143: Hugo Bottomdown

As the crown prince was preparing to leave, we talked about travelling with his entourage. Blume asked one of the chamberlains if we could travel with him, and he said we could but he was definitely a bit frosty and made it clear that we should not cause any trouble. I think the gift of the banner had set some of the Sigmarites against us, even the though the crown prince took it well.

And then we had to find some horses. I would rather walk than ride, and Greta and Fred were happy to, as well, especially considering the huge entourage would not be travelling that quickly. But Blume insisted on having a horse, and because Blume wanted one, then Erina had to have one as well. Erina’s was called Sparky, but I think she just named it that to go with her fire wizard look. And Blume’s was called Princess Galloping Trots, which she though was funny, but she said you had to have been in Boegenhafen to understand the joke.

Greta had a word with one of the servants about the Nine Eyes. She asked why they were called that, and the servant replied that it was just a common thing around the court, and had been so for many years. Greta thought there might be a more sinister reason behind it, and she invoked her witch hunter authority but she didn’t get much more out of the servant. I don’t think the servants of the crown prince are as easily intimidated by witch hunters as simple peasants.

In the end we rode ahead of the main entourage. And we had not been travelling for long when Blume decided that someone was following us. She told me about it, and I was careful not to look, but the follower may have suspected we knew his game and he rode off.

But later on, we spotted him following us again, and so after a bend in the road we deciding to lie in wait for him, and we hid under an apple tree. But our follower did not show. So Erina mounted Sparky and rode back down the track and she found a halfling hiding in the undergrowth with his pony.

And it turned out that we were being followed by a halfling called Hugo Bottomdown. Erina was very polite to him and told him where they apples were, if his pony fancied one. And she said there was no need to follow us as we were quite friendly and he could ride along with us if he wanted.

But she asked why he was following us and making notes, and Hugo said he would not take any questions about his employer who was a noble elector of the Empire. And so Erina tried to guess who his employer might be and went through many of the provinces, but Hugo did not give them away.

And Erina wondered whether Hugo might be a member of the Purple Hand, but he wasn’t wearing any purple, and in the end she tried to trick him into admitting he was Purple Hand, but he didn’t fall for it, but he wrote it down.

And when Erina came back to report to us, Veiran said that we should beat him up. And we mentioned that he had a noble patron, but Veiran said that the people of the Empire gave too much credence to the nobility, which was a strange thing to say as he was the right hand man of Baron Heinrich. Greta did not disagree with Veiran however, and said that torturing him would get to the bottom of things.

But we continued on towards Altdorf, and Hugo trailed us for our entire day’s journey. Occasionally Erina would ride back to talk to him, but he didn’t want to discuss anything and insisted he be left alone to carry out the instructions of his noble patron. And there wasn’t much she could do about it. For a highly trained battle wizard of the Bright College, I thought she might be able to do a bit more than offer him an apple.

Later Erina asked me how I was finding things in the Empire, and I had to admit that the land seemed a bit too low and flat for me, and the river was too slow and wide, and the hills were all a bit flat, and the weather was too warm, and the people wee all a bit self serving and underhand, and after a few minutes of this I realised that I did not like the Empire very much at all.

That evening we stopped at the Two Pfennigs for Wilhelm Inn. It was a bit bare and rural, and looked like a place hunters might stay. They did not even have a proper stable, but a post to tie horses to, which they promised would be guarded throughout the night.

We paid for a place in the common room and even Blume decided to use the common room. We knew Hugo was still following us, so Blume ordered an extra dinner for him. And after a bit Hugo did arrive, but no one told him about the extra meal, so he ordered his own, and got himself a private room. And when Blume told him about the extra stew she had ordered for him he wrote it down. I am not sue how much the information he was collecting on us was worth, but it must we worth a fair bit for Hugo to be able to afford a private room on it.

Blume asked if Hugo wanted to join us but he preferred it on his own, and she asked him if he knew any halflfings, and she listed all the halflings she knew, which was quite a lot for someone with no friends. But Hugo said he didn’t know any of them. And then Blume and Hugo discussed writing, as she said she was a journalist, too, and she asked for tips about getting her stuff out there.

And then Hugo asked her lots of questions about herself and her parents. I think normally if someone is spying on you and reporting on your actions it is best to be a bit reticent with them, but as Blume’s favourite subject is Blume, Hugo had found a willing source of intelligence.

But some of the questions he asked showed that he already knew a lot about her, especially about the time before she came to Middenheim, and had strange adventures with the halflings. Hugo seemed to think that since she left Boegenhafen she had left a trail of bodies behind her, which is not how she told the story to me.

And after Blume had told Hugo pretty much everything she could think of about herself, she looked very pleased with herself, and Hugo looked pleased with himself.

We tried to get Blume to stop talking to him, but she said that Hugo was the only person to ever show an interest in her. And while she was telling him everything, the rest of us were wondering how to stop it. And finally Erina said if we were going to do something about this we needed to do it now. And we all agreed we couldn’t have this halfling spying on us.

So Erina announced she was going to check on the horses, and left the inn, and Hugo followed her out, and so Greta, Blume and I followed him. And Blume tried to smack him with her pistol, but he was too quick for her. And I tried to grab him, but he slipped out of my grasp, too. And Erina got hold of the halfling’s pony and started to walk it away. Hugo stopped and shouted ‘don’t take my Blossom.’ And Greta put a knife to his throat as Erina demanded to know why he was following us.

But the halfling would only repeat that he was on official business of one of the elector nobles and demanded we let him continue his work unimpeded. Blume tried to bribe him to tell us but he insisted we could not buy his loyalty. So she tried to shoot him in the foot. But he was quick enough to dodge that, too. And Erina threatened to magic dart him in the head, and Blume threatened to shoot his horse. To be honest, it was all very unseemly.

In the end Hugo revealed that they pay people to tell them what they know and what we have already told others, and he said that we have already told people what he had repeated back to us. We asked whether they meant to do us harm and Hugo said we were merely persons of interest. And we asked whether this would affect Katarina and he said he didn’t think so.

And eventually Hugo said he had had enough of this and he drew his dagger. Erina quickly darted him and Hugo shouted for the watch. Greta punched him, but he dodged out of the way of that and Blume reloaded her pistol.

Then Erina told everyone to calm down, and that this had gone too far, even though she was the one who had escalated it. She said Hugo was being uncool, but Hugo said she had just fireballed him. And Erina said we should all go inside and have a beer.

Then Erina told him about our work and a lot of what we had done and the dangers we had faced. I think it was to get us on more friendly terms, but it just gave him more information. And in the end Hugo said he would leave and stop collecting information on us. But between what Blume had already told him, and what Erina had just said, I feel like he had collected more than enough.

So he grabbed Blossom’s reins and made to leave. Erina told him he should stay in the inn, but I think Hugo had had enough and he was ready to go. And he said we could have his room for the night if we wanted. But it was plainly going to be very dangerous to travel through the forest at night, so I feared for him. But Erina called him a slippery little fucker, and she had a point.

But when he had gone I noticed he had dropped a note on the ground. It was headed with a fiery sun/skull motif, and read:

A New Dawn for Solland

Actions required as vital priorities in the service of her majesty:

1. Acquire funds, horse, camping gear, trail rations, spare uniforms.

2. At Pfiefdorf ask for Fione the Thresher. Give her the uniforms and pay her. The word is Heidheinheim.

3. Travel to the Reikland. Confirm the marriage between the Todbringers and the House of the Third Wilhelm. Record any persons of interest.

4. Report back before the solstice.