13: Ambush

Guiltag 21^st Pflugzeit

After the riders were dealt with you got a bit of sleep in the middle of the marsh and set off at dawn for Marienburg. The sun was looking very red as it rose and it seemed to be moving close to Morrslieb, making you think that maybe today was the day of the eclipse.

You reached the city by about 2pm, and could see a sort of shanty town had been built along the road. You asked some people about it and they seemed to think that the moon would fall on the city, destroying it, but they would be safe forty yards beyond the city walls. Balden tried to explain that the moon was bigger than the city, but they weren’t having it.

You queued for the main gate and when you got there you were told that no one would be allowed in or out without a pass. And the guard explained that martial law was being enforced and you would be able to buy a pass at the ‘Change. Of course, you couldn’t get to the ‘Change because you didn’t have a pass.

Eventually, the guard agreed to take three guilders from Max to let you go to the ‘Change to get a pass, and you entered the city and were happy to be home. The streets were remarkably quiet and lots of places had shut up shop, but there was the odd gang of fanatics roaming the streets. You were tempted to pop into Frau Koester’s because you missed her gruel, but decided you didn’t have time. Egg was clearly frightened of the big city, and hid under Heinrich’s cloak.

You wondered about getting Rotter’s boat to sail up to Goffman’s in Guilderveld, but decided that the traffic was quiet enough that you could cross the Hoogbrug and so you rode your horses up there. And after one of the fastest cross-town trips ever you made it to Lomaxstraat where Goffman lived.

You knocked on his door but there was no answer and so you wandered round the back alley and broke into the back door. You went to Goffman’s desk and found ‘A Theory of Chaos’ was open at the tooth page, and there was a hand written note beside it, and a letter addressed to Klaus. And next to this was an odd, rectangular copper plaque necklace with a series of indentations in it.

You decided that Klaus would be happy for you to read his letter as he had probably been eaten by a bog octopus, and so Max read it out while everyone stood round the desk listening. And half way through a band of grey robed cultists burst into the house, surprising you.

They threw strange throwing-star missiles and then piled into you with their odd spiked gauntlet weapons. They seemed well-drilled and organised, and tried to push you back, while the biggest of them made his way towards Egg. The sixth cultist was reciting an invocation which Balden recognised as the ritual of the tooth.

Max and Balden were hit by the stars and then Kris and Heinrich were stabbed by the spikes. Max and Balden managed to fend off the spikes and as they broke or bent they revealed that the gauntlets contained some sort of poison, and Heinrich fell to the ground unconscious, overcome by the poison.

Kris tried to prevent the big guy getting to Egg, but he managed to reach her, and when he picked her up, against her will, you expected that he might suffer a series of unfortunate events, but that didn’t happen.

Kris and Balden were wounded again and succumbed to the poison, falling unconscious, and the cultists made their retreat. The wizardy one warned Max not to try anything, and he had little choice but to stand there, alone, as they carried Egg off. As they left Max could see that they had the one-eyed owl symbol stitched into their robes.

After about ten minutes the effects of the poison wore off and you regained consciousness. And you did your best to see to each other’s wounds but some of you were still injured. And Max read you the bits of writing you had found.

Lomaxstraat, Guilderveld, Marienburg

Festag 15th Pflugzeit

My Dear Klaus,

If you receive this letter then I fear that the risks I was obliged to accept have led to a perhaps inevitable result. I hope that you will not disgrace my memory.

I have continued to pursue the topics that we discussed before your departure, and the conclusions that I have drawn are very much as I expected. Be warned, my boy: Do not let preconceptions affect your judgement when performing research. The texts I studied did indeed imply that the most reliable method of defecting the danger was also the most vile: an act of brutal murder. Now I must endeavour to persuade the fanatics of the Ancient Order of Illuminated Readers to refrain from such a path.

(Have I ever named the Order in full to you before? I believe not. But now I fear that my own path has taken me too far from the course of loyalty to their vapid oaths. Ah, well.)

Were my motivations simple sentimentality, I would accept the obloquy that they will no doubt call down upon my head with better grace. But I fear that the folly and blindness is theirs not mine. As I believe I told you (were you paying attention, I wonder) Mandlebrote was a diligent and truthful writer, but also somewhat crass in his perceptions, and quite incapable of perceiving the subtler ramifications of the actions he recommends. In this case he urges the return of Zahnarzt the Bodiless be prevented by means of a blood sacrifice; yet it never occurs to him what the implications of such an act, in relation to a daemonic power, might be.

Perhaps the murder would impede Zahnarzt or at least weaken him. Perhaps ancient spells would make it impossible to perform. We are opposing Dark Gods here, my boy, and nothing can be certain. But I for one am convinced that the compassionate course is also the most truly safe in this matter. I just wish that the fanatics of the order could be trusted to see beyond the simple idea of destroying what they fear. If I cannot save them from themselves then you must.

You may well require assistance in this mission. If you still enjoy the company of the persons who escorted you into the wasteland then I bid you pass this word onto them. Above all, do not trust the judgement of the librarians. Strive to prevent the death of the unfortunate one who you have hopefully found in the wasteland. You undertook this mission at my bidding for which I alone must bear responsibility. Now I can only entreat you to repair the damage I have caused. This is not simply a matter of the life of one person, or my conscience, the entre world may be at risk.

There is perhaps one other matter I should bring to your attention. You may never extract any benefit from the datum, but I give it to you, just like all the other lessons I attempted to teach you. Once, for the period of a bare few weeks, I became intrigued by the Order itself and made some study of its foundations both spiritual and physical. I believe that when the caverns were excavated under the original Solkan temple, several methods of egress were incorporated. Many of these routes have been lost or sealed over the centuries, but I am aware of three that have survived. One is, of course, through the cellars of the aforementioned island temple. Another is through a tunnel to the mainland that I believe passes through a bookseller’s that is well known to us. A third, I believe, emerges in the Chief Librarian’s office, but where it begins, I do not know. Use this information as you will.

Once again I apologise that I cannot, in the circumstances in which you read this, speak to you in person. Should you choose to follow a career in academia, as I hope you will, I would wish that you will identify some other scholar capable of providing you with the guidance and discipline that you so seriously require.

With my sincerest hopes that you will not fail in the mission I give you,

Ernst Goffman

Ernst had also written this note, as if to himself:

The brutes would do it, they would tear the heart out of a child in the name of law. And Manaan forgive me I have caused the child to be brought to her death. Perhaps the young fool and the pack of chancers I sent will prove as incompetent as they appeared, and will fail at their mission. But no, I cannot rely on this, I must go to the temple on the rock and confront Faber, make him see sense. There is another way… if only some fool hadn’t destroyed the page.

He had also let the Theory of Chaos book open on this page, which matched perfectly with the piece of paper that Balden had, which had been used to wrap the tooth:

If this book survives unto the next rising of the daemon, then the surest counsel is this: bind firmly the egg of the moon and strike it not until the day of the eclipse comes. When Morrslieb touched first the sun but has not yet plunged the whole world into darkness make the sign of Solkan three times over it and slice open its living heart and rend it from the flesh and remove it from the body of the egg. Only in this way my Zahnarzt be utterly laid to rest. But if you have not the stomach to tear out the heart of the living and if in your compassion you would place into mortal peril all the world then take in your right hand

The rest of the passage went like this:

the tooth of the moon and use that to complete the ritual upon the egg and thereby should the egg be saved and Zahnarzt turned away from the face of the moon. But know that the daemon still lives and in exactly one thousand years at the time of the eclipse then the veils be parted once more and then it may return to the world.

And then you had a look round the house. You found Gustav Andersen’s body in one of the bedrooms, he had been stabbed to death. And in another room you found a set of robes similar to the ones the cultists had been wearing.

Some of you were still feeling the affects of the fight and you thought abut finding an inn for the night, but it was still day and you could see that Morrslieb was almost touching the sun and the eclipse must be happening very soon.

You decided that you should hurry across town to Josef van der Wolle’s Academic Books and Paraphernalia in Tempelwijk, which you guessed was the bookseller referred to in the letter. The traffic was still low so you rode there in good time.

In your rush across town you weren’t so hurried that Heinrich didn’t stop off to buy some bows and Max a blunderbuss. The shopkeeper warned Max to beware of friendly fire.

At van der Wolle’s, Max put on the robes and knocked, but there was no answer, and so you ended up going round the back of the shop and breaking open the back door. And in the office, you found a trapdoor going down into a basement storeroom, and in the storeroom you found a strong, locked door, and you spent a good while deconstructing the door to get it open.

The door opened to a very long tunnel which was well-made and largely dry but still had wet patches and puddles and you guessed that it must be leading out under the sea to the island mentioned in the letter. Max led the way down the tunnel brandishing his blunderbuss. Balden guessed that you followed the tunnel for about two miles (you didn’t).

You came to a section of tunnel with alcoves in and inside the alcoves were neatly piled human bones and skulls and beyond that you came to a sort of chamber lined with books. Beyond that chamber you could see light sources and probably other similar chambers. And you wondered what to do next, but you knew you had to hurry because it couldn’t be long before the eclipse.