LogTorments of the Righteous-Jason-7

Game log for the 2019/01/20 session of AW: Torments of the Righteous, as taken by Jason

Barbarossa and Tendahl are returning to the monastary to get the Dammerung purified, while Hike and Carl head back to Eisenwald. Barbarossa begins to hear a whispering voice. See, Himmler's hand is on his sword, and the voice is telling that "they" mean Barbarossa harm, that there's no time to explain, and that the voice can help him. Barb hastens ahead to speak to Urwualt and ask if he hears the whispering too. Urwault stops and orders a more thorough search of yon possessed soldier, right no, no waiting. They ask Barbarossa to disarm, which he grudgingly does, and they then begin a thorough search of all his stuff. They find nothing, but the rest of the walk, they're much more suspicious of him. The whispering tells him to fight, and then changes his mind and tells him to flee.

Tendahl pokes his head into the bright place to see if the whispering leaves any traces there. He sees something leaking out of the urn that Eldecott carries, and immediately warns Urwualt. Eldecott immediately drops the bag, which seems to be filling up with something, and then a smoke monster comes rushing out.

Barbarossa rushes over to Schmidt to retrieve his weaponry. Schmidt doesn't give it up, so the fight apparently starts with Dammerung on Dammerung violence. Himmler draws a giant pistol and shoots at Barbarossa, over Urwualt's shouted "no!" Barbarossa done been shot right in the face, like Elvis would shoot a pimp. Tendahl tries to use his torch-reflector mechanism to deter the monster, and the monster blasts him off his feet and also right off the path. He tumbles through the snow for some distance before he comes to rest on a ledge, feeling very much the worse for wear.

Himmler joins Urwualt in stepping up to fight the monster, while Eldecott tries to light his own backpack on fire. Barbarossa fires his shotgun at the monster, and since the shot is special anti-demon stuff, he sees it kindle as it goes through the smoke, and the thing gives out a high-pitched shriek. It flees over the edge of the path and down the mountain. He hears the whispering again, and this time it's frantically saying, "Bring the key, come with me if you want to live." He ignores it and calls for people to help him save Tendahl. Himmler helps him by tossing down a rope, and telling Tendahl to tie himself off and let them pull him up. Since Tendahl is freshly beaten up and Barbarossa has that fresh head wound, the group has to try to double-time it up the hill.

Back at the monastary, Barbarossa is able to use their supplies to stabilize himself and Tendahl, but actually healing up properly is going to take longer.

As Hike returns to Eisenwald, Ardner tells her all about Inga's latest adventure with the local law. Hike just doesn't see what she would do about that just this very moment, and also, she's not part of her squad. She's nice, she's a homegirl, and she brews good absinthe, but that doesn't make her a Torchbearer. Hike sits down next to the fire with a drink and opens her brain to the bright place, looking for some notion of where Inga might be hiding. She hears the clucking of chickens, and a couple voices talking about going in quietly to make sure "the bitch" is dead. If she wants to save Inga, she might need to find herself some chickens, stopping only to tell Ardner she was going out.

She finds a cottage with a guy clearly on lookout duty. She takes a big swig of ale and asks the lookout where she can get some eggs. She makes like she's going to go get some eggs. They do a little pantomime dance with her trying to see the coop and the lookout trying to stop her. She distracts him and mauls him upside the head with her mug. She lights her torch and moves toward the coop, and these guys, whoever they are, decide to vacate. Hike taps the coop door with her hammer. Inga clucks. Hike says, "Are you a chicken now?" She offers Inga a hand up and they get out.

As they try to head for the gate, they're seen, so Hike tries to bluff it out. "Found her!" That fools people long enough for them to dodge away from the villagers, and then Hike makes Inga catch her up. They talk about plans, with Inga hoping to get the hell out, but Hike wanting to make sure she doesn't get too far from Tendahl. She decides to look for Carl in the bright place, and finds that he's right there, sleeping in the barn where they've been hiding, but they're not alone. Something is leaning over him, watching him sleep.

Carl wakes up with a shadow looming over him. It tells him, "Be not afraid." He scrambles away and falls out of the loft. Hike shoves Inga and Carl toward the door and tries to find the monster. She can't spot it. Hike extinguishes her torch and goes running for the Silt Pan. Once they arrive, Hike tells her crew it's time to leave. They are not happy with this short notice departure. Worse, they're drunk. Hermann decides he's had it with Hike's shit and refuses to go. He tells her to sit back down and gamble a while. This is making the team very uncomfortable. Hike tells him that he can stay there, but she's taking his teeth with her. She's angry and armored, and he's not, so the fight ends with her straddling Hermann turning his face into a mess. Sure enough, he doesn't have to leave. She leaves a barter with the innkeep to clean Hermann up and tell the constable what happened to him. She also tells Inga to put on Hermann's armor as a disguise.

The Torchbearers are on their way out when the constabulary arrives. Kurtz congratulates the Archimandrix on apprehending the fugitive. She replies that she's turning her over to religious justice, and when Hike explains that she'll be tried by the Archbishop in the capital, he doesn't fuss. The constabulary escort the Torchbearers to the gate, and Kurtz suggests that maybe something bad could happen to Inga on the way. Inga promptly expresses happiness to go to the capital, and Hike snaps that they're going to Nachtburg.

Back at the monastary, they begin purifying Barbarossa, and it goes very smoothly for him. He's got 99 problems but a demon ain't one. The order pays Tendahl 2-barter to fix all the locks that Barbarossa seems to have broken while burgling the holy relics. They head back down the mountain, Tendahl in the lead with his fancy torch setup, and are in Eisenwald in a day, just a day or so behind the Torchbearers. They get rooms for the tonight so they can actually get some rest.

The Torchbearers make camp at the Hangman's Tree. Not everyone in the gang is real pleased about how Hermann got it, but many of them also figure Hermann got what you get for backtalking the Archimandrix. They spend the next day collecting tithes from travellers. Inga also collects some wormwood on the way.

The following day, Barbarossa and Tendahl stop at the Hangman's Tree so that Barbie can try to find Bettina in the bright place. He doesn't see her, but he hears singing, and the melody is a Dammerung battle hymn. They finally catch up with the Archimandrix and crew the next day. The party continues on to Nachtburg.

Hike asks the gate guards if the town has a blacksmith, and when she finds that it does, tells Tendahl to come along while she looks it over. He could probably make a shop out of it, but it's not suited to his place right now. Hike also gives her crew some money and tells them not to make trouble.

Nachtburg has a new Deacon, the old one having died when his number came up in the lottery. It's Inga's ex Gerold Klemm. This time Inga decides to pay a barter to get a bath and stuff, so she can feel good just for a little bit. She then tries to lay low. She fails, because Gerold shows up. Suddenly the entire Torchbearer gang is staring at Inga, waiting to see how this turns out. Gerold sees this and insists on an introduction to Hike, and then gets very social getting to know the Torchbearers. They're happy to tell him everything that's happened in the outside world, in exchange for keeping them in food and drink. Gerold's also happy to hire Tendahl to build them a better winch for their well. Barbarossa finds that Bettina headed out into the wilderness and is presumed lost.

Inga tries to come back in to check on Carl, but he's not there. Gerold is. Escape failed. Carl is playing with the local kids, who have a cool nursery rhyme about falling into a dark pool. Carl has heard of the dark pool. This probably isn't good.

Barbarossa starts to inquire about whether Tendahl got a look at they Golden Key. Tendahl interrupts and tells him that he will not, under circumstances, make a new Golden Key and hand it off to Mr Does What The Demons Want Without Knowing It.

Inga tells Gerold the censored version of what she's been up to.

Barbarossa then draws Gerold aside, hands him a drink, and tells him about his search for Bettina. Gerold seems like a good guy, and actually, he's heard of this dark pool that Bettina's looking for. The old Deacon mentioned something about it in his diary. They go to find the deceased's diary and find the reference, but the pages are missing, torn out. What's left of the diary is heretical. A Deacon shouldn't even know some of this stuff. When Barbarossa asks, Gerold agrees to let him sleep in the parsonage and read the diaries. As the Dammerung reads, Carl comes out of the parsonage kitchen, munching on a snack. They talk about whether Carl has heard anything about Bettina's battle (he has not) and about this weird local nursery rhyme. Carl's not real enthused about searching for the dark pool, though.

The diary contains references to "That Which Screams," and some weird symbols, and a general vibe that the old Deacon had begun to seriously question Church dogma. He'd gotten very curious about what happened during a sacrifice. Also, there's a note that says Bettina went east looking for the dark pool, although he wasn't convinced she was going to find what she expected. East is just the moors, not anything settled or prepared with torches.