Catherine sat down and looked around curiously. "I suppose it's unlikely an establishment like this would serve tea. It's nice and quiet, though, not at all what I expected."

"Without any maps of the area, it's hard to say," Felicity replies to Joseph, "but I suspect that the trail to Fidalgo's place just goes there and nowhere beyond. There might be one or two other farms out that way, but if the wagon had come from that direction, someone there would have seen it, so it wouldn't have been a surprise to Fidalgo."

"Trail signs to another farm don't usually last too long, on the rare occasion they are put up in the first place."

"So, I'm guessing that the sign is direction you to the next village up that way. That would seem to be the direction from which the mystery wagon came. But it doesn't seem to have gone back that way."

"Don't see much point in going to Paterna. We already know what the wagon and the horses look like. We might get a description of Dr. Solar, but he's not going to be far from his wagon."

"Anyway, I wouldn't say we found nothing, cause even though we didn't find anything, that, in itself, is something. Just not sure what."

"So. Time to head back is my two pesos."

Grimsby, Catherine and Brie are in the cantina, and Grimsby orders a beer. There are two choices: San Miguel and Moritz Epidor.

Alas, Catherine was right... the cantina does not serve tea, but she can order a bottle of wine.

When Brie asks the bartender about Dr. Solar, at first the man says he has not seen such a man, and Brie's mind-reading confirms that what he says is true... but there's a niggling little thought at the back of his mind.

She realizes it's one of those situations where asking the right question is the solution... it's not that he's seen Dr. Solar, but someone he knows might have seen him.

His cousin Philippe talked about a 'funny-looking man' that he saw over on Rambla de Guada. Only saw him once, didn't know where he went, but both of them thought it strange.

"Well, I can't say that I find any disagreement with your conclusions, Felicity." Joseph says, settling his schutztrooper hat back properly onto his head, "And you always did know when to quit a cold trail better than I."

"Alright, we go back and inform the others that we are definitely looking for this strange man Miss Brie says she saw in Senor Fidalgo's head.  He may or may not have the wagon with him, which may or may not be covered with a canvas or otherwise disguised, but he is definitely riding a palomino."

Joseph turns and nods at Aubrey, "And he may speak with either a Romanian or American accent.  I add American, Aubrey, because, whether the wagon is of Romanian manufacture or not, this 'Doctor Solar' dude has the wagon all gussied up like a classic Snake Oil Salesman's wagon, straight out of the American's Western Territories.  So he might be an American."

Brie will grin at the man. "Do you know anyone who might have seen such a man? I really need to find him." she slips him a few coins extra for the drinks.

In reply to GM SteamRoller (msg # 621):

Grimsby randomly says "A San Miguel, please." (He has no preferences in Spanish beers.)
He says to Catherine, "It is a pity about the tea, my dear ward,but perhaps we can make do with a bottle of sherry. After all, we must be near the sherry country now, and a small glass or so would do no harm."

"Oh, that might be nice" Catherine says to Grimsby, curious about what it would be like here.

"Thank you, sir" she says gratefully when the bartender mentions that Philippe saw a strange man. It isn't much to go on, but now they had somewhere to start.

In reply to Catherine Harston (msg # 625):

Grimsby asks Brie "Can you ask --or sense--what made this fellow "funny-looking" in their eyes?"

In reply to Grimsby H. Baskerville (msg # 626):

(ooc- she read his mind that he was funny looking. She need to asker her first)

The bartender, of course, hadn't actually seen the man, so Brie can only read the somewhat vague description that his cousin Phillipe gave him.

He was somewhat on the tall side, far younger than one would expect for his 'profession'. He wore a dark red velvet coat, and odd-looking hat, white gloves, and the hat and coat had an array of gears on them.

In reply to GM SteamRoller (msg # 628):

Grimsby inquires "Were there real gears on the hat and coat, or just designs that looked like them? Actual gears on the clothing sounds deuced odd."

That information isn't determinable, since the bartender is only repeating what his cousin Phillipe told him, and Phillipe didn't make a distinction.

In reply to GM SteamRoller (msg # 630):

A pity, but I understand the point.

"It's not really a cold trail," Felicity replied to Joseph.

"It's a few days old, but we now know that the trail leads into town. We have a few more facts than we did before, though still not enough to say for certain why it happened or why it happened here. Just speculation."

"Let's go find the others. Maybe they had better luck. Or maybe they've even found out a few more pieces of the puzzle."

"Well said, Felicity," Aubrey responds as he starts to walk back into town.

"It does sound as if Dr. Solar was lying in wait... for someone, if not specifically Fidalgo. Although Fidalgo had a reasonably regular schedule, this is such an out of the way place that he could have been waiting for just anyone to come by."

In reply to Aubrey St. Claire (msg # 633):

Joseph, already a few steps down the trail towards the town, stops suddenly and spins around.

"You make a good point, Aubrey.  While it's more than likely it was just a random choice that got Senor Fidalgo picked as the target, if you think about it, there are also a number of good reasons to choose Senor Fidalgo intentionally as the target!"

"Who is Fidalgo?  A local shepherd, a man with no influence or connections, a man few people would really take notice of, under normal circumstances.  He will be in an isolated location at the same time on a regular schedule.  He won't really be missed.  Even given the strange nature of this--let's call it an attack, for the moment--even given it's strange nature, who really paid any attention?  Only Aubrey, here.  And he might have been encouraged by his colleagues to forget about it.  It was only our unexpected interest in his interest that got us here to investigate."

"My point about that being that nobody expected any kind of real investigation concerning this event."

"And another thing, Senor Fidalgo is not a rich man--but didn't I hear him say that someone was paying the bill for his hospital care?  I was standing in the back, and I didn't really hear that part too well..."

Catherine watched Brie curiously as she used her ability, trying to see if there was any physical change in Brie.

Aubrey, Felicity and Joseph get back to town just as Grimsby, Catherine and Brie are exiting the cantina.

In reply to GM SteamRoller (msg # 636):

Grimsby headed over to the other returning party ad said (quietly so as not to attract notice) "I am very glad to see you once more. Did you find any signs of the mysterious stranger?"

Catherine smiled at them. "Oh, hello again! I hope fortune crowned your efforts."

"We didn't see Dr. Solar or his wagon," Felicity replies, "but while we found evidence that he may have been in the location where Fidalgo was frozen, we couldn't absolutely confirm that."

"It does look like a wagon came from the direction of a place called Paterna. We think it might be the next village to the north."

"There was no indication it went back that way, so it had to have come into town. There were tracks heading back this way."

"Did you find out anything?"

Grimsby responds, "Miss O'Malley was able to learn that a stranger was seen hereabouts who may be our man. She can describe the fellow more fully than I can, as I know only what she told me."

"So I take it that we are planning on bearding this fellow in his den, right?" Aubrey asked.

"What, pray tell, are we planning on saying to him? Do we arrest him? For that matter, did he even commit a crime? Not that the Spaniards have ever been bothered by that fact. They are just as apt to throw him in jail for ten years while they try to figure out what to try him for... and, of course, forget he's even there until someone else gets tired of feeding him. If they even remembered to do so in the first place."

"If he had done this to a friend or relative of mine, I'd be inclined to thrash him soundly! Since Senor Fidalgo seems no worse for the wear, I think I'd rather commend the fellow for his clever invention!"

Grimsby remarks dubiously, " Senor Fidalgo may have recovered without serious harm, but I doubt very much that this invention was intended for such harmless purposes, especially since the inventor seems to have gone to some trouble to hide his connection to the "testing" of the weapon in Fidalgo." 
This message was last edited by the player at 03:56, Thu 29 Nov 2018.

Catherine paused a moment when they were asked what the planned to do if they found the Doctor. "Well, I hadn't really considered what we'd do. I suppose I just wanted to know how and why he managed such a feat as freezing a man safely" she admitted, embarrassed. Perhaps her curiosity had really gotten the better of her. She moved a bit behind her guardian, who seemed to have a much better reason.