DMing the Bible: Party Murder

Introduction:
While much is made in popular theology about Adam and Eve and the incident in the garden, the story does not, in fact, introduce human sinfulness into the Biblical narrative. The story we're talking about this week does. In this issue of DMing the Bible we will look at the story of Cain and Abel in greater depth and then talk some about party relationships.
The Text:
Genesis 4 continues with the Yahwist account (the j-source) of the family of Adam and Eve, this time focusing not on the parents but on the first two sons Cain and Abel. Cain is the first born, and shares in Adam's work with plants and agriculture; the second son Abel keeps the livestock. This is a fairly typical distribution of labor for inhabitants of the ANE.
Though God has not laid out a system of recommended giving (as will happen, at great length, in Exodus), Cain and Abel both come to make a gift to the Lord. The both bring gifts from their particular trade. Now when I was a kid in Church School, this story was illustrated and told with great frequency. The story and the pictures always showed Cain, almost Neanderthal in appearance, carelessly dropping of the rotten remainder of his crop (which were usually illustrated as new world crops like tomatoes and corns, but I digress). Clean, blond, somewhat frail, almost radiant Abel comes skipping along with the very first lambs of his flock. The suggestion in these tellings was that Cain and his offerings were clearly inferior to Abel and the offering of the lambs. The story doesn't paint such a clear picture. Abel did bring from the first of his flock, but the text merely tells us that Cain's offerings came from plants. Further it suggests that Cain cam first to make an offering, and Abel's gift was made in imitation. This is not all that surprising when one considers the meaning of their names: Cain calls to mind human creativity, Abel means "shadowy" and "nothing."
It is not clear why God accepts the Abel's offering and not Cain's. Biblical scholars and interpreters through the ages have offered several possible reasons: Abel's sacrifice really was better than Cain's, in later Israelite ritual animal sacrifices are preferred to vegetable, God favors the younger sons in most Biblical tales. The reason is less important to the story than simply that things have been tipped off kilter.
Cain is understandably upset, God has chosen his younger brother over him. God talks to Cain suggesting that the door to acceptance is not yet closed; look at the wording in verse 7, "If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well , sin is lurking at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it." Cain has an opportunity to do well, but God does give warning about what a bad choice will bring. The way sin is described in this story it is lying in wait on the doorstep like an lone roller skate looking for chance to trip you when you're already late. God holds out the possibility that Cain doesn't have to fall for it, and if he doesn't the world would be set right.
As we know it doesn't happen, Cain lures Abel out to the fields and kills him. From this point on in the Bible there in no sibling relationship that is free of tension.God asks Cain where Abel is, and Cain responds with the classic line "I don't know; am I my brother's keeper?" Cain, who had turned the disappointment of his relationship with God outward and onto his brother, is now claiming that Abel and Abel's life and accomplishments mean nothing to him -- that they have no bearing in his life. God knows too well where Abel is and what the consequence or Cain's activity will be. In this case, God is not the punishing agent. The ground is turned against Cain, and so he can no longer stay and be a farmer. Cain says the punishment is too heavy, leaving the land he knew, and being removed from the land meant separation from God. Cain was afraid anybody who met him would kill him (we'll talk about this when we get to Sodom and Gomorrah) but God makes it so that people who meet Cain will know he's connected and cannot be killed indiscriminately.
The Game:
PC parties are often strange things. They are cobbled together of different characters with different skill sets, different races, different values, and different gods (sometimes even different pantheons). Yet this group are not just traveling companions who may bid one another adieu at any time, they are supposed to be a team. Teams in general can pull together and work towards a common goal. All these differences can lead to conflict in a party, and that tension has to work itself out eventually. As a DM you have a chance to provide opportunities for inner-party conflicts to be worked out in such a way that the characters are closer at the conclusion. Here are some suggestions:

• Well that's one thing we've got: The chaotic evil fighter and the lawful good cleric can't agree on much, but they can agree that the demons that are taking over the town are bad. Keeping players focused on places where most everybody agrees might help to bridge some of the gaps in the team building process.
• We call that Improved Critical: Each character has a place to shine (assuming a well balanced party). One way to keep characters from each other's throats is making sure that each character gets a chance to show their usefulness to the party and their competence in general. This is particularly helpful in getting evil characters not to kill off the good ones.
• All Aboard! Express to Therapy: Yes, railroading players is not a good thing, it frequently backfires and annoys players. But, if you were to do it in a limited way...like in dreams or in the dungeon of a mad, but beneficent wizard. It may give a player character or two a chance to work out whatever needs working out. Dream sequences work particularly well between sessions.

They went and killed each other anyway. Well, don't you feel a little like God. What happens now?

• Res and repeat: D&D can at times make death seem cheap; for moderate level parties True Res is not that difficult to come by. This solution gets your plot back on track but ultimately sets things up for a bigger confrontation later.
• Time to Depart: The dead character stays dead or doesn't, but either way the killing character(s) are cast from the party. Your players can introduce new PC's as you see fit and now you have a handy new villain to reintroduce at some later date. The exiled PC's player may be helped to stay involved in the game if you allow a little input about what that character does next.