Transcript:UnDeadwood Part II: God Don't Play Cards

(dramatic Western theme) BRIAN: Welcome back to UnDeadwood. When we left off, this raggedy group of five strangers crested a mountain. Some of you made it through a stampede with your horses intact. Others of you, not so lucky, but your new friends were there to help you. Upon getting up to the site you were set to investigate you found corpses, a snake-like snake pit, encountered some of these creatures, was knocked unconscious and told something by a powerful entity. On your way back to Deadwood, when you crested the hill, and the thoroughfare was in sight, you notice all the lanterns were on. You heard the familiar sound of crackling gunfire echoing up the hills. Your vision went dark again, and you heard, "Let's play the game." Then arcane energy flowed through your veins, your organs, your mind, giving you a sensation of newfound strength and power. Each of you now have the Huckster Trait. Bartender, would you like to tell them the ingredients? IVAN: To break it down simply, you have a deck of powers, which I have now placed on your table, and you may cast at anytime you wish. Simply pick a card, and decide how much of your soul you would like to bet against the dealer. At that time you will take that amount of points that you hope to cast, and you will bet a part of your soul against it. After that, the dealer will lay down a set of five cards, which will represent your hand. At that point, depending on what your set is, you'll either opt to keep it, or take one card to replace and redraw. With me so far? ALL: Mm-hmm. IVAN: Great. Now, should you earn enough points in your hand, in order for power to go off, your arcane magic will flow through you, and the spell will succeed. If it does not go off, because your hand is not good enough, then the dealer takes a part of your soul, and the GM will roll on a backfire table, and we'll see what happens. ANJALI: What could possibly go wrong? KHARY: Oh god. TRAVIS: I feel better already. MATT: Yeah, not too bad. MARISHA: I have the cards. BRIAN: So you folks are currently somewhere just above the cemetery, right outside the town of Deadwood. Who's riding in the front? Who wants to be in the front, currently? MATT: That'd probably be me. BRIAN: Probably be you? MATT: Yeah. BRIAN: Why don't you give me a notice check. MATT: Ah, that'd be a six. BRIAN: Wonderful, with your keen eyesight and you being out front by a few paces from the rest of the group, you can see just in front of the church right as you guys would get into town, you can see the familiar silhouette, of Sheriff Bullock, and he appears to be the last man standing in the middle of a gunfight. You can't see who he's shooting at, but you can see him continuously firing down the thoroughfare at something, and he's fastly reloading. You can't really see anyone on his flanks that's supporting him at this time. There's almost no townspeople that you can see that are out. All you can sort of see from that angle is Bullock standing in front of the church firing at unknown figures. MATT: Well, I'll probably use this as notification to both them, and I'm going to shout toward Bullock. Sheriff, need any help? BRIAN: He turns around and it sounds like someone was yelling at him, but but he can't tell. He's too enamored in what he's doing. MARISHA: Did you just distract a man in the middle of a gunfight? (laughter) TRAVIS: I think we should go down there and help him. ANJALI: I think so, too, after what we just saw. KHARY: It could be anything. MATT: I'm going to go ahead ride up, and jump, as carefully but quickly off the horse as I can, and go see if I can carefully announce my presence to Bullock so as to not get shot upon approach. BRIAN: I understand. MATT: Y'all coming with? TRAVIS: Yep. KHARY: I say we ride up behind this-- ANJALI: Yeah, I was going to say somewhere with cover. KHARY: This church and see if we can ascertain the situation. ANJALI: Agreed. BRIAN: Okay, there's definitely hitching posts, stuff back there all over the place, so you guys hitch up the horses. They are a little jumpy because of the gunfire, but if you tie them up well enough, they should be fine. As you guys make your way slowly around the church to see what's happening, I need everyone to roll his stealth check, please. TRAVIS: Whew. ANJALI: I hate checks. BRIAN: But they're fun when you succeed. TRAVIS: That doesn't happen so much for us right now. BRIAN: It's fun for me when you don't. MARISHA: Ooh, six. BRIAN: Wonderful. MARISHA: Exploding it out. Another six! KHARY: Ooh, six! MARISHA: Another six! ANJALI: Woo! BRIAN: You're? MARISHA: 21. BRIAN: Okay. TRAVIS: Damn. MARISHA: Yes. BRIAN: Awesome. KHARY: I rolled a six, rolling another one. Another six. TRAVIS: Keep going. BRIAN: Awesome. KHARY: Another six! BRIAN: Great. TRAVIS: Keep going. ANJALI: Keep going, keep going. KHARY: Five. BRIAN: Wonderful. Okay. MARISHA: Dang. TRAVIS: That's dope. What is that, 23? ANJALI: 23. BRIAN: Yeah. ANJALI: I'm 25. TRAVIS: Double ones. BRIAN: Double ones. ANJALI: Really? TRAVIS: Yep. MATT: Got a two. BRIAN: You got a two? TRAVIS: Maybe I should re-roll one of them sons of bitches. BRIAN: That's up to you. TRAVIS: I'll roll a chip, or I'll spend a chip to re-roll. So do I just reroll the stealth die, or the wild card also? BRIAN: Reroll the both. TRAVIS: Actually red, and I'll add a 1d6 result, but the Marshal draws a chip also. Yeah, now it's a six. BRIAN: Okay, Marshal draws a chip, and did we get yours already? MATT: It was two, but if we're trying to all get in there, I don't know the one sore thumb in this. I'm going to go ahead and reroll as well. TRAVIS: I just feel like double ones'll fuck us up. MATT: Better. Six, 11. BRIAN: Okay, wonderful. ANJALI: Ooh, that's much better. BRIAN: As you guys file your way around the building, if you guys want to come for both sides, or one side, or whatever, you let me know. MATT: I'll come around this side, and as opposed to being next to the church, head to the very corner of this building towards the front, to look out on the side, down the thoroughfare. BRIAN: You want to peer around the corner of the Gem Saloon. MATT: Correct. BRIAN: Okay, wonderful. MARISHA: Can I actually crawl through the back window of the church, and come up here? BRIAN: You can, I would like you to make an athletics check because that church is severely damaged and the wood inside is compromised. MARISHA: Ah, three. BRIAN: Okay, as you're making your way through the bottom floor of the church, you are trying to round the area that looked like there was an explosion when you had examined the church from that side earlier, and as you're walking through it, your foot gets stuck in something. You lift up your foot, and it's a tarry type black substance, not too sticky, but a little bit sticky, and it's got some texture to it. As you're walking, you dip into it. You look at your foot, and you're able to wipe it off for the most part on a drier piece of the wood, but other than that, you make it through without falling through the floor and dying. MARISHA: Okay. BRIAN: You're now inside, in the corner there. Do you want to move a little bit further to get up closer, or do you want to stay where you're at? MARISHA: Yeah, I want to get up closer and peek with my dope-ass stealth roll. BRIAN: Do you want to peek through that front window there? MARISHA: Yes. BRIAN: Okay, great, Miriam. ANJALI: Can we safely get to this under the stairs area? BRIAN: Absolutely. ANJALI: Is there enough-- BRIAN: There's enough coverage there to block every other bullet, if it came towards you. ANJALI: I want to block every bullet, so let me, I'm going to follow Arabella. BRIAN: Okay, go ahead and make an athletics role for me to walk through the church. ANJALI: One. BRIAN: And your wild die, roll the die, your wild die. ANJALI: I always forget that. BRIAN: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's okay. ANJALI: It's another one. MATT: Double ones. BRIAN: Double ones, okay, as you're-- ANJALI: Oh, wait! BRIAN: You want to do that? ANJALI: Yep, I do, sure as fuck do. BRIAN: Pass it to me, go ahead re-roll. ANJALI: Come on, don't be a dick. Thank you, it's a five. BRIAN: It's a five, okay. There's enough room there in the window for both of you to peer through. ANJALI: Right, like a totem pole. BRIAN: Remain almost completely out of sight. TRAVIS: I'm going to flank around to the right side, echoing what I saw Mr. Sharpe do, to try and provide the same sort of look from the other way. BRIAN: So you want to get around the corner of the Gem Saloon. TRAVIS: Actually the drugstore. BRIAN: You want to be behind Doc Cochran's office. TRAVIS: Okay, that same thing on that side, peering down. TRAVIS: Yeah, just mirroring whatever Mr. Sharpe does, because he doesn't know what the fuck he's doing. BRIAN: Where do you want to be, my friend? KHARY: I think all these vantage points have been taken. BRIAN: There's room for you wherever you want to go. KHARY: Sure, sure, sure. Actually, I think might be good idea to follow Sharpe, since my peepers at this particular moment are a little stronger than his. BRIAN: So you are completely out of sight. You two are completely out of sight. You are completely out of sight, from everyone but Sheriff Bullock, who started to notice you guys are there. You don't seem to be hostile, but he's still focused on what he's doing. As you peer around the corner from that side, as you peer around the corner from that side, as the two of you peer around from the window, and as you peer from your vantage point, you see Sheriff Bullock fire a round into an outlaw who's coming towards him, right in the chest, and a moment later, the outlaw doubles his speed toward Sheriff Bullock, despite just being shot point blank in the chest. Bullock fires three more rounds dead set into the heart of the outlaw. MARISHA: Oh fuck. BRIAN: And he keeps coming towards him. This outlaw looks particularly dirty and disheveled, and as they're moving closer to Bullock, and as you guys are stealthily looking, you can see his face is so pale, it's almost translucent. There's a blue and purple hue to his skin. His eyes are completely white as he keeps lunging toward Bullock, who furiously is reloading. What do you want to do? MATT: Take out the guns and try and join the sheriff. BRIAN: You guys want to join the sheriff in his fight? MATT: Yeah. MARISHA: Let's do it, yeah. BRIAN: It's time to deal your initiative. TRAVIS: You deal some cards! ANJALI: Who has a good throw? KHARY: I got a decent throw. I got a better shot. TRAVIS: Yep, same. ANJALI: One, one, anyone, Bueller. MARISHA: Well, I've never lifted anything in my life. TRAVIS: What do you have, dynamite or something? KHARY: What you going to throw? TRAVIS: Throw a rabbit at him? ANJALI: I'm going to throw a rabbit at him, I feel like. BRIAN: Okay. KHARY: Here we go. BRIAN: Reverend Mason, Miriam, Fogg, Arabella. TRAVIS: Damn. BRIAN: Wow. I shuffled these-- ANJALI: Well played. MATT: For one time in my life, it looks like. BRIAN: I shuffled these 20 times. MATT: It's working out okay for me. BRIAN: Clayton, by some stroke of luck, has another joker, can go whenever he wants, including interrupting someone's turn, yours or an enemy's. Up first, unless you want to go, Clayton, it's going to be Arabella. MARISHA: Oh shit. Can I see the spells? BRIAN: Absolutely. MARISHA: I think-- TRAVIS: Get it! MATT: Out of the gate! MARISHA: New toy, new toy (laughs). BRIAN: While you're looking at the spells, I will say that Reverend Mason, and definitely Clayton, actually probably everybody at this point, can see four outlaws. TRAVIS: Oh shit. BRIAN: Arabella. MARISHA: I am going to think about the energy that is coursing through me, and the darkness, and the light, and the fire, and all of our shared visions, and I'm going to conjure a beam of light that I'm going to try and suspend. Actually, I'm going to cast it on the Gem Saloon, on the front of the sign, and try and just light this place up, with radiant wonder. BRIAN: Are you casting Light/Darkness? MARISHA: Yes. BRIAN: So that has a power point ratio of two, a threshold of two. ANJALI: Ooh, girl. MARISHA: I'm going to think back to Fogg, scaring off the baddies. BRIAN: With the lantern? MARISHA: With the lanterns, and try and embrace that same energy and concept, but at a magnified level. TRAVIS: Good call. MARISHA: I don't know if it's going to fucking work. BRIAN: We're going to find out. As you close your eyes for a moment and focus, you feel that familiar rush of arcane energy go through your body, and through your veins, and you hear a voice say, "Let's play a game." Jack of hearts, six of hearts, king of hearts. TRAVIS: Come on. ANJALI: Come on, girl. BRIAN: Six. KHARY: Two pair. MARISHA: Okay, okay, okay, okay. BRIAN: Two, you have two power points available. The spell was a success. TRAVIS and KHARY: (relieved laughter) TRAVIS: Good deal. MARISHA: I can still switch out a card, though, to try and get a better result? TRAVIS: You can get a full house, you can get three of a kind. BRIAN: You get one card you can replace, and I'll deal you another one. MARISHA: I'll switch out that two. BRIAN: Excellent. MARISHA: And see if-- TRAVIS: Come on, hit it. (yelling and laughter) ANJALI: Yes! KHARY: Come on! (cheering and laughter) KHARY: Come on! TRAVIS: Six! MARISHA: I'm going to imagine-- I'm going to flash back to Fogg, waving the lantern back and forth, and like a pendulum swinging my head, I'm going to use that to go into a deep trance, and just smash it onto the Gem Saloon sign. BRIAN: Okay. Are you still next to her, Miriam? ANJALI: Yes. BRIAN: So as you're sitting there, and you guys are peering through the window, you saw her close her eyes and focus as hard as she could. Then, all of a sudden, from both of her hands shoots this lightning streak out of it, that literally takes the Gem Saloon sign, which is made of cloth, and turns it into the equivalent of a fucking Vegas sign, and it literally illuminates the entire street in front of you, giving you guys even better vision into what's happening. It doesn't affect the outlaws. ANJALI: Goddamn it. BRIAN: But your guys' visibility is very high, because as you got closer, and as you guys were peering through the window, you could see this strange textured fog, starting to roll through the town. The fog now stops about 10 feet behind the outlaws because of the light. TRAVIS and KHARY: Because in the light. BRIAN: Visibility is high. MARISHA: Okay. TRAVIS: Nice job. MARISHA: I wipe a little bit of blood from my nose, and I'm just going to sit down below the window. TRAVIS: The rest of us are like: What the hell was that? BRIAN: Yeah, you guys just saw, poof, yeah exactly. Reverend Mason. TRAVIS: Yep. BRIAN: It's your turn. TRAVIS: Yeah, I'm going to wheel around the corner, get eyes on these sons of bitches, and I'm going to take two shots, one with each barrel, towards two of those outlaws. BRIAN: Which two would you like to aim at? MATT: I'll take my turn as well with you. BRIAN: Okay you guys, you want to double up? MATT: I'm going to make eye contact with the priest here, and go like: Let's go. TRAVIS: Go, zoom. MATT: Whip around at the same time, guns out. You go first. TRAVIS: Yeah. MARISHA: Sick. MATT: I'm aiming for the other two. Or probably both take shots at the one on the side near me. BRIAN: So you want to go towards the guy that's on the Gem porch? MATT: Yes. BRIAN: Okay, and you're going to go? TRAVIS: I'm going to go for these two. Would you say this is 12 feet or 24 feet? BRIAN: I would say this would be closer to about 24 feet, yeah, at this at this range that you're at right now. ANJALI: Are they shooting back? BRIAN: Right now, they've spotted anyone who's come around the corner, but it's not their turn to do anything yet. They were shooting and Bullock was shooting back. ANJALI: They were shooting, you do have-- BRIAN: Yeah, you just couldn't see them until you guys got to the vantage point. All you saw was Bullock shooting at them. TRAVIS: Okay, so it was a seven and a six. So the first first and second one hit. First one is seven points of damage, and the second one is five points of damage. BRIAN: Okay, so that hits. Where would you like to shoot them? The first one, I've just got the shotgun, so I'm just aiming small, miss small. Right, right, right in the center. BRIAN: And this is another buckshot round? TRAVIS: Yeah. BRIAN: Okay. Your buckshot round fires into his chest, exploding it, you see his exposed rib cage which was just below his clothing. All of them are in all different stages of decay, but they look rather recently decayed. You blow back some of his flesh, and his bones, and his clothing, and everything like that. He takes two steps back, and then readies his weapon at you, but doesn't fire. The guy that you shot, is shaken. He takes a few steps back, you shake him. TRAVIS: Do I also shoot at that second guy with the second barrel, or just the one? BRIAN: One is shaken, one is not. TRAVIS: Gotcha. BRIAN: You hit the other one in the leg, basically. Do you want to move? Do you want to duck back behind? Do you you want to move anywhere else? TRAVIS: Can I use the rest of my turn to just pull back, and start the reload process that I think I'll take my next round. BRIAN: Yeah. TRAVIS: And reload both barrels, yeah. BRIAN: So, Clayton, it's your turn using the Joker card. MATT: Yes, I spin around both guns out, and I roll to hit, and I rolled a two and a three. MARISHA: Oh no. MATT: I spin around, and I get a good perspective that these aren't just regular outlaws, with the bright light that you're now shining in the middle of this, I imagine they all look pretty ghastly. BRIAN: They are zombies, undead outlaws. MATT: In that moment, that burst of realization, both of my shots just go wide, thoop, thoop, off to the side, duck back around and just prepare myself for the next round, looking over across at the priest like (breathes heavy). That's my turn. TRAVIS: Courage, my friend. The Lord looks upon us. MATT: He's not. Fucking goddamn. BRIAN: Miriam, you're next. ANJALI: I grab her matches, and I start yelling: Get inside the church, and I go, and I start pouring out one of my flasks right near the window where we are, and just start pouring it out. BRIAN: What's in the flask? ANJALI: Booze, hard liquor. BRIAN: Okay, you're going to pour that out on the porch, and out the window. ANJALI: However much I can get out of of, because I have two flasks. I'm a boozer, pouring for Jesus. TRAVIS: Yeah, pour one out. ANJALI: Pouring for Jesus. MARISHA: Pour one out for Jesus. BRIAN: I'm going to consider that your movement as long as you don't want to move anywhere else, I'll give you an action, but I'll consider that a movement unless you'd rather just do that, and then move somewhere else. ANJALI: Ah, no, I think at that point, I will take the opportunity to shoot. BRIAN: Okay, you've got Sheriff Bullock right outside the window there in front of you. ANJALI: So would when I require a certain level of skill to avoid him? BRIAN: You would need to stand on something, or stand up all the way at the window there to be able to shoot over his head. ANJALI: Oh, and I won't be able to move back. BRIAN: I would also let you peer out of the side there out of the front. ANJALI: Am I allowed to hold? I'm going to hold and wait and see what Fogg does. KHARY: Damn it, I saw the Sheriff shoot this thing three times, point blank, and it kept coming. I look at this rifle in my hands and I think: What's the point? I looked at that, and looked at that flame coming out of the church, and I think maybe God's on our side this time. I drop the rifle, I turn out from behind the saloon. I throw my hands up, and ask for a burst. ANJALI: Oh my god. BRIAN: Okay, as you're readying this, Bullock has noticed both Clayton and Reverend Mason, and he looks behind him after the light had shown, and after he gets a second, he sees that there's other people firing. He takes a second, he looks behind, he looks at the two of you, and he says, "I don't know who you are, but fucking help." ANJALI: I said, get inside the church, motherfucker! (laughter) I don't know what you're doing out there, get inside the church. BRIAN: Fogg. KHARY: Yeah. BRIAN: Let's play a game. MARISHA: Holy shit. BRIAN: Jack of diamonds, six of hearts, eight of hearts, eight of spades. KHARY: All right. BRIAN: Two of clubs. Because of your grit point, you can replace one of the cards if you want. KHARY: I already got a pair, but let's change the two. BRIAN: Okay, all right. The spell's effect remains the same, the spell succeeds. MATT, MARISHA, and KHARY: Whew, whew. TRAVIS: Amen for a burst. KHARY: I dropped it, I dropped this thing, and I scream around the corner, and I go: Ah! Running halfway down the street, and hoping that something comes out of me, something was supposed to, and a cone of fire bursts from my fingers, starting and coning out, coning out towards the three fellas right in the middle there. BRIAN: Okay you're going to roll 2d6 damage, twice. MARISHA: Twice. KHARY: Okay, eight. TRAVIS: Nice. ANJALI: Does his six explode? KHARY: And four. BRIAN: Okay. MATT: Does the six explode for damage? BRIAN: Oh yeah, is it a d6 or a d8 for your-- KHARY: Yeah, one of them was a six. BRIAN: Oh good, yeah, yeah. Explode that one. KHARY: So explode, two. MATT: So the first one was 10. KHARY: The first one was 10, and... 11. BRIAN: Wow, wow. Immediately, once you fire the beam of energy, and fire, and flame out at these creatures, it reaches out toward them. The center one, who took the three shots to the chest, from Sheriff Bullock, gets knocked back and is terrified, and he is going to run away. The one to his right, his cloak catches fire, and the remaining rotting flesh on him starts to burn. He takes a step back, and the one next to him, he also backs up about, I would say five feet. The right side of him catches fire. He doesn't care. None of them care that they're on fire, except for the one who ran away. As the middle one ran away, I want you two, to make notice checks from the church window. MARISHA: About the guy running away? BRIAN: Mm-hmm. MARISHA: Six total. ANJALI: Four. BRIAN: Okay. You guys saw that his face was hidden by a hood. You can see underneath it that he had some of the same features as some of these other outlaws, but he was hooded and cloaked in a little bit of a different outfit than they're wearing, and he fucking ran away. MARISHA: Interesting. TRAVIS: Did he look like he was also in the same state of decay? BRIAN: Hard to tell with his outfit on, but you could definitely see from underneath it a paleness, a serious paleness. KHARY: I guess I'm standing out here. BRIAN: Yeah, yeah move your guy. KHARY: Can I back away? BRIAN: Of course, yeah, if you want to flank up to Sheriff Bullock. KHARY: I came out here to stand with Sheriff Bullock. BRIAN: Absolutely. KHARY: I'm probably still standing there with my hands like that, and I look at Sheriff Bullock, and I look at my hands, and I look at Sheriff Bullock. BRIAN: Yeah, Sheriff Bullock is looking at your hands, and looking at you, and looking at your hands, and looking at you. He says, "I don't know who you are, "but I appreciate it," and he takes a shot. He's definitely distracted. He's nervous now that you're standing next to him. The shot ricochets off one of the remaining lanterns on one of the poles. ANJALI: Oh no. MARISHA: Not the lanterns. TRAVIS: Damn it. BRIAN: And disappears, and then he just goes ahead and starts to reload quickly now that he knows there's backup, and one of their numbers is down. All right, it's time for the outlaws to take a turn. So, I would say, the one that is shaken currently, is going to try and unshake himself, and he succeeds. Travis, if you can help me, he's going to move to the center of the thoroughfare in front of the two other outlaws, and he hasn't had much luck with Sheriff Bullock, so he's going to take a shot at you, Fogg. BRIAN: He shoots directly at you. The problem is, one of his eyes is missing, and his bullet goes right between the two of you, and lodges in the window frame that the two of them are sitting behind. A very close call. The one behind him to his left, is going to move up and flank him to the left. This guy is going to move up to his flank, and take a shot at you as well, Fogg. KHARY: Son of a bitch. MARISHA: Hmm. Uh-oh. TRAVIS: Three shots. MARISHA: Oh no. TRAVIS: Are they exploding? ANJALI: Yeah, that's a lot of exploding. TRAVIS: Whoa. ANJALI: What. BRIAN: Just kidding. (laughter) ANJALI: So that makes me sad on every level, already. KHARY: Have a little nip of courage. TRAVIS: Enough! BRIAN: He fires his weapon at you. It hits you in the thigh, on the leg that was already kind of bad already, not on your good one. Hits you in the thigh, and you're shaken. The final outlaw in the back is going to move up and flank with the other ones, strength in numbers in his mind, what's left of it. He's going to fire at Sheriff Bullock. These guys are not happy with him, and he shoots at Sheriff Bullock. Bullock is quick enough to move out of the way as he finishes reloading. It gets stuck in those steps you were thinking about hiding behind earlier Mrs. ANJALI: Since I held, now that all of the bad guys have gone, can I use my movement to drag Aloysius into the church? BRIAN: Absolutely. ANJALI: That's what I shall do. So I see him go down, and I see everything that's happened, and I stuff the matches in my bosom. I run outside, and I grab him by the shoulders, and just drag him as fast as I can in through front of the church in hiding. KHARY: Thank you, darling. ANJALI: Thank you. I don't know what you just did with your hands. KHARY: You know, I had a good morning. (laughter) BRIAN: Arabella, it's your turn. You also, get to go whenever you want. So keep that in mind. Arabella, it's your turn. MARISHA: Okay, I'm going to pop up through the window, and shoot over Sheriff Bullock's head, and hopefully not shoot him, and I'm going to go for, which one looks the most wounded right now? Is there one that looks rough? BRIAN: I would say the guy in the center that took that shot from Travis, from Reverend Mason is pretty, sorry on the left. I mean, they all look like shit, but that when you saw him get shot, so you know he's probably a little less-- MARISHA: I'm shaking. ANJALI: Yell at him to move out of the way from the window. BRIAN: Try it. ANJALI: So we can shoot? BRIAN: Try it. ANJALI: Get out of the way. BRIAN: He turns around and he says, "Why?" ANJALI: So we can shoot. BRIAN: "Well, I didn't know you had fucking guns," and then he moves to the left, and the out of the way. MARISHA: Good call. BRIAN: He's going to hug up against the-- There you go, that's fine, that's perfect. MARISHA: All right, shooting this guy. Double four. Sorry four-- Four on the d4, so I get to reroll it, right? BRIAN: Mm-hmm. TRAVIS: Yep. MARISHA: Exploding, six total. BRIAN: Okay, that hits, go ahead and roll damage, please. MARISHA: 2d6. Six damage. MATT: 2d6 plus one. MARISHA: Plus one, seven damage. BRIAN: That causes damage. Where would you like to shoot him? You can't call a headshot or something, but if you want to tell me like the general area. MARISHA: I'm going to see the giant target that the Reverend has made, and I'm going to just aim for right above, chip away at that hole that the Reverend has already put his chest. BRIAN: Okay, you fire, it hits him in the chest, he doubles over, and you shake it. MARISHA: Whew, that's right, bitch. KHARY: Shake it up. BRIAN: Reverend Mason, unless you, sir, would like to do something. TRAVIS: Mr. Sharpe. MATT: No, be my guest, Reverend. TRAVIS: Oh, I spend this round reloading the double barrel shotgun. BRIAN: Okay, yes, because you shot both of your loads. TRAVIS: I spent both shells. MATT: Fair enough, then I'll take my turn. (laughter) BRIAN: Any movement, Reverend, or do you want to stay behind cover there? TRAVIS: Yeah, I'll just peek around, see that they're still in the same general area, and tell Sheriff Bullock to pull back, we have numbers. BRIAN: Okay, and Sheriff looks behind you. He says, "You even know how to fucking fire that thing?" TRAVIS: Bet your ass, get inside. BRIAN: He gets inside. MARISHA: Woo! ANJALI: Inside, here inside? BRIAN: Yeah, the open part, in the front, to the right. Marisha, help her out, the part with the front. He's going to actually just peek behind the cover there. He's not going to to go to the window. He's going to stay where he can still see stuff, but he's behind a little bit of cover, now that he knows he has some help and he's not being ambushed. MARISHA: Fogg is in there, too, but it's tight quarters. BRIAN: Yeah, we get the idea. MATT: So looking over the edge, guns up, seeing them take bullets into the chest, and slugs, and fire, and it's pushing them back, but it's not quite, finalizing it, and I'm going to go ahead and turn around. Which one of them looks the least shaken? BRIAN: The one on the far right. MATT: The one on the far right? BRIAN: Yeah, the one closest to your far right there. MATT: He'd be the one who's probably the first I see when I turn, anyway. BRIAN: Absolutely. MATT: So I spin there, I'm going to take two shots towards the head. MARISHA: Towards the head? MATT: Towards the head. BRIAN: Oh, well that's a called shot. MATT: Yes, it is. BRIAN: A called shot is minus four to your roll, please. TRAVIS: Whew. MATT: First shot, it's a one. And a two. MARISHA: Aw! MATT: Worth an attempt. TRAVIS: Yes. BRIAN: You come around the corner and stepping on to the small platform in front of the Gem Saloon, and you aim perfectly down the sights, and there's absolutely no way you can't hit your target. As you take one step foot forward, a loose floorboard, in the rickety front of the Gem Saloon trips you up and you fire, and both bullets whiz past the head-- MATT: Shit. BRIAN: -- of the undead outlaw. MATT: All right, I'm going to use the rest of my movement to go ahead and probably mosey up to the side of the church here. BRIAN: Yeah, okay, grouping up. Miriam. ANJALI: I'm going to shoot at the one that is the same one that he was aiming at. The dudes are in blue, right? BRIAN: Yep. ANJALI: Three. MARISHA: Cool. BRIAN: That does not hit. Your bullet flies past him. He looks, and tries to see where that came from, but can't see that far and that well. ANJALI: I spun out to shoot, and just immediately went back and I even knew as I was doing it, I was too shaken, or too rushed to be able to hit anything, and also concerned about Aloysius. BRIAN: Okay, Mr. Fogg. KHARY: Ah, I think I need to spend a white chip, and get this shaken status off of him. BRIAN: What you actually will do is, you will actually just make a bigger roll, to see if you can get unshaken. KHARY: Okay. Two and a three. MARISHA: (exhales) BRIAN: It fails. MARISHA: Bummer. KHARY: Well, I just hold up this side of the church. Y'all enjoy yourselves. BRIAN: Okay, Sheriff Bullock now, from his new vantage point, is going to take a shot at the one that's shaken already, and that's going to fucking hit. So he shoots at that shaken enemy, and he hits it directly in the neck. It drops to its knees for a moment, and is grabbing at its throat. It now has a wound. TRAVIS: Okay. KHARY: All right. MARISHA: There's two of them that are wounded? BRIAN: No, the shaken one is what he was shooting at, so now instead of shaken, he's wounded, and because of his vantage point, and the fact he has friends with him now, and confidence, he takes his time, peering around from the church, takes a deep breath in, fires, straight through the forehead. That outlaw drops back, hits the ground, completely dead again. MARISHA: Yes. BRIAN: He's gone. ANJALI: Excellent. KHARY: All right. BRIAN: The one in the center looks over, sees his fellow undead douchebag, completely dead, completely dead-dead, and not getting up. He freaks out, and he's going to turn around, and try and shoot at... He can't really see the Reverend, so he's going to take a shot at you, Sharpe. MATT: Bring it. BRIAN: He peers around, and he's a little bit shook up from what just happened, and he peers around, and he shoots. The bullet actually goes through the wall that you're standing next to, from the inside and out about two feet behind your head. You look back at it, not even close. The one on the far right is going to take a shot at Sheriff Bullock, because he just killed his friend. Okay. MARISHA: If you kill the sexy sheriff, I'm going to be so upset. BRIAN: He fires straight. He's got a straight eye line to Sheriff Bullock. He fires at him, boom, hitting him in the shoulder, and Bullock goes back a little bit, and then immediately just gets back to his position, and aims his rifle. He's hit, but he's a tough motherfucker. That's going to bring us to Arabella's turn. Again, Mr. Sharpe, you're allowed to take your turn whenever you want. Arabella, what would you like to do? MARISHA: Are you going to light this place up? ANJALI: Only if they get closer. MARISHA: All right, I think we're holding them off for now, and I'm going to get back up to the window, and aim, and shoot again. I'm going to shoot at the one that's-- there's one that's-- oh, one that's dead, and so these other two are not shaken or wounded. BRIAN: Not shaken or wounded yet. MARISHA: Okay, I'm going to go for the one on the left. BRIAN: Okay. MARISHA: Nope, that's a three. BRIAN: Okay, as you peek through the window and fire, you can't really tell which one of them-- you were just aiming so quickly, and you just shot, and it just goes between the two of them. Ends up in the dirt down here. ANJALI: That's okay, we can still light it up. MARISHA: Curse my white collar upbringing. (laughter) BRIAN: Do you want to move anywhere else? MARISHA: Nope, I'm just going to-- just duck back out of-- I'm doing the-- BRIAN: Yeah, just duck back out of sight. MARISHA: Doing the peek and go. TRAVIS: Like Homer into the hedge. BRIAN: Peekaboo, okay, up next, we're going to go with Reverend Mason. TRAVIS: Yeah, I'll peek my head back around, and fucking giant cone of fire coming out. The sign lit up, I look down at my crucifix and say, Lord, don't fail me now, and I come out from behind cover, and go, get thee away from me Satan! And I'll cast Bolt. (laughter and cheering) BRIAN: Oh shit. ANJALI: Well that's a twist. BRIAN: Bolt... MATT: What could possibly go wrong? MARISHA: I know. BRIAN: ...is one power point. TRAVIS: One power point. MARISHA: One PowerPoint. MATT: We can do that. KHARY: Here we go, come on, always look on the bright side of life. MARISHA: ♪ Keep on the sunny side ♪ ♪ Always on the sunny side ♪ BRIAN: Reverend Mason, it's time to play a game. TRAVIS: I'm ready, Lord. BRIAN: Queen of hearts, that's six of hearts. It likes to keep showing up, doesn't it? KHARY: Ace high? TRAVIS: The joker. BRIAN: This is whatever you want. KHARY: Oh, boom! BRIAN: If you get a joker in your spell casting, basically, it works as whatever other card you want it to be. Now, you got ace high, which means the spell already succeeds. TRAVIS: Right. BRIAN: Yeah. TRAVIS: I'll pull the seven of clubs out. TRAVIS: Okay, six of spades. Oh, two pair. ANJALI: Two pair. Yeah, yeah, yeah-- well. KHARY: Or three of a kind. TRAVIS: Oh yeah, three of a kind is more. BRIAN: Oh yeah. TRAVIS: Yeah. MATT: Is that the spell of a raise on it, or anything? TRAVIS: Yeah, it says if there's a raise, it's 3d6, instead of 2d6. MARISHA: Woo, hoo, hoo. ANJALI: Damn. TRAVIS: All right! Oh, that's a six. Does that explode on damage? BRIAN: Yes. MARISHA: Yes, it does. BRIAN: Yes, it does, sir. KHARY: Oh my goodness. TRAVIS: 10, 11, and one more, 12. BRIAN: Twelve. TRAVIS: 12 points of damage. BRIAN: Whew, he's shaken. TRAVIS: Juga, juga, juga, juga, juga, juga, juga. BRIAN: Yeah, there you go. MARISHA: Okay. TRAVIS: Shit, I'm just moving the earth. ANJALI: I was going to say, the Lord moved the whole building. KHARY: I know, we shaking the entire community. TRAVIS: ♪ I feel the earth move under my feet ♪ (laughter) IVAN: Marshal. BRIAN: Yes. IVAN: I apologize, but I regret to inform you, that the Joker, if used in the manitou spell casting, does act as a wild, but it still does run on the backfire table. BRIAN: Okay. IVAN: Is the ultimate cost of using the Joker. BRIAN: So, it's the d20, and whatever happens to him, happens to him. IVAN: I'm so sorry, Reverend. Not really. BRIAN: This is for the Joker card coming up in the-- ANJALI: If the joker card comes up-- TRAVIS: Let's go JC. ANJALI: --no matter what, you roll the d20. BRIAN: No, if it comes up on initiative, it's not. If it comes up during your spell casting attempts, then yes. ANJALI: Maybe it's good. BRIAN: I need you to make a vigor roll, please. TRAVIS: (laughing) KHARY: Come on, what you got, what you got? TRAVIS: With a wild card is-- along with it right? Seven. BRIAN: You suffer a level of fatigue only. Mark one level of fatigue. MATT: Seeing this now, between the burst of fire, and now the Reverend firing a bolt of holy lightning out of his hand. It's all right. All right, Sharpe get your shit together, and be of use in this. (grunting) Turns around, he's going to take one shot towards the one that he just hit with the bolt. BRIAN: Okay, the shaken one. MATT: And readying his second gun to follow up, based on that one. BRIAN: Okay. MATT: I cannot roll. MATT: It's a two. BRIAN: It's a two? MATT: She goes wide, bring up the off-hand weapon. MARISHA: Come on, Sharpe. MATT: Ah, it's a two. MARISHA: Oh no! MATT: So four minus two with the off-hand. I just can't do shit right now. BRIAN: That's the way the cookie crumbles. MATT: That's how it works when you're a DM and you get to play. (laughter) TRAVIS: (laughing) That's the curse of the DM. MATT: You're paying off penance you've been building for years. BRIAN: For the song, sir. ALL: Oh! BRIAN: And bringing so much joy to your fellow adventurers. TRAVIS: Thank you, thank you. MATT: Both go wide, and I'm just like, shit. BRIAN: Both of them go wide. MATT: It's pretty crowded in the church now, isn't it? BRIAN: There's absolutely room to go. MATT: Yeah, but is there room to get in there, and still be able to fire out? BRIAN: You guys would have to take turns at peeking out the window, or peeking out the side, where Sheriff Bullock is, or somebody could go upstairs to the upstairs window, or I would not trust the upstairs cover situation, but the wood where the window is, is fine. MARISHA: Miriam and I are technically downstairs. Therefore, ref. ANJALI: As is Aloysius, he's on the floor. MATT: All right, I'll use a movement to get inside the church with everyone else, and just try and find somebody who I can coordinate with to take turns firing out of an opening. BRIAN: Absolutely. Miriam. ANJALI: I will shoot at the... All right, let me shoot at the fine one. BRIAN: Okay. ANJALI: Shake, shake, shaken. Hah, hah, okay, sorry. BRIAN: Dirty martini, shaken, not wounded. MARISHA: (laughs) ANJALI: Two. BRIAN: Okay, it goes wide. Mr. Fogg. KHARY: All right, let's try and get back up off of this. I think we're rolling 2d6s, see what happens. I got a six. BRIAN: You're good, you are unshaken my friend. KHARY: Unshaken. BRIAN: Yep. KHARY: Can I move now? What can I do? BRIAN: So, now that you're unshaken, you have your full movement and your full action available. KHARY: All right, so I'm feeling pretty good about myself. I'm going to-- my rifle is still-- because I left it back-- right here. I'm going to dive out of the church onto my rifle, using this as some cover laying down, right here. More like, kind of right there. BRIAN: Yeah, you want to go prone and steady yourself to shoot. KHARY: Towards Mr. Shaken-Not-Stirred. BRIAN: Mr. Shaken, absolutely. So, you use your shooting skill to roll, to see if it hits. KHARY: All right. BRIAN: So roll you're shooting, and your wild die. KHARY: So, my shooting is eight. BRIAN: Ooh. ANJALI: Yes! KHARY: Okay, I've got a six that explodes and a four. BRIAN: Okay, roll damage, my friend. KHARY: Okay, two and the six explodes. MARISHA: Yes! TRAVIS: Get it. KHARY: Two, so that's 10. TRAVIS: So much Fogg. BRIAN: And which gun was this you were shooting? KHARY: The rifle. BRIAN: So, you lay down with just your elbows on the ledge, outside of the Gem Saloon. You position yourself. Clearly, you're looking at him. He's staggering at this point. His guns are still out. He's still in the game. He's just staggering a little bit. The one next to him is grunting and nudging him, and he staggers, and as he looks over at the other one, your bullet goes through the side of his temple, and you see the back half of his head literally land probably 10 feet behind him, in the thoroughfare, and he falls flat back. MARISHA: Woo! BRIAN: Dead. ANJALI: Well done, Aloysius Fogg. MARISHA: Fogg's a-coming. BRIAN: All right, now being furious at being the last one out there, he's going to take a shot. Is that you out there, Mason? TRAVIS: Yep. BRIAN: Okay. TRAVIS: Got a little over confident, okay. BRIAN: He's going to take a shot at Mason. MARISHA: The power of the Lord just so overtook him. TRAVIS: Like Ernest Goes to Camp. MATT and KHARY: (chuckles) (laughter) MATT: Wow. TRAVIS: You remember. MATT: Oh yeah. TRAVIS: That was cool. BRIAN: So, the last remaining undead outlaw on the thoroughfare takes a shot at you, and it's wide. TRAVIS: It's wide? KHARY: (whoops) BRIAN: It's wide. TRAVIS: (Ernest-style laughing) MATT: Oh my god. (laughter) BRIAN: Arabella, you're up next. Matt, I would remind you that you have the wild card, but it doesn't matter, because you're rolling like shit. MATT: I know, that's just how it works out today, guys, sorry. BRIAN: Arabella. ANJALI: We all have our days. MARISHA: All righty, one more time. And through the window, I'm going to shoot again. Oh, double sixes. BRIAN: Okay. MARISHA: Pew pew! Seven total. BRIAN: Seven total. MARISHA: Yeah, cause you just re-roll one. BRIAN: That hits. MARISHA: Let me roll damage. BRIAN: Roll damage. MARISHA: Double sixes. (yelling and cheering) TRAVIS: Explode them up! MARISHA: Woo! Let's go to Vegas! KHARY: Ohh! (cheering) MARISHA: Okay, okay So, another one's a six, and one's a five, so it's 23. Thank you, re-roll on the six. 23, and and another four. ANJALI: Six, six, six, five, right? MARISHA: 27 damage. BRIAN: What weapon were you using? MARISHA: My revolver. BRIAN: So, you peek up from where you were hiding in the window. MARISHA: Just an adrenaline shot. BRIAN: You shoot it. It fires straight out the window and straight down the thoroughfare, as if you had done this hundreds of times before, and it lands right through its left eye. You see, it turns as the as the power of the Colt hits it. You see it go back and this entire side of its head is blown off, scattered in the thoroughfare. He falls dead. TRAVIS: (echoing gunshot) BRIAN: That was a fucking shot. (laughter) Jesus Christ. TRAVIS: That was insane. BRIAN: So, with all the undead outlaws cleared, Bullock makes his way out of the church, and starts to just move to the center of town, and you see some people are coming out of the buildings now. Everyone's a little bit freaked out at what's going on. ANJALI: The people are still there. BRIAN: Yes, the people are there. They're absolutely hiding, and as you make your way through, and you can see thanks to the light so brilliantly cast by Arabella, there's a few dead hoopleheads outside of the Gem Saloon, and some of the other places that appear that they were killed by these undead outlaws. TRAVIS: Did you see? Did you see what our Lord and Savior imbued us with? He provided in the most dark time. We are touched. MARISHA: Maybe we are. TRAVIS: Thank you, Lord. I just drop down to my knees, start praying. MARISHA: Aloysius, you were incredible. KHARY: You weren't so bad yourself, young lady. MARISHA: Thank you. ANJALI: I drop to my knees and say, I need to refill my whiskey. MATT: I'm just silently cursing to myself in the corner, while I reload my gun. Fucking shit. TRAVIS: People watching. (laughter) BRIAN: Arabella, for your fantastic shot. ANJALI: Yes. MARISHA: Oh, thank you. BRIAN: As you guys gather in front of the church, and come out once you realize that the scene is safe, Bullock's out of breath, and he looks furious. He's surveying the dead Deadwood citizens, and then he looks over all of you, and he says, "Thank you. "Do you know what those were?" MATT: Haven't a fucking clue. BRIAN: "I'll tell you what they were. "Horse thieves, shot a couple people "outside of the Gem Saloon. "Two days ago, we hung them. "They've yet to be buried. "Tonight, came out in the thoroughfare, "and started shooting at everyone." TRAVIS: Where were the bodies being held? BRIAN: "The back alleys." ANJALI: Are there any more? Any more bodies? BRIAN: "These ones were the only men we hung the other day." MATT: Looking around, is that dark fog that we saw rolling in, is that still creeping on the perimeter of the light? BRIAN: It's starting to dissipate. MATT: Okay, okay. TRAVIS: There was a fourth one that bolted up the street. ANJALI: The hooded figure. MARISHA: Yeah, he didn't seem to like the fire so much. MATT: Anybody catch the direction of where that was running? KHARY: Toward the livery, and out of town, I would suspect. MARISHA: Yeah. BRIAN: "Thing is, we only... only hung three men. TRAVIS: Was there something different about that fourth one? You were here the longest. BRIAN: "I didn't get a good look at him, but if he was here today, "maybe he'll be here tomorrow." ANJALI: We need to check the town for any more dead bodies, recent or otherwise, that happen to be above ground. MARISHA: Also, how deeply do you tend to bury your dead? I have a feeling shallow graves aren't going to cut it. TRAVIS: The cemetery. MARISHA: Has anyone checked the cemetery? MATT: I wonder how your your sister's doing. ANJALI: Oh God. BRIAN: "You're the one with the dead sister." MARISHA: Yeah, I'm the one with the dead sister. BRIAN: "Well, I'm sorry as hell to hear about that. "Who are the rest of you folks? "Reverend, I know you." TRAVIS: Of course, Sheriff. BRIAN: "I don't think I've seen you around, "definitely haven't seen you around. "I've seen you around. "Are you two staying in my hotel, by any chance?" MATT: Yeah, we are. ANJALI: Yes, sir. Separately. MATT: Separately. "BRIAN: Understood. "I appreciate the help. "Who are the rest of you folks?" MARISHA: I'm staying with Mr. Whitlock. BRIAN: "Bit of a recluse, that one." MARISHA: Because he's my husband. Yeah. BRIAN: "Doesn't come out much." MARISHA: Probably for the best. BRIAN: "On nights like this, I'd say so." MARISHA: What are your dealings with Mr. Swearengen? BRIAN: (sighs) MARISHA: That speaks volumes, Mr. Bullock. BRIAN: "We work together when we have to, "but he's a madman." MARISHA: Mm. TRAVIS: Sheriff, I can vouch for the rest of these individuals. Mr. Sharpe is, well, he's very dependable gentlemen. Mr. Fogg here has been very valuable in our little quest, and of course, Miriam here, been looking after me something fierce. I'm very thankful for that. MATT: While they're talking, I go ahead and walk off to retrieve the horses. BRIAN: Okay, go get the horses, but before you do, Bullock stops you and says, "Hey, I've got to go secure the rest of the town, "but listen, that shit you did, "with that fire and the light, "seen that kind of thing before. "Around here, people like to hang people "they don't understand. "I'd be extremely careful using that kind of power "in a place like this." MATT: I ain't got no part in it. Just keep walking. BRIAN: He says, "If you need to find me, "tomorrow, I'll be at the marshal's office, but thank you." You can investigate the town. It's the middle of the night. You can investigate the town with Bullock or without. If so, you will each get one fatigue, or you can rest for the night. ANJALI: I think a rest would do us all good. MARISHA: I think some of us are a little worse for the wear, as it is. How is your leg? I see some kind of blood there. KHARY: Yeah, well, it's not nearly as bad as it looks. MARISHA: Well, you look like a 13-year-old who just got her time of the month, so why don't I take a look at that. I got a little bit of first aid. KHARY: Well, far be it for me to ward off the touch of a woman. MARISHA: I'm going to-- can I do a healing check, and see if I can stop the bleeding-- KHARY: All right, fine. MARISHA: --on Aloysius's leg? BRIAN: Yeah, go ahead and give me a healing check. Are you skilled in that, or unskilled? MARISHA: I am so skilled. BRIAN: Oh! MARISHA: I rolled an eight on an eight. BRIAN: Okay. MARISHA: So this was nine total. ANJALI: It feels incredible. BRIAN: So, the bullet grazed your leg. It's not bleeding crazy. You can wrap it with some sort of tourniquet or cloth that Arabella has, so she wraps it around your leg, tightens it. It's not bleeding too much. That leg's already sort of in a funny spot. MARISHA: Just don't tell my husband-- BRIAN: Looks like he's going to to be okay. MARISHA: --that I got up in your grundle. I'd appreciate it. TRAVIS: Actually the grundle's in-between, okay. BRIAN: The grundle (chuckles). ANJALI: Aloysius, do you have somewhere to stay tonight that's safe? I know Mr. Sharpe is taken care of. I know Arabella is fine. You just came into town. BRIAN: Bullock speaks up and says, "A free room is in my "hotel for anyone not already staying there, for your help tonight." ANJALI: Thank you, Sheriff. KHARY: Much obliged. TRAVIS: I may even take you up on that, not that I don't enjoy the drafty comforts of the church. MARISHA: I should probably be getting back to Mr. Whitlock. ANJALI: Do you feel safe going by yourself? MARISHA: No, but I figured that's what I signed up for, when I got on the train to Deadwood. MATT: Well at the very least, why don't one of us accompany you, at least drop you off at home. KHARY: It's the least I can do, ma'am. MARISHA: Thank you, gentlemen. MATT: All right, now let's all make sure we convene early enough in the morning. We still have initial business to complete. BRIAN: As you guys are making your way down the thoroughfare, some of the town's people have come out and they're whispering. They're looking at these bodies in the center of the thoroughfare, that are blown to shreds, basically, and they're whispering to each other. They're looking at you. They're whispering to each other. A lot of them are looking at you, some of them with fear, but most of them with like, thank Christ, and as you pass through the end of the Gem Saloon, you see the swinging doors open to the outside, and Al Swearengen comes out with a toothpick, looks down at the scene, looks down at you all, and gives you a nod, gives you a nod, looks at the scene one more time, walks back in and shuts the door. MATT: Anybody paying attention to me as I wander off to the hotel? BRIAN: Only the people that are just looking, and whispering. Some people are thanking you for saving the town. Others are-- MATT: Anybody comes up to me, I growl and keep moving. BRIAN: Okay, are you sort of in the front? MATT: Yeah. I've retrieved the head off the horse in the bag, the bloody bag, and taking it with myself to the hotel, so it doesn't vanish in the night. BRIAN: Bullock has left to go secure the town. As you're about to walk up to the Bullock Hotel, there's a drunken hooplehead who sort of stumbles out. He looks at you and says, "I know you, man?" MATT: I pray that's incorrect information. BRIAN: "What happens if God says no?" MARISHA: (snickers) MATT: You better find yourself a place to sleep right now and forget you even crossed this path. BRIAN: "I forget fucking everything man. "What do you think--?" He just stumbles backwards, and then you see him just walk to the side of the hotel. He's just looking at you, and he's looking at the rest of you. Then he just slumps down, and he's fucking out. MARISHA: Do you think that a sign from Mr. Swearengen that he wanted to talk tonight, or do you think he would let us rest our heads a little bit, come back with clean senses in the morning? ANJALI: I don't think he gets to decide that right now. Get your rest. MARISHA: Thank you, Miriam. KHARY: Cheers. BRIAN: Okay, you guys file into your existing rooms. You two, Sol Star set you up, now the operator of the Bullock Hotel and Hardware. He sets you guys up with a couple of nice rooms that are available and anything else before you guys go to sleep for the evening? MARISHA: Is Mr. Whitlock awake when I get home? BRIAN: Is Mr. Whitlock awake when you get home? Passed out with an empty bottle of whiskey next to the bed. MARISHA: Perfect. I'm going to sneak by him, go upstairs, get comfortable, get in bed like I've been there the whole time. BRIAN: You get into bed, he "(drunkenly mumbles)" and he's back asleep. Anyone else? MATT: I do my usual routine of taking the one chair provided in the chamber and wedging it against the door. BRIAN: Okay, securing the door. Anyone else? ANJALI: I go to get undressed for sleep, and then I stay partly dressed, just in case I need to run out of this room very fast. I have a bad feeling about all of this. It's too familiar to me, either from my dreams or from something, I can't place it, and I pull out my box that I have handy, and I put it down beside of the bed, and I just stare at it, and I just leave it right there beside my bed before I go to sleep. BRIAN: You don't open it? ANJALI: I do not open it. BRIAN: Okay, anyone else have anything they want to tell me? KHARY: I pull my chair over to the window, have a seat, and unholster my Colt Navy revolver. I don't touch my bed. I stare up at the moon, and then try my best to stay awake. BRIAN: Okay. TRAVIS: I'll go into my room, lay back on the bed, and just say, thank you Lord. This must be a sign I'm on the right path. Your will be done. (snores) (laughter) TRAVIS: Sleep hard. BRIAN: Reverend Mason, in the night while you're asleep, you see the familiar silhouette of the dealer reappear before you, and the familiar voice from the creature that you saw in your mind's eye earlier, say, "First one's free." Remove your point of fatigue. TRAVIS: Ooh. MARISHA: First one's free, ooh. TRAVIS: That creature is still long, narrow, and massive. BRIAN: Sure. KHARY: (laughs) TRAVIS: Any other descriptive terms that, uh--? ANJALI: Oh, that guy. BRIAN: You guys awake in the morning. Those of you that have spent some time in Deadwood are used to a familiar waking up process, which is either someone is gunned down in the street at daylight, a horse tramples someone, there's a fight, there's a fire. Every day a new adventure. Today, it's relatively quiet. Some brave souls are still out in the thoroughfare selling their wares and doing their cons, and digging for gold on the side of the road, but for the most part, some of the businesses are not open after the events of last night. Some people are not coming out of these buildings, and their houses, and their tents. Word has spread quickly through this small camp of what happened last night. You are free to explore the town. Some of the businesses that are open, and some of the people that are actually around. You can talk to Farnum at the Bullock Hotel. MATT: God no. ANJALI: As soon as I wake up, I immediately go and get dressed, and I go out the door, and I look at both of the doors where I know these two are sleeping, and I go to Clayton's room to check if he's inside. Is he, if I knock? MATT: You hear a moment pass, some shuffling, sounds of feet on a wooden floorboard, the scrape of wood against wood, a slight slap on the wood, then the door opens up, but an inch ever so carefully. You see the barrel of an iron poke through. ANJALI: It's just me. I come in peace. MATT: Morning. ANJALI: Morning. I understand you can never be too careful. Do you know if the Reverend's all right? MATT: Haven't checked on him yet. ANJALI: I will. You get ready, we got to move. MATT: I'm just-- you saw what he did last night, right? ANJALI: And I saw what Arabella did, too, and I saw what Aloysius did, too. MATT: What does this mean? ANJALI: I don't know yet. All I know is, that's what's kept us alive, and that's what matters the most to me. MATT: All right. ANJALI: I go back to the Reverend's door, and I knock. TRAVIS: (startled shout) (gun cocks) Who is it? ANJALI: It's just me, Reverend, making sure you slept the good, deep, sleep of the Lord. TRAVIS: I did, Lord sleep-- slept. (laughter) (door creaking) ANJALI: Come downstairs, and let's get some coffee, and all get moving. TRAVIS: Morning, okay. MARISHA: I'll get up, try and evade my husband, and make my way to the hotel. BRIAN: Okay. MARISHA: What is he doing? Does he give a fuck what I'm doing? BRIAN: Yeah, like he's probably downstairs eating breakfast. He probably got up before you. He's down there chugging coffee and eating some greasy eggs and stuff, because he's probably a little hungover. MARISHA: Is there anything you need before I go off, and continue my studies for the day, Mr. Whitlock? BRIAN: "Did you have a good night with your-- with all-- with--" MARISHA: With the Reverend. TRAVIS: (laughs) BRIAN: "W-with the Reverend?" MARISHA: With the Reverend. Just-- it was wonderful discussing all of the wonderful things he did for my sister. BRIAN: "The wonderful things he did for--" MARISHA: Your wife. BRIAN: "Cynthia, yeah, I know, I--" MARISHA: You remember her, right? BRIAN: "Of course, I remember her. "I haven't seen him since the ceremony, "and since the funeral, "but I'm not really one for mixing words, "so I'm glad you were out there on behalf of us." MARISHA: Well, if it's all right with you, I think I'll continue to meet up, and I've found a lot of peace yesterday doing some volunteer work, and helping to raise money for the church. If it's all right with you, I would love to go see if the Reverend needs me anymore? BRIAN: "Absolutely, I plan to spend most of the day "working on a puzzle that I found on that table "sitting over there yesterday." MARISHA: You do love your puzzles. BRIAN: "I love the puzzles, but I'll see you later tonight. "I-I-I'm p-probably not going to go out today. "I know that's typical, "but I-I'm probably just going to-- "I heard a lot of gunshots last night, "and now you know I don't do well "with that sort of thing, "but I'll be here working on my puzzle when you get back. "I'll save a little booze for you, like I did last night, "in case you want a nightcap, when you go to sleep." MARISHA: Oh yes that was wonderful, so kind of you. BRIAN: Yep, the bottle was empty as you're remembering. MARISHA: Kind man. BRIAN: "Okay, well have fun, sweetheart." He sort of leans in. MARISHA: I kind of give him the cheek. BRIAN: Yep, yep, and he just gets you right on the cheek in the neck awkwardly, or he didn't commit to either, and it's this sort of weird-- MARISHA: The jawbone, half earlobe thing. BRIAN: As you walk away he says, "Y-you look, um... "You make a fine appearance, just like your sister." MARISHA: I'm glad that we could add that value to your life. BRIAN: "Thank you." MARISHA: And I leave. (laughter) BRIAN: Yeah, he immediately just starts getting back into figuring out his puzzle. ANJALI: That vomit came right up to here. (laughter) ANJALI: Right up to here, and went back down, as all that was happening. KHARY: She leaves the house. I would be just about as far as you can be away, but still-- BRIAN: Downstairs? KHARY: No, no, just you know how far the house is from town. Just, ah, wondering if you needed a ride into town. MARISHA: Yeah, it's muddy as fuck, and I hate trotting through this shit, and I hop on the horse with him. BRIAN: Fogg, did you sleep last night? KHARY: As well as any man has, who had fire coming from his fingers. So, how's married life? BRIAN: Yes or no, did you sleep last night? MARISHA: (laughs) KHARY: I slept, but... even a good night's rest for me, is a bad night's rest for most. But I did sleep. BRIAN: Go ahead then with your conversation with Arabella. KHARY: So, anyway... (clears throat) how's the Mister? MARISHA: Well, he's just the same as he was the day before, and the day before that. Honestly, I count my blessings with each passing day. He doesn't hurt me. I have many a friend who weren't so lucky, so. KHARY: Amen to that. MARISHA: Do you have a wife, children? KHARY: Family is a blessing I don't necessarily have the luxury of. MARISHA: Well, family can also be a curse. KHARY: Well ain't we a fucking pair? MARISHA: It's strange, Aloysius. Coming out here all I could think about is if there would be some sort of miracle, I could bring the dead back to life, just so I could see my sister again. I don't know. KHARY: Guess we got to be careful what we wish for. MARISHA: I don't want to pretend like my ego did any of this, but... KHARY: I got a feeling that this whole thing's a lot bigger than you and me. MARISHA: I think you might be right. MATT: As I come down the stairs in that hotel, carrying the heavy and somewhat still loosely congealed, damp sack over the shoulder. TRAVIS: Ugh, sack of gel. BRIAN: Are you walking through the front to go out? MATT: Walking through to get some breakfast, and meet up with the rest of these folks, before we go ahead and meet up with Mr. Swearengen. BRIAN: Okay. ANJALI: I see that I've been waiting patiently at the base of the stairs for these two gentlemen. BRIAN: Okay, are you coming down now, too, or is there anything else you wanted to do? TRAVIS: (yawns) Yeah I'm-- (yawns) MATT: (laughs) ANJALI: I'm sorry, is that yes? TRAVIS: Yeah, I apologize. I'm not a morning person. MATT: (slowly) I apologize. BRIAN: As you-- I was waiting for it. (laughter) ALL: (slowly) I apologize. (laughter) BRIAN: I told myself the first person to invoke "I apologize." As you get to the bottom of the stairs, you see a familiar face, who the person who checked you into the hotel, and the person who does a one out of 10 job of managing it, self-appointed mayor of Deadwood, E. B. Farnum. He sits playing with his sort of white gloves, and he's looking over the counter at the three of you, and he says, "What do you got there?" (laughter) "Your sacks, I think some-- "W-what's in there? ANJALI: I'll just step in, I go. Don't tell anyone, but we went down and we found ourselves a specialty to take over to the Gem Saloon, and have them cook up for people today. We feel like there are a lot of people who could use a good meal and something to make them feel better. So, we picked up a pig's head to take care of that. We're going to take that over to the Gem right now. Do you think that would be okay, Mr. Farnum? BRIAN: "Oh I think it'd be fine. "I just sort of worry about maybe, um... "tasting half as much man as you do pig, "but we use those pigs for a lot of things in town, "but that's not my business to tell someone "how they should eat." ANJALI: Well if you don't say nothing, neither will I. BRIAN: "I won't say nothing to nobody." ANJALI: Thank you, darling. BRIAN: "For two dollars and 50 cents." He looks up at you half joking, half serious. ANJALI: And then I smile at him and I say: You got yourself a deal, sugar. (aside) Get out, go. MATT: "Well, you can pay me anytime. "They leave me here and I don't really deal with "any of the important shit these days, "but I heard tell that some of you "were involved in that shootout in the god damn thoroughfare." MATT: I pull the hat further down and leave. ANJALI: I've already waved the two of them off. BRIAN: So you guys have started to walk out. ANJALI: I waved the two of them off, and I'm just trying to take as much of his attention as I possibly can. BRIAN: "Do you know anything about what was happening out there?" ANJALI: I have no idea, but you make sure to keep your ear to the ground, and let us know, of course. I mean, if we should be finding better ways to take care of ourselves or other places to go, you would let us know. I understand that you run a fine establishment here, but if we're not protected here, why, we should take our business elsewhere. Perhaps, to another town, don't you think? BRIAN: "I mean I sorta get paid the same, "whether the hotel's empty or full, "but I feel like you've been so nice to me... "sure." (laughter) BRIAN: He says, "You been over to the Bella Union across the street?" ANJALI: I've walked by it occasionally, and peered in, yeah. BRIAN: "You ever seen Joanie Stubbs? "We haven't really seen her around in the last few weeks." ANJALI: Is that so? Maybe I'll ask around and see how she's doing. We women folk can keep track of each other, just by talking to each other, the way we gossip. BRIAN: "Which is so strange to me, "'cause all your outfits look the same." MARISHA and ANJALI: (laughing) BRIAN: I heard, um... "I heard rumors." Looks around. He says, "Come here, come here." He says, "Five dollars "will give you information about what I've heard." ANJALI: Well you do run a hard bargain, don't you, but I appreciate it a good businessman. BRIAN: "Well, that's the only thing I've run "that's still hard these days." ANJALI: (chuckles) All right. BRIAN: You slip him five dollars? ANJALI: Mm hmm. BRIAN: "Someone's been buying up land deeds "for places where there's no gold." ANJALI: Is that so? BRIAN: "It's got Mr. Swearengen shook. "A whole lot of something, getting Mr. Swearengen shook." ANJALI: Who might those deeds being bought by? BRIAN: "I'm not sure. "All I heard is, they're starting to mine places "where they shouldn't, and where we know there's no gold." ANJALI: Well, you do me a favor sugar, you've given me so much information today, I'm just indebted to you. Will you keep your ear to the ground and let me know if you hear anything else about what's shaking Mr. Swearengen, or anyone else? BRIAN: "I'll keep my ear to the ground, "if you keep hiding as well as you're hiding "the business you conduct in this establishment." ANJALI: I bristle just a tiny bit, and say, you have yourself a deal. BRIAN: "All right, then." ANJALI: And I wink, and I sashay my way out, and then I take a deep breath as I walk out, and I shake it off. BRIAN: The second you leave, he sort of wipes his forehead and just looking out at you like, just you talking to him sort of-- you know. ANJALI: I have that effect on men. BRIAN: Oh yes you do, my friend. Okay, so, are you guys-- TRAVIS: ♪ It's not easy being green ♪ (laughter) BRIAN: That's just right there. ANJALI: Oh, that was excellently done. Well played. If we had bennies to give you, they would be-- BRIAN: Nah, I got a few hundred behind this screen. ANJALI: Then give them to us. BRIAN: Are you guys all together? MARISHA: Yeah, we probably-- BRIAN: You probably all met in the thoroughfare outside, so, you're now between the Bella Union. TRAVIS: We're slo-mo walking. BRIAN: You're now between the Bella Union and the Gem Saloon out in the thoroughfare. What would you guys like to do? MATT: I step into the Gem and go ahead and let them know that we're here to see Mr. Swearengen, ASAP. BRIAN: Okay, you start walking all the way down towards the Gem, and as you get about halfway there, you see Johnny, who has just come out of the Gem, and he's walking, holding a big pile of what looks like laundry, in a white sack. He sees all of you and he freezes, and then he runs back into the Gem, curious. You guys keep walking down. You see the familiar doors on the balcony of the Gem Saloon come open. Al walks out with his cup of coffee. "Top of the fucking morning!" MATT: It looks like we got ourselves a conversation to have. We've got a proper present. BRIAN: "A present? "That's not the first head someone's brought me. "Come the fuck inside." MATT: Shall we? ANJALI: Yes. BRIAN: You guys go inside. As you walk in, you see Dan's already on his way upstairs with two bottles of whiskey, and a handful of shot glasses. He says, "Follow me." You guys get upstairs. Al is seated behind his desk. Your chairs are laid out for you again. "Have a seat." MATT: We take our respective chairs. ANJALI: Our respective chairs, exactly. BRIAN: "I'd love to begin with the events "in the fucking thoroughfare last night, "but tell me about the mining area." MATT: Yeah, about the mining area. If I were to tell you it was about mining, and not so much a flaming hellhole of some sort of otherworldly entities, perhaps, or some terrible type of life-eating creature, well I'd be a fucking liar. BRIAN: He's pondering what you're saying. "Define 'creature.'" MATT: Well, see, we tried to muster up one of the bodies of some of these things. About yea long, round, terrible, worm-looking snake things, little pincer tentacle mouth elements. We thought them all dead, all thousands of them that were smoldering in the pit that had been previously oil-burnt by the previous Irishman, but some of them were lucky enough to be killed in the explosion, and others not so lucky, and I rolled the head out onto the desk. BRIAN: He sees the head roll onto the desk, looks at it for a second, opens his bottom drawer, takes out a bottle of whiskey, pours himself a shot, tilts the head so the face is looking towards him. "Snake bites on his cheeks." He uses a letter opener, and pushes the mouth back open. He looks down it. "How many dead men?" MATT: All of them. I'd say from what we saw, from what was visible, maybe a dozen or so on the outside of the actual pit they had constructed on the site. God knows how many more. TRAVIS: Just short of two dozen, in total, I think. BRIAN: "All of them like this, "except with their fucking bodies attached?" MATT: That seemed to be the case, other than the ones that were smoldering inside the pit itself. BRIAN: "Any mining gear? "Surveying equipment?" MATT: Certainly, all sorts of it, but all of it damaged as well from what we could surmise to be a self-inflicted destruction of their own intended operation, possibly upon discovering these things. BRIAN: "Well, were you keen enough, before you were too frightened, "to check for any personal effects, "or any identifying markers on any of the bodies, "to see who they were?" MATT: See, before we had the opportunity to, we had ourselves suddenly assaulted by more of these strange creatures rising up from under the ground, biting, scratching, wrapping, and pulling us down. Managed to get away with our lives, and with the information at our disposal. ANJALI: These aren't just some kind of wild, terrible, weird creature. They have some kind of intelligence that I can't explain, I don't know that any of us can explain. They mimicked our actions. You could tell they were capable of thought, not just wild action. TRAVIS: They were no beasts. They were monstrosities, and demonic even. They came from under the ground. They would disappear into the earth and then just reappear as quickly as you please, wherever they wanted. Many of them at a time, and they moved together, coordinated, unnerving. MATT: Seeing the proximity of these creatures, too, left a few of us, bereft of our senses for an undisclosed period of time, upon which, returning to town this evening, arrived to this strange violence, in the main street thoroughfare. Connected? I don't know, but it all seems rather tricky to be happening concurrently. KHARY: To tell you the truth, I'm not sure if we all should be thanking you profusely, or putting a bullet in your head. We went up there, and have either been cursed or blessed, and I'm not sure which one. BRIAN: "What do you mean cursed?" KHARY: None of us are the same. BRIAN: "Well, I could see that." MATT: I'm going to give a real subtle eye towards Fogg, to maybe not give too much information. BRIAN: "Now, when you said you were unconscious "for an indeterminate period of time, "when you came back to consciousness, "were the fucking snakes still there?" MATT: No. BRIAN: "Even the dead ones?" MATT: The dead ones remained. BRIAN: "I've heard fucking rumors of this." He sits back in his chair. MARISHA: You've heard rumors? BRIAN: "I've heard rumors of weird, fucking shit happening "in this weird, fucking place, "but I figured that one place it wouldn't reach, "would be this fucking place." KHARY: Maybe you should tell us all about all these fucking rumors before we go fucking wandering off into your fucking rumors again. BRIAN: "Well, I can tell you for those of you staying "at the Grand Central, if the wheezy little motherfucker "who runs that place hasn't told you already, "someone's buying up fucking land deeds "in town in places where there's no gold, "and it's known there's no gold." ANJALI: Who's buying it up? BRIAN: "That's what I'm trying to get to the bottom of. "Obviously, the place I sent you to, "someone bought that property, dug on it." ANJALI: How is it not possible to find out who bought these deeds? It's got to be somewhere. The information has to be somewhere. BRIAN: "It does. I don't fucking have it. "That's what I'm paying you to find." MARISHA: We found a letter, correspondence, but it was all in Gaelic. BRIAN: "The fuck did you just say?" MARISHA: It was in Gaelic. Don't Irishman work these mines all the time? BRIAN: "George fucking Hearst," he says to himself. TRAVIS: *The** Hearst? MARISHA: *The** Hearst? BRIAN: "Only one that uses 100 Irishman in this town "to get his mining done. "You found this at the site?" MARISHA: Yeah. BRIAN: "Take this fucking head to Doc Cochran's "and see what he can make of it." MATT: I grab the head, throw it back in the sack. BRIAN: "Show no one else. "Tell no one else." MARISHA: These other land plots that you were talking about, I'm assuming you know of the others? BRIAN: "I know of a few on the outskirts of town, and that's it. "So far, the information I've been fucking getting "from my sources, which is limited, "that's the only one anyone started to dig on. "The rest are being purchased and held. "We don't know by who, and we don't know how many." MATT: All right. To the Doc, then. TRAVIS: Actually, Mr. Swearengen, if you wouldn't mind, I hate speak for the others, but the money that you gave us will, Lord willing, be put to excellent use, but we did complete what you asked, at great peril to ourselves, if we're to continue in this line of work, would it be too much to ask for your continued patronage of the church of Deadwood? BRIAN: "For the church of Deadwood?" TRAVIS: Yes sir. BRIAN: "Johnny!" You hear (quick footsteps) up the stairs. Boom, the door bursts open. Johnny comes in, and he's fucking-- "Yeah, boss?" (laughter) "A hundred dollars a week to the fucking Reverend "for as long as he should remain in the shit hole "of a godless fucking town. "For the *church**, Reverend." TRAVIS: Indeed, sir, bless you. BRIAN: "For the church." TRAVIS: God keep you, watch over you every day of your life. You are a good man. BRIAN: "And perhaps any companionship, and might I say, "the ones in this house." TRAVIS: The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. Of the flesh. ANJALI: As all of this is happening, I take the bottle of whiskey that's been on the table, and I just replenish my flask that I emptied in church. BRIAN: "Take the bottle," he says to you. To you, he says, "You wouldn't be the first shepherd to fuck a sheep." (laughter) TRAVIS: I mean, do want some? (laughter) BRIAN: No, no, no. I have plenty. So you guys can make your way out of the Gem Saloon, wherever you'd like to go. ANJALI: To Doc Cochran? MARISHA: Let's maybe travel there separately, as to not raise suspicion that we're all working together. ANJALI: I think that's a fine idea. Why don't you continue with the Reverend, and I'll go with Aloysius. MARISHA: Which reminds me, Reverend, if anybody asks, I'm doing volunteer work for you in the church. TRAVIS: That's wonderful! Volunteer work. MARISHA: If anyone asks. TRAVIS: A ruse, I understand. MARISHA: Yes. TRAVIS: Yes. KHARY: Reverend, you getting better and better at this every day. TRAVIS: Thank you, Mr. Fogg. ANJALI: Clayton, I suspect you want to travel alone. MATT: It's where I'm most comfy, usual. ANJALI: As you were. BRIAN: As you guys walk out of the Gem Saloon, Clayton, why don't you make a notice check for me. TRAVIS: Ooh, shit. MATT: Eight. BRIAN: As you walk out of the Gem Saloon, and you guys are going to head, basically, pretty much just across the street to Doc Cochran's, you turn around and you see behind the corner, the guy with the hat that's tipped low, a bowler hat tipped low. He's peering around the corner, and he's looking at Arabella. You look over at him, and he scurries away. Miriam, as you walk out of the Gem Saloon, you almost bump into another beautiful woman, who's dressed just as fine as you are. Very few in town are dressed this way. The women at the Gem Saloon are not, they're in rags, basically. You almost bump into this other woman, and she says, "Oh, I've seen you in town before." ANJALI: Why yes, I don't believe we've had the pleasure of making each other's acquaintance. What's your name? BRIAN: "My name's Celine." ANJALI: Celine, pleased to meet you. My name is Miriam. BRIAN: "And you're staying at the Bullock Hotel, did I see?" ANJALI: Why yes, just temporarily. Where do you make your home? BRIAN: "I'm across the street at the Bella Union." ANJALI: Ah! You wouldn't happen to know Joanie Stubbs, would you? BRIAN: "I work for Ms. Stubbs." ANJALI: Oh, how wonderful. BRIAN: "All of us do." ANJALI: And how is she doing? I understand that she is an acquaintance of a related cousin of mine. BRIAN: "Oh, to be honest with you, she's been-- "I don't know. Ill, strange, a recluse? "We don't really see much of her. "She stays up in her quarters, "but I'm allowed to come out once a week "to get the wares and stuff, but I'm the only one. "I try to check on her every day, "but some days she just don't want to come to the door, "so the girls and I just operate the business ourselves, "but one of the girls told me that you might have-- "You might have something that could help with this?" ANJALI: I take her hand, and I clasp it between mine. Now, darling, as long as you promise me you will stay as quiet as possible, yes, yes I do. You'll have to come see me sometime, when I'm by myself. Perhaps I can come to the Bella Union. BRIAN: "That would be preferred. "We're not really supposed to be out more than "this hour a week I go get wares "for the other girls." ANJALI: Understandable. I'll come by, perhaps pay a visit to you and Miss Stubbs. Is that all right? BRIAN: "That will be wonderful, and I think maybe "it would do her some good to see a new face in town, "especially one as gorgeous as you." ANJALI: (laughs) Now you remember, you keep your mouth shut. You keep your mouth shut about this. Thank you, and I see her walk off. BRIAN: She makes her way with her basket back toward the Bella Union. KHARY: I walk up to Miriam, and say: Well, aren't you a woman of many talents. ANJALI: If only you knew. KHARY: I got nothing but time, if you want to tell me. ANJALI: Let's pursue this friendship slowly, but for a long time. The less we tell in the beginning, the more we have to share as we go along. BRIAN: Make a notice check for me, Reverend Mason, please. TRAVIS: (snaps) You got it! Fuck! (groans) Three. BRIAN: Three? TRAVIS: Yes. BRIAN: Okay, you see pass by you, in between the buildings, the two men that were looking at you at the Bella Union. You don't hear what one of them says to the other, but the other replies and says, "Ha, preacher's a fucking drunk." Going to Doc Cochran's? Okay, who wants to knock on the door? MATT: (knocking) BRIAN: It's about 9:00am, I would say. Clayton, okay. There's a shutter that covers the door. There's a shutter that covers the window. Doc likes to either work in privacy, or sleep in the pitch black. A little bit of both, probably. Nobody comes to the door. MATT: (louder knocking) BRIAN: You knock harder? MATT: Mm-hmm. "Just a goddamn second," you hear from the inside of the shack. Out peering through the window, over small spectacles, is Doc Cochran. He looks grizzled and shitty, like he always does. You've seen him around town, and he's hiding his eyes. "Hold on a second. Goddamn fucking-- "where did I put my hat?" He's looking around, you guys can hear him through the thing. You hear rummaging through some shit. He opens the door as he's finalizing, putting his vest on, and he looks out and he says, "I saw you... I saw you through my window last night. "Get in quick, get in quick." You guys want to get in quick? ALL: Yes. BRIAN: You get in quick. You file around, his weird operating bed. He doesn't really have furniture. He drinks and heals people. There's obviously different types of medicines hanging. There's vials and jars, and everything everywhere. He pours a whiskey for himself, and he says, "I've only got half the bottle left. "Forgive me for keeping this, I've got a fucking hangover." He takes a sip. "What can I help you with?" MATT: I guess first off, out of just personal curiosity, did you see more than just us out there last night? BRIAN: "I did." MATT: You see those... once-hung outlaws we've been fighting? BRIAN: "I did." KHARY: We were wondering maybe what your explanation might be. The medical opinion. BRIAN: "Do you want my historical opinion, "or my medical opinion?" KHARY: Whatever fucking opinion you got, we'll take. BRIAN: "I've seen this sort of thing before, "in the war. "In the morning, we "buried two brothers who killed themselves, "and in the middle of the night, "they'd be back up shooting at each other again. "I never saw anything like it, "until last night." ANJALI: Do you remember anything similar about the situation there as you have here in Deadwood? BRIAN: "I don't know what caused it. "We saw it happen a few times in the war, "but nobody really had an explanation. "We had to-- "We had to mutilate those boys to "keep them down." TRAVIS: There was a fog rolling into town, a dark mist along the ground. It seemed to stop short of brighter light. Anything like that during the war, that you saw? BRIAN: "I saw the same during the war, "and I know the same now as I did then, "which is fuck all, but I can tell you, "if they were here last night, "There may be more. "It feels as if, in the air, "it feels as if something was disturbed in the universe, "but I can't quite put my finger on it." TRAVIS: We've seen some other oddities. MARISHA: Show him the head. MATT: We're on business from Mr. Swearengen, and came across some curious sights the day before, that involved a series of rather unnerving serpent-like creatures. Give him a full elaborate description of the biology of these things. While we were unable, it seemed, safely to retrieve one of the bodies of such creatures, at the very least, we could take a look at the damage it's done to some of these other miners. Case in point, and then I unveil the head. KHARY: Goddamn it, Clayton, give him the fucking head. BRIAN: "Head?" MATT: Draw out the head and give it to him. BRIAN: Is it in the sack, or you draw it out of the sack? MATT: No, I draw it out of the sack. BRIAN: Okay, so he grabbed it. MATT: Fucking excuse me for giving context. TRAVIS: Did you close the mouth? MATT: No, the mouth's the most interesting part. I push the jaw open a little more. TRAVIS: (retching) BRIAN: He grabs a cloth from the table, and he takes the head from you, and he pushes his glasses up, and he squints, and he looks at it. "Sort of a snake bite, but not one I've ever seen before." He's looking at the severed part of the neck, and he opens the mouth. He looks at it, examines it under the light, says, "The wounds are "moving inward, "and down, but it's not-- "It's as if there's several sharp--" MARISHA: You think these things crawled in these miners' mouths? BRIAN: "It would appear so, if not to kill them, "to do something else. "Did you find any inside any of them?" ANJALI: No. MATT: Unfortunately, didn't have much time to really investigate that deeper before we were attacked by some of these creatures. KHARY: These creatures don't stick around. They change form, they become one with the earth. They die, and then reconstitute themselves. It's not something that we could bring back down here for you to even examine if we wanted to. BRIAN: "I'd be afraid to look at it "in such close quarters, anyway. "I would say, you should do what we did during the war. "If someone's fucking with the dead, "they're probably doing it at the graveyard. "You been to see your sister yet?" MARISHA: No. It was on the checklist. Just haven't made it that far. How was she, Doc? Was she hurting? You made sure she wasn't hurting, right? BRIAN: "Not at the end. Not at the end there, "but she was past my fucking means, if I had any, "by the time I did get to her, I'm awfully-- "I'm awfully-- ah." He trails off, sort of solemnly. ANJALI: I reach my hand out, and I grasp hers, and I say: We go to the graveyard, we'll check on her. But we are going to the graveyard, right? MARISHA: Yeah. KHARY: This is the best worst job I've ever had. MATT: Don't disagree. BRIAN: "What kind of other ones have you had?" KHARY: Let's just talk about this one, shall we? BRIAN: "Sure," he says, and he picks up the cloth, and wraps the head around it, and hands it back to you and he says, "I don't think there's much more "I'd be able to do that." MATT: I don't think there's much more we'd be able to do with it, unless you guys have a better idea. I don't want to be carrying around this fucking thing, the rest of the day. TRAVIS: Doc, do you know anything about a bunch of Irish miners, or somebody that's buying up goldless plots of land around here. Doing mining where they shouldn't? BRIAN: "Since that son of a bitch Hearst "began his operation here, it's been the Irishmen. "So I would say, if you found Irishmen, "Hearst probably sent them." TRAVIS: Thank you, Doc. I guess we'll stop by the cemetery. BRIAN: "Wrong part of town for his men to be in, though, "all the way out there. "His operation's way on the other side of camp." TRAVIS: The other side of camp? ANJALI: Where exactly? BRIAN: The biggest mining operation in camp, where is it? On the outskirts of town, to the south, a hundred workers, 200 workers, produces $50,000 in gold a week, probably. ANJALI: Perhaps that's worth a visit, too. MARISHA: I've heard Hearst was always a man with a passion for the salt of the earth. What makes him want to pursue any other type of industry? What could he possibly be digging for? MATT: I wouldn't be putting all your interests in the public opinion of a man so wealthy. It tends to be a constructed persona. MARISHA: Coming from a wealthy family, with many people who have biases towards my own constructed persona, I think I could speak on those matters very well myself, Mr. Clay. MATT: Am I wrong? MARISHA: No. I just don't like your patronage. ANJALI: Doc, one more question for you. I take it you tend to the ladies of the town, particularly the ladies at the Gem Saloon and the Bella Union? BRIAN: "I do, exclusively." ANJALI: I've heard tell that some of the ladies at the Bella Union are particularly unwell, including Joanie Stubbs. BRIAN: "Joanie's the only one I know about who's not well. "Hasn't seen me in weeks." ANJALI: She won't see you? BRIAN: "She won't see me, "but she's always been a stubborn bitch." ANJALI: Personal opinion aside, I'm wondering if there's anything that I might be able to do. Perhaps, I could convince her to take on some kind of treatment. If you will provide me with perhaps the tools, or perhaps any particular medicines that I might be able to take her way, I can head over to the Bella Union. I've struck up a sort of friendship with a young lady by the name of Celine. BRIAN: "Yeah, I know Celine quite well. "If I knew her ailment, I'd send you along with something, "but I could tell you from what I know of Joanie Stubbs, "what troubles her could be fixed "perhaps just with a visit from someone as kind as you are." ANJALI: Thank you, then. BRIAN: He looks at the two of you, and he says, "If George Hearst were in town, "he's the kind of man that likes to make his presence known." MARISHA: Well, we won't be keeping you much longer. Thank you, Doctor. ANJALI: Thank you, Doctor. KHARY: Appreciate the information. MARISHA: You wouldn't happen to have any books on you of healing, or first aid, or alchemy, or any type of holistic medication that you would be willing to spare? BRIAN: "You're asking a grizzled old doctor "if he has any books on medication and healing?" MARISHA: Ones that he can spare. I'm sure you've committed much of this to memory. BRIAN: "What do you want to read about?" MARISHA: I'm interested in things that men are still trying to figure out. Alchemy, new means of healing things, that haven't necessarily been proven yet. I know a lot of that is very controversial in some circles. I started running out of luck in Atlanta, but I've heard rumor that you were a man of alternate means. BRIAN: He walks over to his bookshelf, and takes down a book that is old, but it's in pretty good shape, and probably not one that's been read a ton, you get the sense, and he hands it to you. As you go to take it, he puts his hand on top of yours, and he says, "I don't subscribe to much "of what's in this book, but for your sister. "I'm sorry." He hands it to you. MARISHA: Thank you. BRIAN: He looks at you, and he says, "You two look similar, "but you've got some quality she doesn't. "You've got a curiosity that probably drives you mad." MARISHA: She was always the sensible sister. BRIAN: "Ah." TRAVIS and ANJALI: Thank you, Doctor. BRIAN: "Thank you, friends." ANJALI: As we step out. TRAVIS: Well, we're already at this edge of town, early in the day. The sun's high as it'll possibly be. Any objections to just heading over? ANJALI: I wonder if I might step over to the Bella Union, just to inquire a little bit about Joanie Stubbs. I mean, weird things going on in this town, and if there's an unusual sickness, we should probably know about that, too. KHARY: Could we get a bite while you have your conversation, and then maybe head up to the graveyard after that? ANJALI: I see no reason why you shouldn't. MATT: Those of us who have already had breakfast, maybe we can kill two birds with one stone. TRAVIS: Maybe we could reconvene outside the Bella Union and then make our way to the Hearst mining camp. MARISHA: All right, well I'm going to head to the graveyard. TRAVIS: I'll join you. MATT: I will as well. ANJALI: I suppose I'm off to the Bella Union by myself. KHARY: I'll hold up the bar until you're done. ANJALI: Right. BRIAN: You guys, the graveyard's within walking distance, so it'll take you about like 15, 20 minutes to get there. You two get to the Bella Union very quickly. The door is unlocked. It's a brothel. You walk in, the inside does not reflect the outside. The inside is beautiful, with ornate garments, and beautiful rugs, and tapestries covering the windows, and beautiful art of all these beautiful naked women, and all kinds of different stuff hanging on the walls. The furniture is polished and nice, and the outside of the building is falling apart, and as you can see it's became to decay, but the inside is very well kept and taken care of, the downstairs. The second the two of you walk in the door, Celine approaches you, and she says, "My God, I didn't expect to see you so soon, "and you brought us a trick." ANJALI: (laughs) Indeed I did. This man can wear a woman out, let me tell you. BRIAN: "Oh, is that a fact, Mr. Trick?" ANJALI: Might we find somewhere that we three could speak alone? BRIAN: "I mean, yeah, "I could introduce you to the other girls, "or we could talk alone. "We've got the older one. "I'm Celine, the older one's Whitney. "The two youngers are Katie and Brittany." ANJALI: I'm going to lean and I'm just going to say: Celine, I'd like you to take us upstairs, just the two of us and you. I really just prefer to watch. BRIAN: "Absolutely," and as she's leaving the two of you, and she stops right at the bottom of the stairs, and she says, "Did you happen to bring any of your--" ANJALI: I did, my darling, but first get us upstairs. BRIAN: "Absolutely," and they walk you upstairs. She walks the two of you upstairs, and into her private chambers, where there's a bed and there's a few nice chairs sitting there. There's a tub in the corner for her to bathe, and she says, "Have a seat wherever you like." She sits down on a chair, legs spread. She's wearing a beautiful blue and white dress. She has blonde hair that's pinned back, jewelry. She looks fucking fantastic. She's probably in her mid-50s. ANJALI: Celine, before we begin, why don't you you tell me which room my Joanie is in. I really do want to check on her for my cousin. BRIAN: "Directly across the hall." ANJALI: Oh, how convenient. Can we make a little trade, my dear? BRIAN: "Of course." ANJALI: If I give you a little bit of what I have, do you think you could keep Aloysius company for a few moments? BRIAN: "Yes." ANJALI: I open up my snuffbox, and take out a small vial, I press it into her hand, and then I turn to him, and I say: You're welcome. BRIAN: She takes it, and she says, "Apologies for the fib earlier. "I don't actually use this, none of us girls do. "We don't take it for ourselves, "but it is nice if a trick gets beaten on you, "and he don't need to wake up the next morning." She puts it in her bag. ANJALI: Be careful with that one. KHARY: I'll keep that in mind. (laughter) BRIAN: As you get up, and before you've already made it to the door, she is walking towards Fogg, and unzipping the back of her dress, and she's doing it with a fervor that would tell you that she didn't have to get that vial from you to want to go on the town with this recently fucked man. (laughter) TRAVIS: ♪ Best part of waking up ♪ ♪ Is Mr. Fogg in your cup ♪ (laughter) ANJALI: Right. KHARY: This is going a lot more differently than I thought it was would. ANJALI: You started it! KHARY: Apparently I did! ANJALI: I'm just continuing all this-- I'm just "Yes, and-ing" everything, darling. BRIAN: Yep, okay. ANJALI: Can I go over to Joanie's room? BRIAN: You go across the hall to Joanie's room. You see in the crack below the door, that there's no light coming from the room. It just seems to be dark in there, and it's very quiet, it's very still. By the time you reach the doorknob or to knock on the door, you start to hear the familiar creaking and pounding of the bed against the wall in the room behind you. (Marisha and Matt laugh) ANJALI: At least that will cover up any noise that I might make. I knock gently on the door and say: Joanie. BRIAN: No answer. ANJALI: Knock a little bit louder. (knocking on table) Joanie. BRIAN: No answer. ANJALI: I test the door. BRIAN: It's unlocked. ANJALI: I step in. BRIAN: The moment you walk in, it's pretty dark, but you can see in one corner of the room, part of the drapes are moved over, and you see a single sliver of sunlight coming through, illuminating about, I would say, a quarter of the bed, and in that quarter of the bed, you see Joanie Stubbs passed out, unconscious. Next to her nightstand, you see a snuffbox. ANJALI: Is she breathing? BRIAN: She's breathing, she's passed out. ANJALI: I'm assuming that the snuffbox is full of the same thing my snuffbox is full of, or empty of it. BRIAN: Go ahead and make a notice check for me. ANJALI: Four, four again. TRAVIS: Keep going. ANJALI: Three, so 11. BRIAN: Okay, you see the snuffbox is open about this much and caught on the side of the box, you see a rubber loop, a small rubber loop that you are very familiar with, dangling out the side of the box. ANJALI: Is there anything else suspicious in the room that might tip me off to that being anything other than her being far too high for anything? BRIAN: You can't really see a whole lot in the room, other than doesn't appear that-- there's no one else in the room but it just, same thing, some furniture. ANJALI: Does it appear that she's been hurt, physically hurt, or anything, just passed out. BRIAN: No, she's naked with a sheet over her, and over pretty much all of her, and her clothes are on the ground. There's empty bottles of whiskey and stuff on the ground. It's a mess in there. It's a mess in there. ANJALI: I look down at her, and I cover her up with the sheet, cover her up. I put the rubber band back in the snuffbox and close it. I look around, and I say: Well, nothing suspicious here, just unfortunate, and I head back out of the room. BRIAN: As you're walking back out of the room, you hear rustling in the bed, and you hear, "Whitney? "Whitney, is that you?" Faint voice. ANJALI: Hi darling, is there anything that you need? BRIAN: "Who are you?" ANJALI: A friend. BRIAN: "Are you here to... work?" ANJALI: Oh, no, darling, I'm here to help. BRIAN: She sits up in the bed a little bit, and squints her eyes at the corner of light, moves her hair out of her face, and she says, "You're here to help?" Then she goes, "You got more of this?" She taps on the snuffbox next to the bed. I don't have access to any more of that, sweetheart, but I think perhaps at this moment you may have had a little too much. I'd love to have the doctor visit you, if you would let me. I know he passes no judgment on the ladies of this town. There's so much that you have to put up with, but I feel that if you take any more right now, it might be the end of you. BRIAN: She sits up in the bed and she says, "The fucking doctor (sighs). "What you doing here in Deadwood, "if not to work in a place like this?" ANJALI: My husband and I had come further west to learn more about our opportunities as we came out. He stayed behind in Cheyenne, to set up shop there, but sent me on ahead to find out more about our prospects out here. I'm a woman of many talents. BRIAN: "I don't doubt that to be true," she says. "Where are you staying?" ANJALI: At the Bullock Hotel. BRIAN: "Oh, fucking Farnum." ANJALI: Indeed, fucking Farnum. BRIAN: "Has he said anything new about the rumors?" ANJALI: What rumors? BRIAN: "Someone's buying up land deeds. "Everyone in town's been talking about it "the past few weeks, but everyone says "they all heard it from the same person." ANJALI: And who might that be? BRIAN: "That weasley motherfucker, Farnum." ANJALI: Ah, indeed. You hear anything else? You hear anything about who it might be? It's such intriguing information. BRIAN: "My suspicion's always leave me towards Tolliver, "but that's always because of our history, but "Tolliver, he does his stuff out in the open. "Just something ain't right about Farnum. "A few weeks ago when these rumors started, "I realized I don't think I could live through "another takeover of Deadwood, "and I ain't got nowhere else to go, "so I just started using some of the product "the girls use to kill the tricks that beat on them." ANJALI: There's no one beating on you, is there? BRIAN: "Sweetheart, nobody's beaten on me in a decade." ANJALI: In that case, there is stuff to live for. Do me a favor, if I send the doc, will you receive him? I promise to come visit you on the regular, if you do. BRIAN: "You're here to help?" ANJALI: I'm only here to help. BRIAN: "You can send the fucking doctor." ANJALI: I squeeze her hand and I say: I'm won't open the shades, you rest. BRIAN: "What's your name, sweetheart?" ANJALI: Miriam, Mrs. Miriam Landisman. BRIAN: "Wow, Miriam Landisman. "Did you make that up?" ANJALI: (laughs) Oh no, I'm afraid that's my given name. BRIAN: "Wow, you watch your back out there, Miriam. "This ain't a place that's too kind to women." ANJALI: Oh, I know, but again, that's why my husband sent me ahead, only because he has great faith in my many talents. BRIAN: "Or he's a fucking coward." She lays back down on the bed. ANJALI: I step out of the room, and close it, and I go over to the door to see how-- has the banging stopped? BRIAN: When get to the door, you hear the sound of wood and glass, and other objects, being thrown against the wall from the room you just came out. A single thud with an explosion, sounds like breaking glass hitting a wall and the floor. ANJALI: From Joanie's room? I go back to the door and I knock hard, I say: Joanie. BRIAN: "Yeah, come in." ANJALI: I open the door. BRIAN: You see the snuffbox she had thrown against the wall, and hit the ground, and the contents of it that shattered, and pouring on the floor of her bedroom. ANJALI: Well done, well done. BRIAN: She looks at you, she starts to cry, and she says, "Just send the fucking doctor." ANJALI: I nod, and I close the door, and I triumphantly walk over to the room where Aloysius and Celine may or may not be finished. BRIAN: Standby. KHARY: I open the door half naked, and say: Goddamn, I thought I was making noise. What the hell's going to on out there? (laughter) ANJALI: Are you finished? KHARY: Well, I guess I... lost my groove. Let's get out of here. (laughter) BRIAN: As the two of you-- ANJALI: Aloysius got his groove back! TRAVIS: The hardest work is never done. BRIAN: Celine yells back at you and she says, "Still the best I've had today!" KHARY: If I had time, I'd love to finish. I guess we ought to. ANJALI: It's up to you, I'm headed to the graveyard. KHARY: Just let me put my pants on. (laughter) BRIAN: As you put your pants on, and you start to make your way down the steps, you notice that every single one of the women in the Bella Union is looking at you with great admiration, and they look to be intelligent, they look to be, they look to have the secrets of their own, but they are all sort of looking at you like, just smiling and nodding at you, as you as you walk through the main foyer down there. ANJALI: I smile at each one who I make eye contact with, and I proudly walk out the front door, and wait for my gentlemen friend. BRIAN: As you're waiting for Mr. Fogg, are you going to try and finish up, or are you going to. KHARY: No, no, no, I'm literally putting my pants on. BRIAN: Okay, you're going to put your pants on and come down. TRAVIS: Hopping down the stairs. BRIAN: I was going to make you rate for endurance. MATT: A vigor check. BRIAN: A vigor check, okay, so. ANJALI: I think he has proved to be quite vigorous. BRIAN: All that only took about, I would say 15, 20 minutes. No offense because you didn't get to finish. You didn't get to properly, but-- KHARY: That's all right. BRIAN: It wouldn't take you two too long to catch up to them at the graveyard. They have been traveling pretty much this whole time walking up there and you've been doing this. ANJALI: Keep up, it's the sad leg, it's the sad leg. BRIAN: You guys do still have a couple of the horses which were tied to the back of the church still, I believe. So if you wanted to use those to catch up to them, you can, or you guys can stay in town, you don't have to go up with them to the graveyard, it's up to you. ANJALI: We had three in total, right? BRIAN: Correct. ANJALI: So I know how many guys took with you. MARISHA: We were walking. TRAVIS: Yeah, we were. ANJALI: Excellent, let's take a horse or two. KHARY: Absolutely. BRIAN: So you on the horseback, catch up to them right as they are cresting the hill towards the graveyard. ANJALI: Two horses? KHARY: Two horses. BRIAN: On the way to the graveyard, anything happening? Anything you guys want to discuss? MARISHA: On the way to the graveyard. TRAVIS: Would you mind if I asked, Miss Whitlock, when was the last time you spoke with your sister before she passed? MARISHA: I don't know, it'd been months, being so far away, with here out here, and us in Atlanta, correspondence was very few and far between. It picked up a little when the telegraph came, but for the most part it was handwritten letters, as soon as they could make it before she became sick. We heard from Mr. Whitlock that she wasn't doing so well. It seemed like a week later, got the word that she was gone. I honestly don't know how much time that was in between. Mail can move so slowly, it's hard to say. But the last time we heard from her, she was making do. She made our parents very proud. I guess that's what matters. TRAVIS: I know siblings can be unique situations, and pardon me if I'm prying, were you close with your sister? MARISHA: When we were children, yeah. She was my best friend. It felt like she was always trying to keep me out of trouble, while I was always trying to get us into trouble. She was arguably a much better, and much more responsible person than I was, but I guess you could say, I was the fun one. TRAVIS: You do strike me as a very energetic, intelligent, extroverted woman. Yet you're married to your sister's husband, so quickly after her death. MARISHA: She was married to ensure the future of our business. I'm from the Atlanta Livingstons, of Livingston Lumber Co., and when Mr. Whitlock was looking for someone to provide all of the substantial lumber needs in order to build the railroad coming out west, well, my father took quite an opportunity to put a little bit of insurance on that business partnership. TRAVIS: I see. BRIAN: You would know the name Livingston, as the same way, and the same sort of weight, that the name Hearst or the name Rockefeller. MARISHA: So very much of this arrangement is based on political and financial exploits. When she passed, my parents had very strong means of suggestion and persuasion, to get me to come out here and continue her charge. TRAVIS: Strong means? MARISHA: They're very rich and powerful people. They know how to talk, and to talk a big game. They never would have, I think would have forced me if I would have protested strongly against them. But, to be quite honest, I would have taken any chance to get out here and being close to my sister, dead or alive, and when she died something just didn't feel right. Something didn't sit well inside of me. I don't care about my namesake, or love, or a husband, that I can feel fulfilled in, or who's going to call me beautiful, or take care of me. I don't care about any of that. If it means being married to some wealthy aristocrat to get what I need, to do the research, to maybe bring her back, I'll take advantage of any situation like that. TRAVIS: I'm sorry, did you say "bring her back"? MARISHA: Well, you heard the doctor. The stories, the stories of the men in the war that came back to life. Brothers seeking out other brothers. TRAVIS: I did. MARISHA: Those stories were always brushed off to the insanities of the war, and madness brought by the tragedies that these soldiers laid eyes upon, but what if they were real? What if there was something to all of that? TRAVIS: I stop. Mrs. Whitlock, you saw what I saw last night. You saw the various states of decay on the faces of those men. Are you saying that if you could have your sister return in the same way, you would want her to look like that? MARISHA: Of course not. It's the ultimate question though, isn't it? The universe, and nature, and God apparently demands balance, good versus evil. Maybe that's the horrific side of this type of mystical magic, and means of bending fate in the world. MATT: How are you so sure, you're choosing the right side, anyway? I turn around and face both of them. MARISHA: Bless you. KHARY: Excuse me. MARISHA: Plague. KHARY: Hell of a story. (laughter) MATT: You all both seem so eager to jump into bed with whatever fate seems to have dealt us as of late. How are you so sure the side you're picking's the right one? TRAVIS: I don't, I have faith. I have no assurances, only what I know to be true. MATT: Was it God that came to you and gave you that bolt of divine, smiting energy? TRAVIS: Well, of course, what else would it have been? MATT: If we all share the same dreams, I'm wondering if we're sharing this same source of... whatever this is, whatever that was, whatever you're looking for, whatever's causing all that. That ain't God. That wasn't God. What you did, can't say for sure, but... if it's what these folks have all been invoking, pretty sure that's not God, either. God don't play cards. Just be careful. MARISHA: Are you a man who believes in divine evil, just as much as he believes in divine righteousness? You think this is the devil himself, or something else? MATT: I ain't a religious man, not in a long time. I've seen enough people be animals out there, to know that if God made us in his image, God's every bit as feral as the things he created. No offense, Reverend. TRAVIS: Of course not, none taken. MATT: Anyway. BRIAN: About this time, you two would be catching up to them. If you want to trot alongside them, or dismount, you guys still have a few yards 'til you're on the graveyard, but you guys are slowed down, obviously. ANJALI: I'd happily dismount. I don't want to ride on a graveyard. TRAVIS: (startled noise) (rifle cocking) (laughter) TRAVIS: My apologies, sorry ANJALI: Reverend, you're getting better and better with that every day (chuckles). TRAVIS: Thank you, ma'am. ANJALI: Well, I have good news. Joanie Stubbs is experiencing nothing suspicious, except for a severe case of melancholy, but I did get some information from Farnum. More assurance that someone has been buying up these plots of land. Someone who perhaps has intention of mining them, perhaps not, and she confirmed the information. MARISHA: Everyone seems to be talking about Farnum quite a lot. MATT: So we put the squeeze to him, and see what else he might have that's interesting. ANJALI: I think perhaps that might be a good case for the gentlemen to step in. TRAVIS: It certainly won't be difficult. He is not the most imposing figure in Deadwood. MATT: That's okay, I can find a way. BRIAN: (like Farnum) Fuck you, guys. (laughter) KHARY: All right. TRAVIS: We'll all make our way up. ANJALI: And here we are. BRIAN: All right, so as you make your way up. TRAVIS: I'll lead the way because I know where the plot is. BRIAN: Miriam, give me a notice check. ANJALI: Four. BRIAN: Okay, you can or cannot decide to let Aloysius Fogg know that his fly is still down. (laughter) ANJALI: Mr. Fogg, as proud as you may be of your exploits, I'm afraid you're being slightly immodest for, perhaps, a graveyard situation. TRAVIS: (laughs) KHARY: Much obliged. (laughter) BRIAN: New pants, who dis? (laughter) TRAVIS: Oh my god. BRIAN: Okay, as you guys approach the graveyard, it's a beautiful fall day. The sun is high in the sky, yet there's an eerie fog laying low to the ground around the graveyard. It's just more of a very thin fog. MARISHA: But it's a sunny day? BRIAN: It's a sunny day. It's just hovering about halfway up each of the gravestones. It's just sort of-- MATT: What's the smell of the vicinity. Anything strange? BRIAN: Smell in the vicinity? You smell trees. You smell mountain air. You don't really smell anything out of the ordinary where you're at, no. TRAVIS: I've walked through area many times. Anything immediately catch my eye, disturbed earth? BRIAN: Are you guys right there in the graveyard? MATT: I think so, yeah, BRIAN: You can make me an investigation check, Reverend Mason. TRAVIS: Yes sir, it would be my pleasure. That was a two. BRIAN: That's a two, okay. You notice that there seems to be the exact amount of gravestones that were here the last time you were here, which was a couple days ago. TRAVIS: We're good, we can turn around and get out of here. BRIAN: Does anyone else want to make an investigation check? KHARY: No, I'm just fascinated with the fog. It just makes me curious. BRIAN: Why don't you investigate the fog? TRAVIS: Touch it, invite it into your soul. MARISHA: Breathe deeply. ANJALI: Oh. KHARY: Six. ANJALI: Six? KHARY: Yeah. And six. ANJALI: Ooh! TRAVIS: C'mon. KHARY: And a three. Yeah, I been noticing things. BRIAN: Okay. You bend down and get a closer look at the fog. It appears to be moving in a spherical motion, these pockets of it are just moving around the areas that they are stationed in, and you reach your hand down, and it goes through the fog, but the fog does not move, so you take your hand back out. The fog does not move. You swipe at it. The fog does not move, or part, or separate. It just acts as if your hand isn't there. It's not harming your hand. Nothing happens to your hand. TRAVIS: Does it move with the air current? BRIAN: It just is not affected by the air current, or the movement, or the touch from your hands. KHARY: And I think of myself: There you are. It's been a long time. BRIAN: Clayton, make a notice check for me. MATT: Five. BRIAN: You watched him put his hand through the fog. You watched him ponder something, and you took note with it. Arabella, did you already do an investigation check? MARISHA: No. BRIAN: Why don't you do one for me? MARISHA: Two sixes. Six. BRIAN: Okay. MARISHA: Six. BRIAN: Let's go again. MARISHA: Five, 17. BRIAN: As you are walking through the gravestones, your dress is there, the fog is not moving around you, you're just sort of passing through it. It's not being affected by you, and as you round one of the aisles and get to the second one, you see that there's a gravestone in that second aisle, that has no fog in front of it. Do you want to walk up to it? When you walk up to it, it's a wooden gravestone. It's a grave... wood. It's a dead wood. It's a grave plank. A grave plank. (laughter) ANJALI: Are you okay, sir? BRIAN: It's not a grave *stone**. As you walk up to this gravestone with no fog, you can see very harshly sketched onto the wood stake that's in the ground. It says "C. Whitlock." Reverend Mason, make me another investigation check, please. We'll come back to Arabella. TRAVIS: It would be my pleasure. Double ones. BRIAN: Double ones, okay. Right exactly where you're standing is covered in fog, but you see the fog dissipate, move behind you. Beneath you, you see the ground has been disturbed. It's been recently disturbed, it looks like. The ground at your sister's grave, looks recently enough disturbed, because she was buried not too long ago. The grave you're standing in front of, the gravestone reads, "James Butler "'Wild Bill' Hickok," and you fall into the grave. TRAVIS: (surprised noise) BRIAN: You, standing in front of your sister's grave, what would you like to do? MARISHA: I say: Hey there, sis. And then in furious rage, I just drop to my knees and I start scooping the loose dirt with my hands and I start digging through the loose dirt. ANJALI: Do we see either of these things happening? BRIAN: Yes, if you guys were standing there by them, you're not investigating some other part of the graveyard. You do, you see, you definitely, anybody that seen him that was, it was fairly quiet, he was sucked into the ground the second that he took a step forward. The rest of you, unless you were looking in his direction, it looks like the Reverend fucking is gone, unless anybody saw it, that was actually looking toward him. TRAVIS: The rapture. ANJALI: Well, I've been trying to keep tabs on him, to make sure he doesn't die. BRIAN: You absolutely saw him drop about six feet into the ground. ANJALI: So I immediately just scream at the top of my lungs: Reverend, Reverend are you okay?! BRIAN: You're in the dark. You're covered by dirt, and you're alone in that grave. TRAVIS: Surrounded by dirt? (mumbling and grunting) Could I try and climb my way, push earth. BRIAN: Yeah, yeah, the dirt didn't cave back in. You're in a hole. The dirt didn't cave back in on top of you. No, sorry, no, you're just in a hole that you fell through, and there is an empty wooden box in there. You are alone at the bottom of that grave. TRAVIS: On top of said wooden box, or is wooden box open? BRIAN: The wooden box is open, and half of you is in it, and half of you ain't. TRAVIS: Is there anything else in the wooden box with me? BRIAN: There's a hat. TRAVIS: *Just** a hat? BRIAN: Just a hat, and it's fairly new. TRAVIS: Ah, I'm down here! ANJALI: I'm very carefully, because of the fog, I am testing the ground as I move towards him. Keep talking, keep talking. TRAVIS: I'm in a, I fell down a hole, and there's a box, and-- oh god, is this a coffin? There's a hat down here! ANJALI: As he keeps talking. KHARY: I go and I grab Arabella, I'm like: What are you doing? MARISHA: Leave me be, what? KHARY: The Reverend, what are you doing? The Reverend needs us. TRAVIS: I reach for the hat. I pick it up. BRIAN: Okay. TRAVIS: I turn it over and look at it. BRIAN: It's a cowboy hat. It looks like it's-- outside of the little bit of dirt on it, from being down there, it's fairly new and not weathered at all. From the photographs and stuff that you've seen, that all of you have seen growing up of Wild Bill Hickok, it's not his hat. TRAVIS: So it's dark in here? BRIAN: It's dark, but you have light coming down from above, but at the bottom, it's pretty dark. TRAVIS: I have some matches in my pocket, and I take out a match and I strike it up. Does it illuminate anything else in the box, or on the walls, or I don't know, any fucking-- BRIAN: The box is empty. At the bottom, there's some dust, and it looks like sort of some ashy material. Other than that, there looks to be some scratch marks on the inside of the lid for the coffin. There appears to be a lot of scratch marks. TRAVIS: Mm-mm. Mm-mm. KHARY: All right, I'm leaning down. ANJALI: Yeah, we've gotten to him. KHARY: Yeah, yeah, we're leaning down. Somebody hold my other hand, so we can pull him up here. ANJALI: Clayton. TRAVIS: (scared) There are scratch marks inside the coffin. MATT: Give me your goddamn hand and get out. TRAVIS: There's a hat! ANJALI: Reverend, listen to my voice, and come give us your hands. TRAVIS: Okay. ANJALI: Give us your hand. BRIAN: Who's reaching for him? Who's reaching for him? ANJALI: Those two, and I'm-- MARISHA: I'll hold onto Miriam, then you. We're chaining, a human chain. BRIAN: Everybody make a strength check. MARISHA: Oh shit. This is not going to be good. ANJALI: Oh, I don't like strength at all. MARISHA: Just straight strength? BRIAN: Yeah. MATT: Five. MARISHA: Ooh, five. TRAVIS: Five. ANJALI: Four. KHARY: I got a six. TRAVIS: Keep going. KHARY: And a four. BRIAN: Okay. TRAVIS: Five. BRIAN: Five. All of you start trying to grab. Who's actually holding his hand? MATT: That'd be me. BRIAN: That'd be you. Okay, so it's going to be probably you, you, you, and then you. You guys are pulling, you're getting, and he's slipping. He seems incapable for his size, and you know, how good looking he is. He seems quite a incapable, so he's trying to help, and ruining it, but then you guys are able to get him successfully out of the pit, and then you crawl the last-- TRAVIS: I throw the hat out. (panting) There was no body in Wild Bill's grave. There's just that hat, and there's, like, some ashy stuff, and oh god, there were claw marks on the inside of the lid. Lid was open just, looked like maybe fingernails. Is that possible? MARISHA: Ashes? TRAVIS: Yeah, like ash. MARISHA: He was burned? TRAVIS: Was there a lot of it, or just a little? BRIAN: It just sort of lined the bottom of it, about a half an inch of it. TRAVIS: Yeah, a fair amount. MARISHA: All right, well, I'm glad you're safe, and then I go back over to the grave, and I continue my insane-- ANJALI: What's going to on with you, come on? TRAVIS: What the fuck? ANJALI: We all walk over to her, I suppose, and grab onto her hands. MARISHA: Just doggy paddling. KHARY: Listen, we're all trying to try to figure out what's happening between the living and the dead, but if you want to do something, maybe we can grab a shovel, but let's talk about this first. MARISHA: All right, I'm willing. You notice there's a there's fog around these graves, but not hers. Why not hers? Why is it open? TRAVIS: I don't know. I guess we'll help you dig, fine. KHARY and ANJALI: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. KHARY: Can't we just talk about this for a minute? What happened the last time we started dealing with dead bodies. TRAVIS: I'm just curious if there's anything down there? I mean, Wild Bill's been dead for a hot second, nothing but a hat. That's not his hat, whose is it? ANJALI: I think we've lost the Reverend and Arabella. TRAVIS: Who's got a drink? MARISHA: Miriam, you have a drink, right? ANJALI: Always, I start passing out a drink. MATT: While this is all happening, I'm just keep a very keen eye on the perimeter of the graveyard. ANJALI: Are there any other gravemarkers that are only wood? BRIAN: Some of them are wood, some of them are stone. It's a pretty rickety graveyard. A person a day was typically known to be killed in Deadwood, so some people have stones, and some people have markers, and some don't. There's just sort of like, they're just buried. ANJALI: The hooded figure, the one that ran off. Do we-- Do any of you have any-- This is crazy, but is there any chance. I mean, if Wild Bill came to life, he certainly would be the leader of something. No? MARISHA: I also find it very, fairly interesting that Wild Bill was known to be quite a good marksman in his day, of course. TRAVIS: What are you suggesting, that Wild Bill Hickok climbed out of his grave, and is now, what, a ringleader of the undead? ANJALI: After what we've seen, I don't know. Stranger things have happened. KHARY: Anything's possible at this point. MARISHA: If you're looking for skilled individuals, without a mind of their own, he'd be one that I would think of. I don't know. Why would his grave be empty? Why would he come back to life, and not my sister? MATT: Looking at the grave that Reverend had fallen into, there is no fog around that grave, either? BRIAN: When he walked up to it, the fog moved, and then he fell through. MATT: Right. ANJALI: Can he tell us, is that something that we would know at this point? This fog seems to be sentient-- MARISHA: Selective. ANJALI: In some way, and selective. KHARY: It's not the first time I've seen this kind of fog. MATT: Oh, well, please do, pray tell, and give us information about your previous experience. KHARY: It's been a long time. I-- It was during the war. A lot of us decided that we had a chance to free ourselves from from the owner that had kept our family for a few generations. I decided to strike out on my own direction. I was frantic, I was running, I didn't know which way to go, but it was the wrong direction. I was about to be caught. I was surrounded, when a fog very much like this, rolled in, and stopped, and stayed. They were right there in front of me, but they couldn't see me. And from that day on, I left my old slavemaster's name, and I've been a Fogg ever since. I don't know what this fog is, it might be a foe, but it's been a friend to me. MARISHA: Wow! ANJALI: Perhaps that's why, if it is a friend, perhaps that's why the fog opened up over your sister's grave, so you could see her. But see her the way she is, not the way that you are intending for her to be. MARISHA: It's just not fair. ANJALI: Very little in life is, my dear. KHARY: I'm sorry. MARISHA: I'm sorry, too. It seems like we all share similar taste for pain in our lives, and on this, any pain that we chose, and if this fog is a friend, what does that say about us? Is it continuing to move around these two as well? BRIAN: Anyone who touches it or walks through it. MARISHA: It parts? BRIAN: It's unaffected. MARISHA: It's unaffected. TRAVIS: Anyone? BRIAN: It only moved for you, and you fell through. ANJALI: Yeah, that was not such a great roll, for you, so that was not a positive situation. KHARY: But it was trying to tell-- ANJALI: Yeah, it did give us information. KHARY: Yes. MARISHA: And it kept you safe. KHARY: It showed you your sister. TRAVIS: Can I start walking away from them, just a couple steps? BRIAN: You can. TRAVIS: What does the fog do when I move? BRIAN: It moves around you, for about five feet. ANJALI: Reverend? TRAVIS: Mm-hmm? ANJALI: I'm sorry to be this curious, or this forward, but is there anything about you that we don't know, as a man of the cloth? Perhaps, something that you haven't necessarily shared with the general public. There seems to be something different about you, different than all the rest of us unfortunates. TRAVIS: I'm seeing that as well. No, not that I'm particularly aware of that would apply to this scenario. Ideas? ANJALI: I turn to Clayton, because you've been awfully quiet, and you're usually the one that I trust the most out of this crazy crowd. MATT: I'm myself, a bit confused by that statement. I mean, if anyone's going to be most interested in weird shit, it'd probably be Miss Arabella here. KHARY: Maybe this hat that you found is some sort of clue. It's the one thing that seems to be out of place. TRAVIS: Yes, the hat, the hat. I remember Wild Bill's hat. It very, stood out, plumage and the like. I saw it in photos and drawings. The hat was not his. BRIAN: Roll another notice check for me, please. Do you have the hat in your hands, still? TRAVIS: No, I threw that shit. BRIAN: You did, you did. TRAVIS: Eight, exploding into 12. BRIAN: Okay, you know, now that you've sort of gotten your wits back about you from falling in, and you've looked at the hat briefly, but you do remember seeing in small engraving on the inside of the brim of the hat, the initials DC. MARISHA: DC? ANJALI: What's Doc's, Doc Cochran, yeah. TRAVIS: I saw initials, the DC inside the brim. I mean, the name Doc Cochran comes to mind, but that, it wouldn't be the doc, right? ANJALI: Or it could be. MARISHA: There are only so many letters in the alphabet, it could have been anybody's information. MATT: How deep is that grave? BRIAN: Six feet. MATT: Six feet. I'm going to retrieve that hat. TRAVIS: I took it out with me, and threw it on the ground. MATT: Oh, you did throw it out? All right. BRIAN: It's on the ground, yeah. MATT: Okay, I thought it was dropped inside, sorry. BRIAN: You can just grab it, yeah. KHARY: Wait a minute. ANJALI: Didn't Doc Cochran tell us to come to the graveyard in the first place? KHARY: When we knocked on the door, when he was rummaging around, didn't he wonder where his hat was? I'm pretty sure he did. MARISHA: I pull out the book that Doc Cochran gave me, and I flip to the opening front cover. Are there any initials, or writing on the inside? BRIAN: Not outside of the text of the book. TRAVIS: So the fog parts where I move, and there is none above her sister's grave. I mean, look, I-- hmm. Hmm! Father, give us some guidance. Surely, when one of your own is laid to rest, we are to honor that rest, but the fog. MATT: Sure-- ANJALI: Yeah, yeah, yeah. KHARY: Can I go to the bar? MATT: Beat me to it! KHARY: I need a refill, anyway. BRIAN: Go to the bar. See the bartender and spend a poker chip, to get some information. MARISHA: Come on, Mr. Fogg. IVAN: Hello, Aloysius. KHARY: Evening, Bar. IVAN: So, what are you interested in knowing about? KHARY: Well, I'd love know a little something about this fog in this graveyard. IVAN: Fog, funny thing about fog, it covers everything that's around it. KHARY: Almost everything. IVAN: Oh, what do you mean? KHARY: Well, it didn't cover the grave of Arabella's sister-- IVAN: Mm-hmm. KHARY: -- and it seemed to open up and reveal a grave, of Wild Bill Hickok, to the Reverend. IVAN: Mm-hmm. KHARY: And we found a hat. IVAN: A hat? KHARY: With the initials DC. IVAN: Well, you found a hat with DC on it, and there seems to be some fog that's skewering two different graves that are laid out. That, to me, sounds like those two are connected in some particular way, and if there's results in one, you may find a similar result with the other. Now, is there anything else you'd like to know? KHARY: Yeah, there's a whole shit load I'd like to know. (laughter) IVAN: Come back to me when you're ready for another one. MARISHA: Woo! KHARY: Well, that's my chip. BRIAN: Now, for those of you that decide to spend a chip to talk to the bartender, you are not obligated to share that information with anyone. You can keep it to yourself, or you can tell anyone what you were told. It's up to you. KHARY: Interesting. BRIAN: Mr. Fogg. KHARY: Well, I think I'm going to hold on to the information for a bit, just because I'm not sure how Miss Annabelle's going to take this information. BRIAN: Arabella, yeah. KHARY: Arabella, I'm sorry. Arabella's going to to take this information, but I think maybe I'll mention it to some of the others a little bit later on. BRIAN: Okay, what are the rest of you doing? Are you still digging through the dirt? Are you guys, what are you guys doing? ANJALI: I don't know if there's any more information for us here, for now. MATT: At the very least, we have the Doc's hat, it seems. We could inquire as to maybe who he was out drinking so heavily with the night before, who may have taken his hat, and if that doesn't lead us to much of a direction, we do know that this son of a bitch Farnum has peeping eyes and wandering ears, and maybe with a stronger hand to put against his shoulders, he'd be interested in sharing any sort of connections with the Hearsts, and these outside exterior lots, or maybe somebody else seen with this hat, the night before. KHARY: Can we check and see if there's any digging tools around this. TRAVIS: Shovels, picks. KHARY: Shovels, picks. BRIAN: Based on the investigation, and notice rolls, you guys did, you would have seen those sooner. Even through the fog, you could have seen stuff like that. The fog wasn't big enough, or thick enough to not be able to see an object that size. What do you guys want to do? KHARY: This grave was clearly, somebody used tools to dig this thing up. BRIAN: Wild Bill's grave? KHARY: Yeah. BRIAN: You're not sure. KHARY: We can't tell from the digging. ANJALI: I mean, it certainly looks like, it was wide open. KHARY: Right. ANJALI: It was wide open, it wasn't like something clawed its way out, so we do have that information. MARISHA: I don't know. ANJALI: If we don't have anything else to do here right now, I suppose we should begin our journey back. I think your idea seemed quite clever. TRAVIS: If you don't mind, I'll make my way over to her sister's grave, just see what happens with my fog separation, getting closer to that plot. MARISHA: I stay nearby. BRIAN: As you walk over to the grave, the fog stays where it is. It does not go back over and cover the grave. MARISHA: What does it mean? TRAVIS: Do you still want to see? MARISHA: I don't know. It's-- TRAVIS: It's up to you. MARISHA: Seeing her in any condition, it's just been an all-consuming thought piercing into my brain, ever since I got word of her death, but the insight from Mr. Fogg, of fog being a protector. Does it not want to protect my sister? Or does it want to protect us? Or, are those two things mutually exclusive, or have any relation? TRAVIS: I can't speak to what the fog wants, but do you know what your sister died of? MARISHA: I was told she had the plague, pox then. TRAVIS: It was not a... pleasant sight. MARISHA: I don't know. I asked if they would keep her out of the grave, so that I could attend her funeral, but she was already buried. They said wanted to get her in the ground as quickly as possible, as to not spread any ailments. ANJALI: An impatience takes over me. Look, if we're going to do this, then let's just do this. Dig her up, pull out your guns. MARISHA: All right. ANJALI: If you can bear for us to kill your sister a second time, then do what you will, but if this is too much for you, if you're going to to do some crazy, weird, undead, occult witchery, then I might shoot you myself. MATT: I immediately pull one of my pistols out, and cock it. I can get behind that role. MARISHA: If either of you, or any of you see anything, that you believe is going to make me a liability, and you're going to put me down, well for god's sake, just fucking do it, because there's nothing keeping me here. MATT: I didn't see anything yet. TRAVIS: I'll help you. MARISHA: I go over to grave, and I grab the makeshift cross, that's been hammered in, and I yank it out, and I start using her grave marker to dig. BRIAN: You two both are digging? ANJALI: I have my gun out. MARISHA: Just tears streaming down my face the whole time. BRIAN: So, you get about three feet down, and you hear the familiar thud of wood on wood. Would you say you were the primary digger? And you're assisting? Okay, as you move the dirt to the side from the coffin, you see that the door to the coffin is cracked, and it's split at the bottom. If you keep digging, you can see that other piece of it to the side of the coffin. Do you want to examine it? MARISHA: Yes. BRIAN: Make an investigation check for me. ANJALI: The guns are out. MARISHA: Six. BRIAN: The top part of the coffin that's broken off, the splintered piece has scratches on the inside of it. The coffin itself, containing your recently deceased sister... is empty. TRAVIS: Oh fuck. BRIAN: And that's where we'll end. (yelling and laughter) KHARY: Okay! TRAVIS: Shit! Well, I'm glad we dug. KHARY: I'm glad we dug, too. Good job, good job. BRIAN: You guys did fantastic.