57: Childbless

Hi mum. Remember we had the big fight with the cultists after they ambushed us in the alleyway, and I fell unconscious because of Willow’s moonflower. So, everything that happened next I only learned second hand because I was asleep.

Willow came to check on me and although I had been burned a bit by the magus’ strange fire, it was only superficial. And she was able to help Blume, as well. And she had already given Dreamy a healing draught.

She went to help Guido, too, but Guido told her to go away (he hurt my feelings – Willow) as I think he was frustrated that he had allowed his anger to get the better of him, killing the magus when he wanted to take her alive. Guido checked out the body of the magus, and saw that she was kind of melting into the ground before his eyes. I’m glad I didn’t see that, I had looked into her magic fire and that was bad enough.

Willow then went to check on the cultist who was still alive, and under the influence of the moonflower, and he was healthy enough but she found a small tattoo of a purple hand on his inner thigh. (You have to say her medical examinations can be quite thorough.) And she tied his hands with part of the barbed net.

We did not find much of use on the cultists, except Blume grabbed three of the crossbows to sell later. Blume said if they did not have anything on them then they probably lived nearby, but Dreamy suggested that as they were part of a secret cult, they probably didn’t want to be identified by their possessions.

Dreamy and Blume took me back to the Templar’s Arms because they thought I would probably be hungry when I woke up. And Willow and Guido tried to take the cultist to the temple of Sigmar. But when they grabbed him and tried to pull him, his body just stretched out like he had no bones, or something. And in the end they ended up putting him in a sack to carry him there. And Guido told Willow to try to avoid touching him too much or they might get the taint on them.

We wondered about reporting all this to the watch as they were bound to be interested but Dreamy said we should just leave the bodies in the street as the Middenheim watch didn’t seem very keen on outsiders or Sigmarites, and we didn’t want to get mixed up with mutants. And after Boegenhafen, I think we knew that we couldn’t always trust the authorities. So we just walked away.

Making their way to the temple of Sigmar in Freiburg Guido was self-importantly barging people out of the way and announcing that he had captured a witch in the name of Sigmar and the Order of the Silver Hammer. I think everyone was in a pretty good mood because it was nearly carnival, so they didn’t mind too much, but Guido realised that doing everything in the name of Sigmar was a bit annoying for them, so he dropped that bit.

At the temple Guido spoke to Father Halfhauser who agreed that Guido could use the temple as his base. Halfhauser said that there was an underground room at the temple suitable for questioning the cultist and joked that the rack would not be much use on him. And Guido insisted that Willow came with him to question the cultist so that she could learn things about how hard life really is. Willow said that she had a herb that could help with the interrogation and it wouldn’t hurt anyone. Guido doubted her methods would not be as effective as his but he agreed she could try that first.

Willow said that getting rid of mutants was probably the right thing to do as it is like an illness with no cure and it might be contagious or the physical manifestation of a bad soul but she said she saw no reason to make them suffer.

So they took him down to the dungeon and there was a table with a drain in it and some manacles at one end, and they put the manacles on the cultist especially tight because he was so stretchy and they poured water on him to wake him up.

Willow had the plan to give the cultist her childbless, which I think is a secret herb that makes things a lot more believable, but I’m not sure why they call it childbless (nor am I – Willow). Willow explained to the cultist where he was and tried to get him to realise that talking to her would make it much easier for everyone, especially as Guido was sharpening his knives in the background, but he spat in her face (that wasn’t very pleasant – Willow). So she stuffed the childbless into his mouth and he had no choice but to eat it.

The cultist seemed to be quite familiar with torture and said that Guido and Willow weren’t very good at it, and he described the five levels of torture to them and said they were doing it wrong. But after the childbless began to kick in he was a lot more inclined to believe what they were saying, and I think by the end he believed any old rubbish that Willow was saying to him.

He said that he had always been stretchy for as long as he could remember and he didn’t know that the other cultists had special abilities, except the magus who had fingerhair. He said that their only plan was to take Kastelle Lieberung to the Magister Migistri. He said that they were in charge but he had no idea who they were (Blume later told us that Magister Magistri meant the teacher of teachers, but that didn’t help us much) as the cult was arranged in such a way that no one knew anyone except their immediate cell-mates and their cell leader.

Willow asked if he had ever sacrificed people and he said that he had but he hadn’t witnessed any benefits from it as the results were intangible.

He said that he thought the cult had a presence in practically every city in the Empire but he couldn’t be sure as he had already explained their cult structure. And he said that cult members could recognise each other through a series of secret signs (I think Blume had already witnessed a number of these signs). And he said that all the members had tattoos.

Willow also asked whether he knew anything about the von Wittgensteins, and moon rocks, and Isaac Grask and he said he didn’t. Then he said something about being friends with Graf Boris Todbringer who he met when he was introduced to him by the Grand Theogonist, which sounded ominous.

Willow said she was sorry about his condition but the cultist didn’t seem very sorry about it. I wonder, mum, whether I would like to be stretchy. It’s an interesting question. It would be great for scrumping.

Then Willow had to say goodbye to him (it was a bit sad – Willow). I think she knew what Guido was going to do next. So she shed a tear and said that she hoped the gods were nice to his soul. And the cultist said Istak Graksk Tzeentch. So this was interesting. I think I had thought that Isaac Graksk was a person, but now it sounded like it might be a greeting, or something. But I think saying it definitely did work to help me out with things, when you needed a bit of luck, so I think I will start saying Istak Graksk Tzeentch now whenever I need a helping hand. If Isaac Graksk worked, just think how much better Istak Graksk Tzeentch will work, though it is quite hard to say.

Anyway, Willow didn’t leave then because Guido told her to stay. I think he wanted to show her how his methods were better than hers for getting the truth out of cultists. Guido told the cultist that he was the Magister Magistri of Estalia (remember mum he was still on the childbless) but the cultist wanted to do the secret signs, to prove it, but Guido didn’t want to let his hands free, just in case, so they agreed not to bother with the secret signs.

And once Guido had got his trust he asked the cultist what all that about the Graf and the Grand Theogonist was all about. But the cultist just admitted it was nonsense he had made up to throw us off the scent. The cultist told Guido what he could but didn’t seem to know much. He said that there was a big up-tick in activity recently but he didn’t know why.

Then when it looked like the cultist had nothing more to say, Guido said that Willow could go now, and she said goodbye, and he said Istak Graksk Tzeentch again. And I don’t know exactly what happened after that because Guido refused to talk about it. I suppose we will never know. But he left Halfhauser to deal with the body. And Guido and Willow walked in silence back to the Templar’s Arms.

Meanwhile Dreamy had gone to buy some armour. He decided that he may as well get some new stuff as get his old jack repaired. And in the shop the only one they had in his size had a white wolf painted on it, but Dreamy said that that would do.

Blume went to a shop to sell the three crossbows and she was able to get two crowns each for them, which sounds like a good price. As part of the deal, though, she said that she produces a pamphlet to influence the trendy lady fighter, or something, telling them how to be ferocious and fashionable. This was news to me, mum, but apparently Blume has decided to leave the world of engineering behind (she never did much of that anyway, to be fair) and to become a pamphleteer. So she promised to advertise Richard’s weapons shop in her next (first) issue. If she does get round to it, which I doubt, mum, then I will enclose one of her pamphlets with my letter. And she did go straight to a printer and order a hundred sheets of paper.

When Dreamy got back to the Templar’s he managed to wake me up, but I was having a bit of a nightmare about the eyes in the flames and the tongues and snakes and some dogs and things, and I thought he was a dog and so I fought him off. And after a bit he managed to calm me down, but even though I had been asleep half the day I didn’t feel very rested at all.

Then Willow got back and went straight into the kitchen to tell Tiasmara (she’s my best friend – Willow) about what had happened and I think she made her some espresso mootinis. And Uli invited Dreamy to play cards that evening with some of his army mates.

At some point we had a chance to talk together and catch up on everything that had been happening, which is how I know all this because I was asleep for most of it. And Blume said that she was happy that the purple issue was all behind us and that she would be able to walk down the street without looking over her shoulder again. And we all agreed with her. But the more we thought about it, the more we realised that that was probably not the case, and that there might be any number of cells of purple people wandering around just waiting to make signs at her again, and then kidnap her for all the money she didn’t have.

Then Blume bought a cheap bottle of wine and went up to write her pamphlet. Apparently she got very drunk and couldn’t remember anything about it, but when she woke up in the morning, even though she felt a bit ill, she had created a masterpiece. That’s what she said, anyway.

I think Willow got drunk on mootinis and then went to bed. Dreamy had a good time playing cards with his people (if you didn’t serve you wouldn’t understand). I was frightened he was going to get fleeced, which seems to happen every time any of us comes across a game of cards, Blume at the Coach and Horses, Brandy at the Half Measure (I wonder what he’s up to these days), and Blume again at the Bloody Betty, but apparently they just had a pleasant game of cards and a chat. He did throw in some hints about the strange stuff we had been encountering, when he chatted to them, to see if this would get any information in return, but no one had anything to say about purple hands and things like that.

They did have some things to say about the imperial edict though, and said that a landlord somewhere had been killed for killing a scaly mutant. They also said that a lot of wizards had been leaving town, so the illuminations at the carnival wouldn’t be as good, this year.

Everyone eventually got to bed. But I had been asleep all day so that’s why I didn’t get much sleep. When I did close my eyes I just saw all the eyes and the snakes peering out at me from the magical fire, so in the end I just stayed up and went for a bit of a walk.

So that’s that mum. I’m a bit tired, but it’s the first day of the carnival so in my next letter I will be able to reveal whether they have a guinea pig town. And I will tell you about all the things we get up to there.