The guys and I began our Warhammer campaign about a month and half ago and have put in three sessions now. We've had a blast so I figured I'd share a little for what its worth. Right now we're aiming for every other Friday night for four hours and that seems to be working pretty well. We're all in our thirties and married with kids so time is pretty limited these days but we're making it work.
Session 1 started the campaign off with only two of our three Players (henceforth X, Y, Z). Z's fiance's grandfather passed away on Wednesday, our first chaos star. Yes, I just referenced my friend's loss as a game mechanic. So they were gone out of town Friday and the rest of us threw together a session as an eventual lead in to Eye for an Eye.
We decided that our coachman and mercenary are already standard two-day-new hirees of Lord Aschaffenberg and they've been sent to Ubersreik to pick up supplies and more luggage with the flatbed wagon. Keep in mind that I know just about jack squat about Warhammer fluff or any material outside of the Core Set and we're not about to let it stand in our way of making stuff up on the fly.
The game opens with the coachman and the mercenary just leaving the small village of Geissbach when a teenage girl flags them down about a hundred yards down the road. She wants a ride to Ubersreik and is sporting a blackeye and says she needs to get out fast. The coachman says come on up and right about then a middle age man comes running down the road yelling for the girl but the party snaps the reins and take off down the road. On the way the girl, Shanna, tells them that she's running away because her father beats on her ever since her mother died and she can't take it any more. A spectacularly failed Intuition check has the coachman believing that he's a hero and has probably saved this girl's life.
Once in Ubersreik, while making a quick stop in at one of Sven's (the coachman) favorite pubs, The Rusty Scabbard, Sven is chatting up Nole the barkeep, an ole NPC buddy of his, to see if he can get Shanna some work and a place to stay, while the dwarven Merc (Bazgaan) runs into an old one-armed vet that he served with back in the day. We find out that the vet is having a bit of trouble with the local loan shark, Wando, when Wando's muscle comes in and gives him some hassle.
Bazgaan intercedes (no dice rolling) and discovers the main thug to also be an old acquaintance...Randal the Rebel. We decide that Bazgaan served with a platoon that captured Randal some time in the past while Randal was attempting to raise a rebellion against a minor noble, burning down Randalls house in the process. Randall has a major grudge against Bazgaan and goes to leave, assuring Bazgaan that they're not through with this.
After that scene, Bazgaan and Sven catch glimpse of someone messing around in the back of their wagon outside and as they run out to accost him he takes off down an alley. A chase ensues, and I use a Progress Track and some Athletics checks to handle it. The thief escapes but not before Sven takes an impossible throw with his dagger. I give him 4 challenge dice and tell him if he makes it the thief gets dropped. If he misses with banes, he loses his dagger. He's one success short and his dagger goes skittering into a storm grate. Y had gone with the lowest wealth score and so had to dip heavily into his remaining starting funds to get a new dagger.
They return to the wagon and check to see what's missing and find that a bag of salt had been cut into but otherwise all was there. They return to the pub and start to ask around about the thief, Sven makes an average Fellowship check to stir up enough information for a lead on a street urchin that hangs out a few streets over. Before heading over that way, Nole pulls Sven to the side and asks if he can call in a favor. Y decides that Sven owes Nole for some unspecific but impressive favor from the past and agrees to help in order to make things square with Nole. Nole explains that he would like for Sven to give his mother a lift back to Geissbach on his return to Grunewald Lodge and that it needs to be done tomorrow evening. Sven says no problem and he and Bazgaan head over to look for the urchin.
They hit Gray Street and give the street and alleys a good look over but fail their Observation test. Sven starts asking around with the pedestrians, passing a Fellowship and get pointed to another alley where the urchin had just been seen. Sven passes a Stealth test to get up on the urchin and lay hands on him. Lots of whining and a failed Charm test later, Mud the Urchin isn't being cooperative. Sven lets Mud know that this is the easy way, but they can get rough if he wants (attempting an Intimidate with the dwarf helping) and steps aside to give Mud a good look at the hardened dwarf. The helping die is just enough to give them success as Bazgaan casually moves his hand to the hilt of his morning star at his belt and glowers at Mud. The confession comes quickly.
Mud explains that he was offered a meal to steal a book from a bag of salt that would be loaded onto a flatbed wagon this evening. The party is surprised and wants more info, Mud describes the book but being illiterate can tell them no more. They threaten him a bit more and he reluctantly tells them that the man that "hired" him is named Lucas Leder and tells them where he lives. So they were off to Lucas's house.
Neither Sven nor Bazgaan are terribly bright dudes and after spending about five minutes staring at the house from across the street they try the direct route and knock on the door. Lucas cracks the chained door to answer. They try nicey nice, explaining there has been some mistake and that Lucas has mistakenly "acquired" a book of theirs but they're willing to let it slide if he'll kindly return it. He scoffs and goes to close the door. Sven jams his foot in the door and threatens Lucas with bodily harm lest he return what's their's, failing his Intimidate roll. Lucas calls his bluff and threatens to yell for the watch right about the same time that Bazgaan succeeds at a Strength check to kick the door in, mashing Lucas in the face in the process. They both charge in and see the book sitting on an end table. Sven hovers over the prone Lucas, pressing his face into the floor while Bazgaan grabs the book. They exit hastily.
Back at the pub the illiterate coachman and mercenary ponder the book but don't get very far with it. They approach Nole and ask if he can read, a roll of a fortune die says that he can, and so they ask him to look it over. He explains that its a little above his head but the title is "Secrecy" and it seems to be a book about how to organize secret societies and effectively keep them secret. Nole says he thinks that's some borderline sketchy stuff and he doesn't want to have anything to do with it. The party agrees and burns it in the fireplace. But they're very curious whether this was intended to arrive at Grunewald Lodge or if it was just a clever smuggling job gone bad.
They get up the next morning and gather the rest of Aschaffenbergs luggage from the docks and kill the rest of the day so that they can pick up Noles mother in the evening and head out for Geissbach. They're rattling along with Nole giving directions to his mother's, leading them towards the edge of town. As the cemetery looms into sight, Nole explains that he hasn't really told them everything. He explains that his mother actually died a couple days ago and that she wanted to be buried back in Geissbach but he didn't have a way to get her there and the city had required her burial. He says the good news is that the Priest of Morr that usually resides over the cemetery has been moved to another charge and there were complications with the arrival of the new priest, so the cemetery should be unwatched tonight.
Sven is chaffed and Bazgaan is pissed but they follow through on their word. In the midst of digging up the casket, Randal and four thugs wander up on them (they're grave robbing tonight too) and Randal is thrilled to have this opportunity to "work things out" with Bazgaan. An extremely tough fight ensues as we learn pretty quickly how harsh the combat system is for everyone. Randal dishes out some quick damage on Bazgaan but two rounds in Bazgaan cleaves Randal's face, making it a pulpy paste. A couple rounds later and they've managed to drop another thug but not before they were both critically wounded and only a few wounds from falling out. I didn't even use any of the ACE pool!! I went ahead and had the rest of the gang begin to flee. They picked one off as the other two skated.
Thus ended the first session. Next session we discovered that there was still yet a surprise to be had in the cemetery!