40: Borchband

I think we all have an idea of how the gods exist within us, or in the world, or outside of the world. I think we all have our personal perspective. The wisest theologians have debated the nature of the gods since before the time of Sigmar and yet we still do not know the truth of it. While Verenans may disagree strongly with the Ulricans, for example, as to whence the power of their respective gods derive, reflecting the vast gulf between those two cults, those disagreements can pale when compared to the ferocity of debate over minutiae within a single cult.

I am happy to say the Cult of Shallya is less concerned about the exact nature of our goddess’ divinity and more engaged with the practical considerations of fulfilling her will. Even so, I had thought I had a broad idea of where the gods might be found. This never extended, I have to admit, to the Cat and Wheel in Ubersreik.

It had been several weeks since the death of the gravin. When we were eventually released from custody, we had all gone our separate ways. This was probably for the best. I had gone back to the temple to live. But I don’t think I really put as much enthusiasm into my work as I had before. Now I have visited the temples of Shallya in Kemperbad and Nuln, I think I have seen better ways to serve her. There is something wrong with the temple in Ubersreik, but I am not really sure what. Perhaps it is just the leadership of Father Gunther that drags the place down.

I had not seen Kurtis much. He started drinking a lot in the posher inns talking up his judicial champion status and trying to get a similar gig with local nobles. But when the noble you were bodyguarding gets murdered it’s not the greatest testament to your skill. He kept drinking but the places he drank in got increasingly downmarket.

Otto went back to catching rats around Ubersreik. However bad it gets you can guarantee that there will always be rats. He was still working in the seedier taverns doing his familiar one rat for one beer deal. Not sure if he went back to live with his wife, though. I had been expecting to see him visit the temple regularly, but for some reason, he hadn’t. Maybe he was busy.

Gulgad wasn’t around. I think he went up to the mountains and one of the dwarf holds there. Or he was just roaming around looking for something to slay. Someone said something about him having to go on a pilgrimage to make his death oath official.

I am not sure what Erhardt got up to. He was the only one of us who had a proper career set out for himself, without any need for the rest of us to be around. It made me wonder why he even hung out with us in the first place.

I think Solvej might have gone back to Nordland. Probably for the best.

We’d arranged to meet up in the Cat and Wheel. It being one of Kurtis’ hangouts, and one of the taverns Otto worked, made it convenient. It wasn’t the merriest gathering. I tried to give Kurtis a bit of a pep talk, but he wasn’t listening. I don’t think anyone was that interested in sharing fun stories about our travels over the last few months. It was a bit too soon. It got even grimmer, however, when Ursula Marband turned up.

Ursula had been incarcerated with the rest of us after the gravin died, and so we had got a bit friendlier with her. She didn’t blame us for what she saw as the gravin’s sins and was content that she had got her deserts. To be honest I don’t think the gravin was up to anything nefarious whatsoever, but we could agree to disagree on that now she was gone.

I don’t know who had given her that impression, but Ursula seemed to think she was one of us, now. It is true that she had worked with us on and off over the past few months, but usually we were at odds, or not entirely on the same page. Now, she seemed to think that we were all in this together. I have to admit she makes me a little uneasy. I realise the theory and practice of self-flagellation has a lot more traction in the cult of Sigmar than in my cult, but I am doubtful as to its efficacy, and I believe it is against the underlying precepts of love and mercy espoused by Shallya, despite what Father Gunther might say.

The atmosphere at the Cat and Wheel was quite tense. The tavern was a hotbed for radicals and revolutionaries, and since the murder of the gravin, the struggle for the rulership of Ubersreik had intensified. Any number of seditious slogans were being hurled around the pub as the various factions clashed. For me, the plight of the poor, is of course extremely important, but there are ways to help them that does not involve bloodshed or revolution. A counter argument, I have often heard, is that the activity of the Shallyans, our charity and ministering, alleviates the suffering of the poorest and thereby facilitates the oppression of the workers by mitigating the worst behaviour of the ruling classes. Maybe.

Anyway, Carolina, the landlady, was seeing to us. I couldn’t help noticing there was some sort of spark between her and Kurtis. I know he wasn’t in the best of ways at the moment, but compared to Genevieve, and some of his other intimacies, she didn’t really seem to be his type. How are the mighty fallen? But suddenly, her jovial visage was replaced by a contorted expression, as her body seemed to become possessed by unknown powers. And she addressed us in a different voice.

Whatever had possessed Carolina introduced himself as Borchband the Voice. Borchband is one of the Empire’s countless minor deities. I understood him to be the god of rhetorical argument and the patron of agitators and dubious politicians. He was somewhat popular in Altdorf, but virtually unknown further afield.

The idea that he should manifest in the world was quite shocking to me. That he should do so in a dive in the worst area of Ubersreik, was more shocking. And that he should do so to talk to us, was more shocking still. I had heard stories of the gods coming to the world, of course. The very existence of the Empire is down to a visit by Sigmar, and Shallya turns up in person in many of her fables. But these all seemed to occur thousands of years in the past and was not an activity for the modern world. If the gods can visit us willy-nilly why is the world in such a state? Perhaps the major gods were very busy, what with being major. And it is only the minor gods who have time on their hands and are able to waste it in trivial house visits like this. Whatever the truth of the matter, it gave me a lot to think about.

This felt a bit like one of those tricks that a Grey Wizard might do, but Erhardt was here, and his suspicions did not seem to be aroused. In any case I asked Carolina, or whoever it was possessing her, a couple of subtle theological questions to see if I could expose a ruse, but to be honest, after they were answered, I was none the wiser. I think we all felt there was no choice but to take the situation at face value and accept that we were talking to a god. That seemed like the safest option.

Borchband, being the god of rhetoric, was a smooth talker, you might think. But he went round the table, addressing each of us in turn trying to get us on side. He taunted me for my lack of faith and my failure to set up an orphanage. He called Gulgad a poseur. He made fun of the pitiful power that Erhardt was yet able to wield. He told Ursula off for her failures and her turning towards self-abuse. He taunted Kurtis for throwing away all his potential. And he told Otto that he had not yet made his rat-catching forefathers proud and taunted him for not managing to father a son. This was all a bit blunt, but we did agree to do the job, so I suppose that is vindication of Borchband’s rhetoric, even if he did come across as a bit of a dick.

I was still unconvinced, so I prayed to Shallya for a vision. I was expecting a clue to whether this Borchband was truly a god and needed to be respected. I saw I my mind a boat run aground on some rocks. This didn’t mean much to me at the time, but when I mentioned it to Otto later, he suggested that this was a sign that I shouldn’t leave the cult and become a boatman like I had been considering. Well done, Otto. But if you need someone like Otto to explain holy visions to you then you are definitely out of touch. Or perhaps, this was actually a sign from Shallya that Otto would make a great Shallyan and that I should redouble my efforts to get him to enrol at the temple.

Then Borchband left the body of Carolina and manifested in the body of one of the inn’s clientele. And while Carolina recovered her senses, this person explained, in a similar voice, that an erstwhile agitator called Alexander Fernbach needed to be taken down a peg or two. Fernbach had followed Borchband and Borchband had rewarded him with power and influence. He had spoken against the powers that be in the mining industry. But then he had got in with those powers, and now ran a mine on their behalf, betraying his beliefs and betraying Borchband.

Then he did the trick again and appeared through yet another avatar. By now it just seemed like showing off. We agreed with Borchband that we would go to Fernbach’s mine and bring him down a peg or two, whatever that meant. In order to travel with us, the god asked Otto whether he would accept him into his mind. And Otto agreed. I’m not sure he’d thought it through, though.

Someone at the Cat and Wheel had said that Fernbach was in town right now, at the town hall, so we went there. There were some guards on the door, which we needed to get past. This seemed like the perfect moment for Otto to show that the spirit of the god of rhetoric was burning brightly inside him and so he spoke to the guards. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but Otto simply demanded they let him into the council chamber because he was a god. Not the greatest rhetorical argument ever, and it didn’t impress the guards who had a suspicion the rat catcher might not be a god.

In any case, we learned that Fernbach was still at his mine up in the mountains, and we managed to get a coachman to drive us up there. On the way Erhardt performed that magic trick that made him unrecognisable at the party and used it to make Otto look more attractive than he normally did. Does it count as magic when it’s such a low bar?

I’m not really sure how Otto was experiencing having the god inside of his head. He did seem to zone out every now and again like he was having an internal conversation, and he would sometimes say things out of the blue, as if to someone who wasn’t there, but he certainly wasn’t throwing around bon mots and witty anecdotes like some seasoned raconteur.

The mine was about fifteen miles away. It didn’t look very impressive. There weren’t a lot of miners about and they didn’t really have the air of specialised miners, more of a makeshift workforce, with a number of children among them. We were greeted by the foreman, Albert, who wondered what we had come for. When Otto told him we were there to see Fernbach, he told us that he was busy and didn’t have time for agitators. We explained we weren’t agitators, and Ursula threatened to go in fetch Fernbach herself, but Albert seemed to doubt that the ‘little lady’ could manage it. I winced, because I have seen Ursula in action, and she could certainly have managed to march in to Fernbach’s office and drag him out by his ears if she wished. Things remained peaceful however and Albert allowed Otto and Kurtis to go into the shed that was being used as an office.

The rest of us milled about outside the mine. I could see that the miners weren’t very healthy but there wasn’t much I could do about it. They had the lung disease typical of coal miners and while they continued to work that job there did not seem any point in troubling Shallya about it. Then we went to the canteen and had some food, which was pretty average, and I felt like the miners needed the food more than we did.

In the office, Otto and Kurtis got to talk to Fernbach. They told him straight out that we were there on behalf of Borchband and that he had to return to the fold or else. Fernbach explained that his circumstances had changed, and he was happy to leave his old life behind and he had a chance to make something of himself. This resonated with Kurtis and he told Fernbach that he was making something of his life, too. At the Cat and Wheel.

While Kurtis and Fernbach were arguing about this, Otto noticed that there was a glass of wine with a medallion or something inside it, which was unusual. I am not sure whether this was under the influence of Borchband, or Otto thought of this all himself, but he knocked the wine over, spilling it all over the plans of the mine. Then he grabbed the amulet and asked what it was. Fernbach explained that it was a pretty common device, used to distract Borchband’s attention, because he likes his wine, to stop him interfering in your plans.

Fernbach agreed to take us all on a tour of the mines and we met up with them after our meal. On our way to the mine entrance Fernbach explained that there were twelve workers in the mine, which didn’t seem like very many to us. He said there were plans to expand but there was an issue with collapsing tunnels, and they were working on a new route to get the coal seam. We asked Gulgad if this sounded right and he kind of agreed but I think he was just pretending to know about mining because it’s the sort of thing dwarfs are expected to know.

As we entered the mine, however, Otto suddenly grabbed a pickaxe and heaved it at the wooden beam holding up the ceiling. Now, this must have been Borchband. I don’t think Otto would have ever done anything like that of his own accord.

The support collapsed and the rocks above the mine entrance caved in. Otto, Kurtis, Gulgad, and Albert were all caught inside the mine, but they managed to avoid the falling rocks. Fernbach was not so lucky, as he fell under the rocks. Gulgad saw to him, and decided he wasn’t too badly injured. Erhardt, Ursula, and I were still outside watching on helplessly. We were with Anna, one of the miners, who was screaming uncontrollably.

Gulgad managed to shift some of the rocks and made a narrow gap through which he could see outside but was loathe to move any more rocks for fear of causing even more of a collapse. Meanwhile Erhardt, Anna, and I, urged on by Anna’s screams, were frantically trying to clear rocks away until Erhardt decided it was getting unsafe and told us to stop. On seeing the gap, Anna shouted to Albert to find Frank, who we realised was their son.

Erhardt decided the gap was big enough for him to get through and stripped off his robes (again) and managed to crawl through the space to see if he could help on the other side. I decided I would be more use on the outside, if there were any wounded brought out then I would be able to deal with them better here. Ursula didn’t seem to be that bothered about helping at all.

Everyone inside the mine decided they needed to go methodically through the complex looking for survivors. Gulgad called through the gap for me to go into the office and pick up the map they had seen earlier. I did, but it was covered in wine, so I wrapped it up in some clean parchment. I didn’t think it would stay legible too long, in the mine itself, though.

Seeing me go through the office, Ursula decided she would, too, and she scoured the place, not find things to help, to aid our rescue, and be useful, but she was looking for signs of witchcraft or the dark gods.

Because of the mine layout and the new shaft, they had been digging to get through to the seam, they decided to split up, Gulgad went the old route, while Albert and Erhardt went into the new bit. Kurtis stayed by the entrance, and Otto asked him to tie his hands together for fear that he might lose control again and do more to sabotage the rescue mission.

Erhardt soon came across one survivor who was unharmed but hysterical. Erhardt suggested she make her way back to the mine entrance on her own, but she seemed incapable of doing it.  He realised that she wasn’t a real miner and wondered what she had been employed for. He decided he couldn’t waste the time to take her back to the entrance and so just left her there, hoping she might come to her senses, or at least stay there until he got back.

Gulgad managed to find a couple of miners in one of the chambers. They were scared and incapable of acting on their own initiative. Gulgad ordered them to go to the mine entrance, and he told them to take the wood, that had been used to shore up the chamber, back with them so it might be used to help shore up the ceiling, there. It was clear, though, that these miners were not the best of their profession.

Otto went deeper into the mines and managed to find a small child who told him he was Frank, and so he was able to reunite him with his grateful parents.

Fernbach was feeling recovered, and he attempted to crawl through the gap. However, about halfway out he became stuck. I saw him and used Ursula’s whip to help pull him out. Unfortunately, at the same time, Kurtis, inside the mine, realised that he was stuck, too, and grabbed his feet and tried to pull him back in. Fernbach let out shouts of pain, but we were not to be deterred, both Kurtis and I pulling him in opposite directions as hard as we could, until we had to admit that he was stuck fast. Perhaps this was what Borchband had meant by bringing Fernbach down a peg or two.

There were still a couple of miners who hadn’t been found and Albert led Erhardt through the new section of the mine which was designed to avoid the most dangerous area. They reached the dead end and needed to break though the rock to reach the old mine workings, so they started digging.

Meanwhile Gulgad was finding it increasingly difficult to breathe, but he needed to go deeper into the mines. He found one miner in a bad way with a broken leg and who could barely breathe. He told Otto to make sure the mine entrance was clear, and extinguish every other candle in the system, to save air.

By now, Fernbach had crawled free, some of the other miners had reached the entrance, and Kurtis was trying to organise them getting through the gap, but was worried they were making the entrance even more unstable. I was helping clear the debris on the outside, too, but Ursula refused to help, she seemed to think that the cave-in had been caused by the sins of the miners. But we made progress opening up the entrance and were able to evacuate the area.

Otto told me about the lack of air deep within the mine, and so I ventured in. I had had the idea that I would stay by the entrance in the light and see whether anyone coming to the surface required attention. I now realise this was wrong of me and I should have gone deeper into he mine to help where it was most needed. Otto reminded me of my duty.

I managed to get to the miner that Gulgad was dealing with and I healed his leg and prayed to let the breath of Shallya enter him. Gulgad was now free to continue his search and he went even deeper into the mine. He had to cross a precarious bridge over a chasm, which looked like it might collapse at any moment, but it held his weight. And he found two unconscious miners on the other side. It didn’t look possible to carry the bodies across the chasm, but at that moment, Erhardt and Albert finally broke through from the new tunnel. So they were able to carry the unconscious bodies out that way.

So, we were able to see to everyone outside the mine. I managed to reset Fernbach’s dislocated shoulder. Nobody had died, which I think was thanks to us. On the other hand, Otto had caused the whole incident, or at least it appeared that he did. Despite his actions, despite taking Borchband into his body, and despite being successful in bringing Fernbach down a peg or two, he was no better off. Borchband had promised him he would become head of the ratcatchers’ guild, but that didn’t happen, and to be honest, is never going to happen. I think poor Otto was just glad to have Borchband out of his head.

This whole incident does make me wonder, however, that if Borchband can reveal himself to Otto, of all people, then why has not Shallya revealed herself to me?