[WFRP] The Hour After Midnight

[goblinpaladin]

Others

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"Quickly man," Lothar spoke up. "Describe the girl. Features- her accent- where she said she was from. Colour of her damn hair. Now." The soldier glanced at the door, clearly hoping to get the drop on Jagrun.

[LCP]

Lothar, Raffy, Ithelus & Illiiya

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The guard seemed a little surprised at Lothar speaking to him - Marius glared at him with the clear meaning of 'answer', before turning and striding out of the room to face the Templar.

"Um..." began Faul, "she was small, plain - mousy hair - didn't say much. I don't think she could speak," he said, pointing at his mouth. "One of them mutes."

[hr]

Pieter

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Within moments, the Captain had been summoned - he approached the Witch Hunter, making his respects. Pieter could tell from von Brucker's face that the man was not exactly overjoyed to see Jagrun.

"Captain von Brucker," said the Witch Hunter. "A pleasure,"
"Likewise," said the Captain, tensely.
"I have some questions I would like you to answer, if possible," said Jagrun. "In the meantime, these men must search the wagon of the apothecary Pilserier. I trust that meets with your approval?"
The Captain glanced at Pieter and the Hounds - becoming less adept at concealing his feelings by the moment, it was clear that it did not.
"The wagon has already been searched," he said.
"By your men," said Jagrun, coolly. "The signs of sorcery are subtle and deceptive. These men will know what they are looking for."
"Very well," said von Brucker, practically through gritted teeth. "Corporal Jenkels, show these men to the wagon, please. Mr Jagrun, if you would like to come to my office."
A guard saluted, standing ready to lead Pieter and the Hounds away. Jagrun nodded.
"I will meet you there in a moment, Captain. Allow me to give these men their instructions."
Parting ways, they followed Jenkels and the Witch Hunter out into the cobbled yard, where Pilserier's wagon still stood, unharnessed and desolate. Pointing to it as if it was difficult to notice, Jenkels excused himself, scurrying away.

"You are looking for this symbol," said Jagrun, handing over a folded piece of paper to Pieter. "I advise each of you to look at it only as briefly as possible."

The Folded Paper:

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Taking back the scrap of parchment once it had been handed around the three of them, Jagrun nodded towards the wagon.
"Turn it inside out. Hollow table-legs, secret compartments, books - leave no stone unturned." He gave a thin, close-mouthed smile. "I will know if you do."

Turning, he walked away, heading back into the Guard House to speak to the Captain.

[Exeson]

The crew, shotgun Shaggy

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'Did she walk with... confidence? As if she was brought up proper?' Ithelus asked quickly, wondering if anyone else would catch onto his train of thought.

[LCP]

Raffy, Lothar, Ithelus & Illiiya

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"No, um, sir - she was a servant." The man's nerves were telling. "She looked like one. Honest."

[BloodyAngel]

Velma

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Ith... I don't want to see the hunter again. Illiiya said nervously, fidgeting with the front of her skirt, C-can't we go?

[goblinpaladin]

Lothar is Scooby then, I guess

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"How'd you know she was a servant? She wearing a uniform or something? You know her from somewhere?"

[LCP]

Lothar, Raffy, Ithelus & Illiiya

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"Well, no, but she looked like one. Her clothes and all." He looked up at Lothar. "My mam was a serving-woman. You get to recognise the walk."

He blinked.

"Who are you people, anyway? Why'd the Captain bring you in here?"

[-Sentinel-]

Pieter

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Pieter started his search of the wagon, wondering what he would do if he did find the mark.

Tell the others, I guess.

Still, he was not overly enthusiastic about helping the Hounds, even when lives were at stake.


OOC: I'll leave the Search test (at half Int) to our beloved GM.

[BloodyAngel]

Velma Jaelrae

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Who in town has s-servants... and poison? Illiiya asked herself aloud, glancing at Raffy if he for some reason missed what she was getting at, You'd p-probably need to be... pretty s-smart and well educated to know what kind to use... and... um... how to s-set everything up.

[LCP]

Pieter

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The Hounds set to their work with gusto: Pieter followed them inside the wagon, having to stoop to pass through the door.

The interior of the vehicle was cluttered and dark – shelves stacked with the grotesque paraphernalia loomed up on either side of him, snakes and amphibians floating in jars of preserving alcohol alongside dusty books and ceramic pots of herbs and ointment, each marked with their own indecipherable trade symbol. Coloured powders, bundles of pungent leaves... in one corner, a rack of rather blunt-looking saws that could be equally well be a carpenter’s tools as a surgeon’s.

There was a disordered cot in one corner, and a stove built into the wagon’s wall with its flue extending up through the humped roof – this really was a home on wheels. Most strikingly, however, the shelves had been hauled away from the back wall: behind them, a section of the timbers had hinged to one side, revealing a hidden compartment beyond. A stuffed dog served as the secret door’s trigger, presumably supposed to look as if it was resting on the shelves when the door was concealed. As it was, the wire-haired terrier stuck strangely out into mid-air, its wooden base in fact fixed to the ‘wall’ behind it.

Within a few minutes, the Hounds had made the place into even more of a mess than Pilserier had left it, the contents of smashed powder-jars and broken furniture littering the floor as they upended every possible hiding place. Doing his best not to look suspicious, Pieter helped in the search, but saw no trace of the Witch Hunter’s sign - just a lot of horrid stage-props of the apothecary’s trade. There were perhaps two dozen books scattered over the shelves: most bore titles like “An Encyclopaedia of Herbes And Other Remedyes”, while a small bundle tied with string in one corner bore no titles at all. There was also a small black ledger on the table in the centre of the wagon’s floor, among the scattered bottles, mortars, pestles and other items of Pilserier’s workplace.

The only contents of the hidden compartment were a large, iron-bound chest: it held a mass of bulbous-looking roots, some of them grown into strange symmetrical shapes, like bloated little vegetable children. Pieter recognised them from his time in Nuln as Mandrake roots. You ground them up, and the dried powder was taken as a drug, to make all your worries go away - including, eventually, your job, your house, and your family. If you had any of those things to start with, that was. The sale of such things was not illegal, but Pieter had seen the poor, wasted Mandrake Men who clung to the heels of its peddlars in the big city. That was the other thing about the roots - once you started, you couldn't stop. People got to the stage where they would do anything for their next dose - which was how they usually fell into the hands of the law, one way or another.

[Exeson]

Shagelus

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'Ithelus frowned, 'We're the guys who's hard work was just screwed up by Pilser dieing.' He placed a protective hand on Illiiya's shoulder. 'Look, the Captain wants your bollocks on a plate at the moment, I'm not for that. But if you want us to talk to him then please tell us anything and everything you remember, walk us through the whole night.'

[LCP]

Raffy, Lothar, Ithelus & Illiiya

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The man looked up at Ithelus, thinking hard - seeming to decide that cooperation was his best bet, he nodded.

"I was just meant to be doing the night shift, guarding the cells," he said. "There's not much to say. They brought in this carter, Hoffer, a little after ten of the clock - the last of the mutants." He made a face, as if he had tasted something bad. "He had twelve toes on one of his feet. Made a horrible squealing when they locked him in."

He shrugged.

"The serving-woman showed up some time in the early hours. She couldn't speak, she just gestured to this basket she was carryin', then to the cells, and showed me this piece of paper with the Captain's sign on it. It had a lot of writin' on it. I thought it was odd, but I din't want to be in trouble for disobeying orders, so I let her in. I mean, she was only a girl..."

"No-one else went into the cells last night, I swear. Maybe I should've checked on 'em... but I didn't want to go near that changeling, not if I didn't have to." His eyes flicked nervously around the group. "I saw her go out and all. There weren't no noises from inside, and sure as anything that was the Captain's mark."

He paused, frowning for a moment.

"Come to think of it, there was one thing - the letter smelled funny. Sort of musty and sweet." He shrugged. "I ain't a scribe, but paper doesn't usually smell like that."

[-Sentinel-]

Pieter

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The initiate threw a disgusted look at the mandrake roots, wondering what to do about them. On an impulse, he grabbed one of the smaller roots and shoved it inside his boot, without taking the time to wonder why. Perhaps he really was a magpie at heart...

He then directed his attention towards the nameless books and the black ledger. Not exactly the time or place to read them, but it would not hurt to peek inside.

[LCP]

Pieter

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The ledger seemed a simple list of transactions - initials ran down one column, with amounts of money and dates running parallel. One set of initials that seemed to reappear with surprising frequency was "F.L.".

Cutting the twine that bound the books, Pieter looked inside the first one. The frontispiece bore the title that the cover lacked:

The Satin Throne
Collected Works of Percival Oberheist

[-Sentinel-]

Pieter

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His interest suddenly lessening, Pieter turned the pages to see what kind of literature this was. Then he quickly moved on to the other books.


OOC: Pieter will go through all the books in only a minute or two, unless he finds something interesting or suspicious. Open, flip the pages at random, read a sentence every page, close, move on.

[LCP]

Pieter

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The first page looked rather... odd.

[-Sentinel-]

Pieter

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Pieter's eyes widened slightly.

Oh my. That's... interesting.

His eyes widened even more when they fell on the last sentence.

"Uh," he said aloud to anyone who might be listening, "this isn't exactly the symbol we were looking for, but you should take a look at this."

[LCP]

Pieter

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"Whassat?" said one of the Hounds tetchily, picking his way over through the debris of the search. "Words? Where'd you learn to read, Mr Fancy-pants?"

[-Sentinel-]

Pieter

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Pieter chose to ignore the man's question.

"This is heretical material. Herr Jurgen has to see this."

Taking the other nameless books with him, he strode out of the wagon, heading for the Guard House.


OOC: On the way he'll flip the pages of the other books to see if they sing the greatness of Slaanesh.

[LCP]

Pieter

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"Hey!" shouted the Hound who had mocked him, running after him and trying to take the books from his hands. "When'd you even join, eh? I don't know you, that's for sure."

He looked to his colleague for support.

"I've got seniority. I get to take them to Jagrun."

[-Sentinel-]

Pieter

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Pieter resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Even when facing murder and heresy, some of the Hounds still tried to play politics. But leaving the books to this idiot meant forfeiting his best chance to gain Jagrun's attention and, perhaps, his trust.

"I've been one of you since the beginning," he bluffed. "Frankly, it's not my damn fault if you never saw me before."

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Is that a Charm test?

Target 51: (1d100)[60]

He kept going.

[LCP]

Pieter

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“Here, I’ve never seen you before neither,” called the second Hound, dubiously. As Pieter kept moving, they dogged his footsteps, glaring at him suspiciously.

Heading back into the Guard House, Pieter looked around for Captain von Brucker’s office – the guards themselves were far from helpful, clearly resenting the presence of Hounds in their midst. Finding his way by himself to an old oak door, he heard the Witch Hunter’s level voice from inside – as the two Hounds came to a stop behind him, he knocked, the militiamen practically breathing down the back of his neck.

“Come in,” came Captain von Brucker’s terse call. Opening the door, Pieter saw the two men seated opposite each other on either side of a desk stacked with papers: they both looked up at the Hounds with an expectant air. Jagrun’s eyes immediately slid to the books in Pieter’s hands.

“Well?” asked the Templar. "What is it?"

[-Sentinel-]

Pieter

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The initiate had seen enough a few minutes earlier to understand that the captain and the witch hunter were not on the best of terms, and he knew he did not want the enmity of von Brucker. He chose to avoid mentioning the details in front of him.

"Sorry for intruding, sir... but I have here something that deserves your attention," he told the witch hunter, curtly bowing his head. His eyes flicked towards von Brucker and back to Jurgen.

[LCP]

Pieter

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"What he means is -" began one of the Hounds, shouldering his way forwards.

"Can it wait?" asked Jagrun, cutting the militiaman off short.

[-Sentinel-]

Pieter

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"Um... yes, I suppose it can, sir," apologized the initiate. He spoke urgently and reluctantly to emphasize the importance of what he held in his hands. Then he turned to leave.


OOC:

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Awkward... Not only did I arouse suspicion from my fellow Hounds, but I also annoyed the witch hunter. Nice start.

If I'm allowed to stay just outside the room while waiting for Jurgen, I will do so; meanwhile I will also look at the other books. If not, I will go back to the wagon and keep searching.

[LCP]

Pieter

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Jagrun raised an eyebrow as Pieter left, before turning back to Marius. Closing the door, Pieter heard the muffled sounds of their conversation resume, and did his best to look dutiful as he began leafing through the books in his hands. They looked to contain much the same kind of strange ramblings, interspersed with sections of blank verse.

"Oi," hissed one of the Hounds. He snatched the book from Pieter's hands. "If this is heresy, you shouldn't be readin' it." He thrust a precautionary finger in Pieter's face.

"What's your name, then, mister?"

[-Sentinel-]

Pieter

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It took the initiate a near-superhuman effort of will to keep his irritation from showing on his face.

"Name's Felix Hoch. And maybe you're right, this should be left to herr Jagrun's eyes. He'll know what to do." He crossed his arms grimly. "Been a while since I last saw heresy of that kind."

[LCP]

Pieter

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"Oh really? So where've you seen something like that before, Mr Hoch?"

[-Sentinel-]

Pieter

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"Middenheim. Just before the Storm." He made a sour face. "Don't really want to talk about it."

Rule number one of lying: avoid getting into the details.

[LCP]

Pieter

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The Hound made a suspicious face.

"Well, Mr Hoch, we'll see what the sergeant has to say about this when this is all over. Isn't that right, Halstaf?"
"Yeah," grunted the other militiaman, supportively.

At that moment, the door swung open. All three of them looked round to see the tall figure of the Witch Hunter looking down at them.

"If you are intent on holding your conversation outside the Captain's door," he said, quietly, "you may as well make your report now."