[*] Confirm the kill, make sure the head is properly off. Remove blood-stained robes, leave the room, and lock the door behind us with Magic Lock. Head over to the Courtyard while attempting to remain calm/avoid drawing attention, to find Markus. Mindhole any castle staff who see you near the scene of the killing.
- [*] If Markus is at the Courtyard, appraise him on the situation quietly and attempt to find van Hal, both to ensure our liege's safety, and to place ourselves under his command. If van Hal cannot be found, try to find Kasimir.
- [*] If Markus is not at the Courtyard but other Greatswords are, take them with us [with a vague excuse about "be wary - treason is afoot"] and try to find van Hal
- [*] If the Courtyard is deserted of Greatswords, check the Study for van Hal; if he's not to be found, look in the Chapel for Kasimir.
---
You wipe your mouth on your sleeve as you collect yourself. You'd thought you'd become accustomed to violence, but sudden and brutal violence had taken you off guard. You've still got a way to go yet.
You turn and look once more at the corpse, and wince. It's
probably dead. Living creatures generally need the various organs in their torso, and you'd bisected quite a lot of them. But
unliving creatures are less picky, and you don't want to rush to any judgement about the nature of your interviewee.
You take a deep breath, grasp the greatsword, and pull, trying to close your ears to the noises made. Then you pull harder, and then you place your foot on the corpse's shoulder to try to get some leverage. Finally it is torn free from the embrace of the shattered ribcage, and you take a moment to collect yourself, fighting back the sob that was threatening to tear its way free.
Before you can think about it too clearly, you line the greatsword up with the corpse's neck and swing. The head bounces off the stone floor with a soft, fleshy
thud.
You need reinforcements. The creature almost got the jump on you, and it was alone. Markus was in the courtyard earlier, and you can't think of much better, but the tricky part would be getting there without risking tipping off any of the creature's compatriots. You look down at your splattered robes and whimper.
---
Without your robes, you're down to your chemise and pettipants, both suitably grey. You're wearing even less than when you trained with the Greatswords. Your legs are exposed all the way up to the
knee. You feel
naked.
You put your wizard hat back on and belt your greatsword scabbard across your torso. That feels better.
It's necessary, you remind yourself. Wandering around in your underthings will certainly attract
attention, but not suspicion. At least, not suspicion that you'd just beheaded someone; you're pretty sure what suspicion it
would cause, and curse your exhaustive mental encyclopedia of mischief a lowborn girl in her underwear could have been getting up to in a castle. For the Empire, you remind yourself. For Stirland. For Van Hal.
When you leave the room, you bump straight into a servant woman walking along the corridor, carrying a basket of unwashed bedlinen. "Good evening, ma'am," she begins, then notices your manner of dress and pauses, giving you an odd look.
Mindhole.
Completely for the purposes of operational security, you tell yourself. By the time she's recovered from her confusion, you've woven a magical lock into the door and escaped down a corridor.
You also make a mental note of the woman's identity. You had interviewed her earlier, and everything had
seemed fine, but...
A task for later. You consult your mental map of the castle, and quickly discount the possibility of passing through the great hall. But there's dozens of smaller doors onto the courtyard, including a passage that goes all the way through the walls to open up next to the barracks. It's mostly used during the colder months, so in this time of year it sees very little traffic, as the servants would rather take the shorter path across the courtyard.
Thankfully, you encounter nobody further as you walk briskly through the stone corridors, and you peek out the door. The courtyard is bustling with activity, but none of it belonging to the Greatswords you saw earlier. Servants are everywhere, some running errands but most of them just enjoying the sunlight and gossiping - with Anton and Herr Schultz out of the castle, they've got less to do than usual. Thankfully, Markus is still in the training field, sparring with Berthold.
You need a way to draw their attention without also drawing the attention of the dozens of servants loitering in the courtyard. You run through your limited repertoire of spells. Was there a sound you could make that would attract their attention, but not that of the servants? Maybe you should send some dancing lights over there and try to lead them back to you? Though that would draw just as much attention. You're casting around for something to throw when an idea occurs to you. They're in armour, right?
The first magic dart raises a puff of dirt from the ground they're circling each other on, going unnoticed by either of them. Okay. You line up for a moment, bring Ulgu into you, and
unleash-
There's a mighty
clang, and every head in the courtyard swivels to seek the source. Berthold sways for a moment and then collapses like a puppet with its strings cut, and lies unmoving on the ground.
[DRAWING ATTENTION, Roll, Magic, 13+8=21. Miss.]
[DRAWING ATTENTION PART TWO, Roll, Magic, Natural One! Direct hit!]
Oh dear.
[ ] Continue with your original plan, even though the courtyard is swarming with servants, almost empty of Greatswords, and you just knocked out a Knight of the Order of the Hammer of Sigmar with an apprentice-level spell.
[ ] Change course. Think of and act on a different plan (write in).
