The rain has lessened to a mist, slowly cloaking Lincoln’s Main Street and the surrounding valley in light gray fog. As Tamsin approaches the schoolhouse, she notices that the mountains have disappeared from view, lost behind an opaque wall of drizzle. The air is cool, heavy with the scent of pine trees and moisture.

Even from a distance, Tamsin can see that the schoolhouse has been well constructed, its parallel beams cut evenly, the coat of white paint recently touched up, suggesting that the community takes genuine pride in the structure. The grounds surrounding the building are covered with ankle high grass, much of it pressed flat by the passage of children’s feet at play. A brass bell has been mounted beside the entrance, which is reached by a trio of short steps. A pair of windows flank the front door, the space beyond them completely dark. The door itself has been secured with a thick iron chain, held closed with a large, iron lock. Both chain and lock appear new, without a touch of rust on either.

A well traveled path, free of grass, leads around the right side of the building to the rear. The schoolhouse is quiet, absent any hint of movement or life. Were it not in such good repair, Tamsin would almost believe it abandoned.

Tamsin is at home in the humid air; it's like she back at her garden at the river, pulling weeds, planting seeds. The distant veil is almost comforting, reminding her of the fog that curls through the trees outside her home. It's almost like she never left, they hadn't been attacked by those dead wolves,

It's important that she gets what she needs from Lincoln, yes, but it's not like anything will start growing until she gets back to plant it. Some of it she can't plant because it won't grow, so the longer it's with Ava the better- less chance of it being exposed to less than ideal conditions for too long. Yes, look first, then herbs,

She just wants to know what's going on with the schoolhouse. If they were still holding classes, it had to be something with the building itself, so that was reassuring, at least- probably wasn't an outbreak. But what could be wrong with it? They obviously kept it well. She could understand if it was falling apart or something, but...

She steps up to the entrance, leaning over to peek into the windows. Too dark to see much. Her hands feel along the chain before testing the lock. If the lock doesn't magically open for her, she's going to take a look around the back.

A careful inspection of the chain links reveal them to be solid. Tugging on the lock confirms that it is engaged and sturdy. Barring breaking the chain with a tool of some kind, the front entrance appears inaccessible.

Following the path around to the rear of the schoolhouse, Tamsin halts at the sight sight she is confronted with. From beneath the back door, which is held closed by a pair of boards nailed across the doorframe, a number of thorn studded vines extend, climbing up the exterior wall, looking akin to dark colored veins that mar the whitewashed surface. The fresh leaves give Tamsin the immediate impression that the growth is new, but glancing about, she sees no similar plants anywhere in the vicinty.

OOC: Tamsin, kindly give me a Knowledge: Herbalism roll. Be sure to also roll a 1d6 Wild Die.

Tamsin examines the plant closely, not touching it just yet. Some kind of overgrowth, is that why they aren’t using the schoolhouse?

18:32, Today: Tamsin River rolled 5,1 using d6,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 5,1.  Knowledge: Herbalism.

Tamsin peers closely at the vines, noting the dark brown, nigh black, color of the runners and thorns, and the silver-green hue of the spear shaped leaves. With all of the study and exploration Tamsin has done in the New Mexico Territory, she is rightfully confident that she can identify any of the region’s native plants by sight, and recognize their medicinal, or poisionous, properties.

But as the herbalist examines the vine she is certain of one thing: she has never encountered this plant before. Not in any of her travels.

Glancing over at the door that the vines emerged beneath of, she notices that the are hairline cracks in the wood where the plants have pushed out.

Tamsin stares at the vines, hands on her hips, mouth pursed as it does when she's thinking hard on something. She might expect to see plants growing through the wood in a place that wasn't being taken care of, but certainly not here.

She makes sure her hands are covered with her sleeves and uses one to push against one of the cracks in the door. No plant should be making a building this unsound so quickly. Maybe Ava will know what it is.

Tamsin attempts to snap a leaf off of one the vines, avoiding the thorns the best she can.

Putting her weight to the door, Tamsin can see that the cracks widen slightly as she pushes. The breaks in the wood are definitely new, leading her to feel certain that the damage was caused by pressure exerted by the vines.

Although the effort requires some twisting, Tamsin is able to pull one of the silver-green leaves free. There is a sharp snap as she does so and, looking at the vine and the leaf, the herbalist notices that no moisture escapes from either end of the torn stem.

OOC: Tamsin, kindly give me a Notice roll.

Everything about this is just so... odd. The wood isn't otherwise damaged but clearly the vines pushed through it, and usually breaking pieces off yields something- sap, water, something damp.

19:35, Today: Tamsin River rolled 1,9 using d6,d6, rerolling max ((1,(6+3)9))

Standing with the leaf she has collected, Tamsin has a brief, but fleeting perception that the vines shift slightly, inching forward, extending their reach over the back of the schoolhouse a small distance. As soon as she senses the movement, it ceases, the strange plant appearing perfectly still once more.

Around the corner of the building, the herbalist hears the crunch of footsteps, the sound of someone approaching the schoolhouse.

What in the world...?

"Don't think I'm not watching you," Tamsin chides the plant softly before she backs up. It's not the first time she's done so, but it's the first time a plant has actually done something to warrant it.

"Hello?" she calls out, looking for whoever is coming up.

As Tamsin nearsthe corner of the schoolhouse, she hears a female voice answer, ”Hello! Who’s there?”

Stepping around the corner of the building, Tamsin is met by a young woman with long, red hair. She is dressed much like a ranch hand, in jeans and a cotton shirt, with a hat pulled down low on her brow. A gunbelt is cinched around her waist and over one shoulder, she is carrying what appears to be a new saddle.

”Hey, there,” she says upon seeing the herbalist, ”Sorry if I startled you. I was just here to make sure there weren’t any kids trying to sneak into the school. It’s...not really a safe place to be right now.”

Tamsin stops to survey the woman.

“I see that. Do you have any idea what happened here?”

The woman glances over at the schoolhouse with a frown. ”I’m not completely sure, to be honest. I’ve heard that some children here in town...disappeared. And around the same time, some strange things happened here at the school. As I reckon you can guess, there’s quite a lot of people upset about it.”

“Last night, I rode with a group to see if we could find where the missing kids might have gotten to, but we didn’t manage to find any trace of them.”

She cocks her head to one side then extends her free hand. ”I’m Aileen Kearney. I’m new here in Lincoln. I came up this way to chase down some wild mustangs in the valley. I don’t remember seeing you around town before.”

Tamsin listens.

She extends her hand as well to shake the woman’s hand. ”Well, welcome to Lincoln. So... Disappeared? Are we talking ... I mean, did the children walk out of their houuses or did they just go... poof? Have you heard anything? I’m Tamsin River, by the way.”

Tamsin is suspicious. “Oh. What town are you from?”

”The way I heard it told, something happened here, at the schoolhouse, a couple of mornings back. The kids that got away have all told different stories, but my impression is some of them were taken. Right as they were supposed to be learning their alphabet and such.”

Kearney glances back over her shoulder, then back at Tamsin. ”There’s been some problems here in town. Disputes over the cattle range. A lot of the folks here have some pretty strong feelings about it. But...I heard talk over at the Thornton-Curry that these missing kids....their parents had gotten word that if they fell in line, stopped causing trouble for one of the sides in this disagreement, they’d eventually get them back, safe and sound.”

She shakes her head. ”I just wanted to help. Make sure no other little ones got in any danger.”

She points north. ”I’m from Colorado. But I’ve got an aunt and uncle, Andrew and Lettie MacNevin, who live over in San Patricio. They’d written to me about some of the wild horses on the range out here. They’ve fed me a time or two when I haven’t done so well in bringing some of them in.”

Tamsin's mouth purses off to the side as she thinks. "Taken by who? And what is with these vines? Sorry, I'm just thinking out loud," she adds. "Oh, the MacNevin's. Yeah, they're good people, helped me a time or two. Wish I had been there to help with Simon, but at least Ava was around and it all worked out in the end."