Summary 10

After much investigation, deliberation and some interrogation you uncovered the murderer as Stephan Nefedov, who it appeared was in some way under the compulsion of Big Olog. He decided to make a fight of it, and proved rather a hard opponent to bring down. Jakob and Brian both showed great bravery, whilst Lothar and Nikolai were much more conservative (see note below). Eventually, with help arriving, Stephan was captured. Nikolai needed immediate attention and this was obtained.

Since you had done good work, you decided to rely upon the favour owed by Andrei Bodrov to find out where the Professor had been seen. In the meantime, you went to the Imperial River Navy Inn to meet Irina Ulianov. An attractive blonde was there to meet you, but unfortunately did not give you the correct password. She offered you a choice of fighting and dying or handing over the parchment. Tired of Kislev and these petty Kislevites, an exasperated Jakob won the argument and you handed over the parchment and left safely.

The following day, Andrei informed you that the professor had hired the boat of Sasha Zubkov, who has not been seen since. The boat was seen heading both east and north by other sailors. On very tenuous evidence you decided that this meant that they were heading to Cetatae Alba. Andrei was able to inform you that the woman you had met the previous night was Natalja Antonov, the boyar's local muscle. Also, the body of Irina Ulianov had been found that morning. He advised you that the governor was not a man to allow traitors to escape his reach, though Brian believes that you can concoct a cover story. Andrei also found out that the professor had visited the lawyer and notary Eldar Sudakevich the morning before he set off. Following up this lead, you found that the lawyer had disappeared on the 10^th Pflugzheit. Cutting some good detective work short, you are currently outside a townhouse where you believe that the lawyer is being held by members of the Njevski Ispan, a group of 'One Nation-One People' Kislevite nationalists. Apparently, Eldar was assisting a local jeweller, Vladimir Kuryitsin, to set up business with the van Aelst gnome family, which the Njevskists believed traitorous. Three other possible names that might recur are Claus Mamin, the lawyer's assistant who turned out to be a Njevskist, Sofia Zinoview, the bodyguard who also appears to be a Njevskist, and Alexis Kononov, Sofia's 'friend' who is concerned about her and whom Brian thought might be an illegal coiner.

Your efforts to turn up any evidence about slaving were perfunctory and unsuccessful. Nor did you discover much more about the Tribesmen, who are seen as savages. You did learn that some think that Fruntasi Nademsky trades with them, and he was visited by Eldar Sudakevich on the day that the latter disappeared.

One of your visits in finding Eldar was to Bernd Levertske-Dagover, who is agent to Count von Pirkheimer (who you met in Levudaldorf). For payment of a boat trip to Cetatae Alba, you agreed to visit the island of Rudinshtein Manor, which the locals believe haunted. As Imperialists, you have no truck with such silly stories, even though the previous tenants were burnt to death, as were some illegal squatters.

You learnt of a number of stories about the estuary/swamp. There are stories about an ancient city lying beneath it - possibly pre-human or from the time of Tylos or even a Gospodar 'holy' city. Two stories appeared to confirm it - one of a merchant who dug down to the city during a great freeze and another of a drought in 2302 that uncovered buildings in which strange creatures appeared. The mists are also dangerous, including one that apparently 'swallowed' the crew of the Imperial River Navy ship Taira Pavlovna. Finally, whilst some islands are lived on by those seeking to escape the town, there are dangers. In 2502 the entire Stayuta family and their retainers simply disappeared from their house and were never seen since. There are also a couple of 'holy' places in the estuary. A shrine lies to the east, consisting of a very worn statue. Locals offer to it as Manaan, although a visiting scholar claimed it represented the elf god Torothal. Locals discount this, as the statue looks too inhuman. Another is the small island of Standing Stones which locals link to the Old Faith and the Ancient Spirits but rarely visit to offer worship.

The only other story of note was the seer Nikolai Khrulev who was hung last month for repeatedly claiming that the boyar was a shape-changed lizard that drank human blood and raped human women. He'd been acting strangely for some time, but defied warnings to shut up.

It is mid-afternoon on the 15^th Pflugzheit and you are outside the townhouse. You have agreed to visit Rudinshtein Manor on the morning of the 17^th.

Jakob 60

Brian 65

Nikolai 60

Lothar 40

Both Lothar and Nikolai lost a Fate Point (and gained one insanity point) in the fight with Stephan. This is not something I would normally countenance, since neither player was present, but both were played very conservatively and were effectively simply unlucky. For example, Nikolai took 27 points of damage in one hit. That is simply life in WFRP. We deducted the FP, but you need to add 1 IP to your sheets.