Downfall of Henry Hodges

Reconnaissence of the ranch

The ranch is at the head of a valley overlooked by an ancient Native American cave village… Hodges is a master of Navajo Witch Magic - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_(Navajo) but his lair is protected by the ghosts he has harvested from the burial ground on which he’s built his house… 

Around the valley there are ghosts chained to their platforms… Lyris is outraged and Marco convinces her to sabotage the fetish skeleton crucified in the village and not release the ghosts until everyone is ready (she manipulates the fetish nightmare to make it slowly go dormant and empowers the sacrifice to start to resist)… Nell scouts the house and finds a hall of arcane mirrors… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qir5t9RbEHo... Heh heh heh… 

Wisely she decides not to proceed any further and investigate what the mirrors are protecting! She also notes there is a puma ghost protecting the house but she notes that it reacts to movement and as long as she can see it she can probably evade its gaze…

What happened

• Johann scouts the valley - finds the mesa which is the focus for the daily fey gate in the cliff face
• Lyris talks to spirits in the caves
• Nell checks out the ranch
• Prof talks to loacl Mexicans and gets a cook
• Marco talks to jouralist and priest and gets the back story on Henry Hodges
• Nell and Lyris talk to the Indians and understand the nature of the Puma and the Navajho burial grounds.
• Lyris and Johann visit the fey realm.

Pulling this together they work oput that Henry Hodges was a local of Columbia that went to the Philappines in the army and returned a different man with a Filipino vampire bride (Amihan) and the start of his long association with the 5 Rings and the power that came with it. The ranch was created in the valley specifically for the access to the fey gate. Amihan has major powers and is using the fey realm to store Carmen's key artefacts.

Party work out that they need to neutralise the many ranch-hands and especially the 10 Ulstermen gunslingers. Amihan has to be neutralised and Henry Hodges and Porter taken out.