When rounding a bend in the river, they see a Human corpse floating downstream. Several crossbow bolts are still sticking into it. A couple of minutes later they see a river boat, apparently adrift. A number of corpses - some human, some less so - are littered on the deck and float in the river beside the boat. There is no sign of life. As soon as they try to board the ship, it suddenly lurches to life. A huge river troll was hiding underneath it and several mutants spring an ambush on the heroes.
The rocking ships cause many adventurers to slip and fall. To his everlasting horror, Gotrak drops
his Book of Grudges into the river, where it sinks and is carried off by the current.
Leaving his shame for later, Gotrak flies into a berserk rage, narrowly avoiding the Trolls nasty vomit, he jumps the rail and starts plunging his axe into the monster.
Meanwhile his companions battle a varied assortment of mutants, one of which is a sorcerer. Felix is almost dragged into the water by a tentacled mutant while Mandredd dukes it out on a magical level with the sorcerer. Abel & Otfired charge the mutants with ranged weapons on shore and
before they know it, as fast as is started, the battle ends with the heroes victorious.
Before they arrive at the capital, there is another short encounter with members of the Purple Hand. They are approached by a couple of pedlars. These two try to exchange secret signs with Mandredd while trying to appear simply to be selling pots and pans. While one of the pedlars carries on a normal sales pitch, the other scratches the right-hand side of his nose with the little finger of his left hand while inserting the thumb of his right hand into his right ear, palm to the front and the fingers fully extended. Otfired is tired of this and repeats the sign after which both cultists wink knowingly, and the one who did not make the sign holds out his right hand. Otfried shakes it. Unknown to the heroes, the cultist's palm is coated with purple ink and shaking hands with him transfers some of the ink to his hand. This accomplished, the padlars quickly disappear down a maze of alleys.
On their return to Altdorf, the heroes settle into The Pissing Cat again.
All except Gotrak, who has been sullen and depressed the whole journey and who visits the Slayer Cult. He acknowledges his shame of losing the Book of Grudges and undergoes the ritual shaving of his hair and bears in order to walk the path of the Slayer. He also takes off his armour which he donates to the cult and undergoes several days of tattooing.
Otfried is the other one who forgoes the heroes usual haunt to stay in the grand cathedral of Sigmar. Meanwhile, Abel & Felix are taken into the fold of the Altdorf Thieves' guild. Both train for their new careers, Abel will become a Highwayman and Felix trains to become a Cat Burglar. In order to be able to pay for his pistols and horse, Abel receives a loan from the guild, with the proposition to sell Weirdroot along his travels so he can pay back his loan with the profits.
Fearing disapproval by his friends, Abel shares this secret only with Lothar, who, being the only one who can pilot the ship, is bombarded to he its captain. He promptly installs a hidden smuggler's hold.
Lothar also uses his free time to train to become a Duellist, he collaborates with his contacts with the Arabian embassy to form a new trading company and hires a master trader called Ahmed Al'Aqrab. He also uses his natural charm to woe the young Renata.
Mandredd spends his time studying magic, finishing his staff and performing rituals on it in order to awaken it, in the end, he feels he has attuned himself and his staff to the magical winds of Azyr.
While Gotrak is still undergoing the ritual to become a trollslayer, Felix is reminiscing with an old
acquaintance from his days at the village of Drakenhof. Abel is already on the lookout for an easy mark to waylay. It takes him a while but he learns of a rich noble who'll be travelling by coach from Altdorf to Carrobourg.
That night, Ottfried awakes from the sound of someone fiddling with his door. he hears a muffled voice whispering: "Be silent". Fearing an imminent attack by cultists or worse, Ottfried grabs his
two-handed hammer and when a cloaked and hooded figure enters his room he proceeds to smash it into his legs. Sadly, the late night visitor was no other than Hans Wechselhaft, the reformed bandit. He is clutching the mutant child Ludovicus and claims that the temple means to kill him. He
pleads to Ottfried to save them. After careful deliberation, Otfired decides to help the man with the crushed leg to reach safety. And with that, the pair dissapears into the night.
The next day all is ready for departure. After a long discussion the heroes decide to find this Etelka Herzen, who send the scroll with the foul ritual to Johannes Teugen. From the letter they found, the heroes know she resides in Black Peaks, Grissenwald. The ship is made ready to sail, cargo to sell is loaded and everyone prepares to depart. However, Gotrak has a problem, he feels that Renata should leave the ship as women on board bring bad luck. A fiery discussion ensues where slowly but surely the others are taking Gotraks side. A new pilot is found and Lothar sees Renata off with a broken heart.
The heroes wisely decide to give the place a wide berth and sail on. A couple of days later they encounter one of the emperor's new signaling towers being built.
Two dwarfs on the quay are signalling and shouting to the ship and when it comes closer they ask to be let on board for a passage fee. The heroes agree but are interrupted by a 3rd dwarf.
The two others fall silent as the newcomer arrives. He glowers at them and points in the direction of the half-finished signalling device, "Unless - GASP! WHEEZE! - you want to be listed as - COUGH! SPLUTTER! -wetbacks, - GASP! - you'll get back to the site now!" With a look that is a mixture of
apology, embarrassment, and appeal, Thingrim and Belegol march back up the bank. Gradually recovering his breath, the newcomer introduces himself as Aynjulls Isembeard - Master Artisan and foreman in charge of the construction of His Imperial Majesty's latest signalling device.
He explains that he has problems with missing workers and begs the heroes to help him find out what happened to them. Of the 12 original crew, only 6 remain.
intrigued, the heroes agree and that night they are attacked by a ghoul, they manage to defeat him easily and discover a hidden passage in the ruins of the tower that serves as the signalling device's base. Entering theis, they find a large circular chamber with a big six pointed star in the middle. At each point is a small hole and there are three doors in the room. Its walls are adorned with geometric symbols that distort the look of the room as if it is built with impossible angles.
The first door they open leads to a laboratory with the usual paraphilia but before the heroes can make out more, they see a shambling corpse with the top of its skull sliced off move forward.
This zombie has not yet hit the floor when four more of them stumble into the room. This is followed by a brutal figh where the heroes are victorious. Anther thing of note is a gargoyle-shaped lectern bearing a large, "leather" -bound book adorned with skulls and other symbols of necromancy.
Ottfired votes immediatly to destroy this book but Mandred is sure it is indestructible. On top of that, powerful magical items like this have a way of creeping into the mind so taking it with them is not an option. In the end, they decide to leave it behind and send word to the witch hunters of its existence.
Another thing they find is that each zombie carried a small cilinder around its neck which fits exactly into the holes of the star on the ground, they are however still missing one and they cannot find it here.
The next door leads to a study, filled with ancient maps & start charts, various ancient portraits of obviously the same family adorn the wall. Many of the maps have intersecting lines that form a rough triangle, the bottom lines are clearly marked with a circle. After some deduction, Mandred
confirms these are the paths of Morrslieb, the dark moon. Apart from an ornately carved staff with skulls there is nothing else of interest.
The third (and last) door leads to a small library, the books are in a wide variety of languages and cover a wide variety of subjects. One book is of interest to Mandredd & Felix, it is titled: "The Rise & Decline of the Von Vogel Family". On the inside of the cover is a family tree. Both the heroes are on it and it appears they share the same mother. After looting the most valuable books and maps, the crew departs for Kemperbad.
To be continued...