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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 3547540" data-attributes="member: 8530">Chapter One-sixty-five, “An Anguished Prisoner”, Thursday, June 15th, 3:30 P.M. Once the danger is past, Minerva and Nakomo attempt to help Mr. Harker. Nakomo has some healing skills and uses these in addition to a heal spell. "The smoke will make the spell weaker," Harker managed to say. "But it'll help until the doctor gets here. Thank you." Chester says, "According to Kate, your belt buckle hides who you are. Let's see." Chester removes the belt from the fake Cole Rixton. Rixton remains the same. Things are quiet after that. The silence is then broken when they then hear gunshots ring out from downstairs. Jake sighs, "Not again." Still holding his long barrel Colt he bounds down the stairs, hoping Katherine did not enter the building. Jake sees Marshall Berg at the base of the stairs holding a smoking gun. The red wolf that had earlier hidden beneath the staircase is lying dead at his feet. The Marshall looks up towards Jake and says "It...it charged at me. I had no choice." Jake nods. "Some days you have no choice. Nice shot Marshal Berg." Jake keeps his gun pointed at the wolf and kicks it just to make sure it is dead. Then he glances around the room to see if anything else is amiss. The only other thing living in the room is the wolverine, which is still hiding up on the wall on top of the stuffed buffalo head. In a lower voice to Berg Jake says, "There were two of them in coffins upstairs. Deputy Martin lead the group up there and took care of them. Mr. Harkins has a bad knife wound though." He walks over to the dead man on the floor and kicks his pistol out of hands reach, though it seems obvious the man should be quite dead. Jake did not know what to believe any more. "Thanks," Berg replies and then heads upstairs to confer with the Deputy. Jake notices out the window that Helen Barker is guarding the prisoner. "Now what are we going to do with you?" He says to the animal. "I do not recall this town having a wolverine catcher. No need to shoot you if you cause no harm." The wolverine appears content up in his perch. when Berg is out of sight, he begins to look over Koontz to see if he has anything interesting about him. Jake keeps an eye on the critter and his gun drawn. Jake finds that Koontz has an older Colt 44-caliber model, a 1860 design single-action cap-and-ball percussion revolver with an 8-inch barrel used in the early days of the Civil War. The rounds in the chamber however do not look to be the standard issue for the weapon. Jake takes the pistol and puts it in one of the large outside pockets of his duster. He reloads his weapons. Finally he finds a cloth to haphazardly cover the dead body with. A crowd begins to gather. Berg returns outside and takes Clanton off to the Town Jail, leaving Helen and Chester in charge of dispersing the crowd and investigating what is going on. Deputy Sheriffs Frank Leslie and Dave Nagle arrive on the scene and demand to know what has happened with their friend's store. Jake moves to the doorway and waits for an opportune moment to leave the store, causing as little notice and commotion as possible he blends into the crowd. He heads back to the Lucky Lady. Kate went toward the Eatons, pounding on the door when she arrived. She tells him what has transpired. Kate returns with Doctor Eaton. The Doctor is led upstairs and begins to check Harker's wounds. He calls for a wagon to bring the man over to his office. "I'll take care of that," Kate said. On her way out she stopped and whispered to Minerva, "I'm going to stop by the jail and make sure Clanton doesn't have anything he can escape with." Kate went downstairs and saw Grant Keebler moving past the crowd. She stopped him and asked if he would bring a wagon to move Mr. Harker. When he agreed, she went over to the town jail. The streets around here were quiet with everyone gathering at the Taxidermy Shop to find out what had happened. Minerva waits for the room to empty and then she and Nakomo conduct a thorough search of the coffins and the room. When they are finished she sprinkles holy water on the coffins. They go downstairs and do another thorough search of the Taxidermy shop. She sends Nakomo home and makes her way to the Lucky lady for a stiff drink. Kate stepped into a quiet alley where she wouldn't be seen and again cast the Detect magic cantrip. When she stepped inside the jail she used the newly enhanced vision to make sure Clanton had nothing else magical on him, and that there wasn't anything magical in the room that would allow him to escape. Eduardo Rodriguez is guarding the prisoner, Berg having returned to the site of the battle. Kate concludes from looking at Clanton that he either has nothing magical or if he had something it's magic was permanently negated by Harker's smoke. Upon seeing her enter Clanton gets up from the bench where he was seated. He leans against the bars and asks, "Mrs. Kale, do you know what happened to...those upstairs?" She replies, "Did you consider the ones upstairs friends, Mr. Clanton? Ones such as they have bitten me and tried to drain me of blood, and another tried to drain my life away with a touch. Why would you be concerned for such creatures?" He states emphatically, "I need to know. What has become of them?" Kate looked at Clanton. "Deputy, is it all right to tell him, or would you prefer he be told later? At least as much as I know? Eduardo says, "Berg hasn't had a chance to speak to him yet. The prisoner has already asked for his lawyer, Fisk, so the Marshal didn't expect him to be very forthcoming until his lawyer is present." Kate turns back to the prisoner and says , “Before I tell you Mr. Clanton, I'd like to know why you need to know so badly." Clanton walks away from the bars and says, "Never mind, you keep your secrets. I'm sure I'll find out soon enough once my lawyer gets here." She answers, "I can tell you this much Mr. Clanton; there was only one up there by the time I arrived with Doctor Eaton. And that one was posing no threat to the people in the room." Clanton sits down in the bench inside of the cell and buries his head in his hands and starts to sob and mutters to himself between cries. Kate can barely make out the anguished phrase "...supposed to protect you Billy.." "Who's Billy?" Kate pulled a chair over and sat in it not far from the cell. "Mr. Clanton, I've been in a few situations where I didn't have any good choices. I'm guessing you were in one of those. I don't know everything that's been going on, but I'm probably a more sympathetic ear than you're likely to find after your lawyer gets here. Would you like to talk about it? Would I be endangering the case to listen to him, Deputy?" Clanton screams at Kate, "Leave me alone. You and your friends have done quite enough already!" Kate put the chair back. "I have to wonder if you really understand what was up there." Without waiting for an answer she went to stand with Eduardo and spoke quietly. "Will you be able to hold him at all?" Eduardo says, "I believe so. His brother Phinney is in prison right now for financially backing Frank Stilwell's branch of the Cowboy Gang. Ike here and his brother William would probably be in prison with them except the two were both reported killed at the hands of Wyatt Earp and his gang last March and April." She says, "He probably went underground when Wyatt started after them and took advantage of the multiple deaths among the Cowboys. He was using a magical disguise, so he's probably been living under it for weeks. Are you going to need me or any of the others here, Deputy?" Eduardo replies, "Not that I know of. As long as the Marshal knows where to find you that should be okay." "All right. After the mess is cleaned up I'll either be at home, the El Parador, or the Lucky Lady." She quietly left the jail and went back to the Taxidermist shop. Most the crowd has now been dispersed. Dick Lester's hearse is parked outside and he and his two gravediggers are collecting the three bodies from inside, appropriating three of the empty first floor caskets to carry them in. Kate sees Marshal Berg talking to the newspaper reporter Chumbley and catches part of Berg's conversation ".....because Cook was upset about his saloon getting shot up last night by one of the men rumored to be living here. Jonathan Harker is Cook's new bodyguard, he and his cousin Boston are providing security at the poker tournament, so Cook brought him along for protection when they accompanied the Deputy to investigate." With Doctor Eaton there she hadn't had a chance to check over the upstairs room for magic. Chester was alone there, so she stepped just inside the door and recast the Dispel Magic cantrip. She heads upstairs and casts the spell, finding nothing magical in the second floor room. Kate sat down for a few moments as Chester filled her in on what had happened upstairs, including the body that looked like their friend, but they suspected was not even though they hadn't managed to get the appearance to change. She was tired of her friends dying. The disguises had often been of people she cared about and it was only getting worse. "I'm going to the furniture store to see if Mr. Rixton is there." Chester says, "OK, Kate. There's not much more you can do around here. I hope this wasn't Cole." He pauses, then adds, "Thanks for taking care of Harker. He would have died if you hadn't shown up. I can handle things from here." Chester goes downstairs to keep anyone from interrupting Nakomo and Minerva's search. He searches behind the counter to find any clues as to what was going on Outside she again slipped past the crowd, and headed toward her friends store. Katherine arrives at Rixton's Furniture to find the building locked although she hears sounds from inside. Kate slipped around the building and looked for a window she could peek in. Something had been going on today, and she wasn't prepared to deal with an enemy on her own. Looking through a window on the southeastern side of the building she peers into his workroom. Cole Rixton is inside working on a piece of furniture, smoothing out the edges with a plane. Above the waist he does not have his usual suit, shirt and tie but is just wearing a sleeveless cotton undershirt. The sun is shining through the windows and the sun is shining on his arms as he works. Kate then notices bite marks on his neck. "Oh damn." Kate exclaims. She turned and went into the El Parador. She had not seen her teacher for a few days, but that was her own fault. She looked around the main room quickly then went upstairs into the magical rooms. Gonzales's rooms are unoccupied. In the workshop Kate notices notebooks with pages of meticulous notes in Ginnie's handwriting next to various ongoing projects and experiments. She states, "Damn it. All I need is a dispel magic. I have to get back to my own studies." She took a quick look at the notes, hoping there might be a clue as to where he teacher was. While Kate is working Ginnie hurries in and heads to the workroom to update the experiments and notes. "Ginnie," Kate said with relief and wrapped her arms around her girl. She took an extra moment just to enjoy having Ginnie there and still for a moment. "I'm sorry I had leave school again today, the same thing as the last few days." She filled Ginnie in on the last couple hours. "With Mr. Tomlinson away and Mr. Harker hurt, I'd hoped our teacher could help me with a dispel for Mr. Rixton. I'm not even sure he needs it, but he's been bitten. Since he was standing in the sun I suspect they've touched his mind." Ginnie pauses and says, "That would make sense, they would need to be able to control him in order to prevent two people with the same face from walking around town simultaneously. Our teacher is still out at the ranch, protecting it from Wyatt Earp. But this sounds more like something you would need clerical magics for instead of wizard magics." Kate answers, "Maybe." She sat down on the edge of the fountain and took a deep breath. "I'll head over to the Lucky Lady in a minute; I'm just tired. Minerva is still barely more than a novice, like me. I hope she can do what we need. And maybe Mr. Rixton will be able to tell us something useful once he's freed." Ginnie says, "The most powerful Priestess in town is the Nature Goddess Mother Jimenez. She is more powerful than our teacher. Maybe she could help." Kate answers, "Perhaps she could. I'll have to stop by her house and see if she's there on the way to see the others. And after we get Mr. Rixton back to himself, I'm going to have to come back up here and ask you to explain all this to me. You hardly need me for a teacher, dear, you're far ahead." Ginnie replies, "Not all that much to explain, just things that he had in progress that he wanted continued until he returned. I don't even know what all of them are, which is why I'm taking detailed notes, as I don't know what he might be looking to have happen." Kate says, "Maybe we can look it over together later and see if we can work it out." Kate hugged Ginnie again. "I should go. I'll be so glad when all this is over, the election is over and we can get back to our regular lives when I get to sit with you and eat popcorn in the evenings. Don't work yourself too hard, and I expect to see you eating dinner downstairs later." Kate went back outside and went over to the house where Mother Jimenez lived and knocked on the door. Kate hears some shuffling inside and Jimenez then opens the door. "Ah, Mrs. Kate, what can I do for you?" she asks. Kate says, "It's more what you can help me do for someone else. May I step inside?" The elderly woman moved back and let Kate pass through, closing the door behind her. "We had another encounter with the creatures today. One of them was wearing the face of a friend. Thankfully Jake had seen that friend earlier today, so we knew he couldn't be one of them. I stopped by Mr. Rixton's store to see if he was alright. It's locked up, but I heard noise so I peeked in the window. He is there working, and the sun is touching him, but I could see even from the window he'd been bitten. I'm not powerful enough to free his mind if it's been touched by them, but I think you would be. If you'd be willing to come and try. I'd bring others as well, in case of trouble." She replies, "Ah, you speak of the Tlahuelpuchi and the Civateto. I have sensed their presence in the community. Fear not, they will not venture near my home or the homes of the others of Elvan-blood, I have warded those homes against them." Kate answers, "The one I speak of isn't Elvan, but human. If I brought him here, would entering free his mind? If you can sense them, could you tell me who they are? And the words Tlahuelpuchi and Civateto, one must mean Vampire, what does the other mean?" The old elvan woman says, "The Tlahuelpuchi are the vile dead who feed from the living. The Civateto are those still alive who are under their power. I can perform a ceremony to determine how many of each are nearby and how far from here they are located. I will need privacy for that ceremony. Please return in one-third of an hour and I will have the answers." Kate says, "Thank you, that's more than I'd hoped for. Hopefully we'll be able to free the Civateto once we know where to find them. Beyond Mr. Rixton, of course. The others I know with the power to do that can't be found just now. I'll see you in a little while," Kate said and left the woman to her work. She took advantage of the twenty minutes to go over to the Lucky Lady and look for the others. Back at the shop, Berg talks to Chester. "What happened here, Chet? Eddie told me you took a wanted poster from the wall today. Then there was a shootout here." Chester says, "I found out that Brice Koontz was hiding out in Dan Madson's shop." Berg asks, "He was part of the Douglas Gang that robbed Condon's Bank last spring, right?" Chester replies, "Yep. Anyway, I go in and try to get him to come in quietly. He doesn't and Madson releases some animals he had in the store. So we have it out and Koontz is dead. I asked Priestess Florencia, Jake, Nakomo, and Mrs. Kale to help. Don't worry, I deputized them before we went in." Berg heads upstairs with Chet and has a shocked reaction when he sees that one of the deceased is Cole Rixton. Chester looks around and says in a low voice, "This is one of those bloodsuckers. They usually crumble to dust but this one didn’t so he must not have been one of these creatures for very long. We believe he's not Cole, but someone else in a magic disguise. We should check at the furniture shop to make sure he's OK. How do you want to go, Mitch?" Berg says, "I'll make sure that nobody else sees him other than Dick Lester. I'll go with Dick over to his funeral parlor with these bodies. Why don't you catch up with the Nature Priestess and see what she knows about how to deal with this." "OK. I'll go do that. When it rains it pours. I hope this is the last of the infestation. I'll update you on what Mother Jimenez says later." Chester takes the direct route to her home.</blockquote>

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