TEWR Ep 11 - A Study of Worms, Grubs and Crawly Things

...and that's just the people of Bogenhafen

Photo Credit​​: ©BeatBlack    URL ​http://beatblack.deviantart.com/art/flying-curdle-worm-312650102

The Enemy Within Revisited Cast:
Gustav the Minstrel/Dilettante (Davy White)
Aldor Irelgen the Barber Surgeon (Lee Hattery)

Sifting and feasting on and through the mud and shit the Bogenwyrm survives and breeds lustily, oblivious to the circling crypt crows that wait to gorge as neighbouring worms heedlessly carry on. As it would happen, these worms would have much in common with the local citizens of that burg.

It was a miserable night, looking back on things. We really had no business being out there, under that moon and against those men. That we weren’t cut and left for dead in the sewers like all those others is remarkable. Perhaps our position was so nonthreatening or their machinations were so far along that they figured they could not be stopped. Or more like, the gods would have something grander or more grisly intended for us.

         _From Fat Men Die in Their Sleep. The Early years of Gustav Menthalbaum._
            
    Aldor and I found ourselves alone at the noisy tavern left to tackle the meeting called at Herr Teugens mansion. Aldor, as you may recall, was our new docktor acquaintance and one of the few locals that seemed at all concerned with the some of the recent peculiar events going on in Bogenhafen. Falco had disappeared again, insisting on watching the sewers for any strange movements into or out of Teugan's. The fey folke we'd met the night before had not arrived at our predetermined time and place. I would later learn that all elves are deeply sensitive to lay lines and the sewers of men can confuse the energies of said magicks.

    Feeling the urgency of the hour the Docktor and I set about on the best way to monitor the suspicious organization without calling unwanted attention or danger to our own persons. Once satisfied with our plan, we headed to the Adel Ring with our journals and several bottles of wine in hand. I'll never forget that baleful moon, leering massively. I tell you now, I could feel it's poison seep into my very soul. Despite the wine and my nervousness my mouth was dry and I was incapable of any perspiration at all. 

Once at the Ring, we used the surgeons good name to not seem out of place and then situated ourselves in a place with a view of Teugen's manor.  When pressed by the diligent Nights Watch we explained that we were involved in some specialized research on the Bogen Wyrm (please see footnote) best conducted under the full moon of Morrsleib. A bottle of wine and a silver for their continued vigilance saw them on their way.

    As we watched the gate we saw  the Inner Circle members of the Ordo Septenarius began to arrive. We made notes in our journals of each of the attendees as to be able to describe them to others. Of note, each of the members brought a package, some boxed, other wrapped in brown paper. We waited there for a couple of hours and satisfied that we were not going to see anything more we made for the Crossed Pikes, and Franz Baumann.

    You see, or plan from the beginning of the night had been to collect and present Franz and his organization a wealth of incriminating evidence as a bargaining chip. For this information, we were asking for the abduction of one of the Inner Council. I can see your horror but I'll defend our actions to the grave. You didn't see the thing in the sewers that they had bound. You weren't there,  when the warp boiled forth and took Piersson  at Grunwald Lodge.  We needed to hear and have it confessed that something most vile was happening at the highest levels of Bogenhafen's council. We fully expected Bauman to seize this opportunity to lay some of the merchants low and step into one of the vacancies left in one of the shipping or freight lines. Bewilderingly, he advised us against such a plan and stated no good would come of it. I fear in our desperation we mistook his simple greed as ambition. Our hopes laid low, we began to despair when he recommend we question the younger Steinhager....

Footnote: Though at the time this was a complete fabrication, I did develop a fascination for the Bogen Wyrm and later became one of the foremost experts in the entire Empire on this most incredible creature.

by Prof Gustav Menthalbaum the Minstrel/Dilettante (aka Davy White)