The Enemy Within - Journal Entry for Third Session

The Enemy Within - Journal Entry for Third Session

Taken from the journal of Rake Wallburn.

Being the adventures of:

Conrad Feld - Male Human Outrider, Middenlander

Helvaine Thorpe - Female Human Servant, Middenlander

Elise - Female Human Zealot, Marienburger

Gratoren Gorintor (Grat) - Male Dwarf Toll Keeper, Ostermarker

Raymund (Red) - Male Human Rogue, Marienburger (now masquerading as Kastor Lieberung)

Rake Wallburn -  Male Halfling Agitator, Averlander

Siegfried - Male Human Pitfighter, Averlander

Mitterfruhl (Spring Equinox) – Bogenhafen

In the morning we woke and took breakfast at the Wasted Kestrel.  Soon after Siegfried, who was hurting from his judicial combat, headed down to Handwerker Bahn to find a barber-surgeon.  He wandered about without success until we caught up with him and helped him find a barber-surgeon.  The healer seemed to do some good, but he looked a little sloppy to me.

When we started to look for the law office of Lock, Stock and Barl, we saw on the letter, that it was located on Garten Weg.  But our innkeeper didn’t think that there was a Garten Weg anywhere in the city.  The notification letter had a witness seal from a Schultz and Friedman Printshop on Langen Strasse.  So, we started there. After dallying about with some underling for a while, we finally get to meet Sigismund Schultz – the head printer.  He referenced his records that showd that one Friedrick Barl (of the forementioned Lock, Stock and Barl), presented financial papers as evidence of identity for the witness seal.  We described the Big Burly Guy (BBG) that had been following us, and Schultz seemed to think it might be him.

In our later conversations, we recollected that we had heard the BBG referred to as Adolfus, so this Freidrick Barl name seemed likely to just be a false identity.

Later on Grat and I snooped along the dock district, listening for clues, and trying to get someone to respond to the hand signals that Red had been approached with in Altdorf.

Siegfried went to the fair looking for employment in pit fights.  He found out there were some that would be held the next day.

Red, Elise, and Conrad wandered about the fair listening to the gossip of the crowds and checking out the amusements.

I asked about Blutroch, the village that was plagued, and got confirmation that it did happen, and somebody burned the village to cleanse the area.

We all ended up at the fair.  Conrad had entered an archery contest.  It was close between him and an elf, bur Conrad managed to win, with the prize being a nice quiver bearing the emblem of Bogenhafen and a dozen high quality arrows.  Afterwards many in the crowd bought him drinks.  Even though he was not one of the local favorites, they were happy to see a human win.  Many declared that it was cheating to be an elf in an archery contest.

Siegfried took pity on a very drunk dwarf in the stocks outside the festival court.  His name was Grunni.  Siegfried said he knew the pain of the stocks all too well and paid the dwarf’s fine.  The dwarf immediately declared him a lifelong friend and said he owed him a life-debt, then promptly asked to borrow some money for a drink.  When the rest of us left them to head to the Zoocopeia they were well on they way to their destination of entirely sodded.

Right in front of Dr. Malthusius’ Zoocopeia was the same wild eyed street preacher we had seen ranting the night before.  He said-

“Mark my words, the sins of man will be judged!  He refuses the protection of Sigmar.  He refuses to reign in his lust and his greed.  He turns a blind eye to Chaos and corruption.  Mark my words, the world will tilt!  The world will tilt and Morrslieb will fall from its perch.  Boganhafen will be judged.  Boganhafen will be judged!”

No doubt the ramblings of a lunatic, but something about his earnest conviction made his predictions a little unsettling.

The show itself was pretty entertaining.  It included a horse with black and white stripes, a contortionist, and a colorful bird that could repeat words from its master.  Then things got more interesting.  Dr. Malthusius and his assistant uncovered a giant spider.  Its leg span must have been six foot across.  That certainly got my heart racing.  Then he brought out a goblin all dressed in Landschneckt attire and marching to a drum and shouldering a stick as if it were a pike.  It was hilarious, the goblin was the spitting image of a soldier back home in Averland.  Then suddenly, the little vermin smacked the assistant with the stick and the assistant dropped the leash.  The goblin made a break for it.  We saw him head right into the sewers.  I tried to grab him, but he was too fast.  This all caused a big ruckus and the city guard showed up to check the situation.  They ended up taking us down to the festival court to make statements about the incident.  Red threw in a bit to the story about the BBG helping the goblin to escape.

Magistrate Richter offered a reward of 20 Crowns if we removed the goblin from the sewers.  Dr. Malthusius offered 20 Crowns if we returned the goblin alive.

We agreed to the job and gathered rope and light to trek into the sewers.  We found Siegfried nearby, thoroughly drunk.  By the time we had gathered our gear and prepared, he had mostly sobered up.  We couldn’t fit in though the grate that the goblin slithered into, so the guard took us into the city to a normal maintenance entrance to the sewer.  We had hung a lantern inside the goblin entry grate to enable us to find it from the inside.  After entering the sewer, we backtracked to find the lantern and pick up the trail.  Sure enough, we found the lantern and Conrad picked up the trail.  After a while, we found a body floating in the muck.  It turned out to be the dwarf Grunni that Siegfried had saved from the stocks earlier.  He was missing an arm and his chest was cut open.  It was a terribly disturbing sight.

The trail led to a heavy wooden door with an open viewing window that seemed to lead into a cellar.  The door was locked and I couldn’t fit into the window like the goblin seemed to have.  While examining the door, we heard a noise further down the corridor.  We checked it out and found another door with some symbol carved next to it.  It too, was locked.  So we headed back to the goblin door and had Siegfried break it open.  We moved in and found the goblin dead inside some sort of summoning circle.  The circle was made out of copper and there was a pentagram inside was painted on the ground.  There were silver candlesticks with black candles at the points of the pentagram.  Also, the words Ordo Septenarius were painted in the circle.  

As we examined the area, a nasty dog demon appeared in the circle, surrounded by terrible smoke.   Elise immediately  swung her morning star at the copper circle.  “No, don’t!” Grat shouted, trying to stop her, but she paid no heed.  I’m not sure either of them know enough about magical affairs to even make an educated guess as to the effect of the circle.  We all dove in to attack the vile thing and eventually damaged it enough to cast it back to whatever vile place it came from.  Red managed to send a small piece of his arm with the dog demon.

We tried to navigate to the nearest sewer entrance, so that we can find the location from the surface. We tied a strip of cloth to the nearest grate, and I squeezed up as close to the grate as I could get to get a look at the neighborhood.  After getting back to the surface we found our strip of cloth and it seemed that the summoning circle was below the Steinhager building. It had a barrel with a large S on it hanging over the door.

Later we noticed that Morrslieb, the chaos moon was extra large that night.  We washed off in the river and headed back to our rooms to sleep.  

Aubentag, 1 Pflugzeit - Bogenhafen

The next morning we turned in the dwarf and goblin bodies to the Magistrate who paid us our 20 Crowns.  There was some quibbling because someone had already reported that the goblin was found crushed at a warehouse on the ostendam, but we produced the little landschneckt hat and Magistrate Richter was forced to agree that it was rather unlikely that there were two goblins dressed as pikemen running about the city.  We didn’t bother to try and collect from Dr. Malthusius as he had wanted the goblin alive.  Then we headed to the temples to pray.

We sold off the candlesticks and divvied up the cash from the outing.  6 Crowns each and 4 Crowns to our newest member Siegfried.

The Enemy Within - Journal Entry for Second Session

The Enemy Within - Journal Entry for Second Session

Taken from the journal of Gratoren Gorintor

Being the adventures of:

Conrad Feld - Male Human Outrider, Middenlander

Helvaine Thorpe - Female Human Servant, Middenlander

Elise - Female Human Zealot, Marienburger

Gratoren Gorintor (Grat) - Male Dwarf Toll Keeper, Ostermarker

Raymund (Red) - Male Human Rogue, Marienburger (now masquerading as Kastor Lieberung)

Rake Wallburn -  Male Halfling Agitator, Averlander

Siegfried - Male Human Pitfighter, Averlander

Angestag, 31 Jahrdrung, 2512 - On the River Reik

Our plan was to have my friend Josef, who runs a small cargo boat on the rivers, take us down the Reik, past Frederheim, to the lock at Weissbruck, then up the Bogen to Bogenhafen, where he was planning on going to the fair that will be starting there.

Josef has a slow witted lad, Piotr, to help sail the boat.  Elise volunteered to help but she didn’t look like much of a sailor.  Not that I was in any shape to pay much attention.  Isn’t she from the Wastelands?  Do they even have rivers there?  I do remember hearing it is someplace on the coast.  

Conrad spent his time fishing and then we had a lively discussion as to whether we should eat the fish, sacrifice it, or let it go.  Normally I would vote to eat it, but the thought just made me sick to my stomach.  

After leaving Altdorf we sailed down the Reik for a day.  The trip was a nightmare.  Every boat we passed set our boat to rocking, and the continuing splashing of the river against the front of the boat was maddening.  Dwarves build bridges to cross rivers.  We do not sail on them.  I think Conrad was right, we should have risked the forest road, plague or no plague.

After an interminable day we tied for the night.  At least it stopped some of the rocking.  

We decided to set watches but nothing bothered us. All we saw was a couple of boats slinking down the river with no lights showing.  No doubt smugglers.

Festag, 32 Jahrdrung,  2512  - at Weissbruck, and on the River Bogen

The next morning Conrad seemed a bit twitchy and I wasn’t any too happy to be casting off again either.  He kept trying to calm his horse but I think he was upsetting her if anything.  I know he wasn’t making me feel any better about this trip.

About mid-morning we came up on the lock at Weissbruck.  Once through the lock we pulled into the dock as Josef said he had some cargo to pick up.  I climbed onto the dock to get honest stone under my feet again and looked around.  The town looked to have a population of no more than 200.

While we stood around on the dock Conrad and Rake noticed the same big burly guy that was associating with the two odd, now dead, characters that had accosted Red in Altdorf.  We followed him into the Blackgold Tavern to talk with him about how he followed us from Altdorf and how he got here before us.  Unfortunately we lost him and our questions went unanswered.  

Conrad and I went to buy oats for his horse and got back just in time to see Josef and his lad rolling two barrels of what apparently were smoked eels up onto the boat.

As we took off we all watched intently for any sign of the BBG (big burly guy).  We didn’t see him standing on the far side of the river where we all appear to be looking.

We headed up the River Bogen and the travel was slower, as we were now heading up a river, instead of down one.  And it was even rougher as we talked back and forth.  I felt sick again.

After another very long day we tied up for the night.  We set up watches again, after readjusting the watch schedule when I remembered most humans can’t see at night worth beans, although Elise seems to do much better than the rest.  On first watch Elise and Red noticed two small boats sneaking up on us.  They kicked everyone awake.

It appeared there were two people in each boat.  And it ended up that the BBG was leading them.  He yells for us to give him “that devil Kastor or we’ll burn your ship to the waterline!”

Kastor, I mean Red, kept trying to reason with them, but the fact that he also kept shooting his crossbow at them tended to deflate his arguments.  He wasn’t hitting any of them and neither was I.  Rake with his sling did hit them a couple of times and Conrad with his longbow scored several hits.

As their boats got closer they started throwing fancy torches up on the deck that I immediately started running after and throwing into the river.  If there is anything I hate more than being on a boat it’s being on a burning boat.

Crazy Elise reached out and caved in one of the attacker’s heads with her flail, and then proceeded to jump into their boat and crush the other guy.

Helvaine, not to be outdone, jumped into the other boat, and after a rocky landing, smacks the BBG a couple of times with my shield, that she had “borrowed” off the deck before jumping into the boat.  The BBG jumped over the side to get away.  Red finally skewered him with a crossbow bolt as he went into the water.  He was badly wounded, but even after looking we didn’t find the body.

We did manage to save one of the attackers.  He said the BBG, whose name appears to be Adolphus, hired the rest of them in Weissbruck to catch this bad guy named Kastor.  

We checked the boats, and ended up with the two rowboats, 2 suits of leather armor (a bit the worse for wear), and some fancy torches.

We also realized we really didn’t have anyone who could patch up Conrad who had taken a bolt in the arm, but luckily it wasn’t much more than a graze.

Wellentag, 33 Jahrdrung (Mitterfruhl’s Eve),  2512 - In Bogenhafen

We took off the next morning and reached Bogenhafen about noon.  It is a big city with a population of more than 5000.   Even more now that the Schaffenfest is in full swing.  

We turned the remaining attacker in to the authorities and then found a likely inn.  As in one with a good stable attached.  Conrad seems very protective of his horse.  I don’t like riding horses much better than riding on a boat.  We rent 2 rooms for 10 schillings each at the Wasted Kestrel.  

Conrad decided to take his horse out of the city and let it get some exercise after being cooped up on the boat for 3 days.  The rest of us decide to check out the fair.  After finding an armorer to fix the armor we ended up with.

We had some meat pies and drinks bought by “Kastor”.  Then Rake noticed a pit fighter he had hired in the past, who appeared to be involved in a judicial combat. His name was Siegfried.  Apparently he was accused of stealing a piglet.  Reputedly to train up to be a Battle Boar.  

Both Siegfried and the other criminal were being sewn into tight greased leather garments with the hammer of Sigmar emblazoned on the front and the scales of Verena on the back.  They each had a large shield that they wielded with both hands and used both to defend and attack.

Rake said Siegfried wasn't too bright, but supposedly he was a good fighter.  We had Rake wind up the crowd and then Red and I placed bets on Siegfried.  Red bet a crown and I bet 5 shillings.  

The fight started out badly for Siegfried and I was afraid we had made a mistake.  The other criminal jabbed him hard in the leg with the tip of his shield and made him limp a bit, but after an exciting fight, Siegfried squeaked out a victory.

As we were impressed with his fighting, and our wins, we invited Siegfried to have a drink with us, and eventually, to come back and share one of our rooms as it appeared he had no place to stay.