Episode 3: The Covenant

Blurb
Cletus Garvin should have died in 1910, but instead has been the pastor of the Tabernacle of the Elder Covenant for the past seven years. Debts are called to account in the shadow of the Old Number 7 Disaster.

Plot Synopsis
The Covenant opens with Cletus Garvin, pastor of the town of Barlo, Kentucky, ministers to the victims of the Old Number Seven Disaster in the town's church, and reminisces on how he got his position.

In the winter of 1909, Cletus Garvin developed the Black Lung, an ailment coal miners get from inhaling coal dust. He was told he would be fired at the end of the week, though he could keep his house, and would receive a pension. While finishing out the week, he hears voices at the bottom of the mine, which know details about his life that they should not be able to. They promise to restore him to health, in exchange for his services in the outside world.

The voices help him to give sermons, and he steps into a preaching role in the local Pentecostal church, becoming its pastor once his predecessor dies in a hunting accident. Throughout this time, he continues to receive inspiration and wordings from the voices; he initiates new traditions amongst the congregation, including speaking in tongues and laying on of hands, and these seem to hold some sort of power to affect the lives of the congregation including "the power to heal...or in some cases, to kill."

When the men of Barlo bring the victims of the Old Number 7 disaster to Cletus, he begins preparations for something he feels entirely unconfident about, though it is not revealed what.

Relevant Characters

 * Cletus Garvin