Eight days are spent at Karak Kadrin, and much of the time is given over to preparations for the long journey ahead.
Iago has been largely bored by his time at the Dwarfhold. He's eager to head out on the quest to find The Dagger, but is troubled by what he has heard of The Border Princes. The Estalian is not convinced that the twelve hundred mile journey to Mad Dog Pass is one that the party will necessarily be able to survive.
Presenting a much needed summary of the campaign's main plot points...
The Brass Skull is recovered in the foul city of Mousillon in Bretonnia. The skull is a chaos artifact holding part of the essence of an ancient Daemon of Khorne called Xathrodox.
Grand Theogonist Volkmar The Grim, high priest of the church of Sigmar, once believed dead, triumphantly returns to Altdorf from the battles against The Storm of Chaos. His successor, Johan Esmer, flees to Marienburg. Volkmar begins a purge against the Esmerite factions within the church. Esmer is then taken from his refuge in Marienburg and imprisoned in a castle in the Middle Mountains.
Fingling says nothing of Morgrim's fate, and is quieter than usual for the next few days. In the tented town south of the ruins of Wolfenburg, he secures passage as far as Talabheim on a river barge. The long journey south west to Karak Kadrin has begun, and it will take a little over three weeks.
A few days later, there is a brief stop back in Talabheim. Orpheus and Iago go shopping. Maude tries to get in contact with the Grey College, but without success. Johan Esmer has come out of his shell a little, but is still a little aloof, and uneasy with this group of friends that now know each other well. Chalcedony is fitting in well, and she and Fingling have begun to explain what their Dwarfhold is like, and that their human guests will not see all of it.
Fingling Deepdelve, a Dwarf from Karak Kadrin, found gold in Lustria, but had it stolen off him on the way home by Estalian pirates. Worst of all, another Dwarf in his party, Morgrim Dimronsson, did a runner just after they made landfall in southern Bretonnia.
Fingling made his way to Altdorf, looked up with old chum Looselips Pig-gulper, and met Maude, Orpheus and Iago. Fingling is on his way to Talabheim, to 'have a word' with Morgrim's brother, and perhaps find out where the traitor fled to...
Listen - Over breakfast in The Boar's Rest, Fingling tells Looselips about the trip to Lustria.
Fortysomething curly-haired dish Yann Dervalk was the Grey College's agent in Marienburg for many years.
Maude and Josef sought him out when they first passed through the port on the trail of Nancy Bechet. Dervalk had picked up on Nancy, (or rather, had sensed the evil emanating from The Brass Skull) when she was in Marienburg on her way to Bretonnia. She'd gave him the slip though.
