Well, if everything goes according to plan we'll have three PC's rolling up characters tomorrow and will go through "A day late..." and see if we can also get through "An eye for..." If that goes well I'll be converting some previous edition one-shot adventures for us to do some more adventuring. I expect that our group will grow to 4-5 PC's and hope that W3 will become a frequent secondary game to go along with our D4 campaign. Wish us luck!

Mark

Good luck Mark, let us know how it ges!

Hi all,

Ok, so we had our first game last night. Short version of how it went = lots of fun and we'll be continuing to play. Long version below...

We played from 4p-915p with me GMing and 4 players. Character creation took about half that time but there was plenty of rules explanation, fleshing out character backgrounds and eating going on at the same time. One of my players suggested that everyone decide on race in secret then get their three character cards to choose from and then announce what they were going with. Everyone liked this a lot and we ended up with two Reiklanders (a brother team consisting of a Coachman and Burgher, the characters are brothers, not the players) and two High Elves (a female soldier and a male bounty hunter, we talked about them being siblings but I don't think it was ever settled). The coachman and burgher have dreams of starting a brewery and being competetive against dwarven brewers so we already have a side-story built in to almost anything we do. They went with the Brash Young Fools party card which seems to suit the group just fine. We're sort of building a backstory for the elves on why they are hanging around two somewhat rowdy human brothers that enjoy brewing beer as much as adventuring but there's more work to do there.

Once done with characters we played through "A day late..." and while I know we did some things wrong or forgot some things here and there (all fo us being new to the system that doesn't surprise me at all) we all had a good time. Watching the players pick their actions and building their dice pools I'd say that deciding on actions and resolving them went as quickly as oru D4 games go. Let me explain that a bit. We've been playing D4 for 18 months now and all like it for what it is, Diablo with Dice as one of my co-DMs puts it. Each turn/action is an exercise in math where we're calculating lots and lots of to hit and damage bonuses for every character. It was refreshing to have one die roll resolve all of those things. We still walked through the creation of each dice pool but it still went more quickly than individual D4 player turns and I suspect it will only speed up from there. I have two of the core sets (minus one set of books that I sold to one of our players) and the Adventurer's expansion and think that there's nothing that's required for my players to buy, but it would certainly help if each player had a set of dice to themselves. Total investment per player of about $12 so that would not be bad.

Combat went quickly and I don't think any of them went past 2-3 rounds. I don't know if that's common, quick combats, so we'll have to see if that plays out. If so, it makes the longer recharge action cards essentially equal to "encounter" powers from D4. As a GM I think the only thing that I didn't like was the monster entries. I hate the stat lines (just put Damage, Soak and Defense there for goodness sake). If it's ok to leave some stats without a title and in parenthesis then just do it to all of them. Sheesh, just put three more little column headers on there and I would be much happier. Also, not having the monster actions on cards was something I didn't like. I can (and will) make my own but it was just an annoyance. Also, as a GM I found the monster section to be very thin. I suspect that mid-high level supplements will see the release of new monsters but it just seemed way too thin to me right off the bat.

I had to adjust the hook from "A day late..." to fit our party but that was not a problem. I suspect that converting some old 1-shot adventures will also work out well. The party sheet didn't see much use, but I did toss a stress token on there when the female high elf soldier charged into the beastmen that were attacking the wagon and all of the brave males stayed back. When the second group emerged from the woods by them she got some satisfaction as the burgher screamed out for help.

All in all, it was very FUN and that's the biggest thing for us. It was an good night of gaming and the system is one that should work well for us once we get all of the little bits that are strewn around four different rulebooks all in our heads. Other than the monster section being thin my only real complaint is the format of the books, but that's really nothing new on the forums here and is something that's being addressed with the living index. We'll be moving on to "An eye for..." next.

Later,

Mark

The line of the night may have been when I was explaining after the first fight that if they had left the Gor unmolested for several rounds that it would have killed the guy lying on the ground. To which one player replied, "Well it's good that I molested him right away."

Mark

A nice write-up, thanks for the report.

I'm looking to begin my own campaign with workmates (from a new job) over the next couple of weeks and will be running the exact same route of day late -> eye for an eye. If you have any tips/suggestions/workarounds on specifics of either I'd certainly be interested in them.

As a player in Mark's group I can say we all laughed and had a good time. I (and most of the others) have played the older WFRP rules sets, so when the beastmen showed up, I had a fit of deja vu....a good feeling! The artwork and the rules of the new version support the feel of the old world, so I am happy with that. When Mark asked if anyone was interested in playing again this coming weekend, I said yes right away (but my wife groaned, so may Sigmar protect me!)

My only complaint was the lack of horses. My character conception was to be (eventually) a mounted 'reiter' with an xbow and, as I gained enough cash, a pair of pistols for close in fighting. Consequently, I specialized in mounted combat only to find there are no rules for purchasing horses yet. Thankfully, Mark is looking for a solution and has found some ideas on this forum. My interim plan is to come up with a background that explains my lack of a horse while having mounted skills :-)

I plan on adding horses to my equipment list.

Ah, tonight we start "An eye for..."

I'll post about how it goes after we're done.

Mark

Ok, so we finished "An eye for..." last Saturday and I wanted to post a short synopsis of our game.

We started by spending the XP that was earned in the previous adventure and adjusting characters. I allowed each player to adjust pretty much anything they wanted (just this once though) since we were all learning the game last time we sat down and some people might not have been as happy with all of their choices as they'd have liked. There were very minor changes made and the party makeup (HE Bounty Hunter, HE Soldier, HR Burgher and HR Roadwarden) remained the same. We advanced the side storyline of the humans wanting to start a brewery a little bit but then got down to the adventure.

We had a bit of RP to get them hired and then the travel that got us to the beastman fight. I made better use of active defenses for the monsters this time so the fight was a bit more challenging and ended up with one fairly badly hurt HE and one moderately hurt HE. After finishing off the beastmen we got to all learn and apply the first aid rules since the Burgher is skilled and nobody really wanted to take their chances in the Hospice. I found that kind of odd, but they viewed it as a place to go and die, and they never ventured back there during the investigation portion later on so there were several clues that were missed there.

The investigation went well, very well I think, and each of the four split up and went to check things out. I liked the shift from combat to more rp and think that they did, too. Good clues were found in sevearl places (forge, library, sitting room) and we also had some more opportunity to flesh out a biut of our backstory when the Burgher worked out a deal to supply the manor with the ale that they are brewing. The hammer was found but its relevance was not discovered so it was left behind and we moved on with investigations (the HE Bounty Hunter found the painting and picked up a temp insanity but didn't have time to tell the others or was just jibber-jabbering to himself so much that nothing was said about it) and then on to dinner. Both RH ate the poisoned food but only one was affected by it. A big fight with the cultists ensued that night and Greigor was killed by the end of the first round IIRC. It was a good, blood fight and I decided to use zero henchmen. All of the cultists used regular cultist stats. I'm still trying to balance things for combats and was put off a bit by how wimpy one 'real' monster and a bunch of henchmen were in our previous game so I said, "full speed ahead" and hit them with all 'real' monsters. Ok, so they were cultists so not too tough but one HE nearly got knocked out and the other was pretty hurt, too.

Since they stopped the demon summoning they didn't have to fight it (probably lucky for them in their somewhat weakened state) and I awarded them a second XP because they not only headed off the demon coming into play but they also saved the sacrificial victim and all did some good rp'ing and helped advance our side storyline.

As the GM I noticed that even after reading the adventure more than a couple of times I still felt less prepared than I wanted to. I felt like I was flipping around the module more than I'd like (or normally do) but I'll say that some of that was still a bit of unfamiliarity. Maybe it's also because I could not flip through it like an old D&D module and felt kind of constrained (physically) because it was part of one of the rulebooks, which I also needed to reference. Now that we're on to other adventures I think that this slight feeling of being uncomfortable will ease up. Anyway, I had a good time and everyone at the end said that they are still having a good time and were already starting to plan how to work towards finishing careers and what they might want to move into next.

Later,

Mark

Thanks for the update, and I'd love to keep hearing more. This is one of the first session reports I've seen for Warhammer 3E.

I'll definitely try to update here after each of our games.

mark

Hi again all,

We had our third session last night and I just wanted to post a report to go along with the previous ones.

If you're going to be a player in The Ghost of Mondstille you don't want to read this since it contains spoilers.

Short Recap = Played Ghost of Mondstille and all had fun!

Long Recap = We had just three PCs (Human Coachman, Human Burgher, High Elf Bounty Hunter) as our HE Soldier and Dwarf Smuggler could not make it. We recapped what happened at the end of An Eye for an Eye where the PCs stayed on at the manor to help our since much of the staff had been decimated. They ended up staying on there for a few months and winter had settled in when they started to return to Ubersriek. On the way there their wagon broke a wheel and a full keg of beer (the humans are brothers that are aspiring brewers and have already set up a deal with Lord Ashafenberger) fell off the wagon and cracked open spilling into the snow. Between the anger over spilled beer and suddlenty getting an idea about beer-slushies an arrow fewl out of the woods and stuck into the wagon. Everyone dove for cover and then saw that the arrow had a red kerchief tied to it. After looking around a bit they spotted Roland (renamed from Rutger because they had already met someone named Rutger) in the woods signalling to them to keep quiet. After a few minutes he jioned the party and together they saw a large (30+ group of goblins in the woods where a goblin shaman was scraeming and yelling at the rest. They were able to figure out that the band was under the control of an orc named Killahead and the shaman was really, really mad at another goblin called puss. So mad, in fact, that he ordered other goblins to find him so he could be killed and eaten by the Shaman.

Roland explained the PCs needed a place to stay and he ran a guesthouse in a nearby very small mining town. They went and found the rest of the small town mostly deserted (I added a drunk who ran the bar to still be in town but to be of no use to the party) and they settled in. The kids quickly started asking them questions and being wide-eyed with wonder and asking if the party saw the witch in the woods on their way here (it's just a story that Matilda tells the kids to keep them from venturing too far into the woods). PCs got settled with the Burgher taking a private room and the elf and Coachmen in the common room. The humans took a nap and the elf got the first haunting. He's already in a semi-fragile state from viewing the painting back at the manor so the cold chill moving through him made him want to leave right then. During dinner there was the second haunting and not too much was made of it. During the night the third haunting was in the Burgher's room but he was convinced that it was his brother playing a prank on him so he went back to sleep. The Coachman was awakened by the sound of breaking glass downstairs and went to investigate. He had no weapons with him so he picked up the metal fireplace poker and carefully crept into the kitchen. There he found Puss (renamed from Puceheart in the module only because I thought Puss was a good goblin name) rummaging through the cabinets. Puss sprang up with eyes as big as saucers holding some stewed rabbit on one hand and a pot in the other, saying (I had the golbins speaking a very broken version of common sort of like Pikey from the movie ******!) "It's not what it looks like, ok so maybe it is what it looks like, I can explain, I ran away from my tribe and..." The coachman just stood there in wonder for a minute (stunned for a round) and Puss could tell that he probably wasn't buying it so he broke for the window and got away. Roland was notified of the break-in and went to fix the window and then they saw the writing on the wall and Roland quickly said he would clean it up and then back to bed for everyone.

The next morning Roland and the party went to patrol the village since goblins of Killahead's band had obviously gotten closer than desired. They found several in the closed-down (for winter) smithy's and a blunderbuss in an enclosed space with a crit that has a 5 severity just painted the place in goblin parts. They fought and killed a few more goblins and returned to the guesthouse. Upon returning the elf saw the next haunting (oh, his poor psyche is starting to unravel now) and Matilda got really upset at the burned picture and started to blame it on the elf and then the kids were screaming upstairs at the next haunting. Kids run downstairs, adults run upstairs to investigate and find Josef's room a mess. While talking and investigating a bit the Burgher looks out the window and sees the kids running towards the mine and alerts Roland who immediately heads off to fetch them because during the winter months he knows that sometimes orcs find refuge in there. The party follows him, but the Burgher finds Josef's will in the mess but can't do anything with it right now. I threw the orcs in there to have another combat and had to back off a bit with them because orcs are tough. I mean TOUGH! Roland went down, the Burgher went down, the Coachman was nearly down and the elf was halfway down before they won the combat. It was overly tough but that was my mistake as a GM so I didn't feel bad about giving them a break. If there's anything I don't like about the system it's the monster rating and really being at a loos to really be able to build balanced encounters. Maybe I just need more time with it. So, the party is beat to heck and they find the kids hiding in a mining cart and carry the unconscious ones back to the house for rest and healing.

They find out the whole story about Anthea and end up allowing her and the family to live (which I am very happy about as a GM!) and after getting healed up they head back to Ubersriek and don't say a word about what happened there to anyone. The game was a lot of fun and my compliments go to Clive Oldfield for writing such a fun adventure! As a GM it was very easy to follow and run. I did add a little more combat, though.

Mark

Thanks for posting. Its really fun to read.

Mark Theurer said:

Cool, thanks.

That's the first time I've ever seen an actual play of one of my adventures wirtten up like that, so that's very gratifying.

Hi all,

We played our 4th session this past weekend and here’s how it went…

We had planned on 5 players, but two could not make it so we soldiered on with 3 (Elf Soldier, Elf Bounty Hunter and Dwarf Smuggler). Our two humans (brothers Otto and Hidro Matik) were missing but since they are aspiring brewmasters we figured that they were busy having many test samples of their latest ale.

The party was joined by Bill (Wild Bill) Bruhamer (Dwarf Smuggler) who has had his name written in his clan’s Book of Grudges because he shared dwarven brewing secrets with non-Dwarves. He has since hooked up with the Matik brothers and is helping them carve out a niche as a micro-brewery in Ubersriek.

This adventure cobbles together aspects from, at least, three different sources so none of it’s really original except that I’ve stitched them all into one adventure. The Matik’s have been in communication with Benito and Eleora Sangeovesi (owners of Il Toro Russo restaurant) in Stormdorf who are interested in bringing large quantities of their brew to be sold in their restaurant. It seems that the brothers’ brew has gained a bit of notoriety since they have been filling orders for Lord Ashafenberg. So, with the brothers busy the rest of the party plans to meet employee’s of Il Toro Russo at the docks and take a barge to Stormdorf. A barge that’s weighed down with many kegs of ale.

Along the way the barge springs a large leak and the crew have to make for shore quickly. While they are making repairs, which take well over a day, the party wanders around a bit and in the far, far distance they see a humanoid shape that looks like it’s waving to them and trying to get their attention. It even appears that a tree is pulled right out of the ground and set on fire to try to get their attention. They notice that they seem to have too good of a look at the humanoid for how far away it is and then figure out it’s a giant. By the time this happens they are too far to get away but the giant doesn’t seem to be threatening them. Rather, he’s trying to wave them down and get them to talk to him. Normally, a dwarf would expect a giant to charge right in and try to play whack-a-dwarf but the giant is trying not to make eye contact with the dwarf and is mainly talking to the elves. Talking, that is, in very small sentences that consist mainly of single syllable words. It seems that the giant’s cave has been overrun with goblins but they are back in the small tunnels that he cannot reach so he’s pleading with the party to help get rid of them. After a bit of negotiation the giant offers to reward the party with all the horse meat that they can carry and we’re off goblin hunting. There were two battles with the small greenskins and the first went badly for the party. In the first the Elf Soldier (played by Judy, the elf known as Nancy) charged into a large group of snotlings and gobos and was pulled down under a green tide and was KO’d pretty early on. In the second fight the party found a goblin shaman ranting and raving as he ran around another group of goblins. He was carrying a dead chicken and was getting blood all over the place. They also noticed another goblin that was sitting by their camp fire who was sitting on a large bucket that he was desperately trying to keep under control. It seemed like there was something in the bucket that wanted to get out. Our Elf Bounty Hunter took out the shaman quickly at range and then all hell broke loose. Another green tide was threatening the party until the one that was sitting on the bucket was killed. He fell over and an imp flew around the large cave, now free from his confines. Without the shaman there to offer moral support and control the imp, the goblins scattered and the party cleared out the caves.

I introduces two magic items in this adventure and both were found in the caves. The first is a ring that gives the wearer an extra fortune dice each day (so 4 instead of 3). I don’t think this is too powerful and in our games it’s typical that the party gets into really hot water in the last fight of the session and burns all of their extra fortune dice then. The second is a human-forged sword, but one that they discovered was held by humans that were drawn in with the Vampire Counts of Sylvania. It’s a longsword that has a pomell that’s designed to look like a dragon claw. It allows a complete reroll of a melee attack dice pool once per day. I think this one is considerably more powerful than the ring, but not overly so. The giant was happy that they cleared out the goblins and offered to help carry all of their horse meat back to the barge but they instead bargained with him and traded him back the horse meat in exchange for a favor if they ever cross paths again.

OK, so they get to Stormdorf and exchange pleasantries with Benito, Eleora and Benito’s brother Guido. Il Toro Russo is a Tilean restaurant in a section of town that’s known as Little Tilea. They are introduced to the restaurant’s head chef, a Halfling named King William Hildebrant the 56th. Benito remarks that it’s not his real name and that the Halfling is quite insane and delusional but he’s one heck of a cook. Not as good as Benito’s dearly departed mother, but still quite excellent. During dinner, with lots of drinking, there is suddenly a lot of commotion coming from the basement. Two more Tileans come running from the basement, totally out of breath. They are introduced as Mario and Luigi and explain that in their explorations of the sewers under Stormdorf they have stumbled upon Skaven tunnels. Benito shoo’s them off since we are still in the middle of dinner, though. Further discussions reveal that Benito and Guido are interested in financing a brewery for the brother’s here in Stormdorf and they also need to request the help of the elves and dwarf. It seems that Benito knows, but does not have sufficient evidence (none, really) that his mother’s prized cookbook that contains all of her personal recipes has been stolen by another local businessman. Werdna, a human that fancies himself as an herbalist / barber / epicurean / chef (and rumored to be a sorcerer of the dark arts) has a shop on the other end of town and he has stolen it to make use of the recipes himself. Benito asks the party to break in and steal it back for him.

Wanting to assist their new business partner (not really like, “I have an offer you can’t refuse”, but not totally unlike it either) they scout out the shop and find a young human woman tending to the shop but Werdna is nowhere to be found. They find all sorts of herbs, foodstuffs, cookery and even clockwork toys, but nothing incriminating yet. They come back in the middle of the night and break in to find the book. The ground floor is just a shop (but with lots of expensive herbs and other goods) so they head upstairs and find Werdna’s personal library and his bed chamber. In the library they are attacked by animated clockwork toys and they find lots of expensive stuff (some of questionable, but not outrightly heretical, nature) but no “Mama’s cookbook” so they head into the basement. Here they find Werdna’s private kitchen. There’s a main room with an over, a pantry, and a locked door. The whole place is a mess with flour and food strewn all over the place along with lots of what appears to be blood everywhere. There’s also a female, the clerk from earlier, slumped by the stove. While she’s being looked at (she’s nearly dead, but utters, “Is it still here?”) and while the party is wondering what “it” is a huge humanoid shape emerges from the pantry and attacks them. It’s quite dark but with their better-than-human eyesight the party can make out that the creature is bulky, large, about the size of an ogre, and is quite rounded. A good fight ensues where, at least a couple of times, the Elf Soldier is vomited on my great steaming gouts of what they can only think of as marinara sauce. They kill the creature and decide that it was some kind of horrific calzone golem. After the fight they find that the clerk has died of her wounds. They break into the locked room and find the cookbook and a HUGE oven. The one used to bake the calzone golem, no doubt!

Knowing that they probably cannot explain to the city watch why they are in a basement kitchen with a dead girl and several hundred pounds of calzone they beat a hasty retreat to Il Toro Russo. Mama’s cookbook is, in fact, not magical at all and has nothing to do with the calzone golem. It was stolen and has now been returned to Benito. The party took nothing other than the cookbook from Werdna’s place because they did not want undue attention brought upon them or their new business partners. They all got some rest at a local inn courtesy of Benito and we’re getting ready for session 5.

Mark

Heya. I´ve enjoyed reading your session reports (one of the few available here). Any new sessions to report ? I´ve just began to learn to GM myself (hard to get people together regularly enough to play as much as i´d like to) and i enjoy this game immensely. I think session reports are a good way for beginners to see how other people play, if for nothing else, then to get ideas for their own adventures. Anyway, nice reports and i hope there´s more coming.

Sorry for the delay between session reports. We have been playing, I promise

Spoilers ahead so beware...

Ok, so the next session after the Calzone Golem had our party getting the heck out of Stormdorf for a while and we tackled Jay Hafner's Wolfship adventure. I had not expected it, but this session ended up more like a typical dungeon-crawl than any we'd played before. I had wanted to try this kind of game with WFRP but hadn't expected it to be on a nugle-infested ship. Anyway, long story short, we went from deck to deck after getting the job and ended up back on dry land chasing down a chaos spawn. Two party members were infected with bad nurgle goo and one threw-up a nurgling in the final encounter. On the downside, the party set fire to the ship in the harbor. This fouled the whole place and they needed to get out of town fast. Luckily, word of this exploit has not yet filtered back to Stormdorf. I have a feeling that won't be too much of a problem, though, and you'll see why below.

We're back in Stormdorf now and starting the Gathering Storm series. We have a new member of the party, a Bright Wizard, that joined our Dwarf Smuggler, High Elf Soldier and Human Burgher. Our other party members, a slightly crazed High Elf Bounty Hunter and Human Coachman couldn't make it for this game. We go through some more detailed history of the town and recap previous adventures and Guido and Benito give them word of the missing merchant that needs to be tracked down. Well, the signet ring that he's wearing is really more important than the guy but if you can find him, too, that'd be great. They properly track him to the Stewpot and get info (some correct / some not) from the owner and then head off to the East Gate to talk to the guards. There they find out that one of the Holtz clan was taking the cart/pony out of town and not who they are looking for. There being a discrepancy in the stories was enough to get them to head off towards the Holtz farmstead (no other in-town investigation) and on the way there they came upon the burned out farm first. Some quick investigating there and on to the Holtz's where the barn argument is going on and Tristan gets all stabby then gets beat down by the Holtz boys. Some quick thinking and talking by our dwarf gets some info (bits and pieces but all of it sounds bad) and everyone is worried about being made into sausage by the inbred hillfolk at this point.

Tristan gets tied up and carted off, screaming that they are taking him to the tree, but he ends up being tied to the porch instead. The storm starts to get really bad and the party declines an invitation to stay in the main house and camps out in the barn. Marie and the youngest Holtz girl bring the party roasted pig and moonshine for dinner and our female High Elf solder is the only one that eats/drinks. All is good with the food though and the rest just end up hungry. The Dwarf notices that Tristan is no longer tied up to the porch and gets a quick question in about a white pony to the little girl. She says that they took the pony to the tree before she gets sent back to the house with a smack from her ma. During the night all fall asleep and our Human Burgher is awoken with a big meaty hand covering his mouth (Cousin Klaus) and is dragged out before others wake up. Now we have Marie taking Otto (our PC, not the Holtz patriarch) into the woods followed by Otto (inbred Otto) and Klaus. The PC Otto is very, VERY worried that all sorts of bad things are going to happen to him out in the rainsoaked woods but he notices that Marie is just as scared as he is and that the two big lugs seem ready to tear him apart at a moment's notice.

They meet up with Foaldeath (not knowing he's a beastman immediately, but figuring it out during the conversation) and get the info about the herdstone and lightningstone and the plans of the Beastman herd. After getting back to the barn, and happy to have not been violated or turned into sausage or both, in the woods our PC Otto tells the others what happened and they correctly figure out that some kind of power struggle is going on. So, we head to the herdstone where there's lots of whooping and hollering going on by Izka and the beastmen. The dwarf smuggler successfulyl sneaks up as far as he can and when some beastmen find the rest of the party he makes a mad dash for the herdstone, pulls off a one-in-a-million stunt to get to vault to the top of it and grab the lightning stone. A very spectacular showing that results in him grinning from ear to ear right before Izka guts him for massive amounts of damage and he falls to the ground, still holding the lightning stone. Big fight ensues, Foaldeath shows up to help the PCs, the dwarf gets struck by lightning 5-6 times (Yes, I had chaos stars showing up left and right, but after the first lightning strike he was KO'd and fell on top of the lightning stone and kept getting zapped), the beastmen overcame the party (all were KO'd and eventually sacrificed) and we're not sure what happened between Foaldeath and Izka yet.

TPK (Oh, I didn't mention that I had a dream the night before about running a D&D game and having a TPK did I? For real, I did, but the actual TPK was not engineered or anything.) was the result of the single combat in the session (It was almost all RP and investigation) and the Holtz's seem like they got off the hook, for now. I'll have to work up a way for our High Elf Bounty Hunter and Hidro to learn that his brother Otto, and the rest of the party, were killed since they were not there for the mission. Our party makeup has now changed to include a Human Rat Catcher (the old Otto Matik - Burgher), a Human Grave Robber (the old HE Soldier), a Human Barber-Surgeon (the old Dwarf Smuggler) and an Elf Swordmaster (the old Human Bright Wizard) and we've switched from Brash Young Fools to Intepid Explorers.

More to come with our next adventure.

Mark

Nice, thanks for the update. My friends and i just started playing TGS today, and they took a really straight forward way of handling things. Needless to say they didn´t do much investigating before figuring out the farm-part heh. It´s all good and fun, i just hope they don´t miss a lot since doing things this way may lead them into not founding out other stuff (people, places etc.). Anyway, keep these reports coming. At least i find this comparing aspect really helpful as i´m just started to learn game mastering and i´m still kinda sucky at it

Hi all,

So, after a break to play some D&D and GM some Deathwatch we're back to WFRP for several sessions. The next one will be on the 12th and we're continuing with the Gathering Storm series. I'll post here as soon as we're done with the session.

Thanks,

Mark

We played A Time to Mourn (chapter 3 of The Gathering Storm) last night and had a great time. The party consisted of six PCs (Human-Scout/Rat Catcher, Human-Coachman, High Elf-Swordmaster, Human-Roadwarden, Dwarf-Trollslayer, Human-Grave Robber) and I think it’s the largest party we’ve had so far. We would have had one more if our High Elf-Bounty Hunter wasn’t called away at the last minute.

We started off with a re-cap of the last adventure and integrated the new party members into the group after the TPK that took place of all that were present last time around.

Quick recap and prep below…

Last session was a TPK except that Duffy and Lance’s characters were not present. I’m not saying that’s what kept them alive but it sure didn’t hurt. Judy, Brian, Stewart and Andy met an awful end at the hands of a powerful group of beastmen that were being appeased (not totally successfully, though) by a pair of Deliverance-esque families in the hills outside of Stromdorf.

Brian’s character was Duffy’s character’s brother and Brian’s new character is Duffy’s character’s cousin. Sheesh, might need ancestry.com to keep this all straight. Anyway, Gnu (Brian’s new character) brought news of Otto’s death to Hidro. Gnu had been adventuring with some new mates (easy enough entry for other new party members and everyone headed back to Ubersriek for Otto’s funeral. Gnu and his mates are the ones that found the carnage after the fight in the storm with the beastmen, killed the rest of them, picked up a rather strange rock (more on that in a bit, but some of you should remember it) and reported the goings on to the city guard. Stewart’s dwarf was interred in a cave and it was thought that dying bravely in combat erased his name from his clan’s book of grudges. Judy’s elf soldier was brought back for burial with Otto, since she had left her elf-kin’s fighting company, and Andy’s mage’s body was retrieved by members of the Colleges of Magic from Altdorf.

Hidro is grieving the loss of his brother but realizes that there’s still work to be done in Stromdorf so the stay in Ubersriek is short. You do meet up with Lord Ashafemberger (from our very first game) and he puts you up in his manor for a few days. Alto (Lance’s elf) is very skittish in certain parts of the house but that’s mostly because of the bad painting he looked at. Not a single daemon or cultist to be found at the manor this time around.

Back in Stromdorf you are spending time at The Red Bull (see previous game updates or memory banks for its significance) and are pretty well rounded out as a new adventuring party, but still maintain the Mattik’s (Hidro and Gnu now that Otto got himself perished) small brewing business and do side work for Guido and Benito. A couple of things of consequence happen…

- Several adults from the Hotlz clan are brought into town in chains by the city guard. Marie (mama of the clan), Imelda (Marie’s daughter) and Reiner (porch-sitting mandolin-playing dullard) are all missing, though. Otto (patriarch) and the rest of the surviving family men are brought to the gaol and are awaiting trial (mostly ceremonial) and execution (very ceremonial and quite a town spectacle). Also, the Stewpot Tavern’s proprietress, Keila Cobblepot, the plump and cheerful Halfling has been brought up on charges of conspiring with beasts of chaos and being an accomplice to kidnapping and murder. She was helping the Holtz clan get victims to sacrifice to the beastmen. The Holtz’, being somewhat simple, believed the interrogators that told them they’d go easy on them if they spilled the beans about who they were in league with and Keila was named. She is actually quite guilty of helping them but, of course, there’s no “going easy” when it comes to actual Empire justice so they are all quite screwed. It has not come to light, though, about the power struggle within the beastmen camp and that Marie and Otto (not Brian’s Otto) are/were parents to Foaldeath, a beastman that was trying to wrest control of the group from Izka Madtooth.
- A fairly recent, been there a bit longer than you guys (the original group) though, addition to Stromdorf is a human named Niklas Schulmann. He’s a rather flamboyant dresser and wizard from the Colleges of Magic in Altdorf who’s been sent here to study the strange meteorological goings on in the area. The sudden, violent, and a bit strange lightning storms come to mind and that’s part of what he says he’s investigating. You’ve seen him around town a few times and while the locals were wary of him at first he has won them over by helping illiterate townsfolk draft letters and read documents. He’s taken up residence in an old townhouse and has made many modifications to it with copper tubes and the like sticking out of windows, weather vanes on the roof, etc. You’ve heard that he’s looking for pieces of rock with special properties and he’s asked if he can buy you dinner and discuss just such a rock that he’s heard has come into your possession. That’s where we’ll get started on the 12th, at dinner with Nicklas.

After dinner, Schulman who properly introduced himself and asked about the lightning stones and also told them about the mission he’s on from the Colleges of Magic. The party loaned him the stone that was brought back from the farm and he told them about dreams that he’s been having and even saw some of what took place with the beastmen before it happened and only wished that he’d known them ahead of it taking place so he could warn them.

The Mattik’s retired to their brewery and the rest had rooms at The Red Bull so all headed off to sleep. The zombies attacked at The Red Bull and initially just the Troll Slayer and Roadwarden were awoken by the ruckus with the Elf sleeping away. He’d say “meditating” but the dwarf says that he can’t hold his ale and was snoring like a baby full of warm milk. The Dwarf came charging out of his second story room carrying, and wearing, nothing at all. Apparently he sleeps in the nude and this was almost as shocking of a sight as the zombies crashing into the inn. The Roadwarden was right behind him, quite shocked at the double full moon ahead of him that was framed in bristling hair, came out of his room in his nightshirt (thankfully) carrying his crossbow but with just one bolt. Combat ensued with the single crossbow bolt finding its way into a zombie and drawing some of them upstairs. The dwarf headed back to his room and emerged with his flail but still no clothes and waded into the fight. A bit later the elf was roused and he squeezed past the fight at the top of the stairs and made quite an acrobatic move jumping over the railing, onto a table below, and cleaving a zombie in half all in one excellent cinematic series of moves. The undead were beaten down and the dwarf finally put on some pants.

Over at the Mattik brewery Hidro and Gnu were woken up by the watch that were tending to a few other zombies that had come into town. They wandered the streets a bit and came across Professor Kopfchen and his animated skeleton. They made quick work of it and were rewarded with some nice herbal tea. Kessler told the Mattik’s to come see him in the morning.

After breakfast Hidro and Gnu, along with our human grave robber, made their way to town hall and were introduced to Addler who had been shut away for months now. They were told the story of his nightmare after seeing Schulman in the hallway, who was on his way out. Hidro negotiates a deal with Addler to go fetch brother Grabbe from the Garden of Morr so he can interpret his dream and also verify that all is well in the cemetery.

The rains increased as the party made their way to the Garden and about halfway there they noticed, quite easily, that they were being followed by something or someone. The Scout’s dog was loosed into the thicket and screams of “call him off!” could be heard. This is where they met Waltrout and major comedy ensued! I played up Waltrout like Simple Jack from Tropic Thunder, but even amped up a bit more. Holy cow was it fun and I’d like to thank the Academy for the award for this performance! I can’t properly describe everything in the written form but it was awesome amounts of fun.

So, after some introductions and getting Waltrout to help them out we head off towards the Tranig. Lots of bell ringing ensued but no Brother Grabbe comes to row the boat to the other side to pick up the party. Waltrout quickly says that he can’t swim so it’s up to one of our brash young fools to get in the muddy water. The best candidate for this was our elf swordmaster and after stripping down to a dainty silken robe under his armor Waltrout gasped, “I thought you were a girl!” Apparently the high elf’s delicate features and milky white skin led our simpleton to think that he was in the company of an elf maiden. The swim across the Tranig ended up with our elf dipping a toe into the muddy water and then slowly attempting to cross. After being nipped by an eel he made like an Olympic champion and made it across in very short order. Not long after that everyone was over on the other side of the river.

Waltrout stuck with the party through the Liche gate, tunnel, temple and embalming rooms to have everyone emerge into the Garden proper where they headed off to Olaus’ tomb and found it broken into and empty. This is when the zombie hordes appears and the party saw Waltrout running and screaming towards the Ossuary. They followed and fought the hordes where they could but really not thinning them out much at all. We got to the ossuary just as Waltrout was trying to shut the door to keep himself safe but the party managed to squeeze in, into the total darkness. Harried lighting of torches came next while zombies were pounding of the door that they were attempting to bar and then they noticed bones from all over the ossuary knitting themselves together into full skeletons that attacked the party. Waltrout let out a scream and hid in a corner for a bit before he snuck downstairs during the smashing of bones in the flickering torchlight.

They eventually made their way downstairs to find Mourn and the raised Olaus. The fight led to the troll slayer going down but with some very good dice rolls they put down the massive skeleton AND Mourn in quite short order. Unfortunately, Brother Grabbe and Waltrout were both killed in the melee but they also were able to find the other lightning stone that was in the cemetery. With all of the dead no longer under Mourn’s control the graveyard grounds were filled with hundreds of corpses in various states of decay needing re-burial but no Priest of Morr to re-inter them properly.

The return to Addler brought good and bad news. Good in that Mourn was dealt with and Schulman was over the moon about another stone being found. Bad in that we have a cemetery full of corpses that need tending to and no Priest of Morr in Stromdorf or in the party. It was a great session with lots of good roleplaying and hilarity.

Mark

Hi all,

We recently played through our next session of The Gathering Storm and below you’ll find an accounting of the game. In attendance was our Human Scout (former Rat Catcher) with his trusty hound, our High Elf Bounty Hunter (who had been slightly crazed for some time, but seems to have stabilized a bit ), a new-ish member of the party in a Human Barber-Surgeon and our Human (female) Grave Robber. Our Dwarf Trollslayer, High Elf Swordmaster, Human Roadwarden and Human Coachman could not make it to the game.

We had a quick re-cap of the previous session and had a dinner meeting with Schuleman where he brought up the lightning stones and he paid a rather exorbitant fee to pick it up from them in addition to paying for a rather nice and large dinner. Schuleman’s behavior has become increasingly erratic as time has gone on and he’s acquired more of the lightning stones, which further his research for the colleges of magic back in Altdorf. Kessler, who now has a decent relationship with the party, came in towards the end of dinner and requested that they meet him at the town hall in the morning. With morning came a trip to town hall and a meeting with Adler who has been in much better sprits since Mourn was dealt with. Re-burying the dead is ongoing at the Garden of Morr and the city is still a bit on edge, but is slowly returning to the dreary, windswept and water-soaked paradise that it is.

The morning meeting with Adler went well and they met farmer Ackerland and discuss the problems going on at the farms outside of town and how they can help. Our Barber-Surgeon asks several questions and they do get a bit of extra information before heading out. A long, wet, muddy wagon rider later they get to the Ackerland farm and discuss watch details over a hearty dinner. The plan for the night’s watch is to have the farmhands patrol the general perimeter of the farm and our party of four will hide in the tall grass around the main gate to the cow pasture. The party spread out a bit and tried to keep an eye on each other but as the night dragged on it became harder to see each other well and they dared not call out for fear of altering whatever might be menacing the farms. Late into the typically rainy the goblins attacked and unbeknownst to the party only the Barber-Surgeon was completely unaffected by the slackfungus that was tossed around them. He witnessed several small, robed creatures (night goblins) enter the pasture and (with some difficulty) start leading two large heifers towards the gate. In trying to signal his mates he discovered that they were asleep and was able to rouse the Grave Robber and they carefully made their way over to the other two before jumping out and startling the invaders. As soon as the attack was on the cows were spooked and one went tearing off into the pasture as its goblin handlers let go of the rope they were holding. One of the goblins pulling the other cow was so startled that he did not let go of the rope and under the moonlight the party members themselves were a bit startled to see a cow pulling a screaming goblin through the pasture. The six goblin poachers were dealt with by the party, but the farmhands were nowhere to be seen. A quick decision had to either try to track where the goblins came from before the rain washes all trace away or to go looking for the farmhands. After looking over the goblin bodies and the Barber-Surgeon found extra pouches of slackfungus a tracking they went with our scout and his trusty hound leading the way.

After a few hours we made our way to the farm that was taken over by goblins and they saw the grand procession of Gobspite (including him getting bonked on the head to which he reacted by frying a nearby goblin who really had nothing to do with the incident but was just in the wrong place at the wrong time). The grounds were crawling with goblins and the party soon realized that they’d be better off making a stealthy approach in the morning when most of the greenskins would be asleep. They quickly hid and were able to avoid the patrols and make it to morning safely.

With the morning sun came a recon of the area around the farmhouse and barn and they were able to sneak up to the guardhouse and threw in the slackfungus they got the night before. It had no effect on them but it was still a good idea to try something less noisy first. The one guard that was awake and the other that were made quick work of without making too much noise at all and they were able to stay out of sight in the guardhouse. The scout and his dog quickly, and quietly, ran up to the guard tower and while the dog could not get up the ladder but the two sleeping goblins up there were promptly dispatched. The scout took up a sniper position in the guard tower while the Grave Robber and Bounty Hunter ran up to the farmhouse while the Barber-Surgeon kept low in the guardhouse that they assaulted first. Most of the downstairs of the house was searched by the Grave Robber and Bounty Hunter and the ornate sword that was above the mantle was found and taken by the former of the pair. A need to cleanse the area of the greenskin’s influence began to come over the Grave Robber and she felt an increasing need to extract a pound of flesh, at least. Before doing more than a cursory search of the kitchen the Barber-Surgeon ran over to the farmhouse without making too much of a ruckus with the Scout covering his advance from the guardtower.

The kitchen was a disaster with refuse strewn everywhere and looking into the pantry a huge pile of smelly trash began to move as the troll sleeping there began to wake up. Quickly assessing that fighting a troll in a small area was probably a bad idea the barber-Surgeon sought to try to calm the still groggy beast and even got it to start to lay down again but then the Grave Robber’s newly found bravado and bloodlust got the better of her and she pressed forth an attack. If the cabinets and crockery weren’t already smashed to pieces by the goblins as they took over the farm it would have been by the end of the fight with the troll. The Grave Robber and Bounty Hunter did really, really well fighting the troll and put it down before making enough racket to raise the dead.

All four members of the party gathered in the dining/living room downstairs and headed upstairs. There they found several goblin guards (outside of Gobspite’s room) and, with some excellent roleplaying from our Barber-Surgeon, were able to bluff them into heading downstairs instead of immediately starting a fight. Yelling and screaming could be heard from Gobspite’s room and they figured that there was probably no bargaining to be done with the leader of the band of greenskins the door was smashed open and the fight was on. It was actually quite a short fight before Gobspite fell. This was partly due to them thinning out his guards and also to some rather good rolling on the part of all of the party members. They took the piece of lightning stone from around his head but didn’t notice that his palanquin was actually a larger piece, too. Some more goblin guards were dispatched but with the troll and Gobspite dead they felt good that the rest would dissipate into the hills so they returned to the Ackland farm and then back to report to Adler.

Their return to Adler was met with gratitude and payment. A local militia patrol was dispatched to the farm to deal with any goblin stragglers burn the place to the ground. Schuleman was pleased at the small portion of lightning stone that was found at first but then flew into a rage when he heard of the palanquin and realized that it too was part of what he was looking for. Adler met with the party again and let them know about the patrol finding a little girl that was hiding in a well at the farm. There was definitely some embarrassment on the party’s end but they went to the farm to investigate and end the raids, not to do a detailed search of the grounds so they didn’t catch too much flack for missing her. All were glad that the patrol found her and she was safe now. The party headed back to the farm to sift through the ashes and found the large lightning stone which they provided to Schuleman.

Schuleman’s behavior became even more erratic, bordering on fanatical, upon receiving this new piece with which to further his studies. Misgivings about his intentions are really starting to come up now as we move towards the next session.

Thanks for reading.

Mark

Hi all,

Last session of TGS happening tonight. Write-up to follow soon thereafter.

Mark

Hi all,

We played through the last portion of The Gathering Storm last night and here’s how it went. For those that know how the story goes you’ll see some places where things went off the written page a bit.

After about a week of being back in town and things settling down we open with the party (Human Thief, Human Watchman, Human Roadwarden, Human Physician and High Elf Swordmaster) having breakfast at The Red Bull. In walks Schuleman, soaked to the bone like he’s been walking the streets without any protection from the elements, because that’s what he has been doing. He apologizes for his manic behavior when the party last saw him and tries to explain that he’s hit a roadblock in his studies of the lightning stones and asks if they’ve come upon any more of them. When they tell him that they’ve not he drops his head into his hands and says that this failure will be the end of him at the Colleges of Magic and he pays for their breakfast and leaves back out into the rain.

The group gets on with their day after breakfast and splits into three smaller groups for a bit. The Physician and Roadwarden headed over to talk to Schuleman to see if they could gather some more info about the lightning stones and his work. His house was a mess with notes and research books everywhere. Schuleman was still soaked to the bone as if he’d still not noticed that he was wandering around town with nothing to protect him. In an effort to get him into some warm clothes to not catch cold and also to do some snooping around the Physician suggested that Schuleman go get changed and get cleaned up a bit. That worked out just fine and Schuleman accepted the player’s suggestion that they be able to make a plaster casting of the stones that he did have and also make a rubbing of it. They did get a bit too snoopy and Schuleman snatched some of his notes out of their hands and they didn’t really get too much further info from him.

Our Thief went to talk to Dr. Fraudde (one of my own residents of the town that works in experimental cures and helped get rid of some insanities of our High Elf Bounty Hunter (not present today) via high voltage electricity. He didn’t know much about the stones at all but they struck up good conversations about her robbing graves for “parts” and him being able to make use of them.

The Watchman and Swordmaster made their way over to the Thunderwater Inn (which has become increasingly negative about having The Red Bull as competition in town) to see what they could find. The owner, Sebastian Brenner, knows them just from them being in town and wasn’t exactly hostile towards them but also greeted them as “the boys that work for the Tileans”. A bit of conversation ensued and they noticed a group of northmen in a corner table. Four were your typical Conan types (Marauders) and there were also two other cloaked men there. Out two adventurers barely saw Brenner make eye contact with the outsiders who then confronted them. They tried to start a fight and one of the cloaked figures (a cult leader) fried the Watchman with Flickering Fire of Tzeentch (he picked up a corruption) and a fight was starting but it turned into a chase over the bar and through the kitchen before heading down alleys. The Thief witnessed the start of the chase in the alley right behind the Inn but she stayed in the shadows while the Watchman and Swordmaster ducked into Professor Kopchen’s place before she headed over to Schuleman’s house. They talked for a bit with Kopchen as the marauders and cloaked figures ran by on what looked like a route to Schuleman’s.

All of these mini investigations saw very good role-playing on all of the player’s parts. Good work on their part!

The marauders busted into Schuleman’s house and the fight was on, for real, this time but the guys from the bar had not shown up yet. our Physician tried to talk to the cult leader and keep them from killing Shuleman (saying that he was tending to his health) to which the cult leader responded, “Fine, kill everyone else!” The marauders were fighting it out with the Thief and the last cloaked figure threw off his robes to reveal himself as a hideous mutant with a giant beak, sopophoric musk and mark of tzeench. It went after the Roadwarden who was so scared that he tried to break a window and jump out of it but only managed to cut himself up. Our remaining two party members got there and it was a very good fight with spells and swordplay going on inside the house and the Watchman firing with his new (but of poor quality) pistol from the street. Lots of fun here! After the fight the town guard showed up and a bit of explaining was done before everyone retired for the night.

The next morning over breakfast three Imperial Agents (one wizard and two bounty hunter types) came into The Red Bull and started asking lots of questions about Schuleman. Apparently, they had already checked his house and he was not there and the party didn’t give up any information about him, the lightning stones or anything else. These new intruders took rooms at The Red Bull. Not much later Professor Kopchen got the Watchman’s attention from the street and they got info about Schuleman leaving town early this morning. It was via the South gate and he was on a slightly packed cart drawn by a single horse. The party figured that he was headed for the ruins that they passed on their way to the farms in the last adventure and headed that way too.

They got there in time to see another band of chaos baddies confront and beat down Schuleman (very dead) but they also could see what appeared to be a completed version of all of the stones over on an alter in the ruins. The party was riding in their own cart and spurred the horses up to a full gallop as they rode into battle. Opposing them was a Chaos Sorcerer of Tzeench, two Chaos Warriors and four Marauders. As the party barreled into the fight the Swordmaster and Thief took out the sorcerer very quickly and the Watchman blasted the marauders with his blunderbuss, nearly killing all four of them. The chaos warriors became enraged and started kicking butt. They were tougher than everyone (including me) expected! They killed the High Elf Swordmaster even as the Physician tried to patch him up while the fight was going on. The Watchman and Roadwarden were still riding around in the wagon and the, very hurt, marauders jumped in to fight in the wagon as it was rolling through the ruins. It was a difficult decision, at least that’s what he’s saying, but the Watchman shot again with his blunderbuss at the combat taking place in the wagon and the Roadwarden was caught in the blast. It did kill all four of the marauders, though. In the end the Thief was also knocked out and ended up being left for dead when the remaining party members figured they could not take out the two chaos warriors. One was actually near death but the other was not hurt too badly and they didn’t like their chances.

In the end Schuleman was not a bad guy (I changed that part of the adventure because it seemed a bit too typical that the guys you’re sort of working for ends up being the baddie in the end) but ended up dead. A band of chaos guys took the lightning stones and two of our party ended up dead. The first ¾ of the night was great with a really fun fight and excellent role-playing. The last part was a deadly fight where they could have gotten extra help from the Imperial agents but the party’s (proper, since anyone could really end up screwing you over) suspicion of pretty much everything and everyone kept them out of the final fight. Still, I think a fun night.

My impression of The Gathering Storm is that it was a fun series of linked adventures. My players did some great role-playing over the course of all four sessions, we had some excellent (and fondly remembered) combats and had lots of fun.

Thanks for reading.

Mark

After a semi-ling hiatus of playing other games and schedules just not working out we are back to WFRP for a while. New reports to follow soon. We're scheudled to play on DEC 13.

See ya soon thereafter with a report.

Mark

"semi-long" that is

Mark Theurer said: