43: The Street of a Hundred Taverns

When we got to Altdorf, we all went our separate ways, really. I went to the Temple of Shallya and got down to some hard work there, thinking I had left that phase of my life behind. I think Shallya was pleased with this. No one was interested in staying together as a group and that was probably for the best. At least that’s what they said. It turns out that everyone got together and met up in the Street of a Hundred Taverns, behind my back. I mean, I know I’m not the most fun on a night out, but blimey, they could have at least invited me.

As I wasn’t there, I got this account second and third hand, so some of it might not be quite right. I got a lot of the story from Kurtis, so it’s not likely to be very accurate at all, and probably plays his part up a bit too much.

Solvej had met up with a woman called Yanica Flaschmann. She was from the Talabecland countryside, and quite new to the big city, too, so I think that’s why she took a shine to Solvej and tried to help her out and gave her a place to stay, even if it was a small, cold garret a few blocks from the Street. I’m not sure what she did as a job but Solvej made it seem like she just got by by going out and having fun and meeting people, which seems like a nice way to earn money, but I’m not sure how that works in practice.

Yanica had the idea to go to the House of the Phoenix which was where all the most fashionable young nobles hung out these days. Apparently, a lot of them dressed in the trendy Marienburg style and wore their makeup differently, so Yanica and Solvej experimented with that style, which involved a lot of black around the eyes. It was probably a Morr thing.

Otto tried to join the rat catchers’ guild. He met up with Gretchen Schwanz at the guild hall and Gretchen told him about how she had lost an eye fighting a large rat-creature in Fleishmark. She also had a heavy-handed way of training her dog that Otto didn’t approve of.

Gretchen told Otto that he’d be able to join the guild if he could prove his worth on a difficult job. There had been an extra-large rat reported at the House of the Phoenix on the Street and the rat catcher who had gone up to get it the day before had not returned.

Kurtis had a place to stay sorted out, of course, and was living with a woman in Friedhofkreuzung, and was hanging out at a tavern he thought was owned by the Baron von Rottmar, or someone connected to his imaginary noble family.

He had heard about the Hammer and Bucket on the Street which was famous for having established and aspiring artists playing there to entertain the clientele. The Street was in the theatre district so there was a lot of professional and highly trained musicians performing there, and Kurtis probably thought he could match them for talent.

Also at the Bucket was Gulgad and Erhardt. They had arranged to meet up for a drink while Gulgad was in town, and the Bucket was just down the road from the Grey College. And on the next table was Ursula Marbad who had come to Altdorf with Otto and had ended up at the Bucket, too. I think she was probably a little bit lost and was happy to see the familiar faces from Ubersreik in town.

When it came to Kurtis’ turn to play, he announced himself as Sitruk. He explained all this to me later, but I’m not sure I understand it. He seemed to think his good name had been tarnished, or something, and he had to re-establish himself as a respected artist before he could use his old name, and so now he went by Sitruk. He made the decision that in this hotbed of avant-garde talent and new music the best thing to play was a very old traditional folk song. And he didn’t play it that well, either. I guess he was out of practice. Needless to say, the performance went down very badly but the revellers were polite enough to just ignore it.

Never mind, he did manage to attract the attention of Belladonna Firaglio. I don’t know how he does it. Being very famous, Belladonna assumed that Kurtis must know who she was, but he obviously didn’t know much about the Altdorf scene. She told him she thought he had potential and that he should stick at it and said that she might be able to get him a job as she was working nearby. Then she shoved a piece of paper down his breeches. That’s what Kurtis said, anyway. I doubt a respected and famous coloratura would do anything so crude, so I think he made that bit up.

In any case, the landlady explained who Belladonna was and Kurtis fished the paper out of his pants and showed it to Gulgad and Erhardt and they were able to read it for him and explain it was a ticket for the opening night of the opera Orron and Erris which she was starring in.

The Grand Opera House

Coming Soon

Halmut Clausewitz Presents

Jacques Hoffman’s

Orron and Erris

Belladonna Firaglio, Maximillian Schloss,

Jurgen Morgens

and

Parsnip Willowwine as Peepopo

Kurtis had had a few drinks by now and invited Ursula to join them and soon they were all having a good chat about the old days and drinking lots. Kurtis was convinced that all the drinks were on Erhardt’s tab, but Erhardt wasn’t.

When it was Belladonna’s turn to sing everyone was attentive, because she was a big star and she was obviously very good. But about halfway through her slot she shouted something about being selfish at her cellist and stormed out. Kurtis was tempted to run out after her, which would have been typical of Kurtis, I think, but he decided to stay and enjoy the company of his old friends. No one had really paid too much attention to the music except, for some reason it had really annoyed Erhardt and put him on edge for a good while.

Kurtis Proudly announced that he had something special to show everyone and whipped off his top to reveal a back tattoo that said ‘Slayer.’ I think Gulgad was cringing so much he had to go outside for some air, or he would have punched him. Kurtis decided that as Gulgad, Erhardt, and he now had tattoos, Ursula needed to get one to join their gang.

Meanwhile, Solvej and Yanica had to queue up outside the Phoenix while the bouncer made a point of being a dick about letting people in, while the VIPs were allowed to strut straight by them. But they saw Otto walking past heading for the tradesman’s entrance. They had a bit of a reunion, but Otto seemed more interested in getting his job done and joining the rat catchers’ guild than becoming chummy with Solvej again. I think he was still a bit frightened of her.

In the end he agreed to get Solvej and Yanica in as his assistants. But as soon as they did get in, instead of helping him with the rat, they headed for the dance floor. On seeing that many of the trendiest people at the club had Marienburg style makeup like hers Solvej was beginning to feel good about the evening.

Meanwhile Otto climbed down the ladder to the wine cellar. One end of the cellar disappeared into the darkness of a natural cavern and so he made his way down there after remembering to go and grab a candle. He soon saw the light of eight small eyes reflecting the candlelight, and prodding his stick towards it, saw the chitinous leg of a huge spider prod back. He left his rat trap behind, which he had forgotten to bait, and edged slowly back to the ladder and back up to the club.

He found Solvej, who was having fun, but insisted she come with him to help with the spider. So they made their way back down to the cellar. Looking around there was no sign of the spider till it dropped onto Solvej’s head and dug its mandibles into her injuring her quite badly. Otto was too frightened to react and Solvej batted the creature away and they both ran for the ladder.

When they got back to the club Solvej went to find Yanica, but she was now looking a bit of a state and Yanica had found a boyfriend. As Otto was leaving, he noticed who he thought was Kurtis with a hot woman on his arm dressed in fine clothes, walking through the club and into the VIP lounge. He went after him, but the bouncer wouldn’t let him through. He managed to convince the bouncer to bring Kurtis, or Kurtin, as the bouncer called him, to the door. ‘Kurtin’ insisted he had never seen Otto in his life, and as he turned away, Otto noticed a scar on the man’s right cheek. Then the bouncer walked Otto outside and punched him in the face for embarrassing him in front of his VIP client.

Otto tried to get back in the club but everyone had seen him being bounced, and he had no chance, so he just sat on the side of the street and reflected on how awful his life would be now that he would never be allowed in the rat catchers’ guild and how terrible the last few weeks had been in general.

After a while, Solvej decided her night had been ruined too, and she left Yanica on the dance floor and left the club. She found Otto outside, and they chatted a bit, but I don’t think they were best friends anymore. They decided to walk back down the Street and found themselves walking behind one of those posh student drinking clubs.

The students passed Gulgad on their way into the Bucket and made some sort of insulting remark about dwarfs, but he took it in his stride. And so, Solvej and Otto met up with the rest of the gang and they were all together again, apart from me. And they all had a good drink at the Bucket and got pretty drunk, apart from me. Anyway, I hope they all had a great time without me.

Otto was mad at Kurtis for ignoring him at the Phoenix, but Kurtis insisted he had been at the Bucket all evening. There were plenty of witnesses, and so they made up. Otto also said something about Kurtis having a scar, and I think he was still confused about things.

In the early hours they decided to head up to the Phoenix to check that place out and maybe work out what Otto had been going on about. I’m not sure whether they did it on purpose or by accident, but they left the tavern without settling their bar tab.

On leaving the Bucket, they found the Street of a Hundred Taverns blocked by a thick, strange looking forest. They were all pretty drunk and most of them took this in their stride, but it was obvious to Gulgad and Erhardt that something strange was happening. To be fair, from what I heard, I think it should have been obvious to everyone. But anyway, they decided to nip through the forest to get to the Phoenix.

They squeezed through the forest between the dense branches and strange undergrowth and found themselves somehow transported to the middle of an even stranger forest. Though they had only gone a few steps they were surrounded by the weird flora for as far as they could see in every direction. And the trees seemed to move strangely, and even the long grass that brushed against them seemed to be pulling at their legs.

Erhardt peered at the magical winds and found the place suffuse with a strange and dangerous wind that he recognised as the distinctive, heavy, musky, sweet wind from the club for fighting, and from Orban Geldrecht, and the scholar-cultists from the three feathers, and from Gustaf Rechtshandler’s terrible death. But here it was so powerful and saturating that he resolved to be very careful should he need to use his magic.

And then they noticed that the trees seemed to be crawling with strange looking spiders, of the sort that Otto and Solvej had seen earlier. And there were some shapes moving through the forest very quickly like they were at home in this environment. They were pinkish and bluish, lithe and sinuous humanoids with horned heads and cloven hooves, and they had clawed hands that were like pincers.

At first they got the impression that these creatures were trying to surround them, but Gulgad worked out that they were actually trying to herd them, and so he stood his ground, and handed out some of his weapons and waited for the creatures to attack. Where most of the group had been quite drunk a few moments before, their plight made them sober up, at least to some degree.

The creatures rushed rapidly from the trees and Gulgad threw one of his axes to greet them.  Erhardt fished out a special ingredient for his magic to guard against inadvertent side-effects. However quickly they moved, and however frightening they seemed, and however sharp their claws, they were no match for the group and the battle was one-sided.

As each creature fell, they seemed to dissolve and merge back into the landscape as if they and the forest were parts of the same thing. And the group was left in this strange forest, very tired after their long night, wondering what to do next to get back to the Street of a Hundred Taverns.