My geeking summer #2: True North

A hot time in the old town: Games Hub Edinburgh

This post could also be subtitled ‘fB strikes again’ because, exactly as with last month’s encounter with Mark Millar at Plan B Books, this story all began on Facebook. If I recall correctly, what happened this time was that a couple of months ago I followed through on a link that a friend had liked and lo, there it was: the Games Hub Edinburgh, a fB group for an upcoming games cafe in Edinburgh. Frankly, I was gob-smacked. What an awesome idea! What a risk to take. Just WTF! More seriously though: the Games Hub Edinburgh strikes me as an idea whose time has come, and as the most important thing to happen in the Scottish gaming community since I don’t know when. OK, starting G3 back in 1998 was totally exciting, and no small achievement for all concerned, but what we have here strikes me as being different by a whole order of magnitude. GHE, after all, won’t be a club meeting weekly for some 4/5 hours. It’ll be open 12 hours/day, 7 days/week. See what I meant about awesome, and the risk?

A long time coming

Sorting out unfinished business

Still crazy after
all these years!

A few years ago I made a couple of passing references—one, writing about my Penumbra’s Talons; the other, writing about GW’s mighty Space Hulk 3rd edition—to a project which involved a nameless friend and a Space Hulk set. I am pleased, at long last, to be able to tell you that this friend- Matt Forbeck, who I met at Bill King’s wedding back in 2005, will soon be getting his hands on that set of Space Hulk 3 he’d almost, but not quite, forgotten about (who could forget Space Hulk 3?).

My first Truly Epic
RPG campaign

I can’t take much of the credit here- it’ll be a long time before I revive and renew my miniatures’ craft skills to the point where I can paint my own Space Hulk set let alone one for someone else. No; credit—for the fact that Matt and his kids will soon be enjoying playing Space Hulk with their own fully-painted set—starts with Andy, who gave me the recommendation which finally broke this years-old logjam. And who did Andy recommend when I spoke to him about contracting-out this paint-job? None other than Brian, who regular readers will remember as Siegfried- murderous lowlife with a heart, from my Ashes of Middenheim campaign back in the glory days of Green Ronin’s stewardship over WFRP2.

My little Old World: Ashes of Middenheim

This is the index for the WFRP2 campaign I ran in 2005/06. The campaign featured:

• 'Pretty Things': the scenario from the Game Master's Pack.
• 'Through the Drakwald': the scenario in the WFRP2 core rulebook.
• 'Rough Night at the Leaping Frog' (AKA the Three Feathers): a classic 1st edition scenario reprinted in Plundered Vaults.
• The Ashes of Middenheim.
• My own lengthy and spurious subplot which I was able to turn to good effect in the end.

I have left out a couple of inconsequential posts which have nothing to do with the actual story (these can be found via the 'my little old world' label). The campaign history is otherwise presented exactly as I wrote it, warts and all.

Meanwhile...

A healthy diet of roleplaying
My little Old World
Restarted last month, the WFRP saw my PC's accept the challenge to venture further down the Paths of the Damned, driven if nothing else by Berthold's unexplained insistences on tracking down the mysterious Dagger of Yul K'Chaum, which apparently contains yet another daemon of the sort that perished in the cleansing fires of the Sacred Flame of Ulric. Hopes of advancing her wizard's apprenticeship frustrated by the Middenheim Guild of Wizards and Alchemists, Alane too was keen to visit Altdorf to meet her mentor Van Nilstrom. Grundi, Seigfried and Mordrin had nothing better to do, and wintering in wartorn Middenheim was not the most appealing prospect in any event. So off they all went.

Without pre-empting a possible write-up, sufficeth to say that the journey has been very eventful so far, with beastmen attacks, some unexpected company, and an object lesson in how the stuff of Chaos impregnates the very warp and weft of the fabric of reality.

Eberron
Bill, who ran the Midnight session last June (written up here, and here) has managed to fulfil his promise to start his own regular midweek game. He chose to run WotC's Eberron- which he's run before- to make life simple for himself.

The game began as a True20 adaption with just myself and Tony (a.k.a. Alane elsewhere). So we had 2 PC's each to begin with. I went with a rogue- who was my first choice for the archetype I wanted to play; and a warforged fighter- who was to be my backup 'schmuck'. With Brian and Andy (Seigfreid and Berthold to regular readers) soon joining in, I had to choose which of my 2 PC's to keep playing. Confounding my initial expectations, I had no difficulty whatsoever in deciding to run with my warforged fighter. Why? Easy: I couldn't resist the sheer vicarious thrill of being near invulnerable in combat (having an Adamantine Body does that for you) while dishing out the smites great cleaving with my mighty warhammer. Thus began the saga of K'Dun the Hammer.

The game itself soon changed too, as Bill decided to run it as a True20 D&D hack instead of the original True20 adaption. This is working very well. Meanwhile I'm having fun nurturing my inner munchkin as I contemplate the new feats I'll be buying with my new levels even as I wade into combat full of the joys of the various buffs the party spellcasters use to make my smites ever smitier. Heh.

Meanwhile, Brian has started his own blog: Dangerous Brian: A Wargaming Blog; check out his first Eberron post for a quick introduction to the PC's.

Finally for now... DiceConEast 2006
The Scottish Boardgames Association's biannual boardgames event DiceCon takes place in Edinburgh today. A bunch of us are going through for the day. I'm taking a big bag of games. You can be sure that M44 and C&C:A is among them. There'll be a few old favourites in there too no doubt. I'm looking forward to some good gaming. More anon I trust. ;)

My little Old World: The Madness of Father Ranulf #2

... Oh, the madness!
The following evening the PC's found themselves in the Scholar's in the Freiburg. The night had barely begun when the same Bartomar who Berthold saw before came hurtling in. He breathlessly explained that Sister Delfholt needed their help. The PC's didn't need telling that something was happening with Father Ranulf, so they followed the messenger out into the dark streets of the city.

Sister Delfholt was waiting for the PC's by the Black Plague Memorial. Quickly she explained that the Temple had receieved the news about the fate of Odo's remains that day- no one could remember them being disposed of at all, certainly no one at the Morrspark. On hearing the news Ranulf went absolutely berserk and ran out into the streets. Staff from the Temple of Shallya gave chase and purused him as far as the Temple of Ulric, at which point they tried in vain to persuade Ranulf to return to the Temple with them. He ran off back the way he'd come instead, and was last seen heading into the Morrspark. Sister Delfholt decided to rely on the PC's because Ranulf seems to trust them.

With Sister Delfholt in tow the PC's headed into the Morrspark. The stench of burnt human flesh from the great pyres of the dead from the siege still hung in the air, and the Morrspark ravens took wing as they were disturbed and circled above, cawing. Father Ranulf was quickly found, near the eastern edge just a few yards south of the shrine to Morr. He was beside himself with agitation and was digging frantically in the soft earth with his bare hands.

The PC's tried persuade Father Ranulf to return to the Temple and the priest began to calm down. Then Sister Delfholt shouted a warning. Looking round to where she was pointing the PC's could see beady yellow eyes watching them from the direction of where the party entered the sewers some 3 months ago. Before anyone had had time to digest this discovery 2 Skaven charged out from among the headstones in the opposite direction and launched attacks against Alane and Berthold.

The pair survived the surprise attacks, and melee was engaged. As Siegfreid prepared to engage he felt something swoosh past his head in the darkness. Fearing missile attacks he tried to force Father Ranulf into cover. Sister Delfholt soon came to his aid, and he moved in to attack as 3 more Skaven came charging out of the night.

Having come straight from his researches at the Collegium Theologica Berthold was armed with nothing more than his knife, so he quickly broke off from the Skaven that had attacked him and moved to Seigfreid's side for support. Meanwhile Alane cast a light spell on her quarterstaff so that her companions could fight the ratmen on equal terms in the darkness. By this time enraged animal shrieks could be heard from where the eyes had been seen before the surprise attack had been launched.

The fight raged on. More of the blowpipe darts that had narrowly missed Seigfried flew around. Two of them hit Sister Delfholt, to no apparent ill-effect. The Skaven pressed their attacks home with some vigour, dealing out serious wounds to Berthold and the Shallyan sister, who was forced to defend herself. The combination of Seigfried's vicious attacks and Alane's magic darts quickly began to tell. The benefits of surprise and the darkness lost and their numbers dwindling, the Skaven faltered, but commanding shrieks from behind kept the survivors from flight. All the same barely a minute after the attack had been launched the last Skaven's nerve gave and it turned and fled into the night.

Leaving Sister Delfholt to attend to her own and Berthold's wounds, Seigfried ran straight for the edge of the Morrspark. Scrambling over the railings he made straight for the sewer entrance he remembered from his previous encounter with the vile ratmen. Crouching down to peer in he heard the scrape of a claw on stone behind him, and was able to twist out of the way of a Skaven sword at the last moment.

Meanwhile Alane too was clambering over the Morrspark railings and hastening to Siegfried's assistance.

Turning to face his attacker Seigfried saw a strangely familiar Skaven bearing down on him in sheer and utter rage. He was the leader who had escaped from the party when they had attacked the Skaven lair months before. The vengeful Skaven was at least as fast and skillful with its blade as was Seigfried with his, but the fight was short and brutal. Almost before the Skaven knew what had hit him, he was wounded, then Siegfried finished him off with a thrust to the arm that opened an artery and emptied the creature of much as half of its blood before it could blink.

Alane arrived just in time to see the Skaven fall. Together the elf and the human peered down into the sewer. Thankfully there were no Skaven in sight. They could see something though, a fleshly lump the size of a large dog. As they stared down wondering what it was, they could hear the sound of claws scraping on stone and a pathetic mewling from the lump. Noting the lump's utter stillness they decided to investigate.

Reaching the thing in the sewer the PC's were horrified to realise that it was a portion of the twisted remains of what had once been Father Odo. The mewling came from a giant rat lying behind the hideous carcass. The rat had a puny tentacle sticking out of its distended stomach. As the PC's looked closer the giant rat's tentacle was reaching out feebly towards the horribly warped remains of the blind priest, which, they saw, had been gnawed away here and there. Some of the bites were fresh enough still to be oozing too. The sight was too much for Seigfried who felt something give way in the depths of his mind.

Utterly unwilling to leave this grotesque... thing in Skaven hands, Alane and Seigfried formed a quick plan. Alane headed off to collect some equipment from the Gilded Swallow while Seigfried stayed to keep watch.

While all this had been happening Berthold had accompanied Sister Delfholt and Father Ranulf back to the Temple of Shallya. This done he too headed to the Gilded Swallow to collect some of his own equipment. He and Alane met up at the inn and together they made their way to back to the Ulricsmund to rejoin Seigfried. They arrived to discover that 2 Skaven had crept up the sewer and- despite Seigfried's best efforts throwing his daggers- had begun slowly to drag the chaos-spawned carcass away.

Our PC's took one look at each other, and headed into the sewer. Unfortunately they had forgotten the lessons of their previous descent into the filthly underworld, and neglected to prepare themselves against the stench. This was to have deadly consequences.

Siegfried went first, closely followed by Alane then Berthold. As our heroes made their way down the narrow ledge they could see that there were 2 more Skaven positioned back down the tunnel, and what turned out to be several giant rats further back. Siegfried charged in against one of the Skaven dragging the carcass away, while Berthold jumped into the sewer channel and waded-in against the other.

As ever, Siegfried had little difficulty in despatching his foe. Berthold too was doing fairly well, eventually forcing it to retreat after crippling its arm. Unfortunately the Skaven were as well prepared and well led as our PC's had been hasty and rash. Another Skaven way back down the sewer tunnel shouted out, and the 5 giant rats- some of them strangely malformed- scurried forward. Meanwhile the 2 Skaven further back down the tunnel kept up a regular slingfire.

This combination of giant rats and slingshots proved deadly in the confined spaces of the sewers. Siegfried went down on top of a giant rat which, pushing its way out from under him, toppled him into the effluent channel. Regaining his feet and hacking into a giant rat, Seigfried was felled by a slingshot. Berthold was preparing to grab his companion and haul him to safety in a prompt retreat, when he too was felled by a slingshot to the temple.

By this time the Skaven Packmaster commanding the rats had moved forward, had used his Things-Catcher to secure the carcass, and was preparing to haul it away. Alone down the sewers and confronted by 2 uncannily accurate Skaven slingers, 5 mutated giant rats, and unknown other Skaven, Alane did the sensible thing- she turned and fled.

Four days later, Seigfried and Berthold's battered bodies having been retrieved by the Watch and tended back to health by the Sisters of Shallya, the PC's were summoned before Commander Schutzmann. Questioned in minute detail by the Middenmarshal about the events in which they had become involved, they left the Watch headquarters realising they had foiled another serious plot. A Skaven plan to undermine Middenheim by infesting the Temple of Shallya with mutated giant rats might not have threatened the unity of the entire Empire as had Liebnitz's scheme, but Schutzmann was certainly relieved to know that the plan had failed, even if only for the moment.

Our PC's, on the other hand- anonymous heroes yet again- no longer felt quite so divinely blessed by the hand of Ulric as they had only scant days before. They had also learned that Liebnitz's evil acts could reach out to haunt them even after his death.

And- to cap it all, Siegfried had missed his romantic assignation!

Related@RD/KA!
The Madness of Father Ranulf
- #2 The madness...
- Index:- My little Old World: Ashes of Middenheim

My little Old World: The Madness of Father Ranulf #1

The madness...
The return of Graf Todbringer and the army to Middenheim 2 days after the foiling of Liebnitz's evil scheme had brought to the city the sort of nervous calm that is enforced by a strong military presence in the streets. The PC's had been kept under wraps while the rulers of the city conferred on how best to deal with the situation. In the end the story had been put out that Liebnitz had suffered a breakdown due to the trauma he'd suffered during Archaon's seige, and that he'd had to leave the city to be looked after in a remote hospital under the care of the cult of Shallya.

And so life's course resumed a certain tranquil normality for the PC's after their decisive but unheralded role in saving the city of the White Wolf from the machinations of one of its most elevated citizens. Grundi made contact with Doddy Farthingale's friend Merkel Trachsel and went off to learn the lore of the Scout. Mordrin took work as a jobbing smith but hadn't been seen much, because- the others assumed- he was spending a lot of time in the company of his young brother Snorri.

Our other 3 PC's found themselves rooms in the Gilded Swallow inn in the Southern Westgate district, and settled down to winter in Middenheim. Alane and Berthold resumed their jobs at the Guild of Wizards and Alchemists and the Temple of Sigmar, respectively. Siegfried was confronted with the choice between the life of a hired thug or working as a bouncer in the Wolf's Teeth tavern- where his mum worked, and plumped in the end for the life of leisure that 75 gold crowns in his purse allowed him.

A week and a half later Berthold received word that Professor Zweistein at the Collegium Theologica wanted to see him. Off the young scribe went.

Greeting Berthold in his office, Zweistein made some thinly veiled remarks making it quite clear that he was well aware that Berthold had pilfered the pamphlet from his office. Expecting the worst, Berthold was pleasantly surprised to be offered a job by the Professor. Zweistein explained that curiosity and a talent for survival were important attributes of a good scholar, and that Berthold had demonstrated a knack for both. Still reeling from surprise, Berthold accepted Professor Zweistein's offer.

Two nights later Berthold's nightmares began. Beginning at the moment during the fight in the Great Hall of the Temple of Ulric when the Brass Skull started drinking Liebnitz's blood, the dreams would run through to the moment when the blood red light started to flow out of the Skull's eyes and coalesce into a daemon. Unlike in the real fight the coalescing daemon would turn round and stare into Berthold's eyes- as if reading the depths of his very soul, at which point Berthold would wake up.

The nightmares had been troubling Berthold for several nights when he received a visitor at the Collegium Theologica- Bartomar, a messenger from the Temple of Shallya. Bartomar carried a request from Sister Delfholt- who the party had met when they'd visited Father Ranulf at the Temple during the insurrection- that Berthold and his companions visit her at the Temple as soon as they could.

With the dwarfs unavailable Berthold could only round up Alane and Seigfried. And so, later that day, the 3 PC's headed off to the Temple.

Settling the PC's in with a cup of tea, Sister Delfholt explained that she had asked them to visit her because of her worries about the state of Father Ranulf. The poor priest's condition, it turned out, wasn't responding to treatment. So, knowing that the fate of Ranulf's old friend Father Odo had proved a significant factor in Ranulf's descent into madness, and being aware of the party's presence at the decisive moment, Sister Delfholt had decided to speak to the PC's to see if they could provide any helpful information.

Displaying tact that would've made the absent dwarfs proud, Seigfried promptly told the priestess that Father Odo had turned into a hideous chaos spawn before their very eyes. The Shallyan sister was patently horrified at this. She tried to continue her account of how much of a strain caring for Father Odo was putting on the Temple, but eventually she told the PC's that they should just come along and see for themselves.

Father Ranulf was muttering to himself when Sister Delfholt entered his cell, and the PC's could see him start nervously at her arrival. The priestess explained that she had brought some friends to see him. Father Ranulf looked at the 3 PC's as they filed into his room. Then he asked Sister Delfholt for some more water. The priestess' dismayed reaction at Ranulf's request was out of all proportion to its simple nature. She grabbed hold of his water jug and made a hasty exit.

The PC's looked at Father Ranulf expectantly. He looked under his bed and in every other nook and cranny of his tiny room before speaking. As he spoke Ranulf was constantly looking under his fingernails or rubbing his hands. The PC's soon realised that he was still very disturbed about both Father Odo and about Deputy High Priest Liebnitz. In another display of remarkable tact Siegfried promptly told Ranulf that Liebnitz was dead. This news failed to calm the priest. Amid Ranulf's guilty ramblings about Odo and Liebnitz 2 things stood out: his references to 'eyes that glitter in the night'; and his talk about rats wandering the Temple corridors as if exploring. The sound of Sister Delfholt's return put paid to any further discussion of these matters.

Everyone talked for a bit longer after Sister Delfholt returned. Father Ranulf asked about the fate of Father Odo's remains. The priestess promised to look into the matter. There wasn't much more to say and they soon left Ranulf to his own devices. Sister Delfholt turned out to be pleased at how the visit had gone, and she was filled with renewed optimism for the future of the suffering priest. She hoped that there would be no need to send Ranulf to the Great Hospice at Frederheim, but she was at least confident that the PC's were the right people to accompany the priest should such a journey prove necessary.

The PC's had mixed feelings as they left the Temple, fearing perhaps that the madness of Father Ranulf was a fate that might await them. Alane was sufficiently moved by the experience to make a startlingly generous donation of 20 gold crowns to the Temple. Sister Delfholt was suitably impressed.

As the PC's headed off back towards the Ulricsmund, one of them noticed something out of the corner of their eye. Across the street they saw the hem of a cloak as someone disappeared up an alley across the road. Little heed was paid to this incident at the time, but it would later prove telling.

A few more days passed. Berthold was by now thorougly gloomy because of his recurring nightmares, about which he had as yet told no one. And all 3 of our PC's were getting slightly paranoid because they had the distinct feeling they were being watched. Little incidents like that outside the Temple of Shallya kept occuring, but nobody was able to pin down anything specific that was happening.

Then one night Berthold's nightmares took a new turn. Beginning as before, this time the daemon grabbed hold of Berthold and dragged him into the Brass Skull. Inside the Skull Berthold could feel an overwhelming bitterness and a rage and a desire to wreak a terrible vengance- emotions so extreme that they were matched in Berthold's experience only by the calm power of the voice that echoed through his bones as he had been washed by the white fire of the Sacred Flame of Ulric.

As the nightmare continued Berthold found himself watching the last moments of the fight from inside the Brass Skull itself. At the moment when the Skull entered the Sacred Flame everything went black and the torrent of overwhelming emotions stilled. Moments later Berthold again found himself drowned in the inhumanly intense emotions and looking out of the eye sockets of a skull. This time though the skull was the hilt of a knife blade carven with terrible runes, one of which Berthold recognised- he'd seen it on the Brass Skull.

Berthold watched through the eyes of this new skull as the wielder of the dagger snuck up on some unsuspecting victim. He watched the dagger rise, saw it fall, and felt it cut through the victim's flesh. He tasted the deep, deep shivers of satisfaction run through the raging spirit of the skull as the blood filled the runes on the blade. Then he watched as the victim of the attack was flipped over onto its back to reveal- himself.

Berthold woke up. Filled with horror he slept no more that night.

Berthold had had enough. At the Collegium Theologica the next day he finally spoke up about his nightmares to Professor Zweistein. The genial scholar's reaction to Berthold's account of the strange symbols that had haunted his dreams was unexpected, and abrupt- he stalked off leaving Berthold wondering what he had done wrong.

Zweistein returned a short while later, bringing with him a huge pile of work for Berthold. He told the young scribe that it was very important that this work be finished as quickly as possible, and explained that he should work every hour he could stay awake until he was done. Berthold was briefly nonplussed- feeling such punishment was undeserved- but he quickly realised that the crafty scholar had given him the excuse he needed to spend as much time as he wanted in the Collegium's library pursuing his own researches.

As Berthold set to work in the Collegium, Seigfried decided that what was called for an outing to a charitable performance of a classic Detlief Sierck drama. Alane decided to accompany him. Arrayed in his best finery Seigfried was on top form that night as he sought a better class of romantic conquest than the ladies of low virtue with whom he had been keeping company in recent weeks.

It may be said that our dashing young hero felt that he received nothing more than his due when a well-dressed footman furtively pressed a note into his hand later that evening. But it cannot be doubted that even Seigfried was astonished when it turned out that the note was a promise of an assignation from a certain Lisa Ingwald, none other than the daughter of Sigismund Ingwald, owner of Castle Rock Coaches. The date of the promised assignation was 2 nights hence.

Flushed with his success, Siegfried decided to repair to the Wolf's Teeth tavern. As he and Alane sat back with a drink a familiar face made an appearance. It was the apprentice wizard Jocelin Herzog, without her usual male companion. Also unusual that night was Herzog's behaviour- she made a beeline for Alane and told the elf that she had some news for her, important news about her future. Asked to explain, Herzog told the elf that she had overheard Bright Magister Nellie Eschlimann talking with Celestial Magister Valdric Gebauer about Alane's fate. The pair had agreed that Alane wasn't yet suitable for elevation to the rank of journeyman wizard. Herzog's delivered her news in a spiteful tone that was insufficient to mask a certain nervousness.

Curious at this unexpected intrusion from a woman who had hitherto only shown lofty disdain for her, Alane invited Herzog to take a seat and offered her some wine. A bit put out at the elf's calm response to her supposedly devestating news, Herzog accepted. As the night went on and Herzog was plied with both wine and questions by Alane, it turned out that the mystery of the woman whose attitude had plagued Alane since the party's arrival in Middenheim was reassuringly mundane.

Herzog had been sent out by her master back in Altdorf to experience a bit more of the world by her master back in Altdorf. Arriving in Middenheim with Zumwald- who she had fallen in with on the road- almost the first person she had seen had been Alane, who she recognised from back in Altdorf. The young woman had immediately been annoyed at the elf who had turned up to trump her own big adventure.

The night continued. Alane made sure that the wine flowed freely, while Seigfried couldn't resist laying it on thick with stories of the party's adventures. Herzog relaxed and became ever more admiring of the pair. As each drink went down though, she became more and more maudlin. Zumwald had left her and headed off to puruse his own goals. She had seen no great adventures, even during the insurrection, and certainly wasn't feeling very much the wordly-wise type she was sent out to become. All the same, she was taking new heart from spending an evening in the company of Alane and Seigfried, and was even more than holding her own when it came to the drinking.

And there it might've ended, if Alane hadn't plied the young woman with just one wine too many. Sure enough, eventually she just couldn't take any more, with the inevitable result that her first really big night out ended in a pool of slavers and vomit.

To their credit Alane and Siegfried showed compassion for the lonely young woman. They didn't leave her to her own devices in the tavern. Herzog being too far gone to tell our PC's where she stayed by the time they realised how drunk she actually was, they carried her back to the Gilded Swallow. There Seigfried did the gentlemanly thing and let Herzog have his bed to herself.

The poor woman's embarrasment on waking up in a stranger's bed the following morning is easy to imagine and need not be detailed. We can be sure though that the embarrasment was sufficient to stave off her stinking hangover at least until she had beat her hasty retreat from Seigfried's room.

Related@RD/KA!
The Madness of Father Ranulf
- #2... Oh, the madness!
- Index:- My little Old World: Ashes of Middenheim

My little Old World: Terror Roams in Front, Treachery Stalks Behind #2

Long days hard on the party's nerves
Clues to Liebnitz's intentions began to emerge over the next few days, which were otherwise uneventful. As the loyalist forces continued mopping up the last pockets of insurrectionist resistance, the PC's began by making a trip to the warehouse in which they had found the Purple Hand poisoners. When they had left the place under arrest at the hands of Liebnitz and his Brothers of the Axe, the barrel of warpstone the PC's had found in the warehouse had been left behind under the guard of 2 of the Ulrican warriors. Sure enough, on the PC's return, there was no barrel to be found. So Liebnitz had perhaps the Brass Skull, the defiled icon of Sigmar, the mutant plants, and a barrel of warpstone.

Meanwhile Magisters from the Guild of Wizards and Alchemists were studying the omens to discover what the fates had in store. Alane was told that a long conjunction of Morrslieb was very likely in the next few days. She was warned to be careful with spellcasting during this time because Morrlieb's effect on the Winds of Magic would be quite unpredictable.

In the background during this time Father Greimold was in discussion with the loyal Brothers of the Axe. He provided the party with a letter of introduction to the loyal Ulrican warriors. The PC's met with a Brother Matthias, who was able to tell them about a Balthasar Ehrhard. Liebnitz and the rest had been normal until this man had arrived in the city. Afterwards an inner circle had slowly and subtly emerged within the Brothers of the Axe. Ehrhard had left some months ago the PC's were told.

Since the party's visit Professor Zweistein had been working to uncover information that might help understand the nature of the Brass Skull. Eventually he was able to give them 'good news' when they came to ask him how he was progressing. Based on his researches he was able to tell the PC's that the Brass Skull was probably used to bind a daemon. He was also pretty sure that the strange plants from the crater would have some sort of magical properties.

At long last the PC's knew what Liebnitz was up to: he was planning some kind of ritual under Morrslieb to summon a daemon. Relief at finally penetrating the man's schemes was tinged with horror and grim determination at the thought of what they might face. The idea of just leaving the city authorities to deal with Liebnitz's evil scheme was unthinkable: whatever the man was up to, this was still personal as far as the PC's were concerned.

The party set out to wait. Siegfried would spend his days pretending to be a devout Ulrican deep in prayer in the Great Hall. The rest of the party would hang out in the Scholar's in the Freiburg, and be ready for quick action. A couple of days passed in this way.

The weather had been closing in as these events unfolded. Snow was falling thick and heavy enough to lie by the time that Morrslieb could be seen for the first time, licking at Mannslieb from behind. The PC's were ready but the night proved uneventful.

The next day was the last of Kaldezeit, so that the night crossed into the first day of Ulriczeit. Morrslieb hung in plain view in the sky that night, purple hues flowing across its disc like oil on water while orange flames still licked around its rim. When Siegfried headed for his regular watch in the Temple of Ulric he was intercepted just inside the main doors by 2 Brothers of the Axe who told him he couldn't come in. They evaded any questions and firmly insisted that Siegfried leave. Siegfried didn't recognise them as any of the loyalist Brothers he'd met.

Siegfried took up a watch outside to wait for his friends. A couple of street urchins happened past, and he gave them some coin to take a message to the Scholar's. This didn't get through, so Seigfried's wait was longer than he'd've liked, especially given the harsh weather.

The party arrived eventually. The front door was quickly tested and found to be barred from the inside. Siegfried knew the back way in though. Sneaking through the accomodation block into the main tower the PC's realised that the temple was unnaturally quiet. Something was clearly afoot. These suspicions were confirmed when Siegfried nearly tripped over a foot sticking out of a doorway. The foot belonged to a member of the temple staff who had been murdered.

Soon enough the PC's were peeking through the archway between the main tower and the Great Hall. Two fullly armed and armoured Brothers of the Axe stood before them, ready and waiting. Beyond the 2 warriors could be seen 10 robed and chanting cultists arrayed in a arc around the Sacred Flame. And also Liebnitz, the Brass Skull in one hand and a dagger in the other.

As the PC's watched, one of the cultists put his hands to his mouth. He could be seen to eat something that looked like plant matter tinged with glints of green. Then he held his hand out for Liebnitz to slice his palm open with the dagger, leaving the blood to drip onto the Brass Skull.

(Sadly once again the vagaries of memory mean that my account of this climactic battle will be sketchier than normal.)

The 2 Brothers of the Axe moved forward to cut off any attacks on Liebnitz. Grundi, Mordrin and Seigfried stepped up to engage the 2 warriors in a brutal exchange of blows. Berthold darted forward to try to get at Liebnitz. Meanwhile Alane reached out with her Witchsense to assess the Winds of Magic. She found that they were blowing stronger under Morrslieb, and felt uncommon power flow around and through her.

Liebnitz stepped up to the next cultist to repeat the blood ritual. The rest of the cultists continued to chant, oblivious to all around them as if entranced.

Mordrin, Grundi and Seigfried continued to trade blows with the Brothers of the Axe. The PC's had the advantage of numbers, but the Ulrican warriors were much more experienced and deadly. All it would take was one solid blow and any of them would be lying on the floor in a growing puddle of their own blood.

Liebnitz tried to continue with the blood ritual but Berthold landed a blow sufficient to distract him. Howling with rage the evil servant of Chaos turned his attention on the young scribe. Unfortunately for Berthold so did several cultists who'd snapped out of their trance. He was in trouble. Alane launched a bolt of fire at Liebnitz to little effect.

The Brothers of the Axe landed blows solid enough to put more than one PC in fear of their lives. Then the first turning point came: a PC cleaved the side of one of the warrior's heads off. As his brains and blood filled the air the dying Brother turned a baleful eye on his killer, then fell to the ground.

More cultists awoke from their inactivity and turned their attentions to the hapless Berthold. Telling blows were landed and the scribe felt his life pass before his eyes, only to realise in amazement that he had only lost the sleeves of his leather jerkin and not his arms themselves. Still, one more blow like that and he would be a goner.

Then Alane blew Liebnitz's foot off with a single deadly magic missile. The former Deputy High Priest screamed and fell to the floor, where his body thrashed and writhed before falling still.

With one Brother of the Axe down, one PC was free to come to Berthold's assistance, so the scribe was able safely to fall back towards his companion, then to make a dash for safety by the doors to the Grand Gallery. Outside he could hear the gratifying solid thump of a battering ram on the doors.

As Grundi, Mordrin, Seigfried and Alane continued to suffer the attentions of the cultists and the remaining Brother of the Axe, Berthold noticed that the blood from Liebnitz's shattered leg was pooling unnaturally and flowing towards the Brass Skull, whose eyes were beginning to glow crimson. He dashed over and grabbed the Skull. The fight continuing around him and the sound of the battering ram continuing to resound throughout the Great Hall, the red glow of the Brass Skull's eyes began to flow out and coalesce into a daemonic form. Hazy at first, the form was rapidly becoming ever more solid as it flowed out from within the skull.

With the party already hard pressed by the cultists and the remaining Brother of the Axe the situation was desperate and in danger of becoming terminal. So Berthold did the only thing he could think of- he threw the Brass Skull into the Sacred Flame of Ulric. No sooner had the skull hit the Flame than a blinding white flame filled the Great Hall, bathing all present in its holy fire.

The 5 PC's felt a voice resounding deep in their bones- none other than Ulric himself praising them for their heroic efforts, and marking them as his own. Each PC felt a searing cold on their right hand. The doors finally crashed open under the impact of the battering ram. Ulrich Schutzmann's voice was heard taking control of the situation.

When the PC's had recovered from their shock, they found that the cleansing holy flame had removed all trace of Liebnitz and his followers. And it had left the PC's marked with the symbol of a white wolf rampant bearing a great hammer in its forepaws- a holy symbol of the unity of the Empire.

Middenheim was saved. The Empire was secure for a while longer. And the PC's had been marked out as the bearers of a great destiny. Would they prove adequate to it?

Related@RD/KA!
Terror Roams in Front, Treachery Stalks Behind
- #1 A long day hard on Liebnitz's heels
- Index:- My little Old World: Ashes of Middenheim

My little Old World: Terror Roams in Front, Treachery Stalks Behind #1

A long day hard on Liebnitz's heels
Confronted with a city in the throes of open insurrection, and driven by suspicions they themselves no longer quite believed to follow a trail that seemed to lead nowhere, our PC's were at their wits' end. A simple desire for revenge was all that motivated the party at this point, and even that dish looked likely to be served very cold, since charging blindly through the strife-torn streets of Middenheim did not look like a wise course to even the rashest PC.

It wasn't long before someone came up with the bright idea that the party might as well head for the Collegium Theologica to see Professor Zweistein. With no better suggestions, everyone agreed that it was better late than never. It took a mere few minutes to reach the Collegium through the deserted streets of the prosperous northern districts of Middenheim.

At the Collegium the PC's were able to talk their way past the beadle on duty, and they soon found their way to Professor Zweistein's room. To the party's relief the Professor turned out to be friendly and helpful. He listened to the PC's tale and examined with interest the chest they had brought along. Unfortunately he could tell the PC's nothing of the Brass Skull, other than that he was sure that Father Ranulf's faith in his ability to find some way of dealing with the cursed icon wouldn't've proved misplaced. Asked if he knew the whereabouts of Father Ranulf, the Professor suggested the Temple of Shallya, in the Northern Westgate.

While the Professor busied himself examining the chest, Berthold stared around his room in a degree of awe at the impressive amount of books Zweistein had at his disposal. The young scribe spied a small pamphlet entitled 'The Innovator, 2521' lying inconspicuously near a pile of books. Berthold couldn't resist the tempation- he furtively grabbed the pamphlet and stuffed it into his backpack.

Soon thereafter the party's business with the Professor was done. Zweistein agreed to research the chest and the Brass Skull on the PC's behalf. Satisfied, the party decided to head off to the Temple of Shallya.

On their way they encountered a company of battle-weary watchmen resting around the Black Plague Memorial. Their old companion Otwin from Untergard- now a member of the Middenheim Watch- was there. Unfortunately so also was Captain Bart Gebauer against whom Siegfried had formed a grudge he longed to exercise. This put paid to any idea of getting some serious information from Gebauer about events in the city. In fact, it was all the party could do to drag Siegfreid away from the scene before he started a fight with Gebauer. The young protagonist was still able to make sure that the Captain was well aware of his hostility.

Reaching the Temple of Shallya the PC's were taken to see Father Ranulf. The priest was resting in a spartan monastic cell too small for everyone to enter. Alane, Berthold and Seigfried went in to talk to him. The unfortunate Ranulf was plainly very disturbed, if not quite mad, but he was able to reassure the PC's that the rune-covered chest was a relic. Realising that the priest could offer them no more useful information, the party left him to his tormented thoughts.

With no information on Liebnitz and still pretty clueless, the party decided to head to the Wolf's Teeth tavern in the Southgate to see Siegfried's mum Ingrid. They managed to make their way through the streets without getting into trouble, but to no avail- Ingrid could no more offer them news of Liebnitz than those who had hitherto been close to him.

So the dwarfs decided it was time to visit the Chapel of Grungni, which wasn't far away. Arriving in the vicinity, the PC's found that the dwarfs had barricaded the area. The party was ordered to halt and were held under the aim of loaded crossbows until their intentions were made clear. Grundi and Mordrin were allowed to proceed into the dwarfen neighbourhood of the Wynd. Berthold, Siegfried and Alane had to wait under guard in an alleyway behind the dwarfs' barricades. Alane felt uncomfortably conspicuous.

Meeting with Chief Priest Hargund in the Chapel of Grungni, the 2 dwarfs explained their fears about Liebnitz. The old dwarf was also ignorant of the rebellious Deputy High Priest's whereabouts. But something in Grundi and Mordrin's tale struck a chord in the dwarfen Priest. He told the PC's about the heavy fighting that was going on at the former site of Fleischer's Slaughterhouse in the Altmarket. The slaughterhouse had been hit by a Chaos Dwarf Hellcannon during the siege and nothing remained but a crater, in which strange plants were known to grow. For some reason, this corner of the city was the one to which the insurrectionists seemed to be clinging the most tenaciously.

His tale told, before Mordrin and Grundi left the Chapel, High Priest Hargund cautioned the pair not to talk about the Chaos dwarfs because their very existence- not to mention their presence among Archaon's forces during the terrible siege of Middenheim- was a slur on dwarfen honour. The 2 PC's didn't need to be told twice. They rejoined their friends, and the party was escorted safely on their way.

Shortly thereafter our intrepid PC's found themselves amid several companies of loyalist troops who were preparing to launch an assault on the insurrectionists holding out across the street. Brazenly taking advantage of a nearby building the party found themselves a vantage point overlooking the crater that had been Fleischer's Slaughterhouse. In the crater, behind the insurrrectionists preparing to meet the impending attack, they could see strange, unnatural looking plants that swayed as if alive in the still air, and which emitted an eerie keening.

A couple of men in hooded cloaks were harvesting the plants and collecting them in a sack. Nobody could tell the PC's why this was happening. As the PC's watched the 2 men finished their task and disappeared out of sight into the alleyways of the Altmarket. Sensing that they had had their foe in their sights for the first time that day, our intrepid party realised that they had to risk crossing the road under cover of the imminent assault if they were to catch up with the harvesters of the strange plants.

Mere minutes later the loyalist troops opened their attack with a thunder of gunfire and a hail of arrows and crossbow bolts. After a few fusilades of fire, the assault went in. The PC's waited until they could see a gap opening up in the insurrectionists' barricades, and began their dash. The bitter clash of full battle was much more shocking than the bloodiest melee the PC's had yet encountered, but, momentary confusion here and there notwithstanding, the party made it safely through the insurrectionists' lines and sought cover in the alleyways of the Altmarket district.

Pausing to wonder what next, the party soon realised that they weren't far south of the Sword and Flail, known to be a lair of the Crimson Skull cult of which Liebnitz was a presumed member. The Sword and Flail would also make a decent hideout, since it would be presumed to be empty after the party's recent exploits. Pressing on the PC's soon found themselves near the Blazing Hearth, a famous halfling hostelry at the heart of the Little Moot in the Altmarket district. They could see insurrectionist troops ahead, still holding the northern perimeter of their stronghold.

The question of how the party were to get through to the Sword and Flail in the Neumarket was soon answered: the sewers. Siegfried led everyone to a sewer grating near the Blazing Hearth. Grundi gave a heave at the rusty bars, and they were in. Nobody bothered trying to stay out of the ordure this time, and the PC's soon emerged not far from the Sword and Flail.

With the layout of the tavern known to them, the PC's acted fast. Siegfried quickly climbed his rope up to the window to the junk room he'd broken into before. As he levered away at the shutters, the wood unexpectedly gave way with a resounding creak. Hoping for the best, he climbed through the window into the tavern. Grundi began to follow up the rope while the others waited down below.

Upstairs Seigfried snuck forward and peeked carefully out of the door. The coast seemed clear. Grundi was had joined the protagonist by now. The next thing the PC's knew, combat was joined with cultists ready and waiting having been alerted by Siegfried's breaking open of the shutters.

As ever, events became confusing at this point, and my account isn't helped by the fact that I've forgotten what some of the PC's got up to. The upshot of it all was that Siegfried got involved in a wrestling match to get past a cultist holding the top of the stairs down into the bar. Meanwhile the sound of an axe hacking through wood and plaster could be heard from the stairwell at the back of the building.

Down below, Alane could hear footsteps approaching from round the front of the building. Aware of the threat, and unable to join in the fight for the door to the stairs, Grundi considered jumping out of the 1st story window because Mordrin (or was it Berthold?) was busy climbing up the rope, thus leaving the dwarf effectively stranded upstairs as the melee developed.

The next thing, 2 cultists appeared round the corner. A manic gleam flashed across Grundi's eyes and, nothing daunted he jumped. The plummeting dwarf took the advancing cultists completely by surprise and he landed fair and square on top of one of them, leaving the cultist utterly flattened, and himself quite unscathed. This gave the PC's on the ground an upper hand they never lost, and they soon had the situation completely under their control.

At about this moment the sounds of the axe from the back of the building ceased. Mordrin promptly set off to see what was happening. He arrived round the back just in time to see Liebnitz disappearing off up an alleyway with the sack of mutant plants over his shoulder. One of Liebnitz's Brothers of the Axe in full plate armour stood ready to cut off any pursuit. On the first floor Siegfried (and Berthold?) finally cleared the stairs. Running down the stairs Seigfried was able to get out of the hole in the stairwell to see Mordrin standing watching as the mighty looking warrior casually hefted his 2-handed axe as if daring the dwarf to attack.

The stand-off continued for long moments. Eventually, grinning maliciously, the traitorous Ulrican warrior started to back off up the alleyway down which Liebnitz had made his escape. As soon as the warrior was in the narrow alley Siegfried charged. Sure enough, the confines of the alley prevented the Brother of the Axe from making proper use of his great axe, and he was forced to swing it with a short grip. All the same, he might well have been able to lay Siegfreid low had it not been for Mordrin's quick thinking.

The dwarf ran off up another alleyway and had soon worked his way round behind the Ulrican warrior. Intent on the foe to his front, the Brother of the Axe didn't hear the dwarf coming. Mordrin's first blow split the man's skull in two.

Round the front, one of the cultists had survived to be taken prisoner. The melee over, Siegfried and Mordrin promptly fell into gleefully gruesome descriptions of the sufferings they would inflict on the man if he was to refuse to answer their questions. So convincing were the pair in their adopted roles that their friends were shocked at the thought of the horrors they were about to behold.

The prisoner, on the other hand, decided that he was a dead man anyway. So he piped up to ask why it was worth his while saying anything given the fate he could expect. The offer of a quicker and more painless death hardly loosened his tounge. A gentler approach did elicit from the prisoner his ignorance of Liebnitz's larger plans, and the claim that he didn't know that the Crimson Skull was a chaos cult. He said he was just a baker who had joined a secret society when his stock of flour had been ruined. He was just in it to save his business he said. Eventually the other PC's realised that Siegfried and Mordrin's little act had proved largely counter-productive.

By this time the combination of the haphazard- even half-hearted- nature of the insurrection, coupled with Liebnitz's peculiar actions, had led the PC's to begin wondering what purpose the uprising served. They began to get the idea that it might some kind of diversion. But to what end they still didn't know.

Related@RD/KA!
Terror Roams in Front, Treachery Stalks Behind
- #2 Long days hard on the party's nerves
- Index:- My little Old World: Ashes of Middenheim

My little Old World: Mounting Tensions and Precipitous Anticlimaxes #2

Back to the drawing board...
So there the PC's were, poised at a cliffhanger ending to a penultimate episode only to have to wait some 6 weeks or more before we returned to the game. If I'd run the next session straight away then it'd've been nothing more than a quick jaunt across town and back before the climactic encounter with the villain and his minions.

As it was I decided that I had to pad the thing out for at least one more session. This posed the immediate problem of why the villain wouldn't be trying to stage his ritual that very night. My answer to this was a resort to the hoary old macguffin of waiting for the appropraite conjunction- of the Chaos moon Morrslieb in this case. Everything else flowed from there. Most importantly, I decided that the potential civil war presaged by Liebnitz's actions at the trial and in the Middenpalaz thereafter had become an actual insurrection in the streets of Middenheim.

But I'm getting ahead of myself again. Here's what happened way back on the last Sunday in April, the day after my overly sanguine post about my preparations for resuming the campaign after the long lay-off.

**********

As the PC's wondered about what to do to get the Brass Skull to Albrecht Zweistein as they had promised Father Ranulf, they heard voices out in the corridor. Before they could react, the door burst open, and a dwarf came through the door with a gun. He was at least as surprised to see the PC's as they were to see him, but he quickly recovered his wits. Levelling his pistol at the PC's, he told them not to move.

Another surprise was in store. The dwarf had a companion who soon appeared through the doorway. A second dwarf, this newcomer turned out to be none other than Mordrin's young brother Snorri. Mordrin was surprised to see Snorri, who he had believed was busy running a local smuggling ring.

Explanations began. The mysterious dwarf- to whom Snorri clearly deferred- was introduced as Gottri Hammerfist. It turned out that open insurrection had broken out across Middenheim. The Middenpalaz was being locked down and all unnecessary personnel had been evacuated. The 2 dwarfs had been sent out to double-check that the palace was indeed empty. The PC's had obviously been forgotten about in the confusion of events. The question of what to do arose. Hammerfist decided that he should take the party to see Commander Schutzmann.

The surprises were still coming. For reasons best known only to himself (hmm, where have I heard that before about one of Brian's PC's?) Siegfried decided that he didn't want to see Schutzmann. So he drifted over to the still open window and promptly rolled out. Unfortunately for Seigfreid, Gottri Hammerfist was something of a crack shot with the pistol with which he had the PC's covered- a shot rang out and Seigfried took a wound in the shoulder.

The rest of the party chose not to act against the 2 dwarfs. Faced with the choice of trying to pursue Siegfried- and thus perhaps losing control of the party, or of leaving Seigfreid to the guards, Hammerfist chose the latter. And so the party were taken out into the grounds of the Middenpalaz where they awaited their audience with Commander Schutzmann outside one of the palace outbuildings. The sounds of battle could be heard from the south of Middenheim. Sounding as if the entire population of the south city had come out onto the streets, the din created the impression that the Fauschlag was a fist being furiously shaken at the night sky.

Siegfried meanwhile soon ran into guards just as Hammerfist had expected. This time the rash young protagonist decided that discretion was the better part of valour, and he let the guards lead him to Commander Schutzmann to decide his fate.

Commander Schutzmann was accompanied by Ordo Fidelis Witch Hunter Matthias Hoffer when he eventually appeared to speak to the PC's. The 2 men looked weary but satisfied. Hoffer in particular had an exalted gleam in his eyes- clearly, whatever was going down across Middenheim that night, the Witch Hunter was enjoying his part in it. Schutzmann soon learned the party's mission. He asked to see the contents of the chest. Siegfried suggested that this might not be such a good idea. Schutzmann insisted. Seigfreid came up with another excuse. Patience plainly exhausted, Schutzmann tore a strip off the young protagonist before restating his insistence.

Siegfried reluctantly opened the chest. To his and the rest of the party's amazement (and secret relief perhaps?), they beheld not the Brass Skull they feared so much, but a severed human head everyone there present recognised- it was Johann Opfer. Commander Schutzmann decided that the PC's were plainly raving, and stalked off to continue organising the defence of the city.

Spending a quiet night out in the grounds of the Middenpalaz, the PC's again had a taste of feeling extraneous to events which simply dwarfed them. The din of battle surged and roared across the south city like a living thing. Throughout the night small groups of hard looking men came and went from Commander Schutzmann's impromptu command post. By the time the new day had dawned and nobody had sent for them the PC's realised that they truly were superfluous to requirements. So they decided to head off.

Making their way past the guards at the gates of the Middenpalaz they found themselves moving through the streets of the Palast and then the Ulricsmund districts. Small knots of watchmen stood guard at key locations here and there in the otherwise deserted streets. They were content to let the PC's pass unmolested.

Still intent on their self-appointed mission to track down Deputy High Priest Liebnitz, the party made for the temple of Ulric. Sneaking in the back door they found the temple too was strangely empty. Eventually they found one of the Brothers of the Axe on guard at the main doors. Though not talkative he was willing to answer the party's questions. No, he didn't know where Liebnitz was. Nobody did- Liebnitz hadn't been seen since he left the Middenpalaz the night before. He wasn't willing to follow Liebnitz into provoking a civil war that could bring down the Empire and had taken it upon himself to ensure the safety of the temple of Ulric. He knew of 2 of his fellow Brothers of the Axe who were actively assisting the loyalist forces in crushing the insurrection.

And that was that. The party found themselves standing outside the temple of Ulric in the Ulricsmund. Sporadic and localised noises of battle could be heard. Sounding dim and distant compared to the previous night's uproar they gave Middenheim the air of a city holding its breath. Liebnitz was nowhere to be found and the outbreak of the insurrection had convinced everyone that his motives were in any case purely political. Beginning to doubt the wisdom of their own conclusions, the PC's were wondering if this might not be true after all.

**********

It was at this point that I realised that I hadn't, after all, done sufficient preparation to drive the plot forward. Sure, I had set the stage properly with an outbreak of open insurrection (and I confess to being quite pleased with the way I handled the atmosphere of that night). I had rationalised how the insurrection served the ends of the villain, and why those ends required the climactic ritual to be delayed. And I had given thought to how the insurrection would impact on the various groups and factions caught up in the events, with the intention of creating guidelines for what the PC's could find out from whom as they encountered different NPC's as they pursued the villain across the city.

Unfortunately my preparations hadn't been quite thorough enough, so I had set out with the intention of winging things, thinking that I could make key decisions about the plot in reaction to the PC's actions. In the event though I kept telling myself that the time wasn't quite right to make those decisions, with the result that my players became more confused as events unfolded, not less.

The upshot of all this was that, when the PC's found themselves standing outside the temple of Ulric, I realised that I simply wasn't equipped to give the players the hooks they needed to advance towards the long-awaited denouement. So I drew that day's session to a premature close- hardly satisfactory, but a wise decision in the situation.

Ah well, live and learn as they say (and I did!).

Related@RD/KA!
Mounting Tensions and Precipitous Anticlimaxes
- My little Old World: words better forgotten?
- #1 Famous last words...
- Index:- My little Old World: Ashes of Middenheim

My little Old World: Mounting Tensions and Precipitous Anticlimaxes #1

Famous last words...
So, in my last post about my WFRP campaign, I remember writing the immortal words "so I'm not sweating plot." Hah! Silly twisted boy!

Y'see, the thing is, I'd come up with a basic idea of how I was going to spin out the plot between the point I'd reached in Ashes of Middenheim as written, and the finale as written. I'd tweaked the background events to give what I thought (and what I believe turned out to be) an interesting escalation both of the scope of the events themselves and of the main villain's nefarious evil-doing. I'd given existing NPC's a place in the scheme of things I was pretty satisfied with, and I'd introduced some new NPC's that I expected would serve my purposes rather nicely.

I even took a page out of Raymond Chandler's book, and had a man come through the door with a gun (actually, he was a dwarf, but lah de bloody dah if you're complaining!). So there the PC's were, sitting in a room at the back of the Middenpalaz, with the dread Brass Skull back in their care, wondering what the hell to do, when a dwarf comes through the door with a gun...

But no, I'm getting ahead of myself. When last seen, our intrepid party had just completed a successful assault on the Sword and Flail tavern as part of their efforts to find evidence to refute the charges of consorting with Chaos which Deputy High Priest Liebnitz had levelled against the Witch Hunter Bauer. So how did the PC's get from a seedy tavern in a sleazy corner of the Neumarket district to a room in Graf Todbringer's palace?

Events went something like this...

**********

For some reason the barkeep started trying to play on the fears of his two companions, hinting broadly that the PC's would have to do them in to silence them, seeing as they were witnesses to the party's assault on the Sword and Flail. Meanwhile the beggar Alane had found upstairs came to. He immediately leapt to his feet and started belabouring the barkeep with invective and a few swift kicks, accusing the man of dastardly treatment of someone who had done him a favour (which was not untrue, if a bit exaggerated).

The upshot of all this was that the PC's were left with the notion that Liebnitz had sent the beggar to warn the barkeep about them. They were also persuaded that the other 2 captives were innocent watchmen helping a pal defend his tavern against what they assumed was just going to be a regular bit of breaking and entering. This hapless pair were palpably shocked at the thought that the barkeep was in fact a Chaos cultist.

Somewhere in among all this the PC's also investigated the trapdoor hidden beneath some barrels in the cellar. Sure enough, once they (ie. mostly Siegfried) had disposed of a couple of mutants with red skulls painted on their faces, they found an crude temple of skulls, and one Johann Opfer, a prisoner of the cultists who had witnessed Bauer's attack on the cultists. Delighted at regaining his freedom, Opfer was happy to vouch for Bauer at the upcoming trial.

Thus it was that the party headed for the temple of Sigmar with a presumed Crimson Skull cultist and 4 possible witnesses in tow. The cultist was 'lost' on the way through the city streets however, when Alane cracked his skull open with her quarterstaff to prevent him from creating a stramash with a Watch patrol. Alane was as surprised as anyone else at this, although it has to be said that she had more time to savour her bemusement than did the barkeep his own.

The party were escorted to the trial in the Square of Martials as part of the Sigmarite party the next day. The players were happy to try roleplaying the trail as per the suggestions in AoM. The part of Liebnitz went to Brian; Stolz to Andy; Bauer to Donald; and Opfer to Tony (all casting carefully considered by yours truly). That left Grundi to act as the party's spokesman when it came to their part in the trial.

This little change of roles proved a great success, with much fine speechifying on all sides, and some subtle legal points-scoring between Liebnitz and Stolz. Stolz revealed Opfer as a surprise witness backing up Bauer's story, then Liebnitz played his secret: the lost icon of Sigmar that Berthold had carried all the way from the Drakwald so many months ago. It had a symbol of Khorne on its reverse. Liebnitz just had enough time to suggest that the cult of Sigmar was riddled with Chaos before the Square of Martials erupted into an all-out riot.

Schutzmann and the Watch had to escort the members of the trail, including the PC's and a few notable bystanders to the safety of the Middenpalaz. Once there, Liebnitz and Stolz got involved in a blazing row that had to be broken up by the Midden Marshal before the 2 priests came to blows. Schutzmann then turned his attention to the matter of restoring order and preventing that day's events in Middenheim from sparking an all-out religious civil war between the Ulrican and Sigmarite cults- something which many observers there present feared was Liebnitz's determined objective.

The PC's hung around for a while, feeling a bit superfluous to requirements as some of the most powerful and influential citizens of Middenheim discussed the implications of events and considered courses of action. Eventually they were shown to a room at the back of the palace where they could spend the night.

Some hours later, in the dead of night, they received a visit from Father Ranulf of the temple of Ulric, who brought with him the chest into which he had put the Brass Skull when the PC's had brought it back from the Drakwald only a few days before.

Father Ranulf was a worried man. He explained to the PC's that Deputy High Priest Liebnitz had never really put much stock in Father Odo's dreams. Nor had he held out much hope of seeing the party return from their mission into the Drakwald. Still, he had been content to see the party sent off with the blind priest. Since the party's return though, Ranulf had been growing increasingly worried about Liebnitz's attitude towards the skull, and he was beginning to have serious doubts about the Deputy High Priest's intentions regarding the evil artefact.

So Father Ranulf had taken it upon himself to sneak off with the chest. He implored the PC's to take the chest from him and to take it to a certain Albrecht Zweistein of the Collegium Theologica, a man Ranulf was sure could be relied upon to do the right thing and destroy the Brass Skull. The party were sensibly highly reluctant to have anything to do with the Skull again, and suggested that Ranulf could handle such a simple mission himself. Ranulf made some excuse about having to keep an eye on Liebnitz in the current highly explosive situation. The priest's pleadings had the desired effect, and he was able to depart leaving the chest in the care of the PC's.

Lumbered with the damnable Brass Skull yet again, the party's natural instinct was to dispose of the cursed thing as quickly as possible. The Collegium Theologica wasn't far away, but Commander Schutzmann had already upgraded the rather slack curfew across the city to a state of martial law. So everyone's first instinct was just to let Siegfried leave via the window and sneak off to deliver the chest. But as Siegfried opened the window, the sound of the strife-torn streets drifted in. Suddenly that first instinct didn't seem like such a good idea after all. What was to be done everyone wondered.

**********

And that seemed like a convenient place to draw that day's session to a close. Then, of course, the series fell into unexpected publishing difficulties, and it was some 6 weeks before we were able to return to the game. But more of that another time.

Related@RD/KA!
Mounting Tensions and Precipitous Anticlimaxes
- My little Old World: words better forgotten?
- #2 Back to the drawing board...
- Index:- My little Old World: Ashes of Middenheim

My little Old World

Here I've been then preparing to restart the campaign after a long layoff. Unanticipated as it was, this left a penultimate episode hanging. It would be pretty dumb just to carry on from there after my players have had such a long time waiting- all my build-up has just fizzled out long ago. So I've been hard at work fleshing out the plot to set up a more gripping finale.

Fleshing out an rpg plot comes down in the end to your NPC's: they are what will make your rpg plots unique and interesting. I mean to say, it has often been said that there are only 6 plots (some ubiquitous literary saying for which I have no immediate source to hand). However someone might want to take that statement, what power it does have is all the more forceful when it comes to plotting a roleplaying game: whatever fiendish convolutions you as GM might have in mind, your essential plot will be a tried and tested oldie.

So I'm not sweating plot.

I'm not sweating NPC's much either really. Most of the detailed NPC's I have in play at the moment are lifted from the Ashes of Middenheim book. Where I have had to create my own NPC's I have used this handy WFRP character generator from Snotling.org. A 6-career WFRP NPC a few mouseclicks away? Great stuff! An indispensable aid to the WFRP GM. One to add to your bookmarks if it's not already there. ;)

Related@RD/KA!
Mounting Tensions and Precipitous Anticlimaxes
- #1 Famous last words...
- #2 Back to the drawing board...
- Index:- My little Old World: Ashes of Middenheim

My little Old World: Swimming with the Sharks #2

Assaults in and on the Sword and Flail
The PC's welcome was just as warm as before. While they were waiting to get their drinks at the bar, Berthold noticed a drunk being taken through the door behind the bar. He was able to see into the stairwell, and to conclude that the stairs down into the cellar were through that same door.

Having learnt the local form on their last visit, the 3 companions decided not to go for a table this time. They decided instead to stand close to the one table that was occupied. Berthold managed to overhear the burly looking bravoes sitting at the table discussing the violent fate that was to befall some poor unfortunate.

Just at that moment, one of the bravoes noticed Berthold's earwigging. Feck off! the young scribe was told. Before he could react Seigfried jumped in and told the bravo to feck off himself, before launching into a tirade the long and the short of which was that he could take them all, starting with the one who had- in his own earthy fashion- told Berthold to mind his own business. Naturally enough, the bravo and his 4 companions decided to show Seigfried the error of his ways.

The resulting brawl only lasted a couple of minutes, and at first it seemed to go rather well for the PC's. Alane managed to put 2 bravoes to sleep using her magic, and Seigfried managed to knock 1 assailant down, and forced another to withdraw. It was when people stepped forward from the crowd to replace those taken out of the action that Seigfried realised that he had misjudged the locals' reactions to a brawl with strangers.

The final outcome had a certain inevitability to it. Alane and Berthold were quickly knocked out, leaving Siegfried to fight alone against 4 men. Blow after blow rained down on the young protagonist, to no avail. As his stand dragged on and on, Siegfried was filled with a peculiar joy. He knew that he would be beaten down in the end, but he also knew that he would be remembered by the locals at the Sword and Flail.

And so it was that when Grundi and Mordrin returned to the Sword and Flail, they found their 3 companions lying bedraggled and unconscious in the alley outside the tavern. Seigfreid was still full of himself when he came to: sticking his head round the door of the tavern, he tossed a gold crown into the taproom, announcing that it was to pay for the damages, and to buy drinks for the locals.

Not content with that, as the party headed off in search of another tavern in which to eat, Seigfried popped his head back in again to deliver a cocky message to the Sword and Flail locals. This provoked a local to come to the door. A few tense moments resulted as the local and Mordrin and Seigfried indulged in trying to stare each other down. Neither side had any appetite for a fight though, and the party eventually went on their way.

Fed and watered, the party returned to the Sword and Flail with the plan of breaking in via the 1st floor windows once the tavern had emptied.

At the appointed time the party snuck round the side of the tavern. After enduring the humiliation of watching Berthold succeed where he had failed in getting his grappling hook securely located in the 1st story window sill, Seigfried climbed up and levered open the wooden shutter with his dagger. Inside he found himself inside a room full of junk. Sneaking forward he could see light coming in under the door, and could hear the sound of laughter and ribaldry from beyond. At the same time he could hear scrabbling and moaning and exclamations of dismay through the thin wall of the room.

The noise continued for some time. Siegfried decided to risk a peek through the door. He carefully opened it just a crack, and saw in the hall outside the door the barkeep and another man head through a door into another room, leaving a 3rd man waiting for them. He heard the sound of a quick beating being administered in the room from which he had heard the scrabbling before the barkeep and his companion exited the room. Alright said the barkeep, it's time to go downstairs.

Siegfried waited a few minutes, then snuck out the junk room and made his way stealthily downstairs. Reaching the door to the bar, he opened it a crack as carefully as he could. He looked through the door to see shadowy figures crouched behind the bar. One of them was looking straight at him. Hoping that perhaps he hadn't been noticed, Seigfried beat a cautious retreat back up the stairs. Unfortunately Seigfried's efforts at stealth were in vain at this point: he was pursued up the stairs, and the next thing he knew, he had been grabbed by the shoulder and was tumbling back down the stairs, where a swift blow of a cudgel knocked him senseless.

Outside the rest of the party were already restless and edgy when Berthold heard the crashing and thuds from the tavern's stairwell. It was time for action everyone decided. Mordrin and Grundi crashed into the door, once, twice, and burst through. As Berthold and Alane followed they saw the barkeep standing behind the bar, and Siegfried lying still between 2 other men at the end of the bar. The noise of the dwarf's first attempt at the door had alerted the 3 men in the tavern, and they were already drawing weapons and preparing themselves for the fray as the PC's moved in to the attack.

Alane opened the hostilities with a magical firey dart. Grundi and Berthold charged the 2 men standing above their recumbent companion, while Mordrin charged the barkeep. As the combatants exchanged blows and Alane sent magic darts flying, Seigfried came to. Finding himself on the floor in the middle of a melee, he briefly considered crawling out of the way before deciding on a much more useful option: he grabbed one of the enemy by the legs. Moments later, a quick twist brought the man crashing to the floor.

Grundi took full advantage of Seigfried's surprise attack on his opponent, delivering some telling blows against a foe outnumbered, grappled, and then prone. With Seigfried on top of him and a dwarf lining up his axe for another swipe at his head, the man decided that discretion was the better part of valour, and promptly gave up. Seigfried put his knife to the man's throat to keep him honest, pulled his rope out of his pack, and began to bind the fellow. Grundi went to assist Mordrin's against the barkeep.

Meanwhile Berthold's opponent too decided that enough was enough. With some fancy footwork and feints from his cudgel he forced the young scribe back a pace or two, then slipped past him and headed for the door as fast as his legs could carry him. His luck was out though: Alane was still in the doorway and he couldn't slip past her. Alane tried to no avail to drop the man with a sleep spell. Then Berthold charged in and grabbed hold of him. In a superhuman effort the puny scribe was able to wrestle his burly foe to the ground, where he called for help.

Hearing Berthold's shouts Mordrin left the barkeep to Grundi's tender mercies and ran to help the scribe. The dwarf's intervention was enough to foil their foe's escape attempts and Alane was finally able to use her magic to send him to sleep. Berthold began to drag the man across to his fellow so that he could tie him up too.

Grundi meanwhile had been swapping blows with the barkeep, who was proving a capable and determined opponent. Seeing his companions down, he decided to beat a retreat. Vaulting over the bar to head for the door, the barkeep was unlucky when Grundi caught him a blow before he could get out of reach. The man went flying to land in a heap on the floor.

Grundi followed up and quickly had him pinned to the floor. Mordrin ran up and opened Grundi's pack to get at the dwarf's rope. But the barkeep hadn't given up, and he broke free of Grundi's hold. Grundi grabbed him again, and Mordrin laid into the man's head with the edge of his shield. Eventually, sheer weight of numbers and his wounds told on the man's determination to escape: he too gave in, and was quickly bound.

By this time Alane had headed upstairs. Going door-to-door she found a bedroom, the junkroom through which Seigfreid had made his entry, and an upside down room in which an unconscious beggar lay on the floor.

Downstairs Seigfried made for the stairs into the cellar, only to stop when he realised that he was heading into the pitch dark. He backed up and waited until a lantern was lit, which was done while Berthold made the ground floor secure, and dragged the prisoners out of sight behind the bar where he could guard them with a crossbow borrowed from one of his companions.

The cellar, when eventually entered, proved to be just that: a tavern cellar full of barrels. There was certainly no sign of the hideout of a chaos cult, although the PC's suspected that the Sword and Flail tavern had yet to reveal all its secrets.

Related@RD/KA!
Swimming with the Sharks
- #1 High poltics and mixed demeanours
- Index:- My little Old World: Ashes of Middenheim

My little Old World: Swimming with the Sharks #1

High poltics and mixed demeanours
Berthold, Grundi, Mordrin and Seigfried sat in the Sword and Flail tavern feeling very aware of the hostile glances of the locals and the searching scrutiny of the barkeep. They noticed that, of the 3 tables in the tavern's taproom, theirs was the only one occupied even though the place was beginning to fill up.

After a while, a well-dressed halfling walked in. Expecting the locals to provide a bit of a show at the halfling's expense, the PC's were surprised to see the small figure was given what passed for a friendly welcome from the locals at the Sword and Flail. The halfling approached the PC's. Ah, I see you've been keeping my table for me he said before introducing himself as Doddy Farthingale. Siegfried introduced the party. So, who sent you then, asked the halfling, as a local came up with a drink for him.

The PC's were a bit nonplussed by this, wondering what information this stranger could have on them. The conversation passed back and forth and the PC's found out that Farthingale was expecting to do business with them. It began to dawn on our heroes that Farthingale was probably a local fence and that this was his table. Seigfried made a last ditch attempt to persuade Farthingale that the party had in fact been sent by someone to do business with the halfling, but Farthingale was having none of it. The confusion notwithstanding the halfling was friendly, and he quickly put the party's minds at rest by ordering a round of drinks.

Just at this moment a woman came into the tavern. She hailed Farthingale and came across to his table. As she reached the table, Siegfried recognised her as Beyer- first seen in the guise of a man back at the Strutting Cock- and who he had been sure for some time was actually a woman in disguise.

Meanwhile, at the Guild of Wizards and Alchemists, Alane had found Bright Magister Nellie Eschlimann. The elf wanted to speak to Eschlimann about becoming a journeyman Bright wizard. Eschlimann explained to Alane that she would need to get herself a grimoire, and that grimoires are rare and expensive items. The Magister told Alane that she could offer her no particular help at the moment.

Alane's conversation with Eschlimann was interrupted by the arrival of Celestial Magister Valdric Gebauer. Gebauer was the wizard in charge of the research taking place at the Guild in Middenheim into the effects of the Storm of Chaos on the Winds of Magic. He had been Alane's stern taskmaster while she had been working at the Guild assisting the researchers with their work. Gebauer sent Alane on an errand to the Scholar's, an inn in the Freiburg frequented by wizards and scholars. She had to go and fetch Hildegund Reifsneider, a Grey Journeyman Wizard whose presence was required at the Guild.

Arriving at the Scholar's Alane soon found Reifsneider, playing a game of chess. The woman was irritated to be interrupted, but knew she had no choice but respond to Gebauer's summons. She made sure that Alane bore the brunt of her irritation though.

As the pair were leaving, Alane heard Deputy High Priest Claus Liebnitz's voice from an alcove. In the company of Gold Magister Giselbrecht Bacher- who Alane recognised from the Guild, and a stranger of striking appearance and nagging vague familiarity, Liebnitz was gloating over the success of political manoeuvres that had forced Commander Schutzmann to bring the Bauer trial forward to the very next day. Continuing past the alcove, Alane looked back to see Liebnitz staring out at her. The Deputy High Priest's face betrayed both surprise and malicious glee at the sight of the elf he had last seen in the dungeons beneath the Temple of Ulric.

Back in the Sword and Flail, Beyer had recognised the party too. She greeted them in a friendly manner as if appearing as a woman in front of people who had hitherto known her as a man was a mere bagatelle. Siegfried meanwhile was simmering with anger. He challenged Beyer about the message she had passed on that had sent the party on their long wild goose chase all the way back to the Strutting Cock.

Beyer was surprised to hear that the message had turned out to be false. She insisted that she had passed it on in good faith, explaining that it had in fact been passed on to her by none other than the same Doddy Farthingale sat at the table with the party. Beyer and Farthingale were pressed further on the matter, and the party were persuaded of their sincerity.

Farthingale was asked if he would say who had passed the message on to him. The halfling willingly agreed, noting that he had a reputation to maintain. He told the PC's that his source had been one Merkel Trachsel, a human scout who had recently been working for the city of Middenheim, guiding parties of refugees safely into the city. Hearing this, Siegfried asked if Trachsel might've known Baumer, a woodsman recently found murdered in the city. Farthingale replied that he didn't know about Baumer, but that Trachsel certainly knew many such people in the local area.

As the conversation continued, Alane was making her way to the Sword and Flail, having decided that she must pass on to her companions the news that they didn't have as much time at their disposal as they believed. She managed to make her way the short distance from the Freiburg to the Neumarket with no difficulty and soon arrived at the tavern. The elf's arrival caused a bit of a stir- and not a few leers- among the locals, but these calmed down when she joined her companions at their table with Farthingale and Beyer.

Alane passed on her news quietly to Seigfried, interrupting him in his- not unsuccessful- efforts to strike up friendly relations with Beyer. Meanwhile, Mordrin decided that it was time to see if he could get any information out of Farthingale or Beyer about the party's mission in the Sword and Flail. So, he announced, I hear that there's a rumour going round that there's a chaos cult here in the tavern. A stunned silence fell at the table.

You know what I mean, the dwarf continued, that Witch Hunter who's going on trial? He's supposed to have found a chaos cult here. This effort to retrieve the situation just made things worse. Beyer and Farthingale quickly finished their drinks and, bidding everyone a polite farewell, made a hasty exit from the tavern.

After their companions' departure, the party fell to discussing Alane's news. Her description of the peculiarly familiar stranger's bald head, bushy eyebrows and hooked nose rang bells in the minds of several other PC's. Soon enough, someone remembered that he had been seen a few times back in Erntezeit when the party had first arrived in Middenheim with the Untergard refugee party. He had had the air of a petty official, but that was all that anyone could recall.

By this time the PC's had decided that just hanging around drinking in the Sword and Flail wasn't going to achieve anything. It was time to leave. Outside, it was decided that Berthold and Seigfried would hang around in the Neumarket to keep an eye on the tavern, while Alane, Grundi and Mordrin would head off to the Temple of Sigmar to see if they could find out more about this mysterious stranger.

Back at the Freiburg, the 2 dwarfs and the elf found that sullen locals still hung around outside the front of the Temple of Sigmar. A strong Watch presence made sure that they were behaving themselves. So the PC's headed round the back, where they saw wagonloads of lumber heading for the nearby Square of Martials where tomorrow's trail was to take place.

Mordrin banged on the door, which was opened by one of the Temple Guard. The dwarf announced that he had to see High Capitular Werner Stolz immediately. State your business, replied the guard. It's a secret, said Mordrin, insisting that he be let in immediately. The guard was having none of this, and again told the dwarf to state his business. As Mordrin repeated his demands in the face of the guard's continued stubbornness and increasingly self-evident disbelief, Alane decided she didn't like the look of the dwarf's rising temper: she took to her heels to rejoin Berthold and Seigfried back in the Neumarket.

After a couple of minutes watching Mordrin getting angrier and angrier in the face of the temple guard's refusal to admit him without an account of his business, Grundi decided to intervene to prevent Mordrin from taking his axe to the door. It was time to try the front door.

Round the front, a watch sergeant intercepted the 2 dwarfs as they headed for the front door. Once again Mordrin insisted on being admitted to see the High Capitular. Once again he was asked to state his business. On replying that it was none of the Watch Sergeant's business, Mordrin was told in no uncertain terms that it was precisely the Watch Sergeant's business because his duty was to guard the temple.

The confrontation between the obdurate and the bloody-minded looked like being as futile as before until the name of Father Greimold came up. The Watch Sergeant agreed to check if Greimold would see the 2 dwarfs. A Watchman went up to the door, and Greimold appeared soon after. When the dwarfs joined him, he took them inside. Pausing just inside, he asked them what their business was.

The dwarfs passed on Alane's description. Greimold told them that the description matched Maximillian Lang, a city official. Mordrin asked if Lang was known to have any dealings with Liebnitz. Greimold said that the pair were known to cooperate politically, citing as an example Liebnitz's support for Lang when the latter was put forward for the position of overseeing Middenheim's efforts to support the influx of refugees into the city in the aftermath of the Storm of Chaos.

Mordrin pressed Greimold on the issue, looking for hints that there might be a darker dimension to Lang and Liebnitz's cooperation. Father Greimold could only reiterate that, as far as he knew, it was all just politics. In the course of this discussion, Mordrin was surprised to discover that Father Greimold knew nothing at all of the party's imprisonment by Liebnitz in the dungeons of the Temple of Ulric.

Eventually convinced that there was nothing more to learn, Grundi and Mordrin took their leave to return to the Sword and Flail. They had given Father Greimold something to think about. And he had perhaps taught them a lesson about how information works in the upper echelons of the Old World.

As these events had been unfolding, Alane had rejoined Berthold and Seigfried outside the Sword and Flail in the Neumarket. The 2 humans were aghast to hear that she had left Mordrin on the point of fighting his way into the Temple of Sigmar. Best left well alone then they decided, and concluded that it was time to pay another visit to the Sword and Flail.

Related@RD/KA!
Swimming with the Sharks
- #2 Assaults in and on the Sword and Flail
- Index:- My little Old World: Ashes of Middenheim