42: House Drakwald

Guilstag 19^th Sommerzeit

After a bit of a think, Max said that the shark symbol might be Stromfels who he thought was some sort of aspect or rival of Manann, or something like that, but he didn’t sound very convinced.

You decided to head north-ish along the unexplored part of the cavern, and after a while you came to a narrowing that you would have to crawl to get through. And the noticeably strong breeze coming through the gap smelled terrible.

So, Illuminated by one of Balden’s lights, Berta got on her knees and began crawling through the gap, but pretty soon the smell got nauseating, and she realised she would have to crawl through shit or something to get through. So she came back and suggested you try one of the water-logged caverns you had passed earlier, instead.

So Max went back to the Manann sail room, and made a watertight bundle for his guns. But then unsure whether you’d even be able to get through the waterlogged area Dietrich decided to have a go at crawling.

He managed to squeeze through the gap but got covered, and emerged into a small cavern. He could see that the next cavern along was quite well lit, and a sea breeze interrupted the terrible smell. He was in some sort of midden.

Then he spotted a small green figure crawl out of the mound of muck and throw some at him, hitting him on the arm. Then the figure burrowed back into the pile. And as Dietrich turned around to tell everyone else to come through, another piece of shit hit him on the back of the head.

The rest of you crawled through, and Berta and Balden both got hit by the flying shit. And then Dietrich accidentally, maybe, flicked some onto Max. And then Max unpacked his blunderbuss and fired it into the pile. Muck went flying everywhere, but there was no more sign of the shit throwing creature. Dietrich had a poke through the remains of the pile with his staff, and saw a few shiny objects, like coins and things, but decided it wasn’t worth picking through.

And the way led to a larger cavern that was lit with daylight, and there was a makeshift driftwood wall across it with a door, and you could hear the sounds of the seaside beyond it. The cavern was littered with about twenty unkempt beds and there was a big cauldron on a fireplace, and you decided this must be a more permanent goblin camp.

You opened the door and found yourselves on a windswept beach, and you all went straight into the sea. It was cold but clean. And after washing you got the painting copy out and compared it to the view from the beach, and the islands you could see out to sea. You decided that it could easily be the same sort of landscape in the same area, but you couldn’t make the arrangement of islands fit the painting.

The day was getting on, and you were annoyed you couldn’t find the goblins. It was clear that the route you had taken wouldn’t have been the one taken by the goblins. And after foraging for some dinner, you decided to head back up to the start of the cave system and have another go at it.

It was getting dark by the time you reached the canoe park and the old goblin camp, and you spotted some activity going on there. Berta climbed up to a well-hidden spot with a good view of the camp and saw that there was a group of eight professional looking soldiers making camp there, and they seemed to be commanded by a richly dressed woman who looked like she might be a Marienburger merchant, or something like that. And she noticed the soldiers’ uniforms looked similar to the tunic you had found in the caverns. And she thought the soldiers might be from one of those private armies the Marienburg merchant houses often form.

You had a look at the path leading up to the cave and there was nothing going on there, and so you decided the best place to spend the night was in the smugglers’ cave you’d discovered earlier.

Dietrich took first watch, but it wasn’t long before he began to feel ill, and so abandoned his watch to find a private cave. During her watch Berta went out to check on the camp, but not much was happening, and she was lucky not to give herself away to one of the sentries.

Angestag 20^th Sommerzeit

And in the morning Max had fully recovered from his mushroom spore incident but Dietrich was suffering from the galloping trots. You checked on the soldiers and saw that they were breaking camp. After a bit of seeming uncertainty, the merchant ordered her troops to follow the river downstream. And as you knew broadly where they were heading you decided to follow at a distance.

You canoed down the river as expertly as you had the previous sections, and hid the canoe near the mouth of the river. And then you followed the coast eastwards until you got back to the goblin cave and you watched as the soldiers went through the cave, not finding anything useful.

You spotted the merchant had a handkerchief with an FD monogram. And you had the idea that the D might be for Drakwald and this might be a rival branch of Rudolf Drakwald’s family, as the painting had been said to be linked to a family mystery.

You followed the soldiers at a distance for the rest of the day and towards evening they came to a grassy promontory and stopped. You wondered why they had stopped there, and beyond them you could see a farmstead.

You checked your copy of the painting and looking out to sea you could reasonably say that the three small islands off the coast might be the same ones as in the picture.

You decided you wanted to take a look at the farmstead before the soldiers got there so you made your way inland a bit to go around them. Then Dietrich cast his speed walking spell on Berta who, before you knew it, had reached the farmstead.

She opened the gate to find a courtyard with a number of goblins in long blue robes, excitedly slaughtering sheep. Overseeing this was a chief goblin with more ornate robes, and Berta could see that there was a painting of Sigmar overlooking the sea stitched into the robes. And leant against a wall, beside the chief goblin, was a human tied to a stake, and looking the worse for wear.

The goblins all stopped what they were doing and just looked at Berta, and Berta just shouted ‘he smells like an elf’ and legged it, towards the soldiers. The goblin chief shouted for the goblins to get her, but they were slow to react and Berta had a decent head start.

Berta made it to the soldiers who were also looking at her, wondering what was going on. Berta called their leader Frau Drakwald, which turned out to be a good guess, and Drakwald ordered her soldiers forward to defend Berta, and after a few shots were fired at the goblins, they fell back to the farmstead.

Berta made up a story about meeting a halfling in a bar in Leihafen, and him getting drunk and telling her the story of the painting, and on seeing the halfling was killed by goblins, Berta had come to get the painting herself, as the halfling had told her how much he was being paid. And she told Drakwald that the painting was now part of the chief goblin’s robes.

Drakwald seemed impressed and said she could use someone like Berta in her entourage, especially if she could get the painting back.

Meanwhile, the rest of you were wondering what was happening and made your way up to the other side of the farmstead. You weren’t particularly stealthy, however, and the soldiers spotted you. Drakwald asked who they were, and Berta explained that they were with her, and apologised for forgetting to mention them.

You looked over the wall to see the goblins looking towards the soldiers and preparing to defend their farmstead. Max said that Balden should entangle the chief goblin and then you could grab his robes, but Balden said that that was a silly idea, and you should join forces with the soldiers. And so you are left on the headland, with the goblins, and the soldiers, wondering what to do next.