S3E9: Power Behind the Throne, Part IX – A Rough Night at the Three Feathers, Part 2

Full version in Swedish

In which our friends’ hopes for a quiet evening are dashed and a long day is followed by a long night.

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Tuesday, August 21st (January 6th, 2021)

 

Upstairs and downstairs

Hieronymus Jung (Photo by Dan Osbaldeston)

Wernhart decided to go downstairs for a drink and do some more eavesdropping on the way. As he was walking down the corridor, Hieronymus Jung looked outside, muttering something about having heard a noise. Wernhart stopped by Aenlinn’s room to report what he’d heart and then went downstairs. The servant Elina also came down and disappeared into the dormitory.

In the bar-room, Kethe was curious as the coachman Hans Fuhrmann went outside despite the weather and followed him; taking the time to check on her horse. Though he didn’t seem to be doing anything more exciting than a trip to the privy.

While they were out, as the clock struck eleven, Herr Schmidt came downstairs, looking drawn and worried and asking for Fuhrmann, throwing the other coachwoman some coins to pass on the message that Schmidt wanted to see him at room XI. Then he hurried back upstairs.

Hans Fuhrmann (Art from Rough Nights & Hard Days)

Herr Schmidt

Kethe and Fuhrmann came back in. Fuhrmann also disappeared upstairs after getting the message and Kethe chatted with Wernhart in the bar for a while – they noted that Marike was quite busy charming the handsome Estalian, Joaquin Montilla – before Wernhart went back upstairs.

Aenlinn and Emmelinde, meanwhile, had heard someone come upstairs, knock and enter a room near the stairs, and Emmelinde thought she also heard a muffled thump. As Wernhart came up, he also heard some voices, an upset-sounding woman and a whispering man. Just as he was rounding the corner, he saw Schmidt open his door, peek outside and scout around.

Joaquin Montilla

Emmelinde

Ursula (Art by Theo Axner)

Back in the bar-room, Kethe talked a bit with the adventurer Ursula Kleipzig, who asked if it was still raining. She also needed to check on her horse and they both went outside. As Kethe came back from the privy she noted Ursula was apparently spying out a room upstairs from the yard.

Hieronymus’ secret

A pale Hieronymus sought out Aenlinn, claiming the the scholars in room X were blackmailing him and wanting to hire her for protection. Pushed for some more information, he eventually admitted he was also going to Middenheim to buy a very rare and ancient book, the Liber Vorago (“Book of the Whirlpool”), from an antiquarian there. He somewhat vaguely described the book as a very ancient collection of history and legends; Aenlinn suspected there was more to it than that.

Helga Rosenbaum (Art from RN&HD)

In his youth, Hieronymus had been a member of a fraternal society he had left many years ago, but apparently he had now been found out and blackmailed by other members who also wanted the book. Pressed a bit more, he confessed that one of them had just visited him and he had knocked her out, panicked as she began to cast a spell at him.

Aenlinn brought Wernhart over to Hieronymus’ room where they indeed found an unconscious middle-aged woman. She was concussed but alive and apparently not dangerously injured. Wernhart also found an odd mark just below her collarbone, looking like an U inside of an O. Aenlinn agreed to guard and defend Hieronymus if the woman’s companions were to cause any more trouble – and now, in fact, they had a hostage.

Herr Goldwasser makes a scene

Thomas Goldwasser (Art from RN&HD)

About half past eleven someone begun violently hammering on the main door. The landlord, Hans Orff, refused to open at first, but when a voice outside roared, “In the name of the Five, let me in! This is Thomas Goldwasser!” he relented, apparently knowing the name.

Entering the inn was a well-dressed but very drunk gentleman, sporting impressive mustasches and holding a horsewhip, and accompanied by three rough-looking men – a short, stocky older man who looked like he might be a relative, and two big, brutish young thugs.

“We’re looking for Friedrich von Helstein!” yelled Goldwasser. “What room is he staying in?”

“Herr Goldwasser,” replied the frightened Orff, “there’s no guest under that name here!” Goldwasser paused for a moment, looking around with the exaggerated caution of someone trying to appear less drunk than he is.

“Well,” he resumed, “his boat is moored outside… so I suppose we’ll just have to go looking for him. Uncle Mho… gentlemen?” He waved his thugs upstairs, the staff and patrons who managed to get in their way being pushed aside. Kethe was too far away to block their way, but followed them upstairs joined by a throng of inn staff and servants of the Gräfin.

Uncle Mho and the thugs (Art from RN&HD)

Frau Schmidt

Upstairs, there was full pandemonium as Goldwasser and his men broke down the first door after the stairs and charged inside. A woman – Frau Schmidt – screamed inside. One of the young thugs dragged a half-dressed Herr Schmidt – or Friedrich von Helstein, apparently – into the corridor, holding him while the older “uncle Mho” held “Frau Schmidt” – presumably Frau Goldwasser – in front of him in the doorway.

Kethe managed to get out of the throng by vaulting over the balustrade just as Aenlinn and Emmelinde came out to see what was going on. They hurried to intervene, but the third thug blocked their way as Goldwasser started whipping the immobilized “Herr Schmidt” across his back and shoulders while Uncle Mho forced the weeping “Frau Schmidt” to watch.

Servants and guards of the Gräfin (Art from Rough Nights & Hard Days)

After a chaotic brawl, they managed to trip the thug in their way and while Emmelinde kept him occupied Kethe and Aenlinn charged into the fray. Goldwasser started lashing furiously at Kethe instead, forcing her back at first – as she tried to draw her main-gauche to parry, she was embarrassed to find she must have dropped it! – but she drew her rapier, lunged and cut off the whip. This gave Goldwasser some pause, and Aenlinn followed up by intimidating him, telling him forcefully that if he wanted to take his wife and her lover to the magistrates, that was fine, but here and now he had better stop getting himself into more trouble. Some of the Gräfin Marie-Ulrike’s guards had come along by now, but they paused to see how this confrontation would go.

Aenlinn won the contest of wills, Goldwasser’s drunken pugnacity draining away quickly. After a few moments of silence, he put on as much of a swagger as he could muster and said loudly to his thugs, “Well, lads, I believe we have made our point here. Let’s go.”

Mho let go of Goldwasser’s still-crying wife but shoved her ahead of him. Kethe caught her and said, quietly but firmly, “You do not have to go with them.” The woman, no older than Kethe and perhaps even younger, looked back and forth with frightened eyes between her glowering husband and her lover just picking himself up, and then threw herself into Kethe’s arms and held her frantically. Mho looked questioningly at Goldwasser, but he resignedly shook his head and the men went downstairs.

Friedrich von Helstein, who wasn’t badly hurt – Goldwasser didn’t get to beat him for long – also refrained from making any more fuss, quietly went into his room to pack his things.

Aenlinn returned to her post in Hieronymus’ room while Kethe brought the wife, whose name was Hanna Kohl-Goldwasser, over to her and Aenlinn’s room and offered her a place to sleep there. Hanna accepted gratefully; apparently even before this scene things had been going badly between her and Friedrich. He also left shortly after with his boatmen, without even asking for Hanna. Kethe couldn’t find her dagger in the corridor – she must have dropped it earlier.

About a book

Master Alphonse (Art from RN&HD)

Shortly before midnight the other two scholars knocked on Hieronymus’ door but was surprised to find Aenlinn there and their colleague knocked-out on the bed. They claimed it was all a misunderstanding, but Aenlinn pressed them about what was going on. Master Alphonse, the oldest of the scholars, more or less confirmed Hieronymus’ story about the Liber Vorago, but it was far from clear why it was so important to them.

The questioning was interrupted by yet another loud scuffle from further down the corridor. Aenlinn kept the unconscious woman hostage at Hieronymus’ room for now, picking up Courage and the two taking turns guarding her.

Too many brothers

Hans Orff the innkeeper (Art from RN&HD)

The latest scuffle had come from the room of the Brothers of the Stranger: there was loud shouting and what sounded like a fight. Hans Orff, the innkeeper, was reluctant at first but eventually knocked, happy to have Kethe to back him up. Just before he knocked, the room went quiet again.

The oldest monk opened, apologising for the noise. Inside the room, Kethe caught sight of two other monks sitting on a fourth, feebly wriggling and kicking on the floor. The monk at the door explains, “Our brother occasionally has these seizures when sensing visions from beyond the Veil. It is a bit inconvenient at times.”

The Brotherhood of the Stranger

Since the noise is over, Orff was happy to leave it at that, if puzzled, but Kethe couldn’t shake the feeling that something’s wrong here.

Then it hit her. Weren’t there just three monks before? And now there’s four!? She went back and knocked again, but this time there were only three of them – no trace of the fourth brother.

 

A quiet night?

Finally, a little after midnight, things appeared to have calmed down. Those who were still up went to bed. Marike was pleased to find she and Montilla got her room to themselves as Courage had been posted elsewhere.

 

The night before Wednesday, August 22nd (January 6th, 2021)

Murder in the dark

The peace did not last long. Just before half past midnight a woman screamed from the eastern wing, where the Gräfin and her retinue were quartered. Over there a small crowd of servants and others were milling around the door to Bruno Franke’s room – and in the room lay Bruno himself, immobile and lifeless with a dagger in his back. The Gräfin sent some of her guards to rouse everyone and gather them in the barroom. Not having brought her own physician, she summoned Wernhart to examine the apparently dead Bruno. So he did, making some quite interesting discoveries:

• Bruno was in very poor condition and near death, but not quite dead yet. Without the right help he was not going to make it through the night.
• The stab-wound from the dagger, on the other hand, was not lethal – it hadn’t pierced any vital organs.
• Some further examination suggested Bruno had in fact been poisoned, probably with an overdose of a sleeping draught.
• A final unpleasant discovery was that the dagger looked very much like Kethe’s lost parrying dagger.

Wernhart called Marike to help and after intensive treatment, aided by a double dose of her healing elixir, he managed to stabilise Bruno – he was going to survive the night and hopefully recover in time, but he was going to be down for quite some time. Wernhart reported his findings and results (except recognising the dagger) to the Gräfin, who thanked him somewhat curtly and had the dagger taken care of.

A killer on the loose

Everyone was gathered in the barroom. The Gräfin’s retinue was assembled around her, most looking shocked and upset – as far as nearly everyone knew, the murder attempt had been successful and Bruno was dead. Elina, the servant who had seemed sweet on Bruno, was leaning on another maid crying loudly. It also turned out one more murder had happened tonight – the coachman Hans Fuhrmann was found dead in the linen cupboard.

Gräfin Maria-Ulrike von Ambosstein (Art by Theo Axner)

The Gräfin took command of the situation and begun questioning people about who had been where when, but it soon became clear that as chaotic as the night had been it was tricky – most everyone had a decent alibi but few or none had a watertight one.

Things took a new turn when the Gräfin produced Kethe’s dagger and asked whether anyone recognised it. Kethe, stunned at seeing it, didn’t dare step forward at first, but Elina and the other maid both agreed in trembling voices that they saw her carry a similar-looking dagger before. All eyes turned on her and an ominous murmur arose in the room.

Kethe explained that she lost the dagger no later than the brawl with Goldwasser and pointed out she hadn’t been alone all evening, but people remained suspicious. Reasoning that the best defense is a good offense, she also mentioned seeing four monks in the three monks’ room – had they, perhaps, smuggled in the real murderer? The oldest monk shot back that he wasn’t the one caught with his dagger in a dead man’s back.

Gräfin Marie-Ulrike agreed this talk about the monks sounded like a distraction and declared she was placing Kethe and her “retinue” in house arrest until the morning, when she would decide further. She pointed out Aenlinn, declaring that she would require her to replace her murdered champion “until it pleases me to decide otherwise” and that Aenlinn was to be quartered in Bruno’s room. A murmur ran around the room, but no one questioned her ruling.

All the guests were told to stay in their rooms until morning, when the roadwardens or river patrol could be summoned. The Gräfin had guards posted on both floors and at the main doors. Aenlinn was installed in Bruno’s room, also with guards outside the door and below the window.

A nightly audience

An hour or so later, a chambermaid came around to the adventurers’ rooms: the Gräfin wanted to see them. They were taken under armed escort to her room, the guards also stopping to collect Aenlinn along the way.

The Gräfin was waiting in her room, fully dressed. After being left alone with the adventurers, she apologised for having to look them up, “but it seemed to be the only way to calm everyone down.” Of course she understood that Kethe was not the killer – no one would be stupid enough to leave their own distinctive dagger behind as a clue.

She quickly filled them in on the impending trial-by-combat she was heading to – it seemed the version the adventurers had heard before was essentially correct – and added that she suspected her accuser, Freiherr Eberhard von Dammenblatz, to be behind the attempt on her champion’s life. The drafting of Aenlinn as her new champion was, most immediately, a trick to hopefully draw out the real killer with the new champion as bait. However, even if Bruno should survive and recover, he was not going to be in any condition to fight a judicial duel in just a few days, and the Gräfin herself was a mediocre swordswoman at best. Therefore she now asked Aenlinn in earnest to be her champion in the upcoming duel. Of course, she would be well paid for serving up until the trial and have a generous bonus if victorius. Aenlinn accepted the offer.

The bait and the trap

The adventurers now were returned to their room, but Kethe and Courage now also quietly took positions with Aenlinn in Bruno’s former room; Aenlinn on the bed but fully dressed and with sword and crossbow ready, the others sitting on the floor around the room with weapons prepared. They took turns keeping watch, but it had been a very long day and evening, and it was now nearly two in the morning – Kethe, who had first watch, couldn’t help dozing off in the dark.

Elina, alias Dominique Hervaux (Art from Rough Nights & Hard Days)

The light-sleeping Aenlinn was awakened by hearing a soft thump and sensing someone moving in the dark towards the bed. She gave a loud shout, Kethe and Courage waking up and starting to get up. The newcomer – a woman with a dagger in her hand, only visible in a silhouette, who had apparently crept down via the chimney and open fireplace – jumped on realising there were more people in the room. With lightning speed she spun round, leaped to the window and started crawling out…

But not fast enough. As the woman was climbing through the window, Aenlinn got her crossbow up and shot her in the buttocks. With a loud shriek she lost her balance, tumbling forward and collapsing in an undignified heap on the roof outside the window.

Kethe and Courage quickly dragged the wriggling, cursing woman back into the room just as the guards outside came barging in. She turned out to be none other than the servant Elina! Although now she was swearing sulphurously in Bretonnian, in an alto voice quite different from her previous giggly soprano and perfect Reikspiel.

A medic (that is, Wernhart) was summoned and eventually the prisoner was taken to the Gräfin. She proved fairly cooperative and answered questions: her real name – or the one she gave, at least – was Dominique Hervaux, and she had been hired to infiltrate the Gräfin’s retinue some time ago to be in a position for a future task; the mission to take out the Gräfin’s champion had been received only recently. Her patron was anonymous, but seemed to have been an agent of Eberhard von Dammenblatz.

The adventurers finally got a few hours of sleep.

Wednesday, August 22nd

Dawn breaks on the Three Feathers (Art from RN&HD)

One head short

At dawn (about 6 AM), the Gräfin once more had everyone called to the bar-room. No one answered from the monks’ room, and when Orff unlocked the door a scene of carnage was revealed. All three monks lay apparently dead on the floor, and the coffin was open, containing a freshly-dead, headless man’s body. The only identifying signs on the body were some odd signs tattooed on its forearm.

Ursula Kleipzig and her horse were also missing, and Kethe realised it must have been the monks’ room she was staking out the night before.

Wernhart examined the fallen, found that one of the monks was still barely alive and managed to revive him with a field operation. The man eventually woke up and told them he and his companions were smugglers, and had been hired to bring a man they only knew as “Josef” safely to the Three Feathers, where he was supposed to have been picked up by another coach that never appeared.  “Josef” was drugged and smuggled in the coffin, but since the coach was late he woke up during the night. Then, a couple of hours before dawn, Ursula crept in through the window and massacred the other smugglers.

Morning assembly and departure

The Gräfin displayed the captured Dominique/Elina and explained that the real killer had been apprehended, and that she was working for the treacherous Freiherr Dammenblatz. The murder of Hans Fuhrmann remained unsolved, but the general assumption was that the escaped Ursula must have been behind that as well.

After breakfast, everyone is finally getting ready to leave the inn. The Gräfin offered to take the rest of the adventurers into her employ as well, up to the end of the duel in a few days; what happens after that must depend on how the Five pass judgment on the trial. They accept the offer and join her retinue for the present.

Aenlinn explained to Hieronymus that she could no longer undertake to prioritize bodyguarding him – by this point, the other scholars have managed to get their comrade back – but suggest that he and his party travel in the company of the Gräfin’s retinue, which should be safe enough.

The party continued north towards Middenheim, now barely two days away. They also brought the captured Dominique along, and Hanna Kohl-Goldwasser stuck with Kethe.

Some time after departure, Marike realised to her embarrassment that her money-pouch had been stolen.

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GM’s notes (Spoilers)