15: The Ritual

I’ve just been shot, mum. Don’t worry, I’m alright, but it hurt, and I’m not very happy about it. This is how it happened. My last letter told you how we were all hiding in the warehouse expecting something very nefarious to happen. Well, something even more nefarious than that happened (Yes, it was even more nefarious than that – Willow).

So Franz Steinhaeger and two bodyguards came into the warehouse. They were each carrying a sack. The bodyguards left, and Steinhaeger went about reconstructing the circle and octogram we had first seen in the underground temple, which seems like a very long time ago, now.

He got out lots of pieces of copper and arranged them back into the circle, and then took some salt and made the shape of the eight-pointed star, which I think is called an octogram. Then he took out eight silver candlesticks and arranged them at each point of the star and lit them.

While he was doing this we were all watching Dreamy closely, and waiting for his signal. But he didn’t signal anything. I suppose he was waiting for the precise military moment to launch his attack. But then, I could see there was probably nothing wrong with making shapes out of salt and lighting candles. So really Steinhaeger had not done anything nefarious, nor anything to warrant a furious halfling assault, which is what I think Dreamy had in mind. But looking around at everyone else sat on top the crates, I felt like he wouldn’t be getting anything like that. But I resolved to be as furious as I could be in my assault should I be called upon to assault anyone furiously.

Dreamy made a few hand signals which we couldn’t understand. I think we all thought that they meant stay where you are and wait for some different signals, because that is what we did, but they could have meant anything. But anyway, that instigated some hand signals from the rest of us, and we played a sort of game of charades, which helped the time pass pleasantly as Franz Steinhaeger readied his potentially nefarious daemonic temple.

After about half an hour Blume heard a couple of carriages pull up outside. Blume has really good hearing, which is why we only talk about her behind her back in Mootish. And being halflings, we have good eyesight especially in the dark. And because of our love of food, we generally have a good sense of taste, too. So we have all the saucepans covered between us, when it comes to the senses. But sometimes it is harder to combine these, especially when we cannot talk, and can only communicate in charades.

Anyway, two more figures turned up, they must have arrived in the carriages. They were Johannes Teugen and another man we did not recognise. We had never seen Teugen so only knew him by what Willow had said about him, but she did a charade of a vampire, and so we soon understood who he was (It was a very good mime – Willow). They were both carrying parcels like the parcels we had seen being carried across the Adel Ring the night before.

Then about a quarter of an hour later two more figures turned up, and we didn’t recognise these either, but I think Blume thought one of them was one of the people she had tried to accost on the Adel Ring the night before. And they were carrying parcels, too. And so that made five people in total, and I signalled to make sure everyone knew that was five, but I think it was pretty obvious. I think we were all waiting for seven or nine to arrive as that was what the mad prophesier had been going on about on the docks. But I think Blume might have been waiting for four instead.

Then a bit later two more people arrived, and that was seven. So we looked to Dreamy, but he was still biding his time. By now it was probably past eleven and so midnight was approaching. It occurred to me that we would not be able to do anything to stop the nefarious, and we had purposely shut ourselves into the half of the warehouse away from the door, and away from the stairs. The downstairs windows were all barred, so we had effectively trapped ourselves. But it had seemed like a decent plan at the time. Now the warehouse was full of seven mysterious people, it felt like a less good plan.

And Blume could hear lots of people outside, sounding like they were guards surrounding the warehouse, so we were even more trapped than we thought.

Then four of the Ordo, including Teugen and his friend, took their parcels upstairs. I signalled to Dreamy that there were now only three, which I thought would be a good time to strike, but Dreamy was still unmoved. I think he was waiting for something bad to happen. Afterall you can’t just attack three people in a warehouse no matter how frightened you are, especially if you are the ones who are trespassing. It probably had something to do with the strict military rules of engagement.

I think we were all getting a bit twitchy by now, and Willow told Blume to shoot something, but she didn’t and then Dreamy mimed to Willow that she should sneak down and grab a candlestick, as a missing candle stick might mess everything up for them, or something. And so Willow was about to start her sneaking, when two more people came through the door and she had to duck back down again.

These two were carrying a large sack and we could see it was moving of its own accord. The two thuggish types dumped the sack out and left. And what they dumped out was a young woman who had her hands and feet bound together and she looked like she had been drugged. And so this was properly nefarious and surely Dreamy would signal something, now. Dreamy did nock an arrow, and so Blume pointed her blunderbuss, and Brandy grabbed a sling stone. And so I drew my pistol, even though it wasn’t real.

And then everyone came downstairs. They were dressed in long red robes with facemasks, so we couldn’t see who they were though we could still recognise Steinhaeger because of his belly. They put the bound woman in the middle of the circle and stood around it and began making some sort of weird rhythmic chant. I’m not sure what they were chanting but it sounded otherworldly.

Then one of the masked figures drew a long dagger and passed its blade through the flames of the candles and then he stood above the woman and raised his dagger. And that was the moment Dreamy shot his arrow. It was a great shot and went straight through the face mask of the dagger wielding Ordo and stuck there. The man staggered back and dropped the dagger, and we could see blood dripping from behind the mask.

Then the robed figure to the right of the dagger wielder shouted to his colleagues to avert their eyes, and he chanted a magical spell, and then he shot purple fire at Deamy. I don’t think this purple fire spell had any physical effect on Dreamy, but from what he said afterwards, it seemed to make him forget things about being a soldier. Then the knife wielder tore off his damaged mask and we could see it was Johannes Teugen and he fired a magic spell at Dreamy and this time it hurt him physically.

Then the first spell caster tore off his red robes, but seemed to tear off his own skin too, and erupting from within him came a purple and red and blue flickering daemonic monster, like the one we had seen in the sewers but even bigger. And this transformation was very scary indeed.

Surprisingly, a couple of the robed, let’s call them, cultists, looked even more frightened than we did, and a couple of others ran away in fright. Perhaps that is what he was concerned about when he told them to avert their eyes, and perhaps they were unwitting in all these nefarious activities. That would also explain why Magirius was so keen to tell Willow what he had found out about Teugen. Perhaps everyone was unwitting except Teugen and his daemon friend.

Willow was clearly upset about the appearance of the daemon, but she faced up to it well, and grabbed Blume’s holy water and threw it at the copper ring. I think she had the idea of using the power of Sigmar to disrupt the ritual, but also the water itself might dissolve the salt and affect the circle in a more practical way. But none of that mattered because she missed by miles. I thought that as she had beaten me at cornhole three times in a row, she would have been better than that.

Brandy was showing more fear than Willow, but he manged to get off a sling shot at the daemon thing. He hit its body squarely, but the creature seemed to surround the stone with fiery stuff and the stone disappeared.

Blume had been feeling very ill over the past few hours. I think it was because she had fallen in the sewers, and whatever she caught, and I don’t like to think about it, had finally caught up with her at exactly the wrong time. Despite this, she fired at Johannes Teugen. I think that this was because he was a vampire and it would have probably been a waste of silver ammunition to shoot the daemon. She managed to hit Teugen and he stepped back under the force of the blast.

I was a bit frightened, but I manged to steel myself, and I grabbed the stake I had sharpened specially for this meeting with Johannes Teugen. I ran across the tops of the crates, and then jumped down onto Teugen and stabbed the stake into his heart. Except I didn’t really. I did all the running and jumping and stuff really well, but I completely missed him with the stake. Stakes are a lot harder to fight with than you’d think, mum.

Then the daemon bounded into the crates where was Brandy was and attacked him. Brandy managed to stand his ground in the face of such a terrifying foe and the creature lashed at him with a multi-coloured flaming limb, but he managed to dodge the blow and the limb whistled past his head as brandy dived off the crates and onto the warehouse floor near the copper circle.

Then Dreamy had to face the daemon and to my surprised he dived down between two crates and hid. I’m not sure whether it was some sort of clever military manoeuvre or not. Willow said that as he was in the army he had seen a lot of things, so I wondered whether he was more aware of the seriousness of our situation. Perhaps us facing up to the daemonic creatures was simply foolish and Dreamy had seen enough to know how foolish it was.

Teugen then cast another spell at Brandy and that one definitely hurt. Willow jumped down from the crates and went to help the bound woman. As she did, she was careful to disturb as much of the salt octogram as she could. She asked the woman if she was alright, but I don’t think she got much sense out of her. She was obviously  frightened but had also been drugged and was staring wide-eyed into space. Willow cut her bonds with her trusty letter opener (Yes, the letter opener is very useful, especially for opening letters – Willow).

Brandy then slinged at the daemon. In general, I don’t think Brandy is very athletic, or very strong, but he has a knack of coming up with spectacular sling shots just when they are needed. And this time he launched his stone and it flew straight at the daemon and landed right between its eyes, if there were anywhere that could be said to be right between its eyes considering its shifting features. But strangely, the daemon seemed to possess an aura that slowed the stone then stopped it dead and made it fall harmlessly to the floor.

Meanwhile Blume was reloading her blunderbuss and making her way to the edge of the open area where she could get a decent shot at the daemon. I threw my stake away, as it was too hard to have a proper fight with it and drew my sword and attacked Teugen but he managed to block my attack with his dagger, which to be fair, was bigger than my sword.

Then the daemon attacked me from behind, and I think I was very lucky that I was able to dodge that blow. I’m not saying that everyone else was holding back, using their missile weapons to attack our enemies from a safe distance, leaving me to bear the brunt of the attacks from the two very dangerous opponents, but they were.

Teugen did fire his magic at Brandy, though, and hit him again, and I think that hurt quite a lot as he let out a little squeal of pain. I was thinking that if Teugen hit him one more time then that might be the end for Brandy. Which, I suppose was an easier way to go than paying off his debts to the Lowhavens.

Willow decided she couldn’t do any more for the woman and went to help Brandy. She gave him her healing draught, as Brandy had already given his away to Blume when she was beaten up by the watchman. I’m not sure that Willow has ever healed anyone properly before. Kissing people better doesn’t count (I think it does – Willow), but she attended Brandy’s wounds and even though they had been caused by strange magical fires she was able to treat them and make Brandy feel a lot better. But in the middle of the battle, she didn’t have time to get him to fill out a satisfaction survey. Then Willow gave Brandy a few words of encouragement while she was being careful to scuff up the octogram.

Then Dreamy emerged from behind the crates. Whatever he had been going through, he was over it now, and ready to face his daemons (see what I did there, mum?). And he let loose an arrow and hit the daemon precisely. But again, some sort of shimmering barrier appeared, and the arrow was magically deflected away. And Brandy slinged a stone and the same thing happened.

Blume was now overlooking the circle and ready to shoot her Blunderbuss at both Teugen and the daemon. However, I was between the two of them, and so I would be hit by the blast, too. She hesitated for a few moments, so I guess I am worth something to her after all, a split second’s consideration, before she decided to fire any way. I have often asked Blume for her blunderbuss, and she finally let me have it.

And it was a good shot, injuring all of us. But we had already seen the daemon shrug off countless wounds, and Teugen withstand a lot of punishment, so I think it’s fair to say I was injured the most out of the three of us. It will be interesting to see whether she apologises for this, mum. I suspect she won’t.

Undeterred I continued fighting Teugen but my weapon deflected off his, and it was obviously not as good as his, and I damaged it. The hilt came a bit loose. And behind me I could sense the daemon pause. But it was not finished. It was pulling magical energy from the air, and its magical flickering body seemed to grow from the power, and I sensed it was gathering up the ambient magical energies in order to power a spectacular spell. (To be honest, mum, I’m just making this up retrospectively in the light of what happened next. I don’t have a clue about all that magical nonsense.)

Willow, meanwhile, grabbed a jar of plums from one of the crates and placed it cunningly behind Teugen so that if he stepped backwards he might fall over it.

Dreamy shouted ‘grab the girl and run,’ because I think that in the note we found on Magirius’ desk it said the circle could be consecrated by human sacrifice, and it was pretty clear that she was due to be that sacrifice. Then he shot at Teugen, and although he hit him, the arrow whistled just past my ear, and so I was nearly hit by my supposed friends, again. And sure enough, the force from Dreamy’s arrow made Teugen step back, and he fell over the jar of plums.

Brandy grabbed the sacrifice woman and tried to drag her out of the circle, but he’s not the strongest halfling in the Mootland, and he only managed to drag her a few yards. And Blume reloaded her blunderbuss, which was bad news for me.

So, now that Teugen had slipped over the plums I was in a good position to finish him off. I could feel the daemon summoning power behind me, though, and so I was expecting a powerful spell to blast me at any moment, but concentrated on fighting Teugen, and I did get a good whack on him, but he survived it.

And then the daemon crackled with power and bright blue flames exploded from its hands, encompassing everyone nearby. I could see the magical fire lap all about me as I was consumed by the daemonic flames, and I know Brandy, Willow, and the human sacrifice woman all suffered the same.

Willow dropped to the ground and rolled around and managed to put her flames out. Then she ran from the warehouse. Outside, she saw a number of  docker types around the place, and shouted, ’Cultists, we tried to stop them!’ But it turns out that they weren’t local citizens who would rush to the aid of poor halflings in a fight with cultists, but they were local thugs hired by Teugen to keep us in. But when they saw the daemon erupting in flames, they thought better of that, and most of them legged it.

Bandy too, rolled around on the floor of the warehouse and managed to put his flames out. I didn’t think of rolling around, though. As soon as I saw I was covered in that magical blue fire, I ran straight for the Boegen and dived in. And that did the trick. The water wasn’t very pleasant, but it was a lot more pleasant than being consumed by daemonic fire, probably.

Then Blume fired her Blunderbuss again and hit both Teugen and the Daemon. Luckily, I was already swimming in the Boegen, or she would have killed me. Then she ran out of the warehouse, too. I think with all the demonic fire and everything, everyone forgot about the woman in the circle. She was too drugged up to be able to put the fire out herself, so I fear that she died.

And then we heard the bells of the temple of Sigmar begin to strike midnight. Johannes Teugen sank to his knees and a strange cloud of smoke billowed around him. He seemed to be begging some unseen entity for more time. I was swimming in the Boegen by now, remember, mum, so this is what I’ve managed to gather from the accounts of the others. To be honest it all sounds a bit melodramatic, and Blume told me some of this, so you will have to take it all with a pinch of salt.

Apparently, once the pink and blue smoke had formed around Teugen, a huge unblinking eye appeared and spoke to him. It said, ‘I claim your soul. It was always mine; but you were more useful when you believed you could save it. Now you are needed for other matters.’ And then he was consumed in magical fire and screamed in agony as he disappeared. I don’t really understand any of that, but good riddance to him, anyway. And, do you know what, mum? I don’t think he was a vampire, after all.

Then the daemon thing turned back into a man, and it grabbed a scroll from Teugen before he went. And the daemon-man started trying to read the scroll, like he was casting a spell. But I don’t think it could work without the circle, and the blood sacrifice, and all the cultists. And then the eye looked at the daemon-man and said, ‘There is no portal. You have failed. Return to me.’  And  he erupted into magical flames, too, and disappeared.

As you can imagine that shocked everyone who witnessed it, and I think I was lucky that I didn’t. And everyone else who was still around, the robed cultists and the thug bodyguards ran for it in terror (It wasn’t really that frightening. It was just a big eye – Willow).

But then the eye looked around the warehouse, and seemed to catch sight of Blume, and gave her a very hard stare indeed, if you can imagine a very hard stare from a very large and disembodied eye. To be honest, I think if I had still been there, I would have given her a very hard stare, too, for shooting me with her Blunderbuss. In any case, I wouldn’t like to be in Blume’s shoes. And then the bells stopped striking, and the eye disappeared, and it was all over.

As I was swimming to the bank, I saw a boat I recognised coming down the Boegen towards me, and I was able to hail Josef before he sailed over my head. Josef had been wondering about all the strange stuff going on, and the mysterious missing cargo from Magirius, and our talk of warehouses and sewer monsters, and had decided to look for us. That was fortunate timing, and after I had climbed aboard, we put in so that everyone else could get aboard, and then we headed off downstream, towards Altdorf, in the dead of night, and it was probably best that way. There was certainly a lot of questions that we might be asked in the morning, and I don’t think we had many good, or at least believable, answers.

Anyway, mum, that is how our stay in Boegenhafen ended, and I don’t mind if I never visit the place again. (It is a very strange town, indeed, Mrs. Chard – Willow). I will write again soon, if anything unusual happens, but I don’t imagine it will. We’ve certainly had our share of the strange and mysterious already, and I look forward to the rest of my stay in the Empire being relatively uninteresting and relaxing.