"I can do that," Roger says, "but first I would like you to bring me up to speed. I seem to be missing something."

The clerks (and the customers) make sure to give Matt a very wide berth as he washes up. The dizziness and retching do not help things. The water is disposed of, and Matt is politely but firmly asked to leave.

Now what?

Janet sighed.  "Mr. Bordreaux and I know each other.  We escaped New Orleans together, LeCroix hot on our heels.  I fled to Texas with Brad, and Jack went his own way.  That about sums things up, right, Jack?"

"That pretty much sums it up ma copine." Black Jack Boudreaux said in reply to Janet.

"That lady from the boarding house helped get me an introduction to Mr. Merrick." He says. "I'm helping him get the printing press in order. I'm going to be an apprentice!" He nods at Jackie. "Ma'am." He looks back at the Professor, wide-eyed at the mention of corpses. "Oh wow! Um, let me go ask him if it's alright." He grins. "Oh, I suppose. I'm not being held up by any famous outlaws, hiding from bat monsters, running from the undead Seventh Cavalry, or saving any Indian messiahs, so I suppose I'm doing alright. Just a moment." Having cheerfully smashed The Professor's attempt to be vague to pieces, he disappears back into the office.

Jackie grins. "Bat monsters and Indian messiahs, huh? Sounds like you've had an interesting week. You're gonna have to tell me all about it later."

The Professor nodded to Zachary, then turned to Jackie and replied, "It occurred pretty much as the boy said. Although I didn't hid so much from the bat monsters as I was forced to ride one through the sky and back down to earth. An exhilarating experience, but not one I'd care to repeat anytime soon."

In reply to Black Jack Boudreaux (msg # 463):

"So it's trouble with the railroads, then." Mr. Sebastian sips his tea. By now the vegetable dishes, chow mien, and three racks or barbequed meat have been brought to the table. The food is quite good, even if it's a bit cool from taking so long to get to them. "Well, here the major player is Iron Dragon. Doesn't have much truck with Bayou Vermillion, or so I understand. The large power player here is a man named Huang Li, who oversees the operations of the railroads and owns several business ventures here in Celestial Alley. If I may change the subject a moment, I noticed you did not seem particularly impressed with our current Marhshal's handling of the McCall affair."

After he was returned his gun and shown outside the Bank, Matthew removed his hat and rubbed his head, the bright sun not doing any favors to his illness. He was...understandably cautious about opening the other two letters, considering that someone had apparently tampered with his strongbox.

He was not in any shape to investigate at the moment. He needed to lay down, but if he did, he wasn't sure if he would wake before dark, and he wasn't keen on walking down to the Cathouse and rattling feathers during peak business hours...

So he headed back to the Boarding house. When he opened the main doors, he nearly vomited all over the carpet.

"Miss Fairchild!?" he called into the house, not having the energy to run through the stupid house, "Elaine? Elaine, I need your help- ooh."

He half-swooned, and pulled off his hat. He was sweating like a sinner in church, and began to fan himself. He pulled his tie loose and pressed his forehead against the cool wall.

Oh sweet Jesus in heaven...thank you, house. You are a good house. You are a confusing place, but right now I do not care.

In reply to The Professor (msg # 465):

"Oh, now you're gonna have to tell me all about it." Jackie grins, but then the door opens again.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, sir and madam." the rather rotund man at the door says.

"Howdy, Mr. Merrick!" Jackie chirps, still grinning at the Professor.

"Ah. Deputy Wells." Merrick says, very formally and politely. His manner has the distinct air of Oh no, not again. "I'm...afraid I don't have much time for another one of your tall tales, entertaining as they may be. I'm trying to get the press back into shipshape after these months of inactivity..."

"Don't worry, I ain't here with another story for ya. This here is official business."

"Official business?" Merrick coughs. "Ah. Well, anything I can do for the Marshal's office, I do gladly. Please, step inside."

In reply to Matthew Broaddale (msg # 467):

The parlor is quiet for a moment, until a voice from above, on the balcony, reaches him.

"...why, Mr. Broaddale!" The woman in grey says, fair floating down the stairs and over to him. "...you're flushed. You look awful. What has happened?" She holds out a hand to help steady him.

Matt focused his eyes on Elaine. She might as well have been a phantom.

"Elaine... Mrs..Miss Fairchild," he said, leaning on her as heavily as he dared.

"Someone tampered with my" -a deep breath- "personal letters. Poison."

He turned to face her, feeling a bit improper being so close to the lady, but feeling like he'd fall over if he leaned away.

"I'm sorry, Elaine," he muttered, so as not to shout in her face, "I'm a little short of breath."

Mrs. Fairchild frowns with worry. "...oh, dear. We had better get you to your room." She began gently pulling him towards the back. "...do you know what kind of venom? That is very important to mixing up something to counter it...and why would someone tamper with your mail?"

As he was moved, Matt muttered, "I can't sleep long...I have business."

At her question, Matt wracked his memory for what he'd heard of that matched his attack, "Nnng. Powdered toxin, inhaled, there was phosphorus..." he listed, his head throbbing.

"I hope it was a mistake...but my job makes enemies, Elaine." he said.

"No." She says, her normal airy tone hardened to steel. "...some just tired to murder you. You are going to rest until I can figure out how to help you..."

She fits her master key into the lock on his room, and leads him to the bed.

"...people do not mail powdered toxins by mistake. Do you have any idea which current enemies of yours might try such a ploy?"

"Yes ma'm." He said to Elaine's order.

The marshal dropped his hat as soon as they entered the room and held his eyes shut for a moment, thinking.

She asked him a question. He looked her right in the eye...

"No, I don't."

He tried to ease himself down onto the bed.

"The toxin..." he began to explain...


[[OOC: Wow, Matt's hamming it up, you'd think he almost died.

23:43, Today: Matthew Broaddale rolled 14,2 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of (8+6)14,2. smarts
Even with the -2 for Fatigue, it's still a 12 ]]

"Well Bullock seemed to avoid the risk but wanted the purse. Did not seem sporting." Jack said in reply.

Hello Mr. Merrick," the Professor extends a hand. "Thank you for assisting us." As is often the case, The Professor failed to introduce himself and instead went directly into questioning the newspaperman. "We've been led to believe that you have some information related to the series of dead, desiccated corpses that have been appearing around Deadwood of late. If you don't mind, we're very interested in anything you can tell us about the situation."

"Indeed. That and several other incidents have many concerned citizens thinking about a replacement for the good Marshal. There's an election coming up, and a fellow named Maddox is in contention. He doesn't quite have the clout to make it normally...Bullock sits on a number of local committees and the town council, after all." Mr. Sebastian takes a few bites from his meal before continuing. "However Maddox has a constituency that Bullcok has failed to woo. The Chinese population of Deadwood has long been neglected by the law...Bullock doesn't often cross the tracks or see to the concerns of the Celestials. Maddox does. And because of a recent statute that was passed allowing the Chinese population to vote in local elections, well, there's a golden opportunity for Maddox to gain the support needed to push Bullock from his post."

Thus we return to Huang Li. He is the man who can get the votes for Maddox. He's the man who can inspire the locals to exercise their newly-acquired right to vote. Thus, he's the man who needs to be most impressed with Maddox. Are you following me so far?"

---

"Corpses?" Merrick says, concerned. "I don't know where you might have gotten that idea, but I don't know anything about any corpses."

---

Elaine takes the information and dips into her medicine cabinet. She mixes up something foul-smelling, and orders Matt to drink it up. It tastes just as bad as it smells, and the potion makes him incredibly drowsy. He finds himself nodding off to sleep...

((OOC: She makes a Healing roll for the antitoxin, at the same penalty as the toxin's strength (-2).

02:10, Today: Elaine Fairchild rolled 2,3 using d8-2,d6-2, rerolling max with rolls of 4,5. Healing.

02:10, Today: Elaine Fairchild rolled 5 using 1d6, rerolling max with rolls of 5. Blue Chip.

That's a total of 8, which will remove both fatigue levels after Matt naps for an hour. ))

The Professor tried another approach. "You don't?  Hmm...well perhaps you know something of why the publisher of the Black Hills Pioneer suddenly went out of business? Any insight you could provide would be extremely helpful."

Janet nods.  "Which leads to the first problem.  I ended up on Huang Li's bad side thanks to some work I did for Mr. Sebastian.  He doesn't want me dead any more, but instead he wants something else... something we're not sure of."

In reply to The Professor (msg # 478):

"Oh, that I can tell you about, because it was my decision." He holds out his hand. "A.W. Merrick, owner, publisher, and lead reporter of the Black Hills Pioneer, currently on hiatus."

Matt takes the draught and, even anything, feels dizzier.

"'sin this?" he slurs as he drifts off, his pulse sounding like wardrums in his ears...

[OOC:
Hopefully I can make it to the Cathouse before the Prof scours it clean!

]]

"I understand but other than getting on the wrong side of Bullock what is in it for me?" Boudreaux asked. "Almost as importantly what is in it for you?

This message was deleted by the player at 02:15, Fri 07 June 2013.

The Professor shakes the offered hand.  "I'm a little confused Sir.  Why did you cease publication? And why did you run a competing newspaper in the first place?"