As Tamsin River and Aileen Kearney step out onto the porch of the Patron House, the two women can see that Lincoln has to groggily come to life, several of the shops that had remained closed during the early hours of the morning finally opening, a few residents venturing onto the street to find a meal, or call on one of the stores.

Ike Ellis is carrying a pair of buckets full of water toward the stable when River and Kearney step onto his property. ”Good mornin’ to you, ladies.” he says, setting the pails down heavily. Reaching back to rub the small of his back, he adds,  ”You know, some parts of gettin’ older, they’re just plain unpleasant.”

From within the stable, one of the horses whinnies impatiently. “How can I help you today?” Ellis asks.

“Good morning, Mr. Ellis,” Tamsin says with a wave. ”Willow bark might help with that, if you’d like. Well, I wanted to see if I could see one of your workers, actually. Martin.”
This message was lightly edited by the player at 10:25, Sat 04 May 2019.

”Willow bark, huh? Well, I’d be obliged to you, ma’am, if I could trouble you for some. I’d make certain to pay you, of course. Whatever you charge the other folks you assist,” Ellis tells her.

He points toward the stable. ”Martin? He’s brushin’ down a few of the horses just now. Go on in.”

River and Kearney enter the stable, the smell of fresh hay heavy in the air. A young man, no older than twenty, is in the second stall on the right, brushing an Appaloosa, speaking softly to the horse in Spanish.

He glances over as he sees the two women approach. ”Buenos dias. Were you looking for Señor Ellis? He’s outside somewhere, tending to chores. I can help you find him.”

“Half price, as a thank you for lending us your cart yesterday,” Tamsin says as she digs through her bag, producing a small satchel. “You can drink it as a tea or use it as a poultice... some swear by doing one after the other. We can settle up after I talk to Martin.”

Tamsin heads into the stable, breathing in the familiar scent. “Actually, Mr. Ellis helped us find you. I heard from Ms. Montaño that you had told her a story about Jim McDaniels, which I was hoping you would tell to me.”

Martin’s face falls, his smile replaced by a look of anxiety. “Senor McDaniels?  Mi tia sent you over to talk to me?”

He licks his lips nervously. “Ma’am it’s not a good story. It might be one you don’t even believe. I...can I ask why you want to know about Senor McDaniels?”

“Well, some of my friends are investigating some of his friends, and he was the one that interested me the most,” Tamsin says. “Trust me, I will believe whatever you tell me.”

Martin closes the stall. He leans against the door, looking at River and Kearney, then down at his hands. ”Ma’am, I guess...well, the truth is, I didn’t always make good decisions when I was in school. Me and my friends, sometimes we’d get bored here in Lincoln, and want to go out, find some adventure somewhere.”

“One day, about a year ago, my buddy Miguel tells me and my brother Esteban that he heard a story about how this saloon keeper in Angus, the ghost town southeast of here, used to take gold and silver nuggets as payment from prospectors in the valley. Miguel claimed that when the sickness, or whatever it was, that caused Angus to empty out arrived, that box got left there. So, the three of us, we decided to go and find it.”

“We rode out there one morning, right after the first snow of the year. The town, it was spooky. All quiet and empty. The saloon sits kinda close to the middle, and as we went over there, we all saw tracks in the snow. Fresh ones. Like somebody had just ridden in. We were afraid it might be some old timer who lived there, who wouldn’t take too well to strangers visiting. So we tried to keep low, stay out of sight as we went to the saloon.”

“There was a back door to the place, but it was stuck. None of us could pull it open. So we made to go around the front, but we saw a horse hitched out front. Just as we saw the caballo, Señor McDaniels comes out of a building across the square, A lot of people here say Señor McDaniels is a pistolero, killed a lot of men over in Kansas. We were all scared. He walked over to the saloon and went inside.”

“Esteban and I wanted to leave, but while we were talking about it, we started hearing a piano from inside the saloon. Miguel, he was curious about what was going on, so he went around to look in a window. We didn’t want to leave him, but after a few minutes, when he hadn’t come back, I went around to find him.”

“He was staring in the window, all pale and frightened looking. I looked in, to see what he saw, and...well, it looked like the saloon was full of people. Señor McDaniels, he was behind the bar, pouring himself a drink, but there were other folks standing around, some sitting at tables, and there was a man playing the piano. Only...”

He exhales slowly, looking at the two women as if he is certain they will not believe him. ”Those other people, they weren’t alive. All of ‘em were washed out, no color to them, not even their clothes. And some...parts of ‘em, their skin was missing, nothing but bare bone beneath. If you looked hard enough, you could see through most of ‘em.  Señor McDaniels, he acted like it was all normal. Nothing strange about being surrounded by los muertos.”

“At first, I thought I was going to be sick or something. But somehow, I came to myself again. I grabbed Miguel by the shoulders, shook him a little, told him we needed to go. And we did. We got back to our horses as fast and as quiet as we could and rode off. None of us have ever gone back. And we make sure to stay away from Señor McDaniels.”

Tamsin listens intently to the story. At the end, she let out the breath she hadn’t realized she had been holding. “Why did he summon a bar’s worth of people? I’m sorry, I know you wouldn’t know. Thank you,” she says, moving to take his hand in hers in a gesture of gratitude.

Martin shakes the herbalist’s hand, nodding politely to Kearney. ”I’ve wondered that same thing once or twice. Esteban, he seemed to think that all those ghosts were already there, but somehow, Señor McDaniels bein’ present made ‘em all...where you could see ‘em.” He shrugs. ”I don’t know. But I sure wasn’t curious enough to stay around and try to find out.”

”Already there? Hmm...” It’s something she’ll have to ponder on. “That’s okay. I’ll let you know if I ever do find out why,” Tamsin says. ”I’m more concerned with how to get him to stop.

”Be careful,” Martin tells River earnestly, ”Señor McDaniels, many here fear him. He is ruthless, cruel even. And he seems willing to go to great trouble to keep his secrets. Stay watchful, Señorita.”

Tamsin nods. “I will. Thank you.”

She lets out a long sigh as she exits the stable. ”Well, we already sort of knew something was off.”

Kearney nods thoughtfully. “Yeah. I reckon we did.”

As the two women step outside of the stables, the mustanger’s attention is briefly drawn to the pine forest to the north. ”I sure got no problem believing him, though. I’ve seen a couple of things out there in the foothills that make it easy to think this country’s haunted.”

She glances over at River. ”I’m a bit concerned for them that rode out to Angus this morning. I’m not certain they understood what they might’ve been getting themselves into.”

”I’m glad. I got no problem believing him either,” Tamsin says, ”I’ve seen some strange things, and strange things happenin’.”

She purses her lips. “No, I don’t suppose they would know all that. How long will it take us to ride there?”

”I only passed by there a couple of times, but I reckon it’s about an hour and half ride, if you keep to the trail,” Kearney says. ”Course, I might be able to cut down on that time a bit, provided you’ve got no objection to goin’ straight through the forest here and there.”

"Sounds all right to me," Tamsin says with a nod. "Shall we, then?"

Ike Ellis helps the two women ready their horses, reminding both that it is still very cold in the Capitan foothills. Kearney tells the stable keeper to expect them back before nightfall, then leads the way around the outskirts of Lincoln, both women’s mounts speeding up to a gallop as they head west for Angus.

OOC: In terms of “in-game” time, River and Kearney are setting off for Angus only a short time after the first members of the posse did so. I’m going to have the two characters arrive in the Graveyard thread right after I’ve resolved the first round of actions with those in the tienda with Obadiah Stanton.