LogTorments of the Righteous-Jason-8

Game log for the 2019/02/10 session of AW: Torments of the Righteous, as taken by Jason

The group spends a couple nights in Nachtburg. There's an unused shed there, and the owners are willing to let Inga set up shop there. Barbarossa rns out of jingle and checks around to see if anyone has need of his particular services. Turns out that Jens Adler and Uta Adler, who own the shed she's using, have a use for him. They have this unused building because their eldest son lost the lottery a couple years back, and now the scope of their farming has been somewhat restricted.

They want Barbarossa to track down and deal with the witch who cursed their son. The witch is the miller's daughter, who lives with him outside of town, by the stream. If he'll destroy the daughter, they'll give him their most prized possession, a very fancy edition of the writings of St Sebastian. The Dammerung says he will investigate and see what he can find on the subject.

Barbarossa then goes to find Gerold Klemm and ask about the miller and his daugher. Klemm immediately guesses that the Adlers put him up to this, and says that they are troublemakers. Gerold thinks the Adler boy was a fool who tried to court a girl well above his station and got into trouble. Deacon Klemm sees no reason to suspect the integrity of the lottery. I mean, the old Deacon lost the lottery himself, which says something about the integrity of the thing under his supervision. Klemm does warn Barbarossa that the miller does not take kindly to people causing trouble with or for his daughter.

Barbarossa takes Tendahl with him as a witness and goes to the mill. It's a windmill, which is not what we expected. They find Carl there, looking around at this unusual sight. The Dammerung tells the miller, Bertholdt, that he's interested in local history, and he heard that the miller knew a lot. Bertholdt is fat, sweaty, and occupied with moving sacks from place to place. Barbarossa offers to help him with his work in exchange for proper conversation, and Tendahl offers to pitch in as well. It goes poorly. The miller tries to show them the controls, but cautions them never to touch anything. Barbarossa promptly bashes a couple levers while moving a sack, including the levers that engage the windmill and the one that locks the stone. That pretty well breaks the geartrain. Carl comes skittering down from upstairs as things fall apart. They are no longer welcome in the house of Berhtoldt.

That night, there's a town meeting at the chapel. They specifically request that Archimandrix Hike attend, so she leaves Ardner in charge. As expected, the miller is convening the meeting to complain about the idiot outsiders who wrecked his mill, which he further claims was a willful act of sabotage. Barbarossa reads the room and concludes that there's no one person who's straight up in charge of the village, but there's a group of major property holders and prominent folk who generally make the decisions. Tendahl offers to help fix the broken mechanism. Unfortunately, while Tendahl can work the broken cogs and such, it will also need a new drive shaft (which requires a big piece of wood) and a new millstone (which will need to be quarried).

Through the magic of player to player conversation, Tendahl points out that they could replace the drive shaft with a chain drive mechanism. The villagers reject it, but Tendahl walks them through it, getting weirdly (Weirdly) enthusiastic about it, and they express an interest in seeing a prototype. They're still going to need to send out a delegation along with the Torchbearers to go where they can procure a new millstone, probably Schwarzhoele.

Carl goes to poke around the mill, in the guise of a little girl. He hears a voice say, "I see you. Why are you here?" It turns out to belong to the miller's daugher, an extremely attractive 17-year-old girl. She asks his name, and he tells her he's Alice. She introduces herself as Sonja, and offers "Alice" some freshly baked bread, which Alice devours. Sonja correctly assesses that Alice is not from around here - but she doesn't just mean that Carl's not from town. He begins to realize that there's something really strange about this girl. She takes him into the kitchen, where she makes awkward jokes about being a witch and baking children in her oven. They discuss cinnammon, and she offers Alice a piece of a cinnamon bun, which she of course really enjoys. "It's made with real flour," Sonja says. She does not try to keep Alice from leaving after that.

Barbarossa finds that nobody will hire him to work manual labor, now that his reputation is shot. He keeps his eyes open for the miller's daughter, and a few days later, while running an errand for Gerold (bringing a leaky bucket to the cooper to be mended), he sees her at a small market in the town square. He goes over to introduce himself. He asks her straight up about her history with Jens Jr. She explains that he was sweet on her, but her father didn't approve, and eventually his number came up. She inserts one lie in all this, that she and Jens Jr had talked about running away together. He then asks her straight up if she's a witch. She tells him that she bewitched the lad with her boobies, and then flirts with him. He wakes up in the top part of the windmill, naked, and Sonja is there with him, also naked. He shrugs, decides that they can only kill him once, and goes for a second round with her. Afterward, he doesn't really remember that experience, either. This time he wakes up alone in the moors with a bloody sword in one hand and a lantern in the other, but at least he's dressed this time.

He hears a sort of hissing noise off to the side. It moves to the other side. He hustles back to town, or at least a lighted path.

The Archimandrix leads her squad back on to the path. The guy with the cart full of barter is slowing them down, which makes them grumpy. Most of the way to the tar swamps, there's a rocky outcrop, and Ardner says, "There are men in the trees." That's how it starts. Hike's priority is to protect the guy with the cart. The Torchbearers do a pretty good job of messing up the ambushers, but some lunatic stabs Hike in the leg with what appears to be a sharpened human femur. The attackers run off, but Ardner points out that they're less than a day from Schwarzhoele. That's awfully close to town for raiders to attack. They do make it OK, though.

The drover goes to talk to a guy about a millstone, which gives the Torchbearers a day to drink - after delivering the mail, of course.

At the inn, Hike runs into her friend Axel, who explains that the local Lord is cracking down on shirkers and tax evaders, which has driven some men into the woods. A few of them won't be coming back now. These developments have caused the Flammerkamber to get a lot less crowded. Hike's in there with her pants off, just barely modest with a cloth across her lap, cleaning out her bone-wound with "medicinal" alchohol, when a bunch of the Lord's men show up, dragging a bunch of guys with chains around their necks. The drover from Schwarzhoele is one of them, and Captain Schmitto is leading them. The Archimandrix notices that one guard in particular looks mean and eager for a fight. She pulls up her pants and turns to them. The drover begins calling out for her attention, and the surly guard bashes him square in the face.

The Archimandrix tells the Captain that the drover is with her. The Captain tells her that the man is accused of not paying his taxes. She explains that he's from Nachtburg and doesn't owe local taxes. The drover says, "That's what I said"! and the guard beats him again, at which point Hike looks him dead in the eye and says, "You hit him again, I hit you." Schmitto and she agree to discuss the taxes with the Lord after the inn is searched. Meanwhile, she tells her squad to be ready for whatever may happen.

There's yelling and commotion from one of the back rooms, and then a couple guards drag out the stable hand. The Archimandrix can tell that the Captain is feeling a lot of frustration, and indeed, he admits that things are not going well in this town.

They finally go to see Lord Eisenbach, who is accompanied by Flaubert. Hike tells them both that the man just arrived today and, being a citizen of Nachtburg, doesn't owe the tax. Flaubert claims that the man was once a citizen of Schwarzhoele, and that the rolls will prove as much. He also suggests that the name the drover gave, Klemens Kiefer, is probably not his real name, since he would of course us a false ID to avoid his debts. Klemens' belongings have, of course, been seized. The Archimandrix can see that there's nothing honest in this entire dealing- Flaubert just wants slaves and good stuff. She gets a sense that the only way this guy is going to back down is physical violence, so she needs to find a way to commit some and get away with it. Hike asks Schmitto to send for Ardner, claiming that he has the manifest. Ardner says, "Manifest?", and she winks and then punches him in the gut. Of course, she's Merciless, so even a bare hand blow is going to do some damage. She makes a production of talking about what a simpleton he is, and actually knocks Ardner out and breaks his nose. That lets Flabert know where shit stands. When Hike offers one-barter to expedite settlement of the man's debts, Flaubert jumps at the chance to save face, and also, his face. Eisenbach then directs the Deacon to go and make it so, a display of activity that seems to surprise Flaubert. As they all turn to go, Eisenbach asks for a moment of the Archimandrix's time, alone.

Eisenbach pours her some wine and compliments her on how well-suited she seems to be for her work. He then asks what she knows about Graf Kreuzmann, and implies that he has a very low opinion of the Kreuzmann family, excepting the Archbishop. Eisenbach thinks someone is taking advantage of instability in the capital and plunge them all into Godlessnes. He asks her to keep an eye out for signs of this Godlessness and let him know if she finds any. She then hits him up for road supplies, which he graciously grants.

Archimandrix Hike returns to the Flammenkamber, apologizes to Ardner, and collects Klemens, who looks a little the worst for wear.

Inga goes to visit the Adlers. They invite her to come by later for a meal. When she gets to their house, she finds them brutally murdered. Inga screams and runs for help.

Barbarossa hears screaming in the distance.

Inga sees a woman (also named Inga) and immediately approaches her, still screaming. Inga, trying to seem panicky, tells her what she saw. Inga takes her to Klaus Mechner, and the farmer's wife takes her in while Klaus and his kid go investigate.

Out in the moor, Barbarossa finds Carl eating peat. Barbarossa goes over to him and then starts cleaning his sword. Carl hears the hissing and says that they should go, and points them toward town. As they try to get to town, an arm reaches out of the peat and tries to grab the Dammerung's ankle, but he slashes it off and keeps going.

They head to the nearest potential safety and... find themselves in the Adler's house, full of dead bodies. A couple guys with torches arrive, scream, and run out. Barbarossa screams and goes with them, which they of course perceive as him chasing them. Carl decides that this is not OK and bails. Something moving fast from left to right grabs the younger of the guys who were at the Adler's and runs off with him. Barbarossa gives chase, and when he gets close enough, he opens fire with the shotgun. The demon drops the kid, but the kid has taken some shotgun pellets, so he's much the worse for wear. Barbarossa grabs him and heads back to town.

Back at the Mechner's, Klaus runs in screaming and bars the door behind him. Everyone else starts screaming too. Barbarossa arrives, finds the door barred, and kicks it in. He puts the kid down, tells everyone to fortify the position, and says, "My name's Barbarossa, I kill demons for a living." He's got enough charisma, somehow, for people to snap to. Mrs Mechner clears off the table so the Dammerung can treat the kid on it. He then plucks the shot out of the kid and treats him, ensuring that he'll live, though he lost an eye. Eventually some more townsfolk show up, and Klaus goes to unbar the door. Sure enough, it's the townsfolk.

Barbarossa explains about how he saved little Klaus from demons. The townsfolk start talking about another meeting. He's up for it, though he cleans up first. He also claims that the blood on him is from when he was treating Klaus. The townsfolk also tell Tendahl to come to the meeting.

The whole village comes to the chapel for the meeting. Inga tells her story. They then ask her how well she knows Barbarossa, which is, he was a periodic bar patron back when he was a Torchbearer, but they aren't close. They then ask Barbarossa what happened, and he concocts a fiction in which he was scouting, heard the hissing, fled toward the Adlers, ran into the Mechners at the Adlers, ran with them, rescued little Klaus, and ended up here. They don't really love that story. They think maybe he attracted the demons, angered them, whereas normally the lottery keeps them chill. Tendahl's attempt to vouch for him doesn't help, since Tendahl's voice reliably freaks people the hell out. Still, the townspeople accept that maybe something happened to the Adler's fire, and then the demons took them. Tomorrow, they'll go get the bodies and bury them properly. In the meantime, Barbarossa is suspected of being somehow tied into all this, but he's not accused of murder. The meeting agrees that Gerald should hold onto his weapons. Gerald binds the weapons together with ribbons and seals them, so everyone can rely on the Dammerung not to cause trouble. The only native who speaks in favor of him is Klaus Sr, who knows Barbarosa saved his son.