Note: This post details play started in Wisdom's Ghost, Whores and Flapjacks, and A Chinese Ghost Story.

The fourth and fifth sessions of Dogs in the Vineyard with my group went from great to, well, even better. As detailed in "A Chinese Ghost Story," they were in the town of Little Horn where the building of a railroad, combined with a local merchant's bigotry, threatened to tear the town apart. A murder had brought things to a head, and one Dog was being actively attacked by demons. Lastly, one Dog found his mom, who ran off about seven years ago.

Acts of violence
Unlike my previous posts, I'm not going to go through everything that happened, especially as this covers two sessions. We did see an extraordinary amount of violence in these sessions.

The Dog Jabez being attacked by the Hungry Ones (demons) in the cellar of the funeral home resulted in the entire building burning down and various flaming timbers hitting him.

The Dog Zebulon's surprise at seeing his mom, and anger at her for leaving him, resulted in him nearly stabbing her to death. His impression of women as all whores seemed to grow.

Jabez discovered the murderer of Felicity as that murderer, a teenager named Joseph, son of the local shopkeeper, tried to kill him in his sleep. Jabez shot the kid dead after he refused to fully repent.

This resulted in two gunfights with Archibald, the local shopkeeper/bigot. In one, he nearly killed Zebulon before the Dog Perseverance shot his gun finger off. (Percy doesn't often get violent, but when he does, it's quiet, direct, and effective. Scary.) In the second, Zeb tried to get revenge on Archibald - and the local Steward, who was under Archie's thumb, leapt in front of the bullet. Zeb stepped over the Steward's body and shot Archibald dead.

It's interesting that twice people were killed with no contest. Both Joseph and Archibald were shot when defenseless. The Steward lived, by the way, but is permanently crippled. He'll never walk again unless the King decides to let him.

Acts of contrition
This town turned out so much better than the first. The violence was high, but the town was redeemed.

The Dogs decided to say "screw you" to the local bigotry and agreed to marry the Steward's daughter and her boyfriend, who was a Chinese railroad worker.

The Dogs stood up to the Steward and Archibald demanding they leave town, even after Archibald almost killed Zeb. When he tried to bribe them to leave, Zeb shot him back. By ridding the town of Archibald, like eighteen good things happened.

Barth, the railroad foreman, freed Nui Kuong-Rong and his family from their work contract. Kuong was free to marry; Ai-Mu, his mom, became a gardener for a local family; and his dad now manages the general store. (Archibald would turn in his grave.)

Speaking of that store, Archibald's wife was not mentioned in the game until about twenty minutes before we finished up the town. I decided he married her when she was young and she was a shut-in, not allowed to talk to men as Archibald was kind of a hoarder of wealth - and she was a form of wealth to him. She was creepy at first, but she became this awesome source of humor. When she was trying to decide how to live without Archibald, she first declared, "I don't know nothin' about no mercantilin'... women aren't good at mercantilin'" and then "I want to dance!"

Sure enough, she got Nui Ruon-Ning to manage the store, and on Saturday nights, she dances (in full demure dress) and Ai-Mu serves herbal teas she grows. She even got some boys from around town to push her grand piano to Archibald's funeral so she could play as they lowered him into the ground.

Oh - that crippled Steward? Well, a Steward's got to walk around. So they made his wife Steward. She's a strong, intimidating lady from Back East who took to wearing her husband's guns as soon as he was laid up. She's the only character that's pulled a gun on a Dog that they didn't flip out on. They all said "yessum" and moved on. They did end up telling the Steward she'd be helping him in his duties, and he'd sure enough be in charge. Without Archibald around, he won't be in charge long. A female Steward was a big change for a little town, but they pulled it off nicely.

Where to go from here?
The hardest part of this game was deciding where to go next. I'm still uncertain. We're all really enjoying the game. I was shocked when my players told me they want to play it as long as I'll run it. I'm a fan of short games, so we made a deal that we'll do one more town, head back to the Dogs' Temple, and then think about a second run. Maybe I can get one of them to run it, and I'll be a new Dog.

For this last town, I don't know whether to go for low-key or high. There's been a rising level of supernatural, and one player said to the other last night, "Is it weird that I keep seeing your character as the harbinger of the apocalyse?" I almost want to go crazy with that, making the next town a complete ghost-town with the townspeople's souls trapped by their own sin, pushing the Dogs to cross into the next world to save them. But, I'd kind of like to turn it around and pull a town with no supernatural elements, just human badness. I've got a middle ground I'm working on, which I like because it brings a Civil War colonel out West.

Season 2: Headin' East

I wish I had something to contribute, but I'm just following along rapt.

Can I ask, what's been your personal favorite moment?

-Vincent

lumpley wrote: I wish I had something to contribute, but I'm just following along rapt.

Can I ask, what's been your personal favorite moment?

-Vincent