are now half way through the total.  Lucille also cuts some more.

We keep cutting.  Thaddeus slices a few more.  There are just a few left.  The demons respawn and charge us, but Magnus puts up a wall to keep them back.  Finally Maverick snaps the last tendrils.  We see Jenkins spirit float free.    Several of the demons hit the wall, but the rest move up on us.  One hits Maverick.

Thaddeus tosses a blast potion over the wall and hits two of them.  Magnus evaporates another one with the lightning.  Maverick drops another demon.

We start running towards the hill to escape from the grotto.  Magnus teleports the whole party out of there.  Jenkins spirit follows us away.

The party goes through the bodies and divides up some loot, including Colt Pacemakers, leather armor, some knives and money.

There is still a lot of shooting and shouting in town, mostly from the west, in the vicinity of city hall.  The party regroups and heads that way.   There are eight guys on the stable and next to the sheriff’s office.   Maverick drops two of the guys on the roof.  Magnus  lights them up with the lightning gun and evaporates the last guy on the roof.  Charlotte runs back to Thaddeus and gets her Colt Dragoon back.  Fossar runs up the wall of the stable and lands on the roof of the stables.  Jimmy moves up.  They throw dynamite back at us and Magnus and Fossar are wounded.  The entire front of the stables is destroyed.  A few more shoot and Magnus drops.  Thaddeus runs up and throws one of his potions which explodes and drops two of guys.

Maverick drops two more of the cowboys.   Thaddeus shoves a potion down Magnus’ throat and Magnus wakes up.  Jimmy runs up and throws his knives and knocks the cowboy back.  Alice and Fossar move up.  The cowboy is shaken and can’t act.  Magnus is pissed, jumps up and evaporates the last cowboy with his lighting gun.

We hear more voices and fighting coming from the theater nearby.  Magnus kicks in the door and we see 5 cowboys fighting several townsfolk.  Maverick just got his third joker in a row, no shit.  He pushes into the room and drops 3 of the cowboys.  We are all very impressed.  Fossar runs in and cuts the head off another cowboy with his shovel.  Jimmy runs in and tomahawks the last cowboy.

Several townsfolk come out including Robert Ford and Bat Masterson and the big Russian guy, and several others townsfolk.  Several of them are wounded, but Lawrence and Thaddeus heal some of the wounded.   The others go through the bodies and find $85, some cheap guns and knives, and bacon.   Also a shotgun and 6 Colt Frontiers.  Magnus heals Fossar.

Things have calmed down in town and people are starting to come out.  Charlotte talks to the townsfolk and persuades them that the sheriff, the reverend, and Soapy were all in cahoots.  Lucille is now the new sheriff.  The townsfolk were trying to stop the cowboys from getting to city hall.  Big Ed was wearing some kind of armor and he and some others took over city hall.

Magnus tries to teleports the party into the mayor’s office but the device fails.  Maverick peeks in the window and sees 5 cowboys and a deputy confronting  Rusty.  Rusty is looking through the papers but says ‘ it is not here’.

Maverick shoots through the window and drops one cowboy and wounds another.  Charlotte shoots but misses.  Magnus throws dynamite in the window and mists two more of the cowboys and creates a new door to city hall.  Fossar and Jimmy jump through the window and drop two other cowboys.  Thaddeus throws in a potion and one of the cowboys falls asleep.  He is dispatched.

Maverick drops the deputy.  We climb into the room and question Rusty.  Charlotte calms him down and has they were demanding papers not he founding of the town.  Big Ed is upstairs with his dad and is still looking for the papers.  He says that they had a big guy with knives and several others.

We charge up the stairs and Fossar runs up the side of the building and in through the window.  We see 4 cowboys and Big Ed, who is threatening and torturing Jenkins.

Jimmy runs-up and tomahawks Ed, and Maverick shoots him.  Ed is wounded but still up.   Big Ed hits Jimmy and wounds him.  Fossar smashes through the window and takes the head off one of the cowboys.  Thaddeus throws a potion and Jimmy and one off the bad guys fall asleep.  Magnus tries to conjure a device and fails.  Charlotte taunts Big Ed’s manhood and he is vulnerable and shaken.

Thaddeus shoots Big Ed but he is not wounded.  Maverick casts three bolts and wounds Big Ed severely.  Jimmy tomahawks BigEd and drops him.  Magnus blasts one of the cowboys and Fossar shovels the other.  Charlotte shoots the last cowboys and drops him.

We hear shots from outside the window and see several other cowboys heading out of town.  We heal Mayor Jenkins, then rifle the bodies.  We find 4 more Colt Frontier pistols and $40.   On Big Ed we find $225 and some steel weave armor with hand blades attached.  Jimmy takes the armor and Fossar takes Jimmy’s old armor.   Total money $350.

We talk to Rusty but he does not know here the towns founding papers are located.  Jenkins is alive but is still crazy and non responsive.  The townsfolk are putting out fires and routing the last of the cowboys.  Rusty had no idea where the founding papers fro the town are, or why they would be important.  We head to the church and Deacon Barton is dead but the reverend is not there.  We have Lucille do mind rider on the knife while the rest search the church.  Charlotte finds a loose floorboard in the reverends office and finds a chest with $1500, gold, and some gems.  It is a small fortune.

We regroup with the townsfolk.  Several bars burned down and some houses were damaged.  Ollie agrees to run our bar and start to figure out how we will run the town without the Sheriff.

Jenkins daughter comes to us later in  the day and lets us know that he passed away from his wounds.  There is a funeral the next day.  Rusty speaks but has a tough time talking.  His sister does not seem to be on the same page as Rustywhen it comes to the town’s Founding Papers.

<metagame> The party used ALL of their bennies this session .  Level up to veteran.  </metagame>

Charlotte is gang walked out and taken behind the hotel.  Charlotte sees Soapy, the Sheriff, and Edward O”Kelly.  Soapy says “I hear you are looking for me.  You picked the wrong town”.  Edward wants to kill Charlotte, but Soapy gestures no.  A bunch of other men go into the hotel and start killing people in the hotel.  The sheriff stays back from Edward.  The sheriff protests and tries to get Soapy to start but Soapy shuts him down.  Soapy says “What would your sister think of this?”

Magnus teleports us out of the basement to behind the hotel.  We engage.  Thaddeus throws a potion that knocks out several of the guards.  Fossar grabs on to the walls of the hotel and climbs up onto the roof.  Who knew he invented parkour?  Jimmy runs up to the corner, but holds on to his precious tomahawk.  Magnus runs up to the corner and teleports next to Charlotte.  He grabs her and teleports her back around of the corner of the hotel.  Maverick deals with the devil and starts running up to the hotel corner.

People inside the hotel start shooting out the windows.  Maverick dodges one bullet and has a hole in his shirt , but another hits Charlotte, but she is unfazed.  Another shoots at Thaddeus but misses.  Soapy runs away like the bitch ass that he is.  The Sheriff shoots at us  and hits Jimmy.  Jimmy is wounded.  Thaddeus is hit but takes a sip from a flask in his coat and is fine.  (It does work!)  Lucille casts Fear Loas and the Sheriff and several of the henchman panic.  The one henchman runs away and the sheriff is shaken.

Thaddeus throws another potion that explodes and kills one henchman and wounds the Sheriff.  Charlotte hides between the windows of the hotel.  Jimmy splits one of the gunman in half and throws his other tomahawk at the sheriff, who takes it in the forehead and dies.  Lucille runs over to Charlotte and touches her shirt.  She sees Soapy in the hotel.  Fossar  shovels one of the guys on the roof and then throws his shovel at the other one but misses.  Maverick blows away one guy in the hotel.  The other ones are shaken but recover.  They shoot back and wound Maverick.   Magnus runs up to the last standing henchman outside and wastes him.

Thaddeus and Maverick take out another two guys in the hotel.  Fossar takes other hit from the last guy on the roof, meanwhile the one henchman is still asleep.  Maverick gets hit again but shakes it off.  Fossar runes, slides, and gets his shovel, then hits the last guy on the roof, knocking him silly.  Jimmy ends the sleeping guy by turning him into hamburger.  Lucille picks Charlottes cuffs and she is free.  Charlotte then hits the last guy in the hotel who drops.  Magnus heals Jimmy.

Charlotte shoots at the last guy in the hotel and misses.  Lucille heals Maverick.  Fossar swings at the last guy on the roof and misses.  Thaddeus drops the last guy in the hotel.  Magnus heals Jimmy, who then dives through the hotel windows and comes up in one of the rooms.  Two cowboys are raping a woman.  One takes a tomahawk in the face.  Those cowboys try to respond.  One takes a swing and shakes him.  Maverick vaults into the hotel and sees two cowboys behind the desk, who drop with severe lead poisoning.

Charlotte follows Maverick through the window.  Magnus drops one of the cowboys in the room .   Fossar finally kills the last guy on the roof and busts through a window on the second floor.  Maverick busts into another room and shoots one guy while the other looks surprised.  He wings Maverick.  The rapist shoots at Jimmy and misses, so Jimmy ends him and castrates him.   Lucille takes the sheriffs badge and hat.

Edward O’Kelly walks out of one of the upstairs rooms and runs at Fossar.  As Edward runs up, Fossar uses his shovel to greet his face, but Edward does not take damage.  Edward does stick Fossar with his knives.  Maverick kills the last cowboy in his room.  Jimmy in his rag kills the woman in the room.  Thaddeus runs upstairs and shoots Edward, followed by Charlotte.

Thaddeus drills Edward again.  Edward turn and runs to Charlotte and knifes her.  She is shaken.  Soapy jumps out a window on the second floor and lands clumsily.  Lucille casts an entangle on him but he escapes.  MAverick busts out a window and shoots him.  Magnus teleports in and hits him with a shotgun, then teleports out again.  Charlotte shoots Edward at close range.  Jimmy runs up to the stairs.

Magus leans out a window and shoots Soapy in the street.  Lucille casts again and entangles Soapy in the street.  Jimmy runs upstairs and tomahawks Edward to death.   Thaddeus leans out the window and shoots Soapy.    Fossar wakes up and smashes Edwards corpse with his shovel.   Maverick leans out the window and drops Soapy in the street.

That ends the combat.  Thaddeus and Lucille heal Fossar, and others search Soapy .  We start clearing he hotel.  As we clean up we see Lawrence shooting some people, and we see another woman, Poker Alice, who is shooting at others.  They are killing other cowboys near the general store.  Lucille looks at Edward and determines he was a Harrowde, undead.  Maverick takes Soapy’s Peacemaker pistols and $600. Plus a really nice Bowie knife and a pocket watch.   Jimmy picks up Edwards knives.  Lucille takes the sheriffs badge.

Magnus and Charlotte run over and help Lawrence and Poker Alice.  They eliminate the remaining cowboys.  It looks like the remaining cowboys are at the town hall.

The group in the mine watches the line of 4 zombie miners file past.  Once they are gone the party notices a ruching sound from the chamber they just left.  Fossar, Jimmy, Lucille, and Maverick move forward stealthily.   Fossar sees creatures sitting on top a pile of parts eating the bits and sucking the marrow out of the bones.  The are hunched humanoids that look ghoulish.  At least 6 of them, maybe more.  Fossar slides back to the group and tells them he sees a dozen or more.   Lucille casts dark vision and reports they are only 6, and follows it up with an entangle spell.  Magnus throws his lantern in there, and Maverick and Charlotte through dynamite into the cave.  The creatures screech in the light, and the dynamite explodes in their midst.  All but one are killed.  Jimmy throws his tomahawks into the last one which keels over.

Several more creatures come out from behind the corner.  Fossar swings his shovel and brains one.  Lucille shoots and kills another.  Maverick takes out the last one.  More creatures surround the party, coming from either direction in the tunnel they were in.  With them is one large one with a sickle.  Lucille entangles one of the groups down the hall.  The rest close on the party and one bites Lucille.  Maverick drops another one, as does Charlotte.  Lucille cast a spell on herself while Charlotte drops another one.   Jimmy takes out the last of the unentangled ghouls.

Three of the entangled ghouls break free and run into the wall.  One incinerates himself.  The others take damage.  Fossar stands in front of the wall and taunts the others.  One runs into the wall and is stunned.  The party waits while they mill about behind the wall.  Magnus looses patience and drops the wall, and the party lights up the survivors.  The remaining ghouls drop quickly, with Magnus disintegrating the last one.

Maverick and Jimmy run out of the mine, heading back to town.  They are amazed at what they have seen so far.  As they head toward The Long Draft they notice that the front door is hanging open.  They do a quick search but find nothing disturbed.  Lucille casts a spell and realizes Thaddeus is somewhere with a bag over his head, but he is still breathing and alive.  Jimmy finds drag marks out of the front door but loses them in the street.

The party find Lawrence and Robert in the street.  They say that they saw Thaddeus dragged out in the direction of the jailhouse.  Fossar runs to the Sheriff’s office, but the sheriff and deputy saw they haven’t seen him.  The sheriff says Dalton, Weekes, and Mitchell were out ranging this morning.  Lucille casts a spell on the doorknob and can see that Dalton is wearing white robes and is looking really bored.  They are somewhere with wood paneling and a stained glass window.  The sheriff says that must be the church.  Lawrence and Robert meet them and ask if they want help, but they party charges into the church.

Thaddeus has been held in the basement and questioned by Reverend McFarland and several of the deputies.  They are asking for the whereabouts of the kid.  Eventually they get tired of the double talk and get the flaming hot poker.

Jimmy and Maverick bust in the back door and the others break in the front door.  There are several people looking scared in and around the church.  The group runs to the other side and Maverick blasts open the door with his shotgun.  Inside this room there are two cowboys and two guys in white robes.  One shoots Jimmy and makes him very angry.  Another shoots Fossar and wounds him.  Maverick pushes into the room and shoots the two robe wearers with bolts, knocking them down.  Jimmy tomahawk’s one of the cowboys, and Fossar shovels the other.  Lucille heals Fossar, and the party breaks through the trapdoor into the cellar.

The priest is down there with 3 robed guys, Deacon, and a cowboy.  Thaddeus shouts “Keep Deacon and the priest alive”.   Fossar kills two of them.  Jimmy splits the cowboy in two.  A robe wearer moves up on Jimmy and attacks but doesn’t hurt him.  Maverick shows this guy the inside of his head.  Lucille casts fear on the priest and Deacon, who curl up and wilt with fear.  Maverick shoots off one of Barton’s fingers.  Deacon says he is a just doing what the reverend wants.  All he knows is that the kid is important.  The reverend refuses to talk to us in spite of some intimidation, especially when questioned about the kid.  Charlotte then takes over and tries to persuade him that if he doesn’t help us there ill be pain and evil for all.   He eventually passes out.

The sheriff shouts down the stairs that we need to come out with our hands up.  We politely decline.  Charlotte goes up the stairs to try and talk peace.  She is cuffed and dragged around back.  There the Sheriff is standing with Soapy and……

 

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.

The kid shares that he has seen the creatures, but no other details. The bandit camp has lots of Soapy’s gang gear and has been here for a while. Lots of horse tracks. Lucille joins the group, saying “I heard gunshots.” She then extracts a tooth from one of the dead. We then collect all of the weapons, pistols, rifles, shotguns, some of which are El Cheapo. We keep the El Cheapo to sell and the rest to use. $80 in cash, and some ammo. Also trail rations, bedrolls, tents, and 3 horses with saddles. They are really spooked and fatigued. We lead them to the wagons and take the gear too. It is slow going back down. As we get back down there is shouting and shooting. The kid disappears into the woods. The wagons are being attacked by 3 wolves. The wolves are bigger than normal, but very emaciated and mangy.

Magnus creates a blue shimmering wall between the wolves and the wagons. The wolves turn towards us. Fossar and Maverick move up. Maverick tries a deal with the devil. He wins and kills one of the wolves. One wolf runs into the barrier and is shaken, the other runs at us. He attacks Fossar and bites him. Lucille rubs her rabbit foot (not a euphemism) and mumbles something, and one of the wolves suddenly stops his attack. Thaddeus also shoots that wolf.

Jimmy the Indian steps out from the trees behind one of the wolves. One of the wolves runs up and attacks his buddy and rips his throat out. Maverick runs up, shoots, and his gun explodes. With his other hand he shoots the wolf and kills him. Lucille mumbles some more and detects that something evil has been cast on the wolves. There is some evil source behind them. Jimmie starts skinning the wolves, but Lucille says “I wouldn’t do that.” Magnus runs up to Jimmy and points a gun at him. “What are you doing here?” Jimmy gestures at the wolves and then indicates he wanted to help.  He is dumb and can not talk except in sign language. Thaddeus also see the evil force with his goggles. The wolves were controlled.

Lucille asks if we have heard of Reckoners. They are a primal force of evil. Several in the party have heard of them. The evil was unleashed at the Battle of Gettysburg. Lucille burns the wolf bodies. Earl says we need to go, but Deacon is looking for the kid. Magnus yells for him. Lucille grabs the picture that kid drew, and is able to see what he sees. He is heading west.  The kid seems to know that Lucille can see through his eyes. Jimmy starts tracking the kid. Earl, Susan, Magnus, Deacon, Maverick, and Thaddeus stay with the wagon, while Jimmy, Fossar, Lucille, and Charlotte head after the kid.

The tracking party heads up the hill and follows the kid. Charlotte hears some whispers that also sounds like screeches. Sounds like “Feed us”, or Fetus, or something. She stops, and the party turns back to her. They are in heavy woods. She is determined that she heard something and tries to persuade them. Fossar argues they can find the boy and he can lead them to the source of the sound. She agrees and they keep going up the hill.

They find a path that looks familiar and follow the kid. Lucille can see that he is sitting under a tree. They catch up to him and catch him on the edge of the clearing. The kid is under a tree, and says “They were here.” He shows them his drawing of them. Charlotte convinces the kid to head back to the road.

They get back to the wagons and the kid says he thought he heard them come this way. Deacon says never leave again. The kid has he can look and starts to leave but Deacon holds onto him. We continue slowly up the road and the day is waning. It will be dark soon. We pick up the pace, but he kid says “I hear them” and jumps out. Lucille yells STOP and the kid stops, but we all hear ”FEED US” and more wolves appear from the tree line.

Earl shoots one of the wolves. The kid jumps out of the wagon and takes off. Maverick shoots one of the wolves. Magnus throws up his barrier again which blocks a bunch of the wolves. A wolf advances on Jimmy but gets cut in half for its trouble. One jumps at Fossar and bites him. One attacks a horse and bites it. One jumps at Thaddeus and misses. Fossar hits a wolf with his shovel. Thaddeus shoots one. Lucille climbs on top of the wagon and touches Magnus’ gun. It glows and discharges. Jimmy goes crazy and attacks one of the wolves, and takes him down.

Just then three of the spirits from the kid’s drawing step out of the wood saying “FEED US”. It was not coming the wolves. Charlotte shoots one of them but the bullet seems to go right through it. Magnus shoots one and it is also not effected. MAgnus then shoots the lightning gun at a spirit but is it not affected. Thaddeus throws an exploding potion which kills a wolf but the spirits are not affected. Charlotte is shocked at their appearance and acquires a phobia. One of the sprits opens it mouth and the people in the stagecoach feel the spirit being sucked out of their bodies. Deacon falls, but everyone else is OK. Another one bites at Thaddeus but instead bites the chest next to him. The last one also does the spirit suck attack, but no one is affected. Fossar runs up to one and throws rations into it mouth. The food disappears. Maverick shoots one for no damage. The wolves try to jump over the barrier, one succeeds and bites Maverick.

Lucille casts on Maverick and removes his shaken. Charlotte misses the wolf. A wolf bites at Maverick but misses, and one misses Charlotte. A spirit bites at Jimmy and misses. Another bites at Fossar and takes a chunk out of him and gets his last eye. He is now blind. The last one does the spirit suck attack on the stagecoach and everyone resists except Earl. He slumps down. Maverick blasts one of the spirits, and Thaddeus blasts another, but they shake off the effects and keep coming.

Fossar gets bitten again and is seriously wounded. Maverick is bitten b a wolf and wounded. The sprit screams again and Earl dies. Barton slumps over. Thaddeus is bitten again and shaken. Maverick blasts one of the wraiths, but it recovers from the shaken. Thaddeus jumps off the back of the wagon and tries to push it towards the wraith, but it tramples him. Magnus shoots a wolf. Jimmy attacks a wolf and kills it. Charlotte misses a wolf. Thaddeus crawls away with his wound. Magnus kills a wolf. Jimmy suddenly can attack them and damage. He takes out one of the spirits.

He then runs up and kills another one of the spirit. Maverick blasts the last spirit.  We heal the wounded and look dazedly around the clearing.