32: Kalgrube

Festag 30^th Sigmarzeit

There must have been something wrong with the stew at the Oar and Ivy, because Balden and Dietrich woke up too ill to travel. You wondered about just getting Rotter’s cheese back to Marienburg as soon as possible, and dealing with Stalborg later. But in the end you decided to head up to the hills and hope that the wizards would recover by the time you got there.

You needed a wagon for them and so you had a word with a bloke at the local stables about hiring a cart, and he said he had just repaired a coal wagon that needed taking back up to Kalgrube and you would be doing him a favour so you could use it for free.

So, leaving Greta to look after the Mudlark, you put Balden and Dietrich in the wagon and led the ox up the trail. It was easy enough to follow, as the track was often used to transport large caravans of mining trucks.

About midday you began to hear strange howling noises coming from the under brush around the track, and you got the impression that there was some sort of beastly communication going on. And as she led the cart, Berta caught sight of a strange horned creature in the woods that matched the description of ‘goat man.’ So Max and Heinrich got up on the cart and readied their missile weapons.

Soon you rounded a bend in the road and you saw a tree had fallen across the track barring your way. Max got excited about a plan to find the centre of gravity of the tree and do something scientific with it, which no one else really understood. But while you were inspecting the tree a goat-headed beast creature charged from the forest with a blood curdling scream. Heinrich had a chance to ready himself and he smashed it in the head with his mace and it fell unconscious at his feet.

Another one ran from the forest and Berta intercepted it and although she missed it with her shovel, it ran into her with its horns, ripping her armour to shreds, and knocking itself out. And Heinrich and Berta were quickly able to finish off their fallen foes. And the howling from the forest stopped.

Max’s plan didn’t work, as theoretical physics wasn’t the same as actual practical work halfway up a hillside track in the drizzle. And so in the end Berta dug the tree out while Heinrich chopped it up, and they were able to make a gap wide enough for the cart.

You continued on your way but by the time you got to Kalgrube it had started pouring down and you got wet through. As instructed you went to Krankl’s Mining to drop off the cart and Gustav Krankl thanked you and said he would be in the Silver Shovel to buy you a pint. But that was until he started chatting to Max who couldn’t help annoying him with his hoity toity Altdorf big city ways.

You got a room at the Silver Shovel which was not much better than Frau Koester’s and frequented by down on their luck miners, but it had a decent fire where you could dry out. And the mutton pie wasn’t bad but you wondered whether it might contain bits of goat men.

You got talking to the landlord and he was very chatty. He said that there was a house above one of the mines that used to belong to a successful miner and then became abandoned. And then some wizard moved in. The wizard had some of the local miners and tradesmen build him an extension, or something, out of the local iron. And he understood that some of the workers had disappeared.

He said a wizard type, a bit like Dietrich, but wearing white, had come to the inn a few weeks before and asked the same sort of questions that you were asking.

He also said that the area was famous for its lightning storms, and it was said that when lightning hit the ground it raised the dead. You were a bit confused about how that might work in practice.

And he also said that the local goat men weren’t too dangerous as long as you were careful, but every few years they came together in large herds and rampaged around and sacrificed people to their dark gods in their standing-stone temples, or something like that.

Wellentag 31^st Sigmarzeit

The next morning you were up early and ready for your trek into the hills. The weather was dismal. Balden and Dietrich were feeling well enough to walk but were still a bit quiet.

You passed a couple of mines on the way, that were looking mostly played out. Max started going on about how if only the locals were more ready to adopt new technology they would be able to mine deeper and keep the mines viable for longer.

And as he was talking, Berta became aware of a man walking besides you, listening to Max, and Heinrich kind of had an inkling of that, too, but Max was completely oblivious to it. And as soon as Berta locked eyes with the man, he disappeared, and Max felt like someone had walked over his grave.

As you continued, the storm clouds moved in again and it started raining heavily. As you neared the crest of the hills a lightning storm began, and you could see the silhouette of a building against a blue glowing sky. The building looked a little strange but you couldn’t really tell why.

You noticed that lightning was hitting a pole thing a few hundred yards to your right, and you went to check it out. It looked like someone had stuck a huge iron pole into the ground as if to attract the lightning. But you also noticed that lightning was striking other locations in the vicinity of the house. Max said it might be a celestial wizard thing. But Berta was more interested in the story of the dead rising where lightning hit the ground.

And then as you approached the castle you saw three figures briefly illuminated by the lightning, standing in your way. As you got closer you could see that they were dead and slightly translucent, and they were beckoning silently.

Max was very frightened but Berta walked towards them, and she heard someone telling her that she should continue, and she decided it was the man she had seen magically walking with you earlier. And Heinrich got up enough courage to follow Berta. And eventually Max came too, saying prayers to Sigmar and holding his silver hammer pendant. And the ghostly figures, which you decided were likely local miners, just stared blankly as you passed them.

You knocked on the door of the house and it was opened by a young woman in a flowing blue dress. She said they had been expecting you. You began to introduce yourselves, but she interrupted you to show that she already knew who you were, but it felt a bit like she was showing off.

She said she knew a lot about you, and then told Max how she knew he told everyone that he had been chucked out of college for the steam laboratory explosion, but she knew the real reason. And Max looked a bit embarrassed by that.

She led you through the hallway to a dining room, with a comfortable fire, and a large meal laid out on a grand table, saying you you must be hungry after your journey. She said her father would be down presently, and left. Berta and Max tucked into the meal, while Heinrich waited to see if the food was good. And Balden and Dietrich considered whether they were now well enough to tuck in.