Moonrock Gentlemen

The Moonrock Gentlemen are a criminal organization operating in Lemoyne since 1898, the group was created by Jeremy, Raphael and Bastian Braithwaite, the three yougest members of the Braithwaite family. The organization engaged in moonshine production, jewelry theft and deal, robberies, murders with and without premeditation, blackmail, torture and more, the members called themselves gentlemen because of their classy outfits and their so-called good intentions.

They made a lot of enemies, including the Del Lobos, the bandits of Van Horn, Lemoyne Raiders, Valentine moonshiners, but also smaller groups like the Bellingham Brothers and the MacLean family.

## Etymology

Their name comes from Henry Braithwaite, the grandfather of the three leaders of the group, who was once called Moonrock Gentleman for wearing a moonstone ring with classy outfits, the cousins decided to wear that name as it was pretty cool.

## First crimes

In 1898 the Braithwaites decided after a long talk that they wanted more money and had no issues with illegality, thus they went looking for opportunities and found two tracks, moonshing and jewelry deal, they divided tasks and started searching to learn more about it.

### Moonshine business and the Bellingham brothers case

Jeremy met Maggie Fike, a famous moonshiner that worked at the time near Blackwater, New Elizabeth, she and her coworker, Marcel Leclerc, were stalked by Revenue agents and, soon after Jeremy left, Marcel was arrested and Maggie on the run. Jeremy and Raphael found her north of Blackwater and convinced her to work for them in Lemoyne, she accepted as she had no other choice but only if the Gentlemen freed Marcel from his cell. Once back in Lemoyne, Maggie showed Jeremy and Bastian a shack where she used to produce an alcohol called Apple Berry, they decided that they would produce their alcohol here with the help of Maggie and Marcel. Later, Bastian reads in the newspaper that Marcel was taken prisoner by the feds and sent to Saint Denis before transferring him to the Sisika penitenciary, they go to Paul and Claude for help with their intrusion skills and together they go to Saint Denis, change their outfit to a more sneaky one and break into Saint Denis Police station to free Marcel, they start a riot by freeing all the other inmates and flee the scene with Marcel before going back to the moonshine shack. Before that event, the Gentlemen met Leopold, the Rhodes parlour house's manager and bartender, he had an issue with delivery men that were rising the price of the moonshine he had to buy, the Braithwaites fought them off but they came back with the suppliers and showed violence, hurting Leopold, the Gentlemen realized that there was already a moonshine monopole in the Scarlett Meadows and decided to put them out of business, Leopold revealed that the suppliers were the Bellingham Brothers, a brotherhood of moonshiners, consisiting of, from the oldest to the youngest, Tobias, Patrick, Ned and Dan Bellingham.

The Moonrock Gentlemen allied with the town sheriff to bring the Bellingham brothers to him if they had freedom of methods, the sheriff agreed as he was a friend of the family and the Gentlemen started their hunt, they waited for the next moonshine delivery at the parlour house and ambushed the delivery men, accidentally killing one by shooting at him and torturing the other for informations with a sharp knife, the man told them that they took the alcohol at Greenbank Mill, a place in Dewberry Creek which mark the north frontier between Lemoyne and New Hanover. The Braithwaites took the delivery coach, went to the place and raided it, knocking out the guards and tying up Tobias Bellingham, they interrogated him and he accepted to talk if the Moonrock Gentlemen swore to not kill his brothers if they had a choice, they reluctantly accepted and he told them everything about his family, he was the producer, Patrick was the leader, Ned was the head of security and Dan was the alcohol specialist. The Braithwaites asked Tobias where they could find Ned as the two others were out of the state and he told them that he was at a cabin in the southern part of the Bayou Nwa, Bastian recognized the place and they bringed Tobias to the sheriff. The evening of the same day, the Moonrock Gentlemen raided Ned's camp, murdering a few men and forcing Ned to surrender, some other men actually went in the cabin and took Ned hostage as they never liked him, they had a deal with the Moonrock Gentlemen, they got recruited in the organization and they gave Ned. The Braithwaites accepted and once Ned was isolated they burned him alive.

Two days later, guards of the Braithwaite Manor noticed a big steamboat approaching Clemens Point, a cove north of the Manor, the Braithwaites knew thanks to Tobias that they were Patrick and Dan Bellingham, they called some of their new recruits and went to welcome to Bellinghams, there was a shootout where the Gentlemen lost one of the recruits and the Bellinghams lost most of their men, the Gentlemen got inside the boat and found Patrick and Dan, they started a mexican standoff between the Braithwaites and Patrick who was the last fighting man, with Dan in the middle of all this, everyone pressured Dan to leave the place and run from the law as he was wanted and then Patrick got shot multiple times, putting an end to the Bellingham brothers monopole.

### Jewelry deal

Meanwhile, Raphael went to Saint Denis to meet an accountance of his, Luther Crawford, he was working as a jewel expert in a jewelry but was losing money in poker at that time, Luther told Raphael that he and his family struggled with money and that he owed some to a few people in town, another poker player named Lloyd Duncan, Edwin Wells, an optical manufacturer, Donald Schneider, a loan shark, and Lorenzo Fabbri, an italian who would turn out to be a member of the italian mafia. Jeremy and Raphael went to visit Lloyd at Doyle's tavern but he was drunk and insulting someone in the street who turns out to be Malcolm Foreman, they humiliated Lloyd and pressured him to forget about Luther's debt, which he accepted to avoid complications. They then went to meet Edwin Wells who was actually a chill dude who expected Luther to give him a engagement ring in exchange for materials for Luther's work, they came to an agreement and left.

### The MacLean case

Alongside those two businesses, the Gentlemen had an altercation with two members of the MacLean family, a family of farmers living in the north of the Scarlett Meadows, they decided to attack them in an efficient way, a coach robbery, as farmland owners, the Braithwaite knew that in the region the farmers tended to deposit their money to Rhodes's bank the last friday of the month so they would rob their money that day. Bastian went to Emerald Ranch, a ranch in New Hanover, that had a station connected to the place he wanted the robbery to happen, he intruded in the station office and stole schedule sheets before running away, the idea was to correlate the robbery with the passage of a train so that gunshots would be muffled as the only place where the robbery could happen was next to another ranch, ranchers being known to defend themselves under the smallest circumstances. Three days later, Bastian stalked two MacLeans getting out of their farm with a wagon, he followed them with Alpine and, when the wagon stopped and one of them got off to pee, Bastian scared the wagon's horse and he ran away with one of the MacLeans still on, leaving the other one alone with Bastian, he would later savagely interrogate him, torture him both physically and mentally before slicing his throat open. Bastian learned that the coach would leave the farm at 11:30 am, regarding the murder he later deeply regretted it and went into one of his depressive phase.

## Roleplay events

This part regards most of the things that happened in the RDR2 RP of the Moonrock Gentlemen, this is a reminder that this is the original story and that the novel only got inspired from it, however the First crimes part of this page was the background of both the RP and the novel.

A few weeks after Peter's death, Jeremy and Raphael got disrespected when visiting Blackwater, they later saw him again in Saint Denis, they murdered him at 9:15 pm in an alley of the city. Days later, they received a letter from an anonym source telling them that there was an interesting coach to rob on the road between Blackwater and Armadillo the next day at 5:30 pm.

### The Del Lobos Arc

The Gentlemen went at that road at the right hour and found a coach with a mounted Maxim behind it and heavily armed men, the Braithwaites killed all of them as they realized it was actually an ambush, they still found a hundred dollars but not as much as expected. After the ellipse month, Bastian investigated in Thieves Landing, a place at the frontier between West Elizabeth and New Austin reputed for welcoming a lot of criminals, and met a man with a strong stutter named Shaky, had a talk where Shaky explained to Bastian that he was kind of in a hostage situation with the Del Lobos, Bastian asked more about them and he learned that they were a gang controlling most of the New Austin, he realized that the men behind the fake coach robbery were Del Lobos. Shaky and Bastian had a deal, the Gentlemen would help him get out of that situation and in exchange Shaky would give them a good information : the boat in Thieves Landing would soon be full of money.

#### The Thieves Landing Heist

Bastian went back to his cousins and they somehow realized that the Del Lobos had stole them eight thousand dollars that Henry gave them in his will, they naturally seeked vengence and decided to help Shaky, first Raphael and Bastian freed from the law two of his former friends and helped them get to a safe place in New Austin, then Bastian shot a bunch of Del Lobos and stole their small boat and brought it to a dock in Thieves Landing, Shaky would use the boat to escape. After that, Shaky informed them that the Del Lobos had some merchandises that could be destroyed to help for the heist somewhere in Hennigan's Stead, Bastian went to the place and killed everyone before putting on fire the merchandise. Once it was done Shaky escaped after being caught talking with his freed friends, he went to MacFarlane Ranch and wrote the Braithwaites a letter, he told them his situation and that he learned that the money would arrive two days later.

Now the only thing they had to do was to rob the place, but first they needed a plan, it was Bastian's job to do so he started thinking and came up with something, they needed two wagons and a box of dynamite, Shaky already told them that the money would be in the hold of the boat and Bastian knew the place. They stole two coaches from the road in the Great Plains, stored them in a warehouse that they rented from some guy and bought dynamite from Rhodes's fence, Raphael and Bastian went in a place far from witnesses with another wagon filled with dynamite, they lit the fuse and the wagon exploded in the sky, they both approved and the plan was concretizing in Bastian's head. A week later they decided to do the heist, first they parked a wagon on the small island north of Thieves Landing, then they came in the place with the other wagon filled with explosives, Jeremy and Raphael got off soon and walked to the boat without getting noticed while Bastian parked the coach in some open-air warehouse, he lit the fuse and ran off to the boat via the docks, the coach exploded, confusing everyone except the Gentlemen, they all got on the boat and Jeremy and Raphael started to bring up bags of money from the hold while Bastian shot at the Del Lobos, once all the money was at the surface they cleared the way and fled with the bags of money via the wagon on the small island, they fought off a few Del Lobos on the way and stopped at Manzanita Post where they burned the wagon and escaped with their horses.

Two days later, the Braithwaites got a letter from a man named Ricardo Alcazar, he explained that he his the leader of the Del Lobos and that they order them to come to Armadillo to "discuss" otherwise they would no longer be safe at their Manor.

#### The aftermaths

The Braithwaites first wanted to send three copycats to Armadillo to have them killed instead of them but they put aside the idea. One day, Raphael and Bastian when were on their way to Annesburg to meet with the sheriff, a woman on the side of the road called them for help, Raphael got off his horse to talk to her but when he turned his back Bastian saw the man reaching for a gun, Bastian shot her and more men came from the forest, they repelled the assault and tied the dead woman to a Lemoyne sign to make an example out of her.

### The Van Horn Arc

#### Edward Rigan reign

A day after the mysterious letter informing them about the coach, one of the organization intels informed the Braithwaites that he saw a big load of dynamite arriving in town with "Samson Bros" written on it. The same day Bastian investigated the place and listed everything he saw : a coach warehouse, a saloon, an old hotel called Blackley Hotel and a ton of outlaws. A few weeks later Jeremy also investigated to place, he had a talk with one of the leaders of the town and determined that taking over the city would be possible but not easy, the same day Bastian did a third investigation and added to the list a dilapidated sheriff's office, an open lighthouse, docks with moored boats, a post office and a fence. After the ellipse month, the Braithwaites received a letter from Edward Rigan, a man pretending to be Van Horn's leader telling the Gentlemen to come in town to have a talk, three days later Raphael and Bastian went to Van Horn to meet Rigan, they were confronted by an arrogant man that threathes them, Raphael shot him and he and his cousin shot the rest of his men but the fight ended soon as most the population didn't seem to care.

#### The new leaders, Bradshaw, Colt and Penn

A week later, cargo from the Gentlemen got robbed by some Van Horn criminals, in reteliation, the Braithwaites went to the town and shot up dozens of people, recovered the loss and found two hundred and fifty dollars in bonus. Weeks later they got robbed again and went back to Van Horn, they shot more people and got back some of the stolen rings in the fence warehouse, Bastian then investigated and found out Van Horn was now ruled by another gang whose leaders were called Bradshaw, Colt and Penn, this time Van Horn unified to help each other. To seek some help, the Braithwaites went to Annesburg, the closest town with a sheriff, to talk to him, they said they were benefactors that wanted to help the town's development without revealing their true intentions, the sheriff accepted their offer and told them that they had problems with ex-engineers causing demolitions in the mines. The sheriff told them that his informant saw one of them in Van Horn, the Gentlemen went there and got recognized pretty quick, causing another shootout in town until they found one of the wreckers, they tied him up, interrogated him and killed him the coach warehouse, they left without any information but they were now wondering if the wreckers and the Van Horn leaders had a link. Raphael and Bastian went back to Annesburg a week later, his informant told him that a wagon full of dynamite, even more than they used for the Thieves Landing heist, was en route to the group hideout in Butcher Creek, Raphael and Bastian intercepted the wagon and delivered it to Butcher Creek, once there something went wrong and the group shot at them, they managed to kill and knock out all of them but they took a few hits, they then tied up one of their leaders and they bringed him alive to the sheriff. A few days later, the Braithwaites went back to Annesburg, this time they had to investigate a place where Tobin Anderson, the leader of their group, was supposed to meet up with one of the mine's foreman, they went there and were welcomed by three armed men, they killed them and found the foreman dead, they also found that Tobin Anderson was already in Annesburg's mines, the Gentlemen rushed back to Annesburg and came with guns in the mine to find out that Tobin managed to kill some innocents, the Braithwaites killed and knocked out their enemies and bringed Tobin to the sheriff.

Now that these jobs were done, the sheriff really appreciated the Braithwaites, they used this trust to tell the sheriff about Van Horn, they easily came to a middle ground and agreed to help each other stopping Bradshaw, Colt and Penn. A few days later the sheriff informed us that he was informed that there was a burglary about to happen in Van Horn Mansion, Raphael and Bastian went there and waited for the thiefs to come, then ambushed them and interrogated them, they learned that the leaders were staying in a cabin west of Butcher Creek, they then tied them up and bringed them to the sheriff.

### The Saint Denis Arc

#### The Samson Bros warehouse

A few weeks after the coach robbery, the Gentlemen discovered the Samson Bros warehouse in Saint Denis that they now desired and two days later they engaged a man named Sean McGuire to steal an agenda in the office, he gave it to the Gentlemen that now knew everything the Samson Bros were up to for the next eight months. Then a full month passed where Jeremy was working in the warehouse to gain informations, this month is refered to as the ellipse month. Later, the Braithwaites agreed that they would lowre the price of the warehouse by three means, sabotaging equipment, causing crimes in the area and organizing strikes, after a few months, a lot of sabotages occured and they felt the only thing they had to do to cause a strike was to cause a fatal accident in the warehouse, some associates sabotages a explosives cargo, causing a big explosion killing two people and hurting three more. Before that the Gentlemen were involved in the hunt of a tomb raider taken hostage by another gang, there was a shootout. A few days after the fatal accident, the Gentlemen fake called a the Etta Doyle's gang to rob the place, they successfully did but the Braithwaites catched the leader and killed her in an alley close to the warehouse.

A few days later, the Braithwaites sent a mail to Samson Bros Company letting them know that they heard they wanted to get rid of the warehouse and that their family was inclined to buy it, a week later they responded that the Samson brothers were on the way to investigate the warehouse and that they were also inclined to meet to talk about it with Henry Lemieux, Saint Denis's mayor as an intermediate.

#### The High Society

A day after the coach robbery, a wealthy man from Saint Denis called Phineas Curberry gave the organization a hundred dollars to show that he wanted to work with the Gentlemen. To be seen as good people, the Gentlemen allied with the police department to bring down a group of tomb raiders, Jeremy and Bastian caught one of them named Gault outside the city's graveyard and Jeremy shot him as he was trying to escape. A few weeks after that a bourgeois called the Braithwaite in front of her house, she needed help as her cousin was being held hostage by Lemoyne Raiders in the cities' graveyard, they went to the place, killed the Raiders and freed the man and brought him to the woman, they explained that they were from the O'Keith family and that she would talk about their bravery to their friends. A few days later they received a mail from a man called Hobart Crawley that heard about them via the O'Keiths, he invited the Braithwaites to meet at his mansion in Saint Denis as he had a mission for them. A week later they continue to bring down the tomb raiders gang, this time it happened at the Samson Bros warehouse, they got there and killed the men before realizing that they weren't tomb raiders, the man named Hoare was tied up and expecting the Gentlemen to free him from his assailants but they took him with them and bringed him alive to the police station. Then the Braithwaites met Hobart Crawly in the garden of his mansion, he told them to rob the mayor's mansion for documents in exchange for some money, a few days later they did and found the documents in the mayor's office that they delivered to Crawley.

### The Valentine Arc

#### The first wave

One day, Bastian was with his horse at the edge of the Braithwaite property and found a broken wagon on the road, after investigation it turned out be full of alcohol bottles, he went back to the Manor and told his cousins cousins about it, they went back to the location and when they were on their way back home to talk about it they found another wagon full of alcohol further on the road, they found some tracks there and followed it to find a boat, similar to the Bellingham's, in Clemens Point with a lot of men moving crates and stuff, the Gentlemen started the assault, killed most of the enemies and interrogated others, after an investigation it turned out to be moonshiners from Valentine, the rancher town where Peter came from. Pissed off by this information, the Moonrock Gentlemen bought crates of inflammable bottles and a lot of munitions before going to Valentine to murder and put on fire half of the town, killing dozens of people and forcing the town to repair half of their buildings. Once back at Rhodes the Braithwaites told the sheriff to have the town in maximum security and to not let anything from Valentine pass through, but apart from a few incidents nothing happened.

#### The second wave

Months after the event that was called the fiery strike, the same scenario happened again with Raphael and Bastian finding some wagons full of alcohol near the Manor, they went to Clemens Point and there was the same boat, the Braithwaites came with guards from the property and assaulted the boat, killing most of the men there, Raphael dismissed the guards and he and his cousins interrogated the boat captain, but he accidentally got knocked out by Bastian so they tied him up and bringed him to the Manor's barn where he was tied and watched by guards. The Braithwaites went back to interrogate him as he woke up and he revealed that the boat came from a cove north of Blackwater, they then killed him on the bank and dragged his body in the river. The next day Bastian was in Blackwater looking for informations, he found out that there is a gang very similar to them named Bartholomew Brown's Gentlemen, they could have helped the moonshiners by sending armed men to Lemoyne to protect the convoy, they had a worse relationship than Moonrock Gentlemen regarding crualty.

### The Lemoyne Raiders Arc

One day Raphael and Bastian went hunting east of their Manor and got ambushed by some Raiders, they managed to survive after killing all of them. The Raiders are considered terrorists by the US government and finance their operations with international gun traffic, selling weapons to countries in revolution.

### The Criminal Court of Lemoyne Arc

A few days after receiving the Samson Bros mail, the Braithwaites received another letter with a seal, it was an invitation to the Court of Lemoyne, a gathering of organizations working in and close to Lemoyne, the letter said that the rapid growth of the Moonrock Gentlemen needed to be aknowledge and thus they should come to the next instance.