Pouring Forth Oil I
Red Dead Redemption 2
Mission 13 of 24
Started by 
Horseshoe Overlook, New Hanover
Available after Polite Society, Valentine Style, The First Shall Be Last and We Loved Once and True I; can be played in a different order
"Pouring Forth Oil I" is a story mission of Red Dead Redemption 2 in Chapter 2: Horseshoe Overlook. It is given by John Marston and consists of a single scene at the Horseshoe Overlook camp. It becomes available once Polite Society, Valentine Style, The First Shall Be Last and We Loved Once and True I are complete. This guide lists it thirteenth of the chapter's 24 missions, which can be played in a different order.
John brings Arthur Morgan a tip that Mary-Beth Gaskill picked up in Valentine: a train of wealthy passengers through Scarlett Meadows. He proposes to stop it with a wagon of oil left on the tracks. Arthur goes off to find the wagon while John fetches supplies in town. The plan continues in Pouring Forth Oil II.
- Location
- The camp at Horseshoe Overlook, the Heartlands, New Hanover
- Unlocks
- Pouring Forth Oil II, which is skipped if four in-game hours pass while it is active or if it is the only mission available; then Pouring Forth Oil III
Story
John's tip
At camp, Susan Grimshaw tells Arthur that John was looking for him and is by the tree. Arthur finds him there. John: "Hey, Arthur." Arthur: "What you want?" John: "Uncle told me something about a train." The information comes from Mary-Beth, who heard it in Valentine during Polite Society, Valentine Style: a train full of wealthy folk, rolling through Scarlett Meadows, just south of the state border.
John offers to help. Arthur says he is not even sure about doing it; John insists that at night the train is not well guarded. Arthur: "I ain't thought it through. You know, stopping a train... pain in the ass."
The oil wagon
John has an answer: "Sure, but what if... we could force a train to stop." His idea is to take a wagon full of something flammable and put it on the tracks. "They see it... they know they either have to stop, or die. Ain't no train driver wants to be cooked alive." Arthur is impressed: "That is... kinda brilliant. Uh, for you." He adds that it is probably the first real idea John has ever had. John: "Shut up."
Arthur then teases him about the wolves that mauled his face in Enter, Pursued by a Memory: "You might be the first bastard to ever have half his brains eaten by a wolf and end up more intelligent."
Sharing the work
John asks whether they are doing it. Arthur agrees: "Yeah, we're gonna need ammunition, guns... look real frightening... and some dynamite to open up the train." John will get the supplies, since he has to go into town for Abigail anyway ("Don't even ask."). Arthur's job is the oil wagon. He knows just the place: wagons are always heading into the refinery.
John tells him where to leave it: "There's an old run down shack just over the border... north of a place called Dewberry Creek. Leave it hidden somewhere near there." The scene ends there.
What follows
In Pouring Forth Oil II, Arthur steals an oil wagon at Cornwall Kerosene & Tar, or takes one on its way from Valentine, and leaves it at Old Trail Rise. That part is optional: if four in-game hours pass while it is active, or if it is the only mission available, it is skipped and John takes the wagon himself. The robbery itself is prepared in Pouring Forth Oil III and carried out in Pouring Forth Oil IV.
Trivia
- The mission is a single cutscene, so it cannot be replayed.
- If the player follows John after the cutscene, he rides to Valentine, stops in front of the doctor's office and stays on his horse.
- The subtitles spell the region "Scarlet Meadows", with one t, instead of Scarlett Meadows.