Baron Drachenheim part IV

by Franz

My Dear Kirstin,

I am still in Freiburg and still, apparently, Baron Drachenheim.

Each morning as I pass through that place between sleeping and waking I wonder whether I will open my eyes to find it has all been a dream. Each time I hear someone moving in the house I wonder whether it is the real Baron Drachenheim come to reclaim his title.

I'm sure when he put up the deed I must have thought it a joke, if only the memory weren't lost in the drunken haze of our celebration. Were it not in Freiburg, I would not have considered it possible to be real upon awakening - the very thought of offering up a title in a card game! While it is not the title we seek, you can be assured I shall not let it go easily.

Still, everyone accepts that it is rightfully mine (including Fraulein Probst, which I will return to shortly) and we have been safely here some days so I guess it would be safe for you to visit, though I would still think you better off where you are. Perhaps when I bring you up to date with my news, you will understand my concerns.

This morning as we ate breakfast a number of our companions left on an errand. A few seconds later - scarcely time to exit the house - they returned half covered in excrement and spouting fantastic tales of encounters with the Sidhe. Difficult as it was to believe their story, they could not have achieved their sorry state without some sort of sorcery. How powerful are these Sidhe creatures, that they transport a group of strange people apparently great distances with far less effort than the most powerful Porté sorcerers I have heard tell of?

Since I would not permit them in the house, we made our way as a group to the local bath house. In his finest form, the Avalon Pistol threw himself into the main pool with a huge splash, leaving a rather unpleasant slick on the surface. Those of us not involved in the earlier adventure decided that another pool may be more to our liking. I do not recall seeing Pistol after that, and I can't help wondering whether he dissolved - he has the usual Avalon affection for bathing, and I suspect that under all the layers of dirt there was nothing else.

The more "appearance conscious" amongst us went to such lengths to be prepared for the Eisenfürst's Ball that night that it was a struggle to keep a straight face. Still I put my mind to it as I expected the practice would come in handy for that night when there was bound to be so much more of the same on display, and worse besides. How right I was.

The rest of day I whiled away quietly, whilst in the other rooms I could hear the others spending all their time preparing. What they were doing that required so much time I don't even want to imagine!

When we assembled in the foyer I was quite surprised. I had, of course, dressed in a dignified manner, and I expected nothing better of the Castillian, Montaignes and Vodacce, but Borstenn not only still had his peacock outfit from Charouse, but had taken great pains to have it cleaned, pressed, and repaired! I would never have expected it from him.

On to the Ball, and standing in a long queue waiting to enter. I was so nervous - you know I have never been good in these social settings and you have no idea how much I wished you'd been there to calm me and guide me through it all. There were a number of people that seemed eager to talk to me, and it only increased the feeling that everyone was watching me and waiting for the oafish warrior to do something stupid.

Still, you were not there, and when a Montaigne acquaintance of ours through the Explorers Society came to talk to us, I asked if she would perhaps lead me through the dance. Imagine my surprise when this Montiagne noblewoman replied that she was completely out of her element - I guess soon we will receive news that the Crescent Empire has frozen over! However she did have a word to Fraulein Probst, who found me a young Vodacce woman to dance with.

Her name was Cristina Bianco and she was a pleasant enough partner though she hardly said two words. You can keep these mouse like foreign women - give me a strong-willed Eisen woman who is not afraid to speak her mind. (But Theus preserve me from those Montaigne women against whose barbs even the Imperator's Shield provides no guard!)

About the only amusement from the early part of the evening was watching our companion Giancarlo attempting to sway Fraulein Probst and Madeleine du Bisset with his winning ways. He usually has women swooning at his feet and it was so amusing to watch them rebuff him. The expression on his face was such as one might wear had one looked in the mirror and seen no reflection - complete puzzlement that one of the fundamental laws of nature had ceased to operate.

At a certain point there was a game called Hunt the Fox. Fraulein Probst had hidden a fox tail about the Stein and we had to search for it and return it to her. There were other rules which I'm sure made the whole thing more interesting for those who care for such things, but it seemed far safer to look somewhere very remote from the action and enjoy a break from the evening, so I headed for the battlements with Eduarde in tow, him thinking that we might spy some lonely maidens on the way.

You can imagine my surprise when I was addressed by name by someone lurking in the dark. Even more surprising was when it became clear that the person was Eisenfürst Trägue. We engaged in a long discussion of right and wrong, and it is clear that like so many others the War has shaken his faith. I gave him what answers I could, but not being a scholar it was difficult to debate him for he seems to have put much thought into the matter. Still, perhaps the simple opinion of a warrior holds some truth that cannot be found in books.

At the end of our discussion, he produced the fox tail and gave it to me. I returned to the audience hall, intending to work my way slowly around the waiting hall as if trying to get a prime position to intercept whoever was returning it when a great commotion broke out. Two Vendel brothers, who we had earlier heard talking about pressing their case to make the Guilder the sole legal tender in Freiburg, burst into the chamber. I wish I had been closer, for their ploy was quite transparent - one brother broke for Fraulein Probst at great speed, attracting the attention of everyone waiting to intercept, while the one carrying the tail waiting until everyone was distracted and then approached Fraulein Probst uncontested.

He did indeed have a fox tail, and there was much celebration. The Vendels produced a large gift of wine and food of their own, but in presenting it they managed to give everyone the impression that their intent was to show that we should dispense with money and return to barter! I'm sure many reflected on that message the following day with great confusion, but at the time nobody was refusing their generosity!

As things became more subdued later I approached Fraulein Probst and showed her the fox tail and explained how I had come by it. She did not seem overly surprised, explaining that I had probably spoiled the Eisenfürst's game by not decrying the Vendels as they claimed their prize. However, she also said that it shows that the Eisenfürst favours me that he considered me worth including in his prank.

The Ball drew to an end, and we made our way home.

And some more Mad Wolves are feeding the rats of Freiburg.

With the Ball out of the way, we could concentrate on our next task. Madeleine du Bisset had requested that we investigate something for her. Apparently a Vodacce had been obtaining Syrneth artifacts and shipping them back to Vodacce. While this was a concern in itself, what was of more concern was that nothing had been heard of him for some time, and the Explorers Society feared he had somehow triggered an artifact of some power and she asked that we investigate the place and recover any artifacts we found. She did promise that after all the artifacts had been catalogued she would allow us to keep one, but I do not necessarily believe that. She warned us that the house, called the House of 20 Doorways is rumoured to be a maze with 20 entrances, which was something of a concern.

So the next night we made our way to the house, which is in close proximity to Drachenheim Manor. We resolved to enter the three-storey house through the roof, in hopes of avoiding any traps, and also the maze we believed would confound people entering through the front door. We had almost all reached the roof without a sound, when Eduarde slipped as he reached for a handhold on the gutter, and fell screaming to the ground far below. Fortunately we had chosen to climb above the lawn, so his fall was not as damaging as it might have been had we been climbing above the main entrance and he fallen on the path, and after Dandelion patched him up they both attained the roof with some aid, and we made our way in.

Naturally his screams had attracted the attention of a someone in a neighbouring house, but her main concern seemed to be that we would let the ghosts out of the house to plague her, and indeed since we had drawn near the house there had been a high-pitched hum that had been grating on our nerves.

As we entered the attic, the noise grew louder, though we were unable to pinpoint where below us it came from. The trapdoor down to the next floor was bolted from below, but with some persistence we managed to remove the pins from the hinges and open it anyway. The task was neither quick nor silent, but since we had attracted no attention from within the house so far we were little concerned.

Below the trapdoor was a bedroom and it appeared that nobody had been there for a week or more, as the dust had started to settle noticeably. We gave the room a cursory search ,but it was not our main objective and we proceeded on.

We found a small study that was rather odd. The books were held in place by two strange amber bookends with globes, and as my companions removed the books searching for clues something interesting happened. When there was only one book remaining on the shelf, the globes emitted a glow that filled the room. We retreated to the corridor to see what would happen next, but after some minutes there seemed no further change, so someone went back into the room. As he broke the glowing field, it narrowed to a beam from the two bookends to the book.

A careful search revealed nothing remarkable about the book - it appeared to be another crude book of questionable taste (as the other books had been), but wherever the book went, the beams followed. The only conclusion we could draw is that it is some sort of Syrneth thief catcher; that when the object between the "bookends" is removed, the beams allow you to track it again.

Proceeding on from there still slightly mystified, we eventually found the source of the hum, which had become almost intolerable. There in a large room with the moonlight coming through the windows was a strange device, consisting of a metal bowl, a black stone, and a rod along which small bolts of lightning arced. On the floor nearby was a blackened patch in the shape of a man.

We could also see a table on which lay various models and plans. Sensing that they could be crucial to understanding and disarming the device, Borstenn raced into the room to try to gather them up before the device could focus on him.

As he entered the room, he slipped, and we could hear a crackling from the device as it prepared to discharge itself, but Giancarlo called out some words that while I can't recall them now, seemed truly inspiring and Borstenn gathered himself before the device could properly target him, snatched the things from the table and returned to the corridor.

While we could not make much sense of the majority of what he had obtained, it became clear that the device needed some light to operate, so retiring to the bedroom on the floor above we gathered some thick blankets and knotted them together with a rail for support, and some sheets at either end. Lowering the whole assembly over the balcony, we drew it in under our balcony so that it sat flush against the wall, obscuring the windows below.

Returning to the room below in the new found silence, we gathered the device in a blanket and wrapped it securely before putting it in a pack for transport.

Having found what we felt was the main object of interest our remaining search was somewhat cursory. We exited through the front door with great caution - a good thing for as we drew open the door from a safe distance two crossbow bolts where fired from a hidden compartment, and we heard the mechanism resetting itself. We left, closing the door behind us, with plans to return after we have conveyed this device to Madeleine to complete our search. While there appears to be no maze, we are certain that the rooms we have so far encountered do not account for the size of the house, but we feel we should have a day or two before anyone else is brave enough to chance entering the house.

And there I must leave you for now, my dear sister. Should you wish to visit please write me of your intent that I may have a room readied for you.

Franz