Dogs in the Mountains

[Jonathan Walton]

So, while I was in the shower today, I had a thought.

What if one day the Dogs, including at least one native convert (PC or NPC), rode into one of the Mountain People's settlements instead of a Faithful community?

Complications:

1. The town is doing just fine, but, according to the doctrine of the Faithful, it's ripe with sin and blasphemy, so the Dogs have to lay down the law, converting those they can and delivering judgement on the rest.  This situation would be more touchy for the convert Dog, who would have to sell his new lifestyle to his people.

2. The town is really a den of sin.  The young people rebel about the elders.  Witchcraft is practiced everywhere.  There are strong divisions in the town that are about to become violent.  The Dogs can take sides, try to unite the people together, or whatever, but they have the chance to really save the settlement from destruction and bring it to the Lord.

3. There are several white captives who have grown up among the Mountain People.  They are interested in the Dogs and want to hear stories about the faithful (they're old enough to recognize that they're different from the people around them), but they aren't really interested in converting to the faith or going back to the Faithful's communities.

4. There is an apostate trader who lives in the settlement, having married a women of the Mountain People and been adopted into their family.  He makes a living by riding back into the Faithful communities and conducting trade between the two peoples.  However, he is not of the Faith anymore and laughs at any references to the Lord of Life.

5. A Dog was killed in the settlement some months ago.  The group heard about this from the last Faithful settlement they visited.  Apparently, the heathens have hung up the Dog's coat (complete with a bloody bullet hole in the chest) on a pole at the village center, warning others that they should not enter.  However, the dead Dog's family begs the group to recover their son's coat, so it can be a) buried with him or, b) patched and given to his younger sister, herself a Dog-in-training.  Of course, it turns out that the Mountain People have hung up the coat as a way of honoring the Dog's spirit (the conflict that got him killed was a misunderstanding) and keeping his ghost from bringing destruction to their settlement, so they are not likely to give it up easily.

Combine and mix these as you will, throw in a few language barriers, and I think you've got one interesting situation...

[MajorKiz]

Depending on how sympathetically you wanted to depict the Mountain folk, I would think you could take almost any Old West "Indians vs Settlers" conflict and put it into play.

[Christopher Weeks]

What if one day the Dogs, including at least one native convert (PC or NPC), rode into one of the Mountain People's settlements instead of a Faithful community?

But the Dogs have a route to follow from Branch to Branch.  How would the village of the Mountain People get on their route?  And do they think they lay down the (divine) law just everywhere, or only in town of Faithful?

Chris

("Village of the Mountain People" made me think of "mountain of the Village People.)

[Ben Lehman]

What if one day the Dogs, including at least one native convert (PC or NPC), rode into one of the Mountain People's settlements instead of a Faithful community?

But the Dogs have a route to follow from Branch to Branch.  How would the village of the Mountain People get on their route?  And do they think they lay down the (divine) law just everywhere, or only in town of Faithful?

Mountain People are nomadic.  You never know when you're going to wander into a settlement.

yrs--
--Ben

[DannyK]

The conflict between "convert with fire and sword" and "peaceful coexistence" positions towards the Mountain people sounds interesting, although as I always I haven't read the book yet.

[Joshua A.C. Newman]

We've actually run into something similar: a victimized band of Mountain People living alongside a truly spiritually diseased Town. My character, Benjamin, is a Mountain Person convert.

It was pretty gnarly. Brains flew and baptism was no proof.