26: Nuln

We continued on our journey to Nuln. Frederick von Rottmar was joining the gravin’s party and so was Gregor, as the gravin’s musician. Genevieve had been locked up for stealing the gravin’s pearls. I thought this was quite sad and didn’t really believe she was guilty, but Kurtis, surprisingly didn’t seem that worried. He was preoccupied with thinking about the von Rottmars and his place in that family. He decided that Frederick had the latest fashion Altdorf haircut and resolved to get his done just like it, although it didn’t look particularly fashionable to me.

On arriving in Nuln the gravin announced that she would be attending the opera that evening as a celebration of her not guilty verdict. Apparently, The Countess of Nuln was going to be there, the most beautiful woman in the empire, they say, the richest woman in the empire, for sure. As we had done such a great job so far, the gravin wanted us to be there to ensure her personal safety. We would also be staying at the Countess’ palace which I understand is one of the greatest buildings in the entire Empire. Although Kurtis seemed a bit put out that he’d have to sleep in the servants’ quarters. I imagine he thinks he has a chance of staying in the Countess’ bed chamber. But if she’s as wanton as they say, then maybe he does have a chance. To be fair, if she’s really as wanton as they say, then even Otto has a chance.

I knew the opera was a big deal in Nuln and they had a huge opera house, but it’s not the sort of culture we get in Ubersreik and I didn’t really understand what the fuss was about. Anyway, I admit I know next to nothing about opera but that was still more than Kurtis knew, and he is supposed to be a musician.

We had a few hours to kill before we needed to get to work. I asked Kurtis to ask the gravin about the land she said she would give me for my orphanage. I didn’t want to ask her myself, it’s not really my place, but Kurtis is better positioned for this. Unfortunately, he is more interested in himself and his standing than the plight of the orphans so I worried that he would forget, or just ask her so badly she’d change her mind.

I’m not sure whether my recent comments about Solvej’s grubbiness had affected her but, for some reason, she was determined to have a bath. She wanted to use the Temple of Shallya, because of our rituals of cleansing, but I explained that these rituals are supposed to cleanse the soul not the armpits. Anyway, she found a bath and managed to scrub up quite well. Otto, on the other hand, I imagine, has never bothered to scrub up in his life.

We also got some von Liebwitz uniforms to wear. Even Gulgad put his on, but Erhardt was too much of a wizard to wear his, and Kurtis was too much of a dick. Instead, he asked the gravin what he should wear. I think he was angling for some new clothes at her expense, which he could probably do with as his nice coat that he was so proud of has started to look a bit tatty. The gravin just told him to wear his armour, which seemed to me to be a bit of a strange thing to wear to the opera. I wondered whether the gravin might be treating her judicial champion as a bit of a novelty act. That wouldn’t be very nice. Obviously, I think Kurtis is a bit of a fool, but I wouldn’t want any Nulner nobles thinking the same thing.

So we made our way to the opera house. The big city of Nuln was certainly much bigger and more exciting than Ubersreik. Most of the buildings were grander and the streets were busier. Everyone seemed like they had more money, a bit like Kemperbad, but people rushed around here even more quickly. This was a bit of a shock after the slow pace of our river journey. The square before the opera house was busy and well lit. Many people were walking around in masks, which seemed a bit strange. The opera house itself was an architectural marvel. On our way there I tried explaining a bit about opera to Kurtis who didn’t know very much about it at all. The play we were going to see was by Detlef Sierck, who I had heard of, which made me a bit of an aficionado. I certainly do appreciate the more cultural things, like opera and stuff, even though I don’t really like music.

We took our places around the opera house, trying to think up good vantage points. Gulgad tried to get into the royal box, but there were guards there who thought they could do a better job. To be fair the countess’ guards should probably be more important (and more competent) than the gravin’s guards, so we left them to it.

Solvej and Erhart found a good place to watch the play, which wasn’t really the point of guarding, but at least they might have a nice evening at the opera. Gulgad and I couldn’t see the stage from where we were, so that was probably a mistake. Kurtis managed to wheedle his way into the royal box. Otto went on a mission to find a bad rat. He decided he had a nose for sniffing out human rats and it wasn’t long before he had noticed a nondescript (and to be fair, innocent) man take notes about something or other. He quickly set Schnitzel on the man, who ran away at the vicious dog and its mad owner and ran for it. Schnitzel managed to run him down in the alleyway outside the opera house and grabbed his leg. The man tripped and Otto pounced on him tying him up with Otto’s lead. Otto then tried to interrogate the fellow, pretending to understand the notes he had been making, even though he couldn’t read. But couldn’t get any information out of him. He hit him a few times trying to make him go unconscious, a technique, presumably, he used on rats, but the bloke stayed conscious and inscrutable.

Meanwhile, the announcement was made that drinks were being served in the foyer. Kurtis and Erhardt went down to get some. Erhardt was trying to blend in but wasn’t helped by Kurtis clanking around in his armour. While they were getting their drinks, Erhardt felt a hand on his purse and spotted the gnome from the Three Feathers trying to pickpocket him. He grabbed the fellow, who apologised. Erhardt didn’t want to attract any attention at such a posh do and just wanted the money the gnome had stolen from us earlier back, but Kurtis egged him on to extract some punitive damages. They also noticed Otto’s tusk-dagger on the gnome’s belt but didn’t bother to ask for that back.

Kurtis was attracting attention and a few people congratulated him on winning the fight for the gravin. They asked him what it was like at the fight in Kemperbad and especially the rumours of fighting blood daemons. Kurtis said he didn’t like to talk about it, and then went on about it tediously for ages.

This was interrupted by some loud explosions. Two students ran through the foyer throwing fireworks at each other and many of the theatre goers began to panic. Erhardt cast a spell to make them drop their explosives and one of them did, which gave the other a bit of an unfair advantage, I would have thought. In any case their master turned up and chastised them for embarrassing the school, presumably the Nuln Gunnery School, and told them to leave.

Then the countess’ coach arrived. Out stepped the countess and the gravin, as beautiful and as extravagantly dressed as the gravin was, she was put in the shade by the Countess of Nuln who wore a spectacular outfit and looked stunningly beautiful, everyone said. (Of course, the most beautiful lady there that day was the lady Shallya.) The countess was greeted by a long line of dignitaries, among them was Frederick von Rottmar and his father.

This was a surprise to me. I had assumed from what Kurtis had been saying that Frederick was Kurtis’ half-brother through the father who had recently died in Altdorf. Now we could see his father alive and well it made me wonder what exactly Kurtis’ relationship to the Rottmars could be. Perhaps it was all nonsense after all, which I had originally suspected. I resolved to ask Kurtis about this, who should ask Solvej to ask Gustav to say something about this to the gravin.

As the countess turned to enter the theatre, Frederick suddenly shouted something very rude and insulting about her which I will not repeat here. He immediately grovelingly apologised, and the countess seemed to accept the apology very graciously, extraordinarily graciously in the circumstances. As she continued into the theatre she said something about finding the witch who did that and if it was a grey wizard they would get banned from the entire city. And sure enough, after Erhardt had cast his wizardly eye on the scene, he concluded that grey magic was involved, which made him want to keep a low profile.

Meanwhile Otto was still stuck in the alleyway with his nondescript prisoner. He was getting frustrated and so hit him in the head a few times until he fell unconscious. He then tried to carry the body back inside but the bloke was too heavy so he just sat down next to the body.

As the gravin and the countess made their way to the royal box they went past me and Gulgad, and the gravin nodded at me, which made me think perhaps she hadn’t forgotten about the land she promised me, after all. They made their way to the royal box and Kurtis followed them in. I am not sure he was supposed to have gone right into the royal box with them, but he managed it. I think the countess would have been wondering what he was doing there, and the gravin was probably a bit embarrassed about it, especially as Kurtis kept interrupting the pair of them to report on the state of their security.

Meanwhile two young men were having an argument about something or other on the balcony by Solvej. Solvej told them to take it outside, and their families joined in the argument. It looked like Solvej had calmed it all down, but it erupted again and one of the men fell down into the seats below, injuring three people. The kid’s father went down to see if he was ok, and it looked like he would live, but the people he had landed on needed to be taken out for medical attention. Meanwhile Solvej got rid of the other family. I’m not sure we were there to be general police, but I guess Solvej had been well-trained in the Ubersreik watch, even if we had only been there for two or three weeks, and she had put what she had learned into practice. Perhaps we should all get jobs in the Nuln watch.

I was getting pretty bored, as the opera didn’t seem to be my sort of entertainment, even if it hadn’t started yet, So I went to find Otto. I eventually ran into him in the alleyway where he was still guarding his prisoner. He showed me the notes the man had been making, and I could see that it was just a list of names, presumably of people he had spotted at the opera house. I showed Otto his name on the list hopefully inspiring him to learn to read just as the Fishrook’s bodice ripping was inspiring Solvej.

Otto convinced me to help him carry the unconscious body of his prisoner back into the theatre. Luckily the guards on the doors recognised us from earlier, and let us in, even recommending we use the seamstress’s room to store the body in. While we were in there, we grabbed a few handfuls of offcuts which Otto decided would make good material for dressing his rat taxidermies.

Erhardt and Gulgad spotted another non-descript man hanging out in the corridor and when Erhardt went to speak to him he said he couldn’t find his seat. Erhardt gave him directions and he wandered off. A couple of servants carried a potted plant up to the antechamber of the royal box, passing Gulgad on the way. The guard of the royal box was happy enough to let them in even though he hadn’t wanted any of us in there.

Gulgad thought this was a bit suspicious and got Erhardt to follow them in. Once they had delivered the plant, the two servants made a swift getaway, and Gulgad followed them out and watched them disappear quickly into the Nuln evening, and he knew something wasn’t right. After hearing a strange hissing, Erhardt and Kurtis checked out the pot plant. Erhardt took the plant out of the pot and noticed it had been growing in a bag of black powder and a lit match was stuck into it. After wondering for a time what to do about it, or where to throw it, Erhardt came up with the ingenious solution of removing the match. That’s the sort of thing the colleges of magic picked him for. Kurtis went in to disturb the countess’ evening again by reporting the latest incident to the gravin who was getting a bit annoyed with him by now, but didn’t seem to appreciate the danger she had been in.

Then Gustav turned up and told Erhardt he was waiting for an old friend from his university days called Brecht. And after a while Brecht arrived and so they let him in on Gustav’s say so. Brecht and Gustav had a heated debate, but we didn’t know what about. And then Brecht seemed to curse Gustav and left quickly, saying, ‘Now you cannot deny you are one of us.’ Gustav immediately began to develop strange boils and pustules which erupted across his body in a most unnatural way.

As Brecht made his escape, he was waylaid by Marband, who had obviously, unknown to us, been keeping an eye on things, with a few non-descript men who we now realised were her minions. I was called to the antechamber to see if I could do anything for Gustav. I had never seen anything like this before, it seemed like a curse from the Dark God of plagues N_____, but we had already suspected Gustav of being involved with the machinations of S______. All I could do was put Gustav’s clearly disturbed mind at rest, and I saw the fear fade from his features even though the disease still possessed his body.

I had heard rumours in the temple in Ubersreik that those afflicted by the Dark Gods were able to live somewhat normal lives in certain secret enclaves. Sometimes they might live in isolated settlements in the middle of the forest, or they might choose the worst parts of the city or even its sewers to survive in. if it is possible for them to live normal lives then this opens up interesting theological debates about what we should do with them. But I digress.

I know nothing about the situation in Nuln but I helped put Gustav’s mind at rest by telling him he should make his way to such an area in the city if he could and seek out fellow sufferers, and then he might be able to live out some sort of life. Unfortunately, we were interrupted by Marband who swiftly put Gustav out of his misery. I think if she had not done so, then Gulgad or Kurtis would have been happy to, in any case.

I think everyone who witnessed Gustav’s transformation and his sudden end was moved by it, except perhaps Gulgad who doesn’t seem to be moved by much. It affected Otto and we said a few prayers to calm him down and I think I did some good for him, but I don’t think it helped me at all. I must say I remained disturbed by Gustav’s terrible fate.

Erhardt told Marband that Gustav had been in a plot with Brecht to kill the countess. It didn’t make much sense but seemed to satisfy her. Noticing all her non-descript agents around, Otto realised that he must have captured one of them, by mistake. Then we heard it was the interval. After waiting around for hours for the opera to start, I had missed the entire first half.