The Rough Edge of Night Campaign Log

 Ft. Grant and Smokefall Ridge

Adventures in the Indian Territory, ca. 1875

(Note:  Please look at the bottom for campaign updates!)

A Western Setting for World of Darkness

Presented herein are the brief setting notes we'll be using for the upcoming campaign and it's possible sequels / derivatives.  The World of Darkness is a little bit more, well...dark than our world.  Some anachronisms may exist between the worlds, though it has been kept as close to historic as possible.  Due to the nature of the adventure setting, and in keeping with the general tone of the game itself - the scenario and information presented here will have to be considered entirely fictional.  No real places or names will be used - excepting broad setting material such as Texas, the Indian Territory, etc.

Indian Tribes

Long ago, several of the nomadic Indian Tribes of North America settled upon the area that would come to be known as the Great Plains.  They hunted the vast herds of buffalo that roamed the plains, and forged an enduring and mystical culture tied closely to nature.  As white settlers arrived, herds of wild horses sprang up on the Great Plains and a curious transformation began.  Many of the tribes would abandon their ways and change into what became known as "nomadic horse-warrior cultures".

Many of the nomadic tribes would find their way to the land that would become the Indian Territory on their own, as part of migrations that had nothing to do with white men. Others would be forced to move there by the United States Government in the late 1830's and 1840's when Andrew Jackson signed into law the Indian Removal Act.

Horse Warriors of the Plains Tribes.

At this point in the Indian Territory, the most commonly encountered tribes will be the Apache, Creek, Comanche, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Kiowa, Osage and Seminole - in varying numbers and at various locations.  Certainly around Fort Grant, Apache and Comanche raiders are whipped into a new fervor and their warpath blazes red with blood and flame.  There have been increased raids by these tribes into new territory, both belonging to the Civilized Tribes and the United States.

However, civilized tribes do maintain an amount of trade with Texans and Missourians who bother to do so, even though in some cases it is very illegal (according to white man's law).  Peaceful trading with the tribes is encouraged, but liquor or firearms are not to be brought into the territory - conducting such trade with the tribes is a hangin' offense.

Many of the Indian settlements are in fact villages more akin to the towns of the Whites.  Indeed, even before the coming of the white man, these Natives already had thriving agriculture.  Among these Civilized Tribes are the Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw, Choctaw and Seminole.  Contrary to what a great many folk believe, not every indian lives in a tipi or wigwam.

Portraits of the Five Civilized Tribes, ca. 1175-1850.

The tribes have been establishing their own new settlements in the Territory, and the Civilized Tribes have done everything humanly possible to avoid more protracted wars with the White Man.  However, due to the recent encroachment upon those lands given to them by the United States, the natives no longer trust the authority of the government to uphold it's promises.  Even if the President has stated these territories are their sovereign domain, it is evident that the U.S. either had no intention of honoring that agreement or simply does not have the influence or power to compel it's citizens to honor it's treaties.


Fort Grant
Built near the end of the Civil War, Ft. Grant wasn't as nearly as pivotal during those battles as the Confederacy might have hoped.  Soon after the war, the fort became an cavalry post and the town next to it began to flourish with trade from every direction:  the Eastern United States, the rest of Texas, even Mexico and the Indian Territory.

Judge Seth Barclay is the Federal Judge appointed to the new northern settlements, and has only a handful of U.S. Marshals available to police the area.  Marshals Oliver Bourne and Samuel Thomas have a lot of land to cover between them - not just the Ft. Grant area, but the new settlements and even a few of the settlements and areas south of their stations.  As it is, their influence is stretched, but backed up by the presence of Captain Tendale's cavalry and the peace officers in Ft. Grant.

Ft. Grant musters troops after the Civil War, ca. 1868.

The townsfolk that live in Ft. Grant are about as civilized as anyone can get.  There are plenty of traders, both transient and established.  One can find a few saloons, such as the Right & Tall or the Betty, and drown in the comforts they provide.  Other, more professional services can be had in the town - Max Kleitos' runs a successful Gunsmith's shop, there is a General Store, a Hostler, an established furrier and of course, the town doctor Perry Almond.

There is also a seedy underbelly to the settlement - the Right & Tall saloon (it is rumored) is involved in all sorts of degenerate criminal activity, including smuggling and opium trafficking.  Anyone that finds themselves on the wrong side of town after dark had better keep their guns unstrapped - murder is all too common in the frontier burg.

Smokefall Ridge & Other Settlements
There are currently three "new" settlements cropping up around Ft. Grant in the land that has been known as the Indian Territory.  These towns are very small and very focused around the few advantages that give them existence - but the natives are growing restless and do not appreciate these violations of their treaties with the United States.

Primrose is the closest settlement to Ft. Grant across the Red River, about fifteen miles away.  It has been fairly well established in the last decade, and was founded by families displaced by the Civil War in Missouri, Kansas and even Texas.  Several cattle families are raising their livestock here, and even a few plantation owners have planted new crops nearby.

Round Bend is further away and less developed, though the population is burgeoning.  It consists mainly of trappers and fishermen focusing on fishing the forests and creeks that run through the territory.  Round Bend is approximately twelve miles north of Primrose, and went largely unnoticed for the eight years it has been there..

Smokefall Ridge is the newest of the settlements.  A huge crossroads was built about six years ago, about twenty miles east of Primrose.  However, a great many setbacks have stunted the growth of this community, and it is currently limited to only a few settlers who have braved the harsh conditions and hunt and trap in the hilly forests nearby.  However, certain powerful men have taken an interest in the dusty facades of Smokefall, and would see the community come to thrive.

The townsfolk of these three settlements are quite different from the more "urbane" folk of Ft. Grant.  They are  uniformly backwoods, however each settlement has it's own quirks and appeal.  In Smokefall, there are quite few traders - many built their shops in the small square of the town and were forced to move on.  The result is a nearly intact and complete town, though most of the shops are vacant.  Of the ten or so large buildings in the settlement, only about half those are lit with the presence of people.

Smokefall Ridge, ca 1875.  Get a drink at the Yellow Rose!

Nearby to Smokefall is a place called Indian Meadow.  This large tract of land is used by the Civilized Tribes to conduct pow-wows and ceremonies, though they call the place something entirely different - Snake Valley. The sides of the meadow / valley are covered with natives twice a year.  Who knows what awful, pagan gods they pray to - or for what reason?  If the stories are to be believed, the more recent pow-wows have been anointing warriors in unprecedented numbers...

If that wasn't enough to send most white men screaming back to Boston or Philadelphia, there are even worse stories about the forests to the south of Smokefall.  The Screaming Woods are called such because of the hideous screams that emanate from the dark bowers of the forest late at night.  Trappers and hunters avoid the area at all costs, and a great many strange tale can be heard over a drink at the saloons around the settlements.

Railroads come into Ft. Grant on a regular schedule, and leave for El Paso, Austin and even further west.  The locomotives carry transients looking for the next train, merchants looking to sell their wares, people looking to start new lives in the Territory.  What will you do when the train pulls into Ft. Grant?

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Adventures (Updated: 8/24/2011)!

This section is a log of stories that have been completed throughout the campaign, and the breakdown of those into their chapters.

1. Hanging at Fort Grant (Commenced: 6/16/2011) - The player characters arrive in Ft. Grant, and quickly learn of a crime that has shocked the community.  A wealthy cattle baron's daughter had been raped, and the man accused was locked up in the Sheriff's office awaiting his sentence in the morning.  It would have been a quiet night for the characters, but they were quickly involved in a scuffle where a U.S. Marshal was being beaten in an alleyway.  Soon thereafter, there was a gunfight with the men from Dagby's ranch who were bent on killing the rapist themselves. Vernon Clench, the raped girl's suitor, was shot and killed with a few others from Dagby's ranch.  In the morning, the Stutten brothers were hung by the neck, until they were dead.
2. Mr. Hartley (Commenced: 6/30/2011) - The player characters are approached by a small man named Hartley, who wishes to secure their services in a small settlement named Smokefall Ridge, a few miles out from Ft. Grant.  After a few encounters with natives and bandits, the players reach the small settlement - only to find that Mr. Hartley has been dead for three days.
3. The Wrath of Sanchez (Commenced: 7/7/2011) - The player characters have their first day in Smokefall, and right away things seem...strange.  After a few strange stories and encounters with the locals, the players are right in the street when a band of outlaws attempt to rob the bank's armoured stage coach!  Guns go blazing in the streets of Smokefall, but things get stranger when one of the dead bandits stands up and guns down one of the players!
4. Medicine Chant (Commenced: 7/14/2011)
• Bullet Braids  - The players have a few strange days in Smokefall, and meet several more of the townsfolk and even a few travelers, including an agent for the Simmons Lumber Co.  Things take a strange turn when Rex Crawford, and Indian Agent, comes stumbling out of the woods, bloody and bedraggled.  The natives at Indian Meadow threw him down and placed a curse upon him, but he is confident that his friend Red Hawk, a Chickasaw, can help him get some information he feels is vital.  At Lizard Rock, where Red Hawk is supposed to be encamped, something strange occurs - a bear appeared from an empty cave and claimed Crawford's life with a single swipe of it's paw.  The cave was inspected, but it wasn't deep, and contained no bear.  The players would later return to Lizard Rock and camp there, spending the night with terrible dreams and seeing twisted phantoms.  It would get worse a few days later, when 200 armed Red Band warriors march into town, armed to the teeth.  The natives executed the sheriff, the reverend and several deputies.  They also left a cavalry wagon full of the corpses of U.S. soldiers they had slain.  They retrieve an unknown native from the town jail before torching it, and the warrior known as Bullet Braids warns the town that it would soon be obliterated.  This chapter was the first appearance of the shaman Konnawichi at Caleb Tinker's Gun Shop.
• Bad Medicine - After the warning from the Red Ban, the players travel a dangerous circuit around the settlements to warn the neighboring towns, but their warnings aren't as effective as they had hoped.  Konnawichi returns, and befriends the players by explaining the spiritual peril - The Great Spirit has become enraged.  It is the unity of the tribes, and through it's influence, and that of the spirits in it's court, will bring a bloody war to the white man using their own weapons.  It has consumed many blood and battle spirits, and has taken on their aspects...and brings in essence of hate and battle that the other spirits in the land will consume and eventually become one with.  Konnawichi says there are spirits they can ask for help, and the party travels with him to Lizard Rock...where they partake in a ritual using some sort of leafy green substance and a pipe.  Soon after, they see the Great Old Bear among them.
• Night of the Wisps - This chapter has taken the longest number of sessions to play so far.  The players speak to the spirit called Great Old Bear, and learn much from him concerning the First Tribe - the spirit warriors that roam the Shadow of the Territory.  They have absorbed much hate and war since the white man came, and are turning into dark spirits of war and revenge.  The players cross fully into the spirit realm through Great Old Bear's cave, which is a powerful verge.  They are gone for many days into the Spirit World, searching for spirits which Great Old Bear says may help.  However, when they encounter Dust-Eyed Coyote, things take a turn for the worse, and the characters learn that not every spirit is benevolent or helpful.  Unable to find the other spirit, Makossoni-Huta, the characters cross back into the real world with the help of another native guide who is on a spirit quest.  Upon arriving back in Smokefall fresh from their harrowing spiritual experience, a few of the characters (the Doc, the Irishman and the Native) see some strange things out by their lots - a ghost, wisplike spirits of greed who attack their minds with thoughts of avarice and pummel their brains with their eerie ghostlight - and a box full of silver buried beneath one of the houses, which they believe to be haunted and turn over to the bank as soon as possible.
5. Omens (Commenced: 8/21/2011)
• Ol' Phil's Tale - A strange visitor to the saloon prompts a visit by the characters to an old homestead by the river.  Visions of women and children abound, and even Pete the One-Legged Ghost shows up by the river.  The players attempted to crack the mystery, and resolved that the home had been the scene of some terrible murder, leading to the ghosts infesting the area.  The investigations were cut short by members of the Red Band, and the players hightailed it back into town.
• Killdevil Hill - On a dark and stormy night, a stranger wanders into the Rose.  Soon thereafter, strange things start to happen, and a ghostly sighting occurs in front of everyone in the saloon.  The characters hear the stranger's grim and terrible story of murders committed long ago - and accompany him to his destiny at a place called Killdevil Hill.
6. The Terrible Tale of Tailypo - A strange death on the outskirts of town and sightings of a strange creature emerging from the woods prompts the player characters to stake out a portion of the town, and they succeed in running the varmint off.  It hasn't been seen for days...
7. Harold - Strange happenings involving a small cornfield and the men who live there culminate in a bizarre mystery.  Two nights after natives attacked the cornfield, two human skins show up on the roof of the small farm shack...and they bear startling resemblance to Sam Greene and Eddie Neward, the corn farmers.  Following all omens, the players obtain the corn farm and burn the unsettling scarecrow in the middle of the corn patch.
8. Me Tie Doughty Walker (Commenced 10/9/2011) - At Round Bend, something terrible has happened.  A man from Smokefall died, and the players traveled to get his body.  When they found it linked to a haunted house, they did the sensible thing - went back home immediately.

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Campaign Update (10/24/2011)

Smokefall Ridge is prosperous!  Twin Pines Fine Horse Mall will be completed in a few months, and the road ahead for the townsfolk is promising.  Each of our player characters has a strong sense of belonging to the town, and the next year (1876!) promises to be quite exciting!

The town has it's Attorney, Horse Traders, Shamans, Doctor, Gunsmith and Goat Farmer!  The players have started to make an impact on the countryside where the settlements are located, and Smokefall can only grow from here on out.  It's the era of the boomers!

However, the conflict that has come to be known as the Red Band War has escalated once more and may threaten the town's safety.  The Red Band scattered a few weeks ago to evade army patrols from Ft. Grant, but in the months following our campaign's events they become much more prevalent.

Later in 2012 we'll return to Smokefall for the next part of the story - Warrior Spirit!