LogPurgatoria-Jason-6

Game log for the 2016/01/03 session of Apocalypse World: Purgatoria, as taken by Jason

Violetta appeals to Freitag and Nigel for aid. Freitag will happily comply but Nigel does not see where he has any obligation in this matter. Violetta talks Nigel into it, highlighting Daphne's lack of family. When Violetta describes the sounds she "heard" from Violetta's location, Freitag immediately realizes that it's the main water reclamation room. Meanwhile, Violetta asks Nigel to suit up, but Freitag objects that having an armored Knight stomping around will make their approach to obvious and their level of force somewhat excessive. She reluctantly agrees. They move out, Freitag on point.

They descend down to the level where it's all tunnels hewn out of rock, and then some. It's nasty down there. Eventually Freitag rounds a corner and sees someone, who immediately tries to run. Der Commissar quickdraws and wings whoever it is, but the man still flees. Meanwhile, the sound of a magnum in a small stone tunnel hurts everyone's ears, a lot. They follow the blood trail, round a corner, and encounter a raging torrent of fire. Not gunfire fire, combustion fire, and it turns out to be contagious. He throws himself down and begins rolling, and Nigel bats the fire out. While he's distracted, he glimpses three people hustle a women across the corridor. Violetta sees them too, recognizes one of them as the thug with the pompadour, and realizes that the fire must be a booby trap or part of an ambush. That suggests that chasing after these people will get them hurt, but maybe they need to figure out where they're going and get in front of them. Of course, if the kidnappers get too scared, they might kill the hostage.

Freitag, cured of that nasty burning sensation, guesses where the criminals must be heading and leads them to a T-junction that should serve as a good ambush position. It works nicely! The criminals run into a storm of revolver and magnum fire. One attacker manages to duck and hit the floor. One tries the human shield gambit. Freitag apparently believes in shooting the hostage, which means that Daphne's attacker is shot but so is Daphne. The thug who hit the deck pulls a compact crossbow. Nigel offers him the choice of dropping his weapon or perishing, and the thug chooses to live. Violetta rushes to Daphne's side and realizes that she's hurt bad. She's going to need immediate medical attention.

Freitag tries to wake up the one who looks the most special by poking him in the wound, but all he gets is some corpselike gurgling. Freitag perforce turns to the one who tossed away his crossbow, explains that they will be playing good cop/bad cop, and that Nigel is the good cop. He then turns the floor over to Nigel, who finds out that the man is called Ainsworth, and he grabbed the girl because the now-deceased criminal Trombley hired him to. Ainsworth tries to get a little cute with Nigel, who promptly turns the matter over to Freitag. The Commissar explains how he likes to torture people, but Ainsworth keeps repeating that he had no personal stake in this and was just working for a living.

Nigel tries to commune with the dead and promptly meets up with Trombley's ghost, who is yelling threats about how he'll mangle Ainsworth's ghost in the next life if Ainsworth talks. Nigel tries to pump him for information, but as Trombley points out, he doesn't really need anything. After all, he's dead. Nigel offers to kill Ainsworth (so Trombley can punish him for talking to us) if Trombley talks to us. That works! Trombley says that Cormac Abernathy hired them to put the fear of God into Violetta, possibly because he doesn't trust her motives, and wanted to scare her into his arms. He hired Ainsworth and the third thug for muscle.

Nigel relates this tale to Freitag, with attribution.

Violetta uses her sewing kit to patch up Daphne, but Daphne twitches at an inopportune moment and Violetta nicks an artery. Daphne bleeds out within the minute. Enraged, Violetta hurls herself at Ainsworth and begins stabbing him with her scissors. He appeals to Nigel for aid. Freitag offers a different sort of aid and, um, ends Ainsworth's pain. They carry Daphne's body back up to the surface.

Arriving up top, they meet up with three members of the Constabulary. Freitag relates the tale of what happened this day. The Constables will see to that, but all the party must come with them at once. A Tribunal must be convened. Freitag tries to persuade the Constables to let the others go, since Freitag takes responsibility for the matter. Since he's the Commissar, they accept that.

Once the authorities are out of the picture, Nigel makes it clear to Violetta that Cormac can't be trusted. She immediately decides that she wants to be alone.

Falley's applying makup to Margrave Heinrich when Nigel walks in. Nigel reports the facts of the story but does not mention Cormac's role. The Margrave doesn't understand why Freitag didn't rouse the Constabulary. Now the Bishop will sit in judgement on the Commissar, and that will only complicate things. Falley can tell that the Margrave is disappointed and annoyed, that he will let justice run its course, and that there's really nothing Falley can to improve his prospects for future employment.

Back at the workshop, Constance asks if Violetta wants Daphne back. Well, of course she does, but that's impossible. "That's what they want you to believe," Constance tells her. She's an interesting woman, that Constance. Violetta tries to use her followers to open a communion with the dead and to tell them all that Freitag was only acting defensively at her request, but Daphne blurts out that Freitag shot her. All the followers hear it. Since they're all gossips, all the aerolith will know that Freitag killed Daphne. Also, she tells them that it was Cormac Abernathy who did the deed, and why, and now the apprentice blame her for letting her love life get one of them killed.

People see the Margrave's makeup and are impressed. Hugo must have his services. Heinrich must give him a gift - a silver signet ring bearing his House arms that acts as a general pass within the Citadel. It's a notch short of being an offical member of the court. Lady Chatworth admires Falley's patron.

Cormac Abernathy comes to the shop. He barely has a chance to announce himself when Beauregard and Constance block his path and tell him he's not welcome here. Violetta realizes she's not in control of them right now, and that if their anger leads them to start trouble with Lord Abernathy, then it's all going to go poorly. She asks him to come outside with her, he offers his carriage, but she declines and asks Constance for advice. She tells Violetta that she doesn't get a choice and that Cormac has to go. He slaps her and knocks her to the floor. At that point, Violetta tells Cormac that he's not welcome. To her, he bows, and then departs. She tells all her apprentices that she regards Cormac as the true source of all this misfortune, that he is not welcome in her shop, and that he's dead to her.

The Tribunal will commence in two days. Freitag is held pending the hearing. He tries to be patient. The Archbishop summons Falley. Archbishop Erno von Keutschach wants to look extra special for when he sentences Freitag to death. Falley assures him it can be done but he's going to want double pay for short notice, and someone from the Archbishop's staff to brief him on his tastes. They send Bishop Zwiebel. Falley hynotizes him and gets three hold, one of which Zwiebel spends by telling him that the Archbishop thinks the Margrave acts too independently, that the conflict with Aquitaine could escalate into something disastrous (as with the Ziegfried, in which an entire Aerolith went down), and that Archbishop would love to stick it to someone who has instigated so much violence. Falley promises to make up the Archbishop to emphasize his role as an instrument of divine justice. This was not common knowledge.

Falley goes to Violetta's workshop. It's super-busy but Falley notices that Constance's dummy is wearing shoulder holsters, and Marianna is working on a flag. It's not a flag he recognizes, which means it's not any of the locally approved flags. It seems to be black and red. He gets a definite sense that Constance is in control there. Beauregard ushers him in to see Violetta. Violetta tels him about Cormac's role in all this. Falley is sure she's lying. Also that she's toxic and possibly explosive and not someone with whom he can afford to be close friends.

Freitag's out in the yard exercising one day and notices that a) four nasty-looking fellows seem to be circling around him, and b) the guards seem to have all taken their break at the same time. One of the four potential attackers has a knife, and another seems to have made a flail out of a set of manacles. Freitag produces a shank from an unknown location and proceeds to give them a brief lesson in how real violence works. He even throws his knife so that the one who's running away can't escape. The guards show up when the fight is over and decide to subdue Freitag with their truncheons, even though he's trying to surrender. He makes mental note of their identities. Luckily, the prison code holds, and nobody saw anything. One of the other inmates even claims the attackers fought amongst themselves and Freitag never did anything.

Falley visits Nigel and tells him about the Archbishop's ideological designs. Nigel confirms Violetta's reports of Cormac's evil ways. Falley begins to feel panic setting in.

Time passes and we're at the Tribunal. The Archbishop's makeup looks fantastic. Freitag must have Falley's services. The Archbishop must give him a gift. Zwiebel loves him. Anyway... this is not an American courtroom. The Archbishop seeks the truth and makes his decision. There's an Inquisitor-Advocate who asks the questions and acts as both prosecutor and defense lawyer. They bring out Violetta to testify first to hear her story, since this all started with her. She tells the story, leaving out any reference to Lord Abernathy, but accepting that someone might be trying to do her harm. The I-A asks how she lost her arm, and she insists that it's not relevant. The I-A then calls Greeves to testify about how she was poisoned, which makes it obvious that someone out there does want to harm her. She says the poison wasn't addressed to her, but refuses to explai what she means by that. The I-A looks to the Archbishop for approval, gets a minute node, and binds Violetta over to the Inquisition.

They then ask for Nigel's testimony. He relates the whole story, including the fact that he fired first, and that the criminal suspects never fired a shot. Nigel can also testify that the Commissar never discussed this issue with the Margrave. They ask Nigel to speak in his own words, and he tells them that in his opinion, the crims got what they deserved, and none of their pursuers acted improperly. He thinks the matter ought to be dropped.

They bring forth der Commissar. He mostly tells the same tale but says that he admires Violetta as a voice for change, which causes a bit of a stir. The I-A begins painting a picture of Freitag as a bloodthirsty maniac who goes around fighting and killing without any oversight. To this end, they ask about the downing of Aerolith Siegfried, and what orders, if any, he had to destroy the reactor, and thus destroy, an entire Aerolith. Freitag explains that he was a junior officer and had orders from his unit's CO, but does not know what orders that CO might have had. They ask about the prison assault, and whether Freitag knew that one of his assailants was the brother of one of Violetta's employees. He did not know that, and didn't exactly have time to ask. He insists that while his actions in the tunnels were precipitous, and he feels the weight of Daphne's death, he did not act wrongly. No further questions. Decision will be delivered at sundown.

They call Falley in to touch up the Archbisop's makeup. They act as though he's not there, of course, and the Archbishop expresses frustration that the hearing did not show that Freitag was a mad dog, nor that the Margrave was the sort of maniac who orders entire aeroliths destroyed. The Archbishop decides to settle for stripping Freitag of rank and position. "Let's let the Margrave's dog off his chain and see what he does." The Inquisitor-Advocate asks whether to pursue Violetta's questioning, and the Archbishop says that while some interests would like that, they need to take their win. They'll just question her soundly to see what information they can get for future use. Falley ventures a joke about the risks posed by one-armed seamstresses, which makes the Archbishop laugh, but causes the Inquisitor-Advocate actually look at him for a moment. Falley makes a mental note to do something to impress that guy later. The Archbishop still wants Violetta questioned, but even more, he wants her watched, to see what she knows.

They announce sentence: Freitag is unfit and shall be stripped of rank and title. Freitag must stand at attention while Hugo cuts the insignia from his uniform.