As Caleb and Daniel ventured back up out of the basement and followed the smell of smoke, they saw a rather well dressed man with a formidable appearance holding what appeared to be a weapon that spewed flame in his hand. He was directed a channel of flame to the remaining chunks of the metallic construct that had attacked them previously, setting some of the grass on fire in the process causing smoke to go up. Nonchalantly, he moved out of the way of any burning grass and continued.

He wore a dark brown duster over a suit that despite its fine fabric had seen better days. The man's face showed age and experience, and his eyes were hidden behind dark tinted spectacles. He looked up as he saw them, but didn't seem to stop what he was doing or hesitate during one last blast before removing his finger from the trigger and looking at them.

 "Daniel and Caleb, by my guess. Am I right?" he asked as they came nearer. His voice was deep and just a bit gruff, but not unfriendly. "Where are the others?"

Daniel didn't bother masking his surprise at what he found. He nodded at the question, though slowly after a bit of a pause. "Tha's right, I'm Daniel. Who....mightcha be?" He didn't feel like sharing other information would be wise without a bit more knowledge about their new acquaintance. Daniel had never been paranoid growing up, but he had certainly learned some caution in recent days and months.

"Vernon Price," the man answered. "I guess you could say I'm a troubleshooter. I've been hired on to locate certain individuals, but it seems that in each scenario you folks have beaten me to the punch." He spoke like he was from somewhere Back East, though his accent was ambiguous.

"You folks find Grint?"

Curious, Coraline emerged from the cellar and followed the sounds of conversation to the trio of men.  With a glance, she took in the man's appearance and bearing, lifting one eyebrow at the very impressive bit of equipment he carried.  "Good day, sir," she said in greeting.  "Doctor Grint escaped, sadly.  Who hired you to locate her?  And who else might you be looking for?"

"A pleasure, Miss Hawthorne," he said. "Vernon Price."

"Escaped, you say? Well, that's a shame. I was waiting to get my hands on that slippery bi..." he paused midsentence, hesitating. "Excuse my language. I was hired to locate Dr. Honoria Grint, Dr. Vinton Radcliffe, and Dr. Edwin Wilder, not in that order."

"Let's just say they've been causing a good bit of trouble around these parts, and doing things that proper scientists find...well, improper. To say the least. Nevertheless, it seems I failed to locate any of the three. When I found out you folks beat me to the punch on Radcliffe and Wilder, I figured my best bet was to try and follow your trail, so here I am. Maybe I'm getting too old for this job."

"Who exactly is it that hired you to find them? I wasn't able to learn that much."
This message was last edited by the player at 18:52, Wed 01 Apr 2015.

"Mister Price," she offered, somewhat surprised that he knew her name.  "No one hired us.  We heard there were some disturbing things happening here and seemed to fall into the trouble naturally.  How did you come to learn of us?  I would be most eager to learn from what source you have obtained your information."

"I learned a great deal from your fellow passengers on the Union Blue train, the George Washington Express, a train that I very narrowly missed myself due to some unfortunate incidents. I went to Kinsley and I spoke to the town marshal there, Dan Phelps. Then I moved onto Dodge. Now I'm here," he said.

"Don't worry, everyone's had good things to say. So, no one hired you? Well, from what I've heard you certainly proved yourself a very capable group. I take it you're with Wyatt Earp's posse? Seems there's some trouble in these parts - though no doubt you've extinguished the source of that. Good citizens."
This message was last edited by the player at 20:39, Wed 01 Apr 2015.

Caleb listened to the others talk for a short time before he interjected. "Mind if I ask who hired you, Mister Price?" The man had no qualms about asking them the same, and turnabout seemed fair play.