In which our friends travel to Wolfenburg and meet their new patron.
Sunday, October 7th
The journey back
On Sunday morning, the small caravan – the adventurers with their horses and cart, Anya von Reuter with her family’s wagon and horses and what valuables she was able to bring with her to start a new life, and the captured Sanne and Junker Jonathan von Reuter – left the Schloss von Reuter and travelled back west, towards Bergsburg.
Lady Sanne was almost catatonic, staring blankly into space and barely moving. Jonathan kept calmly arguing for his release: “Look, I’m not sick, please just untie me.” Anya was very grateful to the adventurers, still shaken by the violence and terrors of the night, but not broken by her experiences – though she hadn’t yet fully processed the fact that her old life was over.
Aenlinn and Kethe were both staying vigilant: Aenlinn felt responsible for a tricky situation, while Kethe was worried something might go wrong before they arrived. Wernhart tried to keep his spirits up and make small talk with Anya and Sanne as they went. Anya was curious about the world outside; Kethe chatted a little about her growing up in Wissenland and about the carnival in Middenheim, but didn’t talk much about their adventures in between.
Shortly after noon, rain started falling and went on and on. The weather was still fairly clement but by now it was definitely autumn.
Monday, October 8th
The business in Bergsburg
Next afternoon, after staying the night at an inn, the party arrived at Bergsburg. There was a hospital at the Mourner’s Falls, and they might need to inform the Markgräfin Hildegarde von Tussen-Hochen, whose castle loomed above the city, of what had happened. They began by visiting the Hospital of the Nurturer to try to get Sanne and Jonathan committed there.
They were received by the matron, Mother Mathilde Dietrich. Marike and Anya explained what had happened, and with their promises of donations (Anya offered a decent chunk of the money she had taken from home) she agreed to take Sanne and Jonathan into her care.
Next, they visited the Chapel of the Stranger in the western part of the city to have Sven Feuerschild‘s wife and daughter buried again, and then they made their way up to the Margravine’s castle above the waterfall. They got to meet the castellan, Ser Ladech von Gantar, and told him about it all – though they didn’t name Anya, who kept in the background. Ser Ladech seemed skeptical at first but listened to their account, had notes taken and declared that the matter would be investigated.
On the way back from the castle, Aenlinn asked Anya what she wanted to do now. She said she might like to go to university, or maybe travel and see some more of the world. She’d be happy to travel along with the adventurer for a while longer if they’d have her.
* * *
Later that evening, after some discussion, the adventurers agreed Anya could at least join them as far as to Wolfenburg. Everyone also went to take a cleansing (although horrendously cold) bath in the sacred waterfalls before bedtime.
Tuesday, October 9th – Monday, October 15th
The journey east
The next day, the small caravan set off again on towards Wolfenburg. Aenlinn was in a good mood, cheerfully talking about her old friends who lived there, including an old soldier buddy who married into an innkeeper family.
* * *
They continued along the northern Hochland high road for another week. The landscape continued to be hilly and heavily wooded; the road often ran through thick forests, alternating with patches of open and cultivated land. On the average they passed a village every 3 miles or so. Far to the north, the Midden Mountains could be seen rising above the treetops. The rain had finally stopped; the sun was shining again and it was gradually getting warmer and drier.
* * *
On the third day, Thursday, they passed the town of Estelberg. There they heard some rumours of bad harvests in the north and continued saber-rattling between Grand Prince Hals von Tasseninck of Ostland and Grand Duke Gustav von Krieglitz of Talabeckland. Ostensibly the dispute is about the Grand Prince blaming his neighbour for the death of his son, Crown Prince Hergard von Tasseninck, during his ill-fated expedition to the Grey Mountains; but there were old grudges between the provinces and some border areas were disputed. The current ruckus might be mostly the pretext the simmering conflict has been waiting for.
* * *
A few days later, arriving in the small mining town of Körin, Kethe kept her eyes open for more rumours and talk of discontent. A few hunters who’d come into town to sell furs and meat had heard some more about the growing rumblings in the east – apparently the Prince of Ostland was now demanding Talabeckland hand over “his son’s murderer”, and the Duke of Talabeckland claimed the bandits ravaging his borderlands were in Ostlands pay – and they’d also heard that the Emperor was not only ill but apparently getting worse. Others claimed to have heard the opposite: he was supposed to be on the mend now, thanks to his new personal physician.
Propping up her arguments with these rumours of bandits and dangerous roads, Kethe advised Anya to settle in Wolfenburg, which should be safer, and stay put there for a while.
* * *
The next day they met a family of refugees on the road; an Ulrican blacksmith and his family, who had been forced to flee their home village outside Wolfenburg due to persecution and harassment. They were on their way to Middenheim to try their luck there.
Tuesday, October 16th – Friday, October 19th
Across the Ostland border
On Tuesday, a week after leaving Bergsburg, the adventurers reached the last outpost of Hochland, a fortified border post and customs station near the village of Apfeldorf, and then crossed the border into Ostland. On the eastern side, the border was guarded by Schloss Lenkster, a solid old stone castle that towers over a hill to the west of the river. They paid the toll and went on towards Wolfenburg.
Ostland is a province with a reputation as a poor and slightly backward backwater. The adventurers quickly found that at least the local beer lived up to its bad reputation; it was distinctly worse than what they were used to in Middenheim and even Hochland. People were not unfriendly but wary of strangers, especially heavily armed strangers on horseback.
An odd detail in the landscape was the urn groves – cremation was still common here – which were often placed along the main road. Small roadside chapels and altars with images of saints were also common. Otherwise, the landscape itself wasn’t much different from that of Hochland so far; it was still rocky and hilly, with plenty of forest alternating with meadows and fields.
Saturday, October 20th
The walls of Wolfenburg
On Saturday, three days after crossing the border, the adventurers were finally approaching Wolfenburg. By now the road was visibly better maintained, and the villages and farms along it were looking larger and more prosperous. Fields, meadows, woods and grazing cattle could be seen everywhere; the farmers were hard at work chopping wood, slashing-and-burning and harvesting cabbage and turnips.
It was almost noon when the walls of the city came into view. Wolfenburg was a decently large and impressive city, though much smaller than Nuln and even Middenheim. The city walls were low and might not look like much, but as Aenlinn pointed out they were modern and practical; thick enough to withstand cannon fire, and with plenty of room for their own shot and artillery. A deep ditch around the city walls met the river Wolfen which flowed through the city, forming a moat. Aenlinn also noticed there were far more cannons on the wall now than at her last visit a few years ago. A sign of preparing for war?
The Crayfish Inn
After passing through the city gates – and Anya paying the toll on the goods she’d brought to sell in the city – Aenlinn happily led the party to the Crayfish Inn where she knew the owners. Once the party had found lodgings, the instructions were to visit the Jolly Magpie tavern, show the owner the seal that proved they were in the service of Kurfurst Boris Todbringer, and give her their address.
The Crayfish Inn was a cozy place with a long narrow courtyard, trampled earthen floor and stone walls on the ground floor. Aenlinn’s old friend Sam Bernbaum was at the bar. They greeted each other happily and she introduced her companions to him and his wife Annika who soon joined them. It had been two or three years since the last time Aenlinn had business here.
Lodgings and other arrangements were swiftly seen to. Aenlinn accompanied Sam to the stables to sort out the horses and carts. The party rented a family room and two single rooms upstairs and then attacked the lamb stew served for lunch.
The Jolly Magpie
After lunch, it was time to find the Jolly Magpie tavern; Sam told them it was on the edge of the artisan’s quarters in the northwest parts of town: across the great bridge, three blocks straight ahead and then to the right. It was known as a popular hangout for Ulricans in the otherwise heavily Curian Wolfenburg. There were also some rumours of disease in the dock quarters on the west side of the river.
At the edge of an alley, they found the sign of the Jolly Magpie; a basement pub with windows at street level. This early in the afternoon, it was fairly empty inside. The tavernkeeper, a grizzled scarfaced woman, was indeed Rula Haffner; as instructed, the adventurers showed her the Kurfurst’s seal and left their address at the Crayfish. She nodded and curtly explained they’d be contacted there.
* * *
The party then spent a pleasant evening hanging out at the Crayfish. They also picked up a few more or less ominous rumours:
- A band of outlaws ravaging the north were apparently Ulrican partisans and only robbed faithful Curians. This rumour reminded the adventurers a bit of the “Righteous Soldiers” they encountered in Middenland this summer.
- Some nasty fever disease had been raging in the slums on the west side of the river for the past month or so. Quite a few people had already died from it.
- There seemed to be a conflict brewing between two of the criminal gangs in town.
Sunday, October 21st
An invitation to supper
At breakfast the next morning, the adventurers got a letter apparently delivered by an errand boy to the innkeepers. It was short, reading:
Please join us for a light supper at the Red Cockerel tavern on the East Docks, at seven tonight. Ask for Herr Wulf.
The adventurers spent the day relaxing and taking care of some personal matters. Kethe took the opportunity to write a letter to her father, Ser Warmund von Hollinger, and had it sent home by stagecoach. She also helped Aenlinn compose a letter to her family and send it off.
* * *
Then in the evening they went to the Red Cockerel, a red brick house near the docks on the east side. On the way, Kethe anxiously asked Wernhart how to protect oneself from infection if there was indeed disease here; he said that handkerchiefs with perfume or herbs was the standard, but luckily it sounded like the infection had stayed on the other side of the river so far, so hopefully no danger here.
The man in the shadows
In the smallish tap room, some smoke drifted in from the fireplace, mixing with smelly tobacco smoke from some of the guests. The adventurers asked the tavernkeeper for “Herr Wulf” and he showed them – a little nervously, they thought – to a door in a corner of the room. He knocked three times and then backed off. The door opened a little; standing in the doorway was a big man, with a reddish-brown beard and his hair in a top knot. “Yes?” he said. The adventurers explained that they were here to meet “Mr. Wulf”. A deep voice from within called: “It’s all right, Veiran. Let them in.” Veiran took a couple of steps back and waved the adventurers into the room. He was wearing simple, rough clothing but had a sword and buckler at his belt; Aenlinn could tell from the way he moved that he was a professional warrior and not some simple tavern thug.
The room was small and windowless; the only light came from candles on the table, a couple of flickering lanterns on the walls, and a fire in the fireplace. Shadows fluttered back and forth on the walls. Sitting behind the table that seemed to fill up much of the room was an even larger man, his face completely hidden in shadow. On the table were some cups and wine bottles and a tray of mixed cold cuts: smoked meats, sausages, cheeses, bread, apples and grapes.
“Good evening,” the man in the shadows said politely, but didn’t get up. “Please be seated. Let’s get the formalities over with: I believe you have a seal, and perhaps a letter from an acquaintance of mine, with you. Would you be so kind as to show them to me?”
The adventurers handed over the seal and the letter Rita sent with them. The man looked at the sealed and nodded, opened the letter and quickly glances through it. Then he leaned forward and the adventurers could see him clearly for the first time.
“My name, as you will probably have gathered, is Heinrich Hohenfels,” he says. “I serve my father, Kurfurst Boris of Middenheim, in several capacities. One of them is as a diplomatic envoy, and it is in this capacity that I am here in Wolfenburg now. Another is to keep a watchful eye on various, open or hidden, threats the security of our house or our Principality. That, I understand, is where you come in.”
The interview and the assignment
Heinrich invited the adventurers to help themselves to drinks and snacks, and asked them to tell him about themselves and their experiences, particularly in relation to the House of Todbringer and the attempted coup in Middenheim. The adventurers introduced themselves and their talents – Wernhart takes the opportunity to change his name again and introduced himself as Bernhard Schwartz – and briefly told him about their doings in Middenheim. Heinrich didn’t seem surprised by anything they told him – he had presumably already been briefed on the matter – but he listened attentively.
Once Heinrich had a clear enough idea of who the adventurers were and what use he could have of them, he stood up and shook hands with each of them. He was even larger than he appeared sitting down – over 6 feet 6 – and as strong as a bear. He then sat back down and filled them in some more about what was going on here. There was indeed much tension between the princes of Ostland and Talabeckland; it was not open war yet, but Heinrich feared it might only be a matter of time. “I and others have tried to mediate, but both princes have little desire for an agreement. Most worrying of all, perhaps, both have begun to reach out to old allies for support…”
He also asked whether it was true that the former Law Lord Karl-Heinz Wasmeier’s body was never found after the battle on the bridge. Aenlinn confirmed this; Heinrich grimly replied that until he saw the corpse with his own eyes, he must assume the Magister might possibly have survived.
“And former Councillor Gotthard Kepler is still at large, surely far from Middenheim by now. The ‘Society’ he headed appears to have dispersed now, at least in Middenheim… but who knows whether he’s still plotting against the throne in exile?”
* * *
The questioning session over, Heinrich explained that he had a small worry the adventurers could relieve him of, to begin with. It concerned another of his contacts in the city, the talented and well-traveled physician Dr. Alessandra Giuliani, who had suddenly ceased contacting him and seemed to have disappeared. The first mission was to find Alessandra and make sure she was – or would be – safe. If worst should come to worst, Heinrich would need to get hold of her papers, especially her journal.
They got an address – she rented a garret above a shop – and a description. She, like the adventurers, used to contact Heinrich by leaving messages on the Jolly Magpie; she was probably also known to the Physicians’ Guild and the Chapel of the Nurturer in the city (the latter also ran a hospital in the slums of the western city). She had mentioned something about doing research on the plague in the slums.
The adventurers undertook the mission without objections, and Heinrich happily ordered more food and drink and made sure everyone was well wined and dined. Veiran remained standing vigilantly and didn’t touch a drop.
* * *
Eventually they returned to the Crayfish to rest. Tomorrow the search would begin.
Next: Slaughter in Spittelfeld
The Enemy Within: Remixed 