108: The Helm of the Ratslayer

Hello, mum. I just remembered that Janna was a bit unsure of the green, glowing ring we had taken from the rat wizard and although it went with her dress, Blume agreed to get rid of it. And she also got rid of the ceremonial dagger. Janna said it was too dangerous for Blume to carry the ring, and she’s the expert, I suppose.

And Blume got Vinny and me to carry the remaining bombs. I think it was because it was too dangerous for Blume to carry them. Not sure why it’s not dangerous for us, but she’s the expert, I suppose.

We asked Janna about her incarceration, and she said she had been kidnapped from her bed at night, and taken to the cell, and she didn’t know what they wanted from her. She didn’t recognise any of the other captives, either (you know, mum, the ones who got turned into undead). But she had seen some of the rat men in the flesh.

So we asked her if she would be willing to testify to that, if it came to it, and she said she would. She said she had heard the stories from her sister about the rat men who had attacked the Templar’s but she had thought they had just been rat-like beastmen. I’m not sure of the difference between rat men and rat like beastmen but it seems to be an important and contentious point, which I will leave to the experts. Either way, mum, I hate them all.

I felt a bit sorry for Janna, because she was obviously very tired and a bit shocked by her kidnapping, but Vinny kept asking her questions that weren’t really germane to our investigation, and more about trying to get her to go on a date.

We also asked her about the moons, as her college specialises in the stars and moon stuff, and some of the evidence we have seems to refer to the movement of the moons, and so she might be able to explain it to us. And she agreed to come to Hausnung the next day to help us.

And we spoke to Klaus. He didn’t seem too interested in telling us about himself, even though we had just saved his life. But he said he had a variety of mining interests and some of these interests were in the Middle Mountains. I’m not sure whether that is a coincidence, mum, given the map of the Middle Mountains that the rat men took, but if you were a Middenheim mine owner, you’d probably have interests in the Middle Mountains, anyway.

And, mum, I gave Klaus back all the money I had taken from his wardrobe. I’m not sure why I took it, now. I think if he had turned out to be nefarious, then I could have confiscated it in order to help fund further investigation into threats unknown. But as he was plainly an innocent victim it only seemed fair to give it all back. I don’t want to add to the Middenheim watch’s unfortunate reputation for corruption.

Then Guido and Fred turned up, and Guido told Blume off for going on the underground expedition with us. He said had told Blume not to do anything until he got there, which she hadn’t bothered to mention to us. And it was definitely very dangerous down there without Fred and Guido protecting us. It was just lucky that we had found Janna. Anyway, it’s not really up to Guido what we do when he’s not there.

Guido and Fred had gone to the Showboat for a meal with Professor Hasche. They said it had been part of the investigation, and they hadn’t found out anything incriminating about her, and so we wouldn’t need to investigate her further. But I think they mostly went for the food. And Guido had a look at Vinny’s elbow. He patched him up a bit, and straightened the bone, but said it could be a month or so before it healed properly.

Then Guido took the book that Vinny had taken from the rat wizard, and told him off for taking the black robes. Vinny said it could be used for going under cover, but Guido said it was smelly and infested with fleas. And he gave Vinny a lecture on just picking stuff up that we found because it could be dangerous, and Vinny said Blume did it too. And Guido demanded to know what else Vinny had picked up. And he had some medicinal roots in his pocket which he had taken from the rat wizard, but before Guido could even notice, he stuffed it in his mouth, and began chewing on it.

Guido went to have a look at the book in the chapel, but I don’t think he could understand anything about it. And Fred went to the Collegium to see if any other wizards had gone missing, but thankfully they hadn’t. And I think Vinny went to have a lie down because of the rat wizard’s drugs.

In the morning we went to see Schutzmann and Guido had a report with him, detailing what we had done, so he must have been up quite late writing that. But the guard at the watch house was a bit cagey about letting us in, which annoyed Guido. The guard said it was because of heightened security but after he had checked with Schutzmann we were admitted.

Schutzmann looked concerned and whispered that something very serious had happened and swore us to secrecy. But I had my fingers crossed, mum, which means it didn’t count, and so I’m allowed to say what it was in this letter, but unless you’re reading this with your fingers crossed, you’re not allowed to tell anyone else.

It turns out that the helm of Mandred Skavenslayer had been stolen from its chapel in the Middenpalaz. Apparently it is a prized artefact and is displayed once a year for some reason and Schutzmann was concerned its failure to be shown would make the people doubt the government and their safety, or something. (I’ve no idea what ‘skaven’ means and it’s a very silly name, anyway, so I won’t be using it again.)

So we were charged with investigating the theft and the return of the helm. And Schutzmann said there had been a series of thefts which could be linked, and he gave Guido a list of them. But he urged us to look into the missing helm, first.

We went to the chapel in Middenpalaz, and it was a secure vault below ground and well guarded by the Knights Panther. And Guido told us we had to show a lot of respect to the knights, but I think he just said that because he is one. And they can’t be that great if they can’t even guard a hat. Besides, mum, they said I could be in the Knights Panther but I turned them down.

And in the vault we saw a picture of the helm and it had horns on it, a bit like the statues and carvings of those rats had in the temple we had just blown up, and a bit like the horns on that mad rat-wizard I had to kill. I have been noticing a lot of these horned rats recently.

We spoke to a guard called Franz and he described how he had just inspected the helm with the guard he was relieving, and then they heard a noise, and when they went to check the helm had gone, just like that. He said the noise was like rolling dice, but no one would be gambling down there like that.

Vinny had a look round the vault and found a coin on the floor. And you might think anyone could have dropped it, but Vinny said that there was a cross scratched onto the head of the coin and that was a sign of Ranald, so he said the coin was probably a calling card from the thief who took the helm. I don’t really understand why thieves would want to draw attention to themselves like that, but Vinny said that Ranaldans did things like that because their god approved when they did things with more panache. Although to be fair, I haven’t see Vinny do much with panache since we had known him. And, another thing, mum, I think making a scratch on Karl Franz head like that is illegal so the Ranaldans had better watch out.

Vinny dropped the coin a few times for the guard to hear, and we all agreed that it didn’t sound like rolling dice. And Vinny told us that, unlike in Altdorf, the low kings had Middenheim sown up between them so Ranaldans had to watch themselves as they were persecuted by the law and the other criminals.

The guard seemed quite sincere, but after what happened with Karl and Gaius I don’t think anyone could fault us for being extra careful with them and questioning them very closely and being suspicious of them. But in the end I think he was telling the truth, and so was the other guard, who was called Joachim, and we had just wasted a lot of time trying to be sure of that.

Guido said he wanted to question them back at the temple of Sigmar, and by question, I think he meant torture. But Fred explained that it would be very delicate, politically, especially at this time, for a Sigmarite to arrest Knights Panther in Middenheim. And they had a bit of an argument. Guido told Fred not to tell him how to do his job, and Fred told Guido not to fuck about in his city. And I moved away quite quickly, and so I didn’t hear the rest of it.

In the end I think they came to a compromise where they would recommend that the Knights Panther were confined to their quarters for their own safety. And, I think, Guido even apologised, which is not a thing that happens every day, mum.

So we had a chat about what we would do next, and Guido had the idea that the rolling dice could have been part of a spell by a priest of Ranald, as that was the sort of thing they did. And he said that Vinny, as a Ranaldan, should try to find a priest of Ranald to talk to about it. But he also said he thought that Ranaldans had a strange sense of honour, despite being thieves, and he didn’t think it was very likely that they would be in league with rat men.

And then Guido showed us the list that Schutzmann had given him, and we decided to all split up and investigate each one separately, as that would be quicker. Here’s the list, mum, and I’ll let you know how we got on with each of them in my next letter.

Collegium Theologica library. Librarian Agnise Fuensterburg. Rare books.

Temple of Ulric, Lore House. Rare book. See Brother Schlager.

Dr Isidore Kopernik, Freiburg. Astronomical research notes.

Otmar Zufall’s residence, Geldmund. Antique art.

The Royal College of Music. See Music Director Amadeus Tonkunst. Rare libretto