35: Cheese Heist

Backertag 1^st Sommerzeit

So, in the evening, you had a chat on the boat about what you had got up to at the wizards house. Greta was still a bit annoyed about being delayed on her way to Marienburg. She told you about the time she and Rotter had smuggled arabyan spices inside figurines of Sigmar, Max felt that was a bit sacrilegious, but that reminded you of your smuggling the amber inside barrels of salted fish.

And then Greta had a sudden realisation and she pulled her dagger and stabbed one of the cakes of cheese. It sort of exploded in a cloud of white powder, which you may have recognised as white lotus. The cloud especially covered Greta but engulfed all of you, and you were all affected by the drug except Balden.

The Lotus seemed to make you think and speak quite quickly and you were all suddenly very enthusiastic about you own ideas. You concluded that the river wardens who had confiscated one of the cheeses earlier that day, must also have one filled with drugs. You wondered whether you needed to leave town as soon as possible or try to get the cheese back.

So you quickly went into action, walking up the wharf to check out the river warden station, which looked like it was just an old warehouse. You could see that the town was little more than a line of warehouses that backed onto a steep hillside. You spotted a couple of river wardens tending to their boat outside the station.

Balden cast a blast at the hill behind the station as a distraction, and Max ran away from the scene, bigging up the significance of the blast, while Berta sneaked up the dockside, and managed to blend in with the dockside life. Dietrich tried the same, but managed to look out of place. Greta was too far gone to be of any help.

Dietrich cast a spell to give Berta supernatural speed, and Berta sped up the wharf and into the alley beside the station. She tried to open the side door of the station but it was locked.

Then three river wardens, one of them a captain, emerged from the front door of the station, and came down the alleyway to check out the blast. Berta was still under the influence of the super speed, and so was able to escape easily enough.

You all met up again a few alleyways along from the river warden station, and Balden tried to entangle the two wardens on the boat, but something went wrong and he became stunned by his own ineptitude. Max went to talk with the wardens and managed to distract them by pretending to fall onto their boat, while Berta sneaked through the front door of the station, and Dietrich went down the side alley.

Inside the station it was mostly empty except one of the wardens was preparing dinner, and he had the unopened cake of cheese on a table beside him, and so Berta went over like she had a right to be there and said the cheese was needed outside. Berta’s bluff was pretty terrible but the cook was very credulous and the pair of them just stood looking at each other for a few moments. Meanwhile, Dietrich magically opened the side door, but just as he let himself in he saw two of the watchmen coming back down the hillside.

Balden recovered from his magical shock and went to the boat to help Max to his feet, and managed to magically entangle one of the wardens in the ropes and nets on the deck. The other warden drew his sword and shouted ‘Witch!’ at Balden.

Not able to convince the cook that he had a right to the cheese, Berta just grabbed it and ran. The cook tried to tackle him, but missed. Meanwhile Max had made his way to the front door of the station.

The two wardens reached the side door of the station so Dietrich cast his spell of impossible speed and took off after Berta, and grabbed the cheese off her as he ran past.

And seeing them run out of the station Max tried to bar the door with his hammer and spikes, but couldn’t manage it. It was probably because of his drug-addled state, but he made some sort of bargain with a dark spirit to get help get the door shut, but made a mess of it, anyway. And so ran off after Berta and Dietrich. As he went one of the river wardens fired a pistol after him and hit him in the arm.

Berta hid herself behind some crates on the dockside, and once Max and Balden were past she shoved the stack over to stop the pursuit, but was a bit too enthusiastic and toppled over a massive stack of Cathayan crockery.

When Dietrich got to the boat Greta was naked and chasing imaginary flying fish around the deck. He untied some of the ropes and waited for the sailors to arrive. And when everyone got back, Berta and Balden cast off and sailed away down river. You had to pass the warden station on your way and they shook their fists angrily at you as you passed.

You were worried about being pursued, so despite the danger, you sailed on all through the night, with Balden at the tiller, and apart from hitting a small island you made it to morning safely. And Berta took over the sailing so you were able to get a full twenty-four hours of sailing in.

Bezahltag 2^nd Sommerzeit

Greta woke up quite late in the day, and didn’t want to talk about it. You decided to dump the Lotus from the cheese that Greta had opened, and keep some of the cheese in case anyone else wanted to inspect your cargo. And you ate the rest.

You sailed past Schilderheim without stopping and by nightfall got to Scheinfeld. You were still worried about the river wardens, so decided to sleep on the boat, in case you needed to make a quick getaway.