2.6
Willkomm en Marienburg!

8th Ulriczeit IC 2522 (con’t)

The underground chamber is in utter chaos. The theatre troupe actors, now revealed as mutants, rush among the crowd, attacking the audience. The zealots wield their flails with righteous anger among the perverted thespians (and any audience members who get in the way), and Captain Aichorn wades into the crowd with a whirling sword. Braziers are knocked over, and screaming, burning figures blunder through the crowd, setting others alight; mad cackling laughter comes from somewhere in the maelstrom of panicking figures …

duCourt briefly considers grabbing a brazier and bashing a daemonette, but instead elects to rush after the escaping von Wolkenstein. With typical Elven agility he skips past the clicking pincers of a gloating, horribly sensuous daemonette and sprints after the architect of all this chaos, running up a rough staircase to emerge among the tombstones of the cemetary through an open sepulchre. In the dim moonlight he sees von Wolkenstein running away through the undergrowth, fallen stones and detritus, and sets off after him.

Back in the pandemonium, Bierschtein launches himself at the daemonette who had turned to pursue duCourt, jumping onto her back, but she twists her flexible body and he falls off and onto the floor. Lavarar grabs a passing runner, finds him to be a big burly fellow, lets him go, grabs a helpless woman, and then throws her into the path of the nearest daemonette. The daemonette advancing on the floored Bierschtein—making lewd suggestions all the while—attacks him with her horrific pincers but misses, and he manages to get to his feet and draw his hidden dagger. The other attacks Fitzue and wounds him.

Bierschtein, faced with two daemonettes, makes a risky run for it, and luckily for him the vicious swipe of one of the daemonette’s claws just misses his back as he sprints for the graveyard exit. Only Lavarar and Fitzue remain to hold off all three daemonettes—it seems hopeless. Then Fitzue, by this time gravely wounded, summons up the Aethyric energy for a last ditch effort, and succeeds in casting a Pall of Darkness spell; violently he belches forth clouds of darkness that engulf himself, Lavarar and the daemonettes. One of the beasts takes a blind swipe that just misses one of her companions, as Lavavar sprints out of the cloud and to temporary safety. Fitzue is on his heels; luckily two of the daemonettes stagger out of the cloud in the wrong direction and into the crowd, but the last is close behind Fitzue as he escapes.

As Fitzue runs for his life Bierschtein turns and—calling down the divine favour of Sigmar—conjures a twin-tailed comet that streaks toward Fitzue, who lunges backward as it streaks over his head and hits the daemonette. Fitzue turns and flings some hastily-conjured shadow knives at the burning daemon which seal the matter … it is a simple matter to finally finish it off by breaking its neck.

After covering some considerable distance with the elf in hot pursuit, von Wolkenstein trips and falls over a stone, while duCourt pushes desperately through a thick patch of brambles to reach him.

Finally duCourt catches up to von Wolkenstein, who makes two attempts to cast some horrible Chaos spell at his pursuer but fails, only finally getting out some kind of confusion spell at duCourt as Lavarar runs up to join them. duCourt, luckily, manages to shrug off its effects and deals a punishing slash to his assailant’s thigh that opens up an artery. von Wolkenstein is on the ground and begging for help from his dark lord—but no help comes.

Close to the chamber exit, Bierschtein casts healing spells on Fitzue on himself, and limps forward to join the others. von Wolkenstein’s wound is bound, and wrapped in a cloak the adventurers take him to the cemetery gates and through the icy, night-bound streets, to his fate at the hands of the Ordo Fidelis. Behind them, there is a crash and clouds of smoke as the underground chamber partially collapses.

Back at the Ordo Fidelis the adventurers desperately search their memories for the password before duCourt remembers ‘Magnus’ and they are let in. von Wolkenstein is led away to a cell, and in the comfortable wood-panelled office they meet with Eschlimann, woken from sleep and in a red dressing-gown, who pours them all a glass of brandy (Lavarar belts his brandy down and grabs duCourt’s). After recounting the night’s events they are congratulated on a job well done by Eschlimann, who tells them that a word had been leaked to the Knights Panther about the event; not only making use of their soldiers but leaving it to them to clean up any mess. A good night’s work, all told.

The adventurers return to their inn for a well-deserved rest.

9th Ulriczeit IC 2522

The next afternoon the adventurers return to the Ordo for a meeting with Eschlimann. He asks that they travel to Marienburg and get as much information about this child, his origins, and the so-called crusade, as they can. Their contact in Marienburg is a witch hunter called Osric Falkenheim, who has been out of touch recently, but should be able to fill them in on the latest developments, or at least direct them to where they can find the information. He can be found at the Temple of Sigmar in the Ostmuur district by leaving a message in a secret spot in the temple.

Eschlimann continues: “Witch hunters must be licenced to practice in Marienburg, a restriction we, of course, ignore. However it is even more important than it is in the Empire proper that you do not reveal you affiliations to anyone. You can expect no assistance from the local authorities and indeed, will be hauled off to Rijker’s Isle like a common criminal should you give the Black Hats reason to do so. For obvious political reasons, we could not help you should that happen.”

He then speaks to each of the adventurers in private.

10th – 27th Ulriczeit IC 2522

The trip to Marienburg is 350 miles by boat and takes 17 days. The owner of the riverboat is Merkel Schwalb, a Marienburger who is happy to answer questions about the city’s layout and provides them with a rough map. He recommends Koester’s Boarding House in the Kruiersmuur district as somewhere to stay.

27th Ulriczeit IC 2522

The first sight of Marienburg from the Reik is impressive. After days of travelling through a dreary landscape of reed-marshes, the river—almost a mile wide, and very slow-moving—rounds a bend, and the reeds part to reveal the city a mile away. Their boat enters the port of Marienburg through the Strompoort, a great channel flanked by high walls and artillery towers. A Marienburg pilot boards the boat, and steers it through the deceptively shallow and ever-shifting channels to a berth in the Suiddock.

The adventurers disembark and move through the busy crowds, north over the huge Hoogbrug bridge. In the northern districts they enquire about accommodation at a tavern and, after rejecting the more lower-class establishments, the barkeep recommends the Gull and Trident, a posh place in the Paleisbuurt district.

Vaguely pretending to be an Elven arms trader and his retinue, they book two rooms with balconies overlooking the Reiksweg. The proprietor is Wilhemina Thistledown, a small rotund old woman who likes to smoke a foul cigar.

Bierschtein heads for the the Temple of Sigmar while the others enjoy a drink, and he finds the small temple in a semi-deserted courtyard. Its carved wooden doors are closed and locked. After knocking several times they are opened by a scared-looking 12 year old in the robes of an acolyte. Eventually he lets Bierschtein in to pray. Bierschtein finds no message in the secret spot, so he leaves a message there for the witch hunter to contact ‘Hans’ at Koester’s Boarding House.

The young acolyte reveals that father Helmut, the head priest, was involved in some kind of riot that took place outside the old temple of Sigmar where a Shallyan priestess and a witch hunter named Falkenheim were denounced for not believing the boy was Sigmar reborn; Helmut then left with the crowd and presumably with the Crusade, out of the city.

The adventurers also learn that the Shallyan priestess is locked in a gibbet outside of the Old Temple, and that there is a both a Shallyan temple and an orphanage in the city.