158: Black Fire Pass

Before we went up into Black Fire Pass, we thought about hiring a guide, but Fred reckoned that the path would be quite apparent, and if a load of pilgrims can find their way through it, we shouldn’t have any trouble, and in any case, we probably couldn’t afford one.

The start of the journey was fairly easy as the dwarf-built road was in good condition, and it rose only gradually into the mountains. And we came to Bloodmoss Plain, which according to Fred was where Sigmar mustered his forces before the Battle of Black Fire Pass.

And we met a patrol garbed in the black and yellow of Averheim. Fred spoke to their sergeant, and made up a story about us on a mission to hire some dwarfs for help with the Middenheim sewer system. He said we needed to keep our mission secret, especially as we got closer to our goal. Blume loudly agreed, even though she had already secretly told Countess Emmanuelle all about it.

They told us that there were some bandits around the pass and we should be careful. But it seemed to me that any bandits would be better off picking on some stray pilgrims than us. And Fred said he got the impression that the patrol was an elite detachment.

And then towards evening the valley narrowed and the way got steeper and we came to Black Fire Keep. This was the traditional start of the pass, and we spent the night in the shadow of the keep with a load of pilgrims.

They asked us to join them for a meal, but also said they were starving and begged us for food, as they were surviving on Red Moss Soup. Willow gave up some of our rations, and Greta said she didn’t want to eat with them as they were fanatics.

They told us that there had been about forty of them originally, but now they were down to just seventeen. Two had died and twenty two had gone home. And then some bloke called Dieter had joined them. Will told them some news about Altdorf, like the wedding, but played down the strife.

Then they told us all about the end times, and I was beginning to regret not listening to Greta. One of the fanatics, Berthe, told us that she had had a vision of Sigmar walking down the pass and he disappeared into solid rock. Visions are like children: yours are interesting, but who want to hear about other people's?

Dieter, however, had been a miner at the Teugen mine, but he had given it up because there looked like no prospect of gold. He said it was almost as if they weren’t even looking for it. We wondered whether the whole endeavour was a ruse to search for Ghal Maraz.

The next day we met another military group. This time it was Colonel Sievers’ Imperial Ostlanders. We had spoken to him a few times in Altdorf, and he must have made good progress to get down here before us. He said that there was certainly no greenskin raid imminent, but the numbers of orcs had definitely been steadily rising.

He made it clear that he suspected we were on a secret mission, and that he wouldn’t ask us about it because it was secret. We filled him in on what had happened at Streissen. And we asked him about the Three Mothers as that was where were were planning to turn from the main path, but he didn’t have much to say about it, just that it was an obvious landmark.

But he told us about places to stay on our journey, and the landmarks we should expect, like Dok A Dum, the temple of the Holy Founding, Vithang Dum, and the Shrine of the Divine Comet, which we managed to match to locations on our map. He was still concerned about the lack of support he was getting from Altdorf, and we told him we would be able to carry a message to Altdorf for him on our way back.

Later as we passed a small shrine, called the Shrine of the Boar, Fred noticed the sun glinting off of something up on the mountainside, and went to investigate. He found a few people who had been torn to shreds rather gratuitously. They looked like bandits, perhaps the ones we had been warned about.

But Blume and Willow said that the maiming was reminiscent of the body of the bounty hunter they had discovered in Boegenhafen. The wounds were still pretty fresh, and so whatever had done it, couldn’t be too far away. They said that they may have been being protected then, and the way the bandits looked ready for an ambush, they could be being protected now.

Blume said perhaps she was being protected by the ghost wolf of Middenheim, and Greta changed her bullets for silver ones, and said she hoped that Blume wasn’t being protected by daemons. I had a look at the magical winds in the area, and I sensed some dark magic that had then headed south, the way we were going. So we hurried on our way.

We reached the Temple of the Holy Founding. This was supposedly where Sigmar defeated Bloodfang’s Greenskin horde and united the Empire. We met Father Rotmund, who couldn’t speak to us because he had no tongue. Apparently it had been removed by beastmen when he had been captured and tortured by them, but that didn’t stop Willow from trying to start a conversation with him. Greta was very impressed by the man’s fortitude. We camped outside the temple, and it looked like a vulnerable spot if anyone was inclined to attack it, and apparently the temple had had to be rebuilt several times.