[WFRP] The Bloody Crown XII

[LCP]

Ludo, 30th Brauzeit

"Just that I think we want the same things," said Klammenberg, innocently. "In the short term, at least. Also... if anything happens to me, then terrible things will happen to Fraulein Stubbs, and Herr Stubbs the elder, and I don't think you want that." He paused. "People say 'a fate worse than death', but that kind of implies that all deaths are equally bad, don't you think? When there's clearly grades. It's curious. But mostly, I think it's that we want the same things."

He was looking at the tip of the crossbow bolt in the way that most people do when a crossbow is aimed at them. "Why don't you sit down?" he said. "Then we can talk this over like civilised people."

[TheSummoner]

Sieghard

Sieghard chewed his lip. Certainly the goat had been changed; That wasn't what concerned him. His fear is that if Tshula had escaped, this would happen again.

"Do you have a way to deal with the spirits?" Sieghard asked. "No number of men or catapults will matter against a foe who can't be killed by steel alone."

[LeSwordfish]

"I can't help but suspect that terrible things of some or other sort will happen to everyone if I let you go." Ludo said. He didn't sit, or lower the crossbow. "Besides, I don't know the nature of your relationship, but I never got the sense the Jackal would go that far out of it's way to avenge you."

[LCP]

Sieghard, 27th Brauzeit

"We've brought priests. As many as we could drag away from Savonne with their High Priest injured," said Sforza, "and I understand there are a few more around the countryside we may be able to gather up." He looked serious. "I've not fought ghosts before, but I can't think of anyone better to lay them to rest."

---

Ludo, 30th Brauzeit

Klammenberg gave a tired smile. "You misunderstand me," he said. "All my own work. You see, when I caught your sister snooping on me, she went into great detail about how you were going to be the one to stop me. So I devised some... countermeasures for her to take back to the house. Insurance."

"Still," he said, leaning back a little, "at least you're not talking about 'dissecting my brain'. We can talk, right? Man to man. Or man to halfling, as the case may be." He pushed a knuckle into the small of his back, as if stretching out a crick. "Because that's not the only misunderstanding here. You think I'm here to just make everyone's life miserable?" He shook his head. "I want to get what I came here for and be on my way. Isn't that what you want? To get all this out of your life, somewhere far, far away from here?"

[LeSwordfish]

"She beat you though, didn't she?" Ludo said, though fear was swelling in his chest. "Got a message off, and now here I am. I bet it complicated things when the maneaters got to town, didn't they?"

"I don't think you're here to make everyone's lives miserable, but I think that's how it's going to end up. What are you hoping for with the Jackal? Did you come to the reaches to find him, or just take advantage of the comet breaking open his pyramid?"

[LCP]

Ludo, 30th Brauzeit

"Him," said Klammenberg, "and his book. Do you understand what that book represents?" For a moment, Ludo thought he saw a flash of real conviction in the man's eyes. "Power over life and death. The greatest work ever written by mortal man. And Nakht-Horeb was there. He learned at the feet of the master."

He paused, reining himself in.

"Look, you know I didn't travel all this way to make myself King of Nowheresburg. That's not what I'm after at all. And I didn't come here to hurt you, or your family, or anyone else unless absolutely necessary. I just want to get him his book back, and go south. That was the plan on Geheimnisnacht, by the way," he added. "In, out, gone."

"The problem is him," he said. "You know he's not a god, I know he's not a god... but some days I think he's not so sure. Four thousand years in the ground... well, it would do things to anyone's mind, wouldn't it?" He raised his eyebrows. "Sometimes he thinks he's still back then, fighting the old war, speaking to the dead. Thinking there's something left of his people here he can save. And that Mala woman is encouraging him. Teaching him Reikspiel! I mean, it defeats the whole point." He sighed. "The Rivermouth people think he's their god, or messiah, or something. They think he's here to restore them to glory."

"Beings like him, they don't think like you and me. If he has to fight a war, to make himself lord of the Reaches, to kill every last soul from here to Putbad to get his hands on what's rightfully his, well, what's a year, or ten, or twenty? He can always go south afterwards. He's got time." Klammenberg gave Ludo a searching look. "That's what will happen... if wiser heads don't prevail."

[LeSwordfish]

Ludo stood silent for a moment. "So... you're trying to get him his book so he moves on? This is all to protect us, is it? He gets what he wants, leaves the reaches and everyone safe? What would he do if he had it? Take it south and not bother anyone again? Or... a hundred years from now march north again with an army of undead?"

[LCP]

Ludo, 30th Brauzeit

Klammenberg shrugged. "I don't know. Are you planning to still be here in a hundred years?" He leaned forward a little. "The world's a big place, Herr Stubbs. There's a whole lot of places he and I can be someone else's problem."

[LeSwordfish]

"I mean, firstly, yes, halflings live a while... but even if it's not me, it'll be somebody. My sister - my other sister, you haven't met her - has always said she's planning on having children. You think I could look them in the eyes knowing that maybe they'll still be alive when he comes back to kill everyone?"

Without lowering his crossbow, Ludo reached out and pulled over a chair to in front of the door before sitting down on it. "What is south that he wants, anyway? Nagash, right? The mortal who wrote the book? He's going to take the book back to him?"

[LCP]

Ludo, 30th Brauzeit

Klammenberg smiled. "A well-read halfling, then," he said. "Yes. Nagash."

"Nakht-Horeb might have history with the Reaches, but I doubt you could say the same for his master. Do you think the Undying King would send his faithful hound north again to settle old scores? Or do you think he might have other uses for him?" He raised his eyebrows again. "It's a gamble. But the other way, there's no uncertainty there at all. He'll destroy everything and everyone that stands between him and that book, and nothing I can do or say will stop him."

[TheSummoner]

Sieghard

"Magic and blessed blades work," Sieghard said, "But there were dozens of shades and we have only a hand full of priests. One touch from those things is enough to freeze a man's blood in his veins."

[LeSwordfish]

"So the crops dying, the desert expanding, the plague... all of that is about the book too, is it?"

[LCP]

Sieghard, 27th Brauzeit

"So we bless a lot of blades," said Sforza, "or find more priests." He looked over to Barbaro. "Daniele," he said, "can you bless grapeshot?"

"Um... I don't see why not," said Barbaro. "If it is in the service of the goddess."

Sforza looked back to Sieghard with a face that said: well then.

---

Ludo, 30th Brauzeit

"Mostly, yes," said Klammenberg. "Also just that he's here. It's been happening for thousands of years, it's just going faster now that he's awake. But if he were somewhere else..."

[LeSwordfish]

"Or if we killed him again?"

Ludo continued straining his ears for the reinforcements he'd requested. Come on Hans, are you walking down there?

[LCP]

Ludo, 30th Brauzeit

"'Again'," said Klammenberg. "That rather answers your own question, don't you think? How well did it work the first time?"

"There's no shame in self-preservation, Herr Stubbs. Nakht-Horeb isn't some... enterprising mercenary out to claim a kingdom. Storms, floods, famines... these things come around, and the only thing most people can do is get out of the way."

[LeSwordfish]

"It took a comet crashing into the pyramid to let him out this time." This was all speculation on Ludo's part, based on Urgrim's description of what he'd found at the Red Pyramid: he watched Klammenberg's face carefully. "You came along and finished the job but I don't think you could have broken the best of dwarf and human bindings yourself."

[LCP]

Ludo, 30th Brauzeit

"Not what I meant," said Klammenberg. "Suppose I - well, suppose we hadn't woken him. You helped, after all." He gave a thin smile. "Do you think the Waste was always a desert? Do you think the Mere was always a marsh? Don't you think it's odd that there are places with names like 'Rivermouth', where there's no river?" He looked expectantly at Ludo. "When things change slowly enough, sometimes people don't see that they're changing at all."

Ludo could hear what might be hurried footsteps in the street outside. Was that Hans returning? It had better be.

"The Reaches are cursed, Herr Stubbs. They've been cursed ever since they imprisoned the Hound of Nagash, and stole what was rightfully his. That's why no dynasty can survive here, that's why every century the green lands retreat. It's why there's more wyrdstone starfall here than anywhere else in the Border Princes. They couldn't destroy him, so they buried him and tried to forget him. And even then, half of them have ended up worshipping his memory, in one form or another." He shook his head. "There's no putting him back in the box now. He's out."

[LeSwordfish]

"When things change slowly, people change with them. I grew up here, you think I think of it as this poisoned land where nobody can live?"

It... was a good point, though. How many lords had the reaches had, just in Ludo's lifetime. Was that a curse? Was that not normal for this area? Was Sforza's reign inevitably doomed to fail?

[LCP]

Ludo, 30th Brauzeit

"When this all began, people were growing up north of here too," said Klammenberg. "They called it the western plain. The Azril ran straight through to join the Howling River, and they built towns and cities and raised their children there, just like your sister wants to raise hers." He paused for a long beat. "Where are they now? The desert wind blows through the ruins of their temples, and scorpions scuttle beneath the altar."

Very slowly, with his hands facing outwards, he stood up.

"You're not going to shoot me. Not just because if you do, everyone in Sermena is going to be wondering how the old Stubbs house got so full of flesh-eating beetles. But because we can help each other. Get me the book, and help me get rid of Mala, and I give you my word, I'll make sure your sister's children can grow up without fear of the Jackal."

[LeSwordfish]

Ludo stood silent for a long moment, listening to the footsteps outside.

"We can... we can make something like that work," he said. "If you... you're going to be our prisoner. I can make sure they don't hurt you, but they'll gag you to stop you casting anything else. I can't get you anything you want on my own, nobody will believe I just let you go... but I think if you're a prisoner I can get you into the D- into where the book is... or through the doors at least, that way you can invite the Jackal in. I might be able to say you told me something about Mala that means we should focus on her, if it comes to a fight. How does that sound?"


OOC

Spoiler

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The biggest charm test of Ludo's career so far, I think, because he's lying through his teeth. Specifically:
a) Ludo has no intention of helping Klammenberg in this way, this is just to buy time to save Petra.
b) He's trying to drop the hint that the book is in the Dwimmulhold.

(1d100)[50] Charm vs 82.

If that succeeds, Ludo will boost it with a fate point because presumably Klammenberg will roll opposed. Total of four degrees of success.
If that fails, re-roll: (1d100)[52]

[LCP]

Ludo, 30th Brauzeit

Klammenberg's eyebrow twitched just a little at Ludo's supposed slip of the tongue.

"Prisoner? No, I'm afraid that's not going to work," he said. "Nakht-Horeb's expecting me back. If I don't return, that just leaves the woman with him. Filling his head with all kinds of ideas." He shook his head. "No, Herr Stubbs, I'm afraid you're going to have to bring the book to me."

He looked around the room. "You've got soldiers downstairs, yes? We can make them forget the details of what happened here. False alarm. Simple case of mistaken identity. Then I can be on my way, and you can be on yours." He stroked his untrimmed beard. "Perhaps, after that, we can work out some way to communicate. But first things first."

[LeSwordfish]

"If I just let you go, I'll never see you again," Ludo said. "We can maybe make a deal if you're in chains and you'll still have the gun to my family's head, but if you walk out of here I've got nothing but your word."

[LCP]

Ludo, 30th Brauzeit

"And my word's not enough? I'm offended," said Klammenberg, in tones that made clear he absolutely wasn't. Walking over to the table in the corner, he began packing the provisions there into his bag. "You'll hear from me again because I want your help. But I can see where you're coming from, so I'll sweeten the deal. Get me out of here, and I'll tell you how to make your father and sister safe again."

Downstairs, there were the sounds of heavy boots entering the shop. Ludo heard Hans' voice drifting up the stairs, Rike filling him in on the situation.

"It's sounding like we don't have too much time to bat this around," said Klammenberg. "And I'm on something of a schedule myself. Got to be making tracks. What do you say?" He raised his eyebrows at Ludo. "Do we have a deal?"

[LeSwordfish]

"What if I came with you?" Ludo said desperately, scrambling in front of the door. "I know where they key is, remember. For the chest that the book is in."

[LCP]

Ludo, 30th Brauzeit

Klammenberg stopped what he was doing. He looked genuinely surprised.

"Come with me?" he said. "To Nakht-Horeb?"

[LeSwordfish]

"Yes!" Ludo said frantically. "Let me send a letter to get my family free and I can get you through the town gates. Everyone's looking for you and I can help if they manage to find you again. I've got all the information you want up here-" he took a shaking hand off his crossbow to tap his forehead "-and we'll have the whole journey to figure out what to tell the jackal and what not to. I bet we could even put together an "Escape" that would fool him in which Mala would die."

[LCP]

Ludo, 30th Brauzeit

Klammenberg hesitated. Downstairs, some Estalian voices were joining the hubbub.

"Alright," he said, sounding a little impressed. "Agreed." His eyes flicked towards the door. "So how do we deal with this?"

[LeSwordfish]

"The cure first," Ludo said, shaking his head. "I need to know you're not bluffing."

[LCP]

Ludo, 30th Brauzeit

"That would be a little early to give up my leverage," said Klammenberg. "Once we're out of sight of the gates. Not before."

"Herr Stubbs?" Hans called up the steps. "We're here! Do you want us to come up?"

[LeSwordfish]

Ludo opened his mouth for a moment - and then made a decision, and tightened his grip on the crossbow. "That's what it is, isn't it? Leverage. And as soon as you cast that spell, your leverage is gone. And then we no longer want the same thing at all, because then you're the man who tortured my sister to death and I'll have no reason to keep you alive at all. They don't call them the Maneaters for nothing, do they? And I don't think you're a great necromancer, I think you've caught a tiger by the tail and you're in just as far over your head as I am and you're desperate for help to get out before you're just another corpse in a country full of them. I think you're a coward doing anything you can to stay alive and I think you're smart enough not to bite the hand that's at your throat. And I think if you leave I've got no leverage at all, and I think Elsa can break your bastard spell. She beat Nahorek, did you know that? Cast a wall of fire he couldn't break."

He took a deep breath. No going back from this.

"He's up here! Bring rope, bring something for a gag!"

OOC

Spoiler

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And now, to sit back and watch this all break bad...

If Klammenberg tries to cast a spell or moves with hostile intent, Ludo shoots him.