The town of Temperance
23rd of December, 2019With three classes done, I thought it was time to start looking at the setting where these cowboys will ply their trade. I tried to load the town of Temperance with adventure hooks and opportunities for things to go sideways, but frankly I think it still needs another pass. So here’s the first draft of the town of Temperance.
Temperance is nestled amongst the buttes of the Rojo Desert. A week’s ride to the west is the Cracked Wastes and Cliffwall. Ten days to the southeast is the port city Ibn Karth, situated on the Vashi river. Eight days north is Badwater, and the sulphur swamp.
Places
| # | Description |
|---|---|
| 1 | Smith: Patrick York. Forges tools and horseshoes mostly. Never seen a sword in his life, but makes a fine axe head. Knows his craft well, and could forge just about anything out of iron, as long as he is provided with plans/drawings. |
| 2 | Wainwright: Campbell Windsor. Employs his sons Allen and Amos as well. Wagon makers, but they also make barrels and do general carpentry. |
| 3 | Stables: Katherine Parker. Has 2 horses for sale at $150 each, and 3 camels at $250 each. Will stable your animals for $1 a day(high). |
| 4 | Water Tower: Supplied by a windmill pump to it’s immediate southwest, the top of this elevated tank is tall enough to provide a marksman with clear sightlines to the graveyard, the third floor of the Sands Hotel, or the rooftop of the Sheriff’s Office. |
| 5 | General Store & Outfitter: Jebediah Walters. Stocks foodstuffs, basic camping supplies and workwear. Can order specialty items from Ibn Karth at 20% markup. Items arrive in 1d6+1 weeks. |
| 7 | Church Family Residence |
| 10 | Telegraph Office Thaddeus Wilkinson. PCs can send messages to Ibn Karth, Badwater, or Cliffwall for 10¢ a word. |
| 11 | Hosea’s Salt and Spice Hosea Williams. Sells salt, spices, tea leaves, coffee beans, and dried fruits. Also serves brewed coffee and tea, 50¢ a cup. If the party regales him with tales of their exploits, he might “forget” to charge them. |
| 12 | Claudia’s Curios and Antiquities Claudia Crowe. Will buy recovered artifacts off the party. Will offer an insultingly low price at first, but wants anything strange or ancient and will be willing to pay 10% over value if the party plays hardball. |
| 13 | Sands Hotel Minerva Sands. 3 story hotel with wrap around balconies. Nice inside. Rooms are $2 a night. A hot bath is $1. Meals are $1.50. |
| 14 | Amber Arms Gunsmith Khoury Amber. Sells cartridges for 10¢ a piece, or $2 a box. A medium calibre revolver is $25. A large calibre rifle is $100. Can repair/customize weapons for a decent price. |
| 15 | Sheriff’s Office: Sheriff Solomon Church. Deputies Nathaniel and Malachi Fisher. Two jail cells. Locked gun safe containing 4 large calibre rifles and 4 shotguns. |
| 18 | Cazella Family Residence |
| 22 | The Hog’s Wallow Saloon Enrique Cazella. Beer and whiskey are $1 a drink. Meals are 75¢. There’s a room with 2 beds available for 50¢ a night. |
| 23 | Barber Umberto Vasquez. Cut and a shave is $1. |
| 24 | Doctor Lorraine Church. Can provide first aid, and treatment for disease and poison. Does not charge for her services, but does sell tinctures and curatives. |
| 30 | Trapper Jack’s Tradin’ Shack Trapper Jack. Sells fur coats and hunting gear. Will buy monster pelts and horns/claws off the party for pocket change. |
| 34 | Chapel Hamish Flanagan lives in a small back room in the chapel. He tends to the adjacent graveyard, and gives sermons most days around noon. |
| 35 | Graveyard |
People
| Khoury Amber (33) Dark skin, brown eyes, shaved head. Used to be a gun for hire before he settled down in Temperance. Doesn’t want to pick sides in the Church/Cazella/Sands tension, but fears he may soon need to. |
| Enrique Cazella (42) Short, fat and loud. Prone to rage. Owns the mineral rights for most of the land around the town. Thinks he should be in charge of Temperance. Feels that the sheriff has it out for him. SECRET: Wants to open an opium den in Temperance, but knows the sheriff would arrest him if he starts selling opium. |
| Penelope Cazella (17) Slender, dark eyes, beautiful. Hates her father, blames him for her mother’s passing when she was young. In love with Eli Church. SECRET: She’s planning on stealing the cash from her father’s strongbox and eloping with Eli. |
| Lorraine Church (45) White hair, kindly face. Worried about the cases of cave rot that have killed several people recently. Thinks that the workers in Deepecho Mine may have been exposed to something down there. |
| Solomon Church (45) Hard eyes and a hawkish face. Feels the law is absolute, and his authority unquestionable. Desperately wants a solution to the Enrique situation that doesn’t end in Temperance’s streets running red with blood. Suspects that Minerva is up to something crooked but can’t put his finger on what. Frustrated at the Fisher brothers immaturity, wishes they’d take their role as deputies more serious. SECRET: Had an affair with Violet Cazella when he was younger, and suspects Penelope may be his daughter. |
| Eli Church (19) Blue eyes, chestnut hair, broad shoulders. Doesn’t understand why his father is so against him and Penelope being together. Fears his father, wants his approval. Wants his freedom more. SECRET: Stole some laudanum from his mother’s supplies, and plans on drugging his father with it on the night he and Penelope elope so that he wont give chase. |
| Hamish Flanagan (28) Tall, pale, with a distant haunted look in his eyes. Has no clergy training, took over the chapel after the old preacher died of cave rot. Wants to know how the old man contracted the rot. SECRET: Has nightmares about something unthinkable awakening beneath the Cracked Wastes. |
| Trapper Jack (Ancient) Hunched over, long thinning white hair and beard. Completely mad. Used to be a prospector, but delved too deep into the ancient ruins and came back without his mind. Now traps birds and coyotes to make coats and hats. The walls of his shack are adorned with art made from bleached white animal bones. SECRET: Jack brought something back up out of those ruins with him. Something powerful. He buried it behind his shack, but he hears it calling out to him at night. |
| Minerva Sands (55) Tall and thin, salt and pepper hair in a tight bun. Wants Temperance to be seen as an affluent town so that it attracts investors when the railroad reaches it next year. Feels that Enrique and his clientele are dragging the town down. Is frustrated that the sheriff hasn’t run the Cazellas out of town. SECRET: Minerva built the Sands Hotel, and bought up several other properties in Temperance with borrowed money. If her plan to pump up the property values falls through, she’ll find herself upside down with some very dangerous people. |
| Jebediah Walters (28) Green eyes, red hair, freckles. Worried about his latest shipment from Ibn Karth being delayed. Fears Highwaymen may have ambushed the wagon. Not sure he’ll have enough foodstuffs to last until the next wagon is due if it has been. SECRET: Knows that the old preacher was secretly trying to excavate something from a cave on Cazella land when he contracted the rot, and can lead the PCs to the cave if pressured. |
I think I might revisit this later. I intended to build a powder keg, but I think I might have built a telenovela instead. The hooks are a little to focused on drama rather than adventure. I still need to make some rumor and encounter tables for this as well. Maybe I can hone this to a finer point with a second pass at it.