LogTorments of the Righteous-Jason-32

Game log for the 2019/12/08 session of AW: Torments of the Righteous, as taken by Jason

Archimandrix Hike takes her Torchbearers onto the road, to see what might have happened to the Archbishop's party. She's also told to work on completing the torch road from Nachtburg to the well. Inga decides to stay behind, to give Jens and Fritz some space.

A new pilgrim, Magda, staggers in from across the moors, drawn by the light. Champion sees her first. She's wrapped entirely in a shroud, crawling on her hands and knees, and she seems to be older, with straw-blond hair and pale eyes. As he gets closer, Champion sees sores, probably a result of the darkpox. She collapses as he approaches, so he picks her up and carries her into the settlement. Brother Josiah spies her and tells Egon, who calls for the apothecary. The whole village comes running soon after. Nobody comes in from across the moors, as a general rule, and coming from the north is even more unusual. Thaddius Margner asks about her journey, and she stammers out that "they" were in the dark for so long, and it was horrible. When Egon feeds Magda water from the well, it burns her, but she covers that up. Egon can tell that she's telling the truth, and thinks that she just wants to recover from her illness and long journey. He welcomes her. Thaddius also welcomes her, but asks her to surrender her weapons. She has only a knife, which he allows her to keep. Tannheusre also comes to examine her.

Magda strikes up a conversation with Thaddius. She recognizes that he carries a Damerrung shotgun as she does, and expresses surprise that the Damerrung own this place. Thaddius credits Saint Barbarossa and Tendahl the Martyr for their blessing, and says that Magda can call him Lord Magner. She'll accept that, but then Thaddius has to explain that he's not really Damerrung, just a follower of Saint Barbarossa. Magda would love to hear more of Saint Barbarossa! Thaddius hopes that someday Tendahl the Martyr will find Saint Barbarossa and bring him back. Magda tries to figure out what this Lord would want her to do, and concludes that he just wants her to follow the (his) rules. She tells him that she's disappointed that she can't help right away (due to her health woes), but she thinks she was drawn to the light for a purpose, and is very glad to be there. Thaddius likes her a lot. Fawning attention has that effect on him. Lord Margner tells her to be on her guard against Torchbearers with blue tabards, and that Hike is also a tool of the Church, just a more tolerable one. He briefs her on Abbot Matthias, who represents the orthodox Church, and Subaltern Egon, who represents nothing of the kind. After Thaddius warns her to be cautious around Matthias and Inga, Magda asks to be allowed to rest for a while.

Carl's sorting through Tendahl's wagon, trying to figure out what's worth preserving. He saves the drawings Tendahl made of the stones, and then clears the junk out and moves in. He lives there now, and he even manages to salvage some of the booby traps.

Brother Matthias wishes to hire Inga as a bodyguard. She'd love to, but she doesn't want to give up her pistol, so she goes to talk to Margner to get special permission to go armed, which turns into a conversation about her being Magner's bodyguard. She's busy making her case to a very skeptical village boss when Lady Cordelia Entwiss walks in and, without saying a word, punches Inga straight in the face. Inga falls down, and Cordelia spits on her and says, "You keep Egon out of your schemes! I don't want him getting caught up in your bullshit again." Cordelia then goes to leave, but Inga trips her, and they both end up entangled on the ground. They wrestle for position, with Cordelia spitting the whole time. Inga tries to push Cordelia's face to the side so she can't keep spitting on her, but ends up with a finger in her enemy's mouth, and Cordelia bites down her. Inga's going to have a bruise there, but she still comes out on top, with Cordelia pinned down.

Egon walks in and sees that nonsense taking place, and for some reason, doesn't just walk right back out. He looks them over and ask shoots Thaddius a "what the hell" look. Thaddius is disgusted and wonders why anyone wants a bodyguard that people want to kill. She ignores that and tells Egon to keep his flock in line. Cordelia, outrages, shouts out that Egon is a man of God, and Inga entangled him in her bullshit politics. Inga tells her that this is a new situation and she needs to calm down, but Cordelia just snarls and calls her a harridan. Inga stares her down and Cordelia goes limp, and then she turns the same glare on Thaddius, who stops short of calling in his guards. Egon asks Inga's pardon and starts trying to pull Cordelia free. Josiah gets his cue wrong and goes to grab Inga by the shoulders. Luckily for him, she goes along with that, and Egon and Josiah escort Cordelia out of the tent. For his pains, Egon gets a slap from Cordelia.

Magda peeks in to see what the hubbub was, and Thaddius tells her that this is the Inga he warned her about. Inga presses the issue of her weapons, and Thaddius decides that she can be his bodyguard for a while, but she doesn't get to carry the pistol in town until she proves herself.

Hike leads her troop out to the Hangman's Tree, and sees a group encamped there, without any recognizable banners. When they walk in, they discover it's a pilgrim camp, with a couple dozen pilgrims, but no Torchbearers, and a single wounded member of the Kingsguard. Hike approaches him and asks what happened. He explains that he was injured in Schwarzhoele and knocked out, and the pilgrims saved him. Schwarzhoele is under siege. Hike doesn't believe his story about being knocked out - she figures him for a deserter, and swiftly tricks him into proving it. She takes him aside so he can speak freely, and he admits that he was with a large group of soldiers and ecclesiastics, but they found the gates of Schwarzhoele closed. They tried to negotiate, and sent forth the Herald of the King himself, but they refused, and shot the Herald through the neck with a crossbow bolt. The army tried to assault the town, and that's when the soldier got hurt, and that's when he decided to desert, and fell in with the villagers.

The Archimandrix marches her unit to the siege area, which takes a couple days. The gang don't love that - fighting sieges is for the Kingsguard, not the Torchbearers, but if they show up, they're likely to get drafted. They'll go a fair way past Hoddard's Rock with her, but the vast majority of the gang don't want to go any nearer to the body of troops than that. She ends up going herself and giving the gang 1-barter for being cool while she's gone.

She makes it to the picket line safely, identifies herself, and is eventually allowed inside the perimeter. She asks to see the Archbishop, but of course he and the King are on the other side of the town. She starts making her way over there, avoiding the occasional bolt or musket ball, and realizes that this is a war. She's never seen so many Kingsguard, or fighting on this scale. Eventually she gets to a spot where one of the torches has gone out. She runs through the gap, dragging her hammer along the rope to keep herself on the path. At one point, she hears a chortling voice from out in the swamp, but she ignores it and continues on.

She quickly updates Archbishop Kreuzmann, who decides that she should brief him and the King at the same time. In short order, with only a brief lecture on ettiquette, she's in the presence of King Dagmar VI. The Archbishop introduces her with flattering comments. Unfortunately, the King takes an instant and visceral dislike to the Archimandrix. She warns him that the Damerrung are moving on the well, and that they murdered Tamiloff, whose gang is gone. She also mentions that the locals killed the party from Schwarzhoele. The King takes all this in, but the Archbishop's look tells Hike there will be questions. The conversation changes to Schwarzhoele, and the sad loss of Lord Eisenbach's allegiance. Hike mentions that Deacon Flaubert has poisoned the lord's mind. The King gives the Archbishop a look at that, but the Archbishop deflects the issue and points out that regardless of why, the Lord is a traitor. They move on to discussion of the well in Nachtburg, which Hike assures Archbishop and King is indeed the light of God.

Hike changes the subject and tells them that she might know a way to end this siege quickly - the tunnels to Der Flammenkammer. The King promptly passes her off to his underling, Captain Helmand. Helmand would like to hear more, so she explains what the tunnels are, and how they come out within striking distance of the East Gate. Helmand's interested but thinks the West Gate is the real key, and even with the East Gate, they'd need to take the Caer and the West Gate, so this won't end the siege at a stroke, but... it doesn't suck.

When Kreuzmann emerges, he immediately asks Hike about Tamiloff. Hike explains that he took hostages and provoked the Champion. She assures him that the locals did not welcome the renewed assertions of Church authority. He asks if Hike was able to put Brother Matthias in charge, which he's not, and she warns him that if the Damerrung who went for reinforcements got through, their reinforcements will arrive before the Church's do. Kreuzmann doesn't like this siege, but it has to be dealt with. There's no way of dealing with Nachtburg until Schwarzhoele is back in Church/Royal control.

Carl sees out Thaddius and asks why they're building sod houses, rather than moving houses from Nachtburg to Barbarossaburg. He explains that the fires and destruction back in town mean that there's only modest amounts to salvage, and the trip back to down is dangerous. Carl points out that Champion would happily escort a party back to down, but Thaddius parries that Champion's record in such matters is not good. Still, if Carl would like to try to arrange such a party, Thaddius won't stop them.

Magda notices that one of the other people in the sod barn has an infection and high fever, and starts tending to him.

Carl goes looking for Champion and finds him doing sword forms, accompanied by Klemens Kiefer the Younger. Carl asks about a trip to Nachtburg, and of course they'll always help protect people from demons. Carl then goes back to town to see if he can find some volunteers. People are up for it but it will take a couple trips to get enough stuff to be useful. Magda's also interested, though none of the other PCs want any part of this. Carl goes looking for Egon, who suspects him of being a demon boy. Carl wants to talk about how Egon's prayers actually trapped a demon. He wants Egon to come with, so they can perform the same service on the road, and as they're discussing what's in it for Egon, Magda interrupts to volunteer. Once she's in, the Duchess tells Egon that he needs to step up, which leaves him no choice. He gathers his flock and gets ready.

Magda feels someone with her contamination moving closer, out to the west, on the moor.

Carl gets the party together and they all leave. Magda chats mostly with Egon, about his "reformist" views of religion. Carl focuses on keeping an eye out for threats. He figures speed is of the essence, since they have torches, but very limited fuel. Egon tries to help by praying, but he's doing it loudly, which is in no way helpful. Without warning, pincers erupt out of the ground, and grab a guy and his goat. The party scatters, but Champion rushes to the attack, while Carl goes to use his spear to break the claw's grasp and pull the guy free. He does free him, but ends up in fixed battle with the demon, and then the ground collapses under him, and he's down in a hole with the demon. Egon runs to light the nearest torch/pole to create a source of light. Some rando tries to use his torch to protect Magda. She stabs him repeatedly with her misericordia and drinks in the moment of his death. Champion screams a Damerrung battle prayer (it's a short prayer) and goes snicker-snack on the demon, sending fragmants of demon everywhere, but that doesn't save Carl or the goat.

Egon has called the crowd to him, and quite a few have shown up. He starts leading prayers, "prayers" to protect the group from the demons, and their prayers work. Carl tries to scramble out of the hole, but fails, and ends up in the thing's maw. Champion wades in and hurls Carl bodily out of the pit, but himself gets wrapped up in tentacles and tendrils. Carl hurls some sparkling water at the demon to see if that will help free Champion, but unfortunately, he throws the flask, which doesn't break. Klemens goes yelling that Champion's trapped. Magda, having hidden the body of her victim, looks around and realizes that Egon saw her coming back to the road. She tries to run to safety with his group and does so, but the presence of so much prayer burns her inside. She looks to Egon for guidance.

Egon starts moving the prayer circle toward Champion and Carl. Carl runs in and tries to take Champion with him into the bright place, and they come out in an hour at the stone barn. The prayer circle scoops up Klemens, and as as they get closer to the pit, the monster's tendrils bend, crinkle, and retract underground. Klemens screams about how Champion and Carl went into the pit, but when they get over there, the chompy bits whither away, and the pit seems to be empty. The goat is gone, though there are some loose torches at the bottom of the pit, which Magda grabs. Klemens is distraught, and Magda tries to get him to behave by pointing out that Champion was doing his duty, and now the squire needs to do his, which means moving quickly and quietly to the town. They make it into town, and when they get there, they find Carl and Champion there.

In the bright place, Champion and Carl have no trouble getting to Nachtburg. Carl says they have to go back, but Champion feels that his demon really, really doesn't want to. He mentions this to Carl, who tells him about Tendahl's theory that demons were from the other side but corrupted by the misalignment of the stones. They agree to claim that they were dragged under but then fought free, came up somewhere else in the woods, and made their own way to Nachtburg.