"We've learned enough, fast enough, that we have the privilege of spending even more time to really nail down the corners," you say. "I'm going to surveil the Unfähigers, try to spot where the ritual is centered. If it's on one group or the other, then the ritual needs a specific target, and that would probably make it a Ritual of Dedication. If it's over both of them, then it's targeting the family in general and it's probably a Ritual of Vengeance. If it's not, then it would be on the person doing it, and so probably a Ritual of Empowerment. I also want to look more into Alberich himself, find out what kind of person he was and so what kind of new friends he might have made."
Regimand nods. "I take it you've got contacts down south that would be able to tell you that?"
"Yes, the Baron of Blutdorf is a friend, and through him I can get the impressions of the other rulers of Western Stirland."
"Then I'll poke around Wurtbad for the perspectives of those below him. You only ever get half the picture of who someone is if you only know how they treat their equals."
I like how casually Mathilde just mentions how many high tier upper management and authoritative sources she has access to, and Regimand focused on the lower tier people who work the day to day jobs for information gathering. I think it's a neat way of dividing jobs that fits into their specialties, and also shows the difference between the levels that they're working in. Mathilde has worked for so long in high profile positions and built so many high profile allies and contacts that she's fallen out of touch from the average person when it comes to contacts. She leaves that kind of stuff to the Hochlander at this point. Regimand on the other hand has always laid low and focused on cultivating contacts throughout the lower levels of society. Distinct differences that I enjoy between the two of them.
The two of you stare at each other for a while, each waiting for the other to vanish first. Then you both realize at about the same time that you'd both tried the same double bluff, actually coming to the table in person but wrapped in an Illusion to make it seem like you were an Illusion. Without speaking or making eye contact the two of you stand from the table and walk away.
This is just funny. I'm loving this constant game of oneupmanship that's being played along the updates. This alongside many other flavorful tidbits do a lot to add depth and layers to the mini-turn aside from the murder mystery. A lot of it is characterisation, a lot of it is just neat flavorful interactions with the world, but most of all it's just fun. I've always held that Boney's best at character focused narratives, and I always love when he has the opportunity to focus down on them instead of having to focus on complex big picture narratives.
You spent some time weighing which branch of the family to surveil first, but in the end, it comes down to that after a week in the swamp you would really be able to use a week in a spa town. So Alys Schmidt decides to test her luck against the wildlife of Crater Marsh, and hires a room, a punt, and a flintlock fowler musket from the village of Sumpfrand, which likely exists solely to perform this exact service. She politely listens with half an ear as the publican speaks at length at the proper way to carve a sapling into an angling rod, and finally extricates herself from the conversation before the dawn fog burns completely off the marsh, and nobody is watching to notice how the fog doesn't part for Alys, but instead draws in thicker around her.
I find it neat that Mathilde refers to Alys Schmidt with "she" as if she's a different person. I suppose this is a way to establish that Alys is a different "person" and not Mathilde to further demarcate the two, but I was led to believe that people who assume false identities typically try to immerse themselves in that identity instead of separating them. Is this just Mathilde's method of doing it? She doesn't really have the opportunity to create complex false identities most of the time, so maybe this is just new to her. Or maybe she just doesn't care about immersing herself considering that she's not expecting to infiltrate anywhere.
Also I've noticed that lately Boney's been using a lot of words I had no idea existed in these updates. Punt? Fowler? Publican? Later there are words like Deshabille? It is getting me to learn a lot of new words though. Very informative.
Crater Marsh, you quickly find, is a far more welcoming set of wetlands than the Schadensumpf. Where that body has been cultivated by Elves over millennia to be as hostile to an interloper as possible, Crater Marsh has been cultivated by Taalites and Rhyans over millennia to not be actively unpleasant to live next to, and apart from the occasional mosquito your Aethyric Armour goes quite untested. The chirp of birds and the croak of frogs makes for quite a pleasant chorus, and while poling the punt does take some effort, it's much less than your sword drills do, and you make good time. Regimand had pinpointed the location of the hunting lodge on a map for you, and navigating by the morning sun leads you straight to it. With your punt half-aground on a small mound and shrouded in the mist that's too fond of you to burn away in the rising sun, you make yourself as comfortable as you can, make a mental note to bring a hat tomorrow, and focus your senses on the hunting lodge of the Unfähigers.
Excellent use of Mathilde's wandering musings as a way to establish the atmosphere of the place by contrast with the other swamp we're familiar with. I'm also disappointed that Mathilde went without a hat. That's where half your personality comes from Mathilde. How can you act smug without the additional height provided?
One early complication is that there's far more coming and going than you expected, as you expected none at all. But your initial count of twelve humans and a dog has to be adjusted downwards as three of them depart shortly before noon, causing you to wonder if they're not as holed up as you thought they would be. But further comings and goings through the day shed some light on this, especially after a rowboat - small for a river but large for a marsh - propelled by a half-dozen burly armed men and carrying an older man with a sack of money arrives, and after a while inside the house these visitors depart minus the sack. Later in the day another rowboat drops off an assortment of sacks and crates and barrels. By the time the sun is starting to set once more and a new set of overnight visitors arrive, these ones in a state of artful deshabille instead of the genuine rumpledness of those departing in the morning, you realize what is happening here.
Boney always catches me off guard with the artfully subtle ways that he indicates somethiing carnal is going on. Once I figured out what deshabille meant I realised what type of "entertainment" was being brought over. I guess they're not as miserable as I expected.
On the way back you use the last fading vestiges of daylight to gather what seems to you to be a reasonable result of a day on the Marsh. Fish don't have terribly much going on in their souls for your Magesight to see, but their passage through the ambient Ghyran of the Marsh is as visible as, well, as the wake of a fish through water. You were warned that these beasts were quite canny in their ability to nibble the bait off a hook, but they prove quite vulnerable to ropes of pure darkness delving into the water to strangle them unconscious, at which point you simply pluck them from the water. Your Marksdwarf pistol also plays a part, adding a brace of ducks to your day's tally at a range the fowler musket could only dream of.
The incredibly casual way in which Mathilde describes the energies of the world and says bizarre stuff like "fish don't have terribly much going on in their souls" is always entertaining to read. Also, I think this might be the first time Mathilde uses the Marksdwarf Pistol outside the firing range. I don't remember her ever using it in combat. Always with the revolvers.
On the way back you use the last fading vestiges of daylight to gather what seems to you to be a reasonable result of a day on the Marsh. Fish don't have terribly much going on in their souls for your Magesight to see, but their passage through the ambient Ghyran of the Marsh is as visible as, well, as the wake of a fish through water. You were warned that these beasts were quite canny in their ability to nibble the bait off a hook, but they prove quite vulnerable to ropes of pure darkness delving into the water to strangle them unconscious, at which point you simply pluck them from the water. Your Marksdwarf pistol also plays a part, adding a brace of ducks to your day's tally at a range the fowler musket could only dream of.
You quickly learn that you may have overestimated what a typical hunt results in, as the basket of fish in one hand and the brace of ducks in the other results in shock and then pride from the publican, who assumes the secret to your success was his own sage advice and purchases your catch off you for a fee that outweighs what you spent on equipment, room, and board. You suppose you're starting to see the appeal of this 'hunting' business.
Over the rest of the week you accustom yourself to the auras of the Unfähigers during the day, the shifting morass of Shyish and Ulgu being kept at bay by a bulwark of Aqshy, and in doing so you are able to let it fade from your sight, as you do the busy Ghyran of the waters surrounding you. In doing so you discover the faint glow of divinity underlying the Ghyran that you take to be the blessing of Taal, which while spread thin is possibly enough to dissuade lesser Daemons from venturing through it. But you don't spot the lurking presence of a malign ritual, even after every other energy has faded. After five murders, there's no possibility of it being so minor that it would still be unspottable to you, not after a week of watching. You can say for sure that wherever the energies of the ritual are building, they're not here.
I asume the Aqshy here is supposed to represent "passion" instead of the "aggression" that Aqshy is so often associated with. I suppose that's the wind most attracted to pleasures of the flesh.
Bad Dankerode is outside the crater of the Taalbaston and thus technically exposed to the horrors of the Great Forest, but with the undiluted holy waters of the Ostlichrand on one side, the sheer cliff of the Taalbaston on the other, and the guns of the Taalbaston's Eastern Bastion overhead, you can see why Alric chose this as his fortress. But while he and the Unfähigers have claimed the largest, most expensive, and best defended spa resort for their own, the rest of the village goes untouched by their influence, and you pick the rival resort that gives you the most unobstructed view of your target for Alys Schmidt to patronize. After a week of sitting on damp wood and trying to ignore the whine of insects as you focused, you're really in the mood to appreciate a more relaxed setting for your next surveillance.
I love these little glimpses at worldbuilding that you throw in which helps flesh out the Warhammer World beyond the sourcebooks. I've read the sourcebooks, particularly Terror in Talabheim, so I'd like to say I have a decent familiarity with this city, but you always catch me off guard Boney with the way that you expand on things. I've always been under the impression that Taal's sacred waters were held purely within the crate inside Crystal Lake, but of course that isn't the case when I consider your worldbuilding. You've always been the type to expand on this stuff, and instead of confining the waters of Taal into just the Bastion, you expanded it beyond the craters through the River Ostlichrand, which I can't remember ever being mentioned in Terror because it was outside the Taalbaston.
To those who don't know, Bad Dankerode is never expanded on in canon as far as I know. A lot of the stuff Boney does here is original expansion, and I like the way he goes about it very much.
Places like this are quite used to dealing with the eccentricities of patrons, and when accompanied with a few coins your requirements are accepted without comment. A room with an adjoining private pool is set aside, lunch is to be covered and placed just inside the door for you to collect at your leisure, and you will not be requiring any professional company for the duration of your visit, nor will you be expecting visitors. You take some time to clean off the accumulated grime of a week in the marsh, then you make yourself a great deal more comfortable than you were capable of achieving in the marsh and turn your senses to the nearby building, where five Unfähigers, one Light Wizard, and an unknown number of servants reside.
This close to the source the blessing of Taal is all the more evident in the waters, and you're sure it would be quite an advantage to a seasoned Abjurer on the defensive, but to you it is the first of the distractions you need to learn to filter out before you can find the answers you're looking for. The comings and goings of other patrons is next for you to ignore, but once you begin to filter them you start to be able to see Alric himself, shining like a lighthouse as he moves around the building and occasionally flaring as he makes some preparation or another. Once you've learned to tune out his illumination and gotten used to bracing your senses against his magics, the next layer of observation is picking out the Unfähigers from the servants, which is made easy by the emotions of these Unfähigers running just as hot as their less-favoured counterparts. Once you've honed in on those five and you begin to make out what's lurking behind it.
I wonder how familiar Mathilde is with Taal's presence by this point. I doubt she'd be able to recognise his signature all that easily, that kind of stuff is reserved for Gods she's had inside her soul, but I assume she would have some sense of familiarity with him by this point. What does divine energy feel to Mathilde actually? Can she pick up anything about it? Like the general "feeling" she gets from the presence? Or is it just "power" in pure form? I have no interested in dissecting the gods and researching them in a lab, but I would like to be able to get to know them more personally. That would require meeting with an Avatar though.
I think Taal has an Avatar? Well it depends on Boney I think. Bagrian, the High Priest of La Maisontaal Abbey. A truly ancient character by GW standards, because La Maisontaal is I think the very first event in Warhammer history, but in 6th Edition he got stats and he was an absolutely ridiculous caster. Level 4 Wizard from the Lore of Beasts with absurd magic items and abilities. He reappaeared in the End Times. I don't think we'd ever meet him, but I think he might have had a pretty strong connection to Taal.
Hovering overhead like a gathering storm is a deep well of malign energies, with tendrils reaching out for one of the five Unfähigers in particular, inching closer by the day at a rate that will have him within striking range right on schedule, and growing stronger on their fear all the while. The Ritual knows its target and its timetable, and far above, a tendril of the ugly cloud vanishes into the distance somewhere to the northwest, where the creator of these energies waits for the proper time to come. This is a Ritual that mirrors the fates of the Haupt-Anderssens, and thus by your earlier research you can say with near certainty that this is a Ritual of Dedication, crafted as a piece of terrible art to be gifted to Alberich's new master or masters as a symbol of his devotion to them.
You spend as long as you can bear studying the ongoing ritual in the hopes of gaining some insight into its intended audience, but until it is completed it possesses none of the nature of the Dark Gods, just the hideous energies of the death and terror that has been inflicted to create it. At last you turn your gaze away from it, letting reality rush back in and insulate you from it. Hopefully you'll be able to gather some insight of who Alberich was as a ruler that will tell you about who he may have chosen as his patron.
The next morning you pack up your things, leave a few discarded and crumpled papers that match Alys' profession, and put some distance between you and Bad Dankerode - first by carriage, and once a safe distance away, you summon your Shadowsteed and turn your course southwards.
Man, could Alberich be any more obvious? A literal dark cloud hanging above his next target? I suppose subtle is not part of his repertoire, considering the absurd murder methods he went through. Well, maybe it is part of the ritual to be obvious about who the next target is.
As much fun as it is to appear unexpectedly, courtesy won out this time, and when you arrive in Blutdorf Anton is ready to welcome you. Apart from the usual greetings and gossip he has an important introduction to make to you: that of his first cousin twice removed and now adopted son, Anton.
"The name was his idea," Anton says to you after the boy makes a formal and overawed greeting to you and is allowed to flee. "He's very earnest and serious about everything, I don't think he's capable of doing anything halfway. He was an ensign aboard a Wolfship in the Imperial First and doing quite well at it."
This is very very cute. I love it. How old is Anton III? Also, I had to consult a chart to see where first cousin twice removed fell. My first thought was that this kid was related to Anton's dead aunt, although I have no way of confirming it. My brain can't wrap around the timelines. Too many missing variables.
"What made you decide to adopt?"
"The rest of the family was starting to notice I hadn't married and beginning to fight amongst itself over who would inherit, and this was the best way to stop them." He shrugs with an easy and apparently genuine smile. "I just don't feel like there's an absence in my life that terribly needs filling with a wife. Reinhild and I enjoy each other's company, but it's not going to result in a marriage, nor in an heir if her amulet works the way the Jades say it does. And Blutdorf and Kirchham are happy to take every scrap of attention I can spare them. So why roll the dice with a new child when there's a perfectly good one ready to go?"
You nod. "As long as you're happy, then that seems very sensible."
"I thought so too. Da grumbles, but he likes Anton. Speaking of, you wanted to know about Alberich from him?"
I'm very glad we told Anton to marry for love, because he realised that he didn't need marriage. I've already said my piece on this, but I think it's a wonderful conclusion to Anton's character arc. He seems content and at peace, and that's the best I could have ever hoped for.
"If he's available."
Anton hesitates a moment. "He's okay with day-to-day things, but his memory needs nudging for things that far back. So I did the nudging for you before you arrived. He gets embarrassed about it when it's in front of other people."
"That's okay, I trust you to have found the salient details."
Aw. I feel bad for Anton Sr. I have a feeling he doesn't have much time left. At least he gets to see his grandson.
Quite a lot of them, and carefully collated in written form, you quickly discover. Alberich only ruled for four years, but despite his youth he made quite a terror of himself to everyone around, proving as easy to slight as he was long to forget them. One common theme you gather from these recollections, which is reinforced as replies to the letters Anton sent off to his fellow nobles come trickling back in, is that above all else being overlooked infuriated him, and he appeared to spend more time nursing grudges against the elder Elector Counts of Talabecland and Averland than he did worrying about the fate of his predecessors.
This sounds like Alberich all right, from the snippets we get from him in canon. I like that Boney takes what little we know about a character from canon and expands on it. Thank god Alberich isn't EC at the same time as Helmut Feurbach of Talabecland. The two of them constantly clashed against each other during Karl Franz' reign.
To be fair, there was good reason for that. A couple decades before quest start, the ECs of Stirland and Talabecland got into a duel at the borders of their provinces with their runefangs and everything. Stirland's EC won by slicing off Talabecland's EC's leg. Ever since, Stirland have been keeping the leg on the walls of Eagle Castle (is it rotting or stuffed and taxidermied? I don't know). Talabecland keeps asking for the leg back but Stirland refuse and take morbid enjoyment over it.
Of course, after the death of the Haupt-Anderssens and Detlef Shultz joining the council, I'm sure Abelhelm returned the leg to Talabecland. Wouldn't want them to start off on the wrong
foot. Eh? Eh? Anyone?
Prone to anger, but it was gnawing resentment, not the violent rage that characterized one of the four. Did not appear to be drawn into the web of intrigue that claimed his family, and only interacted on a surface level with the equally elaborate string of relationships between the nobility of the Empire. If he despaired he did not show it, nor did he seem inclined to give in to his fate. If anything points to a single being he may have fallen into the sway of, it was that he may have been ensnared by Paramountcy, the allure of power and command, one of the Six Deadly Seductions of the Tempter.
The Six Deadly Seductions being: Avidity, Gluttony, Carnality, Paramountcy, Vainglory and Indolency. Slaanesh has a lot more going to them than just Carnality, and I enjoy Boney's insistence on that in his writing. If Alberich really is Slaanesh inclined, I would find it funny how often we end up clashing against Slaanesh. The first time we went up against Slaanesh it was decided by die roll, maybe Boney decided Alberich's allegiance based on die roll as well, or maybe he just went with what fit right. If we get up in Slaanesh's business again I can guarantee that he'll form a grudge. Slaanesh is by far the most petty of the Chaos Gods.
It's a possibility, but as you compare notes with Regimand back in Talabheim, not the only one. Regimand managed to dredge from the memories of former servants of Eagle Castle that as a ruler Alberich did not seem to seek out adulation, instead being enraged at a lack of what he saw as the respect his rank deserved. This may fall under the heading of Paramountcy, but it also could signify a relationship with power in its rawest form, rather than the individual flavours of it wielded by the four. If he seeks power itself, why would he narrow down his options by ruling out three of the four Dark Gods?
Or it could be Chaos Undivided, aka "The Great Beast". Considering the ascendancy of Chaos, I wouldn't be surprised. We haven't taken the Underworld Turbulence action so we don't know that the Everchosen Bowl is going on. I think that's good. All the better to have Mathilde be blindsided by it. Adds more flavor to the conflict.
"Alberich," you summarize, "is performing a Ritual of Dedication to either the Tempter or to Chaos Undivided, with the next victim already selected and under Alric's guard, and Alric is certain to know who it is going to be. The penultimate victim is going to be likewise identifiable to Alric, but the culminating act of the Ritual would be a lot more freeform, which Alric is unlikely to be expecting - and that act might target Alric himself. Alberich himself is somewhere northwest of Bad Dankerode, so the most likely location would be hiding within the local population of Talabheim, with Talagaad as an unlikely but possible alternative - the only other possible locations in that direction within Talabecland are sacred to Taal."
We've figured out a lot by this point, but there's still a lot of stuff left to figure out. I'm hesitant to cooperate with Alric, but finding Alberich's location doesn't seem very practical unless we go loud, which would tip him off. It's possible we might have to cooperate with him to ensure the situation is dealt with. Doing so during the last week would be optimal so he has minimal chances to screw with us if he feels so inclined. He could refuse Mathilde's help, but doing so and having her beat Alberich would be utterly devastating for his reputation, so I'm not sure he would take the risk.
