Hell Bend Campaign Log

The Wargate

Presents

Hell Bend

World of Darkness Chronicle, Season 4 2015

Indian Territory
October 16, 1875

Welcome back to the Settlements, partner.

Since the events of The Rough Edge of Night, nothing has gone according to anyone's plans.  The settlements themselves are depopulated, with people fleeing the haunting and desolate landscape instead of flocking to it.  If Smokefall Ridge is to survive, the folk who seek to make that place their own must contend with the forces that have called it their home since time immemorial.

The Red Band has moved west, pursued by Ft. Grant's brave American cavalry - but the threat and memory of Indian raids is alive in the thoughts of the settlers.  In order to survive, the players must build a thriving community of like-minded "pioneers", which may prove difficult under the current atmosphere of dread.  To make matters worse, that sense of dread seems to be growing into something tangible...

---

Hell Bend is a chronicle for the World of Darkness Role-Playing Game.  It is set in a fictional group of settlements in the Indian Territory in the year 1875.  Players will make normal human characters, though certain merits from The Book of Spirits may be available to certain concepts.  This chronicle also makes use of the Firearms in the Indian Territory rules.

The players' success in the game will determine how many new settlers arrive in Smokefall Ridge, and what services they can provide.  The growing / dying town is key to success in the chronicle, and the peril to all the characters is very real.  In addition, influences outside Smokefall in the other settlements (and Fort Grant) may have an effect on the growth and livelihood of the town as the chronicle progresses.

The following set of values describes various aspects of Smokefall Ridge as an entity.  Law indicates the level of order in the town.  Economy describes the availability of productive work.  Culture indicates the general level of civility for the townsfolk.  Technology indicates the number and frequency of manufactured items.  Supply indicates the production of food and other sundries for the populace of Smokefall, while Goods indicate trade surplus and connectivity with other settlements.  The total of all these values indicates the Total Growth Level of Smokefall Ridge.

Smokefall Ridge 
(Population:  One Less Every Day)

Vitals

• Law: 1
• Economy: 4
• Culture: 2
• Technology: 1
• Supply: 6
• Goods: 1
• Total Growth Level: 15

Township Assets

• Yellow Rose Saloon
• Culture +1
• Church
• Culture +1
• Law +1
• North Territory Hotel
• Economy +1
• Supply +1
• Freight Trader / General Store
• Economy +2
• Technology +1
• Supply +1
• Goods +1
• Communal Corn Fields
• Supply +2

Player Assets

• Twin Pines Fine Horse Mall
• Economy +0
• Doc's House
• Technology +0
• Don Juan's Goat Spread 
• Supply +3

---

Current Player Characters

• "Doc" Jameson
• A man of science, looking for the truth.
• Ignacio Madera
• Forging a place for himself in this savage and haunting land, Ignacio intends on breeding horses in this wide open space.
• Don Juan Ortega
• The Don knows that the ground will yield all he needs to build a new empire north of Mexico.  Corn and goats, what else do you need?
• Rusty Shackleford
• The former mountain man decided to give "civilization" a go and try his luck in the settlements.
• Josephine Maxwell
• A journalist sent to Smokefall to investigate the strange happenings, she intends to find a big story here in the Territory.
• Jakey Wells
• Moving to Smokefall after tragedy befell his family, all he wants is to grow a subsistence-level farm.
• Caleb Tinker
• The town's gunsmith returns after a few weeks worth of introspection on the mountain.  Smokefall is looking pretty rough to him...
• Arthur Littlehawk
• A native hunter who lives at nearby Snake Valley, he recently encountered evidence of the anger of the spirits.
• "Anya"
• A mysterious doctor from New Orleans, she has only recently arrived in Smokefall.

Deceased Player Characters

• None (Yet...)

Disbanded Player Characters

• None (Yet...)

---

Chronicle Log
Total Game Time: 60.5 hrs

The Dread
(10.04.15 to 10.25.15)
Total Session Time: 25.5 hrs

A palpable aura of unease has come over Smokefall.

• Session 1 (10.04.15)
• Session 2 (10.11.15)
• Sessions 3 & 4 (10.18.15 & 10.25.15)
• Session 5 & 6 (11.01.15 & 11.08.15)

More questions than answers arise from bumbling around the woods at night, but with the banishment of the horrific spirit waking folks every morning things get a little less restless.

Across the Red Earth
(11.01.15 to 11.29.15)
Total Session Time: 19.5 hrs

Halloween 1875 starts what will become a solid week of terrible realizations as the demonic forces arrayed against the settlers become apparent.

• Sessions 7, 8 & 9 (11.15.15, 11.22.15 & 11.29.15)

After confrontations with black spirits and possessed killers, the player group now has a clear idea of the forces arrayed against them and at least a general idea on how to defeat them.  However, the Dread is still palpable in Smokefall, and the odds may be insurmountable...

The Condemned
(12.13.15 to 12.26.15)
Total Session Time: 15.5 hrs

With time running out, the group finally gets some answers.  They aren't comfortable answers, though...but that's life in the Territory.

• Sessions 10 & 11 (12.13.15 & 12.20.15)
• Sessions 12 (12.27.15)

Round Bend has been destroyed.  The people there are lost, and the land itself is spoiled.  Folk are warned to stay away from the tainted soil, and no one mentions the place where the old town was much anymore.

---

Campaign Resolution

The residents of Smokefall Ridge have helped their town survive the supernatural onslaught...but now they've got real problems.  Over the next six weeks, the settlers begin to see signs of revivification in their camp as new folk start to arrive.  In a matter of weeks, the current population has increased by 50% to a little over one-hundred souls.

Now, the course for the future must be decided.  The hardy settlers immediately set to work rebuilding and preparing to weather the coming winter, making their town more secure against any extant threats.  Yet, it may be a force that is quite mundane that proves to be the true threat to Smokefall.  An insidious corruption that is creeping across the continent - a force that many whites simply call progress.

Hell Bend (Session 12)

This session was originally recorded 12/27/2015.

Dec. 27, 6:18pm

From the Journal of Josephine Maxwell
November 3rd, 1875

We talked about how we were going to handle our situation.  we tried to bandage up Jakey Wales so we could take him with us.  Barton says that he doesn't want to leave until the next day.

November 4th, 1875

We left the next morning for Round Bend.  When we got to the town, a native approached us and told us that "three are in town and three have fled", referring to the demonic entities of Table Rock.  We deduced this to mean:  The Kinleys and Reverend Revenant were in Round Bend.  Farmer O'dell evidently WAS possessed, and had killed himself.  The wolf had been banished by the spirit following Jakey Wales, and Burke had left Smokefall.

When we entered the desolate town, we went to the cornfield to talk to Jed Kinley.  Jed asked if we wanted to buy some corn, so we went with him to the shed.  When the Doc saw the corn, he proclaimed the corn was made of human teeth!  The man continued to say that the corn was not strange at all.

Then Juan grabbed him and started to try to excorcise him.  They started fighting.  All of us worked with Juan to complete the ritual.  I got knocked out, and Juan ended up having to shoot Kinley.

The sheriff, Tanya Kinley and Rusty Shackleford went with her to the house, and apparently she fought with them as well.  She was stabbed, and died.

We went to go find the Reverend in the church.  He tried to coax us into the church.  We wouldn't go in, so he came out.  We looked around to see a group of three wolves.  He fought with Juan and the Doctor, but ended up getting shot.  The wolves disappeared.

We then went to the pit at Table Rock to help Barton.  When we got there, an Indian war party was waiting.  They took us to the pit where Barton lie dead on the ground.  The feeling of the demon did not seem to be there.

The old white haired indian they called White Hawk told us we could keep the town.

Hell Bend (Sessions 10 & 11)

These sessions were originally recorded 12/13 and 12/20/2015.

Dec. 13, 8:23pm

From the Journal of Josephine Maxwell
November 3rd, 1875

We decided to go out to Farmer O'dell's plot.  At the farm we found a pile of random half-packed objects in the floor and coins nailed to the trees.  Farmer O'dell is not there.

9:20pm

We go out to find O'dell and find him on a path toward the river.  Jakey Wales pulled a gun on him and got shot a few times.  While we stop to tend to him, Juan chased after O'dell and fought him.

Dec. 20, 5:30pm

We went back to town, with the injured Jakey Wales in the cart.  We found a place to put him so he would be safe.  The group decides to leave for Round Bend just before daybreak the next day.

November 4th, 1875

When we get to Round Bend we find a group of Native American men with a pile of the bodies from town.  Kyle Barton is with the men, and they tell us to leave after they have a conversation in spirit babble.  I argued with Barton about leaving until a blind shaman-like man came up and said maybe we could be useful and tells Barton that we are sleep-walkers.

We walk for a day's time and camp near the blood pit at Table Rock.  The group seems overly calm.  Anya and I decided that we would take a walk to see if the calm feeling would leave.  While out in the darkness we saw a large, scary creature so we hurried back to camp.

Shortly after that we all fell asleep except for Rusty Shackleford.

After we are all asleep, we find ourselves standing near the fire.  Barton says that we should go.  We go into the pit.  There was a black hole that Juan went into first.  We follow and saw a shaman chanting at the stone in the pit.

Juan mimics the man and then we were all separated from one another.  We all saw the shaman torturing a man until the man disappeared.  Then he took a stone from the place the man died.

I appeared in a different place and a man wearing a buffalo headdress painted red.  He was Wrath, and he knocked me back into a pile of dead people.  The shaman defeats him with dream animals.  Then all the bodies of the dead fell into a vortex.  At the botton of the vortex was a giant three-headed eagle as it ate the dead.  Then the shaman fought it with werewolves and captured it as well.

After the visions we had, we appeared back at the campfire.  We had a conversation about the stone, then head back to Smokefall.

We had a conversation about how the shaman was named Oderinko.  We then heard a giant thunderclap and rushed outside to find the giant eagle-monster.  We saw the clouds open up and shine on Barton and natives all around.  The things disappeared, and Bartons' eyes glowed for a moment.  He approached a wounded native on the ground, joined hands with him, then the native died.

A huge wolf-man walked from behind the barn holding a staff.  The wolf-man tossed Barton a bag of what he called "silver klaives" to us.

Hell Bend (Sessions 7, 8 & 9)

These sessions were originally recorded 11/15, 11/22 and 11/29/2015.

Nov. 11, 6:28pm

From the Journal of Josephine Maxwell
November 1st, 1875

We went to the next town (Round Bend) to notify them about dead bodies.  On the way to their town we find another dead body.

Jakey Wales stood over the body and cut himself.  A spirit came to him.  It said to him that it knew the man was dead and that it found him.

We found another body of a younger woman.  A quarter of a mile later we find another dead body.

In the town we found a bunch of dead people (35).  There was smoke coming from someplace in the town.  As we walked into the town we noticed all the bodies were all face down facing Smokefall.  I also noticed there were a lot of blackbirds.

Jakey Wales seemed to be surrounded by a spirit.

We walked into the church and it all seemed to be covered in blood.  The group decided to go into the saloon and see who was alive there.  In the saloon, we found a man who seemed very disturbed and said he hadn't and wouldn't go outside for days.  He said he would make a meal for the group, but we went to investigate the town.

I headed quickly back to Smokefall before they did so.

November 2nd, 1875

After the group returned to town I showed them the picture I had taken of Jakey Wales.  There was a mist around him that seemed to suggest a human face.

The Doctor's Office caught fire.  Doc ran out of town toward the totem.  Juan saw the Doc and followed him.  Once they got out there the Doc turned wolf-like and scared Juan away.  They both ran back into town.

A man came into town and the Doc told the man about the wolf spirit.  The man told the Doc that he could help him.  The Doc goes with him and everyone heads off to find items the man told them to look for.

I went with the man and the Doc.  Just outside of town the man pulled a gun on the Doc and said to go to the locus barn.  I turned to shoot the man, and shot off his hat.  He shot me and then the Doc shot him.  The Doc and I hopped on my horse and rode into town.

The others went to go see if they could find the man.  They only saw a trail of blood.  After the group came back, we debated on what we could do to help the doc and he requested to be tied up.  The Doc then started to speak in gibberish.

Jakey excused himself and returned shortly thereafter.  He grabbed the Doc and made for the locus.  In the barn, they say a wolf monster battled an eagle spirit, and in the end the eagle ate the wolf.  It then told Mr. Wales to come back regularly.

We went back to the saloon and then the creepy guy from the river, Burke came in.  He suggested that he knew what was going on, and we should agree to help him.  He explains that in return for the locket, he will give us information on the demons that plague us.

Burke told us when Oderinko the Shaman's tablet was destroyed, it released 7 demons into the world.  He said the demons had learned things from their imprisonment.  Burke's horse walks around on the boardwalk watching us.

Demons of Table Rock

• Lo'khahn the Avenger (Malus Locus at Table Rock)
• Kho'al the Warrior (Reverend Revenant)
• Voku'ale the Serpent (Burke)
• Saskahale the Black Wolf (sent to Hell, was urging the Doc)
• Mo'shaz the Collector (Farmer O'dell)
• Ramaho the Denier (Jed Kinley)
• Lasa-Ayo the Silent (Tanya Kinley)

Hell Bend (Session 5 & 6)

These sessions were originally recorded 11/1 and 11/8/2015.

Nov. 1, 6:37pm

From the Journal of Josephine Maxwell
October 21st, 1875

I set up my camera in the house that I had taken a picture of.  We stayed in the house over the night.

We did not see or feel anything strange.  We did hear the scream in the middle of the night.  We went outside to investigate but found nothing.

The next morning I went out to go take a picture of the men that were working on building at the spirit lodge.  The was a very strange aura that we could all feel.  Once the picture was developed, it was very disturbing.  I took it to the Yellow Rose to show them.  It had a blackness behind the people in the picture where the lodge should be.

That night, a few of us decide to stay up and watch the town.  We set lanterns and  I laid red clay dust along the entrances and exits of town.  That night I found the locket from the house in my bedding.

In the middle of the night we heard the scream again and followed it to find a girl in the middle of town.  She looked sad, and pointed out of town toward the stream.  We went out to the area indicated and found a lit cabin.

We called out to the cabin, and an evil-seeming man came out to greet us.  There was a strange horse.  He told us there were lots of spirits in the creek.  He suddenly asked about the locket that I had.  I showed it to him after it seemed to get warm.  The man said his name was Burke.  He grabbed my arms and tried to make a drinking motion toward it.

Juan punched him and he let go of my arm.  We went back to town.  There was a trail through the clay dust where the girl had walked.

The next morning, we headed out of town after a nap.  We went to investigate the creek.  We found an old cabin.  In the cabin, under the floorboards we found three bodies buried in the ground.  There were two women and a girl.  We take them to bury them in the church yard.

The nightly screams cease.

Nov. 8, 6:37pm

From the Journal of Josephine Maxwell
October 31st, 1875

We decided to have a celebration around the totem and try to raise the spirits of people around town.  The kids are going to trick or treat.

After the party is over we hear a man yelling for help.  We run to try to help him - he was covered in blood and proclaimed "They're coming!"  Then he ran away.  We went to see who "they" were.  Out of the darkness came a blood-covered woman who was missing half her head.

All the men shot her.  She fell to the ground.  Just then we heard more shuffling footsteps in the dark.  There were more people covered in blood with split heads  The things moved in a terrible way, and were upon us in moments.

We shot the men and took the bodies to the house of the Doctor.  A man from town panicked when he we saw the bodies and us covered in blood.  We all go to get cleaned.

Not long after that we heard gunfire and a terrible roar outside of town.

November 1st, 1875

The sheriff went to find the man that we saw covered in blood  The man has left town.

A stage stopped in town to drop off a passenger.

Hell Bend (Sessions 3 & 4)

These sessions were originally recorded 10/18 and 10/25/15.

From the Journal of Josephine Maxwell
October 19th, 1874

10/18
We went to greet the men herding the animals, and they were friendly.

We continued to the area that Barton wanted to go to.  The area was a pit in the ground.  That pit was covered in blood.  there was a stone in the center of the pit that had a burn mark near a split in the center.  The stone is covered in blood and there is a boot.

There was a cowskin stretched on rack that has some sort of writing near the altar.

There was a trail of blood that looked as if someone had crawled away out of the pit.  After a brief argument in the pit about the plan of action to take, we come to an agreement that we should follow the trail of blood.  Upon leaving the pit I heard something that sounded like three voices speaking in unison.

"Come back if you ever need anything."

At the end of the trail was a man in a crumbled heap.  Barton reached down and grabbed the man and the man said "I have failed, Praxiteles..." - and after that Barton shot the man in the face.

The man's body then stood back up - after being shot - and said in the same voice that spoke in the pit.  This time it said "Behold my Testament!"

Then, the Doc shot it again.  Barton wanted us to burn the body.  We did and we sat to watch it burn.

October 20th, 1875

10/25, 7:35pm
The next morning we had a funeral for the pioneer couple.

A man came into the town that the people seem to know.  They greeted him warmly.  He seemed somewhat disturbed at the state of the settlement.

Jakey Wells informed us that he wanted to let us know about the events the night before.  He told us that the Doc had followed Barton to his house the night before.  He watched the Doc and Barton talk to a demon that Barton had summoned from a skull in a bag.  Mr Wells tells us that he witnessed the Doc sell a "year of his life" to the demon in return for information about the shrine that we found,.

The group decided to go out to Bartons'.  After no answer at the door we notice a note from the Doc saying he is at the Sweat Lodge.  When we get there the Doc tells us that we sold a year of his life to teh demon so that he could get the name "Locar the Avenger" - a spirit he claims can save the town from a three-headed eagle demon.

After that we noticed smoke coming from the other side of town.  We dashed to the source of the smoke and found a man's body burning on a pyre.  I took a picture of it.  Just after I took a picture of the burning body the fire flared up and burned blue.  The body was burned away in a matter of moments.

We investigated the fire and determined that the person who set the fire probably escaped into the woods.  We headed back to the Yellow Rose to discuss what the next move would be.

Barton told us that the totem was attracting things (even him) to the town.  We decided to build something from the materials of an old house to surround the totem.

8:53
In the evening we went back to the houses.  Late in the night we all wake to the sound of multiple voices screaming.  The deputies went to check the town.

We awoke the next day and the deputies went out to build the structure.  I went about the town to take pictures and interview townsfolk.  Once developed, one of the photos was very peculiar.  There was a woman in the window of an empty house.

We went to the house to investigate and found a picture of the girl in the house in a locket.  The Doc asked the innkeeper Sarah about the woman.  She said her name was Anna Sharp, and she died of fever.

That night I stayed at the Yellow Rose.  I heard footsteps under my door in the middle of the night.  I screamed, and the owners of the inn ran to see what the matter was.

After finding no one there, I went to go talk to the Doctor.  There was a real feeling of unease in the town.

Hell Bend (Session 2)

(Session Recorded 10.11.15)

From the Journal of Josephine Maxwell
October 17, 1875

6:17
We were awoken in the early hours of the morning by a shrieking scream.  It seemed to have come from many voices.  We rushed across the town to find a horrible crime has taken place in the home of one of the homestead couples.



I was able to deduce that the man murdered his wife by stabbing her and then almost cut off her head with a butcher knife.  Then he took the kife and stabbed himself in the neck with it.  He has scrawled the word "TESTIFY" on the wall in his wife's blood.

As far as the towspeople knew, this man could not write.

We look around and find a journal in the house.  In the journal there doesn't seem to be any English writing.  It is covered in pentagrams and seems to be written in some Indian language, with the word "Silence" repeating over and over.

Out side we found all the mans' dogs still in their pens, except for one.  It barks at us and then stares until it runs into the darkness.

We investigated thoroughly and then debated what we should do with the bodies.

I took a black male dog with me.

8:09
In the morning light we collect the bodies and apparently the Doctor cut the head off the man.  He claimed it was so the devil could not use the body as a puppet.  The sheriff and Jakey Wales became enraged and punched the Doctor in the face.

8:30
I was awoken by the sound of a woman singing in the middle of the town.  I stayed in my bed.  After an ear-splitting shriek, the singing stopped.

I went to the saloon, and there were several other people there.  They decided with me after a story from Rusty Shackleford that it must have been a "banshee".

Kyle Barton has asked if some of the townsfolk would ride out to a place that he has been told about.  When we get out to the middle of no place, he told us that he is looking for the encampment of his friend Simon Drake.  At that point we hear a lot of livestock nearby.

We go to see what the sound is, and we see five to six men with a mixed herd of animals.

Hell Bend (Session 1)

(10.04.15)

Smokefall Ridge
October 16, 1875

Smokefall Ridge is beset by fear and paranoia, leading many settlers to vacate the premises.  More than half the current population has departed, and arrangements for supplies and commodities may be in danger.  The player group meets with the remaining townsfolk and a town meeting at the Lord's Chapel is arranged.

Many of the long-time residents of Smokefall see the characters as "veterans" even though they've technically only been there a few months.  At the town meeting, the uneasy subjects of current events are talked about as little as possible, though solutions are discussed.  Mrs. Maxwell prods this issue, asking about local supernatural phenomena.  In the end, Ignacio is elected sheriff - but the jailhouse has been burned down.

The group meets later, and Don Juan begins to outline his plans for the development of the town.  Doc and Ignacio talk with Mrs. Maxwell at length about Smokefall Ridge and it's problems.  As the dusk rolls in, the characters depart to their homes to think about their place in the universe and why it's so weird in the west.

Return to Smokefall Ridge!

Only a few days have passed for our intrepid settlers since the conclusion of The Rough Edge of Night.  In those few days, the entire tone of the area seems to have shifted.  Folks are leaving the Territory...perhaps for no reason but Fear itself.

It has been four years since we played that chronicle, and it's been a "fan-favorite" ever since.  I have been determined that the sequel not let anyone down, and I hope this new set of stories delights and gives the frights to everyone who is going to play.  Sequels are always a challenge, but the Territory is ripe with all sorts of great seeds for chilling tales.

Going forward, the games will focus on a Twilight Zone-like mood and set of themes.  Investigation and innovation, not combat and exploration, will be the focus of the sessions.  While this is somewhat of a different gear than our normal Dungeons & Dragons games (murder-hobos) I hope it will be a welcome change.  The difficulty level of the mysteries have been adjusted as well, as I have somewhat of a reputation for plots too convoluted for tabletop gaming.

I should write a book.

As well as the World of Darkness game this season, we'll be adding in some skirmish action in the form of Dead Man's Hand.  This will expand the tales of the territory during the season, and we're going full on wild west!  In fact, the next TWO seasons will be spent in the Territory...plenty of time for awesome six-gun skirmish action.

So saddle up, vaqueros!  It's time to save the settlements from the dark legacies of the Territory.  Just remember - the days are short in Smokefall Ridge, and the nights seem to drag on forever.