The office of the Wild West Museum is being used as Cries-Burning-Tears' special base of operations. If Cries-Burning-Tears is caught by surprise, he has a bundle of his belongings near a hole in the floor. The bundle includes the poles for his pole-traps, his painting pigments, a bottle of spook juice, and miscellaneous junk, trinkets and knick-knacks of no apparent value. (He's a bit of a pack-rat.) If Cries-Burning-Tears is especially rushed to escape, he'll just dump the bundle down the hole and let it land in the pool of goo below. (It'll float, and most of the contents will survive the fall and the goo.)

The office is largely barren, save for a pole-trap next to the door to the Mining/Logging/Farming Exhibit, a large table, and a desk. Instead of a skylight in this room, there is an electric "chandelier" in the ceiling, which is nonfunctional, though Cries-Burning-Tears has modified it to hold a few candles he's swiped from elsewhere in the museum. The desk is sufficiently large to be moved over to cover the hole in the floor,, and contains an assortment of post cards, bills (overdue by about thirteen years), miscellaneous paperwork, pencils, souvenir notepads, a letter opener, and so forth, plus the keys to the display cases and any locked doors in the museum. The table is large enough to be up-ended to block the window or a door. There's also a filing cabinet in the corner, which is full of old paperwork, and the master fusebox. (For what it's worth, there are several perfectly good fuses in the fusebox.)

The entry to the museum has a tiled floor with a fountain (presently not operating) in its center. Along the walls are framed maps of the Old West, with dotted lines showing major trails, old railways, and the old borders of the original territories. There are wooden benches just inside each window, and on the opposite wall. There is also a case with brochures advertising other tourist traps in the area -- including the Cobalt Caves.

The floor is covered in a layer of slippery slime ... and the ceiling is coated with some greenish slime as well, though this isn't immediately obvious, unless someone thinks to look up, or to search the room for traps (TN 3). The slime on the floor makes it so that anyone who attempts to run through the room must beat a TN of 5 with Nimbleness, or slip and fall on his tail. This also applies to, say, anyone leaping through the windows. If combat takes place in this room, or any explosions, assume that enough of the slime gets burnt or scraped away that this effect will no longer apply.

The slime on the ceiling is radioactive and highly toxic -- Anyone with Geiger Vision should immediately spot the ceiling goo, and any geiger counters will start clicking noticeably. Loud noises (such as explosions) may prompt the goo to loosen its grip on the ceiling, falling a few minutes thereafter. (As bad luck would have it -- probably when one of the Posse members is standing right underneath.) Anyone who gets hit with a gob of slime must pass a Vigor test against a TN of 7, or take 2d6 damage to all hit locations that have exposed skin. Any resistance against radiation applies. Armor and environmental suits are perfect against this, but regular clothing and light armor will be ruined, as the goo is also acidic -- While having boiled leather may protect one from the goo, the boiled leather will be sufficiently damaged to lose its armor value (and also look pretty shabby).

The goo can be disposed of by hosing it down or knocking it to the floor and then diluting it in water. The Doomsayer Purify power can also be used to render the substance inert. (Treat it as if there is a total of five gallons of goo.)

Double doors open back outside to the north, along with a window on each side (and a land mine buried outside of each window). Double doors to the south have a sign over them, labelled as the "Native American Exhibit". The door to the east has a sign that reads "General Store Gift Shop and Wild West Restaurant/Saloon". The door to the west reads, "Mining, Logging and Farming in the Wild West", and has a little sign that reads, "Start Your Tour Here".

The doors to the west and the south also happen to have several symbols painted on them. Anyone with academia: occult can try to decipher them.

If anyone defaces the runes on the doors, or opens them, that sets off the pole-traps. On the other side of each door are some wooden poles run into holes in the wooden floor, with symbols painted on them in green paint. If the traps are set off, the poles burst into green flame, and focus a special form of Rad Blast down through the doorway, doing 6d6 massive damage to anyone standing in the line of fire. (If the doors are closed at the time, the doors are destroyed.) If anyone thinks to step to one side of the door before opening it, he or she can easily avoid the blast, as long as he or she doesn't Botch on a Nimbleness roll to get out of the way.

In case anyone wishes to do some spying, the doors have keyholes that can be peered through. For most of the interior doors, these do not actually lock -- They just have the keyholes for appearances. The exception would be the restaurant (the museum and restaurant hours weren't the same), the office (privacy, of course), and the restrooms. It's possible to peer through a keyhole to get a peek at the adjoining rooms.

This is where the tour was supposed to start, though there may not be any particularly logical reason for it. Narrative plaques on the walls talk about the pioneers, and how they got by in the West, and the various things that led people to expand westward, rather than staying in the East. On the walls are implements and tools, such as gold-panning gear, mining equipment, farm implements, saws, etc. Some scroungin' should be required for the Posse to find items that are actually serviceable, but here are a few items that can be found here that may be of some use. If the Posse should have cause for looking for other items, the Marshal should use his discretion -- This is a museum, after all, so an exhaustive listing of all items to be found here would be ridiculous.

There are sigils inscribed on the west wall, and a sign over the door that reads "Office -- Authorized Personnel Only". Another door, to the south, leads to the "Hazards of the Wild West Exhibit". Pole-traps are set up facing the east and south doors. (Odds are, though, that by the time the Posse reaches this room, one trap or the other will have been set off.) There is also a pole-trap hidden behind the office door, which is set to go off if anyone tries to open it or deface the runes.

The gift shop is done up to resemble an "old west" style General Store. On the tops of shelves and nooks running along the edges of the ceiling, there are faux bags of grain, old-fashioned-looking boxes and bottles of various goods, and other items that would seem to fit the expected wares of such a store. A skylight provides illumination, as does a window to the north. A door to the west leads to the Lobby, a door to the south leads to the How the West Was Won exhibit, and a door to the east leads to the Wild West Restaurant and Saloon. The door to the east is locked from the gift shop, but easily opened from this side. (The restaurant stayed open later than the museum did.)

If anyone does some scroungin', here, there are a number of items to be found, some useful, some saleable. Here are only a few examples:

The Wild West Restaurant has been fixed up to resemble a saloon, adjoining the museum, though it is only charitably called a "restaurant". "Cafe" is probably too generous. It's closer to a "snack bar". There are a few wooden tables, and a bar. The bar has been largely ransacked, as well as the kitchen/grill area.

A door leads outside, to the east. It has been locked from the inside, and can be easily opened from here. A door also leads westward to the "General Store Gift Shop", but it's locked from the museum side, with a little hanging sign that says, "The Wild West Museum is Closed". The door can be picked with a lockpickin' roll against a TN of 5, or else it can just be smashed in with brute force.

If anyone does a scroungin' roll versus a TN of 5, two intact bottles of old whiskey (value $100 each) can be found in the bar area. Otherwise, people searching around can find several utensils (including twenty small knives, and three big knives).

The water doesn't run here, and there's no electricity, but the grill is still a fairly good place for the Posse to cook their meals without fear of burning the museum down, if they decide to camp out.

Also known as the "Hall of Hazards", this hallway runs north and south from the Mining/Logging/Farming exhibit to the north, down to the Wildlife of the West exhibit to the south, forming a T-intersection that leads back to the Native American exhibit to the east, and with a doorway that leads to the Hall of Horrors to the west.

Pictures and narrative plaques on the walls describe the various hazards faced by pioneers, settlers, prospectors, and others who ventured out into the untamed west: deserts, inclement weather, starvation, wild animals, hostile natives, bandits, cave-ins, even the Civil War, which dragged on for seventeen years.

Marshal Note: Yes, the real Civil War in our world only lasted about five years, but it really stretched on in the universe of Deadlands.

The western wall is fixed up like a facade of an old, creepy house, with the entrance to the Hall of Horrors corresponding to the front door.

There isn't really anything in the way of salvage here, aside from pictures and plaques. The door to the north (Mining/Logging/Farming) has sigils on it, and is booby-trapped against intrusion. There is also a pole-trap set in the floor here, positioned to blast anyone coming in from the Native American exhibit. (If the Posse has already set it off, though, then there are just a few smoldering, charred remains of the poles jammed into the floor boards.)

The interior of this room is made up to look something like the interior of some old, run-down Victorian house. Of course, now it's genuinely run down, as there are plenty of real cobwebs to join the fake cotton ones strung up in the corners. There are several wax statues and dummies here made up to represent a number of monsters of the Weird West, with newspaper clippings from the Tombstone Epitaph and drawings (or fuzzy photos) of the purported monsters. Such monsters as the Nosferatu, Werewolf, Hangin' Judge, Wall-Crawler, Mojave Rattler (not to scale, of course), and Devil Bat are represented. The only exit is a door that opens back to the Hazards of the West to the east, and there are two grimy windows that let in light from the west.

There are wax statues and mannequins made up to resemble an assortment of horrors of the West, as reported in the pages of the Tombstone Epitaph. Narrative plaques explain that the actual dangers of the West (as detailed in the "Hazards of the West" hallway exhibition) had a taxing effect on the psyches of the early pioneers, settlers, scouts and prospectors, and some of the tall tales and ghost stories told around campfires got a bit out of hand, as entire settlements were beset by bouts of paranoia. Sometimes, criminals would play upon the superstitions of locals, passing themselves off as "undead marauders" of some sort, or spreading tales of horrors, for the purpose of scaring locals into submission, or pulling con jobs.

The pages of the Tombstone Epitaph tell an entirely different story, of course -- of horrors roaming the West ... but also of heroes battling it out with these monsters, and often winning. On the surface, one might read the Tombstone Epitaph to be a publication devoted to scaring the bejeebers out of people, but if one actually reads some of the stories, in the end, the message is often one of hope against incredible odds.

There are several issues of the Tombstone Epitaph behind glass cases here -- In some instances, the pages of the Epitaph are folded open to reveal stories about the monsters on display, and in some cases illustrations or even what appear to be "mocked-up photographs", according to display disclaimers. (The text within the Epitaph itself claims that the photos are real.)

If anyone tries to scrounge for salvage, there are several copies of the Tombstone Epitaph here, altogether counting as a total of ten copies. These ancient papers actually have a semi-mystical quality about them: If they are passed out to a crowd before attempting a tale-tellin' roll, the teller gets a +1 to his roll. The stories may be full of monsters and horrors, but they also tell the tales of heroes who defeat these nasties, so overall the papers present a message of hope.

Also, the Hangin' Judge can be stripped down to provide clothes for a Size 7 or Size 8 hombre, complete with gunbelt, holsters, gloves and boots (AV -2 to feet). There are a couple of replica single-action cap-and-ball revolvers (.44 caliber, shots 6, range 10, ROF 1, speed 2, damage 2d6) that can be used, but there's no ammunition, and the "scythes" are crudely welded on, and will break off if used in close combat.

Another possible use for some of the wax statues is that they can be melted down for wax for candles. Also, wax will float in the toxic goo at the bottom of the cave, and if the Posse is particularly desperate, a wax Mojave Rattler or Wall-Crawler could be tossed down and used as a buoyant device to help get across the goo.

There are several displays for each of the monsters, with narrative that maintains a fairly skeptical opinion about the reality of the creatures described:

Toward the south end of the museum is a room devoted to taxidermy displays of a number of critters of the West, plus photos and pictures of several more. There is a mounted head of a moose on one wall, and a fully-mounted bear posed as if ready to strike someone coming from the eastern door. There's also a wolf, a coyote, a fox, an owl, a badger, some snakes, etc. The smaller creatures are displayed in glass cases in little dioramas. It's conceivable that someone could try to swipe the pelts of some of these critters, but they're pretty old and in ratty condition, so they won't really be worth much. (They just might be useful for desperate Posse members seeking protection against the cold at night.)

There is a fire door exit to the south, with the warning, "ALARM WILL SOUND". (In actuality, no, it won't, but there's still a land-mine planted right outside.) A door to the west (unlocked) leads to the Ladies' Room, and a door to the east leads to the Native American Artwork exhibit.

In the center of the museum is a large room with displays of the indigenous peoples of the Americas before the European settlers came. Hanging on the walls are a number of blankets and pieces of beaded jewelry, displays of arrowheads and stone implements, et cetera. In the center of the room is a glassed-in case that has the largely skeletal remains of a Native American discovered in the Cobalt Caves, presumed to have slipped and fallen and died there.

Although nobody in the Posse may have much of a way to find out about it, the remains in the case belong to Black-Horn, a traditional Shaman from the Old West. His spirit is none too pleased about the body being put on display in a museum for all these years, and can only rest once he is given a proper burial. The spirit is not particularly potent. However, if someone sleeps in the room, he may receive a dream of being in a tee-pee with the shaman, seated around a campfire. If the Posse member seems to be an agreeable sort, the shaman will request that his remains be buried at the soonest opportunity, but that first an enemy must be dealt with.

The shaman has been partially bound by rituals from Cries-Burning-Tears, so he cannot reveal very much about him, except that the latter is a shaman who serves a "corrupted spirit of fire", and that the best weakness of fire is "the element that would best oppose it". If the Posse has somehow gotten this far without setting off any of the pole-traps, the shaman will give them warnings, and if anyone tries to make a roll to disarm/disable a trap, he will get +4 to such rolls, thanks to the shaman's warnings.

If the dreamer is particularly sympathetic -- especially if he happens to be of Native American descent, or there is someone else in the party who is a traditional Shaman -- he may reveal the true nature of some of the artifacts in the room -- the Dreamcatchers, the Bead Shirt, and the Ghost Arrows, described below. He will offer that these items need not be buried with him, but instead should be used in the fight against the Reckoners and the minions of Raven. He will, however, request that he be buried with his medicine pouch.

If, at some appropriate point, someone should actually give the shaman a burial or a funeral pyre, he will appear again in a dream. He will offer a favor in response for completing this task. The first would be to offer to provide the effect of a single Favor of up to eight Appeasement Points in value at some time in the future. This is a one-use Favor that may come from the Earth Medicine Way or the Warrior Medicine Way. If the recipient is a shaman, he may instead offer a "pool" of eight Appeasement Points that may be each used at some point in the future, though once they're used, they're gone. If there is some more appropriate favor that the shaman might provide to the recipient, then that should be used instead. In addition, the person arranging for this should get a red chip for the trouble.

Some of the items in the room have some special value to them. There is a bow with a quiver of ten arrows -- the quiver, bow, arrow shafts, arrow heads and fletches are all made of white (or near-white) materials. These are all Ghost Weapons, which means that they can be taken along on a journey to the Hunting Grounds, and the arrows can be used to harm spirit creatures normally unharmed by material weapons. The arrows are quite old, however, and are quite likely to break. (This is at the Marshal's discretion, but otherwise just consider it a 50% chance per use that an arrow breaks.)

The Bead Shirt actually provides some protection against bullets. If the wearer has at least 1 point of Faith in a Native American religion, he gets AV 1 of protection to the torso/guts against bullets and other "weapons of the white man". It does nothing against arrows, wooden clubs, claws, fists, supernatural weapons or damage from "natural" things.

The Dreamcatcher has the same effect as any dreamcatcher -- If someone sleeps with a dreamcatcher set up on a post over his head, it actually grants a peaceful night's rest. Anyone afflicted with Night Terrors gets a +2 to the roll to resist the effect.

As far as salvage goes, aside from the aforementioned items, there are a few thin blankets that, in layers, could provide bedrolls for two people. Also, there are several arrowheads that could be used to make simple arrows, and there is a birchbark canoe suspended from the rafters of the ceiling. (It can be used to make it across the "goo pool" in the cavern, without suffering ill effect.) There are also three tomahawks.

The exhibit room is a split-level arrangement, descending short steps toward the Native American Artwork Exhibit to the south. (Unlike most of the passages here, there is no door between the Native American Exhibit and the Native American Artwork Exhibit.)

A door opens to the east to the How the West Was Won Exhibit, and there is another door leading to the west to the Hazards of the West. The western door is covered with those same sigils, and behind it is another pole-trap just waiting to be set off if the sigils are disturbed or the door is opened.

Double doors to the north open back up to the Lobby area. There is another pole-trap positioned on this side of these doors. If the Posse has set off this trap already, the poles are just smoldering, charred bits stuck in the floor. Otherwise, the pole-trap is set up to fire into the lobby and the entry steps if the door is opened, or the sigils or the poles disturbed.

This T-intersection hallway adjoins the Native American Exhibit to the north, and branches off to the Wildlife of the West exhibit to the west, and the Life in the West exhibit to the east. On the walls are paintings and pictures and bead necklaces, as well as some dreamcatchers (four, to be exact). There are also several pots and baskets, in case the Posse has need for such things. These pots, blankets and so forth are not actual antiques (at least, they weren't at the time the bombs dropped), but were "modern" reproductions. The dreamcatchers, however, are authentic.

This exhibit is devoted to a mish-mash of displays showing aspects of what it was like to live in the old west. There are many paintings and pictures of people and places in the old west, most of them centered on Montana. Glass cases house antiques, and a few larger items -- such as quilts -- hang on the walls.

To the east is a door to the Gents' Room, and there's a fire door to the south, with the warning, "ALARM WILL SOUND". (As with the other fire door, no it won't, but there's another land-mine planted just outside, so it's best to watch one's step.) To the west is a doorway leading to the Native American Artwork Exhibit T-intersection hallway, and to the north is a doorway leading to the How the West Was Won Exhibit. Illumination is provided by a skylight.

If anyone bothers scroungin', there are a number of potentially useful items here:

This is a long-neglected restroom, filthy and smelly, and the water doesn't run. Illumination is provided by a skylight in the ceiling, and if this place were cleaned up, it might look fairly nice. It has been decorated with a "homey" touch, with nooks that hold little wooden and cloth craft knick-knacks and arrangements of fake flowers. (The few actual flowers have long since died.) There is water in the sinks (and elsewhere), but the water is stagnant and filthy, only to be used in dire emergencies. The only exit is a door to the east, leading into the Wildlife of the West Exhibit.

If anyone tries scroungin', there are a few potentially valuable items here:

This is yet another long-neglected restroom, also filthy and smelly, without running water. Stagnant water is caught in the clogged-up sinks and puddles here and there. There is some wall decoration made from leather tack and copies of old photographs. Illumination is provided by a skylight, and the only exit is a door to the east, leading into the Life in the West Exhibit.

If anyone tries scroungin', there are a few potentially valuable items here:

This is a T-intersection corridor that leads off to the south, north and west, with a fancy facade and a doorway opening to the east. Illumination is provided by a skylight in the ceiling. The door to the west is labeled, "Native American Exhibit", the door to the south is labeled, "Life in the West", the door to the north is labeled, "General Store Gift Shop, and the fancy door to the east is labeled, "Hall of Heroes.

This seems to be a catch-all for displays about historical events and developments in the West that don't necessarily fit anywhere else, with lots of drawings, prints and photographs on the walls, with the occasional map showing the progress of the North and South across the West.

Insofar as salvage, there is nothing definitely valuable worth grabbing.