Introduction
This is the west that never quite was.
It's an alternate version of history, loosely based on Mormon life in the 1800's. I say loosely, because this religion, that I shall call "The Faith," is not really the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Mormon preachers don't shoot sinners in the street. But you might.
You see, imagine a rocky desert like Utah, Nevada, and the like, with snaking rivers and impressive cliffs. Imagine indigenous mountain peoples ("Indians," if you will) living on the plains. Imagine a mighty city of zealots flanked by four huge waterfalls. Imagine a religious group that the United States territorial authority butts heads with often. Imagine cowboys armed with "The Book of Life" dragging out a whore by her hair and forcing her to repent or face the wrath of God.
Can you kind of see the picture here? Are you interested? Let me be more clear:
Who are you: The watchdogs of God. Your character is a cross between an inquisitor, a missionary, an exorcist, and a monk. You carry both scriptures and bullets, you bring both blessings and judgment.
What's going on: A lot. Mountain folk don't like white man encroaching upon their turf. Sinners don't like repenting. Towns don't like their dirt being pulled up for all to see. The Territorial Authority doesn't like the Faith's habit of foregoing standard trials for confession and repentance.
Where are you?: A beautiful rocky desert with a couple forests to the north and more than a few natural wonders. Lots of dust. Lots of grime and grit. Lots of blood, and lots of frontier justice.
When is all this?: 1800's. Think cowboys and westerns, complete with big hats, horses, six-shooters and Clint Eastwood.
Why are you doing what you're doing?: Because the King of Life or one of his counselors called you to be God's Watchdog, a defender of the Faith, the hammer upon which you beat men until they are purified. Maybe your character is a convert from the East and it's industrial worldliness and filth. Maybe you were raised by the Mountain people and are the token ethnic bad@$$ Native American "Aragorn" of the group. Maybe you were raised in the Faith. Whatever the case is, you are a Dog, and you work in God's Vineyard.
How do you do it?: Prayer. Faith. Exhortation. Blessing babies. Shooting sinners. It's difficult, but straightforward. What nobody tells you is that the hardest part of being a Dog is to keep believing you are really what you think you are. When bullets bounce off your coat and when you are calling the dead by name to draw breath once more, you might think you're preaching the truth. When you're bleeding on the ground, when farmer Jeremiah kills his wife, when you saw humanity in that sinner's eyes, you might lose your faith. Just remember, I'm not telling you if The Faith your character belongs to is true or not. I'll leave it to you.
THEMES
Redemption. Forgiveness. Fair enough.
Death, loss, grief, doubt. Dramatic.
Shooting, brawling, chasing on horseback. Good fun.
Is the Faith true? I don't know. Just don't be obvious, like have glowing miracles occur or demons appear or something. Play it straight. Pretend the world is like real life; as long as I'm talking about it, remember, no Rambo stunts, please.
Otherwise, just remember that I want this game to be DRAMATIC. I want tragedy. I want angsty characters (but if more than one person pulls the "my parents died" card I'm gonna be peeved). Your characters can be male or female, of any able age and marital status. The only tie that binds is your status as a Dog. This means you can declare doctrine. Yes you heard me, you can make up the religion's rules on the spot. Just keep it real, alright? No "sacrifice a donkey," let's play it like a psuedo-christian cult.
The Faith doesn't take kindly to loners; the Dogs work as a group. All Dogs have a long, patch-work coat worn at all times as an emblem of their position, a sturdy horse, a Book of Life, a jar of consecrated earth (holy dirt to sprinkle during rituals or something), and some form of gun.
Game System
You will post what your character does, and you can go ahead and describe whatever you want, so long as you don't resolve the action wholesale. Make sure you leave room for everyone to contribute meaningfully to a situation. Don't be a butt-hole; I know RPers are mature and courteous, so I have very high expectations.
I will adjudicate only FINAL RESOLUTION, that is, you can describe anything short of obviously ending the conflict. I'll decide the final outcome after the dust settles. Note that the more your character sacrifices, the more likely he is to win (getting hit with bullets or taking insults to heart is sure to win my sympathy).
Other Stuff
The Faith moved to the west to escape persecution. The Territorial Authority, although not at war with the Faith, is often at odds with it, as their goals are usually the same but their means differ vastly. The Mountain Folk don't like the Faith, but the Faithful like them enough to try converting them, with limited success. It is said that the ancestors of the Mountain Folk were once Faithful, but they fell away long before the white man came.
Your characters are expected to travel from town to town, bless babies, officiate at weddings and such, and purge sinners. The adventure style will be episodic, with each town having it's own "episode."
At the moment we require a minimum of three Dogs to play the game; so we'll need at least two other players, as I'll be taking a Dog myself, of course, and I'm only allowing one character per person. I might allow the creation of characters that aren't Dogs, and perhaps let people have more than 1 character, but that's for later. I'm not too sure how many people will be interested here, so for now, I'm just limiting character creation to Dogs only.
At maximum, having at least five players/Dogs (myself included) altogether would be wonderful, but the last two slots are optional, so it can just be the three of us to do things, really.
List of characters:
Dog #1: Magus1108 (Horatio)
Dog #2:
Dog #3:
(Optional) Dog #4: Nekriist (Otto)
(Optional) Dog #5: Hyperewok (Anna)
Character Creation Sheet:
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[font="century gothic"][center][size=200]CHARACTER NAME[/size]
[img]Insert Image URL here.[/img][/center]
[b]Age:[/b]
[b]Gender:[/b]
[b]Ethnicity/Race:[/b] (What race are they? Black, white, hispanic, Native American, etc etc)
[b]Level of Faith:[/b] (How Faithful is your Dog? Are they true Believers? Are they having doubts or a crisis of Faith? Have they lost their Faith? Or do they just pretend to believe, for one reason or another?)
[b]Years of Service:[/b] (How long have they been a Dog? A couple of decades? Five to ten years? Or are they quite green in their experience, with less than a year or two under their belt? Perhaps they're even fresh out of the academy?)
[b]Weapons/Equipment:[/b] (What sort of equipment or items do you carry, aside from the obligatory gun, the Book of Life, and jar of consecrated earth? And please have any items you have be period specific. No cell phones or other modern technology allowed.)
[b]Personality[/b]
This should be at least one paragraph.
[b]History[/b]
This does not have to be extensive, but at least one to two paragraphs.
[b]Goals[/b]
What are some of your characters goals in life? What do they aspire to be, or what do they aspire to do?
[b]Likes[/b][list]
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[b]Dislikes[/b][list]
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The Story So Far... Write a Post » as written by 4 authors
Then, something pulled at Anna's heart as her gaze snapped to Margaret when she explained her thoughts. It was dangerous, but not an unreasonable thought by any means. And yet...
She gritted her teeth as she hurriedly considered the odds at hand. "The owner may dismiss you, but it was a maid who attacked Sonia. The servants will notice more, and if one was a heretic, others surely are as well." She eyed Margaret worriedly, carefully keeping her tone even. "It is a great risk. But without coats and rifles, we blend in more easily with the locals. We only need to avoid conflict until nightfall."
"Indeed. But it's a risk we may have to take in order to get to the heart of this matter," Margaret countered. She paused a moment, considering her thoughts before speaking further. "It is your call ultimately, Anna. But it seems we are agreed that investigating this hotel is our next best lead. However we decide to sneak inside, we have our next course of action decided. Now we just need to figure out where we're going to hide out until dusk."
"The church?" Sonia suggested, before shaking her head seconds later. "No, they'd no doubt look for us there. Besides, there's no telling if the priests have been corrupted as well."
"It might be better to roam the city at large: staying someplace for too long might draw unwarranted attention, particularly among the locals," Margaret argued. "Splitting up for the day might be best as well, I would say. We can leave our rifles and coats here, hide them as best as we can, and then we split off into pairs and disappear into the city. We can meet back up here at dusk, or thereabouts. Unless our Leader has a better idea, I think that is our best course of action until nightfall."
He scratched worriedly at his beard at Sonia's further comment. He couldn't deny she had a point, concerning that it was to admit. After all, he'd come to Deseret hoping to find a place where an unfaithful priest would be all but unheard of, among other things. Of course, back East the problems had never been matters of heresy and cults.
"Wanderin' seems our best bet. Not the biggest city here, but big enough to be a fair few travelers passing through." He said, nonetheless grimacing as he looked down to the cavalry saber at his belt. Certainly something that wasn't carried about by any traveler as a revolver was. "Best be quick about it, yeah?" He said, stifling a heavy sigh as he unstrapped the scabbard and started to shrug off his coat.
.....
The remaining hours passed by uneventfully, Anna and her Pack avoiding any untoward attention before they regrouped to where they had stowed their weapons and coats away. By the time they reassembled and were properly armed once more, the sun was nearly set, the dying light of dusk, along with the fluorescent lights of the lampposts, keeping the streets of Abernathy lit.
"Charles and I came across some hurried patrols now and again, but we managed to keep our hands down just fine," Sonia reported as she slung her rifle back over her shoulder. "Seems like our suspicions about the local police were right. Saw more than a few lawmen scurrying about, running around with armed civilians like headless chickens. Looking for signs of us, no doubt."
"That doesn't surprise me. No doubt they're getting desperate to get their hands on us," Margaret replied. "Though we'll have to proceed with extra caution on our way to the hotel. With it getting dark, most people are going to be heading home for the night. That means less crowds to blend in with. Which means it'll be easier for any patrols to spot us if we're not careful."
Patience had never been her strongest suit, but at least the wandering across the town forced her to put one foot in front of the other, the march keeping her from brooding too much on her frustrations. Keeping a careful watch on the streets sharpened her focus, a risk that it may have been when any mere townsfolk did not walk the street so tensely. But it wasn't as if she hadn't seen gunslingers before with their hunched shoulders and restless tension, such were those who had their own burdens following them even into the safety of civilization.
Once they had made it to dusk and regrouped and rearmed without issue, Anna let out a quiet, relieved breath as some of that tension faded. "We'll move swiftly, stay off the main streets as much as we can." She said with a nod to Margerat, a hand already settling on the grip of her revolver, reassured by the smooth heft of the wood along her fingers. "We have the surprise once we make it inside the hotel. We'll use that to cut them down if any think to stop us."
After a shared, hurried prayer, the Pack was on the move. With Anna at the helm, they made their way swiftly through the city, veering off the main streets in favor of the various side alleys and alternate paths. They came across a few lone souls now and again, but they seemed just as eager to get on with their own business, and so they managed to pass on by without incident.
They made it to the hotel without incident, crouching at a shadowed alley-way at the opposite end of the hotel. From their vantage point, they could see two armed men on either side of the main doors: obviously guards of some sort. There didn't seem to be any other guards around, though there was no telling how many more might be inside, or at any alternate entrances into the building.
"Alright, Anna. What's your plan?" Margaret inquired, after they had spent a little while studying the guards' movements. "We could try to take them out quietly, then go in through the front. Or maybe we circle around to the back...there's a chance there won't be any guards there, and I might be able to sneak in disguised as a servant, as I suggested earlier. Maybe do some scouting in advance."
"Still not so sure that's a good idea. Situation like this, splitting up would be dangerous. If we're sneaking in through the back or a side entrance or what have you, it's better to do it as a group," Sonia argued.
Margaret nodded in acknowledgement, and glanced over to their Pack Leader. "Well, it's your call, Anna. What do you think?"
That tension still didn't fade once they reached the hotel. She glared out at the sight of the guards perched at the front, but at least it was clear evidence that something of value was behind those doors.
"We did a bit of scouting as is." Charles added, idly scratching as his beard as he peered up to the hotel's upper floors. "Didn't get much opportunity to nose around too much, but enough not to get turned around too easily, I reckon."
Anna only spoke up after another long moment. "We look for a back entrance. If there's guards there, we kill them quietly. We're not splitting up any further. We'll keep things quiet as long as we can, search as much as we can, but we've held back our fire and judgment long enough. Even if we're spotted sooner or later, they'll be awfully surprised to find us inside. Then we'll see where they run to, what they're trying to protect."
With Anna's plan agreed to, the Pack went into action. Even this late at night, they couldn't risk being seen so obviously heading toward the back of the hotel: so they doubled back a ways, before turning back toward the block housing the hotel. From there, it was a simple matter of accessing the side streets, until they neared the back entrance of the austere hotel.
Crouched beside a closed doctor's office opposite the back entrance, they keenly took stock of the situation. In contrast to the front, there was just a lone guard near the back door. A guard that didn't seem all that attentive either, busy as he seemed in taking a smoke break.
"I have a throwing knife on me. I sneak up close enough, I should be able to nail him in the jugular. Won't be able to get out any deathly warnings that way," Sonia suggested after a few minutes of observation.
"Or one of us could cause a distraction, drag his attention away, and we then sneak in while he's gone," Margaret countered. "It saves us from having to hide a body, and affords us a more stealthier entrance."
"No." She said once they'd found a spot to observe the hotel's back entrance. "We can't risk a distraction getting out of hand. Kill him quickly and quietly. We'll be moving long before anyone can spot the body."
With a look to the old Dog, she nodded, and gestured for Sonia to move on ahead. Anna could only wait, all the more tense burning anticipation, fingers gripping tighter still at her revolver. Her other hand settled on her belt, fingers brushing along her own throwing knives as she waited, ready to strike just in case. They had come too far to let a poor turn of luck spiral everything further against them, and Anna's heart burned with the urge to lash out against the unaware heretic. But still she waited.
A flash of steel reflected off of her thrown knife fwas the only warning the guard received. The blade sunk perfectly into his jugular, slicing through his windpipe and ensuring his death. A quiet, strangled gurgle hissed out of his lips, but all too soon the guard collapsed back against the wall, slumping downward as he bled to death.
Sonia waited a few heartbeats, straining her ears as she tried to discern if he'd been heard. But no shouts of warning came from the outside. Indeed, all was perfectly still and quiet in the night.
The guard dispatched, all four Dogs swiftly made their way to the hotel's back entrance. Sonia spared a moment to drag the guard into a nearby hedge and deposited his body there. It didn't hide him at all, but it would help to obscure him from obvious sight all the same.
"There's no telling what we could find in here," Margaret felt the need to warn them all, even as she drew out her pistol. "So we had best be on our guard."
"I think that goes without saying," Sonia wryly remarked. "Still, we have a few seconds to plan things out a bit before we head in. Way I see it, we either try to find the hotel manager's office, or we search the basement. We might find more concrete answers there, and might even have a chance to bag and interrogate the manager himself. But knowing cults, they seem to do most of their dirty deeds in basements, so that alone warrants a thorough check from us. I think those are our two best options right now...unless you've got another suggestion, Leader?"
"The basement. We are here to hunt men, not papers. If they are gathered, surely that is where they would hide their foulness." She said tersely, her hand shifting from her knife to the grip of her revolver with just as tight of a hold, giving the three Dogs a stern nod. "We will deliver a justice long overdue."
With little else that needed to be said, Anna opened the back door and strode quietly inside.
At the threshold to the back entrance, the Pack paused for a moment, judging their options. It was all well and good to decide to head to the basement first, but actually finding it could be somewhat trickier than initially anticipated.
Sonia hummed thoughtfully, closing her eyes as she tried to recall the layout of the place. She and Charles hadn't been here long, and they'd come in from the front, originally. Still, after a moment of recollection, she started to speak. "From what I can recall...there weren't an access to the basement from the main elevator. So, I'm thinking they have a separate elevator, or more likely, a different staircase for that. Makes some sense: they likely don't want any guests going down there by accident."
"It's just a matter of figuring out where that other entrance is," Margaret pointed out, her brow furrowed in thought. "A pity we don't have a map. I suppose we'll just have to figure things out the hard way."
"So it seems," Sonia agreed with a slight nod. "So, left or right. Hm, don't know if it matters much, but from the front entrance, the elevator was off to the right. So from the back entrance...that should be our left, I think. So perhaps we try out the rightward path? No doubt the basement is part of some employees only section, away from where the public might wander. So there's a good chance it's not anywhere near the main elevator or stairwell."
"It's as good a guess as any," Margaret allowed.
After Anna and Charles voiced their own agreements, the Pack ventured forward, stalking along the right-forking hallway and deeper still into the building. By some miracle, they did not walk into anyone as they traveled: and a further few minutes of careful walking brought them to another branching hallway. This time, however, each branching path was helpfully marked by a name plate.
KITCHEN, was emblazoned on the placard ahead, the path directly ahead veering toward the left. LAUNDRY was on the nameplate on the wall of the rightmost path. And in the branching left hallway the word, BASEMENT, was engraved on a name plate there.
"Seems we have a firm direction in mind now," Sonia noted with some relief. She glanced toward the left, her hand idly grasping the holster of her gun. "Unless we wanna check out either of the other rooms first? Don't know if anyone would be in the kitchen or laundry room this late at night, but you never know what we might find."
"They'll keep the guests well away from anything that ain't shiny and clean." Charlies said in agreement to Sonia, standing perfectly at ease behind the three, his revolver drawn as well, his other hand having drawing a sizable bowie knife.
"Left, then." Anna said with a terse calm, her body still rigid with tensing, waiting for the moment of inevitable violcen as they continued further into the building.
She let out a tight, relieved breath at the sign, then looking to Sonia with a quick shake of her head. "No, we can't risk it, or waste more time. We'll trap them in the basement and put them down like the beasts they are."
Margaret ventured forward first, grim determination in her eyes as she gripped the doorknob. She turned it to open the door...but found the knob stuck firmly in place. She frowned, and after trying it a few more times, found the door had stayed firmly shut.
"It's locked," she noted with distaste, stepping back as she eyed the door with a critical stare. "And I doubt we have time to go looking around for a key. We should always shoot it open, or break the door down..."
"Ah, but doing that would alert the hotel's denizens that we're here," Sonia countered. "I know we're all ready for a fight...but the longer we can go without calling down hell on our heads, the better. We could try picking the lock instead, maybe."
"With what tools? And do any of us know how to pick locks? They didn't exactly cover this back at the Academy," Margaret noted wryly.
And then, the door simply clicked against it's lock. She let out an annoyed hiss of a breath, biting back a curse, while James glanced back from where he'd taken a post to watch the rear.
"Reckon I can give it a try." Charles said with a wry grin to Margaret, opting not to elaborate on where he might have tried to pick a lock or two in his days before the Academy. He fished around his belt, eventually pulling free a small, thin knife meant more for food than anything else. As Anna stepped back, gun still tight in hand, he leaned down close to the lock as he pressed the blade in, carefully starting to wriggle it about.
"We can break it down if we must. It will not be much longer regardless until we are delivering the Word by bullet." Anna said tersely, tensing with impatience as she watched Charles fiddle with the lock.
"Well," Margaret remarked after a moment, staring into the abyss with no small amount of wariness. "There's no way to go but down, I suppose. At least we'll be able to keep a somewhat quiet approach for a little while longer."
"Probably not much longer. Like our Leader says, won't be long until we're knee deep in whatever occultist blasphemy they've got going down here," Sonia remarked.
With that said, the group started to venture their way down, Anna leading the vanguard as they descended down the stairs. The walk down was tense, an expectant air of restrained violence hanging between the group as they walked down the stairs. As they followed the curve, Margaret half expected them to run into another party, or to otherwise see things devolve into blood and sweat and gore as hostilities were renewed...
But they met not a soul as they traversed down the stairs. It was only as they neared the bottom that they saw a source of life.
At the base of the stairs...was a maid. She was a plain looking woman, dressed in a simple black uniform befitting of a higher-end hotel. She carried no visible weapon, and seemed utterly unsurprised at their presence as they reached the bottom of the stairs.
"Good evening, Madam Dog," the maid began, a pleasant smile on her face. She gave a small curtsy, displaying an almost disturbing amount of professionalism, even as Anna reflexively pointed a gun at her head. "We have been expecting you. Have you come to join the Feast?"
With her revolver sweeping up, Anna descended with as much caution as she could restrain herself with, that restraint keeping her from shooting the maid as soon as she caught sight of her. Her grip nonetheless tightened, even as she glared hard at the woman. "Show me to them." She snapped, still not looking back to the other Dogs, only holding her hand up with a flick of her fingers in a signal for them to keep watch on their flanks. Anna kept her gaze fixed intently on the maid, ready to shoot at the first flicker of any sudden movement she might make to attempt a surprise attack.
It seemed...far larger than it had any right to be, by Margaret's reckoning. The ceilings went on high, and the basement itself was made up of large, cavernous rooms filled with all sorts of troublesome devices. Margaret could glimpse a set of shackles set into the wall more than once: and through the dim light of the lit torches, she saw what seemed to be a wooden rack. This outer area of the basement...it didn't seem to be in use currently, but clearly, they had made use of it in the past for all sorts of devilish tortures. Perhaps this was where this cult, or whatever was going on here, had kept their prisoners?
It seemed ill-boding, then, that there were no prisoners to be found now...
Finally, the maid led them to a doorway at the end of the basement's outer chamber. The maid pushed the doors open, revealing a meeting room within. The room itself was well lit in stark contrast to the rest of the basement, though the inhabitants were hard to make out all the same. A dozen men sat cloistered around a table set with food, each of them cloaked in a dark robe, hoods drawn over their heads to obscure their faces. As one the group turned to stare at them, which only made the unease Margaret currently felt grow evermore present.
"Well, isn't this a most delightful surprise? Here we had people searching all over the city for you, and now we find you have come to our doorsteps of your own volition!" one of the hooded figures at the table mused aloud. The figure's voice sounded achingly familiar to Margaret, before a spark of memory revealed the truth to her.
The figure pulled down their hood, and sure enough, Margaret saw that Father Mycroft, Head Abbott of the First Church of Abernathy, was the one to greet them. Yet another high-placed figure in the city, proven to be deeply in bed with the conspiracy festering at the Heart of Abernathy. Just how far did things go? And how could a man of the cloth go so far as to betray his own oaths in such a foul manner?
Her gaze barely left the maid's back even as they entered the chamber ahead, a glare flicking ever so swiftly across the hooded figures. Though, she did double take as the one pulled away the hood to reveal himself.
"Speak, then." She sneered to the abbott, turning her revolver to him, still careful to keep sight of the maid, tense and ready for any sudden movement from her. "Tell me what grand revelation has turned you from the face of the Lord. Tell me what you think will save you from the damnation to come by my hand."
"I suppose we can add heresy to your list of crimes," Margaret noted, though her tone was strained and rather forced. Her hand strayed to her gunbelt, not pulling her pistol out just yet...but clearly, she was ready to at any moment.
"Ah, but it is not I who has committed heresy here. It is...the rest of the Faith. The true teachings of the Great Prophet were distorted after his death: changed to better suit the narrative his heretical successors wished to project," Mycroft boldly proclaimed. "Hm...but, I think I shall refrain from any further discussion about the True Faith. After all, as you all are now, I doubt you'll be so open to hearing the truth. That is why I have a proposal for you. For all of you."
"You're speaking like you even have any power here," Sonia pointed out. Unlike Margaret, she had her pistol gripped tightly in her hand, though she wasn't pointing it at anyone just yet. "I don't see any armed guards here. Just you, the maid, and the rest of you robed freaks."
Mycroft smiled wide, and just for a moment, it seemed as if his eyes changed colors. A sickly, pale yellow appeared to flash over his iris, though just as quickly it was gone: replaced by the normal cerulean color of his eyes. Assuming it had even changed in the first place. Perhaps it was just a trick of the light.
"My child, you may think you hold the advantage, but rest assured...I am not powerless here," Mycroft declared with a deep, menacing tone.
The tension seemed to increase in the air: it felt as if a powder keg would ignite, if anyone said or did anything else. No one so much as moved in that moment, perhaps knowing full well that one false movement, one wrong move, and the whole thing would turn into a bloodbath.
A bloodbath for which side, though, was the question.
"So humor us," Margaret spoke first, breaking the silence as she eyed Mycroft hard. The others would be unable to tell, given how little they knew of her, but Anna would see it: there was a spark of fear in her gaze. Something he had done or said had truly shaken her friend, or so it seemed. "What is this deal you speak of?"
"It is good to know you Dogs still have manners," Mycroft chuckled. "But yes, the deal. Let's get to that, shall we? You four have proven so very vexing and improbably hard to kill...I have to admit, I'm impressed. You're all so very much like the two Dogs that came before you: investigative to a fault, and harder than a cockroach to kill. That is why I want to offer you a choice. The skills you all possess could no doubt prove themselves...valuable to our cause. So: join us. Join our Righteous Crusade against the Corruption within the heart of the Faith. Pledge yourselves to the True Face of God Almighty, and be reborn as his soldiers on Earth. With that, all of your prior sins will be forgiven, and you shall all be spared an agonizing death."
She gripped her pistol tighter, though her trigger finger never shifted in the slightest. She nearly pulled the trigger at that moment when she saw the strange flicker in his eyes. Nearly. But he was too confident. Gritting her teeth, Anna fumed silently at how she had let the heretic rattle her as his boasting continued.
She was willing to die for the Faith, and more than willing to kill for it. Her gaze flicked to Margaret for the briefest of moments.
Lord, please let her live.
Behind her, Charles's breath caught tightly in his throat. The madness in the air was almost too much for him, more than he had ever thought to face when he first became a Dog. For all the madness he had seen in the war, he had only seen animalistic brutality of soldiers, not the cold, scheming cruelty of the preacher before him. Nonetheless, he kept his hand on his revolver, waiting for the inevitable moment.
"I see no power here." Anna sneered, stalling, her gaze quickly turning about past the preacher for any hint of danger, knowing she could not, and would not, stall for long. "Only a deluded, old wretch."
"Still, it is a pity. So, no deal then. Such a shame. Our Lord could work such miracles through all of you...still, there is no need for bloodshed. If you will not work with us, there could yet be an arrangement to be made. Truth be told, this is not the first time you Dogs have stumbled upon what we have here. Your predecessors took neither offer, but in the past...well, in the past, the Dogs have not always been so strict in their doctrine."
Mycroft trailed off, another infuriating smile tugging at his lips. He could tell he had Anna's attention now, however, as well as that of the rest of the group. Allegations of corruptions among the Watchdogs was a serious declaration, after all: even if it came from a mouth as untrustworthy as his.
"Every man has their price. An indulgence that they cave to, at the end of the day. Perhaps a special tithing would be in order, Sonia? You and your husband have had trouble paying off your debts: the farm isn't as profitable as it used to be, and for all their piety, the Dogs do not pay much better than a town sheriff. What about you, Charles? Do you miss your family back in Virginia? Arrangements could be made: they could come to see the Lord in the same light as you. Or perhaps you'd rather see the men you fought alongside with given their due? And Anna...your dear Horatio, so like a father to you. Haunted all his life by the tragedies that defined him. It would be no issue at all to ease his burden, and give him the man he's been searching for all these years, so he can have his final revenge. And Margaret--!"
"Save your breath," she immediately interrupted. "I have no intention of accepting any false deal that you offer."
Mycroft smiled thinly at her, and glanced back toward Anna. "So you say now. But you would follow this woman in a heartbeat, wouldn't you? You trust her judgement. And if she wanted to make an arrangement..."
Margaret pursed her lips tightly, but refused to take the bait either way. Mycroft merely chuckled at her lack of reply, and focused his attention fully back onto Anna.
"The choice is yours, Watchdog. There are many miracles and wonders that the true God can bring about...your lives could become heaven on earth, if you so desired. All you would need to do is...look the other way. Find a scapegoat, and parade them in front of your superiors: hell, I'll give you the Sheriff, if you want her. A corrupt lawman brought to justice! The true madwoman behind all those fires...wouldn't that make for a lovely end to this story? And you'd never have to worry about the town of Abernathy again. What say you, Dog?"
Charles said nothing in the moment of silent tension, gritting his teeth, restraining his own fuming temper at the man who dared to claim he knew his troubles. His fingers shifted against the grip of his revolver, but he still didn't dare draw yet. The pack was waiting for Anna.
All you would need to do is... look the other way.
He offered it as a choice to Anna. As if there could ever have been one. There was no more retort or threats to be made, no bargains to be offered. She only wished she could look back to Margerat in that last moment before. But as ever, her duty came first, no matter the cost, no matter the consequence. The Lord would judge her works and her faith, in the end.
Anna pulled the trigger.
Setting
0.00 INK
And then all at once, the lights went out.
Snuffed out by some unseen, invisible force, the candles lighting the room all extinguished at the same time, bathing the room in darkness. Shouts of alarm echoed through the blackout, and the sound of a scuffle sounded out as Sonia tussled with the maid. Then just as suddenly the fighting seemed to stop, and all was silent.
Then, just as suddenly as they had gone away, the lights came back on. The candles flickered back into life, their flames illuminating the room once more.
A most curious scene would meet Anna's eyes as she surveyed the room in the aftermath. The robed cultists, the corpse of Father Mycroft, the maid that had escorted them...
They were all gone.
Vanished without a trace, gone as if they'd never been there at all. The only evidence that they had been there at all, in fact, was a few turned over chairs, and a laid splatter of blood dripping over Mycroft's chair and part of the table.
"What the hell?" Sonia was the first of the Dogs to speak up, bewilderment clear in her tone as her eyes searched the room. "What was that? Where did they go?"
"I...I am not sure," Margaret murmured beside her. She glanced back and forth between the two main exits of the room: the door they had come through, and a door on the far left well that led to an as of yet unexplored pathway, or antechamber, or separate room entirely. But neither door looked disturbed at all, and they hadn't exactly heard any of the cultists physically leave the room.
Nonetheless, for once, she swore. "Goddammit!"
She strode up to the chair splattered with further evidence, her grip all the tighter on her gun. But nothin else, despite the mere moments it had been. "There must be a hidden passage! Find it!" She pointed her gun to the floor, and let her frustration flare with five shots across the floorboards, nearly at random, as if in vain hope that the Lord would guide her hand.
"Sonia, watch our rear." She said with a tight breath out, forcing composure back as she quickly reloaded, and looked across the pierced floorboards, searching for any hint of something underneath.
Charles hurried up behind her, drawing his saber, and starting to tap the blade in between floorboards, searching just as hurriedly for one that might have been loose. "Like damned ghosts..." He muttered.
"Ghosts don't bleed." Anna snapped without looking to him. "They're only men."
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View All » Add Character » 9 Characters to follow in this universe
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Sonia Redwood
"There is no time to regret the past. You can only look forward, and strive to make a better future."
Margaret Thorne
"I will avenge those who have fallen, no matter the cost!"
Ira Murphy
"You will profess your love for the One True God, or die by the flame. It is your choice."
Charles Carver
"Wise man once told me, 'If I save but one soul, then all my suffering has been justified.'"
Anna Ward
"The wicked have no place in the vineyard we have wrought. So sayeth the King of Life."
Horatio Morale
"Sometimes all you can do is just live day by day."
Trending
Horatio Morale
"Sometimes all you can do is just live day by day."
Margaret Thorne
"I will avenge those who have fallen, no matter the cost!"
Ira Murphy
"You will profess your love for the One True God, or die by the flame. It is your choice."
Charles Carver
"Wise man once told me, 'If I save but one soul, then all my suffering has been justified.'"
Sonia Redwood
"There is no time to regret the past. You can only look forward, and strive to make a better future."
Anna Ward
"The wicked have no place in the vineyard we have wrought. So sayeth the King of Life."
Most Followed
Charles Carver
"Wise man once told me, 'If I save but one soul, then all my suffering has been justified.'"
Ira Murphy
"You will profess your love for the One True God, or die by the flame. It is your choice."
Anna Ward
"The wicked have no place in the vineyard we have wrought. So sayeth the King of Life."
Margaret Thorne
"I will avenge those who have fallen, no matter the cost!"
Horatio Morale
"Sometimes all you can do is just live day by day."
Sonia Redwood
"There is no time to regret the past. You can only look forward, and strive to make a better future."
Fullscreen Chat » Create Topic » Dogs in Almighty God's Vineyard: Out of Character
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Dogs in Almighty God's Vineyard
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General Story Plotlines and Arcs
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Verses from the Book of Life
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Verses from the Book of Life
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