[DitV] Town creation - White Stone

[sirogit]

Here's my next DitV town: White Stone.

The most notable feature of the town is the steward, Arim, a converted mountain person, charismatic and utterly devoted to the Faith, and a strong hand in the town's progressive values towards mountain people. Everything is remarkably hopefull until now.

Pride: When the mountain people sin, Arim never lets people know. He even knows that some aren't really converts and still practive the old ways, but avoids making them public in order to maintain the town's high opinion of mountain people.

Injustice: Brother Calvin has noticed Arim's soft hand towards the mountain people, and though he has sympathy and understanding towards it, thinks the town needs someone to deal with their sinning ways if the steward isn't going to, and has gotten a posse of 4 together to do it.

Sin: The posse killed some mountain people after discovering them performing a weird ritual.

Demonic Attack: The posse has been haunted by the ghosts of the mountain people, and believe that they're being besieged by a sorcerer.

They rounded up two mountain people, Howling Water for prostuition and Desert Red Shin, Water's father, for abiding it.

The people of White Stone are starting to be persuaded by Brother Calvin's claims, and believe that even though Arim is a wonderfull Steward, he needs help handling the mountain people, and thus are allowing Calvin to hang Howling Water and Desert Red Shin.

False Beleif: Arim sees all this misery and injustice the result of him staying within the bounds of doctrine too much, and that this the King's message that social justice should trump doctrine.

Corrupt worship: Arim lets some mountain people that he knows aren't faithfull practive their rituals in the church in secrecy, in order to protect them from Calvin's posse.

False Priesthood: Arim's family, his wife's family, and a lot of mountain people know what Arim is doing, and think its wonderfull.

Sorcery: Upon the "last" request of Desert Red Shin, Arim has requested assistence from the spirits of his ancestors, and boy has he gotten it.

At the day of Desert Red Shin's hanging, the whole gallows just broke down before Desert could die. It's the cause of quite an uproar in Calvin's posse, who are moved to more extreme methods.

Twists: One of the Dogs, Honeas, is a converted mountain person who was adopted at birth, and Desert Red Shin is his father, and Howling Water his sister.

Cyrus, an atheist bawd and one of Honeas's bitter enemies, had travelled to White Stone to try and finish the score, but at the time of finding Howling Water, a very dear friend, in trouble, wants to save her from captivity first.

The people:

Arim wants the Dogs to support his view, re-bolster his public image and disband that posse.

Calvin wants the Dogs to get rid of whatever mountain person sorcerer is having it out for his posse.

Howling Water wants out of captivity and for her brother to give up her opressor's Faith.

Desert Red Shin isn't bothered by his estranged son's faith, largely due to what an example Arim is, and wishes most of all that Arim's dream be realized, above and beyond his own life or freedom.

Cyrus wants the Dogs to rescue Howling Water, and then wants to settle the score between him and Honeas.

The demons want where this is going, an incredibly nasty civil war.

What would happen if the Dogs didn't come? The people would be divided by those who reject Arim as their stewart and those who accept him, and would engage in a war that would leave one of two sides: A brutal, bigoted inquiisition or a pack of sinners and nigh-on-mountain-people-worshippers. Either of which would make the demons elated.

My concerns:

I don't want Calvin's posse to be too uncredible, infact, I want Calvin to be a pretty decent guy, who has no axe to grind against mountain people, he just thinks that Arim, whom he admires and thinks is a good steward, is being unfair to all people by protecting the mountain people specificly. He's a big fan of the death penalty, though.

I wonder if the coincidince of Cyrus knowing Howling water is too unbelievable. I'd greatly appreciate outside opinion.

Arim lets himself be possessed by "The spirit of his people". He's got a 4 dice relationship with them as a sorcerer, maybe 4d8, and probably Cunning and Viciousness. I'm drawing a blank on his weird features. I'd also appreciate suggestions on that.

[Simon Kamber]

I like that twist. Good way to make it personal, fast.

I don't want Calvin's posse to be too uncredible, infact, I want Calvin to be a pretty decent guy, who has no axe to grind against mountain people, he just thinks that Arim, whom he admires and thinks is a good steward, is being unfair to all people by protecting the mountain people specificly. He's a big fan of the death penalty, though.

In fact, I'd say that he should be a bit of a bastard. Just a little bit. Same thing as with Arim: Good intentions gone slightly rotten. That way, the Dogs won't want to support either side. Don't make him a complete asshole either though, just enough to give a hint that this guy could well become a hanging judge if he gets power.

I wonder if the coincidince of Cyrus knowing Howling water is too unbelievable. I'd greatly appreciate outside opinion.

Depends. If he does, it should have something to do with Honeas' relationship to her as his sister. I don't think it should be entirely random, but Cyrus could've been, say, courting her.

Arim lets himself be possessed by "The spirit of his people". He's got a 4 dice relationship with them as a sorcerer, maybe 4d8, and probably Cunning and Viciousness. I'm drawing a blank on his weird features. I'd also appreciate suggestions on that.

Something spiritual-like. Those blank, empty eyes you see in people who are mysteriously gazing into a crystal ball or something. A dreamy voice. Hair that moves subtly even when there's no wind.

[sirogit]

I think that it's important that it's not easy for the Dogs to support either side, because I didn't work in a good third incomptible goal, and I think it'd be a bit hard to now.

Total agreement on Calvin. But he hangs people with a smile.

One note on Arim is that his idea's are paticularly against what Honeas stood for in the last session, and I'm presenting them to drive those choices harder. In the last session Honeas made the judgement that secrets should be brought to light even if it could shake the world of the person who hears them, now the question, what if revealing those secrets meant death to his people, including his family he never met? So I figure that he's going to look pretty problematic as is without having to throw in more vices.

Here's the thing with Honeas, Howling Water and Cyrus; It was in play(two towns ago) that Cyrus met Honeas through Honeas's doing his dog-thing. So the possibilities I'm look at are:

1. Cyrus knows Howling Water way back because he's a pretty big time debaucherer that's willing to move around, and knows most of the people who freely sin in the vineyard; there's not that many of them. Honeas's original family as Mountain people are sinful, he fights the sinful, so its not that unlikely that they'd run in to each other.

2. Cyrus just met Howling intentionally while he was taking up residence in this town, perhaps as a way to manipulate Honeas when he arrived. He than took quite a liking to her.

I'm favoring 1, it sounds probable enough and I like the idea of a long-time relationship between Cyrus and Howling Water.

I could see some potential in number 2, espicially if I worked in an issue of love, in that I could introduce a few more issues: Your sister is a prostituite. She's also a heathen. She's in love with a seedy bastard. They problably want to get married. And they'll want her to whore herself out still. Also he wants to have a duel with you. Which of these do you have a problem with most and what will you do to change them?

But I feel like my plate is already pretty full, considering that I want to try to finish the town in 1 session. I might be convinced that I should save Cyrus and this issue for the next town, and instead insert a third incompitible goal. Which I'm starting to swing towards.

Quite a bit to think over.