Session Report [spoilers]

By player548443, in WFRP Gamemasters

I've really enjoyed all the session reports on here. Seeing how other groups go through the official adventures has helped me with ideas for my game. So here's how my group is doing it.

Character Creation and Episode 1- The hunting party gets a job

The players-
Mak'keg- Dwarf Performer
Dwalim Silverbeard- Dwarf Student
Reyna- Wood Elf Mystic
Eva- Wood Elf Wardancer
Galstaf- Human Apprentice of the Light order

You were all hanging out at your favorite drinking place, the Red Moon Inn in Ubersrich. It was another evening of drinking and listening to the dwarves complain about everything in general. The bar maid walks up and show you a poster from the town job boards saying that since you hunt up in that direction you might be interested in making some coin while up there.

Looking For Work?
Resourcefull and intrepid fellows required to assist
in house move. Job involves discretion, danger, and
some heavy lifting. Only honest applicants will be
considered. No layabouts.

Hired canadates will earn 6 silver shillings a day
For their labor, plus and expenses incurred.

Interested?

Ask for Herr Hendrick at The Red Moon Inn in
Ubersreik. Don’t delay- seek Herr Hendrick today!

The bar maid points over to an older man sitting in the corner as the man who posted the notice. Reyna looks over to look at him and sees he is checking her out. She flashes him a smile and walks over. She introduces herself and inquires about the job. He introduces himself as Vern Hendrick and yes he is the one who is doing the hiring. He also is obviously a little enamored with Reyna. Reyna talks him up a bit and convinces him that the group should be paid 10 silver a day plus expenses instead of the offered 6.

She invites Vern over to the groups table to get some more details. After the group agrees to take the job, Vern gives some more details. His master (Lord Aschaffenberg) has recently acquired a hunting lodge and wants to move there along with his wife for the summer but there’s a problem. The staff that work at the lodge are doing a very poor job of cleaning the place up. They are either lazy or sick or something else is wrong with them. On top of that the place has been attacked by beastmen. Many of the guards were killed or injured. Lord Aschaffenberg’s wife refuses to leave Ubersrich until the lodge has been cleaned and is safe.

Your job will be two fold. One, the one everyone will know about, is to protect Vern and his lords belongings on the trip to the lodge, help unload them, and help in defending the lodge from beastmen. Your second and secret task will be to ask and snoop around to find out about the staff living there.

Vern tells you that you all will be leaving in the morning and that he will pay for rooms here at the Inn as part of the expenses.

Episode 2- Sigmar favors the headstrong

The players-
Mak'keg- Dwarf Performer
Dwalim Silverbeard- Dwarf Student
Reyna- Wood Elf Mystic
Eva- Wood Elf Wardancer
Galstaf- Human Apprentice of the Light order

Morning breaks and most of the group is ready to go. Mak'keg took advantage of Vern’s “expenses covered” and was still passed out drunk. Vern and his driver had a wagon piled high with Lord Aschaffenberg’s luggage. After loading Mak'keg and all the party’s belongings, travel got underway. For the most part the journey was boring and uneventfull. Vern complained as much as a dwarf and was only really nice to Reyna. Eva made the trip on foot staying mostly to the woods.

As the wagon turned off the main road Vern stopped talking and got very nervous. The group started seeing and hearing noises like someone is following them but they couldn’t quite tell for sure. Finally the wagon crossed into the clearing where the lodge was. It is surrounded by a wall in poor repair. There were two guards posted on the wall but were very slow on the uptake. Vern stood up to yell at them to open the gate but suddenly a group of beastmen burst out of the trees nearby.

The leader of the beastmen roars a challenge directed at Galstaf. Eva bursts out of the trees, jumpes at the leader, and sinks both swords into its chest turning its roar into a yelp of surprise and pain. Before it could react Dwalim shoots his crossbow, putting a bolt deep into the leaders head. It falls dead at Eva’s feet. Then Galstaf stands on top of the cart and a blinding beam of light pores from his eyes, vaporizing two of the beastmen and burning another. Finally Reyna jumpes down from the cart and takes out the last of the beastmen with two quick swings of her staff.

Dwalim aims a swift kick at Mak'keg with the others yelling at him to wake up. Finally Mak'keg sits up and holds his head in pain. He has a wicked hangover.

Eva looks sternly at Reyna. “You shouldn’t be involving yourself with fighting, that’s my job.”

“They were just beastmen,” said Rayna, “I wasn’t in any danger.”

Vern starts yelling louder to let everyone in but one of the guards points down the path behind the group.

“There’s more of them coming” he yells.

The group turns to see another beastmen group trying to sneak up on them. Galstaf casts a spell and he suddenly glows with a blinding light. The beastmen see that they are out matched and run back into the forest. Mak'keg holds his throbbing head as Galstaf’s light burns into his already light sensitive eyes.

Vern yells back at the guards. “They’re gone, now open the gods damned gate!”

The guards move way too slow for Vern’s liking but eventually get the gate open. The wagon and the party move through to inside the walls.

The driver brings the wagon to a stop in front of the stables. The group gets their first initial look around. The place is in very poor repair. From where the group is standing they can see the stables, forge, a shrine to sigmar, dog kennels, and the house its self. At one time this place looked to be built for military use but its now in pretty bad shape.

Lord Aschaffenberg, a big, jolly, man walks up. “Finally my bags. Sounded like you had a bit of trouble out side there but you’re in here safe now. You lot grab those trunks and I’ll show you where to put them.” He turns and starts walking back towards the house.

Vern starts trying to direct the group to get things moving. He spots two grooms and a coachman watching from inside the stables and tries to get them to help as well with no success. Rayna tries putting a little sugar into the asking of help and two of them shamble forward. The third lets out a mean spirited “Ha” and walks back into the stables.

The two that walk forward to help seem very lethargic like they have been awake for days on end. They reach forward and pull out a trunk from the bottom of the wagon which causes other trunks to fall out and spill their contents in the mud. Vern goes ballistic on them for being stupid. Galstaf uses the confusion to look around the compound with his magical sight. He detects non human but good magic coming from the shrine and detects chaos magic somewhere in the house.

Mak'keg decides that this would be a good time to go check out the shrine. Vern notices and takes all his frustration out on him.

“I hired you for one job,” he yells, “All you had to do was move these trunks, but no, you can’t even do that right. I’m cutting your pay down to 4 silver a day. And if you want to keep that you’ll move it right now!”

Everyone takes a bag or trunk and Lord Aschaffenberg leads the group into the house. He leads the group through the great hall and up some stairs to his bed room. It takes a couple trips but finally the luggage is all moved. Lord Aschaffenberg motions for Vern to shut the door.

“Right” he says “I’m sure Vern here has filled you in on my concerns. I think there’s more going on here then damned beastmen. I want you all to snoop around and look for anything strange going on. Talk to people. Tell them I gave you all the afternoon off. If you complain about the length of the trip they should warm up to you. We will meet up for dinner and discuss what you found. Speaking of dinner the cook here is quite good. I believer she is making Goose and Venison, I recommend the Venison.”
Eva declines food for herself and Reyna, preferring to hunt her own food. Everyone else decides on what they would like.

The group splits up in their investigation to cover more ground.

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Eva leaves the compound and goes out into the forest. She fairly quickly finds and kills some geese.

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Galstaf, Mak'keg, and Reyna go straight to the shrine. Its in a bad state of repair but there are signs that it has been used within the last couple of days. At first glance it seems to be just a shrine to Sigmar but the group notices that there is something not right with the symbol of the hammer on the wall. Galstaf reaches up and pulls on it. The hammer comes off the wall smacking Galstaf in the face. After brushing off the dirt and grime the group sees the dwarf made runes and a family rune on the hammer.

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Dwalim start by exploring the first floor of the lodge. He wander through the great hall. There doesn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary. Though some of the trophies hanging on the wall had some passing interest. There is a beastman head and a goblin head up on the wall both of which meet Dwalim’s approval. He does get a little carried away with the looking and accidentally knocks the goblin head off the wall but Dwalim puts it back before anyone notices it.

Dwalim moves into the next room. At first it seems like a normal sitting room but Dwalim gets a chill down his back and his hairs stand on end. The room is brightly lit from a large window. The furniture is nice but uncomfortable, there is an unused but fairly clean fireplace. Against one whole wall is a large heavy curtain. Dwalim pulls back the curtain and sees the painting. The painting is a thing of evil. It’s a picture of an eye in the middle of a swirling mass. Its like it tries to suck in Dwalim’s soul, but he stands firm and is only a little shaken by viewing it. Dwalim rushes out of the room to find the others.

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Eva arrives back from her hunt to find Galstaf, Mak'keg, and Rayna standing outside the shrine discussing what to do with the hammer. Eva is ready to cook so she and Rayna walk towards the house to find the kitchens. Galstaf takes the hammer and goes to the house to find Dwalim. Mak'keg decides to explore the grounds.

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Eva and Rayna find the kitchens and the cook. A plump woman who is well on her way to being full on drunk. She walks around the kitchen with a bottle of wine in her hand and a spoon in the other. But it does seem that she knows what she is doing as the food doesn’t look that bad. The problem for the elves is that there is not really any space for them to prepare their food and the cook glares at them for daring to enter her kitchen. The elves decide that to argue for space would be too much trouble and go outside to find a place to build a fire.

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Galstaf walks into the great hall just as Dwalim walks out of the sitting room.

“That’s a nice hammer you got there”, says Dwalim.

Galstaf tells Dwalim how he got the hammer and Dwalim convinces Galstaf to let him hold on to it as he is a dwarf and know what to do with it and how. Then Dwalim leads Galstaf back into the sitting room to look at the painting.

Galstaf pulls back the curtains and takes a look. He manages to not be affected by the painting but is very convinced that its dangerous and is an artifact of the chaos power Tzeench.

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Mak'keg continues to explore the grounds. He takes a closer look at the gardens, but other then being overgrown can’t identify anything growing there. Next to the garden are some overgrown graves but there are nothing unusual about any of them. He then walks around behind the lodge.

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Dwalim and Galstaf walk out of the sitting room back into the great hall. They see two of the serving staff setting the table for dinner. They both notice a note fall out of one of the servants pockets. Galstaf walks up and introduces himself to the servants as a distraction while Dwalim picks up the note. The servant that the note fell off of is Gunner Wetzel. The other servent is acting sluggish and distracted and keeps messing up the setting of the table, his name is Todd Heistlenbeurger.

Dwalim and Galstaf leave the great hall and go out into the grounds to find the elves. While they walk they look at the note. All it says is- Goose is good.

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Mak'keg discovers a large hole in the walls around the lodge that has been badly patched with wood logs and he spots a ladder built into the wall of the lodge. Mak'keg climbs the ladder and just as he gets to the top he spots a ladder built inside one of the chimneys. But then he slips and falls off the ladder.

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Dwalim, Galstaf, Eva, and Reyna are sitting around the elves cooking fire discussing what to do next when they hear a yell and a thud coming from back behind the lodge. They all run around the building to see Mak'keg at the foot of the ladder to the roof struggling to get up.

As the group discusses what to do next Eva, Reyna, and Galstaf notice a face in one of the windows of the building scowling down at them. Half of the persons face is covered in a bandage. The face looks at them for a moment and then moves away from the window.

The group decides to look around some more.

************************************************************************

Eva and Reyna check out the gardens and identify some of the herbs growing there. The most interesting of which is a herb that is the principal ingredient of a poison known as schlaf. The major effects of schlaf are sleepiness and the inability to concentrate.

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Mak'keg and Dwalim check out the forge. They immediately notice that the forge is built for a dwarf but it hasn’t been used in a while. They discover a velvet lined box that is obviously built to transport the dwarven war hammer they found in the shrine.

************************************************************************

Galstaf checks the gardening shed and finds that while most of the tools haven’t been used in a long time the small tools used for harvesting herbs have been used very recently.

The group meets up again and starts discussing how and what to tell the lord. The discussion becomes heated causing stress to the group. As the group talks a bell rings through the compound and a voice calls that dinner is ready to be served.

Eva pipes up that the group use the excuse that she found some sick and dead deer in the woods while hunting her food and that they recommend that no one eat the venison until she can make sure its safe. The group agrees to use this story to keep people from eating the suspected poisoned food.

The group walks into the great hall. Lord Aschaffenberg sits at the head of the table and a bunch of people that that group hasn’t met are also in the room.

“You made it”, says the lord “We may be out in the stick but we set a good table. Have you met everyone? No. We have Vern my man, of course,” He points at the older blind woman, “Sister Sonja who helps in the hospice and follower of Sigmar, the big bald man there is Oliver Gand our huntsman, the man in the uniform is Captain Anders Blucher captain of the guard, we have doctor Stefan Sieger, Otto Geizhals the librarian, and Bertoldt Grayhof the gardener. The man with the bandaged head directing the help is Gregor Piersson the steward.”

Gregor directs Todd Heistlenburger, who is still groggy and distracted, and another servent who seems clear headed to bring out the first course of a hot soup. As the soup is passed out the group tells the Lord that the venison may be diseased. The lords face falls in disappointment and asks if there is any more goose to go around. Eva says that she has more and is willing to share. The group had been watching to see the reactions at the table when its announced that no one will be eating the venison. Galstaf notices that there is dirt under Dr. Sieger’s fingers and he seems upset about the venison not getting eaten.

Session 3- Dinner and a Massacre

The players-
Mak'keg- Dwarf Performer
Dwalim Silverbeard- Dwarf Student
Reyna- Wood Elf Mystic
Eva- Wood Elf Wardancer
Galstaf- Human Apprentice of the Light order

As everyone finishes their soup Galstaf keeps an eye on Dr Sieger in hopes that he will give away more clues. Galstaf notices that the Dr has a strong smell of rotting vegetation that lingers around him. Dwalim notices that Gregor the butler seems unusually angry and seems to be taking it out on the wait staff. Todd in particular is getting an earful as he has defiantly been drugged.

Lord Aschaffenberg announces that its time for the goose and would the elves kindly go get what they have to share. Reyna requests that Sister Sonja join on the walk out to the cook fire and the sister agrees. Reyna, Sister Sonja, and Eva get up and head outside.

************************************************************************

Reyna asks a couple of questions from Sister Sonja but she really doesn’t have many answers. As the elves get to their cooking fire the dogs start to bark. Oliver the huntsman runs out to check on them. Eva and Rayna look around but don’t see anything for the dogs to be barking at.

************************************************************************

Mak'keg almost is rude to the lord but pulls it into a juggling act. Galstaf secretly helps Mak'keg with a spell to make the juggling even more impressive. This entertains everyone while they wait for the goose to arrive.

************************************************************************

Eva walks over to the kennels and starts chatting up Oliver who is irritated at first but warms up when Eva wants to talk about his dogs.

Reyna brings the goose back in and everyone at the table digs in.

While talking to Oliver Eva learns that he has been feeding the dogs beastman. So she makes the guess that the dogs were barking at beastmen but where were they.

************************************************************************

While everyone enjoys their goose, Reyna looks closely at Gregor and notices something under the bandage on his head move. This unnerves her a little as it really shouldn’t do that.

Eva come back in and sits at the table. Dwalim and Mak'keg express interest in checking out the library and Otto volunteers to show it to them after dinner. Reyna asks Gregor if he could show them to their room to freshen up after dinner he agrees.

As dessert is served Lord Aschaffenberg asks the group to meet with him in the sitting room for drinks. Dessert is a fancy pastry with whipped cream.

After dinner Gregor leads everyone upstairs to the guest room. Rayna asks Gregor where his room is.
Gregor guestures “Its down the hall a little way. Though I’m rarely in there.”

Gregor leads the group into the guest room and then excuses himself as he has much to do.

************************************************************************

Dwalim and Mak'keg leave the guest room and head downstairs to the great hall. Otto is waiting for them while reading a book. Otto leads them through the sitting room to the library. While they pass through the sitting room both dwarves notice that the feeling they got from the painting is gone, the room seems to be just a room again.

Once in the library the two dwarves start to scan through the titles of the books to see if there might be a book that would give them clues to where the blessed hammer came from

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Eva, Reyna, and Galstaf come downstairs a little while later and go into the sitting room. Lord Aschaffenberg, Vern, and Dr. Sieger are sitting in the room chatting over drinks.

Reyna inquires about the room and Lord Aschaffenberg comments that now that he thinks about it he has never been in this room. Reyna asks about what’s behind the curtain and the Lord says he doesn’t know. Eva pulls it back to show a nice empty picture frame on a stand.

Reyna notices a small pile of used disgusting bandages laying on the floor near the empty frame. Lord Aschaffenberg calls for a servant to clean it up. Reyna and the Dr. have a bit of a verbal sparing match to try and get info out of each other. Reyna learns that the Dr. studied in the southern city of Nuln, and the Dr. learns that the group is here to do more then just carry luggage.


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In the library Dwalim spots a couple of forbidden book on the shelf but only makes note of them he doesn’t mention them to Otto. After a bit more searching the dwarves go back into the sitting room.

As the two dwarves walk into the sitting room the dogs outside start barking again. Eva and Galstaf run outside to check it out, everyone else stays inside.

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Eva and Galstaf look the direction that the dogs are barking just in time to see the makeshift barricade burst. A large amount of beastmen lead by a huge wargor run through the gap and charge into the compound.

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As the beastmen attack outside Gregor leads a bunch of the staff including the cook, the librarian, the gardener, and a couple of the servants into the sitting room. The doctor moves back to join the cultists. All except for the doctor are wearing robes. Gregor is holding the painting, now out of its frame and covered in blood. As Dwalim, Reyna, Mak'keg, Vern, and the lord get ready for a fight, instead of attacking, the cultists climb up the ladder in the chimney to the roof, leaving only a groomsmen with a blunderbuss to block their way to the roof.

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Outside Galstaf casts a spell and starts to glow with a bright light. Both Galstaf and Eva step forward to meet the charge of the beastmen. Behind the Oliver lets loose his dogs and both Oliver and Captain Blucher join the fight against the beastmen as well.

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Inside Dwalim doesn’t waste time and shoots the groom with the blunderbuss with his crossbow, killing him. Mak'keg takes the rune hammer out of its case, puts his plain hammer in its place and leaves the case on the floor of the sitting room.

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Eva and the Wargor charge straight at each other. Eva hits the Wargor on the head giving it a minor concussion. The Wargor hits Eva back knocking her unconscious. Galstaf shoots a magic dart at some of the other beastmen surrounding the Wargor.

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Dwalim grabs the blunderbuss from the dead groomsman and he, Reyna, and Mak'keg scramble up the ladder to the roof. On the far end of the roof are the cultists standing around the painting. As the light of the moon hits the painting the painting bubbles and moves like something is trying to tear its way out.

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Glastaf casts a healing spell on Eva which gets her back on her feet. Eva swings at the wargor with her swords but does no real damage. Lord Aschaffenberg and Vern run out of the house and join the fight against the beastmen.

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On the Roof Reyna shoots Dwalim’s crossbow at Gregor and grazes his arm. Gregor tells the other cultists to take care of the three on the roof. The cultists turn as one and charge towards the group.

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Galstaf casts another spell and a hot white beam of light pours out of his eyes and hits the Wargor doing a lot of damage. Eva steps up and hits the wargor in the neck killing it. As the wargor dies it swings out and hits Eva. She flies back and lands in a heap not moving.

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As the cultists charge across the roof Dwalim pulls the trigger on the blunderbuss. BOOM!!!!! The gun goes off with a cloud of smoke and pellets of lead. When the smoke clears all of the cultists that charged are dead.

Dwalim looks down at the gun in awe. “I think I want to hold on to this,” he says to the other two.

************************************************************************

Galstaf checks Eva and finds she is still breathing but just barely. He tries the healing potion she had on her but it has no effect. He tries the one he had and it seems to heal her a bit. The lord and the other defender seem to be doing very well but one of Olivers dogs was killed.

************************************************************************

Thinking they have the upper hand Dwalim, Reyna, and Mak'keg look across at Gregor when, with a shriek, a floating blob of flesh and misshapen limbs bursts out of the canvas.

Session 4- So, no ****, there I was…..

The players-
Mak'keg- Dwarf Performer
Dwalim Silverbeard- Dwarf Student
Reyna- Wood Elf Mystic
Eva- Wood Elf Wardancer
Galstaf- Human Apprentice of the Light order

Galstaf picks up Eva and casts a spell that blinds a group of Ungors that were charging in.

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Dwalim shoulders the blunderbuss and takes the rune hammer from Mak’keg, Reyna readies another crossbow bolt, Mak'keg looks around for his regular hammer but realizes its down in the sitting room. All three take a long look at the demon floating above the tatters that used to be a painting, and they all climb back down to the sitting room.

************************************************************************

Galstaf notices streak of something dark flying from roof of the lodge to forest outside the walls.

Galstaf readies himself to run Eva to safety but the beastmen, their leader dead and their morale broken, run first. The blinded Ungors are cut down by the lord and the surviving staff but a couple of the gors make it through the gap in the wall and out to the woods

Oliver walks over to Galstaf and offers to carry Eva up to the hospice. Galstaf hands her over and follows Oliver as he carries Eva.

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Dwalim runs out of the sitting room through the great hall and up to the second floor.

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Reyna and Mak'keg start outside but cross paths with Oliver, carrying Eva, and Galstaf. Everyone decides to meet up in the hospice. Sister Sonja is in the hospice and helps get Eva to a bed and bandages her wounds.

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Dwalim, Mak’keg, and Galstaf decide that they need to make a search of the lodge now that the cultists have been taken care of. Reyna stays by Eva in the hospice.

Dwalim, Mak'keg, Galstaf go to check out Dr’s room but find it locked. Dwalim wants to kick in the door but reconsiders and decides to go try and find a key. The three check out Gregor’s room and while they don’t find anything incriminating the do find a set of skeleton keys.

The three go back to the doctors rooms and get the door open. The whole room reeks of rotting vegetation. Under the bed the three find two big vats of what seems to be schlaf in the refining process.

Galstaf decides to check all of the other servant’s rooms but doesn’t find anything of note.

Dwalim and Mak’keg head down to the library. Dwalim finds the two banned books and hides them on his person. As the dwarves look around they notice a bump under the rug in the middle of the library. They pull up the rug to find a trap door in the floor. Dwalim pulls open the door and looks down at rungs in a tunnel wall and a tunnel leading under the floor.

The dwarves run back upstairs to find Galstaf and Reyna and tell them about the trapdoor in the library.

All four go down the trap door and through the tunnel to a big open room. In the center of the room is a stone alter with Todd Heistlenburger cut open and dead lying on it. Branching off from the room are two other tunnels leading in opposite directions. A blood trail leads from the alter and down one of the tunnels.

Reyna decides to sneak down the tunnel with the blood trail just in case there are still enemies about. The tunnel ends in an open secret panel that leads into a wine cellar. Dwalim and Mak’keg follow Reyna. Galstaf decides he needs some back up on this one and goes back up to the hospice to get Sister Sonja.

In the wine cellar the blood trail leads up some stairs. Dwalim liberates a bottle or two of wine. Reyna and Dwalim follow the blood trail up the stairs. Mak’keg decides to check where the other tunnel leads.

Dwalim and Reyna go up the stairs and find they lead to the kitchens. The blood trail leads through the kitchen into a long gallery and into the sitting room. Dwalim figures out that the blood trail is the path the cultists took on their way to the roof.

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Mak’keg goes through the chaos temple and down the last tunnel. The tunnel ends with a ladder bolted to the wall that lead all the way up to the second floor. Mak’keg climbs the ladder, opens the door at the top and walks in on a very surprised and very naked Lord Aschaffenberg. The lord was changing out of his battle torn and muddy cloths. Mak’keg quickly starts trying to talk the lord away from being mad.
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Reyna and Dwalim walk back down and through to the ladder Mak’keg took up. Dwalim offers for Reyna to climb first which she does. Reyna makes it to the top and sees what Mak’keg sees. She quickly apologizes, walks through the room, and out the non hidden door. Mak’keg climbs back down through the secret passage. Dwalim is highly amused by the whole thing.

Galstaf returns with Sister Sonja and everyone proceeds to destroy everything that they can in the temple. As Galstaf works to destroy the alter a book falls out. It’s a very rare and very banned book as it describes how to do the ritual that the cultists performed. Both Galstaf and Dwalim are tempted to read the book both resist the temptation and Galstaf burns the book.

A Servant finds the group and says that Lord wants to meet with everyone in great hall to discuss what all just happened. The group meets back up in the hospice and begins to discuss who should speak and what they should say.

Session 5- Then that happened…..

The players-
Mak'keg- Dwarf Performer
Dwalim Silverbeard- Dwarf Student/Gambler
Reyna- Wood Elf Mystic
Eva- Wood Elf Wardancer
Galstaf- Human Apprentice of the Light order
Stiglow- Human initiate of Ronald

The group decides to have Reyna do the talking. After some discussion and deal making. Lord Aschaffenberg offers more to ensure silence about the events in the lodge. Also the group offers to take the mad dwarf and his hammer to Ubersrich and get him help. The lord gives the group twenty silver and a promisary note of payment of 2 gold when presented to his wife’s estate. He also gives the name of a contact in the merchants guild that would probably have work for the group.

Travel back to Ubersrich is uneventful. Along the way the group makes a pact to work together and become oath bound. Dwalim decides he liked the feeling of taking risks and decides to become a gambler.

In Ubersrich the group goes to the Brunner estate and a representative pays them each their two gold. Galstaf takes the mad dwarf to a colleague to get help. The they all go to the Inn where they are supposed to meet their new contact.

[stiglow is given a task by his teacher in the church. The task is two fold. One is to find a missing member of the merchants guild. The second is to check on a way word member of the thieves guild, Halfling Keila Cobblepot, that hasn’t been paying her dues. She owns and runs the Stewpot Hostelry. He is given a map of the town and the surrounding area.]

In the Bar area of the Inn they meet their contact and a man in nice business like cloths who is introduced as Stiglow. The merchant guild had a member, Florian Wechsler, go missing in a small town called Stromdorf. He was up trading coal and never came back. The guild would like him returned or at least his guild ring. The give a the group a starting fee and a promise of negotiable payment after the job is done. Stiglow will also be travling with the group as a representative of the guild.

The group decides to charter a river barge to take them down river to Ubersrich. As they get closer and closer to the town, clouds gather and it starts to rain. Off in the distance the group sees runes on a hill and further down river a good sized garden of Morr (a human cemetery designed to stop people coming back as undead).

As the barge gets closer to town the storm worsens and the rain start to poor down and the river rises. As the barge crosses under a bridge it collapses and hits the aft end of the barge throwing the captain overboard. The crew stands in shock. Mak’keg moves in and grabs the tiller, and with Galstaf’s help steadies the barge.

Stiglow ties a rope around Eva’s waist and she jumps in after the captain. She quickly grabs the captain and they both are pulled back on board.

The Captain goes back to the tiller and steers the barge to a wharf next to a mill a bit north of town. The group follows a well traveled road south to the North gate of town.

The first thing noticed upon entering the gate is the smell coming from a large tannery a small ways inside the gate. Most of the group acclimates to the smell but it is a bit of a lingering annoyance to Stiglow.

The group follows the main through way which has been raised up on logs so travelers have less trouble with the mud. They take note of a barber surgeons place and continue on to the market square.

In the Market all members of the group invests in leather cloaks to help keep dry.

Eva tells Reya to stay with the boys and goes off on her own. [she goes to the tannery and talks to the master tanner, Gert Dreigo. Makes deal to make fancy leather cloak for 5 gp. She also learns about the best hunter in town, Franz Bieber.]

Mak’keg decides he wants to check out the thunder water Inn and heads towards it.

The rest of the group follows Stiglow to the Stewpot as he seems to know what he is doing. Upon entering the stewpot the first thing the group notices is that it smells fantastic in there. The smell of the food makes all their mouths water. The second thing noticed is that there doesn’t seem to be any locals in here. The only patrons are an older watchman at the bar and a group of watchmen sitting around a table. But the place is warm, dry, and obviously has quality food.

Stiglow sits down at the bar and passes Keila Cobblepot the halfling owner a note. [“(contact) sent me. We need to talk”]. She looks at him in surprise but quickly recovers, nods to him, and then continues to serve food and drink.

Dwalim sits at the bar and begins chatting up the old watchmen sitting next to him. He learns that the man is a basically retired master gunner. He and 4 other old timers man the cannon “Screaming Gurtie” that sits over the east gate. He doesn’t have any info on the missing merchant but gives the names of the two night shift watchmen who would have been on duty.

Reyna and Galstaf sit at a table and order food. As do the two at the bar. It’s a little pricy but excellent food. Just as their food arrives Eva comes in and joins in getting food.

Keila Cobblepot brings a fresh full pie that looks and smells fantastic over to the watchmen at the table. She then comes over to Reyna, Galstaf, and Eva and says that she has another fresh baked pie, would they like a piece. All at the table accept as do the two at the bar.

As Galstaf takes his first bits he notices a very faint familiar smell of rotting vegetation. He tries to warn the others but Reyna and Stiglow have already downed their whole pieces. And fairly quickly both feel very drowsy.

Mak’keg walks into the Thunderwater. Its packed with locals. Every piece of furniture is bolted to the floor. On a stage in the corner is a brightly dressed performer singing songs very badly. In another corner a dirty man in what used to be fancy cloths drunkenly tells stories with flair. Near a large fireplace is an empty chair which no one is taking even though they stand around it.

Mak’keg goes to the bar and orders a drink. There are two younger men tending the bar and they are obviously family, most likely brothers. On of them offers a strong drink called marshwater but he goes for the empire famous Thunderwater ale.

Galstaf gets up from the table and confronts Keila about the poison. She starts trying to make excuses but stumbles. She turns and bolts towards the door to the kitchens behind the bar.

“She owes me money!” yells Galstaf and jumps after her.

Galstaf manages to grab her color but she had a surprise set up. PANG!!! A large stew pot falls from above the door and hits Galstaf on the head. He falls forward dazed and lands on top of the struggling halfling.

The table of watchmen all stand and look towards the commotion. Keila yells from under Galstaf, “they’re all drunk!!”

Dwalim jumps the bar and tries to help Galstaf. Galstaf slurs his response that he’s not drunk.

Stiglow gets up and stumbles towards the bathrooms.

Reyna tries to stumble up out of her chair. Eva stands and lifts her up. Reyna lets out a loud high pitch scream “YEEEAAAAHHHH!!!!!”

Everyone in the bar stops and looks at the two elves. Reyna is shocked that her yell worked so well. Eva speaks up “Sorry, too much drinking.” Eva throws Reyna over her shoulder and walks out.

The watchmen all look at each other. “What the hell was that?” asks one. Another shrugs “dunno, elves are strange.”
Dwalim helps Galstaf up, leads him around the bar, and outside as well. All the while Galstaf is defending that he is not drunk.

Stiglow slips out after Dwalim and Galstaf but he doesn’t follow. Instead he slips around the building towards the back. As he sneaks he steps through a waterlogged garden where a suspicious green herb is growing.

Eva, Reyna, Dwalim, and Galstaf stumble through the rain and dark towards the Thunderwater Inn. Lightning flashes and hits a copper lightning rod attached to the side of the church of sigmar.

Session 6- During a hostile takeover do the halfling shuffle

The players-
Dwalim Silverbeard- Dwarf Student/Gambler
Reyna- Wood Elf Mystic
Eva- Wood Elf Wardancer
Galstaf- Human Apprentice of the Light order
Stiglow- Human initiate of Ronald

Stiglow sneaks around to the back of the Stewpot and sees Keila Cobblepot put a large cloth bag under the eve of the carriage house out of the rain and goes back into the inn shutting the door. Stiglow sneaks to the carriage house and opens the bag.

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Dwalim notices that Stiglow is not with the group. He hands off a still groggy Galstaf to Eva and goes back to sneak around the outside of the inn.

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Inside the bag Stiglow finds the merchant ring they are looking for and ten gold pieces worth of untraceable valuables.

Dwalim walks through and sees the garden with the schlaf. He sneaks further along and sees Stiglow with the bag. Stiglow palms the ring as Dwalim takes a look in the bag. He takes a silver mirror for his personal use.

Stiglow decides to share some of what he knows and shows Dwalim the ring and the maps of the town and surrounding area.

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Eva guides Reyna and Galstaf into the Thunderwater and gets a room for her and Reyna, and pays for the use of a common bunk for Galstaf.

Eva dumps Galstf off in the common room and puts Reyna to bed with her sleeping by the door blocking it. They keep Galstafs stuff with them.

Galstaf goes back down to bar area. The town drunk, Rodrigues, is telling stories to anyone who will listen. One of the stories was from when he was passed out across from the Stewpot. He saw the merchants bodyguards leave the morning in question. They headed north to the wharf, didn’t see merchant leave at any time, but a cart went by at midnight.

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Dwalim and Stiglow sneak out the back of the carrage house. They try and stay off the main road. They search for and find a cheep fleabag hotel. They pay for a room, sneak in the bag of loot, and hide it under the bed. They then sleep in shifts till morning.

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Galstaf closes down the bar at the Thunderwater and then goes to sleep in the common room.

Next morning the elves and Galstaf eat breakfast. They see an acolyte wizard of the celestial order eating breakfast at a table near buy.

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Galstaf and Stiglow go back to the Stewpot, Dwalim goes in the front and sees an old couple standing at the bar calling out for anyone working to get them breakfast. There seems to be no one else around. Dwalim convinces the old couple to seek breakfast elsewhere.

Stiglow goes around back, by the carrage house is a delivery cart. The delivery man is banging on the back door yelling for Keila to open up. Stiglow talks to the delivery guy who says cobblepot isn’t answering door and he has other deliveries to make.

Dwalim walks around the bar, through the kitchens and opens the door just as Stiglow is about to kick it in.

Stiglow and Dwalim help unload the produce into the kitchens and bid the delivery man farewell. They then promptly steal a bunch of the food and go back to their room at the fleabag inn to eat.

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The Elves and Glastaf try to talk to the celestial wizard, his name is Schuleman, he blows them off rudely, saying he must get back to his studies.

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Stiglow and Dwalim decide to do some investigation and try to track down where Keila went. Stiglow casts a blessing that changes his appearance to look like the delivery man. He walks to the west gate, but the watchmen haven’t seen anything.

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Dwalim goes to east gate and talks up the watchmen. He doesn’t learn anything about the Halfling but he does learn about Reiner Holtz, who is the least inbreed of a local farming family. He comes to town every market day to sell hops and barely. Reiner passed through the east gate on the night in question with a new horse and cart. The horse was noticeable because of its all white color which is relatively rare. Also Dwalim learns that a week ago one of the watchmen saw lights flashing around the haunted runes south of the town.

Dwalim thanks the watchmen and heads back towards the market.

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Stiglow goes to the market square and talks to the coal merchant that has a stall there. He learns that the missing merchant did make his deliveries to the tannery, the Thunderwater, and the stall here in the market for distribution. He was driving a cart marked with merchant guild symbols and pulled by a white horse.

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The elves and Galstaf walk through the market towards the stewpot inn. Dwalim and Stiglow notice them and walk to join the group. Stiglow drops his disguise before announcing his presence.

While sharing what everyone has found the group decides that they should take over ownership of the inn. A lot of discussion ensues about how to make that happen.

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Stiglow tries to travel to Ubersrich to take the ring back but the bridge is still out and the river is flooded. Stiglow returns to the inn.

Stiglow and Reyna stay to search and clean the inn. Reyna puts up a sign in the window of the inn.

Under new management
Closed for renovations
Help wanted, Apply within

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Dwalim, Eva,, Galstaf go to north gate where they learn that yes the Halfling has passed through in a hurry.

The three walk north to the dock house. There are three ruffian looking men hanging out on the porch. The Halfling is no where to be seen.

Glastaf approaches the three men while Eva hangs back in case of trouble. Dwalim sneaks around to the side of the building and climbs through a window.

Galstaf distracts the three men by engaging loudly in a game of cups and ball.

Dwalim manages to sneak into the dock house. The floor of the house is flooded from the river. Sitting on a chair in the middle of the room is the halfling. Dwalim sneaks behind her, covers her mouth, and puts a knife to her neck.

Keila struggles and kicks in the water. He movements attract an eel the lunges out of the water and bites down on her leg. Dwalim hits her on the head with the handle of his knife and she goes limp. Dwalim pulls the eel off of her leg and then pulls her out of the window he came in.

Dwalim sneaks through the trees parallel to the road for a bit.

As Galstaf finishes up the game, he won a bit of change from the men, the captain of the barge (which is the same barge the group rode into town yesterday on) arrives and starts getting it ready to sail.

One of the men goes into the dock house and the comes back out with a confused look on his face. He talks to the other men for a minute and the then all start walking back towards town.

Eva and Galstaf head back towards town as well.

Dwalim pours a vial of schlaf down Keila’s thought and she falls into a deep sleep. He then ties her to a tree and goes to find the others. He catches Eva and Galstaf as they pass his hiding spot. He shows them the Halfling.

Galstaf comes up with a plan to get the Halfling back into town. He goes and catches a couple more eels and finds a large cloth sack. They put the Halfling in the sack and put the eels in on top of her and hang a couple out for effect.

The plan works and the three get the Halfling back to the stewpot without trouble. However she is still unconscious and will be for a day due to the dose of schlaf.

The whole group helps search and clean the Inn. The find an attic where there are piles of camping and traveling gear. Also the paperwork and deed for the place are found.

Using the deed as a guide Galstaf makes a deed of transfer that they will force Keila to sign when she wakes up.

Stiglow tries to get an audience with the burgermeiser (mayor) but is turned away and told to see the Militia captain. He goes there but the line to see him is too long and Stiglow doesn’t want to wait.

Session 7- Hillbillies in the night

The players-
Dwalim Silverbeard- Dwarf Student/Gambler
Reyna- Wood Elf Mystic
Eva- Wood Elf Wardancer
Galstaf- Human Apprentice of the Light order

Stiglow announces that he wants to make another attempt at getting to Ubersrich. He is going to head north and try to cross the river at a less flooded point.

Reyna is cleaning kitchen after dinner and has a vision.
Pictures flash in her mind-
A city burning,
a huge herd of hundreds of beastmen
lightning hitting different sized stones

The group decides to head south from town and check out the Holtz farm.

The group leaves through the east gate and heads south. It is early evening and the sun has almost set. They see something burning in the distance. As they get closer they figure out that it’s a farmstead. But the fires are burning down as if what ever happened is pretty much over. The group decides to check it out.

Geting closer they see that whatever happened is defiantly done now. The farm is completely burned to the ground but the strange thing is that there are no bodies of people or livestock.

Dwalim notices beastmen tracks leading south and a sign near the gate that says Eigel.

Galstaf sees chaos star drawn in blood and **** on the stone chimney of the main house and destroys it. Lightning crashes all around as he works.

Eva sees another farm on a hill to the east that has lights on.

As the group travels to the second farm Galstaf looks out over the marsh to the south and notices lightning hitting the same spot somewhere deep in the swamp. He looks with his magic sight and sees high elven magic all through the storm.

The group makes it to the second farmstead and the sign at the gate says Holtz.

After much discussion the group comes up with a plan. The elves elves climb up to the roof of a small barn and Dwalim sneaks around the whole compound to the stables. Galstaf goes to the front making as much noise as he can.

The elves look down into a small courtyard and see two young men arguing while other members of the holtz family watch on. The elves stay hidden and watch.

The two young men scream at each other in the rain.

“Damnit Tristan, I told you this would happen.” screams one.

“Why my family and not yours, Fritz’” yells Tristan.

Tristan pulls a knife and threatens Fritz.

Galstaf walks up to the front door of the house while whistling loudly. He bangs on the door.

The elves and Dwalim watch as an older woman walks towards the house and goes in the back door that faces the court yard. At the front the door is opened by the woman. Galstaf goes into a long speech about how he is a new inn owner and want to procure hops and barely. The woman shuts the door in his face.

Tristan reaches his wits end and stabs Fritz in the neck, killing him. Members of the Holtz clan rush forward, pull Tristan off of Fritz and start beating him in the mud. The elves just watch as this is none of their concern. Dwalim runs around to the front and fires his blunderbuss to get their attention but the noise is lost in the storm.

Dwalim sneaks back around to the stables. Galstaf sneaks around the house to see into the court yard just in time to see one of the men, the biggest by far, stomp down on Tristan’s head into the mud. Tristan stops moving.

The elves climb down off the barn and look through a window. The small barn is full of camping and traveling gear similar to what they found in the attic of the inn.

Dwalim sneaks into the stables and sees a white horse and a cart with merchant guild symbols painted on the side.

Galstaf watches as an older man, seemingly the patriarch, gives orders to the men standing around.

The Older man points at the big man, “Klaus, get the cart ready, you’re making a trip to the tree tonight.” He points at the others standing around, “Get Fritz out of the rain and into the house, Marie will want to clean him up.”

Dwalim hears Klaus walking towards the stable entrance and manages to hide under the cart. Klaus starst getting the horse and cart ready.

The elves make a risk but succeeded at sneaking across some open ground to the stables, only Galstaf notices them run.
The elves sneak into the stables and decide to jump Klaus as he works. Eva leaps over a couple of stalls and lands a wicked blow on Klaus’s back, spinning him around. Dwalim jumps up from under the cart but misjudges his reach. Reyna tries to hit him but only succeeds in hitting a lantern and starting a small fire. Eva kills Klaus with a quick swing of her swords.

Reyna quickly puts out the fire with her leather cloak.

Dwalim investigates the cart while the elves hide the body. Dwalim finds small blood spatter and a lot of coal dust.

They hear someone coming and manage to hide just in time. One of the farm hands walks in. “Klaus, where you at?” he yells. He glances around a bit, shrugs, finishes getting the cart ready and drives it out of the stables.

Galstaf who had been waiting nervously for any signs of trouble, watches as Fritz’s body is carefully brought into the house. He is surprised when the farm hand drives the cart out of the stables.

“Where’s Klaus?” asks the old man.

“Dunno, must have wandered off again.” Says the farm hand.

“Guess you’re gonna have to make the drop off then,” says the old man.

They dump Tristans body into the back of the cart and the farm hand starts the cart moving.

The group sneaks away from the farmstead and follows the cart south. They are led to a hill with a huge blackened tree that is surrounded by thousands of bones of all kinds. Chains, rope, and bits of cloth hang from the branches. It is a fairly disturbing sight.

The farm hand pulls Tristans body from the cart and leans it against the tree. The group decides to step out of hiding and try and get some answers.

They grab him and tie hi to the tree next to Tristan. Galstaf asks questions while Eva watches. Dwalim and Reyna search through the bone pile for signs of the merchant.

Glastaf learnes that the farm hands name is Hans. Both the Holtz’s and Eigel’s made sacrifices. The beastmen herd in the marsh had agreed to leave the farms and the town alone if the sacrifices kept coming. He also learned that usually it’s Klaus that makes the trip to the tree. The only other Holtz that comes up here is Marie, the older woman, but he doesn’t know why she comes here.

The group decides to kill Hans and Eva does the deed. The group stands in the rain by the cart discussing what to do next.

That was a good write up; I'm looking forward to reading more. You have a pretty brutal, if enterprising group!

I think you should have posted each section one at a time and left a few days in between each one - I think you'd get more comments that way. This was a lot to read in one go. That said, it looks like fun.

I wonder if you could expand on something for me?

"Reyna learns that the Dr. studied in the southern city of Nuln, and the Dr. learns that the group is here to do more then just carry luggage."

Can you tell me how this happened? i.e. what rules did you use, what sort of tests, trackers etc... if you remember?

I ran that part as a social encounter. I didn't use a tracker as I correctly surmised that they would be interrupted. My players roll a LOT of chaos stars. Basically I rolled opposed charm tests and she used a couple action cards, winning smile was one of them. And I decided what info was given out based on successes and fails. In this case both got successes. The conversation was interrupted when the dwarves in the library generated 3 chaos stars between them so I moved forward the time table to where the cult finished the sacrifice and moved to the roof.

Sessions 8&9- Now we’re cookin ....with Sigmar

The players-
Dwalim Silverbeard- Dwarf Student/Gambler
Reyna- Wood Elf Mystic
Eva- Wood Elf Wardancer
Galstaf- Human Apprentice of the Light order
Stiglow- Human initiate of Ronald
Alex Blackmoon- Human initiate of Sigmar (session 9)

After the “disposing” of Hans the group takes the cart back to the stewpot and turns in for the night.
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Stiglow wakes to something poking him in the face and the sound of music being played very well. He opens his eyes to see a very ugly little girl poking him with a stick. He is on a river bank and across the river is the garden of Morr. The girl runs away when he sits up. He stands up slowly and follows her. He sees her run to a very worn wagon where a slightly older boy sits playing a mandolin. Next to him on the cart is Reiner Holtz. The cart sits next to a post with a bell. In the back of the car is a largeish form covered in a blanket.

Stiglow asks what is going on and the little girl says that some bad men came in the night and killed her cousin. He asks how to get back to town and Reiner points down a path away from the river. Stiglow starts his way back to town.
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Dwalim, Reyna, Eva, and Galstaf wake up and gather for breakfast. As this is the morning of Market day there are people outside waiting to get breakfast in the inn. Galstaf decides to try and make some recipes out of Cobblepot’s recipe book and to everyone surprise does a pretty good job.

Reyna and Eva go to the church of Sigmar. Inside there is a service being held. The priest leading the service is a giant of a man that was obviously once a warrior but he is defiantly past his prime. He leads the service with great gusto and uses the lightning and thunder outside to great effect. The elves wait and watch. Once the service ends the two are approached by a young man who was helping with the service.

The young man introduces himself as Chlodwig Fromm. He says that the old priest, Lector Magnus Gottschalk, would like to talk to them. They agree to talk. After introductions Magnus tells the elves that he has been having vivid dreams about beastmen destroying the town but that it can be saved by a small group of travelers. The elves explain about the Holtzs and the tree.

Magnus asks the elves to show him the tree and if it is what they say will have the Holtzs arrested at once. The elves agree.
The elves go back to the stewpot and tell Galstaf and Dwalim what is going on. They meet Magnus outside of town. Magnus has gathered about ten men from the watch to help gather evidence and help with the arrest.

They all travel out to the tree and Magnus is convinced immediately. They then travel to the farm and arrest everyone there. The only ones still at large are Reiner and the two children.

As everyone is travling back to Stromdorf, Reyna tries to ask Marie questions.

“I could have helped you.” Marie says bitterly. “My family could have saved this town. But now, you all will burn.”

Reyna tries to learn more but Marie and the rest of the family refuses to speak. Once back the prisoners are paraded through the town and thrown in the jail. The group goes back to the stewpot.
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Stiglow made it back to the stewpot to find everyone gone. He decided that it was time to start building a “network” based out of the stewpot. He found a couple out of work ruffians and hires them as bouncers/security.
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Everyone else gets back to the stewpot and start discuss what to do next. Galstaf starts cooking lunch and does ok again. Dwalim goes out into the market place and talks up the stewpot as the place to go for dinner to the locals. Eva goes off on her own to do some investigating.

[Eva goes to the jail, meets Spitz, convinces Marie to talk by threatening her children. Marie tells of her son Foaldeath and how to meet him. Eva talks to foaldeath after restraining herself from attacking him. Foaldeath tells her about the Wargor and the lightning stone and he will help get rid of both.]

Alex Blackmoon wakes up in a unfamiliar room. He had finished his beginning studies at the temple in Altdorf and his teacher had sent him with letters of introduction to the temple in Ubersreik. He had taken a barge down river. Upon reaching the Stromdorf area the storm had over turned the boat and he had hit his head blacking out.

As Alex opened his eyes and sat up, a young man in Sigmar training robes jumped up and ran out of the room. He returned a moment later with Lector Magnus. Alex tells Magnus his story and shows him the letters of introduction. Magnus tells of his vision of doom and the upcoming Holtz trial. He encourages Alex to go find the group staying at the stewpot. He also recommends that Alex purchase a leather cloak to ward off the rain.

Alex leaves the temple, purchases a cloak and heads off to the Stewpot.
Alex arrives at the stewpot just as Reyna and Stiglow are finishing their lunches. Dwalim also gets back at this time from talking to fols in the marketplace. Alex walks up their table and introductions are made. Galstaf finishes in the kitchen and joins the conversation.

The group, except for Eva, decides that its time to check out the ruins on the hill called Tempist Knap. They take the cart and make good time getting there.

Once there they discover the ruins are High elven in origin. There is a large shallow hole in the middle of the area filled with rain water. Reyna and Galstaf look at the area with magical sight. Both see that the place is filled with high elven magic which is expected, but they also see traces of Celestial magic and the ghost of a high elven priest, which is not expected.

Reyna tries to communicate with the ghost but seems to get no results. The ghost stays in one spot and repeats words over and over again. She tries to record the words phonetically in hopes of finding a translation in town.

The hole in the ground is investigated and it is remembered by the scholarly types that this might be a spot that the High elves put a cap stone to stop excessive magic from leaking into the world. But its missing and there is no vortex. Alex and Stiglow scout the area and find that there are no traces of anything living (birds, rodents, etc…) in the area. Even the small creatures avoid this place. Something is defiantly not right.

The group heads back to town, arriving just before dinner. Eva also gets back at this time.

Alex goes back to the temple and reports their findings to Magnus. He asks if there is anyone in town that might be able to help with the translations. Magnus says to try either Professor Kopfchen who most go to for help with writing and translations or Spitz the jailer who reads anything he can get his hands on.

Galstaf goes and talks to Spitz who agrees to take a look. Stiglow and Alex go to talk to the professor who also agrees to take a look but for a fee.

Dwalim changes into his nice cloths and plays host to folks arriving for dinner.
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Reyna and Eva go to the Thunderwater. Its packed with farmers with money to spend. Sitting in his chair by the fire is Franz Bieber the hunter. The Elves approach and Reyna tries to warm up to him by buying him a drink. He scowls at them until Eva who was bringing the drinks is bumped and spills beer all over herself. This makes Franz laugh and he agrees to hear them out.

The elves manage to hire Franz to lead them into the swamps to find the beastmen. They will pay him two gold (one gold up front and the other after the job).
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After dinner at the stewpot Dwalim starts up some games of dice and cards and does very well but he is accused of cheating and the accuser is forced to leave by Stiglow’s bouncers. The days profit for the stewpot is fifty silver.

Galstaf, Stiglow, and Alex decide to go check out the Thunderwater.

Session 10- Guess who’s back….

The players-
Dwalim Silverbeard- Dwarf Student/Gambler
Reyna- Wood Elf Mystic/Investigator
Eva- Wood Elf Wardancer
Galstaf- Human Apprentice/Acolite of the Light order
Stiglow- Human initiate of Ronald
Alex Blackmoon- Human initiate of Sigmar

At the Thunderwater the elves finish up talking to Franz the hunter as Stiglow, Alex, and Galstaf walk in. As they look around the packed bar Stiglow and Galstaf are both struck with inspiration. Galstaf thinks on some of the conversation he had with the jailer and figures out more in his studies to be a wizard. He is now an Acolite. Stiglow decides he is going to pay a visit to the Burgermeiser’s mansion.

Alex had wanted to spend some time talking with Stiglow but looses him in the crowded tavern. Alex looks around and spots an older Britonian gambler sitting at one of the gaming tables running a game of cards. Alex joins the game and talks to the gambler a bit. He got caught in town by the storm as well and has some interest in joining the group when they travels back to Ubersrich.

The two elves approach Edwardo the drunkin Tilian (Spanish) swordsman. They offer him a hot meal and a room for the night is he is willing to join the beastmen hunt. He readily agrees.
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Stiglow moves quickly through the rain to the mansion. He finds an open window in the back and slips through. He quietly wanders the halls and finds the burgermeisers office. On his desk is a worn picture in a small frame of a woman. Everything else in the room has a layer of dust. In the desk Stiglow finds a seal of office, which he pockets, and behind a painting on the wall finds a dwarf made safe. He manages to pick the lock and finds a ledger that hasn’t been written in for a while and twenty gold pieces. Stiglow cleans out the safe and the leaves the mansion.

The next morning Dwalim awakes with a strong feeling that he is forgetting something important but can’t think of what it is.

Galstaf cooks a fine breakfast and then Reyna, Dwalim, Galstaf, and Alex go to watch the trial of the Holtz family. Dwalim briefly tries to talk the group into asking for a stay of execution to get more information out of them but is talked out of it. The trial goes quickly and the family is found guilty.

The prisoners are led west out of town and hung from a large tree next to some cattle thieves that had been hung days before.

During the trial Eva goes to the tanners and picks up the fancy leather cloak she had ordered the first day the group had arrived in town. She presents the gift to Reyna once they get back from the trial.

Stiglow also goes to the tanners and orders some custom padded leather shirts for his bouncers.

At noon the people the group had recruited, Edwardo the swordsman, Franz the hunter, and two off duty watchmen, all showed up.

Eva explains that she has a way for them to find the camp and how to get in. She has a contact she met by threatening Marie Holtz. Marie had a beastman son and he is the brey shaman of the beastmen herd. He is willing to help as he doesn’t want the herd to go on the war path against the town. The Wargor leader gets most of his power over the herd from a large marble stone he found and is getting more and more bold because of it. The stone has a strange way of attracting lightning. If the group is willing to steal the stone and maybe kill the wargor he is willing to help them do it.

The group discusses how to get the heavy stone out of the swamp. They decide to bring the cart as near to the beastmen camp as possible. Stiglow goes back to the tanners and gets a strip of leather and secures them between two poles so they can do a two man stretcher carry with the stone.

The group travels out of town and down to the hag tree. Foaldeath walks out of the shadows and greats the group. Everyone is able to hold back the reaction to attack him on sight.

With the help of Foaldeath and Franz the trek through the swamp goes smoothly.

As the group gets closer they split up into two groups. The first group consisting of Eva, Galstaf, Alex, Edwardo, and the two watchmen, go to one side of the camp and prepare to be the distraction. The second group consisting of Stiglow, Dwalim, and Franz go to the other side and wait for the distraction as they will run in and try and steal the lightning stone.

As the groups approach from opposite sides Foaldeath pauses and says “Something’s wrong, there shouldn’t be a gathering.” The rest of the group pauses and hears drums pounding over the rain. As they get closer they see the light of many fires in the clearing where the camp is.

The groups sneak closer and see that the camp is full of many beastmen and the clearing is littered with camp fires crackling and steaming in the rain. In the center of the clearing are large rocks covered in symbols of chaos. Tied with rope to one of the rocks is a marble stone, lighting streaks down and hits the stone, quickly followed by the crack of thunder. The stone is what is attracting the lightning.

Next to the stone is a huge beastman. Obviously the leader the wargor towers over all the other beastmen. Next to him is the twisted shape of the demon that was summoned on the roof of the hunting lodge. The wargor is giving a speech to his troops, riling them up into a bloodthirsty frenzy.

As the two groups watch, the demon suddenly stands up straighter, like it has noticed something. The mutated blob of flesh raises its arms to the sky and brings them quickly down. Every campfire in the clearing explodes with huge gouts of flame. Many beastmen are caught on fire and some few that were too close are just blown apart.

Galstaf frowns “Did that thing just help us?” He wondered out loud. “Either way its mine.”

Galstaf casts a spell and he starts to glow with a very intense bright light. Both groups rush forward and battle is joined.

Eva charges into the closest group of beastmen and spins into a whirlwind dance of death. When she pauses all of them lay dead with most in pieces

The wargor looks around the confusion of the camp. He spots Alex charging towards him. The wargor bellows a challenge and charges with his head down. The wargor and Alex’s heads meet with a crack and Alex flies back his head split and unconscious.

Galstaf moves with purpose towards the pink horror demon but it sheds away and runs from the light eminating from the wizard.

On the other side of the camp Stiglow, Dwalim, and Franz run towards the lightning stone. A group of beastmen run to intercept them but Dwalim fires his blunderbuss and the beastmen are torn apart by the flying buckshot.

Foaldeath walks through the camp and adds to the confusion by giving contradictory orders to groups of beastmen and inciting other groups attack each other.

Edwardo and the watchmen take on another group of bestmen killing a few but Edwardo is injured. Eva joins their fight adding even more to her body count.

Stiglow, Dwalim, and Franz make it to the rock. Lightning crashes into the stone shakeing them a bit. The storm worsens as if to match the struggle below. Stiglow starts to feel the effects of the rain and is feeling under the weather. Stiglow holds his cloak out to protect Dwalim from some of the rain as he reloads his blunderbuss.

Galstaf catches up to the demon and pulls it into a test of wills as he tries to exorcize it. The demon barely puts up a fight and with a small amount of effort Galstaf succeeds and with a wail the demon disappears back to where it came from in a puff of pink smoke.

Eva, the two watchmen, and Edwardo surround the group of beastmen near them and kill a bunch more.

Dwalim, Stiglow, and Franz get the stone cut down and onto the leather stretcher.

Galstaf quickcasts another spell and bright beams of light blast from his eyes and burns into the wargors side. All this seems to do is blind the beast and piss it off.

Eva is hit by a lucky strike and almost falls but she hangs on. With the help of Edwardo and the Watchmen they finish off the beastmen near them.

The wargor bellows in frustration of its blindness and charges wildly at Galstaf. He hits Galstaf with a strong glancing blow but Galstaf stays standing.

Another group of beastmen charge at the group carrying the stone but Dwalim blasts them with his blunderbuss. They now have a clear path to run into the marsh and back to the cart where Reyna is waiting.

Galstaf takes a step back remembering the hit that almost killed Eva from the last wargor. He throws a desparite magic dart and manages to kill the wargor. All the beastmen that see their leader fall turn on each other in hopes of becoming the new leader

Eva, Edwardo, and the two watchmen rush over and pick up Alex where he lays still knocked out. They are joined by Galstaf and the all of them run for the marsh and safety.

As they travel back to town Galstaf wraps Alex’s head wound and gets him to wake up.

“It wasn’t gracefull,” says Galstaf to Alex, “but you distracted the bastard long enough for me to get to him. We succeeded, and we all lived.”

Lightning crashes around them as they make it back to town.

Once in town the group decides to leave the stone at Sigmar’s temple for safe keeping for now.

Everyone is exhausted and some are hurting pretty bad so everyone goes to their rooms to rest.

At around four in the morning all are woken by a strange pounding at the front door of the inn. Stiglow stumbles down and opens the door. On the step, with the noose still around her kneck, is a very dead but still walking Marie Holtz. And more shapes move in the rain behind her.

Session 11- Getting down with the sickness

The players-
Eva- Wood Elf Wardancer
Galstaf- Human Apprentice/Acolite of the Light order
Stiglow- Human initiate of Ronald
Alex Blackmoon- Human initiate of Sigmar

Stiglow slams the door shut in the undead woman’s face.

“We’ve got zombies!” he yells.

Eva, Galstaf, and Alex stumble downstairs still blurry eyed from being rudely awoken. The zombies pound and shove at the door.

The four figure out a simple plan and stand in a half circle around the door weapons at the ready. Galstaf stands on a table to get a better view to cast spells.

Stiglow opens the door and the zombies shamble forward. Before the zombie that used to be Marie Holtz gets more then a step, Galstaf casts a spell and a beam of light pours from his eyes hitting the zombie in the face with such force that its head detonates. The headless body falls to the side and the rest of the zombies step over her and into the room.

Two zombies go for Eva but she quickly cuts them to pieces in a whirlwind of blades. The third zombie goes after Galstaf and rakes him across the chest with its dirty nails. The last zombie shambles towards Alex. Alex and Stiglow try to bring it down but its Eva that finally ends its un-life.

As the four are catching their breaths from the quick fight they hear yelling from outside. They look through the open door and see Professor Kopfchen in a purple night shirt running down the street with the skeleton that used to hang in his front office now alive and chasing him.

Galstaf jumps down off the table steps outside and casts a magic dart at the skeleton. It hits and the skeleton collapses into a pile of bones.

Lights come on in windows around the area. Some town watchmen arrive. Stiglow explains what happened while Galstaf offers a drink to the Professor who readily agrees. The watchmen split up to check on how the zombies got into town and to go get Captain Kessler.

Eva goes up to check on Reyna who is feeling very under the weather from the events last night. Eva promises to find something to make her feel better. Dwalim’s door is shut and snoring is heard from inside his room.

Captain Kessler shows up and talks to Stiglow. He says that there haven’t been undead in this area since the vampire invasion one hundred years ago. But they did find a necromancer in town about a year ago. The Captain tells the story.

“Lazarus Mourn was a strange man but he always kept to himself. One night at the Thunderwater he got well into his drink and started boasting about his experiments. The boys behind the bar got concerned and sent a beerwench to get the watch. Mourn realized his mistake and ran out of the tavern.
Burgermeister Adler, Lector Gottschalk, a couple of my boys from the watch, and I went to his house to ask him about what he said. We found him on the floor of his house unconscious. We couldn’t wake him though. We searched his place top to bottom. In the basement we found that he had set up some sort of laboratory. It was filled with all sorts of unholy nastiness.
We brought Lazarus to Dr Schneider to see if he could get him to wake but nothing worked. We still put him on trial though. Two of my boys held him up while Adler passed sentence. Quickest trial we’ve ever had.
We took him out by the hanging tree and burned him and all of his things. Most of the town was out there to watch. We were all a bit disappointed that he never woke up to scream, the bastard. But as he burned the clouds parted and it stopped raining for a little while. Like the gods were pleased that he was gone.”

As the captain talks a man walks down the street towards them. He is very dirty and unwashed. He has animal **** up to his elbows. He reaches down and picks up a pile of horse dropping with his bare hands.

The captain calls him over by name. “Waltrout! Get your cart, we need to get these bodies out to be burned.”

Waltrout bobs his head stupidly and runs off. He returns a little while later with a two wheeled cart that he loads the bodies into.

Stiglow decides to go with Waltrout out of town to make sure the bodies are disposed of properly. At the west gate they find some watchmen who had just cut down two of their own. Apparently the zombies had caught the men at the gate by surprise and had killed them. They had come back as zombies themselves. They added the bodies to the pile on the cart and go out to the hanging tree. They build a large fire pit next to the hanging tree. They throw the bodies in and watch them burn.
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Alex and Galstaf Decide to go check out Lazarus’s old house. It’s completely empty and for sale but no one wants it for obvious reasons. They do a thorough search but don’t find anything. They go back to the Stewpot.
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Eva and Galstaf decide to wait around at the stewpot for Dr Schneider’s office to open so they can purchase healing draughts as most in the party are still suffering from injuries,
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Alex goes to talk to Lector Magnus and see what he thinks about the zombies but it is still to early and the Lector isn’t awake yet. Alex decides to wait.
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After the bodies are burned to Stiglows satisfaction he goes to try and visit garden of Morr. At the edge of the river is a bell to call the priest of Morr to bring the boat across. He rings the bell but the Priest doesn’t show up.
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The sun finally comes up. There are a bunch of people waiting for breakfast. Also Captain Kessler, the celestial wizard Schuleman, a young messenger, and Waltrout all wanting to talk to people in the group. Galstaf is the only one around to talk to them. It take him a minute to get them to speak one at a time.

The messenger has a note for Alex. Galstaf sends him to the temple of Sigmar.

Schuleman wants to look at the lightning stone that was brought back from the beastmen camp. Galstaf sends him to the temple as well.

Waltrout is here to muck out the stables, Galstaf hands him a copper and says go to it.

Captain Kessler says that the Burgermeister heard about them and wants to talk about a job he has for the group. Galstaf tells him he will gather whom he can and meet the captain in front of the mansion in an hour or so. The captain agrees and leaves.
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The young messanger finds Alex at the temple and hands him the note. The message is from the Britonian he played cards with a night ago.

Dear Alex,

My name is Phillepe. We met the other night over a game of cards. I heard of your exploits with the beastmen and I am impressed. While I make my way in the world through gambling I am on a quest that has led me to this place. I fear there is a Nergal worshiper in this town and could use your help to take down the diseased fiend. I am at the Thunderwater. At your earliest convenience please come down and I will explain.

Thank you for your time,
Phillepe

Lector Magnus appears out of his room and Alex tells him everything including the letter. Magnus advises going after the cultist first as a single disease could wipe out the whole town.
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Galstaf and Eva go to Dr Schneider office to buy healing draughts.

Alex goes out to meet up with Stiglow he tells him about the note from the Britonian. They give up waiting for boat and head back to the stewpot.

Galstaf, Eva, Alex, and Stiglow decide to go meet up with Captain Kessler and find out what the burgermeister wants.

They go out to the Burgermeister’s mansion and meet the captain on the steps.

“I was pretty surprised Adler sent for me,” says Kellser, “He hasn’t come out of his rooms since that young lass committed suicide. Morr bless her. He wants a task performed and I think you all are the best for the job. Follow me and he will explain.”

Captain Kessler leads the four into the mansion, up to the second floor, and into his office. Adler is sitting in a red leather chair behind a desk that obviously hasn’t been used in a while. Behind him is a large portrait of the emperor. He holds a small framed portrait of a pretty young woman in a blue dress.

“My dear Madriga,” says Adler, “She was buried in that dress.”

Adler puts the portrait down with care and looks up at the group.

“Last night she came to me in a dream. Her flesh hung off her bones, her dress torn, and she clutched a silver pendant in her skeletal hand. It was my last gift to her. Save me. She said. I woke shivering and haven’t slept since.”

Adler asks the group to go to the garden of Morr and talk to the priest. He is an expert in thing like this. He would send one of the watch but apparently there might be an undead invasion at any moment. He offers some coin for their trouble. The group agrees.

Adler turns and pulls the portrait of the emperor away from the wall and opens the safe behind it. He looks inside and then feels around in confusion.

“It appears that my accounting is a little behind.” Says Adler. “ I can send you your payment this afternoon once I find where my money is.”

He then sits back down, picks up Madriga’s portrait and stares at it. Captain Kessler escorts the group out of the room.

Before going back downstairs Kessler stops them in the hallway.
He tells the group a bit more of what’s going on.

“This is food for town gossip and potential cause for trouble I don’t need but you should know this. Madriga’s tale is even more tragic then you know. She was Sebastian Brenner’s (the owner of the Thunderwater) wife. She was seeing Adler in secret as Sebastian didn’t treat her well and has a bad temper. Months before her death she started going crazy. She had horrible nightmares, would attack people for no reason, and got into very loud public arguments with Sebastian. Then she jumped in the well and here we are. Now everyone knows about her going crazy but only I and now you know about her affair. I ask that you keep it that way as a favor to me.”

The group agrees to keep silent on the matter. They head back to the Stewpot.

Since they haven’t been paid yet to check out the garden of Morr, Alex, Galstaf, and Eva decide to go and talk with the Britonian at the Thunderwater. Stiglow decides to stay at the Stewpot and watch after Dwalim and Reyna.

He is waiting for them when they get there. He tells his story-

“Thank you for talking to me.” He says in a thick accent. “I’m a gambler by trade but my quest is personal. A Nergal cultist named Doctor Foustis killed members of my family and I want revenge. Its worth it to rid the world of this foul man but my motive is revenge. I have intercepted a letter to one of his students in this town but I’m not sure who it is. I suspect its either Professor Kopfchen, Dr Schneider, or the local medicine woman. Though it probably not the medicine woman as she is local but she has the skill to make all kinds of potions. I’m not a fighter so I need the help of a strong arm in case the cultist decides to fight.”

The group agrees seeing the problems a Nergal cultist could cause the town. Galstaf looks around and sees Professor Kopfchen sitting at the bar and very drunk. After talking to him for a bit he is convinced that the professor is not the guy and goes back to the table.

The three come up with a plan to get Dr Schneider and his assistant out of his office so one of them can look around.

Eva and Alex go to the temple of Sigmar and tell Lector Magnus the plan. They send a messenger with a note that Magnus would like to talk to him and his assistant at the temple.

Galstaf watches Dr Schneider’s place. The Dr leaves towards the temple but his assistant stays in the shop.

Galstaf sneaks around to the back of the shop. He manages to pick the lock and peek inside. Its to dar to see anything so he casts a cantrip to raise the light level slightly to see better. He sees a room full of chemistry equipment and a cage in the far corner. In the cage is a very dead Mak’keg. Half of his flesh has melted off and the bits still on his bones are covered in boils and infected sores.

Galstaf lets go of the cantrip and closes the door quietly.


Dr Schneider shows up at the temple. Alex confronts him whit direct questions as Eva circles around to get between him and the door. The Doctor back away from Alex with his hand in his pocket. He bumps into Eva and drops a glass flask from his pocket. The flask shatters sending up a cloud of noxious green gas.

Alex immediately feels affected by the gas and starts to feel ill, but Eva holds strong and is only blinded. The Doctor tries to run by Eva but she catches his cloak. His momentum pulls them both outside where they run into Phillepe who is standing outside.

Phillepe grabs the doctor and leads him towards the Thunderwater saying they are going to have a long chat. Eva and Alex run towards the doctors shop.

At the shop Galstaf walks around to the front of the shop and walks inside. The doctors assistant looks up at him and smiles.

“Can I help you?” she asks sweetly.

Galstaf backs out of the shop and starts casting a spell. She walks towards him and starts to change. The skin of her face starts to slide off and under her shirt something bursts open and yellow fluid leaks into her cloths.

She swipes at him with a hand that is now covered in boils but misses. Galstaf takes her down with a magic dart. She crumples in a liquidish mess.

Eva and Alex arrive just after she falls. The three look through the front area of the shop. Galstaf finds another health drought and pockets it.

They find a bunch of notes describing Mak’keg slow death in great detail. And a letter-

Dr Schneider,

Congratulations on your latest success. I have sent one of your samples to another student of mine in Hugeldal for more testing. Your notes involving the dwarf were very interesting. Keep up the good work.

Dr. F

The three Check out the back of the shop but leave after Galstaf starts feeling ill. They head back to the Stewpot.

Good stuff, I like the way you worked a mystery into Stromdorf foreshadowing Hugeldal.

Rob