Friday, March 23rd, 1877
Plan is to let soldiers leave next Tuesday, we plan to follow on Wednesday.
Invited to attend the Palm Sunday service by Father Miguel.
In the next few days, Judith goes hat shopping to buy the finest hat in Tucson.
Father Michael procures silver bullets, at $1 per bullet, for his revolver and rifle.
We head out on Tuesday following the soldiers...
We leave Deputy John Love behind; we figure he probably got drunk and was semi-forcibly enlisted.
Tuesday, March 27th, 1877
We ride north, following the soldiers on the ride north.
Saturday, March 31th, 1877
We stopped at Maricopa Wells by Phoenix last night.
The bridge we semi-rebuilt has been further repaired, but still "Please, no more than 2 horses at a time." A few hours through Indian territory, then a ferry.
As we get closer to Phoenix, a little before noon, we hear hoofbeats. Miss Judith draws out her rifle and bandits ride in... Six bandits with bandannas over their faces and black hats.
Mac attempts to overawe the bandits, pointing his shotgun at them and suggesting they ought to drop their guns. The bandits are distracted.
Anna shoots the horse of one of the bandits putting it down.
Father Michael tries to nag them about waylaying a man of God before Easter, but they don't much care. (Quiet, dirty Papist)
Mac fires his shotgun into the man on the ground, maiming his arm and knocking him out.
Judith yells at them, "Are you sure you really want to do this!?"
Mac overawes the newly promoted second-in-command, and they finally surrender.
We bring the bandits into Phoenix, turn them into the town sheriff, who will keep them in jail until the judge comes by again. Then we head on down to Vulture. Three hours ride from Phoenix we ride in.
The town is NOT in rubble, though it does look a little less populated and quiet. We split up to see to our own affairs.
Mac heads to the jail to check in on Dead Eye Bruce, but he's not there. Bill Parsley, a miner, appears to be running the place. Mac, "What's going on here?" "Nothing." Mac, "Why are you in charge and where'd Bruce go?" Parsley doesn't know; hasn't seen the mayor recently either. Mac kicks him out and heads to city hall.
Judith and Dr Wolf head over to the shop - the door's open but no one is there. There's no big pile of bodies there. She checks the ledger, no recent trouble.
Father Michael spots the graveyard caretaker, and notice that graves look somewhat "disheveled". Caretaker doesn't know where anyone is; looking at them all of the graves seem to have been recently disinterred. Michael heads out to find Mac.
Onatah heads out of town to paint sacred patterns for the spirits.
Mac heads to the town hall; it looks pretty deserted. There's only one woman he doesn't know well. She has a vacant stare. Mac asks her name and where everyone is. She's Mary Penterghast, and she's not sure where anyone is. Mac heads out to find the priest.
We head to the bar - it looks a little more rundown than we remember it. There's five or six people all hanging around, a bit listless. Mac calls out "Hey, what's going on?" The crowd looks at him with vacant stares then goes back to their drinks. Judith notices the whites of their eyes are somewhat yellowed.
Judith goes over and checks one of the people's pulse, moving slowly and matter of factly and the guy doesn't mind. He has a pulse, but smells like he hasn't been taking care of himself at all. His skin seems harder than usual and slightly swollen.
Father Michael and Mac sit at the bar, watching them; we notice that the whole crowd seems to blink in unison.
Mac grabs one them and "places him under arrest". As we proceed to the jail, Father Michael sprinkles him with holy water, but there's no obvious change. At the jail, nothing much was found. Lymph nodes are a little swollen.
Mac heads out in the street and fires his shotgun. A couple doors down, Oliver Pickman pokes head out the barber shop. "Oliver, what's going on? I leave for a week and the place goes to hell."
Oliver looks nervous, doesn't have the yellow eyes, "Some force of evil has started a mine by the gold mine, thinks they've found ghost rock there." He thinks something in the mine might be able to drive them out.
Father Michael and Dr Wolf both lose a die of Cognition as the feeling about town begins to affect them; we're getting headaches.
We split up to gather gear and meet up later. The sun goes down. Ol' Jake, the graveyard tender, comes in. Father Michael turns, Jake attacks. Fighting for a few turns, Father Michael realizes that Jake isn't hurt by the holy atmosphere of the church, and whips a piece of ceremonial rope around him. Jake strains against it and begins to fray - Father Michael draws his revolver, says "Don't come after me, Jake, I don't want to do it," and runs.
Mac notices the man he locked up earlier is trying to attack him, futilely. Mac heads out into the street to see what's going on. He sees people emerging from the buildings, heading to the church. He tries to sneak along, but is spotted by one and they turn as one toward Mac. Mac retreats to the jail.
Dr Wolf is working in the blacksmith shop, the door opens, and the barber Oliver comes in and warns Dr Wolf that the townspeople are attacking. Dr Wolf finishes up quickly and gets ready to leave.
Father Michael heads over to find Mac and is spotted by the zombies that were gathering near the jail. He tries to sneak down an alley, but the zombies are remarkably perceptive and keep after him. Fortunately Father Michael is still faster
Judith has headed to the pharmacy and grabbed stimulants, cocaine, smelling salts, and powerful liquid laxatives. She heads toward the jail and meets up with Father Michael. He tells her that the townspeople have gone rabid, they continue toward the jail.
Oliver and Dr Wolf sneak out the back of the blacksmith shop and up the alley toward the jail.
Father Michael and Judith meet up with Mac; a quick conversation ensues about what to do. Plan: pick up Dr Wolf, then head to Onatah. We do meet up with Dr Wolf, then have to choose a third direction to head out. We meet up with Onatah and head to the corral to try to get some horses. Townspeople have eaten them.
We decide to sneak out to Jennie's place. As we head south on a small path we suddenly emerge on the north side of town. We're trapped. We debate quickly, as we've lost our pursuers for the moment, and decide to hole up in Judith's embalming shop.
We head over quick and fortify Judith's shop. We hear breaking glass but the fortifications hold.
Oliver is with us and explains - he saw big strange bug things in the mine; he snuck down there once. They're making the people weird and docile and angry at night. He isn't sure how this disease is transmitted.
We hole up for the night. Father Michael celebrates the Easter Vigil that night, making do with the supplies on hand.
Sunday, April 1, 1877
It's Easter! And April Fool's Day!
Father Michael blesses Dr Wolf's sword and a few bullets.
Oliver undergoes the rite of Confession. Father Michael reminds him that dying in mortal sin is BAD and encourages him to confess if he had anything to do with this. He says he doesn't, but has meddled in the occult. Father Michael tells him to repetent his ways and give the books to the church to be disposed of.
Oliver leads us out there. Chinese guy (named Xinjin) meets us on the way out. Mac wants to arrest him; Chinese guy says he happened to come here recently, he escaped from the mines where his fellows are being worked to death by the bug men. We agree to help and ask him a few questions.
Xinjin says the miners are docile and oblivious in the day; the mine is pretty straight, not lots of side passages.
We climb down a short cliff with a ladder and enter the mine. It's a long mineshaft, looks pretty normal. We come across a box of dynamite. The tunnel ends at a fissure in the rock; through the fissure we see it is illuminated by a sickly greenish-blue glow.
We squeeze through the fissure, Oliver has some trouble, and keep moving. A side passage branches off - these tunnels are cylindrical and melted out of the rock. In the stone wall of the room are carved little niches - mostly full of silver canisters. The canisters are unlabeled. As Judith enters, the canisters speak in a flat mechanical monotone - "Who are you?" "What's going on?" They start making demands. Judith asks who they are - she recognizes the names of miners of Vulture City, a lot of speaking at the same time. She asks a few questions and figures that they were worked to death. They want to die, and Judith obliges by tipping the canisters since she figures there's no way to heal them.
Father Michael enters the cave to give last rites while Dr Wolf exits, not wanting to see this. As Judith is finishing up, a bug creature enters the tunnel farther down. It flies toward the group and grabs Mac!
Mac wrestles his shotgun into line and fires both barrels blowing a hole in its chest (3 wounds) and legs (4 wounds). Dr Wolf lunges with his sword jabbing the creature in the guts (1 wound, total of 4).
The bug creature flies back down the tunnel. Father Michael runs out from the side room, drops into a crouch, and fires - the shot takes the creature in the head and kills it instantly.
We gather our wits, reload, and move forward. We enter a large room dimly lit by glowing fungus, on top of a ledge. Tinges of blue smoke and the smell of a storm that has just passed. A spiderweb of beams and ropes arc across the cavern holding the ceiling up. 20 workers, mixture of Chinese and local townspeople (including Father Black) are cutting away at the walls with mining tools and strange alien tools. (Anna: I'll have to get my hand on an alien tool!) Three bugs are in the cavern - two are inspecting a large pile of ghost rock in the center of the room. One is larger and has some sort of weapon, standing on a ledge by the other entrance to the cavern.
The boss bug creature, speaks in a weird tongue, and the townspeople turn en masse. Oliver says there's a portal farther in that must be destroyed.
Sneak back, Xinjin leads them on a merry chase. We hide in the brain room; then head back. Dr Wolf sneaks out on the ledge.
The boss bug is flying across the cavern. When it lands, Dr Wolf leaps from cover, slashes his electric sword into the bug's strange head, critically wounding it - or he would have if Fate hadn't intervened (4 wounds). Onatah runs forward, calling on the spirits to give her the Strength of the Bear. She looses an arrow, scraping the beasts leg (1 wound bought off with Fate).
The wounded bug fires his lightning gun at Dr Wolf, hitting him in the arm. It only lightly burns him but almost knocks him over.
Judith pushes forward and fires her rifle at the boss, hitting his left forelimb (1 wound). Mac joins the fray, firing twice, hitting it twice in the abdomen (5 wounds bought off by Fate).
Onatah looses two more arrows, wounding the bug twice in the abdomen (2 wounds!). Judith fires her rifle, doing another wound to the forelimb. (Total - 2 forelimb, 2 abdomen)
Oliver waves his hands and a bolt of shining light leaps from his hands and hits the bug in the chest. The bug falls dead to the ground.
Mac begins to push out of the cavern, but the two bugs from the floor leap into the air and attempt to grab Dr Wolf. One of them grabs Dr Wolf, squeezing him tightly (1 wound to guts). The other flies to the side and grabs Onatah's head in its pincers; she takes no damage but is thoroughly held.
Mac leaps out of the tunnel and fires a barrel into each bug. The one holding Dr Wolf is lightly wounded in the forelimb, the other is lightly wounded in the abdomen.
Father Michael comes to the front of the tunnel and fires his blessed bullet into the body of the bugman carrying Onatah; the bugman drops dead.
Oliver calls upon his occult powers again, a lance of light hitting the bugman's abdomen (2 wounds). Judith fires again, doing another wound to the bugman's guts. Oliver calls upon his powers once more and does 3 wounds to its legs. Judith fires twice more into the things torso and it falls to the ground.
After investigating their advanced technology, we advance to the next room - a large room, with a narrow ledge along the edge. A terrible ooze - Dr Wolf vomits and swoons but is roused by Judith's smelling salts. We rush through. Judith attempts to use the lightning gun but can't make it work.
We reach a branch and head right. A cliff with a "bottomless" pit with a ladder going down. We head back and go forward.
A room - huge array of metallic machinery, a wavery gate. One other exit leaving the room. A couple of bugmen. Judith tells them off sternly and points at the gate.
The alien bug-things attack! One fires a burst of lightning at Dr Wolf who was in the lead. Dr Wolf dodges the blast!
Father Michael says, "Damn it, Judith, get down!" He fires at the one who hadn't fired and puts the beast down with his blessed bullet. The other shoots Father Michael but the lightning barely phases him. Father Michael fires his last blessed bullet into the bugman and drops it (65 damage to the gizzards).
A smaller bugman enters the room and fires a weird green light at Father Michael from his forelimbs. By Divine Providence he only takes a light wound to the chest. Father Michael returns fire, inflicting two wounds to the other thing. Onatah steps forward and looses an arrow but misses. Father Michael fires once more, and does another wound to the guts. Onatah looses once more but the arrow skitters off the things exoskeleton.
Oliver calls on his occult powers once more and a lance of light drives into the small being and it falls over.
Oliver encourages us to blow up the gate. We proceed further into a pink pulsing chamber, veins along the wall. Judith stabs the wall with her trocar and oozes ichor. Father Michael vomits and Onatah passes out. Michael drags her back to the gate room.
The others proceed into a room with tables grown from the floor. Poor dead body having it's brain removed. Strange alien tools and ghost rock. Farther in a black shine to a black goat.
Planting of dynamite in the shrine. Then the gate chamber. Then the braced chamber prone to collapse.
Retreat to outside the mine - as we are getting close to the surface we hear lots of explosion. Oliver collapses, and is wondering what I am doing here.
We head back into town. As we get closer we notice a small group of people walking of into the hills, a long way away. Laura comes running up to us; everyone seems to be vaguely better.
We take of who's around. Laura and Father Black have survived. Lightning Dan and Dead Eye Bruce are fine. Mac also finds David Lennox who Mac had sent to Vulture City to "be safe". Mayor William Love is back, the last Love in town. We give the newpaper reporter a story of "mine gas".
We have a late Easter Sunday service. As it's wrapping up Laura comes burting in and says, those people who wandered off into the desert are coming back and there's something wrong with them!
