DitV: Spiral Butte branch.

[Mandrake]

This was my first town, I meant to post it some time ago. Currently working on my second.

Enjoy (or not)

Spiral Butte Branch

Spiral Butte is a large prosperous town which has a attracted a number of Faithful settlers from the East, seeking a better life. Brother Caleb, the Steward, is an old man, nearing retirement.

Pride:
Brother Andrew has contributed much to Spiral Butte, most recently paying for a new schoolhouse which is currently being built. He is proud of his accomplishments and the improvements he has been able to bring to the town

Injustice:
Brother Joseph, the Steward's son from his second marriage, feels that Brother Andrew is attempting to buy the support of the town through his generosity. He has taken to speaking out against Brother Andrew.

Sin:
Brother Andrew's son, Brother Jacob, caught Brother Joseph alone one night and beat him senseless. Brother Andrew has no knowledge of this. Brother Joseph knows it happened but not who the culprit is.

Demonic Attacks:
Jacob's actions leave him vulnerable to the demons. He becomes possessed, leading to more sin. He invited some non-Faithful friends to Spiral Butte, drinking and gambling with them. Brother Caleb took ill and has been unable to take any action against the group. To intimidate the Sheriff, Brother Mal, Brother Jacob raped his daughter, Sister Aggie, who is Brother Joseph's bethrothed, promising the same or worse if Brother Mal took any action against him or his friends.

False Doctrine:
Brother Nathaniel, the hotelier, feels that his Eastern education makes him superior to many of the townsfolk. The town's problems could be solved by having a strong, well educated Steward with like minded councilors. Seemingly cowed by Brother Jacob he puts on a pretense of being intimidated into letting him and his friends using his hotel as a base for their drinking and gambling. In reality, he has been scheming with 2 of his Eastern brrethren, Brother Thomas, the town doctor and Brother Stephen, the town lawyer. They have accepted his false doctrine that Education is the root of Authority.

Sorcery:
Brother Nathaniel wants the town to become desperate for help, so that he and his two cohorts can step in and save the situation. To this end, he has unknowingly used sorcery to render Brother Andew blind to his son's actions.

Hate:
Brother Jacob is now hated by  Brother Joseph, Brother Mal and Sister Aggie
Brother Mal hates Brother Andrew for not dealing with his offspring

The people:
Brother Mal wants the Dogs to deal with Brother Jacob, absolve his daughter of any sin and guilt and marry her to Brother Joseph
Brother Joseph wants the Dogs to deal with Brother Jacob and to find out why Sister Aggie won't see him anymore
Sister Aggie wants the Dogs to take her away Spiral Butte
Brothers Nathaniel, Thomas and Stephen want the Dogs to run riot through the town,. highlighting the lack of authority, and make one of them Steward when the gunsmoke clears.
Brother Jacob wants the Dogs not to be there at all
Sister Hester, Brother Andrew's wife, wants her son back to normal

If the Dogs never came.
Brother Joseph would find out about the rape and confront Brother Jacob, getting killed. Sister Aggie would commit suicide. In guilt and shame, Brother Mal would confront Brother Andrew. The town would descend into murder and bloodshed until Brother Nathaniel and his cronies step in and take control of the town.

[Valamir]

Wow.

I love that here you have possessed Brother Jacob doing evil twisted things...but he's totally NOT the ultimate villain who are really these perfectly helpful upright citizens.  I wonder how many Dog Groups playing this town will wind up stopping at Jacob and not get around to judging Nathaniel at all...

The "I'm going to intimidate you by raping your daughter" part was rather jarring...in a "WTF--how's that supposed to work" way.  But upon reflection...sometimes towns wind up looking a bit too smoothly orchestrated so having a key event be totally irrational is actually kind of appealing.  And it says something about Mal that this causes him to back down rather than bring down the pain.

[wreckage]

It's not an uncommon form of intimidation when there's a steep enough power gradient to make vengeance impossible- for example if the perpetrator has enough allies to convince victims that even if they get HIM, his cronies will then inflict the same and more on the one attempting vengeance (and everyone he loves). There's also shame and failure for a father in any traditional society who fails to protect his daughter/s.

[Mandrake]

The way Brother Mal saw it, if he'd acted against Brother Jacob and lost, he'd be leaving his daughter in the hands of a psychotic madman. That's a much bigger deterrent than simply losing your own life.

[Web_Weaver]

As the player with the relationship to Sister Aggie, and the one who had to engage in a contest to calm her down and tell me what had happened it certainly had me marching straight to the hotel with the intent of gunning Jacob down. I think my opening raise was "I march in with my gun drawn and blow his head off of his shoulders", needless to say things didn't go to plan.

Such actions certainly played straight into the plans of Br. Nathaniel et al. But, ironically (or perhaps diabolically planned by the GM) my Dog was also "Educated Back East" and as such pushed all the wrong buttons for Br. Nathaniel leaving him to expose his prejudices and reveal that he should not escape our scrutiny.

[Mandrake]

One of the things about having different narrators is different town styles. Our last town for instance, ended up with the supernatural dial turned up to "extra-crispy" whereas Jamie and I tend to keep it lower key (from a narration perspective at least). When we played Spiral Butte, it started with gunfire from the first scene and kept that way til the end. I think we've gotten through at least one of Jamie's towns without a shot being fired.

I asked two big questions of my players, I wrote Spiral Butte for that purpose.

First Scene: The Dogs were confronted by 3 non-faithful telling them they weren't welcome and should ride on. Question: Would the Dogs resort to violence against non-faithful in order to do their duty. Answer: A resounding yes.

Brother Jacob: This was a direct contrast to my Dog's view. He tends to take the perspective that sin may not be the sinner's fault. i.e If their sin was the result of demonic influence rather than the cause of it, it might be excusable.He thus tries to get to the root cause of a towns problems before judging anyone too harshly. Question here was If the crime is heinous enough, will they look for cause or just judge on effect. As Jamie has already stated, they didn't even think about it, just went in guns blazing. They actually fought Jacob twice, the second time after Sister Hester had pleaded with the Dogs to save her son. In the end, they ignored her pleas and gunned him down in the town square in front of her.

And Jamie - Diabolical? Me? Never. (Rereads player's sheets while finalising next town)