Chapter 1 - In Search of the Missing Sexton
General Summary
Wolff the Miller, acting Vogt of Wunschau, has gathered the town council and the populace in the Mondhaus Platz. The Totentanz, it seems, has returned to Wunschau after devastating it a mere six months ago. Now the Sensenmann has taken the town's armorer, the two dye-makers, the fletcher, the locksmith, and the innkeeper, and there is no way of knowing how many people will succumb to the Plague this time. To make matters worse, the people charged with burying the dead have been dropping like flies, and the populace has begun to fear that they and their families will not even receive a decent Gaalite burial. In the hard-hit vorburg of Westweg just outside the city walls, the sexton of the Priory of St. Beatus seems to have gone missing. For several days, families who have lost loved ones have pounded on the door of his sacristy, but to no avail - it remains locked. People now fear the worst.
Fortunately, Wolff has been proactive. He has scraped what money he could from the town coffers, and sent Eddi - a fisherwoman and a minor local legend - up the river to Rotz , to spread some money around and lure healers away from the service of the Countess of Greifswald, and bring them back to Wunschau, where they are so sorely needed. And indeed, Eddi did not disappoint - she was able recruit two plague doctors and a healer from the Order of the Leather Belt. Another man - a foreigner - has also joined them, though it is not immediately clear how he might help - his main talent seems to be playing the bagpipes. These five have spent the night at Eddi's house, and now, they have come here to offer their help in the town's hour of need. They are Cilly - a scythe-wielding plague doctor from outside Vogelburg, Reinhard der Schreiber - another plague doctor, who is a Wunschau native returning after years spent studying abroad, Dietmar of Hauswald - a Brother of the Order of the Leather Belt, and Basil - the mysterious foreigner. Eddi - the local who has brought them here, will guide them all to the house of Ruprecht the Sexton , to initiate the search effort.
Before they head off to Westweg, Wolff asks whether anyone else in attendance will join them, given the gravity of the situation. Franz - a Wachtmeister of the town militia, steps forward. Franz's own father is also a plague doctor, and his brother was struck down half a year ago, and remains trapped between life and death. Franz is therefore motivated to resolve the matter forthwith - and in addition, Ruprecht and his father knew each other well, and Ruprecht even presented Franz with the gift of an hourglass some months ago. So Franz will accompany the newcomers as well, adding local know-how and muscle to their effort.
The six proceed outside the city walls, toward the priory. There is nothing peculiar about the sacristy at first sight. The compound on which it stands also houses a small church and cemetery, and is surrounded by vegetable and flower gardens that seem well kept. The front door, however, is locked. Eddi, who is handy in many things, begins to jimmy the door open, while her companions inspect the shutters on the ground floor (also closed and fastened from the inside). After sweating a bit - but no one outside seems to be looking - Eddi succeeds in opening the door. The group finds itself in a mud room with various assorted tools - shovels, rakes, hammers, and the like. Reinhard scans the contents and finds nothing out of place here - no signs of struggle, but Dietmar notices some muddy boot prints by the door leading to the main part of the house. They seem to be several days old.
The group proceeds inside, into the main hall. There is a fire pit (unlit), a table with six chairs, and a cupboard with some decent dishes and silverware, and two paintings depicting episodes from the life of St. Beatus. To the right of the hall is a parlor with three chairs, and a staircase leading up to the second story. The party inspects the veranda containing nothing more than a few benches, and a vestry on the other side of a door in the parlor, where there are some empty coffins (not out of place here), cabinets with candles, scissors, razors, various sorts of religious paraphernalia and some habits. One of the drawers is locked, however. The group decides to proceed up the stairs, but not before Basil plays a cheerful tune on his bagpipes, alerting whoever might still be in the house to their presence. A distinctly noxious smell is coming from upstairs.
Up the stairs is a landing with a chandelier and a painted wooden statue of St. Beatus. A door is located on the left, and a hallway straight ahead leads to the west wing of the house. Beyond the door is a bedroom with a deceased person lying in the bed. He was a young man, perhaps in his late teens. The physicians present quickly identify marks of the Plague on the body - pustules, darkened extremities, but as Cilly inspects the body closely, she finds marks of strangulation underneath the crucifix. Franz surmises that the sexton may have engaged in a mercy killing - the Plague is a particularly gruesome way to go.
The hallway contains three more doors on the left-hand side before narrowing. The first is an empty bedroom, but the second contains another corpse, in a similar condition. Reinhard and Eddi recognize him - a young man named Martin, who worked as a gravedigger and sexton's assistant at the priory. He has a money pouch on him with some pocket change, which is quickly appropriated. Beyond the third door is another dead body - a young boy, with no money pouch, and no cross. The scene is growing increasingly grizzly.
In the narrow portion of the hallway, there are two doors, one of the left, one to the right. The left door leads to a workshop, where three work tables are positioned in a horseshoe fashion. There are various tools strewn around - chisels, polishing equipment, needles and thread, and cleaning supplies. Some drawers under the workbenches are filled with more tools and rat traps. One is locked. Eddi succeeds in opening it quickly, and discovers more wooden crucifixes, with the figure of Gaal obviously chiseled off. Dietmar suggests that whoever did this is no mere heretic, but clearly in league with the Devil.
The other door leads to an unoccupied bedroom with a poster bed and a chest against one of the windows. A knife lies on a stool next to the bed. Franz inspects the bed - it looks like it hasn't been slept in for three days. Then he picks up the knife, and inspects it, while Eddi, looking for more information, uses her tools to open the chest. As she does so, the knife leaps out of Reinhard's hands, and lunges toward Eddi, nicking her on the shoulder. While Reinhard utters something under his breath, Cilly grabs a blanket and tries to wrap the flying knife in it. Eddi attempts to grab the knife by the hilt, but it eludes her, and flies at her again, but gets deflected, and sticks in the wall. Franz hammers away at it and succeeds in splitting it in two - the hilt falls to the floor, the blade remains stuck in the wall.
Having dealt with the knife, Eddi unpacks the chest. There are two printed silk drapes, and as she unwraps them, a wax doll falls out of it. It has some hair and some gold threads sticking out of it. Dietmar wonders whether the threads might belong to a high church official. As there is clearly deviltry going on here, the group talks about destroying the doll, but thinks better of it, because doing so may hurt whoever it's meant to represent. Also in the chest is some silverware and a silver plate, a skull, and a money pouch with a sizable amount of silver and copper coins. This is requisitioned.
Having carefully inspected the second story, and concluded that there is nowhere for hidden chambers to be located under the slanting roof, the party returns to the first floor. Eddi is determined to open the locked drawer in the vestry, while Dietmar and Franz look on. She manages to break her pick, so Franz smashes the drawer open with his sword. Inside is the priory's reliquary - a silver tray and a gold communion cup, some boxes with incense, two small glass vials with liquid, and wooden coffer. As Eddi handles it, the sound of pounding and groaning emanates from it, but stops after seven blows. She opens the lid and finds a wax-lined cash box with coins, many of them gold. Eddi considers taking the contents, but Dietmar insists that this is Church property, so only the money box is taken, to be returned to the Order at the earliest opportunity. Basil takes the coin box for safekeeping, while Franz takes possession of the cup and the two vials.
In the meantime, Cilly, Reinhard and Basil inspect the kitchen on the other side of the great hall. Here there is a fireplace with a handle to suspend a cook pot from, some iron and copper pots, bread ovens, four tables, and a cupboard with wooden dishes and utensils. There are a number of rodent holes in the floor here, and an unpleasant smell, though less noxious than the one upstairs, coming from beyond the door on the left. There is also a door to the right of the kitchen.
Cilly opens the door on the left, and finds herself in the pantry. The companions who were in the vestry assemble in the kitchen as Cilly and Eddi enter this chamber. There are shelves with dry goods and other supplies, sacks on the floor, and the smell of rotting vegetables coming form a wooden bin on the far side. Cilly opens one sack to inspect it, and an enormous rat with matted hair and red eyes lunges at her! Two more similar sized rats emerge from other sacks, and head toward the others...
Rewards Granted
- Money pouch (Martin)
- Money pouch (chest - upstairs bedroom)
- Stongbox (48 marks, 76 groschen, 25 pfennigs)
- 1 wax doll
- 1 gold communion cup
- 2 glass vials with clear liquid
Character(s) interacted with
- Wolff the Miller - Vogt
Report Date
22 Sep 2020
Primary Location
Secondary Location
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