Chapter 1: New Prospects

[ManWithDoor]

Tobias is generous, but cautious. He pats them down for weapons, like hidden pistols or a boot knife. After he's satisfied, he unties the cowboys. "Sorry about that, can never be too careful. Feel sorry for you, but you did try to kill us." He helps them to their feet, and passes along a waterskin to quench their thirst.

[Vardaen]

So the gunmen are generous healed, and allowed to go their merry way. The offer to join in against the O'Leary Boys is rejected, the cowboys escaped death once today, they ain't keen on pressing their luck. "Sorry and thank yea, we'll be on our way in the morning, after poor old Bill passes on."

So with that they are settled in, waiting for their companion to die, and he will eventually die in in a cold sweat screaming from a nightmare about some beast in the woods come to eat his soul. But, you aren't around to hear or see that, and his buddies don't see no soul eater. By morning they are gone, moved on to the next town.

Yet, that ain't for hours and hours from now. Its still early in the day, moving on toward noon but still, there is lots of day left. Penn and Colter fix something to eat for everyone, and you sit down, decide your next move.

[RorytheRomulan]

"What a right bunch of cowards. And weak, too, if they don't think they can come after us on their own."

Vane chews on grits, and looks at Colter, more kindly than he might have before. He draws a puff from his cigar. "Did you know that tea you gave us sent us on a wild ride? You told us it was from the Sioux folks around these parts. Are you sure it was them you traded with?" He asks, careful to avoid the word "savage".

ooc

Well shits. That's too bad for Bill, poor sunovabitch. I plan on mentioning Tadoka to Colter.

[Vardaen]

"My tea? I don't rightly know what you mean." He looks at the group. "Ain't nothing strange bout my tea. I just had some this morning ain't nothing funny about it. You sure it was the tea and not maybe something in the water you made the tea with?" He invites you to join him, "I'm damn hungry now, getting shot at does that to me." He makes you some fatback for lunch along with some cold bread and cheese he has to cut the mold off of.

[ManWithDoor]

After the past days they've had, Tobias is glad to sit down and take a load off. "I hear you. I feel like I could eat a whole cow after the time we've been having." He gratefully takes whatever is offered, struggling with the self-control not to wolf it straight down, but savor the moment.

[RorytheRomulan]

Delton gratefully takes a bit of cheese and bread to go with the meat. When his stomach makes a growl, he swallows what he was chewing on entirely and chews on a bite of cheese more slowly. "The water? That does seem more likely. We were pretty close to our claim when we stopped to camp. This stream is probably safer. A hot pot of tea with these fixings would be fab."

If Delton has the means, he'll start boiling tea and ask for some sugar.

"We met a Sioux man up there, watching us. He seemed fine after we gave him some... Do you know an Indian named Tadoka?"

[Vardaen]

Colton lets out a loud laugh and slaps his knee half spitting out his food from his mouth. "Weeeel shit, that's the problem right there. That ol'huckster! You fell in with him? No wonder you thought my tea was funny. I ran a foul of him once, a year ago maybe. He's crazy, always talking about monsters and curses. He likes to drug up anyone that comes around, take them on a wild trip through the wilds, steal their valuables. You are lucky you still have you boots on! I once seen a married couple come running in so much fear from his little side show they were buck naked as the day they was born and didn't put their clothes back on for two months!!!" He just laughs and laughs. "You made out good."

He grabs the sugar, "You earned it."

[Hungry Xenomorph]

Jimmy is glad to be sitting down and getting some warm food in his stomach, he has been quiet for a while, brooding a bit over the O'Learys and their bullshit, he snaps back to reality after the comment about Tadoka, "I knew I should've killed him..." Jimmy pauses for a breath and hits the table for emphasis "that motherfucker!"

[ManWithDoor]

Tobias takes the offered sugar, enjoying the luxury out here in the rough wilds. He doesn't have the heart to add to Jimmy's invective. He had clung to the idea that he had been drugged, and that was the reason behind everything that had happened in the past day. But after the dire terrors that felt like an eternity to run from, he can't quite manage to crawl back into the protective lie that everything can be explained away by something so simple as a cup full of hallucinogens.

[RorytheRomulan]

Delton groans. "For Pete's sake. I'll add his name to the list." He stirs sugar into his tea. "I just can't shake off the omen, for lack of a better word, after I held that old mintage. Saddlesore must have seen it. Mavis too."

The Doc had only touched that coin. Even if it was laced with something, he didn't know of any drug that works that fast. The dreams at night could have come courtesy of the heat getting to him out during that day. But it affected Saddlesore, Jimmy, himself, and Mavis. His grip on his cup of hot tea shakes a little bit. Visions and haunted burial mounds got nothing on friggin' *goat-demons*.