63: Carroburg

Erhardt decided to take the remains of the book to his college, or somewhere, just to be safe. It was a bit strange how frightened he was of a simple charred book, but I kind of get it, because I know there are things that are more strangely powerful than they appear from a theological point of view, so I can believe there’re things like that from a magical perspective, too.

Ursula decided to take Lothar to the witch hunters, or somewhere, just to be safe. It was a bit strange how frightened she was of a simple weakling student, but I kind of get it, because I know there are things that are more strangely powerful than they appear from a theological point of view, so I can believe there’re things like that from an authoritarian perspective, too.

Although the book went quietly, Lothar went kicking and screaming and Ursula had to give him a bit of a beating, until he calmed down a bit, then he remembered that he was going to be burned alive and started kicking and screaming again, and so Ursula gave him another beating.

Meanwhile, Konrad and Otto helped me get Markward’s body onto a trolley and we wheeled it out of the university to the Garden of Morr on Toteninsel. We had to wheel the mutilated corpse through the streets but managed to do it without arousing too much suspicion. It was late at night, so not very busy, but even so that would seem to make it look even more sinister. I walked in front trying to give us an air of officialness and respectability, but we probably looked a bit dodgy.

Brother Matthew was on duty at the cemetery and so we told him to get the body ready as the widow would be coming to see it. I told him I would write to the head priest of the cemetery to explain everything, but looking back, with everything else on my mind, I forgot.

Otto went to Kurtis’, or ‘home’ as he calls it. And couldn’t wait to tell him everything we had done, even though Kurtis was ill and it was three in the morning. That is one of the reasons he is not the most desirable houseguest. In the end he went to sleep in the storeroom and Clara locked him in. Unfortunately, she forgot there was a large supply of jam in the cupboard, and Otto could be forgiven for being a bit hungry after all the excitement.

At the Great Temple (it’s not that great) Ursula had plainly managed to restore her reputation and was congratulated on capturing Lothar. They had arranged a pyre for Lothar for the next day and she was to be the guest of honour.

I feel like all Lothar wanted to do was help people, not unlike myself, and he just had the misfortune to have stumbled on the wrong means. I’m not saying I would be foolish enough to use a proscribed tome to help me with my medicine, but some of the books in the temple library go a bit close to what is acceptable, and what other way is there to fight against the dark gods, but to learn about them? You can’t burn everything and everyone.

Ursula was obviously pleased with her rehabilitation. She went out and bought some powder and shot for her pistol. Now, instead of missing her enemies with her crossbow and spending ages reloading it, she could miss her enemies with her pistol and spend ages reloading that.

Kurtis got mad that Otto had eaten all the jam and bemoaned his luck, blaming Sigmar. But Aunt Clara told him that if there was room in his heart then there would be room at his table, which sounds like the sort of gibberish Sigmarites say because they don’t have any sound theological rationalisation for their charity.

Konrad went to see Professor Blumfield. He made a point of saying how blameless the other four students had been and that all the fault lay with Lothar. He gave Blumfield his card and offered to do similar work for him in future. He made it clear that he would keep the good name of the university away for the entire affair, and so Blumfield agreed he owed Konrad a favour.

I had been thinking about the vision I’d got when I touched the book. It is never clear where these things come from. Was it a vision sent by Shallya in order to guide me to do her bidding? I had to believe it was. I’m not sure the dark gods would be so interested in me as to bother sending me a vision to trap me, or something (on the other hand, they do know my name).

So I decided that we all needed to travel to the Midden Moors and put a stop to whatever necromancer or cultist had lost the book. I would have been prepared to go alone (maybe) but I think I had supported my friends enough over the last few months that I could reasonably expect them to support me in this. After going all the way to Middenheim and coming straight back again for no apparent reason, I think Erhardt, at least, owed me one.

I got out all the maps of the area I could find in the library and thought back through my vision and managed to locate the area which the tower must be in. And I found one decent map that showed the relevant bit of the moors and decided to borrow it. Although it was strictly against the library rules, I slipped it under my robes.

So, we all gathered at Kurtis’ and I announced that we would be going to the Midden Moors. I didn’t feel like telling them why, but everyone agreed to come. I think we needed to be better prepared, as a lot of the journey would be through wilderness, and so I gave everyone a handy list of equipment to bring that I remembered from Shallyan boys camp when we were eleven.

We needed some money to pay for these supplies, but we were due to visit Eloise Dehnert to tell her that we had found Markward’s body so I hoped that might bring enough to finance the expedition. Kurtis didn’t seem to know what our efforts were worth, and so I told him to ask her for a hundred crowns. Kurtis didn’t seem to think the nobility worked like that and everything was done in lieu of favours, which would be no good to us, unless we wanted to do the expedition in gaudy silk shirts.

Sine admitted us to Eloise’s and told Erhardt she was still afraid of the howling sword. Eloise greeted us fondly, which felt a bit fake, to me, and called us all darling. But she was pleased with the job we had done. She agreed to pay us thirty crowns, which was a lot less than the hundred I had said, but to be honest that was wishful thinking and I have no real idea what this sort of work was worth.

Eloise promised to invite us all to her birthday party which would be in about a month, and we decided that we would probably be back from the Midden Moors by then and would able to attend. Even if we were only going to be there so Kurtis could be Eloise’s performing monkey.

But, hearing all the rumours about Eloise, and seeing all the strange objects in her house, and the cursed sword, and the mysterious disappearance of her husband’s body, I had been thinking she might be a witch, I am ashamed to say. As the Parable of the Old Lady tells us, perhaps treating someone like they are evil makes them seem evil. And perhaps Eloise was nothing more than a harmless old lady who lives in the woods, metaphorically speaking, she’s actually not that old, and lives in the Palast District.

So now I had some money, I went out to buy some sensible gear for our journey. I bought a new coat, some new walking boots, a backpack, a water skin, and a tent. That was most of my money gone, but it seemed sensible. Not sure why I bought the backpack to help me carry things, because Konrad bought a mule. We all decided that we would chip in for the cost of the beast, seeing as it would be carrying all our stuff. Although I did worry about it, as I heard the Midden Moors was hard going terrain with few roads, so it might not be suitable for a pack animal.

Then that evening I decided it would be best to tell everyone why we were going on our expedition. I told them about my vision from the perspective of some hapless person who had lost the book and been punished for it by a pale necromancer (perhaps) and his cruel minion. Otto, inevitably, got a bit confused. He seemed to think I was the person who lost the book. I tried to explain that I was placing myself in the role of imaginary person to whom it was happening, seeing the world from their perspective, and describing things from their point of view. But he didn’t really get it, and after talking to Otto, I think I got confused about it myself.

I thought it would be a good idea to get a decent night’s sleep before our hike to Carroburg, but Kurtis, I was to find out later, had other ideas. I had noticed him looking at Eloise in a funny way and also looking around her house. I’d put two and two together but got the wrong answer. Older, attractive woman, giving him loads of attention, noble, lots of money, recently widowed, she seemed like the perfect target for Kurtis’ charm and his next step up in Altdorf society. But he had changed, and he wasn’t giving it the old charm anymore. He had been jealous. Eloise’s house crammed full of antiques and curios was a stark contrast to his own plain, diminishing furnishings. (To be fair, Aunt Clara did seem to be a bit more of an asset than Sine, though.)

So, that night after visiting the temple of Ranald, he broke into Eloise’s place determined to get him some sort of nick-nack from her collection. He got through the front door and then went down to her basement, but made too much noise, and Sine woke up. Kurtis had caused the cursed Khemrian sword to start screaming, and Sine came down to beg it to stop and even sing it a lulaby. Kurtis managed to hide from her and could see the face of the sword appearing inside the glass case.

Sine went back upstairs. She locked the door and muffled the sounds by putting blankets around the door. Kurtis grabbed a handful of ancient coins from one of the displays but could hear Sine calling to Eloise telling her she thought the sword might be escaping. And finding himself locked in with Sine and Eloise coming down to see what was happening, he decided to knock some things to the floor, smash the door down, and leg it, using the destruction as some sort of cover, as if the cursed sword had done it, or something.

I think Erhardt spent some of the evening doing research into the Midden Moors. He found stuff out about the place especially its connection with gnomes, and something about the sun never shining up there, which didn’t sound very pleasant. It was probably good that he did, though, as I had been concentrating on the maps and making sure I could find my way there, and had neglected to research anything about the place itself.

Otto went out, as well. He went to see Harry at the Dragon to ask about the Midden Moors, but Harry has never left Altdorf, so didn’t know anything about them. He invited Otto to go whoring again, but Otto is always very loyal to his wife who ran off with the butcher. He did warn Harry about the disease that Kurtis may or may not have picked up, but Harry said he already had everything anyway. Otto told him that according to Aunt Clara enemas helped, but Harry said he liked to make friends not enemas. On his way back Otto bumped in Kurtis who was looking at the coins he had just robbed (I don’t think he even knows whether they’re worth anything), and then he found out that Clara had removed all the surviving jam from the storeroom.

So nearly everyone was busy late into the night. I’m not sure why we couldn’t just get a good night’s sleep and be awake and refreshed for the day ahead. Not sure anyone was taking my expedition very seriously.

In the morning Clara had made a big breakfast for our trip and had also packed four days’ worth of food for everyone to take with us. So we loaded it all on to Buttercup, which was what Konrad had decided to call the mule. I wanted us to set off early in the day to give us plenty of time to travel to Carroburg, which was to be the first stop on our expedition. But Ursula didn’t turn up. She had gone to see Lothar burn.

Apparently, Ursula was the guest of honour and there were speeches about what a good job she had done and how she was a loyal servant of the witch hunters. But none of us were there to see it partly because we were waiting to set off for Carroburg, and partly because we didn’t give a toss. Ursula brought a piece of burnt wood from the pyre as a gift for Otto, and I think Otto thought it might be a piece of charred finger, so he gave it a fitting burial in one of Kurtis’ pot plants.

We eventually set off for Carroburg along the road that went westwards, north of the Reik. After half a day’s travel, because that was all we had time for thanks to Ursula, we found an abandoned fishing hut to spend the night in. I wanted to try out my new tent, but as there was a hut already there for us, there didn’t seem much point. We ate some of Clara’s supplies which were good. I was kind of hoping for fresh croissants and bacon every day, but I guess the food on long journeys doesn’t really work like that so we just had to boil potatoes ourselves.

I had a chat with Erhardt about the nature of the enemy we may have to face and how the book was an affront to Erhardt’s magic, but also to my religion. We still didn’t really have any agreement on how the realm of magic interacts with the divine realm. It’s still up for debate, which we could have later, but we agreed that this sort of thing was well beyond Kurtis’ understanding and that we should need to work together to make sure his leadership role was only in his head.

The next day’s travel was pretty uneventful, and we got to Carroburg in good time. I knew this had been the easiest stage of the journey and it wouldn’t start getting tricky until we left Carroburg. We heard a tour guide telling someone all about the history of the Carroburg Greatswords and how they wore crimson because in one battle their white uniforms had got covered in blood, and that was how Carroburg Crimson got its name. But it wasn’t very interesting.

As it was our last night in civilisation we decided to stay at an inn, so we found the Blazing Sun inn, which was decent enough. Kurtis had to have a room to himself, of course, but the rest of us stayed in the common room, except Buttercup who stayed in the stables.

They had a talent night or something at the inn. Kurtis borrowed a lute and did a song, but it wasn’t very good. He’s a bit out of practice, these days, and I don’t think his heart is really in it. Then Konrad sang, and he actually had a really good voice, but I had to pretend to Kurtis that he didn’t so that he wouldn’t get annoyed.

Then they made me tell some jokes. I did my best and used the talents Shallya had given me to tell her parables to deliver the jokes. I’m not sure that Shallya really wants that from her followers. I think if you are given a talent by Shallya to help spread her word then it’s a bit frivolous to waste them telling stupid jokes. Perhaps I should have slipped a few proselytising punchlines into my tight five, but really, I just made fun of lutists. Kurtis didn’t find them funny. Otto said he did, but probably didn’t understand them. I won’t be doing that again.