9: Triesjaar Island

Backertag 5th Kaltzeit

You were watching the Cloos household as it burned to the ground. Everyone seemed to be ok. The housekeeper was very shocked but believed Ofra Cloos was still at her husband’s wake and therefore safe.

You made some sort of effort to help with the fire, passing buckets along the line, and stuff, and then thought it better to retire to the Kipper for a pint. You bumped into Haakon on the way there, who you hadn't seen for a couple of days. No one seemed that interested in knowing what he had been up to, though.

Klaus went straight to Stubfoot's to report what had happened. Stubfoot wasn't very happy about it all and wasn't happy with Klaus, but could see that it wasn't his fault, and that he couldn't have avoided the situation. As consolation, KIaus handed over the serpent-staff to the halfling gangster and promised to do his best to get the rest of the stuff, especially the sarcophagus.

At the Kipper, Zombrie and Thijens poured over some more of Cloos' papers looking for insight into what was going on. Amongst other stuff, they found a reference to some carpet seller of Arabierstad who had been given one of the ceremonial daggers. You decided to try and get hold of the dagger. Here's some of the stuff you found out during your labours:

...I am surprised by some of the research Fredrick is proposing. It lays very close to the edge of what might be considered 'proper academic interest'. On the other hand, I was never one to shy away from 'investigation'. It is curious that he should be so suddenly interested in some subtle points, whereas, it could be said, before, profit was his best motive...

...So it is settled that we prepare for a new journey to Bel Aliad. The dangers that will face us are untold, and I have become too old for this sort of thing. I would imagine that this is my last expedition, to Araby, or anywhere outside Marienburg, for that matter...

...Some of the more modern references to the tombs of Bel Aliad, I will admit, have got me stumped. It is ironic, as ancient scholar, I can decipher runes and glyphs of several thousand years ago, but a reference less than ten years old, is bogged down in such idiom and idiosyncrasy, that it has me baffled. The gentleman carpet merchant, bin Sallah, has been aiding me, here. He has been invaluable, and I gave him one of the third dynasty Shapesh daggers as a reward. He says he will use it as a pen knife!...

...There is the matter of the Ushabti we removed on our previous expedition. The protection of the queen sarcophagus is supposed to be reliant on their presence. Perhaps, though, this is just some kind of metaphor...

...Drexol has surprised me yet again, with his request to actually accompany us on the expedition. I had thought he was more interested in turning a profit than a shovel. I guess the spirit of adventure within him has not completely gone...

...The superstition inherent within this research is almost palpable. It never fails to shock me how close these people are to their history. It is almost as if Nagash himself will come walking out of the pyramid, at any moment...

And:

The third king of the third dynasty was Nagash, a usurper, who entombed his own brother in the pyramid of his father while he still lived and did enact the devastation of the land. For fifty years did he bring countless slaves to toil on the construction of the Black Pyramid.

But did his wife flee to Bel Aliad and was she not cursed for this. And 'tis said that her husband the usurper is fated to follow her even in death and he who controls Ofra the queen shall control the king.

On the construction of Ushabti. From the detritus of the battle grounds, from the bones and blood of heroes slain in battle are constructed these guardians with the souls of a hundred men and shall they watch over. And should ever their charge be disturbed in their presence then shall they rise and defeat all they find until their charge and master can rest in peace, once more.

And should the ancient essence of six ancient guards of immortality be spilled in the sign of the six, in the triangles of fate and should the sacred six daggers of Shapesh draw forth the essence of the ancient guardians, and trustees in that sign and should the essence anoint the body of the sleeping, then shall they rise and in death as in life shall they enact the rituals of the afterlife, and shall they suck upon the essence of the living and through this strength shall they know the power of the grey bridge between life and death, and the amethyst bridge between order and the dark places.

And should the blood of a virgin be spilt to wake the queen, and shall she be anointed in the sign of the six and so shall she return to life. And shall her minions join her once more, and shall the ushabti who did guard her, support her in the destruction of all who opposed her. And shall the dead of aeons rise up, all within sight of her, into life once more and wreak the vengeance of Nagash.

You also decided to try to retrieve the vial of viscous clear stuff that Klaus had found at van Klincker's, which he handed over to the watch. Zombrie went into the watch station in Guilderveld, accompanied by Haakon, 'dancing' in the style of Marienburg's head priest of Ulric. The watchman did seem suitably impressed but was unwilling to act without the say so of his sergeant, who was asleep.

After some talk of necromancy the watchman seemed to get the impression that van Klincker had been a necromancer, and was very shocked. You did your best to disabuse him of this, but by now he was convinced. He eventually woke his sergeant. As there was no sort of investigation into van Klincker's 'perfectly normal' death and the Black Caps had no use for it, the sergeant was happy to hand over the vial.

While you were nearby, you decided to check out the inferno at Cloos' house. The fire was still going strong. The housekeeper had sent word to the wake and discovered that Ofra had supposedly left, in the Cloos carriage, some time ago. There was no sign of the carriage or of Ofra Cloos. The housekeeper was very worried. She seemed to think that Zombrie had been in charge of guarding her at the funeral.

You went to the Fleur de Lys, the herbiary in Wasplaatz and managed to wake up the herbalist. She is of Bretonnian stock and called Claire du Allumeuse (if you recall). She earned a very easy Guilder telling you that the vial contained essence of Faxtoryll. The preparation is the purest form of Faxtoryll and difficult to prepare in this way. Usually, the herb is simply cut up and/or steeped and applied to a wound. The herb is quite rare and greatly reduces blood loss from an open wound. She offered you ten Guilders for the medicine, but you declined.

Bezahltag 6th Klatzeit

You all went off to bed. In the morning there was a bit of discussion on the quality of the breakfast at the Hole. Haakon and Klaus decided the sausages were inedible, but Thijens ate all his, and theirs, declaring that once you've shared 'rat on a stick' with your dog, anything tastes good.

You all went up to Handelaarmarkt to find that the fire had died down. There was no sign of the sarcophagus which had clearly been dragged out the back of the building before it had been set alight. Ofra had still not arrived. Considering information from scholarly research and their recent nuptials, Klaus dared breach the possibility with the housekeeper that Mrs. Cloos might still be a virgin. He got his face slapped good and proper.

You also asked her about Drexol and his business. She said he lived on an island some way out to sea, outside the city, called Triesjaar Island. And the only office he kept in Marienburg was the one in Cloos' house that had just been razed.

You all went into Arabierstad to look for the carpet seller and found it pretty easy getting directions to his shop off the main square and exotic looking bazaar. As you approached the shop, you noticed a couple of Arabyans guarding the premises in a suspicious manner. One rushed inside and the other told you to go away. You were clearly too hard-looking for the man and you just brushed past him. He sloped off a bit but hung around at a 'safe' distance.

Inside the shop there were a load of carpets. As you made your way inside, one Arabyan came out and shouted something at you. You shouted something back and then he was joined by his two mates. They waved their weapons about a bit and clearly expected you to leave. Haakon danced the dance of something that looked a bit mean and hard and advanced on them slowly. Zombrie summoned power from Ulric to throw what looked like a large snowball at them. They charged in. One attacked Haakon but got his scimitar caught in a carpet.

The battle was fierce, but you were soon victorious. Two of them lay dead and one was stunned. Haakon decided to tie him up and interrogate him. A small amount of torture went on before you decided that he really couldn't speak Wastelander. Klaus guarded the front entrance and noticed the first guard was still hanging about outside. Thijens and Zombrie went out the back. Zombrie checked the back door but nothing much was going on, and Thijens went upstairs and searched the office. He found a fat, dead Arabyan lying on the floor (bin Sallah, no doubt) and a bit of petty cash, but couldn't find the dagger anywhere.

There was a load of urchins playing in the filthy lane out back. You tried to get them to tell you who had been there but there was a bit of a language barrier, it seemed. Zombrie tried to bribe them with a Guilder and then with a subtlety of language and nuance surprising for a young boy with seemingly little knowledge of Wastelander, he fleeced you of the money offering very little information in return.

You decided a good plan would be to get a boatman from Streusel's Wharf to take you up to Triesjaar Island. Kraamelanger wasn't around, but you found someone in The Sands who agreed to take you there for 12 Guilders, although he didn't look overly sober. His boat, The Estalianola, was also a bit small, but he assured you it wouldn't sink.

Approaching the small, craggy island, the icy north wind, fresh from the Sea of Claws chilled your bones. You could see a tower like thing on the island and on the quay was a large three-master which, as you got closer, you recognised as the Far Swan.

A narrow, precipitous path led up from the jetty to the tower. You could see that somehow the lower levels of the tower was 'elven-like' in construction, all smooth and rounded, and the upper bit was more sturdy and angular. As you got near the top, two guards shouted down from behind a wall to ask your business. You asked to see Drexol and one of them disappeared. You waited a moment and then in a fit of planlessness you decided to rush the remaining guard.

Zombrie threw a 'snowball' at him, but it did little damage. He replied with his Blunderbuss. The shot hit Haakon squarely in the arm, sending him to the ground and showering Klaus in blood. Thijens fired his crossbow and ran up towards the wall, behind Zombrie who did the same. Klaus tried to help Haakon who was bleeding all over the place.

As he got to the top, the second guard had returned and hit Zombrie with his Blunderbuss, but Zombrie soon put him down. Thijens took out the other with a well-aimed sling shot. Klaus carried Haakon to a safe place and managed to get the faxtoryll. He smeared it on the wound and didn't really know what he was doing, but it seemed to do the trick. You thought that Haakon might actually die, but heroically, he pulled through.

You went back to the Estalianola and pushed off for Marienburg. On arrival you went straight to the Guild of Physicians and were lucky enough to get seen by Prof. Gruybaar. He decided the wound was bad, but the Faxtoryll had stopped a lot of bleeding. He proposed a daring new treatment, recently pioneered in Bretonnia. Haakon agreed and the professor wrapped the 'plaster of couronne' around the broken bones. It felt better and Haakon was told to return in a month to have the plaster removed.

Afterwards, Thijens got the professor to write up some formal contract regarding the hunt for Jozef Visser. He decided it would help him with his impending courtcase.

The session ended in the early evening of Bezahltag 6th Kaltzeit. Everyone's a bit cold from the short voyage outside the city. Haakon is still in pain and a bit shocked by the heavy wound he took, but he has vowed not to let it affect his dancing.