”Most of what are upstairs are court records,” Diaz answers in response to Cooper’s question, ”Trial reports and such. Property records are in the land and cattle office, on the other side of this floor.”

Cooper and Lee move up the stairs to the second floor, the dark interior of the courthouse almost preternaturally still. As the men reach the landing, both can see that the door to the armory remains closed and secure, an iron lock hanging from a hasp above the doorknob.

But the door to the hallway that presumably leads to the courtroom is standing open. Neither man observes any light from beyond the doorway. The gloom is deep.

OOC: Bryan, I’m going to let you keep your Notice and Stealth rolls in play. Albert, could you also give me a Notice and Stealth roll?

OOC: 6 notice and 7 stealth.

08:22, Today: Albert Cooper rolled 2,7 using d6,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 2,(6+1)7.  Notice.

08:22, Today: Albert Cooper rolled 6,2 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 6,2.  Stealth.

For someone of his considerable girth, Albert had an impressively light step. He kept his eyes and ears open as he moved.

As the two men peer into the shadows, both are able to see the form of a single, slender figure in the adjoining hallway. Wearing a wide brimmed hat, the stranger is crouched down, with one hand placed palm down on the floor, almost perfectly still with concentration. In the other hand, the intruder is holding what appears to be a carbine.

22:37, Today: Marshal rolled 1 using 1d4, rerolling max with rolls of 1.  Notice.

If the mystery man has any awareness of Cooper or Lee’s presence, he gives no sign.

Lee looked at Cooper, pointed at the man in the hallway, and then tapped his own chest, looking down that way again. He centered his ch'i, bringing a sense of calmness to him as he prepared to bring down the interloper.

He knew once he moved, he would inevitably make some sound; it was hard to move both quickly and silently. So before he moved, he took time to find his balance, quietly adjusting his legs and measuring their strength before bursting forward towards the interloper. His fist struck twice in short succession, as he hoped to quickly knock the man out if possible.

OOC:

He moves in to execute his trademark doublepunch, throwing caution to the wind as he attacks, which reduces his Parry by -2 until his next action. The hope is that he can knock him out quickly, not going for the kill here.

Stealth: 5 (in case it's needed to rush him/catch him off guard)
Attack: 10
Wing Chun Attack: 19 (presumed raise)
Damage 1: 12
Damage 2: 12 (includes raise)

15:28, Today: Bryan Lee rolled 10 using d6+d4+d6, rerolling max.  Wing Chun Fighting Attack Damage.
15:27, Today: Bryan Lee rolled 10 using d6+d4, rerolling max.  Fighting Attack Damage.
15:26, Today: Bryan Lee rolled 19,7 using d8+4,d6+4, rerolling max.  Wing Chun Fighting Attack (Unarmed Defender + Wild Attack).
15:26, Today: Bryan Lee rolled 10,5 using d8+4,d6+4, rerolling max.  Fighting Attack (Unarmed Defender + Wild Attack).
15:25, Today: Bryan Lee rolled 3,5 using d6,d6, rerolling max.  Stealth.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:02, Fri 25 Jan 2019.

Bryan did exactly what Cooper had been thinking. Any assault Cooper made from this distance would be both loud and lethal. A nice punch to the side of the head ought to take the ruffian down.

Albert held his ground to see what the result of Bryan's work would be, though he quietly slid his gun out as Bryan was beating the interloper, just in case.

OOC: Did you add 2 to your damage for wild attack?

OOC:

In reply to Albert Cooper (msg # 25): I had not! Thanks for the reminder. Updated my post.

OOC: Good catch, Albert.

As the Ranger lunges through the darkness, the figure glances up in time to register that the lawman is upon him, but not quickly enough to take any kind of action.

Over the course of his life and career, Bryan Lee has been forced to subdue many individuals with his fists. He knows what it is to strike flesh, to send a man to unconsciousness or death with his bare hands.

When his first well aimed blow hits the intruder, it finds nothing but brittle bone.

The figure’s ribcage, covered by the tattered remains of a denim shirt, caves under the force of Lee’s attack, the bones splintering with a series of dry cracks. His second strike shatters the side of the intruder’s bare skull, sending the rotted Stetson it wore tumbling down the hallway. The animate corpse collapses in a disjointed heap, one fleshless hand still grasping its carbine.

The upper floor becomes quiet again. Neither Lee or Cooper hear any further sounds of movement.

"Coop, come check this shit out. Looks like someone had propped up some kinda skeleton and left it here," he said quietly.

"I'm gonna go check the door, make sure it's shut." Quietly, cautiously, and as sneakily as he could manage, the Ranger picked up the Carbine and made his way for the door that Bauer had told them would be on this level.

Albert quietly and deliberately moved toward Bryan to look at what the Ranger wanted to point out. "Yeah, I don't think it was just propped up there, general."

Albert looked around as Bryan moved toward the door, then followed to watch the man's back.

Lee and Cooper make their way down the hallway into the courtroom. The shadows sit heavily in the wide, empty chamber, the judge’s bench and the attorneys’ tables almost completely swallowed in darkness. Moving south, both men can see the double doors that provide access to the balcony at the front of the building. Both are closed, but when Lee reaches to check the knobs, they move freely, informing him that entrance has been left unlocked.

"I reckon someone's tryin' to spook whoever is in this building. It may have just been a distraction, sneakin' in to put this up here. We should head back down and let the Sheriff know what's afoot, and be present for backup in case whatever this was a distraction for comes through the front," he said.

OOC:

Lee will wait to see if Cooper has any alternative suggestions. If there aren't any, we can go back down, but if there are, Lee is game for ideas.

Albert scrunched his face up, obviously unsure of what was going on. "Uh...I think we should try'n check the rest of the up here. Courtroom ain't all that there is. Mebbe we start with th' armory after lockin' these doors?"

Cooper went ahead and locked the doubled doors that Bryan had discovered were unlocked.

"Right you are. Better safe than sorry." He started with checking the jury room, planning to move on to the judges, the attorneys rooms, and the records last.

Albert nodded at Bryan's response. He quietly followed the Ranger's path, not wanting to make any unnecessary noise. Cooper's pistol was still out, though held low.

Leading the way, the ranger begins to systematically investigate the remaining rooms on the floor, beginning with the jury room, its long table and collection of straight backed chairs eerie in the deep darkness of evening. Neither it, nor the well appointed judge’s chambers appear to have been disturbed. Likewise, the attorney’s rooms are empty and seemingly in order. The records room is locked tight with an iron padlock.

During their explorations, Cooper and Lee encounter no one else on the upper floor.

As the pair are verifying that the records room is secured, they become aware of the sounds of raised voices coming from downstairs.

Hearing the commotion down below, his initial fears were realized, and he began making for the stairs that had brought him up here, beckoning Cooper to follow, he headed toward the commotion. He wanted to move quickly, but as quietly as he could so as not to draw alarm or fire his way if he was walking into a situation that had reached a boiling point.

OOC:

Rolls if needed

Stealth: 7
Notice: 11

14:39, Today: Bryan Lee rolled 1,11 using d6,d6, rerolling max.  Notice.
14:39, Today: Bryan Lee rolled 5,7 using d6,d6, rerolling max.  Stealth.

Albert followed, though was a little bit slower and less quiet than Bryan. He figured with all that noise, no one would be able to hear him, anyway.

If needed:

14:09, Today: Albert Cooper rolled 1,5 using d6,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 1,5.  Notice.

14:09, Today: Albert Cooper rolled 1,2 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 1,2.  Stealth.

As the two men descend the stairs, they can more clearly hear the voices engaged in the heated discussion.

”...calm down and listen to him, damn it.”

”Billy, you have to believe me. I want John Tunstall’s murderers brought to justice. I want the truth to come to light so that Lincoln...so it can finally be free. But finding the kind of proof that the people in Santa Fe will take seriously isn’t...”

”No, to hell with that. It’s just another excuse. Another way to avoid doing your fucking job! To stand up to those bastards! You’re either yellow, or it’s like I’ve thought all along. You’re on Murphy’s side. Covering up for...”

As Cooper and Lee reach the bottom floor and make the turn down the hallway, a lone figure emerges from the entrance to the Sheriff’s Office. Even in the gloom, the two men can see that the stranger is dressed for the range, a woven poncho draped over his shoulders.

”Evenin’,” he says in greeting, ”Wondered if there might be more folks about.”

20:37, Today: Jose Chavez y Chavez rolled 7,2 using 1d8,1d6, rerolling max with rolls of 7,2.  Notice.

Albert nodded at the fellow. "Howdy, Jose. Sure are more about - just checkin' out some strange sounds comin' from above. Didn't find no one movin' about though. Did you fellas come from ground floor or down from the second?"

Lee didn't speculate on the subject aloud, but he wondered if it was a distraction. It would have been a strange one, but it had easily split their numbers in two.

"Señor Chavez y Chavez," he said, guessing by the name that Cooper had given him, and based on what he'd heard from Jacinta and Desiree Thornton. He raised his hands to show that he was unarmed, sure that the man was holding some kind of heat under that poncho of his.

"It sounds like there's a heated conversation going on in there, and those can turn bad even in the best of times - and these ain't those. Why don't we go in there and keep anyone from making any stupid mistakes? I know you and your friend Bowdre and Bonney are out for scalps, but if you take the wrong one, you'll just end up pinnin' the tin star on Jim McDaniels."

OOC:

Persuasion 4

10:34, Today: Bryan Lee rolled 1,4 using d6,d6, rerolling max.  White Chip Reroll.
10:34, Today: Bryan Lee rolled 3,2 using d6,d6, rerolling max.  Persuasion.

”Albert,” Chavez y Chavez says with a nod. ”Nah. We just stepped in a moment ago. Came in through the door to the Sheriff’s Office. Billy wanted to have some words with Brady.”

He considers Lee’s request, then gestures for the door. ”I’ve a feelin’ you may be wastin’ your breath. But, by all means. Step inside.”

Cooper and Lee reenter the Sheriff’s Office. The air is heavy with tension.

William Brady stands a few feet away from a fair haired young man clad in dusty range attire. A pair of Colt Lightning revolvers are holstered in the gunbelt the man wears, both tied low on his thighs. He is glaring at the Sheriff, his features twisted with frustration.

Bauer stands behind Brady, just to the left of him, her shoulders tight, ready to act at the first sign of provocation. Diaz has stood to his feet, but is still positioned at the table where the chessboard sits.

A slender man in a dark colored duster, who both Lee and Cooper recognize as Josiah Scurlock, is leaning against the wall, just beside the short hallway that leads to the office’s entrance. He is facing Diaz, his arms folded, his expression calm.

”Billy, I don’t know how to convince you,” Brady says, addressing the man with the twin pistols, ”I am not on Lawrence Murphy’s payroll. I answer to him in the same way I answer to every citizen of this county. But you and I both know that he holds an enormous amount of influence here. And he has gone to considerable lengths to make certain that the truth of John’s death is hard to learn, at least for honest people.”

"Hello again, Mr. Scurlock. Mr. Bonney, I don't believe we've had the pleasure. I'm Bryan Lee of the Texas Rangers, and I was hoping we'd have the chance to speak sooner or later. Most people have advised me that I would be wasting my time, and that you and your friends were more concerned with collecting scalps than justice, but I figure talkin's always worth a shot," he said. He talked with his hands, so it was clear he wasn't going for a weapon.

"The Governor sent me to Lincoln to look into Mr. Tunstall's murder and general trouble in this range here. As a Ranger, I'm somewhat immune to local pressures, unlike the local Sheriff, in that Murphy can't simply have me replaced with McDaniels. That's what's likely to happen if any harm should befall our good Sheriff here, which will besides making me sad, will interfere with my investigation in a couple of ways. First, with an unfriendly presence here in this office, I will be even more hindered in my investigation than I already have been by that outfit. Second, I'll be obliged to expand my investigation to encompass the activities of your lot, which is something that you don't want to happen."

"In the mean time, maybe we can all calm down and have a conversation, and you can give me some information that might help my investigation - that is, if you really care about justice for John Tunstall."
This message was last edited by the player at 22:36, Sun 10 Feb 2019.

Albert frowned at the response, then grunted. While Bryan stepped through to try to defuse the situation inside, Albert continued to speak with Jose. "Seen anything outta the ordinary on yer way over here?"

Chavez y Chavez shakes his head. ”Pretty quiet out there,” he says with wry smile. ”Course, that’s why we rode in tonight. Most people keepin’ indoors. Stayin’ off the street and out of trouble. Billy figured we might get Sheriff Brady all to ourselves. Finally get a chance to clear the air.”