Here's the first session of our campaign. It contains spoilers to the Gathering Storm adventure (and other adventures later on), so players who might play it one day will want to stop reading now. We actually played this a good while ago as part of the playtest.

Gathering Storm, Session One

Village of the Damp

Thrumdorin, Ironbreaker
Will, Initiate of Sigmar
Asterion, Wood Elf Hunter
Thorvald, Human Roadwarden
Flan, Bright Acolyte

So you were hanging out in your local in Ubersreik, a pretty notorious gang of sell-swords. An agent of the Merchants' Guild approached you with a business proposition. He wanted you to go down to Stromdorf (a day or so away) and try to find a member of their guild who had gone missing mysteriously a week ago. He filled you in on the details, that the man, Florian Wechsler, and his possessions had disappeared overnight, while staying at the Stewpot Inn in Stromdorf, leaving his two porters confused. You agreed to the job but insisted one of the porters accompany you, which the merchant eventually agreed to. You arranged that the porter, Krantz, would take you to Stromdorf in Wechsler's own boat, the next day.

You had a pretty uneventful day's sailing in pleasant weather, while you took the opportunity to ask Krantz all he knew. He told you that Wechsler had put them up in the common room of the Stewpot while he had a private room. They had done all the usual coal deliveries and were planning on heading off the next day. But in the morning there was no sign at all of him. They looked for him for the whole day. The town watch were not overly concerned because people often disappear out in the swamp, drowned or taken by beastmen. The hapless porters could think of nothing else to do but head back to Ubersreik.

The next day, you continued to Stromdorf. As the day wore on the weather got worse and it began to rain strongly and you could see lightning and a big black cloud in the direction you were heading,. Krantz explained that Stromdorf had a reputation for having the worst weather in the Empire, and it wasn't unusual for it to be so rainy.

As you got closer you could make out the outline of a high crag, some way from the village, which lit up in silhouette by a burst of lightning, seemed to have some sort of ruined structure atop it. Asterion and Flan concentrated on the storm and both agreed there was something unnatural about it. Flan could detect unusual patterns of the magical wind of Azyr that he explained was carried upon storms and brought the power of prophesy.

As you approached the village, Krantz shouted that the bridge had been damaged and as you manoeuvred towards the dock, a log fell from the bridge structure and knocked him overboard. With quick thinking, Will tied a rope around himself and dived in after him. With an almost miraculous effort, he managed to grab the porter as he went under,. And everyone pulled the pair of them back on board. Will had undoubtedly saved Krantz's life.

You decided to head straight for the Stewpot, and also decided you should put Krantz up for the night there on your own coin. You noticed how the village, although raised above the swampy surrounding was water logged, and the main thoroughfares and the town square were set on raised logs to keep them less sodden. Everything was damp and wet but not as wet as Will. As you wandered into town everyone seemed to stop and stare at you; you got the impression they didn't get too many visitors, especially ones like Thrumdorin and Asterion and Flan. And to be honest, the town was a bit of a dump.

The Stewpot was a pleasant enough place though, and you were greeted by the smiling face of Keila Cobblepot the halfling landlady. After ordering food and drink you asked her about Wechsler. She explained that he had just up and left and that he had paid his bill the night before. You wondered how he could just leave like that but she seemed to think it would be easy enough. After a while she seemed to tire of the Wechsler chat and you asked her more general questions.

She explained about how Captain Kessler ran the town since the Burgomeister stopped being seen much since his wife died. She fell down the well, apparently. You all booked rooms for the night, and Will ended up getting Wechsler's room. The food was good and Keila said she added extra cloudberries for you. Some of you were a bit dubious of the strange berries, but they are an ingredient in Thunderwater Ale and they tasted good enough.

You decided to go and see the captain as he would be the obvious person with any information on Wechsler. He was based in a building on the town square, next to the Burgomeister's house. There was a long queue outside but you just walked straight in and demanded the desk sergeant admit you immediately. The ploy worked and in a few minutes you were talking to Captain Kessler, giving him grief like you were official emissaries of the Ubersreik Merchants' Guild (which you weren't really).

He was defensive about the disappearance and the lack of action on the part of the watch but eventually conceded that you had a right to talk to the gate guard about it. There was some controversy about whether he was sure that Wechsler had been seen leaving by the guard, and if he hadn't then why not? You hoped to clear this up with a chat to the guard which the captain arranged for midday tomorrow.

You wondered about the Burgomeister who was a recluse since his wife died, or something. Some locals spoke to you as you were knocking on the door of the Burgomeister's house, and said that only the captain and maybe some watchmen went in there. And that the Burgomeister was a foreigner (from Ubersreik!) and that's probably why he wasn't up to the job. They hadn't seen him for months, and suggested you talk to the captain if you wanted anything done. You went round the back and checked out the security. You thought about breaking in that night, but thought maybe it might be better to wait and pursue more legitimate inquiries first.

While this was going on, Will went to the temple of Sigmar. There was a sermon on being led by a fierce looking priest with many battle scars. He listened to the sermon, which was lots of fire and brimstone, and when it was over stayed around to talk to the priest. The priest, Magnust Gottschalk, was old and battle-scarred. The two of them had a bit of a theological chat and talked about the Burgomeister and the village. Magnust said how he used to be in the army and travelled the world hitting things with a hammer.

You decided to check out the Thunderwater Inn and called in on the temple. You invited Magnust along, and Will insisted he give tomorrow's sermon, so the priest would be free to go. He agreed. As soon as he went Will took a look around the temple. He went down to the crypt. Amongst other treasures, there was a big old Geistbuch there which was obviously very ancient. Thumbing through it, Will accidentally ripped one of the pages of the priceless manuscript, and quickly put the book back and hoped no one would notice. Then he went up to write his sermon.

While writing it, Will seemed to drift off into a daze and strange visions came to him. He saw a richly dressed figure tied to a tree surrounded by beastmen, and a tall standing-stone crowned by another stone, a sort of tablet with strange writing, which was being struck by lightning. Then the initiate came in, to clean the temple, and disturbed Will's daydream. The initiate was Chlodwig and Will ordered him about and supervised his cleaning.

As you entered the Thunderwater Inn everyone stopped and looked at you. But once you'd bought everyone a drink it settled down and you even managed to chat with some of the locals. The place was busy and rocking, unlike the Stewpot. The priest told you how he had recently been getting strange visions of beasts and battle and the village disappearing under a flood. He said he thought it was a sign from Sigmar that something was going to happen, though he didn't know what.

You asked him why he had left the army. He explained that now he was too old and he has to serve Sigmar wherever the people of the cult send him. He did doubt that Sigmar had personally sent him top Stromdorf but now, after the visions, he is not so sure.

Speaking to the locals, they did not really think the disappearance of Wechsler was much of a deal as he appears and disappears every month or so. They said travellers and even locals often disappear near the swamp taken by beastmen or drowned in the mud. They also told you that no one ever goes up to the ruined crag, Tempest Knap, because there's not really any point. And someone pointed out the local ferryman, for you, who was very drunk.

At that point a blue wizard turned up and went upstairs to his room. Everyone looked at Flan and then looked at the blue guy and assumed they must be friends. You decided that by the look of him the blue mage was much more accomplished and powerful than Flan. Flan decided it might be a good idea to introduce himself. He knocked on the door of the wizard's room but was told to go away, but he insisted. The blue mage opened the door and told Flan that he was busy and tired and they could talk tomorrow if it was necessary, then shut the door in his face.

But in the brief moment they were talking, Flan noticed that the wizard had some sort of Azyr spell around his head, and he saw through it to see some terrible new-ish scar-burns all down the side of his face.

On the way back to the Stewpot you checked out the well and decided it was the driest thing in the village and you decided that no one had used it in a long time. Near the well was a small shrine to Shallya, which none of you were particularly interested in.

When you got back, you searched Will's room for any clues to Wechsler's disappearance but couldn't find anything. You decided that Keila Cobblepot was a good hostess who tidied her rooms well. And then you went to bed.

Thank you for sharing! Looking forward to read more and see how your game develops!

Gathering Storm, Session Two

Marsh Fire

Will, Initiate of Sigmar

Asterion, Wood Elf Hunter

Thorvald, Human Roadwarden

So you got up the next day and had breakfast at the Stewpot. Will decided to only have bread and water because he was concentrating on the sermon he had to give and was being annoyingly devout. Flan and Thrumdorin decided to go off and do something else for a few hours, maybe.

Will decided he was feeling a bit strange after his jump into the river yesterday and his strange visions at the temple, so asked Keila Cobblepot for the village doctor. She told you that there was a herbalist called Hildette Krass, and a barber surgeon called Rolf Messer in the village but Will decided he needed proper care and you set off to see Doctor Schneider at his surgery. The doctor looked Will over and charged him 20s for the consultation and another 10s for a week's supply of herbal tea that he said would do the trick.

Feeling better already you went to the temple where Will was due to give his sermon to the loyal Sigmarites of the village. It started ok, but he tried to get the initiate Chlodwig Fromm to join in and do the sermon for him, but Will couldn't find him. Then Will started ad libbing, but waffling badly. He described his visions, and it seemed to many of the villagers that he was implying he was seeing images of daemons and stuff. The villagers were clearly worried they had a tool of the dark goods in their midst and many left early.

Afterwards the Lector Gottschalk was sympathetic, as it turned out he had been having similar visions for the past week, but he did warn Will that he should be very careful how he phrases stuff like that especially in the countryside where everyone is so much more superstitious.

After that you were glad to leave the temple and go to see captain Kessler. He had arranged for you to interview the three guards who had been on duty on the village's three gates the night Wechsler went missing. You tried to intimidate the guards a bit with your merchant's guild mandate but backed up by the commanding officer they were pretty steadfast. You asked them what you could about the night in question but they didn't seem to be taking things too seriously, and didn't have much to tell you about Wechsler, only that they couldn't remember him leaving town.

You told them you were looking for his cart and pony, too, and one of the guards, the one from the east gate said that the only cart that came or went that night was the one belonging to old farmer Holtz. With little else to go on, you decided to pay Herr Holtz a visit, and you got directions to the last farmstead before the marsh.

As you were leaving town, you noticed a lightning bolt suddenly erupted from the stormy sky and struck the top of the temple of Sigmar. Perhaps it was divine punishment for Will's crap sermon.

You made your way on foot out of the town and towards the marshes which looked dank and perilous in the rain. After some minutes journey you noticed some smoke rising from the lowland and you spotted the end of what looked like a house fire,. You rushed towards the farmstead and Will piled into the house to look for survivors. You were under the impression this was the Holtz farm and you knew they were a big family, so you were expecting bodies. But the place was empty. You searched around a bit to look for causes of the fire and signs of escapees but found absolutely nothing except the nameplate of the farm which was Eigel. Not Holtz.

And you noticed another farm down a ways towards the marsh and so headed for that one. As you approached you could hear the noises of an altercation going on in the courtyard. Asterion decided to secretly get up onto the roof to check things out, and the other two ran into the courtyard. They found a scene where a family of hillbilly types were having a heated debate with a sooty farmer. They were shouting something about it being all your fault, and 'I told you not to stop, Tristan, I tried to warn you, but you wouldn't listen.'

Thorvald decided to assert himself as a roadwarden and told everyone to calm down. They did pause but were clearly wondering what these strangers were doing in their courtyard. You identified the man arguing with Tristan as farmer Holtz. And Tristan took the opportunity of your interruption to draw a knife and run at Holtz. Will tried to stop him and Asterion fired an arrow into the ground between them. This had the desired effect and everyone turned, surprised to see a wood elf sat on their roof.

With that you took control a bit more and began asking them what was going on Tristan (Eigel, you guessed) seemed to think it was Holtz's fault his farm had been attacked, because the Holtz farm was closer to the marsh, or something. Holtz seemed to think it was Tristan's fault but wouldn't say why.

Looking around you spotted a cart in the corner of the courtyard, and Thorvald wandered over to it. He drew a finger along the side, and was not surprised to find it covered in coal dust. He showed his finger to Will who immediately accused Holtz of murder. With that old man Holtz ordered his clan to attack you. There were about 6 men, including one huge simple looking fellow.

No sooner had the order to attack left Holtz's lips, but two wood elf arrows lodged themselves in his head, and he fell dead.

Thanks for posting and please keep it up. I'm just reading through adventure and making my notes on running it myself, this is handy.

Rob

Gathering Storm, Session Three

The Hag Tree

Thrumdorin, Ironbreaker

Asterion, Wood Elf Hunter

Thorvald, Human Roadwarden

Flan, Bright Acolyte

So we find you all at the Holtz farmstead confronting the angry family. Thorvald and Flan must have followed you down here, a little way behind, and Will probably went off somewhere, at some point.

As the arrows from Asterion struck down old man Holtz all hell broke loose and the family piled into the fray. Asterion jumped off the roof and joined in too. The big guy charged at Thorvald and smacked him across the head with his staff, but Thorvald struck back using a two-weapon combination to take the man out in no time.

A few more of the Holtz cousins piled in while Tristan stood there all bemused. Flan caught one with a fiery spell and sent the guy flailing around into the hay barn, which began to catch fire. Thrumdorin had been guarding your flank and as one of the Holtzes charged you he beat him back and then killed him. Thorvald took out another, and the last one was set on fire, and soon gave in. All in all a very swift and decisive action.

You did not worry about the two girls who had disappeared inside the farmstead, and instead wanted to know where the old lady had got to. Flan showed Asterion the hunter how to track things in the wild and the pair of you followed the old woman's tracks deeper towards the marsh.

Meanwhile Thrumdorin and Thorvald threatened to set the surviving Holtz on fire again if he did not reveal where his mother had gone. He told you that she would probably be heading to a place called the hag tree, which was a place of feasting and ceremony. He seemed to think they had been feeding the beasts of the marsh for the good of the village. He revealed that the missing merchant had been at the last feast, too.

You made him lead you to the hag tree and it was soon clear that you were heading to the same place as your colleagues. After you had met up, you pinned the Holtz to a handy tree to stop him escaping and made your way on the last hundred yards or so towards the hag tree on your own. It sat near the edge of the marsh, a gnarled old growth atop a strange mound.

Inspecting it from a distance in the rain you could see that there was a body tied to the tree and it had been gnawed down to the bone. And you thought perhaps you could make out some glinting in the mound. You scouted about a bit, wary of the dangers of the marsh and then carefully approached the tree. You could see that the body had not been there too long and it was wearing once-fine clothing, and you guessed it was Wechsler. You groped around a bit in the mound but could not find his ring. You noticed that the mound seemed to be made of all sorts of detritus over the ages, including broken glass bottles (mostly Thunderwater) and crates, old bones, pottery, and any amount of other waste. And you found the remains of what you thought could well have been Wechsler's pony.

A bit later the old lady emerged form the bushes of the mound. She told you that the village would be over-run by the beastmen but she knew how you could stop it. She said that it could be explained better by some mysterious figure from the marsh and that you should wait for him. You weren't too sure what she was up to, what with you having just killed most of her family, but decided to see what was up. You inspected her hiding place and found it was like a little nest lined with stinking fur.

You hung out on the hag tree waiting for this strange guy. Flan sensed much Azyr and also Shyish around the place. He decided that the tree itself might have dark corrupting powers and thought that the best thing to do would be to burn it. So he set about catching it on fire, and in a while it was little more than a charred trunk, despite the pouring rain.

Night fell and eventually you could make out the dark figure approaching. He was wearing a dirty cloak with many charms and things adorning in it and a feathery headdress. But you only really could see his silhouette in the lightning. Thrumdorin did notice, however as the stranger approached that one of its feet was a cloven hoof.

The figure revealed that he knew a way to rid the beastmen from the marsh and save the village. You had to take the stone called the lightning stone from the herdstone in the middle of the marsh, and that would undermine the authority of the Izka guy, and the beastmen would not follow him against the villagers. You asked if he would help you in this, but he told you he had other things to do. You decided that the description of the lightning stone sounded just like what Will had described of his vision in the temple the day before.

You wondered how you might get to the lighting stone, and on cue, lightning hit the marsh, and you realised that the lightning was all landing in the same place, and that the lightning stone must be well named. You wondered how you might avoid the beastmen on your way there. You did consider bribing them with Thunderwater.

You asked the old Holtz woman, who might have the merchant's ring, and she told you that should you succeed in getting the stone, she would reveal who had it. You left the stranger and the old woman together by the hag tree and headed back.

When you reached the Holtz house again, you decided to look through the place. Flan found a couple of religious looking statuettes. He thought they might be beastman charms, but they also might be Taal symbols, so he was loathe to destroy them. So he kept them. You tried to bully the two girls into revealing where the ring was, but you decided that they probably genuinely did not know.

You headed wearily back to the village in the dead of night and eventually reached the Stewpot where Keila Cobblepot served you some beer before you went to bed.

Thanks for posting again.

I liked the way you used visions to give characters a "thread pulling them on".

Couple of questions -

It relates above that Adler's wife drowned herself in the well - that's a departure from the text as written, intentional?

With the Holtz's - did they use any of the Townsfolk actions for mobbing targets etc.?

What happened next with Tristan? If he's around and angry, spilling beans, then his version of stuff departs from the Holtz's making situation more complicated.

valvorik said:

The wife down the well thing was as-written in the version I played.

I don't recall using any townsfolk actions with the Holtzs. They were dealt with pretty swiftly by my party so they would have been outnumbered quite quickly. To be honest, I wasn't really expecting my group to massacre a bunch of villagers at the drop of a hat, but Thorvald the roadwarden is also a witch hunter wannabe and doesn't have a lot of tolerance for breaking the law (except when the PCs do it!).

I don't recall what happened to Tristan. He doesn't get another mention in the logs. I think he may have just disappeared into the background like NPCs often do

It's Alder's lover who "threw herself down well" as far as I can see in text. Do you have a page number reference on the wife's death in well?

Rob

valvorik said:

Wife's death was mentioned happened a long time ago, and I confirm it's Alder's lover who "threw herself down well".

To clarify, this was all played last year using a playtest version of GS. It's not going to match exactly the final version of GS that everyone has. Although it is very similar, of course.

Ah thanks M~, that clears it up.

Gathering Storm, Session Four

Circle of Death

Thrumdorin, Ironbreaker

Will, Initiate of Sigmar

Asterion, Wood Elf Hunter

Thorvald, Human Roadwarden

You woke up suitably refreshed and had breakfast at the Stewpot. Thrumdorin started early on the beer. You decided you needed to go back into the marsh and get the lightning stone, though you were wary of doing the strange marsh-man's bidding. You thought about asking the captain for aid, but decided he might be a bit useless.

You did go and consult Father Gottschalk at the temple. Will was a bit nervous of talking to him because he'd messed up his sermon, but he managed to convince the old war-priest to help. He agreed to accompany you into the marsh and fight the beastmen as if it was portrayed in his visions. He thought he might be fulfilling the destiny that brought him to Stromdorf in the first place. You agreed that once you got the stone you might destroy it, somehow.

Next you called on the blue wizard at the Thunderwater. He was less interested in helping you. But he disagreed with you that the stone migth be a tool of the dark gods. He said it was just something to focus Azyr, the blue wind, and he would be happy to buy it off you once you got it back. But you pretended to ignore him as you walked away.

So you set out into the marsh with the priest, in the rain. Asterion led the way, trying to avoid any contact with the beasts of the marsh. You made good progress and found a hideout a few hundred yards from the lightning stone, which was getting battered by lightning even as you watched, but you saw no sign of any beastmen. Asterion set up a base to watch over you as you advanced towards the round pool that surrounded the herdstone.

You stopped on the edge of the pool and Thorvald made his way over a kind of log bridge to get to the herdstone. He climbed up and cut some of the rope that held the lightning stone in place. As he cut the last of the ropes, allowing the stone to fall into the pool, a group of beastmen entered the circle.

Asterion had seen them coming and showered them with arrows as they approached. The beastmen were accompanied by leashed warthog like animals. And one of the beastmen was a huge leader-looking type. Two of the beastmen headed for the circle and Thorvald and two headed for Asterion. They unleashed their hogs, which charged through the water madly, while the leader let out a chilling war cry.

Thrumdorin stepped up to defend Thorvald, intercepting a charging beastman and the two priests joined the fight, too. Meanwhile, Asterion took out one of the beastmen charging him. Thorvald and Thrumdorin fought off the hog-things and the beastmen, while Gottschalk attacked the huge leader, and was hit hard for his trouble.

Thorvald dropped a beastman using his two-weapon attacks and Will rushed to save the senior priest of Sigmar. He attacked the beastman leader but attracted its attention, and got hit badly in turn. Then the great beastman hit him again, killing him instantly.

Meanwhile Asterion, up in a tree, managed to shoot up all the beastmen and hogs running at him, and began to make his way to the circle. The beastman leader knocked Gottschalk to the ground, and Thrumdorin killed his opponent. So we were left with Thrumdorin and Thorvald facing the beastman leader. You double teamed him and with a bit of luck the creature fell. Even its manic death throes failed to injure you.

So we leave you in the circular pool in the marsh by the herdstone. The lightning stone is half submerged in the marsh and it's getting pounded by lightning. The senior priest is heavily wounded, but can walk. The body of the initiate lies half submerged in mud at your feet, a fitting testament to the heroism of Sigmar.

The herdstone encounter seems to me the least interesting of the whole mini-campaign. It is basically something like: go there, whipeout the beast, take the stone. But the chance seems stacked badly against PC: how many gors/hencmen did u used for a group of 4 pc??

As far i understand written english, it seems to me that there are (one group of 2 gors + one henchmen group) per PC + a wargor killing machine!! or is meant to be just 2 gors + henchmen group*PC + izka???

Also, how this particular encounter could be made more interesting, maybe using some kind of progress tracker?? Foaldeath is supposed to actually help the pc or not??

The other weakness of it is that the point of stealing the stone is lost as you pretty much have to kill Izka to get it. Maybe it might be better to go for a stealth approach to the scenario. Extending the progress track for getting there and having the Beastmen turn up in ever increasing groups at event spaces. It being technically possible to grab the stone and go without the Beastmen noticing. You could even have Izka turn up in the rally step after the stone is grabbed, so the time honoured WFRP tactic of legging it is possible - but a fighting retreat will be more interesting.

Ghiacciolo said:

As it's written I understand that there are (2 gors + 3 ungor henchmen) per PC. With my 5 players that is a grand total of 10 gors and 15 ungor henchmen, plus Izka of course!! A bit tough I guess. In the pursuit it says, IIRC, that "2 ungor henchmen plus 1 gor per PC appear when an event space is reached in the track", the order of the figures of gors-ungors is inverted with regard to the battle in the heardstone.

So ... my players must face 10 gors, 15 ungors and Izka in the clearing and 10 ungor and 5 gors in the pursuit? or 2 gors, 15 ungors and Izka, and then 2 ungors and 5 gors? If it's the former, and they survived, I assure you many ballads will be written of this feat!!

Someone there to clarify this numbers??

Gathering Storm, Session Five

Justice is Served

Thrumdorin, Ironbreaker

Asterion, Wood Elf Hunter

Thorvald, Human Roadwarden

Flan, Bright Acolyte

So you were stuck in the middle of the marsh with a dead priest and another badly wounded priest, and a load of dead beastmen, and possibly surrounded by beastmen baying for vengeance. You discussed it, and decided that the big guy had in fact been Izka. Thorvald and Flan rigged up some sort of sling thing for carrying the stone between them, as they didn't fancy getting bombarded with lightning. Thrumdorin carried Will's body despite his bad leg, and Asterion led the way out of the marsh. You managed to make your way out without much incident, but Flan thought he caught a glimpse of the strange old man of the marsh watching you go. Thrumdorin thought you might want to come back and sort him out a bit later for being some sort of cloven hoofed mutant.

You put the stone on Wechsler's cart, which you had left on the edge of the marsh, and wheeled it down to the Holtz farmstead. You found the surviving Holtzs getting ready to skip town. You told Marie Holtz that you had killed the leader of the beastmen (she seemed relieved that this was Izka) and that she had promised to reveal who had the merchants' guild ring. She said it was the mayor who was behind it all (and that you should let them go, as they were off for a new life where they wouldn't hurt anyone and that they were doing the village a favour by keeping it safe from beastmen). You didn't believe her, and eventually she confessed that Keila Cobblepot had been drugging travellers to use as sacrifices, and that she must have kept any valuables they had on them.

As a roadwarden, Thorvald decided to arrest the lot of them and take them back to Captain Kessler and Father Gottschalk was of a like mind. So you marched them back to the village. You laid Will in the crypt of the temple and put the stone with him. Thrumdorin stayed there to guard it, and Asterion went to keep an eye on Keila Cobblepot. The rest of you took the prisoners to Captain Kessler, and Father Gottschalk vouched for your actions. Kessler seemed impressed and immediately went to arrest Keila.

Keila admitted her part in the plot and revealed her cache of stolen goods including the ring. You asked for the ring but Kessler said it had to be used as evidence and if you made an application to the court, you might get it back after the trial. So there was nothing much to do except relax before the trial, which was due to be held the next morning. But strangely you couldn't relax, you seemed worried abut the prospect of an attack by beastmen. You warned the captain of that prospect. And instead of having a good night's sleep in the Thunderwater or the Stewpot, you decided to sleep on the floor of the temple and to take turns helping man the town's defenses through the night.

In the morning you were ready for the trial though not as well rested as you could have been. The trial was staged in a field outside the village, called Verena's Field. There was a line of trees along it, and two of them were already occupied by the rotting corpses of a couple of bandits who had been hanged a couple of weeks ago. Kessler was in charge and the trial seemed to be going straight forward enough until the Holtz boy decided he would opt for trial by combat.

So Thorvald decided to represent his accusers. And off they went with halberds at dawn. Two quick smashes across the head cowed the Holtz boy and neither of the fighters seemed to be interested in defense as they thwacked each other inexpertly with halberds. One more hit left the boy dead with a deep slice through his skull, the crowd went wild and Thorvald acknowledged their plaudits. The rest of the plotters, Keila Cobblepot, Marie Holtz and her two daughters were hanged. You were given the merchants' ring and the villagers decided to have a feast in your honour at the Thunderwater that evening.

When you got back to the temple Gottschalk complained about having strange dreams, rather like the beastman dreams but this time involving walking dead. You couldn't decide whether to leave the stone in the temple or sell it to Schulmann. Gottschalk said he didn't mind but found the stone quite comforting in a weird way. After some debate you decided to sell it to the blue wizard. He had promised to buy it for 100s. You went to his room at the Thunderwater and he told you bits and pieces about the stone and how it might encourage dreams, Azyr being the wind of prophesy. You agreed to sell it for 50s on the condition he had a chat to Gottschalk about his dreams.

Schulmann came to the temple to inspect the stone. As he was doing so, Flan noticed a load of azyr around him, and the azyr marked out very clear lines and symbols faintly etched into the stone. He thought it might be the ancient elvish language upon a map. When Schulmann went to talk to Gottschalk, Flan went with him and drifted off into a day dream and got a vision remarkably similar to that which Gottschalk had described. It involved the walking dead clamouring near a black wall, with a glowing stone, like the lightning stone.

While Schulmann was occupied, Thorvald and Thrumdorin took a rubbing of the stone, so now you have a rough copy of whatever was etched on it.

You went back to the Thunderwater for your celebration. Kessler came in to thank you for your help. You asked him about the walking dead and he said there had a been a necromancer in the village a year ago that he had personally dealt with. He told you how they had raided the necromancer's house and found him alive but strangely not all there. He didn't move throughout his trial, and had to be propped up in court. And they hanged him and burned him and all the usual stuff you have to do to necromancers.

And you also chatted about the mayor. You asked if it was at about the time of the necromancer that he stopped coming out, but Kessler said it was much later than that only a couple of months ago. He said it was over some woman but he didn't want to say much more. You asked about the mayor's wife, and he said she had died a long time ago.

So you headed off to bed. You were welcome to stay at the Thunderwater for free, but you preferred it at the temple, for some reason, though Flan did grab a mattress because the temple was not the most comfortable place to sleep. Asterion went off to sleep in a tree, somewhere.

In the dead of night, you suddenly awoke to the sounds of a commotion outside the temple, and then the door was hit a few times, then gave way, smashed in. As you scrambled to prepare yourselves, you saw in the doorway, the figures of Keila, and Marie Holtz and her daughters standing there, eyes bulging, nooses around their necks, but they very alive, or at least undead. And with them was the holtz lad with his skull cleaved in two, as Thorvald had left him, and the two bandits who had been hanging in Verena's Field, were there too, not looking their best.

Despite the horror of the sight, you all managed to gird your loins sufficiently to face them. Flan had been summoning Aqshy and as soon as the door opened he let them have it. A great ball of fire burst over the zombies scorching most of them. Thrumdorin took up a defensive position guarding his fellows, while Thorvald headed straight for the Holtz boy and dropped him in one blow, twice in one day. Father Gottschalk cowered in his room the whole time. He had finally had enough of his dreams coming true.

You fought off the zombies as best you could. Two of them clawed at Flan and managed to over power him and send him unconscious. They were poised to eat his brains when Thorvald and Thrumdorin managed to hack them off him. And soon enough the pair of them had hacked their way through the entire bloody mob.

Flan was covered in blood and deeply wounded. You called doctor Schneider who managed to patch up his head wound, but he said it would leave a nasty scar.

Gathering Storm, Session Six

A Walk in the Garden

Thrumdorin, Ironbreaker

Asterion, Wood Elf Waywatcher

Thorvald, Human Roadwarden

Flan, Bright Acolyte

So you started in the temple with a bunch of dead undead at your feet, with Flan being patched up by the doctor. Asterion turned up to see what the fuss was about, and so did Captain Kessler. He told you one of the gates had been breached and the two guards had had their throats ripped out and their brains eaten. You told him to bring the bodies to you, and you put them with the zombies and burned them all in a large bonfire outside the temple.

In the morning Kessler woke you up and told you that the mayor wanted to see you. He led you to the town hall and told you no one except him had been in there for a few moths. You found the place all closed up and dusty, and in one of the rooms, lying on a bench, the mayor was stroking a portrait of a woman in a white dress.

He told you it was his best friend, Madriga, who used to be the wife of Sebastien Brenner, the landlord of the Thunderwater. She was the one who had died from jumping down the well. You worked out that the mayor had been like this since her death. You later talked to Kessler about it, and he told you that perhaps Brenner had murder his wife, or something, though there was no evidence.

The Mayor told you the reason he called you here was because Kessler said you were good enough for the job. And last night Madriga had returned to him, she looked like she had been dead for two months, so not at her most attractive, but she said to him that she needed help. He said something about her clutching a silver pendant in her hand, his last gift to her, and begging for him to save her. The mayor was very upset about it, and decided he needed to talk to father Grabbe, the local priest of Morr, but he didn't has the manpower to spend, so could you fetch him?

You agreed to go, and left the village for the garden of Morr, a walled cemetery a mile or so to the west. Asterion went on ahead to check the way, as usual. Flan sensed that something was following you in the bushes as you went along the muddy track. You decided to ignore the thing, but were aware of it. You reached the bank of the Tranig river, and on the other aside was a raft, and beyond that a long black wall, rather like the one from Flan's vision. There was a bell hanging from a post, and you decided to ring it, but nothing happened.

After a bit, the figure that had been following you emerged from the bushes, It was a large, villager you had noticed around the place before. He told you that if you rang the bell then Mr. Grabbe would come and row you across. It was pretty clear the guy was a bit slow. He was called Waltrout and he told you he often went to the garden of Morr to help Grabbe with his os- somehting.

After ringing the bell several times and nothing happening, Asterion tied a rope to an arrow and shot that across into the raft. It landed perfectly,. And you had a rope to help you cross the river. Ahteion waded in and half swam and half pulled himself across. About half way over he felt something nipping at him, and soon some sort of river life started ripping chunks from his flesh. He continued pulling himself across, but took longer than he might have and by the time he reached the raft, was pretty badly wounded.

Still you had the raft and Asterion tied the rope securely to the other bank, and pulled the raft back to your bank. You all crossed on the raft safely and had a look round the wall. It was a large and high black wall that surrounded the entire garden, probably, about 500 feet square. Flan thought it was definitely the same wall as in his vision. Near the ferry was a liche gate and beyond that a dark tunnel, leading under the wall. There was a raven sat atop the liche gate, which you took to be a good omen.

You made your way through the tunnel with Waltrout who was looking forward to meeting Grabbe again. Flan conjured up some light for you. And eventually you passed between a couple of pillars into a large underground hall. There was an altar and a font at one end, and it was flanked by 6 black curtains. Beyond the altar was a large door with a winged skull carved into the lintel.

While you were inspecting the area, a small girl came from behind one of the curtains and walked towards you. It took a bit of time but you were finally convinced that she was walking dead. Then two more bodies emerged from behind other curtains. You decided to retreat to the pillars. Waltrout became hysterically afraid and had to be dragged back by Thrumdorin. And then at the right time, Flan unleashed one of his fiery spells, hitting the young girl. You were well prepared for the other two and dispatched them efficiently like you were well practiced at that sort of thing. You decided to burn the bodies, so they might not rise again. You tore down all the curtains, but decided not to burn these as they might make too much smoke.

The heavy door was locked shut. You tried to pick the lock, but no one really knew what they were doing. Thrumdorin decided to hit it in with his axe. Flan apologised to Morr with a small prayer. And when Thrumdorin hit the door, his axe embedded in it, but the door swung smoothly open like it had been open all along. You thought maybe some force was attracting and encouraging you to go that way.

Through the doorway you went up some stone steps to find yourself at one end of the walled cemetery. There were hundreds of gravestones around. At the far end you could see a low square building with gargoyles that Waltrout said was Grabbe's house. You made your way up there following a path. Halfway along at a crossroads was a statue which you took to be the same guy as the statue in the village square, the warrior who saved the village from goblins. Just as you passed this, you noticed the dead clawing themselves from the earth, rising from the ground. Trumdorin got clawed by them. You were unsure whether to press on or retreat to the tunnel. In the end, you followed Flan and began to leg it back. The dead came at you thick and fast and you had to fight your way through them to get out. They followed you mindlessly.

When you got back to the chapel, you decided to burn the curtains to put off their pursuit, and you managed to just avoid the zombie hordes as you set up a wall of curtains, and Flan set fire to them.

And so you made it back out, and wasting no time, crossed back over the river and made you r way back to the village. There you managed to convince Kessler to part with two barrels of gunpowder from the armoury and you carried them back to the garden of Morr. There were no zombies wandering around outside, as you managed to set up the barrels where you thought would be a good place to collapse the entrance to the tunnel, although no one really had a good idea where that might be. Flan ignited the barrels from a safe distance, and when the dust settled it seemed to you the tunnel had collapsed and the undead were locked in the garden forever. Maybe.

Haha! Blowing up part of the temple seems like a slightly … unconventional approach. Did Morr punish them yet? Looking forward to see how you will get them back into the yard, now crawling with Zombies, who are probably leaking out the hole in the wall right now…

It would be nice to know more about how your group dealt with the decision not to proceed to the ossuary – did you emphasize the fact that there are many more zombies rising behind them, on the way back to the temple and the exit (like it says in the description of the act) or did you leave the path more open to their choice? Only asking because this seems to be a tricky spot and I was already contemplating how to deal with the situation – with gentle suggestiveness but without railroading them along…

ozean said:

I believe the section you mention was revised because of what happened in our game. The way we played it (without the wave of zombies pushing them towards the ossuary), I can't fault my players for making the decision to run for it. Keeping on and leaving yourself entirely cut off is much more dramatic, but plainly dangerous. I guess you should set it up however you feel comfortable but know that only some players will want to put themselves in a clearly tactically dubious situation, especially as they really don't know how powerful the forces they are going to meet will be.

Another weekend is passing – and we anxiously await how the story continues!

Gathering Storm, Session Seven

Dead Again

Thrumdorin, Ironbreaker

Asterion, Wood Elf Waywatcher

Thorvald, Human Roadwarden

Flan, Bright Acolyte

You started off back in Stromdorf. After some discussion you decided that the best thing to do was to return to the Garden of Morr and see if you could get to the mausoleum by going over the wall and avoiding the garden itself. Flan said something about the stone still being there, and you knew the celestial wizard would pay for another one. Kessler couldn’t spare any men but you managed to scrounge a couple of ladders off him. Waltrout tagged along, too, insisting he wanted to come with you to find Brother Grabbe so he could play with him.

You checked that your cave-in was still intact and it seemed to be, and you went to the far side of the cemetery where you knew the wall was closest to the mausoleum. Asterion showed off the inherent superiority of the wood elf race when it comes to climbing up ladders, and after a bit of a delay you all managed to get up on to the top of the wall. From there you could see that although the garden was completely wrecked, there was no sign of zombies and dead things walking about. You managed to use the other ladder to reach over to the mausoleum and all got on top of it. Then you climbed down to the front of the doors. It seemed that because the building was on its own stone plinth, you didn’t disturb the earth of the cemetery and the dead did not rise again.

Opening the heavy oak doors you entered the mausoleum and found it full of bones. They were all stacked up neatly, and someone had gone to the trouble of building a weird chandelier out of bones, and constructing the imperial coat of arms, and even stacking up a load of skulls into a pyramid, which Waltrout said was his house. There was a stairway twisting downwards flanked by piles of bones, which you decided to descend, despite the spookiness. Flan provided the illumination.

About half way down the stairs, the bones suddenly started to animate, lashing out at you as you passed. It frightened you (apart from Flan) and you legged it down the steps as fast as you could as the bones lashed at you and wounded you.

At the foot of the steps you found yourself in a dark underground vault, surrounded by black drapes, with a door at the far end. There was an old tome on a table with an engraved skull next to it. Flan checked out the place for magic, and decided the skull was black and there was loads of black magic pouring out from under the door. Waltrout said that Grabbe lived behind the door.

You tore down the curtains and found a statue, and some supplies and some robes. You piled up the flammable stuff for a potential fire and Thrumdorin stole a cask of ale. Thorvald smashed the skull.

Then you opened the door to find a decaying woman with a strange necklace hunched over a coffin. She looked like she had been dead for some weeks. Inside the coffin was the priest of Morr who looked like he might be dead too. You recognised the woman from the picture the mayor had. It was Madriga Brenner. And you guessed the purple-stone necklace she was wearing was the one the mayor had talked about giving her. Flan could see that she was pulling some sort of magical essence out of the priest’s (Brother Grabbe’s) head.

You decided to head straight for Madriga; Thorvald and Thrumdorin tried to pile in but their route was blocked by some skeletal thing in heavy armour, which was pretty frightening. You noticed that the skeleton had the same heraldry as the statue of the hero on the market square in Stromdorf. Thrumdorin beat it back, allowing Thorvald to get through.

And Flan unleashed some fire which charred Madriga’s already decaying flesh. Waltrout took exception to this and punched Flan and started going on about Madriga being his master and that ‘he’ could now read him, or something. Thrumdorin decided that he disliked Waltrout more than the undead knight and hit him instead.

Thorvald managed to smash Madriga’s head in and sent her sprawling to the floor. He then turned to help out with the skeleton, but as he did so Madriga got up and jumped on his back trying to rip him with her claw-like nails.

You decided that the power of undeath Madriga had must be coming from the necklace. Flan blasted Madriga again and got her off Thorvald’s back. He raced towards her but couldn’t get the necklace off her. But Thorvald managed it easily enough and he stamped on it. But there was no discernible damage to the thing.

But taking Madriga’s power away from her seemed to finish her off, and also to destroy the skeleton warrior, who slumped to the ground in a pile of bone and metal. Flan decided the necklace needed to be saved for research purposes and put it in his pack.

You found another piece of the stone in the room too, which Madriga seemed to have been using as part of her ritual and the source of her power, or something.

Flan inspected the book and thought it was opened on some sort of ritual or prayer that was designed to lay the unquiet dead to rest once more. He didn’t really know much about that sort of stuff but decided to invoke the spell to put right what had been going on here. He performed the ritual but nothing seemed to happen except a strange and ominous mood passed over you.

You decided the best thing to do was to take the stone and burn everything else, giving the priest and Madriga a decent funeral pyre. Waltrout was very upset about the whole thing and wanted to stay in the mausoleum. It was tempting to let him, but you decided to tie him up and bring him back to Stromdorf. And so we leave you heading back up to the surface with the vault of the mausoleum all aflame behind you.

These sneaky wizards, always keeping trinkets to themselves that they maybe shouldn’t…

I guess you decided to just ignore the zombies to not let that drag the story too much? Or did they all escape through the hole in the wall and wreak havoc somewhere else? Anyway, with the amulet taken away from the body, the way for them should be clear, shouldn’t it?

PS: How did you manage to make the font bigger and serifed? It was much easier to read this than the last entries, which I always had to zoom in my browser to avoid straining my poor old eyes too much.

Yeah, you should see what the wizard has collected by now.

Because it was part of a playtest I decided to semi-reset the section and have the zombies (for some reason) return to the earth. And because the PCs managed to avoid stepping on the graveyard they didn't rise again. Actually, though, what the PCs don't know at this stage is that Flan made such a botch of the Morrite ritual that all the zombies are risen again and waiting for them outside the mausoleum.

I think the font was just coz I pasted from my doc instead of from the group email.

Thanks for these write-ups. Not only do you write elegantly and well, but it's interesting to see how your group approaches problems very differently than mine. My poor group's been so terrorized that they think they can't trust anyone. They know Cobblepot did it, but don't think they can trust anyone in town enough to turn her in!

Yeah, my party went through the first four or so sessions believing that everyone was in on it, but the roadwarden insisted they use the formal process and they were surprised when the village cooperated.