Jospeh Smith entrapped by fake brass plates

[olleolleolle]

Joseph Smith and the Kinderhook Plates is a tract that tells the quite funky story of a Joseph Smith-period hoax-finding trick. The set-up: give the old coot of a prophet some more "reading material" to ponder upon, and see if he falls for the temptation to hold these plates up as authentic!"

According to the tract, he did treat the newly-found brass plates as the real deal, and claimed to have translated some of them.

   If Joseph Smith had not been murdered in June 1844, it is very possible he might have published a complete "translation" of these bogus plates. Just a month before his death it was reported that he was "busy in translating them. The new work... will be nothing more nor less than a sequel to The Book of Mormon;..." (Warsaw Signal May 22, 1844) The fact that Joseph Smith was actually preparing to print a translation of the plates is verified by a broadside published by the Mormon newspaper, The Nauvoo Neighbor, in June 1843. On this broadside, containing facsimiles of the plates, we find the following: "The contents of the Plates, together with a Fac-Simile of the same, will be published in the 'Times and Seasons,' as soon as the translation is completed."

Now, I have no idea if this kind of story would make for a good Dogs town/part of a town, but it could be a story involving the un-Faithful outside world, Unbelievers from Back East, or just about anyone coming from outside the Faith. This outside party could try to ensnare a prominent leader, or just prove the Faith wrong.

Or, better, these plates (or a similar, more appropriate Faith artifact; perhaps something with The Sign of the Tree?) could be found by the Dogs themselves: "This thing... it looks exactly like The Temple would have described them. What Do You Do?"

[Jason Morningstar]

I like the idea of Outsiders deliberately messing with the Faith, trying to humiliate them.  This seems like something a journalist from back East might attempt. Several situations spring to mind:

A local Steward sees the "sign" as genuine and is preparing to bring it before the Prophets and Ancients.  Perhaps his conviction has caused a schism in his Branch already.  Perhaps the demons have made the bogus sign appear more genuine.

What began as a bogus "sign" turns out, in some way, to be the real thing.  It is in the hands of Unbelievers, and nobody but you really sees the value of the thing - what do you do?

[Brand_Robins]

The thing this brings to my mind is the Mark Hoffman "Salamander Document" murders.

Check it out, dog: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Hoffman

A man trapped by greed, a church's mysterious past, a community in panic, and the vauge hints of lost secrets and church involvement? This is prime Dogs material.

[olleolleolle]

Brand: the Hoffman case is wonderful material. Thank you for the cross-reference! Very informative, and when held up next to the Kinderhook Plates case we have two parts of the same Dogs story; namely before and after.

--------

The Sacred Object can be used in many ways:

Is it authentic?
Situation: The Faithful farmer comes late to the dinner table with hands dirty, holding up the just-excavated artifact in both hands, while delivering his story of its discovery.

What the Farmer wants the Dogs to do: Consecrate the find as authentic, thus making his name in the community.

What the Town Steward wants the Dogs to do: . . .

---
From here on we have problems if we do not know what the object is.

The meaning or content of the found artifact needs to be worked-out before the game, or by the players during the game, if you want a more distributed narration.