Dreams and investigations

Dreams and remorse

As we wait for someone to arrive from the celestial college, my mind wanders. I sense Eldur’s barely constrained fury and unrest, as I do much of the time now, asleep or awake.

To the others, I conceal my inner turmoil, and well I believe. I do not tell them most nights are spent tossing and turning at best, or screaming in nightmares at worst. It’s always the same.

Eldur, being dragged down into the murky waters by tentacles. At first, I thought my mind was replaying the gruesome scene with the Kharibdyss almost killing him. But then, I see that the waters are not of the sea, but of swamp. Murky and fetid, not fresh and cold. The tentacles are not of the great but ultimately mundane beast, but of dark shadow and the swamp itself. And Eldur – he does not drown, but lets the tentacles into his core, cackling with madness, as I can feel his power swell and his soul vanish. In the background, someone is laughing, relishing my helplessness. I can never move, I can never speak. I can never comfort my twin as I see his desperation at first, and then…resignation. And worse…acceptance.

I try to convince myself these are dreams, that Her reach does not go this far. I spend almost too much time in Shallya’s temple. Maybe Johanna is right, maybe we’re rid of Her, spared by distance, Sigmar and the other gods’ influence. But…I don’t really believe it. Already, she is sending her troops to Wrecker’s point. I’m not vain enough to believe She only seeks us, but clearly, we’d be a fine prize as well. She’s lived for hundreds and thousands of years, why did we not just give Her what She wanted? So what if She got more power up there in Her stinking swamp!!! In the middle of the night, these thoughts come easy – too easy.

I tried to rid us of Her stench right after we got out of the swamp, killing the Chaos worshipper I so blithely had let into our midst. In the tiny, tiny hope that somehow, it might wash away the memory and taint of Her, of seeing Eldur on his knees, broken in front of Her after seeing his destiny. It didn’t work of course. It only broke us. At the time, I truly could not have cared less. Torgil and Piet – could you be more small-minded? Concerned with the timing of killing a Chaos worshipper? It was clear by then we didn’t need him anymore. I had half a mind to whisper to Eldur to engulf them in flames! Madness was but a hair’s breadth away, and we would have truly embraced being Norscan after all those years. I’m sure Khorne and Tzeentch would have welcomed us with open arms.

Now, many miles away and some (but still too few) days, I see things differently. I feel shame at letting my feelings control me, ever the Norscan. At letting Johanna down. At splitting the party in those unforgiving surroundings.

And yet…I feel bitterness, rising in me like bile.

 I can see the way Piet looks at me, like a child unable to control herself. Torgil, brushing away my attempt to apologize away like it was nothing. I suppose I should cut him some slack, growing up without parents and in the care of a distant elf, like they all are. I am glad Johanna, angry as she was, managed to rise above. The wisdom of age and loss I suppose. 

In the light of day and sheltered by Shallya’s warm embrace, I see this. But not at night.

Revelations

I become aware of my surroundings again when I feel Eldur tighten beside me, as astromancer Duderino McDuderface walks in. As I understand it, the bright and celestial wizards aren’t too fond of each other. Johanna lays into him, demanding answers, full of emotion. McDuderface seems less than impressed. It’s pretty clear this is a cold fish, who is dictated by logic, politics and station (he refuses to acknowledge anyone but Johanna and Eldur) and seemingly in full control of his feelings.

I manage to whisper into Johanna’s ear as Eldur and the elderly wizard start talking shop, counseling her to reign herself in and not give him the advantage. I can see her jaws tighten, but she gets it. With a slightly more diplomatic touch, he accedes to helping us track the fugitives. The wizard, with Eldur assisting sort of voluntarily, performs some ritual, which seems fairly powerful. They’re able to see a destination: Morr’s Gardens.

Simultaneously, Johanna sends word to all the gates, asking the watchmen to send word back if they’ve seen anyone matching the fugitives’ description leaving the city (spoiler alert: they didn’t).

We go to the Gardens, where, quite unusually, we are met with closed gates. We knock, and Johanna asks for entry. They refuse and close and lock the gate. Eldur decides to…help things along, using his tricks to open the door, grin on his face. Weirdly, the guards do not take kindly to this, but at least we’re able to talk to them face to face. Things are getting heated (I can see a small fire in Eldur’s palm…) when the high priest of the Gardens appears. We ask in a variety of ways what is going on, but the priest simply repeats that “this is an internal matter and will be handled accordingly”. Frustrated, we give up and chase other clues.

Everyone but Johanna goes to Vadim’s [professoren] house. After some searching, we find his diary. A lot of uninteresting stuff (wow was this guy B-O-R-I-N-G), but at the end he gets sick from some unknown disease. The last entry simply says “I will die today”…and that was over a year ago. Curious indeed.

Meanwhile, Johanna goes to the witch hunters’ quarters. As she later recounts to us after we swear to keep it a secret, her boss lets her in on a terrible and embarrassing secret.

Many years ago, an elven queen donated something called the chalice of oblivion to Salzenmund. It protects the city from necromantic forces, something which apparently plagued our fair city in the past. The elector-count passed the responsibility of protecting the chalice to Morr’s priests.

Then, around 100 years ago, vampires from a bloodline called Von Karsten tried to infiltrate the city. Yes, apparently vampires are very real, and yes, apparently they have bloodlines. They were opposed by the witch hunter general Pietra Hierkeit. BUT, shockingly (!), she turned out to be a vampire too! And obviously, from a different clan called the Lamias. She was killed by the witch hunters, who then covered up the scandal to avoid being dragged down themselves. 

Interestingly (at least for the morbidly inclined), Pietra was not given what Johanna calls “the final death” by setting her on fire or decapitating her. Instead, her body is kept in separate pieces in Morr’s gardens still…as a form of eternal punishment, since apparently, vampires don’t die unless set on fire or decapitated.

A new role

This information is disturbing, to say the least. Have we – sort of unwittingly – aided cultists and/or necromancers, seeking either the Chalice and/or Pietra’s body parts? Johanna is obviously committed to solving this mystery, and by Shallya, so am I.

So I ask Johanna if it would be possible to be deputized as an investigator for the witch hunters. My reasons are manifold…but mostly benign.

1)      If I am to help investigate this mystery and I suspect others later down the line, I need some sort of official powers. As was very evident when talking to the astromancer, without the backing of someone in power, you don’t get very far with some of the high and mighty – no matter your social aptitudes (and good looks, if I’m being honest).

2)      The witch hunters in Salzenmund seem incredibly practically minded, guided by the greater good and able to play the political games when needed. Sigmar is an important god whom I respect, but some of his followers leave something to be desired in the subtlety department – I’d never work for his witch hunters.

3)      It will potentially help me protect Eldur…both by gaining knowledge that can help me guide him better on the straight-ish and narrow, and by having my ear to the ground with the witch hunters.

4)      Perhaps most important, our experiences in Norsca have given me a direction in life besides survival and climbing the social ladder. I truly believe that someone needs to fight chaos and witchery. I want to do it in my own way, but for now, working for the witch hunters seems like the best way forwards.

Johanna accepts, saying we need to talk to her boss. I can see Eldur’s eyes go wide at this. I didn’t confer with him beforehand, since I didn’t really plan this (I do need to get better at planning before making big moves…). He’ll get it though, I’m sure of it.

Investigations

We resolve to go back to the Gardens, armed with this newfound knowledge and confront the priest. Johanna does so, and the priest is taken aback by us knowing about the chalice and Pietra. Still, he persists – but does tell us that “none of the two are gone”. That’s quite a relief! Were Charlotte and the others unsuccessful in whatever it was they tried to do?

We go back to her estate, and, spread across several letters and journals, we manage to piece together her story.

·       Charlotte was also stricken by some mysterious wasting disease, from which it seemed she was dying

·       Margareta Buchberger comes into her life right after she got ill. After a while, she told Charlotte of a cure that would cost a lot of money.

·       Charlotte eventually realizes the Buchbergers are taking advantage of her, but keeps searching for the cure anyway, in a vain hope of extending her life.

·       Miraculously, Margareta delivers a potion that she says will extend Charlotte’s life. She drinks it.

·       14 days later, there’s an entry in her journal that simply says “I’m not dead”.

·       Later, she writes about Pallidus and finding the tablets.

·       The complete mural will apparently strengthen a ritual that Vadim is supposed to perform that will enable the three of them to live forever! This apparently also will “please my dark master”. She’s never spoken about this master before.

·       Vadim is apparently aware of Pietra’s existence in the Gardens of Morr

·       The ritual Vadim performed supposedly temporarily suppressed the power of the chalice. Someone (unspecified) was given the task of getting Pietra’s body parts out of the garden.

So either these someones didn’t succeed or…the Morr priest lied to us?

And what are these potions that both Charlotte and Vadim drank? How did they not die? It stinks of foul magics and witchery, that’s for sure.

The Espen Gang and learning more about Pallidus and vampires

I’m thinking that someone able to get vampiric body parts out of the Morr Gardens offer some preeetty specialized services…so I contact Marcus, my main info broker. I don’t describe exactly what I’m after, but close enough that he can speculate. He lands on something like this probably being the work of the Espen gang. They’re part of a criminal syndicate willing to smuggle or do pretty much anything. Their leader apparently resides in Hargendorf. In Salzenmund, Wolfric Voight leads the gang. I ask Marcus if he can confirm that this gang did the deed in some way. It’s not going to be cheap..,,

I’m spending some cash, so me and Johanna go to her, or rather our, boss, Inqusitior Ostara. I tell her it might cost a LOT of money to find out who’s behind this and get their location. She pales a bit when I mention it might cost up to 1000 gold, but accepts the price if we can guarantee results. I of course do, feeling about 70/30 about delivering.

Meanwhile, Eldur is reading some of the more mundane books in Charlotte’s library about Pallidus:

·       Apparently, Pallidus was a benign ruler in life. He did not, however, like growing old.

·       So he did what one usually does if you don’t feel like accepting death. He started delving into necromancy. Though he didn’t know that at the time.

·       Sacrifices, rituals to become immortal, the works ensued

·       He succeeded, sort of – only to find his body kept decaying, even as his mind stayed more or less the same.

·       He is apparently entombed at, you guessed it – Wrecker’s Point.

 

And about vampires (with assistance from Johanna):

·       They can live among people, some can withstand the sun

·       Some of them know necromantic magic

·       Cutting off their heads or setting them on fire (hello brother dearest!) prevents their regenerative abilities

·       They might be able to polymorph into animals

 

Entwasserung

Meanwhile, Marcus comes through yet again. He gives me the name of one Alexander Heffelfinger, who works in the Espen gang and owes Olaf (biggest crimelord in Salzenmund) a LOT of money. He’s got a week to pay up or find some permanent rest in Ormsdeep. Word on the street is he’s holed away in the slums with someone called “Big ugly Alma”.

Me, Torgil and Talian go slumming in Entwasserung at night, dressed for the task. I spot three urchins around 6 or 7 – the perfect age to help us find Alexander. And sure enough, with the right incentives (two silver each in total, a veritable fortune for them) they point us in the right direction. Ugly Alma’s shack is at the top of a rickety gangway looming over the frozen Ormsdeep. Below, we spot the outlines of several bodies, nobody bothering to do anything about them. They’ll sink into the deep come spring anyway, sure to make a snack for the gigantic marine beasts rumored to live there.

We rush the shack, and Ugly Alma is – in addition to being ugly enough that I reckon she’s probably got a mutation or three – quite stupid, as she draws a dagger and rushes towards Talian. He doesn’t take kindly to threats, so a second later she’s bleeding out on the floor, and Alexander is properly scared. I convince him that we’re only here to get information, and after some light persuasion of both the physical and monetary kind, he spills his guts.

He didn’t participate in the attack on the Morr Gardens himself, and didn’t know much about it. But, he did know that Charlotte and the two others had been smuggled out of the city, probably to Udenlitz – where the summer estate happened to lie. Gods damn, are we too late? We decide to go there ourselves in case we can pick up their trail.

Alexander thinks he’s scot free, but even in the dim light you can see his pale visage go even paler when I tell him that he now works for the witch hunters, and he’s staying put in the Espen gang…Doubt he’ll have the cool to last long, but hopefully we can get some more information out of him before he gets it.

The caves of Udenlitz

After an uneventful trip to Udenlitz, we go straight up to the estate, brushing aside the protests of the warden. We’ve brought 5 watchmen to back us up.

Sure enough, in the cellar there’s an entrance leading into a natural cave system. We don’t go far before we come upon a large open mining space – with 14 men and women who don’t seem too keen on talking…

Eldur has his work cut out for him, with no less than three wizards facing off against him in a magical war of sorts (I think, hard to tell besides furrowed brows and sweat palms). Me and Torgil take care of the crossbow men up on the gantries, finishing off 3 each without too much trouble and Johanna killing the final two. Eldur eventually gets the better of two of the wizards, who die screaming wrapped in flaming tendrils. I look over at him as they die, his face relaxing from the intense concentration, a wide grin spreading, and a faint cackle emanating from his lips. With a shock, I recognize the cackle, both from my nightmares and the swamp…or am I imagining things? I blink my eyes, and Eldur looks like himself, a concerned look as he stares in my direction.

Talian actually managed to get a surprise attack on the last wizard, cutting him into ribbons with his swords. None of us were too badly injured. We can clearly see the Buchberger insignia on the bodies.

We find some crates with very weird contents – 12 preserved corpses, without injuries. By Ulric’s dirty beard, what is going on here?