Joined by Doktor Hubertus von Bora, Hilde and Christina, they say their farewells to Mungo (after much haggling about the price of his cart...) and head down the road, towards the Kislev border.
The group is allowed – like condemned men – one final night within the boundary of their homeland. There is little within the region, although a few independent farms are located here. They are very well fortified, being mostly single roomed halls with very thick walls and narrow windows. Uncomfortable and unpleasant, their primary purpose is defence.
After a day’s hard travel, they reach a shrine. There is no shelter for the travelers to use, but this is clearly meant as a resting-place. Four wooden posts hold a tiled roof above the statue that forms the shrine. Painted with faded garish colours, the small statue of Sigmar with a beer stein in one hand and a rather leery look to his face presents a peculiar image for the normally stern god, aspect of Sigmar worshiped as the leader of ceremonies.
This is not a well-developed aspect of the god since it serves no real purpose for the cult centre in Altdorf. However, in these marches, the ability to have a few drinks and forget one’s troubles can be comforting. However, the shrine stinks of urine and is covered in horse excrement.
There is a small cleared campsite, a fire pit and some kindling left by previous travelers. It is travelling etiquette to leave kindling for the next travelers along.
Towards the end of the next day of travel, as they near the (invisible) border, they happen upon a newly constructed farmhouse. A family is engaged in repairs to fences.
On seeing the group they will flee to the house. Soon, the man of the house leaves, with a drawn sword. After establishing that they aren't Kislevites (who were responsible for the damage to his fence), he introduces himself as Yakov Vorster and tells them he served in the Emperor’s Imperial Guard for 25 years as an infantryman. For this service he was awarded this land and exemption from taxes for a further 5 years. He has been here for three years, but the family can barely service the loan necessary to construct the building. He can offer pieces of information, in addition to general comments on Kislev.
- The Professor passed through here on and stayed the night of the 11th Jahrdrung. One of the daughters was ill, and he helped her. She is now fine. The three Kislevites accompanying him rested in the outhouse as the family did not trust them. Professor Stradovski stayed inside the house and was polite and (formally) friendly. They saw nothing of the Kislevites, or the equipment that they had.
- Beastmen are occasionally heard or seen in the region, but humans are the biggest worry. He has been raided four times in three years.
- Groups of travellers often pass this way. Most are clearly up to no good. There is clearly some relationship between some of the families on either side of the border, despite their claims of national interest. Some also carry slaves.
- A group of ranger-templars of the Brotherhood of the Bear passed through here last month. They looked like a bunch of poachers to me, dressed in furs and battered chainmail armour.
The next day, the group enters Kislev and get a better appreciation about Empire roads.In many places the road simply does not exist. Thieves stole the original materials, and then did the same to the repairs. These quickly deteriorated into using planks and packed earth, then simply packed earth and now no one bothers at all. Travel distances are reduced to about 10-15 miles per day, most stopping points are only about 10 miles apart. This is the safest normal travelling speed. Roads that have been allowed to degenerate like those in Kislev are not simply flat but are heavily rutted, potted and extremely uneven. Travel is uncomfortable from the bumping around and dangerous due to the inconsistency in the surface. Sensible travellers within Kislev are also very wary of the forest travel with one eye out for unwelcome predators – human or animal.
A full day will find that the road curves into a circular clearing holding another shrine. There is no shelter for the travellers to use, but this is clearly meant as a resting place.
A stone statue of Ulric stands in the middle of a small cleared campsite. There is a fire pit and some kindling left by previous travellers. It is travelling etiquette to leave kindling for the next travellers along.
Travel is uneventful the next day, although the rain reduces visibility and sounds in the surrounding forest keeps the travellers on their toes. By nightfall they reach a dishevelled wooden wall and dike protecting a village, which was established by the Tsar purely to defend his border. The inhabitants are uncertain even of its name.
Kislevite militiamen guard the gatehouse, which is reached by a crumbling ramp over the ditch. The village talks primarily Slavic, but its leader Sergei Rhuzov speaks Old Worlder fluently (if accented).
The locals are quite friendly, and will offer to share a meal with their guests. Villagers happily tell them that the Professor and his three companions stayed in the village on the night of the 13th Jahrdrung and left along the road. They kept to themselves.
Some gossip to be overheard is:
- The Tsar is unwell. He has the consumption. A call has gone out to find his missing
daughter, Jekaterina Bokha, but she will never be allowed to rule Kislev. The notion of a female tsar is too similar to the great khan-queens of old. - Zeljko Wroclaw, a travelling preacher, persuaded the burghers of Bolgasgrad to burn their worldly goods as a sign of their piety and devotion to Ulric and in the face of incursions towards the Lynsk.
- Government troops are retiring to the Lynsk fortresses in the face of increased incursions by monsters from the Wastes into the Trans-Lynsk colonies.
- Migrating trolls are being pushed southwards into the Trans-Lynsk and are now posing a severe danger to the Lynsk. What would scare trolls into moving southwards in such numbers?
Ersatzheim Village is reached late the next afternoon. This village is little more than a squalid sprawl of houses scattered around a crossroads– or what would be if the roads actually existed. There is an inn of sorts here, offeringvery basic amenities. The locals are not unfriendly, although will be unhelpful to those clearly non-Ulrican or non-Ursun in sentiments or appearances. However, money always talks in the village. The villagers will be particularly wary until the group makes it clear that they are not from the easterly village of Rheiden, whose inhabitants they will describe as bandits. Villagers will inform the PCs that a new lord has taken control over Rheiden and imported a band of Empire outlaws to attack the neighbouring settlements.
Rumours picked up here:- Rheiden is trying to steal land from this village and other local villages in the region.
- The Professor and his three companions (here the villagers say that one was female) stayed in the inn on the night of the 14th Jahrdrung. They took the easterly road to Rheiden (and to Kislev). The westerly road goes to Poltski and the northerly rejoins the main Erengrad road according to the locals.
- Boris Ursa – the Forever Tzar – has returned in the east, where he is preparing for him return to rule us all once again. The first Tsar, he promised to rise again from an eternal sleep in Kislev’s hour of need.
- The Tsar’s determination to hold back the monsters from outside Kislev’s borders is being hampered by penny-pinching bureaucrats.
- Some Sigmarite priests claim to have discovered evidence of Sigmarite occupation of these lands. It is just a pretext for an invasion.
- More Empire peasants are still being imported. They aim to replace us, and shove us up north to fight in the Chaos Wars.
- Governor Dmitri Khuzov is called the Iron Governor, as he is so hard upon his enemies.
- Governor Dmitri Khuzov is disliked by the nobility, who see him as an attempt by the bureaucrats in Kislev to erase their rights to advise the Tsar within the Duma.
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