Inserting a published adventure into an ongoing campaign always requires some changes. I thought to may be interesting to present a brief summary of changes I made to Edge of Night to make it fit into my campaign. This will be followed by an account of what happens.

Party Background.
My party started in Bogenhafen as the retired members of a militia (the 9th company of the Bogenhafen Irregulars). In their first mini-campaign they discovered that a noble family, the Adelhofs, were trying to kill them. They left Bogenhafen and ended up in Stromdorf where much fighting of bad things occurred. They now have around 17 advances.

The party consists of an Agent (ex Burgher), a Charlatan (ex gambler), a mercenary (ex rat catcher), and a student (ex barber surgeon). In Ubersreik they are joined by a watchman and a smuggler. The mercenary is a dwarf, everyone else is human.

Changes to the Background
Nobles: I kept all of the nobles families used in EON and added the Adelhofs, the family that are the PC’s nemesis. I decided that the Adelhofs would be keeping a low profile initial and they and the party would only come into contact if they party searched for them or drew attention to themselves.

The Town: I planned to use the Monster of Oggasse handout from the Winds of Magic so I created the Oggasse district in Ubersreik, complete with crumbling watchtower etc.

Pacing: There are a lot of NPCs in The Edge of Night. To give the players a chance to lean aenough about them (or even remember their names) I wanted to give ample opportunity to engage with the town as a whole during the run up to the Masquerade. the better the players know the setting and the NPC the better they will be able to roleplay. Therefore I decided to place the Masquerade approximately 2 weeks after the PCs arrive in the town.

The Masquerade:
The plan is to use the Masquerade as written. However, I thought that having Baron Holzenauer hosting a masquerade ball was a bit of an odd choice for a military man. To make this seem a more sensible choice I had two other noble families organise military themed events. Effectively they beat the Holzenauer’s to the punch and force them to adopt a non military Event to win favours.

Firstly the Aschaffenbergs organise a open tournament featuring single combat, horse trials, archery, wrestling and a grand melee. The prize money is small by noble standards but enough to get most of the population excited.

In response to this Margrave Reinhart von Mackesen declares that the open tournament is an insult to fighting men and announces a sortie into the Grey Mountains to go hunting greenskins.

Other Background Events:
The Skaven have infiltrated the City as in EON. However I decided to make this infiltration on a larger scale. I drew a new map of the city and added a few new districts. One of these is locked up because of an outbreak of the plague. The only people allowed in or out are Corpse Handlers.

The Skaven infiltration has been made easier by a warpstone smuggling crime lord called Fabian Tallowman.

The Adelhof search for the Von Danken “monster”. The noble family that are trying to kill the PCs have a great interest in dark magics and science. This stems from a marriage between the Adelhof’s and a old Ubersreik family called Von Danken. The Von Danken’s were cursed with premature aging and in desperation were driven to heretical experiments to try and stop their children dying early deaths. The were eventually killed by witch hunters but not before one of them turned their own son in to a Frankenstein type monster. A sole member of the Von Danken family survived the witch hunter apocalypse by marrying into the Adelhof family and taking their family name. This was two hundred years ago but the legacy of their actions still stalks the streets of Ubersreik.

The Butcher of Bogenhafen. One of the PCs is a serial killer known as the butcher of Bogenhafen. He kills when he has been away from violence for any length of time. Stromdorf largely escaped his attentions given the violent nature of The Gathering Storm but peaceful Ubersreik could be in for a shock. The rest of the players don’t know that one of their group is a killer. In Bogenhafen they managed to get two agents of the Adelhof family, Konrad and Dankmar, arrested and charged with being the butcher.

Into this melting pot walk the player characters.

NB: I had previously run The Gathering Storm by the book as an experiment. It was the first time I had run a published adventure for about 10 years and it did not go down too well. The campaign as enjoyable but players became frustrated by the linear nature of the adventure and the fact that it played havoc with my usual style of GMing (which is a low prep, free wheeling, character led, seat of the pants type thing). The real eye opener for me was that it was taking me longer to prepare for a published adventure than it was to create my own. Therefore for the Edge of Night I read through the published adventure and then mainly used it for the inspiration and a framework for the more freeform adventure that would develop out of the characters actions.

Session 1: Lots of roleplaying and investigation and the start of a fight.

The first session was aimed at introducing the new players / characters as well as letting people get to know some of the people of Ubersreik.

Day 1 in Ubersreik

Andre Betz (human agent) Baldrick Stalh (dwarf bounty hunter), Eomund Riese (Human Charlatan), and Osric Teufelfeur (human student), Elvira Adelhof (human thief, ex renegade Noble) and friends arrive in Ubersreik after journeying south from Stromdorf. They discover it to be a large well fortified town with a tense atmosphere. They had previously been hired by the Bogenhafen merchants guild (as part of The Gathering Storm) so the first place they head to is the merchants guild to collect payment.

At the merchants guild they are paid and introduced to Dirk KerSteffan, a sometime watchmen, who was in the process of being hired to track down a missing baker.

They also meet Aldric Krestan (a smuggler) who has travelled from Bogenhafen to meet the party and pass on the news that the Butcher of Bogenhafen has escaped. There have been no more killings in Bogenhafen since the characters left and it is believed that the butcher is on their path. Aldric is fleeing a vengeful customer in Bogenhafen so he is keen to stay in Ubersreik.

The head of the guild, Alfred Karstadt, explains that Burgomeister Adler of Stromdorf (who was once a successful merchant in Ubersreik) had sent several messages detailing the heroic actions of the party in Stromdorf. These were read by several people in the guild including his young and attractive secretary Mabel Hofstetter. Mabel seemed rather taken by these stories and it seems that this led a young baker named Bertrand Steinberg, who was known to have a crush on the girl, to try and do something heroic in an attempt to get her attention. Bertrand has unfortunately gone missing and the Guild is worried he has gotten in over his head.

Given their previous record in Stromdorf Alfred agrees to hire the whole party, for 10 silvers each a day, to try and locate the missing baker.

After speaking to Mabel the PCs learn that Bertand did not have many friends, although he had been a member of the militia a few years ago, and that his business was being successful due the number of nobles in the town. They also learn that he lives above his shop, his parent lives out of town and the apothecary in the neighbouring shop holds a key to the bakery.

They learn that the reason that there is a large number of nobles in the town is that there is talk that the town is about to have its 'Freidstadt' status removed and the control of the town taken from the town council and handed over to a noble family. The nobles are in town trying to compete for attention and prove that they are worthy of the role.

The PCs go speak to the Apothecary and look around the bakery. They find out that the last time the apothecary, Helga Drauwulf, saw him he was hitting a pumpkin, mounted on top of a pole, in his yard with a stick. They confirm that his fancy pastries and sugar craft work are very popular with the nobles that have come to town. In Bertrand's quarters above the shop they find a poster advertising a reward of 20 silver for the death of the Monster of Oggasse. It was clear from the prices that he was charging for fancy pastries that the reward on offer was not the motivation for whatever he was doing. They also found out that Bertrand had taken the shops money and purchased a high quality custom made warhammer from a nearby dwarven smith named Grimgrond.

They also found out that one district of the city was also locked up due to an outbreak of the plague.

By studying the heraldic designs on some of the sugar craft it was possible to determine some of the nobles which were in the city - these were Margrave Reinhart von Mackesen (ruler of Helmgart), Graf Siegfried von Saponatheim (ruler of Bogenhafen) and Baron Gerhart Adelhof (elder brother of Elvira Adelhof and son of the man that has been trying to kill the Bogenhafen Irregulars). On seeing the last of these designs Elvira (and every other player character not represented by a player at the table) goes into hiding.

The Oggasse district is one of the worst slums in Ubersreik. It is home to the trades that no one wants to live near - the tanneries, slaughterhouses etc. Talking to Captain Steik of the watch they learn that the 'Monster of Oggasse' is not really thought to be real and is just a thing the local blame bad events on. They find out that a women had been killed the night before and somehow Osric manages to convince the watch that he should be allowed to examine the body.

Speaking to the districts beggars they find out that Bertrand had been in the district and asking questions about the Monster of Oggasse. They get a lead that one of the Beggars directed him to the old Clocktower.

Osric make a ridiculous roll and finds out that the girl was clubbed unconscious, by a right handed assailant, before she was cut open and several internal organs removed.

The party gather together with their collected information and decide to investigate the Clocktower. By now it is night time and they notice that the chaos moon Morrslieb is in the sky (and according to Dirk has been for several days).

The clocktower is a tall crooked construction in one of the squares in the Oggasse district. It is boarded up but Baldrick's nameless dog seems to think Bertrand had been here and also followed a trail to a high wall adjacent to the square. They broke in and searched the tower, finding that the for floors were set up as bedrooms, kitchen etc. They also found a trapdoor on the lower floor and evidence that that Bertrand had been in the tower and spent a fair amount of time looking out of a particular window. Out of that window they could see into the back yard of a slaughterhouse where, in the middle of the night, three men in full leather aprons and hoods, were killing goats. Once the goats were killed they were being gutted and something metallic was being removed from them (this was visible via Eomunds Telescope).

Baldrick and his dog decided to gain entrance to the slaughter yard via the sewers. The others left the square and found the entrance.

Eomund and Aldric discreetly broke in to the yard and, along with Osric and Dirk they slunk around the side of the building before stepping out and demanding that the slaughtermen stop their work in the name of the Watch. The men turned and froze. At this point a crazy dwarf with a battle axe and a dog sprung up through a gully in the centre of the yard and took off one of the slaughtermen’s legs whilst his dog took a bite out of another one. All hell broke loose.

And that it where we left it.

so - better experience than running AGS by the book?

Yes. For both me and the players. Less prep work for me (and less concern that something I made up would contradict something that was important in the book) and more fun and freedom for my players. I think they enjoy the fact that whilst they know there is a plot laid out for them they also no hey can ignore it if they so wish.

Very nice set of events by noble families etc.

Don't know if you're running it that way, but it creates a near "mini-campaign" if heroes get involved in all of them.

I ran Gathering Storm with more empahasis on initial murder mystery, changing master villain and letting players choose their approaches etc. I think the box works best if you use the location and various brewing events more as a sandbox and play up the interests of townpeople etc.

Session 2: A Fight followed by lots of investigation

Day 1 in Ubersreik (Continued)

Of the two slaughtermen left standing one attacked Eomound (Charlatan) whilst the other made a run for the warehouse door. The one who remained in the yard wounded Eomound before being pinned to the floor with a arrow and pummelled into unconsciousness by Dirk (watchman) and Aldrich (smuggler). Those who were observant noticed that the blood pouring out of the wound in his foot fizzed slightly under the light of Morrslieb.

Osric (student) moved around to cover the exit whilst Andre (agent) chased the fleeing man into the warehouse and did a spectacularly good job of convincing him to give in.

The warehouse was full of hanging carcasses and from behind one of these a man stepped out and failed to stab Andre. The would be assassin was quickly taken out.

A big fat, previously unseen, man made a break out of the front door only to get a crossbow bolt in the neck. The blood spewed over Osric who picked up a temporary insanity from the effect. He was still good enough to use his barber surgeon skills to save the mans life. During the work to save him he noticed that the man was a mutant.

In the building the party discovered the unconscious and mostly insane Bertrand Steinberg trussed up in a barrel half filled with blood. They also found that the metal objects in the goats were canisters containing Bretonnian Brandy and Spices. Aldrich correctly deduced that this was all part of a smuggling operation. They also found other empty canisters (including some made of lead) and barrels of blood with secret compartments that, in one case, contained 8 bottles of Bretonnian Spirits.

Osric dediced to cut up the goats – having found that they had previously been operated on to insert the canisters. He managed to do with without killing any of them (maybe he should be a vet rather than a Barber Surgeon). Inside them he found some more spirits, spices and two lead tubes containing a single nugget of warpstone each.

The remaining slaughterman, Arnulf Schwalb, was interrogated and can claimed to only be involved as a slaughterman. He said the boss, who wasn’t there, was called Fabian Tallowman, and that Bertrand had attacked them a couple of days before and had been kept for purposes of ransom.

The watch was called and everyone was taken away (the party kept the spirits and the Warpstone).

They then went to Dirk’s Brother’s Inn (The Sword and Staff) and stayed the night.

Day 2 in Ubersreik

They took Bertrand to the merchants guild and tried their best to convince him that the adventuring life style was not for him.

The were paid 10 silver each by Alfred Karstadt. Alfred then asked them to investigate the nobles that have come to the town with the purposes to trying to help the cause of the Town Council remaining in control of the city. He offers a 10 silver a day retainer.

The party split up and spread through the town talking to people. Lots of roleplaying later and they have the following information about some of the nobles:

Baron Manfred Von Holzenauer is a disposed noble from Stirland who has good connections with the military and used to serve in the garrison at Ubersreik as pistollier when he was young.

Graf Siegfried von Saponatheim is making overtures to the merchants guild – attempting to hold Bogenhafen up as an example of a well run town.

Margrave Reinhart von Mackesen wants to be made Lord Warden of the Grey Mountains (he already rules Helmgart which controls Axe Bite Pass in the north).

The Local Von Bruner family recently had a scandal when a hunting lodge, given to the Aschaffenberg family as a wedding gift, was found to harbor a chaos cult. The family has been keeping a low profile ever since. Every month of so there is a protest outside their manor in the Hills (the Hills being a wealthy district in Ubersreik). NB: This party have not played An Eye for an Eye so have no knowledge of the events in that adventure.

Lord Rickard Aschaffenberg has benefited from his association with uncovering the chaos cult at the von Bruner hunting Lodge (it was him that received it as a wedding present). His family has always been local nobility with little power but he is trying to cast himself as a keen sigmarite and defender of the town against chaos.

Osric signed up to the Von Bruner Academy at a cost of 20 Silver a week. He find out that it was original called the Von Dansen Academy but changed its name several generations ago following a scandal involving forbidden knowledge.

Wyverns have been spotted in the nearby Mountains.

The influx of nobles has benefited the town through increase trade and import of luxury goods.

Graf Sigismund von Jungfreud (the ex ruler of the town) has reduced the number of guards he uses to protect the Grey Lady Wall and the merchants guild believe he is sending food from his holdings nearby to other towns rather than the market in Ubersreik. As a result food prices in Ubersreik are increasing whihc is causing stress in the poorer populations.

The imperial army are encamped in the city rather than in the fort Pikes Hold. NB: I decided that the defense of Grey Lady Pass consisted of a wall across the pass that joined two castles. On the north side is Black Rock (home of the Jungfreuds) whilst on the south, attached to the walled city of Ubersreik, is a less impressive castle called Pryke's Hold.

Day 3 in Ubersreik

A daybreak the party traveled to the clock tower in the Oggasse district to investigate the trapdoor they found in the previous session. They find a deep cellar which contains a sleeping quarters for four people, an animal pen and a room full of rotten animal feed, an operating theatre and a weird laboratory type room. This last room had the image of a Reikland Eel biting its tail on the door and was protected by some kind of undead ethereal spirit. They managed to destroy the binding device that kept the spirit to remove it at the price of a single temporary insanity (to Dirk).

And that was where we left it.

Day 3 (continued) - A chase, they capture the monster, lots of investigation, they are hired by a buffoon, rumour gathering continues, and a spot of fighting occurs.

The party continued to explore the underground complex beneath the disused clocktower in the Oggasse District. They found a laboratory full of equipment and jars filled with pickled remains of various creatures, organs and other unidentifiable stuff. They also found a study which had two hidden entrances. One lead into the sewers and the other lead to a hidden stairway that continued up the tower into a room at the top where the clock mechanism was kept.

In this chamber they spotted a grey skinned human(ish) who looked like he had been the subject to many surgical operations. The creature tried to escape by heading out on to the roof. He was chased by a Baldric's dog and Osric shot him with a crossbow. This resulted in him falling off the roof. By means of fantastic agility he managed to slow his decent enough to survive (although the fall killed the market trader that he fell on). Climbing off the broken remains of the market stall he tried to escape, only to be shot again by Osric. Osric was kind enough to then save his life (this is becoming a habit of his) and he was handed over to the watch. A 20 silver reward for the capture of the Monster of Oggasse was paid out. It quickly became clear that the 'monster' could not speak.

Meanwhile within the study a diary of Richoff von Dansen was discovered that detailed some of his research. It made references to a curse on his family that he was trying to cure, an attempt to save his son, the fact that his elder brother had been burnt by witch hunters, the fact that he was running out of money and finally that he hoped that a marriage would help solve his problem.

Tracking the movements of the Monster of Oggasse in the sewers it appears that the creature spent its time raiding various sources of food – such as chicken houses, slaughter houses, bakers and other similar shops. This did not correlate with the reputation of a monster that stalks the streets killing people.

When the party left the watch house they heard news that Lord Rickard Aschaffenberg was holding a tournament (the Hammers of Sigma Tournament) . This was open to all and would feature single combat, wrestling, a horse skill event, archery and finally a grand melee. Each event would have a 5 GP prize. This enough to get the normal, brass tier, citizens of Ubersreik excited but doesn't have the same effect on the gold tier.

Entry is made at the temple of Sigma and costs a donation of 1 silver coin.

The end of the tournament is going to be marked by the trial of a mutant, by combat versus Lord Rickard Aschaffenberg. The parties investigate and discover that the mutant is non other than the big fat mutant that Osric shot in the neck during the raid on the smugglers. The mutant is wounded and half starved and is not likely to put up much of a fight. The party decide to start sneaking him food to build him up for the trial. They also decide the trial would be more interesting if they could drug Lord Aschaffenberg before the trial so he cant fight to well.

The party learn, through Dirk's connections to the military, that Baron Manfred Von Holzenauer is very annoyed because he was apparently planning a similar military event and his rival has beaten him to it.

The party decide that they would like to both enter the tournament and also try and make sure it turns into a farce. Most of the party enter something. As a group they enter the Grand Melee. Dirk and Baldrick both enter the single combat and the wrestling. Aldrich enters the unnamed horse event. Eomound enters the archery. Meanwhile Andre, who doesn't like getting dirty, finds the cities largest vagabond, a man named Marilyn Steiner, and enters him into the wrestling and the single combat.

Day 4:

Dirk KerSteffan was sent a note by someone looking to undermine the Aschaffenbergs. They party agree to meet this party and it quickly became clear that this was Lord Heissman von Bruner. It also became clear that Lord Heissman is not a man used to subterfuge.

Lord Heissman offers each character 2 Gold to orchestrate the ruining of the tournament. Heissman doesn’t want to know how its done as long as it doesn’t involve killing Rickard Aschaffenberg. He wants to make sure that Lord Rickard is embarrassed enough by the events of the tournament that his attempt to gain control of Ubersreik is ended. Despite the fact that their plan to interfere with the trial could result in Aschaffenberg getting killed the party decide that their loyalty lies with the merchant's guild (if it lies with anybody) and that the risk is worth taking.

Lord Heissman also admits that his family stands no chance of gaining control of the city. The lord's agent, Eckel Widmann, pays the party 1 gold coin and a bag of 200 silver.

Osric arranges to give the books and jars of stuff found in the clocktower basement to the Bruner Academy (in return for a season's free tuition and his name being added to the list of supporters of the library).

The party also get hold of a drug that they hope to use on Lord Rickard before his big fight.

Margrave Reinhart von Mackesen announces a sortie into the Grey Mountains to go hunting greenskins. This is time for the same day as the tournament and is a clear snub to the Achaffenbergs. Dirk learns that once again Baron Holzenauer was beaten to the punch as he was planning a rival event. Baron Manfred von Holzenauer announces that he is going along on the sortie. Everyone suspects it is just to avoid the tournament.

Day 5:

The session ended with the party entering the first stages of the tournament. All events other than the Grand Melee involved a qualification stage. Everyone got through the first stage with the exception of Baldrick who was knocked out of the single combat.

As the party wander, bruised but largely successful, from the tournament field the keen eyed amongst them notice a large black carriage, the symbol of two entwined eels wearing crowns painted on the side, pulling away from a vantage point and heading into the town. This is the first time the party have spotted their nemesis, the Adelhof family, since arriving in the city.

And that is where we left it.

Captain Fluffy said:

i'm with you there. i'm a player in the gathering storm atm and it is really very linear in design.

for my homebrewn adventures i also tend to just have overall plot notes and let the rest be freeplay and ideas coming to mind while we play. that way you are also more flexible to the players' totally odd desicions they make

Session 4: More plotting and the start of the Tournament

Day 6 in Ubersreik

The Party are approached by a woman who says she knows the Monster of Oggasse is innocent of the charges against it and want their help to stop him being hanged. She tells them that another women has been killed since they caught the Monster. They refuse to help (my party are not exactly the heroic type!).

Investigating the new killing Osric determines that she was killed in a frenzied knife attack. Unlike the previous victims she had not had any internal organs removed. Osric speaks to Schadrach Burke (Priest of Morr) and finds out that in the last month there have been four women killed with organs removed and in the last week there have been three women killed by simple knife attack. (the knife killings are by one of PC and only started when the group arrive from Stromdorf).

The party watch the killing of the Monster. Dirk feels guilty that an innocent is being killed so he gets someone to pull on the legs of the monster whilst he is being hanged to make it quick. After the event Osric bribes the man who has the job of taking the corpse and burying it outside the city so that he can take it down in the basement of the Clocktower and examine it. He finds out that the surgical scars look old and that the monster appeared to have strange (mutated or inhuman) internal organs. Once he has finished with the corpse he gives it back to the man to be buried.

Baldrick investgates the sewers and find evidence of people moving around down their (particularly on the east side of the river). He also finds a Corpse Handlers outfit which he reports to the watch.

The party find out that a large bunch of zealots have arrive in town, they have made camp in the market square and are protesting about the Von Bruners.

The party bribe the guards who are watching the mutant to make sure he is getting fed so that the final fight between Rickard Aschaffenberg and the mutant is a good one.

The party start large scale rumour mongering generally suggesting that the whole event is rigged, it’s a money making scheme by the Aschaffenbergs, that some people in the Grand Melee will have real weapons etc. This party consists several very strong social characters so manipulating an entire town is well within their capabilities if they put in enough time and money.

Day 7 :
The party find out that the horses for Margrave Reinhart Von Mackesen's hunting party into the mountains are being mustered at the precinct and that the feed for the horses is being supplied by Karl Steiner, head of the Carter’s Guild.

The party buy blunted weapons suitable for use in the Grand Melee.

Osric continues his investigation into the Adelhofs and find out that one of the family joined a College of Magic only to go mad and be sent to a mental asylum.

Rumour mongering continues.

Day 8:

Baldrick and Aldrich get hold of some poison and sneak into the precinct to taint the horse feed that the Margrave's hunting party are taking with them into the mountains. The aim is to make the greenskin hunt a failure as well as they tournament (not that anyone is paying for them to poison the military's horses). They have decided that they are better suited causing trouble in the city and so don't want to go on the hunt so poison seems like a good idea. Lets just hope that nothing happens in the near future that them wish the cities soldier were stuck in the mountains with dead horses! Something like a skaven attack for example.

Eomound convinces the Zealots in the market square to join the Grand Melee and pays for them to do so (plus a bribe because the entry date has passed).

Rumour mongering continues.

Day 9: Day of the tournament.

The Hunting party leave a dawn.

Shortly after the first events start. Some how the PCs (and one hired hobo) do rather well. Members of the party make it to the later stages of the mounted combat, and wrestling, whilst Dirk makes it to the final of the Single Combat and Eomound manages to win the archery.

(I originally had no intention of letting the heroes do well in these events as the 5 gold prize was more money than I usually let my characters get hold of. However when Eomounds player made a 6 purple dice ballistic skill test in the final round I had to give him the prize.)

By mid afternoon the Grand Melee starts. The field is clear and ringed with mortars that fire continuously into the air filling the field with smoke and pretty much deafening everybody.

The braver members of the party enter the Grand Melee. Dirk, Baldrick, Aldrich, Marlyn Steiner and the nameless dog. Given their success in various events in the morning they would probably be considered as among the favourites. However most of the gangs in the melee are at least 10 people strong and some, like the Zealots, have over 40 members.

Meanwhile Eomound, who is preparing to poison Lord Aschaffenberg, is at the market place. It is hear that the final ‘Trial’ will take place. Eomound find that the lord is preparing to enter the fight in the temple of Sigma.

The Grand Melee starts well. For the first 45 minutes or so the party manage to stay out of trouble, successfully dispatching smaller groups and staying out of the way of the larger ones. Dirk spots a group that appears to be exclusively stalking the party. They attempt to avoid them by manoeuvring to keep the larger gangs between them but whilst this works for a while they eventually are caught. As the gang move in toward the party it is obvious that, alongside the legal blunt weapons, they are also carrying daggers.

To run the Melee I created a single 'character' to represent the group. This consisted of attacking ability (based on strength with bonuses for weapon skill training etc), defense ability (based on Toughness with bonuses for resilience, shields and armour), Awareness (based on Intelligence with bonus for observation and leadership), and cohesion (based on Willpower with bonuses for Discipline and Leadership).

In the crowd Andre failed to spot an assassin and is stabbed in the back with a poisoned dagger. Osric is more alert and avoids a dagger in the back.

[Note to self - must write new poison rules as the RAW are neither grim nor perilous]

And that is where we left it.

Session 5 : Basically just a big **** fight.

Day 9 in Ubersreik

A fairly uneventful session as it was mostly a big fight.

In The Grand Melee : Dirk, Aldrich and Marilyn find themselves under attack from 6 men armed with poisonous daggers. It takes a while but eventually they take them all out without any casualties. It appears the assassins brought their poison from the crazy onion lady (a mad apothacary they meet in the first session) because although everyone was stabbed at least once with a poisoned knife no one actually suffered any bad stuff. Note to Self again: really really need to write some new poison rules!!!

By the time they finished with them the only opponents left on the field were 23 zealots (40 zealots had been entered but the group had been reduced as they had attacked the household party of every noble in the Grand Melee). The party decide to discretely leave the leave the field. This saves them from getting a betting and also mean that the crazy zealots win the Grand Melee, the 5 gold prize and a chance to meet Lord Rikard Aschaffenberg when he hands out the prizes.

Meanwhile in the crowd : Andre counter attacks his would be assassin and kills him in a single blow. The rest of the party realise that his constant claim that "I am not a melee character" is a lie and want to know why he wasn't in the Grand Melee. Osric sticks to his typical strategy in a fight and runs away. He eventually leads his attacker around in a loop so they meet up with Andre. Whilst Andre engages the assassin Osric shoots him with a crossbow. Andre then finishes him off. No one keeps an attacker alive for questioning.

Meanwhile in the city : Eomound interrupts a break in at the sword and staff (the Inn where they are staying). Three men were ransacking the rooms occupied by the party. When they are finished they start a fire. Eomound waits until the thieves have left and then goes in to put out the fire. The thieves are seen running into an alley with some stolen stuff (mostly forbidden books on magical stuff that Eomound had collected).

Eomound dressed up in disguise (the reason he was visiting the Inn in the first place) and manages to con his way into the temple of Sigma where Lord Rickard Aschaffenberg is preparing for his trial. Eomound tricks the Lord into drinking drugged brandy before the big event. He then runs back to the Inn to change into something else for the award ceremony.

The prizes were given out in a ceremony on a platform erected in the town square. Eomound collects his 5 gold and starts dreaming of the things he could buy. The zealots take advantage of the ceremony to accuse most of the nobles in the town (particularly the Von Bruners) of being in league with the ruinous powers. They are escorted from the platform by the watch. Then the "Trial" was started.

Under the influence of the drugs Lord Rickard was rubbish and barely able to hit anything (I rolled for him and got the players to roll for the mutant). The fight turned into a festival of incompetence as neither the lord nor the mutant could hit the other with anything like a telling blow. The PCs spread into the crowd and did their best to turn the crowd against the Lord during the fight (without being too open about it). When the mutant was eventually finished off it was very much an anti climax for the crowd.

All in all the character were happy that they had managed to turn the tournament into a enough of a farce to harm the Aschaffenbergs and please the merchants guild. They realised that their second employers (the Von Bruners) would not be happy they they had given the zealots such a public platform (literally in this case) from which to abuse them. However they feel that the fun of having the zealots in zealots in the Grand Melee more than made up for any ill feeling it would generate with their client.

And that us where we left it.

Session 6: Captured by the part's Nemesis

Day 10 in Ubersreik

The party wake in the Sword and Staff to find two messages delivered to them. The first is a request for their presence from the Merchants Guild and the second is a request for a meeting form Eckel Widmann, representative of the Von Bruners.

The party go to the merchants guild were the leader, Alfred Karstadt, complains about the lack of information they have provided to him. He appears keen to end, or at least renegotiate, the contract he has with the party. They explain that rather than just collecting information they are also attempting to directly influence the credibility of the nobles. They pass on the information they have gathered and convince Alfred to increase their payment to 12 silver a day. This is what happens when your party are social monsters. Two characters have fellowships scores of 5, plus several ranks trained in Charm, specializations, a hat full of social action cards and social talents etc. When they chose to turn on the charm they can pretty much get anyone on their side. (This game was run before Lure of Power came out so the rules is that weren't being used).

When they meet up with the representative of the Von Bruner’s they learn that the zealots have formed a camp around the families manor house in the hills. The Von Bruner’s will not pay the money they owe the party until the zealots are removed.

Osric spends more time in researching for indication of who created the Monster of Oggasse (and also looking into the Holzenauers and Stirland).

The party realise that Baldric (the dwarf ex rat catcher turned Mercenary) has gone missing. Dirk and Aldrich goes investigating and find the remains of his sewer map in a sewer. Investigating further they find evidence that he was attacked and captured in a battle in the sewer. A dead body, dressed in a corpse handlers outfit, is at the scene of the fight. They find evidence that the captured dwarf was transported along the sewer in the direction of District of Ostenteil in a cart (another addition to the city I made on my map. It is outside of the city walls alongside the river). Traveling above ground they find the end of the sewer line in Ostenteil but no evidence that the carts came this far. They talk to a local and pay him to report any strange sights he sees.

Meanwhile Andre and Eomound try to disperse the Zealots around the Von Bruner Mansion by spreading rumors of chaos worshipping Adelhofs in the city as well as witches in the Red Moon Inn. During the course of the day they manage to half the number of Zealots laying siege to the manor.

Day 11
The party learn the Baron Manfred Von Holzenauer and his men have returned early from the hunting trip with ill horses. He is complaining that as Margrave Mackensen cannot organise a simple greenskins hunt he could not be trusted with the defence of the town. The Margrave and the rest of the party are apparently still out in the mountains.

The party go into Ostenteil and find where the Corpse Handlers are taking the bodies. This turns out to be a pit about 1 mile out of the city where the bodies are being burnt. Beside a rather lacklustre effort to create a pyre there is no obvious signs of wrongdoing.

Osric goes and speaks to Otto Krupp, head of the physicians guild to further investigate the Monster of Oggasse and also to try and line himself up with an apprenticeship. Otto is keen to see the body of the Monster.

In the evening most of the party (all bar Eomound and Andre) and Otto Krupp go off to the woods to dig up the body of the Monster of Oggasse. They find they were beaten to it and the grave is empty.

Eomound sits by the entrance to the plague quarter to observe the comings and goings of the corpse handlers. He follows one home and talks to him. He finds out there are 8 corpse handlers in the city and that the number of deaths in Krankzert is falling. He pays the man to report anything unusual. I ask him to make a easy resilience check to avoid catching anything from the corpse handler. He fails and finds out that he has caught the Plague. As a character with a toughness of 2 a severity 5 disease could well be the end of him.

Day 12

Baron Von Holzenauer announces that he is going to host a grand masquerade party for the great and the good (sixth session in and the main focus of the publish adventure is finally mentioned!). Half the party decide that they have no interest in going which could be problematic. However the social monsters see this as a fine opportunity to ruin more nobles. The party look into the options for getting invitations. They finally use their connections with the merchants guild to get into the building and steal Alfred Karstadt's invitation. They then find a forgers and pay him 40 silver to make four copies of the invite. They realise they wont be on the 'list' when they walk in but figure they will sort that out closer to the date.

Eomond is offered a job by someone who was impressed by his archery in the Tournament. He is offered good money to kill a captain of a river boat who almost never leaves his boat. Eomound finds a rooftop position close to the river gate and shoots the man from long range as he pilots his craft out of the city. The rudderless boat crashes into the banks of the river half a mile outside of the city gates. Eomound gets paid.

Osric visits the watch and finds out that the person who took the body of the Monster of Oggasse away (following its execution) was not working for them. He decides that if he camps out in the Market Square all day every day then their is a good chance that he will spot the man. I ask him to make a crazy observation roll and somehow he manages this. The man says he was employed by wealthy family and offers to show Osric to the house. Osric agrees and is taken to a house in the Holzgarten district. He is invited in to the house by a servant and showed into a room. He is then quickly surrounded by Konrad, Dankmar and a bunch of well armed Adelhof thugs. They lock him in a prison cell they have built into their basement. However they failed to do a detailed enough search of him and he keeps hold of a few small surgical tools. He uses these to picks the lock of the cell. We ended the session with him creeping out into the cellar.

Session 7: Adventures in recuperation

Day 12 In Ubersreik (continued)

Having broken out of his cell Osric searched the basement of the Adelhof town house. He found a coal storage room, a storage room containing what appeared to be the raw materials, bundles of cloth and leather etc, needed to manufacture corpse handlers outfits, and a room containing boots and something to wash your boots in. He took a delivery note from the bundles of cloth and leather.

He also found an entrance to the sewers. This was looked with a lock that prove more than a match for his lock picking skills. He chose to hide and wait for someone enter the cellar. After a while the door opened from the sewers; Osric sprang past the newcomer, who was dressed as a corpse handler, and ran into the dark sewers.

Osric moved along the sewers in complete darkness but managed to maintain his footing (more lucky dice rolling!). From behind he heard chanting and glimpsed flashes of purple light. The chanting was in a high pitched voice that did not sound particularly human. He sped up and managed to find a storm drain entrance just as a swarm of rats caught up with him. He crawled out of the sewer and ran, pursued by rats, towards the River. As he got to the docks he saw a boat moored by the bank. He leapt towards the boat, hit the side and fell into the water. Luckily he managed to swim to the far bank and, now free of rats, he went to the Sword and Staff. He tells the others his story. The swim has mostly ruined the clue he gained from his search of the basement. The only legible word on the delivery note is “Beaumartin”.

Eomund fails to recover from the Plague and instead develops Morley's Revenge, a severity 4 disease, as well.

Day 13
When Osric woke up he was suffering from Bog Lice. He borrowed some money off Andre and went to see Otto Krupp, the physician. He spent the day in the care of the physician and, rather than being cured of the Bog Lice, developed Flea Buboes.

When the others woke up they heard that there had been another killing in Oggasse. This time the killer had used one of the victim's internal organs to write a message on a wall. The message said..

“Sigma and his followers will burn in the corpse pit of Grey Lady Pass”

With Osric laid up the CSI role fell to Aldrich who investigated the site and determined the killer was barely literate (or possibly just inexperienced in using a spleen as a writing tool). The victim had been a street walker killed by a frenzied knife attack.

Andre used this latest news to try and convince the Zealots to abandon their rage against the Von Bruners and instead try to respond to the threats against Sigma.

It works and the Zealots break the siege of the Von Bruners. Eckel Widdmann is not entirely impressed with the actions of the party in assisting the Von Bruners but after a bit of charm he pays up the 6 gold pieces they were promised.

Eomound goes to the temple of Shallya to try and recover from his diseases. He gives generously but fails to be cured.

Day 14
Osric remains with the physician who manages to cure his Flea Buboes.

Andre charms, and pays, the chief priestess of Shallya, Marianne Altenblum, to use her blessings to cure Eomound. The magic works for Eomound but backfires and the priestess contracts the plague. This is bad news for the Chief Priestess as I had previously ruled that she was the only shallyan in the city powerful enough to cast removed disease. The spell in question can only be used once on each victim so when she fails to remove it from herself latter that day she is forced to rely on her own physical toughness. A few days later she dies.

Aldrich finds out that a rival smuggler from his past, called Reiben Keill is in the city. He investigates the Junderhart Falke (the boat of Reiben) and finds out that although the boat has supposedly been unloaded it is still sitting very deep in the water. He also learns that the mooring fees for the boat have been paid for the next 3 days.

In preparation for the masquerade ball the party looked for masks. They find out that the best shop for such a thing is Madam Beaumartin’s.

Eomound gives a spare invite to the masquerade party to the Prophet of Doom who was the leader of the zealots in the city.

Day 15
Osric is cured of Bog Lice. He talks the physician to take him on as an apprentice (in return for a payment of 20 silver a week).

Eomound and Andre investigate Madam Beaumartin’s high class clothing store. Aldrich investigates Beaumartin’s Uniform Outfitters which is next door.

Eomound and Andre both buy some smart clothes so that they can attend the masquerade ball. Whilst Andre is getting measured (and chatting up one of the serving girls) Eomound explores the living rooms upstairs. He steals a handful of gold and finds out that Madam Beaumartin is not the Bretonnian lady she pretends. However otherwise he decides that she looks innocent.

Aldrich breaks into the workshop next door and finds out that in the store room there are 40 corpse handler outfits. They are all a bit odd in that they do not appear to be made to fit in a conventional fashion. Rather whilst the mask and headgear is proper the rest of the outfit is more like a tent with a few internal ties to strap it around limbs. The office is occupied during the day so Aldrich cannot get to the order book to determine who wants the outfits.

And that was where we left it.

Session 8: Lots of talking followed by a fight

Day 16

In the morning two visitors arrive at the Sword and Staff.

The first is the corpse handler that Eomound had visited. He reports that several corpse handlers have been spotted leaving the plague district with loaded carts but then not delivering the bodies to the plague pits outside the city walls. Eomound paid him 5 silvers and asked him to keep a look out and see where they went.

The second was Wilfried Weber; brother of Lukas Weber, the man that Dirk has asked to keep watch on the sewer exit in Ostenteil. It appears that Lukas heard noises, in the sewer yesterday and went into investigate. He has not been seen since. Dirk payed him 5 silver and told him to go home and report if Lukas came back.

There was a long discussion about which lead to follow and how to proceed but eventually the group then decided it was time to raid the Adelhof town house. The theory was that if they could take out their main threat quickly they could then find out what was going on.

Dirk and Aldrich, believing that the Adelhofs would not recognise them, staked out the house during the day whilst the others shopped.

Around midday a large carriage left the house and heading out of the city along the Bogenhafen Road. Dirk wandered into the gates and spoke to a stable lad who confirmed that Konrad had been in the carriage heading to Bogenhafen. When Dirk got aggressive the boy called Dankmar who chased Dirk off.

Eomound spent all of his winning at the Archery Tournament on a set of dwarf forged armour and Osric replaced some of his missing equipment.

In the middle of the night the party entered the garden of the town house and Aldrich picked the lock on the back door. On the ground floor they entered the one room with a light on (which appeared to be a study / library). Dankmar and Calvin Vogel, the butler, were there; looking like they were expecting company.

A fight immediately broke out. The party got the jump on Dankmar and landed a couple of blows before he almost took Dirk’s leg off. The remaining members of the party took down Calvin before he could draw his handgun.

From behind them three more members of the Adelhof household entered the combat. A young noble shot Eomound in the back and almost killed him. A scholarly looking gent started casting spells and an armed thug tried to fight his way to Dankmar’s side. After a protracted battle they were all taken out.

There was some movement upstairs. Andre, charm monkey that he is, managed to talk a man with a blunderbuss down the stairs; Aldrich then stabbed him to death. Another man tried to climb out of the upstairs windows and flee into street but Dirk shot him in the arse with a stolen gun and kills him. The remaining two servant girls that were hiding upstairs were blindfolded and locked in the prison in the basement. Here the party found the stable boy had also been locked up already.

Aldrich gets a bit CSI and finds the imprint of a letter on the top page of a writing pad. The letter reads something like :-

“Partial success master. The thief lives but we have recovered the book and others that he had collected. The body of the creature and the Von Dansen laboratory are also in our control. The hunt for the archive continues.”

The first part of this message confuses some of the party because Eomound has never owned up to owning a book of the Adelhofs.

The study contained old maps of the city and the areas around it. It appeared that the Adelhofs had been trying to find the “Observatory” which was once outside the town but was now contained within the district known as Krankzert (the district currently locked up due to an outbreak of the plague and into which only corpse handlers are going).

There are also records of dealings with a smuggler called ' FT ' (which they believed to be Fabian Tallowman - This is the name of the smuggler whose ring they broke up at the beginning of the campaign and from who they stole a couple of pieces of warpstone).

Finally there are some records referring to “our unwilling allies” which suggest that the Adelhofs and 'FT' had been coerced into working with a third party. 'FT' appears to be doing it for money, the Adelhofs have been promised information to help their quest.

The party loot the house, throw the bodies into the sewer (using the exit in the basement) and then leave.

And that is where we left it.

got caught up in reading, sounds great, how are your players taking it all in? Meaning, I find mine enjoy investigating but often "fall short" in effort (think one check gossiping around town finds all about X there is to find and move on to some other thread).

My players do have a habit of half investigating lots of different leads rather than properly following up a single one. Partly this is my fault for setting up a situation with dozens of NPCs and lots of different stories. If they had followed up any of the leads that they encountered early on (such as the warpstone smuggler or the clearly dodgy plague district) they would be in a much better position to stop what is going on. As it stands they are slowly putting together a good idea of what is happening but they are quickly running out of time.

They also have a habit of dropping investigations at odd times (just at the point where I think they have found enough information to justify the next move). This has lead to a few strange situations. For example one of the characters went missing on the 9th day in Ubersreik (the player had to drop out of the game). The rest of the characters have only undertaken a pretty superficial investigation into what happened. They found evidence that he had been beaten up in the sewers and then carried on a cart through the sewers away from the town. If they had followed the trail further they would have found out that he had been carried into the plague district. But instead they got close and then just stopped. If the player returns I will have fun trying to determine what he has been doing whilst he has been trapped in the plague district.

It should be noted that some players are more happy than others with a sandbox style adventure. Some people enjoy following plots rather than creating them. I recently ran a short (9 session) campaign that involved two of the players from this campaign. The short campaign started with a dwarf airship crashing deep in the grey mountains and then the story was just about getting back to Karak Azgaraz (the party was 3 dwarfs and a human). For me as a GM this campaign was a bit lacking (basically because I knew what was going to happen over the course of the campaign) but one of the players said they preferred it to the Bad Moon Risen campaign because there was less options and a more straight forward story. So I guess the moral of that story is to mix it up for the players.

Session 9: Into the Plague District

Day 17 in Ubersreik

The party woke up in the Sword and Staff and tended to their injures. Eomound became an Assassin (as you do).

They heard news that the plague had broken out in Holtzgarten.

After some discussion they decided to investigate the Clocktower to see if the Adelhofs had occupied it. The locks had been changed so Aldrich picked the lock and snuck in. The other followed with surprising levels of stealth. Once inside they barged into the operating theatre and swiftly incapacitated 3 men who were in the middle of a detailed dissection of the Monster of Oggasse.

After the fight Osric patched up one of the men well enough to talk. He told the party that the monster had been created by Richoff Von Dansen 140 years ago before he went mad. He said that 'Old Man' Adelhof had sent them here to find the monster and find out how Richoff had managed to do this. He also revealed that he wasn't aware of the raid on the town house the night before.

The party killed the three men, dumped there bodies in the sewers, and looked for a new investigation.

Journeying to Holtzgarten they found that the Von Bruner Academy was under quarantine due to an outbreak of the plague. A rather rude watchman sent them on their way.

Aldrich breaks into the outfitters and steals several sets of corpse handler costume. Dressed like this Dirk, Aldrich and Osric enter the sewers in Ostenteil (referred to from now on as the A team) whisk the risk adverse (or maybe just filth adverse?) duo of Eomound and Andre (the B team) enter the plague district through the front door.

The A team follow the sewer and soon find the body of Lukas Weber. He appeared to have been killed by a combination of claws and blades. They continue until they find an entrance into a warehouse. In here are some more corpse handler outfits and a couple of corpse carts. There is also a basement where they find a lone figure playing with chemicals. They bravely stab him in the back and determine that he was in fact a skaven (shock horror I am sure!) in some kind of skaven haz-mat suit. He was making poison gas grenades. Dirk pocketed two. The A team also found a secret passage into an old section of human made tunnels.

The B team journeyed into Krankzert and and found that he district was largely deserted. Hunting around they swiftly found what they assumed to be the Observatory. The building was largely empty but at the top of the tower they found 2 Skaven (including a horned Grey Seer) and a rat ogre. The seer was studying an Orrery (a contraption that shows movements of the sun and the moons). The representation of Morrsleib featured a large lump of warpstone (which unsurprisingly got Andre and Eomound's attention).

Luckily they were still dressed as corpse handlers and somehow Andre managed to convince them that they worked for the Adelhofs (on a five purple dice "more daunting than daunting" check). In this exchange they learned that the skaven viewed the Adelhofs as servants. The skaven sent them away. Rather than leave they hid in the bottom of the tower and waited until the skaven to leave. They found the base of the tower had been used to store lots of excavation rubble (seemingly from old sewers).

The A-team exited the warehouse and found out that it was in Ostenteil close to the entrance to the plague district. The also determined that the second layer of sewers they found seemed to head towards the area known as the Hills (where the nobles live). They returned back into the original sewer and followed it's route under Krankzert and into Pike's Hold (an army fort on the east side of Grey Lady Pass). Since the outbreak of the plague the fort had been left unmanned. During this time it had clearly been thoroughly ransacked.

The A-team spot the Observatory from their vantage point and rejoin the others. There was some debate about what to do with the Orrery (Dirk bent the arms slightly so it no longer offered a proper model of the moon's movements). Osric determined that it was not part of the original Observatory but was a recent addition.

Before they could make a decision another group entered the building and started up the stairs. Two humans, two skaven and a rat ogre came up the stairs only to be ambushed by a flurry of gun and bow fire as soon as they stepped onto the observation platform. Dirk stepped forward to shoot the rat ogre, the action backfired and that let the ogre move forward and engage him, and almost paid a heavy price when he took another critical. The rat ogre’s companions were quickly dispatched. Dirk managed to shield slam the ogre back to the top of the stairs and a second flurry of arrows sent the huge beast falling down the stairs to his death.

And that is where we left it with the characters standing at the top of a tower in the middle of a skaven control district of the city. They have suddenly realized that the skaven's plans probably involve an attempt to take over the entire city. Will our heroes man up and try and save the city or will they just think of their own skins and leave the city as fast as they can?

I run this game at a club where we use a system of regularly changing games on a rotation system. The upshot of this is that after 9 session this campaign will be on hold until October / November. So there is a couple of months before I find out what the characters want to do. Hopefully they will stay in the city long enough to attend the Masquerade Ball.