Adventure! RPG: Heroes of Our Time - episode 5: Walking in the Valley

[Winston Holmes]

"Agreed, cowboy," Winston nods while shrugging his shoulders to shift the pack back onto his body. Unlike before, the well-used shotgun hangs off of his shoulder on an old but sturdy strap; it's much more accessible than having only the stock sticking out of the pack but it appears to be much less threatening than if he just carried it in his hands.

"Unless Miss Schafer's expertise is needed somewhere else..."

[Alex Craft]

The train rattles along through the desert, going mercifully undisturbed as it eats up the distance to its next destination. Dr. Mystery leads Janos back through the cars, with Jozsef following along behind his lord.

John pauses on the landing between two cars towards the end of first class, glancing around in momentary confusion. At first, he thinks he may have stopped at the wrong landing, but soon catches sight of a pair of handcuffs ... both ends clipped around a sturdy steel handle welded to the side of the car. Catching on, he and Janos look around, but don't really expect to see anything.

Luqmani could be anywhere on the train at this point. Indeed, looking out at the landscape rushing by, it occurs to them that the Egyptian may not even be on the train, if he escaped before the engineer put the engine back into motion. If he'd thought to prepare ahead of time, the Chihuahuan Desert probably wouldn't hold much fear for him.

Jozsef about sums it up:

"Damn. I'll start searching first class."

* * *

Some hours later, the train reaches the next town, and the staff parts the team from both the 'surveyors' and their device, whatever it was. By that point, Jameson, Winston, and Kate had managed to separate the glass bulbs from the rest of the device, insuring that any timer ticking down it the tangle of wires would fail to trigger anything significant.

However, Kate then declared a moratorium on any further experimentation with the device ... lacking proper facilities, she believes it unjustifiably dangerous to continue poking at whatever is contained in the glass bulbs.

For that very reason, Jameson took advantage of inattentive stewards to smuggle the glass bulbs back to the team's cabins - Kate didn't want the town sheriff blowing himself up by rattling the box too much. So, the device the authorities walked away with is really just the timer/detonator/whatever mechanism, locked back up to insure it'll be a while before they figure out that something's missing.

The glass bulbs are currently wrapped up and stowed in with some of Kate's own delicate equipment, awaiting further examination whenever a lab becomes accessible.

Jameson, at least, suspects that Kate has a bit of a secondary motive for keeping those components out of the hands of the police ... he did not fail to notice the light in her eyes at the chance to fiddle with what might be a new piece of super-technology. She has mentioned several times, with a kind of delight, that she doesn't recognize the 'style' of the scientist who built the piece.

Kate also took a look at the oversized revolvers wielded by the surveyors, but she dismissed them as simple modifications. She had some interest in the guns' recoil suppressors, but she noted that the design was far from polished - the guns probably wouldn't even be usable beyond the first dozen or so shots, thanks to the stresses put on the mechanisms.

The combined efforts of Janos, Jozsef, Dr. Mystery, and - later - Blaine failed to locate Luqmani anywhere on the train, leading them to suspect that he is out in the desert somewhere between towns ... effectively untraceable, at this point.

If he did manage to keep hidden on the train, he's gone now. The team attempted to watch for anything suspicious as the train disembarked and boarded, but they found it impossible to track everyone traveling and working on and around the train - he could easily have vanished into the town, and the team doesn't have time to check around before the train goes clattering off toward its next destination.

* * *

The surveyor was most informative. Radha and Blaine worked on him for a couple hours before the cocktail of drugs in his system started making his information unreliable.

Their first cue to that was when he recanted his earlier comments and claimed to be working for the 'Unutterable Underworlders.' Their second was when he began describing the intricate mandalas of color haloing their heads. Hazards of using exotic hallucinogens as tools of interrogation.

Before his detour into lands of fantasy, however, the surveyor fed the two quite a bit of background, much of it not terribly reassuring:

He is, in fact, a chemist, and the rest of the team of 'surveyors' was likewise composed of chemists, biologists, and engineers. He himself seemed to be fuzzy on the reasons behind the incongruous assignment, but it appears that his superiors needed operatives in a hurry and did not have access to a ready stable of such.

Luqmani was called in as a consultant, and a massive bonus was offered to any members of the chemist's parent organization, Marduk Werkbund, who were willing to perform a risky and highly illegal task for the Werkbund's principles. Few of the scientists and technicians were interested enough to risk life and limb - the chemist was one of the handful that volunteered.

Unfortunately, this is the most contact the chemist has ever had with the heart of the Werkbund - his entire knowledge begins and ends within his studio group. He was recruited by anonymous agents shortly after his university education, then brought to Texas to begin work in a cluster of Werkbund studios located somewhere in the desert of Pecos County.

There's an entrenched case of one hand not knowing what the other is doing between the administration and the various studios. It seems as if each studio researches components for larger projects, without having any idea of how their research is ultimately being applied, or of what the other studios are engaged in.

He doesn't even know exactly how many studios are at work in the Pecos County facility (there are more than two), and he could not be convinced to concentrate enough to precisely say how many others worked in his own studio - the sedatives made him fairly useless for remembering detail.

Even location is uncertain. He knows, certainly, that the facility is established somewhere in Pecos County - whenever he comes and goes, he is taken to Fort Stockton blindfolded (it's a long drive over bad roads) before being allowed to go his way.

He lives and works there in six month shifts, with very few chances to get out during that time ... he tolerates the conditions because he gets half of every year off, is paid extremely well, and has an unlimited research budget. The downside is his limited freedom of movement, his inability to publish, and the most probably illegal nature of his work.

He and the other volunteers from his studio were put together with a few volunteers from at least one of the other Pecos County studios. They were issued guns and the device, which they never saw the innards of. They do not know what, exactly, it is supposed to do, but it sounds like either a chemical weapon or something more exotic - they were given injections of an antidote before being sent out.

The idea was that they activate the device at the head of the train and let the device's effects waft back over the cars, killing everyone therein. Then, they would wander back to the caboose, disconnect, and coast to a stop while the train crashed into the end of the line, concealing the passengers' true cause of the death.

This was targeted at the K.I.S. field team, and Luqmani was brought along primarily to tie up the team for the duration. The chemist and his cohorts were told to allow Luqmani to die with everyone else, to cut down on the number of people aware of the situation.

The story as a whole indicates the presence of an extremely secretive research facility somewhere in Pecos County, most likely associated with weapons design, given its ability to come up with an untraceable implement of mass murder on short notice. Also worrying is the fact that they knew about and located the team - there shouldn't be many people out there who know that the team is in Texas this week.

The exact purpose behind the attack of this 'Marduk Werkbund' on the K.I.S. team is still uncertain, but the organization's principles might be needing time to clean something up ... the fact that they went to the trouble of deploying super-technological weapons suggests that they wanted the team's destruction to look like an accident, possibly delaying a followup organization.

Whatever the case, the team can expect to discover more soon ... in just one more day, they will be disembarking in the town of Sachse, Pecos County.

[Alex Craft]

Anthony King, in Baltimore, four days ago:

... something happened in Texas, two weeks ago. One of our company towns, Fivemile Well, in Pecos County, was found completely deserted, with evidence of daily life simply abandoned all over the settlement. It is as if every man, woman, and child simply left what they were doing and walked out of town. This is all we know, and it is possible that the information is exaggerated ...

... Unfortunately, information in and out of Pecos County has been cut off for more than a week now. It has been increasingly tense throughout that part of Texas of late ... small, privately owned ranches are giving way to corporate land buy-outs, and many of the settlements out there are in danger of becoming ghost towns ...

... The Fivemile Well incident has turned tension into conflict, and that part of Pecos County now seems to be in the midst of a minor range war. In addition to making it extremely difficult to get reliable information on Fivemile Well, this is endangering certain mining interests K.I.S. has in the region ...

The train steams quietly beside the platform of the Sachse station, pausing here for somewhat longer than elsewhere while the mechanic and the engineer work on topping off the boiler and restocking the coal car. They work with conspicuous haste - apparently wanting to get out of town as soon as possible.

It isn't difficult to see why. The streets of Sachse are completely empty, broadcasting a strong ghost town vibe, and the citizenry is hidden from sight ... their presence only cued by a restless stirring of curtains in the windows of the silent buildings. There's a palpable sense of tension hanging over the settlement, though whatever action has come down thus far would seem to be well over.

The stewards hurry the K.I.S. group off the train (not wanting to hang around here longer than necessary, and probably none too sorry to see the team go). Their bags follow them off, almost thrown from the train as the engine brings up pressure. The train rolls out of the station before the team has even finished picking up their bags.

There are no porters, so our heroes gather their own bags and head into town, watched through narrowed window slats by the ticket seller/telegraph operator.

Sachse is supposed to have been where the range war began, though that conflict now appears to have concluded or, at least, moved elsewhere. Reports are unreliable, but it sounds as if some of the locals decided that the big, corporate ranches where responsible for Fivemile Well ... either directly, or through inaction. They started agitating, the ranches hired the equivalent of union busters, and everything escalated from there.

This information came from an investigator hired by K.I.S. upon the disappearance of Fivemile Well's population:

... Carson Englebrook. He stopped sending reports a few days ago, so I have no further information. I am also uncertain as to Mr. Englebrook's current situation, but I have telegraphed Sachse, requesting that he meet you when you arrive ...

Englebrook is nowhere to be seen, which catches nobody by surprise. King wasn't holding out much hope for that, and the recent episode on the train suggests that K.I.S. interests in the area might be compromised.

Perhaps the man investigated too closely, and Marduk Werkbund became aware of the King's interest by capturing him, or perhaps the Werbund has independent sources and disposed of Englebrook for the same reasons that they attempted to deal with the team. Or perhaps he simply got caught up in the range war ... there is no way to know, at present.

Regardless, the team has a job to do. If possible, King would like to see order restored to the area. This part of Texas happens to hold a decent percentage of K.I.S.'s company-owned mines, so continued conflict here could cause troublesome internal shortages. However, the army is liable to come in any day now, so that is a secondary concern, to be pursued only if a means of stabilizing the situation clearly presents itself.

The heart of the mission, therefore, is in Fivemile Well:

... Fivemile Well used to be smaller - just a crossroads settlement to serve the local ranchers. However, with the land buy-outs, landless ranchers started moving into town, which nicely coincided with K.I.S. interests in the area ... we essentially purchased the town in order to support a pair of new mines we were opening up at the time ...

... The disappearances are both highly worrying and rather damaging to the company's area interests. Look into it, and tell me what happened. If someone is responsible, deal with them if possible, contact me if not. You will need to move quickly, since the army will no doubt confuse the evidence once they arrive to intervene in the area conflict ...

Sachse itself is a throwback to an earlier age. There is certainly no electricity, likely no running water, and the automobile doesn't seem to have arrived yet. Every shop has ties out front for horses, and the roads show no evidence of vehicles more advanced than carts and wagons. It is the beginning of the summer, and the team can feel it - the sun burns high in a perfectly clear sky, and a haze of fine brown dust hangs in the air over the main road.

Our heroes feel distinctly self-conscious walking through the town, feeling eyes on them from every window. It is really faintly ridiculous, weirdly reminiscent of every terrorized town in every western to hit the movie houses, right down to the little saloon halfway down the main street, across from the general store. The saloon is neighbored by a barber shop and a sheriff's office (both apparently deserted).

Janos is the first to notice, in passing, the star-shaped metal badge of office nailed to the sheriff's door, though he doesn't recognize it as anything particularly significant until someone else points it out ... it would appear that something happened to the local law enforcement, and perhaps that someone wanted to make a point on that topic.

For lack of any better place to start, our heroes enter the saloon. It is much as the Americans, at least, would have expected - a smallish, dim room with a strong scent of tobacco in the air. The place is currently almost deserted, with the only occupants being a dour-looking and distinctly Irish bartender and a single customer ... Winston Holmes, who is somewhat less surprised to see the team than they are to see him.

In all the fuss, it hadn't come up why Winston was out in the wide West (having people trying to kill you can be distracting), so when Jameson failed to find Winston on the train before disembarking, he'd only thought of it with a feeling of regret at being unable to wish an old friend farewell.

Of course, Winston's absence was due to already being disembarked - he is traveling rather more lightly than the team (which has a heavily equipped mad scientist along for the ride), and he got off the train much more quickly.

[Count Janos Rakozi]

"Lawless times," Janos muses unhappily. Deep in his soul he loves a calm and orderly society ... and this isn't it.

"Once we have resolved this crisis," Janos adds, "We should help these people."

Walking into the saloon, he holds the door for the ladies and keeps an eye out on the street.

[Andrew Murphy]

Jameson saunters down the street with the others, the itchy feeling of eyes watching him does little to improve his mood which is less than stellar after the events on the train. His pack is slung over his back leaving his hands free. They dangle at his side, appearing to be idle but instead being a twitch from drawing his revolvers.

The crude "sheriff wanted" sign of a tin star nailed to the sheriffs's door does little to elevate his mood, things have gone badly in this town and there's a good chance that he and the others have stepped unknowingly into it.

As they enter the bar and their eyes adjust to the dim interior Jameson see Winston sitting back to the bar apparently waiting for them.

"You shifty SOB, if this is where you were coming you could have said something, helped us carry baggage!" Jameson's indignation is mild of course, were the positions reversed he would likely have done the same thing. "Well professor, don't just sit there grinning like the village idiot, order up some drinks, I know my whistle needs whetting and I'm sure I'm not the only one."

[Surya Lanadhra]

"So this is a real live Western saloon," Radha observes sardonically, wrinkling her delicate little nose at the heavy smell of tobacco and sneezing once as it tickles her nostrils. "I cannot say I am impressed."

The slight, dusky-skinned Hindu woman has obviously decided to discard her secondhand, old-fashioned Western attire, preferring to remain in the traditional (and highly practical) salwar-kameez of loose, baggy trousers, a knee-length tunic with side splits and a broad, long scarf that she has wrapped around her head and shoulders to loosely frame her face and cover her thick, heavy plait of raven hair. Today the fabric is finely woven cotton and the colours are brick-red flowers on a dust-brown background. It is a practical garment, well-made, suggesting that Radha is prepared for any trouble that might happen yet refuses to compromise on certain things like a decent appearance.

It seems like the Brahmin doctor refuses to compromise on many things. Despite the knowledge that she stuck out like a sore thumb in this part of the world, she continued to paint a scarlet dot on her forehead, though she had foregone the painted line in the parting of her hair. A golden hoop pierced her right nostril and more decorated her ears, whilst she wore her golden Laksmi pendant and several rings on her fingers. Some of them were set with pearls and rubies, and the one on her wedding finger had a massive cabochen emerald in it. For a woman who had dressed so poorly on first meeting, she has obviously got a lot of gold and jewels.

"My wedding jewellery and a few pieces from my mother," she replies to any queries from her 'team mates', "If I am to go into conflict, I will go as a daughter of Rajasthan, descended from warriors-queens and Sita herself."

As always, she has her medical bag with her, and her feet are encased in practical brown leather sandals.

[Winston Holmes]

Since the age of fifteen, Winston has lived his life out of the same (and now beat up) Legionnaire pack and not much else. From desert, to trenches, to swamp, to forest, to rolling plains, to jungle, to frozen mountain tops, and more, it's kept all of the belongings he's needed. And it's kept him quick and mobile on the road. Hence, he's ready to disembark even before the train as come to its hurried stop. He finds it a little odd that the K.I.S. people are nowhere to be found, but he's got responsibilities to keep as well.

Ten years of dirt, mud, and god knows what else has stained the stuffed pack but it seems to naturally blend with the muted brown of Winston's boots, slacks, and bush hat as well as his simple off white shirt. In fact, it helps give him the casual look of someone at ease in the Texas range, albeit not perfectly matching the locals. And he's going to need to not look out of place if he's going to find Marcus on his own; a lone city slicker won't get too far in these parts.

Starting with the best place to find anyone in a western town, Winston starts with the lone saloon. Unfortunately, the only thing he finds inside is a single bartender. But before he gets that glass of burbon from the bottle the Irishman found, he's giving Jameson that idiot grin, "Hey now, Cowboy, you guys were all gone getting that luggage when I went a-lookin' for you." He takes a sip of the burbon (it's nothing like the stuff he snuck from his father once, the bottle that only came out when Uncle was visiting) before striding over to the group while Adia still hangs on his shoulder, "C'mon, I'll grab those bags while you get a whiskey or a beer."

[Andrew Murphy]

Jameson moves to the bar and shrugs his own pack off setting it down next to the stool he positions himself on. He unslings the long Winchester rifle which he has brought and leans it against the bar.

"A whiskey and a whisky," he says the to the barkeep,holding up his hand with his index and middle fingers together and then apart indicating a single shot followed by a double. Turning to the others, "Anybody else for drink?"

[Dr. Mystery]

Turning to Radha, a quiet smile across his face, "I'm afraid they don't get too much better than this, although it is comforting to know that there is someone who sticks out more than myself here."

John laughs a little, awkwardly, as he turns to Jameson, "I would certainly appreciate a drink. Bourbon, perhaps."

[Alex Craft]

Kate is loaded down with everything that she refused to trust anyone else to carry. Which is quite a lot, actually - it looks like she decided to carry along something like half of her lab, and she is fiercely protective of all her gadgetry. She doesn't seem to have any trouble hauling all of it around, though, so it doesn't really present a problem.

She carefully unloads on and around one of the several vacant tables, nods at Jameson's invitation, and orders the same. The bartender doesn't comment on the group, serving up the drinks in silence. Kate peers around the grimy little bar with interest, then asks:

"So ... this isn't my thing. What do we do now?"

[Andrew Murphy]

Jameson passes around drinks to everybody and then knocks back the shot of whiskey before beginning.

"Well the Fivemile well is about half a day's ride and I'm guessing at least some of us don't know how to handle a horse.

"We could split up into two groups, one group investigates Fivemile Well and the other stay behind and looks into the situation from this end.

"The other option is we see about getting a wagon or coach and we all head out to Fivemile Well when we are able, checking out what we can here while we gather supplies."

Jameson takes a swig from his second whisky, "There's also the matter of the research facility those chemists told us about, as well as that device they had. I'm sure with a couple days to work Kate may be able to tell us what exactly they were trying to do."

Jameson looks around at the group and downs the remainder of his whisky, "Somebody has it out for us for some reason and there is certainly more going on than what immediately meets the eye. I reckon that we should have a plan regardless of what we choose to do."

[Surya Lanadhra]

"If the problems of this place and the problems of Fivemile Well are not related, then I am an Untouchable," Radha says with quiet conviction. The little Hindu lady looks around the grimy place with distaste and resignation.

"We stay here tonight. And I can ride, thank you very much."

[Blaine]

Blaine is busy polishing up his shoes as best he can, they got rather dusty from the walk to town.

"I'm with the Doc." he says nodding to Radha. "We could use a bit a' rest." he declines on the whiskey for now. "But I wouldn't mind takin' the 2 cent tour of this place."

[Count Janos Rakozi]

"Hmmm ... I've been known to ride a bit. I can head out to the Fivemile Mine. I am afraid I am a bit weak on the mining side of things."

He smiles at Rhada's Untouchable comment, but withholds any comment of his own.

"In town, lacking a mayor of sorts, talk to your most affluent shopkeepers to find out who is in charge."

After a second, he adds,

"Unless power is held in the reigns of one of these 'cattle barons', of course, but even then we should be able to gather a name."

[Alex Craft]

Kate disagrees with Jameson:

"Nope. There's nothing more I can do with that thing until I gain access to some real lab facilities. My equipment is limited here, and I want proper containment before I try anything risky."

She's a little too cheerful about that - happy to have a challenge, most likely.

[Surya Lanadhra]

"Yes, please do not meddle with the object. I would much prefer we and everyone else remain intact," Radha says mildly.

[Andrew Murphy]

Jameson lifts an eyebrow making a somewhat exasperated expression, "Remind me to fill you in on a few of our previous missions sometime Doc..."

[Count Janos Rakozi]

Janos looks around the bar one more time then stands up.

"Well, we have work to do. Jameson, Dr. Kolini and I should go out to the FiveMile and, if he's willing, bring Winston along with us. We will need some horses, of course."

"Blaine, you, Fredrick, Jozef and Kate find us a good base of operations here in Sachse and then figure out who is doing what here to push this hamlet to the point of lawlessness. I suggest starting with the residence of Mr. Englebrook. He was King's man, and we owe it to him to find out why he wasn't at the train to meet us."

Janos looks at the team's male members,

"And one of you Americans should take that star off that door and put it on. Evil prospers when good men do nothing, and all that. Or, I could take it if none of you mind."

Janos' aura is one of confidence and command. He has the hallmarks of an officer who led men through four years of the Great War; fearless, considerate, and resolute.

[Andrew Murphy]

Jameson idly sips his whiskey while Janos speaks.

"And one of you Americans should take that star off that door and put it on. Evil prospers when good men do nothing, and all that. Or, I could take it if none of you mind."

Jameson waits a second then clears his throat, "I'd put the star on my chest right now if I had any idea why it there in the first place. I grew up in a town very much like this and if some local bandit or outlaw killed the sheriff he won't have any reason not to do it again. It's hard to watch out for a murderer if you don't know who they are."

Jameson quickly gulps down the remainder of his whiskey, "Besides there'd be no point in myself or you putting on the star if we both plan to go to Fivemile Well. That's not exactly the image to portray ya'know," he sighs and rubs his head.

"Why don't you the doc and the professor head out to Fivemile Well. Give it a cursory once over and come back, unless something jumps out at you we're going to need more than a couple hours to solve that mystery.

"In the meantime I'll pull Sheriff duty and help Blaine, John, Kate, and Jozef check out Englebrook. If you three get back this evening we can all have dinner together and figure out our next move."

[Winston Holmes]

Winston stays quite quiet when Janos mentions sheiff's star, apparently opting to listen and let things fall as they may. "If you're going to take up the office, cowboy," he interjects as the count and Jameson start to sketch out a plan, "I hope you could look into Marcus when you start to ask some questions around town. If we're lucky, some of the locals will be more willing to work with you once they hear that name. Or, if we're extremely lucky, Marcus is here in town and can give us the skinny on what's happened.

"And I don't mind heading out to Fivemile Well," he continues, giving his glass of bourbon a swirl, "But I don't think we could even make it to that town before sundown today, not without one of those experimental airplanes you can read about in that Popular Science magazine. In fact, it would be a stretch to make it there and back in a single day by horse. We could use the rest of the day to secure water and transportation for the journey as well as helping out in the information gathering here in town. If this Mr. Englebrook is still here he might be able to help us line up some horses."

He takes a sip from the bourbon and pauses to give the glass a disatisfied look, "And maybe he has some good Kentucky bourbon too."

[Count Janos Rakozi]

Janos nods.

"Good enough. We'll get the horses and supplies we need for the journey now, and leave at first light. The detectives amongst us can still go looking for Mr. Englebrook before sundown. That still gives us some information to go on ... including who killed the previous politzie ... sheriff, marshall, or what have you."

[Andrew Murphy]

Jameson looks mildly confused, "Who is this Marcus guy professor? Friend of yours?"

[Blaine]

Bliane nods and finally throws back one of the drinks.

"First light is better for the well. We can check out a few things around here tonight, I'll start snooping. As for the star, leave it. I got a badge, and I'll use it." Blaine flashes his badge for them to see, but makes sure the few in the saloon can also, as well as the well used semi-auto uin the shoulder holster. "They'll get the message."

[Winston Holmes]

Winston looks again at the bourbon and gives a resigned sigh before downing the rest of the glass, "I definitely hope he has better bourbon.

"Marcus Watkins was the man who got me into treasure hunting, cowboy. I met him after the armistice was signed and when I finally left the Legion. He taught me how to deal with unsavory people without losing my fingers but I've never seen someone keep such a steady hand while disarming an old Persian booby trap. He retired out in Fivemile Well to find his fortune at oil prospecting and go onto rubbing elbows with Rockefeller and Hearst. If he's still there or if someone in this town knows where he is, he might be a big help in finding out what's happen to Mr. King's interests."

[Andrew Murphy]

"No offense Blaine but a PI Badge from Baltimore is going to mean about as much as a meadow muffin to these folks. I grew up in a town like this, trust me, I know what needs to be done."

[Blaine]

Blaine smiles his usual half grin. "None taken Bradford. But believe me, it ain't the badge, it's the guy holdin' it. People are people and mooks are mooks. Me and this badge have traveled to Sicily, Chinese opium dens, and Arab slave rings. I reckon it'll do just fine out here. You can put on that star if you want. Me? That's bad luck, not to mention seeing a new badge will make 'em think there's new law in town."

[Andrew Murphy]

Jameson gives Blaine a wry grin, "Well I guess with the both of us around maybe the people of this town will feel safe. As for bad luck ... frankly I don't believe in it..."

[Alex Craft]

Kate has finished off both of her whiskies, and hesitates a moment before waving off the bartender when he approaches.

To all appearances, the bartender looks to either be closing up shop or to be on the bad end of a long drought in supply ... Winston's complaint on the quality of drink is entirely appropriate, since the bottles are being taken from a nearly empty shelf running along behind the bar - scraping the bottom of the bottle, so to speak.

The bartender studiously ignores the group for the most part, serving up drinks and minding his own business. However, he does mention, with brevity:

"The cooper has horses for sale."

Kate, for her part, speaks up:

"I'll leave the logistics to you. But how about we leave the sheriff's office along for now? We can ask around, sure, but we have no idea what happened to the real sheriff. Whatever did happen, it was probably violent, and whomever tries to take up the office is probably painting a big target on his head"

"We can do without the trouble. Fivemile Well is our main focus here, remember ... sorry James."

[Andrew Murphy]

Jameson makes a bit of a face, a cross between confisuin and disgust. It's obvious to those who know Jameson fairly well that this is all about doing the right thing even if that's not the best thing for the group at the moment.

"I can't guarantee I'll go along with that, but for now I'll leave well enough alone," he replies his gaze shifting to peer across the street at the empty sheriff's office.

[Surya Lanadhra]

Radha leans forward, looking at the bartender.

"Sahib, do you know of anyone who might need medical attention in the village if you have no doctor, or if you do, he or she would be interested in talking to a colleague?"

[Alex Craft]

Kate shrugs awkwardly.

"We're here for Tony's interests. If it comes down to it, we can leave law and order for the military ... they'll be here within the week. [a little more firmly] Don't put me in a spot here, Jameson."

The bartender looks up for only a second, then speaks into the glass he's cleaning, saying:

"No doctor here. Man comes around every week or so, barber takes care of emergencies. And the barber's out with the posse. Guess there could be a few sick around ... doctor ain't been by in three weeks. A couple men with bullets in 'em, too."

[Dr. Mystery]

John patiently watches the conversation, drinking his bourbon. Finding a short break in the conversation, "You know, I could always scout out Fivemile Well. If there's anybody there, they'd be less likely to see me."

[Count Janos Rakozi]

Janos nods in agreement,

"Anthony's interests come first. We've given our word on it. It is not happy coincidence that in doing so, we will establish order in this land once more by doing so. Our work is like that ... rolling back the chaos."

To Dr. Mystery,

"Then it is probably best that we do not split up. That means more to do tonight, but then we are less likely to be caught short-handed if trouble finds us. Oh well."

To the bartender,

"We have a doctor with us," Janos' says, motioning to Radha. Then, he adds,

"Posse? What is this Posse?"

[Alex Craft]

The barkeep shrugs at Janos' identification of Radha - he doesn't seem inclined to comment one way or another on the matter.

"The sheriff deputized a posse to settle the troubles. Sheriff's dead, but they're still out there ... come back to town every so often."

[Surya Lanadhra]

"Bring your sick to me. I will tend them," Radha speaks up, her voice the one of a woman used to command. "I will require access to whatever medicinal drugs this place has, Sahib. I think our troubles are related."

Her brown eyes slant to Kate. "I have taken the oath of the Western doctors as well as vows to my own gods, Mem'Sahib Schafer. I ... We may have an obligation to Sahib King, but in all good conscience, we cannot let evil fester when we have the ability to lance it out like the infection it is. What you give returns to you. That is the basic law of karma."

[Andrew Murphy]

Jameson leans on the bar listening intently to the bartender. He slides a $5 bill across the bar, "Tell me everything you can about these troubles you've been having, hopefully my friends and I can help."

[Blaine]

Blaine heads over to the window and takes a casual look out, careful not to present a target in case anyone is watching. This whole situation was starting to get on his nerves. There were times when he was up against crooks that were connected, but not too often where they could literally be out in the open like this, where they could pin the ex-sheriff's badge to his own door.

"We need some names pal...names and numbers. Let's have 'em." Blaine says over his shoulder as he overhears Bradford talking to the bartender.

[Alex Craft]

The bartender replies to Radha, with some irritation:

"It's not my business to be rounding people up. You want to see sick folk, go find them yourself ... and see if you can convince them to let you work on 'em."

He pauses, then adds somewhat more mildly:

"You could try the house at the west end of the main street out there. Their daughter's pretty sick. And Hays, the man that runs the general store, he got himself shot out with the posse. His wife says the wound's infected or something."

To Jameson and Blaine, gathering up Jameson's dollars:

"I'm here to serve drinks, not entertain you. I'll answer your questions as long as you're buying up my remainin' stock [indicates the shelves behind him with a grimy thumb], but I don't need to be guessing what you want to hear."

"We've got the Marks gang out there, stringing up company men, and the company men bringing up Pinkerton toughs to guard 'gainst the Marks boys, and the sheriff's posse out trying to hunt down Marks theirselves. You want to ask something, be specific-like."

[Blaine]

Blaine turns back from the window towards the bartender.

"Pinkertons? You serious? You meet any? You know who's in charge?" Blaine turns to the rest of the group.

"This could be good, my Grandpa was a Pinkerton and my Pops too." Blaine turns back to the bartender, strolling to the bar.

"So these Marks, who's in charge? How many are there? How often they ride into town? Help us out here, we're the good guys, I know you don't like livin' under the gun."

[Winston Holmes]

As the others speak to the bartender, Winston sets his heavy pack onto a stool and begins to root through it. Sounds of paper, metal, wood, and more come out of the bag as he digs through it, "And soon enough the government will get involved too. Three gangs of people out there already... I suppose this could be worse; there could be trenches." Sighing while giving the open pack one last look, he looks up at the others, "Mem'sahib Kolani, Miss Schafer; how much jostling can your equipment take?"