Warning: if you're reading this log and you want to some day play in the published adventure "Canyon O' Doom", don't. I shouldn't have to lecture you about morality. And you shouldn't be looking in these logs to learn about morality anyway.

After a little more shopping, the posse boards a special Denver Pacific train for the trip to Cedar City, which is mostly uneventful. There they load barges with the supplies needed for the trip. A summer thunderstorm gives Dr. Vorpwhistle a chance to charge his electric key gun. Dr. Haskins (Edgar) and Sophie were busy much of the train ride dealing with reporters, so the barges are the first chance for them to really talk with the posse. Tobey, in particular, sounds out Sophie on the subject of running away when things get really dangerous. She seems to understand that concept, although there is a lingering impression that Dr. Haskins might not.

The barge trip is uneventful, as is the first day and a half on the road from the river to the mining town of Cliffside, where they are to meet their river guides. At that point, however, the posse runs into a group of Union soldiers fighting the biggest devil bat any of them have ever seen (and also the only devil bat, for most of them). The soldiers are recognizable as the Union's Flying Buffaloes.

Rifle fire does little damage to it, but eventually it takes bad wounds to both feet as well as other scratches and tries to retreat. At that point Dr. Vorpwhistle brings it down with his EKG, and whether it survived that or not, it does not survive the Buffaloes' unloading of their guns into it. Afterwards, Tobey obliges Vorpwhistle and Haskins as they wish to have the specimen partly dissected. Sophie, in particular, is instrumental in getting them back on the road.

The next day they come across the town of New Harmony, which as they inspect it is completely empty. It is as though everyone in town picked up and left around noon time a few days before, leaving no tracks or notes or evidence of any kind. The only body found is in the church, a strangely dessicated suicide with a cryptic note and a rosary clutched in his dry hand. They take time to bury him, and then move on after determining there is nothing more to be done.

Two days later, around dusk, they are entering the outskirts of part of the Kaibab forest when they encounter a large group of men escorting a steam wagon. This turns out to be a ghost rock delivery by Larson Shipping to the Union's Fort 51 in Nevada, coming from Cliffside. The two groups camp together for the night, sharing news. The posse learns that beetle attacks have been bad in Cliffside this summer (some sort of swarming beetle), that Sweetrock Mining basically runs the town and squeeze the miners hard, and that there is a strange pack of coyotes in the forest... that may have glowing red eyes.

The next night, in the forest, they keep careful watch, and are rewarded for their vigilance when Ginger alerts them to trouble. It is in fact a big pack of coyotes (though their eyes may or may not really be glowing). The fight in the darkness is touch and go before Sophie gets out her two bowie knives and really starts ripping in to the coyotes. Elder Tanner goes down under a heap of them before he can do anything, and Dr. Vorpwhistle nearly gets his throat ripped out. All in all it isn't a glorious fight. Afterwards, Tobey is able to use her skills to get Elder Tanner conscious, but only by making him worse. Elder Tanner heals Dr. Vorpwhistle by laying on hands, but cannot heal himself and is dying.

Luckily between the archaeologist and the scientist they remember the tears and decide to try them. They seem to allow Dr. Vorpwhistle and Cady together to lay on hands on the missionary, or perhaps they allow his own power to work through those two. In any case, he is returned to health. Most of the others, Tobey in particular, have bites and scratches that are more easily tended to (or just bound up in Tobey's case).

Some photos of John Wesley Powell, the Grand Canyon, and a few of his actual expeditions at the Grand Canyon National Park website.

Thanks to Jan Maessen and Andrea Humez for guest-starring as Edgar and Sophie.

"No, no, I really would have loved to have the chance."
- Dr. Vorpwhistle's response to whether he's had an evil spirit in him