Summary of the Eisen adventure: Imperator (With Maxwell, Federico, Era, Diego, Eolo, Giovanna, and Rudiger participating) Scene 1: Picking up where we left off, Era finds out that her knife is actually one of a set of four, of which Millaret the musketeer has one. He sends her to Gunther Braun in Frieburg, who knows more. A book of the Marquis' talks of different effects that can happen when the stars are right, and mentions that the effects can be duplicated under certain conditions. For various reasons, all decide to go to Eisen. In a tavern on the way, they hear a story about a strange beast, and an odd man seeming to control it. Giovanna sleeps fitfully that night, dreaming of graveyards and whispering monks. They make it to Lowenhertz's place, and wait in a nearby tavern while Maxwell speaks with him. After waiting a bit, they're invited back, and Nicklaus, a representative of Sieger, goes in to visit Lowenhertz. After a bit, there's yelling, and Nicklaus storms out. Scene 2: We open with exposition of what Maxwell's been up to. After some trickery with letters during the previous adventure, he was suckered into promising to give land to Sieger when they invaded--but there was actually never going to be an invasion, which means Sieger and Lowenhertz may war with each other instead. As the discussion progresses, Giovanna faints. After much carrying on and fetching of water and a healer (Brunhilde), she recovers, and tries to pretend nothing happened. Lowenhertz privately tells her that his own former wife was attacked by strega in much the same manner as Giovanna seems to be being attacked. There's a commotion outside--a woman's baby has disappeared. Investigating the house reveals palmest in the blankets, a trail outside of someting being dragged, and the footprints of a peg-legged man. The trail leads to a secret underground encampment, where an odd monster is found and dispatched. They search the place, finding some books and a scrap of paper indicating fees for animals trained... including a drachen! They set up an ambush, wait a while, and a non-peglegged man wanders by, who they ignore. Nobody else comes, so after sunset, they return. Meanwhile, Giovanna discovers she has a weak swords connection with Beatrice Caligari (!) She talks with Lowenhertz a bit, and then Franz (L's servant) tells them the horses have been poisoned. Giovanna ascertains that it's an incurable, expensive poison. Lowenhertz and Giovanna ally with each other, and discuss alternate card layouts for sorte, blank sorte cards, and who might want Giovanna dead. The horses have to be put down, and everyone reconvenes for dinner. The reading of books is planned. Scene 3: Book reading kicks off with Maxwell discovering a story about a sleeping drachen, imprisoned under the earth. Lowenhertz and Giovanna find a book he's had for longer than his research started filled with gibberish that makes something click in Giovanna's head. Diego wanders in and sees nothing but blank pages. Era heads for the bar, and finds Eva Thornwald, Lowenherz's chief commander, arrived in town a day early. Everyone ends up at the bar, chats, then heads back to Lowenhertz's, where he's found in some kind of trance looking at a 'blank page'. Everyone sleeps, and Giovanna again has freaky dreams. After breakfast, all adjourn to the war room, where a plan is discussed to lure Sieger into attacking a fake arms shipment to Castille. But they'll need allies to pull it off, so Maxwell &co are sent off to Frieberg, with some staying behind to investigate local events. Travel and schemeing is planned. Scene 4: Before leaving, a delegation heads out to the monster/trainer lair, where the monster corpse has gone missing, disappeared into a pile of sand. A tripwire is discovered, and while trying to disarm it, Era is sprayed with some itchy spice. More waffling, then they return home, where Rudiger (a new PC) has just shown up. Introductions all around. Eolo and Giovanna, nascent love-bird that they are, head around town chatting with the locals and buying shovels and poison. They talk with Gregor on the outskirts of town about the history of the hideout, and about a whistling trapper that came to town a month ago. Meanwhile, Era, Diego, and Maxwell head out of town when they are immediately set upon by large hounds, going after the scent on Era. Era is knocked unconscious, but the timely arrival of a cart helps drive off the hounds. They rush back to town, where Era is treated by Brunhilde and Giovanna's potion, there's more chit-chat, and people sleep for the night. Travel is re-planned. Scene 5: A day of recovery is planned, but in the evening, Giovanna suffers another attack, this time with PermaFedericoBot present. Giovanna talks about her visions (knights in black hitting random peseants with maces, and Federico on a platform, a crowd amassed around), and Federico tells her that if she believes in them, they'll be more likely to come true. Federico receives a note, and heads off to a medical emergency elsewhere. Giovanna despairs. Lowenhertz reappears, recommends a horse trader in Frieberg for Era, has a theory that Giovanna has some Avalonian or Vendel blood in her, and recommends she not look at that wacky book again. Of course, she scurries off to find it, charms Franz into giving it to her, and finds that it's different this time. She discovers a Sorte layout she's not seen before, has a vision of a claw draging her into a pit, and then collapses, with Franz rushing in to the rescue. Franz gathers everyone else, Giovanna wakes up, and relates her latest vision, of a crowd cheering in Vodacce. What with nothing else having happened, now seemed like a good time, so the manor is attacked by hounds, let in from the back by a convenient explosion. After a lot of running around the manor, the battle finally consolidates, the guys get gnawed upon, and the ladies finally emerge from the cellar; Giovanna doing impressive damage with naught but a large stick. Brunhilde is fetched once again, healing people, but Eolo (who had fallen unconscious) is still feeling off. Following the tracks of the hounds leads them to a peg-legged track again, but this time Eolo can tell it's a fake. Maxwell discovers a powder that makes nice explosions, and Diego and Giovanna have a touching conversation. Sleep is planned. Scene 6: Most of the group heads to Frieberg, buying some no-animal scent along the way and paying a toll twice. They wander around Frieberg a bit, and Diego is asked by a random passer-by to help free his sister, locked in a basement. Max and Diego agree, go to the place, unlock the door, and Diego is lured into the basement in search of the sister's teddy bear. The door slams shut, and ruffians appear. Battle is planned. Meanwhile, Eolo and Giovanna follow fake-pegleg's trail to a ravine, and elect not to go in. On the way back, they get lost, then find another hound, this one caught in a bear trap. Eolo manages to free the hound, which limps around pathetically. Giovanna douses some bread with her sleeping potion. Drugs are planned. Scene 7: Era and Rudiger go horse-shopping, and find Miss Scarlett, a very calm-under-fire horse. Maxwell's group of thugs overpower him, while Diego battles a thug and some sort of swordsman in the basement, fighting over Diego's puzzle-sword. In the end, Diego goes down, too, and the two of them awaken later in an alley, sans posessions. Meanwhile, Rudiger and Era are randomly accosted by a beggar, which seems odd, so Rudiger shadows him. The beggar releases a pigeon, which Rudiger can't stop from taking off, but Rudiger keeps following the guy. Era heads out of town a bit, but comes across a rope being pulled up in the path, and sprints back to town, where she meets a defeated Diego and Maxwell. Rudiger buys a cloak off a random passer-by, and enters a tavern where he sees said beggar, and, disguised by booze, schmoozes with him for a while, and discovers he's Freud--a communist who beats up nobles to make them feel ashamed of themselves, not to rob them. Meanwhile meanwhile, the hound eats the meat Eolo and Giovanna gave it, and after a somewhat protracted conversation between Eolo and the dog, it trots off, our two heroes following. And, after a bit, being followed by a bear. Giovanna doses some more meat with her sleeping potion, and leaves it for the bear, who eats it and goes to sleep. They lose the hound, and examine the bear, who seems to be a normal bear. Diego, Era, and Max head to the swordsman guild to try to figure out what swordsman school the guy in the basement was using. It turns out it's a member of the Grummann school, a school with practitioners who made agreements with Legion, and who were all burned to death by a mob some years ago. It seems at least one has survived... Rudiger then talks to a guy said to deal in weapons, and gets his name ('Morte'--who was one of the guys who beat up Maxwell). Reconvening and retrieving the Marquis' sword is planned. Scene 8: Eolo and Giovanna catch up with the hound, who leads them to a clearing, where it growls and whines, and it turns out there's a buried hound there. After a bit, a 50-something man wanders by, who they hail. He's been looking for some guy making trouble in the area, training animals. They tag along with him as he checks his traps looking for weird rabbit things with claws, then the three of them track the guy into the night. Eventually, they come across him at a campfire, and try to intimidate him, but he runs off, blowing a whistle. They manage to shoot him as he flees, but howling is getting closer. Quickly searching the body, they climb trees, where they pick off the wolves that nip at their heels. They return to tracker-guy's camp, where they find a vial of snake venom, more powders and spices, and a jar with a spider in it, which Giovanna adopts. Meanwhile, the other four make it to Gunther's, a weapon salesman who tells Era her knife is one of a set of four, and that she has one of the Sidhe-fighting ones. Hers were one of the original pair, made to fight Sidhe, and someone who got hurt by one then forged a pair completely opposite those. And... Sieger has (or had) the other two, though he might have sent one off to Vodacce. Gunther had a book about 'em, too, but they and other papers were stolen the previous afternoon. He tells them the Grummann school wasn't actually Legion-followers, but some other sort of heretics, worshipping God as a she, and other stuff. But they all got burned while they were meeting by a mob who stoned those who tried to flee. The book was written by... an Anna Khar'kov, a world traveller. The group then heads off to see Trague, who talks to Max about possibly entering as an ally in the war against Sieger, and writes up a battle proposal. Scene 9: The group heads to Trague's again so they can wait in the lobby while Maxwell spins his diplomatic wiles. On the way, they notice they're being followed by a man in a blue cloak, duck behind an alley and accost someone in blue... who turns out not to be the right guy. They continue, maybe being followed again, but otherwise uneventfully. Maxwell goes in for his meeting, and Trague seems amenable to helping, pointing him to a group of mercenaries lead by a Castorp, near Seeufer and the Black Forest. In the lobby, a Hans shows up, also there for a meeting with Trague, chats with Rudiger a bit, then suddenly makes an excuse and leaves. Rudiger worries it might have had something to do with a girl, lo these ages past. A trip to Gunther's is planned, since he sent them a note to come by, as well as a trip to see Morte. Scene 10: The group heads to Gunther's, where he tells them he was asked to take a look at a sword in a few hours that sounded much like Diego's. Diego delights in getting to go along, and rustles up a disguise so that he doesn't look Castillian, and Era goes in as his half-sister. The meeting happens, and... it's the cops, set up a sting operation to catch Gunther! Oops. Era convinces Diego not to attack immediately, and they all head to the station, where Diego suspects the Braun there is accepting bribes and the like. But they manage to explain and get the sword back, assume Gunther will be released, and merrily head home, going cross-country this time for a bit, until they hear a yell from the main road, and rush back to save some poor guy from four ruffians, who scolds them for not getting there sooner. As a ruffian dies, he claims that a revolution is coming. But don't they all? Meanwhile Giovanna makes nice with her new spider, and Eolo fails to decipher the papers found on trainer dude. Giovanna tries to do a reading on the dead man, and managed to figure out he was arrogant, and that he had a very strong staves connection to Sieger. Franz is consulted, and discovers the letters are a modified form of High Eisen. He also tells Giovanna he has hidden the book where she won't find it. Thus, after Eolo heads out with some servants to bury the body, Giovanna snoops around looking for it. Eolo then heads to Brunhilde's to ID the herbs, who tells him that blue==healing, brown==healing/strength, red clovers==fireherb from Castille for bezerking, yellow, white, and orange unknown. In Giovanna's snoopings, she doesn't find the book, but she does find a large sum of money and a note, which neither she nor Eolo can read. They manage to work out who's room it was (Greely, a boy of 12), and Giovanna reads him to find the money came from Sieger (or someone associated with him). They snoop some more, and discover Lowenhertz's dead wife's correspondence... which they still can't read. Is there a doctor, or perhaps simply someone literate, in the house? --- And that's where it stopped. "Just before the big action part," to paraphrase Ghogg, remembering where he left off. Before we start up again, if you're interested, ask Ghogg about tweaking your character, now that you know more about how the rules in 7th Sea work.