13 Nachhexen
The White Oak Sanatorium of the Mentally Diverse. Hidden away from prying eyes in the ruins of old Blood Keep, once home to both knights and vampires. A joint Shallyan and Sigmarite venture, paid for by the great Lutipold III, long may he reign. Fifty or so patients, twenty-odd clerical staff, and a few able hands besides. Their leader is Anastasia Krilenko of Erengrad. Appointed by none other than my old friend, Emmanuelle Nacht. I guess that Empire isn't that big a place after all.
Why this sudden charity on the part of the good Emperor? Well, he does seem to have an unusual interest in the Diverse and the Special. Why that is I cannot say. But there is a pattern nonetheless. Maybe it has something to do with the mutated monstrosity special diverse person they have locked up in the basement? Dieter it named itself. It was articulate and spoke a Reikspiel dialect that would no have been out of place in a major Reikland city. Twenty years locked up in the dark. The very first patient to be brought to Blood Keep. What makes him so special he warrants such a prison - yet cannot simply be put down with a bullet to the head or axe in the neck?
Sitting in the glass-roofed winter garden Ankh appeared calm and content. His health is not good. You don't need to be a doctor to see that. He's still just as big as he always was but he seems weaker, less substantial, as if life has already started to leak out of him. But this life, Ankh say, is only the beginning of our journey together. To the light, death is no barrier, it is a doorway to the next life.
Speaking of life and death: the elixir I got from the Countess is the real deal. It's the Elixir of Life, the one Ankh gave to the kings of old so that they could lead long, healthy lives. It's also the first step to damnation: a long life is never good enough for mortal men. Always they crave more. And thus the undead came to be. When I see the Countess next I must ask here more about how they came into possession of those scrolls and how they managed to distill the elixir. Ankh seemed very surprised that they had actually managed to get it right.
We will have to be careful going forward. Ankh's light will protect us and guide us, but the clerics of the other gods will not understand. So we must lay low and bide our time. And we must strengthen the ties between the other gods and Ankh. Ulric is his brother - and by extension Taal - surely there must be other connections to old and classical gods.
Ankh will attempt to bring word to Liberungen about our situation. A dream or omen of some sort. If it works it could shave many days off the time needed for my men to reach Blood Keep.
Night raid
Set out with five good men (plus Ulf and Thes), in the darkest hours of the night, with nothing but starlight and elven eyes to guide us. We found the tracks of the orc that got away during our previous skirmish with the greenskins. Found it disemboweled and beheaded among the trees.
There is something else out there in the woods. It's not us and its not ork. A dark shape among the great trees of Blood Wood. One that not even elven eyes can see. Only by the light is the sun it is revealed. A tall, gaunt shape, cloaked in dark light. It didn't speak, nor did it attack. It fled as soon as it realized it had been spotted.
The orcs had put up a roadblock a bit further up the alley. Curious behavior of orcs. They had an ogre and numbers, so I summoned the rest of my carls and pistoliers. We cut them all down with only a handful of casualties on our side.
The asylum should be safe for the time being. No need to evacuate as I had originally planned. Not now anyway. It's for the best: how do you shepherd fifty of the insane through the freezing snows? And what of the monster below?
I will take Ulberth and Thesalva and a few of the soldiers deeper into the mountains. We must see where the rest of the orcs are and if possible determine the location and status of the dwarf hold.
14 Nachhexen
It's cold and windy. Light snowfall. We push on. The road is the only way forward, snows are too deep to muck around. Ulfberth is laughing and telling us to bring "skis" next time. Planks of wood you strap to the feet. The man is insane. In a good way.
I feel like we are being watched. On the other side of the valley a figure, mounted. How does it keep up with us? There are no roads there. It's impossible to see who or what it is. The distance is too great, the weather poor.
We made camp where we found a couple of dead and mutilated dwarf runners. Orcs had caught them and tormented them horribly. Herr Malthus was right: never be taken alive by orcs. Fight to the last drop of blood.
15 Nachhexen
A dead knight approaches at dawn. Literally. Undead, surely, but he did not attack. Instead, he turned his dead steed around and left. I'm not sure what he wanted. But I'm pretty sure the dead knight was the rider I saw yesterday. Has he followed our progress all the way from the keep?
Around midday we spotted an entire battalion of black orcs coming down the valley. So many black orcs this close to the Empire? Where did they come from? Herr Malthus always said they come from the East, from the World's Edge.
I will take Thes and continue up the valley. We must know more. A small group is less likely to be spotted. Ulf will take the outriders and head back to the keep and send word to the local nobles. They must prepare for war.
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