Return to Taalgaad
PC's (at start of session...)
- Gretchen Muller, the only female in the group. She's a Human Soldier from Ostland
- Adam, a Halfling Barber-Surgeon from The Moot
- Urdithane, an Elf Vagabond from the Reikwald Forest
- Drong Bormson, a Dwarf Marine from the World's edge Mountains, known as Karaz-a-Karak in dwarvish
- Ulrich Hortwig, a Human Bounty Hunter from Middenland
That part last week where I asked what could possibly go wrong? The answer lies in this week's game diary.
As the party started out a new day, the two who hadn't managed to catch the Grey Plague yet caught it, and Urdithane the Elf lost a Fate Point to it. (Losing this Fate Point *did* cure him of the disease, though, so all wasn't lost...)
This means that both Gretchen and Ulrich are on Day 1 of the illness, Drong is on Day 4, and Adam the Halfling and Urdithane the Elf have recovered from it (at a cost of a Fate Point each). They are keeping a close watch on how long the disease lasts, in case that's important.
As they approach the Docks of Taalgaad, they can hear weeping and wailing coming from the town. As they come into the town itself, they are met with chaotic scenes.
The whole of the Port town is in the grip of the Grey Plague.
Rats the size of cats wander the streets, feeding on the dead and dying. Religious zealots and flagellants with flaming whips and torches also wander the streets, setting alight those who carry the disease.
The gates into the City are locked, and the Watchmen and Magistrates have gone back to the City and locked themselves in. No-one is allowed in or out of Talabheim, passes or no passes.
A visit to the Municipal Entry Office confirms this - but they do at least get paid their 9 GC's each (not the Elf, as he wasn't hired in the first place) and are given a two week pass (all the guys that are left there are authorised to give) which isn't much use as the gates are locked... but it's the thought that counts...
Wandering around looking for medical aid from the Shallyans (they hear that they are in the town helping people, but haven't discovered where just yet), they see a young boy, carrying a bucket of filthy water, being attacked by what looks like a large dog. The PC's come to the rescue, only to see that it is in fact a very large rat. As it turns on them, ten more rats scuttle out of the shadows and join in the attack (These are smaller - only cat sized...)
In the ensuing battle, the Elf plays dead after losing a Fate Point, and Adam the Halfling has his head bitten off and dies, before the biggest rat is killed and the rest scurry off into the darkness.
PC Death: RIP Adam the Halfling: head bitten off by giant rat. He was the only member of the party able to read...
The lad they rescued is grateful, and tells them his Mam is ill and is being looked after by the Shallyans who have set up a makeshift hospital in a dockside warehouse. The lad leads them to it.
Just outside the warehouse / hospital, the PC's encountered a young Priestess of Shallya, who they heard muttering, 'It's a curse. A curse. Not a disease at all. I'm lost, lost.' before several of her fellows arrived and comforted her and removed her from the scene. One of the Shallyan Priests said that her name was Kristiane, just arrived from the City and was now locked out, though her father, a Watch Captain named Rudolf Nierhaus could no doubt get her in if he wanted. The PC's offered to fetch water for the hospital, and Ulrich went off to a well. On the wall of the well he discovered a silver-grey powder, and carefully scraped this up using his wooden cutlery. He was not comfortable at all with giving any of this water to the Shallyans until he knew what the powder was.
Asking what assistance they could be, the Shallyans asked the party to go and fetch a healer called Widenhoft from his shop - the Apothecary near the Wizard's Way in the nicer part of Taalgaad - he may know some herbal remedies or at least be able to offer help. So off they went.
Finding the front and back doors reinforced and locked, they saw a small open window at the back of the house on the upper level. After a few failures in climbing up the ivy, and several grappling hook-on-a-rope failures, and after Ulrich getting stuck in the window (finally getting through with a surge of strength when the Elf started feeling his backside) they managed to get into the shop only to find Widenhoft dead, slumped at his desk among his notes and books, which none of them could read. Sticking out from his neck was a strange 3 bladed throwing knife - like 3 blades stuck together in a triangle shape - which they wisely did not touch.
Returning to the Shallyans with all the books and with the news of Widenhoft's death, they find none of the Shallyans are able to read the notes either as they are written in Classical. The only part that can be read is a note written in the Reikspiel, which says: "In the water it was, but why? Only tempor,,," followed by a long ink blotch - he must have been writing this note as he died.
The Shallyans suggest two people who may be able to read Classical - the Magistrate who hired them to take the refugees to their town, but he's back in the City, or Kristiane's father, Watch Captain Rudolf Nierhaus, who is also in the City but who guards the gate at the end of the Wizard's Way. Taking Kristiane with them, they approach the gate to the City.
And they are let in to see the Captain with no real drama. They tell him about the death of Widenhoft, and he seems quite shocked. He says, 'They know. Taal's blood, they know!' When asked 'who knows?' he replies, 'The rats that walk as Men.' He reads Widenhoft's notes, translating some of the passages thus:
- Some notations written in Classical in the margins of a Tilean book called "The Plague & the Principality" say, "Enchanted how? To what purpose?"
- A note at the end of the same book is the one written in Reikspiel which the Shallyans have already read to them - "In the water it was, but why? Only tempor,,," followed by that long ink blotch
- Several sheets of notes in Classical that the Captain cannot figure out
When the Captain translates some notes relating to a silvery grey powder being "not an inoculant - an antidote!" Ulrich quickly licks clean the powder he had collected with his wooden cutlery, happily stating, 'Now you have to keep me alive for my antibodies!!' - sure enough, all trace of the Grey Plague immediately disappears. Until the next morning when it comes back... oh, well.
Captain Nierhaus concludes their meeting by telling them they have to get into Talabheim, but that they cannot go through the main gate as no-one is allowed in or out, and even he cannot swing that. He says they will have to sneak in another way - and that they will need to go to the Taalgaad docks, and seek an Estalian man named Eladio, and tell him, "These must ride the Dragon's tongue" - he will then guide them through secret ways into the City. He tells them, 'When in the city, seek out the apocathary Daubler.' The PC's leave.
Clarify - ask the PC's if they left the notes from Widenhoft's study with the Captain, or if they took them back
On their way to the docks, they encounter a group of crazed flagellants with flaming whips who are out setting fire to anyone they think is carrying the Plague. This fight proves to be costly to the PC's, claiming the life of Urdithane.
PC Death - Urdithane the Elf - Burning-Whipped to death by a priest.
Three PC's are now left alive, and they are all wounded. Because of this, when they saw hundreds of refugees charging up the street toards the Wizard's way and the gate to Talabheim, they stepped out of the way and let them pass, to be massacred at the gate by the guards on the rooftops with their crossbows, cannons and boiling oil.
They see a fair number of rats around the city, and drong tries to kick one. It dodges his kick and sinks its teeth into his throat, not causing any Wound damage, but giving him a case of the Galloping Trots. The other PC's are asked to remind the GM to apply the effects of this disease to him in the next session.
They returned to the pub where they met three new guys interested in adventuring (well, more likely they were interested in getting the hell out of this disease ridden port and safely into the City...)
New PC's
- Gustav Olbricht - a Human Servant from a Middenland pig farm
- Mr Perfect, a Human Pit Fighter from a small town in Ostland
- Mo, and Elf entertainer from the Great Forest
They encounter and kill a group of Skaven in the tunnels, but don't search them. Eladio thinks they were running away from something, but fortunately they don't need to go in the direction the Ratmen had come from...
The session ended with the following.
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