The Journal of Cassandra Kane: Her Adventures in the Wild Wild West

Dime Novel: The Fall of Anubis

Real World Date: December 2007

Game World Date: August 1878

Episode Eight

August 8, 1878

Back in Freedom.Mr. Parker introduces us to a new man hired by Mr. Conking. Mr. Murphy O’Nine. He says he’s a bare-knuckled brawler from New York. Catherine is back at the house too.

August 9, 1878

Gabriel shows up at the house looking for me and Marguerite to meet with Mr. Fairfax. He’s back in town and has a map of a warehouse in Shan Fran that the cultist are using as a hideout. The Captain came with us. He talks to us about a plan to attack the cultist who because off the attacks between our two groups on them are looking to try and bring Anabas into this world. Even though their chances may be slim they still want to try and bring him. Their plan is to control him, but because the chances of success aren’t as good anymore they may end up bringing him in and he will have his own free will. Which means he’ll probably head for the “Lost Cave”He said that the cult has the warehouse protected from scrying and was wondering if Marguerite or Aieslyn have a way to break through the divinations and see what is there. The cultist have been able to protect against Fairfax’s scrying – but maybe they can defend us the ladies.They agree and make plans to have us go on a vision quest. Meanwhile Fairfax and his men will be attacking a train that has supplies that were to help the ritual.

Vision:

Flash: Green grass, a field. Union & Rebel soldiers fighting during the day. Then it’s night and they are fighting against the dead that rise at night.

Flash: The Lost Cave. Cleaned up and the old man with the white hair writing math calculations. See him next to a deck of cards.

Flash: The French Quarter in New Orleans. Black man with a hat and a cane and a nice suit walking down the street.

Flash: Standing in water. Men on horses wearing armor attacking men wearing in wode. (Roman Catholics fighting the Celts)

Flash: In a field, feeling warm, a bonfire. A black man all voodoo’d up walking around the bonfire.

Flash: Men in a room. With white wigs and uniforms and a logo (Mason’s)Flash: Darkness. Feeling like something in the darkness. All alone. Really scared.

Flash: James & Horatio – See them getting into a box like machine. A stagecoach of some sort. Horatio carrying a box with all difference runes on it.

Flash: Grimme’s room. He’s at a desk and the hems of his robes are blood covered and he is getting soaked on the robe. A black “thread” is connected from his neck going up into the sky.Aieslyn attacks the “thread” with her parasol. It doesn’t work. He then noticed us and it got ugly!!! He attacks her and kills her. Her soul goes into his hickory stick. Marguerite frenzy’s and just attacks Grimme. We attack him and can’t hurt him. Well I do, and then he tries to hit me and I let the magic wash over me. And then he talked to us saying we failed once again and then changed the vision.

Flash: In the woods, at dammed streambed. Raven shows up and lands near Aieslyn. He says his name in Jonathan and he was here to guide her. We ask if he can fix her and he says no. Our current test is to undam the river. Murphy tries and can’t. I figure out that maybe we should try to clear it out together. Which does work and then we follow the stream. Suddenly Aieslyn wakes up. She some how comes back to life. She said she was in Ireland. She said she saw the warehouse – a summoning circle with lots of men. Anubis comes through and starts laying waste to everyone.The landscape changes and it gets marshy, then bleak and dry and we see a black pyramid in the background. The dread kicks back in. We see a jackal headed man embalming a man on an altar. The man is the white haired old guy from the Lost Cave.I ask the “man” if he is Anubis – he says some call him that. He says we should leave because he is preparing the ritual. Stupidly he is asked about what is in the warehouse and what is in it. He says he can’t tell us unless someone offers themselves up willing. I don’t think it’s a good idea and a lot of the others don’t either but Marguerite offers her self up. She and Anubis disappear.

Flash: He reappears again and says what is in the warehouse is death, destruction and his army that will be brought into the world. And then he prepares to attack us.I blast him with my bolts. I hit him really well it stops him for a second, but then he shakes it off. Reggie shoots him too and then Catherine is able to finish him off. But then the dead old man’s eyes turn green and he says “foolish humans” and is about to attack us. I blast him and he goes down. But then Anubis gets back up. We take Anubis down again and the man gets back up. I cut off Anubis head and I feel deadly magics wash over me twice. Corman knocks down the old man and cuts off his head and then he dies.

Flash: Everything feels weird and swirly. Like going down a drain. Everything is dark and we could see what looks like puppeteer hands pulling strings.We wake up in the basement and Corman isn’t dead (but he has a tattoo on his arm). Marguerite is not there.We go wake up Mr. Parker and tell him what happened. Then we wait for Mr. Fairfax to get back from blowing up the train.

August 11, 1878

Fairfax returns and we tell him what happened. We immediately leave for Shan Fran.We head to Fort Lincoln first then end up on a boat.

August 17, 1878

Arrive in Shan Fran and try to gather Intel.Talk to Mr. Howe (our man in Shan Fran who we were at dinner with when he got attacked by Ninjas) he agrees to have his men keep anyone from interrupting us when the noise starts.Catherine’s contact gets us uniforms of chinamen delivery people.We start fighting all the cultist and jackal men. I bolt down the cultist doing the ritual but of course the ritual had already finished. Anubis comes through and he has a shiny orb in his hand which emits a light and all the dead get up and start attacking again. Murphy O’Nine is scared he said “that is some…he used two very bad words..there”.Reggie shoots at the amulet on Anubis neck destroying it. We all feel a little more lucky. The rest of his bullets bounce off him. Mr. Parker bolts him and his magic can’t get through.Aieslyn starts dancing around and closes down the portal that Anubis came through. Anubis starts charging toward Fairfax’s men. He realizes that his men aren’t with him and he gets angry. Charges through the “leather duster” brigade and busts out of the warehouse heading for the “Lost Cave” – we assume. But it’s 7 days away and we have no way to get there fast enough. He doesn’t have to sleep.I hunch the clock that we saw sitting on the altar in the middle of the summoning circle. It’s one of the items from the Cave.Hunch: I see the old man writing a formula in the air and changing the clock to 9:12 while holding the Hoyle book. He then opens the cave door and walks into a nice room with a desk and two American flags on the wall (the oval office). This formula is now in my head.I hunch the amulet that Anubis wore: I see another formula in hieroglyphs that I think used with Aieslyn’s magic can close the portal and cut his connection. I also see Marguerite. Can’t tell where she is, only that she’s trapped and still connected to him.Reggie goes off and sends a telegram to his men.I tell everyone and have them go get supplies. Fairfax sends some of his men ahead to warn people about Anubis. The rest of his men that survived, the Captain’s men, and the rest of us walk through the door after I write the formula in the air and use the clock and book. The door of the warehouse opens into the Cave and we walk through. Once we get there I close the door and when I reopen it I see the outside of the Cave. But I can’t remember the formula anymore.

August 18-24, 1878

Then I write down the hieroglyphs for Aieslyn to use to shut down the portal. It’s a four-day ritual that Parker, Gabriel, Jebediah, Aieslyn and I take turns doing for 4 days straight.

August 25, 1878

Agents show up and say that Anubis is coming and that they’ve managed to slow him a day by dropping a mountain on him. Aieslyn starts up the last ritual while Anubis marches up. The Captain tries to parlay with him. Corman joins Anubis’ side (cause off the mark on his wrist).Murphy grabs Anubis and puts him in a headlock. Aieslyn walks up to Anubis and dispel the rest of the chain on him, there’s a flash of light and Marguerites unconscious body appears next Anubis. He is still able to call his dust jackals to help – that the Van Helsing’s brigade and the Captain’s men take on those guys. I hit Anubis with several bolts before he finally dies; along with Murphy’s noogies (he bit him on the ear).After the battle is over. Reggie knocks Corman out for 4 hours just to make sure he’s still not dominated. The tattoo is gone.

The Journal of Cassandra Kane: Her Adventures in the Wild Wild West

Dime Novel: Hellstromme Strikes Back

Real World Date: October 2007

Game World Date: August 1878

Episode Seven

August 3, 1878

- continued Took the body to autopsy wound in his head only one that would not heal. (We didn’t make that wound) on the table he “ghosted” through the table and floor and out of the building.We then met up with Nevada to tell him.Salt Lake City Grand – we are going to stay there until Nevada meets up with us tomorrow. Talk to Red at the front desk.Andrew Land is head of Agency (MIB) and has taken files on people.

August 4, 1878

Arnold Nash (MIB / US Marshall) tells us that Lane turned himself in to Nevada seems to be his old self.Mr. Nash wants to interview us about the ordeal.Go see Mr. Smith.Corman runs into 3 guys from his regiment.Bragan Sheiligh – Aislynn Father.Chinaman show up and attack us. (Me & Corman) in a bar fight. We find a $300 bank note signed by Monica Haynes as a bounty for me. I let the last Chinamen go.Meet with Mr. Smith and ask about Lane situation. He was assassinated 13 years ago. He’s Harrowed.Leave town to go into Salt Flats to help Corman’s men. They were getting attacked by guys outside of town.We get attacked by 6 automatons outside the city. Many of the Captain’s men are killed and one of Corman’s. We destroy them all but they explode when disabled.

The Journal of Cassandra Kane: Her Adventures in the Wild Wild West

Dime Novel: The Adventure of the Walking Ghost

Real World Date: September 2007

Game World Date: July 1878

Episode 6

July 16-25, 1878

Back in Freedom – The Lt. goes to Sacramento and comes back a Captain.Mr. Parker shows up with some lady: Catherine Blake. Aieslyn is not happy – neither is Corman.She’s British and says she studied with dot Injuns and can brawl and says she is good with lots of weapons. But she doesn’t know how to use a tomahawk! She also says that Congressman Conkling is her Uncle.Harrison says there are wanted posters of us in Lost Angels. $500 for us, $2000 for Miss Marguerite. Grimme wants us all dead except for Marguerite.Mr. Parker has a mission for us in Gomorra. Northern Operatives have been captured. Gomorra is a Ghost Rock mine town. North & South share this town.Our contact is Cort Williams we’ll meet him at the Red Hill Hotel. He’s a new friend of Reggie’s (I think Reggie’s a Pinkerton)Taking a train from Lincoln to Gomorra. Lincoln is still being built up.Corman gets his new mechanical hand. Miss Aiselynn is not happy.

July 25, 1878

Riding on the train asleep I feel magic try and attack me.We got attacked on the train by Grimme’s men…well woman and some blood zombies. The woman was after Marguerite and she talked to her. Everyone else got bloody zombies and I got magicked. We destroyed the zombies but the lady got away. Magicked away.

July 26, 1878

Get off train at Gomorra and it’s full of giant caters and burnt buildings.One of the buildings that got hit was the Collegiums (Smith & Robards competitor)Hunch: The other crater was the Whatley estate. Family of Magic users – it’s in their blood. 11 people died fighting the demon (black demon with yellow eyes) Old Lady (Matriarch) died. Painful death.Charlie Landers – Bartender in Saloon. He said Nichodemus Whatley attacked Cort Williams.Andrew Lane – Missing person – Head of US Marshals.Hunch: Blank – can’t pierce.Demon attacked town 2 weeks ago. Mr. Lane missing 4 days ago when US Marshals attacked.Marguerite got a vision using Andrew’s blood. Sees him incapacitated but still alive then vision cut off.5 days ago Lane sent a telegram – before he went missing.Shenkar Mohammad in Sacramento & Virgil Constance in Virginia City (US Marshals)Urgent stop transport of grandpa’s gift. Will arrive in Sacramento or Virginia City to reclaim the package.

July 27, 1878

Get on Train to Fort Lincoln then to Sacramento – Embarcadero

July 29, 1878

Rat District – Brimmerton Hotel.Help out in a building that’s collapsed. Help clear rubble to save people.Written in Persian on top of the door or Mohammed’s place:“The Real truth of existence is sealed ????Many twists and turns of the road.”2 cameras facing a mirror – we mess with them and Gremlins show up.Find Shenkar Mohammed eviscerated.

Hunch: Saw blond woman (Nun) – not the same woman as attacked us on train & man in shadows eviscerates Shenkar. Onto Virginia City.

July 30, 1878

Virginia City, Nevada

Get to Virgil Constance’s house. Whatelys are there to set up for an ambush. I magic the two Whatleys & everyone else takes the others across the street.Two dead Pinkertons in the house and man with cross found in kitchen. Virgil Constance – the Nun & Lane attacked him (Lane is possessed)The Capt. & Reggie shoot all the people even after they surrendered. I don’t know what to do about them; I need to make them not be so mean and nasty.Pulls out letter & points to crucifix “Beware of this” he points to the crucifix.

July 31, 1878

Taking a train to Salt Lake.

August 2, 1878

Train stops. There’s a train on the tracks – the engine’s gone. Zombies are attacking the train. A blond lady Nun (Regina) is there and we kill her. She had a dime store novel on her. One of Nevada Smith’s tales. The authors name is circled “I.M Hymm. Looks like she was going to find him.

August 3, 1878

Salt Lake – Meet Mr. IM Hymm and talk to him about Andrew Lane & Grimme & Nun. He said he will set up meeting with us to meet Mr. Smith.Lane was sent to meet with Nevada (who he employs occasionally). Set up a meeting with the Union Army and the leaders of Salt Lake. Probably to kill them now.Make a plan with Mr. Smith to get Lane (captured) while Nevada leads off people he is going to meet.Fought Lane on steel tree next to Rat Hole. We shot him down and he got back up ghosted up and we shot him down again. The Marguerite ripped the crucifix that was burned into his flesh off of him.He didn’t get up but he’s not “alive” though Aieslyn could heal his body.Corman crushed the crucifix with his new hand and inside there was a splinter of wood which radiated evil. He was able to crush that too. The Nun lady Regina had the same crucifix which we destroyed too.

The Journal of Cassandra Kane: Her Adventures in the Wild Wild West

Dime Novel: The Lost Cave

Real World Date: July 2007

Game World Date: July 1878

Episode Five

July 1, 1878

Aieslyn, Marguerite, and Reggie researched with Mr. Thomas about the chalice and about Henry Johnson’s journal in the Library in Progress. James tells us about mundane items or power. He knows about 40 of them. So he’s not too upset about us taking the chalice – which supposedly can bring some one back to life, or heal wounds, or get rid of scars. But if someone drinks from it they fall asleep.Mr. Parker & Captain Miller (who we haven’t seen since we last saw Mr. Conkling) show up in Progress.I tell Mr. Thomas we’re leaving and tell him that he send us a telegram in Freedom if he wants to talk to us. He says that we can contact him in Progress.Capt. Miller has a mission for us from Mr. Conkling about Reverend Grimme. He wants us to stop one of Grimme’s operations. He is trying to locate some items.Capt. Miller takes the Lt, Corman, and some of the Lt’s men with him on ahead to scout. The rest of us along with some of the Lt’s men take a different path.The middle of the night Zombie Henry Johnson shows up looking for the chalice aiming right towards Aieslyn. I guess he can tell that she’s the one holding it. After we shoot him all up she gave it to me to hold. Figure it’s not that good to get our healer getting attacked.

July 2, 1878

Nothin’ much happens.

July 3, 1878

We hear gunshots in the distance. Found a bunch of Injuns chasing after Mr. James & Mr. Gates. Mr. Gates gets hurt real bad but Aieslyn was able to fix him. We save them from the Injuns. Mr. Thomas said they were checking out a potential dig site which was on Injun land. Mr. Parker says they can come along with us. Though it does look Mr. Parker is kinda sweet on Aieslyn.

July 4, 1878

Scouts see a group of Confederate soldiers muckin’ about. We avoid them.

July 5, 1878

Attacked in the middle of the night by a bunch of stuff. Cultist, Anubis demons (those guys we came across in the mountains a few months back). There were a whole bunch of them. I don’t know how they found or followed or snuck up on us. But it was a crazy amount of them. If it wasn’t for Reggie and his dynamite and his lucky I’m certain we would have had a lot more deaths on our hands. As it was I got swiped twice by one of those demons and it hurt! I managed to use my Hex to blow a hole right through him. I had to take on the last one not blown up by the dynamite too. I was damn lucky with my second Hex too.After the carnage and the healing we looked around and found the body of James. It was so sad. He was one of Mr. Fairfax’s men. He was dead and in chains and it looked like he’d be dragged along by the cultists. I’d forgot that the last letter I had gotten from Mr. Fairfax was him telling me that he was looking for those cultists. I hope the rest of them are okay. We buried his body and took a cross of it to give to Mr. Fairfax.He must have been a prisoner.

July 6, 1878

We find a cave entrance. This might be what we’re looking for. We find a room inside the cave, door, furniture, all done up. Dusty and dirty like anyone hasn’t’ been there for along time. There’s a big ritual circle on the floor in the middle of the room.

HUNCH: I see my Hoyle book.The room that started it all.And old man – his face is blurry. He’s working on a ritual, but he’s writing the runes in the air and they are staying there.I can see around his room, I see the chalice, I also see a bunch of things that are on the list Mr. Thomas gave us of mundane items, the musket, pencil, some books.Then he’s working on the ritual. And the place shakes. It looks like the room rips apart, then there’s a bright white light.I see my book, a skeleton key, and the door.

After playing around and trying different things I figure that holding my book while opening the door (once everyone’s on the outside of it) opens up into a nicer cleaner version of the room. The fireplace is burning and everything looks clean. We find a coat in the closet (that wasn’t there when the room looked dirty). The Lt’s men were looking for us because once we leave the room he said he could see into the room and it was dirty and empty. We also figured out everything in the room is an item (not the furniture) and that it can be stored in the clean room. But we collect it all for Mr. Parker to take. I’m thinking it was this guy’s ritual that started all the magical stuff going in the world.

July 11, 1878

We make it back to Progress. Mr. Thomas & Gates say their farewells. I send a telegram to Mr. Fairfax, and we charter a boat home.

July 15, 1878

Lincoln

July 16, 1878

Freedom – Mr. Parker lets Aieslyn hang on to the occult books from the room only for some time. He said he’ll wait and send them back in the second batch. It looks like Mr. Parker wants to ask me about handing over my book. But he doesn’t.He can’t have it anyway. It was gift from Mr. Fairfax.

The Journal of Cassandra Kane: Her Adventures in the Wild Wild West

Dime Novel: The Battle of Five Armies

Real World Date: April 2007

Game World Date: June 1878

Episode Four

June 13, 1878

We arrive back in Fort Lincoln after the whole Grimme thing.

Corman is not a good a mood about how we got back on the boat. Geez, you’d think he’d be happier if he ended up dead. Or stayed dead in his case since he’s pretty insistent that he was dead dead.

Reggie took off the second we hit land.

Back in Freedom with give Mr. Parker the report on the happenings with the invention and our slight altercation with Reverend Grimme.

Mr. Parkers says to stay away from Reverend Grimme directly but we could attack his (evil) missionaries.

But he doesn’t have a new mission for us yet.

I’m sending a letter & telegram to Mr. Fairfax.

Reggie shows back up all cleaned up and with a brand new outfit!

The Lieutenant says he got some orders from his commanding officer. He needs to find out why Mexican troops are marching around California.

So after a couple of days rest we’re gonna head out to Progress. A town in the maze.

June 18, 1878

Corman’s really mean. He knew what Progress would be like and didn’t tell us. He knew it would make Aieslynn unhappy being in a town full of Ghost Rock inventions and he wanted to laugh at her.

Except for Aieslynn being unhappy it’s really a neat place. It’s full of Scientists and their amazin’ inventions. This giant lift thing could take you up the side of the cliff. I walked up all the stairs with Aieslynn to keep her company.

A guy was flying around with a pack of some kind. He didn’t get far before he fell.

I meet a Mr. Jeffery Sampson – who made a bullet proof vest. Cost about $1800 though.

We didn’t spend much time in town as it was making Miss Aieslynn nervous and cranky so we headed out looking for the Mexicans. We heard they were looking for Pirates, and that the Pirates were looking for something on the Coast.

Corman hates Mexicans.

June 19, 1878

Headed further South by horse and found the battlefield wither the Mexicans and Pirates fought a few weeks back (May 5^th Tombstone). Big bloody field, but no bodies.

I “saw” the battle.

We decided to head further in from the Coast –maybe we could find what everyone was looking for.

One point during Miss Marguerite’s nightly “activities” she got accosted by 5 Guardian Angels. She did a good job of fending them off by herself. Some of the Lt’s men helped finish them off. Guess I gotta make sure to follow her when she wanders off. Told her it wasn’t safe.

June 20, 1878

Passed by a group of Confederate soldiers looking for any remnants of the Mexicans. Reggie, Corman, and the Lt get all tetchy. But luckily no gun fighting ensues.

We came up on a campfire and met a Mr. James Thomas and his friend Horatio Gates. Mr. Thomas is some sort of professor archeologist type. He’s gonna write a paper about the thing he’s looking for. He really didn’t want to tell us – guess he thought we’d steal his idea for a paper.

He did say he saw the Mexicans ride by a couple of days ago.

We finally convince him to tell us what he’s looking for. He says it a chalice and he just looking for it for academic curiosity. That it’s own by someone in Progress named Henry Johnson but it hasn’t been seen in a while. He thinks it’s in the mountains close by.

He seems nice but a little wary of our group.

We keep going to see if we can catch up with the Mexican army.

Corman goes to scout their encampment and says there’s 5 HUGE tends that smell of Death.

Yay. More Zombies.

We decide to plan an ambush on a patrol and capture one alive to find out what he knows. Our captive says that they have bodies from the battlefields and ones that they brought off the boats. And f15 bad magic men are doing something with all the undead. Making the army look bigger than is is my guess.

Then in the middle of the night we see them start to break camp and moving to the East. We figured we’ll try to get ahead of them (we also see lights from another camp nearby) and we’ll go check out the other camp.

But then we hear Horses behind us and it’s James & Horatio – they stop and talk to us and Mr. Thomas says he just cracked the last clue and figured out where the chalice is, so we head of with him to find it. Not surprisingly the Mexican army is moving into the foothills of the mountain – just where Mr. Thomas figured the chalice might be.

We arrive ahead of the army and the Lt’s men keep watch to let us know how close they are getting.

We find a cave in the side of the mountain and follow it. The path leads into bunches of rooms and Miss Marguerite takes down all the magic in each of the room before we go into it. Don’t know what it might have done but it couldn’t have been good.

The last room has a guy (dead guy) in a chair with 2 cylinders in his hands. Not surprising he gets up to attack us, but we take him down right quick – before he can even attack us. Reggie takes the gun shaped cylinder things.

We find the chalice buried in a box in the ground under his chair.

After that we try to get a move on but one of the Lt’s men finds us and says that the Mexican Army and the Confederate Army have met up and are fighting. And the battlefield is right outside the cave entrance.

So before you know it (with plans for Mr. Thomas to get away with the chalice if need be, meeting up with us in Progress) we fight on the Grey coats side. They really aren’t paying attention to us. I’m sure the Lt was right cranky about fighting with them, but it’s more like fighting against the Mexican mostly zombie army lead by Santa Ana.

We figured we’d fight our way through enemy lines and just keep going and get the heck out of there. Ooh and by the way it was night time and raining and all dramatic!

It’s pretty tough as we were making our way through and Miss Marguerite was throwing off her stunnin’ spells. And most of us were just shooting at anything in front of us so we can ride the horses hard by.

Then the lightening started! Suddenly more undead are surrounding us but there wearing closer to the Union outfits but in black. More of the those undead 51^st infantry guys that have been following Corman around. Then we hear something unearthly yell “Cooooorrrrmannnnnn!”

And it’s that Colonel Blackstone fella (that Corman hates – and who apparently hates him too). He tells us his evil plan that he wants the chalice so it could bind him to this mortal coil and that killing Corman is just a perk!”

Reggie then shoots him out of existence in a flurry of bullets!!! We think were in the clear for about a minute when… more lightening and he comes back!

This time Mr. Thomas hexes him right out of existence before he can do anything. We keep waiting for him to come back I’m thinking that maybe on Corman killing him deader will keep him away. But I guess he must have run out of time cause he didn’t come back this time.

Course now we’ve stopped moving in the middle of battle and it’s harder to get the horses going again as were surrounded by 2 types of undead (luckily some are fighting each other), Mexican’s and our allies the Confederacy.

THEN we hear this noise and look up and see a guy in a Derby (I think THE guy in the Derby) flying up to us in that Ornathopter thingy and firing at the undead and Mexicans and trying to give us a clear path through. Suffice it to say Aieslynn is confused. The ‘feds are cheering us (heck they think the Lt is a hero!!) and we finally fight our way through the battle.

We almost made it out, really hurt but alive, when some of Santa Ana’s spell slingers hit us with a blast of fire. One of the Lt’s soldiers.. sitting right in front of me on my horse was killed. I didn’t even know until finally got through. Aieslynn was just this side of dying herself. Up until then she’d been really lucky. Marguerite managed to pull her through – it was close though.

June 24, 1878

We’re gonna rest up in Progress here for a few days. Aieslynn can’t complain too much as she needs the rest. Plus between the chalice and some papers they found in the closed down library in town she, Reggie, Marguerite, and Mr. Thomas are doing a bunch of research.

Heck we even found out after we finally checked the wallet Reggie pulled off the dead guy in the cave that he was Henry Johnson – the previous owner of the chalice. Looking through some back issues of the paper they found out he was supposedly killed in 1873 and stabbed in his home by Mr. Rufus McKnight who took his stash and hide the chalice.

Don’t know what happened to Mr. McKnight though or why Mr. Johnson’s body was all zombied in the cave. I’m sure they’ll figure it out.

I’m gonna see if Mr. Thomas will come to Freedom with us to meet Mr. Parker.

The Journal of Cassandra Kane: Her Adventures in the Wild Wild West

Dime Novel: A Pinch of Salt

Real World Date: March 2007

Game World Date: May 1878

Season One, Episode Three

May 21, 1878

Mr. Parker wants us to find another missing friend of Mr. Conkling & Mr. McClennan – Nikolas Klauber. An inventor who was working on a project to solve the food shortage.

Last known whereabouts was Lynchberg two weeks ago (A mining town)

Got paid! A whole $100!!!!

Need to ride to Fort Lincoln to get boat to Lynchberg (In maze)

In Lincoln men (soldiers) talk in whispers about the Lieutenant. They say he killed a group of Confederate soldiers in cold blood who had surrendered. Not sure I believe that – I’ll keep an eye on him.

Captain Jamison – We take a Schooner to Lynchberg 2-day boat ride.

May 23, 1878

On the boat ride I see a man in a derby with long hair and brown coat staring at us. Corman goes up and talks to him.

May 24, 1878

Arrive in Lynchberg. Getting off boat we see two men walking an angry woman down to the docks. Politely but firmly walk her down as she complained about the sinning (A temperance woman?) She said that her name is Caroline and she was trying to save all the sinners.

She said that they found some man dead early this morning at Mariposa Lil’s Saloon.

We meet Mariposa who said (as I guessed) that the dead man is Nikolas Klauber and if we could find out what happened because the death is hurting her business.

Room is the scene of a grizzly death. Torn apart body in the room but no gear.

Hunch:

A hand throws some bones onto the ground. The zombies (2) were pulling Klauber apart as a 3rd one shoved a gag in his mouth. The zombies were dripping with blood.

Talk to Mariposa and she says that he mainly talked to H.G. Kent (assayer & owner of the general store) and Naley Jack Jr. (blacksmith). A drunk named Jessie mentioned how his friend named Andy hates Germans.

Aeislynn & Corman go talk to Mr. Kent (since Corman says he knows him). Reggie goes to talk to Andy. Marguerite, the Lieutenant and I go to the blacksmith.

Blacksmith:

Said that Klauber wanted him to help make an invention. Said nothing had been agreed on. Also mentioned an Injun named Red Cloud gave Klauber “evil eye” looks about using Ghost Rock.

H.G. Kent

Gives Aieslynn & Corman a business card for Klauber (7 A Kingwen Street, Shan Fran) Says Klauber was trying to make an invention that changes salt water into fresh water.

Aieslynn & I go to talk to Red Cloud. Corman wants to wait until morning but I tell him that Red Cloud will be gone by morning. He still wants to wait. So Aieslynn & I go find him. He doesn’t know anything about death or who could make zombies.

Derby guy follows us but doesn’t interfere.

May 25, 1878

Next morning when Corman goes to find Red Cloud he’s is gone. Corman throws me in the water cuz of spite because I’m always right.

Hunch: On a letter that Marguerite found in Klauber’s room:

See a handwriting on paper in English, German, and Chinese. The paper rips and zombies. A waterfall of blood.

Finally decide to head to Shan Fan. Get back on boat.

May 26, 1878

Arrive in Shan Fran. Go to Klauber’s:

7A Kingwen Street. It’s a hotel “8 Immortal Hotel”.

A note to Aieslynn from Y.F. is waiting for us at the hotel. “Hope this helps”. Looks like it was Klauber notes. In the notes he mention “Harmon”

The Lieutenant meets a man called Ling Lou who takes us to meet Mr. Hou at the Jade Pavilion. Hou owns “8 Immortal Hotel” and set him up in a hotel. Mr. Hou is another backer of Klauber. Says Klauber had another contact in Los Angeles Mr. Harmond Kelly.

Klauber and two bodyguards were attacked by “bloody zombies”. The two bodyguards were killed but he escaped. Three weeks ago at hotel. Left after that.

Having dinner in the Jade Pavilion with Mr. Hou. Me, Marguerite, and Corman see Caroline (back from Lynchberg) come down the stairs. She looks surprised to see to see us. She tried to hide it but then a whole bunch of Chinamen (possible triad) bust into the restaurant. We quickly kill 4 guys. Then Caroline shoots one of the chinamen and jumps out the window. The rest of the men turn and run off. I don’t know if she’s working with them or just bad/good timing on their part.

We talk to Master Hou who says she’s a tenant who preaches the bible. We search her room and find a picture of her in a nun’s habit. Some plans for the city of Lost Angels and burned plans that we think are of Klauber’s invention.

Reggie and the Lieutenant go off to see if anyone knows the woman. Corman stakes out across the street. Marguerite stays in Caroline’s room and Aieslynn & I take the next room down to wait and see if she comes back.

About an hour later we hear gunfire from the street and I go check it out. Through the window downstairs I see Reggie bleeding almost dead on the ground surrounded by thugs who are pointing guns at the Lieutenant and his man. I use my cards to get them off him and then gunfire starts back up. Turns out there were more guys pointing guns at them from down the street. Don’t know if I would have risked their lives if I could’ve seen those guys. By the time we’re done 12 men are dead – various different thugs, Chinamen, white, etc.

One of the Lieutenant’s men (the rest were out patrolling the docks) said that word was Caroline had hopped a boat to Lost Angels. So after spending only 8 hours in Shan Fran we got back on our boat to follow her.

May 26-39, 1878

Boat ride to Lost Angels.

May 30, 1878 Thursday

As soon as we dock Marguerite says that she can sense that an artifact (she doesn’t know what though) that’s her family is here. In the center of the city. And it’s not supposed to be here.

We ended up only 3 hours behind her boat. We can hear the church bells ringing and there must be some special service today. In the giant cathedral Reverend Grime “summons” food for the people. It’s a pretty bad con – lots of misdirection and it’s easy to fool folks. Corman and I eat some of the food while the others check out the church – as best they can that is.

Marguerite really wants to find that artifact – but I try to talk her out of it. There’s no way we can storm around this church looking for that thing and survive. We’d get killed. We’d need something like a Divine Intervention to make it out of the heart of the city alive doing something like that. (That’s what all the books say.)

Later – I go with the Lieutenant and his mentor, a Priest, to find out about Reverend Grimme. Caroline is one of Grimme’s elders – an original member he brought with him.

Marguerite, Corman, Reggie & Aeislynn find Mr. Harmon Kelly and while talking to him there’s an attempt on his life. So he come clean and said he had a proto-type on an island 2 hours way from Lost Angles.

We get to the island and start packing in on board when we see bones get thrown and 7 blood zombies formed. Then Caroline DeCarlo walks in and spills her guts (tell me your evil plan!!) to us.

She said that the Reverend ordered us killed & the device destroyed in order to keep famine in the land.

Then make the South rise again in the desolate land and to control the populace with hunger. “So we will control this land and these people who are sheep so when we are hungry we will eat them and they are fools and already eat flesh.”

I gotta say I felt a bit sick at that point!

On the shore we can hear the Lieutenant’s men shooting at something. They were attacking more blood zombies. Guardian Angels (Grimme’s soldiers) from Lost Angels showed up looking for the traitor and helped the Lieutenant’s men. They said that Reverend Grimme had sent them to find her and to thank us for stopping her. He said he would give us a blessing.

We figure we should go back and see the Reverend to find out with this is all about. See if we could find out more about him. We’re damn certain that he lied about wanting her killed and us rescued. But we want to keep Mr. Kelly and the device safe so him with the Lt’s men for protection back to Fort Lincoln. We figure we’ll either be attacked back at Lost Angels or we’ll just catch another boat home.

We meet the Reverend in his private chambers. He thanks us and says that a friend of Caroline’s, named Maria, betrayed her and he’ll be interrogating her.

He then hands me a small chest filled with $500 in gold.

I can’t help but use my hunch on him.

Hunch: Grimme’s story

After the Great Quake I see Grimme, Caroline, and a bunch of people walking through the wasteland. People starving. No food. They turn to cannibalism. But Grimme refuses. He doesn’t eat. He dies. The people eat him. He comes back to life. Leads people. He summons monsters with his chanting – at sermons – and then he fights them off. His followers increase. He creates the city of Lost Angels. VERY BAD MAN.

I guess Grimme figures out what I did because he then stood back and summons two demons. They, the Reverend, one of the Guardian Angels in the room attack us. The other Guardian Angel in the room must have felt bad for us because he started attacking the Demons. Marguerite runs out of the room looking for her family’s artifact – she keeps saying she felt the pull. The rest of us try and fight. We can’t hurt the demons at all. Reggie & Corman are cut down. I can’t seem to move. The Reverend keeps trying to hit me with his staff. But the magic washes over me harmlessly.

Then, as if it couldn’t get any stranger – a giant snake slides out of the back room. It looks at all of us. I felt my vision go dark and then when I could see again I was on the boat with Mr. Kelly and the Lieutenant’s men. All of us were.

See!!! Divine intervention!!! Just like I said!!

The Journal of Cassandra Kane: Her Adventures in the Wild Wild West

Dime Novel: The Ship in the Sand

Real World Date: February 2007

Game World Date: May 1878

Episode Two

April 26, 1878

Billings, Montana
Train station

Talked to Mr. Parker – he said we done good. He wants to send us to California to work in the Great Maze.

He said there is a house in the town of Freedom that we could use as a base of operations. Mr. Parker said he would be joining us in Freedom.

Mr. Parker also introduced to new hire of Mr. Conklin’s a Lieutenant Gabriel William Seymour Harrison III.

The Lieutenant is the new member of our gang. Well actually he and his men joined us. He’s a solider but none of them were wearing uniforms – he must be part of some “covert operation” or so says Corman – he knows a lot of stuff about soldierin’. Corman gets along well with the Lieutenant cuz of all the soldierin’ stuff. But the Lieutenant is a lot friendlier than Corman. Must be cuz he’s not as old. The Lt. Likes hearing about all the stuff I’ve learned in my books. He’s smart, must be why he’s in charge of his own command. He even taught me how to chew tobacco.. though I don’t think that’s for me. It didn’t settle well with my stomach and I didn’t even swallow it. Not sure I’ll be tryin’ that again.

We spent 12 days on the train first on Union Blue then taking a transfer to Wasatch to Virginia City, Nevada.

I wanted to ride out to Freedom but everyone else felt it wasn’t safe and that we should take the train.


May 8-12, 1878 Wednesday

Getting off at Virginia City was a five-day travel by horse to Freedom, CA.

Travelin’ by horse Aiselynn hears chantin’ and Corman realizes that there may be others out there. After convincing Corman and Reggie we should check it out we followed some tracks to a gulch. There were 8 men in robes around a bonfire chantin’. Looks like there were summonin’ something out of the fire. Once we started attacking the men 9 additionally men hiding in the brush around the hill popped out and started attacking us.

The Lt.’s and his men started shooting at the men in the hill, as did Corman & Mr. Parker. I shot 2 of them that jumped up at me. Until the demon jumped out of the fire and ran up the hill to attack Miss Marguerite cause she did some sort of voodoo spell to attack the demon. I jumped in between the attack used my cards to hit him with a blast of magic. Reggie tried to shoot the demon and couldn’t hurt it.

My bolts must have hit it somethin’ fierce because it stopped aiming for her and directed most of it’s attack on me. Though it did hurt her even though it’s effects washed right over me.

I managed to hit a few more times before my final blast using all my energy hit it full in the chest leaving a huge smokin’ hole through it. My magic worked on it better than it did on those damn zombies!!

The body of the demon eventually fell over and disappeared in a puff of smoke. Easy clean up that was.

Almost all of the robed men died too except for one guy that Miss Marguerite wanted to question. She was doing all right even though the demon had paralyzed her. She was lucky it could have been worse. Miss Aieslyn patched up all the hurt and everyone made it except two of the Lt’s men. We buried them on the hilltop. The robed men we burned in a bonfire. I thought we should give everyone a burial but the others insisted we just though the evil men in a bonfire.

Miss Marguerite questioned the survivor he said he was a worshipper of some Egyptian God (Anubus). I was busy helping with the bodies and seein’ if they had anything important on them – I did find 3 amulets that looked like that Egyptian stuff Miss Marguerite and Miss Aieslyn were talking about. Miss Marguerite took one. Someone ended up killing the lone survivor and we tossed him in with the rest of the evil men.

May 13, 1878

We got to our new home in Freedom. Mr. Conkling had bought us a house & barn for us to stay in. There wasn’t enough room for the Lt’s men so he for now is staying at the hotel with them.

Mr. Parker made an appointment for us to meet with a friend of Mr. Conkling’s who could use our help. A Mr. Sirus McClennan – an entrepreneur who owns a stagecoach service. We meet with him tomorrow. For now we explored some of our town and most of us even got some mail.

I even got some. Someone I don’t know named “C” gave me 1855 edition of the Hoyle card book. The letter said he hoped I’d like it and that he thought it would help me with my destiny! How exciting!!

May 14, 1878

Met Mr. McClennan at the Douglas Saloon.

Mr. McClennan is having problems with his stagecoach. He’s been using a horseless stagecoach to travel between Freedom & Hackensack. No driver as hit runs on a track. The stagecoach was an hour late and when it finally arrived the passengers were gone. It’s run on some sort of antennae.

Mr. Thomas O’Hare & his wife, a solider, and a reporter.

Mr. McClennan said right after that stagecoach showed up empty he didn’t book any more passengers on his coach and sent out men to see if they could find they missing folk.

Mr. McClennan tinkers with all sorts of inventions and crated a gun that shoots lightening. Aieslyn wanted nothing to do with it.

We followed the trail on horse and came across a tornado on the path. A non-moving twister. It looked like there was somethun inside the twister but couldn’t get a clear look.

Meanwhile some of us got the feelin’ we were being followed. Thought I saw a man on a horse pretty far away but whenever I looked back I couldn’t see him.

Corman & Reggie decided to go up on the nearest mountain range and get a better look at the guy on the horse. He said that the guy on the horse looked like a dead man. He was wearing the uniform of the 51st infantry which was the unit that Corman used to scout for back in the day. He said he retired because he didn’t like the commanding officer. Said he got a lot of men killed. But this dead man was aiming right for Corman. In a spectacular display of athletics and dexterity Corman jumped out at the dead man with his tomahawk and knocked him off his horse and loped his head off with one swing!!

It was pretty amazin’ to see.

After that excitement I took a better look at the twister. Remembering a trick I learned with the cards I got a vision of a weird looking building made of stone. When I described it Marguerite said it was an Aztec Temple, then I saw an old large boat (Spanish Galleon), a guy in a funny metal hat (Conquistador), and then a gold bowl and a statue that was holdin’ it. The bowl was full of blood.

I told the others what I saw; I’ve got to say everyone believed me right away, except for Corman. He’s always doubtin' my stories!

But we passed through the standing twister and the shape that I thought I saw from the outside was the boat from my vision. I don’t know how the heck it got out here miles and miles from the ocean. Add to the fact that the trail through here not a few days a go was clear. I’m thinkin’ the men that Mr. McClennan sent out when he was setting up the stagecoach path might have mentioned a boat.

We climbed inside the ship and had a look around. It was pretty creepy and dark and we heard something skittering in the dark. We climbed lower into the boat and were attacked by some small monkey things. Reggie scared them away with some well-aimed gunshot. In the bottom of the boat we ended up finding a tunnel that led underground. Like the boat was sitting on some abandoned mine or something. We didn’t get far into the tunnel when the Lt. got possessed by some spirit. Possible the captain of the boat I saw in my vision. He spoke a different language, Spanish I think, but what he said didn’t sound particularly pleasant. The little that Corman was able to make out was something about that we was going to kill us and take our hearts. The Lt. had his shotgun pointed right at Reggie, and I think Corman was gonna shoot the Lt. but somehow he was able to shake off the spirit and nobody got hurt. We had to tell the Lt. what he had said.

We found some zombies shambling around in the tunnels. Reggie’s been getting pretty good at killing them and so has Corman. It was pretty strange though. Coman yanked out his tomahawk and hacked into the zombies and then as soon as they feel over he grabbed his chest and fell over. Aieslyn went over to help him and was able to fix him up some. She said he had a heart attack and he was all pale like but alive thanks to her.

In one of the cul-de-sacs in the tunnel we found the Captain in what looked like a study. It had a desk and bookcase and such, but he was just as dead as any of the men. We killed him for good and found a map to the tunnels with a mark that made us think that maybe it was the idol I seen in my vision.

After taking down a couple more zombies we found the room with the idol in it. It was in the back corner of that cave and it had the golden bowl in its hand. Aisylnn tried to touch it and some magic started to shoot out towards her. It made me remember a story about an artifact that with a demon trapped inside of it. And the only way to defeat it was to make the demon come out of the idol so it can be killed. We just didn’t know how to get the demon out, so we just kept hitting the statue and we could feel that the demon was getting cranky. Finally it showed up and Marguerite started blessing some of our weapons and bullets so we could hurt it. It was getting pretty hairy, as it was pretty hard to hurt this thing.

Then an even weirder thing happened. A group of men in leather dusters just appeared inside the cave with us! One second they weren’t there and then the next moment they were between us and the demon. There was no other way for them to have gotten in the room. I didn’t know if those guys were there to help us or the demon until the started attacking it as well. One of them even pulled out a deck of cards!!

All of us together managed to finish the demon off. And then one of the men came up to us and introduced himself. He said his name was Charles Fairfax and that he was happy to finally meet me! Me – as in who knew exactly who I was! He introduced the rest of his men as well: Gabriel, Jebediah, William and Thomas.

They walked with us back to town and Mr. Fairfax said that we should tell the story of how we defeated this demon to people. That they needed to hear about heroes who fight against things that go bump in the night. He said he and his men would go back to town with us and we could all talk and trade stories.