Tagbucheinträge zur "Auf den Inseln-Kampagne"

[Bernhard]

Anstelle eines Spielberichtes werde ich hier den Verlauf unserer Kampagne anhand der Tagebucheinträge eines Spielers (Jerome, im Spiel der Buchhändler Otto Franck aus Hamburg) dokumentieren.

 

Die zwei weiteren Charaktere der Kampagne:

 

Paul Wundermann, Arzt aus Augsburg.

 

Graf Johann von Eberstein aus Hamburg. Lustigerweise haben wir, nachdem er sich den Namen von Eberstein gegeben hat, in der Nähe von Hamburg auf einer Karte tatsächlich ein Eberstein gefunden. Wei? zufällig jemand, worum es sich dabei handelt (Gemeinde, Schloss, Region . . .?).

 

Die Einträge werden so übernommen, wie ich sie auch bekommen habe. Der Verfasser ist Niederländer, sie sind also nicht immer fehlerfrei, aber, meiner Meinung nach, durchaus lesenswert.

 

Hier aber nun der erste Eintrag

 

 

 

 

Hamburg (Prolog: Ein Fund vom Meer; die Kampagne wird mit den Erweiterungen von Michel Bernhardt gespielt)

 

 

 

June 4th 1923

 

Working in my bookstore I am startled at the rattling sound of the doorbell. Going to see who is in such a hurry to rush into my store like this I stumble upon Malte Griebsen, an old schoolfriend of mine whom I havenÆt seen in over 10 years. He seems very unsettled and keeps asking for a gun, which I do not have. After telling him this information he rushes out of the store again, leaving me behind puzzled.

The urgency with which he asked me this favor and his whole demenaour keep me thinking as I set off to take catalogue of my books again.

In the afternoon the phone rings and Malte is on the other end of the line. This time he asks me to come immediately to his home in the Kabelbergstrasse 25 on the 3rd floor. Under no circumstances should I call the police and conveys to me that he hears strange voices and a swooshing sound. Also ætheyÆ are coming to get him.

 

Knowing that a customer of mine, Johan von Eberstein, has a brother with similar symptoms and his urge of finding out what has happened to his brother, (He always asks for certain kinds of books which leave me no doubt he uses these to find out more about what happened to his brother Albert) I decide to give Johan a call to come immediately so that we can visit my friend together.

 

The evening sets as we arrive in the narrow Kabelbergstrasse. From one apartment Prussian marching music is hearable. We go up to the 3rd floor where we find that one stair is not exactly how it should be, but ignoring this we open the door. A pungent smell of gunpowder fills my nostrils and sets my spirit in alarm. A light whimpering of a person is audible from upstairs. Going more up the smell of wine is omnipresent and find wooden figures on the table. Taking a closer look they are figures of women and a male deer. All the female figures are carved out in excruciating detail and appear to be of one and the same woman.

 

Going in the next room we had a terrible fright. There was Malte with strange marks carved in his back! Tied to the chair we try to help him only to discover that his eyes are cut out! The fright this gave me is indescribable and sends shivers down my spine as I write this story down. His tongue had been cut out and put in a preserving jar. In the drawer next to Malte we find letters and two business cards of an antique shop and unique items. Also a kind of plaquette of 1 by 1 cm with the number 174 on it (which seems to be a catalogue number) is found. Most strange of them all though is a frog like figure made out of lead.

To our horror we are not alone in the room! The perpetrator is still there and shoots some kind of arrow at us and climbs on the rooftop. Johan pursues him but stumbles and falls down with a big shout. He is lucky to end up at the balcony some 5 meters below him. The perpetrator, an old man with a beard is not so lucky and falls down in the innergarden of the apartment complex. Johan calls the police and investigates the man, finds wrapping paper of GottwineÆs fishstube and half a bread of haring as well as a handkerchief and small arrows. The handkerchief contains a strange substance and the man also carries a key. The police arrives and it was all thanks to JohanÆs connections that we were not seen as the evildoers.

 

At JohanÆs home I try to find out more about the statue we found, but canÆt find much and set myself to sleep.

 

June 5th 1923

 

A strange dream startled me. I was in the sea and was sinking down like a brick. The water around me was cold. Looking down I was aware of some sort of city underwater, but everything was grey. The coldness seemed so real. Shadows were dancing around me and came closer to me until the cold water filled my lungs and I felt I was drowning!

 

This woke me up and what was more strange was that the small statue that I had been studying so intently the previous night had light drops of water on his neck. I look more closely at the back of the statue and discover 4 little holes. Taking out the little plaquette I discover that it is a perfect fit to this statue.

 

Johan finally wakes up and we decide to bring the statue to Georg Thilenius, who is the curator of the museum for Völkerkunde in Hamburg. He is very interested in this piece an tells us about a break line at the neck of the statue. He urges us to go to the Staatsarchiv fur Nord Deutsche Geschichte to find out more.

 

Going there I start my investigation. There is an article in the newspaper of 2 weeks ago about a theft from the Heimatsmuseum in Borkum of a similar statue, which was found by a Annette Friedrichsen of the Störtebeker Schaukammer. Johan makes a call to the Heimatsmuseum and a Gerlinde Meier working there confirms the story.

 

I try to find out more about the statue and find two references. One in the Nordische Kultgegenstande about findings from the German coast as well as the Scandinavian areas written by Herman von Francken in 1879. It contains pictures and talks about heathen and Christian culture. The statue was first found in the first half of the 18th century and was very rare on the Dutch and German islands. The writer has not seen the statue himself but draws from church sources that it has to do with the growing superstition of the people. The more important people of the islands kept it as a decorative piece.

The literary sources say the figures were made out of wood or clay. 3 churches mention that the piece is very rare. After 1733 there is no mention of the figures anymore.

 

The second source is West Frieschische Reise eines anonymous a book of about 100 pages printed in 1802 and reprinted in Berlin in 1827 with the subtitle: Begenbenheiten fur die moderne Menschen.

The story is about West-Frieschland and specifically talks about the pure nature life. It is written very erratic and mentions a fisherman on Schiermonnikoog. The fisherman complains that life is getting worse and that the island has lost all its æbeach guardiansÆ. He talks a bout a figure which is more beautiful than the sun and which will prevent the inhabitants from thunder and make them live in peace forever. The drawing contained in this book is a 100% match of the figure we have discovered!

 

Going back to Thilenius he talks about distinctive rings that are visible on the nose of the statuette, a feature that was also clear form the drawing I saw in the book. Another interesting thing he mentions is that the head seem to contain pores as if it was some kind of skin. Also there seems to be a golden twinkle at the 4th fold of the leg. The mayor of Borkum is called and it is decided that Johan and I have to deliver the statuette personally to the citizens of Borkum and spent a well deserved holiday there.

 

We try to investigate the Fischstube that was mentioned in the wrappingpaper and set off to the harbor. The woman working there does recall the old man and tells us he arrived around 3 weeks ago and that he came every day to buy a bread with haring. Half of it he ate, the other half he didnÆt. She also says he stayed in a Seemannsspital (cheap hostel) near here. The way to investigate is blocked by some sailors and after narrowly excaping a brawl we make it back in the evening. We find out the key we found on the old manÆs body fits to his room. We find a preserving jar with a salty liquid in it on one of the tables. Opening the bathroom door a giant dog is waiting for us and jumps out. Johan doesnÆt hesitate and shoots the dog to a pulp with a mere 2 shots and knowing we donÆt have much time before people will come inside we make a last effort to find something useful. This is found at the back of the toilet where we find 7 golden coins, all from different periods and a rough surface. We barely escape from the harbor and decide to keep ourselves out of view for some time.

 

[Bernhard]

Borkum (Mediis tranquillum in undis 1)

 

 

 

 

June 16th 1923

 

A nice June morning greets us as we set foot on the ôRheinlandö who will bring us across the sea to Borkum. Since my mood has calmed down considerably after the events of two weeks ago I drink an absinthe with my friend Johan when an old friend of his Konrad von Gehrenfels approaches us. This man is quit a party animal it seems and a very friendly man. He introduces us to Paul Wundermann a doctor from Augsburg who is specialized in the lung and throat parts of the body. We decide to have our rooms in the same æNordseeÆ hotel when we arrive on the island. The hotel lies at the corner of the Keizerstrasse and the Prins Heinrichstrasse. Paul tells us he studied under the renowned prof. Wentheltstein in Basel, a name that at least to me doesnÆt ring a bell.

 

During our conversation we are becoming quite annoyed by a 40-something woman who is not really a beauty of nature and who is laughing hysterically at every joke her young suitor makes. 3 men who are standing in the vicinity keep a close eye on her.

Getting of the ship Johan hears a young man, Leonhardt von Russhold, snear: ôBurgerliche Snapfen, muss ich hier ein Lektur machen?ö and is annoyed by his dandy-like behaviour.

The mayor Peter Paul Taalke is waiting at us on the dock and invites us for a dinner on June 19th at 21:00 in the Rathuis.

 

After taking a pitoresque train towards the town center we arrive in our hotel and after unpacking our stuff Paul and Johan decide to soak in some seawater. I started to feel the absinthe working already so decided that a short walk around town would set my spirits straight. I go in the direction of the Old Light tower where I find a strange empty piece of land which is surrounded by a gate. Reading the sign on the light tower reveals that the tower burnt down in 1873. I walk on and make the acquaintance with one of the locals on my way to the French outpost. The French occupied Borkum from 1810 until 1814 and this fortress was built in 1811. Feeling a bit tired I return back to the hotel for a nap.

 

June 17th 1923

 

At 5 am in the morning I hear the sound of horses at the hotel and decide to have a look. It is the young man of the boat whom Johan reprimanded with 2 of his helpers who set out to somewhere. After breakfast Johan and I decide to go for a stroll alongside the North beach, and while walking there we discover the young man, at the Tuskentur. His 2 helpers are diving for something and it must be at the location of the map with the X that the young Leonhardt von Russhold is studying so intently. Leonhardt is quite busy but reveals that he is looking for an artifact for his father Ferdinand who is a politician in Berlin. In the afternoon I try my luck at diving and have a nice view of the sea from a totally different perspective. I can hardly measure depth or distance but only see some rocks. All of a sudden a stream from the sea swoops me off my feet and I bump into a stone with my shoulder. Another bump knocks me out, but not just before I notice some old wooden drums and boards. In the meantime Leonhardt tells Johan about the Tuskentur and that it was actually a stream in between the East and the West island which was filled up with bails of hay. His partners Oscar and Walther are not happy with what happened to me and rush me to Paul. There Paul and his friend take good care of me and I try to sleep my pain off a bit for the rest of the evening.

 

[Bernhard]

18th of June 1923

 

Before we go to the party in the evening on the MS Gretchen, Johan and I decide to read some more things about the island, which is starting to captivate us more and more. Paul will get our tickets at the Rathaus and walk around the island a bit.

 

Searching for more information about the strange patch of land with the whale bones around it I come across an article that mentions this topic. It is written by a Gustav Kuhlmann in 1921 about the whalehunt and talks about a Roelof Gerritsz Meyer who one day arrived having caught 15 whales in 1765. This led to a boom in whale hunting, a deadly business as is well known. Interestingly, from the time Meyer started hunting whales the death rate among sailors decreased dramatically and people started to wonder how this could be. Some mention the comradery and teamwork of the sailors as the reason, but some say it was because Meyer could talk to fish or fishpeople. This story came about since he seemed to know a lot about the lifestyle of the whales.

But, the author goes on to explain, this probably rest on jealousy on the part of the other whale catchers, since Meyer caught much more whales than any other whale catcher.

 

Johan in the meantime found something more about the Tuskentur, an article also written by Gustav Kuhlmann in 1920. It tells about the possibility that the isalnd actually consisted of three parts and that it was never on any map.

Gustav Kuhlmann we find out works at the Gemeindearchif here on Borkum.

 

Paul has in the meanwhile taken care of the tickets, walked to the French camp and up to the Nordstrand where he lavishes himself on a nice cup of Frisian style tea. The cafÚ owner mentions two strange people, who looked very dutch to him, who were asking about the stortebecker treasure. Stortebecker is a pirate.

 

I try to find out more about the old lighthouseÆs fate and it doesnÆt mention anything of interest accept the fact that it used to be a church and that the archif inside was burnt as well. This is interesting information, because it shows that the churches around the island also have archives. Maybe I can find more information about the statue in one of these archives, since the sources I read in Hamburg about the statue were mostly from the church.

 

We meet Paul in the evening and set out for the MS Gretchen for the party. All the people we have met before are there including the woman with the diabolical laugh. I decide to make my acquiantance with this woman, because she does seem special in this crowd to me. Her name is Angrette and we have some small talk. In the meantime Paul is talking to Edmund Rosenstock from Hannover who keeps boasting about his seal hunting adventures and Johan is charmed by Gerlinde Meyer.

 

When I walk away a shriek is heard from Angrette and she is in the water all of a sudden. It seems my ears fooled me but I really thought I heard 2 splashes when she fell in. After the three of us jump in and ourselves get into some trouble we finally manage to get her on board and she is visibly shake nby what happened. She mentions that a hand came out of the water an grabbed her and tried to pull her under water. She has scratches on her arm and also something is shimmering, which we cannot identify.

 

Paul notices a fisherboat far away where something is hauled on board. The name is not rally visible only that it starts with ôRothà.ö

 

19th of June 1923

Today we set out for the Platentong with our guide Imo to walk on the wad. ItÆs a nice day and we brought lots of delicious things. As we walk we pass two orange towers and have a nice view of the sea in action.

 

When we are fishing I take out the coins I found in Hamburg and look at the dates and places. 2 are from Lubeck and are from the mid 18th century, one is from Bremen 1798-1810, one from Lunt (Denmark) 1537, 2 from Schlesswig 17th century an one from Eberdeen 1680-1723.

 

All of a sudden we are caught by a heavy storm and try to rush back. But the water is evrywhere and we are forced to flee to the two orange towers that we saw. There we hear a big bang as if something hit our tower and opening the hatch we discover an empty rowing boat. After the rain subsided we notice that something big hit the tower and that paint has come off.

 

We are feeling quite tired from this adventure and decide to take a rest untill we have to go to tonightÆs dinner.

 

[Bernhard]

19th June 1923

 

We take a rest from our adventure at the sea and get dressed for the big event we were here for: the dinner were we give the statue back to the island.

At 21:00 sharp we arrive and are greeted by mayor Taalke. Johan immediately has to show his speeching skills, although he is a bit too frank about the events surrounding our discovery. One person in the crowd is not happy with the return of this artifact it seems, a person we later find out to be Gustav Meinder.

After meeting some important hotel owners like Ferdinand Stockmann, Asgard Heien we meet with Gustav Kuhlman. We talk a bit but soon the bell rings for dinner.

Here we are again served with Plattfisch, a dish that is delicious, but not if you have to eat it everyday, like I have been doing. Evelyn Meinder who sits almost next to me starts flapping out some things about that in 1914 it was also a bit war on Borkum when 3 buildings blew up. Everybody in the room tries to calm her down and put a sock in it, but it all sounds strange to me. I ask Gustav Kuhlman who sits next to me and says there were some old guesthouses that were blown up by a soldier named Heinz whom they later found all crazy in the dunes the next day. One house was at the Nordstrand, one in the town centre and the other at the Sudstrand. The people donÆt like to talk about it though and Kuhlman advises me to meet him tomorrow to talk about this matter.

Angrette Keisen is awfully quiet today, which is noticeable since she was always so energetic. Paul Wundermann tries to cheer her up, but this doesnÆt have the wanted effect. She even gets much worse and although Paul puts all his energy in ressucitating her, it is to no avail and she dies.

This puts everyone in a shock and the whole dinner is ruined. Everybody looks defeated and when Johan and I are having a drink to get this shock out of our system Gustav Meinder tells one of the well known legends of Borkum that I am familiar with. The differences in his story are quite strange: the pirates drowned before the Tuskentur. Trientje Meyer yelled Dagon, Dagon when the pirates came on the beack, there was a junkfrau von Westland who was not part of the pirate gang who helped them. Trientje prayed to some klegeljung and the names Akkerman and Meyer stem from this time.

The son of the mayor is startled all of a sudden by a shadow he sees outside of the window. I rush to the window, but donÆt see anything. This really puts the guests in a foul mood and we disperse soon after.

 

[Bernhard]

20th of June 1923

 

This day can truly be called Fishpeople day, since the stories we heard and the events surrounding us were all related to ôfishpeopleö. Anyhow, I will have to start from the beginning. The people on the island have given us some more clues about the third island that was attached to Borkum and even knew the name was Band in the old days. This is what the waiter could tell us as we were having breakfast. He also told a story from his grandmother about a ship that was plundered and that the people found a strange fish, with arms and legs, but with fisheyes!

After hearing this story and laughing it off we all went to the hospital to hear the report from the coroner and what the poisoning of Angrette was. He said it was off a exotic nature and has to send it to the lab in Hamburg for closer scrutiny. It is clear that it was due to the wound that she inflicted and that it was transmitted by human means. The wound on her arm looks as if she was scratched by something with three fingers.

We set off for a visit to Gustav Kuhlmann in the Kichstrasse 5 and we are treated for a nice cup of East-Frisian tea. He lives in a nice stone house on a hill were you have a nice view of the meadows. There are many pictures on the wall and our curiosity is drawn to one picture in particular. A picture of a dark farmscene under a dark sky. Underneath the picture it reads Akkermanse Hof, Ostland, 1780 which strikes us as odd since the land of the Eastern island had not yet sunken in enough for it to build houses.

Anyhow, we let it rest and ask Gustav about his favorite topic, the Whalecatcher Meyer. He takes out a book from the 18th century and shows us some information. There are lots of theories about how Meyer knew about the life of the Whales. One story is about the contact he supposedly had with fishpeople. In 1764/65 he was the most well-known commander and also the richest and donated some ceremonial cups to the church. The cups are said to look almost alien. An English captain said that Meyer used heathen rituals to contact strange beings and that that was why he knew so much. But of course this knowledge came at a price. It is said that the fishpeople he met wanted to mate with women to keep alive, which created some strange deformities in the children on the island. These deformities would get worse over the years as the children grew. There is also a picture of Meyer with one of his sons, who also looks deformed.

When Johan is hastily looking in another book he stumbles by accident on a picture of a sailor who points at something in the sea. There is a figure in the sea that resembles some kind of fishperson. Gustav can also tell us that there is a guy Jan Lubben who lives in the dunes on the southern part of the island who claims that he has met with one of these fishpeople and spoke to him.

This all sounds strange to us. Was the Ostland used by the inhabitants for captured pirates or maybe to put all the deformed people and create these stories to ease their own minds? We certainly felt animosity between people form the westland and ostland, so would this be the reason why? And does the Akkermanse Hof have something to do with this, since the names Akkerman and Meyer stemmed from this time?

 

We are still pondering about this as we leave GustavÆs house when all of a sudden the old Gustav Meinder appears out of nowhere and warns us not to meddle to deeply in history. He used to be the old patron of the Schaukammer, but sadly his mind is not in accord anymore.

As we try to set off for the church to view one of those strange donated cups the waiter is yelling us to come as quickly as possible, because something terrible has happened. Something is wrong with Konrad who went seal hunting today in his boat. The Kodo is floating on the coast and we find the boat empty with only a torn gun in it. As we go back to the beach a crowd has gathered and point at the pier where somebody is lying in the water. Johan and Paul go and see if they can help, but they find the captain of the Kodo dead in the water. PaulÆs eye is caught by a fishingboat and asks me to have a look with a telescope. The police officer next to me is kind enough to hand me one and I see two figures on the boat and that the boatÆs name is the ôRote Herringö. This is also the boat we saw after the incident with Angrette? How come they are present for the second time when something happens?

All of a sudden Konrad is crying out of the water clinging to a log. I run towards him and he is all blue with lots of scratches. He murmers something about walking fish, with fisheyes and toes and it is apparent that poor Konrad lost it. He even cries that it will come and get him, which sends a shiver down my spine, since this is also what poor Malthe thought.

We are shaken by all these events and during dinner a couple tells a strange story about how their boat stopped all of a sudden and they were surrounded by tons of jellyfish and circled around heir boat for 15 minutes. We had enough for today and decide to drink some alcohol to get this terrible day out of our system.

 

[Bernhard]

Sorry, haben das Abenteuer zwar schon vor geraumer Zeit beendet, aber ich wei? nicht, ob ich die restlichen Tagebucheinträge noch einmal nachgereicht bekomme.

 

In jedem Fall war es ein sehr stimmiger Aufenthalt auf Borkum, ich war von dem ganzen Szenarion sehr positiv überrascht. Die Erweiterung ziehen das Ganze deutlich in die Länge. Für Spieler die gerne rollenspielen und recherchieren ideal, falls die Spieler nicht so viel Geduld aufbringen würde ich die Erweiterungen eher weglassen (den Prolog aus der CW 11 würde ich aber in jedem Fall wieder spielen).

 

Die Inselkampagne wird mit dieser Gruppe leider zu keinem Abschluss kommen, trotzdem: ich finde die Atmosphäre, die sie hergibt, wirklich gut.

[Tom]

Original von Bernhard

Die Inselkampagne wird mit dieser Gruppe leider zu keinem Abschluss kommen, [...]

 

Woran liegts? Zeitmangel? Keine Lust mehr? Was ganz anderes?

[Bernhard]

Einer aus der Gruppe war über das Ende enttäuscht, weil Lübbens einfach entkommen konnte und das kein zufriedenstellendes Ende für ihn war. Dann haben wir ein längere Pause gemacht, und nachdem der besagte Spieler ganz ausgestiegen ist, wollten die restlichen nicht schon wieder auf eine Insel.

 

Schade eigentlich, ich finde die Kampagne sehr reizvoll.

[Dark_Pharaoh]

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