34: Return to Prie


Aubentag 32nd Sigmarzeit

Before you fell asleep, you had a chat about whether to have a snoop around the house. Dietrich said that it might be worth having a look, but Balden said he was a bit worried about Stalborg and what he could do if he caught you, and it might be best to just leave with the two hundred crowns. Max said you should keep all the money, and pretend you were in Stalborg’s thrall, and then when you got back to Marienburg, Dietrich should write to the colleges to report him. He also suggested that Stalborg was more powerful a wizard than Balden and Dietrich combined.

Marktag 33rd Sigmarzeit

So you stayed in your room and went to bed. In the morning Ethel gave you breakfast and apologised that the Stalborgs wouldn’t be seeing you off, so you had nothing left to do but leave.

On the way, you inspected one of the lightning rods again, and Dietrich tried to fathom its magical properties but the area was so blasted with Azyr he wasn’t able to detect any of the other winds.

And as you walked back down the trail towards the forest you discussed Stalborg and how you didn’t trust him. And Max suddenly noticed that an image of Stalborg was walking alongside you. And backed by distant lightning strikes he angrily quoted back at you some of the things you had said about him, and told you he had prepared a parting gift for you.

And then he disappeared, and not long after you began to hear beastman howling coming from the forest all around you. The beastmen were clearly communicating with each other to coordinate an attack. And soon you spotted several groups of the goat-headed creatures coming towards you from all directions through the forest.

There were nine of them altogether, and they charged at you en masse. But before they could reach you Balden and Dietrich summoned magical energy and Max shot one of them. He hit it squarely but the creature continued its charge. Dietrich surrounded himself in magical armour, but Balden lost concentration and his magical energies just fizzled away. And Max pulled out his second pistol and shot the beastman dead.

Then the beastmen converged on you. Despite their numbers they didn’t do too well, with one stumbling and falling at Max’s feet, and Balden and Dietrich defending themselves comfortably with their staffs.

Then Balden managed to entangle two of them in the undergrowth and only had one to deal with and Max pulled out a third pistol and fired at another beastman, leaving him only one beastman to fight, as well. But three of them piled onto Dietrich bashing through his magical armour and doing a serious injury to his knee.

Max and Balden eventually managed to see off their foes and then turned on the ones attacking Dietrich and saved him from what would have been a good beating. And then there were only the two left struggling to free themselves from the entangling undergrowth. You discussed whether you should try to communicate with them, although they didn’t give any indication that they could speak. And in the end you just ended them, with Dietrich, annoyed he had been piled on and hurt, beating the last helpless one to death with his staff as the others watched.

You also wondered why the beastmen had fought to the death so resolutely. You might expect that as soon as the fight had turned against them, they would flee, like in your encounter a few days earlier.

Balden saw to Dietrich’s wounds and Max engineered a splint so he was able to walk a bit better on his injured leg, and you struggled back down the track towards Kalgrube.

You reached Kalgrube before nightfall and Max spoke to the bloke at the stables, and he said a caravan was leaving first thing in the morning to go down to Prie and they would welcome anyone to go with them. And then, with your new riches, you splashed out on a private room and a nice meal at the Silver Shovel.

Backertag 1st Sommerzeit

So, at dawn you joined the caravan, which was about six wagons full of coal and ore, and they let Dietrich ride on one of the wagons. You made decent progress down the hillside, but it was not long before you heard the now familiar sounds of beastmen howling at each other like they were coordinating another attack. One of the miners said that it was unusual they should try to attack a convoy like this, and wondered what the deal was. But the howling got closer and it looked like you were going to be ambushed again.

Balden had a think about what Stalborg had said and about how you kept being pursued, and he wondered if anything magical had been done to you to attract the beastmen. He got everyone to go through their packs, and Max found a strange piece of rock with bits of hide and things tied to it and a bloody rune marked on it.

So, under the guise of a pee stop, careful not to let the miners see it, Max went into the woods and threw the stone away. And as you continued it was soon pretty clear that the beastmen had stopped their pursuit.

When you arrived in Prie, Dietrich told the landlady of the Oar and Ivy not to trust the wizard from the hills, and she said she had better things to do than hang out with wizards, anyway.

And when Balden got to the Mudlark he spoke to Greta who was annoyed that she had had to wait five days for you to come back and she was anxious to get going again, and she would complain to Rotter about it.

And then she said that she had been inspected by the river wardens earlier that day, and they had tried to impound your cargo, and she had handed over one of the cheeses as a bribe. Balden thanked her and gave her a guilder. And you all decided to sleep on the boat.

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