28: The Commune

I don’t know where Solvej went, perhaps for another bath, perhaps she was looking for Kopfgeld, perhaps for her own reasons she was doing both, but we found ourselves at the Nunya inn, not too far from Nuln. Kurtis told me that this was the land that the gravin had set aside for the orphanage. He would know, I suppose, as he has her ear, but it didn’t seem likely to me. We were in the middle of nowhere. Still the inn was nice, not many places go to the trouble of having hanging baskets.

Lena the landlady had her eye on Kurtis, already. Not really sure how he manages that, but her husband was right there, too, so I hoped he wouldn’t cause any trouble. There was a couple arguing, a woman selling herbs, and an old drunk. The landlady advised us to keep to the roads and stay away from the windmills, which kind of made us want to check out the windmills. I think we had become used to danger in our lives.

Kurtis managed to charm Lena into allowing him to play and started setting up his equipment (a stool) in a corner of the room. Erhardt had a word with the herbalist, Mika, who sold him some blackberries at quite an expensive price, especially as there were some growing on the brambles just outside the inn. I spoke to Mika, too, to check whether she knew her business or was there to con gullible city folk into paying for blackberries, and it seemed she did know her stuff.

She confided to Erhardt that her daughter, Nana, had gone missing. She explained that she had been living in a commune a few hours to the north, but bad things were happening there, and she blamed them for the loss of Nana, though she would not say exactly why. He told her that we would look into it and keep an eye out for the girl.

Otto started chatting to an old man, called Stan, and they seemed to be getting on fine, but then Stan just stole Otto’s drink. Otto was too polite, or timid, to say anything, but he bought some laxative from the herbalist, and bought another drink for Stan. I feel like Otto isn’t as placid and easy-going as he sometimes makes out. Soon Stan had to make a quick exit.

We asked Lena, and her husband Sven, about the commune, and they said everyone loved the place. Lena, said that she had a wound once, but they had healed it, and showed us, but mostly I think she just wanted to show Kurtis her body.

Sven and Lena talked to Gulgad about Gotrek. I didn’t know much about him, and I thought he was a fictional character in cheap novels, but Gulgad seemed to think he was a real Dwarf and the stories were true. It just goes to show how naïve some people can be, but I wouldn’t expect that from Gulgad who seems more based in reality than most.

We left the inn and Mika kissed her hand and put it to Erhardt’s cheek and wished him luck. We headed up towards the commune and had to pass some windmills on our way, so we made sure to say hello. The occupant of the first windmill was a bit unhinged, I think, he shouted at us to give him some food, but we barely had enough for ourselves. Otto gave him some of his lunch, though. The miller seemed desperate for some female animals for some reason.

It turned out that round this way criminals and undesirables were put in windmills to do the milling, but deliberately kept short of supplies, which was strange. It seemed weird that they would only give him male animals as otherwise he could breed them and become more self-sufficient. The strange fellow did explain why he was never allowed female animals, and I don’t know whether to believe it, but I certainly will not be repeating it here.

I was glad to leave the man behind, and as we approached the commune the land seemed to get more fertile and neater, and soon we saw a pair of antlers nailed to a large oak tree signifying the gateway to the commune. As we entered, we could see that only women and children were working there. We understood that we would be allowed to stay for one night but then we would have to leave.

We were greeted by Sofia who did the hand kiss to cheek thing Mika had done earlier. She was very calm and spiritual and reminded me of some of the priests of Shallya who sometimes visited the temple in Ubersreik. She explained that we should be peaceful and quiet as we made our way around the commune and try not to disturb or shock any of the people there. Also, Schnitzel had to be kept on a lead.

I explained that we had come to pick up some herbs, which was mostly true. I needed some specific herbs to make a concoction I had planned, and unfortunately, I was not able to identify them in the wild, so it was convenient to get them here. So Sofia said she would sort them out for me.

We had time to wander around the place, chatting, before the evening meal. Otto asked Sofia for some weirdroot, which felt a bit irresponsible of him, but it seemed to be mostly harmless. Then we saw Stan from the inn getting on his horse and riding off, not looking entirely healthy. I wondered whether Otto had put an extra-large dose of laxative in his beer.

Erhardt inspected the site for the ’winds of magic’ or whatever he calls them, but I don’t think he found any. Kurtis had a chat with a woman who was weaving, he was talking about sleeping arrangements, I wasn’t sure whether he was angling for better accommodation or something else. She pointedly told him that she locks her door at night, however. And Otto went off to the beehives and stuck his hand into one, to get some honey and he got told off by the beekeeper. I couldn’t help thinking that we came across as a bunch of uncouth ruffians invading their civilised spot and exactly the sort of people these women tried to avoid by coming to this commune.

Gulgad, at least, did some peaceful whittling, and got some instruction in whittling from a precocious boy. I made a list of the herbs I required and handed it to Sofia, and she assured me she would be able to get hold of them. When Kurtis was speaking to the weaver she mentioned that when boys get beyond the age of innocence they have to leave the commune. They are usually sent off to the city or to work on neighbouring farms. This made me wonder whether the miller had started off here.

We were called to dinner and over the excellent food we spoke to Anna who was the daughter of Rita, who had founded the commune. Anna told us that Rita was now very old and too frail to come out much, and she might also be losing her faculties. We asked who protected the commune and she simply replied, Rhya. As someone who had been protected mostly by Shallya, but also quite a lot by Gulgad, I could not decide whether that was a naïve response.

After the meal Anna asked Erhardt and Gulgad to fetch some water from the river to douse the fire. They went off to the river as it was getting dark. I think Erhardt purified the water with his magic, but this turned out to be unnecessary as this water was simply to douse the fire, and drinking water, they told us later, is drawn from a well in the commune.

While they were there, however, Erhardt spotted a strange shape in the water and he waded out to see what it was. It turned out to be the very decomposed body of a young child, a body he supposed had been in the water for several months. Erhardt wondered where it had come from and decided we needed to look up-river. He also wondered whether this might be Nana, Mika’s daughter.

Erhardt told us what he had found, and we discussed leaving the commune right away, but we decided it should be alright to spend the night here and head off in the morning. And breakfast was pleasant enough although it all seemed a little bit creepier now, after what Erhardt and Gulgad had found, and to be honest, it had been a bit creepy before.

During breakfast there was a commotion in Rita’s hut and Sofia emerged looking flustered. She told us that she had been trying to bathe Rita but sometimes she became confused and difficult. I think that is only to be expected from some elderly people. Anna let me approach the old lady, although Sofia didn’t really like the idea, and I was able to sooth her with some well-chosen words from the Book of Shallya.

They handed me the herbs I had asked for. And they were going to sell Otto his weirdroot, but he was short of the required gold crown. I paid for it, for him. I’m not quite sure why I did this. Shallya certainly doesn’t approve of weirdroot, and it’s a very unhelpful, if not destructive, habit. I think having got my herbs for free I felt like I could afford to help Otto out, but I think Shallya knows there are better ways to do it than that. I hope no harm befalls him due to the weirdroot, or I will feel responsible.

We set off on our trek to follow the river upstream and see where this body may have come from. After a couple of hours’ following the river the landscape was getting increasingly wild and forbidding. I think it was easy to get used to the abundant crops around the commune and forget that they were not usual. We came across a wild wood with a set of antlers nailed to a prominent tree. This was similar to the commune but much less pleasant. Otto climbed a tree to see what there was to be seen and he proudly reported there were lots of other trees.