Hot on the trail of more trouble than we can possibly hope to chew

So, we have killed all the Buchberger guards in the cavern beneath their summer house. They should have been upstairs, so they could've run away. We patch all that needs patching, and proceed further into the old mine. It looks old, but there are fresh torches in the holders, so it is in use. Or the Buchbergers like spending time on money on utterly useless things, like torches in an abandoned mine. We'll see.

It turns out that the torches were there for a reason, there is a lab at the end. With lots of containers with ominous stuff in them. Eldur says the stuff is infused with the wind of the dead. Not the wind that comes from bloated corpses, but the magic wind. Which is worse is unknown, but I suspect the latter is worst. I once saw a bloated whale carcass explode, so the first is not to be trifled with either. No paper anywhere either, Eldur speculates that whoever works here knows their stuff and works from memory.

We search, and I find a barely hidden door, leading into what turns out to be the old and abandoned parts of the mine. We go back, searching carefully, and find nothing interesting. Upstairs we violently interrogate the janitor, he relates some 'interesting' facts. There was a stagecoach here, carrying a heavy casket. It was guarded by six guards, who were told to 'go as far east as possible'. Also lady Margareta with 2 men and another woman who sounded like Charlotte. Torgils later open her tomb, and it is empty. So it could be her.

The men and the 'Charlotte-sound-alike' are told to go to Norden and stay low 'until the next phase'. The janitor also has seen the apprentices going up and down into the basement. We let the janitor run off.

We spend the night at the mansion, and ride hard toward Salzemund in the morning. Spring is in the air, and as long as I don't think about necromancy, wind from the dead or any other unpleasant stuff it is actually nice. If we had been at sea it would have been great. Instead we are pursuing rich maniacs with crazy agendas, dealing with the winds of the dead, and possibly we have to go west, into the Forest of Shadows. But the rewards will be great. Yes, of course. Fame and money all around. I think that is why we are doing this, because I see very few short term rewards.

Towards the end of the day we come to walled village with an inn. The stage obviously spent the night, and that was 2 days ago, according to the inkeeper. It is going to be difficult to gain on it, unless we sleep outside. The guards on the stage also asked about 'how far east' it was possible to go, and the answer was Markloe. The road divides here, we have to decide if we go towards Markloe or Norden. We choose Markloe. We push, and in 2 days we catch up with the stage. Not because we are so amazing at riding, but because something broke out of the casket, pulverising it on the way out, and killing 4 of six guards. 

2 guards and a woman (judging by feet-size) have ridden off, towards Markloe. Probably a vampire in the casket, released when the distance from the chalice in Salzemund was great enough. And then she did the guards in, to thank them for their support. The name of the woman is probably Lady Hierkeit.

We confiscate the stage (hey, money, possibly) and keep on toward Markloe and the Forest of Shadows. When we get to Markloe we prepare for battle, and when we enter the inn, scaring the shitting daylights out of the locals we quickly learn that the vamp and her 2 goons left 2 days ago. Boated across the river, to go into Forest of Shadows. Nice, they are now out of our reach. Let's just get back to Salzemund, sell the stage and do something useful.

Much to my dismay we decide to take the same 'boat' (more like a joke, actually) across the river into the Forest of Shadows, to follow the vamp. How the fuck did that happen, I still wonder. Because (spoiler alert) it turned out to be the absolute opposite of a spiffing idea, and about as useful as our fantastic trip to Norsca. But we did set out, to ensure that the undead chaos worshippers were vanquished and everyone else returned safe, sound and unscarred. So, how did it go?

It started well, because we spent the night at the inn, it was fun. The locals are devout Ulric followers, but they don't mind Manan, and sure now how to drink. Johanna held a pep-talk for the guards that went kinda ok (I'm sure I could have done better, but I'm obviously not the ranking anything here), but then she promised them extra pay, and then they suddenly felt very motivated. 

After that it was ok for a bit. The wood is cool in a horrible way, very dark underneath the trees, very damp and humid with giant mushrooms everywhere. On the second night we find one of the 2 goons, dead, seemingly drained of all blood. Hmm, good news, very suspicious. Seems the lady has brought walking rations. Good thing we are following with more rations, in case she runs out. Then it starts to spiral downwards, I was right to be suspicious. We get attacked by a band of 25 beastmen and 2 minotaurs. Torgil and I finsih the minotaurs, but Johanna is gored by one of them, and the wounds very quickly looks infected. She manages to keep on, but is obviously not in great shape. We fight the beastmen off, but they kill 4 of 10 guards.

On day 3 another of the soldiers dies (probably): he is picked up by some 'tree', and swallowed whole. No further comments. Except that we could hear him scream from within the tree. And the guards require more 'motivation'.

On day 4 we find the husk of the 2nd goon. And after a lot of searching we find some climbing marks (From the Lady?? Look, I have no idea, I am just writing this stuff down). No other tracks anywhere. If we can't track her, even Johanna and Sunniva realizes this is pointless. So, very proud of our achievements, we start the journey back.

And, since a downward spiral needs to go, you guessed it, downwards, we are again attacked by beastmen. They set up an ambush, and we just waltz into it. This time noone gets hurt, luckily. Haha, yeah, right. But eventually we get back to Markloe. We try to get information about where the Lady could be going, but noone knows of anything interesting in the Forest of Shadows. Gosh.

We find a boat to take us towards Norden. Before we get there, there river is blocked by the riverwardens, you need a pass from Count Gosser himself to pass. Allright, we can get to Salzemund for some R&R. And I can find the Urchin and skip this horrid task and band of suicidal maniacs. But no. It turns out witchhunters can pass. So Johanna can get us into Norden anyway. 

We have to sign a paper saying we can't talk about what we see here, and this time that is actually a bummer. Opposed to all the other stuff, which I'd much rather forget, it turns out Nordlands 2nd fleet is being built here, and not in Dietereshafen. To keep it secret from Marienburg. No wonder the security is tight. There are a lot of awesome ships in various stages of completion here. I am sure I'll have ample time for some beer and just sauntering around looking at all the shipbuilding.