DitV Sept 2007 towns

These are the towns we went through in our Dogs round-robin game in September and October 2007. See the characters we had.

Apple Lane branch

(Read the town description)

(GM: Neil Smith)

It was a cold, windy night when the Dogs rode into the town of Apple Lane, but they had no time to rest: tragedy had struck in the fields as the Faithful deperately tried to gather their harvest before it was ruined. Brother Ezekiel, the Father of Levy & Solomon, both of whom had courted Sister Ruth in the past had been run over by a horse & cart: Brother Newton, father of Brother Boaz was a witness to this, but Levy immediately leapt forward to blame him for his father's death!

Brother Edward took charge of the gravedigging for Brother Ezekiel, though someone or other advised Brother Newton to make sure that Ezekiel's spirit did not rise from the grave... Meanwhile Sister Ruth spoke to Brother Barnabas about his duty to the town and made him rest before returning to work in the fields. Brother Boaz went to his family home to speak to his father, his mother (Sister Anne) and his sister (Sister Kezia).

The Dog's learned that Levy had been courting Kezia but both his mother, Sister Talitha, and her father, Brother Newton, had been opposed to it without giving any reason. Sister Ruth began to smell out a dark secret buried by this opposition to the union...

Brother Edward suspected Solomon of something and worked alongside him bringing the harvest to the granary... then, on the way back to town, he pinned him to the ground with a spade and made him confess! Solomon admitted taking grain from Brother Barnabas' store and putting it aside for his own family: the townsfolk were outraged and demanded justice, but the Dogs decreed that this decision should be postponed until the morning: there was still work to be done.

Brother Boaz went to confront his father, Brother Newton, and they argued about who was the man of the house now. This soon turned into a fistfight between them! Meanwhile, as Sister Talitha worked alongside Sister Ruth, she confessed to the Dog about her affair with Brother Newton many years ago: Levy was the fruit of that union! Kezia was his half-sister! She pleaded with the Dog to preserve the name of her dead husband and spare the children the shock of learning the truth; in return, Sister Ruth argued for Sister Talitha to come clean and trust in her son to be strong enough to cope with the truth. Eventually, Sister Talitha secured the Dog's reluctant co-operation in a cover-up, so that Levy & Kezia would be told that their proposed union was simply against the will of the King of Life.

As the sun finally rose, Sister Ruth and Brother Boaz met up to discuss what they knew about the situation, though Ruth was hampered by her promise to Talitha. Suddenly, with a flash of divine inspiration, she saw a way to keep her word to Talitha and still see that justice was done: she persuaded Boaz to accompany her to Ezekiel's grave where they would raise his spirit and let it inhabit Ruth's body for a few hours, in order that he could clear up his unfinished buisness!

As Ruth & Boaz recited from the Book of Life over the grave, the soil stirred and a hand rose up, grasping for Boaz! Understandably, Boaz began to have his doubts about Ruth's methods, but eventually, something happened and Ruth began to speak with the voice of Ezekiel... Just about now, Kezia walked up and confronted the Dogs, whereupon Ezekiel denounced her as a witch & harlot! The truth about her parentage spilled out in front of Brother Boaz , along with the revelation that Kezia was carrying her half-brother's child and knew the truth herself, but she turned and ran back for town, screaming that the Dogs were corrupt and consorted with devils! When words failed to calm Kezia down, they were forced to tackle her but her demonically enhanced strength was almost a match for them. Eventually, they overcame her but both were mortally injured and needed Brother Barnabas' medical aid before they could proceed further.

The Dogs passed judgement that day: Kezia was a sorceress and the child within her was conceived out of incestuous sin - there was no question that both must die. Brother Boaz gave his sister the choice: either be hanged by the Faithful or take a gun out behind the house and end it herself...

Brother Solomon was made to leave town and move to Bridal Falls, to work as a mere laborer for the rest of his days. Levy & Talitha were condemend to continue as mother & son: Sister Talitha's punishment, to live with the illegitimate son she had borne who now hated her for the secret she had kept from him which had ruined his life, was deemed just.

Finally, Brother Newton suffered the fate of all murderers and was hanged: Brother Ezekiel, still in Ruth's body, got to see that justice was done before he returned to the Bosom of the King. Sister Anne, the last living member of Brother Boaz's family, was sent to Bridal Falls along with Solomon for her involvement in Kezia's coven. Brother Barnabas, the town steward, got off lightly with a lecture about his duties before the Dogs rode on...

Laskey's Crossing

(Read the town description)

(GM: James Mullen)

Br Boaz and Br Uziel were the Dogs. Br Uziel describes what happened...

Someone had warned the townsfolk we were coming, because we were met by a reception committee of the town Steward, Br Phineas, the schoolmistress, Sr Rosemary, and a choir of young children, 8-10 years old. The children started nervous but looked very relieved when I praised their singing. Br Phineas welcomed us to the town and asked us to intervene in the town's school for elder children. It turned out that there were three schools in town: one for the Faithful's young children, one for the Gentile younger children, and one for both communities' elder children. Miss Jennifer Trumbell ran the higher school and Br Phineas said that she was filling the children's head with heretical and useless nonsense. (Miss Trumbell was in post on the orders of her father who had put up the cash to keep the town going when it hit some trouble a few years back.)

We decided to forego the Steward's offer of hospitality and go to see Miss Trumbell directly.

We went to see Miss Trumbell and she said that she wasn't trying to turn the Faithful children against their faith, but she was getting them to ask questions about everything around them, to prepare them for the coming modern world. But the children's parents took them out of the school anyway.

As we were leaving the school, we met Br Isaac, one of the withdrawn schoolchildren. He wanted to show us up and embarrass us, but we weren't having of it. Br Boaz argued him down and I backed it up with a clip round the ear. Br Isaac then said that he and the other children withdrawn from the school still met up to discuss their interpretations of the Book of Life. We then took him to see his father, Br Derek at his store. We told Br Derek that he needed to keep better control over his son.

We returned to Br Phineas's house. We had to anoint ourselves with sacred earth before entering. Inside, his two young children were busy reading Scripture. We discussed what to do next and decided to round up all the children in the chapel to have it out with them. There was a bit of funny business with Br Phineas and his wives about us not leaving without taking hospitality from them. But they saw things our way after I smashed their water cups and shoved Sr Naomi around.

We went back to Br Derek's house to get Br Isaac. Br Boaz bought some replacement cups for Br Phineas. We took Br Isaac to gather up the rest of his friends and took them to the chapel. There, Br Boaz argued with Br Isaac and the others that while they should question what scripture meant, they shouldn't lose sight of the truth it contained. I contributed by throwing a pew onto one of the youngsters when he got uppity. We eventually showed them the error of their ways.

We passed judgement. We decided that Br Isaac was the ringleader of the children. Without him, the rest would soon fall back into line. Isaac was not going to be persuaded to stop his quest to interpret the Book of the King of Life, so we decided to take him back to Bridal Falls for training in theology. Would he make a Dog? The Elders of the Faith would decide that.

We then retired to Br Phineas's house for dinner. His children were terrified of us and the wrath and retribution we would bring upon them: fire and brimstone suff. We asked them who had put such false ideas in their heads and eventually they were persuaded to tell us that it was Sr Rosemary, the schoolteacher. This was confirmed by Br Phineas and he said that she was encocuraging the townfolk to be superstitious.

We went off to see Sr Rosemary. We confronted her and said that her spreading of superstition would lead the townsfolk into false worship and let the demons into the town. She replied that by following the rituals she prescribed, she gained power over the demons. Things quickly got heated at that point, but I'm not sure what happened next as Sr Rosemary took a poker to my head.

When I recovered, Br Boaz was outside calming the townsfolk. I couldn't allow Sr Rosemary to live, so I did what had to be done.

That pretty much wrapped up what happened in our visit to Laskey's Crossing. We decided that Br Phineas should stay in his position as Branch Steward as we couldn't think of anyone better to replace him. Another town where no shots were fired and the Steward stayed in post!

Boiling Flats

(GM: Ashley Munday)

This is the testament of Sister Ruth

The salt flats are a desolate place and the only good things to be found there are the hearts of the Faithful. As we rode towards the town of Boliing Flats, a tribe of the Mountain People ambushed us: I urged my horse to a gallop in order to catch their attention as Br Uziel sneaked up on their leader and held him hostage against our safe passage. The Mountain People were stirred up because a woman of their tribe was being held in the town and they would not venture any closer for fear of the wolves...

We completed our journey into town and were confronted by Sister Chastity, who accused the children of her neighbour of being demons: she seemed very distraught, so we pledged to see what was amiss. We were further interrupted as we headed to the Steward's house, the only building of any real note in this tiny one-street town, by Sister Rachel. We learned more from her, of the many strange happenings in town: Sister Esther, a recent mother of 6 children, had been widowed 3 months ago, whilst Sister Ephaniah had been found dead with her throat torn out. Sister Rachel herself spoke of strange, passionate dreams and we came to the conclusion that she was possessed. Br Uziel pressed sacred earth to her forehead as we forced her back into her home and I held her still, whispering the sweet balm of the Book of Life into her ear as Br Uziel performed the exorcism. The Demon which fled her body had the form of a wolf and yet she did not seem repentant once she was free of it: she almost seemed to enjoy being am instrument of Lust! Unthinkable!

We dragged the fallen woman with us to the Steward, Brother Alexander, but he was a hopeless lush: fortunately, we had established that Brothers Aaron & Zebedee were the instigators of this outbreak of lycanthropic infestation and we sought out the salt mine where they laboured. In the mine, we found the crucified body of the missing Mountain Woman and Brother Aaron waiting for us in ambush. Guns were raised and both myself & Br Uziel were severely bloodied, but we prevailed and, with the kind assistance of Sister Chastity, were able to recover enough before nightfall to see this matter to its bitter end.

As Br Uziel began stalking his quarry, it was surely in search of him: Brother Zebedee, whose lust had given birth to this pack of wolves, slaking their darkest passions for murder & fornication under the light of the moon. I remained behind to guard Sister Chasttity against any foolishness: she attempted to seduce Brother Alexander, who seemed willing to accept her depravity. She encouraged me to run in the wild with her but I was steadfast.. it was tempting, but I reminded myself of what my parents would think if I was to lower myself to such behaviour and Sister Chastity found it hard to contemplate the innocence she had lost when I spoke of her childhood.

Before long, Br Uziel returned bruised but triumphant, carrying the head of Brother Zebedee, but we felt that this town was beyond true redemption. We sent those who could be saved to live new lives in other towns, but for the rest...

Sister Esther was condemned to menial drudge work, to better contemplate the richness of spirit over the paucity of physical pleasure; Sister Esther's children, being born of demonic union like a pack of wolf-cubs, were sent to Bridal Falls to see if their mortal flesh & soul could be scoured of the demonic presence. Brother Alexander, for his indolence and sloth in not seeking help before the problems escalated this far, was condemned to work the salt mine by himself and be the only resident in town. Finally, Sister Rachel was given to the Mountain People to replace the woman they had lost: it was considered just that they should have the right to decide her fate.