LogTorments of the Righteous-Jason-34

Game log for the 2020/01/05 session of AW: Torments of the Righteous, as taken by Jason

Work on the trench to pin the demon in place continues. Champion and Carl are both there, keeping an eye on things, as the trench is almost done. The demon's rate of travel has dropped off enormously, thanks to Egon. Egon has told the town that his flock "channelled the light" to stop the thing from getting closer to the village. Carl sees that the soil has developed some undulations, which suggest that the monster isn't very deep. He figures that since most towns don't seem to worry too much about underground defences, this one may be unique. They just need to keep it from escaping, dig it up, find the core, and burn it. Carl suspects the thing's core is probably some distance from the leading edge.

Champion asks Thaddius Margner to mobilize the village to find the demon's core and deal with it. Margner has no interest in such a project. He wants Champion to find the core. How lovely for the Damerrung. Champion tries to let Madga down easy when she volunteers, but she really wants to go out. Champion caves insofar as to say it's her decision, but she'll probably die. Margner doesn't want her to go at all.

Champion, Klemens Kiefer the Younger, and Carl head out onto the moor to see if they can find a demon.

Magda does to the sickhouse, where one of the villagers has been slowly declining toward death. She wants to be there when it happens.

Someone comes to Egon and tells him that Brother Revard's fever has almost taken him, and they'd like Egon to come and deliver last rites. Magda's hopes are dashed by his arrival - she can keep close by, but she won't be touching him when it happens. Egon sees her interest and invites her to help wash the body. She keeps her cool and does so without revealing that she yearns to feel poor Revard die. She dips her rag in well water, wipes his brow with it, puts a little mojo on it, and brings him back from the edge of death. He gets a big ol' stiffie, opens his eyes, and asks Magda why he's naked. She tells him he almost died. Egon explains that they were performing the last rites, and praises Magda's nursing skill. Then he tries to preach a sermon about this, and then Magda tries to help him out by adding her testimony. Her delivery is so weaksauce that Duchess Chloe chides her, and Lady Cordelia Entwiss gives her the evil eye.

Meanwhile, out on the moor, Carl opens his brain and goes looking for the demon core. In the light of the bright place, he can see a little more clearly, and leads the Damerrung to a shadowed spot on the far side of a hill, where something is moving in the hollow. They toss a spare torch into the hollow to see what happens, and the light reveals a person standing there, silently mouthing something. Then they see more than one. Carl reads the person, and feels that it wants them to come forward. They even make a beckoning gesture. Then, suddenly, he contorts himself and makes a rictus face, and Carl realizes that this person is in tremendous pain. When Carl shows no sign of coming closer, the man shows his open hands, points the ground in front of him, and beckons them closer. Carl sees that there's an area where the grass is all dead and slimy, but the man is pointing to a spot outside that range. As they get closer, it becomes clear that there are at least a half-dozen people there.

Carl and Champion agree that the people are a lure, and they can't leave them there to draw more travellers to the beast. They decide to circle the perimeter of the area, with Carl and Champion side by side and Klemens looking behind. Champion almost steps where he ought not, Carl shoves him to one side, and then Champion falls into a hole, seemingly a tunnel that the thing's movements left behind, six to eight feet deep. He begins bashing down the side of the tunnel to create a ramp, runs up it, and grabs Carl's hand before the gurgling gets too close. The tunnel was four feet wide, and the ground in it has a crunchy texture, as though it was compacted, or plastered, or something.

As he comes out, two or three people have come over to watch, though they're still on the contaminated ground. As this close range, the humans can see that they aren't standing at all. They're held up by gooey tendrils. Champion concludes that killing these people wouldn't hurt the monster and they should return. As they conclude that they're done there, one of the monsters says, "wait." The humans go to the top of the hill.

B-Burg is celebrating the miraculous recovery of Brother Revard, but Margner seems upset rather than delighted. There's a lot of work to be done, and people aren't doing it. He wants her to do something about it. She discusses the problem with Ingwald, and before she can explain that this isn't a head-breaking situation, her gang is off to break some party heads. The party was on the stairs to the tor, and there are two guys stationed near the damaged stone, at the bottom of those stairs. If the party/fight gets close to that stone, there will probably be deaths. Egon would not like that. He speaks to his flock and tells them to go quietly back to their lives. Fighting stops almost at once.

Inga goes back to Thaddeus and tells him what happened. He already heard Egon dismissing his followers. Thad's irate because Inga's approach played into Egon's hand. She pulls her knife and offers to kill Egon for him. No. He would prefer that not happen. She then reads him, and sees that he intends to stop giving her shit for the outcome of the situation. He wishes she'd put her knife away. On the other hand, now he's thinking about it as an option.

Magda and Egon talk. She points out that they don't have the resources to keep celebrating. Egon agrees but points out that this was a pretty amazing miracle. She suggests he should talk directly to Thaddius. Egon's open to that. She reiterates her desire to be off help to Egon's flock.

Back on the moor, one of the meat puppets manages to gurgle out, "help... truce." Carl snaps back that if it wants a truce, it needs to pull its tendrils back. One of the bodies jerkily nods its head and says, "wait." Champion's concerned that truce with a demon is the rankest heresy, but on the other hand, it's a way for the village to avoid mass casualties.

Back at the village, there's jubilation, because the tendril of despoiled grass that was nearing the trench is collapsing in on itself. The demon is retreating. Egon prays. Magda tries to read the demon from afar, and senses that it feels suspicion and hope. She can tell that it's seeing Champion, Carl, and Klemens throug its many eyes, and trying to communicate with them. She shares with it the thought that the big one is corruptible, but the small one isn't.

Hike's off at the Hangman's Tree, back with her gang. She's fetched herself a sword to replace her hammer, and she's got her armor back. The gang asks what's going on, and she points to the burning town of Schwarzhoele and tells them that's their latest work. The gang wants more detail, so she explains about Eisenbach defying the king and getting set straight. Franz is pretty pissed, as are some of the others, because they had family in Schwarzhoele. They want to go back and save their kin in town. She just gives them a blank stare and then tells them it's not an option. They need to do their job, which is to reopen the road to Nachtburg. Magnus asks if they'll be running stuff when they reopen the road to the well, and Hike says they will. She then addresses the refugees, and explains that Lord Eisenbach set himself against the King and Archbishop by trying to obstruct the path to Nachtburg, and that they will be reopening that road. Nachtburg, she informs them, is a refuge from the darkness, but that reopening the road will require them all to work together. The people refuse - they mostly don't feel up to the task of working, after their time on the road. A few offer to help, for religious reasons, but the vast majority have excuses. She prepares to lead her gang to Hollewald, while the refugees needs must stay put. It's just half a way on the road before they're walking the road through forest. One of the volunteers, Titus, is from Hollewald.

They arrive to discover that in Hollewald proper, they don't know about recent developments at Schwarzhoele. She tells her gang to keep their mouths shut so that prices don't increase. Shock! Concern! 2-Barter gets them the timber and oil they need. As they rebuild the road, Hike notices that some of the people who volunteered were from Nachtburg. She tells one of them, when they're more or less alone, that the excommunication was just business, but if they want to square up and settle something, she understands. They do not, in fact, wish to try to fight her.

The wood gets them about 2/3 of the way to Nachtburg. At that point, Hike remembers the palisade at Nachtburg, and realizes that it's quicker now to go forward than to go back for more supplies. She knows the ground well by now, and gets her team in and out in amazingly quick time. She finds a 10-foot deep hole through the ground in Nachtburg that smells terrible, and that someone else has been scavenging town. They won't have supplies to get from Nachtburg to the well. It takes them a few more days to reopen the road to Nachtburg, but they get it done.