153: The Aver

So we were stuck in Nuln in a bureaucratic nightmare. Greta said she wanted to get Hans in a dark cellar with some tools. Willow did not condone that but wondered whether he might be in the Purple Hand, and even that the Countess might be in it, too.

Blume went up to the palace to see her mate Countess Emmanuelle, and after waiting for a long time finally got to see one of the Countess’ assistants, Margarethe, who she had already spoken to at Emmanuelle’s town house in Altdorf. Margarethe apologised for having her wait so long, and told off the staff for not bringing Blume some wine while she was waiting.

Blume explained that she needed some papers signed to release the Carroburg. Margarethe said she had hoped Blume had come to the palace to take up the countess’ offer of employment. Blume said that her knowledge of the graf’s activities would be an asset to the countess, and Margarethe said she was sure that hadn’t crossed her mind.

Blume offered some information on Etelka Toppenheimer and Margarethe asked whether that was the business we were currently on. Blume said it was, but Margarethe said that sounded far-fetched and if she didn’t want a job with the countess she should just say so.

And so Blume told Margarethe that we were on a mission to find some cursed jewellery that threatened the Empire, and we suspected the jewellery was to be found down south. And if we succeeded she would tell everyone the countess helped. And when pressed on the jewellery, Blume said it was a tiara, or a necklace, or a brooch, set with a soul crushing ruby. And so Margarethe told her she would have to go through the proper channels and wished her good luck with her mission.

So then Blume changed her mind, and revealed practically everything about our mission, and that we were looking to find the genuine Ghal Maraz. And at that Margarethe said she would get the Carroburg released at once. And she said they could discuss Blume’s payment on her return.

When Blume got back to us, she said she had sorted it, but just told us about the cursed ruby story, and didn’t mention that she had spilled all the real beans.

So Willow and Blume went to see Hans and he readily agreed to release the Carroburg. Although Willow gave him some feedback on the efficiency of his bureaucratic process.

So even though we were free to go, we still had to spend a day having the mast of the Carroburg dismantled so we could fit under the low bridges of Nuln. And as we hung around by the docks we did wonder why none of the other boats seemed to be going through the bureaucratic rigmarole ours had to go through.

So we went back to the harbourmaster’s office. It was locked up, so I burned the lock off, and there was nothing there except Hans’ old hat that hadn’t matched his new uniform, and we concluded that Hans hadn’t been the harbourmaster after all. We wondered if he was the basin-cut boy. And we decided that whoever he was, Margarethe and Hans must have been on the same team.

Anyway, we all congratulated Blume on getting us released without her revealing our top secret mission to the countess. As it got on for evening, Greta said she had a weird feeling about things, and said she felt we were being watched. And she urged Bauermann to double the watch for the night.

And so we set off the next day, leaving the Reik behind and travelling up the narrower Aver. The wind was harder to catch now, and so von Flamme ordered the crew to man the oars. She had them rowing quite hard to speed our journey. And when the crew had to row the next day we sensed some grumbling among the crew.

Bauermann said he was concerned that the rowing duty surpassed the regulations, and she was rowing his marines into the ground. And even Blume reading the crew poetry as they rowed didn’t lift their spirits. It may have even made it a bit worse.

We could see that the crew were not too happy, and if there was a fight they might not be in the best shape, so we had the idea to ask von Flamme for a nice drinks break at the next inn. But Blume stood up for von Flamme as she was so fashionable, and she liked watching the marines row.

In the end we got Blume to talk to von Flamme and but she couldn’t convince her that a well-oiled machine needed oil. In any case, von Flamme explained, the rowing was just a temporary measure, as once we reached the top of the river, it would all be down hill from there.

And so Fred had a chat with von Flamme and explained things from a more tactical point of view, and his more militaristic reasoning seemed to appeal to her, and eventually she agreed to let the men rest and have some beer.

During the rest break Willow asked Grissen how von Flamme got the job as captain. Grissen explained that her family had practically paid for the entire boat, which made sense because she didn’t get it through an in depth knowledge of river-faring and the respect of her crew.

That night, Greta was still feeling like we were being watched, and said she sensed something was looking over us. And so I lit up the sky with magic, and we could suddenly see the outline of a great winged creature flying above us.

We wondered whether it was a griffon, but it seemed too humanoid, and we thought it might be Guido, but it wasn’t. We had a look through von Flamme’s telescope, and it looked like it was a human with wings or a large robe, rather than a bird. Anyway, there was nothing we could do about it, so we spent an uneasy night knowing we were being watched.

The next day we made decent progress, and almost forgot about the flying creature. And towards evening we rounded a bend in the Aver and saw orange smoke rising above a burning village on the north bank, in Stirland. Grissen said it Heidheinheim. And as we approached we could hear the sound of fighting.

We rowed over with some marines on the jolly boat. We soon found the bodies of some villagers, and as we entered the village we were confronted by black-clad soldiers. Therefore, we guessed that they were from Nuln and we wondered why Nulners would be raiding Stirland. Many of the raiders were making off with their loot, but a group of them stood their ground.