What an exquisite mess

After an extended discussion about what to do, we conclude that our options are limited. It seems we are up against the leaders of Bögenhafen, and our list of potential allies is very short. We decide to go down to the river to talk to my old friend. He gives us a rundown of what goes on with the city council, and says that if we are going to go talk to a magister, we should choose magister Richter. He is known as uncorruptible. Before leaving we get a token, a token that will get us one favor from the river folk. Could be useful.

We proceed to talk to the priestess of Verena, Greta Harkbocka. She says that lately the city council has been very in agreement. She also mentions that Johann Thurgen came from Nuln, when his brother suddenly died.

We also speak to the magistrate; he listens, but is clearly unimpressed with our evidence.

After that we find the street urchins again. They have heard that another cut up boy has showed up. A man called Ulrik from the graveyard said this; he also said that a number of boys have been murdered and mutilated. Not good. Not good at all.

Of course, this means we head off to Morr's garden, to find Ulrik. He has records of the dead, there have been 12 of them the last 5 years. 7 street kids, 5 others. The graveyardworkers suspect the physicians guild in these 12 deaths.Something else happened 5 years ago, namely Karl Thaugens death. He looked very weird when he died, purple skin, eyes like eggs and his tongue hanging out.

When we leave Morr's garden, suddenly Morrslieb looks ENORMOUS. Very unsettling. Really not good. But not much we can do about it, so we go down into the sewers again. We find the cultist room, it has been cleaned out. We look all over, but we are unable to find any door, until Feldman finds a magically concealed door. Go dwarves, nice work. We carefully note where the room is, so that we can find the building up in the town.

Yavandir, Reinhard and Rigo map the sewer, and find another door, by following another guy in the sewers. In the area around the door we get a very strong sense of something horribly evil nearby. We drop investigating the door closer.

Up top, we run into some guards, but we talk our way out of that. Getting rid of the guards we proceed to find the building over the room; it is the Steinhager main office. And it is only 50 meters from the bakery...

We break in. Find an old guard, but we tie him up. Feldman finds a trapdoor in the basement. Up top there are offices, with a safe in Franz Steinhagers office. We crack the safe, by beating it with a really big hammer. Subtle. We find some interesting stuff. 500 gold crowns, A note from Teugen, saying a plan will be executed shortly. In the little Steinhagers office we find a note saying big brother sucks at business... Also we find a note saying "I have procured a child, so that the temple can be blessed". Again, not good. Kind of our theme for Bögenhafen.

We bring the old guard to Josef, he will bring him 2 days along the river before releasing him. We get some sleep, and get up at 9. The moon is still BIG. We head over to the Morr temple, or whatever it is that it is. On the way we are confronted by a mob of stevedores "quit what you are doing, or things will go badly". Obviously we are on to something. Good to know. Ranald will really appreciate it if I can bring some of these bigwigs down a peg or two. Also, they are definitely preying on the smallest folk. We also speak to the Verena priestess again, this time explaining almost everything. She says the skull we found in the room was the skull of a chaos warrior. In a book with a note about Morrslieb (often Morrslieb is a harbinger), there is something scribbled in the margin:

I see 7 and I see 9
all they have will be mine mine mine
The star within the circle is the sign of death
Beware the man who is not a man

The priestess goes on, the Ordo that we found mentioned in Franz Steinhagers papers is known. A secret society, known for its charity, where many of  the citys merchants are members. When we leave, a man in a square is shouting the "I see 7 and I see 9..."-verse. Then he sees me, screams "The mark of chaos is upon you, beware the bringers of chaos", and runs. Ugh. Then, Reinhard gets the feeling of being watched by something very evil. Again. Things were not good, but they have deteriorated significantly since then.