We spend some time at the inn and the keep and Jean works on some rough maps of the area. He gives out free drinks to anyone who gives out regional information.

Jean is able to find out that we’re in an area of the Border Princes that is a square section of about 6400 square miles (80 miles by 80 miles). The mountains and forests are to the north. The further south you get, the more undesirable the land is. It goes from scrub to desert badlands and also some swamp. To the east is the Border Princes of Maserschlas and to the west is Kypris. The Kyprian road connects all three areas and the tavern is on this road. The central area we’re in is contested by three separate rulers who have tried to claim the lands. Our keep is also here.

The north of the middle section is ruled by a prince named Sigismund Huptner (more farmland). The middle is taken over by Sasha Gilemet who goes by “Boss.” The south area is the principality of Capt. Orlando Giovanni. This is the least desirable landscape however it’s more powerful. One of the main cities is on the Black Gulf, so he has shipping lands.

We learn the most about the “Boss” who rules this area around the inn (however the Keep is not). She was a bandit and her kingdom was built on banditry and still supports itself from that. She has some valuable resources including some mines in the mountains.

Her main capital (if it can be called that) is Groghaven (renamed by her). It has a population of under 2000. Most other villages have between 50-150 maximum and there are only a few.

There are definitely orks in the hills just south of us, an ancient dwarven ruin and some caves, then further south of that is desert that rolls into rocky badlands.

To the east there are swamps called the “Boundless Bowels” that extend through the next principality. It is not well traveled. Most of the rivers go through the edge of there so river travel is common, but people are wary. Forests are a haven for beast men and other chaos creatures.

Jean wants to find out ways to trade with the other Princes and therefore wants to map the trade routes. He wants to sell his maps to the local lords.

We send Karl, the man-at-arms, down to the keep. We all visit the keep after a while and we see that things are in order here. We arm two men (Reinhardt and Otto) from the inn and have them stay here along with Karl. He will be training them.

Regarding the secret entrance, we put some heavy barrels on top of the trap door in the dungeon so no one can get in easily but we can get out. Brokk also organizes the dungeon in case we ever get prisoners.

As we leave from the keep we see a barge passing on the river. There is blood and gore on the boat. Vedasi rides up and calls out to see if anyone else is alive, but there is no response. We board the ship and the gore is too much for Brokk who begins losing his lunch over the side. It is slippery and listing to the side so it’s difficult for us to walk on. We hear moaning from the shiphouse and we head inside. We see the symbol of Sigmar here. There is a man inside who is barely alive and accuses us of coming to loot his things. He is completely insane and attacks us with his warhammer, and then with his black powder pistol. Tobruk slams him with his own weapon and kills him.

We look around to see what he might have hidden. Geeves finds a nail in the window frame with a strap attached and it goes all the way down into the water. It is attached to a case with a mask inside. The right side of the mask is a male face and the left is female. Geeves puts it on and as we watch, it melts into his head. We think that he looks more attractive.

The group looks around the boat for more gear. We see a bloody boot print on the deck that doesn’t match the man’s boot. We hear another boat coming by and Geeves speaks with the captain and assures him that everything is fine. He goes to leave and sees the gore on the deck and retches.

It looks like the boat definitely hit a rock but the footprints on deck were smaller. The people were killed with a combination of bladed and bludgeoning weapons.

We decide to burn the ship. After we do we see several tracks of bloody footprints that are not ours and follow them. There are four sets that go south along the river. We come upon the small village of Halbherzig which has river access and docks. We are in Hopner’s realm now. There is a “party boat” on the water that is all decked out.

The tracks head into down and toward the stables. Vedasi gives the stable boy a silver and asks for information. He said that three men and a lady came here and sold their horses, then went to catch a boat here. There are two places, the Shooting Star or the Muskrat. The former is much better kept up.

We head inside the Shooting Star. At first the maitre d is rude to us but Jean waves a bunch of gold under his nose and he becomes very friendly. Jean insists that his boots get cleaned. We see four scrubby men in the corner. Tobruk looks for dwarf beer but doesn’t find any. Jean does some gambling but we don’t find anything much interesting.

Next we go to the Muskrat and drink for a while. They have dwarf beer here and it seems to be okay. Not a lot seems to be going on here but we stay for a couple of hours and drink. As we are about to leave, a very attractive woman enters.