116: Erina Eberhauer Again

Hello, mum. Remember how Das Moot burned down. I think perhaps Hausnung is going to burn down, soon. But we’ll see.

We had just finished the Hearing with the graf, and Prunkvoll, and Katarina. Guido had lost his cool, after telling Blume not to lose her cool. And he was too annoyed for tea and biscuits, so he swished his cloak and flounced out of the palace.

After a while we were called back in to the graf’s chambers. But he and Prunkvoll had gone, so it was just Katarina left, with her bodyguard. She thanked us again for our work and the evidence we had presented. Katarina seems quite nice and normal away from the other nobs and she seemed to be a bit more confident with the affairs of state than we had noticed before.

Katarina told us that the graf had been impressed with what we had to say, and although Prunkvoll remained doubtful, they had decided to move KITUM away from the watch and give us a bit more autonomy. And although we would still be working under Schutzmann, we would have a bit more discretion and leeway. Katarina seemed to think Fred was in charge of our group. We explained that our leadership structure was location based, but she still spoke to Fred like he was the boss.

Katarina revealed that we were being awarded a budget of two hundred crowns. I could see Blume was already thinking about putting it straight in the bank, but I think it was more of a notional budget we could use to procure resources to aid our investigations, and not actually a big bag of cash.

And she told us that we would also be getting aid from the Grand Guild of Wizards and she introduced us to Erina Eberhauer and said she would be attached to KITUM but not a formal part of its structure. We already knew Erina because she had stayed with us at the Templar’s for a while after her other place had burned down. And then of course the Templar’s had been wrecked by rat men, and she had caused a big fire there. But, as she explained, she is a fire wizard, and you expect fires when fire wizards are around. And then she said, ‘let’s kick some rat arse!’ Who says that mum?

Anyway, she seemed very keen and anxious to know what our plan for the day was, and so we explained our suspicions of Raina Mus, and she was weirdly keen to go into the sewers to confront her. We were not sure she should be so keen, so we told her about the dangers of the job and about Vinny. Then Blume made a joke about Vinny dying in the arms of a half cut woman which I thought was funny but Erina was shocked by that and said it was in very bad taste. And so then we had to explain that after all the things we had seen, a dark sense of humour was a good defence. But she didn’t seem convinced. And I’m not convinced, mum, that she has any sort of sense of humour. Then Fred explained that we were not typical watchmen and that we were given a bit of leeway as long as we got results.

The she asked about team cohesion when we were off duty, and asked where we stayed when we were not working. We explained that most of us lived at Hausnung, and we met up there a lot, and she just sort of invited herself there, too.

And that struck me, mum, as we had met Erina originally when she was looking for a place to stay when her place had burned down. And Willow had invited her to the Templar’s with us, and of course that suffered from damage, including fire damage, when the rat men attacked and stole the map. So it looked like she was just after another place to stay. We asked where she was currently staying, and she said she was with her sister Janna but she was cramping Janna’s style in regard to Allavandrel.

Blume asked what it was like having a cooler sister, and Erina looked a bit annoyed, and so I said Blume just meant cooler, as in not a fire wizard, but she didn’t find that funny, either.

We decided that we needed to get closer to Raina Mus to see if she was the sewer jack with the shocking rat man secret. So Erina took me up to see Pavarotti so I could get my sick note rescinded and get back to work in Mus’ patrol

On the way Erina asked me about the sort of adventures we have had, so I told her all about the daemons of Boegenhafen, and goblins of the Black Peaks, and the rat men of the Barren Hills, and the snake-haired lady of Middenheim, although, as you know, mum, I don’t like talking about it.

And then I showed her my sword, which I knew felt magical or something, and asked if she could sense anything about it, and she agreed it was magical. And then I showed her the bone triangle brooch I had found in Klaus’ house, but she didn’t think that was magical at all.

And then I remembered the green ring we had taken from the horned rat wizard under Klaus’ house, that Janna, her sister, had warned us about. And she said that was horrible and dangerous. So, I threw it away. And that sent her scrambling in the muck to find it again. As she said it was too dangerous to just throw away, and she needed to dispose of it in a wizardly way. Although I will be checking to see if it turns up on her finger in the near future. I think the green will probably clash with all her red clothes, though.

Pavarotti was happy enough to write me a fit note, even though I told him I still wasn’t getting much sleep. But by the look of it, he wasn’t getting much sleep either.

Meanwhile, Fred and Blume went to report to Schutzmann. I’m not sure why Schutzmann wasn’t at the hearing, but anyway, he wasn’t, and so Fred told him everything that had happened. And afterwards Schutzmann reminded Fred about the negative reports that had been filed (by Guido, mum), and Fred assured him that he had dealt with it and there wouldn’t be any more.

They also told Schutzmann about Mus and how we were currently investigating that, and we found out that Schutzmann was nominally head of the sewer jacks, so that should help us, but I don’t imagine he has much to do with the day to day running of the organisation. Fred told Schutzmann that we knew that Jacko had been accepting bribes from smugglers. He said that was probably not in our remit, but it might be an indicator of more nefarious corruption. But anyway, Schutzmann said we might have to lay off that angle for a bit as he had some important new leads that looked like they might be rat man related.

He also said that there was some sort of charter being arranged to allow us to visit Brass Keep as official representatives of the graf. But that would take some time as it was politically sensitive as Brass Keep lay in Kaerzburdger lands.

Schutzmann explained that rat catchers had reported an odd smell in north Altmarkt, and it was strange that there were no rats at all in the vicinity. Also a man had been brought to Morrspark with strange green tinged wounds, and had apparently been injured in the mines of Unterfraus, which was a couple of days travel away. Schutzmann said we should talk to the pedlar who had brought him in. He was staying at the Regent’s House, my old sewer jack local. And Baron Holzbek had reported that a beastman had been spotted on his lands near Gladbeich, with the head of a giant rat. So Fred asked whether we would now be allowed to continue our investigations outside the city, and Schutzmann agreed that we would.

Meanwhile, Erina and I headed to the sewer jacks and we spoke to a clerk who said that Mus was already on patrol. I explained that I would now be going back to work, and so he fined me half a day’s wages for being late.

I’m not sure I actually had a plan for exposing Mus, but Erina seemed to be enthusiastic about whatever I was doing, and so we headed down into the sewers. I must say she took her first day in the sewers much better than we had all taken ours, back in Boegenhafen, where you could probably have described us as squeamish.

I had the vague idea that we would sneak up on Mus and discover her doing something nefarious, but when I did spot her she was just patrolling like normal. So we went to talk to her and I asked Erina to see what magical winds were blowing around her.

I told Mus I would be coming back to work, and introduced her to Erina. And then she told me off for not signing Erina in. And then she asked about what I’d been doing and whether I had been cured of my insomnia. I told her all about how whenever I slept I went to the upside-down world. She didn’t look impressed, mum, but after all, she was the person who first told me about it. She is always saying, ‘when the world turns upside down, who will be on top?’ And then it suddenly dawned on me, that the answer, if the rat men live deep under the ground, which they seem to, is that the rat men will be on top! Maybe that is what Mus is trying to say.

And then Mus had a little dig at Jacko for being corrupt and suggesting he had lots of ill-gotten cheese, which was probably a fair comment, but wasn’t very nice. Then Mus gave Erina a visitor's form to fill out. And I can’t read mum, but it didn’t look like Erina signed it. It looked like she drew a big middle finger on the paper, instead.

And so Mus agreed that I could return to work, straight away. But then I had to tell her I couldn’t make it for the rest of the day, because I had to get Erina to Hausnung, and I wouldn’t be able to work the next day because of KITUM stuff. And so I told her I would only be working on an ad hoc basis going forward, which she didn’t seem very pleased about. And so she docked me another half day’s wages and put me on a zero hours contract.

On the way back, I asked Erina what she thought of Mus. She said she thought she was a jobsworth but suggested that if you follow all the small rules, perhaps no one will notice you breaking the big ones. And she said that she didn’t get much of an idea of the magical winds but there did seem to be something vaguely unpleasant wafting around her. But to be fair, mum, there’s something vaguely unpleasant wafting around all the sewer jacks.

When we got to Hausnung, Fred filled us in about the other leads. We decided that we could investigate the bad smell straight away, but we should call in on the pedlar at the Regent’s on our way, and take a look at the body in Morrspark. And then we could think about visiting the sites outside of the city.

Blume was more interested in rearranging Hausnung. She said that as I was no longer on the sick, and following Pavarotti’s insomnia therapy, then I couldn’t have her room, as he had prescribed it for me. And so she moved me out, and got her old room back, and got nanny to clean the bath.

I was expecting Blume to be a bit off with Erina, but they seemed to get on fine, especially when Blume found out that she could turn water into alcohol. And Blume said that Erina could have one of the big bedrooms. I didn’t have anywhere to go, and so I went to the wagon, but the Man’s gardeners were living in there.

So that’s that, mum. I expect we’ll go and talk to the pedlar who brought the green tinged body in, next, and then have look at the body. Then I expect we’ll ask Erina to read its aura, or something. Blume said wizards can’t read auras and that has to be done by fortune tellers and people like that, but she read Raina Mus’ aura, and my sword’s. I’ll let you know what happens in my next letter, when hopefully we’ll know the source of the great smell of Altmarkt. Let's kick some rat arse!