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12:44, 28th March 2024 (GMT+0)

IIL - Lost Trails.

Posted by MarshalFor group 0
Albert Cooper
player, 171 posts
Gun Wizzerd
P5 T6 W0 F0 W4 R1 B2 L0
Mon 8 Oct 2018
at 22:50
  • msg #26

IIL - Lost Trails

Albert shook his head. "No ma'am - was actually thinkin' of askin' the Ranger what came ta town, among others. And anything involvin' a ranger oughta be on the level, right?"
Lena Bauer
NPC, 21 posts
Thu 11 Oct 2018
at 01:16
  • msg #27

IIL - Lost Trails

Bauer nods. ”You’re right. It should be at that.” She pauses, then adds, ”Sheriff Brady...he seemed kinda relieved to know that a Texas Ranger had come to town.”

She set her cup down, folding her hands on the table. ”You up for a ride? I can show that spot where the trail from Reverend Benton’s house ended. Ground’s still torn up, like it was when I first found it.”

“I mean, don’t get me wrong. I want to try to find that woman that gunned down O’Folliard. But just between you and me, the Sheriff told me to leave it alone for the moment. He has something else in mind where that’s concerned.”

Albert Cooper
player, 172 posts
Gun Wizzerd
P5 T6 W0 F0 W4 R1 B2 L0
Thu 11 Oct 2018
at 21:07
  • msg #28

IIL - Lost Trails

Albert raised an eyebrow at the Sheriff's relief before nodding at the deputy's question. "Yes ma'am, I am certainly up fer a ride." He narrowed his eyes a little at the comment about O'Folliard, then headed over to mount Brandy.

"Mebbe while we're ridin', ya might tell me a little more 'bout O'Folliard. And why ya think the Sheriff's relieved at the arrival of a Ranger." In Albert's experience, law men out west didn't like other folk on their turf - made feel less capable, even if they needed the help.
Lena Bauer
NPC, 22 posts
Sat 13 Oct 2018
at 19:26
  • msg #29

IIL - Lost Trails

Bauer walks over to the courthouse where her mount, a paint mare, is hitched. Climbing into the saddle, she urges her horse into a trot, riding west out of town.

Once the two riders have some distance from Lincoln’s Main Street, she says, ”Between you and me, the reason Sheriff Brady’s glad of the Ranger’s arrival is...well, it’s because he doesn’t trust most of his own deputies. He’s sure that several of ‘em are on someone else’s payroll...Lawrence Murphy’s. Problem is, he can’t figure out which ones. But it’s got his hands tied up. Most of the time, he can’t be sure that what his people are telling him is the truth. Or if they’ll follow his orders.”

“I guess he figures the Ranger, he’ll be able to get to the bottom of things around here.”

Albert Cooper
player, 173 posts
Gun Wizzerd
P5 T6 W0 F0 W4 R1 B2 L0
Wed 17 Oct 2018
at 19:46
  • msg #30

IIL - Lost Trails

Albert kept Brandy close to Bauer's as they trotted out of town. He did swivel his head constantly to look about. Now would not be a good time to be taken unawares. "Hm. That is quite a predicament fer the Sheriff. Don't most law m..., er, law-folk have a good gut fer things like this? Doin' nutin' ain't good, neither. Makes the townfolk lose faith."

Albert paused. "But, seems unlikely the Ranger's on Murphy's payroll. So trustin' him seems reasonable." Al smiled a little as he looked over to Bauer. "Whose payroll are you on?"
Lena Bauer
NPC, 23 posts
Fri 19 Oct 2018
at 18:13
  • msg #31

IIL - Lost Trails

Bauer smirks. "Lincoln County's, last time I checked. Believe me, if I wasn't so attached to some of the people here, there's plenty of places in Texas where I could make a fair livin' with a lot less hassle."

She pauses, her expression becoming stern. "Jim Mc Daniels, fella who works for Murphy, approached me once at Ramsey's. Offered me a good bit of money to help make Mr. Murphy's interests were watched after. I told him to go to hell."
Albert Cooper
player, 174 posts
Gun Wizzerd
P5 T6 W0 F0 W4 R1 B2 L0
Fri 19 Oct 2018
at 20:56
  • msg #32

IIL - Lost Trails

Albert smirked at Bauer's profession of single-source income. She had properly determined Al was kidding with her.

That he had received such an offer, though... "Any of yer fella deputies in circumstances what might have made 'em wanna take such an offer? Circumstances sometimes makes a person do things they otherwise wouldn't."
Lena Bauer
NPC, 24 posts
Sat 20 Oct 2018
at 21:56
  • msg #33

IIL - Lost Trails

She slows her horse’s pace. ”Mr. Cooper, the truth is, except for Sheriff Brady himself, the only two officers I’d be inclined to trust are James Bell and Bob Olinger. And truthfully, Bob’s probably honest, but he’s not always prone to making sensible decisions. Lets his temper get the better of him quite a bit.”

“The rest...I have a feeling they’re all in Murphy’s pocket, one way or another. But thinkin’ like you’re talkin’ about...there is one that especially comes to mind. Deputy Raines. Wrias Raines. The story was that Raines got himself in trouble up north, around Dodge City. Ran away from Kansas on account of a big gambling debt he had up there. Supposedly, some of those folks tracked him down here in Lincoln, came callin’ to collect. But then they went on their way. Left Wrias be. Nobody’s really sure how he wriggled out of that fix, but I’ve got my suspicions.”

Albert Cooper
player, 175 posts
Gun Wizzerd
P5 T6 W0 F0 W4 R1 B2 L0
Tue 23 Oct 2018
at 02:08
  • msg #34

IIL - Lost Trails

Albert nodded at the woman's assessment of the other deputies. "Can ya think of any way ta find out where Raines loyalties lie? Seems like the sheriff, and the Ranger, might be better off if there'd be a way ta, well, get ridda the bad apples. Can't do that without some proof, of course."
Lena Bauer
NPC, 25 posts
Tue 23 Oct 2018
at 16:33
  • msg #35

IIL - Lost Trails

"I know where he lives. Old prospector's shack north of town, near the foothills," she answers. "Never visited him, myself. I don't really care for the way he looks at me sometimes."

"He's also partial to drinkin' at Wilson's. Likes to play cards there. Supposedly good friends with the piano player."


The horses cross into a clearing. Ahead and to the left, Cooper can see the beginnings of a trench that has been dug in the earth, the grass and wildflowers having been widely scattered on either side of the fissure.
Albert Cooper
player, 176 posts
Gun Wizzerd
P5 T6 W0 F0 W4 R1 B2 L0
Wed 24 Oct 2018
at 01:27
  • msg #36

IIL - Lost Trails

Albert stored the information about Raines, but any thoughts he had on it would be made later. What he saw took priority.

"Well, I'll be...."

Albert slowed his horse as he and Brandy approached the furrowed ground. The portly ranch hand lowered himself to the ground and moved to look at the trench. He didn't touch anything, but inspected the ground in the trench and to either side. "How old ya think this is?"
Lena Bauer
NPC, 26 posts
Sun 28 Oct 2018
at 21:33
  • msg #37

IIL - Lost Trails

”Hard to say,” Bauer admits, ”At least a couple of weeks, since that’s when I found it. But this isn’t the only one. One of Susan McSween’s hands told me that they’d stumbled onto a couple of places just like it on their range. This morning, I heard talk that they’d lost a few steer out that way. Not sure if the two things are related to one another, but I’ve got a funny feelin’ that they are.”
Albert Cooper
player, 177 posts
Gun Wizzerd
P5 T6 W0 F0 W4 R1 B2 L0
Mon 29 Oct 2018
at 16:45
  • msg #38

IIL - Lost Trails

Albert looked at the trench and listened to the explanation. "Huh. And has anyone followed any of the trenches to their end? I assume it leads somewhere, or perhaps all start in some direction?"

Albert considered the size of the trench in comparison to the underground tunnels they were in when chasing down that plant-creature.
Lena Bauer
NPC, 27 posts
Wed 31 Oct 2018
at 17:38
  • msg #39

IIL - Lost Trails

"I've followed this one," Bauer tells Cooper. Gesturing for him to follow, she adds, "Come take a look."

She leads Cooper a short distance to a dense cluster of spruce. On the far side of the conifers, Cooper sees that the trench terminates in a hole that burrows deep into the earth, the sides of it grooved as though dug by an animal with sizeable claws. The opening drops down into darkness.

"Not sure if this is the beginning or the end. But there's another hole just like this one if you folow the trench in the other direction."

OOC: Albert, kindly give me a Notice roll.
Albert Cooper
player, 178 posts
Gun Wizzerd
P5 T6 W0 F0 W4 R1 B2 L0
Thu 1 Nov 2018
at 20:38
  • msg #40

IIL - Lost Trails

"Damnation. That's a big hole."

13:35, Today: Albert Cooper rolled 10,2 using d6,d6, rerolling max with rolls of (6+4)10,2.  Notice.

Albert frowned as he looked at the excavations of the creature, inspecting the hole for depth and size, mentally comparing it to what he'd previously walked through to find the kidnapped children.
Marshal
GM, 349 posts
W6 R3 B0
Sun 4 Nov 2018
at 23:33
  • msg #41

IIL - Lost Trails

Although the hole drops down into darkness, its width is irregular, and quite narrow at points, giving Cooper the idea that something would have had to squeeze through parts of the crevasse. He sees no trace of the unwelcome vines, but notes that the fissure is nothing like the wide tunnel that the plants had managed to establish beneath the schoolhouse.

Close to the opening, Cooper glimpses a small, white object, mostly concealed by the broken earth.
Albert Cooper
player, 179 posts
Gun Wizzerd
P5 T6 W0 F0 W4 R1 B2 L0
Mon 5 Nov 2018
at 15:46
  • msg #42

IIL - Lost Trails

Al looked around the opening a bit, then grunted. "What's this?"

He carefully reached down near the white object and ran a finger through the soil near the object to allow it to be more easily removed. He took a close look at it while doing so.
Marshal
GM, 352 posts
W6 R3 B0
Tue 6 Nov 2018
at 21:35
  • msg #43

IIL - Lost Trails

Carefully clearing the nearby soil, Cooper is able to see that the partially concealed object is a bone. From the shape, he surmises that it is most likely a piece of a rib. From its size, he strongly suspects that it came from a human.
Albert Cooper
player, 180 posts
Gun Wizzerd
P5 T6 W0 F0 W4 R1 B2 L0
Wed 7 Nov 2018
at 00:10
  • msg #44

IIL - Lost Trails

Albert cleaned off the rib as well as he could and then held it up for Lena. "Looks like a rib bone. Human." He frowned as he looked at the bone. "How d'ya s'pose that happened?"
Lena Bauer
NPC, 28 posts
Sat 10 Nov 2018
at 21:34
  • msg #45

IIL - Lost Trails

”I sure hope that didn’t belong to Reverend Benton,” Bauer says, looking at the fragment of bone with raised eyebrows, ”’Course, that business with the graves bein’ robbed. It coulda came from one of them. But...why would it end up in a clawed up hole like this?”
Albert Cooper
player, 181 posts
Gun Wizzerd
P5 T6 W0 F0 W4 R1 B2 L0
Sun 11 Nov 2018
at 17:02
  • msg #46

IIL - Lost Trails

Albert frowned at the prospect of the bones being from the Reverend. The robbed graves would be better, though mostly for the Reverend's help. Al had seen far too many times what the wrong sort of people could do with a dead body.

"How long ago did them graves start bein' dug up? And when ya think this here happened?" The ranch hand was trying to place things timewise to help himself come to some sort of hypothesis. But he suspected more investigation was probably in order.
Lena Bauer
NPC, 29 posts
Thu 15 Nov 2018
at 16:33
  • msg #47

IIL - Lost Trails

"The first I heard about it..." Bauer's voice trails off and she frowns. "Well, I guess it was a few weeks back. Right after Judge Wilson deputized all of John Tunstall's hands."

"When I found this a couple of weeks ago, it looked freshly dug. Like the soil had just been turned. Smelled like a field that'd recently been plowed."

Albert Cooper
player, 182 posts
Gun Wizzerd
P5 T6 W0 F0 W4 R1 B2 L0
Wed 28 Nov 2018
at 00:08
  • msg #48

IIL - Lost Trails

"Hm. That sorta timin' don't seem like coincidence, ma'am. S'pose it ain't directly related ta them kids, neither." Albert sniffed about to see if there were any other smells than what Bauer described.

"Freshly dug seems ta give us some clue 'bout timin'. Anything else ya smelled? Rot mebbe?"
Lena Bauer
NPC, 30 posts
Wed 28 Nov 2018
at 18:47
  • msg #49

IIL - Lost Trails

Bauer considers for a moment. Wrinkling her nose, she says, "I don't recall anything that smelled awful, like anythin' dead. But...there was somethin'. A musty odor. Kinda like an old house that's been closed up for years."

She glances up at the graying sky. "We might go ahead and head back to town, Mr. Cooper. You'll want to be indoors before dark. If you're not ridin' back to your uncle's, Desiree Thornton's place is a good spot to pass the night."
Albert Cooper
player, 183 posts
Gun Wizzerd
P5 T6 W0 F0 W4 R1 B2 L0
Wed 28 Nov 2018
at 21:11
  • msg #50

IIL - Lost Trails

Albert looked at the sky. "Glad yer payin' attention. I should head back ta my uncle's tonight, though I don't have ta do so immediately. I gotta few more folk I'd like ta chat with 'fore headin' back home."

Albert remounted his horse and then waited for Bauer to do the same before turning back toward town. He had a pensive look on his face as he considered what they'd found.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:39, Thu 29 Nov 2018.
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