The four of them moved aside as Raqiyah’s initiates lifted Jakub’s body onto their wooden bier. A cloth was draped over him to avoid undue alarm to passers-by on their way back to the temple.

“Who would do a thing like this?” Grigore said to Adelbert as he passed, still seeming very shaken up by the whole experience. “I will see his body taken back to the monastery at Putbad. He should be put to rest with his brothers of the order, not in the town that killed him.”

Sticking close together, the small band of clergy headed back towards the river gate with their grisly cargo.



Adelbert

In the days that followed, Adelbert did his best to drum up support among the different orders of the Temple for his night-time patrols. He didn’t have a great deal to work with: the Azrillite presence in Savonne had been cut in half by Jakub’s death, and the cult of Taal and Rhya had not returned within the walls since Mother Gaertner had been killed. The Shallyans at least were not short on priests, but their services were in constant demand - besides which, Mother Constanza brusquely explained, her sisters were strict pacifists, and would be of no use to Adelbert in hunting down any beast or murderer.

Mother Raqiyah was the only cult leader who was of use. She consented to Brother Liebrecht and the older initiates joining Adelbert’s search, though only on condition that the initiates themselves agreed. Together with Elsa (wearing her less conspicuous travelling clothes), the priests swept the streets around the sites of the killings, sometimes in one group, sometimes in two. They found nothing conclusive, but both Adelbert and Elsa felt the sense of menace that seemed to hang in the air of the Old Town after dark.

Hieronymus listened to Adelbert’s accounts of the searches with interest, himself seeming to have decided that he was more likely to find the answer to the killings in books than in going outside and looking at the evidence. A large heap of books had accumulated on his desk, and he was always going back to his shelves for more. “You must introduce me to this dwarf,” he reminded Adelbert at every opportunity. “An expedition to the pyramid! He may be privy to knowledge that has been lost for thousands of years. It ought to be recorded.” He shook his head. “A pity indeed that relations between the Dwimmulhold and the low town have become so… strained. We would both stand to benefit from working more closely together.”


Elsa

Elsa, meanwhile, was working on exactly that. After a preliminary meeting with the Dwimmulsons’ delegation in the Duke of Aquitaine - in which she got the distinct impression that the white-bearded Skorgrund trusted her about as far as he would a greased goblin - she managed to secure agreement that the Dwimmulsons would provide gold for a bounty on Klammenberg’s head, as well as a ‘proper dwarf-made chest’ for the book. An equally grating conversation with Irene secured a little more money from the Captain’s purse, which after the expenses of parchment and printing had been deducted still made for quite a considerable bounty. Savonne had nothing like the printing presses of Altdorf, but a woodblock printer’s in Rockshadow agreed to take the commission, and soon Sieghard’s men had the additional duty of plastering up posters in every district of the city. They read:

For the capture of the northerner JOHANNES KLAMMENBERG, who may be maskerading as a DOKTOR OF MEDICINE, travelling with his companion UDOLF
Or information ledinge to his certaine capture
A bountie of ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SIX CROWNS is offered in the joint names of CAPTAIN MUZIO SFORZA and RINN ELMENDRIN DWIMMULSON.
Apply at the citadel for your rewarde.

Underneath was a crude carving of Klammenberg’s face, as it had been described to the printers. It was a fair attempt, but Elsa couldn’t help but observe that since Adelbert had grown his goatee, it also looked quite like him.

OOC:
Spoiler
Show
I haven’t included Elsa spreading word that she’s on the lookout for an apprentice, as that seems like a slow burn sort of thing, but if you want to start seeding rumours a Gossip test would be appropriate.



Urgrim

While the umgi went about their other business, Urgrim continued his dogged investigations around Half Moon Alley. He found it harder going by himself: the Dwimmulsons had set themselves apart from the human population of Savonne by inciting Groz and the northern alliance to the first siege, and all dwarfs were tainted by association. With some persistence, he managed to talk his way into the house of the late Marta, though he sensed that he was still far from being trusted by her surviving relatives.

Yes, they said, a doctor had visited during Marta’s sickness, while the quarantine was in force. He had been stuck inside after the barricades went up, and had visited several families on the street. He had charged a very modest fee, and recommended that Marta be allowed plenty of fresh air, red meat and water, and that they should not crowd or smother her, particularly while sleeping. If they had need of him, he had said, they should ask for Doctor Schnitter at the Butcher’s Head, and the landlord there would relay the message. Not finding that his advice did anything to improve Marta’s condition, they had not called on him again.

Having given him their answers, they seemed quite eager to send Urgrim on his way. Leaving by the back door, Urgrim noticed a series of small chalk marks on the frame, arranged in a column. They were old and smudged, but from what he could make out, they looked disturbingly like the carved symbols he had seen on the walls of the Red Pyramid.


Sieghard

Sieghard, regrettably, had little time for the investigation. He had tied himself to the docks until such time as Ludo got back, watching and waiting for Dragos’ first move. It seemed to be a long time in materialising.

Burhan did a fine job of circulating the rumour that the first shipment was ready to leave, and each morning Sieghard and he ‘unfortunately’ pushed it back another day. This caused some discontent among the boatmen, though not as much as the news of Brother Jakub’s death. Happening as it had the night after he had blessed the boats, it was seen by one and all as a terrible omen. Burhan had his work cut out mollifying the three captains, who in turn had to mollify their crews.

It was on Konigstag evening that Burhan came to Sieghard in a state of some agitation. While taking inventory in the warehouse, he had discovered that the barrels of cheese and smoked meats that Ludo had secured from the eastern Downs had gone missing. While they were perhaps the smallest part of the coming shipment by volume, they were the most expensive by weight, and would sell for a pretty sum. Sieghard’s men said they had seen nothing out of the ordinary all through the previous day and night, which could only mean either that the thieves had some hidden way into the warehouse… or, as Nat Zollner pointed out, that some of the guards were on the take.



Angestag, 24th Vorgeheim

Rattling back over the bridge of Savonne at the head of a caravan loaded with goods, Ludo tried not to feel too much pride as he passed over the part he had personally blown up. The return leg through the south-east downs had been much more tranquil than his journey down the western bank, and he had picked up twelve more recruits to add to the ranks of the militia. All in all, it had been a successful trip, even if it didn’t quite measure up to the success of the first.

Reaching the other side of the bridge, he noticed with surprise the large numbers of Thorns patrolling the docks, and the poster of Klammenberg's face that had been pasted to a nearby wall. Burhan and Sieghard had come out to greet him, accompanied by Captain Edelman and a crew of stevedores to unload the wagons. He could see by Sieghard’s face that something was up.