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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 1125375" data-attributes="member: 8530">Chapter 28, "The Death of Billy the Kid", August 1st, 1881, 7:15 P.M.The smoke begins to clear.  Arcade and Hank do a quick check of the second floor to verify that no other enemies are hiding.   Morgana casts a few Cures onto the wounded Louie, who has three bullets in him and would now be dead without the added protection from the armor.   The bodies are each searched, with Arcade finding $ 18.51 and a ring of keys on Cleatus, while Hank and Louie find less than $ 10.00 on each of the riflemen.   Morgana however finds a total of $ 146.52 on her opponent as well as the two high quality pistols.  The furniture in Conrad Booth's bedroom has been moved, and the wall safe uncovered but still unopened.   The group debate trying to open it, but decide not to since "None of them made it out alive, so they would assume that we stole it.  And if the safe is open Booth would say the money we found on these guys is also his."     Arcade hands Morgana the key ring, and she is surprised to find them to be regular keys instead of  skeleton keys and lockpicks.  The party hears shouting outside on the street, and peer out the front window.   Deputy Sheriff Colin Hunter is peering around the corner of the Cantina pointing a rifle at the building, and yells out again "What's going on in there?"    Hank yells out, "The fight is over.  We have a bunch of dead bodies in here."    Hunter cautiously approaches the building and heads inside.   A crowd begins to gather on the street outside. Hunter asks Arcade "So, what exactly happened?"  Arcade replies, "We walked in here and killed everyone."  The others give a little more detail.   "Anyone hurt?"  he asks.  Hank replies, "The ogre bought it."  Morgana adds, "The orc got shot a few times too, but he'll live."    Hunter begins to check the bodies, confirming the identity of Cleatus James.   He does not recognize the two riflemen.  He freezes up at the sight of the one Morgana killed, and says "I'll be right back."  Hunter returns along with Deputy Sheriff Breckenridge, who takes a good look at the body and says, "Yep.  It's him."   "Who?" Morgana asks.   Breckenridge replies, "William Bonney.  Also know as Billy the Kid."    She asks, "Is there a reward on him?"  Breckenridge says, "I believe that there is.  Don't know the amount though.   We can find that out."    Arcade, Hank and Louie begin talking about each wanting a share.   Morgana only hears part of the conversation and thinks they are talking about her.   "Nobody gets to share me!" she yells.   Arcade says, "We don't want you.  We're talking about he reward."  She replies, "Well you don't get either."   Things begin to calm down and word spreads through the town like wildfire about the death of Billy the Kid.    Conrad Booth arrives soon, pleased to see that his safe is still intact.   Hank tells the gambler, "Sorry about the mess."  He replies, "What do I care.  I don't own the place."   The newspaper editor Parker Baxter approaches the party back at the El Parador Cantina, and tries to convince them to let him write up the story collaboratively with them.   As he put it, "This is big news, and it is going to be written up by other people if I don't.  You're better off working with me on the 'official' version."   They agree, requiring to see a written version before anything appears in print.   At Morgana's insistence the story credits it all to Arcade's Gang, without going into too much detail as to who killed who. Meanwhile, Clarence Hite had heard that Billy the Kid and his companions were dead, so headed out of town.   He found Bill Ryan, who was waiting with the horses.  Hite filled in his friend and then rode back to the rendevous point.  An hour later Ryan saw Jim Cummins and Mae Clark heading down the street, looking like a couple, and carrying luggage appropriated from Cook's General Store.   They joined Ryan and then tied the luggage filled with money from the First National Bank onto the horses of their four recently deceased companions.    Cummins and Clark then rode off with the extra horses, leaving Ryan to wait for the James brothers.  A half hour later Frank and Jesse James  cautiously made their way back, and then rode away to rejoin their companions.  August 2nd. 1881:By the time the party awaken for the day word about the other robberies committed by the James Gang is now all around town, with a total of over $ 22,000 having been taken.    A posse is being formed to go look for the outlaws.   Arcade, Hank, Louie and Morgana have no interest in joining the posse, but volunteer Sam so that the gang can't be accused of not helping out.  Conrad Booth expresses his gratitude to the party by extending them $ 500 in table stakes at his gambling table.    It is also discovered that there was a $ 500 reward for Billy the Kid, placed by the Governor of the New Mexico Territory.    Agents West and Gordon verify the death of Billy the Kid and assist Morgana with the paperwork to file the claim for the reward, warning her "Territorial Governments aren't known for their efficiency, so don't expect to receive the money anythime soon."  The bodies of Billy the Kid, Cleatus James, Bob Ford, Charlie Ford and Kentucky Krugg are laid to rest on Boot Hill.   August 3rd to 10th, 1881:The posse fails to locate the six surviving members of the James Gang.    Elton Hubbard, Morgan Condon and Frank Condon experienced the greatest losses from the robberies, and have to sell a number of properties owned by them around town to stay solvent.   Cook's General Store also has cash flow problems, and they sell the piano to Morgana for a bargain price.  Gambler Conrad Booth's reputation is increased by the newspaper publicity, and he buys his house from the Condons and kicks gambler Paget Flashman out.   He moves down to living on only the first floor, keeping the second floor as it was left following the Promise City Shootout, to show exclusively to people who choose to gamble with him.  Arcade's Gang are treated as local heroes by about half the town, while the more respectible people in town blame them for attracting the James Gang to their community in the first place.    The End (for now).</blockquote>

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