[WFRP] The Bloody Crown XIV

[TheSummoner]

Sieghard

"I see," Sieghard grumbled. He looked to Ludo. "Anything else you think we need to know?" For his own part, he didn't feel like he knew nearly enough, but doubted he'd learn much more from those present.

Spoiler

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Unless anyone else can think of anything, I'm out of questions.

---

"The Drowned Cat?" Sieghard asked once they were before Filomena, his annoyance clear in his tone. "The Serpent and Peach were more clever. When were you planning on telling me?"

[LCP]

Filomena was in a private office at the Peach - what had once been Greenapple's study. The building had changed a lot, but this room was still familiar enough to remind Sieghard how they'd stood here negotiating the price of a dragon's tooth for Klammenberg, what felt like a lifetime ago.

"Sieghard," said Filomena, looking up from her ledgers and folding away the little half-moon spectacles she'd been reading with. "Always a pleasure." Her deadpan delivery made it difficult to gauge whether she was being sarcastic.

"I wrote to you in the winter, saying if you wouldn't sell, I'd pursue other options," she said, not seeming at all flustered by Sieghard's obvious displeasure. "This was another option."

[LeSwordfish]

"Wonderful!" Ludo said, with no trace of a smile. "We just came from completing a favour for Herr Al'Makir. Shall we tell him that we have the deeds and you have a riddle?"

[LCP]

"He might find it embarrassing," said Filomena, "since he was the one who signed off on my taking possession."

Opening a ledger, she drew out a folded piece of parchment and opened it in front of Ludo. Immediately, his eye was drawn to Al-Makir's elegant signature at the bottom.

"I told him the truth," she said. "That the place had become occupied by drifters from the Downs; that it was a danger to public order, and likely to be the start of another fire. That if there was an owner, they weren't to be found within the city walls, and were making no efforts towards the building's maintenance or keeping it clear of vagrants." She paused. "I may have left out some other details."

She looked from Sieghard to Ludo, watching their faces closely. "I hope you don't take this personally," she said, "but this is business. You left a void when you killed the old thug who used to run these docks, and if I didn't move in at the Cat, someone else would have. It was too good an opportunity to pass up." She crossed her hands flat on the table. "You can take this to Abdul if you want, or Sforza," - Ludo noticed how she didn't call him by his title - "and we can see who has more favours owed, but myself, I think they're going to look more favourably on the place as a tax-paying enterprise than as a den of beggars. Alternatively, we can agree that you did sell me the deeds," she said, "and I can still offer you a reasonable price for them. Out of respect for our past association."

[TheSummoner]

Sieghard

If Filomena had expected Sieghard to be surprised, she'd be disappointed. He had suspected something like this from the moment Brina mentioned the soldiers.

"And what would that offer be?" Sieghard asked, his expression unchanged.

[LCP]

"Five hundred and thirty crowns," said Filomena.

[-Sentinel-]

Elsa returned to the castle and looked for Tatiana, hoping the apprentice had not run off to gods knew where. She could not help the fact that Tshula-Uddiya had been banished without Tatiana's involvement, and she still was not sorry about seizing the moment when it presented itself, but she still felt like she owed the girl something to make up for it.

[TheSummoner]

Sieghard

It was much less than she had paid for the Greenapple house, but then again, a warehouse would be worth much less.

"I have a condition," Sieghard said. "There's a girl I'm trying to find and I've heard she's here now. I want to speak with her." He described Stela as Jak had.

[LCP]

At the Pink Peach

"I have lots of girls on the books these days," said Filomena. "Have you got a name?"

When he told her, she nodded. "There's a Stela at the Cat," she said, putting her spectacles back on and opening a battered ledger. "You want to speak with her, be my guest. Just try not to bother her when she's working. The girls at the Cat need every pfennig they can earn."

Elsa

Tattie was up on the roof of the keep, watching the scruffy city pigeons that were roosting on the parapet. She looked up when she saw Elsa appear, but gave no other word of greeting.

[TheSummoner]

Sieghard

"If she's the one I'm looking for, I can't imagine I'll need even an hour of her time," Sieghard replied. "After that, she's free to do as she likes."

"I have the deed in Painford. I could fetch it next time I pass through if you want it, or is the paper Abdul gave you enough?"

[LCP]

At the Pink Peach

"Send me the deeds," said Filomena, "and I'll send you the funds." She compressed her lips in a humourless smile. "I'm glad to see you take the measured view."

OOC:

Spoiler

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If you want to go see Stela now, you can assume you reach her + ask your first questions.

[-Sentinel-]

Elsa


"Hey," said Elsa softly.

She kept her distances at first, not wanting to scare off the pigeons whose company Tatiana was clearly enjoying.

"I should've had you with me, yesterday," she acknowledged. "In fact, banishing the daemon should have been done much earlier. We waited too long, and that's why it ended up happening... not entirely on my terms. At the time I thought you'd be relieved, but I didn't realize you needed more than relief—you needed closure. I'm sorry I can't give you that."

She dug into a pocket and found some road biscuits. She crushed one of them into crumbs, which she scattered on the ground for the pigeons. She then approached Tatiana to hand her the other biscuit to feed the birds. A paltry peace offering, but it would have to do for now.

"If you want to talk about it, you should go to Father Hieronymus. He, too, has a... connection with that daemon. A connection I don't share."

[LeSwordfish]

Ludo held up his hand. "Now, hang on, you've moved everything in now. Built a wall and everything. I imagine it's worth a bit more to you not to have to undo all of that and cart it off to whatever other place you'd have to get if Al'Makir agrees to us."

OOC

Spoiler

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Rolling Haggle vs 79 I think? (1d100)[74]

[LCP]

At the Pink Peach

"You've been visiting the Cat, then?" Filomena raised her eyebrows at Ludo. "I would have thought you could afford the Peach."

Cracking her knuckles, she sat back in her chair. "It's true, I've had to spend a fair amount already fixing up the place," she said. "But I don't see why I should be paying you for that when I was the one who did the work. You seriously expect me to believe Abdul would seize it back for you?" She shook her head. "I think you're living in the clouds, Herr Stubbs. Let's talk down on the ground."

Some strenuous haggling brought her price up to six hundred and thirty-six. Ludo sensed some grudging respect from Filomena that he had asked - or perhaps more that he had succeeded.

Elsa

Tattie took the biscuit, but didn’t seem to quite catch Elsa’s intention - she took a bite out of it instead, her eyes still on the birds.

“It’s alright,” she said, quietly. There was a long pause, broken only by the cooing of pigeons, and the occasional loud flutter of their wings. “At least she’s gone.”

[-Sentinel-]

Elsa with Tatiana


"At least she's gone," said Tatiana.

Hopefully, thought Elsa.

"We're going on a trip soon," she said, walking over to the parapet to look down at the tiny people below. "Me, Sieghard, Ludo, and a fellow by the name of Bardhyl. I'd like you to come too, but it's not an obligation. We'll be looking for a wanderer who knows more than most about the threat from the Pale Waste. But first, I need to return to Putbad to fetch our horses. I should be back shortly."

She opened her purse and handed Tatiana a gold crown. "Here. Spend it on whatever you want while I'm gone. Maybe a pair of new boots, with change to spare? It's worth twenty silver shillings," she added helpfully, aware that Tatiana was not too familiar with this coin and its value.

---

Elsa in the dungeon


After leaving Tatiana, Elsa made a quick stop by the kitchen to grab a bowl of Bretonnian onion soup, a pork sausage and a mug of light ale. She then headed down to the holding cells to talk to Sanne Raven-Cry about the rumors concerning her disappeared mentor.

[LCP]

Elsa

The one-legged gaoler was building a house of cards when Elsa entered. Rising to greet her, he knocked the table just enough to topple it, and she heard some colourful Tilean profanities she’d not heard before.

Rummaging on his ring of keys, he led Elsa back into the cells. Some of the cells she remembered seeing occupied in the aftermath of the bread riots were now empty again, and it smelt worse down here than she remembered - but Sanne was still there, chained up in the last cell at the back. She raised her head just a little, looking up at Elsa through a veil of matted hair - if she had the energy to do more, she was conserving it for now.

<You want to talk in private, yes?> said the gaoler, cheery as ever. <If she tries anything, you just shout and I’ll come running.>

[TheSummoner]

Sieghard

A little more satisfied after Ludo's fast talking, Sieghard departed and made his way back to what used to be his warehouse. After a bit of talk and a shrug from Pietro, he was inside and soon found a girl that matched the description.

"You Stela?" Sieghard asked. He lowered his voice a bit to not be overheard. "There's a boy outside who was looking for you. Says he's your brother. He seemed worried about you."

[-Sentinel-]

<If she tries anything, you just shout and I'll come running.>

<I'm confident I can handle her on my own, but thank you, kind sir,> said Elsa, deadpan.

She sat cross-legged on the filthy floor in front of Sanne and raised the bowl of onion soup. "Here. I can feed it to you." She dipped her wooden spoon in the soup, lightly blew on it to cool it down, and lifted it to the prisoner's dry lips.

"There's a hill man in town," she said softly. "A fellow by the name of Bardhyl, perhaps you know him? Stocky, black beard, tattoos, easy smile?"

[LCP]

Sieghard

The inside of the Drowned Cat was a far cry from the Peach. Yes, Filomena’s people had fixed the place up - but there were few rich colours or soft furnishings here. The yawning space of the warehouse had been boxed in with cheap wooden walls, set with rows of narrow doors.

The old woman at the door looked twice at Sieghard’s weapons, but Pietro waved him through. They took him to a room on the upper floor, where a tall, plain-featured girl was sitting on the edge of a narrow bed. She looked up in surprise when Sieghard opened the door, and there was no disguising her expression of alarm. Viggo had told Sieghard often enough that he had an intimidating face.

"You Stela?" Sieghard asked. He lowered his voice a bit to not be overheard. "There's a boy outside who was looking for you. Says he's your brother. He seemed worried about you."

“Jak?” she said, more startled than before. “Jak’s here?”

She looked Sieghard up and down, clearly still absorbing what he’d told her. “Sorry, I don’t… who are you, sir?” she asked, in a small voice. “Why wouldn’t he come himself?”

Elsa

Sanne was still proud - but from the way her ribs showed through her filthy rags, she was clearly on the edge of starvation. She could only hold out for a minute or two before she shuffled closer to the bars and allowed herself to be fed.

"There's a hill man in town," she said softly. "A fellow by the name of Bardhyl, perhaps you know him? Stocky, black beard, tattoos, easy smile?"

"Who?" she said. Her voice was little more than a cracked whisper. Lifting her head, she fixed her piercing blue eyes on Elsa - the only part of her that still showed some colour through the grime.

"There's a lot of hill men," she said. "But the only... Bardil... I heard of is a dead man."

[TheSummoner]

Sieghard

Sieghard nodded. "He tried to. You hear the noise outside a bit ago? He was a bit more aggressive about it than was smart," he answered honestly. "If you want to, I could take you to see him."

[-Sentinel-]

"There's a lot of hill men. But the only... Bardil... I heard of is a dead man."

Elsa shrugged. "Perhaps Bardhyl isn't his real name. But speaking of dead men, he believes Wadim has returned."

She paused to give Sanne time to process this information, then went on:

"He claims to be a... Crow Talker? Raven Speaker. Just like Wadim was. And that he has dreams that point to Wadim being alive. He found a pouch full of bird bones that he claims belonged to Wadim, and also tells rumors of a one-eyed wanderer, in the west of the Downlands. So I'll go try to find Wadim. I thought you deserved to know."

[LCP]

Sieghard

Stela sat there for a moment with her mouth hanging open, torn between different answers. At last, she nodded. She got up, pulling on a threadbare shawl, and followed Sieghard out.

The three travellers were waiting up at the north end of the docks, sitting watching the carpenters on the piers while Brina tried her best to splint Jak's nose. Her requests for him to hold still quickly came to nothing as he caught sight of Sieghard and Stela - leaping to his feet, he rushed over to his sister and embraced her, probably getting some blood on her clothes in the process. She hugged him back.

"Jak!" she exclaimed. "What happened to your face?"

"Those thugs wouldn't let me in to see you!" he said. "The commander had to straighten them out - it's their faces you should have seen when he showed up!"

The two siblings fell to talking - Jak doing most of it, broken nose or no. Exchanging glances with Sieghard, Brina gave him an appreciative nod.

OOC:

Spoiler

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Do you want to hang about to hear Jak & Stela's conversation, or do you want to leave them to it?

Elsa

It took a while before Sanne responded. When she did, she spoke slowly - though maybe just to spare her voice from too much exertion.

"That would be him," she said. "The dead man. He was a Raven Speaker... or he wanted to be." She coughed, and her chains clinked as she sat back against the wall. "I suppose the dead troubling the living is nothing new, hey?"

She waited a little while before she offered her explanation. "Not all the hill-folk loved the Jarl," she said. "When we first arrived in the hills, there was a... falling-out, between Wadim and his apprentice. Wadim thought Rorik was the future, and the other didn't. There was no love lost there. The old man told us he was dead." She paused again, longer this time. "You say he's looking for Wadim?"

[-Sentinel-]

"When we first arrived in the hills, there was a... falling-out, between Wadim and his apprentice. Wadim thought Rorik was the future, and the other didn't. There was no love lost there. The old man told us he was dead."

Now that was interesting. Had Bardhyl even mentioned that he was once Wadim's apprentice? That seemed like a rather important thing to omit.

"You say he's looking for Wadim?" asked Sanne.

"Yes," said Elsa. "Says he wants to return Wadim to his people. He's asked us to come with him."

But is this what he really wants? she now wondered.

[LCP]

Elsa

Sanne tilted her head back against the wall and closed her eyes. "I'd say Wadim's dead too," she said, "but it seems my record there is... not so good." She swallowed to wet her cracked throat. "If you do find him, tell him I'm here."

The silence that followed was long enough that for a moment Elsa thought the Norscan might be drifting off to sleep - but then she cracked one eyelid to look at Elsa again. "There's something else, hey?" she said. "Something changed about you, vitki. I can smell it." She opened her other eye. "Something happened?"

[-Sentinel-]

"If you do find him, tell him I'm here."

"I will," said Elsa. She gently brought the mug of ale to Sanne's lips and tilted it to let the Norscan wet her throat.

After a long silence, Sanne said abruptly: "Something changed about you, vitki. I can smell it. Something happened?"

Elsa blinked in utter confusion—and alarm. She raked her brain to remember how she could possibly have changed since her last visit to the dungeon.

"I... uh... Not a literal smell, I hope?" No, come to think of it, it was hard to believe Sanne could smell much of anything apart from the stench of this place. "Is there no way you can narrow it down for me?"

[LCP]

Elsa

Sanne slowly but surely drained the mug. "If I knew," she said, quietly, "I wouldn't be asking, would I?"

"It's like... the roll of the waves, when the storm is about to break," she said. "Or the sway of the grass after the wind has passed. Nothing you can pin down, but when you feel it, you know. Or... perhaps you don't, if you grow up south of the shadow." She looked at Elsa again. "We have a saying among the Skael, that it's a fool who seeks the eye of the gods, but a coward who hides from it. I think the eye of the Eagle is on you, vitki." She gave the faintest hint of a smile. "Or maybe your new friend would say the eye of the Raven."

[-Sentinel-]

"...I see," said Elsa, not sure if the attention of the gods was good or bad news. The eye of the Eagle? The eye of the Raven? The raven was a symbol of Morr... but there was another, more sinister god who was also associated with birds.

Reluctantly, as if uttering her dreadful suspicions would make them true, she said: "I helped banish a daemon yesterday. One that served the Changer of Ways. Or at least I think it's banished..."

[LCP]

Elsa

Sanne remained silent for a while, taking in what Elsa had said. "Well," she said at last. "Don't you lead an exciting life, fire woman."

She seemed content to leave it there. "If the Eagle has plans for you, you'll find out soon enough," she said, resting her head back against the wall. "...Did you bring any more soup?"

[-Sentinel-]

Elsa

"Well. Don't you lead an exciting life, fire woman."

Elsa barked out a mirthless laugh. "That I do. I'd complain, but right now you're pretty much the last person in the Reaches who'd sympathize with my plight."

"...Did you bring any more soup?"

"There's some left, yes." Elsa fed Sanne the rest of the soup and the sausage. "I'll see you again when I return from our search. Try not to die... I still have hope that a good reason to have you freed will come up eventually, and there's a small chance Wadim will provide it for us. If we find him, that is."

She got up to leave. This short visit had been... interesting.

---

Elsa, Sieghard and Ludo

Later that day, Elsa met up with Sieghard and Ludo for supper and shared with them what Sanne had told her about Bardhyl—that he had been Wadim's apprentice before Sanne, until Jarl Rorik's arrival caused a split between master and apprentice.

"Seems strange that Bardhyl failed to mention that, doesn't it?" she said. "I don't know if I trust his motives."

[LCP]

Sieghard

Jak and Stela's conversation took a while, proceeding by meandering paths rather than getting straight to any particular point. Jak was full of news of how things were out in the Downs - it sounded like Brina and the others were making a decent go of things with their farmstead. Stela was more reluctant to talk about how things had been for her in the city. She clearly wasn't proud of the point her life had come to, but Jak wasn't tactful enough not to ask.

"What are you doing staying on in that place, sis? Did they threaten you? Did they hurt you?"

"It's work," said Stela, looking down at the ground. "It keeps a roof over my head."

"We had work before!" said Jak. "Not great work, but - "

"Things are changing faster than you know round here, Jak," said Stela. "The work we used to get down at the south gate, that's barely enough to eat. And we had a free roof over our heads then." She looked back south, down the bank towards the Cat. "It was this or end up slaving on the Tileans' fort over the bridge." She took a deep breath to calm herself. "They say they're working folks there straight into their graves. Mira told me, people like us can't afford to be proud. Better to be on your back than breaking it."

"You don't have to do either," said Jak, firmly. He took her hands in his. "Come with us. We're gathering up all the folks we left behind, here and in the forest. It's not much out west, but it's better than this."

Stela shook her head, still not meeting his gaze. "I can't, Jak. I owe... I owe people money, if I just up and go..."

"What people?"

"People who'll want it back. You growing gold crowns out there?" She looked at her brother with wide eyes, begging him to understand. "Madame F's a terror, but - she pays."

"What people?" Jak didn't seem like he was willing to let the matter go. Stela threw up her hands in frustration.

"Moneylenders, Jak! People who'll break more'n just noses if you go charging in at 'em." She put her hands over her face. "I want to come with you, Jak, I do - but I can't. I can't. Please, just - you've got to understand. You've got to go."