The Forge Archives

...their town looks like this one.

(Harlequin, stop reading.)

Complications arising from a wedding rehersal and work and children meant a much abbreviated evening for Dogs today, so I whipped this up, with the express purpose of
a: cranking the Stewardship theme I've been notching up slowly, and
b: dropping them right into the action then cliffhangering them.

Serenity Falls

Serenity Falls is a mid-sized town south of Bridal Falls, right towards where the scrub and the mountains get together. The territory here is just about ideal, the mix of scrub and mountain gives good grazing and fertile soil, and it's far enough from the East that the TA never really gets out here.  It's one of the first communities in the area as well, so the few mountain folk still around have come to see the King's true path.

Serenity Falls is so named for the long gentle slope of water falls; almost a river delta, that comes out of the mountains.  None of the falls is higher than a foot or so, and the sound is one of the most peaceful things the King of Life put on this earth.

The town, not so much.

Pride: Brother Jonas Nightengale (nod to Leap of Faith), a well-to-do local farmer was full of his own opinions, and figured he should be able to talk whenever he wanted, and folks should listen, because he was successful.

Injustice: Folks were getting tired of putting up with Jonas preachin' about things he didn't know enough about.  Worse, the folks who did know the right of it were getting drowned out.

Sin: The Steward Tobias, in a fit of rage one night, shot Jonas.
Demonic attacks: Everybody starts to get angry more easily, and masks it with religious zeal.

False Doctrine: Defying the Steward is defying the King, and should be punished by the Steward.

Corrupt Worship: Tobias gathers a crew of hard-nosed folks around him who start pointing out trouble, all in the name of the King

False Priesthood: Tobias has usurped the role of the Dogs as the King's Justice.

Sorcery: Oh yeah, baby.  He and his closest circle call on the "King" who aids them in their just cause, and sometimes even vests himself in them. (possession)

Hate & Murder: At least a half dozen have been "sent to the King".  Some have been set on stakes coming into town to warn others that the King holds the faith strongly here.

What do folks want?

Tobias and his inner circle want the Dogs to die.  They represent the false church "out there".

Most of the townsfolk want to get out from under Tobias' thumb

Some of the townsfolk want to suck up to Tobias so as to not get fingered.

The demons are as happy as pigs in shit.  They want folks to die on both sides and Tobias' inner circle to scatter like seeds on the wind.  Really really evil seeds.

If the Dogs never came: Tobias' inner circle would rupture along doctrinal lines, and the town would destroy itself.  Several of the worst examples would escape in different directions and spread heresies like a stain across the south of the Faithful territory.
----
Soundtrack: I See a Bad Moon Rising, CCR

When Arianna, Archibald (2 of the dogs from here) and their road-met companion Jonas (a former TA sherriff convert to the faith) approach the town, the first thing they see in the distance is a scarecrow by the road, even though there's no cornfield nearby.  They get an uneasy feeling and as they get closer, it starts to resolve into a body.

Then someone shoots at them.
I roll 10D6 +5D10, pointedly reminding them that 5d10 is what I get when they've witnessed Hate and Murder.
The stakes are "Does the shooter kill any of you before dying?"
It goes back and forth with Arianna getting shot early (not giving, just taking 3d10 fallout) then the guy being shot in the leg by Jonas.  Jonas is shot back at, but ducks behind a really big tree.  Archibald shoots back and gets the guy in the stomach, but gets shot back.  He charges up the hill only to have his horse shot out from under him, then Jonas finally shoots the guy right between the eyes (I ran out of dice and gave).

We resolve the healings (nobody dies), and end with the dogs on top of the ridge, with a crow-pecked corpse on a stake down by the road, a dead guy who bled green and slimy at their feet, and a great view of the mostly serene and outwardly normal looking town of Serenity Falls framed against the setting sun.  They've got 5d4 and 6d10 for the followup conflict that Archibald is going to start the next session with where he tries to raise the spirit of the dead guy and basically ask "wtf???"

Damn, I love this game.