Herra reports that the town is, well, crawling with thralls. Dozens, maybe scores--roughly 2/3s of the population seems to be under the baleful Vampiric influence, all without creating much of a disturbance to the day-to-day life of the town. She also notes that this is true of folks coming in from the surrounding countryside, too. Those who arrive in groups (presumably all coming from the same ranch or farm) are either all thralled or all free of influence--a clear pattern emerges of entire households being claimed in batches.
Despite this, the townsfolk themselves act largely as you'd expect--they note the arrival of the strangers, but not with dismay or alarm, simple displaying the normal curiosity Sasha's appearance usually provokes. A few of the old-timers obviously find the Creeper's low-slung body a source of amusement, but even that passes. There is one key difference that she can make out, though--townsfolk who are thralled talk less than the others, even with each other--they respond to greetings, or speak as needed for business, but don't actually have conversations without prompting.
Meanwhile Oscar, the young man, manages to restrain himself from launching at the old coots with a visible effort, and storms off. A few buildings down, he gets on a small electric wagon, clearly designed for supply runs to town, and drives off, heading into the surrounding ranch country.
The cart is actually slightly faster than the Creeper or Sasha, but Henry and Echo can go high to keep an eye on him, and the rest of the crew is able to follow them. A few miles out of the small cluster of buildings, he pulls over into a small ranch; it looks like it's had been carved out of a larger one--like he either bought or inherited a partial patch of the larger property, small enough to be maintained by a single person. He runs inside, and is just coming out with an older model Wilk's laser rifle in hand as the Creeper and Sasha pull up. He stops and stands, blinking in surprise.
After speaking with him for a brief period, you manage to get him calmed down enough to tell you what's going on. Oscar Cunningham is upset about the sudden disappearance of Angie Cartwright. Her family insists that she just went off to Chi-Town to make something of herself, but Oscar doesn't buy it--in large part because he and Angie had been secretly engaged. The Cartwrights are one of the wealthier families in town, while Oscar's... isn't. In order to make it easier for the family to accept him, he had worked for a couple of years, building enough of a stake to purchase the plot of land he now owns, and get it up to function. At the time of Angie's disappearance two weeks ago, they'd been planning on making a formal announcement to Angus Cartwright about the engagement that very Sunday after church.
When he first heard the Chi-Town story, he even went to the closest port (more of a waystation along the river, really), and asked around at the docks--no one there had seen anyone matching Angie's description.
In addition, he's noticed folks have been acting 'off', as he puts it, for a few months, now.
"Most times, they seem okay, but every once in awhile they'll say somethin' strange, or they don't react right." He lists several acquaintances and friends whose behavior is askew--losing interest in lifelong hobbies, for instance, or suddenly slacking off on responsibilities.
Some more pointed questioning turns up that things started to go strange "about the time Rev. Krieger brought in Deacon Olivera. He seems like an okay sort, but he's also got a couple of workers he brought with him--who, frankly, look more like a couple of tramps. They attend mass, but most folks sit a bit away from them, 'cause they just look a bit wrong in the head, you know?"
He doesn't know the names of the tramps, but he's quite clear (assuming a bit of careful prodding) that he's seen all three of the new arrivals during the day, and outside to boot. Still, those seem to be the only recent permanent additions to the area--they get travelers, of course, but those tend to stop off for a night and move on.
He's able to provide directions to the church, if folks want to follow that lead. He also offers to let you stay at his place at night, if you want.
