The Midnight Riders

A former religious organization in the undead infested land of Mourning Pyre, the Midnight Riders has become something else.

Background

The Church of the Midnight Sun was created some ago by two childhood friends that managed to survive the Creeping Death. Initially it was set up as a haven to other survivors in the form of survival caches: spare equipment left at marked locations (much like the rangers of old), along with basic handwritten survival manuals (what was edible in that specific area and what was not, hunting/trapping techniques, shelter construction, etc.) along with instructions on how to contact and locate other Church of the Midnight Sun members. The efforts of the Church's founding members was a gradual payoff: soon enough the organisation's membership swelled. People from all walks of life join the ranks and continued the work of finding and sheltering other survivors. But in a land like Mourning Pyre, circumstances oftentimes dictate moral north, and the first crack appeared in the Church of the Midnight Sun.

One of the founders, a man now known only as "Church", became more interested in the strength of the Church of the Midnight Sun. Over time he became dictatorial, even tyrannical. His vision of the Church became more and more militant while the other founding member, a man later to become known as "the Wanderer", held fast to the original idea of the Church: to help those in need survive and rebuild. Inevitably, the two idealists clashed. Some sided with the Wanderer, many sided with Church, and so the Wanderer was outed. Exiled. But Church is not a man of small victories. Fearing what every tyrant fears, he sent out his best scouts to find the Wanderer under the false pretense of mending their friendship for the betterment of the Church of the Midnight Sun. Wary but hopefull (the Wanderer knew his split with Church wasn't so cut and dry, that fear voted more often than heart), he returned to reconcile...only to find Church and his elite waiting in ambush.

Left for dead, arrows sticking from him like a pin cushion, the Wanderer sank to his knees and prepared to die. Church and his brutes walked away with smirks and laughter. Death was creeping. Claiming...

With their leader dead, the rest of the Wanderer's Renegades (as they were known), were hunted down and given the choice: join, die, or become living death. The self-annointed warlord Church would later rename the Church of the Midnight Sun to "the Midnight Riders", named both for their nocturnal activities and the fearsome steeds his elite ride during such "outings". Survival of the fittest indeed.

Current Sketch

Over time, legend of the Wanderer became more myth than anything. A lone man looking for a cure, a warlord opposed to the salvation offered by the Midnight Riders, an outlaw, a nobody. Eventually, all but a few forgot. The Midnight Riders rode, scavenged, plundered, and "saved". A neccessary evil when facing the Creeping Death.

More recently, rumours broke through the Riders' laydowns. Somebody was again building survival caches and leaving behind handwritten bills detailing survival techniques and signing them "The Church of the Midnight Sun". Church is said to be fuming. His scouts are looking for more than supplies and "recruits", and some aren't reporting back. Independant communities are being interrogated, but are offering up no leads. The Midnight Riders are quietly preparing for war, fully expecting an opponent imbued with self-righteous wrath.

And hordes of ravenous undead roam the countryside, oblivious to the schemes of men...