118: On the Road Again

Hello, mum. There was certainly a big mess in the cellar with all the starved rat men dead and the aftermath of the fight between the armoured clan Scruten rat men and their clan Mange prisoners, and Erina’s fireball.

We didn’t really know what to do about it all. We were tempted to get Erina to set fire to the whole thing, but eventually decided to take one of the better preserved clan Scruten bodies to Schutzmann for evidence, and let him deal with the rest of it.

I had a quick look around the cellar to see where it led. There were the makeshift barricades the clan Scruten had defended, and beyond that it looked like any of the caverns beneath Middenheim, and I didn’t fancy exploring them alone. I think the cellar would require a strong wall to be rebuilt there, before it could be of any use to anyone, though.

I think Guido was concerned by the way Erina had been colluding with Rikkhin and he told her it would be best if she didn’t. But Erina reminded him about Myrmidian strategy and how they believed in knowing their enemy, so they had an argument about that. And Erina got mad that we should think she might collude with rat men (but she is a wizard, mum). And Guido got mad because Erina called our command hierarchy inefficient. And then they had an argument about whether to hand the rat man body over to KITUM or to the Great Guild of Wizards and Fred had to step in and say we could decide that later, and the most important thing was that we were united in defence of the city.

And so we reported to Schutzmann and handed over the body. Then Erina spent a while explaining to Schutzmann everything we had found out about the rat men, like their clan names, and what colour each clan was, and what their symbols were, and the rest of the stuff she had found out through her collusion.

And we had a think about who might have bricked up Krummer, and we thought that if there were humans colluding with the rat men, like the Yellow Fang and groups like that, then they could have done it.

I think Schutzmann might have sensed that our group was not entirely in harmony and so after the meeting he had a quiet word with Erina, to see how it was going. And she insisted that in a few days it would be better.

We decided that next we needed to head to Unterfraus and Gladbeich and so we had to prepare Der Kutsche and buy supplies and equipment. I showed Erina the wagon and she didn’t seem too impressed, and wondered about the bloodstains.

And then we saw the gardeners who were now living in the wagon, and I was going to apologise for disturbing them, but then realised that this was my wagon, and they didn’t really have any right to be there. They were only there because of Vinny, in any case, and he was gone. So I told them that Vinny was dead and the two other gardeners were dead, and they should go back to the Man right away or they might end up dead, too.

And so they did leave, and to be honest, mum, they looked pretty frightened. But I may have let on that we needed the wagon to leave town. And so now they know we won’t be at Hausnung for a while. I told Blume that, and she said that nanny would need to learn self-defence.

So, the rest of the day was spent preparing for our journey. I got Peony and Piano ready. They had just been hanging around not earning their keep for the last month or so, so I’m not sure why Peony was so bad tempered about it. If I were them I would have liked to go for a little walk in the country.

Fred and Erina went to buy tents. I think it would have been fine for everyone to sleep in the back of the wagon, but Guido and Blume wanted to stay at inns, and Erina wanted to sleep in tents, and explained that she always did that when she went on campaign with the army. And they ended up buying two tents with enough room for about eight people between them. And they bought a couple of riding horses, Sizzle and Ulfgar, so we will be able to scout around.

I bought enough food for about ten days, mum, even though we shouldn’t be away for that long, and I made sure not to skimp on quality ingredients, so we will be able to have nice meals, even though everyone seems to prefer to eat at inns.

So, we ended up spending quite a lot of our two hundred crown KITUM credit, and Blume withdrew all our money from the bank in case we needed it on our travels. And we were ready to go.

I was expecting to see Guido with Barrakul, but it seems that he has donated it to the temple of Sigmar, or something, which seems a bit unfair, because we all helped find it, and I don’t really think it belonged to Guido any more than it belonged to me or Blume. But I think he donated it so he could look important in the cult.

We left by the east gate and there were none of the huge queues for taxes that we had had to go through when we arrived, and to be frank, mum, you can thank us for that. I drove the wagon and Fred rode Ulfgar, and Erina rode Sizzle. I think Erina is probably from a horsey family.

I don’t recall how many days it had been since we left the city (except for a few hours for Dreamy’s funeral), but it was great to be back on the river again, if you count the road as a river. And I was the captain of the boat, again, if you count the wagon as a boat, which it would be if the road was a river. Anyway, it was great to get out of Middenheim, and into the countryside whatever mode of transport it was.

The first day’s travel was largely uneventful. Guido spent a lot of time riding ahead with Erina. I think he was apologising for being too protective of her, and ordering her about. And apparently she brings out the Estalian in him. I don’t understand what that means, mum. And Fred wondered which of them would kill the other first.

Then towards evening we reached the Ox and Drummer inn, and we had to work out the sleeping arrangements. Guido offered to put up a tent for Erina, but after all the travel she just wanted to sleep at the inn, which made Guido happy as that meant he had won the tent argument.

Anyway, mum, although the Drummer looked nice, it flattered to deceive, a bit, and wasn’t as good as it pretended to be. And they had a massive menu with only ‘Stew of the Day’ written on it. And the stew of the day was fleeceback, which is a local sheep breed. And it wasn’t that good.

I think Blume was enamoured of the waiter, even though he was obviously too low class for her, and Erina said she would invite her to some parties at the palace when they got back to Middenheim.

And we spent the evening telling Erina all about the adventures we had had before we got to Middenheim. To be honest, mum, some of it sounds quite unbelievable when I hear it, even though I was there. And I told her about the upside-down world, and some of that sounds unbelievable, too.

There wasn’t any entertainment or games at the Drummer, so Erina sung a song which was a traditional Hochland song about a white flower that grows on the mountain, and a lonely goat. And her voice isn’t that bad. She said that when you know the notes to sing, you can sing most anything.

And in the morning I got up early to make scramborridge for everyone. To be honest, mum, now I’m the only halfling in the wagon, the enthusiasm for scramborridge has waned a bit, but I made Erina eat loads of it, anyway. And having Erina on board meant that we could get hot water for the washing up without having to boil the kettle.

And it wasn’t long, mum, before we had to turn off the main road and head down a track towards Gladbeich, and cross the river Kleiflusch. I’ll tell you what happens in Gladbeich in my next letter, mum. I don’t even know what happens, because we haven’t even got there yet.