Scoundrel's Folly part II

by Borstennskoldmund

With heavy hearts we committed the body of our comrade Pierre to the murky waters of the swamp. When next we are in Charouse we will certain to look up his family and pass on Pierre's goods and chattels. Franz now carries the artifact, a strange compass that points towards a partner compass that has been stolen from us. Franz and I cut off the head of the great Verschlingen, the huge beast was some 100 foot in length, a reward of 5000 gilders has been posted for its head by Stefan Heilgrund, the local Eisenfürst. As we are headed to Heilgrundstadt anyway (to meet up with Reggie Coleson), we may as well claim the reward, it should certainly gain us some notice as we walk into town! The carcass proves to be somewhat of a burden, Franz and I heave under the strain as Eduarde led us out of the swamp.

Along the way to Heilgrundstadt, we met a very strange fellow, Montaigne by the look of him, dressed like a parrot. He introduced himself as Dandelion, an odd name, but didn't want to discuss any other name, we did find out that yes indeed he was from regional Montaigne. He was travelling with a companion by the name of Ambrose. They offered to assist carrying our burden to Heilgrundstadt and we gladly accepted. Along the journey we told our tale, Dandelion seemed most interested, even to the point of taking some notes. Perhaps he is a storyteller, we may well be the heroes of his next story! In any case, he and Ambrose proved most enjoyable company, perhaps they'll stick around with us for a while.

Before too long we came across a guard house. The guards were typically surly to begin with, but when we showed them the head of the Verschlingen, their jaws dropped, and their attitude changed quickly. A runner was dispatched to Heilgrundstadt with the news, and we were soon on our way. Heilgrundstadt proved to be a large stone keep, most impressive. We were given a warm welcome by the residents, many coming out to see us arrive with our catch, which was soon put on display. An official came to greet us, he was less enthusiastic, and grimaced when we said we were friends of Reggie's, but otherwise he was quite hospitable. He introduced himself as Grumbel, and assured us that we would be given an audience shortly with Stefan Heilgrund. In the meantime, he took us to see Reggie.

Reggie greeted us most enthusiastically, eager to hear about what we'd been up to, especially eager to hear about the compasses. He was quite disturbed when we told him how the second compass had been snatched in front of our eyes. Interestingly, our new companion Dandelion had something to say about this, theorising it may well have been Montaigne Porté magic in use, and that the other compass had been blooded, allowing it to be stolen once it had left the possession of Montegue. Reggie readily agreed to do some research on our compass, telling us that Stefan would also be interested - he appears to be some kind of sponsor for Reggie's investigations into arcane matters.

Soon afterwards, we were ushered in to Stefan Heilgrund's offices, he proved to be a most convivial host, although somewhat distracted. He was however keenly interested in what we had to say about the compass, in fact offering to sponsor an expedition to recover the stolen compass, with Reggie to accompany us. We readily agreed. However, we'll spend a few days here first to see if we can do some further research on the nature of the artifact that we have. Stefan invited us to join him and his guests for dinner that evening.

After refreshing, we made our way to dinner, Stefan has a number of guests from various parts of Theah staying with him. There was a Vodacce, Antonio, and a Vendel, Greta, who predictably disliked each other and at every opportunity would making a disparaging comment about the other. I gather both were here on merchant business. A pair of young sisters from Montaigne, Margarite and Monique, immediately caught the eye of Eduarde, I took the liberty of giving Margarite a short warning about Eduarde the lady-killer, but she only seemed more excited by the prospect, so I gave up and let Eduarde do his thing, I noticed the three of them heading upstairs shortly afterwards.

Stefan himself only stayed with us for a short time, other matters were pressing he explained. He did however take time to congratulate Franz, Eduarde and myself for dispatching the dreaded Verschlingen. The guests were most impressed.

Most of the rest of the guests seemed to be pushing one political angle or another, I found it all a bit of a bore. Dandelion struck up a conversation with an Admiral Marceau from Montaigne, who was interested in boats up a river or something. I tried my luck with a Castillian woman called Sophia, but just earnt a slap in the face for my efforts. I had a brief chat with an Avalon, Henry Clayborne, who also went by the name 'Hotspur'. There was also a Ussuran woman here to talk something about mercenaries I think, plus a couple of fellows called Johann and Georg, and an emissary from Eisenfürst Nicklaus Trague in Freiburg called Frederick von Stahl. Lastly, there was a big red-headed man from the Highland marches called Fergus. With him I found I had a subject in common - alcohol. We quickly departed, accompanied by Dandelion, upstairs to Fergus' room where he promised a taste of some highland brew.

The highlander's alcohol was strong stuff indeed, much stronger than the ale that I prefer, and I was soon feeling quite merry. We partied well into the night, and I'm afraid became rather raucous, as I demonstrated to my new friends my singing skills that earned a standing ovation at the Charouse opera house a few months back. Strangely they doubted my tale, but I assured them it was true. I had actually accidentally wandered on to stage whilst being pursued a while back. Never one to miss an opportunity, I warbled a few notes, and after receiving a quite positive feedback, returned for a bow, however had to leave hurriedly as a few pistol shots rang past my ears. I never did check to see my notices... Dandelion assured me he would check up next time he was in Charouse. Anyway, I'm sure that Sophia who happened to have the room next to us was not best pleased at our late night antics.

I felt quite ill the next morning, but followed Reggie down into his laboratory. He has quite a decent setup, with all sorts of devices and equipment for conducting experiments, in addition to a reasonable library. We made an interesting discovery - the compass appears to have further abilities, Reggie suspects they might be quite powerful. However, we don't yet know how to invoke them

Franz is now reporting bad dreams, similar to those poor Pierre had when he carried the compass. Franz is certain that whoever has the other compass is either very evil, or intends to cause great evil, and it has something to do with opening some box. This has us most concerned. Franz spent the day at the surgery, he had a number of nasty wounds, but is now most happy with the surgeons efforts, he feels quite good now.

That night we again had dinner with the Eisenfürst's guests. The Avalon, Hotspur, looked quite pale, and excused himself early. I offered to have a look at him to see if I could help, but he assured me that rest was all he needed. However, I did get close enough to see that he didn't seem at all ill to me, if anything, his paleness may well have been makeup. I found this most suspicious, and soon afterwards wandered upstairs to see if anything was amiss. However, all I heard was Eduarde enjoying the company of the Montaigne sisters again.

Dandelion made a bit of a fool of himself in front of the guests by disparaging the highlander's alcohol. He soon found himself in a drinking contest, which he was bound to lose against the large highlander, obviously a seasoned drinker. He did quite well for a little guy, he can knock back that Montaigne lolly water quite well, but Fergus prevailed, and poor Dandelion spent the night outside in the mud.

I decided to get a decent night's sleep for a change, but the household was awoken early in the morning by screams from one of the maids. We rushed to find that the Montaigne Admiral Marceau had been foully murdered in the night! His throat had been cleanly cut. With the blessing of Grumbel, Franz and I decided to carry out an investigation, while Dandelion assisted Reggie. I discovered some marks in the window sill, perhaps a grapple had been used. It was two floors down to the ground, but there were also some windows below, apparently leading to the pantry. We checked out the pantry and found some marks around a window one over from where we had expected. Outside Franz found some stone chips below the pantry window. Grumbel informed us that the room above where we found the chips belonged to Hotspur.

I conducted an examination of the gruesome remains of Marceau's body. I feel confident that the blow was delivered with some type of short edged weapon, not a dagger, perhaps a short sword. The culprit was right-handed. Franz informed me that short swords were often favoured by Avalon swordsmen of the Donovan school. Still, we had no hard evidence against Hotspur, just circumstantial.

We arranged with Grumbel to allow us access to Hotspur's room (while he was at luncheon). I discovered chips out of the window that matched the stone chips we had found below, so we can be sure that the murderer at least came back by this room. The only other thing of note in the room was a large chest. I didn't disturb it. We reported our findings to Grumbel, he told us that he would inform the Eisenfürst, but I was clear to point out that evidence we had was merely circumstantial.

Later in the afternoon, after a brief visit to the surgeon to patch up a couple of my wounds, I waited for the Avalon to return to his room. Giving him about five minutes, I sat down in my room with Franz in front of a bowl of clear water. I called on the power of the true Gods invoking the rune of Fornuft, and projected on the water an image of Hotspur's room. I detected him closing his chest, after locking, he fiddled with some knobs on the side, perhaps a booby trap of some sort? The vision then faded. Unfortunately I was unable to see any of the contents of the chest.

Now it is time for dinner again, I'm sure it is going to be a most interesting evening. Why was Marceau killed? Will the killer strike again? Was it Hotspur, or has he been framed? Is he working with someone? Time will tell...

Borstennskoldmund.