Jean shares a copy of his map:

1. Black Arrow Fortress (“The Castle”)
2. The Crossed Lances Coaching Inn
3. “GrogHaven” (Capital of Gillemet’s lands)
4. Bischoften
5. Nuendorf
6. Martilun
7. Steinhauser Homestead
8. Halbherzig
9. Volkbach (Capital of Hauptner’s lands)

The woman is wearing an emerald green dress and has long black hair. All of the heads at the bar turn to look at her. She walks over to Jean almost immediately and asks to sit with him. He agrees and she asks if she can get them some wine. Jean waves over the less-than-pretty serving wench and asks for a flagon of wine. The woman introduces herself as Fran Poppenbutel. She says that she has come to town to marry a local winegrower, and she is from Carcassonne, which is a city in Brittonia. She seems to be floundering and is clearly not telling the truth about her history.

She talks about her husband-to-be, a man named Rutgar, and says that he is somewhat of a brute and wishes that she could be married to someone with some class like Jean. She continues to drink and is getting quite drunk, almost draping herself on him but he is staying straight. She asks to meet him later and he agrees. She leaves.

Geeves talks with the locals and they are raving about the ship that came through here the other day with all of the entertainment. Local law wants people not to stay on the boats, though, and get a room at one of the local inns.

A really big guy comes into the bar who is dressed in an unnecessarily flamboyant way. He locks eyes with Jean and points at him, saying “How dare you flirt with my beloved bride!” Vedasi and Tobruk stand in his way and tell him to leave. He suddenly bursts into tears and falls onto Vedasi, embracing him and crying all over, asking Vedasi why she doesn’t love him and instead wants a “dangerous” man like Jean. Several of us notice that his clothes and furs are not real, potentially just a costume. We convince him to try and win her back and he leaves.

Later, another man comes in who is well-dressed and dripping with charisma. He says that he is Von Barr, the lead actor and owner of Von Barr’s players, which is on the ship that we saw in the harbor. He invites us to a preview of his play which he says needs work. Brokk is pretty drunk and says that he’d like to go. The others in the party aren’t quite sure.

We finally agree to go, and head back to our rooms to stow our things before we head to the boat. Tobruk sees that his room has been tossed; the bed is askew and the pillows have been slashed. Nothing has been stolen and we can’t see how they got in the room. The door was locked and the only entry into the room otherwise is a small window in the transom above the door. We don’t see any other markings there.

We head to the boat and get comfortable on one of the piers nearby. They have chairs and a set built up. The play starts and Von Barr comes out, dressed as Sigmar. Another man is juggling ink jars. Barr has him draft a letter about finding a wife. A chest is brought onto stage and a demon pops out. It is the woman, and she tries to tempt Sigmar but he denies her.

Suddenly they seem to be addressing us with their speech, saying things about how things were stolen off of a boat and that the boat was burned. We all sense danger and pull our weapons, and rightly so as they all move to attack us.

Tobruk rushes forward and slices one of the men’s legs off, and he dies in a gout of blood. The jester jumps into the water. The woman gets slashed in the leg and also dies. Brokk chops off another man’s arms and he dies. Finally the jester surfaces and we kill him as well.

 

We loot the bodies and see that they have some gold and things, then wrap them up. Von Barr has lots of good things but we also see that he has multiple sexual organs of different types. Clearly he has been tainted by chaos.

We start searching the boat after rifling the corpses. The upper deck had the stage and a deck house. In the deck house we find that it is essentially a “green room”. There is a table with a built in large mirror, lots of tins and cakes of costume make-up, several wigs of various styles and colors on mannequin heads, and a built in cupboard that has a costume for almost any occasion. They are theatrical in nature and wouldn’t pass as “real” upon inspection much like the costumes they wore when they approached us in the Muskrat. There is also a trunk with theatrical props like wooden swords, costume jewelry, an hourglass, drinkware, etc.

Below decks, most of the hold is set up as a common room. There are bunks along the sides that are all curtained off for privacy. We find the mundane trappings of all the crew members here. The center or the hold is setup with expensive looking divans, pillows, and a valuable, if worn rug imported from Cathay (China). To the rear of the hold is a curtained off doorway. Beyond that is where the nature of this boat becomes blatantly apparent. On the headboard of the bunk is a small statue of Slaanesh, Prince of Pleasure and the Lord of Hedonism and Excess. The bed itself is adorned with expensive fabrics and silks.

There is also a wardrobe containing several sets of best craftsmanship clothing, and a decorated iron box that contains a spectacular solid silver mirror, and a best craftsmanship dagger, covered in garnets. Beyond von Barbe’s chamber is the rear of the hold which has casks and crates of food and other provisions. There is also a strongbox that contains 350 gold crowns.

While we are searching the hold, four city watchmen and the harbormaster Herr Richard Blitzen boards they ship demanding you to turn the ship over to him as property of the city of Halbherzig. They have no interest in arresting us on charges of murder as the reputation of von Barbes Players is one of dubious nature to say the least, so we have actually done them a favor, but they want the boat and all its contents.

Thinking quickly, Geeves (aided by his newly acquired mask) throws on the silver Sigmar pendant we found on the crazed witch hunter the day before, brandishes the statue of Slaanesh, and tells the harbor master that this boat is being taken into custody of the Cult of Sigmar for proper purification and destruction, and anyone who attempts to obstruct him in carrying out his sacred duties is a thrice damned servant of the Ruinous Powers, and a heretic who will be put to the torch. The harbormaster and the watchmen relent and leave irritated but not wanting their souls to be crushed for eternity under the Hammer of Sigmar’s wrath. We now own a theatre boat.