Chapter 5 - Bingham, OK

#### Oklahoma City, OK

* In the layover between trains, Dr Sam looks after the re-loading of his plane between trains. Hubert Smith is heading off in search of a local Detective Agency. Minnie goes looking for book stores.
* One of the porter boys is spotted taking an interest in the group
* Head on out to Bingham, very few other passengers on the train (including the two PI goons Hubert Smith hired for the entire week).
* They arrive late on a Thursday evening, just as the sun sets behind the church and cemetery
* Dr Samuel Taylor-Thompson leaves Lancet to keep an eye on the cargo carriage with the plane as the group head to the local hotel
* Some signs that the Reverend isn't exactly preaching the Lord's Gospel.
* The Blacksmith's is the alternative / regular Church congregation
* Once the nighttime quiet has settled, Minnie goes creeping about looking for the room of the hotel owners (Rosemary and Desmond) and listens at the door. Rosemary is vaxing lyrical about the Reverand.
* The wife of the Blacksmith (Perl Schaumbaum) has apparently been miraculously cured of some awful disease
* Minnie has a dream about something about being deep underground

### Episode 02

#### Bingham

* Breakfast in the hotel.
* Desmond insists Dr Samuel Taylor-Thompsonstores the plane with them
* Minnie heads to the library looking for mythology treatises
* She finds sermon notes based on Mark 16 17-18. She's told that the Reverend meets with those who require special care. Also with those who travel into the desert and capture his attention / help.
* Hubert Smith has an encounter with the Sheriff who is an adamant follower of the Reverend, followed by a visit to the barber
* Dr Samuel Taylor-Thompson and Ares Carter go to the railway station to recover the flyer back to the hotel. The rustabouts do a great deal of posturing and showing off with the Reverend's power of healing of the man's broken back
* More signs of the split in the town between the forces of the Reverend and the forces of the Blacksmith
* Meanwhile Hubert Smith chats with the barber who is a Reverend fan. This Sunday will be a special service
* The investigators share info, and plan their actions accordingly
* Hubert Smith stays to the rear whilst Dr Samuel Taylor-Thompson and Ares Carter head to the Blacksmith
* They speak in a friendly manner to the blacksmith. It seems that the Sheriff is greatly on the Reverend's side.
* Apparently the Reverend went out on a 40-day retreat in the desert, and returned a different man.
* They catch sight of a sunbather (snake/cat?) on a hot tin roof

### Episode 03

#### My what large fangs you have

* It's getting close to noon and the various church services. All 4 investigators are gathered together and catch up
* Ares Carter and Minnie go to the church, whilst Dr Sam and Hubert head towards the blacksmith
* They meet the Rev Cornfield standing outside the church in the noon-day sun. He smells as though he's been rubbing his bald pate in linseed oil, which is basically burning
* Minnie presents her sleepless issue to the Rev Cornfield, who appears receptive to helping her, although God's aid comes "at some slight cost"
* Ares Carter hears the hissing of snakes from under the stage
* Hubert Smith is worried about his town house in NYC getting broken in to whilst he's away, as his mother lives there as well. Dr Samuel Taylor-Thompson suggests hiring body guards / house helps
* The smithy is a collection of very vocally anti-reverend. The Blacksmith talks about how the Rev has cursed his wife such that she cannot walk in town any more.
* Gregory looks like he's having a thing for the Blacksmith's daughter. His wife went to the Rev, and what she gave birth to is not his son, it's a monstrosity
* The blacksmith takes Hubert Smith back through a padlocked door so that he can see his wife (Perl Shoenbaum)
* Meanwhilse, back at the church the service starts with a song. Then the serpents come out from under the floor. The rev holds up one of the cotton mouth rattlers. He talks about God's gift being immunity to venom. The snake bites him, and he just shakes it off.
* The Rev invites anyone who wishes to come and prove their devotion by accepting the gift of the snake
* Ares Carter keeps track of the snakes, keeping it together
* The Sheriff steps forward asking to be taken into the Reverand's care to take care of his sun strokes. The snake does not bite, and the Sheriff survives. The Rev will take the Sheriff out into the desert the next day
* Minnie offers her hands to the Rev, and remembering her reading on snake handling keeps the snake from biting her. Ares was very tense. Minnie is invited out into the desert with the Rev and the Sheriff tomorrow morning for a day's contemplation
* Back at the Shoenbaum's Dr Samuel Taylor-Thompson sees the form of a woman in a bed, her scabbed calcified skin peeling away showing fresh skin beneath. From the amount of skin remains on the floor this happens multiple times per day
* Dr Samuel Taylor-Thompson tries to make things better, recognizing that he needs to synthesize a snake people drug to help stabilize her
* Everyone gathers at the hotel to prepare for the events on the morrow
* Hubert Smith has a note from the Supersleuth in Oklahoma City talking about who might be on their trail

### Episode 04

#### Anyone for Desert?

* Ares Carter is studying the map of the desert looking for ambush spots
* Dr Samuel Taylor-Thompson builds his flying machine and takes the Blacksmith for a jaunt
* Hubert Smith is deciding on which particular part of cowboy attire to wear
* Minnie is getting ready to head out alone into the desert with possibly evil masterminds
* Ares Carter equips everyone with penny whistles
* Ares Carter and Dr Samuel Taylor-Thompson sneak out to the Saloon whilst Hubert Smith and Minnie get a full night's rest
* The bartender is very much against the Reverend.
* Stories of one of the snake worshippers going through multiple sequential pregnancies, coming to term in just weeks
* Minnie dreams, and deliberately heads on over towards the Reverend's dream world.
* But she finds Hubert Smith instead, and rescues him from his snake bartender nightmare
* Minnie fails her Dream Lore when attempting to steer the dream and simply gets Hubert to go to sleep in his own dream
* Minnie starts walking across a field of ice towards a stone slab with someone lying on it that looks like the Reverend, torn open with a translucent egg with some kind of fetus inside. All around is a hissing sound
* Minnie manages to (with an extreme POW roll) throw the egg away and crawl through the exposed opening, as she wakes in a cold sweat back at the hotel.
* The group has a final meeting at breakfast with Rosemary.
* Dr Samuel Taylor-Thompson and Hubert Smith head for the flying machine
* Ares Carter follows Minnie and Rosemary.
* They meet up with the Reverend and George Henson who has brought a rifle. The Sheriff is also there. "We step forward now on a voyage from which you will not return. When you come back, you will be reborn by his power, you will be whole, you will be everything you would hope to be"
* Ares Carter waits a while before leaving Rosemary waiting for Minnie to eventually return.
* The Reverend marches forward unstoppable. The lumber yard worker has faded to a sprint forward/stop/sprint The Sheriff is struggling, but is determined to continue
* Hubert Smith realises the difference between being a confident tracker, and a capable tracker. In the end he proves to be both.
* Hubert Smith drives the horse into the dust, and has to continue on foot
* George tells the Rev that someone is following, and the Rev tells him that he knows what to do
* The Sheriff falls, and cannot get back up. Minnie decides to help him along
* The penitents find the path into the rocks, and Minnie successfully drops one of her mirrors
* A wind blows out of a cave. "I offer you the gift of Yig. Do you accept and enter my domain?". A voice in Minnie's head in Narcal. The Sheriff stands forward
* Minnie forces her way through the narrow entrance, without accepting any gifts
* George takes aim at anything coming up behind them.

### Episode 05

#### From the mouth of serpents

* Hubert Smith climbs up the rock face aiming to enter into whatever cave there is
* Ares Carter and Dr Samuel Taylor-Thompson reconnoiter from the air
* Minnie swigs her entire bottle of rye bourbon
* The Sheriff has accepted the gift, and his skin is starting to hang as he starts to shed, and he heads deeper into the cave, catching his sloughing skin on the rocks
* Minnie talks with the Reverend who is going to show her one more secret
* Meanwhile George is chambering a round and taking aim at something
* Minnie starts to climb deeper into the cave, the reverend following behind.
* They come into a chamber where upon a slab lies a body, an exact replica of the reverend.
* At this point there's a gunshot from George who impales Hubert Smith for 20 points of damage
* Ares Carter accepts a deal, getting the blessing of Yig.
* Dr Samuel Taylor-Thompson starts to head away to land and get out of the buffeting winds at the cave mouth
* Minnie notices that the body of the Rev on the slab appears to have sunken in on itself, as if lacking organs. She reaches into the body, as the Rev tries to stop her. She feels something cold on the inside as she removes a serpentine egg
* The Sheriff is ordered to get the egg from Minnie, but she cracks it on his head revealing something squiggly inside
* Dr Samuel Taylor-Thompson lands the plane with a little help from Yig courtesy of Ares Carter
* Hubert Smith lands a great blow on George's back, cracking vertebrae, but George still comes on, then Hubert Smith bane-drops him and drops him into the ravine
* Minnie spikes the egg fully revealing the black scaled cephalopod with a fully formed adult hand growing out from the middle. She steps on it and the voice of Yig goes silent
* Minnie starts to leave the cave followed by the Sheriff who grabs her and pulls her back
* Ares Carter shoots the Sheriff, blowing up his head
* The Reverend is babbling about being cold and hungry
* Ares Carter and Minnie lay into the Reverend about whether he's truly good or evil
* Hubert Smith persuades the Reverend with a soliloquy about how he has followed serpents in disguise
* Dr Samuel Taylor-Thompson and Minnie fly back to Bingham post haste as they realise that things might have happened now that Yig is no longer present
* Hubert Smith and Ares Carter begin to walk back with the Reverend
* When Dr Samuel Taylor-Thompson and Minnie return to Bingham they try to buy horses, but there are none to be had as a posse has set out for the Reverend

### Episode 06

#### Scrambled (Eggs && Brains)=

* Sam and Minnie resupply from the general store (including weapons, ammo)
* Whilst checking out her hangover takes over, the sanity loss takes over, and she has a bout of super-ego / showing off, and starts bragging about the trip
* Minnie then swings back via the hotel
* After having been caught recovering the firearms, Minnie is told by Mrs Hotel that neither her nor her friends are welcomd back (having talked badly about the reverand and the sheriff)
* Sam talks with Bill. He tries to convince him that the group have not made things worse (not thinking about the blacksmith's wife) whilst having dealt with the problems in the town
* Sam sends note with Falcon to Ares / Hubert warning them of the Peace brothers
* Bill asks after his daughter, Sam or Minnie have not seen her
* Meanwhile Hubert is busy gathering the corpse of George, but takes some SAN loss from seeing the effects of his anger
* The reverend is comforted by Hubert(o) as he contemplates his failures
* Ares and Hubert start returning towards town with the Reverand around 14:00
* Hubert starts to bring the Reverand back from the blackness that was left when he died and was resurrected by Yig.
* Ares successfully keeps bullying the Reverand to continue, in best Welsh Regimental Sgt Major style
* Hubert(o) does not do well in the heat
* Ares spots a man on horseback slowly approaching, which feels suspicious to Ares. It's Arthur Peace, heavily armed
* The Peace Brothers have been paid to kill the Reverand. Hubert tries talking to them
* Meanwhile Dr Sam is gliding in towards the scene
* A Firefight in the OK wilderness breaks out
* Ares kills the one talking, then supresses the one acting as the sniper
* Hubert takes a shot that brings him down, as the Reverand starts shouting about coming along
* Minnie spots a third member of the opponents getting on a horse
* As Ares starts to climb up the hill, comes Hilyard Fowler the town drunk shooting and hollering about making the town safe again
* As the plane lands, Minnie throws herself out of it shooting towards Mr Fowler, hitting him for a severe chest wound but keeps control of his horse
* Ares takes a wound
* Dr Sam first aids Hubert really well
* Hubert(o) rolls over the Reverand, grabbing Mr Fowler's reigns and pulling the horse down, screaming at Mr Fowler to "Shut up!"
* The Reverand says no-one else should be shot and he should be allowed to take his penalty as Dr Sam gets shot but the shot goes just over his head as he throws himself behind the plane
* Ares starts shooting but gets knifed, their second shot blowing the last Peace brother's brains out
* Mr Fowler is quickly subdued. Dr Sam flies back to town with the Reverand, and the others take the Peace bro's horses and follow on.
* As they approach the town, it's lit with the red light of the burning church and the sound of two factions starting to take matters into their own hands

### Episode 07

**Are We The Bad Guys?**

* Missing Alex for tonight
* The adventure is time constrained as David and Jim are driving to Canberra for CanCon after the show
* Upon reaching Bingham, they see the conflagration centered on the church
* Minnie heads back to the hotel to retrieve everyone's belongings
* Ares and the Reverand head into town hoping to find the Blacksmith and foster relations
* Dr Sam heads into the Smithy to see what the state is of the Blacksmith's wife
* Hubert follows Ares and the Reverand
* The blacksmith's wife calls out for the Reverand to take her on a pilgrimage, as she attempts to break out of the Smithy
* From what Dr Sam can see, the Blacksmith's wife is still in the same state of skin re-cycling as she was last time they saw her
* The Butler Brothers have already gathered everyone's luggage
* Upon reaching the church the Reverand asks Ares to organize the crowd
* Two young people are tied to a post in the corner, beaten up. Nearby bill is arguing with a group of people trying to defend them
* The Reverand realises that the woman is married, and he goes to join the bucket line, and he reinforces the "get the fire stopped" message, leaving Ares heading to the Blacksmith
* It's now that the Blacksmith's Wife breaks free from Dr Sam and heads towards the Reverand
* Dr Sam critically helps a lot of townsfolk around him
* Ares gets into a confrontation with a rabble rouser in the crowd
* The blacksmith desperately tries to get Ares on his side. Ares tries to get him talking to the Reverand. It takes Hubert to bring the Blacksmith down
* Dr Sam is slowly making sure that Mrs Blacksmith is getting reacclimatized into the Society
* The church does not survive, people start to filter away. The people treated by Dr Sam over in the graveyard are an exception to this
* The trio intend to take the two youngsters to the Sheriff's Office for the night
* Dr Sam informs the Blacksmith and the Reverand of this, where they're standing together looking at the building remains
* The Reverand goes into pure preacher mode addressing the town. He describes his journey and how he met God, granted powers, and he asks Perl to come forward. He then shows himself to be powerless, and asks for forgiveness, showing how he has died seven times and reborn since that first time
* Bill speaks words of reconcillation
* The group extricate themselves after briefing the incoming team that they send for, and bring the two kids along with them to Oklahoma City law enforcement. The plan is to have Caduceus bring in a bigger team to help out, research more snake stuff, etc.
* After a few days in Oklahoma City hosted by the two PI's, a note is slipped under Huber's door, telling him to "Return to Bingham".
* As they step off the train onto the platform, they look over a vista where every single inhabitant of the town is dead, with bodies lying in the street and above all an eerie quiet. No sign of the team from Caduceus.

#### Trivia

* The soil in Oklahoma is very red and dusty
* Dr Samuel Taylor-Thompson invents Gatorade about 40 years early
* Huberto es un Cowboy, con su caballa llamado Caballo
* Huge Bert can take a dramatic amount of damage

### Statistics

#### Luck Spent

 03
 04
 05
 06
 07