Wednesday, March 14, 8:00 AM

Laura MacMillan, has joined us since we saved her and her family is all dead.

Capt William Brown of AZ Territorial Rangers asked us carry the gold. John Huddleston, didn't trust Mac, since he's a northerer, and volunteered to accompany us.

Laura wants to collect a few things from her father's workshop - Michael, Dr Wolf, and Judith accompany her to the large dark colored house. It's darkly painted, heavy curtains, a feel of bordello. A lot of strange items accumulated - some possibly occult. We are left in the library while she gathers things. A book is out - about an Italian who was researching how to extend his life; other books are on technology. She shows us the workshop - lots of electric gear and occult objects - her father was studying electricity and it's relation to occult phenomena. The occult objects come from a variety of traditions - Catholicism, mesmerism. Some notebooks from her father's work are available - Dr Wolf will take some with. Father Michael takes a chalice supposedly used by the pope to hold Mass. We gather a small limited collection of books to take with us.

Judith asked what became of her father's remains. He did have some odd requests in his will (reanimation?) - but he was badly mangled and she didn't think it wise to go along, so he was buried normally.

Dr Wolf puts in an order at the Wickenburg print shop to get some fliers printed; they'll be mailed on to him in Vulture City when printed.

We ride out, taking the most traveled road to Vulture City. It should take about 2 hours. Judith drives the wagon, Dr Wolf perches on top with a rifle, John Huddleston rides shotgun.

It warms up quickly on the way. The wheels of the wagon get bogged down in the sand in a wash and Judith can't free it. John, Dr Wolf, Onatah, and Mac go to help push. They all pushing and Dr Wolf uses leverage to help move it! It's all just simple physics!

Nearly a dozen Indians come riding down whooping with weapons drawn. Father Michael raises his revolver and fires twice at the nearest Indian knocking him from his horse. (A Severe wound) Dr Wolf raises his rifle and fires, hitting one in the chest. Father Michael fires twice more, grazing another Indian.

Onatah yells out to the Indians that they should stop, it's not worth it, they ought to turn and leave now. A couple of braves pull up short, but the war chief is clearly not phased and shouts a command to continue on.

Father Michael shoots twice more dropping the already wounded Indian from his horse and grazing another one. Dr Wolf fires at the war leader, who dodges out of the way.

The Indian that Dr Wolf shot rides up to the stage and leaps onto the stage! The Indian that Father Michael grazed rides up and tackles Father Michael to the ground from his horse! Mac tries to climb up the top of the stage, but can't find a handhold while carrying his shotgun. He takes a step back and climbs on top of the stage easily, yelling at the Indian who climbed on, who is unnerved by the crazy white man.

Onatah looses an arrow at the war leader who is saved from a wound just by Fate. The Indian who lept on the stage tries to push Judith out of the way to take the stage but Judith is capable and avoids being brained by his club.

An Indian fires at Dr Wolf and would have terribly wounded him and the Indian not stumbled and missed - 4 Fate points. Another Indian shoots at Onatah and it costs another 4 Fate to avoid pain. John Huddleston fires his rifle at an Indian riding in from Father Michael's side and kills him with a shot in the chest. The last Indian by Father Michael throws a tomahawk at Huddleston, grazing him.

Laura takes a kick at the Indian on Father Michael, which doesn't much phase him. Two Indians fire rifles at Mac - one misses but the other hits and would have killed him but for the intervention of Fate. The war leader looses an arrow at Judith and would have grazed her, except for Fate.

(New round!)

The war leader fires at Judith again, with the same result - no damage but for the Fate - the arrow sticks in her corsets.

Mac fires a barrel into the Indian next to Judith, who crumples off the stage, dying. Mac fires at the last Indian on Father Michael's side of the stage, killing him.

Dr Wolf fires his rifle at an Indian riding up and hits him in the head, knocking him off his horse. He's unconscious, bleeding, and will be dead soon. Dr Wolf fires at another Indian but misses as Dr Wolf scouts around the edge of the wagon.

Judith fires her rifle at the war leader now that she's not being attacked by an Indian. He hits him in the left arm, wounding him. Onatah looses an arrow at the war leader and would have hit him, but for Fate.

Father Michael and the Indian wrestle, but Father Michael is unable to land a useful blow. Onatah fires again, and grazes his right arm and costs him two more Fate chips. The leader lets out a big whoop and five more Indians come over the hill.

One of the new Indians leaps onto Judith and the wagon, another jumps onto a horse in front of the stage. Onatah looses an arrow at the war leader, grazing his chest. Father Michael and the Indian continue to wrestle with no one gaining any advantage.

One of the first wave fires at Mac, who is standing on top of the wagon. That Indian misses, but another one also shoots at Mac and misses (red chip to save). the final Indian from the first wave leaps off his horse, but can't make it onto the other horse in front of the stage. He lands on the ground and is OK.

The war leader fires at Onatah but the arrow goes wide. Dr Wolf jabs a bayonet into the guts of the Indian wrestling with Father Michael, wounding him a bit more.

(New round!)

The brave on top of Judith "attempts to bonk her with his war club." He would have hit her, but he slips (blue fate chip) and misses. The brave on top of the horse spurs it forward. Dr Wolf looks around to see if there's a stout stick to jam in the spokes to stop it. Unfortunately, it's Arizona and there's not much sturdy wood around. One brave has to dive out of the way of the wagon. Another brave grabs Laura and drags her onto his horse. As the stage wheels forward the war leader and 3 braves ride down to the stage and ride with it.

Onatah leaps onto her horse and rides alongside the Indians with the stage. She looses an arrow at the leader and would have crippled his left arm except for more Fate chips. The leader then gallops forward to get out of range.

Dr Wolf continues to jab a bayonet at the brave wrestling with Father Michael. Judith shoots the brave who lept on her, but grazes his chest. Mac fires from the top of the stage at one of the braves following - both barrels knock him down. Only three braves following now. Onatah fires at one of them and does a light wound to him. The brave Judith shot tries to club her but is fended off. A brave shoots at Onatah - Fate intervenes again to prevent 3 damage.

Dr Wolf shoots one of the riders behind the stage and nearly takes the brave's legs off. The war leader rides further off. John Huddleston tries to knife the brave wrestling the Father Michael, but misses. Father Michael is also unable to hurt the brave. Dr Wolf, quickly draws his sword, charges at a brave about to ride off and stabs him in the guts, wounding him but not killing him.

(New Round!)

Father Michael and the brave continue to roll in the dirt. The brave Dr Wolf stabbed swings at him, misses, and rides off to pick up the brave who lept at the wagon but felt. A brave shoots at Mac but misses. A brave shoots at Onatah and again she is saved by fate (5 wounds!). The brave attacking Judith is hindered by his wounds and misses again. Judith shoots him again, and badly wounds him.

Dr Wolf runs back to the scrum with Father Michael, disconnecting the power cord to his sword, and stabs the brave wrestling with Father Michael - who finally passes out from the damage and pain.

Back on the stage, the brave wrestling with Judith tries to wrestle her off the stage, but is badly wounded and can't. The brave with Laura starts to ride off but Mac shoots him with his shotgun with both barrels killing him. The horse is now out of control and rides off with the unconscious Laura. The two Indians who were on the same horse ride off and one of them transfers to the horse with Laura, bringing it back under control. The two remaining braves that had been chasing the stage ride over and pull themselves up onto the stage. As they pull themselves up, Mac reloads his shotgun.

Judith fires one final shot into the brave attacking her and he falls off the stage. Mac shoots one of the boarding braves in the guts with his shotgun and kills him; he shoots the other in the left arm wounding him. Then Mac reloads, and fires at the wounded brave, killing him. He rolls over, takes aim at one of the Indians who rode off to get Laura - knocking him out.

Finally the stage is cleared, but then the war leader shows up with 5 more braves who surround the stage. Onatah fires an arrow into one of them, wounding him; then she fires another arrow, wounding him a little more. She fires once more, and her target passes out.

(New round!)

Dr Wolf shoots, at a range, at an Indian riding alongside the stage, but it's too far and he misses. One of the Indians attempts to pull Judith off the stage but fails. The war leader shoots at Onatah but she dodges out of the way. Mac reloads.

Judith tries to rein in the one horse that the Indian isn't riding, and the stage starts careening wildly to the left. One of the braves tries to pull Judith off the stage, but she kicks and stays free. Another brave rides alongside the horses and tries to frighten them back on track. Another brave falls back and shoots at Onatah - who is tries to dodge, and is saved by Fate once more (but is now out of chips).

Finally the war chief decides we've had enough, and they've got our woman, so they head away. And so later, we roll into Vulture City, a little the worse for wear. Some youths are recruited to mind the wagon.

A young girl comes up to Onatah. And says Onatah's aunt sent her saying, "There's a problem near Montezuma's Well" - a sacred site for their tribe. The tribe is all concerned. The little girl doesn't know much about what kind of trouble is going on, she's only 5 or 6.

Onatah rides off, by herself, to meet her tribe. When they see her riding in, everyone is excited as she rides in as she's well known and respected. The Elders tell her that the Apaches are raiding in the area, their biggest camp is by the Well. Two Yavapi women and a missionary have been kidnapped. One brave survived the raid and identifies the leader of raid as the same as the one who attacked our stage. Onatah assures her tribe that she will take care of it - she'll trick the white men into to doing it.

Judith has a horrifying teaching moment about how to reconstruct a victim of a cougar mauling.

A note for Dr Wolf at his boarding house - a middle aged man was nosing around looking for him. Dr Wolf looks up a friend in town (Florin) to see if he knows anything about the mystery man. Florin says the man was dressed fairly nicely, had dark hair, just nosing around asking questions.

Mac and Father Michael look for some stout young men to help ride out and "kill some red men" and "save an innocent girl" respectively.

We talk to John Huddleston about how we want to save the girl. Mac overawes him, and tells him we're going to save the girl. He can stay with the stage and defend it, but he's going to wait til we get back!

There are rumors about the mayor having a plan to bring in buyers for the mine.

We decide to leave at dawn the next day.

Thursday

We leave at dawn and ride out - after 3 and a half hours, we come up a hill and see a decent road in the distance. We figure it's probably related to the fort.

We ride along the road to the fort - it's wall has clearly seen some damage from attacks. Judith and Father Michael ride forward to talk, leaving the others behind. We talk to the soldier at the gate, explain we're on the trail of some Apaches on the war path who kidnapped a white woman and a missionary. We're directed to a lieutenant in the dilapidated administration building.

We speak to Lieutenant Glasher. We give him the same spiel. He commends our civic mindedness, but they don't have the manpower to volunteer to help. He gets the impression that some are itinerant - last time his troops were up there, there were at least thirty. Since then some have been killed in a raid. But he can provide a map - Beaver Creek meanders up to Montezuma's Castle where the Apache are encamped. The ruins are built into the cliff faces; he thinks there's a way down from the top but you can definitely get in from the base.

Have they seen any parties of Indians leaving? They got attacked last night. We describe the war chief we saw - he doesn't think he's the big chief, but he's a war leader. They call him Atza-Chu.

We head back to the party and make some plans based on the map from the fort. We ride up on the top of the cliff - Mac and Father Michael a ways in the lead. Dr Wolf and Judith trailing farther behind. Onatah and the five posse members circle around to the north. It's pretty barren up here, small mesquite tress and the like around.

As we get closer to the cliff, we find a narrow path that leads to a steep path down the cliff face. We wave Judith and Dr Wolf forward and discuss. Mac and Dr Wolf head down on the path on foot to try and sneak up on anyone there. Father Michael and Judith remain at the top as reinforcements.

At the top, Judith spots two Indians creeping through the grass. She points them out to Father Michael, then calls out "Stand up, boys!" A brief talk with them, about why we're here. Down below on the path, Mac hears some conversation at the top, but doesn't know what's going on.

Above Judith walks her horse forward to try to tie them up, they take off running. Father Michael says, "I said hold still!" and fires above them. They try to hide but Judith can see them.

Mac and Dr Wolf hear the shot and take cover on the narrow path to have a defensive spot if Indians come boiling up from below. Onatah and the 5 members of the posse will come riding down soon.