Fourth session, "Mystery of the Dying Clockwork"

Searching in the dark

Excerpts from the journal of Sergeant Robert A. Frazer, London Metropolitan Police (deceased)

Wednesday, 8 September, 1875

(I think it's Wednesday... maybe it's Tuesday. I'm never very clear on that sort of thing anymore, and have to ask Benton. But things are a bit confused. We've been underground a long time. Ruth has had to sleep a few times. Maybe it's Thursday?)

The local doctor, a woman named Ludmilla, attended to the wounds of the corporeal members of our party. She commented several times on the quality of the field dressings.

Our Ruth was already looking much better just from having a nice sit down and brew up. She was much relieved when Ludmilla verified that all the babies are healthy.

Mrs Salmalin awoke first, and Ruth was kept busy apprising her of our situation. Mr O'Flaherty seemed more troubled when he awoke. He made several grumpy and confusing comments until Ruth realized he believes he'll turn into a werewolf now that he's been bitten by one. Mrs Salmalin tried to assure him this wasn't the case. She might have been more convincing if it wasn't clear she's worried about the very same thing.

We met Stahlmachersson's nephew and sister-in-law. She seems to be a very sensible, as well as kind-hearted, woman. One wonders how she wound up hitched to Englebert. I suppose the families arranged it.

We were also visited by some elders of the local tribe. The had a number of titles, but the most important one was a German word for "Caller." Apparently that's a special kind of priest. They were both dressed in rather outlandish gear, with multiple layers of leather and asbestos. Ruth says it's probably derived from an archaic kind of mining costume: the miners who would go into dangerous places ahead of other crews would wear something like this.

One is a sour old bampot named Bafurrson, who clearly would be just as happy if the wolves had eaten us. The younger one, Schüchtern Schüchternson, is a much more agreeable fellow.

We also met a woman named Sturlessonsson, whose son, Snorri, was killed a few days ago under circumstances she finds suspicious. She came to the healing-woman's chambers to ask Stahlmachersson to look into the matter. She was told that her son died in a tunneling accident when a roof collapsed. Except that he wasn't even supposed to be there, because he doesn't do tunnelling work. His job is guard duty, most recently assigned to the same door where we entered the mine. The mother says that the boy had not come home from work at the end of his shift the day before the accident.

Stahlmachersson was clearly moved by her request, but he had to point out that under the law, criminal matters within the mine are to be handled by the Grand Count -- or his duly appointed deputy, who happens to be Stahlmachersson's brother.

Surprisingly, the brother wasn't dead set against him getting involved, though I think he did it as much as a hope that he'd leave sooner.

Ruth and I accompanied Stahlmachersson to look at the location of the mining accident, where the body was found. A mining crew had been digging a new tunnel when the shale roof collapsed. They first reported that everyone had gotten out alive. But then as they were shoring up the roof and clearing out the fallen shale, a body was discovered.

The boys on the mining crew all seem to think that the mine collapse was caused by a kind of troll or faerie that lives in the rock. There has been some kind of disagreement between these creatures and the dwarves of the mine, which would provide a motive for the attack. Stahlmachersson explained how the creatures can move through stone as easily as people walk through air, but they can also control the rock in various ways, so they could, in theory, cause a cave-in any time they wished.

Which isn't very reassuring, though Stahlmachersson's point seemed to be that if the creatures were responsible, why would they attack a single mining crew?

Stahlmachersson and Ruth next went to pay their respects to the deceased, which gave them both an opportunity to examing the body. While the boy has some bruises and contussions on his body, the only serious wound is one side of this skull is caved in. If he'd really died from being buried under a cave in, one would expect many more broken bones and such.

Ruth asked to borrow some of the boy's effects, then returned to the infirmary to see if Mrs Salmalin was recovered sufficiently to perform a History spell. She was, with Mr O'Flaherty assisting with the chanting while Ruth and Stahlmachersson went to speak with Stütz, who was on duty with Snorri the last shift before Snorri's death. Stütz lives in a sort of barracks with several other guards. Unfortunately, they were too late. Stütz was lying dead in his bunk, apparently having been poisoned.

His roommates were understandably upset. Under questioning they recalled that Stütz had obviously been upset since Snorri's body had been discovered. One admitted that he had seemed out of sorts when he returned from work the night before the body was found.

But then, today, when the news that Stahlmachersson (except they all keep calling him "Hauptknallkörper", which means "head-banger"--a nickname based on his height, one assumes) had returned to the mine, and had been asked by the acting chief mine engineer to investigate the death. He had gotten himself some ale, then said he was going to sleep early.

Ruth had already connected the mug and a small vial she found under Stütz's pillow to the poison based on the sent. Stahlmachersson took the mug as evidence, and they bother returned to the infirmary.

While we'd been away, Mrs Salmalin had cast a spell on the Snorri's helmet, since it had a rather obvious dent that matched up with the death blow. Mrs Salmalin said that the boy was on duty the night he died with his fellow guard, Stütz. They were visited by some of the "Callers" in those odd outfits. Later, Stütz tried to send Snorri off on an errand or to take a break from the rest of the shift.

Then, someone banged on the door. It was a group of humans and werewolves. One of the wolves wasn't much more than a pup, and was being held on a leash and muzzle by one of the others. Stütz again tried to get his comrade to leave or look the other way.

Snorri refused, and proceeded to record the visitors in the log book. While they were arguing someone struck Snorri from behind. A single blow that killed him instantly.

The visitors left the guard room. Stütz was left alone with body for a time. Then some more guards and a couple of the Callers arrived and took the body away in a bag. They eventually placed him under the rocks at the cave-in site.

Next, she cast the spell on the mug and the vial, and was able to confirm that Stütz placed the poison in his ale himself. He had been given the vial some time before by one of the Callers, to use "in the event of capture." Stahlmachersson said that historically certain elite guards associated with the most senior officials of the mine had been said to carry such poison to be use during times of war and such when sent on particularly sensitive mission.

While they were discussing all of this and deciding their next avenue of research, I heard Mrs Cuthbert calling me, so I went to see what was happening.

She had very disturbing news for me: Caroline was injured while riding. Lord Greyminster took all the children for a ride while some members of the household went on the King's hunt. Benton and the Inspector were with them, along with some of the servants.

The ride had been going well, when a group of wolves ran at them. Since one of the wolves called out insults in German, we presume that they were actually werewolves. Several of the horses were spooked, but with all the experienced riders in the party, most of them were brought under control before anyone was hurt.

Except Caroline's horse, which ran off at a full gallop. Caroline managed to keep her saddle and was riding it out. His Lordship and young Galen gave chase, joined shortly by Benton and the Inspector, once they were certain the other horses were in hand.

Galen became very excited and upset, and his shouting took on that thunderous quality he and his mother can do. Since he was shouting "Stop," the horse Caroline was riding decided to obey. Unfortunately, the sudden stop caught Caroline by surprise, and she went right over the horse's head.

She fractured her left leg. Benton got it splinted right away, and ascertained that her other injuries were minor.

I had to go visit her myself, of course. Mrs Cuthbert's magic touch has worked wonders, but Caroline's going to be in a splint for several weeks. She is very annoyed at the wolves.

I took the news to Ruth, and she was even more upset about it than I expect. Not that she showed it in the usual way, of course. But she started talking quite strangely to Mrs Salmalin. Then I realized she was trying to get me to tell her more information, but for some reason kept asking the question to Mrs S. Eventually it was clear that I hadn't gotten enough details, so she sent me back to Mrs Cuthbert.

I was happy to report, when I returned, that the werewolf had been captured -- shot by Sir Cosmo with one of his electric guns. The leader of the werewolves is the son of a local baron. After he and his chums spooked the horses, they ran on to cause mischief at the King's hunt. Which did not go as they expected. The King had the baron's son tossed in jail on general principle, with orders he's only to be released into the custody of his mother.

Old Sergeant Wopsle liked to do that when we brought in a particularly bullheaded troublemaker--send for his mother to claim him, 'cause it embarasses them more than getting locked up to have to be rescued by their Mum. I think this King is a bit of all right.

There'd been a number of developments while I was gone. They'd learned that the wolves had been allowed to go all the way through the mine and exit over on the Carpanian side of the border. They'd learned that Mrs Metzger's request for help wasn't passed along accurately to the superiors. And that the log book had been tampered with by one of the sour bampots. Can't tell if it's Bafursson or one of the others, even in Mrs S's visions they're all wearing those funny suits with the helmets.

Another wolf-person has joined Ruth and the others. Lichtenwaller. Was one of the Prussian soldiers we met back when the first met Stahlmachersson. Supposed to be half-vampire or some such. He can turn into a wolf. And he's another one of the Metzger boy's godparents. He'd been following the abductors' trail, came to the dwarf mine, and knew he wouldn't get a warm welcome, so he tried to sneak through.

The miners found him, ignored his badge (he wears a policeman's badge on a dog collar -- very handy for a police-man-wolf). He didn't have much new information. After Mrs Metzger was turned away at the mine gate, she went to a clearing not far away, cast some kind of spell, and then just vanished.

While Ruth Mrs S, and O'Flaherty were resting up in the infirmary again, Stahlmachersson went to the gate we think the wolves exited the mine from. While inspecting the area for evidence, he found a small locket, with a fragment of a broken mirror inside it. It's magical. Stahlmachersson says it's demonic magic. His sword glows near such things. Imagine that! I thought that only happened in stories.

Anyway, Mrs S saw an angry face or an eye in it. Decided to cast a history spell on it anyway. The locket had been in the possession of one of the wolves. He used it to communicate with someone named Lady Rosamund. The name seemed familiar. Mrs S said there had been some mention of a Lady Rosamund in connection with Lady C's grandmother when she was in Carpania. Not sure what the connection is, but we'll get to the bottom of it.

We're certain, now, that the Sturlessonsson boy was killed by a specific one of the werewolves that kidnapped the Metzger boy, and that they headed off to Carpania. Might be the same werewolves that spooked Caroline's horse. If so, I'm quite looking forward to catching up with him and giving him a piece of my mind.

Once we convince the locals to let us through, that is. There's some nonesense about O'Flaherty not being allowed down into the deep parts of the mine, because they think he's a giant. But Mrs S got rather firm on insisting that she needs her companions to go with her. The locals owe her great-aunt a "debt that can never be repaid" so she's trying to call in that marker.

I'm sure we'll be on our way soon, one way or another.

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