We started, still in the graveyard.  Onacona tended to the wounded.  At Thomas’s suggestion, Hawthorne and Virgil went to fetch the mayor, figuring it would be good to get the last remaining authority figure on our side.  Phoebe Ann was sent to fetch Buster.  The reporter NPC showed up and started asking questions.  Unfortunately, all the “talking” characters had left so it fell to Thomas to describe the grisly scene in the church.  However, she was pretty accepting of the story, given the evidence so that worked out okay.  On their way to get the mayor at the bar, Hawthorne and Virgil heard cackles and screams coming from the doctor’s office.  Hawthorne blew the locks away and Virgil burst through the doors.  They were greeted with yet another grisly scene.  The doctor was stripping the flesh of one of the guys from the train.  Virgil demanded he drop the knife but the doctor charged instead.  Unfortunately, Jon had forgotten to reload his pistol and it was too amusing to Brian to assume the reasonableness of a gunfighter would have surely reloaded despite Jon’s error.  Brian gave him a Smarts roll which Jon rejected.  The upshot was that Virgil took another wound before Hawthorne could blow him away.

Hawthorne made an amazing doctor roll and kept the victim alive although, with the mutilation, that may not be a good thing.  The mayor showed up after and we all met up at the hotel with the wounded.  He was happy to hear that the marshal was dead and not that concerned about the reverend.  The rest of the townsfolk didn’t seem to care.  Or at least none of them showed up.  There were plenty of things to do.  Thomas said he wanted to go back to the mine and check on the Indian spirit.   Onacona also wanted to go as well as the NPC reporter.  They headed up the mountain and back down into the mine.  The spirit was not there but Onacona could sense a feeling of contentment. 

Meanwhile, the rest decided to check out the ghost at the schoolhouse.  Phoebe Ann was off shooting rats.  Buster was convinced there was no ghost and eager to disprove it.  When they entered the grounds, they were confronted with the ghost of the little girl again.  Virgil attempted to turn her to no avail.  She quickly summoned that whirlwind again.  So, it was pretty much a repeat of Phoebe Ann’s encounter.  Paul played his “Get a Clue” card and Brian pointed out that the back of the schoolhouse looked particularly colder than the already colder than town schoolyard.  So, people started heading into the building.  The ghost was dangerous but had to rolled to hit and missed most of the time.  However, the whirlwind “hit” anyone trapped in it so that became a matter of how many exploding dice and therefore how many wounds and therefore how quickly your chips got used up.  But since neither of them could be affected, the “combat” was completely one-sided.  No one missed the various guts checks, at least.

The map was large and the movement rates are low so it took time, all the while under attack.  Eventually, Virgil found a journal in the one desk that wasn’t destroyed.  He ran out of the building and gave it a quick read.  It belonged to the little girl and it seemed she had a crush on her teacher.  Everyone immediately concluded that the teacher killed her (or worse).  Buster found some girl’s mittens in the teacher’s desk.  Big John finally got to the cabinet and found the decayed corpse of a little girl.  Meanwhile, Thomas and Onacona enjoyed some overpriced snacks at the airport.  The ghost was interested in the body and despite everyone’s urging to be honest with the ghost, Dan decided to go with the “nothing to see here” plan.  Who knows which was right?  At this point, at Virgil’s repeated urging, they ran for the fence so that could do some investigation and discussion.  More attacks were taken but eventually, they all made it out and the attacks stopped.  It was pretty comical.  “I got a journal.”  “It got some mittens.”  “I got a corpse.”  You win.

At the hotel, Thomas suggested asking the hotel owner about the school.  It had been closed for 2-3 years and the teacher had long since moved away.  So, there would be no closure on that although Hawthorne put finding him on his long-term plan list.  I think a card was played and it was decided that a respectful burial was needed.  (Note from Dan: I suggested the burial since it was the obvious and traditional solution but got a Beny taken away for not playing my Clueless .  Everyone, including the priest, ignored me and wanted to to take the body to the demon-infested desecrated church instead.  Who would have thunk? It took someone playing a card to get us to bury her.) Using the journal for material, Buster gave a nice speech and it was done.  A quick trip back to the school and all was well.  By then it was almost midnight so we wrapped it up.  Ms. Pearl extended an offer to have Onacona become the town doctor since the old one was insane and dead.  She said it would be okay if he set up shop outside of town if that was what was needed.  I’m not sure how the townsfolk would react to that but any doctor is better than no doctor.  As long as he didn’t strip their flesh off, it’s a step up.  The last thing was Hawthorne making his vigor roll and staying alive one more game.  Andy pointed out that he had had a -1 on his roll from his wound for 3 straight games but unfortunately it was still the same day.  One long day.