LogTorments of the Righteous-Jason-33

Game log for the 2019/12/15 session of AW: Torments of the Righteous, as taken by Jason

The main group that travelled from Barbarossaburg to Nachtburg arrive, and find that Carl and Champion got there first. Carl looks like he's been chewed up and spit out, and there's no healer with them. Magda tries to sound Carl out as to how he wants to handle his problem, but when Carl says he wants to go alone, so tha nobody else gets hurt, it stirs up some commotion. Erich thinks it's great, but Magda shames him by reminding him that Carl is a child and also was pretty cool on the trip here. Carl doesn't want to hear it, because the mission comes first. He'll go visit the vet's old house by himself. Madga insists on going with.

Carl tries to elude here, but fails. Magda asks why he's so eager to die, and he explains that he's not, but he doesn't trust people. They arrive at the vet's old hut. Carl waits until she's looking for something useful in the hut, and then pops into the bright place. She comes out with some old rags to use as bandages, and he's gone, though he leaves their shared torch behind. Magda quickly looks into the bright place and sees Carl sitting there, looking vastly improved. She's quite surprised! In the bright place, the lesions on Magda's face are smoking.

Champion walks up and sees her looking. They discuss what might have happened. She wants to search for him, but Champion argues for mission focus and respecting his wishes. Egon walks up to them while they're settling the matter and gets to hear the whole story again. He, too, thinks Carl will be fine. They go back to looting. Everything not nailed down was already taken, so this time, the villages are tearing down anything valuable that was nailed together but might be moveable. In particular, that includes structurally useful pieces of wood from buildings or palisades. Magda can sense that other things that she her contamination are around, including the thing that attacked them on the way to town. They improvise some torches from roof thatching.

About an hour later, Carl comes back out of the bright place, goes to the hut, and wraps himself in whatever rags remain. He tells everyone he snuck off to find a place to nap, but he's feeling better now.

Egon takes the lead in bringing the flock back to B-burg. Brother Josiah is pushing the wheelbarrow, accompanied by a villager with a torch. At one point that guy stops for a moment, but Josiah continues on unaware. There's a snapping noise, the wheelbarrow tips over, and Josiah is gone. Champion and Magda both look for a sigh on what happened, but they see nothing, and due to their lack of torches, there's no time for a search. They have to press on. Eventually, they get to the radius where the light of the well provides some safety.

Once they arrive, people immediately go to work improving their shelters. Egon holds a service of thanksgiving, and also opens his brain to the bright place, wondering if there are other wells. He comes away with a sense that Champion knows where there's another well. Thaddius Margner welcomes the party back and thanks them for their hard work, though he's not pleased to have lost two more villagers. Magda tells him all about how Egon's prayers helped to drive the demon away. Thaddius is fascinated, and also tells Magda that she belongs in their community.

Margner dismisses Madga and then asks Inga what she thinks of Egon. She's not impressed and thinks he tends to follow his baser instincts. Margner worries about what might happen if word of his miraculous prayers spreads. Your faithful log suspects that ol' Thad wants to be the only guy around with a miracle.

Inga finds some solitude and looks in the bright place to find out what's really going on with Egon. She can sense that he's with his followers now and there are many baser instincts on display, but somehow, it's all reaching deeper than it should, like there's some resonance between what he's doing and the bright place. Inga returns to her post.

Back in Schwarzhoele, a small contingent from the eastern side will sneak into the tunnel that leads to Der Flammenkammer. They will then fight to the east gate and open it. Archimandrix Hike leads a group of volunteers, who are prepared to head to the tunnel opening without sound or light.

As they sneak through the swamp, she feels/hears a rumbling growl, and then the screaming starts. She orders her team to run and does so. There's squishy noises, and screaming, and then something grabs her. She lashes out with her hammer, and whatever it is drops her, but something else smashes her in the chest. She goes flying and her hammer goes flying in a different direction. She heads to their planned rally point, and a few other men trickle in, noisily, and mostly having dropped their weapons.

She's able to find the tunnel door, but it's secured with a padlock and chain. One of the men has a link spreader, so they make short work of that, and don't even make a lot of noise dealing with it. They're in the tunnels, but now it's Hike and three men against a city. They move stealthily into the tunnel.

Hike hears a noise, just before they arrive at the cellar. As she gets closer, it seems like it's the sound of sex. She pulls her knife and pokes her head in, and sees Linus going at it with Berta. She waves her troops forward while she sneaks on the amorous duo. When she's close enough, she says, "Don't scream."

Linus stops what he's doing, but Berta screams, then complains that the Archimandrix scared her. They tell her that only a few patrons are upstairs, and the place is mostly closed down. Hike tells Linus and Berta that they never saw her or her troops, and that they need to keep anyone upstairs from going downstairs or leaving. Linus volunteers to join Hike, and the team sneaks out through the kitchen, though Hike does pause to steal an extra knife.

They come out a block from the gate. The gatehouse is a fairly standard type, with two towers, a gate, and a portcullis. The portcullis is positioned directly behind the gate, so it acts as a sort of structural reinforcement. They'll have to get control of the one of the towers to un-bolt the gate and winch up the portcullis. She can see a couple lookouts on the towers, but she knows there will be more guys out there. She knows that there's no privy inside the towers, just an outhouse, so if she waits for someone to need a bio break, she might be able to nab them coming out, and sneak in through the unlocked door. Still, her team is probably facing twelve men.

She sneaks into the outhouse. The defenders are using buddy system, so two of them come out to use the facility, and find Hike there with a levelled crossbow. Ptwang! The first guy falls down. Hike drops the crossbow and rushes the second man with her knife. The second guy has a mace, and grazes her with the spike, but she slashes his throat. She pauses to kill the guy who took the crossbow bolt, and then she drags the bodies into the outhouse, then collects their weapons. Sadly their uniforms are considerably ruined, but she can grab a helmet and shield.

Hike then positions her team to ambush anyone who comes out the tower door, but the door's open, and the room empty. She can hear voices upstairs. Also, there's a winch in the room. The thing that controls the bolt is in the other tower, though, and it can only be reached by going over the top from this tower.

She femmes up her voice and calls up, "Hey, your friends and I are having some fun. Don't you want to have a good time too?" The she stages a tableau with Linus, in half a uniform, bent over her like they're in the middle of something. Someone peeks down, sees it, and shouts, "Sign me up!" The guards come down, cheering Linus on, and then the other three members of the team ambush them. Two of the four guards die before they can make a sound, but then it's a fight. Hike ends up with control of the gatehouse, and the surviving troops from the gatehouse scattered. Task Force Hike gets the portcullis up and gate open, the Kingsguard come through, and they set about burning the city down.

Hike leads her team out, and advises the people in Der Flammenkammer to hide in the tunnels. She pays for first aid from a Kingsguard doctor, them works around the perimeter of the town to report to Archbishop Kreuzmann. He tells her to make things ready for his arrival in Nachtburg, starting with reopening the road. She'll need timber from Hollewald, and he gives her 4-barter for supplies. Once the road to Nachbtburg is open, she's to build a road to the well (aka Barbarossaburg). He make overtake her team on the way, if the keep in Schwarzhoele falls soon, or the siege may last for weeks, but either way, she'll also meet refugees on the road. If she can intercept Damerrung on the road, he'd like her to, but she's authorized to let them pass if it's not practical to stop them. He also gives her his Holy Writ, authorizing her to draft anyone she meets on the road to help her work.

Days pass.

In B-burg, Champion's on patrol, accompanied by Carl and Klemens Kiefer the Younger, and they find a place where all the vegetation is dead and rotting. It's less a single spot and more a stripe. Carl looks in the bright place, and senses that something bad is under the ground. Champion figures the thing is trying to infiltrate the settlement underground, and it's already covered several hundred yards underground in the space of a day or so. Of course, that's just the last time Champion looked. Champion's thinking about a trench to cut it off and force it into the open; Carl recommends pouring shining water on it.

Egon approaches Margner and tells him that the next big project for the settlement should be a house of worship. Thad and Inga both think shoring up the defenses should take priority. Egon tries to draw Inga into his particular form of worship, and she gives it a try. They leave Thaddius alone long enough for her to have some sex, and she's just totally not into anything Egon's got going. Afterward, she tells him she still doesn't get it.

While Inga contemplates religion, Thaddius sends for Magda. He tells her that since she's been there for a while, and been accepted into the fold, he'd like her opinion about Brother Egon. She says that he's driven but unorthodox, and he agrees. He'd like someone he trusts to infiltrate the cult and let him know what's really going on with them, and let him know what they're doing, and whether it's heretical. It seems like he's concerned about Egon being a threat to his leadership. She's willing to look into it. She asks him what he thinks of The Champion, and Margner says that he's a loose cannon, powerful, but unfettered. She makes it sound like she's going to do him a huge favor, and he responds my making sure she has foot, shelter, and a place to sleep.

Champion and Klemens jog back to town, while Carl stays to keep an eye on the demon trail. He can actually see it moving, slowly. Champion tells Margner about the threat and he asks to be shown the threat at once. Inga appears just in time to come with. Champion describes what they found as they walk.

Inga is of course overjoyed to see Carl again. Champion suggests a work party to dig a preventative ditch, which might be filled or partially filled with shining water. Margner is willing to provide a work party, and they get to work.

Magda comes to find Egon, who's snuggled up with his flock in post-coital conversation about what the hell is wrong with Inga. She tells him she's come to thank him and the flock for their help against the demon. He says it's all because of their faith in the light, and the light does the work. She'd like to hear more, and to speak to the flock, which leads to a lot of small talk with Duchess Chloe. The Duchess is all about the fine interplay between virtue and sin, and claims that just as sex for reproduction is sanctified, sex in pursuit of the light must surely be holy. The Duchess offers to wash her feet, which starts out fine, but then turns into a bit of a fetish scene. Magda acts embarassed and asks if they could be alone, but the Duchess wants Egon around to ensure that it's all holy. If Magda isn't ready for that, then they can wait until she is.

When Egon emerges, he sees the work party digging the ditch. He goes to speak to Champion and asks about this new fieldwork, and Champion explains about the demon. Egon goes back to his flock and sets about praying into submission.

Inga talks to Thaddius and gets put in charge of the town guard.