60: Six Feet Under

Ursula turned up at Kurtis’, too. When Kurtis had left the room, we asked her why she had not been at the wedding. She told us that she had not been invited, but I’m not sure about that. Solvej had been so desperate for guests she’d even invited Konrad, so I wondered why she would not have invited Ursula. I prefer to think that she was too upset at watching her friend go, and she admitted that she thought Solvej was too good for Kurtis. Otto asked if Ursula had been privy to Solvej’s plans to abscond, but she denied everything.

We talked about our plans to visit the graveyard that night being careful to pretend we were after rats, for Otto’s benefit. We told Otto and Kurtis about the ceramic dish we had found, and they told us that they had found a record of something like that being bought from Uhlmann’s by someone called Reihnmann, and a map of the sewers being bought by the rat catchers’ guild on the same day. This seemed like too much of a coincidence so we decided Otto and I would visit the rat catchers’ guild. They also showed us the documents on Khemrian weapons but it wasn’t very detailed and looked like a student’s report, and it didn’t mention the sword.

As we were leaving Kurtis’ an urchin delivered a message that I was wanted at the temple by the Order of the Chalice. That was exciting. I guess they had decided on my application one way or the other. I couldn’t wait to go back to the temple and find out, but I had promised Otto to go to the guild with him, and so the Order of the Chalice had to wait.

We met Gretchen Schwanz at the guild house, and she wondered why Otto hadn’t been around there much. Otto told her he was running a proper business out of Kurtis’ house, and I backed him up a bit mentioning the important work he did for wizards and things like that. She told him it was a drinks night for the guild at ‘The Butchers’ and that Otto should come if he wanted to be a proper guild member and network with his fellow rat catchers. Otto said he would come but I made him promise it was only for one drink as we had important things to do.

Schwanz showed us the map, hung on the wall in the guild house. It was huge and showed the entire sewer system of Altdorf. I copied down the relevant bit around the garden of Morr and hoped it had enough information to help us. I got the impression that there were two layers of sewers, the older deeper one and a newer one above it, but I’m not sure I really understood it all. Otto understood it better than me, but his drawing was rubbish.

Then we went to the temple. I had to see a Joseph Salamander who was a tall and serious looking priest, and he told me I had been accepted into the Order of the Chalice. He also said he was impressed with my report and that I was not going to be doing deskwork as he wanted me out in the field. That was exactly what I wanted to hear.

But then he said that my first task would be to do a presentation to some of the younger members of cult. I’m not sure why they wanted me to do that, and I’m not sure I was very good at it, but I just told the eager young recruits about some of the stuff I had got up to over the past six months or so. They seemed to be pretty impressed, but I might have been a bit too honest, so afterwards I told Salamander that I had been exaggerating, and the bit about putting Genevieve in jail wasn’t true, and nor was the bit about Kurtis murdering the jailor, or the bit about Solvej feeding Joachim to the cannibal. It had been a busy six months.

Still Salamander thanked me and told me he was sure I would be a credit to the Order of the Chalice. He also said that I should particularly help our brothers in the cult of Morr, which was what I was intending to do, and before I left I grabbed a couple of shovels from the herb garden.

Back at Kurtis’ I thought everyone would be preparing to go to the graveyard, but Otto invited everyone to come to the rat catchers’ pub night. I’m not sure any of us would have been welcome, but Otto seemed to think we would. I think he was missing the point about hanging out with his rat catcher colleagues instead of us. Otto also put on the silk shirt Eloise had given him, which didn’t look like rat catcher attire to me.

In the end Kurtis and Ursula went with him to the Butchers while the rest of us went to the garden of Morr. They said they would join us there later but I didn’t hold out too much hope. At the Butchers Otto found a new friend, a one-eyed, seven-fingered, drunken, fat bloke called Harry, and his dog, Pork.

They bonded over their love of rat catching and Harry told Otto he should come round the guild house more, and Otto told Harry he should come round his office at Kurtis’ more. I’m not sure Kurtis would appreciate that, though, and I think Kurtis and Ursula found the Butchers such a dive they didn’t enjoy their time there much.

Harry decided that they needed to go on to visit some ladies of ill-repute, but Otto couldn’t face it, as despite being kicked out of the house by his wife, and being replaced by the local butcher, he still felt a matrimonial obligation to her, I think. But luckily, as he had already promised me they would stay for one drink only, he was able to make his excuses and leave. Otto said he really liked Harry, but Ursula and Kurtis warned him not to let Harry lead him astray, which coming from those two must have meant a lot.

Meanwhile, at the garden of Morr we were talking to Brother Matthew, the night gardener, who we had been told had disinterred Markward’s body. It turns out he didn’t, and he had found it already dug up and assumed the other gardener, Brother William, had done the job. So if no one had dug the coffin up, that left us a bit confused. Apparently, Matthew had heard a ruckus outside, in the early hours, but had decided not to investigate (I think he was a bit frightened) and when the noise had died down, the coffin was dug up. I’m not sure what he thought had happened, but it was a bit strange.

Anyway, Konrad told him that if he heard a similar ruckus tonight, then it would be us making it, and so he wouldn’t have to worry about it, and could stay safely in the temple.

So we were preparing to dig down into the grave to see if we could find the tunnel beneath it when everyone else turned up. Otto saw the marks on the coffin and was a bit worried that it wasn’t just rats we were dealing with, but he got digging anyway. And, sure enough, it didn’t take much work to breakthrough into what was clearly a constructed tunnel beneath the graveyard. This didn’t look like sewers, but they had been made out of rocks and earth, so it looked like some sort of man-made primitive burrow.

The tunnel was only wide enough for one of us at a time, and so we filed into the darkness. Ever since the incident on Kurtis’ farm with the tainted bread I had been able to see extraordinarily well in the dark. That is a good thing. It’s not a mutation, or anything like that. It is just a special talent I have. But I have heard that witch hunters don’t always appreciate special talents and see them as a mark of the dark gods, and so I have been careful to keep this a secret. And so, as I went into the tunnels, I pretended, especially to Ursula, that it was very dark and I had difficulty seeing.

In any case, Konrad lit a lantern, and every time he got near Erhardt the flames seemed to flicker strangely, like the very light was repulsed by the wizard. So, I would suggest, if the witch hunters are really fussed about stuff like that, they should concentrate on Erhardt, and not me.

We crawled thought the tunnels for a few yards and then came to a crossroads. Erhardt did a thing, and seemed to not be there for a few minutes, and then reported on what lay ahead of us. He told us our best bet was to ignore the side routes which led to further crossroads, and head forwards towards a fork where the tunnels widened a bit and we got to stand up a bit straighter. The air was starting to get really rank now, and it stank of rotting flesh. We wondered whether this could be the sewers, or the river, but I think we knew it wasn’t that. We’d all smelled our fair share of shit over the years, and this was worse.

Konrad inspected the sides of the tunnel and discovered that there were long scratch marks, like the ones on the coffin, all around the tunnel, including on the ceiling.

I’m not sure this was the right moment, but Erhardt decided it was time to present Ursula with a pistol he had bought for her. He had remembered her pistols when we first met her, and recently she had been struggling with the crossbow, so now she had a pistol she could use. It would be especially useful in cramped spaces like this tunnel. It was a shame, then, that Erhardt had not thought to buy any shot or powder.

Going by the map it looked like we might be close to the older tunnel network, and we came to an area where we crossed into the sewers. The side of the sewer had caved in, and we were able to enter the sewer system across a water-logged area. Now the way was wider and higher, so walking was more comfortable, but we were knee deep in sewage. With Otto leading the way, we could see the sewer was heading towards the river, which shouldn’t have been that far away, but it was blocked and flooded, so we headed inland back towards the graveyard.

Suddenly, a boulder fell away from the side of the sewer and a pale, emaciated figure with long claws and sharp teeth emerged from the gloom and scrambled towards Otto. And then two more emerged from the sides of the tunnel and from under the water, and crawled towards us along the sides and even the ceiling of the tunnel.

I prayed to Shallya to martyr me on Otto’s behalf, but she did not answer my prayer. I should probably have mentioned it, but before I could, Otto rushed off towards the ghouls thinking that Shallya was protecting him. In any case, Otto dispatched the first ghoul with a single blow.

Three more of the creatures emerged from the tunnels behind us and crawled towards Ursula. Konrad threw his spare flask of oil at the creatures, and tried to ignite it, but that failed, and Erhardt managed to hurt one of them with his magic, but they were closing in on us, and had us surrounded.

The conditions were so cramped, most of us had drawn our daggers. I wondered whether these creatures were protected by Shallyan strictures. On the one hand, I supposed they were poor humans who had succumbed to cannibalism through poverty and hunger and should therefore be pitied. On the other hand, they were diseased monsters trying to eat us. So in the absence of any detailed theological insight, I drew my dagger, too.

One of the ghouls crawled along the side of the tunnel trying to get through our defences and Kurtis stabbed it, driving it back. It was too cramped for Ursula to use her crossbow and so she tossed it aside and grabbed her flail, for which it was also too cramped. If only she’d had a pistol. One of the ghouls struck her, wounding her badly.

At the front of the group, helped by Erhardt, Otto was continuing to get into the ghouls, killing a second, and at the back Kurtis and Ursula were fighting back, managing to hold them off.

Otto dispatched the final ghoul at the front. Kurtis killed another of the ghouls and the final one slipped into the foul water and disappeared. It seemed to be dragging something with it. Perhaps one of the bodies from the graveyard.

I think perhaps we had been underestimating Otto for a while. Because of his generally pleasant demeanour, and his tendency to speak without thinking, we considered the man a bit of a fool. But he had proven that he was as ruthless and determined as any of us, especially in this element down here in and around the sewers. I congratulated him on his heroics, but he didn’t seem pleased, insisting he was a rat catcher and not a ghoul snatcher.

I saw to Ursula’s wounds. The creatures had obviously been filthy or diseased, as I could see the marks left on Ursula’s body were contaminated in some way, but I dealt with it. Ursula was happy enough with my help. It is funny how less suspicious she is of me when she gains from my prayers.

And then we followed the route the final ghoul had taken deeper into the tunnels. As we did, the stench of death in the tunnels increased, and we found what must have been the ghoul’s lair, strewn with rotting carcasses. But in a corner of the lair, there were three rat-like man-size figures, who seemed to be searching through the bodies. They looked up and squeaked at us.