In which our friends take leave of their patron and regroup for the upcoming Carnival.
Saturday, September 8th
Breakfast and questionings
Over breakfast at Baumgarten Haus, unsurprisingly abuzz with rumours and talk of the night before, the adventurers met Hanna, who seemed to have recovered a bit. Thomas Goldwasser was up too, having breakfast at another table. Frau Odette discreetly swept past and asked the adventurers to question their guests after breakfast and then report to the Gräfin.
Starting with Thomas, they brought him out in the sunny courtyard with a mug of coffee each. He told them:
- As he’d said before, he was surprised to be invited to the masked ball – he hadn’t been any previous year.
- After finishing his ‘business appointment’ he was about to go home, but ran into Herr Friedrich von Helstein. He expected trouble, but Friedrich seemed unexpectedly friendly.
- Someone else – might have been Frau Sylvia von Hantzsch – offered him wine, which was the last he remembered.
Asked whether he had enemies, Thomas was slightly evasive but suggested his only known enemy at the ball was none other than Friedrich von Helstein, whom he had caught red-handed with Hanna at the Three Feathers and whom only the intervention of the adventurers had stopped him from beating within an inch of his life.
The adventurers kept silent about their own discoveries but advised him to leave Middenheim for a while, in case he has enemies who will make another attempt on him. He nodded along, apparently agreeing.
* * *
Next, they brought Hanna up to their room and talked to her there. She told them:
- She and Jungfrau Blanca Emrich hit it off right away, sticking together all night and hiding together.
- They did drink quite a lot more than she was used to, and her memories were a bit fuzzy.
- She was introduced to other friends of Blanca, such as Herr Felix von Rosam.
- After they were discovered during the hide-and-seek game and sent back to the ballroom, Blanca and the others snuck off and brought her along. They had a little picnic in the cellars, which was the last thing she could recall.
- At the time, she hadn’t reacted to anything seeming suspicious – it had all been exciting and enjoyable, and she had felt welcome.
The adventurers told her they’d found her alone and locked in a cellar room. “But why?” Hanna wondered anxiously. Did it have anything to do with Thomas? She had heard other whispered gossip at breakfast and realised there was more to this than what she’d heard. After some hesitation, the adventurers told her everything they’d seen and figured out: it seemed that she and Thomas were drugged and captured to be used in some kind of dark ritual – perhaps with a fatal outcome. And by all accounts, the Society had aimed at the two of them personally. Hanna kept her composure but hugged Kethe‘s hand hard and then began pacing restlessly across the room. What should she do now? Was she still in danger? The adventurers suggested that if the Gräfin agreed, she should go along and stay with her for a while. Hanna nodded grimly in agreement and thanked them again.
The final report
They made their report to the Gräfin Marie-Ulrike; she confirmed that Friedrich von Helstein attended the same gathering where she herself was invited to be inaugurated in the Society; it was apparently his debut there, but unlike her, he seemed to have accepted and got a taste for it.
The Gräfin readily agreed to keep Hanna in her service for some more time and promised that Frau Odette would arrange the formalities of settling her parents’ debt to Thomas before they left the city.
After receiving the report, she formally dismissed them from her service, but offered them a freelance assignment: she would pay their salary for two more weeks ahead if they’d stay in the city over the carnival week, keeping an eye on political developments in the city and around the prince’s court, and send her a report afterwards. The adventurers gladly agreed to this.
A new place to stay
As the rest of the Gräfin’s entourage were vacating the Baumgarten Haus and unceremoniously leaving Middenheim, the adventurers were facing the not-entirely-uncomplicated concern of finding a new place to stay on the eve of the Carnival.
But they were lucky; the Templar’s Arms inn in Kaufseit, where Zima and Dmitri had stayed earlier, had just got a few free rooms due to cancellations. After some negotiation with the innkeeper Uli Breitner, an old friend of Dmitri’s and, like Aenlinn, a veteran of the Middenland regiment, the adventurers rented rooms for Carnival Week; Marike grabbed a single room while Aenlinn and Kethe shared one double and Wernhart and Courage another.
The Templar’s Arms was neither the fanciest nor the cheapest inn in town, but it was well looked-after and the food was excellent. The adventurers made themselves at home and acquainted themselves with the staff: the wisecracking barman Kurt Grüber, the melancholic handyman Konrad Alber, the quick-witted maid Rebecca Höfle and the cook Tímea Farkas, whose friendly good cheer was infectious even though her heavy Dolgan accent sometimes made her hard to understand.
The staff of the Templar’s Arms Inn
War council
Over an austere supper – Middenheimers traditionally nearly-fast on the eve of the Carnival – the adventurers discussed what had happened and what they should be doing next.
- The Fürstin’s “Society” was highly likely to remain active after her death.
- Strongly suspected members included Jungfrau Blanca Emrich, Herr Felix von Rosam, Herr Friedrich von Helstein, Frau Sylvia von Hantzsch and Councillor Gotthard Kepler (alias Gotthard von Wittgenstein); perhaps also Ser Lucius von Harwitz.
The suspects
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- What to do about them? The adventurers hit on the idea to gather what they know and anonymously tip off the witch-hunters Matthäus Hübkind and Adele Ketzenblum about the cult. Hübkind seemed to be suspecting the Fürstin’s clique already.
- They were also going to try to find out more about Herr Friedrich; perhaps they might have the opportunity to confront him during the Carnival.
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- They needed to find out where Professor Bletzen was held imprisoned and what they might do to help her.
- Ser Elke Wensmann was behaving very oddly whenever the new laws were brought up, but she didn’t appear to be bewitched.
- In Wernhart’s opinion, the symptoms suggested hypnotism.
- They decided to try to find someone knowledgeable about s uch things to examine and perhaps help her.
- Besides, more people than Elke had been behaving strangely lately. Could more people be hypnotised?
- Esther Lieberung’s old letters implied that the Magister Magistri had some big scheme going here in Middenheim, which the completed “Work” was to play an important part for. But what?
- Right now they didn’t have a lot of leads, but they’d have to keep their eyes open.
- It should be possible to find out more about Esther Lieberung herself, though.
- Samuel Kepler/Heintz – the father of Marike and Esther Lieberung – was also a mystery to find out more about. Apparently he was a prominent citizen and merchant in Middenheim until his son Gotthard took over a few years ago, but does this mean that he’s dead or is he alive? And if alive, is he still in Middenheim?
- Gotthard – who’s both a Wittgenstein and, apparently, the brother of Esther and half-brother of Marike – was also someone they should find out more about, especially since he seemed to be involved with the Society.
- Marike was going to continue seeing the court minstrel Ranveer Lafari – pleasant enough by itself, and it might also be useful to keep tabs on what’s going on at court.
Looking over a newsletter with Sunday’s attractions at the Carnival, the adventurers were looking forward to an exciting day.
The Enemy Within: Remixed 