7 Sigmarzeit 2499 (Wellentag), Übersreik
I have not written in some time. I take up the pen again today. It's Wellentag - Work Day - so it's only fitting I should be working on my journal.
I'm sitting in the study of my Übersreik townhouse. The place has come a long way since I inherited it. Though I must say it could use some more work - it compares rather poorly against my newly acquired house in Nuln. But for a provincial city like Übersreik it will do just fine.
Life at home is pleasurable, but it is not an adventure. Neither does it in fact allow much time for writing. The life of a landed lord is not an easy one, I assure you. There are more creature comforts, but the duties never end...
I get up no later than noon, often closer to ten. After breakfast and attending my duties as a husband, I have meetings with this or that adviser, a merchant, some official from the city. So many faces, so many names. I look at the books (we have a dwarf accountant now), I ride the fields (wishing I had more), visit the village (how many years until it's a town?), and so much more. Then supper and more homely duties. It's often midnight before I hit the feather mattress - and that's when there are other duties to attend to (not with the wife, she I do during the daytime, like Ankh requires).
Summer draws closer with every day. The fields have been plowed and planted. The plague has not touched us (and I aim to keep it that way). My lands have increased substantially and I've been promised a baronial title in Reikland to go with the one from Wissenland. The first battalion and many of the headquarter troops are fully armed and operational (more or less), with more battalions on the way.
In all, life treats me well. This is what it feels like to walk in the light of the righteous sun, rather than slum around in the gutter with the northern gods. It's not like everything is just fine. The orcs are still out there, in the mountains, and in great numbers. But therein lies not only danger, but opportunity.
Matters of family
My Isolde gave birth to twins on Marktag - market day - the 3rd day of Ulriczeit 2498. She must haven gotten pregnant sooner than anyone realized. Perhaps even the first time we were together. Our first wedding night at the latest.
No one knew she was carrying twins. A boy and a girl as it were. They were joined at the hip when they were born. Herr Halmstad didn't go into further details, but it must have been grim indeed. Isolde very nearly died. As for the children they were... healed. My friend the wizard used the magic of the red stone and all his skill to separate the babies. They both live and are healthy, with no sign of deformity. We have called them Dagmar (after my Liberungen ancestors) and Talima (after some woman in Isolde's family).
Emmaretta has presumably also given birth. Hard to sure since she ran away back to the hills that spawned her. Damn that woman. And damn my entire hoshold for not stopping her and not having the balls to inform me. It would only have been a bastard. But bastards have their uses.
Matters of magic
My dear Anna remains apprenticed to Master Jürgen Halmstad (technically ex-master, since he's retired from the colleges). There was talk of sending her to Altdorf for advanced training, but Herr Halmstad feels she could benefit from some more basic tutelage. Perhaps next year she will be ready for advanced tuition. I think I would nather she didn't go at all. Better she study under Halmstad than learn necromancy - sorry, amethyst magic - in the stinking pit that is Altdorf.
I have not seen Anna since my return. She remains at the Tower with Hugg, keeping watch over its secrets while Halmstadt is with me. I will go to her as soon as can be arranged. I long for her sweet embrace and clever tongue. Hell, I been gone long enough that even her talk of women's rights will not bore me!
Annika is here in Übersreik with me. At this very moment she's sleeping in the next room. It got late and the eiswein flowed freely yesterday. She's apprenticed to Nacht still (I'm not sure they like each other but they seem to at least offer each other some respect) and now that the Imperial Envoy has returned to the city Annika has followed her bald mistress.
It is a good thing that I'm here to help take her mind of things. Her husband, Walter Müller, has... fallen ill and is currently being cared for in the Tower. No, what rubbish is this? Lying to my own journal? He is ill of sorts, but its no ordinary disease. According to Halmstad the man in a "sin-eater," a person with the ability to take upon himself the sins and corruption of another, absolving them. He was there when the children were born and he drew the poison from their bodies. And now he is... not well. Not well at all.
I do not profess to understand how such a thing is possible. Even Herr Halmstad had only read about such things, never thought them possible. I must go to the Tower to see Walter. See what state he is in - and determine what his fate will be.
The ring I wear is a Jade Ring of Cathay. It protects against magic. It can suck in magical energies - up to an unspecified limit - thus rendering the wearer immune to many direct-effect spells. I think it served me well in the battle against Hertzen. A wizard can use the stored energy to cast spells of his own. I cannot. I can only wait for the ring to explode if it consumes too much. For now I've had Ankh drain it. It's a powerful talisman, but I must be careful with it or it'll be my death.
The crown is the Crown of Command. It lets the wearer compel those of weak will to do his bidding. It's uncertain how this is done, but Halmstad said practice is key. The big drawback here is that wearing a golden crown is treason. Not even the mad sorcerers of the Wittgenstein clan dared use it!
Matters of faith
Ankh is weaker now, but nowhere near as feeble as he was going to see von Liebwitz in the south. His cheeks are shrunken, he's got rings around his eyes, and his back is stooped. Yet for all that there is a clarity of mind and purpose that's rarely been present. He's focused and his talk is easy to follow, not filled with riddles and contradictions. Less talk of the old times and what has been. More about the now and the future. He's become studious too. Quite the little scholar. First the dwarf texts in Karak-Azgaraz, now everything that's in my library.
I think all that Ankh needs is power. And the Doomstones could be the key to that power. If he's allowed to feed off the Stone of Fire, who knows how powerful he could become? And what if we get hold of the Stone of Earth as well? What if he consumes them both? We're ridding the world of danger and giving life to the Ankh at the same time. What could go wrong?
For my own part I walk in the light and will continue to do so. The sun god has done more for me and my men in an year then all the gods of the Old World have in all my life time. It's not that I do not belive in them or do not honor them. It's more that I hold Ankh above all others and what I do I do in His light.
Matters of the land
Herzog Sigismund von Jungfreund has returned to Übersreik. His quarrel with the Emperor seems to be over - for now at least. He spent a letter inviting me to Übersreik. I had little choice but to go. It was either that or try to have the man removed. But in the end I decided to talk first.
I know little of why he fell out of favor. Something to do with political differences in the Reikland Diet I've been told by my peers. Disagreements over taxes (the Dragon wants even more gold) and legislation (there have been some strange edicts in the past, though none quite as colorful as the "specials" act). But I've also heard rumors of darker things: of corruption and armed revolt.
I know equally little about how he was able to get back into the Emperor's good graces. I can guess at gold. Black Rock is said to be rich. But if it's just the gold, why now and not before?
Speaking of gold: Sigismund has graciously covered all my bills when Nacht's credit dried up. Somewhere between four and six thousand crowns. Do we really spend that much? I guess we did.
Even more importantly he's offered to pay for another battalion of troops. Pay for their mustering and pay for their upkeep. I accepted, of course. It's too good an offer to pass over. But it begs the question: what does he intend to use my troops for? War against the orcs? Something else? With Nacht it was simpler: the troops would watch the von Jungfreund's... but that's hardly on the table anymore. What if he has another falling out with the Emperor? I must remain ever vigilant.
Perhaps the old traitor sensed my reluctance. Maybe that's why he offered to treble my lands? I don't think it was my tales of fighting orcs in the mountains. I will be named Baron of the Grausee. The plague has taken the old rulers and brought new opportunities. All the farmlands along the Verfelfluss and the Grausee. Thick, black soil, level terrain. Cultivated for generations, well drained, picked free of the larger rocks. Well watered and sunny. These are the great grain fields that I have so few of. How can a Reikland boy say no to lands like that? Oh, and I get tax rights for both the Verfelfluss and the road south, and fishing rights for the Grausee.
Nowhere near enough to support full battalions of soldiers. That goes without saying. But should I ever tire of war my lands offer sufficient income for a baron and his family to live in comfort.
Matters of war and commerce
My brother's trade ventures continue to generate a modest income. There is room for further expansion in the future. For the time being, however, I've decided to invest my savings (some 15000, channeled through my contacts in Bögenhafen) in the grain and livestock trade, through my Adlerverein friends. If my hunch is correct, it'll be a great investment.
That hunch has to do with the orcs and what happens when the snows melt and the passes are open for travel. Karak-Azgaraz must be kept safe, as must Übersreik and my own lands, but I can scare be held responsible for protecting the entire Vorbergland. Orks will invade the Reikland, I'm sure, and when they do, Baron Wigmar and his men will be ready to defend the Empire (for a price) and ready to supply grain and livestock to those with coin.
Matters of vengeance
There is also the Purple Hand and the last of the Wittgensteins to consider. Middenheim is high on my list of places I need to go. But I cannot leave now, not with the greenskin threat looming and so many other things to attend to. As soon as can be managed is all I can say. But I have forgotten nothing and forgiven even less. By the Light, a reckoning is coming.
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