“Lost Conquistadors Mine” TSR Boot Hill Module BH2
Prelude I. – Promise City, Arizona from mid-July until mid-September 1882 :
The Community of Promise City was incorporated township of the Arizona Territory five months ago. Since then the town have been relatively crime-free, a stark contrast to the two years that preceded the election. Mayor Emery Shaw, the five-person Town Council, Town Marshal Chester Martin and his deputies Helen Barker, Grimli Blackrock, Neil Cassidy, Hank Hill and Rafael Sanchez have managed to establish a peaceful and efficient community during which the town has had significant economic growth.
Several silver mines in the surrounding region have flourished, with over two-million dollars worth of silver ore extracted from the ground in that five-month time frame. The three most lucrative mines being the Morand-Seawell Mining Company’s Dos Cabezas mine ten miles to the northwest, the Fisk Mountain Mine five miles to the northeast and the Cunningham Mine five miles to the west. While the four previously established mines immediately surrounding the town have had far less success, the ore from the newer mines has all been brought to town for processing and assaying, which in turn has helped grow nearly all of the town businesses. The Silverbell Mining company has closed their under-producing Breakheart Mines and has reassigned all personnel to the Breakheart Stamping Mill and Smelter operations.
In July 1882 the headmistress of Promise City’s school, Katherine (Kate) Kale, traveled to New York City to depart for England, serving as chaperone for Shannon O’Hara and her mentor Kevin Tomlinson. During the sea voyage there and back she took the opportunity to relax and study some subjects of interest to her that she had not had time for back in Promise City, specifically medicine, chemistry, astronomy and literature.
While in England Kate’s time was mostly consumed with learning from Tomlinson’s Council of Watchers, resulting in her knowing far more about the monsters that walk the earth than she ever really wanted. And although she couldn’t really participate due to her condition, she sat in on some of Shannon O’Hara’s physical training exercises. One of the trainers did some basic work with her, mostly on form, to help her if she should ever need to defend herself physically. She also received additional training in wizard magics from Kevin Tomlinson and one of his teachers.
A top story in the London Times concerned an August 1874 London bank robbery during which a trio of masked robbers killed a teller, a bank guard and two policemen while stealing a large quantity of money. After an eight-year-long investigation the break in the case came in June when a Polish man named Evanovich Kowalski Adarcziek was arrested in America and subsequently deported to England. A possession of Adarcziek’s was a key to a safety deposit box in Southampton, England, rented by an Englishman by the name of Reginald Brownstone, who turned out to be another of the robbers. The third robbery participant was then identified as a Frenchman named Jacques Croquette, whose present whereabouts are unknown. Kate was personally acquainted with Adarcziek, whom she knew from Promise City as Evan Adair. She sat in the audience several times during his public trial, taking hidden pleasure in his occasional glare at her. Both robbers were pronounced guilty and sentenced to be executed, although they have appealed the decision, a process that can take years in the British legal system.
At the end of July the Three Gods Meeting House in Tucson, Arizona was robbed by three members of the New Douglas Gang, namely Shotgun Sally Fox, Mongo Bailey and Pamela Yeats, who had recently escaped from a Colorado prison. They were accompanied by two other escapees from the prison, Henry ‘Buckskin’ Bennett and former bounty hunter Black Angus MacTavish. Two other robbery participants who have apparently now joined this gang were former Promise City residents (and former associates of Adarcziek) saloon girl Kitty Trent and gambler Tony ‘Lucky’ Corleone. The outlaws then escaped southward in the direction of the Mexican border.
In early August gambler Silver Jake Cook returned to Promise City from his San Francisco vacation and deposited what remained of his poker winnings (after several expensive gifts and also the purchase of the now renamed Jake’ Silver Dollar Saloon in San Francisco). The young gambler, saloon owner and silver mine owner easily falls back into a typical routine. A short while after his return Jake receives a telegram which reads:
”telegram” said:
To Jacob A. Cook from James G. Maguire
James and Virginia are proud to announce a son, Jacob James Maguire, was born yesterday. Mother and child are well, and Moria is impatient to play with her brother. We all look forward to your next visit Uncle Jake. We trust it will be son.
Warmest regards, The Maguires
Although he does not share the news of the birth of his namesake with anybody except the closest of friends, he does engage in several rip snorting drunken binges in celebration. The good news keeps him jubilant for nearly a week.
Silver Jake Cook and saloon manager Prosper McCoy then have several long discussions about the future of Cook’s rebuilt formerly named Palace Saloon. Jake is clear that he wants to go after a different clientele than the other drinking establishment that he co-owns and deals poker at, the Lucky Lady Dance Hall and Saloon. Drinks, music, dancing, working girls, faro roulette and miscellaneous entertainments for the working class folks who want to escape from their drudgery is the menu for the remade saloon. McCoy is told to leave the serious music and poker to the Lucky Lady, with bawdy and glitzy to be the flavor of the remade saloon. Besides giving McCoy some direction for how he would like the new Silver Palace Saloon to look on the inside he leaves the man to handle the details. Jake is confident that Prosper McCoy and his wife Bonnie will do just fine.
Bored with waiting for the saloon to reopen, Jake’s friend and newly hired Silver Palace Madame Mattie goes on a shopping spree without permission using Jake’s credit. Jake quickly puts an end to that and makes her work off the money as his personal assistant for the next several weeks. She repays him by doing cleaning, laundry and attending to Jake’s private matters.
During his time back Jake also keeps himself busy during the day making up for his absence to his Fisk Mountain Mine partners (minus Fisk himself). The mine is doing very well, and Jake rides along with many of the ore loads as added insurance. He also manages to get back into the discipline of daily weapons practice.
At night Jake takes up his regular evenings dealing poker at the Lucky Lady and gives his partner Job Kane some additional time off to make up for when Jake had been away. Management of the Lucky Lady continues smoothly, with faro dealer Darla Peacock George as the official manager and young Ginnie Flaherty secretly managing from behind the scenes. As the work progresses at the Silver Palace Saloon Jake makes one last change upstairs, the addition of a room for himself, as he has decided to move out of the Lucky Lady and make that room available for other uses.
Kate Kale, Shannon O’Hara and Kevin Tomlinson departed from England in early September. Shortly after boarding the ship Kate was given a fright when she spotted the world famous outlaw and bank robber Arthur Deadeye Douglas disembarking from the gangplank of an adjacent ship. Nine months earlier Kate had been present during an Arizona robbery led by Douglas, where two of her friends were wounded by gunfire. He was accompanied by woman who Kate assumed to be his known associate, safecracker Mae Clarke.
Both outlaws were wearing minor magical disguises, but Kate had been trained in how to penetrate this type of illusion. She panicked when Douglas paused and stared directly at her but was wise enough to keep that panic from showing in her facial expression. He then continued onward, apparently confident in his disguise. Tomlinson suggested that they refrain from directly altering the authorities, as doing so would not only put themselves in physical danger from Douglas but would also cause a delay in their return to America by weeks if not months. He suggested instead that he contact his Watcher’s Council and alert them to the presence of these unwanted tourists to Great Britain.
During the time of Mrs. Kale’s trip to Europe, her beau Conrad Booth had spent time training Shannon’s younger sisters, the teenage O’Hara twins Cathleen and Colleen, the fine sport of harness racing. The activity had originally begun as a strategy to interest Kate’s ward Ginnie in horses, but the girl continued her dislike of the animals. However, making money was of great interest to Ginnie and she soon usurped from Conrad the role of manager for the new racing team, devising how to best maximize their profits.
A successful race in Tucson, Arizona in late July led to their participation at another in Flagstaff, Arizona in early August and another in Albuquerque, New Mexico in late August. Colleen O’Hara’s natural affinity for animals combined with their strategy of having her twin Cathleen racing full-force to tire out the other races and then allowing Colleen to sweep in from behind resulted in one second place finish and pair of third place finishes for Colleen.
They then participated in an even more prestigious race in San Diego, California in early September. The girls had previously pooled together the money that they had earned as waitresses at the Lucky Lady’s big poker tournament in June, which Conrad had wagered on the races per Ginnie’s specific instruction. The majority of these wagers were reinvested into the San Diego race, where Colleen took first place and Cathleen took third, resulting in financial windfalls for all them as well as Ginnie and Conrad. The Promise City school term then began again, bringing their racing days to an abrupt halt.