The Enemy Within Session 6 Report (WFRP)

After an unexpected delay of a week, the group was able to get together to play out session 6.

Action picked up immediately where session 5 left off. Having discovered a secret door behind a book shelf, the characters - plus Rudolf the Protagonist - entered the secret door and followed a trail of blood they presumed was left by the head of Emilo Valantina, the now headless former leader of the Valantina Gang.

A short off topic bit here, one of the things I like about the Old World setting of WFRP is that there is no "Thieves Guild" like that found in most D&D settings; instead, a community will have one or more gangs, how many depends upon the size of the community. These gangs sometimes work in unison, dividing the vices so to speak, in an attempt not to step on each others' toes. Some are not so civil and are often at odds with each other. Many of these "gangs" are guilds in disguise. One common "guild" that is in reality a "gang" are stevedores and teamsters. Often both guilds are legally recognized by the community they operate in, but in reality, they are strong armed gangs making just as much, often more, from smuggling and racketeering operations. My last campaign was based in Marienburg, and I made heavy use of this theme, as all of the characters worked for the Stevedore "Guild".

Back on topic, the secret passage opened onto a roughly cut set of stairs which, as could be told from smell before sight, led into a sewer passage. They were not long in the sewers before a vague humanoid shape was seen bearing a whip. This vague shape was hunched and from its silhouette a snout and tail could be made out. The thing seemed to be driving a swarm of rats towards the party.

Another aside here. The players immediately thought "Skaven" when they saw the rat-like silhouette. In the Old World, there are rumors that a race of rat-men called Skaven live beneath the cities and towns. Some even believe that their lairs connect into a giant underworld. In this underworld, the Skaven worship their dark god - the Horned Rat - and plot to enslave mankind and rise up as the dominate race. Of course many do not believe that the Skaven exist; even though it is written in history that they once nearly overthrew the Empire. Many believe the tales of a secret race of rat-men are exaggerations. While it is believed that a horde of chaos nearly once destroyed the Empire, many scholars are now of the opinion that it was a horde of Beastmen that just happened to appear "rattish".

Back on topic, the swarm of rats soon overtook them and it was obvious that they had to escape quickly or die a slow death of numerous rat bites. A handy abandoned, but operational, mine cart served as an expedient escape. After making their escape, they discovered that they were not alone in the mine cart. There was a rat chewed body, covered in plague like boils. Also in the cart was an equally disfigured head. Upon the body, they discovered the item that Alphonse Oldenhaller had dispatched them to find.

The mine cart landed them in the Huyderman Gangs' base within the Asylum. They Huydermans' were also under attack, but not from the Valantina Gang. The Huydermans were under attack from some strange cultists and some sort of hideous beast. One of the cultists was a Warlock in league with the Ruinous Powers. The remaining four Huydermans joined forces with them.

The players were nervous about this combat, but in the end, they made some lucky rolls and escaped with a pretty easy win.

Suspecting that they would not get paid, they sent Rudolf - who seemed as baffled by the evenings' events as the player characters - to arrange things with Three Fingered Willy and Alphonse Oldenhaller. A meeting was set up at a ware house belonging to the Oldenhaller Mercantile Family.

At the ware house, they were greeted by Three Fingered Willy and four thugs in either his employ or Alphonse's. When Alphonse entered the room, he looked quizzically at Bartolf and uttered in the form of a question a single world: "Kastor?" Immediately after he did this, he was stabbed from behind by one of the thugs wielding a wicked looking dagger shaped as a tooth. Three Fingered Willy and the other thugs, but not Rudolf, raised similar daggers as Willy shouted "FOR THE YELLOW FANGS!"

Before Willy and his thugs could attack the characters, if they ever were going to, they in turn were attacked from a hidden enemy concealed in the rafters. The "assassin" was never revealed; however, he attacked with weapons of a strange nature. The PCs escaped the ware house as it burned, but aside from recovering a lock box containing 30 GC's, they were never paid.

The PC's spent a few more days in Nuln. They were eventually approached by Rudolf. He told them that things were getting hot in Nuln as the Schatzenheimer Gang were busily trying to find anyone involved in the events of their night at the Asylum, plus Albrecht Oldenhaller was seeking out those responsible for his brother's death. He strongly suggested that they all get out of Nuln.

He has a plan. He has a cousin in Mittlesdorf that is running a gang of outlaws and he is sure he can get the characters on, if they wish.

This adventure is not my own. It is "The Oldenhaller Contract", an adventure that originally appeared in the first edition WFRP rule book. Having never run it before, I decided to give it a go. It was fun, lots of twists and turns. It was later updated for 2nd edition and is available here as a free download.

We will be playing next Tuesday the 15th of March, but work will force me to take a two week break after that.

The Enemy Within Sessions 3, 4 and 5 Report (WFRP)

I did a quasi report of sessions 3 and 4 previously, but am reposting them here. Also, One of my players posted a report of session three

Session Three:

Session 3 was our first evening with no combat. There was actually minimal rolling of the dice. After the action heavy session 2, this was a nice change of pace. The players dug into the meat of the investigation itself and moved things along nicely. There were only three players for this session. Our new player was once again a no-show, and was for session 4 as well. We have not heard from him and at this point, I've ruled his character on official "Red-Shirt" status. Our out of town player was having technical difficulties and was thus unable to Skype in.

Session Four:

Session 4 was a different beast. We were up to what I now consider full-force, our out of town player was able to Skype in.

Having followed many clues to their conclusion, the bulk of session 4 was spent at a quickened pace. Their investigations from session 3 and a few more leads that the players followed up on in the beginning of session 4 brought them to the conclusion that a butcher by the name of Emil Stark was holding Hannah hostage. Moving at a break neck pace, they arrived at the final confrontation with Emil, whom they killed, and two beasts of chaos, one of which was Hannah the poor missing daughter of the butcher Herr Fleischer - Emil had been feeding her chaos infected sausages and the second was a missing noble rake named Rudi who had also been horribly mutated by Stark.

During the final battle, Gottfried received a critical wound to his left hand, courtesy of a crossbow bolt fired at him by a niggling little street thug named Dirty Dan (truth be told, I don't know if I ever revealed his name to the players - BAD GM! BAD!).

The group first encountered Dan in session one. He offered to take them to an inn that was sure to have open rooms for a mere two pence and instead led them into an ambush of thugs. They encountered him by chance in a tavern during session three. They were hoping for some payback, but Dan eluded them yet again. I had decided that I would give them one more chance at revenge.

It was called out in the adventure, "Sing for Your Supper" that their main antagonist, Emil Stark, was to have a lackey on hand awaiting to ambush them. I arraigned for this lackey to be good-old "I'll do anything for two-bits" Dan. When they arrived at the ambush sight, I rolled a secret Perception test for each player. None of them passed. Dan fired his loaded crossbow at Gottfried. I rolled a "10" for damage, re-rolled Dan's Ballistic Skill and confirmed the critical hit. A total of 15 points of damage was dealt to Gottfried's left hand. Gottfried passed his test to remain conscious and delivered the groups' final vengeance upon Dirty Dan.

They did not deal with the chaos mutations. Instead, they turned Hannah over to her father and the mutated Rudi, Gottfried reported his circumstance to the Cult of Sigmar who dealt with him. This occurred only after they considered burning half of the city down to take out one mutant. Our group has a history of burning cities down.

All of the above happened in session four. I ended the session leaving Gottfried's player in suspense. I didn't do this just to be cruel, that was only a small part of the reason, the main reason was I had just re-read some interesting optional rules on Barber-Surgeons and wanted to make use of those rules.

In the end, despite the fact that the girl and her father were given the final mercy by Shallyan Priests, they received their promised reward of 25 gold crowns, quite a small fortune.

Session Five:

Play action was picked up the morning following the events of session four. My first order of business was determining the fate of Brother Gottfried, Initiate of Sigmar.

I ended session 4 leaving Gottfried's player in suspense. I didn't do this just to be cruel, that was only a small part of the reason, the main reason was I had just re-read some interesting optional rules on Barber-Surgeons and wanted to make use of those rules. I did so in the beginning of session five, and they were entertaining. I was merciful by ruling that Gottfried had spent a pain filled evening at the Cult of Sigmar where they had made it a point to clean and dress the wound. This ensured that he wouldn't have to deal with the nastiness of infection. It also allowed his Fortune Point Pool to replenish.

For those that don't know Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay that well, each character has a number of Fortune Points that he can use each game day. One of these can be spent to re-roll a bad dice roll, and for a few other things as well. The number of a character's fortune points is determined by his Fate Points. Fate Points are spent to avoid death. They are not a "get out of jail free card", meaning, if a player is forced to spend a fate point to pull his bacon out of the fire, it probably means he may have been dealt a deadly critical wound. Crits are deadly in WFRP and can often result in neat new nick names like "Lefty", "One-Eyed Jack", or "Crutch". It is a grim and perilous world.

Thus, having the Barber-Surgeon appear the next day was a great boon for Gottfried. All turned out well for the initiate. The surgery was performed by an old bone-saw that had seen much action in the Imperial Army.

I let five game days pass. This allowed Gottfried some much needed healing time and it gave the characters an opportunity to spend some of the 25 gold crowns they had been paid. Willow the halfling took advantage of this, and had some new armor tailored to fit her small frame. The elven Wizard's Apprentice replenished his stock of magical components, which included some time spent trying to catch fire-flies. Bartloff, being the good protagonist he is (read "Asshole for Hire") went looking for trouble and easy coin.

Trouble he found, along with an offer to make much more money then he'd ever dreamed. He met a fellow protagonist named Rudolf (yes, he had a red nose) that after Rudolf challenged Bartolf to fight, in which Bartolf gave as good as he got, he told him that his boss, one Three-Fingered Willy, was looking to hire a few blokes for a dirty job. Rudolf gave no details, he only stated it involved busting some heads and that it would pay 100 GC for each participant. He also mentioned that if Bartolf knew a few blokes that were looking to make some coin, he could get them in on the deal. The job was to happen in a few days time.

The next night, a thief that had been secretly following Willow around after seeing her pay for new armor, tried to rob them. The players had opted to get themselves a private room instead of staying in the common room that they were previously. Willow awoke to find the thief trying to steal her purse while she slept and she alerted the other characters to the situation. They easily overcame him in a short pursuit. The thief had nothing of value on him but some lock-picks and a dagger. He was also carrying a note with a leaf motif that had one word upon it: "Malindi". Bartolf then shocked Willow with how he dealt with the thief. His solution was to tie the thief's hands behind his back and throw him out the window, where he fell upon his head, snapping his neck.

A couple of nights later, the characters met Rudolf and Three-Fingered Willy and were given more details about the job. The job consisted of raiding a place called The Asylum. The Asylum is a complex that three separate gangs use as a hide-out: the Schatzenheimer's, the Valatina's and the Huyderman's. Three-Fingered Willy is a prominent member of the Schatzenheimer Gang. He has the backing of over half of the gang behind him and he is looking to depose the current gang leader Kurt Volger. Three-Fingered Willy is being bank rolled by Alphonse Oldenhaller, the younger brother of Counciller Albrecht Oldenhaller who is a successful merchant of Nuln.

Alphonse hopes that with a newly organized Schatzenheimer gang on his side, that he can take his older brother's place as head of the Oldenhaller Merchant Family. Also, Alphonse had hired the Schatzenheimer gang to acquire an item for him. Smelling more money then what was offered, Volger has been refusing to turn the item over. Willy was made it a point to not tell them what the item was.

Willy's plan was, he had a majority of the Schatzenheimer gang willing to back him. His "boys" were to be in the hide out that evening, with Volger and a much smaller number of Volger's supporters. Willy had arraigned for the bulk of Volger's supporters to be out that night doing a job, which they were not to return from until early in the morning hours. Willy and Rudolf were going to lead the characters into the hide out where they and Willy's supporters on the inside, would slaughter Volger and his boys. When Volger's other supporters returned in the morning, they would set up an ambush, giving them two choices: accept Willy in charge, or die.

The characters were of course suspicious, but the lure of a king's ransom in gold helped them overcome their doubts. When they arrived at the Schatzenheimer's den, it was obvious that someone had beaten them to the punch. All of the Schatzenheimers were dead. The Valantina Gang had killed them leaving calling cards on the corpses that read: "Congratulations, you have just met the Valantina Anti-Personnel Crew". The characters noticed that the leaf motif on the calling cards, matched the leaf motif they had found on the body of the thief that had tried to rob them. After searching, Willy announced that the item that they were to retrieve from Kurt Volger was missing.

Willy stated that he had to report this to Alphonse Oldenhaller. He asked to characters to enter the Valantina hide out and retrieve the item. An argument occurred at the end of which Willy offered to increase their payment to 150 GC's and he was forced to tell them what the item looked like: a small lead box fixed to a chain, the lead box has a single coin in it, and it should remain inside the box. Rudolf also informed them that the calling card they had found upon the thief was most likely the Valantina's current password.

The agreed to the terms and proceeding forward, they used the password, Malindi, to gain entrance to the Valantina hideout. There, they managed to pass themselves off as stevedores. After posing as stevedores, they managed to gain an audience with the leader of the Valantina gang: Emilio Valantina; however, someone had managed to sneak into Emilo's room and behead him. They found his headless body, no head was found, nor was anything found that matched the description of the item they were sent to retrieve. A trail of blood led to a book shelf and ended. After a short search, they discovered a hidden door behind the bookshelf.

That is where play ended, session 6 will pick up in action.

Mini Review of Plundered Vaults and Report on Sessions 3 & 4 (WFRP)

One of my players all ready posted a report of session 3, but I wanted to add my own short report of that session and session 4 in preparation of session 5 tomorrow night and as a mini-review of the adventure and book it is found in itself.

I've been running my players through an adventure called "Sing for Your Supper" which is included in the book Plundered Vaults which you can read about here.

The book includes 3 reprints:"Rough Night at the Three Feathers", "Grapes of Wrath" and "The Haunting Horror"; and three new adventures: "For Love of Money", "Carrion Call" and the adventure at hand, "Sing for Your Supper".

Before I get to "Sing" I will say a few short words about the book itself. When it was first published in 2005 by Black Industries, it represented exactly what I had hoped for in a second edition of WFRP. When Hogshead (hereby designated "HH") stopped publishing the first edition of the game, fans such as myself were left in hiatus. HH had promised reprints of many long out of print Games Workshops titles. I was eager to buy, read and play a promised revision of the final chapter of the Enemy Within Campaign. The original "Empire in Flames", I have never owned, read nor played, but from what I've gathered, it was a flopping disappointed. I had managed by haunting my local game store and shopping online, to acquire most of the original first edition books; however, a few always alluded me. "Empire in Flames" and "The Restless Dead" were two of the few I have not yet managed to acquire. For the most part, I've given up on finding those books I've missed. The Doomstones Campaign never held much interest for me and the uber hard to find Realm of Chaos titles are too expensive for my purse.

Plundered Vaults was an early publication in the new line up. It included two scenarios from The Restless Dead, two adventures I did not own, and three new adventures. It seemed things were of to a good start. Black Industries was doing as promised. They were bringing back some hard to find older materials and publishing new material to boot. To their credit, before 2nd edition went "tits up" this promise was mostly carried out; however, a revision of "Empire in Flames" went, well, up in flames (pun intended). Now, with 3rd edition being published by Fantasy Flight Games, it is once again in doubt that an official revision to the seminal conclusion of TEW will ever see light. Three is a wonderful fan created re-imagining available by the golden pen worthy MadAlfred available for download here (I discourage my players from downloading and reading it).

I chose to open my campaign with "Sing for Your Supper" because it offered my favorite style of WFRP adventure which includes investigation, creeping doom and just the right mixture of combat. Written by Nathan Greavey, "Sing" is not a perfect adventure. While it does not necessarily depend upon players being led by their noses, it does make a few leaps in faith that players WILL follow up on sometimes obscure leads. I anticipated this ahead of time, and was able to fill in the blanks by making things jive on the fly. This didn't bother me for as GM, I welcome this opportunity. It did do exactly what I wanted. It served as a nice introduction to the flavor of the city of Nuln and despite a few false starts and a bit of moving things along on my part, it was a good investigation adventure. I added a bit more combat then was originally called for, but I did this by choice to knock the dust off the WFRP percentile dice. Now I will address the sessions themselves.

Session 3 was our first evening with no combat. There was actually minimal rolling of the dice. After the action heavy session 2, this was a nice change of pace. The players dug into the meat of the investigation itself and moved things along nicely. There were only three players for this session. Our new player was once again a no-show, and was for session 4 as well. We have not heard from him and at this point, I've ruled his character on official "Red-Shirt" status. Our out of town player was having technical difficulties and was thus unable to Skype in.

Session 4 was a different beast. We were up to what I now consider full-force, our out of town player was able to Skype in. As a group, they quickly followed up on loose ends from session 3 which launched them into the final confrontation with the adventure's villain, Emil Stark. This final confrontation involved confronting Emil himself, whom they killed, and encountering two beasts of chaos, the poor missing daughter of the butcher Herr Fleischer and a missing noble rake named Rudi who had also been horribly mutated.

In the end, despite the fact that the girl and her father were given the final mercy by Shallyan Priests, they received their promised reward of 25 gold crowns, quite a small fortune. Gottfried, our initiate of Sigmar, received a critical wound to the left hand. No doubt, they will spend part of session 5 learning the fate of Gottfried - it is not known at this point if he will be able to keep his hand -and spending some of their new found wealth. After this, I will launch them into an entirely different style of adventure.

The Enemy Within Session 3 Report (WFRP) - Willow's Journal

I wish I could claim that I painted this well done mini, but I didn't. You can find out who did here (plus see some other great stuff!).

The following journal entry is also not by me, but by Willow's player.

Dear Mother and Father,

It has been almost two weeks since I arrived in Nuln and I am still wondering why, exactly, I came. I know I need to make some coin to help pay off the farm debts, but things here are very different to home. Streets paved with gold? They’re even more covered in muck than the roads in our village!

On the boat I sort of fell in with some fellow fortune-seekers. I don’t have much in common with them aside from that fact, but there’s no one here I know, and it’s already proven to be a good idea to have people at my back. Right off the boat we fell into a bad crowd when a cowardly scum-faced beggar led us into an ambush instead of to the decent inn he advertised… I am well now, but I had to spend a lot of my savings on a healer. Fortunately, my compatriots had the decency to help me out, and we’re sticking together, at least for now.

We’ve found a decent inn, but steady, good paying work is proving hard to find, and Bill’s lodgings and food, as well as mine, are eating into my coin. Still, today we were offered a job and given an advance, with the promise of more if we complete our job successfully. Things are starting to look up. We also met a nice elderly lady who helped us get into a restaurant we were investigating (We’re making an investigation! It’s just like the stories!), though the cost of the meal nearly bankrupted us again. Still, it was a nice change to eat decent food again. I miss your cooking, Da.

That’s all there is to tell for now… I am well, and so is Bill. I miss you, but with luck I’ll be able to send home a little coin soon, and maybe, in a few months, come back home for good.

Give my love to the cousins.

Your devoted daughter,

Willow

The Enemy Within Session 2 Report (WFRP) - Gottfried's Journal

The following report of session 2, which I previously entered, is written by one of my players from his character's POV.

By the light of Sigmar, and all that is holy, this is a dirty city! Even the people coming into "The Rest", where I have been staying smell of the sewers.

I have spent several days attempting to convince Eponaia, a stout member of the Elvish Folk, about the goodness that is Sigmar. He will require more convincing of the light of Sigmar, but I am sure he will come around.

This evening, two of the ones smelling of sewer came in, and got themselves into what I suspected would be a bit more trouble than they bargianed for. I observed the fellow the smelly one had been talking to passing money around to others who then followed him out.

Suspecting foul play, and having that sense of guilt over the traveler I met on the road to Nuln on my conscious, I went to the back door to warn the smelly one that he was about to be in for more company than he bargianed for.

As the fellow with the coins and friends came about, one of them ordered me to close the back door, while they tussled. I bristled at this and pulled out my bow in responce to his crossbow pointed at my chest.

I had no choice, and opened fire, By the light of Sigmar it was in my mind the rider in the forest all over again.

The fight ended swiftly, some dead some run away.

Back in the Rest as we were drinking eating and Praying, I noticed a fellow twitching at his ear. When I got up to investigate him and his friend got up and ran out in a huff. I no sonner followed them out than I heard two thunks which turned out to be cross bow bolts in their neck and eye. Stripping them bare of their refinement we found purple hand tattoos on their shoulders. I thought this most strange, thus making note of it.

Upon our re entry once more into the Rest, a fellow came up saying how he liked the way we fought and handed out a card. By the Light of Sigmar, I know it was pompous of me, but I knew that my training at the temple in Reading and Writting would allow me to read this card, and I assumed the rest of them didn't know how to read.

"Herr Georg Fleischer", the card read complete with his address.

During the confusion about who and what the note was for and why, I became introduced to the smelly one, Bartolf, and his female companion Willow, and another man named Rickter, who smelled almost as bad as the smelly one.

They retired, to baths thank the Light of Sigmar, and I likewise retired to my sleeping area to pray and contemplate how the Light of Sigmar was guiding me.

Character Background (WFRP): Gottfried Oberholtzer

The following is written not by me, but by one of my players.

I am Gottfried Oberholtzer. I am an initiate of Sigmar, Light be upon him. I came to be in the service of the Great Sigmar from my fathers poor farm about half way between Nuln and Strelssen along the River Aver. My parents were very religious, and very poor. I was urged to work the farm with my hands, and praise Sigmar with my heart. Eventually however I grew bored with helping my parents with the farm, and with their blessing I set out to become an Initiate of Sigmar. It would after all bring great blessings on my parents and family for their son, me, to become a priest of Sigmar.

All Journeys have their beginning, and this is mine. I traveled to Nuln on a whim, instead of Strelssen, I don't know why. As I traveled the road to Nuln, I decided to wander off the road, having seen a Hare which I thought would be good eating. Having chased the Hare some distance into the forest I came upon a dieing rider and his dead horse. He had been so badly hurt that he could not even speak. To my shame I thought to run away, but I could not bring myself to move. He had been attacked, or so it seemed, and he was beyond any help. As I leaned in he asked me to help him end his pain. By the light of Sigmar, I have told no other, I unsheathed my sword, and ran him through to end his suffering. I still feel shame that I took his bow, and the roll from his horse which had this complete set of leathers, and a small purse of gold, but it seemed a shame to waste them.

When I arrived in Nuln I found myself readily welcomed by the Priest of Sigmar as an Initiate. They prayed with me in the temple, and trained me in the Light of Sigmar. Yet I could not bring myself to tell them of the traveler I found n the road. I feel such shame and guilt that I do not know if I could ever tell another soul. I was sent forth by old priest who told me that I had to grow in my faith with Sigmar, cure the pain in my heart so that I could embrace Sigmar fully as His servant. I could have sworn that the Priest suspected but no one knows. Having been told to convert others to Sigmar and come back with more experience under my belt, I took up Sigmar's blessed hammer to make my way in the world hoping one day to return and be allowed to become a Priest.

This sorta disappointed me, I had expected... more. I didn't know what I would do at this point, and having no immediate plans or goals I set off for "The Fisherman's Rest". Having been on the river much as a younger boy, I thought I might find something familiar and comfortable here. Armed with my trusty Sword and Bow, my Leathers, and my faith in Sigmar, I have set forth to glorify Sigmar's name in the Empire.

The Enemy Within: Session 2 (WFRP)

A long work week, with after hours filled with unexpected house hold repairs have left me with little time for blogging; however, we did manage to squeeze in a second session of WFRP this past week.

We had one player from the previous session fall too ill to play, but we had two more players join in, one via Skype. Skype opens up new avenues for role playing. One long time member of my table retired this past year and moved out of state. We had tried Skyping him in before, but a slow connection made it impossible at the time. Now, armed with a faster connection speed, we were able to make it so.

Neither of the two players who joined in had an opportunity to make a character ahead of time, so our first hour and half was spent making characters for them while chatting. I didn't mind this, as I had not spoken with the player that was Skyping in a good long time. Our start was also delayed as our other player joining in was running late himself due to illness.

When all characters were complete, we started. Our party now stands at a strength of five: Bartolf (human male Protagonist), Gotfried (human male Initiate of Sigmar), Ildrial Eponaia (elven male Wizard's Apprentice) and Rickter (human male Marine). I kept things simple. With the time remaining alloted for gaming (about two and half hours), I had four goals:

1. Introduce Gotfried and Ildrial to the group while keeping Rickter involved (Ricter's player stayed home sick).

2. Let enough time pass for Willow to heal from her wounds suffered in session 1.

3. Introduce some future plot elements.

4. Get the players involved in the main plot.

All four goals were easily met. I started with goal 2. Following up on one of the notices found at the Reik's Platz in session one, Bartolf and Rickter took a job with the Nuln city watch repairing, replacing and dredging sewer grates. They stayed at this job for three days, earning a bit of coin and giving Willow enough time to heal her wounds.

The first goal was accomplished by having the characters all end up at the same inn for a night of drinking: The Fisherman's Rest, more commonly referred to as "The Rest". While there, two strangers dressed in the garb of middle class merchants, attempted to send secret signals to Bartolf. They seemed to believe he was someone else. This was observed by another stranger. A tall human male wearing a grey cloak. He seemed to make sure that no one could see his face by keeping his hood up. When the two strangers gave up on sending signals to Bartolf, they left with looks of confusion and disgust upon their faces. The characters decided to follow them out.

The two strangers realized they were being followed by the characters and took off at a dead run. They did not get far before the sounds of them being attacked were heard. When the characters caught up to them, they were both dead. One had a bolt through the neck, while the second had a bolt through the right eye. The bolts were from a hand crossbow. The characters tossed them for what they could find, even stripping them of their fine clothing. When they stripped them, they saw that both men had a half-dollar sized tattoo of a purple, right hand print upon their left shoulders.

They returned to the Rest where a bit of camaraderie was established by having a fellow protagonist challenge Bartolf to a brawl. Bartolf accepted and Gotfried and Ildrid noticed that Bartolf was not going to be met alone, and was walking into an ambush. They jumped into the fray to help, joined by Willow and Rickter. A short combat occurred with the characters walking away with an easy victory.

A very drunk merchant observed all of this and afterwards gave his card to Gotfried. He introduced himself as Herr Georg Fleischer. He stated that he had need of people with their skill sets and that they should visit him at his butcher shop the next day.

The Enemy Within: Session 1

Two weeks ago we had our first WFRP session. We are playing Warhammer Fantasy Role Play Second edition. While I am using the second edition rules, I typically ignore the Storm of Chaos element that is embedded within the edition.

For those that do not know, when the second edition was released, it was done so with an advancement in the time line of approximatively 12 years later then that provided in the first edition. During those 12 years, the Old World was nearly overrun by a Chaos Hoard from the north. Accept for my first time running second edition, I typically ignore this timeline advancement and have chosen to do so with this campaign as well.

This will be the classic WFRP Enemy Within Campaign. Almost all of my WFRP campaigns are set within the EW, or at least in some hybrid form. Three of the current members of the group have experienced elements from Death on the Reik , but have never played Shadows over Bogenhafen. We may have one more player Skype in for the game, and he has played SoB before, but I can trust him not to ruin it for the others. We have a fourth player that has never played WFRP in any fashion as well. With this in mind, I will be playing them through SoB, and an abbreviated version of DotR before launching into The Power Behind the Throne and beyond. I did choose however, not to start them with SoB, but something else. If all follows my nefarious plan, the characters should be in their third careerer, or close to it, by the time we play tPBtT.

We had one missing player of our typical four, but that was okay as I was expecting a slow start. We spent half the session making characters. When characters were completed, I started the characters out on a river barge destined for Nuln. I had considered before hand playing out the river barge journey, utilizing part of DotR along the way, but decided against it and brought them straight into Nuln.

I gave them a bit of flavor text so they could get a sense of what Nuln is like. To the best of my memory, I don't think I've ever portrayed Nuln to this particular group. I tried to give them a sense of how important the Gunnery School is to the populace. Also, Nuln was one time the capital of the Empire. With this sense of past pride, the nobles and noble-wanna-bees of the city are very fashion sensitive. The latest fad in Nuln to date are exaggerated and extravagant cod pieces.

By the time they made their way off the river barge, it was late and drizzling rain. The characters were seeking shelter and not having much success. A beggar offered to lead them to an inn where he was sure he could find lodging for them if "the g'zz 'im a couple shillins". They were not surprised when he led them into an ambush.

Since we had one player who has never played WFRP in any form before, and for the benefit of all as it's been a while for the old guard in the group, I had decided to have a combat early in the session to warm up the dice. I placed them against four thugs and didn't expect them to have too much trouble with them. Also, a TPK (Total Party Kill) had abruptly ended our Tunnels & Trolls campaign, so I was not inclined to make it difficult. I did decide to keep my dice rolls in the open though, as I still believe in letting the dice fall where they may.

They did win the combat, but I was a bit surprised that one player ended the combat with 1 wound point left and another with only 4. In WFRP terms, this meant that the player with only 1 wound remaining was heavily wounded and could only heal one wound point per week without the benefit of a physician. With a physician, she can earn one wound point per day maximum. When she reaches four wound points, she can then either heal one wound point per day, or visit a physician and heal 1d10 per healing session. In short, she was not in good shape.

After the combat, they did not have any more luck finding an inn. They did find one with lodging available; however, a mishap with the door and the an extortionist inn keep convinced them to not stay there. They were lucky enough to have a town watchman take pity upon them. He allowed them to stay the night in a cell and even fed them a meager prison breakfast of gruel in the morning. He suggested to them that they may be able to find work at the Reik Platz. At the Reik Platz, there is a tree where job notices are posted. They would, he warned them, have to find different lodging for the night.

They thanked him and set out on their way. The first found lodging, then after asking directions, found a physician. There visit to the physician went well for them. Only the heavily wounded character is still injured. After paying the physician, the still wounded character, a female hobbit, went back to the room to rest. The other two players, a male human Protagonist and a male human Marine went to the Reik Platz to seek work. They found four possible leads for jobs posted at the tree.

That is where we ended the session. Not much was accomplished and most of the night was spent with me spouting flavor description to them to illustrate Nuln and the Old World to them. I was surprised by the level of carnage reached during the combat, but in the end I was pleased as it showed very well, especially to our new player, just how deadly combat can be in WFRP.

I'm handling experience very ad-hoc. I am simply awarding 25 xp per each hour of real time played. Our average session length is 3 hours. I'm offering a 25 xp bonus for a short session report, which if I get any, will be posted here.

We didn't play this past week, but hope to next week.

The Phoenix Barony: Session 4 the TPK!

Last night was our fourth, and alas, final session of The Phoenix Barony utilizing Tunnels & Trolls 5th ed. for our rules system.




I didn't intend it, but I had my first TPK (total party kill) in many years. It was not very well timed, but death never is, as we had a new player enter the fold, giving our dwindling numbers a much needed boost. I'm hoping a TPK on his first evening gaming with us doesn't scare him off.

The TPK came about because I am not familiar enough with T&T to judge what is a balanced encounter. I'm not a huge advocate of "everything should be balanced", I think that sometimes the characters should run-away in abject terror. Honestly, I didn't think the encounter I had planned for them would ultimately end in everyone's demise, but in retrospect, I didn't leave much avenue for escape.

After being joined by a new member, a dwarven warrior named Ashkore, the players decided to descend to the next level found in the previous session. The entrance was in the form of a hidden trap door that opened to a ladder which descended down. At the bottom of the ladder they found a narrow tunnel with a shallow ceiling. This forced them to crouch (even the dwarves) and they entered knowing that they could not easily turn, or fight effectively with anything other then thrusting weapons.

Twenty feet in, they were harried by Rattlings that attacked them with javelins through murder-holes. They managed to survive this, although Olga our female dwarf warrior only made it by Alesion sharing a Restoration potion with her.

They fought their way into an opening where they could fight the rattlings. Ashkore, who had all ready taken damage in the tunnel, tripped a falling block which brought him near death. The rest of the combat against the 8 rattlings lasted only two rounds. Alesion and Kilshalt both cast Take That You Fiend, managing to reduce the number of rattlings to 7; however, the group lost the first combat round so all four characters took wounds. Ashkore absorbed too many wounds and fell to the ground skewered by javelins.


Round two went the same. Alesion and Kilshalt reduced another rattling to cinders, but the players again lost the combat round and had to each take wounds. I rolled a windfall of spite damage, and all the heroes died.


Afterwards, we discussed making new characters and starting fresh; however, an out cry for a return to one of our main stand-by games was raised. The game in question being Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd edition. It's been a year since we've played an WFRP, and as it is perhaps my favorite fantasy game of all time, I was not against the idea. I considered trying out 3rd edition with them, but decided I'm not ready to give up on 2nd edition just yet. I've read and own 3rd, and while there are some things I like, I have some deep reservations.


The best part for me is, all of the players presently active in the group have not been run through Shadows over Bogenhoffen nor Death on the Reik, two of my favorite WFRP adventures. I am out of town right now, but hope to be back in time to run WFRP next Tuesday, if not then the Tuesday next.


It's going to be a grim and perilous adventure.

The Phoenix Barony: Session 3

The group managed to meet for session 3 this past Tuesday and we had three players plus myself this week instead of the mere two we had for session 2.

The campaign world is The Phoenix Barony and the rules set is Tunnels & Trolls 5th edition.

I tried to get a bit more organized this session and recorded the characters' names for posterity: Alesian a Wizard Elf, Kilshalt a Warrior/Wizard Elf and replacing our dead elf from the second session (whose death brought an abrupt end to our Elven Trio) Olga a Warrior Dwarf. Our fourth player is still regrettably too busy with school work to join us and it appears he will remain so until June.

We picked up this session where we left off last. I quickly brought Kilshalt back into the action. He was grievously injured at the end of session 1 first from a failed attempt to make a make-shift staff and then from being pig-stuck by a goblin's spear. At the beginning of session two, his two elven companions camouflaged him in the woods near the goblin campsite before setting off in search of the goblin lair. At the end of that session Alesian ran from the goblin lair after watching his companion die with several goblins on his tail. He hid in the woods and was luckily not found by his pursuers. Meanwhile, as I explained at the beginning of session 3, Kilshalt had some tense moments of his own as several goblins passed nearby his hiding spot as well.

When it was obvious that the coast was clear, Alesian went to where he had left Kilshalt. The two of them then made their way to the village of Humble. All of this was prelude that I explained for the benefit of Kilshalt's player as he was absent during session 2.

In Humble they reported their encounter with the goblins to the local powers who, as reward for having slain some of the goblins, put them up at the Inn of the Sleeping Dog at the village's expense. The characters mentioned to Bobbert Tobit, the proprietor of the Sleeping Dog, that they were looking for a third or fourth companion to accompany them. They had decided that after either receiving magical healing, or failing that, waiting for time to cure their wounds, they would return to the goblin's lair for a second run at it. Bobbert introduced them to a lady dwarf drinking sullenly in the corner that was seeking adventure. Thus they met Olga. Bobbert then pointed them in the direction of Fizzer's House o' Majiks for possible healing.

At Fizzer's they encountered an enchanted floor mat that was disgruntled with them for standing upon his face. They found Master Fizzer Skudbaddoodle an agreeable, but scatterbrained chap. The inside of his house proved to be a definite bachelor pad, even worse, a wizard's bachelor pad. In short, it was a hot-mess of eccentrically organized disaster. He invited them in and striking up a conversation with them, divulged that the goblin lair which they had received their wounds at was long ago part of the lair of a Warlock Warrior. He did not mention the Warlock Warrior's name. Upon discovering that they were indeed near broke, he lowered his usual price of 500 gp for Restoration Majiks, and settled for the 40 gp's they had, plus the promise that they would do their best to retrieve a book for him titled A Treatise of the Three Tailed Cockatrice, which last he knew had been in possession of the Warlock Warrior who once resided at the goblin's lair. He also, explaining that he was in need of coin himself, encouraged Alesian to return when he was ready to learn some higher majiks.

Healed and ready, they set out immediately for the goblin's lair and explained to Olga on the way that they were also seeking a young Ind girl named Iris that had presumably been taken prisoner by the goblins and they accounted for how her dying father, whom the goblins had recently relieved of one of his legs, begged them to rescue her with his dying breath. They neglected to divulge that they were originally following the girl and her Merchant father with the intention of possibly robbing them. No sense in giving their new companion a sour disposition towards them.

Arriving once more at the goblin lair, they immediately noticed that there were no guards present. They proceeded with curious caution to explore first the caves belonging to the women and youngling goblins. Finding nothing of interest there but bedding and such fun goblin toys as rats on sticks, they proceeded to the main lair. They found the bodies of the goblins they had slain, still laying where they had left them. They proceeded to investigate those caverns they had visited in their previous foray, and took to thoroughly search them this time, along with looting the dead goblins and retrieving the possessions of their fallen comrade. Searching the rest of the lair turned up more dead goblins. They also discovered a hidden passageway that they presumed to be an escape route. It seemed it had been used. This required them to lift a portcullis that the goblins had lowered after their escape. The passage led to the other side of the sizable hill in which the caverns were long ago dug into.

The last room turned up their biggest discovery. They found Iris. The girl was still in the goblin's prison. The door leading to the prison had been spiked closed from the outside. Inside the prison lay Iris, sleeping, nude, covered in blood, but not her own. The rooms other occupants were all dead: a hobgoblin and two more goblins. All three had been slain by some sort of clawed/fanged beast that they did not find. They of course immediately suspected Iris of being a Were.

Iris did not speak common and none of them spoke Ind, but through trial and error, they discovered that the girl spoke Classical. Thus, Alesian was able to communicate with her. Their suspicions of her were deepened when she asked them to lead them to the Shaman's room. There she searched until she found something they had taken from her father: a sprig of wolfsbane.

They wished to clear the collapsed stones from a passageway that they hoped led deeper into the lair, but they would need tools. Alesian left Olga and Kilshalt to do what they could. Taking a list of items dictated by Olga that she would need to clear the rubble, Alesian left for Humble, accompanied by Iris.

In Humble, he first delivered Iris to Fizzer and delicately explained the young girl's plight to him. Fizzer put her in a pair of silver manacles, for her own protection, and took charge of her. At Grimlie's Gear, Alesian bargained for the tools that Olga wanted then set off at once to rejoin his companions.

Meanwhile, after muscling a bit of the stones out of the way, Olga and Kilshalt were attacked by two large spiders, one of which bit Kilshalt, but it's poison did little more then cause him an irritated wound. They easily dealt with the critter, then when further inspection revealed more webbing on the other side of the partially collapsed passageway, they set the offending webs on fire with oil and torch.

Rejoined by Alesian and armed with the tools requested by Olga, they spent the rest of the day clearing the passageway. This took them late into the night. They decided to sleep before exploring more, and settled upon camping in the goblin's escape route. They closed the portcullis to guard one side of the passage and took turns guarding the exit.

After eating a breakfast of hard biscuits and cheese, they set off to explore the unknown. This part of the lair, which they assumed was the unnamed Warlock Wizard's abandoned complex, was much better designed then the goblin's lair. It was obviously built by craftsmen, unlike the goblin's lair which was a crudely expanded natural cavern.

They did much exploring. The complex was, for the most part uninhabited. They did have a slight run in with two more spiders, and some odd purpled eyed white mice who created some sort of phantom ogre that only Kilshalt could see. Eventually, he realized it was an illusion. They did notice throughout the complex that there were any number of small tunnels near the floor. These tunnels were 2 1/2 feet high at most and no more then 1 1/2 feet wide. Most were concealed with loose rubble, but it was obvious that something uses or at least used them. All of them were too small for them to possibly explore.

An entrance to a lower level was discovered via a trapdoor hidden beneath an old bed; however, it is very narrow, so narrow that only daggers could be used for defense within it and even Olga the dwarf would be forced to slouch in order to walk within them. Alesian and Kilshalt would have to bend over in an exaggerated manner to follow her.

During their explorations of the goblin lair and the abandoned complex, they found a modest amount of treasure. Amongst those treasures was the book: A Treatise of the Three Tailed Cockatrice

That brought the session to a close. There was more exploration then combat, which after the combat heavy second session was a nice reprieve. I would like to note that Fizzer took the personality was inspired by Prospero from John Bellair's The Face in the Frost.

The Phoenix Barony: Sessions 1 & 2

With the death of our Darkling Ways campaign, we launched into David Bezio's The Phoenix Barony utilizing Tunnels & Trolls (5th ed.) as our rule system.

Three elves in search of something, were traveling east from the North West. Their temporary destination was a nearby inn. Along their route, they fought a not-too smart, but hungry troll, but dealt with him easily.

Staying the night at a travelers' inn, they caught the attention of a suspicious looking gent. The gent approached them and told them of a father and daughter, the father having a fat purse. He told them that retrieving said purse from the father, who had left earlier in the day heading east, and giving him a "piece" of whatever was in there, would put them in his good graces. He inferred that he was in a good position to send more prizes their way.

The three elves set off in pursuit of the father and daughter. All they knew of them was that the pair dressed and presented themselves as if they were from far off Ind across the sea. The road taken by the pair was obvious; however, two hours past night fall, they noticed a camp fire not a great distance from the road to the north. They investigated.

A path in the woods was found that led to an obviously often used camp site. The camp site was in use at the time by four goblins roasting a human leg over a fire. The element of surprise being in their favor, the three elves cast two volleys of arrows and a Take That You Fiend spell. One of the goblins was able to skewer one of the three intrepid elves with his spear, not killing him, but bringing him dangerously close to death.

After dealing with the goblins, the owner of the leg over the spit was discovered. He was a traveler from Ind who spoke broken common at best. He begged them with his dying wish to rescue his daughter.

Another path was discovered that led further north. Determining that their injured brother elf was too gravely injured to continue, they helped camouflage him near the camp site and the two others continued onward.

The goblin lair was found. With the wise use of some Panic! spells, entrance was gained. Six more goblin guards were dealt with. Things went well until a goblin shaman was encountered. With a Take That You Fiend spell of his own, one of the two elves (a female rogue) was killed. The last elf standing made a narrow escape from the complex with grievous wounds of his own.

He waisted no time leaving but did manage to collect his wounded comrade at the campsite. The two set out for the village of Humble, in need of healing and some more muscle.

Another Dead Campaign, but Gaming, Finally!

Due to a very much too long lapse in playing, my groups Darkling Ways campaign has come to an abrupt end. I promised myself I wasn't going to let this happen; however, my lifestyle, which includes too much travel at times, is not conducive for a long term campaign. In the future, I am aiming lower. I would be happy with a campaign more in the 12 to 15 session range. As that is about the number of times I get to game in a 52 week calendar year.

The campaign was not a dud. It was entertaining. I was happy with the rules system we as a group settled upon, Basic Fantasy Roleplaying Game. BFRPG is a good mix of Old-School with a dash of d20 thrown in. This works well for me, as I do prefer an old-school style of play; however, I appreciate things such as ascending AC for what they are: "easier".

I attempted to leave my game world setting generic and develop it as I went along. This worked to a degree. I think I would have done better starting with a "pre-packaged" generic world, such as The Known World, or Greyhawk; however, both of those with later supplemental material became loaded down with pre-expectations. Without having a bare-bones setting to work off of, I found myself floundering, as I am not good at maps and the big details. I do great with the small details, meaning, I can create an NPC on the spot complete with name, personality and quirks, but ask me "what's on the other side of those hills?", and I'm stumped.

A new campaign has risen from the old. Not from the ashes. I started over. We are two sessions in. This time out of the gate, I decided to use Tunnels & Trolls 5th Edition. My choice of T&T comes not from a lack of love for BFRPG, I like the later, and will most likely keep it as my go to system for D&D. T&T is fun.

I've used it little over the years. It is one of those games that sit upon my shelf and gets talked about, but very little play-time. I had been thumbing through my T&T 5 box set in between bouts of "Dungeon Master Block", by which I mean I was trying to think of a way to re-energize my excitement level for my Darkling Ways game and failing. I simply fell out of love with the old campaign and started jonesing to run some Tunnels & Trolls.

My choice of 5th vs 7/7.5 is simple. I own 5th and do not own any edition after that. AND, I'm happy with 5th, warts, bumps, silly-spell names and all. I added a couple of later edition house rules to my 5th edition and presto! Game on!

As for world settings, I was going to start a new campaign in my Darkling Ways world, but T&T just didn't feel right. Not wanting to repeat my previous mistake, I did some research and came across The Phoenix Barony. Thus far, I am more then happy with tPB, and will talk more at length about it in the future. I will say this now, it is an excellent bare-bones setting, with no pre-expectations from myself or my players. I kinda wish I had started my BFRPG in tPB.

We are two sessions into the new game, which is shaping up to be a "mega"-dungeon delving campaign. I put the "mega" in parenthesis, as it is not an unending dungeon. Thus far I have 5 levels planned with a possible 6. When it is explored, the campaign is over.

As always, I enter with high hopes, but this time with limitations.

Still no Session 9

I'm a stuck record, but still no gaming. We were to game tonight, but I am stuck at home trying to fix an oven that won't lite and doing laundry to pack for my way too early flight tomorrow morning. I'll have to keep getting my "geek-fix" from reading and movies. Ah well. Here is hoping for the 16th of November.

Still no Session 9 in Sight...

I was out of town this week and will be next week as well. Alas, still no session 9 anytime soon.

Still no Session 9

We got together this past week, but had one no show. I wasn't feeling it with only two players so we broke out a board game instead. It may be two or three weeks before we can try again.

Session 8 -- Brief Recap

Two weeks ago, we managed to game, and we are gaming this evening as well. There were only three of us. The session was a bit subdued, it takes time to get back into the dynamic. This is a busy time for all of us, so following is a brief recap.

We picked up at the entrance of the Labyrinth. Nancy, Hargreave, Malic and Osamu pressed forward. There were two brief encounters with fire beetles. An encounter with a grand total of three minotaur nearly did the whole party in. I did not have copies of Osamu nor Malic's stats, I gave the the benefit of the doubt, but most likely, they should be dead. They spent two days healing before pressing onward. Eventually, they mapped out the labyrinth to their satisfaction and found more loot.

Meanwhile, back at the camp, the henchmen had two sets of visitors. First there was a traveling elf with a human porter. The elf has heard rumor that an elf named Malic is nearby. He wishes to find him. The elf and human are staying with the henchmen in hopes of Malic's return. The next day, the henchmen were visited by a mixed bag group consisting of: former members of the Fortunate Fools, former members of the Blade of the Spear and a large band of bugbears, along with a half-ogre. They took them captive, made them carry as much loot as they could and took them to their leader: The Silver Mane, former leader of the Fortunate Fools. His advisor is his cousin, Joss the Yellow-Mane.

I apologize for the lack of detail.

Campaign Journal: Retainer Dogs Session 7

Recently my travel in the service of Solomon has brought me to a crossroads that challenged my faith. Not in Solomon, but in my ability to see myself along the path I have chosen to become one of the "Sons of Solomon", an inquisitor who travels beyond the lands of established temples and churches. The purpose is to bring the light of Solomon to those in the lands between the temples, but also to learn and experience so that the Wisdom of Solomon continues to grow.

The reason for my period of self-doubt has been that twice now; I feel my life continues only because of an intervention of Solomon. I have been reckless up to now. Even now that I am capable of bringing the power Solomon to this world though my faith, I spend much time mediating to overcome these thoughts of doubt. Deep down within myself, I believe that my choice to walk the road of an inquisitor will allow me to realize not only the full potential of my faith, but also my capabilities to serve.

When I first started my journey, I traveled alone until Gerrie joined me. Now these days I travel in a larger group but I must point out now that Gerrie's path has ended with his recent death. While I was not present to see his last moments, the news was told to me from others who were. Gerrie was one of the small folk, whose insatiable curiosity to travel brought our paths together. Considered a strange one by the others in his village for his constant wandering from his home for days on end, his enthusiasm to see other lands beyond his own helped to bring a hopeful perspective to my own outlook of my travels. Gerrie's bright enthusiasm will be missed and I pray that he now stands with Solomon.

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My current companions consist of Hargrave, Nancy, Malic, Artamedius and his bodyguard Thangard.

Some dread feelings has been floating around regarding Artamedius, so much so that Hargrave, Nancy, Malic and myself had decided to end his days. Our plan was to wait until he fell asleep before striking. Our only concern was his bodyguard Thangard who often kept watch on us with scimitar close at hand. To deal with Thangard, Hargrave attempted to try to keep him distracted with conversation while Nancy and Malic would strike Artamedius while he slept. Unable to bring myself to strike an opponent in such a manner, I positioned myself between Artamedius and
Thangard to further delay him should Nancy and Malic be unable to quickly dispatch Artamedius before Thangard realized what was happening. This way if I should become involved in combat it would be with an opponent in honorable combat.

Indeed I did find myself in combat with Thangard when Artamedius screamed of being attacked. My fight ended soon though when Hargrave revealed Artamedius' death released Thangard from any further obligation to continue the battle. I learned first hand that Thangard was a skilled fighter. Despite my sword finding its mark a couple of times, Thangard
was quick to change his temper from fighting to revelry as he punched me in a gesture of camaraderie before proposing we share a round a drinks.After a couple of rounds of drinks and securing our campsite in the dungeon, a few of us returned to sleep except I noted, Malic who was busily studying both the spell book and the strange bone crown.

I'm concerned by Malic, not too long ago we came across a weapon of evil nature in the shape of a morning-star that appeared to drip what appeared to be some sort of red liquid (blood?). We keep it wrapped up and stored out of sight. The weapon appears to possess the ability to dominate the will of any who would attempt to wield it, as this is what
happened when Malic first picked it up. It was not until Malic was knocked unconscious that we got him to release the weapon. Even now, the look in his eyes is most disturbing when he speaks of it. Of the weapon, I believe we should dispose of it. Even though I know I lack the strength to banish whatever evil is embedded in it, I hope to convince Hargrave and Nancy that we should take it to a Temple of Solomon and leave it there. Our best chance is that with their help, this weapon would kept out of the hands of any who would seek to use it to further of cause of evil in this world, or worse yet, become an unwitting pawn of evil for it.

Aside from this, Malic's eagerness to learn the dark spells of Artamedius troubles me yet again. I wonder if Malic's path will also lead him to ruin like the dark wizard. I will have to watch him closely.

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Before too long, we were awaken again by Nancy's cries of distress. Shortly after lying down to rest for the night, three large spiders had crawled out of the darkness of the dungeon and attacked Nancy. As one of them attempted to drag off her still body, the other two spiders came at the remaining group.

We quickly split into two groups of Thangard and myself in one, and Malic and Solvieg to face off each of the remaining spiders while Hargrave charged the spider dragging Nancy away. To everyone's relief, Hargrave was able to quickly dispatch the foul creature and then returned to assist us with the remaining.

Together we destroyed the spiders, however our party again suffered loss when the already injured Thangard was mauled by the spider and then succumbed to his wounds.

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The next morning we decided that the best way to transport all the items we gained from this dungeon lair was to load up the wagon, bring it though the gate, and then move it to the root cellar exit under the abandoned farmhouse.

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A complication has appeared. After staging our treasure for moving the gate, Malic opened the door. What he found was that instead of the root cellar as we expected. The door opened into a room with several goblins that began to charge at Malic when they noticed his presence.

When he returned, he explained to the rest of us that instead of the root cellar, he walked into an octagonal room filled with frescos and contained not only doors, but also seven goblins who began to charge at Malic just before he was able to run back though the gate and close the door.

With this complication, we decided to take the longer route of loading everything into the wagon to make a long trek to Mebulon. Once loaded on the wagon, we would travel to Pendleton to load up on supplies we would need to make the 10-day journey to the city Mebulon. Once there, its our hope to be able to sell the goods we obtained from the dungeon.

With the wagon loaded, we started our trip to Pendleton.

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Almost to Pendleton, our group found ourselves fighting two giant weasels. During combat, Solveig suffered a grievous wound and fell during combat. Praise to the power of Solomon that I was able to bring Solveig back from the brink, though just barely. With the weasels dispatched, we continued the first leg of our journey to Pendleton.

The sun was touching the horizon when we arrived in Pendleton. With Solveig hurt and everyone exhausted from the bumpy trip in the wagon. (We really must make sure that Malic does not drive the wagon anymore, especially while he is spending more time study those books then watching the road), we made our way toward the Coach Inn, as we
approached we happened to meet the Mayor Thomas and Edwin. When he noticed us, he greeted us heartily and told us he grew concerned by our extended disappearance and feared that we had met our demise before being able to collect our reward for the capture of Tyrbrin.

With the meet and greetings done, Edwin pushed us into Coach Inn to break bread and try the tavern’s venison stew. The stew was a welcome relief over travel rations. When Edwin revealed that Thomas covered the meal’s cost, Hargrave made no hesitation to devour 5 bowls, 3 loaves and not to mention the countless flagons of beer before the night was over.

It was tempting to head up to my room to gather as much sleep as I could before we continued our journey. However, I had one important promise to keep which I needed to see to immediately. I only hoped it was not too late in the evening to find Gia and her daughter Heidi.

I had to ask around the village before I was able to locate where Gia and Heidi were currently staying. Although I was not able to bring them good news about the whereabouts of Gia’s husband, or that their home was safe to return to, I was able to bring to them their family savings that I had located at their abandoned home.

I spent some time with them to lead them in prayer to Solomon that Gia’s husband soul had found peace and asked that the blessings of Solomon be with this family to keep and hold them together as a family.

The elder couple, which Gia and Heidi were staying with, were also followers of Solomon and joined our circle in prayer. I attempted my best to speak words to comfort Gia for her loss, but perhaps the best news of the visit was that before I had arrived Gia and Heidi had been invited to consider themselves as family to the elder couple. It seemed that Gia’s parents had perished several seasons ago so had no one really to turn to, and the elder couple’s only child had died during a harsh winter almost twenty years ago. Having Gia and Heidi staying with them made them feel almost as if their daughter had never left. It did not hurt that Heidi seem to share an almost striking resemblance to the elder couple’s daughter when she was that age.

With the evening getting late and poor Heidi already asleep, I said my goodbyes to both the elder couple and Gia. Before leaving, I handed a sack containing the family’s savings (12 gp, 38 sp and 1 cp) found at the farm. Additionally I handled her a gem that I took from the wagon and told her to sell this, and use the money to take care of her family.
I then inquired if we could purchase the wagon and horse as a group I was with was planning to head out soon for Mebulon. I offered to pay with more gold I took from the wagon, as it was only correct that if we continued to use Gia’s wagon we should attempt to compensate her. I offered what I thought was a fair price and I paid her before saying a
final farewell.

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The next morning, we rolled Hargrave from the empty bowl of his final helping of stew the night before. Mayor Thomas was there to meet with us, and said that he was disappointed that the messenger that he sent to Mebulon had not returned yet. Hargrave then asked if Thomas could be write out a letter of introduction and Notice of Claim just in case the messenger never made it to Mebulon and we were forced to put forward our claim for the reward ourselves. Thomas was more then happy to help us in any way to see we got our reward.

In all we spent the day in Pendleton gathering supplies for our trip to Mebulon.

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Our first day out after leaving Pendleton was remarkably relaxing even though we spent the day bouncing across the road the entire day. The road was empty save for us.

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On the second day, we found a man lying, apparently unconscious, on the road. We slowed our approach readying ourselves for anything that might attack us. When we got closer, the man seemed to wake up and staggered
toward us. His clothes were torn and looked to be unarmed. He hailed us, "Thank god you're here! Bandits attacked and robbed me of everything. "

As a courtesy, we offered the man some water and food to refresh himself. Later, we learned that his name was Jack and he was a hunter from Mebulon. Although possible, the more questions we asked more his story began to seem untrustworthy. For instance, I never heard of a hunter heading so far out from a city alone. When I pointed this out to
him, he seemed to stumble and struggle for words to justify his position. Furthermore, it was after we mentioned that we were heading to Mebulon that he suddenly came forward to confess that he too was from Mebulon and hoped that we would allow him to join our party so that he might travel with our numbers back home.

Unwilling to travel with him, we finally advised him to continue on this path toward Pendleton. He was not in any condition to travel for more than a few days, and simply because something about him did not seem right and we did not want him travelling with us. To help him on his way, we did provide him with a spear and shield we obtain from one of the groups of kobolds we dealt with previously.

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Third day out proceeded quietly until that night when we were set upon by a group of large bugbears. Not only were the bugbears tall for their kind, but coming at us were 14 of them. Hargrave, Solveig, Nancy and I prepared and braced ourselves as they charged at us.

Before they were on us Malic cast a spell of slumber upon the creatures and managed to bring all but three of them down. With their numbers now, the remaining three attempted to turn and flee. We then managed to bring down one with arrow fire while the other two fled out of sight.

Of the remaining 11 sleeping bugbears, we quickly dealt with them as they lay on the ground. Except for one whom Solveig had bound, as he wanted to 'ask' it some questions. It turned out that the lair of the creatures was close by and, according to it, contained a great treasure currently unguarded now that we had killed most of them, and if we
agreed to let it go, it would lead us to that treasure.

I guess our group was feeling very heady over our last victory because we decided to check out it claims and allow us to lead us there.

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The creature was true to its word for the bugbear lead us to a nearby cave but as it lead us toward the opening it suddenly yelled out "Intruders! HELP!"

No sooner had it finished its alarm, Hargrave, who was standing behind it, brought the still tied up creature down with a dagger that he held to its back.

Quickly several more bugbears along with two very large bugbears came out and rush at us.

The battle was fierce and in the midst of it I fell to a bugbear's attack. Before I could call out to Solomon to intercede on my behalf, I did collapse to the ground and into darkness.

Later, I did awake after the battle was over. I looked around and saw that Solveig had not fare as well as I. As my wounds were being tended I reluctantly beseeched Solomon's aid to which the worst of my wounds were healed.

I could not help but rest while the others checked out the rooms that the bugbears had emerged from. On one of the exceptionally large bugbears a key was found and after searching though their lair we found that the key opened a door to locked room filled with silver coins.

A continued search of the lair revealed a door and beyond that was a labyrinth.

Campaign Journal: Session 6

I’ve passed this chore onto my players, but with the holiday, hey life gets in the way. We played session 7 tonight, so I wanted to post a quick recap of session 6 so there are no “gaps”.

During session 6, the action picked up immediately where the characters left off in session 5. During this session, they searched the dungeon which they discovered was the lair of a chaotic cleric/necromancer who was in possession of an item called The Bone Crown. This item apparently allowed him to animate and control undead.

At the beginning of the session, they met three NPCs. There was Artamedious, a mysterious mage that seemed too unbothered by the existence of undead. It was from he that they learned of the Bone Crown. He claimed he was seeking it so he could take it to Mebulon to be destroyed by his master. With him was a barbarian from the west named Thangar, who spoke broken common and apparently has a vow against bathing. Artamedious had hired Thangar to protect him. Rounding out the three was a mousy looking female cleric named Glaina a Dreamer of Istar. Istar is an immortal who rules the realm of dreams. The three had met in Elmshire where they had witnessed an attack of undead like the characters had dealt with in session 2 near Pendleton.

Glaina confided in them that she did not trust Artamedious and was only with him for strength in numbers.

They made a turn in the dungeon early which led to an early stand off with the chaotic cleric, whose name they learned was Zarrin. It was a long battle that ended in victory for the party, but cost the life of Glaina Dreamer of Istar.

Their next step was to explore the rest of the dungeon. With Zarrin dead and de-crowned, the undead de-animated (Artamedious took possession of the crown and placed it in his back pack). The only other opposition they encountered was an insane human torturer that they felled easily. Their last encounter was with a medusa that tried to trick them into gazing at her. Apparently, she had been captured by Zarrin.

At the end of a corridor, they found a door that was identical to the mysterious door they found in the bandit’s root cellar. This one, however, was not locked. They passed through it and discovered that it was a gateway that led to the root cellar of the bandit’s hideout.

The session ended with them making camp for the night, and deciding that Artamedious must not live through the night and keep possession of the Bone Crown.

Campaign Journal: Retainer Dogs Session 5 - The Roster

The Primaries

Hargreaves the Warrior - A Halfling warrior who grew up the son of a Pie Baker in the City-State of Mebulon. He recently left the Half-man ghettos of that city and now seeks his fortune.

Malic the Veteran Prestidigitator - a sometimes foolishly brave elf that is perhaps a touch megalomaniac. He is curious to the edge of recklessness.

Nancy the Footpad - The most recent addition to the group. Nancy is a human that recently left the City-State of Acteron in a hurry. Something about a case of resource re-allocation that went poorly. She's heard of a Hedge Mage that has a laboratory stocked full of potions. Supposedly, it isn't guarded all that well.

Osamu the Adept - A traveling Inquisitor-Knight of the Immortal Solomon. Osamu wishes to travel and face the foes of Solomon.

The Secondaries

Edwin Sparklestick- An infectiously jolly mage in slightly stained robes who was apprenticed to a gnome mage..

Gerrie the Veteran - A halfling warrior that traveled with Brigid (deceased) from Elmshire. They left the shire seeking a platinum flute that belongs to their clan.

Killshalt the Footpad - An elven adventurer who seems overconfident with a bow. Recently, he had a near death experience and is glad to be alive.

Tambi the Veteran - Tambi journeyed to Pendelton hoping to hire on with the Fortunate Fools, but arrived too late. She took a job, replacing the doomed mage Aethyl, guarding Tybrin The Vicious who was imprisoned in Pendelton.