55: Hoffen Strasse

If you remember mum we were up in Guido’s room at the Templar’s Arms having a strategy and tactics meeting. I said it might be boring, and it was. But I said we should get a broken lock from somewhere and we could take it to the locksmith at the crossed keys to get it repaired. And Guido said it wasn’t a stupid idea, which is something. And then Guido and Blume had a talk about how reliable and grounded halflings were but I think they were just buttering us up so we would do what they said.

And we remembered that we had to deliver the parcel before the start of the carnival, which starts in a couple of days, but Guido said we didn’t need to deliver the parcel anyway as we already knew it was a trap. And he had a point, but I was still hoping they might pay us for the delivery before they trapped us.

Anyway, we agreed on a course of intelligence gathering and then we went down for dinner. Everyone said they were looking forward to the dinner because they had a halfling chef, but I’m a halfling chef, mum. And because we had the plan to pretend not to know each other we all had to sit on different tables, and then we sort of chatted across the room so that must have looked a bit strange, and I think if Captain Scharlach had any spies out they would have worked out that we were who were, already. But we kept up the ruse, anyway.

And Willow had a chat with Uli the landlord, and convinced him to let her go and visit Tiasmara, the halfling chef, while she was still at work (I said I would help wash up – Willow). And it turns out that Tiasmara was the daughter of Begonia Flarett, who is the cousin of Granny Bilberry, who you will know as the aunt of Cordia Ashleaf, mum. It’s a small world. And so Willow updated her on how Big Jim and Maple Stirrup were getting on (And I taught her how to make Scramborridge – Willow). Willow asked her about the crossed keys and Tiasmara said she didn’t know much about it but it wasn’t in a very nice area, and she lived in Kleinmoot which was the main halfling area of Middenheim.

Then Dreamy went up to a soldiers’ inn to see what he could find out about Captain Scharlach, and Guido and Blume went to bed. I tried to settle down in the common room, but it wasn’t very cosy, especially without Willow and Dreamy so I went back to Der Kutsche and slept in there, all on my own.

Dreamy found the Sword and Flail tavern in Nordtor and spoke to some local soldiers and they said that they had never heard of Scharlach, and the more people that said it, the more that made Dreamy convinced that he wasn’t a genuine captain, or even a real person.

He also asked about jobs and they told him there were lots going at the carnival, though he was a bit late for getting one of those. But they said that rich people were often looking for bodyguards at the carnival itself. And they said the rat catchers were always looking for people. And someone said that was because the rats carry them off.

I think Willow stayed up very late with Tiasmara and they smoked too much fuggleweed and she told her all about our mission to defeat the nefarious of Middenheim, and all about our adventures in Boegenhafen and Castle Wittgenstein and things like that. And Tiasmara said she would keep an ear out for any information that might help us.

And by the time she went to bed Blume was asleep, or pretending to be, so she woke Guido up and ended up sleeping in his room instead. And although she started curled up at the bottom of his bed, by morning she was sleeping right in the middle of it and Guido was on the floor.

In the morning Tiasmara made us all scramborridge and a waitress called Renata brought it round for us. I’m not sure how much Willow recommended for each person but she had made loads of it, and Guido and Blume didn’t even want any, which meant the three of us had to eat loads, which was too much, even for halflings.

We were still sitting on different tables but I think it was even more obvious we were together as we just chatted to each other, and in the end Dreamy went to sit next to Guido so he could tell him his doubts about Scharlach.

As this was the last day before the carnival we decided everything had to be done today so Dreamy went out to Hoffen Strasse so he could scout around and prepare the way for us

Guido went up to the Temple of Sigmar. He didn’t get to see to see High Capitular Werner Stolz, but he got to see Father Halfhauser. He showed Halfhauser his sword and told him about meeting witch hunter Kramer, and some of our business in Middenheim.

Halfhauser said that the Grand Theogonist himself had been to see High Capitular Stolz a few days before, which indicated how important he was, but also how serious the problem in Middenheim was. He said that the priest tax didn’t apply to Ulricans, probably, and so they must be behind a lot of the unrest, and even Ar-Ulric was involved.

He said the dwarf tax had been aimed at Sigmarites, too, and it was all a plot by the Ulricans to drive the Sigmarites out. And he said that the High Capitular would be going to Altdorf to talk to the Grand Theogonist after the carnival, and ‘put his case’ to him, whatever that meant. Guido said that there were much more dangerous enemies than the rival cults, however, and Halfhauser agreed. And then he deputised Guido into the order of the Silver Hammer and gave him a silver hammer pendant.

Meanwhile, Willow was helping Tiasmara with the breakfast dishes, and they were smoking more fuggleweed, and then Renata joined them, and then Uli came in and had some, too. Willow asked them about the crossed keys and they said that it had been a nest of witches (they did say nest, Mrs. Chard – Willow) but the witch hunters had cleared it out last week, and burned all the witches and all their families and everyone who knew them.

Then she went up to the Collegium Theologica to find a book about cults in Middenheim, but they wouldn’t let her in because she wasn’t a member, and she didn’t have an introduction from the Collegium, or the Guild of Legalists, or the Grand Guild of Wizards. Willow told them that she had a key from Verena which was meant to open doors to libraries, but had to admit that she didn’t have it on her (Guido had it – Willow) so that didn’t help.

Them Blume and I went up Hoffen Strasse to check out the crossed keys and pretend to buy a lock, but when we got there it was all boarded up. And the boards had been painted with Ulrican symbols and anti-Sigmarite slogans.

We waited there for a while not really knowing what to do and then we saw a young urchin coming towards us, and he seemed to recognise us and he asked us if we had a package for Captain Scharlach. We said we did so he said he would take us to him. But then we had to explain that we had left it in our room and so had to go back and get it, and said we would come back in an hour.

I asked him where Captain Scharlach was, and the urchin said Wolf Street. I thought it was very clever of me to get that information out of him but it turned out that he had just made that up to throw us off the scent. Anyway, we went back to the Templar’s and had another meeting. You think reading about all these meetings are boring, mum? Well, I had to actually go to them.

It turns out Dreamy had been watching us the whole time we had been on Hoffen Strasse, just to make sure we were safe. And so we decided that he should go to Wolf Street and stake that out, as well. But it didn’t take him long to work out that Wolf Street was completely made up.

So in the end we decided that Guido, Blume, and I would take the crate to the crossed keys and Dreamy and Willow would keep an eye on us from a distance. And when we got there it wasn’t long before the urchin turned up. But instead of being civil, Guido demanded he take us to Scharlach, and when he turned to lead us, Guido kicked him on the bum and he fell over.

Anyway, he ran off a bit and we followed, and Dreamy and Willow followed us. But we didn’t rush so every time the boy got a bit ahead of us, he had to stop and wait. And soon he turned into a narrow alleyway, and then waited for us at the end andas we got closer, he turned into another one. And I was feeling a bit nervous, and so we stopped to load our weapons. And Guido said it was an obvious trap.

Then we got to another turning and stopped and in the end Dreamy and Willow came over to see us. Guido held up a shilling for the urchin but when he came to get it, Guido slammed him against the wall and grabbed his neck. And for a few moments the urchin looked at Guido defiantly, but then he pissed himself and started crying.

Guido said he should tell him everything or he would slit his throat and so the urchin said there were eight of them waiting for us around the next corner. He said he thought they were a gang and they paid him five shillings to lead us there. He said he didn’t have our descriptions but he was told to watch out for anyone loitering around the locksmith. Willow gave the urchin her apron to cover up his wet trousers and then Guido tied him up.

Dreamy did a quick walk past of the alleyway but he couldn’t see anyone there but he said it was like an enclosed court with some steps at the end, surrounded by the backs of houses, and it would be a perfect place for an ambush. So we decided to just walk down there and confront the nefarious head-on.

And, mum, it felt really good to just walk down there like we weren’t afraid of anything, and defy them to confront us. This was much better than all the meetings and discussions about strategy, this was just the four (five – Willow) of us against the nefarious, mano a mano, as Guido says in Tilea.

So, as we walked down the alleyway, we heard a voice call out, ‘Kastelle Lieberung, come with us and repent before the Magister Magistri, and your companions can live.’ And we all looked at Blume.

I’ll tell you what happens in my next letter, mum. I’ve had to leave this at an exciting moment, to catch the post, so hopefully the girls aren’t too frightened.