122: Into the Mountains

Hi, mum. We headed straight back to Middenheim. We did think about going to Hohenfahrt to follow up the idea that the grey wizard of the woods might still be alive, but that would have added two or three days to our journey. And I think our experience in Unterfraus, where we realised that wasting time in Gladbeich might have prevented us from saving the villagers, taught us that sometimes time is of the essence.

Guido said it was our duty to hunt down the grey wizard, but said that as this was an arcane matter Erina would be the captain. And she decided that there was really no evidence that he was still alive. There was no real reason to think he had been the one chopping up bits of griffon dragon and the ratty glove we found is evidence against this. And she said she could probably look up the records in Middenheim if we really did need to know what happened.

On the way back, we asked Erina about being a wizard and whether they are all related. Blume said the colleges were just like big kindergartens. And Erina insisted that the wizards aren’t all related, but her sister is a wizard so that makes me think she is wrong.

There was a lot of traffic on the road with people heading towards Middenheim. Many of them were refugees who had been displaced by war or the threat of it. Lots of small wars between petty nobles had broken out and the rivalry between Sigmarites and Ulricans had boiled over. The refugees seemed to be from all walks of life. Erina got off her horse and let some of the children ride Sizzle to help them a bit.

And Blume donated money the cult of Taal. Although I don’t think she meant to. She had watched Erina being nice to the people and wanted to do the same, and so she gave some money to a barefooted man, so he could buy some shoes, and didn’t realise Taalite priests like to go barefoot.

We saw an injured soldier and Guido spoke to him. He said that he had come from the east where he was part of a garrison of a small town, which had been attacked by Nordlander state troops. Guido thought that was a bit odd as it was not on the border with that province, and with state troops involved, perhaps the little wars were becoming big ones.

Guido accused the man of being a deserter. But he said he was the only survivor of the garrison and was heading to Middenheim to report the incident. So that mollified Guido a bit and he saw to his wounds and said he could travelling in our wagon.

Then we heard tales from the travellers that the Sigmarite monastery at Priestlicheim had been attacked and the monks slaughtered. No one knew who did it, but someone said something about the Sons of Ulric. I don’t know who they are, mum, but gather they are very fanatical followers of Ulric who wear wolf skins instead of clothes.

Guido said he knew of the monastery, and said it had been set up to study the strange blight that had affected the Barren Hills. And he said he didn’t think it was the Sons of Ulric who would be interested in that sort of thing.

When we got to Middenheim, Guido and Fred went to report to Schutzmann. Schutzmann wanted to know what had taken us so long, and so Fred started giving his report, but Guido interrupted him. But Schutzmann was quite short with them and before they could finish he told them to prepare themselves to visit the palace again.

So it wasn’t long before we were all at the palace, for another audience with the Graf. And Fred began giving our report, but Guido interrupted him. It was strange that during this, Erina was sort of standing on the Graf’s side of the room, like she was ‘one of them’. I wonder whether she is only along to spy on us, on the graf’s behalf.

I think we reported pretty much everything that happened, but played down our lack of decisiveness and speed, which probably cost the village of Unterfraus. And Blume nearly handed over our receipts to the graf, but managed to stop herself.

The graf seemed even more vital and energetic than the last time we had seen him, so I think he is now fully recovered from whatever afflicted him. He thanked us for our mission and told us that we would be off to Brass Keep. He said it was in Kaerzburdger territory and that he needed their support so we should not be seen to meddle in their affairs openly (and he emphasized ‘openly’, mum, so I think that means we are allowed to meddle but we have to be discreet).

And then we were led to an antechamber, where Princess Katarina was waiting for us, flanked by a number of Knights Panther. I think she has moved on from the young socialite that she seemed to be when we first saw her her, mum. She seems to be growing into her role as a serious player in palace politics.

She led us out into the palace gardens. I think she wanted some privacy, but it was curious that she did not trust being in the palace. And she reiterated the point about not being seen to act against the interests of the Kaerzburdgers. And she handed Guido a scroll which was a charter to investigate matters at the picket of Brass Keep.

And she said that if anyone asked, to be sure to mention that she had given it to us, and not her father. But we noticed that the charter said that we were not to be prevented from investigating, not that we should be helped. And Katarina said to be sure not to demand anything from the Kaerzburdgers that they were not willing to give.

She told us to contact Emmiline von Kaerzburdger and explain our concerns about rat men acting against Brass Keep, especially if they had a weapon that could bring down a griffon and do the sort of damage we had seen. Katarina said it was funny that the rat men had turned out to be real. Hilarious, mum.

Katarina told us to leave first thing the next day. And as we left, Erina and Blume rivalled each other to see who could do the lowest curtsey. On the way out, Blume managed to find Chamberlain Bruegel and hand her expenses request in.

So we had found some evidence pointing to Brass Keep, and we had also found that map saying the ‘Krisstall of Immortalitee’ was there. Erina told us the history of Brass Keep, about how a necromancer lived there, and then some plague daemons moved in, or something. I wasn’t really listening. It was obviously not a very nice place, and didn’t seem to be connected with the rat men, in any case.

But anyway, it was too difficult for the Kaerzburdgers to attack it, so they just blocked off the valley leading to it, with a picket and kept guard over it. It was a confusing picture, but I suppose that’s why it needed investigating. We wondered whether the Kaerzburdgers were working with the rat men, but that didn’t seem very likely.

We didn’t have long to prepare for our journey, but Guido bought a load of supplies. We decided it would be too slow to take Der Kutsche so I had to find a pony that could keep up with everyone else, but wasn’t too tall. And I eventually found one that looked a bit like a sausage.

Then Blume and I went back to check on Hausnung. It turned out that the Man had not sent any more gardeners round. I knew they wouldn’t mum, as I had told them off, and these days I’m not a halfling to be messed with. Unfortunately, that means nanny has to find some new gardeners.

But we did find a triangular throwing star embedded in Blume’s headboard. I think it was a message from the rat man assassin who we had fought, that he could deal with us any time he wanted. Let’s hope he doesn’t want to. Anyway, Blume got mad and threatened to sack all her staff.

Guido said that no one should sleep at Hausnung, but I didn’t care about the rat man, they just don’t frighten me any more, mum. And Blume couldn’t bear to leave her bed, so we slept there, anyway. And to make sure we didn’t get attacked by the assassin, we got drunk. But we had a decent enough night. I don’t sleep much anyway, mum, (have I mentioned that?), and I hate rat men (have I mentioned that?) so I was happy to keep guard.

Erina and Fred slept at the watch house, and Guido went to his pretend office at the temple of Sigmar and we set out for Brass Keep first thing the next day. And for the first time in weeks Fred wasn’t complaining that his back hurt. Coincidentally the first leg of the journey was to Hohenfahrt so we would be able to check out the grey wizard after all. We decided to try to make the three day journey in only two, as we didn’t want to waste any more time.

We saw more refugees on the road and Erina went to hand out some of our supplies to them, but Guido told her not to. I think he thinks if we can’t feed everyone then we shouldn't feed anyone. And it would have slowed us down, in any case.

We pushed ourselves to get to Hohenfahrt in only two days and when we arrived, Erina was looking tired like she wasn’t use to this sort of travel. I expect the Empires armies move a lot slower than that when they are on campaign.

Erina asked about the grey wizard but didn’t get very satisfactory replies (they only wanted to moan about the Grand Theogonist). I suppose if he really did die twenty years ago, there is no reason why anyone would have anything to say about him anyway. On the other hand, as we have found with the elusive rat men, absence of evidence, is not evidence of absence.

The next leg of the journey was up to Felangst Tower, and the way got a bit trickier as the road rose and fell with the foothills of the Middle Mountains. We still pressed on, though, and managed to reach the tower in two days. Guido was also looking very tired by now, and he insisted we stopped at the tower in case the going was too tough for Erina.

So that’s that, mum. We’ve just arrived at Felangst Tower and we have to travel into the mountains towards Brass Keep next. I feel like Brass Keep is going to be very dangerous. It’s been looming ominously for some time, and there is definitely going to be something there that is key to KITUM investigations, I just don’t know what it might be.