Chapter 2: Welcome to Purgatory
So much has happened in individual threads that I could not come up with a good intro!
Components
Goals
- Get acquainted with Purgatory Gulch.
- Start gathering information about the current circumstances and possibly the fate of the Bicchieri Caravan.
- Get hints on "the troubles". These people are mostly in over their heads and don't dare arrange for outside interference.
- Find out that some longtime residents have vanished.
- Save the stagecoach! Or, at absolute minimum, the tax assessor!
Backdrops
Locations
Along with places in the heart of town, we're going to see areas at its extreme edges:
- More or less south of the Purgatory Gulch General Store, over some hills and out of sight, is Ore Else. The blacksmiths do not live at their shop. The blacksmiths do not admit where they have their permanent residence or residences, so if there is a permanent home for either, it is probably concealed outside the area considered officially part of Purgatory Gulch.
- To the south and then west, beyond the boundaries of Purgatory Gulch itself: Whippetal Ranch has now got magically enhanced border sensors in case someone wanders in this way. At certain times those border sensors do not function -- learning about this, and deciding how to use it, would help any sneaky plan!
- To the south and then east: Tarntaise Farm has people present. Jackson does not agree with the other Tarntaise farm hands about their position in "the troubles". He will not betray his family-by-marriage but he will take any opportunity he can get to sneak information to PCs when Clem will not find out. Jackson knows about the "pop up cemetery" with its haunting, and feels that is rightly a matter for the padre. Jackson knows that during the storm, they saw only three people -- Padre Cirino, Mayor Blaze, and {change subject quick!}
- Just a little south of due east from Jasper Chapel : Formerly the battlesite that might be called "The Last Stand of the Whispering Wind". This is where the hurricane broke. A necromantic east-west scar on the land is hidden in morning and late afternoon by the shadows of the grass and the hills. It is one hillside south of the area where Bicchieri Caravan always stops. It holds five graves, bound to keep their contents from being raised. It holds the Lost Spirit of Yathue Ilphendurl who died in combat minutes after her friend Agesilao Tiraboschi was murdered. Her spirit is being slowly twisted into a Banshee by the same evil that stole the Whistling Wind's storm.
- East-northeast of Jasper Chapel and perhaps half an hour's walk north-northwest from the Bicchieri Caravan campsite: Braunvieh Farm has been raided for resources by more than one main actor in "the troubles". Four people live here, until two mornings ago.
- The mail coach is coming. It comes in every one to two months, weather depending. It brings along the tax assessor. Its Stagecoach crew consists of one driver and one guard. It will be traveling down Arjory Arroyo, a dry wash with many twists and meanders. The arroyo starts a few miles north of Arjory Pond and travels south of Braunvieh Farm, passing eastward of both.
- The high slopes of Oatman Canyon are considered to be more or less the eastern to northeastern edges of Purgatory Gulch. Ayrshire Farm, on the northern end of the natural opening in the rock ridge, is probably the westernmost point officially considered part of Purgatory instead of being untamed Oatman Canyon or the rolling green waves of the Longgrass Plains.
Encounters
Exploring the town:
- Up at Jasper Chapel, Padre Cirino De Mario has not been informed about some of the creepier goings on. When he does hear, of course he will get involved -- but Padre Cirino is not a Pathfinder. Padre Cirino does not possess the power to defy any serious component of "the troubles" successfully. Those in the know have kept him out of it so far because his life expectancy will be about six minutes once the main actors know he has gotten involved.
- Frederico Bianchi has smuggled away what he can. His resources are scraping bottom at this point. He has been considering a secret alliance with a certain other townsperson, but this is a dangerous deed if the main actors realize that he is breaking the truce.
- At the Purgatory Schoolhouse, Miss Roselli keeps all of the children in the most defensible building with hope that "the troubles" will pass them by. Each evening at the Purgatory Saloon, Miss Amore tends bar and tries to encourage a more peaceful resolution to "the troubles" than where she sees it heading. So long as it never occurs to one side or the other that they have the physical power to run her out of her own place, she can at least keep applying liquid brakes....
- Jaeke Blaze is the proprietor of the Purgatory Gulch General Store and Mayor of this town. He knows something. He does not know what he can do with this information that will have any result other than to make everything so much worse.
He did not know that "the troubles" have spread to include the Bicchieri Caravan.
He feels awful about that.
His guilt may get him killed ... or worse!
- The smithy at Ore Else has recently been working. Ranger Horn was there at dawn, firing up the forge and getting to work on things that might help him rescue Baldy Ironbender. Ranger underestimated his captors' determination to put him to work on their priorities.
- The folks at Ayrshire Farm are trying to decide where their duty lies. Haven't they paid the price already?
- Tarntaise Farm, home of Rutabaga Beer Cheese Soup, is passively involved in "the troubles" and will only open up to a visitor who positions themselves as Already Agreeing. Exception: Jackson Tarntaise has a twinge in his conscience.
- Braunvieh Farm maybe spent a little too much time trying to make a name for themselves in the Fancy Taro Recipes department.
- Grandmammy Clementine at Corriente Farm thinks maybe she will have to follow the example of Big Lui and Big Mauri over at Whippetal Ranch if she is going to bring "the troubles" to a solid conclusion.
Plot type
exposition
Parent Plot
Related Characters
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