Tuesday April 9, 1875; Independence, MO
For a boom town in the wild, Independence is big. It’s a town with a purpose: equipping wagon trains with their supplies and turning a tidy profit.
The day started early; Malachai and I started lining up supplies for the follow up wagons, making good use of our new found wealth. We went from shop to shop, turning over more and more credit from the letter over to the merchants, until it was finally exhausted at near day’s end.
Sunday April 7, 1875; Several hours outside of Independence
Today was a peaceable day. All three preachers spoke, making for a long morning. The first preacher was like to induce snoring, but Reverend Smith perked things up again. Their zeal for spreading the word to the benighted indians out in the territory was clear; it reminded me that we’re on a holy mission.
Saturday, April 6, 1875; Missouri Wilds [1. This was a bad session for timing; people were late and a session break in the middle cut down on the “in world game time”.]
At breakfast, I brought up that thorny topic, the madman’s money. It was not as hard as I thought it would be; the demon dollars couldn’t grip tight on me. I told the Doc and Malachai that they were the victims of the madman’s blade, that they had more of a claim to the cash he was carrying than any other man. So I handed them the fat wad of money I’d taken from the dead man– Lucien’s wallet. They set about protesting, but could not come up with a better plan. They promised to think on a proper division during the day, and we’d talk around our fire tonight.
I’ll keep it below the fold, ’cause it’s long again.
Below is the rough draft of the journal for my character, Robert Cassidy. I enjoyed writing it up, and hope the inspiration clings. Some of this was backstory; the session began in mid-march trying to join the wagon train. Much of the writing prior to St. Louis was finding the character’s voice and explaining backgrounds and flaws. Hopefully, a lot of flavor came through.