47: The Contract

Hello mum, remember we were just a few hours away from Altdorf having spent a comfortable night at the Spirit of Luitpold inn. I don’t really like Altdorf but I think everyone else was looking forward to getting there (I wanted to visit Aunt Amanita – Willow). We needed to sell our brandy, of course, and Guido wanted to deliver all the books. I will not be sorry once all the books have gone and then there will be some room in Das Moot again.

Dreamy wondered about all the wanted posters that had been posted about him and Brandy, the last time we were there, that had forced him to lie low. Even though the posters depicted him with a crossbow he said he would leave his bow behind whenever he left the boat.

Guido gave Willow a pep talk about the temple of Myrmidia and how she would have to behave when she became an initiate. He told her she had a natural talent for healing and things like that but she had to complement that with proper learning and discipline. I think that is a bit halflingist, to be honest. Whenever we do anything good the bigs always seem to put it down to natural talent, as if we’re not capable of hard work and applying ourselves.

And Guido told her that she would have to call everyone sister or mother depending on their status, and she asked what she should call him, and he said she would have to call him father and Willow asked if she could call him dad, instead, but I don’t think he found that very funny (I thought that was funny – Willow). And then Willow said that if everyone was either your father or mother or brother or sister it would be just like being back home in the Mootland.

We got to Altdorf in the morning. It was just as untidy and smelly as when we’d last been there. And when we pulled into the wharf we noticed two richly dressed men outside a nearby warehouse paying a bit too much attention to us. I noticed it was a Blucher warehouse and I knew that the Bluchers was a very wealthy merchant house with lots of interests along the Reik, and I wondered why they might be interested in us. We were very careful to check whether they were wearing any purple, but they weren’t, so that would have put Blume’s mind at rest a bit, except she had overslept so wasn’t even on deck.

Once we had docked, Gustav was ready to go and he thanked us and told us that he was at our service, which could prove to be handy. He also said if we needed any help with the books then we should come and see him at the Imperial Counting House.

And the two men were still watching us. One of the men was young and short and the other was tall and older. And after a while the younger one started walking towards Das Moot. He greeted Willow who was sat on the deck in her coil of rope having some fuggleweed, and but he didn’t get too much of a response. I think she had overdone the weed. Not sure why she chose to do that just as we got to Altdorf, it could be, that like me, she just doesn’t really like the place, and needs something to relax her. To be fair the place is so big and scary it’s amazing that any halflings would want to live here at all (Aunt Amanita is big and scary, too, so that doesn’t count – WiIlow), but as we know there is a big community of them in one corner of the city.

Then the man spoke to us and asked where we had just come from and what we were carrying, and he seemed friendly enough, for a rich man. He asked what we were looking to buy once we sold the brandy and we said we didn’t know yet and we would see what was around, and this seemed to please him. He introduced himself as Mattias Blucher and said that if we were interested we should head up to his offices and talk to Max Wagner about a new cargo he might have for us. So that sounded promising, but it also sounded remarkably easy, so I think we were all a bit suspicious of him. But he did seem genuinely affable (I didn’t really like him – Willow). So we decided to take him up on his offer, even though Guido said it sounded too good to be true.

We needed Willow, of course, to talk to Wagner, but she was all fugged up, so I had the plan to dump her head in a bucket of water to bring her back down a bit, but she saw through my plan and managed to dodge out the way which, I suppose, proved that she was not that bad in the first place (I just need a certain amount in my system to take the edge off – Willow).

So Dreamy and Willow went to the Blucher offices and found Max Wagner behind a big pile of papers, and told him Matthias had sent them. Matthias was pleasant, too, and said they would buy our brandy, and also that they were short of transport, at the moment, and needed someone to take a large cargo of cathayan porcelain up to Marienburg. Willow said we would be interested depending on what we could get for the brandy, and so she did her sales talk and they tasted the brandy and Matthias agreed it was very good. And Willow said it tasted like a summer’s day with floral notes that took you back to a simpler time, and I think Matthias just agreed to that to shut her up (he didn’t even let me do my winter’s day notes – Willow).

Matthias offered us seven crowns and four shillings for each barrel, and Dreamy worked out that for all nine barrels this would come to sixty-four crowns and sixteen shillings. Remember mum, the guards at Castle Wittgenstein had taken one of the barrels. And the four crowns profit hardly seemed worth it for carting the barrels up and down the Reik for the past few weeks even though we knew we would probably not get a better offer anywhere else. Matthias could see that Dreamy was wavering and so offered him seventy crowns for the entire cargo, out of the blue. Again, mum, that felt a bit suspicious, but maybe they really were that desperate to get their cathay to Marienburg. Willow was reluctant to sell as she thought Matthias had already offered us seventy four crowns for the cargo (that would have been true if we’d still had ten barrels – Willow). Anyway mum, I wasn’t there, and I think the discussion may have got a bit heated, but to cut along story short, Dreamy agreed to the seventy crowns, which meant we made at least some money on the deal.

And Matthias offered us three hundred crowns to take the cathay to Marienburg. Three hundred crowns, mind. Dreamy agreed in principle provided his captain agreed (that’s me, mum). Matthias said that we would need to sign a contract and that he had a sample of the standard contract that we would be able to amend according to the specific deal. And so Willow took it back to the boat to read to us.

So when they got back to Das Moot Willow read us the contract and it seemed to go on rather a lot about our liabilities if any of the cargo were lost or damaged, and this seemed quite strict considering how fragile cathay is. And it was very boring and so I stopped listening (I got so bored I stopped reading – Willow). And in any case we didn’t need to sign the contract until the cargo arrived.

It did feel like, as Guido had said, it was too good to be true, but on the other hand, three hundred crowns. We had a discussion about all the places we could go, instead, and we said we didn’t want to go back to Boegenhafen, and we didn’t want to go back to Kemperbad, and we didn’t really like Altdorf, so apart from going back to the Mootland there weren’t that many places left. And I had always wanted to go to Marienburg, so I sailed Das Moot the short distance to the Blucher’s wharf. The deal was that the Bluchers would start loading the cargo in the morning and that would take the best part of the day and we would head off to Marienburg first thing the next day. That gave us a whole day in Altdorf, which was good because we had things to do.

Then Guido headed up to the temple-library of Verena, which is near the university. He got to see one of the sisters, and after explaining about the books demanded to see a more senior sister, and after telling her about them, insisted he see an even higher ranking priest. He was quite forceful with them, but I suppose he feels more at home among the clergy and knows how to navigate those corridors. And he insisted the books were taken today, as we needed the cargo space.

The mother superior asked about the source of the books, and so Guido told her it had been the collection of an evil wizard. I think that would be dangerous talk among other cults, but I think the Verenans have a more pragmatic approach to dangerous knowledge than, for example, the cult of Sigmar.

Then he went up to the counting house and as promised Gustav sent some of his men down to unload the books for us, and take them all up to the library. And Guido went up again to make sure they all got there safely, but I think he really went up there so that the mother superior would tell him how impressive he was. And he took Willow up with him, to show off to her, too (I remembered to call everyone mum – Willow). And Guido even gave her his unfinished attempt at cataloguing them all. So that was all our cargo sold and all the books sorted out and we had only been in town a few hours.

And when Guido asked if there was anything else he could do for the mother superior, she fetched an ornate key and gave it to him and said this key would unlock many doors in the libraries of Verena and he might find it useful in his fight against evil (It wasn’t a real key – Willow). And Guido told her it was a great honour.

And when Blume got up she just wanted to do shopping, so I gave her some money so she could buy me some powder and shot, and she went into town, I thought she might bump into more of those purple people in town, because this was where they first noticed her, but if she did, she didn’t tell us about it.

Then the people from Blucher turned up with the contract and we realised that if we lost or damaged the cargo then we would probably be in debt to them forever. And we thought about covering our losses with another cargo, and we asked for some money up front and they said it was standard with their regular hauliers to give 25% up front, and so we agreed to that, which meant we had about 150 crowns to go towards our own cargo, but then we realised the cathay would take up nearly all our space, anyway.

Then, what was a bit strange, mum, but I don’t think it’s true, at least I hope it’s not true, but Blume told me about her younger sister who she jealous of and she killed. Then I said she was kidding, and she said that she was kidding because if she wasn’t that might have driven her parents to go off to the spice islands and stop paying for her education. It was all a bit confusing, and I hope it was a joke. But its not much of a joke if it is one.

Blucher’s agent recommended the Swan’s Neck if we needed somewhere to stay for the night. It looked quite conformable if a bit expensive, but I decided to stay on the boat anyway, to make sure everything was alright there.

And Dreamy and Willow decided to go up to see Aunt Amanita. And they asked me if I wanted to go, and I said I had to stay and look after Das Moot, which I did, but also, I find Aunt Amanita a bit scary, so I was glad I didn’t have to go.

Guido decided he would stay in the temple, and then Blume got mad about all Guido’s priestess girlfriends, but I don’t think he has any priestess girlfriends, I think he just likes hanging out with holy people. But Blume was jealous, anyway. And Willow gave Guido some Valerian, which I think was so he could put it in Blume’s tea to stop her stressing about everything. And so that’s that, mum. We made a lot of money today and we’ll soon be off to Marienburg to make even more. I know it’s a long way, and it will be the furthest I’ve ever been from the Mootland, but don’t worry, mum, because I’m pretty sure nothing could possibly go wrong, now. Anyway, hopefully I’ll have time to write soon and tell you what Marienburg is like.