The Civil War has ended, and the once fractured Union is now whole. Though the scars of the conflict have yet to truly heal, the young nation sets it sights on the great western expanse. In the beautiful, yet harsh landscape, a man can make his fortune. Many of the wild eyed dreamers and the quiet survivors stop by Longwater, Kansas.
The townsfolk generally keep to themselves while they occasionally barter and sometimes cheat the travelers heading further west. In spite of the locals, the town remains prosperous and content.
Some of the more vocal drunks claim to have seen things in the middle of the night. Winged creatures large enough to carry a man. Long buried men walking the town at night. Wolves the size of bison with eyes as red as blood.
The modern, sensible townsfolk and wealthy travelers ignore them, blaming the drink. Only Father Stone seems to take any interest, using their mad ramblings as fuel for his sermons.
Is their nothing to worry about? Or does the devil have his black heart set on Longwater? ---------- So after watching the teaser for Undeadwood from Critical Role, and with Halloween just around the corner, I had an urge to try this out. I've been out of group RPs for a long time, having preferred to stay with just one person.
Players would be playing as either local townsfolk from Longwater or distant travelers who find themselves nearby when things start going to hell (literally). Expect zombies, vampires, demons and whatever classic horror monsters I might want to add.
Rules are pretty straight forward. Play nice, don't be a dick and if you want to leave or take a break, please talk to me.
Name: (Pretty self explanatory)
Age: (See above)
Occupation: (What does your character do for a living? Are they employed or are they a vagrant?)
Appearance: (Either a typed description or picture. But please, no anime.)
Personality: (How does your character talk to the people around him?)
Possessions: (What's in their pockets right now? Do they carry a gun?)
Backstory: (Who was your character before they came to Longwater? Have they always lived here? Have they dealt with the supernatural before? What do they want out of life?
One more important rule to keep in mind. You're characters are not superheroes, or even total badasses like Marston or Morgan. Try to keep your characters believable and flawed. Nothing ruins a game faster than a Marty Stu/Mary-Sue.
If you have any questions or comments, please send them my way. Yeehaw!
Staring- lavenderdame as Miriam Schwartz Yankee as Joshua Addair Lukas Volkov as Julia Bisset MK2 as Ezekial Gillum and Nobodyman123 as Deputy Gene Silver and Rebecca Stoakes
Longwater Points of Interest
The Town Hall is located in the center of town, and is easily the tallest building in Longwater aside from the church. The current mayor, Zachary Quinton, has won the last two elections by virtue of nobody running against him. Still, he is much respected by the town, and is a competent mayor. Next to the Town Hall is the Sheriff's Office, which contains one desk, a single cell with a cot, and a coach gun hanging on the wall. The cell is empty most days, accept for the occasional drunk who tried to start a brawl.
Roy's Cantina is one of two watering holes in Longwater, and is easily the most popular. Roy Stoakes keeps a clean establishment, and is usually packed nightly, both with locals and travelers heading out further west. The three employees are Roy, his daughter Rebecca, and Tiberius Fauntleroy, who plays the piano when he isn't busy drinking himself into a stupor. The cantina is also has a selection of rooms for rent, and any traveler looking for a place to rest could do a hell of a lot worse than Roy's.
Blucher's Armory is Longwater's most popular store, which is well stocked with whatever a traveler needs for the long rode west. As the name suggests, it is especially well stocked with weapons. The shopkeeper, Friedrich Blucher, was a former soldier of the Prussian Friekorps, and likes to keep up with the modern trends in regards to firearms. The sign above his shop says: Killing is wrong, but if you want to do it right, buy from Blucher.
St. Cyprian's Church is usually quiet except for Sunday, but the one person who spends most of their time their is Father Stone. The priest is a humble and polite man in his early forties. He would almost be considered handsome if it weren't for the vicious looking scar over his right eye. Many have asked him where he got it from, but he refuses to answer. Stone also doesn't speak much about his past, and most parishioners usually leave him alone out of respect.
The church itself is large, but plain, with simple wood pews lined up before an altar and a fifteen foot tall cross. The church is adjoined to a cemetery, but only the wealthiest and influential townsfolk can ever find plots. Everyone else is buried at Black Mountain Cemetary, which is nearly two miles from town.
Appearance: A pale skinned, almost doll like woman, with short brown hair and dull brown eyes. She is fairly unremarkable, a face while not ugly or pretty, tailor made to be forgotten. Just another in the crowd as her father would say. Blotches an stains mare the calloused flesh of her hands from years mixing medicines and poultices.
Personality: Julia's foremost virtue is curiosity. Curiosity of the world around her, of the pants and animals she comes across in her travels, and above all, the secrets the human body holds. When she's not divining secrets from the books and journals she's collected or pilfered, she's making sketches and notes in her journal on the natural world. Julia's drive is to unlock the secrets the world throws at her. Where other people are concerned, Julia puts forth a mask, meek, mousey, soft spoken when dealing with strangers or customers, but when her curiosity is peaked her nearly boundless wide eyed energy takes root and Julia becomes nearly uncontainable.
Possessions: Julia wheels around a cart full of her tools, dried plants, dried foods and medicine, books on natural philosophy, medicine, and anatomy, and lastly surgical tools. From this horse drawn cart her livelihood is contained. On her person she carries several bottles of various liquids known only to her, knives of varying usefulness, and lastly a little kit for on the spot dissections or healing.
Backstory: Julia was born in the French countryside to a traveling curious of performers, a gypsy. Her mother was an apothecary and taught Julia many generation's worth of skill with the mortar and pestle. Julia from the start loved everything dealing with making potions and poultices, her bright, curious mind taking in everything her mother taught at a frightening pace. Where the other children were content to chase each other with sticks or play in the river, Julia would spend matching plants she found to the drawings in her mother's books. She took up an interest in drawing, inspired by her mother and took up a hobby sketching nature. There was just something she found so beautiful about it.
When she was barely thirteen her father stowed her and her mother away on a ship bound for America, a so called promise land to escape persecution. Sadly her mother wouldn't survive the voyage, the memory of watching her mother waste away Julia unable to do a damn thing about it, is a driving force for her desire to study medicine. Years passed and she and her father wandered around, he'd find work as a tracker/bounty hunter, while she practiced her mother's art. They ended up participating in the war to come, but ended up separated when they got caught in the cross fire of one a skirmish. Julia found herself being a medic for some confederate camp, figuring the free meals, and a chance to practice actual medicine. When the war ended, she traveled around in a cart she bought from money collected here and there going from town to town. Upon hearing rumors of this town in Kansas and its many strange phenomenon, her natural curiosity was again peaked.
Appearance: Joshua is just on the taller side of your average man, standing at exactly 6 feet tall (183cm). Due to his day trade as a laborer, he is anything but lanky despite his height. He's not exactly a circus muscle man, but his body is strong and toned. His dark brown hair has lightened somewhat over the years spent in the sun, making for some mismatched browns in his head and facial hair. He keeps his hair short, cutting it himself when he can't get to a barber. Similarly, he keeps his beard on the shorter side too, but worries less about it than his head. He is Caucasian, a fifth generation Scot (though that means little to him), and it's not unusual to find freckles, moles and sunspots on his light skin. He has a few scars on his hands and legs from everyday injuries, but the most noticeable thing about this average looking man is that there's a piece of his right ear missing from a wayward bullet, a man pulling a gun on his during a fist fight ("fuckin' coward").
Personality: Joshua keeps mostly to himself, the only people he really talks to being his foreman and fellow laborers. Seldomly he'll tag along on saloon trips and make light chatter with the other patrons. Despite his mostly introspective nature, he will help people in need - if it's something small. He doesn't play hero, leaving that work to the sheriff, and he keeps his money close. He plays his cards close to his chest but he isn't a wilting flower - in particular, he gets annoyed easily and especially angry if he is stared at for too long. Maybe his aversion to being looked at contributes to his personality, but he just finds it aggravating. He also isn't afraid to let his feelings known when he gets provoked, though mostly he's a "mind your own business" type of man.
Possessions:
.44 caliber Remington 1875 SAA
Joshua took to carrying a gun ever since the "ear incident." He'd never had a problem defending himself before but the world seemed to be getting rougher. He bought it off a War of Rebellion vet and quickly taught himself how to properly use it.
Silver Crucifix
The one thing of real value Joshua actually owns, a keepsake from his sister. Although mixed with a copper alloy, it's silver purity is high. It's hung from a simple leather cord. He doesn't wear it around his neck, instead keeps it wrapped around his wrist like a bracelet.
Canvas Tent & Fixin's
He doesn't carry it with him of course, but his spot in the company's chosen camp area just outside of town has: a modest bedroll, small oil lamp only able to light the inside of the tent, an iron pot and stakes, small blade for various use, and his many cartons of cigarettes.
Backstory: Although not originally from Longwater, Joshua has lived here long enough to consider it a home of sorts. His family - consisting of a mother, father, older sister and himself - moved into town when he was a young boy. Technically a Catholic household, the family didn't often attend mass together. Father was a workhorse obsessed with making money, and what little he made went into the home, horse, and further business opportunities. Mother had a small garden that she tended to most of the day, and focused on keeping the household afloat. Older sister, Sophie, tried her hardest to help out but her true passion was learning. She was away more often than not during the day actually studying at the local church. As for Joshua, he was a rambunctious child... at first.
Eventually Father's lust for money seemed to poison him, and he fell victim to several other vices and sins in his desperation to acquire more. He grew resentful of his wife and children, who he viewed as lazy leeches. He frequented the saloon for solace, falling prey to the drink. When Father started physically taking out his frustrations on his family, the once happy and humble household grew quiet and reserved. Joshua was no exception. Years went by of this sad state of living until it came to a head one night when Father returned home, drunk, and picked up the kitchen knife that Mother took care of so well (she knew Father wouldn't spend the money on a new one after all). At dusk, just after supper, Father stabbed Mother several times and turned the blade on the wailing siblings. Sophie protected Joshua, scooping him up to run and earning herself a nasty slice across her right breast and arm. They fled into the grass, pursued by Father, when a stranger with a gun just happened to be passing by. He shot the drunken patriarch and went to fetch the sheriff to tell him what had happened while Sophie and Joshua made their way to the church.
A few days of healing, a few weeks of traveling, a few years of living in a small shack and making ends meet between the two of them. Eventually they parted ways, though they still exchange letters - Sophie having learned to read and write and teaching Joshua while they survived together. Sophie moved East, and Joshua dearly hoped she wouldn't have trouble getting married what with the gruesome scar that still could be seen on her body. She left Joshua her crucifix, for luck. As for Joshua himself, he had taken several odd jobs growing up and that continued into his adulthood as he traveled around Kansas and other states either digging holes, laying steel, chopping wood, etc. His work led him back to Longwater last year, the company tasked with building a new inn and some new homes for the expanding town. He isn't exactly thrilled to be back, but he's long since put the memories of when he lived here behind him, just focusing on doing his job.
Shall I move him over to the character section or do you have specific plans/order for that section? Just asking to be sure since it's not exactly easy to delete a post
Personality: Ezekiel’s profession makes the time he spends in most towns limited. As such he tries to keep a reserved, but polite demeanor with most people, approaching interactions with a disarming smile and a sly way with words. Ezekiel is as quick with a compliment as he is with his six-shooter when it suits him.
Appearance:Ezekiel is a man of average height standing at an even 5’10. He keeps his dark brown hair shoulder length and swept back tightly with a mixture of pomade and heavy grooming whenever it's convenient for him to visit a barber. Ezekiel’s age is shown in the form of the salt and pepper prominently displayed on his beard, he sports scars on the right side of his face running deeply down from his cheek to his jaw, earned from a knife fight during the war.
Ezekiel Gillum was the youngest of five in Atlanta Georgia. Although far from the rich plantation owners resident to Atlanta prior to the civil war, Ezekiel’s family was far from poor. His father owned a small tobacco farm and the Gillum family housed at least a dozen slaves prior to the war. When the war began Ezekiel was 16, and he shared the same sentiments many people around him felt when the Union made its declarations. Slavery was integral to the way of life of the south and the Northern politics would mean the destruction of the economy and the bankrupting of his family. His older brothers enlisted in the Confederate army and served from the wars initial start, and although Ezekiel wanted to do his part his mother and older sister refused to let him go, still considering him the baby of the Gillum’s. They instead sent him to study, with hopes of Ezekiel becoming a lawyer and perhaps one day a politician.
In 1862 the option of Ezekiel staying behind to focus on his studies became a moot point with the Confederate conscription laws. At 17 Ezekiel was thrust into service against the Union, where he served dutifully for a long time. The war took a heavy toll on Ezekiel however, watching many of his friends die changed Ezekiel. Gone were the fanciful idea of heroism and coming home with medals pinned on his chest for valor on the battlefield. Replaced with an overwhelming desire to just survive to the end of the war, regardless of outcome. The ideals of White Supremacy in Ezekiel also died somewhere on the battlefields of the Civil War as Ezekiel served alongside slaves who were forced into battle and began an earnest friendship with one such man by the name of Jeremiah. Jeremiah was kind, and stoic at the belligerency spouted at him by some of the other confederate soldiers outside of the heat of battle. Ezekiel and Jeremiah began their acquaintance by sharing a drink with one another as well as a joke or two about the eccentricities of their Sergeants, and soon it turned into an exchange of skills. Ezekiel teaching Jeremiah letters, as well as the beginnings of reading whenever it was possible, and away from earshot of the other men in Ezekial’s unit. Jeremiah Taught Ezekiel how to play the harmonica and would speak to him about his family's way of life, unfiltered and without pause a trait about Jeremiah Ezekiel would grow most fond of.
The pairs friendship was solidified when Ezekiel took part in a repelling of a bayonet charge a few months after their friendship had begun. Ezekiel was quick with his rifle, but still he was overwhelmed by a Union soldier, the man gave Ezekiel his facial scars and would of killed him were it not for his friend coming to his aid and ending the Union man. Jeremiah like all the black men in the confederate unit were not allowed in combat situations, so he had put himself at risk for Ezekiel.
Not long after this battle Ezekiel’s Sergeant; a man known for his cruelty to the white men and doubly so to the black slaves in the unit made for Jeremiah, grabbing the man up with hollers and shouts, dragging him off to be punished for being caught with a knife. No amount of pleading from Ezekiel would sway the Sergeant, Jeremiah broke the rules and he was to be punished. It was then that Ezekiel made his choice; he ran up behind his sergeant and stole his percussion revolver, putting a round in his back and one into the head of another fellow confederate comrade before snatching up Jeremiah and telling him they were getting out of the service together.
Ezekiel and Jeremiah made a fighting retreat from the Confederate camp, Ezekiel now a turncoat murderer and Jeremiah a runaway slave. They made their way north, toward the Union lines, and soon Ezekiel would repay Jeremiah’s heroism by taking the man to his freedom. They promised to meet again after the war, but because of Ezekiel’s Confederate ties, he would be imprisoned upon being taken, a notion Ezekiel had no interest in. As such, the man tore off his uniform and shook his friends hand, making off with just his Revolver for a time on his own, he would then steal a black tennessee walker he’d name Pepper and make his way west.
Ezekiel’s family soon lost their home with the burning of Georgia, but even before that Ezekiel knew he had no home to go back to. By then word that he had killed at least two of his comrades in defense of a black man would have reached his family, and if he dared show his face back there his brothers and father would hang him. Ezekiel faced with the reality of having no worldly possessions other than his stolen horse Pepper and his sergeants former weapon, soon took to the Outlaw lifestyle, moving from town to town robbing men as needed and shooting others as needed, Ezekiel would build a small reputation for himself as well as a bounty that would push him West over the following decades.
Now at the age of 35, Ezekiel found his way to Longwater. Old and weary, with no family besides his horse and a friend he occasionally sends letters to and almost no money to make his way he would ride into town in hopes of a new score, or atleast cheap liquor to pass the time.
