Franz Lohner's Chronicle - Staring Into the Shadows

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.

Dear oh dear, it’s raining again. Has been for days - Rhya sending weather to match my mood, I suppose - and this old roof ain’t up to it. I can hear the gutters groaning, and it’s only a matter of time before one of those superannuated pipes decides that the game ain’t worth the candle any longer. 

Some things ain’t built to last. You throw them together in the heat of the moment and surprise yourself with how effective the end result is. After a while, it becomes comfortable. Reliable. And then, somewhere along the way, you kid yourself into thinking that the current situation can go on forever. Worse, you forget how you did the building in the first place. And when something gives under the strain you’re powerless to put it all back together again.

But enough about the Ubersreik Five - or the Ubersreik One times five, as I suppose I should call them as they’re still not working together. Fixating on a problem doesn’t make it go away. It just drags you down, and Sigmar damn me for a liar if I’m not already just about as low as I can get.

At least the Pactsworn have been quiet of late, not that I find that entirely comforting. Makes me long for the days of old Rasknitt. Sure, that Grey Seer was a wicked collection of mange and teeth, but he wasn’t exactly subtle. Whoever’s running things now is keeping their cards closer than a Tilean cardsharp. Something’s going on. I can feel it in my water. You don’t live as long as I have, in the trade I’ve made my own, without having a sense for something unsavoury creeping closer whenever you’re back’s turned.

Yeah, something’s going on all right. The only question is what? What informants I have who’ve survived these last few months are as clueless as I am. In the normal run of things, northlanders are boastful and Skaven quick to chatter about their cunning plans, but not right now. The mood of the world’s shifted. It’s like … I don’t know … like everything’s suddenly got serious all of a sudden - and it wasn’t exactly sunshine and kittens before. I mean, look at Ubersreik. Or Helmgart.

Maybe it’s time I stretched my legs again? Did a bit of recruiting. After all, it’s not as though I’m doing a load of good around here.

If something’s coming, I want to know about it.

Maybe I should take a wander …