Late in the afternoon with the wonderful, smoke from the city’s thousand chimneys hanging low on the river we depart from the capitol and get passage on a riverboat back towards Marienburg. We are on our way back to Salzenmund. We have what we need now hopefully. The clues to the library’s whereabouts. Excitement and adventure is ahead of us still. There is a chance that this library holds the key to destroy the dark master and the enemies of Salzenmund, possibly the enemies of the Empire. Dangerous knowledge if it were to fall into the wrong hands surely. But not so much in the right hands. I must again cloak my true nature and confine myself to my room aboard the ship. The sailors they fear fire so much. Do they not even stop to think of the pureness and the incredible healing and nurturing capabilities, not to mention protective capabilities of fire? Logi is restless aboard the ship and he have to scold him a little so as not to burn a hole in the deck when he sulks under the bed. Appearance is everything it seems. Sweet Sunniva and the others get along with the crew just fine. If only they knew the ruthlessness and power of destruction, they wield. I do and it warms my heart and my hair and skin catches fire thinking about it. We are a force to be reckoned with and I am confident we can defeat whatever awaits us in the north.
Being bored aboard the ship, time is spent in depth on discussing our latest findings and the mystery of Hierkeit family. What is their agenda? They came here a long time ago as vampires but we see no apparent connection to the dark master. Is she merely an accidental crossroad in our path that we have to deal with perhaps? Could we though take this road a stretch and use her for something that serves our needs? Having a powerful vampire “ally” against the forces of evil? I for one am skeptical. It would be challenging to control such a beast. Johanna and sweet Sunniva are also clearly against it so the prospect of any such alliance is all but impossible. The group seems however to be split. Some seem to think that the more the merrier when it comes to defeating the dark master and his evil henchlings.
Sifting through the notes from the jail, we all sense the disturbing madness in the writings. Can they be trusted I wonder. Probably as much as you can trust those astroclowns to guard the library. They do not even know they are guarding it! It has been sitting there right under their noses for years and years and they still have not found it or noticed anything out of place. They are nothing but wet coal! Useless fools!
Reaching Marienburg we find that our horses have been taken care of, lots of feed and doing well. We quickly decide to sell them when we encounter problems getting passage on a new ship out of Marienburg. It is a medium merchant ship and they have limited space. Never mind those horses. We travel lighter and we can get new ones once we return to the north. We set sail in two days. The route will take us out to sea and well around Wreckers point. It is a smelly city. Immense in size. We cannot wait to embark but this leaves time to stock up on some supplies in Marienburg. The whiff of Sulphur and eggs is vaguely reminiscent of the college. Volcanoes and lava. Now that is something to fall asleep to. I sleep like a baby and besides picking up some gossip about the usual Norscan raiders time passes quickly. Sailors though, superstitious as they are nervous and Sweet Sunniva hides me again down below. They too have heard the echoes of raiders through the city. This is nothing new we tell them. They always launch silly attack this time of year. To no avail. While the others tinker with supplies and talk to the sailors I start the laborious job of learning my beloved ritual of fire. Calling forth an element of pure Aqshy will take some time and I need to harness a great deal of energy and the conditions have to be just right but what joy it will bring when it is unleashed upon our enemies and they run burning for the hills. I almost set my desk on fire while studying. Log tries his best to help me and when he is not whizzing about, zinging the walls, like a firefly in a jar he serves as an excellent study light.
Softly rolling on the seas we quickly get into a routine and all is well for a couple of days. The slow days and nights comes to an abrupt end on the fourth day. We awake in the night with the sound of the alarm and suddenly a huge spiky and metal ram comes straight through the hull of the ship and right into Torgil and Johan’s room. We have been attacked!
We rush up on deck. The ship is taking in water fast and is badly and perhaps irreparably damaged. To no surprise, a pirate ship has rammed our vessel. It is pitch black outside but still Sweet Sunniva spots Dark elves on the other ship. Flowing hot lava! This is bad news as they are tremendously skilled at sea. A barrage of crossbow missiles rain over the ship. Several of our sailors go down. We must try to fight back but we see that we are badly outnumbered. Furthermore, many of us do not have all our gear. Armed with bows but without armor we manage to shoot some the pirates and chop off their boarding ropes. I quickly call on my inner fire to shield myself with a thin smoldering layer of hot flames designed to deflect and incinerate any arrows. Johanna fires her pistols and the rest use their bows. I catch some pirates in a net of raging fire and smoke. Screaming ensues. Smell of burned wood and flesh fills the air.
There is a dark wizard aboard their ship. I sense it. We all hear the evil whispers as he launches his attack. Black oozing magic pours over the side of the ship and onto the deck crippling some of us and dealing out terrible pain. He must be stopped! Johanna, blessed witchhunter, gets her hands on a ready mounted swivel gun and points it towards the dark wizard who is conjuring up yet another terrible spell. Bolts are everywhere but my fiery shield helps deflect them. Torgil, who has been seriously injured, manages to seek cover inside the shield. Protected for a brief second as arrows turn to ash all around. The swivel gun goes off with a loud crack and it hits home straight at the wizard and at several pirates. They are thrown back and seem to have lost their momentum now! Alas, it is painfully clear that our ship is sinking and we must begin preparations to disembark. Four lifeboats are hastily put into sea and the men start gathering what equipment they can. Fortunately, we also manage to secure the important papers and stone tablets from Johannas cabin.
Something unexpected happens. The pirate ship is ablaze in parts and several of their men are down. Their wizard either dead or wounded. So suddenly, they retreat and row back on their oars and slip back into the darkness. Cowards! Running off to lick their wounds no doubt. Perhaps they only wait for us to sink. Then, when the time is right, they return to finish us off…
However, they can forget about that!
The fire explodes within me.
I will show them the true fury of fire and forever give them nightmares! Silly fools aboard a wooden ship!
They have severely underestimated us.
Big mistake. Big mistake…
In the middle of the rescuing, retreating and lifeboating, I loudly invoke the bright wings of Aqshy and soar up into the skies. With flames and smoke both from the shield and wings, and with Logi swirling around me in frenzy, I surely resemble some glorious ball of fire. Nimbly I circle around the pirate ship just out of reach of their bolts while I slowly start drawing up raw Aqshy. The flames tremble within and I feel it out to my fingertips, watching them turn white hot. Once on the other side of the ship I unleash a wonderful storm of fire, cinders and sparks. It lights up and fills the sky from raining down flames to the ocean. Measuring a hundred yards across in front of the ship, it slowly engulfs it in flame. Magnificent. The masts and sail catch fire and sailors are ablaze, many jumping over board to put the fire out. The oars in particular flicker up and are soon all fully ablaze. For a short time, the ship resembles a proper Norscan funeral sea. Very fitting.
The spell could last for several more seconds but alas, the contesting wizard manages to dispel it. Blast! No worries though. Their ship will not return any time soon and they surely feel like they bit over more than they could chew.
I slowly return to our ship while still sending several bolts of fire towards the pirates. In the distance, we can see flames and smoke. Crackling of burning wood and screaming is all that is heard.
We go separate ways and they drift out of view.
Our ship has sunk. We are in lifeboats. We row steadily away in the night. My keen senses of direction tells me that we can make it to land if we manage a steady eastwardly course. Three-four day’s time should be sufficient. I heal the wounded, zinging several of them with aqshys cauterizing magic. Torgil seems to enjoy it. Funny man.
Morale is down. Periodically using my fiery aqshy inspiration helps a bit and we make good way. Rain and cold water. Damnation the elements. Aqshy protects me as I immerse myself in a tiny shimmering layer of thin layer of flame. It protects me from the rain and rain and cold but not the others. Sweet Sunniva and the others are wet and cold nd some are still wearing their nightshirts. With sailcloth and sharing of clothes, we manage to put together shelter and I provide everyone with sufficient heat. We share rations but water seems to be a problem. Somehow, we manage anyway and on the 4th day, we spot land. Only now do I remember that I have a way through aqshy to purify any small body of liquid/water. Never mind that now. I stay silent. Sweet Sunniva was angry and thirsty out there on the high seas. Mentioning it now that I had a way to prevent that seems like a waste of good spirits now that we have made landfall.
Coming onto land proves challenging as we have reached high jagged cliffs with dangerous swells crashing onto jagged and slippery reef rocks. I engulf myself in fire again, sprout hot flaming wings and take to the skies. After some initial scouting, we safely get ashore in a small sandy bay a little further down. Scaling the cliffs, we reach the plateau and enter a small forest. It proves to be the perfect oasis as it has a small body of water (drinkable). After Sweet Sunniva shoots a deer we finally drink, eat, and rest. After bringing up all our supplies up from the boats we set out on foot determined to find some nearby town so that we can continue our journey to Salzenmund
Moving carefully, scouting for any enemies we come upon the town of Wolfhafen only to discover that it has been raided and sacked by my old fellow citizens the Norscans. Blasted idiots. About 70 ships lie out in the bay and the city is still smoking from the battle that must have ensued not that many days ago.
We decide to move further. Hunting and camping in the rough as we go we trek a week on from Wolfhafen and reach the town of Liehafen. However, we quickly discover that here as well as in Wolfhafen the Norscan raiders have left their mark. The place is swarming with Vikings and the sea is full of ships. I count roughly a hundred, maybe more. We need to move away from here and going on foot will not do. A cunning plan slowly takes hold as we decide to steal a smaller ship. Sunniva and I disguise ourselves and easily blend in with the Norsacans. Hiding in plain sight, we simply walk down to the shore and take one of the smaller ships. It is not much but it will hold the surviving sailors and us. We easily talk our way past a burly Norscan. His decreased intellect saved his life. He was seconds away from being set ablaze. Had it not been for Sunniva several bright and warm distractions might have been necessary. Blesse is her sweet voice. Men are suckers for it. All is quiet.
Rendezvous with our friends further up the coast is uneventful. E sail on. Moving faster now. When stealing the boat we overheard some of the Norscan raiders talking about a warlord called Wolfrich. He is seemingly in charge and responsible for all this. Their plan is to rally together and take on Salzenmund with more than 300 ships.
Quickly we sail north and east.
Dietershafen is also on fire as we pass by unseen. Beautiful flickering of fire and dying embers fill the sky. Surely, this is where Wolfrich is residing now. He waits for the others to join him whilst plotting his campaign onward.
Reaching the outlet of the river Salz at Neuesemrak we spot Empire forces finally. Never did I imagine I would be glad to see them but they are better than dark pirates and Norscan raiders.
River Salz is thoroughly blocked with more than 2000 soldiers, huge cannons and embattlements.. They seem ready.
We let ourselves be captured and demand to see Von Gosser. We saw several noble banners from sea. We could clearly eye Von Gossers.
In Von Gosser tent, a big house more like, Johanna tells our tale of pirates and Norscan Raiders. We get his attention concerning Dietershafen but all too soon realize that he is mainly preoccupied with battle. Any type of plotting and reason for our trip to Altdorf in the first place is uninteresting. He is oblivious to any undead force and to any advice or hints on how to prioritize. He is dead set on marching with full force on Dietershafen.
In the end, though he listens a little and decides to wait for a better plan or opportunity.
We get new gear and board a river barge sailing to Salzenmund.
Good old Salzenmund. Around half of the world and back again. It might sound stupid but I am glad to see those city walls again.
We discuss strategy on the way here and it seems the best course of action is to go to the dowager queen and tell all.
Settling in for a day, we learn that although much is the same, foul things with Khorne cults and chaos activity have been rampant while we have been away. Something is brewing as suspected.
Over dinner that evening, we decide that Joahnna should go and see Suus before going to the queen.
We know that the library is connected to or probably even inside the Orary.
The tower of the astroclowns is cleverly built on a Leyline, an area of extreme magical saturation. Such a place is most likely perfect for a magical library wanting to hide. Thinking more on it is also perfect for my ritual where I conjure up an Element of fire. Interesting indeed. If we can gain unfettered access to the Orary that is.
There are unfortunately no good ways in. I can however think of several bad ones. Most of them involve fire. I tinker with the idea of the Orary being a massive pyre. Just what I need on the Leyline to ease the conjuration of the Fire element. I chuckle so hard I set the tablecloth on fire. Sweet Sunniva scolds me. I am confident though that she would chuckle with me I think if she knew what this huge blistering living flame of pure Aqshy could do with invading Norcan forces.
After speaking to Suus, Johanna is still unsure about the best course of action.
Preparing for our meeting with the dowager queen, we pour over our notes and clues.
We initially learned about rumors that the library is hidden in the Orary. We know them to more than rumors now. There are references in our texts to this fact.
There is no mention anywhere about the mirror that we acquired. Not in the texts or in any of our clues. Hierkeit is our only source her. What she knows about this is uncertain. Slowly paranoia is creeping in. Is it a trap? Is it some sort of scrying device? Undoubtedly, she cannot be trusted. Nevertheless, looking in the mirror we see the room with a door. Could this be the door to the library?
We need to gain entry to the Orary without alerting too much attention from those clowns.
Setting it on fire probably will not help.
Unfortunately.
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