152: The Reik Again

When Willow got back she asked Blume about the boy from Boegenhafen. He seemed to have been involved in whatever happened there. They said that only Brandy had spoken to him, but Blume had seen him briefly through a window. Willow said that someone who had visited the emperor had put her in mind of him, but it could just be a coincidence. We wondered whether he was a daemon or just a very naughty boy. Apparently he could change shape, which makes you wonder why he sticks with such a bad haircut.

We discussed our journey to Black Fire Pass, and we wondered whether to try getting hold of Das Moot, or go in the boat the authorities had arranged for us. We decided that the quickest would be the best, even if it meant being at the behest of the Black Chamber. And so we went to the military end of the docks and found the Carroburg. It looked a bit like a normal river patrol boat but was a bit bigger and sleeker. They said it was the fastest ship in the Imperial First Fleet.

Willow asked Elvyra to go to the graf and tell him what we were intending to do, and to tell him that we would try to get the hammer on behalf of the Todbringers. She thought that if we could arrange for the graf to hand the hammer to the emperor it would be good for both their houses, especially considering how the other one got broken.

So, now, as well as promising the hammer to the Black Chamber, and the cult of Sigmar, and the emperor, we had also promised it to Graf Boris.

Willow tried to defend Elvyra but I think it was pretty clear she was not a very good person. We discussed having Greta interview her but she said she didn’t have the time or patience to deal with wayward apothecaries, but she asked her whether Kappelmuller had any loyalty to a proscribed cult, and Elvyra said she did not know. And she asked her about the basin-cut boy, but she said she had never seen him. Willow warned her not to trust him if she did, but I would warn Willow not to trust Elvyra. Elvyra said he would have been removed from the palace guest list in any case, and she had been removed, too, which was probably a good thing.

So we boarded the Carroburg and was greeted by the ship’s boatswain, Lieutenant Grissen, a tough old waterdog. She upbraided us for being late, but I asked her whether her job was to convey us to Averheim, or to go to Averheim without us, which she didn’t like.

And then we saw the captain, Brunhilde von Flamme. Fred seemed to think she was from an old military family. She got out her telescope and surveyed the horizon, which was about six yards away, and I noticed Grissen wince. But she did have a nice hat. And we met Marine-Captain Bauermann who was in charge of the boat’s twenty-eight marines.

Grissen showed us to our quarters, and she couldn’t help grumbling that they used to be hers, and now she had to sleep in the brig, but there was barely room for us, anyway. Willow sat down in a coil of rope at the bow and lit a pipe. It looked a bit odd but Blume said it was just like the old days.

The first leg of the journey to Kemperbad seemed to fly by, with not much to report. Apparently Willow and Blume had gone this way before. And one day when we passed a riverside inn, Willow shouted, ‘Dumpling, Dumpling!’ Not sure what that was about. And we went past an inn that Blume had got robbed in, and a signal tower that they seemed to know. I didn’t see many of the sights, though, as I spent most of that time studying a new spell I had picked up at the College.

We did notice, however, that von Flamme spent a lot of time strutting around the deck with her telescope, but not doing very much. I don’t think the crew respected her much, and I think she relied on Grissen to run the boat. Willow managed to convince Grissen to let her be the lookout, but I think she stationed other lookouts as well, just in case Willow smoked too much while on duty.

Bauermann spent some time sparring with Greta and Fred, so the didn’t seem to mind us being on board. But Greta kept calling his men the river patrol which annoyed him, as they were really part of the Imperial First Fleet.

After Kemperbad the weather turned a bit, and so did our mood. We met a ramshackle raft made of small boats and flotsam floating downstream, and the people on board begged us for food.

Fred said we didn’t have time to stop and see to them, but Willow quickly stole a few crates of biscuits from the stores and threw them to them. We learned that they were from a village in Wissenland that had been destroyed. They said that maybe they had been attacked by the Reikland, which didn’t sound very likely. But we wondered whether it had something to do with Etelka Toppenheimer and the Sudenland issue.

The next day, still in the Reikland, we spotted a burning village near the riverside. It was called Schertal. We asked Grissen for time to check it out, and she agreed we could go over with some marines.

The village was deserted, but we found a few dead bodies. Greta decided that the whole thing was very odd, and she had a bad feeling about it, but there was nothing for us to do. Fred found the tracks of a mob of people, but we didn’t have tome to follow them.

Continuing our journey we found two more burned out villages. So it was clear that the unrest that had swept the north of the empire had also reached the south and we wondered which factions thought they might be able to gain from this. Greta declared that now that the emperor was feeling himself again, this sort of thing would soon be stamped out.

Then we arrived in Nuln. Blume was glad to be in civilisation again. We reported the destroyed villages but when they realised they were in the Reikland, they weren’t interested.

We spoke to Hans the harbourmaster and he came up with a long list of forms we needed to fill in in order to pass through the city. This didn’t seem usual. Neither Willow’s powers of persuasion, or Greta’s intimidation, or any bribery, could move him and we soon got the impression that he was trying to delay us.

After we answered all his ridiculous questions he explained that it might take a few days to process our papers, and he recommended staying at the Waterwheel inn. Despite his many questions I think we were all bright enough not to reveal the true nature of our journey. But on the other hand, I don’t think he believed any of our stories, either.

Willow suggested that nefarious forces were at work, trying to stop us getting to Ghal Maraz. Blume suggested that perhaps the Countess was trying to delay us so Blume would accept her job offer.