September 17th, 1880. Afternoon. Deadwood, Sioux Nations

The sky weeps, pouring rain on Deadwood. The roads, already a thick mass of sticky, stinking mud, turn into a quagmire. The rain beats on the rooftops like a marching drum, a steady staccato beat punctuated by the march of soldiers as they search alleyways, tents, and saloons for the outlaw Darius Carter.

Art and Moses make their way through Deadwood in this downpour. They pass through Celestial Alley, filled with signs in both Chinese and English, but empty of people. A number of cats watch them pass by.

They reach the Iron Dragon depot, and spot a train halted at the platform. Blue-uniformed soldiers guard the train, while several enter the passenger compartments and the cargo cars. Past the depot, they reach an area that has been fenced off. Beyond it, a number of saloons lie gutted and shattered, and there's a crater in the middle of the street. Moses fills a chill down his spine as he passes by the area. Soldiers seem to be removing corpses and wounded from one of the buildings -- whatever happened here didn't happen that long ago. The soldiers glance at Moses and Art's entourage of indians, but don't interfere with them.

Past that, the nearest open saloon is the Mint Gambling House.

---

Leopold von Steinhof, sleeping off his drunken binge from the last few hours, is woken up by an unseasonable rumble. Thunder? No. Someone is knocking at his chamber door.

---

James Wilder makes it back to the DMA Stockade, where he finds Frank Bryant and a large contingent of men passing out rifles and pistols in the courtyard.

"Now, this bastard's been bird-dogging us for months!" The large man shouts at the assembled over the pounding rain. "So if you see Carter, you fucking shoot to kill! We'll show him that he don't get to cross Deadwood's finest and live to tell about it! We'll show that Wild Bunch out there that we're not takin' their shit anymore!"

"Huzzah!" The crowd of gunmen shouts.

"Death to Carter! Death to the Wild Bunch! Death to the redskins! Death to the chinks! Death to all them motherfuckers who get in our way!" Bryant roars.

"Huzzah!"

"Huzzah!"

"Huzzah!"

---

Jackie Wells has a cabin on the outskirts of town. She doesn't invite Zeke, Logan, or Katy inside while she changes, so they're left standing awkwardly on the porch with Wild Bill Hickok, who just watches them all. It's more than a little uncomfortable.

When Jackie leaves, she's wearing more normal wear for her -- jeans, boots, a button-up shirt, vest, and a longcoat, her gatling pistol holstered at her side and a fancy-looking rifle of unfamiliar design on her back.

"Right. Ready." She says. "Now, let's see to findin' the Prospector."

"Goin' rather heavily heeled, ain't ya?" Wild Bill comments.

Jackie shrugs. "I ain't expectin' trouble, but I weren't expectin' it before, neither. If trouble does come, I want it to have troubles with me." She adjusts the rifle. "Besides, I got some things to tell Coot that he might not believe right away. A good demonstration'll go a long way there, and I don't have the credentials I used to have."

---

In the Mint Saloon, Matt Broaddale eventually staggers downstairs, unsure whether he's just had the most intense sexual experience of his life or gone several rounds with a wild mink. He's sore in random places, found out the hard way about the little pearl-grip straight razor in the hair, and is entirely too euphoric to care.

Maddox, meanwhile, is taking in a drink while Belle watches from a nearby table.

A burly Native American with a mohawk, dressed in Union Blues, steps into the saloon. The barkeep, Dandy Don, looks up in alarm.

"Hey! What's the big idea?" He says.

The indian shakes off some water, then stomps over to the bar, leaving a trail of mud. "Where Mad-Docs?" he growls.

Belle recognizes the Indian right away...it's the rude Pawnee from earlier!

Dandy Don shrugs. "Don't know if I can help you, sir." he says.

"Mad-docs!" The mohawked indian shouts. "Where find Mad-docs?" He waves a crumpled, wet piece of paper. "Talking leaf say, find Mad-Docs if find whore. Sitting Duck find whore, want bounty! Where find Mad-docs!?"

Maddox recognises his slightly mangled name being yelled by the soggy fellow and raises a hand to show where he is. "Hey! I'm here."

He scuffs his seat back a little as the tough customer makes his way over, giving him just enough room to draw in a hurry, just in case. The Welshman looks up at the sodden soldier. "Where is she?" he asks.

DMA Stockade

James shook his head, this wasn't what he wanted to have to deal with now. Noon tomorrow he world changes ... but first this... He moved to where Frank was and asks the big man,

"Frank! Can I get a horse? I need to go get my father's gun from out in the indian lands."

Matt pulls up short as the shouting mohawked Pawnee enters and begins shouting. He stops on the last few steps of the stairs and leans on the banister. His grey eyes seem inattentive as he lazily scans the room, but he is listening intently to "Sitting Duck" and Maddox. He tries to flag down one of Kitty's girls for a drink, and scratches the back of his leg with his other boot.

He makes eye contact with the railspike-wearing Ivers for a brief moment and tips his hat, content to bystand for a moment or two.

In reply to The Stray (msg # 1):

Zek waits outside the cabin, looking about with his shotglass monocle. Normally he is not so paranoid...somewhat, but the old man is too valuable to risk. Not to mention he knows what will happen once he gets Wild Bill to close to the old man. He pulls Bill aside to speak to him privately.

"Bill, before I take you to the old man, I gotta disarm you. It's not that I don't trust you...I don't trust it. The thing in my head tried to make me kill the old man too. They are scared of him...with reason. So we both have to be careful around him."
This message was last edited by the player at 22:35, Thu 02 Feb 2017.

Not trusting the vigilante as far as he could throw him, Logan made sure to stay close to Wild Bill as Zeke tried to maneuver him away for a private conversation,

---

OOC:

Listening in to what Zek is trying to tell Bill.

Notice: 5

16:20, Today: Logan West rolled 5,2 using d6,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 5,2.  Notice.

Leopold yawns. "Suddenly, there came a tapping..."
He runs his hands through his hair and makes sure he's presentable.
He grabs his shiny American revolver and keeps it hidden behind his back. He talks through the closed door:

"Sir, or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;
But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,
And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,
That I scarce was sure I heard you..."

... and opens the door a crack wide open to peer at his visitor, half-expecting a raven.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:52, Thu 02 Feb 2017.

The huge black man keeps looking around, as if he had never been to such a large town, a thin and mild smile on his lips.
"The Lord has guided his most humble servant to the right place. Moses can feel it! Here is where we will draw a line in the sand, where we will face Evil and shout in defiance: You Shall Not Pass!"

Belle tilted her hat brim up, and listened most carefully.  This had proven fruitful, but dangerous.

Her gloved hand went to a glass phial, which she slipped into position, for just in case.  She hoped not to use it.

The Marshal's eye contact was confusing, perhaps he wasn't too pleased about the Native's demeanor without having just cause to confront him yet?  That would be understandable.

It made her wonder who this Maddox was.  Ostensibly, the Union should be against private bounties, so the implications were quite strange.

Bryant looks over at James, confused. "What? In this weather?" he shakes his head. "No, if you want to commit suicide go buy your own damn horse. Seems hardly worth pullin' your hide off that pole if you're just gonna turn around and git yourself hitched right back up it."

In reply to Freiherr von Steinhof (msg # 7):

It's not a raven. It's a soldier, who looks rather perplexed. "Er...excuse me, sir?" he says. "You have a visitor downstairs? She says she has a package for you?" He seems completely taken aback by the Poe reference.

In reply to Ezekiel Starkweather (msg # 5):

Wild Bill nods. "Yup. Can't say as I blame you." He pulls out his pistol, and hands it, butt first, to Zeke. Then he turns and glares at Logan. "I beg your pardon? Ain't polite to eavesdrop."

In reply to Maddox (msg # 2):

"Five day ago." The Pawnee says gesticulating wildly as he tells his tale, "Sitting Duck and unit scout up near Náhkȯhe-vose." He points east. "The mountain white man call Bear Butte. There, cahk-suka Sioux surround us. She hide in rabbit hole on hill where we fight. She threaten Sitting Duck with knife, but we capture when greezy-az brujo call up Brother Earth and shake ground. We tie, but cahk-suka bitch call on Tahra." he shakes his head, stumbling over words. "Ba-fa-low. Tarha take her, other prisoner, back to cahk-suka Sioux. There was a nig-ga there, with Sioux. He take her to him. There was fight among cahk-suka Sioux. Greezy-az brujo killed, others leave. She go with nig-ga, and with them. To Náhkȯhe-vose."

((OOC: Curious to see what Maddox makes of all that...))

"Oh, is her name Lenore? Nevermind - thank you, my good boy. Please let the lady know that I will be downstairs in a moment."

He closed the door again and selected the light blue uniform jacket of the Austrian Landwehr. This particular dress coat was of the Kaiserjäger - the elite light infantry of the Imperial Army. It also had the distinction of being - by far! - the cleanest coat Leopold had. He truly had to get his coats cleaned. He had brushed the dirt and blood from the others, but they needed ironing. And one of them was still pretty wet.

Once properly dressed, he proceded downstairs, to meet with this mysterious woman and her packet.

Maddox squints in the manner of someone trying hard to decipher something. "You captured her and another prisoner five days ago, near Náhkȯhe-vose, but a bar fellow called Tarha and a negro rescued them? And these men were travelling with the Sioux?"

He nods slowly, it not being unheard-of for natives to adopt coloured men. "Have you got the things she stole? I'm willing to pay you for the information, see you, but Huang Li won't give you the money if you don't have the girl or the goods."