During the silver rush, Nathan and Emma McCutchen made their fortune the smart way, not down in the mine swinging a pick, but selling to the men who did. They built a grand mansion in the center of town to prove it. But the land around Deadlands was already cursed, and no amount of money kept House McCutchen safe from it.

During the final construction, Nathan vanished. Some said he took one look at what the house was becoming and fled back East. The truth is worse, and the town never proved it: Emma killed them all. She bled them dry and destroyed what was left, so the bodies were never found and the souls never got free. That’s why House McCutchen fills with ghosts when the rest of Deadlands walks with the dead, these spirits have nothing left to walk in. They’re just stuck. Nathan was the first she killed.

Soon after, Emma convinced the town that its children needed discipline and structure, and the west wing became a boarding school with Emma as schoolmistress. The children suffered under her. They suffer still. Their laughter lingers in the halls alongside the heavy sound of her footsteps, always somewhere nearby.

Everyone in this house is dead and trapped, schoolchildren, servants, teachers, all of them afraid. Afraid of her. They warn each other and they’ll warn you too: don’t make a sound, don’t draw her eye. Because if you do, she will find you.

Step carefully. Step quietly. The house remembers, and it doesn’t like strangers.