58: The Magister Magistri

So we sat in the common room at the Templar’s Arms talking about the coming carnival. Dreamy said he wanted to enter the archery contest, of course. Although it’s a shame there is no pistol shooting contest. Guido said he was interested in taking a look at the challenge to the graf’s’ champion. We said he should enter it, but he said that he wouldn’t, he just wanted to study the martial styles of the area, and how they differed from Tilean ones. But I think he probably wanted to enter anyway, just so he could show off his own style.

There would be some elven gymnastics (I doubt it’s real elves, mum) and a play in the Royal Gardens, and Willow said she would like to take a look at the gardens but we agreed that big’s gardens were always too cultivated and neat and the grass was too short, and they never had animals in them so they weren’t as nice as Mootland gardens.

Even though Blume was hung over (So was I – Willow), she read us what she had written for her pamphlet, and it was surprisingly entertaining. But Guido told her that she should take a more political stance. He said she should big up some nobles and put down some others and then the nobles would pay her to say nice things about them. But I think that’s a good way to get you flung in a dungeon.

Blume said she wanted to make it more about fashion, so then Guido suggested she slag off clothes stores so that other clothes stores would pay he to write positive things about them. I suggested that she just write nice things about everyone but Guido said that’s not how the world works.

Then Guido said that this Purple Hand thing was not over, despite what Blume thought, and that we should be on our guard and that Willow still hadn’t toughened up and she hadn’t helped us much in the ambush (I threw some gravel – Willow).

Then Tiasmara offered to take Willow to a proper halfling inn for a proper halfling breakfast. And she told everyone the kitchen was closed, so Dreamy and I went with them to the Blazing Hearth in Kleinmoot.

And the Blazing Hearth felt like a proper Mootland tavern, not like the Virtuous Halfling we had visited along the Reik which felt a bit fake. The Landlord Silas Greenhill was from Sauerapfel, and he was part of the famous Picklechurch Greenhill family that made the best jams and conserves in the whole of the north west Mootland.

And for breakfast we all had a flight of countless numbers of jams on toast with a different complementary tea with each jam. It was the best breakfast we have had since we left the Mootland, mum. But if you read on a bit, mum, you will see how Guido ended up spoiling it.

Meanwhile Guido and Blume did not get any breakfast and when Blume went to drop off her manuscript at the printers in the Wynd, Guido went with her. They didn’t say much on the way because Blume was so hungover, but, as Guido said later, he liked Blume best when she wasn’t speaking.

At Otto’s Printworks Otto tried to explain the sort of stuff he did, and Guido seemed to know a bit about printing as well, so they explained it to Blume (although to be honest it’s not that complicated, it’s like making potato prints). Otto offered to use a woodcut of a crossbow to help advertise Dick’s Sporting Goods, and he had a woodcut which looked a bit like Blume, which she could use, too. And he offered to do a frame and other fancy stuff to make it look good.

And they also chatted about the possibility of Blume advertising the print shop in future issues and the pamphlet becoming a regular thing so that she could also get a bulk discount. Guido said she could even do one for each day of the festival. And she arranged to pick up the hundred printed pamphlets that evening.

As they were on their way out, a lady came in wearing a distinctive violet hat. And she took one look at Blume, and said something under her breath, and ran out as fast as she could. Blume was a bit surprised but Guido raced after her, but as he did so he had to push Blume out the way and she fell over and landed on a pile of papers.

Outside Otto’s the woman ran up the long flight of steps heading up towards Altmarkt, and Guido followed her as best he could. He started well but it is a very long flight of steps and the woman was a bit fitter than she looked and Guido is a bit less fit than he thinks he is, so as she got nearer the top she started to pull away from him.

Luckily, however, her route took her straight past the Blazing Hearth, and as we were sat in the indoors-outdoors party terrace we had a decent view of her approaching and Guido puffing and blowing behind her shouting ‘stop the witch.’

So we rushed into the road to try to stop her. And to ensure that we had lots of halfling reinforcements from the Hearth Willow shouted ‘pig thief’ as that’s probably a bit more serious than being a witch. And as the woman ran through us, I dived and grabbed her leg and held on so that it slowed her down and all the other halflings jumped on her and dragged her to the ground.

Then Guido stepped in and told everyone there was nothing to see here and that they should go about their business and he didn’t even thank them. Then he told me to find a spare room at the Hearth where he could bring his prisoner. So Silas let us borrow the larder and it was a really huge larder, and I brought a little chair in so the violet lady would have somewhere to sit.

Then Guido told me to be quiet while he questioned her, and I said I would. So he started by saying that he was the Magister Magistri of Estalia which surprised me and I told him I didn’t know that. But then he got mad at me and chucked me out of the larder and I had to get the rest of this conversation by listening through the door.

Meanwhile Willow brought everyone a round of pastries for helping us catch the pig thief, and Silas said they were on the house, anyway, which was nice of him.

I heard Guido talking to the violet hat lady who was called Annette Schwarz. As I already said he told her he was the Magister Magistri of Estalia and I think she did some of the secret signs that they had done to Blume. And Guido did his own signs back and explained that they were the special Estalian signs that enable differentiation between cells in different areas, which seemed to satisfy her.

Guido told her that he had Lieberung with him and she didn’t suspect him, but his contact had not turned up, and so he needed to know where to deliver her to. But Schwarz said that the order for getting Kastelle Lieberung had been suspended for the duration of the carnival, and so he should not do anything about that until the carnival was over.

Guido told her that he was staying at the Templar’s Arms and asked where he might get hold of her and she said she worked at a coopers in the Wynd close to Otto’s and he could contact her there. And she said next time he should use the secret signs instead of calling her a witch and running up a load of steps.

And then Guido suggested that he teach her all his Estalian signs but she said that wouldn’t be much use in Middenheim and it would be better if he knew the local signs and so she taught him all her secret Purple Hand signs. It had me a bit confused at first, mum, when Guido revealed he was a Magister, but I think he had just been saying it as a ruse to gain Schwarz’s confidence and get information from her.

Then Guido told Schwarz to wait until he checked the coast was clear and he came out into the Hearth (and told me off for listening at the door) then went to Dreamy and told him to shadow Schwarz to see where she went. And then he told Schwarz she should go out the back way.

Dreamy followed her at a distance, and sure enough she went straight back to the Wynd, visited Otto’s Printworks, and took a package of flyers back to the coopers.

Meanwhile Blume had been talking to Otto, and asked about the woman. He said that she had been in there the day before to order some flyers. Blume asked who she was and where she was from, but Otto said that he owed his customers their confidentiality, especially in his line of work which advocated freedom of expression.

Blume asked to read her pamphlet and Otto said that would be fine. And it was basically a list of all the reasons why the new taxes were a good idea. They were points like the dwarfs and wizards and the cults could all afford it, and lots of tax revenues found their way back to Altdorf so it was good for the area to keep more money in Middenheim and Middenland, the sort of thing we had heard from quite a few people up here, already. And I think Blume agreed with most of it, anyway. Then Blume told Otto that if he wanted a good review then he should hurry up and get those pamphlets printed.

Then Blume went shopping for some fashionable armour for the stylish combatant about town and she managed to find a long leather jacket which could accommodate this season’s flowing skirts and layering pieces, and for a reasonable price, so she was pleased with that.

So we all eventually found our way back to the Templar’s. When I got there Blume was trying to negotiate a cheap room based on a review in her pamphlet that hadn’t come out yet, and Uli told her to come back when she had a copy to show him, but he did give her a free beer. And then she swished her new coat around and we had to pretend we liked it, even though it reminded me of Maple Stirrup and Guido said she looked like a leather sausage.

Dreamy got back after following Schwarz around to confirm that she had gone the route that Guido expected her to go. Guido told Dreamy about the secret signs he had learned but told him he didn’t want to tell the rest of us what they were in case we used them wrong and spoiled his ruse, but he taught them to Dreamy in case he needed to recognise them or use them.

Then we started to make our way up to the Square of Martials so we could watch the challenge to the graf’s champion. We explained to Willow how it worked but she decided she didn’t want to watch (I didn’t want to see any head bashing – Willow) and she went down to the Wynd to keep an eye on the coopers.

There were a few people signing up for the challenge at the Square and Guido considered it, but we learned that any victor would have to serve as the graf’s champion until he was defeated, and that would get in the way of hunting witches. And there was no magic allowed, so he wouldn’t be able to wield Barrakul. And the current champion has been undefeated for three years. To be honest, I don’t think he would have much chance of winning it, anyway, mum, so it would be a waste of three crowns.

So the carnival hasn’t even started yet, mum, but I’m sure I will be able to tell you some bits about it in my next letter, although I said that in my previous letter.