Sunday 1st September 2013
Sunday 15th September 2013
Both sessions highlighter the worsening situation in Talabheim, and continued to be frustrating.
Those characters with the Grey Ague eventually recover - though not without loss of Fate Points. At one point, Mo the Elf, thinking that the Bounty Hunter Ulrich had died, threw his body out into the stables (where they have been instructed to put any dead out for collection by the authorities), leaving him to awake in the morgue, having to find his way out and back to the Threeapples naked, which did not best please him.
In revenge, Ulrich waits until Mo is asleep and then puts him out for corpse collection. When he awakens, though, it isn't a morgue. He is surrounded by a pile of twitching, stitched together body parts, and encounters a hunchback who intorduces himself as Igor. When some of the bodies move towards him, he runs away, bursting out of what appears to be a secret room in a large house in the better end of town. Without noting his surroundings, he makes his way back to the Threeapples, (through the unique method of approaching the Watch while naked...)
Daubler comes up with an antidote to the Grey Ague, but is unable to manufacture enough of it. The Shallyans are helping gather ingredients but all that will take quite some time. The disease is indeed both a magical poison as well as a disease.
After a few days, a proclamation goes throughout the city. The Duchess Elise, with the full and unanimous support of the Parliament, has declared all able bodied men are to offer their services to the City Watch, effective immediately.
All inns are required to submit the number and type of guests they have. The government has made it very clear that they will harshly deal with anyone who harbours able-bodied men from their civic duty to Talabheim. The men that show up for work detail with the Dogfaces promptly start getting referred to as “Pups” throughout the city. Most are broken into small squads with a proper Dogface to lead them and given sundry unpleasant duties to attend to, which change daily. The PC's are given the lovely task of Sewer Patrol.
After a couple of days of boring sewer trawling, as they are patrolling down beneath the Merchant District, they hear the sounds of running from the tunnel in front of them. They have just enough time to prepare themselves when a ragged figure charges around the corner.
Cloaked in dark and bloodied rags, the rat-faced beast doesn’t even pause in its flight, it merely scampers part way up the stony walls and attempts to dive past the PCs. It is obviously fleeing from something, and is not interested in fighting.
So they kill it anyway.
The wounds it was already suffering from as it ran indicate it had been shot several times by some kind of firearm.
Continuing down the tunnel, they smell something foul on the air long before they enter the low cavern at the end of it. The scent is a mixture of gunpowder, spilt blood, decay, and an unidentifiable musky scent. As they enter the room, they discover a massacre.
The bodies of slaughtered Skaven stretch out across the cavern floor as far as they can see. Many of the corpses show signs of disease. But it was no plague that killed them. The majority of the Ratmen’s corpses have been punctured, many times over, as if an entire legion of Imperial troops had turned their firearms on them. Other patrols have been in this cavern within the last day but none spoke of any such sight. The bodies have grown cold, but this butchery was recent.
Many of them have small holes in their backs with gaping exit wounds in the front. There are many steel balls embedded in both their wounds and the stone of the cavern that are clearly firearm shot. One figure in particular is different from the others. The unusual Skaven has black robes with ornate markings that appear to be some sort of runic text, though the marks bear no resemblance to the runes of the Dwarfs. It has what looks to be a single stab wound to the head, which pierced its right eye. The wound appears not to have been caused by a cut, but a blade deepened it, i.e. someone used a blade to dig out whatever caused the wound.
When they report this, Hunter Lord Ketlef Kienholtz, commander of the City Watch, declares, in lieu of any other “reasonable” explanation, the foul Skaven must have slaughtered one another. The bodies are ordered burned where they lie, and the matter is quietly covered up.
As they turn in that night, the City is overrun by Skaven - thousands of them - and the only option is to run. Though the chase was eventful, with the PC's mostly escaping into sewers, the result was inevitable:
The Ratmen seized two of Talabheim’s neighbourhoods - The Tallows and the Old Market - as well as portions of the Ratholds and part of the Wizard’s Way, and now control those areas. Talabheims Nobles are of the opinion, "what can you expect from such untrained, ill-equipped, and cowardly folk? It’s not as if the City Militia even bothered to patrol the Tallows, and the poor don't matter." One of the leading Knights of the Stag named Reinhold suggests retrieving gunpowder from the South Quarry and blowing up portions of the Tallows, which he feels nobody would miss anyway: Mr Perfect argues this point, feeling that sending Gunpowder into the Skaven controlled areas is a stupid idea...
The next day as a foul wind arises in the city and the air grows thick with the faint smell of rot. The greater bulk of Talabheim’s military forces and no small number of civilians soon show the signs of having caught the Grey Ague.
Within two days, the PCs find they are some of the only healthy members of the armed forces left in Talabheim. They are given a pay rise to make up for this...
Then the Plague Zombies start showing up.
Detlef Kienholtz, the commander of the Dogfaces, makes it clear the PCs’ gravest duty is to keep an eye out for Skaven infiltrators. In the evening, two days after the Infestation (which is what the citizens of Talabheim have swiftly taken to calling the Ratmen’s seizure of the poor neighbourhoods), the PCs hear screams echoing over the cobblestones.
They round the corner to a gruesome sight: three mostly naked men mauling a young, well-dressed man who is clearly trying to defend a young girl standing behind him. The girl is screaming as loud as her lungs allow because one of the attackers is chewing great bloody chunks out of the man's arm. All three attackers are clad in white linen loincloths and nothing else. The first of the three has no eyes in his skull, he does, however, have a wide set of blinking eyes in place of nipples on his chest. His eye sockets have both been filled with elaborately carved blue glass of some sort. The second Zombie has a dull red glow instead of eyes - in all six of his eyes, in fact, both of his hands have been replaced with leering skulls that gnash their teeth and chatter as he advances. The third Zombie is chewing on the unfortunate young man. All three are covered with elaborate, expensive looking tattoos.
Once the PCs dispatch the Undead, It takes neither Priest nor Wizard to tell the Zombies’ bodies have been modified. An expert has sutured on the various extra parts. Further, there seems to be a raised rune of some sort on each of the Zombies’ right ankles. The rune resembles a stylised G with perhaps another letter and a flourish. None of the PCs recognize the symbol. The linen loincloths that the Zombies are all wearing are, strangely enough, of a quality that even the most exacting noble would approve of.
Whilst the PCs are deciding what to do next, one of the city’s newly employed street urchin runners comes dashing up to them with a message: “Zombies! Lots! Knoll of Doctrines!” The PCs can hear screams and the muffled sounds of battle once they make it to the edge of the Taalgarten.
The scene that greets their eyes as they clear the trees of the garden and look upon the Knoll of Doctrines is one of anarchy. Varied Zombies, no two alike, wander over the brightly lit hill, attacking and being attacked in turn by a myriad of individuals in Priestly form. There, a Priest wearing the twin-tailed comet of Sigmar smashes a warhammer down onto an outstretched leg, dropping a four-armed Zombie to the ground. Here a trio of Initiates bearing Taal’s insignia are being driven back by an Undead monstrosity formed from two legless torsos stitched together at the waist. A squad of Dogfaces hack a Zombie to pieces, even as one of their fellows is being torn limb from limb.
As they reach the foot of the hill, a young man clad in sombre black robes walks over the rise of the Knoll. Even from a distance in the dark, they can see the gleaming blue of his sapphire-coloured eyes. He wanders down the mound, absentmindedly touching Zombies as he passes. Each silently falls to dust in his wake.
There is a round of cheers when the last of the Undead falls, and the PCs have time to take stock of the situation. The young man, clearly a Priest of Morr, walks up to them and introduces himself as Paul van Soleck.
He looks at them and says, “This is nothing. A display. A distraction. The true test will come soon enough. Run when you must, fight when you can. These bodies are marked. A proud sigil. An artist’s mark. She takes Van Hel’s dance too literally, I think. Though she, in turn, dances for Steeleye. Perhaps we all will.” He laughs, once, a harsh discordant sound, then turns and swiftly walks away.
The Zombies on the Knoll are similar in all respects to the Undead the characters fought earlier. None of the other combatants has much to add, though the Dogfaces do mention that there have been Zombies spotted throughout Talabheim. “The Infestation, now this. It’s as if Taal has abandoned us. At least we have an idea where all those bodies have been going, eh?”
In the morning, the PCs hear that even in the daylight, Zombies bearing the plague are still roaming the streets of Talabheim. They decide to follow up on the strange markings on the ankles of all of the Zombies - and are told to go to the Law Quarter and ask to look at the Artists Registers. They are warned that dealing with the Judges in the law Quarter can be a bit frustrating.
Asking around gets the characters directed to the Central Registry, at the heart of the Law District, located across from the courtyard that houses the Obelisk of Laws. The Central Registry consists of a very large office, in which a pale little man sits behind a massive desk. A line some thirty persons long stands in front of the man’s desk. After a 4 hour wait they are told, “You need a signature authorizing this request from your superior officer. Make certain he signs here and here. Then get this form stamped in the Hall of Records before returning here.” then the clerk says one of the signatures is too smudged for appropriate identification and demands a new one... Just as the PCs prepare to gut the law clerk, they notice a stylised G that is exceedingly similar to the Zombies’ mark on the base of a statue depicting the torture of a wracked miscreant that stands just behind the clerk. Asking about the statue gets an immediate answer:
“Ah yes, that’s a piece by Doctor Gugula Skell. Not her best work, but it serves. What? Oh yes, she lives in Talabheim. Manor District I should think.”
So off they go to the poshest part of Town.
When they get inside Skell's mansion (by kicking in the door - the place is empty) Mo the Elf recognises it from when he woke up in the morgue, but does not remember any specifics (such as where the entrance to the morgue actually was...)
There is nothing to be found in the house that the characters wouldn’t expect to find in a physician’s home. A small study holds a number of books, but they eventually discover a false-back in a closet. The back panels have been cleverly designed to roll out and away, revealing a crudely hacked staircase leading down, far below the level of the street by a good 30 feet and into a circular room.
A single table formed from a large piece of white stone rests in the centre of the room. It is covered with old stains that are clearly blood. Several other tunnels lead off into the darkness about the room. A large series of cabinets sit on the far side of the room. The cabinets are filled with an array of scrupulously clean medical instruments as well as a number of saws. One box is filled with a wide variety of string, twine, and sinews. Another holds dozens of needles, ranging from small pins to large sewing needles.
They meet Igor, who tells them that the Doctor has gone away. Igor is bound to this place and cannot leave (indeed, he crumbles to dust as soon as moved from this room - as soon as the dust is placed back in the room, he reforms to his normal self... a fact that the PC's have fun with...) and they also meet a skeleton...
“Have you gentlemen found what you came for?”
His exposed rib cage is interwoven with a series of moulded bone plates and intricately engraved lengths of steel. The blazing blue pits of fire that once held his eyes regard the characters for a moment before his weirdly echoing voice continues.
“You come too late warriors, she has already answered her master’s call. I am, or was, Christoph Baumer. I am bound to this place. I offer you the only bargain I can. Swear in holy Sigmar’s name that you will release me if I will tell you that which you need to know. You must defeat me in one on one combat and have a Priest consecrate my remains. Otherwise, I will rise again at her call.”
The Characters agree and swear to do as he asks,. He tells them this:
“Skell is a pawn of the Ratmen. She is bound to a powerful Skaven Wizard named Asorak Steeleye. The plagued troops that hold the poor quarter of the city are not the Steeleye’s though. They belong to a rival of his named Nelrich the Suppurater.” He shudders again, visibly attempting to restrain his hand. “The true battle comes soon... I know Steeleye wanted the Countess to send for help, but I don’t know why. Defend yourself, I can give no quarter.” With that, he enters combat with Drong, who agreed to fight him.
Drong manages to defeat him, but when he tries to claim the magical sword the skeleton warrior was weilding, the magic almost killed him... the PC's decide to leave the sword where it is. They take the remains, as promised, to be consecrated.
The next day, late in the evening, the troops manning the barricades about the Old Market smell something strange on the wind - a strong acidic scent. It clings to the back of the throat and sets the few soldiers who haven’t succumbed to the Grey Ague to coughing. It is an ill night to begin with, as the full face of the Chaos moon Mórrslieb illuminates the streets of Talabheim with its sickly green light. A soft rumble shakes the cobblestone streets, and in the pause that follows all awake and some abed feel a second violent ripple shudder through the ground.
Several columns of dust arise to the north of the city, along the base of the Taalbaston. And then the PC's hear it - a cry like that of thousands of angry birds or perhaps, rats, shrieking as one.
A large portion of the Taalbaston along the Old Market has collapsed with an enormous rumble, and the ground throughout Talabheim shakes with its fall.
Next, A vast horde of Skaven Warriors charges up into the city from the collapsed rock. These warriors move quickly through the Old Market area, appearing to slaughter the Skaven already occupying that area... There are thousands of them approaching the barricade...
End of session.
No comments:
Post a Comment