Lousy weather darkening skies, it was high time to be off the streets for honest folk, which despite what some may claim, it included Milly. The young wizard had walked the streets of the city before, on occasion, always under the watchful eye of her tutor or in some errand however. As of late however, things were different, Mimi was out in the streets on her own and free to do as she pleased, with only the crushing weight of the formidable debt from the tuition to sour her thoughts and drive her will, definitely free. It wasn't only the wizards of the Chamon winds that had their heads filled with thoughts of gold fresh out of their apprenticeship...

With encroaching darkness outside and a weather best waited out, Milly sought refuge in the closest Inn around which just so happened to be the Rasping Hornet. Milly slipped past the other late arrivals and took a glance of the interior, gauging her options... Then, she suddenly walked over to Kargun's table. "Would you care for sharing your table?" She asked the two at it in a rather polite tone. This being cosmopolitan Altdorf, made the presence of a wizard not so outlandish, yet the average citizen was far from comfortable at the prospect of rubbing shoulders with her ilk.

Kargun eyed the young human now standing by his table. He never could understand the fashion of humans, but Altdorf seemed to have an even greater variety of styles than he had encountered elsewhere. Daft if you asked him, compared to the comfort of iron and leather. Still, what was the use in drinking if you were going to do it alone?

"Aye lassie, grab yerself a chair. We just need that wench o'er here with more ale." Kargun pitched the last part in a stage whisper that carried across the tavern. He gave one of the barkeeps a meaningful glare and then jabbed a blunt finger towards the pile of empty tankards on the table.

"Kargun Halfhand, pleased to meet ye." Kargun smiles beneath his beard and extends a huge hand to shake. His arms are massive and thickly furred with coarse hair. Where the cuff of his mail shirt draws back, old manacle scars can been seen around his wrist. "Don't mind my getup lass, I'm a peaceful enough sort 'o Dwarf."

Gerhart looked upon the great cities the way a hunter gazed on the primeval wilderness. The prey was there, he knew that with absolute certainty. It was just a matter of flushing it out. His last catch had led him to think he should search in Altdorf.

The warmth of the tavern greeted him agreeably as he slipped in out of the night air. Long fingers unfastened his long coat, rustling it a little to loosen the fabric. Venturing to the bar, he drummed his fingers while taking his time to look around at the other patrons and what they had before them. He was trifle wary about the fare in any establishment. "Wine, if you please, bread, meat and cheese."

Roan turns his head to look at the dwarf then to his mistress who says something in her native tongue then the dog cautiously approaches and snatches the meat before retreating back to the safety of his pack where he bites a piece off and lets the rest fall for Eimear to eat.

"Beklager hvis han bet deg " she tells the Dwarf "han er fremdeles sjenert rundt mennesker.

I know that voice... thought Jareik as the latest arrival ordered some wine and food. Turning, he indeed recognized an acquaintance, a bounty hunter from his time in nuln. He motioned to grab the man's attention and walked over with a nod, giving a wide berth to the small group of exotic foreigners and their animals as he did so.

"Gerhart wasn't it? Hah, small world, how you been?" he said with an easy going chuckle."We worked briefly together capturing a man named Hans." he added to refresh the bounty hunter's memory, they only worked together briefly after all.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:28, Tue 10 Dec 2019.

Drinks are served with some haste, although being somewhat busy, they inn is only partially full at the given time, and the request for a room is met with a nod, and a key. 3 silvers for the night is the fare and they make little fuss about it.

Even pets do not raise a concern here, and while the voices roar inside, the owners are steel like in composure. On the wall behind the servers, and the barkeep, you notice several shields, helmets, and weapons hanging, worn but likely with lengthy history.

Not much later a woman entered, walk to the bar, pale faced and distraught, and took to talking with the barkeep, her demeanor being one of despair and anguish.
The barkeep comforts the visibility shaken woman, as if they knew one another.

Some time later a man, appears, unrelated, with two piece of papers, as if they were tickets, palming them and placing them in his pocket with a smile, ordering an all and sitting down calmly to rest in a corner.

With a growing and hopefully charming enough smile, Milly took a seat across the dwarf and returned the handshake, the difference between their hands making it almost look comical. Having lived in Altdorf for many years, she wasn't exactly shocked by dwarves or their demeanor, not that she had actually dealt with them (or been out of the colleges much) but from her second and third hand 'knwoledge', they were easy enough to mingle and impossible to truly figure out. However if Sigmar liked them good enough to extend them some degree of kindness, she would be no less, if she could help it.

"Milly Minhelm, esteemed member of the Bright Order, the pleasure is all mine Kargun, thanks for having me at your table you two, the weather outside is just foul." So much wanted Mimi to not step into any dwarf toes that she spared him a more 'adequate' introduction. Sitting at his table was the most sure way ticket of avoiding any kind of harassment, as well as avoiding having to spend much or any coin to justify her spot in the warm indoors. Ulterior motives aside however, her demeanor was genuine. "Say, have you been around here for long? Because I don't know if it is just me or the whole city is a bit on edge, just look at that lady over there." Milly tried to discreetly motion with her head. "Even if the dark days are past, I get the feeling that many are still rather anxious, not to mention all the outlandish things taking place"

Mimi leaned in to confide with the other two, even though the man hadn't introduced himself, she still gave him that courtesy, even though the wizard had likely made his previous woes twofold. "I heard they found the corpse of a two headed fish creature floating by Marienburg's docks some days ago. I of course don't think there is much substance to such claim, what would such a thing there? Let me tell you, not trading, that's for sure."

Kargun leans forward on hearing his native tongue. "En god hund skal bite! Kom og bli med oss. Ikke mange mennesker klarer Khazalid, noe som betyr at du sannsynligvis kan klare noen få øl!"  He talks across the room causing a few raised eyebrows. With a hand missing a few fingers he beckons the stranger with the dogs over.

Turning to the young woman at the table he grunts. "Sorry 'bout that lass, but we cannie pass up good company! Bright Order, eh? Never met a wizard before. Tough to put trust in things ye cannie see instead of good steel." Kargun absentmindedly pats the battered haft of his flail. "I couldnae tell ye if folk are acting queer aroun' here. These Reiklander's are stranger than most humans ah've met." Looking over at the new arrival Milly indicated, Kargun shrugged. Between the armour and his massive width, the gesture was almost comical.

"Bare når det er kommandert, eller en trussel er til stede" she replies moving down the aisle to the dwarf and the brightly dressed woman who's with him. She sits besides wizardess Eimear moving to sit under her chair and Roan moving under the table sniffing the people there and looking for more food.

"My name is Étaín, happy to meet you both" she says once her gear is situated under the table and looks at the others.

Kargun seems mightily pleased to have two new companions at his table, and two more under it. He gently offers his maimed hand for the dogs to sniff and with a gentleness at odds with his massive frame offers a few scratches behind their ears. "Well met, Étaín. Seems like we're the outcasts table here. Aye, most of these Reiklander's think they've seen the world but canna stomach a drink wi' the likes 'o me." Kargun smiles and shakes his head.

Turning to Milly he laughs, "Tell us more about this fishman 'o yours!"

"Nice to meet you too Étaín." Said milly, moving over a little to make sure there was enough rom for everybody. "From what I understand, some don't ever leave the vicinity of the houses they were born at yet get to see more of the world walking these streets than most. I would be of the opinion that most have seen people like us before, but seeing and getting used to are different things I reckon." Mimi herself wasn't all that used to the strange proportions of the dwarf yet, and a glint of that morbid curiosity could be noticed by the watchful observer merely by how much longer and intensely she looked at the dwarf whenever she had an excuse to do so.

Milly stood from her seat and after a second of quietness for theatrical suspense, she went back on her previous approach. "The most renowned among them! We conjure and command fires with peerless ingenuity. Now you say steel but what is more honest and trustworthy than fire Kargun? It heats your meals, brews your ales and turns your foes to ash. What is steel compared to the flames that make it?" By then the wizard was leaning across the table her question obviously rhetorical, she didn't even seem to be rebutting the dwarf's opinion but rather enthusiastically explaining/teaching what she held as an undeniable truth.

As if flipping a switch however, she sat down again and with much of her previous excitement miraculously snuffed out, she shared more of the rumors she had heard at Kargun's request. "I can only say what I heard but it was found by some stevedore, who couldn't much tell what it was before pulling it out of the water. There wasn't much to it though, dead as it was, it wasn't going to be spending any coin here. Not that anyone in their right mind would have dealings with such a foul creature, I don't know what they did with it afterwards but I can only imagine what that thing was planning to do there, no good business I can tell you that much." Shaking her finger as if to give her assertion more credibility, she once more leaned in closer to the others as to say the rest in a more hushed way. "If you want my expert opinion on the matter, it was no mere mutant but mayhaps some kind of hideous sea creature and just as malicious as it's appearance was an affront to the eyes, must like the things they say that lurk deep in the forests. Mutants, wretched and awful as they are, don't just show up dead like that, their taint in their twisted forms makes them uncannily resilient to the hardships of the pits they make their homes of."

Gerhart recognised the man approaching him, even though he still had one hand at his side, on the handle of a well-hidden throwing knife. At the words, though, he nodded in recognition. "Foul creature that one was, the pyre was too much a mercy." That had been one of his most infuriating cases, for even though the butcher was caught, he had been sure that others had escaped in the wake of the investigations.

"Please, sit, let me buy you a pint." He turned his head, beckoning politely to the serving girl. His own goblet was still mostly full of wine, he had scarcely taken a sip.

"No arguments there seeing the foul business it turned out he was associated with." said Jareik with a shake of his head. He had felt sorry for Hans at the time, but the scale of his treachery and the sordid deeds he had proven to be involved in were truly ignoble.

"Sounds good." he flashed a smile at the offer of a pint. When the drinks arrived, he raised up his glass. "Cheers, to Karl Franz and the Empire."

As he tooks sips, he carried on the conversation.
"Work in Nuln dried up when the witch hunters took over and even Miss Braum had no need for bodyguards after that wizard election. The capital seemed a good a place as any to find some decent paying jobs, times like these I envy your profession, magistrates and courts must give steady work. Meanwhile us freelancers gotta move around and find what's available."
This message was last edited by the player at 21:12, Fri 13 Dec 2019.

Gerhart had been quiet close to biting into one of those pies before the disturbance. He was very thankful for that. He had not felt the scarcest iota of pity for the man. There was a certain class of crimes that erased one's humanity, made the destruction of such a creature the obligation of any righteous man.

He raised his glass, silent though sincere in his agreement with the toast. "My line of work is not so profitable as you may imagine, my friend. There are a good many criminals with nary a price on their head, but how could a man face Sigmar and his fathers if he would let a scoundrel run free for want of coin?" A wan smile graced his lips for a moment.

Etain listens to the tale being told by Millie with a look of confusion "What has happened? I have only been in the city since maybe a couple hours past noon today and do not know much of the comings and goings of the city."

She looks around for one of the servers walks past she stops them and asks for a mead or if they had none an ale and plate of food for herself and one for each of her dogs

Kargun is greatly amused by the gruesome tale of the terrible mutant. He slaps a meaty palm on the tabletop to punctuate his deep laugh. "A fine tale! Sea beasties and foulness mak' me a thirsty Dwarf." He grabs a tankard and drains it. The sight is simultaneously amazing and disgusting. Graceful downing of the ale, horrible dribbling and belching to go with it. Kargun wipes the back of a hand over his mouth to dry his lips. It does nothing for the ale soaking into his beard.

"As fer news o' the city, Etain, you two are the first to talk tae me wi' out needin' forced. Ah've just arrived meself. Two days hence." He lowers his voice. "'Twas a long road from the Black Mountains." Unconsciously he fingers the haft of a dagger at his waist.

"What brings ye' both to the city?"

"Aye I hear that." agreed Jareik with a swig. Still, whilst he was no stranger to duty in the name of emperor and country, a man needed coin to live and rebuilding Hochland wasn't cheap. But he got the sense the bounty hunter was in his profession for personal reasons more then the money. Whether Jareik wanted to pry more into that, he wasn't sure.

"Been in Altdorf much? First time for me and gotta say is a lot more colorful then anyplace I been to. Take those blue marked folk with the dogs, know much about them? I been trying to figure them out since I got here"
This message was last edited by the player at 15:24, Mon 16 Dec 2019.

"Just some hideous creature found in Marienburg, dead and with no will to make business." The wizard tried to resume to Etain. They sure were a table of weirdos but that was exactly the kind of thing that Mimi was blissfully unaware. "I hail from this very city." She half lied. "There isn't much going on as far as I am aware, out of the ordinary anyway. The ambient is a bit more tense and dour though, or it feels that way."

"Well the war you had is still on the minds of many of the people I am sure" she says to the other woman "Times seem tough and many are probably having trouble making ends meet, many don't come home and many of them who do make it are damaged physically or mentally" she rubs Eimear head, and reaches with her other hand to scratch under mouth as he waits for the food that he can smell all around them.

Out of the blue, as the evening drew closer to nightfall, and most have gone to rest and or gone home, a sturdy man entered.
His face is scarred, but strong, his chin granite and his gaze steely.
The barkeep rose high and saluted the man.
"Watch Captain Hartesel, in the flesh. I have not seen you in ages!"
The exchange handshakes but the captain appears grim, and in a tone you can not help but overhear states clear.
"I am concerned. My sister, Frau Helena Magnussen, has asked my help in finding her husband.  Herr Karl Magnussen is a Professor of Theology at the University of Altdorf, and left some two months ago.
He departed to an southern village between Altdorf and Weissbruck for research.
No word has been received from him since then, which is uncharacteristic."

He hands the barkeep a note and continues:
"With the recent events, the murdering of the upstanding citizens, the hangings of the Vogt's and the mess with the cannon, well, I am at my limit. Spread the word to all who appear able that on behalf of Frau Magnussen,  I am authorized to pay each valid participant 80 gold crowns, half upon your agreement to undertake this task and the other half upon your return.  In addition, arrangements have been made so they can travel by coach as far as the crossroads leading to Faltdorf. Make sure only to advise with those appearing capable. I fear the worst based on rumors..”
This message was last edited by the GM at 10:37, Fri 20 Dec 2019.

Gerhart studied the newcomers intently, while speaking to Jareik. "Passed through once, far too quickly to take note of anything." He had been on the hunt and too close to his quarry to take time for anything but the barest necessities. It had been far more fun in his youth, when every minor bandit was the chase of a lifetime. "Something to do with the elves, I imagine. I saw patterns like that on an old standing stone once."

As he listens to the man identified as the Watch Captain speak, Kargun fingers his purse. Leather rubs on leather around precious few coins. Gold! Now that was a pursuit to whet the appetite of any Dwarf!

"'Scuse me lassies, but I hear work to be had. Ain't too many round here want a Dwarf 'cept for the Pits, and I've had my fill 'o those." Kargun slides back from his chair, steady as a rock despite the prodigious quantity of empty ales mugs surrounding him.

"Hoy there Cap'n! Any work for an honest Dwarf? I'll find yer Professor sure as sniffing a seam 'o ore from a sheet 'o lime." Kargun pats his shield and one of several axes tucked into his belt. "An' if he needs rescuing, look nae further!".

Etain pushed the plate away from her slightly after finishing her meal when the captain of the watch came in to the inn. She listened to the conversation that the proprietor and he had and thought about volunteering when the Dwarf Kargun left the table and walked over to the captain.

Turning around in her chair she asks the man "How far away is this village that he travelled to and do you have a sketch what he looks like?"

Puzzled and a bit startled, as if he hadn't noticed you the watch captain turned and sized up those who appeared.
He rubbed his chin.
"You look..battletrained..good..good. You could be fine. Can you take care of yourself?"
He listened to Etains question and answered.
"Faltdorf, is a curious place. Three days by coach; by well traveled and protected roads. Well, mostly, the cross near the city house a small graveled area where most coaches unload passengers, as the area is very rural and rough to do anything but walk in. It is an area many consider govern by Taal's minions if you would. She claimed that their interest in different ways of worhsip lead him there. I can not confirm that and sadly do not have any trace of a drawing of him. Just the name and direction. Karl did not confide in his wife and hence not me either.."
He continued.
"I have met him. Hence I would deem that Karl is in his mid-50's, stands about 5'5" and is slightly over weight. He has short grey hair, green eyes, and always wore the colour green. He also has a pair of thick glasses and a scar that runs along his forehead. That said, I found a note, which you can read - my sister found it in his study.."

It reads:

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)

“My dearest friend Karl,
I quickly scribe this note to you to tell you of an unusual situation that I found here in the village of Faltdorf.
The village is located a few days travel from Altdorf, near the river.
At any rate, the religious practice here is rather unusual and, no doubt, would interest you immensely. Come as soon as you can.
W”

---

Jareik's brow furrowed. "I've never heard of any human paint themselves like elves." He knew of course that a lot of Brettonian settlements were founded on elven ruins but they certainly didn't outright adopt elven customs, what human could even fathom the mind of an elf? He cast a quick uneasy glance at the tatooed folk once more.

He initially didn't pay much attention to the new arrival and his conversation with the barkeeper, but with both the dwarf and one of the savages speaking up, he started to notice something was up. And he distinctly heard the offer of payment...

"Wait, what's this about a job?" he turned and nudged himself in the conversation with a tug of his hat. "Sir, if there's coin to be made and you want a professional on the case, I'm yer man." he nodded to Gerhart. "And if you're looking to track someone, my friend here knows a thing or two about that. What say you Gerhart? Assuming you ain't already on some other business this might be a good time killer."
This message was last edited by the player at 17:22, Sun 22 Dec 2019.