Our heroes boarded an overnight train from New York City to St. Louis for the first leg of their trip to Bingham, Oklahoma. From there they went to Springfield, Missouri, to visit WFUK radio station and see if the could get any information about the Kornfield sermons from Jacob, the many who sent the records to Caduceus.
(Note - the campaign does not include this Springfield piece. The heroes were insistent they wanted to investigate this avenue, so I homebrewed the Springfield content.)
Arriving in Springfield they went to WFUK where they met Susie Lovelady, the 60-ish woman with too much makeup and perfume who worked the reception area. Asking about Jacob, they quickly learned he'd gone missing about two weeks prior, and that the police seemed unwilling to investigate. Susie told the heroes that a woman and man had come to see Jacob on the last day he worked, and that they'd left with him. The woman gave her name as Rose, and she fit the description of Rose Meadham.
The heroes went to Jacob's apartment (Susie gave them the address), and Ralph used his special pick to get them inside. The apartment was extremely tidy, and the record player was still on, the needle clicking helplessly on the runout groove of a record. The record turned out to be a Kornfield sermon from about three weeks ago, and there were about a dozen total Kornfield sermon records next to the player.
Ralph checked the bedroom and it appeared all of Jacob's clothes were still here as was, most tellingly, his set of luggage. Vivienne walked over to a round, wood table upon which sat an empty bottle of Johnny Walker, a glass, and an ashtray full of Lucky Strike butts. The tabletop was covered with small, fresh carvings that looked like snakes. There were also two bible verses carved into the table:
Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.
And:
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lived up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Maddie used her psychic abilities and had a vision of Jacob sitting at the table, drinking and smoking and looking at the record player with a thousand yard stare as he carved snakes into the table.
At this point the working theory was that Caduceus sent Rose to "pay a visit" to Jacob after Caduceus received the records he mailed them, probably with the intent of permanently silencing him.
From there it was back to the train station and off to Bingham, where the heroes checked into the Bingham hotel posing as a pair of married couples. Delbert, who was one of the owners, told them there was a schism in town since Kornfield had gone off to wander for 40 days like Jesus, having returned a different man. Delbert indicated those who were no longer following the church were led by Bill Schoenbaum.
Ralph and Colt wanted to take a rest, so Maddie and Vivienne decided to go get a drink at the Deer Head Saloon. As they were walking down the hall to to the lobby they saw a thin, sunburned, dusty man stagger in and in a raspy voice ask for a room. When asked for his name he said "Jacob". They came to find out that Jacob had walked from Springfield to Bingham after having heard Reverend Kornfield's sermons.
At the saloon the ladies spoke with bartender Maurice Walsted and a very drunk Hilliard Fowler. They learned a bit more about the schism in town, and Fowler seemed particularly distraught about one of his own employees George Hensen, who had a bad accident at the lumbermill that should have killed him, but Kornfield saved him and now he's almost superhuman. He also mentioned Gregory Shaw at the telegraph station may have a story of his own to share.
Walking back to the hotel the women were startled when someone behind them called out Maddie's name. This turned out to be Paolo, a former worker on Maddie's family farm who she may have had an inappropriate relationship with and still loves deeply. He said he'd been bouncing around from farm to farm until hearing Kornfield on the radio a month ago. Kornfield has taken him under his wing and got him a job at Fowler's lumber yard.
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