Tunnels and Horse Manure

Our game of Zweihänder continues, with us tracking down where the slavers had taken their captives to. As always, Eva continues to record what happened in her diary.

By the time we woke up, it was raining heavily so we quickly grabbed breakfast and headed out to pick up the trail of the wagon before the tracks were washed away. With Djarin’s skills, we followed the path round to the south east of the city, where it led into a wooded area.

Eventually we came across a largish house with a barn, only about 400 yards from the city walls but hidden from site by a wood covered rise. Smoke was coming from the chimney, and there was some light peeking out from behind the shuttered windows.

We made our way around the barn, carefully navigating the highly aromatic piles of manure which had been carelessly dumped around the outside. The source of the manure seemed to be the horse which we could hear inside the barn, though there was no sign of anything else within.

As the rest of us kept watch, Calthar made her way up to the main house to try and peek inside, and identified a couple of voices. As I tried to get closer, I made enough noise to draw one of them out to investigate, providing Calthar the opportunity to give him a sudden wallop to the back of his head with the pommel of her Zweihänder. She even managed that without alerting the other person inside.

Knocking on the door, she attracted the second inhabitant out, and another head smash knocked him down.

We tied them up and searched the house, not finding too much of interest. Inside the barn there was the horse which was grateful to be fed, as well as the wagon which we had followed here. The wagon itself had what looked like hooks to attach chains to, reinforcing our assumption that these were slavers.

Further investigation of the barn revealed a trapdoor hidden beneath the hay. It was barred on this side, allowing us to open it to reveal a long tunnel heading down and to the north.

With the aid of a bucket of water, we woke the two prisoners who were both suffering severe concussion from Calthar’s pommel. One especially was having difficulty focusing and staying coherent.

After a bit of prompting, which didn’t require further violence, we determined that the two were being paid to look after the house and barn and make sure that nobody went down there. Their employers had taken a wagon in the night before last, and there had been some passengers, but they denied any knowledge of them being slaves. They’d learned not to ask too many questions.

They worked for the Heavies, a gang we had heard of operating out of the city, and worked here a couple of nights a month. Their bosses were a large woman with a scar named Rienne du Pres, and a guy called Müller. Their own names were Orlick and Craig.

Leaving them tied up, we found a lantern and some oil and headed into the tunnel. It had been constructed at some point, though intersected several more natural tunnels at various points along its length. By the time we were probably under the city it rose up to meet a blocked off part of the sewer, then continued up to another trap door.

We managed to get up through that into a small storeroom which sounded like it was part of a warehouse. There was the sound of workers to one side, and another well made and very well padded door that led to somewhere where we could hear some muffled voices.

After some attempt to determine where we were, I realised that we could hear rain on the roof, so Calthar climbed up and broke through to the outside roof where she could see the southern city wall only a few yards away.

Having located our position, we made our way back into the tunnel and returned to the house. The two guys were still there, but we let them go and warned them not to tell anyone about us. They both had huge lumps on their head where Calthar had hit them too hard, and Craig was still barely conscious. I think she would have been better off threatening them rather than hitting them – I don’t believe either would have been willing to risk their lives for their bosses.

After heading back to the city we managed to locate the warehouse, which was in the middle of the disreputable entertainment district. It seemed to be in quite heavy use, and difficult to get into during the day, so we decide to maybe try breaking in again during the evening.