The Enemy Within, 2019 Onwards

The Enemy Within Director's Cut.

I wasn't going to restart a blog, but having had quite a gap since the first part, Enemy In Shadows, and Death on the Reik finally being released, it is probably easier on the players to have a recap space to refer to, comment on and post questions.

This post is a full recap and contains spoilers for oursiders who haven't read it, so Im making this blog private.

I will quite likely add a post after each gaming session, so it is here when we switch to another game (because i think the rest of the modules are some time away, and this is a big campaign)

Recap of the story so far

I am putting in the key parts of the story, from the books and from memory - there will be bits that may have happened slightly differently, in which case, remind me and I'll change it.  You did gather all of the clues that are here and it is those which are important now that the game changes from fairly railroaded to a more sandbox style. 

(you may need to remind me who has died! I provide this as a reminder of how I remember the games and I’ll include where you got the various handouts)

Chapter 1 – Mistaken Identity

You all met just outside the Coach and Horses Inn, having decided to catch a coach to Altdorf to become adventurers. As you had seen Handout 1, “Wanted Bold Adventurers”. 

The coach drivers got a little drunk, but you managed to get passage and headed out the next day, sharing the coach with a posh noblewoman called Lady Isolde, her maid Janna and bodyguard Marie, a gambler named Phillipe and a student who did not speak the entire trip named Ernst.

A couple of hours after the coach joins the main road, it rounds a bend, and you saw, squatting in the road a Human figure, his back to the coach, bent over the body of a Four Seasons coachman. You saw a severed Human hand hanging out of the creature’s disgusting mouth. The creature is recognisably Human, but flesh hangs in tatters from its face and hands, and green ichor seeps from its eyes. Spitting out the hand, it rushes towards the coach brandishing a bloody dagger.

One of you recognised the mutant as Rolf Hurtsis, a fellow thief and old friend from their home town.  

There was a short fight and the mutant was killed, and, when you inspected the mutilated body of the Four Seasons coachman, you saw a crossbow bolt through the neck has killed him.

You found his coach around the corner, overturned and with the crew being eaten by other mutants.  Killing these, you inspected the bodies of the coachmen and passengers and were shocked to find one of the passengers looked exactly like Richard’s character!

A blood-stained piece of parchment was protruding from the corpse’s jacket - Handout 3: The Inheritance.  

In an inside pocket is another, unstained letter, Handout 4: The Affidavit.

You got the rest of the way to Altdorf without serious incident.

ALTDORF

The capital City of the Empire! 

Stepping off the coach, the Characters are greeted by cries of ‘Angelino's, best grub in town!’ and ‘Stay at the Cat and Fiddle! Finest music and the best beds!’ The cries are accompanied by ready hands reaching to take any passenger’s luggage in order to lead them in the general direction of their chosen inn. Arguments soon break out, and fists clench.  It is chaos.

Even before you manage to organise a place to stay, Amid the bustle of the square, two men approach. They look no different from anyone else in the crowd, but they act strangely. While one watches the crowd, the other scratches his left ear with the little finger of his right hand. As he does so, he stares straight at Richard, and they continued this until they gave up and wandered off, their expressions suddenly change from confusion to relief as they hurry over to where a stocky man stands near a doorway to a house. They follow him through the door, which is shut behind them too quickly for you to follow.

Checking in on the Wanted: Bold Adventurers advert, you discovered that the Crown Prince has already recruited a party and has left Altdorf.

Going for a pint, you finally run into a friendly face amongst the bustle of Altdorf. Josef Quartjin is an old acquaintance, and owns a river barge, The Berebelli, which he uses to trade up and down the Reik.

He is chatty and helpful, and delighted to sit down and catch up with his old friends at the Boatman Inn. He passes on some news and gossip:

• City folk are strange folk. Who wouldn’t be, living cooped up amongst buildings all day?
• All members of the nobility are mad; they’re all inbred and tainted by Chaos, as everyone knows.
• There have been strange goings-on at the University. It’s full of Daemonologists and Necromancers dabbling in things that are better left alone.  Strangely-robed figures prowling the University cloisters late at night, accompanied by sounds of weird chants, clapping bells, and sinister howls!
• Mutations can affect you late in life. A boatman, who had worked on the river for 20 years or more, suddenly started to develop an oily, yellow skin and bulging eyes.  The boatman is now dead, of course, drowned by his own companions.

Outside the pub, a skinny street preacher dressed in rags clutches tight to a scroll as he screams his prophecy to any who listen. As you pass, he points at you and screams ‘I see Darkness Gathering as the Last House of Joy Falls - beware, for Shadows Over Bögenhafen stir! Then Beloved Morr, resplendent in Vestments of Green, stands astride Sigmar’s Great River. Yea, I see Death on the Reik and I despair! For then the Stained Hand guides the Once Mighty Lord, and this Power Behind the Throne curses us all. Lo, the Horned Rat then claims the Broken King atop his Throne of Lies, and the White Walls Fall, leaving our Empire in Ruins! Tremble in fear, ye mighty, for the End Times have come.’ - you look at him as if he is insane.

Inside the pub, later, a couple of posh nobles enter and begin insulting everyone and vomiting over people.  They have guards with them, who usher them our after an argument starts with you. 

Leaving the inn, Josef leads the Characters to his barge. Along the way, you become aware of being followed, by the two men who were doing he weird signs on the square when you got off the coach. 

As you are about to react, you see the two me suddenly cut down as a crossbow bolt slams into the back of one, and, as the other turns, another bolt thuds into his throat. Both are killed. There is no sign of the shooter.

A search of the bodies revealed no identification other than each had a small tattoo on the right breast, depicting a purple hand.  You spend the night on Josef's barge. The two nobles who were vomiting over you in the pub are found dead the next day, and rumour is that they were seen arguing with your party and that the Watch would like to speak to you in connection with their murder!  There are even Wanted posters going up!

Josef is heading out to Bögenhafen, and needs some crew... you decide it makes sense to head there as the Inheritance letter says to report there to collect a wad of cash, and there is a big annual fair on:

You hide below decks on Josef's boat until well outside Altdorf.  The trip to Bögenhafen involves travelling the full length of the Weissbruck Canal from outside Altdorf to Weissbruck, where it joins the River Bögen.

Weissbruck

It is early evening by the time you arrive in Weissbruck. As you prepare to tie up the barge, you notice a shadowy, travel-stained character standing in the doorway of the Black Gold, a nearby inn. You recognise the stocky man as the one from the Königplatz in Altdorf, who somehow made the oddly gesturing men retreat - the same two men who were crossbowed to death on the night before the party eft Altdorf, and this man clearly has a crossbow slung across his back. It is equally obvious that he is watching the Berebeli tie up, but before anyone can approach him he turns and walks into the inn.

Following him into the inn, he is nowhere to be seen.. Getting information out of the inn’s occupants reveals the man is a bounty hunter who arrived in Weissbruck late last night. 

Later that night, as you are in the barge, smoke starts to billiow from the stove - someone has covered the chimney!  Opening windows for air are greeted by pots of burning oil thrown by thugs.  You deal with this attack, killing the main attacker - the bounty hunter who shot the weirdoes!  On the body is a letter, Handout 7.  The drawing that accompanies it looks exactly like Richard's character.

Chapter 2 - Shadows Over Bögenhafen

The trip from Weissbruck to Bögenhafen takes four days. It is uneventful.  

The Berebeli puts in at Haagen’s Wharf. Josef and his crew deal with tying up and pay the mooring fees. The docks are relatively quiet, but sounds of merrymaking can be heard coming from the direction of the Schaffenfest, which has already begun. Josef explains that he has to go to the offices of a local merchant named Ruggbroder to collect payment for his wine and to arrange for its unloading by the local stevedores. He suggests the party takes the opportunity to look round the Schaffenfest, which is most definitely ‘not to be missed’. 

Visiting the Lawyers

Enquiries along the Garten Weg will be a dead end; no one has ever heard of a law firm by the name of Lock, Stock, and Barl. Indeed, no one has ever heard of a law firm with offices on the Garten Weg. The letter is a hoax.

The Shaffenfest

The fair has many attractions and you explore these freely. Two things stick in your minds - 

The Drunken Dwarf — You notice a drunken Dwarf in the stocks outside the Festival Court 

The Runaway Goblin — You witness the escape of a three-legged Mutant Goblin from Doctor Malthusius’s Zoocopeia, and accept the job of going into the sewers to find it and return it to its owner.

During your search of the sewers, you fing the body of the Drunken Dwarf - The body is horrifically mutilated, and shows evidence of many knife-cuts. One arm is missing, and appears to have been torn or bitten completely off. The chest is torn open, and the heart is missing.  You also find a hidden temple, inside which is a daemon, chewing on the remains of the mutant goblin, sat inside a pentegram that has the words "ORDO SEPTINARIUS" inscribed. 

 Defeating the demon and searching the temple turns up a monogrammed silk handkerchief - the monogram is the initials F.S.

The investigation following all of this reveals, in brief, that the temple is directly below offices belonging to one of the four major merchant houses, (Franz Sternheiger) the authorities in the town do not believe any tales of hidden temples, the authorities claim that the goblin was found dead in a warehouse, squashed by boxes, the ORDO SEPINARIUS is a charity run buy the top nobles in the city, but is actually a front for summoning a demon that will swallow the entire town...

Your characters investigations prove that the top officials in Bogenhaffen are in on this, though whether they know it is to summon a demon you are not sure: what is certain is that you manage to prevent the summoning, but not before being framed by a doppleganger demon named Gideon for the murder of one of the top nobles... the clues to all this were as follows.

Teugen is one of the top merchants

On the morning of the day of the ritual, one of the top nobles of the town - Magirius - contacts you. He looks pale and worried He insists on being taken to a place where they will not be disturbed or overheard, and only then does he reveal the cause of his agitation.

‘When Teugen came to us from Nuln, he told us that, with our help, his sorcery could influence the economy of the Empire. Bögenhafen would become great again — greater even than Marienburg — and we would all become rich beyond our wildest dreams. That is why the Ordo Septenarius was established, and the lower ranks are no more than a smokescreen.

‘Everything was going according to Teugen’s plans until you discovered the temple under the Steinhäger offices.

‘The ritual will take place tonight. I don’t know where yet, but I will get word to you as soon as I can. Teugen said that a human sacrifice is necessary to prepare the new temple, and that was too much for me. I didn’t realise anyone would have to be killed. You must help me. Going to the authorities is useless as Teugen and the Inner Council control them all. You are my only hope.’

Magirius then gives you a letter  -  Handout 10: Herzen’s Letter.

 

Later that day, you receive the following note from an errand boy.

Going to his home after you find him dead, and scrawled on the floor in blood by his body is this:

The next thing you notice is the errand boy who delivered the note is stood in the doorway laughing  at you.  He them shouts into the street: , ‘Help! Help! Murder!’ from the front door of the house. Looking out of the window, you see a four-man Watch patrol running towards the house. At the same instant, the servant appears in the room, apparently out of thin air — ‘You know,’ he says, in a multi-toned, resonant voice that is spine-quiveringly unnatural, ‘you really should have minded your own business.’ and vanishes again, but its deep, many-throated, mocking laughter continues for a few moments after it has disappeared.

You do manage to evade watch patrols and head towards the warehouses, in search of Warehouse 13, where you manage to prevent the ritual taking place and save the City!  

However, there are several dead nobles, you are known in the town for going round making accusations against the leaders of this town, and you are wanted for the murder of Magirus... 

Time to make a hasty exit!

We pick up the game at this point: You are all hiding below decks on the Berebelli, Josef is laughing at you and asking if you intend to be on Wanted posters in every major town you visit, and from here it is up to you exactly what you want to do.

During this game there is lots of rumours and gossip that you hear.  I'll compile those into a separate post you can refer to - some will be true, some outright lies, some partly true, as with all news, rumours and gossip!

Terror in Talabheim - Sessions Four and Five

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.

Terror in Talabheim - Session Three

Session 3
Sunday, 25th Aug 13

The PCs have managed to gain entrance to one of the great cities of the Empire - a city sealed due to plague concerns, the very same plague some of them are carrying - and some of them don't have papers allowing them into the City.  Getting caught is not a very good idea. 

The marks the disease causes are readily covered by any clothing that covers the neck, but the coughing and shivering it brings are harder to disguise.  They need papers, they need somewhere to hole up, and they need a cure.

They find themselves in the cramped “avenues” of the Ratholds - actually located within the walls of the Taalbaston itself. Scattered throughout the massive cliff face are holes, tunnels, and warrens carved into the living rock of the crater wall. It was once said that any poor man with a pickaxe and determination could make himself a home in Talabheim. Some of these cave-homes are surprisingly large three- or four-room affairs, having wood flooring and even plaster, but these are rare. Most of these homes are little more than caves branching off from the crude tunnel-alleys that riddle the upper wall side near the Wizard’s Way.

Some legitimate businesses occupy the caves, such as tanneries and dye works. These foul industries only add to the miasmic atmosphere in the caves. There are various tunnels and pathways used by criminal gangs to smuggle goods and people inside the city. Although the City Watch makes frequent attempts to close these down, they seldom keep them shut for long. 

Few watchmen are comfortable going into the reeking dark of these tunnels, so a special squad of Halflings and Dwarves (alongside a few short humans) roam the numerous tunnels and warrens within the walls of the crater itself.  Though officially known as the Taalbaston Tunnel Brigade, most (including themselves) call these guardsmen “the Terriers” for their mission is to “find and kill the rats in the walls.” The PC's encounter a squad of Halfling Terriers in the Ratholds, who recommend their brother's place as a good place to buy the passes half the PC's need to get anywhere beyond the slums in the City.  The PC's go there and buy some very convincing looking ID, and manage to leave the Ratholds and Tallows area and into the Merchant's District.

Threeapples Inn 
Situated immediately across from the main gate, Threeapples Inn is a three-story building crafted from dark wood, with wide, open rooms that can fit almost a hundred people at a time. The owner, a Halfling named Wanda Threeapples, prides herself on welcoming everyone into her business, regardless of station, ethnicity, or race.  This is where the PC's decide to stay - for the first night in a common room, and thereafter in private rooms when they realised they were probably spreading the plague some of them were suffering from...

The PC's who were healthy explored the City a little whilst the rest coughed and spluttered their guts up in their room at the Threeapples (trying to make lucky charms to sell to people out of mattress straw, and not doing very well)

The Apothecary Daubler
When they located Daubler and got to speak to him, he sold them a cure for the Galloping Trots.  They then mentioned Nierhaus and give him Widenhotf's notes. 

“Do you know that the Captain is dead?” He rapidly scans over Widenhoft’s notes before saying, “This is Gotthard’s hand. Where did you come by these?” The scholar’s death takes him aback. “Gotthard was murdered? Ach, this is terrible. Who would do such a thing?” He agrees that Skaven did it “I think the vermin have tried this before, many times in fact. The history of our Empire is rife with plagues that come unexpectedly and weaken us at the worst possible time. I fear the rat folk have set their sights on Talabheim.” He agrees to work on a cure for the Grey Ague, telling them that the book they brought, The Plague & the Principality,  will help him immensely.  He tells them the Shallyans are working on a religious cure - and when they check this out, they discover that the Shallyans are relying on Holy water that they think may be contaminated, and they convince the Shallyans and the Judges in the Law Quarter to not use the water - and to only drink imported booze... the Judges agree to remove the Cup Tax on imported beers and spirits, to help the effort against the plague...

Daubler sets to work and the PC's set themselves to trying to live through the disease...

Terror in Talabheim - Session Two

18 August 2013
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 then go off and get pissed in the Docks (well, the Dwarf does), meet the Estalian guide who agrees to show them the way in (when they finally got the secret phrase they were given correct) and are led through secret tunnels in the Taalbaston itself to the City.  He also informs them that Captain Nierhaus is dead, having shot himself shortly after the PC's left him.

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.

Terror in Talebheim - Session One

New Adventure
Starting 11 August 2013
Game Date:
IC 2522


Session One
These are the characters...

• 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 

They have all decided to go to the City of Talebheim to start their adventuring careers, and take the boat at quite a lot of expense.  Below is their introduction to the campaign, and a couple of images of the Port of Taalgaad, and a tourists map they were given.

Once in the Port, it became clear how difficult getting into this City was going to be.  After paying to cross the river to even get to the gate, then queuing for the best part of 16 hours, and being passed from the City Gates to the Watch House (the local Watch Men are called Dogfaces, apparently) to the Municipal Entry Office, to see Magistrate Hohenlohe, they were finally allowed to pay to apply for 3 day passes into the City.  They would have to wait a few days (or weeks, the officials couldn't be exact) - checking posters of names on the Watch House wall every morning to see if their passes had been issued yet.  This was going to be a pain in the arse.

To ease the wait, they took on a job:  Escort a hundred or so refugees who were being sent home back to their village.  They received 2 GC each up front, with the promise of another 9 on return, plus Magistrate Hohenlohe would arrange a year's pass into the City.  

What could possibly go wrong?

Aside from some Ogres wanting to eat some of the kids the PC's were looking after (the PC's managed to kill one of the Ogres, so they ate him instead...), a murder among the refugees (which the PC's figured out easily) and a slight case of Grey Plague some of the PC's caught off the refugees (the ones who had been inside the City) which has so far taken a Fate Point from the Halfling, and has severely weakened those who have caught it, not much did go wrong.  

PC Fate Point: Adam the Halfling

They have decided to seek a Temple of Shallya for a cure when they get back. That should be easy...

We left the session with them in sight of Taalgaad again, about to return and collect their cures from the Priestesses of Shallya and their cash and free passes into the City from Magistrate Hohenlohe...

Session Seventeen

Sunday, 9th December 2012
Final Session
The PC's wandered the Womb, fighting everything they encountered and finally getting the three keys they needed from the Mother, the Maiden and the Crone.

The Womb was a maze.  The full map can now be shared.

Session Sixteen

Sunday, 2nd December 2012
Chapter IX: 
Womb of the Black Witch
Part 1

The Party spent a bit of time on the ledge, wondering how to find their way into the lair of the Black Witch after Karl.  Mormocar decided to take the rowing boat out to the middle of the slime covered pool - despite not knowing how to row.  He managed to drop the oars into the water and drifted randomly before falling in when trying to row using his sword.  He was immediately attacked by a big one eyed serpent and a Nurgling...

Meanwhile, up the path towards the rest of the PC's trundled what was left of Tobias from earlier in the campaign - (Session Eight - "As Tobias died, a strange alien like organ tore free from the dead flesh, sprouted limbs, and escaped through the hole in the back wall...") - only now, it has degenerated into a barely humanoid mass of bone, tumours, and hair - Tobias' face sometimes pushes out of the skin on its body and silently screams.  It attacks and the PC's kill it.

Mormocar is wounded by the one eyed serpent, and fighting underwater alone is taking time - he manages to kill the serpent and spots at the bottom of the pool a thin membrane, covering what looks like a cave mouth... everyone else dives in and battles a serpent and a nurgling but all get through the membrane relatively unharmed.  Ish.  Gregor does get a nurgling touching him which then absorbs into his body completely, but aside from that and a Wound or ten they are mostly OK.

The pond is really a water-filled pit that’s wider at the top than it is at the bottom. A pale slime covers the rocky walls, and about 5 yards below the surface is a strange spongy section of wall, about a yard wide and two yards tall.  The surface is elastic and gives to the touch. Putting any kind of pressure on the wall enables a character to push through it and enter the opposite side, thus entering the Lair of the Black Witch. As they pass through the membrane, it closes behind them, so when a character finally reaches the other side, a brief squirt of pond water accompanies him before the hole closes again.

As soon as they are through, Gregor vomits out the Nurgling, which has doubled in size.  It calls him 'Mummy' and jumps into his arms -  but it does not live very long as the characters all attack it.

Light is needed, so Mormocar casts Marsh Lights before realising they are the size of fireflies, and then he casts magic light.

Ralf lights a torch.  They are inside the Black Witches lair...

It’s humid, and there’s a disgusting stench here - an uncanny blend of rubbish, excrement, and decay. The walls, floor, and ceiling are a dull grey colour, slick with condensation. A closer look reveals they are riddled with tiny blue, red, and brown striations.

Hanging from the ceiling in places are spongy orange tendrils, sort of like roots but more fleshy. Black oily water collects in puddles here and there, and things move in them, sending ripples across the surface.

The PC's explore this strange environment, losing Fate Points and plenty of wounds along the way.  They manage to pick up several keys in several rooms, and kill two Vampires - Lord De Trois and Lydia Von Carstein - and collect keys from them, too.

They managed to explore maybe a third of this place, and left plenty of caverns unexplored.  In one  strange chamber the PCs hear whispers in their heads (which cause a few insanity points...) This small room is dark.

When the PCs enter this area, among the whispers they hear:

• “The keys fools, the keys! They are the answer!”
• “Seek out the Maiden, the Mother, and the Crone. They offer the true path!”
• “Orcs are funnnnnggguuussss… fuuuunnnnggguuuuusssssssss!”
• “Beware the Halflings’ pies!”
• “Her remains… destroy her remains…”
• “Eat not the yellow snow!”

A lot more happens - every room it seems has some new danger -  much too much to list here - but the place feels alive.  We shall leave this sessions write up here, with them deep inside this strange womb-like dungeon...