Chill: A Pleasant Hike

Back in big sky country. On we go!

We start off mid-afternoon on August 1st, 2020. Jax sods off to go score, and isn't seen again this session. 

The rest of the envoys, however, have much to do! Jordan comes home from brunch and fields a bunch of questions and saucy remarks from Willa and Darnell. Dylan heads to his room and does a little more digging. He finds, interestingly, that the sightings of the Wolf that Won't Die over the years map almost perfectly to the route of the Nez Perce tribe during the eponymous War. Digging further, he finds that one of the decisive battles - the Battle of Big Hole - was fought about six hours from Boise in Montana. 

As he's working, he hears the distinctive sound of canine claws running behind him. He starts, tries to dodge, and winds up falling on the floor. Everyone else rushes up to check on him, but apart from being a bit freaked out he's unharmed. 

He shares what he's found about the Wolf, and the envoys decide to make a trek out to Big Hole Battlefield. They book a couple of room at one of the few nearby motels, and Jordan spends a couple of hours filling shotgun shells with scrap silver and wolfsbane (Willa also mashes some wolfsbane down to a paste, and they make the container very carefully). They mount up in a couple of SUVs, stop by a Best Buy to grab a couple of hotspots, and head out of town. 

On the way, Zoe does a bit of digging into the Nez Perce. More specifically, the language - properly known as nimipuutít - is highly endangered, with less than 100 native speakers remaining. She finds a site that teaches her some of the basics, and hears the phrase from her dream: "manáa wées 'iním we'níikt?" It simply means "what is your name?" She immediately plays a recording multiple times, trying to get it memorized, since it's clearly important.

Meanwhile, in the other car, Dylan glances over at his window and sees his reflection. For a second, it changes to the face of an older man with a dark complexion and a severe expression, and then it looks him dead in the eye and speaks: "tá'c haláxp, sooyáapoo." He starts and tells Jordan what he's seen, and she raises a Mental Shield over him. The image fades and Dylan calms, and they continue on their way.

They arrive at the motel and check in, and Zoe and Dylan compare notes. Dylan learns that the phrase he heard basically translates to "good afternoon, white man" in nimipuutít. Based on his description, the man he saw might very well have been of Nez Perce extraction, but there isn't much else to go on. The envoys have some dinner (they brought food in coolers), and Dylan and Jordan ward the rooms. Everyone sleeps well that night, despite their concerns.

In the morning, they head over to the nearby diner/general store and get some breakfast. They talk to the lovely woman at the diner, and learn that a ranger and a park custodian at the nearby battlefield park just didn't show up for work last week (Aidan and Curt). Jordan asks if they've gone missing, and the woman says that she doesn't know about that, maybe they just decided to quit. 

Zoe asks if there are wolves around - she's paranoid about wolves. The woman says that there are, but they don't really get this close to town (such as it is). The fellow in the kitchen yells out that he heard wolves howling sometime last week, but the counter lady says it was just coyotes. 

The envoys buy some maps and sunscreen and so on at the store and then head down the road to the park. They pull into the visitor center and have a chat with Harvey, a very nice older gent working the desk. He tells them the basic rules of the place (no swimming, no overnight camping, no fires, no fishing without a permit, no littering, no alcohol), and, as they get him talking, confirms that Aidan and Curt just didn't show up last week. He doesn't seem especially worried about them, though, certainly no reason to suspect foul play. 

The envoys drive to the nearby trailhead parking lot and start on their hike. They keep watch for wolf tracks, as well as any sign of dead bodies (Zoe is pretty convinced that Aidan and Curt are dead and left out here somewhere). It's a very pleasant day's walk, and then the trail bends and they can see the Big Hole River. Zoe spots tire tracks leading towards the river, and they go down to investigate. They find evidence of a campfire, a discarded beer can, and some footprints. Looks like someone had a party and made sure to clean up, either out of not wanting to get caught, responsibility, or both. 

Zoe uses Postcognition and sees the party in progress. She counts ten people, mostly in their 20s, but there's one guy who looks to be in his early 30s. She also spots one person she recognizes - Emma Whitman, the unfortunate girl who was killed by the wolf yesterday. As she watches, it starts to rain blood. The youngsters freak out a bit (as is appropriate), and then a man walks out of the woods, much older than they are, wearing jeans and buckskin boots. He pulls a knife from his belt, and one of the people, a young man with darker features, looks at the man and says "manáa wées 'iním we'níikt?"

The man doesn't answer. He just looks furious. The rain stops, and he backs up into the woods. Someone says "who the hell was that guy? What'd you say to him, Ted?" Ted replies, "I just asked his name. I don't know, I panicked." The guy in his 30s stands up and says, "OK, that's it. Everyone out. Get in the truck. I shouldn't have let you in." 

The people head to the truck nearby (a tan-colored pickup truck), and the last one to speak kicks out the fire and douses it with water. The vision fades, and Zoe relays this to the others.

Probably the man with the knife is the one that Dylan has been seeing, and the guy who "let [them] in" was probably Aidan, the ranger. Who are the others? The envoys have no idea. They look around for more clues, but don't see anything useful. Jordan finds some boot tracks in the woods, probably the mysterious man, and sees that they fade into wolf tracks. Zoe tries to use Postcognition on those to verify what they already suspect, but something goes wrong. She feels flashes of the battle that took place here, hears gunshots and screams, and then gets a splash of blood on her face. She cries out and falls over, and the envoys start helping her back to the car.

They decide to head back to the motel - there's not any obvious benefit in continuing the trail and they don't want to split up. As they get back, Jordan gets a call from Darnell. The guy that died at the storage place has been identified as Xander Smart. He's a recent Boise State grad. Darnell sends along a picture, too.

Jordan and Melanie both get online and do some digging into these people, from different angles - Jordan looks for information on Aidan, and Melanie looks for info on Xander. They're both successful. 

Xander Smart had a picture on his Facebook page of him with some friends. They're all tagged: Rose Velez, Chrissy Pelt, Peter Lennert, and Emma Whitman. Jordan finds an old employees page from the park, with pictures of Aidan Fisk and Curt Waylon. Doing a little more digging, she finds that Curt lives in Anaconda (yes, there's a town in Montana called Anaconda, and the story of why it's called that is ridiculous). His brother lives in Bozeman with his girlfriend...recent Boise State grad Rose Velez.

The pieces are falling into place. Curt and Corey know the students, including Xander and Emma, through Rose. Aidan must have let them into the park after hours. Now Xander and Emma are both dead and Curt and Aidan are missing. But who's "Ted" then?

Dylan, figuring that if this guy speaks nimipuuít there has to be a reason for it, checks his student records. Turns out Ted Norman is a grad student in sociology; his advisor is one of Dylan's colleagues. He's involved in a linguistic revitalization project, and probably has been involved in some of the online resources that Zoe has been using. 

Dylan puts in an email to Ted's advisor to ask for his contact info, and the envoys consider their next move.