View source for LogPurgatoria-Jason-5

{{Gamelog
|Session Date=2015/12/27
|Campaign=Purgatoria
|Author=Jason
|Session Title=This is a crime scene
}}
When Freitag returns to {{placeref|Aerolith Nurnburg}}, he encounters Bosun {{npcref|Schmidt}}, who informs him that the skiff which brought the VIPs from Aquitaine is still at Nurnburg, and there are no missing small craft. That suggests that the Armorer might still be on Nurnburg somewhere. Freitag asks Nigel to come and investigate, in armor. Before he has a chance to head for the docks, {{npcref|Constance}} comes to visit him. She offers him a token of favor, which he accepts, and then she asks him to put his arms out. She removes his long jacket, and begins doing something with his gear, and then he hears a ripping noise. When he looks, she's modified his holster to fix behind his back, where his armor will cover it. She also tells him that regulation comes from orthodoxy and orthodoxy leads to stagnation, which is some serious heretical talk. Freitag decides to replace the old holster but keep the new, so that he can carry two weapons. He asks how he can repay her, and she asks him to be a voice for change.

Violetta wakes up in Cormac Abernath's bedchamber, alone. She can't find her clothing. She looks around and realizes that all this room has to offer are a small commode, a fireplace with a few embers of coal, and doors leading to his solar and his dressing chamber. As she approaches a door, she hears singing. It sounds like two women singing in the dressing chamber. She decides to try the solar. She comes upon roses growing on a trellis, and the cover of the flowers lets her hear Cormac talking to someone before she comes into view. She looks through the flowers and sees that he's talking to {{npcref|Klaus}} von Bulow. They're talking about chasing some quarry, and though they're using game-hunting terminology, it's clear that it's all a metaphor. Klaus seems to think that someone named SAmson is a substandard beater. Violetta can't quite tell what they're really talking about. Then she hears a bell ringing in the bedroom behind her, which briefly attracts the attention of Cormac and Klaus. Someone has entered the bedroom, so her absence will be noticed. She tries to get back to the room without being noticed, but Klaus sees her, and she knows he sees her. Klaus keeps this news to himself.

In the bedroom, she sees a servant girl closing the door to the dressing room. Violetta ducks in and plays it like she was in the bed all along. The girl explains that Violetta's clothes have been laundered and some flaws in the dress mended. All Violetta's carefully placed pockets are gone, and replaced a zipper with hooks and eyes. Violetta asks for her clothes so she can get out. The girl expresses surprise that she won't be staying for breakfast. Violetta says that she's sure she told Cormac she had to leave early in the morning, but the servants won't hear of it, and they're still arguing when breakfast arrives and Cormac returns. He asks whether his compay has become displeasing, but she assures him that she merely has matters to attend to. He offers to send notes of explanation to her guests, telling them that he required her presence. He relents and allows her to leave before breakfast when she promises to see him again.

As she exits the apartments, she bumps straight into Falley. She makes her excuses and scurries off. He heads off to the Cathedral to offer his services in lieu of a tithe. He knocks on the rectory door and is met by Deacon {{npcref|Karl}}. Karl says he'll be sure to pass that along, but Falley gets the impression that Karl shoots straight and will be a great inroad to the Church.

Freitag arrives at the skiff docks, as does Nigel. Two attends at the docks wearing House Orleans livery look askance at the Commissar and the Knight in armor. They ask the dockmaster about this skiff, who tells them it arrived days ago and the party debarked for the Citadel. A few have returned, and they have laid in supplies (potatoes, coal), but they don't seem to have brought any large crates full of kidnapped Armorers aboard. He offers to reward the dockmaster if the man will keep an eye out for anything going aboard that skiff that might contain "smuggled weapons" and gives him a few coins for his efforts.

The Orleans dock attendants ask Nigel if there's anything they can do for him, but Nigel demurs. One of them goes aboard, leaving the other alone and looking even more nervous. Nigel and Freitag depart.

Nigel changes out of his suit and goes looking for Falley, who he finds in the Basilica. Nigel asks whether Falley knows anything about what's happened to Adrian, and pays him two-barter to find out. Falley at once heads toward Adrian's workshop, hoping the tradesmen in the area might have heard something. A shady-looking fellow offers to let him into Adrian's workshop, and Falley accepts, instructing him in how to get there. The instructions work and Falley's in the workshop. There are signs of a struggle! Falley finds blood, messed up gear, and signs that the door was forced. The desk has been rifled and all the plans and tools thrown into disorder. There's a pool of oil where a can got tipped over, and there's a distinctive bootprint in the stain and oil tracks all over the workshop. Falley asks the tradesman to keep an eye out and goes running to find Freitag.

Freitag goes to Violetta's workshop and finds Constance dressed in pants. Scandalous. Violetta notices that Freitag and Constance seem to have some connection, of which she had not been aware. Violetta leads Freitag into her office. She sits, he stands. Beauregard tries to offer Freitag refreshment but gets firmly rejected for his pains. The Commissar asks Violetta to keep an eye out for any signs of shenanigans from the Aquitainers. She'll work for him in exchange for a favor to be named later. She then shows him out, where he finds Beauregard listening at the door, just as one would expect.

Falley hears that Freitag was at Violetta's and arrives just as Beau is showing the Commissar out. Falley fills in the details and asks for reimbursement. Sadly, Freitag has no coin, but gives his word that Falley shall be rewarded. His refusal to come across with the money verges on the unorthodox.

Freitag goes to the workshop and finds the footprints in the oil, including bootprints and a laborer's shoe. He then hears a clang like something dropping back in Adrian's junkyard. Freitag locks the door behind him so that nobody can get out, then goes looking for whoever's back there. He sneaks up on the miscreant and the sucker bolts. Freitag goes running for the door while whoever's in the room goes scooting between or under the racks. Freitag then hears another clang and goes running in that direction, bumps into something, and gets caught out as whoever it is vanishes into the machine spaces. Whoever it was appeared to be short, mousy, and unsavory looking, with something in his hands. With the chase lost, Freitag tells the workshop-area super that the locks are not keeping people out, and so he has to figure out how they're getting in. Freitag reports into the Margrave, who orders him to continue the search and find the Armorer.

Nigel goes looking for Dieter and finds him in the Chapterhouse. Nigel tells him that Adrian is missing and may have been abducted by the visitors from Aquitaine. They can't question all the visitors since Freitag sort of killed an awful lot of them, which creates some complications. Nigel tries to figure out what Dieter already knows but mostly discovers that he dislikes the Commissar. Their conversation veers off course until Dieter is trying to convince Nigel to take Freitag on as a squire. Nigel doesn't sound like he's super-eager to try that out, and gets back on course by relaying the story about how Gaston tried to get Adrian to work with him but was told to wait his turn. Dieter sends his squire to sharpen his sword and then confides to Nigel that his father is watching the docks, and asked the Margrave for authority to conduct a chamber-to-chamber search of the lower reaches of the aerolith. Nigel expresses a feeling that they should be looking in the upper reaches, not the lower, because he suspects collusion with someone who lives on Nurnburg. Nigel gets the feeling that Dieter would like to confide in him more, but doesn't know whether Nigel is on his side or not, politically speaking. Nigel confides that he doesn't do politics. His loyalty is to whoever is in charge of Nurnburg, and the ruler needs their help finding Adrian. Dieter worries that Adrian is only a pawn - the place and circumstances of his finding might matter a great deal. Someone might even be trying to control that place and those circumstances as part of their own game. Nigel then continues arond the Nurnburg, passing news of Adrian's absence to all the Knightly orders, including consultations with Dame {{npcref|Cecilia}} and Sir {{npcref|Roger}}. Roger hears him out on the investigation, then asks him about Freitag. Specifically, he asks whether Freitag would behave honorably if challenged to a duel. Nigel suspects so but urges Roger to consider very carefully. Freitag can be quite dangerous even when behaving honorably, and may be innocent of wrongdoing. Nigel offers assurance that Nigel will act as Roger's second so long as he waits for all the facts to come out before challenging Freitag, and Roger accepts.

Freitag tries to consult his dead to see where to turn next, and finds himself confronted by people he ordered to their death. He accomplished all those missions but the dead do feel a little put out about the whole thing. A dead Corporal named {{npcref|Bixby}} reminds Freitag about a speech he gave once: "You done screwed the pooch, son!" Freitag ends up feeling that he probably shouldn't have killed Gaston quite so brazenly. 

Falley bumps into {{npcref|Timo}} in the market. Timo's there with {{npcref|Reginald}}, which puts Falley off only a little. They discuss how Faley hasn't been invited over lately, and how mercurial the Lady can be. Reginald isn't amused. He really wants to put Falley to the question, and only some very dramatic act of loyalty to Lady Chatworth would change his mind. As Falley departs, he hears Reginald say "I don't like that little shit. He knows things best kept silent."

Falley then goes to report to Sir Nigel. They trade theories and Falley explains to Nigel all about how he should investigate the Chatworths, which goes well. Falley then tries to hynotize the Knight and totally fails, giving Nigel 2-hold over him. Falley seems really struck by what a fine, honorable, and fearless fellow Nigel is.

In her shop, Violetta hears {{npcref|Daphne}} scream and runs to investigate. She finds the dead body of Uli, formerly an apprentice. Uli was strangled with wire and dumped where the bolts of cloth get stored. The body is still warm. The killer is almost certainly nearby. She hears movement in a small room off to her left and sees just a hint of movement before she hears the click of a gun being drawn. She trackles Daphne and takes a bullet. She pops her head up and sees a guy stride out of the side room. He's wearing dark leather, he has a black bandana around his face, and his hair in a pompadour. He has a pistol in one hand and a knife in the other. He sees her and begins to aim at her, but she's already out the window and gone. She tells herself that the killer was probably there for her and he may not stay to hurt her apprentices. As she runs, she hears screaming behind her, and sees that the killer has Daphne hostage, and is wrestling her out the door and into the alley. She tries to follow without being seen, but she gets seen, and finds that he has two other kerchiefed criminals with him. She goes to the Constabulary. They begin investigating and now her shop is a crime scene. She'll have to put in some time to get them back together, so she gets started and tells everyone to meet up in Beauregard's tenement. When they do, she uses augury to try to contact Daphne. She gets a sense that her apprentice is in pain but not in danger, held in the lower reaches of the aerolith, and can hear a sort of rythmic ka-thum machine noise. She also thinks they're questioning her. She takes her apprentice {{npcref|Buster}} and goes looking for Freitag.

She finds him in company with Nigel, who wanted to ask Freitag about Lady Chatworth. Violetta interrupts to remind Freitag that he owes her a favor, tells Nigel that there's a damsel in distress, and asks them both to come along.