LogPurgatoria-Jason-1

Game log for the 2015/11/22 session of Apocalypse World: Purgatoria, as taken by Jason

Our story begins on the Aerolith Nurnburg. Since the Breaking of the World, the ground has been lava. A small number of surface dwellers eke out a precarious existence on unstable rock floes, but the instability of those formations makes that a chancy and unpleasant existence. Aeroliths remain aloft as a side effect of the Breaking of the World, which created a repulsive or anti-gravity energy in certain heavy elements. Some speculate that this anti-gravity effect was the real reason for the Breaking, but nobody can say for sure.

Nurnburg covers several acres, and holds roughly one thousand people. It hosts a highly stratified society. At the court of Margrave Heinrich (of House Eisenberg), ettiquette, title, and precedence must be observed, or the offender will suffer. The current court fashion requires full face paint at important functions. Heinrich has declared war on the Aerolith Normandy. The main religion of this world is The Orthodoxy, which is followed on all known aeroliths and places. Even amongst warring factions, the rituals of the Orthodoxy command respect. The Orthodoxy could care less about the wars and states of men; they preach about souls, the other world, and transcendence, and argue that the world is purgatorial. Self-flagellation is one possible path to heaven, neither commanded nor discouraged, but public floggings for blasphemy and other religious crimes are routine. The emphasis on class means that clothing styles and forms have been tightly regimented, meaning that only adornments such as hair and makeup are left to individual discretion. The knightly orders defend the honor of their order and the Orthodoxy, and they carry across the Aeroliths. Each order swears three vows. Their importance has declined over time, and today there are fewer than a dozen true Knights with functional armor on Nurnburg, and perhaps a couple hundred in the world. A man of Knightly social distinction who has sworn the vows can be a lay brother, but to be a Knight, he has to have functional armor.

Aside from the von Eisenbergs, the primary families on Nurnburg are House Bulow and House Chatworth. Heinrich protects his own power by playin them off against each other.

Play starts on the Feast of St Lucian. During this season, Nurnburg chases the equatorial rains. Our war with Normandy comes partially from a struggle for the best rainfall. For this feast, people bring out ancient wolf pelts to show piety. Lady Cassandra Chatworth is fretting about her outfit for this evening. She's technically in mourning, but already looking for a new husband. Violetta and Falley have prepared her in slightly avante-garde fashion, and she's unsure that she can pull it off. Sir Dieter von Bulow arrives to talk to the Lady, and she dismisses the servants, though she asks Falley to wait downstairs for a final check. This leaves the Lady alone with the Margrave, a serious breach of decorum. Falley goes in search of Timo, the Lady's eunuch majordomo, and warns him that a situation may be developing.

Freitag is second in the honor guard, which is led by the Margrave Heinrich's nephew, Baron Hans, a lad of numerous character flaws. As they prepare for the ceremony, Freitag notices a stain on the Seigfried banner, a trophy of Nurnburg's victory over and downing of a rival aerolith. Freitag was there when they took that standard, has carried it in many ceremonies since, and knows it was not stained... before. He immediately seizes the curator of the standards and demands an explanation. The curator cannot explain, but Hans thoughtfully states that the failing here is Freitag's.

Adrian has an invitation to the ceremony, a reward for repairing an Orthodoxy microfiche machine. He's attending with Bishop French, the most senior Orthodoxy official he's ever met. French shows no interest in Adrian, forcing Adrian to either totter around behind him, or end up a lone peasant in VIP country, with all the risks thereof. He tries to read French and figure out the reason for all this rudeness, but instead gets caught staring at a Bishop, a shocking breach of ettiquette. A friar puts Adrian in the Orthodoxy seating box and instructs him not to move. Even a little bit. Like, if there's a huge fire and they have to evacuate, don't move.

Once Dieter leaves, Lady Chatworth finds her attendants for the final review. Violetta couldn't hear their conversation, but it was heated. Dieter seems angry. She concludes that she should make herself scarce.

Falley ends up having to fix the Lady's makeup in the carriage to correct for her heightened pallor. He tries to make small talk but gets himself in trouble instead. In desperation, he consults the spirits of his ancestors, but encounters his mother's older sister, who never liked him. He ends of having a fit of "The Gathering," in which multiple ancestors speak through him in rapid succession. The Lady's armsman diagnoses him as possesed by sin and slaps him. Falley stops jabbering just in time to get kicked out of the carriage.

Nigel prepares himself for the parade by tinkering with and tuning up his Eisenbear-class armor. He and Lady Janet must look their best, after all, to do full credit for the order. He happens to be looking in the right direction to see Falley get punted out of the carriage. He helps Falley up and allows him the use of the courtyard to clean up.

Freitag tries to read Hans' father, Burgrave Hugo, and figure out how to get the Burgrave to believe him. He concludes that he must make it a matter of honor to get the Burgrave's full attention, and accuses Wentworth, the curator, of negligence in allowing the banner to be stained. Hugo orders the procession delayed while the standard is cleaned, and Wentworth scourged to encourage his future dilligence. Adrian, bored in the Orthodoxy box, wanders through around this time. Adrian provides a potential stain remover, which proves efficacious. Freitag allows Adrian to sit in his section as a gesture of gratitude, but a friar finds him and tackles him a few steps short of the threshold. The kerfuffle attracts the attention of the Burgrave, who gives them all the business.

Falley, cleaned up, goes to the commoner's viewing area to see the ceremony. Violetta watches with friends. During the second sermon, the day's greatest sinners are brought out for punishment, and then Freitag gets to take a scourge to poor hard-luck Wentworth. After the ceremony, the servants begin setting up tables for the feast. The fare reflects status, but all present eat four courses, and must eat the first bite of each course without hands or utensils, in the manner of a wolf. During the third course, Nigel sees someone enter, whisper in the ear of Dieter von Bulow (age mid-30s, Knight of the Order of Fenris, whose vows are obedience, poverty, and no quarter), and whatever it is, it makes Dieter turn beet red. He stands up, turns to Lady Chatworth, and shouts, "You fucking strumpet! How could you?" Nigel immediately tells him to know his place and mind his tongue, which causes Dieter to call him a codger. Matters go downhill from there. Dieter claims some insult from Chatworth. Falley reads Chatworth and sees confusion and hurt. Nigel, who has vowed to protect widows and orphans, gets in Dieter's face. Janet offers the protection of the Order of Saint Willibald to Lady Chatworth and further offers to kill Dieter for her, and Dieter says that he'd like to see her try. The Lady cries but does not answer. Nigel calls upon him to leave, and Dieter looks around, then bows, apologizes for the indiscreet outburst, and challenges Nigel to a duel at dawn.

The friar near Adrian tells him that the Pillars of Frailty have heard raised voices and must be annointed anew. Since there are a very large number of pillars, that sucks for them.

As the friars and the Margave's men try to get the feast back on track, a man comes out of the Margrave's entrance and shouts out that the Normandy has been sighted.