134: The Sky Wolf

The Dirigible was called the Sky Wolf. I watched as the umgi climbed aboard and the ship began to rise slowly into the air. I think this may have been worthwhile information to report back to Zhufbar, but I wondered whether Grungni had guided me here for a purpose. And I considered that this group, as strange and eclectic as it was, might hold more of interest to Karaz Ankor in future.

So as it rose I rushed into the clearing trying to attract the attention of the crew. And there must have been some discussion about whether they should come back and pick me up. And I imagine the adventurers must have vouched for me, because the Sky Wolf stopped ascending and a rope ladder was thrown down to me.

And so I learned that the Sky Wolf was transporting Baron Heinrich, bastard son of Graf Boris Todbringer, and Veiran Thugenheim, an officer of the Knights Panther, back to Middenheim. The great airship was plainly of dwarf construction, for who else could manage such a feat of engineering, but I was surprised to find that apart from the two Middenheimers, the crew were all dawi.

I had a word with the pilot and complimented him on the great airship, although he did seem put out when I mentioned the obvious fact that the airships of Karaz Ankor were better than his in every respect. It seems clear that if you are to abandon your holds and live among the umgi, some of that people’s slapdash approach is bound to rub off on you. I suspect, surrounded by humans, the Imperial dwarfs do not even perceive how far they have fallen.

Despite offering us a lift, the baron did not seem especially convinced of the group’s credentials, but he invited us into his cabin to discuss what had happened at Karak Skygg. As we left the deck we heard more explosions and saw a green cloud rising above Karak SKygg. It looked like the bombs had caused a more catastrophic explosion, and I suspect the old hold will be unreclaimable, now.

The baron asked us who was in charge and Blume replied that she was. And she gave her account of their attack on Karak Skygg and their destruction of the Moonbreaker. But I think he got a bit bored of Blume’s account and was a bit sceptical of her claims that it was going to blow up the moon, and so he turned to Janna for confirmation, and asked Fred about it, who gave a more succinct and military account.

Fred ended by saying that despite the destruction of Karak Skygg, the threat from the rat-headed mutants was not over, and they must still possess the means to infiltrate Imperial cities, and clearly had a presence under Middenheim.

The dawi have long known of the raki menace. In deed, in some of our legends a dwarf ancestor is responsible for their creation. And I find it curious that human society does not even acknowledge their existence, despite overwhelming evidence. Therefore, Fred had to be careful how he talked about them, and even how he labelled them.

Then the baron described how the situation in Middenheim had got significantly worse. He acknowledged how the attempt on his father’s life was the work of a proscribed cult (and he said that it had been this group who had thwarted that plot – they seem to be very busy). But he said that now factions in the city were painting it as a Sigmarite plot, hatched in Altdorf, to destabilise the north. Greta insisted that would be a mistake, and there is no way the vast majority of Sigmarites would want weakness within the cult of Ulric, and I think the baron readily agreed with her.

The baron then said that Purple Hand members in Middenheim were being rolled up, thanks partly to the intelligence this group had uncovered. And he said it was worrying that so many of the members of that cult had been holding high office.

And talking of his mission in Wolfenburg, he said that elements were blaming the death of the Crown Prince von Tasseninck on his own son. And this sounded like similar seditious rumours designed to destabilise the Empire.

Blume suggested that the baron needed to appoint someone to deal with the problems, someone with class and experience in these matters. The baron said that he didn’t want to get Prunkvoll involved, but I think Blume meant her.

Erina said that it was important to have unity, especially between Sigmarites and Ulricans. And the situation in the Empire felt just like the recent problems in Middenheim, with division between the cults, but on a much bigger, empire wide, scale.

The baron asked me my view of what had been happening in Karak Skygg, but after my detailed preamble regarding the history of the holds of Karaz Ankor, and the holds of the Middle Mountains, and a brief summary of the lineage of the dwarf kings there, he seemed to lose interest.

And Greta was keen to impress upon the baron that the Sigmarites were merely loyal to the Empire, and not against Ulricans who were as much a part of Imperial unity as Sigmarites. He did say that some Ulrican extremists were heretics and needed to be rooted out. And then offered to help interrogate any prisoners they had in Middenheim.

Then the baron told us he had secret agents in Middenheim who knew about the Purple Hand, and so we asked him if they knew so much about them why didn’t they try to stop them. And he replied that his agent wouldn’t be secret, then, which we had to agree had some logic to it. But he did call her ‘she’ letting slip that his agent was female. And he said she had also been watching this group, and so he already knew some things about us. Not me, of course, or Greta, who I gather was also a relatively new member of the group. And Erina who had also joined recently. And Fred who had joined them right at the end of the carnival. So basically, just Blume.

And they talked about tracking down Frau Kenner, also known as Brunhilde Klaglich. Erina seemed to know a lot about Frau Kenner considering she wasn’t there at the time (and nor was I) but she said she was an assiduous reader of the KITUM reports.

The journey to Middenheim lasted a couple of days. It was strange to travel above the land having a view of the Empire that only a bird could have. If Grungni had intended us to fly he would have had the dawi invent a flying dirigible, and he did, and so I suppose he must have.

It was not long into the flight that I spotted an eyrie atop a mountain crag, and there were a number of chicks in the nest. I know, as a karak ranger, how territorial the great eagles can be, and so I ordered the pilot to make a detour. He said it would add several hours onto the journey time, but if the eagles had attacked the Sky Wolf, I would suggest our journey time would have been reduced to minutes.

And so, after a bit of an argument, I grabbed one of the controls and twiddled it. I didn’t know what it did, but the pilot agreed to change course. And after a few minutes I spotted the eagle parents returning to their nest. It is a great shame upon us that the dawi can forget the ways of the mountains so quickly upon leaving her embrace. I decided that living among humans must really soften us, and resolved, if I were to spend an extended period among them, not to be affected in such a way.

I think Fred was worried about how Blume would take the death of her erstwhile colleague, the halfling. And so he tried to console her, but, and I am no expert on umgi manners, she didn’t seem that upset about it. She was more interested in attracting the attention of baron Heinrich. She began speaking in Classical around him, in order, it seemed, to appear sophisticated. But, he did not speak classical, in any case. I tried to console her too, by telling her how much better the engineers of Zhufbar were than those of Altdorf.

Then suddenly the balloon lurched, there was the sound of grinding gears, and smoke billowed from the engine room. The dwarf crew didn’t seem to know what was wrong, and began checking the engine. Blume went to help but the dwarfs clearly didn’t want her interfering. But she told them about how she was a student of engineering in Altdorf and about how she had been apprenticed to proper dwarf engineers (I understood later that this was in the capacity of a scaffolder) and they reluctantly let her help.

And as I am from Zhufbar, the greatest of all the great engineering centres of Karaz Ankor, I helped as well. To be honest, although everyone from Karaz Ankor knows a good deal about engineering, I always preferred exploring the mountains, to studifying in the hold, so I am the least mechanically minded Zhufbari. But I still thought I might be able to make a better job of it than the Middenheimers.

Still, neither of us could help, and we may have even made things worse. And Blume got increasingly annoyed at the machinery, and began sobbing. When asked about it she said she was mourning for the halfling, but I think she was just annoyed at herself for having no real capacity for engineering.

And everyone was getting a bit fraught. They began discussing their doomings, a strange nonsensical umgi custom. Apparently Fred’s dooming had something to do with seeing blue, and up here in the sky he could certainly see a lot of blue. And Blume’s dooming was about being in a high place, and that was true, too. And Greta’s dooming was about belching engines, and that was certainly happening. And I think they all managed to work themselves up into a panic that all their doomings were about to come true.

But then suddenly, a great gout of steam and fire erupted from the boiler, searing everyone in the engine room. But then, once the pressure was released, the engine went back to working normally, and our journey continued.

I think when it is the time that Gazul comes to take you to the underearth, then that is your time, and there is little you can do abut it. But I don’t think he bothers to give you little clues about it beforehand.

And so our journey continued above the endless sea of trees. And in the evening we ate military rations with the baron and Veiran. But the meal was disturbed by a weird screeching noise that seemed to be closing on us fast. So we went up to the deck and could see five points of smoke rising up from the forest towards us. And it seemed that they were heading straight for us.

One of the points suddenly changed course and spun off and we could see that it was some sort of rocket. My first thought was that it was a raki weapon, but Fred said that it looked like Helstorm rockets which are employed by Imperial armies. The Dawi have weapons that are similar, but better.

He shouted to the pilot to dive as fast as possible. And I shouted to him to gain height. But it did not matter which way we tried to avoid them, as Erina had channelled her zharr magic and managed to put a great wall of fire in their way, and as the rockets flew though it, they exploded, a safe distance from the Sky Wolf. We were all very pleased to see it, but no one was more pleased about it than Erina, when she acknowledged her sister’s praise.

We wondered who could have fired on us. Perhaps it was an Imperial army that mistook us for a dragon, or something. I would have liked to have found out, and Veiran advised baron Heinrich to fly back and see. But Heinrich said it was important to get back to Middenheim, and he ordered the pilot to steer away from the launch site.

And then we slept. Although I tried not to think about being so far above the ground, it was surprisingly easy to sleep. The next day’s flying was less eventful, but we did see lots of signs of the troubles that seemed to be inflicting the Empire. We saw a good number of dispossessed, making their way along forest tracks, and small military forces on the march.

Towards evening we saw Middenheim on the horizon. The Sky Wolf circled it and then landed in a military camp created for the purpose, not far from the city. We made our way up one of the viaducts into the city I was impressed, actually, by the workmanship and the design of the masonry and could see that there was a lot of proper dwarf influence in the construction of the entire city.

The viaducts were rammed as people were desperately trying to get into the safety of the city. We were escorted by guards who pushed them aside and as part of the baron’s entourage we got through quickly, without formality.

Inside the city it was just as busy, with people looking for supplies or accommodation. We heard some of what they were discussing:

Graf Boris has declared himself the ‘Wolf Emperor’, reviving a centuries old title. It’s a sure sign that the north is breaking away - and not before time! Those pampered fools in Altdorf have had their way for too long!

The Greenskins are getting restless down south, and there has been fighting in Black Fire Pass. If the empire is weakened by civil war they could overrun the south - unless the counts of Sylvania and Averheim stop squabbling and put a stop to them.

Southern rulers are using the mutant edict as a cover, resulting in letting mutants and other creatures of chaos into their armies as they prepare to march on Altdorf. This wicked law must be struck down, and mutants consigned to the cleansing flames as they have always been!

The cult of Ulric has chosen Emil Valgeir as our new Ar-Ulric. This is one in the eye for the Sigmarites, Emil’s no milksop. He won’t brook disrespect of our traditions.

We went past the Temple of Sigmar and saw that it was guarded, but the guards did not look that interested in their duty. The group told Greta about Guido, who they said was still on the picket at Brass Keep, and how he had had an office in the temple.

And then we made our way towards the palace. I think Blume owns a house in the city, so that could have been where we were heading. But we noticed that Greta was getting dirty looks and hard stares as she went. I think it was easy for the umgi to see her religious allegiance, due to her look and the symbols she wore. But she kept her head down and ignored it as best she could, though I noticed she threw the odd challenging glare at some of the onlookers.