56: Conspiracies

So, while Otto and Solvej were at the Black Bat, Kurtis and I had to go to the Wayfarer’s Rest to see if there was any sign of this Sieglinde Fenne. After my close encounters with the minions of the fly lord, and with my hopes of joining the Order of the Chalice, I had spent some time practising with my staff, hitting things. So, I gave Kurtis his dagger back and challenged him to avoid my telling blows. To cut a long story short, he gave me the dagger back again. This hitting things with a stick thing was a lot harder with a moving target.

Anyway, we had heard the Wayfarer’s Rest was a popular hangout for students and was also a well-known place to get hold of weirdroot. I decided that it would be a good way to go undercover if I pretended to be a weirdroot addict out to score some big dish. So I went up to the first likely looking suspect and tried to do a deal. I have seen the weirdroot addicts at the infirmary and hanging around Krankenfeld and I feel like I have picked up a lot of the street slang of these hooded youths. Unfortunately, I didn’t convince the dealer of my authenticity and he pushed me away. On seeing this, Kurtis stepped in and threatened him.

The first part of the plan having failed we decided to sit down and have a quiet drink. There was a bit of a rabble-rousing feel to the tavern with a murmur of discontent about the behaviour of the wizards. There were even some pamphlets being passed around about how wizards were conspiring to overthrow the Empire.

Kurtis was keeping an eye on the dealer who had disrespected me, and when he went up to the bar, Kurtis went up and stood next to him and talked to the barman about wizards. He told the barman that I was a wizard but the barman said that we should keep it quiet as there was a fair bit of anti-wizard feeling about these days and wizards hadn’t hung out at the tavern for several months. I don’t think my disguise (not washing my white robes for several years) was fooling anyone, anyway. While he was there, Kurtis managed to swipe the dealer’s pouch and came back to the table and had a look through his stuff.

In the pouch was some writing equipment and some printed pamphlets. He wasn’t a weirdroot dealer after all. The pamphlets were attacking wizards and describing a conspiracy whereby they were trying to bring down the Empire. I’m not the biggest fan of wizards but this was way-out-there stuff.

We were thinking about leaving and resigning ourselves to the possibility that Otto and Solvej might have done a better job than us, when three well-dressed students emerged from a back room. One of them was a red head who was really good looking, at least that’s what Kurtis said, and the word went round that Diethilde was here and everyone waited expectantly.

When everyone had hushed she began her speech. Her talk was all about the wizards and how they were conspiring to overthrow the Empire and that something must be done about it. We had heard this quite a bit at the Wayfarer’s Rest and we decided Diethilde was probably the source of it all. She said she knew a lot more than she was saying but if anyone wanted to talk to her afterwards, she would tell them more.

I have to say that whatever she was saying, she did it very well, and had command of her audience. I pointed out to Kurtis that he could learn from her stagecraft and even though he agreed she was good he got a bit annoyed at this and threatened to stand up and make a counter argument to prove what a great orator he was too. But he didn’t, because he’s all talk. Or rather, he's not all talk.

And as it was our mission to find out more about the wizards, and not because she was good looking, Kurtis went over to talk to Diethilde. He told her that her speech made him think about things in a different way. She said he wouldn’t believe what else she knew. And it turns out, according to her, the emperor is dead and has been replaced by a doppelganger created by the colleges of magic to rule over us and bring down the Empire. She noticed it some time ago seeing the emperor on one of his processions around the city. He was slightly different. She told Kurtis to go and see for himself.

Then Kurtis called me over to tell them that I had a friend who was a grey wizard. Thanks Kurtis. I mentioned Sieglinde’s name, and they said they knew a Sieglinde who used to hang out at the Wayfarer’s but they hadn’t seen her for about a month, but she wasn’t a wizard, just a normal student. We decided that Diethilde was telling the truth about Sieglinde and her ideas about the wizards and the emperor were sincere, even if she was as mad as a box of goblins.

And so we left the Wayfarer’s, but as we did, Kurtis threw the pouch of writing stuff he’d stolen, back to its owner, and told me to run for it.

Meanwhile Erhardt had been at the Mattheus II. The Mattheus was a lot more upmarket than the other taverns we had to visit and luckily for Erhardt he had chosen himself for that job. And as he entered the tavern, the first person he saw was Ursula Marbad, talking to a witch hunter. And Ursula was dressed as a witch hunter, too. It seemed that on the back of our expedition into the forest, she had been accepted back into her order. And she introduced Erhardt to her companion as one of her most trustworthy employees.

Her companion was Anselm Drexler a plainly experienced and grizzled witch hunter. He had a scarred face and one of his eyes was white. Erhardt told Drexler how Ursula had smited all the minions of the fly lord. Drexler wasn’t too keen on her hanging out with a wizard, but Ursula said that she would be sure to keep an eye on him.

Erhardt explained to the two witch hunters that he was after a potentially unlicenced wizard. This wasn’t true but I guess he thought that would get their cooperation, although I suppose it risked getting Sieglinde burned at the stake if they found her before we did.

The Mattheus was trying a bit too hard to look like the sort of place that nobles might hang out, and there were certainly a few hard drinking wealthy people there. Erhardt noticed one character sat in a corner with a good view of everyone, looking a bit drunk, but only actually pretending to drink. Erhardt asked if they knew who that was, and Drexler said it was Bertrand Bosch a minor courtier of the High Chancellor, but he suspected him of spying for the chancellor. He said the witch hunters sometimes worked with the High Chancellor’s office and they often shared information when it was mutually beneficial.

When Drexler had gone Erhardt congratulated Ursula on being a with hunter again, and Ursula congratulated Erhardt on becoming the leader of our group. Ursula told Erhardt how it was strange and fortuitous that sometimes people from different backgrounds should be drawn together, but their awkward flirting was interrupted by the realisation that Bosch had disappeared. However, Erhardt noticed that a note had been inserted into one of his pouches which simply said ‘Koenigplatz Midnight.’ It was a long time until midnight, so Erhardt ordered some drinks and took up Bosch’s position in the corner of the room and did some spying of his own, though he didn’t find out anything very interesting.

Eventually we all met up on the Street of a Hundred Taverns and compared notes. Erhardt was interested in the conspiracy theory about the colleges, and seemed to suggest that it was a story put about by the colleges to protect the colleges, or something. I didn’t really understand it, but it seems to me that spreading a story about the colleges of magic trying to undermine the Empire wasn’t a good way of protecting the colleges of magic from stories that they were trying to undermine the Empire, but Erhardt seemed to think it was.

We all agreed that although we didn’t believe the conspiracy theory about the emperor it would be nice to see the procession, and in any case, none of us had seen him before, so we would have no clue whether he had been replaced by a doppelganger or not. On the way there, still concerned that Erhardt was impoverished, Otto dropped a few pennies in his pouch.

The procession was supposedly impressive, and Otto was especially enthused. Personally, I think shows of power funded, essentially, by the very populace that the power is wielded over and performed ostensibly to entertain that very populace is inherently a tool of repression, but some of the horses looked nice.

Then we hung around Koenigplatz until midnight waiting for the mysterious rendezvous. Erhardt and Ursula stayed in the middle of the square in plain sight. Erhardt, insisted we all hide even though he knew that Bosch would be able to tell we were hiding, as the fact that we went to the effort would put him at his ease. This sounded unnecessarily clandestine to me, so I made sure my hiding wasn’t very good.

At about midnight a group of student revellers passed through the square and suddenly Bosch appeared beside Erhardt and asked him why he was looking for Sieglinde. Erhardt told him it was for the college, but that didn’t impress him. He said he was not sure Sieglinde would appreciate him talking about her to someone he didn’t know. He asked whether Erhardt had any idea what she was doing, and Erhardt said he supposed she was a magister vigilante and was investigating wizards from the grey college.

Bosch seemed to like this answer better and relaxed. He said that his goals might align with Erhardt and that it would be reasonable to share information. Bosch said he didn’t care about the colleges either way, but his work was vital to the security of the Empire. He was aware that some members of the colleges were meeting secretly, and this might be connected with the Jungfreud family and the issue of Ubersreik.

Erhardt said he’d be prepared to investigate this on Bosch’s behalf, too. So Bosch told him that he knew there was a Middenheim element to the investigation and that Sieglinde had intended to go there.  Erhardt asked for a contact in Middenheim and Bosch said he would be able to give him one and agreed to post it to Kurtis’ house the next morning. And with that, after another group of revellers passed, Bosch was gone.

Some of us went back to Kurtis’. Otto was upset Erhardt couldn’t even afford a letter box of his own, but he got Erhardt to write out a sign to put on Kurtis’ door so he could work from there. “Otto Rattenfaenger rat catcher guildmember rat catcher extraordinaire. Enquire here.”

Kurtis had to find a spare room for Ursula, and I think he is beginning to get annoyed by all the people staying at his place for free. Although, he just gave her a storeroom and made sure the door was locked. And, in the night, a piece of paper was slipped under the door bearing the name Lotti Eichelg.