"The timing, the family links, and the means of death all smacks of ritual," you say. "Which is not my strongest suit..."
"Kill the one doing them and they tend to end," Regimand advises helpfully.
"Noted, but I'd rather go into things armed with a little more than that, so I'm going to head back to Altdorf to do some digging. After that, Alberich himself - Abelhelm had his Witch Hunter contacts doing a lot of digging while I was there, and some of that would have been into his predecessor. The question is where the report would be - if Roswita inherited I've got a good working relationship with her, if it's the Witch Hunters I've got a contact or two there." Well, the Hochlander does. "If it's the Cult of Sigmar, Kasmir or Starke might be able to get their hands on it."
"I know a fellow or two I've been on the same side of a battle of that might be able to do some digging."
I think this shows a distinct difference between Mathilde and Regimand that I find entertaining. Mathilde acknowledges that rituals are not her strong suit and attempts to rectify that through study, but Regimand cares less about the knowledge and having all the cards and more about just killing the target and ending it. Mathilde has attained her connections through diplomatic maneuvering and through friend of a friend. Regimand just says he's got a bunch of people he fought alongside as contacts. I find it funny how different they are despite being master and disciple.
"And after all of that prepwork, I'll have enough information to make an examination of Krieglitz Manor worthwhile. If it is a ritual, then it's still in progress, so I'm hoping I'll be able to pick up something about it at the sites of the first five murders."
"That sounds like a solid plan," Regimand says after some thought. "If it was my operation I'd openly throw my lot in with the outcast Unfähigers, but my operation would only be worrying about thwarting the ritual, so it'd see Alric as an asset, rather than a complication."
"I still might, that'd muddy the waters enough that Alric wouldn't be able to claim sole credit. Right now I suspect his plans might be to very publicly protect the favoured Unfähigers, let two or three of the unfavoured ones die, and then claim victory after the murders stop. But I worry I might be underestimating him, since a lot of my sources of information on the man are people that have sided against him."
Further differences in the ways that Mathilde and Regimand do things.
"This is why I hate College politics. Because of them, you're in a position where the Magister Patriarch of the Light Order being a good person would be a tricky complication."
"Things were definitely simpler down south," you agree.
Not very fond of College Politics. No wonder Regimand never strived for more than he had. He's definitely not the type to have enjoyed all the maneuvering that Mathilde had to do for her project. As a matter of fact, Mathilde didn't enjoy the manuevering, but she's ambitious and views it as necessary for her goals.
"Normal contact procedures?"
"Yes, and use the EIC if there's anything urgent but not sensitive."
He nods. "See you in a fortnight," he says, and disappears. Over at the bar, his actual self smirks behind his disguise as he drains his drink. "What do I owe you?" he asks the barman.
"A little more credit, for starters," comes your voice from the barman's mouth.
Nice to have Mathilde getting one over Regimand. She's not so easily tricked anymore, being a 38 year old Lady Magister.
Just a neat distinction here. Magus refers to high ranking Cultists (typically from illegal cults of the Dark Gods) who typically have low level Chaos Magical ability, and Magickers were described before in quest as magic potentials who try to teach themselves magic. Primarily nobles who dabble in the black market for forbidden texts.
The things about rituals is that there are a lot of rituals, even when you're limited to the libraries of the Colleges of Magic. Many of them have never even been used, instead marking the point where a particular effort ended, either from interruption or from the ritual developing components or requirements that the creator was unwilling to pursue. Of those that have been tested and confirmed to work, most never see the outside of the creators notes which are eventually inherited by their College. But you can dismiss this right away - you're not looking for a sanctioned, legal, wholesome ritual, you're looking for something ugly and evil. To even start asking questions on the matter would cause the asker to be on the receiving end of an investigation, but with rank comes privilege, and you're instead put in front of an extremely vetted librarian of the Grey Order whose job it is to be able to point in the right direction when someone has your kinds of questions, and the price they pay for that ability is that they are never to leave the grounds of the Grey College again, because the knowledge inside their head could catapult any petty Magus or Magicker into being a threat to the entire Empire.
You ask your questions and are made to wait as in a locked and warded room, a lectern is prepared so that only a few pages of a specific book are accessible, and then under the placid yet watchful eye of a Perpetual Apprentice you read through those pages and take mental notes only. Then you leave the room, and a new book is prepared. This process takes much longer than you would like, and gives you plenty of time to dwell on the glimpses of those books you can get. Somehow, it's the ones in normal paper with regular ink handwriting that unnerve you more than those made of all too identifiable vellum and parchment and written in blood. The idea of someone calmly research, experimenting, and penning the results of violent and bloody rituals in a volume and a hand not that different to your own is more worrying than that of a cackling lunatic scrawling in blood under a green moon.
When the Grey Order's books are exhausted you're made to wait once more, and in six other libraries careful copies are made of specific pages of certain books and, in dead of night and under heavy guard, taken through the streets of Altdorf into the Grey Order. These too are left to your examination, and as soon as you're done to them they're set aflame and the ashes carefully gathered. Through all of this notes are taken of every ritual you have witnessed, and if any of them are misused in the years to come, someone will be checking what you were up to at the time. And after reading the rituals, you entirely understand why. If this is just one very specific cross-section of the dark rituals available, it's a miracle the Empire ever isn't swarming with Daemons and vengeful ghosts and everything in between.
I really like the neat worldbuilding we're getting here on the obstacles and pieces of red tape that tie the Empire together that Mathilde has to bypass for her investigation. Boney could have summarised these three paragraphs into one and just dashed through the procedures by offhandedly mentioning them, but he went through the effort of detailing the different aspects of the security measures the Colleges take to breath more life in the world and justify to us how the Empire is still standing. Because there are people who work so hard to keep it running despite the footfalls.
Over days of study, patterns start to emerge. There are all sorts of rituals that require violent human sacrifice, but most just use them in the same way that a fire uses wood. If you operate on the assumption that it is Alberich performing the murders, and that the timing and the relation between the victims is required instead of a bit of personal flair, then this is a ritual of dedication - Alberich is taking the circumstances of his fall to Chaos and reinforcing it. Most of those that come to Chaos can excuse themselves by telling of the tragedies that led them there - in Alberich's case, that his family was pursued by a murderous plot that left him desperate and alone. But by replicating this on another family, and amplifying it in both time and violence, he forever robs himself of all excuses. It is a message to the Chaos Gods: I blot out the circumstances that forced me to you, and forever reject the excuses I could make for my being here.
Very poetic messaging here. I love the speculative looks that Mathilde is forming on Alberich as she's analysing and building a speculative profile over him to more accurately dissect his upcoming moves. Mathilde doesn't often put her problem solving and deductive thinking in criminal investigations, and this is certainly an opponent that's worthy of her attention and has a connection to her story from the very beginning of the quest. It does a lot to keep me immersed in the conflict.
But though this is a neat answer, it is built atop a set of assumptions: that it is Alberich, that the timing is required, and that the relation is required. You do need to make some assumptions at this point or you have nothing to work with, but you destine yourself for failure if you go ahead believing yourself to be correct on all counts. So what if you're only mostly correct?
If it is not Alberich? Then it is a summoning. Whoever is doing it, they are attempting to summon either the Daemon that Alberich has become or the spirit that is all that remains of him by replicating the pivotal circumstance of his life, and presumably his ascension or death. Or they're misinformed and there is nothing to summon, or perhaps nothing with the power to respond, and if that is the case then the ritual would leave an opening for something else to step through from beyond.
If the timing is not required? Then it is an empowerment, sacrificing eight members of a family to call upon the Violent to empower him - for eight is His holy number. The timing would be pageantry, either out of madness or a sense of drama, or perhaps to catch up the deaths of his family in the resonation as an extra sacrifice to his God.
If the family is not required? Then it is a ritual of vengeance, attempting to curse those that killed his own family by replicating the timing of the acts he is calling for vengeance upon. Perhaps Alberich believes the Unfähigers to be responsible, and therefore considers it to be poetic vengeance to use their deaths to fuel a curse upon the rest of the conspiracy. If you were sure this was the case you might be tempted to step aside and let it happen, were it not for the fact that arguably you, Regimand, and Heidi could all be considered to be part of that conspiracy, and there's very few other members left for the power of a curse to focus upon.
Dedication, summoning, empowerment, vengeance. A set of unpleasant options to be sure, but the field of possibilities does tend to get that way once human sacrifice enters the equation. You run over your mental notes once more, sign a set of papers acknowledging that you have accessed such unsavoury materials, thank the library staff for their time, and withdraw from the College to seek out some sunlight and cheery thoughts.
We see here an example of Mathilde's classic overthinking being put to good use. Instead of moving through with the easiest and most convenient assumption, Mathilde analyses all the different options that she considers to be likely and the consequences that would accompany them. Playing with an array of options instead of a "most likely option" makes things more complex, but it also decreases the chances of her getting caught off guard. This is what it means to be a Grey Wizard, to question your assumptions and to never act like you have all the answers. Well, act like you have all the answers, but don't automatically think/assume that you do. That's a recipe for disaster.
Your arrival in Wurtbad feels a little uncanny, as the crowds part for your Shadowsteed and eyes turn towards you and a sea of murmurs fills your wake. You do your best to ignore it all as you make your way to Eagle Castle, and make your introductions to the guard at the gate and request an audience. The uncanny feeling grows stronger as you're taken inside and led through rooms you once called home to a conference room you once knew very well indeed. But a lot has changed, not least of which being that the conference table itself is gone, which you suppose makes sense, as to those that don't know the story behind it, the bloodstain it bears is merely unsanitary.
Mathilde hasn't come back here in a while, but with the Sylvania campaign dying off, Mathilde's legend has most likely spread thoroughly among the populace. People's tax money is no longner being spent on a full army mobilisation across the county, so bitter feelings are less likely to boil over and people can just awe over one of their province's most prominent modern heroes. No wonder Mathilde feels uncanny.
Roswita herself is showing the passage of years too, for she must be at least partway into her thirties by now. And still unmarried, too, which is unusual for an Elector Countess. Or perhaps she has taken the same path as Abelhelm, and has secret heirs hidden away somewhere, ready to emerge when needed?
I think it's a bit harder for Roswita to hide having secret heirs than Abelheim, considering pregnancy and everything. There are a lot of reasons that Roswita has likely not taken a spouse and had children, ranging from not liking men to not liking romance to not feeling like she can have children until Sylvania is cleared to being too busy at the moment to not having anyone she likes etc. etc. No point speculating about it.
It is nice to see Roswita all grown up and look centered in her position. Lest us not forget that Roswita is only about five years younger than Mathilde. Passage of years is nicer on Mathy though.
You let this idle speculation occupy your attention as you make your way through the polite greetings to her and broach the topic at hand. "Ah yes, the matter of the Eastern Wing," she says. "Thirty-odd years left until it's unsealed."
"Can you tell me any more about the details of what happened? I know that Abelhelm had Witch Hunters look into it, and I believe it may be related to matters elsewhere in the Empire."
"How so?" she asks, her expression shifting, and for a moment you have an odd sense of nostalgia - Abelhelm had that same odd shift in intensity when switching from ruler to Witch Hunter.
Conversation with Starke unlocked some memories I guess?
"Alberich got himself sucked into the warp, yes? Well, he either came back, or is being called back."
"That could be very dangerous. Is it being seen to?"
"Members of the Grey and Light Orders are working on it," you say truthfully.
"Ah," she says, relaxing slightly. "I've seen the effect Light Wizards have on spirits, and I've heard they're just as potent against the denizens of the Chaos realms. I'm afraid that I didn't inherit the report on Alberich's demise, I only know part of the details from father's diary."
Look at Roswita. Relaxing at the mention of Wizards being on the case instead of tensing up and asking for Templars to be sent in. How she's grown. She's had a lot of experience with Wizards in her lands by now.
"You read his diary?" you find yourself asking.
"The parts covering his years here, yes. There was a great deal in motion that I had to suddenly be in charge of. For all of his predecessor's missteps, at least he left my father with a blank slate."
"Could only been blanker if he'd pulled apart the castle and sold the stones," you say faintly, trying not to speculate on the contents of those diaries, not sure if you're more worried if she found anything untoward or if there was nothing to find. It's strange, isn't it? Just shy of a decade since that chapter in your life ended, and most of the time it all feels like the distant past, and you've built a new life and now have something much realer than the handful of half-formed hopes you once had. But if something pokes at those memories just wrong they come to life once more, filling you with a nostalgic sadness and bringing all those if-onlys back to life... but this is far past the time and definitely not the place to lose yourself in those memories. "Would the Witch Hunters have the report, then?" you press on.
Mathilde's pretty melancholic lately.
"I requested it once before, but all they told me is how long to keep it sealed, and that was early on so I didn't feel I was in a position to throw my weight around. And since then, of course, all my focus has been east." She frowns. "But now that you bring it up, I don't like being reminded that I'm sleeping so close to something I know so little about. And I have built up some contacts within the Witch Hunters that know me as the Elector Countess of Stirland, rather than a former trainee. I think I'll have a word with some people. I take it that you'd like to be informed what I learn?"
"I'd like that very much. You can contact me-"
"Through the EIC. I know." She smiles, and you remember that it's been some time since she was the terrified girl who was so scared of a Wizard that she barely got through firing her without trembling, or the young woman so sure she would die that her soul swam with Shyish. Of course she would know the owners of the trade company that dominates her capital city.
"Thank you," you say, simply and sincerely.
Lots of callbacks and developments in this arc demonstrating the changes and differences with time. First with Mathilde and Regimand and now with Mathilde and Roswita. Where's Anton, Kasmir and Wilhelmina to complete the group?
Never one to leave all your eggs in one basket, you also drop in on the Hochlander and ask him to have a word with his own contacts within the Witch Hunters before you make your way back to Talabecland, and in the days to come you receive two messages through the EIC. Two near-identical copies of the same report might strike others as redundant, but to you it's an extremely useful corroboration. It's also interesting that the Hochlander was completely stonewalled until someone asked him if he was asking for you, and in a judgement call he'd answered in the affirmative, and only then had he received the document.
Sigmarites have heard of Mathilde, which makes sense, and trust her, which also makes sense. Dwarf-Friend and all that.
Sections are redacted, but these are the sections that describe the exact sigils, glyphs, runes, and circles that would have been involved, and possibly any sacrifices or remains thereof. The relevant parts are found in the mundane remnants, or rather, a significant absence from them: the mortal remains of one Elector Count Alberich II Haupt-Anderssen. The summary of the report draws attention to this, as well as to part of the redacted section that you extrapolate to refer to part of the central circle that was removed, as well as the stone it was marked (or stained, or chalked, or daubed...) upon. The result of this ritual, intended or otherwise, was subtractive: it removed a portion of the material realm, drawing it into the Aethyr. And as you have experience with, portions of the material world drawn into the Aethyr don't like to stay in the Aethyr, so they would have been returned - and, evidently, they were not returned to the eastern wing of Eagle Castle.
It is possible that wherever Alberich ended up, he was slain and consumed by the first Daemon that stumbled upon him. But intrusions into the Aethyr are very rarely a surprise to the beings that call it home, and unless Alberich was freakishly skilled or lucky or had somehow stumbled onto an extremely potent ritual, there would have been something of considerable power waiting for him, likely something that resonated with what was already within him. Very likely something that would see more value in having a catspaw in reality than it would one more soul to toy with in unreality. So it seems possible - likely, even - that when that bubble of air and stone returned to the world, it brought Alberich back with him - intact, but certainly not unaltered.
After an unknown amount of time, after an unknown amount of changes, Alberich returns to a world that has already moved on from him.
Again, I love the descriptions of Alberich's journey into Chaos. It's very evocative and interesting.
Most Daemons will seek to magnify that which is within a mortal, as it is much easier and more effective than creating it from scratch. But what was within Alberich? Was he full of fear and doubt, scrabbling in ignorance at tangled webs of conspiracy that ensnared him, and now seeks to eclipse them through the Changer? Did he despair at the fate of his family, call out to the Diseased, and now seeks to share that sensation with those who inflicted it upon him? Did he rage against those that killed his family, and now blood calls to blood with the approval of the Violent? Or did he act out of jealousy for his perilous position and call out to the Tempter, and now envy drives him to remove the competition for the title that he sees as his right?
You might be about to find out.
Boney does a great job at showing how people fall to Chaos here.
Within the walls are a jumble of different-size buildings around a central courtyard, at the center of which is a rather large fountain that would be quite impressive in daylight and with running water, but here and now the horns of whatever it depicts seem a lot more sinister than its designers would have intended. In between the buildings hedges have overgrown their shapes, turning the slender animals they once depicted into looming, shaggy beasts.
Love the descriptions here. Really sets the atmosphere and gives creepy mansion vibes. I would love to explore this mansion in a video game. Sounds like a great setting for a low level horror based adventure too.
[Regimand vs Mathilde: 94 vs 4]
You haven't been humbled this badly since you were an Apprentice.
"The error of youth," Regimand says as you reach the fifth scene, only to find him reclining against the balustrade and considering a bottle of wine he apparently pilfered along the way, "is to believe that intelligence is a substitute for experience."
Lovely. I do enjoy Mathilde getting a slice of humble pie. Just because she's magically superior does not mean she's surpassed her teacher in everything.
"How long have you been working on that chestnut?"
I don't know what this means. Chestnut? I don't get it.
"It's clearest to Magesight," you say after considering it. "Looks like they didn't even attempt to clean this one up, either." The fifth Haupt-Anderssen had 'tripped' while going down stairs, while the fifth Unfähiger had made that same fatal journey an amount of time that varied in the telling but was universally too large. Even with only faint moonlight to go by you can see the stains on the stairs, and you can smell the copper tang of old blood in the air. But you frown as you consider it; you'd said it was clearest to Magesight without really thinking about it, but now that you looked at it, what about it was clear is hard to pinpoint. There isn't really any Shyish in the air, but it has been a while since the body was cleared away. Nor any of the other Winds, though the traces left by the emotion of those involved would likewise be long gone. But there's a thinness to the air, an abrasion in the insulating layer between reality and unreality, the tingling itch of the Aethyr being a little closer than usual. "There's definitely something larger at play here," you conclude. "In a vacuum I'd say that maybe this is a trace of some sort of Daemon or spirit or something else at work, but it absolutely matches a groove worn by a ritual."
How similar is this abrasion between realms when compared to Morrisleb's influence? I assume it's distinct considering Mathilde didn't speculate on that being a possibility. Being inside a mansion probably insulates the crime area from the moon anyway.
Actually, are there records of Morrisleb's cycle at the days of each murder? I doubt it was a full moon on every murder because that would be noted. I assume there's nothing special about that for this case.
"But wherever the in-progress ritual is localized, it's not here," Regimand says. "Nor was it at the other locations. Does that narrow down the possibilities?"
You frown, thinking. "Not by much. It would either be centered on Alberich - well, on whoever's doing this - or on the family."
"And this family has been living here less than sixty years," Regimand says. "So their metaphysical location would be on them instead of on their 'home', so it'd be either at the spa or at the lodge, or both."
"If it is centered on the family, Alric would know which. But I don't think we can extrapolate which it is from how he's acting, since we don't know if he wants to take this on or let it pass by."
"Could you tell by surveiling one or the other?"
You consider that. "Not at a glance," you admit. "Not with how worked up they'd be. I'd have to spend a lot of time watching, get used to the Wind turbulence they'd have to be causing to spot what's in the background. It would be a lot easier to spot during the next murder. Even whether it starts getting rowdy in the lead-up to it or if it only perks up when the murder actually happens would tell me something. But if it is centered on the person doing the murders, it would be clearly visible. Even people without Magesight would be uncomfortable around them."
I like that Mathilde's exceptional Windsight is being implicitly pointed out here with Mathilde doing all the Windsighting and Regimand being the one to ask her questions. It's been so long since they worked together that even he doesn't know how her sight works exactly, but he certainly knows it's exceptional considering the stories of her discovering Karak Vlag.
Out of thoroughness you carefully inspect the other sites over the next few nights as well as using them to confirm which of the many conflicting rumours were true. The Haupt-Anderssen who'd died during the night of a weak heart had his ripped out in bed, and the bed was stripped to the frame and still smelled of blood. The Haupt-Anderssen who'd fallen from a balcony was matched by an impact crater of considerable size below one of the Krieglitz balconies. The Haupt-Anderssen who'd simply keeled over dead misstep must have posed a tricky question for the reenactor, who had done their best to escalate the seemingly rootless death with a stiletto to every organ that left quite a set of stains in a corridor rug. And the Haupt-Anderssen who had seemingly accidentally shot himself while cleaning a gun was matched by the armoury on the grounds, which was emptied of its usual contents as half-hearted attempts to repair the many, many bullet-holes took place and were eventually abandoned. There's absolutely no doubt left in your mind that there's a connection between the Haupt-Anderssen deaths and the Unfähiger deaths.
Brutal. Khorne likes this outcome.
You also take some time to poke around the rest of the Manor while you're there, perhaps hoping you'll find a diary left behind by the family patriarch wherein he recounts his fiendish murders of the Haupt-Anderssens and then extremely detailed accounts of the eventual repercussions, but unfortunately if he kept any such records he's taken them with him. What you do find is a great deal of undeserved finery, including an entire linen closet filled with silk sheets that you give a long, envious glare to. There's also an entire library, and though your sojourn there evaluates it as the sort of thing one gets if you want a library to show off without actually caring what's in it, the sheer size of both it and the layers of dust it bears feels like a grave disservice to the written word. You also spot several voids in the layout of the main building that suggest hidden rooms of some sort, suggesting... well, all kinds of possibilities. Vaults? Forbidden shrines? Hidden dungeons? Secret laboratories? But you're here to observe, not to dismantle, and at least for now you intend to leave the Manor as you found it.
I don't think Mathilde has ever shown a greater desire to loot something than this particular mansion.
Alys Schmidt meets once more with an equally-disguised Regimand, and Alys side-eyes her counterpart suspiciously as you very carefully don't look in the direction of Regimand's second illusion of a second disguised version of himself, and your Magesight scans the room for where the actual Regimand must be hiding. But that only has a sliver of your attention, because the rest of it goes to summarizing what you've discovered.
Mathilde is adorable.
"We know one thing that Alric almost certainly doesn't," you say to one of the illusory Regimands. "Even if he does know the link between the Haupt-Anderssen murders and these ones, I'm almost sure he doesn't know that there wasn't an eighth murder. From how the Witch Hunters act it seems like only those with direct involvement in Eagle Castle are considered to have need to know, and the natural assumption for anyone else would be that he was an exceptionally gruesome eighth murder."
"So if Alric thinks it's an empowerment, he might be taken by surprise by the seventh murder being the culmination," he says thoughtfully. "He might also believe that the eight is significant, being the number of the Violent. But if it is relevant in that way, it would be seven, that of the Unwell."
"If it is Him, then that could take him off-guard. He thinks the seventh is just a stepping stone to an eighth to one God, but it's the culmination to a different one altogether, and one that could be a lot less direct about things and would be able to pollute the water he's relying on for protection."
"You're sure it's not a summoning?"
"Sure? No. It could be a random misinformed Cultist trying to summon someone that's actually just running around somewhere else. But someone once told me that you don't prepare against an idiot adversary, you prepare against the one that knows what they're doing."
"I told you that," Regimand says with a smile.
"So you did. If it's not that, then it's a dedication, and then there would be an eighth at the right timing - but it might not be a murder, it could be any act that proves his dedication to his new God or Gods." You frown. "Killing the Magister Patriarch of the Light Order would certainly qualify. That's another way it could blindside Alric - if he thinks he's the bodyguard instead of the target."
I don't think I like the idea of a Daemon or Daemon adjacent thing deliberately targeting the Magister Patriarch of the Light Order. It would indicate significant confidence over their ability to pull one over him. Or supreme arrogance, but I do think that whatever happened, Alberich got a supreme powerup in the Chaos Realm and he would have a good chance of killing Alric if he caught him by surprise, which our assumption is that would be the case.
"Or finally, if it's vengeance. That Alric would be prepared for - maybe thinking it's some other member of the family, since not all..." He frowns and trails off. "Surely not. It couldn't be the..." He looks around, and leans in. "The other one, could it? Your friend, seeking vengeance for her family?"
"I'm absolutely sure it's not," you say. Because she's not a Haupt-Anderssen and you know for a fact which God she serves, but you're trying to avoid all that spilling out.
He thinks for a while, and slowly nods. "Her role wouldn't really give her time to take a ship up the Talabec to do a spot of murdering every few weeks, would it? But Alric doesn't know that there's a better candidate out there."
"He might think she's behind it," you conclude. Revealing that would absolutely catapult him back into influence. It would also tear the Empire apart, but the Magister Patriarch of the Light Order would be in a position to ride that chaos out. Or perhaps he intends to blackmail the Empress and wield her influence as his own. You'd thought it strange that he'd think the Unfähigers were his ticket back to influence, but you'd thought that maybe he couldn't find anything better and was hoping that he could just say 'saving an entire noble family' and skim right past the Unfähiger part. But perhaps he had inadvertently reached a twisted version of the truth, that the Empress was a secret cultist.
This is the most dangerous outcome for the aftermath, because it would mean that we'd likely have to take Alric out. No way we can just got up to him and just say "oh wait she's not a Chaos cultist, just a Ranaldite!".
"Okay, to lay it out:
Possibility one. Ritual of Empowerment. Culminates at the seventh murder, Alric will be caught off-guard with his defences useless.
Possibility two. Ritual of Dedication. Culminates at the eighth, which may not necessarily be an Unfähiger murder - Alric himself might be the target.
Possibility three. Ritual of Vengeance. Culminates at the seventh, which will catch Alric off-guard but will not negate his defences, and this might lead Alric to think the Empress might be behind it.
Well, it's a lot more to work with than we had."
Good progress.
