124: Raina Mus

Hello, mum. We still haven’t reached the picket. Even though we could see it. We stopped on the road a mile or two away and dismounted to take a look at it. It was a huge wall cutting off the valley, and in its shelter, a makeshift camp. Erina said it was typical of the sort of camp that springs up with an army on campaign. It looks like a real town, but it can move. But this one hadn’t moved for ages, so was probably actually a real town.

And beyond the picket, up on the mountain we could see Brass Keep itself, and I can tell you, mum, I’m not looking forward to going up there. Fred reminded us that our job was simply to tell Emmeline von Kaerzburdger that we thought the rat men were heading for the keep, and then leave. But I think we will end up having to investigate further. It wouldn’t make sense to come all this way, and return without any solid evidence of the rat man activity.

Guido stood on the precarious track looking at the picket and said a prayer to Sigmar. And Erina stood transfixed, too. She may have been using her wizardly perceptions to see a misty trail of dark magic emanating from Brass Keep and drifting down the valley and enveloping the picket. But she didn’t tell us anything about that, so she may not have been.

I wondered aloud what the Krisstall of Immortalitee might be. Guido said it was nothing I should meddle with, but Blume said it sounded like it might go with one of her jewellery ensembles. And she said that a dark magical curse might be a price worth paying for the appearance of younger-looking skin.

But before we could continue our journey, Guido spotted some rocks rolling down the mountainside towards him. He told us to be careful, as the rocks were a bit unstable, but then realised that they had been deliberately rolled towards us, and he had to leap out of the way.

And coming up the road, from the direction of the picket we saw six figures. They were well armed and looked like they were after us. But they looked like Middenheim sewer jacks and I recognised some of them as belonging to Raina Mus’ shift (that was my shift, mum, before they medically retired me).

So I stepped forward and addressed them like we were friends, even though I knew we weren’t. And I said ‘What happens when the world turns upside down?’ which is a thing they like to say (and I think it means those on the bottom will end up on top, but it’s also a reference to the upside-down world, probably). But the sewer jack just grinned at me and ordered his men to shoot their crossbows.

So that didn’t work. And I think it’s pretty well known among Mus’ shift that I’m not really one of them. And now I saw their sewer jack badges in the daylight, they didn’t really look like depictions of white wolves, which is what they are supposed to represent, but more like yellow rats.

Meanwhile, Guido who had retreated further down the road to avoid the rockfall, saw four more of them coming up behind him. There was a steep drop on one side of the road, and a cliff on the other, so we were surrounded. Guido mounted his horse, to bring him closer to the sewer jacks in front of us, while Blume loaded a pistol. Erina hung back a bit and started doing magical stuff. Fred moved forward to go shoulder to shoulder with me, but I don’t really understand any of that tactical fighting you learn in the watch, so I just ignored him and charged in.

One crossbow bolt hit Blume and it looked like it did a lot of damage. And one missed Guido. One stuck in Fred’s shield and one raked across my armour. And then another one hit Blume and she fell to the ground before she could even fire a single pistol shot. And then one looked like it would hit Erina, but didn’t. I don’t know if that was magic or just fate. Their volley of crossbow bolts certainly hit us hard and it surprised me to see a bunch of sewer jacks so well trained and coordinated above ground.

In Guido’s head he shouted a prayer to Sigmar and charged into the fray astride his powerful destrier like a knight of god, probably. But really he just sort of trotted in on his pretty frightened looking riding horse. And despite his lack of expertise at mounted combat he did manage to hit one of the jacks with a powerful blow.

And behind us, across the road there erupted a huge wall of raging fire, stopping the other four jacks from attacking us in the rear. And one of them was caught within the fire wall and was enveloped in flames. So, say what you like about Erina, she can do proper magic.

And then I charged into my erstwhile work colleagues and hit one of them with my sword. And, say what you like about my sword, it can do proper magic. The sewer jacks struck back, with one of them attacking Guido’s horse and making it bolt, and one of them hitting me in the leg.

And I think I noticed a stange change come over Fred. I’m not sure why, but perhaps it was because these were Middenheimer criminals acting away from Middenheim and as a Middenheim officer of the law he felt a certain responsibility for them. But he began to speak in a very broad Middenheimer accent, talking about the long arm of the law and it all being the fault of the parents. And as well as all that, he declared that he was only there to protect Blume as she was his favourite. I later put it all down to the stress of the situation.

Anyway, Fred attacked one of the sewer jacks, who avoided his blow. And then he said that he would let him have one shot at him, and after that he wouldn’t go easy on him. At least that’s what I think he said as I could barely understand him.

Meanwhile, Guido jumped from his fleeing horse and dispatched his opponent in a single move. But the horse was gone, taking our entire supply of chorizo with it. Erina was hanging back keeping an eye on her magical fire wall. And I managed to kill my opponent.

But then, Erina’s wall of fire guttered and died. So it turned out to not be that useful a spell after all. But Erina said later that another wizard must have dispelled it because it didn’t normally do that. But she looked around for the other wizard and there was no sign of one.

And Guido and I got hit again by the sewer jacks. Fred said this wasn’t how we behaved in Middenheim (we weren’t in Middenheim, mum) and then he said it was time to ‘clean up the dirt,’ but I think he meant ‘take out the trash.’

Unfortunately he then took a huge blow to the head, which missed his helmet and went right into his face. And blood started pouring from one of his eyes. And it was clear he wouldn’t be able to continue fighting. I fought off the rest of the sewer jacks to our front, killing one as the last one fled, while Guido rushed over to see to Fred. And Erina was left to defend the rear without her wall and fired some magic at a couple of the sewer jacks there.

A load more crossbow bolts came in from those behind us, and I ran over to Erina, and despite hardly being able to see, Fred followed me. And I saw that Erina was hit by a bolt of magic from somewhere. And then we spotted a mysterious cloaked figure on the cliff side above us.

And we were charged by the second wave of sewer jacks. Erina fought one off with her staff. And Fred and I fought the others, while Guido went to see to Blume’s wounds.

Then the cloaked wizard fired some magic at Blume even though she was already down, and made her even worse. And the rest of the fight was very tight. Fred fought on, despite the blood gushing from his eye. Erina fought one of the sewer jacks quite bravely, for a wizard, and I think she was fortunate not to die, especially when Fred accidentally hit her. She called him a ‘clumsy fuck,’ but with all the blood gushing from his eye wound I think it was understandable. And I was hit so may times my armour was shredded.

But in the end I managed to get to the wizard, and she tossed back her hood. And, you’ll never guess who it was, mum. No, it was Raina Mus. This whole time, my boss, who had a reputation for playing things by the book and being an incorruptible officer of the law, was the magic wielding head of a secret cult of rat man sympathisers. Who could have ever guessed that? There was nothing about her that could have ever given us cause to associate her with any sort of rodent afiliation.

Mus swung at me and got a good hit on my arm, but I’m tougher than I look, these days, mum. And I hit her back, and then Fred was able to join me, and he hit her, too. And then Erina cast some magic at her, and she fell dead. I think it was appropriate that Erina was able to finish her off, wizo a wizo, as Guido might say.

So, that was that, mum. We have defeated the arch nemesis we never knew we had, and I feel a bit better about my poor employment record knowing that my workplace was overrun with cultists. And we still haven’t reached the picket, so I will tell you what it is like there in my next letter.

p.s. I don’t think there is anything Guido can do for Fred’s eye, so it looks like he is going to lose it.