Wednesday, July 26th, 1876

Argent wakes up the next morning and joins the posse for breakfast.  Everyone seems to be enjoying a four star gourmet breakfast.  The waiter brings out a serving for Argent.  Argent's breakfast is quite burned.  The waiter smirks as he walks off. 

Reg and Kansas are hard at work on a game of poker over breakfast.  Kansas seems to be winning by a large margin (over one dollar!) but Reg seems to be nonplussed.  A discussion rambles on with Kansas asking about a good riverboat to gamble on while traveling on the Mississippi.  Reg jots down the name of his favorite and slides the note to Kansas.  Liz distracts Kansas long enough to pocket the note.

A deputy enters, spots Argent and delivers a copy of the Sheriff's morning report.  Argent reads the report and passes it around to the posse.  It appears that there was another brutal murder last night, in Memorial Park.  Kansas volunteers to investigate the site of the murder and start looking for anyone who matches the description of the victim.  Liz and Argent plan to meet at the Pikes Peak Cog Railway Project later that morning. 

Liz and Argent arrive at the offices for the Pikes Peak Cog Railway Project and find their way into the administrative offices.  They are greeted by an efficient and curt secretary.  After getting their information she exits to locate Zalmon Simmons. 

"Kansas needs to get one of those." 

"One of what?"

"The secretary."

"Oh"

Zalmon arrives a few moments later and conducts the posse on a grand tour of the entire facility.  He is especially proud of many of the technical innovations that have made the railway a possibility.  The posse climb aboard a converted private train car for the ascent of Pikes Peak.  The interior of the car has been extensively modified.  The furniture onboard is gimbaled so that guests and their food stay perfectly level while ascending the steep grades of the railway.  The interior is heated by a small coal stove in the corner of the car.  A steward and chef round out the car.  A modified engine attaches to the rear of the car and the ascent begins.  Argent marks time by counting the number of times Zalmon and Liz try to one up the other with their technical knowledge.

Over most areas of the rail right of way, there are two tracks.  Maintenance crews blitz up and down the mountain to the left of the train car.  Argent notices that some of the crew working the rail line seem to be stiff and slow moving.  Zalmon mentions that the hardest working and most efficient crews are coming from the Iron Dragon line and shipped down from Denver. 

The railway only goes up half of the way to the summit of Pikes Peak.  Zalmon invites the posse to step outside while lunch is prepared in the car.  Argent starts mumbling to himself about how he would like more bacon on his BLT sandwich.

Zalmon explains that the Union Army has a signal post established on the summit of the peak.  They ferry supplies to the end of the line and then use donkey trains to get the supplies to the summit.  So far, the Union is saving a day's ride by using the train.

The posse return to the train and are met by a well dressed gentleman and lady.  Zalmon introduces Agent McClowrey and Agent Macintyr.  The agents are on hand to help with the weirder aspects of running a train through Colorado Wilderness.  On the return trip the agents share their experiences of working on the railroad with the posse, occasionally punctuated by the gatling gun on the roof, dealing with the frequent abominations along the railway.  The posse return to the base camp.  Liz invites the two Pinkerton's to dinner at The Manitou House.  The Agents accept.

The posse head off to Memorial Park where they find Kansas hard at work investigating the scene of the previous night's murder.  He is pacing around the crime scene.  A frustrated Texas Ranger leans on a tree nearby, furiously scribbling note on his notepad.  Liz walks over to the ranger and inquires about the nature of his problem. 

"The durned fool walked all over the crime scene first thing this morning.  Ain't no way I can find any tracks the killer left around the body now.  Now the fools trackin' his own boot prints thinkin' their the tracks of the killer.  My name's Chuck Wright.  Pleasure to make yer acquaintance."

Argent walks over to Kansas.

"Wadja find?"

"I found the trail of the killer.  All I need to do is find the matching set of boot prints and we're set."

Argent notices the boot prints belong to Kansas, but decides to play along.

Liz walks over to the body.  Suddenly it all falls into place!  It's as if the clouds have parted and a ray of light descends from the heavens granting her supernatural clarity.  Liz knows that she will never again see anything in her life as clearly as she perceives this moment.  The body of the victim is composed of three separate people: a Caucasian who has been dead for 1 day;  an African American who has been dead for 7 hours; and an Asian who has been dead for 2 weeks and preserved by some sort of macabre ritual.  The body is a composite from these three bodies.  It's as if each body was run through a deli meat slicer set to a thickness of 1/2 inch.  The body was given two left hands.  Each hand has four fingers.  The right foot has four toes, missing the ring toe.  The left food has 6 toes, with an extra pinkie toe.  There are no tracks to find on the ground around the body because the killer hung from the tree above the body and arranged the pieces while hanging upside down.  The killer approached the park from one of the heavily traveled roads in the dead of night.  At the edge of the park, the killer leaped into the trees and moved from tree to tree, never setting foot on the ground.  When the killer's work was done, the killer reversed the route back through the trees and leapt to the road and wandered off, confident that the morning traffic would obliterate any of the tracks on the road.  On the second tree, there was a hollow on the branch that the killer walked upon.  This hollow was filled with dust that had blown up from the road, leaving an imprint of the foot of the killer.  The foot was bare, and hand pads similar to a mountain lion's foot.  On the fourth tree along the killer's route, a stray branch snagged a sample of the killer's coarse black hair.

Liz mentions this to Chuck Wright and points out the evidence.  Chuck is flabbergasted and immediately starts collecting samples and preserving this portion of the crime scene.  Liz invites the ranger to dinner at the Manitou house this evening.  The grateful ranger accepts.

The posse set off for the Crystal Valley Cemetery to see if there were any recent walking dead or if someone is riffling the graves for body parts.  The posse walk down to the local church.  After spending a few minutes looking around the posse proceed to the bone orchard.

The cemetery seems to be unusually quiet.  Argent borrows Kansas' boot and leaves it on one of the graves to see if Kansas will find it and discover who the mystery killer in boots really is.  Kansas finds the boot, but noticing that it lacks a partner, assumes it does not belong to the killer.  The killer had a pair of boots, not just one.

Liz and Argent discover an old grave that was exhumed, by the man buried in it.  The grave seems to be a few years old and belongs to William Bowers.  A little legwork reveals that Mr. Bowers owned the 5 and Dime General Store in town.  The posse head back to Manitou Springs.  Kansas notes that the killer did indeed walk down the path that the posse is returning to town on.  They must be on the right track.

Entering the 5 and Dime the posse discover that it's run by the 12 year old orphan of William Bowers.  A little investigation reveals that the late Mr. Bowers sighed the business over to himself about five years ago.  Matching up with the dates of his self exhumation.

Noting the time, the posse return to The Manitou House and prepare for dinner with their guests.  While Argent, Liz and Reg clean up, their clothing is mysteriously cleaned and repaired.  Kansas, never really taking of his clothing finds himself the victim of a pack of cleaning gnomes on a guerilla mission to clean and repair all of his clothing.  Kansas takes several pot shots at gnomes in his room and the mourns his partially cleaned duster. 

The posse set up a private banquet room and their guests arrive.  A tense dinner follows, with insults, plot points and innuendos liberally thrown around the room.  The posse come to the conclusion that the Pinkertons and the Texas Ranger do not know what the creature is that dropped the bodies in the park.  The person to ask is the local Indian representative, Dancing Bird.

The dinner ends without fatalities and the posse retire for the evening.

[Tuesday, July 25th, 1876] [Thursday, July 27th, 1876]

Northern Colorado Posse

Note to players:  These summaries are the product of my notes that are taken during the game and what I can remember.  They are far from perfect.  If you note any discrepancies or if I have missed something, please send me a telegram and I will correct the error.  Thanks!