Chapter 12 - Edelweiss

General Summary

With the arrival of the margrave's knights, the crowd begins to disperse. But the knights look on the swirling shadows with disapproval. "What devilry is this?" their leader asks Reinhard. The scholar replies that it is not, and that he is only a practitioner of the magical arts, and was seeking to hold back the rioters in the name of keeping the margrave's peace. The knights grumble, and Reinhard heads home, while Dietmar returns to Eddi house to spend the night.

* * *

The following morning, Eddi and her guests awake, and spend breakfast trying to determine their next steps. While the giant Erich snores over in the corner, Eddi and Cilly discuss the disturbing voices they heard the previous night. Eddi surmises that she is being contacted by the fish that constantly haunts her dreams, but Cilly offers that the voice she heard made a reference to her sister not being in the right frame of mind, which is peculiar, as she does not have a sister. Franz , slightly hung over and still hurting from the haymaker he received from Erich, receives ministration from Dietmar, and then proposes picking up from the night before, digging up Manfred, and using his new magical hourglass to ask him what befell him after his internment. But Dietmar reminds everyone that today is All Saints' Day - a major holiday, and recommends leaving any gravedigging until after nightfall at the earliest. After rousing Erich, the group heads into town for services, and the festival.
Reinhard, who arrived at the Mondhausplatz earlier, watches the bishop, apparently still in town, leading worshipers out of the cathedral, and then presiding over the festival. As processioners carry banners depicting various saints through the square, vendors sell braided striezel bread, apparently baked from the grain "donated" by Wolff the Miller the night before, and other victuals. Two of the margrave's knights watch solemnly over the proceedings. The plague doctor approaches one of them, Herr Burckhardt, and they retire to the Rathskeller for a private talk. Reinhard tells the knight that several highly placed people, especially Hilda - the commander of the town guard - have been riling up mobs to remove Wolff. He also informs him that she has links to the Flagellants, and has apparently sent messengers to bring them back to Wunschau to help her bring about a coup. All this, he says, he wrote up in the letter sent to the margrave the previous night. The knight assures him that the margrave has the situation well in hand, and that he and his comrades will be seeing to closing all the gates at night. He also asks Reinhard about where his companion Franz stands in all this, and whether he would be ready to step in to take over command from Hilda. Reinhard assures him that he would be, and the two depart. Back in the square, the plague doctor is approached by Hilda herself. She asks about Franz, and tells Reinhard to make sure to tell him to choose sides wisely. If the margrave thinks he has the situation under control, he is mistaken: the Vehmgericht - a secret court that answers to none but the Kaiser is heading to town, and will bring justice to any and all heretics and corrupt officials.
In the meantime, the rest of Reinhard's companions show up, and join the festivities. Dietmar makes a call to all the parishioners of the St. Beatus Abbey to help him begin to rebuild the establishment. As his own activities on behalf of the town the previous night are well known - no one is more responsible for the availability of the day's striezel than he - he finds more than enough willing helpers, and as the procession winds down, he leads them to Westweg to begin the clean-up efforts. Franz makes another attempt to lead his companions to St. Seraphina's - his neighborhood church, where Manfred is buried. But there, they also find a small crowd, including Franz's family, which has been attending services. After chiding Franz for disappearing and not coming for morning prayer, his father Reinhardt and mother Adele invite all of his companions for a festive meal. There, they discover that the mysterious white flowers that had earlier appeared in Cilly's hand and on Eddi's gate were also left by someone: the parents wonder if they were intended for Franz. At dinner, the son reveals that he encountered Manfred's ghost two nights ago, and recommends that his other brother Rudolf become Reinhard der Schreiber's apprentice in his quest for upward mobility. The elder Reinhardt laments his son's plans, saying that it is not for nothing that he has been calling him Schwarzhoffen - Dark Hope. But Eddi intercedes for her companion, saying that the other Reinhard tells her that the Margrave is considering Franz for being the new commander of the Watch, though Reinhard the Plague Doctor warns her to be careful - Hilda seems confident that after the arrival of the Vehm, her faction will win the day.
After the festive dinner ends, the party once again postpones any gravedigging for another day, and heads back to the square to meet up with Dietmar, who returns around sunset. The top order of business is to figure out a way to deal with Hilda's power grab, and to make sure they choose the right side. Franz is anxious, and says he wants to be on the side that does not lead to his getting burned at the stake. There is some talk about going back across the river to check in on Hegenburg, or seeking out witches to help with the party's lycanthropy problem. Cilly has some ideas about which flowers to use to possibly control the afflicted from changing into rats, but it is yesterday's strange white flowers that worry her more. As talk turns to the flowers, and where they could possibly have come from, a shape in a luminescent white cloak crosses the street in front of them, and heads into an alley. Reinhard conjures a magical hand to pull its hood down, but the figure easily ducks out of the way, before turning back to them, and taking the hood off. Underneath is the visage of a young girl with platinum blonde hair and violet eyes, which bear a certain resemblance to Eddi's. She then disappears into thin air. Dietmar utters a prayer to allow him to detect magic, and he does get a sense of someone using illusions behind a house in the alley. Reinhard conjures a large disk to block access, but there is no way to get into the back without going through the house, so Franz bangs on the door, and demands that the residents open the door in the name of the Watch. Some frightened inhabitants do as they are told, but they haven't seen anyone matching the mysterious stranger's description, and have clearly not been using any magic. Not wanting to precipitate another scene, the companions decide to head back to Eddi's.
At the gate of her house, they find another large white flower. Cilly and Eddi report hearing voices in their head - a male and a female voice speaking simultaneously, but apparently not hearing their wordless responses. Suddenly, the white cloaked figure appears in front of them. The companions ask for her name, and she tells them it is Edelweiss, as is the name of the flowers she left for them. She says she has been watching over Franz, Cilly and Eddi for their entire lives, and then enters into a brief debate with Dietmar, whose demands for clarity and precise definitions she dismisses as a vain human conceit. The three implicitly understand what he never will - that we are never simply male or female, in one world but not another, of clear parentage, or dedicated to only one deity. Reinhard worries that this conversation in the middle of the street will attract undue attention, so Edelweiss tells the group that if they want to learn more about their heritage, they can meet her at one of the hidden forest cairns, where the veil between Albenheim and their own world is at its thinnest. Then she vanishes as suddenly as she appeared.
Franz, Cilly and Eddi are all stunned at what they just heard. Was this girl a relative - a sister, or, more likely, their mother? Could they really have elfin blood? This might explain Eddi's ability to see in the dark, but the other two are not prepared to accept their parents are anyone but the parents they know. Cilly begins to scratch lines in the dirt, and looks at all three putative elves with the aid of her newly fashioned magical pearl. Though the ritual cannot tell her what their parentage is, it does confirm that all three are indeed of elfish descent.
Eddi's husband Friedrich comes out to find what all the late night noise is about. Eddi wants to break the news to him slowly, so she starts by telling him that she and Dietmar have contracted lycanthropy, and are looking for ways to cure it. At this, Friedrich simply takes to his heels. Eddi figures that he's gone to his brother's, and will probably be back in the morning once he's had time to digest what she has told him, but Reinhard and Franz chase him until he runs out of breath, and doubles over, sucking for air. He tells them that he will not be back, as he doesn't know who his wife is anymore - she brings back strange men, who have moved into their house, some of them afflicted with magical curses or diseases - and he's had enough. He asks them not to follow him, and in the end, they let him go. Eddi, who followed the two men chasing her husband, overhears what was said from a distance, and when they all return, she goes into the house, in tears, adding that she is with child. The others head in, too, to ponder all they have learned on this bizarre night.

Character(s) interacted with

• Erich
• Wunschau citizens
• Herr Burckhardt 
• Hilda, commander of the Wunschau City Watch
• Franz Schwarzhoffen's family
• Edelweiss 
• Eddi's husband Friedrich

Report Date

15 Dec 2020

Primary Location

Wunschau