91: Stiefel’s Emporium

While Guido, Fred, and I were at the Hammer and Sword, mum, Blume and Vinny went to the cooper’s in the Wynd to see if Annette Schwarz was still around. Blume decided it would be easy to break and enter the place but Vinny said it was too easy, and he didn’t like easy jobs (at the end of the letter, this will become funny, mum). But when they got there they found the entire place had been burnt to the ground. Blume could smell brimstone, as well.

They searched around in the ruins and found a trapdoor, and the cellar of the place was still in tact but it only contained a load of barrel making equipment. Vinny decided that he might be able to get some money for the stuff, anyway.

They asked around at the local pie shop and then went to Otto’s Printworks, which had published Blume’s stuff and we knew had done some work for Schwarz. But no one had seen anything interesting. Blume asked for one of Schwarz’ pamphlets and Otto handed one over.

It looked like it was left over from before the taxes were repealed and contained the same old stuff we had seen before, supporting the taxes on the wizards, the cults, and the dwarfs. It said that the taxes could go towards public services. And Blume suggested that they could have spent the money on fire prevention.

Then Blume and Vinny went to an alchemist’s to ask about brimstone. The alchemist explained that it was also called sulphur, and they were yellow rocks that were useful for getting fires to burn very quickly and fiercely. He said they were also good in a cream as a treatment for scabies, and so Vinny bought a pot.

Then they caught up with us at the Sword and Hammer. Guido was talking to Sergeant Stoll. I explained to you in my last letter, mum, that Stoll had got involved with something dodgy at the treasury and it looked like he was moving money around that had been intended for fictitious soldiers. Stoll was obviously worried about the situation, and Guido told him to just go back to work and do what he normally did, but to keep his eyes and ears open and to contact us at the Templar’s or at Blaume Hausnung if he found out anything interesting.

While this was happening, I was chatting to Vinny outside, and for some reason I told him all about the jewellery that we had found in Schwarzmauer Strasse and how I had given it all to Blume, and he seemed quite interested in that.

I think we were satisfied that Kalzbad had hired the Red Shield mercenaries to accompany him somewhere, and it might be Krudenwald, but we weren’t sure. And we thought that he probably hadn’t left yet, or if he had, it was only in the last couple of hours.

Then we went to Stiefel’s Emporium in Freiburg, which was the place on the receipt for 3GC 14/- we had found in Kalzbad’s desk. It was an alchemical supplies store. The shop was shut but there were lights on upstairs, and so we decided to go back first thing the next day.

Then we went back to Blume’s. Guido told us all about his plans for the chapel but I won’t repeat them here, mum, because they were boring. Blume wouldn’t have Vinny in the house so he slept in Der Kutsche, but there was plenty of room because I didn’t bother going to sleep, again. Luckily I’ve got lots of that tonic stuff left that the Graf sent me. And Blume’s maid, who she calls nanny, for some reason, made us all breakfast.

After breakfast we went straight to Schutzmann to tell him what we had discovered so far and that Kalzbad might have left town already. But Schutzmann told us to stay in Middenheim until we knew for certain where he had gone. He told us not to be surprised if the Purple Hand laid some false trails because that was what they did. And we asked that the watch on the gates should make sure they kept an eye out for Kalzbad.

While we were in his office, we noticed a sudden smell of the sewers. Or everyone else did, mum, I’m sort of inured to it, these days. Fred said it smelt just like rats, and so we had a look around. Fred found some droppings behind a bookshelf, but they were weirdly oily and unlike any droppings I had come across at work.

I told Schutzmann he should get a cat, but he said he used to have one but it went missing recently. He said it was probably a victim of the cat panic. We hadn’t heard of that but Schutzmann explained that the sudden increase in Scabrous Pox (which happens every year after carnival week) was being blamed on cats, and so a Kommission had put a bounty on all cats. (That explains why those urchins had been fighting over the cat in that bag the day before, mum.) Schutzmann had a treatise on the subject in his office. It was by Dr Lanzaro Lindwurm of the Collegium Theologica. Blume read it and said it sounded plausible.

Schutzmann said that his cat, Myrtle, had been a bit ill, and then it had coughed up a furball that was also oily, and it had contained a small cog. The oil was like mechanical oil but smelled a lot worse. I have just learned at work how to set traps for rats, so I set some around Schutzmann’s office and told him I’d be back that evening to check on them.

Then we went to Stiefel’s Emporium. Blume asked if Stiefel could make black powder where her gun smoke would be an attractive colour and he said he could but it would dilute the power of her shots. But she ordered some anyway, in pink.

We showed our warrants and asked him about selling sulphur. He recognised the name Kalzbad and said he sold him magical ingredients. So we wondered whether Kalzbad was a licensed wizard. Stiefel said he was strictly legit and he wouldn’t have sold anything to unlicensed wizards. Fred told Stiefel about the fires and asked whether sulphur could have contributed to them, and Stiefel agreed that it could.

Blume and Fred followed Stiefel into his office to check his records, leaving Vinny in the shop alone. Guido and I were waiting outside, but seeing Vinny messing around Guido went in to make sure he didn’t steal anything and stopped him pocketing a monkey-paw.

Stiefel had a look through his records and said he had been dealing with Kalzbad for several years, and insisted that he was licensed by the Bright College. So we wondered why a licensed wizard would be working at the chancellery. And Stiefel found that Kalzbad had been in the shop yesterday afternoon and had bought ruddy wood, iron keys, and oven stones, which were not ingredients particularly associated with the Bright College, and he had left the delivery address as the purple door half way down Begleitersallee in Sudtor.

So we went to Begleitersallee. On the way Guido was telling me off again and so I asked him ‘when the world turns upside down who will be on top.’ And he didn’t really know what to say, even though he’s always going on about theological stuff. I don’t really know what it means, either, mum, but they say it a lot at work. I think it means that sewer jacks work underground and so are considered quite low, but if you turn everything upside down, you’ll get covered in sewage.

Begleitersallee was a pretty poor looking street and the house with the purple door was no better. And there was not even a back alley we could go down to scout it out. So then Vinny crept up to the front door to have a listen and try to open it. We had seen his skills in action at Wasmeier’s house and this was what he was with us for, to help us break into places like this, something that none of the rest of us could do.

But as he crept towards the purple door, he tripped and fell into the door and the door swung open as Vinny hit the floor. To be honest, mum, I think I could have done that.

Inside he could see some pretty mouldy sheets in an old draughty room, but he could tell that some of the dust around the sheets had been disturbed. And so Vinny got to his feet and beckoned us in, and I’ll tell you what we found in there in my next letter, mum.