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Turn 12

---Back-post: Turn 11---

Urkan disappeared upstairs. There was a short pause, and they could hear the sound of Lucrezia shrieking in surprise. Storm stood up and stretched. The blanket fell away. His undergarments were heavily creased and stuck to his body where they'd dried.

"Well, it looks like we've got a few hours, at least. What're we going to do?"

---Turn 12---

Junither woke up and brushed the crust from his eyes. He stretched his short arms, yawned, and began to dress happily. His clothing was scattered around the room and well mixed in with the others. "There's nothing like a warm nights sleep" he burbled to no one in particular. Martha smiled, and disappeared back up the stairs after some clothes of her own.

Storm pulled his breeches off the bar top, his face screwing up in distaste when he realised they were still damp. Tossing them back down, he wandered over to the soup pot by the cooking pit. The embers were still glowing dully when he uncovered them. Kindling was on a shelf nearby and he quickly got a fire of sorts going.

Aenarion sat quietly in his corner of the room and meditated for a while. Storm stepped over his outstretched feet to grab his beaker before returning to the soup-pot and ladling some out. He took a small sip and smacked his lips appreciatively.

"Ahhh… That's good!" Tipping his head back, he drained the cup. "Does anyone else want any?" The others murmured in reply and he set to gathering beakers, filling them, and dishing them out.

Junither pulled on the last of his clothes, drained the beaker of soup, and headed for the larder in the corner.

"I want to go to the walls and take a look around."

"Think you'll see anything?" Xavier was still only half-awake. His body was swaddled in blanket, only his face and the hand holding the beaker of cold soup emerging.

"No, not really." The Halfling disappeared into the larder. "But I've got nothing better to do" he continued, his voice muffled. "Why, do you want to come with me?"

"I'll come with you." Duncan stretched, throwing off the blanket and standing up. "I'll go with you to the wall," he repeated, casting a glance down at the keg of gunpowder near his feet. "Maybe we could employ this gunpowder somehow, make a trap of some sort for those Goblins." He scratched and turned towards the swathes of damp clothing strewn across the inn. "Hey, Storm, do you think there'd be any guns or any weapons that might use gunpowder in this town? And if so, would there be any more gunpowder in the town?"

Storm dropped the soup-pot onto the coals and rocked back on his heels, looking thoughtful. "Hmm…" He shrugged. "Maybe. I doubt there'd be cannon, but there might be a few muskets or similar somewhere. Probably not, but you'd have to go ask around to be sure. Why, what do you have in mind?"

Duncan's eyes narrowed, and he said lowly, "Then why was there a keg of gunpowder on that supply cart anyway? There must be a reason. I'm sure the driver, rest his soul, didn't just decide to bring some gunpowder with him for fun..."

Storm stood up, scratched, and wandered back to his breeches. "Blasting? This is a mining town after all."

Amos woke up amidst a flood of coughing and spittle. "Wha, wha, wha…" He trailed off. "What's happening?"

"'Morning," replied Storm absently, pulling on his breeches. They stuck to him and he had to fight to get them up over his narrow hips. "Do you want any soup?"

"Does anyone want any breakfast?" Junither bustled into the taproom, his arms full of food. "I've found some sausage, a couple of fowl, some eggs, some oats, and some dried fruit. It's not much, but I might be able to rustle something..." He stopped, staring at Storm, Amos, Xavier, Duncan, and the others. "What's with you? Aren't you hungry?"

"I thought you said breakfast!" Xavier looked amazed. "I know an army marches on its stomach, but there's only seven of us!"

"My god, friend! Did you leave anything in the larder?"

"What's for lunch! Leftovers?"

The Halfling looked slightly upset. "I was only thinking of your health. You'll get ill if you don't eat properly."

"I'm 22. It's too late to start making up for it now!"

The Halfling's lip started to tremble. Darmon threw off the blankets and stood up. "I'll have a bit of one of those…" he waved his hand vaguely at the fowl.

"Roasting fowl?"

"Yes, one of those." Junither turned. "And some bread!" The Initiate added impulsively. Xavier shrugged.

"I'll have the same."

"I'll have the porridge, thanks." Duncan eyed the fowl distastefully. "I thought I'd escaped those things a long time a go." Storm tugged his tunic over his head, his boots on his feet, and headed outside to find the outhouse. As he left, he shouted something about fowl and Junither nodded; his mind on the task at hand.

---Skip---

Rodger pulled the fastenings tight on his backpack and swung it up onto his back. "I think I'm going to go check on the injured guy. Ming, or whatever his name was."

"Mund, and I wouldn't bother." Storm tightened his belt, changed his mind, and loosened it again. "He died."

"'His spirit roams these mountains high/a sinner trapped beneath the sky.'" Xavier quoted absently. The Elf raised one eyebrow enquiringly. "It's Tilean," the student explained, "from 'The Last Days of Sigmar'."

"No one knows how Sigmar died," Darmon interrupted, "he left Altdorf one day and no one heard from him again."

"I know." Xavier's eyes sparkled. "That's just what the book's called. Its actually not about Sigmar at all, it's about this sect of monks called the Last Days of Sigmar."

Darmon and Lucrezia exchanged puzzled glances. "I don't remember them…"

"Nor do I. Are you sure?"

"You bet - I helped dig them up!" Darmon looked away, squeamishly, and Xavier laughed.

Duncan waved goodbye to the Elf, and the seven others left the inn. The air outside was bitterly cold, but clear and sweet-smelling. The sky was a brilliant blue with just a wisp of cloud far, far overhead. The snow covered everything to a depth of a foot or more on the slanted roofs and three foot on the ground. Large drifts had built up against the walls of some of the houses, reaching almost to the eves in most cases.

Ahead was the centre of town. Lucrezia pointed out the landmarks as they stood there admiring the scenery.

"The big building, the two storey one with the tower, is Verholm's House, or just 'the house'. Lord Verholm's in Nuln with his family so there's just the Factor and the 'silent lady' living there."

"The 'silent lady'?" Rodger interrupted. "Sounds ominous." His breath steamed in the cold outside air.

Lucrezia wrapped her cloak tighter round herself. "She's sweet, I suppose. She's some cousin of a cousin of the Lord, and she's been 'sent away'. Some of the women said she'd been sent here to have a baby, but she's been here six months and nothing's happened."

"So why is she the 'silent lady'" Xavier looked cold again. His thin clothing was well suited to the heat of the desert or of the civilised north but he was savagely under-dressed for the mountains in the depth of winter.

Lucrezia shrugged. "She never speaks! Never a word to anyone, not even the servants."

"What's that big building over there?" Rodger was pointing at a squat box-shaped building at the north end of the town. High walls topped with barbed wire and glass surrounded the two-storey building.

"That's the Stores. Magden runs it - he's got a bunk somewhere at the back. All the miners buy all their bits and pieces from it. He carries a lot of different stock, lots of strange things. He gets vellum for me from Nuln, candles from Altdorf, and cheese from Bergdorf. He's a good man to speak to for winter clothing." She caught Xavier and Darmon's eyes with her own.

"And those?" Rodger was pointing east, past the House.

"The 'nodding horse' is part of the mine's drainage system. It drains Pits 9, 10, and 11. There's another one behind the Dusty Throat that drains Pits 1 and 12. Pit 13's drained by hand when it needs it. It's not very deep yet, so that's not a problem. It'll need another nodding horse putting in come spring, but that's a good few months away." She had a thought: "especially as winter came so early this year!"

Storm blew into his hands. "I need a shield. Do you think this Magden will have one?"

"Probably. Tell him I sent you and maybe he won't rip you off so badly."

Storm grinned wryly. "If he's anything like some of the quartermasters I've dealt with, I doubt that'll be enough stop him." Lifting his feet high, he stomped off through the deep snow towards the distant Stores.

"Right then." Lucrezia turned to the others. "Someone said something about going to the walls?"

---End Turn---

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