Nomadic:Sessions:20180630

The group heads back toward Big Mama's Kitchen (on Green Street just south of Main) for dinner. It's just after sunset on a Saturday evening and Main Street is lively. Marcus veers away momentarily when he notices a mugger attacking a drunken miner; he shoots the mugger in the back of the head. A Bowie knife clatters to the ground. The miner stumbles away as Marcus collects from the corpse two wallets and a purse full of coins. "Hey, guys, dinner's on me!"

Dinner discussion revolves around Veritas and why the group hasn't located more of them, particularly Marco Reed and Moose Schultz, who have accosted Bodie residents all up and down Main Street showing them sketches of Vincente and Marcus and offering rewards for their whereabouts.

Feeling underpowered, Marcus heads off to the cache in the hills behind Standard Mine. Meanwhile, Vincente and Valerie head down Green Street to Wood Street to a certain house that the group had heard had been bought by Veritas. It's a seven-room building with a lantern glowing through the front window. Valerie slips around through the back door. Vincente first knocks at the front door, then kicks it in. He finds an envelope beneath the lantern. In stilted English the note inside reads, Mister Johnson. Since we don't have all that much sophisticated equipment, we didn't think we'd donate it to you like our people did uptime. Vincente chuckles. However, should the opportunity arise we will be more than glad to donate sufficient amounts of explosive and/or lead to your bodies. Vincente: "I... I think they're upset with us!" May you have misfortune to be set upon and killed by many of the thugs that we've sort of put out a reward for you. I would wish you good hunting, but rather I'd like to say good dying. Very sincerely, Leonard McKinney

Vincente checks outside for the approach of said thugs. In the window of a house across the street a curtain falls back into place, but he's sure he saw the silhouettes of at least three people. Back toward Green Street he sees five men loitering at the corner of Wood Street. Vincente: "Rick? I'm afraid you're going to have to take on eight people. I'm thinking these are all locals. So maybe we can negotiate with them. (pause) I'm kidding. I think we're going to kill four, and then four are gonna run off." Valerie: "I could go in the back door of that house." Vincente: "Okay, that's three for you. There's probably another five behind us, so we get ten and she gets three."

Valerie slips out the back door, stashes her bonnet and dress, and sneaks across the street and behind the other house. The lock on the back door is broken. Inside, three men are talking in low voices. "How long d'you think they'll be in there?" "We were told not to do anything till they left." When one of them, peering outside, shouts "They're moving!" Valerie shoots all three dead, reloads, searches the bodies (finding $15 in notes), picks up two Winchester rifles, then blows the lantern out.

Vincente and Rick charge straight at the loiterers, who are fifty yards away. Two of them bring up double-barreled shotguns, one has a pistol, and the other two have... logs? Vincente and Rick open fire and the 'shotgun guys' fall down. Vincente shoots 'pistol guy' who remains on his feet, unsteady; the other two drop their 'sticks' and run away. 'Pistol guy' fires his Colt but the shot goes wide, and Vincente finishes him off.

Vincente turns around and looks for observers, spotting one in each direction on Green Street, hiding in the shadows 50 yards away. With exaggerated gestures he points them out to Rick. The one to the north immediately bolts. Vincente murmurs to Rick, "Don't move, okay?" points to Rick, then the remaining observer, then says "Now walk three steps that way." At that the observer runs away.

Valerie: "Is it over?" Vincente: "It's over, no more spotters. Let's go back into town, dammit." Valerie retrieves her dress and bonnet and puts them back on.

Marcus looks over the cache; it's undisturbed, but he's getting a creepy feeling from the bag containing the capstone. It's as though a lot of ghosts are staring at him. After a pause, Marcus opens the bag; the capstone is larger than before and glows a deep bluish-gold. Now that he can see it, it gives off a feeling of security. Reaching up to his earpiece he says, "Hey, can you guys hear me? This capstone, there's something different. It's grown in size, glowing gold and blue, making me feel a bit strange. I haven't touched it." Vincente: "I wouldn't." Marcus: "I dunno, I feel kinda good around it. I don't think it would do anything bad." Vincente: "Says every victim that fell. I think I'll come take a look, now that you've mentioned that." Valerie: "I will, too, because I've touched the capstone before." Marcus: "I'm not going to stick around by it, so I'll meet you on my way back." Vincente: "Then you can watch to see who's following us and then shoot them, or something."

Although Vincente, Valerie, and Rick take no particular precautions, nobody follows them as they approach the mine. Valerie offers one of the Winchesters to Marcus, who says, "I haven't fired one of these since I was in training!" Rick speaks up, wanting the other one. Rick: "Y'all need me for up there, or you want me to peel off with Marcus?" Vincente: "Nnnno, you're with us." Rick: "Oh that's right, I'm your minder, sorry." Vincente: "I was actually awake in History class." Rick: "I didn't pay much attention to History." Vincente and Valerie: "We got that." Marcus: "Class was a waste of time, now that we can come experience it ourselves." Valerie: "I don't think whoever wrote this script was thinking of true-life history." Marcus: "You guys sort that out. I'm headed toward the Fairmont. Let me know if you need me."

Nearing the cache, Vincente and Valerie feel the power radiating from the capstone. Valerie hangs back a bit to scan the area; when Vincente gets within ten feet of the cache, he suddenly sees a crowd of 40-50 ghosts standing guard. Some of the ghosts, to his surprise, are from up to 50 years in the 'future'. Vincente: "What are y'all doing?" An attractive woman dressed in 1920s "flapper" style snaps, "We're protecting our ride home!" A tall, athletically-built male ghost (his torso gashed from shoulder to belly) describes it as having been pulled into a river and borne by the current "until I came up against this rock," meaning the capstone. Vincente: "When we came through time, you got caught in the backwash." Man: "Then that pretty young lady explained it to us. What was her name? Carmella." Carmella left several hours ago, telling them she had to "find stuff and organize things. Search parties, she said." She had refused offers of help, telling them to stay and guard the cache.

Valerie: "You know, Vincente? That capstone? That Veritas wants so bad?" "Mm-hmm." "This is the sort of crap they're doing with it. Not just ghosts, but ghosts from any time." "I know that." "And the longer this thing runs, the farther back, and the farther out, they're going to reach. Next thing you know, they'll be pulling into the future. People will be dead before they're ever born."

Vincente (shifting the topic): "Does it feel stronger to you?" Valerie bends down and touches the capstone. The capstone is "basically acting as an 'influence moderator' through [her]. ... They're accepting [her] as 'normal' in this era." Supposedly, this is why the group's modern appearance has not drawn the locals' attention; this effect is growing stronger. Valerie also becomes certain that the group will be able to "snap back" to the exact time they left 2010, or plus or minus ten hours with a little effort, because this capstone is still anchored to the one they left behind. After a small debate with Vincente, she decides the red-haired magic-user can't find the cache "because I won't let her."

Valerie addresses the ghosts, describing "the red-haired woman with a permanent scowl on her face", but none of them admit to having seen her. "The people we're hunting, they take spirits like you and turn them into energy. Then you don't exist anymore." Flapper: "Okay." Valerie: "If that's all right with you, then nothing I say is going to matter." Flapper: "No, it's not. So what do you want us to do?" Valerie: "I need to find those people, because some of them are here, they're looking for us, their intention is to trap us... we need to find them first, and so far we're not having a lot of luck." The ghosts make sounds of agreement. "I'm especially interested in the redhead, because she's already attacked us by magic." She sends the ghosts out to search the town.

Vincente thinks back to his dream where the redhead was pursuing him. The chase had gone on for a very long subjective time, long enough that he feels he knows her. Maybe even too well, as if she had "planted recognition" in his mind. With the immediate area of the cache now normal-mana, he casts Seeker on the redhead. He is deflected by a ward, but he knows she is in the northwest part of Bodie, near where -- uptime -- the visitors center parking lot will be. He feels the ward is augmented "by a rig like Lori had," in the hands of someone who knows what to do with it. Vincente concludes the redhead has been on a "killing spree" of locals for necromantic energy in order to power the rig.

Marcus studies the Fairmont Hotel from various angles, but doesn't see anyone staking the place out. He turns and heads for the 'parking lot' a half-mile away.

Timothy Young has been spending a peaceful Saturday evening tinkering in his workshop. Since about six o'clock (it's now around nine) he's been aware of people at the house next door coming and going, but he hasn't paid them much attention. A man and woman had moved in a couple of days back, and they'd had several visitors in that time, but they had not come over to introduce themselves, and Tim had been too busy to pay them a social call. Hearing a sudden exclamation from that direction, he peers out a side window; in a window across from him stands a woman in mannish Western garb, cleaning some kind of weapon... it might be a gun, but it's unlike any Tim's ever seen. She glances up, catches Tim looking her way, smiles, shakes her head, and pulls her curtain closed.

His curiosity roused by the firearm, he hurries to the house next door and knocks. A tall man with short black hair, blue eyes, and a scar on his chin answers, looks Tim up and down, and drawls, "Somethin' I can do for ya, Professor?" Tim's eyes are drawn to the shiny Colt revolvers holstered on the man's belt. "Newest thing from back East," the man remarks; "Came out of a factory in Pittsburgh." "Which factory?" The man names a factory that Tim knows has never existed in Pittsburgh. Man: "They cost a pretty penny, I tell you. So, what can I do for you, Professor? No time to get acquainted; we're a little busy right now. Got a situation we're dealing with." Tim: "May I borrow one of those guns?" The man, incredulous at Tim's audacity: "This is a violent place and I might have to use it tonight. I wouldn't want to be down a weapon. There's a lot of dangerous people in town, you know." Tim: "You're expecting to be attacked here?" Man: "Of course not. There's no way they could -- no, not expecting to be attacked here." Tim politely makes to return to his own place; the man calls after him, "Bye." As he moves away Tim can just hear the man saying to someone else inside the house: "Once this is over... (inaudible) ... Yeah, we're gonna need to 'recruit' him." Somehow the man made "recruit" sound unpleasant.

Returning to his workshop, Tim closes his window blinds, then carefully takes stock of his weapons and explosives.

Alert to his surroundings and staying out of the open, Marcus turns right on Fuller Street from Green. He notices, stuck in the ground, a faintly luminescent spike about 4" high. It seems out of place. He pulls out a pistol, aims carefully, and shoots. The spike shatters, then "reconstitutes" slightly larger (by the mass of one bullet). Marcus holsters his pistol, adjusts his duffel bag, and continues on his way.

Marcus hops up on a roof, unzips his duffel, and savors the oily scent wafting from within. He hears very faint words in a female voice, "Where's... Are they com- ... found..." A puff of wind swirls around him. From the duffel he pulls his M16, sets it to single-shot, and scans his surroundings through the scope. Again he hears a faint voice, "Valerie! Valerie! Where--" Now he recognizes the voice. "Carmella," he says aloud, "I can kind of hear you. I think you're right here (gesturing with his gun). This isn't my area of expertise, so I'm going to let them know, and hopefully they can come here and help. Keep trying to talk and I'll try to listen, but no guarantees." Into the headset he says, "Hey, guys, I've got Carmella here with me. It's kind of a long story, but I'm pretty sure she's standing in front of me screaming about something, so just let me know when you're nearby. Oh, and look out for little spikes in the ground that are glowing. I shot one, it shattered, then got a little bit bigger. Not sure about that, but it doesn't sound good." He describes his position relative to the parking lot.

Vincente: "Since we're in normal mana, I have an idea where we can move a little faster this time." Mentally targeting an area about 200 yards from the parking lot, he has Valerie and Rick join hands with him, casts Lighten Load, then casts Teleport. "Marcus, can you see us?" "Yeah, I got ya, turn north."

Tim is bustling around in his workshop when suddenly he trips over a piece of furniture. Trying to catch himself, he knocks the front window's shutter open. He glances at the street outside... just as three people, two men and a woman, appear out of nowhere, sixty yards away. He stands at the window watching them, restraining his impulse to rush outside.

After getting their bearings, the three begin moving, Rick with his rifle at the ready, Valerie looking for spikes such as Marcus described. In a house down the way, Marcus sees that shutters have opened and a man stands watching them. He's around 5'9"-5'10", bespectacled, scruffy hair and beard. Marcus alerts the other three, "Shutters just opened near where you guys showed up. Either he's a random onlooker, or they're running out of thugs." Valerie: "Wait, did you hear anything when we appeared?" Marcus: "I didn't, no." Valerie asks Vincente, "Would we have made a noise... other than Carmella screaming in my ear?"

"Valerie! Valerie! I found them! I found them! But I lost you! I couldn't get back to you!" Valerie raises a finger to her lips, "Shhhhh. Even Marcus could hear you." ("I was screaming in his ear forever!" "You just make him mad when you do that." "He didn't seem mad." "Marcus, you're growing up. I'm so proud of you!") Carmella describes 'them': the man with the scar on his chin, the stern-looking woman, "a couple more women", and two other people whose descriptions match Alice Chandler and David Medina. Carmella repeats that she couldn't find Valerie. Valerie: "Was it a physical barrier, or your sense of direction?" Carmella: "My sense of direction... my sense of 'Valerie' went away." Valerie: "I'll bet it was the capstone." Carmella: "They're in that house right over there." Without turning to look, Valerie says, "Did you get that, Vincente? They might have eyes on us right now... But the house Marcus told us about isn't the one Carmella pointed at. It's the house next to that." The three move slowly toward a street corner where there's not a direct line of sight.

Timothy can restrain his curiosity no longer. Taking up a lantern he steps outside, closing the front door behind him, and starts walking up the street.

Marcus: "Guys, that guy that was looking at you earlier is coming up on you. He doesn't look like he's trying to sneak; he's got a lantern. I think he's just too curious for his own good. Be ready." Valerie: "He's bringing a lantern to where we are hiding in the shadows... I don't think this is a good idea." Marcus: "Probably not, no." Vincente: "Does he look like Thugs'R'Us?" Marcus: "Oh, no. If he's a thug, they've used up all the good ones in town. He looks more like an intellectual type, whatever that means."

Timothy slows his pace while still 15 yards from the three figures. A few steps closer and his lantern light will fall on them. The woman and one of the men are gesturing as though having a lively discussion.

Marcus: "He's slowing down. He might be thinking better about accosting you." Valerie: "I'm going to try to capture him." Marcus: "Oh, this'll be fun." Vincente: "Capture, or at least herd him this way." Valerie: "You need rest. You're looking a little pale for a dark man." Vincente: "Yeah, I know. I am trying to gather my strength back." Valerie: "If we just gun him down in the street, the people looking for us will know where we are." Marcus: "While you're doing that, I'm coming to meet up with you guys." Valerie: "Yes, and check that house, because Carmella is really adamant that they're in there." Marcus: "If that house is next door, then I want to be there." Valerie: "You should be here." Vincente: "Instead of capturing him, as he comes to us we should do like the Four Horsemen and say 'come and see'." Marcus: "You got this, Valerie. If anyone can capture a nice old man, it's you." ("Rather than try to interpret that last remark, we'll take care of it in post-prod." "Sorry, Valerie, just improvising a little bit." "That's all we're ever doing, isn't it, Marcus.")

The woman has seemingly vanished into the shadows of the houses. Slowing even further, Tim approaches the two men... and suddenly someone's arm wraps firmly around his. She is a little taller than he, wearing a nice bonnet and a calico dress, but he can't quite make out her features. Tim's progress stutters to a halt. The woman tugs at his arm and inclines her head. "This way."

Tim: "Um... hi." Valerie: "We're going to walk a little further, then turn the corner, and then I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to put your lantern out." To Tim the woman appears unarmed, so he complies. Valerie: "What's your name?" Tim: "Timothy Young. You can call me Tim. May I ask what your name is?" "Valerie." "Valerie, why are we walking this way?" "Because you're going to get killed if you stay in the street." "Does this have anything to do with that weirdo next door?" "What defines 'weirdo'?" Tim describes the gun he saw the woman in the window cleaning; "It didn't look like any gun I've ever seen." Valerie: "They haven't tried to hire you?" Tim: "No... but there was a tall guy with a scar on his face, had a nice pistol that he lied to me about. When I was walking away he said something about 'recruit'." "You are from around here, right?" "Oh, yes, I've been here for five years or so." "I'm going to ask you to put your lantern out, then we're going for a walk in the dark." When Tim seems hesitant, Valerie adds, "Remember when I said you could get killed? I could, too."

The GM posits that murder is so commonplace in Bodie that deaths and disappearances go unnoticed. Historically, however (paraphrasing from Gunfighters, Highwaymen, and Vigilantes by McGrath, Roger D.): "In Bodie in 1880 there were some 5,400 people... The men were adventurous, enterprising, brave, young, single, intemperate, and armed. A few had struck it rich; most had not... It all should have added up to a reign of terror, but it didn't... There were thirty-one victims of homicide during the boom years (1878-1882).... It should be noted that most of these killings fell into the non-negligent manslaughter category since they were killings in self-defense."