Franz Lohner’s Chronicle – Reflections

An absent-minded man of mysteries, Franz Lohner relies on his bulging journal to keep track of occurrences, intrigues and arguments around Taal's Horn Keep. Sometimes his notes are even useful, believe it or not. The Franz Lohner Chronicles are extracts from that journal.

Now I certainly wouldn’t want to live there – or even visit, truth be told – but the Chaos Wastes really are remarkable. Bardin’s been bending my ear about this network of enchanted tunnels that sift your memories and play them back at you, if in a jumbled sort of fashion. The Pit of Reflections, it’s called. Now wouldn’t that be useful in my line of work? I don’t exactly have a mind like a steel trap, and the odd scrap of knowledge does sometimes escape. 

Naturally, it’s full of Pactsworn and beastmen – because of course it is – but I do find myself intrigued. To hear Bardin tell it, the images the Pit shows are entirely random, but imagine if there was a way to control it? Has all kinds of possibilities on a day to day level, never mind interrogation. Think of what we could learn by having a cosy chat with a ratman while watching the Pit’s illusions help us sift fact from fiction. 

If nothing else, I reckon it’d help me find my keys. Three weeks now, I’ve not been able to get into the cellar. If it goes on much longer, I’ll have to ask Kruber to force the door for me, and that man’s not exactly a precision instrument. Might be quicker and easier to ask Rosalinde to do a bit more remodelling, but I guess we’ll see.

And while we’re on the topic of unreliable witnesses, I heard a funny thing yesterday. Our Sienna has a twin sister, Sofia. Or had, I should say. Or maybe not as it turns out. It’s complicated.

Story starts back in the Estalian town of Siernos, and a rabble-rousing inquisitor named Diarno. Now, he was a self-righteous old so and so – remind you of anyone? – and in his search for a necromancer who’d been plaguing the town, he settled on one particular suspect. A young woman named – you guessed it – Sofia Fuegonasus. Rounded up a handful of priests, the city guard and took her unawares early one morning and condemned her to death.

Only Sofia wasn’t without friends, and they sent word back to Altdorf, to Sienna. By a variety of magical means, Sienna managed to reach Siernos the day of the execution. And … let’s just say things went downhill fast, once she saw her twin in shackles. 

Siernos burned for three days after that. Even today, it’s more of a scorched crater than a town. Diarno burned with it, of course. But the problem was that Sofia really was a necromancer. Same talent as her sister, same penchant for addiction, and the same lack of self-control – only she dealt in dead bodies instead of living flame. Sienna might have realised that before burning Siernos to ash, had she stopped to ask questions, but she was even more hot-headed back in those days. 

Sofia fled without so much as a word of thanks – twins they might have been, but they weren’t exactly close – and if she’d learned a valuable lesson from the event, it didn’t stick. Couple of years later, she was back to her old tricks, preying on defenceless peasants in the villages near Bilbali. Sienna couldn’t allow that and, well … let’s just say she ended up correcting her mistakes in ash and flame.

Haunted her for years, it has. She’s never spoken of it, so far as I know. I ended up piecing it together from a bunch of reports. No names, of course, but Sienna … makes an impression, shall we say, so I’ve no doubt it was her.

Which brings me back to the beginning. As far as Sienna’s concerned, Sofia’s long dead. Ash on the wind. And my Estalian agents – in whom the eagle-eyed might glimpse the odd mote of intelligence – tend to agree. But the thing about Necromancers – the really important thing – is that they have a habit of not staying entirely dead, and I’m hearing troubling rumours about one who looks more than a little like our Sienna.

Oh, it’s going to be trouble. Mark my words.