1: Nightmares

There were six of you chatting on Daankkanaal.

Johnannes was a bit of a wimpy student type, with glasses and halfway decent clothes. You wondered why he was slumming it down here with you lowlifes.

Then there was Zombrie the Norscan initiate. You know initiates are often treated harshly by their temples, but it was still a surprise to see this man of the cloth being forced to make a living unloading dodgy cargoes in Kruiersmuur.

There was another Norscan, Haakon. His clothes were a bit funny. They had strange drawings on them But he seemed pretty harmless, if a bit vacant. And he had a pet, which looked a bit like a rat, or something.

Klaus looked a bit shady. He was from the Reikland, or somewhere like that, in The Empire. He didn't seem to be too keen on pleasant chatter.

Thijens was feeding scraps of kebab to his dog, 'Nips'. Handrich knows, there are enough rats around town, especially around the Hole in the Wall, for him not to need to work as a docker. Still, easy money is easy money.

And there was Hermann. The only one of you, really, who looked totally at home lugging kegs around on the quay.

Then something strange happened. Some girl ran by, in a red cloak, singing. Kinda. Well, you heard singing, but she was mouthing something different. She was talking to you, or maybe someone behind you, but you couldn't hear what she was saying, you only heard that strange singing of that nursery rhyme. She looked happy, though, and excited.

Then she stood on the edge of the quay. The singing stopped and she started to look worried. She shouted at you, or behind you, and looked like she was about to burst into tears. Then she fell.

You rushed to the side of the quay, where she had been. You could see no sign of her, at all. The whole episode was strange.

Back at The Hole, you had some drinks and went to bed, eventually. The night was wretched. You hardly managed any sleep. Every time you began to drift off, haunting visions of the young red clad girl would bring you awake, suddenly. The visions were enough to seriously disturb some of you.

You didn't feel good when you woke up, at all. But over breakfast and coffee, you discovered that your colleagues from the previous night had all had similar visions. Deciding to completely ignore this, you all went to various workplaces to earn a living.

Some of you were concerned enough to return to Daankkanaal, or ask a few questions, but no one discovered anything worthwhile, except nonsense about the Seaweed Man.

The next night was no better. The nightmares returned and you all got very little sleep. You woke up in a bad mood, and the recurring dream was starting to unhinge some of you.

Klaus and Johannes met up on the docks somewhere and they thought they saw the girl with the cloak running in the distance. They pursued as quickly as they could. As they turned a corner, the pair of them ran into an old fishwife carting her barrow of herring. They sent the old dear and her wares flying. Not stopping to even apologise they continued after the red figure.

The figure disappeared into some disused and rotting boat. Johannes didn't have the balls to follow her. But Klaus did. He cornered her in the hold. It turned out that this was just a homeless old dwarf lady in a very similar red cloak, running away because she had stolen a couple of apples.

Hermann went to the Mourners Guild (The Temple of Morr) prepared to pay to get this curse removed. He was told it was not a curse, and they couldn't help.

That night, the nightmares returned.

After breakfast, some street urchin pressed a note into Thijens' hand and ran off. It read 'You may wish to reconsider the timing of your search, Bella Donna.' After some arguments about herbs and a bit of investigation, you decided Bella Donna was a half-famous mystic fortune teller that lives up in Noord Miragliano.

Klaus went there and paid two Guilders for the following

‘The one you seek is not far away, but further than you think.’
‘There are many ways to arrive at the same place, even if you must swim.’
‘Blood runs in red.’

Then Johannes and Zombrie went there and paid two Guilders for the following

‘The one you seek is not far away, but further than you think.’
‘There are many ways to arrive at the same place, even if you must swim.’
‘Blood runs in red.’

Later on (the next day) almost everyone went there and paid three Guilders for the following

‘The one you seek is not far away, but further than you think.’
‘There are many ways to arrive at the same place, even if you must swim.’
‘Blood runs in red.’
‘Don’t look now'.

You asked around some more and Zombrie went to a tailors to ask about the cloak. It was easy to discover that the type of cloak described is part of the uniform of the Red Maids of Verena School in Noord MIragliano.

Everyone in the party proceeded to visit Red Maids over the course of the next two days. Finally, Johannes managed to get a name for a girl who had left school a few weeks before. Klaus managed to get a surname, and Johannes went off to a parent's house and also managed to wrangle a surname.

That night, the nightmares continued. You all felt *really* bad in the morning. (-1/-10 from every stat (not Attacks))

Depending on what gossip or stories you listen to, Ana Zefferetti of the Zefferetti Cheese Emporium went missing, got sold into the Body Trade, or went to Carroburg (A large town in The Empire. It's the first large settlement you would meet, travelling along the River Reik, into the Empire) a few weeks ago. You decided to visit her father at the now defunct cheese shop.

There wasn't a lot of cheese left, but a man, (Claudio Zefferetti) opened the door and you forced your way inside. He talked to you, but seemed a bit preoccupied and depressed and ill. There was a young boy (aged c.5) on the bench, who looked very ill indeed. Apart from a couple of chairs, a chest and the bench, pretty much everything else looked like it had been sold. You concluded it was to pay for the boy’s medical expenses. You also learned the cheese merchant had another son who had died. His wife was dead, too, apparently.

Claudio insisted his daughter had gone to Carroburg a few weeks ago, that she was safe and would be attending school there. She was being looked after by his cousins who ran a cheese shop there.

Klaus seemed to insinuate that Claudio was being haunted by his daughter, Ana, also. Hermann got frustrated and shook the poor Claudio and insisted he had done away with his daughter, or sold her, or something.

Claudio insisted his story was true and told you to go and find Benito Arlisconi in Remasweg (The Remean Ghetto). He was supposedly the guy who took Ana to Carroburg and he would be able to confirm the story. He gave you a street name, Boogaardsweg, in Remasweg where Arlisconi could be found.

He also fetched a small blue dress and ripped it up, giving you a piece each, explaining if you wore it on your arm, then you could pass through Boogaardsweg, as blue was the colour of the local street gang.

Other Stuff you Learned:

You just can't seem to get decent Tilean cheese anymore. You used to be able to get anything you wanted, quality stuff, not anymore.

There's a giant mutated fish down in the Doodkanal. This big it is. And it will eat anyone who so much as dangles their leg over the side.

The Physicians' guild will pay for dead bodies. They like to cut them up and see what's inside. They think it will help them cure people. Cutting them up never cured nobody, if you ask me.

The 'Seaweed Man' is back. A strange green meteorite landed in Manaanspoort Sea and has made itself a body from seaweed and shells. It eats little children.

Bella Donna knows everything there is to know; past, present, and future. It must be true, some bloke down the pub told me.

Apparently Manaanspoort Sea has some of the largest tidal variations in the whole of the Old World.