26th Kaldezeit IC 2522
Their Drakwald guide, Wolfhart Reise, decides he has done quite enough and informs the adventurers he will meet them later outside, if they survive what they are getting into. After some nervous preparations, the adventurers slowly shove the stone lid of the sarcophagus and peer inside—it is empty, but a narrow, roughly excavated tunnel leads down and into the hard clay of the hillside. Lavarar volunteers to take point, and with a torch held out in front of him and a rope tied to his foot, hops into the sarcophagus and squeezes full-length into the tunnel. After some minutes of squirming through the claustrophobic passage, fighting down the urge to panic and no doubt permanently affected by the experience, he emerges though a grill into the floor of a small, dark cell and is hit by a melange of horrible smells—decay, excrement, dirt and rot. Looking through a grill in the cell door he sees a vaulted, smoky underground chamber lit by a central fire around which three hunched, cloaked figures are gathered.
His companions follow, beginning with Fatuus, who unfortunately cannot brave the tight space of the tunnel and begins to panic, screaming as he finally struggles out the other end. This alerts the cloaked figures, who turn to reveal diseased and pock-marked faces and lunge towards the cell with rusty swords and flaming torches brandished. The first pulls open the door and strikes at Lavarar with his flaming brand as the other adventurers emerge through the tunnel.
Other doors in the central chamber open and a melee ensues between the adventurers and five of the diseased men and their robed leader. A sixth man runs for a pair of double doors, opens them and invites in a group of six ghouls—crooked, skinny, misshapen humans with feral eyes, sharpened fangs and hands and fingers that have stiffened and hardened, with fingernails growing into great tough talons which constantly secrete viscous black venom—who join the battle.
After a viscious melee the adventurers are victorious and the rabid men and ghouls lying in various pieces upon the flagstones. The adventurers search the various rooms, finding an antechamber beyond the double doors that leads out into the fresh dawn light, revealing the chambers to be those of an ancient barrow. Other, ransacked and collapsed barrows are scattered over the large clearing.
In the ghoul’s antechamber they find gnawed bones and a rag doll. In the other rooms, they find various cultist personal items, and a letter to a certain Jurgen—probably the robed leader—revealing that a cultist group worshipping Nurgle—The Three Moons—is in Marienburg attempting to track down this Child of the prophecy and enslave him to their master.
At the end of the main chamber is another pair of double doors inscribed with the three circles of Nurgle. Beyond these the adventurers find a horrific ‘altar’ of rotting bodies over which floats a flame-like apparition that looks disturbingly like vomit. The adventurers attempt to displace the altar with a grappling hook but the ‘flame’ is seemingly strengthened—eventually they light a tapestry, throw it into the room and burn everything. An otherworldly howl comes from beyond the doors as they do so. The adventurers rush out of the barrow as it collapses around them.
27th Kaldezeit IC 2522
After resting, exhausted, in the clearing, as duCourt returns to the monastery to discover Wolfhart Reise gone, the adventurers spend a day at the ruins prior to moving on the next morning. Since all their food had been spoiled by Fatuus’s misfiring spell, duCourt goes into the forest to find some food and to the surprise of all manages to track and kill a deer.
28th Kaldezeit IC 2522
Refreshed, the adventurers set off south along the overgrown path leading from the monastery. After a few hours walking they come across five bloated, rotting corpses hanging by ropes from a tree. These they cut down and cover with tree branches by the roadside. Later still, they hear a voice up ahead crying “Help, in the name of Shallya!” They hide in the undergrowth and soon a middle-aged peasant with painful swellings around his mouth staggers up the road, clearly feverish and in the last stages of some horrible disease. Lavarar is the first to step out and shoot a crossbow bolt into the man, followed by a magic dart from Fitzue. Despite his piteous pleadings for help—punctuated by violent sneezes which spray pus over a wide area—he is soon shot down by the adventurers, and given a wide berth as they continue on down the road.
By the evening they emerge from the forest, unnerved by rustlings in the trees and the sense of being watched, and look down a hill to the village of Besdahl. They find an inn—The Shining Griffon—and talk briefly with the cheerful innkeeper, who gets them pots of Besdahl Dark, some of his famous hammer-shaped sausages on a bed of twin-tailed comet-shaped mash, and prepares rooms for the party.
The adventurers visit the small temples of Sigmar and Shallya in the town, which appear to be run by an old husband and wife—the Guffs—who, while friendly (the predictable comment about the elf’s ears generates the usual sigh from duCourt) have little information or help to offer. Though they do learn that a middle-aged villager who likes to go hunting occasionally on the outskirts of the Drakwald hasn’t been seen for a few days …
29th Kaldezeit IC 2522
The next morning the adventurers head off on the road to Mittelweg, which they reach after a day of walking.
30th Kaldezeit IC 2522
Just before Delberz in the late afternoon, the adventurers come across the aftermath of a clash between beastmen and two travellers. Three dead beastmen, one dead horse and one dead man lie in the road. A wet cough alerts them to a second man lying propped up against a tree, bleeding to death with a dead beastman beside him. His name is Jost Wechsler and he and his brother were on their way to the next village to see their mother for her birthday.
The adventurers manage to bring him back from the brink of death, and take him and the body of his brother (Lavarar suggest dragging it along the road, and when the others protest he clarifies “face up, face up!”) to their mother’s house. When they get there Frau Wechsler is grateful and gives them each a hand-embroidered hankerchief.
At the stables, they soon discover that Reise has beaten them to it and taken their horses. After a minor altercation with the stabler, who seems unrepentant, they go to find rooms for the night. After avoiding The Leaning Rooms—the innkeeper looks wistfully at them from the doorway as they pass—they choose The Yellow Cup.
The adventurers head down to the docks to see if they can book passage down the River Delb and eventually to Altdorf.
16 Comments
I’ve been giving our current position some thought and I think we may be wise to change our plans for a river trip.
I think there is a very real threat of an outbreak of some horrible Nurgle plague, (Nurglitis?). This is something beyond our ability to control and could get well out of hand very quickly. Not only could it overrun the area surrounding Besdahl but we ourselves may be spreading it throughout the empire if infected.
I suggest we travel via Middenheim, give at least some of the info to Stolz & co. and get cured of any diseases we may be carrying. It may even give us a chance to catch that Riese tea-leaf. We should also agree on a course of action before Pete does too much homework…
A bloody classic session I must say, a bit of everything in there! Haven’t had that much fun in ages. I never knew that beating hapless shopkeepers was so enjoyable either, I sense a nasty sadistic streak coming out in Lucidius as he gets older.
Re the next step, if we really are carrying the plague I think we’d have seen signs of it by now and it’s questionable whether we’d be able to get healed of it; furthermore, if we are carrying it, surely going to the biggest city in the country would be the worst thing to do?
This is really just a long-winded way of saying I’m really sick of Middenheim and want to go on a nice holiday cruise to somewhere new and exciting!
The disease certainly seems very nasty and probably fatal, based on the farmer coughing and spluttering revolting bodily fluids everywhere! All the more fatal with Lucidius’ trigger happy crossbow finger – not to mention a Mighty Missile to the chest 🙂
I thoroughly enjoyed that barrow battle. I was thinking last night that the kids hadn’t watched a Lord of the Rings film in a while, and picturing the various assorted scenes of Orc and Uruk-Hai slaughter en-mass. We had a taste of glory in that barrow! Aragorn is no match for Sir Robert “on a roll” (pun intended).
What’s that line from Two Towers… “Looks like meat’s back on the menu, boys!”
I have a few issues with going back to Middenheim. First, we don’t know how progressed the Brothers of the 3 Moons are – we may not have time to waste, and should proceed with all due haste. Second, if we are diseased I’d rather it spread in Marienburg than in Middenheim. We can be cured in Marienburg as easily as in Middenheim. Third, although I’m happy to send an (expurgated) report to Stolz, I want us to be free agents on this – we’ve gone beyond Stolz’s immediate concerns and are heading into new territory, and I’d rather be at a distance than overly constrained by him (anathema to our Sigmarite I know, but there you are). Finally, I’m with Lucidius – I’m sick of Middenheim. More than enough time to go back later and take care of Big Otto.
It’s tough being a religious zealot attached to a party consisting of ruthless treasure-and-glory hunters, but there you have it.
My vote is Marienburg: New sights! Exotic foods! Local wine and beer! Best of all, a whole new range of chicks of varying racial backgrounds and interesting venereal diseases to roger.
Take me, take me, without even knowing it.
Lucidius.
…by the way, if anyone wants some cologne for their hand-embroidered handkerchief, I’m your man (also Swedish and Scandinavian books, see everything).
Gee, put like that how could we possibly resist Marienburg? On the other hand, put like that we could all join a monastery and practice celibacy and obedience for the rest of our lives. Neverthless, in accordance with my views as a slightly blood-crazed Chaos-beast killer I say we go where the slaying is, and for me the money’s on Marienburg and all points south!
Hark to him: ‘slightly blood-crazed’. Slightly?
So is everyone on for the 17th?
Understatement is the defining attribute of True Nobility.
17th still OK (though given the builders’ delays whether we will be upstairs or down is still a matter of conjecture….).
Big apologies, but I cannot do the 17th. Well I might If I can get a babysitter, (doubtful). It is the only contested Thursday on our calendar. If we can move the game to the 24th all my issues are solved. If not I shall endeavour to secure a babysitter on the 17th but I am not confident in doing so.
24th is fine with me.
24th is OK with me.
Sorry, just realised Thursday 24th is not OK, I’m going to a play. Another night that week perhaps?
23rd?
Fine with me.
Wed 23rd is ok for me