8 Brauzeit
It's been a busy few days.
The good news first: Thesalva will live thanks to Ankh-Akh. Ulfberth is busy recruiting soldiers and I have the credit needed to get them equipped. We're waiting for the bronze cannon. The rest has been delivered.
The bad news: The dwarfs are getting worse. The first of them has died. Ankh is looking after them but even he can't find a means to cure them.
The weird: The mighty Elector-Countess of Nuln had me whip one of the court ladies with a skaven tail before showing the girl the pleasurable ways of the flash. Then the esteemed lady joined in herself. I should not have written this but I could not in good conscience skip it. If von Liebwitz had been a commoner this would have been a perversion. But because she's a Kurfürstin it's just good fun. Oh, and the girl will be sent to Liberungen. I cannot do anything but accept.
Tomorrow we leave Nuln proper for calmer pastures. Von Liebwitz has lent us a manor just south of the city. There the dwarves can recover in the fresh country air. Plus I now have in my employ seventy armed dwarfs, two score human foot, and a smattering of engineers, gunners, and other specialists hired in the city. Soon to be armed with cannon. Nobles and city councils typically don't like too many strange armies camping inside the walls.
9 Brauzeit
I quite like it down by Nuln. The weather has turned again and we're enjoying fine autumn days in the sun and cool nights. I should get me an estate here. Then I could enjoy the country life and ride in to Nuln whenever I felt like it.
On to more somber matters: three more dwarfs have died and no cure in sight. Got them separated from the others. More are feeling ill. Only dwarfs have been affected. Curious that.
10 Brauzeit
Sergeant Gort, an Ostlander veteran I've just hired, made me aware that one of the dwarf corpses had been disturbed. Someone had cut the dead dwarf open and ripped out his insides. Gruesome. I ordered the corpses burnt. Burial traditions be damned - these a plague victims, not the honored dead.
11 Brauzeit
Caught us the culprit. One of our new men. He cut up the dwarf to look for treasure. That old folk tale again: dwarfs eating gold and gems. Only this time it was true. The dwarf had gold in his belly. My gold, taken from Hertzen.
The tale became stranger still: the soldier had in turn eaten the gold and was now quite ill. The first human to fall victim to the illness. We hanged him and tossed him on the pyre. Then I made a discovery: where the dwarfs had been burned we found the remnants of fool's gold. Could it be that Etelka Hertzen had used magic to turn fool's gold into true gold? Indistinguishable from the real thing unless thrown into the fire? Another thing Hertzen owes me for.
The mystery thus solved we had the other sick dwarves put to the question. They admitted eating gold - describing a hunger they could not resist. We got the gold out them them without anyone else dying and that was that.
15 Brauzeit
I'm taking Ulf, Thes, and Ank to Kemperbad. We'll go by road, I think. It'll be like the old days. Me, my friends, and the darkly overgrown ruts they call roads in the Empire. We'll have rain and cold, get attacked by mutants, drink heavily, and dance to the fiddle. A grand adventure.
I've given my orders and directions to Greathammer, Blackaxe, and Gort. They are to remain at the manor, drill, and wait for the cannon to be delivered. Then they will march to Liberungen and report to Lady Isolde.
Etelka Herzen, I'm coming for you.
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