***POTENTIAL PLAYERS IN THE GATHERING STORM CAMPAIGN, STOP READING NOW. THIS IS A LOG OF MY PLAY GROUP’S PLAY THROUGH THE CAMPAIGN. IT CONTAINS…WELL…A CORNUCOPIA OF SPOILERS. YOU’VE BEEN WARNED***

Ok, got that out of the way.

So as I’ve mentioned in other posts I was torn on where to take my players. Either work on converting some of the 2e adventure material into 3e and/or wait for TGS. As TGS seemed to be pushed further and further back I started tackling the 2e material and figured I’d work TGS in when it arrived. Oh how life interferes. Time got away from us as a play group (different obligations/schedules) and I was pretty busy with work stuff so we put off playing for a bit. Work meant I also didn’t have as much time as I needed to work on converting TTT over (after reading through some of it and TEW it seemed TTT might be a better fit for what my party wanted to do). Then TGS was suddenly heading out to stores. Would it arrive in time for me to get prepped for our game? Sorta.

I picked it up from the LGS on Thursday evening and devoured as much of the information as I could (the introduction/Stromdorf/first adventure). It was pretty clear and straightforward so I wasn’t concerned I would be overreaching if we played through it. Also, once I decided what hook to use to get them there it was fairly clear how they’d react and where/who they would interact with. (my house rules for using Drives is located in the House Rules subforum if you haven’t seen them)

So, without further ado, here’s the play log for our TGS campaign.

PARTY – Gang of Thugs
CHARACTERS
Albert ‘Al’ Bouington – Human Barber-Surgeon, Drive = Exploration
Trans Am – Wood Elf Waywatcher – Drive = Arrogance
Aldric – Dwarf Troll Slayer – Drive = Oath
Percy – Human Dilettante – Drive = Adventure
Zander – Wood Elf Thief – Drive = Greed

PROLOGUE
The party had just completed the bulk of HedgeWizard’s very good “A Shadow Falls” and returned one of the two kidnapped boys to their mother. The townsfolk thanked them, mourning the loss of the other boy. The party had retired for the night and on the next morning were awoken to shouts and frenzy. During the night, the impostor Witch Hunter, Griswold Bischof, had cut a deal with the Ruinous Powers to help him escape captivity. In return he slew his ‘assistant’, Ulfman, who was also being held in the inn’s cellar. He performed a ritual which gave him unnatural strength and stealth, broke open the door, and knocked out (he thought killed) Marten von Ost, assistant to Jakob Bauer (the real Witch Hunter) and escaped into the night. Bauer and von Ost set off in hot pursuit of this arch criminal, leaving the party to its own devices.

<side note, to move the game along we ‘fast forwarded’ past the beastmen attack on the town to the party heading south and Zander being contacted by a member of the Procurer’s Guild who gave him the task of heading south to Stromdorf for a little ‘collection work’.>

Apparently Florian Weschler, the collection job’s target, enjoyed gambling more than his income could support. He took out a loan from some unsavory characters, promising to pay it back. And, he could have paid the last of it off had he returned from Stromdorf as intended. But, things didn’t go as planned and now he is a week overdue. Assuming he’s fled, the Guild wants him found and made an example of. They’re past the money being enough, and instead want the party to collect his Guild signet ring as payment in full plus interest. Not only is the ring coveted for the benefits it provides, it would humiliate Weschler and very possibly lead to him being kicked out of the Guild, a fate worse than death for some folk.

EPISODE 1
Given Weschler’s description (and that of the ring), they traveled south by coach along the Teufel river, asking about him at each coaching inn or tavern along the way. Their inquiries generate additional information about him; that he did travel this way about two weeks ago with two bodyguards, and a horse-drawn cart laden with coal. They also learn a few facts about Stromdorf, including the names of the popular Thunderwater Inn and Brewery and the Stovetop Hostlery (known for its popularity with traveling merchants – when merchants traveled to Stromdorf with any regularity).

The coachman informed the party that he does not ride into Stromdorf, rather his route takes him along the river toward Nuln. He will drop them either at the ferry crossing, assuming the ferryman’s not drunk in town somewhere they can ride over, or at the eastern bridge. As the weather had turned nastier the further south the coach travelled, so too did the river’s current. The party chose the more ‘dependable’ route and left the coach at the bridge.

After a few tense moments crossing the bridge, the party headed into Stromdorf. The gate guard did remember Wechler pass through two weeks prior along with his two bodyguards and wagon, confirming he had been in Stromdorf. The party split up, with Aldric and Al heading to the Hostlery, while the others went to the Thunderwater. Inside the Thunderwater the party found little of interest, but instead Percy and Zander tried their luck at a few rounds of cards. After winning a bit they, and Trans Am (who had already retired upstairs) went to bed for the night.

Aldric and Al had better luck at the Hostlery. They learned that Kelia Cobblepot was once a chef in Altdorf and although Aldric had no money she filled his and Al’s bellies for the cost of a few chores around the hostel. Both looked for clues of Weschler’s visit, including asking her several questions, to which she informed them Weschler had left early the day after his visit, waking her to pay his bill. His two bodyguards were obviously surprised and confused by his early leavetaking, and left in search of him. Aldric decided to visit the other gate and ask the guards there if they knew anything of Weschler’s leaving. They didn’t remember anything, but did recall one of the locals leaving late with a white horse-drawn cart. They thought it odd Reiner Holtz not using his regular hand cart…

EPISODE 2: ACT 1
Gathering together the next morning, the party headed out toward the Holtz farm to ask some questions. Along the way they came upon the smoldering ruins of the Eigel farm. After searching it and discovering not only cloven tracks leading into the Oberslecht but also a single pair of human tracks heading in the direction of the Holtz farm, AND what a blasphemous symbol on the chimney the party followed the human tracks to the Holtz farm.

ACT 2
Arriving at the Holtz farm, the party witnessed the confrontation between Tristan Eigel and Fritz Holtz. Their arrival and awkward introduction distracted Fritz long enough for Tristan to pull a knife and slash him deeply on the arm. Aldric was quick enough to intercept Tristan before he could do more damage, forcing the weapon away from the grieving farmer.

The Holtz family introduced themselves to the party, watching them with a cautious eye. As the two groups talked, the party digging for information about Weschler’s cart and horse, Imelda Holtz made her way over to Aldric, and silently put her hand in his. The Troll Slayer was more than a bit surprised, but could not pull away from her attention. Her eyes were glued to his, and no amount of suggestion from the family or the party would pull her away. Aldric shrugged, letting her hold onto him.

ACT 3
Eventually the party learned that Reiner had ‘bought’ the cart and horse from Weschler, but when pressed to produce either of them was unable to do so. His brother, Otto, stepped forward and declared they were part of the price of keeping Stromdorf safe. The information he and his wife, Marie, shared with the party surprised them, but none seemed repulsed by the awful horror of willingly sacrificing their fellow man to loathsome followers of Chaos. Instead, Marie felt she could trust the group and after they learned Reiner had never been in possession of Weschler’s ring (in fact it was not on him when he had loaded him into the cart) they were ready to put their backs to the farm and head back to town for some choice words with Kelia Cobblepot. Only Marie’s entreaty to stay and help them rid themselves of the beastmen danger and Imelda’s pleading eyes kept them there.

EPISODE 3
Marie and Otto led the party to the hag tree to which so many sacrifices had been bound, and introduced them to someone they called Foaldeath. The party talked to Foaldeath briefly, agreeing to aid him in fighting the Madteeth. But when he tried to give them directions to the herdstone they told him he would have to take them there if they were to help. Despite the risks involved, he agreed, and they made ready to set off into the Oberslecht.

EPISODE 4
Next session…

Just a quick comment, I ran the adventure over the weekend as well, and pretty much get similar result as you. I got slightly further than you, and get to the next big fight, but now the PCs had to escape.

I felt the plea by Holtz family was rather forced... I was afraid the PCs was going to simply kill the Holtz and go back to Stromdorf and find Keila. But luckily, my PCs who despited their concern still decided to go with plot.

If it's possible, can you share your thoughts on this particular act?

How long was your sessions and can you give a rough estimate on how many hours of play you expect from the campaign?

I felt the same way. A lot of it has to do with the party composition. Most of my group are Warhammer battle players, but only a couple have a deeper knowledge of the setting from the RP side. Because of that, the 'consorting with beastmen' part didn't have quite the impact it would on a different group (or one with a priest or witch hunter, say). Likewise, the ambiguity of my party's moral compass means that they are likely to let slide things others would eliminate with blade and brand.

Of course, the pleas of the Holtz family helped, and the fact that I played up the fact that it really was more Old Man Eigel who got the Holtzes to buy into this rather than the Holtzes voluntarily doing so (I recall "unwilling participants" in the writeup somewhere) made them a bit more sympathetic.

And the fact that I'm using that Drive mechanic to nudge the party along (the Troll Slayer's player was already considering helping them - or at the very least going out in search of the beastmen if not actually helping) and reminded the Troll Slayer his Oath to a glorious death might be fulfilled by bringing down a beastmen herd threatening a (mostly) helpless/defenseless town got him moving and the rest went along.

There are a few contradictions in how the Holtzes behave and their reactions (as well as how the party handles them and/or Cobblepot and the start of the next chapter - will leave that off for now), but it eventually was up to how I worked the story to fit the group rather than forcing the group into the story.

Oh, along with all of that, the thief decided he wanted to 'taint' his dagger in the chaos star drawn onto the Eigel's chimney so he made sure to rub it in the blood/waste and then sheathed it.

Gallows said:

That's a good question. We didn't spend as much time in the town developing the personalities as I would have liked, but that can come later on. We played for about 3 hours-ish. Some play groups will definitely spend more time on the investigation/interaction than others, while some GMs will spend more time on the exposition/etc than others. And, we're 5 players, not the 3 or 4 you get with the boxed set/adventurer's toolkit. The later chapters vary in length, so I'm guessing once we hit our stride it'll run maybe 13 sessions total of 2-3 hours each (give or take) for our group. The interludes are the wildcard for time, I can see them taking either a good deal of time or being blown through depending on how much effort the party puts into interacting with them. Chapters 3 and 4 look like they will take longer than 2, while 5 might be somewhere in between length-wise.

As far as a campaign goes, comparing FFG's definition of 'campaign' and what I'm used to (and I think most folks) this would definitely be more of a 'mini-campaign' for anyone who's played through TTT (by a long shot). Its a self-contained set of adventures and acts run over multiple sessions, so it fits the definition of a campaign, but it isn't a globe-spanning/world-changing series of ten or twenty linked adventures the way TEW is for 1e.

Side note: there's also the shaky bit about how you premise getting your party to Stromdorf (i.e. be sure you know it will keep them there for a bit). Without a strong link to why they'd be there or want to stay I can see them wanting to head out well before the end of the campaign. In my group's case, I can see them deciding they have the ring and they're leaving. I did the seeds of them being stuck for a bit by the Coachman who dropped them off telling them it would be a week before another coach passed this way, and with the river churning up with the storm the bridges may be out or impassible (not to mention the ferry) for a time.

keltheos said:

Actually, I am not too terrible concerned on how the player will stay in the town. Currently, after the big fight with beastmen, my 3 PCs all suffered a lot wound. the elf wardancer is exactly at his wound threshold with one critical wound (so one more wound, he is out for cold), the dwarf bounty hunter is 2 or 3 wound below his wound threshold (with 1 critical), and the bright mage stayed further behind and only suffered about 6 wounds (1/2 way down). So unless they really in a hurry to leave the town, they are going to deal with their wounded state. I will presume that your player may hurt just as much as mine, and may need a few day rest and recover.

Not to mention, they still haven't escaped from the swamp yet... So I am trying to think a way to make them sweat a lot without actually kill them. So suggestion would be very welcome here.

Further, I will think the next chapter's zombie attack is designed to occur as soon as player is ready to leave town. If you have played with the storm tracker, for a given period of inactive by player (every 4 hours?), the storm will just get worse. The weather may make the players unwilling to leave as well.

I would suggest giving your players an semi-easy out, while getting to kill a lot of beastmen, without having to think too much.

My only other suggestion would be to give the Troll-Slayer a LOT of XP. Just sayin'

Didn't read all of your post, cause I'm gonna play TGS as a player, but why does have the most people and inns english names when Reikspiel is actually german language?

Lautrer said:

The characters speaks reikspiel, so these German names shouldn't sound in a foreign langage. In my game, I translate those in french (our native langage), and I give 'em also the german name. Once they understand what they are talking about, they chose or not to call it in "reikspiel/german".

They actually have Old World names. Any similarities to naming conventions in languages from another dimension are purely coincidental.

keltheos said:

But Trans Am?

That's an ancient Elvish name, from before the Elves left the Imperial lands...

(sadly, the name's a bit of an inside joke with us)

keltheos said:

Sadly, Keltheos isn't enforcing naming conventions on the party, and some players without restrictions will do whatever they want.

Yeah, I made the mistake of thinking my play group would play into the setting without being forced to...silly me!

keltheos said:

hehe. Not a bad name and the car is nice as well... although Trans is slang for transexual in my country. He just needs an "I" as a middle name

Sadly, it's a Gundam reference, not a cool car one.

Hey,

My group just started The Gathering Storm, yesterday. My players' party consists of a wood elf Wayfinder, a wood elf messenger, a priest of Morr, and a human zealot. The group set out to locate the missing merchant, on foot, and was waylaid by a small group of beastmen. I went pretty easy on them, as I'm still learning the rules. One of the elves fell off the bridge and nearly drowned. Other than that, they made it to Stormdorf without further incident.

I should also mention that they had played the Day Short . . . demo adventure, using the premade characters. They stumbled upon the remnants of the carriage from that adventure, and they took some time to investigate what had transpired. In my version of that demo adventure, the merchant turned out to be a cultist who possessed a whistle that could summon beastmen.

If the adventurers had tarries, I would've pitted them against a Wargor festooned with the heads of the pregenerated characters. I may pull this out of my hat sometime down the road. I plan to bring that merchant back as well as recurring villain.