Katherine Beacon was in the lobby of the Clearwater Hotel in Miner's Foley on a bright Friday morning. Stuck beyond hope in a god-forsaken little town because of a snowstorm, Kathy sat drinking tea with the only person she felt like tolerating. That would have been Hazel Rathebone, a neurotic "goth" woman with a PhD in archeology. The word "necrophile" often came to Kathy's mind whenever Hazel pontificated on the Cult of Isis. Tea and decay, just what Kathy wanted...

Hazel's friends, Adam and Ray, were in the restaurant of the hotel mingling with the other guests. Getting up from tea, Kathy perused the books in the lobby, but found nothing of immediate interest. "Anything to keep from sitting in that hotel room," thought Kathy. Adam came over and told Hazel and Kathy that Ian McGuire, a big Scottish looking fellow, was going to show them around town. Ian was a trucker that supplied parts for the local mining companies. This didn't seem to catch Kathy's interest right off, so she walked away and went outside. "Well, we'll be leaving in about a half hour," said Adam.

Kathy walked along the driveway of the hotel. It had been plowed fairly well, but beyond the road the snow was too deep to trudge through easily. "Screw it, " thought Kathy, and she headed back to the hotel. Adam and Ray were about to leave with Ian, when Hazel piped up, saying she wanted to go too. When Kathy said she was going to go into town as well, Hazel immediately requested to ride with her. "Great," thought Kathy, as Hazel drugged up for the ride.

In the main stretch of town, if you could call it that, Ian pointed out the wonderous sights. "Right there's the Town Hall, up there's the newspaper, Justin's runs that, real enthusiatic guy...and down there's the pub," the latter Ian seemed to favor the most. Ian spoke about the two mining companies in town, Delaney Mining Inc and United Mineral Inc. The rival companies apparently had a feud going on that some thought included foul play.

Kathy didn't feel like that schtick anymore so she parted ways with the others and walked into the Town Hall. "Ugh," thought Kathy as she witnessed what to be one the most hideously unspeakable and unholy judgement's of humans ever unleased on this world. It was an art deco mural depicting sweaty disproportionate men carrying unnaturally large gems. Behind the information desk hung a large portrait. The painting showed an older gentlemen with a turn-of-the-century air about him. A plaque underneath legened: "Maximillian Delaney, Founder of our Glorious City, 1908." Uh-huh. With nobody at the counter, Kathy decided to ring the bell. A prim woman came out and suggested a tour of Town Hall. Trying not to yawn after seeing where the nematoads of Miner's Foley scuffled through permits and paperwork, Kathy finally got to meet the Mayor. When he introduced himself as "Joe Schmoe," Kathy began to feel slightly homocidal.

She asked the mayor how Miner's Foley got its name and he responded with a legend about some old miner who came through eons ago and was hit by lightning up on a pinnacle. The mayor pointed out the pinnacle through the window.

Escaping the Town Hall, Kathy met up with the others, had lunch at the pub and decided to visit the newspaper office. Hazel went with her. Inside the office, they met Justin, the editor, who was enthusiastic indeed. He seemed to write down on a pad everything they said. They inquired about bear attacks and the legend of Miner's Foley. Justin said there was a particularly bad bear attack about 10 years before. Showing the original Valley Voice story, Justin pointed out that some hiker was found mauled in the woods. Concerning the origin of the town's cheery moniker, Justin said that every few years new speculation percolates at the local watering hole and for some reason that's print worthy. He pulled out an early edition of the Voice from the 1930's. The first pub speculation told of a miner who came digging for gold in 1856 and found himself in the company of "Injuns" who showed him "dark unholy secrets." The miner apparently made a pact with the devil, but didn't fufill his part of the bargain, so the darkness consumed him. If she got any more bored, Kathy thought she might come back and read old issues of the biweekly Voice, but hoped she wouldn't have to.

Kathy and Hazel left the Valley Voice and on the way back to the hotel, they stopped at the Sheriff's office. Deputy Sean was reclining (sleeping?...) at the front desk. When they requested to see Sheriff Marcus, Sean went back to get him. Hazel and Kathy were shown to an office in the back. Getting through the small talk, Kathy finally asked what she really wanted to: "Did you get that briefcase open yet?" When the Sheriff said no and that he was afraid to damage the contents, Kathy suggested to let her take a look at it. Carefully examining the locks, she noticed two key holes, but no markings. At first she didn't have any telling ideas, and she showed Hazel the briefcase. Hazel didn't have a clue either. Katherine concentrated a little harder and finally came to the conclusion that you would have to turn each of the key locks at exactly the same time. The Sheriff had a couple lock-picks. Knowing that it would take a steadier hand than her own, Kathy told Marcus exactly how to turn the locks. In a brief moment of tension, the Sheriff turned the picks and briefcase opened.

The contents of the briefcase showed some used Colorado maps, but more interestingly, a .35 revolver and ammo (the gun was unloaded) and a signed memorandum from United Mineral Inc. It was addressed to:

Mr. D. Carson
6214 Arapahoe Way #12
Denver, CO 80201

Kathey presumed that was Damian, the owner of the briefcase and the man apparently killed in his hotel room the other night at the Clearwater. The memo was from a Raymond Gurney, executive for UMI, and seemed to give Damian the go-ahead on some "acceptable terms,' but warned that if any "misfortune' befell Mr. Carson, UMI would not be held accountable. Kathy thought this was either a contact killing or a calculated theft. Now things were getting interesting around Miner's Foley. Katherine read the note aloud and showed it to Hazel.

Kathy and Hazel took their leave of the Sheriff and began heading back to the hotel when Hazel started in about having an "adventure." Kathy off-handedly suggested getting a metal-detector and searching around the hotel grounds. Hazel jumped at the idea and demanded to turn around and go to the general store. Feeling just slightly evil, Kathey spun around 180 degrees, giving Hazel just a little of a start. They past the Stark Bros. on the road and eventually got to the general store. Upon walking in, Hazel didn't even bother looking around. "Do you have a metal detector," she asked the woman at the counter. "Well, yeah," said the clerk. "Mastercard," said Hazel as she whipped out some plastic. They were lucky, too, that Hazel asked, because this place was a general store's wet dream of itself. Nothing seemed to be in order and if Katherine were an OSHA officer, she might have shot the clerk's knee-caps off.

Metal detector in tow, Hazel and Kathy booked it back to the hotel, where they decided that searching for stuff in the snow in the dark wasn't a good idea. They joined Adam and Ray for dinner, but didn't give full details about what happened at the sheriff's.

Back in the hotel room, Hazel began in with "So, what's our next step?" and something along the lines of "we're the dynamic duo now," to which Katherine replied "Shut...up...Hazel. You've probably noticed by now that I don't particularly like this talk of dynamic duo and secret agent stuff. Rule number one: shut up." Hazel wrote this down (or was it mock-writing?) "Rule number one: keep mouth shut."

During the night Hazel and Katherine were startled awake by a booming crash sound. Katherine thought it sounded as if it was coming from Adam and Ray's room. She and Hazel went into the hallway and Katherine began knocking on Stark's door. She continued to knock on the door for what seemed like minutes (but was actually more like seconds). The door finally opened and Hazel and Kathy found Ray in his boxer shorts and Adam in a daze.

Adam was standing by the window looking like he'd just seen a ghost. When Kathy asked Adam what happened, he said when he looked out the window, he saw a twelve foot long wolf. Katherine didn't think it could have been that large. Outside the window on the ground, there were tracks and a large indentation in the snow.

Ray and Adam talked with the front desk about seeing the wolf. "But, sir, wolves don't get that big," the receptionist told Adam. Ray and Adam recommended that the hotel get EVERYBODY off the first floor and onto the second. Not long after that, the receptionist came by asking if Ray and Adam, Hazel and Kathy could let some first floor vacationers stay in their rooms for the night. The rest of the night passed uneventually...

In the morning, Hazel and Kathy went outside with the metal detector, but weren't having much luck with it when they bumped into Adam and Ray, who were also investigating the outside. Adam noticed that there were patches of fur on the siding of the hotel below their window.

The Stark brothers took their CRV into town and Katherine and Hazel drove by Forrester. Stopping at the Sheriff's office, they noticed the windows in front of the office busted in. Ray and Kathy went to investigate. Looking in through the broken window, she saw the mangled corpse of Deputy Sean. In the snow around the building, there were wolf tracks, indicating that the giant wolf that Adam saw probably attacked the office as well. Inside, Ray found Marcus slain in his office. Kathy was investigating the rest of the building (including the gun cabinet) when Ray began using the radio to call Aspen. She noticed he pulled the door mostly closed as he was radioing.

Wondering about what the Sheriff might have learned or added to the evidence, Ray told Kathy he wasn't comfortable with searching through the Sheriff's files. Kathy had no such qualms. After all, the Sheriff and the duputy were dead, and there could be useful information in the files. Kathy went back into the Sheriff's office and put on gloves. She pulled the Damian Carson file, photocopying the letter from UMI. Curious, she also went through the files on UMI & DMI. Nothing was quite substantiated, but there seemed to have been a number of people who have gone missing over the years. Mostly foremen and miners, but also a few higher ups. Katherine noted the addresses of Delaney and the president of UMI. She also found the report on the "bear attack" in the woods 10 years before. She made copies of the files.

Katherine gathered the files and put them into a bag. She shouldered the guns, picked up two CB handhelds and went back outside, where she found the others looking at a Native American man. Ray was standing in the snow talking to him. Kathy and Hazel put the guns and equipment into the Forrester. Ray and the old man came back. He introduced himself as John Stonehill and explained that the Beast is hunting them. Apparently, the Beast works for "the Darkness." He mentioned Delaney, even going as far as to say that "Delaney IS the Darkness." Stonehill said he and his people worked to keep the Darkness bound to its human form, but their efforts were hindered because a ritual item was stolen from them: the Sky Disc. "The Sky Disc hurts him." More aphorisms from Stonehill: "The Strength of the Darkness lies in the heart of the Mountain." That would be a bad fortune cookie, thought Katherine.

Stonehill explained that when the Sky Disc was taken, they lost their best warrior. It so happens that this event was ten years ago. The old man asked the others to go into the mountain, where the Sky Disc was being held in an unused mine shaft, and steal it. Katherine wasn't about to believe that Delaney was the prince of darkness, but getting the Sky Disc, whatever that was sounded intriguing. She asked Stonehill what they would have to deal with. He said that Delaney employed 5 or so "enforcers" and that there were always the miners themselves to deal with....and The Beast. Stonehill said that their weapons were useless against The Beast. "What do we need, then, silver bullets?," asked Katherine. "Silver may work," was what Stonehill actually said. He explained that the Beast could take human form as well. "What does the human form look like?," asked Katherine. "You know him," said Stonehill. "Big guy, reddish hair." Everybody groaned as they immediately thought of Ian McGuire. Adam refused to believe it. "I know he's hairy, but I refuse to accept that Ian, my friend, is a werewolf." Incredulity began sweeping over the occupants of car, and John Stonehill took that as his cue to step out. He suggested looking at the old newspapers for more evidence of attacks, if they needed it. "If you need me, you can find me," was something along the lines of what he said as he walked away.

Previous Entry (1)       Back to Journals      Next Entry (3)

  [Home] [Introduction] [Characters] [Rules] [Tidbits]