While LeBrot is with Mauer at THEE Holy Temple of Sigmar, other Glory Hounds are researching the ritual.

Kastion Von Schweinsteiger (academic physician) goes to Thee Altdorf library where he finds a copy of Hammer of the Gods but it is missing chapter 2 (where the ritual is described in the prof's copy).

<<KVS had made the check vs. the 4 purples to notice that chapter 2 didn't seem accurate to the original text>>

Roderick (agitator/inspectigator outcast) really did well to stay out of trouble and off the radar from the "authorities" to this point. But he has come back to Altdorf were he was outcast from!!! So now he has to change identities and decides on being called "Brian." He who was formerly called Roderick tries some inspectigating of the ritual through the night...

<<note some of the below is from hammerwiki>>

The “Death Magic College” overlooks the infamous haunted Cemetery of Old Altdorf, where tens of thousands were interred in mass graves after the ravages of the Red Plague. The cemetery itself is associated with all manner of foul rumour, and the Amethyst Order's proximity to it is taken by many as proof of the unholy practices.

Most citizens of Altdorf give both the cemetery and Amethyst College a wide berth, leaving the Order to their secrets. The building is dark and sepulchral, shuttered against the light and dimly illuminated at night. Within its silent halls the dust lies thick where it is dragged by the Wind of Shyish from all the ages, bringing with it the stench of eternal decay. Though the citizens of Altdorf are fully aware of this building, none dare approach it for fear of damning their immortal soul forever.

Brian’s mind is stressed just from walking in the door. There is certainly no one that greets him and he wanders up a crooked tower. After disturbing some bats and carrion birds, he convinces himself not to run screaming like a little schoolgirl from this place. Did he half fall half run down the same stair well? Are those actual people meditating in front of him or….shutter….no ghosts aren’t real.

The robed man at the front glares at the inspectigator who now wishes he remained an outcast of this forsaken city. He who was formerly called Roderick tries to quietly copy the meditative position of the person in front of him. Hours go by and somehow all the other meditators have disappeared.

The robed man is tallying up the “body count” from pit fighter prison, the docks, Middenheim and the river. Did Brian tell him about all he has seen or is this guy talking to spirits? Did he just say “tell me more Adele” or “tell me more about Adele.”

“I have been sent here by Luminary Mauer to research a book in your library” Brian interjects bravely. “Would a generous donation of these shillings allow me some time with your texts?”

“Ha ha ha Luminary Mauer now, the wizard who is tending to the Emperor is that the best you can come up with? Be original boy and find out the name of a wizard that not everyone knows. And you should have heard from your classmates that it is ONE GOLD these days!”

Brian wasn’t sure if he was paying the GC to see books or just to get the hell out of here at this point. Down in the cellars where all manner of verminous creatures scurried and squeaked, ‘the Necromancer’ showed him tome after tome and book after book of extremely boring and uninteresting stuff. Nothing was organized and Brian wondered if this guy just really wanted someone to listen to him. “No no no it is ‘UNnecromancer’ we focus on keeping the dead dead. And what book are you looking for? I think Firefist and one of the druids were discussing that one not too long ago. No this isn’t it. Did you check THEE library I know they have a copy. Hmm…not here…AHA!”

The inspectigator had a fleeting thought of ‘all too easy’ but then noticed the title of the book (Last) Rites of the Mortals . “Well it is by Institoris Kramer. I’m sure that after you read it and discuss it with your professor that he will give you the extra credit you need. I’ve never had any complaints you know.” And with that the ‘UNnecromancer’ left Brian locked in the room and said “I’ll be back in a bit don’t go anywhere ha ha ha ha ha.”

So he who was formerly called Roderick read the book. It was an absurdly boring piece that talked about why we humans deserve some of our ceremonies during life but then droned on and on….and on and on about the importance of proper procedures for the deceased. At the end, it nicely laid out a few of the oldest known rituals to ‘keep the dead dead.’ It certainly had nothing as exciting as chapter 2 of the copy of Hammer of the Gods they found on the prof!

<<A couple minor insanities later...Roderick/Brian thinks chapter 2 was written by a different author. The 2 Books had similar "flow" except that chapter of HoTG that Kastion said was suspect. Firefist and the druids were discussing…that must mean something.>>

<<we've been done with the campaign for a while now. start to finish the 3 books lasted ~16 months of 2-3 sessions per month although i did add some stuff. i still want to roll into book 4 but for now sadly the group has disbanded. will try to finish out the write-ups though!>>

The outdoor zoo auction was a carnival with strongman contest (snotling, halfling then wimpy), lots of animals the guys were on edge about getting out of their cages (griffon, bear, lizardmen from southlands etc). Also there was a competition to gain favor from many women.

Pg49 for menagerie ladies...one wanted to participate in the dart throw (the audacity). Clothilde wanted to talk about anything but politics and ALL the ladies wanted to talk (some) about the Menagerie and the Southland auction! One enjoyed the art of the tilean painter. Amalie is a fluzy

Margerete and sister von aschenback (sis was away at college in book 2) wanted to talk about religion and magic.

Gambler jack has to deal with Cloth, Amalie and and Margerite all thinking that it is he and she, and he is being called 3 different names (Jack is "with" Amalie, Alexander is "with" Clothhilde and Reginald is "with" Margarete). This all made for a very interesting social experiment...

Jack/alexander (criminal background) was trying to score favor with multiple ladies by impressive dagger throws and witty banter but then focused in on Clothhilde (his wooing of her was set back immensely). Roderick/Brian (outcast agitator/inspectigator who has returned to altdorf) was working hard on one lady. The elf Lysandir (foreign messenger) was afraid of the ladies and Mace was only interested in following the dastardly plot...

<<Mace's player later said that all the ladies were out of his social class. I said c'mon man I made it clear that the Glory Hounds were famous enough to have a "chance" with any/all the ladies at this party; their heroic efforts in Averheim and Middenheim being common knowledge to those at the auction. He replied "Mace is 'bats for the other team'" lol>>

The bc had to test this theory about opening a portal. The prof working with the bc had thought he learned enough from one of the captured/caged lizardmen shaman. it was now time to give this prisoner what he wanted to do all along - open a portal to the Southlands. Just a "focus" item was needed (the bigger the trinket from the auction, the bigger the portal). The players had a chance to spend a lot of their gold on these items but instead bought rings/jewelry for cloth

A large bird flies through the portal and eats lysandir with swallow whole. Blotzkinwhich (gently born smuggler) is murdered by his brother in the chaos. Katrina mauer is hissing that the "end is nigh."

Mace (battlescarred Highwayman) orders the guards to arrest the prof who he watched pass the egg to the shaman. That it is a funny situation - he is "on the outs" from beerfast bc but still trying to give orders to the soldiers. The guards were there to escort the prof out anyway so they did follow orders

Some more investigation of the middenheim ritual ensued at different magic colleges but they never went to the grey college which is where they could have found the smoking gun that the ritual was disguise magic (they already figured out it was outlawed elf magic being used). At the library they found an ogre scholar who was very upset when he heard about people ripping pages out of books and joined their cause (this was the elf's replacement character Bartlegorp).

it was time for Jack/Alexander/Reginald (criminal gambler/assassin) to choose his epic career and of course he wanted to be a crime lord. This caused a fair bit of tension in the group who weren't sure they wanted to participate in the things he needed to do for ascendancy. He had to find and ally with Karl aka FGross and then kidnap Clothhilds' #2 Karla and he had to murder Ferdinand von Leightdorf.

<<Jack's player is THEE expert min/maxer and I've never seen a character so ridiculous. Every roll I gave him he picked up a fist full of blue and yellow and white and red. Jack had said from book one that he wanted to be the BC and now he was basically doing all the BCs work for him. Other players were uncomfortable. The group agreed they would turn a blind eye for crime lord benefits but Jack has to "lie" to them character to character. The group is now playing on the Emperor's Most Wanted card.>>

Rolling into the 'high paced end of the module' the guys said they had no interest in trying to save an elf - one of them said "I think we would be more likely to kidnap an elf."

Clothilde was no longer interested in Jack romantically but she certainly still wanted him and his merry band to clear the theater for opening. As soon as they left the Crescent moon, the guards came to apprehend them. They had run out of time to use the liber ecstatica to frame one of the major NPCs or to give/sell to get chaos cultist info. Rattadon (dwarf rat-catcher) was beat down in the hotel room but Gary (dog) got away with his magic hammer (from stormdorf) and was dragging it to the glory hounds.

<<the rat catcher dog was so friggin cool. could a little canine jump out a window with a hammer and drag it through the streets to the Empire's Most Wanted Glory Hounds?!?! yeah probably jumped the shark here but wth>>

The Empire's Most Wanted (former Glory Hounds) made quick work of the theatre plots. They solved the murder mystery and when they found the Black Powder they dumped a bunch of alcohol in it to neutralize. They would immediately regret this move because the theater was where the greatswords, the Knights Panther and the City Watch had all come to apprehend them. A siege ensued. They made plans to lure some of the guards into where they had found the spider but they started infighting and things went very badly. They escaped for a couple reasons...first - their new ogre scholar friend Bartlegorp wasn't actually on the wanted poster and some guards simply wanted no piece of an ogre. Second - The Knights Panther had orders to find out where the empires most wanted hideout (find the nest of evil!).

They fleed to the yacht where Eotholir and karla were of course being held captive. The glory hounds that still thought they were "good heroes" let the prisoners go. Good/bad/neutral...all decided it was time to frontal assault the bar that Lt arta was at.

As the yacht goes up in flames back at the docks, Mace LeBrat (battle-scarred highwayman) walked into the bar and demanded an audience with Arta; he had some history with her. The greatswords tied him up but he got to talk to her. Mace knew the lieutenant would walk him personally to Beerfast...thus Schaeffer and a few great swords head toward the bridge.

A few minutes later Roderick/Brian (agitator/inspectigator outcast now back in home city) bought some hired help inside the bar. Jack came in with xbow blazing behind the ogre and it was an extremely bloody fight over a dozen greatswords died in that bar; the Emperor's Most Wanted were severely wounded and out of gold.

Except Mace of course who was appealing to his "superior officer and old friend and fellow soldier" about her sense of honor and told her how evil the black cowl is and asked her how could she be involved with such things. He expressed how he always respected her and told her how she was marching him to his death and that she should at least give him an honorable way to die. And he told her about the dark magic at the auction zoo and how the world was about to be plunged into chaos when the bell tolls. Arta offered him a fight against her on the Karl Franz bridge to the death. He declined and said he would rather die dishonorably or be tortured than to fight against her.

<<He rolled pretty well on that parlay and his passionate RP was convincing. Could Arta had just been "following orders" and able to be swayed?! I really wanted to see that fight for the death on the bridge or at least Mace's escape dive into the river but I found it in er...Arta's heart...to let him go..>>

Thanks for taking the effort to write it up, it's fun to read.