41: The Grey Lady

It had been a few weeks since I had seen most of the old group. I think Gulgad had decided to travel to a far-off dwarf hold to do some sort of religious ceremony around his redemptive oath. I think Kurtis went with him so that he could travel to the site of that old battle he keeps going on about to honour his grandfather. Erhardt travelled to Altdorf to visit his college. I don’t know what Ursula was up to, and I’m not that interested.

Solvej had received a letter from Altdorf and met me and Otto. She wanted me to help her read it, but I’m not sure why Otto was there. I think he just gets lonely. Otto did wonder whether Solvej may have simply killed Kurtis and Gulgad in one of her great schemes, but I’d like to think she didn’t.

Weirdly the letter had been cut into strips, so we had to arrange them correctly before we could read it. It said:

‘Dear Solvej,

I have found some work for us in Altdorf. You should come, too. The good news is that I have convinced the Order to pay for your travel. The bad news is that you must travel to Bogenhafen and take a barge from there.’

To be honest, I didn’t know Erhardt and Solvej were so close.

There were also instructions to go to a local stable and pick up some pre-paid horses to take us to Bogenhafen. So we got our horses and left word at the stables that Kurtis and Gulgad would be joining us later. We didn’t mention Ursula. There was a picture of a horse on our voucher for free horses, and Otto got it into his head, that now, if he ever drew something, he would be able to get that thing for free. Anyway, he bought us some pies for the journey, so that was nice.

We decided that the letter must have been cut up for a reason and that Erhardt was probably testing us with some sort of puzzle which felt like the sort of thing grey wizards amused themselves with. So I tried rearranging the strips to see what else might appear, and sure enough, after a bit of fiddling I managed to get, ‘The Grey Lady,’ whatever that meant.

The ride to Bogenhafen was pretty steady, but I had noticed a bit of a change in Otto. After his adventure at the mine, he seemed to have got it into his head that he was actually a god. He seemed more confident in his abilities and more sure of himself generally. I’m not sure why I couldn’t leave him to this as it was probably good for him to get a bit of confidence, but I felt the need to remind him that he wasn’t a god.

He plucked up the courage, however, to tell Solvej that he thought she was a good person, deep down, even though she had a tendency to behave in ways that were cruel and frightening.

I was worried this might provoke a violent response from Solvej so I had a quiet word with him. He said that surely Shallya would approve of him telling Solvej the truth, and I had to explain that there were lots of truths, and not all the truths needed to be told all the time. Choosing which truth to tell wasn’t the same as lying. He thought about this and went back to tell Solvej that he thought she was fantastic, and that she looked great with makeup on, almost like a woman. I think his heart is in the right place, though.

Once we got to Bogenhafen we worked out that the Grey Lady was a barge that regularly sailed between Bogenhafen and Altdorf. We spoke to one of the crew and mentioned grey wizards and he showed us to our cabin. The cabin was actually rubbish. The three of us had to share it and there was only one small bed. Solvej got mad with Erhardt about this. She seemed to think he was doing it just to be annoying.

I wondered whether the Grey College had a network of this sort that stretched across the Reikland and beyond, and that they were able to move people about, and see what was happening, all over the Empire. It felt like they might be controlling everything, and we were just pawns. If that were the case, it was probably a good thing that Erhardt was on our side. On the other hand, if that were the case, why did everything go so badly for us, all the time?

Anyway, Otto found a couple of rats on the boat and fed one to Schnitzel so that was something. I think it was apt that while Solvej and I were preoccupied with pondering the finer points of an insidious Grey College conspiracy Otto was having fun chasing rats about.

We made decent enough time on the voyage. I went up on deck a few times to help the crew with the boat. I don’t think they needed my help but I was eager to learn more about how to sail. I felt like it would come in handy one day.

On the morning of the third day we came to the weir leading to the Weissbruck Canal, which was the short cut to Altdorf. Otto remembered the three pies he had bought in Ubersreik and had been carrying in his pocket for the last three days, and he shared them with us. Thanks Otto.

We had to pass through a lock to get onto the canal. Solvej tried to help the crew tie the boat up in the lock, but I had to show her how it was done. While we were waiting for the lock to fill, we got talking to the lockkeeper, a halfling called Henrietta. I told her about my idea of becoming a sailor and travelling throughout the Reik basin. She seemed genuinely interested in this, so we had a good chat about it. She also gave me a couple of pies for the journey, and she waved us off very pleasantly, and we waved back as she disappeared into the thickening mist. Otto said Henrietta was my girlfriend, but she wasn’t.

Once we set off again, and the mist closed in even more, I gave one of the pies to Otto, as he had given me one earlier. Solvej saw this and pulled her knife. We thought she had finally tipped over the edge and was going to murder us for our pies, but it turned out she was only going to use the knife to cut a pie in half so we could share it.

Then, the ship hit something. It screeched to a stop, and we looked to the prow, to see that the boat had rammed some lock gates. These were similar to the lock gates we had just been through. And then we say Henrietta by the side of the canal wondering what was going on. She shouted at the crew to tell them off for their carelessness, but then she saw us, and a look of confusion passed across her features. As, it no doubt did ours, too. How had we ended up back at Henrietta’s lock?

Solvej thought it might be a trick by Erhardt or something like that, but it was soon pretty clear that it wasn’t, as slimy dead hands grabbed onto the deck and long-dead ancient warriors pulled themselves aboard, and shambled towards us. Otto stepped up and hit one of them with his ratting pole. Its head snapped back, and its chin flew off, but it kept shambling forwards. Solvej stepped off the boat and hit one with an arrow, but although the arrow embedded itself in the creature’s chest, it kept coming, oblivious. I decided that the things would never be stopped and told Otto it was time to go. We stepped off the boat, too, leaving the Grey Lady’s crew to their unfortunate fate, while Henrietta ushered us into her cottage.

We got to the cottage, locked the door, and pulled down the shutters while the dead creatures scratched at the door and windows. The figures were, it seemed to me, reminiscent of the ancient tribes that had lived around here during the time of Sigmar. When we were sure the dead couldn’t break in downstairs we retreated to the upstairs rooms.

The room was strangely foreboding. The clock in the room, featured an amusing Middenlander figure that emerged on the hour to urinate on a greenskin figure, except it wasn’t that amusing on this occasion because as the clock struck, the room dimmed, and an ominous shadow crept across the ceiling. And then was gone.

Solvej threw one of her firecrackers down at the dead warriors, but it did little good. I had a bit of a prayer, but no one else was really into it, and it didn’t do much good, anyway. Henrietta had the bright idea of going to Altdorf and getting an army. Otto went up to the tower at the top of the building and had a look out.

The roof was covered in strange ravens with blue-glowing eyes. This was obviously some sort of portent of death, but Otto was determined to catch one, and slinged at them. He managed to hit one, which fell to the ground, but another one flew down from nowhere to take its place. Undeterred Otto climbed onto the roof. The ravens swarmed about him, attacking him and injuring him, and forcing him back into the house. Solvej threw a firecracker up onto the roof, and the ravens scattered, but they soon retuned and settled back down.

It was around this time, I believe, that Solvej began hearing strange voices whispering negative things inside her head. Solvej mentioned it but I couldn’t hear anything. She told me it was just like that other time we heard the voices, which I thought we’d agree to never talk about again.

Otto on the top floor, had the strange vision that he was at the bottom of the canal, and he could see boats passing above him. And then he couldn’t breathe. It seemed like he would actually drown, up there, but he managed to get to the stairs, and down to the lower part of the cottage, and he could breathe again.

Then Otto realised that Henrietta was nowhere to be seen and decided she must have been upstairs, too, so he went back up and held his breath, and managed to get to Henrietta’s room and drag her downstairs, without drowning. Henrietta had been puking in her room because of the terrible stench that had come from nowhere.

We came to the idea that perhaps somehow this new canal had been built through the site of a burial mound from an ancient battle or something, but we didn’t have any idea how to put the poor souls to rest. I didn’t really know much about Morrite rituals and things like that. In any case this was all very draining and we were all beginning to show the signs of fear and fatigue.

Looking through the lower level Solvej found a cell or strongroom, which was occupied by an ancient warrior hanging from the ceiling. Solvej fetched me and readied her bow as I tried to cut the body down. Suddenly it came to life and grabbed me by the throat, strangling me. Solvej loosed her arrow and the creature disappeared, and I was left on my own, in the cell, with the realisation that I had been strangling myself, or something. It was very strange.

We began to wonder how Henrietta had managed here, all this time. We asked her about her past and how long she had been here, and her answers seemed reasonable enough, but I think we were all a bit suspicious of her. We considered that this could all be about her. Otto let Solvej know that it would be alright with him if Solvej were to dispatch Henrietta. I knew nothing about this and would definitely have objected had I overheard them plotting to kill the poor halfling, probably.

Solvej went out into the garden area which was walled off from the dead warriors. She was immediately attacked by ravens, though. Apparently she could hear them talking to her and I think she was beginning to become seriously unhinged by now. She told us that she could hear the sounds of an ancient battle and understood the deaths of the warriors as the forces of Sigmar himself fought their rivals for control of the Reikland.

She went to the office and despite being able to see blood pouring from the walls and pooling around her ankles, she grabbed as many of the books and ledgers she could get and threw them out into the hallway. I think she thought they might hold a clue to what was happening, but I had a look at them and they all looked like normal ledgers and accounts you might find in any lockkeeper’s cottage.

Otto went to the kitchen and heard strange music and saw a vision of fur-clad ancient warriors singing about their battles and about a great hero who had fought against Sigmar and been defeated and had then Joined Sigmar’s forces. This was too much for Otto, and he ran and hid under the stairs. I went to talk to him, but I don’t think I did much good. I don’t know if it was the haunting, or the atmosphere of death and decay, or the influence of the dark gods, or my fatigue, but I just didn’t seem to be succeeding at very much at all.

Then as we sat under the stairs, we saw messages being written in blood on the wall. They said things like ‘the earth will consume you’ and ‘the drowners of the dead.’ It was fortunate that Otto couldn’t read.

Solvej heard the sound of fighting outside, and went to see what was happening, but when she opened the door, she saw a vision of an ancient chieftain bashing the brains of his enemy against the wall and the wall dripping in blood. Then she saw ravens burst from the blood. And she had the idea that this chieftain was called Kurgorn Thee-Eyes.

When she told me about it, I had the vague recollection that I had heard stories of an ancient Unberogen chieftain of that name who had fought against Sigmar and when he was defeated, he had joined with Sigmar and become one of his greatest warriors in the fight to create the Empire.

I think we had a good idea of what had happened by now, but could not think of what to do about it. If we were on top of Kurgorn’s burial mound, we did not know what to do to stop the haunting. Solvej went into the garden to dig, but was beaten back by the ravens, again. Someone had the idea of praying to Sigmar, but I thought Shallya might be of more help, but neither seemed to be helping, and no one knew how to contact Morr. Maybe Borchband could have given the shambling undead a rousing speech.

I think Solvej had the idea, or a vision, that we needed to dig in the stairwell, and so we did, and even Schnitzel helped. After some frantic digging we uncovered some flagstones with handles in them, and after clearing the earth away we were able to lift them. This opened to more stairs and after Henrietta got some candles, we followed them down.

We came to a chamber lit by pale blue lights and there, sat on a stone throne, was a skeletal figure dressed in spoiled rich robes and surrounded by weapons, goods, and treasure. It was wearing a crown bedecked with a glowing green gemstone like a third eye. The figure addressed us in a raspy voice that we couldn’t understand, but Solvej got the idea the figure needed an offering to placate it and so she gave it all her money. Otto followed suit and gave up all his money, but this did not seem to help. And so, as a last resort, he sacrificed his rat, his lucky beast-wizard horn, and the porn that he had stolen from the Holzenauers, but even that didn’t do any good.

We noticed that the floor of the tomb was wet, and that water was seeping in from above, from the direction of the canal. So we decided we needed to drain the canal so the chieftain could be at rest, once more.

We left the house and the dead warriors stood still as we did so, not attempting to stop us or attack us, and we got to work on the Grey Lady with our pickaxes. We opened the lock gates at one end to let the water out of the lock and then crashed the Grey Lady against the other gates and sunk it to ensure those lock gates couldn’t be opened. And we were satisfied that the long-dead chieftain could sleep again, but we were unsure how long our vandalism would keep the lock out of use.

By now we were shattered so we went with Henrietta to the next village to find somewhere to sleep for what little remained of the night. And we intended to make our way to Altdorf, regardless, even though we had no money at all left, and no means to get there. And our instructions to Gulgad and Kurtis to take the Grey Lady from Bogenhafen to Altdorf could not, of course, be followed now. But maybe we would bump into them again, somewhere. You never know.