We search past the next door and it is a cloakroom. There are some coins here, and the dates on the coins is 2329, and we are almost 200 years later, in 2521.

The next room is a small reading room. There is a desk and some other furniture. A suit of armor stands in the corner. A book is open on the desk, and Jean reads it to see that it is all about torture. Suddenly two irons come out of the fire and attack us. Brokk believes that he is being shackled.

Vedasi takes the book and hurls it into the fire, but some sort of a demon that looks like a dwarf emerges and begins to attack us. Jean is petrified with fear.

The demon shoots a pincer out toward Geeves and hits him in the neck. Tobruk smashes it and it dissipates into dust.

We search the rest of the room as Geeves heals Maruviel who was badly hurt. Jean finds some books that discuss monster hunters and skaven. Geeves takes the suit of armor and puts it on.

The group heads to the next room on this floor and it is another sitting room. There are dust covers on everything. We see a portrait of a chaotic beast-man with a goat’s head standing over two fallen warriors. We hear a gurgling sound and blood stars gushing from the painting. The dwarves are just able to get out of the way. Suddenly the beast man steps out of the painting and attacks us. After a few quick strokes he is destroyed as well and the room gets noticeably colder.

We head up the stairs and down a hallway and see a room that is horribly decorated. There are pentagrams everywhere. We mess them up and nothing happens.

In the next room, there is a bed here and a ghost appears. It is a middle aged man and he claims to be the manservant of the owner. He says that a magical ceremony was performed in the ceremony room or the attic and the house became cursed, and he died.

The next room is quite large and has half of a pentagram. Two more abominations are here. Jean shoots an arrow through the woman’s third eye and she crumples to the ground, dead. The man rushes at us and Tobruk crushes his arm and then takes the top of his head off. The pentagram in here is nicely made and is inlaid with silver. Brokk messes up the pentagram and nothing happens.

We go through the doors and there is a small staircase here. There is a deep dark on the stairwell and we ascend for what feels like forever. Finally we reach the top and there is a door ahead. We hear a hideous laughter. There are three thrones in the room with small tables between. Each one has a plain gray robe lying on the throne and each table has a golden bowl. A sealed vial and a towel are next to each.

Brokk sits on one of the thrones but nothing happens. We approach the door at the end of the room and a ghost appears. The room gets very cold and he is wheezing. “Last ones to come. You must destroy it or perish! I meddled with time and raw chaos! Now it comes to destroy!” A black claw emerges and squeezes the ghost. Then it falls apart and is destroyed.

The doors swing open and we are sucked into it. The room continues on forever it seems. There is a pulsating sac of a beast with tentacles in front of us. It drips goo and has a protruding eye, and faces are screaming in its intestines. Whenever it is hit, it spews burning blood onto us. We destroy it and get away before it bursts.

Back in the previous room, we see the paintings have changed to show the modern day. Tobruk jumps through the painting. We follow him and suddenly we are on the street. We look behind us and see that there is no house. People look at us funny. We decide to go back to our boat.

Geeves checks the ring that Brokk found and it is not magical, but it has a nice ring to it.

After a long day of negotiation and figuring things out, we stay the night at the Muskrat this time. The owner lets us use our rooms that we had already arranged for. We drink at the bar and have a good time. Gottfried and the crew stay here as well.

The next morning we have breakfast. As we are here, a letter is delivered to Jean by someone named Leviticus Hanik. He has invited us to his home. We decide to go and head up to his house. It is an older area of town. We make a loop around the house and see that it’s not very well taken care of.

Going up to the front door, we see a note stuck there that says to wait in the smoking room, as he is taking care of a small matter. It is signed by Hanik. We head inside and it is quite dilapidated here. There is a mist inside and it is cold, even though it is summer outside. There are pipes all around and we take a look.

Suddenly a small hookah and figurine on the mantle emerges and begins smoking and an avatar of flame begins emerging. It attacks Brokk but he is able to get out of the way. He tries to smash the figurine but breaks part of the mantle. Geeves uses a breeze spell but it doesn’t dissipate.

The elves grab a rug and smother the fire spirit with it, and it goes out. Jean looks outside and sees people walk by, but suddenly they appear as if they have older fashions, as if they have traveled through time.

We try to get out the front door, but it is locked. The door will not break and neither will the windows. We search the smoking room and find a small bone key inside a drawer. There are no locks to open in this room, however, and the key doesn’t work on the front door.

All of us head into the next room which is a dining room that is all set. As we enter, the doors slam shut and the candles light. Geeves uses a spell to make a gust of wind again and the candles go out. Suddenly the candles and steak knives rise up into the air and menace us. Brokk jumps onto the table to attack one of the knives and slips and falls on the ground. A candelabra smashes him on the head. We smash them after a long battle.

We head out of the room and Vedasi hears a strange scraping sound. It is kind of like metal on metal. Also, the elves smell meat cooking. We go into another room and we see a horrific scene. There are two zombies and one is turning some meat on a spit. They turn to attack us and Brokk begins seeing visions of small men. It’s all very bizarre. We destroy the zombies and the little men, and search the room but find nothing else.

The door to the south of us is larger with gargoyles on it. We see a lock and the key fits into it. We open the door and there is a grand staircase.

We go into the door next to us and there is a small room. A spectral entity attacks us and wraps its hands around Tobruk. Brokk is terrified. Thankfully Tobruk kills it, and Brokk finds a gold ring under the bed.

As we come back ashore, the Harbormaster greets us and professes his thanks for saving the town from the river trolls. He says that he will pass on this information to Prince Hauptner and perhaps there will be a reward, but not right away.

He also offers us free room and board in the town for tonight as well as free docking fees. Jean makes sure that we are put up in the Shooting Star, which is the nicest place in town and also the place that turned us away when we first arrived. The maitre d is not happy to see us, but the harbormaster explains the situation and he smiles through his teeth at us and bears it.

Jean orders the most expensive thing on the menu for dinner and requests the finest room and sheets. Tobruk takes a bath and gets it all filthy. Jean steals the terry cloth robe from the room when we leave.

We begin looking for a boatman who can handle our boat to take it up the river, and we find an older man named Gottfried Schmalls. Geeves speaks with him and he agrees to come to our boat and check it out. He thinks that it is river-worthy and we would just need to get rid of the stage. We offer him 100 gold for 2 months. We will get him and all of his crew, which includes Diego Calabria, a Tillian; Giles Simone, a Britonian; Udo Richter, an Imperial; Silvia Batanero, an Estallian; Vera Holz, an Imperial. Vera appears to be Gottfried’s first mate. He will help us load up our barge and fix up the landing area a mile from our keep as a trading outpost.

Gottfried also mentions that we may have some caverns under the area of our keep that we could use for smuggling and storage. We will have to deal with “the Boss” as she may try to extort us. Schmalls agrees and he says that he will tow his boat behind ours.

Jean confesses to Tobruk that he is actually the reason that his room was broken into. He gave the woman Tobruk’s room number when they agreed to meet later. He didn’t trust the woman and thought that they might break into the room, but that Tobruk would be able to handle whatever happened.

As we are finishing our conversation with the harbormaster, suddenly we hear a loud bell ringing in alarm. Almost immediately we see three river trolls emerge from the water and start to attack people on the piers and nearby boats. They are vomiting a horrible substance on them, smacking them with huge clubs and eating them.

Vedasi fires off several arrows but they don’t seem to have much effect on the trolls. The dwarves run back to shore and then across to the other pier to reach one of the trolls. Tobruk attacks one of them several times and finally fells the beast, therefore becoming an actual “slayer of trolls.” He also yells to the others that the trolls are vulnerable to fire and also that they are stupid.

The third troll swims away. A fourth troll emerges out of the water near the town and the elves.

Brokk attacks one of the trolls but gets vomited on. Maruviel starts firing flaming arrows at it. Jean takes a lantern and hurls it toward one of the trolls but also hits Brokk and Tobruk. One more lantern toss immolates the troll entirely and he falls into the water.

The fourth troll continues to attack the elves and Geeves approaches, using a small pin to cast a shock spell on him. The others continue to shoot flaming arrows at him until one finally hits him in the heart and he dies.

Geeves heals everyone using healing draughts and poultices. We look through the troll’s bodies and find XXXXXXX. Deciding we’ll go after the trolls, we ask the harbormaster for a skiff. We head after the fourth troll and take the skiff into the troll lair. It is smelly and close in here and we see the troll and his victim (one of the townspeople) is here. After we attack it for a long while it finally goes down.

We search the area, though it is filthy, and we find a dwarven rune axe wrapped and in fairly good shape. Also there is a wood elf cloak that is magical. These make you harder to see and harder to hit by some weapons. We also find four healing draughts.

We leave and take the remains of the townspeople, and later make a small caern for their bones.

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.

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.

Jean suggests that we cut the tattoo of the woman’s head a bit so the location of the gem is obscured. We do this with an arrow. The plan is for Brokk, Tobruk and Geeves to deliver the woman’s head on the platter while Jean, Vedasi and Maruviel sneak into the basement.

Later that night we range the area to check out the topography. Jean writes notes about where things lie. We also realize that we will need to hire more staff to take care of the manor if we intend to keep it.

We wait until morning and head back to the inn. Vedasi checks the outside of the building but finds no way in, and the windows are barred. The dwarves head upstairs to see Count Von Drachensburg and present the head to him. He asks to inspect it. He gives us the money and lets us keep the platter, and we exit posthaste.

The elves head downstairs and look for Kellerman. The bartender, Klaus, shows them the way. But the man is sitting at his desk and he has been stabbed. They quickly close the doors and see if anyone else is coming after them. They take the bartender down to the cellar and explain that it’s the safest place for him to be. He agrees and reminds them that Kellerman’s associate was Bruno, the former chief torturer. In the cellar they find the diamond in a bag hidden by a dusty bottle of wine. Vedasi takes it and the bartender doesn’t notice. He places a rock in the bag so nothing looks off.

The elves and Jean say that this is a dead end and they have to go back upstairs. They give the bartender two gold crowns and tell him to go back up and keep working. He agrees. They scrub their tracks and head back upstairs. They go out of the window in Kellerman’s office. They leave his body where it is.

The dwarves come down the stairs and the others and their horses are gone. They saddle up and meet the elves a ways away from the inn and exchange information. The dwarves show everyone the money and the silver platter, and Vedasi shows the diamond. We determine that the diamond is worth more like 2400 crowns rather than the 1200 we were going to get for it.

We decide to head back to the inn and confront the Count and his men, if he is indeed a count. The dwarves go inside and Tobruk orders a cask of spirits and pays 10 silver for it. He smashes it to start a fire and chops at one of the guards with his axe. He and Brokk kill all three of the guards quickly and then walk out of the burning building as if nothing is happening. Tobruk casually tells the elves that it is “their turn.”

Patrons come pouring out of the inn, coughing, and the elves see a window opening on the second floor. A rope comes out and a man tries to descend. The elves shoot him full of arrows, and they get back into the window but that man falls down. The dwarves go back inside but the guards aren’t coming out this way. Maruviel goes around the building and sees another window. The man there is trying to get out without a rope and the elf shoots him in the leg and he falls to the ground and dies.

We hear calls from the inn, and they are saying that they give up. Brokk tells them to come out and that we won’t hurt them. Vedasi says not to kill the man-at-arms. Tobruk holds back as the guards come out, but as soon as the count steps foot out, the elf shoots him with an arrow in the shoulder. Brokk and Tobruk attack and nearly kill the man. He starts begging for mercy and the dwarves stop fighting. They ask him to confirm that he was about to murder us and after some coercion he agrees. He says that he doesn’t know where Bruno is, though. After that confirmation, Tobruk kills him by chopping his head off.

As Vedasi is turning out the count’s pockets, he addresses the stunned man-at-arms and asks him if he’d like a job. He looks stunned but agrees. Vedasi announces that he has ‘acquired’ the deed to the place.

We help put out the fire and start cleaning up, including taking the armor from the dead guards. Tobruk explains that the tavern is under ‘new management.’ He tells the staff to start working again now that Kellerman is dead and Von Drachensburg killed him. They seem to agree and Klaus agrees to manage.

The man-at-arms is working with Geeves to clean things up and lets him know that Von Drachensburg is not from around here, he has a minor keep in the Empire. No one will miss him.

We do a full search of the place and we find money in his desk. Also there is a compartment inside Kellerman’s false foot with a key in it. There is a strongbox and the key opens it. There is 1600 gold crowns in here, so we split 2100 total gold six ways.

We plan on spending some time here, potentially a few weeks, learning about the local area and allowing Jean to keep working on his maps.

We finish cleaning up the room and hiding the bodies, and Geeves recommends that we have more of a strategy next time. We agree and decide that the dwarves will go first to do close combat and the elves will cover us from behind.

Jean listens at the door and doesn’t hear anything except the wind. It seems to open to the courtyard. Tobruk goes first and hugs close to the wall. Jean listens at all of the other doors. He smells animals at one and another seems to be a kitchen.

We decide that our target is probably upstairs, and devise a plan to keep all of the doors down here closed so they can’t flank us. We use the manacles from the jail and tie ropes across the courtyard so the doors keep each other closed. No one seems to notice our little

Then we head upstairs. This is a middle level with stairs to the battlements on the south side and some other rooms. We hear voices but from upstairs several more. There seems to be a hall up there. We attempt to tie these doors closed as well.

We head up the stairs and there is a landing here with a large door to the south. We hear at least half a dozen voices from the room, and they are bragging about people they stole from recently. Tobruk kicks the door in and we advance immediately. There are eight of the Black Arrows in this room at a large table. Tobrok chops one of them in the chest and kills him instantly. Brokk stabs one but he crawls away. Three of them rush to get bows off of the wall but Vedasi throws a bomb into the back of the room and it explodes on them. There is a big cloud so it’s hard to see what is going on.

One of them slices Brokk in the arm. One runs away from Tobruk and he slices him in the leg, and the man falls and dies. Tobruk runs across the room and takes out another one who was near Brokk. Maruviel puts an arrow into the cheek of the one who stabbed Brokk, and he falls to the floor and drops his sword.

Brokk and Tobruk crawl under the table to set up their next attack (not to retreat!). Suddenly a woman appears and rides the chandelier down onto the table. It breaks and lands on top of Brokk and Tobruk, knocking them to the ground. She has a bomb with a long fuse in her hand and she threatens to blow everyone up if we don’t throw down our swords. The elves keep firing their arrows, however, hitting her in the face a couple of times.

Tobruk heaves upward and knocks her off of the table but she manages to keep her footing. She tries to hurl the grenade but the fuse has gone down too much and it explodes in her hand, turning her arm into bloody pulp. She crumples to the ground. Tobruk comes up and chops her leg off and she perishes.

Brokk runs and restrains one of the men coming in the south stairwell and as he lifts him up, Vedasi puts an arrow in his face. Maruviel hits another one right in the face. No face is safe!!

Geeves drinks a healing draught and runs forward, chopping another one down.

The fight is done and we search the woman. She has a key in her pocket and some weapons but nothing more.

We head upstairs holding shields. We see a landing with a double door to the south and a spiral staircase. The man has come through the doors and is getting medical attention by two others. We take them out and continue up the spiral staircase.

At the top is the Black Arrow’s room. The chandelier was suspended from this loft which is how she got all the way down. We find a chest under her bed and we smash it open. It has gems and coins but no diamonds. 200 gold crowns and 100 gold worth of gems.

We find words tattooed on the woman’s head in Breton (which Jean can read) and it shows the heraldry of the crossed lances in a nursery rhyme that warns children that if they aren’t good they will be locked in the cellar. We see that as a clue that it may be hidden in the cellar either here or at the crossed lances.

Looking through the rest of the keep we find no one else. There are stables on the bottom floor and four horses. We go into the kitchen and we hear whimpering from the cupboard. We coax him out and it is a fat halfling named Sleeves. We ask him to stay and cook for us and he is astonished that we were able to get rid of the Black Arrows. He seems to be the only one here. Tobruk gives him a silver piece which is more money than he’s ever seen.

The halfling cooks us dinner and we invite him to eat with us. He says that Annalisa kept all of her valuables in her room, so no leads there. He says that he worked for the previous Black Arrow which was Kellerman, and after he was injured by bounty hunters, he left and made the inn.

The second floor has six beds with foot lockers, and 100 crowns more. The pantry has beer and some sundries, and there is a well. There are food and supplies for the horses as well.

We offer Sleeves one silver per month (1/30th of the going rate) to help keep the place up and he is ecstatic. Searching the rest of the place, we don’t see any sign of the diamond. It is probably at the Inn in the cellar.

We stay the night here and plan to leave in the morning.