As dusk is falling, Dr. Vorpwhistle finally gets the right settings on his device to summon rattlers, and they come, visible at first only as a disturbance in the brush as they tunnel underneath - only Robert's supernaturally sharp vision can see them. Vorpwhistle fires up his launcher and throws some dynamite at them, but the device isn't accurate enough for a moving target. Still, it's enough to make them surface and look about, and Robert and Tobey bounce some shots off them at long range. Then they vanish.

A couple of tense minutes later dirt starts to fountain into the air in front of the outcropping the posse is stationed on, and they nearly fall for it but realize that this is a distraction in the nick of time. Behind them, the second rattler has quietly emerged and is preparing to bowl a huge rock through their midst. Tobey kills it with a masterful shot directly to the eye. The other rattler (presumably) pulls the dead one back underground.

At that the posse leaps on their horses and rides for the tunnels, deciding that they've at least distracted the rattlers. They make it to the tunnels okay, and start down the twisty passages. Ten minutes later, they are attacked by worm-men, but make short work of them. Dr. Vorpwhistle displays a disturbing new power to make his evil spirit imitate other powers by casting a soul blast, but the bitter recriminations phase is postponed for a time when they're not in a tunnel trying to sneak up on unguessable evil. One of the wormlings killed has a human arm, disturbingly, and Cady for a moment fixates on it as actually being Elder Tanner's lost arm.

Finally coming to a huge underground cavern, they find the worm with a woman's face and ten more wormlings. She recognizes them (for it is indeed Dr. Allinora Morten) and invites Dr. Vorpwhistle to come look at her notes on making this new evolutionary step forward. He can't resist and comes to read her notes (written on stone slabs). Cady goes with him, but the others hang back away from the monster.

They realize after a while that her voice, describing her work in creating this new master race, is quite hypnotic, and only Robert keeps fully free of the spell. Snapping Tobey out of it as well, he and Tobey shoot for her eyes and both hit - Tobey with her ghost-rock rifle and Robert with Tobey's Sharps Big 50. The combined damage is enough to kill the mutant scientist instantly.

Her worm-men are incensed by this, and leap upon the nearest enemies - Dr. Vorpwhistle and Cady - and while Cady is protected by her arts, Thaddeus is torn apart by their claws, his brain-pan ripped open, which snuffs out even his undead existence. Everyone starts in shooting and aside from a mishap when Tobey nearly beheads Elder Tanner with her evil knife, they manage to keep Cady from also being torn apart.

In a pit nearby, they find the Yuma townsfolk encased in webbing and slime. Some of them are partially transformed into worm-men, but Tobey is able to draw upon grace to cure all but one, who dies quietly during the attempt. She is drawing pretty heavily on divine power and is starting to feel a bit strange. Robert goes into the spirit world and makes sure that Dr. Vorpwhistle heads up the tree, banishing the evil spirit that is trying to get him to go down.

No other rattlers reappear, and while it takes a little longer, the posse is able to get the townsfolk back to Yuma. They burn Dr. Vorpwhistle's remains just in case, and think about how to get his notes back to his employers as promised.

TG: Actually, the one rattler left poked its head in the cavern, took a look at the dead rattler/scientist woman, and then left again. We're not sure whether that was because it was afraid of us or if it was thanking us for getting rid of her.