Catturato ad Altdorf - La quarantena è il nostro problema più piccolo

Catturato ad Altdorf - La quarantena è il nostro problema più piccolo

It is astonishing how quickly humans adapt to new circumstances, just a couple of weeks ago, Vino wouldn’t have touched that awfully smelling porridge with a stick, and now he was paying money just to get some of it in his belly. Best not to think about it's contents too much.
He had as mentioned before, accommodated himself in the Untersteg, which was still separated from the rest of Altdorf by means of quarantine.
The Tilean mercenary had made the best of the situation, or so he thought, by getting forcibly employed by a - not so official - city official who at least gave him some errands to fulfill. Such errands, as seeking contact to various people throughout the underworld, reports on death tolls and getting rid of dead bodies, making sure there wouldn't be an uprising. Just menial tasks really, and paid in board and lodging. His loyalties were, as with every mercenary, highly dependant on his pay, but for now this was all he could get, and in earnest the only people he really cared about in this forsaken city were Oberon, his elvish companion, whom he held quite dear to his heart, even though he wouldn’t let him know that. As well as Karl, the halfling, who was still recovering from his arm amputation - if only Vino had been faster…

He had lost count of how many days or weeks they were in quarantine, but it all seemed like a constant stream of injuries, setbacks and failures. They had been assaulted on various occasions, which wasn’t uncommon in this part of Altdorf, mutants had been slain, when they attacked them, and the Untersteg was still riddled with sickness, death and filth. Those who died from the “Brüte”, as they called it, were deposed. As the inhabitants found out very painfully, not all of them stayed dead. The city guard was busy fighting the undead in other inaccessible parts of the City, and the Untersteg was left to die. At least that was the impression Vino got, and even worse, they drafted the few able men and women they found to help their cause.





Something had to be done, and with all the discontent that had been sown between the various factions in the underworld in the Untersteg, apparently it fell on the so called “Gulligedungenen”, which consisted of Oberon, Karl and Vino, to bring all the parties to a table, and negotiate measures that had to be taken. Otherwise they’d all be dead soon anyway, so there was no point in fighting one another for now.

The western Untersteg fights for survival. The Reikerbahn is it's last major resort.

In order to accamplish that, they had contacted members of various different factions. By some they had been met with skepticism, most of the time it was worse than that. There were the elves, which had stayed well hidden in their district, naturally it was Oberon's part to seek contact with them. Meanwhile Karl still had great relations with his halfling kin in the form of Matthias and Poidl, who had won the cock fighting contest due to Karl's relentless training, they knew some people in the Drecksack and that was their avenue to meet with Gantner who apparently ran things in there, since his predecessor vanished a couple of months ago.

In order to even get into the arguably worst quarter of the Untersteg the motley group had to seriously poison themselves with whatever hooch was sold as beer and spirits in the various local inns and taverns. One worse than the other, and as a reward they got tattooed thier upper arms with distinguishing little pictures that vaguely resemble different stages of the lunar circle. Unfortunately Elvino got so hammered in the first four inns, that he didn’t even make it to the last stop, and his memory of the night remains lackluster at best.

As he was told later on, Gantner, who took over the Drecksack after his predecessor Gottlieb vanished under unknown circumstances, had lured them into a trap and managed to capture the trio, who had to accept that in their inebriated state resistance was futile. They woke up the next day in an empty room, only one window and a locked door with a guard outside, or so they presumed.

Fortunately they managed to loosen the iron bars in the window and removed them, to get an escape route. But when it rains it pours, and so they found themselves high above ground level and before they could use a rope to repel down Oberon got caught and the other two had to leave him behind.

Karl and Vino were eager to free their companion and escaped over various rooftops and discovered some sort of hidden railway system that was probably used to transport or smuggle various goods.

Anyway they were still debating how to get their imprisoned elvish friend back, who was being tortured in the meantime as they later found out, when they witnessed a cart being robbed by some outlaws who had set up an ambush. Karl and Vino intervened and together with the spooked dung cart owners they managed to fend off the attackers. In exchange for that unexpected help they got some information about Gantner and his undertakings, when they suddenly witnessed Oberon being transported in some sort of hand car atop the earlier found railway towards them.

Thinking on their feet they managed to tie a rope in the path of the hand car just high enough so that Gantner's roustabout who was operating the cart would hit the rope, while Oberon who was lying flat in the cart and was heavily injured wouldn’t be affected. So the inevitable happened, and the operator got almost split in two halves, as he was violently ripped from his position and fell down off the railways. Quickly Karl and Vino rescued Oberon from his misadventure and took him back to safety.

Christian was obviously not too happy, because any chance of reconciliation with the Drecksack was even more unlikely because of another dead body adding up to the ever increasing number of victims, even though all three of them argued their case, saying they always acted in self defense.

Following that they were yet again tasked with finding other helping hands for Christian's endeavours to defend the Gulli and the Untersteg as a whole, for what was lurking underneath, they so successfully tried to ignore for now. They were supposed to recruit different groups, some theatre crew from Tilea, a so called group of assassins led by a woman called Felicia Corelli. They took a boy maybe 13 years of age with them to fulfill their task after getting some rest, and tending to Oberons wounds as good as they could.
Uncertain about how to make contact with the assassins and about the risk that was involved in dealing with people who murdered for coin, they contacted the Tileans first, or more so they stumbled upon them. On their search for them, they had encountered some gnarly mutants, which they quickly disposed off, but one of them unfortunately managed to kill of the valorous youngling who had helped fend off the mutant attack. The others got out almost unscathed, surprising given their sorry state, still, the boy was mangled pretty badly and the sight would haunt them for a long, long time.

So they got back, with their newfound friends of Tilean actors, stage crew and the likes. Vino quickly bonded with them given their shared origin, one of them even came from Pavona where the young mercenary was born and raised. They were obviously lacking in fighting abilities, but their handymen could help beef up the defenses of the cellar theatre, and some of them knew how to act out a fight, so they at least had a basic understanding of combat. The old saying ‘Beggars can’t be choosers’ had probably never been more fitting than here in the poorest quarters of Altdorf.

They still lacked, apart from equipment and able bodies, someone who could lead a company of fighters, although Vino liked to think that he could fill that role, if needed. Luckily Christian had already made out some personnel that he deemed fit to see to that task. A guard named Lorn Arkos, whose sole purpose in life was to guard an old tower filled with grain. He was contracted to some shady guy, but he was a man of his word and he would rather honor his contract and die, than break his word.

Karl had to convince a dancer going by the name of Micky who was supposed to keep the spirits high and the people entertained in these demanding times, and Oberon made contact with a toll collector named Severus. Or was it the other way around, hard to say... Supposedly the latter should lend a helping hand in collecting betting debts that had piled up and also run the rationing of the little provisions that were still available in the Gulli.

The other two both were successful, and Vino didn’t really care for how they’d achieved their goals, but he had the most difficult task of the three, that much was sure. Later that morning  he inspected the grain tower from afar and saw that there were guards in two shifts, during  the day Lorn Arkos, whose nickname was plain and simple ‘The Tower’, stood guard, and during the night someone else whose stature wasn’t quite as impressive took over.

Anyway Elvino tried to convince Lorn that he didn’t need to honor his contract in these difficult times, that he could just vanish, what good would this grain tower do him anyway, when the whole city was stormed by undead hordes. But among sellswords sometimes you find some crazy bastards, who are driven not just by coin, but some incomprehensible code of work ethics. They are good when on your side, since they won’t give in or falter in the face of adversity, but right now, Vino needed him on Christians payroll, and not guarding this stupid  tower. So after a long, and unfruitful discussion the tilean mercenary decided to talk to the man in charge directly. Who apparently resided in a wooden cabin, built as a protrusion on the outer wall of the tower.

Lorn, guarding the tower.

He was a sleazy and greedy guy, whose name Vino had already forgotten the moment he walked back out the door. But luckily he was a gambling man. The lifelong contract for Lorn was bolted to the wall above his desk, and mocked Elvino while they were negotiating terms for a release or a transfer of said legal document.

Vino made some coin while rolling dice with the guy, but he wouldn’t bet his treasured guard for any sum that was offered. Yet still he could arouse his interest, when he offered the old shipyard, now apparently belonging to Christian, as a wager for Lorn. But what would  the bet itself be about, simply rolling dice was too risky, even for Vino and this guy. Moreover they were probably tampered with anyway. So they agreed on an assignment that involved Lorn himself. Should Vino be able to enter the tower itself, not just the top or the outer part where he was now ,then he would win the contract and therefore could employ Lorn however he deemed  fit. If he were to loose, then the Christian's shipyard  would change ownership. It was a daring wager, but Vino figured in the worst case scenario he’d have to get rid of the guy, which might solve both problems at once, or so he thought.

Luckily for him he didn’t specify when Vino had to enter the tower, and so he decided to do it during the next night shift, when Lorn wasn’t on duty. The other guy couldn’t have had the same impressive reputation and vigilance. Before  that he consulted with Christian who was taken pretty aback by the wager Elvino had placed, but he gave him some great advice. In the direct vicinity of the tower lived a bretonnian guy named Pascal, who might be able to help.

After staking out the tower for a while, he contacted him, and the guy was an engineer of sorts, and had a little crane with a catapult or so on his balcony, which was supposedly used for lifting heavy loads from the ground or whatever. With a little coin to ease Pascal's reluctance, the bretonian agreed to help him. They created a slingshot with a rope and a hook attached to it, and with that apparatus and a solid amount of guesswork they managed to shoot the hook atop the roof of the tower, where it hopefully lodged itself somewhere stable.

Before climbing said rope, Vino gave it a couple of good pulls to test its weight bearing capabilities and then he vanished into the dark. It was an excruciating task, especially the second half, where it got steeper and steeper, but somehow he managed to grapple himself towards the flat tower roof unseen. The young tilean, pulled on the rope twice, given it was his only one, and Pascal loosened the other end, so that it could be reeled in. He risked a glance over the edge of the roof, down toward the guard, who had heard something, but couldn’t quite make out where the noise had come from. Now he was on the roof, but how would he get inside the tower. He checked for any hatches or other openings, but none were to be found. He decided to repel off of the edge, and to try his luck with one of the windows higher up on the tower. They shouldn’t be as well maintained as the ones further below, was Elvinos thinking.

Still exhausted from his previous endeavours he almost lost his grip, when he realized that he was too far out to reach the window. Vino had to swing towards the window, while his strength faded more and more, and he dangled a good 50 feet above the ground solely depending on the anchor atop the very brittle tower. In a last ditch effort, he managed to get hold of the window, and regain some of his composure. Somehow he could loosen the crossbar of the window, given the tower was pretty ancient, and he slipped inside the tower. He was soaking wet from his own sweat and panting heavily. Now all he needed was something that he would take as proof for his being here, and a souvenir if you will. Unfortunately, some steps could be heard nearing his position, apparently Elvino hadn’t be quite as stealthy as he had though, and so he took the next best thing, some strangely looking rope coil thing, and tried to get out of the tower. He didn’t want to gamble his bet on technicalities, because he was caught in the act, while still inside the tower and so he tried to repel down the outer wall of the tower.

His hands already sore and blistered and all remaining strength faded, he slid down the rope, but he couldn’t slow down his descent anymore. Elvinos feet tried to get a hold on the wall, but it was too slippery, and the only thing that could slow his sudden exit was the roof of the outer cabin which was mounted on the tower. Fortunately said roof wasn’t built very sturdily, such was the local manner, and he crashed right through it.

He sprained both his ankles quite heavily, maybe even broke a toe or two, but he didn’t fall all the way down, which surely saved his young life. Even while being in a lot of pain, and covered in rubble and shingles from the roof, he couldn’t help but grin sheepishly. His betting  partner, almost had a heart attack, firstly due to his sudden entrance, and secondly because of the stolen coil  from within the tower which Elvino presented.

He handed him over the contract, and kicked him out right after. On his slow, and painful way towards the cellar theatre, Vino could still hear the scolding the night shift guard received in the distance.

Christian was more than happy to not have lost his, recently acquired, dockyard and gave the young tilean some time to rest and heal. Even more important, this was when Vino got news  that Karl and Oberon were equally successful, albeit with way easier assignments, and they were sent back to their new quarters across the cellar theatre. They would be summoned early the next day to talk about the further proceedings and how to escape their dire situation. Before falling asleep tired and hurt Oberon tended to his wounds, and they caught up on their various endeavours, but all those should only prove to be menial jobs, compared to what laid ahead of them all.

The eastern Untersteg district is still more or less in peace. At the moment ...