The Rottmar-Pfeifers

Kurtis has been going on about his imaginary noble family for some time. I think all of us have had enough of it by now, but everyone else has only known him for a few months. Imagine how I feel, having had to listen to it for almost my entire life.

We bumped into the Rottmar family when we were travelling with the gravin. They were supposed to have been his long-lost family, but surprise-surprise, it turns out they weren’t. He’d kept quiet about it since then, having lost any credibility he’d had. But I bumped into him on Reik Bridge a few weeks after the thing at the Grand Opera House and he had a new version of the tale for me.

He’d seen the names of the dead in the newssheets and noticed at the top of the list was Baron Kurtin von Rottmar-Pfeifer of Talabecland, residing in Wolftor, and that the name of Rottmar, and his uncanny resemblance to Kurtin, had made him think that maybe there was something to his family legend after all. And so he had gone back up to the House of the Phoenix to see what else he could find out about Kurtin.

He said that he thought it was strange that the world had just kept going after the Opera thing, and no one seemed to be treating it as a big deal. It was all put down to the chaos and  hysteria of the concert. The official line was that the production was so avant garde and unusual that the audience rioted in protest and because the doors were locked, some people were killed in the crush. I told him that people just wanted to get on with life and not think too much about the dangers that might be lurking around the corner, a bit like their attitude to the giant rat-men.

He wore his ostentatious teal and mustard get-up, but instead of just going into the place like a normal person, he managed to pick up a young lady in the queue and got her to bring him in. As it happened, the woman, Lara, had known Kurtin and was shocked to see Kurtis. He put her mind at rest by telling her he was Kurtin’s younger brother from the Border Princes who had come to Altdorf for the funeral, and that he was here to help tie up his affairs. He told her he understood that Kurtin had got himself into some trouble, but Lara didn’t know anything about that. She told him that she didn’t know Kurtin had a brother, but Kurtis changed the subject by getting Lara to introduce him to her friends. She explained that Kurtis was Kurtin’s brother and put on a sad face, for a bit, but didn’t really seem to care.

One of them was a tall noble-looking bloke called Ludwig von Emskrank and he got talking with Kurtis. He was looking a bit spaced out with large eyes and poured a wine from a black bottle for Lara and then offered one to Kurtis. Kurtis took it without missing a beat, but then spent the next ten minutes looking for a good opportunity to surreptitiously dump the drink and pretend he had drunk it.

Ludwig asked a few awkward questions about the funeral and Kurtis’ business, but he dealt with them well, making up a story about chasing down Tilean pirates aboard the Erhardt’s Revenge. Being from Emskrank, Ludwig was a keen sailor and so asked him some testing questions about the Erhardt’s Revenge, but Kurtis felt like he got away with it.

Kurtis told Ludwig that he had heard Kurtin had been in some trouble, and Ludwig pulled him to one side and explained that he didn’t want to be indelicate, especially before the funeral, but Kurtin had owed him fifty crowns and that he would be expecting Kurtis to sort that out for him. He said that he knew Kurtin had been unlucky that the money that was coming from Talabecland had kept getting delayed for a series of strange reasons. He also said that he knew Kurtin owed a lot of other people, too.

Kurtis took this in his stride and explained that that was exactly what he was in Altdorf to sort out, and that fifty crowns wasn’t really that much of a sum to be fretting over. And having managed to dump his wine into a pot plant he went to buy another bottle and put it on the Rottmar-Pfeifer tab. The barmaid apologised but told him that she was under strict instructions not to add any more to that tab. Kurtis threatened to call the management and convinced her to leave the tab open for one more evening.

When he re-joined Ludwig he spotted Maria and Yanica rumping over the other side of the room. He thought that Yanica was strangely significantly hotter than she had been just a couple of weeks before when he had hung out with her. But he decided it would be best to stay out of their way and asked Ludwig who else he thought Kurtin owed money to.

Ludwig replied that it was ‘everyone.’ He listed the series of unfortunate events that seemed to have befallen Kurtin’s attempts to get the money from his estate in Talabecland to Altdorf. He didn’t seem to suspect that Kurtin might not be good for it, though. He explained that Kurtin had owed fifty crowns to the Phoenix and had borrowed the money off him so he might be allowed to keep his tab going. And he seemed to think Kurtin owed money to everyone he did business with. And to make matters worse, a few weeks ago, some fellow had been running up debts at the Phoenix and at a tailors nearby, pretending to be Kurtin.

Getting ready to leave, Kurtis got Ludwig’s address in Fundgrube, and Ludwig seemed to disparage the Rottmar-Pfeifer house in Wolftor but Kurtis ignored it and thanked Ludwig for being a good friend to Kurtin. On the way out he looked at the tab which was at sixty-odd crowns and was mostly for one crown bottles of unnamed wine and promised he would sort it out. Kurtis might not be able to read but he can understand a bar tab!

Then, as he hugged Ludwig farewell, he attempted to pickpocket him of some sort of object that might identify him. Ludwig may have been out of his face on the dark wine, but as Kurtis already knew, the wine offers premonitions and dreams of the future. And this was how Ludwig seemed to know Kurtis was going to pickpocket him before he had even done it, and he accused Kurtis of the act, in front of everyone. At least, that was how Kurtis had dreamed it. And that dream came back to him now, and he realised that, weirdly, this was the moment he had dreamed of failing to pickpocket someone at the Phoenix. He had dreamt of Ludwig dreaming about Kurtis trying to pickpocket Ludwig, and so he thought better of it, and simply left the Phoenix. I don’t really understand any of that, but as I suspect Kurtis was making the whole thing up, that doesn’t really matter.

So, Kurtis headed home, stopping off at a cheaper  tavern where he could afford a drink. When he got to Paul’s he had to pose for a painting for a couple of hours before getting to bed. From what Kurtis says, he is already getting a bit bored of Stella. This isn’t very surprising to me, but it seemed to be a revelation to him. I thought about sitting him down and explaining to him what he is like, and how he comes across, but to be honest, I couldn’t really be bothered. I think Kurtis, like Solvej, is probably beyond saving and I don’t think it would really bother me if I didn’t see him again. Anyway, he went on with his awful story, which was, as usual, all about him.

In the morning Kurtis headed up to Wolftor, which is over the other side of Koenigplatz from the Street and asked around until he discovered the Rottmar-Pfeifer house. It was on a street that had once been grand but had now seen better days, and the townhouse was obviously a bit run down. Kurtis nervously walked up to the door, steeled himself, and knocked.

A little old lady answered. She viewed Kurtis suspiciously at first, then looked shocked, but then the penny seemed to drop, and she hugged him and told him she always knew he would turn up one day and beckoned him into the house. This was all a bit confusing for Kurtis who had no idea what was going on, but he decided to just go with it.

The woman introduced herself as Clara the maid and sat Kurtis down in the reception and went to get some tea and biscuits. While she was gone Kurtis had a quick look around the room. He noticed a few pictures were missing from the walls, but one remained, which was of Kurtin looking important. He spotted a number of coats of arms around the place, which was the traditional Rottmar one he knew about, a red axe on a white field, but it was quartered with yellow panpipes on a blue field. Other than that, the room was looking a bit bare.

When Clara returned and served the tea, she asked how Kurtis had found them. He didn’t know what to say and pointed to the portrait of Kurtin and asked how closely related they were. Clara looked surprised that he didn’t know. Kurtis’ mind was doing somersaults as he tried to work out what might be going on. Clara noticed this and began a long story that she hoped might cover everything, while Kurtis just listened.

Clara began the tale of Ludolf von Rottmar-Pfeifer, who was a noble from Pfeiferberg in Talabecland, which is in the Barren Hills south of Ravenstein. The family had strong connections with the Reikland von Rottmar family, and he had served in the Reikland army as a colonel, and got posted around the Reikland, including tours of Altdorf and Ubersreik.

As Ludolf’s elder brother had died in military service without issue it became important that Ludolf got an heir, otherwise the family name and holdings would pass to a distant cousin that no one was particularly fond of.

Unfortunately, Ludolf’s wife, Margaret, who was living mostly in Altdorf, was unable to have children. But under pressure for an heir, in correspondence back to Talabecland, Ludolf assured his family that Margaret would soon be pregnant. At the mention of Margaret, Clara became emotional and had to pause for a few moments before taking a sip of tea and continuing the story. Clara had been Margaret’s maid and had stayed with her throughout her time in Altdorf and now continued to look after the Rottmar-Pfeifer residence here.

Meanwhile, posted to Ubersreik, Ludolf had a relationship with a local woman who Clara did not know. When she got pregnant, instead of reacting badly, which the woman had no doubt feared, Ludolf was delighted and hatched his plan. He wrote to his family in Talabecland announcing that Margaret was pregnant, and that the family would soon have an heir.

He returned to Altdorf to explain the plan to his wife. Margaret, of course, was not pleased with it. Ludolf intimidated the poor woman into accepting it, however. But when the time came, Ludolf’s lover gave birth to twins. Ludolf was happy with this, too, an heir and a spare in one go. But the mother begged him to only take one of the boys and let her keep the second born.

Ludolf named the children Kurtin and Kurtis and brought Kurtin back to Margaret in Altdorf, leaving Kurtis with his mother in Ubersreik. The mother was sworn to secrecy for a few crowns, and never saw Ludolf again. Kurtis realised, of course, that despite her being sworn to secrecy, this tale had found its way into the bedtime stories she had told him as he grew up, at least the idea that Kurtis had a noble father. If there had been hints that he also had a secret twin, he hadn’t picked up on them.

Ludolf proudly presented Kurtin to Margaret and told her that he was now her son and his heir. Heartbroken, Margaret fell into melancholy and a couple of weeks later she threw herself off Reik Bridge. Clara paused again as the pain of those days came back to her. Ludolf told his family that his beloved and loyal wife had tragically died from complications due to childbirth, which was, he supposed, technically true.

Kurtin was sent back to Talabecland to be raised by his elderly, out of touch, noble family while his father was posted to various locations across the Reikland. A few years later, when Kurtin was only six years old, Ludolf had died in unclear circumstances, in a tavern brawl in Altdorf. And good riddance to him, said Clara, and then apologised as she remembered she was talking to his son.

Clara supposed that she was probably the only person who knew the whole story, and now Kurtis did too. She had been devoted to Margaret and admitted that she hated the entire Rottmar-Pfeifer family for what they had done to her. After Margaret’s death she continued to run the house in Altdorf which was still visited by the family occasionally when they had business in the capital. Then, a year or so ago, Kurtin came to the city to make his mark in Altdorf society. He moved into the house, and Clara realised that the apple did not fall far from the tree.

Kurtin had been brought up as nobility in Talabecland and raised to rule. But from what Clara could tell, he had soon tired of rural life, and wanted to visit Altdorf, where his father had spent much of his time. He refused, however, to join the army, which was a Rottmar-Pfeifer tradition, and preferred to move among the society crowd, and tried, unsuccessfully, to make his mark at the palace.

Becoming the Baron Rottmar-Pfeifer at the age of six, raised by elderly, and somewhat weak, guardians, Kurtin was spoiled. He grew up arrogant and angry. He did learn to fight well and to play the lute well, during this time, however. He resented the fact that he had never had a mother and that his father had stayed away until his death. He bullied his staff and manipulated his relatives into getting his own way. He cared little for the family seat and Clara suspected he was frittering his way through the family fortune. She knew he was heavily in debt to a number of people in the city, some of whom were hardened criminals, and he had sold much of the contents of the house, to help pay these, and kept writing back to Pfeiferberg demanding more money

Clara told how his original plan seemed to be to use his undoubted good looks, and what he thought of as charm, to rise to prominence among the courtiers at the palace, but he’d soon fallen to carousing and brawling in the Street of a Hundred Taverns. He has killed a couple of people there, in unofficial back-alley duels, and picked up a scar on this right cheek in one of the fights. When asked about it he simply said, ‘But you will see my opponent’s scars, when you visit Morr.’

Then Clara told how he began to frequent the House of the Phoenix, which was very fashionable, but she suspected that it was a dark place that could not be good for anyone and since he had been going there, his debts had increased considerably. At the end of her story, Clara looked at peace, like she had waited years to be able to tell it and was content that she could tell it to Kurtis.

Then, in reply, Kurtis told his side of the story and told Clara some of what his life was like. I suspect that he glossed over some of the incidents and made himself look better than he really was. He told her how he had seen Kurtin at the opera house and had wanted to talk to him there, but never got the chance. He also told her that he was sorry for what she had gone through and would do anything he could to help. He said that he had only come to the house to pay his respects, but Clara explained that the coffin had already gone to Pfeiferberg.

They spoke some more about the family. Kurtis said he wanted to know more about his father, but Clara said if she could not speak well of someone, she would prefer not to speak of them at all, but she did talk about Margaret, who she was clearly devoted to. She also told Kurtis of uncle Florian who was back in Pfeiferberg, looking after the family’s interests there, but who was now too old to travel to Altdorf.

After a while Kurtis made to leave. I suspect Kurtis didn’t really want to leave at this point and was doing that thing he does where he manipulates people into doing what he wants by pretending to want the opposite. And sure enough Clara asked him not to go. Kurtis protested that he did not belong in such a fine house, but Clara said he was welcome to stay. Kurtis said he would help out around the place, but Clara said that was not necessary, and as long as he contributed some money to help run the place, as Kurtin had left no money behind, he would be welcome. So Kurtis held out his hand to seal the deal and Clara shook it.