[Dogs] Brother Joseph, the Devil's Surgeon with an Axe

[memolith]

I made some characters with a couple of friends, but we didn't get to the initiatory conflicts yet.
One of the Dogs, Brother Joseph, is a cold, heartless man with a drinking problem and a relationship with Wrath. During a drinking binge, he experienced what must have been Hell, and when he woke up, he had a golden axe melted to his hand, and horrible burns all over his body.

Notable stats for Brother Joseph:

Heart 1d6
The Devil's Surgeon with an Axe 6d6
Relationships with Wrath, Drinkin', and the Town Drunk

For his Accomplishment, he wrote "I hope my wickedness is purged by fire."

The player of Brother Joseph is a bit of a powergamer. Now, I need some serious help, because this sounds like an an amazing character. I'm not exactly sure how to handle "dark Dogs", and I'm looking for ideas on how to handle his initiatory conflict, as well as ways to really push this character morally.

~Chris

[Vaxalon]

First of all, don't be surprised if he wins the intiatory conflict, and isn't purged.  Players almost always win those.

Second, I think you can probably count on the other Dogs' players to push this one morally.

One thing you CAN do is push axe-related imagery... trees, both standing and fallen, people with 'wicked hands', that kind of thing.

This guy definitely seems to be on a route towards drama.

[lumpley]

That guy's HOT.

For his initiation: I'd shove him directly into conflict with the cleansing fire of God, no bones and no back door. Don't flinch away from the supernatural. Like, have one of the veterans at the Dogs' temple look at him narrowly, say that baptism by water obviously isn't going to do it, and drag him out to the potter's shed. Fire that bastard in the kiln.

Then:

Make a town with grabby conflicts going all the way up to sorcery and murder.

Give it a really foul core at the sin level: two brothers raped their sister, a father dropped his infant baby into a well, a family just couldn't feed grandma anymore and so tied her hands and feet and left her on the mountain.

Play the NPCs hard to their own agendas. Everywhere the Dog goes, have someone there be all like, "my life would be all better if only you'd [x]." Make [x] often be something that no sane person could possibly expect a Dog to actually do, but yeah, if the Dog did it, it'd make the NPC right, healed, rich and redeemed.

Actively reveal the town in play, drive play toward conflict, escalate escalate escalate. The player's already eased the leash on the supernatural - you'll be letting him down if you don't include some serious surreal horror. (Aim for surreal horror, not "supernatural.")

Oh and in this particular case, make him bump his Heart up to 2d6, the legal minimum.

-Vincent