LogTorments of the Righteous-Jason-23

Game log for the 2019/09/08 session of AW: Torments of the Righteous, as taken by Jason

Carl, Tendahl, and Himmler have yet to escape Nachtburg. Carl tries to find someone they might discuss passage with, but there's nobody in charge anymore. Nachtburn has descended into anarchy. Tendahl's trying to figure out how the hell they're going to escape the town when Willem turns up and warns them the torches are gone. Tendahl tries to talk Willem into helping them out. Willem's not real into it, because "everything comes at a price," but Tendahl points out that if everything comes at a price, then he's going to be poorer at the end of the month either way. So, is he going to get poor hurting people, or being a hero? Yeah, so now he's Tendahl's protector, impulse: to intercept danger. He runs off to tell the villagers about the hidden caches of oil, and then Team Tendahl heads out to the moors.

They can't get out of town without some primitive screwheads trying to hijack the wagon and the goats. Willem has to kill Horst Schuman the Younger to persuade the looters that this isn't the right idea for them. Willem takes a musket round to the armor, but he'll be OK. They head into the moor. Tendahl asks whether the big group of refugees isn't going to get cornered and murdered, but Willem thinks they'll disperse. Willem also notes that Tendahl seems to be pretty bad at taking care of himself.

Hike's mob makes it to the Hangman's Tree and takes the turn for Schwatzhoele (after taking down the signs for Nachtburg). It's a day to the Rock, and another day to actually arrive in Schwarzhoele. They go to Der Flammenkamber. Egon's hanging out near the back. Not long after Hike arrives, she hears a girl screaming, "No, I WILL speak to the Archimandrix" after biting half-through Abner's hand. Abner's about to pummel Simone, but the Archimandrix interrupts and asks the girl what she'd do about it. The girl asks for a knife, Hike gives her a pepper mill instead, and in short order, lil' Simone has given Abner a fair excuse for a beatdown. Hike knows that normally Abner would kill someone for working him over like that, so she stops to teach him a brief lesson in discipline. Simone assures Hike that she doesn't have any important family there and is free to join the Torchbearers. Hike buys her a (cheap) drink.

They talk about what's going on in town. Inga says she doesn't know what's been going on in local politics, but Hike can see that she's lying. It's the same old Inga again! Also, when she lies, she looks over at Egon. Hike mutters that people should not get involved with locals.

Egon follows Inga into the kitchen. Marko doesn't stop him because the Torchbearers are busy getting him drunk. Egon tries to convince Inga to confide in him, so that he can help her out with the Lord. He reads her and concludes that to win her cooperation, he has to convince her that their interests are aligned. He notices that flour has become very expensive lately, so maybe a shipment of flour would be the ideal persuader. All she'd have to do in exchange would be to report back the rumors she overhears.

Egon asks around to see where the flour is, and finds that Lady Cordelia Entwiss has been stockpiling it. She's be happy to let him have some... but not if it's going to go to Inga. He explains that he needs it for his intrigues on behalf of Lord Eisenbach, but she very much resents those side activities and wants him to give them up. She seems to think he can just tell the Lord that he's out. He thinks it might be more complicated. She tells him to sack up, talk to Lord Eisenbach, and drop this foolishness. He tries to suggest that his intelligence might be useful to her, but she absolutely rejects any such notion. In fact, she won't even come across until he ruins Inga and puts her out of Entwiss' misery. He accepts and asks if she might not be able to provide some spoiled flour.

Back in the moor, it takes them several ours to get to where they're going, even with the wagon being rendered superlegera by fire. They begin setting up to study the standing stones. Also, Tendahl resets booby traps.

Carl didn't make the trip, because he took a detour through the bright place. The Schumans have left, the Mardners are opportunists, and the Mechners are hoping that a show of piety will convince the Church to undo the excommunication. Oh, and the actual town church burned down. Carl sneaks in to see what he can find in the ruins. He finds one book that's been badly singed around the edges, but the interior pages are more or less OK. He also finds that things in town are settling down, now that the valuables have been redistributed, and then he finds a hat to steal. He checks the mill and finds it deserted. He encounters Thaddius Margner, who can't believe Tendahl still intends to try to close the gate. He's sufficiently impressed by the idea that he donates a goat cheese to the cause. Carl takes it with thanks and goes to the stones.

He's trudging across the moor when he hears a giggling sound. Somehow he knows it's close by, even though it sounds far away. He runs. The giggling starts to come from in front of him. He thinks about turning back, but he's hours into the forest. He runs to the edge of a nearby ravine, thinking to hide there, and discovers that the ravine is now full of grey mangled babies. He tries taking off at right angles, but the baby-thing follows him. In the distance he sees a light, so he hustles toward it, pursued by babies.

Tendah's unpacking when he catches a bit of movement on the moor. He calls out and asks if anyone else sees it. Willem hops up on the wagon seat and says that it's Carl, and something is following him. Tendahl calls for lights.

Hike comes to a meeting with Archbishop Kreuzmann and Deacon Flaubert, and she's shocked to sense tension in the room because the Archbishop is not clearly in charge of the Deacon. She asks the Archbishop for funds to reprovision and recruit, and gets the Archbishop's assurance that her team are not required to escort him to the capital. Also, she's authorized to burn "this snakepit" to the ground, if needed. It quickly turns into a gig, where the Archbishop assigns them to work the town for a few days and see what develops. Hike reads the Deacon and thinks maybe he'd warm up to her if she did something to put him in the Lord's good graces. She then bows and leaves. That was weird.

Carl yells "baby things behind me! Baby things!" Tendahl looks in the bright place to see if he can spot something that might distract the demon, or something they could shelter behind. Tendahl can see the demon(s) making a sort of pincer movement. Clearly they're drawn to sound. Tendahl hastily improvises a noisemaker and tries to catapult it away, hoping it will go over the hill, roll down the other side, and make a lot of noise somewhere else. Something slips, a pile of crap topples over, and now the demon is oriented directly on the junkyard. Carl runs in, the team fight back to back, and make a stand against the baby-things. Willem fights with a torch, Himmler has some nasty powder he throws out there that melts babies, Carl uses a sharp piece of metal like it was an edged weapon, and Tendahl just sort of sucks at fighting, but vigorously. Only Lisel doesn't fight. By chance, Tendahl spots, in a pile of stuff that fell over during the fight, a hogshead of tar. He basically wades through babies to get to it, which is a nightmarish feeling he'll never forget, but then he's able to create a flaming weapon that drives the demons off. It's going to be out there, though.

After the fight, Carl grabs Barbarossa's shotgun and asks Tendahl to fix it. It will take a few hours, but then there's the question of ammo. Himmler can make them with silver, iron filings, and sulfur. There are silver coins in the well, so maybe with luck we could get something going there. Oh, and in the fight, Carl lost track of his book. Anyway, Tendahl knows enough that given a couple days to study, he thinks he can figure out how to close the well. He calls a team meeting and they decide that it's worth the effort to fix the shotgun and make some shells, because then they might be able to protect Tendahl for a couple days. Carl half-volunteers and half gets voluntold to go down the well and find some silver pennies. With all Tendahl's advice and experience, Carl actually has a pretty decent time, and comes back up with a fistful of (silver) dollars. Oh, and when he returns to the water from the cave, the silver pennies feel kind of bouyant. Tendahl uses the last of Himmler's sulfur to fashion ten or so Dammerung shotgun rounds.

Hike leaves her meeting and returns to Der Flammenkammer, where Inga's in residence. One of Flaubert's minions was hanging around earlier, but now he's gone. Inga and Hike go downstairs to talk privately, which requires Inga to evict Otto from the bed. Hike asks why she has an insane man in her basement. Inga responds that she met him in prison, and he's useful. Inga mentions to Hike that Egon is some sort of informer. Everyone in Schwarzhoele seems to be an informant for someone or other. Inga also tells Hike that Egon is boffing Lady Entwiss, and since they got caught Doing It in Inga's office, she's expecting trouble for her establishment. Hike's eyes are rolling so hard that they're on the verge of dislocating. She volunteers her Torchbearers to Inga as a sort of brute-squad-in-residence to control the vibe. When Hike presses her, Inga admits that she's informing for Lord Eisenbach, with Egon as go-between. Hike also tells Inga her that Nachtburg got excommunicated, and that she doesn't have any idea what happened to Carl or Tendahl. Inga says that she's sure Barbarossa is fine, since he always manages to land on his feet. They make a deal: Hike and crew stay free in exchange for help keeping the place under the control.

Just about then, Egon and a couple minions show up with sacks of flour. Inga can tell from Egon's demeanor that something is up. She asks where the flour came from, and he says it's from his patrons. Danziger interrupts to say that the flour is full of weevils. Egon cheerfully responds that it's the best flour he can get, because she's pissed in her own pool. Hike senses that Inga's upset and goes over to see if she can help. Egon blusters on a bit, but when Hike offers to toss him out, Egon quickly says that he'll leave. He and Inga don't seem to be on good terms. Hike decides to follow Egon and see where he goes next.

She soon realizes there's at least one other person following Egon. The other one is Otto, armed with a butcher's knife. Egon gets the feeling he's being watched. He runs for the nearest member of his flock's house. Egon executes a bit of misdirection, Otto goes running into a dark alley to follow him, and Hike pursues Otto. Otto realizes he's being chased and leads Hike back to the high street. She catches him just as he's forcing himself through the chained up gate. Otto bids her a good evening, but when Hike says they should talk, Otto asks if she means Mistress Inga harm. When Hike says she doesn't, Otto pulls the door open a little more and leads her into the tunnel. Otto explains that he thinks Egon is nasty-wicked. Hike straight asks who he is, and he explains that Inga rescued him from prison, and now he's entirely devoted to her and her alone. Hike tries to read him and thinks he's full of rage and excitement and hatred and shame - he's all over the place. His chatter tells her that he's worried that he might disappoint Mistress Inga, but then he says something about how someday, she'll see. Also, he claims that he works well with Mistress Inga, that they are a team. She'll see. Her path to illumination is long and complicated, whereas Egon's is short and sharp. Hike skips the small talk and says that Otto has to stop following Egon or she'll hurt him. Otto rejects Hike's authority, so she beats the crap out of him.

Inga goes into the basement for some random supplies and hears the racket. She goes into the tunnels and finds Hike beating the backtalk out of Otto. This is freaking her out a little because she never thought Otto was tough enough to give Hike that sort of resistance. She knew he was crazy, and know she knows he's too crazy to back down. He's got a broken nose and cracked ribs and he's not folding, even though he's already going to need a doctor to get through this. Now that Hike's stopped hurting him, Otto crawls toward Inga and wraps himself around her ankle. Inga gives him the coup. Hike did not see that one coming. She offers to dispose of the body, if Inga tells her where to take it. The proprietress tells her to take the body to the far end of the tunnel to high street, which is chained shut, and let it drain for a while. If they can figure out how to open it while still being able to re-lock it, they can pop out and dump the body in the tar pits.

Inga then goes looking for a locksmith to fix the aforementioned lock. Turns out that Master Elias Thornburg, a frequent customer, is a locksmith. She takes him into the tunnel out of town, and he's amazed that such a thing exists. She pours him an absinthe and he's happy to fix her locks without charge. Elias fiddles a bit, and pops the lock open. Then he explains that to really fit a key for it, he'd need to take it entirely apart, but he can try to measure the tumblers and then make something that might work. In the meantime, at best, he could try to fit a bar and bolt for the door. Elias will try to come back tomorrow to change out the lock, but he strongly recommends that she just wall up the tunnel. Oh, and now he knows her secrets, so poor Elias is thinking that maybe his lifespan's about to get shorter.