AstanaelOn the morning of March 8th, 1865.
Dear Mom and dad. We're tired. Scared. Hungry. Just barely alive. Winter's gone but there's no crops. Sometimes when we march, I feel like we're already dead, wandering ghosts in the desert. On Bennet's orders, we set camp yesterday evening on the banks of the Rio Grande. First rest in week. The captain won't tell us what are we doing here. We should be at Richmond, So I asked 1st Lt. Armstrong and he let slips that we must rendezvous with a secret convoy. Do any of then still carry some hope? Or is it a way to escape the incoming fall of Dixie? I don't know.
Robert is playing cards with Cornelius and Paddy. Nothing to bet but future wages. What a joke. 2nd lt. Middeltown is reading the same book over and over. I don't know what happened to the rest of his collection. The sarg, the real head of our squad, is playing the harp for us. It's sweet. I think we would have died long ago if it weren't for his experience.
And your Jesse is doing the dishes, like at home. I'm good at cooking, you know that, I even managed to make them all some coffee! I must confess I took the beans from the hands of a deserter we caught last night. May the Lord forgive me.
It's gonna be long day. They need all the support I can get them.
I pray to come back home soon, safe and sound.
God bless you.
Jesse Corbitt.
*PS : This is an intro text for a Call of Cthulhu RPG initiation scenario during the Civil War. I wanted to use the desperation of the confederate army at the end of the war as a realistic ambiance, building a feeling of despair right at the start. In retrospect, that was to high level for and introduction to role-playing, and quite insensitive in these times of exacerbated polarization. I should have stick with more classical Far West archetypes following the Down Darker Trail setup. Something like a Marshal and some good folks of Old Gulch Town. I won't tell further the content of this scenario because I don't want to spoil it but of course, there's Great Old Ones involved... *
/* Krita + Yiynova */
2021-10-06 17:27:17 +0000