1.4
Power Behind the Throne

23rd Sommerzeit – 16th Nachgeheim

The adventurers rest and recuperate in Kemperbad. Fitzue studies wizardry.

17th – 14th Nachgeheim

Uneventful river travel to Altdorf.

25th – 26th Nachgeheim

The adventurers advertise for a patron for their services as guards on the road to Middenheim, where they intent to hunt down the last surviving member of the Wittgenstein clan, Gotthard.

An Ehrhardt Topfler employs them to accompany the carriage of his nieces Ulrike and Bertha Jung.

Fitzue and duCourt go gambling and meet Pierre Descartes (Phillipe’s brother) whom they accuse of cheating. duCourt is challenged to a duel at dawn. At dawn on the 26th duCourt kills Pierre.

27th Nachgeheim – 6th Erntezeit

Coach travel (with Wolf, duCourt and Lavarar on bought horses) along the road to Middenheim. At the Grubentreich road the coach is ‘attacked’ by a magical flying human skull with glowing eyes, and crashes. The adventurers take Ulrike and Bertha Jung to Grubentreich.

7th Erntezeit

The adventurers travel to Pritzstock and are employed by Henri-Phillipe Rocheteau, the mayor, to rid the village of the flying skulls.

Eventually they battle Dieter Maranaeur, a wizard obsessed with ruining Pritzstock, Kurt Schultz, a hired mercenary, and a band of skaven that were after the warpstone Maranaeur was using to animate the skulls. Kurt joins in the fight against the skaven and befriends the adventurers, then leaves for his home in Middenheim. The adventurers gather up the pieces of warpstone and put them in a lead-lined box they had found at Castle Wittgenstein.

Henri-Phillipe is unmasked as the killer of Maranaeur’s brother, and he and Maranaeur are taken to Altdorf for trial by the militia.

8th Erntezeit

The adventurers leave Pritzstock and head for Middenheim to get there in time for Carnival week. They stop for a night at the Galloping Onion and Lavarar sleeps with a prostitute.

9th Erntezeit

The adventurers arrive in Middenheim, pay taxes and go to the Jung’s house, where they are given a map of the city as a token of appreciation. They visit Kurt and go to The Drowned Rat tavern. Lavarar buys a drug called Laughing Powder and he and Fitzue get stoned.

Eventually, better quality lodging is arranged at the Templar’s Arms. The adventurers sell their horses; Lavarar finds another whore to work off the effects of the drug with; Flagelant meets a dwarf troll-slayer named Glugnur and duCourt saves some stallholders from an attack by thugs.

10th Erntezeit

In the morning all of the adventurers except duCourt go to the Temple of Shallya and are healed by a priest.

Flagelant goes to the Dwarven Engineer’s Guild and the Chapel of Grungni; at the temple he moves a priest to tears with his dedication to the sword Barrakul.

Fitzue goes to his Wizard’s Guild and is booked to take part in the Black Pool Illuminations, a festival lightshow; at The Scholar’s he learns some rumours from a student over a game of chess.

Lavarar meets Kurt Schultz in The Drowned Rat and organises a meeting with Josef, an information seller, for the next day.

duCourt goes to the Templar’s Downfall, finds it closed, wanders up to the Royal College of Music and back to the Downfall where he can’t get in due to his ‘conservative’ appearance. Dressed and made-up outrageously with a little help from Lavarar he goes back, buying a drug called Stardust off a pusher in an alley on the way. In the Downfall he meets the gay bright young things of Middenheim, gets extremely stoned and meets one Reiner, who invites him to a ‘meeting of friends’ on the 15th. Beginning to hallucinate duCourt runs outside, throws up and collapses in an alley.

Lavarar trys to charm the waitress of the Templar’s Arms and fails.

11th Erntezeit

Flagelant joins the Dwarven Engineer’s Guild for the duration of the Carnival, and is shown an entrance to the catacombs. On the way back to the Arms he runs into an urchin called Kurt. The adventurers employ Kurt and his friends, and ask them to get information on the whereabouts of Gotthard Wittgenstein.

Lavarar meets Josef and buys some information, specifically about the mysterious death of the Graf’s former wife, Anika-Elise. He angers Josef and Kurt Schultz and they leave.

duCourt gets membership to the Singing Moon, a stylish cabaret and bar and meets Allavandrel Fanmaris, an elf who is Master of the Graf’s Hunt. The two go out on the town for a while together.

12th Erntezeit

The Middenheim Carnival begins. In the morning the adventurers check with the urchin Kurt and discover Gotthard had been remembered by a whore he serviced a year and a half ago due to his small penis and violent and outrageous desires. The adventurers instruct Kurt to watch the address that Reiner gave duCourt for the meeting on the 15th, find out what he can about the cult that Reiner obviously belongs to (they know that members expose their right nipple) and to get some doses of Laughing Powder.

On the way to the Square of Martials, Flagelant is pick-pocketed—also known in Middenheim as ‘yokel baiting’. The adventurers chase the pickpocket into the square where an amused crowd gathers, but Flagelant turns the joke around by offering the pickpocket another coin and saying “you dropped this”, and gets the crowd laughing.

duCourt signs up to challenge Dieter Schmiedehammer, the Graf’s Champion, during the 1st session of this Festival event on Backertag.

duCourt meets Allavandrel, who introduces him to Dieter Schmiedehammer. The three go to the Man O’War for a drink where duCourt tells them both of his adventures, the warpstone, skaven and his fears about the coming of chaos. Allavandrel and duCourt go to the archery tourney.

Flagelant meets Glugnur and joins him on an eating binge. Glugnur joins the adventurers subsequently.
Lavarar and Fitzue set up a stall in the Great Park where they lay bets that a member of the crowd can’t drink twenty pints of beer. On the last pint Fitzue tries to sleep the volunteer and fails. They set up a ‘double or nothing’ bet and prepare another spell but the man collapses anyway.

The adventurers meet at the Minotaur Fights in Bernabau Stadium, where Flagelant signs up as a challenger for Marktag. Glugnur wins his fight (with the help of a dose of Laughing Powder) and he and Flagelant are approached by the Midden Marshals (Commander of the Watch Ulrich Schutzmann, General Johann Schwermutt and Marshal Maximillian von Genscher) who show interest in their employment. The adventurers all meet Dieter and a meeting is organised at the Alefest that evening.

Back at the Arms the adventurers quiz Kurt and discover that no one has gone to the meeting place (an abandoned building in the Altquartier) and he can find no information about the cult. For Lavarar he has 15 doses of Laughing Powder. Kurt also passes on a rumour that the Graf is planning to overthrow the Emperor.

The adventurers go to the Brewers’ and Victuallers’ Festival of Fine Ales in the Great Park where they meet Allavandrel, Dieter, Kirsten Jung (a Lady-at-Court) and Rallane Lafarel (Court Minstrel and Elf). As the group enjoys the festivities the adventurers get various opinions on the taxes and the state of the city from their companions. duCourt gives Rallane the same information he gave to Allavandrel and Dieter in the pub, and manages to get an invitation to the upcoming Royal Garden Party for the adventurers.

The group goes to the Singing Moon for dinner.

Back at the Templar’s Arms the adventurers are woken by the attack of a chaos band made up of skaven, beastmen and goblins. A potential hostage situation is averted when duCourt shows the skaven their warpstone. The chaos band is destroyed and the adventurers commended by the watch.

As the adventurers retire for the night Uli Brietner, owner of the Arms, turns to them and says wryly “Carnival. Day one of the Carnival”.

13th Ernetzeit

The adventurers wake at noon and go downstairs where they are greeted with a chorus of “for they are jolly good fellows”. Speeches are made, and a huge breakfast laid on.

Kurt arrives to relay his latest information, telling the adventurers that he saw ‘Reiner’ leave the Templar’s Downfall last night with someone called Martin. He followed them to an address in Southgate.

The adventurers go to the Main Gate Barracks where they talk with Marshall Maximillian Genscher, telling him of their plans to lay a trap for skaven with the warpstone. He cannot help them but ‘turns the other way’ by mentioning that the nearby sewer outfall will be unguarded between 10 and 11pm that night.

In the street crowds the adventurers sense that they are being followed and lay an ambush. One of the shadowers is caught and he is revealed to be a Purple Hand cultist who had earlier stolen Fitzue’s purse and left a warning message. The adventurers prevent him from taking a poison pill and torture him. Eventually he leads them to a place called The Pit, where he explains he was given his mission by a tall bearded Kislevite. The adventurers let him go.

In The Pit, duCourt is insulted by a drunken scumbag whom Fitzue shuts up with a sleep spell. The proprietor, Fritz Schwanger, spits in duCourt’s face in answer to a request for information. duCourt slashes him severely with his rapier and threatens the other patrons, who let him walk out. Schwanger vows vengeance.

That night the adventurers set up an ambush baited with warpstone in an attempt to lure skaven out of the sewer entrance. They chase a Purple Hand cultist into a nearby house where they discover a trapdoor into the sewers.

In the sewers they find a skaven and cultist lair; a huge battle ensues. A large number of cultists are killed but the adventurers are almost overwhelmed by skaven. Distracting them by throwing their casket of warpstone at the skaven’s feet, the adventurers barricade themselves in a cell block, regather their strength and eventually beat the skaven by charging at them with a bed. They are not in time to save a kidnapped local, who is sacrificed by the skaven leader, but fight skeletons and zombies and eventually kill the skaven.

While ransacking the house above the adventurers are surrounded by the city watch, but they flee out onto the roof. Crossing to a nearby roof by rope, Glugnur slips and falls, dying instantly. Lavarar jumps down to retrieve the casket of warpstone and leads the city watch away, finally changing into a beggar disguise and hiding in the shadows to lose them.

14th Erntezeit

The adventurers get up late and duCourt and Lavarar go to the Temple of Shallya to be healed.

Flagelant begins his career as a Pit Fighter with his fight at the Bernabau Stadium, where he is up against a minotaur and watched by a capacity crowd. The other adventurers notice that the trained ‘bullies’ who usually entice beasts away from wounded opponents are missing, as four beastmen are let into the ring. Flagelant, wounded after killing the minotaur, leads the beastmen into the Fireball range of Fitzue as Lavarar and duCourt run for the pit gates through the crowd. duCourt reaches a gate, finds it locked but manages to break the chain and rush into the arena, where he and Lavarar kill the beastmen. The crowd goes wild. The adventurers find a strip of purple material, the calling-card of the Purple Hand cult, tied to the ‘bullies’ booth.

Lavarar and Flagelant go to the Temple of Shallya for healing.

Back at the Templar’s Arms Kurt tells the adventurers of their growing fame. They decide to invent a name for themselves in order to become even more legendary, and Kurt goes off to spread the exploits of ‘The Merry Pranksters’.

The adventurers get dressed up and go to the Royal Garden Party at the Konigsgarten, near the Palace. They are introduced as ‘The Merry Pranksters’ and very briefly are shown past the Graf himself. They are suitably awed. At the party they meet several major city characters. duCourt chats to Natasha Sinnlich (a Lady-at-Court), Lavarar gets on extremely well with Petra Liebkosen (another Lady-at-Court) and learns a bit of gossip about the Princesse Katarina’s chaperone’s nephew Bruno Kohl, who is apparently a very bad fellow, and Luigi Pavarotti, the Baronial Physician, makes a loud appearance. The adventurers are introduced to the Princess by Rallane. Talking to Gotthard Goebbels, City Commissioner and Chairman of the Merchant’s Guild, Lavarar strokes his beard, deliberately revealing the Wittgenstein ring he wears. He seems to get a reaction from Goebbels. duCourt talks at length with Ar-Ulric, the High Priest of Ulric, and notices his extreme nervousness, especially when Emmanuelle Schlagen, the Graf’s Paramour, is around. Talking sympathetically, he gets Ar-Ulric slightly drunk and wins his trust, finally taking him to a quite spot and, after mentioning the possibility of blackmail, extracting an emotional confession from him—he is in love with her and they are having an affair. duCourt promises that the ‘Merry Pranksters’ will help him, promising to appear at the Temple of Ulric the next day to swear an oath of secrecy.

In order to get a sample of Goebbels’ handwriting the adventurers start a poem-writing game which Rallane vows to set to music, with amusing results.

A group goes out after the party for a few drinks and a show.

Back at the Templar’s Arms the adventurers compare the handwriting of Goebbels with the letter from Gotthard von Wittgenstein to his sister they found at Castle Wittgenstein, and they match.

Using Kurt as a courier, the adventurers send a note to Goebbels to organise a meeting at 66 Grolshblut Alle, Ostwald.

15th Ernetzeit

In the morning the adventures go to the Temple of Ulric to discuss Ar-Ulric’s situation with him. At his request they take a solemn oath of secrecy not to divulge what they know about him.

The adventurers go to the Square of Martials for duCourt’s challenge bout with Dieter Schmiedehammer. They briefly meet the Law Lord Karl-Heinz Wasmeier. The fighters choose rapier and left-handed dagger for the bout.

Dieter and duCourt fight, dodge and parry for some time before duCourt begins to get the upper hand. Suddenly, duCourt grills Dieter on his attitude to the tax changes, and at the mention of the word ‘blackmail’ Dieter’s guard drops and he falls unconscious, muttering something about “the eyes”. duCourt is declared Graf Champion, makes a short speech, and goes through a few formalities with the Midden Marshalls.

The adventurers, Dieter, Kirsten and Allavandrel go to the horse fair. They meet Janna Eberhauer, the Deputy High Wizard, who in the course of conversation lets slip that Joseph Sparsam, the Chancellor, once made a pass at her.

The adventurers, Dieter and Kirsten head out for dinner at The Harvest Goose. On the way the group lure Dieter into the Temple of Shallya on a bet that duCourt won’t be affected by hypnotism. The adventurers had already contacted and briefed the hypnotist through Kurt. duCourt is hypnotised and loses his bet, and Dieter is pursuaded to do the same. Under hypnotism he tells of his encounter with ‘Charlotte’ at ‘The Showboat’, and the hypnotic suggestion is removed. After awakening and being told this information, he vows to do something about it.

The group have dinner at The Harvest Goose.

The adventurers go back to the Arms and ready themselves for the night. They go to 14 Ecke Strasse, Southgate, and chat with urchin Phim Schim (organised by the urchin Kurt) who tells them that Martin left earlier, then Reiner, then Martin returned then left again. From Schim’s description of Martin (red mark around neck), they realise he is actually Adolphus Kuftsos the bounty hunter.

While Flagelant scales the back wall and enters a second-level window the other party members distract the old woman who owns the house by telling her they are members of a Knitting Guild who have heard about her wonderful cat blankets.

Flagelant searches Martin/Adolphus’ room and finds his diary, which details his progress infiltrating the Jade Sceptre chaos cult. He leaves the house. The others take back the 15 GCs they had offered the old woman for her cat blanket with the words “Carnival! We’re the Merry Pranksters!”. They leave her close to shock.

At 66 Grolshblut Allee, Ostwald, the adventurers quiz Kurt, who has been watching the house. He reports that he saw several people enter the deserted-looking building and not come out. The adventurers enter the house and are ambushed by eight thugs. From the two survivors of the fight they learn that the thugs had been employed to kill them by the Stevedore’s Guild, and probably ultimately from the Merchant’s Guild.

Lavarar goes to the Temple of Shallya and just manages to convince the priest to heal him—including having a small ‘religious experience’.

Outside the house Kurt informs the adventurers that he saw Martin visit the house then tailed him to 15 Schreiber Strasse, Ulricsmund. The adventurers go to this address but after seeing the house looking deserted go back to the Arms to rest, with instructions to an urchin to stake out the house and inform them of any changes.

16th Ertezeit

The adventurers are woken at 2am by an urchin who tells them that light and noise is coming from the house. They go to the house and enter to discover all kinds of horrific events—the cultists have accidently opened a gate to the warp. Reiner Haarigfleischer is discovered being tortured horribly by Chaos Worms, and insane cultists wander the house. Eventually the adventurers make it to the attic room of the house, a bizarre torture chamber that seems to go on forever. Here they encounter three Daemonettes of Slaanesh (Gibbergrue, Foul Crabstinger and Wormglutten), accompanied by a naked, half-insane Gottard Goebbels/von Wittgenstein. They discover that one of the Daemonettes, Foul Crabstinger, was once Anike-Elise Nikse, second wife of the Graf, thought dead.

After combat is joined the adventurers discover that only Flagelant’s sword, due to its magic properties, can harm the creatures. Suddenly Adolphus Kuftsos charges into the fray and with the help of Flagelant, ‘kills’ the Daemonettes. Unfortunately he is the victim of a Fleshy Curse spell and dies horribly.

The adventurers, dragging Gotthard with them, run from the house pursued by a wall of nothingness which sucks the house into the Warp. The old house, minus its occupants and the effects of Chaos, reappears and the adventurers ransack it, discovering Haarigfleischer’s diary which details the activities of the Jade Sceptre cult.

The adventurers lock the diary and the gibbering, insane Gotthard in the kitchen. On returning to the Arms the adventurers discover that they have been gone two days, and that is now the morning of Angestag.

18th Erntezeit

The adventurers visit the Temple of Ulric to be healed. duCourt questions Ar-Ulric and discovers that Law Lord Reiner Ehrlich has a niece.

Returning to the Arms they discover the mutilated body of the Purple Hand cultist who took them to the Pit, dumped on the back step.

duCourt answers a summons from the Graf who wishes to meet his new champion. While there he leaves a rag doll they found on one of the goblins they killed earlier that had a message hidden in it (“Help! I am a prisner of beestmen”) to be sent to Ehrlich, and chats with Josef Gropius the palace guard, who tells him about a woman whose name started with a ‘K’ and the time he followed her to the Pit (he was interested in her, but concluded she must be working undercover for the palace). He also informs duCourt that her next visit is timed for the following night at 9pm.

duCourt bribes a guard and manages to get an interview with Chancellor Sparsam.

While having a drink at the Arms, Lavarar is approached by an attractive brunette who introduces herself as ‘Hunni’ and leads him upstairs. The other adventurers surreptitiously follow.

In the adventurers’ room Hunni takes off her clothes but then pricks Lavarar with a poisoned needle, paralyzing him. She introduces herself as Natassia. Four thugs barge out of the opposite room. duCourt quickly kills three and wounds the last while Flagelant storms into the adventurers’ room and stuns Natassia.

Threatening Natassia and the thug the adventurers discover that they were sent by Fritz Schwanger, proprietor of the Pit. The thug they release, but Natassia is tied up and gagged.

The adventurers, except for Lavarar, visit the Pit, and Flagelant tries to climb into an upstairs bedroom from a back alley. However the occupant of the room is alerted and the adventurers forced to run off.

In an hour the adventurers return and climb onto the roof. While duCourt swings by a rope and crashes into a bedroom, Fitzue sends two fireballs down the chimney. The Pit begins to go up in flames. As the adventurers start to ransack the upper floor they are confronted in the corridor by Fritz Schwanger, who duCourt fights and kills.

The adventurers ransack Schwanger’s room and find records of his criminal activities, then leave the burning in by rope from the top windows. That night, about nine blocks of the Altquartier burn down before the fire is under control.

Lavarar is paralyzed through the night and drowsy in the morning.

19th Erntezeit

duCourt goes to his interview with the Chancellor. He is initially refused admittance until he mentions ‘Charlotte’ and certain ‘goods’. He tells the Chancellor of the facts so far, discovers he is an addict and gives him some Laughing Powder to tide him over, and organises to come back at 9pm when ‘Charlotte’ next visits.

The adventurers go to Ehrlich’s house but are told by the sobbing Ehrlich to go away. They next visit Wasmeier’s house but his butler refuses them admittance.

Back at the palace, ‘Charlotte’ arrives and gives drugs to the Chancellor. The adventurers follow her through the crowded streets to her lair in Ostwald. At one stage she threatens Lavarar, mistaking him for a lecher.

The adventurers smash through a trapdoor in the deserted house where she is holed up and fight her henchmen. ‘Charlotte’ (Brunhilde Klaglich) threatens to kill Ehrlich’s niece but decides to drink her Potion of Brasso, which makes her utterly drunk and impervious to pain. The adventurers ransack her lair and return to the streets, where the Carnival is in full swing and a fireworks display is beginning.

Flagelant goes to the Temple of Ulric and gives Ar-Ulric the love-letters with which he was being blackmailed, and the two head for the palace. The rest of the adventurers go to Ehrich’s, return his kidnapped niece, and then with him and the Watch go to the palace.

At the palace the attempted assassination of the Graf by a Law Lord Hoflich doppelganger is foiled, but the doppelganger escapes in the confusion. The real Hoflich’s body is discovered.

The adventurers run to Law Lord Wasmeier’s house, barge in and kill the butler and Lurk, a bodyguard, and discover documentation linking Wasmeier with the Purple Hand.

Wasmeier and Hawk, his henchman, escape on their special prepared battle wagon. The adventurers jump off the wall of the house onto the cart, duCourt and Fitzue landing on it, Flagelant and Lavarar missing and having to run after it through the streets.

Fitzue fights off Hawk’s trained bird while duCourt fights and kills Hawk. Heading for the city walls Wasmeier jumps off the wagon while duCourt reaches and just manages to pluck out the lit fuse to ten barrels of gunpowder. Lucidius catches up to and climbs on the cart. The cart crashes into the city walls. duCourt, Fitzue and Lavarar are thrown clear.

The adventurers confront Wasmeier on the city viaduct outside the walls. Wasmeier destroys the viaduct but falls into the mist screaming to Tzeentch.

The adventurers are made honorary Knights Panther in gratitude for their services.

A year of rest, recuperation and normal living follows.

Finished 8th December, 1990