The Prophet of Grunwald - Session 2 - Mother and Child

The search for Stephanie Grasserman began in earnest.

Siegfried and Yuric pressed some of their local contacts to see if anyone saw the girl the night of the rioting at the Red Orc. They picked up no specific information, Yuric learned that more vandalism and marching happened in the Kislevite quarter and that some members of the community are keeping their children with the Apothecary, a community leader.

Olessia, although she spent time tending to her community, did pass on that she suspected Stephanie might be held aboard The Hammer, the riverboat which brought the Voice of Sigmar adherents to Grunwald.

Meanwhile, Ploog visited his cousin Hoibur Ironhammer, the town blacksmith, to obtain some arms for the search. Liking the irony, Hoibur loaned Ploog a warhammer (a Sigmarite symbol). Ploog then took some leather armor and readied himself.

Berend made a very large show of trying to track the girl and when Olessia's suggestion came to light, made an even bigger show of saying the tracks supported that theory. (They didn't.)

Ploog joined Berend, Siegfried, and Yuric in checking out the Hammer. They found Brother Wilbert (one of the Voice adherents) handing out food to a group of poor Grunwalders at the foot of the gangplank leading aboard the Hammer. After some rather ham-fisted attempts by Berend and Yuric, Siegfried laid on the charm and learned from Sister Rosa (another adherent) that Stephanie was not present at the Red Orc when she and the other adherents entered the inn the night before.

Ploog then recruited the river warden Jaromir and claimed authority to search the Hammer (along with his motley deputies). Aboard, they met Father Thomas who seemed to be the head of the adherents. He was welcoming, consenting to the search (although he seemed less than enthused with Berend in particular).

The search took all parties throughout the large riverboat, uncovering the following:

• The Hammer is exclusively given over to cabins and other inhabited areas, including converting its sizeable hold into what seems to be a place of worship.
• Siegfried found this odd as the paltry amount of stores aboard failed to explain why the riverboat seemed to be sitting low in the water (as if it had a full hold).
• The worship room seemed similar to a rustic Sigmarite chapel, although the altar space was given over to a large chair or throne where sat one Sister Beatriz, holding a sleeping infant wrapped in swaddling.
• Siegfried managed to glance at the child's beatific face, although it did not awaken.
• Ploog meanwhile found traces of relatively fresh blood droplets (shed within a few days) on one part of the worship room's wall.
• Siegfried later found similar signs in one of the small cabins and uncovered a cat-o-nine-tails (a small barbed multi-headed whip) in the cabin.

Asked about the blood, Father Thomas admitted that some members of his congregation practiced the mortification of the flesh as an expression of their faith. The river warden Jaromir backed Siegfried's play and confiscated the whip.

When asked about the stockade his followers had erected in the town square, Father Thomas said they were primarily reserved for other followers undertaking acts of faith. When pressed he admitted that the purification of sin from dens of corruption was once his people's callings.

Thomas invited all the searchers to return later in the day to observe or participate in one of the adherents' ceremonies of faith. They were non-committal.