137: Shining Rock

So we had to go to Shining Rock. Fred and I went to the armoury, and he had a word with one of the watchmen who warned him that there were rumours that the Sons of Ulric were on the prowl, and they were waylaying Sigmarites. They were especially active in the Warrenburg, just outside the city.

The armourer had gone to some trouble to adjust some armour to fit me, but the workmanship was nowhere near as good as dwarf-made stuff. And in my search for some throwing axes I ended up throwing a lot of his axes around, but I didn’t find anything weighted correctly.

We got up early to watch the Altdorf delegation leave town, and although they didn’t get much support from the people, they got out of the city and on their way safely enough. They did have some Knights Panther and some Knights of the Fiery Heart, and some men at arms, to protect them.

Then we joined the Middenheim delegation which was similarly well-protected. We saw the graf, and the baron, and riding in a coach was Katarina with her entourage, and Veiran. I didn’t feel too good about riding a horse, but Blume had a wagon and pair, which she said Harry used to drive, so I borrowed that.

Shining Rock was about fifty miles south of Middenheim, near the town of Malstedt, and so would take us about two days to get there.

I apologised to Blume for not giving her crown to Bettie for information, and tried to give it back, but she said that we had made a deal, and insisted I get her some juicy gossip. So I felt honour bound and had to swear on my ancestors to get her a crown’s worth of gossip. There are some umgi customs I am still getting used to. So I approached Baron Heinrich and paid him the crown to give some juicy gossip to Blume and he said he would.

Erina apologised to Katarina for her werewolf joke and Katarina said that she had heard the werewolf stories before. Erina asked what else she had heard about Crown Prince Wolfgang, and Katarina said she had heard he had been locked in Castle Reikguard for trying to seize power from his father, but she was sure that this was untrue, too.

Erina asked what she thought of the marriage proposal and Katarina was very diplomatic and polite about it. She said that this was her duty as the daughter of the graf and she had been preparing for it all her life. Erina asked her if anyone else had caught her eye, which was quite impertinent, and Katarina said she couldn’t possibly say.

As we travelled south we passed a lot of refugees heading that way, too. They were Sigmarites on their way south. Katarina looked concerned for them and said she hoped things would get better, and Erina gave her a hug of support.

Fred passed on to the guards what he had heard about the Sons of Ulric. Greta spoke to some of the refugees and they said that they were fleeing the north because they didn’t feel safe, in the face of persecution from Ulrican fanatics. They told her that some people had been physically attacked and Greta told them that we were trying to bring peace, and that hopefully they would soon be able to return to their homes.

Erina spoke to Baron Heinrich and asked him what he thought of his sister’s marriage. He said it sounded like a shrewd move. And she asked him if he was concerned about Crown Prince Wolfgang. Heinrich said that from what he had heard, the crown prince was entirely well.

She asked him if he had considered a love match for himself. And he said that he must do his duty, and he couldn’t swan around however he liked like itinerant adventurers (I think he was talking about us). He said all he was concerned about was the future and safety of Middenheim and his family.

And he went through a list of the threats it faced like the Jade Sceptre, the Purple Hand, and the Red Crown. He said that the graf was fond of us, and we had done some good work, but now it was time for the professionals to step in. And when asked about the threat from the rat men he indicated the great sword that he carried on his back and said its name was Rathewer and he had been given it in Miragliano. And then as she left him, Erina told him Blume fancied him. He said he was very aware of that.

Meanwhile Fred was riding up front and he spotted a gang of hairy looking Ulricans on the road ahead. He rode towards them and could see that they were confronting a group of refugees, so he steered his horse between the two parties. He heard the Ulricans telling the Sigmarites to pay up, and they wouldn’t get hurt. So Fred declared that this was a free road with no tolls, and he told the Sigmarites to continue on their way, and told the Ulricans not to make trouble.

And he realised that far from a band of religious fanatics, these were just a bunch of thugs trying to take advantage of the situation to get some easy money. And then Fred was joined by the baron and Greta. The Ulricans shouted some abuse at Greta but she told them that the insults of cowards did not affect her. And Greta told the baron off for not employing enough road wardens.

And towards evening we reached Grubentreich and stopped at the Bildhofen Arms. Blume managed to have a chat with Katarina and reminded her of the time that they met at the opera in Middenheim when Blume had saved her life.

Then she started talking about fashionable travelling attire. And I think Blume probably laid it on a bit thick, and Katarina asked her if she was ok. And Blume confessed she was not ok ever since she had met Katarina’s brother, and then complained about her sleepless nights, and Harry’s death. And she begged the princess to put in a good word for her with her brother.

Blume said that she and Katarina should be friends and told her about her rich father. And so Katarina said that Blume could have her pick of a lot of the men around the court of Middenheim considering her wealth and her services to the city. But she said her brother was an eternal bachelor, and was all about the business of Middenheim.

And then they chatted about rumours of the werewolf crown prince, and Ar Ulric’s affair with Isolde Begegnen. Katarina said that was definitely not true, and Blume put the rumour down to scurrilous halflings. And then they talked about the wedding and Katarina said she was prepared to do her duty to her city, and said it might all be for the best, anyway.

We got two rooms at the inn, and a large portion of the village’s famous cheese for supper. And before bed, Fred did a tour of the perimeter to make sure we were well guarded, but the knights and men at arms accompanying us knew what they were doing.

We were told the story of Shining Rock, that it was unique in the Empire in that it was sacred both to Sigmar and to Ulric. This was because each religion had its own version of the shrine’s legend, in which its own deity was the lead. Millennia ago, the god was resting at the site after a great battle against the forces of the dark gods. Ambushed and unarmed the god picked up a boulder to fight with.

The rock was quickly shattered, leaving a long, sword-like shard in the god’s hand. He killed five hundred enemies with this weapon before they fled. The shard still lay where the god dropped it, and the while Sigmarites and Ulricans disagreed over which god wielded the Shining Rock in battle, neither side would profane the shrine by coming to blows within its sacred precinct. We have a similar legend in Karaz Ankor where Grimnir wields a similar weapon. But our rock is longer and shinier than the umgi one.

The next day, in the afternoon, we came to a painted boulder and turned off the road. We noticed that the north side of the boulder was painted with a blue wolf’s head, but the south side was painted with a yellow twin-tailed comet. Beyond that we could see the shrine of the Shining Rock and the red and blue tents of the Altdorf delegation. And the Middenheim delegation began setting up their camp opposite them.

Blume wondered where the Altdorf carriage was that we saw leaving Middenheim. She spoke to some of the Knights Panther, and although they were hard to tell apart, she found some Altdorf ones. They told her that only the High Capitular and Yann Zuntermein remained of the original delegation. The rest had been sent back to Altdorf due to their inappropriate behaviour at the palace. Blume decided they were all lightweights, anyway.

Greta went to find the High Capitular, but was not allowed in his tent as he was with the Grand Theogonist, preparing for the next day’s meeting. She had a word with the guards about the others being sent home, but they didn’t want to talk about it.

And Blume spotted Elvyra Kleinestun who she had first met in Boegenhafen, and had rescued from kidnappers in Weissbruck. Although a lowly herbalist when they had first met, she was now the official pharmacist to the Grand Theogonist. She asked Blume if she wanted to go foraging, and they went off to pick herbs together.

Elvyra told her that shortly after Blume had rescued her, she had heard the Grand Theogonist needed a pharmacist, and had moved to Altdorf to take up the position and she had been a trusted member of his entourage ever since. She said it was good pay and conditions and she got to travel.

Blume asked her if she knew anything about the Purple Hand and told her about when her hands had turned purple. But Elvyra seemed to think it was about poor circulation. Then they talked about Katarina and Wolfgang and agreed it was a good match.

Meanwhile the rest of us went to have a look at the shrine. And sure enough it was just a long shard of shiny rock in the ground, with the shrine built around it. Greta gave me a tour, but for a witch hunter, I don’t think she knows very much about religion, and in any case, there’s only so much you can say about a piece of rock.