SPOILER ALERT: This is a campaign log for the new The Enemy Within for Warhammer 3rd Ed. Spoilers abound!

There are several similar threads, and I'm writing a few weeks after the events, so I may skip over details here and there.

Also, I'm using Valvorik's awesome play aids and ideas for a number of scenes. He's done some really top-notch work that made this all a lot easier for me to run.

Our player characters are:

• Edler Burgolt von Engler, a Gently-Born nobleman, Pistolier, and third son of Frieherr Peczold von Engler, a local Baron.
• Ninewise Gyre, an Initiate of Ranald who is also an acquitted Criminal.
• Lina, Ninewise's sister, recently returned to Averheim from the distant university where she studied Bright Order Wizardry and other Academic topics.
• Hrulgar Steelheart, a Dwarven Runesmith and businessman. He is Battle-Scarred from his time at the Third Battle of Blackfire Pass.

When the game opens up, the players are about to have a breakfast meeting at a Tavern called the White Horse to discuss an unpleasant piece of previous business.

Hrulgar, being a professional businessman and the only member of the party likely to use Conservative stance, shows up early. The rest of the party Recklessly show up late or at the last minute, as usual, so he has a few minutes before they arrive to shop from the waterfront stalls. He meets Olga Klinski, who tells him the sob story about her husband who went missing a week ago. He buys a fish from her as an act of charity, and then heads to the tavern for the meeting.

Sidebar about the previous unpleasant business:

Burgolt starts with his latest scoop on dad. Last night, after tying one on (which he does quite often) Burgolt stormed home to tell off his wicked father and renounce his familial ties once and for all, but was unable to get in. The butler and valet refused him entry to his father's Library, where dear old dad was entertaining some unknown visitor. While waiting in the courtyard and being given the run-around, Burgolt saw a dark, cowled figure (hereafter known as The Black Cowl) scale the walls and enter via the balcony attached to his father's study. Normally, Burgolt might have shot this intruder, but not only was he drunk tonight, but he'd actually earlier in the day pawned his family heirloom Superior Pistol to one Mathilda Durbein. Burgolt reported the prowler to the Butler, but either the servants were expecting it or they imagined it merely a drunken hallucination. Either way, Burgolt was again not allowed entry, and so left in a huff.

Ninewise asks about The Black Cowl. She's heard that name or description as a possible new crime boss moving in on the Wharfs. There's speculation and discussion of whether the Black Cowl works for Burgolt's father, or the other way around, or if perhaps the Black Cowl was merely spying on Burgolt's meeting.

They also begin to discuss whether or not this new crime boss is involved in any of the handful of disappearances they've recently caught wind of.

Ninewise had heard that a dockworker named Rolf Haller has recently gone missing. She has a meeting later this very day with Rolf's boss at the Wharf-Rats (one of the Pauper's Guilds in the Wharf District), who wants Ranald's assistance in finding out whether or not their rival guild the Fish were behind the dockworkers disappearance.

Hrulgar mentions that an old war buddy of his named Ingo Baerfaust didn't show to a get-together they had planned a few days ago, and wasn't at home the next day either. When he inquired about his friend, he was told that no one had seen him in a week.

Are these three missing persons in any way related? Jurgen and Rolf worked in the same area, but Ingo had no obvious connections to the docks or either of them.

From here a number of smaller scenes transpired.

• Ninewise met with the Wharf-Rats boss for more details.
• She also talked with Ute, a knowledgeable local information-broker, who had some more clues to the way the underworld power structure was being shaken up by the Black Cowl. I made Ute very helpful and friendly. She explained that The Cowl's enforcer or underboss is a tattooed bruiser named Bischoff who recently returned from the Templeman Expedition to the Southlands.
• Hrulgar scheduled an appointment for the following day with Captain Marcus Baerfaust, the uncle of his missing friend Ingo.
• Burgolt got into an argument with a street agitator that was disparaging the noble-class. While he was distracted, he was nearly robbed by a pickpocket. Lina's sharp eyes foiled the attempt, but clearly made her an NPC enemy (the first of several, it would turn out) and the scene dished out some Stress and Tension.
• Cutting through an alleyway, the PCs discovered a body, it's ringed hand sticking out of a shipping crate. The dead man was a local racketeer and enforcer. His distinctive ring was left on the corpse, which they figured might have been done to send a message. Worried that this show of brazen force might further consolidate the Black Cowl's power, Ninewise pocketed the ring before they called the city watch.
• Burgolt swallowed his pride and returned to his father's manor for his daily allowance. Dad wasn't present, but his Valet was and did the old man's dirty work. He plied Burgolt and company with fine Brandy. He apologized for the previous night, and said that the Baron would be quite busy the next several nights so please be a good boy and stay away. Here's an extra couple Silver in case you need to find a place to crash for the night. Bribe mostly accepted.

After the various shorter scenes, the players met up again at another tavern, the Upright Pig.

A sidebar about Noblemen and their money:

Back to the Upright Pig: Ninewise was looking for Gerd Knakk, the leader of The Fish gang, who frequented the tavern. Before finding him, however, she found Bischoff.

Bischoff was gambling at a table with some other people they knew. He kinda blew off Ninewise, but told her sister Lina (an obvious Bright Wizard) that he might have a job for her tomorrow, and that if she grabbed a table he'd join her after this round of the gambling was over.

Gerd Knakk, the leader of the Fish, came in just then, and Ninewise pulled him aside for a talk. She mentioned Rolf Haller, but Gerd swore he and his workmen had nothing to do with it. She mentioned the Black Cowl, and was told Gerd was uncomfortable talking about that with the Cowl's enforcer just across the bar. She pressed him on it, and found out that the Fish were being leaned on to bend a knee to this new Criminal Empire. At this point, Ninewise took a risk, and it backfired. She pulled out the ring from the body of the racketeer and showed it to the leader of the Fish. He got very tense and quiet, thanked her for the information, and excused himself from the table.

Lina was still sitting at the other table adjacent to where Bischoff was gambling, so she couldn't help but notice when Gerd walked over, looked Bischoff in the eyes, and said "You win. We're in."

That elicited a lot of face-palming by the players, so it was a good place to call it a night. I adjusted the Criminal Empire's Agenda to 5 and Party Tension to 3. End of session 1.


(We just completed session 4, so hopefully I'll find the time to hunt through my notes and put together more logs like this in the next couple days.)

This is repeated from another thread where I wrote about the characters a day after we made them. I figured I'll add it here too because there's some important keys here to character background and the stuff about Burgolt's dad which will eventually really matter.

Character creation went amazingly well. I really love the background cards, and everything that element brought to the PC's back stories. Our characters are:

• Human Gently-Born Pistolier
• Human Academic Wizard (of the Bright Order)
• Human Criminal Initiate (of Ranald)
• Dwarf Battle-Scarred Apprentice Runesmith

The dwarf player wanted to be a troll-slayer, and so has asked me to intentionally dishonor him with some horrible tragedy somewhere around session 8 to 11 so he can troll-slayer as his second career. I love it when players actually ask you to be mean to their characters! His starting with the runesmith skills and intelligence will give a lot of depth to the otherwise sometimes one-dimensional slayer concept.

Figure I'm going to have to buff up the fight scenes a bit beyond what the scenario lists, as 3 of our 4 characters are going to be very good in a fight. The pistolier and runesmith both have very solid attack actions, large dice pools, and decent defences. The bright order wizard is a glass cannon, but should be able to pull off at least one really remarkable attack at the start of each battle. The least martial of the group is the Initiate, but even she's got plenty of defences and a few buff-blessings to contribute significantly when blades are drawn. 50% more foes per fight seems like a good start.

There was some confusion about which background cards got picked, which resulted in several players answering questions about the "outcast character" - who didn't exist. But their answers were really good, so we decided the Pistolier's brother was the Outcast, and had been disowned by their villainous father. If anyone dies (or loses a leg thanks to Omens of War), they'll grab the outcast card and have an easy entry for their next character by playing the brother. The other awesome thing that came up out of this outcast situation was that the players made up all sorts of background about the Pistolier's family. They decided that Pistolier's father has possibly dabbled in black magic, spontaneously creating an NPC for me to use as red herring or perhaps a liutenant to the BC. They took the Oathbound Party card to represent that they are all sworn to prevent the father's villainy from coming to fruition -OR- ruining the family name. So they can't just pass him off to the witch-hunters. It's like winning the plotline lottery!

Observation about Pistolier and starting funds: A riding horse is 2 gold. A pistol is 5 gold. The career ability (and fluff text) pretty much begs that you start with both, but Affluent only gives you 5 gold to play with. Even with a poor-quality (half price, but adds misfortune die) pistol, that leaves you no money for armour or other equipment. This seems like a huge flaw in that Basic Career card. My player solved this with a great answer to question #5 on the Gently Born card: she'd recently pawned the family heirloom pistol to Mathilda Durbein, and was hoping to buy it back soon. Explains her bad starting equipment, and establishes both a plot hook and the existence of a superior-quality gun on the market for once they've earned some spending cash.

Very cool, love what you're doing with "dad" there - working PC's into the story is always fun.

Re the Career cards and gear, it's been clarified a couple of times that the gear listed on back of career cards is "expected gear" useful to GM, guideline to PC, but not "part of starting kit". That said, yup I had a starting Pistolier noble who realized having a warhorse and pistol was a tall order at time of character creation! Here too some backstory helped (recently resigned Pistolier in small scandal). I like the "pawned that stuff" connection to the Gently Born backgroud.

BTW, I realized my homebrew NPC cards to track people at the Menagerie even don't include Claudia von Leitdorf. I've done one for her, and miscellaneous other extras and will send it out to those who requested the material.

Rob

Regarding pistoliers, Poor Quality is all they can afford at creation generally, but being a noble, they get a free 1gc every month (Lure of Power). Free money!

jh

valvorik said:

Any chance you could send that out in .pdf or .jpg (or even in Strange Eon's format) instead of .docx? I'm on a Mac and my Open Office is being really weird with the resized ones you'd sent out before. It won't let me see or edit any page after the first one. It still prints them, but slightly larger than the printable area of my printer, so the cards at the edge of the page end up missing several pixels. It's not a huge deal, but it would be helpful.

Thanks again for all the great props and ideas, Valvorik. Bischoff in particular has been invaluable, and the timeline has really help when the players asked questions I didn't know the answers to. I've made use of several of the Rambrecht Delfholt pamphlets as well, and made one of my own about the Taxidermist Conspiracy to go with them. Don't know if that'd be useful to you, but I could send the text of it your way if it's of interest.

ValvoriK: that is an awesome document btw. My players thank you especially for the set up that has one thing for each player to do. It has worked out perfrectly so far.

jh

Spoiler Alert: Campaign log for Session 2 / Day 2 of the new The Enemy Within for Warhammer. Major spoilers for anyone who hasn't played to at least Day 3 of the adventure yet.

PC List/Reminder:

• Ninewise the Initiate of Ranald
• Lina the Bright Wizard
• Burgolt the Nobleman Pistolier
• Hrulgar the Dwarven Runesmith

Between sessions, the player of Ninewise told me she was planning to spend her first XP on "X marks the spot", a Ranald blessing that allows you to track or find an item. This obviously has some issues for a mystery campaign, especially if the GM isn't prepared for it. I'd been warned about that particular blessing by other GMs at the Warhammer forums.

A sidebar about good players:

I consider myself quite lucky to have players considerate enough to give the GM a heads-up when they're planning to do something very unexpected. It takes a certain amount of trust and faith to do that (as a bad GM could potentially be a jerk and ruin your plans), but it makes for a much better narrative and game than if the GM suddenly has to pause mid-session to figure out where the heck this crazy new action is going to take the story. My players are awesome.

Her plan was either a) find Jurgen Klinski's hat, or b) use the body of Klaus Keller to find the the weapon that killed him. I had most of a week to read and reread the card, think about what it did and how it logically should or shouldn't work, and then prep some scenes based on what it will reveal. I came to the conclusion that the spell will only be a problem if Ninewise gets a good look at the Black Cowl's trademark headgear. All the other possible targets for the spell that I could imagine are either things I'm pretty much okay with the players being able to head straight towards, or things she'd really regret establishing a psychic link to.

The second session started with PCs still in the Upright Pig tavern. Lina the Bright Wizard was waiting at a table adjacent to the one where Bischoff was gambling, as he'd said he had a job for her the next day. Anyone who's read or played the adventure can imagine why a Bright Wizard might be of use to the Black Cowl's enforcer on Day 2 of the campaign… but let's be honest. It seemed really unlikely that the PCs were going to commit arson and murder on behalf of the villain's lieutenant, even if it might give them an inside track on the investigation.

So instead, I planned for Bischoff to offer her a couple silver schillings to just not be in the Wharf District tomorrow after noon. A bright wizard might be able to put out fires as well as start them, after all. He had just met her, so it's not like he's going to take her into his confidence immediately. His bribe would be giving the PCs a heads-up that something bad and fire-related would be happening at the docks on Day 2, but they'd have to either stay away, or openly declare war on the new crime boss who had till this point been unaware they even existed. I was all too happy to provide them with that dilemma.

The moment the session started though, the PCs all bailed out of the bar as fast as they could. Guess they didn't like the idea of dining in a tavern now (thanks to Ninewise's reckless actions at the end of the previous session) filled with dozens of Cowl-aligned thugs. Can't blame them.

So I figured they'd be off to the graveyard. Nope, not that either. Instead they went to Burgolt's family home to spy on the late-night comings and goings. See if the Black Cowl returned. After a bit of a stake out, they deduced that the Baron (Burgolt's father) was entertaining an amorous lady-friend. At that, they decided that discretion is the better part of being a peeping tom, and scattered each to their homes. End of Day 1.

Balcony Sidebar:

At some point it was revealed that there were lingering traces of dark magic on and near the balcony where Burgolt saw the Black Cowl ascend the previous night. Lina used Magic Sight to note them. I neglected to put it in my notes, so now I'm not sure if it happened in session 1 when they stopped in to pick up Burgolt's allowance and were treated to Brandy, or if it was in session 2 while staking the place out.

I know this was revealed though, because I remember the players cracking some jokes about how terribly frightening the dark magic must have been. "He used his terribly terribly evil levitation spell". That prompted a short discussion of the setting and the Winds of Magic. Yep, there really is an evil version of levitation. I also went on record as saying the wounds on Klaus Keller's body are NOT the same "flavor" of evil magic as seen on the balcony. Very different winds, but just as forbidden.

Thinking about it though from my current perspective of just past session 4, I think I might want to retouch those subjects and restress those points to the players. What killed the racketeer etc is definitely NOT the same sort of magic as levitated the cowled figure up to the balcony. Mystery scenarios, especially complicated ones, can go wrong in many ways. The PCs might randomly jump to the correct answer way ahead of schedule, but just as easily the players might miss your clues entirely and stall out. In this case, I'm worried that despite finding the clues but could jump to the wrong conclusions. A red herring now and again may sometimes be useful if the players are getting ahead of themselves, but herring always needs to be handled with care and respect befitting the toxic weapon they are. When you have more than one mystery going on, you have to be extra careful to compartmentalize your clues so that the players can understand what is or is not connected.

Day 2 starts with the players meeting up for breakfast briefly before splitting the party.

Hrulgar has plans to open up a shop for importing fine Dwarven wares and weaponry from the mountains. This makes perfect sense in-character, and yet it somehow blind-sided me. The player has indicated he's a Runesmith only till I can disgrace him into becoming a Troll-Slayer, so I didn't expect him to go hunting for a lease on a storefront instead of hunting for clues. It's mundane enough, and completely in character, so the player didn't think to give me any advance notice. That's fine, though it did mean I had nothing prepped for him.

Left to improvise, I asked for a Tradecraft roll, which he bombed, and then things stalled a bit. I did manage to reinforce the plot by having one of the potential landlords indicate that they weren't ready to sign a lease until Klaus Keller's replacement came around to set their new protection rates. This was the first scene to fall flat, and my least favorite of the campaign so far.

To make it worse, the other players went off in search of the body of Jurgen Klinski. This took a lot of time. Jurgen was a dockside regular, so I was okay with Ninewise being familiar enough with his distinctive red felt hat to use "X marks the spot" at it. She got a map of the city, said a prayer to Ranald, and flipped her lucky coin into the air. The coin landed on the edge of the map, and made a mysterious damp spot on the line representing the river bank just down river from the Wharfs. They bought a boat hook for a few shillings in case they needed to poke around in the muddy water, and headed downstream.

"And, because this is Warhammer, it starts to rain," I said with a smile.

Ranald led her straight to the hat… but no body. The hat was out in the muck, tangled in some roots at the surface of the muddy water. Could have easily washed down here from any part of the riverfront. They fetched it out with the hook, washed it off a bit, and examined it. There was a cut on the side, perhaps caused by a blow to the back of the head. The fibers an inch on either side of the cut seemed more deteriorated then you'd expect for simply being in the water for a week. This reminded them of the weird magical deterioration of the wounds on the body of Klaus Keller. One Magical Sight roll later they know that probably the same weapon killed both Klaus and Jurgen, but still no clue to motive.

They pay some fishermen to go dredge and poke the water around where Jurgen's hat was found.

Back to town. They stop in at the White Horse again, seeking info from Ute Herz the busker / information broker. As with the day before, she's very friendly and eager to help, but doesn't know of any connections between these two men. Jurgen's a nice guy, keeps his nose clean. Klaus was a hardened criminal.

While Ninewise chats with Ute, Burgolt eyes the local merchants and burghers sitting at the inn. There's an out-of-town merchant at one table, but he wants to connect with locals. Burgolt would like to rally the community leaders against this fiendish Black Cowl fellow. The only locals of any prominence are a couple of old Tanners. They explain how their shops got flooded by the damaged retaining wall and sluice gate, and when they threatened to sue the city they were given a very nice compensation. The tanneries will get fixed eventually, but for now they're content to celebrate their good fortune. Not exactly what the player was after.

As they talk, a breathless, panicked man bursts into the tavern. "Adolphus Starke! Your boat is on fire!"

Everyone rushes outside, with the previously-anonymous out-of-town merchant crying out "My wife and children are on my boat!" Initiative check.

There's 3 PCs on the scene. The Bright Wizard nails an Observation check and spots the fleeing arsonists. The Pistolier, jumps on his horse and gives chase. The Initiate of Ranald heads down the pier to the burning barge to try to put out the fire.

Two Ride checks, an Intimidate Check, and a 16-damage Bright Order Spell later, and the lone surviving arsonist is standing with his hands in the air. The roll that got him to stop moving also scored a Chaos Star, so I narrate that Bischoff walks out of the Upright Pig at just that moment. The arsonist looks at him, and is clearly at least as afraid of Bischoff as he is of the Pistolier and Wizard that just killed his accomplice.

I'm more than half-expecting the PCs to start shooting at Bischoff now, so I let the Dwarf just happen to return to this part of town from his failed lease-hunt so he doesn't have to miss out on any more action. Despite their reinforcements, the players don't take the first shot.

There's a long tense stand-off. Bischoff offers an obviously false alibi for the arsonist, and suggests that the PCs have already killed the only true criminal here. The PCs say that the flask on the arsonist's belt must be full of the accelerant used to ignite the barge in the rain. Bischoff says it's just a flask of booze, and orders his man to drink it. Evidence destroyed right in front of the players, though much of it is thrown back up moments later. The PCs say their perp needs to go to jail. Bischoff tells the arsonist his family will be taken care of.

I consider having him offer a bribe to the PCs, but Lina had walked out on his money the night before. I figured he'd have to know his odds of bribing her, plus a nobleman and a dwarf with whatever he had in his pockets was unlikely. He's the Cowl's enforcer, not his paymaster.

In the background, the barge burns ferociously. Ninewise has been trying to put the fire out, but manages to roll Chaos Stars in three back-to-back unfortunate rolls, so she and the other members of the bucket brigade blunder into each other and end up in the water. Repeatedly. Clearly, she needs help. The tracker gets to space 8, and if it moves to space 9 the boat and Starke's family will all be destroyed.

The Bright Wizard and the Pistolier rush off to magically suppress the fire and better-organize the bucket brigade, respectively. Given how far they'd chased the criminals, this took 3 or 4 Fatigue to get back to the docks, but once there they quickly turn things around. Ninewise actually boards the burning boat and helps Starke's family out of the cabin. The fire is extinguished without fatalities.

They leave Hrulgar guarding their suspect. All alone. With Bischoff.

I'm just about to have Bischoff attack the lone dwarf, when it occurs to me that there's actually a better play for my villain. He lets them City Watch take the arsonist, as there's actually a way he can spring the man later, to great effect. That will have to happen in a later session, as we've reached our time for this week.

Late afternoon, Day 2. End of Session 2.

Since the PCs saved Starke's family, the Criminal Empire's agenda does not advance. Further, as they have stood up to Bischoff in a semi-public fashion, the Stability rating of the Criminal Empire goes down by 1 to 7. Well done.

Party Tension is at 4. The players have a (burning) boatload of Fatigue and Stress, but only 1 wound (on the Wizard, I think it was the bane effect of one of her spells). I meticulously note how much Fatigue and Stress per player just in case they start the next session by attacking Bischoff.

I also make myself a note that I need to give the Dwarf some spotlight time next week, as this session he mostly waited around while other people did things.

valvorik said:

Thank you.

I know the equipment is just a guideline, but my player felt very motivated to buy both a horse and a pistol. I think most players would, seeing as their career special ability is to ignore penalties for ranged attacks made from horseback. If you don't have both a horse and a ranged weapon of some sort, you're missing out. Sure, you could substitute a cheaper ranged weapon, but it's called Pistolier, not Crossbowier.

Character in question went with an average _riding_ horse and a poor-quality pistol. I make weapon cards for the PC's equipment, and the one for the pistol is clearly marked "Back-Up Pistol" to remind the player that a better weapon is waiting at Mathilda Durbein's pawn-shop, should the character come into money.

Emirikol said:

1. Keeps the player from feeling too rich early on, and thus ignoring the various "we'll pay you 30 silver to do X" threads in the published adventure. He's on a financial leash, and can feel (and resent) it.
2. Establishes the character of the Baron (Burgolt's father) as being controlling and miserly. Which means that when he does something nice, it makes the players automatically suspicious. When he offered them fancy Brandy, Burgolt called it a bribe whilst everyone else assumed the booze must be drugged or cursed. It was appropriately disfunctional.
3. Since the Baron doesn't exist in the published materials, I have minor concerns that he might get sidelined by the many interlinked clue-threads that lead to established NPCs. Forcing the player to visit the family manor once a day for his allowance means there's a recurring opportunity for me to reintroduce the Baron to the plotline.

This daily allowance approach will of course get tricky in Chapter Two of the Campaign, but I have already worked out a linkage from The Baron to one of the organizations introduced in Chapter Two. I'm also toying with the idea of sending father's money-keeper along to supervise on the larger excursion. I think it'd be very humorous to saddle the PCs with an obvious spy/deadweight NPC "servant" carrying a chest full of coins they can't have yet. I'm confident they'll take very good care of him.

I like the daily allowance idea - never occurred to me but makes good sense (particularly if trying to avoid some wastrel blowing all their money in a dice game the night they get it - though I rather like that too….). For travel, a noble might be given a writ to show a banker or merchant house that would advance them their allowance when travelling etc., at least if they can make it to a major city.

I sent pm to ask you to send my email address again and I'll send pdf of file(s) - not sure which in my list of folks I've sent stuff is you.

X marks the spot - odd Ranald blessing as I think i've said in another thread, already "magically vanished" from my player stacks of cards even before being a cleric of Ranald has ever come up. For the hat, I would have them find it in the mudflats rather than "in lair" etc. Point them at river as they should be pointed (of course others just say he fell in or was tossed after being mugged or something).

Rob

valvorik said:

That's really good. I might just have to do that instead of my original plan.

valvorik said:

Yeah, I nearly pulled it from the binders I keep the cards in after your warning about it a few weeks back… but before I got around to it, my player emailed me and said she was planning on buying it. I don't like saying "no" to the players if there's any variety of "yes, but…" answer that sounds fun and not game-breaking.

I've looked through the campaign, and most of the things the players will be likely to want to find with that are going to be difficult to justify using it. There'll be times where it will be immensely helpful, but just as many items that it can't find.

Some are too generic to use it on without personally having seen them (thinking of the barrels here). Seeing a weapon briefly in a 2-round fight, or examining the wounds it left, isn't the same as having a "clear description or image" of it, either.

Some of the likely targets are cursed. Establishing a supernatural connection with cursed items sounds to me like a real good way to earn Corruption tokens, even if it is a "divine" scrying method. (As they say, if you stare too long into the abyss…)

A certain NPC's bonus dice against being detected or tracked could arguably apply to the blessing's roll.

Knowing where (or who) something is, is not automatically the same as being able to do anything about it. As you'll see when I get around to writing up sessions 3 & 4, they did eventually figure out how to find the "lair" way ahead of schedule because of that card, but I think it actually enhanced the story and in no way undermined it.

Cool, I'm really looking forward to it (seeing how the story goes at your table). The work I did on the menagerie/garden event that people applaud was completely due to reading another's play report and advice.

Re x marks. i agree with "figure out how to roll with it rather than houserule it" is always a better approach. When I take things out of game actually they are left in pile with a post it note on them (I am transparent with players about this stuff) and if I/player can propose how to "roll with it" then okay it's in (e.g., Rapid Fire - you realize that though it's not on card if you roll a chaos star on the 2nd+ shot that may mean your bow gets Damaged condition from tthe stress, okay?). I mostly am okay with things in if there is a "sauce for goose as well as gander" principle at work (e.g., don't complain later when a Chaos sorcerer somehow finds when you're hiding and any clever plan you would have for foiling that, well then….).

I was thinking about chaos stars etc. as well on the card. Being a blessing it doesn't get miscasts but if target cursed or item is (a) someplace blessed/cursed by a hostile power, (b) in hands of a wind user then pershaps things like "if the item is held by a user of the winds they gain a glimpse of you", or if the item corrupted "that counts as exposure to the corruption effect of Difficulty = # chaos stars".

SPOILER ALERT: This is the campaign log for the new The Enemy Within for Warhammer 3rd Ed. These events are from our third session. For the most part they are events from the 2nd in-character day of the campaign, except for one conversation that normally wouldn't happen till at least Day 5 of the scenario as written. By the end of Day 3, my PCs had actually done parts of Day 9 as well, though I may not get to that in this post. Proceed with caution if you think you're ever going to play this campaign, as events discussed here include MAJOR SPOILERS .

This could easily be a long post. I was really on-fire this session, and packed a lot in. The players were very much on their game as well, and gathered some info I'd planned to hold back till much later. We ran over our time slot by at least an hour. In fact, we hit so much in session 3 that I'm only going to cover half of this session in this post, for time and space reasons.

PC List/Reminder:

• Burgolt the Nobleman Pistolier
• Hrulgar the Dwarven Runesmith
• Ninewise the Initiate of Ranald
• Lina the Bright Wizard

Early Evening of Day 2: When last we saw our heroes, they had just saved the family of a merchant, Adolphus Starke, from arson (and probably attempted murder). The PCs killed one arsonist, captured the other and delivered him to the city watch, and did it all in very direct defiance of a man named Bischoff. Bischoff is the main enforcer for The Black Cowl. The Cowl's organization (using the Criminal Empire nemesis card) was dealt it's first set-backs by these developments.

The PCs spent a little time talking with Starke. His boat was almost entirely ruined by the fire (the fire got to the 8th space of a 9-space progress tracker that would have ended in 3 deaths and a sinking) and will need major repairs before it can leave town. The whole point of him being here was that he's awaiting a delivery of exotic Cathayan silks to arrive, a shipment that is now overdue. He's in very dire straits, and deeply ashamed at his own responsibility for what has happened.

A few days ago, upon arriving in Averheim, he was approached on the docks by a gang of racketeers and thugs. They demanded protection money, by Starke refused. Not on principle, nor even because of any amount of personal courage. He refusal was simply because he had a previously standing arrangement with another racketeer. A man named Klaus Keller had been accepting Starke's protection moneys for years, and Starke had credit to spare. "Go talk to Keller," he told them. Klaus Keller was, of course, the very same racketeer whose body the PCs had found in an alleyway the previous day. Bad news for the merchant.

Our heroes are heroes indeed, though, and they weren't about to leave Starke and his family vulnerable on the docks where Bischoff and crew might do them in. Burgolt offered that they could use one of the guest rooms in one of his family's smaller properties for a few nights. This was a very generous offer from a nobleman of Burgolt's standing, and Starke took him up on it at once.

The party heads to Burgolt's house, has some dinner and debates their next options. The rain that started earlier in the day (while they were trudging about the riverbanks looking for Jurgen's hat) continues and gets quite nasty, so they decide to stay the night in the property. There's not actually enough beds since Starke's family is there as well. The dwarf is short enough to sleep on the fainting couch in the foyer, so they make do.

Off-Camera Sidebar: The decision to stay at Burgolt's to avoid the worst of the rain causes the players to miss on several events, but none of them were vital for PCs to attend, and most could be learned later from witnesses (or bodies). Those who have read the adventure will know most of them, but I had also prepared a few special events as reactions to the confrontation with Bischoff.

Morning of Day 3

Breakfast is quite nice. Burgolt's servants whip up something special… but after the meal, the cook and butler take him aside. They let the young nobleman know that with all these extra houseguests, the pantry is all but depleted. Burgolt dips into his piggy bank and forks over several coins to restock the larder.

The PCs have a variety of tasks they wish to accomplish this morning, so they scatter a bit. Burgolt goes to his father's house to collect his daily allowance (he gets a stipend of 3 silver per day from his father's money-keeper). Ninewyse goes shopping for a detailed map of Averheim, as her previous map had spent rather a lot of time in the river yesterday. Lina kills time in some way that completely escapes me now, but does not involve going to the dorm at all.

Hrulgar heads to a meeting at the Averburg Palace. He'd sent word at some point the previous day (a message carried by a soldier from the arson arrest, if I'm not mistaken) requesting an audience with his old war-buddy Marcus Baerfaust. Since the poor dwarf had to sit around waiting for other people the previous session, I was all too happy to give him some spotlight time.

Baerfaust and Hrulgar Sidebar: Marcus Baerfaust is the Captain of the Averheim Garrison. He is of low birth, but was granted a very minor title (Edler) for his command of the troops at the Third Battle of Blackfire Pass. His immediate superior (the Elector, Marius "The Mad Count" von Leitdorf) died in the battle, and Baerfaust managed to keep the lines from collapsing when it happened.

Captain Marcus Baerfaust is very busy and somewhat stressed, but he's able to find a little time this morning for his old friend. When Hrulgar arrives, Baerfaust sets aside his paperwork and pours them a few drinks. The Dwarf fills in the Captain about the arson on the docks, and the new crime boss. Baerfaust listens intently, but says that his hands are largely tied. His authority as commander of the garrison comes directly from the Elector of Averland, but in the two years since Marius von Leitdorf died in battle, that position has lain vacant. Money is tight, and the squabbling nobles and burghers rarely back his plays. What if this new crime boss turns out to work for some nobleman, who demands his servant be set free? Baerfaust's political situation is precarious.

Criminal Background Sidebar: One of the PCs, Ninewise the Initiate of Ranald, was created with the Criminal Background card. Her answers to the questions on that card made it clear that she was arrested by Captain Baerfaust himself within the past few years. The Captain was forced to acquit and release her due to sworn testimony of a businessman named Friederich Grosz who honestly believed Ninewise to be innocent of the crime (though in truth she wasn't). Ninewise is a bit of a local hero amongst the underclass because of it, as acquittals by any means short of trial by combat are extremely rare in the Empire. Being unable to successfully prosecute a criminal of relatively low stature definitely undermined his position within the city. That said criminal is, perhaps unknown to him, a friend of a friend, just makes it more complicated.

Talk turns to Ingo, who is Captain Baerfaust's nephew, gone missing these past two weeks. Hrulgar was friends with Ingo, and noticed his absence almost immediately because they'd had plans for dinner or some such the day after he was last seen. He'd checked with a few other war buddies since then, and no one knew where Ingo had gone. The Captain doesn't know either, but suspects foul play.

Ingo Baerfaust had been aware of the rumblings about the changes in the criminal landscape of the wharf district. He was doing some "unofficial" investigating around the docks, and had promised to report his findings back to his uncle. On the night he was last seen, he'd left a note for Marcus in the Captain's office. Unfortunately, Ingo's handwriting was notoriously bad, he'd barely learned his letters within the past few years. The note was almost entirely illegible, except for one word that seemed to be written with great deliberation. " Jade ". It meant nothing to the Captain. He planned to harangue his nephew about it the next day, but had not seen him since.

Hrulgar asks if the note is available for him to look at. Alas as parchment is expensive, and Marcus thought for certain he would see his nephew again soon, the letter was thrown in the palimpsest bin.

Palimpsest Sidebar: Palimpsest is the common middle-ages practice of bleaching (more like washing with a milk-and-oat mixture and/or scraping with pumice) the ink off of a parchment so that it can be used again. The document had no doubt already been recycled before its was ever known that it might well contain Ingo's last words.

At that moment, there is a rap at the door and a female Lieutenant in full-plate enters. "The powder count, sir," she says, handing a document to the Captain. Baerfaust frowns at whatever it says, but doesn't go into the details. It's called foreshadowing.

The woman is introduced as Arta Schaeffer, and she is the Captain's right hand this past year or more. Marcus introduces Hrulgar, and when he does so, Arta's eyes light up. "You're Skullsplitter!? THE Skullsplitter?" she asks. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you! The Captain has told me all about you, and you were truly a sight to behold at Blackfire…"

Hrulgar corrects her, his last name is Steelheart, not Skullsplitter, but she won't hear it. There's discussion for a bit about how Hrulgar's performance at Third Blackfire was so impressive. Hrulgar has barely any memory of it, and modestly replies that "Skullsplit" would be more accurate given that he got near as well as he gave.

Marcus Baerfaust intervenes now to reign in Arta's fanboyish enthusiasm. When Skullsplitter - I mean Steelheart - was convalescing after the battle, he was clearly embarrassed whenever the troops called him by that name, so Baerfaust had ordered them not to do so. Arta's just really pleased to meet him. The scene gets intentionally awkward (the GM is up to something) , and Baerfaust stops Arta short. Pulling rank and being quite curt with her, the Captain insists Lt Schaeffer has more important duties than to attempt to seduce her commanding officer's friends. (Yep, the GM is definitely up to no good here. I wonder what it means.)

And with that, the blushing Dwarf decides it's time to go. He promises to report back to Baerfaust anything important he learns about Ingo or the Black Cowl.

Wow, I really packed a lot into this session. This was just the tip of the iceberg, no more than the first hour. There's still another 3 or 4 really good scenes left to describe, including the my favorite of the campaign so far, but I've run out of writing time today. I'll have to finish this session report in another post later this week.

SPOILER ALERT: This is the campaign log for the new The Enemy Within for Warhammer 3rd Ed. These events are from our third session. For the most part they are events from the 3rd in-character day of the campaign, except for one big event that normally wouldn't happen till at least Day 9 of the scenario as written, and a part of a conversation that by default happens on Day 5 instead. Proceed with caution if you think you're ever going to play this campaign, as events discussed here include MAJOR SPOILERS .

This post picks up after my previous one, and details the other events of the 3rd session. We ran over by an hour, and nobody noticed (or wanted to quit) at the point I finally said "fade to black".

PC List/Reminder:
• Burgolt the Nobleman Pistolier
• Hrulgar the Dwarven Runesmith
• Ninewise the Initiate of Ranald
• Lina the Bright Wizard

Let's see, we where on Day 3, and the PCs were attending to a number of tasks in various parts of town. Is there anything I still needed to say about that? **Consults notes, realizes there certainly is.** Well, then…

Backing Up to the Captain-Dwarf talk. In my last post, I forgot to mention one very important fact that came up when Hrulgar was talking with Captain Baerfaust. Bischoff, the enforcer and faceman of the Black Cowl's organization down on the docks, was mentioned by name to the Captain. Baerfaust responded with a bit of shock at this. He knew Bischoff. He's ex-military, a former NCO of the Averheim Greatswords. When the Templeman Expedition was being put together by Johann Templeman and Graf Friederich von Kaufman, they knew they'd need some guards and men-at-arms. So they approached the Captain about hiring some of the soldiers under his command. The Captain was happy to oblige them. With no Elector-Count in the County, the Greatswords and their garrison and both running on shoestring budgets. So Baerfaust loaned to them a unit of soldiers who's contracts would be running out during the time the Expedition expected to be gone. Kaufman would cover their pay during that time, and Baerfaust hoped there'd be a new Elector before they returned. There isn't an Elector, things are just as dire as when they left, and some of the returning men (including Bischoff) did not re-up.

Time marches on. The PCs go about their business, as mentioned in my last post. **Looks at his notes again.**

That bit about the Witch-hunter. So much happened in this session, that I missed a few things when writing up the first half of it. I mentioned in my last post that Burgolt earlier went to collect his daily stipend from his father's money-keeper. What I neglected to mention in that post is a small detail I told Burgolt he noticed on his trip there. A witch-hunter was walking down his street. Female, with a hook (like a pirate), and the obvious witch-hunter hat. They didn't interact at all, but clearly the sight of a witch-hunter in a wealthy neighborhood is noteworthy, especially when you suspect your father of witchcraft.

The PCs meet up back down at the docks, have lunch and compare notes. Ninewise hopes to talk to Ute again, but the info-broker isn't at her usual post just outside the White Horse tavern. They'll have to catch up with her later. **Evil GM giggle.**

As they are leaving, they pass by a large crowd at the entrance to an alleyway, with some great light shining or reflecting beyond it. Elbowing their way through the crowd, they see a Light Wizard. Specifically, Luminary Konrad Mauer. (My players mishear me at first, and think the middle word part of his title instead of his name, Luminary-Comrade Mauer. Oops. Though I must admit that would be cool.)

Lina and the Light Wizard Sidebar: Lina, being both a Wizard and having the Academic Background, has pretty strong ties to Mauer.

Eyes glowing like lanterns, a gleaming aura shining around him, Mauer is anything but subtle. I chose to play Mauer for fun. He's an older fellow, terribly powerful but also quite eccentric. I basically broke out more or less the same persona I use for Dworkin in Amber campaigns. Crazy inspired genius meets dottering old man, prone to both flights of fancy and taking figurative statements literally. It's an easy persona for me to improvise, and I haven't had much opportunity to use it these past few years. Never fails to amuse the players.

Mauer was investigating another body found on the docks. Since Lina knows him, it's not hard for a couple PCs to get behind the cordon of city guard. Ninewise quickly recognizes this body to be that of Herman Hallheimer, another local racketeer. The wounds show the same signs of poison/magic as Klaus Keller's body did. "Don't touch that! It's evil!" says Mauer to Lina, before covering his own finger with a glowing nimbus and then using it to probe the depth of the wounds. The two wizards share what they know about the bodies. Wounds are shallow, but corrupted. Bodies left as a message. Likely suspects, etc.

The most important bit of info conveyed, perhaps, is one that has nothing to do with the body. Mauer says that he and the various apprentices at Chromatahaus were very worried when Lina didn't come home last night. The reason her roomies were so concerned was because there were some unsavory types at the end of the block who seemed to be watching the dorm. Mauer didn't like the looks of them, so he spent most of the night on the stoop making sure they didn't try anything. He chides Lina a bit about staying away from the dorm. In trying to explain that she crashed at Burgolt's place, Lina inadvertently gives Mauer the impression she was staying with a beau. "I was young once. Say no more. Given the skullduggery and murder that seems to be afoot, though, perhaps you could send discrete word if you aren't going to be coming home to the dorms at night. Then we wouldn't have to worry about you." We yammer on in-character for some time.

As the wizards ham it up, Ninewise watches the crowd. She notices that her old friend Frederick Grosz is there. He seems quite worried, so when he leaves, she follows him.

Per the Criminal Background, Grosz is responsible for Ninewise escaping the law. She was arrested by the Captain himself some time ago, and Grosz' testimony lead to her surprising acquittal. In the players answers to this, she established that Grosz honestly thought her innocent… at least of this. So rather than being a hardened criminal, our Grosz is at least a little more innocent than the default assumption for the story. He has at least a veneer of respectability, a reputation to maintain.

Grosz heads back past the piers in the same route that the PCs just came from. He looks over his shoulder, but fails to notice Ninewise as he's actually looking for someone specific. He waits at the porch to the White Horse for a few stress-laden minutes, dotting at his sweaty brow with a kerchief.
Ninewise approaches and asks for a minute of his time. They step inside for a drink, and Grosz glances about the room as if he's still looking for someone. They take a table in the corner and start to converse.

With a charm roll and a bit of talking, Ninewise gets him to spill the beans about what's on his mind. Bischoff and the Black Cowl. This new criminal boss has been leaning on all the businessmen in the Wharf District, legitimate or otherwise. A lot of people have knuckled under, but not Grosz. Not yet, any way. He and a few others had been talking about standing up to this Bischoff fellow. Keller and Halheimer were going to be their strongmen for doing so, and now they're both dead. That leaves just him and Ute as the backbone of this resistance. Where the hell is Ute anyway? She was supposed to meet Grosz and Halheimer here this afternoon.

At this point, Ninewise breaks out her trusty map and lucky coin. She says a prayer to Ranald, and pictures that off-tune hurdy-gurdy that Ute is always playing. The coin flips in the air, and lands so as to be partly covering the intersection of sepia and blue inks that marks the end of a pier. Ninewise rushes up from her seat and out on to the dock (leaving her map behind with Grosz, just in case she falls in like yesterday). She can't see the hurdy-gurdy, but standing on the end of that dock, she's sure it's out there somewhere beneath the waves. Does that mean foul play, or just someone got sick of her playing foul tunes?

They've known each other for a while, so Ninewise heads off to Ute's tenement flat. No answer when she knocks. Ninewise breaks in, and looks for signs of a fight. Nothing. She tears through the closet, to figure out if there's any chance Ute is wearing something memorable. She's brass tier, so it seems reasonable that she only owns one pair of shoes.

Back to the White Horse to get her map from Grosz. Elsewhere, the Initiates of Morr have taken away the body, so Mauer left and the other PCs returned to the bar to see if that's where Ninewise wandered off. They meet up, and talk about Grosz's revelations.

Ninewise shares with them her concerns about Ute. By this point, the players are also worried that Lina might be on Bischoff's list, given her interactions with him re: the arson. Tension is high.

The coin sails and lands again, this time directly on the part of the map that represents this very block. Ninewise's player gets a lot of successes and a chaos star. She gets a very clear sense of where those shoes are, very close and underground. They ask to check the bar's pantry and cellar, but there's no sign of Ute or her shoes. Ninewise is stressed, and can't get her mind off of it. She's got to find that shoe. NOW. What else is under that coin? It covers most of the block on the map. There's the gong-farmer / nightsoil merchant's place, and a couple tanneries.

Burgolt, didn't you say something yesterday about a tannery being closed? As it turns out, the two temporarily-retired tanners are drinking just across the room. The PCs give them a bogus story about there being squatters in their property, and I invert the intoxication condition to boost their guile roll (so +2 Fortune, +1 Misfortune). Yes, once they've finished this drink, they'll go show you that their tanneries are still locked and boarded up per the city council's orders.

SPOILERS! That's Day 9 stuff: As GM this worries me a bit, as the PCs aren't expected to connect the dots to the tannery for a couple more days. I'd been warned about that "X marks the spot" blessing. But I've GM'd Amber, Continuum and Gumshoe, so I'm no stranger to systems where the PCs have the ability to trivially shortcut the plot. Knowing the plot and stopping the plot are two very different things.

Expecting things to go pear-shaped at the tannery, Lina steps outside to start channeling power and preparing beneficial buffs. Hrulgar follows close behind, since there's some concern that Lina may have made Bischoff's list. A well-dressed man (clearly out of his element) is approaching from the street and steps up to Lina, and seems to know her, though she does not know him. The "stranger" (who really shouldn't be, but I forgot that there was a more direct connection between Lina and this NPC) is flanked by two soldiers wearing the livery of the von Kaufman family. The man introduces himself as Curd Weiss. He says that Lina's room-mate (a Celestial Wizard) directed him to look for her here at the bar, because she (the room-mate) was unable to accept his business proposal.

As much as they'd like to make some money, they don't have time for this. Ninewise gets a little snippy. That chaos star earlier means she's' got a Misfortune die on anything that doesn't get her closer to those shoes. They can't get rid of him fast enough. Party Tension Meter steps up to 5. Undaunted, Curd Weiss proposes that he and Lina meet at the Journey's End Coaching Inn in the morning, as he really does have a business opportunity for a wizard with a bit of courage.

The drunk tanners stumble out. One of them has to step off the road and onto the crumbling retaining wall to "fill the Aver"… or rather, piss in the flooded mudflats that border the River Aver. This serves a few related purposes. It reminds the PCs that it rained horribly yesterday and the tanneries are closed because of flooding. They know they're about to get into a mess. I also get to drop a bit of trivia about how tanneries work in this era, and how if it was in business there'd probably be large pots outside for people to piss into, since uric acid is an important ingredient in the leather-treating process. It just keeps getting worse.

They finally get the tanners on-track and willing to unlock the doors. Inside they find… that the time has run out on this rather packed session, and we're going to have to wait till next week to find out what's going on inside. End of Session 3. Tension 5, Agenda 5, Stability 7.

Session 4 Campaign Notes and Actual Play Report

SPOILER ALERT: This is the campaign log for the new The Enemy Within for Warhammer 3rd Ed. These events are from our fourth session, which started on Day 3 of the investigation. However, my players made some good headway on the mystery and revealed something that probably wouldn't become known until Day 9 in most play-throughs of the campaign. Here be MAJOR SPOILERS .

PC List/Reminder:
• Burgolt the Nobleman Pistolier
• Hrulgar the Dwarven Runesmith
• Ninewise the Initiate of Ranald
• Lina the Bright Wizard

When last we saw our heroes, they were about to head inside the Tannery .

Tanneries are a very foul and nasty place to visit, especially in the pre-modern era. First you've got your freshly butchered hides and skins. These need to be chemically treated in a variety of ways, such as by brining, as well as by soaking in acid. One of the more popular acids for this process, at least in the middle ages, was uric acid. The inside of a typical tannery of the era includes several large tubs or vats of stale urine. In addition, you might find solutions of feces and water, and/or brains and water. Honestly. Then there's the quicklime. It's a nasty caustic chemical that burns and dissolves flesh. It's highly reactive to water, but that's kinda the point. So there'll be a dry area for storing it, and quite possibly a vat full of fat-burning nastiness sitting in solution. And lastly, there's the dyes to color the leather, and whatever solvents are needed to keep those dyes in liquid state. The butchered hides are soaked in these disgusting solutions for days on end, in particular sequences based on the desired qualities of the leather.

These various stinky solutions are often stored in pits or ground-level tubs, because one part of the process involved stirring them up and beating them a bit, which was sometimes done by having your young apprentices climb into the ****-tank and stomp on there bare-footed. I am not making this stuff up, I swear. So a large part of the building is a maze or grid of narrow little walkways over and between pits full of stuff you really don't want to land in.

Between soakings, the hides may hang to dry, or sit in piles on the ground. They may be dusted with, or packed in, salt. Some forms of leather required smoking, so you may have a large firepit on the premises. If so, there's probably a large supply of "punky" (which is to say "rotting") wood on hand as well, because the best leather-curing smoke comes from slowly burning rotted wood.

Of course, the tannery in The Enemy Within has been temporarily closed due to the river over-running its banks and the retaining wall failing to contain it. So there's a sluice drain overflowing with all the run-off, and since the place was shut down mid-process (and the Tanners paid well for closing their doors), everything's been just sitting there stewing. Those scents and flavors are dreadful in the first place, but give them a week or two with the doors and windows all sealed up and it's a whole new level of funk. Having been emptied of humans for more than a week, it's probably also over-run with rats and other vermin.

This seemed noteworthy enough that I made a Location card for it.

The PCs open the door to the worst stench of their lives. Burgolt, being a nobleman, cannot control himself, he just has to turn away and wince. In doing so, he notices that he is being observed by someone a few doors down. Sitting at the window of a guest room on the top floor of the White Horse Inn, is the same female Witch-hunter he saw several hours ago in a far-less-smelly part of town. I mention the possibility that she is staking the place out.

The PCs head into the tannery piecemeal, with some of them going in deep while others more cautiously hang back at the entrance. Ninewise is driven by her desire to find Ute's shoe, which had been the target of a "X marks the Spot" blessing that scored a chaos star. Hrulgar follows right behind her. He has Tradecraft trained, so he's barely put off by the scent and can identify which chemicals are truly unsafe (as opposed to merely odious).

SPOILER ALERT : I mentioned it before, but it's worth repeating. Seriously, if you're ever planning to be a player someone else's run of The Enemy Within, you really should turn back now. While we're still on Day 3 of the narrative, there's some stuff here that won't typically get discussed till Day 9 or possibly later, so you can't even assume that it's safe just 'cause you've played a little further then us.

Ninewise's blessing took her deep into the room, until she was standing over a murky pit full of chemicals. Hrulgar cautions her, there's several half-empty bags of quicklime on the ledge above the pit, and the warmth exuding from it suggests they were poured in at most a few hours ago. Such a brew will no doubt burn any flesh immersed in it. Ninewise brought with her the boat-hook she bought a few days ago, and they start poking around in the opaque sludge in the pit. They hit a body almost immediately, and start pulling it up.

Much to their surprise, it's not Ute. The body is too big, and probably a man. The chemicals have burned and damaged the flesh and clothing, making identification unlikely. Whoever he is, he's been done poorly. His chest is broken open. While no one here is a barber-surgeon, those who've seen a man die before can attest that there's usually rather more organs inside. They dig around in the depths for additional bodies with the boat hook, making a bit of noise in the process.

Lina the wizard steps into the room a bit further, and uses magical sight. The witchsight confirms that this body was killed by the same sort of cursed weapon that took the life of racketeers Klaus Keller and Herman Halheimer.

While providing the colorful description of the tannery, I called for a few Observation and Tradecraft checks from the players. I played this off as if it were about sussing out the body locations or the chemical details, but mostly it was to determine whether or not the PCs realized there'd been Skaven watching them from one of the pits.

AMUSING TYPO ALERT : Spell-check really, really wants to replace "skaven" with "shaven". Capitalizing "Skaven" seems to help hold auto-correct back a bit, but I'm sure the shaven will slip through my fingers at some point. Now doubt the same sentence will also feature "clanrat" being auto-corrected into "claret", leaving you with the impression that the PCs are being attacked by bloody naked mole-rats. I probably owe you an apology for that mental image.

It's about that time that the Skaven attacked. More than a dozen of them burst up out of the water of the sluice-trench running down the middle of the room. The ambush consisted of 3 groups of 4 clanrat henchmen each, plus a single gutter-runner to lead the assault. Certain other Skaven were off-camera in the tunnels below, available should they be needed. I used the Clan Eshin Assassins sheet. Not that the PCs knew those details, I merely described the blur of splashing water and furry limbs and through a bunch of Skaven stand-ups on the table. Roll for initiative.

When each PC took their first action of the fight, I gave them a Stress token to represent the distress of realizing that the mythical rat-men of folklore are actually true. If they exist, what other boogeymen and nightmares might also be real? It was an effective and elegant way to reinforce the flavor, but it kinda cheated on the default mechanics for stress-assignment. If I had to do it over again, I'd probably call for a Fear 2 test instead, just for the sake of mechanical consistency.

The way the initiative dice hit the table resulted in only 1 PC action before the Skaven would get to attack, then the rest of the PCs at the end of the round. I put a misfortune die on the PCs initiative checks since the Skaven were ambushing, plus the rat men had a talent in their Clan Eshin Assassins sheet that boosted their initiative a bit. However, I also forgot to roll Stance dice for the Skaven, since NPCs/Monsters are always in-stance (unlike PCs).

Nemesis-Sheet Sidebar : Gotta say, I found the Clan Eshin Assassins sheet to be a little underwhelming. The talent slots are nice, but the two progress trackers are way too long to be effective. Despite the earlier Observation tests advancing the tracks before the fight even started, I was only able to get to 2 dice bonus on a single action. A session or two later, I came to a similar conclusion about one of the other Monster or Nemesis sheets. Most fights in this system last 2 to 4 turns, but most of the trackers seem set up for 6 to 8 turn epic slugfests. In order for a battle to last anywhere near that long, you sure would need a large supply of mooks. There's a number of easy fixes to this (double the advancement rate on the cards would be the easiest), but as written they're just not likely to fire off. It's basically one bonus yellow die on one Skaven die roll once every four rounds, or one white die every other round, either of which is small potatoes in a system where fights usually wrap-up in round 2 or 3. A lot of tracking for not much pay-off.

Hrulgar went first, drawing his rune-axe and plowing into their ranks. He wanted to engage as many as possible to make it harder for them to get at the squishier PCs. I decided that since the Skaven all came through the drain, they were probably all effectively a single engagement. I honestly thought I was doing the PC a favor there… but as we quickly found out, huge engagements like this really play to the Skaven's strengths. Hrulgar gets a good attack roll, and drops an entire group of 4 henchmen, so for a few seconds things look very bright for the players.

Then I unleash The Overwhelming Horde . It's the only non-basic attack for the clanrats, so it makes sense that they'd open with it. They score 2 successes, which drops a fatigue on the dwarf for every Skaven in the engagement. Oh, my, that would be 9 fatigue, even after adjusting for his kills! First enemy action of the first real fight of the campaign, and I've already KO'd the best melee character in the party. Worried that I may have made this fight too tough, I neglect to have the second group of clan-rats actually attack. One player down is an interesting dramatic turn and an opportunity for a rescue, but 2 players down in the first round, especially with that rather nasty Location card in play seemed too likely to TPK. As it turns out, I probably could have had them attack, and it would have worked out just fine. The rats may have gotten lucky early on, but that luck wouldn't hold out.

Lina and Burgoldt made ranged attacks that killed a couple henchrats a piece. The gutter-runner hurled some throwing weapons at the PCs, scoring only minor damage. Ninewise moved forward to cast a blessing on Hrulgar. This allowed the dwarf to recover from enough fatigue to actually wake up, but she also scored a chaos-star and ended up in the Filthy muck.

Top of the round. Several more henchmen go down, leaving just two total, plus the gutter-runner. The tide of battle changes fast in this game. The remaining clan-rats take their obligatory "Cheap Shots" and then flee through the trench and drain. There's a brief exchange of ranged attacks, and then the Gutter-Runner flees as well. Lina wants to blast them, but they're under water and around a corner. Free escape, unless the PCs are willing to go swimming.

Rather than ending the fight there, I pull a Rally Step . I happen to know there's a Skaven nearby with more interesting options, but I didn't want to risk him going down before he's filled his part of the plot. He casts a spell off-camera, and suddenly a horde of mundane sewer-rats (but with glowing red eyes courtesy of the spell) come pouring up out of the drain.

Like the Skaven fight, the battle with the rats lasts just a couple rounds. Rat swarms actually have a lot of staying power and some interesting actions, but don't do big damage. Lots of narration of magically-frenzied rats climbing all over everything and biting at exposed flesh, with Fear checks and conditions for everyone, but ultimately no major injuries for the PCs. Mainly this conflict allowed me to get a feel for Skaven and rat combat stats, which I suspect will prove useful later in the campaign.

Swarm sheet sidebar: Like the Clan Eshin Assassins group sheet, the Swarm sheet has a tracker with 8 or 9 steps on it. It's not as ridiculous as the Eshin sheet, as the tracker moves with every successful attack on the swarm, not every turn. So that's 3 or 4 times the speed of the Eshin tracker with a typical-sized party, and thus a lot more likely to reach its end during a fight scene. This one works pretty well, and, in the context of the full swarm rules, does a good job of representing a horde of vermin.

It's worth noting though that the complete swarm rules are not on the Swarm sheet, nor are they on the Rat Swarm monster card either. One of the great things about Warhammer is that having the appropriate cards in front of you means you rarely have to reference a rulebook mid-game. But when critical yet rarely-referenced rules are inexplicably left off of the relevant card (especially one like the Swarm sheet that has a ton of empty space on the front and two tons of fluffy flavor text on the back), that slides from "great" to "frustrating". Man, I wish FFG spent more time on playtesting and editing.

After the fight, the PCs sent for the city guard, and withdrew outside the Tannery to catch their breath and patch up the bleeders. We made some Disease checks for anyone who took damage from the filthy rats, but the tests were all passed without incident. Ninewise, having been dunked in the pits during the fighting, went for a bath in the river.

A crowd of brass-tier folks came to gawk at the source of the gunfire and cries of "monster!" and "Skaven!", but quickly concluded it was just a lot of hubbub and commotion over a few score rats. The magical tattoos on the Skaven bodies destroyed most of the evidence. There was a severed limb left over from a critical hit the PCs scored, and since it was no longer connected to the warpstone tattoos, it didn't dissolve. Confronted with NPCs skepticism over the mythical rat-men, my players asked what exactly their characters would know about the shaven bastards.

I was ready for that question. During character creation (as part of the Gently-Born background card) Burgoldt pawned his family heirloom pistol to Mathilda Durbein, and local fence/antiques-dealer. In the first session I casually mentioned the contract was written on the back of some nonsense handbill printed by Rambrecht Delfholt the Agitator. That lunatic handbill mentioned Skaven, and I immediately pulled out a prop I'd typed up to represent it. Here's the text:

" Our Double-Edged Swords
Every commoner looks to the armies of the Empire for protection from the rampaging hordes of foreigners and worse always pressing at our borders. Those armies should rightly be at the edges of the wilderness, defending us from the enemy without, but if those armies were stationed only on the frontiers, what unfortunate patriots would do the dirty work when a nobleman wanted to evict a loyal pauper, or put down a popular movement by way of bloody violence? Troops on the frontiers protect, but troops closer keep we brassy serfs downtrodden.

Oppression, Lies, and Taxation
To justify those local armies, the barons and their captains have invented a most terrifying boogieman. The rat with human hands, which lurks beneath our cities and can strike from our own sewers and catacombs. They pretend to hush and deny these very rodential rumours they have themselves started. They doth protest too much! These denials are but a show piece to sell the illusion that we are in constant peril and must be surrounded with jackbooted mercenaries. To pay for the armies of our oppression, they tax us into submission!

A Tragedy of Taxidermy
We are told of the tragedy of Nuln, the city that was supposedly beset by ratmen in 2499. Those who have seen the stuffed corpse of the so-called Ratman of Nuln can attest to it’s obvious fakery. A man-made monster composed by stitching the head of a giant rat on the body of a mundane beastman. The Guild of Taxidermists has a Guild-Hall in Nuln, and another in Altdorf. From whence didst The Horned Rat come? Not the sewers of Nuln, but the Imperial Court itself!"

It's nutty, I know, and totally lifted from Brotherhood of the Wolf… but it's also pretty much exactly the rabid conspiracy theories that the adventure itself presents as being Rambrecht's beliefs. (Except for calling beastmen "mundane", IIRC that was my own little embellishment for irony's sake.) I didn't want to have to try to memorize or improvise that kind of nonsense should it ever come up, so I took the liberty of laying it out as a prop. (And in case I haven't mentioned it previously, I've been using Valvorik's excellent TEW handbills as props, giving out one to the PCs basically every day of the campaign if the PCs get anywhere near Rambrecht. The conspiracy theory above was written and laid out so as to match his style as best I could manage whilst still conveying the madness of the conskavenspiracy.)

The sidebar for splitting shaven hairs : I'm not sure where the whole concept of Skaven denialism came from exactly, and why it's so prevalent in the setting despite 2 out of every 3 published adventures having Skaven as the villains. Daily life in the Empire involves worship of a pantheon of actual miracle-granting gods, a color-coded system of everyday magic, ongoing war against a bestiary of terrifying fantasy monsters, and strict policing by roaming witch-hunters empowered to put heretics and mutants to the torch on the slightest suspicion lest the named and known daemons of chaos tear down the walls of reality. Given that context, ingrained cultural skepticism about one particular species of boogeyman seems a little spurious to me. It's one part of the setting I just don't grok, but I can at least pay lip service to it in-character like a good little fanboy should. If shaven denialism is what the adventure calls for, then shaven denialism is what they'll get.

The city watch arrives in force. The squad is reinforced, and led by a different officer than the one they saw yesterday. This new, fresh-faced fellow doesn't really know what to do about reports of mythic monsters, and he's not about to stick his nose in the stinky tannery himself if he can avoid it. He's not willing to commit to anything controversial, either. When questioned about that, he reveals that just last night an angry mob of dock-workers bearing fish tattoos stormed the guard house and demanded the release of an arsonist. Confronted with nearly 3 dozen drunken witnesses to the man's innocence, the previous Lt decided to release the captive rather than risk a riot. As a result, he was relieved of his command and transferred out of the district by a very irate Captain Baerfaust about an hour ago. So he assigns a couple guards to the tannery doors, takes statements from the PCs, and goes off to compose a CYA report ( Cover Your… Averlander ).

Mechanical note : With the revelation that Bischoff paid a bunch of Fish gangers to force the City Watch to release the arsonist, the Agenda of the Criminal Empire moves from 5 to 6. The Black Cowl's organization is getting pretty ballsy.

Reinforced by guards, the PCs carefully return to the tannery to finish fishing for bodies. They scoop up a total of 8, representing both genders. They were expecting the body of Ute, and wouldn't have been shocked if Jurgen, Rolf, and even Ingo were here as well, but there's at least 4 more unknown victims. The skins are chemically burned, faces mutilated, and organs ritually removed. Something very bad is afoot here.

The Initiates of Morr (holy morticians) eventually show up to collect the bodies for proper burial, but so does Luminary Mauer and he has other plans. Mauer had been investigating the Halheimer murder earlier this morning. He confers with Lina, and agrees with her opinion that the same weapon also killed the bodies here. He's unclear to him why Keller and Halheimer would be separated out and dumped publicly, and exactly what the relationship is between the killer and the Skaven that were on-site. The players have a better picture of at least parts of it, and fill him in a bit on Bischoff and the Black Cowl.

Imaginary Romantic Entanglements Sidebar : In the conversation of the previous session, Mauer had gotten the mistaken impression that the reason Lina had been absent from the dorms was due to some romantic entanglement. This was a convenient-enough fiction before they'd decided to bring Mauer into their confidence about the Black Cowl, but even now they haven't really disabused him of it. If anything, they actually gave the Luminary the distinct impression that Lina and Burgolt are dating. Couldn't be further from the truth.

Though somewhat confused on certain topics, Mauer does at least seem to be an expert on the Skaven. He claims to know a good deal about their cursed magic, and says the murder weapon is likely a warpstone blade. He also speculates a bit about what they might be using the rituals for, and notes that they'll most likely kill 13 all told, as 13 is a number of ritual significance to the rat-men and often invoked in their magics. There's a fun moment as the players do a head count. 8 dead NPCs + 1 NPC Skaven expert who's no doubt a threat to the villains + 4 PCs would equal 13, wouldn't it? The GM smiles.

All this dark magic is a real danger to the public safety. Mauer talks Lina into incinerating the corpses, which really makes the Initiates of Morr unhappy. They leave in a huff, riled up about the wizard's collective disrespect for the souls and bodies of the departed.

Corrupted Memory Sidebar: Somewhere in these scenes Lina scored a point of Corruption. It's been more than a month since the session, but I still feel a little bad that I can't remember now how it happened. It may have been the result of a Chaos Star on an attack spell vs the Skaven (as some of the Miscast cards can do that to you), or if she picked it up via a standard Corruption test for poking around in the ritually-slain bodies. Either would be a fine source, but it's a shame can't recall which it was.

Things tidied up or burnt to a cinder, the PCs can take their leave. Mauer exits as well. The city watch stays posted at the doors to the tannery for now.

In the real world, it's almost quitting time. The fight was only about 4 or 5 rounds, but since it was our first major battle in the system, it wasn't exactly fast. Investigating the scene and chatting with the NPCs ate up some hours as well. But I have one little mini-scene to throw at the PCs before we call it a day.

Her name is Beatrice Knox . Two nights ago, the PC saw her gambling at the same table as Bischoff and Grosz, and then she seemed to be winning. Now, she's standing in an alleyway, sobbing. The PCs don't really have a link to her, and the Warhammer world is a cold grim place, so they nearly disregard it. Lina has a good heart (or perhaps just a good plot-detector), and decides to ask what the problem is. Which means everyone else has to follow her into the alley just to make sure it's not some sort of Bischoff-orchestrated ambush.

Beatrice gives them a sob story about money owed to bad people, and how her children are hungry and have no where to go if anything happens to her, and could you please spare a large sum of silver? At best she's a foolish addict in over her head and destined for trouble, at worst she's a con artist. The PCs just aren't willing to go all in for someone who's going to turn around and give the money to their enemy. I can't fault their logic on that. When they say no to "charity for villains" she makes one desperate last attempt to part the nobleman from his coinpurse. Sorry Beatrice, Burgolt only sleeps with high-class call girls.

As a scene, it felt kinda forced and almost artificial… but that also pretty well describes Beatrice's self-wrought dilemma. She's not the most sympathetic character in the scenario, and my putting her at Bischoff's table a few sessions prior didn't help her cause, either. I could still imagine some character parties pooling their money for her, but not this party at this point in the story. She's also not actually written up as a skilled-enough panhandler or con artist to really justify breaking out the Social Encounter rules in the last 10 minutes of the session, so I let it go.

End of Session 4 and Day 3. Party Tension: 6. Criminal Empire Agenda: 6 & Stability: 7. Lina has 1 Corruption Token. Several of the PCs have a small number of minor wounds.