The Mark
Frau Allman leaves to deal with the aftermath of the murder, saying she will provide accommodation for Magdalena and impressing on everyone that they do all they can to keep the peace in her town.
Once the main course is finished Lady Eisenhal asks Magdalena what she thinks about Ada - can't she see that the girl should be fostered in Sohk, she was raised on a farm, she has neither the etiquette or knowledge to deal with a noble life. Magdalena says what's most important is that she is safe. Baron Todbringer asks what she thinks of the girl's character, has she the making of a Baroness? Magdalena says she doesn't know but the girl has showed resilience in the face of adversity and terrible circumstances.
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| Baron Todbringer - Cubicle Seven TPBTT |
When the meal ends Von Reiter appears and speaks with Lady Eisenhal in private. Magdalena gets changed and goes to head for The Bad Pfennig when a coach pulls up outside - it is from the Meisson family and has been sent to take her to their house where she can stay. As she boards it she sees Von Reiter leaving the house. Lady Eisenhal has agreed to have the Baron laid out in the Temple of Sigmar so he is going there now to organise having the body moved. He knows little about the murder and does not let it deviate him from his tasks. She leaves a note at Holzbek Manor for the gang saying where she's headed and telling Farfordda that Karwel can be found in room 10 at The Roamer's Pint.
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| basis generated from https://watabou.itch.io/village-generator |
In the background a drunk Norgrim having lost at darts is bellowing that he is Norgrim Reaper, pit fighting champion who beat Morgan the Mauler in Kemperbad. An even drunker Thindra amplifies this - Norgrim Reaper Baby Eater, also known as the bear! Some local says he should go fight Jolly Joss the current bare knuckle boxing champion at The Pit.
Farfordda enters with Kezia who leads him to the table where her elder sister reads the tarot. He settles down and buys them a bottle of wine and matches her cards on the table by spreading out his own. She notices that like his hand there is a digit missing. The Emperor he says - how appropriate says she, some say the Emperor is ill, that no one has seen him in an age. A few verbal exchanges soon lead her to invite him to come meet their Petru, Uriah and they get up and leave.
They exit the tavern just as a short minstrel enters announcing that he has come to find the dwarves who helped the Knight rescue Lady Holzbek, there is much laughter as he heads straight for Thindra and Norgrim who are loudly proclaiming their feats on the far side of the bar. Before reching them he spots Amos - who he walked alongside on the road from Hohenfarht to Lindenheim - It was yous who saved the girl! I thought you were taking that sick prisoner to Hope Square - where did you meet the knight?
Amos sets to getting Luther drunk and distracting him from any connection between the prisoner and the knight, sharing the free beer they're being served for Norgrim having buried Mortimer Rumster.
Then the watch enter. The gammon faced sarge starts questioning the clientele while a bear of young watchman with a black eye blocks the exit.
Were you in here earlier, did you see a well dressed gentleman with long red hair and a neatly trimmed beard? A drunken Thindra says yes, and I saw him before at Felangst Castle! All 3 Dwarves troop out with the watch and head to their barracks to identify the body.
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| Holzbek - courtesy ChatGPT & Imogen 4 |
The Strigany camp, 3 caravans drawn up around a fire, is out the east gate in the Ostrasse, close to The Pit. Uriah, a cracked leather faced Strigany with young eyes, dyed black hair and a bone ring through his nose bids Farfordda enter. His caravan stinks of sulfur and cinnamon, a pot boils on a hob at the back. The place is stuffed with beakers, jars and dark bottles, herbs and small creatures hang from every part of the ceiling.
Farfordda says he has traveled with the Strigany, Uriah makes plain that he has heard of him, and that he can see 'the mark' upon him - for a small price he can inspect it, he'll require some blood though.
Farfordda says he wants a parlay - he had a run in with Mariposa, he wants to talk. What did you do to Mariposa asks Uriah, to have her put the mark on you?
Back and forwards they talk. He knows that Wittgenstein castle collapsed into the Reik, but not how or why. Beatsmen, Skaven and mutants were all involved in the chaos there says Farfordda, the castle contained a lump of Weirdstone the size of a house. But what did you do? He had been hunting down a Chaos Witch called Etelka Herzen. Lady Wittgenstein got blown up. That can't be it thinks Uriah. What was Mariposa doing there? Uriah admits she is a friend, but he hasn't seen her since the last great gathering a few years ago - she is a powerful Petru though admittedly with some crack brained schemes.
Farfordda eventually relents and gives Uriah a thimble of blood from his thumb. He mixes it with Dreamwine and grave dust, boils it then drinks. There can be no parlay. The mark is faded but Farfordda's doom will come next Grunsnacht - some great monster, likely undead will find him. Can the mark be erased? No but it will fade if Mariposa fails to find him in his dreams before then. There is something else too, something other than his taint, but Uriah can't quite make it out.
Mariposa had the remains of an Old Father - the vampire overlords who ruled the Strigany back in Strigos millennia ago. Likely she sought Lady Wittgenstein's help to bring it back. There are some among the Strigany who think bringing back the Old Fathers would free them from their wanderings, let them reclaim their ancestral home. Uriah is not so keen on the idea, he might think ill of the Emperor Karl Fanz, but he surely can't be worse than an ancient vampire. Mariposa has long worked at this scheme. Thwarting this would certainly focus Mariposa's ire.
Their caravan was bound for Middenheim, but Uriah has heard ominous tidings and so may travel south to Talabheim instead. Farfordda tells him Middenheim is not safe, that it is the hands of a chaos cult known as the Purple Hand who infiltrated the aristocracy of the city right up to the Graf himself. Uriah thanks him for the information and says he has potions for sale should the elf have enough coin. Farfordda says he'll return before he quits Holzbek and leaves.
At the watch HQ a drunken Thindra confirms the body is indeed the Nordlander noble she saw at Felangst with Kepler Von Karzburdger. The watch send out to fetch him. Norgrim chats to Axel - the huge young watchman who was with the sarge. He and Amos tell Axel that his father was killed by a giant rat down the mine which they in turn slew. That his father's funeral is imminent and that his mother is moving to Gladbeich to join her recently widowed sister - oh yeah your Uncle was recently hung in a case of mistaken identity, this bounty hunter Lars and these 2 road wardens thought he was the notorious bandit Heinz Gerber. He remembers Lars coming to Oberholzbek - he's gonna kill that guy.
The dwarves decide to head on to The Pit, maybe Norgrim can get in that fight with Jolly Joss - the sarge tells them be careful - the place is hoaching with Lubrecht scum (local crime family) and mercenaries. They troop off and leaving the east gate run into Farfordda leaving the Strigany camp.
The Pit is packed and but they spot a couple of faces they recognise. Jean Saunier, Gilbert Eisenhal's tutor is chatting with some young women, Domu Petraska stands at the bar with a monkey on his shoulder engaged in conversation with a rough looking local and in the eponymous pit at the rear of this barn Amos sees the writer from the team of mummers they saw back in Lindenheim, the hulking woman who wore the Red Crown ring. She's entertaining an unsavoury crowd who hang on her every word.
Meanwhile Magdalena spends her evening at the Meissen residence, as she enters this well appointed town house she spies Kepler leaving the house next door - Frau Allman's, with a member of the watch.
The Meissens are a wealthy merchant family. After being shown the room they have cleared for her she is invited to the drawing room for tittle tattle over sherry. She tells the tale of her Ada saving adventure for the umpteenth time and shortly after a watchman arrives at the door - Von Reiter has sent him to bring her to the Watch HQ. She heads out into the damp, cold and foggy streets. It is near 11 o'clock on the 2nd of Nachgeheim...
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