LogTorments of the Righteous-Jason-9

Game log for the 2019/03/03 session of AW: Torments of the Righteous, as taken by Jason

Barbarossa retires to the rectory and tries to do some research. He'd really like to understand what happened to the Adlers, especially if he can prove it wasn't him.

Inga has no place to live, with the Adlers dead. Also, she was using their shed for brewing, and her right to keep using it will be reviewed by the next of kin. She pays for lodgings for a while.

Archimandrix Hike returns to Nachtburg, still in company with Klemens Kiefer. It's been a rough trip. Normally, the Torchbearers don't make any effort to help the civilians travelling with them. However, the millstone made Klemens' cart so unwieldy that everyone needs to do some helping, or else their journey would have taken many more days, and they'd have run out of food on the road.

Carl has been spending time out on the moors, looking for something that he doesn't understad. Today, he's wandering way out there, and he hears singing. It sounds like a female voice, singing a lullaby, but with weird pauses in it. He tries to sneak closer for a better look. There's a big hill, ringed at the base by standing stones. As he creeps toward the top of the hill, he begins to hear more, and realizes that there are two voices singing, and the pauses are when a voice from far away carries the tune. He's almost at the summit when a piece of sod comes away under his feet, and Sonja the miller's daughter stops singing and looks straight at him. She's wearing a white shift and holding some rodlike object in her hand. She invites him to join her. He asks who else is singing, and Sonja explains that she doesn't know the other person, but she's in the hole at the top of the hill, which is surrounded by a second ring of standing stones. Carl asks if it's the Dark Pool, and yeah, Sonja thinks it is. Carl tries to figure out what she wants from him, and figures that she just doesn't want him to tell anyone. He doesn't know how far she might go to keep him quiet, though. Oh, and the object she's holding appears to be a bone flute. He asks whether she's afraid to be out here alone, and she says that she's concerned, not afraid, because she knows the secrets. She also knows that if she plays the flute for too long, it draws attention. She elicits his promise not to tell anyone she was out there, and tries to get him to make a blood oath on it, using her hairpin to pierce the skin. When he hesitates, she tells him that this leaves her little faith in him. He offers to swear on his mother. She says he doesn't have one, but he assures her she does, she just doesn't reside here. He caves and makes a blood oath to tell no one that she was here, though he reserves the right to tell people that the hill exists. When they shake on it, her hand is as hard and cold as iron.

The people of Nachtburg burn the Adler's cottage but preserve the shed, thanks in part to ol' Gerold Klemm, who insists that the shed can be useful. Inga's managed to brew a barter's worth of ale by now. Henrich Dietz has been spending a lot of time trying to figure out what Inga does in the shed, and she has to keep chasing him off. At one point she actually finds him in the shed, poking around her things, stuffing her underwear back in her bag. She asks what he's doing, and he runs out of there, shouldering her out of the way. She inventories her stuff and finds that he's taken a bottle of absinthe, a sock, and her hairbrush.

Tendahl's on his way over and sees Heinrich's great escape. He tells the boy to give back whatever he stole, and then, when Heinrich ignores him, calls out that he will be talking to Mr and Mrs Dietz in the evening. He talks to Inga, does a Things Speak on her luggage, and sadly assures her that this is adolescent lust, not greed, at work. They go over to the Dietz's, who are among the (relatively) well-to-do of the town.

The have a big old mud-and-daube house with a sod roof. Henrich Dietz the Elder answers and asks them what he can do for them. Inga explains about the theft, and as Daddy begins to explode, his wife Isolde Dietz takes Inga aside and takes a more measured view of the situation. She sends one of the other kids to find little Henrich, only to discover that he's runnoft. Well, he'll be back at some point, right? Inga provides a list of missing items: one bottle of absinthe, one hairbrush, one sock. Isolde promises to make good. Inga and Tendahl depart, and meet Hike in the tavern.

Hike gives Tendahl grief about the flamethrower, he tells her he needs to be in Hollewald where he has his workshop, but he'll be ready to go back there in a couple days. The Archimandrix agrees, but will also hold him to that.

Carl and Sonja make it back to the village, where she kisses him on top of the head.

Barbarossa shows up in the tavern, and catches up with Hike. She hadn't heard about the poor Adlers. She tries to figure out whether he's telling the truth, and thinks he is. She'd be his advocate, if he asked. Hike asks Carl about the Dark Pool, and though he denies knowing much about it, she can tell that he's lying. Barbarossa gets in on that action and also gets the idea that Carl knows right there the DP action is. Tendahl points out that they're scaring the crap out of the little kid.

Just then, the younger Henrich comes in and shouts out a challenge to Tendahl. "To what?" the savvyhead asks. Just then, Carl runs out of the tavern. Tendahl tells his newfound teenage nemesis to go sleep it off, but Henrich loudly proclaims that he's the one who loves Inga. Barbarossa tells Gerald that he's going to watch and laugh, but the Father gets up to settle things down. Tendahl tries to assure Henrich that he and Inga are old friends from Hollewalde and not romantically involved, but then Magnus from the Torchbearer troop shouts out that they're old road companions, and you know how things get on the road.

"I won't fight you for something I neither have nor want."

"How dare you disrespect the lady that way!?"

"Don't talk to me about respect, sock thief."

At that point, Inga gets up and takes the nearly empty bottle of absinthe from Henrich. Gerold steps up and tells everyone to calm down, and then Henrich punches him. Then he realizes that he just punched the town preacher, and turns pale. Hike calls out a suggestion that Gerold should turn the other cheek. Gerold assures Henrich that if anyone has grounds to profess undying love for Inga, it's not him. Hike says, "Oh, it's him, cause you used to be a thing with her, right? Oh shit, you guys were together. Did I say that out loud?"

Henrich's little world collapses and he goes to punch Gerold again. Tendahl's in a position to stop him, but he just doesn't want to. Hike's in an inferior position but she lunges to get between them, and though she takes an elbow to the face, she gets between them and tosses Henrich to Ardner, who chokes the kid out. Gerold asks for help getting the lad home, and turns down Tendahl's services.

Inga returns to her she shed. On the way, she talks to Isolde, who returns her hairbrush. Inga asks that Henrich the Younger's punishment be served at the church, rather than at her shed.

Tendahl leaves the inn and asks the bright place whether the Dark Pool is the reason everyone is such an asshole. He realizes that the Dark Pool does so indirectly - it makes the settlement marginal, and that in turn makes people mean. He senses a throbbing sound from the north, and somehow its pace seems tied to the shit that does down in this town. He also hears singing, way off in the distance. He promptly tells Barbarossa, who suggests they should go and find Carl.

Carl tries to hide but he makes a little noise, which makes it easier for them to find him. They talk and Carl explains that he's seen something out there, on top of a hill surrounded by standing stones, and that there's someone stuck on that hill. They find Hike and tell her that they want to go investigate in the AM, and she sleepily says "fine."

In the morning, of course, she's forgotten all about it, and Tendahl walks her through it all. Barbarossa shows up a little later, eager to get started. They go to talk to Gerold about the expedition to the hill of standing stones and the singer, and asks for Barbarossa's weapons back. Gerold finds their arguments entirely unpersuasive, so Barbarossa tries to sucker-punch him. Gerold jumps back and barricades himself in. Barbarossa loudly announces that this sort of cowardice is why Inga left Gerold, and now he's going to go help out the village.

As they leave, Hike scolds Barbarossa so badly that eventually Tendahl points out that she's Hollewald's most famous Bishop-stabber. She retorts that the Bishop was a demon, but Tendahl suggests that she didn't know that at the time. She jumps right in his face and tells him to shut the fuck up, which he does. Carl suggests that maybe the children should stop playing.

They arrive at the standing stones after many hours, feeling very exposed to whatever evil forces lurk about. Tendahl uses Things Speak on the outer ring of standing stones, and finds that they're old, pre-apocalyptic, made under the light of the sun. At some point, generations ago, someone was hastily chained to it. He can't tell whether that turned the stones evil, or if they were already that way. This is an open gate that needs to be closed, by aligning the stones properly.

They then climb a long staircase that leads to the top, and they find another ring of standing stones and a hole at the top. Hike tosses an improvised torch down there, and it takes a very long time to hit water. As the four of them talk, Barbarossa hears the sound of another splash, down in the pool. Tendahl shines his reflector-torch down there and sees that the well is lined with dressed stone. Hike starts thinking about sending Carl down there, and as she steps toward him thinking to force him to go down into the well, Carl glows briefly and vanishes.

Tendahl is curious and asks them to lower him partway down, so he can see if his reflector torch shows him anything. The edge of the well cuts through the rope, and Tendahl falls. But before that, there was a moment when he would have sworn he heard singing.